Suche:the most

D Double E is one UK rap's most respected, celebrated and genre defining artists, shelling down radio sets, raves and having countless solo hits. Starting off in Jungle and UK garage, he began life in grime as a member of the N.A.S.T.Y. Crew alongside Ghetts, Kano and Jammer before founding the Newham Generals with Footsie. From solo releases and much loved classics including ‘Street Fighter Riddim’ and ‘Woo Riddim’, in 2018 he released his debut solo album Jackuum to critical acclaim. Subsequent releases included the invigorated and daring D.O.N and most recent Bluku! Bluku! 2 have led the legendary artist to receive consistent praise and support from the likes of The Fader, i-D, Crack, The Guardian, VICE, Complex, Highsnobiety, COLORS, DJ Target and more. Boasting artistic collaborations with everyone from Kenny Allstar, Unknown T, Skepta, Ghetts, Novelist, Shy FX, Backroad Gee and more, D Double E has also made an impact in his career resounding far outside of UK rap with big brands. He wrote the original track for the viral and now iconic IKEA Christmas Advert, put his lyrical magic touch on an advert for Pepsi and more. Most recently he has been interviewed as part of the BBC documentary “8 Bar: The Evolution of Grime” and has been tapped for collaborations with Clarks, Palace Skateboards and others.

Ada Kaleh, the Romanian composer and DJ, follows up on his recent releases for R&S Records and Apollo with a brand new single, ‘Unravelling’.

Featuring the vocals of Fela Kuti at his most potent, ‘Unravelling’ also includes a featured performance from Eric Leeds, the American saxophone player most noted for his work with Prince, both in the studio and as part of the Purple One’s touring band.

Ada Kaleh constructs a hypnotising and minimalistic rhythm, reminiscent of Tony Allen's drumming style, speckled with dubbed out complexions and kaleidoscopic sonics that provide the perfect bed for Fela Kuti’s distinguished vocal delivery and conscientious lyric. The illustrious jazz musician Eric Leeds lends his prowess to the main mix here, as his smoky saxophone tones glide across ‘Unravelling’ with pure professional class!

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark (OMD) return with their 14th studio album Bauhaus Staircase, over six years after the triumph of their Top 4-charting record The Punishment of Luxury. The album was born from the impetus to kickstart new explorations during lockdown when as Andy McCluskey admits: “I rediscovered the creative power of total boredom.”

The album’s first offering as a single is the title track which serves as a nod both to Andy McCluskey’s love of the Bauhaus era & the power of protest art. “I am a huge lover of visual arts especially mid 20th century movements” Andy comments. “The song is a metaphor for strength and artist passion in the face of criticism and adversity. When times are hard there is a tendency for Governments to look at cutting funding for creativity just at the moment when the arts are most needed to nourish our souls. It seems appropriate that the song and its eponymous album were created during Covid Lockdown.”

Ranging further from the beautiful film noir ballad of ‘Veruschka’ and the dance stylings of ‘Anthropocene’ - a term for the current epoch in Earth’s evolution to the sinister ‘Evolution Of Species’ and the hectic ‘Kleptocracy’ - OMD’s greatest straight-up protest song - the new album is a broad electronic sonic masterpiece that lyrically tackles the topics of the future. The record closes on ‘Healing’ - a moment of reflective calm.

By rights OMD should be in semi-retirement performing classics like Enola Gay and Maid Of Orleans on the nostalgia festival circuit like so many peers. Instead they’ve created a landmark album worthy of their finest work. Bauhaus Staircase remains unmistakably the work of a duo who are still perfectly in sync 45 years after their first gig at legendary Liverpool club Eric’s.


“I’m very happy with what we’ve done on this record" McCluskey summarises. “I’m comfortable if this is OMD’s last statement.”

ALWAYS + FOREVER is the first compilation to be released on Do You Have Peace? collecting unreleased tracks from both new and existing artists on the label. Featuring Time Cow, YL Hooi, Teresa Winter, Jonnine, Guest, Static Cleaner Lost Reward, Hermeneia, Zaumne, Birthmark, Silzedrek, Laughter of Saints, Vessel & Rakhi Singh. Originally imagined as a project to link together the dream pop related leanings of a disparate group of artists, as the project grew it became more amorphous but still kept a strange and half awake quality throughout. The pop leanings are still there, although often buried under slabs of reverb, but there are also less heavy lidded bedroom confessionals, as well as DIY chamber pieces and teary eyed instrumental passages. Most of the vocal-led tracks are in the first half of the album, leaving the second section to drift fully into hypnagogic sedative territory. Where vocals do come in they are more like half remembered fragments of dream speech than any kind of traditional narrative. The voices eventually leave us completely, drifting through 3 chamber pieces, reclaiming the classical arrangements of strings / piano / etc from the lofty heights of concert halls and scores to something more intimate and familiar, a box room in a flat, or a bedroom, a memory of lying awake staring at the ceiling and trying to go to sleep again.

ISLAND APES is a British band, formed in the East Midlands around 2018. The current line-up consists of ex members of Bivouac, Force Fed and Fudge Tunnel; guitarist/producer Dean Selby, drummer Antronhy, vocalist MKJ and bassist David Ryley. Their roots lie in anxiety, ritual and underlying melody. Call it what you like. Answers on a postcard to God Unknown. So the Germans call English football fans Island Apes? I guess they don’t know about the punk band of the same name. ISLAND APES features a lineup of UK underground punk legends. Antronhy, the drummer, was Nirvana’s infamous dancer at their Live at Reading performance. David Riley was the bass player in the legendary UK noise rock band Fudge Tunnel and current bass player in doom masters Conan. MKJ was in Forcefed and Meatfly; two early 90's influential UK hardcore bands. They have paid their dues and have produced a wild, lo-fi trip into an alternate punk universe where they tame audio chaos and explore the psychedelic side of consciousness. It’s grungy and grimy, guttural and grating, and even dubby, all in the most beautiful way. Their debut self-titled record is available on limited vinyl copies via God Unknown Records. To keep it punk the album will be released on vinyl only. Limited to 300 copies.

Vanishing Dreams is a highly awaited new mini-album by Cold Colors, brimming with personality and inspiration as always. Wistful undertones and captivating melodies establish Cold Colors as one of the most prominent figures in the current French and European new wave scene. His music mirrors the sharpness and elegance reminiscent of the renowned Lyon duo, Deux, showcasing his talent for evoking beautiful emotions through his melancholic and catchy notes.

As with Directstep (recorded one week previously), this album was recorded, and originally only released, in Japan. It was one of Hancock's most successful albums in Japan, perhaps because it was entirely solo piano.

Hancock tackles jazz standards such as "My Funny Valentine", "On Green Dolphin Street" and "Some Day My Prince Will Come" while also performing four original compositions.

Here it finally is, the first ever official reissue of all recorded material by Zyklome A, and as a bonus one unreleased track plus unreleased live recordings! One of Belgium’s earliest and most primitive hardcore punk bands’ legendary ‘Made In Belgium’ LP has been one of the rarest artifacts in the genre, and although it was bootlegged many times, the reason why an official reissue on vinyl has never been published is complicated. Zyklome A’s story starts in the middle of nowhere: in Bonheiden in early 1980, above a bank office. Brothers Bie and Toon Puttemans started shredding and terrorizing ears and minds with Markus Verbeeck, without any knowledge of anything close to a scene or other people doing what they were doing. Completely isolated, they were struck by lightning with the genius idea of speeding up punk, playing Ramones chords backwards and letting the bank office’s fire alarm go off with their wall of noise. When drummer Bie got to hear other hardcore records through a school mate, he was baffled to hear there were other folks out there doing what they were doing as well. After a fire alarm and family drama too many, the trio moved to a tiny shed in the garden of the Verbeeck family to refine their special blend of primal hardcore. The rest is history! For just 5 years they became one of Belgium’s most active HC bands, befriending many other classic main stays such as The Dirty Scums, Moral Demolition, Vortex, Wulpse Varkens etc., creating pits everywhere, and turning many a nazi skin’s skulls into pulp! When guitarist Toon “forgot” to fulfil his army service, he had to flee Belgium, and as the police harassed the other band members constantly about this, it became next to impossible to maintain Zyklome A. Zyklome A morphed into Ear Damage, with different members. In a later, army free future, a reunion of Zyklome A was not possible due to Toon’s heroin problem. It is strange, and sad to say, that the cards played differently when Toon passed away. Zyklome A played 2 reunion gigs in 2016 with guitarist Pieter Coolen (of Toxic Shock fame) before Markus’ severe back pain sadly also led to his passing. This record is dedicated to Toon and Markus, whose spirits live on through their incredible music. You will find the entire first album plus an extra LP with their part of the split single Moral Demolition, their tracks of the ‘Alle 24 Goed’ compilation LP, their tracks of the ’Second Time Around’ compilation cassette, an unreleased track and a live recording at the height of their game from 1984 in Deventer (which includes covers such as ’These Boots Are Made For Walking’ and ‘Rock ’n Roll Rebel’) and a 76 page book filled with tons of archive material such as flyers, lyrics, drawings, pictures and a lengthy interview with Bie Puttemans on this most possibly last Ultra Eczema release, Zyklome A’s ‘Uitgesproken (1980-1985)’.

The most political music is often the most explicit, battering its audience with its beliefs. But that isn't always the case; sometimes it embeds its ideas in subtler, more successful ways. Take The Hotelier (previously The Hotel Year), whose second full-length Home, Like Noplace Is There is comprised of what can only be described as anthemic, cathartic rock songs, sent occasionally to delicate and destructive extremes. Singer Christian Holden pushes his clean voice until it crumbles, on "The Scope of All of This Rebuilding" against a strutting pace, and on the furious "Life in Drag", but most powerfully during the chorus of "Your Deep Rest" where his words are heart-wrenching and haunting. As drummer Sam Frederick stamps out an enormous beat and chords - strummed by Cody Millet, Scott Ayotte, and Chris Hoffman - clamor around him, Holden sings, "I called in sick from your funeral / tradition of closure made it feel impossible... / I should have never kept my word to you / Not a cry not a sound / Might've learned how to swim but never taught how to drown /You said remember me for me, I need to set my spirit free." By making political statements through personal explorations, The Hotelier has not only make a uniquely political record, but also a subtler, more successful one.

As the BBE Music J Jazz Masterclass Series hits its 19th title, the milestone is suitably matched by a collaboration between two giants of jazz brought together to deliver an exceptional album, working with a band of the very best Japanese jazz musicians. ‘Reminicent Suite’ by American pianist Mal Waldron and Japanese trumpeter Terumasa Hino was originally released in 1973 on the famed Victor label and was one of several Japan-only albums recorded and released by Waldron over a thirty-year period, most of which have never been available outside Japan. ‘Reminicent Suite’ comprises two extended tracks, both taking up a side each. The title track on Side A is composed by Waldron, and is a dark, brooding heavy groove typical of his early 70s sound. ‘Black Forest’ on side B is written by Hino and is a vivid and energetic piece, layered and textured with dense percussion and Hino’s signature trumpet tone. Mal Waldron started out in the early 1950s working extensively on the Prestige label with notable figures such as Gene Ammons, Jackie McLean and Charles Mingus. Most famously, he worked with Billie Holiday before leaving the States in the mid-60s and relocating to Europe where he established himself as a major figure working across many countries including France, Italy, and Germany, where he made his home in Munich. In 1969, Waldron recorded the first releases for two major European jazz labels, ECM and Enja, before visiting Japan on tour for the first time in 1970. Waldron instantly fell in love with Japan and, over the next three decades, extensively toured and recorded there for numerous labels. Terumasa Hino is one of the towering figures of post-war modern jazz in Japan. Coming to prominence via the Hideto Shiraki and Sadao Watanabe bands in the mid-60s, Hino soon emerged as one of the prime movers in new jazz generation that changed the direction of jazz in Japan. He explored a more open, freer, and improvised sound, mixing psychedelic and rock elements with freeform and post-bop jazz. Hino recorded for many of the leading jazz labels of the era including Columbia, Three Blind Mice, and East Wind and would go on to relocate to the US in the mid-70s, immersing himself with the leading fusion players of the New York scene including Larry Corryell, Mtume, Al Foster, Dave Liebman and many more. In the early 80s, Hino’s jazz funk tracks were dancefloor smashes on the UK jazz dance scene. Joining Waldron and Hino on ‘Reminicient Suite’ is a band made up of the very best Japanese jazzman of their day: Takeo Uematsu on sax, Terumasa’s brother, Motohiko Hino, on drums, and the legendary bass master, Isao Suzuki. Together, they deliver one of the very best albums of the era, a richly articulated and dynamic session that exemplifies the very best that the Japanese jazz scene was doing in the early 1970s. ‘Reminicent Suite’ is pressed on 200g vinyl presented in a gatefold sleeve plus obi strip, with new photos by Tadayuki Naito; translated original sleeve notes; and a 7500-word essay including interview with Terumasa Hino from Tony Higgins, co-curator of the J Jazz Masterclass Series. This is the first time this album has been available outside of Japan

With her captivating voice and richly detailed songwriting, Sarah Jarosz has emerged as one of the most compelling musicians of her generation. A four-time Grammy Award-winner and ten-time nominee at the age of 30, the Texas native started singing as a young girl and became an accomplished multi-instrumentalist by her early teens. After releasing her full-length debut Song Up in Her Headat 18-years-old, she went on to deliver such critically lauded albums as Follow Me Down, Build Me Up From Bones, and Undercurrent, in addition to joining forces with Sara Watkins and Aoife O’Donovan to form the acclaimed folk trio I’m With Her. Her fifth studio album, World On The Ground, produced by John Leventhal, went on to win the Grammy award for Best Americana Album. In 2021 Jarosz released the Grammy-nominated Blue Heron Suite, a much-anticipated song cycle which she composed after being the recipient of the FreshGrass Composition Commission.

The seventh album from Sarah Jarosz finds the highly decorated songwriter at the apex of change. A Texas native, she’s spent most of her adult life living in New York City, but shortly before writing the album Jarosz left her adopted home to join her soon-to-be husband in Nashville, TN. The geographic shake-up led to a sonic one as well for Polaroid Lovers. For the first time in her career she opened herself up to collaborators, leading to writing sessions with Daniel Tashian, Ruston Kelly and Natalie Hemby. The creative reorganization of her writing process evolved to include a much richer and more electric sound in the studio and being in Nashville meant access to a world of hot shot players. She tapped guitarist Rob McNelley (Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood), Tom Bukovac (Tom Petty, Vince Gill) on guitar and organ, her husband- bassist Jeff Picker (Nickel Creek), and drummer Fred Eltringham (Sheryl Crow, Lucinda Williams) for the album recording. Tashian took the helm as producer and the whole album was laid down at the legendary Sound Emporium.

As it goes with all change, Jarosz’s major life events had her feeling contemplative. While sitting on the precipice of adulthood, Polaroid Lovers finds her reflecting on past loves, childhood dreams, the places she lived in and all the versions of herself that she’s been. Although the listener experiences the sonic shift forward, the album’s subject matter is a photo album of the past. Jarosz has never sounded more assured. Polaroid Lovers is filled with the kind of confidence that comes from hard won life experiences and the conviction of someone who truly knows herself.

Gruff Rhys is pleased to announce his new album "Sadness Sets Me Free" which will be released by Rough Trade Records on 26.01.2024. This incredibly will be the 25th album he has released in his 35 year career individually, collaboratively and as a member of various bands. "Sadness Sets Me Free" is also the follow up to 2021"s "Seeking new Gods", his first solo top ten record. The album will be available in a range of formats including a unique Dinked edition on "honeycomb neo-neapolitan" vinyl, an LP sleeve with "container doors" and a bonus 7" with exclusive audio for the first 1500 copies. A gatefold soft pack CD also includes a pull out poster. Lead-off single "Celestial Candyfloss" is a telling four minute glimpse of the forthcoming album, revealing the heady wonders and classic pop sounds within. Soaring strings carry the sweet melodies along, anchored by just enough necessary melancholy to add emotional ballast. The eye-popping video was created by long-time collaborator Mark James and compliments the scope and style of the song on a galactic scale. "Celestial Candyfloss" is, Gruff says, "an attempted pocket symphony about the cosmic lengths that people will travel in the pursuit of love and acceptance. Mark James has brought the Sadness Sets Me Free album cover to life & managed to place me watching TV interference in a shipping container that"s lost in space. For what is apparently the 25th album I"ve had a hand in writing I"ve reverted to a rich seam of inspiration relating to shedding some light on sadness and the general terror of cosmic loneliness." And so it was that Gruff and his band - Osian Gwynedd (piano), Huw V Williams (double bass) and former Flaming Lips drummer turned Super Furry Animals archivist Kliph Scurlock (drums) piled into a van driven by the late, legendary tour manager "Dr" Kiko Loiacono and raced from Dunkirk, where they had just played the final show of a tour of Spain and France, to the outskirts of Paris in the early hours of a March morning in 2022. There, in La Frette Studios, a recording facility installed in a 19th-century house, Gruff and his road-hardened group tracked "Sadness Sets Me Free" in just three days. Backing vocals were added along the way by Kate Stables from This Is The Kit along with additional strings and orchestration and it was mixed between Marseille and Cardiff. What finally emerged from these intense bouts of cross-continental activity was Gruff"s most accomplished and beautiful record to date. In a career that has taken him from the slate-mining towns of north-west Wales, down to the expat communities of Patagonia, up to the Mandan tribe of the Great Plains of North America and across to the Tuareg rock groups of the Saharan Desert, Gruff Rhys, one of Britain"s most beloved and successful singer-songwriters, has always been willing to follow an opportunity, wherever it may lead him. "At this point I quite like working with serendipity," he says. "Not in a cosmic way, but I try and leave things open to chance encounters and chance geography. As I"m around 25 albums in I"m always looking for ways to make a different-sounding record".

Gruff Rhys is pleased to announce his new album "Sadness Sets Me Free" which will be released by Rough Trade Records on 26.01.2024. This incredibly will be the 25th album he has released in his 35 year career individually, collaboratively and as a member of various bands. "Sadness Sets Me Free" is also the follow up to 2021"s "Seeking new Gods", his first solo top ten record. The album will be available in a range of formats including a unique Dinked edition on "honeycomb neo-neapolitan" vinyl, an LP sleeve with "container doors" and a bonus 7" with exclusive audio for the first 1500 copies. A gatefold soft pack CD also includes a pull out poster. Lead-off single "Celestial Candyfloss" is a telling four minute glimpse of the forthcoming album, revealing the heady wonders and classic pop sounds within. Soaring strings carry the sweet melodies along, anchored by just enough necessary melancholy to add emotional ballast. The eye-popping video was created by long-time collaborator Mark James and compliments the scope and style of the song on a galactic scale. "Celestial Candyfloss" is, Gruff says, "an attempted pocket symphony about the cosmic lengths that people will travel in the pursuit of love and acceptance. Mark James has brought the Sadness Sets Me Free album cover to life & managed to place me watching TV interference in a shipping container that"s lost in space. For what is apparently the 25th album I"ve had a hand in writing I"ve reverted to a rich seam of inspiration relating to shedding some light on sadness and the general terror of cosmic loneliness." And so it was that Gruff and his band - Osian Gwynedd (piano), Huw V Williams (double bass) and former Flaming Lips drummer turned Super Furry Animals archivist Kliph Scurlock (drums) piled into a van driven by the late, legendary tour manager "Dr" Kiko Loiacono and raced from Dunkirk, where they had just played the final show of a tour of Spain and France, to the outskirts of Paris in the early hours of a March morning in 2022. There, in La Frette Studios, a recording facility installed in a 19th-century house, Gruff and his road-hardened group tracked "Sadness Sets Me Free" in just three days. Backing vocals were added along the way by Kate Stables from This Is The Kit along with additional strings and orchestration and it was mixed between Marseille and Cardiff. What finally emerged from these intense bouts of cross-continental activity was Gruff"s most accomplished and beautiful record to date. In a career that has taken him from the slate-mining towns of north-west Wales, down to the expat communities of Patagonia, up to the Mandan tribe of the Great Plains of North America and across to the Tuareg rock groups of the Saharan Desert, Gruff Rhys, one of Britain"s most beloved and successful singer-songwriters, has always been willing to follow an opportunity, wherever it may lead him. "At this point I quite like working with serendipity," he says. "Not in a cosmic way, but I try and leave things open to chance encounters and chance geography. As I"m around 25 albums in I"m always looking for ways to make a different-sounding record".

"Cross My Heart" is a tribute to the harmonica player and singer James Cotton, one of Boney Fields" heroes and companions on the road, is certainly the most representative track of this thrilling groove mood that authentic blues musicians know how to infuse. Boney Fields possesses that almost funk tone matured enough to tickle our ears and make us tap our feet. By revitalizing, for example, "The Thrill Is Gone" in the spirit of its original author (Roy Hawkins), Boney Fields perpetuates the tradition of spirited orchestras of yesteryears without compromising the modernity of its irresistible tempo. Much more personal than all his previous albums, "Just Give Me Some Mo" is also the expression of introspection, that of a man who remembers without drowning in dark nostalgia. He thinks of the courage of his mother bravely facing obstacles in an unequal America. "Back in the Day" is not a sad song. It makes one stronger and nurtures faith in the future. This melody is certainly the most touching of the six compositions written by Boney Fields. From "Control of you" to "Something" holding me" or "I know yes I Know" he invites us into his intimate biography, the story of a large family shaken by inevitable upheavals that must be faced, the destiny of a combative musician who resists adversity. Boney Fields chose to let his soul speak. This effort of truth had to be supported by the artistic direction of a master. By enlisting Sebastian Danchin for the production of this album, Boney Fields turns to a historian of African-American culture whose keen ear has already won over Little Milton, Mighty Mo Rodgers, Toni Green, and Jean-Jacques Milteau, among others... Their exchanges uncovered a perfect understanding of "Chicago Blues" the brassy vigor of which they experienced firsthand 40 years ago. Surrounding oneself with the right people is quite a challenge. Fortunately, Boney Fields knows how to spot true talents. He was convinced that the Senegalese guitarist Hervé Samb would also be a good musical director. Hadn"t he been the first to highlight the expressive power of this luminous composer and arranger? The enduring vitality of the blues, when narrated with precision and insight, always manages to find its legitimacy. The months of reflection, of questioning, will not have been in vain. They have given substance and depth to this thrilling record which, we wager, will be a milestone. Boney Fields has waited long enough. Does he want more? We will give him more! "Just Give Me Some Mo" will now be a shared leitmotif, that of an insatiable conductor and that of enlightened admirers.

Today, less than two months following the final tour date of their As Long As You Are tour, Future Islands announce the details of their new album People Who Aren"t There Anymore which will be released January 26, 2024. The seventh album from the band - Samuel T. Herring (vocals, lyrics), William Cashion (bass, guitars), Gerrit Welmers (keyboards, programming), and Michael Lowry (drums) - follows 2020"s As Long As You Are. People Who Aren"t There Anymore heralds a new chapter for Future Islands who, despite having formed nearly two decades ago, continue to challenge themselves and each other. Where they"ve pursued ever-higher energy anthems in the past, they"ve turned inward this time, and unlocked a new level of ferocity, delivering some of their most inspiring and most heartbreaking tracks by doing the opposite: taking their time, making each breath, each syllable, each cymbal crash count. The result is a powerful, defining statement from a group of musicians that have made the best album of their career. People Who Aren"t There Anymore was co-produced by Future Islands and Steve Wright, and mixed by Steve Wright and Chris Coady (who returns to working with the band for the first time since 2014"s Singles).

Today, less than two months following the final tour date of their As Long As You Are tour, Future Islands announce the details of their new album People Who Aren"t There Anymore which will be released January 26, 2024. The seventh album from the band - Samuel T. Herring (vocals, lyrics), William Cashion (bass, guitars), Gerrit Welmers (keyboards, programming), and Michael Lowry (drums) - follows 2020"s As Long As You Are. People Who Aren"t There Anymore heralds a new chapter for Future Islands who, despite having formed nearly two decades ago, continue to challenge themselves and each other. Where they"ve pursued ever-higher energy anthems in the past, they"ve turned inward this time, and unlocked a new level of ferocity, delivering some of their most inspiring and most heartbreaking tracks by doing the opposite: taking their time, making each breath, each syllable, each cymbal crash count. The result is a powerful, defining statement from a group of musicians that have made the best album of their career. People Who Aren"t There Anymore was co-produced by Future Islands and Steve Wright, and mixed by Steve Wright and Chris Coady (who returns to working with the band for the first time since 2014"s Singles).

Few bands have burst quite so brilliantly onto the scene as Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Fewer still can say their debut album defined a scene, a time, and marked a paradigm shift in the music industry. But the then five-piece, fronted by the enigmatic Alec Ounsworth, managed all this and more; no wonder their self-titled record is still considered one the finest, and most influential, indie releases of the 2000s.A heady blend of left-field pop and melodic, exuberant indie rock, the record repurposed a number of classic new wave references for a new generation of music fans. Fun-loving and quirky, the band achieved that rare alchemy - synthesising a dizzying array of styles and influences into something wholly their own. And that something was utterly glorious, full of buzzing synths, trebly guitars, bustling drums, and lilting, wailing vocals. The record's raw, ramshackle sound was an integral part of its appeal; time has merely magnified that charm. In `The Skin Of My Yellow Country Teeth' and `Upon This Tidal Wave Of Young Blood' Ounsworth wrote two of the most uplifting, celebratory tracks of this millennium, obvious highlights on an album of consistent excellence, and one rightly lauded for re-writing the rules of what indie bands could be.

To mark the 15th year of both Static Shock Records and Hygiene, we bring you the '15 Minute City' EP, which is also the 100th release of the label. Has it really been four years since their ‘Private Sector’ album on Upset the Rhythm?? In that time the band have had a small tweak in line up with the addition of Lucy from Primetime on bass. Hygiene have returned with their most urgent and essential recordings and not many bands can say that after 15 years. Lead track '15 Minute City’ is an absolute bundle of DIY greatness…it has the chaos and chorus of one the classic 70’s / early 80’s Swell Maps 7”s. ‘L.T.N’ is a robotic and stiff post punk song that doesn’t outlast it's welcome as it lasts just over a minute. Last track ‘Petrol’ is a childlike punk gem that gets stuck in your head after one play. Hygiene are one of the most underappreciated bands in London in 2023.

Early Life Forms is a new quartet fronted by Belgian guitarist and sound wizard Vitja Pauwels, and on the 26th January, they are set to release their self-titled debut album via W.E.R.F. Records; a stunning, one-off live show recorded with American guitarist Marc Ribot (Robert Plant, Tom Waits, Wilson Pickett, Marianne Faithfull, The Black Keys, John Zorn).

Having already earned his spurs as a sideman with artists including Naïma Joris, Bombataz and Lara Rosseel, rising Belgian star Pauwels released his debut album 'Day at Half Speed' in 2019, which explored the possibilities of acoustic guitar and live electronics. This experiment became a new artistic path for Pauwels and showcased his musical versatility, with second album 'Drift By, Sink In', released to critical acclaim in 2022.

The same year, Pauwels was invited as special guest by the BRAND! Festival, Mechelen, to showcase new material and he came up with the idea of putting together his 'dream' live band which included his hero Marc Ribot, one of world's most accomplished and acclaimed guitar players. Reaching out to him via videos and early demos for this new recording project, Ribot liked what he heard and agreed to perform with Pauwels and his new project Early Life Forms in what would be the band's first ever live show.

Joined by Frederik Leroux (baritone guitar), Laurens Dierickx (Hammond organ) and Casper Van De Velde (drums), during the lead up to the festival, Pauwels wrote a number of songs he felt would work for the live show, with the only agreement being that there would be no rehearsals ahead of the performance, only a brief soundcheck beforehand with Ribot. The music was stripped down to its essentials - compelling melodies, themes, and clear forms but with the possibility to change direction at any given moment. "The music was played and heard for the first time, and it felt like a birth of something that needed to be alive. We felt connected in the right state of mind - relaxed and focused - and it all happened in a rush of shared energy. No ego's or fear, only connection and the music", states Pauwels.

Drawing on latin, jazz, cuban, and rock with a touch of exoticism and cinematic explorations, 'Early Life Forms' cites Ry Cooder, Henry Mancini, Los Lobos, Ennio Morricone and of course Ribot, as heavy influences. There is something existential, primary, something epic and at the same time youthfully uncomplicated, which is strongly associated with the music. From the mischievous and imaginative 'My Little Renaissance' to the adventurous and hypnotic 'Latin Dancer', 'Early Life Forms' is overflowing with sharp twists and turns, with Ribot's heavily rhythmic, distorted guitar amplifying the cinematic feel to the sound. The on-stage relationship between each member of the band and Ribot is childishly uncomplicated, something primary but always epic. The music is left to the moment and the magic of their first encounter with their hero Ribot. "Marc's commitment in the music was better than I could have hoped for. What he played was with 200% intention, putting the rest of us in a state of hyperfocus. Given the fact that it was a one-time thing and a recording, we took risks without 'overplaying' or overthinking it. Right before the gig, we felt an urge to play, Marc said, "Let's rock!!" and we hit the stage", says Pauwels.

Studio One was founded by Clement "Coxsone" Dodd1 in 1954, and the first recordings were cut in 1963 on Brentford Road in Kingston.1[2] Amongst its earliest records were "Easy Snappin" by Theophilus Beckford, backed by Clue J & His Blues Blasters, and "This Man is Back" by trombonist Don Drummond. Dodd had previously issued music on a series of other labels, including World Disc, and had run Sir Coxsone the Downbeat, one of the largest and most reputable sound systems in the Kingston ghettos.
In the early 1960s, the house band providing backing for the vocalists were the Skatalites[3] (1964–65), whose members (including Roland Alphonso, Don Drummond, Tommy McCook, Jackie Mittoo, Lester Sterling and Lloyd Brevett) were recruited from the Kingston jazz scene by Dodd. The Skatalites split up in 1965 after Drummond was jailed for murder, and Dodd formed new house band the Soul Brothers (1965–66), later named the Soul Vendors (1967) and Sound Dimension (1967-). From 1965 to 1968 they played 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., 5 days a week, 12 rhythms a day (about 60 rhythms a week) with Jackie Mittoo as music director, Brian Atkinson (1965–1968) on bass, Hux Brown on guitar, Harry Haughton (guitar), Joe Isaacs on drums (1966–1968), Denzel Laing on percussion, and on horns (some initially and some throughout): Roland Alphonso, Dennis 'Ska' Campbell, Bobby Ellis, Lester Sterling, among others on horns during the era of Rock Steady. Headley Bennett, Ernest Ranglin, Vin Gordon and Leroy Sibbles were included among a fluid line-up, to record tracks directed by Jackie Mittoo at Studio One from 1966-1968.
During the night hours at Studio One from 1965-1968, singers like Bob Marley, Burning Spear, The Heptones, The Ethiopians, Ken Boothe, Rita Marley, Marcia Griffiths, Judy Mowatt, Alton Ellis, Delroy Wilson, Bunny Wailer[4] and Johnny Nash, among others, would put on headphones to sing lyrics to original tracks recorded by the Soul Brothers earlier each day. These seminal recordings included "Real Rock" (by Sound Dimension), "Heavy Rock", "Jamaica Underground", "Wakie Wakie", "Lemon Tree", "Hot Shot", "I'm Still In Love With You", "Dancing Mood", and "Creation Rebel".
Jackie Mittoo, Joe Isaacs, and Brian Atkinson left Studio One in 1968, recorded drums and bass for Desmond Dekker's and Toots' biggest hits at other Kingston studios, then moved to Canada. Hux Brown stayed in Jamaica to record on the soundtrack The Harder They Come, The Harder They Fall, and toured in Nigeria with Toots and the Maytals and Fela Kuti. The Soul Brothers (a.k.a. Sound Dimension) formed the basis of reggae music in the late 1960s, being versioned and re-versioned time after time over decades by musicians like Shaggy, Sean Paul, Snoop Lion, The Clash, String Cheese Incident, UB40, Sublime, and countless other Billboard originals and remakes trying to emulate their original Rock Steady sound at Coxsone's Studio One.
The label and studio were closed when Dodd relocated to New York City in the 1980s.