Search:the wild

Golden Core haben mit Cutty Sark, Saints´ Anger, Witchfynde, Wildfire
und Dark Wizard bereits acht Klassiker vom kultigen Mausoleum Label mit Erfolg und vielen guten Kritiken wiederveröffentlicht. Eigentlich wäre die Serie hier abgeschlossen gewesen, wenn die belgische Band SCAVENGER nicht den ausdrücklichen Wunsch geäußert hätte, dass Golden Core auch ihr Album, „Battlefields“ aus dem Jahr 1985, den Fans auf die gleiche Weise neu zugänglich zu machen. Der neue Inhaber des Mausoleum Kataloges stimmte zu und der Sache stand nichts mehr im Wege. Scavenger sind wieder aktiv, allerdings seit Februar 2020 ohne Originalmitglied. Dafür wurde die junge und sehr starke neue Besetzung um Sängerin Tine Callebaut von den „Alten“ regelrecht ausgebildet. Eine erste Single sorgte bereits für Begeisterung und ein neues Album ist auf dem Weg. Um den Bogen zu den alten Tagen zu spannen, arbeiteten Scavenger an der Wiederveröffentlichung von „Battlefields“, dem einzigen
Album der Urbesetzung, tatkräftig mit. So spendierte man das Demo aus dem Jahr 1982, welches noch unter dem Namen Deep Throat erschienen ist und heute natürlich extrem rar ist. Eine Tape-Kopie zweiter Generation wurde hierfür von Neudi (Golden Core Rec., Manilla Road, Trance, etc.) so gut es ging aufgearbeitet und zeigt eine Gruppe, die 1982 noch tief im 70s Hardrock verwurzelt war. Weiterhin findet man diverse Livetracks, die klanglich wirklich nur „for fans only“ sind, aber den Zeitgeist als CD-Bonus dennoch perfekt wiedergeben. Die LP-Version enthält aus klangtechnischen
Gründen nur das Album „Battlefields“. Für beide Formate wurde nicht die Mausoleum-Classix CD genommen, sondern eine neue Vinyl-Überspielung von Patrick W. Engel in Auftrag gegeben, die anschließend von Neudi remastert wurde. Für die LP fertigte
Vadim Kulin (ZYX Studio) ein gesondertes Vinylmaster an. Das Booklet und LP-Inlay enthält viele rare Fotos, Liner Notes (exklusives Interview mit der Band), Memorabilia, sowie Scans und Abbildung der Original-LP. 1985 wandelten Scavenger gekonnt zwischen puren Power Metal europäischer Prägung und eingängigem, aber immer kraftvollem Heavy Metal. Kein Wunder dass das Album heute als eines DER Klassiker des Euro Metal gilt. Das beweist nicht nur die Tatsache, dass man vom Coverartwork von „Battlefields“ online einen Badeanzug bestellen kann…

Dream Like A Dogwood Wild Boy is Binker Golding's sophomore album under his own name and represents a sonic evolution, bringing a distinct blend of electric blues and country to his jazz core. The album is a personal and ultimately uplifting reflection on the trials and tribulations of the journey to manhood. Binker Golding is one of the leading artists of the London jazz scene, having collaborated with the likes of Moses Boyd, Zara McFarlane, Emma Jean-Thakray, Evan Parker and Sarathy Korwar. A virtuosic and busy musician, composer, arranger and educator, Golding tutors at the unrivalled Tomorrow's Warriors organisation, has conducted the Nu Civilisation Orchestra, and has released albums that stretch between free jazz, 70s fusion jazz, and experimental electronic, proving himself always unpredictably ahead of the curve.

Die Allgegenwärtigkeit des Todes inmitten des blühenden
Lebens und der Kreativität steht im Mittelpunkt von
SEVENTH STORM. Mike Gaspar, der fast 30 Jahre lang
den Rhythmus auf der wichtigsten portugiesischen
Metal-Galeere Moonspell vorgab, hat endlich ein neues
Ventil gefunden, um seine Liebe zum Heavy Metal, sein
kulturelles Erbe und seine Leidenschaft für ungezähmte,
wilde Musik zu zelebrieren, deren Wurzeln tief in das
Gewebe unserer Welt reichen. Hier hebt sich eine
hungrige Band empor, die ihre Seele für ihre Musik
gegeben hat. "Ich wollte ein Album schreiben, von dem
Fans aller Kulturen sagen können ?das ist für mich?",
meint er über den primären Antrieb, der hinter
"Maledictus" steht. "Mein Traum war es, etwas von
diesem unschuldigen Neunziger-Jahre-Touch
zurückzubringen und dabei traditionelle portugiesische
Musik mit Metal zu mischen." Mit Einflüssen, die von
Bathory über Samael, Tiamat, Paradise Lost, Fields of the
Nephilim, Cradle of Filth und Dead Can Dance bis hin zu
Van Halen oder Mötley Crüe reichen, machen sich
SEVENTH STORM gerade erst auf ihre Reise durch die
wilden und wundersamen Gewässer der Heavy
Metal-Geschichte. Und obwohl es kein Konzeptalbum ist,
wird "Maledictus" von einem starken Gefühl des
Schmerzes und der Wut zusammengehalten, gepaart mit
einer flackernden Hoffnung auf Vergebung für unser

After 20 years of a restful sleep, the legendary Icelandic house label has been resurrected. Three deep cuts exhibiting what is in store for the year 2022.

It begins with "Can Ride", a neo-disco anthem from former resident Justin Simmons. Nifty groove with an acid-bassline - topped with all the razzle and dazzle that is needed to get the dancefloor moving.

The flipside starts with a proper minimal percussion-driven groove from Kate & Joan, a side-project of Dole & Kom from the renowned label BCC music. The Detroit-influenced dub house anthem will, without a doubt, be a useful tool for any DJs to get the crowd going.

The second cut on the B-side is from a Reykjavik-based beatmakers Oh Mama. Its wild style sample-based approach caught the label's attention and the result is a worthy debut vinyl release. Hypnotic, sexy and groovy - with a big and dirty bassline.

DJ Feedback

Raresh:
"Super thanks for this! Will play again the Kate & Joan track, so nice to hear it remastered! Much love from Bucharest."

Roger Gerressen:
"Great quality as always :) thanks for sharing."

Andrei Tripmastaz:
"The tribe is my fave"

Rick Hopkins:
"Once again thank you for the promo. Love it. All 3 cuts essential for any discerning lover of sounds from the deep!"

Andy Green:
"Thanks for sharing - this is a sweet versatile VA EP. The Kate & Joan track chugs sweetly along underneath the skippy percussion. Good tool to bridge house and techno vibes. I'm especially fond of the Laugardalur track Oh Mama with its wobbly, slightly sinister bassline that still works at both ends of the pitch fader."

Ben Btndk:
"Oh yes!! That B1 has been on my wish-list for ages!!"

Dotan Bibi:
"Really good house vibes over here! My favorite is the A2 thanks a lot for sending."

Johnny was born in 1934 in Memphis, the city where Rock’n'Roll began. A career in boxing
seemed most likely tfor the Burnette brothers before meeting Burlison, who’d graduated from
High School two years before Elvis Presley. Burlison had backed Blues giant Howlin’ Wolf on
radio appearances and worked at Crown Electrics with Dorsey, with Elvis later becoming a
workmate. They had also taken to rehearsing in the basement of one of the apartment blocks
in Lauderdale Court. With the apartment above rented by the Presley family, who had not long
arrived from Tupelo. Legend has it that, Elvis would slip downstairs and sit quietly in a corner,
listening to them rehearse. And it was after seeing Elvis on television in January 1956, that
sent the Rock'n’Roll Trio to New York where their appearances on Ted Mack’s Amateur Hour
saw them sign to the Coral Label. The three-time talent show winners immediately set about
recording a repertoire based equally on R&B and Country & Western material. The Rockabilly
they cut for Coral, some 25 tracks, was later described by genre expert Bill Millar as 'unrivalled
for unsubtle power and wild intensity’. Joe Turner’s Honey Hush, and the self-penned Tear It
Up have been constantly recycled by acts. The originals are included in this LP along with
other material such as Rock Therapy, Lonesome Train and Touch me

We all make mistakes. We all have regrets. We all look back on the loves and losses life brings and lament on how things might have been different. In these deeply personal moments of reflection our emotions can run wild as we contemplate our choices and come to terms with what’s next. Hindsight is a powerful and complex thing, and a phenomenon whose intricacies are explored in captivating fashion on The Greatest Mistake Of My Life, the second album from Cardiff’s Holding Absence.

Building on the excellent foundations laid down by the band’s eponymous debut record, released in 2019, and following standalone singles ‘Gravity’ and ‘Birdcage’, the four-piece have returned with a group of songs that, in the view of vocalist Lucas Woodland, are the truest representation of Holding Absence to date.

Inspired by a song of the same name that was recorded in the 1930s by actor and singer Dame Gracie Fields, The Greatest Mistake Of My Life is rooted in a time long before Holding Absence even existed. Lucas’ great uncle covered the song during the 1950s – something the frontman repeats on this album – and after finding this out from his grandmother, the singer decided the poignancy of its words were worthy of titling Holding Absence’s next record.

Holding Absence – the band completed by bassist James Joseph and drummer Ashley Green – carry the The Greatest Mistake Of My Life’s contemplative and thoughtful spirit throughout their second album. Whereas their debut was a concept record about the subject of love, The Greatest Mistake Of My Life’s inspirations are more complex, as Holding Absence stare down love in the face of death, all the while musing on the vast array of emotions we as humans experience throughout our lives.

Lead single ‘Beyond Belief’ is a soaring epic about the risk of loving someone forever, when their definition of ‘Forever’ might be different to yours, and a song that, Lucas says, argues how “love is something worth taking a risk on.” Holding Absence’s unique approach to romance is also present on atmospheric tracks like ‘Curse Me With Your Kiss’ and ‘Afterlife’, but for every display of affection, The Greatest Mistake Of My Life counters with despondency. ‘Die Alone (In Your Lover’s Arms)’ tells of the loneliness two people feel within a relationship long-turned sour, while ‘In Circles’ speaks to the monotony of everyday life and the crushing of dreams.

The Greatest Mistake Of My Life soundtracks the journey of our lives via all of its despair, elation, joy and pain, but never once tells the listener how they should be feeling.


Shedding their skins and emerging into a bright new phase for their band, with The Greatest Mistake Of My Life, Holding Absence are embracing change whilst holding onto the things that make them special. Aesthetic, for instance, remains important to Lucas and his bandmates, but as seen in the video for ‘Beyond Belief’, no longer do they exist in a world of purely black and white colour. Ushering in a colourful new era for Holding Absence, Lucas speaks of a desire “to bring warmth to people’s lives.”

Armed with a stellar new album and an unflinching belief in their craft, this new incarnation of Holding Absence promises to excite and impress like never before. An enthralling collection of songs and stories that tell of love, life, death and everything in between, The Greatest Mistake Of My Life is a thrilling record, and one its creators were born to make.

As Holding Absence have proved, the greatest mistakes can sometimes open the door to even greater triumphs.

King Tubby and Producer Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee are intertwined in the birth of Dub Music. After discovering a mistake that made a ‘serious joke’ (more of which later...) they went on to release the first pressings of this new musical genre namely ‘Dub Music’. Tubby’s vast knowledge of electronics and Bunny’s vast catalogue of rhythms would lay the foundations of what today is taken as a standard... the Remix / Version cuts to an existing vocal tune.

Osbourne ‘King Tubby’ Ruddock was born in Kingston, Jamaica on 28th January 1941 and grew up in the High Holborn Street area of downtown Kingston. He studied electronics at Kingston’s National Technical College and also on two correspondence courses from the U.S.A... When he had qualified Tubby began repairing radios and other electrical appliances in a shack in the back yard of his mother’s home. His work in the early days included winding transformers and building amplifiers for Kingston’s Sound Systems. Tubby built his first Sound System in 1957 playing jazz and Rhythm & Blues at local weddings and birthday parties. His reputation as a man who knew and understood both electronics and music grew steadily and as the sixties drew to a close. Tubby purchased his own basic two track equipment. He installed this alongside his dub cutting machine, a homemade mixing console and his impressive collection of Jazz albums in the back bedroom of his home at 18 Dromilly Avenue which he christened his music room.

Tubby and Striker were at Treasure Isle Studio’s one day while Ruddy from Spanish Town was working with the engineer Byron Smith....

“Tubby and myself was talking when Ruddy was cutting some dub but Smithy (engineer) made a mistake through we were talking and forgot to put in the voice. It was two track recording in those days. Ruddy said ‘No Man! Make it stay! and so they cut the rhythm. When I went over to Ruddy’s that Saturday night a dance was in progress and when they played the vocal to the tune... then he said we’re going to play ‘Part Two’. They never called it ‘Version’..and then he played the rhythm track. The song was a catchy song and everybody started to sing along and the deejay started to toast so everything went down well. On Monday morning I went up and I said ‘Tubbs the mistake we made was a serious joke. It mash up Spanish Town! The people went wild. So you have to start to do that now ‘cause when the man put on the ‘Part Two’ everyone start singing this song. It played about twenty times. I said you try Tubbs!’...Well the next Saturday night now when Tubby strung up down the farm U Roy said he’s going to play ‘Part Two’ but Tubby did it different now. He started with the voice then dropped it out and let the rhythm run and then he brought in the voice in the middle and from there Tubby started to get really popular.’’
Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee

Dynamic Sounds upgraded to sixteen track recording in 1972 and Tubby purchased, again with the help of a deal brokered by Bunny Lee. The old four track equipment and the MCI console from their Studio B. The four tracks now gave him far wider scope to work with and he began to create a new musical form where the bass and drum parts were brought up while the faders allowed Tubby to ease the vocal and rhythm in and out of the mix. It was only a matter of time before Tubby’s dub plate experiments began to make it on to vinyl and the first ever long-playing King Tubby releases would feature a collection of his mixes to a selection of Strikers rhythms. So please sit back and enjoy this historic set of sounds, mixed by King Tubby and Mr Prince Phillip Smart and another set of scorcher Bunny Lee rhythms.

Hooveriii - A Round of Applause Time after time, we all talk about … well, time — often in aphorisms and cliches. X is “a waste of time,” while Y is “time well spent.” We are all apt to lose track of time but, perhaps in equal measure, we have plenty of time on our hands. We think we have all the time in the world -- until we remember that time flies, after which our time runs out and we’re dead (for a long time). Since 2020, internal clocks have had to be readjusted with the pace of life ebbing and flowing. For Los Angeles psych-rock sextet Hooveriii (pronounced "Hoover Three") that adjustment seeped its way into their songwriting and ultimately their forthcoming album, A Round of Applause. The record cherrypicks from an array of genres — pop, girl-group ditties, synth-ish keyboards and funk —but the end result is a cohesive long-player with songs that revolve around the Spanish Inquisition (“Stone Man”); or follow “the legendary Peruvians who run long distances in the Andes Mountains (“The Runner”). “I let my imagination run wild,” Hoover said. Elsewhere on A Round of Applause, the Hooveriii frontman finally recorded a song, “The Pearl,” that he wrote in 2017. “It sounds like a Harry Nilsson jingle like to me, a fantasy song,” he continued. “It's more like a nursery rhyme than a song with an important message. You know, it's just like keeping things fun. … Nilsson didn’t take everything so fucking seriously. We want to avoid that self-seriousness. We're a bunch of goofy musicians.”

"This is the sound of a band empowered. Nothing - not our traumas and losses, not those who have underestimated or undermined us - can stop us. Those who seek to oppose us; your sins will catch up to you. We know who we are. We are united and you will fear us." Ithaca - They Fear Us ---------------- Formed in 2012 out of a mutual love of metallic hardcore but despair at its lack of ambition, Ithaca exist to challenge everything you thought about what a band that makes heavy music should look and sound like. A glitter-covered nailbomb, Ithaca seamlessly blend the brutality of Relapse Records metalcore with blackgaze, 90s industrial metal, 70s prog and even tinges of 80s power pop. Their influences stretch beyond the musical - this album comes with a clear vision and aesthetic: drawing from members’ different ancestral heritage, queer/non-conforming identities and iconic figures in avant-garde, new wave and post punk culture. Their upcoming second album ‘They Fear Us’ is the sound of a band healing from trauma - standing in their own, unapologetic voice. Furious and wildly inventive while also being more coherent and accessible, this album will introduce Ithaca to a wider audience than they’ve ever had before. To quote the band - ‘those who oppose us; your sins will catch up to you. You will fear us’. Ithaca's 2019 lauded debut ‘The Language of Injury’ was followed by their early 2020 tour with Grammy-nominated indie rock band Big Thief, starting at London’s Hammersmith Apollo. Press support from Pitchfork, BBC R1, Metal Hammer, Kerrang!, Rock Sound, Revolver, Decibel, BrooklynVegan, and performances with Bleeding Through, Jamie Lenman, Anaal Nathrakh, The Number Twelve Looks Like You, at Boomtown Fair and ArcTanGent Festival mark Ithaca as one of the most exciting and vital new voices in UK heavy music currently. Ithaca have also appeared on Ed Gamble’s Spotify podcast ‘Lifers’, Sky News and BBC3.

Wilderness pianist Hunter Noack has been a regular guest pianist with Pink Martini, and has been featured on PBS and CBS This Morning. Now, his debut album is the definitive souvenir of Noack’s award-winning, ground-breaking wilderness concert series, IN A LANDSCAPE: Classical Music in the Wild. The album features Noack performing select favorites from the classical piano canon as well as collaborations with Native American flutist James Edmund Greeley, psychedelic electronics by Dave Friedlander, a spacious concerto with the Salem Orchestra, and an arrangement of Franz Schubert’s most beautiful song with Pink Martini’s China Forbes and Thomas Lauderdale. Be transported to the secret glens and sunny meadows that inspired the composers and performers with this contemplative collection.

Der WARWOLF erhebt sich aus den tiefsten Abgründen der Hölle, um sich für die Vernachlässigung der gebrochenen Menschheit zu rächen. Er ist Peiniger und Erlöser zugleich, geschaffen von den Kräften der irdischen Natur, sowie den bösen Mächten höllischer Herrscher. Wenn das Leben jeden Glanz verloren hat, liefern die dunklen Hohepriester die perfekte Waffe für die Erschaffung der Stadt der Toten. Willkommen in NECROPOLIS! Die Kölner Formation ist keineswegs unbekannt in der Szene. Die Band entstand aus den altgedienten Mitgliedern der altbekannten WOLFEN, die viele Jahre mit hunderten von Konzerten und mehreren Tourneen die Szene aufmischte. WARWOLF konzentrieren sich auf die Fundamente des
Heavy Metal und präsentieren sich in feinster NWOBHM-Manier. Die Vorlieben der Musiker für IRON MAIDEN bleiben definitiv nicht verborgen. Im Gegenteil – diese Band lebt ihre eigenen musikalischen Wurzeln aus und zollt mit dieser Motivation gewissermaßen dem 80er Metal Tribut. Der musikalische Fokus ist ein bewusster Schritt zurück, eine Zeitreise in die frühen Jahrzehnte der Heavy Metal Music. Die Aufmerksamkeit richtet sich nicht auf Innovation und Fortschritt, sondern wird aus der Liebe zum klassischen Heavy Metal gespeist! Diese Begeisterung teilt auch Chris Boltendahl, Leadsänger der deutschen Metal-Institution GRAVE DIGGER. Man kennt sich schon länger, da WARWOLF-Sänger Andreas auf einigen der letzten GRAVE DIGGER-Alben viele Backing-Vocals eingesungen hat.

Am Ende hat es ein paar Jahre gedauert, bis die Idee ausgereift war und das Timing stimmte. Chris ist nun als Produzent am Ruder und mit diesem Team gibt es keine stilistischen Zweifel mehr! 2022 taten sich die deutschen Metal-Meister mit Metalapolis Records zusammen, um NECROPOLIS zu veröffentlichen. Das Album setzt das NWOBHM-Vermächtnis fort, wo IRON MAIDEN 1985 aufhörten, gewürzt mit WARWOLF-DNA. Dröhnende Drums, schreiende Gitarren, pumpender Bass und Gesang auf höchstem Niveau machen diesen WARWOLF zu einem wilden Tier!

Mit der Veröffentlichung von "Godslastering: Hymns of a Forlorn Peasantry" machte Hulder deutlich, dass trotz traditioneller Ausrichtung früherer Veröffentlichungen Black Metal dennoch detailreich, kreativ und frisch klingen kann. Ein triumphales Debüt, das bereits viel mehr erahnen ließ.

Auf der neuen Mini-LP "The Eternal Fanfare" erweitert Hulder die Bandbreite des Debüts. Die druckvolle Produktion eröffnet neue Dimensionen an Tiefgang und kraftvoller Resonanz, während das Songwriting eindrucksvoll den Zusammenfluss ihrer disparaten Einflüsse, wie z.B. bei den cineastisch ausladenden 'Burden of Flesh and Bone' und 'Sylvan Awakening' sowie die kalte, sturmgepeitschte Wildheit des Titeltracks präsentiert. Der Opener 'Curse From Beyond' ist ein außerweltliches, atmosphärisches Stück, das an Dead Can Dance in ihren mysteriösesten Momenten erinnert; während das nachdenkliche Lamento des Schlussstücks "A Perilous Journey" die klangliche Reise mit einer Aura melancholischer Endgültigkeit abschließt.

"The Eternal Fanfare" stellt ein starkes Zwischenspiel zwischen dem "Godslastering..."-Album und dem bevorstehenden zweiten Album dar. Aber auch für sich genommen ist es ein kraftvoller, nicht zu ignorierender Anspruch auf einen rechtmäßig zustehenden Platz in der Oberliga des Genres - erhebend, jedoch gleichermaßen gnadenlos in den Abgrund reißend.

Circles ist LÉONs drittes Studioalbum nach Apart (2020) und erscheint jetzt endlich auch als Vinyl-Version. Von PopMatters wurde es als "deutlich persönlicher als ihr bisheriges Werk" beschrieben, während American Songwriter die Platte als "fruchtbaren Schritt vorwärts in
ihrer Beziehung zu den Fans, selbst aus den entferntesten Ecken der Welt" bezeichnete.

Die von der Kritik gefeierte schwedische Künstlerin, die 2019 ihr selbstbetiteltes Debütalbum veröffentlicht, hat sich seit der Veröffentlichung ihrer Debütsingle im Jahr 2015 eine treue Fangemeinde erarbeitet. Mit jeder Veröffentlichung stellt LÉON ihr Talent für gefühlvolle, zarte und unvergessliche Popsongs unter Beweis. Neben ihrem Debüt im Spätfernsehen in der Late Late Show mit James Corden hat sie weltweit ausverkaufte Headline-Shows und Auftritte auf US-Festivals wie Coachella, Bonnaroo und Lollapalooza bestritten.

On July 22nd Mutant Joe unveils his debut release for Evar, 'Wrong Way Out', an EP that twists rap, electro and breaks out of shape with cool malice.

Since his arrival on the scene with a pair of 2019 releases for UK-based label Natural Sciences, the Brisbane-based producer's output has spanned underground trap,gabber, electro, jungle,breaks and various global club mutations, repackaged and delivered with a unique sense of impending threat and unhinged delight.

Mutant Joe repurposes mechanical SFX, stock horror movie samples, feedbacking hardware and crunching percussion to create a dark and theatrical soundworld. Building on his earlier work with underground trap artists like Freddie Dredd and TRiPPJONES, opener 'Bangin On' sees Joe revisit his love for dirty-south-indebted electro hybrids, combining fizzing bass and steely beats, plus rhymes courtesy of a close friend, Atlanta rapper Apoc Krysis. 'Static Effect' deploys similar Drexciyan influences, its overheating 808s colliding with aquatic machinery and disembodied vocal chops.

'Eyes Without a Face' presents a unique take on some classical rave combinations, with rolling, metallic jungle breaks, footwork-esque kicks and tightly layered, redlining hardware. The pace eases off on the ominous and aptly-named 'The Living Dead', a low slung, off-kilter breakbeat weapon. The EP closes with a pair of remixes: a twisted dungeon-rave tool by Ukrainian D&B specialist Limewax, and a tightly wound, detailed broken techno workout by EVAR regular Wheez-ie.

'Wrong Way Out' offers six wildly different approaches, united by Joe's mastery of gothic-horror sound design and unique ear for soundtracking end-of-night deviance. It's a cross-section of the sound Mutant Joe has so quickly made his own: unclassifiable, unrelenting and darkly euphoric.

Sounds like supergroup. Rarely have outstanding figures of such a variety of musical styles collaborated on one album to pay homage to a nearly forgotten artist, one of the few black Beatnik poets, Bob Kaufman.

"All Those Streets I Must Find Cities For" by The Plastik Beatniks is an attempt to acoustically reanimate Bob Kaufman, to return the Beat to him in a transatlantic collaboration. It is a shimmering psychedelic, at times jazzy concept album, sometimes reminiscent of Krautrock or hip hop, about a Beat-era poet who was as great as he was forgotten. It takes spoken word to a new level, as a transatlantic showcase of musical avant-gardes and a joyful "sound archaeology" of modernity, in which the tracks of the "Plastik Beatniks" meet the best voices of America.

The 12 wildly different songs and audi collages, on the transatlantically-produced album, "All the Streets I Must Find Cities For," is based on lyrics by Beat author Bob Kaufman. They were originally part of the radio play "Thank God for Beatniks," for which author Andreas Ammer ("Ammer & Einheit"), Notwist‘s Markus Acher and Micha Acher and loop maker Leo Hopfinger ("LeRoy") formed "The Plastik Beatniks." On the eastern side of the Atlantic they composed music and crafted soundscapes. On the west side of the ocean, they asked three of the most renowned singers, activists and producers in the U.S. to recite or sing Bob Kaufman's poetry.

Punk-pop icon Patti Smith immediately signed on to read Kaufman's poem "Ginsberg (For Allen)". Free jazz vocalist Moor Mother passionately performed Bob Kaufman's "War Memoir". American jazz clarinetist, composer, singer and “International Anthem” labelmate Angel Bat Dawid, a legitimate successor to Sun Ra, polyphonically read and sang such poems as "The Sun is a Negroe" and "West Coast Sound 1956" and included some clarinet solos on top. Also on the album, Bob Kaufman himself recites his previously unknown poems "Hollywood Beat", "Would You Wear My Eyes", and the "Jail Poem" "All Those Streets I Must Find Cities For". Beat chronicler Raymond Foye, who still lives at the Chelsea Hotel in New York, contributed an interview he conducted with late beatnik Allen Ginsberg about Bob Kaufman. Completing the circle was hip-hop artist Adam "DoseOne" ("13&God"), who once gave Markus Acher a well-thumbed volume of Bob Kaufman, whom he admired. He contributed some raps. Thus 12 tracks emerged, as diverse as the artists, poets and musicians who contributed to it. More than an album. An epitaph. A work for the eternity of Beat.

Regarding Bob Kaufman - of course the FBI kept a file on him – first as a sailor, then a communist, and finally a Beat poet. As one of the mainstays of the movement, he edited the literary magazine "Beatitude" in San Francisco and defined "Beatnik" to Allen Ginsberg: half rhythm, half sputnik. Bob recited his poetry loudly on the streets (when he wasn't sunk into years of silence in protest of the Vietnam War) and in the bars and bagel shops of North Beach. Once, he almost landed a pop hit ("Green Green Rocky Road"), which then made Dylan's companion Dave van Ronk famous. That Kaufman is today less known than his friend Allen Ginsberg may be because he was a black Beat poet, and also a Jew. This was not compatible with fame in the US of the 1950s. Though Kaufman had the same publisher, City Lights, as Ginsberg, he was frequently arrested and jailed, and was treated with electric shocks until he developed serious mental heath issues. There he wrote his "Jail Poems". The seventh of these lent this album its name:

"Someone whom I am is no one / Something I have done is nothing Someplace I have been is nowhere / I am not me What of the answers / I must find questions for? All these strange streets I must find cities for, Thank god for beatniks."

Alien Transistor present Alien Parade Japan, a joyous double-album compilation of groups from Japan’s indie-pop and avant-garde undergrounds, all of which feature brass or woodwind instruments as part of their line-up. Compiled by Markus Acher (Alien Transistor, The Notwist, Hochzeitskapelle) with plenty of support and help from his Spirit Fest bandmate, Saya (also of Tenniscoats), it features some familiar names – Tenniscoats, naturally, but also Zayaendo, Tori Kudo’s Maher Shalal Hash Baz – alongside lesser-known groups like Biobiopatata, Mitamurakandadan?, Kourakuen, sekifu, and Noah Lewis Mahlon’ Taits, amongst many others.

The collection of songs here rests upon a simple question, and an interesting parallel: Why do so many groups from Japan include brass and woodwind, and how closely does this echo the scene that Acher is involved with in Munich? The idea was formulated in Acher’s mind after one of his groups, Hochzeitskapelle, had been invited by Saya to Japan in 2019, to take part in the Alien Parade Japan tour. “Saya and her friends recommended a lot of music to me that I didn’t know of,” Acher recalls, “and I was surprised and excited to find so many Japanese bands who use brass and woodwind instruments.”

This approach was something Acher had been familiar with for a while, thanks to his experiences in Munich: “Until then I thought of the Munich scene, where Hochzeitskapelle come from, as being quite unique in having ex-punk and still-indie musicians form loud acoustic bands with many brass instruments and play a wild mixture of styles.” And indeed, that variety is reflected in the twenty-two songs on Alien Parade Japan, which flits from the pastoral melody of Maher Shalal Hash Baz’s “Crossin The Tama River”, through the tenderness of various sighhorns’s “people have called them flowers”, to the folksy lament of Gratin Carnival’s “Just Watching”.

Alien Parade Japan reaches further afield, too, drawing in some groups, like HOSE, Fuigo, and popo, that feature musicians like Toshihiro Koike, Masafumi Ezaki and Taku Unami, who may be better known for their experimental and improvised releases on labels like ftarri and Erstwhile. It also looks back to material recorded in the 1990s - the swinging slide guitars and sax/tuba duet of Strada’s “Swamp”, from 1998, and Compostela’s energetic, rousing “ghhgh”, from 1990. Both pieces were written by, and feature, saxophonist Kanji Nakao; Compostela’s membership also included late saxophonist Masami Shinoda, who was also part of such storied Japanese groups as Pungo, A-Musik, Orquestra Del Viento, Ché-SHIZU, and the fiery free jazz outfit, Seikatsu Kōjyō Iinkai.

Groups like Compostela help to draw some through-lines to the aesthetics of chindon’ya, a type of Japanese marching band made up of costumed street performers who advertise businesses; the music made by these bands is brash, spirited, and full of energy. Alien Parade Japan weaves all of this together – chindon’ya; jazz; indie-pop; psych-folk; big band – into one beautiful, big tapestry of gorgeous melody, sweetness, and melancholy, with plenty of creative fraying at its edges. “The collection is a very personal view of Japanese bands using brass and woodwind instruments,” Acher concludes: “it’s not a representative anthology, it’s mainly held together by my personal taste, experiences, and friendships.” But it’s also a wonderfully coherent collection of some of the most playful and elated music you’re likely to hear this year. As musician and writer David Grubbs says:

„Now it is confirmed: my favorite genre of music is Alien Parade Japan. Hopefully now people will know what I’m talking about when I gush about the unassailable brilliance of longtime favorites like Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Popo, Mitamurakandadan?, Hose, and Tenniscoats, presented here alongside others whose music I have only begun to search out. Please share in my gratitude and enjoyment of this lovingly assembled collection, one that I welcome into my home as I would a long-anticipated guest.“

Mr. K transports us to the golden era of the Loft with two disparate, but equally heavyweight classics from the Mancuso oeuvre mastered and cut loud, deep, and clear for club play.

First up is an edit of a track that embodies the spirit of early ’80s downtown New York City. Released in 1982, “Konk Party” was the band’s calling card and first hit, and represented their multicultural, no wave, hip-hop/disco hybrid perfectly, the opening sax riff itself a sly nod to Wild Sugar’s breakbeat classic “Bring It Here” that the Beastie Boys would later sample. A Loft staple — the video was even filmed there — “Konk Party” was also played widely across the influential clubs of the day, becoming an instant staple at Danceteria, Mudd Club, and other hot spots. The easy-going groove, heavy on the percussion and low-slung bass, complimented by bilingual lyrics from Angel Quiñones, has dated well, and sounds especially ready for action in this new edit from Mr. K, largely inspired by the original 12-inch’s choice Uptown Breakdown Mix. This is the first time “Konk Party” has been available on 7-inch.

The heavy percussion backing is perhaps the only similar element that links our A-side to its flip, but that only goes to show the breadth of styles that coexisted in the audio landscape of the Loft. “Hold On To Your Mind,” first released in 1970 by Northern Irish rock group Andwella, is a heavy, psychedelic tour de force that more than lives up to its cautionary, heady title. Mr. K has outdone himself with his new mix, a supercharged blend of extended percussion breaks — absent on previous 7-inch mixes — driving vocals, and fuzz guitar. For those who have never been able to track down the original single, an expensive proposition, and even for those who have, this new edit is certainly the definitive version.

In the Beginning (Vol. 2) continues the treasure trove of the early works of Declaime & Madlib, the longtime collaborators who helped usher in a new sound and style from the city of Oxnard, Calif. This collection is brimming with previously unheard tracks from this beyond-creative duo that blends hip-hop with funk, jazz, soul, and psychedelia to lay the groundwork for so many other emcees and producers.

For Declaime (a/k/a Dudley Perkins), this series serves as a way to honor his friends and the city that raised them. He shouts out names like The Almighty Metaphor (aka MED), Oh No the Disrupt, DJ Romes, Kazi, and more, who he says “created a lane for the city of Oxnard to get the recognition it deserves.” Some of them make an appearance in one form or another on this collection, too—Romes, for example, mastered the project—that compiles 10 previously lost tracks that were recorded from 1993 to ‘96.

In The Beginning (Vol. 2) is entirely produced by Madlib, who provided all the cuts as well. His instrumentals are on that raw and dusty vibe as they move freely through genres and sounds, like on standout cuts “Bandwagon,”WLIX,” and “Signs (feat. Wildchild).” Those are all highlights for Declaime, too, and they demonstrate his ability to blend his observations of the world with bravado and third-eye insights. Even as young kids just getting their feet wet in the studio, these two were firmly on their path.

How can music be violent when it's not loud? When is malice beautiful? Amidst the gloom, listening to Chalk is a restorative experience. Neophobia is a meditative saga which, despite the name, radically embraces the aesthetics and methods of post-modernity. In between identical gamelan pieces, Chalk weaves an abrasive collage of sounds and musics that touch on peace punk, musique concrete, & American primitive. Neophobia explores the schizophrenia and horror of living in the contemporary era, an odyssey with an indeterminate point of departure or return. Chalk is an amorphous musical project orchestrated by Barry Elkanick (Institute, Blue Dolphin) While this is Barry's 'solo project' he regularly invites friends, other musicians and artists to accompany him. Under 'Chalk' Barry has self-released 8 cassettes since 2015. While wildly ranging in recording techniques & approach, the cassettes have informed and culminated in the final sound present on "Neophobia" which is his first LP for Post Present Medium. Barry wrote and recorded "Neophobia" independently out of his home in Houston, TX on computers and tape machines. LP limited to 300 copies, includes poster.