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A humanity-reminding suite of miracle moments, Someone Like Me unites a geographically unbound cast of real people in pursuit of a meaningful connection. Taping their lived experience in economic studios in quiet English counties, Pacific Northwest woodland retreats and the big city bustle of Sydney and Los Angeles, these kindred spirits rendered sheer beauty in the process. Custom pressed folk songs of love, loss and the lord saviour.

Illuminating minor works from seasoned players such as former Syndicate Of Sound chart-topper Sharkey and late-era Canned Heat lynchpin James Thornbury, the collection simultaneously honours the fleeting amateurism of hobby musicians. With their one shot at tangible vinyl, freshman Lynne Ann Kingan realised her loose bubblegum rocker on campus time, while U.S. Navy recruit Fred Potts cut his unconditionally serene ballad remotely stationed on a Spanish naval base. Spartan production continues to reign with Jon Betmead’s hair-raising gospel, howling into infinite space, and Goldrust’s stripped back garden hymn.

Throughout the hour-long reflection, faith has an intermittent yet revelatory presence, most overtly with the divine choral soul of Seventh-day Adventist quartet Remnant. More subtly, Gary Ramey and Jim Kennedy both turned to song in their spiritual quests, offering their all to a universal power. An irrefutable compilation cornerstone, the National Office For Black Catholics showcased Charles Murphy’s lionhearted account of the Black experience at a 1971 concert. Five years earlier, high school seniors The Superwomen would use their hauntingly angelic harmonies to address racial inequity with a breathless take on ‘Lowlands’.

Reaching the furthest corners, Someone Like Me secures the inaugural licence of three homespun masterpieces. Discovered by fluke in the digital haystacks of Youtube and Soundcloud, Jim Huxley’s bedroom pop earworm melds peacefully into Charlie Webster’s synthesized reverie. Meanwhile, Hollywood’s John Agostino introduces us to the bizarre world of tax scam records, with the artist only now learning that his tender psych-folk demos were leaked via a 1977 bootleg.

Compiled and lovingly restored by armchair digger Mikey Young (Eddy Current Suppression Ring/The Green Child), Someone Like Me pays due service to seventeen rarefied journals of truth and devotion. Adorned with visual artist Chris Fallon’s figure and flora dream extractions, the uniting songbook is further detailed by expansive track-by-track liner notes and a forward from San Franciscan poet Rod Roland.

RECUT & REPRESS ! An excellent IXY records, back from year 2000. Good sound and good tunes. What more ?

There was a long time I considered Raymond Richards the ultimate secret weapon. There were sounds he could make that other people just couldn’t. Pure, whole, yet complex sounds. The pedal steel is an extremely niche instrument outside of its Country confines, but its sheer and transcendent depth has never failed to floor me. Raymond’s ear for implementing the steel into literally 'anything' has always been uncanny. After decades of being savvy to his work ethic, multi-faceted studio skills and overall sense of musical honesty, it became a priority for me to channel some of this into narratives through the ESP Institute and get his stories told. Without further recounting the history and trajectory of our musical relationship (see the press release for 2020’s critically-acclaimed album 'The Lost Art Of Wandering'), I can whole-heartedly confirm this sophomore release, 'Sand Paintings', opens an even wider door into Raymond’s visceral, contemplative world. The cast of players has elaborated to include Calexico’s John Convertino on drums and percussion, a bevy of eccentric stringed instruments and even a hint of brass to collectively stratify context for the pedal steel. Through diversifying the timbral palette, we invite an increased soundstage acuity but also reveal untapped wells of emotion for the listener, perhaps even testing cultural literacies. One foot remains in our established ambient realm, while the other steps toward grand cinematic gestures, and despite the dense, insurmountable emotion in these songs, there is a stoic singularity, like a lonesome cowboy pulling up his boot straps to endure another day. 'Badwater Basin' opens with courage, an enormous chord evoking Raymond’s image of “hard dawn”, but in navigating through the dramatic depictions of 'Monument Valley', 'Saguaro' and 'Deer On Hwy 80', we grapple with a cloaked vulnerability—weathered by the elements, beaten down and alone, yet still madly in love with the world. —Lovefingers

Irlam's infamous upstarts DJ Absolutely Shit are at it again with four more tracks to rattle yer spines and rupture yer spleens.
Utilizing the classic approach of sourcing a sick sample, adding a rugged breakbeat, then tweaking out the buzz for maximum enjoyment, the pair deliver an explosive EP of global hypercoloured mayhem that burns hotter than an oz of 'Ells Angels sputnik.

'Bridge To Your Heart' grabs Sade by the hand, shoves two purple doves down her throat and queue-jumps to the front of Bowlers for an endorphin-rushing hardcore workout full of modern beat engineering and sample manipulation.

Switching approach, 'Bolivia' shuns the dreamy feminism for an altogether more masculine affair - roping in the Wu for an argy-bargy, elbows-out speaker shaker full of hi-definition laser stabs and destructive, land mine subs.

Hitting the accelerator, 'Rocking You Eternally' traverses the jungle boarders in a blacked out Nova, Ab Shit's flair and panache at drum programming and contemporary production chops beautifully on show throughout this big system roller with a carp-hunting vocal hook.

'Gong' closes off proceedings, merging moods inna more seductive flavour. E-soaked pianos and a gentle throb coaxing us to that end-of-night climax that'll have us humming the piano line all the way down the M65 home.

No jokes cru, this is some of the best tackle to emerge outta the DJ Absolutely Shit studio to date. One of two, vinyl-only EPs and ahead of their debut album that follows on C90 tape.

Boing boing boing, boing boing boing, boing boing!!

As we continue the five part journey to say goodbye to the Telomere Plastic series we have Telomere 020.3 now available for preorder!
This five tracker VA, features producers, Hiroyuki Kato, Six Dreams, Ty Senrna Sherman C & Konerytmi!

We begin off the record with ‘Black from Hiroyuki Kato. This long play is over 9 minutes and is a beautifully structured deep & house tune. Perfect for your summer day time sets!

Next on the A2 we have ‘Static Es’ by Six Dreams, This moody minimal breakbeat tune is filled with heavy bass & lush chords, the perfect track to slow things down for a few minutes during your sets!

On the B1 we have Ty Senrna who delivers a whacky groover! This acidic tech tune will work wonders and bring the spooky & trippy energy to the dance floor!

B2 is a tripped out phat acidic break beat tune from the mighty Sherman C. With some tripped out vocals & classic Sherman breaks & bass, this one will get the dance floor rockin’ full speed!

Lastly, we close out the release with a classic tune from Konerytmi. As expected we are gifted with his signature electro & bass beats!

Very limited black copies with a few colored copies available via the Wex bandcamp, be quick!

2024 repress

Melody As Truth founder Jonny Nash returns to action with his first solo album in four years.

Over the course of eleven mesmerising tracks, Nash points the compass gently inwards, casting aside any conceptual frameworks in favour of exploring an imaginative and idealised “personal folk music” that combines elements of traditional acoustic music with the producer’s richly immersive interpretation of ambient, a sound he has been developing for well over a decade.

From the smudged acid-folk bliss of ‘Theories’ and ‘Eternal Life’, to the layered acoustic guitars of ‘All I Ever Needed’ and the delay-soaked, Durutti Column-esque ‘Light From Three Sides’, a wide variety of musical textures weave their way throughout the album.

Point of Entry is much more than a mere ‘guitar album’ – it draws on a rich and diverse palette to achieve its purpose. The delicate saxophone work of ambient-jazz contemporary Joseph Shabason swells on ‘Ditto’ and ‘Light From Three Sides’. Cascading piano lines ripple through the crystal clear sonic waters of ‘Face of Another’, whilst echoes of Nash’s work with Gigi Masin and Young Marco as Gaussian Curve appear in the dancing synth sequences of ‘Ditto’ and ‘Golden Hour’. Nash’s reverb-laden voice also appears for the first time since 2016’s critically acclaimed Exit Strategies, used delicately throughout the album to conjure up a world of dusk and golden light.

Combining the delicate human touch and naivety of earlier Melody As Truth releases with widened scope and vision, Point Of Entry is arguably Nash’s most complete work to date – an album that’s as much a statement of his “personal folk” vision as a future ambient classic.

CONTEXT During the height of the pandemic, Melbourne, Australia experienced the longest lockdown in the world, keeping residents inside their homes for a total of 262 days. In the midst of this were the five members who would form AWOL, driven to create and write music almost out of necessity. Once the ban was lifted, the band hit the recording studio and released their debut EP, AWOL, in 2021 through Last Ride Records. The timing was perfect as the Australia hardcore scene was experiencing serious growth, and AWOL soon found themselves playing shows with Speed, Iron Mind, No Apologies, and on a country wide run supporting No Pressure in early 2022. The band’s persistent drive and heavy playing style caught the attention of Flatspot Records, who will release AWOL’s debut full length, Tear 'Em To Bits this Spring. It’s not hard to listen to Tear 'Em To Bits and feel like you’re going to get ripped apart. The nine tracks are monstrous, filled with gruff vocals, groove-driven riffs, and meaty breakdowns. AWOL draws from bands like Madball and Biohazard, but also fit right along modern day acts like King Nine and God’s Hate. The lyrics are punishing, covering everything from deception and failed relationships to addressing drug addiction and police brutality. And while the record packs a lot of aggression, AWOL is purely here to revel in hardcore and the community it’s built for them. On making Tear 'Em To Bits the band simply states: “The only goal was to make a good hardcore record that we were proud of and that our friends could get behind.” AWOL is Christian Schultz (vocals), Mike Williams (guitar/vocals), Otis T Bennie (guitar/vocals) Pat Shanahan (drums) and Pablo Barnes (bass) Produced and recorded by Mike Deslandis, with additional recording by Otis T Bennie, at Black Lodge Studios. Mixed by Jon Markson at The Animal Farm. Mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege. MARKETING AND SELLING POINTS: * AWOL is one of the biggest hardcore bands in Australia at the moment * Can appeal to not only the Hardcore crowd but also Punk, Metal, and Rock demographics as well * Has toured w/ No Pressure, Regulate, The Story So Far, Speed * Will tour AUS, US, UK, EUROPE in 2024 * A perfect hardcore release that will stand the test of time! * Has played festivals such as L * Mixed by Jon Markson (Drug Church, Drain, Regulate, Koyo) * Music Videos for AWOL (single) + Tear Em’ To Bits (Single) * Alexa Gallo of Wordless PR will be working press * The Syndicate will be working Radio Campaign * Matt Hughes Good As Gold will be working UK press + radio * Released by Last Ride Records in AUS * First EP on Flatspot Records * Pressed on Colored Vinyl

Black Truffle is pleased to announce The Mountains Pass, a major new work from Olivia Block. A key player in Chicago’s vibrant experimental music scene since the late 1990s, Block has developed an extensive body of work grounded in a personalised, at times emotive approach to the studio-based practices of the musique concrète tradition, while also encompassing improvisation, orchestral pieces, sound installations, and a sustained engagement with the piano. On The Mountains Pass, recorded by Greg Norman at Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio and meticulously edited and constructed over the course of three years, Block pushes into new terrain, introducing her singing voice and drums played by Jon Mueller into flowing assemblages that move seamlessly from ruminative organ tones and fragmented piano airs to explosions of sizzling synths and thundering percussion. Like many of Block’s past works, which include, for example, a sculptural installation using the sound of oyster beds, The Mountains Pass draws inspiration from nature and the animal world. Time spent in a particular mountain range in Northern New Mexico informs this suite of pieces, whose lyrics and titles refer particularly to animal life in the area. Beginning with bursts of white noise and delicate synthetic pops and squeaks, opener ‘Northward’ very soon reveals the special direction the album will take, as lyrical piano lines are joined by Block’s fragile voice, singing words written from the perspective of f2754, an endangered Mexican gray wolf who wandered more than five hundred miles from Arizona to New Mexico in 2022. The fragment of song quickly breaks off, leaving us with a ghostly electronic hum. ‘The Hermit’s Peak’ follows, one of two epic pieces at the album’s core. Beginning with chiming, almost harpsichord-like tones, it moves through episodes of spacious, ruminative piano, Jon Mueller’s sparkling cymbals, stuttering cut-up piano sounds, and a climax of keening organ and trumpet tones (performed by Thomas Madeja). Continuing the exploration of vintage keyboard and synth tones heard on Block’s Innocent Passage in the Territorial Sea (Room 40, 2021), the music sometimes suggests the great outer-limits works of 70s Italian prog figures like Franco Battiato or Arturo Stalteri in the languorous drift of synthesizer, organ, and piano tones and the meticulous yet organic flow of its construction. ‘Violet-Green’ opens the second side with another epic journey, its lyrical content concerning ‘a mysterious bird die-off and a forest fire’. Block’s crystalline voice and rich piano chords at times call up the restrained chamber songs of Janet Sherbourne, but fragmented and threaded through passages of woozy pitch-bent keyboards, hypnotic distant thuds, tinkling bells, and searing distorted synth tones. On ‘f2754’, the freedom of the roaming wolf surges through dense layers of rapid keyboard attacks and long organ tones over a propulsive drum performance straight out of Animal Magnetism-era Arnold Dreyblatt. This distinctive sound world is then reencountered in a darkened mirror image in the uneasy, metallic shimmer of the closing ‘Ungulates’, named in reference to a heard of elk roaming through the mountains. Like Battiato’s Clic or Gastr del Sol’s Upgrade & Afterlife, The Mountains Pass inhabits the underexplored terrain where the beauty of song coexists with a radical formal openness, illuminating the deep musicality and warmth that have been present in Block’s work all along.

About 20 years ago, Carlos Giffoni quickly made a name for himself both as a noise guitarist and a laptop noisician upon arriving in New York (via Florida and Venezuela). His expertly curated annual No Fun Festival, as well as his No Fun label, further solidified him as a key figure in the international noise scene. The festival's success proved the formula for experimental and improvised music fests could work with the noise underground as well, but it also capitalized on the faster rate of connections being made between geographically disparate artists as a result of the (still relatively nascent) internet. Back then Carlos would play his laptop like a pinball machine, in contrast to the static stage presence of most laptop performers, and his solo music, like many others' at that time, expressed a less dark and dour vision of the implications of harsh noise. By the close of the 2000s, he had stopped doing the festival, switched gears musically to playing the lighter No Fun Acid sets, and moved to LA. Now he has re-emerged in a big way with Dream Walker, his first full-length since 2018's Vain (and only his second since 2010). Inspired by the masterful performances and diffusions he heard at the February 2023 GRM electronic music festival in Paris, particularly sets by old friends Lasse Marhaug, Jim O'Rourke, and Eiko Ishibashi, he began conceptualizing new music of his own in response, turning to synthesizers and other hardware to produce a work more firmly in the tradition of European electronic music than anything else he's done. Intended as a late night listen that evokes the edge of consciousness, with Carlos getting as close as possible to a trance state during the actual recording and mixing, each of the eleven tracks transition into one another rather than being standalone discrete pieces, forming two side-long suites that proceed like stages of a dream. Unabashedly tonal and repetitive, the glistening opener "Now Dream," the droning "Sleep Walker," and the closing triptych of "Lost in Descanso," "Sunrise," and "The Hidden Path" occupy a power electronics-ambient nexus that feels spiritually close to the Mego label. Elsewhere, "Ticking Clock" is reminiscent of Stereolab's non-easy listening vintage electronic side, while the two-part arpeggiated "Euphoria" recalls early Oneohtrix Point Never (which Carlos released on No Fun). The contrast between "One Breath"'s crackling opening and its remarkably fluid and soaring sustained synthesized chords is a distillation of the album's lingering tension between electronics' ability to project mechanical rupture as well as the organic and the infinite _or "walking between dreams," as Carlos himself puts it. Produced by Lasse Marhaug (who also mastered Carlos' first solo album, Welcome Home, back in 2005), released by Stephen O'Malley (who I remember DJing at the No Fun fest), with cover art and photos by personal friends, Carlos considers the album a family affair. But Dream Walker most of all heralds a maturation of the artist, and stands as a record that exists out of pure desire, rather than obligation or force of habit; a statement of reconnecting with music not by merely revisiting it, but by building on what's come before, both in his own work and in the music he loves. -Alan Licht, New York, December 2023

This release follows Chantal's earlier musical odysseys, including Let Your Hands be My Guide (2013), The Sparkle In Our Flaws (2015), Bounce Back (2017), Puwawau (2019) and Saturday Moon (2021). Each album, a testament to her artistic evolution, has resonated with audiences worldwide.

Silently Held comes to life with the collaborative brilliance of accomplished musicians. Bill Frisell with his beautiful understanding of Chantal’s flow of melody, Eric Thielemans who brings his percussive mastery to the mix. Jozef Dumoulin playing the piano with immense calmth. Thomas Morgan's who seems to be picking magic out of the skies with his bass and Shahzad Ismaily's golden touch as a multi-instrumentalist contribute to the album's rich texture. Colin Stetson, renowned for his avant-garde saxophone work but also his work for Bon Iver, lends his unique voice, creating moments of emotive intensity.

And Joachim Badenhorst, Niels Van Heertum and Kurt Van Herck finishing the album with their beautiful brass. Guided by the skilled production of Philip Weinrobe (known from his work for Dirty Projectors and Adrienne Lenker) the album's sonic landscape is carefully crafted. Most of the songs recorded in one take. One breath to keep close to the realness and rawness Chantal was looking for. Meanwhile, the experienced touch of mixing engineer Phill Brown (Talk Talk, Mark Hollis,..) who has been very present on Chantal’s journey for years.

In the quiet embrace of the music, Chantal unveils a raw and authentic portrayal of vulnerability, where every flaw and feeling is held close. The album becomes a sanctuary, inviting listeners to join in this silent communion with the intricacies of the human experience. Through each note and lyric, Chantal Acda crafts a space where imperfections are not only acknowledged but celebrated, creating a profound and intimate connection between the artist and the audience. "Silently Held" stands as a testament to the beauty found in the closeness of our flaws and feelings, inviting us to embrace them with grace and authenticity.

Silently Held by Chantal Acda & The Atlantic Drifters, released 3 May 2024, includes the following tracks: "Above ", "The Friends Parade ", "Taking Part ", "The Barn " and more.

With $10 Cowboy, Charley Crockett didn’t set out to make a themed record. He had released a concept album in 2022, the critically acclaimed Man From Waco, propelling Crockett to new heights and establishing him as one of the leaders of a sparkling revival of traditional country and folk music. For the follow up album, Crockett wrote freely, over a two-month period, as he wound his way across the United States on the back of a tour bus. The resulting songs—raw, personal, vivid portraits of a country in transition—ended up being connected after all. “This material is written at truck stops, it’s written at casinos, it’s written in the alleys behind the venues, it’s written in my truck parked up on South Congress in Austin,” explains Crockett. “A ramblin’ man like me, a genuine transient, is in a pretty damn good position to have something to say about America.” As the album unfolds, you begin to understand that a $10 Cowboy is anyone who has hustled to get by, who didn’t fit in, who has slept on other people’s couches, or the street, who has fallen down, gotten up, and ventured from home chasing a paying gig, or a new start. “Being out on the road gives you a first-hand experience of how different kinds of Americans see themselves as going through some kind of great struggle,” Crockett says. “The roughneck working the oil and natural gas fields in West Texas. The single mother raising kids by herself. The young man working a street corner because he thinks it's his only option. I would be dishonest if I said I couldn’t see the thread. Each of ‘em feel invisible. I am struck by the battles they are fighting internally, and the ways they have been entrapped by what America says they are.” The album was recorded at Arlyn Studios in Austin, produced by Crockett and his long-time collaborator Billy Horton. It was recorded live to tape, with anywhere from 6-12 musicians and backup singers on each track, giving the songs the feel of a live performance. It’s a sound Crockett has been after for years. “Reason I cut it on tape is because when you got the right people in the room, and the great players rise to the occasion when that red light is on and the tape is rolling, you get the magic of a great performance.” It's exactly what he achieved with $10 Cowboy. Regular bandmates Fox, Nathan Fleming, and Mayo Valdez are joined by some of the genre’s most talented players—Rich Brotherton, Kevin Smith, Dave LeRoy Biller, T. Jarrod Bonta and others, including a string quartet. Lauren Cervantes and Angela Miller sing on the album. While the musicianship and accompaniment are exquisite, they are also subtle, placed joyously, yet judiciously across the album. No, Crockett didn’t set out to write a themed record. Or, through his studied eye, to find America. But with $10 Cowboy, he might have done both.

Keep It Simple!

That's what Tony Allen told me, whether on stage, in the recording studio or when we were working together on the album "The Source"(Blue Note 2017) in my studio. Obviously, if he repeated it at will, it's because it's so difficult, to express the essential, not to scatter, over-play, over-arrange. So natural for him, so constraining for others! For years he pushed us, the members of his group to develop our projects. I had something in mind, necessarily with him, unfortunately his unexpected demise decided otherwise.
It took a moment to accept his departure, to accept being a voice, to find a new path. The desire to continue the work started together, that of mixing styles, sounds to appropriate them and create new, authentic. The desire also to meet new people, another energy.
After composing music for this project, I asked my friend Ben Rubin, musician and producer to help me record it. I found in NYC what I was looking for, a sense of urgency, that of doing, generous and committed musicians. I knew Jason Lindner, a musician that I have been following for a long time and he was the first person I thought of for pianos and synthesizers. He has this ability to find new and powerful sounds, with a direct and unadorned playing. For the drums, I didn't especially thought about a musician whose playing could come close or far to Tony's. Ben suggested Josh Dion to me, I've been following him since his "Paris Monster" project, I love his ability to make his drums sound like a new instrument by playing the bass synth with his right hand, that forces him to keep it simple! He also plays 2 tracks in drum/synth mode on the album.
I'm also happy that he agreed to sing a song on this album.
So we recorded at the Figure8 recording studio in Brooklyn, Eli Crews providing the sound recording, we decided with Ben to create a powerful and assumed sound from the take. Many biases on the tones, whether on the drums and the keyboards. Back in my studio in Paris, I continued to search, to dig while recording additional saxophones, percussions and keyboards.

I met Tchad Blake during a week-long mixing seminar. His work on the album on is radical.
Keep it simple?
Difficult but I try to remain so on all the phases of evolution of this project, from writing to production, in the improvisation parts. Where I feel it the most is in the immediate joy of playing with Jason and Josh, of tweaking a few sounds in my studio to create the unexpected, surprise in the structures, authenticity. Simple as the desire to go towards something essential, to seek oneself, to find oneself, to doubt but also to invent oneself.

You get older, you have a family, and you start to slow down-that's how things are supposed to go, right? Not for Montreal band Corridor, who have returned on their fourth album, Mimi, with a sound and style that's more widescreen and expansive than anything that's preceded it. The follow-up to 2019's Junior is a huge step forward for the band, as the members themselves have undergone the type of personal changes that accompany the passage of time; even as these eight songs reflect a newfound and contemplative maturity, however, Corridor are branching out more than ever with richly detailed music, resulting in a record that feels like a fresh break for a band that's already established themselves as forward-thinkers. Mimi immediately recalls the best of the best when it comes to indie rock-Deerhunter's silvery atmospherics immediately come to mind, as well as the spiky effervescence of classic post-punk-but despite these easy comparisons, Corridor remain impossible to pin down from song to song, which makes Mimi all the more thrilling as a listen. "The goal was to work differently, which is the goal we have every time we work on a new album-to build something in a new way," Robert explains. "This time, we took our time." And so in the summer of 2020, Corridor's members-Robert, vocalist/bassist Dominic Berthiaume, drummer Julien Bakvis, and multi-instrumentalist Samuel Gougoux-holed away in a cottage to engage in the sort of creative experimentation that would lead to Mimi's ultimate creation. Corridor tinkered with the songs' raw parts digitally and remotely over the next few years, with co-producer Joojoo Ashworth (Dummy, Automatic) lending their own specific talents in the theoretical booth. The process was a byproduct of not having access to their rehearsal space due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but also a result of the four-piece leaning harder into incorporating electronic textures than on previous records. "For a long time, we identified as a guitar-oriented band, and the goal of making this whole record was trying to get away from that," Berthiaume states. Berthiaume also describes Mimi as a record about "getting older" and "figuring out new parts of life"-but despite any claims of transitional growing pains from the band, Mimi is a record bursting with new energy and life, a vibrance that's owed in no small part to Gougoux joining the band full-time after pitching in on live performances in the past. "I come more from a background of electronic music, so it was nice to involve that with the band more," he explains, and Mimi contains a distinct rhythmic pulse reminiscent of classic era-post-punk's own melding of dance and rock textures. Over bright, chiming guitars and ascending synths, Robert addresses his looming mortality on "Mourir Demain": "I wrote it when my girlfriend and I were shopping for life insurance," he laughs. With our little daughter growing up, we also considered making our will. I said to myself, 'Oh shit, from now on I'm slowly starting to plan my death." Don't mistake this as music about dead ends, though, as Mimi embraces and champions unfettered creativity while paving a way for Corridor's own bright future. "We just focused on making a record that sounded the way we wanted," Gougoux exclaims while discussing the band's aims. "There were no limitations when it came to what was possible."

CNTS sind zurück!

Nach einem Wirbelsturm von Tragödien, sowohl global als auch persönlich, sind Gitarrist Mike Crain (Dead Cross, Retox, Festival Of Dead Deer), Schlagzeuger Kevin Avery (Retox, Planet B) und Sänger Matt Cronk (Qui) mit dem neuen Gitarristen Koko Arabian und Bassist Rico Adair zurück, um ihr zweites Album zu veröffentlichen.

Nach der Veröffentlichung ihres Debüts "Cunts" (2019) konnten CNTS eine kurze Tour einschieben, bevor die Welt auf Eis gelegt wurde. In der Pause wurden Aufnahmen gemacht und Pläne für die Zukunft geschmiedet. Alle Pläne wurden jedoch über den Haufen geworfen, als Matt Cronk bei einem Autounfall verletzt wurde, was zu einem chirurgischen Missgeschick führte und ihn mit einem gelähmten Stimmband zurückließ, unfähig zu sprechen, geschweige denn zu singen. CNTS gaben schweren Herzens ihr Ende bekannt. Bis zum Winter 2023 widmeten sich die Mitglieder von CNTS anderen Projekten, als Cronks verletztes Stimmband entgegen den Prognosen seiner Ärzte zu heilen begann und seine Stimme innerhalb von zwei Monaten zurückkehrte. Im März dann waren CNTS zuversichtlich, dass sie es noch einmal versuchen könnten.

Gestärkt durch Cronks Genesung und die neue Besetzung, verbrachten CNTS den Rest des Jahres mit der Arbeit an ihrem neuen Album Thoughts & Prayers, dessen Titel von der Banalität unserer kollektiven Reaktion auf Krisen inspiriert ist. Inspiriert von ihren jüngsten Herausforderungen haben CNTS mehrere Jahre der Frustration und des Elends in ein gut artikuliertes und aggressives Statement kanalisiert. Songs wie "Smart Mouth" und "Thoughts And Prayers" erzählen von Cronks Schmerz und Wut während seiner verschiedenen Verletzungen und der anschließenden Genesung. "I Don't Work For You" und Eating You Alive" handeln von der Ungerechtigkeit des modernen Lebens. "For A Good Time (Don't Call Her)" ist eine Wutrede auf das uralte Thema des Streits mit dem romantischen Partner.

It’s Monk’s Time is probably the most appropriate title for a Thelonious Monk album. The fact that he was on the cover of Time Magazine in February of that year (1964) shows how important the jazz composer and pianist was. It is also an
essential part of his discography with the impressive jazz classic “Stuffy Turkey” and the amazing interpretation of “Nice Work
If You Can Get It”, originally composed by George Gershwin. Monk recorded the album together with Butch Warren, Ben Riley, Charlie Rouse, and Teo Macero.
It’s Monk’s Time is available as a limited edition of 1500 individually numbered copies on translucent red coloured vinyl.

‘Landmass’ Turtle’s first artist album since 2017’s ‘Human’. To be released on 24 March 2023, it is his third official album having also released the acclaimed ‘Who Knows’ EP in 2013.

‘Landmass’ is a beautiful body of work that flows naturally as one piece of music and is inspired by the sparse surroundings of Jon’s studio in Argyll, Scotland, an area he moved to to try and escape the noise of the city and a move that has directly impacted on his creative process.

Jon Cooper… “Since I started producing music I have never gone into a track with any preconceived ideas, I let the music develop in its own way so my direct surroundings have always played a huge part in how it sounds and the hustle of the city was something I felt I needed to get away from. This was a cathartic experience in making it - it's a real outpouring of love for the Scottish countryside and the beauty I’m lucky enough to live in and see every day!”

Jon’s musical journey is one of experimentation and passion. A regular of the electronic scene in Glasgow in the late 90's/early 2000’s, he started to experiment with DJing and music production more for his mates entertainment than with any aspiration of a career as one of the most understated electronic artists Scotland has produced.

Serpentinenartige Grooves, rasselnde Bässe und clevere Melodien – die kraftvoll-hypnotisierenden Tracks des Pariser Produzenten Sylvere mit Wurzeln in Französisch-Westindien fangen die magnetische Kraft der Soundsysteme ein und machen ihn zu einer der aufregendsten neuen Stimmen der Bassmusik. Mit dem radikalen Kunstkollektiv LA CREOLE zelebriert er den unauslöschlichen Einfluss der Kultur und Identität der Karibik auf die moderne Dancemusik. Seine Parties und RinseFM-Radioshow schlugen schnell Wellen im globalen Untergrund (Dazed & Confused, The New York Times, u.a.). EP3 ist der letzte Teil einer EP-Trilogie für Monkeytown und der perfekte Abschluss einer Serie, die Sylveres Vielseitigkeit und Können als Produzent unter Beweis stellt.

Das vierte Album Forgiveness Is Yours der Fat White Family um die Brüder Lias und Nathan Saoudi ist ein eklektisches, chaotisches und doch immer kohärentes Album, das keine Gefangenen macht.

Fat White Family sind zurück. Das lang erwartete vierte Album der Kultband aus dem Süden Londons, Forgiveness Is Yours, hat sie, wie alles, was sie bisher gemacht haben, noch mehr an die Grenzen ihres kreativen Talents, hrer Gesundheit, ihres Verstandes und ihrer eigenen Existenz gebracht. Die äußeren Feinde haben sich aufgelöst - vielleicht waren sie die ganze Zeit nur Halluzinationen. Nach der Veröffentlichung von "Serfs Up!" zementierten Fat White Family ihren Ruf als archetypische britische Post-Punk-Band des 21. Jahrhunderts - und brachten eine ganze Generation von Außenseiter-Punkrock-Gruppen hervor, von Shame und Black Country über New Road bis hin zu Black Midi und Fontaines DC, ganz zu schweigen von ihrer berüchtigten Live-Show, die es irgendwie schafft, Empörung und Chaos mit Gelassenheit und Schönheit zu verbinden. Das vierte Album Forgiveness Is Yours der Fat White Family um die Brüder Lias und Nathan Saoudi ist ein eklektisches, chaotisches und doch immer kohärentes Album, das keine Gefangenen macht.

Das vierte Album Forgiveness Is Yours der Fat White Family um die Brüder Lias und Nathan Saoudi ist ein eklektisches, chaotisches und doch immer kohärentes Album, das keine Gefangenen macht.

Fat White Family sind zurück. Das lang erwartete vierte Album der Kultband aus dem Süden Londons, Forgiveness Is Yours, hat sie, wie alles, was sie bisher gemacht haben, noch mehr an die Grenzen ihres kreativen Talents, hrer Gesundheit, ihres Verstandes und ihrer eigenen Existenz gebracht. Die äußeren Feinde haben sich aufgelöst - vielleicht waren sie die ganze Zeit nur Halluzinationen. Nach der Veröffentlichung von "Serfs Up!" zementierten Fat White Family ihren Ruf als archetypische britische Post-Punk-Band des 21. Jahrhunderts - und brachten eine ganze Generation von Außenseiter-Punkrock-Gruppen hervor, von Shame und Black Country über New Road bis hin zu Black Midi und Fontaines DC, ganz zu schweigen von ihrer berüchtigten Live-Show, die es irgendwie schafft, Empörung und Chaos mit Gelassenheit und Schönheit zu verbinden. Das vierte Album Forgiveness Is Yours der Fat White Family um die Brüder Lias und Nathan Saoudi ist ein eklektisches, chaotisches und doch immer kohärentes Album, das keine Gefangenen macht.

After 20 years of living on the road in different places, Six Organs of Admittance had returned home to Humboldt County - a far country, to some, but still part of the world through which creatures of all kinds are moving through and contributing to. And some of them are human. Alone together - forming connection and exchange out of thought and expression - no different from the people on the other side of the Redwood Curtain. It was there, where Six Organs had long ago emerged, in the name of everything cycling, of circles that spiral concentrically and remain unbroken, the new music was conceived. In moments, it was as if the future had somehow wrapped around 360 degrees; elsewhere, the systems and patterns inside the writing and recording only became evident later - like a recognition that cumulus and nimbus clouds which passed through the sky the day before contained familiar shapes. Informing the songs accordingly as he went, Ben picked up on modes both musical and lyrical, threading backward through the time of Six Organs of Admittance. Almost marinating in it as a way of life. Working on the music and the vocals, then spending some time with them while stepping away from them. Walking the dog and coming back to them Time is Glass is made of that kind of time. Alone time. Recorded in the visceral environs of home, Time is Glass is sharply focused, even as misty impressionist mountains float through the background. Sweet and spiny, "The Mission" sings its purpose, before turning abruptly to the orchestral rumble of "Hephaestus": rural industrial psychedelia, ecosystem goth, synths arcing to lift a helplessly earthbound community into the firmament above. Winding almost imperceptibly back into song with "Slip Away", the time of the record becomes clear, moves fluidly, relaxed but aware, from event to event. People and things coming around again. The intuit, passing through wormholes and time, sounding deep then dissolving into the universal. The acoustic sounds ringing, layered suddenly, then clear again. Explosions of a new kind of distortion. Ecstatic melodies. Communing. The space of a day. The space of a season. Time is Glass, and Six Organs of Admittance is here and will be here, again.

After dark country trio Lost Dog Street Band released its 2022 album Glory, bandleader Benjamin Tod decided it was time to retire the project. Tod, alongside his wife Ashley Mae (fiddle), had been working together as a band since 2011. “I came to terms with letting go of Lost Dog completely, which is how I evaluate a lot of things in general,” explains Tod. “Oftentimes when I'm trying to make a really hard decision, I go ahead and go through the process of mourning its death and accepting that I am going to lose it.” But just a month after recording a solo project in January of 2023, Tod felt an urge to revisit the project one more time. “I thought I was done with Lost Dog, but after recording my solo album, I looked over all the songs that I had ready for a new record. These were songs for my band. I had to admit to myself that I wasn't done with Lost Dog.” Though there was heartbreak at the prospect of the project coming to an end, its resurrection has meant all the more in this new context. “Benjamin and I, both individually and together, have been through some professionally grinding and demoralizing personal times over the past five years,” Ashley Mae explains. “To take a step back from that over the past year and realize, ‘Wow, we held it down and withstood that, and we survived that,’ was a really good, bright, shining moment. It was the high point during a demoralizing time.” As such, Survived is a saving grace, a phoenix rising from the ashes. “This record means everything,” adds Tod. “It just feels like salvation.”

On the surface, Eric Slick's forthcoming LP New Age Rage is a dance record. Further listening reveals that it’s also a statement about our harrowing future - AI, self-driving cars, Twitter rage, mass media manipulation, and ultimately, the sin of perfectionism. It’s sonically influenced by the work of Yellow Magic Orchestra, Talking Heads, Kraftwerk, Todd Rundgren, Prince, The Residents, and DEVO. New Age Rage features many of Eric’s close collaborators: Natalie Prass, Finom (OHMME), Liam Kazar, Antibalas, Butcher Brown, Deep Sea Diver, and many more.

We Release JAZZ is very happy to announce an exciting new body of work by Joseph Deenmamode aka Mo Kolours. The singular musical spirit’s new 21-track album Original Flow is available as a double LP housed in a heavy 350gsm sleeve with original artwork by Mo Kolours himself and the classic WRJ obi strip, as well as in digipack CD and digital formats.

A catalog of critically acclaimed records, including his self-titled debut (2014), ‘Texture Like Like Sun’ (2015), 2018 album ‘Inner Symbols’ and three companion EPs, established Deenmamode as a prodigious musician and vocalist. Pitchfork extolled his “hypnotic, tribal-infused dance grooves”, DJ Mag appreciated the “colourful celebration of soundsystem culture”, and Resident Advisor advocated that “no one sounds quite like Mo Kolours”. Musical analogies were drawn by The Guardian as “The best album Curtis Mayfield never made with A Tribe Called Quest and Lee Perry” and Mojo as “like Marvin Gaye produced by J Dilla”.

Five years ago, Deenmamode moved to the Japanese countryside. Far away from familiarity, he contemplated his place and further questioned his identity. “I had none of my ‘own’ people around. I had time to really find what makes me tick musically. Japan has helped me go back to those subconscious leanings, really go deep, and reflect the aspects that make up my story”.

The tracks on ‘Original Flow’ have been constructed from sessions, improvisations and soundbites captured around the world during this time; collecting contributions from musicians including Deenamode’s brothers Reginald Omas Mamode and Jeen Bassa plus Andrew Ashong, Charles Bullen, Dwaye Kilvington, Eddie Hick, Stefan Asanovic, Myele Manzanza, Ross Hughes, and Tom Dreissler. Deenamode says “I’m proud of this album’s creative process. Coming from a tradition of scouring through hours of records, I wanted to create my own samples, to find that perfect loop that no other producer could put their hands on. I decided to invite a group of friends and acquaintances, who also happen to be incredible musicians, to a studio in Crystal Palace to improvise based on some loose ideas I had. We spent all day, and recorded everything”.

‘Original Flow’ is an album of UK street-soul nouveau, future indigenous jazz fusion, Rasta Segga, Nyahbinghi jazz, Malagasy Hebrew hip hop. While retaining a spirit of exploration and improvisation, it sees Deenmamode grow and flex beyond beat tape brevity, expanding composition and stretching his musical muscle to play live with other musicians. Themes of empowerment, overcoming adversity, and mental liberation coexist with notes from ancient history, futurism, and science, as well as musings on family and togetherness.

‘Magik Momentum’ springs from a discussion that features at the start of the song, an inspiring mentor answering a question from Deenmamode about improvisation and what role it plays in life when planning and manifesting the future. ‘Rockets to Mars’ questions the lack of care for the billions of people with nothing, while governments plan to explore space. “This sparked a comparison in my mind to a Sonny Okuson song that I would reference when performing. Okuson’s song talked of the lack of resources in many communities in the world, while governments go to the moon”.

He says the music behind ‘The News These Days’ is “possibly my favourite on the album”. Looped like he would a late sixty jazz-fusion sample, there was nothing added and the track was complete within a matter of minutes. “It was the first and best moment from the entire Crystal Palace session”, he adds. The album’s contrasting title track with minimal instrumentation played solo by Deenamode. While frustratingly searching for gems in past recordings, he thought in a burst of ego, “I don’t need no-one else to make a dope beat!” picked up his ravanne, (the traditional frame drum of his fathers home-land of Mauritius), pressed record, and started to play. He says, “In my thoughts were the rhythms of the Nubians in Upper-Egypt and Sudan, the swing of the huge drums played by Mauritanian women, of-course the Sega beat of Mauritius, and the ever inspiring beat of James Yancey”.

Driven by UK broken beat, Cuban congas, Nigerian and Mauritian inflections, ‘Love Vibration’ follows the concept that all emotions carry a vibratory frequency and pays homage to the frequency of creation and the power of love. The two part ‘Tatamaka’ tells of the history of Deenmamode’s ancestors, the maroons of Mauritius. “We are people who managed to run from our oppressors and find refuge in a corner of the island called ‘Le Morne’ where they could not reach us. One bloody day they came in numbers to re-capture, to revenge. Many of us chose to jump to our deaths, rather than be taken back into subjugation. The poem by Creole Richard Sedley Assonne says; “there were hundreds of them, but my people, the maroons chose the kiss of death over the chains of slavery”. Tatamaka was the name of a famed maroon leader who was murdered for claiming his, and our people’s freedom. The song is the imagined journey of escape and freedom by an ancestor of the maroons of Le Morne”.

Born in the west midlands and raised on the traditional sega music of his father’s Indian Ocean homeland of Mauritius alongside records by the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Santana and Michael Jackson; his influences expanded with late 90s jungle and drum and bass nights in Bristol, experiments at art college in Camberwell, and the rich culture of Peckham, “at the time we called it the Afro Quarters of London” says Deenmamode, adding hip hop, dub, soul and soundsystem styles to his individual sound.

He explains, “I love drum music, from hand-drums to 808s. I love music from the ancient past, heritage music, indigenous music, traditional music passed down from the beginning of time. Music from the body, hand claps, grunts and foot stomps. Music with audible depth, busy, bustling, highly charged. Music from the soul, the music from beyond. I love music from the islands and the mountains. The music of the streets, hustle music, alleyway beats. Club music”.

He describes the creative process as thinking in images. “The visual world and the world of sound seem to intermingle in my thought process. When I play the drum with my eyes closed, a world of imagery dances and moves with beat. Improvised drumming feels like I am listening to what I want to hear, rather than trying to play what I want to hear. Following the rhythm and finding new pathways to walk within the patterns is what I experience. In this way I often feel I am just a listener, instead of the player”.
Original Flow is pressed on biovinyl, a sustainable alternative to traditional vinyl. Biovinyl replaces petroleum in S-PVC by recycling used cooking oil or industrial waste gases, resulting in 100% CO2 savings in bio-based S-PVC production. Furthermore, it is 100% recyclable and reusable, embracing the circular economy ideology.

The fourth full-length record from Atlanta’s Microwave is a trip. It all begins with the misty synth strikes and cosmic transmission warbles of “Portals,” before hazy, dripping-wet guitar chords settle in. The song, an adaptation of the traditional Christian hymn “Softly and Tenderly,” is true to its new name, as liminal and fleeting as it is gripping and emotional. It’s an enormous, gentle, enveloping introduction to what will be explored: life and death, happiness and freedom, the real and unreal. This is Let’s Start Degeneracy, the long-awaited new album from Microwave, releasing on April 26 via Pure Noise. It's an emo record, but perhaps only categorically speaking. It contains multitudes: ambient, pop, R&B, punk, and experimental sounds float in and out of one another as the record moves through scenes, experiences, and feelings, all of them rippling with a purity of intention and translation that mark the best artistic works of “psychedelia.” Vocalist/guitarist/producer Nathan Hardy, bassist Tyler Hill, and drummer Timothy Pittard have created something that resembles a concept record, but it’s the sort of concept that’s impossible to contain in just one phrase or word or sound. The record’s title, taken from a conservative politician’s take on drugs in 1970, captures this liberated spirit. There are no rules, and there is nothing to be ashamed of. “It’s about letting go of attachments and behaviors that aren’t serving you, and trying to shake off your programming and not be motivated by fear and guilt and shame,” says Hardy.

Zoo Min Sha is the solo project of Ryo Konishi, who also performs with the jazz-pop band CRCK/LCKS. 2 songs released in 2023, featuring AAAMYYYY, Ema, and Sara Yoshida (Mononkvl), and themed on parting with people, are now available in analog!

In addition to presiding over CRCK/LCKS, Ryo Konishi has participated in works by Chara and millennium parade, produced music for Amazon Prime Video's "More Than Words", produced music for the opening ceremony of the 2020 Paralympics, and has a growing presence in a wide range of other areas. This is his third analog work. Side A is "Glittering," which features AAAMYYYY as a guest performer and has a magnificent and beautiful sound centered on her clear voice and string quartet. Side B is "I Hear That Song", which features the beautiful ensemble of winds and strings and the gentle, enveloping harmonies of Mononkvl member Sara Yoshida and musical actor/jazz singer Ema. This is a piece as beautiful as a clear sky and a gem of pieces by the splendid members.

Francis Lai is France's best-selling international film composer, with hits such as "Love Story", "Bilitis" and "Un Homme et une Femme".

International hits in the USA, Germany, the UK and South America, as well as in Korea and Japan, where the Francis Lai Orchestra recorded the tribute album "13 Jours au Japon" just a few months ago, during a tour that took them to Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and elsewhere.

A limited-edition Vinyl featuring the composer's cult tracks, including the 100 million-stream digital hit "La Leçon Particulière", "Concerto Pour la Fin d'Amour", five songs and, for the first time, his unpublished posthumous work "The Final Dot".


"13 Jours au Japon" (13 Days in Japan) is the ultimate vinyl tribute, featuring 25 musicians and singers covering the multi-award-winning works of the man nicknamed in the USA: "the artistocrat of melody"!

Napoleon is the 2023 spectacle-filled action epic film that details the checkered rise and fall of the iconic French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, played by Oscar-winner Joaquin Phoenix. Against a stunning backdrop of large-scale filmmaking orchestrated by legendary director Ridley Scott, the film captures Bonaparte's relentless journey to power through the prism of his addictive, volatile relationship with his one true love, Josephine, showcasing his visionary military and political tactics against some of the most dynamic practical battle sequences ever filmed. At the 96th Academy Awards, Napoleon received nominations for Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, and Best Visual Effects. The film features an original score written and composed by 7-time Primetime Emmy nominatated British composer Martin Phipps. Phipps is best known for his work for the series Peaky Blinders, The Crown, and Black Mirror amongst others. Napoleon marked his first collaboration with Scott and was described by critics as “one of the most interestingly unique, albeit brief scores to debut in this genre for many years.” Napoleon is available as a limited edition of 500 individually numbered copies on translucent red coloured vinyl and includes an insert.

Napoleon by Martin Phipps, released 26 April 2024, includes the following tracks: "Josephine ", "Ladies In Waiting ", "We Are Discovered ", "Look Down " and more.

This version of Napoleon comes as a 1xLP. This release comes with (a) Insert(s).

The vinyl is pressed as a translucent, red disc.

Dettinger’s Intershop and Oasis have long been held, by many fans of ambient and electronic music, to be some of the finest albums in their field. Produced by the mysterious Olaf Dettinger, about whom not much is publicly known, they were some of the earliest full-lengths released by the then-nascent Kompakt, and in many ways, they both articulated and defined the sound that would come to be known as Pop Ambient, while also existing, somehow, to the leftfield of any clearly recognisable genre.

Beautiful, sui generis works, it is a rare pleasure to see them being reissued on vinyl for a new generation of listeners to embrace. Originally released on CD only in 1999, Intershop was Kompakt’s first artist full-length. The music here simmers and broods, with opulent banks of tone marking out territory for rhythms that seem to be built from the clacking detritus of technology – hisses, thunks, knocks. Bass is deployed carefully, each drop a dubbed-out depth charge; drones spin and spiral, warping and weaving between the beats.

Oasis, released in 2000, refined the palette that Dettinger had explored on its predecessor. A blurred crusade of ambient texturology, its unassuming patterns, and subtle, incremental dynamics, admit to real beauty, and a kind of abstract sensuality that you don’t often experience with music that is, perhaps, similarly tooled, but not as poetic. Through seemingly simple gestures – whether lushly expansive repetitions, hyper-acute tremolo tones, or ear-tickling rhythms – it builds complex emotional resonance. It’s no surprise to discover Oasis is held in high esteem by artists like Panda Bear of Animal Collective, who once said of Dettinger, “For us, he was the dude.”

There is, of course, other music to know Dettinger by, too – his three excellent EPs for Kompakt, Blond (1998), Puma and Totentanz (1999), the latter of which, Michael Mayer once argued, “invented dubstep.” There is also a small, yet graceful run of compilation contributions, many of which can be found on Kompakt’s Total and Pop Ambient series. All this music has plenty to recommend it, sharing a clarity of purpose, and a rare, human warmth and depth. But Intershop and Oasis are the releases that distil Dettinger’s singular vision, and allow him, should he wish, to claim his place as a modern master of ambient and electronic music.

Dettingers Intershop und Oasis werden von vielen Fans von Ambient und elektronischer Musik seit langem als einige der besten Alben in diesem Bereich angesehen. Produziert von dem mysteriösen Olaf Dettinger, über den nicht viel bekannt ist, gehörten sie zu den ersten Alben, die von der damals aufstrebenden Plattenfirma Kompakt veröffentlicht wurden. In vielerlei Hinsicht formulierten und definierten sie den Sound, der später als Pop-Ambient bekannt werden sollte, während sie gleichzeitig irgendwie links von jedem klar erkennbaren Genre existierten.

Es ist eine seltene Freude zu sehen, dass diese wunderschönen Werke auf Vinyl wiederveröffentlicht werden, um sie einer neuen Generation von Hörern zugänglich zu machen. Ursprünglich wurde Intershop 1999 nur auf CD veröffentlicht und war Kompakts erstes komplettes Künstleralbum. Die Musik hier brodelt und brütet, mit opulenten Klangbänken, die das Territorium für Rhythmen abstecken, die aus dem klappernden Gerümpel der Technik gebaut zu sein scheinen – Zischen, Klopfen, Schaben. Der Bass wird sorgfältig eingesetzt, jeder Drop ist eine synchronisierte Tiefenladung; Drones drehen und winden sich spiralförmig und verflechten sich zwischen den Beats.

Oasis, das im Jahr 2000 erschien, verfeinerte die Palette, die Dettinger auf seinem Vorgänger erkundet hatte. Ein verschwommener Kreuzzug der Ambient-Texturologie, dessen unaufdringliche Muster und subtile, schrittweise Dynamik echte Schönheit und eine Art abstrakter Sinnlichkeit zulassen, die man nicht oft bei Musik erlebt, die vielleicht ähnlich ausgestattet, aber nicht so poetisch ist. Durch scheinbar einfache Gesten – seien es üppig ausladende Wiederholungen, hyperakute Tremolotöne oder ohrenbetäubende Rhythmen – baut sie eine komplexe emotionale Resonanz auf. Es ist keine Überraschung, dass Oasis von Künstlern wie Panda Bear von Animal Collective hoch geschätzt wird, der einmal über Dettinger sagte: “Für uns war er DER Typ”.

Es gibt natürlich auch noch andere Musik, die Dettinger bekannt macht – seine drei ausgezeichneten EPs für Kompakt, Blond (1998), Puma und Totentanz (1999), von denen letztere, wie Michael Mayer einmal kühn behauptete, “den Dubstep erfand”. Es gibt auch eine kleine, aber feine Reihe von Compilation-Beiträgen, von denen viele auf Kompakts Total- und Pop-Ambient-Serien zu finden sind. All diese Musik ist sehr empfehlenswert und zeichnet sich durch eine klare Zielsetzung und eine seltene, menschliche Wärme und Tiefe aus. Aber Intershop und Oasis sind die Veröffentlichungen, die Dettingers einzigartige Vision destillieren und es ihm ermöglichen, seinen Platz als moderner Meister der Ambient- und elektronischen Musik zu behaupten, sollte er dies wünschen.

Dettinger’s Intershop and Oasis have long been held, by many fans of ambient and electronic music, to be some of the finest albums in their field. Produced by the mysterious Olaf Dettinger, about whom not much is publicly known, they were some of the earliest full-lengths released by the then-nascent Kompakt, and in many ways, they both articulated and defined the sound that would come to be known as Pop Ambient, while also existing, somehow, to the leftfield of any clearly recognisable genre.

Beautiful, sui generis works, it is a rare pleasure to see them being reissued on vinyl for a new generation of listeners to embrace. Originally released on CD only in 1999, Intershop was Kompakt’s first artist full-length. The music here simmers and broods, with opulent banks of tone marking out territory for rhythms that seem to be built from the clacking detritus of technology – hisses, thunks, knocks. Bass is deployed carefully, each drop a dubbed-out depth charge; drones spin and spiral, warping and weaving between the beats.

Oasis, released in 2000, refined the palette that Dettinger had explored on its predecessor. A blurred crusade of ambient texturology, its unassuming patterns, and subtle, incremental dynamics, admit to real beauty, and a kind of abstract sensuality that you don’t often experience with music that is, perhaps, similarly tooled, but not as poetic. Through seemingly simple gestures – whether lushly expansive repetitions, hyper-acute tremolo tones, or ear-tickling rhythms – it builds complex emotional resonance. It’s no surprise to discover Oasis is held in high esteem by artists like Panda Bear of Animal Collective, who once said of Dettinger, “For us, he was the dude.”

There is, of course, other music to know Dettinger by, too – his three excellent EPs for Kompakt, Blond (1998), Puma and Totentanz (1999), the latter of which, Michael Mayer once argued, “invented dubstep.” There is also a small, yet graceful run of compilation contributions, many of which can be found on Kompakt’s Total and Pop Ambient series. All this music has plenty to recommend it, sharing a clarity of purpose, and a rare, human warmth and depth. But Intershop and Oasis are the releases that distil Dettinger’s singular vision, and allow him, should he wish, to claim his place as a modern master of ambient and electronic music.
Dettingers Intershop und Oasis werden von vielen Fans von Ambient und elektronischer Musik seit langem als einige der besten Alben in diesem Bereich angesehen. Produziert von dem mysteriösen Olaf Dettinger, über den nicht viel bekannt ist, gehörten sie zu den ersten Alben, die von der damals aufstrebenden Plattenfirma Kompakt veröffentlicht wurden. In vielerlei Hinsicht formulierten und definierten sie den Sound, der später als Pop-Ambient bekannt werden sollte, während sie gleichzeitig irgendwie links von jedem klar erkennbaren Genre existierten.

Es ist eine seltene Freude zu sehen, dass diese wunderschönen Werke auf Vinyl wiederveröffentlicht werden, um sie einer neuen Generation von Hörern zugänglich zu machen. Ursprünglich wurde Intershop 1999 nur auf CD veröffentlicht und war Kompakts erstes komplettes Künstleralbum. Die Musik hier brodelt und brütet, mit opulenten Klangbänken, die das Territorium für Rhythmen abstecken, die aus dem klappernden Gerümpel der Technik gebaut zu sein scheinen – Zischen, Klopfen, Schaben. Der Bass wird sorgfältig eingesetzt, jeder Drop ist eine synchronisierte Tiefenladung; Drones drehen und winden sich spiralförmig und verflechten sich zwischen den Beats.

Oasis, das im Jahr 2000 erschien, verfeinerte die Palette, die Dettinger auf seinem Vorgänger erkundet hatte. Ein verschwommener Kreuzzug der Ambient-Texturologie, dessen unaufdringliche Muster und subtile, schrittweise Dynamik echte Schönheit und eine Art abstrakter Sinnlichkeit zulassen, die man nicht oft bei Musik erlebt, die vielleicht ähnlich ausgestattet, aber nicht so poetisch ist. Durch scheinbar einfache Gesten – seien es üppig ausladende Wiederholungen, hyperakute Tremolotöne oder ohrenbetäubende Rhythmen – baut sie eine komplexe emotionale Resonanz auf. Es ist keine Überraschung, dass Oasis von Künstlern wie Panda Bear von Animal Collective hoch geschätzt wird, der einmal über Dettinger sagte: “Für uns war er DER Typ”.

Es gibt natürlich auch noch andere Musik, die Dettinger bekannt macht – seine drei ausgezeichneten EPs für Kompakt, Blond (1998), Puma und Totentanz (1999), von denen letztere, wie Michael Mayer einmal kühn behauptete, “den Dubstep erfand”. Es gibt auch eine kleine, aber feine Reihe von Compilation-Beiträgen, von denen viele auf Kompakts Total- und Pop-Ambient-Serien zu finden sind. All diese Musik ist sehr empfehlenswert und zeichnet sich durch eine klare Zielsetzung und eine seltene, menschliche Wärme und Tiefe aus. Aber Intershop und Oasis sind die Veröffentlichungen, die Dettingers einzigartige Vision destillieren und es ihm ermöglichen, seinen Platz als moderner Meister der Ambient- und elektronischen Musik zu behaupten, sollte er dies wünschen.

The sixth studio album, 'Matango!, its title referring to the 1963 Japanese psychological horror film of the same name (directed by Godzilla/kaiju maestro Ishiro Honda) by Australian band The Kill Devil Hills is out on Bang! Records! New album has ten songs, that - according to the band's own words - "entwined in the lyrics are inferences of global unrest and displacement, near future scenarios, climate catastrophe, pandemic vortices, the Simpsons, the grace of women, refugees and boat people, Cold War paranoia, the creative process itself, and of course Australia and its peculiar place in things". Cheery stuff, no? A strange and sinewy beast of an album, it's something of a departure from earlier KDH work: minimal, leering with glitching drums samples, synth swells, empty spaces, and a soup of fat bass tones to float it all in. From the opening ghost radio hums of Survivor Guilt, to the entrancing closing whispers of violin on Weigh of a Woman, this album goes on a pretty strange and serpentine journey. Enjoy listening, as much as we have enjoyed making it.

Mutant präsentiert den OST zur Roadmovie-Komödie DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS (2024), Ethan Coens erstem "Solo"-Film (ohne seinen Bruder). Mit einem exzellenten Score des EMMY-preisgekrönten Komponisten Carter Burwell und Songs von Le Tigre über Linda Ronstadt bis Lizzie Mercier Descloux passt er sehr gut in das beeindruckende Erbe der jahrzehntelangen Zusammenarbeit Burwells mit den Coen-Brüdern. Es ist das perfekte Mixtape für diesen Roadtrip, ein bisschen Country, ein bisschen Rock'n'Roll, ein bisschen Disco und ein bisschen Queer. Carter Burwell ergänzt: "Wenn Sie die übliche lesbische Roadtrip-Krimi-Sex-Comedy-Musik erwarten, werden Sie nicht enttäuscht sein."

The A-side begins with pulsating drums and prominent synth work, while the flip side explores hypnotic soundscapes with minimalist arrangements.
All proceeds will be donated to ZKNFTsmusik, a project dedicated to educating teenagers and young adults in music production.

Career trajectories are rarely linear or make logical sense. Life is always unpredictable so all you can do is put in good work and keep at it. Joh Chase is a testament to this. Over the past two decades, the Seattle-raised, Los Angeles-based artist has persistently honed their songwriting and toured, opening for acts like Noah Gunderson and David Bazan. This dedication comes out entirely in their songs, which are so timeless, confident, and inviting they can only come from someone who’s devoted their whole life to their craft. Chase’s new album SOLO feels like a turning point for them: it’s the culmination of a lifetime of writing, losing, loving, and doing it all yourself. The LP adventurously toes the line between genres and sensibilities but it’s all filtered through Chase’s charming and fully-formed vision. SOLO is a testament to Chase’s do-it-yourself ethos throughout their entire career—they chipped away, self-funded tours, and crowdfunded this LP. But by finding their voice, they now no longer feel alone. “This is the most support I've ever had in my life,” says Chase. “I do not feel alone at all. There’s so much energy and generosity here around these songs.” Though it’s not their debut, SOLO feels like a reinvention for an artist: a daring reintroduction for a timeless talent. “I spent my life making music and trying to do it about 10 different ways,” says Chase. “Now this one feels like it. This album feels like a leveling-up of my music in general. When I look at it now, I realize this is the first record that's really me.” “Mesmerizing, infectious, joyful, and heartbreaking; this is the best new album I've heard in a decade. Joh Chase has arrived

Maria Chiara Argirò's album "Closer" departs from her prior work, fueled by an indescribable, dreamlike feeling. The album's core duality of blurred lines and clarity reflects Argirò's philosophy. A philosophy encapsulated in the urgency of her production process and the unique lucidity with which she weaves ambient, dance, jazz, and experimental pop seamlessly together. The album defies easy definition, emphasising an inner self-discovery process, detached from external influences, not only breaking sonic ground but signifying a deeply personal journey, anchoring Argirò to her creation. Argirò has previously seen critical success with support from Pitchfork, The FADER, FLOOD, Brooklyn Vegan and Clash Magazine. “Closer” will be released on the 26th of April 2024

nit is the genius underdog of the current French chanson scene. After playing along with Sébastien Tellier or Juliette Armanet (a huge success in France), after remixing Phoenix, Myd, Dita Von Teese, Cola Boyy, Tony Allen or Jane Birkin, here he comes with his debut album. The balearic sound is always a big nit influence, feel good electronics & lush acoustic chords.

Spotted by French label Record Makers (Sébastien Tellier, Kavinsky, AIR, Cola Boyy) with his 2017 “Dessous de plage” first EP, nit has since grown from funky DIY library music to a lush and complex groovy sound. The magic of this debut album “Big Bang Puzzle” is a keen sense of composition and an innate affinity for 90’s European electronica.
It’s a playful album, the work of an artist at the peak of his craft, determined to twist styles and references (Daft Punk, Ennio Morricone, Robert Miles, Vangelis...) in order to give them a new form.

“Big Bang Puzzle” is a tangle of psychedelic and cartoon-esque pieces, an abstract modernist painting of sounds inspired by vintage pop music. The cover, created by Swiss artist Flora Mottini, offers a first glimpse of his brand new universe.

But it’s also by collaborating with French iconic design studio H5 that nit suddenly enters the French Touch genealogy. nit takes the shape of an n that grows legs and arms to become a cheeky cartoon character traveling through a real space-time continuum. Parisian H5 studio has been involved since the end of the ‘90s in the design of strong visual concepts for French Touch’s elite (Etienne de Crécy, AIR, Mirwais). French music at its best from which nit is a direct descendant. And one who expands and opens even further: pop, italo-disco, trip-hop impulses, Morriconian cavalcades, lo-fi aesthetics, Caribbean music. Producer and mixer Lucien Krampf (Oklou, Ascendant Vierge, Casual Gabberz, CRYSTALLMESS) was the person in charge of mixing this ambitious record.

nit is both a question and an answer, and a musical enigma that pushes us to explore the far reaches of our imagination…

Mother Twilight is the second Faun Fables album. It has since been noted by Scottish author R.J. Stewart as a work containing true artifacts of the oral underworld tradition. Dawn and Nils made a hand-assembled first pressing and peddled it to nearly every bar and rural hall across North America from 2001-2003. Drag City reissued the CD in 2004. Things are glowing outside, enough to bring any sun worshiper in for the night. But you must remain outside and begin walking. It"ll prepare you for the night, which otherwise comes as a chilling surprise. If you pay attention this time, maybe you"ll understand why you"re becoming invisible. When your memory began, it wasn"t startling, wasn"t a mistake. It came out of an old, dark and familiar thing, like a storyteller, like Twilight... so save us from fear, mother, and tell your story. Dawn McCarthy"s creative background was forged in oral tradition amidst a large musical family in Spokane, Washington; studying piano, music theater, rock bands, guitar, folklore and ethnomusicology. Dawn cut her teeth as a singer and performer with various bands and cabarets in Madison, Wisconsin and New York City, most notably as yodeler with the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, who inspired her to want a gypsy life with a kindred spirit someday. Her focus took a pivotal turn in that direction in 1997 with a solo quest through the UK and Ireland and their bardic traditions; singing songs in clubs and homes, all the while undergoing a pastoral, psychological experience with the land. Upon her return to the States, a fateful meeting with Oakland, CA born-and-raised Nils Frykdahl (Sleepytime Gorilla Museum) moved McCarthy back to the West to begin a new creative collaboration in the thriving hills and art community of the San Francisco Bay Area. Since 1999, Faun Fables have released six albums and performed their animist, otherworldly folk music across North America and Europe, with shows in Australia, New Zealand and Israel, as well. Dawn"s writing and voice (described by The New Yorker as "one of the more compelling instruments in contemporary music") opens hearts and minds with a whisper to a rallying battle cry, further animated by Frykdahl"s adventurous musicality and vocals. Dawn has written musical theater performed by the Idyllwild Arts Academy, among others, and has lent her vocals to Bonnie "Prince" Billy on The Letting Go and What the Brothers Sang. In 2022, Faun Fables debuted their family band, joined onstage by their daughters with vocals, percussion, keyboard and dance.

On Gut Buster, Yosa Peit spawns fleshy sonic escapades, a swarm of vigorously processed vocals and soulful bass, set to a backdrop of visceral percussive structures. Full of roguish curiosity, the record is cast with an air of lo-fi experimentation, but with a platinum glint of pop sensibility. Peit's second album grapples with the destructive force of modern consumption, Gut Buster is an anti-capitalist battle cry that syntheses intimacy and hostility; a surrealist-punk affirmation and a testament to Peit's singular vision and unique approach. The free-ranging sound of Yosa Peit recalls the intense arrangements of a cyber-era Prince with the surrealist tones of Arthur Russell and early Björk. At the album's core, "World Eaters" unleashes scorching guitars in search of humankind's end, "I was born on a planet, I got hungry and I ate it." Even in the face of planetary doom and personal obstacles, Yosa evokes our propensity for mischief, humor and pleasure. "bb moon" processes sound solely from her bass into wicked oblivion. "CALL ME," a song about friendship, chews up it's anthemic melody into a gnarled strut worthy of an A$AP Rocky production, while "HAD3S" urges us to find balance, nodding to the mystical fuzz of Prince. Yosa's work has been called "personal, punk, poignant, deep" yet her genre-defying production, as textured as it is catchy, escapes definition. Gut Buster takes that collective playground for creation to planetary reaches, congregating friends from Berlin, Cologne, and New York's fuzzy musical underbelly: Employee, Funkycan, Gerry Franke, Glenn Astro, Nauker, Paingel, Tbz, and UCC Harlo. The record was mixed by Brainfeeder affiliate Benjamin Vukelic in Portland and Jan Brauer in Berlin. "Glitchy yet supple, the broken beats and warped abstractions are wholly unpredictable yet deliciously odd, like an esoteric mashup of Bjork, Aphex and Laurie Anderson" Electronic Sound Classic Black Vinyl, Gloss Laminated Sleeve, Printed inner "Gut" sleeve plus DL card.

Musicians include Aston 'Family Man' Barrett, Carlton Barrett, Robbie Shakespeare, Sly Dunbar, Ansel Collins, Ossie Hibbert, Earl 'Chinna' Smith, Tommy McCook, Cornell Campbell, Jackie Mittoo. Both The Aggravators and The Revolutionaries were influential in creating the distinctive sound of reggae music during its formative years, contributing their talents as studio bands behind some of the most significant recordings in the history of Jamaican music. 'Guerilla Dub' provides an illustration and insight into the close working relationships between the many producers, musicians and mixing engineers who created so many of Jamaica's marvellous musical masterpieces during its golden age and how interwoven and interconnected they were during this period of intense musical creativity.

Melbourne/Naarm-based musician and curator Rama Parwata, known for being the backbone drummer in bands such as Kilat, Whitehorse and Rinuwat, releases his second major solo album titled ‘Ceases’ on Cassauna/Important Records.

Parwata's gripping new electro-acoustic work is a sonic exploration within the realms of post-free-jazz and experimental electronics. At its core, ‘Ceases’ navigates the liminal spaces between rhythm and noise, structure and chaos. The album traverses a vast emotional and conceptual landscape, touching upon themes of impermanence, transformation, and the cyclical nature of existence.

At the forefront of the album is Parwata's emotive compositional and performative approach, which serves as both anchor and catalyst for the album's journey. The percussion performance is cymbal heavy accompanied by deeply meditative drones and slow moving melodies. The wash of sound touches on a spiritualism akin to Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme Part 4: Psalm”, albeit with a modern electronic vision á la Tim Hecker. With a keen sense of textural intricacy Parwata favours the emotional expression of electro-acoustic composition, weaving complex poly-textures that ebb and flow with hypnotic, prayer-like intensity. Each performative gesture creates a visceral immediacy that draws the listener deeper into the celestial, otherworldly sonic framework.

The diverse array of electronic elements, meticulously crafted and seamlessly integrated into the fabric of the album are a testament of Parwata’s capacity for acousmatic composition. From pulsating synthesizers to glitched-out samples, the electronic timbres in "Ceases" serve as both sonic embellishments and structural foundations, blurring the boundaries between organic and synthetic, acoustic and digital. Honing in on the electronics, a listener could be convinced they were hearing anything from spiritual-jazz, 90s rave, dungeon synth or doom. Through judicious composition, Parwata imbues each sound with a sense of transcendental allure and paints a soundworld that has a distinct ‘outerness’. At times the narrative is pointedly bleak but over a few passages the sonic language often bends toward rejuvenation; finding respite in cadence. The title itself suggests a sense of cessation, of endings and beginnings intertwined—a motif that reverberates throughout the album.

The upcoming album, How to Build an Ocean: Instructions is a project doused in personal conflict, but simultaneously a love letter to the normal and how beauty can be found in just being. Charged with references to literature, philosophy and film, as well as first hand experiences, the band explore thoughts of what it means to find purpose when everything feels purposeless, all whilst ultimately instructing themselves to find “small joys in the face of cosmic indifference”. Produced by George Perks (Enter Shikari, The Doves, You Me At Six), How to Build an Ocean: Instructions marks an exciting new development for Bears in Trees, being the first album they’ve recorded with the help of consultants outside of the band themselves, having previously relied on drummer George’s expertise, who outside of the band, works as an engineer at Subfrantic Studios. Tenderness, triumph, and a totally unashamed feeling of enjoying the ride whilst they're on it, How to Build an Ocean: Instructions is their definitive statement. Though no matter how far this record takes them, the most important thing is that they are together and doing what they love. Because when all is said and done, that's the connection that will last a lifetime. "We started the band because we loved hanging out with our friends and wanted to make stupid music together"; Iain concludes. "That's always been the reason, and it hasn't changed. All we want to do is make what we do as honest and authentic as possible. That's what it means to be in the Bears in Trees business."