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Jazz iconoclast Albert Ayler took the experimental leanings of contemporaries like John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman as a starting point and then blasted them to stratospheric extremes, creating some of the most polarizing and brilliant music of the 20th Century. In particular, 1964 was a pivotal – and well documented – year in the free jazz artist’s career. After returning to New York, Ayler assembled a brilliant group with Sunny Murray on drums and Gary Peacock on bass, recording Spiritual Unity, Ayler’s first record for the legendary ESP-Disk’ label, that summer.

Soon after that session, Ayler took his trio to Europe where they were joined by cornetist Don Cherry for a tour of The Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark. The Hilversum Session is a live radio session recorded on November 9th, 1964. At that point the quartet was months into its European tour and the interplay is extraordinary. On classic Ayler compositions like “Spirits” and “Ghosts” the band absolutely rip, with a kind of intuition and connectivity rarely heard, creating some of the most untethered and undeniably powerful music in the history of free jazz. Our Swimmer is pleased to present the first official vinyl reissue of The Hilversum Session in over thirty years.

John Carpenter is a legend. As the director and composer behind dozens of classic movies, Carpenter has established a reputation as one of the greatest filmmakers in the history of modern cinema, as well as one of its most influential musicians. The minimal, synthesizer-driven themes to films like Halloween, Escape From New York, and Assault on Precinct 13 are as indelible as their images, and their timelessness was evident as Carpenter performed them live in a string of internationally sold-out concert dates in 2016. Anthology: Movie Themes 1974-1998 collects 13 classic themes from Carpenter's illustrious career together on one volume for the first time. Each theme has been newly recorded with the same collaborators that Carpenter worked with on his hit Lost Themes studio albums: his son, Cody Carpenter, and godson, Daniel Davies.

Retro house sounds from Italy on this release... tunes that still go down well with some of the big name festival dj's during their summer tour! A track that remained unpublished for 33 years until Devil Dee decided to make it public and bring his own voice to the spotlight joined by jazz-blues singer Joan Faulkner, (former supporting voice of Boney M and Milli Vanilli, also known by her stage name 'Dee-Vah'). Devil Dee is Davide Mancori - a cinematograph with a flattering career as a club-dj from 80s-90s onwards - who lovingly produced this release which differs from most of the releases on Best Record by its housey vibe. 'And The Beat Goes On', was written in Germany in 1989 by Leonie Gane and Ryan Paris. Laying the crucial foundations for an evolutionary step of the italian disco music. A step forward for the 'Italo' movement which at the end of the 80s was been considered obsolete and defunct. In fact, the track is also referring to the latest Italo-Disco which entirely covered the scene of the 1980s with furious activity, If the meeting between Devil Dee and the famous interpreter of 'Dolce Vita' - Mister Ryan Paris - creates the alchemy, the explosive mix is completed with the precious work of Marco Magrini. The arrangement by Pierluigi Cerin and the executive work of Claudio Casalini close the magic circle. Five friends and a great singer from Indiana to fill the dance floors all over Europe, while the images of the provocative and surreal video-clip capture the audience by splitting in two. There are those who do not want to see certain issues publicized and those who appreciate their cheekiness, such as Best Record which by publishing the vinyl printed at 180 grams celebrates the 40 years of activity.

Picture London, thirty years ago, as Neneh Cherry gears up to release her debut album Raw Like Sushi - a thrumming, restless, vibrant city that in 1989, much like today, pulsed defiantly against a backdrop of increasing political doom, rocking to the joyful noise of culture leaping across boundaries, radically reordering itself. Rents are low.

Soho hums to the chatter of poets, vagabonds and petty sex tourists drinking in the same elixir of possibility. The divisions between the queens of Old Compton and mods and punks of Carnaby Streets look huge but feel slight. A spirit of multiracial unity permeates the air.

New York hip hop and Chicago house continue their euphoric colonisation of nightclub culture. Amid this maelstrom, Neneh Cherry emerges, capturing the entire, giddy rumble of this rolling community street culture in one record, Raw Like Sushi. With no interest in genre, Raw Like Sushi upsets and inverts everything you thought you knew about how pop can work, at it's brightest and most effective.

One of the greatest debut albums of all time, born halfway between Never Mind The Bollocks and Boy In Da Corner, Raw Like Sushi was ready to escort you right to the centre of it's dancefloor, dripping hot sweat under a mirrorball at 3am - and its particular magic remains just as potent today.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of an album that culturally, musically and stylistically defined a generation and everything that followed, Raw Like Sushi has been remastered at Abbey Road and will be released in super deluxe format across 3CD and 3LP heavyweight vinyl box sets, and 1CD and 1LP formats.

The box sets include a stunning 48-page 12x12 book packed full of iconic photos, new interviews, liner notes and memorabilia. The album features five of Neneh’s biggest singles - including the worldwide smash hit single ‘Buffalo Stance’ as well as hit singles ‘Manchild’ produced by Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja, ‘Kisses On The Wind’, ‘Heart’ and ‘Inna City Mamma’. It also features rare mixes of key tracks by Massive Attack, Arthur Baker, Smith N Mighty, and more.

Since the release of Raw Like Sushi 30 years ago, Neneh Cherry has continued to define and redefine culture, style and music releasing five studio albums, including 2018’s Broken Politics, produced by Four Tet, which was met with critical acclaim by the likes of The Guardian, Rolling Stone, The Times, Q and Pitchfork.

Neneh went on to tour the album throughout 2019 including her largest ever headline show at London’s Roundhouse, and festival performances at Glastonbury, Latitude, Primavera, Pitchfork and more proving her music and message more relevant than ever.

Bassist and composer Milo Fitzpatrick (Portico Quartet) launches new collaborative project with saxophonist Jordan Smart (Mammal Hands)

Vega Trails is a new project from double-bassist and composer Milo Fitzpatrick, a founder member of Portico Quartet, who has also performed with the likes of Nick Mulvey and Jono McCleary and features saxophonist Jordan Smart (Mammal Hands, Sunda Arc) in a richly powerful duo bringing together two powerfully charismatic musicians. The project which takes its name from Carl Sagan's science fiction novel 'Contact' (a book about signals of new life detected from the Vega system) andwas born out of a desire to bring the elements of bass and melody to the foreground in their rawest form and Fitzpatrick explains that he deliberatelychose the stripped back approach.

"There is so much in just one musician's sound; the emotional, the intellectual, the vulnerability and power of their character. But often these delicate nuances can be submerged in the quest for a group sound. In Vega Trails I wanted to grant the musicians space to breathe and be heard and for the listener to witness the intimacy and depth of a conversation between two voices, bass and melody. I was also interested in how the limitations would guide both the composition and performance and to push us both to places close to the limits of what we could play, and it is in this place where I believe the character of a musician blossoms and comes forward".

Tremors in the Static was composed during Lockdown as Fitzpatrick immersed himself in music that had space and sparseness such as Swedish fiddle music and Indian Classical music. Jan Johansson's legendary 'Jazz på Svenska' (jazz versions of Swedish folk songs) was another influence, as was a collection of ancient lullabies by Spanish soprano singer Montserrat Figueras. Through exploring the harmonic and textural possibilities on the bass, Fitzpatrick would cycle riffs and motifs whilst singing melodies, and he began to create the music debuted here. However, it was only after listening to Charlie Haden's album of duets, 'Closeness', that the project would come into focus as a duo, and Fitzpatrick immediately knew that the second musician had to be Jordan Smart.

"I saw Jordan play at two Gondwana Records events – in Berlin and Tokyo. Both times I was mesmerised by the intensity and conviction of his playing. His commitment to the cause of transcending himself and the listener made a lasting impression on me. When I began writing this record, I knew I needed a strong player who had equal conviction in their playing as me, but also someone who understood the importance of melody"

It was an inspired idea as Smart brought an openness and positivity which allowed the music to be both experimental and bold. Smart's ability to play tenor and soprano saxophone with equal command, as well as bass clarinet and Ney flute, allowed them to open up the pallet of sound and pull the melodies into varying emotional landscapes.The final piece of the puzzle was the performance space. Fitzpatrick knew that he wanted the two players to react off of a third element. The music was written for an ambient space which interacted with the notes: decaying and disintegrating them into silence. They found the perfect space in a church in Fitzpatrick's local neighbourhood of Stamford Hill.

"The recording space is the canvas on which the sound interacts and flows, it is the frame in which notes can live, breathe and die and is as important as the other elements. A resonant recording space, like a church, allows this stripped back sound to resonate, echo and linger, enough to create images and landscapes in which stories can play out".

This then is Vega Trails, a project that brings together two open-mined and communicative musicians for the first time, to tell beautiful winding stories together and to create something soulful and new.Something bigger than both of them and something that leaves us all richer for hearing it. Enjoy!

Madonna is the first and only recording artist to have 50 #1 hits on any single Billboard chart. To celebrate this historic milestone, Madonna curated a new 50-track collection titled FINALLY ENOUGH LOVE: 50 NUMBER ONES which includes her favourite remixes of those chart-topping dance hits that have filled clubs worldwide for four decades as well as an abridged 16-track version, titled FINALLY ENOUGH LOVE. This 140-gram 2LP gatefold jacket includes single covers and a track-by-track on all featured 16 number one singles.

This collection highlights You Can Dance, Madonna’s first ever remix collection. Celebrating 35 years this year, You Can Dance has sold more than five million copies worldwide and is still the second best-selling remix album of all time. The collection also pays homage to “Everybody,” Madonna’s first single. Each remix was newly remastered for the collection by Mike Dean, who produced Madonna’s two most-recent studio albums, Rebel Heart (2015) and Madame X (2019). Along with those rarities, this album also introduces the “Offer Nissim Promo Mix” of “Living For Love” as its first official release.

Repress!

incl Adam Beyer & Layton Giordani Remix

Sam Paganini’s ‘Rave’ was a huge record for Drumcode. It was a defining moment for the label as well as being a pivotal release in the club techno movement of the last decade. When originally released in 2014 it became an instant anthem for techno fans and DJ’s alike but it also forged a path into the mainstream with mass support coming from all sides of the electronic spectrum. Since that 2014 release ‘Rave’ has generated more than 100 million streams; a testament to its global popularity and appeal.

Here we see Adam Beyer and Layton Giordani unite to remix this illustrious title - bringing a fresh and dynamic 2022 perspective to it.

‘Rave' remixed by Adam Beyer and Layton Giodani, respectfully nurtures the iconic essence of the original mix, including the signature riff, but it does so while also dramatically increasing the heart rate with more drive, energy, power and punch.

The original breakdown and famous ‘tricked you!’ drop has now evolved into a more marked double break with the second one now including a haunting war cry before that instantly recognisable burst of staccato melody pulls you back into trademark Beyer / Giordani pounding beats.

A crowd driving highlight from all of Adam and Layton’s recent headline shows - this remix is beyond peak time music. Add to that the extensive list of early headliner support and we have what is clearly set to be a year defining track of the incoming Summer.

On High Flying Man, the third LP by Matt Berry’s pseudo-eponymous project The Berries, loss and desire take center stage. Berry delves deep into 21st century malaise, crafting densely layered songs which project an unshakable yearning for deliverance from the world’s shortcomings. Each track extends an outstretched palm towards universal connection, blending a complex of mix of pop hooks, rock swagger, and psychedelia into dejected populist anthems. Faced with the perils of an isolating world, High Flying Man reignites the tradition of great American songwriting, speaking in the voice of the longing masses. At heart, Berry demands more life, rejecting both arty cynicism and nostalgic escapism.

Berry cut his teeth at a young age playing in the bands Happy Diving (Topshelf Records) and Big Bite (Pop Wig), and has since regularly served as a touring member for bands like Angel Dust and Dark Tea. His early work with Happy Diving and Big Bite solidified his position as an upcoming star in the world of fuzzed-out indie rock, earning him tours and opening slots with the likes of Turnstile, Dinosaur Jr., Nothing, The Swirlies, and The Coathangers. With The Berries, however, Berry turns the Big Muffs down (although not off), creating sonic space to stretch his wings as a burgeoning pop songwriter. The psychedelic-surrealist textures of his earlier output are not gone, per say, but rather find themselves folded into more expansive, rock-oriented arrangements, becoming accoutrements as opposed to the driving force of each song itself.

High Flying Man follows The Berries’ previous releases, 2018’s Start All Over Again and 2019’s Berryland. While longtime listeners will undoubtedly recognize Berry’s disaffected drawl and melodic sensibility, High Flying Man’s complex arrangements and expansive sonic landscape place it well apart from its predecessors. Berry enlisted live band members Danny Paul (drums), Emma Danner (backing vocals), and Lance Umble (bass) during the recording of High Flying Man, as well as the mixing talents of Rob Schnapf (Elliott Smith, Beck, Guided by Voices), breaking from the self-produced home recording ethos of the previous Berries LPs. The collaborative nature of High Flying Man’s recording process is reflected in the quality of each song’s arrangement. Freed from the pressure of being individually responsible for every detail committed to tape, Berry was able to focus his attention more fully on the creative demands of constructing a dynamic and cohesive record. High Flying Man pivots away from any sort of obvious nod to Americana tropes, baggy British attitude, or Neil Young-esque riffing, leaning head on into a lush, idiosyncratic grandeur.

Each track evokes the irreverent and flashy style of a songwriting voice finding itself for the first time. Berry’s guitar heroics extend towards new heights, channeling the simple pop mastery of Lindsay Buckingham (“Prime”) and the wicked emotion of a 21st century “November Rain” (“High Flying Man”). Unusual stylistic juxtapositions give certain songs an almost timeless quality: Bert Jansch-esque crooning finds its counterpoint in sweeping, distortion-soaked riffs (“A Drop of Rain”), the primitive rhythms of Amon Duul are given an arena-sized, Britpop facelift (“Life’s Blood”). On High Flying Man, however, the ballad reigns supreme. “Down That Road Again” drips with sentimentality, powered by soft, undeniable pop melodies and pared-down chord progressions. Album-centerpiece “Eagle Eye” teeters between pure grace and extreme sorrow, unfolding into a massive, immediately memorable tide of melancholic beauty.

Lyrically, High Flying Man is both simple and direct. Although often bitter about the state of the world, Berry has no overtly political axe to grind. In some instances, he takes jabs at the moral laziness of aging millennials, expressing his yearning for a return to vitality and conviction (“Prime”). In other instances, Berry turns his criticism inwards, examining his longing for a better life and his repeated tendency to self-sabotage (“Down That Road Again”). These two poles balance each other out, creating a thematic tenor which is more so self-implicating and empathetic than critical. If anyone is to blame, it is the world we have been saddled with, not the people left to pick up its pieces. Although often personal, Berry’s words evoke a universal experience of continued belief in the face of loss. “High Flying Man” chronicles the growing distance between Berry and an old friend who has been shipwrecked by the weight of trauma, evoking the sorrow of trying to love someone who is no longer able to keep up with reality. Even the most somber passages of “Eagle Eye” (“long before I become aware of it, my friend/it’s 6 AM and I’m gonna die”) find their redemption in a burning devotion towards something worth living for (“If there’s one thing I can depend on/it’s my old friend/my shining light/my eagle eye”).

With High Flying Man, Matt Berry embraces undying love in the face of isolation. Daring to want more life becomes a spiritual rallying cry against a world that has failed to make life either meaningful or beautiful. At their core, these songs are not about revolution, but they are about the faith that gives something like revolution a purpose in the first place.

Lightning Bolt redefines what it means to be DIY. An utterly singular band in every way, unbridled creativity and energy propel them well past most categorical boundaries, least of which is the boundary between band and audience. Theirs is an immersive experience - a sound so huge it can swallow us all. Oblivion Hunter is a monster. Not a compilation, not concept album and more than the sum of its parts, the record is a peek into the band"s inner world on their home turf (the Hilarious Attic in Providence), collecting deep explorations into distortion, bass manipulation and its intersection with rhythm. A Limited release in 2012 sold out almost immediately. This first re-issue is a deluxe one coming with 4 different covers each matched with it"s own color vinyl. Re mastered by Josh Bonati, you can now immerse yourself in this pivotal Lightning Bolt album"s sonic oblivion and YOU are now the Oblivion Hunter. A cathartic listening experience, Oblivon Hunter finds blast-beats colliding with distorted vocals and all shapes and sizes of guitar noises, even some metallic riffage on the album closer and aptly named "World Wobbly Wide." Throughout, the sound is amped-up and free with an ear on the railroad tracks to the big sounds of industry and clamor. Bass sounds jump out of the speaker cones that conjure up ears in alien propulsion systems, nights in faraway wind tunnels. Experience this pivotal album in Lightning Bolt"s catalog like never before.

Lightning Bolt redefines what it means to be DIY. An utterly singular band in every way, unbridled creativity and energy propel them well past most categorical boundaries, least of which is the boundary between band and audience. Theirs is an immersive experience - a sound so huge it can swallow us all. Oblivion Hunter is a monster. Not a compilation, not concept album and more than the sum of its parts, the record is a peek into the band"s inner world on their home turf (the Hilarious Attic in Providence), collecting deep explorations into distortion, bass manipulation and its intersection with rhythm. A Limited release in 2012 sold out almost immediately. This first re-issue is a deluxe one coming with 4 different covers each matched with it"s own color vinyl. Re mastered by Josh Bonati, you can now immerse yourself in this pivotal Lightning Bolt album"s sonic oblivion and YOU are now the Oblivion Hunter. A cathartic listening experience, Oblivon Hunter finds blast-beats colliding with distorted vocals and all shapes and sizes of guitar noises, even some metallic riffage on the album closer and aptly named "World Wobbly Wide." Throughout, the sound is amped-up and free with an ear on the railroad tracks to the big sounds of industry and clamor. Bass sounds jump out of the speaker cones that conjure up ears in alien propulsion systems, nights in faraway wind tunnels. Experience this pivotal album in Lightning Bolt"s catalog like never before.

'Youngest Daughter' is the debut album from folk-pop quartet GUISE. Spear-headed by singer songwriter Jessica Guise, it follows the release of 'The Fun Part' EP released on XMR March 2020. The album is produced and mastered by husband Frank Turner and features guest appearances from Emily Barker, Callum Green and Lukas Drinkwater. Will be released on CD, white vinyl and download. Live shows and festival appearances planned for throughout the year to support the release. As well as shows in Germany in September and main support to Will Varley on his UK tour in May 2022. *Release Timeline: Track 1 ‘Don’t Come Back’ - released as a single + IGT 25th February 2022 First single ‘Don’t Come Back’ isn’t a song about one particular person so much as a string of disastrous decisions. It’s about the brutal transience and sheer depressing turnover of romantic entanglements I found myself in living in London during my 20s, and about crashing headlong into people who just bounce off and bounce along like dodgems. It’s also about sometimes being the dodgem myself, and not giving myself too much of a hard time about it. Featuring Callum Green on drums and dear pal Lukas Drinkwater brought his marvellous upright bass to the party, and a stunning acoustic guitar solo. Track 2 'I Know When You Leave' - 25th March 2022 - IG track I wrote the words to ‘I Know When You Leave’ on a bus in Italy, and the tune came to me later back in London, Separation from the person I love is a pretty normal part of my life, but that doesn’t make it easy all the time; things are generally just a bit worse when we’re apart, and that’s what this is about. Recorded almost completely a cappella, with a subtle measure of floaty keys tumbling in towards its crescendo, ‘I Know When You Leave’’s barren instrumental landscape adds to the sense of longing and isolation at the track’s core. Features Emily Barker on backing vocals.

The debut album from Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers and featuring the U.S. single tracks, “New England” and “Here Come The Martian Martians” This version of The Modern Lovers included drummer David Robinson (The Cars) and Greg “Curly” Keranen on bass (The Rubinoos) Co-Produced by Beserkley Records founder Matthew King Kauffman and Glen Kolotkin (Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin) Available CD & LP. Jonathan Richman formed The Modern Lovers in 1970 in Boston with Jerry Harrison (Talking Heads), Ernie Brooks and David Robinson (The Cars). The band recorded a series of demos, first with John Cale (The Velvet Underground) and later with producer Kim Fowley. Both sets of demos were eventually released, but not until the original group had disbanded. In 1975 Jonathan relocated to California and secured a recording deal with Beserkley Records. By 1976 he had pulled together a new version of The Modern Lovers. This group included the holdover David Robinson from the original band and added, Leroy Radcliffe and Greg 'Curly’ Keranen (The Rubinoos). The self-titled release delivered on Richman’s desire for more acoustic and harmony-based material. Unfortunately, nearly on top of the bands’ debut album release, the earlier demo material drawn mostly from the Cale demo sessions was issued, and Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers was overshadowed by “Pablo Picasso,” “Roadrunner,” and their—now classic—“debut.” Shortly after the release of their actual self-titled debut, Robinson departed to join The Cars. Needing a new drummer, the band found D. Sharpe (later of the Carla Bley Band) and this new line-up recorded Rock ’n’ Roll With The Modern Lovers which was released in 1977 and achieved some chart success in Europe with “Egyptian Reggae” making it to #5 on the U.K. Singles Chart. Greil Marcus called it “the purist Rock and Roll album I’ve heard this year.” However, another in the series of personnel changes, Keranen left the group. Modern Lovers ‘Live’ followed in 1977 with new bassist Asa Brebner. While the U.S. might not have caught on to the magic of Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers, the U.K. certainly did. Recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon, ‘Live’ features Jonathan and The Modern Lovers performing classics from their first two releases to an enthusiastic crowd. The set included the recent Top 5 U.K. single “Egyptian Reggae,” as well as tracks from The Modern Lovers’ previously releases plus an eight-minute version of “Ice Cream Man.” 1979’s Back In Your Life marked the end of any original versions of The Modern Lovers and closed the Beserkley era with Jonathan stepping back from music for a few years after its release.

Come for the leopard, stay for the stone cold jams. Yet another thrilling, funky-prog jazzy-rock fusion beauty from Ian Carr’s Nucleus. Originally released on Vertigo in 1975, Alleycat was never re-pressed so those original copies are now very tricky to score. Like all the Nucleus records, it’s aged ridiculously well and this Be With re-issue, re-mastered from the original analogue tapes, shows off just why this deserves to be back in press.

Genius trumpeter and visionary composer Ian Carr was one of the most respected British musicians of his era. He was a true pioneer and saw the potential in fusing the worlds of jazz with rock, just as Miles Davis and The Tony Williams Lifetime did in the US. In late 1969, following the demise of the Rendell-Carr quintet, and tiring of British jazz, Carr assembled the legendary Nucleus. Regarding music as a continuous process, Nucleus refused to “recognise rigid boundaries” and worked on delivering what they saw as a “total musical experience”. We can get behind that.

Under bandleader Carr, Nucleus existed as a fluid line-up of inventive, skilled musicians. This constant evolution and revolution was all part of the continuous musical exploration and discovery that took jazz to new levels. And the music has stayed relevant. To steal a line from a recent review of our re-issue of Roots, when it comes to anything Nucleus “it’s basically already hip-hop”.

Alleycat was the last Nucleus album recorded for the Vertigo label. Released in 1975, it was again meticulously produced by Jon Hiseman and is every bit as sinuous as anything else the group had recorded. As far as riff-laden accidental cop-funk goes, there’s so much energy coursing through the music that at times it sounds like a live recording. It’s pretty unbeatable.

Uptempo opener “Phaideaux Corner” is a funk-flavoured opus with a groove that simply swaggers. This trademark Roger Sutton piece benefits from Trevor Tomkins’s percussive expertise and some excellent sax and keyboard soloing. Check out Geoff Castle on squelchy, stabbing Moog duties. Ian Carr’s elegantly laidback title track is a lengthy suite of magisterial themes. Typically complex, it still gets you hooked and is just riddled with the funk. Carr builds up his initially “straight” trumpet solo with later use of echo to mesmeric effect. And there’s some excellent wah-wah guitar shredding by Ken Shaw too. Nice.

The second side opens with the killer “Splat” and finds Nucleus really ripping it up. A fat, funky bass guitar riff introduces us to the track and stays with us until the end. The often mangled bass groove is pushed along by rattling drums and percussion, dropping out for some restful moments of spacey calm, and along the way picking up some lengthy keyboard noodling by Castle. So so good.

The cool “You Can’t Be Sure” is a gentle jam with Shaw on 12-string acoustic guitar, together with Carr’s muted trumpet and some marvellous fretless work from Sutton for extra colour. The album closes with Bob Bertles’ galloping “Nosegay”, written perhaps as a response to some of the faster Mahavishnu Orchestra pieces. It’s an example of well crafted jazz-rock that doesn’t compromise any of its jazziness, yet it still very definitely rocks.

This Be With re-issue of Alleycat has been re-mastered from the original Vertigo master tapes, Simon Francis’ mastering working together with Pete Norman’s cut to weave their usual magic with these wonderful recordings. The cool AF cover - that leopard was just a cat before he heard Nucleus, you know - has been restored as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue.

Are you still here? Or are you still there? Berlin-based/Italian warehouse-rave warrior, Younger Than Me, and Italo-American romantic goth-wave prince, Curses are THERE. They're there where it's at!

It was the bond of bold friendship that brought these guys together - and of course a shared history of subgenre juxtaposition and meshing. Both grew up on Punk, Rap, and of course the early days of Techno. »Still There« is their first EP together and thus of course their first for Live At Robert Johnson. It's a venture into the euphoric, psychedelic power of early Trance and Breaks mixed with the attitude and energy of EBM and Electro.

Starting with the moody slow beats of the title tune »Still There«, Y2C takes you on a journey to a faraway chill-out room in some dark yet warm and cozy cellar. Or is this place to be found in synth heaven? It could well be if you listen to those dreamy melodies. Melodies as beguiling as the song of the Sirens that seduced good old Ulysses.

Y2C pick up on that dreamy vibe but throw in that slight and subtle Trance-factor, taking up speed with »Romantic Squat«, dragging you into their very own romantic squat.

Next up is »Love Your Enemy« - oh yes, shouldn't we all? Icey claps with lots of reverb and a bass line draw you onto the dry ice flooded aluminum floor and there's no way back - especially when that strange break with that crazy sound makes you stop for a second and think, why did I stop dancing? Get back on the floor y'all!

The last track »Lullapaluza« is indeed some kind of a lollapalooza ride, a very special ride. And no, it does not lull you to sleep because the beat created by Y2C here is a demanding one, a special which gets you going all over its eight and a half minutes. It's sheer bliss, you gotta believe it.

This is not a one-off novelty EP, it's a kinetic collaboration. Y2C is a force of nature, a force of RAVE/WAVE energy, with many more to come, a force to reckon with.

Super db is a 4-piece band from London, whose sound is a distinctive mix of Pop, Disco, Funk, Rock and Jazz. The band's name plays on the positive, upbeat nature of their music, as well as encompassing the initials of each band member.

The lineup is composed of twin brothers J-M Sutcliffe (guitars & vocals) and J-P Sutcliffe (drums, vocals, keys & percussion), joined by Lorenzo Bassignani (bass) and Matt Dibble (keys, vocals, sax & clarinet). All four members are recognized as some of the UK's top musicians, most of them multi-instrumentalists offering more than one musical contribution to their band recordings, including rotating lead vocalists.

Following on from two very well-received singles in 2020, "Kool Funk" and "Open Line to Me", which were heavily supported by the BBC and taste making media around UK and Europe; Super db released another single "Wait For Me" on 7th May 2021 working for the first time with an array of successful independent labels including Legere Recordings (GSA), Go Entertainment (Benelux), and P-Vine Records (Japan). The anticipated full album "Ecoute Ca" will follow this summer with its global release in July.

In May 2021, Super db sadly announced the untimely and sudden death of their much loved founding member, Matt Dibble. In Matt's honour, the remaining band members continue to be dedicated to sharing and promoting the music they made together and vitally shall maintain the positive vibes and lust for life that Matt always brought to the project and life in general. "Ecoute Ca" represents everything that 4 piece loved to create as a unit and its release is now as significant as ever.

."Ecoute Ca" as a record, pays homage to 70s and 80s West-coast 'Yacht-rock' music, along with a joyful synthesis of the band's varied song-writing approaches.

The sound encompasses funky bass lines, riffing guitars, smooth sax, and a unique blend of vocal harmonies offering a delicious combination of the familiar and fresh all rolled into one. "Ecoute Ca" is a collection of songs that will provide a feel good, joyful soundtrack to the most needed summer vibes the world has ever wanted for!

UK label Dawn State continue their hot streak this summer with further eclectic moods for the dance floor and beyond. On the tools for the fifth outing on the label is KIDWHO, a blossoming talent who through the last years whilst enduring the pandemic found light by burying himself in his studio experiencing new creative flows. The “Warez House” EP varies in tastes, similar to the highs and lows of the times that just passed us by.

Diving into the deep end is the title track, “Warez House”, loopy and hypnotic, swaying between shades of low end leaned house and techno. Off kilter synths and pads maneuver their way around the driving force of the track. “It came together layer by layer, eventually turning into a dense (and at times, unruly!) groove. A final touch
of atmospherics from an old Roland ROMpler and the track was done - bar a generous helping hand in mixdown from Joel Kane (who also turned out a heads-down dub version which might make an appearance!).”

Leaning in a more hazy direction is the blissful cruiser, “Leploop Lagoon”, a deep and emotive vibe crafted especially for the early mornings. A sophisticated deep house energy from the talented producer. “‘Leploop Lagoon’ is the oldest track on the EP, a cleaned-up version of a rough jam I made around four years back. It takes its name from the Leploop, a quirky semi-modular analogue groovebox of sorts, hand-built in Italy. A very unique and unpredictable machine, it’s on bass duties here as well as providing some percussion sounds via the MPC sampler.”

On the flip side lies “Spectral Pattern”, and it packs a certain punch. The rolling arrangement converses in harmony with icy hi-hats that flash in and out teasing the energy, all of the elements having space to breathe and work their magic.“‘Spectral Pattern’ came together quickly one very productive weekend in the studio last year. It developed from the bass sequence, which comes from a Yamaha TG-33, an unassuming 80s digital synth known for its glassy mix of ROM samples and FM tones - very New Age sounding, or 90s computer game soundtracks. But when you strip it back to basics, it punches hard in the low-end.”

Slipping on to the B side is a five minute transcendental trip, offering yet another series of textures to this otherworldly EP. The final track “At Least We Hav Music” is an ethereal soundscape waiting to be explored, wandering amongst ambient realms throughout. “The label was keen to include an ambient track on the release, and I wanted to record something specially for them. At first I had in mind something droning and melancholic, but after a few experiments with cassette
loops and reverb pedals this was the one that stood out. It was recorded during one of the lockdowns, and I guess I needed to create something that sounded more hopeful than brooding. I messaged DS boss Tom Haus with a rough version, and we went on to have a grumble about the gloomy state of things, locked-down in our respective cities and missing friends, family, activities… At some point I wrote ‘at least we have music’ - and almost as soon as I had sent it I knew I had found the track’s title. I’m very lucky to have had my home studio as a refuge through the long months of lockdown, and I’m honoured to have the chance share some of my output from this period on this record.”
KIDWHO fitting the Dawn State ethos to a tee here as they set up shop for what looks to be another fantastic release. “Each of these tracks came about in quite different ways. Like many creative people, I had moments of struggle during the pandemic, where the lack of variety and day-to-day stimulation lead to periods of writer’s block, and so I used those times to focus on smaller, more manageable projects such as making synth patches, recording sounds and and throwing together short loops in my samplers for later use. A number of
these short loops eventually laid the foundations for title track ‘Warez House’. Big thanks to Dawn State, Joel Kane, El Choop and everyone else who has helped make this happen.” -

KIDWHO

‘Reich’s music expands from minimalist austerity to more full-bodied passages and back again. Reminiscent of his earliest work, it is very beautiful.’ – Financial Times

‘The music has tender energy, and an undercurrent of melancholy. Its droning tones sometimes seem to be pulling apart – like taffy, or like Richter’s stretching spaghetti stripes of color.’ – New York Times

Nonesuch Records releases the first recording of Steve Reich’s Reich/Richter, performed by Ensemble intercontemporain and conducted by George Jackson. The composition was originally written to be performed with German visual artist Gerhard Richter and Corinna Belz’s film Moving Picture (946-3).

Reich describes Richter’s book Patterns, which served as source material for the film: “It starts with one of his abstract paintings from the ’90s. He scanned a photo of the painting into a computer and then cut the scan in half and took each half, cut that in half and two of the four quarters he reversed into mirror images. He then repeated this process of ‘divide, mirror, repeat’ from half to quarter, eighth, sixteenth, thirty-second, all the way up to 4096th. The net effect is to go from an abstract painting to a series of gradually smaller anthropomorphic ‘creatures’ (since the mirroring produces bilateral symmetry) to still smaller very fine stripes.

“Belz described the film in terms of ‘pixels’. It begins with two-‘pixel’ stripes and the music begins with a two-sixteenth note oscillating pattern. When the film moves to four ‘pixels’, the music moves to a four-sixteenth note pattern, then to eight, and sixteen,” the composer continues. “After that, I began introducing longer note values – initially eighth notes, and later to quarter notes. By the middle of the film, when the images move from 512 to 1064 pixels, the music really slows to dotted half notes. Finally, as the ‘pixel’ count begins to diminish, the music moves back into more rapid eighths and then ending with the most intense rapid sixteenth movement.”

After more than one hundred performances of Reich/Richter at The Shed in New York in 2019, it was performed in London at the Barbican by the Britten Sinfonia conducted by Colin Currie and then in Paris at the Philharmonie, where this recording was made. The Austrian ensemble Windkraft Tirol, led by Kasper de Roo, will perform Reich/Richter on September 8 at Szentrum, Silbersaal in Schwaz, and the LA Phil New Music Group, led by Brad Lubman, performs the piece, accompanied by Richter and Belz’s film, at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles on April 1, 2023.

Nonesuch has recorded every new piece of music by Steve Reich since 1985, beginning with The Desert Music and continuing through 2018’s Pulse/Quartet, resulting in twenty-two albums and the two box sets Phases in 2006 and Works: 1965-1995 in 1997. The label will put out a collection of his complete works in 2023.

Reich released a book last month, Conversations, that includes dialogues with past collaborators, fellow composers, musicians, and visual artists who have been influenced by his work, including: David Lang, Brian Eno, Richard Serra, Michael Gordon, Michael Tilson Thomas, Russell Hartenberger, Robert Hurwitz, Stephen Sondheim, Jonny Greenwood, David Harrington, Elizabeth Lim-Dutton, David Robertson, Micaela Haslam, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Julia Wolfe, Nico Muhly, Beryl Korot, Colin Currie, and Brad Lubman. Booklist said in its review, ‘Iconoclastic American composer Steve Reich is singular in his own right, and when he is in conversation with other equally iconoclastic composers, conductors, sculptors, musicians, percussionists, and video artists, sparks not only fly, they sparkle. Reich and his colleagues conduct lovely give-and-takes during which they share stories, creative approaches, and viewpoints. Reich's Conversations is the best kind of eavesdropping.’

Steve Reich has been called ‘America’s greatest living composer’ (Village Voice), ‘the most original musical thinker of our time’ (New Yorker), and ‘among the great composers of the century’ (New York Times). His music has influenced composers and mainstream musicians all over the world. Music for 18 Musicians and Different Trains have earned him two Grammy Awards, and in 2009, his Double Sextet won the Pulitzer Prize. Reich’s documentary video opera works – The Cave and Three Tales, done in collaboration with video artist Beryl Korot – have been performed on four continents. His recent work Quartet, for percussionist Colin Currie, sold out two consecutive concerts at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London shortly after tens of thousands at the Glastonbury Festival heard Jonny Greenwood (of Radiohead) perform Electric Counterpoint followed by the London Sinfonietta performing his Music for 18 Musicians.

In 2012, Reich was awarded the Gold Medal in Music by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has additionally received the Praemium Imperiale in Tokyo, the Polar Music Prize in Stockholm, the BBVA Award in Madrid, and the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale. He has been named Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and has been awarded honorary doctorates by the Royal College of Music in London, The Juilliard School, and the Liszt Academy in Budapest, among others. ‘There’s just a handful of living composers who can legitimately claim to have altered the direction of musical history and Steve Reich is one of them’, states the Guardian.

Pierre Boulez founded the Ensemble intercontemporain in 1976 with the support of Michel Guy (who was France’s Minister of Culture at the time) and the collaboration of Nicholas Snowman. The Ensemble’s thirty-one soloists share a passion for twentieth and twenty-first century music. Under the artistic direction of Matthias Pintscher, the musicians work in close collaboration with composers, exploring instrumental techniques and developing projects that interweave music, dance, theater, film, video and visual arts. In collaboration with IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique), the Ensemble intercontemporain is also active in the field of synthetic sound generation. New pieces are commissioned and performed on a regular basis. Resident of the Cité de la musique – Philharmonie de Paris, the Ensemble performs and records in France and abroad, taking part in major festivals worldwide.

George Jackson, winner of the 2015 Aspen Conducting Prize, came to attention after stepping in at short notice with Orchestre de Paris, where he stepped in for Daniel Harding. Recent highlights include leading Ensemble intercontemporain at Festival Romaeuropa, the Rainy Days Festival in Luxembourg, and Festival D’Automne in Paris, as well as conducting the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, the orchestra of Opéra de Rouen and the world premiere of Tscho Theissing’s Genia with Theater an der Wien. His varied operatic experience includes performances at Opera North, Hamburg State Opera and Opera Holland Park, as well as conducting a new production of Hänsel und Gretel at Grange Park Opera.

A luminary of anthemic and melodic-driven techno, Enrico Sangiuliano’s path to the upper echelon of dance music has been a rapid, yet authentic one. Taking us on his newest exploration into the world of sound design and story-telling, the Emilia-native unveils the first chapter in a series of opuses under his time-limited NINETOZERO record label. The highly-anticipated countdown of releases begins today with number 9; the 4-track “Silence” EP - out now across all streaming platforms.

The extended-player opens with the reserved ‘inner mix’ of “Silence”; a cinematic masterpiece that challenges the format and flow of techno cuts and instead, radiates a measured and reflective spirit. Bright, twinkling synthwork ebbs and flows between its crisp percussion and distorted bassline, creating a push and pull effect that allows each element its moment in the spotlight. The second offering, “Future Dust”, is teased with the sound of a ticking clock that morphs effortlessly into a strong percussive line, commanded by the raw hollow sensibilities of its kick. The distinct ticking returns to welcome in the break, bringing with it a hypercharged melodic sequence and pitch-bending rave stabs. The components soon flurry together in preparation for the monumental drop, which is succeeded by an unrelenting peak-time worthy drive to the finish.

“New Expression Of Love” is the next to play; a quirky cut with plenty of intrigue and unpredictable twists and turns. Laced with offbeat synth hits that ooze a nostalgic timbre, the tune’s intro airs a subtle swing groove. As it reaches its all-important core, we’re cloaked in an intoxicating melody that serves as pure rapture for the ears, and will no doubt satiate the modern audience’s craving for euphoric sequences. Entering the break, Enrico flares his experimental capabilities, providing us with a moment of break-beat bliss that’s fuelled by acid goodness. A ‘vocal mix’ of “Silence” rounds out the EP with the distinct mantra, ‘we live in silence’, whilst its modular ‘beeps’ signal a countdown clock in reference to the project’s embedded concept of time.

Championing music on a deeper conceptual level, Enrico’s NINETOZERO output is a reflection of his tenacious appetite for evolution and refinement. Producing with a level of finesse well beyond his years, his artistic vibrancy has ensured quick elevation to the top, all the while maintaining a sound that is discernibly his own. Now standing as one of the circuit’s most cherished visionaries, and with an unrivalled back catalogue of Beatport No.1’s to his name, the contemporary sound designer’s first and forthcoming bodies of work under the NINETOZERO umbrella are further proof of his impending rise to dance music royalty.

City Jazz is a collection of re-imagined Japanese and Cantonese
classics, which is a veritable journey through sonic styles and emotion,
riddled with well-thought-out arrangements and creative interpretations
that simply cannot be done any better by any other group of musicians
As the main man/musical director/producer/pianist of 4te!, KRIZ B was quoted
saying in a previous interview: "it's always a big challenge and not as easy as it
would seem, re- imagining these well- loved classics; my task is to spin it 180
degrees yet maintain the melody and the spirit of the song," City Jazz is a very
entertaining and well-rounded album for both the novice, casual listener, and has
the rare ability - in its accessibility - to reach even the most discerning aficionado
of the genre

Perhaps not as well known to the general public, Bethlehem Records earned its place in Jazz history with the release of debut albums from artists like Carmen McRae, Chris Connor, Herbie Mann and Johnny Hartman. Besides that, check those early covers - pure art!

Bethlehem's most famous release is the 1958 debut album by Nina Simone, Little Girl Blue. So when DJ Maestro got the chance to remix this album, he was thrilled. Soon he got the idea to ask some of his favorite producers to collaborate, like Mop Mop, Renegades of Jazz, Gramophonedzie, Fab Samperi, The Reflex and Mees Dierdorp.

One thing they all had in common: excitement to work with the original recordings from this iconic album. The result is 14 remixes, each with a unique approach to the original song, and all with a contemporary feel.

A Boogie Wit da Hoodie will be releasing his third studio album ‘Artist 2.0’ on vinyl on the 5th August.

The Bronx-bred artist Artist Dubose, better known as A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, first hit the rap scene with the breakout hit “Still Think About You” which was featured on his 2016 debut mixtape, ARTIST. The mixtape also introduced fans to “My Shit” which went on to become RIAA certified platinum and was also listed as one of “The Best Songs of 2016” on Apple Music. A Boogie quickly proved himself to be one of the game’s newest heavyweights after XXL dubbed him as “one of the hottest and newest up-and-comers in hip-hop” and included him in the 2017 Freshman Class. The young star also went on to release the 3x platinum “Drowning feat. Kodak Black” along with the platinum certified singles “Jungle” and “Timeless.” A Boogie went on to release his highly anticipated, now gold certified, debut album, THE BIGGER ARTIST, which quickly sprung into the Top 5 on Billboard’s Top 200. He also became the top emerging acting in the U.S. as he simultaneously sprung to #1 on Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart.

It is easy to see why The New York Times named A Boogie “the most promising young rapper the city has produced in some time.” A Boogie earned a BET Award Nomination for “Best New Artist” at the end of 2018 in addition to releasing his gold-certified sophomore album, HOODIE SZN, which made its debut at #2 before spending three non-consecutive weeks at #1 and maintaining a stunning 17-week streak within the top 10 on the Billboard Top 200 chart. The album also soared on streaming, garnering over 83 million streams the week it went #1. Following his latest album as well as his sold out “A Boogie Vs. Artist” tour, there’s no doubt A Boogie will continue to make waves and redefine the sound of New York rap.










[i] 9. Calm Down (Bittersweet) [feat. Summer Walker]

Dutch pioneer Sp@sms returns to U-TRAX with 'From A 20th Century Box' LP, backed with remixes from Bloody Mary and Cosmic Force

On 'From the 20th Century Box' Arno Peeters, aka Sp@sms, returns to U-TRAX with his debut full-length album. Showcasing years of sonic exploration stemming from his time in various groups including Random XS and Voltage Control amongst others, the LP also draws from his experience studying and teaching music at the Centre for Electronic Music as well as his work in project-based sound design.

Filled to the brim with pulsating arpeggios, crunchy drums and dark, moody atmospheres, the LP is marked by a retro yet timeless feel. Inbetween its snaking, squelchy synth lines and old school electro grooves Sp@sms masterfully incorporates playful textures and elements from found recordings and unused projects, resulting in a vastly versatile and experimental album fusing all things techno, acid and EBM.

An expert lesson in sound design and composition taught by one of the Netherlands' most trusted and experienced artists, the LP also contains remixes from Dame Music's Bloody Mary and Utrecht electro stalwart Cosmic Force and arrives via heavyweight, colored double vinyl, digital, CD and cassette mediums.

As is typical for a U-TRAX release, each physical version has its own set of tracks. The vinyl and CD versions also come with a in-depth interview with Arno Peeters, as well as extensive background notes for each track (on the album's inner sleeves and a 24 page booklet, respectively).

Like the many Banded Stilts that spread across the cover of her newest album, ‘Flood’, Stella
Donnelly is wading into uncharted territory. Here, she finds herself discovering who she is as
an artist among the flock, and how abundant one individual can be.
 ‘Flood’ is Donnelly’s record of this rediscovery: the product of months of risky experimentation,
hard moments of introspection, and a lot of moving around.
 Donnelly’s early reflections on the relationship between the individual and the many can be
traced back to her time in the rainforests of Bellingen, where she took to birdwatching as both a
hobby and an escape in a border-restricted world. By paying closer attention to the natural
world around her, Donnelly recalls “I was able to lose that feeling of anyone’s reaction to me. I
forgot who I was as a musician, which was a humbling experience of just being; being my small
self.”
 Reconnecting with this ‘small self’ allowed Donnelly to tap into creative wells she didn’t know
existed. Soon songs were coming to her in a way she could not control and over the coming
months, Donnelly accumulated 43 tracks as she moved out of Bellingen and around the
country, often finding herself displaced due to border restrictions and a tough rental market.
 Though the writing of ‘Flood’ was an intensely personal undertaking, Donnelly still saw the
recording process as one of her most collaborative projects yet. Along with her band members,
co-producing the record beside Anna Laverty and Methyl Ethyl’s Jake Webb helped to foster
an important spontaneity in the studio. With Webb, Donnelly could “dig in” and discover a
“forward-leaning sound” she’d been searching for, while Laverty’s ability to “capture the piano”
and discern the “perfect take” allowed the songwriter to take risks, many of which have clearly
paid off.
 Looking back at the Banded Stilt, Donnelly ultimately appreciates how when “seen in a crowd
they create an optical illusion, but on its own it’s this singular piece of art.” While each song in
‘Flood’ is a singular artwork unto itself, the collective shares all of Stella Donnelly in abundance:
her inner child, her nurturing self, her nightmare self; all of herself has gone into the making of
this record and, although it would take an ocean to fathom everything she feels, it’s well worth
diving in

Like the many Banded Stilts that spread across the cover of her newest album, ‘Flood’, Stella
Donnelly is wading into uncharted territory. Here, she finds herself discovering who she is as
an artist among the flock, and how abundant one individual can be.
 ‘Flood’ is Donnelly’s record of this rediscovery: the product of months of risky experimentation,
hard moments of introspection, and a lot of moving around.
 Donnelly’s early reflections on the relationship between the individual and the many can be
traced back to her time in the rainforests of Bellingen, where she took to birdwatching as both a
hobby and an escape in a border-restricted world. By paying closer attention to the natural
world around her, Donnelly recalls “I was able to lose that feeling of anyone’s reaction to me. I
forgot who I was as a musician, which was a humbling experience of just being; being my small
self.”
 Reconnecting with this ‘small self’ allowed Donnelly to tap into creative wells she didn’t know
existed. Soon songs were coming to her in a way she could not control and over the coming
months, Donnelly accumulated 43 tracks as she moved out of Bellingen and around the
country, often finding herself displaced due to border restrictions and a tough rental market.
 Though the writing of ‘Flood’ was an intensely personal undertaking, Donnelly still saw the
recording process as one of her most collaborative projects yet. Along with her band members,
co-producing the record beside Anna Laverty and Methyl Ethyl’s Jake Webb helped to foster
an important spontaneity in the studio. With Webb, Donnelly could “dig in” and discover a
“forward-leaning sound” she’d been searching for, while Laverty’s ability to “capture the piano”
and discern the “perfect take” allowed the songwriter to take risks, many of which have clearly
paid off.
 Looking back at the Banded Stilt, Donnelly ultimately appreciates how when “seen in a crowd
they create an optical illusion, but on its own it’s this singular piece of art.” While each song in
‘Flood’ is a singular artwork unto itself, the collective shares all of Stella Donnelly in abundance:
her inner child, her nurturing self, her nightmare self; all of herself has gone into the making of
this record and, although it would take an ocean to fathom everything she feels, it’s well worth
diving in

Like the many Banded Stilts that spread across the cover of her newest album, ‘Flood’, Stella
Donnelly is wading into uncharted territory. Here, she finds herself discovering who she is as
an artist among the flock, and how abundant one individual can be.
 ‘Flood’ is Donnelly’s record of this rediscovery: the product of months of risky experimentation,
hard moments of introspection, and a lot of moving around.
 Donnelly’s early reflections on the relationship between the individual and the many can be
traced back to her time in the rainforests of Bellingen, where she took to birdwatching as both a
hobby and an escape in a border-restricted world. By paying closer attention to the natural
world around her, Donnelly recalls “I was able to lose that feeling of anyone’s reaction to me. I
forgot who I was as a musician, which was a humbling experience of just being; being my small
self.”
 Reconnecting with this ‘small self’ allowed Donnelly to tap into creative wells she didn’t know
existed. Soon songs were coming to her in a way she could not control and over the coming
months, Donnelly accumulated 43 tracks as she moved out of Bellingen and around the
country, often finding herself displaced due to border restrictions and a tough rental market.
 Though the writing of ‘Flood’ was an intensely personal undertaking, Donnelly still saw the
recording process as one of her most collaborative projects yet. Along with her band members,
co-producing the record beside Anna Laverty and Methyl Ethyl’s Jake Webb helped to foster
an important spontaneity in the studio. With Webb, Donnelly could “dig in” and discover a
“forward-leaning sound” she’d been searching for, while Laverty’s ability to “capture the piano”
and discern the “perfect take” allowed the songwriter to take risks, many of which have clearly
paid off.
 Looking back at the Banded Stilt, Donnelly ultimately appreciates how when “seen in a crowd
they create an optical illusion, but on its own it’s this singular piece of art.” While each song in
‘Flood’ is a singular artwork unto itself, the collective shares all of Stella Donnelly in abundance:
her inner child, her nurturing self, her nightmare self; all of herself has gone into the making of
this record and, although it would take an ocean to fathom everything she feels, it’s well worth
diving in

Recorded under a loft bed in the guest bedroom of his Nashville home, Michael Ruth aka Rich Ruth’s “I Survived, It’s Over” starts in a humble space. And while many contemporary music projects are produced in such an environment, “I Survived, It’s Over” sets itself apart in its transformative properties as well as its transparency. What we have here is honest sound exploration, session musician-level instrumentation, and a true love for nature run through the fingers of a dude who can channel some acute and undeniable magic. This music goes deep. "I conceived much of this record amidst the quiet and tumult of 2020 in my neighborhood that had recently been ravaged by a tornado," Ruth recalls, "I spent most of my days working on these pieces between bicycle rides - watching the beautiful Tennessee ecosystem flourish in Shelby Park, listening to Keith Jarrett’s The Koln Concert and John Coltrane’s Ascension." Underneath the swell of the strings and the shredding of the guitars, this record has hard working, rustbelt, drum-heavy roots all over it (which makes sense as Ruth hails from outside of Toledo, the album was mixed by John McEntire from Chicago band Tortoise). Many of the flutes, saxophones, pedal steel, and other instruments were recorded remotely because we live in the future, but this only adds to the collage of sampled and sample-able material that Rich Ruth has to offer. The organic relationships between the artist and other musicians on the album is evident even in the compilation style sampling that needs to occur in putting such a project together. "Working on this music is a daily meditation," says Ruth. "I constantly experiment with sound until it reflects the way I am feeling and attempt to sculpt something meaningful from it. Through years of being a touring musician, it is a constant inspiration and privilege to collaborate with the individuals that graced this record with their voices." And those relationships pay off, because “I Survived, It’s Over” is a sonic meal. It’s rich (no pun intended) with massive instrumentation that’s usually reserved for more symphonic delights. But at the same time it’s simple and leaves space to breathe–space you didn’t know you needed. In his own words; "I Survived, It’s Over is a meditation on healing, confronting trauma, surrendering, and finding peace. I wanted to encapsulate the tranquility and disarray found within this process." Ruth’s heart and the peace that his presence produces is all over this album. And despite his midwestern humility and willingness to brush off any praise, he’s put together something really special that carries its own weight. It's the kind of record that only comes around every once in a while and it's worthy of all the head-bobs, acclaim, and celebratory potlucks that Mike and the gang have coming their way. “I Survived, It’s Over” is a record you should buy for your friend, your foe, and yourself. It’ll sit perfectly on your shelf between Alice Coltrane and Hiroshi Yoshimura.

Hooveriii - A Round of Applause Time after time, we all talk about … well, time — often in aphorisms and cliches. X is “a waste of time,” while Y is “time well spent.” We are all apt to lose track of time but, perhaps in equal measure, we have plenty of time on our hands. We think we have all the time in the world -- until we remember that time flies, after which our time runs out and we’re dead (for a long time). Since 2020, internal clocks have had to be readjusted with the pace of life ebbing and flowing. For Los Angeles psych-rock sextet Hooveriii (pronounced "Hoover Three") that adjustment seeped its way into their songwriting and ultimately their forthcoming album, A Round of Applause. The record cherrypicks from an array of genres — pop, girl-group ditties, synth-ish keyboards and funk —but the end result is a cohesive long-player with songs that revolve around the Spanish Inquisition (“Stone Man”); or follow “the legendary Peruvians who run long distances in the Andes Mountains (“The Runner”). “I let my imagination run wild,” Hoover said. Elsewhere on A Round of Applause, the Hooveriii frontman finally recorded a song, “The Pearl,” that he wrote in 2017. “It sounds like a Harry Nilsson jingle like to me, a fantasy song,” he continued. “It's more like a nursery rhyme than a song with an important message. You know, it's just like keeping things fun. … Nilsson didn’t take everything so fucking seriously. We want to avoid that self-seriousness. We're a bunch of goofy musicians.”

For genre-bending band Whiskey Myers, 2019’s self-titled and self-produced album offered a watershed moment. With Rolling Stone raving that the “irresistible” album was “the record the band was poised to make” while declaring them “the new torch bearers for Southern music” in a story titled “How Whiskey Myers Won Over Mick Jagger and Made the Album of Their Career;” Billboard and No Depression naming the album to best-of-the-year lists; 41,000 first week album sales; and the project debuting atop both the Country and Americana album charts (as well as at No. 2 on the Rock charts, behind only a re-release of The Beatles’ Abbey Road), the band celebrated mainstream success a decade in the making. Now, after spending 21 days isolated at the 2,300-acre Sonic Ranch studio deep in the heart of their native Texas, just miles from the U.S./Mexico border, the Gold-certified renegades have doubled down on what they do best: sharing honest truths with no-holds-barred instrumentation, letting the self-produced music speak for itself. Yet with Tornillo, named for the border town that is home to the pecan orchard-filled recording complex and set for release on July 29 via their own Wiggy Thump Records with distribution by Thirty Tigers, the six-piece band has taken their solid decade-plus foundation and pushed themself to further explore new sonic landscapes. “It’s going to have a little bit different sound,” lead singer Cody Cannon shared recently with Outsider. “It’s still Whiskey Myers at its core, but it’s kind of fresh… We did a lot of bass and horns on this one, which is something we’ve always wanted to do. Just being fans of all that old music and Motown stuff, and a lot of the stuff coming out of Muscle Shoals, old rock and roll. “We’re going to bend genre even more, I think, with this new record,” he continued. “It’s all over the place. But that’s fun, right? I hate the whole ‘Put it in a box. You gotta be this.’ … That’s not art to me. I love the idea of just doing, really, whatever you feel. It comes out a certain way because that’s just how it comes out. Whiskey Myers never really tried to be a certain way. It’s just how we are. So I think that’s really the whole thing about music, or the beauty about music; it’s just that freedom to create.” Tornillo as a whole does exactly that, drawing as much inspiration from Nirvana as from Waylon Jennings – even adding the legendary McCrary Sisters’ gospel influence to the project on background vocals. With Cannon leading the way on songwriting, the album also features writes from lead guitarist John Jeffers and fellow bandmembers Jamey Gleaves and Tony Kent, as well as rising singer/songwriter Aaron Raitiere (Anderson East, Oak Ridge Boys, A Star is Born).

Adopting a collaborative approach for the recording of their third album, Death Bells have returned Between Here & Everywhere, an effort that captures the cross-section of Southern California's shadowy hidden interzones, outside of the lights and luxury. The record features nine new songs that represent Will Canning and Remy Veselis' continual growth, as well as accompaniment by an experienced cast of contributors on keys, strings, piano, and operatic backup vocals. Recorded with Colin Knight at Paradise Studios, and mixed by Mike Kriebel at Golden Beat, Between Here & Everywhere bristles with immediacy and emotion, with every element tactile, balanced, and elevated. Between Here & Everywhere sets out to map the potent mess of Los Angeles. Canning cites the "vastness" of the band's adopted home as a constant muse, and much like the city itself, the album ebbs gradually from harrowing to hopeful over its 35-minute runtime. The lyrics are categorized as "narrative, but not autobiographical," born of intrigue, intimacy, and a sense of "looking outward." From the highly-strung blast of "Hysteria", to the hypnotic rhythms of "Lifespring", and the staunchly resonant hope displayed in "Last Days", "Space Without A Name" and "Eternity Street", Between Here & Everywhere encompasses Death Bells' most captivating work to date.

Adopting a collaborative approach for the recording of their third album, Death Bells have returned Between Here & Everywhere, an effort that captures the cross-section of Southern California's shadowy hidden interzones, outside of the lights and luxury. The record features nine new songs that represent Will Canning and Remy Veselis' continual growth, as well as accompaniment by an experienced cast of contributors on keys, strings, piano, and operatic backup vocals. Recorded with Colin Knight at Paradise Studios, and mixed by Mike Kriebel at Golden Beat, Between Here & Everywhere bristles with immediacy and emotion, with every element tactile, balanced, and elevated. Between Here & Everywhere sets out to map the potent mess of Los Angeles. Canning cites the "vastness" of the band's adopted home as a constant muse, and much like the city itself, the album ebbs gradually from harrowing to hopeful over its 35-minute runtime. The lyrics are categorized as "narrative, but not autobiographical," born of intrigue, intimacy, and a sense of "looking outward." From the highly-strung blast of "Hysteria", to the hypnotic rhythms of "Lifespring", and the staunchly resonant hope displayed in "Last Days", "Space Without A Name" and "Eternity Street", Between Here & Everywhere encompasses Death Bells' most captivating work to date.

Living In Clip (25th Anniversary Edition) Newly remastered for vinyl + cd in deluxe packaging. This landmark double album by Ani DiFranco, features her trio from 1995-1996 with Andy Stochansky (drums) and Sara Lee (bass). Twenty-five years later the album is recognized as a point of entry that radically expanded DiFranco’s audience, and a historically important testament to the relationship between Ani as a live performer and the devoted community she created with her fans. If there was ever a record to help you pull through until the next time the Folksinger makes her way to your town, Living In Clip is the one. Affectionately named after the state of stage amps about to blow out, the record is constructed like a show complete with the onstage humor and antics we love. The culmination of years of studio work and constant touring, Living In Clip is a tour in itself: nearly two-dozen venues provide the atmosphere for over two hours of music complete with intermission and encore. Recorded straight from the soundboard on an 8 track ADAT, digital videotape and mixed by Ani and Andrew Gilchrist – Living In Clip is conceptually designed to preserve the authenticity and pulse of a live show. There are jazzy folkalicious renditions of "Letter to A John," "Fire Door," "Diner" and "Anticipate." Amusing and sweet snippets are interwoven throughout the songs and sometimes during them - "Out of Habit" harbors a little cinematic glimpse into Ani's first days in New York City. This dynamic collection also offers The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra playing on "Both Hands" and "Amazing Grace" at a hockey arena as well as a phenomenal version of "Shy," that was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance – Female (or whatever). Living In Clip is also considered one of Rolling Stone Magazine's essential albums of the 90's. Living In Clip includes a beautiful photo gallery that contains pictures of the sparkling faces, questionable attire and unique persons behind the road show.

Finnish Death Doom spearhead Kuolemanlaakso, starring vocalist Mikko Kotamäki, are about to release their first album in eight years. The new album Kuusumu was produced by V. Santura, who also took responsibility for producing the band’s previous records. In addition to his studio works, Santura is known as the guitarist of Triptykon and Dark Fortress. Kuusumu is the band’s fourth full-length album, and it will be out in 2022 via Svart Records. “The recording pause got unnecessarily long, but there’s no rush in doom. It was great to get back to work with the folks and catch up with some good friends as well. Kuusumu’s keyboards were played by Aleksi Munter (Swallow the Sun, Insomnium, Ghost Brigade) and Lotta Ruutiainen (Luna Kills) performed female vocals on the album. In my opinion we took many steps forward on Kuusumu”, guitarist-songwriter Laakso says. Kuusumu's texts are loosely based on the sudden global cooling that began in 535, leading to a 10-year winter, loss of crops, mass deaths of cattle and other animals, and famine. Climate change was most likely caused by massive volcanic eruptions, the fog of which darkened the sun for one and a half years, causing intolerable cold. Moreover, the plague pandemic that began in the Byzantine Empire in 541 swept across Europe, killing tens of millions of people during the climate crisis. “Our previous releases are autumn albums, so this time we decided to make a winter album. I came across the literature about those catastrophic events by chance, and got thoroughly inspired - especially by contemporary stories. It wasn’t long until the album material was there already. It’s spine-chilling to think that deadly climate change and a pandemic also raged 1,500 years ago when medicine, information flow and living conditions were in their infancy. There was no knowledge about electricity, for example. People imagined that the gods are angry and the darkness is eternal. One way or another, the power of nature should still not be underestimated,” says the band's artistic director Laakso. On Kuusumu, Kuolemanlaakso stretch their artistic boundaries even further. The album contains the familiar slow heaviness, but also more epic, faster and more polished material. The first single Katkeruuden malja, featuring Lotta Ruutiainen, represents the catchier and lighter side of the album. “Katkeruuden malja draws its inspiration from grief and misery. Musically it trips almost in the landscapes of Tribulation, but with longing, Kalevala-infused and, in my opinion, very Finnish melodies. Regarding singing, Kotamäki introduces new winds, and Lotta's parts really top it all off. The music video is like a visual extension of the cover art and the album’s lyrical themes, ” Laakso comments. The previous Kuolemanlaakso record Tulijoutsen (2014), reached the 10th place on Finland's official album list and was selected as one of the best records of the year on Soundi, Rumba, Kaaoszine and Imperiumi, among others.

Tortoise has spent nearly 30 years making music that defies description. While the Chicago-based instrumental quintet has nodded to dub, rock, jazz, electronica, and minimalism throughout its revered and influential discography, the resulting sounds have always been distinctly, even stubbornly, their own. There is a always the pervasive element of group play, or ensemble?mindedness, as opposed to emphasis on a virtuoso soloist or frontman, despite the fact Tortoise is composed of members who could each easily have taken center stage in another group. In their debut, Tortoise is composed of Douglas McCombs, John Herndon, Dan Bitney, John McEntire, and Bundy K. Brown. This self-titled, incorporates many musical styles and influences, but no one style alone is sufficient to fully describe the distinct sound they craft. This unique blending of styles caused them to be recognized as the leaders of a new musical movement. Tortoise utilize the recording studio, not only to put their music to wax, but in a way that their recording process becomes a compostional tool described at times as the "sixth member", thus creating a boundless parameter in which to create and manipulate music. Tortoise's self-titled debut was originally released in 1994. This re-issue is re-mastered by Roger Seibel at SAE Mastering, in jacket with art insert, both designed by Sam Prekop as well as a free download card. 2022 version is available on limited edition white with hi-melt black vinyl

It is to the detriment of our understanding of musicality that we mostly measure it by the capacity to produce, and much less by the capacity to receive some sort of acoustic information or event. The virtuosity of listening, of understanding the sonic situation and its potential, is, however, that which defines one's capacity to interact – with other musicians, with the audience, and with the environment. This could also be taken to mean that an ethical act is implied in the situation of listening – the decision to relate, to be attentive to, to actively position oneself in relation to what is heard.

Rarely is this capacity so thoroughly pronounced and ethically conscious as in the case of Manja Ristić, the Belgrade-born and Royal Academy of Music-schooled musician, composer, sound and multimedia artist (the list could go on), who currently lives on the island of Korčula in the Croatian part of the Adriatic. Ristić’s recent, field recording-based work, is indeed all about attentiveness, most of all towards the environment and the acoustic traces of the endangered ecological layers of her old-new Mediterranean surroundings. With that in mind, it is indeed no wonder that her newest album draws from Milton’s Paradise Lost, which could easily be the anti-slogan of the endangered Croatian coast, eaten up by the pressures of touristification and the usurpation and privatization of once common space. More precisely, the album is inspired by one of the fifty Gustave Doré illustrations of Milton’s epic, Him, fast sleeping, soon he found, In labyrinth of many a round, self-rolled, from which it draws its title. The verses and the scene are from Book IX, and depict the moment Satan inhabits the Serpent, the beginning of his subversion of God’s autocratic rule, as some interpretations would have it.

For Ristić, the actual Paradise she introduces us to is in a state of imbalance – the idyllic soundscapes of her island surroundings overlain with sonic anxiety, such as on the album’s first track, The Flies, with its unrelenting, nervous buzzing evoking the ominous Biblical entity of Beelzebub, or The Lord of the Flies. The next track, Whales, which beautifully utilizes archival whale recordings, could also be taken to establish an intertextual relation to Milton through Melville, whose Moby Dick was strongly influenced by Paradise Lost. The middle track of the album, dedicated to the Croatian-American painter and muralist Maksimilijan Vanka, uses to great, unsettling effect what to my ears sounds like a buried hydrophone, a technique often employed by Ristić in her work, giving us a rough, grinding impression of water beating the pebbles over a high-pitched drone. But perhaps the most ominous, pessimistic image is painted in The Flag Pole, in which the symbol of revolutionary victory (I’m thinking of the Yugoslav modernist Tin Ujević and his proto-avant-garde sonnet Farewell from 1914) becomes a source of terrifying sonic unease, as we are listening to the incessant sound of its rope hitting the metal pole. However, with Dlana Night comes relief – the drones become airier, calmer; there is a distant notion of people, dogs, everyday life, all shrouded in the calming sound of the crickets on the island of Silba. Ristić, ultimately, serves us some hope on this wonderful new album, showing us that something has been lost, but that something can also be gained through the thoughtful attention with which she listens to the world around her.

„My recording techniques all boil down to one thing – intuition. I do not use expensive or highly sensitive equipment nor do I employ special techniques. On the contrary, I believe that the information regarding a space or an object can be recorded well enough on an average device. My personal guideline when recording sound is the positioning of myself as the listening medium, active and with the intention of establishing a connection that is sometimes intellectual, sometimes conceptual, and sometimes phenomenological.” - Manja Ristić, in an interview for Kulturpunkt.hr

Tel Aviv super group Megaphonim are bringing their off-kilter energy to Feines Tier in form of their new „Namal Ashdod“ EP with four original tracks and hell of a Simple Symmetry remix. Even though they’re all quite unique on their own, what unites the tracks is the combination of raw beats and vocals with an oddly catchy pop approach to the writing of the music. Be it in the aptly titled „After of Disaster“ with its let-loose energy, the slow-rolling „Lo Titfos Oti“, which could have been picked from an Andrew Weatherall (RIP) dj-set, or the title track with its break-beats and its unforeseeable left-turns, there’s always this playful and off-the-wall energy keeping the ball going and bouncing. And let’s not forget about the remix! Endlessly rising duo Simple Symmetry do what they have become known for very well here: Deliver an insanely groovy and relentless weapon of a track, guaranteed to blow the roof of every club, festival floor or after, however disastrous it might be. The EP also comes in form of a limited vinyl edition, so don’t sleep!

KiNK's first release on Sofia Records this year lives up to its title and its creator's reputation. The relentless energy, love of musical adventure and undamped enthusiasm of a KiNK live set can be found here in all its glory.

Wake Up is not only an instruction and a hidden compliment to Laurent Garnier, it's also evidence of the Bulgarians uncanny ability to deliver steamrollers with various twists and turns, while hitting the peak effortlessly.
Beep Beep adds a certain element of mania to the menu. For the lack of a better description, please imagine Mr. Oizo and Steve Poindexter making a record together. Not for the faint at heart.
That can be said for the rest of the EP as well. Featuring Redeye, Room To Jack is on the same level of Beep Beep. Traditional topics of Chicago House get a bench test on a speed farm.
Dancing to Scrambler one would probably need the same room to jack. Swapping the Windy City with British raving fields, KiNK and Raredub deliver a take on the early sound of UK that might miss breakbeats, but manage to re-use all the other ingredients to a hair: fine-tuned and updated. Quotation without modern misinterpretation. Hyper and epic at the same time. And always remember the future!

A Ride is the new dark alt-country concept album on the road by Phill Reynolds, to be released on June 17th, 2022 by Bronson Recordings; Like all the best concept albums, A Ride takes you on a journey. This one concerns the last three days of an American runaway’s life. Part road-trip, part engrossing mystery, part search for redemption, it’s the fictional tale of a troubled man whose past comes back to haunt him. Via eleven intimate, chronologically-sequenced songs, we travel with him. There are epiphanies and dream sequences, drunken dive-bar nights and chats with Jesus and Lucifer. As the narrator battles with his dark side, it is ultimately we, the listeners, who must weigh-up and flesh-out his story. According to its creator Phill Reynolds, AKA Italian alt-country singer-songwriter Silva Martino Cantele, the key to The Ride’s mystery might lie within its fifth song, A Clockwork Dream. “That’s where we discover that, because of some kind of courtroom trial, the narrator has lost someone who was very important to him”, Reynolds explains. “But we never find out her name or her relationship to the main character. Is she a blood relative? Is she his wife or someone else?”. The origins of A Ride go back to 2015. On tour in the US, Reynolds took in the shifting landscapes, the people he met and their stories. All of this fed into the album he recorded at the all-analogue TUP Studio in Brescia, near Milan. Reynolds played almost all of the instruments himself and co-produced A Ride with long-term collaborator Bruno Barcella. If A Clockwork Dream features a full band arrangement – “I think of it as the kind of thing Neil Young & Crazy Horse might do on a Sunday morning”, says Reynolds – other songs are sparer, more intimate. Banjo, Fender Rhodes, harmonica and glistening slide guitar all feature as Reynolds delivers haunting confessionals such as Run, Run Away and The Fault Is Mine, songs likely to appeal to fans of artists such as Damien Jurado, Strand Of Oaks or For Emma, Forever Ago-era Bon Iver. Intricate, rapid-fire fingerpicking on the first single This Isn’t Me and The Call of The Dark demonstrates Reynolds’ dexterity, while his voice is a rich, fully-lived in instrument seasoned with the salt of experience,and strengthened by the 120 or so gigs a year he used to do before COVID took his one-man show off the road. Long an inhabitant of picturesque Italian towns in the Vicenza province, Phill Reynolds was born in Marostica and currently lives in Zugliano. He was only five when The Beach Boys’ Barbara Ann worked its magic upon him via the radio. Later a fan of ‘90s Californian punk bands, Reynolds was writing and performing in his own post-hardcore bands by 13, but didn’t make it to the nearest big city, Milan, until he was 19. Bands still matter deeply to him. But his love for folk music has deepened over the last decade or so, hence his solo act alter-ego. Where did the name Phill Reynolds come from? “Everybody asks me this,” he smiles. “Especially in the UK. The truth is I needed an alternative name for a gig I was doing, and at the time I was in love with the music of Phil Ochs and Malvina Reynolds. Malvina Ochs didn’t sound too good to me, so I became Phill Reynolds, and I like that, because it sounds like a normal person”. The esteemed Italian label Bronson Recordings will release his fourth solo album A Ride on June 17th, 2022, on CD, vinyl and digital. A Ride is the most ambitious and fully-realised Phill Reynolds album to date. He was assisted by Stefano Pilia (lead guitar on Dive Bar Oblivion), IOSONOUNCANE (backing vocals, synth, bass and field recordings on World On Fire), and C+C=Maxigross (bass, drums and backing vocals on In The Dark). The record’s story is a dark one, but not one without hope. “Every end is a new beginning”, says Reynolds. “One of the main themes here is that life can be a sort of trap unless you recognise your own demons and try to deal with him. So we must be prepared and try to live well”.

Mr. K transports us to the golden era of the Loft with two disparate, but equally heavyweight classics from the Mancuso oeuvre mastered and cut loud, deep, and clear for club play.

First up is an edit of a track that embodies the spirit of early ’80s downtown New York City. Released in 1982, “Konk Party” was the band’s calling card and first hit, and represented their multicultural, no wave, hip-hop/disco hybrid perfectly, the opening sax riff itself a sly nod to Wild Sugar’s breakbeat classic “Bring It Here” that the Beastie Boys would later sample. A Loft staple — the video was even filmed there — “Konk Party” was also played widely across the influential clubs of the day, becoming an instant staple at Danceteria, Mudd Club, and other hot spots. The easy-going groove, heavy on the percussion and low-slung bass, complimented by bilingual lyrics from Angel Quiñones, has dated well, and sounds especially ready for action in this new edit from Mr. K, largely inspired by the original 12-inch’s choice Uptown Breakdown Mix. This is the first time “Konk Party” has been available on 7-inch.

The heavy percussion backing is perhaps the only similar element that links our A-side to its flip, but that only goes to show the breadth of styles that coexisted in the audio landscape of the Loft. “Hold On To Your Mind,” first released in 1970 by Northern Irish rock group Andwella, is a heavy, psychedelic tour de force that more than lives up to its cautionary, heady title. Mr. K has outdone himself with his new mix, a supercharged blend of extended percussion breaks — absent on previous 7-inch mixes — driving vocals, and fuzz guitar. For those who have never been able to track down the original single, an expensive proposition, and even for those who have, this new edit is certainly the definitive version.

Following on from acclaimed recent releases on Hallow Ground and Boomkat’s Documenting Sound series, NOISEEM is a major new work from Japanese sound artist/instrument inventor Yosuke Fujita, who performs under the name FUJIIIIIIIIIIIITA. Where Fujita’s recent recorded output has focussed primarily on documentation of his remarkable self-built pipe organ, NOISEEM is the culmination of half a decade of work with highly amplified water. The evocative and timbrally rich sound of water has inspired concrete and experimental music practices since ground-breaking works such as Hugh Le Cain’s ‘Dripsody’ and Knud Viktor’s obsessively aquatic ‘Images’. However, other than his compatriot Tomoko Sauvage, few have explored the possibilities of water in live performance to the extent that Fujita has, constructing a series of water tanks that, with their pumps and amplification controlled by the performer, become a new musical instrument. The recordings contained here are drawn from live performances in Tokyo and London, edited and mixed by Fujita into two side-length pieces dominated by water, pipe organ, voice and subtle electronics. On ‘AWA’, which occupies the LP’s first side, the listener is immediately immersed in an aqueous world of recognisable drips and splashes, as well as more mysterious squeaks and squawks. While the liberal use of delay at times conjures up the sound world of early electronic music, the sparklingly clear amplification is unmistakably contemporary, lending the music a stunning weight and tactility. Building over several minutes, the piece eventually comes to a rapid boil, criss-crossed by washes of white noise splashes of electronics, before the untempered long tones of the pipe organ enter. The slowly shifting harmonies lend the remainder of the side a meditative, almost oneiric quality, inviting listeners to lose themselves in the aquatic layers that ripple across the harmonic foundation. On the second side, ‘UZU’ begins more starkly, with a single rapid bubble, quickly joined by full-spectrum wooshes and silvery, ringing tones. After a few minutes, the music undergoes a radical, entirely unexpected shift with the entry of a distorted, auto-tuned voice that repeatedly cycles through ascending and descending melodies. Left alone at times to be heard acapella, this mysterious element at times takes an odd resemblance to dhrupad singing. Eventually joined by rich, sonorous chords from the organ, the high tones of Fujita’s voice, and water, the piece takes on an ecstatic quality, channelling the sublime expansiveness of the natural element on which it is built. Disappearing as abruptly as they entered, the voices then make way for a haunted coda of isolated drips and distant whistles. Far from the intellectualised abstraction of much sound art, NOISEEM is strikingly immediate, both rigorously experimental in its explorations and unashamedly direct in its musicality. Tracklist 1. Awa 2. Uzu

2022 re-press, 180g vinyl

A monumental force firmly rooted in the soul canon, Willie Hutch is most notable for recording two of the best Blaxploitation soundtracks, The Mack and Foxy Brown. Yet his legacy is much greater. Outside of Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson, Hutch was arguably Motown's top male solo artist of the 70s. Prior to his association with Gordy et al, Hutch crafted his opening statements for RCA, two vital LPs that Be With Records is honoured to present today.
Often-overlooked, his second album Season For Love (1970) is a must for all deep soul fans and has been sought-after by collectors of different stripes for decades. Whereas his debut featured thundering, gritty numbers, Hutch treats us to a mellower soul here - sumptuous, warm and string-led. He compared his approach to that of Otis Redding and there are definite parallels, from the raspy, rough-hewn vocals that tend to roam between sweet and deeply impassioned to the horn-heavy, emphatic sonic backdrops.
With flawless originals presented alongside a few well-chosen classics (his stunning cover of "Wichita Lineman" arguably bests the original's splendour), it's easy to see why sample-based musicians have been falling over themselves to plunder from this album. Witness the sweeping strings that grace "The Magic Of Love" and the heartbreaking "Walking On My Love", the mellifluous guitar work on the contemplative instrumental "The Shortest Distance" and gorgeous single "When A Boy Falls In Love".
Whilst the arrangements and playing are subtly jaw-dropping throughout, Hutch's uncontrived voice has a certain warmth to match a Nat "King" Cole and a purity of tone that even recalls the great Sam Cooke. Indeed, a few numbers are almost in a jazz vocal territory reminiscent of artists Lou Rawls. That's not to say that others lack the righteous energy and undeniable groove of Willie's later sound.
Remarkably consistent throughout - a rare commodity for many 70s soul albums - the lack of one signature song likely hindered its progress. Regardless, it deserved to make more of an impact and now, paired with the majestic debut, Soul Portrait, these recordings shine a new light on the early work of a soul legend.
Original vinyl copies of this album are extremely rare - and correspondingly expensive - so we're thrilled to present the first ever vinyl reissue of a true lost classic. This release is officially licensed and has been remastered for vinyl by our esteemed engineer Simon Francis. It has been pressed on audiophile 180g vinyl for the first time and features the original, rarely seen artwork.