quête:the stone

Two stonecold classic UK Garage songs from 1997 are thrown together for this extremely limited colour 10” release.

Tumblin’ Down – Bass Organ Mix, is a previously unreleased version taken from the Tuff Jam vaults.
Dangerous – ‘2 In 1’ Remix, is brand new for 2024 and sees Karl and Matt back in the studio to deliver a fresh take on one of their biggest tracks.

The strange thing about the music of Anima is that it’s often considered as strange, while it’s actually very natural. It has a free spirit, analog to nature. For this release the natural spirit is strengthened by the participation of indigenous American flute player and composer R. Carlos Nakai who did a series of concerts in the US and Europe with Paul and Limpe Fuchs in the 1980’s. As with almost all Anima work, the natural feel manifests itself not only by the musical approach and sounds generated by metal, wood, stone and air, but also by the absence of electronic devices.

This LP is a reissue of a rare privately released cassette from 1988 and was recorded by the Bayerischer Rundfunk. May this slice of timeless free spirit be a trigger to more awareness concerning our decaying freedom.

Repress!

This year, get ready for KONK! with the ultimate collection The Magic Force Of Konk 1981-1988. This white hot Limited Edition 3xLP set is a lovingly composed Deluxe retrospective, showcasing the Definitive Sounds Of A New York Jazz Punk Afro Funk Disco Machine.
The Magic Force Of Konk 1981-1988 is a testament to the bands artistic staying power, the music sounding as fresh now as it did then, from the crossover funk grooves of the ‘Planet Rock’ inspired ‘Konk Party’, to the innovative punk funk synth bass of club hit ‘Your Life’, the bands influence indisputably lives on in this specially created deluxe collection. This beautifully designed package is a feast for the senses, looking as good as it sounds and sure to please fans of Liquid Liquid, ESG, Pigbag, James Chance, Soul Sonic Force, LCD Soundsystem, to name but a few, or simply those intrigued by those tales of wild nightlife that have become synonymous with the vitality of 1980’s downtown New York City.

2024 is the year that saw iconic trance-act 2 FLYING STONES resurrect.
Early trance with a capital T
Remixed by trance GRANDmasters M.I.K.E. PUSH and NICO PARISI.

This is without a doubt the hottest group of the year in its genre. Every release is sold out in hours.
2 Flying Stones have gained a massive fanbase in the past 30 years thanks to their iconic hits MAYBE TOMORROW, NUCLEAR JESUS IN PARADISE OF LOVE and A GREAT DAY.

2 of these classics have been remixed by none the less than M.I.K.E. PUSH (known from his classics THE LEGACY, TRANZY STATE OF MIND and UNIVERSAL NATION) and NICO PARISI, one of the biggest names in the Benelux underground trance-scene, part of Aqualord and original author of the 2023 monsterhit METRO (covered by Mau P & Kevin De Vries)

There is the new release by acid jazz superstar rad. available, for which I’m happy to provide, attached the tools. The recordings feature no less than Tower Of Power Horns, David Garibaldi, Roger Troutman, Ray Obiedo, Bobby Vega and Michael Spiro…

vIt was the San Francisco Bay Area where Herbie Hancock founded his Headhunters. It was the San Francisco Bay Area where Prince recruited Sheila E., Rosie Gaines and Larry Graham.

Bands and artists such as Tower Of Power, Sly & The Family Stone, Meshell Ndegeocello and Santana came from the San Francisco Bay Area, and Rose Ann Dimalanta, or rad.for short,

also originated from the San Francisco Bay Area. A Heavy Dose Of Oakland Funk – rad. did what she promised. Her 2nd album “gotta be" (1994) had all the ingredients that made the funk heartbeat

faster and the legs fidget: razor-sharp breaks, excellent hooklines, staccato clavinet and organ licks, driving bass lines, forward oriented drum grooves and a voice tofall in love with.

For these remastered two songs, she back then recruited her colleagues from the Syncopated Funk Champions League. Guitarist Ray Obiedo played in Herbie Hancock's band and

with George Duke during the "Thrust" era. The percussionistMichael Spiro worked for Ella Fitzgerald, Bobby McFerrin and Carlos Santana, Bobby Vega played the base for BoDiddley, Booker T,

Santana, Tower of Power, Etta James, Sly Stone and Jefferson Starship to name a few. Beside thefuzz guitar solo of mega funk star Roger Troutman on Come My Way, it is David Garibaldi and the

Tower of Power Horns who add the undeniable quality of this two funk classics now pressed on 7“ vinyl for the first time ever…

Music From Memory is thrilled to introduce Dead Sound, the collaborative project of Marco Sterk (aka Young Marco) and Berlin-based pop-auteur John Moods. Both artists are no strangers to the label; Sterk forms one third of the trio Gaussian Curve, while Moods released the 2022 album ‘Hidden Gem’ with The Zenmenn.

Their collaboration was both planned and spontaneous; Sterk initially reached out in 2022 expressing his desire to work with Moods. The pair finally got together in 2024 to produce ‘Into The Void’, an album that burst into life over the course of a few creatively charged days in each other’s company.

Moods’ dream-like, emotionally charged music wears its heart on its sleeve; its very human vulnerability makes it a perfect match for Sterk’s strong sense of melody and textural sonic visions.

‘Into The Void’ carries these psychedelic traits in its DNA, but they exist layered deep amongst the shadows. Painting on a wide canvas that effortlessly skips between genres, the pair weave anything that inspires them into a truly unique tapestry; a bold attempt to touch at the beyond.

Exploring the space between perception (level of the mind) and the nature of the universe (actual level of reality) seems traditionally like an impossible task. But there’s gotta be a time and a space for the profound and this album invites the listener to go deep, letting go of concepts such as love and opening oneself up to one’s own authentic journey. This transformative force of healing is a central theme of ‘Into The Void’, a path that is lined with light and darkness in equal measure. But, as Moods says, “do not skip the darkness, let that door open and swallow you. And maybe you’ll find, it's not as dark as you perceived at first."

Sleeve art by Michael Willis.

This October Jamiroquai celebrates the 30th anniversary of ‘The Return Of The Space Cowboy’. Their second album, it will be reissued as a double-LP set on 140g “moon grey” vinyl and includes Michael Gray’s Good Vibe Zone edit of ‘Space Cowboy’ - which has never been released on a physical product. The packaging has also been re-designed for this anniversary release including foil enhancement of the original cover design.

‘The Return Of The Space Cowboy’ is the follow up album to the band’s huge 1993 debut, ‘Emergency On Planet Earth’. Selling over 3 million copies globally, ‘Emergency On Planet Earth’ put the band on the map with their distinctive sound standing them apart from other popular acts of the time.

‘The Return Of The Space Cowboy’ was released just one year later and was met with great critical and public acclaim. Certified Platinum in the UK, Japan and France, it achieved chart success in multiple countries and spawned the single ‘Space Cowboy’ which remains one of their biggest tracks to date. Critically the album was lauded with Rolling Stone saying "Jamiroquai parlay jazzy soul pop so tight it crackles… Nowadays, when most funk comes out of cans, Jamiroquai's live spark glows", The Guardian said “... this second album sounds like vintage Stevie Wonder and Johnny 'Guitar' Watson, but Kay's vocals are as snappy and engaging as his extrovert persona" and Q magazine said it “combines intricate arrangements with several long, free-form workouts crammed with virtuoso performances".

For many, this album is defined by some of the most complex songwriting the band have ever produced and Jay Kay called it “one of our most creative and accomplished albums”. The process of making the album came with many challenges. Having to recruit a new drummer (after Nick Van Gelder failed to return from holiday), the band were met with second-album syndrome with Kay proclaiming since that lyrics weren’t coming "... because suddenly I wasn't homeless, I had everything I needed. So I found myself creating problems to write about." The songwriting process was complex for the band as Jay Kay was often dissatisfied with the results, leading songs to be scrapped or rewritten, but half-way through recording Kay wrote ‘Space Cowboy’, a song which reflects darker times during the recording session, and it became the catalyst of creative inspiration helping them finish the record. On this 30th anniversary edition of the album Space Cowboy gets a modern dance makeover courtesy of DJ Michael Gray, shedding new light on the track and emphasising it’s already infectious groove.

The album built on the success of ‘Emergency On Planet Earth’ and Jamiroquai have become one of the UK’s most pioneering and ground breaking bands of the past 30 years. Pushing boundaries and bringing jazz and funk to a mainstream audience, their sound is not only unique, but immediately recognisable.

"Cheugy" is a slang term used to describe someone who is out of style or trying too hard to be trendy (or both). Often associated with millennial culture, it refers to fashion, trends, or behaviors that were once popular but now seem outdated or overly mainstream. According to Rolling Stone magazine it is commonly used by Gen Z to roast Millennials. Essentially, it's the opposite of being effortlessly cool.

RARE & PREV. UNRELEASED PSYCH-FUNK AND GARAGE ROCK !!!

Say hello to Down & Wired Vol. 7 as Perfect Toy Records unleashes yet another instalment in its long-running compilation series! Once more, the label provides a delectable selection of obscure funk and soul-influenced psychedelic and garage rock tracks to delight even hardcore collectors of both genres.

And make no mistake, there is plenty to discover among these eleven tracks. At the funkiest end of things, Function's Free Style morphs from West Coast psychedelia to country funk to swamp rock and back again in its sub-three minute length, Dandy King provide psychedelic funky-soul and The Whiz Kids take a heavy dose of funkiness with them into psych-rock territory – sample fiends watch out for the fat twenty-second drum break towards the end of the latter! Purer psychedelia can be found in the offering from Third Stone while Würzburg band Prisma provide all-out epic psych-rock carnage. And if rock carnage is your thing, you'll be feeling the dirty garage rock onslaught of The Comin' Generation and a previously unreleased cut by Synod - soon to be a 45 single on Perfect Toy. That just leaves The General Store, The Soul Society, The Vestells and another unreleased cut from The Villagers (from whom the label will be dropping more unreleased material soon!), to close the circle by adding a heavy dose of garage soul.

A worthy successor to the previous volumes, Down & Wired Vol. 7 is once again accompanied by an insert containing detailed information and photos of the bands and a download code is also included with every vinyl LP.

Auf ihrem neuestem Album mit dem Titel "13" Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips" liefern Xiu Xiu einige ihrer bis dato faszinierendsten Songs ab. Gemischt von John Congleton (Chelsea Wolfe, Swans, Lana Del Rey), ist die LP anders als alles, was das Duo jemals zuvor aufgenommen hat, inspiriert von der Zerstörung früherer ästhetischer Vorstellungen sowie dem kürzlichen Umzug von Los Angeles nach Berlin.

Im Laufe der letzten zwei Jahrzehnte war Xiu Xius produktiver Output von Alben und Kollaborationen durchweg beeindruckend. Sie veröffentlichten 17 LPs, die in Medien wie The New Yorker, The Wire, Rolling Stone, The Guardian oder NME hochgelobt wurden. Sie tourten unermüdlich um die Welt und traten an Orten auf, die so abgelegen sind wie Kasachstan und der Libanon und an institutionell wichtigen Orten wie dem Guggenheim Museum und dem Centre Pompidou.

2025 Repress

LNTG returns with a new 7 inch series featuring 2 stone cold soul classics remixed for the floor.

Limited Edition act fast!

The Błoto quartet had made a comeback six months ago with their first singles in over two years dropping “Szlam” and “Ścieki”. These tracks were pressed on a 7-inch vinyl by Astigmatic Records, but this only whetted the appetites of the band’s mud-loving fans, as the singles sold out instantly. And so, the band's musical onslaught continues. Ahead of their upcoming LP “Grzybnia” set to release in autumn 2024, Błoto is putting out another bacteria-laden 7-inch to conclude this brief series of singles. This time, the release features a remix by none other than the modern funk maestro DāM-FunK, hailing from sunny Pasadena, California.

Wading through the sludge of sewage, one can encounter colonies of bacteria. They are well-known for their dark side – causing serious diseases. Nevertheless, they are with us all the time. They exist in humans and all other living organisms – fungi, plants, and animals. They can be found in soil and water. They are even present in radioactive areas, proving that they are truly hard to eliminate. Such is the music of Błoto. Like a post-apocalyptic bacterium, it’s capable of surviving in the harshest conditions.

Sinister, biting, and primitive – just like colonies of microorganisms. This is Błoto's latest single. Drawing heavily from classic acid house, it can truly infect the mind, inviting you to join a rave in Błoto on the eastern flank of Europe. Quartet’s “Bakteria” is a direct continuation of their first 7-inch release. However, this time, during their collective improvisation at Studio Pasterka, the band has entirely forsaken acoustic instruments in favor of a full array of synthesizers accompanied by drums.

Certainly, the dichotomous nature of these organisms presents a paradox. While capable of causing harm, without bacteria, life as we know it would cease to exist, and human civilization would not have reached its current state. Bacteria fulfill numerous essential roles. They serve as decomposers, crucial in maintaining biogeochemical cycles, and contribute to processes such as fermentation and decay. As symbiotic organisms living within other organisms, they are vital for functions like digestion. Their versatility extends to diverse applications, from biological wastewater treatment to the production of various food products.

Such are the properties of the beneficial probiotic titled “Bakteria Re-Freak” by DāM-FunK (renowned for his classic albums released on Stones Throw, like “Toeachizown” and “7 Days of Funk” with Snoop Dogg). It offers a 180-degree transformation of the dark atmosphere of the original version. The track evolves towards G-Funk, brimming with sunny synths and a drum machine. It portrays a vision of a biopharmaceutical bacterium lazily roaming the streets of warm yet perilous Los Angeles.

The 7-inch will be released on July 19, 2024, by Astigmatic Records. The vinyl single is limited to 700 copies.

Rance Allen churned that rhythm smack between gospel music and soul. Rance brought the fire, his every performance a dedicated reach beyond expectations. It's like he lived in a realm above ours, and his performances were a ladder from our plane to his, an invitation to step up, step out, be good, do right, dance while doing it, jive and smile. And praise the Lord.
Rance sang about Jesus Christ, even when he didn't mention him. His music was an invitation to groove along, but it was also a stepping stone to church. He focused not on the fire and brimstone but on building community, helping those in need, a church of embrace.
His two brothers were his band, along with Stax guests. On "Everybody's Talkin'" you can hear disco coming around the corner and also the influence of Isaac Hayes. "You Need A Friend Like Mine" builds on the Staple Singers' "If You're Ready (Come Go With Me)", and it features some of Rance's finest falsetto, up there with Rev. Claude Jeter and Al Green.
Rance moves your spirit.

For the first time since its inception 36 years ago, Steve Hiett’s elusive Down On The Road By The Beach is finally made available outside of Japan. Most recognized in the fashion sphere as an English photographer and graphic designer, Hiett‘s transportive audio portraits amplify his serpentine guitar to the infinite blue, recorded across Paris, Tokyo and New York with no coastline in sight. Now widely celebrated as a desert island disc, very little is actually known of its unfathomable genesis.

A career devotee of Brian Wilson’s ground breaking harmonies, Hiett shot The Beach Boys for Rolling Stone - as well as The Doors, Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix (in one of his final performances at the 1970 Isle Of Wight Festival) - while establishing himself as a fashion photographer. Decamping to Paris in 1972, he began what would become 20-year collaborations with Vogue Paris and Marie Claire, printing his signature warm, saturated and vibrantly hued snapshots.

In 1982, representatives from Tokyo’s Galerie Watari visited him to propose a solo exhibition. Asking if he could insert a 7” of original music into the back of the exhibition catalogue, Hiett laid down ‘Blue Beach - Welcome To Your Beach’ in a Parisian radio station, playing all of the instruments himself, and two more cuts in New York with Yoko Ono, The Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan hired-gun Elliot Randall. Once dispatched, the phone began ringing off the hook with requests for him to fly to Tokyo. Assuming these long-distance callers were wanting him to check proofs for the book, it wasn’t until he arrived that he discovered CBS/Sony had facilitated an entire album. Heitt hastily gripped some petty cash, bought a guitar and retreated to his hotel room to start writing.

Entering the studio the following day, he was further surprised by a waiting room of session players known as Moonriders - one of Japan’s most acclaimed rock bands of the 1980s. Intimidated by their indecipherable sheet music, Hiett suggested Randall join them and with money being no object for major labels at the time, his wingman was on the next plane out of New York to finalise the high production indulgence. Near-ambient arrangements that float in a space between The Durutti Column, Steve Cropper and Ashra, Down On The Road By The Beach also crowns Hiett the master of recontextualization with his zero-gravity blues visions of Roll Over Beethoven, Santo & Johnny’s Sleep Walk and the 1967 Eddie Floyd soul hit Never Found A Girl.

Produced in coordination between Be With, Efficient Space and the artist, this definitive reissue is restored from original masters with vivid reproductions of the Down On The Road By The Beach exhibition catalogue, intended to accompany its original release, and extensive liner notes penned by fellow Steve Hiett obsessive Mikey IQ Jones.

Members of Papir & Causa Sui travel through new musical realms. 3 musicians with their own compass: Martin Rude & Jakob Skøtt have shared a wide range of musical quests: from Causa Sui’s “Bitches Brew of Stoner Rock” crossing the folk meditations of Sun River and arriving most recently as members of the pre-fusion electric dealings of the London Odense Ensemble. Papir guitarist Nicklas Sørensen is not merely adding a new layer to an established duo, but his presence to the party have brought it into more meditative dwellings. These pieces move slowly, evolving like the slow growth underneath the ground. Whereas Causa Sui & Papir have always excelled at blistering panoramic and often sundrenched sounds, Edena Gardens take a dive inwards and downwards rather than outwards. But there’s also an electrically charged ecstatic rawness to the dealings. Like Æther, the 10 minute opener’s 2 guitars-and-a-drum kit improv, finding it’s way from tumbling drones into monolithic slow riffage. Elsewhere, we find trails of electronic vapors, misfiring bursts of noise and slow drones stretched out. Edena Gardens is a thing to be experienced first hand - it’s not for everyone, but those who decide to stay are greatly rewarded. It’s a debut unlike any other record on El Paraiso, perhaps unlike any you’ve ever heard. Welcome to Edena Gardens. Tracklist: 1. Aether 2. Sliding Under 3. The Canopy 4. Hidebound 5. Now Here Nowhere 6. Iod 7. An t-eilean Dubh

Während ihr Stones Throw-Debüt Overstand instrumental war, fühlten sich Apifera bei den Aufnahmen zu Keep The Outside Open zu einer intimeren Herangehensweise bereit. Sie ließen ihrer Vorstellungskraft freien Lauf und verpackten persönliche Alltagsgeschichten in Fantasie und fiktive Charaktere.
Die Mitglieder von Apifera - Nitai Hershkovits, Yuvi Havkin, Yonatan Albalak und Amir Bresler - sind alle tief in ihrer musikalischen Community verwurzelt: Yuvi veröffentlicht als Rejoicer elektronischen Jazz, Yonatan ist Frontmann der Post-Rock/Psych-Jazz-Band Geshem, Amirs Gruppe Liquid Saloon mischt Afrobeat mit Jazz-Funk, und Nitai ist vor allem für seine Solo-Piano-Platten bekannt, von denen ein Album 2023 bei ECM erschien. Für den Schlusssong des Albums, „Sera Sam“, haben sie ihren Freund, den Trompeter Avishai Cohen, mit ins Boot geholt. Der Titel des neuen Albums entstand, nachdem jemand nach einem Auftritt in ihrem Lieblings-Jazzclub gerufen hatten: „We're closing the outside“. Keep The Outside Open ist ein Appell an die Welt, offen zu bleiben. Zu ihrem freien und wilden Zustand zurückzukehren.

2024 Repress

Analog gear stalwarts present their time-tested dancefloor weapons.