quête:the thing

Felipe Gordon is back on Shall Not Fade with his new album Tezeta and f*ck is it special.

Felipe Gordon is SNF label mainstay... (we released his triple repressed debut album "A Landscape Onomatopeya" in 2022 as well as 7 x 12" EPs on SNF over the years plus an extra 12" on Lost Palms)... so given his consistent and exceptional output on our record label you'd probably forgive some complacency with this write up, you might even afford us license to assume we're preaching to the choir and allow us to rest easy knowing that at this stage Felipe Gordon's records sell themselves.... Well none of those things are happening here because when an artist makes a record this complete, this good, you have to try to find the words. You use words like "timeless", "complete and "special". Words that can carry the weight. Because when you've listened to an album dozens of times, and not once, in any part, on any listen in any way has it fatigued you, you need to say. When a record felt so wonderfully familiar from the first listen and just kept on giving you the same feels ever since, you need to say. When a record makes you think about you how you feel about certain Air & St Germain albums (even when you know what it means to put that in a press release), you need to say. So here we are, saying these things.. Tezeta is a special record, one that exists in the rarefied air. A proper album. A record that every time you press play you will immediately remember why you own it and why you love it. A record that your subconscious will know so well that if shuffle is on you will know in an instant. An album that when it's in your collection and the first track starts you get a twinge of annoyance because you didn't listen again sooner and when the final track stops you stop too.

Given paint and a canvas we can most of us paint a picture, but only those that are gifted can paint something that makes us feel. Tezeta makes you feel. Feel familiarity when it's playing, yearning when its not, and absence when it ends. This alone would be enough to make the argument as to why this album is special and justify the gushing opening paragraph of this press release. But we're not done yet.

We don't really have a word in english for what Felipe Gordon has created with this album and how it makes you feel. "Tezeta" that word.

Tezeta is a one of four musical modes within the traditional Ethiopian modal music system known as Qiñit. Mulatu Astatke, the father of Ethio-jazz, frequently uses this mode, often translating it as "nostalgia" or "longing". Gordon says Mulatu's own tezeta recordings convey to him "feelings of melancholy and longing from a point of affection". This is exactly the feeling Gordon has captured. It is what he has woven through every recording on this album. Tezeta is the prime ingredient. It's the base note in recipe, it's sprinkled over the signature jazz-sampled house tracks. It powers the vast array of synthesizers Gordon deploys. It underpins the explorations into trip-hop. It's present in Gordon's varied vocal deliveries and it tunes his guitar. It's in the running order. It's the flow. Tezeta is tezeta in electronic music form, with 4/4, breakbeats, samples and synths.

Gordon says a big part of what differentiates this album from from his previous albums is that is was recorded in a period where he allowed himself to create music without the constraints of time or self-pressure which coincided with a moment of heavy personal growth which allowed him to reflect deeply on his work.

There is a word in Portuguese "Saudade" that Gordon says has a similar meaning to Tezeta - Saudade is defined as a deep, sometimes bittersweet, longing or nostalgia for someone or something that is absent or lost. But here at SNF we think that in Tezeta nothing has been lost. Quite the opposite. Through Felipe Gordon's artistic explorations we have all gained something very special indeed.

The 18th Parallel strikes hard once again with its new riddim series called ‘BONANZA CHARGE’. Carefully produced in its Geneva studio, the collective of musicians presents two vocal cuts and one horns instrumental released as three 7” singles with dubs mixed by Roberto Sánchez. This is heavyweight roots reggae tailor-made for the heaviest sound systems!

First song recorded on the riddim, ‘Don’t Tell Me To Smile’ is NIGHTSHADE’s debut single on Fruits Records and it really is music with a powerful message. Turning an everyday frustration into a universal cry, Nightshade sings out loud what she always wanted to answer to the countless strangers who told her – like so many other women – to smile… because “a woman who smiles looks so much prettier”.

She says: “If it’s really such an innocent thing to say as some claim, why do men never say it to other men? Why do some feel entitled to tell complete (women) strangers how they should look, feel or behave? These so-called ‘small comments’, repeated over and over, are just one piece of the constant scrutiny and everyday violence many women face – and we can’t take no more of it.”

Carried by three united voices, ‘Don’t Tell Me To Smile’ reminds us that a woman is not a decorative object meant to please the male gaze. It’s a call to see through the trap: under the guise of compliments, what is at work is control over women’s bodies and minds. A smile should come from the heart, never from an obligation.

Sasha & Franky Wah reunite for second collaborative single, 'Get On My Level'.

The club-ready cut blends marries inviting darkness with meticulous synth craft.

Seasoned electronic favourite Sasha and contemporary trailblazer Franky Wah have shown great creative chemistry in both the studio and the DJ booth: their fi rst hook-up was on Last Night On Earth back in 2020 when they dropped the huge four-track 'Haunted EP.' Since then, they’ve reunited for multiple b2b sets across the globe - from Sydney to Ibiza. Now they have once more combined their respective nous into a new track destined to become an Ibiza anthem this summer.

'Get On My Level' is primed and ready to shake up the dance fl oor. It's powered by a warped, dark bassline that throbs underneath subtle percussion. Plenty of open space lets a moody atmosphere draw you in, while skeletal drums and percussion keep things moving before a big drop, and wispy synths inject future energy as a grainy, ominous voice lurks in the shadows. Dub and instrumental versions are also included to cover all bases.

Strut Records proudly presents the first definitive expanded reissue of Somewhere Over The Rainbow, Sun Ra’s 1977 session recorded at the Bluebird in Bloomington, Indiana, presented across three Vinyl LPs or as a two CD set.

The Arkestra were at the peak of their powers in 1977, releasing revered albums like The Soul Vibration Of Man and My Favorite Things with Arkestra regulars Marshall Allen, Danny Ray Thompson, Michael Ray and Luqman Ali among the core musicians. Ra also continued his touring in Europe with historic gigs in Italy. During this period, Arkestra live performances were often loosely structured into thematic blocks that moved from reflections on jazz history to cosmic “space narrative” sections featuring collective chants, extended Africa/Egypt-inspired grooves and selections from the Great American Songbook. This recording brings in all of these features with re-imagined versions of standards like ‘Take The “A” Train’, ‘St. Louis Blues’ and title track ‘Over The Rainbow’ alongside rarely recorded Ra compositions like ‘Make Another Mistake’ and ‘Amen Meni Many Amens’. Ra conducted improvisations to guide the listener seamlessly from one musical scene to the next. As Sun Ra himself described it: “It’s like a party—we enjoy ourselves and everybody’s invited to enjoy it with us.”

The original version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow assembled a handful of clearly delineated tracks drawn from the flow of two complete concert recordings, re-arranged out of sequence. Strut’s new edition restores previously excised material and preserves more of the natural transitions between pieces, offering a fuller glimpse into the distinctive aesthetic of Sun Ra and his Arkestra.

This definitive reissue is pressed across two CDs, or three vinyl LPs housed in a triple gatefold sleeve, newly remastered by Technology Works from the original source tapes and features extensive new liner notes by Chris Cutler alongside video stills from the original concert.

The story that underlines on the deep levels of the artist cannot be said & done with a few words. It has to be discussed and aknowleged by the the most intricate ways of human wholesomeness and the connection of the art that we call sound. Human Collapse has been created with love for a human life but at the same time understanding that we are collapsing as a society in one way or another, whenever we chasing the material things or feeling absolute content and secure with minumum the world is giving us. Humanity Collapse is all about experiencing it together wrapped in an idea that we’ll be able to understand. The final track of the B side is taken by truly incredible artistic force called Charlou. The deep mind from France has taken his view on the subject with an insatiable musical acknowlegedment.

2026 Repress

Traversing wormholes and flexing versatility, Nicola Cruz gets back on his club-ready biz.

No proper introductions needed here. Sometimes you just have to sit back and appreciate someone at the top of their game. The third portal thing, done masterfully. Hats off.

Time-honoured templates that provide the foundations for his hybrid mutations. Three mescaline-strength techno incursions backed up with a vivid projection of fractal electro.

Big on murk. Properly steeped in introspection, expanding consciousness and horizons. The vision quest endures for the duration.

New levels of insectoid detail and lysergic flourish revealed with every close listen, but he’s always keeping it robust. Giving it chest with some serious dancefloor dramatics until the final unfurling.

Kennedy continues to sketch out imaginary worlds where thoughts and sensations are converted into sound via the power of machines. On this fifth instalment of Hi-Tech Soul, the Dutch producer channels fragments of midnight memories and daytime visions into something tactile yet elusive. As with previous chapters, the process remains shaped by surprise as hands and hardware entwine in a quiet, freeform dialogue.

The music itself drifts rather than drives, unfolding like shifting cloud forms that never quite settle. Loose, frayed house patterns hover in a state of flotation as basslines anchor just enough to stop everything dissolving completely. Each track has a sense of elevation where melodic synths filter through the mix like heavenly sunbeams breaking overhead. There's a constant progression to something that never comes, instead leaving you free to find your own meaning as textures blur into something soft, indistinct and gently euphoric.

A pure state of celestial suspension, 'Dream 5' is the newest offering in a series that takes you to a weightless world of infinite interpretations.

Zeitgleich mit dem 40-jährigen Jubiläum der Band wurde Complete B Sides: 1988-97 von Pixies neu remastert und wird 25 Jahre nach seiner ursprünglichen CD-Veröffentlichung erneut herausgebracht. Das Album erscheint als Doppel-LP auf schwarzem Vinyl, als Doppel-LP auf klarem Vinyl sowie als Doppel-CD. Außerdem wird diese Veröffentlichung damit zum ersten Mal überhaupt auf Vinyl gepresst. Complete B Sides versammelt alle B-Seiten aus der klassischen 4AD-Ära der Band und enthält einige der besten "anderen" Songs der Pixies, darunter "Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf)", "Into The White" und "The Thing". Ursprünglich 2001 auf CD veröffentlicht, als sich die Band bereits seit fast einem Jahrzehnt in einer Pause befand, enthielt Complete B Sides: 1988-97 alle 19 Nicht-Single-Tracks aus der unglaublichen Reihe von Singles, die die Band zwischen 1988 und 1991 veröffentlichte. Zum Abschluss wurde die instrumentale Version von "Letter to Memphis" hinzugefügt, die zuvor nur auf der US-Version der Veröffentlichung der Alec Eiffel-Maxi-Single erschienen war. Da auf vier Vinylseiten Platz für mehr Musik vorhanden ist, enthält diese aktualisierte Version zusätzlich sechs Live-Tracks, die aus späteren Pixies-Veröffentlichungen stammen, darunter aus der 1997 erschienenen Neuauflage von Debaser. Für diese aktualisierte Edition wurden alle Titel von ihren ursprünglichen analogen Bändern von Kevin Vanbergen neu remastert. Das Ergebnis klingt erstaunlich frisch und vervollständigt zugleich seine umfangreiche Arbeit am gesamten Katalog der Band. Diese neue Vinyl-Edition fungiert außerdem als Begleitstück zur kürzlich erschienenen Compilation Live at the BBC. Designer Chris Bigg (v23) hat dafür ein eindrucksvolles neues Artwork geschaffen und dabei Fotos aus dem Archiv von Simon Larbalestier verwendet, die ursprünglich für die Pixies vorgesehen waren, später jedoch verworfen wurden. Beide arbeiteten seit vielen Jahren mit der Band zusammen und gestalteten beide Veröffentlichungen parallel, um an den verstorbenen visuellen Direktor der Band, Vaughan Oliver, zu erinnern und ihn zu ehren.

ReVINYL Random Color Edition. Concrete is a bracing jolt of a song, racing forward on a tightly wound post-punk riff, its call-and-response vocals capturing the turmoil and schizophrenic internal dialogue of the song's subject matter."It's about someone who's trapped in a relationship and they're being pummelled into surrender," says singer and lyricist Charlie Steen. "It's not about a physically abusive relationship - more an emotionally and psychologically draining one. The call-and-response vocals between Steen and bassist Josh Finerty is the central figure's own internal dialogue. They are dealing with two different things that they don't want to address."The band cite The Fall, Country Teasers, Television Personalities and Wire among their biggest influences, and the icily claustrophobic sound of Concrete sets it in a lineage with Magazine, Joy Division. As a lyricist, Steen is a modern flâneur, forensically observing the lives of others around him as they unspool and fracture, with Hubert Selby Jr and Irvine Welsh his primary literary influences. "That graphic and harsh style of writing always interested me," he explains. "It's not about the shock factor; it's about the fact they are talking about these things in such great detail without stripping anything back."The London five piece have swiftly earned a reputation as one of the most visceral and exhilarating live bands in the UK, their combustible shows being honed through a heavy touring schedule in the UK and across Europe. Cutting their teeth on the squat-punk scene in the Queen's Head in Brixton in 2015, where they were taken under the wing of Fat White Family, the white heat of their gigs quickly landed them support slots with Slaves and Warpaint. They were also personally invited by Billy Bragg to play the Left Field stage at Glastonbury this year.Following two singles - the AA single The Lick/Gold Hole and Tasteless on Fnord Communications as well as the digital-only Theresa May-baiting Visa Vulture (described by Steen as "the worst love song ever") - Concrete is the first track to be released as part of their record deal with Dead Oceans."We started this band as a joke that went too far," deadpans Steen. "What we do is quite strange and quite weird, but I get to meet a lot of people and I get to hear a lot of things. I am interested in the surrealism of reality."

2026 Repress

DJ Support: Louie Vega, Ralf Gum, Jihad Muhammad, Zepherin Saint, Mr. V, Doug Gomez DjPope, DJ Beloved & Brutha Basil to name a few.

Sean McCabe’s Good Vibrations Music label opens the vault doors for a peek inside some of its closely guarded & much-loved releases courtesy of this special limited edition 12 inch. Featuring 4 new to vinyl releases & including a raft of luminary names from across the soulful spectrum this is sure to be a be a hot fave with long standing fans of the label.

Glenn Underground’s Jazz-Funk fuelled rework of 'This Place' kicks things off and needs no introduction… heavily supported & much loved through the soulful circles & beyond with the likes of Louie Vega, Dave Lee, Jimpster, Jamie 3:26 & Fred Everything (to name a few!) all loudly banging the drum – people have been clamouring for this to be on vinyl. You spoke, we listened!

Up next is 'Modulate', a collaborative force of the highest order between Sean & long-time friend Black Sonix. Expertly fuzzying the lines across Deep, Soulful & House is somewhat of a speciality for the duo respectively and there’s bags of all 3 intertwined throughout alongside a hefty sprinkling of sun-kissed, Latino-inspired pianos.

'Still Standing Here' kicks things off on the B-side and begin in March 2022 as vocalist Madeeha recorded an accapella vocal idea in a phone voice message, quietly singing into her phone to avoid waking the neighbours. She sent the idea to drum & bass producer from Bristol, DJ Mixjah, who then approached friend Sean McCabe with the idea. Together they produced a hypnotic afro-tinged soulful backing track to fit with the voice message, with an intention to re-record it in a studio environment. Sean and Mixjah soon realised that the music they had created blended perfectly with the sincerity, intimacy & rawness of Madeeha's heartfelt performance in the original voice message and decided to stick with it. A firm fave for Atjazz, Crackazat , DJ Spen & Emmaculate.

Wrapping things up is 'You Don’t Know', a slick & energetic dancefloor bubbler from London based producer/DJ ‘David Bailey’ and Canadian soulful songstress ‘MissFly’. David Bailey is a firm favourite amongst the London house music community. He’s produced standout releases on labels such as Idris Elba's 7wallace, Makin Moves, Good Vibrations Music, Rhemi Music & Unquantize. MissFly is known for her soulful serenades and ability to write songs 'on the fly' in the studio. She has carved out an impressive discography on soulful house nuggets such as '1972,' 'Wanna Love You' and 'Thankful'

Ryo Fukui, who passed away in 2016 after releasing only five albums, recorded this fourth work in 1999. Featuring bassist Lyle Atkinson and drummer Leroy Williams—the longtime rhythm section of Barry Harris this New York-recorded album captures the full appeal of Fukui as a bebop pianist. Centered around standards, the track selection, structure, and of course the performances all radiate intent and vitality. His assured and weighty touch, the firm yet elastic swing, and the emotion and lyricism that permeate his dynamic phrasing everything here conveys Fukui’s breath, will, and presence in vivid form. The re-performance of his signature piece “Mellow Dream” is also a welcome highlight.

Kicked in the Teeth, relies primarily on rip-roaring punk rock & roll guitar riffs and hardcore drum beats. Zeke does one thing, and that one thing they

do very very well - incredibly fast, out of control punk rock & roll, executed with exceptional lead guitar work.

Kicked In The Teeth is available as a limited edition of 500 individually numbered copies on crystal clear & turquoise marbled vinyl and includes an insert.

Erlebe die mitreißende Musik aus Disney Channels Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam! Mit unvergesslichen Hits
wie „Wouldn’t Change a Thing“, „It’s On“, „Heart and Soul“ und vielen mehr.
Dieses Album fängt die Energie von Sommer, Freundschaft und Musik perfekt ein. Erhältlich als SammlerVinyl in Forest Pine Green und Sunburst Yellow.

For nearly four decades, since its founding during the mid 1980s, the Belgian imprint, Sub Rosa, has continuously plumbed the depths of numerous, radical creative histories, assembling a catalog of releases that has almost no equivalent, while remaining nearly impossible to nail down. That said, for most of its run, Sub Rosa has been primarily recognized for its rigorous explorations of the lesser explored shadows of experimental sound practice (sound-art, sound-poetry, early electronic and electroacoustic music, free-improvisation, etc.), delivering a remarkable body of artifacts that have collectively helped to rewrite history in their wake. While it's always been impossible to anticipate where the label might take us next, threading their catalog are plenty of releases that throw further wrenches in the cogs, expanding our understanding of what they pursue, as in the case of a handful of titles, appearing as early as the 1980s, dedicated to ethnographic field-recordings from various parts of the world. Among the most striking and celebrated of these was 2017's Ethiopian Urban And Tribal Music: Mindanoo Mistiru / Gold From Wax, comprising an astounding body of recordings made by Ragnar Johnson and Ralph Harrisson in Ethiopia during 1971, reissuing material originally released by Lyrichord the following year. Now, Sub Rosa returns to the incredible work embarked upon by the pair and captured on that same trip with Ethiopian Musics 1971, comprising the recordings originally released by Ocora shortly after their completion, expanded in this edition to include an entire disc of never before released music. Widely regarded as some of the most important field-recordings ever made of indigenous Ethiopian folk music (as captivating and intoxicating as they are revelatory: providing insights into the roots of the country's singular traditions of popular music and jazz that have come to be celebrated the world over), this incredible collection is issued by Sub Rosa in a beautifully produced 2LP edition, complemented by a four page insert providing detailed descriptions of each song, as well as notes by the ethnomusicologists and recordists, as well as a 2CD edition, with a twelve page booklet. Insanely good and absolutely essential for any fan of field-recording, ethnomusicology, the music of Ethiopia, or the label's mission at large. Once again, Sub Rosa has defied our expectations and delivered a remarkably important intervention in the history of recorded sound.

Located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, few cultures are distinctly singular, while being so diverse (containing 80 distinct ethnic groups who speak 70 languages and 200 dialects) as that of Ethiopia. The home to some of the oldest surviving sects of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (each contributing important aspects of its collective cultural body), particularly the country's culinary and musical traditions have become celebrated the world over, and (generally speaking) feel entirely independent of those of its neighbors. Given this, it's unsurprising that, during the summer of 1971, the young ethnographer, Ragnar Johnson, accompanied by Ralph Harrisson, traveled to Ethiopia to begin his brief career as a field recording ethnomusicologist, capturing material on reels of magnetic tape that would be subsequently released across three LPs for Lyrichord and Ocora, respectively, coming to form a cornerstone of documentation and study of the country's many indigenous musical traditions, as well as providing wide, global access to them for the first time. While Johnson's recording career was relatively brief, ending toward the end of the decade when he began to focus more on teaching in UK universities, with a focus on the anthropology of art and social anthropology, his impact on the field was lasting. Between 1971 and 1979, in addition to those he made in Ethiopia, he made hugely significant recordings in Yemen (also issued by Lyrichord before being reissued by Sub Rosa) and Papua New Guinea, which were originally released by David Toop's Quartz Publications to wide celebration, before being revisited by Ideologic Organ in 2023.

While it's worth noting that commercial releases of ethnomusicological recordings by labels like Folkways, Lyrichord, and Ocora were still in their relatively early days when he entered the field, Johnson's recordings quickly stood apart for their vivid qualities and clarity of space, allowing them to stand the test of time. As he later stated: "I used a Uher Report L stereo tape recorder, BASF quarter inch tapes at a recording speed of seven and a half inches per second with two directional microphones mounted to record an isosceles triangle of stereo sound," he reveals. "The location of the microphones and musicians was critical. The musicians were fully informed of all aspects of the recording process."

Johnson's recordings are extremely vivid, there is a clear sense of space and the cries of the flutes exist across the entire stereo field. It's a reflection of Johnson's skill as a field recordist that his recordings continue to be reissued over forty years later. "I used a Uher Report L stereo tape recorder, BASF quarter inch tapes at a recording speed of seven and a half inches per second with two directional microphones mounted to record an isosceles triangle of stereo sound," he reveals. "The location of the microphones and musicians was critical. The musicians were fully informed of all aspects of the recording process… I used to enjoy being in the moment and hearing something wonderful despite the stress of the vigilance required to ensure that the recordings were accomplished according to plan. The responsibility is to record and document the music as effectively as possible so that it has been preserved for posterity. It is better to actually record music than to sit in a seminar room debating the ethics of recording music." It is this very ethos and sense of clarity that can be encountered across the length of Ethiopian Musics 1971.

For the sake of clarity, the two LPs of material that comprise Ethiopian Musics 1971 should be regarded as a single body of recordings alongside those made in Ethiopia by Ragnar Johnson and Ralph Harrisson during the summer of 1971 (previously issued by Lyrichord and reissued by Sub Rosa), and as two that have, until now, remained historically distinct. The first LP gathers that material released by Ocora during the early 1970s on Musiques Ethiopiennes, while the second comprises (as far as we can tell) twelve never before issued recordings, expanding the journey and making this the definitive edition of the release with its incredible total of 23 recordings of songs, allowing it ever greater scope to achieve the recordists' modus operandi of capturing the broadest and most diverse cross section of Ethiopia's many musical cultures, ranging from different forms of urban music captured in Addis Ababa, documenting largely orally transmitted idioms within which lyrical content is given greater emphasis than the instrumental components (played on masenko fiddles, craar and bagana lyres, washint flutes and kabaro drums), to folk idioms hailing from the Danakil desert and the border regions with Sudan and Kenya. There are songs sung and played in bars, divination chants, laments, dances, Christian songs, and Amharic sung poetry, to only begin to scratch the surface.

Ethiopian Musics 1971 is one of those rare albums where each musical moment is pure, intoxicating gold, while also being greater through the sum of its parts. There are the many songs, forming a rich tapestry of remarkable range across the respective two LPs/CDs (moments that wondrously flirt with sonic abstraction; hypnotic rhythms; pulsing chant; melodies that, in structural arrangement and tonal combination, help us reframe how such a thing might be understood, and a great deal more), each imbued with a remarkable directness and emotive sensibility, and there is the stunning quality of these recordings themselves, transporting each sound to our ears as though we intimately share its creator's space, while being imbued with the pure heart and remarkable spirit with which they were made. As we said before, it's little wonder, once heard, why these recordings and this music feels as fresh and relevant (enduring more than 50 years) today as when they were made. Once again, Sub Rosa has raised the bar with this essential addition to the incredible work that Ragnar Johnson and Ralph Harrisson did back in Ethiopia during 1971, radically expanding our access to the sounds that they captured with these stunning, beautifully produced 2LP and 2CD editions. Absolutely engrossing from the first sounding to the last, this one can't be missed.

‘Falling Backwards’ is the debut album from Him & Earl via Wah Wah 45s, serving up a mystic brew of desert blues, English folk, Americana and stirring southern soul, with tentacles stretching out into psychedelia and prog, across 11 hot and hazy tracks.

Singer-songwriter Olly Him and DJ, producer and composer Wyndham Earl both have deeply-dug roots in the south coast of England, with the former making his name as a solo artist before exploring his soulful folk/prog sound with a number of live acts, and the latter collaborating on albums and sharing stages with Bonobo, Khruangbin, Alice Russell and TM Juke, having remixes released by Tru Thoughts and Mr Bongo Records and releasing his solo projects on his Time Spun imprint.

The pair first met in 2015 when Wyndham produced some songs for now defunct hypnotic Afro-folk outfit Creatures Of The Deep, of which Olly was a founder member. They instantly clicked, but after the group broke up it was a few years before serendipity brought them back together; a chance encounter at a gig saw them begin hatching plans to make a full album under the name Him & Earl with Olly writing the songs and Wyndham arranging and producing the project.

After so long floating in the creative ether, the connective power of these songs has been strikingly immediate. The debut Him & Earl live show in early 2026, before any tracks had even come out, blew Olly and Wyndham’s expectations out of the water as their five-piece band found themselves toe-to-toe with a sellout crowd – a sweaty room full of happy music fans, on an otherwise bleak January night, throwing shapes to live percussion showdowns, losing themselves in psychedelic guitar and bass wig-outs, and singing along to choruses they’d never heard a note of before.

Since then, the first two singles “Bottled Up” and “Away” have had high profile airplay from the likes of BBC 6 Music’s Huw Stephens and Cerys Matthews, and Radio X’s John Kennedy, adding to widespread tastemaker and specialist support around the world, as excitement builds for the album.The LP’s introspective and philosophical lyrics are brought to life by a sonorous yet strangely uplifting sound palette that morphs by stealth into a darkly propulsive, psychedelic and bluesy trip.

Opening song “Away” taps straight into a key theme of the record – journeying, in both a physical and mental sense, and the quest to move on and embrace the unknown – and its sunny guitars, trumpet and violin barely even hint at the tumultuous sonic adventure that’s set to unfold. A stronger indication comes in the title track,“Falling Backwards”, as its elegant web of staccato finger-picked hook, fluid piano melodies and strings unfurls into a six-minute exploration of what Olly describes as “going through every day normality while feeling close to chaos and like things could fall apart at any moment… when there is a myriad of different things holding everything together and if one thing goes wrong everything can fall apart around it.”



“Better Days” swiftly restores a sense of upbeat calm, with lively Kora and Afrobeat-inspired guitar licks, atmospheric trumpet and a harmony-clad mantra of hope on the horizon; the folky “Bottled Up” continues that blissful notion with undulating finger-picked guitar, earthy clarinet counter-melodies and celestial murmurations of delicately plucked strings. The magnetic pull toward more mysterious horizons comes via the dusty twang of Wild West-esque guitars on “Open Road”, a nomadic journey of self-discovery through spacious sonic plains embellished with eerie flickers of flute and clarinet. This leftward turn gathers pace in the trancelike

psych-prog depths of “Preside”, an instrumental cut at the album’s pivotal halfway point. Hypnotic, guttural desert blues-infused riffs on “Inside” channel the feeling of a psychedelic or spiritual trip where, in Olly’s words, “something clicks and you understand things on a different level – it makes you see inside yourself and see things in a different way.” “Shadow overhead” brings a lighter touch to a darker subject – the feeling of paranoia and being locked away from the world – drawn from Olly’s own experience and also his years of working in and around mental health.

Exuberant horns lend hope to loosely looping suspense on “Blindside” (about being caught out by the unexpected, and searching for something to see or hear to pick you up again) and then mesh with urgent strings, low-slung guitars and subterranean bass on “Around Again”, which explores the modern fight to stay afloat amid the endless churn of information and distractions. Still plumbing the bassy, bluesy depths of this journey into the psyche, “You Can Only Know” is a dreamlike revelation about finding someone or something that helps to make sense of the world. Luminescent synths duck and weave, while a rock-solid bass riff is tracked by a soul-soothing four-part “hey hey” harmony, reassuring as a glowing lamp in the window at the end of a life-changing trip.

Big Crown Records is proud to present Adult Themes, the latest full length offering from El Michels Affair. This album takes the band's "Cinematic Soul" aesthetic literally and sends the listener on a journey through a whirlwind of moods and energies. With their 2005 debut album Sounding Out The City, EMA spearheaded an instrumental funk / soul movement that inspired a slew of bands and even lead to the creation of a few independent record labels. El Michels has since lent his signature sound to artists from Adele to Dr John, Lana Del Rey to Aloe Blacc, and a who's who list of others. In 2016 he co-founded Big Crown Records and has since produced the lion's share of its output. A short stint as the touring band for Wu Tang Clan in 2007 led to the cult classics Enter The 37th Chamber (2009) and Return To The 37th Chamber (2017). Adult Themes marks the long awaited, highly anticipated return to an album of original compositions from El Michels Affair. In 2017 in between producing, playing, and recording on other artists' records Leon Michels began creating compilations of short interludes intended to be sampled by hip hop producers. Some of these wound up becoming songs by Jay Z & Beyonce, Travis Scott, and Don Toliver. These minute-long snippets were inspired by the dense moody work of `60s composers like David Axelrod, and Francois de Roubaix, as well as Moondog's brand of classical jazz. Michels was having so much fun creating these instrumental / orchestral nuggets that he decided to expand on some of the ideas and create what would become the soundtrack for a movie that has yet to be made, an imaginary film entitled "Adult Themes." The album plays like the colors on an artists pallet. Songs like "Rubix" and "Villa" are densely orchestrated with the hard-hitting drums that El Michels Affair is known for. On "Life of Pablo", Leon's son makes his first appearance on record and intros a song with an epic arrangement and a moving mood. "Hipps" is a drum heavy ballad that could've easily fit on EMA's debut record, Sounding Out the City. Other compositions like "The Difference" and "Kill The Lights" are bare, melodic mood pieces with sparse drums and sophisticated chord movement. All of these tunes come together to make perfect backgrounds for dialogue and action. One of the beautiful things about instrumental music is that the listener can decide what the narrative is. With Adult Themes El Michels Affair has created a "choose your own adventure" in musical form.

After years of delays and a very public, bitter dispute with Victory Records, Streetlight finally delivered their follow-up to Somewhere in the Between in 2013. The album is the band’s most ambitious in terms of song length and arrangement complexity, with several tracks stretching well past the five-minute mark. It carries a slightly more mature, weathered tone than earlier records, reflecting the turbulent period the band had endured to get it released. Despite the troubled road to release, it was warmly received and stands as a worthy closer to what many consider the band’s classic era.

R&B outsider Zsela joins forces with inc. no world's Daniel Aged and film composer Taul Katz on '4 Dreams', a billowing ambient-neoclassical hallucination that'll tickle fans of Mary Lattimore, Malibu, Nala Sinephro, Gigi Masin. If you only know Zsela thanks to her dramatic 2024 debut album 'Big For You', the mostly beatless, fully reflective '4 Dreams' might come as a surprise. But look a little further back in her catalogue and things will fall into place; remember 'Angels Pharmacy' and Remembrance' from Actress's 'Karma & Desire'? That was Zsela on vocals, so she's got priors. '4 Dreams' started life as the soundtrack to 'Seven Heavenly Senses', an art exhibition from last year at Paris's Hôtel de la Marine, but has since taken on a life of its own. Zsela's breaths are stretched and sculpted into warm, washing biomechanical pads on the opening dream, left to weather tinny arpeggiated FM synths and muggy bass drones. So far, so predictable. But Zsela muddles proceedings with her confident delivery, layering her voice into jazzy, R&B inflected key changes that keep you guessing. Imagine an astral plane answer to Dawn Richard's ambient-inflected pop and you'll have some idea of where this is headed.

Then 'Dream 2' takes an unexpected diversion, the vocals replaced by swirling harp flourishes and the kind of floating synth stabs that draw a core logic from classic Ambient - Harold Budd, Laraaji et al - then adding extra colors just where necessary. And on 'Dream 3', faint, almost folk-y strings enter the frame, calling out from beyond the horizon, almost blotted out by a synth part that's in the thrall of Gigi Masin's legendary 'Clouds' - the track that ended up being repurposed by Björk on 'It's In Our Hands'. Zsela, Katz and Aged keep that momentum for the final track, too, letting cinematic strings echo around subtle synths and vanishing rhythms, hitting those hypnagogic, tranquil notes that so much contemporary ambient music seems to avoid. 'Cause at its heart, '4 Dreams' is deeper than that, a record that's entrenched in jazz, soul and classical minimalism rather than throwaway numbing music, of the contemporary variety.

The seven tracks are imbued with a sound that is at times harsh and angular, yet always cultivates a dreamlike and sometimes epic imagery. It is the first album with vocals by the talented Elisa Brusati (then the singer of Noema) and lyrics by drummer and synth player Federico Rivoli. This choice has strengthened the band's cinematic and expressive inspiration, which in previous albums was entirely instrumental. The guitar and bass parts complement a less prominent use of synths and keyboards compared to the last album, "From Sunset to Dawn" although there is no shortage of themes and long psychedelic digressions, such as in the songs "Hidden Places" and "Sleeping Brain".

The seven tracks are imbued with a sound that is at times harsh and angular, yet always cultivates a dreamlike and sometimes epic imagery. It is the first album with vocals by the talented Elisa Brusati (then the singer of Noema) and lyrics by drummer and synth player Federico Rivoli. This choice has strengthened the band's cinematic and expressive inspiration, which in previous albums was entirely instrumental. The guitar and bass parts complement a less prominent use of synths and keyboards compared to the last album, "From Sunset to Dawn" although there is no shortage of themes and long psychedelic digressions, such as in the songs "Hidden Places" and "Sleeping Brain".

This may be one of the pearls in the history of jazz recordings, the John Coltrane Quartet featuring; McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, and Elvin Jones with guest Eric Dolphy. It’s the John Coltrane Quartet at its peak with Elvin Jones confirming once again his rank as one of the all times greatest percussionists. The program on that fiery broadcast night in February 1962 on Symphony Sid’s (a long-time jazz disc jockey in the United States) radio program included three long selections: “Mr. PC,” “Miles’ Mode” (aka “Red Planet”), and a nearly 20-minute reading of “My Favorite Things,” which Trane always performed as an extended jam.

This is one of Nina Simone’s best albums in a long time. She’s taken a flock of Duke Ellington tunes, some familiar and some not-so-familiar, and handed them interesting and intriguing renditions in her own special style. The album’s a bit straighter than later efforts, with large backings by Stu Phillips that also feature vocals by the Malcolm Dodds Singers. The result is a masterpiece, proof that even in her early years, Nina could completely transform anything she laid her hands on, and unlock a soulful depth that even the original recordings might have missed. Titles include “I Got It Bad”, “Solitude”, “The Gal From Joe’s”, “It Don’t Mean A Thing”, and “I Like The Sunrise”.

Contains new specially prepared liner notes by Penguin Guide to Jazz 's writer Brian Morton and by Paris' prestigious Jazz Magazine. The first popular jazz singer to move audiences with the intense, personal feeling of classic blues, Billie Holiday (1915-1959) changed the art of American pop vocals forever. Songs for Distingue Lovers is one of the best albums from her late period and finds her surrounded by important instrumentalists, including Ben Webster and Harry "Sweets" Edison. The album received a four-star rating in Down Beat upon its release. Bonus tracks: 'We'll Be Together Again' and 'April In Paris'

The Holloway Echoes sing about very British subjects, with 50s-60s influences.

Mesdames et Messieurs! FLEUR is back for one last time with a new release An EP with 4 sparkling popsongs written by the- king- of- garage- pop Mark ten Hoor (THE KRYNG) who also wrote her last album "Fille Sauvage" (2024). Title track "Jour D'ete" is an uptempo breezy pop-gem about summer and being young and in love. "Je Ne Veux Pas De Toi" romps and stomps with FLEUR telling her admirer how things stand in the bongo driven chorus. "Le Temps Nous Le Dira" could have easily been the title track. A super catchy melancholy song with driving 12-string guitar. The delicate, moody and dreamlike "Qu'est-ce Que Je Fais de Mal" is a perfect closer.

- Die allererste Vinyl-Neuauflage und definitive Ausgabe von Nancys Album ,Movin' with Nancy" aus dem Jahr 1967 - Wunderschön gestaltete und erweiterte Gatefold-LP mit 20-seitigem Booklet sowie eine CD-Ausgabe mit 32-seitigem Booklet - beide enthalten ein neues Interview mit Nancy und dem GRAMMYr-nominierten Co-Produzenten Hunter Lea sowie bisher unveröffentlichte Fotos aus Nancy Sinatras persönlichem Archiv - Mit Audio, das vom GRAMMYr-nominierten Toningenieur John Baldwin frisch von den originalen Analogbändern remastert wurde - Enthält 4 bisher unveröffentlichte Bonustracks: ,It's Such A Pretty World Today" (Movin'-Version), ,Let's Get Movin'", ,This Town" (Film Intro) und ,RC Cola" (It's A Mad Mad Cola) - Mit Gastauftritten von Frank Sinatra und Dean Martin - LP gepresst auf violettem ,Some Velvet Morning"-Vinyl Beschreibung: Light in the Attic präsentiert stolz Nancy Sinatras Album ,Movin' With Nancy" aus dem Jahr 1967. Diese definitive Neuauflage und erste Vinyl-Wiederveröffentlichung überhaupt feiert Nancy auf dem Höhepunkt ihres 60er-Jahre-Coolness. ,Movin' with Nancy" ist eines der ambitioniertesten kreativen Projekte in Nancy Sinatras Karriere. Das einstündige Fernseh-Special von 1967 und das dazugehörige Soundtrack-Album fangen die kreativen, groovigen und schönen Zeiten der 1960er Jahre ein. Das Projekt wurde von RC Cola finanziert, aber das war kein reiner Geldsegen. Es war ein Herzensprojekt für Nancy, die ihren Vater, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. und andere Familienmitglieder und Freunde bat, im Film mitzuwirken. Sie nutzte auch ihre eigenen Autos, Kleider und ihr Haus und schminkte sich selbst. Eine echte DIY-Produktion. Auf dem Album ist Frank Sinatra mit ,Younger Than Springtime" zu hören und Dean Martin im Duett mit Nancy bei ,Things". Produzent Lee Hazlewood singt mit Nancy im Duett bei ,Some Velvet Morning" und ,Jackson"; außerdem steuert er die Songs ,I Gotta Get Out Of This Town", ,Friday's Child", ,This Town" und ,See The Little Children" bei. Zu den Bonustracks gehören der bisher unveröffentlichte Outtake ,It's Such A Pretty World Today (Movin' Version)", zwei unveröffentlichte Musikstücke aus dem Film und der unglaublich eingängige Werbespot ,RC Cola (It's A Mad Mad Cola)".













[m] 13IT'S SUCH A PRETTY WORLD TODAY (MOVIN' VERSION) [PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED] LET'S
[n] 14GET MOVIN' [PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED]
[o] 15THIS TOWN (FILM INTRO) [PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED]
[p] 16RC COLA (IT'S A MAD MAD COLA) [PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED]

Jazz, afrikanische Musik und elektronische Elemente verbinden sich auf dem neuen Album von Nduduzo
Makhathini zu einem dynamischen Ganzen. Der Pianist und Komponist wurde 2020 als erster südafrikanischer Jazzmusiker bei Blue Note Records unter Vertrag genommen, seine Alben gewannen internationale
Preise wie den Edison Jazz Award, den Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik und den Deutschen Jazzpreis. Seine Konzerte sind weltweite Erfolge.
“Seit einiger Zeit beschäftige ich mich mit der Frage, wie verschiedene Gesellschaften ihre Mythen finden
und welche Gemeinsamkeiten sie haben“, sagt Nduduzo Makhathini über sein viertes Blue-Note-Album,
das er zusammen mit seinem achtzehnjährigen Sohn Thingo Makhathini produziert hat. Makhathini selbst
ist an Piano und Keyboards, sowie als Sänger zu hören, neben seinem Trio mit Bassist Dalisu Ndlazi und
Schlagzeuger Lukmil Perez (sowie auf einigen Stücken Ayanda Sikade) sind als Gäste Shabaka Hutchings
(Flöte) und eine Reihe hochkarätiger südafrikanischer Talente zu hören: DJ und Produzent Black Coffee,
Trompeter Robin Fassie, Gitarrist Keenan Ahrends, Sänger Muneyi sowie die Sängerinnen Thando Zide
und Omagugu, Makhathinis Ehefrau und langjährige musikalische Weggefährtin.

You Can Believe it ??"

After five years Simone Guerra (aka Relative) returns to the "House of Mikkit" on his own Flexi Cuts imprint. This dancefloor-oriented album is a manifesto of raw obsession and future patterns, crafted for those who’ve stopped chasing trends to find something real.

The record breathes through deep fat analog basslines and hypnotic arpeggios, layered with dreamy synth lines and ghostly vocoder textures.

It’s a gritty, essential dive into the Italian underground—eight tracks where the machine finds its soul.

If you’re feeling down with your things, if you’re always chasing the tail end of the wave and looking back to it saying "wow"… this is a record you might want to listen to.

______________

Packaged in a protective PVC sleeve with a super raw hand-printed cover.

Including a postcard + 8 tracks download code.

******-----**

Produced, composed and mixed by Simone Guerra aka Relative at Studio Noce (Lugo) between dec '24 and sept '25.

Mastered by Francesco Brini

Design by Yari Calanna and Pietro Galeati.

Words by Matteo Garavini

Zeitgleich mit dem 40-jährigen Jubiläum der Band wurde Complete B Sides: 1988-97 von Pixies neu remastert und wird 25 Jahre nach seiner ursprünglichen CD-Veröffentlichung erneut herausgebracht. Das Album erscheint als Doppel-LP auf schwarzem Vinyl, als Doppel-LP auf klarem Vinyl sowie als Doppel-CD. Außerdem wird diese Veröffentlichung damit zum ersten Mal überhaupt auf Vinyl gepresst. Complete B Sides versammelt alle B-Seiten aus der klassischen 4AD-Ära der Band und enthält einige der besten "anderen" Songs der Pixies, darunter "Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf)", "Into The White" und "The Thing". Ursprünglich 2001 auf CD veröffentlicht, als sich die Band bereits seit fast einem Jahrzehnt in einer Pause befand, enthielt Complete B Sides: 1988-97 alle 19 Nicht-Single-Tracks aus der unglaublichen Reihe von Singles, die die Band zwischen 1988 und 1991 veröffentlichte. Zum Abschluss wurde die instrumentale Version von "Letter to Memphis" hinzugefügt, die zuvor nur auf der US-Version der Veröffentlichung der Alec Eiffel-Maxi-Single erschienen war. Da auf vier Vinylseiten Platz für mehr Musik vorhanden ist, enthält diese aktualisierte Version zusätzlich sechs Live-Tracks, die aus späteren Pixies-Veröffentlichungen stammen, darunter aus der 1997 erschienenen Neuauflage von Debaser. Für diese aktualisierte Edition wurden alle Titel von ihren ursprünglichen analogen Bändern von Kevin Vanbergen neu remastert. Das Ergebnis klingt erstaunlich frisch und vervollständigt zugleich seine umfangreiche Arbeit am gesamten Katalog der Band. Diese neue Vinyl-Edition fungiert außerdem als Begleitstück zur kürzlich erschienenen Compilation Live at the BBC. Designer Chris Bigg (v23) hat dafür ein eindrucksvolles neues Artwork geschaffen und dabei Fotos aus dem Archiv von Simon Larbalestier verwendet, die ursprünglich für die Pixies vorgesehen waren, später jedoch verworfen wurden. Beide arbeiteten seit vielen Jahren mit der Band zusammen und gestalteten beide Veröffentlichungen parallel, um an den verstorbenen visuellen Direktor der Band, Vaughan Oliver, zu erinnern und ihn zu ehren.

暗く湿った夏の夜、小さなボートはあてもなくさまよう。不穏さと美しさが同居するこの海は自分自身のようでもあり遠く離れたどこかのようでもあった。

Shinichi Koboyashi’s music as Bot1500 has such a beautiful signature to it. Using the layers and language of ambient IDM, artfully arranged pads & chords and crisp vectored breaks, he’s been creating a beautiful and highly individual sound.

The Black Sea, His first album since 2022’s Surreal on AD93’s sister label Lith Dolina, spaces things out more and focuses inward with a palette of minimalism and increased emotional resonance. It’s been a focus for Shinichi across his self-published studio work in the last few years.

The album’s tracks feel increasingly rooted in the principles and logic of dub. Utilising more space, more silence, and more focus on the simplicity and elegance of the composition folded into radiant arrangements of melody, snare, shade and echo.

The sea is both an inner landscape and a geographic image that hangs over the record’s mood. A dark humid summer night, like that on Japanese coasts. A small boat sails aimlessly. An eerie tone, but with a glimpse of beauty. The water is melancholic, enveloping, and endless.

Each track is written at 140bpm save for last track “White Flocks” at 120, for the image of heading south to close out.

ProleteR returns with a warm and playful blend of swing and nu jazz.
The first single, “Things of the Past,” introduces the album with a smooth fusion of neo-soul and sampling, enhanced by subtle swing elements. “Do It” (focus track) leans into a more vibrant electro-swing energy, featuring Lyre le Temps, a major figure in the global electro-swing scene.
The worldwide tour kicks off in the US this May and August, before heading to Europe in September (20 shows) alongside Blockhead and Arms & Sleepers.

Consistent funk operator Ralo is back with a brace of tunes that will shake your bones loose. First up is 'Broken Way', a magnificently jumbled rhythm made from languid bass and kicks, peppered with organic percussion and heated through with soft synths. It's atmospheric and real, like the overheard soundtrack to a party happening in your kitchen. 'Djembe' then brings out some brassy horns to take things to the next level. They jump out of the low-slung drums and add jazz, soul and colour that cannot be ignored. Gledd and Monsieur Van Pratt step up on the flip with cultured reworks that turn things up to 11.

Erased Tapes are proud to re-issue The Red Book by Penguin Cafe, with an expanded vinyl track list which now includes the CD and digital-only “And Yet…” plus two tracks from the limited-edition Umbrella EP. This new edition will be available on limited translucent vinyl and CD, both with updated art from Studio Torsten Posselt utilising the original drawing from renowned British sculptor and Simon Jeffes’ partner Emily Young.

Penguin Cafe was founded by Arthur Jeffes in 2009, bringing together a talented and disparate group of musicians initially to perform his father Simon Jeffes’ legacy of world-renowned Penguin Cafe Orchestra music, ten years after his untimely death in 1997. Following the release of A Matter of Life shortly after founding, The Red Book was released in 2014 to critical and fan acclaim.

“The name The Red Book comes from the book by Karl Jung of the same name. The book is about, among other things, the way our subconscious interacts with and intrudes into our daily lives. I thought this fitted what we were trying to achieve with the second album quite neatly — namely, exploring musical worlds that are at once both familiar and strange. There is another meaning which is that the main mastered disc you end up with, the one from which all other copies will be made, is called the Red Book Master — so somewhere at some point there will be a disc on which will be written “The Red Book — Red Book Master.”

The tracks on the album all fall on some point along a scale going from gently Apollonian at the one end to perhaps a bit more Dionysian at the other. For our purposes this would be the ‘spacey’ end — with tunes like 1420 and Aurora, and the ‘imaginary folk’ end — with tracks like Odeon, Radio Bemba and Black Hibiscus. The tracks between these extremes are, perhaps with Silent Sun in particular, an attempt to blend these two parts.”

The Debut LP released by Cardinal Fuzz (UK) & Feeding Tube Records (USA). Presented in a hand stamped metallic copper ink (front and back) print on a black card sleeve with insert. Recorded during downtime but sounding anything but casual, Celestial Power emerged when Dead Sea Apes’ Brett Savage and Chris Hardman linked synaptic overload with Cardinal Fuzz’s own Dave Cambridge to form a three-headed amplifier cult. Heavy, raw, and deeply resonant, this is music that embraces volume, repetition, and the beauty of imperfection. What they’ve summoned is a sprawling liturgy of overdriven guitar mantras: brutal, blown-out, and gloriously repetitive. Imagine the Velvet Underground locked in a warehouse mainlining the kosmische pulse of some forgotten Krautrock commune while Bardo Pond’s ash-coated spirit hovers overhead, scattering embers into a storm of PSF-style amplifier abuse. Not so much songs as tectonic events. Not riffs, but rituals. This thing doesn’t purr it howls. You hear the room breathing. You hear amplifiers gasping as they’re pushed past mercy, past design, into some ecstatic mechanical breakdown. Every repetition drills deeper, pushing beyond the horizon line until time itself starts peeling back in sheets. And that’s the point. This is repetition as revelation. Volume as transcendence. Human hands wrestling raw electricity into shape, then losing control of it entirely. On “Mandate Of Heaven,” the circle widens with the arrival of Nik Rayne (The Myrrors), adding another dimension to the ritual, a desert prophet stepping into the feedback storm, pushing the album’s gravitational pull even further into the void. No compromise. No softening. No edges filed off. Just pure voltage, scorched earth repetition, and the kind of heavy psychedelic communion that feels less like listening and more like surviving. Step inside. Bring ear protection. Or don’t. 4 Tracks - 42 Minutes.

(*Previously unreleased)

Telling a tale of house music’s early days or roots without mentioning Tony Humphries as a club DJ, remixer and radio disc jockey would make it an incomplete, forged and most of all a bit of a yawn.
Born in Brooklyn in 1957, Humphries’ musical journey is synonymous with New York City’s dance music history and the evolution from uptempo soul music to house: from being a dancer at David Mancuso’s infamous Loft parties to becoming a mobile DJ and getting the call from Shep Pettibone to become his right hand at
the then new Kiss FM radio station, followed by countless remix offers and a legendary residency at Newark’s Club Zanzibar. Next to that one, is was especially his work as a radio disc jockey for said station during most of the 1980s until 1994 that gave him majestic clout. Breaking new records week in, week out,
putting New Jersey acts like Adeva and Jomanda or countless up-and-coming producers from there on the musical map, while simultaneously playing the hottest imports from Europe, trax from Chicago, dance classics and all things straight from New York’s music factory that never seemed to stop.
Going to his vast and almost complete archive of radio shows from way back when he graced those airwaves, we at Running Back Records have pickedNew Release Information original recordings that symbolize his importance as an industry giant and ambassador of this style of music.
„But one thing I would like to point out is that, as a DJ, the music I play is not my music. I want to make it perfectly clear that it is music that is released, and it’s everyone’s music. I do not take any other credit than being the middle person exposing this music.“
(Tony Humphries in: What Kind of House Party Is This?, Jonathan Fleming, 1996)

A conjuration between our favourite dreamweaver Spencer Clark and Italian psychic traveller Mondo Riviera, Lorenzo's Oil present an oracle of aural travelogues between seen and unseen worlds on 'Paperopolis'.
Two likeminded individuals on their distinct but complementary quest for the netherworld, Clark and Riviera's meeting of the minds projects sonic artefacts assembled from lucid dreaming keyboard pads, narcotic late night TV rhythms, spiralling sequences and mangled voices.
The 10+ minutes 'Neo-Paperopolis Jump Suite' makes these intentions quite clear right from the start, veering from no frills keyboard runs to a mid tempo bounce and on towards the house of mirrors synth stabs and driving rarefied percussion that close the suite and open the pathway to such "places" as 'Central Jungle, Paperopolis' and "visions" as 'The Neverending Skylines of Taipei'. Ride on.