Tape Hymns is a mesmerizing amalgam of sounds carefully crafted by frequent collaborators zake and City of Dawn. The warm hiss of analog tape as the foundational structure of these arrangements brings forth pastoral mediations with becalmed, atmospheric intent. Tape Hymns mix echoing sonic tones, slow-drifting sounds with immersive low-end frequencies.
Big Crown Records is proud to present Piece of Me, the sophomore full length offering from Lady Wray. This is something of a homecoming for Nicole. Where her 2016 solo debut Queen Alone leaned more towards Soul and R&B with tinges of hip-hop, this record changes the mixture. It's still R&B with the textures of analog Soul, but there is a heavy Hip Hop influence that brings the sum of Nicole's career together in a new sound that will de ne her future. Boom-bap drums and chunky bass lines are front-and-center creating a perfect head-nodding backdrop for Lady Wray to take on the good, the bad, the difficult, and the joyful on her most personal collection of songs to date. The title track, "Piece of Me," which has already become a classic since it's 2019 release is about the people in your life who need more than you are willing to give. This tune and the B side of the 7" "Come On In" were the first songs put to tape for this album and they were recorded with Nicole sitting in a chair 8 months pregnant with her daughter. Her voice is so powerful, so raw, so thorough on these initial songs - it's wild to think that they were recorded this way. And even wilder to know that she knocked them all out in one take. Longtime collaborator and producer Leon Michels keeps the musical backing restrained and expertly executed, setting up Lady Wray for the full spotlight and setting the tone for the rest of the album. While the upbeat energies of "Under The Sun" and "Through It All" are sure to become hits that reconnect Lady Wray with her 90s R&B fanbase, "Where Were You" offers a behind the scenes look at what those days of stardom in her youth were really like. Nicole takes on the racial tension in America with her poetic and powerful "Beauty In The Fire" and leans heavy into her faith and church upbringing on the showstopper, "Thank You". She gushes about the profound love she's come to know for her daughter on "Melody" and celebrates life's ups and downs on "Joy & Pain". In 2021 it is rare to hear a varied yet cohesive album with no "skippers", but that is what you have here in spades. The tried and true chemistry between Lady Wray and Leon Michels has undeniably found a higher level and this album stands as a testament to conviction and dedication for all of us to enjoy and be inspired by.
Efficient Space presents Soft and Fragile by Ros Bandt and LIME (Live Improvised Music Events), originally released by Move Records in 1983. A pioneering figure in Australian music, Bandt is known for her work with sound sculpture, electronics, acoustic ecology, and invented instruments, as well as her writings and teaching.
Soft and Fragile comprises a series of structured improvisations performed on custom-built bells and gongs. On the side-long ‘Ocean Bells’, Bandt performs on her ‘flagong’, a three-tiered vertical glass marimba that she made in 1978, inspired by the ‘cloud chamber bowls’ of maverick instrument builder and microtonal composer Harry Partch. Over a long tape loop made up of slowed down sounds from the same instrument, she delicately strikes the glass bells with mallets, allowing individual pitch-es to ring out and decay with the aquatic wavering quality that suggested the piece’s title, eventually building into flowing melodic sequences. Structured as a series of events determined by the length of the performer’s breath, this gently undulating music invites listeners to lose themselves in delicate microtonal fluctuations and subtle yet expressive phrasing.
For ‘Shifts’, Bandt is joined by Julie Doyle, Gavan McCarthy, and Carolyn Robb on a collectively composed work for clay bells. Atop a steady pulse, melodic and rhythmic cells expand and contract, shifting between LIME’s four members. LIME also perform the closing ‘Annapurna’, where timbres sourced from glass, clay and metal are freely threaded through a pulsating tape backdrop generated from loops of the ensemble chanting.
Presented in a redesigned sleeve showcasing the performers and their instruments, the reissue repro-duces the extensive original liner notes. While Bandt’s ideas and techniques draw on aspects of the invented instrument tradition of Partch and Bertoia, Stockhausen’s intuitive music, and the cyclical structures of American minimalism and Javanese gamelan, the floating world of Soft and Fragile also resonates with the work of New Age outlier Stephan Micus and contemporary practitioners such as Tomoko Sauvage. In Bandt’s own words, this is ‘elegant and sensual music where the body and mind have the time to reflect and catch up with the moment as it passes…It is a music intended for res-pite’.
Following hot on the heels of lead single and recent mind-body tantalizer “I Feel Stronger Now,” we are now truly proud to present you with Portable’s latest full-length My Sentient Shadow. Filled to the brim with all of the inventiveness the sonic auteur has commanded we expect from his sizable and consistent body of work on worldrenown labels such as Perlon, ~scape, !K7, and his own Süd Electronic and Khoikhoi imprints, and dare we say offering us perhaps the most cohesive, emotive, and balanced of his highly-admirable catalog here to date. By using the analogy of a shadow that possesses its own consciousness, the theme of light and its distortion vs balance with the inherent and necessary darkness that surrounds it is in clear vision.
Immediately from the warmly bizarre vibes of opening cut “The Simulacrum”, it’s clear Portable is requesting clearance to other worlds of funk and ingenuity. The delightfully trippy, smoky, back-room of the Tattooine Cantina feel sets the stage just right to curb expectations and let the carefully constructed noise movements wash over us.
Elsewhere amongst the generous set we find tracks like “Cages” and “Ripple Effect” continue in the direction of horizontally-maximized aural tapestries oozing with texture, while at the other end of the energy spectrum pieces such as “The Self-Assembling” and “We Exist..” roll and bounce with all the sci-fi gyrations and slick synth layers hinting at a hypnotic halfway rendezvous point to his Bodycode moniker. And of course, no proper Portable outing would be complete without his own robust tenor vocal tone, which feels right at home front-and-center on the space travel anthem “The Spacetime Curvature” and used in more calculated micro-doses on “Analogue World”, as well as the gorgeous “Foreign to You” whose meta-title features a rare guest starring vocalist NiQ.E, and brings to hearts some of Herbert’s finer moments with dear friend Dani Siciliano, albeit done-up entirely in some distant yet alluring parallel dimension. The LP journey finishes with the frenetically-charged closer “Fractal Distortion” which will no doubt please many-a cosmic techno purist while making percussion masters from the afterlife such as Jaki Liebezeit and Tony Allen proud, and is quite possibly the closest thing to a danceable musical take on the current state of cognitive dissonance in the world that surrounds us, offering us a one-way
ticket out from the not-too-distant future. Please join us in welcoming and celebrating this wonderful album from Portable on Circus Company.
First Word Records is very pleased to present a brand new full-length album from Sarah Williams White! Emanating from the "hilly fields of Lewisham" in South London, Sarah Williams White is a singer songwriter, multi-
instrumentalist and producer. Her sound is a unique blend of psych-soul, folktronica and experimental synth-pop.
Sarah released her acclaimed debut album 'Of The New World' on First Word in 2015, which was written, produced and performed by Sarah from her home studio, with the assistance of drummer, engineer & husband, Timmy Rickard. Her projects have seen support from the likes of Lauren Laverne, Tom Ravenscroft, Nemone & Chris Hawkins (BBC 6 Music), Jamie Cullum (BBC Radio 2), FIP Radio, Clash & The Guardian, to name a few, and she's toured the UK with Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip and Golden Rules (Lex). There have been additional collaborations with label-mate Quiet Dawn (on the 2021 compilation / EP 'A Family Affair') and with her brother, Paul White - a revered producer in his own right, with credits including Danny Brown and Sudan Archives.
Following a hiatus, Sarah now brings us her sophomore album, 'Unfathomable'. A project that offers up escapism from the mundane, enticing us to connect with our natural planet in this prevalent time, via the eyes of a new mother.
In her words, Sarah states that the album is "about escape. It's about deflating the ego by looking up to the endlessness of outer space, connecting with the greatness of mother nature, and loving how unfathomable the universe and life itself is".
11-tracks in all, including the recent singles 'Nebula', 'Green' and 'Monsters', this opus sees Sarah's buttery lathing of vocals merged with cutting beats and atypical pop sensibilities across the project, again entirely self-produced from home, defining her as one of the UK's most irresistible DIY psych-soul talents.
With a voice reminiscent of Peggy Lee, tapestried harmony akin to Hiatus Kaiyote, beats fit for Little Dragon, and experimental production evocative of Kate Bush, Sarah Williams White's signature genre-defying sound invites us into a world uniquely hers.
'Unfathomable' is released on vinyl and digital in late January 2022.
Pressed on 140g Black Vinyl Including a signed print from Eddie Piller, limited to 750.
Demon are proud to release “Eddie Piller Presents British Mod Sounds Of the 1960s”, the follow up the “The
Mod Revival”. Featuring 100 original tracks across 6LPs, its a deep dive into the Mod scene in '60s Britain.
Including a selection of classic and rare tracks, tracing the scene from its R&B rootsto a soulful finale
Curated by Acid Jazz Records and Modcast founder Eddie Piller, and featuring new sleeve notes from
respected author and broadcaster Paul 'Smiler' Anderson.
As Eddie Piller points out in the forward to the extensive sleeve notes that accompany this collection, he
chose the word 'Sounds' carefully, reflecting the variety of talent contained here, from uncool session
musicians without an ounce of style in them, acts who saw an opportunity to jump on the Mod bandwagon
and bands who whole heartedly embraced Mod way of life.
And so this new collection mixes the Mod mainstays (Small Faces, The High Numbers The Action, The Fleur
De Lys), with a generous selection of future superstars (David Bowie, Rod Stewart, Elton John, Marc Bolan,
Jeff Beck and Graham Gouldman of 10cc are all represented here), and a few artists so obscure, so rare, that
they never got to release a record in the '60s, but Eddie has tracked down the tapes nonetheless.
"Be in with the In Crowd once more."
Every great youth cult deserves a great soundtrack, and when the '60s Mods adopted classic American R&B,
with a side order of hip Jazz, they undoubtedly found the right music for their exuberant and stylish way of
life. And yet, buying expensive imports, hoping for a local release or praying for a rare visit from overseas
talent was never going to be enough to satisfy British youth with a thirst for the latest sounds. Certainly not
those on the dancefloor and definitely not those with their own musical ambitions.
It was a music scene that began with imitation, before skill and imagination lead curious minds to innovation,
a scene that evolved from average (at best) copies of releases on the Chess, Motown and Stax labels, to
become something more sophisticated,something quite unique, something very British.
All formats are stylishly packaged (of course) and include new sleeve notes by Paul 'Smiler' Anderson, author
of the best-selling and highly regarded books'Mods: The New Religion' and 'Mod Art'.
In the third of the series, we move to 1973 Detroit, we have been so excited bringing this through to pressing and it has been a long but exciting and rewarding road and we hope you enjoy listening to this this 45 taken directly from the Universal master tapes and brought to you 48 years after its initial release on promo only format. Now available under licence and blessings from Universal Music Group on the Black Top series from us.
Is it good – oh yes – but don’t take our word for it, crank the volume up and hit play.
The A side – Young Train is a fabulous funkedged dancer with a message for us all even today, driven by the constant wah wah guitar and bongos. flip it over for a feelgood crossover dancer that has already been getting radio airtime on some of the UKs best soul stations.
Young Train by the Originals. This incredibly rare 45 is a poignant reminder that 48 years later the struggle continues today for equality and harmony for all.
The title “Young Train” is a brilliant collaboration of using Colemans surname and a hark back to the freedom songs enshrined in the blues and soul history of Black America, think Freedom Riders, Southbound train, Midnight train to Georgia to name but a tiny number. It captured the imagination of Detroit leading to the inauguration of the First Black Mayor of Detroit in 1974. Coleman Young captured the hearts and minds of the people of Detroit, some of his actions and associates led to questions around his fitness for office, but the moment in time lives forever in this exclusively rare 45 now brought to you with the blessings of Universal Music Group via MD Records.
On a final note, it is in many ways incredibly sad that this anthemic song still holds a valid call to action in its message in 2021. So, turn the volume up and get on board the “Young Train” for democracy and equality.
Big thanks go out to Karl “Chalky” White for material used in the sleeve.
All aboard for the third release in the Blacktop series from the MD Collective.
- 180 GRAM AUDIOPHILE VINYL
- FIRST TIME ON VINYL
- 4 PAGE BOOKLET
The successful Canadian singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette released her seventh studio album Flavors Of Entanglement in 2008. She wrote and recorded the album with the British composer Guy Sigsworth (Björk, Madonna etc.). The album was written during a very challenging time in her personal life (break-up with actor Ryan Reynolds). It is the reason that she combines a lot of different musical genres in the sound of the album, including hip-hop, electronic and alternative rock. The album is hailed by critic as a longstanding masterpiece, fully understandable when you listen to the depth and structured layers of the songs. She shows her personal feelings in the tracks of heartbreak, regret and anger.
The first track on the album, Citizen Of The Planet' focuses on her new sound, while the first single Underneath' is about difficulties in communication.
The Queen of alt-rock angst sold over 75 million records worldwide. She is known for her emotive mezzo-soprano voice and here thoughtful lyrics.
The vinyl edition includes a 4 page booklet with information about the songs and the album is released on vinyl for the first time.
Originally released on CD in 2000, the expanded soundtrack edition of John Carpenter's classic 1981 thriller included over 20 minutes of previously unreleased music plus music from scenes deleted from the final print. The masters were re-mixed from the original multi-track session tapes by long-time John Carpenter associate Alan Howarth.This is the first time the expanded edition has appeared on vinyl in its complete form, including original dialogue highlights
Its not often that we have a conversation with Jordan where we don’t come away feeling like we have been through a whirlwind of inspiration and ideas. One particular conversation led to a discussion about new tapes he had acquired and one in particular from the Wishbone production company.
Wishbone was the name of a production company and studio owned by Terry Woodford and Clayton Ivey. These guys worked at Muscle Shoals and went on to be snapped up by Motown as writers and producers before moving on to start their own studio.
This band is known, has some great tracks but never got the backing it deserved to go the distance. With only a handful of released tracks to their name Motown didn’t get behind them. Imagine our excitement when Jordan starts to play the tracks from the tape and there are 2 unreleased tracks on it. Following a quick chat and verification that they were unreleased; we started to hunt down the rights.
Following an intensive week or so of conversations, Terry not only agreed to work with us but then proceeded to share his knowledge and catalogue with us to see what else might make it to vinyl for the first time.
This is a great double sider with the A side being a fabulous 70s/modern version of a classic track that was also sung by Bobby Sheen and Bobby Womack. There is every possibility that this is the first recorded version of this masterpiece of 70s soul.
Flip it over and the skilful writing of JJ Boyce is delivered through a soulful group harmony track that is a fabulous balance to the powerful A side.
of time in the music world, he started to embrace his own limitations, subverting themes like “making it” and preinternet nostalgia with a Jim O’Rourkeinspired wink in his eye. While holed up in his Toronto basement, a lifelong obsession with outdated pop trickery and yesteryear’s preset sounds launched him into an alternate sonic universe—one where The Beach Boys’ late70s albums were big hits, and long-forgotten Italian soft rock is the style du jour. The resulting ten songs were given their final sheen by mastering impresario Dave Cooley (Tame Impala, Blood Orange, J Dilla). Born and raised in West Berlin sometime in the 80s, Carl has already had several musical incarnations. From a Berlin Art Prize nomination for his single-note vinyl record (“The whole concept makes me upset” — VICE), to glimpsing the album charts by cowriting an aging crooner’s magnum opus (“Glamorous” — NY Times), he has always been more interested in exploring different angles than building a career. Since a transcontinental move to Canada, his focus has shifted from the conceptual to the immediate music-making process,
"Stanley Turrentine’s 1966 soul jazz classic Rough ‘N Tumble finds a deep and bluesy groove that doesn’t let up from start to finish. Joining Turrentine are the crème de la crème: Blue Mitchell on trumpet, Pepper Adams on baritone saxophone, James Spaulding on alto saxophone, McCoy Tyner on piano, Grant Green on guitar, Bob Cranshaw on bass, and Mickey Roker on drums.
Highlights include soulful covers of Ray Charles’ “What Could I Do Without You,” Burt Bacharach’s “Walk On By,” and “Feeling Good,” which Nina Simone had recorded the year before.
Blue Note Records’ Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series is produced by Joe Harley and features all-analog, mastered-from-the-original-master-tapes, 180g audiophile vinyl reissues in deluxe gatefold packaging. Mastering is by Kevin Gray (Cohearent Audio) and vinyl is manufactured at Record Technology Incorporated (RTI)."
Vinyl version of the Swedish Death Metal classic - Entombed's first album
Remastered in 'FDR' - full dynamic range mastering - pressed from the original
master tapes
" Joe Pass’ For Django, recorded for Pacific Jazz in 1964, has long been considered a classic of the jazz guitar repertoire with Pass paying tribute to Django Reinhardt without in any way attempting to emulate him. Rather, Pass honours Django using his own masterful guitar style joined by fellow guitarist John Pisano as well as bassist Jim Hughart and drummer Colin Bailey.
Highlights in this program of tunes either composed by or associated with Django include “Rosetta,” “Nuages,” and “Fleur D’ Ennui.”.
Blue Note Records’ Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series is produced by Joe Harley and features all-analog, mastered-from-the-original-master-tapes, 180g audiophile vinyl reissues in deluxe packaging. Mastering is by Kevin Gray (Cohearent Audio) and vinyl is manufactured at Record Technology Incorporated (RTI)."
SILENT SKIES ist die Band einer Kooperation zwischen Tom Englund (EVERGREY) und Vikram Shankar (REDEMPTION).
Geboten wird melancholische, soundtrackartiges Musik die hauptsächlich von emotionalen Keyboard-Klängen
begleitet wird.
Trostlos, düster, aber auch hoffnungsvoll bahnen sich die Kompositionen auf ”Satellites” ihren Weg, die von
Selbstreflexion und innerer Einkehr geprägt sind. Diese Melange erzeugt durch seine fast schon hypnotische
Wirkung Bilder vor dem inneren Auge des Zuhörers.
Taking it back to the classic sound of house from NYC, Chicago and Italy. 3 track EP compiled by JORDAN FIELDS and featuring ALFONSO BOTTONE (aka WEARING SHOES), PETRONIO, and SANDRO PANDULLO. The debut release on OLDSCHOOL GROOVE RECORD & TAPES. First 100 copies on blue vinyl. 1-sided.
We have really enjoyed the launch of our Dirtybird White Label series. So far this year we have been able to release some outstanding records across a wide range of genres.
Up next, the eclectic sounds of the series continues with an extremely talented LA producer, Danny Goliger. Our friend Justin Jay who also helped kick off the entire white label series, turned us on to Danny's music.
Danny weaves a tapestry of sound, vibes and emotion across four pieces of unique, left-field electronica. We love it.
The debut album from hotly tipped kiwi band Jamie and The Numbers, finally sees a release via Pete Brady’s Superfly Funk and Soul Records. After years of limited release 7”s being fought over worldwide by collectors and fans, this superb LP is the culmination of years of work for highly gifted Tongan-Kiwi Jamie Mavusa. Based in Wellington she can occasionally be seen singing soul tunes for Tapestry Music Promotions at many of their Music Reviews and also in her gospel choir at Church. It was at one of the Tapestry Music shows in Wellington that Jamie met Simon from Deltaphonic Records/The Numbers and after watching Jamie perform an amazing version of "Wade In The Water”. It was suggested they do some recording together with the view of doing some cool Soul classics and a bunch of originals too, the rest is now history.
The Numbers are an incredibly tight Wellington based band. Prolific writers of their own original material they are a 4 piece that consist of three brothers from Wainuiamata and a newly adopted Kiwi originally from Birmingham England. If you get a chance check these guys out they are brimming with cool retro tunes and some barnstorming original songs played with verve and passion and their shows are always fun, 2019 they supported "From The Jam" on their visit to New Zealand and after teaming up with Jamie have played Pasifika Festivals and open-air concerts to thousands of people. The Numbers collectively have played, sessioned, recorded for other artists on such labels as Gut Records, D-Star, EG Records, Imaginary Records and have in excess of 40+ published songs with Universal, Complete Music, KWS Records NYC and Cherry Red Records.
In the Spring of 2021 we were finally able to travel outside of 5km from home. To take much needed breaks from being in the city, my colleague and I would drive to the seaside, choosing a new beach, a new town each trip as we were both foreigners in a new city, observers to the landscape. Walking and listening, we would take in the fresh air, the smell of saltwater, the call of gulls, and the drone of the ocean. The field recordings on this album are from two of these seaside trips, recorded between the both of us. To build upon the serene atmosphere that was experienced during this time, I composed music on top of them using synth, guitar, and a portable radio. -- Nicholas Maloney
