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Outside Ludlow / Desert Disco is the first major solo release from Australian performer-composer Sam Dunscombe, now based in Berlin after residing for the past decade in San Diego and Tokyo. A virtuoso clarinettist who has performed in composed and improvised settings with artists such as Klaus Lang and Taku Sugimoto, their practice also embraces computer music, lo-fi electronics and field recordings, in addition to their long-term commitment to archiving, studying and performing the work of Romanian spectralist composer Horatiu Radulescu.
The two side-long pieces presented on this LP began from a chance encounter in a specific geographic location (documented in the photographs that grace the record’s sleeve). Exploring California’s Mojave desert with a friend, Dunscombe made the unlikely discovery of a tangle of quarter-inch tape snared on a cactus. The digitised version of this tape, variously edited and processed, as well as Dunscombe’s own transcription and embellished performance of some of its material on Hammond organ, makes up one of the main ingredients of the LP’s first side. The other is a field recording of the area outside the ghost town of Ludlow, where the tape was found, where haunted silence is punctuated by freight trains and clusters of explosions from gold mines and the local marine corps. Far from any kind of documentary approach, the resulting composition reaches back to the smeared atmospherics and overdriven tape crunch of Hands To, Small Cruel Party or Joe Colley, before the Hammond organ rises up to cast a spectral shimmer reminiscent of 1960s tape music classics like Arne Nordheim’s ‘Warszawa’.

On ‘Desert Disco’ (its title perhaps a clue to the content of the mysterious tape), Dunscombe zeroes in on a single fragment of the tape, accompanying it with analogue synthesis to craft an immersive work based on a single chord. Throughout the course of this work, the monolithic opening sonority gradually splits apart, revealing an infinity of rhythmically phasing lines that swarm like a cloud of insects and patter like falling rain, placing Dunscombe’s piece in a lineage of patient electronic exploration that includes landmarks like Costin Miereanu’s Derives and the contemporary work of Jim O’Rourke.

Limited edition vinyl with images by Sam Dunscombe and design by Lasse Marhaug. Mastered by Joe Talia at Good Mixture, Berlin.

- Available for the First Time on Vinyl - Deluxe Old Style Tip-On Gatefold Packaging with 180 Gram - "Yellow Raincoat with Blood Red Splatter" Colored Vinyl - Insert with Liner Notes and Original 1976 Recording Session photography // Waxwork Records is thrilled to present the debut release of ALICE, SWEET ALICE Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Stephen Lawrence. Alice, Sweet Alice is a 1976 American Slasher-Horror film directed by Alfred Sole and starring Brooke Shields in her film debut. Set in 1961 New Jersey, the film focuses on a troubled adolescent girl who becomes the suspect in the brutal murder of her younger sister at her first communion, as well as in a series of unsolved stabbings that follow. In the years since its release, Alice, Sweet Alice has gained a cult following and is considered a contemporary classic of the slasher sub-genre in critical circles. It has also been the focus of scholarship in the areas of horror film studies, particularly regarding its depictions of Roman Catholicism, child emotional neglect, and the disintegration of the American nuclear family. The film's chilling score was composed by Stephen Lawrence. Lawrence is an American composer that has scored more than 300 songs and musical cues for Sesame Street, resulting in three Emmy Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition. The music of Alice, Sweet Alice features heavy usage of dissonant strings, repetitive keys, church organ, and motifs that segue from eerily mischievous and playful to dread-inducing and utterly haunting. Available for the very first time in any format, the complete soundtrack to Alice, Sweet Alice comes available on 180 gram "Yellow Rain Coat with Blood Red Splatter", deluxe packaging with new artwork by Steven Reeves, old-style tip-on gatefold jackets, a heavyweight insert, exclusive composer liner notes, and original recording session photography.

LP edition of the sold out CD/Pamphlet from 2016. The score by Schmid, reading by Landry, and edited/produced by McCann. Includes a big poster of The St. Francis List.

Emily Martin and Derek Baron on St. Francis (Feb. 2021):

What does it mean to pray? To address someone, to plead for something, to welcome humiliation and failure: Please, let me forget about the China Chalet parties, please let there be no countries and no war, please let me love you. Is prayer iteration, or just repetition: My god, my god, my god, my god… To know spleen you just have to be down to be humiliated. But do we know for sure that we are miserable? How do we know?

This is how it has to go. We listened to this for the first time together in May 2017, while driving from Chicago to New York along the I-80 in Pennsylvania, stopping at the rest area that I later mistook for the famous picture of American “culture.” We stayed at a hotel and may have ordered a pizza. Content first, then, content again. Went inside and drank wine in relative silence, burping. Recognizing the sacredness in the plot of Friends. A choral melisma representative of holy Joy.

The dreams of moving through a convoluted space of passages, staircases, open courtyards, rooms just glimpsed past a door. It doesn’t seem possible that you can get from one place to the next but according to the logic of the dream you do. I think this has to do with how each little unit of ‘content’ happens at a different distance from your ear. The holiness of the periphery. That you can catch a shard of history if you only find the right distance to stand from the painting.

But prayer is also like the magic language we were talking about — faith that words do something more than just mean — they have the capacity to effect change in the world, and not just in the like, “words change ppl’s minds” kind of way, but in that the words themselves actually have agency. Form: sing-along.

HIGHLIGHTS An emblematic figure of the Brazilian avant-garde and a key part of the cultural climate that made the rise of tropicália possible, Walter Smetak was a Swiss musician and inventor of instruments who developed his career in Brazil. "Smetak" (1974), his debut album, was produced by Caetano Veloso and Roberto Santana, and had the support of Gilberto Gil. It sums up a personal universe that combines Afro-Brazilian ritual traditions, theosophy, microtonal studies, collective improvisation and the use of unconventional musical instruments. Liner notes by Caetano Veloso. DESCRIPTION Walter Smetak was a Swiss cellist, composer, inventor of musical instruments, sculptor and writer who developed his career in Salvador, Brazil, and became an emblematic figure of the Bahian avant-garde and a key part of the cultural climate that made the rise of tropicália possible. Since 1969, he has carried out various workshops of experimental music at University of Bahia. His music was materialized in two albums: "Smetak" (1974) and "Interregno" (1980). "Smetak" was produced by Caetano Veloso and Roberto Santana, with the support of Gilberto Gil. There he unfolded a radical sound universe, based on the investigation of Afro-Brazilian ritualistic traditions, microtonality studies and collective improvisational open processes, always under the influence of theosophy, which he discovered in Brazil, and which allowed him to generate a symbolism represented in the construction of his own unconventional instruments, many of them of a sculptural nature, made with unusual materials such as PVC pipes, pumpkins and polystyrene foam, which he called plásticas sonoras. Around 150 instruments were created by Smetak, many of them in a surrealist style. They have been exhibited on various occasions in museums and galleries. His music was often based on graphic scores, many of them of great beauty. In addition to Smetak, Caetano Veloso and Roberto Santana, musicians such as Gereba, Tuzé Abreu, Djalma Correa, Capenga, among others, participated in the recording of this album. The author of one of the most important studies on Smetak, Marco Scarassatti, has written on the work of the Swiss-Brazilian artist: "His original and metaphysical work goes beyond any mysticism created around his figure. He investigated the relationship between sound and light, space and form, microtonality, collective improvisation, as a sound alchemist, a multimedia and unplugged prophet-visionary. While transforming matter, Smetak transformed himself and many of those around him." This reissue reproduces the much sought after original 1974 edition, published by Phillips. It includes the catalog of instruments used, adds a brochure with new photos and presents the remastered audio. The liner notes were written by Caetano Veloso. This project is part of Incidencias Sonoras: COINCIDENCIA experimental music & sound art platform, by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia.

It’s not easy to summarize any band whose career has stretched over two decades. In the case of Growing, though, it’s all in the name: since 2001, the core duo of Kevin Doria and Joe DeNardo have been making vibrating, explorative experimental music that is in a forever state of evolution. In that time, they have amassed a hard-to-define and influential body of work, and Diptych sees the band operating at the height of their “big amp ambient” powers.

Diptych is a masterclass in slowly undulating ambient drift, and quite possibly the definitive headphone album of the year. Guitars that sound like organs pointed at the heavens are cut with subtly damaged electronic moves, the end result being a record that is at once ecstatic, transportive and gritty.

Ambient and new age music have become part of the larger indie vocabulary. Things were different over twenty years ago in the Olympia, Washington punk community where Doria and DeNardo got their start. Both veterans of aggressive music by the time the band began, Growing emerged like a rainbow at the other end of the heavy music tunnel: loud as ever, but with a sonic and aesthetic position that ran counter to punk rock norms.

Created over the past year and a half, Diptych extrapolates on Growing’s formative drone-based work, showing a unit in full control of a language that they have built and reconfigured over time. The music here continues to be an intuitive outgrowth of a friendship that started in late-90s Olympia and still bears fruit today—even as each member lives in a different city.

Lotus Wash drops his debut album on LBD Sounds, bringing a whole load of fresh material which came out from his experience as a session musician, and performing his experimental live sets around the Czech Republic. He connects the dots between classically trained musician and modular synth-head, working in Prague's DIY shop and creative community Noise Kitchen. The album spans across 6 original tracks of pure analogue bliss and live ideas, alongside three remixes from his closest allies, local producers Oliver Torr, Vision of 1994, and Hrtl.

The Field Theory was created during a period of deep fascination with quantum physics, with the tracks being conceptually and aesthetically inspired by some of its phenomena. Acoustically, it's mostly a slow and dark affair, with Lotus Wash only letting the light in very briefly when the sun is young (Magnetic Moment), keeping the shutter firmly closed for the rest of the record. His music does not rely on banging beats to drive it, instead letting intense grooves do the job from deep underground, just like on earth-shattering album opener Vacuum Fluctuation. He masters his craft of building atmosphere, a skill learnt during multiple collaborations with various Czech theatres. Of course, he lets the steam out occasionally, and always with devastating effect (Higgs Field, Casimir Force), but mostly choses to keep it capped, humming and hissing. When the sky clears, he opts for a minimalistic and hypnotic approach, only to disturb this peace with a killer bassline in one of the album's highlights – Spooky Action in A Distance – later re-imagined and re-electrified by Oliver Torr. Standard Model is anything but your standard techno, while Hrtl's remix of Magic Moment flirts with techno too, but on a dubbier and brighter side. Bringing the album to a close is Vision of 1994's downtempo take on the same track, finally letting you breathe out.

“In some respects, Trust is a simultaneous documentation of progression and regression. A homecoming of sorts, influenced by the interim where we developed our skills as producers and our skills as artists. Armlock, as a vehicle, seems like returning full circle to where we started.”

Trust, out June 2, 2021, is the debut release of Australian duo, Armlock. It’s a nuanced record that explores trials felt in personal growth, from resentment to submission to complacency. A quiet, thrashing gem of songcraft, the record makes as much use of the intimate, empty space as it does of its layered, heavy instrumentals. Each one of these songs conjures a summer storm of internal conflict, with the angst and uncertainty that comes with realizing that you’re finished growing, and rather than feeling a sense of ease you’re left restless and discontented.

Multi-instrumentalists Simon Lam and Hamish Mitchell met studying jazz together at Monash University in Melbourne. While rehearsing standards for a small ensemble in 2010, the two discovered their mutual hatred of the genre, opting to explore experimental, song-based electronic music. Alongside Solitaire Recordings owner, Dan Rutman, they went on to form the group I’lls, releasing four records in five years, and, later, the two went on to form Couture. Simultaneously, Lam (along with his cousin Chloe Kaul) found success with the synthpop group Kllo, amassing over 100 million streams on Spotify and critical acclaim from Pitchfork, The Guardian, GQ, NME, NYLON, and Stereogum. Lam’s solo project Nearly Oratorio (also on Solitaire Recordings) has achieved acclaim in its own right, as has Mitchell’s work as a producer and designer for artists like Jack Grace.

With their first release as Armlock, the duo maintains the depths of I’lls’ electronic soundscapes but brings the warmth of analogue instruments with Lam’s clear, disillusioned singing up front. He sounds both heartfelt and dejected in equal measure, with a dispassionate coolness that synergizes with the vulnerability of his lyrics. Live, the duo are backed by a reel-to-reel tape, with Mitchell on guitar and Lam singing, bridging their electronic past and indie present.

This is the tenth anniversary edition of Frank Turners fourth album 'England Keep My Bones'. This is the album that saw Frank step up from underground, cult status to mainstream success. It originally entered the UK Album Chart at number 12 and has since been certified Gold by the BPI for sales of over 100K in the UK. It features the hit singles 'Peggy Sang The Blues', 'If Ever I Stray' and 'I Still Believe' and 'Wessex Boy' both of which Frank performed at the Olympic Opening Ceremony in 2012. At the end of the album campaign in April 2012 Frank headlined a sold out Wembley Arena.

Fistful of Metal’ is the debut studio album by American thrash metal band Anthrax, released in January, 1984 by Megaforce Records in the US and Music for Nations internationally. It includes a cover of
Alice Cooper’s “I’m Eighteen”.
Critical reception to ‘Fistful of Metal’ was mixed. Xavier Russel of Kerrang! called it a great debut album, with songs played “at a hundred miles an hour” Canadian journalist Martin Popoff praised the well-produced sound and the “almost operatic anti-thrash vocals” from Turbin, considering the album responsible for “putting New York back on the US metal map, and quality back in the books of bruising and uncompromising underground metal.”
The term thrash metal was used for the first time in the music press by Kerrang!
journalist Malcolm Dome, referring to the song “Metal Thrashing Mad”. Guitar World magazine placed the album on their list of “New Sensations: 50 Iconic Albums That Defined 1984”.
In June 2019, Decibel inducted ‘Fistful of Metal’ in their Hall of Fame, due to its reputation as one of the best early examples of thrash metal.

Moonlit Train’ is the debut album from up-and-coming singer-songwriter/ MC Tiawa(pronounced tea-ah-wa) aka Brightonian Tia-Awa Blackhorse.
Meandering between neo-soul, hip-hop and jazz ‘Moonlit Train’ is a conceptual record that journeys through relationships, heartache, and healing. Produced by collaborator and multi-instrumentalist Jack-Chi aka Jack Kingslake -a Bristolveteran who cut his teeth as a producer in the city - the album sets the stage for a new chapter in Tiawa’s career on hometown label Tru Thoughts.
Fusing soulful vocals with the jagged edge of a rap-styled flow, Tiawa lays the foundation for her timeless yet graceful sound and lyrical maturity that confutes her youth. Themes of healing are at the core of Tiawa’s creative output, while simultaneously exploring her Portuguese heritage.
In the artists’ words: “Each song on the album is an emotion. I hope it helps to heal people in serious situations and make them feel better when they listen.
“Saudade” is the introduction to ‘Moonlit Train’ and opens with a Portuguese poem that translates to ‘don’t be sad now, I’m going to play a song for you.”
Described by the artsdesk as “pure trip-hop”, Tiawa has been championed by the likes of legendary DJ David Rodigan (BBC Radio 1Xtra), broadcaster royalty Cerys Matthews (BBC 6Music), and underground purveyors Off Licence Magazine.’ - Previous support Youth (Killing Joke), David Rodigan (BBC 1Xtra), Cerys Matthews (BBC 6Music), Off License Magazine. - Featured on WheelUP’s single “Take Me Higher” and the album “Good Love”.

'Aquatic Flowers', the fourth full-length from beloved Nashville songwriter Tristen, brims with incisive pop-folk tracks ruminating on the ways we attempt to feel in control in a chaotic world, the past that informs us, and how to let go in order to grow. Making rock and roll music in Nashville, the mononymous songwriter has established herself as a prolific and introspective musician over the past decade. With a knack for crafting “hooky arrangements that tickle the ear and won’t leave your brain alone” (NPR), she has collaborated with artists like Vanessa Carlton (she co-wrote Carlton’s latest album 'Love is an Art') and Jenny Lewis (playing in the 'Voyager' touring band), and opened to critical acclaim for artists ranging from Robyn Hitchcock to Television. Tristen and her husband Buddy Hughen recorded and produced the record in their home studio Tight Squeeze. “I had a real desire to not overcomplicate things for this record, to get really close to what I have given in the past to my demos, which for me is the most inspired time of making something, right in the beginning, feeling it the most at that moment because you just wrote it and it’s on your mind.”

*2022 2LP Version *

Seven years after the classic ‘Theater of a Confused Mind’ (as Population One), Detroit techno phenomenon Terrence Dixon is back on Rush Hour with a new album, this time under his own name.

It would be a massive understatement to say we’re proud of this one. After all our whole operation was named after one of Dixon’s early tracks (‘Rush Hour’ originally appeared on a double EP called ‘Hippnotic Culture’ on fellow Detroit legend Claude Young’s Utensil Records in 1995) and ‘Reporting from Detroit’ again finds the maestro in outstanding form.

‘Reporting from Detroit’ is another prime example of the distinctly unique sound language Dixon has developed over the last three decades - defiant, forward-thinking afrofuturist techno that could only have been made in the Motor City.

But this is not just mere Detroit techno - it’s a sound language that’s unique to Dixon. An instantly recognizable high-octane sonic language fueled by frantic funk that’s constantly pushing the boundaries of machine music without ever losing the connection to the magic of the Detroit streets at night.

Magda Drozd is deeply concerned with listening in her artistic practice. Her second album, 18 Floors, Drozd focused on the apartment building she called home for several years, compiling a corpus of field recordings in and of the building, which she approached as a living organism rather than static material. The result challenges current assumptions about living together in urban settings. The field recordings were woven into eleven speculative tracks consisting of sounds including violins, guitars, synthesizers, drum machines, and Drozd’s voice. The music moves between sound art, ambient, indie rock, and R&B.
18 Floors presciently emphasizes the importance of the home, which has become glaringly obvious in the age of Corona. Her foresight constitutes her avant-gardism as much as her preference for documenting what might be over what actually is. The result is an album that creates a space for what is transient, uncertain, and unstable. And it creates a space for opportunities, which we need now more than ever.

Based in Berlin via rural Israel, RAS are comprised of of multi-instrumentalists and producers Dekel Adin, Eden Leshem, and Guy Gefen. They came together as RAS in 2018; a deep appreciation of international sounds that cross common ley lines has resulted in a melting pot of influences. Armed with vintage drum machines, guitars, synths, bongos and a Tascam Portastudio 424 tape machine, they quietly released this eponymous debut album in early 2019.

RAS’ creative palette is relatively minimal, opting to work with a toolkit of analogue instruments and improvisational recording styles. Mixing surrealism, in-jokes and nonsensical word patterns, their lyrics are sung in Hebrew. The vocals are there to support the music, acting as another instrument in the overall sound.

Dekel, Eden and Guy managed to create an intricate balance between lofi soul and brighter mediterranean leaning club-jams, ending up with a record we might mistake as a lost treasure of the early 90’s.??A record that perhaps has an unconscious connection to the past, but more importantly to an onward looking story of friendship and a musical journey which has spanned many continents throughout the last ten years.

RSD 2021 TITLE

Vinyl colourway will be Opaque Galaxy - Tangerine + Aqua

The debut album from Willie Jones, Right Now, features previously released singles “Windows Down,” “Bachelorettes on Broadway”, and his latest, “Down For It” featuring T.I. — an updated rendition of the original, which have accumulated more than 20 million streams across all platforms. The new track was featured on Pandora’s Country Rap, Apple’s New Music Daily, Country Risers and others, and it was the cover of TIDAL’s Rap & Country playlist. Jones has more than one million followers across his socials and recently debuted his own Apple Music show called “The Cross Roads Radio.”

British Grindcore pioneers NAPALM DEATH never slow down, but after their much lauded 16th studio album “Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism” (2020) and a total of by now 4 decades (!) of intense and restless activity, it’s time to look back and re-issue two of the outstanding albums from their ample and valuable back-catalogue: “Time Waits For No Slave” (2009) and “Utilitarian” (2012). Both albums are now finally available again as Jewelcase CD for Midprice and as LP on 180g vinyl. Look out for further NAPALM DEATH re-issues coming soon…

Tape / Cassette
Canaan Balsam is an electronic composer and musician based in Edinburgh. He uses field recordings, found sounds, hardware and a range of software to create immersive soundscapes. His work explores the dead space between ambient and new age music; the liminal zone between the harshness of industrial and the beatific serenity of devotional music.
Responding to the context where ever-expanding modes of communication seem only to blur the line between connectivity and solitude, Canaan often returns to the theme of loneliness in his work - how it can grow and metasta- size, until it becomes incommunicable, resistant to empathy; an alien host overtaking the body. Cruise Utopia was recorded over the last 3 years and it's his first solo work.
Balsam has collaborated with several contemporary artists including Cosima Cobley Carr and Calvin Z Laing, as well as experimental musician Dan Mutsch, and has performed in an iteration of Damo Suzuki's Sound Carriers. Canaan's sound work has featured at the Radiophrenia Festival at CCA in Glasgow. His audiovisual work has been exhibited at the Embassy Gallery in Edinburgh. He is also part of the Scottish sound art and collective Optic Nerve.

Psionic is pleased to present a true pioneer of NYC’s underground, Reade Truth. True to his name and true to the game, he delivers “Very Likely (U Will Like Me),” three emotively expressive cuts expertly revealing the artist at his fundamental core. “Close Call, Unknown Bass,” ushers in a myriad of tough, analog percussion, pacey bass, and plenty of modulated acid to set the floor ablaze. “Very Likely (U Will Like Me)” is refreshingly assertive with its impenitent bass, overdriven percussion, and unrelenting synths. “Unknown Tomb, Ancient Race,” adopts a more cerebral approach, opting for mechanical bass, mind-bending synths, and stripped-back percussion. Together, they form an uncompromised creation without reservation, an embodiment of what Truth does best.

Unknown recording outside Ethiopia which documents Mergia Hailu & The Walias legendary early period. Beautifully-rendered instrumentals of classic Ethiopian standards, "Tezeta"is the follow-up reissue of the hugely popular seminal Ethiopian instrumentals LP "Tche Belew" (ATFA012). It was a Cassette-only release in 1975 on the band's in-house label, to fund their record store. From their genesis as members of the Venus club in-house band in the early 70s, Hailu Mergia and the Walias Band were at the forefront of the musical revolution during an era where modern instruments and foreign styles superseded the traditional fare to become the staple sound of Ethiopia. No one would argue that the Walias were the trailblazing powerhouse of modern Ethiopian music. They were the first band to form independently without affiliation to a theatre house, a club or a hotel; unprecedented and risky as they had to raise all funding for expenses by themselves including buying equipment. They were the first to release full instrumental albums, considered to be commercially unviable at the time. They opened their own recording studio, with band members Melake Gebre and Mahmoud Aman doubling as technical buffs during sessions. They were also the first independent band to tour abroad. In short, they were the pioneers every band tried to emulate; some more successfully than others. Odds are, any Ethiopian over the age of 35 who had access to TV or radio by the early 90s, will instantly recognize the sound of Walias. What is not a given is, how many would actually identify the band itself. Barely a day went by without hearing the Walias either in the background on radio or as an accompaniment to various programs on TV. This Tezeta album, the band's second recording, released in 1975, is one of those that have been impossible to find for nearly three decades. Sourced by Awesome Tapes From Africa and expertly remastered by Jessica Thompson, its unique and funky renditions of standards and popular songs of the day are so quintessentially Walias, flavorful and evocative. Hailu's melodic organ, unashamedly front and center in every track, makes even the complex pieces accessible. Profoundly engaging; it's an immersive trip down memory lane for those of us getting reacquainted with it, while also an enthralling and gratifying experience for fresh ears.

Squid announce their debut album, ‘Bright Green Field’, already one of 2021’s most highly anticipated releases.
Produced by Dan Carey, ‘Bright Green Field’ is an album of towering scope and ambition, it is deeply considered, paced and intricately constructed. With all band members playing such a vital and equal role, this album is very much the product of five heads operating as one.
Some bands might be tempted to include previous singles on their debut - and the band already released two more in 2020 via ‘Sludge’ and ‘Broadcaster’ - but instead ‘Bright Green Field’ is completely new. This sense of limitlessness and perpetual forward motion is one of the key ingredients that makes Squid so loved by fans and critics alike, from 6 Music, who have A-Listed previous singles ‘Houseplants’, ‘The Cleaner’ and ‘Match Bet’, to publications such as The Guardian, NME, The Face, The Quietus and countless others. The band was also on the longlist for the BBC Music Sound Of 2020 poll.
‘Bright Green Field’ features field recordings of ringing church bells, tooting bees, microphones swinging from the ceiling orbiting a room of guitar amps and a distorted choir of 30 voices, as well as a horn and string ensemble featuring the likes of Emma-Jean Thackray and Lewis Evans from Black Country, New Road.
Squid’s music - be it agitated and discordant or groove-locked and flowing - has often been a reflection of the tumultuous world we live in and this continues that to some extent. “This album has created an imaginary cityscape,” says Ollie Judge, who writes the majority of the lyrics and plays drums. “The tracks illustrate the places, events and architecture that exist within it. Previous projects were playful and concerned with characters, whereas this project is darker and more concerned with place - the emotional depth of the music has deepened.”
For all the innovative recording techniques, evolutionary leaps, lyrical
themes, ideas and narratives that underpin the album, it’s also a joyous and emphatic record. One that marries the uncertainties of the world with a curious sense of exploration as it endlessly twists and turns down unpredictable avenues.

Leo Ceccanti should be a familiar name to all followers of the Claremont 56 label. Alongside sometime studio partner Gianluca Salvadori, he was responsible for two delightfully distinctive Almunia albums released on the label, 2011’s New Moon and 2013’s Pulsar. Both sets were filled with golden, sun-kissed sounds, psychedelic grooves and immersive, life-affirming soundscapes.

Now he’s decided to go it alone as Leo Almunia, delivering a debut album for Claremont 56 that’s every bit as alluring, wide-eyed and evocative as those he made with Salvadori. In keeping with his previous work, the album blends layered acoustic and electric guitars with toasty bass, dreamy synthesizers and grooves that variously touch on hypnotic house, chugging mid-tempo disco, sunset-ready Balearic beats and, on the glistening, life-affirming album highlight ‘Wishing Star’, loose-limbed jazz breaks.

What’s most significant about Ceccanti’s personal musical style is not the blend of stylistic influences he draws on – think psychedelic rock, progressive rock, jazz-rock, new age ambient and slow-motion disco – but rather the way he uses it to paint vivid aural images that genuinely linger long in the memory.

After opening with the duelling guitars and chunky dub disco grooves of ‘Sinking Fields’, Ceccanti sashays between magical moments of rush-inducing positivity, heart-tugging poignance and heady nostalgia.

Along the way, you’ll find numerous sonic highlights. On the intoxicating 21st century psychedelia of ‘Panerea’, jangling chords and eyes-closed psych-rock guitar solos ride a chugging, thickset electronic bassline, while ‘Il Cormorano’ is a metronomic, flash-fried workout rich in fuzz-tone guitar motifs, bluesy riffs and echoing instrumental touches.

He cannily joins the dots between Mid-West Americana and throbbing, psychedelic disco-chug on ‘Loveblind’, while ‘Minor Circle’ sits somewhere between Santana, the Pat Metheny Band and sunrise-ready Balearic blues. Arguably even better is the saucer-eyed brilliance of ‘Brillo De Luna’, where a dubbed-out electronic beat becomes enveloped in life-affirming acoustic guitar chords, exotic slide guitar motifs and string-bending solos. If John Lennon had ingested MDMA rather than LSD before writing ‘Across The Universe’, it would probably sound like this.

Then there’s the album’s crowning moment, closer ‘Can’t Hold a Lover’. A heart-aching, largely ambient instrumental that channels the loneliness and anguish felt by many of those separated from their nearest and dearest during the pandemic, it sees Ceccanti brilliantly wrap a variety of sun-bright guitar textures and solos around some of the loveliest synthesizer chords you’re every likely to hear. On an album packed with effervescent, mood-enhancing musical highs, it’s a rare moment of bittersweet bliss.

Cousins Gilberto and Karin Rodriguez have been steadily synthesizing a unique type of musical and cultural fusion together as Almas Fronterizas. Blending their lived experiences in Mexico City, Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area with a musical lineage paying homage to their Indigenous roots, they've created a representative musical offering, a modern day psychedelic sonic painting of analog blues, rock, and brown-eyed soul.

The group's first several releases, via their own imprint Discos Pistolas y Saguaros, solidified their space in a wide encompassing and constant changing West Coast music scene, yet stood out with an experimental freedom and independent hustle that found kindred spirits in New York City record label Names You Can Trust.

Now, after a suitable time marinating together with NYCT, a natural continuation of the group's ethos is presented in the form of two new songs on 7-inch vinyl. Featuring a third cousin in Carlos Rodriguez on trumpet, plus percussive powerhouse Ahkeel Mestayer on timbales, conga and maracas, Brian Tuley on flute, Devin Hollister on bass and horn arrangements by La Doña's Cecilia Peña-Govea, the tracks were recorded in Berkeley by Mike Walti and mixed down in Brooklyn for a true coast to coast collaboration. Out in the front, Gilberto's vocals drive drop-top down, wide open and honest in melancholic blue notes, whether he's motoring down the highway over northern soul-with-a-hook A-side, "Cruel Desperation," or cruising on the avenue in the slow-motion B-side ballad burner, "Linda Morenita," it's another showcase of the tremendous range of style and engaging expression that this group can hit.

Bedouin’s Human By Default recruits Upercent for the four-track ‘Inconformisme EP’ this May.

Previously recording for Watergate, Kompakt and Adana Twins’ TAU, the Valencia-based DJ/producer arrives on Bedouin’s imprint for his debut appearance on the label, delivering some of his most accomplished productions to date on vinyl.

Across the record, Upercent displays combines his wide range of musical influences into a set of engaging downtempo dancefloor cuts with impeccable attention to detail. Opener ‘Elefants’ twists various acoustic instruments and vocal samples around soft shakers and warm low end, leading into theloose percussion of ‘Fluir’, grounded by a softly thudding kick amongst fluttering and glitched out FX.

On the flip, ‘Caduco’ combines the natural and the synthetic as hand percussion meets sharp synth stabs and glowing pads. ‘Hipocresia’ twists mangled horns over a low slung backbeat.

Heist welcomes rising star of the French House scene Marina Trench to the roster with a stunning release full of classic house cues across 4 warm & deeply grooving house cuts.
With only a handful of releases on DJ Deep’s Deeply Rooted (2019) and Wolf Music (2020), the young Parisian producer is only just getting started. And as far as starts go: This release on Heist will definitely open some eyes & ears across the house scene.
With her elegant and soulful sound both firmly rooted in classic deep house as it is contemporary, Marina showcases a mature sound that’s rarely seen with emerging producers. With a smart choice of samples, beautiful original vocals and smooth pads,
Marina layers her tracks effortlessly into warm compositions that work just as well in your living room as in any sweaty club.
The aptly titled opening track “Sunrise” is a smooth affair with pads oozing in and out and a faintly recognizable and definitely catchy choice of samples. An open electronic bass gives the track a serious tone, but it’s the melancholic chords that make you doze off reminiscing the days of endless festivals in the sun.
“Carry on” is built around classic house stabs with cleverly layered arpeggios and textures giving the track it’s depth. The main attraction here is the trumpet solo by German wunderkind Christian Altehülshorst. As far as chance meetings go, this is a nice one. Christian (who we met through our mutual friend Lorenz Rhode) was our impromptu trumpet player during a show at La Machine back in 2019, where Marina played alongside us. They got talking and before we knew it, we had this track in our inbox. It’s jazzy deephouse at its finest.
On the B-side, we’ve got “Over there”, where Marina layers here own vocals on an infectious house groove and the closing track “Wake up” featuring the emotive vocals of French Algerian artist Sabrina Bellaouel. The latter track evolves around a LFO’d pad and a minimalist groove, giving the vocals all the space to shine in a track that could easily be the one in your set that sets the room on fire.
As far as label debuts go, we could not have hoped for a better one. We’re sure we’ll get to see a lot more of Marina in the near future and hope she serves as a shining example for other emerging producers.
Enjoy the music,
Maarten & Lars

After the first two Earthly Tapes & a handful of EPs, Earthly Measures drops its first full-length album with Mente Organica’s El Espacio - a beautifully crafted album with glorious textures, steady grooves, calming vibes & a dancefloor filler or two.

Born in Bogotá, Colombia – producer & multi-instrumentalist Mente Organica has slowly been making a name for himself within the folktronica/Latin scene. Following multiple album and EP releases over the past few years, El Espacio marks his first release on wax and the music stands out from anything he has done before. These 8 tracks surprise & reward the listener as individual harmonies at first, and finally, as a whole and immersive symphony.

From 'Pablo Bebe’, a track he wrote which is inspired & dedicated to his best friend – to ‘Close the Door’, written in the depths of quarantine, reflecting isolation, loneliness & introspection, & ‘Yoga’ - a song written with his father that can be easily heard filling the dancefloor as well as easy bedroom sessions, this album truly does feel like his most personal work yet.

Eagle’- an utterly unique track born in Pucon, Chile, after meeting opera singer Katy Prado - blends sensibilities of 60s psychedelic rock vocals with Mente’s signature electronica. ‘Dame Un Segundo’ is the lobby track of the album, with Balearic vibes: chilled, jazzy & floaty. Title track ‘El Espacio’ pays homage to Mente’s influences growing up - think Massive Attack, Thievery Corporation & Air - giving us that Trip Hop vibe. ‘Huanini’ is a real groover - a low-key dance track that evokes that ‘start of the night’ feeling of excitement, with heavy experimentation of granular synths.

Finally, rounding the album off with melodies of hope, delight and positivity, ‘Partida’ reminds us that there is always light at the end of the tunnel.

It’s been just over one year since Michael The Lion x Amy Douglas and John Morales’ life-affirming remix 12" hit the airwaves. Released in March of 2020, the music offered a glimmer of light in the darkest of times, but of course, we had to postpone our celebratory dance.

As Summer approaches and our optimism renews, it feels as if just perhaps there is light at the end of the tunnel - just maybe we’ve found a way. In light of seeing & feeling that light, we’re honored to welcome Ron Basejam of Crazy P, Chicago’s own and B.B.E regular, Jamie 3:26, and the Toronto natives, The Patchouli Brothers to Soul Clap Records for ‘Remixed’ by Michael The Lion x Amy Douglas.

Recorded in 1973 in Rome - at Piero Umiliani’s "Sound WorkShop" – this one of the stand-out italian libraries to say the least. The whole record oozes a dreamy, mysterious, surrealist atmosphere enhanced by the vivid instrumentation that open a series of mesmerizing pieces which range from the gentle to the hypnotic. Eastern sounds, ritual horns and assorted metal banging and scrapping add to the whole mix for a landmark sound that will eventually evolve in delirious lysergic passages, hypnotic bass riffing, stoned funk beats, dubbed-out passages and Rino De Filippi trade-mark collage and sound manipulation.

It’s a given that timing is everything in music – most obviously in terms of composition and production but often just as much in regard to conception and release – the latter two doubly poignantly so in the case of this massive DOOM vs The Sugarcubes mash-up LP from turntablist and producer Krash Slaughta.

Which is why the tale of this project’s gestation is perhaps what should be told about it before anything else.

Begun last August and finished on 25 October, the album started life as an idea born from a casual listen to final Sugarcubes album Stick Around For Joy that Krash had bought a copy of years before in a charity shop. Contemplating the cover art while listening to the LP and the track Hit in particular, it came to him that here might be the musical basis for a concept LP in the grand tradition of the hip-hop mash-up album. Thus the project was born, becoming something of an obsession as lockdown restrictions recommenced through a sanity-testing autumn. As it developed, the provisional title of Stick Around For DOOM morphed into Sugar Coated DOOM and Brighton artists Leigh Pearce and Rob Crespo were roped in to create the artwork. So pleased was Krash with the results that he decided to self-finance the pressing of the LP to vinyl which in turn would allow him to send a copy to DOOM in the most fitting format. On that basis, along with his dad’s advice that if you want something done properly; do it yourself’, he initiated the process for a limited press run as soon as the project wrapped and telephoned his dad (who’d been shielding and who he hadn’t seen for months) to say he’d done precisely that. In a tragic twist, this turned out to be their last ever conversation, for Krash’s dad died suddenly the next day. Two months later of course, while waiting for the Covid-slowed vinyl pressing process to complete, came a further tragic twist as the world received the delayed news that DOOM himself had also passed away back in October – in the event, only five days after Krash’s father. So it’s no understatement to say that Sugar Coated DOOM carries significant emotional resonance for its maker, forever linked as it will be to the deaths of two of his personal heroes.

Which brings us to the content. The album contains seven vocal tracks, with an alternate version of one and instrumental versions of five of the seven across two sides of an album with the music, track names, LP title and cover art mashing up musical, lyrical/ textual and visual elements of The Sugar Cubes’ Stick Around For Joy with DOOM acapellas, track names and references. Listeners won’t need long to appreciate that Krash Slaughta was right to be proud of his creation, almost certainly correct in thinking DOOM would dig it and no doubt The Sugarcubes too. Also, who would have thought The Sugarcubes had so much potential for beat-mining? But then seeing potential in the unexpected was always a vital skill from the golden era of sampling in hip-hop and those who follow in the tradition. The first track proper, for example, swipes Madlib’s lo-fi beat from underneath the vocals for Figaro and replaces it with the looped and beefed-up opening bars of the Cubes’ I’m Hungry. The result is a natural fit. But then the blending of elements in every track on this release provides evidence of the effort and love put into its creation, reinvigorating DOOM’s classic vocals while re-purposing The Sugarcubes in a manner that will delight. Indeed, if you’d didn’t know the work of Bjork’s former band, you’d be unlikely to pin an early 90s alt-rock LP as the sample source. I imagine listeners will have a hard time picking a favourite too. Perhaps Hit It (based on the track which triggered the project idea in the first) which splices the Bond-theme-ish Hit with My Favourite Ladies might prove the most popular, or the monkey’s favourite, Nurse Chong, which blends Happy Nurse with Raedawn (named for Tommy Chong’s daughter) from Viktor Vaughn LP Vaudeville Villain. Whichever one punters pick though, anyone who hears anything off this will know it’s one to rank alongside your other favourite hip-hop mash-up albums. And who knows – perhaps even Mr Daniel Dumile himself might have considered it a not unfitting epitaph.

Chicago soul girl group the Opals released three exquisite singles on the Okeh label between January 1964 and February 1965, all of them produced by Carl Davis, in addition to which they also recorded background vocals for other artists. When Tony Rounce compiled Kent’s CD of Billy Butler’s Okeh recordings in 2007, unexpectedly found on the master tape transfer of Billy’s ‘Right Track’ were two unidentified female tracks we eventually ascertained were by the Opals.

The uptempo ‘Can’t Give It Up’ is taken at a perfect dance beat for Northern Soul discos. It was written by Billy Butler and Gerald Sims, and likely recorded around the time of the ‘Right Track’ session in 1966. On the flip is the beautiful, mid-tempo ‘End My Suffering’, which bears a resemblance to Marvin Smith’s ‘Time Stopped’, also from 1966 and produced by Carl Davis. This is the first release for both tracks and will appeal to fans of many genres of vintage soul music.

“Vax!” – Reminiscent of all the slippery vinyl that glitched under so many sweaty wet fingers in a steamy basement before time – a picture that seems highly illegal in our current antiseptic climate of hopefully germ free adolescents. Vax-inate! Give them the needle! It’s time.

Deti Vechnosti – Pered Rassvetom opens the gates to plug into the socket of our collective deranged consciousness, generating frisky and flamboyant specks to brightening darkness that confines our lives. Offering glimpses of the great unknown we also carry within. The Track introduces Chikiss & Mustelide’s new group “Deti Vechnosti”.

Alexander Arpeggio & OhLandy’s “Der Anruf”, wich originally appeared as a French language version on a previous Sameheads / Diapason tape release tells those tales of hot and hotter heat. Karmic payback for the sweaty and long nights enveloped in the halo of resonating frequencies of silly and high-spirited mischief.

Rouge Mécanique – Down the Line – follows suite in the odyssey that is a demented night out, sitting in front of a club, realising that the leatherjacket you picked up a few streets ago from the ground doesn’t smell like adventure but like spew.

The B-Side opens with Automatenfall – a hardware electronic 3 piece, previously appearing live at Sameheads during a “My Friend calls it K-Jazz” event. A yearning that eventually gets us on a spiritual path and headed toward enlightenment through the meandering melange of chimes, that little sounds that usually overcome us in the weirdest of times.

Das Kinn – the new project from Toben Piel, who’s part of Frankfurt’s MMODEM family, and one half of Les Trucs evokes memories of better days, black leatherpants – think Falco meets DAF – Überpop for the Untergrund.

Stopping for a final coup d’œil is Alessandro Adriani’s – Preserved Data Space. A persuasive case of brutally but lovingly worked machines serenading sawtooth waves of an infinite Weiter, a dissolving timeframe – the longest after hour I’ve been to, it lasts more than a year now already and counting.

Written by Michael Aniser.

Music in Exile announce their forthcoming remix EP, featuring reworkings of Music Yared by Melbourne cult hero, Mikey Young (Total Control, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, The Green Child). SINDAYO - MIKEY YOUNG REMIXES features remixes of an original track from Music Yared’s self titled debut EP, released last year through Music in Exile. In addition to today’s announcement, we’re delighted to also share the first single, Sindayo (Mikey Young’s Masinko Remix - Radio Edit), out March 26 via Music in Exile.

Mikey Young’s legacy is well known throughout the Australian music scene, most notably as part of garage punk band Eddy Current Suppression Ring, and synth-driven outfit, Total Control. However, the talents of Young extend well beyond the performance setting to the world of engineering and mastering with his name appearing in the liner notes of an incredible number of releases, becoming something of a trademark of quality. In this release, Young showcases his skill and nuance, creating a remix where tradition and sonic exploration co-exist.

Anbessa Gebrehiwot and Haftu Reda are masterful players of krar and masinko, traditional string instruments from Eritrea and Ethiopia. Now based in Melbourne, Australia, the pair collaborate with multi-instrumentalist Dale Gorfinkel to create an innovative ensemble sound that celebrates their East African culture. The band's seemingly endless repertoire ranges from modern takes on folk songs to new, original compositions with Anbessa’s strong vocal presence a perfect match to Haftu’s sweet lyrical modesty.

Music Yared’s compositions are inspired by traditional Etheopian and Eritrean folk songs and they sing about love, distance, separation and culture. Their songs also feature virtuosic mastery of traditional instruments - the krar, (a 5 string lyre style instrument), and the masinko (a single string violin-like instrument that is played using a bow.) Although inspired by tradition, Music Yared’s compositions embrace the notion that music is always developing and changing with the times. Taking influence from traditional folk songs, Music Yared finds newness and originality through their personal approach to their lyrics, their treatment of rhythm, and the creation of new beats. This change and openness to new sounds is also apparent in their instrumentation, as they pair their traditional instruments with drums, as well as samples of bass lines and percussion.

Given their openness to new musical approaches and experimentation, it only seems fitting for the songs of Music Yared to be remixed, allowing further exploration of their inherent musical attitudes towards change and development. The first single from the EP, Sindayo (Mikey Young’s Masinko Remix - Radio Edit) traverses new sonic territory, pairing the traditional character of Music Yared with contrasting ideas from different sonic landscapes. Beginning with a musical acknowledgement to the original song, Young’s remix then changes direction into a new sonic world; synth pads and melodies swell and intertwine, samples interject, whilst grooving electronic beats underpin a new approach to texture and song structure.

Recorded by Dale Gorfinkel in Thornbury. Mixed and mastered by John Lee at Phaedra Studios.
Remixed & additional production by Mikey Young in Rye.

The trio of fiddle player Erlend Apneseth with guitarist Stephan Meidell and drummer Oyvind Hegg-Lunde follows up their Nordic Prize-nominated album of 2019, ‘Salika, Molika’, with a remarkable suite of tunes inspired by the rhythms and physicality of the human body in motion.
Originally commissioned by FRIKAR Dance Company to accompany the performance of a new work, ‘Skaut’, dealing with the covering of the body in different cultures, the music of ‘Lokk’ takes the trio further than ever before into completely fresh areas of electro-acoustic improvisation.
The sounds of their original instruments are integrated with electronic beats and treated textures to form a kind of enhanced digital-folk style whose influences stretch from traditional south Asian ragas to contemporary dance culture from around the globe.
The result is intense, and intensely rhythmic, music where the normally separate realms of the cerebral and the corporeal can appear to fuse into one irresistible groove.
As the trio rocks on - in a dream of perfect interplay between instruments and players, soloists and ensemble - deep, trembling sub-bass intersects with ethereal ambient soundscapes. Elsewhere, the twittering of birdsong - from both real bird-calls and the uncanny imitation of them by Apneseth’s Hardanger fiddle - meets archival recordings of Norwegian herdswomen.
“Our musical idea for this project was to unite different extremes, connections that felt “forbidden” in one form or another”, says Stephan Meidell. “For example, by using the sampled recording of traditional herd-calling, blended together with aesthetics from more contemporary music styles. This exploration has led us further into a rhythmic and danceable landscape than in previous releases. We also wanted to use this opportunity to deliberately make more dance-related music. As regards the original commission, were pretty free to do what we wanted, but there was one specific dance in mind, ‘Valdresspringar’, for which Erlend wrote the melody. It’s a traditional, asymmetrical dance and has a very particular form. The melody is on the track called ‘Springar’, which we then messed around with.”
This “messing around with” element is key to the sound of ‘Lokk’, whose playful experimentation over the nine separate tracks creates a beguiling, constantly surprising sense of adventure and intrigue that both draws the listener in, and then keeps them on their toes as to where the next stage of the journey will take them. It also becomes inescapably obvious that this is a group of three equals.
The contributions of Stephan Meidell and Oyvind Hegg-Lunde, as musicians, co-composers and producers, appear every bit as important as that of Erlend Apneseth, who performs superbly throughout. “Even though the trio carries Erlend’s name, it’s a band in every sense of the word”, says Stephan Meidell. “We make the music together, where everyone brings their ideas and we build on each other’s input and output. This is not our “coming out” as a band, but the group is sometimes interpreted as having a hierarchical structure, as a soloist and accompaniment.”
As is evident from the trio’s live performances, where each member seamlessly integrates the acoustic and the electronic elements in their respective sounds through constant monitoring and tweaking, Apneseth, Meidell and Hegg-Lunde are also pioneers,
creating real-time effects that in the past were only available through post-production or the intervention of a sympathetic engineer and a truck-load of kit. ‘Lokk’ translates this fleet-footed improvisational approach, and the players’ lightning-speed reaction times, back into the environment of the recording studio, where the music composed for the original FRIKAR dance piece was further embellished and adapted. Played live, it will continue to change again, as improvised music always does.

Excelsior! It’s the hail of yore that one should go ever onward and upward. And so, fittingly Onwards and Downwards is the occultist Swedish band Alastor’s clever call to arms... and also a reflection of our collective dark state of mind these days.
“If our last album Slave to the Grave were about death, this record is more about madness,” says guitarist Hampus Sandell. “You can look at the whole record as one person’s gradual slip into insanity. An ongoing nightmare without end. It also sums up the state of the world around us as this year has clearly shown.”
Alastor is heavy doom rock for the wicked and depraved. Drenched in heavy, distorted darkness and steeped in occult horror that will make your skin crawl and ears cry sweet tears of blood, the band is revitalized in 2021 with meticulously crafted songs and new drummer Jim Nordström bringing a hard-hitting and precise energy.
“It’s a more focused record but at the same time it’s more personal and naked. More raw emotion and pain,” Hampus says. The band recorded the album with the help of Joona Hassinen of Studio Underjord, who has helped with mixing since their ”Blood on Satan’s Claw” EP in 2017. Christoffer Karlsson of The Dahmers also assisted with overdubs and encouraged the band to demo the material early on, aiding in the album’s more deliberate and tighter feel.
From the first note of opener “The Killer In My Skull” the guitars are far thicker and out front than ever, and Nordström pummels the snare and kick like a young Dave Grohl. Bassist/vocalist Robin Arnryd’s chorus-drenched voice soars above it all like a one-man choir, at times harmonizing beautifully with shimmering Hammond organ notes. Nary a moment is wasted on the droning navel-gazing of lesser bands. Particularly, the driving anthem “Death Cult” which sounds like it would fit comfortably on QOTSA’s Songs For The Deaf, though there’s considerably more heft here. The title track pays its due to the Devil’s tritone in a marvelously woven framework of intertwining melodies befitting the album’s theme of descent into madness.
The quartet released its epic 3-song debut album Black Magic in early 2017 via Twin Earth Records, followed by the 2-track “Blood On Satan’s Claw” EP on Halloween the same year. Joining forces with RidingEasy Records in 2018, Alastor summoned the 7-track hateful gospel Slave To The Grave, which was packed with dynamic twists and turns, and funereal girth. It was met with considerable praise, setting the stage for the band’s greatest step onward (and upward... or downward, depending on your preferences.)

Excelsior! It’s the hail of yore that one should go ever onward and upward. And so, fittingly Onwards and Downwards is the occultist Swedish band Alastor’s clever call to arms... and also a reflection of our collective dark state of mind these days.
“If our last album Slave to the Grave were about death, this record is more about madness,” says guitarist Hampus Sandell. “You can look at the whole record as one person’s gradual slip into insanity. An ongoing nightmare without end. It also sums up the state of the world around us as this year has clearly shown.”
Alastor is heavy doom rock for the wicked and depraved. Drenched in heavy, distorted darkness and steeped in occult horror that will make your skin crawl and ears cry sweet tears of blood, the band is revitalized in 2021 with meticulously crafted songs and new drummer Jim Nordström bringing a hard-hitting and precise energy.
“It’s a more focused record but at the same time it’s more personal and naked. More raw emotion and pain,” Hampus says. The band recorded the album with the help of Joona Hassinen of Studio Underjord, who has helped with mixing since their ”Blood on Satan’s Claw” EP in 2017. Christoffer Karlsson of The Dahmers also assisted with overdubs and encouraged the band to demo the material early on, aiding in the album’s more deliberate and tighter feel.
From the first note of opener “The Killer In My Skull” the guitars are far thicker and out front than ever, and Nordström pummels the snare and kick like a young Dave Grohl. Bassist/vocalist Robin Arnryd’s chorus-drenched voice soars above it all like a one-man choir, at times harmonizing beautifully with shimmering Hammond organ notes. Nary a moment is wasted on the droning navel-gazing of lesser bands. Particularly, the driving anthem “Death Cult” which sounds like it would fit comfortably on QOTSA’s Songs For The Deaf, though there’s considerably more heft here. The title track pays its due to the Devil’s tritone in a marvelously woven framework of intertwining melodies befitting the album’s theme of descent into madness.
The quartet released its epic 3-song debut album Black Magic in early 2017 via Twin Earth Records, followed by the 2-track “Blood On Satan’s Claw” EP on Halloween the same year. Joining forces with RidingEasy Records in 2018, Alastor summoned the 7-track hateful gospel Slave To The Grave, which was packed with dynamic twists and turns, and funereal girth. It was met with considerable praise, setting the stage for the band’s greatest step onward (and upward... or downward, depending on your preferences.)

The venerable composer and keyboardist Stale Storlokken follows up his previous Hubro release (and solo debut recording), The Haze of
Sleeplessness, with a second solo album performed entirely on pipe organ and recorded at Steinkjer Church by Stian Westerhus.
He describes the album as “a cavernous cathedral of sound”. While the Norwegian Grammy-nominated ‘The Haze of Sleeplessness’ used a whole keyboardmuseum’s worth of antique synths and contemporary digital software to create
its vast array of sounds, everything on ‘Ghost Caravan’ is the product of one organ’s pedals, pipes and sonic plumbing.
“There’s not so much of a relationship to ‘Haze’, says Stale Storlokken of the new album. “That album was more based on improvised ideas that were tweaked and arranged , while this one is all improvised with almost no editing at all. Everything you hear is from the church organ, with no additional instruments.
The basic concept of the record, and the arrangement of the titles and pieces, is done in such a way that they alternate between a fluent, “on the move”, abstract mood and a more recognisable, concrete and grounded mood. At the same time it should be so open that listeners will hopefully have their own unique experience. The organ at Steinkjer is not a big organ but it has some really nice sounds, with a number of quirks and mechanical eccentricities that suit my music.”
The organ is partly a reconstruction based on a Wagner organ in Nidarosdomen built originally in 1741, the organ is housed in the strikingly modernistic Steinkjer kirke, designed by Olav S. Platou in 1965, and featuring glass panels by the artist Annar Millidahl. What Ghost Caravan does share with its predecessor is a seemingly limitless acoustic space for the listener’s imagination to roam in, with Storlokken creating a cavernous cathedral of sound.
The audio dynamics span an enormous range, capable of stretching from the quietest breathy whisper to a basso profundo squawk or scream, sometimes within seconds of each other. Similarly, the incredible variety of sounds that Storlokken coaxes from the organ can defy rational analysis, with the resolutely analogue instrument appearing to echo the industrial, found-sounds of clanking machinery or buzzing electronics that one might expect to encounter through digital sampling or the tape-based experiments of musique concrete.
Over ten separate improvised pieces which connect into an informal suite through the repetition of key elements and sequential titles (with four ‘Spheres’ and four ‘Cloudlands’, plus ‘Ghost Caravan’ and ‘Drifting on Wasteland Ocean’), Storlokken has made a strikingly unified, self-referential aesthetic world that can stand as a true work of art.

Divided into two worlds Life? A long narrow path. Anything else? Yes: people and music. That's it, but still. It couldn't get any more narrow than for Ozan Ata Canani.

I've been asking myself all these years: what has he done to deserve that his art is so ignored? The young Ata was a prodigy on the bağlama, the Anatolian long- necked lute. So good that the great Aşik Mahzuni Şerif took him on tour. At that time Ata was just thirteen. Ata's father was suspicious and forbade him to play music.

In the late seventies, the young adult Ata wrote the first song cycle of Anatolian music in German. He wanted to arrive, live in Germany and communicate with the majority society. He wanted to make audible what was going wrong. The lament was only eclipsed by Ata's infectious optimism. His music is a journey that takes its listeners along. He was obviously ahead of his time, because no one wanted to publish these songs. They found no lobby. Not even the utopias of the German counterculture of the sixties did include the so-called guest workers and their art and culture - which is why Ata's parents' generation did not find a connection in the country. Most of them wanted to return home after their work was done. So what was the point of building bridges to the land of the oral cavity surveyors and the screaming foremen? The Anatolian people of Germany had created their own great structure of music dissemination. They were not dependent on the radio and the department stores. They had their own shops, everywhere. Unnoticed by the German music industry and the local media, companies like Türküola in Cologne or Uzelli in Frankfurt turned over millions of records every year. Türküola is the most successful independent label in post-war history. The records and cassettes, later CDs, went over the counters in their own shops, in greengrocers' markets and at electronics hawkers near railway stations.

Batov's Middle Eastern Grooves series has a new, funky, double-sided 7" addition titled ‘Big Baglama’ by Satellites: a fun release that gives vintage Turkish beats a new spin.

‘Big Baglama’ is a beautiful instrumental piece that captures the sound of an acoustic diwan saz - known as a baglama - integrating it in a series of riffs connected by a funky groove. The baglama gives off a fresh and lively feeling, despite the vintage flavour provided via the spacey synth and rippling drums. This track channels the energy and style of old school fuzzy vibe of Arif Sag’s saz recording of the ’70s but makes it new and entertaining to the ear, pulling the listener in for a fun ride.

The B-side ‘Deli Deli’ opens with a groovy bass riff and ululating synth, followed by a nifty melodic lead on the baglama and then Yuli’s enchanting vocals. The song is a new interpretation of an old piece by beloved 70’s Turkish folk singer Sakir Öner. This new version differs from the original in the more bright and poppy feel, conveyed by the 6/8 rhythm, and the addition of a whole new section by the band.

Satellites are another exciting act from the celebrated Tel Aviv music scene, and here at Batov Records we love them! Formed earlier this year, the group comprises talented vocalist Yuli Shafriri on the synth; Itamar Klüger on the baglama & bouzouki; Ariel Harrosh on the bass and Azriel ‘Raz’ Man on the drums. The band plays anything from Anatolian rock to vintage psych and spacey grooves. Satellites describe their sound as retro-fresh psych à la Turk, a musical "laboratory" lost somewhere between the mysterious alleys of 70’s Istanbul and the scorching sun and crystal blue sea of Jaffa-Tel Aviv, 2020.

81355 (pronounced `bless') is a meeting of the minds between three pillars of the Indianapolis music scene; Sirius Blvck, Oreo Jones, and Sedcairn Archives. While the three have worked together in the past, this is their first start-to-finish collaboration, and the result is the stunning and distinctive debut Time I'll Be of Use. Simultaneously mystical and stark, somber and danceable, the project grapples with hard-wired truths and imagines alternate realities with better futures. These lucid wanderings amongst the street fires sound like a cross between the ghost of progressive electronic music of the 70s with its innovative eccentricities, and acrobatic wordplay delivered with sharp resolve. While surrealist in its metaphors and abstraction, it doesn't betray a present awareness. Reflecting on Black struggle in the pandemicridden and democracy faltering landscape of 2020, each member arrived from a synchronistic space, and the recording process ended up being largely intuitive. On "Capstone," the opening track on the album, Sirius Blvck offers a look from inside his space, "This is what we've come to. Generational curses I still can't undo. Just taught my lil girl to tie her shoes now she running to. Holy smokes lungs made of leather like it's comfortable. Climbing up this infinite ladder to get a better view." These three musical vagabonds have met up to find even themselves surprised with the results. Drawing inspiration from the likes of biting poetic commentary of the late Naptown residents, Etheridge Knight and Kurt Vonnegut, OJ summons a golden-era flow and paints a picture of the group's influences, surroundings, and trajectory in one fell swoop in "Thumbs Up." "Alright, in my feelings tonight, Honda Civic overturned as it burns through the night. Bone Thugs in these streets no Surender in sight. I'm writing poems from a jail cell, Etheridge Knight. I throw a fit when I flip it, it's all vintage. A pearl white Bronco like OJ you done did it. The sunshine shatters the rock painted so vivid. Two-hundred fifty pounds of gifted we so lifted_ wassup?" Sirius, with poetry present even in his speaking voice, adds, "It's a way to carve our story in the sky before we're gone. This is us choosing to believe that this time, things will be different. It is an affirmation to the universe. This time I'll see the whole blessing. This time I'll be of use."

Repress on purple vinyl!

Batov's Middle Eastern Grooves series has a new, funky, double-sided 7" addition titled ‘Big Baglama’ by Satellites: a fun release that gives vintage Turkish beats a new spin.

‘Big Baglama’ is a beautiful instrumental piece that captures the sound of an acoustic diwan saz - known as a baglama - integrating it in a series of riffs connected by a funky groove. The baglama gives off a fresh and lively feeling, despite the vintage flavour provided via the spacey synth and rippling drums. This track channels the energy and style of old school fuzzy vibe of Arif Sag’s saz recording of the ’70s but makes it new and entertaining to the ear, pulling the listener in for a fun ride.

The B-side ‘Deli Deli’ opens with a groovy bass riff and ululating synth, followed by a nifty melodic lead on the baglama and then Yuli’s enchanting vocals. The song is a new interpretation of an old piece by beloved 70’s Turkish folk singer Sakir Öner. This new version differs from the original in the more bright and poppy feel, conveyed by the 6/8 rhythm, and the addition of a whole new section by the band.

Satellites are another exciting act from the celebrated Tel Aviv music scene, and here at Batov Records we love them! Formed earlier this year, the group comprises talented vocalist Yuli Shafriri on the synth; Itamar Klüger on the baglama & bouzouki; Ariel Harrosh on the bass and Azriel ‘Raz’ Man on the drums. The band plays anything from Anatolian rock to vintage psych and spacey grooves. Satellites describe their sound as retro-fresh psych à la Turk, a musical "laboratory" lost somewhere between the mysterious alleys of 70’s Istanbul and the scorching sun and crystal blue sea of Jaffa-Tel Aviv, 2020.