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Lee Fields is arguably the greatest soul singer alive today. In an age when the shelf life of an artist largely depends on posturing and trends, he has proven to be an unassailable force of nature. His prolific, decade-spanning career continues to reign supreme on the modern soul scene.

In early 2022, Lee reunited with Daptone Records and producer Gabriel Roth to record Sentimental Fool, a deep, blues-tinged, whollyconceived soul album. From his first line to his final plaintive lyric, the beauty, power, and raw humanity of Lee' s voice is on full display here; the culmination of an astounding career that has seemed to defy gravity, rising to only greater and greater heights.

Set for release on 28th October, the deluxe edition of Lady Blackbird’s debut album ‘Black Acid Soul’ comes with a staggering 11 additional songs, encompassing brand new material such as stunning single ‘Feel It Comin’ and remixes commissioned by the likes of electronic, jazz, funk luminaries Emma-Jean Thackray, Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy and Greg Foat.

Originally released in 2021, ‘Black Acid Soul’ received enormous critical acclaim; The Sunday Times named her their Breaking Act, stating that she “brings a singing voice of extraordinary nuance and immaculate phrasing to a selection of covers/reworkings and pindrop originals” in a 4* review. The Guardian awarded the album a 5* review, remarking that Blackbird “finds her calling with an extraordinary collection of songs and performances that burn deep into you”.

The Others (Lustmord Deconstructed) is a celebration of the fearless attitude of being different and the expression of unique ideas which have never existed before. Over 13 years after the release of O T H E R , Pelagic Records has gathered 16 bands and solo artists to record their own unique takes on tracks from the Other-sessions. The result is an album that is more than a compilation, and more than the sum of its parts; covering a wide range of musical niches and directions, but sharing the same underlying mood and vibe defined by Lustmord's timeless soundscapes: from the ambient solo performances provided by IHSAHN, ENSLAVED or JONAS RENKSE to the subdued voice of ZOLA JESUS woven into Lustmord's sombre fabric to the industrial carnage that is GODFLESH's version of `Ashen'. LUSTMORD is the artistic moniker of Brian Williams. Born in North Wales, he started his musical career in 1980 and soon became a pioneer in the early industrial music scene in the UK. He was a former member of SPK during arguably their most crucial era, and went on to work with THROBBING GRISTLE members Chris & Cosey as well as appearing on early albums by CURRENT 93, NURSE WITH WOUND and others. After relocating to Los Angeles in 1993, Williams worked on dozens of motion picture soundtracks including The Crow, Underworld and Paul Schrader's First Reformed. Additionally he created several video game soundtracks, television scores and solo albums, as well as collaborating with artists as varied as THE MELVINS, CLOCK DVA, JARBOE, John Balance of COIL, Paul Haslinger (TANGERINE DREAM), PUSCIFER, Wes Borland and more, including Grammy Award-winners TOOL on their much acclaimed effort Fear Inoculum. To this day, Lustmord is actively recording and releasing music, his latest release being the collaborative album Alter with Karin Park of A°RABROT, and he is considered to be the founding father of the dark ambient music genre. The original O T H E R was released by independent record label Hydra Head Records, founded by ISIS frontman Aaron Turner and former home of bands such as CONVERGE, PELICAN, JESU, SUN O))) or BORIS. As one journalist put it at the time, O T H E R is a "grim example of a consummate artist who is working frmly within the parameters that he has laid out for himself over the years." This album shows Lustmord at his most characteristic, and the icy, ominous guitar playing of Jones, Turner and Ozborne resonates perfectly within the deep soundscapes that make up this frightening yet inspiring journey. What demonstrates the profound influence of Lustmord on this contemporary music underground showcased here is that artists from disparate ends of the sonic spectrum all feel inspired to explore the essence of his idiosyncratic sounds within their own realm: experimental electronica icons ULVER excel on a stunning, hazy rendition of `Godeater', while Japanese post-rock act MONO deliver a crushing version of `Er Eb Os', and THE OCEAN take us on a cathartically heavy mindtrip back to our `Primal State of Being'. In the end, each of these 16 artists delivers an interpretation that pays the deepest respect to this pivotal artist, while also standing out as a new track of its own.

FEAT. DAVID SYLVIAN & KAZUKO HOHKI

On 'Upon This Fleeting Dream' Clive Bell's Twinkle3 embraces medieval and 16th-century Japanese poems and haiku about death and saying farewell. Bell and his trio, consisting of Dave Ross and Richard Scott, expand their sonic borders: bringing these pithy epigrams to a new Fourth World where electro-acoustic sounds glitches into a hypnagogic, if not the unconscious level of fragile beauty.

The distinctive voice of David Sylvian (ex-singer of Japan and known for his highly acclaimed solo work (Brilliant Trees, Secrets of The Beehive, Blemish...) who reads the English version of the poems and created field recordings and the artwork for this album - blends in the most organic way with the shakuhachi, Thai reed flutes and mouth organs played by Clive Bell.

The narrative voices of David Sylvian and Kazuko Hohki's (Frank Chickens, Kahondo Style...) velvet timbre are the cornerstones of this compelling journey while the tangling and abstract rhythms transcending from Dave Ross' modular synths and Richard Scott's sampler and analogue electronics, unravel and unfold a mesmerizing universe with unknown dimensions and frequencies of a fleeting dream.

File under: electronica, spoken word, fourth world, sound art, shakuhachi, dub, minimal, ambient, abstract, and good music

Recommended if you like: David Sylvian, Japanese poems, Jon Hassell, Pan Sonic, Laraaji, Brian Eno, excellent music

"We Will Live On" by Deru was made with a Disklavier (an acoustic piano outfitted with solenoids that allowed it to be digitally controlled) and custom made software to sequence it. This made the piano appear to play itself. Technology seemingly embedded with humanity.

More solid UK boogie & brit-funk courtesy of Freestyle Records - this time giving the 12" reissue treatment to short-lived group Cool Runners' 1982 single Checking Out, backed up with sought-after High on a Feeling.

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As Cool Runners' Paul Tattersall recalls, "this single was a follow-up to the "Play The Game (So You Think It Funny) / Hawaiian Dream" 12" which we believe got to around number 60 in the national charts, and was at the time heavily played on the radio by DJ Greg Edwards who sadly passed away earlier this year..." Recorded mixed and mastered then licensed for release to MCA, this initial single also relased in 1982 was voiced by Tony Jackson, then part of Paul Young's backing band as his career took off in the charts. Tony formed part of a string of funk groups throughout the 70s and early 80s - Sweet Dreams, Midnight, Ritz & Indigo - and later went on to be successful as lead singer in Rage.

These tracks "Checking Out" and "High on a Feeling" on the other hand features the vocal talents of Rush Winters, who would go on to record with the likes of Carmel, Yello, D.C.Lee and others. "It received little in the way of promotion by the record company at the time", Tattersall continues "so it has produced a cult following and has become rather sought-after, as few copies were actually released at that time."

After release, Cool Runners' Paul Tattersall and Chris Rodel then played with several different bands, with Chris moving onto double bass. He still plays professionally today as an accomplished jazz bass player. Paul has run a successful musical hire company in North London, with a specialism on synths and keyboards, since the eighties - and continues to this day.

The Older I Get, the Funnier I Was, which follows Thomas’ brilliant 2020 HBO special The Golden One and his Can't Believe You're Happy Here EP released earlier this year, surveys a range of emotion and offers a broad sonic palette, moving between pop punk, electro, and the obvious influence of the singer-songwriters he grew up listening to in early childhood. It conjures the ennui of Bright Eyes alongside the barefaced storytelling of John Prine, the overstuffed lists of Fred Thomas with the lackadaisical humor of Colleen Green, among many others.

Thomas attributes the dexterity of the record to Duterte, who recorded and engineered most of it in addition to serving up plenty of encouragement when Thomas got down on the process. “As a comic, I used to test out new songs during sets to see if the funny bits were hitting, but since I wrote this in isolation I ended up writing lyrics and worrying less about making jokes,” Thomas says. That said, the album’s plenty funny. Stand-out and lead single “Rigamarole” opens with a Thomas-voiced infomercial that recalls his oft-cited lookalike Jim Carrey as the Grinch, before launching into a buoyant pop song about being depressed.

Whitmer Thomas will admit that when he traveled home to small town Gulf Shores, Alabama to record his HBO stand-up special, The Golden One, he expected to be greeted as a returning hero, a conquering king, or at minimum, a guy with a moderately successful career as an entertainer in Los Angeles. “I expected a big welcome home, open arms, but when I went back I realized: nobody fucking knows me. Nobody remembers me,” Thomas says. “In the years I’d been performing that show, I’d been romanticizing my childhood in this mythologized place, but the visit made me see that I’m not really from there anymore.”

The sense of alienation compounded when Thomas recognized how few people in town remembered his mom, to whom The Golden One is dedicated and largely about. Thomas grew up watching her perform with her twin sister at the legendary Flora-Bama Lounge, where he set the special, and still counts her as one of his musical influences. His new album, The Older I Get, the Funnier I Was, isn’t overtly about his mom, her presence is deeply felt throughout. While in Gulf Shores, Thomas discovered dozens of her old recordings, all of which had been wrecked by Katrina, but upon returning to LA, Thomas paid “a fancy place in Hollywood” to fix the tapes and hired Melina Duterte (Jay Som, Bachelor, Routine) to mix them. The two struck up a collaborative friendship, and Thomas had the sound of his mom’s voice back. “I was listening to songs she recorded when she was about my age, just these heartfelt, sweet Americana songs,” he says. “I decided then that I wanted to lose the Ian Curtis voice I always sing with; I wanted to do what came naturally, because my mom always sounded like herself, even when she was singing some cheesy reggae song about, like, Jamaica.”

Thus he went into The Older I Get, the Funnier I Was knowing it was time to retire his darkwave persona, and leaning into his natural, chirpier voice, which he says sounds “like a 12-year-old’s.” It makes sense: much of the album chronicles what Thomas calls “being a kid and feeling like you have no control and overcompensating by being annoying.” “So much of the album is about witnessing drug and alcohol addiction as a kid and seeing what it does to people, but also realizing that there's nothing you can do about it,” Thomas says. It’s familiar territory (see: “Partied to Death”) but the methodology is different this time around; true to its title, The Older I Get, the Funnier I Was isn’t always looking for laughs. Thomas might’ve left his hometown behind, but his kid self is still tagging along, a Peter Pan shadow he can’t untether himself from. The first line he sings on The Older I Get, the Funnier I Was is: “There should be a room at every party where you can just sit and watch a movie.” Find a 12-year-old who wouldn’t say the same.

Herbert Bodzin's "Revival II" is the next exciting vinyl highlight on our young label. It features completely unreleased electronic music which was recorded between 1979 and 1982. On the album we can hear the sounds of legendary analogue machines like the ARP 2600, the Korg PS-3300, the Roland System-700 Modular synthesizer, the PPG Waveterm and the PPG Wave 2.2 as well as classic synths like the Roland Jupiter-8, the Polymoog and the Prophet-5. The album additionally features Bernd Hollendiek, as well as Bodzin's two sons, Stephan and Oliver Bodzin. Most of the music they performed was completely synthesizer based while Oliver Bodzin played drums on a few tracks. The songs are a mixture of mostly ambient, deep, psychedelic, yet experimental and futuristic sounds as well as more vibrant recordings that featured the complete band. One of these vibrant tracks is "Lifting Blue" which qualifies as a unique version of space rock. On other tracks like "Voices of the Mind" we hear deep melodies topped with dreamy vocoder voices. "Against the Wall" sounds like it could be taken off of an Italian horror movie soundtrack while the mid-tempo "Orbital" pre-dates the sounds of techno and trance. As a side note, the album may also show early musical influences of Stephan Bodzin, who became world famous in the 1990s as one of the leading techno producers. Without any doubt, "Revival II" should be an exciting lost masterpiece of German electronic (rock) music and a must have for synth music lovers - revived and finally alive!

‘Learning To Dissolve’ is the punctuation on a journey that began with 2017’s ‘Sounds of Loss’. From the inception, ORTHODOX were nothing short of a standout, blending together riffs that wouldn’t be out of place on a Slipknot record coupled with Easterling’s blunt, Jonathan Davis-esque howls. But, like their sonic brethren in Knocked Loose or Vein.FM, while the influence of the 90’s/00’s is there, ORTHODOX doesn’t merely pay homage to their influences, it exceeds them. ‘From the beginning, we went in our own direction regardless of what anybody thought,’ states Adam. ‘We didn’t grow up listening to hardcore. We grew up on bands like Linkin Park and System of a Down.’ With ‘Learning to Dissolve’, those influences have refined themselves into a sound that is urgent and unforgettable from the album’s opening track, ‘Feel It Linger’ to the personal and aural meltdown of closer, ‘Voice in The Choir’. ORTHODOX ‘Learning To Dissolve’ is available as: Ltd. CD Digipak, 180g black LP+CD, Digital Album.

Der 26-jährige Sänger Giveon wurde zu einem der aufstrebenden Stars der internationalen Hip-Hop-Szene, indem er mit seiner einzigartigen Baritonstimme Herz und Tiefe in seine Musik zurückbrachte. Diese Stimme ist es auch, die ihn regelmässig an die Spitze der Charts bringt. Zuerst in Drakes "Chicago Freestyle", dann in Justin Biebers "Peaches" und schließlich auch solo mit "Heartbreak Anniversary", das heute weltweit 670 Millionen Streams hat und in den USA mit Platin ausgezeichnet wurde (400 Millionen Streams). Sein Debütalbum "Give or Take" - mit den Singles "For Tonight" und "Lie Again" - ist eines der am meisten erwarteten internationalen Projekte.Cette année fut celle de l'ascension pour Giveon. Le jeune chanteur de 26 ans est devenu une des stars en devenir de la scène Hip-Hop internationale en ramenant du coeur et de la profondeur à sa musique grâce à une voix baryton unique. Cette voix est celle qui enchaîne les apparitions en haut des charts. D'abord sur le « Chicago Freestyle » de Drake puis sur « Peaches » de Justin Bieber tout en marquant le coup en solo avec « Heartbreak Anniversary » qui cumule aujourd'hui 670M de streams dans le monde et certifié platine aux USA (400M streams). « Give or Take », son tout premier album inclus les singles « For Tonight » et « Lie Again », est l'un des projets les plus attendus à l'international.

Delia Derbyshire's work at the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop in the 60's was recognised initially for her realisation of the now iconic Doctor Who Theme which was written for the show by Ron Grainer. More recently though, she has been celebrated for her own compositions and experiments at what was then the cutting edge of electronic music. The AA side, Blue Veils and Golden Sands, was written for a TV documentary in 1967, a composition in which she used her own voice and a handy green BBC lampshade: "I analysed the sound into all of its partials and frequencies, and took the 12 strongest, and reconstructed the sound on the workshop's famous 12 oscillators to give a whooshing sound. So the camels rode off into the sunset with my voice in their hooves and a green lampshade on their backs."

On the A side is The Delian Mode, which was used as incidental music during The Sky At Night in 1969, finding critical acclaim in Gramophone Magazine's review of the album BBC RADIOPHONIC MUSIC (often known as The Pink Album), in September of the same year: "… Blue Veils and Delian Mode are probably the finest music here. It may be no accident that the latter is reminiscent of the beginning of Xenakis's OrientOccident for Delia Derbyshire follows the analytical approach of the more sustained electronic compositions. If her best pieces seem the most imaginative here—and they are—it is because she more fully explores the implications of her material."

Devotional is a new collaborative album with Greg Anderson (sunn O))), Goatsnake, Engine Kid) + vocalist and violinist Petra Haden, who first worked with Anderson during his time in Goatsnake, as well as on the second SUNN O))) studio album, ØØ Void.

Several things happened before a warm day when I met the four members of Frankie Cosmos in a Brooklyn studio to begin making their album. Greta Kline spent a few years living with her family and writing a mere 100 songs, turning her empathy anywhere from the navel to the moon, rendering it all warm, close and reflexively humorous. In music, everyone loves a teen sensation, but Kline has never been more fascinating than now, a decade into being one of the most prolific songwriters of her generation. She's lodged in my mind amongst authors, other observational alchemists like Rachel Cusk or Sheila Heti, but she's funnier, which is a charm endemic to musicians. Meanwhile Frankie Cosmos, a rare, dwindling democratic entity called a band, had been on pandemic hiatus with no idea if they'd continue. In the openness of that uncertainty they met up, planning to hang out and play music together for the first time in nearly 500 days. There, whittling down the multitude of music to work with, they created Inner World Peace, a collection of Greta's songs changed and sculpted by their time together. While Kline's musical taste at the time was leaning toward aughts indie rock she'd loved as a teenager, keyboardist Lauren Martin and drummer Luke Pyenson cite "droning, meditation, repetition, clarity and intentionality," as well as "'70s folk and pop" as a reference for how they approached their parts. Bassist/guitarist Alex Bailey says that at the time he referred to it as their "ambient" or "psych" album. Somewhere between those textural elements and Kline's penchant for concise pop, Inner World Peace finds its balance. The first order of business upon setting up camp in Brooklyn's Figure 8 studios was to project giant colorful slides the band had made for each track. Co-producing with Nate Mendelsohn, my Shitty Hits Recording partner, we aimed for FC's aesthetic idiosyncrasies to shine. The mood board for "Magnetic Personality" has a neon green and black checkerboard, a screen capture of the game Street Fighter with "K.O." in fat red letters, and a cover of Mad Magazine that says "Spy Vs. Spy! The Top Secret Files." On tracks like "F.O.O.F." (Freak Out On Friday), "Fragments" and "Aftershook," the group are at their most psychedelic and playful, interjecting fuzz solos, bits of percussion, and other sonically adventurous ear candy. An internal logic strengthens everything, and in their proggiest moments, Frankie Cosmos are simply a one-take band who don't miss. When on Inner World Peace they sound wildly, freshly different, it may just be that they're coming deeper into their own. Inner World Peace excels in passing on the emotions it holds. When in the towering "Empty Head" Kline sings of wanting to let thoughts slide away, her voice is buoyed on a bed of synths and harmonium as tranquility abounds. When her thoughts become hurried and full of desire, so does the band, and she leaps from word to word as if unable to contain them all. As a group, they carry it all deftly, and with constant regard for Kline's point of view. Says Greta, "To me, the album is about perception. It's about the question of "who am I?" and whether or not the answer matters. It's about quantum time, the possibilities of invisible worlds. The album is about finding myself floating in a new context. A teenager again, living with my parents. An adult, choosing to live with my family in an act of love. Time propelled us forward, aged us, and also froze. If you don't leave the house, who are you to the world? Can you take the person you discover there out with you?" - Katie Von Schleicher

Several things happened before a warm day when I met the four members of Frankie Cosmos in a Brooklyn studio to begin making their album. Greta Kline spent a few years living with her family and writing a mere 100 songs, turning her empathy anywhere from the navel to the moon, rendering it all warm, close and reflexively humorous. In music, everyone loves a teen sensation, but Kline has never been more fascinating than now, a decade into being one of the most prolific songwriters of her generation. She's lodged in my mind amongst authors, other observational alchemists like Rachel Cusk or Sheila Heti, but she's funnier, which is a charm endemic to musicians. Meanwhile Frankie Cosmos, a rare, dwindling democratic entity called a band, had been on pandemic hiatus with no idea if they'd continue. In the openness of that uncertainty they met up, planning to hang out and play music together for the first time in nearly 500 days. There, whittling down the multitude of music to work with, they created Inner World Peace, a collection of Greta's songs changed and sculpted by their time together. While Kline's musical taste at the time was leaning toward aughts indie rock she'd loved as a teenager, keyboardist Lauren Martin and drummer Luke Pyenson cite "droning, meditation, repetition, clarity and intentionality," as well as "'70s folk and pop" as a reference for how they approached their parts. Bassist/guitarist Alex Bailey says that at the time he referred to it as their "ambient" or "psych" album. Somewhere between those textural elements and Kline's penchant for concise pop, Inner World Peace finds its balance. The first order of business upon setting up camp in Brooklyn's Figure 8 studios was to project giant colorful slides the band had made for each track. Co-producing with Nate Mendelsohn, my Shitty Hits Recording partner, we aimed for FC's aesthetic idiosyncrasies to shine. The mood board for "Magnetic Personality" has a neon green and black checkerboard, a screen capture of the game Street Fighter with "K.O." in fat red letters, and a cover of Mad Magazine that says "Spy Vs. Spy! The Top Secret Files." On tracks like "F.O.O.F." (Freak Out On Friday), "Fragments" and "Aftershook," the group are at their most psychedelic and playful, interjecting fuzz solos, bits of percussion, and other sonically adventurous ear candy. An internal logic strengthens everything, and in their proggiest moments, Frankie Cosmos are simply a one-take band who don't miss. When on Inner World Peace they sound wildly, freshly different, it may just be that they're coming deeper into their own. Inner World Peace excels in passing on the emotions it holds. When in the towering "Empty Head" Kline sings of wanting to let thoughts slide away, her voice is buoyed on a bed of synths and harmonium as tranquility abounds. When her thoughts become hurried and full of desire, so does the band, and she leaps from word to word as if unable to contain them all. As a group, they carry it all deftly, and with constant regard for Kline's point of view. Says Greta, "To me, the album is about perception. It's about the question of "who am I?" and whether or not the answer matters. It's about quantum time, the possibilities of invisible worlds. The album is about finding myself floating in a new context. A teenager again, living with my parents. An adult, choosing to live with my family in an act of love. Time propelled us forward, aged us, and also froze. If you don't leave the house, who are you to the world? Can you take the person you discover there out with you?" - Katie Von Schleicher

Since making his mark in the ‘90s through the early aughts as a part of the legendary Boot Camp Clik and one half of “Da Incredible Rap Team” and duo Heltah Skeltah, Rock (also known as the Rockness Monsta) has been conservative with solo efforts. With one of the most distinct voices in hip-hop, the Brooklyn emcee released his full-length debut solo albumRockness AP in 2017, and now looks to step back into the spotlight with his sophomore album, Ether Rocks.

Produced entirely by Harlem, New York’s Ron Browz (Nas’s “Ether”, Jim Jones’s “Pop Champagne”, etc.), the project sees Rock’s ominous tone and sharp flow transposed from the traditional Boom-Bap beats of Da Beatminerz and others, into a sonic backdrop that retains grit yet bolsters an updated and more sophisticated style from the legendary emcee.

The 12 track LP boasts guest appearances from Method Man, Steele (Smif-N-Wessun), Ruste Juxx and more, and is available via DSPs, CD and vinyl through American B Boy Records in partnership with Fat Beats.

“Dope is dope. I'm trying to break out of the underground rap box and ease into ‘grown man rap’. This album is basically my way of showing y’all more sides to myself musically and conceptually. A lot of our culture wants you to do the same thing over and over. That’s understandable but not realistic as we are forever evolving as human beings. So, while I continue to serve jedi level barbarian bars, I’m adding some things to the menu.” – Rockness Monsta

Perpetual Doom proudly presents the new album from Austin Leonard Jones: Dead Calm. On this collection of nine new tracks, the Texas-based troubadour channels his eclectic talent into a melancholy country groove. Full of signature tumbleweed melodies and his deadpan wit, it is an essential addition to Jones’ unique and varied catalog.

Like any good country record, Dead Calm starts with a joke and ends in tears. “A werewolf walks into a bar,” Jones sings on opener “Cape Fear,” where vampires pour drinks and no one seems to escape. The town might be full of the undead, but it could be anywhere—after all, as Jones says, “It’s hard on the living in Cape Fear.” The slide guitar and faint bright keys set the tone for an album that mixes domestic sorrow with a touch of kitsch, like Conway Twitty at a seasonal Halloween outlet. “I’m the sole survivor of the all-night show,” he sings on “Back in the Black Lagoon,” “and it cost a thousand tears for every episode.” Somewhere between a funeral and a costume party, Dead Calm bursts with classic songwriting sure to get you on the dance floor and crying.

All these ghost towns, desert bars, and haunted capes emerge from the small town outside Austin where Jones wrote and recorded the album. Alongside producer Jesse Woods, he crafted a sound based on the traditional country palette of acoustic and slide guitar, organ and gentle drums. Songs like “Night Parrots” and “Demon Sands” take stock of life’s disappointments as Jones’ maudlin voice and Jesse Siebenberg’s pedal steel twist tighter around each other. “The Australia Song” puts autobiographical storytelling first, while “Exotics” laughs at our tendency to seek satisfaction in far-off places and things. It all comes together on “Its Treachery,” where Jones confronts the intimate betrayals of “a whole life not working out as planned.”

Sound familiar? Austin Leonard Jones invites you to join the club.

Alice Boman’s second album, available on CD housed in
digisleeve and booklet, and translucent coloured vinyl
housed in single sleeve with printed inners.
 Imbued with an enveloping warmth which radiates from
Boman’s gossamer-light vocals, ‘The Space Between’
ruminates on intimacy and existential angst, her quiet
contemplations cocooned in sympathetic arrangements
created in collaboration with producer Patrik Berger
(Robyn, Lana Del Rey).
 For ‘Feels Like A Dream’, additional vocals were provided
by Perfume Genius, a collaboration that came about via
Instagram and was recorded at a distance.
 “I have been a fan of his for a long time,” Boman explains.
“I love his voice - it’s so special. Initially I wanted us to
harmonise with each other but I love how the song turned
out, with us each having our separate verses, and singing
together at the end.”
 With vocals left largely unadorned throughout, the focus
falls squarely on Boman’s lyrics, which were written from
the deeply personal perspective of someone settled within
a relationship, and learning to be vulnerable with their
partner.
 The album is very much a journey, charting Boman’s
progress from fear (‘Honey’, ‘Maybe’) to the ‘place of
tenderness’ she ultimately arrives at on ‘Space’, the
album’s exquisite closing track. It’s a journey she hopes
listeners will share in, finding comfort in community.
Because, as Boman knows all too well, when life gets too
much, there’s always music.
 For fans of Aldous Harding, Angel Olsen, Sufjan Stevens.

NY-based cellist / composer Clarice Jensen’s third LP,
‘Esthesis’, is a deep and gorgeous new work,
conceptually structured around the emotional and
harmonic spectrum and the phenomenon of
chromesthesia - a condition whereby sound
involuntarily evokes an experience of colour, shape
and movement.
Following up her critically acclaimed 2020 LP, ‘The
experience of repetition as death’, ‘Esthesis’ sees
Jensen expanding her oeuvre and introducing a wider
instrumental range, including the piano of Timo Andres
and the voices of Laura Lutzke, Francesca Federico
and Emma Broughton. Mixed by Francesco Donadello
and mastered by Matthew Agoglia, it is released ahead
of a UK / EU tour supporting Dustin O’Halloran.
Jensen has recorded and performed with a host of
artists including Jóhann Jóhannsson, Max Richter,
Björk, Stars of the Lid, Dustin O’Halloran, Nico Muhly,
Taylor Swift, Michael Stipe, the National and many
others.
CD in gatefold card wallet.
LP includes digital download code.
For fans of Jóhann Jóhannsson, Hildur Gudnadottir,
Stars of the Lid, Max Richter, A Winged Victory For
The Sullen, Sarah Davachi, Kali Malone, Kaitlyn
Aurelia Smith

Isokratisses (Greek for "women who sing the "iso" or "drone") is a vocal ensemble comprised of eight women who carry the ancient tradition of polyphonic songs from Epirus: a region in northern Greece and southern Albania. Born and reared in the Greek speaking villages around Deropoli and Politsani in Albania, the women of Isokratisses have sung these songs since childhood. The group ranges in age from 19 to 56 with some sisters in the group as well as an aunt. They were nurtured by this archaic music, listening and singing it with their family and friends. The songs were passed down from generation to generation. The group started its artistic activity in 2015, after the singer Anna Katsi took the initiative to encourage the younger members to perform regularly. The communal nature of polyphonic singing is a way of revitalizing an art that has declined in recent years and to reassert the primacy of female voices in the southern Balkans. Singing these songs builds an invisible bridge that connects the present with the past, the memories of childhood travel with the immediacy of daily life. On Oct 14, 2022, Third Man Records will release a full album of these solo polyphonic songs, with Grammy-winning producer Christopher King. "It is social music, woven into the fabric of poor, marginalized, and disenfranchised communities. Many of the songs are variations of mirologia (songs of fate, songs of morning) that used to be sung throughout the southern Balkans but have largely disappeared on an informal cultural level except for Epirus. Structurally, the songs are pentatonic (five notes with no semitones) and are composed of three or four distinct melodic voices that weave together in an organic yet unexpected way. The remaining members of the group provide the iso or “drone” that is the low tonic note of the melody." - Chris King.

DEDICATED COPY !

Calle Sound System est un mini-album conçu par Sidi Wacho en réponse à la crise sanitaire. Leur univers musical est constamment en
renouvellement pour sortir des stéréotypes et des étiquettes.
Leur groove binaire s’inspire de la cumbia chilienne avec des arrangements inspirés des fanfares balkaniques.
Rap, rythmes latinos et reggae peuvent aussi plonger dans cette sauce relevée à souhait !

Doppel-LP, Coloured Vinyl in Tabaluga Grün. Gatefold."Wir schauen auf dieselbe Sonne und auf denselben Mond. Wir teilen uns dieselbe Erde, sind alle im selben Boot".So lauten die beiden ersten beiden Zeilen des Refrains von "Königreich der Liebe", der ersten Single aus dem neuen Drachenabenteueralbum "Tabaluga - Die Welt ist wunderbar". Zu mitreißend-anschwellendem, vielleicht ein bisschen an Elton Johns Hymne "Circle Of Life" erinnerndem Piano-Pop zeichnen Peter Maffay und seine Duett-Partnerin Stefanie Heinzmann (die hier ausnahmsweise auf Deutsch singt) in der kraftvollen Ballade das Bild von einer besseren Welt. "Es geht nicht um Farbe deiner Haut oder um das, woran du glaubst", heißt es in dem Lied weiter, und dann: "Komm, wir bauen ein Königreich mit Liebe auf dem Thron." Mit einer stärkeren Botschaft - und einem stärkeren Song - könnten die Feierlichkeiten zum vierzigsten Geburtstag des kleinen grünen Drachen kaum eingeläutet werden. 1983 erfand Peter Maffay die kindgerecht-kluge, wenngleich etwas stoffelige Figur zusammen mit Gregor Rottschalk, Rolf Zukowski und Helme Heine. Seither hat die liebenswerte Märchengestalt auf sechs Alben, mit zahlreichen Tourneen, einem Musical, einer Zeichentrickserie und einem Kinofilm immer wieder neue Generationen von Kindern und Eltern in Entzückung versetzt, aber auch zum Nachdenken gebracht.Denn Tabaluga steht für Unterhaltung mit einer klaren, positiven Botschaft. Auf dem neuen Album, so viel sei verraten, wird der ewige Drachenjunge zusammen mit seinen Freunden und der geballten Power der regenerativen Energien gegen die Klimakatastrophe antreten. Maßgeblich verstärkt wird Tabalugas Team erstmals von Lucy, einem schlauen, gemeinsam mit dem langjährigen Partner Volkswagen, entwickelten Glühwürmchen-Charakter. Tabaluga ist also definitiv so politisch relevant wie nie, und das, unterstreicht sein Mitschöpfer, sei auch dringend geboten. "Natürlich erzählen wir eine utopisch anmutende Geschichte", sagt Peter Maffay. "Aber zu dieser Utopie sehe ich keine Alternative. Wenn wir nicht mehr an die Zukunft glauben, dann geben wir uns selbst - und unsere Kinder - auf. Wir waren noch nie so gefordert, den Zusammenhalt zu stärken, wie jetzt".Für Peter Maffay (72) krönt das neue Tabaluga-Werk ein ereignisreiches Jahr. Am 18. August ist er erstmals im TV als neuer Juror bei "The Voice of Germany" zu sehen, und einen Tag zuvor startet - mit zwei Jahren Verspätung - endlich seine große Hallentournee.

"UNITED", Tristesse Contemporaine’s new album is like a space shuttle, full of metropolitan and eccentric music makers.

Inside the shuttle: Narumi, Leo & Mike, respectively from Japan, Sweden and Jamaican-British. All "united" behind the unique Tristesse Contemporaine flag and led since the start by French label Record Makers (Kavinsky, Sebastien Tellier, Cola Boyy…).

After three rock & post-punk infused albums: "Tristesse Contemporaine" (2012), "Stay Golden" (2013) and "Stop and Start" (2017), they’re off to a new start and open a new cycle with their new opus "UNITED".

Who other than young prodigy Lewis OfMan, the one-man band behind hits like "Attitude" and renowned collaborations including Rejjie Snow or Carly Rae Jepsen, to join the joyous ride?

After hearing "Sly Fox"'s first demo in 2019, they convinced him to produce a whole album for them and became the fourth member of sorts, adding his pop sensibility, mixing genres and emotions with funky basslines, strong hooks, and digital arrangements.

A free-spirited album filled with irresistible beat-driven tunes thanks to Mike's thunderous voice, Narumi's sparkling synths and Leo's gleaming guitar, conquering new territories from reggae to 90’s breakbeat or New-York disco. A unique and united style glued together by a rare ability to switch moods and dynamics in a gleam of light, like a skilled DJ would.

Multiphonic trills and yodels, loops of ululations, sudden percussive outburst, warbling glissandi. Ute masks her voice with bird whistles creating a hybrid vocal persona with sculptural, oscillating, swirling tone-colours. The vocal sounds seem to be disconnected from the human voice dissolving into the sounds of birds, of machines, of electronics, of fragmented language.

'Ute Wassermann´s vocal practice is so unique and specialized that it seems to challenge our ability to understand it’s sounds as vocal.' - Aaron Cassidy, Noise in and as Music, University of Huddersfield Press, 2013

'Wassermann sings as a bird, rather than like one. And as philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari point out in A Thousand Plateaus, “Becoming is never imitating.” … The Wassermann soundworld takes form within waveflows and fluctuating particles.' - Julian Cowley, Outer Limits Review, CD review radio tweet, The Wire, March 2016 (Issue 385)

CAVERNOUS GATE veröffentlichen mit "Voices from a Fathomless Realm" ihr Debütalbum. Musik und Texte des deutschen Death Doom Soloprojekts wurden von Multiinstrumentalist Sebastian "S.K." Körkemeier konzipiert, komponiert und verfasst. Sebastian hat sich in der Metal-Szene als Mitbegründer von HELRUNAR unter dem nom de guerre Alsvartr und als Live-Musiker bei Markus "Schwadorf" Stocks Black Metal Projekt SUN OF THE SLEEPLESS sowie EMPYRIUM längst einen exzellenten Ruf erworben. Sein Projekt CAVERNOUS GATE und das Album "Voices from a Fathomless Realm" sind hörbare Liebesbekundungen des vielseitigen Instrumentalisten an den Sound britischer Doom und Death Pioniere wie die ganz frühen PARADISE LOST und CATHEDRAL sowie den schwedischen Death Metal im Stile der frühen ENTOMBED und DISMEMBER. Aus der Herzensangelegenheit ist ein ebenso finsterer und melancholischer wie massiver Heavy-Monolith entstanden. Und während auf "Voices from a Fathomless Realm" Sebastians Granit gurgelnde und abgrundtiefe Growls eindeutig dominieren, bietet Jenny Kalbitz' wunderbare Frauenstimme an handverlesenen Stellen einen subtilen Kontrast. Textlich erkundet Sebastian mit "Voices from a Fathomless Realm" eine düstere Fantasiewelt des Zwielichts und ihre geisterhaften Bewohner. In seiner Lyrik "malt" der Autor gleichsam wie bei der Beschreibung von Gemälden metaphorische Traumbilder. In "Voices from a Fathomless Realm" steckt zwar auch die langjährige Erfahrung des gestandenen Metal-Musikers, doch es ist seine hörbare Liebe zu dem dunklen Heavy-Stil, die den Unterschied macht und dieses Album von der Masse ähnlicher Veröffentlichungen deutlich abhebt. CAVERNOUS GATE nehmen uns mit auf eine albtraumhafte Reise in die Abgründe des klassischen Doom Death, der jedoch auf eine zeitgemäße Weise neu interpretiert wird und nicht in schaler Nostalgie versackt. Es lohnt sich, beim "Betrachten" dieser musikalischen Bilder von unerwarteter Schönheit länger zu verweilen und die unerforschten Tiefen von Schmerz und seelenreißender Traurigkeit auf sich wirken zu lassen.

CAVERNOUS GATE veröffentlichen mit "Voices from a Fathomless Realm" ihr Debütalbum. Musik und Texte des deutschen Death Doom Soloprojekts wurden von Multiinstrumentalist Sebastian "S.K." Körkemeier konzipiert, komponiert und verfasst. Sebastian hat sich in der Metal-Szene als Mitbegründer von HELRUNAR unter dem nom de guerre Alsvartr und als Live-Musiker bei Markus "Schwadorf" Stocks Black Metal Projekt SUN OF THE SLEEPLESS sowie EMPYRIUM längst einen exzellenten Ruf erworben. Sein Projekt CAVERNOUS GATE und das Album "Voices from a Fathomless Realm" sind hörbare Liebesbekundungen des vielseitigen Instrumentalisten an den Sound britischer Doom und Death Pioniere wie die ganz frühen PARADISE LOST und CATHEDRAL sowie den schwedischen Death Metal im Stile der frühen ENTOMBED und DISMEMBER. Aus der Herzensangelegenheit ist ein ebenso finsterer und melancholischer wie massiver Heavy-Monolith entstanden. Und während auf "Voices from a Fathomless Realm" Sebastians Granit gurgelnde und abgrundtiefe Growls eindeutig dominieren, bietet Jenny Kalbitz' wunderbare Frauenstimme an handverlesenen Stellen einen subtilen Kontrast. Textlich erkundet Sebastian mit "Voices from a Fathomless Realm" eine düstere Fantasiewelt des Zwielichts und ihre geisterhaften Bewohner. In seiner Lyrik "malt" der Autor gleichsam wie bei der Beschreibung von Gemälden metaphorische Traumbilder. In "Voices from a Fathomless Realm" steckt zwar auch die langjährige Erfahrung des gestandenen Metal-Musikers, doch es ist seine hörbare Liebe zu dem dunklen Heavy-Stil, die den Unterschied macht und dieses Album von der Masse ähnlicher Veröffentlichungen deutlich abhebt. CAVERNOUS GATE nehmen uns mit auf eine albtraumhafte Reise in die Abgründe des klassischen Doom Death, der jedoch auf eine zeitgemäße Weise neu interpretiert wird und nicht in schaler Nostalgie versackt. Es lohnt sich, beim "Betrachten" dieser musikalischen Bilder von unerwarteter Schönheit länger zu verweilen und die unerforschten Tiefen von Schmerz und seelenreißender Traurigkeit auf sich wirken zu lassen.

Statement von DARK MILLENNIUM:
"6 Jahre nach der ursprünglichen Veröffentlichung unseres Comeback-Albums "Midnight In The Void" wollten wir unseren Katalog vervollständigen, indem wir dieses wichtige Album bei Massacre Records wiederveröffentlichten.

Zum ersten Mal wird es auch auf limitiertem Vinyl erhältlich sein - was von unseren Fans schon lang ersehnt wurde.
Endlich sind wir zu Hause."

Statement von DARK MILLENNIUM:
"6 Jahre nach der ursprünglichen Veröffentlichung unseres Comeback-Albums "Midnight In The Void" wollten wir unseren Katalog vervollständigen, indem wir dieses wichtige Album bei Massacre Records wiederveröffentlichten.

Zum ersten Mal wird es auch auf limitiertem Vinyl erhältlich sein - was von unseren Fans schon lang ersehnt wurde.
Endlich sind wir zu Hause."

Following on from last year’s acclaimed Sylva Sylvarum, the epic double LP from Ora Clementi (her collaborative project with James Rushford), crys cole returns to Black Truffle with Other Meetings. Originally commissioned and released on cassette by Boomkat Editions in 2021, Other Meetings is a major addition to the body of carefully hewn solo work cole has released over the last decade, offering up two side-long suites of her radically intimate approach to sound. After many years dominated by touring and travel, cole found herself in lockdown in her Berlin apartment, working in a limited space with minimal equipment. Digging through archives of recordings taken overseas and exploring the sonic potential hidden in the objects surrounding her (including a coffee pot and a vase of dying flowers), she crafted what in her liner notes she calls ‘an internal dérive, a journey that drifted through many places without a defining compass’. Totalling over 50 minutes, the two pieces unfold at an unhurried pace, each containing four individually titled subsections. Beginning with a sequence of the highly amplified small sounds characteristic of much of cole’s work, the opening moments of ‘The time between two durations of sleep’ are underpinned by a gentle rocking motion, weaving together contact mic crunch, metallic resonance, glimpses of bird song, and isolated drum machine hits, the sonic space expanding and contracting as focus moves between elements. Briefly side-lined by a tactile but unplaceable sizzling, this complex weave of voices then returns in a kind of dubbed-out ‘version’, the percussive accents echoing around the stereo space. In one of the record’s most beautiful and unexpected moments, these sounds are joined by a sparse melodic line performed on a broken 1980s digital synth, the vaguely New Age timbres being taken on a long, tonally ambiguous wander. Cole’s immersion in memories of travel comes to the fore in the final section of the first side, titled ‘Wat Paknam’ after a royal temple in Bangkok, where snatches of voices, ringing bells and distant waves of chanting blur together with synth tones into an increasingly abstracted wave of sound. The second side, ‘Slices of cake’, opens in a similarly hallucinatory outdoor space of echoing bird song and liquified traffic before abruptly zooming in on a microscopic world of subtly processed and highly amplified objects, explored with a starkness and quiet insistence that calls to mind the fringe not-quite-concrète of outsiders like Paul A.R. Timmermans or Knud Viktor, whose obsessive interrogation of dripping water might also serve as a point of reference for the following sub-section, the aptly titled ‘magischer Abfluss’ (magic drain).

While Other Meetings develops many aspects of cole’s previous work – the hyper-magnification of small gestures, the unsettling edits and fades partly inspired by hypnagogic states, the location recordings smeared into oneiric haze – it is almost as if these pieces are somehow songs, the remnants of an evaporated music of which nothing remains except isolated hits from a synthetic drum, a handful of notes, or simply a duration of emptied atmosphere. Radically reductive yet deeply musical, Other Meetings is a major work from an artist driven by an uncompromising and idiosyncratic vision.

Presented with an inner sleeve with photos and liner notes from the composer and remastered audio.

South-east Turkey born DJ, sound artist and producer Banu uses music as a political tool. For her, the strong message carried through sound is a vehicle to express emotions as well as a means of fighting against oppression. Using participation, social design, ecology, feminist and queer theory to create multimedia installations with sound as a main element, Banu‘s practice is closer to contemporary art and activist spaces than the club realm.

Banu‘s debut album TransSoundScapes is an exercise in female solidarity between her as a migrant woman and her sisters from the trans community, where an artist from one marginalised group is showing support towards her trans sisters, using her platform to help them amplify their voices and building a bridge towards a mutual understanding of femininity.

Conceptually, TransSoundScapes comes in continuation of Banu‘s previous research-based work, using music as a positive tool for change while working with various marginalised communities. The album originated from the very real experience of being confronted with verbal harassment in Berlin on a daily basis, particularly aimed at her transfeminine friends and companions. As a queer woman of Turkish and Kurdish origin, Banu did not only observe the verbal aggression directed at her friends, but also understood most of the insults shouted in languages such as Arabic. Seeing how she got signifi cantly more verbal violence directed at them when in company of trans people made a lasting impression on her, so she wanted to try and use her relative privilege to amplify transfeminine voices through her music.

Coming from a very conservative family, making music has been her lifelong dream. It was the moment she had the opportunity to work with the iconic Arp 2600 synthesiser (a younger sibling to Eliane Radigue‘s infamous 2500 machine) that all her disparate interests came into place to create an empowering soundscape with the aid of analogue drum machines. TransSoundScapes has a very full, porous sound, where every element that comes into play sounds soft yet clear. Across the 7 tracks, Banu conjures pounding subterraneous bassy techno („Surgery“), slithering tentacular EBM („First Time“) and pulsating cavernous soundscapes („Harem“), where oversized dancefl oor elements are woven with poetic spoken word passages, resulting in sensusous yet political anthems. Banu artfully merges loosely related genres such as techno, electro, dub and sound poems into a sound that is at once deeply personal and extremely compelling.

All of the tracks are collaborative efforts, Banu seeing the process as an exchange of care and shared experiences, while integrating research into her writing process. The lyrics in „Transition (part 1+2)‘‘ are an adaptation of Sara Ahmed’s “Living a Feminist Life”, while „Surgery“ was born out of series of interviews with trans people, channeling the metallic sounds of a surgery room to refer to society‘s perception of transness as a medical condition. Tracks like „First Time feat. Patricia“, „Harem feat. Prince Emrah“ or „We feat. Aérea Negrot“ document her encounters with various trans women, centering their life experiences while also developing a deep dialogue through the process of making music together.

The darkest and perhaps the most emblematic track is ‚‘Bianka (In Memory Of)‘‘, dedicated to the late Bianka Shigurova, a 22-year old Georgian actress found dead in her apartment. It was her Tbilisi photographer friend George Nebriedze who told her Bianka‘s tragic story, whose death is suspected to be an assasination due to transphobia. Banu chose one of Nebriedze‘s analogue photos of Bianka as the album‘s cover art.

On her previous albums "Ina Forsman" (2016) and "Been Meaning To Tell
You" (2019), she initially established herself as the powerful voice of her role
models. On "All There Is" she ignites a new level of her expressively introspective
self-realization by completely arriving at herself. The isolation associated with the
lockdown may have encouraged this development, but the young singer had
powers that wanted to be unleashed anyway.
Life is complex and what we perceive as a moment is nothing more than a
gondola on the cable car between the past and the future. Ina Forsman's songs
take us back to our memory and, through the power of her voice and imagination,
carry us towards our hopes and expectations. An album about and for life in its
endless creative diversity.
Pressed on 180g vinyl.

In the five years since, Larsen has moved across the country, studied philosophy
at a small liberal arts college, dropped out, and then moved across the country
again. Their life was also put on pause after the sudden death of their first love.
“This loss left so many people with so many unanswered questions, myself
included. I haven’t always arrived at answers to these questions, but songwriting
has provided me with a way to at least ask.” The first voice we hear on Good Grief
does not belong to Larsen, but to their first love. “Ready?” she asks. As if to
answer her, the album begins with an audio recording from 2013 of Larsen and
their high school friends singing Sufjan Stevens’ song "The Predatory Wasp Of
The Palisades Is Out To Get Us!" around a campfire. “When the record starts and
my ex says “ready?” there’s a part of me that feels like - in some way - she’s
asking grown-up-me if I’m “ready” to share my songs about grief now.” Good Grief
captures a coming-of-age story - of an artist and of a human being - as they try to
navigate the terrain of their existence and that of those around them. It’s an
experience of their loss but also honours the person that was lost to them. The
record closes with a reprise of the “Wasps” audio recording, marrying the past
and present as the old voice memo slowly fades into a newer one. Present-day
Larsen sings, “I can tell you I love her each day”: a testament to the fact that their
grief is-- finally--good.Packaging: LP Opaque "Yellowjacket" LP, with cover mount
marketing sticker

CITY BURIALS - KATATONIA'S 2020 STUDIO OPUS OF ABSORBING,
SOARING PROGRESSIVE ROCK & METICULOUSLY CRAFTED DOSES OF
MELANCHOLY - SINGLE LP FEATURING NEW HALF-SPEED MASTER FOR
OPTIMAL SOUND QUALITY.Formed in 1991 by Jonas Renkse & Anders
Nyström & transitioning from early pioneers of the rising black/death/
doom movement to powerhouses of the progressive metallic rock genre,
the Swedish connoisseurs of melancholy returned in 2020 with their
stellar opus, 'City Burials' - the band's eleventh studio album & first since
2016's haunting 'The Fall Of Hearts'
With the winds of a new direction steering the band on their latest journey, 'City
Burials' stood as a triumph of deep & enigmatic progressive rock – the fruits of a
rejuvenating & profound chapter in the band's legacy & a catalyst for its creators.
Compiled into one of their most important modern works & statements to date,
the finely- honed instrumentation provides a multi- textured backdrop with the
voice of Jonas Renkse guiding us through these latest trials of loss & ruin.
The chemistry between Jonas, Anders & their band mates – bassist Niklas
Sandin, drummer Daniel Moilanen & most recent recruit, guitarist Roger Öjersson
– never sounded more potent, with 'City Burials' being the first album Katatonia
made since Öjersson became a full-time member.
Inspired by an injection of fresh blood into Katatonia's creative brew, 'City Burials'
helped Katatonia reclaim part of their heavy metal roots, via several moments of
exuberant, old- school classicism, deftly woven into these new songs'
kaleidoscopic fabric, resulting in an album that propelled the band ever further
into the spotlight.
'City Burials' was produced by Nyström/ Renkse & recorded at Soundtrade
Studios, Tri-Lamb Studios & The City Of Glass, throughout October & November
2019, with engineering work handled by Karl Daniel Lidén. The album also
featured a guest appearance by Anni Bernhard, the voice behind Stockholm
based act 'Full Of Keys'. Artwork appeared courtesy of Lasse Hoile, the image
itself representing the ongoing era of the Dead End King.
This edition of 'City Burials' is presented on single black vinyl, featuring a new
half-speed vinyl master for optimal sound quality.

In his brand-new album ' Yearbook', RJ combines the feeling of loss and
hope, to explore the depths that can be reached within song writing
The album fuses classic song writing with an alternative indie pop sensibility,
sweeping from the sun-kissed bliss of the hopeful Feel Alive, through the dark yet
enticing Cutting Room Floor, to the intimately beautiful Forest Fires which
intertwines voice, guitar, and string quartet. He has created a world around the
songs. An App, accessed through QR codes installed into the album artwork,
created alongside a friend, invites fans into the songs; through childhood
pictures, voice note demos and discussions around the lyrics and their
themes.UK tour announced including Royal Albert Hall. Print Press support from,
The Times, CLASH, The Guardian and Wonderland along with Playlist support for
singles preceding the album release including: Wonderland Magazine
'Wonderlist', Square One Magazine € Release Radar', Spindle Magazine 'Spindle
Selects'. Single ' Feel Aline' was featured on Record of the Day in July. " Genuinely
for the first time, I've written songs on Yearbook where I've gone 'Oh my God,
that's mine! I've surprised myself and I really do love it.' he admits. Now it's
everyone else's turn to be surprised by RJ Thompson's ever- expanding world.
'Yearbook' released as a Jewel Case CD.

In his brand-new album ' Yearbook', RJ combines the feeling of loss and
hope, to explore the depths that can be reached within song writing
The album fuses classic song writing with an alternative indie pop sensibility,
sweeping from the sun-kissed bliss of the hopeful Feel Alive, through the dark yet
enticing Cutting Room Floor, to the intimately beautiful Forest Fires which
intertwines voice, guitar, and string quartet. He has created a world around the
songs. An App, accessed through QR codes installed into the album artwork,
created alongside a friend, invites fans into the songs; through childhood
pictures, voice note demos and discussions around the lyrics and their
themes.UK tour announced including Royal Albert Hall. Print Press support from,
The Times, CLASH, The Guardian and Wonderland along with Playlist support for
singles preceding the album release including: Wonderland Magazine
'Wonderlist', Square One Magazine € Release Radar', Spindle Magazine 'Spindle
Selects'. Single ' Feel Aline' was featured on Record of the Day in July. " Genuinely
for the first time, I've written songs on Yearbook where I've gone 'Oh my God,
that's mine! I've surprised myself and I really do love it.' he admits. Now it's
everyone else's turn to be surprised by RJ Thompson's ever- expanding world.
'Yearbook' released as a Jewel Case CD.

2022 repress

Roma Zuckerman returns to with his debut EP, which emerges after 2 stand-out appearances on the label compilations in 2015 and 2016. 'That Present Terminal' blends murky textures and sinister vocals across 4 delusional tracks.Glitchy percussion and scuzzy frequencies march with intent whilst uncanny voices mumble to the beat of their own insanity. Unnerving tones test our limits whilst underlying grooves offer mild relief. 'That Present Terminal' condenses a broad sonic palette into 4 truly bizarre cuts that, once tested, are hard to put down.

2022 Repress

The legendary gig that Joe Strummer, singer from the Punk Rock band 'The Clash' attended and inspired his writing their classic 'White Man In Hammersmith Palais' took place on the 05th June 1977.
At the Hammersmith Palais venue on Shepherd's Bush Road W6, London during the height of Punk Mania. The full line up for the show were all Jamaican artists Dillinger, Leroy Smart, Delroy Wilson (all the first time from Jamaica) and Ken Boothe.
'Ken Boothe for UK pop reggae' who had already scored some hits with 'Everything I own' and 'Crying Over You' in 1974. Joe Strummer was expecting Roots, Rock, Reggae but the Sound System this evening 'Admiral Ken Sound' was playing 'Four Tops all night' as in soul and northern soul that were staple crowd pleasers at the time to warm up the audience, but in Joe's eyes the music should have reflected more Jamaican roots based music. The song also deals with bigger issues of black and white unity, but some people including the Punk Rockers.
'They're all too busy fighting, for a good place under the lighting'. Joe Strummer himself was looking for fun. 'I'm the Whiteman in the Palais....Just Looking for Fun'

The artwork supplied by Punk Artist MAL-ONE has used the two posters that were made for this gig, the reggae promoters 'Star Promotions' poster, that contained a picture of Ken Boothe and the venue's own poster that used text to announce it's line up for that evenings performance. Alongside these lost relics he has also combined the groups own poster for the 'White Man In Hammersmith Palais' single that incorporated the use of rifle target sights, perhaps enhancing the air of violence contained in the songs message.
MAL-ONE has collaged these together joining the two stories as indeed the song lyrics reflected. People often forget that the songs release was in fact as year after the actual gig, we have tied this release to the 40th anniversary of the song's release. Joe Strummer was one of the few voices from the Punk Era that used his lyrics as a weapon to tell the events that were happening around him and their relevance to those times.
The song itsel a Clash Classic and also a Punk Anthem, released on the 16th June 1978. We have compiled this album with songs by these artists, most of which you would have heard that night. As a post script to this story when the Hammersmith Palais sadly closed its doors for the last time after 82 years' service in 1999, the owners thought it fitting to present Joe Strummer with a sign from the venue's entrance. Mr Strummer's understated reply 'I guess I'll have to send a man with a van round to pick it up'.
Hope you Enjoy the set....

SAISEI founder Junki Inoue continues his vital archival work uncovering the riches of Japan’s distinctive electronic music scene and bringing them to new audiences around the world. The Sounds Of Transonic compiles six tracks recorded in Tokyo between 1991 and 1995 and released by the pioneering Transonic label, founded in 1994 by Kazunao Nagata and active until 2004.

Transonic’s catalogue is a glittering roll call of the scene’s major players, whose inventive and genre-blending work established forward-thinking house and techno in Japan in a way that would shape the country’s electronic sound for years to come. Transonic was instrumental in giving exposure to the work of these artists with its emblematic series of CD compilations, released over a short couple of years in the mid 90s. Beginning with 970-1450km/h, Feedback and Range, the series also included The Roots Of Transonic, featuring music from parent label Trigger. Alongside these compilations came much sought-after solo albums each packaged with striking cover art that makes the discs a visual treat for collectors to this day.

The Sounds Of Transonic brings together six tracks from the catalogue into one breath-taking package. The influence of hi-tech jazz and machine funk from Detroit is undeniable in ‘Dream Trance’ (Mind Design) and ‘Blasting Soul’ (Interferon), while ‘Under The Ground’ (Palomatic) and ‘Chelsea’ (Suzukiski) are permeated by the artificial intelligence and trip hop emanating from the UK at the time. The compilation is bookended by two tracks by Nagata himself (as Organization): ‘Space Ball’, a Model 500-worthy chase through the cosmos, and ‘Call’, an eerie echo of Kraftwerk’s telephone, transmitting expectantly out into the void and, finally, receiving its celestial answer.

With The Sounds Of Transonic these formative pieces of music will now be available internationally and, for the first time, on vinyl.

SAISEI is a Japanese word which translates to ‘reproduction’ and ‘to play’ (as in playing records). Japanese culture is widely known for its traditional nature just as much as it is for being forward into the future and this label’s concept does justice to exactly that. Having started digging for records as early as 16 years old, Inoue delved into productions from 1990s Japan to uncover these native gems. SAISEI’s core concept is to recapture and reintroduce unique pieces of Japanese electronic music onto vinyl, to an audience it never reached before as most of this music was only released in Japan.

Following the compass of an entrancing debut, Flore Laurentienne's Volume II presents another palette of rich orchestral sound, where changing forces of water inspire metaphorical markers that navigate passages of life and loss. Mathieu David Gagnon resumes his voyage into environment and emotion with Volume II, drawing inspiration from the rivers and rugged wilderness of the composer's native Quebec. In his return as Flore Laurentienne - the namesake of an inventory documenting St. Lawrence Valley flora - Gagnon assembles vivid melodic motifs and delicate modulation with a vast string ensemble to emulate the tides of human experience. Listeners of Volume I will recognise Gagnon's signature approach towards reworking and reframing an emblematic melody or concept across a series of works in Volume II, a process he likens to that of a painter creating multiple sketches of the same view. Continued from the first album, the enigmatic "Fleuve" series is conjured to evoke the multiple personalities of the great St. Lawrence River, and the "Navigation" works ("III" and "IV") wade through dappled progressions and expansive streams of string, the latter of which harbors the gentle meanderings of improvised clarinet. In the world of Flore Laurentienne, complexity emerges from simplicity as the composer roams familiar environments in constant flux. Gagnon extracts beauty through repetition and constraint, utilizing the writing style of counterpoint for which one of his greatest musical inspirations, Johann Sebastian Bach, is renowned. The lilting waves of "Canon" possess the eponymous formation of melodic 'leader and follower' motif, and magnify the softness of the album's eighteen string musicians into a force of full euphoric resonance. In Volume II, Gagnon continues his expansion of classical composition archetypes to meet a new realm of sonic romanticism. Thematic conventions of wandering the pastoral sublime become altered into glimmering refractions, relaying the emotional and kinetic power of natural energies. Volume II forms an estuary where streams of auditory microcosm reach a horizon of dynamic contrast, and reflect the parallel tenors of nature and humankind.

Ranging from sanguine emotional clarity to distortion and unrest, Wow Sailor voyages through sunlight and storms in this mindful and explorative album. Happy Fear is an intricate tapestry of emotional experience, where fear and joy clash heads in the pursuit of self-understanding. Scattered field recordings of literature, ambiance and chance encounters provide atmospheric depth to enrich a resonant and meditative soundscape.

This tale begins with fond yet powerful nostalgia, before segueing into a range of hybrid instrumental explorations in which guitar, voice, violin, and trumpet blossom alongside refined electronic foundations. The album closes off with indulgent melancholia reminiscent of the opening, providing lifelike circularity to the album.

All songs remain connected; one leading into another without pause or silence. This urges the listener to digest the work in a single sitting as elements of the story seem intrinsically connected.

The first half is studded with gems of atmospheric conversation and recordings, providing a living and textured environment for the crafted synthetic sounds of Wow Sailor to evolve. Most songs are free from percussive structures, but In Her Gaze breaks the mold with clear percussive dictate. The middle and latter titles are connected by ominous frequencies that err on the darker side of curiosity - encouraging exploration into the transformative power of fear.

All in all, the work glimmers with spontaneity and diversity that resembles real-life experience. Carefully crafted sonic interplays bare semblance to the fluctuating emotional life of the ever sensitive and sentient human being.

Dugnad Rec sits at the helm of yet another wonderfully creative and philosophical work. This release gives verity to the artistic integrity, sound design, and mental exploration of the label. Wow Sailor’s work radiates an enticing, authentic, and indelible mark of individuality.