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Ltd. Purple & Black Splatter Vinyl. It's been four years since Zach Saginaw, aka Shigeto, returned home to Michigan from a stint in Brooklyn, NY, and since then, the multi-faceted musician has become a part of the fabric of Detroit's music scene. While always having a personal approach to his projects, Saginaw's influences for his third album, The New Monday are more about the community of Detroit than anything else. Named after a weekly DJ event called Monday is the New Monday that Saginaw does at the unassuming Motor City Wine with a group of friends, The New Monday is the result of Saginaw diving into the city's deep record culture, where there legacy of artist's of the past help Saginaw embrace his own contributions. "It's focused on a couple things and they all kind of come together to represent dierent things," explains Saginaw. "My time back in Detroit, back living in Michigan and spending time with a lot of kind of original people who have always been here, learning from them, hearing stories from them, being influenced by them, and inspired by them." While, in the past, projects like Lineage or No Better Time Than Now were rooted in strong personal messages, family and relationships respectively, The New Monday represents a communal eort where solidarity is the key. Going for a simplified approach of just trying to make good tracks, The New Monday is diverse in its styles leaning more into a dance music direction - new ground for a Shigeto project. A new air of confidence in Saginaw has expanded his horizons since his return to Detroit, but traces of his past work will continue to be present. "I don't want people to think I'm leaving anything," says Saginaw. "I'm still me. It's a result of me being immersed in the culture, and inevitably making music that is influenced by that culture whether it be house, techno, jazz, rap. It doesn't matter. It's all coming from what I love about Michigan." While The New Monday still features the jazz textures long associated with Shigeto projects, the varied elements that make up the album cohesively come together to show the distinct inspiration that Saginaw has drew from since his return home to Detroit. Like on "Barry White", which features Detroit hip-hop artist ZelooperZ (a member of Danny Brown's Bruiser Brigade crew who Saginaw also has a side project with called ZGTO), Saginaw captures everything he's been doing all on one track. As much as it's hip-hop influenced, it's a mutant that encompasses elements of dance music, jazz, and ambient sounds. Throughout The New Monday, Saginaw poignantly references the musical influences that have either always been with him or newly discovered. It is Saginaw's interpretation of Detroit's rich culture of innovative artistry, but done so with respect for the history and to contribute, not disrupt. "I think over the past four years, I can confidently say that I found my place here," describes Saginaw. "I'm happy here and I feel that I have the respect from the people I need respect from, that I want respect from. It's all of the result of embracing it and embracing, not Detroit, but embracing community, embracing family,








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From P60 is an alias of Zoltan Nagy who this year marks the significant milestone of a quarter of a century in the music game. He celebrates that by launching his new label Midnight Fashion Chill with his own first EP for it. Over the years, Nagy has done it all from deep house to Balearic to lounge and downtempo and here brings that touch of class to six superbly soothing sounds that fuse all that and more. The opener is pure horizontal bliss, 'The Times We Spent Together' is a slow-motion daydream, 'Fallin' (with Jaidene Veda) is pure soul-soothing magic and 'When' is a gently lilting ambient soundscape crafted to perfection.

10-piece UK afro-fusion outfit TC & The Groove Family are proud to share their new EP ‘We Have Each Other’. Releasing on Friday 7th June via Bridge The Gap, the project sees the band refine the sound debuted on their 2022 album ‘First Home’. Returning to work once again with producer Tom Excell (Nubiyan Twist, ONIPA), the project explores a darker sonic palette, channelling a deep appreciation of UK bass and electronic music alongside afro-jazz sounds and hip-hop sensibilities.

The record documents a time of change within the group - a new lineup, plus members living in different cities and pursuing various paths - whilst also reflecting the turbulent socio-political climate, and the major shifts and changes on the horizon for humanity. However, despite the heavy subject material, the band strike an optimistic, uplifting tone, with MC Franz Von channeling the music into a message encouraging listeners to look around and embrace
community, whatever that may look like. Bandleader Tim Cook shares:

“Our collective purpose is to craft music that empowers and energises individuals to embrace their true selves with pride, celebrating the unity and strength we radiate as one community. No one needs to be alone when they are striving for common humanity. No one should be lonely when we celebrate each other, drawn together by a sound that says it’s good to be me, it’s better to be us. As our MC, Franz Von says, music brings peace, love & energy”.

Opener and lead single ‘Stand Strong’ is a love letter to afrobeat, creating a contemporary twist with its Khruangbin-esque guitar lines and weaving horns, whilst ‘Here, Now’ takes the tempo down to an atmospheric haze of dubbed-out ambient effects, pierced by uplifting horn melodies. ‘Blessed’ sees the group welcome Nubiyan Twist’s Aziza Jaye for a dancehall-meets-North African-flavoured feature, subtly reimagining what Elephunk era Black Eyed Peas would
sound like today.

At the EP’s centre-point and emotional peak, title track ‘We Have Each Other’ showcases the band’s jazz fusion, Latin and dark electronic influences. The tracks growling, subbed-out bass tones return as a theme for ‘Wile Out’ - a UK hip-hop & jungle tinged collaboration with SANITY complete with virtuosic, tight-knit grooves, furious horn lines and a whirlwind of immersive turntablism.

Originally formed in Leeds, TC & The Groove Family’s sound reflects the diverse musical and cultural backgrounds at the core of the project, with songs exploring grooves and genres including afrobeat, broken beat, jungle, jazz and grime. Their music has drawn widespread acclaim, supported by tastemakers including Jamz Supernova and Craig Charles on BBC Radio 6, BBC Introducing West Yorkshire, Jazz FM, Rinse FM, Radio FIP and more. The group have performed at the likes of Glastonbury, We Out Here, Greenman and Boomtown, and will embark on a UK tour across May & June in support of the release of ‘We Have Each Other’.

Eleventh album consisting of eleven songs, Pink Air, by Elysian Fields, cult New York band led by Jennifer Charles and Oren Bloedow, was released in September 2018. Recorded in the mountains around Woodstock, Pink Air was finalized in Thomas Bartlett's studio (The National, Sufjan Stevens) in Manhattan. A single rock wave unites the tracks with its cavernous reverberation, as if shrouded in the darkness of a night club or pinned to the shadow of a modern nightmare. Pink Air is a post-apocalyptic rock'n roll getaway. The album tackles themes as varied as the ecological threat, the regime of a potential narcissist dictator, white supremacy, censorship, the erasure of history, the social drama of families ... as well as meditations on time, friendship, loss, death. Despite the biting tone, the words never sound too heavy, lightened by many touches of humor. Jennifer Charles's vocals are at their highest, infusing each song with its legendary languid charisma, in a lyrical breath whose spellbinding power has remained intact. By portraying the landscape of the present day with her precise, often caustic lyrics, Jennifer sets her special veil on the intimate, the spiritual, brushing her characters, friends and lovers, in a pure novelist style. All against a background of fear of our time, of its social and political drifts. With Elysian Fields, the angelic singer and her acolytes have always been carried by the highest currents of the sky. For Pink Air, they fold their wings, land on the ground, and roam the scorched lands of America, animated by the rock'n roll spirit of the animal. The feathers turned into so many spiky hairs

This is the second album recorded about a year after "Scenery". The delicate yet emotionally rich playing is still there, but this time it has more power, and the world that Fukui has depicted comes to life with clearer contours and a greater sense of depth. The sweet and sad melody of "Mellow Dream" and the dynamic and fast-paced "Horizon" are among the dazzling performances. In addition, the album features three original songs, compared to only one on the previous album, which allows the listener to enjoy Fukui's musicality even more. Considering its maturity and rich content, it is safe to say that this is a masterpiece that surpasses the first album. Regrettably, Ryo Fukui passed away in 2016. His delicate touch, rich tone, and beautiful compositions. We are deeply grateful to him for the "pleasant dream" he showed us.

Limited White VInyl Version
Solo Paraiso will be available on vinyl for the first time in 10 years and Digitally for the first time.


Solo Paraiso is Molly Nilsson’s mini-album from 2014 recorded during a 6 month residency in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
For it’s 10th Anniversary, Night School and Dark Skies Association is making the most sought after long player in Molly Nilsson’s catalogue available again on a new format with new artwork designed by Molly Nilsson and Jonas Raam.
Pop music rarely comes as honest and heartfelt as when delivered by Molly Nilsson. Having traveled around the world singing to the romantic and the doomed, Nilsson found herself in the Summer of 2014 in Buenos Aires. Inspired by the crumbling urban landscape and the heavy hearts that populate it, Sólo Paraíso is not only an ode to a specific time and space but a musical novella that meditates on youth, idealism and belonging. The soundtrack to a summer you thought you had when looking over bleached out old photo albums.

Sólo Paraíso has the feel of a bridge between the more lo fi, first phase of Nilsson’s career and the expanded sonic scope she has employed in the last decade. Recorded quickly, with instinct and feeling of paramount importance over rectitude or perfection, amongst the eight tracks of this mini LP are some of the biggest fan favourites of her career. As with all Molly Nilsson songs, each of these tracks is bursting with perfect moments. Opener Summer Cats sails over sun-kissed piano chords, chasing the sun eternally as it dips over the horizon, while show-stealer Blue Dollar draws parallels between the doomed Argentine economy and the failure of a love affair. It’s the most feel-good, romantic peon to an economic downturn you’ll ever hear. As Molly says “why is it so damn easy to break all the things that are so damn difficult to make?”
Using cracked synths, shimmering piano, heat-stroked drum machines and above all her direct, from-the-heart vocal delivery, Nilsson’s songs have never been so precise and on-point. For fellow doomed romantics, Sólo Paraíso is the perfect sound for an imperfect Summer.

Solo Paraiso will be available on vinyl for the first time in 10 years and Digitally for the first time.


Solo Paraiso is Molly Nilsson’s mini-album from 2014 recorded during a 6 month residency in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
For it’s 10th Anniversary, Night School and Dark Skies Association is making the most sought after long player in Molly Nilsson’s catalogue available again on a new format with new artwork designed by Molly Nilsson and Jonas Raam.
Pop music rarely comes as honest and heartfelt as when delivered by Molly Nilsson. Having traveled around the world singing to the romantic and the doomed, Nilsson found herself in the Summer of 2014 in Buenos Aires. Inspired by the crumbling urban landscape and the heavy hearts that populate it, Sólo Paraíso is not only an ode to a specific time and space but a musical novella that meditates on youth, idealism and belonging. The soundtrack to a summer you thought you had when looking over bleached out old photo albums.

Sólo Paraíso has the feel of a bridge between the more lo fi, first phase of Nilsson’s career and the expanded sonic scope she has employed in the last decade. Recorded quickly, with instinct and feeling of paramount importance over rectitude or perfection, amongst the eight tracks of this mini LP are some of the biggest fan favourites of her career. As with all Molly Nilsson songs, each of these tracks is bursting with perfect moments. Opener Summer Cats sails over sun-kissed piano chords, chasing the sun eternally as it dips over the horizon, while show-stealer Blue Dollar draws parallels between the doomed Argentine economy and the failure of a love affair. It’s the most feel-good, romantic peon to an economic downturn you’ll ever hear. As Molly says “why is it so damn easy to break all the things that are so damn difficult to make?”
Using cracked synths, shimmering piano, heat-stroked drum machines and above all her direct, from-the-heart vocal delivery, Nilsson’s songs have never been so precise and on-point. For fellow doomed romantics, Sólo Paraíso is the perfect sound for an imperfect Summer.

The original beat of "Battlecry," the opening theme of the anime "Samurai Champloo," known as "The Other Side of Phase," will be released.

The song was included on the compilation CD "Listening is Believing" released by Libyus Music, the label from which the albums "metaphorical music"

and "modal soul" were released. In physical form, it was distributed only on CD.

After a long time, "Rainyway Back Home" from "spiritual state" and "Horizon" from "modal soul" were recorded and released on analogue vinyl!

The cover was designed by Meguru Yamaguchi, a Japanese artist based in New York, adding vivid colour and dynamism to the music.

Two legendary figures of the Greek and international music scene, Floros Floridis and SavinaYannatou join their breaths in this new release on vinyl by To Pikap Records, entitled Blink. In the album’s seven tracks-movements, the two musicians expand the time it takes for the eye to blink. Avant-garde and improvisation, modernism and tradition seek to describe, but ultimately limit, this melodrama of existence, the libretto of which is written in the langue that may have been first heard in Pangea.

Blink departs from the ground on which records like the Residents’ Eskimo sprouted, but moves on by removing the horizon points and the conventions they carry, in order to board the next Voyager that will travel to the stars. Two experienced breaths that generate sound without rules become -through reeds and mouth- vehicles of the language of newborns deconstructing the conventions of human communication. The fragility of existence becomes -like the birdsong- lullaby and dirge, hymn and incantation. The instinctive manages to express the unspeakable in this abstract and ultimately tender work that does not conclude but remains open to the timeless movement of a prehistoric future.

Black Truffle is pleased to announce the first vinyl reissue of Trancedance, a wild slice of Swedish Afro-fusion from Christer Bothén, originally released in 1984. A major figure in Swedish jazz and improvised music since the 1970s, often heard on bass clarinet and tenor sax, Bothen studied doso n’koni (the large six-stringed ‘hunter’s harp’ of the Wasulu) in Mali in 1971-2 before turning to the guinbri (the three-stringed lute of the Gnawa/Gnauoua) in Marakesh later in the decade. In between, he performed extensively with Don Cherry during his Organic Music Society period and taught Cherry the doso n’koni. In the later 70s and 80s he worked with the most important figures in the distinctive Swedish jazz-rock-world fusion scene, joining Archimedes Badkar for their African-influenced Tre and participating in Bengt Berger’s legendary Bitter Funeral Beer Band. Many of the musicians who played on the Bitter Funeral Beer Band’s ECM LP (including Berger on drums, Anita Livstrand on voice and percussion and Tord Bengstsson on piano, violin and guitar) joined Bothén for one of the sessions that produced Trancedance, the first release under his own name, dedicated to his compositions. The other session introduced his seven-piece group Bolon Bata, heard on the second track of each side. The title track opens the album with the rubbery buzzing strings of the doso n’goni playing a hypnotic ten beat pattern, soon joined by bass and piano before the entire nine-piece group kicks in with a rollicking Afro-jazz workout, Berger’s drums driving an intricate, winding melodic line played by the horns with Mattias Helden’s cello throwing in pizzicato slides and smears. Bothén then takes centre stage on tenor sax, soloing with a wide, vibrating tone and moving seamlessly from soaring melodies to guttural stutters. After a return to the composed horn lines and a solo from Elsie Petrén on alto sax, the piece builds to an ecstatic conclusion of yelping voices and handclaps, gradually simmering down to return to the solo doso n’koni where it began.

The hypnotic sounds of the hunter’s harp carries over to ‘Mimouna’, where it is joined by Bothen’s overdubbed guinbri. The piece develops into a haunting whispered and sung invocation, gradually building momentum until the organic textures of strings, voices, and hand percussion are ruptured by Lennart Söderlund’s distorted guitar, which brings an unmistakable touch of 1984 to the otherwise timeless sound. Joined by chicken scratch guitar and increasingly dominated by the insistent clang of three of Bolon Bata’s members on karqab (a kind of cast-iron castanet), the grove develops frenetically.

The B side opens with the multi-part epic ‘9+10 Moving Pictures for the Ear’, at over 16 minutes the record’s longest piece. Though Bothen is heard only on horns on this piece, the hypnotic repeating bass line carries on the first side’s link to African musical traditions. Using an expanded 16-piece ensemble, the music balances untethered improvisation with carefully arranged passages of knotty ensemble playing that at points suggest Mingus, Moacir Santos or some of the ambitious post-free work being done in the same years by figures like David Murray or Henry Threadgill. The piece ends with a triumphant passage of looping unison melody reminiscent of the Scandinavian folk explorations of Arbete och Fritid (whose Kjell Westling is heard on bass clarinet and soprano sax here). The sound of Bjorn Lundqvist’s fretless bass introduces the odd left turn made by the record’s final track, a spaced-out expedition into bluesy horn lines and distant guitar atmospherics set to a semi-reggae beat, perfumed by the core Bolon Bata group and bearing the appropriate title of ‘The Horizon Stroller’. A must for fans of the Swedish scene around groups like Arbete och Fritid and Archimedes Badkar, as well as any listener who has been seduced by Louis Moholo’s Spirits Rejoice!, The Brotherhood of Breath, or, more recently, the guinbri grooves of Natural Information Society, Trancedance is a lost classic ripe for rediscovery.

Electronic Works for Choreography, Soundtrack, and Art Installation 1976-1996

Marden Pond’s “Evaporations” (1976-96) is an archival project showcasing the composers experimental music approaches that utilize synthesizers, electronics, and computer. These rare or unreleased tracks and demos were initially purposed for art installation, dance and theater , music exploration, and ambient listening experiences. Marden was artistically right beside his contemporaries of the Land Artist Movement of the Southwest during the 70’s, as he created soundscapes inspired by the vast and bizarre features of Utah. Some of the other work presented on this record was to inspire physical movement by use of unorthodox arrangements and percussive rhythms, juxtaposed with fleeting synth phrases and environmental textures.

Besides the two tracks included from Marden’s hyper rare 1980 private press LP “Castle Valley Impressions”, this collection of music is being presented on vinyl for the first time.

Straight from Rio de Janeiro, Dippin' Records introduces the studio album 'ASA', by the sizzling hot modern Brazilian Multi-instrumentalist/Producer Fabio Santanna. Flyest modern Brazilian tropical disco-boogie you'll find in the market! Following up on his most recent collaborations with JKriv and Joutro Mundo, Fabio modernizes the MPB vibes of Joao Donato, Marcos Valle, Ed Motta for the current dance music lovers.

ASA: Dia (Day) evokes a sunny Balearic boogie 'day time' feels just in time for the Brazilian summer skies opening up. So sit back, put on your shades and sip on your tropical drinks and press play to vibe with the fabulous Fabio sounds.

“I wanted to try and showcase as many people as I knew on this mix. My idea of Late Night Tales was to distil a series of relaxing moments; the whole conceptual sonic of relax- ation. So, I was trying to think of all the collaborators and friends that I knew, who’d recorded stuff with this horizontal vibe. Plus, I was also trying to help my friends' stuff get into the world. I know the story of Khruangbin blowing up after appearing on the series (in fact, I think that's how I discovered them). So, the main idea was to create a certain atmosphere, but also to help some of my favourite collaborators and bud- dies to give their songs a little push out into the world. Hope you like it” Jordan Rakei



Due for release on 9th April, Late Night Tales celebrate their 20th anniversary with the release of multi-instru- mentalist, vocalist and producer Jordan Rakei’s majestic compilation. The 28-year-old modern soul icon effortlessly stamps his own jazz and hip-hop driven sound all over this gorgeous array of handpicked tracks. A beautifully layered blend that is mirrored in the music he’s made, itcomes as no surprise that such a supremely gifted songwriter should deliver a mix that is all about the song.



Rakei, born in New Zealand, but raised in Australia, moved to the UK in 2015; he released his debut album, Cloak, with Oz label Soul Has No Tempo, but his two subsequentLPs, Wallflower and Origin, came out on Ninja Tune, the former#2 in Album Of The Year for Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide poll, while Origin was nominated for Best Album at the AIM Awards. Jordan had this to say on his upcoming mix:



As Jordan says,there’s so much more to the song selection on Late Night Tales’latest outing than a random collection of artists. Many have some sort of personal connection, so just as Bonobo provided a platform for the breakout of Khruangbin on a previous LNT, this may have the same ef- fect for Rakei’s friends. After a soothing opener from Fink, good friend and big influence Alfa Mist (part of the Are We Live collective) delivers ‘Mulago.’ “I want to champion their sound and show the world how good he is, and I thought it’d be fitting to start the mix with family,” says Jordan.



Next up is Charlotte Day Wilson with ‘Mountains,’ followed by ‘Count A Heart’ from Moreton, an exclusive collab- oration with Jordan, who grew up on the same street in Brisbane, Australia. “She was the first artist I ever collabo- rated with, and one of the first artists to be involved in mycareer,” he explains. Elsewhere we hear Scottish producer and multi-instrumentalist C Duncan’s haunting ‘He Came from the Sun,’ Barcelona collective Oso Leone deliver a dreamy ‘Virtual U’ and Bill Lauren’s ‘Singularity,’ which evokes a striking sense of time and place.



Snowpoet’s ethereal ‘Evitenity’ is a “long mediative nar- rative over a beautiful soundscape,” which at times seems chaotic, nicely juxtaposed with undeniable beauty, and Maro’s kooky songwriting shines on ‘Always And Forever.’ Long-time buddy Armon-Jones contributes ‘Idiom,’ and Jordan’s exclusive cover version is a two-for-one, Radio- head’s ‘Codex’ merging with ‘Lover, You Should’ve Come Home’ by Jeff Buckley and another exclusive,original com- position by Jordan, ‘Imagination.’ The latter works as a piece with the spoken (Spanish) word voiced by movie director Alejandro González Iñárritu (Babel, Birdman, and The Reve- nant,) who is a big fan of Jordan’s. “He messaged me when I went to L.A and asked to come to my show. I was in such shock and we hung out after. I thought it would be nice to get him to do this in his native tongue, because I don’t think that’s been done yet on the series.” It certainly is a familyaffair. Not theblood is thicker than water kind, but certainly musical kindred spirits.

Repress
Dry mix only single LP edition, reverb mix of 2LP edition excluded.

Issued in 1975, this is the articulation of Zambia’s Zamrock ethos. Its' musicians were anti-colonial freedom fighters, it envelops Zambian folk music traditions, and it rocks - hard. Amanaz were serious, and they made a serious stab at an album. They titled their album Africa, according to original band member Keith Kabwe, “because of how it was shared and how its inhabitants were butchered and enslaved, its resources stolen... all the atrocities slave drivers committed. “ Thus, their “Kale,” a blues sung in Nyanja, that traced the continent’s arc from slavery to Zambia’s independence closes the album. Kabwe and rhythm guitarist John Kanyepa have a winsome softness to their vocals, which sit politely aside the feral growl of drummer Watson Baldwin Lungu, bassist Jerry Mausala and bandleader/lead guitarist Isaac Mpofu. Africa’s vibe ranges from anxious (“Amanaz”) to escapist (“Easy Street”) to straight-up pissed-off. On the “History of Man,” his voice whiskey-burned, his distorted guitar buzzing like swarming hornets, Mpofu indicts his species. There’s a darkness to Africa not found on any other Zamrock records, and a melancholy drifts throughout, specifically on Mpofu’s more restrained “Khala My Friend,” which stands as an effective, bleak situation for the Zambian everyman, the average citizen of a struggling, new nation, who might have had relatives in conflict-torn countries on the horizon, who might have been struggling to find his next meal, who might have seen a bleaker future than his president promised. Then there’s the clear Velvet Underground-influence on the nostalgic “Sunday Morning,” which, as Kabwe recalls, was the first song written for the album, back in 1968, when Velvet Undergound and Nico was a new release - and the underground funk of “Making The Scene.” The album also tackles traditional Zambian music and early-‘60s rock – punctuated, of course by Kanyepa’s wah-wah and Mpofu’s fuzz guitars. But every time Amanaz get too deep, too violent, they come back with an accessible song and woo their listener back to the groove. “Green Apple” is a civil song, featuring Kanyepa’s sighing guitar.

This live album is a recording of the last live performance by Drumwolf (Toru)'s with the band. The concert was held at W.W.W.X. in Shibuya on March 11th, 2023 and includes 13 of the songs that they played at this gig.

It is the last memorial live performance for Toru, the bedrock of Guitarwolf for many years and will be permanently etched on vinyl. This is a must record that fans need to get hold of, as it is the live recording of the band's latest performance featuring many of their classic songs.

Guitar Wolf have been expanding their horizons of their activities in recent years, including an appearance at the Shimane Jet festival, and they hope you can appreciate the pure joy of their universal rock 'n' roll vibes on vinyl that might be too hot for the whole world to handle!

And as a bonus item, you can stream the full live performance of this monumental concert of Guitarwolf in its entirety as well! It was directed by Tetsuro Takeuchi who has previously worked on Guitarwolf's music videos for many years.

This video of their live performance was edited full of tension and speed and it truly displays how much Guitarwolf deserves the title of Japan's number one rock 'n' roll band. This fact can also be relived by seeing this video included in this deluxe edition.

Guitarwolf
Members:
Seiji (Guitarwolf): Lead Vocals, Guitar
GOTZ (Basswolf): Bass, Vocals
Shingo (Drumwolf): Drum Note: Joined the band in 2022

Real-life rock 'n'roll super heroes that rock fans all over Japan continue to admire.
While creating numerous legendary myths in the 1990s, being unique beyond comparison, they continue to consistently blare out their spontaneity to the present day,

The band's unusually extreme and bombastic sound amplifies the embryonic impulses of rock 'n' roll, while Seiji's lyrics mix words that evoke the 'universe' and the 'Showa era' with his own unique sense of humor. In their relentless pursuit of a style that has remained unchanged since the band's formation, the music that the three members who don their entire bodies in black leather play, emits power that transcends time and space. While doing so, they continue to gain enthusiastic fans from all over the world.

Formed in 1987, the original members, Seiji and Billy (bass, vocals) and Toru who joined the band later, started their musical activities together and released their debut album "Wolf Rock" in 1993 from the Memphis-based Goner Records. Later, they signed to Matador Records, one of the leading indie labels in the USA. They also made their major label debut in 1997 with the album, "Wolf Planet" on Ki/oon Records/ Sony Music in Japan.

They have released 12 albums to date. The band has also continued to tour energetically around the world, not only in Japan but also in the US, EU countries, Australia and South America. Billy suddenly passed away in 2005. After having two mighty support casts, U.G. and Hikaru, GOTZ (Gotz) joined the band in 2018 as the new bass wolf. Also, Toru who had been with the band as drum wolf for many years left in 2022 and the band is now more energetically active with their new drum wolf, Shingo.

For the first time in vinyl format the work of the Bolivian avant-garde composer, Cergio Prudencio, together with the Orquesta Experimental de Instrumentos Nativos (OEIN). The OEIN is the result of the incorporation of Aymara musical traditions into the realm of contemporary music to produce a new sonic world. The work of Bolivian composer Cergio Prudencio (La Paz, 1955) is indissolubly linked to the project of the Orquesta Experimental de Instrumentos Nativos Experimental Orchestra of Native Instruments (OEIN), which he co-founded in 1980 and of which he is the emeritus director. It constitutes one of the most challenging adventures in the music that has emerged in Bolivia and Latin America. The OEIN is the result of the incorporation of Aymara musical traditions into the realm of contemporary music to produce a new sonic world. In the composer's words, it is about "...finding in the indigenous conception of music, elements of change and transformation, to establish a historical continuity." This incorporation is not only based on using native instruments but also involves integrating their socio-historical context and philosophies from the Andean indigenous world. In addition to forming ensembles with highland native instruments (sikus, tarkas, mohoceños, pinkillos, wankaras, seeds, drums, etc.), the foundation is laid on the three structural principles that govern Aymara music: "arca-ira," which means alternation of sounds between two musicians; "tropa," which involves the formation of large ensembles of instrumentalists and sound amplification; and "wakiña," meaning community strength. According to Prudencio, the acoustic and expressive identity of Andean-highland sounds originates from these principles, as does that of the OEIN. The release of Cergio Prudencio - Antología 1: Obras para la Orquesta Experimental de Instrumentos Nativos Cergio Prudencio - Anthology 1: Works for the Experimental Orchestra of Native Instruments allows us to delve into this wealth of thought and sounds, into the work of a fundamental and radical artist, for whom decolonization is also an opening to experimentation and the new. These compositions project a historical memory into the present, constructing new horizons.

FORAX returns with a fresh vinyl release by label head Diego Krause, featuring three heavyweight tracks that are indispensable for every DJ's record bag.
The "Point of No Return EP" serves up a triple threat: two driving groovers that never let up - their relentless energy is an embodiment of Diego's keen understanding of what keeps the dance floor moving. The third track, a blast-from-the-past anthem that guarantees hands in the air every time it's dropped. Diego Krause has yet again proven his ability to produce timeless EPs that cater to the true Tech-House connoisseur, capturing the very essence of the genre.

In Season 5, the long-awaited fifth full-length by beach-pop project The Tyde, frontman Darren Rademaker unveils his vision of an ’80s-inspired Suave Nouveau, with a clutch of sweet, melancholic love songs evoking lush mustaches, mellow macho, the ghost of Jimmy Buffett, white sand beaches, flamingos swooping across a cerulean sky, speedboats cutting through the bay and pastel linen suits billowing in the breeze as the sun dips beneath the horizon. “Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León ‘discovered’ Florida in 1513, naming the peninsula La Florida, the flowering land. In Season 5, Rademaker reflects on his own return to the flowering land, and the artistic diaspora that caused him to quit California in 2020 in search of a New World of his own. ‘I lived in Florida from the ages of ten to twenty-five, but never really got to explore it,’ he says. ‘When I came back, I decided to really embrace the whole Florida aesthetic. I moved into an art deco home in Sarasota with pink seashell lamps. I visited Key West, like seven times. I also quit smoking weed and cigarettes, and stopped saying shit like LOL and amazeballs. It felt different. It felt good.’ “The record features the talents of many good friends, including Dan Horne, Colby Buddelmeyer, Matt Correia (Allah-Las), Clay Finch (Mapache), Albert Hickman, Derek James (The Entrance Band), Alex Knost (Tomorrow’s Tulips) and Adam MacDougall (Circles Around The Sun / Black Crowes), with artist / musician Matt Fishbeck (Holy Shit) designing the deco-inspired album artwork. “And as much as they are inspired by the past, these songs are keenly aware of an uncertain future—because there is no such thing as a time machine, and there is no going back. Ultimately, Season 5 asks the question—where do we go after the sun sets on our dreams? Where the fuck is the New New World? In Rademaker’s eyes, it no longer exists in any specific American geography—rather, all hope remains in the timeless, unending power of music, and its power to take us to the places we wish we could be. Even if they don’t exist anymore.” — Caroline Ryder

The Madlib Invazion Music Library Series Entry #10: Motif Alumni (Rucker Collective) joins forces with Music Research Library, bringing together contemporary and futuristic cues inspired by motion and the passage of time. The Madlib Invazion Music Library Series was created by Madlib and Egon to give their creative friends a chance to stretch out and indulge in whatever type of music they wanted. This music was created for easy, one-stop clearance in film and television synchronization usage and for sampling. You can also enjoy these albums in the way that many do with the best of the best vintage library catalogs – listen, ponder, repeat.

Revision of new beats on the horizon
Every 20 years or so, certain musical movements come full circle. Young musicians are inspired by genres dating back two decades, channelling them through their modern sensibility. The legendary J Dilla’s Donuts album was released in 2006 and instantly marked a starting point for the work of musicians worldwide, laying the foundations especially for the beat scene in Los Angeles. A whole young generation of musicians brought up on the new, instrumental and abstract hip-hop has carried jazz into a new era. The four London-based musicians who make up Uniri have gone one step further by abandoning the idea of a jazz band and "bedroom production" in favour of collective composing, creating a new look at the new-beat aesthetics, framing it as a road novel set in an unspecified time and space.

Uniri translates as ‘one unified dream’ and is the key driving motto of the project conceived by Chiminyo (Cykada, Maisha), the band's founder and head honcho. The project materialised in his private studio, where he invited fellow jazz musicians Amane Tsuganami (Jorja Smith, Maisha), Al Macsween (Nubya Garcia, Gary Bartz, Kefaya) and Luke Wynter (Nubyan Twist, Golden Mean) to spontaneously compose together. Hence, despite this being the band's first album, it wouldn't be right to call them rookies. The result of Uniri's collaborative work is the psychedelic, rhythmic album Infinite Reflections, packed with cosmic and warm synths, which neatly balances hip-hop beat and jazz composition. It's safe to say this music is even more appealing when played live, although it's equally suited to the club dancefloor.

UK Jazz has become a permanent fixture in the London landscape, but also across Europe and the US. Today, the musicians who shape the new wave of jazz are drawing on more and more genres, reducing solo improvisation for the benefit of composition and increasingly drawing on influences from the beat scene. Among such formations are the British NOK Cultural Ensemble, the Polish Błoto, the Belgian ECHT!, and the Dutch Comité Hypnotisé. Uniri is part of this emerging yet already international trend, creating an entirely fresh aesthetic that echoes artists such as Flying Lotus, Samiyam, Dorian Concept, Ras G and Nosaj Things oriented around the Californian 'new beats generation' scene.

The title Infinite Reflections alludes to a phenomenon observable on the open sea or during intercontinental flights. Gazing at the horizon blurs the boundary between the ocean and the sky, forming an infinite palette of blue shades. This inspiration sparked an elusive musical narrative, navigating between a sea voyage and an astral journey, destination unknown.

In 2014, Wye Oak released Shriek, their fourth album. It was a necessary departure for Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack, who found themselves on uncertain ground after two years of constant touring for 2011's Civilian, living on opposite ends of the country and trying to revitalize their creative partnership. Wasner set aside her guitar for a bass. Stack took on the band's upper register, playing syncopated, meditative keyboard parts that interacted with Wasner's voice, which was newly freed from its call-and-response relationship to the guitar_what had been, until then, a signature of Wye Oak's sound. "This idea and the ensuing creative reworking of our band did what it was meant to do," Wasner writes in 2024. "It ended a long, painful period of creative stagnancy and reconnected me with the joy of making music." During that period, Wasner and Stack were introduced to William Brittelle, the Brooklyn-based composer whose 2019 LP Spiritual America featured Wye Oak, the Metropolis Ensemble, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. His orchestral reimaginings of five songs from Shriek (Shriek: Variations, if you will) are the centerpiece of this package, which serves not only to mark the tenth anniversary of a great album, but to demonstrate the richness of Wye Oak's compositions. Stack says of Shriek: Variations: "It's like looking at the songs in a funhouse mirror. The songs on Shriek can be stripped down or embellished_this is maximal embellishment. William took the album and blew it to smithereens, looking at it in a weird, prismatic way." Through Brittelle, Wasner and Stack found themselves at the intersection of classical, experimental, and pop music. Further collaborations, like the Brooklyn Youth Chorus- featuring No Horizon and Paul and Michi Wiancko's string arrangements on "My Signal" from The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs, followed, as this connection fundamentally changed the way Wye Oak approached making records, incorporating an entirely new palette of sound into their work. That shift began here. Shriek: Variations may feel like a startling take on the material, something like light bursting into a room through drawn curtains, but Brittelle's arrangements are largely original to his first collaborations with Wye Oak a decade ago, suggesting that his maximalist arrangements have lived comfortably within the framework of Shriek the whole time, waiting for the right moment to emerge. It's a fitting reintroduction to the album, which upon its initial release was pigeonholed into the easy one-note talking point of being the "no-guitar" record. But even so, as that happened, Shriek quietly started to become a staple among Wye Oak's core fans. Here, with help from Brittelle's expansive compositions, the release draws attention back to the songwriting_how, regardless of the instrumentation, Wasner and Stack's uncanny musicwriting partnership at the core is what makes both Shriek and Wye Oak excellent. Joined by the Metropolis Ensemble, Paul Wiancko, and Lizzie Burns, Wye Oak turn songs like "Logic of Color" inside out, reaching towards a kind of pastoral bombast, Brittelle's aesthetic with Wasner and Stack as an anchor. In fact, "Logic of Color" in this iteration takes that "no-guitar" script and flips it, with Wasner playing the synthesizer ostinato on acoustic guitar at its center. If Shriek is a record that charts the depths of solemnity and inner space, its Variations, roiling in a sea of winds, brass, and strings, recolors that space and complicates it, a gorgeous, unexpected response to the original's siren call.

Africamore: The Afro-Funk Side of Italy (1973-1978)

Continuing Four Flies' dedication to delving into lesser-explored periods of Italian music, Africamore takes us on a captivating journey into the intersection of Afro-funk and the Italian soundscape during the six years between 1973 and 1978 - a time when disco was looming on the horizon and the nightclub market was rapidly expanding.

Before reaching Italian shores, the infectious sound originating from African and Afro-Caribbean roots traversed both the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, landing on New York dancefloors, where DJ Dave Mancuso discovered "Soul Makossa" by Manu Dibango. In 1973, from Mancuso's Loft parties, the song's hypnotic groove spread to the rest of the globe, including in Italy, where it sparked a wave of imitations and variations.


Tribal influences thus found their way into Italian soul-funk and early-disco productions released between 1973 and 1978 – from psychedelic-tinged tunes like Jean Paul & Angelique's "Africa Sound" to the Afrobeat-inspired club banger "Kumbayero" by composer/producer Albert Verrecchia (aka Weyman Corporation); and from groundbreaking Afro-cosmic songs like Chrisma's "Amore", co-written by Vangelis and featuring the rhythms of Ghanaian-British Afro-rock band Osibisa, to mind-blowing floor-fillers like Beryl Cunningham's "Why O", a re-write of Nat King Cole's "Calypso Blues" arranged by Paolo Ormi, with percussion breaks that sound pretty much like what would later become known as techno.


Combining feel-good vibes with driving rhythms, world-style percussion, and even synths, all these productions pushed the boundaries of dance music at a time when disco had not yet taken over. In doing so, they sowed many of the seeds of the later Italian cosmic scene and its unique mixture of African elements, disco-funk and electronic music.

This was a brief but nuanced period in Italian music history, one that deserves to be rediscovered, with love.

Africamore is due out on March 22nd and will be available as a gatefold 2LP and digipak CD. Both formats come with stunning artwork by Kathrin Remest and liner notes by Pierpaolo De Sanctis and Elena Miraglia.

Axis of Time is the stunning debut album from Philadelphia mallet percussionist and poet Angelo Outlaw. Featuring Eraserhood Sound's signature synth & soul production, Axis of Time is a dazzling blend of jazz, rare groove, funk, soul and r&b. According to Outlaw, the album is meant to transport the listener to a dream-like state, where space and time slowly fade away and reality is merely a distant memory. Each song sets a unique scene, as the pace of the music swells and sways_from the euphoric highs of lead single "Free My Mind" and uninhibited groove of "Speed of Light" to the trance-like meditation of "Dreams" and mournful melodies of "Invisible Clock," Angelo and the Eraserhood Sound house band truly go to the cosmos and back. The record is an extraordinary debut from Outlaw, a young gay Black man who hopes to serve as an inspiration to others who might be perceived as different or other. His work transcends race, creed, religion, and politics, and has the power to speak to the universality of time, space, and human connection.

Axis of Time is the stunning debut album from Philadelphia mallet percussionist and poet Angelo Outlaw. Featuring Eraserhood Sound's signature synth & soul production, Axis of Time is a dazzling blend of jazz, rare groove, funk, soul and r&b. According to Outlaw, the album is meant to transport the listener to a dream-like state, where space and time slowly fade away and reality is merely a distant memory. Each song sets a unique scene, as the pace of the music swells and sways_from the euphoric highs of lead single "Free My Mind" and uninhibited groove of "Speed of Light" to the trance-like meditation of "Dreams" and mournful melodies of "Invisible Clock," Angelo and the Eraserhood Sound house band truly go to the cosmos and back. The record is an extraordinary debut from Outlaw, a young gay Black man who hopes to serve as an inspiration to others who might be perceived as different or other. His work transcends race, creed, religion, and politics, and has the power to speak to the universality of time, space, and human connection.

In 2005, an 18-year-old Raphael Gimenes left the sunny shores of Brazil behind, embarking on a journey to a distant and wintry land. "Dinamarca," the Portuguese name for Denmark, became his new home, where he has lived for almost two decades. Today, he presents his third album, a deep exploration of his life in Scandinavia. Rather than being a nationalistic tribute, "DINAMARCA" tells chapters from Gimenes" life story as a Brazilian living in the northern corners of the world. It guides us through the enchanting nordic woods, the vast fields stretching to the horizon, and the timeless sea resting beneath an endless sky. The melodies of blackbirds, the dances of red deer, and the whispers of ancient oaks form the backdrop for his musical stories. Within his songs, we experience moments of deep solitude and boundless inspiration, moments where reflection and creative passion intertwine. Gimenes skillfully turns the power of love into harmonies, dedicating songs to both his companion and his closest friends. Beyond these experiences, he leads us on journeys to Denmark"s neighboring lands, Norway and Sweden, where revelations and encounters with the mystical found their way into the lyrical fabric of his songs. The album"s orchestration includes Gimenes" vocals and the resonant chords of his classical guitar. Accompanying him throughout the album are Jan Kadereit"s multilayered percussion, and Lucas Delacroix"s bass synth, who also plays the electric guitar at times. The music further unfolds with the nuances of a string quartet, and a brass quintet, both recorded in the tropical highlands of Minas Gerais. Other guest musicians feature on individual songs, such as pianist Sebastian Macchi, flautist Flavia Huarachi, cellist Lucas Almeida, and singers Gaby Echevarria, Cecilia Pahl, and Cris Ferro. Gimenes has garnered acclaim and accolades across continents. His debut release, "Raphael Gimenes & As Montanhas de Som," delved deep into the rhythms and traditions of Brazil. It rose to prominence as the top Brazilian release in 2016 in Holland and was hailed as a "conceptual masterpiece" in Japan. His second album, "A Tongue Full of Suns," co-produced with Faroese multi-artist Teitur, ventured into the English language, blending Gimenes" inspirations from the world of prog-rock. Danish rock legend TimChristensen praised it as "top-shelf neo-folk," while Brazilian website80minutos described it as "hypnotizing." The music within "DINAMARCA" delves deep into the soul of a man who embraced a new land with open arms, while staying true to his roots. It unites elements from both of Gimenes" prior works, embarking on a journey across new musical horizons. The result is music that transcends borders, weaving itself into an intricately beautiful tapestry - a soul that has learned to harmonize with two worlds.

Hinter dem Bandnamen Potato Beach versteckt sich ein Wiener Indie-Surf Kollektiv rund um Mastermind Jannik Rieß. Bislang gab es eine EP, die als Tape erschienen ist. Der Strand ist für alle da! "Back on the road, driving slowly, sipping coke" - Mit den ersten Zeilen auf "DIP IN" legt Jannik Rieß direkt ein Geständnis ab. Der deutsche Wahlwiener und Multiinstrumentalist hinter dem Musikprojekt Potato Beach, bekennt sich mit seinem Debüt zum Softdrink bei Einhalten des Tempolimits - und damit zur eigenen Kartoffeligkeit. Sympathisch! Potato Beach's durchaus nostalgischer Garage-Rock versucht gar nicht erst, dem Bravado und Machismo alter (The Kinks) oder neuer (Foxygen) Inspirationen nachzueifern. Rieß erzählt lieber seine eigenen Geschichten in der lähmenden Sommerhitze Wiens, irgendwo zwischen zu lang jung bleiben und zu früh alt werden. Die Platte braucht keine waghalsigen Salti vom Zehner schlagen, um in die Tiefe zu gehen. Vielmehr lädt sie uns dazu ein, mit baumelnden Füßen am Beckenrand tief ins Rot-Weiß der Freibadpommes zu tauchen. Schmeckt vertraut - und ziemlich lecker. So wabern simple, aber sorgfältig arrangierte Vintage-Riffs und schrullige Orgeln wie Hitzeschlieren am Horizont, wenn Rieß "Why are we feeling guilty for not doing anything?" oder "How can anyone go to work?" die blöden Fragen stellt, über die wir alle rätseln. Potato Beach's Selbstreflexionen sind am Puls der Zeit getaktet und sprechen dabei ganz ungezwungen 0,5 bis 2,5 Kartoffelgenerationen von der Pelle. So handeln sie nicht etwa von Heroin und Manic Pixie Dream Girls, sondern von Ghosting, Fernbeziehungen oder dem Gefühl der Einsamkeit unter Vielen. Potato Beach befreit den Küstenrock der 60er vom alten Rost und verleiht ihm mit ehrlichen, nachdenklichen und bodenständigen Anekdoten einen zeitgenössischen Anstrich. Dass Potato Beach mit "DIP IN" nicht dem Mackertum seiner Blaupausen folgt, ist kein Zufall. Nachdem Rieß' musikalische Vorbilder durch ihren Sexismus unhörbar wurden, sah er sich gezwungen, seine Lieblingsmusik selbst neu zu schreiben. Dass er das komplette Instrumentarium und den Gesang der 11 Tracks im Alleingang aufgenommen hat, zeigt: Dem ist das wirklich wichtig. Hingabe, Leidenschaft und Weltschmerz hallen jedenfalls deutlich hörbar aus dem Röhrenverstärker. Nur vereinzelt tauchen Vertraute Musiker:innen der Schwesterbands Peter the Human Boy oder Gardens auf, um ein Cello hier oder ein Keyboard dort einzuspielen. Die sind auch dabei, wenn die Freibäder Wiens warm genug werden, um die Platte live zu performen. Bis dahin sorgt "DIP IN" mit seiner warmen Melancholie für süße Tagträume vom Sehnsuchtsort Strand. "DIP IN" erinnert uns: Ob Potaetoe oder Potahtoh, every Body is a Beach Body!

36's new album Reality Engine explores "the blossoming dynamics of artificial intelligence and the ever-changing definition of reality" on Past Inside The Present and does so with a continuation of his richly melodic sound while also evolving into new realms. The sheer beauty of these sounds is enough to uplift and energise, with chords ascending to the heavens on the opener 'Imagine The Truth' and then rolling out to infinite horizons on 'Axiom Haze'. 'Reality Engine' suspends you amongst the clouds and 'Beyond The Hyperreal' is a perfect marriage of immersive and organic sounds and hints of digital augmented reality engines. A sublime album, for sure.

The by-now seminal Is It Balearic label welcomes long-time Balearic boss Max Essa for another superbly horizontal offering that will take you to the beach no matter where you are. He is a regular on this label who has been serving up top tunes and compiling superb collections like 2016's 10-Year Anniversary comp for ages, and the quality levels never dip. This fresh four-tracker traverses gently breaking synth waves, undulating dubby undercurrents and gloriously sun-kissed synth work all in a soothing and meditative style.

180g, black vinyl. Warm and harmonic, this four-piece Scandinavian soul act deliver nostalgia steeped tracks with a timeless feel. Described as the bastard lovechild of Fleetwood Mac, Khruangbin, obscure Motown singles, hip-hop duo Eric B & Rakim seasoned with a bit of Stevie Wonder, Selda Bagcan, Elis Regina and Ted Gärdestad, Dina Ögon borrow across decade, country, and genre, ultimately delivering cohesive and homely retro pop from a laidback Nordic horizon. With two critically acclaimed albums under their belt and backing from the likes of Tyler The Creator, many sold out tours and and an organic growth and word of mouth build up on a global level in just two years, they are gearing up to release their third album "Orion" in February 2024.

Limited Crystal Clear Vinyl. Warm and harmonic, this four-piece Scandinavian soul act deliver nostalgia steeped tracks with a timeless feel. Described as the bastard lovechild of Fleetwood Mac, Khruangbin, obscure Motown singles, hip-hop duo Eric B & Rakim seasoned with a bit of Stevie Wonder, Selda Bagcan, Elis Regina and Ted Gärdestad, Dina Ögon borrow across decade, country, and genre, ultimately delivering cohesive and homely retro pop from a laidback Nordic horizon. With two critically acclaimed albums under their belt and backing from the likes of Tyler The Creator, many sold out tours and and an organic growth and word of mouth build up on a global level in just two years, they are gearing up to release their third album "Orion" in February 2024.

ESP Institute artist Bartellow, one third of the project Tambien and otherwise known in the Contemporary Classical sphere as Beni Brachtel, returns to the label with his second full-length release, Noosphere. While currently heading the SVS label and residency series out of Munich, Beni’s resume expands well beyond electronic music to include immersive sound installations such as The Adven- ture Of The Empty House (solo live performance across seven floors of Walter Henn’s Deckelbau building), a slew of compositions for the Bavarian State Opera (for which he doubled as conductor), and a prolific career of over twenty-five theater scores for institutions such as the Münchner Kammerspiele, Schauspiel Basel, Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin, Berliner Ensemble, Schauspiel Köln, Schaus- piel Graz and with directors Ersan Mondtag, Alexander Eisenach, Jessica Glause and Tobias Staab among others.

Noosphere is a compendium excerpting from theatrical scores WUT (Elfriede Jelinek, at Schauspielhaus Köln, directed by Ersan Mondtag, 2020), Ödipus and Antigone (Maxim Gorki Theatre Berlin, directed by Ersan Mondtag, 2017), Der Zauberberg (Thomas Mann, Schauspiel Graz, directed by Alexander Eisenach, 2017), Hass Tryptichon (Sybille Berg, Wiener Festwochen / Maxim Gorki Theatre, directed by Ersan Mondtag, 2019), Wonderland Ave. (Sibylle Berg, Schauspielhaus Köln, directed by Ersan Mondtag, 2018), Die Verdammten (after Visconti ́s film, Schauspielhaus Köln, directed by Ersan Mondtag, 2019) and Roi Ubu (Alfred Jarry, Theater Neumarkt, Zurich, directed by Alexander Eisenach, 2018).

The work traverses homages, infusing everything from Baroque to Impressionism, and while these types of references are certainly built into the canon of Theatre as a discipline, here we gather histor- ic layers in an even wider net. Under the self-referential thumb of Contemporary Classical music, this sort of "hindsight" approach has been largely avoided, however, in today’s all-access arena, the constant stream of historic causal-chained events has opened a delta where anything is possible. This defines Bartellow’s stance among his colleagues as well as his cultural position as a composer.

Beni considers beauty a fleeting objective in the arts, that expression is often expected to follow notions of Destructivism or the unfulfilled. Art will pore over wounds, collective angst, mourn- ing a loss of natural habitat or a fear of technological invasion, yet there is a bitter irreverence for the friction or salvation in beauty itself. Acknowledging this subjectivity — what one audience considers superficial pleasure may be deeply profound to another — he leans into musical instinct as if composing via divine conduit.

Noosphere conjures a array of suspense, ecstasy, melancholy, and dread, but in isolating the work from its theatrical component, Brachtel directs our focus toward formal qualities, clearing unim- peded space to conceive fresh narratives and examine dynamism and interconnectivity. In sympathy with often difficult theatre pieces, the passages can be dark and transgressive, but more importantly they remain relative to Brachtel’s circumstances at their time of creation. The title Noosphere speaks to the evolution of human thought and knowledge, opening a door to subjective points-of-view. For example, Nexus II On The Beach refers to both Roberto Musci’s Water Messages On Desert Sand as well as the film Bladerunner, invoking the image of an android enjoying the sunset, but whether or not this abstraction may be considered beautiful depends the listener’s cumulative life experience and perspective.

This is hybrid chamber music, augmented by electro-acoustic layers, juxtaposing various periods and successively processing their residual themes into a trans-generational rendering of “now.”

Recorded in an abandoned water tank in rural northwest Colorado and inspired by Muriel Rukeyser’s circa-1935 poem of the same name, violinist Leslee Smucker explores the range and saturation of intense natural reverb on Breathing Landscape. The artist pushes her instrument to the limit –by turns percussive, sweeping, and scraping– and, on several tracks, utilizes her own voice as well, resulting in an album that combines breathtaking beauty and visceral texture. Leaning into the meditative quality being present in one moment can provide, this is music you can feel on your skin, calling out from our decomposing modernity into the indifferent sky above. Conjuring deep time but captured in one day, the album is simultaneously immediate and vaporous, primeval-sounding yet unapologetically modern. When you travel out of the mountains down into the rangelands of what we know today as western Colorado, the horizon opens up to reveal an ancient and scarred land. Cell phone coverage is spotty at best and towns are sparse. Time escapes our efforts to contain it and is instead etched into the hot, dry canyons. Approaching The Tank, outside the settlement of Rangely, oil pumps work ceaselessly on the other side of the gravel road, extracting a grim future. Inside The Tank it is 20 degrees warmer than outside, a zone of strange harmonics, exchanges of sound and stillness, and explorations of landscapes both exterior and interior. In what she describes as a "sauna of sound", Smucker "was transported by the reverberation to another realm. Birds and trucks passed outside, while the wind was an integral part to the sound making

There are two versions of the vinyl - classic black and triple-color limited Indie Shop edition.

Both have special insert inside with the bands bio and photos.

Generacja JAZZ is a project showing a fragment of the new wave of Polish jazz, treading its own path, creating, touring and jamming across Europe. Borders don't exist - especially musical - the new generation is engaging with nightclubs, festivals and playlists. The time has now come to show its broader perspective. We created a project which involves a handful of groups that have already racked up debut albums and festival wins, as they set out on their musical odyssey. The groups also have other things in common, like their passion, originality and, for the needs of the project, age - all the artists during the recording of this album were under 30 years old. This is the new generation - the Jazz Generation.

For the Jazz Generation record we invited five bands who had already released debut albums: Immortal Onion, Klawo, Rejoin, Twoosty Mayonez and USO 9001. We also reserved two spots on the compilation for the winners of our open call competition, whereby on the basis of the jury's choice (jury: Monika Borzym, Paulina Przybysz, Envee, Wojtek Mazolewski i Marcin Groh Grośkiewicz) we met the winning bands: Kosmos and quietet.

The sleeve artist is Kornelia Nowak, who won our open call for young designers and graphic artists. Here once again we could rely on the opinion of a prestigious jury comprised of: Beata Śliwińska Barrakuz, Bovska, Maciej Animisiewasz Grochot, Grzegorz Forin Piwnicki i Marcin Groh Grośkiewicz.

Generacja JAZZ LP is also a start of the new imprint - U JAZZ ME, which will be focused on jazz from Poland.

And here are the bands from the album:

1. Immortal Onion - A band from the Tri-City playing a broad spectrum of instrumental music.

Band members: Wojtek Warmijak (percussion), Tomir Śpiołek (piano, synths), Ziemowit Klimek (Upright Bass, synths).

The band Immortal Onion has already established itself as one of the most interesting projects of the new wave of Polish jazz, and is consistently being labelled as such abroad. After two well received albums ("Ocelot of Salvation" (2017) and"XD Experience Design" (2020) U Know Me Records) they released their third album "Screens" in 2022, which was recorded with the well known Tri-City composer and saxophonist - Michał Jan Ciesielski.

The inspiration behind the band's formation were such artists as: Esbjörn Svensson, Hiromi Uehara, Tigran Hamasyan and Tosin Abasi.

The group's guiding principle from the very beginning was the fusion of often disparate musical styles, which bore "post instrumental aggressive gay pop". Despite the stylistic discrepancies, between which they swim, the group has forged its own identifiable language, characterised by complicated rhythmical structures, energetic riffs and trance beats with lyrical melodies.

The trio has performed its original material at many venues and festivals around Europe and Asia.

2. Klawo - seven adventurous adventurers from Gdańsk, who were brought together by their love for music, halvah and throwing Frisbee. Their self-named début album, released in 2022 on the local label Coastline Northern Cuts, is an amalgam of the inspirations of each of the team members and played backwards contains tips on how to reach the Kashubian pyramids. After a win at the international competition Jazz in the Park, held in Cluj-Napoca in Romania, the band began work on their second album. Meanwhile, they were also travelling the length and breadth of Poland on a mission to infect people with the idea of Baltic Funk.

3. Kosmos is a Łódż based jazz quintet. It was formed in 2020 by Pianist Stanisław Szmigero, Saxophonist Iwo Tylman and Trumpeter Jan Ostalski. However, it wasn't until 2022 that Kosmos found its true form when Kamil Gużniczak (Upright bass) and Kacper Kuta (Percussion) joined the line-up.

Their compositions are influenced by Polish yass bands, electronic music and hip-hop. Kosmos music is a mix of lyricism, space, intensity and elements of experiment.

The band members are all eccentric characters possessing different means of musical expression - looking at them, one could even argue they are a group of oddballs. Despite this, for reasons unbeknownst to themselves, the members of Kosmos complement each other on stage and form a unified artistic vision of the world around them.

Kosmos officially released their début single "Ja" in June 2023. They regularly play concerts across Poland and recently were selected as distinguished artists at JAZZiNSPIRACJE (JAZZiNSPIRATION) - a competition held during the 13th Lublin Jazz Festival.

4. Quietet (formed at the beginning of 2023) is the result of meetings between five talented musicians with a deep passion for musical creation. Its sound is a unique blend of Jazz and classical music with a hint of hard rock. The band is inspired by the Scandinavian approach to making music, which brings a characteristic atmosphere and melodies to their work. Their music captivates listeners with its originality, refined improvisations and flawless technique. Both classical and modern musical trends feed their inspiration when creating passionate and emotional compositions.

Their works are full of sound experimentation, which equally surprise and expose new musical horizons. Through their compositions, "Quietet" aims to share their emotions evoked during performances, creating a musical journey that affects and inspires.

5. Connecting jazz with electronic music in fresh interpretations, six young musicians make up the group Rejoin. The group re-formed in 2020 after a four-year break, playing their debut concert at Lotos Jazz Festival Bielska Zadymka Jazzowa. The musicians in Rejoin have performed alongside such artists as: Urszula Dudziak, Krystyna Prońko, Marcin Masecki, Szczyl, Kuba Więcek and Paulina Przybysz.

Most of the members of Rejoin are students from the Katowice Music Academy, where they also develop their own projects. Rejoin was a recipient of the Fabryki Norblin Music Masterclass Foundation scholarship.

6. Twoosty Mayonez is something your grandad would listen to with his younger sister. The non-standard approach to jazz alongside a pursuit of strange sounds, culminated in the conceptual album entitled "Carmin". The material was created by Bartosz Wolerta (percussion) and Dominik Kaniewski (bass guitar/synths). "Triceradiplodocus" tells the story of a mechanical dinosaur that lives on the yet undiscovered planet Carmin.

Repress!

On 22nd October, the Nottingham-raised and highly-praised musician/DJ/producer Matt Cutler, AKA Lone, presents his 8th album – and first in 5 years – ‘Always Inside Your Head’. It marks two major changes, with both a new label and new approach – featuring vocalists for the first time.

This deeply textural and ethereal artwork is situated high above the clouds, amidst the heavens, occupying a stratospheric state where swathes of synthesized vapour and azure rays sound like a literal breath of fresh air.

A varied selection of music influenced the record, but two main influences were Cocteau Twins and My Bloody Valentine. “I wanted to approach a range of different styles, but attack them from their angle in a way, so for example on 'Inlove2' I tried to imagine what a Balearic / acid house tune might sound like if it were produced by Kevin Shields”, comments Lone.

Another key example of Cutler’s strange but successful combination of elements is the halcyon bliss of ‘Echo Paths’, where his trademark fat drums and love for hip hop meet double-time pan pipes, dub effects and dream pop, mixed into a wonderfully lysergic concoction.

This rarefied auditory stratus was previously evident in tracks like ‘Alpha Wheel 4 (Ambient Mix)’ from ‘DJ Kicks’, ‘Under Cherry Blossoms (Minds Eye Reprise)’ from ‘Ambivert Tools, Vol. 2’, ‘Pulsar’ (from ‘Ambivert 4’), and ‘How Can You Tell’ (from ‘Abraxas’), but is now more fully-fledged, broader in scope and even more celestial.

In addition to the above, the LP exists somewhere between trip hop on Mo' Wax, 90s Warp, intelligent drum & bass and ambient house. There are heavier forays too, like ‘Mouth Of God’, where darker clouds emerge, but are pierced like acid lightning with fierce, tearing tech-step bass.

Although still firmly rooted in club culture – here Lone shows a definite leaning towards a song-based sound, with several tracks edging towards the same crossover space as the nineties hits which also inspired him – particularly William Orbit’s production on Madonna's 'Frozen', and Olive's 'You're Not Alone'. This is especially evident on the bright, spacious brilliance of 'Hidden By Horizons', where vocals and synths swirl around one another, with crisp breakbeats and reggae rolls pushing purposefully through the ether.

Despite initially seeming almost entirely sunny of disposition, upon deeper immersion there’s lot more beneath the album’s surface, both in its deep pools of immiscible layered elements, and also thematically. When recording Cutler kept in mind a loose narrative based on birth, death, and our existence in-between.

He then extended this idea to reach what may happen after death, which is reflected in the sequencing: By penultimate track ‘Undaunted’ the life reflected in this longplayer has come to an end, which is then followed by 'Coming In To Being And Passing Away' – an afterlife epilogue, which evokes a transition from this world to the next.

Yellow/Green Marbled Vinyl

* From Karma Recordings comes their fourteenth EP. I can hardly believe it myself as I type this but yes, Karma Recordings is up to 014. On remix duties this time around is the very talented Dope Ammo. Fusing the jungle and drum n bass styles together seemlessly we feel we have another classic in the making with this release. Taking the pianos of DJ KOS’ original Horizons Lost and overlaying some haunting vocals and then slamming into the dnb, this track is not to be missed. Then rolling right on to the second remix on the A side we just had to release on to vinyl the brilliant Sync Dynamix remix. With a style all of his own Sync Dynamix has really done the track justice with rolling breakbeats and a heavy bassline. I was originally going to title this the light and dark EP and then completely forgot while doing the artwork. However, that’s where we went with the double A side. Psycho Boy by DJ Ande is a grimy menacing track sampling the laughter of Tyler Durden from Fight Club and just gets more and more troubled all the way through. Sinister, scary and chopped, the perfect track for Halloween. Then we have been delighted to bring back the hardware talents of Dertie Bassett, always a bit dark but absolutely superb. All four tracks will take you on a journey from light to dark.

If there's one specific component that grounds 'Sky Flesh', it's focus. Italian musician and sound designer Marta De Pascalis flexed her technical muscle on 2020's 'Sonus Ruinae', layering various sounds and processes in an attempt to touch the sublime. In contrast, 'Sky Flesh' is a single thought, composed using just one instrument: the Yamaha CS-60. A slimmed-down sibling to the gargantuan CS-80 - the analog synthesizer used by Vangelis to create his iconic 'Blade Runner' score - the CS-60 was released in 1977, a few years before the MIDI protocol was introduced to help standardize production methods. MIDI would change the electronic music landscape completely, offering a level of control that De Pascalis consciously relinquishes, preferring to highlight expressiveness and timbre, elements more readily associated with acoustic instruments. The album arrives as much of the wider experimental scene busies itself with algorithmic composition and AI-assisted modeling; De Pascalis chooses to work instead like an organologist, harnessing the CS-60's mercurial magic to suggest deeper truths about our evolving relationship with machines.

Currently based in Berlin, De Pascalis grew up in Rome, where she was surrounded by atrophied ruins that piqued her interest in decay and memory. Over her last three albums, she used tape loops and advanced synthesizer techniques to create a unique sound world that's guided by her musical philosophy, rather than a specific aesthetic. As she's developed her technique and confidence, her music has become even more idiosyncratic, and at this stage in her career she's stripped her sound down to its core elements, focusing on emotion, narrative and mystery. Using timbres that recall a time when electronic music still waved towards the future

Fifteen years ago, Jukebox the Ghost were just seniors in college when they released their debut album, Let Live & Let Ghosts. Upon release, the album received instant acclaim from publications like Consequence of Sound and the Washington Post, with the former praising how the album “evokes both the musicality and lyrical richness of a band that is not only immensely talented, but who also get it.” Since then, the band has gone on to record and release 5 more studio albums, toured constantly and built up a devoted, loyal fanbase. And many of the songs on their debut rank among fan favorites including: “Under My Skin” (nearly 30 million Spotify streams), “Victoria” (13 million Spotify Streams), and “Hold It In” (10 million Spotify streams). These songs remain staples of the band's live set, as a result.

Kid Katana Records teamed up once again with Dotemu, Tribute Games and Nickelodeon to release TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge Dimension Shellshock OST, a brand new musical experience composed by Tee Lopes!

Inspired by the music of one of the most iconic pop culture licenses of all time, this OST was fully composed by Tee Lopes, the talent behind the music of Sonic Mania and Streets of Rage 4: Mr X’s Nightmare and of course Shredder's Revenge vanilla game OST. His musical vision echoes the spirit of the turtles and this specific game specificities: tributes to classic TMNT tunes with a good dose of fun and switching fluidly between 80s/90s electro, funk, rock, and jazzy tunes with chiptune vibes.

This edition includes:
-> 1x 12-inch vinyl featuring the 15 tracks in the Dimension Shellshock DLC
-> 2 colored vinyl labels with the two new playable characters: Usagi Yojimbo and Karai

-> Exclusive sticker board with all playable characters and iconic items from the game

Favorite Recordings comes back with the 2nd edition of its compilation series: Fusion Global Sounds. 8 rare and hidden tracks produced between 1976 and 1984 in various parts of the world. As a fine collector of Jazz-Funk and Fusion for many years, Charles Maurice cooked another fine selection of forgotten Fusion Jazz productions, this time driven by a common Brazilian influence.

On this 2nd edition, recordings come from Brazil, Philippines, Netherlands, Poland, and US, all again from underrated artists mostly unknown from the masses. You'll find here the best elements of the Fusion genre: fine vocal arrangements, catchy Fender Rhodes and synthesizers, irresistible basslines, and classy horns section, altogether bringing a unique groove infused with Brazilian flavors.

The compilation starts with Lerma dela Cruz, a quite occult songstress from Philippines. “Free” was part of a very rare compilation titled “Tropical Jazz Fusion”, released in 1983 on A&W Horizon label (also home of Boy Katindig). With its blowing Samba / Jazz-Funk vibes, it was an obvious match to open this collection. The following song could only enhance this ambience, since that of Brazilian saxophonist, Nivaldo Ornelas, present on this opus with 2 titles taken from his album A Tarde (1983). On “Cactus”, Nivaldo is supported on keyboards by his friend Marcos Resende, both also known for their album on the MPBC series released by Phonogram-Polygram between 1978 and 1981, which has clearly been an inspiration for Charles Maurice in building this second edition.

We could continue telling stories and details about the others great tracks included in Fusion Global Sounds Vol.2, but we believe that the best way is to listen to it and pursue your trip through Fusion Jazz combined with Brazilian styles, including surprising stopover in Poland, or Netherlands.

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.