Outsider is Taylor’s first album of new material since 2013’s Fun On Earth A highly personal project, Outsider’s instrumentation is almost entirely performed by Taylor, with his largely restrained vocals matching the album’s contemplative ambience. But Taylor does cut loose along the way with a foray into some hard-riffing blues-rock as well as an adrenalin charged BIG surprise retread of a classic 1965 novelty song, which is exactly the fun on earth we need in these challenging times.
f 6 We're All Just Trying To Get By [feat. KT Tunstall]
Portico Quartet / Hania Rani brings the singular Polish pianist and composer, Hania Rani, and East-London based widescreen minimalists, Portico Quartet, together for a unique collaboration.
Label mates, they met when Hania Rani performed at the Gondwana 10 event at the Roundhouse in October 2018, an event that Portico Quartet headlined and which marked Rani's UK debut ahead of the release of her breakthrough album, Esja.
The idea was simple, each artist would select and then rework one of each other's tunes. The result is a beautiful collaborative work that feel less like a pair of straight forward remixes and more like a new recording that brings the two acts distinctive sound worlds to a new place.
The first track is Hania Rani - Nest (Portico Quartet remix), which finds Portico Quartet reworking a track from Rani's most recent album Home. Portico Quartet saxophonist and keyboardist Jack Wyllie says:
'We've been fans of Hania since her first album album Esja, so it was a pleasure to get to work with her. Our remix took fragments of her voice and piano, and from that we extrapolated and composed an almost entirely new piece of music. The result was (hopefully) that her sound world became another instrument in the band…'
On the flip is Portico Quartet – With, Besides, Against (Hania Rani remix), which Rani recrafts with the addition of piano and her own unique vocals.
"Imagine being asked to make a remix for one of your favourite bands? I felt excitement and… mild panic. The idea for this one little rework took me a couple of months! I chose the track With, Beside, Against, which is a beautiful peaceful and broad piece of music with an energetic movement in the middle part. I tried to add a vocal line to it, reminding me of one of Portico's tracks called "Steepless" from their album released back in 2011. The result turned out to be satisfying. I felt it worked really nicely, matching the music in a natural way"
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DEATH, the heavy metal institution founded, realized, and helmed by legendary guitarist Chuck Schuldiner, released its final studio album The Sound of Perseverance (’98) to massive worldwide critical acclaim. The Sound of Perseverance is the masterstroke of one of metal’s true pioneers and innovators, and indeed worthy of the worship, adoration, and accolades that announced its original release (’98). The swansong of the metal legends, finally available once again in a gatefold double LP.
''The lightness of the C86 Sarah Records guitars come with the significant counterweight of more ominous Factory Records basslines.The lyrics and vocals are stark, sandpapery and sardonic, akin to Jonathan Richman, Kiwi Jr and, Bodega.'' Ducks Ltd. - EP Review - God Is In The TV
Toronto’s Ducks Ltd. (formerly Ducks Unlimited), the bright jangle-pop duo of Tom McGreevy (lead vocal, guitar, bass, keyboards) and Evan Lewis (guitar, bass, drum programming), accomplish the impossible. The pair craft songs that play to very specific inspirations without drowning underneath them—immediately evidenced on their critically acclaimed EP, Get Bleak, and sharpened on Modern Fiction, their debut LP. “The Servants, The Clean, The Chills, The Bats, Television Personalities, Felt,” Evan rattles off. “Look Blue Go Purple is one I reference a lot with our production.” Echoes of ‘80s indiepop abound, but they never overwhelm. This is not a nostalgic record, after all, nor is it a derivative one. Instead, across 10 cheery-sounding songs, Ducks Ltd. explore contemporary society in decline, examining large scale human disaster through personal turmoil (hence the title, taken from a university course called Gnosticism and Nihilism in Modern Fiction, influenced by Graham Greene novels. Bookish indie fans, look no further.)
Writing the album was intimate. Tom drafted the nucleus of a song on an unplugged electric guitar and brought it over to Evan’s apartment, where the pair sat in his bedroom, placing percussive beats from a drum machine under nascent melodies, passing a bass back and forth, adding organs and bridges where necessary. “It’s computer music trying extremely hard not to sound like computer music,” Tom jokes. Fearful that limited and expensive studio time would kneecap the project creatively, eroding their charming naivete, the pair re-recorded the album in a storage space owned by Evan’s boss. Ornamentation through collaboration followed: there’s Aaron Goldstein on Pedal Steel in the Go-Betweens’ “Cattle and Cane”-channeling interlude “Patience Wearing Thin,” Eliza Niemi on cello (“18 Cigarettes,” a song loosely inspired by a 1997 Oasis performance of “Don’t Go Away”), and backing harmonies from Carpark labelmates The Beths (on an ode to friendship at a distance, “How Lonely Are You?,” “Always There,” and on the sped-up Syd Barrett stylings of “Under The Rolling Moon.”) While in his native Australia due to covid-19, Evan worked closely with producer James Cecil (The Goon Sax, Architecture in Helsinki) on Modern Fiction’s finishing touches—at one point, in the mountains of the Macedon Ranges in Victoria, recorded a string quartet (featured on “Fit to Burst,” “Always There,” “Sullen Leering Hope,” “Twere Ever Thus,” “Grand Final Day.”)
It’s danceable, depressive fun, with some relief: in “Always There” and “Sullen Leering Hope,” Modern Fiction’s faithful heart. “There’s a tendency in my writing, because of my world view, to be very bleak.” Tom explains. “A quality I don’t always see in myself and really appreciate in others is the courage to go on.” And yet, the record manages resiliency—enough for pop fans to fall in love with.
''The lightness of the C86 Sarah Records guitars come with the significant counterweight of more ominous Factory Records basslines.The lyrics and vocals are stark, sandpapery and sardonic, akin to Jonathan Richman, Kiwi Jr and, Bodega.'' Ducks Ltd. - EP Review - God Is In The TV
Toronto’s Ducks Ltd. (formerly Ducks Unlimited), the bright jangle-pop duo of Tom McGreevy (lead vocal, guitar, bass, keyboards) and Evan Lewis (guitar, bass, drum programming), accomplish the impossible. The pair craft songs that play to very specific inspirations without drowning underneath them—immediately evidenced on their critically acclaimed EP, Get Bleak, and sharpened on Modern Fiction, their debut LP. “The Servants, The Clean, The Chills, The Bats, Television Personalities, Felt,” Evan rattles off. “Look Blue Go Purple is one I reference a lot with our production.” Echoes of ‘80s indiepop abound, but they never overwhelm. This is not a nostalgic record, after all, nor is it a derivative one. Instead, across 10 cheery-sounding songs, Ducks Ltd. explore contemporary society in decline, examining large scale human disaster through personal turmoil (hence the title, taken from a university course called Gnosticism and Nihilism in Modern Fiction, influenced by Graham Greene novels. Bookish indie fans, look no further.)
Writing the album was intimate. Tom drafted the nucleus of a song on an unplugged electric guitar and brought it over to Evan’s apartment, where the pair sat in his bedroom, placing percussive beats from a drum machine under nascent melodies, passing a bass back and forth, adding organs and bridges where necessary. “It’s computer music trying extremely hard not to sound like computer music,” Tom jokes. Fearful that limited and expensive studio time would kneecap the project creatively, eroding their charming naivete, the pair re-recorded the album in a storage space owned by Evan’s boss. Ornamentation through collaboration followed: there’s Aaron Goldstein on Pedal Steel in the Go-Betweens’ “Cattle and Cane”-channeling interlude “Patience Wearing Thin,” Eliza Niemi on cello (“18 Cigarettes,” a song loosely inspired by a 1997 Oasis performance of “Don’t Go Away”), and backing harmonies from Carpark labelmates The Beths (on an ode to friendship at a distance, “How Lonely Are You?,” “Always There,” and on the sped-up Syd Barrett stylings of “Under The Rolling Moon.”) While in his native Australia due to covid-19, Evan worked closely with producer James Cecil (The Goon Sax, Architecture in Helsinki) on Modern Fiction’s finishing touches—at one point, in the mountains of the Macedon Ranges in Victoria, recorded a string quartet (featured on “Fit to Burst,” “Always There,” “Sullen Leering Hope,” “Twere Ever Thus,” “Grand Final Day.”)
It’s danceable, depressive fun, with some relief: in “Always There” and “Sullen Leering Hope,” Modern Fiction’s faithful heart. “There’s a tendency in my writing, because of my world view, to be very bleak.” Tom explains. “A quality I don’t always see in myself and really appreciate in others is the courage to go on.” And yet, the record manages resiliency—enough for pop fans to fall in love with.
After retracing the path of Lou Reed, with her tribute show
and album ‘Run Run Run’, Emily Loizeau returns in full
force, influenced by growing concerns for the challenges
of climate change and migration, and everything we’ve
been through these past years.
Writing in the thick of lockdown and recording during
quarantine in England with John Parish (producer and
musician for PJ Harvey), Loizeau had dreamt of
collaborating and creating an album in the land of her
roots long before it came to pass.
Both guitarist Csaba Palotaï, by Loizeau’s side these last
ten years, and pianist / bassist Boris Boublil, a new
addition to the team, had worked with Parish before on a
variety of musical projects. Sacha Toorop, on the drums,
also had experience recording with Parish for Dominique
A’s ‘Auguri’ album.
“Our work on the demos with Boris, Csaba and Sacha; the
songwriting for this album; the sound I was trying to
render: everything seemed to point to a return to the
United Kingdom and to Parish’s creative force, which is
raw, sensitive and powerful all at once," Loizeau says.
"The time was right!"
The album is a diary - personal fieldnotes from a
lockdown, with an eye turned towards the outer world. A
call, a deep and powerful desire to seek out the core of our
fears and anger and find there what binds each soul to the
other.
‘Icare’ is the story of the infinite within us, our desires and
our shortcomings, how we reach for beauty, for harmony,
our creative frustrations and the Promethean madness
that may precipitate our fall.
DEATH's legendary 1987 debut Scream Bloody Gore is more than just an untouchable album - upon its release, it was positively genre-creating. Scream Bloody Gore founded the quintessential death metal sound, with more tormented riffs, screams, and leads than the world had ever imagined, and established Chuck Schuldiner's inimitable phrasing and songwriting style as the most singular voice in the burgeoning genre. Today, the album is viewed unanimously as one of the all-time most important cornerstones of death metal. As the final chapter in Relapse's comprehensive DEATH reissue series, Scream Bloody Gore will now receive the deluxe reissue treatment on a wide variety of formats including 2CD, Limited Edition 3CD, LP, Deluxe 2xLP Boxset, and cassette versions. Like the preceding DEATH reissues, the deluxe reissue of Scream Bloody Gore has been meticulously remastered from the original tapes by Alan Douches (Death, Mastodon, Nile) and includes a plethora of bonus content, including previously unreleased recordings and rehearsal demos, super-expanded packaging, and brand-new extensive liner notes from former DEATH drummer / Autopsy founder Chris Reifert, Sepultura's Max Cavalera, and original Scream Bloody Gore producer Randy Burns.
Besides being the best band name in the world,
illuminati hotties is also the moniker of the Los
Angeles-based songwriter and producer Sarah
Tudzin, who releases her new album and
Hopeless debut, ‘Let Me Do One More’.
Hotties’ previous two albums were critically
acclaimed, landing on many end of year lists, and
this one is proving to be no different. ‘Let Me Do
One More’’s pre-release single
‘MMMOOOAAAAYAYA’ (pronounced ‘MOO’) has
already generated a good amount of buzz with its
humour filled, D’Angelo-inspired music video and it
landed Pitchfork’s Best New Track upon release.
Bigger, more fun, and crazier than ever, ‘Let Me Do
One More’ features guest appearances by Buck
Meek and Alex Menne of Great Grandpa and will
scratch the unending itch of indieheads
everywhere.
For fans of Waxahatchee, Hope Along, Charly
Bliss.
LP pressed on neon yellow vinyl.
After the successful ‘Dawn of the Dead’ live soundtrack performance in 2017 and subsequent live LP release by Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin, Svart Records are proud to present another foray into the world of classic Italian horror soundtracks.
This time, Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin were invited to Finland to perform a Dario Argento two movie set, opening with a live accompaniment to Profondo Rosso and finishing the night with a striking rendition Suspiria. Recorded on May 19th 2019 and mixed and mastered by Claudio Simonetti himself in his studio in Rome, Svart are proud to release limited vinyl editions of the Live Soundtrack Experience.
These exclusive jewels come wrapped in gatefold jackets with sumptuous new artwork by the master Eric Adrian Lee, including new lobby card designs of shots from the performance as taken by the photographer Marco Manzi. Both LPs are available on limited black and even more limited red vinyl. Get closer to the creepy mystique and jarring horror of this quintessential Simonetti’s Goblin soundtrack, live and in the flesh!
After the successful ‘Dawn of the Dead’ live soundtrack performance in 2017 and subsequent live LP release by Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin, Svart Records are proud to present another foray into the world of classic Italian horror soundtracks.
This time, Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin were invited to Finland to perform a Dario Argento two movie set, opening with a live accompaniment to Profondo Rosso and finishing the night with a striking rendition Suspiria. Recorded on May 19th 2019 and mixed and mastered by Claudio Simonetti himself in his studio in Rome, Svart are proud to release limited vinyl editions of the Live Soundtrack Experience.
These exclusive jewels come wrapped in gatefold jackets with sumptuous new artwork by the master Eric Adrian Lee, including new lobby card designs of shots from the performance as taken by the photographer Marco Manzi. Both LPs are available on limited black and even more limited red vinyl. Get closer to the creepy mystique and jarring horror of this quintessential Simonetti’s Goblin soundtrack, live and in the flesh!
Aukai is a Hawaiian word meaning ‘seafarer’ or ‘traveller’. It’s also used as a proper name, and people who are called Aukai tend to have a mystical, philosophical, introspective nature. All of which makes Aukai the perfect name for the new album and project by multi-instrumentalist and composer Markus Sieber.
It’s a collection of ambient acoustic soundscapes that take the listener on an inward journey to a place of peaceful stillness and tranquil beauty. “This album has a lot to do with memories from travel,” says Sieber, “but also memories from childhood and nature. How did the river smell in summer? I wanted to create a sonic space where music guides the listener into some imaginative inner world.”
Cindy is a band built around the singing and guitar playing of Karina Gill. She became a musician only recently, having sat on the sidelines while ex-partners and friends made their stabs at it. Gill describes a chance encounter with an abandoned Squire Strat left in the basement by a previous tenant, “mummified in electrical tape with the remnants of a burrito on the head stock”, that led her to begin carefully strumming her way through simple chords and making her own songs. After one interesting self-released LP, still finding their footing, the band made the masterful and buzzed-about Free Advice, which went from a limited cassette on local SF label Paisley Shirt to vinyl pressings on Tough Love (UK) and Mt St Mtn (USA).
Cindy’s third LP arrives in quick succession, the quietly devastating 1:2. Jesse Jackson on bass, Simon Phillips on drums and Aaron Diko on keyboards weave the perfectly thin web behind Gill’s slow Velvety strums and murmured melodies. The rhythm section brings the crude flow, while the keys add subtle and surreal counterpoint to the withering world Gill depicts in her lyrics. “Songs tie together seemingly disparate things by the logic of mood,” Gill tries to explain. This isn’t dream-pop sunshine bliss; half-closed black drapes hang on the window where the narrator stares into the middle distance. “Sometimes you say you’re feeling small/You plan all day for your own funeral”, she intones in Party Store. Gill has a way of halting her phrasing that makes it feel like her thoughts are gently tumbling into the abyss. It’s this unsettling quality mixed with the hazy atmosphere that makes Cindy’s new LP 100% addicting and the perfect antidote to comfort listening. Glenn Donaldson, 2021
DEATH, the heavy metal institution founded, realized, and helmed by legendary guitarist Chuck Schuldiner, released the Individual Thought Patterns album (the follow-up to their watershed Human release) in 1993. Expectations were high following Human, but Schuldiner proved once again that he could rise to any occasion. Individual Thought Patterns further honed the forward-thinking and progressive direction birthed with Human, and included “The Philosopher”; arguably the best song to ever come from the world of extreme metal and to this date the most widely-recognized
Matière Mémoire present the new work of Phill Niblock: EXPLORATORY. One of the most beautiful and powerful works that Phill Niblock has ever offered. Phill reinvents and probes the oceans of drone music possibilities deeper than ever. This piece has been performed and recorded for over a year by many great musicians around the world, under the supervision and direction of Phill: Arditti String Quartet, David Watson, Lucy Railton, Phoenix Ensemble Basel, David Maranha, Ben Richter, David First, Andre Goncalves, and many more.
Matière Mémoire is now releasing the first two volumes by Arditti String Quartet, David Watson (Vol. 1) & Phoenix Ensemble Basel (Vol. 2).
Matière Mémoire present the new work of Phill Niblock: EXPLORATORY. One of the most beautiful and powerful works that Phill Niblock has ever offered. Phill reinvents and probes the oceans of drone music possibilities deeper than ever. This piece has been performed and recorded for over a year by many great musicians around the world, under the supervision and direction of Phill: Arditti String Quartet, David Watson, Lucy Railton, Phoenix Ensemble Basel, David Maranha, Ben Richter, David First, Andre Goncalves, and many more.
Matière Mémoire is now releasing the first two volumes by Arditti String Quartet, David Watson (Vol. 1) & Phoenix Ensemble Basel (Vol. 2).
140g clear vinyl housed in a matte 3mm cardboard sleeve. Limited to 200 copies. Fleisch welcomes Restive Plaggona into the fold with eight tracks of rhythmic tension and raw industrial elegance, replete with an atmosphere of the ominous drama that makes this Greek producer’s sound unmistakably his own. All tracks written and produced by Restive Plaggona Mastered by Alain Paul Artwork and design by Niall Greaves
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DEATH, the heavy metal institution founded, realized, and helmed by legendary guitarist Chuck Schuldiner, released the Individual Thought Patterns album (the follow-up to their watershed Human release) in 1993. Expectations were high following Human, but Schuldiner proved once again that he could rise to any occasion. Individual Thought Patterns further honed the forward-thinking and progressive direction birthed with Human, and included “The Philosopher”; arguably the best song to ever come from the world of extreme metal and to this date the most widely-recognized.
The Quest is the latest studio album from legendary progressive rock band Yes, and their first for new label home InsideOutMusic. Produced by Steve Howe, and featuring the line-up of Howe, Alan White, Geoff Downes, Jon Davison & Billy Sherwood, this stunning new record sees the band demonstrating why they are still such a revered group of musicians.
The Quest is the latest studio album from legendary progressive rock band Yes, and their first for new label home InsideOutMusic. Produced by Steve Howe, and featuring the line-up of Howe, Alan White, Geoff Downes, Jon Davison & Billy Sherwood, this stunning new record sees the band demonstrating why they are still such a revered group of musicians.
This new album 'Make a Film' by Palmbomen II can be viewed as a (faux) crash course in filmmaking plus the soundtrack to score your first movie. A beautiful double vinyl album with a step-by-step course on writing, directing and shooting your first film. To make it easy, Palmbomen included 24 tracks that set the right mood for different scenes. From Medium Melancholy to Slightly Dark.
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Ben Bertrand weaves transverse waves into otherworldly compositions. He embodies the singular motion of these melodic and harmonic forms in order to draft new sonic possibilities freed from the laws of the physical plane. Pulsating at the kernel of Ben Bertrand’s musical universe are vivid dreams generating the fabric of these tapestries. Dokkaebi is deeply familiar yet refreshingly unknown, like a comforting whisper from your subconscious. It gently drifts into perception, glistening like the sun sparkling off a glacier gliding along the edge of your vision.
Deep listening to these tonal sculptures is enriching. By opening oneself to their deliberate unfolding, you will discover new principles for sound organization far afield from common modes of operation. The gradual, rhythmic progression of his compositions are ever-shifting grains, which upon thoughtful contemplation, reveal astonishing worlds. Bertrand’s music is constructed from blueprints drafted with honest intentions aspiring to bring humans closer to a sense of wonder.
Ben Bertrand welcomes each listener to discover his music anew from their own perspectives. It is infinitely in time with your time. These are the ripples in the wake of successive revolutions of universal evolution. Dokkaebi is an example of musical expressions adapting to the contours of the human psyche through gentle reflection of multiplicity. They are sounds reshaping themselves to suit the contours of each individual’s subconscious—sonic entities projected simultaneously as molecular and holistic.
Dokkaebi is an oceanic expression softly set in motion by honest aims that echo and grow. Ben Bertrand beckons you to listen up and look in. There is great reward in this generous flow.
Ben Bertrand was accompanied by Christina Vantzou, Geoffrey Burton, Indré Jurgeleviciuté, Echo Collective: Margaret Hermant & Neil Leiter, Otto Lindholm.
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Razen are back with a second album on Blue Rot, follow up to last year's release Robot Brujo on HITD.
On Blue Rot, the band introduces a softer palette and a new quartet, as the core duo of multi-instrumentalists Brecht Ameel and Kim Delcour is augmented with new band member Berlinde Deman on Serpent and guest Thomas Bloch on Glassharmonica and crystal Baschet. Drawing inspiration from late 19th-Century Symbolist art, Blue Rot summons heartbreak and the perils of isolation in languid, hypnotic modes, laying bare the beauty of stillness, the solitary gaze at drifting clouds.
Notwithstanding its hushed and melancholy tone colours, the album provides the listener with the customary disorientation, instrument clashes and tension between stasis and slow-moving development so firmly entrenched in the sound world of Razen. These five improvised pieces offer another testimony to the uniqueness of this outfit, their esoteric ancient-modern approach and to their dedication to explore new ground on each release while managing to sound only like themselves.
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Neon Christ, the Atlanta hardcore luminaries founded by Alice in Chains singer William DuVall have announced the official release of 1984 for 17th September. This collaboration between Southern Lord Recordings/DVL Recordings was originally released on Record Store Day U.S.only, now to be made available more widely.
The package includes a full-colour gatefold sleeve and a 12-page oral history booklet featuring dozens of never-before-seen photographs. Heavyweight vinyl at 45 RPM for maximum fidelity.
Neon Christ formed in the fall of 1983 with William DuVall on guitar, Jimmy Demer on drums, Danny Lankford on bass, and Randy DuTeau on vocals. They made their debut in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day 1984. That March, they recorded their eponymous debut 10-song EP. Released in June ’84, the EP's songs exemplify the band's signature musical diversity, from DRI-style thrashers like "Parental Suppression" to the atmospheric improv of "After." A short east coast tour followed. On Labor Day 1984, the band recorded four tracks in the home studio of Nick Jameson, of Foghat fame. A few months later, "Ashes to Ashes" was included on the International Peace/War compilation released by MDC's R Radical Records, bringing the band worldwide exposure.
Neon Christ shared the stage with the luminaries of 80s hardcore including the Dead Kennedys, Circle Jerks, and Corrosion of Conformity. In 1985, the band added Shawn Devine on second guitar, as their sound and songs became slower, heavier, and more melodic. DuVall wrote an album's worth of songs in 1985, but only "Savior (Drawn In)" was ever recorded in what would be the band’s final studio session on December 26, 1985 (the master tapes were lost). Returning to the four-piece original lineup, the band played a handful of Atlanta shows and then took a break in March of 1986. A few months later, William moved to Santa Cruz, CA, to join BL’AST!, and Jimmy, Danny, and Randy formed Gardens of…William later founded jazz/punk/world improvisers No Walls. In 1999, he would form Comes With The Fall and move the band to Los Angeles, where he struck up a friendship and musical collaboration with Jerry Cantrell. William joined Alice in Chains as vocalist and guitarist in 2006. On February 2, 2008, Neon Christ reunited to headline the Ratlanta Punkfest 2.
To this day, the band members maintain a close friendship, as well as a desire to honour the legacy of the group. So when longtime fan Greg Anderson of Southern Lord contacted them about reissuing a deluxe edition of Neon Christ's 1984 sessions, "1984" quickly came to life. To remaster the original tapes using an all-analog process, William DuVall made multiple trips to Nashville to one of the few remaining studios maintaining the vintage technology to play and process the audio. Side one of "1984" features the original Neon Christ 7" EP, and side two contains the four songs of the Labor Day session
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THE PALE FOUNTAINS - LONGSHOT FOR YOUR LOVE (Marina Records) New enhanced, remastered vinyl edition of the long-deleted, much sought-after Pale Fountains compilation "Longshot For Your Love" - originally released in 1998 - covering the band's early years from 1982 to 1984. "Longshot For Your Love" is a collection of rarities, radio sessions and previously unreleased tracks by Liverpool's second best band ever - fronted by Michael Head ("Our greatest living songwriter" - NME). Seven cuts are released here for the first time ever - incl. the superb John Peel and Old Grey Whistle Test BBC Sessions ('82/'83). The album comes with enhanced artwork - in a beautiful gatefold cover plus inner sleeve feat. lots of unseen band photos and extensive linernotes by former Pale Fountains manager Patrick Moore. On Marina Records.
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The album encompasses some of Loess' most expressive and melodic yet otherworldly works to date. The opening cut blaen pulsates in odd forms yet is propelled by a micro garage beat that sounds as if alien AI might have constructed it.
On the flip side, Totems is not about experimentation for experimentation's sake. For instance, the album's midpoint track, bentalls, might be Loess' most melodious work to date, warmly catchy but firmly set in the world of Loess.
The duo has been quietly creating their style of electronic music for two decades in placing ambi- ent, dub, garage, and IDM into their aural blender. Totems is an excellent example of Loess' adeptness at genre contorting.
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• Second Drop Records follow up their first two sold out EPs with another slice of old school wizardry. Featuring label owners and long time Kniteforce artists Paul Bradley and The Lowercase, here you have a four track ep that shows their various talents to the fullest, with impeccable production and tracks that leap off the vinyl and wont sit still. Proper old skool hardcore for those in the know…
Club / DJ Support
Jay Cunning, Billy Bunter, the Fat Controller, Liquid, Hyper On Experience, Glowkid, Slipmatt, Dj Jedi, Dj Luna-C, Dj Brisk, Clayfighter, Jimni Cricket, Bustin, Sc@r, Doughboy, Saiyan, Dave Skywalker, Ponder and many others
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140g housed in a matte 3mm cardboard sleeve. Limited to 200 copies. Fleisch welcomes Restive Plaggona into the fold with eight tracks of rhythmic tension and raw industrial elegance, replete with an atmosphere of the ominous drama that makes this Greek producer’s sound unmistakably his own. All tracks written and produced by Restive Plaggona Mastered by Alain Paul Artwork and design by Niall Greaves
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With 10 years in the 'biz' firmly under his belt, Jiah Wells is poised to release the first full-length LP of his Galtier project, Pulchra Es Elementis. Whilst Galtier is arguably one of the originators of the percussive style that would eventually fall under the Hard Drum label, the heightened theatrics of his recent output have seen him channel Blade Runner-styled sonics and move further away from absolute club functionality. Whilst Galtier's output often seems to soundtrack hypothetical, off-planet words, Pulchra Es Elementis turns the focus inwards: towards Wells' own emotional constellation, his evolving spirituality and his attempts to tap into planes of existence beyond the tangible. The album's Latin title translates to 'Elements are Beautiful' and encapsulates the artist's belief that there is grace in all of life's aspects; pushing past what we deem as good or bad, minuscule or massive.
Pulchra Es Elementis begins with Crystalised Larva, a brooding opener of breathy pad synths and expansive kick drums which reverberate through the mix as if the hits originate from the bottom of a valley. There's an indistinct sense of tension on this track, in part due to a central melody, which never resolves but only descends lower in pitch. This tension turns to explorative wonder on Wilfull Saviour, where a mirage of musical ideas come in and out of focus. Although the sonic worlds Galtier explores are internal to him, Wilfull Saviour still possesses that sense of a cosmic journey we've come to expect from Wells; an ardent fan of dystopian films and literature.
Continuing this emotional odyssey, Bruised, But Not Broken sees the artist push deeper into the psychological undergrowth; its murky tonality juxtaposes crisp, Reggaeton-inspired drum patterns with a heavily compressed one-note synth line that modulates wildly - cutting through the mix like a nagging thought that won't leave your mind. Next up is U Were, U Are & What U Will Be, one of the more club-ready tracks of the LP, which gets us moving with a snarling bassline and layers upon layers of percussive hits and inflections.
At Pulchra Es Elementis' mid-point is the LP's title track, a drumless interlude where blissful, shimmering synths create a patchwork of intensities. Galtier's approach to songwriting shines through here; ignoring musical pragmatics, he opts to feel his way through his compositions without knowing where they might end up. Following on from that weightless breather, Phantasiai turns up the freneticism with its head-spinning mix of drum programming and a glitched-out synth line that yo-yos up and down octaves. Things get even more furious on the Superficie-featuring Cavernam, a hollow Hard Drum banger inspired by Eskibeat sensibilities and designed to create a sense of self-implosion.
The album's penultimate track, (U Are) Beautiful, is a tale of two halves: beginning with a moment of serenity as synthesizers swell like an ocean tide before evolving into a marching crescendo of raw energy. Rounding off the album, Shine Forth hurtles through pacey drum work and all manner of strange zaps and klaxons before giving way to a final dose of nebulous ambience.
A musical journey unlike any other 'club music' albums, Pulchra Es Elementis is an LP that demands to be consumed in one sitting. Reflecting on his place within the universe and the musical landscape, the album could be viewed as a musical exorcism which sees Galtier working through and shedding huge chunks of his ego that stuck to him out of fear of the unknown. Pulchra Es Elementis begins on an insecure, overwhelming or, even, existential note before rounding off with a related sense of vastness seen with new, more positive eyes. It's a voyage we hope you will join him on.
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On The Corner Records are proud to reveal the second instalment of their newly forged ‘Double Drop’ series, pairing together two EP’s from two different members of the OTC family, delivering a cosmically twinned, action packed slab of wax.
Label boss Pete OtC developed this series to introduce record players around the world to new artists coming through On The Corner’s region of the solar system. With Vinyl manufacture in pandemic pandemonium and questionable environmental impacts of the efficacy of Disco 12”s it seemed like a prime time to get laying the OTC family’s sonic landscapes onto highly collectible long playing EP pairings, with no represses and no compromise on the artwork, each side sporting a 20+ minute audio journey.
On the A-Side, and hot on the heels of the ‘Dub Protection & The Sportswear Mystics’ cassette, The Diabolical Liberties present their ‘Birds Of Paradise’ EP. This EP all but sold-out and follows the dynamite success of the Duo’s debut long player “High Protection & The Sportswear Mystics” and it’s follow-up hype cassette of dubbed out versions (as well as a series of self-released and long sold-out white
labels that included collaborations with Nyasha (a moniker of Nubya Garcia) and a super limited On The Corner 10” dubplate.)
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The Allergies are back with a new album – Rejoice! And the feel-good funk, hip-hop swagger, and dusty vintage loops, is everything you need right now.
Across the 13 tracks, producers Rackabeat and DJ Moneyshot dig deep into their souls, as well as their record collections, serving up a day-glo blast of super positive sampledelia that'll have you smiling from ear to ear.
Built from scratch during lockdown, each song offers up a world to lose yourself in, free from any and all dark clouds. It's their Promised Land, and everyone is welcome to bask in the sunshine.
Along for the ride is LA rap legend, Andy Cooper Ugly Duckling, soul sensation Marietta Smith, dance music heavyweight, Dynamite MC, and the unmistakable voice of hip-hop royalty, Lyrics Born.
Everyone got the memo, as career-best performances roll one after the other. And each singer, rapper, scratcher, and sampler, unites through the power of good good music.
Highlights on the LP include the swamp blues meets half-time hip-hop monster, 'Lean On You'. The Latin funk bomb, 'Move On Baby'. Soul rollers 'New Thing' and 'Are You Ready', and the show-stopping and stirring Moby-ish beat banger, 'Promised Land'.
Almost a concept album, the idea of fresh starts, strange new worlds, loss, solidarity, freedom, and the communities we find in clubs, festivals, and making and sharing music, began to come out, organically, through the song-writing process.
"In a weird way the album wrote itself," says DJ Moneyshot. "We'd be lost in our own little world of hypnotic loops as days passed, and samples jumped out of the shelves, and just started to make sense as they got chopped and layered into these tracks."
Early support for the singles, and response from fans across the globe, suggests that this, their fifth album, really could be something special. Come on in…
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Record Kicks proudly presents "Bird of Paradise", the first single taken from The Grease Traps much awaited debut album "Solid Ground" that hits the streets next November 05 on a limited edition 45 vinyl. With the heavy soul burner "More and More (and More)" on the B side, this 45 a must have for every deep funk and soul aficionados and djs. Watch out the 45 vinyl is limited to 500 copies worldwide.
Recorded between Kelly Finnigan' Transistor Sound in San Francisco and Fifty Filth Studio in Oakland and mixed by Orgone' producer Sergio Rios and Kevin O' Dea, Solid Ground is the long-awaited debut album by US very finest deep funk & soul outfit The Grease Traps. The album is set for worldwide release on November 5 on vinyl, CD and digital format. The band, based in Oakland, CA, is the latest addition to Milan-based Record Kicks roster. Active since 2002 and with a 45 released on well-respected funk/soul label, Colemine Records, now, after six years spent working on the album's recording and mixing, they are ready to present their first full-length release Solid Ground on Record Kicks, anticipated by the two killer funk singles "Bird of Paradise" and "More and More (and More)" on limited edition 45 vinyl.
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House anthem Slo Moshun “Bells Of NY” is one of the most iconic gems in the Network catalogue and gets a timely reissue.
The lovingly remastered 12” includes the epic nearly 9 minutes long “House To House Mix” which started the fuss in the first place, plus the much loved by DJs “Xen Mantra Beefy Bells Mix” which like fine wine seems to have matured with age.
It’s almost impossible to explain the hype that exploded when the first copies of this landed in 1993. Network pressed a limited run of the first copies on the Dansa label with
bogus New York producer credits in an attempt to create mystique.
The combination of that relentless uptempo house piano and the break where everythIng slows down underneath a hip hop sample hypnotic proved irresistible, and saturation radio plays from KISS in London turned the track into an instant anthem right away.
The the boss of a rival label boasted they had sourced the track and paid “a fortune” to licence it for UK release. He was making it up as a stampede by labels to locate and release the track began.
Network sensed an opportunity to create major mischief and create even more of a buzz. New York garage producer and Network ally Andrew Komis was enlisted and happily donned the bogus ID of a new kid on the block NYC producer to do phone interviews with UK dance music publications.
His pretend story that Bells Of NY was his homage to the UK House scene laced with Big Apple Hip-Hop was eagerly printed by the magazines.
They were left red faced when the truth emerged that former Nexus 21 and Altern 8 member Mark Archer and his new music making partner Danny Taurus had in fact come up with the gem in homely Staffordshire and not glamorous New York for Network.
All the PR spin in the World would not matter a not if the record didn’t live up to the hype.
Bells Of N.Y did and still does.
It gave Network a first chart hit on their six6 label and more importantly is an all time House Music Classic.
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Already renowned for a ball-tearing live show, The Sniffers
made their international debut as one of the hottest tipped
acts at The Great Escape in 2018. Soon afterwards, they
signed deals with both Rough Trade Records and ATO
Records, made a massively hyped appearance at SXSW,
and finally released their self-titled debut album in 2019,
landing them an ARIA (Australian Recording Industry
Association) Award for Best Rock Album, capping off a wild
year for the lunatic, likeable punks.
Late in 2020, Amyl and The Sniffers went into the studio with
producer Dan Luscombe to record their sophomore album,
‘Comfort To Me’. Written over a long year of lockdown, the
album was influenced by and expanded on a heavier pool of
references - old-school rock’n’roll (AC/DC, Rose Tattoo,
Motörhead and Wendy O Williams), modern hardcore
(Warthog and Power Trip) and the steady homeland heroes
(Coloured Balls and Cosmic Psychos).
Lyrically, the album was influenced by Taylor’s rap idols and
countless garage bands and, in her words, “I had all this
energy inside of me and nowhere to put it, because I couldn’t
perform, and it had a hectic effect on my brain. My brain
evolved and warped and my way of thinking about the world
completely changed.”
Seventeen songs were recorded in the ‘Comfort To Me’
sessions and the top thirteen made the cut. They were mixed
long distance by Nick Launay (Nick Cave, IDLES, Yeah Yeah
Yeahs) and mastered by Bernie Grundman (Michael
Jackson, Prince, Dr Dre).
‘Comfort To Me’ demonstrates the same irrepressible smarts,
integrity and fearless candour as their debut but, as you’d
expect of any young band five years on, their sound has
evolved - in Amy’s words, it’s “raw self-expression, defiant
energy and unapologetic vulnerability.”
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The popular #Ibiza compilation series returns on July 2nd with its fifth installment, #Ibiza 2021. The album brings together tracks and remixes from some of the world’s biggest names in dance music, including Claptone, Chicane, Sammy Porter, David Morales, Secondcity and Mark Knight. The collection also presents the hottest breakout tracks set to grace the island this year, including Gettoblaster’s recent Beatport number 1 ‘H O U S E’, and Jodie Harsh’s current UK radio hit ‘My House’. Radio promo: Jodie Harsh - My House: Playlisted on BBC Radio 1 (B-List) / No.1 in UK Upfront Club Chart. Other promo: Claptone - Zero: One of the biggest DJ names in Ibiza with his Masquerade parties at Pacha, Claptone moves up to No.41 in this year’s Top 100 DJ’s global rank. Zero is the first single from his upcoming third album.
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Events currently taking place throughout the world only serve to stoke a fire under the likes of Pillow Queens, who find themselves continually inspired by a Dublin that is no stranger to fighting social injustice. Street artists, fashion designers, musicians, film makers and more comprise a scene which routinely champions queerness and marginalized groups, and engages with and activates young people in response to the likes of the city’s ongoing housing and mental health crises. Pillow Queens’ songs of togetherness and unity ring out louder than ever before.
In their short lifespan as a band they've released two demo EPs, performed on a successful string of UK & Irish dates & festival appearances, had playlisting from BBC 6 Music, and found themselves opening for the likes of American Football and Pussy Riot, as well as stadium performances opening for IDLES and Future Islands.
With all this under their belt, the band began working with Mercury Prize nominated producer Tommy McLaughlin for their single 'Gay Girls' – which received a nomination for the RTE Choice Music Prize song of the year, as well as International pickup from NPR’s World Cafe and KEXP. The song also found its way into the heart of actor Cillian Murphy and his BBC6 mixtape show.
2019 saw Pillow Queens venture into mainland Europe, as they lit up the Eurosonic festival and completed a string of tour dates opening for Soak. The tour was a messy and joyous affair captured beautifully in the DIY video for the bands summer single 'HowDoILook'.
In Waiting is Pillow Queens’ debut album, the result of four years of brotherly love in a sisterly unit from Ireland’s most urgent, yearning, rock band. Crafted from our lives, and honed in a studio in rural Donegal in the northwest of Ireland, this is a record by queens in waiting and kings in the making. It’s an album about love; self-love, queer love, the anxiety-inducing fault lines of romantic love, and the love for a city and a country that simultaneously has your back and is on your back.
UK multi-instrumentalist and story-teller Mara Simpson's new album In This Place will be released on September 24th, 2021. A heady blend of alt-folk, analogue synth and classical composition, In This Place is a tale of quiet rebellion, and taking back control. Fittingly, the new album marks the start of another new journey for Mara. In This Place will be the first record to be released on Downfield Records, a non-profit imprint set up by Simpson, placing artists at it’s centre. “I want to try and promote transparency and equality, assist other artists to get public funding and to ‘pay’ forward the time and resources I’ve benefited from,” she says. The label’s mission is to see musicians paid fairly and release records through a creative and joyous process.
Whilst the struggles of 2020 will go down in history, for Mara it was 2019 that was the tough one. A year spent consumed by worry, whilst in and out of hospital with her one year old daughter, had left Mara feeling like she was playing a constant game of catch up with a world that wouldn’t slow down. With songs ready to be recorded for her new album, she headed into the studio. “I stepped into the studio not needing my hand held, just my voice heard” explains Mara, who quickly came to the realisation that she was working in a toxic environment. Enough was enough
It was whilst waiting for a train that she had the sudden realisation that the album she was recording would never see the light of day. Struck by an overwhelming feeling of failure, Mara began to ruminate on the time and money she had wasted but then something clicked. “Perhaps it’s something about train stations, the coming and the goings, that allows a stagnating frame of mind the grace and space to clear” she says. “The funny thing is, upon realising failure, the despair I’d been feeling was now replaced with something else...Relief”.
Feeling re-energised, Mara called her dream producer Ellie Mason, of Voka Gentle, and together the pair began working on a new record. “I’ve been more hands-on with this album than I’ve ever been, taking a much more active role in production. Throughout the whole process Ellie has heard my voice, and been open to any possibility” explains Mara. “We’ve stumbled across golden moments, recording four part harmonies in Brighton’s oldest church, using every drum there is in Brighton Electric, layering New Zealand bird song with tape delayed piano, all thanks to her nurture, playfulness and kindness” she continues.
Album opener ‘Serena’, named after the apartment building in Brighton where Mara’s daughter was born, is based on the experience of becoming a mother and the responsibility of making important healthcare decisions. “How will I know how to love you” she sings over undulating synths and sparse piano chords. Title-track ‘In This Place’ is about the confrontation between mother and new-born child. The ‘sizing-up’ of one another as they embark on a new journey together. “When I left home to travel around the world and was so worried about breaking my Mum’s heart,” says Mara. “I just remember her saying that your children are never yours to keep. This is a song about the rawest of loves, and the fact that however much we love someone, they are never ours, and the beauty in that.”
In addition to the experience of motherhood, the songs on In This Place take inspiration from a wide range of places, including Mara’s ‘second home’ New Zealand. ‘Christchurch’, written in response to the Christchurch Mosque shootings in 2019, layers New Zealand birdsong on top of swirling piano and moving choral vocals. ‘Fault Lines’ was inspired by The Waitangi treaty. Signed in 1840 in New Zealand by the British Crown and Maori chiefs. The British understood that the Maori were signing over land that the British could now govern and effectively ‘own’, however to the Maori people it is impossible to own land, in the same way that you can’t ‘own’ air. “We live and die, the land remains and we are just it’s keepers for the very short time we are here. This song is about us not owning this earth - how can we? We are only the guardians of it while we are here” says Mara.
Backed by a band of accomplished musicians (Jools Owen (Bears Den) on drums, James Smith (Anaïs Mitchell) on banjo, Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres on clarinet and strings by Poppy Ackroyd) on In This Place, Mara sounds the most confident she’s ever sounded. With her new material, Mara Simpson hopes to promote a gentle, yet radical shift toward kindness and it’s this warmth that can be both heard and felt across her new record.
Forming off the back of contemporary jazz outfit Zeitgeist, Voronoi take the power and rhythmic complexity of heavier prog-metal and fuse it with the sophistication of classical music and jazz. A passion for science fiction thematically drives the band’s heaving and
chopping style, whereas artists such as Autechre, Car Bomb, Tigran Hamasyan and J.S. Bach help shape the rigid, experimental structure of The Last Three Seconds.
“Compositionally and stylistically we have moved into much heavier territory than our contemporary jazz foundations,” says Keyboardist Aleks Podraza. “It really shows. If you were to put this record against the first tunes we played together as Zeitgeist, it would be like introducing a much capable Thelonious Monk to a less hectic Dillinger Escape Plan.”
As the first single off The Last Three Seconds, Gamma Signals serves as a toe in the water for the depth of things to come. The full-bodied riffwork captures the stop-start format of prog-metal heavyweights without being explicitly metal. Yet beyond this, glitchy, experimental electronics cut through the composition like a knife. The final product is something that captures the magic of the cosmos – a place where worlds orbit worlds, genres orbit genres. Each element remains different and unique, but still intrinsically tied to the other.
“Gamma Signals is about pulsars and how when Jocelyn Bell-Burnell first discovered them, the media thought they were aliens trying to contact us,” says Podraza. “Broadly, this song is about my love for and fascination with cosmology as a whole. That's a theme that runs through the veins of most of the album.”
Those following Vorono’s career will need little convincing on the quality of The Last Three Seconds. Collectively, band members have performed and recorded with groups like The Cinematic Orchestra, KOYO, NJYO, Jenova Collective, The Often Herd, Mik Artistik’s Ego Trip, Wandering Monster and more. This in turn has garnered sizable attention at festivals such as Leeds and Reading Festival, Download Festival, Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club - not to mention Voronoi’s thrashing set at 2019’s ArcTanGent.
The cool and collected chaos of The Last Three Seconds serves as a snapshot of this live energy, as passion and fury hum at the end of every complex composition. From start to finish, the record is nothing less than executed perfectly, undoubtedly appealing to even the most seasoned of prog-lovers
Nearing 100,000 UK sales for their breakthrough album ‘The Race
For Space’, indie phenomenon Public Service Broadcasting return
with their fourth album, ‘Bright Magic’, the follow up to 2017’s ‘Every
Valley’, which entered the chart at Number 4 on release. Inspired by the Rory McLean book ‘Berlin: Imagine A City’ and named
after a collection of short stories by Alfred Döblin, the record
celebrates one of the greatest cultural capitals of the world, Berlin. Written and recorded entirely at Hansa Studios in Berlin, the album is
split into three parts - Building A City / Building A Myth / Bright Magic
– and Side B of the album is a homage to Side B of David Bowie’s
‘Low’. Side A of the record includes the singles ‘People, Let’s Dance’
and ‘Blue Heaven’. The album features guest appearances from Berlin legend Blixa
Bargeld (The Bad Seeds, Einsturzende Neubauten), Andreya
Casablanca of Berlin band Gurr and Berlin Based artist EERA. Hansa is world renowned as the studio responsible for classic albums
including ‘Low’ and ‘Heroes’ by David Bowie, ‘The Idiot‘ and ‘Lust For
Life’ by Iggy Pop and Depeche Mode’s third, fourth and fifth albums
‘Construction Time Again’, ‘Some Great Reward’ and ‘Black
Celebration’. The artwork is designed by Berlin artist Torsten Posselt, who has a
long relationship with the Erased Tapes label, designing art for the
likes of Nils Frahm, Olafur Arnalds and Rival Consoles, among
others.
Global reggae stars SOJA are back with their first album in 4 years.
‘Beauty In The Silence’ features special guests Rebelution, UB40, Dirty
Heads, Slightly Stoopid, Collie Buddz and more. SOJA deliberately took their time in creating ‘Beauty In The Silence’ as
they explored new sonic terrain, recording in such iconic spots as
Miami’s Circle House Studios and Dave Matthews Band’s Haunted
Hollow, and teaming up with producers like Niko Marzouca (Bob Marley,
Pharrell, Rick Ross, A$AP Rocky), Mariano Aponte and Johnny Cosmic.
The band eventually phased into working remotely as stay-at-home
orders set in across the country and, in that process, lead guitarist
Trevor Young (formerly SOJA’s guitar tech) took on a much greater role
in the band’s creative direction, co-producing alongside Hemphill and
carefully shaping the album’s hypnotic sound. For more than two decades, SOJA have elated audiences across the
globe with their fresh yet timeless take on roots reggae, a sound born
from their shared passion for making music that transports and inspires.
The band was originally formed by a group of friends while still in middle
school and they have since built a massive, dedicated global fanbase. In
the years following, SOJA have headlined shows in over 30 countries
around the world, received multiple GRAMMY nominations and
generated 7 million social media fans and more than 1 billion streams;
attracting an international fanbase along the way, with caravans of
diehards following them from city to city. “Charismatic bandleader Jacob Hemphill writes SOJA’s lyrics as an
attempt to find a path to unity in the world.” - NPR
“SOJA has cultivated a dedicated global fanbase with their socially
conscious lyrics, catchy sound and a ceaseless touring schedule.” - MTV
“Contemporary reggae with a forthright social conscience.” - Billboard
“Over the course of their near-20-year career, SOJA has amassed a
loyal following for their social justice-minded brand of roots reggae.” - USA Today