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Blue States, aka Andy Dragazis, returns with his sixth album, titled
‘World Contact Day’, released via Memphis Industries and named
after the day each year on which UFO society International Flying
Saucer Bureau tries to contact alien lifeforms.
 ‘World Contact Day’ arrives six years after the previous Blue States
album, written and recorded partly at Dragazis’ Lightwell Recordings
studio in Hackney and featuring a combination of instrumental
soundscapes and vocal songs that draw from influences as diverse
as world as Morricone, Vangelis, Beak, Broadcast and the
Carpenters.
 Songs on the new record feature guest vocals from the likes of
Giampaolo Speziale and Federica Caiozzo of the Italian band
Malihini, English folk-musician Rachael Dadd and Miami-based
Allison May-Brice (The 18th Day Of May, Lake Ruth).
 Written under the backdrop of claustrophobic uncertainty and grief,
Dragazis wanted to make an album of expansive escapism whilst
also grounding musically in a more live approach than previous
albums.
 ‘World Contact Day’ opens with ‘Plain Sight’, the first of the Rachael
Dadd-featuring songs, thematically about escape and setting
Rachael’s Sandy Denny-a-like vocals to a baroque pop backing. It’s
followed by an instrumental ode to the humble wire in a world of
wireless connectivity (“I trust wires and I understand them,” says
Dragazis). The second Rachael Dadd track is ‘Tides Confusion’, a
song about how waves of grief can come like tides, grounded on a
pulsating electronic loop that evolves into live drums, horns and
backing vocals representing the rising water. Next up is ‘Warning
Signs’, featuring Giampaolo and Federica of Malihini, a track about
looking after yourself because if you don’t, how can you look after
anyone else?
 Two brilliant songs with Allison-May Brice light up side two of ‘World
Contact Day’, the urgent, sparkling electronic pop of ‘Alarms’ and the
epic, velvety torch song album closer ‘Science or Fiction?’, about the
paleoanthropological fraudster Charles Dawson and the Piltdown
Man hoax.
 LP pressed on cream vinyl.

Legendary American musician Ry Cooder played together with the world's greatest artists, such as John Lee Hooker, The Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, Neil Young, and Eric Clapton. Cooder is known for his slide guitar work, and was ranked eighth on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of “The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”.

Chicken Skin Music was his fifth studio album. The title serves as a direct, simple description of the album's emotional appeal. For this record, Cooder decided to ignore traditional boundaries and instigated lasting cross-cultural communication through music, which was unusual for 1976. Chicken Skin Music blends gospel, folk, blues and Hawaiian with the help of his backing band (Jim Keltner, Milt Holland, Chris Ethridge, and George Bohannon) and two eminent Hawaiian musicians, Gabby Pahinui and Atta Isaacs. In addition, to throw in some Mexican styles, Ry Cooder is assisted by Norteño musician Flaco Jimenez.

Chicken Skin Music is available on black vinyl and includes an insert.

Sdban Records will reissue several installments of the legendary library series 'A Special Radio ~ TV Record' on vinyl. These were originally released on Belgian imprint 'Selection Records' between 1975 and 1981. N°15 in the series was the Belgian milestone jazz album 'Solis Lacus' released in 1975.

Solis Lacus is the cult group around renowned Belgian pianist Michel Herr, a pioneer of electric jazz in the 70's in Europe. Michel Herr rose to international prominence after winning the first prize at the jazz festival in Loosdrecht, The Netherlands, in 1971. He accompanied many European and American jazz stars on foreign tours and ran the group Jazztrack with saxophone player Wolfgang Engstfeld in Germany. At the same time, he set up his own band Solis Lacus, which consisted of Belgian musicians who had all made a name for themselves on the national jazz scene of the 1960s including Richard Rousselet and Bruno Castelluci both from Placebo. Inspired by the reigning jazz-rock sound of the day, Herr expanded his musical vocabulary and started to play electronic keyboards. Solis Lacus recorded its only album in the course of 1974 and 1975, before the members of the group headed in their own direction.

Solis Lacus is considered the European counterpart to sound experimentations of Herbie Hancock's Headhunters, or the best albums of the CTI label such as Freddie Hubbard. This is groundbreaking, experimental and funky jazz fusion!

Featuring: Deena Abdelwahed, Rabih Beaini, Fari Bradley, Dieb 13, DJ Sniff, Gavsborg (Equiknoxx), Electric Indigo, Donzilla Lion (Nyege Nyege), Marina Rosenfeld, Microhm, Muqata’a, Bob Ostertag, Rrose

Project presentation:

Sampler / Sampled is an album made of two interdependent parts rather than a double-album.

The first part of the project, Sampler, is a trumpet solo album that catalogues the unique sounds and extended techniques that Mazen Kerbaj developed for the instrument in the past 25 years; it consists of 318 pieces ranging from less than a second to forty seconds each, and presenting different sonic materials. This catalogue of sounds works on various levels: first and foremost, it is a trumpet solo that could be played in its original order, or in random mode to create different pieces of music. But it is also a collection of samples that could be used for various applications (ringtones, phone sound effects, cinema…) and, of course, to create new pieces of music based on sampling.

The second part of the project is the composition Sampled for a musician working with loops and/or samples. The composition has one instruction: create a piece of music using solely tracks from Sampler as your sound source (with the possibility to use all kind of effects or treatment). Each interpreter/musician becomes thus a co-composer who appropriates the piece and makes it their own. In this regard, the musicians that were commissioned to play Sampled were chosen from different geographical origins and musical genres to create highly different and personal pieces of music.

One important output of this project is putting in practice the overused idea of music as a universal language. This idea is very present in “free improvised music” where musicians from different origins can meet for the first time and make music together without the need to adapt to different musical traditions. But here, the collective part of creating music in real time is not involved. It is rather the contrary: it starts with one middle-eastern musician creating a new language/vocabulary for his western instrument, to be later used by other musicians from around the globe who will appropriate this vocabulary and use it with their own language/grammar.
The final output of this double faceted album that was recorded during the Covid lockdown proved to be a very efficient new way to collaborate from a distance in times of world isolation, and ultimately put in practice the universality of music by breaking the boundaries of genres that are the most difficult to break.

Yellow Vinyl

Recorded in December 1976, »Hear & Now« was produced by drummer/keyboardist Narada Michael Walden (ex-member and session man for Journey, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Weather Report). The album – licensed by major label Atlantic – has been often dismissed by jazz purist and early days Cherry fans as a commercial effort. To be true it is a record that epitomize the ‘club’ tendencies discovered in the second half of the decade by many jazz and fusion artists. Led by the incredible ‘world’ rare groove of Universal Mother, the album is to be rediscovered in a different light.

A hidden gem from the notorious Nurse With Wound list ! Limited to 500 copies, this double LP features Heratius' studio album Les Boniments (1979) - never before released on vinyl - and the first ever vinyl reissue of Gwendolyne (1978). Heratius could be described as like a mix of Etron Fou Leloublan and Faust (in acoustic mode that is), with hints of Albert Marcoeur, Red Noise, in a music that is full of invention with typically French eccentric touches. The Heratius album Gwendolyne was also much touted by Chris Cutler (of Henry Cow fame) at the time as the French Faust.

Our Allien leader returns to the UFO bringing with her fresh auditory space signals. Ellen Allien's latest EP on her UFO Inc imprint marks the sixth release from the label and features four original cuts from the pioneering Berliner. As you may expect from Ellen, the release is packed with raw emotion, rave motifs and unrelenting energy in her own inimitable style. 'Rosen' kicks things off merging melodrama and emotive atmospherics followed by 'N2020', a pounding techno stomper. The EP closes with two versions of 'KCKC'. Firstly, it's the 'Epic Mix', then the original version. KCKC became Ellen's personal anthem of her balcony sets during covid lockdown.

Dolly Parton's new Country/Bluegrass album, Run Rose Run, will be
released along with a novel co-written with the famed author, James
Patterson, sharing the title Run Rose Run
The 12 songs were inspired by the book storyline and feature Country and
Bluegrass artists Joe Nichols, Rhonda Vincent, The Issacs, and Dailey & Vincent.
Dolly & James will be doing book and album promotions together.

The brand new album from David Luximon (Formerly Vive La Rose) is a sonic step forward, an album both challenging and comforting, blending classic 60's psych with contemporary harmonics - Produced by Olly Betts (Thurston Moore) and Simon Willey (Brian Ferry/Prince) the album features art from 2020 Vinyl Art nominee Gareth Halliday

Using vintage analogue equipment the album tips a cap to the likes of David Axelrod and Captain Beefheart.

Lia Ices was pregnant with her first child when she started writing her forthcoming record, Family Album, a stunning collection of psychedelic-tinged Americana. She was living with her husband, a wine-maker, on Moon Mountain in Sonoma, CA, where she walked from house to studio through a rose garden with an orchard at its center every day to sit at her piano and see what fell out. It was a “total Eden,” Ices describes. “I got pregnant in January, and Una was born in September, so I was on the same ripening mode as all the fruit.” “This album is terroir,” she says, using a wine-making term used for the complete natural environmental factors that make something taste the way it does. Fully, spiritually connected to the soil on which it was made, to the air Ices breathed. Ices hasn’t released music for six years, since her last album, Ices, in 2014. It’s been a long personal journey to get to Family Album, which she’s putting out on her own label, Natural Music. The first song Ices wrote for Family Album was “Young on the Mountain,” a breezy folk-rock track about life and death and freedom that’s the album’s highest energy. “The more real life gets, the more mystical it feels,” she explains. This idea reaches throughout the album, like on “Anywhere At All,” which is essentially an ode to “how psychedelic it is to be a first time mother,” Creating a life and creating this record at the same time is only part of the story. Those two acts also brought Ices closer to who she really is, and to the music she’s supposed to make. There’s a holistic energy around Family Album, epitomized by the opening track, “Earthy,” a gorgeous, dynamic song that begins with Ices solo on the piano, and midway through becomes a total psych-Americana jam. Though it starts the album off, even by the end it’s clear this is the record’s centerpiece, both its introduction and its heart; she sings about the Muse, about life and death, about both being here and giving herself away in order to find herself. She worked with producer JR White (Girls) all over California: three studios in LA, one in Stinson Beach, and one in San Francisco. Ices describes White as a “Brian Wilson type” with a singular mastery over gear; she says even just the way he rigged the mic while she was singing allowed her to get some of her best-ever vocal performances. And for the album’s accompanying visuals, she entrusted good friend and filmmaker Conor Hagen to follow her and her band around the west coast of California on tour over the course of 9 months for the album’s first single ‘Hymn’, as well as director Aaron Brown (Cass McCombs, Arctic Monkeys) to help her make the aura-themed video for the record’s title track. Ices says of Family Album. There’s a “universal timing” to this record that it’s had since its beginning, with Ices’ ripening. “It keeps being a teacher to me, it has its own energy field around it.”

Durutti Column are still one of the most sought after band of the English post-punk. Since their first album 'The Return Of Durutti Column' (released on Factory in 1980), the guitarist, pianist and composer Vini Reilly has published a series of remarkable albums that filled the gap between new wave and ambient music. Reilly and Bruce Mitchell (who’s been working with such major artists like Simply Red and Rod Stewart) represented the future of the Manchester scene moving forward from the forerunners (Joy Division, A Certain Ratio, etc.) to the new musical heroes (Happy Monday, Stone Roses and the likes).

MATERIALI SONORI invited The Durutti Colurnnat for the first edition of the Greetings Festival in San Giovanni Valdarno in 1985, and build since then a steady relationship with the band. It was precisely Vini Reilly that started the record series 'Greetings' (dedicating to the Belpaese tracks like 'Florence Sunset", "San Giovanni Dawn", 'For Friends In Italy"). Subsequently MATERIALI SONORI dedicated the first cover of the magazine Sonora to Reilly and Mitchell (including a previously unreleased track on the magazine's compact disc)

'Dry' is conceived as a new journey among Vini inventions, through rarefied moods and subterranean streams of sound. The fifteen songs (lasting fifty-five minutes) have been recorded in Manchester in 1990, Vini sits in on guitar and piano, while Mitchell is on electronic and acoustic percussion, other instruments such as the clarinet (played by Zinnia Mitchell-Williams, Bruce's daughter), harmonica, viola and keyboards are also featured on the session. Here, once again, Durutti Column 's music could be defined as half-way between melancholy rock and 'progressive' New Age.

Colin Blunstone and Sundazed Music celebrate the 50th anniversary of
Colin's post Oracle opus One Year with an expanded edition! The half,
itself titled, That Same Year, gives you a deeper introspective look into
that time in his life
The album largely features Colin singing accompanied solely by his acoustic
guitar.That Same Year includes beautifully sparse demo versions of three songs
from One Year including 'Caroline Goodbye' and 'Let Me Come Closer To You'
where Colin is joined by fellow Zombie Rod Agent on piano. Three songs have
Colin joined by Zombie bassist Chris White on classical guitar. Beyond the three
familiar songs you will find Colin's familiar voice and wit come through on eleven
completely unheard compositions all penned for the One Year album; including
'Sing Your Own Song' where sings of reading about his own death in Rolling
Stone.One Year is an album that somehow manages to be both lush and sparse
at the same time and always deeply intimate. That Same Year finds a way to
bring your listening experience to a deeper level of intimacy.In addition to penning
most of the album, Colin also penned the liner notes that fill the gatefold jacket
along with unseen photos from that year. The notes go track by track through One
Year along with some background on That Same Year.

Recorded at the famous Paradiso in Amsterdam, “Live In The Lowlands” catches Willy DeVille and his band, Mink DeVille, at their very best during the tour in support of his album ‘Crow Jane Alley’.
This record features classic tracks such as ‘Cadillac Walk’, ‘Savoir Faire’, ‘Come A Little Bit Closer’, ‘Slave To Love’ and ‘Spanish Stroll’, all delivered in Willy DeVille’s unique musical style and in front of an enraptured full house. For the first time ever, this concert will be made available on vinyl and truly be a wonderful gem in every fan’s music collection.

'Still Life' Carson McHones drittes Album und zweite Veröffentlichung bei Loose Music erscheint Ende Februar. Nach ihrem 2019er Album "Carousel" zählt die aus Austin, Texas kommernde Musikerin zu einer der innovativsten Künstlerinnen aus den Staaten. Inspiriert von u.a. John Cale, The Kinks, Richard und Linda Thompson – gleichgesinnte Künstler der späten 60er und frühen 70er, einer anderen Ära des Übergangs und der Innovation. McHone schrieb die Songs von 'Still Life' in ruhigen Momenten zwischen den Tourneen in ihrer Heimatstadt Austin und nahm sie dann in Ontario mit dem kanadischen Musiker und Produzenten Daniel Romano auf. Diese erstmalige Zusammenarbeit zwischen McHone und Romano offenbart eine unwiderstehliche Dynamik von den präzisen Arrangements bis hin zu den ausgefeilten Lyrics der Songs. 'Still Life' ist mehr als zeitlos, es ist zeitgemäß, von Natur aus modern und ist für Alternative Country Fans ein Highlight!

Anlässlich dem 15. Jubiläum des Albums „Raising Sand“ von Robert Plant und Alison Krauss erscheint
eine Wiederveröffentlichung des Albums am 25. Februar auf schwarzem 180-Gramm-Vinyl.
2007 veröffentlichten Alison Krauss und Robert Plant erstmalig „Raising Sand“, eines der meistgelobten
Alben des 21. Jahrhunderts. Es war eine unwahrscheinliche, faszinierende Zusammenarbeit zwischen einem
der größten Rockmusiker und einer der besten Country-Künstlerinnen, die eines der mühelosesten Duos der
modernen Popmusik bildeten. Das von dem legendären T Bone Burnett produzierte Album stieg auf
Platz 2 der Billboard 200 ein, wurde mit Platin ausgezeichnet und erhielt sechs Grammys, darunter die
Auszeichnungen für das Album und die Platte des Jahres.
„Raising Sand“ erscheint als 2LP.

Der Klassiker "The Savage Poetry" bekommt zum 20 jährigen Jubiläum noch einmal eine Neuauflage mit komplettem Remastering und ist erstmals als Vinyl erhältlich.

Gut 20 Jahre nach Veröffentlichung des viel beachteten vierten Edguy-Albums "Savage Poetry" (ursprünglich 2000 erschienen) kommt nun eine neue Version - als Digipak und erstmals als Vinyl (in verschiedenen Farben).