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Both noted for strikingly forward-thinking bodies of solo work dating back to the 1990s, the duo of Andrew Pekler & Giuseppe Ielasi - collaborators for the better part of a decade - reemerge with 'Palimpsests’, their first outing with Shelter Press. Built from deconstructed layers of texture, tone, and arrhythmic percussiveness, the album’s 2 sides distill 6 years of work into 9 splintered, airy reimaginings of minimalism - each surprising, creatively rigorous, and startlingly beautiful - that rest at the outer reaches of contemporary electroacoustic practice and musique concrète.

Based in Berlin and Milan respectively, Andrew Pekler and Giuseppe Ielasi have individually carved singular paths across numerous disciplines within experimental music for more than 20 years, each deploying sampling, synthesis, and acoustic sources to weave their own, distinct worlds of sonorous abstraction. Brought together by years of friendship and a shared devotion to layered texture and complex, fractured structure, the pair first joined their creative energies in 2013, a collaboration that culminated as the LP, ‘Holiday For Sampler’, issued by Planam.

'Palimpsests’, the duo’s second outing, draws its material from a series of improvisations made by the Pekler and Ielasi in Milan during 2015. Over the ensuing six years, those recordings would undergo various transformations - cut, reworked, sampled, and added to by each artist, working at geographic distance between Berlin, Kyoto and Monza - before culminating, like the album’s title suggests, as a unique manifestation of musical palimpsest; “an object reused and altered, while still bearing visible traces of its earlier form”.

With each of the album’s compositions nodding toward a city with which Pekler and Ielasi hold biographical connections, 'Palimpsests’ constructs sound as poetic metaphor; a series of ghosts - traces of memory, image, and action - cut and reassembled, in cycling permutations, before been set into action at a glacial pace with layered, transparent forms.

Defined by remarkable restraint and pointillistic precision, across the album’s two sides Pekler and Ielasi weave the fractured remnants of their sessions - reduced to glitches and warbling fragments of texture and tonality - into pulsing expanses of spatial ambiance that defy imagism, blur the boundaries between the synthetic and organic - reducing their sources to a series of unknowns - recast the boundaries of electroacoustic practice on markedly singular terms.

Shelter Press is thrilled to present 'Palimpsests’, another brilliant outing from the duo of Andrew Pekler and Giuseppe Ielasi. Issued in a limited edition of 500 copies on black vinyl, with artworks on printed inner and outer sleeves by Traianos Pakioufakis.

All Detroit Techno, taken from the album DnA

After a monster year for Vince Watson, with releases on Get Physical, Tronic, SushiTech, All Day I Dream alongside his own Everysoul Audio and a host of remixes, he now ends 2021 brining his label’s biggest and most adventurous release to date: ‘DnA reSequenced’.

After the massive response to his 18 track ‘DnA’ album in 2019, Vince had a vision of having some of the tracks remixed by his favourite Detroit ‘flavoured’ artists from the 3 places that musically have made it all possible for him: Scotland, Amsterdam, Detroit.

So it is with great pleasure that Everysoul can announce remixes by none other than Carl Craig, Claude Young, John Beltran, Jon Dixon, Shawn Rudiman, Stephen Lopkin, Steve Rachmad and Stephen Brown.

Planet E boss Carl Craig is no stranger to Vince’s work, having released 4 of his singles on Planet E and previously remixing his track ‘It’s Not Over’. His remix of ‘Holographic’ takes the heavy synth lines into typical C2 remix territory, building and building with layers into a crescendo.

Jon Dixon may be one of Detroit’s rising stars as a solo artist, but as a band member of Underground Resistance and Timeline, he plays with some of the best Detroit Techno groups around: Galaxy2Galaxy and is a classically trained pianist. Jon’s releases over the last few years now showcase his personal styles and Vince was desperate to work with him, with a keen respect for his musicianship. His Remix of

John Beltran has been one of Vince’s favourite producers for over 25 years and his Pan Am remix is a journey of blissful Beltran fusion styles.

Claude Young takes his remix into a completely new and different direction, moving from the Electro of the original into an experimental masterpiece, respecting the tricky chord programming of the original and adapting into sounds that only Claude Young is able to extract.

Steve Rachmad is one of Vince’s closest allies in Amsterdam and having worked together on many projects over the years, Steve was the first name on the list. His 4/4 edition of Second Wave takes the deep Detroit chords and harmonies into a much darker and groovier direction, with early Transmat character and the funk that Steve Rachmad is known for.

Shawn Rudiman’s remix is a no nonsense straight to the floor banger, taking all the elements of the original into a much more streamlined and live improv version for the floor rather than the head.

Stephen Lopkin is one of Vince’s favourite Scottish producers and his remix takes the original into his own unique style and identity. The original had very unique chord progressions and timing and Lopkin was able to successfully extend this to make it even more complex but with a seamless flow that keeps the groove flowing.

Stephen Brown is also a top Scottish producer who Vince has been supporting and spinning for over 20 years, and his remix of Immersion removes the fluffy jazzy elements from the original and opts directly for the dancefloor, taking Immersion into new territory.

DnA

Cult American ambient label Past Inside The Present looks to New York City-based composer Christina Giannone for her new full length Glazed Vision, which is pressed to nice heavy 160 gram transparent clear vinyl. This is her third full length following 202's The Faint and a collaborative work also last year, and it is another development of her dark, heavy, drone fulled ambient landscapes. These are lo-fi, foggy tracks that hang in mid air and make you feel like you're doing the same as only the most subtle of shapeshifting chords brings a sense of motion. It is bleak yet beautiful and never less than hugely absorbing.

New York United is an experimental group at the musical intersection of a classic New York avant-garde scene and forward-looking electronic production. Comprised of multi-instrumentalist and 577-cofounder Daniel Carter (Saxophone, Flute,Trumpet, Clarinet), electronic producer Tobias Wilner from Blue Foundation (Synthesizers, Percussion, Vocals, Piano, Guitar), Wu-Tang Clan bass playerDjibrilToure and 577’s Federico Ughi (Drums), their sound reflects their decades of collaboration. This second volume follows their celebrated debut, the eponymous New York United (2019), and matches its characteristically dreamlike effect, while maintaining a steady, rhythmic momentum. Like the first volume, this album was initially recorded in an improvised studio performance, and manipulated by Wilner in post-recording production, lending a uniquely ambient, electronic effect to otherwise spontaneous composition between musicians. Inescapably connected to its namesake city, the project is a testament to the transformative energy that sustains New York, dissolving individual boundaries into a collective sense of itself

On 18th April, 1980, after decades of anti colonial struggle, the Zimbabweian flag was finally raised at midnight at the Rufaro Stadium in Harare. Not long after, the words "Ladies and Gentlemen, Bob Marley and The Wailers!" rang out, and Zimbabwe's independent future began.

In the years that followed, Africa was to produce it's own reggae superstars, as the likes of Alpha Blondy, Majek Fashek and Lucky Dube swept across the continent and beyond, and there's no doubting Bob Marley's explosive impact on this particular narrative.

Marley's unswerving commitment to liberation and unity ranged from the sweeping spiritual sentiments of iconic hits such One Love and Redemption Song to the galvanising, focused tone of 1979's 'Zimbabwe', and his status as global superstar ensured that his (self funded) part in the countries' epochal celebrations meant that the history of reggae in Africa would always be viewed through the prism of his influence ( Wiki/African Reggae : "In 1980, world-famous Jamaican reggae musician Bob Marley performed in Harare, Zimbabwe, and that concert is often credited as marking the beginning of reggae in Africa")

But in fact, the recorded history of reggae produced in Africa stretches back over a decade before Marley's arrival on the continent, and showcases broad pan - diasporic interflows between the Carribean and Africa, with the UK and the US communities playing influential supporting roles, all helping shape the evolution and development of the genre in Africa from late 60's inception to Marley's arrival in 1980, and then well beyond.

Reggae Africa : Roots and Culture, 1972 - 1981 tries to capture a sense of that evolution, starting in 1972 as Mebussa's ultra rare 'Good Bye Friends' effortlessly captures triangular, transatlantic cultural interflows, with the short lived Nigerian group's bitter sweet chords echoing classic US soul, but laid over a gritty, skanking Jimmy Cliff - esque proto reggae rhythm.

Trying to work out the precise provenance of Black Reggae's 'Darling I'm So Proud of You' (1975) isn't easy, but involves Paris based / African focused label Fiesta, some proper OG co-branding exercise with Bols Brandy ( "Bols Brandy presents Black Reggae") - and deeply infectious, lilting Rocksteady.

By 1976, glorious Nigerian sister duo Lijadu Sisters are echoing the chunky roots of a Dennis Brown or U Roy on 'Bobby', and in 1977, bespoke Nigerian drummer Georges Happi is introing 'Hello Friends' with the soon to be universal signature reggae tom roll intro, before veering leftfield with snatches of spoken Afro - English vocal in between the hooky choruses.

Nigerian giant Chrissy Essien's 'I'll Be You Man' (1979) combines floaty Lovers vibes with catchy ska shuffle, and in the same year, Cameroonian afro-funk/disco heavyweight Pasteur Lappe' drifts seamlessly into skanking, Lovers infected reggae on 'Babbette D.O. ( Rastawoman )' (before a sprawling electric guitar solo reminds us how unselfconsiously eclectic so much African music of the era was.)

And finally bookending the compilation, in chronological terms, fellow Cameroonian Tala AM also swaps his funk and soul for the rootsy and infectious 'Hop Sy Trong' (1981), again highlighting the diverse and eclectic approach to this timeless Carribean musical genre taken by African musicians in the years before that Bob Marley year zero event in Zimbabwe.

Paz en La Tierra is a result of a search by the Meridian Brothers & Conjunto Media Luna of the heart of something that can be called a 'power format' of Colombian Caribbean music; Accordion , Guacharaca, Caja, Congas, Electric bass, and vocals.

Departing from this idea, and casually working with the music of a documentary on the famous singer Diomedes Diaz, Iván Medellín (accordionist of Conjunto media luna), and Eblis Álvarez from the Meridian Brothers, embarked on a new work building a sound exclusively on the traditional format, searching for several spaces between the lines in the universe of accordion in Colombian music.

The duo departed from the basic: the line of vallenato, the most famous in the country but not the only one, the line of sabanero music more of the lands of Sucre and Córdoba inclined towards cumbia, bullerengue, son vallenato among other airs fed the group's ideas. The Barranquilla center deserves a separate mention, due to its cosmopolitan approach, using all kinds of influences, from the Caribbean islands to ancient rhythms or even modern rock and funk, also used as an inspiration for this record.

In the process, new ways of melody appeared and new ways of expression emerged. Although the rhythms used in the record are rooted in the traditional, the duo glitched those rhythms turning them into new directions in the style, using exclusively the past references to transmute the sound into something that looks inside a parallel future.

Using several theatrical situations, alterations in musical structures, and slight deformations of the traditional harmony (a tonal center and its dominant) the result of "Paz en la Tierra" is enigmatic and charming, and at the same time directed towards the dance floor keeping the past alive and flourishing the essence of the tradition.

Translucent Orange Vinyl. "Deep States" ist ein Protestalbum, das neues kulturelles Terrain erforscht und im subjektiven Zustand zeitgenössischer Panik gräbt. Aber TROPICAL FUCK STORM predigen heimlich, immer im Bewusstsein der Tatsache, dass sie schließlich Popmusik machen, egal wie avantgardistisch oder "out there" es wird. Entsprechend kommt "Deep States" komplett mit Q-Drops, Anspielungen auf den Capitol Riot vom 6. Januar 2021, einem Riff auf Pizzagate, Waterboarding-Marsianern, gefährlichen Kulten von Heaven's Gate bis The Shining Path und, nicht zu übertreffen, Romeo-Agenten, die uns nachts ins Bett legen, um uns am Morgen zu verraten. Wir leben in einer Welt, in der das Bizarre zum Normalen geworden ist, und TROPICAL FUCK STORM lotet dieses Paradoxon aus. Was TROPICAL FUCK STORM so großartig macht, ist die Schnittmenge zwischen ihrem düsteren, aber satirischen Storytelling und den musikalischen Arrangements, die darauf abzielen, erhaltene Kanons und Weisheiten zu pervertieren. Diese Songs sind ein Experiment, das sich in seinem eigenen idiosynkratischen, zutiefst beunruhigenden Tempo vor- und zurückbewegt. Sie hängen am schrägen Beat und gleiten in jazzige, verzerrte Jams, die so turbulent sind, dass sie Charlie Mingus stolz machen würden. Musikalisch macht "Deep States", was es will: Pop, R&B, New Wave im Stil der Talking Heads, Delta Blues, Tom Waits und einige der HipHop-Lieblinge der Band wie Wu-Tang Clan und Missy Elliott. Barrieren werden nicht nur durchbrochen, sie scheinen komplett weggefallen zu sein.

Fast becoming America's most auspicious triumvirate of minimal electronic music interpreters, Imbue's sixth enactment on their self-titled imprint, provides a diverse assemblage of sonic deities, which are destined to gratify the ears of both discernible crate diggers and avid ravers alike.

Enriched with enchanting soundscapes that embody the essence of seasonal fulfillment that can only be associated with the Spring bloom, Imbue dig-deep into their musical repertoire to deliver a comprehensive septenary compilation.

The A-side immediately transcends you on an atmospheric, cosmic journey, underpinned by Imbue's signature acoustic sound - a superimposition of live electric guitar and analog synthesizers. As the journey progresses, ubiquitous rolling percussion seamlessly intertwines with discrete fragments of synthetic grooves, evoking an innate sense of serenity.

The B-side continues to enthrall the listener with yet more seismic grooves, conjuring a rhetoric of warm, alfresco beach vibes, synonymous with Imbue's native origins, in Miami, Florida.

A thoroughly consistent and uncompromising selection of entangled rhythms, scales and timbres, Bloom provides a palatable soundtrack, full of joie de vivre. And, as its wonderfully beautiful cover intimates, the record should arrive just in time for summer, and the reopening of our hallowed dance floors.

"Life, Love And Faith" - Allen Toussaint (p, g, hca, arr); Alvin Thomas (ts); Francis Rousselle (tp); Clyde Kerr (tp, frh); George Plummer, Vincent Toussaint (g); Walter Payton (b); Joe Lambert, Joseph Modeliste (dr); a.o. & The Meters

Allen Toussaint had it all around him – the voices and spirits of black music, rhythm ’n’ blues, funk and soul. He was born in New Orleans and grew up there, the birthplace of jazz. As from 1960, he worked as a record producer and an A&R man at Minit Records, an independent label, which was closely associated with the transformation of the New Orleans Sound. His compositions for fellow musicians landed them in the charts, he frequently participated by performing with them on the piano, and so became a connoisseur and master of all possible sounds.

"Life, Love And Faith" marks his launch into his solo career, and quite rightly so. In the songs, Toussaint amalgamates all he had mastered with a rocking R&B, funky rhythms and expressive soul to create his highly personal sound.

Although it is a soul album through and through, one has the feeling that one is listening to an album from Reprise’s stable of singers/songwriters – including such artists as Randy Newman, Bonnie Raitt, Little Feat and Joni Mitchell – rather than what usually came out of New Orleans in the early Seventies. And also because "Life, Love And Faith" captures an eccentric genius who pursues his own idiosyncratic vision. It is a structured, multi-layered album, which does not show Toussaint in his purest form, but it is his only album that shows just how widely ranged and profound his many talents were.

This Speakers Corner LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head.

All royalties and mechanical rights have been paid.

Recording: 1972 at Jazz City Studios, New Orleans, by Cosimo Matassa and Skip Godwin

Production: Allen Toussaint

Portico Quartet announce Monument, the electronic driven follow-up to their acclaimed ambient-minimalist suite Terrain, presenting the band at their most direct

It's rare that a band releases two albums within six months of each other, rarer too that while both are so different, they are both as epochal in terms of the band's output as Terrain and Monument are to Portico Quartet. The irony is that Monument, a stripped-back, intentionally direct album, was the album that the band set out to write in May 2020, before the dream like long-form Terrain came into focus. Briefly they were two halves of the same record, but the band ended up developing these two distinct bodies of work concurrently. And although they were written side-by-side and recorded at the same sessions, they are records best understood as distinct from each other, each with opposing ideas and forms.

Monument is one of Portico Quartet's most accessible, direct records to date. If Terrain addressed the darker side of how Duncan Bellamy and Jack Wyllie made sense of the pandemic, then Monument resonates as an ode to better times. If not quite a dance record, it nonetheless pulses with an energy, radiance and a scalpel sharp focus. Jack Wyllie explains: "It's possibly our most direct album to date. It's melodic, structured and there's an economy to it that is very efficient. There's not much searching or wastage within the music itself, it is all finalised ideas, precisely sculpted and presented as a polished artefact."

Bellamy expands "Monument sits somewhere between our albums Portico Quartet and Art in the Age of Automation. It has perhaps a more overtly electronic edge to its sound – there are more synthesisers and electronic elements than we have used before and the music is often streamlined and rhythmic".

After the ethereal, stage-setting of Opening, the album kicks into overdrive with Impressions, a short energetic track that pairs a club influenced groove with hang drum and close, delicate saxophone. It's the balance between these elements that push and pull the track through a selection of melodic and rhythmic re-configurations, contrasting human touch with a machine-like focus. Ultraviolet is a kaleidoscopic, krautrock inspired track with a haunting introduction and an insistent pulse. The wistful Ever Present builds from a simple piano refrain; a nostalgic melody line floats over the top as drums and bass groove insistently underneath, before reaching a euphoric peak. The title track Monument builds around a looping vocal sample, drums and an enigmatic melody, the ending giving way to a gauzy, weaving synth line. The power here is in its economy and luminosity. AOE flips back and forth, like a dial that's been switched. Mining the tension between a pastoral inflected cello and saxophone melody, with an abrupt shift to jilted live drums, wailing delayed saxophone and a flickering synth line. Warm Data comes straight from the same Portico Quartet tradition as older tracks like Current History and Laker-Boo. It's a marriage of instrumental minimalism with drum machines and synths. Finally, the album closes with On The Light, a track that transmits a sense of suspense and freedom, driven by the twitching drums of Bellamy and evocative sax of Wyllie. It offers the perfect bitter-sweet and evocative ending to Portico Quartet's latest Monument.

Mike Pride was not a fan of legendary punk band MDC – a straight-edge hardcore devotee, you could even say he had a chip on his shoulder about this more mainstream, less disciplined form of punk – when he suddenly found himself on a tour of Europe as their drummer sometime in the early ‘00s. Twenty years later, now a longtime fan and friend of the band, Pride unexpectedly turns to the band’s raucous catalogue as a source for jazz standards on his warped new album, I Hate Work. I Hate Work draws its material exclusively from MDC’s iconic 1982 debut album, Millions of Dead Cops. Despite his long established passion for bringing the extremes of hardcore and heavy rock into the jazz and improvised music realm (and vice versa), Pride instead does the unexpected, transforming MDC’s pummeling punk into swinging acoustic jazz. For the occasion he enlisted pianist Jamie Saft and bassist Bradley Christopher Jones, both master re-interpreters of a wide swath of pop and rock music, as well as special guests Mick Barr (Ocrilim, Krallice), JG Thirlwell (Foetus), Sam Mickens (The Dead Science) and MDC frontman Dave Dictor.

RSD album now available at a slightly cheaper price. Double Transparent Violet Coloured vinyl & DL card. 1000 copies pressed. Fist time on vinyl. Double debut from Howe Gelb’s one-off project that features members or Arcade Fire, Grandaddy, Scout Niblett and M Ward among others. Featuring extensive notes and interviews with the collaborators, exploring how the whole thing was put together.

4 Reworked & Reimagined tracks from Motherhood and a cover of Deftone’s “Teenager”. Clear w/ Blue Glitter Colored Cassette Shell, with full pull-out J-Card artwork. Recommended If You Like : Bjork’s Live Box, The Deftones Cate Le Bon. Montreal’s No Joy—since 2009, a noisy four-piece shoegaze band, from 2015 onward, the sonic experiments of founding member and principal vocalist Jasamine White-Gluz has rejected convention, opting to find cohesion in vast, bold, indiscernible structures. In the beginning, the group excavated melodious riffs from squalling guitars, now, White-Gluz approaches songwriting with abstract meticulousness, no longer tethered to her six-string instrument. In 2018, it was the modular electronica of No Joy / Sonic Boom, an EP collaboration with Spaceman 3’s Pete Kember. In 2020, her first full-length as a soloist and No Joy’s first album in five years, Motherhood, her guitar returned for a genre-agnostic, maximalist treatise on aging. Fertility, family, death, birth, her voice heard loud in the mix, White-Gluz became a commanding force among the many-splendored sounds of trip-hop, trance, nu-metal, dance rock, and, of course, shoegaze, delivered through banjo, vibraphone, scrap metal, slap bass, even kitchen appliances. Who knew chaos could have such lucidity? Now, White-Gluz’s ever-expansive evolution has brought forth Can My Daughter See Me From Heaven, an EP reanimation of five songs from Motherhood, transformed by new orchestral instrumentalists: an opera singer, a cellist, a harpist, French horn musician. These songs, recorded entirely remotely, are not a correction. They are a spring rebirth—an opportunity to grow those tracks, similar to the transformation they would’ve undergone live, on stage. “Songs take on a new life when I’m on tour. These songs didn’t get that chance. I still had more to say with them,” White-Gluz explains. “I probably never would’ve been like ‘let’s get a bunch of classically trained players together,’ if it wasn’t for covid-19 canceling tours. This EP was an opportunity to do something that wasn’t obvious. It’s a bedroom recording, but it doesn’t sound like we recorded this in our bedrooms. I wanted to do something that sounded bigger than Motherhood did, and Motherhood was recorded before covid.” Where many musicians used last year’s disaster to look inward, releasing solitary, insular albums, No Joy did the opposite: “It was more, ‘Let’s try everything!’ Give me something to look at!”

This album is a critical meditation on variations of Orientalism practiced by Arabs themselves, as well as those who were born and raised within the diaspora. It originally began as a documentation of extended drum techniques, but eventually morphed into a project of more ambitious scope. Having an open timeframe, Julius Masri gave himself reasons to include all the instruments he obsessively picked up and learned over the years. The work accumulated intentions and guiding principles, and it became rather autobiographical in nature. Some of the tracks either refer to or were recorded in the actual physical spaces he grew up near, in Tripoli, Lebanon during the 1980s. The "Arabic Room" of the title refers to the sitting room in his family‘s house that was decked out in hyper orientalist exoticism, mashing together furniture, fixtures, paintings from all over the Arabic speaking world. The sitting room, or salon, is common in Lebanese homes made specifically to host and entertain guests. Rimsky-Korsakov's Sheherazade and other western made Orientalist cultural artifacts not only had ubiquitous presence in the house, but also found their way onto tv shows and commercials. After moving to the US, his parents recreated this room in their home. Additionally, his father's generation was one that saw their country transform from a post-agrarian trading society after WWII to a center of banking and finance within the span of a few decades. The sense of some lost Eden like innocence of the interwar years permeated much of the media that was available to him growing up there. This album is neither ironic nor some judgmental pronouncement. Call it critical nostalgia. For Masri, there isn't much difference between this form of exotic fantasy creation, and his own adolescence steeped in comic books and listening to bands like Voivod. They both seem to him part of what's known in German as Fernweh, "a nostalgia for a place one's never been". All instruments are performed by Masri himself, (drums, Egyptian rababa, Azeri kamancheh, circuit bent electronics, keyboards, hammered dulcimer, and vocals). Genre-hopping is foundational to the album’s ethos; jazz, metal, experimental, electro-chaabi, and sound collage all appear within the framework of Arabic music, creating the sense of adventurous possibilities best associated with well curated mixtapes. Julius Masri is a Philadelphia based multi-instrumentalist and performer/composer, originally born in Tripoli, Lebanon. The Arabic Room is his debut solo-album. Currently he is working and playing with members of the Sun Ra Arkestra. The album will be released on vinyl only in an edition of 300 copies.

Record Kicks drops "Solid Ground", the explosive debut album by US band The Grease Traps, recorded at Kelly Finnigan' Transistor Sounds and mixed by Orgone's Sergio Rios.

Recorded between Kelly Finningn's Transistor Sound in San Francisco and Fifty Filth Studio in Oakland and mixed by Orgone' producer Sergio Rios and Kevin O' Dea, Record Kicks is proud to finally present Solid Ground, the long-awaited debut album by US very finest deep funk & soul outfit The Grease Traps. The album is set for worldwide release on November 5 on vinyl, CD and digital format. The band, based in Oakland, CA, is the latest addition to Milan-based Record Kicks roster. Active since 2002, with a 45 released on well-respected funk/soul label, Colemine Records, now, after six years spent working on the album's recording and mixing, they are ready to present their first full-length release Solid Ground on Record Kicks. The album is anticipated by the two killer funk singles "Bird of Paradise" and "More and More" on limited edition 45 vinyl.

As avid record collectors and fans of that old school analog sound, Solid Ground was recorded straight to 8-track tape on a Tascam 388, which also graces the cover art. Half of the tracks were recorded live at Transistor Sound Studio by soul crooner, Kelly Finnigan, and Ian McDonald where both Kelly and their band, Monophonics, have recorded their last few albums. The other half of the tunes were recorded by Kevin and Aaron at Fifty Filth Studio in Oakland, CA where the band also rehearses and mixed by analog-obsessive Orgone producer Sergio Rios. The album's original tunes draw from the Traps' various soul influences ranging from gritty funk ("Bird of Paradise" and "Hungry") to fuzzed-out psychedelic ("Residue") to sweet lowrider soul ("More and More"). The lyrics by lead singer The Gata also don't shy away from pressing issues of the day such as racism in America ("Roots") and finding hope in a world that seems pitted against you (the JB's style "Solid Ground"). The rare funk covers from the album provide a taste of the raw energy one would experience at a Grease Traps live show. The Traps also supplemented their sound with special guests including the Monophonics horns, background vocals from seasoned Bay Area vocalists, Sally Green and Bryan Dyer, as well as strings organized by Kansas City master viola player, Alyssa Bell.

The seed of The Grease Traps formed back in 2000 when keyboardist, Aaron Julin, answered an ad put out by guitarist, Kevin O'Dea, searching for players who were hip to the rare grooves laid down by Blue Note artists such as Grant Green and Lou Donaldson. They quickly formed Groovement, covering those same artists along with other jazz-funk staples. When their sax player and frontman moved away, they switched gears to form the band, Brown Baggin, getting into the harder funk of the JB's, the Meters, Kool & the Gang, and lesser known acts such as Mickey & the Soul Generation. They also started digging into the rare funk compilations put out by Keb Darge, Jazzman Gerald,and labels like Harmless, Ubiquity, Soul Jazz, and Now-Again. Modern day soul and funk outfits such as Breakestra, the Whitefield Brothers, and the Daptone/Soul Fire crews provided additional inspiration.

In 2005, while still playing with Brown Baggin yet fed up with juggling the schedules of seven band members, Aaron and Kevin put out an ad to find a bassist and drummer to jam with as a quartet. The first two cats to show up were bassist, Goopy Rossi, and drummer, Dave Brick. It was clear from the get-go that this rhythm section had great chemistry. Originally intended as a fun side project, the Traps quickly took priority as Brown Baggin dissolved. Performing as an instrumental quartet for a number of years, they eventually expanded their repertoire to include horns as well as that sharp-dressing soul brother, The Gata, on lead vocals. Over the years, they've shared the stage with acts such as Shuggie Otis, Robert Walter, Durand Jones, Monophonics, Neal Francis, and Jungle Fire.

LTD. COLORED VINYL

Somewhere Between: Mutant Pop, Electronic Minimalism & Shadow Sounds of Japan 1980–1988 hovers vibe–wise between two distinct poles within Light In The Attic’s acclaimed Japan Archival Series—Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980–1990 and Pacific Breeze: Japanese City Pop, AOR & Boogie 1976–1986. All three albums showcase recordings produced during Japan’s soaring bubble economy of the 1980s, an era in which aesthetic visions and consumerism merged. Music echoed the nation’s prosperity and with financial abundance came the luxury to dream.

Sonically, Somewhere Between mines the midpoint between Kankyō Ongaku’s sparkling atmospherics and Pacific Breeze’s metropolitan boogie. The compilation encompasses ambient pop, underground electronics, liminal minimalism and shadow sounds—all descriptors emphasizing the hazy nature of the nebula. Out–of–focus rhythms wear ethereal accoutrements, ballads are shrouded in static, and angular drums snake skyward on transcendent tones. From the Avant–minimalism of Mkwaju Ensemble and Yoshio Ojima, to the leftfield techno-pop of Mishio Ogawa and Noriko Miyamoto (featuring members of YMO), and highlights from the groundbreaking Osaka underground label Vanity Records, these are blurry constellations defying collective categorization.

These tracks also exist in a space of transition when the major label grip on the Japanese recording market began to give way to the escalation of independents. Thanks to the idyllic economic climate and innovations in domestically–manufactured music gear, creators on the edges were empowered to focus on satisfying their artistic visions in the open headspace of home studios. While labels like Warner Music and Nippon Columbia explored new sounds through traditional channels, it was possible for Vanity, Balcony and other indie labels, not to mention self–released artists like Ojima and Naoki Asai, to publish their work via affordable media such as cassettes, 7" vinyl, and flexi–discs.

Expertly curated by Yosuke Kitazawa and Mark “Frosty” McNeill (dublab), Somewhere Between is a collection of music, much of it released for the first time outside Japan, that is bound more by energetic vibration than shared history, genre or scene. They are the sounds of transition and searching—a celebration of the freedom found in floating.

Note: The track “Days Man” by Yoshio Ojima is only available on the LP and Cassette versions.

* New from Innerground Records (co-founded by DJ Marky), also the home of Calibre, BassBrothers, Random Movement and Blade, comes the highly anticipated double vinyl LP from DJ Marky & others, ‘100’. Drawing inspiration from the past 18 years of Innerground’s vast history and impact on the Drum & Bass movement, and the signature latin influences of DJ Marky that have brought excitement and vitality to stages around the globe. This special collaboration between one of the most important figures in the genre, and a collection of some of the most highly respected producers and artists in the scene, creates a ground-breaking LP that marks the 100th release from Innerground Records.

* It should come as no surprise that the double LP packs a punch, when looking at the combined experience of its contributors. ‘100’ begins as a bold statement from the main man DJ Marky, laying down the foundations of what’s yet to come from this veteran D’nB lineup. We’re taken on a ride through morphing tempos and enchanting vocals that hammer home what this immense centennial is all about - a special milestone in the genre that will be remembered in years to come.

TRACKLIST:

A1 : DJ Marky Feat. Lorna King – Changing Moods (LEAD SINGLE (SPECIALIST RADIO PLUGGING BY LISTEN UP)
The album launches with the warm Brazilian sunshine D&B that Innerground’s main man Marky is known for. Lorna King’s uplifting harmonies intertwine with playful melodies to shape not only a guaranteed party starter, but a track that will put a smile on your face. Shades of his legendary ‘LK’??!

A2 : Data 3 – String Theory
After the Brazilian sunshine comes the rain… We’re taken on a detour through a dark valley as spiralling synths ascend to a glitch filled break. Ominous chords reverberate around the onslaught of rattling hats and deep choral vocals.

B1 : Random Movement – Patty Melt
The American D&B veteran returns to Innerground, bringing a funky fast guitar filled banger. Rapid drums and airy synths balance over happy vocals and undulating groovy bass guitar to create a track you can’t help but move to. Potential (slow-burner) track of, ’Innerground : 100’, the album?

B2 : Melinki & D'Cypher - Listen To Everything
A dark bopper with swaying hats chiming over aggressive basslines. Vocal samples provide a short-lived breather from this menacing track’s all-consuming energy. This isn’t the first time Melinki & D’Cypher have linked up and we look forward to many more from these two!

C1 : Saikon - Guilty Pleasures
Anticipative strings and a steady break lead to snappy vocal chops, crescendos at a break that unfolds in to house-led bouncey stabs. You wouldn’t expect anything less from Saikon!

C2 : Carlito - About You
Fans know that this is far from Carlito’s first Innerground rodeo – he’s back with a track that balances male and female vocals over enchanting pads. Synths twinkle amongst racing breaks to make for a certified club heater.





D1: Collette Warren, DJ Marky & Tyler Daley - One Exception (Pola & Bryson Remix)
As the album draws towards its close, cinematic piano and vocals to make your hair stand on end craft a beautiful contemplation between Tyler Daley and Collette Warren. D&B household names Pola & Bryson show their take on the track originally produced by DJ Marky. If this song doesn’t move you, you’re made of stone!


D2: Fluidity & Loz Contreras - Back To You
The LP finishes with a bang. Fluidity & Loz Contreras pair up to transport us back to the sunshine that Marky initiated. Oceanic pads and wispy vocals merge seamlessly to craft a warm and groovy finale that will leave you craving more Innerground energy, as this incredible centennial LP boldly forges its place.

Hanagasumi - hazy curtain of flowers, cherry blossoms appearing from afar like a white mist - this phenomenon can be seen during the sakura blossom in Japan.

The third release on the label from the musician Shine Grooves. This vinyl is a mini LP of five tracks with different moods. The release is opening with a melodic track with exciting keyboard chords, performed in the best traditions of electro rhythm. On the second track, the mood changes towards a glitch house with a 4x4 beat and a naive melody that penetrates deeply into the mind. The first side of the vinyl is closing with a techno track - a loop recorded on a Roland TR-606 drum machine with an atmospheric melody that flutters in the air throughout the entire composition.

The second side of the vinyl starts with a 10-minute ambient ode, with cosmic synthesizer sequences and fragments of phrases from telephone conversations - a slow entrance to another reality. The last track on the record has an experimental IDM flavor with melodic guitar tones.

This LP is made on 12" vinyl, hand stamped, limited to 300 copies. High quality analogue mastering by Sergey Luginin at Luginin Studio.

Francisco López offers a brand new field recording composition based on the recordings he did in the island of Tenerife whilst visiting for a performance at the Keroxen Festival, 2020.

Internationally recognized as one of the major figures of the sound art and experimental music scene, Francisco has an ear-like gift to point his microphones (and our ears) to the most special and unlikely of sound sources. For almost forty years he has developed an astonishing sonic universe, absolutely personal and iconoclastic, based on a profound listening of the world. Destroying boundaries between industrial sounds and wilderness sound environments, the presentation here is not unlike his most famous and celebrated works whilst still maintaining its unique relevance among a prolific catalogue of sounds.

Entitled Hidden Island Music the work explores its aforementioned ‘hidden sounds’ of Tenerife with a high sensorial mix of environmental and ‘industrial’ recordings taken in and around the Massifs of Teno and Anaga and later composed into a unique sonic journey through the huge sound pits of this rugged region of north Tenerife.

Another masterful work from one of the masters of his craft, shifting from the limits of our perception to the most dreadful abyss of sonic power, a profound and transcendental listening open to sensory and spiritual expansion.

Original environmental sound matter recorded at multiple locations in Macizo de Teno and Macizo de Anaga (Tenerife), November 2020.

Evolved, composed, edited, mixed and mastered at ‘mobile messor’ (Tenerife, Den Haag) and Dune Studio (Loosduinen), 2020-21.

When you’re trying to make it through tough times, you need a little light to find your way. That light blazes brightly on the alchemical second album from Penelope Isles, an album forged amid emotional upheaval and band changes. Setting the uncertainties of twentysomething life to alt-rock and psychedelic songs brimming with life, colour and feeling, ‘Which Way to Happy’ emerges as a luminous victory for Jack and Lily Wolter, the siblings whose bond holds the
band tight at its core.

 Produced by Jack and mixed by US alt-rock legend Dave Fridmann, the result is an intoxicating leap forward for the Brighton-based band, following the calling-card DIY smarts of their 2019 debut, ‘Until the Tide Creeps In’. Sometimes it swoons, sometimes it soars. Sometimes it says it’s OK to not be OK. And sometimes it says it’s OK to look for the way to happy, too. Pitched between fertile coastal metaphors and winged melodies, intimate confessionals and expansive cosmic pop, deep sorrows and serene soul-pop pick-you-ups, it transforms ‘difficult second album’ clichés into a thing of glorious contrasts: a second-album surge of up-close, heartfelt intimacies and expansive, experimental vision.

 Field recordings were made during a stay at a small cottage in Cornwall, where Penelope Isles began work on the album. With romantic heartache already in the air, things swiftly got worse:
lockdown began, claustrophobia kicked in and emotions ran high. As Jack puts it, “We were there for about two or three months. It was a tiny cottage with four of us in and we all went a bit bonkers, and we drank far too much, and it spiralled a bit out of control. There were a lot of emotional evenings and realisations, which I think reflects in the songs.”

 At different points along the way, Jack Sowton and Becky Redford left the Isles. An old friend, multi-instrumentalist Henry Nicholson, stepped in swiftly - “A godsend after a low time,” says Lily. Another friend, Hannah Feenstra, contributed drum parts; now, Joe Taylor is the band’s drummer. After Cornwall, the band redid many of the rhythm tracks, recorded a little in Brighton, then recorded more in Cornwall at their parents’ house. “It was,” says Jack, “a proper
rollercoaster ride.”

 The ride continued with Fridmann, whose recent credits include Isles’ favourites Mogwai’s No 1 album, ‘As the Love Continues’. As Lily puts it, the process of sending Fridmann a mix, receiving it back in the morning and then having five hours to make decisions on it resulted first in stress, then in something sublime. “I love everything he’s touched - MGMT, Mogwai, Mercury Rev. He would turn our mix into this electric, fiery thing. There were some moments that were
initially hard, like on ‘Miss Moon’, where he took out the bass when it gets to the chorus. But now it’s my favourite bit on the record. He made everything so colourful. It’s an intensesounding record - a hot record. It was so refreshing to have that blast of energy from Dave - it’s like he framed our pictures.”

 Away from the confines of the cottage, the Wolters also opened the door to a collaboration with storied composer Fiona Brice, whose credits include John Grant, Lost Horizons and Placebo. A
“big bucket-list tick” for Jack and Lily, the team-up results in glorious arrangements across the album: for Lily, ‘11 11’ stood out. “I was in absolute tears when she sent back the strings for ‘11 11’. It was like, oh my goodness, she’s nailed it.”

 On its release, ‘Until the Tide Creeps In’ received rave reviews from Q, DIY, The Line of Best Fit and many others, while finding champions in Steve Lamacq and Shaun Keaveny. It also become part of a lifeline for music fans during the 2020 lockdown when the band participated in Tim Burgess’s Twitter Listening Party. Meanwhile, extensive touring saw the Isles develop into a formidable live force, with ‘Gnarbone’ emerging as a sure-fire showstopper.

 Now, the Isles have 11 more showstoppers to add to the mix. At the album’s heart, the band’s core traits have never been stronger: the bond between the Wolters, a sensitivity towards complex feelings, a desire to celebrate life in all its facets and an ambitious reach combine to create an album that feels utterly, emphatically present on every front, rich in depth and uplift.

 LP pressed on 180g clear vinyl with A4 print.