Search:work

ARIA double-platinum six-piece act, Winston Surfshirt, are releasing their third full-length album, Panna Cotta .

A recipe of collaborative dreams, Panna Cotta sees Winston Surfshirt work with a wish-list of his favourite artists, seeing career-defining partnerships produce 15 tracks of accomplished and star-studded material. As Winston sings and swoons to ideas of love and life, a stand-out lineup of players and musicians step into the Winston universe, including Talib Kweli, Kimbra, Genesis Owusu, Dope Lemon, Young Franco, Ramirez, Devin the Dude, Milan Ring, and more, sending the signature Surfshirt sound into uncharted realms.

Winston says on the forthcoming album: “Panna Cotta is the last dessert on the table, something for everyone to try, a bunch of different ingredients mixed together. I’d say it is my dream album that I wanted to hear Winston Surfshirt make.”

Let's get it straight: "This is" is THE album by Ghia. It catches the band at its peak and features 10 songs, including not only their impeccable hit, "What's Your Voodoo?" but a full arsenal of yet unheard, timeless, and soulful music without equal. The songs on the album, which were recorded between 1988 and 1991, could be considered forerunners of the downtempo genre, with one foot in the late 1980s street soul direction but sparkling with touches of synth pop and contemporary jazz-funk. Genre limitations aside, all that Ghia ever wanted to do was create music-good music-and you will hear this in the depth of the compositions.
The album starts with "Keep Your House In Disorder," which has yet again become another classic song from the band's catalog since it was featured as the B-side of the "What's Your Voodoo?" reissue. The song is about a relationship in which the woman has trouble adapting to her boyfriend's turn in life. He tells her to "keep your house in disorder," meaning don't take things too seriously, don't stand still, and you will do better to take the sideroads in life.

"This Is" continues with the downtempo numbers "Crystal Silence" and "Close to You." Both are deep, one-of-a-kind, and previously unissued street soul ballads. On these two tracks, you can still hear the band's roots in jazz-funk. Hence, as a follower of the band's output may have yet recognized, instrumentals of these two tracks can be found on their first LP, "Curaçao Blue." In fact, "Close to You" was one of the band's first compositions. Earlier recordings of the song exist with different singers and different vocals, but it wasn't perfect until Lisa laid down the final version and a choir was added. It's difficult for us to recall any late-80s soul tune as beautiful and intriguing as this one. The final section, which begins with "so much baby we can say," sounds ahead of its time, reminiscent of mid-90s contemporary R&B.

Next up is "Eskimo," an equally brilliant and soulful downtempo composition, but with more focus on synth sounds than the previous tracks. Once more, it showcases the creative lyricism of the song writers, Boberg and Simon, imagining a train ride during a rainy and cold night: "feeling like an Eskimo in an igloo in New York."

Eskimo leads to the aforementioned classic, "What's Your Voodoo?" Originally released in 1991 on the small Mikado label, it was reissued on our label in 2019. We already called this "one of the most wonderful and mystic slow motion synth pop tunes ever recorded"-and we still mean it! Let's face it: this was done before British bands like Massive Attack, Tricky, and Portishead laid the foundation of trip-hop. Dare we call Ghia's music "proto trip-hop"? As a special bonus, the digital version of the LP features a previously unreleased mix of the song, which includes added samples; this should clarify how close Ghia actually was to the sound of the mid-'90s.

"Angel On Your Shoulder" and "L O M E" are two more completely unissued and great tracks from the band's shelved works. Being a bit more uptempo than the rest of the album, they fall between contemporary soul/R&B and synthesized pop music. And of course, another downtempo hit needed to be featured on the album: "You Won't Sleep on My Pillow." It was the original A-side of their single release in 1991, and since then it has been featured on various compilations.

The album concludes with a really strong ballad entitled "I Haven't Got The Power." Here we hear only pianist and keyboardist Lutz Boberg with Lisa Ohm, without further instrumentation. Basically recorded in a live session, this showcases once more the talent and ingenuity within the Ghia project.

Whether you agree or not, "This is" may easily be considered one of the best German late 80s/early 90s soul pop and downtempo albums ever recorded. Cautiously, it may even be submitted as the missing link between mid/late 80s soul by bands such as Sade, and later trip-hop groups like Massive Attack. Let us celebrate Ghia and their music, which had been shelved for more than 30 years but has now finally been released on The Outer Edge.

green marbled vinyl

Paul 'Damage' Bailey, one of the original resident DJs at Birmingham's House Of God club nights along with Surgeon and Sir Real, strikes back on De:tuned with 2 new relentless techno cuts. On offer, a mind-bending modular exploration that takes no prisoners from the Brummie powerhouse accompanied by top drawer remixes. James Ruskin transforms 'Hadal Zone' into a rare darkroom electro orientated piece, while Makaton turns out a deep pulsating 4/4 techno version of 'Decompression'. It's a real burner.

Kevin Foakes (Openmind, DJ Food, Ninja Tune) created all the graphic work. Mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis and pressed on 180 gr vinyl. A separate digital release will also be available at the usual digital shops. Stay tuned!

WRWTFWW Records is overjoyed to announce Ar Ais Arís, the third album by Irish producer Gareth Quinn Redmond, following his amazing Satoshi Ashikawa-inspired Laistigh Den Ghleo released in 2019 and this year’s ambient-meets-Irish-traditional-music soundscape Umcheol. The 8-track LP comes as a limited edition of 500 copies worldwide with an artwork by Dublin artist Barry Gibbons and liner notes from Gareth Quinn Redmond himself. It is available in digital format as well.

Ar Ais Arís is Gareth Quinn Redmond’s fortuitous love affair with the art of tape loops - a practice he discovered while performing with Ross Chaney and Myles O’Reilly in late November 2020. Fascinated, he spent months experimenting with the technique: "By cracking open the shell of a cassette, cutting the tape and splicing the ends together, I created repeating sound loops of varying lengths. After reassembling and slotting the cassette into the Tascam Portastudio, I recorded and played back the sounds of the tape loop. These sounds were then manipulated using the pitch wheel to make subtle and warbly inflections to the recordings. This is achieved by speeding up or slowing down the playback speed of the tape, which offers dynamic contrasts in both mood and texture."

The result is 8 deliciously enchanting minimalistic tape loops creating a very rare kind of daydreaming environmental music full of accidental miracles and dusty soothing backdrops. It’s a very very very pleasant listening experience inspiring a feeling of enveloping warmth and gentle coziness, with an uncanny touch of spellbinding magic. Press play.

Gareth Quinn Redmond’s previous albums, Laistigh Den Ghleo, an ode to the work of Satoshi Ashikawa, and Umcheol, mixing ambient with traditional Irish music instruments, are still available on WRWTFWW Records - perfect occasion to complete the collection!

Tommy The Cat returns to UTTU after recent forays on underground stapes such as E-Beamz, Vibez ’93 & his regular collabs with Coco Bryce - here he drops 4 cosmic-jungle-ambient-breakbeat-braindance workouts for UTTU’s Cosmic Connection series which has previously hosted the likes of Tim Reaper, Kloke and Tommy The Cat himself!

Platform 23 again explores to the dense voids, this time with a touch of the funk, with a reissue of Dutch experimentalists De Fabriek and two tracks from their "Music For" cassette series, this time calling all Hippies.

Featuring both original and reinterpretations from modern-day heads, Dunkeltier and Khidja, this double-pack is something of an oddity, showcasing the bands' expansive range, moving away from the noise, drone and industrial soundscape releases they had become known for and crafting here, free flowing, groovy longform jams.

Active since the late 70s to today, De Fabriek (The Factory) have never considered themselves a real band - being also a label too - with an evolving and irregular line up centred around Richard van Dellen, they present their music and output as a kind of work-union.

With literally four decades and dozens of releases across all formats, 1988's cassette release, 'Music For Hippies', has become something of a cult curio, with the long improvisational tracks, Lullabye and Coming Down eschewing the rougher, industrial experience for something completely different.

In opener Lullabye, we go full leftfield P-Funk meets Motorik undertones. An incessant beat is laid from the start and doesn't cease for over 10 minutes, while spoken vocals call closer to the Krautrock realms of Can and hark to Liebezeit's stylised grooving best.

Analog, echo washed, with touches of glam and wrapped in simple effects pedal work, the secrets are passed to Dresden / Berlin inhabitant Dunkeltier aka Sneaker DJ aka Thomas Smorek. His darker moniker, appearing on obscure edits for Macadam Mambo and the much-missed Bahnsteig 23, his 'Hey Robot' mix adds bass, percussion, strings and synth to remold Lullabye into a late night, red light, basement denzien. This is followed by an additional, bonus reimagining, creating an all-new time piece, an ear worm of the best kind with Tik Tok Goes The Clock.

The second slab presents in Come Down, a more resembling De Fabriek werk. Edited to fit, the darkness is entered as snapshot vocal quips, oscillations and synthesised mutations are laid over a lazy, relentless ostinato rhythm where cymbals crash on the bar. Inviting, calling, De Fabriek's aptly titled downer is in fact, a joyous journey.

To complete, label affiliates, Khidja take a break from finalising their debut album to unfold their 'Psychebabble Mix', a dozen plus minutes of warped, twisted, cassette machinations that suck the listener further along the trip. Added bass propels their edit suddenly to a new direction, a hook for mind and for the open willed, the body. De Fabriek's "coming down lullabye" arriving on vinyl for the first time, with a twist and shake, calling deeper to acceptance.

Frankfurt's celebrated producer, Philip Lauer returns to Especial, this time teaming up with Berlin based vocalist Dena for a special collaboration, covering Julie Stapleton's soulful House classic with a modern interpretation across a number of versions (vinyl and digital).

After the success of the Hotel Lauer EP on Especial way back in 2016, Lauer has continued his ascendency with albums for Permanent Vacation and Running Back, as well as releasing a string of sure-fire, dancefloor friendly EPs for the likes of Cin Cin, Futureboogie and Skatebard's Digitalo Enterprises.

Born and raised in Bulgaria, before making the move the music mecca of Berlin, Denitza Todorova has a carved a path with her electronic, dance pop stylings across releases for the likes of K7 and Kitsune Music. First appearing on Make It Stay from Lauer's last album, it jumped out as the perfect partnership to bring the raw, soulful and uplifting sounds of the cult V4 Visions label up to date. Founded by Alex Palmer, the label was part of the UK's early 90s club sound, releasing street soul, deep house and more, in Where's Your Love Gone, Palmer and 18-year-old writer/vocalist Julie Stapleton hit on the perfect marriage of Lovers Rock and Street Soul yearning with the haunting sounds of US House. Presented as a new take on the classic, but with utmost respect, the EP starts with the Club Mix, a Larry Heard bassline joins a marimba melody, lifting Dena's vocals of youth's lost love and pain. This is followed by the Demo Mix, a warm, beautiful string laden original take that Lauer and the label felt had to be included.

DJ Slyngshot is welcomed to provide a deep, tech remix. A name to watch via his releases on his YAPPIN label and recent EP for Workshop, his remix is an analogue twist of hypnotic, raw dub techno percussion and counter breaks builds as string and piano join. The EP ends in the Synthapella, as bongos, cowbell and whistle are added to create a drifting Balearic version for late summer nights and dawn that highlight Dena's vocals in a 'sunrise' light.

Drumcode’s beloved A-Sides compilation makes a welcome return after a two-year absence, with a mammoth 25-track feast covering every shade of the techno spectrum split across seven, 12 inch parts. The project was devised in 2012 as a way of showcasing the wealth of strong material Adam Beyer receives each year, which due to Drumcode’s busy release schedule, might not otherwise find a home on the label. Since then, it’s grown to become an essential fixture on the techno release schedule and a marker for where the genre stands in any given year.

For part 1, Layton Giordani & HI-LO take you down the ‘Rabbit Hole’ on the A side, an epic synth storming techno workout that twists and turns as it pulls you in deeper. On the B, Charles D hits with ‘Traction’ a full-frontal powerhouse that expertly builds the tension before unleashing a gigantic drop ready made to do damage on the biggest systems out there.

Following the intergalactic odyssey of their first release, Hi Quality Records are back for round two. Switching to hyperdrive for another blast round the sun with two feel-good, cosmic channelling, disco burners from the mighty More Amour aka Artwork and Jon Solo.

Cruising out across the cosmos ‘Solar Flair’ is a sublime slice of boogie brilliance, with an infectious bassline and keys to match. Turning the heat up to 10 with Jon Solo on the solos, spiritually working those keys as Artwork conjures up his magic at the production controls. If you could drop the top on this spaceship and roll those windows down, this is definitely the groovin’, head bobber you’d have soundtracking your beam across the interplanetary highways.

With that non-existent breeze flowing over your spacesuit, ‘Heatwave’ ramps up proceedings on the B side. A funk-fuelled trip where sweltering Rodgers-esque riffs and slap basslines dance around string stabs and smile-inducing chords, with a signature spellbinding synth solo to top it all off. Break glass in case of emergency, this is your ticket out of any subdued dancefloor.

Brainwaltzera returns to FILM with a brace of archive recordings in the artist's characteristically idiosyncratic style.

The collection opens with FMsquared royal wavetable mellodies A, a mesmerizing beatless composition split across two contrasting movements. Synth-focused, the first explores a more introspective tone whilst the second is decidedly more elevated and playful. Follow up good endgar showcases the artist's enviable talent for crafting rolling, wide-open IDM, marrying crisp drum machine hits with washed out pads and a resonant bassline. WSsquared royal wavetable mellodies B follows the same pattern as mellodies A, split once again into two movements. This time each movement is markedly more distinct: the first, an atmospheric, half-time dirge and the second a more uplifting and esoteric workout, with crystalline FX breaking up the composition. On LANsqape4 short_oneTake Brainwaltzera lets the drums roll out, underpinning more lush synth work with a hint of a break closing in as the piece subsides near its close. Copperfeel, the penultimate offering, is the most reduced work in the collection with a single main melody doing the bulk of the legwork, and buoyed by vocal-sounding synths. FMsquared epiloggy beauvine bonus perc version closes the collection, a pleasing bookend that sees the riff from the opening track's latter movement return - now underpinned with rolling drums.

a A1. FMsquared royal wavetable mellodies A

c A3. WSsquared [royal wavetable mellodies B]

[e] B2. FMsquared [epiloggy] [beauvine bonus perc version]
[short_oneTake]

UK Garage legends Groove Chronicles (Noodles & Dubchild) are back with the 'Soul 'N Mind' 12" featuring their highly sought after Brokenstep edits.
These have been on heavy rotation by the likes of Gilles Peterson, Charlie Dark, Bradley Zero, IG Culture and more. Limited hand-stamped and stickered copies, be quick!

Groove Chronicles have releases dating back to 1997 and are legendary in the world of UKG. Founded by Noodles, who is now working with longtime associate, Dubchild. Noodles has been working in the music game for three decades, from spinning at raves in Paris when he was 17, to serving it up behind the record shop counter, to running his own label, DPR. Responsible for bonafide classics like 'Stone Cold', 'Myron' & 'Poor Man's Break', his work serves as a blueprint for many sounds across the UK bass spectrum.

Leicester legend, Dubchild, stems from a musical background of reggae, hip hop, house, garage & jungle. He's released an array of dubstep & instrumental grime records through various labels since the early noughties, including Caspa's Storming Productions & Heavy Artillery, amongst others.

The duo also combine under the moniker Nu-Agenda with their own hybrid house style, and have had collective support over the years from stations such as 1Xtra, NTS, Kiss, Reprezent & Rinse, DJs such as Annie Mac, Zane Lowe, Mary Anne Hobbs & Ras Kwame, IG culture, Charlie Dark, Gilles Peterson, Bradley Zero, Marcia Carr, Afronaught and publications like iD, Fact, DJ Mag & Crack Magazine, to name a few.

Rootz Lions Band share the love for conscious roots reggae music & are dreadicated to taking the music forward in these times.

Bassplayer Carlos Silva is the founding member of the band. In 2016 he gathered some of the Dutch reggae scene's most experienced musicians, each of them having previously played with top local and international artists - most recently the band have performed with Army, Prince Jamo, Donovan Kingjay, Black Omolo, Iyiapo Tafari, Chezidek and more.

MLK is a singer from Sierra Leone, based in the Netherlands. He performs regularly live with bands and in 2018 released the acclaimed LP 'The World Is In Trouble' with The Breadwinners on the Bionic Dread label.

King Cooper (AKA King Kooper in the Jazz world) from Amsterdam has a long & fascinating career, playing reggae, jazz, funk & soul with the likes of Doe Maar, Sister Sledge, Coopertest & many, many more... proving himself as one the world's top saxophonists.

Hornsman Coyote from Belgrade, Serbia is one of the leading Trombonists in the modern reggae scene and works regularly with top producers & labels internationally, such as, Lee Perry, House Of Riddim, Rolling Lion, Jah Works, Earth Works, Jerry Lions to name but a few. His career started as the front-man for Belgrade Hard-Rock-reggae crossover band, Eyesburn & is a singer songwriter in his own right with a huge catalogue from over 20 years of continued performance & recording.

Plunder was recorded and mixed at Earth Works Studio, Amsterdam

French electronic producer Blutch is back with another supremely trippy EP “Condate” on home label Astropolis Records, featuring a remix from Azo.

This Brittany native has a broad, borderless sound that mixes up electronica, breakbeat, house and IDM with stirring emotional undercurrents that range from nostalgia to melancholy. Last year he served up his superb ‘Terre Promise’ album on the label, and once again, it combined a raft of different sounds on one majestic record. He again shows off his ability to layer captivating melodies over compelling rhythms on this fresh new EP which extends his LP released last year with a more dancefloor suite. "Condate" is the original name of the city of Rennes in Brittany, France, where he lives. A city he loves passionately. The tracks featured in this EP are mainly taken from his live act "Terre Promise". The cover artwork also comes from the audiovisual live act: a motion design work made by Romain Navier, mixing landscapes from Brittany and hallucinated 3D creations, dressing Blutch's stage with a fabulous work around the album's theme. These tracks represent the more festive part of the live show, just as Blutch's love for Rennes is also linked to its festive character.

First single ‘Condate’ is a physical cut driven by a slick breakbeat. Melodic rain falls down the face of the track as booming bass roots you to the dance floor, and once again, the whole track is doused in heavenly synth work and subtle waves of euphoria.

‘Condate’ is a perfectly impactful EP, both physically and emotionally. The EP drops on the 24th March (vinyl/digital).

After almost two years of work, we're glad to invite you to a new journey through the fog of time and enjoy the upcoming reissue of the great Ambient/Folk record from 1984. A well-known to collectors but extremely rare record by Jon Iverson a multi-instrumentalist from Palo Alto and his college friend, mandolinist Tom Walters. They shared a love for singer/songwriter fare and gigged around campus playing covers of Neil Young, CSN, and Loggins/Messina in the late '70s.
"First Collection" was recorded during the Spring of 1984 in a small garage that had been converted to a one-room apartment in the seaside community of Los Osos, California.
With an instrumentation of 12-string guitar, piano, mandolin, analog synthesizers, and sampler, the duo has recorded nine bright, weightless, and diverse compositions where electronic experiments mix with ethnic rhythms, sweeping through inspired folk reminiscent of the work of William Ackerman, John Fahey, Master Wilburn Burchette, and Robbie Basho, to homemade pastoral space folk exuding sophisticated, pale, lunar sonic moods that somehow might remind of the work of Roedelius from the early 80s.
Equipment used for tracking included a rented 1/2" 8-track Otari MX5050 analog tape machine and assorted mics. With only a few thousand albums pressed, First Collection has become a collectable in some circles.
Now, almost forty years later, First Collection has been remixed and remastered from the original 1/2" tapes for this release.

For over 30 years Richard Adams has been quietly documenting his own particular corner of the English countryside both with Hood, the post-rock band he formed with his brother in 1991, and since 2007 with The Declining Winter. Recorded over a five year period and inspired by rustic English alternatives such as Talk Talk and Robert Wyatt, The Declining Winter’s latest work ‘Really Early, Really Late’ is a collection of beautiful songs, immersed in a richer sonic spectrum incorporating strings, horns and lush electronic textures, alongside Adams’ own unique guitar tones and characteristic dubby bass. Though it retains the homespun scratchiness of previous The Declining Winter records, ‘Really Early, Really Late’ is also their most ornate. A remotely collaborative effort, the record is scattered with decorative embellishments from violinist Sarah Kemp (Brave Timbers), cellist Peter Hollo (Tangents), and guitarist Ben Holton (epic45), among many others. Adams’ distorted whisper of a voice has never been more exposed leading to a brutally emotive and intensely personal song-suite, both raw and beautiful in equal measure. The storybook curiosity of Mark Hollis’ work is a particular influence. Like Hollis, this music is imbued with magical realism: beholden to nature, it hints at the mysteries lurking in mundane local landscapes and the more remote Yorkshire moors and valleys. A record to hold close to your heart, ‘Really Early, Really Late’ sees Adams and his collaborators emerge from the shadows with their most complete work to date. Home Assembly are proud to present the album on lush crystal clear, double vinyl, bundled with a CD housed in an oversized vinyl-style sleeve.

When Ella Fitzgerald began recording her series of albums devoted to the work of
America’s greatest song writers, she elevated the art of Jazz singing into a new
dimension while celebrating a unique musical heritage bequeathed to the world of
popular music. Norman Granz encouraged the bold decision to record five albums all
featuring the extraordinary output of songs composed by the brothers George and Ira
Gershwin during the Golden Age of popular song. Gershwin show tunes had long been
a staple diet for bandleaders, pop-vocalists and star-instrumentalists eager to perform
such exhilarating material as Strike Up The Band, Oh, Lady Be Good!, S’Wonderful and
I Got Rhythm. But there was also a gamut of ballads and romantic dance themes
needing to be interpreted with greater sensitivity. Ella was more than capable of
focusing on lyrics and caressing melodies of songs like Someone To Watch Over Me, A
Foggy Day and Embraceable You. They are among the 53 Gershwin classics she
recorded over an eight month period in 1959 and now featured in this superb collection.

blueblue is the latest full-length from multi-instrumentalist and all-around vibe wizard, Sam Gendel. The record, out via Leaving Records, is a concise, tightly wound song suite whose 14 tracks each correspond to a pattern within sashiko, a traditional style of Japanese embroidery. This conceit remains playfully ambiguous — to what extent, if at all, is Kagome (woven bamboo) meant to evoke the pattern of the same name, for example? But there is an intuitive sense, throughout blueblue, that Gendel has, in this instance, narrowed his focus. To say that blueblue feels richly textural might be a little on-the-nose, thematically, but alas…it does. There is an intimacy, a humility, and a strength at play here that typifies the work of a master craftsman. Only an artist could make it sound so effortless.

A Los Angeleno by way of Central CA, Gendel is by now an institution. Across a dizzying slate of solo releases and collaborations, he has amassed a reputation for not only virtuosic musicianship (primarily as a saxophonist, though the songs that would become blueblue were all initially composed on guitar), but also for his mercurial and prolific output — a corpus of work, which, while obviously indebted to jazz and hip hop (and the farther flung, experimental corners of both) is, in a word, unpindownable.

The bulk of blueblue was recorded in isolation in a makeshift studio built in a cabin floating atop a tributary of Oregon’s Columbia River. Having sketched out a set of guitar melodies, Gendel recorded the album in five-or-so weeks, during which time he became well-acquainted with the river’s tidal rise and fall. This organic rhythm, which daily lifted the house to meet the horizon, later setting it down gently upon the riverbed, permeates t

The endlessly prolific and unpredictable Richard Youngs returns to Black Truffle with Modern Sorrow. As any Youngs fan knows, one of the great pleasures of following his career comes from not being able to predict what the next entry in his inexhaustible string of releases will bring: Unaccompanied voice? Country songs? Shakuhachi? Guitar pieces played with his feet? Shredding fuzz bass over the top of hyper-speed distorted drum machine beats? Continuing in the grand Youngs tradition of exploring new techniques, instrumentation and approaches while bringing to all of them his idiosyncratic touch, Modern Sorrow serves up two sides of twistedly elegiac, radically stark takes on contemporary pop production. The side-long title track is built from a piano sample, synthetic bass notes and organ swells, and an iterative blurt that seems to have wandered out of a 90s jungle track. Eventually joined by a shuffling drum machine, the track moves very slowly through a series of chords, each delayed long enough that its arrival comes as a major event. Over the top, Youngs’ heavily pitch-corrected voice is heard. The processing paints his signature wandering melodic improvisations with shades of contemporary R&B; at the same time, it cuts the natural swoops and glides of Youngs’ melodies into rapid microtonal trills, giving his voice a quavering, middle eastern feel. Unfolding languorously over more than 17 minutes, the piece’s final minutes make room for an extended drumless coda, returning to the stark palette of its opening moments. On the second side, the two parts of ‘Benevolence’ push this minimalism ever further, its first half consisting of nothing more than a remarkably slow drum machine hit, bass-heavy chords and pitch-corrected voice, here so heavily processed that it starts to resemble a shawn solo. In its second part, the harmonic foundation drops out from under the piece while two more voices join; at some moments the voices pause, leaving nothing more than isolated, metronomic drum hits. Though Youngs has explored the sound worlds associated with dance music and contemporary pop in previous work, here these elements are radically reduced, foregrounding a meditative bed of silence with a boldness equal to any more academically inclined contemporary composer. Embracing the accessible digital tools of contemporary music production just as at another moment he would pick up a kazoo, like much of Youngs’ work Modern Sorrow uses simple DIY tools to generous ends, producing formally radical music that remains both free from pretension and deeply moving.

LORI finds Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam drawing from the songbook of noted singer-songwriter and multiple Grammy winner Lori McKenna. Recorded at the famed Sam Phillips Studios (Memphis, TN) with producer Matt Ross-Spang, Beam takes on four of his favorite McKenna tracks with help from Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart, known collectively for their work in the indie-art-pop band Finom (formerly known as Ohmme.) Beam came to McKenna’s music a few years ago on the suggestion of a friend. As the lock down dragged on, Beam found himself, like so many, turning to music for comfort. McKenna’s catalog of work was never far from reach. Taken by her heart-on-your-sleeve confessional style storytelling, Beam admits it’s a trait that draws him to McKenna and something not often found in his own songwriting. As a well-known interpreter of other artists’ songs, when the time came for him to shake off the pandemic cobwebs and record, McKenna’s songs were as fresh and familiar to Beam as his own. Traveling to Memphis in March of 2021, Beam invited Cunningham and Stewart to join him in the studio. During the three days of recording, Ross-Spang was a logical choice to take the helm as he had handled Iron & Wine’s 2019 collaboration with Calexico, the twice Grammy nominated Years to Burn, and had also worked on two of McKenna’s own records. Having enjoyed successful solo careers outside of Finom, Cunningham and Stewart bring their own touches to LORI and helped Beam find even further depths to McKenna’s songwriting. Together the trio sonically re-interpreted her plaintive odes into a tapestry of sounds effortlessly blending their signature singing styles and breathing fresh life into the lyrics

Australian vocalist-guitarist Daevid Allen was a part of the highly experimental Canterbury scene, alongside the likes of drummers Robert Wyatt and Pip Pyle, before he relocated to Paris in the late ‘60s, formed Gong and made music that had a rare blend of on the fly creativity and off the wall humour. However, Banana Moon was a solo effort by Allen that saw him reunite with the aforementioned British kindred spirits as well as bassist Archie Legget and vocalist Maggie Bell, among others. The nine songs on the record run from interludes of just under a minute to epic suites that exceed ten, making it clear that Allen, as his work with Gong suggested, gave full vent to his imagination whether he was writing songs with a quasi-Beatles pop appeal or engaging in unrestrained sonic flights of fancy. With lyrical curveballs being thrown on every track, none more so than ‘Fred The Fish And The Chip On His Shoulder’, the music has a wry charm to match the performance skills of the band. This re-mastered version of Banana Moon brings Allen’s uncommon musical vision back in to view and serves as a reminder of the feverish and fearless energy that spurred on an artist whose work has lost none of its seductive shock value.

Gargantuan volcanoes erupting with primal force, fountains of molten lava bursting sky high and massive boulders hurtling capriciously through the air. These potent and violently alluring images in the documentary series The Living Planet captivated Raoul Björkenheim's imagination in 1986. The search for a band name had come to an end. -”I was mesmerised. The name Krakatau sounded like a drum fill to me”. After studying at the Helsinki Conservatory for a year and the Berklee College of Music in Boston for three, Björkenheim relocated to Finland where he played in bands with Jone Takamäki, Antti Hytti and Tom Nekljudow, and later went on to work with composer and drummer Edward “Eetu” Vesala (1945-1999). His always original and highly demanding Sound & Fury workshops were a pivotal hotbed in the local improvised music scene, but after four years of Vesala's strict leadership Björkenheim felt a need to leave Sound & Fury behind and direct all of his attention towards Krakatau. The lineup on the first album “Ritual” consisted of reed virtuosos Jorma Tapio and Tapani Rinne, the bassist Sampo Lassila and two drummers, Michel Lambert and Heikki “Lefty” Lehto. “Krakatau’s debut album was very challenging to make, as I felt that it might be my one and only chance to record my own music, so I wanted it to be as intense and effective as possible”, says Björkenheim, “I was lucky enough to work with an incredibly talented cast of musicians. I can still listen to the album and feel satisfied that it really works. The first guitar solo illustrates what was to become my modus operandi: to try and play the electric guitar in unexpected ways.” Svart Records will release an expanded double LP version of Krakatau’s Ritual. Limited to 500 copies and due out on March 24th, the album contains an album’s worth of previously unheard material recorded in 1987 in Studio Helsinki and at the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation studio.

Both broadening and defying the sounds of their first two 7” releases, Delivery continue their claim for the title of hardest and fastest working band in town on their debut full length LP ‘Forever Giving Handshakes’. Collecting songs written over the Melbourne five-piece’s two year lifespan and following on from the band’s bedroom project origins of ‘Yes We Do’ and the expanded one-two punch of ‘Personal Effects/The Topic’, ‘Forever Giving Handshakes’ captures Delivery at full force for the first time, leaning into the fully-realised live sound they’ve been quite actively working on since their first show in March 2021. Here the band collate a 12-track garage-punk opus, their five distinct voices simultaneously pulling songs in different directions while an undeniable chemistry reveals a combined hive mind ascending on a clear group mission… to rock. If you didn’t have the Delivery phenomenon yet, you’re about to. Marking the beginning of a victory lap for Delivery, the album rounds out a sprint of unrelenting live shows, impressive support slots and two stellar 7”s, all within a tidy 18 months. ‘Forever Giving Handshakes’ is a statement from Delivery and one of the strongest Australian punk debut albums of the past decade.

Beyond ecstatic to finally offer a glimpse into the world of voertuig. Working on music for several years, purely for themselves in sheds and studios tucked away in the outskirts of the hague, Tonal Oceans presents an album by the four piece act containing music embodying the true spirit of the city.

W&P by Offer van Kesteren, Gianni Tjon Tam Pau, Tijmen van Wageningen, Laurens ten Berge.

Artwork by Soft Turbo
Drawing by Ilan Havinga

Over the past 20 years, The New Pornographers have proven themselves one of the most excellent bands in indie rock. The group's ninth album and first for Merge establishes them alongside modern luminaries like Yo La Tengo and Superchunk when it comes to their ability to evolve while still retaining what made them so special in the first place. A dazzling and intriguing collection of songs, "Continue as a Guest" finds bandleader A.C. Newman and his compatriots Neko Case, Kathryn Calder, John Collins, Todd Fancey, and Joe Seiders exploring fresh territory and shattering the barriers of their collective comfort zone. Newman began work on "Continue as a Guest" after the band had finished touring behind 2019's "In the Morse Code of Brake Lights". Themes of isolation and collapse bleed into this album, as Newman tackles the ambivalence of day-to-day life during the COVID-19 pandemic. But Newman says that the album's title track also addresses the concerns that come with being in a band for so long. "The idea of continuing as a guest felt apropos to the times," he explains. "Feeling out of place in culture, in society, being in a band that has been around for so long_not feeling like a part of any zeitgeist, but happy to be separate and living your simple life, your long fade-out. Living in a secluded place in an isolated time, it felt like a positive form of acceptance: find your own little nowhere, find some space to fall apart, continue as a guest." Newman discovered new vocal approaches within his own talent. There are new and rich tones to Newman's voice throughout Continue as a Guest, from his dusky lower register over "Angelcover" to his slippery slide over the glimmering synths of "Firework in the Falling Snow," to bold tones he embraces on the soaring "Bottle Episodes." Another sonic change comes courtesy of saxophonist Zach Djanikian, whose tenor and bass luxuriate all over Continue as a Guest's alluring chassis, especially on the menacing build of "Pontius Pilate's Home Movies." Along with Newman's usual collaborators, several songwriters contribute. The bursting opener and first single "Really Really Light" is a co-write with Dan Bejar (Destroyer, the New Pornographers). Then there's "Firework in the Falling Snow," a collaboration with Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz and Sad13. Even as Newman embraces a collaborative spirit more than ever, his new album is a testament to his ability to discover new artistic sides of himself. "Continue as a Guest" sounds like a thrilling path forward for The New Pornographers, with songs that generate a contagious feeling of excitement for the future as well.

Ltd. Green & Blue Vinyl

Over the past 20 years, The New Pornographers have proven themselves one of the most excellent bands in indie rock. The group's ninth album and first for Merge establishes them alongside modern luminaries like Yo La Tengo and Superchunk when it comes to their ability to evolve while still retaining what made them so special in the first place. A dazzling and intriguing collection of songs, "Continue as a Guest" finds bandleader A.C. Newman and his compatriots Neko Case, Kathryn Calder, John Collins, Todd Fancey, and Joe Seiders exploring fresh territory and shattering the barriers of their collective comfort zone. Newman began work on "Continue as a Guest" after the band had finished touring behind 2019's "In the Morse Code of Brake Lights". Themes of isolation and collapse bleed into this album, as Newman tackles the ambivalence of day-to-day life during the COVID-19 pandemic. But Newman says that the album's title track also addresses the concerns that come with being in a band for so long. "The idea of continuing as a guest felt apropos to the times," he explains. "Feeling out of place in culture, in society, being in a band that has been around for so long_not feeling like a part of any zeitgeist, but happy to be separate and living your simple life, your long fade-out. Living in a secluded place in an isolated time, it felt like a positive form of acceptance: find your own little nowhere, find some space to fall apart, continue as a guest." Newman discovered new vocal approaches within his own talent. There are new and rich tones to Newman's voice throughout Continue as a Guest, from his dusky lower register over "Angelcover" to his slippery slide over the glimmering synths of "Firework in the Falling Snow," to bold tones he embraces on the soaring "Bottle Episodes." Another sonic change comes courtesy of saxophonist Zach Djanikian, whose tenor and bass luxuriate all over Continue as a Guest's alluring chassis, especially on the menacing build of "Pontius Pilate's Home Movies." Along with Newman's usual collaborators, several songwriters contribute. The bursting opener and first single "Really Really Light" is a co-write with Dan Bejar (Destroyer, the New Pornographers). Then there's "Firework in the Falling Snow," a collaboration with Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz and Sad13. Even as Newman embraces a collaborative spirit more than ever, his new album is a testament to his ability to discover new artistic sides of himself. "Continue as a Guest" sounds like a thrilling path forward for The New Pornographers, with songs that generate a contagious feeling of excitement for the future as well.

After two decades of releasing music on 12" vinyl under multiple pseudonyms the duo from Even Drones have completed their first LP.
The 20 track double vinyl carries the classic "album era" approach of the 60s and 70s into a modern contemporary work.

Each of the 4 sides of "Ethics" feels like the chapter of a story balanced into a synthesis of counterpoints from piece to piece. Twisted arrangements are stringed together with dance-able tracks and are woven into finespun transmutations of sounds. Sometimes peaceful and regulated, sometimes abstract and complemented with tamed feedback, noises, crackling and delightful patterns.

Like a continuous thread through all titles of the album, the multi instrumentalists somehow managed to harmonize a twisted array of methods and structures into a coherent listening experience.
This full feature-length metamorphosis with no boundaries of styles or genres is released just in time for the 10th anniversary of the band on Freund der Familie.

"Lightning Dreamers" is the new work by composer, trumpeter, post-rock and avant-jazz legend Rob Mazurek and a follow-up to the widely-acclaimed 2020 release "Dimensional Stardust".

• Bob Thiele is one of the great producers. For his work with John Coltrane alone, where he gave free reign to the saxophone great's wildest musical visions including “A Love Supreme”, ignoring the usual cost consciousness of a major label, he deserves to be lauded. In addition to this, his eight years at Impulse! saw him recording seminal works by scores of musicians including late-blooming masterpieces by Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges, and a whole wave of 'new thing' jazzers such as Archie Shepp and Pharoah Sanders. He didn't stop there and when he launched his own label, Flying Dutchman in 1969, he continued to innovate and record music that reflected its times, but that also resonates down through the ages. It is to Flying Dutchman that we are paying tribute on this compilation.

• Gil Scott-Heron's recordings for the label ran to three records, which sold well but not spectacularly at the time. They have since taken on a resonance that makes the album "Pieces Of A Man" in particular one of the most important recordings of the last century, and its opening track 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised' an anthem. Pianist Lonnie Liston Smith had been on Thiele's final important Impulse! Recording, Pharoah Sanders’ "Karma", and continued to appear on Flying Dutchman, first as a sideman and then as a leader. His 1975 album "Expansions" was the perfect encapsulation of his 'cosmic jazz' and the title track is a moment of near perfection which has become one of the foundation pieces of modern dance music.

• Flying Dutchman's other great discoveries are here. Vocalist Leon Thomas found a new route for jazz vocals in the early 70s, which made him a star and earned him a place in Santana. Gato Barbieri became one of the major saxophone stars of the era, after Thiele enabled him to meld his free jazz leanings to the rhythms of South America. The label also made important recordings with Tom Scott (featured on Thiele's own 'Head Start'), Ornette Coleman and Oliver Nelson, whilst interesting records appeared by Esther Marrow, Harold Alexander and many more.

• This is Flying Dutchman is a considered tribute to the label, and features in depth and fully illustrated sleeve notes. In the year when Bob Thiele's son is gearing up to release the first new music on the label since 1976, it is an apt and timely reminder of the power of the music.

SP-1200 beats made using postal service. Fredfades and Sraw collaborate through post, exchanging dusty beats for an experimental Hip Hop record. The process of sending floppy discs back and forth, where each producer added element over element on their own SP-1200, has been on-going for almost 10 years, slowly building a collaborative body of work.
The result is Double Density, an LP that oozes with the character of that infamous instrument which laid much of the foundation for the earliest Hip Hop artists and still manages to evoke those raw and visceral sounds of that era. Reinforcing those sounds are the voices of Planet Asia, Pink Siifu and Blue November, who deliver lyrics from US coasts to Scandanavia’s fjords.
The duos collaborative effort swims in a sea of eclectic influences where Jazz, Soul and Hip-Hop thrive in the construct of this unique instrument. The drum machine pops, crackles and hisses on a bed of big bass lines through 12 tracks that go from short instrumentals to fully arranged songs.
Taking Hip-Hop back to its origins, everything is stripped bare to its essentials and for every vocal track, there’s its antithesis in the form of an instrumental break. It’s a record that plays with the archetypes of Hip Hop and Rap as something that we’ve lost over the years that begs for revocation. Double Density sounds exotic in the world of today’s gleaming beats.

Concerto Pour Détraqués" was ranked 52nd best French rock album by Rolling Stones magazine in 2010.

Eleven tracks like so many vitriolic pictures of a sick society: rape, extreme right-wing, psychiatric confinement, security paranoia, alcoholism and all the other crap that the future seems to hold. Loran and François express more than ever their rage and their refusal of the adult world in a recital with three chords: more aggressive guitars, more incisive lyrics and voices while an armada of chorus members and a saxophone come to heckle or underline this darkness.

"Concerto Pour Détraqués" is the band's reference album, with a string of hymns to insubordination and freedom: Petit Agité, Vivre Libre ou Mourir, Les Rebelles, Porcherie, Hélène et le Sang...

The band's name alone evokes the epic of alternative rock: rebellious and committed.

Born by mistake on a February evening in 1983, Bérurier Noir soon found itself the driving force behind a vast "Youth Movement", determined to take control of its life in the face of a society that was ultra conservative at the time. Times have hardly changed.

From the first self-produced records distributed by hand to the creation of self-managed labels, from concerts in squats and wild appearances in demonstrations, on the street or in the metro to endless tours, from interviews given to fanzines and free radio stations to unclassifiable appearances in the mainstream media, Bérurier Noir has waged the most exciting war of independence in the history of French rock, with only a microphone, a guitar, a drum machine, a few red noses and patched-up theatre masks.

The last finger of honour of this turbulent and irrecoverable raia, François, Loran and their "Troupeau d'Rock" commit hara-kiri, at the peak of their glory, during three last concerts in the heart of Paris in November 1989.

Forty years after its birth, Bérurier Noir's work still resonates, whether in demonstrations or free parties, nourishing the hopes of those who wish to overthrow this world to build a truly libertarian, united and fraternal society.

The label Archives de la Zone Mondiale reminds those who missed this unprecedented adventure, 8 discographic parts of the group Bérurier Noir in the form of reissues on particularly original colour vinyls (crown finish), in a limited series and distributed throughout the year.

Born in Milan to a Cameroonese father and a Polish/Lithuanian mother, Nathan Dawidowicz moved at the age of 6 to Jerusalem. He was spending his childhood in a Jewish ultra-orthodox environment playing the piano and dreaming of being a Fashion designer and musician. After waking up from the reality he was raised in, he moved to Venice and started to explore the "outside world" of the mental barriers of religion. Music and fashion were his medicine, and he quickly became addicted to musical textures and vinyl. His love for music brought him quickly to Berlin, where he currently lives and loves.

Sanctuary Of Ideas is a very personal and optimistic journey by Nathan Dawidowicz. His first solo album is a spiritual path, as cosmic and adventurous as Nathan`s trajectory, with beautiful twists and psychedelic twirls into Dawidowicz personal rabbit hole. A record full of memories and positive affirmations, filled with Jazzy yet psychedelic Cosmic and Krautrock elements. A fusion of inspiration - and a perfect reflection of Dawidowicz heritage.

Idea`s Eve is a stargate to our ancestral power. The source of our inspiration is connected to our past - to the spirits of our ancient memories. Dawidowicz leaves a lot of space to breathe in this magical opener. Enchanting melodies and bubbling sounds surround the listener while his voice keeps repeating a mantra of an ancient love spell. A track where you feel your DNA spiraling up the ladder of evolution. Yet so natural and healing.

Full Moon Dance is the spiritual continuation of the first track. A swirl of magical melodies, yet jazzy but truly cosmic walking up the ladder to another dimension, where warm moon rays and fluffy clouds surround love. The synth lines represent the playful and smooth moon rays reflected on a rhythmical heart-beating ground where tears can be joyfully spent to honor the emotions we usually oppress.

To close the EP, Nathan Dawidowicz worked a half a year to finalize the last track in full detail. 23 Minutes and 18 Seconds long is the Capricorn Rising Over Jerusalemite Temple. This story is where the listener is brought to a higher level of consciousness. Against the rules of our consumerist world, Nathan Dawidowicz focuses on a dramaturgy full of patience for our own lifetime. Acidic lines come and go, powerful synth solos trigger unknown brain parts, and an epic melody accompanies the listener and lets dark emotions melt in a brass-filled part where a voice tells us that time is on our side. The song ends with an epic twist and promises a new start, where our most lovely memories stay in a vortex of light. Beam me up Nathan.

Als "Mr. Isaacs" 1977 erstmals als LP-Vinyl erschien, war der Grundstein für die internationale Karriere zum Superstar des Reggae gelegt. Unter der Federführung von Produzent Ossie Hibbert und seinen Musikerkollegen von den Revolutionaries wurde der Interpret Gregory Isaacs zum Markenzeichen im Albumformat! - Mit einigen seiner größten Songs wie "Set The Captives Free", "Slave Master" (im Kultfilm "Rockers" prominent vertreten), "Storm" (der Riddim kommt in über 75 Versionen zum Einsatz), "Smile", "Get Ready" (Reggae-Cover des Rare Earth Hits), kommt der Longplayer dieser Tage als Kevin Metcalfe Remaster als 9-Track Originalalbum in einer Fan-Edition mit Sleeve Notes und bedruckter Innenhülle inklusive großformatiger Fotos.

Among the most important full-length album works from one of reggae’s greatest singers, "Mr. Isaacs" shows the great Gregory Isaacs in the prime of his career in 1976/1977. Better known for his love songs, Isaacs was equally adept at cultural themes. The tracks "Set The Captives Free" and "Slave Master" are among the most popular in his catalogue, the latter immortalized on film in the movie 'Rockers'. The track "Storm" became an early favourite in the dancehall, its rhythm track (aka the Storm riddim) is re-imagined no fewer than 75 times over the last 40 years. Gregory Isaacs love of Rocksteady shines in his cover of the Silvertones’ "Smile", and his soulful side comes through on a cover of The Temptations’ "Get Ready". The breadth of material on "Mr. Isaacs" is the hallmark of a reggae classic!

Further facts and collector's info:
- The album was one of the first titles ever distributed by VP Records, "Mr. Isaacs" reissue coincides with the label’s 40th anniversary celebrations.
- This pressing features the earliest known cover art and producer Ossie Hibbert’s original Earthquake labels, as found on the pre-release edition.
- "Mr. Isaacs (Remastered)" comes with a printed inner sleeve featuring extended liner notes by Harry Hawke plus a great artist photo on the other side

The sound of the classic period of Psychic TV - featuring Peter Christopherson and Geff Rushton (John Balance) of COIL, this full show is interspersed with recordings of the Pagan marriage between Genesis and Paula P-Orridge conducted by Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson Allsherjargodi. Psychic TV at their most esoteric, their most ritual, and often most extreme, a perfect accompaniment to the legendary 'Dreams Less Sweet' album of the same year. "Thee First Will To And Testament Ov Psychic TV. All our works remain interconnected, interfaced, and intentional. Thee Process is thee Product". These recordings of a live disconcert by Psychic TV in Reykjavik, Iceland that took place November 1983 organised by HÖH and GRAMM Records, to whom, eternal and infernal thanks all ways.

There's no denying the power of the drum. It's primal, it cuts across borders and most importantly, it makes you want to move. Ghetto Kumbé don't just understand that_they celebrate it, and it's why the tambor was at the heart of the Bogotá-based trio's 2020 self-titled debut album. Rooted in mysticism and the Afro-Caribbean rhythms they'd grown up with all their lives, the critically acclaimed LP thrillingly updated the traditional Latin template, folding in elements of modern hip-hop, house and bass music while also delivering a transportive Afro-futurist vision. On Clubbing Remixes, that vision has been further amplified, as Ghetto Kumbé_who were already one of Colombia's most prominent alternative acts_have now gone fully global; enlisting an all-star roster of artists from four different continents, they've put together a fresh version of their debut album that's been specifically geared to the world's diverse slate of dancefloors. As the title implies, the new LP is meant for the club, which is why Ghetto Kumbé have turned to Latin music heavyweights like Trooko_a multiple Grammy winner whose resume includes work with Lin-Manuel Miranda and Residente_and Monte (a.k.a. Bomba Estéreo founder Simón Mejía), along with top-shelf DJs like Nickodemus and Uproot Andy, two NYC artists who've spent decades championing Afro-Latin rhythms. True to the LP's global spirit, the record also includes reworks from batida maestro DJ Firmeza, fellow Afro-Portuguese outfit Studio Bros and Parisian house groovers Les Enfants Sauvages, plus genre-blurring remixes from sonically adventurous Colombians Montoya (himself another ZZK artist) and Cero39. Even the artwork on Clubbing Remixes is a remix, as Ghetto Kumbé have tapped Uganda's Denzel Muhumuza to transform the cover of their debut album into a new, explicitly Afro-futuristic illustration. Depicting a strong Black face and glowing neon fauna beneath a sparkling moonlit sky, the fantastical image speaks to both the ritual magic and Afro-indebted heritage of Ghetto Kumbé's music, and thanks to Clubbing Remixes, the group's passionate, drum-fueled sounds will soon be blasting out of sound systems around the globe.

Extra Muros is an annual itinerant artistic residency initiated in 2017. The third edition was co-organised during the winter 2021-2022 by the FLEE art collective in collaboration with the Music Department of the Museum of Ethnography, Geneva (MEG). Five artists participated in this residency including: Prins Emanuel, Nabihah Iqbal, Jaakko Eino Kalevi, Cosmic Neman, and Maria Spivak.The residency was held at the MEG in two phases. The first part of the residency and encounter represented an opportunity for the artists to explore the museum’s archives, collections, and exhibition spaces. The second phase was dedicated to the composition and production of original musical content in an ephemeral studio set up in the auditorium of the Genevan institution.

In this context, the pieces presented in this album were all conceived during this residency. Having never worked together, the five artists and musicians, each with their own distinct musical path, discovered a variety of sound resources at the Museum. These included eleven traditional instruments from the African continent, Asia and Oceania from the MEG collections, as well as synthetisers, audio effects units, amplifiers and several other vintage emblematic analog electronic devices from the collection of the Swiss Museum and Center for Electronic Music Instruments (SMEM) in Fribourg. In addition, recordings of traditional music from the five continents belonging to the museum’s International Archive of Folk Music (IAFM) were also made available to the artists.

In pairs, the residency’s participants were able to combine their respective creative worlds with the museum’s historical instruments as well as sound archives. This compilation is the result of this rich dialogue.

Magna Pia, a.k.a seasoned producer, DJ, and composer Hüseyin Evirgen, announces his second full-length album, ‘QUT’, arriving on Inland’s Counterchange label in March on double vinyl.

After 2 steamrolling EPs of club tracks on the label - now entering its tenth year of action - Magna Pia presents his most complete and advanced body of work to date, weaving a dense narrative of drone, figurative synthesis, bass-heavy electronica, and abstract techno.

Over eight tracks each referencing his rich cultural and musical background, we are treated to a unique overview of a producer at the crest of his art. The word ‘Qut’ is an ancient positive affirmation, in one short word encompassing all that is scared, pure and good. The Old Turkic term meaning not only ‘good fortune’ and ‘joy’, but in shamanic circles, the ‘wonder of the heavens’, permeates the roots of Evirgen’s multi-heritage history.

That Evirgen expresses his interpretation of this central theme through the marriage of bewitching melodies with atonal, experimental and rumbling electronics is a conscious comment on the distortions and mutations of our Modern Era. We now exist in the digital age of the Technosphere for better or worse, and must seek beauty where-ever possible.

The opening ‘Prologue’ invites the listener into a futuristic yet organic sound world, where lush stereo processing goes hand in hand with rumbling bass and subtly detuned drone languages. From the echoes of traditional Uyghur folk music, translated via synthesizers into a glistening slow-diving opus (‘Qizil’), to churning dub-techno adorned with a symphony of evolving sine-waves (‘Venus M’), Evirgen then deploys ‘X’ - a haunting experimental piece composed predominantly with his voice and electronic processing.

The interweaving synth lines of ‘Gudanna’ pierce the fog with a radiant and transcendent club-techno bounce before the ode to the ancient Bronze Age goddess ‘Astarte’ unfolds its snare-driven broken-beat formations. The title track ‘Qut’ embodies by far the heaviest club track of the album, in a deadly, stripped-back moment of future-techno hypnotism. Dancing flames of purple-tongued synthesis are held (just) in line by a wonderfully tough throb of drums.

With his ‘Epilogue’, Magna Pia allows the spectral ideas and concepts laid out across the LP to connect and travel full circle, confirming our suspicions that this could be one of the most coherent and exciting works to emerge in the brave new field of introspective, and sensitive techno-electronic language.

marbled vinyl in 3 different colours

Four years on from the release of Astral Projection, ASC's last LP for Horo, a re-listen reveals a body of work that still sounds prescient and current, mapping out a simmering landscape that stood proudly on it's own in the crowded world of electronica.

Hiding in Plain Sight takes the musical baton left by Astral Projection and expands the environment. The two opening tracks (No Mask, A Whisper In Your Ghost) are sumptuous palette cleansers that paint the walls with bliss. As we continue on, mesmerising waves of melancholy wash over Grey Area themed constructions, sometimes jagged (No Mask, Dying Star, Centrifuge, Galaxies), other times propulsive (Dreadnought, Surface Encounters). Pensive, frozen constructions that come off as soundtracks to movies only James has seen pepper the LP (Overscan, Dying Star, Mirrored Sequence) while the centrepiece of the LP soars unbound over stuttered, sculpted breaks (Orbiting Neptune).

ASC's great gift is his ability to create worlds of music that are densely layered and complex and yet project a sense of perfect effortlessness while they assimilate into your psyche.

Hiding In Plain Sight is not so much a journey, as a destination. A rich, full bodied alien planet intricately designed to envelop your senses.

Critically-acclaimed, criminally-overachieving Glasgow-based singer and guitarist Alasdair Roberts is known as a superlative original songwriter as well as an interpreter of traditional songs from Scotland and beyond. For the past twenty years, his recordings have alternated between these two complimentary poles, with "pop" records such as The Amber Gatherers and A Wonder Working Stone nestling in his expansive back catalogue alongside "folk" albums such as No Earthly Man and What News (with Amble Skuse and David McGuinness). Additionally, all of these records possess a further dimension, derived from their collation of songs together into one album-length statement. This is part of Alasdair"s great achievement in his career - for him, this thing of music and song hasn"t come the eons it"s travelled to simply entertain. These impulses fully present and well honed, Alasdair returns to his roots with Grief in the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall, his fifth full-length collection of traditional song. Recorded live in the studio, it is an entirely solo collection of twelve traditional ballads and songs sparsely arranged for acoustic guitar, piano and voice. The majority of the songs originate in Alasdair"s homeland of Scotland, with a couple from Ireland and one from Prince Edward Island on Canada"s eastern seaboard too. The record takes its title from a line in the final verse of one of its songs, "The Baron o" Brackley" - a ballad of feuding clans and matrimonial betrayal from the north-east of Scotland. Grief in the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall: it"s a title which goes some way towards encapsulating many of the record"s themes. Collectively the songs treat of various conflicts and tensions - those of gender; of class, status and position; and of geography and tribal belonging - and the roles and responsibilities expected at the various intersections of these constructs. That we should never forget! As with many of Alasdair"s recordings, Grief in the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall contains ballads aplenty: tragic ("Bob Norris"), supernatural ("The Holland Handkerchief") and dramatic ("Eppie Morrie"). There are love songs ("The Lichtbob"s Lassie") and anti-love songs ("Kilbogie"). There are rare, seldom-heard pieces ("Young Airly") and much more well-known ones ("Mary Mild," a version of "The Queen"s Four Maries"). Woven through all of this - a thread of levity, perhaps - is a triptych of zoological allegories - a panegyric to a mystical steed ("The Wonderful Grey Horse"), a lament for a lost cow ("Drimindown") and a paean to a regal waterbird ("The Bonny Moorhen"), which serves to highlight the intersection of the mythic, the eternal and the mundane at which we all find ourselves in every day of our life on Earth. Grief In the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall was masterfully recorded by Sam Smith at Green Door Studios, Glasgow over an economical two days, and mixed in one day. Its brevity on all levels is an aspect of its expression. Alasdair"s renowned acoustic fingerstyle guitar is understated yet questing, ever in service to the needs of the song, underpinning his soulful tenor voice. Three songs eschew his habitual acoustic guitar in favour of simple piano arrangements. The spare setting and Alasdair"s deeply committed performance gently reminds of the meanings and melodies of these old songs, chosen instinctively and with care, for all to hear and sing in 2023, and the world beyond that is ever coming.

Up next on Pleasure Club we have some re-imaginings of Johnny Hunter’s lockdown summer jam U.K.AIM. For this we enlisted the skills of nu UK garage don ZeroFG, who turned in not one but two of his trademark low end workouts. We are also honoured to welcome one of the founding fathers of UK tech house, Mr Len Lewis, to the label who delivers a heads down late night take on the original.

The spirit of U.K.AIM lives on…