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SA Recordings present a new EP and sample library from the acclaimed experimental cellist and composer, Mabe Fratti and multidisciplinary experimental artist and musician Concepción Huerta. SA are pleased to announce the first single from their upcoming release, Estática, a four track EP which effortlessly transposes between light and heavy, electronic and biotic sounds. The first single, Estática is a heart-wrenching cello heavy meandering composition classic to the styles of Fratti and Huerta. This will be followed by the full release in early December 2021. The release follows Fratti’s critically acclaimed Será Que Ahora Podremos Entendernos described by Pitchfork as blooming with ecstatic synth riffs and spirited cello, the record captures the sound of a mind abuzz. Huerta and Fratti, promising and ambitious artists in their own right, come together in Estática to combine their deeply experimental and progressive practices.

One of the most exciting names in the Bristol Dubstep scene, Bengal Sound returns to K-LONE’s Wych imprint with a pair of fresh 140 Anthems. Following on from his previous records on Bandulu, Innamind, System and Pearly Whites, as well as his own series of meticulously put together mixtapes “Culture Clash Vol I, II & III” - WYCH006 sees his signature sound at its best. Support from Vivek, Commodo, Peverelist, Simo Cell, Coco Bryce and PR from Dawn. Artwork By Annie Foyster. Mastered By Beau at Ten Eight Seven Mastering

Jamie Jones and Lee Foss’ label Hot Creations will deliver a combined EP by Aix en Provence-based DJ and producer MALIKK and Marseille-born duo Chicks Luv Us in August. Bridging chunky tech house with dub techno, Can We Dance displays their collective love for bright and playful beats.

On the title track, the producers work in symbiosis to create a club-driven chunker with chopped-up vocal samples and a squishy bassline. Bouncy ‘til the last beat. On the B-side, Chicks Luv Us drop a Balearic-flavoured banger with Makelene. High-pitched vocals pulsate throughout the track, as huge kickdrums and playful sound FX amp up the energy. MALIKK offers a quirky closing track on Walkie Talkie, packed with punchy drums, bleepy percussion and techy vocals—perfectly aligned with Hot Creations’ colourful aesthetic.

Chicks Luv Us are two Marseille-born pals with a penchant for groovy house and minimal techno. Their back catalogue echoes the textures that bring them together as producers, with releases on Loco Dice’s Desolat, Steve Lawler’s Viva Limited and many more. They cut their teeth in DJing during their residency at Spartacus Club in Cabriès in the south of France from 2009 and 2018. Today, the pair continue to grow a legion of international fans while finessing their craft in the studio, and soundtracking dancefloors worldwide. MALIKK is an Aix en Provence-based artist whose early appreciation for 80’s disco, funky and soul still occasionally seeps into his current club-focused music. Previous releases on Hot Creations, Hottrax, Toolroom, and Solotoko display his multi-dynamic palette, nodding to several genres and moods. Having played in Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands and his native France, MALIKK’s DJ sets reflect his fun and explorative approach, marking him as one of Aix en Provence’s finest exports.

Strut present a new repress of the influential first volume of 'Disco Not Disco' compiled by Joey Negro and Sean P as part of the label's 20th Anniversary.

'Disco Not Disco' was a perfectly timed compilation back in 2000. Released when interest in the myths, history and playlists of original New York clubs like Paradise Garage and The Loft was at its peak, the album drew on the outer limits of leftfield disco championed by Levan and Mancuso, bringing together unlikely dancefloor anthems by rock acts like Yoko Ono and Ian Dury, obscurities from cottage labels like BC and Splash and selected oddities from the unique mind of avant-garde hero, Arthur Russell.

It was essentially a celebration of the sonic melting pot in New York during the early '80s, an era when punk had burnt itself out and disco had become commercial and saccharine; in its place, the post-punk movement threw up brilliant oddities which tore up the accepted rulebook.

The album features full original artwork and Kris Needs' sleeve notes and is remastered and cut by The Carvery.

A native of Los Angeles, Henry Franklin came of age while the city was producing a crop of exciting jazz talent. Frankin’s lasting impact on jazz can be evidenced by the long list of legends who sought him out for tours and recording sessions, Stevie Wonder, Bobby Humphrey, Freddy Hubbard, & Pharaoh Sanders to name a few. Franklin’s solo output is best remembered for his two solo outings with the Black Jazz label- “The Skipper” & “The Skipper At Home”. Together, they form one of the most compelling diptychs in the entire post-bop canon. Recognised by his peers and contemporaries, Franklin’s entry for Jazz Is Dead gives the living legend his flowers and recognises the contributions The Skipper has made as one of jazz’s most influential heartbeats.

Back in stock !

First Word Records is very proud to present a brand new full-length album from Kaidi Tatham. 'It's A World Before You'.

Following on from two EPs released on First Word last year ('Changing Times' and 'Hard Times'), Kaidi has delivered us thirteen tracks that deftly illustrate his various talents as a multi-instrumentalist.

Kaidi is probably best known for his work with Bugz In The Attic, though his musical contributions over the years have also included Amy Winehouse, Slum Village, Mulatu Astatke, Soul II Soul, Moonchild, Leroy Burgess, Amp Fiddler, Chris Dave, Macy Gray, King Britt, DJ Spinna, Mr Scruff and IG Culture to name but a few! In recent times, he's worked with DJ Jazzy Jeff on a variety of projects, including his most recent album 'M3', touring Europe for Jeff and Will Smith's reunion shows, and on the PLAYlist album 'Chasing Goosebumps', with Glenn Lewis, Stro Elliot (The Roots), Masego, Maimouna Youssef, Rich Medina, Daniel Crawford and more.

All this in addition to heating up dances around Europe with his inimitable DJ sets, and working heavily with First Word label-mate, Eric Lau (who also mixed this album) on a variety of projects, and adding releases to his already impressive catalogue on 2000 Black, Eglo and Theo Parrish's Sound Signature, with regular compadre, Dego (who features on the album's title track).

This album personifies Kaidi's diverse palette of sounds - bar Eric & Dego's features, every piece of music is played by himself. Largely flowing on a broken beat rhythm section, Kaidi effortlessly incorporates washes of afro, latin and funk throughout. From the harmonics of 'Your Dream Don't Mean A Thing', to the breakneck funk of 'Outta Audah', each and every riddim exudes energy. But this isn't simply a bruk record. The album is laced together with downtempo beats and future jazz interludes throughout, and some sweet synth boogie is never very far away, especially on the weighty vibes of 'It's About Who You Know'. To top it all off, there's two delightful nuggets of hip hop soul - Mancunian label-mates, Children of Zeus, feature on the neo-soul vibes of 'Out Here On My Own', and there's a feature from Amir Townes, better known as Uhmeer - an upcoming MC from Philadelphia, and son of one Jazzy Jeff Townes - who rides a sub-heavy, piano-led slice of boom bap, voicing an assortment of characters to tell the tale of 'Cupid'.

'It's A World Before You' is set to cause serious damage to sound-systems over the Summer, and show and prove once again the skills of one of the UK's best unsung musical talents, Kaidi Tatham.

Bongos, bouzouki and Farfisa organ galore ! The explosive cocktail of rock'n'roll and traditional Tsifteteli hailing from 1960's Greece is still alive thanks to Deli Teli : the Marseille-based quartet performs a string of forgotten hits that once set Athens on fire, with a contagious energy and a subtle dose of Mediterranean drama.

Half a century ago, while French seasiders would dance to « Yéyé » sounds and dig the Beatles or Pink Floyd, a whole other scene was happening further along the coastline. Notably, Greek artists were a huge influence beyond the Mediterranean cradle ; Aris San's version of « Boum Pam » (a.k.a. « Bros Gremos Kai Piso Rema »), brilliantly interpreted by Deli Teli on this record, was a n°1 hit from Southern Europe to the tip of India ! Far from being an exclusive Greek sound, Tsifteteli music has travelled through borders for centuries and means « double string » in Turkish. In the 1960's, it mixed with rock'n'roll, surf and Latin-american influences, and gave birth to the typical « Laïko » sound.

With their powerful electric bouzouki (Greek lute) and the distinctive sound of the Farfisa organ, Deli Teli have carved their style while digging through the incredible goldmine of the late 60's and early 70's Tsifteteli/Laïko singles. The 4 musicians met in 2019 with a burning desire to dive into electric sensations – bassist Christos Karypidis used to play oud and keyboardist Arthur Bacon played accordion in most of his former projects – and made the most of 2020's « lockdowns » by building their repertoire and thinking up Deli Teli.

On this mini-album, they also interpret Koko's « Chily Chily », a groovy belly-dance mover ; « Ekso Dertia Kai Kaïmi », an intoxicating and frenetic floor shaker ; « Tsiftetelli 1969 », a cool organ-lead surfing instrumental ; and 2 slightly freer and more psychedelic numbers, « Taksim Deli » (improvisation) and « Bournelis », a creative re-arrangement of 2 tracks by Leonardos Bournelis.

Deli Teli preach a collective, sensual and solar hip-wiggling across the continents and beyond ; they are ready to shake our minds and bodies until we all gel together... Join the « Tsifteteli Club » now !

The origins of Cos date back to the second half of the sixties when Daniel Schell joined forces with Jean-Paul Musette, Pascale Son and Robert Pernet to form Classroom. When Classroom split, Daniel Schell and Pascale Son moved ahead and formed Cos together with Charles Loos, Alain Goutier and Bob Dartsch. They produced an experimental jazz rock sound linked to the influences above mentioned, but without being mere copycats since they always managed to keep to their own personality.



Babel was Cos' third long playing release, issued in 1978. It represented a new step in the band's evolution with the addition of new influences that ranged from musique dodécaphonique, minimalist droning, or even a hint of disco, without turning their backs to their earlier love for Canterbury sounds or more conventional jazz-rock. Dirk Bogaert, Francis Cahen and Marc Moulin all played in its sessions, making this a superb sample of what was going on through the Belgian music scene in those days.



The Wah Wah reissue comes housed in a beautiful reproduction of the original sleeve. Limited edition of 500 copies, licensed from and with the collaboration of Daniel Schell.

Padang Moonrise is the story of modern Indonesian music
that emerged underneath the volcanoes of Java and
Sumatra. Java, the most populous island in the archipelago
of over 17,000 islands and 1300 distinct ethnic groups, and
its capital city Jakarta, was where most of the post-colonial
national identity, politics, administration and music production
was centred.
Traditional songs from Java, Sumatra, Bali and beyond were
re-imagined by a small group of state-sponsored musicians
that also composed and arranged new music. These songs
aimed at consolidating a geographically disparate country
with a new language and new ideas of national character.
This compilation brings together a handful of these recordings
that combine elements of regional popular music, Islamic
Gambus, Javanese & Balinese Gamelan and Kroncong, with
jazz, Afro-Latin music & instrumentation, and vocal harmonies
influenced by banned American doo-wop and rock & roll.
The results are a unique blend of styles that have remained
mostly insulated from the world outside of Indonesia until a
recent worldwide resurgence in the interest of recorded music
of all forms has shone a new light on these nearly forgotten
recordings.
27 tracks compiled by Miles Cleret, on double vinyl with bonus
7”, housed in gatefold sleeve with extended liner notes.

Dopeness Galore / Records We Release
"A newfound father's attempt to pass wisdom on to his children."

- Spring 2019 -

"As my girlfriend’s pregnancy was steadily treading along, I settled into my home studio in the attic of our new house. In our previous apartment I had a tiny room which could hardly fit my recording gear, let alone my drums which were still sitting at my parents’ house eating dust. Now that we’d moved into a bigger place, I had confiscated a part of the top floor to build my studio. This time I had just enough space to fit my drum set together with other percussion instruments, Fender Rhodes and synths. This sparked a whole new world of creative opportunities.

At the same time I also started to think about what kind of wisdom I would want to pass on to my children. I started writing down my thoughts. Little anecdotes, ponderings and things to think about as a human being.

These two events took place in parallel and once I actually started jotting down my first compositional ideas I saw the concept right there in front of me bright as day.

This LP has been written and recorded as inspiration to think about things and to keep re-thinking again and again to strengthen the knowledge of self.

Fruit Distro Collective is heavily inspired by Jazz composition, Hiphop drum sounds and the percussive elements of Afrobeat and Afro latin styles. "

With his third album, The Big Swim, due out in December 2022 on Bongo Joe records, Augenwasser ventures once again into the paths of synth wave exploration with a pop feel. Still laced with the folk textures of his early days, he nevertheless develops a dance approach that can at times be akin to melancholic drone. His music takes you to an imaginary, dark club, lulled by a haunting rhythm, surrounded by the fumes of the night, where it is possible to indulge in that quiet voice that has already confessed that it is too late but will never stop repeating its soft, cold poetry:

Sonido Verde De Moyobamba feature on the second volume of Analog Africa's Sonic Expedition into the Peruvian Amazon, as well as being behind this brilliant new collection which drops on the same day from the same label. It is a coming together of eight super-rare cuts of guitar and organ inventiveness taken from the five albums the band recorded between 1981 and 1987 for Discos Universal. You would beard pushed to find any Cumbia from the Peruvian jungle that hits as hard as this with its incessant rhythms, mad acoustic guitars and bustling percussion.

imited dark green vinyl

With Jazz Is Dead Series 2, Younge and Muhammad have once again, together with a roster of world-renowned legends, crate digger patron saints, and an exciting vanguard of young talent, delivered another unimpeachable collection of fresh and captivating recordings inspired by jazz's past, present, and future. There are names that some may already be familiar with, such as Lonnie Liston Smith, Jean Carne, and Tony Allen, and those less so, like Henry Franklin, Phil Ranelin, Wendell Harrison, Garrett

Saracho, & Katalyst. What unites each new collaborator is their unbent dedication to remaining original, preserving their creativity, and sharing it with the world.

VINYL COLOUR IS GREY. BORSTAL, the UK-Hardcore band featuring Nick Barker (Brujeria, ex-Dimmu Borgir, Cradle Of Filth) & Pierre Mendivil (Knuckledust) release details of brand new 2 track 7". Produced by Russ Russell (Napalm Death/The Exploited/At The Gates). The 2 songs are a follow up BORSTAL's debut EP "At Her Majesty's Pleasure". The 7" record is a collaboration between Rucktion Records & 4 Family Records. Both labels are offering different variants and bundles of the 7" in extremely limited quantities. Pressed on heavyweight Vinyl and including a free download code! Front man 'Pierre' comments on the new video 'No Surrender'; "This song is inspired by confronting the defeatist mentality that society seems to want to push on us, on so many levels! And even in ourselves as we battle everyday to try better and strengthen our mental attitude just to deal with life these days." BORSTAL Guitarist 'Lee' continues "It's nice to finally get some fresh music out there. We recorded these 2 songs in 2021 with our brother Russ Russell. But due to delays with pressing plants and so on, we got held up! I feel like our sound is really coming together now, and these new tunes are just a teaser for what's to come. We've nearly finished writing our full length too, so they'll be news to follow that soon". The cover artwork for the 7" is by Australian artist Mick Lambrou. Mick has recently designed t-shirts, flyers and artwork for the likes of hardcore legends Agnostic Front, Madball & Slapshot.

180g double LP, black vinyl, 45 RPM. Berlin-based psychedelic post-punk group The Third Sound (led by Brian Jonestown Massacre guitarist Hákon Adalsteinsson) are set to release a new Fuzz Club Session LP on December 9th. Recorded live at Berlin's Marie Antoinette club, the 10-track double album sees The Third Sound perform a discography-spanning set with tracks from last year's highly-praised 'First Light' LP (2021), 'All Tomorrow's Shadows' (2018), 'Gospels of Degeneration' (2016), 'The Third Sound of Destruction and Creation' (2013) and 'The Third Sound' (2011). The session is released on vinyl, digitally and as a series of videos by Fuzz Club Records. It's number 19 in the London label's ongoing Fuzz Club Session series which has also seen the likes of A Place To Bury Strangers, Night Beats, Holy Wave, Heaters, The Entrance Band, The Myrrors, Lumerians, The Underground Youth, 10000 Russos and more.

The crown jewel of Finnish Death Metal, reissued in a band-approved new 30th anniversary edition. Features a new vinyl master from the original source by Noise for Fiction, plus a booklet with a lengthy feature by Hippo Taatila and some visual memorabilia. As an added vinyl bonus there's a large poster by the original cover artist Rob Smits creating a new vision of the album cover for the new millennium. Together with bands like Demilich, Abhorrence, Disgrace, Xysma and Sentenced, Demigod from the wastelands of Loimaa, southern Finland, put Finland on the map in the global death metal scene in the late 80's and early 90's. Having risen to underground fame with their demo Unholy Domain, Slumber of Sullen Eyes was a hugely expected debut album. When it was finally released in 1992 after a complicated creation process at Tico-Tico Studios in northern Finland, it was received with open arms and drooling excitement by the then very active underground death metal scene. That scene was, however, short lived,and by 1994 pretty much every band had switched from death metal to something else entirely. What was left after the bands had left the building was a number of classic albums that constitute the legacy of Finnish Death Metal. Among them, Slumber of Sullen Eyes is one of the most original and ferocious. There was nobody like Demigod.

The crown jewel of Finnish Death Metal, reissued in a band-approved new 30th anniversary edition. Features a new vinyl master from the original source by Noise for Fiction, plus a booklet with a lengthy feature by Hippo Taatila and some visual memorabilia. As an added vinyl bonus there's a large poster by the original cover artist Rob Smits creating a new vision of the album cover for the new millennium. Together with bands like Demilich, Abhorrence, Disgrace, Xysma and Sentenced, Demigod from the wastelands of Loimaa, southern Finland, put Finland on the map in the global death metal scene in the late 80's and early 90's. Having risen to underground fame with their demo Unholy Domain, Slumber of Sullen Eyes was a hugely expected debut album. When it was finally released in 1992 after a complicated creation process at Tico-Tico Studios in northern Finland, it was received with open arms and drooling excitement by the then very active underground death metal scene. That scene was, however, short lived,and by 1994 pretty much every band had switched from death metal to something else entirely. What was left after the bands had left the building was a number of classic albums that constitute the legacy of Finnish Death Metal. Among them, Slumber of Sullen Eyes is one of the most original and ferocious. There was nobody like Demigod.

On December 2th Svart Records will release the slowly gestated second album by the mystical Finnish progressive rock group Getsemane, who describe themselves as performing music "molded from the jawbones of a pike", in reference to the Kalevala where Väinämöinen built his first kantele The group first got together in 2009 in the Tampere area to perform live music for a fire theatre. After the shows they decided to continue as a band finding ever more polyrythmic and progressive ideas still drawing from the Kalevala mythos and eccentric psychedelic visions. Getsemane self-released their eponymous debut album in 2015, and the follow-up Viimaa is due for release this December. Best known for their dynamic live shows, the group's new album is full of unusual time signatures, meandering melodic lines and ethereal landscapes, not forgetting hard rocking in the best 70s style. Those that are into classic prog rock in the lines of Haikara, Tabula Rasa or King Crimson will feel immediately at home. The first single off the album, Varma kuolema ("Certain death") is a good representative of the entire album. According to the band, the song gives "A gruesomely honest but a cradling, positive vibe of the meaninglessness of life."

Classic Black Vinyl repress in soon note new price. LP with DL card. “a songwriter testing the limits of her sound and redefining herself in the process” - Pitchfork // “Rundle’s voice floats above the seething morass, graceful and triumphant, an angel welcoming the apocalypse” Stereogum // The cover to Emma Ruth Rundle’s fourth solo record, On Dark Horses, bears a blurry photo of the songwriter obscuring her face with a large toy horse with broken legs. The photo suggests something candid but also hidden, graceful but also fractured a fitting portrait for an artist who has established a career by vacillating between shrouding herself in mystery and exposing her wounds to the world. The first peek behind the curtain came with her Sargent House debut Some Heavy Ocean, where layers of distortion were excised in favor of acoustic guitar and Rundle’s beguiling vocals. There was a distinct difference by the time Rundle released Marked For Death, a stark and deeply personal meditation on mortality and self-destructive behavior. Her entire musical trajectory from the cinematic instrumentals of Red Sparowes to the lush haze of Marriages and onward through her solo career seems like a gradual disclosure of intimate secrets. With On Dark Horses, Rundle doesn’t shy away from uncomfortable realities or retreat into a private world, but it does capture an artist who has survived their personal nadir and come out stronger on the other side. Taking the full arrangements of Marked For Death on the road demanded a backing band, which Rundle pieced together from tour companions first Dylan Nadon from Wovenhand and Git Some and later Evan Patterson and Todd Cook from Jaye Jayle. Rundle’s budding romance with Patterson prompted a move to Louisville, Kentucky, which not only amplified the equestrian themes of the record but also yielded a new writing process. “This the first time I haven’t played all the guitars on my own record,” Rundle says of Patterson’s contributions to the writing process. “It was stressful letting go but it was also rewarding.” The collaboration worked both ways, with Rundle contributing to Jaye Jayle’s No Trails and Other Unholy Paths. That album’s “Marry Us” mirrors On Dark Horses’ “Light Song”, with the union of Rundle’s siren vocals and Patterson’s poised baritone conjuring a dizzying and feverish update on the duets of Johnny Cash and June Carter. The eight tracks of On Dark Horses capture the evolution of Rundle as an artist, with vestigial traces of the savvy guitar work of Electric Guitar: One, the siren song beauty of Some Heavy Ocean, and the amplified urgency of Marked For Death all factoring into the album’s rich tapestry. Rundle arrives at the end of the album with an ode to a traumatized and heartbroken friend on the grand and triumphant “You Don’t Have To Cry”. After laboring over the majority of the material for the album, she wrote the finale in one sitting, describing its easy birth as a gift from the gods. It’s a fitting closer, a song announcing Rundle’s newfound hope and reminding us to take control during our darkest moments instead of succumbing to them. Track Listing: 1 Fever Dreams 2 Control 3 Darkhorse 4 Races 5 Dead Set Eyes 6 Light Song 7 Apathy on the Indiana Border 8 You Don’t Have to Cry

Florence Cats is a poet, visual artist, sound composer, performer and acupuncturist. Born in Vilvoorde (Belgium) in 1985, she is currently living and working where Brussels merges with the Sonian forest.

Florence Cats’ working process involves things about to appear or disappear, and echo one another : air, light, wind, tone, print, voice, water, color, dust, junk, rumor… She creates eclectic pieces related to travel, porosity, natural energies and celestial events. Each proposal is in tune to a context, a space, an environment.

Ys is a generous debut. Raw, courageous.

Sunken Cathedral is Florence interpreting Claude Debussy’s La Cathédrale Engloutie (trans. the Sunken Cathedral). The track reminds me of one of those fabled Charles Ives home recordings. Where he records himself on Speak-O-Phone - an old brand of recordable aluminium phonograph discs - while practicing and composing his music. But unlike Charles Ives treating these home recordings as personal sketches, Florence Cats shares her captured moments as compositions for the public.

Similar to the Speak-O-Phone recordings, we now meet the piano as a physical expression - not as an archetype. We are together with Florence in a room. The pedal. The keys. The hiss of the room. Learn, repeat.

Trough Florence’s hands and feet, La Cathédrale Engloutie is brought out of its pupa stage to become a presence. Instead of being grounded in luxurious concert halls or on high end recordings, the piece is now natural. Sunken Cathedral is a template, an affirmation for amateurs.

The piece was originally created for the group exhibition "Here Comes the Wave” at Project(ion) room, Brussels, February 2020.

In Fall Call, we find ourselves at QO2, a sound art initiative in Brussels. This piece was captured during a residency Florence took over the summer of 2022. We listen to the moment when a summer storm just washed the city.

Fall Call is a testament to Florence’s magical - humanistic way of playing her custom-made theremin. By pushing the controls of the instruments so high, her whole body starts to control the instrument - instead of just her hands. So when she walks around in the room, the instrument answers in full color.

And then, a phone-call. Giving it a bit of a Poulenc vibe.

For the last piece, Drop Out, we find ourselves in Florence’s apartment. When Florence opens the windows, the ambience of the surrounding Sonian Forest seeps in. This is an adorable moment. It predicts new beginnings. The smell of wet dirt and dripping leaves in the air. The poetry of rain.

Reissued double vinyl album of first part of THIS IMMORTAL COIL's Coil homage in gatefold sleeve with new artwork! "Brilliantly versatile tribute album to British-based avant garde and experimental group, Coil." More than a tribute to cult dark ambient band COIL, This Immortal Coil is a project of re-interpretations by Ici d'Ailleurs' artists and more: Yael Naim, Bonnie Prince Billy, Matt Elliott, Yann Tiersen, DAUU, Christine Ott, Chapelier Fou, Sylvain Chauveau, Deadverse. Mixed by OKTOPUS of DÄLEK. Peter Christopherson himself immediately put it up for sale on the Coil website at the time, cherrishing the work as "The Most extra-ordinary, beautiful and moving re-interpretations of Coil I have ever heard." "On November 13th 2004, John Balance passed away, He was, along with Peter Christopherson, the founding member of the group Coil. His brutal death marked the end of over twenty years of activism and musical genius. I have then decided to work on a project that would pay tribute to them. I didn't want another compilation that would pile up pieces, without any link. My wish was to transpose this unique musical mood to another one, more classical and more accessible to everyone. The whole idea was to pay tribute to the music for what was beyond it, just the way COIL underlined it: « Coil is more than music »I got my inspiration from the project This Mortal Coil, started in the eighties by the English label 4AD. Its label manager had then grouped some of its own artists together in order to play some standards of rock and pop music. Most of those who participated in this work hardly knew COIL. My purpose wasn't to go towards those artists who had a conscious connection with the music of the group, let alone musicians who claimed to be the heirs to this seminal work.

'Hidden Gem' is the Zenmenn's first full album produced together with songwriter and vocalist John Moods and follows their much-loved debut record, 'Enter The Zenmenn'. Named after a country song that didn't quite make it to the final selection, 'Hidden Gem' is the result of an extended jam session at a friend’s studio, in a field of mystical meadows somewhere south of Hamburg, in which the band would experience a series of inexplicable phenomena.

It was their earlier collaboration on the future classic, 'Homage To A Friend' that kickstarted their idea to team up with John Moods again, and in the late summer of 2021 the band set to work on a full album of material together. Using The Zenmenn's trusted drum kit, good old DX7, an unusual Ukrainian bass and an almost discarded pedal steel guitar, combined with Moods’ uniquely fragile voice, the outcome resulted in six timeless songs. The resulting harmonic sound is, as the band put it, “something like Adult Oriented Rock with a teaspoon of Celtic sentimentalism, a pinch of big city Country wrapped in a late night '70s style jam”.

'Hidden Gem’, much like their previous LP, was recorded without pre-arranged songs or any fixed musical concept. Instead, it captures fleeting moments of creativity and reflects the joint musical sentiments of the band members at the time. “Some artists are amazing at vision and curating, our work-flow is opposite to that. We are pretty messy and all over the place in our creation, as in life. It has its advantages and disadvantages, but hopefully it comes out all right in the end.”

Each of the three hundred covers is different! All are numbered.

After two well-received albums of Normal Bias, the time has come for a solo debut in U Know Me of the half of this valued dub dub, i.e. Piotr Krupiński, better known as YAC.

The starting point for "We Have Much More In Common Than What Divides Us" was the rhythm, and on the one hand synthetic sounds of classic analog synthesizers with the legendary EMS VCS3 at the forefront, and on the other hand the organic hypnotic sound of Tibetan bowls and tubular bells. All together strongly processed and traditionally ground with dub techniques and marked by the tape's noise.

The amazing graphic design was created by Bartosz Szymkiewicz.

The cover design is the result of an attempt to graphically represent the album's minimalist but full of lively nuances music. Each of the forms on the cover corresponds with its surface area to the length of the work it depicts. The composition was procedurally generated by a computer program, resulting in 300 unique covers. Interestingly, the program definitely preferred to arrange the forms close together, which is an unforeseen reference to the title of the album.

First Word Records is very proud to bring you a brand new album from Takuya Kuroda!

Takuya Kuroda is a highly respected trumpeter and arranger born in Kobe, Japan and based in New York City. 'Midnight Crisp' is Takuya's seventh studio album, entirely self-produced and following 2020's highly acclaimed 'Fly Moon Die Soon', also released on UK label First Word (winner of the Worldwide Award's Label of the Year in 2019). Consisting of six new tracks, this once again sees Takuya displaying his unique hybrid sound, blending soulful jazz, funk, post-bop, fusion and hip hop.

After following the footsteps of his trombonist brother playing in big bands, he relocated to New York to study jazz & contemporary music at The New School in Union Square; a course he graduated from in the mid-noughties. It was here that Takuya met vocalist José James, with whom he worked on the 'Blackmagic' and 'No Beginning No End' projects.

Following graduation, Takuya established himself further in the NYC jazz scene, performing with the likes of Akoya Afrobeat and in recent years with DJ Premier's BADDER band. Premier said "The BADDER Band project was put together by my manager, and an agent I've known since the beginning of my Gang Starr career. He said, 'What if you put a band together that revolved around a trumpet player from Japan named Takuya Kuroda? He's got a hip-hop perspective and respect in the jazz field…"

Takuya Kuroda is already incredibly prolific, releasing six albums in the past decade and fortifying a solid reputation in the global jazz scene. 2011 saw the release of Takuya's independently-produced debut album, 'Edge', followed by 'Bitter and High' the following year and 'Six Aces' on P-Vine in 2013. Takuya was signed to the legendary Blue Note Records in 2014 for his album 'Rising Son', as well as appearing on their 2019 cover versions project, 'Blue Note Voyage'. He released his 5th album 'Zigzagger' on Concord in 2016, which also featured Antibalas on a reimagining of the Donald Byrd classic 'Think Twice'.

His last album was the afore-mentioned 'Fly Moon Die Soon' on First Word, which received plays and support from the likes of Pitchfork, Earmilk, Bandcamp Weekly, Worldwide FM, All About Jazz, Apple Music, Tidal, Stereogum, Treble, Brooklyn Vegan, FIP (France), Tony Minvielle, Jazz FM, Huey Morgan (BBC 6 Music), BBC Radio 3, Novena Carmel, KCRW and tons more DJs, tastemakers, selectors, radio stations, bloggers & magazines.

The new project 'Midnight Crisp' will be released October 21st 2022 on vinyl, CD and digital, worldwide via First Word Records.

Lag & X-Coast announce collaborative project XL Traxx.

Lag is a DJ/producer who has previously released on MORD, THEM, Elements, and Don’t since his first 12” in 2013. X-Coast has released on Steel City Dance Discs, Unknown To The Unknown and his own Riviera Records following his smash debut with the 90s-tinged ‘Mango Bay’ in 2016. Teaming up for the first time, the Serbian duo unleash their new project XL Traxx with a fierce three-track EP on Radio Slave’s Rekids.

Leading the release is the energetic ‘M-Bomb’, bringing heaving kicks, rave stabs, and vocal snippets together for a rowdy affair. On the flip, ‘E-Dancer’ sees clever sampling and atmospheric pads meet over pounding drums before the propulsive ‘D-Edge’ rounds out the vinyl with slick synthesis and shuffling
percussion.

From an aspiring b-boy to working with luminaries Billy Porter, Joss Stone, Kimberly Davis and Teni Tinks, The Shapeshifters, Simon Marlin announces the release of his brand-new studio album “Let Loose”.

Wrapped in a defining optimistic mood and colourful palette, “Let Loose” plays with the friction between musical persona and influence, delivering a masterclass in Simon’s flourishing depth of integrity as a producer and admiration to those that exert their enduring influence upon him.

“I'm a facilitator of talent. I'm blessed that over the years I've managed to put a team of people together - as a producer, that's what I do, very much in the old school sense like a Quincy Jones or Gamble & Huff, they’re the guys I try to emulate - and make something magic out of nothing, but do it in a contemporary way. That’s what really floats my boat, and that's what this whole project is about.” Simon Marlin – The Shapeshifters

Across the latest and long-awaited studio album “Let Loose” The Shapeshifters pledge rhythmic allegiance to the golden era disco records and their spellbinding qualities; embracing the tension often found between tradition and future to craft a euphoric, certifiable body of work presented to the devoted audience he deserves. The Shapeshifters exemplify a scene in rude health one that is now switching on an ever-younger fan base, and with Marlin being the beating heart of it it’s easy to see why The Shapeshifters are more in demand in the clubs than ever.

The twelve-track album is illuminated with vocal collaborations including the recently released and debut collaboration with the Grammy, Tony and Emmy Award-winning Billy Porter.

Layers of rushing strings, flares of brass and hedonistic grooves provide refreshing dancefloor power dynamics and deliver a liberating, triumphant and inherently uplifting record.

Taking an impeccably smooth course through disco-infused house, The Shapeshifters continue the rich relationship with Glitterbox and its record label; one that has yielded instant classics that epitomise the label’s ethos for preserving disco’s mission to uplift and empower.

Phase Group continue their exploration of the fringes of contemporary electronic music with a release that brings together two separate projects born from analogue hardware improvisations.

‘A Given Moment’ presents the dub-laden, mind-bending and noise-driven music of Brussels-based artist and Vastechoses label head Lostsoundbytes, and the lo-fi, early morning lysergic experiments of Lowspace, an unearthed, forgotten collaborative project by French DJ and musician Low Bat and Dresden-based producer Heninspace.

This is music that takes you deeper into the vortex, made for dark and smoke-enveloped clubs and cosmic day-break afterparty moments. On the A-side, Lostsoundbytes continues his prolific output of masterfully crafted bass-heavy and dub-wise analogue machine jams, while the B-side presents two lost psychotropic experimental recordings by Lowspace made in 2016 upon a visit by Low Bat to Heninspace’s Dresden studio.

'A Given Moment' will be out on Phase Group in December 2022

Artwork by Andrija Čugurović
Mastered in Glasgow by Murray Collier.
Professionally dubbed to cassette in Prague by Headless Duplicated Tapes.

Lucky', the title of Nada Surf's fifth album, is at once literal and ironic. Like the songs that singer / guitarist Matthew Caws, bassist Daniel Lorca and drummer Ira Elliot crafted for their previous two albums, Let Go' (2003) and The Weight Is A Gift' (2005), Lucky is filled with images of restlessness, longing and the elusiveness of love. Yet the band counterbalances the lyrical bitter sweetness with musical buoyancy. Intimate songs become in-it-together anthems, thanks to the chiming guitars, propulsive rhythms, and the emotional candour in Caws' vocals. A song like Beautiful Beat' segues from a sparsely arranged, confessional first verse into a harmony-laden chorus and reaches multi-layered, canon-like proportions before the track fades out. If Caws is often suggesting that romance and resolution may still be an inch or two out of reach, he's also proffering immediate musical solace. Turn up the volume, hit the repeat button, and your troubles, for a blissful three minutes or so, will disappear.

The three members of Nada Surf have played together now for a dozen years. They've survived overnight major-label success and the inevitable morning-after bleariness, persevering past obstacles that would have sunk a less resilient combo, to become one of America's most truly independent and respected bands. Experience has only made their work richer, bringing gravity to the subject matter and lightness to its presentation. Keeping things honest has become a modus operandi.

Volker Bertelmann and Hildur Guðnadóttir hardly need an introduction - their distinct styles have graced the speakers of pretty much anyone enamored with experimental music in the last decade, and between them the two have chalked up an enviable canon of successes. Bertelmann, under the Hauschka moniker has explored the extremities of prepared piano improvisation, and Guðnadóttir has taken cinematic, explorative cello music into a new era of depth and passion, so to hear them both together is a rare and unexpected treat. Rare is putting it lightly even - „Pan Tone“ is a recording of a single concert which the duo performed on the 26th of February 2010 as part of Arctic Circle - Bubbly Blue and Green festival at Kings Place in London, and documents an event that would truly never be repeated. Sure, they could attempt to re-create the event, but the spontaneity and glorious serendipity in this particular recording is a pleasure to behold.

Bertelmann and Guðnadóttir decided to create a set of compositions which based on the idea of the ocean, and took a book of Pantones to extract exact references to the specific colors of the sea. These watery tones form the backbone of the performance and inform the direction of the collaboration, guiding us through rich blues, glassy greens and frothy whites. In listening to the music it seems incredibly appropriate that the artists should choose blue as the middle ground in their work; the ineffable lightness that Bertelmann brings to the table is a stark contrast to Guðnadóttir's sinking darkness, and as the two styles collide we witness a plethora of tones, shades and hues. It sounds as if the two artists have been playing together for decades, and their sound is so perfectly matched you might wonder why it's taken them this long to collaborate. All that's left for us to do is to soak in the tidal beauty of this very exclusive body of music, to listen to it sing, bubble and crash through its duration before settling in total silence. When the record reaches its conclusion there is an unsettling calm, a sense that you have witnessed something very special indeed, and that is a feeling to prize amongst all else.

Clear Vinyl

Originally released in 2020 on cassette and digitally. more eaze is the nom de plume of Austin, TX mainstay m.maurice, a roving experimentalist who’s explored an astoundingly diverse range of sounds, from drone and computer music to avant-pop and beyond. claire rousay is a San Antonio, TX-based percussionist/composer/sound artist who uses physical objects and their potential sounds as a way to explore queerness, human physicality, and self perception. Together—through a suite of deeply personal aural collages—two of Texas’ most vital and vibrant sonic searchers beg the eternal question: If I Don't Let Myself Be Happy Now Then When?

Although only their debut album together, If I Don’t Let Myself… reveals a profound and fruitful relationship between m and claire. But the symphonic symbiosis goes even deeper still. Outside of musical breakthroughs, the pair helped each other conquer intensely personal changes, with m and claire transitioning and coming out as non-binary and trans, respectively.

As m explains, “to me this record is very much about this process of becoming—trying to reach something and getting there but sometimes not being quite where you want to be but at least getting closer. It’s about feeling alternately empowered and insecure socially as you transition and trying to cope with these conflicting emotions.”

Musically, the album showcases startlingly sincere sets of serrated but sedative situational music. A-side epic Drunk is a sprawling but taut rove of aural duality. Passages of exquisite elegance subtly clash with shimmering shards of sound. Pre-op is a poised and pensive piece of solemn reflection, harrowingly honest and delivered with clarity and composure, while Post-op closes out the set in a wholly uplifting and optimistic flair.

If I Don't Let Myself Be Happy Now Then When? is ultimately about coping during the respective transitioning phase in both of their lives, obliquely blissful and fraught with freedom.

After a few good years of releases on labels such as the Catz’n’Dogz founded PETS or unforgettable hit ‘Turnaround' made it together with SLG for Play It Down, Smolny has started his own imprint called Bourassa Records.

‘Explain’ EP is the first release on the label and you can definitely call it bangin’ stuff! All the tracks are inspired by UK Dub and techno sounds. Smolny concentrated on the strong and soft bass line in the same time which literally vibrates and floats on the filter. In a balanced way, it gives tension in the tracks of well-arranged drums that kick you at the right moment. In each of them we can also hear a hypnotic vocal cuts that gives you slight anxiety and mysterious aura.

Dillon's fourth LP, 6abotage, captures today's zeitgeist like few others. A work of sore desperation but also reassuring devotion.

Her fourth, and perhaps boldest, album project, 6abotage, marks Dillon's first full-length since 2017's Kind. Described by Dillon herself as "a love letter, a cry for help and a consequence, all in one", 6abotage is the unapologetic manifestation of Dillon's latest artistic excursion with artist and producer Alexis Troy. Together Dillon and Troy have created a lyrically and sonically captivating and genre-bending body of work. The unmistakable soreness of Dillon's voice surrounded by and embedded within Troy's decisive and, at times, almost cinematic production defeat all genre stereotypes. Written, produced and recorded in complete isolation, 6abotage reflects today's zeitgeist. It is sore and desperate but also reassuring and devoted.
6abotage is a successful protest. A successful protest against stereotypes and preconceptions. A protest against excessive suffering. A protest for self-love. A protest for patience and vulnerability. A protest for forgiveness and growth.

To confuse parts for the whole is inevitable with Palm. Drummer Hugo Stanley, bassist Gerasimos Livitsanos and guitarists/vocalists/high school sweethearts Eve Alpert and Kasra Kurt started making music together as teenagers, and spent much of their twenties in the kind of proximity unusual for adults, outside of touring bands and the International Space Station. For a number of years the band consumed the lives of its members to a point of exhaustion: “To be honest I think we got a little burnt out. There were times where it wasn’t clear if we’d make another record,” says Alpert. It was only after multiple freak injuries followed by a pandemic, forced a pause - from touring but also from writing, rehearsing, even seeing each other- that the four were able to regroup and see a way forward again.

On their latest effort, Nicks and Grazes, Palm embrace discordance to dazzling effect. “We wanted to reconcile two potentially opposing aesthetics,” Kurt says. “To capture the spontaneous, free energy of our live shows while integrating elements from the traditionally gridded palette of electronic music.” In order to avoid what Kurt refers to as “Palm goes electro,” the musicians spent years educating themselves on the ins and outs of production by learning Ableton while also experimenting with “the percussive, textural, and gestural potential” of their instruments. To this end, the band continued the age-old tradition of instrument-preparation, augmenting guitars with drumsticks, metal rods and, at the suggestion of Charles Bullen (This Heat, Lifetones), coiling rubber-coated gardening wire around the strings. The unruliness of the prepared guitar on songs like “Mirror Mirror” and “Eager Copy” contrasts with the steadfast reproducibility of the album’s electronic elements.

While Palm cite Japanese pop music, dub, and footwork as influences on this album’s sonic palette, they found themselves returning time and again to the artists who inspired them to start the group over a decade ago. “When we were first starting out as a band, we bonded over an appreciation of heavy, aggressive, noisy music,” Alpert reflects. “We wrote parts that were just straight-up metal.” Kurt adds, “I found myself rediscovering and re–falling in love with the visceral, jagged quality of guitars in the music of Glenn Branca, The Fall, Beefheart, and Sonic Youth, all important early Palm influences.” Returning to the fundamentals gave Palm a strong foundation upon which they could experiment freely, resulting in their most ambitious and revelatory album to date.

Yellow Vinyl

London Records releases remastered and expanded editions of Voice Of The Beehive’s classic debut 1988 album, ‘Let It Bee’ on November 25th.
Formats include a remastered gatefold vinyl edition in transparent honey yellow, and an expanded double CD edition featuring previously unreleased tracks, live versions and demos. All formats feature new liner notes by the band’s very own Tracey Belland.
In the mid 80s, armed with a only a suitcase of songs, Californian sisters Tracey Bryn and Melissa Brooke Belland escaped the American music industry in search of the vibrant British indie scene, finding recently split Madness band member Daniel ‘Woody’ Woodgate, who together with guitarist Mike Jones and bassist Martin Brett would form ‘the Beehive Boys’.
The powerful live chops of the Beehive Boys, combined with the harmonies, energy and stage presence of Tracey and Melissa, made Voice of the Beehive indie darlings and one of the hottest live acts on the London scene.
Signing with London Records, they recorded ‘Let It Bee’, its sunny exterior of sparkling indie guitars, energetic rhythms matched with lyrics and melodies that revealed both hope and an occasionally cutting cynicism.
On its release ‘Let It Bee’ was a UK Top 15 album, its singles ‘I Say Nothing’, ‘I Walk The Earth’ & ‘Don’t Call Me Baby’ all chart hits and radio favourites. Re-issued for the first time since its initial release. The expanded double CD version features ‘Cartoon City’, a band favourite recently uncovered and remastered from the London Records archives.

solid white vinyl

This release is fully occupied by dark-disco champion Disco Morato. Here you find two expressive electo-shaped hits previously supported by Dave Clarke. Together with another two straightforward synth poems the record is finished as white color 180gr and underline deep dark sound of the artist.

Pleasure Pool are Finn O’Hare, Andrew Robertson and a rolling cast of Glasgow-based musicians, performers and artists. They sound like nothing else to have come out of Glasgow recently, exploring the territory between live performance and club culture through their collaborative ethos and party-starting attitude. Their debut EP, Night Scars, arrived in early March 2020 and now comes Love Without Illusion, Pleasure Pool’s debut album, released on Optimo Music.

Love Without Illusion adds layers of complexity and introspection to Night Scars’ squarely dance floor-focused brew, though the record still oozes danceable energy. Open Hours is like opening a door and finding a party already in full swing, an assortment of recurring Pleasure Pool motifs – echoing, dubbed-out vocals, gorgeous, impossibly airy synth melodies, louche percussion, cowbells, rising and falling flecks of trumpet – all introduced in short order. Lick The Bag, which prominently features vocalists Chloe Charlton and Raissa Pardini, has a controlled chaos befitting its morning-after-the-night-before name.

The rest of the album rides this glimmering, night-magic mood at varying frequencies, with the title track a gentle storm of grandiose walls of synth and pulsing vocal fragments. The slow and low flickering funk of album closer Zero Hours pulls all that has come before it together to end things in the woozy bliss of a walk back home in warm, gentle sunlight.

Love Without Illusion is a dazzlingly complete expression of Pleasure Pool’s intoxicating sound and vision. Dive on in and explore.

Tripmode is a crew of five lovers of housemusic in all forms. They
started with throwing secret parties in Amsterdam. And after a
livestream radio podcast and hosting parties now they are presenting
their vision through their own label. With the VA serie CrewCutz all
crew members deliver a track to share the total feeling of Tripmode.
Together with the help of Vincent Bogers the label artwork is ready to
shine in real 12" format.

An outstanding 2LP compiling the best instrumentals of the greatest white rap group ever: the Beastie Boys. New Yorkers Ad-Rock, MCA and Mike D crossed over into the mainstream in the mid 80s with their full-length Licensed to Ill and exploded any notions of one-dimensionality with its ambitious followups such as Paul's Boutique, On Check Your Head and Ill Communication. Taking influences from hardcore and hip hop, these innovators performed most of the music while integrating an array of rock samples, 808 beats and witty wordplay into an ever-intriguing sonic smorgasbord.

United States at the beginning of the 1960s, the vibrant speeches of the great defenders of the black cause were soon relayed by the artists of the time.... The groove revolution is underway! Dive into the heart of this era with the proud voices of the Artists who made the Protest Song! A fine selection with : GIL SCOTT-HERON - Angela Davis- Doris Duke- Seven Seas- Shirley Caesar- Skull Snaps- T-Connection- The Whatnauts...