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Swiss avant-garde metal titans Schammasch have stunned metal audiences worldwide with their spellbinding mixture of dark atmospherics, forward-thinking black metal, doom and Hermetic mysticism. Entitled 'Triangle,' the new effort is a bold triple album balancing three distinct musical movements in 100 minutes .

“It was my wish to cool things down a bit,” says David Helbock. The
Austrian-born pianist has formed a new trio with guitarist Arne
Jansen and trumpeter Sebastian Studnitzky and it is clear when he
talks about it how far he has already moved on since his previous
group: “In the Random Control Trio we had a lot of instruments on
the stage, there was a lot of changing from one instrument to
another… and a lot of notes.” And the new group? “It is more about
emotions. And emotions are the most important thing in music.”
There are other differences too. Whereas Helbock’s previous groups
have consisted of musicians from his native Austria, he has now lived
in Berlin for five years, and ‘The New Cool’ presents his first group
formed with players who have also adopted Berlin as their home city.
With Arne Jansen, originally from Kiel, what appeals to Helbock is
that “he is such an unselfish player, very centred and very calm - and
subtle too. With him it’s all about the music.” Studnitzky is originally
from the Black Forest and Helbock liked “his style of playing with that
very airy sound” and the fact the range of timbres and moods he
creates with just one effects device. And how does it work in the
trio? “All three of us are melody players, but we are all capable of
holding back and giving space to the others.”
It would be wrong, however, to see the elegiac feel of much of this
album as a response to the pandemic. Helbock and producer Siggi
Loch were having “a productive and fruitful discussion” about these
ideas a full year before the recording sessions took place at the Emil
Berliner studios in August 2020. Loch has a fascination for the way
cool jazz “turned the wheel around” to connect with a wide audience
and references and connections with the cool jazz movement are
scattered throughout this album. It is also the very first time that
Helbock has included a tune by his teacher for over a decade,
American pianist Peter Madsen, who toured extensively with Stan
Getz and also taught Maria Schneider.
Helbock has been inspired by the innovations and concepts of Lennie
Tristano and his sense of affinity with the Chicago-born genius runs
deep. Tristano once decreed that “the jazz musician’s function is to
feel.” Helbock, Jansen and Studnitzky have taken that maxim to their
hearts.
LP pressed on 180g vinyl with digital download included.

Sun Milk was recorded in two months, a much quicker process than the three years spent on their previous release, Flowers. The band recorded the album at the Pharmacy, Vroom’s home studio in Toronto, located above an actual pharmacy. It was the first album to be recorded after Little Kid solidified their live lineup, with Boothby, Vroom, and Germain having played together for over two years. Every song except “Like a Movie” began as a full-band live take, with overdubs performed democratically, with both Boothby and Germain layering guitars. It was also the first record to feature Lunn’s vocals, who joined the band shortly after the album’s release.

The result is a deeply affecting document of personal crisis, mirroring the dramatic changes in Boothby’s life—a breakup, living alone for the first time, beginning a new career. The lyrics have less Christian content and more personal overtones than other Little Kid records. “It was a relief when these songs came out,” says Boothby, “processing recent changes in my life, trying to take ownership of my identity and choices.” This lends a confessional warmth to the songs, a feeling of reconnecting with an old friend, sharing stories. Highlights include the off-kilter opening track “The Fourth” and the lovely, meandering “Ugly Moon.” The centerpiece of the album is “Slow Death in a Warm Bed.” A meditation on why people stay in flawed relationships, the song builds in calming repetitions until the guitars explode in the last minute, climaxing in a full-fledged distorted freakout. It’s one of the most beautiful and harrowing songs in Little Kid’s catalog.

The drifting, gentle “Dim Light Coming Down” features some of Boothby’s best lyrics. The narrator describes a person seeing “the likeness” of their own dead father “floating high above the road,” a mystical encounter rendered in the most plainspoken of terms. But Boothby quickly undercuts the moment: “But you'd been drinking when you saw him/And your mind was moving slow/Like your ears were full of cotton/So what he said you'll never know.” It’s a thwarted encounter that becomes more powerful for that very fact. Just before the song reaches its slow-building climax, Boothby sings, “Coming down/There’s a bright light/A gentle sound/Opening wide.” The transcendence does finally arrive, but it’s in the coming down, the hangover, the regular life that comes after the big moment. There's little wonder why it's become a live staple for the band.

The record is a high point in a remarkably consistent career. Looking back at Sun Milk, Boothby believes it’s one of the strongest in Little Kid’s oeuvre. “It’s probably my favorite,” says Boothby. “In general, I love slow songs, and this album is full of them. I like the structure of seven long songs—can’t think of too many albums with only seven songs. It gives the album an interesting flow.”

With Uma Elmo, his fifth album as a leader for ECM, Danish guitarist Jakob
Bro presents a new trio featuring Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen
and Spanish drummer Jorge Rossy.
Astonishingly, given the trio’s musical synergy, the first time these three musicians ever performed together was for the album’s sessions at the Swiss Radio
studio in Lugano, with ECM founder Manfred Eicher producing.
Uma Elmo reaffirms the observation about Bro’s work by London Jazz News
that “there is no hurry to this music, but there is great depth.” Among the
album’s highlights is opener “Reconstructing a Dream,” a darkly lyrical reverie.
“To Stanko” is Bro’s hushed tribute to the late, great Polish trumpeter Tomasz
Stanko, who featured the guitarist in his quintet for the ECM album Dark Eyes.
Another homage to a late elder is “Music for Black Pigeons,” which was given
its evocative title by saxophone sage Lee Konitz.
Listeners will recognize Henriksen’s whispering, poetic sound from his 2008
ECM album Cartography, as well as his collaborations for the label with Trio Mediaeval and Tigran Hamasyan. Rossy is well known to jazz fans on both sides of
the Atlantic, particularly for his decade-plus tenure in Brad Mehldau’s careermaking first trio.
As for the leader, DownBeat aptly noted in its review of his previous ECM album, Bay of Rainbows, that “Bro’s guitar is luminous... his music both hypnotic
and dramatic.”
Jakob Bro: guitar
Arve Henriksen: trumpet, piccolo trumpet
Jorge Rossy: drums

The American guitarist Wes Montgomery was one of the greats of jazz.
For all friends of this style-defining musician and beyond, Jazzline presents the NDR Hamburg Studio Recordings for the first time and thus
never before published.
In addition to Wes Montgomery, the musicians Johnny Griffin, Ronnie Scott,
Ronnie Ross, Martial Solal, Hans Koller, Michel Gaudry and Ronnie Stephenson
took part in this session. A fascinating line-up! There is also a 34 minute Blu-ray
of the band’s rehearsals as a bonus, which includes five of the tracks.
In the spring of 1965 this outstanding guitarist had only three more years
to live, as in 1968 Wes Montgomery passed away after suffering a heart attack. The European concerts, particularly the happy hours spent at the NDRJazzworkshop on April 30, 1965 in Hamburg, were probably among the best
memories Wes Montgomery had of himself and of the great art he mastered
so well. Simply a must have album!

MJN RECORDS Trondheim Jazz Orchestra & The MaXx / Live ‘Live’ with
Trondheim Jazz Orchestra & The MaXx is really a story of three young
Swedes, Oscar Gr nberg, Petter Kraft and Tomas J rmyr meeting in college
before starting their formal jazz education in Trondheim.
When The MaXx won the prestigious Jazz talent award (JazZtipendiatet) at
Molde International Jazz Festival in 2017, they decided to use the opportunity
to invite some of their best friends and amazing musicians from their college
years, both guitarist Anton Toorell and trombone player Petter H ngsel met the
guys from The MaXx at Fridheim Folkh gskola in 2006. A few years later Oscar,
Petter and Tomas reunited in Trondheim, and The MaXx was born.
The MaXx developed the music on ‘Live’ through hours of jamming in their
studio in an old German bunker in Trondheim. Simultaneously with the music
slowly taking shape, a theme dealing with the youth’s fascination for dystopian
sci-fi, involuntary heroes and time travels evolved. Combined with their love
for rhythmical riffs and extreme musical shifts a new piece of music appeared.
Some people have called it an abstract rock opera. The MaXx tells us that what
this project is really about is to amplify the undisguised energy and joy that
always has been the core of band.
Advice: Live is grasping the steaming atmosphere in the theatre a hot summer
night in Molde, and should be played on a high volume!
TJO & The MaXx:
Oscar Gr nberg - keyboards; Petter Kraft - guitar, tenor saxophone and vocals;
Tomas J rmyr - drums; Mia Marlen Berg - vocals; Thomas Johansson - trumpet;
Petter H ngsel - trombone and recorder; Mette Rasmussen - alto saxophone;
Kjetil M ster - tenor saxophone; Anton Toorell - electric guitar; Anja Lauvdal -
keyboards; Mattis Kleppen - electric bass; Recorded by Tor Breivik Mixed by H
vard Soknes.

Producer extraordinaire John Morales returns to BBE Music, celebrating the life and work of R&B / soul legend Teena Marie with a double album full of brand new remixes, lovingly crafted from the original studio tapes, entitled ‘Love Songs & Funky Beats’. “Teena is somewhat underrated, and people don't really know much about her.” Says Morales. “I set out to immerse people in her music and represent what she really did. That meant for me a dive into more than her R&B hits, to dig into her ballads and dance cuts. People know she was talented. I don't really think they really knew the depth of her abilities, her complete confidence to take it upon herself to do everything – singing, producing, arranging, songwriting. Teena Marie was the total package.” John Morales had the pleasure of mixing many of Teena Marie’s original records over the years, so it felt natural to dig into the archives and select his favourite cuts to rework, extend and subtly update in his own distinctive style. While by no means a definitive collection of Lady Tee’s expansive musical catalogue, ‘Love Songs & Funky Beats’ represents a fitting tribute to a multifaceted and important voice in popular music, by one of the most storied mix engineers and remixers of our age. Jumping into the music industry deep end in 1979 with a three-year mentorship from Berry Gordy & Rick James at Motown, Teena Marie then spent seven fertile years with Epic, which yielded her greatest commercial successes (including the classic album 'Starchild'). After founding an independent label ‘Sarai’, Marie took a ten-year hiatus which ended in 2004 in a deal with hip hop label Cash Money Records; a less unlikely partnership than some might assume, given that Teena was one of the first ‘mainstream’ artists to perform a rap verse, on 1981’s ‘Square Biz’. Teena Marie Brockert forged a unique path through the industry, an artist in-charge of her own destiny, influencing (and heavily sampled by) both the hip hop and R&B sounds of the 90’s and early 2000’s. Her 1982 lawsuit against Motown records resulted in "The Brockert Initiative", which has benefitted literally thousands of other artists by making it illegal for record companies to ‘shelve’ artists by keeping them under contract without releasing their material. She continued to tour regularly and deliver commercially successful, expertly sculpted music, right up until her untimely passing in 2010.

LTD. CLEAR BLUE VINYL

Fresh off of their 2020 offering Adult Themes, El Michels Affair is back with a new full-length release. Titled Yeti Season, this newest album has everything we've come to expect from EMA's patented cinematic style of instrumental soul music. Where Adult Themes inspired a soundtrack to an imaginary film, Yeti Season brings us to a different place in time_with new inspirations. Taken with Turkish-styled funk and an almost Mumbai-esque take on soul, El Michels Affair offers us a different kind of drama and imagination with Yeti Season. If you've been following along, this shouldn't be viewed as too far a departure for El Michels Affair. The first single off of Yeti Season showed their hand back in 2018. A double-sided banger, that release brought the musical textures to the fore that dominate this record. The first song, titled "Unathi," is fully realized with the beautifully haunting-yet-hopeful vocals of Piya Malik, formally of 79.5_another Big Crown artist. Singing in Hindi, Piya's ethereal voice is telling us to work and strive together toward progress. Even if you don't understand her language, you can still hear the urgency of purpose, creating a lasting vibe that sits on top of it all. Leon Michels explains that Piya had a vital influence on this record: "When Piya started singing in Hindi, she had a different voice, a different tone. I knew we had to do something together." And so Piya appears on three other songs on Yeti Season: "Zaharila," "Murkit Gem," and "Dhuaan." Each providing particular signatures to the album. "Zaharila" is a building and changing love song punctuated by blaring trumpets, driving drums, and Piya's pleading lyrics. While the more upbeat "Murkit Gem" opens with a fuzzed out, Wu-Tang-esque baseline that buoys Piya's stylings. The psychedelic guitar and Piya's changing tones and textures singing about an all-consuming love are what pushed "Dhuaan" on to the second single from Yeti Season. There is also a vocal appearance from Shannon Wise of The Shacks, yet another Big Crown artist. Her song called "Sha Na Na," lies more in the familiar EMA vein: melodic, hypnotic, soulfully visual. But between Shannon's airy singing, the jumpy baseline, moody vibes, the active drum lines, it sounds like a pensive walk home after a strangely dramatic night. So what is Yeti Season? It could be more of a feeling than an actual place or time of year. It's a heavy album_as evidenced by the signature musicianship and dramatic vocal expressions. But it's also a hopeful record, with phrasings, textures, and chord changes that hint at something better_or fuller_coming our way. You hear it in songs like "Ala Vida," with its stabby, pulsing chords laying a bedrock for EMA's bright, atmospheric horn lines. Or even in "Fazed Out," which leaves you with a feeling of determination, a striving for resolution even though the driving, march-like song structure should accompany some conquering army. This persistence has to come from the fact that Leon Michels and company finished this record during the lockdown. It was a tough and troublesome time. But look at what has come of it: Yeti Season_a record of high and heavy drama, but also one of hope and promise. It may take a year like 2020 behind us to find hope in a winter big footed creature like a Yeti, but that's where we are.

Stix Records, a sub-label of Favorite Recordings, proudly presents Scary Dub, a new project by Mato, made of exclusive Dub versions of some of the most famous horror movie soundtracks. Available as Vinyl LP & Digital on February 5th 2021.

Do you remember The Exorcist, Halloween, Jaws, Evil Dead, The Twilight Zone or The Return Of The Living Dead and their haunting musical themes? Imagine all and many more remixed by the French dub master, along with three original and scary compositions. Needless to say, Mato, who’s playing most instruments and synthesizers, did a fantastic job and you’ll be blown when hearing these versions.

Starting his reggae production career in 2006, Thomas Blanchot (aka Mato) has released music through various projects on EDR Records, Big Singles or Makasound... In the meantime, he developed a real trademark: taking over classics French, Hip-Hop, OST, Classical or Pop songs, into roots reggae-dub new versions. Besides, since 2010, Mato has built a solid reputation thanks to his hot remixes of Hip-Hop classics on Stix Records.

For the first vinyl compilation this year, dotwav invites three techno heavyweights that need no further introduction: Kangding Ray, Denise Rabe and Mario Berger deliver their own version of a trippy peak time track. All the productions catapult us into the future and right onto the floor.

Fast, brutal, slamming and with a distinct message in their music: Necrotted from southern Germany are a bearer of hope for modern death metal! Founded back in 2008, the band from Abtsgmünd (Baden-Wuerttemberg) still invigorates the scene and continuously convinces its growing fan base as well as the music press. Not only the three full-length albums ‘Anchors Apart’ (2012), ‘Utopia 2.0’ (2014) and ‘Worldwide Warfare’ (2017) and the two EPs ‘Kingdom Of Hades’ (2010) and ‘Die For Something Worthwhile’ (2019) are registered in the band’s history, but also hundreds of live concerts in different countries in which Necrotted already unleashed their pure energy on various stages. Sweeping and melodic guitar riffs combined with blaring blast beats and rough, stomping slam parts form the brutal mixture of the quintet. The musical sound is rounded off by deep and high-pitched guttural vocals, emphasizing the catchy refrains and lyrical highlights of the songs. The new album ‘Operation: Mental Castration’ follows this trend and consistently enhances the soundscape of the band. Also, the album once again comes up with a sophisticated lyrical concept, characteristic for Necrotted. Written and recorded in 2020, ‘Operation: Mental Castration’ will be released through the aspiring label Reaper Entertainment Europe in early 2021 and will set a new benchmark for modern, diversified death metal. Social Media Whore (feat. Julien of Benighted): The southern German death metal brigade Necrotted revealed the first single ‘Asocial Media Whore’ of the upcoming album ‘Operation: Mental Castration’. For this groovy slasher of a song the quintet teamed up with Julien Truchan of French brutal death metal band Benighted. My Mental Castration: With ‘My Mental Castration’ Necrotted unleash the title track of their upcoming album ‘Operation: Mental Castration’. The song showcases the characteristic style and the spirit of the new full-length, which will set a new benchmark for modern, diversified death metal. Compulsory Consumption: Sluggish and melodic ‘Compulsory Consumption’ is the third single off of Necrotted’s upcoming album ‘Operation: Mental Castration’. The rough song underlines the band’s status as a bearer of hope for modern death metal.

Calgary songwriter Chad VanGaalen’s new album, ‘World’s Most Stressed Out
Gardener’, is a psychedelic bumper crop. A collection of tunes that does away with
obsessiveness, the anxiety of perfectionism, in favour of freshness and immediacy -
capturing the world as it was met while recording alone at home over a period of
years. “Don’t overthink it,” VanGaalen told himself again and again, despite the
push/pull love/hate of his relationship with songwriting. “I’m always trying to get
outside of the song - but then I realize I love the song.”
This is a record that gleams with VanGaalen’s musical signatures: found sound,
reverb, polychromatic folk music that is by turns cartoonish and hyperphysical - like
ultra-magnified footage of a virus or a leaf. Apparently, the album began life as a
“pretty minimal” flute record. (There’s only a vestige now, on ‘Flute Peace’, one of
three instrumentals.) Later it became an electronic record “for a while” and finally,
“right at the last second,” it “turned into a pile of garbage.” The good kind of
garbage: glinting, useful, free. Music as compost - leaves and branches ready to be
re-ingested by the earth, turned into a flower.
Throughout these 40 minutes, VanGaalen floats from mania to solace to oblivion,
searching for zen in all the wrong places. “Turn up the radio / I think we’re dead,”
he sings on ‘Nothing Is Strange’; or, on the inside-out rocker ‘Nightmare Scenario’:
“You’re stressed out when you should be feeling very well.” The singer’s mental
landscape is rotting and redemptive, beautiful in spite of itself - and his soundscapes
reflect this fertile decay.
He has been influenced by his instrumental work on TV scores (Dream Corp’s third
season began this fall) but still “nothing can really replace the human voice,” he
admits. Like Arthur Russell or Syd Barrett, it’s VanGaalen’s vocals that shine a path
through the swampland - from the cello-lashed ‘Water Brother’ to ‘Starlight’’s
krautrock pipe-dream.
These days, VanGaalen cherishes the privacy of the studio, the capacity to wander
around, get distracted, and “move at the speed of life.” Whereas once he would
obsess over mic techniques, now he puts the microphone in the same place every
time - trying to capture a song quickly, the idea at its heart. He’ll act on his
infatuations - for the flute, a squeaky clarinet, his basement’s copper plumbing
(remade into xylophones for ‘Samurai Sword’) - and then he’ll try to get out, “veering
away from responsibility,” before he overdoes his stay.
In the end, it’s like gardening. You have to live with your horrible decision-making;
the weather’s going to mess with you if it wants to; and if you plant a hundred
heads of broccoli, “now you gotta eat a hundred heads of broccoli - or watch them
go to seed.” But mostly VanGaalen just tries to be a deer: “I remember seeing some
deer come out in the Okanagan Valley once,” he says, “watching them wait for a
sunbeam to hit a perfect bunch of grapes - and then eating them right out of the
sunbeam. I’d recommend that.”
Initial LP copies pressed on clear with gold, red and blue high melt coloured vinyl.

Solution were a Dutch rock band that were active from 1970 to 1983, with an additional reunion taking place in 2006. Solution is their impressive self-titled debut album, which was recorded over just three consecutive days in 1971. Blending psychedelic and prog with jazz, Solution created a unique sound. Some of the tracks, such as “Koan” and “Circus Circumstances” (the latter of which was based on a composition by French composer Jacques Ibert), see the band playing frantically as an ensemble, while the shorter and more peaceful “Preview” provides a nice change of pace. The theme of “Preview” ended up being used on later releases by Solution as well.

Little do we know about Moondance, in fact when these tracks just showed up in the inbox one day, we said "Moon who?".
All we got was a link to a dropbox folder with three tracks signed Moondance.
One thing is for sure though, the music peaks volumes and that is why we didn't hesitate to sign all three of them.

The title track, 'Never Found Love' comes in two different shapes. While the original is a colourful, rich, and jazzy piano driven house track with a vocal to tie it all together, the Amen Mix is an off-kilter dub inspired version, it sounds like something straight out of a Innerzone Orchestra jam session

Moondance's own theme, 'The Moon Dance (2020)' sounds like the perfect blend between house and techno, carefully dipped into a pot with equal parts of forward thinking Detroit style and organic house.

“Nothing ever really disappears,” Cassandra Jenkins says. “It just changes shape.” Over the past few years, she’s seen relationships altered, travelled three continents, wandered through museums and parks, and recorded free-associative guided tours of her New York haunts. Her observations capture the humanity and nature around her, as well as thought patterns, memories, and attempts to be present while dealing with pain and loss. With a singular voice, Jenkins siphons these ideas into the ambient folk of her new album.
An Overview on Phenomenal Nature honors flux, detail, and moments of intimacy. Jenkins arrived at engineer Josh Kaufman’s studio with ideas rather than full songs — nevertheless, they finished the album in a week. Jenkins’ voice floats amid sensuous chamber pop arrangements and raw-edged drums, ferrying us through impressionistic portraits of friends and strangers. Her lyrics unfold magical worlds, introducing you to a cast of characters like a local fisherman, a psychic at a birthday party, and driving instructor of a spiritual bent.

Jenkins’ last record, 2017’s Play Till You Win, confirmed the veteran artist’s talent. Evident of Jenkins’ experience growing up in a family band in New York City, the album showcased her meticulous songwriting and musicianship, earning her comparisons to George Harrison and Emmylou Harris. Jenkins has since played in the bands of Eleanor Friedberger, Craig Finn, and Lola Kirke, and rehearsed to tour with Purple Mountains last August before the tour’s cancellation. Her new record departs from her previous work in its openness and flexibility, following her peripatetic lifestyle. “The goal is to be more fluid, to be more like the clouds shifting constantly,” she says. The approach allowed Jenkins to express herself like she never has.

On album opener “Michaelangelo,” before the heavy drum beat and fuzz guitars enter, Jenkins sings quietly “I’m a three-legged dog, working with what I’ve got / and part of me will always be looking for what I lost // there’s a fly around my head, waiting for the day I drop dead.” Phenomenal Nature thrives in this dichotomy between ornate sonics and verbal frankness, a calming guided tour to the edge. Later, on “Crosshairs,” amid lush strings, she sings conversationally: “Empty space is my escape / it runs through me like a river / while time spits in my face.”

“Hard Drive,” the third track and album centerpiece, opens with a voice memo Jenkins recorded at The Met Breuer: a guard muses about Mrinalini Mukherjee’s hybrid textile and sculpture works, which were then on display in a retrospective titled Phenomenal Nature. “When we lose our connection to nature, we lose our spirit, our humanity,” she explains. Stuart Bogie's saxophone & Josh Kaufman's glittering guitar make way for Jenkins' spoken word which constellates scenes from her life, gradually building and blossoming as she recreates a meditation guided by a friend who incants, “One, two, three.”

Sounds of footsteps and bird calls run through the album’s glittering conclusion, “The Ramble.” Meditative and bright, it recalls how Jenkins felt while writing and recording her new material: “Everything else is falling apart, so let’s just enjoy this time,” she said. If Phenomenal Nature has a unifying theme, it’s the power of presence, the joy of walking in a world in constant flux and opening oneself to change.

Label Boss Okain is back with three orginal tracks plus one superb remix from Leo Pol. Don't sleep

Xqui travels back one hundred years, navigating a twisted channel to the roaring Twenties. As this record crackles into life, sounds begin to melt and warp in a visceral transgression of time. Uncompromisingly immersive; startling; melancholic; confusing; beautiful - Twenties is the rebirth of a fading spirit song of ages. "Often when I have an idea for a new track with a new approach or sound, it snowballs into something bigger. Whether that be a longer track, an EP or even an album, each time I try to have a theme that carries through the project. Lleisiau was based around voices, Microchasm was my industrial ambient album and Ambients found me in a more reflective and serene state of mind. With Twenties it was simply the thought of using archive recordings and footage to expand into something more tangible. I found dozens of recordings from the 1920s which I thought worked well with some of my more trademark sounds. I was looking at images for the search term ‘1920s’ when I came across an image of a man from one hundred years ago who was wearing a facemask which was presumably from the time of the Spanish Flu pandemic. It was not until I saw it that I realised, with irony, that the same thing was happening here and now. The finding of the photo added another angle to the album, a little bit of horror, interference and mechanical sounds. I recorded and collated more field recordings and manipulated them to give the noise on the album. I feel it is probably my most complete work to date and I’m incredibly proud of it. I present to you, the Twenties." Xqui. Xqui first appeared in April 2018 with his Britannia EP which was swiftly followed by the Dragon album in May. Using field recordings which he manipulated via mobile phone and laptop, he created incredible soundscapes and was quickly compared to Eno, Basinski and Mansell. Since then, he has been in rich productive form with Twenties being his seventh full length album. Appearing in several Albums of the Year lists over the last three years, he has also remixed for the likes of Lark, Elizabeth Joan Kelly and Assassin of Sound as well as collaborated with Transmission 13, Radio Europa and Geiger von Muller to name but a few. His work with boycalledcrow under the moniker of Wonderful Beasts received massive critical acclaim resulting in the approach from a filmmaker to provide soundtrack material as well as a sold-out debut compact disc.

White Vinyl

They Say: “Exploring the wide range of moods and sounds produced by percussion”.

We say: MPCs at the ready because this does exactly what it says on the tin, to devastating effect. Oh, and the sleeve is stunning.

Originally released in 1979, Percussion Spectrum was produced by the legendary percussionists Barry Morgan and Ray Cooper. With dope beats taking in diverse styles, from funk and soul and jazz through to Latin, Brazilian, samba and Afro-Cuban, this is an amazing sample source filled with killer drum-breaks and percussion flares. Unsurprisingly it’s one of the most sought-after records from the Themes catalogue.

This library LP is a library in itself, with its mix of short themes of single beats, short breaks and some longer, more fully-formed DJ-friendly tracks. Trust us when we say that this is a box full of percussion firework ready to be thrown onto the dancefloor at the just right moment. We don’t have anywhere near enough space to describe all 34 tracks (there isn’t even enough room on the labels to list them all!) so we’ll pick out some favourites.

Favourites like opener “Impulsion”, a percussive masterclass with drum upon drum upon drum making it feel like a neat prototype to the percussive underscores of Peter Lüdemann and Pit Troja’s eternal The Now Generation LP. And the dramatic “Fast Action” is exactly that, racing along on a rapid roll of congas, cymbal crashes and throbbing kicks. “The Chaser” is classic library cop-funk with dilapidated drum figures, and the outrageously funky “Heat On” is the perfect accompaniment to your wild action sequences.

A real highlight is “Runaway”, and not just because it sounds like nothing else on the record. Here are drums and percussion in that tight funk style that just cries out to be sampled. “Percussion Power” is an extended, near-three minute suite of funky drum solo after funky drum solo that just aches to be looped: open drums to die for people! “Shivers” is a tense, apprehensive underscore with shock stabs that builds to a climax whilst “Drums On Parade” is a showcase of head-nod drums and cymbals in march time. Did someone say “funky”?

Side B starts with a stroll down “Samba Street”. With the noise of the crowd in the background, this is riotous, authentically drawn samba that sounds like it’s been beamed straight in from Rio in full flow. Drop this at midnight and watch the cobwebs fly off any dancefloor. Prefer it without the fake crowd? “Samba Street (b)” has you covered.

The simple, innocent “Child’s Themes” (all five of them) provide a nice, sweet respite from all the funk. Nursery sounds tinged with only a touch of melancholy. The gentle marimba solo of “Tropical Peace” only adds to the sense of serenity we get from the relatively calm second side. The album closes out with a veritable toolkit of tom toms, snare drum rolls, timpani, vibraphones and chiming bells.

Percussion Spectrum is a joyous collection of sounds, as bright, beaming and downright funky as the vibrant cover. The Themes series is known for each record having its own particularly striking sleeve, which was unusual for library records at the time, and Percussion Spectrums’s multi-coloured drumsticks make for one of the most eye-catching.

As with all of our other Themes re-issues, the audio for Percussion Spectrum comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. As usual Richard Robinson has taken the same care with restoring the original sleeve from archive scans. This is another one ticked off the list of library records that should be out there for anyone who wants a copy.

Cool Ghouls - a band fledged in San Francisco on house shows, minimum wage jobs, BBQ's in Golden Gate Park and the romance of a city’s psychedelic history turns 10 this year. What better a decennial celebration than the release of their fourth album, At George's Zoo!

How did San Francisco's fab four arrive at George's Zoo? The teenage friendship of complimentary spirits Pat McDonald (Guitar/Vox) and Pat Thomas (Bass/Vox) serves as square one. The Patricks were munching on Eggo-waffle-sandwiches and downing warm vokda in suburban Benicia (San Francisco bay) years before McDonald would hear George Clinton address his fans as "Cool Ghouls". The boys played their debut gig as Cool Ghouls at San Francisco's legendary The Stud in 2011, but there's no doubt the musical moment cementing the band's trajectory was much earlier at the 18th birthday party for boy-wonder Ryan Wong (Guitar/Vox) - at the Wong household.

You might remember the Ghouls' earliest days... McDonald’s hair hung luxuriously past his waist, Thomas dreamt of no longer having to crash on friends' couches to call SF home and Wong looked forward to turning 21. Cool Ghouls' Pete Best, Cody Voorhees, thrashed wildly – but briefly - on the drums and Alex Fleshman (Drums), who still claims he's not really "a drummer", turned out to be a really good drummer. Thomas would sleep pee on tour. Those were golden days!

Flash forward to today and everything is up in flames. No shows, parties or bars. Cool people are streaming out of SF. It's been 2 years since the last time Cool Ghouls have even played. The STUD is gone, The Eagle Tavern is for sale and The Hemlock has been demolished for condos. Your boss is an app. Fascism is no-knocking down the door. There's a pandemic.

Fortunately for us, the Ghouls got an album in before it all went to shit, and they made it count. At George's Zoo includes 15 of the 27 tunes they managed to eke out while simultaneously working through major life moves. It was a 5-month, all out, final sprint down the homestretch (to Ryan's moving day) with affable engineer Robby Joseph, at his makeshift garage studio in the Outer Sunset (pictured on the cover). Instead of recording the entire album over a few consecutive days - like they'd done with Tim Cohen, Sonny Smith and Kelley Stoltz for the first three LPs - the band took it slow by working through a few songs each weekend after rehearsing them the week before. Robby would cue up the tape, McDonald would throw some steaks on the grill and they'd get to work - much to the neighbor, George's, chagrin.

These guys have a real commitment to elevating as songwriters, musicians and ensemble players. It's always been for the music with Cool Ghouls and this long-awaited self-produced outing is a track by track display of the ground they've covered and heights they can achieve. Their vocals and trademark harmonies are front and center and out-of-control-good. Ryan's guitar solos are incredible. The horns by Danny Brown (sax) and Andrew Stephens (trumpet) hit in all the right places. Maestro, Henry Baker (Pat Thomas Band / Tino Drima), plays keys throughout. There's even a mesmerizing string section ("Land Song") by sonic polyglot, Dylan Edrich.

None of this growth is to the detriment of the fun, natural, feeling that fans have come to expect from the band. This is a fully realized Cool Ghouls album. It paints a remarkable portrait of SF's homegrown heroes and the many corners they've explored over the last decade. The songwriting, harmony and playing are nothing if not solid. The lyrics are keen. Robby's recording and mixing sound great start to finish and even better after mastering by Mikey Young. It's a triumphant addition to their catalogue. Recommended for Stooges and Beach Boys fans alike. Listen and see!

Yes, many things have changed since 2011. Who knows what the 20's will have in store for life on Earth, let alone the Cool Ghouls? We at least know that 2021 has At George's Zoo for us, a beautiful keepsake from the Before Times when we used to stand in living rooms together while bands played.

Daniel Szlajnda (aka Daniel Drumz) and Piotr Kalinski (aka Hatti Vatti) are one of the most famouse and experienced Polish producers and this album is another step forward for them.

It started with the EP "Krzyżacy", which was released exactly two years ago. Two well-known producers - Daniel Drumz & Hatti Vatti - joined their forces to release an EP, which later on was appreciated by the worldwide listeners, journalists and festival audience. JANKA, which I am talking about, hit the stages of the best Polish festivals such as Opener, Spring Break, Tauron, Slovenian MENT and Moscow Music Week. But that happened in 2019.

On March 8th 2021 the duo's debut album, "MIDI Life Crisis" will be released. Daniel Szlajnda and Piotr Kaliński once again prove that there is much more than just musical chemistry between them. What we can hear there are fascinations from dubby minimalism and IDM to jungle and rave - it's hard to label this unique mature album which should be a pleasant surprise for people open to electronic music. "Modern vintage" might be a good description of what we experience there, music is pressed on modular and analog synths and unusual sampling is drowned in delays and reverbs. However it's not from the late '90s, nothing is typical or obvious, the sound and the style of JANKA are unique.

On the album, you hear two guest voices - Sujka (i.e. Iwona Król - known from the projects Kobieta z Wydm, Lauda, and Król) and Kacha Kowalczyk (i.e. the voice of Coals), the album was mastered by Kwazar. The unique graphic was designed and created by Zosia Paśnik on the analogue gear (as a diploma at the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice). The album is released in analog form in two color versions, the 180-gram vinyl edition also includes three inserts with Zosia's graphics.

Daniel Szlajnda (aka Daniel Drumz) and Piotr Kalinski (aka Hatti Vatti) are one of the most famouse and experienced Polish producers and this album is another step forward for them.

It started with the EP "Krzyżacy", which was released exactly two years ago. Two well-known producers - Daniel Drumz & Hatti Vatti - joined their forces to release an EP, which later on was appreciated by the worldwide listeners, journalists and festival audience. JANKA, which I am talking about, hit the stages of the best Polish festivals such as Opener, Spring Break, Tauron, Slovenian MENT and Moscow Music Week. But that happened in 2019.

On March 8th 2021 the duo's debut album, "MIDI Life Crisis" will be released. Daniel Szlajnda and Piotr Kaliński once again prove that there is much more than just musical chemistry between them. What we can hear there are fascinations from dubby minimalism and IDM to jungle and rave - it's hard to label this unique mature album which should be a pleasant surprise for people open to electronic music. "Modern vintage" might be a good description of what we experience there, music is pressed on modular and analog synths and unusual sampling is drowned in delays and reverbs. However it's not from the late '90s, nothing is typical or obvious, the sound and the style of JANKA are unique.

On the album, you hear two guest voices - Sujka (i.e. Iwona Król - known from the projects Kobieta z Wydm, Lauda, and Król) and Kacha Kowalczyk (i.e. the voice of Coals), the album was mastered by Kwazar. The unique graphic was designed and created by Zosia Paśnik on the analogue gear (as a diploma at the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice). The album is released in analog form in two color versions, the 180-gram vinyl edition also includes three inserts with Zosia's graphics.

Obviously is the new album from beloved band Lake Street Dive. It includes the new single ‘Nobody’s Stopping You Now’, a letter of encouragement from lead vocalist Rachael Price to her teenaged self, co-written with bassist Bridget Kearney. Lake Street Dive has figured out how to write tunes that reflect this particularly turbulent chapter in our shared history. The album track ‘Making Do’, which was released at the end of last year, speaks to the world that future generations are inheriting while exploring the lasting impacts of climate change and our responsibility to address it (featuring a cameo from Senator Ed Markey who co-sponsored the Green New Deal).

As Price puts it, “You’re trying to express your anxieties, your feelings, your sadness, your happiness, all of these things – your authentic state of being in a song. But you’re also trying to create something people will listen to over and over again. That’s the unique fun thing about music, putting these messages into three and a half minute snippets, dropping whatever truth we can and hoping it’s the type of thing that people want to ruminate on.”

Obviously was produced by Grammy Award-winning producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Mike Elizondo who is best known as a songwriting collaborator for Dr. Dre, Eminem, and 50 Cent and has also served as a record producer for Fiona Apple, Mary J. Blige, Carrie Underwood, and 21 Pilots, among many others. Utilizing Elizondo’s hip-hop record-making expertise coupled with the permanent addition of keyboardist Akie Bermiss, Lake Street Dive’s wide-ranging taste in pop, rock, R&B, and jazz have blended together to make an impressively cohesive sound, combining retro influences with a contemporary attitude. “We’ve been a band for so long that we didn’t want to just become a feedback loop of our own ideas,” recounts Kearney. “It felt like a really good time to bring another person like Mike Elizondo, and he really opened us up. He encouraged us to make bolder arrangement choices, take those chances and try those things. The record really is a success in what we set out to do: continue to challenge ourselves, continue to grow, and do things we’ve never done before.”

The members of Lake Street Dive founded the group in 2004 while attending the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. The band features Rachael Price (lead vocals), Mike “McDuck” Olson (trumpet, guitar), Bridget Kearney (bass) and Mike Calabrese (drums) as well as their newest member Akie Bermiss (keyboards), who has been a touring member of the group since 2017. Since the band’s inception, they have released six studio albums. Their 2018 self-produced record, Free Yourself Up, debuted at #4 on the US’s Top Album Chart and charted #8 on the Billboard 200. In addition, the album’s hit single ‘Good Kisser’ peaked at #5 at Americana radio and appeared in the Top 20 at AAA radio, both career peaks for the band. The group has toured worldwide performing at major music festivals including Bonnaroo, New Orleans Jazz Festival and Newport Folk Festival while preforming alongside artists such as T Bone Burnett, The Avett Brothers, Robert Finley, Jack Johnson and Trombone Shorty.

Bitch Falcon; a name you won't forget and a band who won't let you forget them. This trio from the vibrant, much-hyped music scene of Dublin was formed by front-woman Lizzie Fitzpatrick with her friends in a small kitchen in the city in 2014. Since these freshman days, the lineup has galvanised around the rhythm section of Barry O'Sullivan on Bass and Nigel Kenny on Drums

The acclaimed dream-grunge three-piece have announced their debut LP, Staring At Clocks, to be released 6th November via Small Pond Records

Mondo, in collaboration with Back Lot Music, is proud to present a vinyl pressing of James Newton Howard's Golden Globe Nominated score to Universal Pictures’ powerful new film from acclaimed filmmaker Paul Greengrass, News of The World.

Set five years after the end of the Civil War, News of the World follows Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd (Tom Hanks), a veteran of three wars, who now moves from town to town as a non-fiction storyteller, sharing the news of presidents and queens, glorious feuds, devastating catastrophes, and gripping adventures from the far reaches of the globe.

In the plains of Texas, Kidd crosses paths with Cicada, aka Johanna Leonberger (Helena Zengel, System Crasher), a 10-year-old taken in by the Kiowa people six years earlier and raised as one of their own. Johanna, hostile to a world she’s never experienced, is being returned to her biological aunt and uncle against her will. Kidd reluctantly agrees to deliver the child to where the law says she belongs. As they travel hundreds of miles into the unforgiving wilderness, the two will face tremendous challenges of both human and natural forces as they search for a place that either can call home.

The film is a moving exploration of our present through the lens of our past, and the music by eight-time Academy Award® nominee James Newton Howard (The Hunger Games, The Sixth Sense, Signs, The Fugitive) is innovative, emotional, and beautiful, as it follows Captain Kidd’s journey from regret to redemption. A haunted, and healing sound of vintage Americana floods from your speakers as the tender strings and piano guide you over gorgeous landscapes.

Cathal Coughlan is the co-founder and singer of acclaimed 80s/90s pop-rock groups Microdisney and Fatima Mansions, and widely considered to be one of Ireland's most revered singer/songwriters, beloved by fans of caustic literate music in the vein of Wilco, Robert Forster and Mark Eitzel. He's released four acclaimed solo albums and this will be his first new music in 10 years. Features and reviews already set for Mojo and The Wire and expect plentiful support from BBC6 Music. Enclosed in a stunning sleeve by award-winning Bruce Brand (The Darkness and White Stripes) with a focus image portrait by outsider artist Cristabel Christo. The new record not only has his usual backing musicians, The Necropolitan String Quartet, but also Luke Haines (Auteurs/Black Box Recorder), Sean O'Hagan (Microdisney/High Llamas), Rhodri Marsden (Scritti Politti) , Aindrías O Gruama (Fatima Mansions), Cory Gray (The Delines) and Dublin singer-songwriter Eileen Gogan.. Loosely conceptual, and based around the persona of Co-Aklan, the LP is melodic and inventive. Twelve fabulous new songs; three will have videos from Marry Waterson and Andy Golding of the Wolfhounds. "Coughlan's intelligence and passion are a rebuke to a vapid music industry, his chronicles of disaffection and disgust an inspiration." - David Peschek, The Guardian

British artist Robin Rimbaud (Scanner) traverses the experimental terrain between sound and space connecting a bewilderingly diverse array of genres. Since 1991 he has been intensely active in sonic art, producing concerts, installations and recordings, the albums Mass Observation (1994), Delivery (1997), and The Garden is Full of Metal (1998) hailed by critics innovative and inspirational works of contemporary electronic music. Committed to working with cutting edge practitioners he has collaborated with Bryan Ferry, Wayne McGregor, Mike Kelley, Carsten Nicolai, Michael Nyman, Steve McQueen, Laurie Anderson and Hussein Chalayan, amongst many others.

Rimbaud first met Belgian artist Hans Op de Beeck at Le Fresnoy Studio national des Arts Contemporains when they were both Visiting Professors in 2012. Op de Beeck lives and works in Brussels, Belgium and creates sculpture, installations, video, photography, animated films, drawing, painting, and writing. His various works show the viewer non-existent, but identifiable places, moments and characters that appear to have been taken from everyday life.

The artists found an immediate creative connection, and a year after meeting Staging Silence (2) was completed. In 2019, they returned to the theme and created Staging Silence (3).

Each of the films is realised through the same principles, as two pairs of anonymous hands construct and deconstruct fictional interiors and landscapes on a mini film set of just three-square metres in size. The films take the viewer on a visual journey through depopulated, enigmatic and often melancholic, but nonetheless playful, small-scaled places, which are built up and taken down before the eye of the camera.

Ranging from hyper-realistic fictional land and cityscapes to absurd, almost surreal, dreamscapes, the various locations are connected by the sense of mystery and melancholy that pervades them. And at every moment Rimbaud's score is amplifying and illustrating these moments, from tragedy to nostalgia, witty to optimistic.

Introspective and lyrical, Staging Silence offers us a world of mystery and intrigue, held together by nature and time. This is a very humane works experienced at a time when many of us feel disconnected from the world around us. The peculiar silence that permeates this hauntingly beautiful work is very much an illustration of our times, anticipating a future in the past. Staging Silence is an exquisite study in dreamlike abstract ambience, a kaleidoscope of sounds and tones that engage the head and the heart.

Melbourne’s Cool Sounds return with their fourth full-length album Bystander, out February 12. Warm and deftly balanced, Bystander moves through indie rock and alt-country with an alert effortlessness.

Cool Sounds’ signature lead guitar lines are in dialogue with lead singer and songwriter Dainis Lacey’s lyrics, which are at turns introspective, self-aware, irreverent and unflinchingly observant. Bystander was written during a European summer and recorded in three weeks over the following Australian one, produced by Lacey alongside Dylan Young (Way Dynamic). While it can sound serene, Bystander isn’t always as laid back as the warm weather might suggest: this album sees Cool Sounds more attuned to their surroundings than ever. While Lacey has always been interested in storytelling, these songs bring lyrics into sharp focus – for the first time the words were all written before the music, and he took notes in the band’s cramped tour van on the autobahn and while wandering through small towns in France and Italy, reflecting on his home while away from it.

Bystander sees Cool Sounds explore the contemporary moment and the everyday with nuance and dexterity, never losing sight of the intimacy and charm that characterises their work. An exercise in observation and reflection, Bystander takes snapshots and zooms in, underlines phrases, and asks its listener to continue paying close attention.

Cool Sounds are Dainis Lacey, Nick Kearton, Ambrin Hasnain, Steve Foulkes, Jack Nichols, Pierce Morton

Produced by Dainis Lacey and Dylan Young

Engineered by Dylan Young

Eine neu überarbeitete ”Island Years”-Auflage des klassischen Bob-Marley-Boxsets, zum ersten Mal auch auf Vinyl. Mit Marleys vielen Klassikern von ”Concrete Jungle” über ”Redemption Song” bis hin zu seltenen 12”-Mixen, B-Seiten, jamaikanischen Singles und Alternates. ”Songs Of Freedom: The Island Years” erscheint als 6LP-Set.

Das 6LP-Set auf schwarzem Standard-Vinyl (180 g) enthält ein 20-seitiges Booklet mit seltenen Fotos,
mehreren Essays und Titelinformationen.

Guedra Guedra presents Vexillology, an elevation of tribal consciousness and futurism from underground musical universes. The album offers listeners an immersive experience made from hypnotic and rhythmic arrangements, rooted in ancient culture. Referring as much to Sub-Saharan as to North African cultures, Guedra Guedra presents a synthesis of his pan-African appreciation and a full immersion into the traditional rhythms of these lands, especially within the Berber culture which is found in countries such as his home of Morocco, and across Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Northern Mali, Northern Niger and beyond. The body of work is a complete celebration of cultural roots and future bass, bubbling in hotbeds of the global underground. Guedra Guedra is synonymously known for his ability to explore tribal rhythms and instruments of the past, as well as dancefloor innovations from contemporary underground scenes. For Vexillology and in true Guedra Guedra style, a myriad of immersive recording techniques were applied. The album is built upon a multitude of field recordings capturing live and 'in the moment' cultural happenings, encountered in everyday life, at tribal festivities and also on his travels. By also using video in his field recordings, Guedra Guedra enables himself to encapsulate the heat and entirety of the moment, applying this 'moment' and evolving it into his productions.

Baroque Sunburst co-founder and Honest Jon’s team member, Big Hands displays his potent production prowess on the next Oscilla Sound release with three tracks touching on organic soundscapes, illbience and muddy bass oddities. In the old city of Lakamha ancient tombs stand tall and ruined, woven with moss. Birds as old as time beat their wings over tropical forests; their cries bouncing off wet rock lassoed with carvings of Mayan symbols. ‘1346’ begins with stirring synths and dub-echoing, low frequencies encompassing both spatiality and aberration before the heads-down atmospheric roller ‘Calix’s Head’ lays down sharp, acid flutters and ghostly ripples. ‘Louis H theme’ is an ode to the radical minimalist composer Moondog (Louis Thomas Hardin), whose experiments with polyrhythms continue to influence numerous generations of musicians. The track features swampy bass that balances weightlessly with the hypnotic sonics and breezy rhythms.

Favorite Recordings proudly presents an exclusive eponymous LP by Brazilian singer and composer George Sauma Jr., originally produced in 1985. Imagine a never-marketed release on which you’d hear not only the beautiful and genuine George’s songs but also the work from two figures of the Brazilian Music Golden Age: Arthur Verocai and Junior Mendes! A much-needed album for all Brazilian connoisseurs.

Back in the days, George Sauma Jr. was a young artist from Rio de Janeiro, learning on his side how to play chords and compose songs since he was 10. Still at the university, he’s influenced by Brazilian artists like Cassiano or Tim Maia, deeply fascinated by the arrangements and the “levada” (the groove) of all these new Brazilian songs. Simple and romantic music that resonated to his soul and creativity.

Around 1985, the story took an unexpected turn. George tells: “Dna Deyse Lucidy, the mother of Junior Mendes was a candidate for deputy and went to my father’s company to advertise. When I saw her, I shouted, “I’m a big fan of your son!” ” Of course, she could not praise more the work of her son. On her advises, George went to his studio on Rua Siqueria Campos at Copacabana. Junior loved the project and sent him to Arthur Verocai to improve the arrangements. Without money, the decision was taken to record everything at Junior Mendes’ studio on an 8-channel mixer. It was a small set-up but the emotions were there! George surely had other plans for some of his songs but without the budget, they ended up doing everything the best they could. And they did very fine with a top-notch team of musicians: Paulo Black on Drums, Arthur Verocai on Guitar, Ricardo Do Canto on Bass and Helvius Vilela on Keyboards.

Leaving the studio with the tapes, George tried to knock doors of international labels, but none did even dare to give him an answer. With less than 1000 copies pressed back in the days and without any distributor or label behind him, he went with proud to record stores, but received nothing than a strong reality check regarding the difficulties for a young Brazilian artist to achieve something on the saturated market of the 80s. Even for free, record stores didn’t want it. In the end, he ended up giving copies to friends and families, knowing deep inside that the songs were good! George tells: “I decided to leave, calm and conscious. I’ve still made three more albums, however on tapes, as it was more affordable. This time, just for my pleasure…”.

Thirty-five years after, it’s with great emotion that this first album by George Sauma Jr. is now made available as Vinyl LP with its original offset printed innersleeve & CD

Spirit Of House’ is a jackin' 90’s Chicago inspired groove. It’s an uplifting, dance floor ready track from two of House music's finest. Those unmissable vocals from the legendary Gene Farris add a stamp of old authenticity – he’s a bonafide Chicago legend, who’s contributions to the House music scene are undebatable. He’s been pushing musical boundaries for close to three decades, working with world-leading labels and artists such as Relief, Dirtybird, ViVa Music and Defected.

ATFC is a longstanding label favourite and household name in the scene. He has 3 UK top 40 hits under his belt and has remixed tracks for the likes of P Diddy, Missy Elliot, Simply Red, Faithless and Dido. He’s entered Pete Tong’s Essential Mix hall of fame - and the BBC Radio 1 tastemaker himself described ATFC’s productions as ‘verging on genius’. This collaboration is a match made in heaven.

‘Spirit Of House’ is a deeply playable, feel-good House record from two of the most established producers in the scene.

‘R U’ features a catchy piano hook, tough drums and that deep, powerful vocal from Gene Farris himself. It’s a stripped back, gritty house cut and we're proud to be giving it a home on Toolroom.

Whilst sampling can be a sticky subject in dance music, 'Tech House Kinda Thing' is a fine example of how digging deep and being creative can be hugely rewarding. The vocal sample on this record is from another house titan; Harry Romero. This was taken from an event promo video that Harry recorded himself and posted on his Instagram page. Being the creative soul he is, ATFC heard it, sampled it, brought the idea to a Toolroom writing camp last November, and voila, this record was born! The record itself is an energetic club workout, produced with the detail and finesse you'd expect from such a legendary producer such as ATFC. With driving rhythms, off beat quirky stabs and that unique, spoken vocal, this really is a special record!

‘Not Enough’ is an uplifting, funky, feel-good tune. It oozes that ATFC warmth and the vocals from Mia Mendez add some serious sunshine vibes! Her voice is super powerful and within seconds of hitting play on this record you're whisked away to a sun drenched terrace!

Cabaret Voltaire is Richard H. Kirk and ‘Shadow of
Fear’ was the band’s first studio album in 26 years
and was released in 2020 to critical acclaim.
The single ‘Shadow of Funk’ delves deeper into
Cabaret Voltaire’s arsenal of “vocal samples, harsh
rhythms and threatening detonations” (Classic Pop).
Three brand new tracks released on Curacao coloured vinyl with digital download code included.

Corvair is what happens when you trap two Scorpio songwriters in a house together. Comprised of a Portland-based husband / wife duo of two seasoned musicians (Brian Naubert and Heather Larimer), Corvair’s debut album charts a starcrossed love story over three decades, five cities, and six continents. Spanning from atmospheric pop to jangly confessional, 70s AM to 90s FM, this work is laden with stunning turns of phrase and prodigious melodies, two voices leaping to meet in the ether. Corvair’s debut album was largely created during the COVID pandemic shut-down of Spring 2020. It includes work with drummer Eric Eagle (Jesse Sykes, Wayne Horvitz) and Engineer Martin Feveyear (Brandi Carlile, Mark Lanegan, Mudhoney), who also mixed the record. Larimer explains, “Being stuck in a house together with very little outside influence made us more emotionally raw, definitely weirder, and also more patient and intricate in developing the songs. And because we were in a bubble, cooking dinners from paranoidly-disinfected groceries and listening to old records, really disparate references from some of our favorite music ended up colliding in odd ways--an emotional Judas Priest bridge, an anthemic Pixies outro, a spacey keyboard sound from Steve Miller, Jeff Lynne's acoustic guitar tone, a Carpenters-style lush harmony. I think it's a wonderfully weird record, but also very in-your-face pop because what else are you going to do when the world feels like it's ending?" Separately, Naubert and Larimer have created or appeared on more than 20 records. Heather’s musical mainstay was the garage pop band Eux Autres, broadly hailed as a “veritable cult classic” band, radio-debuted by the legendary John Peel, and featured in many shows, movies and commercials. Brian is a longtime fixture of the Northwest rock community, having played in vital bands such as Tube Top, Pop Sickle, and the critically-lauded Ruston Mire, since 1993. More recently, Brian released his first solo record, Hoffabus and a record with the NW Supergroup, The Service Providers. Naubert and Larimer’s decades of separate music making have finally combined, culminating in this tour de force from two formidable songwriters. Corvair sounds like nothing you’ve ever heard and everything you’ve always loved.
Press quotes: “Smart, infectious, jangly pop.” Everett True // “An irresistible set of bouncy indie-pop tinged with surf music and ‘60s girl groups, contrasted with the band’s often-biting lyrics.” KEXP.org // “One of the more exciting independent releases of the year...a veritable cult classic.” Under The Radar // “Three chord garage pop that hangs on a raunchy guitar line and crisp production from Janet Weiss (Sleater-Kinney, Quasi).” MAGNET Magazine // Brian Naubert - vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards, percussion. Heather Larimer - vocals, keyboards, percussion.

Following the release of the single of the same name, Dutch duo Tunnelvisions return to Disco Halal with new EP ‘Gold Teeth’, out on Friday 27th November.

A three-track release, ‘Gold Teeth’ opens with an extended version of the title track, an infectiously feelgood house number, characterised by driving synths, busy percussion and catchy vocals. Next up, ‘Hyperfocus’ is a slow-burning progressive house cut that unfurls steadily across its six minutes. Closing things out, ‘Heat Wave’ harnesses an old school house vibe, characterised by deep bass and fluttering percussive elements.

Speaking about the EP, Tunnelvisions says: “We’re proud to present you our next EP called ‘Gold Teeth’. Three tracks combining our percussional and synthpop influences into something we’re very excited about.”

With an unmistakable ear for imaginative, melodic themes and entrancing rhythms, Tunnelvisions hit the sweet spot by seamlessly fusing worldly influences with analog synthesisers.

A diverse collection of tracks, ‘Gold Teeth’ sees Tunnelvisions skilfully explore various shades and tones on the house music spectrum.

Until Now, Jilala has been a much sought-after phantom in relation to their better-known musical and spiritual contemporaries, The Master Musicians of Jajouka. Culled from three and a half hours of 1965 recordings by writers/artists/poets Brion Gysin and Paul Bowles, the first batch of Jilala recordings were released on a 1965 LP that was scarce even upon its initial release. The second batch of Recordings, which this LP has drawn from, came in the form of a CD by Baraka Foundation in 1998, which is also now long out of print. The Jilala brotherhood -- like the better-known Jajouka culture -- has pre-Islamic roots in Sufi mysticism that span across northern Africa from Morocco to India. Jilala shares the kinds of small, portable instruments historically favored by nomadic cultures. Even among the more ardent aficianados of "world music" these recordings have seldom been heard. In the original liner notes Ira Cohen provides a breakdown of the Jilala ensemble: "The instruments used are the shebaba, a long transversal cane flute, which leads the way; the bendir, a handheld drum resembling a tambourine without cymbals; and the karkabat which is a double castanet made of metal. On this record there are usually three flutes, six drums and one pair of castanets." In conjunction with the qraqaba -- an iron analog to the wooden castanets featured heavily in the Flamenco music of the Roma people that also flourished over the centuries mere miles to the north in southern Spain. These bendir drums provide a range very similar to that covered in contemporary popular music by the bass drum, snare, and cymbals that make up standard drum kit. The Trance-inducing grooves were major influences on such bands as Led Zeppelin, Agitation Free, Can and the Rolling Stones. The collective rhythms are often reminiscent early hip hop. oFirst time these tracks appear on vinyl - Pressed on 180 Gram Black Vinyl o Recorded by Brion Gysin & Paul Bowles in Morocco 1965 o Limited Edition of 300 Copies - DMM: Direct Metal Mastering o New Liner Notes by Peter Wetherbee o Contains insert of original liner notes from 1965 Jilala LP o Long out of print in any format for over 20 years.

Originally recorded and released in 1980, "Six of One" beautifully captures the detail in Evan Parker's high frequency split tones for which he is now perhaps better known. Five years on from "Saxophone Solos" and with circular breathing and polyphonics well worn into his live performances, Parker's experimentations here produce sustained passages of brilliant flight. Set into the echoes and resonances of St Judes On The Hill church, the results are stunning. "The recital commences with a split tone line of twining sine waves that expand and contract in telepathic collusion. Pitch dynamics narrow and redefine themselves more emphatically on the second piece where sliding legato rivulets born of Parker's compartmentalized tonguing create the sonic semblance of up to three separate voices emanating from the single reed speech center. It's a feat he's accomplished innumerable times since, but every fresh hearing never fails to open an aperture into a style of improvisatory expression that is at once wholly alien and intensely mesmerizing. There's also something strangely subterranean about the flood of sounds, like the rush percolating water through an underground aquifer system enroute to unknown tributaries. The third piece trades tightly braided tones for leaner and more linear phrases, but a vaporous trail of phantom notes still clings to the central line. And so it goes, with the illusion of repetition guiding the momentum, though Parker never explicitly repeats himself." - Derek Taylor, All About Jazz Transferred from the original master tapes at Abbey Road Studios and released in an edition of 500.

No other pairing in the history of Darkwave ever matched the unfettered creativity, resolve, and DIY attitude from the collaboration between the two creative minds that compromise Lebanon Hanover.

The meeting of the Swiss musician Larissa Georgiou, aka Larissa Iceglass and British artist William Maybelline a decade ago in the latter’s hometown of Sunderland in the UK, was a monumental occasion, reverberating throughout the European music scene and even across the Atlantic.

Lebanon Hanover would emerge from the peak of the world-wide minimal wave revival, with their 2011 split 7-inch record with La Fete Triste issued as the catalog debut of Europe’s most ubiquitous Techno-Industrial EBM labels, Aufnahme + Wiedergabe

With Berlin as their new physical home, William and Larissa would soon, however, join the Fabrika Records family. From here, they would go on to release two full-length albums through the Athens based label, starting in early 2012 with their winter debut LP The World Is Getting Colder, and it’s All Hallows Eve follow up Why Not Just Be Solo.

It was Lebanon Hanover’s 2013 third studio outing Tomb for Two that would go on to cement the duo’s legacy, with the album’s single “Gallow Dance” becoming a post-punk anthem for the times, with artwork became the band’s defacto logo. Not only that, the song “Sadness is Rebellion”, also featured on the album, became the band’s official Mantra.

Two years would pass before the release of 2015’s critically acclaimed fourth record, “Besides the Abyss”. In the intervening years, William and Larissa, initially a couple, would find other partners, and relocate to Athens.

Meanwhile, Lebanon Hanover as a live act would expand rapidly in popularity, exceeding capacity during their performances at Wave Gotik Treffen in Leipzig, and performing sold-out shows across Europe and the UK.

With the playful Babes of the 80s maxi-single released in the interim, three years would pass before the next record from Lebanon Hanover, with 2018’s Let Them Be Alien, the band’s fifth studio album.

At the dawn of the global pandemic, where dystopian nightmares that were only ever seen before within the pages of books and flashes of silver screen celluloid, has become a daily reality, a new kind of darkness envelops the world. It was at this Lebanon Hanover returned, sharing a glimmer of hope with the single “The Last Thing,” the duo’s first song from their forthcoming sixth studio album Sci-Fi Sky.

Spanning an epic journey across ten tracks that wander through industrial landscapes, and ascend beyond the atmospheric aether, Sci Fi Sky is Lebanon Hanover’s most cohesive artistic statement to date. With their icy hearts on their sleeves, this is the culmination of a decade’s worth of musical creativity radiating from the minds of both Iceglass and Maybelline, and altogether an otherworldly beacon of hope in a time of sheer darkness.

William The Conqueror have paid their damn dues.
Like the sportsman cutting chipped teeth in the
lower leagues before shooting to the very top, this
band have lugged all the amps, placated the inhouse sound guy for an easier life, their nails dirty,
their hair unkempt. Enough.
Except it’s never enough, because despite their
slinky, swampy, razor-sharp, blues-drenched, guitar
thrashed alt. rock songs that form new album
‘Maverick Thinker’ and suggest that the door is
opening for bigger rooms and broader audiences,
it’s those sticky basement bar stages where the
songs have always shed a skin and come alive.
The record put the three piece behind the glass at
Sound City Studios in LA, treading the same carpet
as the likes of Nirvana, Johnny Cash, Neil Young,
and Fleetwood Mac and they might well have
inhaled the spirit of them all.
William The Conqueror’s protagonist is Ruarri
Joseph who knows his way around a melody and a
verse. Joseph’s wryness suggests life just ain’t
plain sailin’ and he fizzes that sigh and lament into
something that breathes heavy with heart and with
soul.
Vinyl format comes in a gatefold sleeve with
printed inner sleeve and digital download card.