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The sacred mushroom played rock music heavily influenced by the blues. Their only self-titled LP released in 1969 on the audio fidelity records label, has be remastered and released again by Akarma Records. The original album is reproduced beautifully and a colorful story about the group by an unknown historian is included on the back cover of the LP.

All the songs are originals with the exception of a Ray Davies song titled 'I'm not like everybody else.' Considering the date that this was recorded, it sounds surprisingly vibrant and hardly outdated. In any event, this is great music. It's a splendid tribute to the blues and how rock music gave the style the respect and admiration that it justly deserved.

This is crank-it-up-loud blues rock that you will surely enjoy if you happen to get into either style of music.

Verve Forecast announces the first in a trilogy of Spoken Word EPs from three-time Grammy nominated artist Tank and the Bangas. ‘The Heart’ is an EP that features Jill Scott and is produced by The Roots' James Poyser (Erykah Badu, Common). Subsequent EP installments feature Yaya Bey, Aja Monet, Samara Joy, J Ivy. Second EP will be ‘The Mind’ and is produced by Iman Omari (Kendrick Lamar, Mac Miller). ‘The Soul’ will be the final installment and is produced by Robert Glasper (H.E.R. Brandee Younger). Following the August 30th album release with all three parts, there will be a fall co-headline tour with Jamila Woods and a Blue Note NYC residency (third year in a row)!

Let’s start with the scream. We tend to define our singers by how “great” their voice is, how deftly they can ascend and descend major and minor scales, and how they can turn up and turn down the emotion inherent in their voices. But when considering Wilson Pickett, it begins and ends with his scream. He could take you on a journey, he could butter you up, he could make you feel things in your vital organs, but you don’t get a nickname like “Wicked Pickett” because you’re a crooner.

Pickett’s “Hey Jude” forms the spiritual centerpiece and title track of hisfinal trip up to the mountain-top, his last true masterpiece LP. He’d take forays to Philadelphia for the new sound of soul, and even go vaguely disco in the late ’70s. But for his final album of the ’60s, a decade where he dominated the soul charts, he’d unwittingly help start southern rock, and scream his way across one of the most recognizable tunes in the history of song. Not bad for 31 minutes and eight seconds worth of music.

Here comes No Obligation, the second full-length release from THE LINDA LINDAS further advances their unironic, joyful, and exciting trajectory of mashing up L.A. punk with alt-rock, garage rock, power pop, new wave, rock en español. No Obligation was written and recorded by the band during spring breaks, winter breaks, and long weekends (Lucia and Eloise are still in high school, Mila just finished middle school, and Bela is patiently waiting for them to get done with it already) and was produced by Carlos de la Garza (Paramore, Best Coast, Bleached). Known for their incredible musicianship and live performances, the band who has shared stages with and opened for Paramore, Japanese Breakfast, Jawbreaker, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, are about to embark on a massive two-month tour across America with Green Day. Look for headlining shows at small clubs in between-including a sold-out gig at the famously DIY Gilman Street in Berkeley. The new album, No Obligation, is out on October 11 . No Obligations. No expectations. No limits for THE LINDA LINDAS.

Here comes No Obligation, the second full-length release from THE LINDA LINDAS further advances their unironic, joyful, and exciting trajectory of mashing up L.A. punk with alt-rock, garage rock, power pop, new wave, rock en español. No Obligation was written and recorded by the band during spring breaks, winter breaks, and long weekends (Lucia and Eloise are still in high school, Mila just finished middle school, and Bela is patiently waiting for them to get done with it already) and was produced by Carlos de la Garza (Paramore, Best Coast, Bleached). Known for their incredible musicianship and live performances, the band who has shared stages with and opened for Paramore, Japanese Breakfast, Jawbreaker, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, are about to embark on a massive two-month tour across America with Green Day. Look for headlining shows at small clubs in between-including a sold-out gig at the famously DIY Gilman Street in Berkeley. The new album, No Obligation, is out on October 11 . No Obligations. No expectations. No limits for THE LINDA LINDAS.

"SUNSHINE is my Appalachian trail album. It’s the collection of songs I wrote after walking 1500 miles in 123 days, and all that unraveled as a result. The biggest change in my life, after living outside for 4 months, is that I haven’t lived anywhere since. I’ve been nomadic for three years now and this album is the result of that.

Single #1 Orbit
There are many things that have changed about my life since I wrote my last album, and one of those has been falling in love. I wrote Orbit after falling in love with my partner Milla. I was awe-struck, dumb founded, blinded by the light, however you want to call it. I could not believe my luck, and I wanted to write a song about it. I wanted the song to race fast like a heartbeat, and to get up in your face like feelings. The music video is about finding harmony with all the different parts of yourself.
For fans of Johnathon Richmond, Daywave, Paul Cherry, Beach Fossils

Erstmals auf Vinyl: Das On-U Sound-Album des legendären Trompeters Harry Beckett, einer Schlüsselfigur der britischen und europäischen Jazzszene, das 2008 nur als CD erschien. Kein geringerer als Charles Mingus nahm Beckett in seine Band auf, es kam zu Kollaborationen mit Zeitgenossen wie Dudu Pukwana, Graham Collier, Mike Westbrook und Ian Carr, Beckett inspirierte eine ganze Generation jüngerer Musiker (Courtney Pine) und Trendsetter (Gilles Peterson). Teilnehmende Musiker waren Junior Delgado (mit starker Vocalperformance), Carlton "Bubblers" Ogilvie (Veteran der UK-Reggae-Szene) und Alan Glen (Yardbirds!).

- "Becketts Genialität besteht darin, dass er sich selbst immer treu bleibt, egal mit wem er auftritt. Seine sprudelnden, sprudelnden, improvisierten Melodien heben immer die Stimmung. „The Modern Sound Of Harry Beckett“ ist ein großartiger Klanggenuss." - The Guardian

- "Sherwoods Produktionsstil schafft hier eine perfekte Balance zwischen klanglicher Kreativität und respektvoller Zurückhaltung, und Beckett selbst ist brillant und kreiert Bläserlinien, die sich durch die Rillen schlängeln und schlängeln, anstatt auf ihnen zu reiten. Etablierte On-U Sound-Fans werden dies als unterhaltsame Kuriosität empfinden; Harry Beckett-Fans werden es vielleicht aufschlussreich finden."

“The Coup’s second album, 1994’s Genocide & Juice, was an emboldened level-up from their first full length. While early Coup material had moments that blossomed on later efforts, Genocide & Juice was where those ideas deepened, becoming more pronounced as their catalog grew. Production wise, it’s replete with colorful samples, thorough skits and big bass, a perfect intersection of ’90s sample-based ingenuity and West Coast funk.

Genocide & Juice is mainly two things: neighborhood tales and unapologetic worldviews bound with fisted activism — made by the group’s core members at the time — Riley, Pam the Funkstress and E-Roc. But there are voices and sound effects woven throughout that give it more texture. Killer production that was able to sound both clearly professional while retaining its edge. At a concise 14 tracks, this album is one of the best sophomore efforts by any group, in any genre.”

JTQ experimentieren ständig mit verschiedenen Musikstilen, nach Soul- und Jazzalben, einem Chor- und einem Orchesteralbum, nehmen sie jetzt ein Funk-Rock-Album auf, das eigentlich die nächste The Prisoners-LP hätte sein können. Funky, teils punky Rock-Elemente wechseln sich ab mit Hammond-Funk-Instrumentals im Stil von Jimmy McGriff. James Taylor nahm viel mit Billy Childish und The Prisoners auf und fand es an der Zeit, seine Jazzband auch an diesem eher rock'n'rolligen Sound auszuprobieren. Während die Funk-Rock-Tracks auf BBC 6 laufen, spielt Jazz FM die Instrumentals.

If you can"t make an omelette without breaking some eggs, then you can"t make a debut album without making some mistakes. 20 years on, those mistakes play an integral part of what makes Is My Head Still On? a beautiful record. Loose, explorative, personal, embarrassing, true and all over the fucking place. I wouldn"t want to change a thing.

Find 10 amazing hits recorded by one of Jazz finest combination ever on a a wonderful picture disc vinyl ! Including :Summertime, Autumn In New York, Cheek To Cheek...

Big Crown Records is proud to present the reissue of one of Brooklyn’s most sought after “holy grail” soul records, YIA Talent Hunt Winners. Youth in Action, Inc. (YIA) was formed in 1963 when the Central Brooklyn Coordinating Council received a grant to develop a youth services program in the Bedford-Stuyvesant community. It was originally organized to identify and address the social problems that were leading to the high crime rate in Bed-Stuy. Recently the Smithsonian Museum of African American History released an archive of footage filmed by a community activist, which shows the real-world effects of the group’s efforts: young people engaged in sports, the arts, and other activities to better themselves and their world. The appearances by Jackie and Bobby Kennedy point to the group's relationship to the Great Society programs of President Lyndon B. Johnson. What there is no mention of in either the NMAAHC’s collection of YIA materials nor in the Brooklyn Public Library’s also extensive collection is this talent show and the record that came to be because of it.
Local vocal groups chose tunes to cover from the era (1964 - 1968) ranging from The Rascals to The Intruders, from The O’Jays to Billy Stewart. All of these groups were backed by a local act called The Thrillers Band. The winners of the talent contest were then invited into the studio to record their versions which would be pressed up on this record and given away to local radio and TV stations. The hope of the whole thing was that this would help the young groups get discovered by producers and record labels and start their professional music careers. The intro to the album is Reverend Horace Tyler congratulating the winners and asking them “to just remember, when you reach the top and become our big stars of tomorrow, don’t forget YIA”.
What this album may lack in fidelity and production it more than makes up for in charm. The engineers at the recording sessions pump in pre recorded applause and screaming to give the it the feel of the day of the contest while the young groups sing their hearts out, clearly giving their all. From today’s perspective, soul music fans will lose it over the choices of covers on this record and the killer, raw, innocent performances of them by these local Brooklyn groups. The Channels 4, Carla & The Carlettes, The United Souls, Sharon Seabrook & The Starlettes, and The Destinations all won that day and got to take place in this record. It makes you wonder, and even pine for the performances of the groups who didn’t make the cut, even if just to find out what tunes they covered, or better yet, were their original songs written by some of them for this contest?
It is with great pleasure that we make this available to the public again. This is a truly rare record, and an awesome piece of New York History.

Xylitol is the alias of Catherine Backhouse, producer and DJ under the name DJ Bunnyhausen. She was a resident DJ at Kosmische, the now dormant Krautrock club and is a fan of jungle and hardcore. She currently co-hosts the radio show Slav To The Rhythm, which focuses on vintage central and eastern European pop and electronica and she's also co-writing a book on Yugoslavian pop culture. 'Anemones' is a total project from the cover to the music. Backhouse is fascinated by early botanical illustrations of anemones and other aquatic fauna, and how the act of taxonomy reveals as much about human psychology, desire and sublimation as it does about the organic specimen as a thing in itself. Each track is a microcosm of this 'other life', an allegory for the extraordinary potential latent within bodies that the dancefloor has the power to activate. Using early jungle and garage as starting points to connect dots and open up contrasts between dance music and vintage electronics, Backhouse finds a sweet spot which, in her words "feels like something that's simultaneously still and ancient yet propulsive and ecstatic." Not afraid of letting the the hiss and flutter of the music show, 'Anemones' holds attention with ancient bubbling synths and gracefully drifting arpeggiations, occasionally brought to heel by charming melodies, all accompanied by breakbeats that explode like fireworks. 'Anemones' has a lively and unpolished aesthetic that's a kindred spirit to Nondi_'s 2023 album of smeary, water-damaged footwork, 'Flood City Trax'. 'Moebius' pits the spaced out neon chords of the track's namesake against absolutely tearing breaks, allowing time for this almost overwhelming combination to become near enough transcendental, while the bleeping melody and sad slavic chorus motif in 'Okko' feels like an artifact from an alternative future. The Drexciya meets 2-step garage of 'Dobro Jutro' creates a welcome respite at the album's midpoint before the flow builds up again to 'Daša' with its glassy sounds from a lost radiophonic workshop miniature meeting bruising kicks and snares. Meanwhile 'Iskria' has purring synth chords and 8-bit melodies evoking the cosmonaut age. The subliminal influence of the Yugo era is felt in DIY synthesis and Mitteleuropean melody and seen in song titles such as 'Jelena', 'Miha', 'Daša' (named after novelist Daša Drndič) and 'Iskria' (taken from the fictitious Balkan region in Ottessa Moshfegh's bleak fable 'Lapvona'). 'Anemones' very effectively folds experimental genres from different times and places into a very enjoyable new sound.

Readers of encyclopedic tomes are obviously familiar with exploding animals – there are numerous reports of torn-apart toads (even in Hamburg, Germany!), actual ants exploding altruistically – but humans that decide to jointly detonate, and with no harm done, that’s rare: Kobe’s own o'summer vacation are unique (and volatile) like that, and they’re back to light the fuse for the second time, presenting 13 more musical quarter sticks that have already blown up venues in Europe and Japan.

“Keep it lean, keep it mean,” they say, and that’s what this band loves to take to the extreme: breakneck concision and collective combustion meet freeform noise punk hazards on o'summer vacation's second (not quite) full-length – as the Kobe-based three-piece’s “Electronic Eye” is set to arrive on October 11, 2024. Following a bunch of trips to Berlin, Munich etc., the Japanese fire starters have found a new home with Alien Transistor, and it’s the perfect launch pad for their latest set of guitarless pyrotechnics. Going right for max q (maximum dynamic pressure), “Electronic Eye” is (unlike those Starships) actually supposed to explode right after lift-off ;)

Even though there have been some line-up changes since the group recorded its sophomore album, the energy caught by producer Shinji Masuko (DMBQ, Boredoms) is still unmatched: a very physical and hard-knocking barrage of mosh-inducing madness that leaves you speechless + inevitably twitching towards the pit. Mastering was done by Masaki Oshima aka Watchman (Melt-Banana).

Opening with sizzling hi-hats and heavy ripples of breathless bass, singer Ami presents a non-sequitur kind of lullaby over the math rock-style interlocutions of “宿痾 (Shuku - A)” – which at 6+ minutes makes up more than a quarter of the album. A shapeshifting frenzy of voice (Ami), unbridled, pedal-powered bassline insanity (Mikkki, formerly Mikiiiii), and hot-blooded drums (Manu, meanwhile replaced by Karry), the album features mosh-inducing blows (previously released “Luna,” “Anti Christ 大体 Super Star”), 30-sec mini noise punk anthems (“竦(shou)”, “Days Go By Fast”), and continues to surf at breakneck pace up and down scales (“@ The”), which often feels like catharsis served with a hammer (“Ultra”). Whereas some tracks are bigger more song-y than others (“Song#2,” that full-throttle “Poodle”), “Vs I” is on time like Tierra Whack (exactly 60 seconds of pick-grinding action), and “Rage” indeed feels like Zack is about to join the party – only to see Ami wipe the floor with pure onomatopoetic fire. Finally, “Aloooooone” and “Humming” (that opening lilt!) are sure going to be live favorites, shifting up and down via hardcore speeds and various break-downs.

Quite hotheaded and terminating things on a high note, o'summer vacation point out that the quick-fire lyrics of their “songs have no meaning. It’s called onomatopoeia in English. Ami, our vocalist, does not like to communicate her thoughts through her music.” Although she considers her contribution “a part of the instrumentation,” they still have strong messages and concerns (unrest, discontent, willingness to shake, wake up, enliven anyone near the audible bomb crater): “That doesn’t mean we don’t have a point of view, but we choose to express ourselves through sound rather than words. Generally, but not exclusively, we are anti-racism, anti-war, gender-free, angry at the companies we work for and their bosses, etc., which are very common sentiments held by so-called rock bands.”

It’s only three ingredients, just like sonic gunpowder: bass, drums, voice – but they tend to explode a few bars into each new track. In a perfect world, there’d be giant colorful clouds of dust gracing the sky over each venue they descend upon.

* From Karma Recordings comes their eigth EP. They are continuing their trend of getting their heroes from the 90’s to remix the original sound. The massive rave icon Ellis Dee, one of the biggest producers on the planet brings his unique blend of piano sounds to the hands in the air anthem Warehouse Crew by DJ KOS, as well as featuring the original. DJ Ande has gone a little different with his hardcore tune Trip Home Pt 1 which is a nod to the classic hardcore tunes Trip to the Moon by Acen. To round things off web ring back DJ Terrace to hammer home a wicked tune in Top Gun which makes this another belter of an EP not to be missed.

Danny Tenaglia’s new EP on Nervous Records features “Tonight” and “Out From Obscurity” and a remix of his prior Nervous Records release “Move That Body.”

With ”Tonight,” Danny kicks things off with the title track - treating us to both ‘No Beats Intro’ and ‘Beats Intro’ versions. And in doing so - manages to deliver, hands-down, one of the most tantalising and majestically rousing opening gambits we’ve heard in some time.

And when ‘Tonight’ finally bursts its aural banks, circa 1 minute 30 seconds - with the most seamless of transitions, we suddenly find ourselves surfing a decadent wave of hazy Rhodes, staccato bass and mesmeric vocal work - ebbing and flowing right up to it’s opulent and wonderfully soporific conclusion.

Next up we have DT’s re-rub of George Vidal’s ‘Out From Obscurity’; a veritable pressure-cooker of a track, that spins and weaves a sense of poise, tension and drama which escalates stealthily throughout. A stripped-back, rolling synth-driven’, made-to-measure for the 2024 club floor.

Finally - closing this souped-up invigorator of a release - we have ANTRANIG’s remix of Danny and Cevin Fisher’s ‘Move That Body’… a fully tribalized, menagerie-wrapped groove; which wears the sweat, the writhe and all that heat - very much on it’s visceral, live-and-direct sleeve.“

'a masterclass in hardcore dancefloor and bittersweet feeling...Alex Crossan is both acclaimed and not feted enough' **** The Observer

Available on his own Pond Recordings, Curve 1 is a love-letter to club spaces, and the music and people who fill them.

Mura Masa’s forth album is a full-circle moment. Departing from the pop-leaning narrative and who’s-who guestlist of his most recent records, Curve 1 heads back down the rabbit-hole of club music that’s alternately euphoric, introspective, nostalgic and future-facing. Full of tension and release, ambiguity and playfulness, the significance of Curve 1 is left up to the individual: whether enjoyed solo or in the sweat of a packed room, here is music as enigmatic and layered as its author.

Mura Masa himself introduces Curve 1 as 'a manifestation of an attitude I’ve been cultivating in my personal life; ignore everything. All the content, all of the attention economy, all of it. In doing that, the really meaningful and vital parts of what’s around you make themselves known and unignorable, demanding your energy. It’s my first offering as an independent artist through my own record label, and as such I wanted it to be as free and anti-narrative as possible. Impressionistic. Music as entertainment has in many cases, to me, become very advertorial and excessively sentimental in terms of creating narrative around albums and artists. I wanted to strip this away as much as possible to leave room for the music to create its own meaning in the lives of people who form connections with it. It's hard for me not to explain away the intricacies and ideas contained within these records after having theorised and tolled and executed them over the course of nearly three years, but I think it’s far more fitting of the album’s intent to say simply: listen to it in the dark.'

Curve 1 pulls Mura Masa into focus as one of this generation’s most influential figures. Aptly reflecting his rare standing at the heart of youth culture, Mura Masa recently co-wrote long standing collaborator PinkPantheress’ single ‘Turn It Up’, as well as creating a series of remixes for Troye Sivan’s ‘Honey’. From producing global hits like ‘Boy’s a liar Pt.2’ to seminal records like Shygirl’s Mercury-nominated Nymph, it’s a juncture that has also seen Mura Masa embark on a new chapter of his own. He has set up his label and a creative hub and arts space - The Pond - in Peckham as a base for emerging artists and likeminded creatives, which will launch officially next year. Across his three critically-acclaimed solo albums, Mura Masa has built an audience who will follow wherever his genre-defying work goes next; with 2 billion streams, headline festival sets around the world, and live shows ranging from Alexandra Palace to Warehouse Project.

Curve 1 marks a back-to-your-roots approach whilst also highlighting the trailblazing young star’s recurring theme: to capture ‘that’ curvature in pop culture, to make it Mura Masa’s own, and to push things forward.

'Curve 1 has a club focus, no f—ks attitude and production that’s mature, lush — simply put, it’s just cool.' billboard

'a scintillating love letter to club culture and sounds' Wonderland

'the Grammy-winning producer throws a total curveball. Ditching his usual dreamy pop, Mura goes full hardcore dance. From techno to vintage rave' **** The Mirror

'Get sweaty as Mura makes it messy' **** The Sunday Express

'a total curveball...intense but full of hooks' **** The Daily Star

'Mura Masa has always been ahead of the creative curve, but with his new album, the tenured producer is consciously forging a path inspired by his newfound independence.'

'a grab-bag of sounds from a brilliantly restless mind' Rolling Stone

On their third full-length album, 'The Signal', the Compact Disk Dummies keep a few interesting balls in the air. They play with the opinions and expectations of the outside world, while also confronting their own desires and doubts. This is aptly depicted on the cover with a table, a bell, two brothers and an impatient crowd: who is waiting for whom? The album is as diverse as its cover is surprising. In a mix of styles and influences ranging from retro house to funk, Lennert and Janus Coorevits demonstrate their versatility. Following their scintillating performances at Rock Werchter and Pukkelpop, and the success of the radio hits 'There's No Sex Without You' and 'fomo', 'The Signal' marks the start of a new era for the Dummies.

Lennert notes, "Pfff, I would think about everything indefinitely. And I'm not the only one, I notice. Stuck in a kind of limbo, a state of uncertainty, surrounded by signals, but still feeling a certain fear of following the signal."

On 'The Signal', 'fomo' dissects human desire, reaching for the unattainable. 'Where We Go (Calypso)' is like the shipwreck no one wants. And in the title track, the female lead character finds herself in a toxic relationship, the signs of which are obvious, at least to the outside world. While the content of 'The Signal' revolves around doubt, contemplation and acting or not acting, the musical interpretation is in direct opposition to that. The Compact Disk Dummies do not doubt; they hold their heads up and their chests out. With certainty, they mix everything that excites them musically into the blender, without grinding the identity of the Dummies themselves; actually enriching it instead. The retro house of 'Solàr' (a song about Louis the Fourteenth? Why not) flows into the rampant funk of 'Ballet Dancer' before expanding into 'Underwater'. In every track, you sense the long road the Coorevits brothers have travelled since their breakthrough - and their then angular electro-punk. This third album is Lennert and Janus' most sophisticated work in the expanding universe of the Compact Disk Dummies.

In addition to being a mix of styles, 'The Signal' is also a mix of collaborations. There is the French touch of mixer Michael Declerck and mastering engineer Alex Gopher. There is the Dutch input of Wieger Hoogendorp (Goldband) and Jens Van Der Meij (Froukje). Beautiful string sections are provided by Wietse Meys and Reinhard Vanbergen, bass licks by Boris Van Overschee and backing vocals by Isolde Lasoen and Judith Okon, among others. Producer Jasper Maekelberg always kept an eye on things. And again, for the third album in a row, after 'Mess With Us' (2013) and 'Neon Fever Dream' (2020), artist Athos Burez also provided the artwork for 'The Signal'.

But however international the music sounds, however great the contributions from other top artists, 'The Signal' remains largely the work of the Dummies, with Lennert as vocalist, lyricist and multi-instrumentalist, and Janus as engineer, producer and all-around tech wizard. The album was not made in New York, Tokyo or Berlin, but in Desselgem. Studio 87, the Coorevits family's garage converted into a studio, remains Ali Baba's cave for the Compact Disk Dummies. In their studio crammed with synths, percussion and guitars, Lennert and Janus could not ignore the signal: time to smash it!

2024 Repress

'Solar Nights' is the long awaited second album from German nu-disco star Tim Bernhardt, aka Satin Jackets. Released on Eskimo Recordings this April, 'Solar Nights' follows on from Bernhardt's critically acclaimed, and Gold certified, debut LP 'Panorama Pacifico' and features 14 tracks of smooth disco and leftfield pop sounds with guest appearances from the likes of Future Classic's Panama, David Harks, Niya Wells, Emma Brammer and Anduze.

The global success of 'Panorama Pacifico' has seen Bernhardt coaxed out from his remote studio in one of Germany's ancient forests to play to fans across the world, from South Korea to Mexico and beyond, experiences that inspired both the album itself and its title, 'Solar Nights'.

"In recent years the world's become smaller, a more inter-connected place. It can be dark and cold here, with snow all around, and the next day I can be playing to people on a beach. Somewhere on the planet it's always daytime or summer, but beyond that day and night just blend into each other these days," Tim explains. "We have daytime discos so you can go and party while the sun is still high in the sky, and you can go and hit the gym at night. Beit day or night, Satin Jackets is your soundtrack."

And what a soundtrack it is, from the first chords of opening 'Welcome Back' it's clear we're in safe hands here, the warm pads, delicate guitars and pianos providing the perfect introduction to the album. Whether it's the slow burning seductive pop of tracks like 'Just Like You', piano led house tracks like 'String It Again', the Balearic haze of 'All For You' or bonafide hits like the Nordic inspired 'Northern Lights' and 'Mirage' that between them have already scored well over 10 million streams across streaming platforms, 'Solar Nights' takes everything we loved from 'Panorama Pacifico' and polishes it to an ultra high sheen.

And in an age when rough and raw production is seen as an easy shorthand for authenticity, Tim's love of über-smooth production has made him an unlikely iconoclast, "I had always been fascinated by how glossy people like Nile Rodgers made their music," he reveals. "It always sounded like the musical equivalent of a fashion magazine's cover. I'd been making more underground music for a while but really wanted to go in totally the other direction and instead create a really smooth, polished sound."

That obsession with sonic fidelity shines through across every track on 'Solar Nights', and the years since his debut was released have been well spent perfecting his craft. "Even in just the last couple of years I've made some big changes in how I produce music. Compared to my debut, everything under the hood has changed here," he explains. "Every day, with every production, I'm learning new things and when I listen to these new tracks, the depth in the mixes, the clarity, I like to think of 'Solar Nights' as Satin Jackets but in 3D."

From wanting to recreate the sound of magazine covers to appearing on them, the past few years has been quite some journey for the still enigmatic producer. The man behind the golden mask may prefer to stay out of sight but 'Solar Nights' reveals him to be fully in control, producing music that reflects the glamour and glitz of 70s Manhattan, artfully updated for the 21st century.

Not so long ago in 2017, the first release on Michiel Claus' and Ailsa Cavers' Basic Moves saw the light of day and especially the shine of night. Produced by founding father Walrus, BM01 set the tone for a record label that focuses on releasing hidden archives from the 90s, whilst combining them with modern club music from the here and now. By highlighting the musical heritage of the Belgian electronic music scene, the label illustrates the continuity between past and present, history and shaping identities of 21st-century artists, undeniably building on the strong foundations of their forerunners. Seven years and nineteen releases later, Basic Moves is rounding off the series with BM20, a final double 12'' by one of the major figures from the Belgian underground: Circadian Rhythms also known as Dj Deg. After many years of collecting, deejaying and producing music, his musical spectrum ranges from synth, library and wave, to jazz, funk and disco, from house to techno. His journey started in clubs like Bocaccio (1988 - 1993), and La Gait? (1979 -1989), where young Deg came across deejay's like Olivier Pieters or Eric Beysens who made him choose the path of becoming a devoted disc jockey himself. BM20 is a sonic witness of Deg's first musical encounters with his machines, revealing a withdrawn selection of six bedroom patchwork tracks produced between the years of '93 & '99, a time without the internet or user manuals to help you solve the riddles of technology. Though only at the very beginning of his creative process, Deg's unique personality is nevertheless already clearly identifiable: blending techno with jazz, where the sharp edges of 16-step drum-sequences are smudged and bent in different directions. In the lower countries, the second half of the 90s was a period of fast & funky, happy Detroit, 140 BPM techno. Whenever Deg was not oscillating between record shops or gigs and had a moment on his own, mostly during morning hours after the club, he would spend his leftover energy in the studio. Either by himself or with his loyal ally Mike DMA, he would benefit from these moments to slow down and give space to a different, introverted sound - processing moods, feelings and thoughts. This record therefore gathers only a few of many (unrecorded) one-shot live sessions which were never intended to be shared - and only existed for the love of music and its power to take you beyond all things known. Thank you Deg for sharing your music and giving us a glimpse of your universe. Without your productions, your memorable warm-ups and closing sets - many of us would not be where we are now, and Basic Moves might never have been founded. As a last note to a closing song, BM20 is about being fully committed to the music and the club, a medium and place of fruitful settings for encounters, creativity and growth. Where dreams and ideas have a chance to exist, being almost ready and thought out to shape future times to come - and many party nights. Gurl, December 2023

Speckled Dragon Egg Color Vinyl. Being Dead knows how to make an entrance - within the first several seconds of EELS, the duo's new record, the bright, hard-strummed guitar line on "Godzilla Rises" conjures cinematic immediacy, a creature emerging from the depths of the ocean in campy, freaky stop motion, fittingly so. Being Dead's records are mosaics, technicolor incantations, each song its own self-contained little universe. And while the dreamlike EELS probes further into the depths of the duo Being Dead's psyche, it is, most importantly, in the year of our lord 2024, a 16-track record that is genuinely unpredictable from one track to the next: a joyous and unexpected trip helmed by two true-blue freak bitch besties holed up in a lil' house in the heart of Austin, Texas. They decamped to Los Angeles for two weeks to record with GRAMMY-winning producer John Congleton, writing songs for the record until days before they left. The radical shift in process was welcome - a good balance and a challenge, Congleton helping them find new ways to work and helping peel back the layers on the core of their songwriting. Being Dead has grown from a duo to a trio live, including bassist Ricky Motto (who is immortalized finally on record here, particularly in the giggles on "Rock n' Roll Hurts") The resulting EELS is a darker record, tapped more into the devilishness within, but it's also a more raucous, rougher ride sonically. There's heartbreak, excitement, enchantment, dancing - we move through it all at a high-octane pace. Falcon Bitch and Smoofy never want to do the same thing twice on any song, and they don't. From the pummeling garage rock distortion of "Firefighters" to "Dragons II," which appears in its demo form taped on a hand recorder, it's unexpected but intuitive, and, most importantly, singularly Being Dead. Like its animal namesake suggests, the songs on EELS are malleable, the record like slithering through murky waters or strange half dreams, mysterious and beautiful in how it moves, reflective in a wavering sheen. Dipping into each song feels like uncovering a new cavern, plunging into depths unknown but fully open to what will be revealed. On the album artwork, an illustration by the artist Julia Soboleva, there are some weird disparate spectral creatures, a stark glimmer against a cloudy darkness. It's a fitting encapsulation of Being Dead, exuding a welcoming, playful energy even if something foreboding lurks just beyond the pale - more out of frame that's left to uncover, no path unexplored, strange and beautiful in the light.

Contexture is another classic example of a true friends & family gathering. The Nijmegen based imprint, running for over 12 years was born out of a tight group of friends with the same passion. 12 years later, their strongest releases are still based on this exact same principle, collect and release music from the inner circle. Julien Fuentes, Dorcas label head, starts things easy with his Klaridub ambient mix. It's quickly followed by familiar ESHU faces Jocelyn and Yasin Engwer, classic dub techno beats from the ESHU vaults. There's also room for new faces, the recently launched collaborative project between Vand and Shoal as Voal dropping their 'Eight Ball' as their ESHU label debut. Flawless minimalistic grooves that make a perfect fit for their long awaited contribution. Label head Ivano Tetelepta teams up with Pirat Records own Christine Benz. After sharing the DJ booth together multiple times they also joined forces in the studio recently and crafted this squeeky techno drifter. There's also an additional 10", exclusive to the ESHU Bandcamp, includes two beats from Klaridub, bringing some excellent smoke ready, head steady dub-techno cuts.

Cloudy Baby Blue Vinyl. with you in spirit, the fourth Balance and Composure LP, is an arresting, atmospheric collection of melodic post-punk and towering rock. Due out October 4 on long-time collaborator and Grammy-nominated producer Will Yip's Memory Music, it's the band's first LP in eight years, and a thrilling full-length comeback after their four-year hiatus. It thunders and stirs, dipping between beautiful, crystalline arrangements and punishing, earth-shaking climaxes; in between all, a gripping, near-physical tension crackles and growls and grooves, waiting to rip open. It's an intensely self-reflective record for vocalist and guitarist Jon Simmons, an uprooting and examination of the supports on which a life is built. Preemptive grief, wrestling with god and faith, familial responsibility, familial mortality_these are the things Simmons was carrying while writing this material. They're also things he was trying, for better and worse, to avoid_ hence the record's title. with you in spirit feels like the work of songwriters reaching new heights, exploring new depths. Sometimes, the record itself feels like a band grappling with its own avoidance, its own mortality, and deciding to face these things the only way they know how. Balance and Composure are with us in spirit, yes, but in the flesh, too, for now.

with you in spirit, the fourth Balance and Composure LP, is an arresting, atmospheric collection of melodic post-punk and towering rock. Due out October 4 on long-time collaborator and Grammy-nominated producer Will Yip's Memory Music, it's the band's first LP in eight years, and a thrilling full-length comeback after their four-year hiatus. It thunders and stirs, dipping between beautiful, crystalline arrangements and punishing, earth-shaking climaxes; in between all, a gripping, near-physical tension crackles and growls and grooves, waiting to rip open.It's an intensely self-reflective record for vocalist and guitarist Jon Simmons, an uprooting and examination of the supports on which a life is built. Preemptive grief, wrestling with god and faith, familial responsibility, familial mortality_these are the things Simmons was carrying while writing this material. They're also things he was trying, for better and worse, to avoid_hence the record's title.with you in spirit feels like the work of songwriters reaching new heights, exploring new depths. Sometimes, the record itself feels like a band grappling with its own avoidance, its own mortality, and deciding to face these things the only way they know how. Balance and Composure are with us in spirit, yes, but in the flesh, too, for now.

SANZ sind zurück! Nach dem Debütalbum „Let Us Die“ von 2022, welches ein Jahr später als Rock-Edition „We Are Lost“ neu aufgelegt wurde, sowie
ausgedehnten Touren mit Szenegrößen wie u.a. MONO INC. und Hell Boulevard, läutet die Band um Frontmann Sandro Geissler nun endgültig die
nächste Ära ein.
Das neue Album „Ending Things“, welches am 04.10.24 erscheint, entwickelt den Modern Dark Rock Sound des Vorgängers konsequent weiter und
etabliert SANZ eindrucksvoll als neue Hoffnung am Szenehimmel.

Modern progressive rock band DILEMMA presents its third full length album, ‘The Purpose Paradox’. This concept album, spanning over 60 minutes, is released on CD, double LP and via all streaming platforms, and distributed internationally by Butler Records, a division of V2 Records.

It features 9 brand new tracks ranging in length from 4 to nearly 16 minutes. The sound showcases a broader side of DILEMMA — louder, faster, more technical, more progressive. With new frontman Jermain van der Bogt (Wudstik), the vocals have become rawer and more varied. Almost six years after the previous record ‘Random Acts of Liberation’ the band sounds reborn.

Like its predecessor, ‘The Purpose Paradox’ was produced by drummer Collin Leijenaar, who, together with the famed music wizard Rich Mouser (The Mouse House, LA), was also responsible for the mix and mastering. Thanks to their unmatched ears, the result is an audio experience that DILEMMA has worked on with great pride over the past years.

As said, ‘The Purpose Paradox’ was written and produced like a concept album. Because let’s face it, you’re either a progressive rock band or you’re not. But seriously: the story of ‘The Purpose Paradox’ revolves around a man named Neon. Someone like us in the here and now. During his quest for connection and fulfilment, he finds support from an unconventional guide named Electra. She points out to him that sometimes the things we look for are the things that found us first. Will Neon’s heart glow again when he discovers the outer light? Or does the greed of the corporate machine known as The Hand succeed in extinguishing his inner fire? Can Neon’s secrets be deleted? And will he, in the end, arrive in the comfort zone of allies in the raw, rainy city he once left behind?

Bones Shake are a scuzzy, fuzz enthused garage rock trio formed in Manchester in 2011. They play everything to the extreme; violent bottle-neck blues riffs, drums kicked, pounded and exploited and squeals of reverb drenched vocals which when combined, will help save your soul. With a relentless energy, they’ve never taken their foot off the gas. In July 2022 they released Bleed to critical acclaim, itself the follow up to 2019’s debut LP Sermons. Purge sees the trilogy complete. Through tirelessly playing across the UK and Europe, their cult following makes them one of the best not so kept secrets in the underground scene. Wherever they go they fill out venues and have now played the infamous Raut Oak festival twice. With a string of previous releases under their belt, they have gone from strength to strength and attracted attention worldwide. Imagine a desert dive bar, the only bar in a hundred miles, the soundtrack as the shots fly is Purge. Talking about the LP, Bones say that “we needed to purge ourselves of these songs so we stuck two fingers up, lodged them at the back of the larynx and spewed out a new album.” Opener ‘Banshee’ wastes no time in providing that proverbial kick to the face these guys are infamous for. With a gnarly vocal and guitar interplay you’re hooked from the first note; the intensity rises with every rotation and if this one doesn’t leave you breathless you are not listening loud enough. ‘One Kiss’ is a filthy little blues number that taunts and teases, while ‘Pretty Little Things’ takes you on a journey through their sound bringing out all the bumps and grinds you could possibly muster. ‘The Creeper’ is a bit different to their usual, adding a sense of intrigue and unease that draws you in deep. Lead single ‘Let Go’ is an adrenaline fuelled expedition through all the best parts of their sound, with a few surprises thrown in for good measure. ‘Passive Intervention’ changes track a little, keeping you aurally attentive while title track ‘Purge’ is the experience that can’t be surmised, get the volume up high and release. With its rolling, thunder-esq. drums, closer ‘Stench’ rounds things off in the best way; leaving you wanting more. Purge is without doubt their strongest and most visceral release to date, dare you miss out on this experience

Crypt of the Wizard is proud to present Necro Soft - Don't Test the Unmaker's Patience on vinyl and digital formats. What if the devil recorded a record? Would it scream for attention as loud as it could, with all knobs turned to 10? Would it be just another relentless wall of noise vying for your shortened attention, only to be forgotten while the next hot thing is being released, but this time, once again, promising a more raw and extreme experience than previously imagined? Seems unlikely. Satan is a subtle seducer. Luring and waiting are his tactics. His is the insidious rhythm that runs down your leg, causing your foot to tap while your lying lips are still saying, "This isn’t really my kind of thing." All sequins and satin, laughter and fun, while whispering in your ear about his plans for the final destruction of the infinite universe so quietly, you forget to stop enjoying yourself. Necro Soft’s debut LP Don't Test the Unmaker's Patience is crafted from this very notion. Rising from Copenhagen’s unrelentingly creative Mayhem scene with connections to bands such as Ryg Din Sidste Bøn and Gabestok, you already know you’re in for something special. With the devil at the helm and influenced as much by contemporary black metal as by the UK big beat scene of the 1990s, bands such as The Prodigy are seldom listed as having an impact on underground metal records, but here we are! A shimmering wash of drum machine rhythms and perpetual pop production designed to ensnare listeners with its irresistible beats while subtly corrupting their souls. Listening to Necro Soft is akin to entering some kind of damned Heavy Metal disco, high as a kite, and fixating on the glittering mirror ball in the ceiling before noticing that the floor is sticky with blood.

Crypt of the Wizard is proud to present Necro Soft - Don't Test the Unmaker's Patience on vinyl and digital formats. What if the devil recorded a record? Would it scream for attention as loud as it could, with all knobs turned to 10? Would it be just another relentless wall of noise vying for your shortened attention, only to be forgotten while the next hot thing is being released, but this time, once again, promising a more raw and extreme experience than previously imagined? Seems unlikely. Satan is a subtle seducer. Luring and waiting are his tactics. His is the insidious rhythm that runs down your leg, causing your foot to tap while your lying lips are still saying, "This isn’t really my kind of thing." All sequins and satin, laughter and fun, while whispering in your ear about his plans for the final destruction of the infinite universe so quietly, you forget to stop enjoying yourself. Necro Soft’s debut LP Don't Test the Unmaker's Patience is crafted from this very notion. Rising from Copenhagen’s unrelentingly creative Mayhem scene with connections to bands such as Ryg Din Sidste Bøn and Gabestok, you already know you’re in for something special. With the devil at the helm and influenced as much by contemporary black metal as by the UK big beat scene of the 1990s, bands such as The Prodigy are seldom listed as having an impact on underground metal records, but here we are! A shimmering wash of drum machine rhythms and perpetual pop production designed to ensnare listeners with its irresistible beats while subtly corrupting their souls. Listening to Necro Soft is akin to entering some kind of damned Heavy Metal disco, high as a kite, and fixating on the glittering mirror ball in the ceiling before noticing that the floor is sticky with blood.

The monolithically heavy, uniquely mercurial UK quartet Sugar Horse are proud to announce their new album Grand Scheme Of Things, to be released 4th October via Pelagic Records. Darting wildly between dark/light, pain/bliss and sacred/profane, the band originating from Bristol offers a different perspective on Post Metal! On Grand Scheme Of Things, Sugar Horse comment: "This album was intended to be a sideways step. A move away from the kind of thing that is expected of us_ if anything is at all. What I mean by that, is the songs are more direct. They take a much shorter amount of time to "get to the point". We also wanted to make this one noticeably "less Metal". While we love being a bit boneheaded and confrontational, we definitely wanted to explore the more melodic, song-based side of the band's sound. Normally you'd see shortened song structures and more singing and think "Oh these guys are going for gold_.they wanna get on the radio and make millions of bloodstained pounds." Well_you're very much entitled to think that if you wish, but it felt like more of a songwriting challenge than anything else to be honest. We've done the whole drawn out, endless Space Rock thing a good few times now and it would've been easy to rest on those laurels. Do something we're comfortable with. Alas, that is not really the point of this band. We'd much prefer to make it difficult and take the long route."

The monolithically heavy, uniquely mercurial UK quartet Sugar Horse are proud to announce their new album Grand Scheme Of Things, to be released 4th October via Pelagic Records. Darting wildly between dark/light, pain/bliss and sacred/profane, the band originating from Bristol offers a different perspective on Post Metal! On Grand Scheme Of Things, Sugar Horse comment: "This album was intended to be a sideways step. A move away from the kind of thing that is expected of us_ if anything is at all. What I mean by that, is the songs are more direct. They take a much shorter amount of time to "get to the point". We also wanted to make this one noticeably "less Metal". While we love being a bit boneheaded and confrontational, we definitely wanted to explore the more melodic, song-based side of the band's sound. Normally you'd see shortened song structures and more singing and think "Oh these guys are going for gold_.they wanna get on the radio and make millions of bloodstained pounds." Well_you're very much entitled to think that if you wish, but it felt like more of a songwriting challenge than anything else to be honest. We've done the whole drawn out, endless Space Rock thing a good few times now and it would've been easy to rest on those laurels. Do something we're comfortable with. Alas, that is not really the point of this band. We'd much prefer to make it difficult and take the long route."

The Congos were formed by Cedric Myton (born 1947 St Catherine, Jamaica) and Roydel ‘Roy’ Johnson (born 1943 Hanover, Jamaica), around the mid-seventies, a time when the Rasta message coming out of Kingston and other pockets of the Jamaican Island was at its most prominent. Cedric Myton’s singing career began back in the rocksteady era in Reggae’s musical story.

He formed the ‘Tartans’ group taking lead vocal duties alongside Devon Russell, Prince Lincoln Thompson and Lindbergh Lewis. They cut ‘Dance All Night’ (1967) and ‘Coming On Strong’ (1968). The line-up reduced to a two piece, Cedric and Devon Russell, when tracks like ‘What a Sin Thing’ and ‘Short Up Dress’ were cut. This line-up became the Royal Rasses, Cedric formed The Congos, on meeting Roydel Johnson. Roydel previously sang as a member of Ras Michael and the Sons of Negas, cutting such tracks as ’Go To Zion’ (1973). As we can see Cedric’s and Roydel’s Rasta roots were firmly in place by the time they had formed The Congos sometimes called ‘The Congoes’.

The Congos possess what all bands look for,that unique sound that draws the listener to them.Lead singer Cedric Myton’s style and phasing, with his distinctive Falsetto voice makes this just the case.Built on a foundation of classic rhythms and with the aid of then Producer, Lee Perry, the groups statement of intent was laid down with one succinct message. The Congos mighty 1977 ‘Heart of the Congos’ album, is quite simply one of the best reggae albums ever recorded.

Producer Lee Perry had wanted to record a classic Jamaican vocal group in his newly built Black Ark Studio. The voice of Watty Burnett was added at the time to cover baritone vocal duties. The studio after various changes in equipment etc. was finally finding its way. A sound built in Lee Perry’s back yard in Cardiff Crescent, Washington Gardens, Kingston, but existing until then in Mr Lee Perry’s mind. The album they cut would be the defining group release to come out of The Black Ark studios, when the vital elements, vibes, musicians, songs and singing would gel to form ‘Heart Of The Congos’. Come the time of it’s release 1977, Lee Perry was in dispute with Island Records and opted to release the record on his own ‘Black Art’ label. Without the high-profile push of a major label, the record undersold and caused a split between producer and band. Under different circumstances maybe this album would be sitting in thousands of homes alongside the Bob Marley, Culture, Burning Spear releases. Cedric Myton went on to release albums with the French arm of the CBS label and Roy Johnson records and tours as Congo Ashanti Roy.

Cedric Myton the central force carries on the mantle of the Congos and we at Kingston Sounds are proud to pick up the story with another set of vocal statements, which sees Cedric cut some of his finest tunes. Helped along by another reggae legend Brent Dowe, lead singer of the Melodians (Rivers of Babylon), over some classic 1970’s rhythms. Yet again we find that magic formula of strong statements working alongside classic rhythms making the balance work. The Rasta message is still strong on modern classics like ‘King Rastafari Is His Name’, ‘Rasta Congo Man’ and the injustices of the world dissected in tunes ‘Some A Thief’, ‘Watch & Pray’ and the prophetical, ‘Citizen Of The World’.

Once touched by magic it does not fade away, but resurfaces as it has with what we believe to be some of the Congos most heartfelt and meaningful set of songs ...... Let the feast begin.

Amputechture Beneath the technical flash, the fury, the fearless creative brinkmanship of the first two Mars Volta albums lay a potent seam of the blues, an existential vexation that powered every twist and turn of Omar and Cedric’s imaginations. That mournful vibe would come to the surface of the group’s third full-length Amputechture, a simmering/blistering set that was unquestionably the group’s darkest yet. There was no overarching theme here, no interlinking concept binding the songs together, though Cedric concedes that, lyrically, the album was influenced “by a lot of stuff I was going through, a really bad break-up and a lot of other crazy stuff, and trying to put that feeling into the record.” But Amputechture – its name another of the late Jeremy Michael Ward’s invented words – was no downbeat bummer. Opener Vicarious Atonement might’ve been a deliciously gloomy, slow-burning thing, capturing Cedric in delirious duet with Omar’s swooning guitar lines, accompanied by squalling saxophone by Adrian Terrazas-Gonzales and dream-frequency fuckery by the group’s new sonic manipulator, former At The Drive- In member Paul Hinojos. But second track Tetragrammaton swiftly set pulses racing, an epic-in-miniature and containing more ideas within its 16 minutes than most bands manage over an entire career, its proggy, complex guitar figures tessellating in infinite configurations and converging as if conforming to mathematical formulae from another reality. The raw material Amputechture was hewn from started life on the road. Omar now travelled with his own mobile recording studio – a little Neve ten-channel tape recorder and an array of microphones – and was able to work on new ideas on tourbuses, in hotel rooms and during soundcheck (and, occasionally, after the show was done). After touring for Frances The Mute was complete, Omar relocated to Amsterdam, staying with his photographer friend Danielle Van Ark and her partner, Nils Post. It’s here that he demoed Amputechture, flying in engineer Jon DeBaun, drummer Jon Theodore and his brother, Chino, to work on these raw sketches. He later returned to Los Angeles, where the album was finally recorded. Omar ceded guitar duties to his dear friend and kindred spirit John Frusciante, instead assuming the role of musical director. “I wanted to hear the sound of the band,” he says. “I thought, I’ll be able to sit at the console, feel the air of the speakers moving, the unified sound of everything, and not feel distant from it. It was fun, but it was also challenging.” Part of Omar’s new method was to teach the musicians their parts only moments before the tapes rolled. “To keep things fresh, and to keep everyone on edge,” he says, before chuckling. “No, not on edge – on their toes. Amputechture would prove The Mars Volta’s most diverse set yet, drawing into the group’s tornado of influences moments of fiery jazz spirituality and esoteric folk introspection, finding space for passages of devastating subtlety and also their most fierce and full-on moments to date. The aforementioned Vicarious Atonement found its meditative mood echoed by Asilos Magdalena, an intimate, acoustic piece that invoked traditional Latin folk music, as Cedric sang in Spanish a sorrowful tale of a lost soul’s quest for sanctuary within a Magdalen Asylum, a refuge set up by the Catholic church for “fallen women”. The shadowy, sinister closer El Ciervo Vulnerado, meanwhile, tapped into the darker side of spiritual jazz to further explore the album’s themes of redemption and religious myth and magick. Elsewhere, the interplay between guitar and clarinet on Viscera Eyes created complex, unsettling counter-melodies, while the coiling, ornate Meccamputechture – Cedric’s wild fusion of sacred texts, occultism and dystopian science fiction – proved a great showcase for Ikey Owens’ swarming, infernal organ runs, in concert with Frusciante’s arcane guitar-play. But it was Day Of The Baphomets that would prove Amputechture’s most ambitious and most defining epic. Cedric’s lyrics tore into the hypocrisy of religious cant and myths of sin and punishment. “I wanted to make a song that was like the movie The Believers, where this cabal stole kids and did some occult shit with them,” he explains. “But I wanted it to be like, ‘What if the people you hire to do jobs you don’t wanna do rise up one day and then pull some shit like that?’ Like it was the guerrilla warfare, them taking over – wouldn’t that be some fucked up shit? And the music just lent itself to that – the big intro, the bass solo, and all of the ruckus that occurs.” That ruckus was some of the most thrilling Mars Volta music yet, as Omar directed his musicians to rumble through fiery modes of wild tribal groove, ransack-the-palaces riot- rock and supreme progressive experimentalism. Amputechture, then, is the sound of The Mars Volta in imperial mode: fearless, insatiable, unstoppable.

Produced by Lenny Kravitz (Executive) and Fela Kuti’s original engineer Sodi Marciszewer (Artistic). Worldwide tour in 2024 / 2025 (North America, Europe, Australia). New album from 2018 Grammy nominated album “Black Times”. Seun Kuti set to release highly anticipated album ‘Heavier Yet (Lays The Crownless Head)’ featuring guests Damian Marley and Sampa The Great on October 4th. Afrobeat virtuoso Seun Kuti is gearing up to unleash his latest musical masterpiece upon the world with the upcoming release of his album that will be set to make waves globally via Milan independent label Record Kicks. Coming 6 years after the Grammy nominated album ‘Black times’, this album marks a pivotal moment in Seun Kuti's illustrious career, showcasing his evolution as an artist and activist. Executive produced by legendary musician Lenny Kravitz and Fela Kuti’s original engineer Sodi Marciszewer (artistic producer), ‘Heavier Yet (Lays The Crownless Head)’ promises to deliver a sonic experience like no other. With both Kravitz's and Sodi’s expertise together with Seun Kuti's unmatched talent, the album is poised to redefine the boundaries of contemporary music while staying true to the roots of afrobeat. Featuring a tracklist of six electrifying songs, each track on ‘Heavier Yet (Lays The Crownless Head)’ embodies the spirit of resistance, resilience, and revolution. Each song talks about standing up against challenges and fighting for change. Like the standalone singles ‘Dey’ feat reggae icon Damian Marley, described as “a song about embracing and championing who we are, regardless” and ‘Emi Aluta’, “a song about struggle (Aluta means struggle) that pays homage to all the great revolutionaries”, that features Zambian singer, rapper and songwriter, Sampa The Great, one of best and most innovative lyricists of our time. The song ‘T.O.P.’ is about “how society values money and success more than people”. Seun Kuti wants to change this by promoting empathy and reconnecting with nature. In another song, ‘Love & Revolution,’ he expresses his love for his wife and believes that true love can inspire people to make the world a better place. “This project has been very special to me from the moment I conceived it, speaking to Lenny Kravitz, who has shown me such a brotherly love and respect” Seun says. “He has brought me to his home. I met his daughter Zoe and he has guided us with fierceness. Since we spoke about the album, three years ago, as the executive producer of this project, he has always been by our side and very supportive”. “I want to thank Craig Ross and Sodi, the producer of this project. We had a great time. It was the first time for me in the studio with Sodi and I was really impressed by his work and his fatherly advice and dedication”. Each song on the album is a testament to Seun Kuti's unwavering commitment to using music as a tool for social change and empowerment. Through his powerful lyrics and infectious grooves, he continues to carry on the legacy of his father, the legendary Fela Kuti, while carving out his own path in the world of music. As a musician and pan-African activist, Seun has been involved in a number of campaigns in recent years, including #EndSARS – a social movement against police brutality in Nigeria. Significantly, he’s revived the Movement of the People (M.O.P.), the political party his father set up in 1979, which was quashed by the military government not long after Fela’s failed presidential bid. Fans can expect an album that not only entertains but also inspires and ignites a spirit of activism and liberation. Seun Kuti is a Nigerian musician, singer, and songwriter renowned for his captivating performances and socially conscious music. He is the youngest son of Afro beat pioneer Fela Kuti. Seun has spent most of his life preserving and extending his father's political and musical legacy as the leader of his father's former band Egypt 80. As a developing saxophonist and percussionist, he entered the formal ranks of the band before he was 12. In 1997 when Fela passed, in fulfilment of his father's wishes, Seun assumed the mantle as head of Egypt 80 and he has run it ever since. During his career, Seun Kuti released 4 albums with Egypt 80: ‘Many Things’ (2008), ‘From Africa with Fury: Rise for Knitting Factory Records’ (2011), coproduced by Brian Eno and John Reynolds, ‘A Long Way Beginning’ (2014) and the Grammy nominated ‘Black Times’ (2018) that included a feature from Carlos Santana. They also released numerous EPs. Seun has played for enthusiastically receptive audiences globally and collaborated with many great artists. In 2022, he joined forces with Roots frontman and MC extraordinaire Black Thought in the EP ‘African Dreams’. In 2023, Seun collaborated on Janelle Monae's ‘The Age of Pleasure’ (Grammy nominee for Album Of The Year) with the two singles 'Float' and 'Knows Better', teamed up with Talib Kweli and MadLib for their album ‘Liberation 2’ on the song ‘Nat Turner’ featuring Cassper Nyovest and released a new version of the single ‘Bad Man Lighter’ with Black Thought, featuring Vic Mensa

"A group of tried-and-true musicians got together and found the sort of camaraderie and kinship you typically only find once in a lifetime. They didn’t overthink it. They didn’t waste a second. They simply left their blood, sweat, and tears on tape—like they’ve always done. For as much as Better Lovers represents the union of former Every Time I Die members Jordan Buckley guitar,Steve Micciche [bass], and Clayton “Goose” Holyoak [drums] with The Dillinger Escape Plan and Killer Be Killed frontman Greg Puciato [vocals],and musician (Fit For An Autopsy/END) and GRAMMY® Award-winning producer, Will Putney [guitar], it really cements the bond of five friends around a shared vision. That vision is as uncompromising, unapologetic, and undeniable as anything they’ve individually done, yet it’s refined by experience and a commitment to a future together. They’re in it for the long haul... “To me, this band is refreshing,” exclaims Jordan. “Looking back, I’m so happy everything got me to where I am. The pandemic and the last few years made me hungrier and more grateful. This isn’t a hobby. This isn’t temporary. This is the next evolution for each of us. Greg and Will rejuvenated me and made me even more confident.



Now, everybody needs to know we’re a wild animal that just broke out of the zoo—there’s no trying to put it back in the cage.” “Better Lovers definitely feels like its own thing,” states Greg. “I’m in so many lanes right now, so it was important that one lane didn’t step on another. However, nothing I’m doing is this vicious. This is full-on scathing. It’s been really fun. I forgot how much I liked that.” As the story goes, Jordan ended up back in Buffalo, NY, jamming in a basement rehearsal spot with Steve and Goose during the winter of 2022. After working with Will on the last two Every Time I Die records, they shared a handful of early demos with him to produce. As the year progressed, Jordan caught Greg on the road with Jerry Cantrell in Las Vegas, mentioning the new music. Once ideas solidified, he shared them with the vocalist who replied at 3am one night in December. “The text said, ‘Let’s give these motherfuckers what they want’,”chuckles Jordan. “I went to bed smiling and laughing. There is no one like Greg on stage, off stage, or over text. Once I told Will, he was like, ‘Can I play?’ We said, ‘Of course!’ That’s how it was born.” “Once I pick up the scent, I’ll go for the kill,” smiles Greg. “We’ve all hung out, gotten to know each other, and it’s all fire now. Everyone has already been through shit. You know yourself better. Your ego isn’t as big as it used to be. You can share your opinions. It’s a cool dynamic.” Fittingly, they introduce this era with the single “30 Under 13.” A seasick guitar groove bleeds into an incisive riff punctuated by Greg’s vitriolic and venomous screams, “Hold onto me, try to let go of me, let go of what you’ll never be. ”This barrage unpredictably subsides on a haunting clean vocal, only to ramp back up into a pit-splitting thrash crescendo and rapid-fire solo played at warp speed. “We always try to up our game,” notes Jordan. “This is the next step for all of us. There’s just constant forward motion, and we don’t want to compromise that. We want to keep going. We’re doing a lot of shit we haven’t done before in Better Lovers. I’m not going to spoil it for you, but get ready.” “For some reason, this song got me,” recalls Greg. “Once that happens, you have the toe of the dinosaur skeleton in the dirt. You start brushing it away, and soon you have a fucking T-Rex.” The name might give you a hint of what’s coming—or it might not. So, what does the future hold for Better Lovers? Well, it’s entirely in their control. Expect a lot of touring. Expect more music. Expect these five guys to leave a trail of destruction in their wake—really would you want anything less? “We feel like we’re going to explode if we sit around any longer,” Jordan leaves off. “This is my life’s work. I learned all of my lessons, passed all of the tests, and took all of the right turns and the wrong turns. It turns out what I thought were wrong turns got me here, and that’s all that matters. I have no regrets. I know this is what I’m supposed to be doing.” “I just want you to view this on its own merits,” Greg concludes. “I hope it reaches some new people. For me, the enjoyment is making the music and putting it out. The second it’s released, I don’t look back. You drop the bomb and keep flying the plane. You don’t circle back to see how much destruction you cause. You keep moving, which is what we’re going to do.” "

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.

The year 1996 saw the release of Arab Strap’s first single, “The First Big Weekend,” and debut album The Week Never Starts Round Here. Into an underground rock milieu preoccupied at the time with slo-core, math rock, and all things Pet Sounds, the duo of Malcolm Middleton and Aidan Moffat couldn’t have sounded more alien.

In many ways, The Week Never Starts Round Here bears all the marks of a debut: it’s raw, unguarded, and crammed with ideas. It also firmly establishes the particular set-up that would define Arab Strap’s sound over the course of eleven years, with Middleton handling the music while Moffat provides the vocals and lyrics. Even this division of labor—more common to rap music than to the shoegazers and increasingly ubiquitous “collectives” of indie rock—seemed to defy expectations.

The sound of Arab Strap is a distinct brand of existential miserablism. Middleton’s cleverly arranged foundation of nocturnal guitars and rudimentary drum machines provides a canvas for Moffat to relay, in a thick Scottish dialect, his many sloshed, candid confessions. Long before artists like Mike Skinner chronicled the picaresque days of lads getting pissed and getting laid, Arab Strap’s vivid tales of lovers, lager and shame were being broadcast on college stations everywhere.

The Week Never Starts Round Here is an album full of drugged-up kisses and dried up egos; it chronicles the conquests and knockbacks of weekends that last forever, and it does so unapologetically, poetically, and profanely. Indie rock would never be the same.

Cindy is to release a new six song EP called Swan Lake on 4th October via Tough Love. The title isn’t a nod to the folktale or ballet in any real way, but to the fact that it all has ended up in the collective imagination as an object, vaguely recognizable, a little suggestive, and mostly blank. Karina Gill, Cindy’s songwriter, likes to make use of that kind of resonance to connect sound and experience. The six songs on this EP continue the stripped-down habits of previous Cindy releases, while adding a few departures and left-turns. Cindy likes to work at the essentials and the elements here say exactly what’s needed. In other ways, these songs present a soft filigree that’s unusual for their recordings. Oli Lipton (Now, Violent Change) on guitar and Will Smith (Now) on bass play counterpoint melodies to Gill’s structures. Staizsh Rodrigues (Children Maybe Later, Almond Joy, Peace Frog) sings vocal harmonies that both offset and deepen Gill’s voice and delivery. There are playful drums by Mike Ramos (Tony Jay, Sad Eyed Beatniks) and coolly elaborate guitar lines from Stanley Martinez (Famous Mammals, Violent Change, Non Plus Temps). Gill’s songs strike this balance too: almost nonchalant reporting tied up in unexpected knots. A ride in an elevator connects up with questions about peace and/or the nature of things; the title track wonders about associative thinking and associative feeling; The Bell is an account of one of those times when everything makes sense but you can’t explain it; and there’s the scene of a party viewed with admiration for how friends can love each other. As Gill herself says: "People have told me that they can’t quite identify my influences. Me neither. The foundational layers of music of the past and my past have been metabolized like breakfast and turned into more me, sorry to say. But I experience the music of people I’m connected with and it impacts me in the moment. There’s the music I’m around – April Magazine, Sad Eyed Beatniks, Violent Change, Katsy Pline, collaborating with Mike on Flowertown – that I can feel a direct line from. Then there’s music that is being made far away but feels close, like Lewsberg, specifically, for this EP. " CINDY – UK Tour Dates: Oct 31st WOE is 6 @ Walthamstow Trades Hall, London w/ Cuneiform Tabs & Bobby Would. Nov 1st Coventry, UK Just Dropped In Records, 2 Halifax, UK The Grayston Unity, 4 York, UK The Fulford Arms, 5 Gateshead, UK The Central Bar, 6 Glasgow, UK The Glad Café, 7 Manchester, UK Rat & Pigeon, 8 Cambridge, UK NCI Centre.

Cindy is to release a new six song EP called Swan Lake on 4th October via Tough Love. The title isn't a nod to the folktale or ballet in any real way, but to the fact that it all has ended up in the collective imagination as an object, vaguely recognizable, a little suggestive, and mostly blank. Karina Gill, Cindy's songwriter, likes to make use of that kind of resonance to connect sound and experience. The six songs on this EP continue the stripped-down habits of previous Cindy releases, while adding a few departures and left-turns. Cindy likes to work at the essentials and the elements here say exactly what's needed. In other ways, these songs present a soft filigree that's unusual for their recordings. Oli Lipton (Now, Violent Change) on guitar and Will Smith (Now) on bass play counterpoint melodies to Gill's structures. Staizsh Rodrigues (Children Maybe Later, Almond Joy, Peace Frog) sings vocal harmonies that both offset and deepen Gill's voice and delivery. There are playful drums by Mike Ramos (Tony Jay, Sad Eyed Beatniks) and coolly elaborate guitar lines from Stanley Martinez (Famous Mammals, Violent Change, Non Plus Temps). Gill's songs strike this balance too: almost nonchalant reporting tied up in unexpected knots. A ride in an elevator connects up with questions about peace and/or the nature of things; the title track wonders about associative thinking and associative feeling; The Bell is an account of one of those times when everything makes sense but you can't explain it; and there's the scene of a party viewed with admiration for how friends can love each other. As Gill herself says: "People have told me that they can't quite identify my influences. Me neither. The foundational layers of music of the past and my past have been metabolized like breakfast and turned into more me, sorry to say. But I experience the music of people I'm connected with and it impacts me in the moment. There's the music I'm around - April Magazine, Sad Eyed Beatniks, Violent Change, Katsy Pline, collaborating with Mike on Flowertown - that I can feel a direct line from. Then there's music that is being made far away but feels close, like Lewsberg, specifically, for this EP. "

RAT BOY have recorded in Los Angeles with T im Armstrong of Rancid, played festivals as far afield as Japan and China, and toured North America with The Interrupters. Yet for all those globe-trotting adventures, there"s no place you know quite as well as home. That"s the central topic that R AT BOY explore on their upcoming third album "SUBURBIA CALLING", which will be released on October 4th via Hellcat. "SUBURBIA CALLING" sees RAT BOY exploring stories from their roots in Essex. It"s the land of wheeler -dealers and dodgy geezers, and home to nosey neighbours, rowdy clubs and Joey Essex. For readers outside of the UK, it"s the land of Blur, Depeche Mode and The Prodigy: a place not so far outside of east London, but in other ways it"s a world away. And it"s not only an immense font of inspiration for RAT BOY, but the place where ever ything happens for them.. Just outside of Chelmsford sits a converted barn where the band can jump in and be creative whenever the mood takes them - a HQ that is a recording studio, a rehearsal space, an art studio, a storage space and a hangout spot all-in-one. Frontman Jordan Cardy says, "I wanted to sing about Essex. Essex is where we live and when you"ve grown up somewhere you notice things about it. There"s so much to draw on. Essex is really close to London but it"s different in a lot of ways. We"ve got a lot of freedom here, we built a place where we can record and rehearse and hang out, somewhere you wouldn"t be able to have in London." RAT BOY - completed by Liam Haygarth (bass), Harr y Todd (guitar) and Noah Booth (dr ums) - approached the making of the al - bum in unorthodox fashion. They recorded a home demo and a live performance of each song, which were then sent to producer Stephen Street (The Smiths, Blur) to edit together like a tapestry puzzle.