First Step Beyond by proto-metal quintet Medusa might have forever shifted the perception of Chicago rock history had it managed to make the leap from tape to its never-realized vinyl pressing. Instead, the conflagation of Sabbath, Hawkwind, and Amon Duul II remained petrified in the Corycian Caverns... otherwise known as the drummer's basement. Self-produced on four track in 1975, this lone transmission from Medusa's repertoire appeared on the extremely mysterious Pepperhead label, whose proprietor allegedly disappeared after a bad trip and was never been seen again. Forged in ceremonial mock-velvet, custom embossed in Gorgon-gold and blood-red, and art directed in accordance with the band's elaborate original stage props and artwork, Numero Group positioned this unreleased opus to finally reach its destination: the stereos of pot-smoking and leather-clad teenagers, young and old.
Read any article or comment thread about the Seattle noise-rock outfit GREAT FALLS and you're likely to see descriptors like cathartic, heavy, crushing, and unhinged. Maybe even psychotic. And sure, those are all apt: For over a decade, vocalist/guitarist Demian Johnston and bassist Shane Mehling (who also played together in the early-2000s noisecore band PLAYING ENEMY and the experimental duo HEMINGWAY) have honed their sludgy, overwhelmingly intense brand of heaviness, punctuated by delectably discordant riffs, terrifyingly low, thwacking bass lines, and mesmerizingly tight percussion. In the live setting, too, they’re notorious for a stage presence that is so aggressively confrontational and menacing that Mehling once broke his own arm mid-set.
But the most striking aspect of GREAT FALLS, setting them apart from the murky sea of sludge metal and AmRep-inspired noise-rock bands, is their ability to paint a deeply, utterly human story through an all-out assault on the senses: an art the band has perfected on their fourth full-length album OBJECTS WITHOUT PAIN, out September 15 via NEUROT RECORDINGS.
The album is not only their NEUROT debut, but also the first LP featuring drummer Nickolis Parks (GAYTHEIST, BASTARD FEAST), who joined the band prior to the release of their exhilarating, cacophonous 2023 EP,FUNNY WHAT SURVIVES.
OBJECTS WITHOUT PAIN takes us on a bleak, purgative journey through a separation–a snapshot of the turmoil and indecision that occurs after the initial realization of someone's misery, and before the ultimate decision to end a decades-long partnership. From the foreboding intro riffs of “DRAGGED HOME ALIVE” to the end of the 13-minute closer “THROWN AGAINST THE WAVES,” its eight tracks explore the thoughts that come up when a person is staring down the barrel of blowing up their life: How did this happen? Is it too late for a new life? Will the kid be OK? What will make me happier: familiar torment or unknown freedom?
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Endlich die Wiederveröffentlichung dieses High-Energy-Punkrock Klassikers, der internationalen Band, die aus Scott Morgan (Sonic's Rendezvous Band, Solution...), Nicke Royale (The Hellacopters, Imperial State Electric, Entombed...) und Tony Slug (Loveslug) besteht. Mit Scott Morgan von Sonic's Rendezvous Band (neben Fred "Sonic" Smith von den MC5) haben die Hydromatics eine echte Detroiter Legende in ihren Reihen. Morgan gründete die BAND 1998 zusammen mit Nicke Royale (The Hellacopters) und dem Gitarristen Tony Slug (Loveslug) und veröffentlichte '99 dieses großartiges Debütalbum mit dem Titel Parts Unknown, das den Motor City-Rock-Sound vergangener Tage in Form eines modernen Power-Punk-Rawk-Outfits wieder aufleben ließ und nun endlich wiederveröffentlicht wird. Das Album beginnt mit einem kräftigen Remake von "Earthy" von der Sonic's Rendezvous Band und rauscht die ganze Zeit über weiter, keine Balladen. Morgan singt sich den Arsch ab, und die Band unterstützt seine Stimmgewalt mit furiosen Sound, indem sie mühelos zwischen knallhartem Rock und rauchigem Soul hin und her schaltet. Eine Mischung, die sich Fans der Garage nicht entgehen lassen sollten. Für alle eingefleischte Punk- oder Hardrock-Fans, und alle, die gernn deftig rocken und ebenso auf den swingenden Sound der 60er Jahre stehen, wenn auch durch Wände aus Marshals und einen dicken Vorhang aus Bläsern und Lärm ergänzt. Ein absolutes Muss für Fans von Sonic's Rendezvous Band, MC5, Stooges, The Hellacopters, Bored!...
Bullion ist Nathan Jenkins, ein Produzent und Songwriter der elektronischen Musik, der Künstler, Genres und die britische Subkultur miteinander verbindet. Seine Credits reichen von Carly Rae Jepsen, Ben Howard, Nilüfer Yanya und Avalon Emersons Durchbruchsalbum „& The Charm“ bis zu Platten für Westerman und Joviale. Bullions gefeierte Solo-Veröffentlichungen sind bei Young, The Trilogy Tapes, Jagjaguwar und seinem eigenen Label DEEK Recordings erschienen. Es ist ein kreativer roter Faden, den Bullion auf seinem neuen Überraschungsalbum „Affection“ verknüpft - ein warmes, gelegentlich schräges und wunderschön umgesetztes Pop-Album. Bullions Musik war schon immer schwer zu fassen, aber absolut unverwechselbar - und auf „Affection“ ist es ein großes Vergnügen zu hören, wie dieser kompromisslose Ansatz zum Teil durch Weichheit verstärkt wird. Das Album fragt laut nach der Bedeutung von Intimität in der Beziehung zu anderen und zu sich selbst. Nathan wendet auf Bullions neuestem Album an, was er seinen Künstlerkollegen schon seit Jahren im Studio ans Herz legt: offen für Abenteuer zu sein. „Affection“ betritt einen emotional präsenteren, oft verspielten Raum, mit den Kollaborateuren Carly Rae Jepsen und Charlotte Adigéry, die Songs zieren, in denen Gefühle Vorrang vor festen Bedeutungen haben. „Rare“ zum Beispiel entstand während der Sessions für Jepsens jüngstes Album in Toronto: hohe Energie, die sich schüchtern gibt, um etwas "tief im Herzen" auszudrücken. „World_train“ ist ein exzentrischer und brillant schräger Blickwinkel auf Bullions Liebe zum Pop, der mit seiner Lokomotivkraft eine verlorene Vergangenheit inmitten der Unsicherheiten des Alltags heraufbeschwört. „I can hardly understand what it takes to be a real man'", singt Bullion. „…and nobody can“, bestätigt Adigéry. Dennoch, Verbindungen - verpasste, eingebildete oder immer noch mögliche - umhüllen einen Großteil von „Affection“, mit der Panda Bear Kollaboration „A City's Never“, die entstand, nachdem Noah und Nathan zur gleichen Zeit in Lissabon lebten, sich aber nie wirklich trafen. Für Bullion geht es bei der Bereitschaft, andere in seinen Songwriting-Prozess einzubeziehen, sowohl um die Öffnung der Welt des Albums als auch um die Verbesserung des Werks und der Person. Durch die Vermischung von Beobachtung und Introspektive entzieht sich der Avant-Pop von Affection jeder Kategorisierung. Die Texte des Albums sind ebenso unaufdringlich und hingebungsvoll wie neugierig auf alternative Möglichkeiten des Seins. Nathan hat seinen Sound gemeistert, aber das Leben - mit seinen Erwartungen, Widersprüchen, Impulsen und Sehnsüchten - bleibt unkontrollierbar. „Affection“ ist ein unaufdringlich kraftvolles Streben nach einer mitfühlenderen Form des Vertrauens.
Bullion ist Nathan Jenkins, ein Produzent und Songwriter der elektronischen Musik, der Künstler, Genres und die britische Subkultur miteinander verbindet. Seine Credits reichen von Carly Rae Jepsen, Ben Howard, Nilüfer Yanya und Avalon Emersons Durchbruchsalbum „& The Charm“ bis zu Platten für Westerman und Joviale. Bullions gefeierte Solo-Veröffentlichungen sind bei Young, The Trilogy Tapes, Jagjaguwar und seinem eigenen Label DEEK Recordings erschienen. Es ist ein kreativer roter Faden, den Bullion auf seinem neuen Überraschungsalbum „Affection“ verknüpft - ein warmes, gelegentlich schräges und wunderschön umgesetztes Pop-Album. Bullions Musik war schon immer schwer zu fassen, aber absolut unverwechselbar - und auf „Affection“ ist es ein großes Vergnügen zu hören, wie dieser kompromisslose Ansatz zum Teil durch Weichheit verstärkt wird. Das Album fragt laut nach der Bedeutung von Intimität in der Beziehung zu anderen und zu sich selbst. Nathan wendet auf Bullions neuestem Album an, was er seinen Künstlerkollegen schon seit Jahren im Studio ans Herz legt: offen für Abenteuer zu sein. „Affection“ betritt einen emotional präsenteren, oft verspielten Raum, mit den Kollaborateuren Carly Rae Jepsen und Charlotte Adigéry, die Songs zieren, in denen Gefühle Vorrang vor festen Bedeutungen haben. „Rare“ zum Beispiel entstand während der Sessions für Jepsens jüngstes Album in Toronto: hohe Energie, die sich schüchtern gibt, um etwas "tief im Herzen" auszudrücken. „World_train“ ist ein exzentrischer und brillant schräger Blickwinkel auf Bullions Liebe zum Pop, der mit seiner Lokomotivkraft eine verlorene Vergangenheit inmitten der Unsicherheiten des Alltags heraufbeschwört. „I can hardly understand what it takes to be a real man'", singt Bullion. „…and nobody can“, bestätigt Adigéry. Dennoch, Verbindungen - verpasste, eingebildete oder immer noch mögliche - umhüllen einen Großteil von „Affection“, mit der Panda Bear Kollaboration „A City's Never“, die entstand, nachdem Noah und Nathan zur gleichen Zeit in Lissabon lebten, sich aber nie wirklich trafen. Für Bullion geht es bei der Bereitschaft, andere in seinen Songwriting-Prozess einzubeziehen, sowohl um die Öffnung der Welt des Albums als auch um die Verbesserung des Werks und der Person. Durch die Vermischung von Beobachtung und Introspektive entzieht sich der Avant-Pop von Affection jeder Kategorisierung. Die Texte des Albums sind ebenso unaufdringlich und hingebungsvoll wie neugierig auf alternative Möglichkeiten des Seins. Nathan hat seinen Sound gemeistert, aber das Leben - mit seinen Erwartungen, Widersprüchen, Impulsen und Sehnsüchten - bleibt unkontrollierbar. „Affection“ ist ein unaufdringlich kraftvolles Streben nach einer mitfühlenderen Form des Vertrauens.
In many ways, the music of Writhing Squares could have only originated in Philadelphia; the city itself a microcosm of creatives, go-getters, freaks & weirdos that have coalesced into a supportive & boundary-pushing crew. Former Purling Hiss bassist Daniel Provenzano & Ecstatic Vision sax-player & vocalist Kevin Nickles' first musical missive was shot forth in 2013 (the self-released CDR "Live In Space") & various singles, split releases, albums (and a double-album) later we arrive at the duo's fourth full-length "Mythology", their third for Chicago-based Trouble In Mind Records. "Mythology" picks up the pieces left shattered by their previous double-album "Chart For The Solution" and reconnects the broken shards together like Kintsugi, the ancient Japanese technique for mending broken ceramics, infusing the breaks with powdered gold. The Squares themselves are like mad-scientists, taking the ruined detritus populating junk shops & surplus outlets & constructing their own sonic laboratories in their New Jersey basements to record, mix & tweak "Mythology"s eight tracks. Their new location allowed the band to regroup, reassess & reconstruct their sound from the ground up, shearing away the cosmic excess of 2021's "Chart For The Solution" to a sharper point. Tracks like `Barbarians' & `LEM' are classic Squares; brutal, aggressive, unwavering assault of Motorhead/Stooges-inflected sci-fi punk scree, while others like `Chromatophage's mutant funk & `Cerberus's techno-slink owe a serious debt to electric-era Miles Davis or Herbie Hancock & show that the group has more to offer than bludgeoning you with sonic force. Provenzano's bass & electronics are like a tank rolling across the terrain - a gnarly construct of Hawkwind-ian headiness & `Vincebus Eruptum's snarl - uncaring of what gets in the way. Nickles' brass vacillates between Stooges-influenced sleaze, jazzy no-wave stabs, & cacophonous sonic storms, strafing the listener into oblivion. The duo are joined on "Mythology" by drummer John Schoemaker - who contributed drums to "Chart For The Solution"s epic closing track `Epilogue' - whose percussive pulse adds an organic swing to The Square's sonics, particularly on album closer "The Damned Thing"s cosmic strut. "Mythology" tackles a multitude of themes, from fantastical tales of hellhound `Cerberus' or the comic-inspired "Eternity " to `Chromatophage's colorful/evil yarn about animals that eat colors (or a Magic: The Gathering card) to the true-life influenced `Acid Rain' that deals with the uncertainty of consuming drinking water after a chemical spill in the Delaware River. Elsewhere, `Ferrell' is an homage to the late, great Ferrell "Pharaoh" Sanders & `The Damned Thing' by a short horror story penned by Ambrose Bierce about an animal whose coloring is invisible to the naked eye. Writhing Squares are in a transitional phase, mapping out a new sonic mythology for themselves after crossing the event horizon into unknown space. "Mythology" is streaming on most DSPs & released on black vinyl & limited fluorescent green vinyl (while supplies last) on April 26th, 2024.
In many ways, the music of Writhing Squares could have only originated in Philadelphia; the city itself a microcosm of creatives, go-getters, freaks & weirdos that have coalesced into a supportive & boundary-pushing crew. Former Purling Hiss bassist Daniel Provenzano & Ecstatic Vision sax-player & vocalist Kevin Nickles' first musical missive was shot forth in 2013 (the self-released CDR "Live In Space") & various singles, split releases, albums (and a double-album) later we arrive at the duo's fourth full-length "Mythology", their third for Chicago-based Trouble In Mind Records. "Mythology" picks up the pieces left shattered by their previous double-album "Chart For The Solution" and reconnects the broken shards together like Kintsugi, the ancient Japanese technique for mending broken ceramics, infusing the breaks with powdered gold. The Squares themselves are like mad-scientists, taking the ruined detritus populating junk shops & surplus outlets & constructing their own sonic laboratories in their New Jersey basements to record, mix & tweak "Mythology"s eight tracks. Their new location allowed the band to regroup, reassess & reconstruct their sound from the ground up, shearing away the cosmic excess of 2021's "Chart For The Solution" to a sharper point. Tracks like `Barbarians' & `LEM' are classic Squares; brutal, aggressive, unwavering assault of Motorhead/Stooges-inflected sci-fi punk scree, while others like `Chromatophage's mutant funk & `Cerberus's techno-slink owe a serious debt to electric-era Miles Davis or Herbie Hancock & show that the group has more to offer than bludgeoning you with sonic force. Provenzano's bass & electronics are like a tank rolling across the terrain - a gnarly construct of Hawkwind-ian headiness & `Vincebus Eruptum's snarl - uncaring of what gets in the way. Nickles' brass vacillates between Stooges-influenced sleaze, jazzy no-wave stabs, & cacophonous sonic storms, strafing the listener into oblivion. The duo are joined on "Mythology" by drummer John Schoemaker - who contributed drums to "Chart For The Solution"s epic closing track `Epilogue' - whose percussive pulse adds an organic swing to The Square's sonics, particularly on album closer "The Damned Thing"s cosmic strut. "Mythology" tackles a multitude of themes, from fantastical tales of hellhound `Cerberus' or the comic-inspired "Eternity " to `Chromatophage's colorful/evil yarn about animals that eat colors (or a Magic: The Gathering card) to the true-life influenced `Acid Rain' that deals with the uncertainty of consuming drinking water after a chemical spill in the Delaware River. Elsewhere, `Ferrell' is an homage to the late, great Ferrell "Pharaoh" Sanders & `The Damned Thing' by a short horror story penned by Ambrose Bierce about an animal whose coloring is invisible to the naked eye. Writhing Squares are in a transitional phase, mapping out a new sonic mythology for themselves after crossing the event horizon into unknown space. "Mythology" is streaming on most DSPs & released on black vinyl & limited fluorescent green vinyl (while supplies last) on April 26th, 2024.
Deicide ist eine der drei großen US-Death-Metal-Bands, zusammen mit Cannibal Corpse und Morbid Angel. Nach ihrem letzten Album "Overtures of Blasphemy", das 2018 erschienen ist, kehren Deicide nun mit ihrem neuen Werk "Banished By Sin" zurück.
Deicide sind bekannt für ihre kompromisslose Musik, und dafür, dass sie in den mehr als drei Jahrzehnten ihres Bestehens einige der esten und härtesten Death Metal-Songs hervorgebracht haben. Erwartet die intensivste, brutalste und einprägsamste Florida Death Metal-Platte!
Deicide ist eine der drei großen US-Death-Metal-Bands, zusammen mit Cannibal Corpse und Morbid Angel. Nach ihrem letzten Album "Overtures of Blasphemy", das 2018 erschienen ist, kehren Deicide nun mit ihrem neuen Werk "Banished By Sin" zurück.
Deicide sind bekannt für ihre kompromisslose Musik, und dafür, dass sie in den mehr als drei Jahrzehnten ihres Bestehens einige der esten und härtesten Death Metal-Songs hervorgebracht haben. Erwartet die intensivste, brutalste und einprägsamste Florida Death Metal-Platte!
Stuck in the depths of a dark alley, blocked by yet another breeze, hitting a stone wall, road sign ahead: Dead End.
Impasse. "Cul-de-sac".
Hip‐hop. The original, some would say, official music of the late 20th Century Bronx.
Some say it has endured it's fair share of distractions, detractors and defectors. Some say it has murdered itself, having been abandoned by its so‐called best men, those who have gone off in other directions, or who have, simply, just beat‐retired. Yet, there are plenty of Soldier Monks still out there, prepared to sweat it out in the Temple of Machinery and Mics.
Low Cut honored this cause four years ago, with his MPC crafted minimalist version of NY Minute and he's back to ring the bells and unsheathe the samples!
The starting point of Dead End's production remains the 90's boom-bap, but the will to carry it even further brings it to its destination. By decorating it with rich samples flushed out after digging through vinyls pressed several decades ago, it is guided by a compass pointing deposits to the East. With sound quality inherited from a fastidious composition and mix works, using inspiration rather than just being a copycat, Dead End celebrates it without setting it up as a museum piece.
Picturing the beatmaker stuck in the depths of a dark alley, ended with a brick wall, is easy. But far from isolated in his Parisian basement, Low Cut has rung phones in New York, Baltimore and Detroit, rounding up the faithful. He magnetized the hidden but sharp forces, and gained attendance of legends. The casting of Dead End : Ruste Juxx & Nutso, Dirt Platoon, Guilty Simpson, Torae, Rasheed Chappell and the stainless Masta Ace, among other beat crushers. Also starring DJ Duke, Nix'on, Topic and Ordoeuvre with their DMC titles crates, for a deep beatfight on bars scarified of scratches.
Heavy atmosphere, martial beats and street soul, Dead End is also the final episode of the projects initiated by Low Cut, based on the model of a producer inviting various MCs.
He will then replace his turntable needles, refresh his sample banks, and settle the BPMs of his productions on more abstract frequencies.
Keplar presents the first-ever vinyl edition of the 2003 album »From Tokyo to Naiagara« by Tujiko Noriko. This reissue with new artwork by Joji Koyama is an abridged version of the album as Tomlab label owner Tom Steinle and producer Aki Onda had originally intended to publish it alongside the original CD version. Written by the France-based Tujiko while she still lived in Japan, »From Tokyo to Naiagara« followed up on her two seminal Mego albums and marked a turning point in both the artist’s career and personal life: While she was preparing to leave Japan behind, she succinctly connected the dots between her experiments in pop music and her interest for more abstract sounds. Tujiko worked primarily with a Yamaha synthesizer and an MPC sampler while also incorporating contributions by other musicians such as Onda, Riow Arai and Sakana Hosomi into the pieces. Sometimes approaching an IDM and clicks’n’cuts-style production or working with trip-hop and hip-hop beats while using conventional song structures in the most unconventional of ways, the album showcases her multifaceted influences and skills as a singer and musician to full effect.
Tujiko fondly remembers the time when she made the album. »I had a lot of time for myself back then and I didn’t even feel like I was very busy,« she says today. She describes producing it in close collaboration with Onda, who would relocate to New York City shortly after, as »quite Tokyo and very local.« They explored parts of the city that they hadn’t yet been to for a photography project (finding, among other things, a coin laundry called Naiagara—a transliteration of Niagara). This left its mark on a record that mixes melancholia with joy. The driving opener »Narita Made,« named after one of Tokyo’s airports, already makes this clear: Tujiko’s wistful vocals and lyrics like »I miss you terribly« emphasises the sense of bittersweetness that forms the common thread for a sonically diverse and stylistically open-ended album—this music is looking back while moving forward. It is probably no surprise that its reissue too evokes tender memories of Onda and Steinle in Tujiko, while also reminding her of what lies ahead. »I have so much more to do and not enough time for that,« she muses, before quickly adding: »But I also feel less alone having that album again.«
Influenced in equal parts by the experience of strolling through previously unknown Tokyoite back alleys and thinking about the paths not (yet) taken, »From Tokyo to Naiagara« is precisely that: the perfect travel companion for a journey that leads its listeners from past to future.
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Meaning ‘Hi’ in Uruguayan slang, Opa are a South American jazz-funk phenomenon. Fusing Uruguay’s native Candombe rhythms with North American jazz and pop music, Opa’s space-age synthesizers, boisterous grooves and compositional magic expressed a distinctive Afro-Uruguayan voice within the global jazz vernacular: a voice which remains as vital and unique today as when it was recorded, almost half a century ago.
Having migrated to New York from Montevideo in the early seventies, Opa were heard playing in a nightclub by renowned producer and label owner Larry Rosen. At Holly Place Studios between July and August 1975, Rosen oversaw Opa’s first recordings using a four track TEAC 3340. The album would become home to some of Opa’s hardest hitting funk jams, with moments of songwriting wonderment and soulful pop and rock progressions combining with the jazz-funk fusion Opa would become known for.
Mysteriously (for reasons unknown to the band), Opa’s debut was shelved and remained so until the mid-1990s. But the Back Home recordings were used as demos, gaining Opa a record deal with Milestone Records and the subsequent release of two cult-favourite albums: Goldenwings (1976) and Magic Time (1977).
Opa would also collaborate with North American titans including bassist Ron Carter, producer Creed Taylor and Brazilian icons Airto Moreira, Flora Purim, Hermeto Pascoal and Milton Nascimento. In more recent years Opa’s music has found new audiences after being sampled by Captain Murphy (aka Flying Lotus) and Madlib.
For fans of Azymuth, Weather Report, Cortex and The Headhunters, Opa’s Back Home will be released on Vinyl LP and CD on the 8th March 2024 via Far Out Recordings
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Channeling a love affair with classic '90s hip-hop, an affinity for otherworldly themes and an ear for raw funk, Barclay Crenshaw uses his given birth name to bare his soul and deliver a slowed-down, emotive collection of collaborations and instrumentals. This self-titled debut album is a left-field departure from his better-known alias, Claude VonStroke, but the quality is undeniably the same. The themes of ancient alien abductions and exploration of time and space are discovered and brought to life over ten tracks that sound like a mixture of gold rope chains and new age enlightenment. Modern organic beats mixed with gorgeous melodic moments and underlying grittiness create an experience that is eclectic, expressive and expansive. Coded art furthers the sense of mystery and the unknown, harking back to the past while gazing into the future.
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Label mainstays Fouk just dropped the perfect dancefloor Bomb with ‘Mirage’ paired with a high-octane Elisa Bee remix
We all know Dutch duo Fouk from their soulful, bouncy take on house music. They’re also responsible for some of Heist’s biggest tracks like Kill Frenzy or their Lil Louis inspired 2021 release ‘Blue Steel’. On their new EP, the talented duo shows us a fresh side of their sound: the main-room hands-in-the-air-going-wild side. To top things off, Italian producer Elisa Bee made time in her busy schedule of DJ’ing and releasing for artists like Ben Sims on his Hardgroove imprint and Unknown to the Unknown to deliver a killer remix of the title track.
Fouk’s return to Heist after 3 years is a welcome one and with ‘Mirage’, they might just have given us their biggest house track in their decade spanning career. The track is built around a stuttering synth loop and a seductive female vocal chanting ‘What made you wanna…” The real star here is the bassline, which propels the track into a seriously infectious groove. Add some lush strings and moody changeovers and you’ve got yourself a full-blown dancefloor weapon. Mirage has been a staple in Dam Swindle’s sets for the past months and has been one of their set highlights ever since.
“Coffee” is one for the classic Fouk fans. It’s got lovely Rhodes, a joyous combination of whoo’s, snare-rolls and synth hits grooving on top of an infectious orchestral background loop. “Tapioca” is a hybrid latin-electronic groove that builds on punchy synths, live percussion and drunk keys to balance the energy of the track.
Elisa Bee’s remix of ‘Mirage’ is an intense percussive workout that builds on a breakbeat loop and a rave-bassline. The tempo is turned up a notch or 2 and that stutter synth and vocal of the original make this remix a wild warehouse affair.
Closing track of the EP is ‘Abalone’; A lovely bleep-house affair that still has a bit of that warehouse vibe. It’s got the perfect amount of distortion the drums while keeping things dreamy with some face-melting pads throughout the track.
As always, enjoy the music and play it loud!
Lars & Maarten
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Fünf Jahre haben die vier Linzer Musiker von Schmack an ihrem zweiten Studioalbum 'In Love' gefeilt. Unterstützt werden sie darauf von einer Reihe hochkarätiger Gastvokalist*innen. Denn 'In Love' mit seiner eklektischen Mischung aus unkonventionellem Jazz, vibrierendem Hip-Hop und eingängigen Popmelodien ist eine Ode an die musikalische Unberechenbarkeit. KOOB aus Belarus/Berlin, Fritz Fisherman aus Nürnberg und Mile (Sharktank), Tape Moon, Günther Paulitsch (Good Wilson) und Romc aus Wien jeweils mit auf eine Reise in komplett unterschiedliche Ecken des Schmack-Universums.
On the outskirts of Bratislava, in the pulsating shadows of a refinery's burning chimneys, on the plot of a family house, there stood a small shack. Initially, it housed trials in domestic mushroom growing. Later, after a makeshift acoustic touch-up - lining the walls with old cardboard egg cartons - it became a shelter for music. Sensitive, evocative, nostalgic, lo-fi music by a man named Cadillac Face.
Today we would probably use the term 'safe space', but back then it was (in Cadillac's words) kutica, a cubbyhole. He hid there from a world that ached. Here, Cadillac secretly smoked, sang, and composed. And tried not to go crazy from anxiety. He wrote music unlike anything during his time.
Here, he struggled. With sound (unable to adjust it to his liking), with instruments (which he couldn't bring himself to play), with the world (with which, understandably, he was at odds).
Cadillac Face was a man who didn't belong here.
He wrote and sang in English (in a post-socialist and early-capitalist Slovakia, when command of English was no matter of course); he also wrote in Slovak (blogs and diaries, which, due to a stream-of-consciousness and surrealist style, were as incomprehensible as they were immersive and intimate); gave advice to teenagers (to their quasi-banal questions on talking forums about relationships, life and adolescence, where they were often met with ridicule and mockery); he composed electronic and noise music (at a time when no one had a clue what the abbreviation DAW meant).
This Cadillac's compilation album is not aiming to compete with/replicate Noizy Days - a compilation of Cadillac's contributions to the project Noize Konspiracy. Underground compilations circulated through a local proto-social network. Borderline music without rules - open but often inaccessible. There, Cadillac contributed mostly with experimental-electronic compositions. Noizy Days was compiled by Ďuro Ďurček, one of the initiators of Noize Konspiracy. Both Ďuro and Cadillac have been dead for years.
Songs For The Trees is a selection from Cadillac's songwriting. The most intimate of his intimate recordings. Cadillac at his most fragile, brittle, and quiet. The most romantic, the most tormented, the most painful and direct of his songs I know.
Cadillac became an anthropomorphic grotesque tree. Neither broadleaf nor conifer. Or perhaps it's a candle slowly incinerating – bored, sad, playing the guitar. A tragicomedy. Sometimes it kindles what it doesn't mean to, and it can't put itself out. Or can it?
Shelly y Nueva Generación was a cult Spanish soul and garage band that left an indelible mark on the late 1960s music scene. Their rare 45s, now classic DJ spins in the mod/psych 60s scene, boast a funky Le Beat Bespoke style freakbeat sound. Three singles were released on Philips between 1968-69, including their stunning take on Nonato Buzar's 'Vesti Azul' and the outstanding original 'I'm Just a Fool', as featured on Ivan Zulueta's cult film "Un, Dos, Tres, Al Escondite Inglés". This long-awaited release unveils their complete discography plus many unreleased recordings unearthed from lost tapes now seeing the light of day for the first time! It comes with a 8-page booklet with extensive notes and rare photos of the artists. This compilation stands as both a celebration of the band's legacy and a rediscovery of the timeless allure that made Shelly y Nueva Generación an enduring force in the annals of Spanish music history.
THE VISION BLEAK kehren in der Luxusklasse zurück: Mit ihrem siebten Album "Weird Tales" zollt das deutsche Metal-Duo dem gleichnamigen amerikanischen Pulp-Magazin sowie anderen Geschichten voller Mystik und dunkler Phantasie einen monumentalen Tribut. Das Album besteht aus einem einzigen Track, der in interne Kapitel unterteilt ist. Diese erzählen schaurig-schöne Geschichten, vertonen Gedichte und sind von der klassischen Literatur des Horror sowie des Makabren inspiriert. Unter anderen beziehen sich THE VISION BLEAK auf bedeutende Autoren des legendären Weird Tales Magazins wie H. P. Lovecraft und Clark Ashton Smith. Sie spielen aber auch auf andere Großmeister der Phantastischen Literatur an wie zum Beispiel Edgar Allen Poe und Lafcadio Hearn, dessen "Fantastics and Other Fancies" einen starken Einfluss auf dieses Album ausgeübt hat. Für diese Hommage ziehen THE VISION BLEAK alle Register ihres enormen musikalischen Könnens. Die Kapitel decken die gesamte stilistische Bandbreite von extravagantem Gothic Rock über düsteren Doom bis hin zu harschen Black und Death Metal Parts - sowie so ziemlich alles dazwischen - ab. All die spannenden Elemente, welche die Anhängerschar des Duos lieben und schätzen gelernt hat, sind auf diesem Album vertreten: das Dramatische und Theatralische, das Raue und Schwere, das Melancholische und Unheimliche, aber auch eingängige und symphonische Momente. All diese Stränge sind zu einem dichten Klangteppich verwoben, der von einem wiederkehrendem Auf- und Abschwellen zusammengehalten wird, das an klassische Kompositionen erinnert. THE VISION BLEAK sind aus der Freundschaft zwischen Gitarrist, Bassist und Sänger Markus Stock alias Ulf Theodor Schwadorf und Schlagzeuger und Sänger Tobias Schönemann alias Allen B. Konstanz entstanden. Nach anfänglichen Experimenten in Richtung Gothic Rock fanden THE VISION BLEAK ihre eigentliche Berufung, als das Duo begann, ihre gemeinsame Liebe zum Horror-Genre mit einzubeziehen. Bereits das Debütalbum "The Deathship Has a New Captain" (2004) erzielte sowohl in Gothic- als auch Metal-Kreisen auf Anhieb einen Volltreffer und gilt mittlerweile als Klassiker. Da das Debütalbum thematisch an bedeutende Horrorfilme angelehnt war, nannten die Deutschen ihren Stil treffend: Horror Metal. Mit den folgenden Alben kultivierten THE VISION BLEAK einen Ruf als Garanten für stilvolle und hochwertige Musik. Thematisch drehen sich alle Werke um das Horror-Genre: Auf "Carpathia" (2005) folgten "The Wolves Go Hunt Their Prey" (2007) und "Set Sail to Mystery" (2010), "Witching Hour" (2013) und "The Unknown" (2016). THE VISION BLEAK, die Meister des Horror Metal, schenken der Welt ihr bisher ambitioniertestes Werk: "Weird Tales". Diese ausnehmend schöne und von Herzen kommende Hommage an das goldene Zeitalter der Phantastischen Literatur ist musikalische Poesie. Der Hörer möge mit Bedacht lauschen, sollte dabei aber immer auf der Hut sein. In diesem Song lauern unheimliche und verbotene Klänge aus anderen dunklen Welten!
With his debut EP Mo Wrights delivers a jazz-focused and narrative-driven record navigating the inner dialogue of a creative struggle of inferiority, abstraction and commitment. The story finds him enlisting some friends along the way to advance from one act to the other.
With the title track - ‘things2proof’ - Mo tries to combine his myriad of influences in a 6-minute record that weaves together elements of jazz, broken beat, acid jazz, fusion, hip-hop and hints of rock. The coherence comes from his poignant narrative, which resembles a four-act structure, telling the story of alienation and his internal experience of inferiority, creative frustration, and his eventual recognition of a solution, concluding by finally permitting himself to simply ‘be’. And for that we thank him!
The b-side ‘proof of concept’ follows the title track, Mo embraces a more laid-back approach, sitting sonically closer to his beloved broken beat sound. Amsterdam-based pianist Misto Kay delivers a long soul-felt piano solo that carries the track into untold dimensions of groove. With this offering the soul feels both heard and yearned for. It’s as if desire and satisfaction are in conversation with one another. You can’t help but be gripped, pay attention, and listen.
As a co-founder of the Amsterdam-based music platform Steppin’ Into Tomorrow, whose ethos is anchored in the principle of collaboration and unification of the Dutch scene is a deeply felt sentiment throughout Mo’s EP. He enlists a slew of emergent local legends, such as QUANZA, drummer Jamie Peet, flutist Han Litz, bass player kotokid and pianist Misto Kay to embellish and remix his creation. The remixes also illuminate other bright creatives the local scene has to offer, with remixes by the likes of - Kofi the Unknown, LYMA, Misto Kay and Jazz n Dance.
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Emotional Rescue dives back into one of its specialties, the formative years of Post Punk and Dub influenced music, presenting the, to date, unheralded Skinbat Scramble. The rarity of the unknown, the discovery of rich, lost music, it is a delight to release a compilation of the band's previously unreleased recordings. A snapshot of time, a journey that covers several decades of friendship but is concentrated here on the fertile 80's scene.
Forged around the friendship of Mark Eason and Fergus Crockford, but with ever changing line-ups, flowing in and out during misspent youths, self-taught playing, falling in and out of bands, travelling that well-worn journey from Home Counties boredom to the excitement of a rough edged London, taking in as music as possible, from Motown on to the The Velvet Underground, The Rolling Stones, Bowie, Pink Floyd, Gong and Fripp & Eno, before Dr Feelgood, Eddie & The Hotrods and a dose of John Peel led to discovering Dub and Punk and witnessing that short-lived burst of creativity at the Roxy Club, Marquee or Vortex and exploring back to early Rock'n'Roll, Rockabilly and old Surf'n'Soul, alongside the likes of Wire and Suicide.
As the Post-Punk sounds mixed simultaneously with Two-Tone, local Art College gave way to university and the early struggles of finding a way in the late 70s / early 80s of Thatcher's Britain. Music was central, Skinbat Scramble finally appearing, morphing from numerous teen bands, early studio excursions of tape loops and effects leading to the first recording sessions in 1981.
The slower tempos, introspection, open structures, and shimmering experimentation of Post Punk were pivotal. John Foxx's early Ultravox, Siouxsies' "Lord's Prayer" period and The Electric Chairs seminal "So Many Ways", influenced to a freer future. PIL, ACR, Section 25 and Pink Military let imaginations briefly roam.
'Far out and weird', those first recordings made at Leeds Uni's Fine Arts Dept utilized Revoxes, Tandberg, MiniMoog and even a borrowed drummer. This was followed up with completed sessions at Elephant Studios in London, forming the basis of this compilation.
The tight scattergun rhythms on opener Submit, in both Vocal and short Dub mix, bely an unreleased band. Taught and crisp, it's like a song you've heard propelling open-minded, leftfield dancefloors for years.
The writing, musicianship and studio mastery displayed on North By Northwest and Skiddadle should not be music unreleased for almost 40 years. In North Dub and closer, Pixie Boot Dub their understanding of the opportunities of dub Reggae are clearly apparent, ethereal music wormholes for late night smokers.
However, it is in Basement Voltaire that the band step out time. Recorded in 1986 this is a 9-minute proto-techno wonder that mixes all their psychedelic meets punk youth in a crescendo of crashing claps and rolling toms that is of a time and so far ahead of its time.
And that was that, after 6 gigs, including a couple at the infamous St Martins, to an audience total you can fit on one hand, the band's first incantation closed and the master tapes were stored for several decades, waiting for "The Psychedelic Pirates" to finally surface.
Revision of new beats on the horizon
Every 20 years or so, certain musical movements come full circle. Young musicians are inspired by genres dating back two decades, channelling them through their modern sensibility. The legendary J Dilla’s Donuts album was released in 2006 and instantly marked a starting point for the work of musicians worldwide, laying the foundations especially for the beat scene in Los Angeles. A whole young generation of musicians brought up on the new, instrumental and abstract hip-hop has carried jazz into a new era. The four London-based musicians who make up Uniri have gone one step further by abandoning the idea of a jazz band and "bedroom production" in favour of collective composing, creating a new look at the new-beat aesthetics, framing it as a road novel set in an unspecified time and space.
Uniri translates as ‘one unified dream’ and is the key driving motto of the project conceived by Chiminyo (Cykada, Maisha), the band's founder and head honcho. The project materialised in his private studio, where he invited fellow jazz musicians Amane Tsuganami (Jorja Smith, Maisha), Al Macsween (Nubya Garcia, Gary Bartz, Kefaya) and Luke Wynter (Nubyan Twist, Golden Mean) to spontaneously compose together. Hence, despite this being the band's first album, it wouldn't be right to call them rookies. The result of Uniri's collaborative work is the psychedelic, rhythmic album Infinite Reflections, packed with cosmic and warm synths, which neatly balances hip-hop beat and jazz composition. It's safe to say this music is even more appealing when played live, although it's equally suited to the club dancefloor.
UK Jazz has become a permanent fixture in the London landscape, but also across Europe and the US. Today, the musicians who shape the new wave of jazz are drawing on more and more genres, reducing solo improvisation for the benefit of composition and increasingly drawing on influences from the beat scene. Among such formations are the British NOK Cultural Ensemble, the Polish Błoto, the Belgian ECHT!, and the Dutch Comité Hypnotisé. Uniri is part of this emerging yet already international trend, creating an entirely fresh aesthetic that echoes artists such as Flying Lotus, Samiyam, Dorian Concept, Ras G and Nosaj Things oriented around the Californian 'new beats generation' scene.
The title Infinite Reflections alludes to a phenomenon observable on the open sea or during intercontinental flights. Gazing at the horizon blurs the boundary between the ocean and the sky, forming an infinite palette of blue shades. This inspiration sparked an elusive musical narrative, navigating between a sea voyage and an astral journey, destination unknown.
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Guests are Jessica Higgins and Matthew Walkerdine of Glasgow, UK, both formerly of the bands Vital Idles and Mordwaffe. They have been closely tied with DIY music, art and publishing for over a decade. Using (amateur) electronics, singing, speaking and field recording they make songs which blend the rhythms of popular music and contemporary approaches to collage, sampling, improvisation and repetition. As inspired by film and art as they are the legacies of twee underground and avant garde experimentalism, their loose, domestically twinged compositions explore feelings, atmospheres and moments which are hard to articulate and the quite literal notion of being a “guest”.
“I wish I was special” is their debut record, and with it a chance taken to explore terrain not previously covered by their other groups. The ideology of DIY practice appears integral to these eleven compositions, side-stepping virtuosity in favour of instinct and impression, unafraid to press unknown buttons and walk head first into mistake, finding inspiration where convention might not otherwise allow one to tread. The results are confoundingly fresh, sharp-of-mind, and unusually intimate. There’s an obvious intelligence at play here, and no little humour of course, but crucially there’s also a sense of the personal, a first-thought/best-thought (auto)didacticism that celebrates shared understanding and implicit trust. What, ultimately, we might view as the fearlessness in radically being yourself around another. It’s an approach that draws some comparison with the private musings of Flaming Tunes, Idea Fire Company’s domestic electronics, or perhaps even Annea Lockwood’s framing of emotional connection within avant garde structures. More so, Guests represent a compelling continuation of DIY post-punk experimentation that values intuition over prowess, and with it guides the listener into unexpected spaces that somehow comfort as much as they challenge.
Second Compilation Of New Music By Ex-Sarah Records Bands! Under The Bridge 2 is the sequel to the celebrated 2022 compilation album that reunited groups and songwriters who had once recorded for cult label Sarah Records. The new album showcases the continuing creativity of a special group of musicians who have never rested on their laurels. Bigger and more expansive than the first album, Under the Bridge 2 is a double LP, containing twenty brand new tracks. There is a huge range of material here, from intense, dark chamber pop to dense shoegaze to out-and-out indiepop. Exciting new groups are unveiled: The Gentle Spring (a new project by Michael Hiscock of The Field Mice); Vetchinsky Settings (a collaboration between Mark Tranmer and James Hackett of The Orchids); and Mystic Village (which features new songs by Robert Cooksey of The Sea Urchins). You will also see familiar starry names like Even As We Speak, The Orchids and Secret Shine - bands whose line-ups have remained mostly unchanged since the 1990s. And there are established bands who didn't appear on the first album but are now represented - bands like Action Painting! and The Hit Parade. Most of the tracks are exclusive and unreleased: there's the first new song from The Catenary Wires since 2021, a brand new fizzbomb from Jetstream Pony, a haunting instrumental from GNAC. The emphasis of Under The Bridge is on the new. The bands' shared history means they have a shared aesthetic, even a shared ethos - they all believe that the future is more important than the past. They are as independent and as uncompromising as ever, but they are still uncynical - and still excited about what Pop Music can be. Under The Bridge 2 is available as ltd vinyl double LP, CD and digital download. It will not be on streaming sites. CDs and LPs include a 12 respectively 24-page illustrated colour booklet.
There weren't a lot of rockabilly bands from Norway in 1993, and Hot Rod Torgeir & His Rock-A-Hulas were rather exotic when they appeared as unknown freshmen on the Oslo stage with washboards on fire, two drummers, skeleton masks and fireworks from the edge of stage. After some line up changes they went on to record the album "Cruisin'". The songs were mostly originals, with classic rockabilly themes such as cars, girls, card games, sex and goats. Two bonus tracks have been added to this vinyl reissue including a cover version of "I feel fine" by The Beatles.
One of the most imaginative, creative EP’s we have ever put out on Vinyl Fanatiks. Originally released on Three Scar Records in 1993, Silver Fox’s own label, hailing from Wolverhampton. Back in 2019 it was repressed on Vinyl Fanatiks on orange vinyl but sold out before it got to distribution, so grab a copy while you can.
This EP has incredible sample usage and amazing depth and texture for a hardcore release, I do not think there is another release like it from that era. Silver Fox use to rent a flat with Goldie when they lived in the city as they were both on a printing course. Silver Fox stayed in the Wolverhampton and put his printing course to good use, making rave t-shirts which he would sell at Club Kinetic and Quest in Wolverhampton – two rave clubs that were renowned across the UK at that time. He now runs Ricochet Print and does all the merch for Vinyl Fanatiks.
This is an EP you can listen from start to finish and be taken on a trip to a time when Akai samplers were being brutalised and Cubase was the king of the rollers.
Only 140 have been pressed on 180g pink marbled vinyl.
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A quietly influential figure among electronic and experimental circles since the late 90s, Berlin based sound artist Hanno Leichtmann has been developing a sprawling and idiosyncratic vision both as a creator and curator.
With a keen sense for charting new territories, Leichtmann's work spawns a multitude of languages that go from deli-cate ambient excursions to techno explorations or abstract sceneries on numerous sound installations, releases on such esteemed labels like Entr'acte or The Tapeworm and collaborations with artists like Valerio Tricoli or Jan Jelinek. A reflection of his keen sense of discovery.
Centered around the Villa Aurora Organ, an intriguing and mostly unknown instrument built in 1928/29 by the Artcraft Organ Company in Santa Monica, California, 'Outerlands' presents a deeply personal approach to the instrument's particular properties, very much in line with Discrepant's ethos. Consisting of a pipe organ, a wall mounted marimba and a two octave tubular bells/chimes ensemble, remotely controllable by MIDI, the Villa Aurora Organ's rich palette of sounds is translated into 12 short tracks capable of conveying the mesmerising spirits of minimalism, exotica and de-votional music.
Starting with the ecstatic sound of the pipe organ, 'Lucero' sets up the hypnotic mood for 'Outerland's excursions through moments of spiralling repetition - 'Tramonto' -, blissful contemplation - 'Sunset' or 'Notteargenta' - or underly-ing tension - ‘Coperto’. 'Espera' amps up the unease, with queasy organ tones lurking beneath marimba harmonic motifs that wouldn't sound out of of place on some survival horror movie, while 'Miramar' or 'Revello' bring an uncanny sense of familiarity through its repetitive melodies.
Drifting seamlessly through a variety of moods that somehow feel connected - the outerlands are within you, if you allow yourself to let go.
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Organ of Corti, the trio of Joachim Nordwall (IDEAL Records, The Gagmen), Mattias Gustafsson (Altar of Flies) and Dan Johansson (Sewer Election, Enhet för Fri Musik) returns with another exercise in the slow-motion decay of analog sound. Usher, a minimal hypnotic track on side A reveals its subtle details after multiple listens while the claustrophobic Trauma on the flipside will grab your immediate attention. Machines that hum, sputter, and crackle while slowly moving forward. Vaguely familiar tape loops, spacious synths and crumbling electronics. A journey into the unknown.
The Swedish underground scene continues to deliver some of the best experimental acts and Organ of Corti firmly establish themselves as part of the foundation with a recent self-released cassette, another cd on New Forces and this new single. While their sound has clearly evolved, these alchemists are staying true to their original intention of forging fragments of surreal nightmares.
