Buscar:the sun

With this, their fourth album Black Helium find themselves widening the parameters of their take on heavy psychedelic rock, with probably their most baked and hook-laden material to date.

From the no-safety-net freak out of ‘Return the Curse’, to the sawtooth groove of ‘Up on a Hill’, ‘The Animals Are Coming’ LP is Black Helium at their most exploratory and focused.

Recorded one sun-drenched week in late June 2024, this time at Axe and Trap Studios with Ben Turner (Hey Colossus, Part Chimp). ‘The Animals Are Coming’ is the band sweating it out in a room, fueled by “party foods “and vintage amps. Digging deeper towards the source, no matter how transcendent, no matter how dark.

Black Helium are a psychedelic power trio, based in London. Never afraid to stray from the beaten path, they traverse aural hallucinatory soundscapes; from detuned Neanderthal rock to deep oceans of introspective blissed out psychedelia.

The band consistently gig across the UK (including a two week tour with Japanese label mates Hibushibire late 2024), and have recently started ventures into mainland Europe. And plan to continue throughout 2025.

Hollie Cook, one of reggae’s most exciting voices, makes a return to the label that released her cherished debut album in 2011. Landing back on Mr Bongo, 'Night Night' is a stand-alone aperitif and taster of what to expect from the next era in Hollie's musical journey

Revisiting her roots, this latest single embraces the trademark reggae / tropical pop sound Hollie found fame with on her first two albums. With a career that has gone from strength to strength since those formative days, the buoyance, charisma, and confidence gained in those subsequent years are on show for all to see.

Recorded at Crosstown Studios in London with the General Roots band and produced, mixed and dubbed by Ben McKone, ‘Night Night’ documents the longing of a lonely lover. Grounded in a sound system rattling bass line, strutting guitars and shimmering keys provide a sunshine-infused contrast. Hollie’s smooth sultry tones radiate throughout, backed by the legendary Horseman on toasting duties - a collaboration that hasn’t been heard since Hollie’s first album. Trading verses, the warmth of Hollie's velvety vocals balances Horseman's raw explosive energy in an absorbing harmony.

In true reggae style, the 7" single is backed with a classic dub mix, adding spacey reverb and delays, whilst giving Hollie and Horseman a more spacious streamlined flow in the mix.

Classic LP reissue - a 13 track double LP set with download code.
Cypress Hill's 2nd album originally released 1993, includes Insane in the Brain, I Ain't Goin' Out Like That, Hits from the Bong ...

The seeds of Her's have well and truly rooted themselves in Liverpool. Originally a meeting of minds between Norway's Audun Laading and Barrow-born Stephen Fitzpatrick, Her's forged a strong chemical bond through a mutual love of off-kilter humour and outsider art. Having clocked over one million streams between the two tracks on their debut single 'Dorothy' and 'What Once Was', and after following it up with the lackadaisical thrift-store humour of their sun-bleached single 'Marcel', Her's have compiled a rollicking record of their infant career so far. 'Songs of Her's' will be released on LP 16th March and it includes all their recorded output to date plus six new songs to make for the most complete introduction to their slacker world yet. Her's will be teasing this gnarly collectors-item-to-be with the release of 'Speed Racer'. With its sultry vocals and signature descending guitar and bass lick, it plays like the soundtrack to some oddball American stoner comedy involving a beach, a girl, a conspiracy, and a musical group from Liverpool.

REPRESS of the legendary debut EP. The great thing about this EP is that it takes all these 70s influences and makes, dare I say it, something just as amazing, if not even better! I only have one real complaint: It's too short. Four songs, just over 15 minutes. Is it worth it? Fuck, yes!

Yellow Vinyl, limited to 200 copies. REPRESS of the legendary debut EP. The great thing about this EP is that it takes all these 70s influences and makes, dare I say it, something just as amazing, if not even better! I only have one real complaint: It's too short. Four songs, just over 15 minutes. Is it worth it? Fuck, yes!

A meeting of minds and bodies on a heady percussive trip with no clear destination, captured live at Espacio Cultural El Tanque in Tenerife. With both imaginary and lived in tropical sceneries coalescing the two units, both Tenerife's Lagoss and Kampala's Abagwagwa (aka Nihiloxica) find a common thread to disentangle cartographies. As if it was bound to happen. As it did.

Taking Abagwagwa's relentless barrage of polyrhythms as a starting point to jammin' excursions that never falter into self indulgence, brimming with ideas and spirits pulled from East African traditions, Free Jazz cosmologies, Dub tactics, urban sonic warfare and different strains of psychedelia through a vast array of drums, percussion, flutes, skewed synths, ecstatic vocals and electronic processing.Blessed with the xamanic drumming of João Pais Filipe on two tracks and feeling equally indebted to both bands' vision all the while commiting to a newfound sense of wonder, 'Island Slang' is a celebration that's truly alluring in its search for some sort of 'Universal Consciousness' - to quote Alice Coltrane - for which we're now invited to tag along. You are all welcome.

Paula revels in the ocean of space.
Each star a story, each galaxy a poem,
Paula's spirit danced among them, forever changed by the celestial ballet.
Her soul feels at home among the constellations.