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Mit einer bemerkenswerten Reihe von Veröffentlichungen in kaum einem halben Jahrzehnt hat Loraine James aus London ihre künstlerische Identität durch eine Mischung aus raffinierten Kompositionen, düsteren Experimenten und unvorhersehbaren, komplizierten elektronischen Programmen geschaffen. Während die unter ihrem Namen auf Hyperdub veröffentlichten Titel zu IDM-beeinflussten, vokallastigen Kollaborationen tendieren, reserviert James ihr bei Ghostly International unter Vertrag stehendes Alias Whatever The Weather für einen Blick nach innen, der die angeborene "emotionale Temperatur" und die Umgebung erforscht (was sich in den gradbasierten Titeln der Tracks zeigt). Ihr zweites Album ist im Vergleich zu seinem Vorgänger deutlich wärmer, was durch den Wechsel vom arktischen Coverfoto von LP1 zu den Wüstengefilden von LP2 deutlich wird. Beiden Alben gemeinsam ist die Mastering-Arbeit von Josh Eustis (alias Telefon Tel Aviv), der James' Komplexität ein feines Ohr leiht, um ein auffallend dreidimensionales Klangerlebnis zu schaffen. Von hypnotischen Atmosphären über gesprenkelte Rhythmen bis hin zu verarbeiteten Collagen aus tagebuchartigen Feldaufnahmen - "Whatever The Weather II" ist eine überzeugende Verbindung organischer und menschlicher Elemente von einem der einfallsreichsten Talente der elektronischen Musik. Die Leadsingle und der Schlusstrack der neuen LP von Whatever The Weather (Loraine James), "12°C", driftet von belebten Räumen in einen konkreten Groove und verwebt Melodie und Textur zu einer wahrhaft ungewöhnlichen, seelenbewegenden Fülle. In den letzten Momenten gesellen sich eine träge Akustikgitarre und ein sanfter, mit den Fingern getippter Beat zu ihrer in der Tonhöhe verschobenen Stimme. "Whatever The Weather II" ist voll von solchen Passagen, in denen die formale Gestaltung wie ein Film im Negativ erscheint und Konventionen mit Witz, Intelligenz und Geschick umgestoßen werden.

Loraine James' new ambient-minded alias, Whatever The Weather, follows her 2021 solo LP Reflection (Hyperdub). In contrast to her club music sensibilities, this mode embraces keyboard improvisations and vocal experimentation, foregoing percussive structure in favor of shaping atmosphere and tone. From this divergent headspace emerged new coordinates and climates, a new outlet: Whatever The Weather. A longtime fan of ambient-adjacent Ghostly International artists such as Telefon Tel Aviv (who she'd ask to master the album), HTRK (whose singer Jonnine Standish features on Nothing), and Lusine (whom she remixed at the start of 2021), James saw the label as the ideal home for this eponymous album of airy, transportive tracks as they began to formulate. The titling on Whatever The Weather works in degrees; simple parameters allowing James to focus on the nuances as a mood-builder. Her suspended universe fluctuates; freezing, thawing, swaying and blooming from track to track. James describes her jam-based approach for the sessions as "free-flowing, stopping when I felt like I was done," allowing her subconscious to lead. The improvisations have an intrinsic fluidity to them, akin to sudden weather events passing over a single environment - the location feels fixed while the conditions vary. The album opens at "25°C," a sunshower of soft hums and keys. As the longest piece, it serves to establish stability, the inflection point where any move above or below this temperate breeze breaks the bliss. Given James' proclivity for organized chaos in her production, this scene is fleeting, naturally. From that utopia, we plummet to the most melancholic read on the meter, "0°C," its isolated synth line traversing a hailstorm of steely beats and static. Next, the dial jumps for the propulsive standout "17°C." Like a timelapse of springtime in the city, the single accelerates across a frenzy of frames; car horns, screeching brakes, and crosswalk chatter fill the pauses between rapid jolts of multi-shaped percussion. For portions of the work, James leans neo-classical, rendering pensive vignettes of cascading piano keys and warm delay. "2°C (Intermittent Rain)" ends the A-Side on a short and stormy loop; a resulting sense of reset permeates the B-Side's opener, "10°C." The producer mingles intuitively on echoed organ, locking into and abandoning atypical rhythms that suggest her jazz-oriented interests. "4°C" and "30°C" display the range of James' vocal experiments. The former chops and pitches her voice to a rhythmic, otherworldly effect, the latter reveals James at her most straightforward (she cites Deftones' Chino Moreno and American Football's Mike Kinsella as inspirations), singing tenderly and unobstructed for nearly the duration before beats collide in the climax. Whatever The Weather closes at "36°C," while a sweltering heat by any standards the track eases along comfortably on a chorus of synth waves, acting as an apt bookend for this evocative, sky-tracing collection that started in a similar state. Cyclical, seasonal, and unpredictable, true to its namesake.

Loraine James' new ambient-minded alias, Whatever The Weather, follows her 2021 solo LP Reflection (Hyperdub). In contrast to her club music sensibilities, this mode embraces keyboard improvisations and vocal experimentation, foregoing percussive structure in favor of shaping atmosphere and tone. From this divergent headspace emerged new coordinates and climates, a new outlet: Whatever The Weather. A longtime fan of ambient-adjacent Ghostly International artists such as Telefon Tel Aviv (who she'd ask to master the album), HTRK (whose singer Jonnine Standish features on Nothing), and Lusine (whom she remixed at the start of 2021), James saw the label as the ideal home for this eponymous album of airy, transportive tracks as they began to formulate. The titling on Whatever The Weather works in degrees; simple parameters allowing James to focus on the nuances as a mood-builder. Her suspended universe fluctuates; freezing, thawing, swaying and blooming from track to track. James describes her jam-based approach for the sessions as "free-flowing, stopping when I felt like I was done," allowing her subconscious to lead. The improvisations have an intrinsic fluidity to them, akin to sudden weather events passing over a single environment - the location feels fixed while the conditions vary. The album opens at "25°C," a sunshower of soft hums and keys. As the longest piece, it serves to establish stability, the inflection point where any move above or below this temperate breeze breaks the bliss. Given James' proclivity for organized chaos in her production, this scene is fleeting, naturally. From that utopia, we plummet to the most melancholic read on the meter, "0°C," its isolated synth line traversing a hailstorm of steely beats and static. Next, the dial jumps for the propulsive standout "17°C." Like a timelapse of springtime in the city, the single accelerates across a frenzy of frames; car horns, screeching brakes, and crosswalk chatter fill the pauses between rapid jolts of multi-shaped percussion. For portions of the work, James leans neo-classical, rendering pensive vignettes of cascading piano keys and warm delay. "2°C (Intermittent Rain)" ends the A-Side on a short and stormy loop; a resulting sense of reset permeates the B-Side's opener, "10°C." The producer mingles intuitively on echoed organ, locking into and abandoning atypical rhythms that suggest her jazz-oriented interests. "4°C" and "30°C" display the range of James' vocal experiments. The former chops and pitches her voice to a rhythmic, otherworldly effect, the latter reveals James at her most straightforward (she cites Deftones' Chino Moreno and American Football's Mike Kinsella as inspirations), singing tenderly and unobstructed for nearly the duration before beats collide in the climax. Whatever The Weather closes at "36°C," while a sweltering heat by any standards the track eases along comfortably on a chorus of synth waves, acting as an apt bookend for this evocative, sky-tracing collection that started in a similar state. Cyclical, seasonal, and unpredictable, true to its namesake.

If – in some parallel universe (or perhaps a not-so-distant-future version of the one we’re already sentenced to living in) – the evil overloads of artificial intelligence were actually successful in their attempts to create convincingly enjoyable “original music,” more specifically tasked with wholly encapsulating my own personal tastes by data-chugging some cocktail of – oh, I don’t know – the posters on my wall, the records in my “most listened to” pile, the mixtapes I made for others, intensive physical scans of my auditory cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, heart strings, whatever else they have splayed out on their autopsy table with the intention of generating one all-encompassing “perfect band” based on the fruitful sum of their findings – that band, for me, would be (or would at least sound exactly like) the Tara Clerkin Trio. It is, quite simply, without exception, the music I wish to hear.

Formed in Bristol UK (where none of them are from yet all of whom are deeply engrained) in 2020, the Tara Clerkin Trio – as it somewhat democratically exists today, despite the singular authority implied by its name – consists of the titular Tara Clerkin, her partner Sunny Joe Paradisos, and Sunny’s brother, Patrick Benjamin. I’ll confess, I don’t know what their respective roles are within the operation and there’s only a very small part of me that cares to learn, as one of my favorite qualities in an objective listening experience is the mystery of who is playing what, which sounds are “authentic” versus synthesized, which chunks are performed “live” in a room together versus meticulously Frankenstein’ed from measure to measure, or how exactly the overall sound is so (seemingly) effortlessly achieved. Though, I suspect, if and when I do witness a live performance by this band at any point, my enjoyment of the music will not be lost in my better understanding of it.

With two extraordinary mini-albums – In Spring (2021) and On The Turning Ground (2023) – making a splash on London’s formidable World of Echo label in wake of their self-titled 2020 debut, this upcoming Somewhere Good LP is, in many ways, the band’s most realised work. In running their usual gauntlet of idiosyncratic (*an overused adjective for which here there is regrettably no sufficient alternative) approaches, Clerkin & co. colour in and outside of compositional lines over the course of 40+ celebratory minutes - never wallowing, despite inherently somber subject matters of self-defeat, disease, displacement, restlessness, gentrification - allowing their arrangements and improvisations ample space and time to situate, stretch out, breathe, cross-pollinate, and ultimately take deeper hold on the listener’s imagination – all while somehow sounding more like themselves than ever before.

Of course, there are traceable influences herein, if one felt that such comparisons were necessary to properly examine and enjoy this music (they aren’t)… Being the big dumb American from the small boring town that I am, cornfed on ‘90s alternative radio with the enchantingly exotic sounds of Maxinquaye and Mezzanine emanating from my chunky tube television, I can’t help but to make a blatantly obvious reference to a “Bristol sound”, ie the whole trip-hop trip, the pastoral crooning over the suggestive urban grime of cracked electro/piano treatments, the digitally-yet-primitively reconstructed James Bond soundtrack string-beats, etc.. But the Tara Clerkin Trio is so infinitely much more than that. There are elements of avant-pop, modern classical, kraut-folk, audio verité, dare I say indie rock (and not of the beer guzzling, masturbatory fuzz-flex variety but perhaps more like a Trish Keenan-fronted Faust, Adrian Sherwood at the mixing desk of If You’re Feeling Sinister, or – in expanding on our alternate reality – a world in which High Llamas cut a full-length for Warp Records with Andrew Weatherall on coffee duty).

The hazy, unmappable skyline-mirage of droning harmonium, upright bass, peculiarly accentuated wind instruments, acoustic guitar, hushed yet literally mighty keys combine to hypnotizing effect. The band may make underlying nods to jazz, sure, but it’s not appropriation, it’s that they have the actual chops to build it out. Beneath the janky samples and oddball percussive embellishment lies actually great drumming. Beyond the manipulated vocal witchery and woefully reflective plain-spoke moments are Tara’s subtly inspired melodies, sung with what might honestly be the glue to the whole crazy equation. A calming consistency throughout the otherwise unpredictably dynamic, boldly intuitive, uniquely British exploration of this (their own) universe in song. – Ryan Davis (Chicago, February 2026)

“I’ve always loved mistakes; it’s the hidden beauty in all art” - Andrew Weatherall


Transparent Sound are the original dons of UK electro, not exactly household names yet an act with so many under-repped classics that once you dive into their catalogue you might end up emptying your bank account on Discogs.


To save you going down this calamitous path as well as to finally, raise TS to the level of notoriety they deserve, Tresor Records is very proud to announce the release of Accidents 1994-2023. Formed by Orson Bramley and Martin Brown in Bognor Regis in 1994, Transparent Sound have managed to create 30 years’ worth of some of the best electro from the British Isles, despite claiming to not know what they were doing nor how their instruments work.


It’s likely that it’s this lack of knowledge that led to the quality and longevity of their output - the pair experiment and tinker with the machines until something pleasing appears then follow that sound
down whatever path seems fruitful: “the confidence of ignorance” as a slightly more-famous Orson, Orson Welles, once put it.

This tactic has paid o well and found them stumbling into many notable adventures, from remixing The Cure to performing during an intermission between two halves of a lecture - none of which they understood as it was in Spanish.


The compilation collects a lucky-for-you 13 of their most glorious electrical accidents on a three-disc set including the dancefloor hits Punk Mother Fucker (a mainstay of Villalobos sets at the time of release), and No Call From New York (as heard on Helena Hau’s perfect 2017 Essential Mix). The package also comes with ‘Windows To Your Sole’ from the unreleased white label Transparent Sound 007, other unreleased tracks, and special 2023 edits as well as six digital bonus tracks.

green vinyl / full colour sleeve / incl dl. code

Klute, a.k.a. Tom Withers is no stranger to the LP format, Whatever It Takes is his 9th solo album. It was recorded over a period of 18 months in his own PBJ Studio, located in Suffolk.

Whatever It Takes contains Klute's signature blend of Drum & Bass, Hardcore, Jungle, House, Techno, Electro & Ambient stitched together with Klute' typical disregard for the rules of each genre.

Split into two halves, the album begins in high gear with 8 tracks of Drum & Bass. A rich pallet of D&B styles delicately layered with hidden depths and melancholic harmony. The album then shifts into Klute's own brand of House Techno & Electro, fully revealing his vivid tapestry of musical influences. The end result is highly original, individual and unique. Nobody sounds like Klute.

Klute on the album: "...with so much going on in the world and all the noise created by a growing instant culture I felt compelled to retreat into my own imagination and write individual chapters in melody and rhythm as a form of distraction and personal remedy. Early on in the process I made a conscious decision to make a wholly solo and instrumental record - the first time since my debut album CASUAL BODIES in 1998".
"There's something powerful in the mystique and imagination of music, closing your eyes and letting your mind and body loose to create its own visions. I feel that there is a lot of "surface" music around at the moment that physically dictates what you are supposed to feel. The music I love the most, the music that stays with me the longest is always the stuff that enters my subconscious state."

"Whatever It Takes" is an album for the long haul, to stand the test of time. Take your time, switch off your phone and listen and keep coming back for more.

Facts on Klute: Over the past 25 years Klute has established himself as a leader not just in the world of Drum & Bass but the entire Electronic music spectrum, counting a diverse range of luminaries amongst his fans, including the likes of Goldie, Laurent Garnier, Sasha, Mary Ann Hobbs, Doc Scott, Lee Burridge, Zane Lowe, Nastia, Andrew Weatherall, BT, and the sadly passed Marcus Intalex, David Bowie and late great John Peel.

Klute continues to tour the world as both an in demand DJ and drummer and singer in his hardcore band The Stupids.

Hello Spiral returns to the same North London block, the same triangulated geometry of balconies and courtyard, but with a shift of orientation. His previous record looked outward from the eighth floor, these four new recordings move inside, into the building’s arteries. Joe explores the hallways of the complex where he has lived and listened for years, using the same tool as before, an iPhone and its voice memo app. The recordings were made in situ, each exactly eleven minutes, captured without ceremony.

The hallways feel different. Less private, less scenic, more neutral. They are the connective tissue between hundreds of domestic units, a space of transit rather than rest. The carpet absorbs certain frequencies. The fire doors catch and release pockets of air. The lights hum. Elevators drone in soft cycles of arrival and departure. These are the institutional sounds of shared living, yet once recorded they begin to behave strangely. A kind of internal weather appears.

As with the previous album, Joe remains attentive to what is often overlooked, irrelevant or discarded. The hallways, with their scuffs and signage, their coded access and polite functionalism, provide an unexpectedly rich field. The ambience is not shaped by storms or scaffolding, not by birds or street spill. Instead the material is the building’s own breath, its mechanical rhythms, the low frequency traces of neighbours, the occasional shuffle of footsteps that pass but do not return.

Joe talks about this record as a possible middle chapter in a trilogy. If so, it sits between the exposed openness of the balcony and whatever comes next. A hinge point. These recordings continue Joe’s long practice of defamiliarization, sharpening attention to the unnoticed while withholding narrative. They invite repeated listening, not for revelation, but for the subtle shifts that occur when a familiar space is treated as an instrument.

*Long overdue reissue of the first album by The Hanging Stars to coincide with their tour support slot with Edwyn Collins – initial 300 copies come with 12 x 12 print*

“In late-Sixties California, the Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers combined traditional country music with hippy rock to great success. The influence lingered and whatever cultural relevance it has this is a delightful, transporting listen” – The Times 4/5

London-based psych-folk outfit The Hanging Stars re-release their much-loved debut album Over the Silvery Lake on Crimson Crow. Blending folk pastoralism with swampy 60s Americana, they sound like the missing link between the California desert sun and the grey skies of London Town. The album was recorded between LA, Nashville and Walthamstow, with each of these vastly different places leaving an indelible mark on the songs.

Now signed to the Loose Records label and fronted by London-based songwriter, singer and guitarist Richard Olson (The See See, Eighteenth Day of May), The Hanging Stars are essentially a loose collective of people who weave together a blissed-out psychedelic tapestry. The rest of the core band is made up of Sam Ferman on bass and Paulie Cobra on drums, Horse on pedal steel and Patrick Ralla on banjo, guitar. They jam rather than write and hang out rather than rehearse, harnessing a kind of tipsy euphoria resplendent with luscious arrangements and glorious vocal harmonies.

During 2015, prior to this album’s original release the band released two critically acclaimed singles via The Great Pop Supplement (both of which also appear on the album). “Golden Vanity” was premiered by The Line of Best Fit who said; “you'd be forgiven for thinking you'd just unearthed a rare deep cut from the late 60s/early 70s boom of psychedelia infused Americana” and “The House on The Hill” was described by The Guardian as; "a hazy, desert-dream of a song, nicely sharpened with steely-eyed guitars, Mersey-laced harmonies and just a whiff of the Gun Club”.

There are a number of allusions to nature and the weather on the album, borne in part out of the contrasting surroundings in which it was produced. The band’s fascination with Americana led them to record some of the material Stateside, laying down some of the parts at Battle Tapes Studios in Nashville (Lambchop, Paperhead), as well as at Vision Quest Studios in Los Angeles with Rob Campanella. His work with The Quarter After, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Beachwood Sparks The Tyde, and GospelbeacH was a perfect match to capture their sound and they even had San Franciscan legend Chrystof Certik step in on lead guitar for a couple of tracks.

Following the LA recordings, a trip to the Californian desert provided the core notion of what they wanted to produce - a shard of light that they clung on to whilst recording the rest of the album in the significantly more rain-soaked atmosphere of Walthamstow, London, under the watchful eye of Brian O'Shaughnessy at Bark Studios (The Clientele, Comet Gain). As the band explained at the time: “Ultimately we hope you can hear both the sand and the rain in this record.”

The Hanging Stars place themselves firmly as part of a long folk tradition encompassing European and North American influences – as a continuation rather than a pastiche of these styles. This is the sound of a band really coming in to their own, fully formed and in no doubt of their vision. With Over the Silvery Lake they succeeded in producing a record, which has the country, blues and folk traditions at its heart.

Introducing Hussain Bokhari and his debut album “Possessions” on Mood Hut Records. Hussain has been a close friend of the label for years and we’ve been quietly obsessing over his bedroom transmissions forever. With “Possessions”, we get a glimpse into the endless archives of a Vancouver underground legend.

Born in Bangkok but calling Vancouver home, Bokhari creates intuitively and freely, and you can hear it in the way "Pull Me Up" rolls out its plush carpet bedroom boogie, or how "Bangkok Boy"'s Thai vocals carry childhood memories across oceans and decades, while "Whatever Counts" sounds like Durutti Column moved from Whitworth Street to Cordova.

This is music for the spaces between - between cities, between eras, between yourself and the person you were, all held together by a minimalist studio setup and maximum heart approach that makes "Possessions" feel like an invitation into Bokhari'sparticular way of seeing.

Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy presents ‘Balearic Breakfast’ Volume 4
Heavenly Recordings, limited edition 9 track double 12” vinyl

Released 29th August 2025
“There are curators, and then there's Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy.” Resident Advisor

The sun has finally come out. It’s the first time something like this has happened for months and months; the first glow of an approaching summer, whatever date the calendar is currently saying it is. The whole thing acts as a curative meditation, miraculously wiping away all the greyness of the past few months. Right now, optimism abounds, outlooks change and your daily soundtrack has shifted from spiky and uptight into a kind of cosmic space where songs ebb and flow and drift on like rivers run on forever towards the glimmering sea. Bliss, right?

If you’re reading this, we’re assuming that you’re the kind of person who views summer as a state of mind rather than a good looking day on the BBC Weather app. With that in mind, we reckon you already know all about Heavenly Recordings’ series of untouchable, utterly essential Balearic Breakfast compilations, each one lovingly compiled by visionary DJ, producer and broadcaster Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy - the genius club legend whose radio show of the same name (broadcast 10am to high noon every Tuesday via Mixcloud) began as an escape route from the pandemic before rapidly building a global community of dedicated Balearican listeners.

Each Balearic Breakfast album has provided a spiritual getaway from the greyness of the everyday through a handpicked selection of glorious, psychedelically coloured, expansive music. It doesn’t matter where on the planet the music hails from, or when it was made, it just matters that it fits like a jigsaw piece into the musical whole. Be it off world jazz music or vocoder led robo-disco music; whether decades old or pressed to vinyl for the first time, everything on these flawless Balearic Breakfast collections just needs to flow together and bring the listener into the sunshine, whatever time of year they’re listening.

Due for release this August, the fourth Balearic Breakfast compilation sees Cosmo take this head trip further than ever before. From the opening track’s swoop and glide that nods to Vangelis’ Blade Runner soundtrack before gliding into it’s own expansive voyage to the stars (Kandeen Love Song) to Cosmo’s own glorious Parisienne stroll through Saint Etienne’s recent Alone Together to Ilya Santana’s Spanish space disco anthem Cosmovision - a track that rolls through like a turbo powered Supernature - and the phenomenal 2015 disco version of Gloria Ann Taylor’s early ’70s classic Love Is A Hurtin’ Thing, this Balearic Breakfast offers the perfect soundtrack to the summer, whether it’s actually happening outside or just taking place in your head. After all, they don’t call breakfast the most important meal of the day for nothing.

Every Trick in the Book' is the new single from Bristol-based beat makers, The Allergies. True to form, they've whipped up a sun-kissed groove that'll add a splash of colour to your day, whatever the weather. This A-side takes a vintage vocal sample from the 'Queen of Rock n Roll' herself – none other than Tina Turner! Yeah, you know 'Private Dancer', 'What's Love Got To Do With It', 'We Don't Need Another hero' etc. That Tina Turner! Jeez Louise!
Well the guys have supplemented her pipes with loops from a long-forgotten Latin boogie 12", and layers of live horns, cuts, drums, and FX, to give us a joyous mid-tempo groove that you'll be humming for weeks. While the flipside takes it back to '91, as long-time Allergies collaborator, Andy Cooper, reworks his hero Big Daddy Kane's classic 'Nuff Respect'.
This cover version takes the fast raps of the original, tweaks them, and fires them back over an explosive backdrop of scratches and b-boy beats.

Re-release All the greatest Jazz Legends in a 3LP boxset. From Nina Simone to Louis Armstrong, from Miles Davis to Billie Holidai, they are all there!

tom Ravenscroft at 6music amongst others. And now, in true AMO1 creative fashion they are presenting an off-shoot release of that album, one completely reimagined by the man, the myth: Ricardo Villalobos.
Much has been written and talked about when it comes to producer/DJ Ricardo Villalobos over the years.
The mercurial Chilean-German artist has consistently redefined the boundaries of techno and electronica over the past 30-years as a producer, whilst also traversing the world and expanding minds as a DJ who can equally delight as he does challenge.Like a great jazz drummer (he was a percussionist before discovering mixing records), Villalobos has not so much as broken “the rules” of structure as just created his own unique approach. One that is often surprising, ever open-minded, and clearly lead by whatever happens to be inspiring him at any given moment. Watching him work or hearing him play music always feels live and free. He’s an artist. And that is exactly how this (perhaps unlikely) collaborative album has come to light – but then this is Ricardo, so maybe we should all know by now that anything is possible.
Villalobos explains, “In my scientific search for some electroacoustic musical landscapes, the offer of remixing ‘Black Apple Pink Apple’ was just perfect for me… In general, the song writing is so very good and particular, with all the instruments played into a sequencer, so it was very inspiring to strip down these pop songs into my dubby extensions, taking only the drums, bass, and vocals of the song.” Expanding further, “After delivering the first remix, Mo and myself came up with the idea of reimagining the whole album in a new way, mixed simple with other ears and my inspirations, with a new and different point of view of what instruments are important to hold the song to bare itself.”
It says a lot, and somehow captures the essence of Ricardo’s approach to music (and life), that one remix soon evolved into a whole plethora of reimagined works, driven by a creative slipstream and a clear connection to the songs created by A Mountain of One.
Mo Morris provides more insight into his own connection with Villalobos, “I lived in Berlin back in 2002-04 and used to religiously go to dance to Rici at the after (after) hours parties: little, tiny events. And he just used to blow my mind, I hadn’t heard anything like it before (or since). Ultra-modern and forward thinking.”
Mo continues, “A good friend connected to Ibiza happenings introduced me to Ricardo as it transpired that he was a fan of our early material, so I sent him some demo’s when we were in the studio creating ‘Stars Planets Dust Me’ and he loved ‘Black Apple Pink Apple’. The relationship and collaboration grew from there really, and I hope that this release is still at the start of what we can all create together.”
Focussing in on the album at hand – ‘Ricardo Villalobos reimagines: Stars Planets Dust Me’ – we are treated to a concept listen that guides us from dreamy daytime Balearic pop – staying very true to the original songs – all the way through to completely original deep dubby techno excursions. And to Villalobos fans, it will perhaps surprise (and hopefully delight) how light a touch he has provided to the opening tracks, focussing more on enhancing the sonics, and allowing the originals to shine brighter through remastering and mixing down. It’s in these moments that we see Ricardo as a pure music fan, needing not overly change or alter what’s already been created, but simply doing what he can to maximise what’s already there.
What will certainly delight Ricardo fans are the four full ‘klub’ remixes provided of ‘Black Apple Pink Apple’, ‘Make My Love Grow’, ‘Softlanding’ and ‘Dealer’ that each boldly explore the outer regions of the dancefloor in a way that only Villalobos can.
Mo rounds off, “From an electronic and sonics standpoint he’s kind of out there on his own. It’s such a unique sound. Weatherall also had this, and Harvey has that unique flavour, and also people like Nils Frahm and Max Richter have this gift. It’s not an easy thing to produce. Ricardo has his own personal cosmic trademark.”
Indeed he does. Take a trip with him around the stars and planets and see for yourself.

The Sky Is Crying was released after SRV's 1990 helicopter crash that took his life. The posthumously assembled 10-track outtakes collection actually proves to be one of Vaughan's most consistent albums, rivaling In Step as the best outside of the Greatest Hits collection. These songs were recorded in sessions spanning from 1984's Couldn't Stand the Weather to 1989's In Step and were left off of the LPs for whatever reason (or, in the case of Soul to Soul's "Empty Arms," a different version was used).

Around the year, the sturdy red brick walls of an old Cable Factory stand there like a mountain, facing weathers of all kinds rising from the Gulf of Finland. It might be freezing winter winds whipping the whole shore line into submission, fog heavy as concrete, or the relentless sun of the summer months, softening the asphalt to a boiling point. Whatever the weather may be, the narrow courtyard of the old factory embraces those musicians, who are looking to get down. They gather from all directions, making their way towards a pair of doors that lead towards a flight of stairs, again through a few doors all the way to the last portal, where an open padlock and a loosely hangin crossbar signal that Cold Diamond & Mink are inside, locked in a groove.

Who could it be with them this time, perhaps the jazz prophet Jimi Tenor beaming out of his space ship, maybe it's the golden voiced knight of soul Tuomo "Pratt" Prättälä, the number one trumpet wielding dandy Jukka Eskola or the saxman Pope Puolitaival, who loses nothing in coolness compared to the former? The reel to reel is always there in the monitoring room, catching each analog layer of sound, even the silences and banter between takes. Seppo lays down the guitar and tries to catch the riff on organ instead, Jukka throws a rare tune on the turntable, hoping to guide their unit through that wobbly chorus, Sami waits there bass in hand, maybe already thinking about the next production.

After a whole lot of playing instruments, arranging and taking care of business, after the moon has travelled around the old industrial building for some rotations, Carlton Jumel Smith comes waltzing through those same doors. There's a handful of unnamed tracks waiting for him. He sits there listening and then starts writing, maybe echoes of soul classics from his own record collection in New York projecting inside his mind. Then the tape is rolling again. Starting with a short intro rap Carlton lets it out, singing on the edge of shouting "Woman you made me...". After the vocals are in the can, Carlton ascends out of the basement and heads out to entertain an audience somewhere. Some months later, after the mix is said and done, there's the question of the instrumentals. It seems they're pretty good as they are. And here they are.




d 04: Help Me (Save Me From Myself) Instrumental

From the many musical lives of artist Glenn Donaldson emerges The Reds, Pinks and Purples, a project that sifts out the purest elements of pop music and in the process chronicles the point of view of an assiduous San Francisco-based songwriter. The Reds, Pinks and Purples’ third album, called Uncommon Weather, is both an elusive portrait of San Francisco––during one of its fluctuations as an untenable place for musicians and artists––and also a self-portrait, however inverted, of a songwriter who has dispatched another treasured collection of timeless sounding DIY-pop songs.

How The Reds, Pinks and Purples arrived here is a story with many roots, the most consequential of which is perhaps the musical aftermath of his earlier band, The Art Museums, whose brief tenure in the late ’00s coincided with an explosive period of the Bay Area rock scene and was followed by a hermetic musical period of Donaldson’s. Disenchanted with the dissolution of his band, Donaldson averted the DIY-pop sound with an instrumental, conceptual project called FWY! but meanwhile started a habitual songwriting practice, sharing nascent songs with friends in an email exchange. In 2013–2014, The Reds, Pinks and Purples took shape as the moniker for Glenn’s most direct expressions in the DIY-pop mode, enabled by this new disciplined output. By then, San Francisco was already a changed place. The tragic loss of his former bandmate in Art Museums was another source of discontinuity and rupture. You can hear in The Reds, Pinks and Purples’ earliest songs this grappling with life, anxiety, and atrophying subcultures. For an artist with an overriding interest in the aesthetic principles of discrete musical genres, this turn toward his immediate world for subject matter was a major shift, setting The Reds, Pinks and Purples apart from Donaldson’s other musical ventures.

Preceding the release of Uncommon Weather was the Reds, Pinks and Purples’ 2nd album, one of the record buying joys of 2020, You Might Be Happy Someday, and, earlier, their first proper full length Anxiety Art, a title that might nod to the classic Television Personalities song “Anxiety Block.” Donaldson’s music continuously reckons with the influence of Dan Treacy, whose own forays into drum-machines, echo, and reverb in the early 1990s is an important reference point for The Reds, Pinks and Purples’ musical template. Paul Weller, Robert Smith, and Sarah Records also come to mind. But, as important, Donaldson sees his projects as visual expressions too, often blurring the lines of records and physical art objects. They could just as well be “art multiples” as well as records. The pattern for Reds, Pinks and Purples’ records is to document San Francisco’s Inner Richmond district in photographs: the muted, pastel colours and unpeopled compositions unfold in a series of images that read like counter-melodies to Donaldson’s distinctive voice, a vocal tone that always complements the colours.

Self-recorded and mostly self-performed, Uncommon Weather features pinnacle versions of songs Donaldson has honed since the beginning of the project. The album arrives with grateful timing, quick on the heels of You Might Be Happy Someday, and alleviating, for a brief window at least, whatever it is that keeps us coming back to this elemental music. Donaldson imagines his listeners are just like himself: fascinated and addicted to the spiritual power of uncomplicated pop classics. Anthony Atlas

Geschmackvolles Doppelalbum mit herausragenden Sängerinnen. Wenn es allein um die Vokalkunst geht, dann ist die Jazz-Welt fest in weiblicher Hand. Man denke nur an Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald oder Nina Simone. Aber auch Sängerinnen jüngerer Tage, zum Beispiel Sarah Vaughan oder Diana Krall, beeindrucken nicht minder mit ihren verzaubernden Stimmen. Grund genug für das französische Label Wagram, die renommiertesten Sängerinnen der letzten Jahrzehnte mit auf einem Doppelalbum zu vereinen.

Hailing from Los Angeles, Jimmy Tamborello has been a key figure in refining what today is considered electronica for over 20 years. "The Seas Trees See" is the first of two Dntel albums to be released in 2021 by Morr Music in collaboration with Les Albums Claus: a free-floating and rather loose stroke of musical genius, giving ambience a whole new meaningful context. It combines crackles and hiss with deep, yet modest, synths and poignant, yet elegant, vocals and lyrics. "Away", its counterpart album, will follow later in 2021. It will showcase Dntel’s unapologetic love for pop music from a long-gone era, presenting yet another aspect of his multi-faceted personality. Dntel has always covered many musical grounds – from the pop-infused hits on "Life Is Full Of Possibilities" (Plug Research, 2001) to his much more abstract works on "Aimlessness" (Pampa Records, 2012), "Human Voice” (Leaving Records, 2014), and his electronics for The Postal Service (Sub Pop). Whatever his style – Tamborello has retained his very own musical voice.

When it comes to producing music, it can be a good idea to get away from the studio and find a more relaxed environment. Inspiration does not necessarily require huge bass bins. Fewer pieces of gear make it easier to really focus on ideas first and let them be. After recording "Hate In My Heart" – his most recent album, released in 2018 – this way, Tamborello continued working in that fashion, mainly jamming and getting ideas together for upcoming live shows. One of the first results of this creative process was the opening track of "The Seas Trees See" – a cover version of "The Lilac and the Apple", originally recorded by Californian folk singer Kate Wolf in 1977. Tamborello turns the acapella song into a vocoder-like extravaganza. Working with the original recording, the track perfectly sets the tone for what "The Seas Trees See" turns out to be – a quiet yet mesmerizing journey through sound and emotion, bringing together his very own sound design, disguised samples and an incredible feel for moods and atmospheres.

"I thought a lot about making an album that you would find in a thrift store", Tamborello remembers. Something "like a mysterious collection of sketches that leaves a lot unanswered. It doesn’t beg for attention or have any big moments." Despite its perfect and gentle flow, it is worth digging deeper, to surrender oneself to all the painstakingly placed details. Whether the beautiful and haunting piano work on "Movie Tears" or the almost sidechained-sounding "Yoga App" – every aspect of this album has been beautifully crafted, often bringing one of life’s biggest questions to the table: What if? What would have happened if Tamborello would have done this on that track or that on this track? It is good that he did not. Small things add up to something great, diverse and riveting.

The subtlety of his latest endeavor is fascinating. It opens up a new world, in which small musical sketches mean at least as much as perfectly produced pop anthems – if not more.

Around the year, the sturdy red brick walls of an old Cable Factory stand there like a mountain, facing weathers of all kinds rising from the Gulf of Finland. It might be freezing winter winds whipping the whole shore line into submission, fog heavy as concrete, or the relentless sun of the summer months, softening the asphalt to a boiling point. Whatever the weather may be, the narrow courtyard of the old factory embraces those musicians, who are looking to get down. They gather from all directions, making their way towards a pair of doors that lead towards a flight of stairs, again through a few doors all the way to the last portal, where an open padlock and a loosely hangin crossbar signal that Cold Diamond & Mink are inside, locked in a groove.

Who could it be with them this time, perhaps the jazz prophet Jimi Tenor beaming out of his space ship, maybe it's the golden voiced knight of soul Tuomo "Pratt" Prättälä, the number one trumpet wielding dandy Jukka Eskola or the saxman Pope Puolitaival, who loses nothing in coolness compared to the former? The reel to reel is always there in the monitoring room, catching each analog layer of sound, even the silences and banter between takes. Seppo lays down the guitar and tries to catch the riff on organ instead, Jukka throws a rare tune on the turntable, hoping to guide their unit through that wobbly chorus, Sami waits there bass in hand, maybe already thinking about the next production.

After a whole lot of playing instruments, arranging and taking care of business, after the moon has travelled around the old industrial building for some rotations, Carlton Jumel Smith comes waltzing through those same doors. There's a handful of unnamed tracks waiting for him. He sits there listening and then starts writing, maybe echoes of soul classics from his own record collection in New York projecting inside his mind. Then the tape is rolling again. Starting with a short intro rap Carlton lets it out, singing on the edge of shouting "Woman you made me...". After the vocals are in the can, Carlton ascends out of the basement and heads out to entertain an audience somewhere. Some months later, after the mix is said and done, there's the question of the instrumentals. It seems they're pretty good as they are. And here they are.




d 4 Help Me (Save Me From Myself) [Instrumental]

'Me Me Me is two... and in keeping with the name it seemed that I had no choice but to put out what is only my second ever release on my own label since launching with the debut release 'Tachyon' back in 2016.
(It's also the labels 13th release too. Spooooooky)

So here it is, a double A Side...
Side A is 'Valhalla' which attempts to be as majestic as the name suggests.
Side AA has 'Fidelity", which is me channelling big room house as much as I can, while trying to keep ahold of whatever heart strings I can tug on.
I'll let you judge if I've achieved what I'd set to do with either.

Past those brief descriptions, I still find talking about music to be mildly redundant when you can most likely listen while you're reading this, so instead I'd like to use this sales blurb to issue a massive heartfelt thanks to everybody who has supported the label in the last 2 years, as well as every artists who has trusted us with their music.

Big love to, Dj Tennis, Last Waltz, Red Axes, James Hadfield & Danny Linton, Axel Boman, Bird of Paradise, Pale Blue, Pional, Frank Butters / Cult of Glamour, Andrew Weatherall, Ess O Ess, Desert Sound Colony, Elliot Adamson, Rex The Dog, Forriner, Shit Robot, Raj Pannu, Cosmin TRG, Edmondson, Dauwd, ASOK, Vyvyvan, Paul Woolford, Christophe, Ian Blevins, Dharma, Jana, Pink Skull, Medlar, Ben Caldwell, Dos Attack, Force Majeure, Club Tularosa, Juan Maclean and AWOL!'

Man Power - Summer 2018

Moscow Is Mythologized For Its Grandeur And Gravity But Its Parable Pleasures Offer Splendor And Even Absurdity. Over The Ten, Symmetrical Pieces Of For, Kate Nv Scores Her Native Urban Environment With Just Enough Whimsy To Gurgle Through The City Cracks And Grow Psychotropic Foliage. Each Sound Assumes Its Own Personality, Moving Through The Album Metropolis Like Miniature, Mutating Molecules Viewed From Nv's Apartment Window.

Alternately A Guitar-wielding, Post-punker And One Within The Multitude Of Moscow Scratch Orchestra's Avant-garde, Nv Is A Versatile Artist That Maneuvers Instinctively In Whatever Musical Environs She Finds Herself. Nv's Second Solo Album Is An Even More Abstract Endeavor Than The Hybrid Pop Of 2016's Binasu. Inspired By Casual Moments Of Ephemeral Sound From Within And Beyond Her Apartment Walls, The Record Has A Clarity Arrived Altogether And From Right Under Her Nose. Recorded At Home, Nv Says It Was As If The Music Was Not Written By Herself, But Her Chair.

For Inhabits A Stage That Piero Milesi & Daniel Bacalov, Ann Southam, Or Hiroshi Yoshimura May Have Written Music For And Dresses It With Viktor Pivovarov's Psychedelic Depictions Of Moscow - Contorting Bodies, Flying Pencils, And Multi-dimensional Faces Dance With Subtle Arpeggiations, Conversational Voice Synthesis, And Anthropomorphic Midi. Animating Objects Is Essential To The Album. Like A Surreal Still Life, Each Piece Is An Alien Arrangement Of Common Elements That Extend The Everyday Ritual Into An Eternal Landscape Of Unconscious Activity. Somewhere Along That Landscape, Kate Awaits And Greets With Apples For Hands And Fish For Feet.

Like The Album Title, Each Composition Contained Within Is Represented As A Three Letter Word, In Russian And English. The First Half Of For Was Written In The Spring. Starting With yxo Ear,' Previously Released On The Peaceful Protest Compilation Cassette In 2017, Melodies Meander And Lollygag. a Two' Incorporates Human Breath Played Like Notes On A Pump Organ. Oak' Offers A Warm Tune To Tango. How' Loops Curious Notes That Bump Into Each Other With A Chirpy Acknowledgement. You,' The Only Track On For With Lyrics, Sets A Wassily Kadinsky Poem To Song.

The Second Half Of The Album Was Written In The Autumn. The Feathery Edges Of One' Extend Like Watercolors Bleeding Off A Rubber Scroll. See' Is A Subdued, Shadowy Variation Of How', As If The Same Song Were Played In Different Weather, Dimmer Light, Or By Kate's Devious Doppelganger. The Electronics Unravel And Unwind On Dog' Until The Final Track, Who,' Ends With Vague Solemnity And Rattled Metals.

A Short Online Film Series By Shura Kulak Will Accompany The Release Of For. The Films Follow A Solitary Figure Performing Ordinary Tasks Through A Slow, Warped Lens — Each Song Enacting A Daily Habit: Waking, Dressing, Reading, And So On. In Her Live Performances Around The Album, Kate Nv Will Play Each Song From Memory, Allowing For Variation From The Recorded Tracks, And Scenes From The Films Will Be Re-created And Improvised In The Moment.