quête:them

Udo Jürgens, wohin man auch hört! Nach dem Chart-Stürmer "da capo, Udo Jürgens - Stationen einer Weltkarriere" und dem kürzlich veröffentlichten Kinderliederalbum "Die Blumen blühn überall gleich" erscheint am 10. November die Edition "Die schönsten Lieder zur Weihnachtszeit". 3 CDs mit 55 Songs in 5 Sprachen, darunter deutsche und internationale Weihnachts-Klassiker, ein Duett mit José Carreras und einer von Pepe Lienhard neu arrangierten Version des spaßigen "Merry Christmas allerseits". 14 der Titel sind erstmals digital verfügbar, 2 bislang unveröffentlicht. Die einzigartige Sammlung liegt auch auf Vinyl vor. /// CD1 - Weihnachten zu Haus - Beinhaltet vierzehn Kompositionen von Udo Jürgens, darunter den Titel "Schneerose" aus dem Jahr 1967, der nach längerer Zeit wieder digital verfügbar ist. Dazu fünf absolute Klassiker: "Leise rieselt der Schnee", "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht" (das berühmteste Weihnachtslied der Welt), "Oh du Fröhliche", (ein Lied aus Deutschland zu einer Melodie aus Sizilien), "Süßer die Glocken nie klingen" und "Der kleine Trommlerjunge" (1941 in den USA entstanden). Als Bonustrack "Merry Christmas allerseits", eine Live-Aufnahme aus Udos letztem Konzert in Zürich. Mit einer humorigen Einleitung des großen Meisters. /// CD2 - Weihnachten in aller Welt - Enthält internationale Weihnachtsklassiker wie "Jingle Bells" und den Welthit "White Christmas", geschaffen von Irving Berlin, 1947 von Bing Crosby zum ersten Mal veröffentlicht. Dazu zwei Songs auf Französisch, "O Tannenbaum" und "Minuit chrétiens", auch bekannt als "O Holy Night". Ferner alle Lieder von Udos Weihnachtsalbum "Buon Natale da Udo Jürgens", das in den 70er Jahren in Italien veröffentlicht wurde und hier erstmals digital verfügbar ist. Als Bonustrack "Yo creo", die spanische Version von "Ich glaube". /// CD3 - Zeit der Lieder, Zeit der Stille - Die Botschaft von Christi Geburt geht weit über das eigentliche Fest hinaus. Getragen von der Hoffnung, dass es Frieden werde, dass wir Menschen Freunde sind, ein Lächeln uns verbindet, dass Liebe regiert. Und dass jedes Jahr alles besser wird. Udo hat viele Songs über diese Themen geschrieben. Die emotionalsten davon gibt es auf der dritten CD zu hören. Darunter auch ein Duett mit dem Klassik-Star José Carreras "Mein größter Wunsch". Zum guten Schluss noch einmal das amüsante "Merry Christmas allerseits", neu arrangiert und eingespielt von Pepe Lienhard, selbstverständlich mit Udos unverwechselbarem Gesang. Ende gut - alles Udo!

The late percussionist Milford Graves was one of the most unique artists the world has ever seen. Born in Jamaica, Queens in 1941, he began his career in the early '60s as a part of New York's vibrant Latin jazz scene. His focus quickly turned inward, shifting towards a practice that explored the very nature of self. From his work in the New York Art Quartet and collaborations with Albert Ayler, Sonny Sharrock and more to his important contributions during NYC's loft era – he is, simply put, free jazz royalty.

In April 1966, the duo of Graves and pianist Don Pullen played at Yale University. As John Corbett writes in the liner notes, "This performance was something of a turning point for Graves. Until then he had been working in other people's bands or collective ensembles. He was phenomenally busy. In 1965 alone, he recorded with NYAQ (two LPs), Giuseppi Logan Quartet, Paul Bley Quintet and Lowell Davidson Trio, and he made his first recording released under his own name, Percussion Ensemble. Every one of these is important in its own way, but none of them quite anticipate how radical was the music that he and Pullen would unleash that evening in New Haven."

Originally released on the artists' own Self-Reliance Program label, this legendary one-night performance would be split into two volumes: In Concert At Yale University and Nommo. While rooted in African rhythms, Graves' music has its own sense of time. As the drummer stated in a 1966 DownBeat interview, "Time was always there, and the time I see is not the same as what man says time is. It works by impulsion."

The late percussionist Milford Graves was one of the most unique artists the world has ever seen. Born in Jamaica, Queens in 1941, he began his career in the early '60s as a part of New York's vibrant Latin jazz scene. His focus quickly turned inward, shifting towards a practice that explored the very nature of self. From his work in the New York Art Quartet and collaborations with Albert Ayler, Sonny Sharrock and more to his important contributions during NYC's loft era – he is, simply put, free jazz royalty.

In April 1966, the duo of Graves and pianist Don Pullen played at Yale University. As John Corbett writes in the liner notes, "This performance was something of a turning point for Graves. Until then he had been working in other people's bands or collective ensembles. He was phenomenally busy. In 1965 alone, he recorded with NYAQ (two LPs), Giuseppi Logan Quartet, Paul Bley Quintet and Lowell Davidson Trio, and he made his first recording released under his own name, Percussion Ensemble. Every one of these is important in its own way, but none of them quite anticipate how radical was the music that he and Pullen would unleash that evening in New Haven."

Originally released on the artists' own Self-Reliance Program label, this legendary one-night performance would be split into two volumes: In Concert At Yale University and Nommo. While rooted in African rhythms, Graves' music has its own sense of time. As the drummer stated in a 1966 DownBeat interview, "Time was always there, and the time I see is not the same as what man says time is. It works by impulsion."

Zero Years Kid is the alter ego of Joachim Badenhorst, one of the most fascinating and adventurous Belgian jazz musicians from the last 2 decades. He plays with the international band Carate Urio Orchestra but also as musician with Naima Joris or Chantal Acda.
Zero Years Kid started of as a solo project, but has grown into a full and organic live band.

Badenhorst sees Zero Years Kid as a kindergarten to explore other ideas and interests besides of jazz. Together with Jan de Vroede, Lennart Heyndels and Erik Heestermans he brings a colorful amalgam of hip-hop, pop, dance and r&b with playful and poetic lyrics in his native language: Dutch. Next to his clarinet and sax he adds samples and electronica which results in a surprising fantasy world where it is wonderful to wander.

In 2019 debut album Ongerijmde Rijmen was released. Successor Geen Grenzen is ready and will be released on November 10th of this year on Klein. Geen Grenzen is an ode to breaking boundaries, to color outside the lines and to don’t get hung up on expectations.
The title track is a rework of No Limits by 2Unlimited. The song got translated, slowed-down and distorted to the universe of Zero Years Kid. The album is a poetic and humorous trip with a melancholic twist, and themes like the covid pandemic, intense arguments that are forgiven, writers-block, desire and love.

“A piece of music never truly comes to An end. Revisiting a theme illustrates this idea that life goes on.” These are the words of Wayne Shorter, uttered in 2018 upon the release of Emanon, his final opus. On this record, the octogenarian uses dusky hues to shade in the passions of his youth - drawing and science-fiction, as well as the causes he has defended all his life - the fight against ecological upheaval and structural racism. This sentiment did not fail to resonate with Julien Lourau, who has reached a stage in life where he has begun to look back over certain pages written by the man he has always considered one of the masters of his trade. Five years later, this Parisian native has also chosen to revisit his glory days, offering reworked versions of specific tracks composed by his titular elder throughout the 80s. “When I play this music, I find myself back in my teenage bedroom. These are my standards, and they remind me of autumn in Rambouillet.” At that time, after practising his scales, Julien would also play Dungeons & dragons, and immerse himself in SF as well as heroic fantasy - epic influences which are not without a certain connection to the dreamworlds Shorter conjured up, as another fan of landscapes beyond the grasp of reality.

This album features four themes taken from Atlantis, which came out in 1985, and two from Joy Ryder, released three years later. To these, he has added a composition penned at around the same time for Sportin’ Life, the penultimate LP by Weather Report. This is rounded off by a tune taken

from Native Dancer, the record which, ten years earlier, in 1975, brought together this saxophonist who learnt his trade alongside Art Blakey, before joining Miles’ second quintet, and Brazilian Milton Nascimento.

“Between Native Dancer and Atlantis, Shorter did not release anything under his own name, but he took the time and care to really perfect his writing. Upon his return, he injected a very Brazilian form of subtlety into his compositions, especially rhythmically. And from a harmonic point of view, these themes are extremely sophisticated, and reveal truly singular colours. In fact, he decided to display the score as if it constituted the liner notes of Atlantis.”

Julien Lourau is a fan of every Wayne Shorter era, from his Blue Note days, where Mr Gone defined the bases of a truly unique repertoire, all the way to his final quartet - a reference like no other. He decided to focus on this “highly electric” period, which is not necessarily Shorter’s best known, nor his most widely appreciated - despite being a unanimous reference, Shorter has nonetheless never had a direct descendent. In Lourau’s line of sight there lies a desire to focus on typically South American tonic accents which characterise this repertoire, twinned with the ambition to switch up their actual sound “by attempting to open up onto a production highly influenced by eighties fusion". However, he admits that modifying the structures of these most unique of worlds constituted a fresh challenge. “There’s this labyrinthine harmonic system where you’ve no idea how it holds together, but where it’s actually impossible to touch the slightest element without the whole edifice wavering. It is in fact a very difficult thing to achieve!”

In order to successfully transcribe all this creativity free of obstacles, Julien Lourau once again called upon the help of Mathieu Debordes. From January 2023 onwards, Mathieu endeavoured to break down all the musical elements, on paper, before creating any actual music. The record was therefore constructed on the faith of these scores, without necessarily transiting through a creative residency - just two live gigs, to make sure the setup worked. Besides Mathieu Debordes and his synthesisers, Julien Lourau has assembled an ad hoc team by his side. On the bass, according to the track, we can hear erstwhile companion Sylvain Daniel or a new acolyte on the fretless bass, Joan Eche Puig.

Stéphane Edouard, on percussion, even dives headfirst into an unlikely proto-rap of sorts, on Pearl On The Half Shell (where, on the original version, Bobby McFerrin adjusted his interventions in a rather madcap style). Aesthete and drummer Jim Hart as well as pianist Leo Jassef also figure on this release - both were present on previous project devoted to label

CTI. “At sixteen, I wanted to sound like Michael Brecker rather than Ben Webster - that was equated with modernity in those days”, adds Julien with a smile, as for him, all this rings out a little like a logical next step, a joyful immersion into the fountain of youth. And if, for this record, he plays the soprano more than ever, the saxophone Shorter set in his sights on, he never tries to replicate an unattainable ideal note by note. What would be the point?

“Wayne Shorter is not just a saxophonist’s saxophonist. In fact, I don’t know a single person who has risen to challenge of his solos. I have not done it myself either, but on the other hand, I have retained a lot of his phraseology. His way of approaching the instrument reveals a more evanescent language, a work on colour and shape. Keeping this in mind has allowed me to gravitate towards certain elements, that in hindsight, I find echoes of in my work, even in Groove Gang.” Shorter etches out these phrases, creating a groove within which Lourau had traced subtle punctuation, managing, from a highly written base, to create fresh apertures, promises of a great escape. Emblematic of this standpoint, his regal version of Ponte de Areia, originally a wonderful dialogue between Milton Nascimento and Wayne Shorter. Here, the Frenchman takes liberties with the original melodies, without ever growing distant from the original spirit, extending one section with delicacy, offering a rubato development and then a groove “like a little suite”. Julien Lourau also renews with an accomplice from last century, Magic Malik, who lends his high-pitched vocals to the track. Though they had not recorded together for more than twenty years, the two of them got on as if they had only ceased collaborating yesterday, everything flowed naturally. The track was wrapped up in just one take, much like other themes, such as opener Who Goes There where the flautist deploys smooth, enchanted and smoky wisps.

Fundamentally, reflecting of the sleeve which features a child playing with a ball, image that could symbolise the sun just as much as the moon, Julien Lourau manages to translate the ambiguous candour which characterizes Shorter’s work - solar and crepuscular at the same time, that of a visionary and poet definitively situated outside of all chronology, but with whom Julien shares surprising and ‘timely’ coincidences. Shorter was born August 25, 1933, the same day as Julien’s father, “if we take time zones into account”, and who died on Lourau’s birthday, March 2, 2023. Should we take this as a random fact? Or could we not see here the sign of a destiny connecting the agnostic Frenchman to the man who, as a fervent Buddhist, believed in the transmission of his spiritual flow ?

Five groups, one mythical studio - documenting the emergence of a generation!

The initial postulate was simple: five groups, one emblematic studio and 24 hours for each to imagine and record two unreleased tracks with one objective - the will to document a French jazz scene in the midst of renewal.

In these last few years, several innovative currents have shaken up the world of jazz and attracted new fans. They have bubbled up from Los Angeles, impregnated with hip-hop culture (Kamasi Washington, Terrace Martin, Thundercat), or from London, tinged with African rhythms (Nubya Garcia, Kokoroko, Ezra Collective). Meanwhile, in France, a new scene is emerging, carrying with it more of a dancefloor-oriented sound influenced by electronic music - an obvious kinship with the French Touch explosion of the late 90s.

Historically, every movement has been assimilated to a certain neighbourhood, to specific clubs where late at night, young guns stayed up to imagine the jazz of tomorrow - the Cotton Club for the jazz of the 20s, Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem for Be-Bop, the Black Hawk in San Francisco for West Coast jazz, Birdland in New York for Hard-Bop or a lot more recently, the Total Refreshment Centre which has been the playing field for the new London scene.

In Paris too, this new sound is associated with actual venues, places which have allowed these groups to form, create a repertoire and forge an aesthetic - Le Baiser Salé for Monsieur Mâlâ, La Gare/Le Gore for Photon, La Pêche in Montreuil for Ishkero, La Petite Halle for Underground Canopy and also le Duc des Lombards and le 38 Riv’ for Alex Monfort; it’s in a live context that this music will always continue to evolve.

Keeping this “live” spirit, with all its spontaneity, was actually the guiding line for the elaboration of this Studio Pigalle compilation. Each take was recorded in the most organic way possible, bringing all the musicians together in the same room to limit post-production alterations before the final cut was assembled, in just one day, by studio in-house sound engineer, Felix Rémy.

A feeling of urgency permeates a record guided by an artistic production taking care to crystalise the essence of this artistically free-range generation whose childhoods were rocked just as much by Bill Evans and Roy Hargrove as by J Dilla and Jeff Mills. One of the two tracks recorded is geared towards the dancefloor, and the other, more cosmic/ambient gives freer rein to individual interpretation.

There were therefore many possible ways of interpreting these guidelines for the five formations which number among the most distinctive on the current French musical landscape, and the occasion, for some, to rummage through their archives! With Transe (Mbappé) and Da Verdere (Vella), Monsieur

Mâlâ present us with two unreleased tracks issued from the very first rehearsals of the quintet reworked especially for this compilation. “Seen the aesthetic range of this group, it all worked out very naturally in the studio”, recounts keyboardist Nicholas Vella “Recording like they did in the sixties with all the channels live and working with small imperfections was a very interesting task, even when it came to the mix, we had to make do with the takes we had... “

“Our group is very recent, and with this session, in just two tracks, we had the opportunity to present the entirety of our musical universe,” says Photons pianist Gauthier Toux. “All too often, we assimilate this fusion between jazz and dance music to computers and post-production modifications. For “Dessine”, we kept the first take, and we must have recorded just three or four for the other track with more of a techno bent. In one day, we understood that we could play our entire repertoire live, from A to Z”.

“When the Komos label offered me this project, it immediately spoke to me”, remembers Alex Monfort “Straight away, I thought of “Since I Met You”, a track with a nine/four time signature which really is reminiscent of a new- soul groove, but with this extra cosmic vibe! I wrote the words to the chorus and Nina Tonji placed her voice on the track, adding her own verses. For “Tonight”, the up-tempo track, I wanted to head off in more of a hybrid direction inspired by Kaytranada or the Black Radio series by Robert Glasper. A cross-over between jazz and hip-hop which really does represent my world, and I also tried to place vocals centre stage (Emcee Agora)”.

“We truly resonated with the way Antoine Rajon imagined this compilation and the recording session”, confide Warren Dongué and Jérémy Tallon from Underground Canopy. “When arriving in this studio we felt as if we had gone backtothe70s! Inkeepingwiththespiritofthisera,heknewhowtoletus keep our spontaneity, without recording in too many takes, and that’s how we like to work”.

“We managed to adhere to the themes of the compilation without changing our instrumentation, we wanted to remain faithful to the sound of Ishkero on these new compositions and take them somewhere else” – says drummer TaoEhrlich -“Withoutaddinganyelectronics.Thesessionwassupervisedin a truly subtle and benevolent manner. From a human perspective, it was also a wonderful experience”.

Whether turned towards hip-hop, ethnic or electronic music, the artists featured on this Studio Pigalle compilation represent the eclecticism of a new generation in the process of writing the first chapters of its history. Open to experimentation, these artists continue to hold high an immutable love for improvisation and creation in the moment... another definition of the word Jazz!

Diese nie zuvor gehörte Aufnahme des legendären Tenorsaxophonisten "Little Giant" Johnny Griffin, der im Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club spielte und von Mitgliedern der Ronnie's House Band (Stan Tracey, Malcolm Cecil und Jackie Dougan) unterstützt wurde, erscheint auf AAA Vinyl. Das Album wurde bei Gearbox Records mit einer rein analogen Signalkette gemastert und direkt von den Originalbändern geschnitten, die 1964 im Club von Les Tomkins aufgenommen wurden. Die Hülle enthält Fotografien des geschätzten Val Wilmer und Linernotes von Richard Williams.

Originally released in 2008, MACHINE 15, celebrates it"s 15th anniversary with a long awaited vinyl repress, remastered for vinyl by Dan Swanö. With an impressive string of releases behind them, nearly two million records sold worldwide and having shared stages with the likes of Blink 182, the Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age, the Orebro based quartet of vocalist/bassist Nikola Sarcevic, guitarists Erik Ohlsson and Mathias Farm and drummer Fredrik Larzon show that they are on top of their game. While upholding the classic Millencolin sound, they chose to diversify, evolve and progress on the new album The explosive result is pop infused punk at its all-time best with driving beats, anthemic choruses and irresistible melodies that prove the band is back to kick ass and take names. For Machine 15, Millencolin re-teamed with producer Lou Giordano (Sugar, Taking Back Sunday, Plain White T"s), who previously worked with the band on 2003"s Home From Home. "We wanted the kind of crisp sound that Lou is notorious for. Plus we have a great chemistry with him," guitarist Erik Ohlsson adds.

All Over You is a forgotten gem, remastered and presented here for the first time on vinyl, nearly 25 years to do the day after its original release. Recorded raw with a band pulled from the ranks of Austin’s legendary Antone’s Nightclub, this session finds an older, laid-back Lester revisiting his classic Excello sides and distilling them to their essence. The remastered album features a bonus live recording of the Lightning Slim track, “Nothing But The Devil.”. The audio was remastered from original source material and pressed at GZ Vinyl in the Czech Republic. Tasting notes: leather, freshly-oiled gunmetal, boiled crawfish.

A tech company's "senior spirit guide" finally comes to the defense of the "financially unsuccessful" Vincent van Gogh; wonders of the natural world are reimagined as "muster points for brainstorming innovators"; the "artificial char lines" on fast-food burgers are cited as if signs of the apocalypse. For the better part of three decades, Aesop Rock has used the syntax of the moment to pinpoint the fault lines in that moment's supposedly solid foundation. With his tenth album, Integrated Tech Solutions, Aes wields insidious corporatespeak as a tool to pry that parasitic worldview away from the parts of life that truly matter.



A concept album about an organization offering "lifestyle- and industry-specific applications designed to curate a desired multi-experience," Integrated Tech Solutions picks apart the charlatan language that hears app inventors put themselves on continuums starting with cavemen and continuing through da Vinci. On "Mindful Solutionism," the wheel evolves seamlessly into modern agriculture—and then into atomic bombs, Agent Orange, cigarettes, and surveillance cameras. In a rare moment of transparency, the engineers Aes give voice to sum up this spiral in just a few words: "We cannot be trusted with the stuff that we come up with."



Appropriately, the album sounds like the past and future at once. Largely self-produced, Integrated Tech Solutions catches Aes at his leanest and most innovative, leveraging "Solutionism"'s careening bounce against the wistful "By the River" or the slow creep of "Salt and Pepper Squid." The effect is a record that sounds itself like an organism growing, mutating, hurtling toward profitability-and then destruction. As fans have come to expect, Aes is cuttingly funny and slyly profound at once, whether recounting a childhood restaurant run-in with Mr. T ("100 Feet Tall") or quipping, on "Pigeonome- try," that "white dove is a pigeon-you motherfuckers is bigots." At the same time, Integrated Tech Solutions is working on another parallel project: tracing the sprawl of modernity and cutting directly to its core. "I've been doing laps of the lost worlds," he raps on "All City Nerve Map," sounding at once wearied and reinvigorated. "I can draw a map to the raw nerve."






[f] Kyanite Toothpick [feat. Hanni El Khatib]




[k] Bermuda [feat. Lealani Teano]


[n] Forward Compatibility Engine [feat. Rob Sonic]



[r] Black Snow [feat. Nikki Jean]

In his “Pulse Music” compositions of the mid-1970s, composer John McGuire forged a unique interpretation of European serialism. A student of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Krzysztof Penderecki and Gottfried Michael Koenig, McGuire moved to Cologne, Germany in 1970, where he become associated with the world-leading Studio for Electronic Music at Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) in Cologne. Like Stockhausen, McGuire found his musical imagination both constrained and inspired by the technology that was available to him.

A conversation with sculptor Hans Karl Burgeff led McGuire to think beyond the horizon and into limitless space. For “Vanishing Points” (1985–1988), McGuire used an entirely digital set-up for the first time: a digital sequencer, eight Yamaha DX-7 synthesizers and a Studer 24-track digital tape recorder. The piece was conceived as a “sequel” to the Pulse Music series, but also a step forward from it. Whereas the Pulse Music pieces had employed steady streams of pulses, with Vanishing Points McGuire employed pulse layers that accelerate or decelerate against one another, vastly increasing the resulting rhythmic complexity.

McGuire's exploration of music technology continued in “A Cappella” (1990–1997), written for his wife, the soprano Beth Griffith, known for her recording of Morton Feldman’s “Three Voices” made in 1983. Using samples, he created a four-voice choir of voice samples and arranged them into interacting parts. The composition faced challenges due to the organic nature of the human voice compared to the precision of synthesized sounds. This process involved extensive editing and a negotiation between the "material" and the "original conception". This sort of negotiation applies as much to the composition of a single piece as it does to the work of two decades.

Berlin-based Swedish bassist and producer Petter Eldh returns with a new Koma Saxo album Post Koma, out on We Jazz Records, 10 November. The title Post Koma aptly describes the vibe of this one: The Koma Saxo sound continues its evolution, morphing into a holistic vision of jazz now and soon, where live instrumentation and repurposed sampling lose their boundaries.

Over the course of its three iterations (self-titled debut in 2019, LIVE in 2020, Koma West in 2022) Koma Saxo has sounded at times "liquid" and postproduced, at times raw and direct, at times acoustic and at other times oddly electronic (even while still being made with acoustic instruments). Post Koma is a culmination of this sonic study by Eldh, resulting in a music vision that never second-guesses throwing tasty hooks and everlasting melodies out the window after a mere bite of them. But fear not: there are even more new ideas just around the corner.

Eldh's compositions and ideas merge together in a way that just flows. There are quality musicians in the mix, including Koma Saxo live band members Sofia Jernberg, Jonas Kullhammar, Otis Sandsjö, Mikko Innanen, Maciej Obara and Christian Lillinger, but that's like saying that a cake includes flour and sugar. This music is not about playing, it's essentially about how the music is and how it takes its shape, so you quickly lose track of who did what, and that's all in the benefit of encountering this music as an entity that is constantly challenging itself while moving forward. The musicians are valued contributors, and an integral part of what's here, but this is far from traditional jazz playing where a band sits in a room playing takes after takes of compositions on sheet.

That being said, this is jazz to the fullest. That is, music that understands its past but always moves forward, and is never afraid of taking risks. Petter Eldh uses jazz as a starting point, not the end goal. This gives his music edge and mobility beyond what can be contained on one album. In a way, an album, then, becomes a snapshot of a creative process in constant flux and evolution.

Opening track "Koma" is literally drum & bass. It only consists of those two elements, yet what comes out of it is an open invite, a way of clearing your palette. It would be useless to describe individual tracks beyond that, but there's a strong sense of deliverance to the set. It feels like an ending, and also like a new beginning.

Berlin-based Swedish bassist and producer Petter Eldh returns with a new Koma Saxo album Post Koma, out on We Jazz Records, 10 November. The title Post Koma aptly describes the vibe of this one: The Koma Saxo sound continues its evolution, morphing into a holistic vision of jazz now and soon, where live instrumentation and repurposed sampling lose their boundaries.

Over the course of its three iterations (self-titled debut in 2019, LIVE in 2020, Koma West in 2022) Koma Saxo has sounded at times "liquid" and postproduced, at times raw and direct, at times acoustic and at other times oddly electronic (even while still being made with acoustic instruments). Post Koma is a culmination of this sonic study by Eldh, resulting in a music vision that never second-guesses throwing tasty hooks and everlasting melodies out the window after a mere bite of them. But fear not: there are even more new ideas just around the corner.

Eldh's compositions and ideas merge together in a way that just flows. There are quality musicians in the mix, including Koma Saxo live band members Sofia Jernberg, Jonas Kullhammar, Otis Sandsjö, Mikko Innanen, Maciej Obara and Christian Lillinger, but that's like saying that a cake includes flour and sugar. This music is not about playing, it's essentially about how the music is and how it takes its shape, so you quickly lose track of who did what, and that's all in the benefit of encountering this music as an entity that is constantly challenging itself while moving forward. The musicians are valued contributors, and an integral part of what's here, but this is far from traditional jazz playing where a band sits in a room playing takes after takes of compositions on sheet.

That being said, this is jazz to the fullest. That is, music that understands its past but always moves forward, and is never afraid of taking risks. Petter Eldh uses jazz as a starting point, not the end goal. This gives his music edge and mobility beyond what can be contained on one album. In a way, an album, then, becomes a snapshot of a creative process in constant flux and evolution.

Opening track "Koma" is literally drum & bass. It only consists of those two elements, yet what comes out of it is an open invite, a way of clearing your palette. It would be useless to describe individual tracks beyond that, but there's a strong sense of deliverance to the set. It feels like an ending, and also like a new beginning.

Beloved Polish downtempo / nu jazz masters Skalpel present an exquisite collection of the older Skalpel’s classics and some exclusive material performed live by a masterful 17-piece Big Band. Skalpel’s “Big Band Live” brings mellow, smoky vibes, hypnotic grooves and vibrant, occasionally blissful mood. Polish jazz at its best!

Skalpel is a nu-jazz classic. On their debut and sophomore albums “Skalpel” and “Konfusion” (Ninja Tune) they were able to resurrect the dusty spirit of the 60s & 70s jazz and reimagine it for the 21st century audiophiles. They created emotionally charged music, sophisticated in its structure. After ten years Skalpel returned in 2014 with “Transit” an album that segued from sample-based music into compositions created on virtual instruments. Their critically acclaimed 2020 album “Highlight” together with the follow-up: „Escape Remixes EP” (which included a remix by rising modern classical star Hania Rani and globally respected house duo Catz‘ N Dogz ) had almost 6 million streams on Spotify alone. Their last studio album „Origins” was an inspiring contemporary vision adapting various currents of electronica and dance music of the millennium era. The latest release earned them a „Polish Grammy” - Fryderyk Award.

The journey continues as Marcin Cichy and Igor Pudło present Skalpel Big Band. Patryk Pilasiewicz, composer and musician from Poznań, who is the originator of the idea, dissected and revised Skalpel’s music for a seventeen-person Big Band. The idea was to weave new, acoustic interpretation of Skalpel’s compositions with their original electronic sound.

Yearly compilation album RADAR by KEROXEN returns with its fourth volume in the ongoing series of themed based albums showcasing the talents and misfortunes of carefully selected musical projects based or connected with the Canary Islands.

With its first volume released in 2020 aiming to promote and divulge adventurous Island based music, the Keroxen imprint now presents Vol.4 with another showcase of the various insular musical scenes made in the outermost regions – in this case, a very rare incursion outside the Canary Archipelago by way of handpicking friends and colleagues working in the further most regions we can think of. A very special showcase then, featuring the Azores Islands, Reunion Island, Canary Islands and French Guiana - a true connection of likeminded minds whom demonstrate once again that you do not need to be in an western hipster mecca to make interesting work.

The presentation format sticks to its breakable rules, with each artist offering one track per side and the full thing of course wrapped up in Pura Marquez dizzying post-tropical art.

The album opens with the Julee Cruise inspired project Akane by Tenerife’s Carolina Machado where synth arpeggios intertwine organically with her soothing voice, setting the tone for Reunion Island’s Jako Maron and his unique take on local Maloya music by way of electrifying it into a trance like looping beat. Enter French Guyana’s Daryanna Jean unique sound artistry with sampling, cutting and pasting local(?) sounds into a disorientating needle jump glitch fest. Side A eventually closes with a very Azorean take on the very English hauntological sound by borrowing those pastoral melodies and synth riffs of yesterday and transposing it to the remote Sub-Tropical fields of São Miguel island, in the Azores, courtesy of Flipping Candy.

Side B emphatically reinforces the compilation’s original concept that no matter where you are, in this post internet, post everything world, outsider music thrives and keeps raising the invisible bar, true that!

Mick Jenkins, lyrical hip-hop mastermind and Chicago's Finest, returns with the album "The Patience." He chose to title it "The Patience" because it was that patience that he needed to get to the point in his career where he is now.

Waiting to get free from a label that didn't share his vision was very frustrating, especially since he had to consciously hold back his musical gems in order to release them in collaboration with a partner and team that believed in his art and supported him in his vision for his music.

During this time, Mick worked on his upcoming amazing body of work that has evolved into something very special. Mick at times compares himself to a star chef, brewing up lyrics, seasoning each line to perfection. The album is bursting with offbeat rhymes, sophisticated grooves and complex metaphors. On 'The Patience', the artist shows in an impressive way that he is one of the best in his genre.

Features on the album include JID, Freddie Gibbs, Benny The Butcher and Vic Mensa, who are no less eloquent as rappers and round out the record excellently. Also the production, peppered with live instruments and many jazz influences, makes the hip-hop hearts beat faster.

Buckle up and fasten the spaceship seatbelts! The Third Room, the multidisciplinary techno project from the industrial heart of Germany, is about to fire another satellite in the orbit. A stunning various artists series between fierce meteors, bright suns, dark moons and shining comets will continue to define the Essen-based collective's sound vision which is as diverse and timeless as space itself. Convince yourselves of a well-considered, galactical curation that contains quality tracks from talents, locals and longstays.

On the first of four releases, established producers named Beste Hira, Stranger, Alarico and OFF/GRID put out a stunning yet humble peak-time record. Four laser-beaming tunes speak for themselves and mark the beginning of the next chapter in the T3R adventure.

Don't miss to ascend to higher spheres - secure your copy and pre-order one of the limited records now!

©️ 2023 The Third Room
Mastering by Ahmet Sisman (The Third Room Studios)
Artwork by Daniel Bornmann & Elisa Jauch (Duat Agency)

Famous Last Words is a fully realised expansion of the dystopian futurism that has captivated audiences since CASISDEAD first announced himself in 2013. Over the past decade, he"s dipped in and out of the shadows, blessing fans with cult hits while maintaining his anonymity, shunning media attention and donning various masks; a rejection of the spotlight that"s helped to create folklore around a rapper who"s widely regarded as one of the UK"s most inventive lyricists. Famous Last Words is as much a sci-fi film as it is a rap record, a labyrinth of vice, crime and faded glamour. The listener steps through a portal into a realm narrated by CASISDEAD, whose command of storytelling drops you right into the underground of a city where he is the main character in a shady network of gangsters, girls and drug deals. However, Famous Last Words isn"t a story of bravado or posturing; much of the album deals in themes of loss, regret and paranoia, a persona constantly self-reflecting amongst the madness that surrounds him. The album features a carefully and idiosyncratically curated roll call of collaborators including Pet Shop Boys" Neil Tennant, Connie Constance, Kamio and Desire. The vocalists are immersed in CASISDEAD"s hallmark 80"s-inspired synthpop soundscapes, aided and abetted by a production cast that includes Stranger Things composer Kyle Dixon and producer, composer and Italians Do It Better label founder Johnny Jewel. Meanwhile, actors Ed Skrein and Emma Rigby"s narrative weaves through the record, amplifying the widescreen, cinematic experience.

On For Annette, singer-songwriter ronja summons forth a certain unbridgeable void within our existence and the acceptance of the deafening silence that comes with it. Weaving the strands of her previous release something about us with multiple openings towards more abstract territory, this 5-track EP marks her debut under the forward-thinking Unguarded label, astutely situating her music well beyond the confines of the genre.

The opening track “Nothing Makes Me Feel” beckons the listener into a discreet moment amid the early light of dawn, commencing with an up-close acoustic guitar, soon to be graced by ronja’s hushed voice, softly whispering, as if to avoid waking someone near. “Just Once”, with its weeping waltz, is about losing one’s place in the world, about choosing the imaginary over the real. Behind the strummed chords hides a soft dither of sine tones that attempts to fill the gap that cannot be filled, only to transform into quavering distortion ever after. Where language may falter, ronja turns to choral-like instrumental pieces (“Light” & “Grass from Below”), characterized by her distinctive and multi-layered flute arrangements. The absence of words here allows for a sensible stage of introspection, a fleeting and diaphanous pause, forging a passage to a more hopeful outlook. Yet, these pieces are not isolated; hints of fluttering air and cavernous depths are subtly alluded to in the earlier, more song-based tracks. In just under 18 minutes running time, the theme of loss, or the anticipation of its arrival, lingers solemnly before transcending intermediate states in “Almost There”.

Admirers of the dreamgaze band Roomer, which made waves in and around the Berlin music scene this past year, might detect faint resemblances. Nonetheless, ronja—a pivotal presence in said band—unveils a distinct effort here, striking subdued but enticing tones, a foreshadowing of what is yet to come from this luminary artist. – Luka Aron

Cylene II is the new materialization of the collaboration between François J. Bonnet & Stephen O"Malley, initiated in 2018 and continued without interruption since then, taking form in a myriad of contexts ranging from common practice to recording sessions, concerts and tours. Cylene II bears witness to these different contexts, offering a multifaceted sound signature developed on different occasions (artist residencies in La Becque, Switzerland and Modena, Italy, live performance excerpts, a studio session at INA-GRM Studios in Paris). The epic opening track "Four Rays (Anti Divide)" welcomes, for the first time, other musicians - in this case a wind quintet - expanding the duo"s sonic palette without betraying the fundamental component of their music, namely the driving of sonic energy. Elsewhere, Bonnet and O"Malley propel the energy between themselves, extending the singular climate that has characterized their musical development over the past five years. Among their minimal presentation of tones and resonances, as glacial harmonic intersections slowly elevate with massive physicality to an orchestral degree, new refinements become evident: the music"s relationship to silence, and a brightening of the fine metallic edge glowing at its core. For the listener, Cylene II is a sound that reaches from the deep and scales up to the far firmament in its careful motion, drawing emotions viscerally from the chest, giving rise to the suggestibility of the soul. A séance of sorts for all who witness it, whether playing or listening.

Yellow / black marbled vinyl. The Sensitives is a rough-haired mixed race dog of punk, rock'n'roll, SKA and folk! It's been touring around Europe, playing over 300 shows, spreading its musical wild oat resulting in a solid fanbase of people who, to their knockout punk, raises their middle finger to racism and sexism. The band have always kept the energy on a constant high, jumping between different styles and switching between the two singers Martin and Paulina, driven by the never resting Magnus behind the drums! The new album, Patch It Up and Go! is no different! The frustration from no touring during the pandemic and the emotional shock from a year of heavy touring as soon as the restrictions were lifted resulted in a worn out and damaged band coming home to lick their wounds. But they did what they've always done, turned their experiences and battles into songs, patched themselves up to go for it again! The result is the new album, Patch It Up and Go! and it covers topics like sex, mental health, animal rights and the importance of celebrating the good times we have while we have them! All of that in a high tempo with a positive vibe and high intensity, Patch It Up and Go! is the most personal and probably the best album from The Sensitives so far! Feet will be moving, hips will be shaking and throats will be singing!

Lately, if you blink you may miss Goose fly by. Attributing much of their success to a dedicated and exponentially expanding fan base, steady creative output, and a collective commitment to improvement, the band is now universally recognized as a premier musical act nationwide. Dripfield, Goose's forthcoming studio offering, is a tale of introspection, carefully dissecting the details of the journey. Produced and engineered by D. James Goodwin at The ISOKON in Woodstock, NY, Dripfield is the band's first full-length project completed exclusively with an executive producer. Known for his unconventional recording style and eclectic equipment collection, Goodwin guided Goose through an entirely new process of album creation. Undoubtedly the product of multiple sold out concerts and consistent recording and songwriting, Dripfield is anchored by the theme of balance. Fittingly, the project features a mix of unheard originals and re-imagined catalog staples.

Original 1998 album remastered and pressed on 180 gram virgin vinyl."I met them in full flower, in the depths of their mania, pursuing contemplative music with the kind of intensity normally found in psychopaths. No detail was too small to sweat, no crack in the veneer not worth gluing and clamping. We built a common language, equal parts philosophy, rock music, and disdain for the dullness around us." - Steve Albini, on recording Transaction De Novo.

LP - 180 Gram Grey Marble Vinyl / Handnumbered Edition limited to 300 Units Prodigious multi-instrumentalist Nate Wood joins the indefatigably creative partnership forged in New York City by Gilad Hekselman and Will Vinson. Urban Myth is a powerful, diverse but unified set of recordings that combines elements of jazz with pop accessibility and the directness and honesty of folk and delivers a new surprise at every turn. The Jazz Mann gave Trio Grande four stars and wrote about them "The sound of three huge individual talents coming together to create something that is even greater than the sum of its parts."

TVAM announces ‘Costasol’, his new EP for Invada Records. The 10” EP is pressed on translucent blue vinyl, and housed in a reverse board, spined sleeve.  TVAM returns to the sun lounger to deliver a horizontal view from the pool of self-reflection. Joe Oxley, aka TVAM, offers, “‘Costasol’ began life as two atmospheric interludes that I wrote for my last album, ‘High Art Lite’. Over time these ideas took on a life of their own and demanded that I take another look at them. I slowly began putting the pieces together and ended up with a track which became much more than the sum of its parts.” The resultant ‘Costasol’ is a song about longing, loss and regret wrapped-up in heatwave bass and shimmering guitars, all perfectly enhanced by Mona’s dreamlike vocal.  TVAM self-released his much-acclaimed debut, ‘Psychic Data’, in the Autumn of 2018. Something of a cult-classic, the album joined the dots between Suicide’s deconstructed rock ’n’ roll, Boards of Canada’s irresistible nostalgia and My Bloody Valentine’s infinite noise. ‘High Art Lite’, released in October 2022, took a different tilt to its predecessor by emphasising the immediate and the personal. The colours were blown-out and the brightness was cranked up.  It’s in this world where TVAM’s new ‘Costasol’ EP exists. Full of colour and noise, with a vibrant, distorted palette. Though the title track may find a home at some poolside retreat, the subsequent tracks return to TVAM’s claustrophobic realm. ‘Ephemerol’ evokes its own mutant groove, part ‘Midnite Vultures’ Beck, part ‘Pretty Hate Machine’ Nine Inch Nails, with ‘Heart Attack’ and ‘VHF’ rounding off this bold, bright, brief encounter.  Radio - BBC 6 Music Lauren Laverne, New Music Fix, Emily Pilbeam, Amazing Radio B-List.  Tourdates - October 22 SWN Festival Cardiff, November 11 Hebden Bridge Trades Club, 18 What Music? Liverpool.

Oslo-based sludge-metal power trio SAVER are back with a vengeance. The band's new album `From Ember And Rust' channels the bare-knuckle ferocity of their 2019 full-length debut, `They Came With Sunlight', alongside a formidable command of dynamic, texture and sonic space that belies the relative youth of the project. Having erupted into the Norwegian metal scene without warning, SAVER is the result of heavy veterans Ole Ulvik Rokseth, Markus Stole and Ole Christian Helstad combining their years of experience into one three-headed beast, hellbent on pushing the boundaries of what the band is collectively capable of. Restless by nature, SAVER are constantly refining and reinventing their sound. The band's debut record was followed by two wildly creative collaborations which saw the trio marry their signature ferocity with some unlikely creative bedfellows in order to test new depths. `Emerald', 2021's full-length release, paired SAVER's calculated minimalism with the frenetic, percussive energy of Belgian post-metal collective Psychonaut whilst last year's `Split EP' saw SAVER and Norwegian folk singer/songwriter Frodekal reinterpret a song from each other's back catalogue with hauntingly spectacular results. With this revelatory experience still ringing in their ears, `From Ember And Rust' bears all of SAVER's heavy hallmarks alongside a newfound sense of dynamic anticipation and organic progression, which ties the seven tracks together as a significant body of work in the band's ascendant trajectory. As well as sharing their years of experience making the heaviest music they can, SAVER also share a passion for the unmistakable soundscapes of classic science-fiction. Already a key component of SAVER's distinctive sound; Rokseth's otherworldly, cinematic synth work is given centre stage on `From Ember And Rust' as the band boldly embark on a new journey together. As their first non-collaborative release in four years, `From Ember And Rust' could be interpreted as the band returning to the safety of their roots. However, SAVER are more determined than ever to keep pushing their sound into uncharted territory as the world they find themselves in continues to turn.

Up wurde 1998 veröffentlicht und ist das elfte Studioalbum von R.E.M.

Das Album, das die Singles ”Daysleeper”, ”Lotus”, ”Suspicion” und ”At My Most Beautiful” enthält, ist von elektronischer Musik inspiriert und nutzt eine breite Palette von Instrumenten, um eine verträumte Poplandschaft zu schaffen, die nachdenklich und stimmungsvoll ist.

Diese erweiterte Deluxe-Edition zum 25-jährigen Jubiläum bietet außerdem ein komplettes, bisher unveröffentlichtes Live-Set vom Auftritt der Band in der 90er Jahre HitTV-Serie Party of Five. Es war das erste Album der Band ohne Schlagzeuger Bill Berry. Das Album war von elektronischer Musik beeinflusst, und Stipe erklärte, dass mehrere Songs das ”religiös-spirituelle versus wissenschaftlich-technisch-moderne Zeitalter” thematisieren.

Es erreichte Platz 3 der Billboard 200 und Platz 1 der deutschen Charts.

Mommy’s Little Monster, veröffentlicht 1983, ist das erste Album von Social Distortion. Es wurde in einer einzigen Session aufgenommen und enthält die Single ”Another State of Mind”. All Music bezeichnete das Album als ”Inbegriff des kalifornischen Vorstadt-Punks der frühen 80er Jahre und als Inspiration für viele spätere Kalifornier, darunter The Offspring und Rancid” und sagte, dass es ”die Band mit viel Attitüde und Aggression ausstattet, während sie sich durch neun Tracks voller harter, schneller, mit Powerchords gefüllter Tracks mit knurrigen Anti-Establishment-Texten und - Themen kämpft”.

Zu dem 40-jährigen Jubiläum wird es das Album neu gemastert von den analogen Originalbändern und auf 180-Gramm-Vinyl gepresst geben. Enthalten sein wird das Album die neun Originalsongs, darunter den Titeltrack ”Mommy’s Little Monster” und die Single ”Another State of Mind”.

Ab dem 10.11.2023 als 1LP verfügbar sein.

Oslo-based sludge-metal power trio SAVER are back with a vengeance. The band's new album `From Ember And Rust' channels the bare-knuckle ferocity of their 2019 full-length debut, `They Came With Sunlight', alongside a formidable command of dynamic, texture and sonic space that belies the relative youth of the project. Having erupted into the Norwegian metal scene without warning, SAVER is the result of heavy veterans Ole Ulvik Rokseth, Markus Stole and Ole Christian Helstad combining their years of experience into one three-headed beast, hellbent on pushing the boundaries of what the band is collectively capable of. Restless by nature, SAVER are constantly refining and reinventing their sound. The band's debut record was followed by two wildly creative collaborations which saw the trio marry their signature ferocity with some unlikely creative bedfellows in order to test new depths. `Emerald', 2021's full-length release, paired SAVER's calculated minimalism with the frenetic, percussive energy of Belgian post-metal collective Psychonaut whilst last year's `Split EP' saw SAVER and Norwegian folk singer/songwriter Frodekal reinterpret a song from each other's back catalogue with hauntingly spectacular results. With this revelatory experience still ringing in their ears, `From Ember And Rust' bears all of SAVER's heavy hallmarks alongside a newfound sense of dynamic anticipation and organic progression, which ties the seven tracks together as a significant body of work in the band's ascendant trajectory. As well as sharing their years of experience making the heaviest music they can, SAVER also share a passion for the unmistakable soundscapes of classic science-fiction. Already a key component of SAVER's distinctive sound; Rokseth's otherworldly, cinematic synth work is given centre stage on `From Ember And Rust' as the band boldly embark on a new journey together. As their first non-collaborative release in four years, `From Ember And Rust' could be interpreted as the band returning to the safety of their roots. However, SAVER are more determined than ever to keep pushing their sound into uncharted territory as the world they find themselves in continues to turn.

Rising indie artist BROCKHOFF. Her sound combines the 90s influences blossoming in the American pop scene with contemporary themes – performed by her predominantly female band.

The rocking sound of BROCKHOFF can do both: appealing a young indie audience identifying with US artists like Phoebe Bridgers, Soccer Mommy or beabadoobee, as well as cross-generational followers of artists like Fleetwood Mac, Sheryl Crow or The Cardigans.

Singer-songwriter Thom Morecroft releases his sophomore album, “Waiting For Leo.” Drawing inspiration from the rich songwriting style of 1970s folk-rock and infusing it with the distinctive aesthetic lens of Glasgow’s C86 scene, Morecroft delivers a captivating lo-fi experience that pays homage to the past while carving its own unique path. Think Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young meets the infectious energy of Teenage Fanclub’s “Bandwagonesque.” During the pandemic-induced lockdowns of 2020 and beyond, Thom embarked on a remarkable creative journey, offering his Patreon subscribers a new digital album every month. It is within these prolific collections that the songs for “Waiting For Leo” were born. With an abundance of time and the freedom to explore his creative impulses, Morecroft crafted a collection of songs that are reflective, philosophical, and deeply personal. Some look towards the future with hope, others reminisce about the past, while some capture the essence of the present moment, and a few wander into realms of pure fantasy. As Thom navigated the challenge of selecting the final tracklist, he honed and refined each composition, adding production elements and creating a cohesive sonic tapestry. “Waiting For Leo” is an album that manages to strike a delicate balance, emanating a sense of contentment and carefree spirit while simultaneously delving into themes of family, alcoholism, grief, and loss. The introspective nature of these songs, born out of a period devoid of external stimulation, allows listeners to embark on a thought-provoking journey alongside Morecroft. Reflecting on the album’s title, Thom shares, “The album is called ‘Waiting for Leo’ because the songs were written and recorded during the period before my partner and I discovered we were expecting our son. There is also the famous Samuel Beckett play called ‘Waiting for Godot,’ which I must confess I have never seen. Is it good?” “Waiting For Leo” stands as a testament to Thom Morecroft’s artistic growth and showcases his ability to merge captivating songwriting with a distinct sonic aesthetic. As listeners immerse themselves in the intimate world he has created, they will discover a tapestry of emotions that resonate deeply.

LP SHIPPING ONLY / CD DELAYED “This is definitely the most honest and mature record Deathchant has ever made.” That’s Deathchant vocalist and guitarist T.J. Lemieux talking about the band’s third and latest album, Thrones. Think of it as not just the follow-up to 2021’s Waste, but the other side of the coin. “While Waste and our self-titled album touched on similar themes, they were sort of from a problem standpoint,” he explains. “Thrones is full of reflection, self-realization, and solutions for moving forward and conquering those problems.” Which isn’t to say that Deathchant have gone soft. Far from it, dude. In fact, Thrones just might be their heaviest record thus far. The band’s seamless swirl of classic rock guitar harmonies, syrupy sludge, blues boogie and psych bombast has reached a thrilling new apex as Lemieux spins high-powered tales of reckoning from beyond the wall of sanity. Thematically, Lemieux and his bandmates—bassist George Camacho, guitarist Doug Stuckey and drummer Joe Herzog—peel back the veneer of self-delusion to expose the fork in the road. “Thrones is meant to represent things that rule you, things you worship, things you rely on or think you need,” Lemieux says. “Sometimes those things make you feel in control, safe, on top of the world like you're in power—which over time often proves untrue.” Witness lead single “Mirror”: Kicking off with gleaming Lizzy-isms, the song rumbles into a thick groove overlaid with lysergic fireworks that conjure the shaggy European movers of decades past. “‘Mirror’ is the key to the whole Thrones theme,” Lemieux explains. “It’s about looking inward to realize what's ruling you, what's consuming you, and how delusional you've been about those things. Your sense of self is so damn important, and fully facing your truths is not an easy thing to do. It’s admitting that you’ve intentionally dulled and quieted your mind to distract, avoid and run from yourself, from memory, from loss and truth. At some point, you have to face that shit.” The languid and dreamy “Mother Mary” is also crucial to Thrones’ trajectory. “If the album was a book, ‘Mirror’ would be the first chapter and ‘Mother Mary’ would be the last chapter, though they’re not the first and last track for sonic reasons,” Lemieux explains. “‘Mirror’ is saying, ‘I’m looking inward because some things need to change,’ while ‘Mother Mary’ is saying, ‘Okay, things are fucked and have gone way too far but now we have this understanding—and acknowledging things is key to overcoming.’” Thrones was recorded live in a cabin in the remote mountain community of Frazier Park, CA, with trusty engineer Steve Schroeder (a.k.a. Schroeds). “We moved in for a week, rehearsed a bit and went for it,” Lemieux says. “Each tune got three or so takes, but we nailed ‘Mother Mary’ and ‘Canyon’ right away.” Overdubs were done at the cabin, Schroeder’s Studio 3, and Lemieux’s place. The album was produced by Lemieux and Schroeder. “Overall, it’s a pretty dark record,” Lemieux says. “It's serious and leans into heavy themes, sometimes using metaphor and imagery to soften those blows, but sometimes it hits direct. It’s positive, though—and cathartic. Forever riding on the line of total insanity and flirting with mental degradation. It’s our most realized and ambitious record to date.”

New Zealand indie trifecta Mermaidens, are set to make a resounding splash in the music scene yet again with the announcement of their fourth self-titled album and release of the project's first single ‘I like to be alone’. The trio, comprising of Gussie Larkin (guitar/vocals), Lily West (bass/vocals), and Abe Hollingsworth (drums), has been on an impressive journey of musical excellence, boasting three critically acclaimed albums, international tours, and a slew of accolades to their name. With a sound that is both bold and adventurous, Mermaidens' music is a testament to their unwavering creativity and relentless work ethic. Their upcoming self-titled album, a product of the band's tireless efforts between 2019 - 2022, promises to be a captivating sonic journey, delving into themes of self-awareness, introspection, long-term love, and even channelling political anger and frustration. Recorded mainly at Surgery Studios in Wellington, with the engineering prowess of Lee Prebble and produced by Samuel Flynn-Scott of The Phoenix Foundation fame, the album also saw the band stepping up their production game with Gussie and Lily working their magic with Protools in their DIY home studios, showcasing their growth and versatility as artists. “Working with Sam has really been a round-trip in our creativity,” as Lily explains, “we grew up listening to Sam’s early records and here we are getting the inside scoop on how to make that kind of magic. Listening to Pegasus today still transports me to a time when I listened to music on a Walkman. In the best possible way - sometimes it felt like we’d added an evil genius to the mix, we’d be working on a song and he’d come in like a mad scientist with fresh ideas to try.” To give fans a taste of the upcoming album's brilliance, Mermaidens have released new single 'I like to be alone.' The song has been part of the band's live repertoire for a while and explores the fulfilling contentment of being alone and the struggle to convey this sentiment to a partner. Its relatable lyrics capture the essence of cherishing solitude while navigating the complexities of human connections. Gussie's candid and honest approach to self-discovery is complemented by the song's, Michel Gondry inspired video, as Gussie explains: “The giant jean pocket and denim world were created by Hannah Webster, a textile designer and illustrator based in Wellington. Hannah took all the wild ideas for props and made them come true! I’m still in awe of how she managed to sew a 6x6 metre backdrop for the denim world out of whatever scraps she could find. The video captures our playfulness and sense of humour, and is a hint of what’s to come for the rest of the music videos. I love the way the story wraps up with the three of us together, literally playing “in the pocket”. Mermaidens' self-titled album will be released on Friday 3 November 2023 and is available for pre-order now. UK listeners will be able to pick up an exclusive Rough Trade vinyl pressing in transparent red, along with an A3 poster and jumbo bumper sticker. Having released their last two albums through iconic local label Flying Nun, Mermaidens will be released independently. Creative control is an important pillar for the band, who are hands on in every facet of their projects. Mermaidens gather their community close via their hugely popular multi-city boutique festival Mermgrown, hosting peers including Womb, Hans Pucket, Vera Ellen (Girl Friday) and Kōtiro from 2021 onwards. They've been invited to share the stage with Death Cab For Cutie, Sleater-Kinney, Gang of Four, Parquet Courts, Lorde and The Veils, and have toured extensively in Europe, the UK, and Australia.

Celebrating the 30 anniversary of this legendary cult band from Argentina, with more than 150 releases in labels from Japan, Europe, Oceania, Latin America and USA and shows played and their music presented all over the world. A nondescript, experimental, truly original band with a story to match their legacy. LP includes fold out insert. At last! A comprehensive compilation documenting the exciting career of the legendary experimental Argentinian cult band. A career overview through eight of their most mesmerizing compositions. The fact that their drummer and singer Miguel Tomasin has down syndrome not only makes them one of the longest-running and most notable inclusive rock bands of all time, but also allows us to appreciate the importance of Miguel's creative contribution, both for his singular way of singing and for his inimitable verbal inventions. For his work with the band, Miguel stands as one of the most relevant personalities with down's syndrome in the world and his name appears mentioned in diverse books of neuroscience and neurodiversity. Their long list of collaborators includes luminaries such as Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), Pauline Oliveiros, Damo Suzuki (Can), The Nihilist Spasm Band, Michael Snow, N U Unruh (Einstürzende Neubauten), Alan Licht, Pajarito Zaguri, Acid Mothers Temple, John Oswald and many more.

Flora Yin Wong’s ravishing interiority finds lucid expression on an absorbing second album for Modern Love, manifesting her instrumental storytelling in a syncretic bind of supernatural themes with hyperrealist, concrète sound design.

Through ten parts, Flora crystallises the ennui that followed an uncanny, disorienting trip to East and Southeast Asia. “On an unexpected stopover in Hong Kong after five years away, my friends took me to a Bazi reader one night - something I was curious about, but much of a ritual for them - ” Flora recalls. “My father told me that when I was born, he had obtained an auspicious reading that since stayed like a guiding talisman with me. It was almost past midnight but people were still lined up, rather shaken and visibly upset, to see the old man. He had kind eyes and asked me why I was there and I said I was at a crossroads. He asked me my time and date of birth, and told me to pick one of his four little white canary birds as a vessel for divination.”

This was the final stretch of an ultimately aimless few months across the continent, including a 20 year overdue return with her father to his adoptive family in his hometown Kuala Lumpur - for many reasons, ended up as a strange and uncanny trip. She spent solitude in a haunted house during the quiet snowfall of Kyoto, where she might have offended some spirit... and nights in mountain temples with South Korean monks, and an equally strange feeling return to the Island of the Gods.

“It culminated in what felt like a final disillusionment with Asia - sudden deaths and a breakdown in beliefs - somewhere I never really have or will be able to connect with. The process of the reading summoned a final blow to my gut - an overwhelming sense of rootlessness, and understanding that all there is is emptiness and entropy. No birth-divined protection, just a measurement of the night sky based off nothing and everything.”

Heavy with a sense of nightmarish dissociation and grief, Flora read about Giuseppe Tartini’s ‘Violin Sonata in G Minor’, aka the Devil’s Trill Sonata, a notoriously tricky c.18th composition which attempted to transcribe music heard in a dream, which the composer felt he could never fully bring into reality. It’s this soporific motif that binds and underpins ’Cold Reading’, finding Flora chasing the dragon of fleeting fantasy through passages of etched melancholy, pinched with hypnagogic jerks that linger in the memory.

From her use of the ‘Devil’s Trill’ Sonata in ‘All My Dreams are Nightmares’ through evocations of subtropical humidity in the Bryn Jones-esque, resonant hand-played percussion of ‘Konna’ and ‘Banjar’, to a breathtaking dreampop denouement ‘Nectar Dripping’ and the Enya-like lush of ‘Beautiful Crisis’, Flora blooms her ideas with an openended ambiguity so often missing from so called Ambient music, ushering the listener into a soundworld that disturbs and displaces, just as much as it calms.

Direct from Tokyo, stars from "Kill Bill" play Sheena & The Rockets' 1979 hit "You May Dream", with the "Batman Theme" on the b-side. Limited edition 7" vinyl.

DEVO’s Hardcore documents the group’s beginning as pre-punk outcasts in the fertile Akron, Ohio, underground rock scene. Spawned at the nearby college of Kent State, site of the infamous May 4 Massacre, DEVO formed as a conceptual art project armed with the radical philosophy of de-evolution. Brothers Mothersbaugh (Mark, Bob and Jim) and Brothers Casale (Jerry and Bob) along with drummer Alan Myers soon whipped up an otherworldly brand of “devolved blues” that could hold its own alongside the beatnik groove of 15-60-75 (a.k.a. The Numbers Band) or the primal rock poetry of The Bizarros. Recorded on various four-track machines and in tiny studios, basements and garages between 1974-1977, Hardcore reveals their strikingly clear vision: rock ’n’ roll stripped bare of its collective cool and jerked back into propaganda fit for post-modern man. It’s no surprise that these transmissions would soon catch the eye and ear of Brian Eno, who later produced their landmark 1978 debut album. Noisy synth, strangled guitar chops and a primitive rhythmic thud power the early DEVO sound. Threaded beneath it all are lyrical themes of post-McCarthy paranoia, middle-class ephemera and DEVO’s long-running topic of choice: sex, or lack thereof. Few moments in pop music history can match the grinding, pent-up energy of “Mongoloid” and the spastic bounce and sputter of “Jocko Homo” (two anthems presented in their earlier and superior versions here). Cult favorites like “Mechanical Man” and “Auto-Modown” make Volume 1 essential listening. Superior Viaduct and Booji Boy Records are proud to present DEVO’s Hardcore to a new generation of spuds, lovingly packaged with Moshe Brakha’s stunning cover photography. As David Bowie said in 1977, DEVO is indeed “the band of the future.”

The sound that swallows jazz rock, mode jazz, and free jazz is serious and profound.

A magnificent concept album that will remain in the history of Japanese jazz with the theme of global anti-war and peace

Hiromasa Suzuki, a rare pianist/composer/arranger who showed his skills in the groups of Terumasa Hino and Akira Ishikawa. Collaborating with Big Soul Media, led by Jiro Inagaki, one of the best jazz rock groups of our time, this work is unusual for a Japanese jazz work, and the concept is based on the theme of “global anti-war and peace.”

The sound that swallows jazz rock, mode jazz, and free jazz is serious and solid, but at the same time, it is full of overwhelming dynamism.

Suzuki’s ability to manage a big band and create a masterpiece sound is also splendid, and Big Soul Media, which listened to Suzuki’s intentions and responded to his request, is also splendid.

Both Suzuki and Inagaki’s activities in the jazz-rock era are at their peak, and this work is also important in that it captures the overlap.

text by Yusuke Ogawa (universounds/Deep Jazz Reality)

Composition/Arrangement/Conductor: Hiromasa Suzuki
Performed by Jiro Inagaki and Big Soul Media
Jiro Inagaki (S.Sax, T.Sax)
Shigeo Suzuki (A.Sax)
Tadayuki Harada (B.Sax)
Takehisa Suzuki (Trumpet)
Tetsuo Fushimi (Trumpet)
Takeshi Nomura (Trumpet)
Shigemichi Domoto (Trombone)
Tadataka Nakazawa (Trombone)
Kazuo Usui (Trombone)
Tsunehide Matsuki (Guitar)
Masaru Imada (Piano, Organ)
Hiromasa Suzuki (Piano, Organ)
Yasuo Arakawa (Bass) / Gen Ishimatsu (Drums)

Worthy re-issue of Robert Cotter's second late 70's soul album! Comprising five songs, with four of them being quite lengthy and well-structured for the dance floor, was entirely recorded in the United States by top-notch American musicians. "Timeless", a fresh and lively expression of late 70s soul music, was recorded at the Sundragon Studio in New York. This studio was home to legendary bands such as Talking Heads and Ramones, as well as a few 'disco studio groups' like Andrea True Connection, Tony Valor Sound Orchestra, and Camouflage, who recorded songs that later became considerable hits. For this reason, it's believed that the positive outcome of the album can be partially attributed to Ned Liben, an eclectic New York musician and co-founder of the studio in the Flatiron district of Manhattan, served as an exhaustive interlocutor for any artistic and technical needs. He was also the arranger of "Rock Me With Your Love", the most significant song on the album. Ned's successful mission was to capture the maximum timbral fidelity of Robert Cotter's voice using appropriate recording techniques, assisted by Michael George Ewing, a talented engineer who had previously worked on similar projects with well-known artists like Carol Williams, Maryann Farra & Satin Soul, Touch and Tony Valor. In fact, the piece features original and melodious lines, coupled with an excellent steady rhythm, spanning approximately 8 minutes and 30 seconds - in short, "a delightful sound for every beat." This ensured that the performance of the young singer-songwriter from New Jersey was faithfully reproduced without neglecting the overall musical landscape. The other four songs, arranged by Ben Lazzaroni with the same musicians as the first piece, are no exception. Best Record also delivered on the promise to Robert's older brother, Karl Potter, a powerful percussionist transplanted to Rome, for whom the roman label produced "Sweet & Salty Cha-Cha-Cha" (12", 1986). Robert Cotter, an artist about whom almost nothing has been written, is poised to gain recognition once word spreads about his album, which has been entirely remastered by Dom Scuteri and features a more congenial tracklist. This album is destined to be truly 'timeless', ready to captivate audiences around the world. Even the new cover artwork, created by Nerina Fernandez, pays homage to an artist who, despite expressing himself with elegance and simplicity, radiates energy and exudes love. "Timeless" is an inevitable revelation for anyone who missed it at the time, and for the next 40-plus years, it will remain an absolute must-listen for Robert Cotter's many fans, leaving them all in awe. In addition to the reissue on the classic glossy black vinyl, a strictly limited edition on red vinyl will be released exclusively by Clone Distribution.

Worthy re-issue of Robert Cotter's second late 70's soul album! Comprising five songs, with four of them being quite lengthy and well-structured for the dance floor, was entirely recorded in the United States by top-notch American musicians. "Timeless", a fresh and lively expression of late 70s soul music, was recorded at the Sundragon Studio in New York. This studio was home to legendary bands such as Talking Heads and Ramones, as well as a few 'disco studio groups' like Andrea True Connection, Tony Valor Sound Orchestra, and Camouflage, who recorded songs that later became considerable hits. For this reason, it's believed that the positive outcome of the album can be partially attributed to Ned Liben, an eclectic New York musician and co-founder of the studio in the Flatiron district of Manhattan, served as an exhaustive interlocutor for any artistic and technical needs. He was also the arranger of "Rock Me With Your Love", the most significant song on the album. Ned's successful mission was to capture the maximum timbral fidelity of Robert Cotter's voice using appropriate recording techniques, assisted by Michael George Ewing, a talented engineer who had previously worked on similar projects with well-known artists like Carol Williams, Maryann Farra & Satin Soul, Touch and Tony Valor. In fact, the piece features original and melodious lines, coupled with an excellent steady rhythm, spanning approximately 8 minutes and 30 seconds - in short, "a delightful sound for every beat." This ensured that the performance of the young singer-songwriter from New Jersey was faithfully reproduced without neglecting the overall musical landscape. The other four songs, arranged by Ben Lazzaroni with the same musicians as the first piece, are no exception. Best Record also delivered on the promise to Robert's older brother, Karl Potter, a powerful percussionist transplanted to Rome, for whom the roman label produced "Sweet & Salty Cha-Cha-Cha" (12", 1986). Robert Cotter, an artist about whom almost nothing has been written, is poised to gain recognition once word spreads about his album, which has been entirely remastered by Dom Scuteri and features a more congenial tracklist. This album is destined to be truly 'timeless', ready to captivate audiences around the world. Even the new cover artwork, created by Nerina Fernandez, pays homage to an artist who, despite expressing himself with elegance and simplicity, radiates energy and exudes love. "Timeless" is an inevitable revelation for anyone who missed it at the time, and for the next 40-plus years, it will remain an absolute must-listen for Robert Cotter's many fans, leaving them all in awe.

After holding down a residency at Berlin’s Club der Visionaere for over a decade with their Perfumed Freedom events, dynamic duo Foehn & Jerome look to launch an exciting new record label under the same name. The Berlin based Austrian’s have teamed up for the inaugural release, wandering between tripped out minimalistic vibes with tinges of house textures spread across the record. This is “The Frisbee Of No Return”.

Join Foehn & Jerome as they evolve the Perfumed Freedom journey with their unrivalled chemistry, giving themselves and dedicated artists a platform to express themselves in the years to come.

Following much love for his EPs, remixes and club sets, the virtuosic DJ/producer Simo Cell’s debut album 'Cuspide des Sirènes' doesn’t disappoint. In fact, it takes things to a whole new level.

With a fantastical menagerie of anthropomorphism, sounds create characters and tools; the mermaid-like Sirens, the mind controlling Octopus and the Magic Conch Shell:

“Have you heard of the legend of 'Cuspide des Sirènes'? This is not a simple tale, but an incredible tapestry woven over many years and through countless wondrous adventures. I will recount the legend as it was recorded in the ancient scrolls.

The album’s story explores the themes of magic, enchantment, charm, and allure, but also personal fears. The protagonist (me) embarks on a quest to find the hidden lake and confront his own demons, in order to understand and master his own power.

The protagonist is armed with a powerful conch shell. As he embarks on his journey, he will encounter Sirens who will teach him various chants. These melodies hold unique powers and grant the main character the strength to confront and overcome any danger that may arise.” Simo Cell

Musically, the LP is a continuation of Simo’s journey that began with the ‘YES.DJ’ EP, with a synthesized/modernized take on noughties hip hop, bass music, trap, ghetto house and ghetto tech – but here he broadens the scope, massively.

Exploring new pathways through magical landscapes, via infused melodies, emo and pop, the sensations are bright and addictive, like a sugar and endorphin cocktail. There’s a screen sheen and video game quality too, sounding like the high-octane score to an action flick from the year 3000, with unimaginably wild SFX.

'Cuspide des Sirènes' is the kind of record to stop someone in their tracks, to ask “what IS this?”, provoking bass face, perplexion, fascination and manic glee, all at once. Not so much organised chaos as intricately-crafted-borderline-unhingement, the album is slightly bonkers, in a very good way. There’s a boundless sense of childlike, unencumbered imagination at play, and an abundance of fun, but there are moments of serious-deep-beat-science for the heads, and introspective passages too.

There’s a lot going on, with detail, layers, flourishes, arrangement, melodies and myriad fresh sounds – but it’s never too much; just a really engrossing listen – the kind that that ruins ones appetite for prosaic, vanilla dance music, rendering such 2D pursuits boring and obsolete.

Ideally, the album is meant to be experienced as a seamless narrative from start to finish, so leave any inhibitions or preconceptions at the door, and let the pied piper of electronic futurism lead you way down the rabbit hole.

Spirit of Sundaze Ensemble (SOSE) is the latest evolution from London based DJ / producer, label and party series Secretsundaze. Sitting at the intersection of live music and electronic music innovation, leading contemporary musicians reimagine, record and perform a selection of tracks which have been foundational across Secretsundaze’s 20+ year history, embracing a myriad of influences from Balearic to synth pop to Brit funk.

EP 1 opens with their first single, a re-imagination of Photek’s seminal ‘Mine to Give’. Featuring Wayne Snow on vocals and garnering wide support from the likes of BBC 6 Music heads Gilles Peterson and Nabihah Iqbal, through to NTS and Worldwide FM tastemakers including Zakia, Moxie and Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy, the tempo is slowed and explored in a more synthy 80s production style.

Next is their take on Joyce Sims’ (RIP) ‘Come into My Life’, moving the original Mantronix production into a more contemporary UK / Street Soul / Balearic territory.

The B-side sees them take on beloved Phil Asher (RIP) production, Nathan Haines’ stunning ‘Earth is the Place’, a classic Secretsundaze record if ever there was one. Featuring the vocals of Cherise, the SOSE version is a dance floor ready update which will appeal to all lovers of proper deep, soulful-leaning house music, one for the heads.

Closing the record is a flip of Wbeeza’s ‘Coast Spotting’. Featuring synths from the excellent Hinako Omori, this one goes in with an extended late night transcendental electronic / jazz rework with the original’s looped lead line modulating throughout the piece.

Leading musicians feature on the record including Myele Manzanza (Theo Parrish, Sound Signature), Lewis Moody (Zeitgeist Freedom Energy Exchange), Nikos Ziarkas (Theon Cross, Chelsea Carmichael), Oli Savill (Basement Jaxx), and Johnny Brierley (Fofoulah).

Following their debut sold out show at Southbank’s Centre Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Ensemble next take to the London stage at the iconic EartH Theatre, Dalston on September 21st for an EP launch party as well as a headline open-air concert at Las Dalias, Ibiza as part of Beat Hotel on September 30th.

All in all, an impressive debut showcasing the breadth and scope of this exciting new live project from Secretsundaze founder James Priestley, one to watch.

Standard Sleeve singles & Engraved Wooden Box. Vinyl comes with Download Card & Custom Laser Engraved Wooden Box. Recommend If You Like: Kramer, Jad Fair, Britta Phillips, David Grubbs, Paul Leary, Rob Crow, Danielson, Eerie Wanda. “In 2022, the pandemic seemed to be receding to the point where artists could work together again, literally side by side. So, as a kind of 'follow-up' to my Joyful Noise 2020 Artist-in-Residence box set, I revisited the notion of a limited-edition vinyl box celebrating the joys of collaboration. i thought about it for a good long while, and eventually, it felt good. I then put the idea under a microscope and found that it felt even better when I minimized the project to six 33rpm EP's on 7" vinyl. The borderless landscapes of audio art, tempered by the imaginations of the artists I chose to work with, then cast against the myriad infinities of mysteries betwixt those ageless, spinning rings...those rings that seem to sing, "...listen to us..." Rings of Saturn won't change the world, but the words & music dervishing off these grooves accurately expresses the Love poured into the foundations beneath these Nocturnes (w/ Britta Phillips), Psalms (w/ David Grubbs), Preludes (w/ Eerie Wanda), Elegies (w/ Jad Fair & Danielson), Laments (w/ Paul Leary), and Hymns (w/ Rob Crow). Working with others is my lifeblood. I am nothing without them.” Kramer, 2023.

Assegai is an instrumental rock outfit consisting of saxophone, bass, guitar, and drums. Each member of the group brings a variety of musical influences to the eclectic entanglement that is Assegai’s distinct sound. No matter where you place yourself musically you will always find something to grab your attention in their odd type of instrumental rock. The album Water Worlds and Dry Spells is the product of a mutual pile of ideas; written sketches, memorized conversations, and cell phone recordings which were all collected in a joint cloud folder, and eventually laid the foundation of the compositions. Continuing from their 2020 album Kraal and their 2022 album 53, this release is a further development of the unity that the band have found themselves in, where jazz phrases fuse with krautrock repetition, traditional folk themes, and polyrhythmic structures. The compositions on Water Worlds and Dry Spells showcase the intensity that the band has cultivated during the last couple of years of live performances. On Water World and Dry Spells Assegai acts as the perfect live band for a future abandoned water world

Is it really possible to create without making references? Feeling inspired without being inspired from the outer space ? With this disc, Tushen Raï comes to reconnect with his first passion, collecting records and falling in love with pieces that have unfairly fallen into oblivion, left behind, lost in the meanders of the musical hyper productivity of the 80s and 90s.

As a tribute to these unlucky melodies : he samples, he reinvents, he reconstructs. Not in the hope of giving them a second life, and without the pretention of changing their destiny. But simply to cherish them, to show them his love and his respect for what they are.
As a geographical snub, Tushen Raï chose to invite his neighbors, both producers and friends, to join forces on this trip through Peru, Finland, Italy and France. A singular record like an ode to curiosity, thought under the sign of sharing and respect.

The first release in a new catalog series dedicated to the 7" . Here are two reworks produced between Italy and the United States, inspired by Italian cosmic atmospheres of the late 70s: “Cascades” by Stephen Schlacks (1978) and “Pulsazioni” by Filippo Trecca (1979).

“Cascate Emozionali Volume One” is a tribute to these two composers, and to all others that, just like them, have created immortal melodies and atmospheres. This project is also a work of sound archeology, of careful research of the synthesizers and the sounds that have given life to the original versions, here reproduced with a contemporary luster, honoring their original essence.
This music is a container full of emotions, of nostalgia for an era that no longer exists, of faded memories that are suspended in the cosmos, of moments that we miss. All of them connected to our childhood, our family, to our loved ones, and to the objects that were there all along, like the “Selene” chair of Vico Magistretti, redesigned for the cover by French illustrator Alexis Jamet.

Music to remember.

Repress!

Having established himself as a talented, Jungle-influenced artist, Sam Binary is to appear on The North Quarter with his first extended project on the label. Collaborating with fellow producer Deviant on three tracks and spanning multiple tempos, the EP stays rooted in a common theme: Sam Binary’s love letter to 90s Intelligent Jungle. 

Using modern techniques and production styles combined with classic hardware such as the E5000 Ultra sampler and the Mackie CR1604-VLZ mixing desk, the Bristol producer has created a unique, 90s-reminiscent sound. The result is bundled in a 7-track EP, equally suited for the dance floor as it is for listening at home.

“This release is really a love letter to 90s Intelligent Jungle and the Liquid Funk that emerged after it in the 2000s, paying homage to the music that inspired me to originally start producing nearly a decade ago”, Sam Binary explains. ‘Reality Slip’ will be released August 19th on The North Quarter.

Transversales proudly presents the first LP reissue of “Les granges brûlées”, original soundtrack written and performed by Jean-Michel Jarre shortly after his work experience at G.R.M (Groupe de Recherches Musicales).

Probably one the first ever electronic music score, recorded with very scanty means: a VCS3 synthesizer, a Farsifa organ and three synchronized Revox tape recorders.

Director Jean Chapot, who understood immediately the interest in the gap between this hyper classical rural thriller and this groundbreaking music, let Jarre absolutely free to compose. Built up around several melodic leitmotifs, the score of “Les granges brûlées” allowed Jarre to pursue his personal research: to bridge the gap between experimental music and pop music. This deluxe reissue also contains the bonus track “Happiness Is a Sad Song” composed during Jarre's time at the G.R.M.


“Aphex Twin told me once that the original soundtrack of “Les granges brûlées” was one of his favorite records” JeanMichel Jarre

More than 3 years after the release of his last EP "Dance Machine", DJ Reiz is coming back with "No Man's Land", cruising between Trance, Hard Trance and Acid.

The opening track "Break A Leg" gives you the tone with a rolling bassline punctuated with Acid notes and cosmic gates to completely break up to an old school Dance line.

The following and main track of the EP "No Man's Land" will take you back to a nostalgic trip through a melancholic melody, evolving on retro stabs over the tune.

In 3rd position, “Soleil Froid” (Cold Sun) is a track telling a story beyond the music.

The chords are inspired by the iconic "Laura Palmer's Theme" by Angelo Badalamenti, the composer of the original soundtrack from David Lynch’s series « Twin Peaks ». Through the melancholic melody, the music gently encourages the listener to dig into their imagination.

DICA is completing the EP with his own vision of "Break A Leg" in a powerful Acid Trance remix.

Supported by KI/KI, MCMLXXXV, Daria Kolosova, Bad Boombox, Eargasm God, Amazingblaze & more

'Bruno & The Birds' is an album by Jullian Gomes that dives into the depths of the internal battles we face and the courage required to break free from our comfort zones. With forward thinking production and introspective messages in the music, the album takes listeners on a transformative journey of self-discovery. Throughout the album, Jullian Gomes skilfully weaves a narrative centred around the character, Bruno, who serves as a metaphor for the struggles and conflicts we encounter within ourselves. The songs delve into the inner demons that individuals face, representing the personal challenges and doubts that affect us all. The album is thought-provoking and emotive, resonating with the universal themes of self-doubt, fear, and the quest for personal growth.

With its dynamic soundscapes and diverse musical influences, 'Bruno & The Bird' invites listeners to embark on their own introspective voyage. Jullian Gomes combines elements of electronic soul and jazz, and pushes the ideas of traditional house music, creating a rich and immersive sonic experience.

The album features the likes of Jordan Arts, Sio, Kuniyuki Takahashi, Sabrina Chyld, Dwson, NLite, Robin Fassie & KJM Cornetist which all add their unique touch to this soul-stirring album.

The latest report from the SMM0000 record label. A remote
collaboration between Big Hands and Banishsh. A-side: Original
production by Big Hands (Andrea Ottomanni). B-side: two versions by
Banishsh (Simone Guido Izzi). Somewhere between bass-oriented
electronic music, jungle, drum and bass and techno with an
experimental and unusual perspective. The rhythmic pattern of the Aside collides with the sparse, glittering synth arpeggio. Unexpected
narrative paths are layered over repetitive percussive drum sounds.
The B-side versions take the original ideas and turn them into a more
abstract sonic machine, forecasting glitchy rain, micro-tonal shifting
melodies and poly - rhythmic drum sessions

Straight Outta Caledonia is the first commercially available “Greatest Hits” of the outsider songwriter Jackie Leven, an artist
who has largely remained in obscurity in his native Scotland despite being one of the greatest wordsmiths – and singers – it ever
produced. A well-travelled musician who began making psychedelic, progressive music in the late 60s before emerging as an
epic storyteller full of pathos, humour and humanity in the 90s, Leven lived and wrote like many of the fragile, gregarious
characters of his songs; large, full of life and empathy. Leven passed away in 2011 after recording 30+ albums under different
guises or with his briefly successful New Wave band Doll by Doll. Straight Outta Caledonia is a compilation collated by Night
School Records on its Archival label School Daze that seeks to introduce Leven’s music to new generations.
In an age of isolation, alienation and loss of visceral experience, Jackie Leven’s music can be massive and welcoming. It feels
connected to some universal humanity and vibrates with vitality. His songs are often full of tragedy and comedy simultaneously,
cutting straight to the heart, often plugging directly into the nervous system of the listener. His lyrics are rich, dense with imagery
that can veer from apocalyptic to the comically banal in a sentence, with a songwriting panache that can be heavy handed to
almost bursting point before skewering the song with a clownish, warm punchline. His productions ranged from Bob Dylan’s
Rolling Thunder Revue style rock band orchestrations with strings and organ as on the epic Ancient Misty Morning or they could
be pared down to the purest form of folk song as on Poortoun: Leven on stage alone with an acoustic guitar, albeit played with a
mastery of the instrument that he often only hinted at. Musically his sound can bend traditional structures or stay completely
confined within them yet still forever push towards an ecstatic release, as on the cinematic Snow In Central Park.
The most exciting, jaw-droppingly effective tool at Leven’s disposal was his voice. A multi-octave instrument that, though
damaged during a savage assault in Fife, he used with flair; he had both a brazen disregard for the rules and a deep humility, all
of which is evidenced with every phrasing. A baritone that could flit up through the register – always touched by his gentle
Kirkcaldy accent – it’s the prime delivery method for his songs. Leven’s voice enabled him to inhabit the characters in his songs to
an uncanny degree, a skill that in turn enables the listener to empathise with them and, subsequently, the singer. It’s most evident
in stand out song The Sexual Loneliness Of Jesus Christ, a breathtaking re-telling of the life of its protagonist, not as a pure,
sinless messiah but as a sexually frustrated, solitary man condemned to an existential loneliness no one else will ever feel. In
many ways the track is the archetypal Jackie Leven song. Produced by Pere Ubu’s David Thomas, what strikes the ear first –
after the samples of unemployed workers in Glasgow following the closing of the Clyde shipyards – is the audacious, rhythmic
tremolo effect Leven employs through the verses before the production opens up to allow Leven’s vocal to lift into a soar, a
freeing glide powered both by the force of the singer’s chutzpah and the inherent, doomed destiny of the protagonist. With any
other singer such subject matter could come across as gauche or worse, pretentiously sonorous, but Jackie Leven’s genius was
such that he could be this cinematic and brazen while touching something elemental and true in the beholder. It’s a skill evident in
every song on Straight Outta Caledonia, the trademark of a songwriter who revelled and excelled in intensity with a lightness of
touch.
In his lifetime, Jackie Leven toured, wrote and recorded at a ferocious rate. He recorded under aliases to avoid record contract
restrictions, played house shows in Europe after or instead of official concerts, events which were often spoken word story telling
masterclasses as well as performances of his often bewilderingly dense songbook. His music has traditionally been catalogued
as “folk” music and has been largely banished to a small, dedicated group of international fans and apostles both private and well
known, like author Ian Rankin or Glenn Matlock. Since his passing in 2011 however, there has been a growing recognition
amongst a newer generation, with artists like James Yorkston or Molly Nilsson publicly stating the influence of the unsung
troubadour on their own craft. Jackie Leven’s fairytales for hard men are often forensic deconstructions of masculinity, sad and
ecstatic, light and shadow, always endlessly rich, a resource as bountiful as Leven himself’s human spirit undoubtedly was.

repress!

Back by popular demand, the same unique spirits that brought forth the sound of Detroit streets and turned it into the futuristic soundscape known as "Techno-Bass", The Original members have collaborated to re-issue their catalog 25+ years later. Starting with their 1st double pack LP, "Bass Magnetic" (considered to be a mesh of influences between Miami bass and Detroit techno), AUX88 established themselves in an effort to stay true to their roots in the streets and the clubs creating their own genre into a global dance culture. After the release and production of their own documentary ("AUX88-Portrait of an Electronic Band"), the group celebrates its now classic recordings. Harkening back to its first days on cassette tape to revive a future generation of vinyl aficionados.

The Sad Clown Bad Dub series first started as a string of limited cassette tapes and CD-R's for Atmosphere to sell exclusively on tour. Since its inception in 1999, the Sad Clown series has seen over a dozen iterations in numerous formats, including rare 4-track demos, live recordings, a DVD of behind-the-scenes tour footage, a mixtape, 7” vinyl singles and more. To this day, one of the earliest volumes – Sad Clown Bad Dub 2 – still remains one of the most celebrated and coveted installments from the series.

Originally released in 2000, Sad Clown Bad Dub 2 was a rather stripped-down DIY release – a simple CD tucked behind an illustrated cover with handwritten tracklist and liner notes. The recordings were equally as rough, consisting of a dozen raw 4-track demos that hadn't been treated to any sort of mixing or mastering. Although Atmosphere initially produced only 500 copies of these CD's to sell on the road for extra cash, the buzz and the subsequent demand from fans eventually led the group to pressing more of the CD's, this time stamp- ing the cover art with the phrase "Authorized Bootleg" as a sly nod to those who'd been ripping and sharing the files. The unpolished nature of Sad Clown Bad Dub 2 was no deterrent from the appeal of its contents though.

Generally considered an underground classic in hip-hop circles, Sad Clown Bad Dub 2 is often mentioned as one of the standout releases in Atmosphere's extensive discography. It is a deeply introspective project that explores a range of complex thoughts and emotions, counter-balanced by occasional moments of darkly humorous sarcasm and wit. Slug's writing is sharp and insightful with a knack for turning his personal struggles into universal themes that listeners can relate to. Ant's production is minimalistic, moody, even eclectic in nature, full of atmospheric textures and unconventional rhythms. This release is very clearly one of the early stepping stones in developing their unique and distinctive sound together, helping to establish their reputation as one of the most innovative and boundary- pushing acts in hip-hop.

We're excited to reintroduce the legendary Sad Clown Bad Dub 2, digitally remastered from the original 4-track tapes and available on vinyl for the first time ever!

His new EP, "Nostalgic For The Future", was inspired by an experience he had during a lucid dream that evoked a paradoxical and enigmatic feeling. Also influenced by the artists of his childhood such as Daft Punk, Alan Braxe or Jestofunk, this new project is imbued with house sounds.

By using artificial intelligence in the conception of "Nostalgic for The Future", Fhin proposes an innovative vision to tackle eternal and inexhaustible themes of music: love, the meaning of our existence or the intensity of our emotions.

• Following on from the highly successful first two editions of
Dance Masters featuring the classics mixes from maestros
Shep Pettibone and Arthur Baker, the spotlight turns to
another remix legend, John Luongo.

• Boston born, John is one of the truly legendary DJ's and
remixers of the Disco era. John got his break at Epic by
overdubbing percussion from salt shakers and spoons onto a
promo and then passing them back the tape. This resulted in
him being flown to New York, and put in a studio (of his
choice) to mix and produce Melba Moore`s “You Stepped
Into My Life”. From this point everything he touched was a
hit. He went onto remix Disco classics by Jackie Moore –
“This Time Baby”, Dan Hartman “Vertigo / Relight My Fire”
and Patti Labelle “Music Is My Way Of Life”.

• However, John was not afraid of remixing artists that didn’t
fit into the disco genre and this attitude is borne out by the
tracklisting of this compilation, on which Gladys Knight and
The Pips rub shoulders with Fine Young Cannibals and
Billy Idol, and Baltimora appears alongside Banararama
and Serge Ponsar.

• “…if you played this whole thing, just put it on and didn’t
tell anyone it was me, they’d say ‘boy, what a great group of
songs this is!’” - John Luongo

• This cut down 16 track essential edition in pressed on 140g
black vinyl and features foreword by Arthur Baker and an indepth essay written by Alexis Petridis (Rock and Pop
reviewer for The Guardian).

• All tracks remastered by Nick Robbins at Sound
Mastering

Prisoners Of Love And Hate' is an offering to community, to desires that imprison and liberate, to people in all their divinity and ugliness. Apostille - aka Night School Records’ captain Michael Kasparis - presents is third album with a bang, a bursting ball of NRG, empathy and bristling living.
Like its predecessor 'Choose Life', 'Prisoners…' was recorded at Full Ashram Celestial Garden in Glasgow with Lewis Cook (Free Love) through 2022. A nine song treatise on pop music, trauma, ecstasy and the mundanities between the extremes, Kasparis takes on classic 80s synth pop, 90s house music, 00s trance, wistful balladry, 70s power pop. The thread that runs through the album is a boundless energy, an openness to the moment, to living
the pains and joys equally, open armed.

This is a place of no judgement, of possibility, challenge and comfort. The nine songs on 'Prisoners…' can be read as separate ruminations on the feelings and desires that imprison our experience. Through it all the narrator struggles against them, transported and fooled by love and longing, peering through the bars of anguish, flailing in a cell of emotions. 'Saturday Night, Still Breathing' breaks the album open with an invigorating scream and pounds into the night with a nod to Whigfield, Kasparis’ punk roots and house music. Over a thumping 909 kick and bassline, Kasparis pens a love letter to being with people, the collective energy of hearts in a room, thrumming together, making it through together. Written as private ritual magic, manifesting community during a time of isolation, it’s as if the party is the most important thing in the world. 'Rely On Me' imagines 80s Mute synth pop, Erasure fronted by Bruce Springsteen, romance doomed and forever perfect in the mind. 'Spit Pit' completes the opening triptych of fast paced rollercoasters, an ode to childhood forged out of change and discomfort told with a bold, epic production by Lewis Cook, AFX breakbeats, 160BPM kicks and a commanding vocal performance.

On 'People Make This City', Kasparis eases off the gas, lets the mist blowing in from the Clyde River blow over his version of Glasgow. A wistful ballad about small town gossip and coming through anger to leaving it all behind, it provides some shadow to the bright light of the vibrancy of the album. 'Natural Angel' owes much to 70s and 80s power pop, guitar melodrama, Thin Lizzy and Rick Springfield through the prism of co-dependence in relationships. It’s a theme that’s picked up in slow burner 'Nothing But Perfect', a hazy synth soul-inflected song about building your own mythology, constructing a dream to hide in, to hold on to. The most surprising track of the album, 'Summer of ’03' re-imagines the trance music of early noughties Europe into a lament for an eternal summer or as a fan once put it, “Meat Loaf with a donk on it.” A recognition that all ecstasy has tragedy laced within it, it’s a theme that is sewn throughout the LP and continued on the final song 'Feel Good (You Can Make Me)'. Referencing Shalamar’s 1982 mega hit by way of N-Trance’s piano riffs, the epic closer is riddled with heartbreak, vulnerability and power. It’s a testament to the new confidence in Kasparis’s songwriting, sure, but also to the enduring power of people to come together in mutual dependence and love. If ecstasy is always laced with tragedy, then 'Prisoners of Love and Hate' can always reach out between the bars to meet in the middle, the eternal now.

“I hope you die by my side, the two of us at the exact same time, I hope we die not long from now, the two of us at the exact same time”
By the time Molly Nilsson released History, she had already established a fledgling cult status built on homemade YouTube videos and home-burnt Cdrs. Writing from a distance, it’s clear that History is the first classic album in her canon and arguably a classic of the 21st Century underground music panorama.While the methodology on History hadn’t changed from Nilsson’s previous 3 albums – it was recorded solo at The Lighthouse, Nilsson’s home studio based on a Berlin crossroads – on this record the songwriting reached a new peak and the emotional scythe cut deeper. Here, Nilsson managed to combine a cosmic, outward looking perspective with an intimate knowledge of the human condition and its place in these turbulent times. In truth, no other songwriter has excavated the modern psyche so clearly and perfectly.
The tracklist to Nilsson’s fourth album reads as an early greatest hits for Molly Nilsson followers and also serves as the perfect entry point to a whole world the artist has been building for the last 10 years. In Real Life crystalises the millenial obsession with relationships built online, with a generation paying for the baby boomer’s excesses with their anxiety towards the harshness of every day life. It’s a call to arms for a generation who fell in love on Skype. On I Hope You Die, one of Molly Nilsson’s most iconic songs, the songwriter flips the song title into a tale of doomed romance, a relationship based on discommunications and the thrill of the other. It’s also one of the most heartfelt songs full of pathos written by anyone, an ode to obsession. Doomed romance, life lived on the flipside of day and the role of the outsider in society are themes that crop up through-out History. On
Bottles Of Tomorrow, the narrator is sweeping up, in love with the night and examining the remains a society leaves behind.
On City Of Atlantis, Nilsson veers from the plaintive balladry she had begun to make her name with, embracing trance-like synth and dance music details to create an unlikely anthem using the mythological city as a means to comment on the patriarchal rendering of history by power. With by now trademark panache, she turns complicated subject matter into a glorious song that transforms into an ecstatic pop moment.
Hotel Home, another Nilsson classic, paints loneliness not as a debilitating anxiety, but as a powerful to that propels the artist forward through her travels. It’s a song that hints at an endearing self-awareness also; the writer is never at home, living life on the road, content that “the world will find me when the time is ripe.”
There’s never been a greater time.

'Tema di Susie' is one of the main themes from the soundtrack composed by Alessandro Alessandroni for the 1976 Italian noir Sangue di sbirro, known in English as Blood and Bullets, as well as Knell, Bloody Avenger (the Susie in the original title refers to the female love interest of the film's hero, who is on a mission to seek revenge for the gangland murder of his policeman father).

At once sweet and sentimental, haunting and melancholic, 'Tema di Susie' stands out from the other tracks in the film, which are more action oriented. Like the rest of the score, however, it exemplifies the way in which, during the '70s, Italian film composers created their own version of the sound of American blaxploitation cinema, with its groovy blend of funk, jazz, and soul. It is no coincidence that the film's director, B-movie specialist Alfonso Brescia, specifically requested music in the style of Shaft, the iconic film that defined that sound in 1971.

Though seemingly simple, 'Tema di Susie' is a perfect example of Alessandroni's style – in particular his unique ability to effortlessly blend groove and melody, funk and feeling, into one musical piece. So, we invited different artists with different backgrounds, influences and approaches to bring their individual take on this elegant and now timeless tune.

Neapolitan duo Fratelli Malibu have taken Alessandroni's melodic theme and woven it into a mesmerizing tapestry of rhythmic beats, world percussion and ethereal atmospheres. Drawing inspiration from funk/Afrobeat, synth-pop and Italo-disco, they've conjured a psychedelic-tinged, afro-cosmic groove that's bound to transport you to another dimension.

As the music unfolds, you'll feel like you've stepped into a vibrant, fantasy world. The breaks, outro, and intro are woven with a psychedelic thread that leaves you yearning to return once the final note fades away. And that's not all – they've injected an irresistible pop sensibility into the track with the use of drum machines and synths. The result? A rework that not only amplifies the dreaminess of the original but also seamlessly marries the past with the future.

We love the track so much that we decided to double the fun with a vocal retouch version, courtesy of the Italian funk/soul collective Banda Maje. Their vocalists, Chiara Della Monica and Cristina Cafiero, elegantly infuse cinematic and Balearic vibes into the mix, paying a wonderful homage to Fratelli Malibu's exquisite arrangement.

The Avengers remains one of the great institutions of British television, a landmark series and the epitome of the swinging 60s.

This debut release on vinyl features highlights of music from the Tara King era series of The Avengers by composer Howard Blake,

taken from the CD release (2011). Following on from Johnny Dankworth and Laurie Johnson (whose classic theme opens this release),

Blake delivered his own distinctive musical style to the hippest show on TV. He was awarded the OBE in 1994,

after a music career covering everything from choral works and ballet to film and TV. His music for the Christmas perennial

The Snowman, with its magical Walking in the Air theme has become a seasonal standard.

The last twelve months have been a whirlwind for Henry Counsell and Louis Curran, the men who make up Joy (Anonymous). Having established themselves during the Covid-19 era by playing impromptu meet-ups on London’s South Bank, they have graduated to bigger venues, travelled to far-flung locales and recorded their second album, Cult Classics, while maintaining the spontaneous energy and irrepressible joy that made their name. Their music revels in the euphoria of being alive and all the feelings, good or bad, that come with it. It invites us into a community, draws us close and promises the night of our lives.

Recorded over the course of a year, the blueprint for Cult Classics was laid down over a two-week span at Imogen Heap’s Round House in east London. Joy (Anonymous) invited friends old and new to visit - they’d record live instruments in jam sessions upstairs and then retreat to a second room to flip and loop and generally mess with the sounds, moulding them into sizzling dance tracks. “Loads of people were coming up to me like ‘I thought this was going to be a dance record?’” Louis says, remembering the quietly beautiful music they’d be recording. “I’d be like, don’t worry about that, just keep playing.” He’d send it back to people later and they’d be floored - “That was my bit and you’ve made it... jungle!”

It was an organic and creatively fulfilling approach, one that didn’t allow any of the music to get stale or stagnate. As they built the tracks from the sounds they’d collected, Joy (Anonymous) would weave the new songs into their famously improvised live sets, testing them, refining them, taking note of the audiences’ reactions. In a year punctuated by a lot of travel, they’d also incorporate the voices of people they met along the way - “Beazley’s Poem”, which opens the record, features the words of a man who was working security at a Fred Again show at New York’s Terminal Five. “He was basically doing the opposite of his job and being a hype man, climbing on the fence and ramping up the crowd - we ended up hanging out with him - like, who’s this legend?” Louis explains. “He just speaks really amazingly about his life, all these amazing thoughts and opinions - he started jumping on the mic when we were playing, preaching these amazing messages to the crowd, like that we all need to be nicer to each other. The first time we played the record in its entirety, he introduced us and that’s the recording we’ve used.”

Joy (Anonymous) remain dedicated to the spirit of spontaneity. They shut a street down with a surprise waterside party in New York. On a trip to Copenhagen they played an impromptu set in a cafe, which turned into a house party and a night-long good time. In Lithuania, they ended up playing in a decommissioned prison. It’s harder, perhaps, to keep that spirit alive now that they are operating more within the confines of the music industry but they will keep lugging their kit to wherever the party calls for as long as they can. “I think if we lose that, we’ve kind of lost what makes us us,” Henry says.

Bursting with multi-genre reference points and disparate influences, Cult Classics is very much a dance album. The samples we made ourselves or we took from music that is quite different to dance music, but we definitely wanted to shout out a lot of the dance influences that we love,” Henry says. They listened to a lot of Daft Punk and Basement Jaxx as well as The Prodigy (“more rage stuff”), taking songwriting tips from their dance forebears, but also recording bits that felt more like jazz and motown (see: A Place I Belong and the lovely album closer, You’re In Or You’re Out). Emir Taha’s gentle classical guitar runs like a thread throughout Cult Classics, washing into the undertones of the record, tying it all together.

The album follows the beat of a night out, from frenetic, sweaty movement to the gentler winding down as the dawn breaks. At times it is euphoric, celebratory and pure, whirling fun, at others it seeks the joy in the darker emotions that life throws our way. 404 is designed to encapsulate everything about the Joy (Anonymous) journey so far. Skittering beats and ghostly vocals give way to vibrating house chords: sirens blare as we approach a dubstep drop. It’s dramatic and wild, ratcheting up, seeming to settle then hitting you with an intense and frantic breakdown before the ghostly vocal returns to lull us back into the world. It has the feel of a hungry cat playing with a mouse, toying with it before letting it get away.

What sounds like someone playing the spoons on playful, housey How We End Up Here is actually Louis’ restless habit of clicking his rings on everything, one of a myriad of calling cards and easter eggs that day one fans will recognise. They rework Miley Cyrus and Swae Lee’s Party Up The Street into a French-electro-inspired future classic, adding a note of melancholy to a tune that you can imagine hearing blaring from every car on a summer drive. The lyrics on Cult Classic are generally reassuring, inspirational, originally drawn from Henry in stream-of-consciousness freestyles. You’re fine the way you are, they seem to say - the repeated “No need to try” of A Place I Belong, the assurance that “It’s in me all the time” on In Me All The Time. Even the summery but regretful Did You Wrong hints at the growth that is possible from less than ideal behaviour. For Joy (Anonymous), joy isn’t about just being “happy” all the time - it’s about relishing every element of your being.

The name ‘Joy (Anonymous)’ is taken from the work Henry did with Alcoholics Anonymous groups: it is a way to build a community around sharing joy. Their impromptu live sets are known as ‘meetings’; they encourage fans to share moments of joy to their website. They care deeply about the scene they’ve come up in and are determined not to leave it behind. Every show is another chance to reach out and connect with people who love to come together and revel in music as loud as it can go.

Support slots for Fred Again and The Streets, wild B2Bs with Fred and Skrillex, and a set at Four Tet’s Finsbury Park all-dayer this summer have given the duo the opportunity to live out childhood dreams and introduced their infectious live shows to new audiences at huge venues.

With an album as assured and joyful as Cult Classics on the horizon (and a killer collab with The Blessed Madonna coming up), they’re only going to reach higher heights. But the essence of Joy (Anonymous) remains on the South Bank. Between shows at Ally Pally in September, they dragged their camping chairs and gear back down to the banks of the Thames: and it just felt right.

Moderner Club-Sound und groovige Beats aus UK: endlich erscheint Delilah Hollidays
erstes Soloalbum "Invaluable" über One Little Independent auf CD und LP. Die umtriebige
Londonerin war Teil der Supergroup B.E.D. gemeinsam mit Baxter Dury und Étienne de
Crécy und bildet mit ihrer Schwester Ursula die Polit-Punk-Band Skinny Girl Diet. Nun
erscheint ihr erstes Soloalbum, auf dem sie in Skinny-Girl-Diet-Riot-Grrrl-Manier
gesellschaftliche Themen wie Sucht, Paranoia und Kapitalismus in den Mittelpunkt stellt.
Es vereint zwei in diesem Jahr digital erschienenen EPs voller
Downtempo-Electronic-Art-Pop mit Trip-Hop-Einflüssen und einem Medley aus
berauschenden Synthesizern, durchdrungen von Dancefloor-Beats.
Das Album existiert im Raum zwischen Fantasie und Realität. Delilah Holliday spricht über
Themen wie Wachstum, Heimat und Wurzeln, aber auch strukturelle Ungleichheiten und
Armut. Vor allem aber geht es um Selbstakzeptanz und Selbstliebe. Zwischen industriellen
Clubhymnen und atmosphärisch produzierten Momenten der Euphorie mischt Delilah
glitchige Elektronik mit knackigen Rhythmen, die gemeinsam mit dem Komponisten
Raphael Ninot geschrieben und produziert wurden.

Moderner Club-Sound und groovige Beats aus UK: endlich erscheint Delilah Hollidays
erstes Soloalbum "Invaluable" über One Little Independent auf CD und LP. Die umtriebige
Londonerin war Teil der Supergroup B.E.D. gemeinsam mit Baxter Dury und Étienne de
Crécy und bildet mit ihrer Schwester Ursula die Polit-Punk-Band Skinny Girl Diet. Nun
erscheint ihr erstes Soloalbum, auf dem sie in Skinny-Girl-Diet-Riot-Grrrl-Manier
gesellschaftliche Themen wie Sucht, Paranoia und Kapitalismus in den Mittelpunkt stellt.
Es vereint zwei in diesem Jahr digital erschienenen EPs voller
Downtempo-Electronic-Art-Pop mit Trip-Hop-Einflüssen und einem Medley aus
berauschenden Synthesizern, durchdrungen von Dancefloor-Beats.
Das Album existiert im Raum zwischen Fantasie und Realität. Delilah Holliday spricht über
Themen wie Wachstum, Heimat und Wurzeln, aber auch strukturelle Ungleichheiten und
Armut. Vor allem aber geht es um Selbstakzeptanz und Selbstliebe. Zwischen industriellen
Clubhymnen und atmosphärisch produzierten Momenten der Euphorie mischt Delilah
glitchige Elektronik mit knackigen Rhythmen, die gemeinsam mit dem Komponisten
Raphael Ninot geschrieben und produziert wurden.

Other Half’s debut album, Big Twenty, is 14 songs of caustic post-hardcore exploring the unpleasant places people go to—and the nastiness they are capable of—in search of identity, community and belonging. The recurring characters that inhabit Big Twenty navigate changing social scenes and trends as they near the end of their twenties, teasing themselves with the past and spiralling in an unhealthy cycle of going out and coming down. The album’s narrative is semi-fictitious, reimagining first-hand experiences watching friends lose themselves to nostalgia, drugs and depression, whilst simultaneously celebrating the warmth of belonging, wherever it is found. Meeting in 2012 through a love of the UK DIY scene and their time split between previous outfits—including Maths, Ducking Punches and Manbearpig—Cal Hudson (guitar, vocals), Alfie Adams (drums) and Sophie Porter (bass, vocals) began writing songs together in Adams’ basement bedroom. From the indie rock cynicism of Archers of Loaf and Arab Strap, to the dischord and energy of bands like Hot Snakes and Unwound, the band have spent the past few years weaving their individual influences together and now deal in a confident, unique brand of scathing storytelling and abrasive punk.

Heading to a new millennium, people in the 80s and 90s were looking for brighter days to come and Techno was the music of this utopic future, themed by rushed beats made by electronic instruments that resembled a new era of technology, endless excess and possibilities.

40 years later the world is more complicated and dystopian than ever as we face crises everywhere. Mental issues are a natural consequence of the troubled environments we live in and more people around the world suffer from them. At the same time, we haven't lost the appeal for euphoric and fast dancing, either to leave our problems behind or face them head-on on the sweaty dance floor.

This EP is dedicated to some of the feelings associated with the tribulations of mental issues. What seems like a dark take still points out that we are not alone, as music unites us being the source for help and change. Mental States 777_31 offers four sick cuts perfect for insane clubs - fast and furious like an attack, rushed and energetic embracing positivity in the darkness.

Yes the Bristol born artist returns on EOP. This release themed four tracks, deep and spaced out. A unique record from an artist soaring to ever greater heights.

LP Black Vinyl 12 inch 180g.

Here's the thing about ill peach: this band exists because they are too weird to not exist. The seed of ill peach was first planted in the recording studios of New York City where Pat Morrissey and Jess Corazza were working together as professional songwriters, collaborating with artists like Icona Pop, SZA, Weezer, Pharrell, Big Freedia, and others. Then came the day they were offered their own publishing deal. Cool, right? Well, about that: "Everyone kept saying, 'The stuff that you're writing is slightly too left-of-center-weirdo stuff," remembers Morrissey. "Why don't you start your own project?" Thus ill peach, a pop band with a punk streak and a taste for both the rotten and the sweet, with an approach to making music that goes something like: "Do you want to pick up a guitar and do you want to be on this water jug and we'll record it on the iPhone and create some weird drum pattern?" Following a series of well-received EPs on their own Pop Can Records (a record label and artist collective Morrissey and close collaborator Jesse Schuster run with friends), a digital single for Hardly Art's 15th anniversary series, and some colorful music videos that crystallized the band's visual aesthetic along with their sound, ill peach's "weirdo stuff" comes to fruition on first full-length THIS IS NOT AN EXIT: a collection of anthemic songs built out of bright pop and gritty experimental elements (Morrissey names the sculptural use of distortion on the final albums by Low as an inspiration), punctuated with hooky choruses ready to be screamed along to in the safety of your own bedroom or with a bunch of friends at one of ill peach's intense live shows. If ill peach first blossomed in New York, it took quarantine in Los Angeles for the project to ripen. The end of the world turned out to be what ill peach needed to get real with themselves. "It helped us creatively to zone in and removed us from the industry side of things to where we could just be like: this is our new identity, let's jump with both feet." THIS IS NOT AN EXIT's title is a reflection of something Corazza realized during a period of personal and familial crises "I kept walking into buildings and I'd try to exit somewhere and the sign would be like, 'This is not an exit,'" she says. "It just felt like a metaphor for a hopeful thing-don't give up yet." This combination of hope and anxiety is all over THIS IS NOT AN EXIT, reflected in a sonic palette (Alternative! Electronica! Indie! Radio pop! Coldplay!) as eclectic as it is unpretentious. Ultimately, THIS IS NOT AN EXIT is a record about healing, a process often spoken about in New Age-y terms but one that in reality can be really confusing and, yes, weird. But it is the beautiful strangeness of being alive that ill peach capture so well on THIS IS NOT AN EXIT.

Auf dem neuen Album SUCKER liefert das kreative Mastermind Jilian Medford aka IAN SWEET ihre stärksten und persönlichsten Songs ab – voller Verzweiflung, Verletzlichkeit und Reue. Aufgenommen im Outlier Inn mitten in den Catskill Mountains im Süden des Bundesstaates New York und gemischt von Al Carlson (St. Vincent, Weyes Blood, Jessica Pratt), beweist die LP Medfords Fähigkeit, wunderschöne Popsongs zu schreiben, die das Herz berühren, während gleichzeitig Schichten benommener Synthesizer und dröhnender Gitarren explodieren. Diese Songs sind voller Kummer und Sehnsucht – eine Traurigkeit, die Medford in ihrem zweifellos bisher besten Album direkt thematisiert.

For his first album as an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist, 2021 International Chopin Competition winner Bruce Liu – “a pianist with a captivating musical personality” (Financial Times) – has compiled an enthralling survey of 200 years of French keyboard music, from Baroque to modern. The phenomenal young Canadian pianist has subtly adjusted the action of his instrument to highlight the differing musical styles. Gramophone’s reviewer acclaimed DG’s release of Liu’s Warsaw competition performances as “one of the most distinguished Chopin recitals of recent years, full of maturity, character and purpose”. The album’s title Waves alludes not only to the nature theme that runs throughout the programme, but also to the sheer spontaneity of Liu’s music-making.

New York-based label Kindergarten Records is thrilled to unveil Ayesha’s debut album, ‘Rhythm is Memory’ – 10 boundary-pushing tracks, a shape-shifting percussive journey with electric moments.
While intended for maximum dancefloor impact, Ayesha’s first LP is also conceptually thought-provoking and playful, exploring how bodies store and channel creative knowledge.

A self-taught producer, Ayesha relies on her instincts to make music: sensing what her body wants to feel and hear. To her, essential to building a groove is channeling what is already inside us –
memories – whether they are based on lived experience or coded in the body: culturally, ancestrally, or intergenerationally. The result is this Indian-American producer’s distinct rhythmic voice, with its
many configurations boldly expressed across her debut album.

Kindergarten first released Ayesha’s material in 2020 with her ‘Natural Phenomena’ EP, a four-track journey which she described as “an undulating love letter to nature and the dancefloor, a space
where her biophilia collides with her yearning for the dancefloor.” Subsequently, she continued to build upon her luminous, scintillating sound with a contribution to ‘Fluo II’ titled “Aspara Dub”, followed
by “Varanasi” and “Downpour” on ‘Ether’, a split release with Sha Ru in 2021. With each release, Ayesha's sound evolved, adding shades, layers, and perpetual rhythmic nuance to a mind palace of
dancefloor possibilities.

That is why her and Kindergarten are a perfect match -- driven by their mutual fascination with exploratory sonics and a shared commitment to the community that inspires them. Kindergarten
Records has shaped itself into a trailblazing label, uniting a diverse and innovative collective of local and international producers, while embodying a strong familial atmosphere.This debut LP represents
a significant step-up for both the artist and the imprint, as they strive harmoniously towards a shared goal: delivering a sonic experience full of colorful, otherworldly bass-fueled expansion.

‘Rhythm is Memory’ captures Ayesha’s signature love for driving techno and organic percussion, while at moments veering into newer electro territory while keeping it psychedelic, spacious, dubby, and
always playful. This feels intuitively right for a producer at a crossroads in her career. All tracks intricately weave together pulsing drum grooves, slinky synths, nuanced melodies, and delightfully
unexpected twists. No single genre can do justice to describing this project as Ayesha delicately nods to many, reveling in the spaces between.

Undoubtedly, across A and B sides, 'Rhythm is Memory' imparts the joy of sonic experimentation to listeners and dancers. Ayesha invites us into her creative process and its steady evolution – rooted in
many days and nights of exploration, reflection, and repetition. "The ritual practice of cultivating and tending a garden is what comes to mind if I were to visualize this record. Beautiful things can emerge
from care and consistent attention," says Ayesha. While she refers to her specific experience making 'Rhythm is Memory,' this powerful album culminates a decade of working in nightlife for Ayesha – a
project slated to leave an indelible mark on the underground. To mark this impressive milestone in their catalog, Kindergarten Records is proud to return to pressing vinyl after a hiatus since 2020,
recognizing the significance of putting out a physical release to behold such a moment in both the label's and the artist's trajectory.

Lisbon is undergoing a lot of changes but its substance can't be stopped. Record label Para?so reminds us of that with its 12th release by label co-founder Shcuro who strips things back to assert what truly remains however much time may pass. 'It Lasts Forever' is the producer's ode to structural things in his inner life that will keep flowing on unchanged, be it the love for his wife; his reverence to techno - hence the use of classic drum machines like Roland's 909, 808 and 707; to friendship and community - having one of his dearest mates Steffi take part via the remixer chair. Dubbed-out, expertly sound-sculpted stabs punctuate 'Together' alongside a 808 boom bass, vocal cut-ups creating a versatile, instant classic vibration to open the EP. 'U.N.I.' takes us on a stroll to jacking rhythms in its fast-paced, tom-heavy fusion of rawer techno traditions and dub techno realness. 'We Are Eternal' delves deeper into sonic themes of bliss, gratefulness and hope, taking us on an emotional journey that feels smooth and intense at once. Utter legend of all things dance music Steffi picks up the opening track and adds propulsive percussion and further melodic elements to it, creating the perfect gem to close this record.

There was one irrepressible Chicago club act that refused to be replaced by any DJ's sound system. Maxx Traxx (and Third Rail before them) were a scene unto themselves in the early 80s, happening live on-stage five-plus nights a week somewhere in the 312. Their two LPs, both recorded in 1982, are a sheer energy ride almost too explosive to be captured by studio tape. And yet these two stone classics would remain unanswered by a city as it moved determinedly toward the motorik sound of house. Hop the turnstile and move with this complete document of Chicago's last great club band told in detailed text, newly revealed photos, and complete studio recordings painstakingly remastered. AVAILABLE IN LIMITED EDITION LAKE MICHIGAN TEAL VINYL!

Core is the debut studio album by American rock band Stone Temple Pilots. Striving to create an intense and emotional sound, Weiland said that the main theme of the album is that humanity is confused.

Did you know there are horses on the cover of Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version? There are at least three in the right hand corner, gathered inexplicably near a white canvas tent, a human possibly perched among its folds. As widescreen and vast as the cover may seem, those little details-the horses, the possible human, the faint wisp of white clouds-give it depth and wonder, something to which the imagination can return. Did you know that the music on Earth 2-repressed now for its 30th anniversary, back in its original artwork, and accompanied by a riveting set of remixes that demonstrate the reach of what Dylan Carlson long ago called "ambient metal"-works much the same way? The surface is massive and obvious, the meatpaw riffs of Carlson and bassist Dave Harwell pounding and swiping and pawing at the speakers, a true bludgeon in three-dimensional sound. Listen, though, for the details in the corners, for the finesse beneath the force, and Earth 2 reveals new levels of depth and wonder. The widespread impact of Earth 2 suggests that others have indeed been leaning in, listening to these minutiae and making something new of them. A masterpiece without many genre precedents, Earth 2 surely helped send doom metal down its more modern drone, ambient, and avant-garde avenues. Those descendants are obvious. Perhaps more surprising and gratifying are the ways it has influenced electronic music, modern composition, and even hip-hop by realigning our senses of tempo, time, and texture. Earth 2 engendered a rearrangement of expectations, regardless of preferred form.

CARNAL TOMB aus Deutschlands ebenso chaotischer wie pulsierender Hauptstadt Berlin liefern mit "Embalmed in Decay" ihr sehnsüchtig erwartetes drittes Album ab, das den Geist des Old School Death Metal perfekt kanalisiert. Kürzere Tracks, rasante Blastbeats und charakteristische Doom-Passagen ergeben eine zeitgemäße Version des klassischen Death Metal. "Embalmed in Decay" zementiert den Status der Deutschen als einer der heißesten jungen Acts dieses brutalen Genres. CARNAL TOMB haben sich unter anderem von den Werken H.P. Lovecrafts inspirieren lassen, aber auch von Gore- und Zombiefilmen wie Amando de Ossorios Klassiker "Tombs of the Blind Dead" aus dem Jahr 1972, sowie speziellen italienischen Begräbnisstätten namens "Putridairum", in denen die Leichen der Verstorbenen in offenen Kammern bis auf die Knochen verrotteten. Auch das morbide Cover-Artwork des Künstlers Skaðvaldur wurde von diesen Themen beeinflusst. CARNAL TOMB wurden im Jahr 2014 in Berlin gegründet. Ein unstillbarer Hunger nach Old School Death Metal hatte alle Bandmitglieder infiziert. Neben einer bemerkenswerten Fülle von Demo-Aufnahmen, EPs, Split- und Single-Veröffentlichungen brachten vor allem die beiden Alben "Rotten Remains" (2016) und "Abhorrent Veneration" (2019) der Band einen exzellenten Ruf unter Todesmetallern rund um den Globus ein. Mit dem blutrünstigen Death Metal Horror von "Embalmed in Decay" rufen CARNAL TOMB sogar die Toten aus ihren Gräbern und lassen ihre entfesselten Monstersongs auf eine nichtsahnende Welt los.