5th solo-album from former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist! 1st album release in over 5 years. Guest appearances from Doro, Matt Barlow, Ronnie Romero & Dino Jelusick. Gus. G. will be touring extensively all over the world during 2026. Gus G. is featured as a playable character in the mobile-game Rock Kommander. The game has a global reach with hundreds of thousands of downloads, and will be promoting Gus G. and Firewind extensively throughout 2026.
Das fünfte Soloalbum des ehemaligen Ozzy Osbourne-Gitarristen! Das erste Album seit über fünf Jahren. Mit Gastauftritten von Doro, Matt Barlow, Ronnie Romero und Dino Jelusick. Gus G. wird 2026 ausgiebig auf Welttournee gehen. Gus G. ist als spielbarer Charakter im Handyspiel Rock Kommander vertreten. Das Spiel hat eine globale Reichweite mit Hunderttausenden von Downloads und wird Gus G. und Firewind im Laufe des Jahres 2026 ausgiebig promoten.
No-one could have predicted the success of The 88, the first album from Minuit
(minwee), or how warmly it would be received. Equally no-one could have predicted that the band would return to the live arena a decade after their final fling or consider pressing their debut on vinyl for the first time.
Formed in Nelson, NZ in 1997, the trio cut their teeth playing regularly around the South Island’s underground club and festival scene. After a hiatus overseas, they began recording The 88 in 2002 in Ryan’s home studio. The lyrics were influenced by their travels around Europe and Ruth's time working for the UN in Kosovo and East Timor; the beats by The Prodigy, Portishead and the UK’s trip-hop and breakbeat scenes.
Signed to indie label Tardus, their tunes were eagerly picked up by the bNet student radio network, which then ballooned into high rotates on TV station C4, helped along by Alyx Duncan’s stunning video for Except You. A busy summer playing live every weekend for three months and seemingly universal praise from the music press led to them swiftly gaining gold sales.
Now 22 years later, with live shows looming, the trio have decided to revisit their debut, completing two previously unfinished tracks from the period to add a bonus to this inaugural vinyl release.
8 years after their last LP Kites, Submotion Orchestra return with their long awaited sixth studio album, the remarkable Passed Me By. A deeply personal journey into memory, creativity, and the passing of time, it shows the band continuing to push their signature electronic sound forward, and the result is some of the boldest and most emotional territory of their storied career.
The album sees the band dive further into the synth-led, minimalist electronic textures and driving beats explored on the 'Five Points' EP, creating hypnotic analogue patterns alongside the post-dub spaciousness and celestial effects of their earliest work. With Ruby Wood's always-emotional vocals soaring over the top, the tracks effortlessly glide through genre and mood, resulting in the widest range of expression and emotion found in a Submotion album yet.
There comes a point in every bands life when originality stops being a virtue and honesty takes the wheel. On their 11th long-playing record: Forgeries (72-84)-(16)- return to the impulse that first dragged them into loud rooms and bad ideas: the urge to steal what we love and make it semi-unrecognizable through devotion. We have partnered with Heavy Psych Sounds Records to release a collection of covers that function less as homage and more as a possession to be given away. The artworkrendered by the ever-amazing Maraldcompletes the ritualiconicunsettlingand unafraid. Weve always believed that a great cover is not mimicry but revelation. Its finding a song that's already lived inside you since youth and letting it crawl outbruised and changed. From the early 90s onward-(16)- have treated covers as translations rather than as replicasacts of tribute and emulationfiltered through distortionfatigueand lived experience. These are songs that taught us how to standhow to falland how to keep going. In our collective headthis album exists because these songs demanded it. Because they screamed copy meand we listened. In the endForgeries (72-84) stands as both a thank you note and a thefta reminder that all music worth a damn is borrowedbrokenand passed on between friends. The selections on Forgeries 72-84 span eras and attitudesunified not by genre but by necessity. Each track is a document of obsessionof influence absorbed and re-expressed without permission.
There comes a point in every bands life when originality stops being a virtue and honesty takes the wheel. On their 11th long-playing record: Forgeries (72-84)-(16)- return to the impulse that first dragged them into loud rooms and bad ideas: the urge to steal what we love and make it semi-unrecognizable through devotion. We have partnered with Heavy Psych Sounds Records to release a collection of covers that function less as homage and more as a possession to be given away. The artworkrendered by the ever-amazing Maraldcompletes the ritualiconicunsettlingand unafraid. Weve always believed that a great cover is not mimicry but revelation. Its finding a song that's already lived inside you since youth and letting it crawl outbruised and changed. From the early 90s onward-(16)- have treated covers as translations rather than as replicasacts of tribute and emulationfiltered through distortionfatigueand lived experience. These are songs that taught us how to standhow to falland how to keep going. In our collective headthis album exists because these songs demanded it. Because they screamed copy meand we listened. In the endForgeries (72-84) stands as both a thank you note and a thefta reminder that all music worth a damn is borrowedbrokenand passed on between friends. The selections on Forgeries 72-84 span eras and attitudesunified not by genre but by necessity. Each track is a document of obsessionof influence absorbed and re-expressed without permission.
He's worked as an artist, producer, songwriter, and scorer for the past decade, "winning a MOBO (for his work on Bashy's Being Poor Is Expensive)", as well as being nominated for GRAMMY, Juno, and Ivor Novello Awards, along the way. Recently, Runkus felt a deeper calling towards the world of visual art, which has lead to working with Bahamian artist Tavares Strachan, whose multi- disciplinary output has earned him a MacArthur Genius Prize. With the new album, SUPERNOVA, which includes guest appearances by Sean Paul and Peter Tosh, they have reignited a seamless collaboration of music and art, following in the footsteps of pairings like The Velvet Underground & Andy Warhol, Kanye West & Virgil Abloh, and (closer to Runkus's home country of Jamaica) Bob Marley & Neville Garrick. Roots reggae, thumping bass, dancehall energy, and deep lyricism merge together to tell a story of life and death, the sheep and the wolf, the version of you that has to die for the next one to be born, all elements of SUPERNOVA
On the day of Eid al-Fitr (Sugar Feast), Sonhouse Records released Grond, a brand new record, produced by Faisal Chatar and 'Yong' Yello Staelens.
Grond (soil) tells the tragicomic story of a Moroccan brother and sister who take over their father's funeral business and want to modernise it. Instead of repatriating Belgian Muslims to their country of origin and burying them there according to Muslim traditions, they decide to import the holy soil.
Western and Arabic sounds, combined with hip-hop beats are mixed in a refined way. Faisal and Yello produced twenty songs that immediately make you long for summer. In Brussels, Tangier or simply elsewhere.
Faisal Chatar and Yello Staelens:
"Grond is about the clash between traditional Moroccan values and Brussels city culture. We tried to translate that by combining Moroccan instruments like Krakebs and Qanuns with thick hip-hop beats. It sounds as if Timbaland is eating a merguez sandwich in a Molenbeek snack bar while Aznavour sounds through a distorted FM radio."
A movie directed by Veerle Baetens, based on a novel by Lize Spit.
Many years after a sweltering summer that spun out of control, Eva returns to the village she grew up in, with an ice block in the back of her car. In the dead of winter, she confronts her past and faces up to her tormentors.
This soundtrack is composed by Bjorn Eriksson (known for his work on "The Broken Circle Breakdown" and "Zita Swoon") featuring two beautiful tracks with Blanche.
Comeback tells the story of Ava, a 14-year-old girl trying to navigate the complex relationship between her divorced parents. Her mother, Naomi, a former successful techno DJ, is determined to revive her career and make an international comeback. Ava's father, Dominique, has withdrawn from the hectic nightlife and now leads a quieter life. As Ava becomes increasingly drawn into her mother's vibrant nightlife, she finds herself entangled in the expectations and dreams of her parents.
With a musical score by Raf Keunen and techno tracks by Jeroen De Pessemier (One Track Brain) – founder of the Belgian electro band The Subs – and the visually stunning cinematography of Sander Vandenbroucke, Comeback, shot on 16mm film, combines intimate family conflicts with the energetic, pulsating rhythm of techno.
“Oui Ou Non” by One Track Brain ft. Omani (aka Veerle Baetens) is one of the tracks from the movie "Comeback", now available on 7-inch.
Mantra is the first single from The Bluebeaters' upcoming album, due for release in 2026. It is an unusual track in the band's discography, reminiscent more of The Clash's Rock The Casbah than Jamaica. It is a track with a 4/4 beat without the classic Jamaican syncopation typical of The Bluebeaters.
"It's a challenge to the background that has always driven the band. The album will not be entirely in this direction, but we decided to release this single to broaden our range of expression."
Produced by singer Patrick Benifei, aka Pat Cosmo, together with the solid rhythm section of The Bluebeaters, Count Ferdi on drums, Cato Senatore on guitar, Danilo Scuccimarra on piano and organ, and Paolo Parpaglione on saxophone.
It is the first in a series of singles that will form the backbone of the album.
Sung in Italian, Mantra is an original song written by Pat Cosmo.
The B-side is a dub, an instrumental version mixed by Ezra, producer, artist and our co-producer for all the tracks that will be released on the new album.
He has collaborated on many productions that are part of the Caribb Roots world, including Casino Royale and The Uppertones, as well as his own Dub Pigeons.
His studio is the NoMad Studio, located in the San Salvario area of Turin.
This album was released in 2017 as free download packs with the band encouraging fans to create their own physical copies with provided templates.
From the band's post accompanying links to different digital packs:
"This album is FREE. Free as in, free. Free to download and if you wish, free to make copies. Make tapes, make CD’s, make records. ... Ever wanted to start your own record label? GO for it! Employ your mates, press wax, pack boxes. We do not own this record. You do. Go forth, share, enjoy."
SILENCER's merciless emotional firestorm "Death – Pierce Me" is one of the few albums truly deserving the designation ‘cult’. From humble beginnings in the extreme underground, it rose to become a widely acclaimed masterpiece with a massive following.
To celebrate the album’s 20th anniversary, Lupus Lounge reissues this pioneering depressive metal milestone in lavish editions worthy of its legacy. "Death – Pierce Me" will be available as a 48-page hardcover CD book edition including a bonus track, and as part of a complete box set featuring a gatefold vinyl edition, a 12" version of SILENCER’s 1998 demo, and additional bonus materials.
When SILENCER released their sole full-length album under the same title as their 1998 demo, the time seemed ripe for an emotionally devastating strain of black metal incorporating doom elements and expressing bleak emotions of bereavement, loneliness, and despair. This emerging subgenre became known as ‘depressive black metal’, sometimes more extremely labeled ‘depressive suicidal black metal’.
Around 1998, this movement coalesced around Swedish acts SILENCER and SHINING, alongside Quebec’s MALVERY and US band XASTHUR, drawing influence from earlier pioneers such as Norway’s STRID and Germany’s BETHLEHEM.
While SHINING gained notoriety, SILENCER faded into obscurity, surrounded by rumor and legend. With only one historical interview, no live performances, and no follow-up album, the band became mythic. Through word of mouth alone, "Death – Pierce Me" continued to grow in stature, culminating in an IMPALA Silver Award in 2021 for 20,000 verified European sales.
The classic Portland punk of POISON IDEA still destroys. This sophomore release from the band captures a POISON IDEA that’s matured from the straight beatdown thrash of Pick Your King and is in the process of turning into the polished unit that would produce Kings of Punk, and it rules. This is what you’ve been waiting for. This band deals out the goods with frenetic, hammering madness and rabid intensity thrash-style compositions. This reissue pairs the original eight tracks from the EP with five more from the "Drinking is Great" and "Cleanse the Bacteria" compilations, including a cover of the STOOGES “I Got a Right,” and its humblebrag cover artwork remains intact
Recorded Live at the Fleece, Bristol 17/4/2025 and featuring the return of original singer Boobs. Disorder are an English street punk band that formed in the Bristol area of England in 1980, and has existed with varying line-ups. They are aligned with politically charged punk bands. Disorder were part of the "protest punk" movement, and were one of the bands that spearheaded the Bristol punk scene in the early 1980s. The BBC DJ John Peel described their early singles as sounding like Triumph Bonneville motorbikes.
Critically acclaimed American producer Tomu DJ (Pitchfork, Dazed, NPR++) debuts on sound as language with her fourth album, 'antagonist.' Recorded in the artist’s Oakland, California home throughout 2025 using only a digital piano, her intention for the album was to “free myself from conventional notions of electronic music”. This is perhaps seen clearly on standout tracks “loose interpretation” and “careful deliberation”, which in their cinematic splendor evoke the beauty and thoughtfulness of classical music. Even so, 'antagonist' is “not intended to be like classical music, rather a stream of consciousness akin to spoken word poetry”. It is easy to see what she means on tracks like “antagonist” and “dance” which weave familiar elements into personal narratives of loneliness, perseverance and redemption. Despite its specific sonic palette, 'antagonist' fits right in with Tomu DJ’s discography, continuing to build on the musical ecosystem she has thoughtfully tended to over the course of the last decade.
After releasing their third album, Maintenant Jamais, and touring in Europe, the United States, Canada, and Mexico in 2025, Population II now announces Gimmicks, a new synthedelic rock EP.
Blending vocal and instrumental tracks, Gimmicks is a companion piece to the Montreal band's latest full-length. It's an extension of the electronic sounds we explored on Maintenant Jamais, with tracks like “13 1 3 1” and “Poudreuse Blues, explains Pierre-Luc Gratton. Even though we added upright piano and fuzz bass to some of the songs, our number one rule for this project was: keyboards and synthesizers, first and foremost! This is why they decided to ditch the guitar completely on these new songs, once again demonstrating the extent of their versatility.
Rhythm-wise, the use of a drum machine allowed the musicians to push their own boundaries and take this exercise in style to a higher level. It made us rethink our rhythmic habits and add bursts of intensity by experimenting with timbres and sound dynamics. The result is an EP at times unsettling, at times dreamy, but perfectly calibrated, where constraint gives way to ingenuity, freedom, and friendship. Although prog and krautrock fans will recognize the influence of Syrinx, Tangerine Dream, and Cluster, Gimmicks is, above all, the affirmation of a band capable of looking back to move forward.
Necropalace ist eine düstere, doomlastige Reise ins Schreckliche und Romantische, heraufbeschworen vom sich ständig weiterentwickelnden vampirischen Wesen WORM. WORM schrieb sein erstes Kapitel mit Veröffentlichungen wie "Foreverglade" aus dem Jahr 2021 und dem Split-Album "Starpath" mit Dream Unending aus dem Jahr 2023 (beide erschienen bei 20 Buck Spin). Diese Vision erweckte WORM zusammen mit Hulder, Devil Master, Gatecreeper und Frozen Soul auf der Decibel Tour 2023 auf der Bühne zum Leben. Dabei verkörperte WORM den Sound der Dunkelheit mit einem außergewöhnlichen Sinn für Ambition.
Gemischt von Arthur Rizk (Blood Incantation, Power Trip) und mit dem gefeierten Gitarrenvirtuosen Marty Friedman auf dem letzten Track des Albums "Witchmoon" ist "Necropalace" die bisher reinste Destillation von WORMs selbsternanntem "Nekromantic Black Doom", dargestellt in blutbeflecktem Technicolor. Ein cineastisches, unvergessliches Meisterwerk des modernen Metal.
out of Stock
Last delivered 5 months ago available to reorder, subject to availability
Microwave’s instant classic Much Love is turning 10 this year, and to celebrate, we’ve collaborated with the band on a special, limited edition anniversary reissue, including the original record in its entirety alongside
a second LP featuring unreleased live and alternate renditions of every track on the record! With brand new gatefold artwork as well.
Jede Band, die was drauf hat, hat ein Mitglied, das mal in einem Plattenladen gearbeitet hat. Bei METZ, dem mutigen Noise-Rock-Trio, das zwischen 2012 und 2024 fünf Alben bei Sub Pop rausgebracht hat, war das Sänger und Gitarrist Alex Edkins. Während seines Studiums verkaufte Edkins in seinem Heimatort Indie-Rock- und Hardcore-Platten und wurde zu einem begeisterten Schüler des Rock ,n` Roll, von den psychedelischen 1960er Jahren bis zu den DIY-1990er Jahren und darüber hinaus. Hoopla, das eingängige, melodische zweite Album aus Edkins' Soloprojekt Weird Nightmare, mischt und kombiniert diese Einflüsse auf unterhaltsame und mitreißende Weise und zeigt seine ausgefeilte musikalische Intelligenz. ,Hoopla" sprüht vor Hooks und Ohrwürmern und ist genau die Kassette, die nie aus dem Autoradio genommen wird, sondern immer wieder gespielt wird und den Sommer begleitet. ,Hoopla" ist neu und nostalgisch zugleich und wird deine Ohren erfreuen. Das selbst produzierte und ausgesprochen lo-fi Debütalbum von Weird Nightmare wurde während der Pandemie zu Hause aufgenommen und 2022 von Sub Pop veröffentlicht. Weird Nightmare zeigte Edkins' Indie-Rock-Sensibilität mit einer Vorliebe für unverkennbare Hooks und mitreißende Refrains zum Mitsingen. Auf dem neuen Studioalbum Hoopla, das gemeinsam mit Jim Eno von Spoon produziert und in Seth Manchesters Machines with Magnets aufgenommen wurde, erweitert Edkins die Dimensionen von Weird Nightmare noch weiter. Neue musikalische Texturen wie Klavier, Glocken und Kastagnetten verschmelzen mit Edkins' geradlinigem Songwriting und verleihen diesen Stücken einen glänzenden Schimmer. Es ist, als würde ein beliebter Indie-Regisseur mit seinem ersten Studiofilm einen Schritt nach vorne machen. Wenn das Debütalbum Weird Nightmare ein Underground-Publikumsliebling war, ähnlich wie Richard Linklaters Slacker, dann ist Hoopla Edkins' Dazed and Confused. ,Hoopla" glänzt mit sonnigem Gitarrenpop und wurde mit genau der richtigen Menge an Fuzz und Crunch produziert. Die unmittelbare, schnörkellose Aufnahme versetzt dich direkt ins Studio mit Edkins und seiner Rhythmusgruppe: Loel Campbell am Schlagzeug und Bassist Roddy Kuester. Das ist Power-Pop der Extraklasse; diese scharfen Adrenalinstöße könnten sich nahtlos in einen Radio-Rock-Block zwischen The Replacements und Elvis Costello & the Attractions einfügen. Oder passen genauso gut zu Sharp Pins, Ratboys und Alvvays. Im Kern ist dieses Album ein optimistischer, leuchtender Lichtblick in unserer seltsamen Zeit. Mit Weird Nightmare möchte Edkins euch wissen lassen, dass er die Welt immer noch liebt, und er lädt die Hörer von Hoopla ein, dasselbe zu empfinden. Nutzt diese Chance, um einen Funken der Magie des Pop in unserer verbrauchten alten Welt zu ergreifen. Ihr habt es verdient.
Modern Obscure Music presents The Bubble of Love, a new collaborative album by Pedro Vian together with Ustad Nawab Khan and Naved Nawab Khan - the 9th and 10th generation of a distinguished santoor lineage from Rajasthan, India. Recorded during an intense week of sessions at Pedro Vian's studio in Barcelona, the album captures a rare and concentrated encounter between traditions, generations, and sonic languages.
VERY LIMITED BLACK VINYL WITH DOUBLE-SIDED INSERT (NON-RETURNABLE)
California composer Phil Geraldi’s vinyl debut both refines and refracts his signature muse of interstitial Americana across 11
melted glass mosaics of processed guitar, decayed radio glow, and Harmonia synth horizons: Rural Deceased Undiscovered. He
describes his vision for the pieces as “multilinear,” rearranging classic radio songbook elements like hooks, choruses, and
emotional cues into unfamiliar topographies of “alien country.”
Shards of acoustic guitar and pedal steel flicker in long shadows of amplifier hum and airwave static, like the scrambled
broadcast of some heartland station along a desert highway. It’s music both rustic and placeless, warped by weather and
technology, shimmering like northern lights over the badlands.
Als die Idee für ein viertes Album (zum zweiten Mal) aufkam, war American Football klar, dass es düsterer werden würde. Nach einer einjährigen Welttour mit ausverkauften Konzerten zum 25-jährigen Bandjubiläum und der Veröffentlichung eines Coveralbums (mit Songs von Iron & Wine, Ethel Cain, Blondshell, u.a.) tat sich das Quartett mit Produzent/Toningenieur Sonny Diperri (My Bloody Valentine, M83, Kurt Vile) zusammen, um sein bis dato essentiellstes Album aufzunehmen. LP4 verbindet atmosphärische Soundlandschaften mit emotionaler Katharsis im Post-Rock-Stil. Anders als alles, was American Football bisher aufgenommen hat, fügt sie sich dennoch nahtlos in ihren stetig wachsenden und beeindruckenden Katalog ein. LP4 ist ein ambitioniertes künstlerisches Statement einer Band, die die Grenzen von Genre und Kultur immer wieder neu definiert. Es ist ein wunderschönes und vielschichtiges Album, das sich Zeit nimmt, seine Schönheit zu entfalten, während es gleichzeitig die dunkleren Seiten anklingen lässt, die sich so gut wie möglich verbergen. Das Album enthält Gastvocals von Brendan Yates (Turnstile), Wisp und Caithlin De Marrais (Rainer Maria).
Through the dense blend of Japanese New-Wave, between moldy kimonos and punctured paper screens, along the rails of a sonic bullet train, this mini-LP reaches us, overflowing with purebred Punk-Funk, splinters of Soul and shredded Jazz. A gold nugget in a sea of sadness. Scattered energy trapped in a handful of vinyl grooves. Originally released in 1986.
Today, visionary artist Jesca Hoop announces her new album Long Wave Home due out 1st May via Last Laugh and available to preorder now. Staying true to her folk roots, though never purely, Hoop delivers strikingly original songwriting showcasing her innovative vocals augmented by imaginative arrangements. Long Wave Home is energized and rings with the promise of a fresh new chapter for the artist. To accompany today’s announcement Hoop has shared the album’s compelling first single, “Designer Citizen”, alongside a charming video directed by James Slater.
Additionally, Hoop has announced news of a 10-date UK tour in May including a performance at London’s Union Chapel.
Today, visionary artist Jesca Hoop announces her new album Long Wave Home due out 1st May via Last Laugh and available to preorder now. Staying true to her folk roots, though never purely, Hoop delivers strikingly original songwriting showcasing her innovative vocals augmented by imaginative arrangements. Long Wave Home is energized and rings with the promise of a fresh new chapter for the artist. To accompany today’s announcement Hoop has shared the album’s compelling first single, “Designer Citizen”, alongside a charming video directed by James Slater.
Additionally, Hoop has announced news of a 10-date UK tour in May including a performance at London’s Union Chapel.
With Heat, Société Étrange extends its work around repetition, groove and cyclic structures, shaping an instrumental music that is both hypnotic and enveloping. Without any radical shift, the Lyon-based trio subtly moves towards more melodic and more cinematic forms, revealing warmer, more textured and sometimes more luminous atmospheres.
Chicken Shack are a British blues rock band founded in 1965 by Stan Webb, Andy Silvester, and Alan Morley, who were later joined by Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie, then still known as Christine Perfect. They signed to the legendary British blues label Blue Horizon in 1967.
O.K. Ken? is the band's second studio album from 1969 and reached #9 in the UK Albums Chart. The record was Perfect's last album as a member of Chicken Shack; she would join Fleetwood Mac a year later in July 1970. Her tune "Get Like You Used to Be" from the album became a staple of Fleetwood Mac's live act until 1975.
O.K. Ken? is available with the original UK cover, as a limited edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on red vinyl.
Formed in February 2025, but with a live show which outshines that of groups five times their age and experience, the north are the latest and greatest export of Leeds’ longstanding, fervent indie scene. Fronted by singer/guitarist Billy Memphis, the group have spent the past 12 months building up a reputation as one of the country’s most exciting new acts - though they’re not too fussed about the hype train. “Fuck trying to be cool or mysterious, we wanna be real,” says Billy, “If it’s to ten people or ten million.” After convincing his mum to move the family home from Scarborough to Leeds in search of culture at the age of 16, Billy spent the past three years traversing the city’s music scene, eventually forming the north (completed by drummer Sian Keates, guitarist Kobi Griggs and bassist Mecca Boylan) after cherry-picking the finest young talent in the city.
Missing Link was produced by longtime ally Niek Van Den Driesschen and recorded at Far Out Sound Studios in Rotterdam - the Dutch city where the band's bassist Marrit Meinema and drummer Leon Harms reside as singer Jeroen and guitarist Peter continue to live further north in Groningen, where the band started out. It was mastered by Melbourne-based Mikey Young, who works mostly with garage, psych and punk (Amyl and the Sniffers, Preoccupations, The Chats)
3rd full length album fron the UK's heaviest band. This is an accolade not thrown around lightly. BOUND IN FEAR have been crafting their sound over the years, honing it into an undisputed heavyweight bomber. 'A MIND TOO SICK TO HEAL is a hellish journey into the darkest side of the human mind, Smashing out of the gates with 'SENTENCED' & 'CHASM', the first stand alone singles to be lifted from the forthcoming album, BIF roar a statement of intent that ups the heat ever so slightly from their usual downtempo delivery, before returning to the familiar crushing slabs of concrete the band are revered for. 'THREE KNEE DEEP' & 'DARKNESS REDEFINED' follow as the spotlight cuts for what is unquestionable one of the heaviest albums to ever emerge out of the United Kingdom.
“Tako” means “octopus”, “kite”, and even “bunion” in Japanese. Bald men or men with shaven heads, as well as red-faced, staggering drunks, are also referred to as “tako”. It’s a word that appears in a lot of slang and sayings. Taco is also the name of an 80s music and performance collective whose performances were like nothing before or since. The Japanese band Taco, formed at the beginning of the 80s, is a loose group/collective of varying members that belongs to the post-punk alternative music movement. The network of members were all friends and acquaintances of Harumi Yamazaki, ex-member of Gaseneta and Taco’s central member.
Taco can be described as a band of guerrillas who, over the years, continued to connect, collect, interrupt, and scatter while sending out into the world music and sounds that can best be described as transient. Taco also performed without Harumi, and so it is as though the band is an anonymous group of mercenaries. Taco’s first album was released in 1983 and had a huge impact on Japan’s underground music scene as an anomalous and collaborative album involving various participating artists (the stars of Japan’s underground music scene!) and Harumi, who provided the lyrics. Although each track represents a reverberating conglomeration of sounds created by this transient local network, common to all the tracks are Harumi’s expressive lyrics. This has the effect of transforming all the tracks into a single powerful force which, in turn, spawns an “incident” which spreads like a giant ripple. However, because of another incident in which the records were recalled due to the scandal caused by some of the lyrics, only a limited number of people actually own a copy of the album. Taco’s second album (a 12” EP), released in 1984, features a live recording of a performance that was held at the end of 1982. Taco is a band of indeterminate members which only ever played one-off performances, but this is an album that reveals a unit whose performance was unusually musically coherent. This is an album which effectively conveys the power of Taco’s astounding and legendary live performances, as well as Harumi’s inflammatory, sensational, and masochistic presence on stage. Her mutterings and screams, which practically ignore the detached beat, confront the audience like an overwhelming groundswell.
The following is a description of Taco by one of its members following one of its live performances: “Taco’s like a project where the indeterminate participants fan each other’s heightened emotions of wanting to wreak personal revenge and retribution. It’s an ecosystem of tangible and intangible mouldy slime which accumulates in order for emotions to be acted out, both indoors in the studio, or outdoors on stage. That’s why the avenger can often end up being the victim.”
With HEAT, Société Étrange extends its work around repetition, groove and cyclic structures, shaping an instrumental music that is both hypnotic and enveloping. Without any radical shift, the Lyon-based trio subtly moves towards more melodic and more cinematic forms, revealing warmer, more textured and sometimes more luminous atmospheres.
