2021 sees the launch of acid centric label Techno House Connoisseurs. The new imprint's debut features a wide array of acid inspired gems showcasing artists Jared Wilson (of 7777, I love Acid, Dixon Ave Basement Jams and Super Rhythm Trax, Mr.Barcode (aka Jay Tripwire) from Witching Hour, Wicked, Poker Flat, Superfreq. Praus of Paper, Night Noise, Leng and lastly label head Space Ace of Kiko Recordings. f you like acid with your beats then look no further.
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Bunny Lee as producer. Prince Jammy as engineer. The Aggrovators making the tracks. A Holy Trinity of Jamaican Music. Throughout the years, recorded music has been shaped by some enduring partnerships between producer and engineer, such as Teo Macero and Fred Plautt for Miles Davis, Jerry Wexler and Tom Dowd for Atlantic Records, and George Martin and Geoff Emerick for the Beatles. But possibly none were as prolific as the collaboration between Bunny 'Striker' Lee and Prince Jammy at King Tubby's Studio between 1976 and 1982.
In 1977 and 1982 respectively, Conflict Dub and Dubbing In The Front Yard were released in London as white labels in extremely limited quantities. The two LPs found the triumvirate of Lee, Jammy and The Aggrovators on perfect form, with driving instrumentals, flashes of vocal beauty, and mixes that ripped apart and rebuilt traditional notions of sonic structure. Due to the nature of their limited release (not to mention the lack of artwork and even titles) the two dub LPs quickly disappeared into that mythic realm of records whispered about by only the most hard-core reggae collectors. This release is the first-ever reissue of these sought after LPs, and contains all the original songs in both vinyl form (double LP set with both albums on the original labels) and a lush double pack cd with 3 extra bonus tracks. The sleeve notes are by Diggory Kenrick with amazing photos by Howard Johnson, director of the influential Channel 4 documentary 'Deep Roots Music'.
The 3 CD bonus tracks are all remixes. Two from Paolo 'Dubfiles' Baldini for the Dubbing in the Front Yard set. One for Conflict Dub by Diggory Kenrick.
In 2018, Pressure Sounds celebrated its 100th album release since it's founding in 1995. In that time, the label has been responsible for unearthing and celebrating some of the rarest, most influential and unique Jamaican records ever cut.
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Desmond Dekker is a Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae singer-songwriter and musician. He was originally a welder by profession, and it was his colleagues that encouraged him to pursue a career in music when they heard him singing in the workplace. He eventually signed a record deal with Beverley’s, and grew into one of Jamaica’s biggest stars. He is also credited with launching the career of fellow former welder Bob Marley.
In the 1993, he released the collaborative album King of Kings with English ska band The Specials through the famous reggae label Trojan Records. Released under the name Desmond Dekker and The Specials, King of Kings consists of songs by Dekker’s musical heroes including Byron Lee, Theophilus Beckford, Jimmy Cliff, and his friend and fellow Kong label artist, Derrick Morgan.
Givin' It Back is the ninth album released by The Isley
Brothers on their T-Neck imprint in 1971. After years of having white Rock acts covering their most famed material, particularly, 'Shout' and 'Twist And Shout', the Isleys decided to do the same to music made famous by white artists such as Stephen Stills, Eric Burdon and Neil Young.
Among the songs they covered were 'Spill The Wine',
'Love The One You're With', the social commentary medley of 'Ohio' and 'Machine Gun' (from Jimi Hendrix), 'Fire And Rain' by James Taylor and Bob Dylan's 'Lay
The Isleys' perseverance paid off when their covers of 'Love
The One You're With', 'Lay Lady Lay' and 'Spill The Wine' became charted hits. Bill Withers plays guitar on the Isleys
- Transparentes Vinyl mit roten und blauen Schlieren - Dritter Teil in LITAs hochgelobter Country Funk Serie! - Mit Dolly Parton, J.J. Cale, Conway Twitty, Larry Jon Wilson und Billy Swan, unter vielen anderen - Inklusive eines bisher unveröffentlichten Tracks von Tony Joe White - Alle Tracks neu gemastert - Neues Original-Artwork des renommierten Künstlers J. William Myers (der für Robert Altmans "Nashville", Waylon Jennings und Willie Nelsons "Waylon & Willie"-Album und die LP-Cover für die Charlie Daniels Band verantwortlich zeichnet) // Im Sommer 2012 wehte ein neuer Sound aus der staubigen Wüste herein. Es war ein Sound, der schwer zu fassen war, schwer zu kodifizieren; ein Sound, der sich wie ein wildes Pferd dem Zugriff entzog. Aber dies war kein Trend, keine Eintagsfliege, keine Vermischung von Stilen. Dieser Sound reichte Jahrzehnte zurück, in die zweite Hälfte der 1960er und frühen 1970er Jahre, als abenteuerlustige Künstler begannen, Country-Harmonien mit dem Hochgefühl des Gospels, dem sexuellen Schub des Blues und einem Hauch von Großstadt-Härte zu vermischen. Dies war ein neuer Sound mit einem einfachen Namen: Country Funk. Country Funk 1969-1975, erstmals 2012 veröffentlicht, brachte eine disparate Gruppe von Künstlern zusammen, die durch das einfache Gefühl ihrer Songs verbunden waren. Country Funk ist abwechselnd verspielt und melancholisch, slow jammin' und booty-shakin'. Es ist ein Sound, der sich sowohl im Studio als auch in der Bar durchsetzt, wie die auf Volume I vertretenen Künstler beweisen: Johnny Adams, Mac Davis, Dale Hawkins, Tony Joe White, Bobbie Gentry, Larry Jon Wilson, und viele andere. Nur zwei Jahre später wurde Volume I mit einer neuen Sammlung von Songs für Country Funk 1967-1974 (LITA 116, 2014) fortgesetzt. Volume II ließ nicht locker und bot alles, was man an Loose Talking und Lap-Steel Twangin' vertragen konnte. Schwergewichte wie Willie Nelson, Townes Van Zandt, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton und J.J. Cale teilen sich die Barhocker mit den weniger bekannten Stimmen von Bill Wilson, Donnie Fritts und Thomas Jefferson Kaye. Mit Country Funk Volume III 1975-1982 wird noch mehr Funk aus dem Kofferraum geholt. Diesmal sind die Jeans enger, die Haare größer und die Discokugel dreht sich zu einem Country-Synthie-Beat. Produziert und zusammengestellt von Jason Morgan (DJ/Sammler aus der Bay Area) und Patrick McCarthy (Co-Produzent/Compiler von Volume I & II), enthält die Trackliste neben den Stammgästen Dolly Parton, J.J. Cale, Larry Jon Wilson und Tony Joe White (dessen Track hier zum ersten Mal veröffentlicht wird) auch neue Gesichter wie Steven Soles, Gary & Sandy, Conway Twitty, Travis Wammack, Billy Swan, Rob Galbraith, Brian Hyland und viele mehr. Als die 1970er Jahre abebbten und sich die 1980er Jahre näherten, erweiterte sich die Palette des Country-Funks um Disco-Beats, schwere Moog-Synthesizer-Bässe und Clavinet. Volume III zeigt Künstler, die sich weiterhin gegen traditionelle Country-Tropen und -Produktionen wehren, während sie modernen Soul, Disco und verkorksten 80er-Jahre-Synthie-Pop in sich aufnehmen. Dies ist der wahre Soundtrack des Urban Cowboys. Aufsatteln, Partner.
In 1970, Kevin and David met whilst they were working in the Labour Exchange Office on Aytoun St, Manchester. Both played guitar and had been searching for other musicians who played atmospheric music. Kevin had been playing in small clubs in Manchester and David performed in a few local bands. One evening, they jammed together at Kevin’s family home, and quickly realized that their playing blended together to form the basis of the sound they had been looking for. In the late ‘70s, the music scene in Manchester was bursting with new bands and music.
However, Kevin and David had little in common with the local acts, being disciples of a more meditative approach. They followed a path of their own, reaching for an otherworldly sound that they heard from artists like John Martyn, David Crosby, Erik Satie, Terry Riley, Eberhard Weber, Alice Coltrane, and Ralph Towner. They experimented combining their acoustic guitars and David’s bass with various effects pedals and techniques to try and achieve a warm and expansive sound that rides the line between ambient, jazz, and psychedelic folk Music.
Towards 1981, they had written eleven songs and accompanied a few with Moog synthesizer laid down by Rob Baxter. All were recorded on cassette decks in their simple home studios. They named this collection of music “Light Patterns”, after a poem Kevin had written. With Light Patterns complete, they set out to find a label to represent their music. They started playing a few gigs in Manchester; Band On The Wall, the Gallery, and other venues, such as Rotters which local promoter Alan Wise had organized. They set up with small amps along with their effects and played as though they were back at home. As Kevin remarks, “It was unusual, to say the least, to play such venues in a low volume chilled out way. However, people listened, often in shocked curiosity, and some even asked for tapes.”
Peter Jenner, of Blackhill Enterprises, eventually picked up the album for his new label, “Sheet”. Peter had managed lots of experimental bands and solo artists, including Pink Floyd in their early Syd Barrett days. He always favored outsiders! The tapes were taken to Strawberry Recording Studios in Manchester, who were surprised when Kevin and David walked in with just a couple of home-produced cassette tapes. Fortunately, they liked them and agreed to master the album. It was then sent to Portland Recording Studios in London for final mastering to vinyl. George Peckham, aka “Porky”, did the pressing with a personal message in the deadwax; “Kaftans, Candles and be Cool Man”. The artwork for the album cover was done by the late Barney Bubbles, a truly visionary artist.
After the album’s release, the pair continued to play together regularly until David moved away from the city. Kevin still resides near Manchester in the rolling hills outside of the city. He continues to experiment with dreamy music in his loft, and we are set to share a selection of his ethereal archival and current compositions in the coming months. David lives a quiet life in a small coastal town in the South, he likes to sail and is an avid cricket fan. We’re excited to make Light Patterns accessible again for the first time in nearly 40 years, remastered from the original tapes. As the original press release said, “Put the album on, lie back and enter the land of no floors”.
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Released on CD and digital on the 21st May 2021, this eagerly anticipated LP from I Grade Records immediately soared to the number one position in the iTunes reggae charts. The LP is now being released on 12" vinyl and cassette tape courtesy of Before Zero Records.
Polarities is the 13th and final full album of new material from Vaughn Benjamin and I Grade Records, the culmination of a 20 year working relationship that began with 2001's Nemozian Rasta album, which was Midnite's 4th album released to date at that time.
Polarities was produced jointly by the Zion I Kings production team, with Tippy I of I Grade at the production helm, alongside Vaughn Benjamin himself.
The album also includes two notable guest features: Tiken Jah Fakoly of Ivory Coast on "Everything Bless" and Chronixx of Jamaica on "Black Carbon", which were both released in 2020 as the first singles off of Polarities.
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“One of the vital pieces in the jigsaw puzzle of ’90s British rock music.” Pat Gilbert, Mojo magazine While his own name has yet to grace an album front cover, for more than a twenty years Gem Archer has been a key contributor to some of the UK’s highest profile guitar bands, beginning with Oasis in 2000, Beady Eye in 2009 and the touring version of Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds since 2015.
Before all that there was Heavy Stereo, caught up in the mid ‘90s music maelstrom where their only album ‘Déjà Voodoo’ took its place alongside Paul Weller’s ‘Stanley Road’, The Charlatans’ ‘Telling Stories’, Super Furry Animals’ ‘Fuzzy Logic’, Supergrass’s ‘I Should Coco’, The Boo Radley’s ‘Giant Steps’, Ride’s ‘Carnival Of Light’ – and, of course, ‘Definitely Maybe’ and ‘(What’s The Story) Morning Glory?’ by Oasis. It is easy to understand why any album could get overlooked in such exalted company. ‘Déjà Voodoo’ and the four singles – ‘Sleep Freak’, ‘Smiler’, ‘Chinese Burn’ and ‘Mouse In A Hole’ – all display Gem’s deeply held affection for old-school rock’n’roll values. In 1994/95, the outside world came into sync with his fondness for The Jam, Sly Stone, Hendrix, The Beatles, the Stones, The Small Faces, Motown, Stax, glam rock, punk rock and all other points on the compass of rock’n’roll cool, which coalesced into what became known as Britpop. And while those influences are in ‘Déjà Voodoo’ for all to hear, the album is far from derivative; this is a collection of well-constructed pop songs that still retain their swagger and zest.
Unavailable since it was first released on Creation Records in 1996, this new 25th anniversary 180g clear vinyl edition is a faithful recreation of the original 12-track LP.
The early days of the iconic Bristol Sound are captured in a new album including an exclusive re-release of the very first track from Massive Attack and tracks from Smith & Mighty, Purple Penguin and more.
The curated tracks are also linked in that all were originally released with bespoke original covers from legendary Bristol street artists, including Banksy and Will Barras, tying its release toVanguard’s current exhibition Bristol Street Art: The Evolution of a Global Movement at M Shed, Bristol, running until October.
Compiled by DJ Boca 45 (Scott Hendy), Vanguard brings together the seminal tracks that defined the rebellious era which saw the birth of the Bristol Sound for the first time. Featured tracks include an exclusive re-release of Any Love - the first ever track by Massive Attack released on Massive Attack Records in 1988, Smith & Mighty’s breakout hit Walk On, Purple Penguin’s downtempo classic Memphis and other trip hop classics.
The LP celebrates the globally recognised Bristol Sound whose experimental breakbeat rhythms and influence still dominate the scene today. Along with classic tracks from the ‘90’s into the ‘00’s and beyond, the album uncovers lesser known cuts by some of Bristol’s pioneering musicians such as One Cut and West Country hip hop’s finest Aspects.
The explosion of the Bristol Sound coincided with the boom in UK street art which led to fruitful collaborations between artists and musicians. Finding inspiration in each other’s work, street artists frequently designed rave posters, logos and cover art while DJs provided the beats to accompany street artists’ clandestine painting.
Vanguard The Album pays homage to these relationships with a beautifully put together gatefold LP featuring iconic cover art designed by some of the biggest names in street art such as Inkie, Dicy, Will Barras and Nick Walker. These early works capture the boisterous energy of the era and confirm Bristol’s status as an extraordinary cultural melting pot.
The double vinyl record also features extensive sleeve notes written by Bristolian writer and curator Jamie Hombre as he reflects on these ground breaking cover art collaborations.
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Birgit Minichmayr captures the imagination and holds centre-stage on
‘As An Unperfect Actor: Nine Sonnets by William Shakespeare’. This
won’t come as a surprise to people in the German-speaking world,
where the Austrian actor is well-known from countless appearances on
TV and a substantial filmography. Perhaps equally unsurprising is the
deep experience she can bring to Shakespeare: as an ensemble
member of the Burgtheater company in Vienna, she has repeatedly lived
out the searingly dramatic lives of the Bard’s characters, notably the
daemonic anger of Lady Macbeth, the sadness of Ophelia and even the
uncomfortable truths of the Fool in King Lear.
What might be more of a surprise, however, is the exhilarating musicality
she shows on this, her first complete album as a vocalist. One could
have predicted the crystal clarity, meaning and intent in her words - the
desolation in her voice in “the very birds are mute... the leaves look pale”
in Sonnet 97, for example. And yet there is more, much more, not least
Minichmayr’s uncannily instinct to find artful and felicitous ways to shape
musical phrases.
Composer/ pianist Bernd Lhotzky has provided a wonderful array of
musical contexts. As Minichmayr says: “He got so deep into the meaning
of each sonnet, his music made it different every time. And we talked a
lot about the colour, the meaning of each poem.” The opening track, ‘My
Mistress’ Eyes (Sonnet 130)’ is a masterfully deft piece of gender-fluid
irony. In the poem, a man is describing possibly the ugliest woman he
has ever seen - while also declaring that she is the one he loves.
Lhotzky gives us an acerbic version in that most male-led of dances, the
tango, complete with bandoneon, in which the words are sung by... a
woman. Minichmayr then gives a masterclass in how to end a song as
she hits, holds and nails the words “false compare” with triumphant
fearlessness.
Throughout the course of the album, we are magically transported to
new musical and emotional places. As Minichmayr says: “Through
singing, through just doing it, I was able to find deep love, or deep
sadness. I was really touched by it.”
One of the secrets to this album’s success is Lhotzky’s wish to find
melodies which have a certain ease and straightforwardness about
them. He says that he approaches all music - whether he is listening to it
or writing it - with one simple and direct question: “What story is this
telling me?” Lhotzky is known for his work in the field of early jazz, but
the range here is far broader, with allusions to such examples of fine
songwriting as Brassens, Robert Plant and James Taylor.
LP pressed on 140g black vinyl.
Bachman-Turner Overdrive, very often simply referred to as BTO, were a Canadian rock band active in three different intervals from 1973 until 2018, with the latest incarnation performing under the name of Bachman & Turner. The original line-up consisted of Randy Bachman (lead guitar, lead vocals), Fred Turner (bass guitar, lead vocals), Tim Bachman (guitar, vocals) and Robbie Bachman (drums).
MOV proudly presents new Collected compilation albums in collaboration with Universal Music. Collected is a compilation featuring the band’s greatest songs released between 1973 and 1996. Some of the hits included are “Let It Ride”, “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet”, “Hey You”, “Down to the Line” and their rendition of the traditional folk song “The House of the Rising Sun”.
Whether you’re a new listener or a long-time fan of Bachman-Turner Overdrive, this compilation is essential and captures the band’s early career beautifully. The Collected package comes with liner notes and photos.
Spaven x Sandunes is a collaboration of musical worlds, where London meets Mumbai, the new project from Richard Spaven and Sanaya Ardeshir is a mix of forward-thinking drum language and intricate synthwork weaving together a moody electro acoustic tapestry. Originally released digitally in September 2020 to critical acclaim, seeing support from Benji B (BBCR1), Giles Peterson (BBC 6Music) and Jamz Supernova (1Xtra), this exclusive vinyl edition includes an additional track featuring MC Altaf.
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Motown Collected brings together the biggest names in the rich history of this legendary label. From very early singles to the artists that made Motown a household name for decades to come and the cross-over pop success of the late 70’s and 80’s. Featuring legendary artists like Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Supremes, Jackson Five, Smokey Robinson and The Commodores, as well as gems from the likes of Marv Johnson, Barrett Strong, The Marvelettes and Tom Clay and pop superstars Rick James, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Lionel Richie and Debarge: just a selection of the 33 incredible tracks featured on Motown Collected.
The documentary Hitsville: The Making Of Motown’, featuring Motown founder Berry Gordy and many of this artists, will premiere in cinemas across Europe this summer as well.
RELEASE: 23-7-2021
MOV proudly presents new Collected compilation albums in collaboration with Universal Music. Motown Collected is the first one, available as a limited edition of 3000 numbered copies on white vinyl. It includes an insert with photos and credits.
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ANGEL DOVE GLOBAL / 812 RECORDS / JAM DEUCE / IZIPHO SOUL RECORDS are proud to present the first vinyl release from the current lead singer of The Four Tops - the soulful, raw and real Alexander Morris! Upon hearing ‘PRETTY GIRL’ you are probably asking yourself, how on earth has this new recording got such an authentic ‘Northern Soul’ vibe - well the answer is the musicians are the cream of Detroit players, led by Earl Van Dyke Jr. - music director, arranger and conductor for The Four Tops. Written and produced by fellow ‘Top’, the legendary Ronnie McNeir. Our thanks extend to Ronnie for allowing Alex to stamp his own mark on this Detroit classic. LOVE’S KNOCKIN’ was set to be recorded by The Temptations until Dr Marlin McNichols used all his powers of persuasion to keep it ‘in house’ and we are so pleased he did. Immerse yourself into this slow jam - two minutes in and there’s no going back - the truly outstanding close ‘God did make little green apples…..’ will leave you wanting more!
Limited Coke Bottle Green vinyl, 250 copies only for the UK. Any future pressing will be on black vinyl. Massage feature Alex Naidus from Pains At Being Pure At Heart. Recorded by Lewis Pesacov (Fool’s Gold, Foreign Born, Peel’d). Massage was supposed to be low-stakes, no big deal "anti-ambition," as Andrew Romano, guitarist and vocalist, put it. The L.A.based jangle-pop group's first album, 2018's Oh Boy, was a sweet and simple weekend warrior's affair, or more specifically, an every-other-Monday one, as the band members gathered to bash out songs that offered messy but heartfelt tribute to their chosen heroes: The Feelies, the Go-Betweens, Twerps, Flying Nun. For Romano, not taking things too seriously is a dead-serious affair: “Nothing kills the kind of music we want to make faster than the sense that a band is trying too hard,” he says. The kind of music Massage makes sunny, bittersweet, tender is less a proper genre than a minor zip code nested within guitar pop. Take a little "There She Goes" by the La's, some "If You Need Someone" by the Field Mice; the honey-drizzled guitars from The Cure's "Friday I'm In Love," a Jesus & Mary Chain backbeat, and you're almost all the way there. Indie pop, jangle pop, power pop whatever you call it, pushing too hard scares the spirit right out of this sweet, diffident music, and Massage have a touch so light the songs seem to form spontaneously, like wry smiles. Still, on their sophomore effort, Still Life, they manage to take a quantum leap forward in songwriting, production, and depth, all somehow without seeming to try. These 12 deft songs are full of late-summer sunlight and deep shadows, pained grins and shared jokes, shy declarations of love and quietly nursed heartbreak. Still Life resurrects a brief, romantic moment in the late-'80s, right after post-punk and immediately before alt-rock, when it seemed like any scrappy indie band might stumble across a hit. When Andrew Romano and Alex Naidus first met in 2007, Naidus had just joined a band with his friends Kip Berman and Peggy Wang that was about to stumble into many of them. When Naidus finally left Pains for L.A. in 2013, two hit albums and a few world tours later, he started playing with Romano to recapture the no-stakes, suburban-garage joy of making music for its own sake. It was "friendship incarnate," Naidus remembers. The other members came from within the friend circle Gabrielle Ferrer (keyboard/vocals) is Romano's sister-in-law, Michael Felix (drums) is one of Naidus’ best friends, and David Rager (bass) is a childhood friend of Felix’s. When Felix moved to Mexico City in early 2020, Naidus’ wife, Natalie de Almeida, stepped in. The result is the finest batch of songs they've ever produced. From Naidus' velvet-lined JAMC tribute "Half A Feeling" to Ferrer's Let It Be-era Replacements-tinged lament "The Double" to Romano's "In Gray & Blue," these are gold-standard indie-pop gems from emerging masters of the form. Still Life glows with the sincerity and unfakeable warmth of the era they so lovingly channel. Like the best Gin Blossoms chorus you still remember, the songs on Still Life stir big, pure emotions, but beneath them, uneasy truths about adulthood linger, just below the surface. Maybe the exact mix of ringing guitars and two-part harmonies can chase those feelings away, or redeem them, for at least a minute or three. Massage won't stop trying.
Paper Birch is a collaborative experimental noise rock duo formed by Fergus Lawrie (Urusei Yatsura) and Dee Sada (NEUMES / An Experiment On A Bird In The Air Pump) in May 2020. United by mutual feelings of despair, fragility and hope, they passed ideas and sounds between London and Glasgow whilst the UK was in lockdown. The resulting 9-track debut LP morninghairwater is set to be released on vinyl, CD and digital. A melting pot of genres, morninghairwater twists and turns through moments of 60’s inspired
indie-pop, fuzzed out angular shoegaze and glitchy electronic soundscapes with astonishing ease. This album draws not only on the influence of both Lawrie and Sada’s individual back catalogues but which at times echoes with everything from Heavenly to Joy Division. The album also marks the beginnings of a collaborative relationship with renowned visual artist, Thomas James who has created thrilling films for Ghostpoet, Paloma Faith and most recently, The English National Ballet. Whilst morninghairwater may be a product of the universally challenging time in which it was recorded, the duo has already started work on their second album and Paper Birch looks set to be an enduring fixture of the UK experimental scene. Press and radio coverage for Paper Birch “an intoxicating squall of noise pop” - God Is In The TV “Sada’s signature softly cooed atmospheric translucent vocals prove a congruous fit with Lawrie’s
deeper, more grunge-y despondency; sounding at times like Psycho Candy-era Jesus And Mary Chain in harmonious matrimony with Mazzy Star, or, the Pop Group hooks up with MBV” - Monolith Cocktail “mixing in disparate elements from classic 60s pop to glitchy electronica to transportative effect” – Joyzine “with a strong baseline and a sea of roaring guitar, a bit like The Pastels vs My Bloody Valentine (nothing wrong with that!)” - Is This Music “The texture is suggestive, the atmosphere hypnotic and the climate oppressive” - Sun Burns Out “A true jewel of modern and underground psychedelic pop” - Acute Pop
The 10th anniversary of a milestone in the history of LCD Soundsystem will arrive August 6, when DFA Records partners with Parlophone / Warner Music to celebrate The Long Goodbye: LCD Soundsystem Live At Madison Square Garden; a 5-LP vinyl unabridged recording of LCD Soundsystem’s near four-hour April 2, 2011 show at New York’s Madison Square Garden, and released on 3CD for the very first time.
Produced and mixed by LCD founder and frontman James Murphy, The Long Goodbye is the ultimate audio document of LCD Soundsystem’s legendary — if not quite final — sold-out Madison Square Garden performance.
The Long Goodbye show was the lengthiest, most career-spanning LCD Soundsystem has played to date. The album finds the LCD core live band of Murphy, Pat Mahoney, Nancy Whang, Al Doyle, Gavilán Rayna Russom and Tyler Pope joined by a choir, string and horn sections — plus special guest performances including Win Butler and Regine Chassagne of Arcade Fire, Reggie Watts, the Juan MacLean, Shit Robot, Planningtorock, and Shannon Funchess of Light Asylum.
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Lift-top box including the first 10 numbered records and objects, with a 60-page exhibition style book, plus a bonus 12” single and 2CDs of unheard Joy Division interviews. Strictly limited and numbered to 4000 units WW.
Use Hearing Protection: Factory Records 1978-1979 contains facsimile editions of the first 10 numbered Factory items: 4 vinyl records, 3 posters, a short film, Factory stationery and an egg-timer design. The early history of the label is traced in a 60 page book with text by James Nice, photos by Kevin Cummins and archival interviews with Tony Wilson, Rob Gretton, Joy Division and more.
All 3 original Factory posters are contained in the box as well as the first 4 records: The Factory Sample EP (Fac 2), including the Fac2 stickers, All Night Party by A Certain Ratio (Fac 5), Electricity by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (Fac 6) and classic album Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division (Fact 10).
Bonus items include a white label 12” single by The Tiller Boys (originally intended as FAC3 but ultimately not released), and a lengthy audio interview with Joy Division, Tony Wilson and Rob Gretton, conducted in August 1979 by journalist Mary Harron, never before heard and now restored across two CDs. Also newly restored, and seldom seen since 1979, is evocative 8mm short No City Fun (Fac 9), featuring music by Joy Division.
First ever vinyl reissue of rare private pressed Florida Funk/Soul from 1980. Featuring founding members of 'The Winstons' (the 'Amen Break', most sampled track in electronic/hip hop music). 180g Black Vinyl Edition limited to 500 copies, comes with obi strip and insert featuring unseen pics & liner notes. Streetlife was a short-lived soul-funk band from the Tampa Bay area and released just one album in 1980. The group was composed out of several dynamic musicians (ranging from street players to college professors) but at that time nobody knew (yet) that their Nite Songs LP would become such a much sought-after private pressed holy grail within the record collecting community! Streetlife was founded in 1979 by Sonny Pekerol and Phil Tolotta who were both members of the top-selling 1960s Washington DC Grammy Award-winning hit band 'The Winstons'. Their track Amen, Brother is the most widely sampled instrumental in the history of the electronic music & hip hop genres_it would become known as the Amen Break. When `The Wintstons' story came to an end, Sonny Pekerol (founding member and originally playing the bass - then successfully evolving into the manager and promoter) and pianist/vocalist extraordinaire Phil Tolotta would continue their musical friendship/collaboration under the name `Streetlife'. Their high-energy sound got the attention of local crowds in no time_so the decision to record and cut a vinyl album came as a natural thing. Nite Songs (produced by Sonny & Phil, who also wrote the bulk of the songs) saw the light in 1980 and quickly gained attention and airplay (receiving radio & television coverage nation-wide). Described as the hottest band from the state of Florida, `Streetlife' had the magnetism to captivate you, be it on concerts, nightclubs or on vinyl. Other members included: Octavia (responsible for the amazing lead & backing vocals on the album), Mark Halisky (on keyboards & the writer of two songs on Nite Songs), Ray Butler (on drums), Mike Milhoan (on trumpet), Bryan Mann (on the guitar) and Stephen Nathan (playing the trombone, flugelhorn & doing the arrangements). Charles Davis also played bass in the band for a while (he and bandmate-drummer Ray Butler were members of the `Washington Jamb Band' back in 1977). Mike Flore (Sax) and Ramon Lopez (from the well-known `Stan Kenton Orchestra') would also join them on the Nite Songs recordings. Collectively `Streetlife' had more than 75 years of experience_and these extraordinary talents (with almost as many varying backgrounds) are meticulously coming together on the album we are presenting you today. The entire album is filled with sexy (yet strong) unique vocals that make the listener experience a lot of emotions, aggressive `slap & thumb' bass lines & small yet groovy horn sections _one can clearly hear the influences of artists like Otis Redding, Curtis Mayfield, as well as several Motown, acts like Marvin Gaye softly slipping in. If you like your songs either slow, sexy and groovy or prefer them fast-paced and more experimental & cosmic_look no further, Nite Songs has it all. This is THE perfect combination of slick soul, blasting Hammond B-3 organ funk, smooth jazz and melancholic R&B piano works. This album just begs for a prominent space in record collections fans and crate diggers worldwide!
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**LONG OVERDUE REPRESS - CLEAR VINYL 300 COPIES ONLY** “With Ela’s music I feel emotional, engaged… I can’t help but feel she’s always looking for a sense of belonging and it
seems to inform all the music that she makes. Glasgow must have more of that belonging feeling than most
cities because she’s spent the most time here, an exotic bird in a rainy city she maybe finds a lttle bit of comfort in. It’s
a pleasure to have her here, in this awful time to be living in Britain, her illuminations feel important and hopeful. A
stubborn light; someone making great timeless music out of the humdrum of the everyday.” - Stephen Pastel
Movies For Ears is a retrospective collection of works by Polish-born, Glasgow-based artist Ela Orleans which
navigates almost two decades of songwriting in the heart of the global pop underground. This remastered collection casts
an ear over what Orleans might call the ‘pop sensibility’ within her back catalogue. Released previously on a number of
small DIY labels, Orleans’ music coincided with the explosion of auto-didactic musicians finding their voice in the age of
the blogosphere, artists emboldened by the democratisation of music-making afforded by the internet. From the outset,
Orleans’ childhood studying formal music mixed with cut-up techniques, sampling, sound-art and experimentation to
create a distinctive signature cloaked in an innate melancholy and playfulness. Fully remastered by James Plotkin,
featuring extensive sleeve-notes and rare photos from Orleans’ archive, Movies For Ears presents an appraisal of the
musician’s work, painting a portrait of an artist with an uncanny ability to evoke emotions and ghosts of memories in the
listener.
Each song pulls sunshine from its surroundings, moments of pleasure plucked from eulogies. The Season employs a
hypnotic loop with Orleans’s prophetic voice heralding the season we’re doomed to repeat. In fact the singer is often cast
as the changing protagonist in her songs: on Walkingman, a hazy ballad heavy with ennui, the narrator is laden with the
world’s weight, forever pacing a groundhog day world blank, a pissed-off actor in a Kafka-esque melodrama. On Light At
Dawn we’re in a seedy kitsch bar-room go-go scene, a ghostly rock’roll romance with shimmering percussion, poledancing
in a Lynchian half-dream. Movies For Ears’ moods straddle memory and fantasy: scratchily invoking halfremembered
exotica, the flickering shadows of europhile cinemas screens, a delicately woven world anchored in Orleans
existential meditations on longing, intimacy, solitude and the search for love. These rich textures in every song don’t
overpower some crystalised moments of emotion however: on In Spring Orleans sings simply “I have been happy two
weeks together,” summarizing that feeling of elation when emerging from a depression, a long winter. It’s a moment that
perfectly illustrates the lightness of touch and clarity in the singer’s voice.
The power of the loop and Orleans’ weaving songwriting that breaks its spell is illustrated perfectly by I Know. Over an
aching chord progression, the vocal takes flight into bittersweet loneliness, Pachelbel’s Canon played at a wedding where
only one person shows up. The repeated refrain “I know, I know” ascends to the heavens as the chords descend to the
dumps and the listener is left in the middle, happy but not knowing why, maybe a little changed, two weeks together. On
Movies For Ears, Ela Orleans lets us into a secret: the rare moments of joy to be found in the joins of the loop, the spaces
between things, the spring after the winter are the moments that last after the day has faded.
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The original Rio beach boy returns in style, with a new record of unabashedly feel-good Brazilian party music. Featuring Azymuth bassist Alex Malheiros (responsible for some of Brazil’s all-time funkiest low-end licks), a horn section including Valle’s go-to high-trumpeter Jesse Sadoc, and percussion master Armando Marcal, Sempre has all the masterful composition, exceptional musicality, and forward-thinking ideas you’d expect from the Brazilian titan, and it’s fresher than a fruity caipirinha in the Copacabana sunshine.
Updating Marcos Valle’s seminal boogie-era sound, Sempre spans ecstatic disco, cosmic samba, and late-night jazz-funk, drawing obvious comparisons to some of Valle’s late-seventies and early-eighties output. ‘Estrelar’ (1983), for example, an ode to the joy of exercise, has become one of the biggest Brazilian disco hits of all time. But lyrically the new album is more closely reminiscent of Valle’s progressive early seventies’ releases. Heralding love, tolerance and living in the present, while satirising political corruption, the new release recalls a time in which Valle, together with his brother Paulo Sergio, was writing subtly subversive lyrics in order to bypass the censorship imposed by the military dictatorship, which ruled over Brazil between 1964 and 1985.
The album marries compositional genius with pure pop perfection. From the blistering brass arrangements on up-tempo disco hit ‘Olha Quem ta Chegando’ and the infinitely classy ‘Vou Amanhã Saber’, to the nine-minute synth heavy instrumental funk stepper ‘Odisséia’, which gradually morphs into an interplanetary samba jam, the songs are tightened and given an extra coat of gloss, by London based producer Daniel Maunick (son of Incognito frontman Bluey). More moments of boogie delight come in the form of ‘Minha Roma’ (a musical nod to the famed ‘Estrelar’), and the sunshine anthem title-track ‘Sempre’.
Translating as ‘Ever’, Sempre is a testament to the continual drive for development and reinvention that has defined Marcos Valle’s astounding six-decade career. Ever changing, ever moving forward, he began as one of the second-wave of early bossa nova composers in the sixties, writing the world famous bossa standard ‘Summer Samba (So Nice)’ for his sophomore album ‘Samba 68’. After a brief stint in the States, Valle returned to Brazil, and the early ’70s saw the release of four ground-breaking Valle albums which incorporated progressive rock, psychedelic influences, pop, jazz, soul and cinematic arrangements. These albums would see Valle work alongside a number of hugely influential Brazilian bands, including Milton Nascimento’s backing band Som Imaginaro, the prog-rock band O Terco and jazz funk legends Azymuth. Returning back to the US in ‘75, Valle resided in LA, writing music for the likes of Eumir Deodato, Airto Moreira, Chicago, Sarah Vaughn and Leon Ware, before returning to Brazil once more, where after releasing a handful of hit pop records, he took a hiatus from recording.
Since the mid-nineties, Marcos Valle has been experiencing a renaissance with London based label Far Out Recordings, where his approach to music has remained, as always; decidedly open to new influences, possibilities and technologies. Sempre is Marcos Valle’s fifth album for the label, following 2010’s critically acclaimed Estatica.
Just in time for summer, Sempre is out on Vinyl LP/ CD on 28th June 2019 on Far Out Recordings, and Marcos Valle and band will be touring Europe in May /June (see below for dates).
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Double vinyl on blue and orange transparent vinyl in gatefold sleeve with download code.
Former bIG*fLAME singer and bassist Alan Brown returns with his long term solo project The Great Leap Forward, releasing a powerful and trademark new album ‘Revolt Against An Age Of Plenty’.
Vigorous, scintillating and life-affirming, this 13-song album sees Brown reach a milestone birthday, as explored in 'Can You Kanreki?’ - the Japanese concept of second childhood and re-birth. Then there are the trademark political and social vignettes, such as the title song of the album 'Revolt Against An Age Of Plenty' – railing against mass consumerism and media control; the wistful 'dEBRA 2021' (a re-working of the bIG*fLAME classic 'Debra'); and the ascerbic 'It's A Wonderful Lie' – a scathing attack on the lack of openness, honesty and humility of our political leaders.
Brown featured on the legendary and influential C86 NME cassette as singer and bassist with Manchester agit-post-punk trio bIG*fLAME, and recorded nine John Peel sessions for BBC Radio One in the 1980’s with bIG*fLAME (4), The Great Leap Forward (2), A Witness (2) and Inca Babies (1).
Formed by Brown following the disbandment of bIG*fLAME in 1986, The Great Leap Forward is essentially a solo project in which Brown writes all songs and lyrics, and plays / programs all instruments on recordings.
The style and sound is more melodic and accessible than bIG*fLAME, but still with overtly political lyrics and a socialist / humanist ethos: incisive political and social commentary layered over sharp yet melodic guitar pop – and with a touch of electro and humour thrown in for good measure…
Stuart Maconie, writing for NME, summed up the band's sound: "First there's the jagged guitar melodics, sweet but never tacky. Then there's the ferocious rhythmic drive. But best of all there's the stylish and witty use of found voices...snatches and snippets of speech and propaganda that are integral to the songs."
Little wonder that as with McCarthy, The Great Leap Forward were loved by a young James Dean Bradfield.
Brown writes- “This album is the culmination of four year's writing, and it has a much more varied approach than previous releases. Whereas previously I've concentrated on a political approach, this album takes a wider view of the world. Of course I still provide the trademark political and social vignettes - how could I not - such as the title song of the album 'Revolt Against An Age Of Plenty' – named after a collection of works by the English writer Jack Common in which I rail against mass consumerism and media control; the wistful 'dEBRA 2021' (a re-working of the bIG*fLAME classic 'Debra'); and the ascerbic 'It's A Wonderful Lie' – with what I think is a scathing attack on the lack of openness, honesty and humility of our political leaders.
Music in Exile is excited to announce a new 12” maxi-single release from the “King of Music”, GORDON KOANG. Titled Coronavirus / Disco, this double-A-side release share’s Gordon’s messages of peace, love and positivity, and is his first original offering since his acclaimed Unity album was released in late 2020.
The first single, Coronavirus, was penned by Koang in July 2020 as a response to his personal experiences of the global pandemic. As his hometown of Melbourne went into lockdown, Gordon resided in the outer suburbs of Melbourne with his cousin, Paul, and his four-stringed, guitar-like instrument, the thom. Throughout this single, Gordon offers his condolences to those affected by the pandemic, alongside messages of his faith in frontline workers and the hope that circumstances will improve soon. “People suffer a lot. I ask that God gives the doctors the big wisdom to defeat the coronavirus. When people hear my song, I hope that this music counsels them. The song has a lot of meaning, it is telling them to be hopeful.”
With the cancellation of a national tour and numerous festival appearances, Covid-19 had not only impacted Gordon’s career here in Australia but also his opportunity to visit family he hadn’t seen in five years. After receiving Australian permanent residency, Gordon and Paul were now able to visit family in Uganda, however this was made incredibly difficult due to border closures and the potential health risks. Taking a last minute opportunity, Gordon and Paul travelled to Africa and whilst excited to visit their families, they also experienced the impact of the pandemic on their home communities. “In Africa, it is not like us here, there is no medicine and in Africa there is also no Centrelink if you are in lockdown. It is difficult getting services. Even getting food is difficult.”
After two weeks in hotel quarantine, Gordon and Paul returned to Melbourne, eager to record music once more. With lockdown lifting, Gordon headed to the studio with a new band featuring Zak Olsen (ORB, Traffik Island) Jack Kong (Baked Beans, Traffik Island), David “Daff” Gravolin (ORB), and Jesse Williams (Leah Senior, Girlatones). This new release is the result of these studio sessions, jamming and recording at Button Pusher in Preston, Melbourne.
For the DJ’s out there, both tracks will feature on a limited edition, 12” maxi single vinyl complete with pull-out poster from Gordon, encouraging listeners to stay positive during this difficult time.
“My condolences to you, my audience in lockdown. We are all suffering from coronavirus. Let us stand firm and be strong. Let us look after each other, until the time comes when God brings us together. I give my condolences to people who have died of coronavirus, in aged care and disability. We are heartbroken for everyone. Let us take it easy, and pray in our houses, all around the world. If you believe in God, pray to the God you believe in, and they will help you. God will give us the chance to go back to normal and open all events. Even if it is a bad time now, there will be a change and it will be a good time for us. Thank you to everyone.” - Gordon Koang
• King Tubby was the legendary producer and engineer who pioneered remixing and developed dub as an art form in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Today, he is considered to be one of the most important figures in Jamaican music and his influence can be heard in hip-hop, jungle, garage and dubstep.
• ‘Majestic Dub’ was first released in 1983 on the British reggae label Star. Recorded at King Tubby’s famous Kingston studio, it features performances by legendary reggae session musicians including Sly & Robbie, Noel “Skully” Simms, Uziah “Sticky” Thompson, Jackie Mittoo, Winston Wright, Earl "Chinna" Smith and Willie Lindo
• Demon Records is proud to present the first vinyl reissue of ‘Majestic Dub’, pressed on 140g black vinyl.
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A beautiful, deep and personal techno document by Mr. G who is talking the international language of musical expression (spoken and understood by everyone). Expressing his feelings and emotions via his sonic frequency philosophy on probably his most versatile release to date, a 12 track album on Childhood records This is the first time we hear Mr. G diving deep into the soundscapes and deeper dancefloor cuts on this album recorded during the global pandemic.
It's marking a change in his musical vocabulary without losing his rough and raw energetic expressions. It's telling a story of forgotten places and dreams of the future. Dreams that pay tribute to the past, critical of the present, and still give hope for what's to come. Always rough and raw, the outstanding sonic frequency design on THE FORCED FORCE IS NOT THE TRUE FORCE will let you dive deeply into a more articulate and sophisticated musical language of Mr. G, while the man still keeps what we all love him for: his genuine distinct rhythms and seductive grooves that he has been sharing with the world for so many years!. --- The album is pressed DJ friendly on 3 x 180g 12'' vinyl and includes a download code. ---
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In 1979 as a 15-year-old Eddie Piller was perfectly placed to be at the epicentre of the Mod revival. An inquisitive passion
for music, a family connection to Mod royalty The Small Faces, and an attitude that saw him travelling his home city, then
the country and then the world to take in the sounds that were emerging. In the years since, Piller has been a legendary
figure within the music industry setting up and continuing to own the ground-breaking Acid Jazz label, signing multiplatinum artists such as Jamiroquai and The Brand New Heavies collaborating on compilations with Martin Freeman and as
an award winning broadcaster even setting up his own Totally Wired Radio station. In The Mod Revival he looks back at the
movement that set him on his way.
• Mod is a sixties youth movement original built on sharp clothes, American soul music and nights on the town, that has never
really died. The originals added young British groups to their likes and then moved on, but their influence echoed on
through the 1970s in Northern Soul clubs, and in the sixties influenced bands of the pub rock era. When punk arrived, it was
supposed to sweep away the past, but instead the Sex Pistols were covering the Small Faces. The Clash brought in Mod DJ
Guy Stevens to produce London’s Calling, The Buzzcocks sounded closer to the Hollies than The Ramones and in The Jam’s
Paul Weller there was a musical and sartorial nod to the past of The Who, The Beatles and pop art arrows.
• Weller had spent the 1970s becoming obsessed by mod and saw punk as having a similar youthful energy to the era he had
missed by being born a decade too late. For others Weller’s style proved an inspiration, and as the Jam broke through in late
1978, they saw a wave of bands follow in their wake, and they themselves influenced others to form their own groups. But
there were other things. In bleak late 70s Britain the glorious optimism of the 1960s looked bright and shiny, and as it was
only a decade or so in the past, it was easy to pick up original records, clothes and books for pennies, and as you bought
these you met other like-minded souls who did the same. For those a little too young for punk, it was a community of gigs,
scooters, clothes, bands and records, and for many it developed on through.
• Eddie never stopped being a mod and has a unique perspective having now lived through four decades of being intimately
involved in the music that has emerged from the mod scene. In this part two double vinyl edition (Part 1 and its CD
equivalent reached #14 in the UK compilations charts) Ed guides us through some of his favourite music from the scene. He
guides us through a plethora of bands whose influences include The Who, The Kinks and the Jam, to sixties soul and R&B,
those with an eye on psychedelia. The records have a vitality and a certain stylish swagger to them, that marks them out as
mod. In the deluxe booklet, Piller has written a 5000 word note describing what it meant to him and has granted access to
his own scrapbooksfrom his many years of gig-going from which pages and memorabilia are reproduced.
• Eddie Piller’s Mod Revival is a personal appraisal from the founder of The Modcast, on what the mod explosion of the late
70s and 80s means to him…
"Since its beginnings in Jamaica in 1959, the story of the pioneering Island Records label has been inextricably linked to the story of its founder, Chris Blackwell. Now, Blackwell has curated a series of compilation LPs featuring his hand-picked tracks that correspond with his and Island’s legendary history.
On July 23, Island Records / UMC will release Volume Two of The Vinyl Series, a nine-track album covering the years 1969 to 1973. Volume One, which included pivotal songs from 1962 to 1969, will also be available, and Volume Three will follow later this year. Taken together, the set explores the wide-ranging highlights from Island’s remarkable and extensive catalog. "
On the 11th May 2018 USM will release a vinyl (180 gram) and CD reissue of the Jay-Z's In My Lifetime, Vol. 1' and Vol. 2...Hard Knock Life' on 2LP.
- In My Lifetime, Vol. 1 is the second studio album by American rapper Jay-Z, released on November 4, 1997, by Roc-A-Fella Records and Def Jam Recordings. The majority of the production is handled by Puff Daddy's production team The Hitmen from the Bad Boy label, giving the album a generally glossier sound than its predecessor.
- Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life is the third studio album by American rapper Jay-Z. It went on to become his most commercially successful album, selling over 5 million copies in the United States. Vol. 2... became Jay-Z's first album to debut at #1 on the Billboard 200. The album won Grammy Award for Best Rap Album at the 41st Annual Grammy Awards.
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On the 11th May 2018 USM will release a vinyl (180 gram) and CD reissue of the Jay-Z's In My Lifetime, Vol. 1' and Vol. 2...Hard Knock Life' on 2LP.
- In My Lifetime, Vol. 1 is the second studio album by American rapper Jay-Z, released on November 4, 1997, by Roc-A-Fella Records and Def Jam Recordings. The majority of the production is handled by Puff Daddy's production team The Hitmen from the Bad Boy label, giving the album a generally glossier sound than its predecessor.
- Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life is the third studio album by American rapper Jay-Z. It went on to become his most commercially successful album, selling over 5 million copies in the United States. Vol. 2... became Jay-Z's first album to debut at #1 on the Billboard 200. The album won Grammy Award for Best Rap Album at the 41st Annual Grammy Awards.
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Black Truffle is pleased to present Sylva Sylvarum, an epic new work from Ora Clementi, the collaborative project of crys cole and James Rushford. Primarily conceived and recorded over several months together in Melbourne, Sylva Sylvarum is a stunning step forward from the mumbled, creaking sound world of the duo’s debut, Cover You Will Softer Me (Penultimate Press, 2014). From the opening ‘Peach of Immortality’, which takes an unpredictable journey from layers of chiming bells, vocal harmonies and lush synth pads to a desolate landscape of half-animal, half-digital wooshes and cries, it is immediately clear that cole and Rushford are working here with an entirely unique sound palette. Throughout the record’s four sides, we hear a large array of carefully detailed synthesizer sounds (many of them recorded at the remarkable Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio), sparse drum machine hits, wind instruments and field recordings of animals, often with a twistedly late 80s/early 90s flavour that at various points calls up New Age references, Robert Ashley’s later operas or the thinned-out textures of early digital GRM.
Threaded through this distinctive array of sounds are the two musicians’ voices, sometimes singing, sometimes speaking through varying degrees of manipulation. A guiding thread through the pair’s collaboration, beginning with their initial experiments with lip-readings, the presence of these two voices – cole’s crisp and sibilant, Rushford’s rich and low – reinforces the sense that the music is immersed in itself, less performed by two people than occurring between them. On Sylva Sylvarum, these voices first come to the forefront on the third piece, ‘Dialogue Between a Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller and a Genoese Sea Captain’, where in unison they intone fragments of a description of an imaginary space taken from a 17th century utopian text. The two voices resurface periodically thereafter, most stunningly in the unexpected turn into cushiony dream pop on ‘Magic Mountain’. At other points, the subtle manipulation of pitch and intonation in the close-miked vocal performances filters the recitations through a fog of abstraction that climaxes with the almost incomprehensible alternating syllables of the side-long closer ‘Forest of Materials’. Like the album’s title, these textual elements are drawn from various literary descriptions of utopias, a theme that also informed the pair’s musical approach. Far from anything dryly illustrative, utopia figures into Sylva Sylvarum as an invitation to inhabit otherworldly spaces that, like the empirical details that proliferate in these literary utopias, are grounded in mundane reality but shot through with the eldritch. Admirably framed by the abstracted digital topographies of Sabrina Ratté’s artwork, the uncanny sweep of the album’s fifteen pieces is expansive enough to take in stretches of crackling austerity, warped microtonal keyboard etudes and moments of stunning beauty, the latter most strikingly when cole and Rushford are joined by Callum G’Froerer on trumpet and Joe O’Connor on trombone for a series of dream-like moments moving from growling overtones to poignant lyricism.
Presented in a deluxe gatefold sleeve with stunning artwork by Sabrina Ratté and pressed on mint green vinyl. Mixed and mastered by Joe Talia at Good Mixture, Berlin.
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• The Total Eclipse are a New York funk and soul eight piece originally from Jamaica
• 1976 album was released on the obscure Brunswick label BRC subsidiary
• This is the first time ‘A Great Combination’ has ever been reissued
• Pressed on 140g black vinyl with original artwork and printed inner sleeve
Having already unearthed three collections of archival ‘70s recordings by Catherine Christer Hennix, Blank Forms continues their annual illumination of the visionary Swedish composer’s music by turning to more recent work with this first-time vinyl edition of Hennix’s “Blues Alif Lam Mim in the Mode of Rag Infinity/Rag Cosmosis,” a 2014 piece first released as a CD in 2016 (Important Records).
The double album captures the April 22, 2014 premiere of Hennix’s composition by by the Chora(s)san Time-Court Mirage, her expanded just intonation ensemble, featuring a brass section of Amir ElSaffar, Paul Schwingenschlögl, Hilary Jeffery, Elena Kakaliagou, and Robin Hayward; live electronics by Stefan Tiedje and Marcus Pal; and voice by Amirtha Kidambi, Imam Ahmet Muhsin Tüzer, and Hennix herself. Intended to reveal the blues’ origins in the eastern musical traditions of raga and makam, “Blues Alif Lam Mim in the Mode of Rag Infinity/Rag Cosmosis” has its roots in Hennix’s 2013 realization of an “Illuminatory Sound Environment,” a concept developed in 1978 by anti-artist Henry Flynt on the basis of Hennix’s own “The Electric Harpsichord.”
As Hennix explains in Other Matters, Blank Forms’ 2019 collection of her writings:
“Rag Infinity/Rag Cosmosis presents fragments of ‘raga-like’ frequency constellations following distinct cycles and permuting their order, creating a simultaneity of ‘multi-universes.’ When two such ‘universes’ come in proximity of each other and begin unfolding simultaneously along distinct cycles, there is a kaleidoscopic exfoliation of frequencies as one universe is becoming two, but not separated—the effect of cosmosis is entrained, binding two or more frequency universes into proximity where their modal properties interact and blend, creating in the process entirely new microtonal constellations in an omnidirectional simultaneous cosmic order with phenomenologically ‘transfinite’ Poincaré cycles (cyclic returns to initial conditions).”
As with Hennix’s best work, the organic unfolding of this quivering drone belies a precision that opens onto the infinitesimal. Upon its mesmerizing ebb and flow, the vocalists incant a devotional poem written in Arabic by Hennix and featuring quotations from the Quran. Also reproduced on the album’s gatefold jacket, Hennix’s reduction of the sacred text to its most elegant formulation invites the contemplator to bring their inner knowledge to the composition for use as a prompt for meditation. Yet the piece offers depth to even the most secular listener willing to immerse themselves in music brimming with such serene intensity.
Catherine Christer Hennix (b. 1948) started her creative life playing drums with her older brother Peter, growing up in Sweden where she heard jazz luminaries, such as John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, Dexter Gordon, Archie Shepp, and Cecil Taylor perform from 1960 to 1967. Directly after high school, Hennix went to work at Stockholm’s pioneering Elektronmusikstudion (EMS), where she developed early tape music, incorporating computer generated speech done at the Royal Technological University (KTH), where she was an undergraduate student. After traveling to New York In 1968, she met artists Dick Higgins and Alison Knowles who invited her to stay at the Something Else Press Town House where she had the opportunity to meet, among others, composers John Cage, James Tenney, and Phil Corner. During the following years she developed fruitful collaborative relationships with many composers in the burgeoning American avant-garde, including, most significantly, Henry Flynt and La Monte Young. Young introduced Hennix to Hindustani raga master Pandit Pran Nath and she would later study intensively under him as his first European disciple. While Hennix continued to make music performing alongside Arthur Russell, Marc Johnson, Henry Flynt, and Arthur Rhames, she also served as a professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at SUNY New Paltz and as a visiting Professor of Logic (at Marvin Minsky’s invitation) at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. In recent years Hennix has led the just-intonation ensemble the Chora(s)san Time-Court Mirage, which has featured musicians Amelia Cuni, Amirtha Kidambi, Chiyoku Szlavnics, Hilary Jeffrey, Amir El-Saffar, Benjamin Duboc and Rozemarie Heggen. She currently resides in Istanbul, Turkey pursuing studies in classical Arabic and Turkish makam.
In their 6 years on air, Flip The Script Radio has become the industry standard, the go-to radio show where fans and industry heads alike flock to hear the next hip hop superstars before they blow up. Steeped in the rich history of the scene, FTSR's focus on real MCs, genuine turntablism and their 'do it for the culture' approach has garnished them praise from every corner of the hip hop universe.
To celebrate their 6 Year Anniversary, Flip The Script Radio has joined forces with Good For You Records and one of the greatest MCs of all time for a very special, limited edition 7" release. We are beyond excited to present this work of art by a cultural icon, one of the best lyricists of all time, Grand Puba. This special edition vinyl release revisits one of Puba's most beloved classics "I Like It", reinvented with an 8 piece band, an acoustic version, featuring freshly re-spit verses by the rap legend himself, breathing new life into this crowd favourite.
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Following the release of DBA's tenth anniversary digital compilations in 2020, the label presents a vinyl edition sporting the four most in demand tracks. Kerrie opens proceedings with a barnstormer in her trademark dark machine funk style. Bristol's Lurka follows with 'Clean' which has been receiving plays from Ben UFO and other leading DJs. On the flip Mr. G slips down a gear for a deep house workout which is guaranteed to get floors moving, and The Room Below completes the package with futurist batucada bomb 'Bassika'.
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Contains new specially prepared liner notes by Penguin Guide To Jazz’s writer Brian Morton and by Paris’ prestigious Jazz Magazine.
6 bonus tracks (Green Vinyl) “The question of whether Etta James became a pop singer, a jazz singer, or a blues singer needn’t detain you long. She was all of those, as At Last bears out, and more besides. James touched on gospel, doo-wop and rhythm’n’blues
with equal facility. “Dance With Me, Henry” was a hit, but renamed “The Wallflower” and covered by Georgia Gibbs. Because James had a composition credit, it made her some money, but she didn’t like to be bested. She made sure that the next time it would be her name on the label.“ Penguin Guide to Jazz “At Last!, her debut LP, made for the celebrated Chicago label Chess, certainly is one of her most memorable. It’s impossible to not be moved by the power of her voice, beginning with the opening notes of “Anything to Say You’re Mine”.
Every phrase, every word is attacked with an energy that commands respect. But beware, this young woman (she was only 22 at the time) could also take on the sweetest forms of a melancholy ballad, such as “Stormy Weather”, and manage to achieve tenderness. At Last! is one of the key soul music albums of the early 1960’s.” Jazz Magazine ETTA JAMES, lead vocals; The Riley Hampton Orchestra. Arranged and conducted by Riley Hampton. Recorded in Chicago, Illinois, 1960 and 1961. Original sessions produced by Phil and Leonard Chess.
Started a decade ago in 2011 with the first volume on Jakarta, Shuko and F. Of Audiotreats are now back with their final instrumental album "Cookies & Cream vol.5" on Shuko's For The Love Of It label. Both producers teamed up again to bring nothing else than smooth jazzy hip hop jams with some little bouncy touches here and there. A long journey comes to an end with a decade creating beats, writing songs and working with artists as diverse as Anderson Paak ("Jewelz"), B-Real, Talib Kweli, Nipsey Hussle, Ludacris or Chance The Rapper. "Cookies and Cream Vol. 5" is an album inspired by the grandmasters of beatmaking like Pete Rock, J. Dilla, Q-Tip or Hi-Tek. The limited vinyl is a special edition in gatefold sleeve with liner notes and some tracks that are not even available on streaming platforms.
• Within a year of her ground-breaking Double-Album “Bad Girls”, Donna Summer left Casablanca
Records to become the first Artist signed to the new Geffen Records label.
• Always ready to embrace new sounds and experiment with different musical genres, Donna
Summer’s 1991 album “MISTAKEN IDENTITY”, was released on Atlantic Records and produced by
Keith Diamond, who was brought in to inject a more street style, which was prevalent at that time.
• Keith Diamond had produced highly successful singles and albums for Billy Ocean, Michael Bolton,
Mick Jagger, Sheena Easton, Don Johnson and James Ingram; the latter having been heavily
involved with Donna’s 1982 album ‘Donna Summer’.
• The album includes the singles ‘Work That Magic’ and ‘When Love Cries’, as well as the tracks ‘Cry
Of A Waking Heart’ and ‘Heaven’s Just A Whisper Away’, which showed how her amazing vocals
could make very good contemporary songs sound great.
• This special edition revisits the original album on 180g Yellow Colour vinyl.
"Following on our first EP, 'Collisions', we wanted to explore the use of modular synths, and also hardware, in more depth. Exordium was crafted from countless modular jams, passed back and forth between London and Liege, and polished into a piece of work that captures our love for club music, with an experimental edge. We wanted to get out for a moment from the 170 which we are a bit more known for. Hopefully you will enjoy this exploration into our shared sound and influences as much as we enjoyed creating it."
- Fearful & Mtwn
out of Stock
Last delivered 4 years ago available to reorder, subject to availability
American cellist prodigy Yo-Yo Ma recorded Sing Me Home with the Silk Road Ensemble, a musical collective with performers and composers from all over the world. The album features guest appearances by Grammy Award winning artists Toumani Diabaté, Gregory Porter, Lisa Fischer, Bill Frisell and many more.
Released in 2016, Sing Me Home was meant to open hearts, ears and minds during a time of tragedy and political turmoil. “All around the world, people constantly meet the unfamiliar through change,” Yo-Yo Ma said of the album. “Rapid or dramatic change can feel threatening, tempting us to build walls to defend against the unknown. At Silk Road we build bridges. In the face of change and difference, we find ways to integrate and synthesize, to forge relationships, and to create joy and meaning.”
Bringing together the cultural backgrounds of the musicians, Sing Me Home is a culturally conscious album, reflecting on modern globalisation and collaboration. From Macedonian folk to traditional music from Mali, and from Irish fiddle to Indian sitar: it all comes together wonderfully. Critics agreed, and the album went on to win the Grammy Award for Best World Music Album in 2017.