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After years of compulsive listening, fantasising about its story, and tracking down the people who made it, it is a treat for Hot Mule & Secousse to finally share this well-kept secret amongst Caribbean music lovers in its entirety.

Composed, written and arranged by esteemed producer Alex Dorothée, this eponymous solo album of Meliza, an amateur singer hailing from Guadeloupe island, was recorded in 1984 in Paris. A Lo-fi, synth-heavy gem that is hard to categorise: Is it early Zouk? Biguine? Kadans? Calypso?

Support by: Anja Schneider, Karotte, Steve Lawler, Nic Fanciulli, Darin Epsilom, Claptone, Damian Lazarus, Magit Cacoon, Robbie Akbal, Paco Osuna, Chris Fortier, Noah Pred, Mihai Popoviciu, Pathaan, Spektre, Niconè, Click + Click, James Flavour, Gary Beck, can "Khan"Oral...
For the 10th release on LOK Recordings, we prepared something truly exquisite. Welcome Skiclub Toggenburg and Roman Flügel aboard!
SCT provided two energetic house tracks full of driving basslines, vocal fun and analog synths. In addition to the originals “Cocolocobye” and “Zmorge mit Pascal” we added a smashing remix by Roman Flügel.

Peaceful, percussive and idyllic new age from Japanese composer and student of gamelan music, Yas-Kaz. This seminal album is a cornerstone to understand the Japanese ambient and environmental movement. He rose to musical prominence composing for the dance troupe led by one of the founders of Butoh, Tatsumi Hijikata. The album features a wide range of entirely acoustic instruments and field recordings and was made for stage performance by Sankai Juku Butoh Group at Theatre de la Ville, Paris.

Yas-Kaz has influenced quite a few important artist (Ryuichi Sakamoto, Midori Takada, Geino Yamashiro-Gumi) over 4 decades. However, he remains somewhat "unsung": Glossy Mistakes unveils his art throughout this special edition. His composition/music is not focused on any specific genre/style of music either. Especially in his work for dance theatre he often delivers bare abstract sound/resonance which might not be recognized as "musical" from the Western perspective. He lived in Bali, Indonesia in the 70s introducing the gamelan Balinese sounds and culture to Ryuichi Sakamoto (collaborated in the album "Esperanto), Midori Takada, Shoji Yamashiro (leader of Geino Yamashiro-gumi who later created the soundtrack for "Akira”) among others.

A unique and unseen masterpiece unveiled again throughout a remastered edition.

New 2x12" on Ear Clip Series.

E.N.M. steht fur Endlich Normale Menschen (E.N.M. stands for finally normal people, editor's note). This double opus, compiled by Low Bat, can be considered as a collection of friendships and encounters, where phlegmatism and melomania are intertwined. It includes tracks by F. Æmbient or Vamilienfa†er, two sheet metal artists from the Berlin experimental scene with their respective labels, Kashual Plastik and Bohemian Drips, as well as a track by Dame Area, a Barcelona duo that Low Bat booked during their 4 years of Berlin penitence.

The nine tracks oscillate between two main lines. The first record offers to discover a palette of more introspective feelings, where twilight layers cross broken rhythms and almost acidic progressions. The second, on the other hand, allows one to step by step to break away from this approach and look at introspection in a different way, alternating between unbridled joy (4K - Schabernak) and consistent melancholy (3H by Blume Attempt).

Mariah Careys 30-jähriges Karrierejubiläum geht weiter! Nach der Veröffentlichung der Doppel-CD "The Rarities" am 2. Oktober erscheinen am 6. November ihre Alben "Emotions", "Music Box", "MTV Unplugged EP" (erstmals auf Vinyl), "Daydream", "Butterfly" und "Rainbow" - neu gemastert - auf schwarzem Vinyl.

Mariah Careys 30-jähriges Karrierejubiläum geht weiter! Nach der Veröffentlichung der Doppel-CD "The Rarities" am 2. Oktober erscheinen am 6. November ihre Alben "Emotions", "Music Box", "MTV Unplugged EP" (erstmals auf Vinyl), "Daydream", "Butterfly" und "Rainbow" - neu gemastert - auf schwarzem Vinyl.

Mariah Careys 30-jähriges Karrierejubiläum geht weiter! Nach der Veröffentlichung der Doppel-CD "The Rarities" am 2. Oktober erscheinen am 6. November ihre Alben "Emotions", "Music Box", "MTV Unplugged EP" (erstmals auf Vinyl), "Daydream", "Butterfly" und "Rainbow" - neu gemastert - auf schwarzem Vinyl.

Mariah Careys 30-jähriges Karrierejubiläum geht weiter! Nach der Veröffentlichung der Doppel-CD "The Rarities" am 2. Oktober erscheinen am 6. November ihre Alben "Emotions", "Music Box", "MTV Unplugged EP" (erstmals auf Vinyl), "Daydream", "Butterfly" und "Rainbow" - neu gemastert - auf schwarzem Vinyl

Mariah Careys 30-jähriges Karrierejubiläum geht weiter! Nach der Veröffentlichung der Doppel-CD "The Rarities" am 2. Oktober erscheinen am 6. November ihre Alben "Emotions", "Music Box", "MTV Unplugged EP" (erstmals auf Vinyl), "Daydream", "Butterfly" und "Rainbow" - neu gemastert - auf schwarzem Vinyl.

"...The most beautiful thing about my burrow is the stillness. Of course, that is deceptive. At any moment it may be shattered and then all will be over. For the time being, however, the silence is with me." - Franz Kafka

In early 2019, at the Sonic Pieces 10 year anniversary in Berlin, label head Monique Recknagel hand-picked three duos from the imprint to perform live together for the first time. One of the collaborations was between Deaf Center's Erik K Skodvin and electronic composer Jasmine Guffond. The performance went so well that Monique commissioned the duo to record a full-length together.

Six months later, Guffond and Skodvin headed to Berlin's VOX-TON studio and recorded for two days, joined by Finnish musician Merja Kokkonen (Islaja), who improvised wordless vocals. With Guffond on laptop and a cymbal and Skodvin using piano, feedback, farfisa organ and percussion, the two composed an album of deep, enveloping sound that slithers through genre, absorbing Kokkonen's unique voice into five intricate and evolving pieces.

"The Burrow" takes its name from Franz Kafka's unfinished short story that was written only six months before his death. The tale, published posthumously in 1931, centres around a small creature who builds a burrow that's anxiously fortified in an attempt to protect against perceived attacks. This sense of fear of the outside world feels even more focused in 2020. Each track is named after animals that are either extinct or almost extinct, adding a sense of loss that hangs in the air, punctuated by screams and deep reverberating piano hits. As the world we thought we knew quickly retreats from view and the idea of safety shifts rapidly, Skodvin and Guffond explore the impulse to protect what we know with an emotionally charged sound that provides a foil with cautious, haunting spaces in between.

The Fall is a deconstruction of November by Dennis Johnson.

Written for solo piano in 1959, November is the first example of minimalist music composition and was the inspiration for La Monte Young's The Well-Tuned Piano (1964). The 66 minute piece is a collaboration between legendary artist Lustmord and renowned classical pianist Nicolas Horvath, in which they reduces Johnson's original November to its core element and place it in a landscape of complimentary sound. The Fall echo's November but with further resonance.

Recorded in May-June 2019 in Los Angeles, and Misy-sur-Yonne, France.

Lustmord
Active since 1980, born of the original 'industrial' scene of the period. With its own distinctive approach, blurring the line between music and sound design Lustmord's work has featured in 45 motion pictures including The Crow and Underworld and also in video games, television and commercials. Recently Lustmord scored the music for Paul Schrader's movie First Reformed. While Lustmord is often credited for creating the 'dark ambient' genre there is much more nuance to its work than what that label implies. The music is not dark, but is a light that shines into and upon the darkness. Notable collaborations amongst many include Tool, Melvins, Jarboe, John Balance of Coil, Clock DVA, Chris & Cosey, Paul Haslinger, Karin Park and Robert Rich.

Nicolas Horvath
An unusual artist with an unconventional résumé, pianist and electroacoustic composer Nicolas Horvath is known for his boundariesless musical explorations. Horvath is both an enthusiastic promoter of contemporary music - he has commissioned numerous works (including no fewer than 120 as part of his Homages to Philip Glass project in 2014) and collaborated with leading contemporary composers from around the world, including Alvin Lucier, Mamoru Fujieda, Jaan Rääts, Alvin Curran and Valentyn Silvestrov - and a rediscoverer of forgotten or neglected composers such as Moondog, Nobuo Uematsu, Germaine Tailleferre, François-Adrien Boieldieu, Hélène de Montgeroult, Jean Catoire, Karl August Hermann.

The first instalment of the ultimate collection of tracks from legendary reggae superstar, BOB MARLEY! Marley sold more than 20 million records throughout his career, making him the first international superstar to emerge from the so-called Third World. Also available, Volume 2.

O$VMV$M the Bristol based production duo of Amos Childs (Jabu) and Sam Barrett (Kahn & Neek) have traditionally dealt in hazy, smoked out vignettes - seen across release for Idle Hands, No Corner and most recently providing music for the Manonmars LP.

Where the duos previous work has explored ideas in short bursts which capture you then fades away; IDLE063 takes their sound into unexplored directions and shows an evolution in their output. By extending their ideas into long form tracks within the traditional lineage of bristol soundsystem culture and combining it with their unique ear for sampling Phase 4 / Witch brings O$VMV$M's into a territory which shows how wide their sound can truly reach

There is definitely something "afro" inspired about this latest EP from Puma & The Dolphin, certainly in comparison to pretty much everything else I've ever heard from him, which includes a great EP on Canadian imprint Chambre Noir and some stellar inclusions on every one of Dj soFa's highly respected "Elsewhere" compilations.

I'm told that while immersed in domestic life during lockdown in Sofia, Bulgaria, the music evolved to take in what was happening at home and saw the inclusion of toy instruments, his own drum playing, the voices of his children playing and even the family parrots whistling and squawking in the background. These random ambient insertions when seen in the context of the hypnotic and percussive rhythms and timbres throughout are oddly reminiscent of the late, great Francis Bebey who, although culturally and physically a million miles removed, was also known for recording much of his work at home and who also featured the voices of his children playing.

In fact, it is as much the music's playfulness and simplicity that give the pieces their distinctive character, at times echoing the repetition and mesmerism of Raymond Scott's "Soothing Sounds For Baby" series. Yet, childrens' music this is not. There is a mysticism and depth on one hand and a willingness to experiment on the other that reminds me of pioneering experimentalist K. Leimer's early Eno-inspired tape outings as well (see "Supermarket" for example).

I asked Puma & The Dolphin's Nikko Names if he could share the story behind how these six tracks came together. He had this to say:

"This collection of pieces were created during a monotone period of my life which I have overlaid with colour: a time in which I surrender to the beauty of home life - watching my kids play, feeding the birds - entwining these sounds of my surroundings amongst the rhythmic layers of these pieces. Playing the drums to remind us of the next circle dance for four. There is something mystic to travel only in your head; a shamanic trip inside the body with no concepts and answers."


"Good stuff ... digging Am Am Am and Supermarket in particular" JD Twitch Optimo Music / Blackest Ever Black / Strut / On-U Sound

"Cool stuff" DJ SoFa Pingipung / Emotional Response / Kalahari Oyster Cult

5LP Boxset featuring classic tracks from across the catalogue of reggae’s greatest superstar.

East London-born music legend and all round boundary-breaking innovator, Dizzee Rascal, today announces the release of his 7th studio album, entitled ‘E3 AF’ and new single ‘L.L.L.L (Love Life Live Large)’, out via Island Records.

This new release marks the genesis of a new era for Dizzee and is the first album wholly written, recorded and produced in the UK in over a decade. ‘E3 AF’ is a 10-track layered, purposeful statement of intent, rooted in Dizzee’s inedible ties to both east London and Black British music’s legacy. He sound is sharper, stronger and more self-assured than ever, and it is obvious that he has poured the creative energy of the past few years into ‘E3 AF’ as a body of work. First single, L.L.L.L (Love Life Live Large), features Tottenham born MC Chip and kicks open the door with the force of a steel toe capped boot. Chip, adds another thwack of bravado to the rumbling, Dizzee-produced beat. ‘E3 AF’ confirms Dizzee’s status as an artist still very much in his prime, sonically it draws on the infectious pace of grime and resolutely forward-thinking UK rap. From one song to the next, you are taken on a journey through Black British musical excellence. Ice-cold UK drill drips on Smoke Boys-featuring ‘Act Like You Know’ (produced by MK the Plug) and Eastside pulses with pure grime courtesy of Chubby Dreadz and Platinum 45. Self-produced opener ‘God Knows’ (featuring P Money) and high-octane ‘You Don’t Know’ pull from dubstep, grime and drum ‘n’ bass while threatening to wreak havoc with your speakers. By the time Alicai Harley’s warm up vocals float over sunny syths on the deeply personal ‘Energies + Powers’ (produced by Steel Banglez), the album practically radiates heat. Dizzee Rascal is a unique artist that has inspired many for multiple generations. From his 2003 debut album release, the Mercury Prize-winning ‘Boy In The Corner’ to date, Dizzee has continued to push expectations and boundaries. He is British musical royalty. Every album that followed stacked up another marker of success. Between 2004 and 2017 all album releases blasted firmly into the Top 10 Official album chart, won awards, critical acclaim and amassed Dizzee a huge following of devoted fans. ‘E3 AF’ is set to confirm Dizzee Rascal’s status as the master at the top of his game.

Today internationally renowned composer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and visual artist Tim Koh announces the release of his debut solo album ‘In Your Dreams’, set for release on 18 September via Tim Burgess’ O Genesis Recordings. The announce follows the release of recent single ‘Fall Into Your Dream’ in May.

In Your Dreams is Tim’s most straightforward and accessible release to date, and an exciting addition to his body of solo work, which hitherto can broadly be described as experimental noise. The poignant song collection tackles core themes of life’s calamities, broken love, and transitory relationships, yet counterbalances its essential melancholy with a whimsical, upbeat, and playful spirit throughout. While not strictly autobiographical, the songs draw from Tim’s recent personal experiences during his two-year isolation from friends and family, and create a compelling narrative of alienation, loss, and love.

Tim wrote In Your Dreams in Amsterdam, L.A., and London in-between his time touring with Ariel Pink, and subsequently recorded the songs at home in Amsterdam while recovering from a near-fatal 2018 accident. The recurring hospitalizations that Tim has endured in recent years subtly find their way into the album through phone recordings from Tim’s actual hospital stints, underscoring the album’s themes on this highly personal work. In Your Dreams deftly juxtaposes lush, densely layered sounds with stark simplicity through a series of quick turnarounds, creating the captivating feeling of tension and release that characterizes this remarkable song collection.

Guest musicians on In Your Dreams include Chris Cohen on guitar, and drum help from Jay Watson (Tame Impala, Gum) and Josh da Costa (CMON). Adding to the family feel of the album, longtime Ariel Pink and Tim Koh collaborator Jorge Elbrecht performed mixing duties along with mastering by Heba Kadry.

Tape / Cassette

Ferdinand Domes is an all-round electronic music producer with a current focus on sound design and ambient tracks. Horror Childs Orient is a collection of live drum machine and syntheziser jams that were created live in Ferdinand’s studio. All tracks are a result of a flow in the moment, creating a sonic scene rather than an arranged track. The result is a collection of atmospheric rhythms, grooves and ambience. The focus is on the individual sounds and the characters of the different machines in Ferdinand’s collection; such as drum sounds from the MFB522 and TR626, synth lines from the Kawai 1M, Yamaha PSS380 and Mikrokorg. All run through tape decks and tweeked with Portastudio and guitar pedals creating a raw and warm analog sound.

Veteran NYC based Scottish electronic musician Drew McDowall's latest work is his loftiest, most liturgical, and least industrial outing to date —and potentially the apex of his recent discography.Named after an ancient Greek word for votive offering, Agalmaexudes a hooded, devotional aura, creaking and keeling under vast rafters of stone, stained glass, and shredded wires. It's a music of majesty and mystery but also modernity, McDowall's refined modular system shape-shifting strings, piano, pipe organ, and choral masses into disorienting synthetic mirages of the sacred. He cites the intersection of “joy, terror, and the elegiac” as a centering inspiration –or, phrased more bluntly, “that 'what the fuck is going on' feeling.”



As a career collaborator himself, with stints in Coil, Psychic TV, and countless other shorter-lived partnerships, it's telling that McDowall chose this project to gather such an impressive spectrum of peers. Italian synthesist Caterina Barbieri, American drone organist Kali Malone, prolific multi-instrumentalistRobert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, operatic Humanbeast vocalist Maralie Armstrong-Rial, Saudi producer MSYLMA, and warped futurist beat-makers Bashar Suleiman and Elvin Brandhi cameo across the album's 42 minutes, contouring McDowall's nuanced negative spaces with shudders, shadows, and shivering flickers of serenity. Each of them shines in their spotlight, elevating these elusive alchemical states into surreal revelations of texture and transcendence.



McDowall's original working title for the record is revealing: Ritual Music.He speaks of his creative practice in ceremonial terms, negating binaries by seeking the middle path to anuminousequilibrium that erases the distinction between the inner and outer worlds.These compositions feel similarly processional and intuitive, at the crossroads of holiness and hallucination, the sacred vertigo of yawning naves rising into untouchable night skies. It's a vision of industrial music as enigma and invocation, cryptic hymnals of shroudedbeautysummoned in catacombs and crumbling cathedrals.



Despite its depths, Agalmais also an album of immediacy and emotion. Celestial laments of and for times of unrest and suffering. McDowall characterizes his initial intention for this music as an to attempt to convey experiences he felt incapable of putting into words: “To try and approach sublimity, or at least acknowledge it in some way.”Agalmamore than acknowledges the ineffable –it embodies it.

A journey to far outlands: this is exactly what one can feel when listening to Béliz. Entitled Mémoires, the album from the band Béliz, explores new territories where the Guadeloupean musical tradition meets the harmonic universe of the harp. Béliz is the dialogue between the world of classical harpist Anne Bacqueyrisse, percussionist Olivier Maurières and multi-instrumentalist and singer Edmony Krater, fervent supporter of the Gwo Ka, the ancestral musical tradition coming from Guadeloupe. Founder of the band Zepiss, once a member of Robert Oumaou's collective Gwakasonné, Edmony Krater always had the will to open the Ka to other cultures and to incorporate new sounds. Indeed, with Ti Jan Pou Vélo, his tribute album in the memory of Marcel Lollia known as Vélo (one of the greatest drummers of Guadeloupe), released in 1987, Edmony Krater brilliantly mixed jazz-fusion, Occitan folklore, synthesizers with the distinctive Ka rhythms.

The meeting of Anne Bacqueyrisse, Olivier Maurières and Edmony Krater at the Music Academy of Montauban, gave birth to Béliz. In 2009 the group of three musicians-teachers, under the impulse of one of their pupils, decided to record in studio their project, Mémoires. Béliz, with its innovative and singular artistic approach, is a true invitation to travel. The title “Arawak É Karayib” is a vibrant tribute to the native West Indian people. “Gwadloup” - an acoustic version of the song already featured on the album Ti Jan Pou Vélo - is an ode to Edmony’s beloved island. “Natibel”, an hymn to Nature - another cover from the Zepiss band – makes sense here in a minimalist version.

A true fusional object, Béliz moves us to new horizons, both imaginary and poetic.

Birds are singing, a soft female voice embraces the stars, then the funk hits the fan: the second album of mysterious Japanese singer Nadja haunts immediately and marks one of the most exquisite reissues in the ever-growing catalogue of Studio Mule. Originally released in 1989 as promo only CD on the Japanese label Polystar, the album features some of the finest eighties pop funk fusion arrangements of the era. A deeply enchanting lost gem, that gets listeners instantly into heavy repeat addiction.

All ten songs are arranged by a group of grandmasters of their art. Japanese saxophonist, composer and music producer Yasuaki Shimizu, man behind the electronic ambient fusion classic “Kakashi”, was in charge for tunes like “Wac-Wack”, a neon light funk pop song, full of soft big city eroticism, ultra-slick synth lines and real funkateer explosions. It’s followed by “夢のとりこ”, the most stirring pop tune on the album, that originally was written by French composer, multi-instrumentalist, actor and singer Areski Belkacem, known for his and long-time collaborations with French avantgarde singer Brigitte Fontaine. Shimizu transformed the song into a low hanging funk jewel, with a cool rolling bassline, dub depth and synths that cry for cosmic help. Above all Nadja signs with a sexy chill, that somehow could only emerge in the 1980ees, when the cold war even made pop music real cool. The follow up is named “真珠のように”, features again music by Belkacem, this time transformed by Shimizu into electronic erotic pop - dreamy, witchy and precisely musical composed.

The B-Side opens with “Velvet Rain”, a funky urban boogie composition by Japanese keyboard player, composer and producer Akira Inoue, enlarged with glimmer camp kitsch, that immediately puts a smile on the listeners faces. It gets followed by “Paradise Catcher”, a soft pop tune with longing string and horn sections, arranged by legendary Jamaican rhythm and production duo Sly & Robbie. It somehow marks one of the strangest songs in their longstanding career, as it is largely minimal orchestral but yet super tight when it comes down to the rhythmic magnitudes. The next tune, “Private Tripper”, also stays soulful, funky and horn driven. Always pleasing the super tight, yet feathery voice of Nadja, that is dancing about boogie grooves and illuminating melodies with a seducing tragical coolness. Finally the album ends with a stylistic break in the overall musical atmosphere. It comes from Japanese musician Hiroaki Goto, it’s called “地図をずっと南へ”and features Afro-Brasilian voodoo rhythms, pan flutes, cosmic piano notes and Nadja, singing like a rain forest sorceress from outer space.

Ten arrangements by a bunch of high-grade arrangers, that all left Nadja’s voice enough space to widespread her talent as a supremely seducing singer, who wrote all lyrics, vocals and chorus by herself in order to present her touching vocal class in a vivid, bewitching timeless style. Come in and get ensnared!

Creole poetry, folk mysticism and heavy-grooving cosmic synths combine on this unprecedented survey of spiritual Martinique polymath Gratien Midonet's first four albums. For Midonet, pushing musical boundaries was less a choice than an extension of his spirit. A self-taught guitarist and composer, drawing on his childhood memories of bélé and beguine rhythms, Midonet's musical life developed in parallel to his academic and spiritual pursuits. Studying philosophy and psychopedagogy in France, it was his fascination with pan-Africanism and animism which fuelled the transcendent energy of his music. Although Midonet honed his sound in France, the four albums he released during the late '70s and '80s were heavily inspired by diasporic nostalgia, or what he describes as the "smells and colours... subliminal noises... fruity notes, the memories of funeral wakes, the bombastic organ of the cathedral and the gasps of the drums" of his childhood home on the Caribbean island of Martinique.

Hailing from Brussels, Bandler Ching is a creation of musical ideas from composer and saxophonist Ambroos De Schepper. Flawlessly blending contemporary jazz, electronics, hip-hop, noise and global beats, the sound is based around the freedom of expression and improvisation and performed with dazzling conviction.

John Winston Ono Lennon would have been 80 on October 9th 2020. In celebration of his life and the incredible pleasure his music has brought to millions in his lifetime, a new Best Of will be released. A multi-format collection, entitled GIMME SOME TRUTH., this set has been personally curated by the Lennon estate and mixes the biggest hits like the classic and timeless “Imagine” with campaigning songs such as “Give Peace A Chance” and the evergreen classics like “Happy Christmas (War Is Over)” and is culled from all of his solo albums including the posthumous “Milk And Honey”.

John Lennon is simply one of the most recognised and respected musicians of the modern era. As one half of perhaps the most successful songwriting partnerships of all time he deserves his place in history. That this partnership was with Paul McCartney in The Beatles means that he is also one of the most successful recording artists in history. With every succeeding generation falling for their genius, their legend continues to grow and they dominate the pop landscape.

Their split in 1970 allowed each of the band members, by now literally some of the most famous people on the planet, to find their own voice as solo artists and to grow beyond the confines of the band. For John Lennon, this meant throwing himself headlong into life with his new wife, Yoko Ono and eventually a new life in New York City.

Being a solo artist meant that he could delve deep within himself and realise music that was both deeply personal and challenging and which sometimes required a commitment from the audience too. His songs during his solo career mixed accessible pop melodies with sometimes stark and heart-rending simplicity and all points inbetween. His lyrics ranged from deep introspection and self-analysis to subjects that were more concerned with politics (of self, of relationships, of the campaign for peace, of the place of mankind as well as global politics). After a first rush of creativity, he took a step back from the limelight to care for his son, Sean, at home in New York, but when he was ready he returned to recording with one of his most successful and impactful albums. Double Fantasy, preceded by the single (Just Like) Starting Over had been released the month before his life was tragically cut short on 8th December 1980. But this album joins the rest of his solo canon as testament to one of the truly great and truly iconoclastic musicians and personalities of the era.

Speedcore crazyness is back... USN legendary label restarts their Project, full of olskool head and newskool boyz !
Superb tune.. .crazyness at its max from the ultimate guitar heroes to the dirty minimalists machineguns...

DO NOT MISS THIS UNIQUE PEARL !

Following up on their debut LP Kick Drunk Love for Marcel Vogel’s Intimate Friends imprint a few years back, we are proud to present the next installment in the sporadic KAMM legacy: Cookie Policies.

Far more sonically rich and musically adventurous than its predecessor, Cookie Policies sees the band make bold strides into new territories where classically hardwired categories such as jazz, indie rock, and electronica melt into one another with immaculate, timeless ease.

The band members’ positions are more clear cut as well this round, with Marc David Barrite (aka Dave Aju, who also did one of his coveted mix engineering jobs on the LP) on prominent lead vocals in many of the pieces, Alland Byallo on trumpet, Kenneth Scott on synth bass, and Marc Smith adding guitar sections while the others shared the arranging and programming duties. This makes for a deeper continuation of the otherworldly combination of their known individual production styles, as well as a musical whole truly greater than the sum of its parts.

The set starts off with “Bird Call”, whose opening ode to Morricone ok corral-meets-samurai showdown riffs flow into a loose and drifting psychedelic boom bap blip, building until a glorious change-up of key and energy brings the track to its peak and deconstructed back down. “Rachel, the Largest Bullfrog” then takes things in a sweeter, slightly more traditionally-structured direction where dusty indie-folk ballad vibes intersect with an array of twisted cosmic tones, bits of computer keyboard percussion, and deep rolling sub bass. “Buckle Down” then moves things back away from acoustic restraints into a beautiful synth-laden musing on potential regret, with an ultra-potent horn section from Byallo vs a nasty stacked Roland SH-101 finish.

“CCBPGC” cools things off for a few minutes with an ambient field recording slice-and-dice motif, which slowly but surely evolves into a slinking jazz noir groove from another dimension. The more traditional song structures return on the lovely “La Luna”, where Barrite’s pen and soulful voice take to nautical longing themes over apropos waves of sonic textures. The ebb and flow of the verse/chorus sections eventually rise and give way to an absolutely gorgeous denouement. “Shleem” then takes us into pure unadulterated soaring sci-fi soundtrack ambient blast-off bliss, while the epic closing track “The Soft Glow of Electric Sex” gives a hearty nod to early masters of sprawling psychedelic jam sessions, from Pink Floyd and Can to In A Silent Way-era Miles and Liquid Liquid, while bringing it clearly into futurist millennia. The gradual evolution of the piece into its grand finale is the stuff we true music-lovers live and die for. We hope you enjoy the ride as much as we do.

LTD Clear 2LP+MP3

Limited edition, stocks might have to be allocated! Baker's Dozen is a vinyl series that shines a spotlight on instrumental music and the personalities behind the craft. To commemorate the 13th release in series history, Fat Beats Records aims to focus on thirteen of its most respected producers with the aptly titled compilation "Baker's Dozen: XIII".

Das gute Stück ist nun endlich 'durchsichtig' auf Vinyl erhältlich! Auf die Frage, ob Album Nummer fünf das persönlichste der Bandgeschichte ist und der Schreibprozess diesmal besonders intensiv und erleuchtend war, ob man vielleicht gar von einer Weiterentwicklung und/oder Neuerfindung von Montreal sprechen kann, orakelt Schlagzeuger und Medienprofi Max Power sich ein nebulöses "möglich" aus dem Bart. Gut gebrüllt!

Gorillaz started the year with Episode 1 - ‘Momentary Bliss ft. slowthai and Slaves’ - of Song Machine, a whole new concept from one of the most innovative bands around. Now, six episodes in, Noodle, 2D, Murdoc and Russel have visited Morocco and Paris, London and Lake Como, as well as travelling all the way to the moon, and Gorillaz is ready to bring you the full collection titled Song Machine: Season One - Strange Timez, out on 23rd October 2020.

Song Machine is the ongoing and ever-evolving process which has seen Gorillaz joined by an expanding roster of collaborators captured live in Kong Studios and beyond. The result is an expansive collection of tracks embracing a myriad of sounds, styles, genres and attitudes from a breath-taking line-up of guest artists including Beck, Elton John, Fatoumata Diawara, Georgia, Kano, Leee John, Octavian, Peter Hook, Robert Smith, Roxani Arias, ScHoolboy Q, Slaves, Slowthai, St Vincent and 6LACK.
To date the project has seen over 100million streams on all tracks already and the band’s biggest period of sustained growth across both listenership and fanbase growth. All this before the album has even been announced!

Virtual band Gorillaz is singer 2D, bassist Murdoc Niccals, guitarist Noodle and drummer Russel Hobbs. Created by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, their acclaimed eponymous debut album was released in 2001. The BRIT and Grammy Award winning band’s subsequent albums are Demon Days (2005), Plastic Beach (2010), The Fall (2011), Humanz (2017) and The Now Now (2018). A truly global phenomenon, Gorillaz have achieved success in entirely ground-breaking ways, touring the world from San Diego to Syria, winning numerous awards including the coveted Jim Henson Creativity Honor.

The band are recognised by The Guinness Book Of World Records as the planet’s Most Successful Virtual Act.

2 x 180g Black 12” vinyl
20 page hardcover 12” art book
Song Machine Season One Deluxe CD
Download card for the full deluxe album
3 x 12” art prints
1 x 12” label copy sheet











j 10. Désolé (feat. Fatoumata Diawara) Extended Version










j 10. Désolé (feat. Fatoumata Diawara) Extended Version

Repress / White Vinyl

French artist Franck Kartell returns with Alaska, his fourth full length release on UK imprint Bass Agenda Recordings. Critically acclaimed for his masterful blend of low bpm heavy beats and signature deep atmospheres Kartell moves from the fascination with the work of film maker Chris Marker's that powered his last two albums to the drama of Alaska. Like its geographical namesake the album spans ethereal beauty, drama, light and darkness and similarly provides a very individual landscape.

The (in)famous ice skater Wosto, after his solo EP, returns on our label, this time, bringing reinforcements with him: NOSTALGIE ÉTERNELLE (Inox Kapell and Dieter Mauson) .

SAUERSTOFFF (oxygen / one F for every freak as they say) is the name of their band.

Three sick tracks, with a very German imprint, came out from their last meeting and we caught it on the fly and engraved on the groove for the pleasure of your ears.

The release will be available in a limited series of 150 hand stamped 7’’.
Mastered at Sensorium

“His music defies predictable electronic pigeonholing” – VICE French-Canadian producer and live act Christophe Dubé, aka CRi, is a dance music star in the making. Following in the footsteps of fellow Montréalers Jacques Greene and Kaytranada, CRi has risen through the city’s bubbling scene in recent years and now reveals his debut album ‘Juvenile’. A self-taught college dropout, CRi caught the attention of tastemaker press with early single ‘Rush’ and his 'Someone Else' EP. 'Rush', accompanied by an award-nominated music video, and 'Someone Else' picked up a nomination for Electronic Release of The Year at the 2018 Juno Awards (Canada’s equivalent to The Grammy’s). “I’m just a pizza delivery guy that said fuck it…” CRi’s sound blurs light, dream-like melodies with textured production - capturing the energy of the dancefloor, and the nostalgia of the morning after. Christophe draws inspiration from his musical heroes Moby, St Germain and Daniel Bélanger (who appears on the album), along with more contemporary influences ranging from Caribou and Dark Sky to Jacques Greene and Actress.

Indem er immer neue Kunstformen und Kanäle wählt, um seine Vision zu verwirklichen, ist der Franzose Woodkid im letzten Jahrzehnt zu einer heimlichen Ikone avanciert: Er ist ein audiovisueller Ausnahmekünstler, dessen Werk stets seine Handschrift trägt, obwohl es mit jeder Zusammenarbeit und jedem Release neue Formen annimmt. Dass Woodkid jemand ist, dem es gelingt, eine Brücke zwischen der alten und der neuen Welt zu schlagen, wussten wir bereits. Und das nicht bloß, weil der junge Franzose schon mit etlichen Superschwergewichten der internationalen Popwelt zusammengearbeitet hat: Lana Del Rey und Drake waren da genauso dabei wie Rihanna oder auch Pharrell. Noch entscheidender und außergewöhnlicher ist vielmehr, dass er zu den wenigen Künstlern gehört, die wirklich inter- bzw. multidisziplinär arbeiten, klassische Genre- und Gattungsgrenzen hinter sich lassen, weil ihn einfach so unglaublich viele Ausdrucks- und Kunstformen interessieren und faszinieren. Als Musiker reichte ihm ein einziges Album – The Golden Age –, um damit ein deutliches klangliches und visuelles Zeichen zu setzen und neben unglaublich viel Kritikerlob auch unzählige Fans für sein Projekt zu gewinnen. Und jetzt, nach einer gut fünfjährigen Reife-, Konzentrations- und Experimentierphase, geht er noch mit seinem neuen Album S16 einen Schritt weiter. Aufgenommen wurde S16 in den Londoner Abbey Road Studios sowie in Berlin, Paris, Los Angeles und Island

Nach 6 jähriger Abstinez nach seinem letzten Projekt (Life Is Good), meldet sich Nas diesen Sommer
mit seinem neuen Album NASIR zurück. Das Album entstammt aus der Produzentenschmiede von
Kanye West und ist ein Produkt aus der vom Produzenten ins Leben gerufenen "Wyoming Sessions".
NASIR ist das vierte Werk aus den genannten Sessions und enthält ebenso wie die Vorgänger
("Daytona" Pusha T, "Ye" Kanye West, "KIDSSEEGHOSTS" Kanye West & Kid Cudi) sieben Titel. Das
Album ist mit hochkarätigen Gastauftritten von Puff Daddy, 070 Shake, Kanye West, Tony Williams und
The-Dream bestückt. Das Album ist bereits sein elftes Studioalbum und stieg auf Platz 5 der
Billboardcharts ein.

This music was composed for SKALAR, an audio-visual kinetic art installation by light artist Christopher Bauder & Kangding Ray SKALAR is a large-scale art installation that explores the complex impact of light and sound on human perception. Created by light artist Christopher Bauder and musician Kangding Ray, this monumental artwork is a reflection on the fundamental nature and essence of human emotions. By combining a vast array of kinetic mirrors and perfectly synchronized moving lights with a sophisticated multi-channel sound system, SKALAR offers an audio-visual narration of radiant light vector drawings and multi-dimensional sound in enormous pitch-dark spaces. SKALAR is an intense journey through the cycle of basic human emotions. Everchanging tonalities trigger the full spectrum of emotional experiences using light, sound, and motion. The feelings of awe, surprise, exhilaration, and anticipation of having one’s senses overwhelmed are created, explored, and repeated in cycles throughout the piece, providing a collective, yet highly individual emotional experience. Light and darkness as endless cycles of day and night define our perception of time and influence our emotions. SKALAR is a central piece within light artist Christopher Bauder’s body of work, reflecting his deep fascination with light. In this gigantic installation, light is treated as a solid material that can be dimensionally sculpted and shaped, evoking abstract emotional associations. Intertwined with the tireless exploration of textures, rhythm, and sound design by musician and composer Kangding Ray, the silence of darkness is filled with iridescent forms of spatial light and sound. The original composition is spatialised in 360° over a 12 channels sound system, this stereo version has been mixed and mastered to convey a similar sense of space.
As of the release of this record, SKALAR has been presented in Berlin (Kraftwerk) in 2018,
in Mexico City (Frontón) in 2019 & in Amsterdam (Gashouder) in 2020. Fore more information about the piece and its concept, please visit skalar.art

Aber mich macht’s traurig ("But It Makes Me Sad") is Kai Althoff’s first regular release after several records as Fanal and before with his band Workshop. The music for the double album was recorded by Kai Althoff between 2016 and 2019 with numerous instruments - including synthesizers and various flutes, guitars and African drums, rattles, cymbals, ratchets and Japanese string instruments.

"Nobody had to bear this music, neither was it thought out by anyone, played by none, nor dedicated to someone. Also, one no longer is, and therefore this utterance generates itself and is music to nobody’s ears.

Organizing the entombed power structures, paving alongside the most beautiful nettle-seamed trickle of remembered civilization on one’s own authority, which eventually gives in to its assumption; its mouth pasted (over) with the dried-up vomit of its intentions, never to open again. It carries this desparate melancholy, always ready to ridicule all of its (own) forms, to get to the bottom of all matter. Poking in the flesh of doggedly pursued gnosis with fingers, with weary despisement, deflating to crinkly tissue after life’s bloating :Oh, seriously! How could I be sad, the way they carry themselves and sing as they do that Alas, those whose fingers these are, just take those flutes and instruments! —- in liberation without the Idol, to no longer play something."
A.M.

GES: Anthology of American Pop Music

Six great pop standards remembered: five pop songs are dissected by sampler, stretched, compressed, and re-collaged. In this way, their identity is lost. What remains is a vague concreteness: flashes of déjà vu and remote echoes that evoke the original.
GES (Gesellschaft zur Emanzipation des Samples)
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Active members: Helmut Schmidt, Jan Jelinek
Founded: 2009
Headquarters: Federal Court of Justice, Karlsruhe, Germany
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GES Glossary

Acoustic Surveillance Series

A 7-inch vinyl record series curated by GES focussing on historical methods of acoustic surveillance. Each record introduces a surveillance system from the past. Starting with Uguisubari in 2017, the series will continue with the release of Orecchio di Dionisio in 2021. GES is open to further suggestions on this subject.

Bundesgerichtshof (German Federal Court of Justice), Karlsruhe

“The use of audio samples as artistic practice may justify the infringement of copyright and intellectual property rights.” (ruling of the German Federal Court of Justice pertaining to Metall auf Metall II, 2016). The court is also the official headquarters of GES.
Circulations

What happens to copyright claims when music from a passing car is captured in a street recording? Is it legal to use this recording freely or is it necessary to obtain licensing rights? Circulations re-enacts this recording situation: audio players are placed in public spaces, where they reproduce the desired sample material. The acoustically choreographed space is then recorded, creating a field recording in which everyday noises circulate together with seemingly incidental music.

Emancipation of Sampling

Fuelled by its criminalization, the act of sampling existing recordings forfeited some of its artistic prestige (see Sampling). GES wishes to rehabilitate and re-emancipate the practice of sampling as a form of art in its own right. Strategy: 1. Name samples and sources explicitly. 2. Choose samples that are as popular and as recognizable as possible (Beatles, Carpenters, etc.). 3. The editing and manipulation of the sample must not compromise its recognizability (negotiable). 4. Use as many samples as possible. 5. Always name more sample sources than were actually used in the composition.

Field Recording

A compositional practice widely used in sound art and ethnomusicology that involves the recording of natural acoustical phenomena. Two additional requirements are usually imposed: The recording process should take place outside a studio environment, i.e. outdoors. And the person recording does not generate any of the acoustic material him/herself. GES expands this definition by introducing the concept of choreographed public space (see Circulations).

Gambling

An acoustic event favoured by GES, already used in numerous sound collages (must take place in public). The most popular option is thimblerig, a cup and ball gambling game commonly played in the street. Compositional instruction by GES: Place an audio playback device in the proximity of a thimblerigger. Play works for orchestra (by Debussy or Mahler). Move slowly towards the gamblers with a microphone.

Helmut Schmidt

Multiple identity and fictional character devised by GES. Figures variously within the semiotic system of GES as member, guest artist or public representative. Following the historical example of Subcommandante Marcos (EZLN).

Kraftwerk

The German band founded by electropop musicians Florian Schneider-Esleben and Ralf Hütter (a.k.a. Die Prozessoren) is the natural enemy of GES. Protected by computer-generated avatars, Kraftwerk operates a quote-hostile cultural hegemony. Their strategy: Install a special brand in the collective consciousness by means of a sophisticated system of quotations and references that may in turn not be quoted by anyone else. Other bands with such delusions of omnipotence: U2, Metallica.

Marcel Duchamp

As the inventor of the readymade, Duchamp may be viewed as a precursor to the art of sampling. However, the artist is appreciated above all for his sonorous qualities, as his vocal silence has often been sampled and processed. It was the inspiration for Jelinek's radio play Zwischen.

Orecchio di Dionisio

This 65-meter-deep limestone cave in the Sicilian town of Syracuse, carved out of a hillside in ancient times, has exceptional acoustics: A person standing at the cave entrance can hear every word whispered deep down inside it. The painter Michelangelo da Caravaggio gave it its name (The Ear of Dionysius) in 1608. The cave indeed resembles an ear and – according to Caravaggio – had a specific function: The tyrant Dionysius I imprisoned his political prisoners in the cave in order to spy on them. Orecchio di Dionisio will be featured in the Acoustic Surveillance Series in the near future.

Sampling

Compositional practice whereby recorded music is fragmented, turned into sound collages and transferred into different contexts of meaning. Since the advent of affordable sampling technology in the 1990s, the music industry has been trying to criminalize and/or promote the practice. Both strategies are driven by the same principle: Profit.

Uguisubari

Sound-making floorboards in Japanese temple and castle complexes, featured in the Acoustic Surveillance Series in 2017. In the Edo period, the “nightingale floor” (literal translation of uguisubari) was a popular acoustic warning system. The principle was straightforward: When someone stepped onto the boards, nails would rub against metal clamps beneath the floor, creating a tell-tale squeaky sound that was said to resemble the chirping of the Japanese nightingale.

Wind

A generator of acoustic events and an amplifier/transmitter of existing sounds. A meteorological form of energy appreciated by the GES on account of its unpredictability. A series about wind as an acoustic phenomenon is planned. Working title: Hotel Corridors.

Zwischen (Between)

Radio play by GES member Jan Jelinek based on recordings of various public interview situations. From the speech of the interviewees (all of them eloquent personalities) the pauses between coherent utterances were extracted and assembled. What we hear is an archaic body language: modes of breathing, word particles and onomatopoeic turmoil. A key question for GES: Which comes first, personal rights or artistic freedom? For Zwischen, Jelinek used only recordings by public figures that were already available to the public.

Libreville Records is proud to present a focus on legendary electronic swiss project Mega Wave Orchestra in the form of a compilation LP including unreleased material.Originally released privately in Geneva in 1988 as a box set containing five LPs by The Mega Wave Orchestra and five prints by the artist H. Richard Reimann. The Mega Wave Orchestra, the brain-child of musician, mathematician and composer Christian Oestreicher, was conceived as an multi-media electronic music big-band. It was comprised of seven multi-instrumentalists Christine Schaller, Vincent Barras, Jacques Demierre, Olivier Rogg, Rainer Boesch, Roger Baudet, and Benoit Corboz, with Oestreicher as arranger and producer.The Mega Wave Orchestra created a new hybrid music. It was a music with roots in the jazz and classical traditions, but one which also drew on the sonic freedom of musique concrete and the kind of total experience offered by psychedelia. The diverse backgrounds and specialisms of each of the band leaders/writers resulted in a wide variety of music across the five discs: from austere drones and granular aural detail to warm oddball fusion and gorgeous but cracked vocal jazz. There are useful contemporary comparisons to be made: zoned synth jazz like the Azimuth LP on ECM or Karin Krog’s Freestyle; Larry Heard’s sequencer dreamtime; the Valium minimalism of Pep Llopis or Jun Fukamaki; Dexter Wansel’s shimmering arrangements for Loose Ends, or even the FM sheen meets cold war threat of Donald Fagen’s Night Fly. Here, too, is the sound of music technology about to snowball and define its own aesthetic, unknowingly prefiguring auteurish bedroom producers like Black Dog or The Detroit Escalator Company.Lovely crafted tip-on sleeve. Remastered from Master tapes. 600 copies.