Suche:the sect

Steve Reich's Drumming is regarded as one of the most important musical works of the last century. Distilled through his studies of African percussion in Ghana during 1970 and Balinese gamelan music, Reich revolutionized our understanding of polyrhythms, sculpting a new sonic territory to illuminate the radical potential of Minimalism.Divided into four sections, performed without pause, Drumming is written for eight small tuned drums, three marimbas, three glockenspiels, piccolo and voice. The singers recite melodic patterns that mimic the sounds of the instruments, gradually rising to the surface and then fading out. The overall effect can be transfixing - pulling listeners into the rhythm and possessing a raw immediacy, directness and energy.The premier performances of Drumming took place in December 1971 in New York City - first at The Museum of Modern Art, then at Brooklyn Academy of Music and finally at Town Hall where this recording was made - and featured the composer along with a cast of longtime collaborators including Art Murphy, Steve Chambers, Russ Hartenberger, James Preiss, Jon Gibson, Joan La Barbara, Judy Sherman, Jay Clayton, Ben Harms, Gary Burke, Frank Maefsky and James Ogden.Originally released in 1972 by gallerist John Gibson in a small private edition, Drumming represents the culmination of Reich's investigation into rhythmic phase relationships and its early realization captures a remarkably organic feel, especially compared to the more widely known version on Deutsche Grammophon from 1974.This first-time vinyl reissue and first-time CD release has been carefully remastered from the original master tapes.

Ground is an Osaka native, but his soul is truly that of a nomad, traversing the planet, befriending kindred spirits found in humans, animals and plants. He is exceptionally receptive to the beauty in everything that surrounds him—the incidental music of a city street, the orchestral chaos of a scrambling radio, the syncopated grace of migrating birds, the simplicity of an isolated hand clap—and as his roadmap continuously unfolds, he accumulates a vast catalogue of visceral tools to musically recount his experiences. Sunizm is a cross section of the artist's process—an array of complex microcosms overlapping to comprise a thematic whole—gathering field recordings, found instruments, jagged electronics, synthesized chanting, and weaving all into a dense narrative that appears obsessively constructed yet divinely improvised. Logos is the first of two singles surrounding the album and is complimented with a monster remix by Bartellow (a fellow ESP artist, collaborator and good friend of Ground) as well as a secret weapon b-side entitled Discopazzle, which is exclusive to this single release. Attention all humans, animals and plants, Ground and the ESP Institute present, Sunizm.

Word Of Advice To Funk Lovers, There Is Not A Minute To Lose. Get On Board Of The Big Hustle's Spaceship. Before We Take Off, Let's Do A Little History. The Band Was Founded In 2014 By Bass Player And Composer Sébastien Levanneur And Its Aim Is To Bring Together 70's Old School Funk With The Hippest Actual Sound Laced With Influences Spanning From Steely Dan And Headhunters, To Snarky Puppy And Soulive. With Mighty Horn Players, A Rock And Funky Rhythm Section, The Big Hustle's Music Has A Very Large Variety Of Soundscapes.

The First Destination Takes Us To The Washington, D.c. Area With turn Up'. The Groove Is Clearly Go-go Music Flavored With The Trademark Sound Of Cowbells And Of Course It Reminds Us Of Zapp By The Use Of The Talk Box On Lead Vocals, Performed Here By Saad El Garrab. And Don't Miss Out Shaun Martin (snarky Puppy, Erykah Badu, Kirk Franklin Amongst Others) As A Very Special Guest Performing The Talk Box Solo! Second Stop Is a Curse, A Blessing'. It's An Instrumental Very Much In The Freddie Hubbard Vein During His Cti Years. The Last Leg Of The A Side Ends With An Instrumental Interlude Titled flying Donut'. Double Tribute To Jay Dee And Flying Lotus, The Music Is A Simple Hip Hop Loop Based On Samples.

The B Side Takes Us Back Into The Past With Two Brilliant Covers, Involving Rod Temperton The Late Great British Songwriter Who Scored Some Of Michael Jackson's Biggest Hits. Now The Idea For This B Side Is To Do The Opposite Approach From The A Side. Taking 70's And 80's Original Music And Make Them Travel Into Time To 2018. We First Land With A Heatwave Song Named the Star Of A Story' From Their 1976 Central Heating Album. Track 2 Is A Herbie Hancock Song Named gettin' To The Good Part' From His 1982 Lite Me Up Lp. This Time Traveler Ep Journey Ends With An Interlude. Called gimme Dat', The Song Deals With The Need Of New Music, New Sound.

Again, This Blend Of Deep Rooted Funk Laced With A Contemporary Edge Is To Be Consumed Without Moderation. And Do Not Forget That E.p. Also Stands For Extended Pleasure.

This 3 Track Ep From The Legendary Lee Perry Brings Together New And Unreleased Tracks Recorded At Mad Professor's Ariwa Studio In South London. The Ep Kicks Of With 'this Is The Upsetter', Which Sees Lee Chanting And Philosophising Over A Rollicking Bass, Underpinned By Understated Guitar And Perfectly Placed Hats, And Continues To The Straight Up Dub, 'lion Share Dub'. And On The Flipside Is The Title Track, 'game Of The Throne', With Brass Section And Backing Vocals Belting Out Soul Fire, With Lee Offering His Words To Selassie. Mastered By The Legendary Noel Summerville, Artwork By Henry Dubroot Alderson And G.s-l Studio.

After A First Doom Tune On The A-side You'll Enter A Dark Breakbeat Release.. Rare Style From Sarrin Assault... This Record Encountered A Great Success But Was Pressed Too Mutch Copies ^^
So Here It Comes For Your Greatest Joy At A Cool Price :)

Shunter, the new album by the Berlin-based duo Driftmachine, is their most ambitious work to date. Although instantly recognizable, featuring their trademark Kosmische and Avant-garde sounds, it also presents a new journey into abstract and hallucinatory worlds. Filled with eerie textures, their electronic visions are darker and more vaporous than ever.

Driftmachine's fourth album (also the fourth one for Umor Rex) offers a new perspective on their ample sound spectrum and systemic narratives. Shunter overlaps and mutates their post-industrial-dub motives. It was conceived and produced in search of a very different kind of imagery, with sections of noise and field recordings intersecting with analogue sounds, a mixture of contrasted fragments, where the usual creative process of modular-synthesis leads Gerth and Zimmer to the discovery of a dark, hazy and diffused experience. There is a protean quality to the rhythmic elements, with tempos constantly contracting and expanding, a departure from the mono-beat-rhythms of "Nocturnes" and "Colliding Contours". The first half of Shunter is made of four pieces named "Shift", although individually separated, they are conceptually linked and can be understood as a sort of score. Imagine a late stage of the industrial revolution, with the interaction between heavy machinery and human beings. The second half of the album is not completely separated, but it has three other substantial melodic moments. Somewhere between the hauntological and the realms of archive-music, a huge range of subterranean beats and distinct patterns dotting the landscape of early electronic and post dub music.

All songs written & produced by Driftmachine (Andreas Gerth & Florian Zimmer), Berlin.
Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri. Design by Daniel Castrejón.

Fresh on Francis Harris' Kingdoms imprint comes Rasmus Juncker's 'Ophold' - six tracks of sublime atmospheres and textures. The Danish musician, sound composer and DJ fits perfectly with the label's aesthetic, joining the dots between ambient, leftfield electronica and modern classical.

Juncker has a background in studying jazz drumming and has been playing improvised music within the jazz domain for many years. He also started to DJ at the age of 14 and was introduced to the world of electronic music production at the same time.

When Rasmus started to think about his debut album he spent several months trying to find his own way to combine his favourite musical influences, improvisation, electronics and classical music. 'Almost a year later', Juncker says, "I went to a sensory deprivation floating tank in Copenhagen while researching for another performance and while I was lying there, floating in the water, deprived from most of my senses, I got the idea to do something drastic in my musical process. Philosophers like Immanuel Kant describe this deprived state as a mental 'Cesura', which became some sort of guideline for the album."

So Juncker decided to start working on the album by leaving the process as well as the final result completely open. 'I wanted to create sounds and music that I had no idea what they would sound like, but would feel like a mental 'Cesura', an 'Ophold' (in Danish)' he states.

He invited musicians, one after the other, to his studio. "I had an electronic musician to improvise patterns and new interesting sounds based on my experience in the deprivation tank. I chose some of the takes and some weeks later I invited a jazz guitarist to listen and improvise on top of what he heard. Then a classical string quartet and a double bass player came to my studio months later, and finally I recorded myself on percussion and drums.

Throughout the recording process I've been experimenting with special microphones in various setups, used noises from the recordings and the room became absolutely essential for the pieces." Juncker states.

"The material I used was all first take improvision which I arranged, layered and edited into compositions. The final pieces were mixed by Andreas Pallisgaard with the same improvised and experimental approach of the recording and the production. None of the musician met each other, but their sounds developed into something completely fantastic I think. The presence of the acoustic instruments and the depth and complexity of the synthesized layers gave some kind of an indescribable sounding music from another galaxy.

Track by track:

'Norddrum' starts proceedings - ethereal, grainy sounds merge and disassociate, as a distant rhythm gradually finds its way to the fore.

The second track, 'Sora' , clocking in at under 2 minutes, is an interlude full of strings, pads, and percussive hits, rich in feeling. This strong sense of sound design and seemingly disparate sounds woven together into a whole carries through into 'Eksotisk Tirsdag' - the strings, plucked instruments and electronics harking back to 4th world adventurers like Jon Hassel and Brian Eno.

'Cyklus' dives into drone textures, pulsing and modulating to create an unearthly soundtrack.

'Havekunst' is another 2 minutes interlude, this time bringing a fully charged rhythmic barrage to the front.

'Cesura', the final track is in essence the EP's centerpiece - a sprawling 8 minute journey that traverses tense, fibrous sections and on into pulsing modular passages, before opening up into glorious moments of wonder and brightness. It's a hugely bold yet fragile endeavour, in line with the whole release.

African Scream Contest 2

A great compilation can open the gate to another world. Who knew that some of the most exciting Afro-funk records of all time were actually made in the small West African country of Benin Once Analog Africa released the first African Scream Contest in 2008, the proof was there for all to hear, gut-busting yelps, lethally well- drilled horn sections and irresistibly insistent rhythms added up to a record that took you into its own space with the same electrifying sureness as any favourite blues or soul or funk or punk sampler you might care to mention.

Ten years on, intrepid crate-digger Samy Ben Redjeb unveils a new treasure- trove of Vodoun-inspired Afrobeat heavy funk crossover greatness. Right from the laceratingly raw guitar fanfare which kicks o Les Sympathics' pile-driving opener, it's clear that African Scream Contest II is going to be every bit as joyous a voyage of discovery as its predecessor. And just as you're trying to get o the canvas after this one-punch knock out, an irresistible Afro-ska romp with a more than subliminal echo of the Batman theme puts you right back there. Ignace De Souza and the Melody Aces' Asaw Fofor" would've been a killer instrumental but once you've factored in the improbably-rich-to-the-point-of-being-Nat-King-Cole-influenced lead vocal, it's a total revelation.

The screaming does not stop there, in fact it's only just beginning. But the

strange thing about African Scream Contest II's celebration of unfettered Beninese creativity is that it would not have been possible without the assistance of a musician who had been trained by the Russian secret services to "search and destroy" enemies of the country's (then) Marxist-Leninist president Mathieu Kerekou.

Already familiar to fans of the first African Scream Contest as a mainstay of ruthlessly disciplined military band Les Volcans de la Capitale, Lokonon André vanished in a cloud of dust at Ben Redjeb's behest with a list of names and some petrol money, only to return a few days later having miraculously tracked down every single name he'd been given. The source of this Afrobeat bounty-hunter's impressive people-finding skills - his training with the KGB - highlights the tension between encroaching authoritarian politics and fearless expressions of personal creative freedom which is the back-story of so much great African music of the 60s and 70s. Happily, in this instance, Lokonon was tracking the artists down to oer them licensing deals, rather than to arrest them.

Where some purveyors of vintage African sounds seem to be strip-mining the

continent's musical heritage with no less rapacious intent than the mining companies and colonial authorities who previously extracted its mineral wealth, Samy Ben Redjeb's determination to track this amazing music to its human sources pays huge karmic dividends.

Like every other Analog Africa release, African Scream Contest II is illuminated by meticulously researched text and eortlessly fashion-forward photography supplied by the artists themselves. Looming large - alongside Lokonon André - in the cast of biopic-worthy characters to emerge from this seductive tropical miasma is visionary space-nerd Bernard Dohounso, who laid the foundations for Benin's vinyl predominance by importing and assembling the turntables that would play the products of his Bond villain-acronymed pressing plant SATEL, a factory that would revolutionise the music industry in the whole region.

The scene documented here couldn't have been born anywhere else but in the Benin Republic , and the prime reason for that is Vodoun. It's one of the world's most complex religions, involving the worship of some 250 divinities, where each divinity has its own specific set of rhythms, and the bands introduced on the African Scream Contest series and other compilations from that country were no less diverse than that army of dierent Gods. At once restless pioneers and masters of the art of modernising their own folklore, the mystic sound of Vodoun was their prime source of inspiration.

One especially irascible Vodoun-adept was Antoine Dougbe, who styled himself The devil's prime minister' while turning ancestral rhythms into satanically alluring modern beats. As Orchestre Poly-Rythmo songwriter Pynasco has observed sagely, Evil is not elsewhere, evil extends into the house'. And African Scream Contest II is a gloriously cinematic road-trip through an undiscovered realm of music lore whose familiarity is every bit as thrilling as its otherness.

Written by Ben Thomson, March 2018

Raga Yaman
1) Alap
2) Jod
3) Jhala
4) Gat (Composition in Chautal)

Zia Mohiuddin Dagar : rudra veena
Manik Munde : pakhawaj
Gayathri Rajapur & Annie Penta : tanpuras

Recorded by unknown at the University of Washington, HUB Auditorium, Seattle, Washington 15 March 1986 , concert co-sponsored by the UW Ethnomusicology Division and Ragamala.
Original digitally processed audio recording made with Panasonic PV-9000 VCR, Sony PCM-F1, PZM mics. Mastered & Cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering 1117 & 0318.

Liner notes by Renaud Brizard, Stephen O'Malley & Ian Christe.
Front and back cover photos by Niranjan B. Benegal, Seattle Center Folklife Festival 1979. Elizabeth Reeke & Annie Penta on tanpuras.
Inner gatefold photography by Niranjan B. Benegal & Ira Landgarten.

Around ten years ago, deep into a cozy and hazy night following a concert with my sound brothers Daniel O'Sullivan and Kristoffer Rygg in London (as Æthenor), they graciously introduced me to a recording of rudra veena (a kind of noble deeper bass relative to the sitar, in a way) as performed by dhrupad master Zia Mohiuddin Dagar.

Dhrupad, for those who do not know, is a branch of Hindustani classical music said to "show the raga in its clearest and purest form". It's pacing concentrates heavily on the slow, contemplative alap section and works with specific microtonal gestures and deep characteristics of resonance ... in short I was hooked on this new (to me) and ancient form of music from the first listen, and feel that a more or less continual listening & reviewing of Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's recordings in the years that followed have influenced my own approach to music quite heavily (if, albeit, indirectly).

In early 2015 I was able to make contact with Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's son Bahauddin and some of his American students/disciples, primarily Jeff Lewis. Over time we developed a friendly and educational exchange, access a massive archive of recordings and developed these two paired titles for my label. It's been a long path to arrive at actually releasing them but also probably in many ways one of the most significant releases I've worked on. And I'm proud to be able to reveal these to date unreleased archival recordings of one of the masters of dhrupad, Z. M. Dagar, to the public for the first time.

Zia Mohiuddin Dagar was the nineteenth generation in a family tradition known as Dagar gharana, a rich lineage which continued and performed the musical form of dhrupad (Bahauddin Dagar continues the lineage as a master rudra veena dhrupad player of note today). Initially, dhrupad was a rigorous, austere, devotional genre that was sung in Hindu temples. But between the 16th and the 18th centuries, it became the preeminent genre in royal courts in North and Central India, and the Dagar gharana developed and continued publicly following the eventual loss of court patronage for dhrupad in the 19th century. The French ethnomusicologist Renaud Brizard covers the story of Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's life and teaching (a long story also in Seattle, my hometown!), the Dagar family and gharana, the rudra veena and more topics in an extensive set of liner notes in this release.

Raga Yaman was recorded at a public concert in Seattle at the HUB Ballroom at the University of Washington in March 1986 (the week after the accompanying release SOMA028 Ragas Abhogi & Vardhani was recorded) at the end of his last tour of the United States. Yaman was a special raga for Zia Mohiuddin Dagar, one of his signature raags. For centuries, Yaman has been considered as one of the most fundamental ragas in Hindustani music and is one of the first ragas which is taught to students. A deep knowledge of Yaman gives a key for understanding many other ragas. It's filled with tranquility, contemplation, pathos and spiritual yearning. .

-Stephen O'Malley, March 2018, Paris, France

Raga Abhogi
1) Alap
2) Jod
3) Jhala

Raga Vardhani
4) Alap
5) Jod
6) Jhala

Zia Mohiuddin Dagar : rudra veena
Annie Penta : tanpura

Concert recorded at the home of Shantha and Niranjan B. Benegal, Seattle, Washington 9 March 1986.
Recorded by Niranjan Benegal. Files obtained from Jeff Lewis.
Mastered & Cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering 1117 & 0318.

Liner notes by Renaud Brizard, edited by Stephen O'Malley & Ian Christe.
Front and back cover photos by unknown.
Interior photography by Niranjan B. Benegal, Dan Neuman & unknown, Seattle 1978-1980. .

Around ten years ago, deep into a cozy and hazy night following a concert with my sound brothers Daniel O'Sullivan and Kristoffer Rygg in London (as Æthenor), they graciously introduced me to a recording of rudra veena (a kind of noble deeper bass relative to the sitar, in a way) as performed by dhrupad master Zia Mohiuddin Dagar.

Dhrupad, for those who do not know, is a branch of Hindustani classical music said to "show the raga in its clearest and purest form". It's pacing concentrates heavily on the slow, contemplative alap section and works with specific microtonal gestures and deep characteristics of resonance ... in short I was hooked on this new (to me) and ancient form of music from the first listen, and feel that a more or less continual listening & reviewing of Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's recordings in the years that followed have influenced my own approach to music quite heavily (if, albeit, indirectly).

In early 2015 I was able to make contact with Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's son Bahauddin and some of his American students/disciples, primarily Jeff Lewis. Over time we developed a friendly and educational exchange, access a massive archive of recordings and developed these two paired titles for my label. It's been a long path to arrive at actually releasing them but also probably in many ways one of the most significant releases I've worked on. And I'm proud to be able to reveal these to date unreleased archival recordings of one of the masters of dhrupad, Z. M. Dagar, to the public for the first time.

Zia Mohiuddin Dagar was the nineteenth generation in a family tradition known as Dagar gharana, a rich lineage which continued and performed the musical form of dhrupad (Bahauddin Dagar continues the lineage as a master rudra veena dhrupad player of note today). Initially, dhrupad was a rigorous, austere, devotional genre that was sung in Hindu temples. But between the 16th and the 18th centuries, it became the preeminent genre in royal courts in North and Central India, and the Dagar gharana developed and continued publicly following the eventual loss of court patronage for dhrupad in the 19th century. The French ethnomusicologist Renaud Brizard covers the story of Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's life and teaching (a long story also in Seattle, my hometown!), the Dagar family and gharana, the rudra veena and more topics in an extensive set of liner notes in this release.

Ragas Abhogi & Vardhani were recorded in a private house concert in Seattle at the home of the Benegals in March 1986 (the week before the accompanying release SOMA029 Raga Yaman was recorded). The Benegals were friends (& Shantha Benegal was also a student) of Dagarsahib who sometimes hosted Hindustani music concerts in their home. It's a rare glimpse of a more intimate, personal and perhaps different kind of performance considering the form of dhrupad.

-Stephen O'Malley, March 2018, Paris, France

Stephen O'Malley would like to especially thank Bahauddin Dagar, Jeff Lewis & Jody Stecher for their enthusiasm, cooperation, patience, insight & advice toward developing these editions. Thank you also to Laurel Sercombe & John Vallier from the University of Washington Ethnomusicology Archives, Shantha Benegal, Philippe Bruguière, Dan Neuman, Ira Landgarten, Renaud Brizard, Ian Christe, Peter Rehberg, Rashad Becker, Daniel O'Sullivan & Kristoffer Rygg, all for their direct or indirect cooperation, assistance & patience.

Re-mastering by: Ray Staff at Air Mastering, Lyndhurst Hall, London

This jazz recording is considered as the 'magnum opus' of master "drummer extraordinaire'', composer, arranger, producer, and leader Norman Connor's in a career that has spanned 4 decades. This recording is what many will consider the debut of the legendary vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater who has since gone on to a brilliant career. Connor's put together an all-star group with Herbie Hancock and Onaje Allan Gumbs on piano and Fender Rhodes, Dr. Eddie Henderson on trumpet/flugelhorn, Carlos Garnett on tenor/soprano saxes, Gary Bartz on alto/soprano saxes, Buster Williams on bass, drummer/vocalist Bill Summers and Kenneth Nash on percussion, and effective, crucial cameos by master flautist Hubert Laws. On the song, "Love From the Sun'", Connors added Nathan Rubin on violin and Terry Adams on cello.

The 'best of the best' begins with the exotic theme of Hancock's "Revelation", doubled wordlessly and beautifully by Ms. Bridgewater over Williams bouncing ostinato bass pattern with flights of fancy from Hubert Laws on flute, and superb, luminous solos from Henderson's exotic trumpet, Garnett on soprano, and Hancock on Fender Rhodes. Garnett's "Carlos II" is another great composition with remarkable solos. Connors' own "Drums Around The Worlds'" is influenced by African and latin rhythms with emotional vocals from Summers and a drum-only section that builds in intensity. One of the high points of the album is Dee Dee Bridgewater's awesome, glorious vocalizing on Richard Clay's lovely "Love From The Sun", in one of the greatest performances in her career, arranged by Gumbs. Elmer Gibson's "Kumakucha" (The Sun Has Risen) is a blazing display of uptempo musicianship by Connor's driving drums, the propulsive congas of Summers and Nash, and exciting solos from Bartz, Henderson on trumpet, and Hancock's furious piano solo. The set ends with a marvelous "Holy Waters" composed and arranged by Garnett in a scorching performance by Bridgewater on vocals, Garnett unleashing one of the greatest solos in his storied career, followed by Gumbs' astute solo.

My Highest Recommendation.

By John Braswell

With MEL011, it is Melodies International's immense pleasure to direct their focus towards both Soul and House royalty, selecting and reissuing two of Frankie Knuckles' scarcer remixes of an all-time classic: Womack & Womack - MPB (Missin' Persons Bureau). Now known as Zekkariyas and Zeriiya, partners Cecil and Linda Womack, two eminent members in an extensive lineage of music artistry (i.e. Bobby Womack was Zekkariyas' brother, Zeriiya is Sam Cooke's daughter) engaged in one of music history's most successful and exciting singing and song writing partnerships in the early 1980s. Zeriiya says her process with Zekkariyas flowed like water, their shared complicity and talent led them to write and produce strings of chart topping hits and classic albums as Womack & Womack but also for other renowned artists of the time such as Patti Labelle, Teddy Pendergrass and the O'Jays to only name a few. The original version of Missin' Persons Bureau was first released in 1988 on 'Conscience' (Island Records), a classic album with impeccable instrumentation and thoughtful and relatable narratives that reflect on the nature of life, true friendship, love or in the case of MPB, it's subsequent loss. Following the release of the LP, Island records founder Chris Blackwell introduced the idea of getting Missin' Persons Bureau reworked by House legend Frankie Knuckles and whilst the Womacks weren't originally set on the idea of having their songs remixed by other artists, Blackwell, who Zeriiya describes as a 'record label manager seriously involved in making sure the project is what the creators really want it to be", had earned their trust. With these remixes, Frankie managed to turn a radio hit into underground club classics. The Paradise Ballroom mix conserves the essence of the original, reinterpreting the rhythm section whilst drawing it out over 8 minutes, with expert tension building and release clearly aimed at the dance floor.

Caused Corruption & Spilled Blood is a soundtrack to the tragic drama of humanity's fatal flaws. Inspired by an anecdote shared across the Abrahamic faiths, the release is a meditation on humanity's destructive
potential. It forces us to confront the ugly side of our nature and pose the question, were the angels right to fear our creation would cause corruption and spill blood
Same Script, No Solution provides one answer. The sonification of 'Ordo ab Chao,' the opening track guides the listener through the process of public manipulation, providing a backtrack to the obstruction of the truth for personal gain.
Third Degree Arson touches on humanity's second vice: the affinity for intentional destruction. Is there hope against these demons of our own nature
No Divine Savior suggests not. If we cannot rely on divine intervention for our salvation, that leaves only ourselves to overpower our own vices.
Yet with the discord of the final track, Sects, the listener is reminded of the deep cultural fissures that keep us from doing so.
The Caused Corruption & Spilled Blood EP is a powerfully provocative examination of human nature, a compelling first release from the collaborative efforts of Chafik Chennouf & Katsunori Sawa.

Rhyw is Alex Tsiridis aka one half of Cassegrain. On this, his solo debut for Arcing Seas, his smoul-dering alien techno sound manifesto continues to thrive over three unique tracks.

The morphing, deconstructed acid of 'Unpunishable' - a molten statement of lusty intent - strikes first in a heady, hazy pummelling of doom-funk. 'Vertisol' pushes crisp and dry snaking percussion through an anechoic chamber; the bass end neatly warming at first then burning hard through your mid section.
An icy cold shot of 'Aqua Velva' is the final offering - a pushing sub-level trip through Rhyw's private domain - where tingling rushes of bass and static charges wash over us leaving a sinful residue.

Label info:
Arcing Seas is an anagram of Cassegrain. It started out as a secret alias, releasing a couple EPs on Our Circula Sound. The secret was less well kept after the duo appeared at Berghain under this name. A year later, after deciding to start a label, it finally made sense to bring the two together.
CASSEGRAIN = Co S o S o G o R o N o A o E o A o I = ARCING SEAS

* The follow up to Shawn's Timespan album for Pittsburgh Tracks is "...The Next Planet Over"--an EP featuring four new tracks from Pittsburgh's synth maestro. The EP opens with "Works on Paper", which is like a cross section of Shawn's acclaimed improvised live techno sets. The collection continues with "Last Light On" and "Switching Rails"--two deep, driving synth numbers that are the product of Shawn's interaction with the beautiful surroundings of Pittsburgh and its Midwestern grit. Finishing the EP is "One More Sometime" a rare downtempo excursion propelled by synth bass and lush atmospherics.
* The follow up to Shawn's Timespan album for Pittsburgh Tracks is "...The Next Planet Over"--an EP featuring four new tracks from Pittsburgh's synth maestro. The EP opens with "Works on Paper", which is like a cross section of Shawn's acclaimed improvised live techno sets. The collection continues with "Last Light On" and "Switching Rails"--two deep, driving synth numbers that are the product of Shawn's interaction with the beautiful surroundings of Pittsburgh and its Midwestern grit. Finishing the EP is "One More Sometime" a rare downtempo excursion propelled by synth bass and lush atmospherics.

The Works of John B. McLemore, the star of one of last years biggest podcasts, S-Town, which is coming out on Dais. The story behind this release is truly fascinating.. the music itself is ambient remixes of Tor Lundvall's best works, but with John's idiosyncratic slant on them, with some having been woven together using the horde of clocks he use to keep in his basement. This story is really worth a read if you get a chance."In September 2012, I received an e-mail from someone named John B. who said he had assembled a lengthy remix of my music, which also incorporated some of his own material. John asked if I'd mind if he posted this recording on YouTube, to which I agreed. He also mentioned that there was a second part to his mix that was "roughed out", but never completed. I was curious to hear both parts, so shortly afterwards, John mailed me two CDrs which I enjoyed very much. The recordings were hypnotic and haunting, evoking images of vast fields at twilight. I was especially fond of the second disc which had a darker atmosphere and featured more of John's original material, beginning with ghostly clock chimes and ending with a mysterious piece using dried seed pods and other cryptic sounds that slowly built-up into an intense, almost claustrophobic environment.

My correspondence with John lasted about two months. In one of his final e-mails, John said "I have to observe that your paintings seem to have a great deal of loneliness involved in them... even multiple characters seem to be together alone, so to speak... I really appreciate looking at your paintings as well as your music, I think I have connected with the spirit of them both as much as anyone can." He went on to discuss his struggles with depression, caring for his aging mom and his concerns about the future. I tried to encourage his music as a possible outlet, perhaps as a means to help transform his feelings of loneliness into a more content solitude. Always easy to say, but as I well know, not always easy to do.

In his last e-mail in late October 2012, John sent me a beautiful slideshow of his Fall flower beds and his dogs. I was touched and I told him how much watching his video had brightened my day. That was the last time I heard from him.

Last year, I visited John's YouTube channel to see if Part One of his mix was still posted, which it was, and still remains. I was shocked and saddened to read in the comments section that he had passed away. The comments also suggested that John had received some sort of national attention recently. This quickly led me to the S-Town podcast. Although I had mixed reactions after listening, I was thankful that S-Town shed more light on John and his remarkable life... but somehow, I just couldn't place the person in the podcast with the person I had corresponded with. Had I not listened to S-Town, I would have remembered John as a very private, somewhat dark and lonely person. He may have been these things, but there was obviously far more to him than that.

After finishing the final episode, I decided to play the second, unreleased CDr of John's recordings for the first time in years. Listening to his clock chimes ringing in the dark was an eerie and chilling moment. I was reminded of a line from my song "29" which says "I live with dreams and a lonely mind, my clock is set to a different time". I wondered what those lyrics might have meant to him.

John had mentioned that he wasn't satisfied with his final mix, but I felt his work was too special not to be heard. I hope that these recordings offer another glimpse into the creative mind of a unique, complex and gifted individual who tragically left this world all too early."

Tor Lundvall
January 17th, 2018

JOHN B.'s NOTES:

This is what was intended to be the second part of my Tor Lundvall Remix series. Unfortunately I am dissatisfied with it due to a few defects, and it is highly unlikely that I will ever be able to complete it. Still it serves as a testament to my interest in the work of Tor Lundvall that I made it this far. Defects are as follows: The first movement is too 'fussy', and the first section of the fifth movement seems a bit long and may bore the listener, but since it consisted of so many slow moving textures, I don't know how I could redo it and still achieve what I was wanting to accomplish. Additionally, this recording was done just days before my Father died, and there are many feelings of guilt associated with the time spent on it. If you are receiving this recording, either you are one of my better friends, or you are a great admirer of Tor Lundvall, and requested that I send it to you.

1st Part: Basically a track of me fiddling around with old clock bells, and air turbulence mixed with Tor Lundvall and Field Recordings of rain, birds, cicadas, frogs and such.

2nd Part: My interpretation of Lundvall's Dark Spring. This track was inspired by the music of Carl Michael von Hausswolff.

3rd Part: Very ambient Field Recordings inspired by the work of Francisco Lopez.

4th Part: A Very Quiet passage consisting of delicate Field Recordings.

5th Part: Music performed entirely by me inspired by the Darker paintings of Tor Lundvall. Most of the instruments on this piece consisted of dried seed pods from the plant; Showy Rattlebox (Crotolaria Spectabilis), that I had collected and dried the previous Fall. There are other sounds from my own environment as well.

This mix was assembled in the Late Fall of 2003. There are some very Quiet passages in this piece, so it requires a nearly Isolated listening environment... It should be heard After Midnight, in the Late Fall of the year, and, not surprisingly, a Very Long Attention span is a Prerequisite.

John B. McLemore
September 10, 2012

Mindblowing Afro-Soul music from Ivory Coast served up by Deke Tom Dollard, an obscure artist who only recorded two albums in 1979 and 1981 but who created an original funky fusion with Bété langage. A Selection of four amazing tracks recorded in Abidjan on two different records label called War Records and As Records.

The music here is a mixture of Funk with heavy basslines, traditional percussions, funky guitar riffs, nice horns section and lyrics in Beté. The song Demonde' is inspired by harmonies of the famous Dance to the Drummer Beat' by Herman Kelly.

Those two rare records were found by Afrobrazilero (aka Djamel Hammadi) and never appeared on the vinyl market. It's almost impossible to have infos about this singer and composer neither the musicians involved in the recording sessions. Most of the traces of the recording session were lost by the labels we licensed the tracks with.

Unique, pressed on a deluxe vinyl, remastered by The Carvery, this very Funky album is a must have for all the Afro Funk lovers!

The optimum effect of Music of the Five Elements will be achieved if each side of this recording is played through, from beginning to end without interruption. Music of the Five Elements, when used as a meditational or body work tool, rather than entertainment, will increase in effect over time. Overplaying or improper use, however, may eventually diminish its designed effect'
.
Music is the healing force of the universe. It's an ancient idea bandied about by Pythagoras and Plato. In the last century, music as medication has been explored by musicians as diverse as Albert Ayler, Spacemen 3 and Pauline Oliveros. Nowhere did this concept gain more traction than in the so-called realm of New Age Music, an entire movement of synth droners and echoey flautists recording home-baked healing mantras on 4-track. In recent years, thanks to cassette collecting devotees and open-minded music journalists, New Age has shed its flowing robes and is being mined for the truly incredible music that swells under its pastel surface. Musician/acupressurist Sam McClellan's 1982 Music of the Five Elements is one of those revelatory discoveries, an unrivalled work of intense research and focus, simultaneously a near perfect work of art and a scientifically sound elixir for body and mind.

After studying electronic composition at Hampshire College with Randall McClellan (no relation), Sam McClellan became intrigued with the possibilities of healing through music. He explored this idea by applying the ancient Chinese philosophy of medicine to the principles of musical composition. Using the pentatonic scale (the traditional scale of Chinese music), McClellan related each of the notes to one of the five elements (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal Water), and created five variations for each. He experimented with tempo, beat, pitch, duration, and sound quality, studying the effect on people's energy levels. Using the results of his tests he developed a comprehensive theory of sonic healing and spent the next year composing an album designed to help people achieve inner balance, reducing anxiety and energy depletion.

Music of the Five Elements is not only the acoustic massage' that McClellan set out to make, but is a fully realized and peerless piece of music. Taking cues from Minimalism, American Primitive guitar (Fahey & Basho) and even psychedelia, the album is a continuous sound voyage for voice, synthesizer, guitar, bowed bass, piano, effects and ciao (Chinese flute) all played by McClellan himself. Although divided into sections, the journey is best undertaken as a whole, without distraction.

Double Vinyl edition of 300 copies w/ download code and etched d-side.

Breaching is the debut album from Leeds-based, 6-piece, post-metallers Hundred Year Old Man. Hot on the heels of recent EP Rei, Breaching emitsthe same heaving intensity and unforgiving, wall of sound approach. Dense and billowing riffs are intertwined with field recordings and spoken word passages to form an unyielding, sprawling piece of work that delivers the bands artistic vision perfectly. The more ambient, drone sections of the record compliment and allow the real songs to take flight. Debut single Black Fire is reworked to give the track a new lease of life, whilst the other heavy hitters here; The Forest, Long Wall, Disconnect and Ascension are a continuation of the excellent work found on the Rei EP. Breaching contains masses of atmosphere and is a ferocious and immersive listening experience. An epic, monolithic voyage full of texture, depth, aggression and emotion. This is an album that should be approached as a whole, with patience and attention. The rewards will deliver a unique, crushing and quite simply superb record.

Ultra tight & rare Soul / Funk stylings from Mississippi's Natural High outfit. Originally released in 1979 on the Chimneyville label, an obscure soul imprint operating as part of the Miami Malaco label family tree. This one has it all - lush strings and orchestration, tight as rhythm section, amazing songwriting and everything else in-between.
Amazing that this group only cut one LP and a handful of singles. The talent on display here is truly of another level and one wonders how such an album came to be.
Either way, this is an amazing set of rarest of rare grooves and the LP has been a heavily coveted item by the rare record cognoscenti in the past. This is a 100% legit repress, made in conjunction with the rights holders and remastered to the highest possible standard, a truly essential record for fans of quality underground soul & funk. Now's your chance to bag a copy for a decent price! Quality all around

Dublin based musician Lerosa has built an impressive discography throughout the years. With his first efforts dating back to 2005 the producer who has a broad palette of sounds has already been around for over 10 years with releases for a vary of respected labels.

For the first release on SAFTX , Lerosa hands out a taster of the labels new series ambitions. Vivrant house music is most definitely the back bone of Playa De La Guancha as a whole. The opening is packed with a strapping rhythm section and a vocal cut that is reminiscent of the Trax Records classic House Nation . Julius Steinhoff (of Smallpeople fame) gives Soul Tracing a modern sounding treatment that completely shifts the feel of the original and turns it into an adventurous piece of contemporary electronics.

Lerosa opens up the B side with Bruised which is a work out of alternating basslines and brutal machine claps that give the piece a club oriented feel. Acidic sounds cut through the mix with determination and wobbly synth sounds serve as a pleasant sauce for this intergalactic sounding work. Marauder is a hefty bit at a slower tempo than it s predecessors. A loose rhythm section is causing for the listener the focus on the immense LFO threated sounds that float on to and the low down bassline that supports the overall atmosphere in a grounded manner. Playa De La Guancha will be available through all specialized retailers starting early April.

The Pendletons return with their latest EP, Funk Forever, a Jazz flavored boogie affair with soul inspired song-writing that evokes old school vibes while still staying fresh and current. Horn lines, Yamaha dx7 keys and snapping hip hop inspired drum programming topped by sweet singing with heartfelt themes, the group carves out a bold new sound on these 5 solid tracks. Featuring Elive, Potatohead People and Ishtar.

The Pendletons are a long-standing boogie-funk and modern soul project of E da Boss (of Myron and E on Stone's Throw) and Trailer Limon. The group emerged with their very first release in 2010, a 7" inch of "Coming Down/Waiting On You" on the Slept On record label, which set the tone for the group to emerge... it instantly became a cult classic receiving constant play at nights like Sweater Funk and Funkmosphere, and fetching for serious sums among collectors. Most recently, in 2016, they released the EP "Gotta Get Out". The title track caught the ear of renowned DJ Gilles Peterson, who liked it enough to release it on his Brownswood Bubbler compilation.

In 2018 the group is hitting the ground running with a brand new EP out this spring, and a full-length album to follow later later in the year on the renowned Bastard Jazz label. Now armed with a horn section, a vast array of accomplished jazz and funk contributors, and a knack for quality song-writing, the Pendleton's sound has shaped into something fresh and unique, setting it apart from the legions of imitators.

There are some records that manage to sound both of a time and utterly timeless and Bon Voyage Organisation's Jungle Quelle Jungle (a nod to Supertramp's Crisis What Crisis) is one of those albums. Its silken-smooth production, irresistible grooves, funk-tinged guitars, lush soundscapes and general glowing presence could easily lead one to believe that have dug up a lost disco gem from the 1970s. However, behind the disco-pop gleam lies eerie dystopian sci-fi ruminations of a futuristic bent and tones that can often feel as French as they do Asian or African.

This sort of cross-continental exploration is an expansion on BVO's previous two EPs, the man behind the Organisation, Adrien Durand, says. 'I tried to continue the musical expedition between dystopian Science-Fiction Haunted Africa - plus Haitian Vaudou on 'Soleil Dieu' - and futuristic Asia. Addressing, in a double entendre manner, some of the political issues that I am sensitive to.' In fact the jungle in question in the album's title is a metaphorical one and one that creates a vast series of environments for Durand to explore such subjects as world trade, utopian ideals and themes of idols, as well as of time and communication. However, one will need to speak French to decipher such explorations, as well as shake off the natural impulse to move with every glorious beat on its 13 tracks, of which are moved along by Maud Nadal and Agathe Bonitzer's golden vocals.

Durand is a full-time producer based in Paris, working with the likes of Amadou & Mariam, so it makes sense that this record would absolutely sparkle in this department. Durand feeds off the variety of musicians coming and going during recording sessions as well as the rotating members and numbers of people involved with the band but fundamentally he writes all songs on piano first before bringing them to record live. 'We recorded a rhythm section of five - drums, percussion, guitar and myself on bass/synth bass and keyboards - at La Frette which is a studio located in a mansion outside of Paris and fitted with a beautiful 1973 NEVE desk. We only used analogue gear, by taste really, and found it a pretty reliable way of doing things. This simply consists of putting good players together in a room and waiting for the right take to happen.' Two four-day sessions and a 'cooling off' period (to let the recordings settle) soon followed before Durand picked the material back up to give it a final polish.

The resulting album is one loaded with intricacies and idiosyncrasies, something that Durand puts down to his own unique approach. 'I don't consider myself much of a songwriter but I love arranging rhythm sections and I'm pretty proud of the ones on this record.' This applies when it comes to working with such musicians as Inor Sotolongo Zapata, who with Durand used traditional Cuban percussive instruments and explored Haitian rhythms. When Durand expands on some of the ideas and influences that were funnelled into the record, you begin to get a sense of the vastness of the sounds that fill his world, from Trevor Horn's production work on ABC's Lexicon of Love, to the literary work of JG Ballard to the visual flair of the original Blade Runner and even the Tuareg sounds of Tinariwen, due to the fact that his studio neighbours their manager's and he would hear their rhythms bleeding through the walls. You therefore end up with an album that offers tracks such as 'GOMA' that fuses Chinese and African rhythms as well as 'SI D'Adventure' a piece of pop music that is dazzlingly hook-laden.

As a result of this cooking pot of sounds, influences, thoughts and creations, Durand has more of a gumbo approach to making this music than a set-out scientific formula. 'There is no definite recipe for me to like the production of a record,' he says. 'Of course it really sticks out that my work is really influenced by the 1978-1983 period, the golden age and last stand of analogue studios and session musicians.' Whilst Durand adores the traditional and conventional music, he really views this as something bigger and wider. 'I have a taste for the otherworldly vibe from records coming from less sought-after musical scenes, particularly Poland, Haiti, Ethiopia, Somalia, Congo and early Cantonese pop. Languages and the rapport of the people involved in the making of those records really inspires me. I particularly hate the use of the word 'World Music' as a potpourri for everything that doesn't sound quite western enough.'

Tim (aka Jean Marie Tiam)and the sadly departed Maurice Foty who died in 2011. The musical cousins hails from Bafoussam in Cameroon. Their signature vocal harmony sound may be the first thing you hear, however they also have produced a host of funkiest African funk around. They sing in their native language Ngomâlah, as well as Duala and English.

We start the album off slowly with the scene-setting and largely instrumental "Douala By Night". Tight guitar and choppy clavi drive this song along. The groove is so deep even Missy Elliot couldn't resist a cheeky sample. "Funky Bafoussam" carries on the theme and expands it to include a kick-ass horn section. "More And More" is next and here the vocals burst forth over this up tempo punchy pop-funk track. With "Love Is Light" the pair show their versatility with a smooth English-sung soul ballad.

The hopelessly upbeat "Aie" is next with its earworm keyboard riff, slice guitar and catchy falsetto vocal. "Not So Bad" brings on the boogie. "I Love Yaounde" is a smooth swinging boogie-ballad with a killer chorus hook. "Eda" is a hit from early in their career. We close of the comp with the disco funk of "Funky Boogie Love" and synth grooves of "Eya Mba".

The songs on the comp represent only a 2 year period but some of the finest from the duo. These days Tim keeps the Tim and Foty flame alive. He currently lives between France and Cameroon. A musical flame that most definitely is burning bright.

* From the pumping heart of The Magnetic System comes the 'dirtiest' Da-Da-dancefloor anti-jams with this lost 1979 blueprint of Italian conceptual cosmic disco played by the cream of the Goblin studio band. Ultra-rare and unscrubbed,Finders Keepers finally snip the trip from the cash machine to the trash machine.
* Carving its own grubby niche as an early prototype of cosmic disco cum Italo space funk whilst simultaneously harbouring Dada hat stand satire with a junkshop glam aesthetic, this ecological illogical poplitical crab cabaret clearly broke the mould before way before the jelly had set.
* Fans of 'other' obtuse outernational agit-camp might find a fantasy fusion between France's JP Massiera and Sweden's enviroMENTAL marvel Kaptain Zoom while trying to unravel the Madfilth tangle - but rest assured there were method men behind this madness and a portal to Italian funk royalty still festers
at the bottom of the psych rap scrapheap.
* Originally drip-fed out of Cesare Andrea Bixio's Cinevox stable as one of a tight grip of non-soundtrack LPs, made to test the label's commercial potential, Madfilth would follow the band Goblin (and their non-cinematic Roller) as well as the hens' teeth eponymous long player by the group The Motowns in what was perhaps the last-ditch attempt at custom built popsploitation - combining the skills of overqualified composers with undercooked conceptual mind belches. Naturally, after almost 40 years in the barrel, this micro-brewed oddity finally quenches the acquired taste of a new breed of shambolic psychotropic guzzlers proving that 1979 was obviously good year for fool's gold. The Madfilth medicine has finally come to cure your psychic ills so open wide and don't bite the spoon.
* It is beneath the flamboyant rhythm rants and vari-speed osric slop of alt-comedic sarcy-satirist Alberto Macaro (a genetic beneficiary of a vaudevillian comic bloodline) that we find The Magnetic System maestros Franco Bixio and Vince Tempera as the sonic driving force behind this unmarked treasure trove of
B-musical diamanté discoids. It will also come as little surprise that
Cinevox/Dario Argento favourites Goblin were not too distant from the whiff of this curate's egg with the men who many consider to be the group's greatest assets - bass player Fabio Pignatelli alongside sports rock drummer Agostino Marangolo. It was this unison that remained consistent throughout Goblin's career, weathering the temporary departure of Claudio Simonetti and
maintaining the stylistic heartbeat of the group. Madfilth's inclusion of Goblin synth Maverick Maurizio Guarini and the band's mid-period guitarist Carlo Penessi (founder of the band Etna) pinpoints the jobbing Goblin session group during the time they recorded the soundtracks for the films 'Buio Amiga' and 'Squadra Antigagsters'. This lesser-celebrated late 70s era also witnessed the mutating Goblin rhythm section providing discoid backbeats for records such as Giorgio Farina's 'Discocross' album, Simonetti's own Capricorn alter-ego and the homoerotic nightclub spin-off Easy Going - all of which, alongside Madfilth,
provide a strong mutual stylistic support system for their claim to cosmic disco's deep red bloodline.

Long time friend of the label, Neue Grafik, steps forth with his most fully realised offering to date. This record has been a long time coming, born out of a encounter in Paris back in 2016. This meeting of minds led to a blossoming friendship between Fred ( Neue Grafik) and Bradley ( RS INTL) which has taken them across 3 continents, countless dance-floors and finally crystallised onto this 12'.

The record itself takes cues from the broken-beat sound of London while paying homage to the Parisian house dance scene. Largely sample based, but also employing much more live instrumentation than ever before, Neue Grafik's music is informed by movement and in turn offers so much for Dancers to respond to.

The EP begins with the lysergic ebbs and flows of 'Innervision', ( in which Wayne Snow graces the record with a sublime vocal performance) and moves effortlessly to the uplifting bruk of 'Dance to Yemanja' via the staccato of ' to Peckham Rye'( a homage to the labels origins) , before finishing on the hauntingly melancholic tones of 'Aulnay's Tears' - an homage to the victim's of police brutality in the Parisian Suburb in 2017.

With releases on 22a, Beat X Changers and Wolf Music and a whole host of exciting plans for the near future - we're very pleased to welcome Monsieur Grafik onboard!

Led by Saxophonist Rob Mitchell, Abstract Orchestra have been a consistent presence on the u.k. music scene, touring constantly in the promotion of their debut LP "Dilla" and steadily building a loyal and supportive fanbase.Inspired by the legendary live performances of The Roots with Jay-Z and the 40 piece orchestral arrangements by Miguel-Atwood Ferguson of the work of J Dilla, classic arranging techniques underpin modern loop-based structures, breathing new life into familiar material.The band itself is based on the classic jazz big band instrumentation of saxes, trumpets, and trombones and features the cream of the north of England's jazz scene, who collectively have played with Jamiroquai, Corinne Bailey Rae, Mark Ronson, Martha Reeves, John Legend & the Roots, Roots Manuva and Amy Winehouse.

"New Day" is the eagerly anticipated new single and features rapper and J Dilla's brother Illa J on vocals. Supported by a U.K. tour with Illa J throughout February, "New Day" takes the blueprint laid out on last years LP "Dilla" and expands it with Illa J's understated vocal delivery. Radio support anticipated from BBC6's Gilles Peterson who has been an advocate for Abstract Orchestra on both his BBC6 and Worldwide FM shows, as well as Huey Morgan (BBC6), Shawn Lee (Soho) and Dom Servini (Wah Wah 45s). "New day" is the first original work by Abstract Orchestra and builds on the foundations laid on their debut. Flutes and electric piano lay out a gentle pad, propelled forward by Joost Hendrickx's insistent drums. Occasional fragments of saxophones add an urgency to the insouciant groove laid out by the rhythm section as soft trumpets and trombones are gradually added to the flutes. This provides the perfect foil to Illa J's laid-back vocal delivery as he describes a typically relaxed Tuesday morning spent contemplating the day ahead. The B-side is the AO remix which takes the instrumental performances of the A-Side, chopping and fragmenting them and re-framing the original with a slightly harder edge, which should be popular with those DJs and listeners looking for something with a tougher sound.

TenGrams are brothers Alessandro and Davide, who collectively have a deep and long understanding of dance music. Davide is a co-founder of N.O.I.A, one of Italy's first electronic live acts to perform and record with drum machines and synthesizers as early as 1978. He was also behind seminal Italo outfit Klein + M.B.O and proto house hit 'Dirty Talk.' Since then they have released under an array of aliases, have clocked up numerous club hits and this new project brings them back to their electronic roots, with influences like sci-fi movies and old school electro and italo looming large.Devious' is a very breezy and energetic track with a rolling arpeggio and rich keyboards section over a simply but groovy Tr-808 pattern. Classical Italo Space Disco sound updated to nowadays. 'Translucent' sounds like a dreamy electro-ballad heavily influenced by Kraftwerk. 'Pop Song' keeps the same 80's electro vibes with simple, wistful melodies and a great funk bass line. 'Disco Dub' is a pretty damn cool early eighties electronica, with a great pumping 'robo-funk' Linndrum!

The third chapter in the vinyl installments on Gaze ill's Danish Cue Line Records is written by Belgian artist Zygos, Georgio Roumans. An unforgettable piece formed by 3 distinct original tracks plus an outstanding remix by Italy's most wanted, DPRTNDRP (D- Operation Drop).

The EP opens with the toxic symphony of 'Laicism'. By chest pressuring hits right from the beginning, we're pushed into another world where everything is moving though it feels like time stands still for a moment. Mellow melodies formed in layers of feedback alike sounds and endless reverberated stabs generate a persistent tension held tight by the static, marching drums. The title track 'Sudd' forms part 2 of the journey through Georgio Roumans' explorative universe. To think everything can move this fast yet keeping a minimal expression is beyond reality. From 8th to 16th to 24th notes - variations through the bass, percussion, and melody sections - a discreetly conducted progression is reached throughout the track. Accompanied by weird background soundscapes the sub bass takes the lead on the tight Halfstep- package of 'Tapered'. The drums are simple and hard, which is just what's needed to tame and control the strong movements from the sub. Super minimal for the sound system. Italian DPRTNDRP brings new life to 'Sudd', which awakens in a completely different light than the tempo- filled original. Strange sounds and rhythms, raw and dirty. DPRTNDRP makes the remix a must hear.

The vibe is intense from start to end, and the EP hits perfection due to Georgio's naturally alive style, and the clever remix from the ever boundary pushing DPRTNDRP. Signature sound, deluxe on 180 grams heavyweight vinyl!

One of soul music's great female voices, Millie Jackson's reputation was made by the release of Caught Up' and Still Caught Up', released in 1974 and 1975 respectively.

Here we reissue Caught Up' on vinyl. Both albums deal with infidelity - and see it from both the wife's and the lover's point of view. The combination of spoken word raps and forceful, risqué lyrics was to become Millie's trademark for several years to come

Side One belongs to the lover and gives us an eleven-minute plus version of 'If Loving You Is Wrong'.

Superb backing from the classic Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section line-up of Beckett, Johnson, Hood and Hawkins features throughout, with long-time Millie Jackson producer Brad Shapiro at the controls.

Experimental Spanish composer and multi-instrumentalist Pepo Gala´n makes his vinyl debut with an exquisite record of carefully orchestrated ambient pieces.
Conceived as a fierce response to the gradual decay of our society, "Human Values Disappear" takes us on a trip to the darkest corners of a dysfunctional world, painting a broken landscape with deeply arresting and meditative drones.
Composed initially on a vintage Casiotone, the album was further enriched with lush and spacious arrangements, giving the songs a newfound intensity. In this effort, Pepo Gala´n surrounded himself with talented artists Lee Yi and David Cordero, each of whom bring their unique approach to composition into play. The result is an eclectic, yet deeply cohesive palette of sounds that flow seamlessly into each other, creating a moody ambiance that permeates everything.
Despite the bleak tones and subject matter, Pepo Gala´n is able to strike a balance between darkness and hope, allowing glimpses of light ("Half Moon", "Old Testament") to filter through the sheer sonic intensity of the fiercest tracks ("We Are All Welcome Here", "Almost Alone in this Life"). This transition is better exemplified on the album's centerpiece "Sacred Autumn", a collaboration with David Cordero that starts off with an elegant string section, gradually building into a guitar feedback climax that slowly fades off, paving the way for an epic closing number.
By the time we hear the last sounds of "Few Dollar More", the emotional impact of the record is undeniable. "Human Values Disappear" is indeed one of the most sincere, enigmatic and life- affirming records that Pepo Gala´n has ever produced.

Well before Shuggie Otis (Born Johnny Alexander Veliotes, Jr.) cut his debut album, musicianship and performance had long been a part of his life. The son of rhythm and blues legend Johnny Otis, Shuggie learned to play guitar as early as the age of two, and performed professionally with his father's band at eleven. Throughout his long and illustrious career he'd performed on records for the

likes of Frank Zappa, Al Kooper, Etta James, and George Duke, to name a few. In spite of all this, widespread mainstream success eluded Shuggie for much of his career. His most famous release to date is his 1974 album Inspiration/Information, which would experience new resurgent life in 2001. Those willing to dig a little deeper however, would discover hidden gold in his earlier releases, especially in the album directly before Inspiration/Information, his sophomore 1971 release Freedom Flight. As with his debut, Freedom Flight was produced by Shuggie's father Johnny Otis, and built upon the distinct sounds of his debut album: lush, baroque, string section arrangements, paired with hard funk rhythms, and funky blues melodies, with the majority of the instruments once again performed by Shuggie himself. The album also featured backing from premium session greats like George Duke and Aynsley Dunbar, and the track "Strawberry Letter 23". which became a Billboard hit for The Brothers Johnson 3 years later. An unearthed treasure of deft, technical skill, and virtuosic composition.

Dekmantel regular Matrixxman returns with the third, and final instalment in the Sector series, Part III: Polyphony. In this triptych, the producer from San Fransisco sets out to highlight the key components behind the sounds and style of techno, exploring the range within the confines of a particular limitation. Following Parts I and II, which looked at Rhythm, and Acid, Charles McCloud Duff charters the realm of Polyphony with four, meticulously produced techno tracks, expanding his repertoire of cult, dancefloor music.Polyphony refers to the simultaneous combining of many notes in a musical sequence. In electronic music, this specifically refers to the role of the synthesiser - such as the Minimoog, ARP Odyssey, which can produce different pitches simultaneously. Polyphony has been an integral characteristic of the genre's sound for over a quarter of a century, and can be heard in many key records, living a the sonic forefront of these four tracks. 'Sector Series: III Polyphony' provides an exercise in melody and polyphony. Throughout the EP, swaggering rhythms are inter-washed with a sea of multi-melodious, reverberated notation. 'Initiation' resonates with the grandiosity, and harsh claustrophobia of early Underground Resistance. 'Access Granted', drives hard with pulsing effects, with a dystopic, rhythmic cacophony of euphony. 'Desert Planet' plays around with a differing tempo, imagining a more fantastical vision of music, echoing back to earlier Plastikman productions, using a vast sonic spectrum to conjure up a colour palette of alien imagery. 'Horizon' rounds things off; a track that builds on minimalism with a progressive composition, allowing the polyphonics to drive the track, harnessing the adept production qualities that Matrixxman has come to be recognised for.

It's impossible to talk about this album without acknowledging the spectre of death that hangs over it - not only is it the third entry in Strata-East Records' Dolphy Series, a collection of archival recordings from some of the label's close associates honoring the recently deceased multi-instrumentalist, but it is actually dedicated to two members of the band, Wynton Kelly and Kenny Dorham, who died in between the recording sessions and its release. The point is driven home even further by the fact that the album begins with a tribute from Payne to the fallen Martin Luther King, Jr., a piece that acts as a de facto solo for Dorham - his playing all rosy elegance and regal warmth - before shifting into the lighter (though equally coolly-paced) "I Know Love," a showcase for Payne's sax. While not the most somber jazz track ever recorded, this opening suite is a low-key and mournful way to open the affair, but thankfully the album really picks off and shows these musicians more in their element the rest of the way.

"Girl, You Got a Home" is a funky piece, beginning very soulfully with some tight interplay among the rhythm section of Kelly, bassist Wilbur Ware and drummer Albert Heath. Ware is in especially fine form on this track, tying together the disparate passages of the piece by grounding the more ponderous moments in a deep funk, while Kelly's playing is especially ear catching in the way he stabs at his piano like it's an organ. After the first two tracks take up nearly twenty minutes, the four-minute "Slide Hampton" feels almost impossibly brief, a feeling that's enhanced by its quick, jittery, and infectious rhythm, driven by some really dexterous work from Kelly. The final track, "Flying Fish," may be the album's highlight, a Caribbean-inspired composition that casts the rhythm section as flighty ground for both Payne and Dorham to vamp on. The track is oddly danceable for something released on Strata-East, maybe the most fun moment ever for the label, and relentlessly uptempo. Though this release may be in part defined by the deaths that preceded it, it's clear that the recording process was actually a lot of fun for everybody, as their enthusiasm and energy jumps right out of the speakers. This is one of the first Strata East records I really got into and is still one of my favorites, a must-hear for any fans of the flightier moments of Dorham or Kelly's career, and a fitting tribute for both master musicians.

Nicole Willis, known for her collaborations with The Soul Investigators & Jimi Tenor produces an album including some of the tracks she composed with the former as well as originals specifically for a fresh collaboration with UMO Jazz Orchestra. Jimi Tenor, who is a multi-faceted artist, has penned all arrangements for the big band and their talented rhythm section. Pete Toikkanen who is a mega-talent guitarist from The Soul Investigators, along with the two, composed those original tracks that highlight their alternative influences. Indie god & personal hero of Ms Willis, Ian Svenonius introduces Ms Willis on the first track and wraps up the LP with a final plea.

The Black Pearl is very proud to present a real 80´s futuristic proto club banger from the STRÖER Brothers, with lots of clubby remixes by buddies & friends. The original track "Night Falls" was only released on a very limited hand-spread promo 12inch, which was especially pressed for the Kunstdisko art-project for the 24th Olympic games in 1988 in Seoul / South-Korea. Together with the Goethe Institut they created the "Kunstdisco" project for germany, which was located at the Yoido Ankara Square and took part for the german Seoul Olympic Art Festival. The Ströer Brothers, who were responsible for the video & music sector, invided and encouraged 25 young german composers and producers (among of them was the young DJ West Bam) to produce new music for the Kunstdisco between Rap and new electronic club music from the end of the 80´s. The Ströer Brothers, together with Howard Fine & Nadeen Holloway, were presented  through many DJ´s who played their music that they espacially created for this event. Next to the in-house project Mudegg, the single audio tracks of "Night Falls" were givin to musical buddies like First Touch, Enzo Elia, DJ Rocca, Siggatunes and Manelet to remix them and Black Pearl is more than proud to present a great variety of remixes, styles and visons on the original track. 

Recorded in 1953 and 1954 with a veritable who's who of West Coast cool jazz including backing from Zoot Sims, Bud Shank, Shelly Manne, as well as arrangements from Jack Montrose, and Shorty Rogers, Chet Baker & Strings is a beautiful and airy collection of some of Baker's most sultry trumpet work. The string section perfectly complements the cool jazz quintet backing and makes this one of the Baker's finest and most unique sets. Essential.

Purveyors of enigmatic dreamscapes and organic, danceable electronica, Leeds-based, electronic-soul quartet Noya Rao are set to release their debut album, Icaros, this November. Founded by producer Tom Henry (Cosima, Yellow Days) Noya Rao was originally conceived as a solo production project with a separate live band representation. Alongside bassist Jim Wiltshire and drummer Matt Davies, whom Tom had met playing in other bands within the Leeds music scene, the project grew to become a collaborative effort mixing Tom's production ideas with the attributes of Jim's unique bass synth lines and Matt's polyrhythmic beats. Their compositions drew on the influences of jazz, hip-hop and electronic music whilst incorporating the sounds of the bass-heavy-dub music synonymous with the Leeds music scene. Their sound really came into focus when they met vocalist Olivia Bhattacharjee who brought her gospel style and complex choral harmony to the band. Developing from raw, psychedelic improvisations, their sound became more defined and minimal, underpinned by live instrumentation and more structured song writing. This co-existing electronic and organic thread gives the band a strong identity and their powerful live show sets them apart from other producer-led bands. Matthew Halsall from Gondwana Records saw the band perform at an intimate show in Manchester in 2016 and blown away, signed the band on the spot.

Icaros takes the listener on a journey through the band's unique sound-world amplified by Tom Henry's bold and inventive production techniques. Sometimes fragile, sometimes raw and visceral the album opens with the ethereal Azimuth. It's contrasting sections and mysterious chords offer echoes of the band's instrumental beginnings whilst the repeated vocal harmony layers at the end demonstrate a signature feature of the new Noya Rao sound. Moments is the first tune they wrote together and reflects upon taking joy in the everyday: the opening womb-like chords are another distinct sound of the band. The gritty Golden Claw describes the effects of a manipulative heartbreaker, it's darker, more driving and has a ruder '80s flavour. Midas demonstrates the band's use of linear structural forms and complex rhythms influenced from around the globe. It tells the story of someone who, led by greed, made some regrettable decisions. The atmospheric Dreaming Part 1 and Part 2 are sumptuous dreamy soundscapes. They were born from the same epic improv-based writing sessions as Fly, which has a trippy disco vibe, offset with wonky chords and crunching vocal harmony. The hook-led I Feel points to future ventures for the band: mixing their electronic textures with a more formal song-writing approach. A sublime slice of dreamy space-jazz, Same Sun Will Rise, finds Olivia contemplating mankind's utter selfishness and a desire for change, "Over borders we've assigned, same sun will rise'. Minimal and spacious, This Time demonstrates the merging of ethereal edginess and delicate songwriting. It is this combined with their electronic and live approach and more than a hint of Leeds attitude that gives Noya Rao their unique sound.

Native New Yorker Son Of Sound aka Henry Maldonado returns to Delusions of Grandeur with another fine EP including two floor-friendly originals plus a stripped back remix from Aroop Roy. For those too young to have been buying records in the early 90's Henry was a key figure, involved in seminal releases on Strictly Rhythm as House 2 House, Maxi Records as Deja Vu and MAW Records as Rhythm Section. To say this guy has history is something of an understatement having made an important contribution to the first wave of deep house with productions dating right back to '91. More recently he has created magic for Jus Ed's Underground Quality, Classic, Razor n Tape and Local Talk as well as establishing his own District30 imprint.
We kick off with NY Iz All I Know, a warm, soulful yet pumping slice of what can only be described as proper house music! Looped up vocal chops bounce around a classic disco groove until things breakdown into a new chord progression and saw wave bassline which add an interesting twist to the arrangement. Skin Tight drops next introducing a funk break underneath the solid four on the floor kick. One of Henry's trademark chord progressions emerges and the elements build up around to form another masterclass in sample-heavy house perfection.
Aroop Roy steps up for the remix following a run of fine edits and originals on the likes of Freestyle, Basic Fingers and House Of Disco. NY Iz All I Know gets stripped back and pumped up, taking the key elements and adding his own disco inspired groove and Moogy synth business for a floor- pleasing gem that we're sure will help find him new fans from across the house and disco spectrum.

Reissue for Tomorrow's Modern Boxes the eight track second solo album by Thom Yorke
Tomorrow's Modern Boxes is the eight track second solo album by Thom Yorke. The album is a sketchy laptop creation. It plays like a journey on a night bus with an edgy atmosphere of unpredictability, mixing melancholy, urban soul with some lurching monotony. Yorke's alienated falsetto mumbles and whimpers over furtive dubsteppy beats that could be coming from the headphones of the passenger beside him.Tomorrow's Modern Boxes deepens on repeated listening, with Yorke locating moments of beauty and calm in the eye of his anxiety.

Printed with a metallic silver laminate and multi-tone black, the LP format of the album is pressed onto heavyweight 180g white vinyl completed with undersize 75mm centre labels, housed within heavy white board inner and outer sleeves. (Side B contains a locked groove.)

* Walton drops his third instalment on Tectonic in fine style, calling upon Japanese influences to create a truly unique sonic across both tracks in the release. Asian instrumentation meets directly head to head with the cutting edge sounds of a UK grime-techno axis to great effect.

* 'Praying Mantis' captures all the charm of a fine Japanese watercolour painting by means of some spectacular midi-harp programming. Hi-hats and detailed percussion set a shuffling pace, building the mood up before a beautiful harp section unfolds and takes over, expertly programmed by Walton to sound as if a master harpist had stepped into the room! As drums and bass join the party we have all the makings of a low-slung grimey masterpiece, both soothing and energising in a perfect zen balance.

* Flip then for 'Koto Riddim' which again brings Japanese influences to the forefront of the track. Walton programs classic sounding Japanese percussion sounds along with grunting vocal cuts and a charming flute-based melody. As the track drops, it switches into a more familiar, grime-based palette of sounds, deftly arranged for most dangerous impact.

Betino's Records proudly presents its third release: an EP by the very sharp collective The Big Hustle. The band founded in 2014 by bass player and composer Sébastien Levanneur, brings
together 70's old school funk with the hippest actual sound with influences spanning from Steely Dan to Snarky Puppy, from Mandrill to Lettuce and from Herbie Hancock (Manchild era) to Soulive.
With mighty horn players, a rock and funky rhythm section, and percussions added to it, The Big Hustle's music has a very large variety of sound landscapes. Still, the music never loses the groove and always stays close to the funk.
The A side opens with "Afrorever", a tribute to African culture and music. The guest of honor on this song is legendary Malian musician Cheick Tidiane Seck, longtime partner of Salif Keita, and collaborator of Joe Zawinul, Carlos Santana and Damon Albarn to name a few. After Cheick's introduction, the songs jumps into a typical afrobeat vibe featuring a tight and powerful horn section, suddenly breaks into an electro funk groove and ends in a furious percussive party.
Second track on the A side is "Faure is the Magic Number". It is dedicated to Thomas Faure (co-composer of the track) and François Faure (both featured on this song on tenor sax and keyboards respectively). This piece displays the band's ability to blend jazz-funk groove with a heavy hip-hop beat. Kind of DJ Premier meets Steely Dan.
The B side starts with "Afrorever (Sun's Up Mix)". Through this mix, one can acknowledge instantly Olivier Portal's touch. From the very first chords, he conveys us into his realm blending warm and melancholy keyboards with an old school deep-house rhythm pattern.
The fourth track is called 1, 2, 1, 2'. It is a purely improvised moment in the studio while the band was sound checking before recording with special guest rapper Raashan Ahmad. Nicolas Gueguen had the good idea to press the R button and what you hear is basically what happened afterwards.

Enjoy!

Les Disques du Crepuscule presents an expanded edition of classic festive album Ghosts of Christmas Past, featuring favourites from the original 1981 and 1982 editions now joined by newer tracks by Crepuscule artists.
Sometimes witty, sometimes melancholic, the original version of Ghosts of Christmas Past in November 1981 featured exclusive contributions from luminaries such as Tuxedomoon, The Durutti Column, Paul Haig, Michael Nyman, Aztec Camera, Thick Pigeon and The Names. Subsequent editions in 1982 and 1986 added songs by Antena, Mikado, The French Impressionists, Pale Fountains and Winston Tong.
For this new double CD version in 2015 Crepuscule have now added more chantons noel by Blaine L. Reininger, Section 25, The Wake, Marsheaux, Deux Filles, Stanton Miranda, Virna Lindt, B Music and Ultramarine.
'Crepuscule's Christmas cracker is here to rescue the festive season from the fogies and bores"(Melody Maker); "Aztec Camera's Hot Club of Christ is a busy, Django-esque run through a few well-known Christmas ditties, Michael Nyman's Cream or Christians is a silly but loveable fragmented organ collage in a typical English eccentric tradition, Tuxedomoon are in playful Residential mood' (NME)
Cover art by Jean-Francois Octave. The remastered 2xCD is sleeved in a deluxe 6 panel digipack.

Disc 1:
1. Section 25 Jesus Sweetly Sleeps
2. Miranda Dali Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
3. The Wake Jesus From the Block
4. Marsheaux We Met Bernard Sumner at a Christmas Party Last Night
5. Ultramarine Winter Circle
6. Isolation Ward Lamina Christus
7. Thick Pigeon Jingle Bell Rock
8. Aztec Camera Hot Club of Christ
9. Paul Haig Scottish Christmas
10. B Music Rocking Carol
11. Tuxedomoon Weihnachtsrap
12. Virna Lindt Festivo
13. Blaine L. Reininger Jingle Hell
14. Blaine L. Reininger Silent Blight
15. Blaine L. Reininger Xmas Blooz
16. The Durutti Column Snowflakes
17. Monks in the Snow A Theme for This Special Evening

Disc 2:
1. Hillcrest Club Breakfast at Christmas
2. Paul Haig Christiana
3. The Names Tokyo Twilight
4. The Durutti Column One Christmas For Your Thoughts
5. White Birds Possessed By the Stars
6. The Swinging Buildings Praying for a Cheaper Christmas
7. B Music Ode to Joy
8. Antena Noelle a Hawai
9. The Pale Fountains Benoît's Christmas
10. The French Impressionists Santa Baby
11. Simon Topping Peep Show International
12. Thick Pigeon Silhouettes
13. Deux Filles The Snow Falls and the Village Is Overflowing With Children
14. Mikado Message de Noël
15. Winston Tong The Twelve Days of Christmas
16. The Arcadians Write Your Letter
17. Michael Nyman Cream or Christians
18. Magazzini Criminali Honolulu 25 dicembre 1990
 
 

Rick Lenoir and Larry Thompson aka Black Traxx dropped several volumes of their own brand of chopped up Disco sampling, deeper side of House. From 1991 through to 1994 the Black Traxx EP's were showing up in record stores, obviously giving respectful nods to other Chicago DJ's and producers the tracks included on the EP's contained a DIY spirit and rawness that were key ingredients. Lenoir, with the technical assistance of Gary 'Jackmaster' Wallace has revisited these classic releases for 2017 and the pair have turned in some special, exclusive extended versions of some of the highlights from the series.

Kicking off the first Black Traxx sampler is 'Climaxx', a stripped back, slow burning acid cut with more than a similarity to 'French Kiss' complete with ultra slowed down section in the middle. Far from a copycat, 'Climaxx' is it's own beast, a truly atmospheric track that tweaks in all the right places! 'Doctor's Housecall' is up next, a cut-up of Disco burner 'Doctor Love', a Chicago staple for sure. This is a brand new extended version of this jam, serious heat on this one, you all know the sample by now! Undoubtedly a nod to the legendary Ron Hardy and his mythical Muzic Box club, this one hits the spot.

On side-B we get a new version of 'Your Mind Is So Crazy' lifted off Volume III, this one's a pumping, breakbeat laced party starter. Vocal samples, synths and swinging drums all collide to form a real peak-time monster of a track, pure 90's style runnings! 'Retrospace' is the last track on sampler 1, it's a melding of Chicago House, breakbeat and bleeps. If you dig the sounds that emanated from Sheffield way back when, or the you're into the early hardcore sound pre-Jungle then this is the cut for you. Fast paced and funky, 'Retrospace' is a real hidden gem of a track, featured here in it's original form lifted from volume II.

This reissue has been realised with the full involvement of Rick Lenoir and Gary Wallace and is 100% legit! All exclusive extended edits have been made by Rick and Gary specifically for this release. Don't snooze, this one deserves a spot in any self respecting House heads record bag or DJ set, classic material made available again for 2017 - You can't stop it!

Clergy returns for its 9th instalment with a club ready EP of serious weapons from label mainstay, and one half of Works Unit, Reflec. The four track release opens with 'Acid Response', in which Reflec has combined a tough rhythm section with a growling 303 to create a high energy roller guaranteed to keep the dance floor moving. Continuing on this trend of heavy hitting rollers, 'Osmosis' is a drum track through and through, which incorporates dark and sweeping atmospherics into the groove true to Reflec's form.

The B side see's host to 'Canyon', a peak time Clergy anthem with heavy, driving drums complimented with a spacey and emotional pad on the breakdown. Clergy 009 is rounded off by a broken edit of 'Canyon' which exchanges the driving kicks for a fragmented rhythmic style, a nod to the UK roots of Reflec's musical style. .

From the twilight zone of Rhythm Section International comes a new label for 2017: INTERNATIONAL BLACK. This is the offshoot's 3rd release this year and the machine shows no signs of slowing down. Bradley Zero's ear for new talent continues to pay off as we are introduced to yet another young pair of producers, Mallard & LT, going by the name of 'J DEEP'. Mallard, a 19 yo Jazz student who made a big splash with his debut RS INTL EP, 'Verte', returns with a track aimed more squarely at the dancefloor. Although hypnotic and ethereal, it packs a punch, with the arrangement and musicality belying Mallard's
musical training at Trinity College.
On the flip side, Mallard joins forces with another promising producer who goes by the name 'LT' in their collaborational partnership known as J.Deep. Complex jazz chords swim around 909's to create an elevating techno roller that climbs and climbs only to give way to sparse rave stabs and ecstatic snare patterns.
Tried and tested for the best part of a year, these are 2 serious jams, proven to cause dancefloor frenzy.

As a contrasting follow-up to our first single from Rooteo &
Mahura's Metta album, the second single on Made In Green
Records keeps the format intact with entirely different results. Deadbeat's remix on part one was both respectful and subtly transformative; on part two, New York's upcoming Max McFerren, whose busy 2015 included EPs on Ultimate Hits, Allergy Season, and 1080p, brings us a startling reinterpretation of album closer 'Harmal' very much in keeping with the vein of raw, aggressive house coming from Brooklyn since that scene's resurgence. The original version of 'Harmal' finishes the album in fine style, blending tablas, celestial electronics, and short melodica phrases that gradually swell with layers of vocal samples and orchestal pads before reaching a climax and slowly dying away in gradually receding layers of ambient electronics. McFerren's remix leads off with only a bare framework of techno percussion. The entry of a sampled section of melody from the original signals a rapid transition to more abrasive territory, with sheets of metallic noise slashing through the high end, short vocal syllables stuttering, and an insistent bass pulse building up and breaking down with at least one element constantly in motion.

The return of Timothy J Fairplay sees tracks from his 2 EPs on Emotional Response remixed on one special release. Four favourite producers chosen to bring new dimensions to his brooding, shuffling electronics, featuring Scientific Dreamz Of U, Alessandro Parisi, Perseus Trax and Antenna.Part of the label since inception, the last five years have seen TJF's career explode with releases on Bird Scarer, Charlois and Hoga Nord, setting up the Crimes Of The Future label with Scott Fraser and releasing an album alongside Andrew Weatherall as The Asphodells. His EPs for Emotional Response saw some of his strongest, deep and dubbed out productions that marked their own terrain and these reworks have been a long term project. Starting with a trance inducing breaks-dub of Stories of Prison from Scientic Dreamz Of U and you understand why this mysterious producer has become a cult in his own dreamtime, as subs bump this vortexed revision to its own portal.
Next Alessandro Parisi implants his cyber-electro-harmonies to Aim For The Yellow Sector. Fairplay's late night drive-by is respectfully given a future-retro mix, gliding away from East London's dank streets to mysterious plains and beyond. Things take an analogue twist for the flip with Perseus Traxx showing his love for Chi town on his remix of Saco Bay. A bumpin' bass sets the motion, mixing the swirling original to basement vibes x 10. Win win win.
Kindred spirit and fellow Pinkman/Charlois member Antenna closes the EP with a deep retake of Night Ferry. After causing a stir with the killer Odessa EP and subsequent releases on Royal Oak and Beats In Space, a remix was a given. A mellow groove and optimistic keys is the perfect way to end this chapter of Timothy's music and await for new adventures.

For ANMA's fifth release, Reekee aka Italy's Riccardo Masi has produced a classic cut of uplifting house, quintessentially jamming a thunderous rolling groove with soft jazz piano. Ecstatic synths unleash their primal screams throughout before the Hammond steps up and raises the bar! Remixer Ricardo Miranda cooks up a veritably frantic electronic jungle of idiosyncratic pulsing square waves and marimba voodoo soup, before Vick Lavender takes over the B-side with nigh on ten minutes of organically blissful jazz and groove experimentation. Vick's Mix comes rooted with percussive breaks and a solid evolving rhythm section and is brim-filled with sleazy vibes, tender electric licks and rapturous synth pads swelling us into elation!
Lovingly pressed on 180g vinyl, hand stamped and labelled.

Juxta Position returns once more to his own imprint with two slices of epic techno. Kinaesthesia is a subtle tool track with added depth, as waves of synth chords wash over deep percussion in increasing intensity. Barrier Block however hits straight between the eyes, with its fusion of varying styles. A half breakbeat rhythm section builds in intensity before an early 90's Frankfurt influenced melodic synth construction reveals itself, culminating in a spectacular crescendo. Two more essential cuts for your box, do not miss!

John Tareugram presents his first physical EP on Tartine Records. It includes
four good groovy house compositions aligning strong rhythm sections. Side A
is very punchy and contains the title 'Panier de Basket' wich came out via Le
Tournedisque last year. Side B, more audacious and made up of two delicious
snacks will make you hungry for more in the late hours of the night...

For someone who went from growing up in a secluded Norwegian forest to producing for some of the biggest hip-hop and pop megastars on the planet, Peder Losnegård has had quite the journey.



It was through a series of remixes that Lido catapulted into the sets of the most high-profile DJs around the globe, capturing the ears of numerous notable tastemakers. Reworking acts like Disclosure and Bill Withers, the producer set the Internet ablaze with talk of his four-note piano tag and speculation as to who was underneath the moniker. While his playful, restless musicality saw him adopt an array of aliases — but he'll keep those under wraps for now.

Debuting on Pelican Fly with 2014's 'I Love You' EP, followed by the 'Superspeed' EP, and remixes of Banks, Alt-J and MØ, Lido's anti-formulaic style emerged. His tracks bounce from one idea to another voraciously, but always with that clear Lido stamp. You don't just get a drum and a bassline on a track of his; you're more likely to get an entire string or brass section that elevates his sound to cinematic heights.

Sublunar is glad to introduce their new release. Following the trilogy signed by one of the two founders of the label, Sciahri, it is now time for a new artist's debut.
Ladan, young Iranian producer at her first release, presents 'Section', a record made of 5 carefully selected tracks that range from bass-driving techno to sharp experimental excursions.
The EP's opening piece is 'Spectres', characterised by an increasingly deep, disquieting atmosphere. The body of the piece is stroked occasionally by metallic elements which make the whole sonic spectrum resonate.
On the same side we find 'Zone.2', an elegant, propelling techno piece painted with a similar colour palette of the previous piece.
The B side starts with 'Rebound', where hypnotic, overlapping melodies and broken rhythms entwine in an enveloping, uplifting musical development.
We also get a glimpse of Ladan's fierceness with 'Fault Line', an outburst of stomping, plastic rhythms sculpted synthetically, followed by 'Knives', a razor-sharp groove that creeps under the listener's skin.

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ALFIE DAVISON first came to prominence in the early seventies as a DJ on the New York dance scene breaking cutting edge singles such as Soul Makossa' by Manu Dibango. Eventually he hit with his own song -- Who's Gonna Love Me' -- recorded by The Imperials and breaking the U.K. Top 20 in December 1977. Davison did record his own version which saw a release in the U.S.A. on the RCA imprint, but it failed to chart.
However, it was his sublime single - Love Is Serious Business' - that propelled him into the Northern Soul Hall of Fame. Released on Mercury Records in 1979, in both 7 and 12-inch formats, it was an instant hit in the North of England where it packed the floor at Wigan Casino courtesy of the forward-thinking DJ Richard Searling who, at the time, favoured the rare 12-inch import.
Sadly, the song failed to chart despite a favourable reception in the trade magazine Billboard, although, oddly, it was reviewed in the Pop', rather than the Soul' section. Davison was completely unaware of the serious' club action that the song received in the U.K. and he never performed it in public, until Ian Levine met up with him at the dawn of the new millennium, in Brooklyn, for the filming of The Strange World Of Northern Soul'.
Alfie Davison passed away in 2014 and leaves behind a small but precious legacy that will be forever cherished in the Hearts and Souls of Northern Soul fans worldwide.

Jimi hitting the Soundtrack section for this one....

Having made her mark on Brazil's rich musical legacy with three best-selling albums to date, Rio's original nu-bossa queen returns with a tour de force of golden-era Brazilian soul music. From the spiritual swing of the early pioneers of modern Samba, to the dizzying hedonism of Brazil's eighties disco/boogie craze, Clareia is a life-affirming journey through the rich and varied sounds Sabrina Malheiros has been immersed in since she can remember. For her most up-lifting and danceable album to date, Sabrina has (as always) enlisted her father Alex Malheiros - bassist of samba jazz-funk legends Azymuth - and visionary London based producer Daniel Maunick (aka Dokta Venom), son of Incognito's Bluey.

Sabrina Malheiros' career has often been characterised by her place in the succession of those special Brazilian women who, with unmistakable talent and effortless grace, have encapsulated the magical energy of Brazil with their voices. Elis Regina, Astrud Gilberto, and Joyce all had it, and Sabrina Malheiros has it in spades.'(MOJO) With her debut album Equilibria in 2005, Sabrina arrived on a wave of instant acclaim, carving out her place as the pioneering voice of a new brand of Brazilian soul music, rooted in the traditions of samba and bossa, but with an edge of contemporary electronic sophistication. Sabrina's innovative nu-bossa sound would continue with the 2006 remix album 'Vibrasons' followed by sophomore 'New Morning' - declared the best album of summer 2008'(Evening Standard), before 2011's best-seller Dreaming.

Six years on, Sabrina returns with Clareia. Itmeans to clear, light, brighten or illuminate, which, after seeing Brazil and the rest of the world go through some very difficult times, is exactly what the writing of this album brought to my life.' All tracks are written by either Sabrina, or in collaboration with her father Alex Malheiros and producer Daniel Maunick. Written and recorded in Niteroi, Brazil, overlooking Gunabara Bay and Rio's beaches, mountains and forests, the music basks in its surroundings and sings of ecological beauty, peace and sanctuary. Echoing Sabrina's emphasis on clarity, Alex notes that the album's title represents an appeal to the minds of our civilization today, to clear our thoughts for good and for peace.'

This pursuit of clarity continued into the studio: It took a little longer than usual' notes Sabrina, which was good in way, as all my previous albums were recorded in rush and we usually had a week for pre-production and another week in the studio, which always gave me the feeling that I could do better. With this album it was different... we took our time.'

Sabrina's unmistakable voice has never sounded better. Packed out with high-octane swinging samba-soul, like the title-track and 'Salve O Mar', the album also features some bottom-heavy Brazilian boogie cuts, like rejoicing album opener 'Celebrar' which harks back to some of Marcos Valle's cult '80s disco output, and 'Sol Ceu E Mar' is a Tania Maria-esque future classic of scorching latin-funk. Mellower moments are found in 'Em Paz', on which Sabrina's beguiling harmonies find an anchor in the rhythmic acoustic guitar of Ze Carlos', who Sabrina heralds as being the best guitarist I have ever worked with'. Azymuth's keyboardist Kiko Continentino's deft Rhodes, piano, organ and synth playing, add ever more textures of distinctly Brazilian brilliance throughout, while tropical brass and flute arrangements on cool bossa-jazz movers 'Vai Maria' and 'Sandore', come from Brazilian saxophone legend Leo Gandleman, a man who has worked with everyone from Gal Costa to Gilberto Gil. The rhythm section combines Daniel Maunick's seamless drum programming and the organic polyrhythms of Brazilian percussion legend Jakare, all punctuated by Alex Malheiros' inimitable (occasionally slapped) jazz-funk bass, giving the album its irresistibly danceable pulse.

Set for release at the height of summer this year, Clareia is an intergenerational masterclass of Brazil's soulful spectrum, led by a pioneering voice of today's scene on the very top of her game. The up-lifting compositions, which take inspiration from the stunning natural beauty amongst which the album was made, and the call for the clarity of mind needed to preserve it, are enriched by this special team of some of Brazil's most established musicians. Like the sun breaking through tropical storm-clouds, Clareia is a vessel of joy, as Sabrina puts it simply, I hope Clareia brightens the soul of whoever listens to it. That's the spirit of this album.'

The release of the Elements EP marks the return of Antonio De Angelis to Dynamic reflection. After the initial success of his Hyper EP on The Nursery Series , the London based producer is back to deliver his first full 12 for the mother label. Displaying great versatility, De Angelis demonstrates his unique talent to catch different sounds and vibes within a clearly coherent style. Giving his own unique twist to everything from powerful dance floor killers to deep mind trippers and all that is in between, Antonio De Angelis delivers a timeless EP that is as versatile as the elements it is named after.

The Cologne based Techno label 'Sector Music' starts with its first release from 'Sector Cologne' founder Kavaro and two stunning versions of his tracks from NX1 and Milton Bradley. Kavaro started the well known event series 'Sector' more than 4 years ago and plays as well as a resident dj there. After many years organizing his events and staying behind the turntables it was time for him to make music itself. At Sector he played along James Ruskin, Rrose, Paula Temple, Dasha Rush, Ancient Methods, Inigo Kennedy, Vatican Shadow and many more great artists. Milton Bradley from Berlin played already 3 times at Sector and the spanish duo NX1 played live in the first year of the event series. The new record label Sector Music will always have a connection to the Sector Events. This release will be first vinyl exclusive because Kavaro is known for his excellent all vinyl dj sets and he highly supports other vinyl djs.

Emotional Rescue and Jamwax come together to present the first of three essential 12's from NY/Jamaican label Capo Disco, all officially licensed and remastered for the first time. The brainchild of reggae vocalist, musician, producer and label owner Glen Adams, the label married disco with his Caribbean roots to perfection. TIP! Born and raised in Jamaica, Adams story is a similar one to the performers of the golden period post-Independence. Initially discovered as a vocalist by Coxsone Dodd, he went on to work with such luminaries as Ken Boothe and Stranger Cole before co-founding The Heptones and working Duke Reid, Bunny Lee and Lloyd Charmers.
As a session organist he worked for The Hippy Boys, The Reggae Boys and later with Lee Perry's The Upsetters. Here he came in to the orbit of The Wailors, touring England with them in the early 70s and with Perry co-wrote Mr Brown. When most of The Upsetters became Marley's rhythm section, Adams stayed with Perry before making the move to Brooklyn in 1975.
There he started Capo Records, running it and it's sub-labels, successfully until the mid-80s. During these later years he ventured in to mixing Reggae with Boogie and Disco rhythms and released just four 12's under Capo Disco as well as recording boogie and hip-hop influenced releases with T Ski Valley and as Glen Adams Affair for SAM and Moonglow Records.
Here then the spotlight is on Adam's nascent disco releases and the series starts with the wonderful, uplifting A Beat For You. Actually appearing on a one off sister-label, Top Secret, this is a beautiful 'Lovers' anthem from Adams over a laidback dub-bass riddim. Backed with a simple instrumental Version, the space and interplay of the keys and guitar over drum and bass is superlative. 'There is a beat in my heart, just for you...just for you.'

Delakeyz is swiss producer Melodiesinfonie's moniker when taking a journey into more housey realms. On this voyage he explores his musical roots in three percussive-driven belters that still manage to maintain the subtle melodic textures that we all love from Melodiesinfonie's work. Manchester's own Contours (Rhythm Section Int./ Banoffee Pies) picks up the more gentle tone of the original in his remix of 'Walkingfree' while Moony Me's (Uncanny Valley/ Lagaffe Tales) interpretation of 'Our Roots' is a full-fledged club heater. Vital Sales Points: Early support by Marcel Vogel, Harvey Sutherland, S3A, Chaos in the CBD, Nachtbraker

A stunning version of Steve Reich's masterpiece of musical minimalism Music for 18 Musicians' (1974-1976) performed live at Tokyo Opera House in 2008 by The Modern Ensemble and Synergy Vocals featuring the composer as guest performer.

In the 1960s, with Terry Riley and Philip Glass, Reich gave pulse back to experimental music, he discovered tape-based techniques of looping and phasing using recordings of fragments of speech, and then molecules of musical material.

(...)When Steve Reich released Music for 18 Musicians (ECM, 1978), it was a consolidation and major leap forward in the pulse-based music that the minimalist progenitor had been exploring on earlier compositions including Four Organs' (1969), a piece that relied on nothing more than a six-note chord, yet was a near flat-out sonic assault. 18 Musicians was an altogether more complex and sophisticated work, with a broader textural palette based largely on tuned percussion—piano, vibraphone, marimba and xylophone—but also working with maracas, voice, strings, and clarinets to create a sweeping, hour-plus long suite that was hypnotic, melodic, and eminently accessible. With the mathematical precision by which its eleven sections and wrapping Pulses' develop, it's a demanding suite to play (...)"

Conceptual Records presents you its third vinyl only release Univers Parallele written by a music producer from Canada, Montreal Claire. Inspired by her tour in Europe in 2016, Claire finally embodies her absolutely cosmically sounding ideas in three original composition: Pyjama Jazz, Sometimes I Turn Into stars (on side A) and Parallel Dimensios ( on side B) , in which she uses futuristic sounds, analog drum sections, deep bass, jazz sections from the 30 s and her own vocal. The last track of this release is a tribal dance mix from a talented modern musician of romanian origin living in Ibiza Plusculaar (on B2). Mixdown and mastering by Pheek. Covert art from Djack Arta a moldovian artist. Plunge into the fascinating musical journey to a parallel universe with Conceptual.

The Haggis Horns will release their fourth studio album in September 2017 and as a little teaser, they drop a summer single worldwide on June 9th via their own Haggis Records, a feel good bouncing hip-hop/funk jam featuring guest UK MC/rapper Doc Brown. Think back to the dawn of hip-hop in the early 1980s when the first rap singles featured the Sugarhill Records house band laying down heavy funk grooves for MCs like The Furious Five and Treacherous 3 and you get the flavour. No-nonsense party hip-hop/funk for b-boys, soul sisters and funk brothers! And keeping with that old school flavour, it will come with a limited edition 7" vinyl pressing alongside the digital single and feature an instrumental version on the b-side with the Horns cutting loose on the solos.

Now in their 19th year, The Haggis Horns are still as popular and busy as ever playing clubs and festivals around the UK and internationally and finishing this new album for autumn release. Expect another slab of heavy funk and sweet soul with longtime vocalists John McCallum (Corinne Bailey Rae band) and Lucinda Slim on various featured tracks plus the hip-hop collaborations with Doc Brown. As always, their famous super tight rhythm section holds it down alongside one of the UK's best horn sections of the last 2 decades whose gig/recording credits include Mark Ronson, Amy Winehouse, Jamiroquai, Martha Reeves & The Vandellas and Lily Allen.

Music is Love boss returns to his home label after a few brief excursions on Hot Creations & Viva Music last year, and he returns in style. 3 summer time slammers and a stella remix from the Mak & Pasteman boys. Middle Ground is a dusty filtered house track, aligned with a soaring string section, which narrate the warm uplifting journey this track lays down. Mandingo was made as a tool for Oli s sets last summer and after some huge reactions and some serious demand, Mandingo was set for a vinyl release. Big stabs and plenty of funk this track is party ready. On the flip we find Mak & Pasteman return to Music is Love after an appearance on the 3rd LOVEBOX VA in 2016. Piano4 is flipped into what these boys do best, Simple stripped back grooves delivered with stupendous power. On B2 is the original take on Piano4 which sees Oli flexing his power house muscles on this big piano track. Piano4 is an unrelenting beast that twists and turns its way through various passages of maximum intent.

Ekoplekz returns with his fourth album for Planet Mu, in the shape of 10-tracker "Bioprodukt". The unique lo-fi, woozy sound of Bristol's Nick Edwards stays intact while he veers towards the nineties for inspiration: the bleep and bass sound of the north of England is one touchpoint and the acid gurgles of the 303 are another. While the murky lo-fi production levels and evocative melodies remain, they are now bolstered by a more muscular rhythmic chassis. Snappier kicks and snares mingle with dense layers of percussion and deep undulating sub-basslines adding a funkier edge, as typified by opening track "Elevation" where playful beats interlock with breezy keyboard flourishes to create something uncharacteristically upbeat. Similarly, the gentle, fluid motion of "Slipstream" and "Calypzoid" represent some of the most appealingly chilled grooves in the Ekoplekz canon to date. But the darker-edged material remains. "Expedition" has a pensive, percussion-heavy feel whilst "Acrid Acid" is a dirt-encrusted slow-mo techno meltdown. "Transcience" displays the Ekoplekz trademark dub-fx in full flight over a driving lo-end, before "Descent" leads down to the final section, where the beats fade out, replaced by rippling layers of spectral ferric ambience on the epic "Low-X Over", before finishing with the radiant looped stasis of "Denier Daze". The albums shifting, mperfect patterns and muted colours are visually mirrored in the beautifully realised sleeve by the Print Project.

Never before reissued, this legendary 1968 EMI recording is a revered Indian jazz rarity, a collectors' holy grail. Raga Jazz Style is an original Indian excursion into Indo-jazz fusion. A one-away recording from the almost unknown Bombay jazz scene, it is among the few jazz LPs to hail from the subcontinent.Closely contemporary with the UK-based explorations of Amancio D'Silva, John Mayer and Joe Harriott, Raga Jazz Style takes the melodic, scale-based raga system of Indian classical music and marries it with a swinging jazz rhythm section assembled by Bollywood's most highly acclaimed musical directors, the soundtrack composing duo Shankar Singh and Jaikishan Panchal.Singh and Panchal were a dominant force in Hindi film music from the late 1940s onwards. Shankar had been trained in classical tabla, while Jaikishan was an expert harmonium player. They worked together on well over a hundred films, and their innovative compositions and orchestral scoring revolutionised the music of the nascent Bollywood industry. Central to their sound was regular collaborator Sebastian D'Souza. From 1952 onwards, D'Souza would work on every Shankar Jaikishan soundtrack, eventually becoming Bollywood's most coveted musical arranger.
Originally from Goa, D'Souza had cut his teeth in the dance-band era, arranging and playing with his uncle's jazz bands in Lahore and Quetta. After Partition, he had moved to Bombay to follow the reliable work provided by the film industry, where Goan musicians had become the mainstay of Bollywood's film studio orchestras. Goans were also the core of Bombay's thriving dance-hall and hotel-based jazz scene, with artists including saxophonist Braz Gonsalves, guitarist Amancio D'Silva and trumpeter Chic Chocolate all working in the city during the post-war years.
The team assembled for Raga Jazz Style were drawn from this inventive and forward-thinking milieu. Pianist Lucilla Pacheco, saxophonist Manohari Singh and guitarist Anibal Castro were all fixtures on the Bombay jazz circuit, while drummer Leslie Godinho is reputed to have taught Joe Morello the 5/4 'Take Five' beat when they jammed together during Dave Brubeck's State Department tour of India. To this jazz backbone was added the sitar of Ustad Rais Khan, scion of long line of classical instrumentalists, and nephew of the renowned sitarist Ustad Vilayat Khan. Bombay's jazz modernists had been experimenting with the fusion of ragas and jazz since the 1950s, long before American or British jazz musicians had tuned in to Indian classical music. But very little of this exciting scene was ever captured on record. Raga Jazz Style offers a rare chance to hear the innovative sounds of the Indian jazz scene, as peerless composers Shankar Jaikishan and arranging supremo D'Souza join with veteran Bombay jazzers to explore classical themes in a jazz setting — eleven ragas to a swinging beat!This is a highly impressive inaugural salvo by Outernational Sounds, using original masters and beautifully rendered facsimile artwork, with 180g vinyl pressed at Pallas, in Germany.

Until he was about 20, Texas-born Melvin Sparks was a rhythm & blues guitarist, backing Jackie Wilson, Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye as a member of The Upsetters. But Sparks gave up his seat on The Upsetters' bus in New York City, where a chance introduction to George Benson led him to a place in soul jazz history. Melvin played and recorded with Lou Donaldson, Leon Spencer, Bernard Purdie, Jack McDuff, Jimmy McGriff, Idris Muhammad, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Charles Earland, Grover Washington Jr., Reuben Wilson and so many more. Even during the quietest years of soul-jazz Melvin stayed relevant through hip-hop and r&b, a quick search at WhoSampled turns up more than 150 samples of his funky chicken scratch. And Melvin's legacy is heard in contemporary soul/funk bands like The New Mastersounds, Soulive and The Greyboy Allstars, all of whom he also guested with several times before his early departure from this realm in 2011.

This release documents Melvin's final band just months before his death. Organist Beau Sasser and drummer Bill Carbone had been working with Sparks for several years, and, despite the power dynamic - they were in their early 30s, Melvin an elder-statesmen of the genre - the unit was sharp, relaxed and performed Melvin's music with a jovial spirit. The trio played the Burlington, VT club Nectar's regularly, but this night featured two "onlys." Per the recommendation of Nectar's agent they used the "Grippo Horns," the only time Sparks used a horn section in the last several years of his life, and they allowed a multitrack recording of the show. Both were strong decisions.

The tracks on this album, lovingly mixed by guitarist, producer and Melvin Sparks fan Eddie Roberts, demonstrate that Melvin played as well in the final months of his life as at any time. Sparks counts "Whip! Whop!" off at what he said The Upsetters called a "showtime tempo," and peppers it, as well as most of the album, with quotes from jazz standards, pop songs and cartoon themes, all woven effortlessly into the bebop-funk dialect he helped create. He unfolds amiable melodies, patiently and methodically, through his several-minute lead on "Breezin'." And Sparks is audibly uplifted by the Grippo Horns helping him perform his 1973 arrangement of "Ain't No Woman" for the first time in decades.

After 3am Recordings' return to 12' in March 2016, which straight into the Juno Deep House Top 10, it's time for label boss Al Bradley to unleash his own 12". The original of Night Owl has been working like a charm - a deep & bass-heavy affair, coming on like Franck Roger or Djebali wearing their slightly more chunky-vibed studio hats (or something.....). Pressed For Time main dude Goshawk, tweaks his remix taking the cue from the original bass into key-led deepness, with added percussion elements & warm vibes ago-go. Fellow 3am geezer Michael Scott takes a real diversion & strips things right back in freaky trippy minimal style, reworking the vibe of the track completely. Closing the 12", fourfourfour heads into Berlin electronic territory, shifting the focus to the main percussive section & coming out with a massively powerful yet stripped back beast of a remix. Serious damage incoming....

An object resists changing its state of motion with inertia. What pushes back must then be even more vigorous in order to create a uid movement. An example of the force that embodies this dynamic can be found clearly on the appropriately titled Inertia, Aiken's much anticipated return to Chronicle. The Spanish artist has been spending years honing his craft, focusing on sharp, distinct sounds that create a pure sense of kinetic energy. The title track of
the EP bolsters a erce disarray of carefully (de)constructed atonal synthwork and a rhythm section that is set to detonate. It is then followed by 'Axial', a track that stays as true to modular miscalculations as it does to stripped down techno, combining both in a subliminal cessation of sanity. However Aiken isn't done there. He continues with 'Magnetism', which throws a brick in the glass of conventionality with its earth-shaking layers of textured momentum. Phased pads then wash over 'Soul Drama', bringing the entire experience

to an emotionally laced denouement. After the potency of his last record on Chronicle as well as his releases on imprints such as his own label Timeline and the Spanish powerhouse Semantica, Inertia marks a de nitive step forward for an already exceptionally de ned artist.

Outta the shadows and into the strobe-light, Alex Lewis aka Turinn debuts on Modern Love with a highly rinsable debut double-pack of sawn-off brukbeats and anxious, nerve-riding grooves brewed in the ravines of North Manchester. Turinn emerges from a new generation of producers in the city that include longtime spar Willow, and upcoming producer Croww, soon to offer up his own debut recordings.
Crooked and rugged AF, but tempered by an acute emotive sensitivity, 18 1/2 Minute Gaps renders a bleedin' cross-section of mongrel, hybrid style 'n pattern in a breathless, deceptively freehand fashion that comes riddled with an electric blue energy all of its own.
Committing ten trax of fractious, mutant funk and sore feels, 18 1/2 minute Gaps serves to cap Turinn's formative phase of production like a lead lid on a nuclear rave implosion; trapping original 'ardcore 'nuum, Detroit booty and dank post-punk elements in a perpetual flux of in-the-pocket grooves which ravenously attempt to split at the seams, alternately pushing into Muslimgauze-like buffer zones of distortion or resoundingly wide ambient dimensions, and often both at once.
On the first plate, this ambiguous dichotomy is epitomised between the rare surge of quick/slow torque in Ovum, which almost sounds like Chris Carter sparring with Burial Hex, and then in his nod to the Italian new wave with Elba, which seems to find the square root between Lorenzo Senni and some skudgy as heck Kassem Mosse grind, whereas the bittersweet soul of 1625 finds compatible links with his close peer, Workshop's Willow as well as Japan's Shinichi Atobe and scene enabler Move D, while Parratactico swaggers into quantum dancehall meters.
The second disc is no less deadly: the album title track runs at a nexx level Detroit momentum like DJ Stingray flipping Derrick May and Carl Craig's Kaotic Harmonies, before ESO cuts in like a super cranky El-B wearing itchy Primark underwear, and the bone-rattling hardcore jungle of Spawn soon enough gives way to the sweetlad couplet of Petrichor and Ondine, where his elusive, distressed melodic touch really shines thru.

New Order Presents Be Music is a compilation of productions by members of iconic Manchester group New Order, including classic dance and electro tracks released on Factory Records between 1982 and 1985, as well as more recent remixes for current artists such as Factory Floor, Marnie, Tim Burgess and Fujiya & Miyagi.
The generic tag Be Music was first used in 1981 and covered studio production work by all four members of New Order: Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert. Sumner often teamed with Donald 'Dojo' Johnson of A Certain Ratio, including the pioneering electro cuts featured here by Quando Quango, 52nd Street, Marcel King, Paul Haig and Surprize. Morris and Gilbert worked with Thick Pigeon, Life, Red Turns To and also 52nd Street. Although more rock orientated, Hook proved he was no slouch on the dancefloor either with the mighty Fate/Hate by Nyam Nyam.
'Producing was a really important sideline,' recalls Bernard Sumner of the Factory era. 'It's OK doing it because although all the groups are skint, you learn a lot and you're helping somebody.'
After 1985 the band focused more on producing their own records, both as New Order and solo projects such as Electronic, Revenge, The Other Two, Monaco and Bad Lieutenant. However in recent years Stephen Morris in particular has remixed several newer artists, notably London industrialists Factory Floor, as well as former Factory workers A Certain Ratio and Section 25.
Bonus tracks on the 3xCD box set include Knew Noise by Section 25, produced by Ian Curtis and Rob Gretton of Joy Division way back in 1979, and the complete 22 minute version of Video 586, recorded by New Order themselves in 1982.
 All tracks (12 on vinyl, 36 on the CD) are newly remastered. The liner notes feature commentary on the tracks by the artists and the members of New Order. Design and packaging are by Matt Robertson/Peter Saville Studio.

'A Paraiba Não É Chicago' is a smasher from the very first beat! Golden era Brazilian boogie by Marcos Valle from 1981, with a brilliantly hooky chorus section. Originally released on his 'Vontade De Rever Voce' LP. 'Não Quero Mais' is VERY reminiscent of The Doobie Brothers 'Long Train Running', delivered in a Brazilian style - vintage disco-boogie vibes but with
a more soulful chorus section. Originally appeared on Don Beto's 'Nossa Imaginação' LP from 1978.

'Zibaldone I of CVX' is the first in a series of releases from Rupert Clervaux (Sian Alice Group, recent collaborations with Beatrice Dillon, Spring Heel Jack, Treader Records...) which take their name from the title of Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi's extensive notebooks. They are collections of sketches, vignettes and musical footnotes to Rupert's ongoing and varied endeavours as a musician, listener, reader and writer.

This first piece is in five sections (titles listed below), consisting of three thematic poetry recitals, read by Clervaux and others over sweltering ambient arrangements, along with two clattering percussive tracks created using a variety of sounds across the fidelity spectrum and finely sourced, layered samples. The result is a meandering and diverse musical journey which threads together succinct meditations on originality by Leopardi and Silvina Ocampo, and salutary warnings from Hölderlin and Derek Walcott!

'Zibaldone I' is presented as a 12' with a fold-out poster by Belgian artist Coline Cornélis.

From the whip-like crack of Yako's signature staccato vocals and impossible-to-memorize lyrics to the relentless overdrive tempo of their oneof-a-kind prog-core, Melt-Banana have long resided in a cybertopia of their own devising where the limits of technology and human capability are old-world concerns as quaint and cumbersome as bartering with a blacksmith. The demos for Fetch, their first studio album since the severely fried pop-punk of 1997's Bambi's Dilemma, were completed in March 2011, but the Fukushima earthquake changed everything, including
their ability to concentrate on recording. Which stopped completely.

Once they felt ready to return to their music, they decided to approach the songs on a sound-by-sound basis, choosing each tone with meticulous attention to detail, affirming their personal connections, being themselves naturally and openly.


Fetch scrapes glam shimmers off punk's outermost fringes and forges them into a rather intensely technical Deanscape packed with fantastical hybrids. Agata's guitar riffs, seemingly composed in tandem with skipping CD players, are more bad-ass than ever, bright and fractured like the soundtrack for a CC-Hennix-scored biker flick. The album is juiced with electronics and post-rock production, tempering what could easily be a
tiresome and predictable frenzy, yielding unexpected associations: Kate Bush climaxing on Walter White's blue meth; demos of late-period Wire playing metal run through Wasp synthesizers and Autotune; unripe wild
lychees keeping time on an Ankgor Wat tin roof during a monsoon.

They've been performing live as a duo since summer 2012, and will do the same for their '2 do what 2 fetch' tour in support of the album. After nearly 20 years of playing with a live rhythm section, their use of a PC, while opening possibilities for a variety of drum and synth voicings, does not signal a move away from the traditional live band sound, as heard, for example, via the future transmissions from downtown Noiseapolis on
2009's Lite Live: Ver. 0.0. Yako and Agata say they need to feel real band sounds onstage as much as someone in the audience. This is a group that routinely excels at several kinds of impossible simultaneously, so of course any new challenge they come up with for themselves is sure to blow the doors off your Mini Cooper. - First record as a duo expands the M-B sound
into multiple dimensions - LP includes digital download card; first
pressing on clear vinyl

Before Bob Marley came on the scene, many in Britain dismissed reggae as either the stuff of one-hit wonders or skinhead
dance music. Now it is recognised as influential style, which has not only sold millions of records worldwide but had a major effect on the mainstream. But only a few of his fans realise the man's recording career was as lengthy as it was: though he died aged just 36 in 1981, he'd been active in the studio since 1962 onwards.Despite some of the tracks featured here would be re-recorded on later albums, these 'prototypes' exhibit a rough-hewn, soulful feeling. We all knew his music was timeless, this was but further proof.

Deluxe LP w 180g, Reverse Board Sleeve, MP3 Download - HOLOVR is Jimmy Billingham who also records under the alias's Tidal, Venn Rain, Journey of Mind & Holographic Mind - He has released music on Firecracker Records, Opal Tapes and Hooker Vision as well as his own Indole Records Release Information Anterior Space may strike some listeners of a certain age as an echo of the gilded age of "armchair techno" exemplified by Warp Records' Artificial Intelligence comps. There's a similar convergence of the cerebral and the blissful in the four epic compositions HOLOVR (aka Jimmy Billingham) finesses from his analog and digital synths as that found on those early-'90s pieces by Black Dog, B12, and others. Discussing the creation of Anterior Space, which is the first HOLOVR release to feature no beats, Billingham reveals, "Dropping drums gave me a bit more freedom in terms of tempo and rhythm, and it was actually really liberating. Having fewer elements in a track also meant it was possible to record live, which is my preferred way of working, as you can capture an actual snapshot of time and a natural, in-the-moment negotiation of the different elements of a track. I'd know a track was ready if I could sit there and listen to it looping round for long periods of time and really get lost in it, and then I'd try and capture a nice section of that in the space of 10 minutes or whatever." You can hear this on Anterior Space's opening 11-minute track, "Into Light." Its subtle gradations of warped tones and implied rhythms teem with hyperactive elegance. The titular light glints off of several jeweled facets, like a disco ball made out of diamonds. The slow, mobile-like rotation of synth baubles over a foundation of yearning, icy drones on "Apparent Motion" creates the illusion of a shimmering stasis, but there's actually a great deal happening here. .

Black Truffle is thrilled to announce Reverse Tree, the new LP from the acclaimed duo of Eyvind Kang and Jessika Kenney, two musicians who have established themselves as powerful voices working at a unique intersection of contemporary composition, improvisation, and Asian traditional music forms. Either individually or as a pair, they have worked in contexts ranging from performances of traditional Persian and Javanese music to collaborations with Sunn O))), but their work together as a duo (documented on The face of the earth and Aestuarium, both released on Ideological Organ/Editions Mego) most clearly represents the central concerns of their diverse practices: a music of the inner life of sound, demanding ritualistic focus and promising heightened sensations.
On Reverse Tree, the duo expand their work together into the realm of the chamber ensemble, presenting two side-long works that feature Kenney's voice and Kang's viola alongside a multitude of other instrumentalists. Kang's Thoughts on Being Exiled to the Frontier, for Lord Wei, inspired by a text by the Tang dynasty poet Hsueh T'ao, features an all-star international ensemble: Kang, Kenney, maverick Israeli conductor Ilan Volkov on violin, Icelandic cellist Hildur Guðnadóttir, and guitarists Oren Ambarchi and Stephen O'Malley. The piece is primarily composed of irregular patterns of pizzicato notes and guitar harmonics, gently falling in and out of sync and providing a subtly unstable support for Kenney's voice, which sings long, wavering tones, at times reminiscent of Michiko Hirayama's classic performances of Scelsi. Drawing on 20th century instrumental techniques, alternate tuning systems, non-western music and the experience of nature (the irregular rhythms of the piece calling to mind nothing so much as drops of rain), the piece opens a space both serene and subtly uneasy.
Kenney's 'Elm features Kenney and vocalist Nova Ruth (of Filastine & Twin Sista) alongside an ensemble of strings and Seattle's Gamelan Pacifica, performing on Javanese instruments tuned to the slendro scale. An uncanny timbre created by bowing the keys of the Gamelan's instruments, supported by bowed harmonics from the strings, is heard consistently throughout the piece. After a long introductory section in which this harmonic cloud slowly descends from shimmering high notes to rumbling bass, the vocalists enter, singing a slow and stately setting of a 19th century Surakarta poem (attributed to Mangkunegara the IV). The melody is sung as a rich and wavering heterophony, with the ensemble sometimes rising up to support individual notes. The poem deals with the idea of a form of knowledge achieved through deeds, as a practice and state of the heart. This is music in slow motion, in which, in Kenney's words,

Lessismore (formerly Lessismorecordings) was launched 10 years ago, and has been on hold for a few years. At the time the transition from vinyl to digital didn't feel right and now that the vinyl market is coming up again the love and faith to release a beautiful product (vinyl with cool artwork) is back.This 10 year anniversary is a good reason to revive from hibernation state and to start sharing great music again. The first few releases from the relaunch will represent re-releases of the strongest EP's from the back catalogue with remixes by respected artists.

The Alexis Tyrel remix of Estroe's Taxotere has a palpable energy which comes from the masterful fusion of pounding kicks and luminous synth stabs that swell and bulge out through the mix like bright flashes of summer lightning.

The Advent remix of MBC's Zeitlupe starts with a galloping synth that builds in intensity. Just as one is lulled into a "false feel" of the track, the synth part transforms into the syncopated groove of the original version. The track fluctuates between both patterns periodically. With several intriguing modifications of the main sound throughout, and with a pacey aggression, this track is both fierce and deep.

Gideon also remixes Zeitlupe and in his version the intensity is increased a little more. The main groove is prevalent again which drives this remix. However, the real profound sections are where the beat breaks down and yields to the resonantly electrifying lead synth which consumes all in its path. Conspicuously powerful and driving.

Once more on remix duties, this time Gideon interprets Alexis Tyrel's H for Hustler. Rhythm and percussion based, it exemplifies Lessismore's ethic - it is both fundamental and bold. Strong and steady machine like beats push the track along relentlessly while industrial scrapes grind away on top. The "Hustler" sample is sporadically placed but is still used enough to give a hypnotic feel to its use.

The original version of H for Hustler by Alexis Tyrel focuses on the basic elements that are at the core of timeless dance classics. The captivating and hypnotizing beat powers its way throughout. The "Hustler" sample is used rhythmically to great effect while the perfectly aimed machine-gun snares find their mark and are perfectly positioned to hold attention and build atmosphere where needed.

Call it future-step. Call it deep-step. Call it autonomic. Call it whatever you wish, but one thing is for sure - Hidden Element hailing straight from Kiev, Ukraine fail to make their music disappoint. With a fresh take on electronic sounds ranging from breathtaking beat-less layers to +/- 170 BPM heavy hitters, these two have been making waves in the industry for some time already, releasing on 22:22, Alphacut, Med School, Pinecone Moonshine, and Translation - to name a few. But it is Absys Records that is the home for their full-length album entitled 'Together'. The release is a collection of 13 amazing pieces of work, each hitting a slightly different tone, but making a wonderfully coherent whole. An entity that is enjoyed best when all of its components are played together, as the title suggests. The album focuses in majority on a rather home-listening experience, with tracks like 'Aura' or 'The Night' setting the pace for a pleasant evening chill and boosting the laid-back mood even further with "Quite Place" or 'Without You feat Kiyomi' - both infused with lovely vocals - that can serve well as modern-day lullabies. But there are also more lively accents ('Long Way Home with Physical Illusion', 'Who Knows'), traces of live instrumentation ('The Next Day feat John LaMonica'), or ambient ('Bridge'). All in all, you get a fantastic cross-section of contemporary electronic music, a masterfully composed package of nothing but pure listening pleasure.

It's been five years since his acclaimed debut 'Severant' and time has proved it prescient, its futuristic trap influence is now ubiquitous. 'Slow Knife' seems to return to where 'Severant' left off, but with the intricate sound design of last year's haunting EP 'Assertion Of A Surrounding Presence' subsumed into the compositions, making them more exacting and beautifully crafted. Between albums Kuedo has been working as a sound designer and composer for hire and the application of intent and widescreen rigour that commercial work requires has definitely found its way into the new album. 'Slow Knife' has the subtlety, ambition and pacing of a brilliant soundtrack - a sense of an album of scenes, that easily lends itself to an impressionistic narrative. But, as with 'Severant', the title suggests relationship unease, with the slow knife being a metaphor for the building resentment in any close relationship. 'Slow Knife' is almost two albums, the first half, according to Kuedo, invokes the seduction of the city, taking the music of Michael Mann's 'Manhunter' as a cue, with the latter half being inspired by the bloody starscapes and voodoo wilderness of films such as 'Angel Heart', 'Night Of The Hunter' and more recently the 'True Detective' series. Both halves of the album are also in thrall to Mica Levi's inspiring 'Under The Skin' soundtrack, especially in the turbulence of the mid-section. The songs of the albums first half are synthetic and seductive, a gelatinous veil with shades of the pseudo-sophisticated trance of Enigma, of all things, underpinned with dusky unsettling shadows and atmosphere. 'In Your Sleep', perhaps surprisingly, features the vocals of Hayden Thorpe from Wild Beasts, who settles his dark, whispered vocals into the moonlit shadowy atmosphere. 'Floating Forest' is the first track to allow back some of Kuedo's experimentation with the Southern rap template, which he explored before it became commonplace, with echoed drum splashes and a sinister repetitive motif, ending with a haunting growl. The second half of the album enters wilderness territory with 'Approaching's slow descending notes, before 'Broken Fox - Black Hole' throws the record into the cathartic darkness, as undulating chords play hide and seek with riotous reeds and scratchy strings grown from challenging collaborations with cello player Koenraad Ecker (from Lumisokea). 'Breaking The Surface' shivers and coils, before metal and strings dominate while 'In Your Skin' feels like being lost in a vast hinterland before 'Warmer Light' introduces some memories of sunshine, with its plucked bassline and spiralling dub. 'Halogen Light' opens with the sound of crickets and a clear piano, cleansing the soul before 'Lathe' brings things down to earth with a short, yet powerful coda.

The debut vinyl release of Detroit underground mainstay Sterling Toles features tracks produced between 1998 and 2006, recently unearthed by Sector 7-G Recordings. Sterling emerges from a scene of producers that prided themselves on sampling distressed vinyl and lo-fi analog production as a reflection of the mental and physical environment of the post-industrial city. Sterling carries that sonic dialect with him as he nomadically incorporates the language of other genres, variously exploring soul, ambient, Detroit techno, and folk sensibilities. From the ambient/folk impressions of "grace, i will now let go..." to "inga 135" sounding like 90's jazz-inspired hip-hop having a ghettotech dream, "Archival Arteries" is grounded in the sonic palette associated with Detroit's ethereal and minimalist boom bap hip-hop style. These tracks hold the imprints of Detroit's expansive musical institutions such as The Electrifying Mojo, The New Dance Show, and CBC radio's Brave New Waves. Created with just an Ensonic EPS sampler and a VS 1880, this EP captures the fluid musings of this indelible artist