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Die britische Musikerin Lucy Rose hat 2019 ihr drittes Album "No Words Left" veröffentlicht. Es wurde von den Kritikern am stärksten gelobt und gipfelte in einer ausverkauften Show im Londoner Barbican Theater. Es war eine Platte, die in einer Art stiller Ehrfurcht wiederkäute, emotional aufgeladen und geschickt vorgetragen.
Lucy hatte geplant, in der Zeit nach dem Album einige wohlverdiente Zeit zu Hause zu verbringen, nachdem sie seit ihren späten Teenagerjahren unermüdlich auf Tournee war. Zum Ausgleich gründete sie ihr eigenes Plattenlabel, Real Kind Records, und brachte neue Platten von Künstlern heraus, die sie bewunderte und von denen sie glaubte, dass sie die gebührende Aufmerksamkeit verdienten.

Inspiriert von einer Amerikareise mit ihrem Freund und Rapper Logic, arbeitete sie später mit dem renommierten Produzenten Kwes zusammen, um die Platte fertigzustellen.
This Ain't The Way You Go Out ist ein Album, das aus der Asche der Verzweiflung erschaffen wurde, das die kleinsten grünen Triebe nährte und etwas zum Leben erweckte, das sonst verbraucht aussah. Es ist eine neue Ära für Lucy, und zwar eine Ära im reinsten, wahrsten Sinne des Wortes. Eine Künstlerin, die sich der Kraft der Musik wieder bewusst wird und dabei eine Menge Spaß hat.

The third studio album from Rebecca Downes with 12 new, original blues-influenced, rock tracks all written by Steve Birkett and Rebecca. Album mixed by Bill Drescher and Chris Childs. With exciting new material that continues the evolution of the music towards rock, More Sinner Than Saint is worth the wait. At the outset, Downes consulted with producer Chris Kimsey, who has previously worked with The Rolling Stones, to select and refine the 12 tracks and to achieve what she and co-writer Steve Birkett see as the perfect expression of their current writing. With five of the fabulous tracks having been mixed by Californian based Bill Drescher, whose previous accolades include working with Rick Springfield and The Bangles, Downes showcases her trademark powerful vocals throughout. With the remainder of the tracks being mixed by Thunder’s Chris Childs, the pedigree of this album is faultless. With her superb studio band that includes Dan Clark, Lloyd Daker and Magnum’s Rick Benton, there was no shortage of artists queuing to join her on the odd track or two. The multi award winning Alan Nimmo (King King) plays guitar on If I Go To Sleep and Magnum’s Tony Clarkin delivers a fabulous guitar solo on Breathe Out. With her signature voice, style and song writing, it was little wonder that last year she was voted Female Vocalist of the Year at the FORM UKBlues Awards. The release of this jubilant new album once again gives her the chance to showcase her formidable powerhouse and gutsy vocals in tracks that have greater range and depth than anything she’s done before. Rebecca said: “We were honoured and humbled to receive Chris Kimsey’s guidance. He gave us confidence about the direction of our writing changing to a rockier sound and advice on the way the material should be recorded. Meeting Bill Drescher in LA was fantastic – such a lovely, down-to-earth guy – and his mixing took the five tracks to the next level. Chris Childs has since done an excellent job on the rest in matching Bill’s mixing style. We are very proud of this album – and the way the music has evolved towards rock. More than ever before we believe it captures the best of our song writing.”

Keplar presents the first-ever vinyl edition of the 2003 album »From Tokyo to Naiagara« by Tujiko Noriko. This reissue with new artwork by Joji Koyama is an abridged version of the album as Tomlab label owner Tom Steinle and producer Aki Onda had originally intended to publish it alongside the original CD version. Written by the France-based Tujiko while she still lived in Japan, »From Tokyo to Naiagara« followed up on her two seminal Mego albums and marked a turning point in both the artist’s career and personal life: While she was preparing to leave Japan behind, she succinctly connected the dots between her experiments in pop music and her interest for more abstract sounds. Tujiko worked primarily with a Yamaha synthesizer and an MPC sampler while also incorporating contributions by other musicians such as Onda, Riow Arai and Sakana Hosomi into the pieces. Sometimes approaching an IDM and clicks’n’cuts-style production or working with trip-hop and hip-hop beats while using conventional song structures in the most unconventional of ways, the album showcases her multifaceted influences and skills as a singer and musician to full effect.

Tujiko fondly remembers the time when she made the album. »I had a lot of time for myself back then and I didn’t even feel like I was very busy,« she says today. She describes producing it in close collaboration with Onda, who would relocate to New York City shortly after, as »quite Tokyo and very local.« They explored parts of the city that they hadn’t yet been to for a photography project (finding, among other things, a coin laundry called Naiagara—a transliteration of Niagara). This left its mark on a record that mixes melancholia with joy. The driving opener »Narita Made,« named after one of Tokyo’s airports, already makes this clear: Tujiko’s wistful vocals and lyrics like »I miss you terribly« emphasises the sense of bittersweetness that forms the common thread for a sonically diverse and stylistically open-ended album—this music is looking back while moving forward. It is probably no surprise that its reissue too evokes tender memories of Onda and Steinle in Tujiko, while also reminding her of what lies ahead. »I have so much more to do and not enough time for that,« she muses, before quickly adding: »But I also feel less alone having that album again.«

Influenced in equal parts by the experience of strolling through previously unknown Tokyoite back alleys and thinking about the paths not (yet) taken, »From Tokyo to Naiagara« is precisely that: the perfect travel companion for a journey that leads its listeners from past to future.

Available on ltd edition white vinyl, only 300 pressed. Includes extended album download.

Ivan The Tolerable is the alter ego solo project of Middlesbrough based musical wizard Oli Heffernan. Aside from his solo work as ITT, Oli has played in numerous bands over the years including Year Of Birds, King Champion Sounds with members of the Ex, Detective Instinct, and Shrug, and has collaborated with icons like Mike Watts of the Minutemen, and J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr.

On Black Water/Brown Earth, Heff called in the help of his Dutch friends Mees and Elsa in King Champion Sounds again and wrote the album in a long-distance session. The album feels like an excursion in nature, featuring bird song, flowing water, pots and pans percussion, and a genuine feel of wandering about and experiencing the outside world with eyes and ears wide open. It is a band effort too, with organic sounding drums, the characteristic saxophone, and droning synths.

‘Elsewhere, gentle intonations of morning with almost childlike embellishments and rhythmic beats, and more flute, might lull and comfort but nothing ever sits exactly in time which might make this Ivan The Tolerable’s most frustrating album at times but also one of his most interesting to really delve into aurally. ‘Sawdust’ is another sonic interlude, little more than a purge of effects and ideas but in a place where effects and ideas are plentiful. However, it’s centrepieces ‘Seaweed’ and ‘Signs’ that provide the pulsing, grooving dual that makes the second half of Black Water/Brown Earth a sheer delight. The former being simply kind of folky with a bit of sitar but utterly immersive, the latter oddly upbeat with eastern vibes and tubular rhythms, combined it is nearly twenty minutes of serene experimentalism.
The shorter tracks are perhaps designed to temper the mood or counter and reflect the passage of time on an album of mostly structured improvisation, and it may only be closer ‘Memory’ that is truly free to roam musically, its long jazzy segments skipping off into the farthest corners of the left field’.

Big Crown Records is proud to present Brainstory’s sophomore full-length album Sounds Good.

Based in L.A. but hailing from the Inland Empire's own Rialto, California, two-thirds of Brainstory, Kevin and Tony Martin are brothers by blood, while Eric Hagstrom is a brother through their music and long term friendship. Since they started the band they have constantly faced situations that forced them to rise to the occasion. They got signed to Big Crown Records, they stepped up their game. COVID happened, they learned to record themselves. They started touring a ton sharing the stage with the likes of Lady Wray and they got their live show super tight. All of this time spent grinding and growing has certainly paid off. The path to take their art to the next level is clearer than ever, and once again, they are here for it. If there is one thing that is abundantly clear on Sounds Good, it’s that Brainstory has leveled up.

Part of this evolution is undoubtedly attributed to having access to and working constantly in their own studio in Long Beach. Another major factor is that their brotherhood has expanded. "I've been playing music with my brother all my life and now with Eric for a long time," Tony tells us. "Leon, though, is like another brother I've just met."

Leon Michels, Big Crown's co-owner, produced this record and applied his unmistakable golden touch in crucial ways. The other member of the extended Brainstory brotherhood whose contributions were essential to the album, is studio engineer legend Jens Jungkurth who controls the tones and textures of the music. "That's what you're hearing, our connection, the fun moments, the little details," Kevin describes. "This record isn't half what it is without them—and it made us want to match that effort," and match that effort they did. Album opener "Nobody But You" is an uplifting, dance ­oor burner, that shows off a new side of Brainstory's range. Drummer Eric Hagstrom’s crushing back beat lays the foundation for an inspirational feel good banger that manages to take the uncomfortable truth that “nobody will save you but you” and turn it into pure blissful motivation. "Peach Optimo" is a laid back half time tune that blends the bounce of Down South Hip-Hop with California G funk and Jazz. They once again show off their B said ballad talents with "Gift Of Life" but this time taking the genre to a new place with lyrics about existentialism and a track that is drop dead gorgeous, haunting, and profound all at once. "NyNy" is an homage to Kev and Tony's recently deceased grandfather while "Too Yung" is a show stopping, deeply personal, stripped down number about being introduced to

alcohol at a young age. They put another hit on the boards with "Hanging On," a Latin / Psychedelic Soul inspired banger featuring Claire Cottrill on background vocals while "XFaded” addresses the all too common vicious cycle of smoking and drinking too much over a trippy shuf­e.

"It's been four years since our last full length record, and with everything that's happened since, it's like we've been catching up to ourselves." That's one way to describe change: catching up to oneself. Each member of Brainstory has gone through shifts, both personally and musically, and all of that threads through Sounds Good. It's easy to say that the music industry can be short on lasting, genuine relationships. However, for Brainstory, from day one it's been about standing by each other, for each other. Their friendship started the group. Track listing:

Die britische Musikerin Lucy Rose hat 2019 ihr drittes Album "No Words Left" veröffentlicht. Es wurde von den Kritikern am stärksten gelobt und gipfelte in einer ausverkauften Show im Londoner Barbican Theater. Es war eine Platte, die in einer Art stiller Ehrfurcht wiederkäute, emotional aufgeladen und geschickt vorgetragen.
Lucy hatte geplant, in der Zeit nach dem Album einige wohlverdiente Zeit zu Hause zu verbringen, nachdem sie seit ihren späten Teenagerjahren unermüdlich auf Tournee war. Zum Ausgleich gründete sie ihr eigenes Plattenlabel, Real Kind Records, und brachte neue Platten von Künstlern heraus, die sie bewunderte und von denen sie glaubte, dass sie die gebührende Aufmerksamkeit verdienten.

Inspiriert von einer Amerikareise mit ihrem Freund und Rapper Logic, arbeitete sie später mit dem renommierten Produzenten Kwes zusammen, um die Platte fertigzustellen.
This Ain't The Way You Go Out ist ein Album, das aus der Asche der Verzweiflung erschaffen wurde, das die kleinsten grünen Triebe nährte und etwas zum Leben erweckte, das sonst verbraucht aussah. Es ist eine neue Ära für Lucy, und zwar eine Ära im reinsten, wahrsten Sinne des Wortes. Eine Künstlerin, die sich der Kraft der Musik wieder bewusst wird und dabei eine Menge Spaß hat.

Seafood Sam is a futuristic artifact. If that description might sound confusing at first, it matches the eclectic dualities found in true originals. With his effortless cool and timeless style, the North Long Beach native defies convention and exact comparison. He's a virtuosic rapper, a stop-you-in-your tracks singer, and a symphonic producer. Welcome to the lavish life of a laid-back transcontinental man of mystery, rolling in old school Cadillacs, eating caviar with a blade in his pocket, and making plays in vintage Pelle Pelle gear. A blaxploitation icon for the Instagram age, blessed with the bars of a `90s legend and 23rd century swagger. Seafood Sam is a true hero of modernity. On his full-length album debut for up-and-coming label drink sum wtr (Kari Faux, Deem Spencer, Aja Monet) debut, Standing on Giant Shoulders, Sam splits the difference between Snoop Dogg and D' Angelo, Curren$y and David Ruffin. The songs reveal a forward-thinking sensibility rooted in ancestral soul. He creates spiritual hymns for the streets that tap into universal ideals and irrepressible groove. In an era plagued by short-term thinking, his ambitions reveal a crate-digging depth of music history and a meticulous ear for detail. The giant shoulders in the album's title refer to James Brown, Bobby Brown, and Miles Davis - the holy trinity who inspired Sam's process. From the Godfather of Soul, Sam took a perfectionist's rigor and focus. The example of Bobby Brown lent an unshakeable confidence and self-belief. While the constant artistic left turns of the trumpeter that birthed Ccool offered an aspirational archetype. The story starts in the glory days of Long Beach hip-hop. As a young child, the G-Funk era soundtracked rides in Sam's father's car. Some of his earliest memories are trying to memorize Snoop's verse on "Nuthin' But a "G" Thang." Beyond gangsta rap, the LBC has historically doubled as a capital of lowrider soul and carwash oldies. At any intersection, you could hear Dogg Food or Brenton Wood, Warren G or Barbara Lynn. This too was absorbed via osmosis. It also just so happened that the art of performance was always in Sam's blood. So at family functions, he and his sister supplied entertainment by singing karaoke renditions of The Isley Brothers. While his Harlem Shake remains a thing of local lore. Long Beach is a culturally diverse mecca of skate parks and gang life, street fashion and tricky dance moves. This is the place that raised Sam on a diet of Wu-Tang and Nelly Furtado, Lil Bow Wow and Allen Iverson. He was the middle ground between his two older brothers: one who gangbanged, the other who graduated with a master's degree from UC-Santa Barbara. But it wasn't until the end of high school that Sam started to take rap seriously. Alongside long-time collaborators like Huey Briss and Reaper Mook, Sam's name began to make waves on the northside of the city, but he was partially distracted by a modeling career that paid the bills and took him all to way to walk in Paris' fashion week. The first turning point arrived with 2018's "Ramsey," a self-produced, slick-talk anthem with over 10,000,000 streams across all platforms. With each subsequent release, Sam showcased his peerless consistency, building buzz both online and in the city streets. Spin hailed his "smooth and unhurried cadences and understated lyricism_ that sounds like nothing else in Long Beach." Clash raved about Sam's "evolution as an artist, cruising through nostalgic production with slick, witty rhymes." The culmination arrives with Standing on Giant Shoulders. It's the evidence of a master, a young sensei in the model of Quincy Jones. All rhymes, singing, production, and arrangements were handled by Sam - with an assist from his close Long Beach kinsman Tom Kendall from the group Soular System. It's hard-edged and lyrical enough for disciples of Larry June and Roc Marciano, but orchestral and melodic enough for fans of Anderson .Paak and H.E.R.

Origu and Unique Records bring you a UK Hip Hop Holy Grail.
For the first time on vinyl this double sider features two standout tracks from the 1993 "The Rhyme Wrecka EP“.
The short lived group Freakin’ Inglish from Salford & Manchester gained massive respect in the Hip Hop scene with their tape only debut just to break up in the year after. After a digital only release in 2013 and a CD reissue by Chuck D’s SpitSlam label in 2021, the uptempo title track and the cleverly produced „A-Dorable“ make their vinyl debut.

Freakin' Inglish is a Hip Hop group from Salford & Manchester, (United Kingdom). Formed in 1993, The group originally consists of Emcee's (Red Venom, Eric-T & Yozzer) the group quickly split up the following year. They released their debut EP "The Rhyme Wrecka" in '93, along with other tracks via Fat City Records and other stores round the UK.

A reunion on the 2nd decade (2013) of their formation in (1993) was planned by Red Venom & Hip Hop Producer: Nate Whittaker Featuring original members Red Venom & Eric-T along with Nate Whittaker as the missing 3rd member, taking Yozzer's place in the group, but as a producer. red venom has now gone on too be a member of the rhyme syndicate and is putting out albums and a reunion is set now for 2021 with eric t and red venom and a new member .

finally repressed !

ARCHIELONG LP album consists of 8 intensely rolled tracks dating between 2012-2020. The release unfolds on 4 discs of 180gr, with gatefold covers, coated in Sani Stranskiʼs artwork.

Throughout ARCHIELONG LP, we are absorbed by what typically characterizes his narrative: a peculiar style of story in constant development. Structure and flow are a hallmark feature of his selections, adding one more trippy, eerie minimal style on top of the other, creating a rich and quirky haunted sphere.

A – The opening track, I HEAR VOICES THROUGH THE PIPE sets the scene for whatʼs to come, stirring the imagination with its dreamy, cinematic, organic sounds in disguise. The track provides a guidebook to distilling story, emotion and image into sonic form.

B – EXCESS ALL AREAS – hypnotizes the dancers with endless, reverberating grooves and a punchy 4/4 beat, introducing the audience to his gloomy world of emotions.

C – LA MANIA – lights up some dark pitched atmosphere around you and makes you feel like you are on the mythical La Mania club dancefloor in complete harmony, surrounded by strange and beautiful trippers. The song is like a painting, with frames that evoke flashbacks.

D – NEW LIFE – is a perfect minimalist setup of a percussion loop, throbbing chords and a sinewy walking bass, and itʼs almost intimidatingly heady. Its militant kick and incessant hi-hats propel the beat – definitely a dancefloor highlight.

E – MELODROM – percolates with Latin percussion and shuffling snares, which commingle with an array of voices and whispers that come from every corner of the song. From toolish to melodic, itʼs the diversity that creates the magic.

F – SING AND RUN – is one of those tracks that gives you nostalgia and reminds us of early mornings at the end of the party when the sun would be coming in through the windows and the dancefloor was in total harmony. Could easily cast a spell with the right audience.

G –RUMBLING DREAM – is a ritualistic-sounding slice, crossing towards the kind of slow-burning, atmospheric cuts that doubtless inspire his intricate studio productions. The vocals are unusually illustrative and make a lasting impression.

H – KLAUS DID IT – is an intriguing interplay between dark functionality and high velocity grooves — the type of deep, trippy, IDM-tipped tunes. Its warped tones are forming dank, lurching rhythms that trap you like a spiderweb, venturing into a bizarre, rewarding territory. The conclusion? You can spend a decade honing a very particular personal vision and not run short of inspiration. Mihigh is a world-builder: everything he does is about further extending and reinforcing that world.

ARCHIELONG LP is capturing the beauty at the intersection of experiment and perpetual learning

“This record breathes a second life into these songs,” says Alejandro Escovedo of Echo Dancing, the Americana pioneer’s new album where he reconceptualizes the songs of his storied career. The variety of songs range from his short-lived rock quartet Buick MacKane, rarities from his ‘80s alt-country outfit The True Believers, to the celebrated songs of his solo discography from his debut album all the way to his most recent sprawling masterpiece, The Crossing. Highlights include a reimagined trip-hop-funk hybrid of Escovedo’s “Castanets” (retitled here as “Castañuelas''), a blistering version of “Bury Me” that finds that songwriter now older than the characters he was singing about, as well as songs co-written with trailblazers such as Chuck Prophet, Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey and J. Steven Soles. At age 73, Escovedo continues to reshape his ever-changing sound and experiment with the boundaries of Americana music. The 2xLP vinyl edition of Echo Dancing is pressed on gold vinyl and arrives in a gatefold jacket.

Echo Dancing by Alejandro Escovedo, released 29 March 2024, includes the following tracks: "Bury Me", "Too Many Tears", "Outside Your Door", "Thought I’d Let You Know" and more.

This version of Echo Dancing comes as a 1xCD.

"Jolifanto" takes its name from the first verse of "Karawane", a seminal Dadaist phonetic poem by Hugo Ball. When Ball first recited it in 1916 at the Cabaret Voltaire, both the author and the audience embraced a trance that left Ball exhausted, requiring assistance off the stage as the audience claimed the spotlight.

Over a century later, by a series of fortuitous events, "Jolifanto" is also the title of an album featuring two powerful musical entities. Artists stemming from diverse backgrounds converge with a shared experimental spirit, curiosity and passion for exploration in their music.

"Jolifanto" is an unexpected explosion propelled by (poly)rhythm, expanding into seemingly distant territories under the influence of flamenco. The Dadaist spirit permeates the work, where a constant tension between the improvised and the meticulously planned is evident. ZA! and Perrate together form an organism traveling from the roots to the rave, with nothing sounding out of place because the place is yet to be defined.

Perrate witnessed ZA!'s concert in a festival he attended as part of the audience. The Catalans surprised him with a proposal that he found radical and unclassifiable. Later, after being invited to prepare a collaboration for the Música y Museos season in Seville, Perrate decided to move off the beaten path, approaching ZA!, who quickly embraced the proposal. Exchanges of ideas and audio tracks ensued in a short time and they quickly  found out that they were in the same wavelength. A week before the concert, they met in the same physical space for the first time, dedicating a couple of days to composition and preparing the gig at La Mina Studios in Seville. The concert took place, hailed as "the best concert most attendees had experienced in a long time", as reported by the Diario de Sevilla. That energy needed to be captured, and so it was, at the Happy Place studio in Seville, where the album was recorded between March 6th and 9th, 2023.

The Catalan duo ZA!, "the duo that mash up terrace-chant mayhem with... everything else" (The Wire #384), has operated independently and self-managed since their inception in 2004. They overlap genres and amalgamate sounds that move, with intensity, between wild jazz, post-rock and avant-garde electronics, among other influences. In their acclaimed latest work, they have revived the Phoenician language, exploring Mediterranean sounds alongside MegaCobla and Tarta Relena.

Perrate, active since the late 90s, explores the outer edges of flamenco without forsaking its profound essence rooted in lineage and tradition, evident in every note of his voice. His latest work, "Tres golpes" (Lovemonk/El Volcán, 2022), named flamenco album of the year by Babelia/El País, and one of the albums of the year for BBC3's Late Junction, reflects an innate curiosity, possibly the seed of all the fortuitous events leading to this album.

The encounter between Perrate and ZA! is the result of serendipitous events interwoven with the narrative of artists dedicated to experimentation and radicalism in all its forms.

SOYUZ (СОЮЗ) stole our hearts back in 2022 when we released their album Force Of The Wind to critical acclaim. Here we proudly present the predecessor to that LP, the band’s sophomore long player from 2019 that was previously only available digitally. It captures a pivotal evolving period in the band's career, the recordings giving a snapshot of what would become their sound on Force Of The Wind, yet with echoes of avant-psychedelic-pop footprints from yester years.

Produced at a time when band leader Alex Chumak had moved from Minsk to Kyiv, torn between the need to try something new and the homesickness it brought about. Travelling back to Minsk almost weekly, Alex joined fellow band members Mikita Arlou and Stanislav Murashko to lay down II at Studio 42. The album captures these transient feelings, contextualised through the broad scope of influences the band were nourished by. From MPB to Ethio-Jazz and the Italian library soundtracks of Piero Piccioni and Piero Umiliani, the album shines with touches of joy from across the globe.

The opening track 'Verocai' is a tribute to the Brazilian maestro and 'Mirouze', whilst being named after a French favourite of the band, Jean-Pierre Mirouze, pays clear homage to Milton Nascimento and Lô Borges. A ghostly sample and invisible connection to music made miles away in a different era that has influenced and become part of the band’s lives. This is further reinforced in the album's enchanting closer, the aptly titled 'Nascimento', another nod to the great Brazilian musician and singer.

The beginnings of the cinematic, soul-laden jazz SOYUZ are now known for, are on display across the likes of ‘Lyric’ and 'Motive I'. The latter an orchestrated jazz instrumental with sensuous string sections, all of which were recorded on the warmth of a Studer reel-to-reel and waltzing Rhodes keys.

SOYUZ’s wide-ranging palate is further demonstrated in tracks like ‘Business Partners’ with its Krauty, kosmische, new wave production featuring Inturist, and the oh-too-short Anatolian-influenced interlude 'Corrida'. Elsewhere, 'Tezeta' and ‘ES-2 Jazz’ hint at the psychedelic haze of soul-funk, with the former featuring verses from Serbian rapper Petar Martic.

For this new physical and digital release, the whole album was mixed from scratch by Ryan Power before Joker worked his magic on the remaster. More excellence is to come from SOYUZ, but in the meantime, we are thrilled to present this essential recording from the band’s foundational years, mixed to a level that does it the justice it deserves.

The founders of Cukor Bila Smert’ (Ukrainian: Цукор– Біла Смерть, English: Sugar – White Death) band were Svitlana Okhrimenko (a.k.a. Svitlana Nianio), Oleksandr Kohanovs’kyi, and Tamila Mazur, who studied at the Reinhold Glier Kyiv Academy of Music in 1984-1988. In the summer of 1988, they got acquainted with Eugene Taran, a young guitarist and artist. He joined the band and also became the ideologist of Sugar – White Death. Moreover, Eugene coined the name for the band: the irony towards the Yellow Press. The musicians gathered at Kohanovs’kyi’s house, where they spent their free time not only playing music but also listening to and discussing new records and thinking about the conception of their new project.



For two years, the band recorded a few home-made albums, such as “Rhododendrons Coral Aspides” in 1988 (which is considered lost), where Kostyantyn Dovzhenko took part as a guitarist and sound engineer. He also replaced Taran during the recording session because Eugene was passing an exam at that time. The band also recorded another album – “Lilies and Amaralises,” in 1989, which is also considered lost. Eugene remembers that the band made a lot of recordings but did not pay so much attention to them. Sugar – White Death played live occasionally but spent more time creating their own sound, which was named by Oleksii Dekhtyar (a founder of “Ivanov Down”) as a “sugar calypso sound.” At that time, the music was mostly created by Oleksandr Kohanovs’kyi, and the lyrics were written by Svitlana Okhrimenko and Eugene Taran.



In February 1990, a quartet came to the Scientists House Studio in Kyiv, where they had one studio session only, recorded by Valerii Papchenko. Musicians played live for about one take. This session was represented on the “Mannered Music” compilation by several blocks – “Venus with Long Neck,” “The New Sissies,” and “Rhododendrons Coral Aspides,” which was shortened to “Rhododendrons” on the cassette (two songs from which – “Summer Will Not Come” and “The Great Hen-Yuan’ River,” dedicated to Grigorii Khoroshylov, the sinologist from Kyiv). The compilation cover design was created by Eugene Taran. Later, this tape got to Vlodek Nakonechnyj, the founder of Koka Records, a young Polish label, who released “Mannered Music” on cassettes and made efforts to invite Sugar – White Death to play several gigs in Poland.



In November 1990, Sugar – White Death played their last gig as a quartet in Kharkiv. They were invited by Sergii Myasoyedov, who curated the art association “Nova Scena” (The New Scene). The band played selected tracks from the albums “The New Sissies” and “The Shellfishes in Gold Wrappers” (the last one is also considered lost). Due to Sergii Myasoyedov's efforts, the performance was documented: he saved a lot of photos and fragments of soundboard recordings on reel-to-reel tape.



Later, Oleksandr Kohanovs’kyi and Tamila Mazur left Sugar – White Death: Oleksandr founded his own project Pan Kifared, and Tamila became a bass player of Shake Hi-Fi (whose co-founder was Eugene Taran). Sugar became a duo of Svitlana and Eugene. They started to focus on their next work: “Antinoy Is Leaving” in late 1990.



In 1992, they were also invited by Sergii Myasoyedov for a studio session in Kharkiv, where due to the efforts of Oleksandr Vakulenko, Sugar recorded the new album called “All Secrets Of A Poem”. Some tracks from the work (“Dead Ceremony,” “Vienna Is Sleeping,” and “Untitled”) were released on their next and last album, “Selo” (“The Village”). The rest compositions were published as a part of the compilation for the first time.



In the autumn of 1992, the musicians went to Poland, where Vlodek Nakonechnyj, who wanted Sugar to come to a “real” studio, organized their last recording session. Although the journey’s beginning was unsuccessful (Eugene’s guitar was taken away by a customs officer when crossing the border), the musicians worked fast during the session at the Arek Was studio at Marki on an 8-track reel-to-reel machine. Boleslav Blazhchyk took part as a cellist, playing the parts created by Svitlana. The album was completed in three days – the musicians spent two days recording and one-day mixing, mostly done by Eugene Taran. In 1993, this work was released as “Selo” (“The Village”) album on cassette tapes by Koka Records (remastered by Tadeusz Sudnik). Later, Sugar – White Death was disbanded.



Credits:



Cukor Bila Smert’: Svitlana Okhrimenko (lyrics, keyboards, piano, vocals), Eugene Taran (lyrics, keyboards, guitar), Oleksandr Kohanovs’kyi (piano, A1-B2), Tamila Mazur (cello, A1-B2), Boleslaw Blaszczyk (cello, C5-D6)

Cover photo by Vlad Urazovs’kiy

Photo archive courtesy: Vlad Urazovs’kiy, Vlodek Nakonechnyj (Koka Records),

Oleh Yuhrinov, Sergii Myasoyedov

Audio archive courtesy: Vlodek Nakonechnyj (Koka Records), Guido Erfen,

Sergii Myasoyedov

Liner notes: Vlad Yakovlev

Compiled by Dmytro Nikolaienko, Dmytro Prutkin and Sasha Tsapenko

© ? Shukai / Cukor Bila Smert’

2024

Audiophile reviews rave about saxophone master John Coltrane's immortal Impulse! records, A Love Supreme (1964) and Ballads (1963). Ballads is an album that will never go out of style and never be unwelcome on any jazz lover's turntable.

You're about to experience Ballads at its peak of vinyl perfection — in UHQR format on Clarity Vinyl, with the added bonus of a double 45 RPM cut by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound. Ryan's cut has his characteristic clarity and transparency all set against Quality Record Pressing's usual noiseless backgrounds on 200-gram flawless records. Each UHQR will be packaged in a deluxe box and will include a booklet detailing the entire process of making a UHQR along with a hand-signed certificate of inspection. This will be a truly deluxe, collectible product.

For this 45 RPM 2LP edition you'll also receive a !2" x 12" 12-page booklet featuring liner notes by Ashley Kahn and recording session images by Jim Marshall.

The intense passionate Coltrane interpretation of standards such as "All Or Nothing At All," "What's New," "It's Easy To Remember" and the Sinatra classic "Nancy (With The Laughing Face)" are the essence of Ballads. When asked why attempt such an undertaking, Coltrane replied "Variety."

While it may have been a short detour by Trane before he exploded off into the nether regions of jazz music a few years later, it is still a fantastic document of one of the premier jazz groups of the 1960s.

Recorded December 21, 1961 and September 18 & November 13, 1962 at Rudy Van Gelder Studios.

"It's impossible to sleepwalk through tracks like "You Don't Know What Love Is" and "I Wish I Knew" and impart them with even a fraction of the emotional heft that the Quartet achieves. This is the type of jazz album in which the music just washes over the listener with it's restrained grace and beauty, and while it may not have the adventurousness that some listeners think Trane should have had each and every time he recorded, I'd say it shows off a side of him that only makes us appreciate his more bold and daring albums even more." — The Jazz Record

This vinyl re-pressing of Martin Carthy's Debut album is released to commemorate Topic's 85th anniversary in 2024 - Limited edition of 1000 copies - Black vinyl, standard weight with black, polylined inner sleeves. In the early 1960s, the approach Martin Carthy took to folk music was nothing short of revolutionary, albeit a relatively quiet revolution befitting of his humble nature. You wouldn't find Carthy's music clambering up the singles charts; his was not a face adorning the teen magazines. Instead, his influence was felt at a grass-roots level. He plied his trade in the folk clubs, which is where the likes of Bob Dylan and Paul Simon sought him out, enamoured of his traditional repertoire and keen to learn songs like 'Scarborough Fair' and 'Lord Franklin' directly from him before adapting them for their own purposes.

His debut eponymous album, re-released here, on vinyl by Topic Records as part of their ongoing Topic Treasures series, is a snapshot of the work he was doing at the time.

Originally finding its way into the world in 1965, courtesy of Fontana Records, Martin Carthy pulled together 14 songs from his burgeoning repertoire. Produced by Terry at the Philips Recording Studios in Marble Arch, the album was a must-learn checklist for budding guitarists and folk club orgas, and, to this day, remains an essential listen for anyone attempting to find their way into traditional English folk music. Most people turn up for 'Scarborough Fair', very few leave without getting hooked on 'High Germany', 'Sovay' and 'Ye Mariners All'.

The album also introduces Carthy's earliest collaborations with Dave Swarbrick, an enduring and much-copied partnership that lasted, off and on, until Swarbs death in 2016, and became a blueprint for how guitar and fiddle duos ought to sound. While Carthy had been building up his solo repertoire over the previous five or six years, several of the duo arrangements on this album ('Lovely Joan', 'A Begging I Will Go', 'Broomfield Hill') were thrown together in the studio, adding a fizz and freshness to the recordings. This became the pair's standard way of working. "We used to rehearse on stage, in front of the audience," he explains today.

In the years since, Martin Carthy has become the veteran of over 40 studio albums and a veritable beacon for musicians and music lovers seeking "the real stuff." Pressed to name his favourite, he needs no time to think it over. "I always stand by the first album," he says of his 1965 debut. "I love it. There are some things on it I think I couldn't have done better. There was a clarity of purpose."

And, with this re-release, we can be sure that newcomers get to hear that sense of purpose in the best possible quality, as clearly as Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and a generation of folk lovers did six decades ago.

2023 Repress

Maston’s Darkland is a breezy collection of the material from the Tulips sessions that didn’t make it on to the original LP. Originally a digital-only release for those in the know in the autumn of 2018, after re-issuing Tulips in 2020 it made too much sense for Be With to give Darkland a vinyl release.

Like Tulips, Darkland was recorded mostly in Hoorn, in the Netherlands, between 2015-2017 during downtime from Frank’s touring duties with Jacco Gardner’s band. Bits were also done in Los Angeles on some extended trips back home.

The collection plays like an alternate view of Maston’s instant modern classic Tulips; a companion piece to the LP proper with similar mixture of shorter themes and more full length tracks. As Frank Maston explains: “I think Darkland is the shadow of Tulips in a way… what it might’ve been in a different universe. But the heart of Tulips beats in these songs as well and they evoke the same memories and feelings for me. I see my process playing out across these songs - lots of experimentation and trying out new techniques and sounds and just sort of going for it.”

Frank goes on: “It was all from the same pool of material, like 30+ ideas. I was making a lot of little demos… some would be more fleshed out and become songs and others would just be a cool riff and not go anywhere. When I started trying to form it all into an LP I went through all the sessions and ideas and collected the ones I thought were the most fleshed out and cohesive together as a whole. There were a fair amount of songs that were finished and in hindsight really should have been on Tulips (like what would’ve been the title track). And the rest of these songs are either very early versions of tunes that ended up on Tulips or some cool ideas that just ended up being dead ends. It definitely shows how wide my net was in the beginning before I narrowed the record down stylistically.”

Darkland opens with its ornate 39 second title-track before striding into “Tulips”, that full-length title-track that never was. It’s a real head-nod, percussive-rich electric piano stunner that would’ve been a comfortable standout on the album proper. But now this “downlifting” gem is given ample room to shine on this record.

The funky organ-led bass and drums workout “Immaculate Conception” will keep your neck gently snapping while MPC fiends go reaching for their sampler. And that’s gospel. “Love Theme No 3” cuts a breathtakingly stylish vibra-slapped swathe through the middle of the opening side before we’re startled by the pronounced bass and twinkling percussion of “The Owl In Daylight”. Charming digi-drums underpin the wonky synth (quiet-)banger “Innovative Patterns” which has a lovely melodic switch-up in the final third before the tempo (and hairs on your neck) rise on the faintly creepy yet imminently groovy “Osiris”. The gorgeously soft-focus “Groove Experiment No 3” closes out the first half in slow-mo wonderment.

The lushly melancholic “Raincloud” ushers in side B before the emotionally-stirring “Phonic” taps at the door, coming on like the long lost sister to Pet Sounds’ “Let’s Go Away For A While”. Next up, the swooning beauty “Love Theme No 2” keenly sways in front of you, growing ever more insistent and hypnotic. The too-short “Italian Summer” conjures the same flirtatious imagery as the title hints at whilst “Endless” is a fascinating “piano-pella” alternative version to “Rain Dance” from Tulips. “Wonder Theme” has a nostalgic, exotic 60s swing and album closer “Willow” is a hushed, campfire folk gem. The gently circular strumming is just magical.

Speaking to Aquarium Drunkard back in 2019 about the sessions that became Tulips, Frank noted: “I was really surprised by the lack of sunlight during my first winter in Holland, so I would call it Darkland which then became the name of the first demo I wrote during that time. It was also the working title of the record when I first started writing. Some are full songs that didn’t make the cut (including what would have been the title track), some are just ideas that I never finished.”

Whilst we were working on Darkland’s vinyl release Frank explained more specifically about the music that didn’t make it on to Tulips: “When I was putting together the tracklisting for Tulips I was already thinking that whatever didn’t make it onto the LP would be cool to release eventually somehow. The response to Tulips has been so passionate over the years that it’s nice to be able to offer another piece of that world. And for me personally it’s amazing to have more of my work out there in the world. Most common bit of feedback was that many of these songs should have been on Tulips. The odd friend says it’s much better than Tulips.”

Just like Tulips before it, Simon Francis’s vinyl mastering for Darkland has been cut at 45rpm so you can trip out to this as well at a woozy 33 1/3. The artwork too has been designed by Frank himself as a literal visual continuation of the Tulips cover.

We couldn’t possibly say whether Darkland is better than Tulips, and luckily we don’t have to decide.

"Live In Tokyo is the first live album by jazz fusion pioneers Weather Report, which was recorded and released in 1972. The recordings took place on January 13 at Shibuya Philharmonic Hall in Tokyo, Japan. It was one of five sold-out shows that they played in Japan during that month. The line-up during that time consisted of Joe Zawinul, Wayne Shorter, Miroslav Vitous, Eric Gravatt, and Dom Um Romão. All the music is encapsulated in five lengthy ""medleys"" of WR's repertoire, three of which contain elongated versions of themes from the group's eponymously titled debut album from 1971. Live In Tokyo is the first live album by jazz fusion pioneers Weather Report, which was recorded and released in 1972. The recordings took place on January 13 at Shibuya Philharmonic Hall in Tokyo, Japan. It was one of five sold-out shows that they played in Japan during that month. The line-up during that time consisted of Joe Zawinul, Wayne Shorter, Miroslav Vitous, Eric Gravatt, and Dom Um Romão. All the music is encapsulated in five lengthy ""medleys"" of WR's repertoire, three of which contain elongated versions of themes from the group's eponymously titled debut album from 1971. Live in Tokyo is available as a limited edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on purple coloured vinyl."

Black Screen Records, Lost In Cult Records and Chuhai Labs are proud to tee up, for the first time, this terrific Cursed to Golf vinyl featuring the complete and unabridged soundtrack from the inimitable Mark Sparling! Captured in its grooves are the energetic chiptunes that goaded you on from course to course, as you ascended from Purgatory to become a Golfing Legend. Relive your finest drives or be introduced to this world of caddie-ridden fantasy in this beautiful collection of fearsome hooks and catchy choruses. Mark Sparling shares with us some insight into his aims for the Cursed to Golf soundtrack: "Cursed to Golf was simultaneously some of the funnest and most challenging music I have had to write in a long time. The original pitch for the music was 'Castlevania meets Mario Golf,' and it took me some time to find a good balance that we were happy with. But I'm really proud of the end result!" Enjoy all your favourite tunes across this 2xLP set, presented in a thematic duo of 180g heavy duty records, one golf course green and the other ghostly transparent magenta. Brought to life with art from Crisppyboat, this playful gatefold reinterprets Cursed to Golf's iconography through a joyous new lens.

repress, yellow viny

When we established Balmat in 2021, neither of us could have imagined that within two years, we’d be putting out an album by one of our musical heroes: Mike Paradinas, aka µ-Ziq. The British producer has been an inspiration to label co-founders Albert Salinas and Philip Sherburne since the 1990s. In fact, his album-length remix project The Auteurs Vs µ-Ziq was one of the very first pieces of electronic music that Philip bought, way back in 1994. To have the opportunity to release his music now feels like a real full-circle moment.

Paradinas, of course, needs no introduction. Under a slew of aliases, chief among them µ-Ziq, the British artist revolutionized leftfield electronic music in the 1990s—coincidentally, this year marks the 30th anniversary of his debut album, Tango N’ Vectif, for his friend and sometime collaborator Aphex Twin’s Rephlex label—and his label Planet Mu has built up a formidable catalog of visionary, forwardlooking records, mapping virtually every corner of the electronic spectrum. With 1977, he turns the clock backward in a sense, and not just with the album’s title: Rooted in classic ambient and electronic sounds, these 15 tracks evoke the anything-goes spirit of the early ’90s, before the tools and tropes had calcified into cut-and-dried styles.

There’s no shortage of familiar sounds on 1977. There are echoes of raves and chillout rooms and transmissions from the fringes of techno; there are detuned synths and glistening reverb tails and, above all, gauzy vox pads, the eerie glue that holds it all together. The title, he says, is meant to invoke a general sense of nostalgia, bookmarking a year in his boyhood when he became more selfaware. More than anything, 1977 sounds like µ-Ziq distilled: Stripped of his signature breakbeats and customary chaos, Paradinas’ first-ever strictly (well, mostly) ambient album presents the essence of his music in a whole new light.

Along the way Paradinas touches on dark-ambient drones (“Marmite”), horror-film themes (“Belt & Carpet”), jungle breaks (“Mesolithic Jungle”), and even house music (“Houzz 13”), which marks the first bona fide dance-floor moment on Balmat to date). Yet the album never—to our ears, anyway— feels expressly retro. Rather, Paradinas plucks timeless sounds out of the ether and gives them a gentle tap, spinning them into unexpected new orbits. At times, 1977 feels like an experience of extended déjà vu: When we first listened to it, we had the sense that we already knew this music. It was as though we had heard it years ago, perhaps on a battered cassette tape lent to us by a friend, and been searching for it ever since. We hope you feel the same.