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2023 repress of the OTOROKU re-issue of the legendary English free improvisation LP 'The Topography of The Lungs' by Evan Parker, Derek Bailey and Han Bennink. This was Evan Parker’s first recording as a "leader" and was the first release on Incus, the label Parker founded with guitarist Derek Bailey and drummer Tony Oxley. This re-issue has been produced from an original vinyl pressing from Evan's archives - carefully transcribed and restored by Andreas LUPO Lubich at Calyx in Berlin and features the original liner notes from Parker along with updated notes penned in 2014. "To talk further of the music we play is difficult. It’s criteria for success exist, but are elusive and indefinable beyond the intuitive level. We operate without rules (pre-composed material) or well-defined code of behaviour (fixed tempi, tonalities, serial structures etc.), and yet are able to distinguish success from failure." - From Evan Parker’s original liner notes (1970). This pressing of The Topography of The Lungs comes in a limited edition of 500 copies.

Consisting of MCs A+, Phesto, Opio and Tajai (with production by A+, Domino, Del the Funky Homosapien, Jay Biz and Casual), East Oakland’s Souls of Mischief burst onto the scene in the early 90s with an impact that few other West Coast artists had at the time. Culminating in the release of their classic debut, they created a bouillabaisse that was most parts West Coast swagger but - similar to The D.O.C. and Cypress Hill - with a sonic approach that could just as well have stepped off the streets of New York City. Recorded in less than two weeks at San Francisco's Hyde Street Studios, 93 ‘til Infinity doesn’t suffer from a single freshman jitter or misstep. It’s a fully-realized effort, packed from start to finish with ridiculous lyricism - all carried out in impressive four-part, tag-team style - and backed by a wide range of musical possibilities, from hard boom-bap to 70s CTI-jazz-sprinkled grooves. But without worthy music, the group’s high-level lyricism could have fallen by the wayside. Digging deep into crates that other producers had yet to mine, the production crew gave the quartet exactly what they needed, with unpredictable rolling basslines, dusty drums and jazz keyboard and horn stabs and swirls. Non-singles like Disseshowedo (produced by Domino and Jay Biz), Batting Practice (Casual), Limitations (Jay Biz, with Del and Casual contributing verses) and What A Way To Go Out (Domino) made sure that the fast-forward button remained untouched. Get On Down is proud to present a 30th Anniversary pressing of this west coast Hip-Hop classic on cloudy blue and cloudy yellow vinyl, packaged in a gatefold jacket with liner notes and a commemorative 30th Anniversary stamped numbered OBI.

A Bad Diana is a project from Diana Rogerson, someone I first became aware of aged 12 when I read about Nurse With Wound and their United Dairies label in Smash Hits magazine. I was confused, mystified and intrigued in equal measure, and a couple of years later as a result I bought my first Nurse With Wound album. This led to an interest in all things NWW related. I guess Diana could be described as the matriarch of the Nurse With Wound world but she also had her own very distinguished pre-history with Fistfuck, an early-80s extreme noise outfit. She then made two mid 80s cult classic albums as Chrystal Belle Scrodd, both far out there rollercoaster rides of audio wildness, highly recommended to anyone with wide open ears. She then moved to rural Ireland and raised a family. There was the odd collaboration and then in 2007 A Bad Diana’s “The Lights Are On But No-One’s Home” was released on CD. I feel this is her meisterwerk and it has become something of a cult favourite over the years. Now for the first time, almost two decades later it is available on vinyl on Optimo Music Archiv. Produced in association with Steven Stapleton and Colin Potter from Nurse With Wound and irr. app. (ext.)’s Matt Waldron this is some seriously beautiful and strange listening. Next level sound design means this is an incredible headphone record but it is also a deeply warm and engaging home listening gem. Beautiful, magical, ultra hypno, soulful reverberations with the deep emotion of Diana’s voice tones and bio-vibrations.

Nach seinem bahnbrechenden elektroakustischen Soundtrack für 'Candyman' und seiner Musik für den stimmungsvollen Spielfilm 'Master' kommt nun ein neuer Soundtrack des stets unberechenbaren Komponisten Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe.

'Grasshopper Republic', der über drei Jahre hinweg gedreht wurde, folgt einem lokalen Grashüpfer-Fangteam im Verité-Stil, das in abgelegene Wälder vordringt, um durch den Fang dieser schwer fassbaren Beute sein Glück zu machen.

Lowes elektronische Musik untermalt sowohl die sichtbaren als auch die unsichtbaren Momente, aus denen die ganzheitliche Abstraktion der sich überschneidenden Welten von Insekten, Menschen und Wirtschaft entsteht.

Finally a re-release of this brutal album, a classic for punks and metal heads all over the globe. Including reproduction of the original fold out color/black and white insert and three bonus tracks not included on the original release. Reissue of the legendary Brazilian crushers fourth album, released in 1989, with the original vocals in Portuguese. 21 tracks of pure neck crushing mayhem that would open the doors of the international scene for the band and made the record an instant classic: a masterpiece of crossover thrash still to be topped today. Includes 3 bonus tracks and reproduction of the original fold out insert.

Musician/sound artist Mariske Broeckmeyer (MARIS) and author/poet Astrid Haerens found each other in their shared love of experimental music, improvisation and jazz. They discovered common ground in their artistic work, in their thinking, in their love for art and literature, and started a conversation that has not ceased.

They both make work that focuses on physicality, femininity and (the failure of) the voice, among other things. Their work revolves around the knowledge that a body carries, and how you can start from there instead of just the cerebral and analytical, aspects that are seen as predominantly masculine and often central to literature.

In 2022, the two worked together for the first time on their literary jazz project around the effects of power structures on a woman's body, bringing a breath of fresh air to the predominantly male jazz scene. MARIS and Astrid invited Jasmijn Lootens, a hybrid cellist who combines classical training with electronic music, to dive even deeper into the research and crossover between poetry, spoken word, performance, sound art and music together.

Standing In The Light, das viel geliebte dritte Album von Level 42, ist wieder als LP in
einer streng limitierten audiophilen Gold-Vinyl-Pressung erhältlich.
Level 42 - der Bassist und Sänger Mark King, der Keyboarder und Sänger Mike Lindup,
der Gitarrist Boon Gould, der Schlagzeuger und Texter Phil Gould und der Studiotüftler
Wally Badarou - waren 1983 angesehene Überlebende der Britfunk-Explosion der frühen
80er Jahre, hatten aber noch nicht den ganz großen Durchbruch geschafft. Live waren sie
eine unübersehbare Attraktion, aber ein echter kommerzieller Erfolg blieb ihnen verwehrt.
Polydor erkannte dies und schickte die Gruppe nach LA, um mit Larry Dunn und Verdine
White von Earth, Wind & Fire zu arbeiten und ihrem Sound eine zusätzliche Dimension zu
verleihen.
Es sollte jedoch kein EWF-Horn- und Mystikfest werden; Standing In The Light optimierte
und kommerzialisierte den Sound der Gruppe, ohne dabei ihre einzigartige britische
Interpretation von Jazz-Funk zu verlieren. Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind war die erste
Singleauskopplung des Albums und verpasste nur knapp die britischen Top 40; die
nächste Veröffentlichung bescherte der Gruppe jedoch ihren ersten Top-10-Hit und einen
Vorgeschmack auf den Erfolg, den sie in den kommenden Jahren genießen sollte. Living It
Up (The Sun Goes Down) war ihr erster Top-10-Hit im Vereinigten Königreich und ist ein
funkbasierter Knaller. Infolgedessen war Standing In The Light das erste Top-10-Album
von Level 42. Es enthält auch das intensive, politische I Want Eyes, das Lieblingsstück
von Schlagzeuger Phil Gould in Zusammenarbeit mit Mark King, sowie fünf weitere
Beispiele für den einzigartigen Groove der Gruppe

The incomparable trumpeter Clifford Brown recorded two leader sessions for Blue Note in 1953—a co-led quintet date with Lou Donaldson and his own sextet date—that were compiled on the 12" LP Memorial Album (BLP 1526) shortly after his tragic death in 1956. Brownie’s star burns bright from the blistering ‘Cherokee’ to the stunning ballad ‘Easy Living’. This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is mono, all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

New pressing on limited orange vinyl. In the early days of Pinback, they were known mostly as two lauded musicians who spent their spare time away from their primary projects (Three Mile Pilot, Thingy, Heavy Vegetable) to hone their home recording skills while experimenting with ideas, tones, and instrumentation that didn’t quite fit into those primary projects. Pinback hadn’t yet become their day job; it hadn’t yet become a well-oiled 5-piece touring machine; and it had no idea where it was going to go. In retrospect, that earnest curiosity is what makes those early Pinback recordings so resonant and so unique, and what separated them from every indie rock band of this century. Every bit as powerful and expressive as their first two albums, the 1999 EP, Some Voices, and the 2003 EP, Offcell, famously bucked the perception of EPs as outtakes and toss-offs. What were ostensibly minor stopgaps between albums became massive fan favorites and staples of Pinback’s live show. Having never been released on vinyl, it’s only fitting that we revisit these poignant recordings – and take the opportunity to painstakingly remaster and repackage them into the full-length album that never was, the aptly named Some Offcell Voices

The amazing bebop piano genius Bud Powell made his most enduring recordings as a leader for Blue Note. Powell’s 1949 and 1951 quintet and trio sessions were compiled on the 12” LP The Amazing Bud Powell, Vol. 1 (BLP 1503) in 1955 featuring the pianist with the likes of Sonny Rollins, Fats Navarro, Roy Haynes and Max Roach on bebop classics including ‘Un Poco Loco’ and ‘Bouncing with Bud’. This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is mono, all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

Saxon proudly release their latest album Hell, Fire And Damnation on January 19th 2024, and when internationally-renowned actor Brian Blessed OBE delivers a proclamation for opening track, “The Prophecy”, expectations are automatically high. Have no fear and make no mistake, Saxon meet and exceed them on their 24th studio release, creating a superlative British Heavy Metal classic which strides the perfect line between confident, current power, and gloriously irreverent flexing of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal muscle which Saxon co-created.

Known for weaving together complex rhymes with style, Elzhi has been rapping circles around the competition for more than two decades. After years as a member of iconic group Slum Village, Elzhi’s impressive solo career has included projects produced by acclaimed artists like Black Milk, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Khrysis, and Will Sessions. Now, the Detroit emcee is linking with California beat maestro Oh No for the new collaborative album Heavy Vibrato. A multitalented underground hip-hop luminary, Oh No has built a formidable resume behind the boards, crafting tracks for Mos Def, Freddie Gibbs, MF DOOM, Action Bronson, Talib Kweli, Ab-Soul, Danny Brown, and more. Heavy Vibrato is a thrilling showcase for Elzhi’s lyrical wizardry and cinematic storytelling, as Oh No breathes new life into a compelling tapestry of jazz samples, producing the entire collection. “The only thing you need to absorb this experience is an open mind,” says Elzhi. With guest appearances by Blu and Guilty Simpson, Heavy Vibrato taps into an undeniable frequency.

Available on black vinyl 10”. Recorded in Berlin & remotely in 2023, the opening track “Abandon Ship (Martian Meltdown Mix)” runs at over 11 minutes and plays at 33 rpm, “Maybe Make It Right.” the B side is nearly 4 minutes & plays at 45 rpm.


With Anton Newcombe (Vocals/ Guitars) Hakon Adalsteinsson (guitar), & Uri Rennert (drums) playing on this offering. Emil Nikolaisen (Serena-Maneesh / BJM) & Ryan Carlson Van Kriedt (Asteroid #4 / BJM) on engineering duties. The release comes in a heavyweight
PVC bag with the artwork being a J card so you can see the vinyl.

Lyon-based David Kiledjian is the creator behind a number of projects such as Fowatile, HILA and Dowdelin. Beside that he is producer of albums by Armenian pianist Tigran Hamasyan and Malian band BKO, and collaborator with Talib Kweli, Piers Faccini, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and Vaudou Game. David is now releasing 'The Otium Mixtape', his first opus under his own name. These ten tracks build bridges between languages and folklore from world, jazz, hip-hop and electronic avant-garde.

The old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great
variety of morbid symptoms appear"
-Antonio Gramsci, Prison Notebooks.

Iskandr's latest offering "Spiritus Sylvestris" appears to be a radical
statement in both content and form Signifying a departure from the black metal roots of the project, the psychedelic folk doom of the new album builds upon the directions of where both "Vergezicht" and "Glas" were already moving towards.

"Spiritus Sylvestris" is cinematic in scope: majestic and threatening in its aura of sublime grandeur. The Latin title translates to "spirit of the wild" and also refers to the early modern alchemical name for carbon dioxide - when the spirit of the wilderness is released into the
aether through the burning of wood and charcoal. The songs tell impressionistic stories of natural elements personified; when powerful spirits that linger in the earth are stirred, those elemental forces will be forced to haunt our world.

In an era of irreversible damage to our planet and anthropogenic climate change, Iskandr aims to offer funeral dirges for the world that we have already lost.

"Spiritus Sylvestris" embraces a limitless approach to translate this vision into musical form. Employing musical elements from a broad array of genres; easily moving between the martial stomp of early Laibach and the ethereal melodics of Dead Can Dance.

Recorded and mixed by the legendary Pieter Kloos (The Devil's
Blood, Motorpsycho) at The Void Studio in Eindhoven, the new Iskandr record has broadened the scope and sound of the project beyond any confines, resulting in the most open soundscapes from Iskandr to date. The heavy baritone guitar riffs that form the backbone of the record provide a pitch-black canvas in which huge percussive rhythms and psychedelic layers of Hammond organ, Mellotron as well
as subtle acoustics move in and out of focus. If this world is at an end it deserves a requiem for that what is lost.

The first in a four-volume retrospective of Kuduro and tarraxinha pioneer DJ ZNOBIA. Incoming unto the world for a very long time from the musseke of Rangel, home of Casa da Mé&e Ju, in the Angolan capital o Ldanda, one if not the pivotal visionary of his country’s music electronic and digital modernism DJ Znobia, o/fum/an inventor. Usually considered the first purveyor of the fluency regarding tarraxinha (drinking in its foundational slow shuffle from the city of Benguela), as well as a main player in free thinking, spontaneous, funny, depressive, silly, melancholic, hilarious all encompassing beats within kuduro, batida, techno and beyond, his influence as a producer, DJ, MC and public fiuce has had a great imprint in Angolan culture for the better part of the last three ecades. This venture went through over 700 tracks of his archive (more than double are lost in the meantime between his and the NNT library) in order to collaboratively select a fiercely representative albeit balanced affair from his production, between instrumentals for sung kuduro, instrumental kuduro/batida, sung and instrumental tarraxinha, and other creative styling from the late 90’s to the mid 2000’s. Forms now heard around the world which started here, with Znobia a decisively influential contributor, along with several of his peers and collaborators, which will be also in evidence in this four volume retrospective. His story is way too far flung for this endeavor to try and make a simple narrative out of it. You have to be him, you have to be within this territory, and we ask of the people who will approach to ask him what has happened with the history of this music and what is the current reality at ground zero Luanda, as he is a mirror and visionary of its streets, in a country with such complicated dynamics and brutal treatment of its citizens. To try to put in a clean slate for this conversation, let’s talk to a genius of street music. Your question. First, here's the opening collection of what we have to share with you.

20 years ago Sunburned Hand of the Man released "Headdress" and it
cracked there world open
This is not hyperbole. The album resulted in the band becoming the cover children for a scene / genre-defining story titled "New Weird America" by the Wire and also saw the album given a 9.0 / Best New Music tag from Pitchfork ("...the music flows so readily with complete and utter disdain for trend and fashion that it feels simultaneously primitive and advanced..."). Largely out of print since back then, "Headdress" is back to help put the world back on a better path.

Remastered for this 20th anniversary edition freshly from the original masters and housed within a gatefold bearing archival photos, this is true head music for true heads.

Tune in, shake yr ass and drop out with this ever-providing slab.

Futurismo present a deluxe vinyl package of the never before reissued 1987 avant industrial album: Bad Mood Guy by Severed Heads.

With an oeuvre of electronic experimentation that dates back to 1979, Australia’s Severed Heads rawly garnered everything from the sources around them: the sounds of the city, tape loops, old machines, distortion.

Although essentially one man, chief noisemaker Tom Ellard, he was joined here by film maker/homebrew video synthesizer operator Stephen Jones, and effects producer Robert Racic: who had worked with New Order. The result is a punishing view of pop, all crunching rhythms and electronic juxtapose. By incorporating popular tropes such as consistent rhythms, melodic vocal lines and drum machines this was perhaps as near to alittle “boogie-oogie-oogie” as Severed Heads were likely to get, but the outcome is a striking hybrid of the avant-garde, EBM and Synth-pop, an industrial vortex in which the sounds of the 20th century are sucked in and spat out around a monstrous dance beat.

Never pandering to expectations, Ellard saw dance music as a benchmark area where exploration was still possible. Big ideas and big sounds, notto mention big headaches when the original CBS mixes were left in a taxi cab. Whilst many of their contemporaries persisted without dignity, Bad Mood Guy’s cool melancholy assured a fanbase in America and dance floor loyalty with ‘Hot With Fleas’, which dares to sit alongside classics like ‘Dead Eyes Opened’. The unique inventiveness inherent in Severed Heads work makes this release essential for fans of Throbbing Gristle, Kraftwerk, Skinny Puppy and Cabaret Voltaire.

This remastered version of the original CD contains lost original versions and remixes and comes with a fold-out artzine booklet with liners by Ellard.

On 6th October, multi BRIT-nominated DJ/producer Joel Corry releases his debut album, ‘Another Friday Night’ via Asylum / Atlantic Records, with the pre-order going live on the 18th August.

To be released on both vinyl & CD, as well as via streaming/download, ‘Another Friday Night’ is a collection of Joel’s most iconic records of the last five years, including breakthrough hit ‘Sorry’, ‘Lonely’, multi-platinum UK #1 single ‘Head & Heart’ ft. MNEK, ‘BED’ w/ RAYE & David Guetta, ‘OUT OUT’ w/ Jax Jones, Charli XCX & Saweetie, plus fresh 2023 cuts like ‘Dance Around It’ with Caity Baser and the anthemic ‘0800 HEAVEN’ with Nathan Dawe & Ella Henderson, ‘Another Friday Night’ toasts a remarkable run of releases that’s seen Joel become one of the UK’s biggest and most impactful dance acts.

“My debut album ‘Another Friday Night’ is the biggest moment of my life”, says Joel Corry. “Everything I have dreamed about and worked so hard for has come together with the release of this record. It has been an incredible journey and I am so proud to have reached this moment in my career. I want the songs to make people feel good and bring happiness to their days, and the album includes everyone’s favourite bangers from over the years, as well as some really exciting new material. This is the ultimate Joel Corry playlist, perfect for Another Friday Night.”

Ahead of the release of ‘Another Friday Night’ on October 6th, Joel has also announced a special headline show at London’s Ministry Of Sound on Friday 29th September – his first London headline date since playing at former 5000-cap venue, Printworks, in autumn 2021.

Fans who pre-order ‘Another Friday Night’ will be granted early pre-sale access to tickets on August 24th, before general sale opens on August 25th

The second self-titled album from Will Miller"s Resavoir interweaves modern-day soul-jazz with bedroom beats, synth serenades and twilight sonatas - an endlessly listenable, subtly radiant symphony suitable for both the composition-minded musician"s musician and the hook-seeking playlist populist. This album follows Resavoir"s 2019 self-titled debut album, a breakout success that landed in "Best of 2019" lists by NPR Music and BBC"s Gilles Peterson. Through his movement further into an expanded palette of synths, pianos, live and programmed drums in addition to his MIDI-augmented trumpet, Miller has developed a signature cinematic soul-jazz sound rooted in hip-hop structures. No surprise, then, that his profile as a producer has raised significantly since the Resavoir debut, and that the years since have seen him operating the controls and guiding the ship on tracks for Eryn Allen Kane, Whitney, Knox Fortune, and SZA"s recently-released album SOS (which spent 10 weeks as the #1 spot on the Billboard 200 chart).

Straight Up Breakbeat rounds up the first full year of operation with a special compilation YEAR ZERO. Featuring the best in modern jungle and forward-looking drum & bass the album features brand new tracks by FANU, OUT OF FUEL, INFADER & DDOG together with 2019 label highlights by RESOUND, AEON FOUR, ESC, HMR and more. The album is preceded by a vinyl EP and a set of digital singles.


DJ Support
Two Hungry Ghosts -
“Sounds like if Dj Shadow made a track for Metalheadz”
DNB Dojo - “Solid! <3 FANU”
Life Support Machine Blog -
“Goldie level excellent”
FFF (Myor) - “Wicked!"
Yorobi (Rupture) - “All bangers”
Moresounds (Astrophonica) “Ouch!!”

GLBDOM sub-label GLBDOM Classic is dedicated to nostalgic house sounds inspired by the great styles of Chicago, Detroit and New York vibes, with hints of Italo-Dream house and even the Balearics. We get all that here on this new split EP from French house producer Sunny Galaxy and Englishman Dan T.

Sunny opens up with some happy, piano-laced party starters, well-swung garage-house grooves and steamy basement jams, then Dan T offers a B-side trio headed up by the gloriously vocal laced 'Wrong Time.' 'My Desire' cuts up the groove with some nice raw percussion and 'Want To Love You' is a sultry and jazz-tinged number for lovers.

Trip Hill is a one-man operation by Fabrizio Cecchi out of Florence, Italy. With a naïve approach to making music and inspiration from all over the world he is making his own homemade and original version of trippy psychedelia and krautrock. Fabrizio Cecchi played in various garage and psych rock bands in the early 90's but by 1994 he set his own cause and started to work alone and in his own universe. Originally a bass-player he since taught himself guitar, drums, keyboards and various other instruments to be able to find his own way in making psychedelic music. Ain't Trip Ceremony is the latest output in a long string of experimental home productions recorded in his basement studio. Until recently it was only available on his Bandcamp and as a very cool limited edition CD-R with covers printed on thick cardboard with a special linograph technique. But now it gets the proper release on vinyl via Bad Afro Records that these recordings deserve. 1st print is limited to 500 copies on black vinyl.

Repress!

10 years since the consumerist musings of Tesco, Matthew Herbert reanimates his Wishmountain project and heads deep underground to find the source material for Stonework: 1000 metres down.

Like many of Herbert’s projects, Wishmountain releases revolve around specific, material sound palettes, and for this latest album he’s drawn from a sample library created as a commission for the Stone Techno festival, which took place at the UNESCO World Heritage Zollverein mine in Essen, Germany. Working with sound recordist Lorenzo Dal Ri, Herbert and Dan Pollard captured a varied and wide variety of hits, tones, textures and one-shots from the frozen-in-time remnants of the Ruhr region’s coal-mining industry and from specific materials in the nearby Ruhr Museum and Mineralien-Museum. A sample library created by Matthew and Dan of the recordings was also used for the Stone Techno series, from which tracks have been commissioned by the likes of Luke Slater, Megan Leber, Ben Sims and KiNK drawing from the same sounds heard on this album.

These stone-cast sounds lend themselves to the Wishmountain framework – skeletal, quasi-industrial techno with an angular impulse and a subtle swing. Much like the breakthrough hit, 1996’s ‘Radio’ (made using samples of a broken radio), the limitations on the source material sharpen the focus of the music. What started out as a practical hardware restriction in the early 90s became a purposeful way of working for Herbert – one which carried through the 1999 album Wishmountainisdead to 2012’s Tesco with its sampling of the British supermarket chain’s 10 most popular products.

Musically, Stonework is consistent terrain for Wishmountain – austere and forbidding in one sense, playful and irreverent in another. But from a club music perspective, which Wishmountain absolutely is, it offers DJs a variety of rhythmic formations within the tool-like minimalism of the arrangements, opening up intriguing possibilities for mixing into, out of, or somewhere in between. For every 4/4 thrust and jerk there is a fractured, snaking meditation pivoting around other time signatures.

Crystal clear in its creative intention and simultaneously successful as surface-level club music, Stonework: 1000 Metres Down is a natural continuation for one of Herbert’s most celebrated, albeit intermittent, aliases.

Serene, invoking imagery of darkness, sweeping soundscapes tear and twist at
the emotions. The latest album by THE ANSWER LIES IN THE BLACK VOID is a
work of magical beauty. The duo, a collaboration of Martina Horvath from avantgarde metal project Thy Catafalque and Jason Kohnen from Celestial Season,
The Lovecraft Sextet, Bong- Ra, ex- The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, have
followed up on their 2021 debut "Forlorn" with a haunting sophomore release that
is of exceptionally high quality.
The prevalent element here is doom, but there is so much more buried deep
within the dark vaults of this compelling record. The opening song "Ataraxia" is a
deep, richly layered song, with Horvath demonstrating her stunning vocals over
the complex creativity of Kohnen, the multi- instrumentalist who takes
responsibility for everything instrument- driven here. There are crushing riffs,
harrowing passages which send shivers down the spine, and all the time the
atmosphere builds. Tendrils of darkness curl around the throat on "To Kill The
Father", with Horvath's shimmering vocals duelling with the echoing lead guitar
work.

‘Threads’ was my 1st album as Om Unit and this 10-year re-mastered anniversary edition comes around at what feels like a similar time for me of experimentation and finding new ways to connect sounds. Something of a full circle of sorts but then again I am marking time with this re-issue at a time where I can look back and feel very proud of the work still sounding so convincing. Now even better thanks to Subvert Central’s Robert Macchiochi!

Reflecting on the past 10 years since this record came out, I can say it’s been an incredibly fruitful journey, with the most striking element of it all being the opportunity to travel and meet so many people from so many different backgrounds with different world views and stories. I found that ‘Threads’ for many was their first insight into my music, and for some people was something of a milestone in their journey of exploring music itself with tracks like ‘The silence’ and ‘Governor’s Bay’ having been mentioned over the years as amongst favourites alongside some of the work released on Cosmic Bridge and Civil

I want to take a moment to give my Love and gratitude to all the featured vocalists. Thanks to Simon Jinadu for his angelic voice on ‘The Silence’, to Charlie Dark MBE for his reflective words on ‘The Road’ and to Alex ‘Bogues’ Rendall aka MC Jabu (of Jabu) for his intense delivery on ‘Patients’ as well as Jneiro Jarel for his self-reflective narration on “just sayin’” All 4 are still outliers in their own field and upstanding creative forces to boot. I feel blessed to have been able to capture them on this project.

Threads was made in a bedroom of 2a Station Rise in Tulse Hill, a flat I shared with journalist and writer Laurent Fintoni, in a space that had such a great sound to it that I’ll always miss that room. I hope that you feel the warmth that I felt then whilst making it. It’s been an adventure since and whilst I’ve moved on from a lot of the tropes intrinsic to the album, it will always remain a body of work that is dear to my heart.


Enjoy!
<3

"This is an album to treasure - it'll surprise you at every turn" Joel McIver (Record
Collector) One of the most influential bands to emerge from the UK's festival
scene, the Ozrics layer ambient & ethereal landscapes with freeform dub trips,
incredible rave grooves & psychedelic progressive rock. It's an open exploration
of music & the soul. For over 30 years, the Ozrics have experienced the
vicissitudes of the rock & roll life. The band has flourished through a number of
line- up changes, spawned several side projects, created their own record label,
scored a hit record & sold over a million albums world-wide. And yet, the basic
motivation behind the band's existence has never wavered.Their signature blend
of hippy aesthetics & raver electronics with spiraling guitars, textured waves of
keyboard & midi samplers & super- groovy bass & drum rhythms continue to
delight fans across the world to this day.Originally released in September 1999,
'Waterfall Cities' was a giant leap forward for the band, taking a more obvious
step into electronica, whilst still managing to retain their unique sound. An
explosion of keyboards, acid squelches & blistering guitar passages, the musical
& technical brilliance of the Ozrics comes to the fore in strange & unexpected
ways on this album.'Waterfall Cities' - Remastered by Ed Wynne & available on
Double LP via Kscope.

Aroop Roy’s star is deservedly in the ascendancy! As one of London’s most exciting selectors, he’s managed to position himself in the sweet spot of being the DJ’s DJ and causing wild scenes wherever he plays, with headline grabbing sets at Defected Croatia, We Out Here, Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide and many more.

As a producer, musician and label owner, he continues to excel, armed with a vast knowledge of outernational sounds, from rare African disco, jazz, funk, to house, UKG and seemingly everything in-between. His open-minded approach has led to brilliant releases and remixes for labels as diverse as Soundway, Heavenly Sweetness, Permanent Vacation, Club Bad, Delusions of Grandeur, Atjazz Recordings and his own Vive La Musique imprint.

Having played a few gigs together, it was only a matter of time before Jimpster convinced Aroop to get an EP together for Freerange and the resulting Re Bulele EP couldn’t be any more satisfying!

Leading the charge, 'Mama Mwana' captivates with entrancing thumb piano loops and a traditional African vocal all propped up by a subtle yet chunky house beat to lock the dancers in.

'Re Bulele' features the hypnotic vocals of Botswana native Fox Meropa. Aroop masterfully combines a deep, techy Afro House groove with glassy synth pads to form a stripped back instrumental with the vocals front and centre. Seemingly disparate elements shine on this wonderful alternative to the deluge of maximal Afro House tracks being released these days.

Moroccan producer FNX Omar delivers the goods with a sublime remix of Re Bulele. Creating tension with layers of looping vocals along with a rolling, percussive groove. Like the original, this remix transcends genres and will create special moments on the dancefloor, whether it be in a dark, sweaty basement or daytime festival in the sunshine.

"I don't like rap music at all. I don't think it's music. It's just a beat and rapping."
Nina Simone

Straight off the streets, Hip-Hop burst onto the scene, leaving no one indifferent, igniting a cultural revolution that would shape generations to come. Now, in celebration of its 50-year anniversary, Art That Kills proudly presents HHCOMP01.

HHCOMP01 aims to capture the freshness and innocence of a genre in the midst of defining itself. As the world embraced this new phenomenon, it was a time of raw creativity and unbridled expression.

With a selection of seven fantastic tracks stepped out of the underground, HHCOMP01 is a window into the origins of a genre that has resonated with countless hearts and minds.

Drumskull returns to Hooversound with a powerful new EP, featuring an official remix from Dwarde who makes his debut on the Hooversound imprint.

Drumskull operates at the intersection of the aggressive sonics of modern jungle, footwork, breaks and the more soulful atmospheres of deep house, UKG and broken beat. The versatile and seasoned DJ released his ‘Muscle Memory EP’ which was unleashed by SHERELLE and NAINA's Hooversound Recordings in 2023, which included remixes from Lone and LMajor. He now returns to Hooversound with another unique body of work, which brings in jungle affiliate Dwarde in for a remix. Having gained support across the electronic dance music scene and radio play on BBC, NTS and Rinse FM, plus glowing reviews in DJ Mag and Bandcamp, Drumskull begins the year with this inimitable release on Hooversound, setting the pace for the rest of 2024.

Breakout artist Gabriele Toma brings his thumping house sounds to Hot Creations with the four-track EP, ‘You See Me’.

Italian DJ/producer Gabriele Toma is shaking up the scene with releases on established labels such as Trick, CUFF, and Hellbent Records, swiftly capturing the attention of industry giants such as The Martinez Brothers, Cloonee and Hot Creations label head Jamie Jones, to name a few. Positioning himself as an exciting newcomer to watch, having previously released his bouncing ‘Lit Bit’ EP on sister label Hottrax, Toma now makes his Hot Creations debut with his knockout four-track EP, ‘You See Me’.

‘You See Me’ opens the release with a low-slung bassline, bustling drum funk, and addictive rap-style vocals that propel the track as a certified bouncer. ‘Move Your Body’ delivers another groove-led house beat with bouncy bass hits and skittering female calls, while ’Muevete’ sets the dance floor ablaze with vibrant bongo beats in true Hot Creations style. To close, ‘Magic Flute’ lives up to its name, with whistling flutes at the core alongside pumping bass to craft an irresistible afterhours workout.

High Roller Records, black vinyl, ltd 400, 425gsm heavy cardboard cover with 5mm spine, 4 page insert, double sided poster, 2 track black vinyl bonus 7" with p/s and insert, Original transfer by Marcus Mossmann (R.I.P.) at PHONOGRAPHIC ARTIFACTS in March 2021. Audio cleaning, restoration and mastering by Patrick W. Engel at TEMPLE OF DISHARMONY in April 2021. Cutting by SST Germany on Neumann machines for optimal quality on all levels... The ultimate audiophile edition of this eternal NWOBHM classic!

High Roller Records, black vinyl, ltd 400, 425gsm heavy cardboard cover with 5mm spine, 4 page insert, double sided poster, 2 track black vinyl bonus 7" with p/s and insert, Original transfer by Marcus Mossmann (R.I.P.) at PHONOGRAPHIC ARTIFACTS in March 2021. Audio cleaning, restoration and mastering by Patrick W. Engel at TEMPLE OF DISHARMONY in April 2021. Cutting by SST Germany on Neumann machines for optimal quality on all levels... The ultimate audiophile edition of this eternal NWOBHM classic!

There are two versions of the vinyl - classic black and triple-color limited Indie Shop edition.

Both have special insert inside with the bands bio and photos.

Generacja JAZZ is a project showing a fragment of the new wave of Polish jazz, treading its own path, creating, touring and jamming across Europe. Borders don't exist - especially musical - the new generation is engaging with nightclubs, festivals and playlists. The time has now come to show its broader perspective. We created a project which involves a handful of groups that have already racked up debut albums and festival wins, as they set out on their musical odyssey. The groups also have other things in common, like their passion, originality and, for the needs of the project, age - all the artists during the recording of this album were under 30 years old. This is the new generation - the Jazz Generation.

For the Jazz Generation record we invited five bands who had already released debut albums: Immortal Onion, Klawo, Rejoin, Twoosty Mayonez and USO 9001. We also reserved two spots on the compilation for the winners of our open call competition, whereby on the basis of the jury's choice (jury: Monika Borzym, Paulina Przybysz, Envee, Wojtek Mazolewski i Marcin Groh Grośkiewicz) we met the winning bands: Kosmos and quietet.

The sleeve artist is Kornelia Nowak, who won our open call for young designers and graphic artists. Here once again we could rely on the opinion of a prestigious jury comprised of: Beata Śliwińska Barrakuz, Bovska, Maciej Animisiewasz Grochot, Grzegorz Forin Piwnicki i Marcin Groh Grośkiewicz.

Generacja JAZZ LP is also a start of the new imprint - U JAZZ ME, which will be focused on jazz from Poland.

And here are the bands from the album:

1. Immortal Onion - A band from the Tri-City playing a broad spectrum of instrumental music.

Band members: Wojtek Warmijak (percussion), Tomir Śpiołek (piano, synths), Ziemowit Klimek (Upright Bass, synths).

The band Immortal Onion has already established itself as one of the most interesting projects of the new wave of Polish jazz, and is consistently being labelled as such abroad. After two well received albums ("Ocelot of Salvation" (2017) and"XD Experience Design" (2020) U Know Me Records) they released their third album "Screens" in 2022, which was recorded with the well known Tri-City composer and saxophonist - Michał Jan Ciesielski.

The inspiration behind the band's formation were such artists as: Esbjörn Svensson, Hiromi Uehara, Tigran Hamasyan and Tosin Abasi.

The group's guiding principle from the very beginning was the fusion of often disparate musical styles, which bore "post instrumental aggressive gay pop". Despite the stylistic discrepancies, between which they swim, the group has forged its own identifiable language, characterised by complicated rhythmical structures, energetic riffs and trance beats with lyrical melodies.

The trio has performed its original material at many venues and festivals around Europe and Asia.

2. Klawo - seven adventurous adventurers from Gdańsk, who were brought together by their love for music, halvah and throwing Frisbee. Their self-named début album, released in 2022 on the local label Coastline Northern Cuts, is an amalgam of the inspirations of each of the team members and played backwards contains tips on how to reach the Kashubian pyramids. After a win at the international competition Jazz in the Park, held in Cluj-Napoca in Romania, the band began work on their second album. Meanwhile, they were also travelling the length and breadth of Poland on a mission to infect people with the idea of Baltic Funk.

3. Kosmos is a Łódż based jazz quintet. It was formed in 2020 by Pianist Stanisław Szmigero, Saxophonist Iwo Tylman and Trumpeter Jan Ostalski. However, it wasn't until 2022 that Kosmos found its true form when Kamil Gużniczak (Upright bass) and Kacper Kuta (Percussion) joined the line-up.

Their compositions are influenced by Polish yass bands, electronic music and hip-hop. Kosmos music is a mix of lyricism, space, intensity and elements of experiment.

The band members are all eccentric characters possessing different means of musical expression - looking at them, one could even argue they are a group of oddballs. Despite this, for reasons unbeknownst to themselves, the members of Kosmos complement each other on stage and form a unified artistic vision of the world around them.

Kosmos officially released their début single "Ja" in June 2023. They regularly play concerts across Poland and recently were selected as distinguished artists at JAZZiNSPIRACJE (JAZZiNSPIRATION) - a competition held during the 13th Lublin Jazz Festival.

4. Quietet (formed at the beginning of 2023) is the result of meetings between five talented musicians with a deep passion for musical creation. Its sound is a unique blend of Jazz and classical music with a hint of hard rock. The band is inspired by the Scandinavian approach to making music, which brings a characteristic atmosphere and melodies to their work. Their music captivates listeners with its originality, refined improvisations and flawless technique. Both classical and modern musical trends feed their inspiration when creating passionate and emotional compositions.

Their works are full of sound experimentation, which equally surprise and expose new musical horizons. Through their compositions, "Quietet" aims to share their emotions evoked during performances, creating a musical journey that affects and inspires.

5. Connecting jazz with electronic music in fresh interpretations, six young musicians make up the group Rejoin. The group re-formed in 2020 after a four-year break, playing their debut concert at Lotos Jazz Festival Bielska Zadymka Jazzowa. The musicians in Rejoin have performed alongside such artists as: Urszula Dudziak, Krystyna Prońko, Marcin Masecki, Szczyl, Kuba Więcek and Paulina Przybysz.

Most of the members of Rejoin are students from the Katowice Music Academy, where they also develop their own projects. Rejoin was a recipient of the Fabryki Norblin Music Masterclass Foundation scholarship.

6. Twoosty Mayonez is something your grandad would listen to with his younger sister. The non-standard approach to jazz alongside a pursuit of strange sounds, culminated in the conceptual album entitled "Carmin". The material was created by Bartosz Wolerta (percussion) and Dominik Kaniewski (bass guitar/synths). "Triceradiplodocus" tells the story of a mechanical dinosaur that lives on the yet undiscovered planet Carmin.

In the 1970s, Robert Cahen turned to the burgeoning field of video art, where he became a pioneering artist. He was originally trained in musique concrète, his creative background, and joined the Groupe de Recherches Musicales in 1972. The pieces on this record were composed in the GRM studios between 1971 and 1974. They testify to a lively inspiration and imagination combined with a precocious formal mastery that already carries the seeds of later developments, which the artist cleverly and inventively deployed in the field of visual arts. (François Bonnet, Paris, 2022)

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«La nef des fous» (1974), 12’00

There are pieces of music whose title is obviously a mere label given afterwards to a finished product. And others, on the contrary, which develop in spiral around a bundle of images and impressions condensed into a few words. This is the case indeed with La nef des fous. However, this work by Robert Cahen oddly wraps itself around its title, with bends, breaks, and an impetus driven further every time to close a new circle, for such is the very essence of the spiral. This, at least, is the way I perceive the form of the work, with its theme-chorus which, in part one, both ponctuates and disrupts the emerging musical curve in various ways and at irregular intervals, as well as its broader and more open second part, which closes with a recollection of the beginning of the work. The challenge of a musical form justified by the topic it illustrates, right down to its gaps, its wanderings and its twists, and which would confer upon it the necessity of a profound logic, that of insanity, is the challenge attempted by Robert Cahen. In such a genre as tape music, so careful with respect to form, one can appreciate its audacity. La nef des fous, or Unity through heterogeneity, or Each to their own madness, but all in the same boat. This means that if we can listen to each of these sound characters, “broken chants”, which create the work for themselves, through the singularity of their delirium, we can also, from one to the other, trace the continuous chanting of a music that is inherently and spontaneously poetic, a music that carries “the unconscious under its skin” (Christiane Sacco). (Michel Chion, January 1976)

«Masques 2» (1973), 08’34

Concert version (for tape only) of an audiovisual work entitled Masques, in which the faces of old dolls and «masks», filmed during the Basel Carnival, were projected in 16mm. Masques 2 is a metaphorical version of Masques in which music is featured in its arcane musicality.
Through its concrete and suggestive music Masques 2 aims to bring to light hidden memories, buried within us, thus enabling an awakening, the resurgence of events from our own history. (R. C.)

«Plurielles» (1971), 08’35

Premiered at the Paris Biennale, 24 September 1971. Suite based on the score of a TV film directed by Sophie Talmon.

«Persona» (1971), 08’34

Premiered at the Paris Biennale, 24 September 1971.

«Passé composé» (1971), 05’29

‘Cull Portal’ was an idea that came to life during Sydney’s 2nd lockdown in 2021 when the world was in limbo and time felt like it was standing still.
It’s an exploration of modal harmony and improvisation, extrapolated over the course of the eight tracks. Woozing analog synths, grand piano, live drums and Jeremy Rose’s tenor sax set the tone for this fusion spiritual jazz/ electronic release. Cull Portal definitely nod’s its head to the past while intrinsically pushes the genre forward at the same time.
“I set myself the task of writing something as economical as possible that slowly unfolds into larger, more complex structures. The seed idea started as a solo piano piece, which later formed as ‘Cull pt II’ and from a two chord modal vamp. The rest of the album grew organically from there.
The live instrumentation you hear on this album was recorded remote during lockdown and is a true testament to the abilities of the performers, especially Jeremy Rose who brought so much life to the parts.
I was fortunate enough to record the original Yamaha CS-80 (The synth made famous in the cult classic Bladerunner score by Vangelis) down at MESS in Melbourne for the album, once the borders re-opened and we were allowed to travel again.”

A discreet but essential figure in the field of musical creation, Horacio Vaggione has been crafting an ambitious, precise and highly significant body of work for over the last fifty years, coupled with a demanding research activity. This disc offers four purely electroacoustic pieces which illustrate, each in their own way, this singular and fascinating grammar developed by Horacio Vaggione, a complex but fertile grammar which establishes a very special relationship between structure and texture, between matter and formula, to create a fascinating musical space, made up of polyphonies and metamorphoses. (François Bonnet, Paris, 2022)

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«Schall» (1994), 07’30

Schall exclusively uses piano sounds sampled and processed with various digital techniques. The sound palette focuses on several shapes of various sizes which reiterate, altered to varying degrees, throughout the process. The granular paradigm is clearly assumed here, as is also that of the interactions between various temporal scales. Basically, there is a concern for the articulation of micro-events. The piece essentially plays with low-intensity frames, composed of various planes and punctuated by stronger objects, in a kind of polyphonic dialogue between proximity and distance. (H. V.)

«Rechant» (1995), 15’51

Initially, a few brief sounds of instrumental origin — percussions, flutes, strings. Processed by means of various digital techniques, projected on various temporal scales, analyzed and re-synthesized, worked in their parts (in their saliences), articulated in their edges as well as in their interactions, these sounds show, as Bachelard would say, «pluralism under identity». I thus tried to compose morphologies by targeting properties contained in the material and by projecting them on temporal perspectives of all sizes. The title, an allusion to the old polyphonic technique, refers to the iterative content of these morphologies as well as to the modalities of their interweaving. (H. V.)

«24 Variations» (2001), 09’50

The word «variations» applies here to the morphological transformations of the material, as well as to the various contexts in which these transformations appear. The result can be heard as a continuous interaction between sound particles of different sizes, composed of several layers, reflecting a preoccupation with detailed articulation spanning different time scales. (H. V.)

«Gymel» (2002), 09’25

In Gymel I tried to compose a space-trajectory using layered sounds, produced by morphological operations (splits, clusterings) that spread out from location to location in variously dense objects. The space was treated through phase-decorrelation, a technique which I use extensively, both to create spaces and to locate sounds and movements within a polyphonic (stratified) context. (H. V.)

Repress!

NX Records is a collaboration between Matthew Herbert's Accidental Records and the Department of Music at Goldsmiths, University of London.

In May 2013, the label launched with an introductory mixtape and live performances as part of the Puregold Festival launch at the Southbank Centre. NX Records has continued to release new, critically acclaimed music, host numerous events and run an annual pop up record shop.

The label's mission statement is to create a new model for the music industry, connecting exciting talent from the renowned creative hub of Goldsmiths - and the wider community of South East London - with the ever-experimental Accidental Records.

Our aim is to build connections between emerging artists, education, the industry and audiences. NX is a professional label that works alongside, not in opposition with, DIY artists.

The first in our series of experimental split 12"s focuses on instrumental electronic music.

Goldsmiths student and modular wizard Sam Hostettler evokes a daydream meeting between Vangelis and Burial, with his impossibly lush synthscapes shot through with dubbed out percussion. Meanwhile, La Leif's blend of crunchy, electroacoustic techno and outernational field recordings should hit the spot for fans of Karen Gwyer or Shelley Prior.

NX12X is out on Feb 1, with a launch party at The Glove That Fits on Feb 14. Come grab a copy of the vinyl, and have a dance...

Eraldo Bernocchi and Hoshiko Yamane have come together again to create their second album - inspired by the Japanese concept of ""Sabi"". The record is a unique blend of electronic and acoustic music - with Bernocchi’s pulsating textures and Yamane's haunting treated violin melodies weaving together to create a captivating and emotional sonic landscape. ""Sabi"" is a Japanese aesthetic that celebrates the beauty of impermanence and decay. It is often associated with the simplicity, austerity, and solitude found in nature, and is said to evoke a sense of melancholy, nostalgia, and reverence for the passage of time.

Bernocchi and Yamane's ""Sabi"" explores these themes through a collection of minimalist compositions that combine electronic and acoustic instruments immersing the listener in a deeply cinematic experience. The album takes the listener on a journey through a series of atmospheric tracks, sometimes melancholic pieces that evokes the sense of solitude and simplicity often associated with the concept, other times more energetic and uplifting, optimistic ones that celebrates the beauty of transience. The artwork again was created by the renowned designer Petulia Mattioli.

Eraldo Bernocchi and Hoshiko Yamane have come together again to create their second album - inspired by the Japanese concept of ""Sabi"". The record is a unique blend of electronic and acoustic music - with Bernocchi’s pulsating textures and Yamane's haunting treated violin melodies weaving together to create a captivating and emotional sonic landscape. ""Sabi"" is a Japanese aesthetic that celebrates the beauty of impermanence and decay. It is often associated with the simplicity, austerity, and solitude found in nature, and is said to evoke a sense of melancholy, nostalgia, and reverence for the passage of time.

Bernocchi and Yamane's ""Sabi"" explores these themes through a collection of minimalist compositions that combine electronic and acoustic instruments immersing the listener in a deeply cinematic experience. The album takes the listener on a journey through a series of atmospheric tracks, sometimes melancholic pieces that evokes the sense of solitude and simplicity often associated with the concept, other times more energetic and uplifting, optimistic ones that celebrates the beauty of transience. The artwork again was created by the renowned designer Petulia Mattioli.