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Seba smashes his way into 2022 with the much anticipated release of his third studio album, "Ingaro".

Prepare yourself for ten brand new tracks of Seba. Secret Operations presents the first LP in almost ten years, from a producer who believes albums are not to be taken lightly.

"Ingaro" takes it's name from the small island outside of Stockholm, which Seba has called home for the last 20 years and is also where he spent his formative years.

The new LP takes the listener on a soaring journey through the entire Seba sound. Whether it's the dark and insistent forces of "Horse Power", which grow and fold in on themselves throughout the track, or the blooming euphoric roller "Public Beauty". A fresh collection of tracks which contain the unmistakeable Seba DNA, which has helped cement the name Seba firmly into the world of drum and bass.

Any album is not complete without some guests joining along the way and Seba has also enlisted some helpers on the journey and the LP includes collaborations with Collette Warren, Björn Berglund, Samuel Lancine and Blackeye.

For many, Seba is a name they are very familiar with. From his early releases on Good Looking right through to the present day Seba has made a name for himself for his exciting and varied production.

His music draws influence from far and wide across the musical spectrum and his work alongside the legendary Paradox and vocalist Robert Manos have gone down in Drum and Bass history.

Not just famed for his work in the studio, Seba's sets have gained a reputation for their energy and emotion. One of the scene's unique veterans. Seba's work is inspiring producers and fans more than ever. An album which sets the bar high for 2022!

In 1971, Atlantic Records released a pair of Dusty Springfield singles produced by the legendary songwriter/producer Jeff Barry (one-time songwriting and romantic partner of Ellie Greenwich, and author of too many hits to name): “Haunted”/”Nothing Is Forever” and “I Believe In You”/”Someone Who Cares.” A restless Dusty, freshly relocating to America from her native England, then departed the label and left an additional 9 songs recorded with Barry in the can, where they stayed until Rhino issued one track, “Faithful” (in mono), as a bonus track on the 1990s CD release of Dusty’s 1970 Atlantic album A Brand New Me. The other tracks didn’t surface until a subsequent deluxe reissue of Dusty’s landmark 1969 album Dusty in Memphis included them as bonus cuts.

Then, reissue producer Jim Pierson—who tracked down the missing masters after being lost for over two decades —assembled Dusty’s Barry-produced masters and put them together in a single package for the first time to create the third Dusty Springfield Atlantic Records album as planned in 1971. Real Gone Music’s release of Faithful on LP presents these historic Barry-Springfield collaborations exactly as they were originally intended to be heard, with the 12 tracks meant for the album release out on vinyl over 50 years later. All tracks are in stereo, while the liner notes on the new gatefold spread, penned by The Second Disc’s Joe Marchese, feature a number of rarely-seen photos of the legendary singer. These stunning pop, soul and gospel flavored selections showcase the iconic singer at the height of her vocal magic. A missing/ jumbled part of Dusty’s august recorded legacy, finally set right and available in its intended format. Out on metallic gold and purple “royalty” vinyl as befitting The Queen of Blue-Eyed Soul…limited to 1500 copies!

Oscar Peterson's Frank Sinatra tribute features his trio with bassist Ray Brown and drummer Ed Thigpen. The renditions are all under four minutes and are highlighted by "Come Dance with Me," "Just in Time," "I Get a Kick Out of You," and "How About You?" This is one of OscarPeterson's most essential dates — swinging and enjoyable. This Verve By Request title is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Third Man in Detroit.

The band Dizzy Gillespie assembled for this date — Junior Mance, Les Spann, Sam Jones, and Lex Humphries — was for the most part a working band on the club & concert circuit, offering a mixture of Gillespie’s entertaining songs, established repertoire, & some Latin & African-influenced pieces. With them, Dizzy found a middle ground in his music that gave his legacy room to breathe, but with much more rhythmic variety. This Verve By Request title is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Third Man in Detroit.

ntroducing the third volume of the legendary collaboration series, "Trillstatik," by dynamic duo Bun B & Statik Selektah. Recorded live in New York City on December 20th 2023, this album encapsulates the essence of hip-hop's raw vitality and timeless appeal.

In this new installment, Bun B's unmistakable Southern swagger intertwines seamlessly with Statik Selektah's masterful production, creating an explosive fusion of gritty beats and poignant lyricism.

"Trillstatik 3" carries the traditional star-studded lineup of guest appearances, and joining Bun B and Statik Selektah on this volume are luminaries of the rap game, including the lyrical juggernauts Benny The Butcher, Method Man, Boldy James, Rome Streetz, Lord Sko, CJ Fly, Smoke DZA, Termanology, Lukah, and countless others.

With Bun B and Statik Selektah at the helm, "Trillstatik 3" leaves yet another indelible mark on the rap landscape and solidify its place as a timeless classic in the annals of hip-hop history.

Formed in Manchester over a decade ago, Hurts are an electronic pop band featuring vocalist Theo Hutchcraft and multi instrumentalist and producer Adam Anderson. Known for their striking and stylish videos, Hurts make epic, dramatic pop music that takes inspiration from a finely curated mix of influences including '70s Krautrock, '80s new wave, and '90s R&B. In August of 2010, Hurts' debut full-length album, Happiness, debuted in the Top 5 on the U.K. albums chart making it the fastest-selling debut album by a band in the U.K. that year. Featuring the singles "Better Than Love," "Wonderful Life," and "Stay," among others. The album was a huge success across Europe and Hurts' profile rose exponentially with the album reaching Platinum status 13 times over and 4 times Gold around the world including over 500,000 album sales in Germany alone. Several accolades followed in 2010, including topping the BBC's Sound of 2010 poll, winning a German BAMBI award, and garnering numerous nominations including an MTV Europe Music Award. The band have since gone on to win numerous awards including Best Band and Best Video at the NME Awards and Best International Newcomer at Germanys ECHO Awards. Hurts followed up in 2013 by releasing their sophomore album, Exile, which again hit the U.K. albums chart Top 10. The album again featured production from Hutchcraft and Anderson, along with Quant and Dan Grech-Marguerat, also featuring Elton John as guest Pianist on album closer “Help". Exile showcased a nuanced, somewhat more contemporary sound that incorporated more orchestral and rock instrumentation, yet retained all of Hurts’ core influences. In 2015, Hurts delivered their third studio album, Surrender, which featured production from Quant as well as Stuart Price (Madonna, the Killers) and Ariel Rechtshaid (HAIM, Vampire Weekend). The album spawned several singles, including "Some Kind of Heaven," "Lights," and “Slow. The epic video for “Lights", directed by Dawn Shadforth gaining the numerous nominations for Video of the Year. Two years later, they returned with the full-length Desire, featuring the singles "Beautiful Ones" and "Ready to Go.” Having sold hundreds of thousands of live show tickets around the world over the past decade, and often a fixture of the global festival circuit headlining stages around the world, the band have built an enviable touring fanbase including becoming one of the most successful British bands in Russia of the past decade.

Apocalyptica Plays Metallica Vol. 2 continues the journey that began in 1996, when four cellists from the world-famous Sibelius Academy in Helsinki created a symphonic tribute to the greatest of the Big Four - heavy metal titans Metallica. For their tenth album, the classically-oriented rockers return to their roots to bring a legendary story full circle. There are also a number of surprises, starting with a unique collaboration.

The third single from the album "One" of Metallica's 1988 milestone "And Justice For All" is a stunning reinterpretation of one of the Big Four's greatest musical moments - a true highlight in their 40-year career. The single features Metallica frontman James Hetfield himself performing the inimitable, now immortal lyrics in a stirring spoken word interpretation. This is more than a unique collaboration, this is history in the making.

Apocalyptica Plays Metallica Vol. 2 was produced by longtime collaborator and studio superstar Joe Barresi (Queens of the Stone Age, Soundgarden, Nine Inch Nails, Tool) and will be released on June 7 via new label Throwdown Entertainment.

Je Te Dis Vous is Patricia Kaas' third studio album, which she released in 1993. After the huge success of her first two albums, Kaas turned to producer Robin Millar, who had worked with Sade and Fine Young Cannibals, for production at Pete Townshend's Eel Pie Studio in London. It established her status as an international star, selling three million copies in over 47 countries. The album features three tracks in English, including a cover of the James Brown song ""It's A Man's World"". Kaas was accompanied by Chris Rea on guitar on the tracks ""Out Of The Rain"" and ""Ceux Qui N'Ont Rien"". The album spawned two singles, including ""Il Me Dit Que Je Suis Belle"", which remains one of her most successful and popular tracks. Je Te Dis Vous is available as a limited edition of 1000(?) individually numbered copies on green coloured vinyl and includes an insert.

Given The Fall's penchant for iconoclasm, it's no surprise that they decided to say goodbye to the '70s with a series of gigs at Northern England's gruffest halls. The band's formidable live show was met with even more derision and disorder than customary during these late '79 and early '80 performances, and they skillfully amplified such sentiments back at the crowd. Totale's Turns, The Fall's first live album, was released on Rough Trade just prior to their pivotal third album, 1980's Grotesque. "The difference between you and us is that we have brains," shouts Mark E. Smith to open Totale's Turns as the band breaks into the rollicking "Fiery Jack," their latest single at the time. Each player is at their jagged best: Marc Riley and Craig Scanlon's splintering guitars, Steve Hanley's thunderous bass and Smith's combative sneer reverberate over "Rowche Rumble," "Choc-Stock" and "Spectre Vs. Rector" more than any studio would ever allow. Totale's Turns never panders to live-record conventions, serving instead as a gripping exhibit of The Fall en masse and arguably the most accurate document of the group to date. Superior Viaduct's edition is the first time that Totale's Turns has been available on vinyl domestically. Liner notes by Brian Turner.

Through the folded sky to America

Ten albums in three years. That's still the cosmic mission of the Berlin post-kraut trio YELKA with Daniel Meteo, Christian Obermaier, and the namesake Yelka Wehmeier.

With the album "For," there was a Label change. After releasing three albums in 2023 with Maurice Summen, head of Fun In The Church they passed the label responsibilities to Karaoke Kalk. Karaoke Kalk is a friendly label founded in Cologne known for establishing the Berlin post-wende scene (fall of the wall scene).

The trio's fourth album was also created with Arne Berger at Popschutz Studio, and the team is definitely well-rehearsed. Instead of recording the planned tracks, the band decided to improvise the session, and all tracks, except for the krauty Doors cover "The Crystal Ship," were created in 5 days in the studio, mostly on the first or second take, but with significantly more overdubs - keyboards, backing vocals, second and third guitars, percussion, and piano. The sound of "For" has become warmer, and the album begins with a kind of 60s-Kinks feeling. Overall, the current record has become much more exuberant - like Alice in Wonderland, YELKA seem to want to restore innocence to things in the opener "Smile (Into Skies)," resulting in an uplifting hiking song for experimental outdoor bohemians.

The follow-up piece "The Boar" speaks to everyone from the north, south, west, and east and here YELKA encounter a horde of wild boars on their travels, before the vocals become hardly understandable and ghostly spooled in reverse, suddenly sounding like Damo Suzuki from CAN at the height of Tago-Mago times.

Finally, YELKA‘s "Crystal Ship," simply sails away with the wild boars into remote 4D worlds between the Cocteau Twins and X-Mal Deutschland.

In the first instrumental of the album "Is this enough?", the band reverse tracks like Jimi Hendrix in his Electric Ladyland, and we dive deeper and deeper into the endless sky until YELKA finally arrive on newly trodden sound paths with "MM" to their beginnings on their debut album "Nowhere Jive." At the popular intersection of post-rock and jazz, where guest singer Bela Hagel also likes to linger for a moment: "Sie wissen" (They know), he knows that too! Surely Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser would have had a lot of fun with his shamanistic singing on his "Kosmische Kuriere" label. The guitars sound like a desert, and the reverb reminds us of the expansive space in the opening track "Skies."

Finally, we land in Amerika, or rather, YELKA ponder the melancholic question of whether anyone still wants to travel to America with them, to the land of unlimited possibilities, the haven for artist souls all over the world. "Do you wanna dance?" Yelka Wehmeier finally asks, while a chorus in the best Sun Ra manner mantra-like repeats "Cold dogs, cool cats." The whole band sings. Everything sounds good.

Lenticular Sleeve / White Vinyl. When Jack Tatum began work on Life of Pause, his third full-length to date, he had lofty ambitions: Don't just write another album; create another world. One with enough detail and texture and dimension that a listener could step inside, explore, and inhabit it as they see fit. "I desperately wanted for this to be the kind of record that would displace me," he says. "I'm terrified by the idea of being any one thing, or being of any one genre. And whether or not I accomplish that, I know that my only hope of getting there is to constantly reinvent. That reinvention doesn't need to be drastic, but every new record has to have its own identity, and it has to have a separate set of goals from what came before." What came before: a rightfully acclaimed, much beloved display of singular pop craftsmanship. Tatum's dreamy, unexpected 2010 debut, Gemini, was written while he was still a student at Virginia Tech University. Its equally disarming follow-up, 2012's Nocturne, marked the first time he'd been able to bring his bedroom recordings into a studio, to be performed and fully realized with the help of other musicians. There has been a set of wonderfully expansive EPs in between_each hinting at new directions and punctuating previous ideas_but with Life of Pause, Tatum delivers what he describes as his most "honest" and "mature" work yet, an exquisitely arranged and beautifully recorded collection of songs that marry the immediate with the indefinable. "I allowed myself to go down every route I could imagine even if it ended up not working for me," he says. "I owe it to myself to take as many risks as possible. Songs are songs and you have to allow yourself to be open to everything." After a prolonged period of writing and experimentation, recording took place over several weeks in both Los Angeles and Stockholm, with producer Thom Monahan (Devendra Banhart, Beachwood Sparks) helping Tatum in his search for a more natural and organically textured sound. In Sweden, in a studio once owned by ABBA, they enlisted Peter, Bjorn and John drummer John Ericsson and fellow Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra veteran Pelle Jacobsson, to contribute drums and marimba. In California, at Monahan's home, Tatum collaborated with Medicine guitarist Brad Laner and a crew of saxophonists. From the hypnotic polyrhythms of "Reichpop" to the sugary howl of "Japanese Alice" to the hallucinogenic R&B of "A Woman's Wisdom," the result is a complete, fully immersive listening environment. "I just kept things really simple, writing as ideas came to me," he says. "There's definitely a different kind of `self' in the picture this time around. There's no real love lost, it's much more a record of coming to terms and defining what it is that you have_your place, your relationships. I view every record as an opportunity to write better songs. At the end of the day it still sounds like me, just new."

LP im Klappcover! Es war der Abstand - der zeitliche, räumliche und methodische - der Mac DeMarco zu "This Old Dog", dem ersten Longplayer seit "Salad Days" von 2014, inspirierte. Mit einer Handvoll Demos in der Tasche, die er in New York geschrieben hatte, zog er von Queens nach Los Angeles und realisierte nach ein paar Monaten in der neuen Heimat, dass dieser Abstand ihm neue Perspektiven eröffnete. Mac DeMarco sagt: "I demoed a full album, and as I was moving to the West Coast I thought I'd get to finishing it quick. But then I realized that moving to a new city, and starting a new life takes time. Usually I just write, record, and put it out; no problem. But this time, I wrote them and they sat. When that happens, you really get to know the songs. It was a different vibe." Mit dem Poppen und Klicken der CR-78 und dem akustischen Geklimper des Album-Opener "My Old Man" sowie dem von Synthesizern durchzogenen zweiten Song "This Old Dog" wird schnell klar, dass Mac DeMarco diesmal tief in die Trickkiste gegriffen hat. Auf "This Old Dog" sind die Synthesizer stärker verwurzelt als auf seinen bisherigen Releases, aber trotzdem achtet DeMarco sorgfältig darauf, dass diese den Rest der Instrumente und den "unplugged"-Eindruck des Albums nicht überschatten. Oder wie er erklärt: "This is my acoustic album, but it's not really an acoustic album at all. That's just what it feels like, mostly. I'm Italian, so I guess this is an Italian rock record." ENG Gatefold LP! This Old Dog by Mac DeMarco (A.K.A. 26-year old McBriare Samuel Lanyon DeMarco) is his third album and first full-length since 2014's Salad Days. The album opener "My Old Man" and title track "This Old Dog" show a new sonic direction and a glimpse into the very personal nature of this record. It was a little space-in time, location (he moved from Queens to Los Angeles), and method-that inspired DeMarco while making This Old Dog. Arriving in California with a grip of demos he'd written in New York, he realized after a few months of setting up his new shop that the gap was giving him perspective. DeMarco says, "I demoed a full album, and as I was moving to the West Coast I thought I'd get to finishing it quickly. But then I realized that moving to a new city, and starting a new life takes time. Usually I just write, record, and put it out; no problem. But this time, I wrote them and they sat. When that happens, you really get to know the songs. It was a different vibe." DeMarco wrote some demos for "This Old Dog" on an acoustic guitar, an eye-opening method for him. "The majority of this album is acoustic guitar, synthesizer, some drum machine, and one song is electric guitar. So this is a new thing for me." And right from the offset, from the pops and clicks of the CR-78 and acoustic strums on the album-opening "My Old Man," and the synth-drenched beauty of the second track, "This Old Dog," it's clear that DeMarco's bag is filled with new tricks indeed. This Old Dog is rooted more in a synth-base than any of his previous releases, but he is careful not to let that tactic overshadow the other instruments and overall "unplugged" mood of the work. "This is my acoustic album, but it's not really an acoustic album at all. That's just what it feels like, mostly. I'm Italian, so I guess this is an Italian rock record."

2024 Reissue

Alphacut Records reloads its third wave with an upfront jungle plate. Meticulously selected over the years since the last allover amen statement Fundamentals EP as of cat.nr. ACR 3001, these four new killer tunes take no prisoners as well.

Sumone (with his Planet Mu fame) and Dan Miles (formerly Skubi like on Modern Ruins) as the midwest cowboys meet the North Sea sailors Istari Lasterfahrer (running his Sozialistischer Plattenbau) and Ill_K (on Nord and re:st)to execute this smashing Darka Mentors EP!

"Wicked Man Sound" is one of the most sinister jungle sciences we came across lately. Choppage on point, layerslike spread, stabbing basses, dark percussion, oldskool pads - you name it. "Crash!" feels like a UK hardcore banger, but is refreshingly switching breakbeats instead of gabba kicks. "Echo Chamber" drops an irresistible rave stab into the dubber dungeons and "Kuro" celebrates a very samurai style of a halftime cut to round up this breaksfest menu with ease.

Alphacut operates on a non-profit level, most releases cover their costs, if even. Half of any returns will be donated to Webster's Amen Break Gesture campaign II raising funds for the original creator of The Winston's Amen Brother breakbeat: Richard Spencer. With the deepest respect for this milestone of a sample!

Repress! No one is raising the standard in the underground as high as Black Milk and Danny Brown. After their collaborative track "Black and Brown" from Black's LP Album of the Year became a fan favorite, the two decided to record an entire EP together, fittingly titled Black and Brown. While the aforementioned track appears on the EP, the remainder of Black And Brown sees Danny Brown exclusively handling mic duties, with Black Milk showcasing his masterful production.
Black Milk’s Album of the Year dropped in September 2010 to strong reviews and an impressive showing on the Billboard charts, and his stock has continued to rise ever since. Performing with a live band for over 80 shows on a worldwide tour in support of the album, he has established himself as one of rap’s best live performers. He also
became the first rap artist to record and release music with rock superstar Jack White, who co-produced and played on the much-publicized “Brain” 7-inch single on White’s label Third Man Records. Never straying from his hip hop roots, Black Milk also serves as a member of the group Random Axe (with Sean Price and Guilty
Simpson), and entirely produced their successful self-titled 2011 full-length release.
Danny Brown first gained wide recognition with the release of his album The Hybrid as a free download in March 2010. Since the release, he’s emerged as one of rap’s most distinct new voices. The shock value of his drug-fueled and sex-laden rhyming has been frequently compared to the early works of Eminem, and his ear for
progressive beats as well as his unique fashion sense has made him a favorite with critics. His latest project XXX was released as a free download in August 2011, and was instantly hailed as one of the top rap albums of the year by artists and fans alike, while receiving heavy coverage from media outlets like Pitchfork, MTV, and The Fader.

Rich Ruth, das Projekt des Multi-Instrumentalisten Michael Ruth aus Nashville, macht ganz und gar eindringliche Instrumentalstücke, die zwischen fröhlich-abenteuerlich und beruhigend-meditativ changieren. Seine Musik beginnt in der Einsamkeit mit hypnotisierenden Loops und Drones als Grundlage für die Arrangements, die schließlich von einer eklektischen Gruppe von Mitwirkenden eingefärbt werden. Die daraus resultierenden
Erkundungskompositionen, die spirituellen Jazz, synthiegetränkten Post-Rock und kosmischen Ambient vereinen, sind oft betörend, schweben aber immer mit einer spürbaren Unmittelbarkeit.

Sein neues Album Water Still Flows ist sowohl sein schwerstes als auch sein kathartischstes. Mit sieben Songs ist die LP sowohl ein Dokument eines Künstlers, der die Grenzen seines Prozesses auslotet, als auch ein Beweis dafür, wie Songwriting eine persönlich erdende Kraft sein kann.

Recorded in 1968 and intended as a tribute to her late husband, Alice Coltrane is supported in her first solo outing by Pharoah Sanders, Jimmy Garrison and Rashied Ali — all members of John Coltrane’s last quintet. While initial reviews to the album were lukewarm upon release, looking at it in the context of her larger body of work, A Monastic Trio serves as a delightful foreshadowing of what was to come.

This Verve By Request title is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Third Man in Detroit.

Jacken Elswyth is a London-based folk musician, banjo player, and instrument builder. At Fargrounds is her third solo album, her first for the Wrong Speed label and the latest in a rich catalogue that repositions the spectral, vulnerable sound of the banjo away from its familiar role as signifier of the past and onto lands brave, new and unexplored. “The living wood is imbued with qualities that require engagement and understanding. Working with cherry, oak or walnut involves naming it an equal partner. The parallel, synchronous transformations of wood into instrument, of growing tree into resonating sound, musical tradition into musical flourishing, lie at the heart of Jacken Elswyth’s practices both as an instrument builder and as a creative musician. One might consider her primarily as a worker in wood, but whose craft and fields of expression are absorbed by those transitional and interim processes that manifest change. The traditional tunes included here have been cultivated and maintained by generations of players and collectors, pruned, grafted, and shaped over time. However, in this setting, their long-established forms seem to morph and shift. They audibly accrue unique qualities, blossoming and swelling into new modes of being, bright-stepping arrangements unfolding with a liveliness hinting at practices of ritual and community. Meanwhile, other pieces, creative cornerstones of this collection, appear fluid, partially formed. They suggest not the cultivation of new growth from established stock, but instead the actions of something on the verge of taking form. Working with raw elements of melodic and tonal abstraction, they illuminate the process of emergence and evolution. In this context, the title At Fargrounds is telling. It suggests a point set at some distance from any centre of human concerns, a liminal space in which the cultivated world encounters the world of other living things in their living state. Here, the innate strangeness of the maintained environment–vast lawns, sculpted hedges, vacant playing fields–encounters sprawling vistas of driftwood, dense thickets of brambles, stony hillsides. Across a full century-and-a-quarter, long-standing rural and pastoral musical traditions, at some distance from their origins, have been preserved, nurtured and re-shaped under the folk revival. Placed here, these artefacts now sit in alignment with unvarnished documents featuring the raw elements of sound-making. Their working-together is achieved through a universally-applied interest in musical growth and development. The juxtaposition and combination of these elements gives evidence of new, emerging approaches to community and social music: familiar, known, yet charged with an alien vitality”–CWK Joynes. “...she knows how to knit atmospheres, and does so to especially powerful effect during Scene 4b’s three minutes of stunning bowed banjo, yearning with longing and dread, while showing off her talent, curiosity and range”–Jude Rogers review of Six Static Scenes (Guardian Folk Album Of The Month July 2022) "Jacken is an emotive player with high technical ability. Further, she builds banjos and other instruments, and that intimate knowledge of the bones and fibres holding everything together means that her playing has very few cracks" - Foxy Digitalis

The 8th full length studio album from RJD2! You may know him from the Mad Men theme. Or "Deadringer". Or those commercials and shows and movies and such. You may not even know the name, but you surely know the tunes. Well into his third decade in the game, RJD2 refuses to let his foot off the gas with quality albums. Ever so funky, mysterious, and quirkily soulful, "Visions Out Of Limelight" continues his tradition of making records free your mind, and you know what will follow. Featuring vocals from the legendary Jamie Lidell, long time collaborator Jordan Brown, and even one song by the man himself, this album is sure to satisfy longtime fans and those new to the party alike.

Horo proudly presents the long-awaited fourth studio album, Forces of Consciousness, by Ancestral Voices.

Following Liams first venture, 'Night of Visions,' a diary of a physical and life-changing journey to South America, he took a trip into seismic, dark, and heavy frequencies with his second LP, 'Divination,' which plunges into the notion of ritual. The third LP delved into the cosmic, devising custom tuning systems for the meditative 'Navagraha'.

Liam continues this conceptual approach that threads his work together with Forces of Consciousness - an exploratory dive into metaphysics, how consciousness creates reality, and how sound exists to bind and sustain our thoughtforms in harmony.

"I am fascinated by the intricate workings and unexplained phenomena beyond the physical. This has become a journey as I seek to understand the interconnectedness of all things. The threads that bind us to this experience.

Everything is consciousness; all things in existence are inherently conscious, including living and non-living entities. Consciousness is not merely a product of our brains and bodies but a fundamental universal aspect.

Consciousness creates reality; our consciousness shapes our perception of the world. Our thoughts and beliefs play a significant role in shaping the reality we experience.

While intangible thoughts cannot be measured physically, they shape our reality tremendously. Our thoughts significantly impact the world around us.

We are waveforms, and everything around us is sound. Sound plays a vital role in maintaining balance, whether the sound of a chirping bird, the whistles of dunes, or the resonance of the Earth.

As a collective, we make up chords that continuously merge and try to find a harmonious balance that sustains our consciousness. In essence, thought forms coexist to create harmonic structures, a lattice of electrical current that manifests as the lives we live every day."

The patterns change with the observer.
Matter is a limitation of consciousness.
That which was first was the immeasurable.
The harmonies remain.

A Haunted Tongue is the third album by Colossal Squid, the solo project of producer/virtuoso drummer Adam Betts (Goldie, Squarepusher, Melt Yourself Down, Jarvis Cocker). The first self-titled Colossal Squid album (2016) was intended by Betts as a way of exploring the process of creating music from purposefully limited tools (a drumkit and electronica) and finding a place where technology and live performance could happily meet. In comparison, the second album Swungert (2019) acted as a chance to see if the music written from that same process could be moulded (via collaboration and editing) into something more traditionally recognisable as a ‘song’. A Haunted Tongue moves things on one step further, letting the process and approach fade into the background, freeing Betts to balance a million inspirations (early 90s Warp, rave tapes, Nubian drumming, Indonesian gabba…) and filter them through an anything-goes punk aesthetic that results in a feeling of freedom that is both refreshing and rare. Betts has spoken of “a recurring dream of a stranger trying to get across an important message but not talking in any discernible language” that guided these recordings. This feels appropriate to the listener – the language of A Haunted Tongue isn’t straightforward or easily classified but yet the message is clearly understood and embraced by the listener at a primal level. That message is one of hope - channelling the shared euphoria of communal musical experience and searching for an uncynical and personal expression of positive energy that can move people and resonate with them. “A while back we had a chat with JR Moores, he was doing a Bandcamp piece on the label. We mentioned we wished we did more rave-related releases. Within seconds we had the Johnny Broke album in our inbox. Johnny Broke is actually Wayne Adams. Wayne messaged and told us about Adam Betts (AKA Colossal Squid). And here we are, dealing with someone who drums for Squarepusher and Goldie. Both Chris and I have the biggest love for 90s rave music. For me (Joe) I'm listening to an alternative world that I was old enough for but missed out on. I knew the music but didn't have the knowledge to drive around the M25 looking for the fields. It's a history I don't quite have but feel like I do. It's like the Beatles: known all my life but no idea why. It's cut into our DNA. It was our punk rock but we missed it. This Colossal Squid album, no matter how many times I listen to it, brings something new every time. And it makes me feel like I'm finally there” – Wrong Speed HQ

The first thing that strikes you is the rhythm. The Gossip have been making punks dance since they debuted 5 years ago, long before dance punk existed. Soulful and jagged, you can hear everything from Dischord to Motown in Brace's playing. Now, with the addition of new drummer Hannah Blilie (Shoplifting, ex-Chromatics) they have a new thundering beat for the kids to dance to on the corners and in the clubs. The next thing that smacks you is Beth's voice, all the guttural blues of the South is in that inimitable instrument. It resonates with the confidence that is in her lyrics asking people to hold on just a little bit longer, re-assuring the youth that there are others out there, and spitting in the face of all who say otherwise! "Standing in the Way of Control", their third album, was recorded by Guy Picciotto (Fugazi) at Seattle's Bear Creek. From heartbreakers like "Coal to Diamonds" to the anthemic title track, released as a single with a Le Tigre remix, the band is unafraid to put it all out there and take their audience to new places. This is the sound of a band destroying and surpassing all expectations placed on them.

Third studio album by the Munich-based band Dune Pilot. Fuzzy stoner/desert rock at its finest! Founding members Andris Friedrich on vocals and Christian Schmidt on guitar are focusing again on earthy stoner roots rock with a ‘fat fuzz’. Munich scene veterans Veit Schlembach on drums (ex-Password Monkey) and Konst Fischer on bass (ex-Smoke The Sky) brought freshness into the team, enriching the sound and songwriting of the band in a multi-layered and positive way. The gods of desert rock - read Kyuss - are duly honoured here. The new album "Magnetic" has been completely recorded live in the studio by the well-rehearsed musicians. The four-piece ensemble has already done many live-shows, mainly in Germany, and has shared stages with scene greats such as Karma To Burn, Orange Goblin, Greenleaf, Colour Haze and Rotor.

Indie Exclusive Limited Turquoise col vinyl, these were only available on the European tour, we have a final box of 50 which got held up in customs so offering now as an Indie exclusive. Northern California’s punk rock cult favourites, Tsunami Bomb, has risen from the grave and reformed with their third full-length release, The Spine That Binds, and with it they have proven that this chapter of Tsunami Bomb not only embraces their signature style of aggressive pop punk supplemented by a touch of darkness but have taken it even further. Honing their skills of melody while being more in-your-face and more aggressive than ever, they conjure a dark journey of discovery with each track. Originally formed in 1998, and disbanding after many member changes in 2005, Tsunami Bomb reformed at the end of 2015. This new release finds the quintet brought to life with the return of founders Dominic Davi (bass / backing vocals), Oobliette Sparks (keyboards / co-lead vocals), and Gabriel Lindeman (drums). Joined by Kate Jacobi (lead vocals) and Andrew Pohl (guitars/backing vocals), they combine their skills to create a sound that effortlessly mixes dark musings on the search to find one’s place in an increasingly uncaring world, into unforgettable anthems, calling on one to get up and sing-a -long. The Spine That Binds is not asking for your acceptance, it demands it. This album will scratch the itch of all the diehard fans looking for that familiar Tsunami Bomb sound, but also show a new, angrier and brutally honest side of the band. With the support of Jello Biafra’s legendary punk rock label, Alternative Tentacles Records, Tsunami Bomb has not only heard the call, they are ready for the newest chapter to unfold and they are taking everything with them

Bob Dylan released “Triplicate”, his third collection of pop standards. Like Dylan’s earlier albums, “Shadows in the Night” (2015) and “Fallen Angels”(2016), most of the songs have an association with the great Frank Sinatra. This double LP presents Frank Sinatra’s versions of many of the songs Dylan sang in these three forays into The Great American Songbook. Orchestras accompanying the iconic singer are led by Nelson Riddle, Gordon Jenkins, Billy May, Alex Stordahl, and Tommy Dorsey, among others. Dylan once related this about an encounter he had with Ol’ Blue Eyes: “He was funny, we were standing out on his patio at night and he said to me, ‘You and me, pal, we got blue eyes, we’re from up there,’ and he pointed to the stars. ‘These other bums are from down here.’ I remember thinking that he might be right.”

On Pedro The Lion’s new album Santa Cruz, critically acclaimed musician David Bazan returns with a new chapter in his ambitious and ongoing recording project - 5 albums devoted to places he lived in throughout his life. Santa Cruz is Bazan’s third album in the series and follows up where 2022’s Havasu and 2019’s Phoenix left off. Tracks like "Modesto" and "Little Help" foreshadow Bazan's exposure and ultimate love of classic rock n' roll records, while songs like "It'll All Work Out" showcase his unique approach to synthesizers, something he introduced with the 2005 self-titled Headphones album. The stories on Santa Cruz highlight Bazan’s teenage years and solidifies what he sees as an exposition in a traditional three-act structure. After 25 years refining and building what he calls his “garden of songs,” David Bazan has sold hundreds of thousands of albums, performed in sold-out venues and living rooms around the globe, and played high-profile live sessions with the likes of NPR’s Tiny Desk, KEXP, WNYC’s Soundcheck, WXPN’s World Cafe and many others. His music has been featured in outlets such as The New York Times, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, SPIN, Vox, Paste, Aquarium Drunkard and others.

Cliché-defying, internationally beloved Chicago bluesman is on the cutting edge of today’s contemporary blues scene. As one of the genre’s most creative artists, Cannon blazes his own path with imaginative songs fueled by potent guitar solos and his soulfully authoritative vocals. Shut Up & Play! is Toronzo Cannon’s third Alligator release and features 11 striking new originals delivered with purpose and passion. From scorching-hot blues to a gospel-inspired rave-up to deep, slow burners, the songs tackle the gamut of human emotions, all sparked by Cannon’s dynamic guitar work and commanding, cathartic singing.

In this collection of bass-led duets, Charlie Haden enlists Don Cherry (trumpet/flute), Archie Shepp (tenor), Hampton Hawes (piano) and a trumpet playing Ornette Coleman on the four tracks. Hawes’ playing on the Ornette-penned “Turnaround” is the clear straight-ahead highlight of this generally exploratory album. This Verve By Request title is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Third Man in Detroit.

repressed !


'Mercury Rising' is the third studio album to be released by Rae & Christian. The duo weave together exceptional musicianship paired with a British song writing sensibility and the finest elements of studio production. 'Mercury Rising' was created at producer/musician Steve Christian's studio in Yorkshire with additional recording at songwriter/vocalist/DJ Mark Rae's London base. In London a song writing bond was formed with Ed Harcourt and Gita Langley who make excellent contributions with vocals, songs, strings and keys. Sam Genders of Diagrams threads a story of redemption lost on the Ubahn on '1975', Kate Rogers is on imperious form and rising star Jake Emlyn unravels a whole new level of microphone skills on 'Favourite Game'.
The international guests include the one-and-only Jazzy Jeff and Australia's Agent 86 dealing out world class scratch treatments on 'Check The Technique' (Tony D's vocals taken from a session recorded at the birth of Grand Central Records), Brooklyn rapper Masta Ace and Mark Foster of Foster The People, a collaboration born from Mark's L.A. excursion.

'Mercury Rising' is the first new material in many years from R&C. Their 1998 Mercury Music Prize nominated debut 'Northern Sulphuric Soul' ("Vitally fresh and timelessly classic...deserving a place alongside Massive Attack's Blue Lines' Uncut) and 2002's 'Sleepwalking' ("Another triumph, brimming with soulful, languid grooves, deft samples and well-chosen guest singers' Q Magazine) were both released on their Grand Central Records label (Aim, Riton, Boca 45, Only Child), a defining imprint of the late 90s soul/funk/hip-hop/beats scene. Guest vocalists over the two albums included Bobby Womack, Texas, The Congos, The Pharcyde, The Jungle Brothes and Jeru The Damaja.

repressed !

‘Diré’, Idrissa Soumaoro new album, comes as a surprise to Malian and international audiences. Composer, singer, guitarist and master of the kamalen n’goni Idrissa Soumaoro presents here a beautiful collection of songs on his third album, Diré, named in honor of the town where he met his wife and where his first daughter, who is no longer with us, was born.
In 1971, after his studies at the INA in Bamako, Idrissa was transferred to Diré to teach music at the lPEG (Pedagogical Institute of General Education). He was 22 years old when he arrived in Diré. Idrissa has always been nostalgic for this beautiful place in the 333 Saints of Timbuktu region. As Idrissa sings in ‘Diré taga’ (Going to Diré), the track that opens the album, the city evokes deep emotions for the artist, as if it were a long-lost friend or lover. Celebrating the memory of the city of Diré leads the artist to retrace stories and lived situations that marked and animated him in years gone by: ‘I really miss the people, the colleagues, the friends and that period. Despite the time that has flown by, I would ardently wish to see Diré again’. Today, at the difficult time Mali is experiencing, remembering the city of Diré in the 1970s also means for the artist not giving up hope for peace: ‘The memory of Diré, a beautiful town in northern Mali, strengthens my hope for peace, union and real independence for the happiness of my people’; as he sings in ‘Sababou’, ‘Without hope, there is no life. Together we will succeed’.
The ten highly original compositions of the album are strongly based upon traditional music of Mali, but Idrissa’s life experiences, travels, education, collaborations and personal musical career have led him to compose and perform music with other influences. As Idrissa quotes: ‘My inspiration generally comes from the donso n'goni, a Bambara instrument played by and for hunters throughout Mali. This is a pentatonic instrument, similar to the blues exported to the USA by black African slaves. I've also spent so much time playing a variety of music that my music also reflects rumba, salsa (as well as Bamanan blues and a few derivatives: jazz, country, soul, rhythm and blues) etc. I have looked for and hope to have found my own form of expression from these influences’.
Throughout the album, his strong, clear voice sings in French, Bambara and English. It rides seamlessly upon a complex rhythmic sea of distinctly West African stringed instrumentation and percussion with accents of flute and balafon. There are keyboards in a few songs, but these, happily, do not dominate the music as we hear so often in today’s music. This album presents the music of a mature artist who has ‘been there, done that’ and returned to celebrate his country, his roots and his dreams in a flawlessly produced collection of songs of love, reassurance, fatherly advice and hope.
The album already has a long history: it was initiated in 2012 by Marc-Antoine ‘Marko’ Moreau, former producer and manager of Amadou and Mariam. Moreau had plans to produce the album and invited Idrissa Soumaoro to start recording in Manjul's studio in Bamako. When Moreau suddenly passed away, work on the album was still missing. The pandemic still added time for the production to continue. With the help of Climax Orchestra, arrangements and orchestrations were finalized in France. At the artist's behest, 'Diré' will finally be presented to the public by Mieruba, the independent label based in Ségou, the home of the blues in Mali. 'Let's stand together so that Mali can flourish': from conception to production and distribution, this is the message that 'Diré' carries.

The Telescopes Radio Sessions collects together the essence of three live session recordings in 3 different countries over a three year period between 2016-2019. This is the third in a series of radio session releases from Tapete Records that have so far included The Monochrome Set and Comet Gain. More session releases are being lined up for the rest of the year and beyond - enjoy the sonics and stay tuned. Over the years I have read a lot on people’s impressions of The Telescopes. Some folk think it’s a collective, others imagine it used to be a band and feel nostalgia towards what they consider to be the original line-up (even though many had come before, during and since) and some people refer to it as currently a solo career. In a way this is all true and none of it is. When faced with these kind of questions, along with questions about the style of music that The Telescopes make I often say The Telescopes house has many rooms, which explains things perfectly for me but for people on the outside looking in it only serves to increase their confusion. For me, confusion isn’t such a bad thing. Everything is born into confusion, the sense we try and make of that chaos is interesting and excites me. The universe often disorientates, it sends me a jumble of thoughts and impressions coupled with a feeling of something I need to express… if I could only decipher the encryption. This is how The Telescopes music comes to be and it is also how The Telescopes came to me. I regard The Telescopes as an entity of it’s own that introduced itself in my darkest hour and I was chosen as its vessel. From the second it arrived I was obsessed to the point where there was nothing else. A bit like having an imaginary friend. As the obsession grew it began to infect others, everybody loved my imaginary friend and wanted a piece of it. As its success grew however, so did the corruption, until one day the entity fell silent. The silence lasted for years, I tried everything to reconnect but it was having none of it. I had been a bad caretaker, I had let the house become infested and I had lost my way. This epiphany served to remind me of simpler times when anything felt possible with this entity by my side. It had trusted me with something so simplistically profound and I had let it down. The realisation of this was a eureka moment. I am not The Telescopes, I never was and never will be, I am the caretaker, the lighthouse keeper and if a job is worth doing it is worth doing well. With this dawning, I felt a crack open up in the cosmic egg and a familiar confusion in my head. The entity had returned. It was time to start untangling its tangled threads once more, to make sense of what it was saying, this time without corruption. It’s all about listening. I listen to what my cosmic friend sends me and channel this expression into what you hear through your speakers. It may take one person to achieve this, it may take more. There is no set line up or instrumentation that can hold The Telescopes. Whatever it takes to hit the zone, whatever is available, absolute focus is imperative. Sometimes it takes sabotage to keep that line of vision intact, there is no room for preconceptions or complacency in making the music. The Telescopes music is the now

incarnate and a state of total being is necessary to achieve. From the outside looking in... again, it’s all about listening. What comes through your speakers is the only thing that matters. The music either reaches you or it doesn’t. Everything else may seem interesting or confusing but ultimately it is corruption. So if you’ve bought the record, read the sleeve notes and bought a ticket to see a live show, don’t be surprised if the line-up is or isn’t the same as the recording. The only thing that is for sure is that The Telescopes as an entity is speaking to you in its own voice in every scenario.
Of course the difference between albums and live shows is that you can play the record over and over again to the point where you know every line and every note that was played. Whereas with live events you are left with an impression that can only be replayed in your mind. It can be frustrating at times. When you are touring with a great line-up and feel like something exciting is happening, you want everyone to hear it, not just the people at the shows but the people that couldn’t make it on the night as well. There is no guarantee that there will be the same line-up at a live show as there is on the album. This is why live sessions are important, they document a side of things that is often fleeting. Here we have three sessions, all different people transmitting The Telescopes sound on each. Some are regulars, some dip in and out and some were just passing through. In each case The Telescopes chose them as their vessel and as the lighthouse keeper I did everything I could to help them on that journey while trying to be a good caretaker to the house of many rooms. The Telescopes have been invited in for many sessions over the years, the first two were for John Peel on BBC Radio 1. We also recorded a session for Marc Riley and Mark Radcliffe before their
celebrity when they had a show on BBC Radio Manchester. We could have compiled this album from those sessions, it was certainly considered but Tapete and myself believe this selection gives an exciting glimpse into that fleeting side of The Telescopes in a constant state of flux that is left mostly to myth and imagination. For those who listen to the records but have never had the chance to take in the live experience, welcome to the other side. For those that follow us live, here’s a little reminder and a keepsake. Infinite suns. Stephen Lawrie February 2024.

Listening to The Softies has always felt like peeking into a diary, with no personal detail spared. Lyrically the band documents a lovelorn heart in every manifestation, and hope is the bright silver lining adorning each song. As the third Softies album, Holiday in Rhode Island KLP119 presents a more accessible view to the humble honesty of their emotive universe. When Holiday in Rhode Island was originally released in Sept. 2000, it had been three and a half years since The Softies previous album Winter Pageant [KLP061]. In that time Jen and Rose's introspective musings are reborn, sparkling with renewed vision, both musically and spiritually. The trademark harmonies between Jen Sbragia (All Girl Summer Fun Band) and Rose Melberg (Tiger Trap, Gaze) simply shimmer, brighter than ever before, benefiting from strong yet simple arrangements and excellent production (at a house on Galiano Island near Victoria, British Columbia) by Dave Carswell and John Collins. The beautiful surroundings and supportive production crew inspired The Softies to extend their minimalist blueprint of two delicately jangling guitars and two crystalline voices to include acoustic guitar embellishment on "Just a Day," "You and Only You;" piano and sparse drums on "Me and the Bees;" a xylophone makes subtle appearances here and there. Holiday in Rhode Island is a stunning artistic accomplishment from these two much heralded pop icons.

Blue vinyl. Since forming in Western New York in 2016, Feeley and his musical partner Matt Cox have blurred the line between absurdism and existentialism, swirling ‘90s melodicism, new-millennium pop-punk energy, and heartfelt emo into a wry, smirking rock sound. Now, on their third album, Gangster of Love, the duo let their melting pot sonic palette go further than ever, exploring the outer edges of their musical spectrums. Produced by Sam Guaiana (Neck Deep, Bayside), Gangster of Love follows

2021’s SUP and 2018’s Tequila Sunrise and found the duo fleeing Buffalo for Los Angeles, where the push and pull between the two songwriters – the real magic at the heart of Super American – was allowed to flourish and grow in a brand-new environment

Bill MacKay and Drag City are delirious with pride to announce the discovery of a new territory: Locust Land, a record which seeks to reflect the nerve-shredding consciousness run amok in our world today - and somehow allay it with sound. Bill"s music is a visceral crackling where it meets the air, and Locust Land can"t help but reflect its era more than any other in his discography. It"s been five years since the release of Fountain Fire - but in the interim, Bill has barely stopped moving, collaborating with artists across the spectrum, including cellist Katinka Kleijn, banjo player Nathan Bowles and keyboardist Cooper Crain. He"s also contributed to recordings by Steve Gunn, Ryley Walker, Bill Callahan & Bonnie Prince Billy (Blind Date Party), and Black Duck (on their self-titled record featuring Douglas McCombs and Charles Rumback). Forget five years - how"d he even get Locust Land squeezed out of his temporal lobes? Bill"s sense of music as art is constantly modulating - lifting off from where it is found and naturally migrating to some other place. Sometimes, that"s elsewhere - others, it"s simply to be found deeper inside the starting point. And so, the action of moving on informs the landscape of Locust Land. This manifests in several different ways. A restless energy and urgency is repeatedly felt - in the driving momentum of "Keeping in Time," "Glow Drift," and "When I Was Here" - while a dogged persistence radiates from the tone colors and percussion of "Oh, Pearl." Mating a dirge-like desolation with sparkling guitars, "Radiator" adds darkness and depth. The sense of searching, displacement and longing in vocal tracks "Keeping in Time," "Half of You," and "When I Was Here" speak literally to the tumult of current vibrations. Within the arrangements, there"s also departure from previous norms - in addition to the brilliant guitar work for which he is known, Bill plays a variety of keyboards, from piano to organ to synth, extending his music with the available voicings, while enriching the sound field without abandoning his signature brevity. For fans of his singing, and following in the recent tradition of Fountain Fire as well as his collaboration with Nathan Bowles, Keys, Locust Land expresses with an increased vocal presence - and heightened engagement, with Bill"s words and melodies drawing us closer. Also different: on his previous solo recordings, Bill played every sound. Here, he has invited other illustrious Chicagoans to join him: Sam Wagster (The Father Costume, Mute Duo) plays bass on three songs, two of which feature the percussion playing of Mikel Patrick Avery (Natural Information Society, Jeff Parker, etc.). Additionally, Janet Beveridge Bean (Eleventh Dream Day, Freakwater) adds otherworldly vocal textures to the elegiac "Neil"s Field." Whether played alone or with companions, this music projects the strength of a universal collective. Even with a piece that might earlier have passed for blissful pastorale, Bill displays some declamatory motives. The reverie which opens the album, "Phantasmic Fairy," embodies both transcendent and desperate moods, with Bill"s ineffable slide guitar playing afloat, with organs and synths, in a dream state suffused with a sense of foreboding - a requiem, perhaps for the days of unencumbered bandwidth? On the other side of the album, the strength to continue to hope appears in the lifting melodicism/exoticism of the album-closing title track, leaving the listener with the sense of having achieved a hard-won space - a place of personal contemplation and dissent, one that everyone on the planet deserves to visit every single day on earth. With cover art also by Bill MacKay (the third of his albums on Drag City to feature his work), Locust Land stands as a thoroughly personal statement from Bill to everyone everywhere.

Bill MacKay and Drag City are delirious with pride to announce the discovery of a new territory: Locust Land, a record which seeks to reflect the nerve-shredding consciousness run amok in our world today - and somehow allay it with sound. Bill"s music is a visceral crackling where it meets the air, and Locust Land can"t help but reflect its era more than any other in his discography. It"s been five years since the release of Fountain Fire - but in the interim, Bill has barely stopped moving, collaborating with artists across the spectrum, including cellist Katinka Kleijn, banjo player Nathan Bowles and keyboardist Cooper Crain. He"s also contributed to recordings by Steve Gunn, Ryley Walker, Bill Callahan & Bonnie Prince Billy (Blind Date Party), and Black Duck (on their self-titled record featuring Douglas McCombs and Charles Rumback). Forget five years - how"d he even get Locust Land squeezed out of his temporal lobes? Bill"s sense of music as art is constantly modulating - lifting off from where it is found and naturally migrating to some other place. Sometimes, that"s elsewhere - others, it"s simply to be found deeper inside the starting point. And so, the action of moving on informs the landscape of Locust Land. This manifests in several different ways. A restless energy and urgency is repeatedly felt - in the driving momentum of "Keeping in Time," "Glow Drift," and "When I Was Here" - while a dogged persistence radiates from the tone colors and percussion of "Oh, Pearl." Mating a dirge-like desolation with sparkling guitars, "Radiator" adds darkness and depth. The sense of searching, displacement and longing in vocal tracks "Keeping in Time," "Half of You," and "When I Was Here" speak literally to the tumult of current vibrations. Within the arrangements, there"s also departure from previous norms - in addition to the brilliant guitar work for which he is known, Bill plays a variety of keyboards, from piano to organ to synth, extending his music with the available voicings, while enriching the sound field without abandoning his signature brevity. For fans of his singing, and following in the recent tradition of Fountain Fire as well as his collaboration with Nathan Bowles, Keys, Locust Land expresses with an increased vocal presence - and heightened engagement, with Bill"s words and melodies drawing us closer. Also different: on his previous solo recordings, Bill played every sound. Here, he has invited other illustrious Chicagoans to join him: Sam Wagster (The Father Costume, Mute Duo) plays bass on three songs, two of which feature the percussion playing of Mikel Patrick Avery (Natural Information Society, Jeff Parker, etc.). Additionally, Janet Beveridge Bean (Eleventh Dream Day, Freakwater) adds otherworldly vocal textures to the elegiac "Neil"s Field." Whether played alone or with companions, this music projects the strength of a universal collective. Even with a piece that might earlier have passed for blissful pastorale, Bill displays some declamatory motives. The reverie which opens the album, "Phantasmic Fairy," embodies both transcendent and desperate moods, with Bill"s ineffable slide guitar playing afloat, with organs and synths, in a dream state suffused with a sense of foreboding - a requiem, perhaps for the days of unencumbered bandwidth? On the other side of the album, the strength to continue to hope appears in the lifting melodicism/exoticism of the album-closing title track, leaving the listener with the sense of having achieved a hard-won space - a place of personal contemplation and dissent, one that everyone on the planet deserves to visit every single day on earth. With cover art also by Bill MacKay (the third of his albums on Drag City to feature his work), Locust Land stands as a thoroughly personal statement from Bill to everyone everywhere.

With her third Gondwana album, "Constellation", Manchester"s Caoilfhionn Rose has come of age as an artist, digging deep to find experimental new ways of expressing her wonder at nature"s beauty, her love of music in all its diversity, and her belief in the restorative powers that both afford in the troubled post-COVID world. The ten tracks on "Constellation" feel rooted in a knowledge of folk, jazz and all the twentieth century"s classic tunesmiths, and yet they seem to create a magical, otherworldly space of her own imagining, blending Caoilfhionn"s core piano with synths, and pitting a live rhythm section and saxophone embellishments against ambient samples and future-facing production techniques.

With her third Gondwana album, "Constellation", Manchester"s Caoilfhionn Rose has come of age as an artist, digging deep to find experimental new ways of expressing her wonder at nature"s beauty, her love of music in all its diversity, and her belief in the restorative powers that both afford in the troubled post-COVID world. The ten tracks on "Constellation" feel rooted in a knowledge of folk, jazz and all the twentieth century"s classic tunesmiths, and yet they seem to create a magical, otherworldly space of her own imagining, blending Caoilfhionn"s core piano with synths, and pitting a live rhythm section and saxophone embellishments against ambient samples and future-facing production techniques.

Composed by Jim O’Rourke and pieced together by Jim together with longtime collaborator and trumpeter Eivind Lønning at Jim and Eiko Ishibashi’s home in the Japanese mountains, this engrossing new album blows brass wails and tense fanfares across O'Rourke's manipulated Kyma tapestries for a deep, captivating trip into the aether.

Eivind Lønning has been sharing ideas with O'Rourke for several years: the duo collaborated on music for the Whitney's 'Calder: Hypermobility' exhibition, and Lønning played trumpet on O'Rourke's brilliant 2020 album 'Shutting Down Here'. For this new work, Lønning headed to O'Rourke and EIko Ishibashi's home studio in the Japanese mountains, where he teased unfamiliar, alien textures from his trumpet to open the labyrinthine three-part composition. O'Rourke took the material and subsequently funnelled it through his Kyma system, transforming it into a swirl of sound that hums alongside Lønning's original takes. The album was composed, mixed and mastered by O'Rourke, with everything's based on Lønning's virtuosic performance.

The album begins by cautiously introducing us to its sonic palette: wavering, bird-like horn wails that O'Rourke contorts around quiet synth oscillations and computerised swarms. Lønning's spittle-drenched blasts are given the spotlight, but O'Rourke's manipulations - often gentle and illusory, and sometimes utterly lacerating - lift the sounds into completely new territory. When Lønning begins to turn rhythmic cycles using the trumpet keys, popping with his mouth to compliment its leathery timbre, O'Rourke replies with dense, hallucinatory drones, juxtaposing unstable electronics with Lønning's breathy, sustained notes. All these sounds coalesce into a dizzy vortex, but O'Rourke is careful not to overwhelm the senses, dropping to near silence as the first act transitions into the second. O'Rourke pelts Lønning's vertiginous wails, steadily mutating them into Xenakis-like stabs until they sound like cybernetic strings and icy tones that extract the tension from Lønning's brassy harmonics.

The third act is more screwed, with O'Rourke allowing Lønning's improvisations wail into cathedral-strength reverb, accompanying the sound with glassy penetrations and throbbing subs. Here, Lønning sounds as if he's heralding the arrival of a celestial being, piercing the atmosphere with bright, sustained tones and muted, jazzy flourishes. O'Rourke hangs back, carefully spinning the notes into naturalistic fibres and orchestral drapery, before he allows the electronics to subside completely and the trumpet to echo into the imposing negative space.

'Most, but Potentially All' is a dumbfounding piece that shifts the dial on contemporary experimental music; dizzyingly complex but never showy, it's the kind of record you can spin repeatedly and hear something different each time. As an exploration of the trumpet, it's a unique expression, and as a progression of electro-acoustic compositional techniques, it draws a deep trench in the sand, setting a new standard.

"It's time. Africa, it's time. It's time that Africa changes. It's time our leaders change. Everything that happens in Africa is extraordinary. We have everything: water, earth, sun, fields of oil, gas. We have all this in Africa, but Africa is still poor. It's time we change our way of thinking. It's time for Africans to take their destiny into their own hands. If not, others will take it." This is the message instrumental guitarist Tidiane Thiam hopes to convey with his new solo album, Africa Yontii, a Pulaar title that translates to "Africa Time." To a casual listener, Thiam's bold statement starkly contrasts with his melodic playing. But a closer listen to Thiam's expressive playing reveals a thoughtful voice that stands out from the crop of contemporary guitarists. "What I should be singing (with words) I'm instead saying with my guitar," he says. Hailing from the sleepy fishing Senegalese fishing town of Podor, home of the great Baaba Maal, Thiam taught himself guitar by playing along to late-night radio broadcasts of Manding music. He soon developed his style, often reworking Pulaar folk themes into his compositions. On Africa Yontii, Thiam's third album for Sahel Sounds, he teamed up with hip-hop beat maker Ndiaye Moctar from studio M.N. Records to provide accompaniment, integrating unexpected elements such as field recordings and electronic sounds. In the liner notes for Africa Yontii, Thiam voices his concerns about the lack of opportunities for Africa's youth and the lonely road that can come with leaving behind loved ones in the hope of a better life. He also sprinkles in a philosophical query about the eroding state of the world alongside two more hopeful, traditional offerings in the form of wedding and river songs. Despite the sometimes heavy subject matter, Thiam's love for his homeland and heritage shines through. Tidiane Thiam's Africa Yontii reclaims the maligned "world music" genre within a sonic space that has long been dominated by others telling the story. As the title suggests - It's time!