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Producer, arranger, composer, saxophonist, band leader Willie Henderson started working for Brunswick. Records in 1968 and his sound and musical talents can be heard across many of the labels hits such as Tyrone Davis, Jackie Wilson, Chi-Lites and Barbara Acklin. With super funky instrumental takes on soul & funk classics, this 1974 album includes highlights such as ‘Loose Booty’ sampled by the Beastie Boys, ‘The Funky Chicken (Part 1). 1974 album is reissued on 140g classic black vinyl with original artwork and printed inner sleeve.

The Honey Cone (Carolyn Willis, Edna Wright and Shellie Clark) charted nine R&B hits, including two number 1s, ‘Stick Up’ and ‘Want Ads’, the latter of which also reached number 1 on the US pop charts
This is their 1972 album released on Hotwax / Invictus Records. Their fourth studio album that is seen as a hidden classic with stand out tracks ‘Who’s Lovin’ You’, ‘Stay In My Corner’, ‘Ace In The Hole’ and the much sampled ‘Innocent ‘Til Proven Guilty’ Reissued with original artwork with printed inner sleeve and pressed on 180g heavyweight classic black vinyl.

A collection of guitar-wielding all-girl bands, drop-dead female frat rock, garage girls and axe-centric she-pop from the 60s. 14 hot nuggets, each one hand-picked with vinyl lovers in mind.

Features a bevy of genuine all-girl bands – namely Goldie & the Gingerbreads from the environs of New York; the Debutantes from Detroit; Florida’s the Belles; the Rums & Coke and Girls Take Over, both from Wisconsin; and Ace favourites She from California, all of whom give their male counterparts a good run for their money. The Belles, incidentally, released only one record – a killer rendition of Them’s ‘Gloria’, gender-switched as ‘Melvin’ – before drifting apart, never dreaming that copies of the disc would one day change hands for $500 a pop.

Some of the other girls receive help from male colleagues. Glenda Collins, for example, is backed by producer Joe Meek’s favoured house band the Outlaws featuring guitarist Richie Blackmore; Merseyside ex-pat Sandy Edmonds is accompanied by the Pleazers, New Zealand’s answer to the Pretty Things; and teenage trio the Chymes are supported by the Turtles.

Pressed on 180g transparent violet vinyl, with a swanky inner bag sporting a fact-filled 4,000-word track commentary and an array of rare photos.

Compilation and note by Mick Patrick

"Listening To Pictures", Jon Hassells erste neue Arbeit seit fast einer Dekade, war eine lebhafte Anordnung von Instrumentals in seinem einzigartigen 'Fourth World' Sound aus Jazz, Dub und electroacoustischen Techniken. Mit "Seeing Through Sounds" dringt Hassell tiefer in unbekannte, imaginäre Regionen. Die Atmosphären sind dichter, das Werk klingt nachdenklicher als sein Vorgänger, eine gewisse Spannung lauert in dunklen Ecken. In der Mitte des Albums bemerkt man ein Ruckeln, Stottern, Störgeräusche, bevor langsam wieder Ruhe einkehrt, um schliesslich mit überwältigenden Klängen das Finale einzuleiten, bei dem Avantgardisten wie William Basinksi und The Caretaker grüssen. "Seeing Through Sounds" enthält einige der detailliertesten und verfrachtesten Musiken in der langen Karriere des 'Fourth World' Pioniers.

According to the feudal system which was introduced into England by William of Normandy, the king was an absolute monarch, so he could do whatever he liked.
(from Origins of the Magna Charta).

In a cardboard media background, where cliche is law, where the digital essence of the personal data is more meaningful than the person itself, the Bait e Borghi project arises. The natural environment beyond anthropization, the technic and technologic strained clutch inside the places that inspired the album. The traveller meant as the one that makes the trip his own life, and that inevitably moves so far away from common archetypes that defeats every possible storytelling but the sound evocation. A sound that becomes the last unreal notebook like the matter which dreams and memories are made of. An unlikely but possible distopia where our last Thule remains the passage between body and machine, cyberpunk myth yet beautifully imagined and illustrated during the eighties. Not by chance Bait e Borghi share the same starting point, the same region that assumes twisted features if observed from the mid Adriatic offshore oil platforms point of view. Squalo, Giovanna, Ombrina are the point at issue, monumental media short-circuits, disclosed and hidden truths at the same time

Adda Kaleh is the collaborative effort of Adda Kaleh and Suzanne Kraft. Recorded over the course of almost seven years and despite local separation or virtual realities, it sums up the magic that already inhered in their debut song „Breaking“ for Gerd Janson’s „Musik for Autobahns“ compilation on Rush Hour. An eight track LP of crystalline chansons and pastels pop that features the skills of The Coober Pedy University Band aka CPUB (Tornado Wallace and William Paxton) on dub duties to complete the magical musical mysteries of Adda Kaleh
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Wu Hen is the sophomore album from Peckham visionary Kamaal Williams -- an invitation to elevate to a higher state Cinematic strings from Miguel-Atwood Ferguson and virtuoso saxophone from Quinn Mason are textural additions that make for a deeper, multi-layered experience than previous releases.



Bringing groove back to the forefront, Wu Hen oscillates between celestial jazz, funk, rap and r&b reinforced with the rugged beat-heavy attitude of grime, jungle, house and garage - a self-styled fusion Kamaal describes as Wu Funk.



New players on this record include LA’s Greg Paul on drums (of Kalayst Collective), Rick Leon James on bass, Quinn Mason on saxophone alongside vocal features from cult rapper Mach-Hommy and Kaytranada collaborator Lauren Faith. Multi-talented renaissance musician Miguel Atwood-Ferguson (who has worked with Ray Charles, Flying Lotus, Dr. Dre, Mary J. Blige, and Seu Jorge) contributes signature strings, which add vivid colour and rich depth, evoking vintage David Axelrod.



Kamaal rose to prominence with the hugely acclaimed Yussef Kamaal alongside drummer Yussef Dayes and a catalogue of 12”s for imprints such as MCDE, Eglo, and Rhythm Section as Henry Wu that became essential DJ tools. In 2018 he launched Black Focus Records with the Kamaal Williams debut The Return, which charted in the UK and saw sold out shows and festival appearances across Europe, North America and Asia.

Label say : We couldn’t be happier to put this disc out there. Kush’s first time on wax (his Strictly 4 My CDJs series on his Bandcamp site is essential) is four tracks that just relentlessly provide for the DJ in you. Representing the new era of NYC dance music along with artists like AceMoMa and DJ Swisha, mixing footwork and other influences with classic house and techno forms to get busy._

_The whole 12” is lethal stuff that recalls Dance Mania at it’s most melodic and spaced out, or prime-time Boo Williams. “Earth Note” pulls bright synths thru swinging Chi foundations, “Ari Dub” rocks the bells and the bass in Bronx fashion, “Worldly Rhythm” piles UR melodies and techno grandeur on a vicious bassline, and “Reso”
closes things out with a devastating mixer full of blue-hot string work. Relentless and essential. TIP TIP TIP!_

Dez Williams returns to Mechatronica with a critical blend of deadly machine funk, hazy breaks and hi-octane electro, backed by L.F.T.'s menacing remix on the flip.

A follow up to 2018’s Jazz On The Corner which has now sold over 10,000 copies, and last year’s equally successful Soul On The Corner, this compilation see Martin and Eddie return to the world of jazz for another bite at the cherry after Volume one was declared to be “the best jazz compilation of the last 20 years” by Jazz FM’s Chris Phillips

The concept came from a radio show that Freeman and Piller put together for BBC Radio 6 Music which was so well received that the pair decided to dig deep into their record collections and build a double album of some of their favourite tracks.

The concept is simple: an album packed full of jazz gems which they hope are slightly off the beaten track. This year we have hidden gems from Nina Simone and Nicola Conte, classics from Roberta Flack, Roy Ayers and The MJQ, whilst the new British jazz generation is represented by Emma Emma-Jean Thackray. Running the gamut from hard bop, to progressive fusion via Latin beats, it’s an exhilarating listen from start to finish.

Blue Vinyl

After 2 years as ROCKSTEADY DISCO head honcho, PETER CROCE makes his 12" debut with "REVIVAL", which features a speech by REV. WILLIAM BARBER II as well as Peter's own electric bass performance. The A side is the main mix while the flip gives us beat and a capella versions.

The funky, atmospheric, evocative and sometimes downright weird output of companies such as DeWolfe, Cavendish, Burton and the ubiquitous KPM have always been a guiding inspiration for ATA Records, as evidenced in the spooky soundtrack works of The Sorcerers, the big band brass of The Yorkshire Film & Television Orchestra and even in the soul-jazz of The Lewis Express ('Theme From The Watcher).

Everything released on ATA is written and guided by the label heads Neil Innes and Pete Williams, who frequently dip their toes in the Library pond while working on other projects. These occasional one-off tracks have accumulated over the past few years and have now found a home on the first volume of an ongoing series : The Library Archive

Ranging from heavy big band brass (Whack, Slap & Blow, Kaye Okay) to evocative thriller soundtrack (Midnight Heist, Wiretap, The Needlenose) via introspective ethereal soundscapes (Nuclear Wind, Siren's Sea) these 11 tracks faithfully recreate the feel of the Library music catalogues of the 60s and 70s.

Fully immersive electronic music by US composer Maggi Payne, inspired by the arctic winds. Maggi Payne's sound worlds invite the listeners to enter the sound and be carried with it, experiencing it from the inside out in intimate detail. The sounds are almost tactile and visible.

The music is based on location recordings, with each sound carefully selected for its potential—its slow unfolding revealing delicate intricacies—and its inherent spatialization architecting and sculpting the aural space where multiple perspectives and trajectories coexist. With good speakers, some space in your schedule, and a mind-body continuum willing to resonate with Payne’s electroacoustic journey, but then it will take you to places that other music can’t reach.

From the sounds of dry ice, space transmissions, BART trains, and poor plumbing she immerses the listener in a world strangely unfamiliar. Maggi Payne is a composer, video artist, recording engineer, photographer, and flutist and is Co-Director of the Center for Contemporary Music and a faculty member at Mills College, in the San Francisco Bay Area.

All sounds recorded at various locations in Europe, South America and at EMS, Stockholm using the Buchla 200 modular synthesizer.

soar, all sounds recorded with Klara Lewis in Montreal 2018


Mastered by Russell Haswell. January 2020

Cut at Schnittstelle, Berlin by Andreas Kauffelt, January 2020


Image : Mark Hogben

Layout: Nik Void

The last two years have seen me maintaining an association with an unusual bedfellow, death. The loss of Mika Vainio, as well as three members of my own family, has had a profound effect on me and spurred a lengthy reflection on life, death, and everything in between.

Parallelly, while studying the philosophy of science, I came across shadow photons:


"Tangible photons are the ones we can see or detect with instruments whereas shadow photons are intangible (invisible) detectable only indirectly through the interference effects on the tangible photons.

There is no intrinsic difference between tangible and shadow photons: each photon is tangible in one universe and intangible in all the other parallel universes.

They travel at the speed of light, bounce off mirrors, are refracted by lenses, and are stopped by opaque barriers or filters of the wrong colour. Yet, they do not trigger even the most sensitive detectors. The only thing in the universe that a shadow photon can be observed to affect is the tangible photon that it accompanies. This is the phenomenon of interference.

Shadow photons would go entirely unnoticed, were it not for this phenomenon and the strange pattern of shadows by which we observe it.

Thus the existence of a seething, prodigiously complicated hidden world of shadow photons has been inferred."*


I have drawn a parallel between shadow photons and death. The interference phenomena, parallel universes, and how shadow photons affect tangible photons they accompany, offer, in my opinion, similarities, an unknown universe which is death and how we, remaining tangible human beings, are affected. This quest has led me to be more willing to accept chaos in my life and to conclude that Death is perfection, everything else is relative.

Don Williams – The legendary Mojuba Don Williams is on fire. No holds barred GTA ride. The Chase. Run for your lives.

Cassegrain – Cassegrain places us in the eye of a mechanical storm. Valves bursting, pressure mounting, compensation needed. Avoid system failure.

For the last 20 years London-based author and party organiser Tim Lawrence has dedicated himself to excavating the history of New York City party culture and bringing some of the most powerful aspects of that culture to London’s dance scene, from where it has ricocheted around the world.

Having conducted the first and set of major interviews with David Mancuso of the New York City Loft, Lawrence started to host Loft-style Lucky Cloud Sound System parties with David and friends in London in June 2003. In February 2004 he published the first of three published three pioneering histories that have excavated and championed the previously overlooked foundations of contemporary party culture: Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music (1970-79), Hold on to Your Dreams: Arthur Russell and the Downtown Music Scene (1973-92), and Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor (1980-83). Since 2018 Lawrence has hosted and DJed at the community audiophile party "All Our Friends. Paper Magazine describes him as the “reigning authority on the history of dance music in New York”.

With knowledge to share, and a readership as well as a dance floor to feed, Lawrence released Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor as the debut imprint on Reappearing Records. A year in the making, a compilation featuring rare and iconic tracks that appear in his much-loved and heavily-thumbed classic Love Saves the Day amounts to the follow-up. The collection features several tracks selected regularly by Mancuso, the party host who exerted a prophetic and unparalleled influence on New York City party culture, as charted by Lawrence. It also includes choice picks from groundbreaking DJs such as Michael Cappello, Steve D’Acquisto, Francis Grasso, Richie Kaczor, Larry Levan and Nicky Siano, whose expressive contributions are faithfully recorded in Love Saves the Day. The compilation traces how disco grew out of the record collections and intuitive sensibility of these and other DJs, offering a unique survey of the era’s expansive sonic palette.

Two guitar legends - Eric Clapton and B.B. King - first performed together in NYC in 1967. Over 30 years later, in 1999, the two longtime friends joined forces to create a collection of all new studio recordings of blues classics and contemporary songs. The resulting album Riding with the King would be released in June 2000 and go onto sell over 4 million copies globally and win a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of this classic album, two additional previously unreleased tracks have been added: The blues standard “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” and a cover of Willie Dixon’s “Let Me Love You Baby.” Both tracks were recorded during the original sessions and were produced and mixed especially for this release by Simon Climie, who produced the original album with Clapton. The original tapes have been remastered by Bob Ludwig for release on 26th June via Rhino Records.

The 14-track collection will be available on 180-gram black double vinyl package and was mastered (vinyl) by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Los Angeles.

The album features four B.B. King originals, plus a selection of covers from writers as diverse as Isaac Hayes & David Porter (“Hold On I’m Coming”), Johnny Mercer & Harold Arlen (“Come Rain Or Come Shine”) and William Broonzy & Charles Seger (“Key To The Highway”). John Hiatt wrote the album’s title track.

Re-Issue on Extreme Eating. Housed in a gatefold sleeve designed by Steve Lippert, mastered by Matt Colton at Alchemy. Everything else was done by Sleaford Mods. From Original Press Release 2015 "Key Markets was a large supermarket bang in the centre of Grantham from the early 1970's up until around 1980," explains Jason Williamson. "My mum would take me there and I'd always have a large coke in a plastic orange cup surrounded by varnished wood trimmings and big lamp shades with flowers on them. Beige bricks with bright yellow points of sale and large black foam letters surrounded you and this is why we called the album 'Key Markets'. It's the continuation of the day to day and how we see it, the un-incredible landscape." "The album was recorded in various periods between summer 2014 through to October of that year. We worked fast as we normally do, the method was the same as the other albums and like the other two, the sound has naturally moved itself along. 'Key Markets' is in places quite abstract but it still deals heavily with the disorientation of modern existence. It still touches on character assassination, the delusion of grandeur and the pointlessness of government politics. It's a classic. Fuck em." 1/Live Tonight 2/No One's Bothered 3/Bronx in a Six 4/Silly Me 5/Cunt Make It Up 6/Face To Faces 7/Arabia 8/In Quiet Streets 9/Tarantula Deadly Cargo 10/Rupert Trousers 11/Giddy on the Ciggies 12/The Blob

Black Sheep – and their 1991 ‘A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing’ album - were definitely an outlier in the Native Tongues fold. They were raunchier and more playful than their peers which, given that those peers were A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul and Jungle Brothers, is really saying something.

‘Strobelite Honey’ catches that difference perfectly, leaning heavily on a pair of 1980 disco samples rather than the jazz of their brethren, and taking a somewhat less chivalrous approach to women. ‘Strobelite’s slender but fun narrative sees rapper Dres up in the club and fooled by the lights – approaching a girl he likes the look off but backing off when they reveal she’s not what he expected. Charmed, we’re sure.

Dres and his partner Mr. Lawnge were always willing to push boundaries, and that extends to the often confusing labelling of the various remixes of this choice single. 12”s dropped with the ‘No We Didn’t Mix’, ‘Yes We Did Mix’ and ‘Maybe We Did Mix’ (not to mention a separate 12” of House mixes).

The last and best of these accompanied the original version on the now-rare 1991 7”, as it does here. The ‘Maybe We Did Mix’ adds urgent horns - almost like the buzzing of a bee - and a new beat to completely reconfigure the sound into something much more of its era. It’s a reminder of when remixes were about much more than the same beat with different rappers.

The Bees are a textbook case of the chew and spit cycle that was the late 80’s South African music industry. Although their unknown story is likely unique, it is just as likely that it is no different to that of many other young artists who dreamed of getting their music heard at the time.

By 1988, the independent record label was no longer as uncommon as it had been at the beginning of the decade. As the 80s went on, more seasoned A&R reps and Producers that had gained experience and connections from their work under major labels would be trying to cash in on a market they helped create. Without the need of big rooms or expensive recording equipment, the digital advancements allowed many Producers to open or work in smaller studios and promote unknown artists under their own imprints. They would then have their catalogs marketed and distributed by the same major labels they had been working for just years prior. This would open up the possibility of a new era of stars as potential talent no longer had to be pitched to major labels in hopes of them taking a chance on a new signee over their already established artists. With the market growing and a struggle to keep up with the demand for new sounds this agreement would allow the major labels to put new emerging artists or groups on their catalog with little investment and high reward if it happened to be a hit.

ON Records was just one of the independent players at the time. Ronnie Robot had just signed the unlikely trio The Bees in hopes of adding a hit group to his label roster that consisted of solo acts. Despite the debut’s fresh house inspired sound, it failed to catch on was outsold by the bubblegum disco the label was known for. Over the years unsold back stock and promos would build up with the distributor. Luckily this allowed sealed copies from the label’s catalog to survive into the 90s when the distributor’s stock was unloaded and picked up by legendary Johannesburg jazz shop Kohinoor. Here sealed copies of the Bees first attempt sat under appreciated for over 20 years before becoming a hot title after they started circulating online and became club staples. This is how the first album of an unknown group with no success was able to become a collectors item and earn a reissue over 25 years later.

With their first record behind them The Bees were ready move forward and get back into the studio. A suggestion from producers had the trio change camps and go work with the newly formed Creative Sound Recordings, the label that promised “Music for the Future” and ended up being an essential studio in the early years of Kwaito. They would work with producer Chris Ghelakis and guitarist George Vardas, while a young Marvin Moses sat behind the desk. Musically the sophomore album was as good as a follow up as you could get. Building on the first album, Mashonisa delivers catchy melodies backed by heavy drum programming that would score points with any Pantsula. The Black Box inspired “ Never Give Up” was one of two tracks chosen to be pressed as the promo for the album, hoping to trick listeners with their catchy version of the hit( A year later the label would release their first volume of Black Box covers sang by neo soul diva BB, it would be a great seller). The label printed up an unknown amount of these in a last attempt to push the release in Shabeens and on Radio. The cheaper route of flooding the market with promo copies would only pay off 25 years later when unplayed copies started being rediscovered and had survived the years in a quantity that original run of the full album could not. Once again it was clear that with no mainstream appeal, the quality of the music on its own was not enough to garner any success at the time. The album flopped worse than their first and failed to make it past it’s initial run, making it one of the harder titles to get from the CSR catalog.

Mashonisa would be the last attempt from the Bees. They would disappear from the scene as quickly as they appeared. Of the three members it is only known that lead Singer Solomon Phiri continued in music fronting a wave dance group before he mysteriously vanished in 1993, never to be heard from again. Through a combination of luck and circumstance the group, which is unknown in South Africa to even the most plugged in musicians, producers and radio hosts of the time, managed to finally get some of the recognition they deserved 30 years later. Unfortunately this small blip of fame would happen with none of the band members present to give their side of the story, or even aware of how their two albums became popular enough to be printed on different continents in a new millennia. The Bees suffered the same fate as countless other artists of the time, who thanks to emerging independent labels and willing producers were given an opportunity to have a short career, only to be replaced by the meat grinder of the music industry when they failed to produce a hit.