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It is to the detriment of our understanding of musicality that we mostly measure it by the capacity to produce, and much less by the capacity to receive some sort of acoustic information or event. The virtuosity of listening, of understanding the sonic situation and its potential, is, however, that which defines one's capacity to interact – with other musicians, with the audience, and with the environment. This could also be taken to mean that an ethical act is implied in the situation of listening – the decision to relate, to be attentive to, to actively position oneself in relation to what is heard.

Rarely is this capacity so thoroughly pronounced and ethically conscious as in the case of Manja Ristić, the Belgrade-born and Royal Academy of Music-schooled musician, composer, sound and multimedia artist (the list could go on), who currently lives on the island of Korčula in the Croatian part of the Adriatic. Ristić’s recent, field recording-based work, is indeed all about attentiveness, most of all towards the environment and the acoustic traces of the endangered ecological layers of her old-new Mediterranean surroundings. With that in mind, it is indeed no wonder that her newest album draws from Milton’s Paradise Lost, which could easily be the anti-slogan of the endangered Croatian coast, eaten up by the pressures of touristification and the usurpation and privatization of once common space. More precisely, the album is inspired by one of the fifty Gustave Doré illustrations of Milton’s epic, Him, fast sleeping, soon he found, In labyrinth of many a round, self-rolled, from which it draws its title. The verses and the scene are from Book IX, and depict the moment Satan inhabits the Serpent, the beginning of his subversion of God’s autocratic rule, as some interpretations would have it.

For Ristić, the actual Paradise she introduces us to is in a state of imbalance – the idyllic soundscapes of her island surroundings overlain with sonic anxiety, such as on the album’s first track, The Flies, with its unrelenting, nervous buzzing evoking the ominous Biblical entity of Beelzebub, or The Lord of the Flies. The next track, Whales, which beautifully utilizes archival whale recordings, could also be taken to establish an intertextual relation to Milton through Melville, whose Moby Dick was strongly influenced by Paradise Lost. The middle track of the album, dedicated to the Croatian-American painter and muralist Maksimilijan Vanka, uses to great, unsettling effect what to my ears sounds like a buried hydrophone, a technique often employed by Ristić in her work, giving us a rough, grinding impression of water beating the pebbles over a high-pitched drone. But perhaps the most ominous, pessimistic image is painted in The Flag Pole, in which the symbol of revolutionary victory (I’m thinking of the Yugoslav modernist Tin Ujević and his proto-avant-garde sonnet Farewell from 1914) becomes a source of terrifying sonic unease, as we are listening to the incessant sound of its rope hitting the metal pole. However, with Dlana Night comes relief – the drones become airier, calmer; there is a distant notion of people, dogs, everyday life, all shrouded in the calming sound of the crickets on the island of Silba. Ristić, ultimately, serves us some hope on this wonderful new album, showing us that something has been lost, but that something can also be gained through the thoughtful attention with which she listens to the world around her.

„My recording techniques all boil down to one thing – intuition. I do not use expensive or highly sensitive equipment nor do I employ special techniques. On the contrary, I believe that the information regarding a space or an object can be recorded well enough on an average device. My personal guideline when recording sound is the positioning of myself as the listening medium, active and with the intention of establishing a connection that is sometimes intellectual, sometimes conceptual, and sometimes phenomenological.” - Manja Ristić, in an interview for Kulturpunkt.hr

A Ride is the new dark alt-country concept album on the road by Phill Reynolds, to be released on June 17th, 2022 by Bronson Recordings; Like all the best concept albums, A Ride takes you on a journey. This one concerns the last three days of an American runaway’s life. Part road-trip, part engrossing mystery, part search for redemption, it’s the fictional tale of a troubled man whose past comes back to haunt him. Via eleven intimate, chronologically-sequenced songs, we travel with him. There are epiphanies and dream sequences, drunken dive-bar nights and chats with Jesus and Lucifer. As the narrator battles with his dark side, it is ultimately we, the listeners, who must weigh-up and flesh-out his story. According to its creator Phill Reynolds, AKA Italian alt-country singer-songwriter Silva Martino Cantele, the key to The Ride’s mystery might lie within its fifth song, A Clockwork Dream. “That’s where we discover that, because of some kind of courtroom trial, the narrator has lost someone who was very important to him”, Reynolds explains. “But we never find out her name or her relationship to the main character. Is she a blood relative? Is she his wife or someone else?”. The origins of A Ride go back to 2015. On tour in the US, Reynolds took in the shifting landscapes, the people he met and their stories. All of this fed into the album he recorded at the all-analogue TUP Studio in Brescia, near Milan. Reynolds played almost all of the instruments himself and co-produced A Ride with long-term collaborator Bruno Barcella. If A Clockwork Dream features a full band arrangement – “I think of it as the kind of thing Neil Young & Crazy Horse might do on a Sunday morning”, says Reynolds – other songs are sparer, more intimate. Banjo, Fender Rhodes, harmonica and glistening slide guitar all feature as Reynolds delivers haunting confessionals such as Run, Run Away and The Fault Is Mine, songs likely to appeal to fans of artists such as Damien Jurado, Strand Of Oaks or For Emma, Forever Ago-era Bon Iver. Intricate, rapid-fire fingerpicking on the first single This Isn’t Me and The Call of The Dark demonstrates Reynolds’ dexterity, while his voice is a rich, fully-lived in instrument seasoned with the salt of experience,and strengthened by the 120 or so gigs a year he used to do before COVID took his one-man show off the road. Long an inhabitant of picturesque Italian towns in the Vicenza province, Phill Reynolds was born in Marostica and currently lives in Zugliano. He was only five when The Beach Boys’ Barbara Ann worked its magic upon him via the radio. Later a fan of ‘90s Californian punk bands, Reynolds was writing and performing in his own post-hardcore bands by 13, but didn’t make it to the nearest big city, Milan, until he was 19. Bands still matter deeply to him. But his love for folk music has deepened over the last decade or so, hence his solo act alter-ego. Where did the name Phill Reynolds come from? “Everybody asks me this,” he smiles. “Especially in the UK. The truth is I needed an alternative name for a gig I was doing, and at the time I was in love with the music of Phil Ochs and Malvina Reynolds. Malvina Ochs didn’t sound too good to me, so I became Phill Reynolds, and I like that, because it sounds like a normal person”. The esteemed Italian label Bronson Recordings will release his fourth solo album A Ride on June 17th, 2022, on CD, vinyl and digital. A Ride is the most ambitious and fully-realised Phill Reynolds album to date. He was assisted by Stefano Pilia (lead guitar on Dive Bar Oblivion), IOSONOUNCANE (backing vocals, synth, bass and field recordings on World On Fire), and C+C=Maxigross (bass, drums and backing vocals on In The Dark). The record’s story is a dark one, but not one without hope. “Every end is a new beginning”, says Reynolds. “One of the main themes here is that life can be a sort of trap unless you recognise your own demons and try to deal with him. So we must be prepared and try to live well”.

Dewa Alit, Bali’s master of contemporary Gamelan composition, returns to Black Truffle with Chasing the Phantom, presenting two recent works played by the composer’s Gamelan Salukat, a large ensemble that performs on instruments specially built to his designs, using a unique tuning system that combines notes from two traditional Balinese Gamelan scales. Alit explains that the ensemble’s name suggests “a place to fuse creative ideas to generate new, innovative works” and both compositions demonstrate the composer’s ability to wring stunning new possibilities from variations on the traditional Gamelan ensemble. While using familiar elements of Balinese Gamelan music, such as unison scalar melodies and stop-start dynamics, Alit’s music is overflowing with harmonic, rhythmic, and timbral inventions, the latter often facilitated by unorthodox playing techniques.

“Ngejuk Memedi”, an English translation of which gives the LP its title, results from Alit’s reflection on the complex relationship between tradition and modernity in Balinese culture, particularly in the way that belief in the phantoms or spirits known as ‘memedi’ are shared through social media using digital technologies. Embodying this uncanny co-existence, the opening passages of the piece are at once immediately recognisable in their use of the metallophones of the Gamelan ensemble and strikingly reminiscent of electronics in their timbre and movement. At points, what we hear seems to have been fragmented with digital tools, or even to originate in some incessantly glitching DX7. Short melodic figures loop irregularly, with the ensemble splintering into polyrhythmic shards before unexpectedly recombining for intricate unison passages. After several minutes of this manically tinkling metallic sound world, the metallophones are joined by drums for a meditative passage of lower dynamics, as the uniformly high pitch range explored in the opening sections gradually opens up to include resonant low gong hits. Recovering some of the manic energy of the opening, but now enhanced with the full range of percussion, the piece weaves through a series of tempo changes to a stunning passage of rapid-fire melodies and ringing chords that sweep across the metallophones, their unorthodox tuning creating complex clouds of wavering harmonies.

“Likad”, written during Covid-19 lockdowns, channels anxiety and uncertainty into musical form, resulting in a piece that, even by Alit’s standards, is stunning in its complexity and the virtuosity it demands of Gamelan Salukat. Its opening section is perhaps most remarkable for its mastery of texture, with rapid transitions between dry, muted strikes and metallic shimmers calling to mind the use of filters in electronic music. At points, the complex irregular repetitions of short melodic patterns, where the music seems to get stuck or be suddenly interrupted by a skip, recall the mad sampler works of Alvin Curran or the skittering surface of prime period Oval more than anything familiar from acoustic percussion music. Moving through a dizzying series of twists and turns, the piece ends with a majestic sequence of chords possessing an almost hieratic power. A major statement from a radical contemporary composer, one cannot help but agree with Alit when he sees Chasing the Phantom as an answer to the “question of the future of Gamelan music”.

Bloodywood from India are the hottest new band in the Metal-genre. Millions of followers online and a growing fanbase! The self-released debut “Rakshak” finally released as a proper vinyl edition!

Formed in 2016 as a fun band, Bloodywood from New Delhi, India are the hottest metal band right now! They bring everything you need in 2022: aggression, global ideas, visionary views, politically correct behavior and standing up for minorities from all walks of life. The band around the three heads Jayant Bhadula, Karan Katijar and Raoul Kerr managed to break into the international charts on their own and gathered an incomparable fan following. What started out six years ago with Bollywood and Linkin Park-covers has grown to a size that's expanding by the day. Bloodywood fans can now be found all over the world, millions of people have heard their songs and watched their videos, the wave can no longer be stopped. Now the debut “Rakshak”, which the band self-released in early 2022, is finally out on vinyl! In the summer of 2022 they will storm the European festivals, make their point in the USA in September and return to play their long-awaited clubtour through Europe, which was postponed due to the pandemic, at the beginning of 2023. Tickets are already running low. In a year at the latest everyone will know who Bloodywood is. Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine) already knows it and has drawn his fans' attention to the Indian metallers with a tweet: "Rocking!" he calls the Indian sensation. Among other things, the musicians are involved in animal welfare and social projects and use traditional Indian instruments such as the tabla, dhol or bamboo flute. They mix it with rough thrash metal, urban rap vocals (English/Hindi/Punjabi) and rock-hard grooves. That creates a lot of uproar, at times sounds like open street fighting and, despite the regional references, has an absolutely international level. Especially since moderate sounds also find their place on “Rakshak” (Hindi for “protector”), as can be heard from the tracks 'Zanjeero Se' and 'Jee Veerey'. Bloodywood definitely deliver Linkin Park-standards here and even open themselves up to target groups that are less metal-savvy. The majority of this album rages like an unleashed tropical storm ('Dana-Dan', 'Chakh Le') is decked out with an impressively rabid force and hardly allows the listener any breaks. This mix is what makes it so successful: the album entered the Billboard charts, making them the first Indian metal band to do so.“Rakshak“ was also successful on Bandcamp, where it topped the platform's album sales upon release and was ranked as the 22nd best-selling new release of all time (as of March 2022) and the 3rd best-selling metal release. Rock for a rebellion that will be unstoppable!

Bloodywood from India are the hottest new band in the Metal-genre. Millions of followers online and a growing fanbase! The self-released debut “Rakshak” finally released as a proper vinyl edition!

Formed in 2016 as a fun band, Bloodywood from New Delhi, India are the hottest metal band right now! They bring everything you need in 2022: aggression, global ideas, visionary views, politically correct behavior and standing up for minorities from all walks of life. The band around the three heads Jayant Bhadula, Karan Katijar and Raoul Kerr managed to break into the international charts on their own and gathered an incomparable fan following. What started out six years ago with Bollywood and Linkin Park-covers has grown to a size that's expanding by the day. Bloodywood fans can now be found all over the world, millions of people have heard their songs and watched their videos, the wave can no longer be stopped. Now the debut “Rakshak”, which the band self-released in early 2022, is finally out on vinyl! In the summer of 2022 they will storm the European festivals, make their point in the USA in September and return to play their long-awaited clubtour through Europe, which was postponed due to the pandemic, at the beginning of 2023. Tickets are already running low. In a year at the latest everyone will know who Bloodywood is. Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine) already knows it and has drawn his fans' attention to the Indian metallers with a tweet: "Rocking!" he calls the Indian sensation. Among other things, the musicians are involved in animal welfare and social projects and use traditional Indian instruments such as the tabla, dhol or bamboo flute. They mix it with rough thrash metal, urban rap vocals (English/Hindi/Punjabi) and rock-hard grooves. That creates a lot of uproar, at times sounds like open street fighting and, despite the regional references, has an absolutely international level. Especially since moderate sounds also find their place on “Rakshak” (Hindi for “protector”), as can be heard from the tracks 'Zanjeero Se' and 'Jee Veerey'. Bloodywood definitely deliver Linkin Park-standards here and even open themselves up to target groups that are less metal-savvy. The majority of this album rages like an unleashed tropical storm ('Dana-Dan', 'Chakh Le') is decked out with an impressively rabid force and hardly allows the listener any breaks. This mix is what makes it so successful: the album entered the Billboard charts, making them the first Indian metal band to do so.“Rakshak“ was also successful on Bandcamp, where it topped the platform's album sales upon release and was ranked as the 22nd best-selling new release of all time (as of March 2022) and the 3rd best-selling metal release. Rock for a rebellion that will be unstoppable!

Nearly 20 years ago, Karl Sanders – the founder, principal songwriter, and driving creative force behind the exotic, devastatingly heavy stylings of American extreme death metal icons Nile – forayed from his metallic leanings to serve listeners with a transfixing dose of the cinematic, meditative, world music-driven Saurian Meditation (2004). The album explores highly original compositions of hypnotizing, primarily Middle Eastern inspired music, featuring the unique inclusion of instruments such as the balagma saz (Turkish lute) and Glissentar, often blended with dark electronic ambience and deft electric guitar work. Saurian Meditation marked the beginning of Sanders’ Saurian journey, being the first of now three Saurian releases. From the haunting first notes of “Awaiting the Vultures”, which dreamily conjures images of traversing through the dark, mysterious halls of an abandoned ancient temple, to the slithering, percussion-driven pulses and searing electric solos on the ominous album closer “Beckon the Sick Winds of Pestilence” – Saurian Meditation provides a diverse escape for both fans of Nile and the outer realms beyond. Thematically centered around its acoustically-driven, spellbinding seventh track, “Dreaming Through the Eyes of Serpents”, the album ebbs and flows from a higher, rhythmic consciousness to a darker, hypnotic inner balance, achieving a Reptilian Theta State of deep meditation. Saurian Meditation launches the multi-dimensional Saurian universe – witness the very first, transcendental solo output by Karl Sanders, available for the very first time on vinyl, as well as in CD and digital formats, via Napalm Records!

Cult South Asian New Wave! Naya Beat is proud to announce its second release, Tere Liye, the highly sought after and impossible to find New Wave album by the unsung pioneers of the British Asian music scene, Pinky Ann Rihal. Remastered for vinyl by multi Grammy-nominated Frank Merritt at The Carvery and available for the first time since its limited 1985 release, the album is as fresh and relevant today as it was 37 years ago.

South Asian New Wave. Four words that you will rarely see together. Pinky Ann Rihal were the brainchild of two London-based Punjabi immigrants and progressive rock musicians – Harry Rihal and Jati Sodhi – at a time in the U.K. when progressive rock musicians were almost exclusively white and Punjabi musicians were almost exclusively making Bhangra. Encouraged by their friend and disco pioneer Biddu (yes, that Biddu!), they cut ‘Tere Liye’ – a one-off Hindi-language New Wave album with producer John Hamilton and vocalists Pinky Rihal (married to Harry) and Anne Barrett (married to John). It is an album that exemplifies the cultural collaboration and musical synthesis of the time. Complementing the rich, cosmic and layered synths and drum programming of Hamilton and the distorted guitars of Rihal and Sodhi are the Hindi lyrics of vocalists Pinky and Anne. The result is an amazing one-of-a-kind South Asian New Wave album. Nothing like it has come out before or since.

Stymied on its original release by bungled distribution, poor marketing and plenty of bad luck, this incredible album seemed destined to be lost to history. With Asian electronic music in the U.K. seeing a rebirth and capturing imaginations around the world,‘Tere Liye’ can finally take its rightful place as one of the pioneering albums of the Asian underground.

This is Naya Beat’s second release in a series of reissues, reworks and remixes, and compilations dedicated to uncovering electronic and dance music from the overlooked ‘80s and ‘90s South Asian music scene. Their first release Naya Beat Volume 1: South Asian Dance and Electronic Music 1983-1992 was named by the Vinyl Factory as the Number 1 reissue of 2021.

John Moreland doesn’t have the answers, and he’s not sure anyone does. But he’s still curious, basking in the comfort of a question, and along the way, those of us listening feel moved to ask our own. “I don’t ever want to sound like I have answers, because I don’t,” he says. “These songs are all questions. Everything I write is just trying to figure stuff out.” Moreland is discussing his new album Birds in the Ceiling, a nine-song collection that offers the most comprehensive insight into the thoughts and sounds swimming around in his head to date. A compelling blend of acoustic folk and avant-garde pop playfulness, Birds in the Ceiling lives confidently in a space of its own, enriched by tradition but never encumbered by it. The songwriting that has stunned fans and critics alike since 2015’s High on Tulsa Heat remains potent, while the sonic evolution that unfolds on the record feels like a natural expansion of 2020’s acclaimed LP5. The New Yorker, Pitchfork, Fresh Air, Paste, GQ, and others have embraced Moreland’s meditative songs, while performances on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, CBS This Morning, NPR Tiny Desk Concert, and more have introduced Moreland to millions. And yet, while the Tulsa-based Moreland is grateful for the respect and musical conversation he’s now having with people around the world, he is also more focused on the idea of just talking to one person––or even himself. “Through the years, I’ve felt like I’m increasingly talking to myself in my songs, more and more,” he says. “Maybe in the past, I wasn’t aware of it, but now, I am. I think doing that has helped me be less hard on myself, which makes you more generous and compassionate in general.” That helps explain why even if Moreland is reaching out to someone else, there is no judgment. “I’m in the same boat with whoever I’m talking to,” Moreland says. Moreland’s songs do feel intimate––like overheard conversations or solitary meditations. “I want to talk one-on-one to someone in a song,” he says. “I don’t want to address a group, really, because I think that’s when it’s easy to start pontificating––and it gets less honest.” Letting things just be what they are is a powerful guiding force for Moreland, determining not just how he interacts with others, but how he treats himself. “When you remove boundaries and instead of holding back parts of yourself––when you say, ‘Okay, I’m going to put all of me into this,’” Moreland says, "You end up making music that nobody else could make.”

Aside from being one of Anamanaguchi’s most streamed songs, “Miku,” featuring the vocaloid pop star Hatsune Miku, is an anthem for a new type of musical icon, one that doesn’t need to be attached to a physical human body. Miku, which was officially released in 2013, is a Vocaloid software voicebank developed by Crypton Future Media. Her voice is based around Japanese actress Saki Fujita and uses Yamaha Corporation's Vocaloid 2, Vocaloid 3, and Vocaloid 4 singing synthesizing technologies. Anamanaguchi wrote “Miku” with the virtual musician and were the first band to perform live alongside the Hatsune Miku hologram on the Miku Expo tour in 2016. Since then, the song has been streamed tens of millions of times around the globe and given way to several viral TikTok moments with 20K+ unique videos, signature dance moves, and millions of views.

Consistently engaging their audience in both the real world and the virtual internet-sphere, Anamanaguchi has had TV performances on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and Adult Swim’s Fish Center, multiple appearances at Porter Robinson’s Secret Sky Fest, and co-curated one of the first major live stream events for indie musicians with the Nether Meant Festival, which was featured in the New

York Times and The Washington Post. The band has also continued to stay true to a uniquely cohesive collaborative spirit, sharing tracks with artists such as HANA, Planet 1999, Flux Pavilion, Porter Robinson, Dorian Electra, Pussy Riot, Village People, and POCHI.

For 2022, Polyvinyl is proud to announce the release of Miku on vinyl for the first time. The release will feature the original composition as well as 8 bonus versions of the song including remixes from LLLL, Carpainter, Ben Aqua, Mino Mino, Lazerdisk, as well as an NES version, a Japanese version, and an instrumental 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 to Grow a Sunflower Underwater is the follow-up to Alex The
Astronaut's ARIA Music Award-nominated debut, The Theory Of
Absolutely Nothing
An unforgettably original lyricist, the music of Australian singer/songwriter Alex
the Astronaut cycles through a series of radiantly detailed slices of life. Alex
documents moments of both the seemingly mundane from a haircut, a therapy
session, a trip to the beach and to the supermarket to then utterly life-changing
experiences as a care giver along with the PTSD that followed and her recent
diagnosis with autism.
The 26- year- old artist imbues her songs with equal parts self- awareness and
sensitivity, imagination and idiosyncratic humor and in its intimate exploration of
post- traumatic growth, the result is a body of work affirming Alex as a truly
essential songwriter, capable of transforming the way we view ourselves and the
world around us..

Smokey Vinyl

Dynamic Reflection proudly presents a new vinyl release on their Limited Series (vinyl only) from a Saint Petersburg-based producer Aleksei Nikitin, better known as Nocow. In true Nocow's fashion, the album encapsulates an array of intertwined genres that goes beyond techno and results in a refreshing take on techno music.

Ambient drones, tribal undertones, UK garage influences and 90's aesthetics are among some of the impressions we've gotten from the project. On "ILES" he shows such a diverse spectrum of electronic music sub-genres is something that comes naturally for the artist, who is known for his versatility in music production. In the words of Nocow himself, this allows him to express his ideas to a higher degree of freedom.

The music on "ILES" serves as a language of subconscious that simultaneously brings out thoughtful reverie and the feeling of saudade. It is an emotional experience that connects the sense of nature's mysticism with the notion of human self, which allows for the listener's inner dialogue in a moment of reflection.

Nocow's music solidified him as a prominent artist within the contemporary techno scene and his new album is yet another proof of it. We are fascinated by the project and feel certain you will be mesmerized by the sonic world of "ILES" as well. We hope you enjoy this as much as we do.

Love,

Paul & Dave

Forgiveness is the brand new full-length Girlpool album, which finds the duo embracing weirdo-pop decadence without sacrificing the poetic curiosity that has always made their music so absorbing. Just like they did for What Chaos Is Imaginary, Harmony and Avery each wrote their Forgiveness songs separately, then came together to decide how to present them in a style that felt representative of what excites and inspires them now. This time, the process resulted in their slickest and most ambitious music to date, filled with idiosyncratic and provocative gestures that simultaneously support and complicate the emotionally intricate material. With its unique blend of introspective earworms and surreal party music, Forgiveness reaches beyond the loosely sketched parameters of "indie rock," challenging any preconceived notions of what a Girlpool album can or should be. "Faultline" the albums first single, is an effective introduction to the world of Forgiveness; the notion of straddling a fault line feels somewhat indicative of Forgiveness on the whole. These songs investigate the always-shifting boundaries between a number of elementally human concepts: pain and pleasure, sex and love, reality and delusion, insecurity and confidence, grief and growth.To support their vision of a sound at the intersection of Hollywood futurism and post-grunge sincerity, Girlpool enlisted help from producer Yves Rothman (Yves Tumor, Miya Folick).

Forgiveness is the brand new full-length Girlpool album, which finds the duo embracing weirdo-pop decadence without sacrificing the poetic curiosity that has always made their music so absorbing. Just like they did for What Chaos Is Imaginary, Harmony and Avery each wrote their Forgiveness songs separately, then came together to decide how to present them in a style that felt representative of what excites and inspires them now. This time, the process resulted in their slickest and most ambitious music to date, filled with idiosyncratic and provocative gestures that simultaneously support and complicate the emotionally intricate material. With its unique blend of introspective earworms and surreal party music, Forgiveness reaches beyond the loosely sketched parameters of "indie rock," challenging any preconceived notions of what a Girlpool album can or should be. "Faultline" the albums first single, is an effective introduction to the world of Forgiveness; the notion of straddling a fault line feels somewhat indicative of Forgiveness on the whole. These songs investigate the always-shifting boundaries between a number of elementally human concepts: pain and pleasure, sex and love, reality and delusion, insecurity and confidence, grief and growth.To support their vision of a sound at the intersection of Hollywood futurism and post-grunge sincerity, Girlpool enlisted help from producer Yves Rothman (Yves Tumor, Miya Folick).

Very limited pressing of 300 units only. Following on from the two sold out records together, Freschard and Stanley Brinks come together for 12 brand new tracks. Lion Heart is an irresistibly charming collection of late night tales, woozy ballads and uptempo sing-alongs. Clemence Freschard’s beautiful vocal tones lend this a rich, French indiepop/chanteuse vibe, complemented by Stan’s wistful timbre and characteristic warm instrumentation. Stanley Brinks is renowned for his unique anti-folk style: both playful and suggestive, insightful and entertaining. Brinks was born in Paris, France, in 1973. He studied a bit of biology and worked as a nurse for a while. Half Swedish, half Moroccan, strongly inclined to travel the world, he soon began spending most of his life on the road and developed a strong relationship with New York. By the late 90s he’d become a full time singer-songwriter – André Herman Düne – as part of three piece indie-rock band, Herman Düne. Several albums and Peel sessions later and after a decade of touring Europe, mostly with American songwriters such as Jeffrey Lewis, Calvin Johnson and early Arcade Fire he settled in Berlin. The early carnival music of Trinidad became a passion, and in the early 21st century he became the unquestioned master of European calypso, changing his name to Stanley Brinks. Under this moniker he has recorded more than 100 albums, collaborated with the New York Antifolk scene on several occasions, recorded and toured with traditional Norwegian musicians, and played a lot with The Wave Pictures. Freschard grew up in a farm in French Burgundy. Aged 18 she moved to Paris, where she baked pies and cakes in a cafe. There, a local musician and regular customer called Stanley Brinks wrote a few songs for her to sing. Homeless in Paris, she saved up just enough money to get herself a ticket to New York. There she found an old electric guitar and started writing her own songs. In 2004 she moved to Berlin, where she recorded her first LP, "Alien Duck". Her second album, "Click Click", recorded in 2006, features electric guitar by Stanley Brinks. On her third album, she plays the drums herself. On her fourth “Shh...” she also plays the flute, and she breaks out the washboard on her fifth “Boom Biddy Boom”. On Midnight Tequila, Freschard brings it back to just drums and vocals // “an absolute joy.” Q // “...a set that’s as wistful and charming as it is playful and self-concious.” Uncut // “quietly charming” Pitchfork

When Isa Gordon sent the demo of this album to me I knew I wanted to release it before I had got half way through it. I had previously released her super good Resili collaborative project but I wasn’t quite prepared for how good this was going to be. Isa is patently a once in a blue moon talent and I feel honoured to help get her unique, visionary sounds out into the world. This is next level programming & sound design but always with soul, and musicality. Sui generis.

Isa says

“For you only came about in the lockdown winter in 2020. I started seeing a lot of beats and motifs that I’d been working on working together as a collection and spent a few months compiling, completing, mixing and weaving together the tracks into a coherent album.

It was many nights tucked away entering the wormholes of making music and trying to honour the emotion contained in each song by expanding the sentiments within them into complete pieces, chasing down the journey in each one.

It was a very personal, solitary exploration of how I interpret and compose instrumentals, with the rare global situation inhibiting outsider contact and influence. I include a mix of tempos, styles and freely combine digital and live instruments in order to serve whatever intention or feeling needs to be heard”.

Isa is an Ayrshire bred, Glasgow based producer and singer. Impressed upon by myriad styles; Singing folk music since a youngster, Playing guitar since a teen, Producing electronic music thereafter. Now freely cherry-picking whatever sounds, instruments, words and methods serve the feeling. Exploring solitary beat making as Isa Gordon and Singing and writing heartfelt lyrical ditties with her band Fantasy Land.

Available on color vinyl for the first time on limited edition opaque blue packaged with download code. Isotope 217 is made up of Dan Bitney, John Herndon, and Jeff Parker from Tortoise along with Rob Mazurek (Chicago Underground, Exploding Star Orchestra), and Matt Lux (Iron & Wine). The music of Isotope 217 is as complex and varied as the influences of it's members. Isotope 217 on Isotope 217: "It is hard to state exactly what this band is because of the diverse influences of the participants. One might say an eclectic avant funk ensemble dedicated to the Phonometric * system of universal thought. One might also say a freewheeling trans-moleculer unit dedicated to the betterment of all worlds." *Note phonometrics are, as described by Satie, the Science of measuring sound.

An album of incredible music inspired by endangered birdsong
This is the third album from The Birdsong Project that challenges ten artists from
a certain region to make an original track using and inspired by the song of a
threatened bird. 100% of the profits from the project go to bird conservation
NGOs working on the ground. Following South America and Mexico, Central
America, & the Caribbean, this album moves to Western Africa. The album mixes
well- known names from the World or traditional music scene like Vieux Farka
Touré, alongside electronic music producers like Buruntuma. This record is also
pressed on the greenest record available via Green Vinyl Records with 100% PVCfree, 100% recycled cardboard and 70% less CO2 emissions.

Formed in 1968, Nazareth rose from the pubs and clubs of their native Scotland to become one of the most successful rock bands in the world, notching up a string of hit records along the way. Hard-working, honest, sincere, and unaffected by the vagaries of fashion, this band of the people have influenced many great artists. Half a century later, and having sold in excess of 20 million albums around the globe, the legendary Nazareth are still rocking hard!
Cinema, originally released in 1986, is Nazareth’s 16th studio album, which will be reissued on white coloured vinyl, as well as on CD with bonus track.

Australia’s Nicolas Cage Fighter are coming out swinging. Combining ruthless hardcore, late 90s metal and death metal influences, the band deftly weave a sound that is as burly as it is brutal, pummeling all those that get in their way. Formed in Ballarat, Victoria in 2011, the band have worked slowly and steadily to build their profile, dropping singles and EPs and sharing stages with the likes of Attila, Thy Art Is Murder, Thick As Blood and Deez Nuts, building a devoted fan base. With The Bones That Grew From Pain now primed to be unleashed they are hoping for the opportunity to tour it internationally, bringing their merciless performances to stages around the world and engaging with the new army of fans that are sure to connect with their no-bullshit stance and killer material.

Born in march 2000, ANGELUS APATRIDA became in few years one of the most important Spanish thrash metal bands. Many demos and band members passed through the history of ANGELUS APATRIDA but it was in January 2003 that the band decided to write pounding thrash metal , mostly influenced by like Pantera, Megadeth, Overkill, Anthrax or Annihilator. ANGELUS APATRIDA released their 7th, self-titled album in 2021 and conquered the top of the official album charts in Spain (#1) and it also marked the band’s first ever chart entries in Germany (#49) and Switzerland (#41) . The band ’s classic album’ Clockwork’ , ’The Call’ and ‘ Hidden Revolution’ have been much sought after in vinyl format and reached ridiculously high prices online. Listenable is now happy to reissue those albums in limited edition coloured vinyls with brand new vinyl mastering and meet the huge demand ! . First come First served !

Vanderwolf re-emerges with '12 Little Killers' an eclectic collection that
includes the deliciously oozing slice of psychedelia of the single Glisten,
which is heavily-slanted toward melting analogue synthesizers (Sam
Sallon) and rich layers of acoustic guitars (Chris Cordoba) and an
exquisite vocal by Max Vanderwolf
Recorded by producer Chris Wyles at his south London studio, the 12 songs were
selected, mixed and compiled by keyboardist and co- producer Sam Sallon. It's
available in a limited pressing of 500.
Vanderwolf's music spans a wide-range of genres from global beats to hard blues
to fragile balladry to prog- rock monstrosities and beyond. With a vast back
catalogue of songs to release, Vanderwolf is set to get his wild and restless
music out to the world.
Born in NYC, working in London and as of 2020 residing in Los Angeles, Max
Vanderwolf has recorded several albums and countless songs. Most of them
remain unreleased. Notably, he was vocalist and creative-force behind the semilegendary London band, Last Man Standing, whose sole album in 2008 received
plaudits from many including Mojo and Uncut.
Concurrent to his life in music, Vanderwolf has worked under an assumed name
as a music programmer and concert producer in some of the worlds' most
celebrated clubs and venues. He went from overseeing the legendary
underground downtown NYC's Knitting Factory to overseeing London's Royal
Festival Hall, where for 9 years he produced the Meltdown Festival where he
worked closely with David Bowie, Patti Smith, Jarvis Cocker, Massive Attack and
others. He has produced concerts in Brooklyn, Rome and Paris working closely
with John Cale, Sparks and the Residents.

Bringing together some of the most incredibly spellbinding songs from a masterclass in song writing and one of R&B's biggest forces in the development of
black music. More than any other artist on the planet, Stevie Wonder's music has crossed the divides and cemented different races and generations with
million-selling records that offer both depth and jubilation. Greatest Hits Live celebrates the journey to worldwide success with a sublime collection of live
performances that not only capture his most iconic hits, but also the soul of the man who made them.
Get Yer Vinyl Out invites you to experience the legendary Stevie Wonder, performing hit after hit, live on stage, in a sensational and exclusive collection.
Superb, professionally remastered original broadcasts, presented with background liners and timeline photos.
Tracks recorded at ‘Wonderlove’, Soul! TV, New York City, NY, 19th November 1972 (WNET 13); Masonic Temple Theatre, Detroit, MI 14th April 1984 (WRIFFM); ‘NYC Song Competition Awards’, Madison Square Garden, New York, NY 27th September 1986 (WNEW-FM) and Fox Theatre, Atlanta, GA, 28th
November 1988 (WREK-FM).
A 180g Eco mixed vinyl release, pressed on randomly mixed colour compound and presented in a deluxe gatefold sleeve.

Formed in 1968, Nazareth rose from the pubs and clubs of their native Scotland to become one of the most successful rock bands in the world, notching up a string of hit records along the way. Hard-working, honest, sincere, and unaffected by the vagaries of fashion, this band of the people have influenced many great artists. Half a century later, and having sold in excess of 20 million albums around the globe, the legendary Nazareth are still rocking hard!
2XS, originally released in 1982, is Nazareth’s 13th studio album, which will be reissued on aqua coloured vinyl, as well as on CD.

Formed in 1968, Nazareth rose from the pubs and clubs of their native Scotland to become one of the most successful rock bands in the world, notching up a string of hit records along the way. Hard-working, honest, sincere, and unaffected by the vagaries of fashion, this band of the people have influenced many great artists. Half a century later, and having sold in excess of 20 million albums around the globe, the legendary Nazareth are still rocking hard!
No Mean City, originally released in 1978, is Nazareth’s 10th studio album, which will be reissued on green coloured vinyl, as well as on CD with bonus tracks.

Formed in 1968, Nazareth rose from the pubs and clubs of their native Scotland to become one of the most successful rock bands in the world, notching up a string of hit records along the way. Hard-working, honest, sincere, and unaffected by the vagaries of fashion, this band of the people have influenced many great artists. Half a century later, and having sold in excess of 20 million albums around the globe, the legendary Nazareth are still rocking hard!

Snaz, originally released in 1981, is Nazareth’s infamous live album, which will be reissued on orange and green double coloured vinyl, as well as on double CD.

Formed in 1968, Nazareth rose from the pubs and clubs of their native Scotland to become one of the most successful rock bands in the world, notching up a string of hit records along the way. Hard-working, honest, sincere, and unaffected by the vagaries of fashion, this band of the people have influenced many great artists. Half a century later, and having sold in excess of 20 million albums around the globe, the legendary Nazareth are still rocking hard!
Sound Elixir, originally released in 1983, is Nazareth’s 14th studio album, which will be reissued on peach coloured vinyl, as well as on CD.

Thrash 'til death - HATRIOT are finally back with their new album "The Vale Of Shadows", and it is full of thrash gems, a few death metal, hardcore, and metalcore influences and comes with a modern production!

HATRIOT's new album "The Vale Of Shadows" includes topics such as personal growth, pent-up aggression, the Black Plague, serial killers, and a disturbing dark world.
HATRIOT changed their writing style and added a more modern production their new album, also including more death metal, hardcore, and metalcore influences.
The album includes heavy mid-tempo songs and even an instrumental.

Thrash 'til death - HATRIOT are finally back with their new album "The Vale Of Shadows", and it is full of thrash gems, a few death metal, hardcore, and metalcore influences and comes with a modern production!

HATRIOT's new album "The Vale Of Shadows" includes topics such as personal growth, pent-up aggression, the Black Plague, serial killers, and a disturbing dark world.
HATRIOT changed their writing style and added a more modern production their new album, also including more death metal, hardcore, and metalcore influences.
The album includes heavy mid-tempo songs and even an instrumental.

Thrash 'til death - HATRIOT are finally back with their new album "The Vale Of Shadows", and it is full of thrash gems, a few death metal, hardcore, and metalcore influences and comes with a modern production!

HATRIOT's new album "The Vale Of Shadows" includes topics such as personal growth, pent-up aggression, the Black Plague, serial killers, and a disturbing dark world.
HATRIOT changed their writing style and added a more modern production their new album, also including more death metal, hardcore, and metalcore influences.
The album includes heavy mid-tempo songs and even an instrumental.

Organic sounds, eclectic compositions and infinite grooves – we’re proud to present our very first label compilation BEATS LIKE SUMMER, Vol. 1. Composed of 17 instrumental tracks that circle HipHop, Jazz, RnB and Soul, this project is a journey through different soundscapes. It unites some of the finest beat makers and instrumentalists from around the world, including Kiefer, K, Le Maestro, DAO, Saltyyyy V, Shuko, agajon and many more. Artwork by GABE and Alex Plesovskich. Creative Direction by Robert Winter.

Limited edition LP release with inside out sleeve, main artwork embossed, sticker on the back!

This Swedish rock'n'roll machine have been with us for a long time by
now, 33 years to be exact
Albums are numerous, number of gigs too many to count – and they have always
been extremely popular, both as a liveband and as an albumselling combo. Now
it's time for (only) the second compilation of goodies – a fantastic insight in the
world of The Refreshments!

California-based label Ritual Release introduce new & as-yet unknown duo Guruku. Love Runaway is their debut EP and comes with remixes by disco don Ray Mang.

Title track ‘Love Runaway’ features criminally underheard Tamara Lee on vocals and co-writing duties. LA funk/R&B/future twang auteur Harriet Brown (Innovative Leisure, Phantom Island, World Building) provides guest vocals on the EP’s second original track, ‘Crimped Hair’.

On the flip, Ray Mang delivers a masterclass in honing ‘Love Runaway’ for peak dancefloor effect in a choice of extended remix or dubby reprise.

“Absolutely essential release. A really good song is turned into a modern disco monster by Ray Mang, channeling Prelude Records circa 1982.” – Bill Brewster (DJ History, UK)

Azure, Vinyl Williams' fifth album was released on French label Requiem
Pour Un Twister in 2020
Azure marks a point of higher equilibrium for songwriter Lionel Williams, using far
more restraint and speed than his earlier releases, as well as a concentration of
unifying paradoxical qualities. Vinyl Williams' Opal (2018) was critically acclaimed
and his earlier releases, Brunei (2016) and Trance Zen Dental Spa (2015) - a
collaboration with Chaz Bear of Toro Y Moi - are fan favorites for their incessant
bliss and driving rhythms. Vinyl Williams' live shows are a spectacle of
pearlescent sights and sounds, with all of Williams' work combined and
synchronized together in rapturous hyper- dimensional moments.For fans of
Morgan Delt, Toro Y Moi, Ariel Pink, Part Time, Maston, Jacco Gardner, Arthur
Verocai, Sunbeam Sound Machine, The Free Design, Curt Boettcher, Chris Cohen,
Dungen.

Azure, Vinyl Williams' fifth album was released on French label Requiem Pour Un Twister in 2020 Azure marks a point of higher equilibrium for songwriter Lionel Williams, using far
more restraint and speed than his earlier releases, as well as a concentration of unifying paradoxical qualities. Vinyl Williams' Opal

(2018) was critically acclaimed
and his earlier releases, Brunei (2016) and Trance Zen Dental Spa

(2015) - a collaboration with Chaz Bear of Toro Y Moi - are fan favorites for their incessant bliss and driving rhythms. Vinyl Williams' live shows are a spectacle of pearlescent sights and sounds, with all of Williams' work combined and synchronized together in rapturous hyper- dimensional moments.

For fans of Morgan Delt, Toro Y Moi, Ariel Pink, Part Time, Maston, Jacco Gardner, Arthur Verocai, Sunbeam Sound Machine, The Free Design, Curt Boettcher, Chris Cohen, Dungen.

Azure, Vinyl Williams' fifth album was released on French label Requiem
Pour Un Twister in 2020
Azure marks a point of higher equilibrium for songwriter Lionel Williams, using far
more restraint and speed than his earlier releases, as well as a concentration of
unifying paradoxical qualities. Vinyl Williams' Opal (2018) was critically acclaimed
and his earlier releases, Brunei (2016) and Trance Zen Dental Spa (2015) - a
collaboration with Chaz Bear of Toro Y Moi - are fan favorites for their incessant
bliss and driving rhythms. Vinyl Williams' live shows are a spectacle of
pearlescent sights and sounds, with all of Williams' work combined and
synchronized together in rapturous hyper- dimensional moments.For fans of
Morgan Delt, Toro Y Moi, Ariel Pink, Part Time, Maston, Jacco Gardner, Arthur
Verocai, Sunbeam Sound Machine, The Free Design, Curt Boettcher, Chris Cohen,
Dungen.

Kontinuierlich hat sich Wolfgang Haffner weiter in das Vorderfeld der Top-Schlagzeuger gearbeitet. Deutschlands einziger Jazz-Superstar mit Pop-Anklängen, der Trompeter Till Brönner mag genauso wenig auf ihn verzichten wie Nils Landgren, wenn er Abba den Funk verordnet.
Norwegens aufregendste aktuelle Stimme im Jazz, Rebekka Bakken holt ihn immer wieder in ihre Band und selbst die No Angels riefen ihn an, als es an die Produktion ihrer Konzert-DVD ging. Die letzten Veröffentlichungen des Schlagzeugers waren aus den Jazz-Charts vieler Länder nicht wegzudenken.
Neben der Virtuosität des Instrumentalisten Haffner darf man aber nicht vergessen, dass er ein ausgezeichneter Songwriter, Arrangeur und Produzent ist. Auf seinen eigenen Alben hat er diese Fähigkeiten bereits zur Genüge angedeutet, mit dem vorliegenden Album jedoch liefert Haffner sein Meisterstück ab. Durchaus seinen Helden wie Pat Metheny, Esbjörn Svensson oder auch Dhafer Youssef verpflichtet, gelingt es ihm, eine überzeugende Mischung aus innovativen Sounds, tragfähigen Melodien und brillantem Gruppensound zu erzeugen, die erstmals rein europäische Züge hat.
Dabei hat er die Creme de la Creme europäischer Jazz-Musiker wie selbstverständlich zu einem Sound geformt, der das Zeug zum Klassiker hat. Die flirrenden Gitarrensounds von Martin Koller (Rebekka Bakken Band), elektronische Effekte, die an die besten Momente aktueller skandinavischer Produktionen erinnern, hier und da kompromisslose Rocksounds (»Corazon«) und natürlich auch immer wieder Jazz Soli auf höchstem Niveau. Trompeter Till Brönner trägt mit seinem Flügelhorn – Solo dazu bei, dass »Shape Of Peace« zu einem atmosphärischen Highlight gerät.
Der magische Sprechgesang von Rebekka Bakken macht »Somewhere Else« zu einem andachtsvollen Moment des Albums, in »Momo's Dance« werden die Basslinien von Tim Lefebvre spielerisch leicht von Nils Landgren an der Posaune umtanzt, »Seventy Five« glänzt durch Reminiszenzen an Krimis der 70er Jahre. Immer wieder sind es aber auch die elektronisch verfremdeten Sounds z. B. von Saxofonist / Bass Klarinettist Johannes Enders, die »Zooming« so zeitlos und aktuell erscheinen lassen. Andererseits hat noch kein Album des Nürnbergers derart facettenreiche Schlagzeug-Sounds eingefangen, man staune nur über die intelligente Einbettung seines Solos in dem Stück »Metropolis«, die in keiner Weise aufgesetzt sondern einfach nur organisch wirken.

Musikexpress:
"Statt der Zurschaustellung seiner Trommelkünste steht hier das Bemühen um einen homogenen Gesamtsound im Vordergrund. Dabei zeigt sich Haffner hier sowohl als cleverer musikalischer Architekt, der getragene Themen und flächige Strukturen effektvoll mit lebendigen Clubgrooves kontrastiert, als auch als sensibler Klangmaler. Elemente aus Ambient, Elektronik, Fusion, Drum'n'Bass und gelegentliche Worldmusic-Tupfer addieren sich hier zu einem eleganten und sehr europäi- schen Nu-Jazz-Entwurf (…) Wahrlich coole Musik, die dem Hörer ihre Brillanz nicht sofort an den Kopf schmeißt, sondern ihre subtile Kraft und Klasse nach und nach offenbart"

Stereoplay:
"Aktuelle Euro-Sounds statt abgenudelter US-Fusion - so lautet hier das Programm von Deutschlands bestem Allround-Drummer. Mit Tim Lefebvre, Bass, und vier wechselnden Keyboardern legt Wolfgang Haffner eine fabelhafte Basis für Johannes Enders' oft elektronisch verfremdetes Gebläse und die E-Gitarre von Martin Koller. Nils Landgren, Till Brönner und Rebekka Bakken setzen schöne Akzente in den Tracks, die Electro-Jazz mit HipHop poetisch verschmelzen."

Big warm welcome back to DC’s James Bangura!! Solo dolo this time around, the Black Rave Culture member finds himself swimming in therapeutic & reflective waters. Stretching out into vulnerable, personal territory always makes for the best tunes. And this disc (James Bangura's "Shadow Boxing EP”) is a damn doozy!! Very excited & grateful to share this beautiful release with y'all!!
(Title is inspired by Bangura’s grandfather, Carroll Daniel Smith, who boxed for the US Army in WWII)

“When I think of ‘Shadow Boxing’ I think of practice & preparation. 2020 was a tumultuous year, this was the first time in awhile that I had a moment to reflect on the years passed. My time in military service, dealing with depression & anxiety as a veteran, the loss of loved ones, the ending of relationships, and taking unplanned life paths. This portion of my life story was about healing. This record was the silver lining & the sign of good things to come. It’s about never quitting & being kind to yourself. Loving differently & being vulnerable. These are things we have to practice (and prepare) doing everyday because we can easily let dark moments overcast the joy in our lives. Music has always been therapy for me & is even more important now through the turbulent times we are living in. So practice & prepare.”
- Timothy Smith-Bangura

Hammered ist das 16. Studioalbum der britischen Rockband Motörhead, das am 9. April 2002 veröffentlicht wurde. Zum Zeitpunkt als es in Hollywood aufgenommen wurde war Motörhead eine dreiköpfige Band, mit Mikkey Dee am Schlagzeug, Phil Campbell an der Gitarre und Lemmy am Gesang und Bass. Diese gold-schwarze
Splatter-Vinyl erscheint zur Feier des 20-jährigen
Jubiläums von Hammered.