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Light in the Attic’s Pacific Breeze series has supplied the world’s growing legions of Japanese music fans with an expertly curated selection of the most sought-after City Pop recordings—the mesmerizing and nebulous genre of Japanese bubble-era music of the ‘70s-’80s that encompasses AOR, R&B, jazz fusion, funk, boogie and disco. These familiar sounds are spun through the unique lens of optimistic, cosmopolitan fantasy colored by Japan’s affluence at the time. Much of the music has previously been nearly impossible to acquire outside of Japan and continues to captivate listeners with its unique blend of groove-laden escapism, even birthing wholly new genres such as Vaporwave.

Pacific Breeze 3: Japanese City Pop, AOR & Boogie 1975-1987 marks the latest chapter in the famed series and features holy grails plus under-the-radar rarities. The collection bursts at the seams to reveal some of the greatest Japanese tracks ever laid to tape, pushing towards the edge of City Pop to reveal glimmers of the next waves of styles to spring forth from the country’s creative minds. The appearance of Pizzicato Five hint at the emergence of Shibuya-kei while the influence of hip hop and electro as an emerging global trend are also evident here through the prevalence of heavier programmed drum beats on tracks such as “Heartbeat” by Miho Fujiwara.

This volume of Pacific Breeze, like its predecessors, is a female-forward offering with many tracks being voiced by women who would become household names in Japan as actresses and pop idols. Their songs here subvert the norm and brim with an innovative spirit that shatters gender roles in favor of sonic transcendence. Techno-pop classics from Susan, Miharu Koshi and Chiemi Manabe sit alongside sublime funk from Atsuko Nina and Naomi Akimoto while Teresa Noda slides into the mix with a sultry reggae jam. The genre span is stretched wider with hypnotic jazz fusion by Parachute and Hiroyuki Namba, a synthesizer fantasy from Osamu Shoji, and magnetic pop by Makoto Matsushita and Chu Kosaka.

Although not front and center, the visionary members of Yellow Magic Orchestra are still very present on Pacific Breeze 3, with Haruomi Hosono, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Yukihiro Takahashi taking up producer and musician roles on many of these tracks. Pacific Breeze 3 serves up a captivating musical journey that adds an essential chapter to the iconic compilation series.

Tracklist:

Naomi Akimoto - Bewitched (Are You Leaving Soon), Atsuko Nina - Tonkachi, Miho Fujiwara - Heartbeat, Miharu Koshi - Scandal Night, Chu Kosaka - Shirakechimauze, Teresa Noda - Tropical Love, Makoto Matsushita - Business Man Pt. 1, Susan - Ah! Soka, Yukako Hayase - Suiyoubi Madeni Shinitaino, Parachute - Kowloon Daily, Hiroyuki Namba - Tropical Exposition (Who Done It? Version), Pizzicato Five - Boy Meets Girl, Mari Iijima - Love Sick, 1986 Omega Tribe - Cosmic Love, Osamu Shoji - Pub Casablanca, Chiemi Manabe - Untotooku

The Earth is burning, covering all environments in ashes. Smoke comes to us from computers-from social networks accelerating the spread of burnt affects, damaging our ability to feel and respond to what the planet strives to express. We need to cool down. Thomas Köner's music can help change the pace of our perceptions: 1) In DAIKAN (2002) - a Japanese term meaning "the coldest" or "the coldest part of the year"-the ear stretches until touching the depth of time that persists in the ice; a sonic drama offers the slowness thanks to which the skin of perceptions can reconstitute themselves; icequakes awaken listeners to the frozen life without scaring them. 2) Banlieue du Vide, considered by many to be Thomas Köner's most iconic audiovisual work and best kept secret, has not been released previously. It is in the collection of a couple of art museums, e.g. the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and has been awarded the Golden Nica at Prix Ars Electronica in 2004, in the category Digital Musics. Banlieue du Vide is the result of months of time-lapse observations of empty streets in the Finnish Arctic Circle, shown in glacially slow slow-motion. Phase cancellation, on which all noise cancelling technology is based, here affects the perception of time, the sense of the flow of time extinguishing itself. At this stage the void is not yet empty, traces of past noise fill the listeners mind with their haunting presence. A remastered stereo version of the soundtrack is released as a special premiere as Bonus Track of the DAIKAN album. Listening to this album, an excess of heat turns into an empowering coldness-like the transient feeling of our terrestrial embodiment in the midst of entropy.

Throughout her much-lauded career as a DJ and producer, Ciel has worked hard to build community through events and DJ workshops in her home city of Toronto and on a larger scale with podcasts and projects meant to elevate women artists. The title of her latest EP, “All We Have Is Each Other,” reflects her history of mutual support, and in these times when so many of our connections seem broken by the pandemic, it offers a reminder that music still has the power to unite us.

Ciel has never been an artist who lets genres define or constrain her, so it seems only fitting that this release lands on Mister Saturday Night Records, a New York City label with a similar ethos. It’s in this refusal to restrict her sound to narrow definitions that something magical happens.

This 5-track EP spanning dance floor fillers and home listening pieces builds on a frame of tough footwork-paced kick drums, the skip and swing of 2-step garage, broken house, and slow, meditative beats. Woven throughout are hopeful melodies, dappled with sunlight tones and layered with organic percussion. The connective tissue is a deep feeling of joy and hopefulness in the power of music and collective humanity.

When the world goes up in flames, all we have is each other. Music connects us with like-minded communities that both shelter and empower us. With this emotive collection of diverse songs, Ciel reaches out a hand and invites us to be a part of something beautiful and authentic.

The next release on Phase Group is a truly singular and original album from Rotterdam-based producer Ayaz.

With ‘Unpinned’ Ayaz presents a window into a uniquely crafted and highly personal sonic environment, where intercepted radio broadcasts tune in and out of focus, modulating drones echo through cavernous space and the sound of experimental synth explorations are layered over heady dub-laden beat work, deep bass lines and expertly programmed traditional sampled artefacts from the music of his native Azerbaijan.

This is an uncanny and evocative sound universe both cinematic and driving, music that would work equally scoring science fiction cinema as in the most avant-garde club environments. Mind-bending and visionary music for those that explore.

Lifted From Hubbard's Lauded 1979 Lp 'the Love Connection', This Sublime Piece Of Melodic, Deep, Soul/Jazz Will Have Ears And Minds Open With It's Instantly Recognisable Opening String Sequence.

Used To Devastating Effect On Pepe Bradock's All-time 1999 Deep-house Classic 'deep Burnt', Those Sweeping Strings Capture Us And Lead Us Into A Epic Journey With The Wondrous Vocal Stylings Of The Legendary Singer Al Jarreau.

This Is Prime Early Morning Music, Pushing All The Right Buttons & Spreading Light Wherever It Is Played, A Beautiful Beautiful Record Indeed! What Is Essentially An Extended And Rearranged Version Of Hubbard's 1967 Original, The '79 Version Of 'little Sunflower' Boasts A Sumptuous Arrangement & Production From The Mighty Claus Ogerman (Ben E King, Mel Torme, Bill Evans, Antonio Carlos Jobim & More).

A Truly Wondrous Piece Of Music, Reissued On A Single Side In It's Full 12" Length Of 9+ Minutes From The Source Archive Audio. Fully Legit, Licensed And Reissued With Love By Above Board Distribution And Columbia Records/Sony Bmg For Record Store Day, 2019.

WAX series of 12+1 London (TPO) first artist doesn't need introduction, Alex Arnout, for those still do not know this iconic music selector from U.K., he started his DJ career in Spain, and in the humble surroundings of many a local bar. The nineties were spent learning the basic skills so often lacking in today's break-through 'DJs'. Eventually catching the ear of someone that mattered, Arnout began playing more familiar outposts like DC:10 and Pin Up in Ibiza, Dance Valley in Amsterdam and CircoLoco in London, for whom he has been resident for the last few years. This is just the beginning of more than 20 years of history. Higher Orbit is his last work, an EP including three original tracks, 'What I Mean', 'Aabstrkt Mind' and the main hit 'Higher Orbit' also remixed by the head-honcho of the imprint U Z Z V.

Bondo is four Los Angeles musicians collaging displaced tempos and fractured melodies. Their sparsely vocalised music conspires to bring into view a practical enlightenment, evoking the sandy contentment of an exhausted marine sunset. The organically mechanical compositions wander with the intention not to be aimless, but to be consumed in Process.
Bondo comes to Quindi Records to release its first full-length album, Print Selections, and it is saturated in the communal consciousness of the band. The songs call for the individuals to dissolve to make way for the music.
The lyrical content of the record tells of a mind made anew, cleared of its data & ego to witness nothing in particular. Bringing the past with them, the band makes clear allusions to their influences - their tones reminiscent of outfits like Duster, Unwound, Acetone & Fugazi, but also has heavy nods to more formless genres like the dub melodies of King Tubby and the jazz of Archie Shepp.
The music feels like the dusty bed of a scanner, plays like the light leaking from underneath its lid.

Sisters Eleanor and Bonnie Whitmore, two of roots music's most
accomplished songwriter/instrumentalist/vocalists, released their first
album together as The Whitmore Sisters in 2022
Titled 'Ghost Stories', inspired by the loss of family, friends, ex-boyfriends and - on
the title track- people who died by police violence. These ghosts chose to appear
right as Covid became entrenched -when live music evaporated, and people were
isolated from each other.
Bonnie, whose four solo albums are all state- of- a- real- woman's- heart jewels,
decided to join sister Eleanor and her husband Chris Masterson in their Los
Angeles closed circle for a break. Chris, who's recorded four albums with his wife
as The Mastersons, saw the visit as an opportunity to issue a mandate: If Bonnie
was coming, it was time for the sisters to make a record.
Not just an album, but "the album" - the musical inevitability that's been
simmering since a 22-year-old Eleanor was protecting her curly-headed 15-yearold sister at gigs in local bars. The Whitmore Sisters' original songs, along with
two covers - a song by their pal Aaron Lee Tasjan ("Big Heart Sick Mind" and "On
the Wings of a Nightingale" (written by Paul McCartney for iconic siblings The
Everly Brothers) - was produced by Chris Masterson and completes 'Ghost
Stories'.

2023 Repress

Perc returns to Perc Trax for his first original release of 2020 and his first full EP since 'Three Tracks To Send To Your Ghost Producer' was released back in March 2019. 'Fire In Negative' includes three tracks adapted from his live set at Reaktor's Unpolished event in Amsterdam earlier of this year, plus another completed directly after that set when the atmosphere and energy of that event was still fresh in his mind.

Title track and opener 'Fire In Negative' fuses crushing kicks with covert art gallery recordings and the crackling flames of the title, topped off with Ventolin-esque sine tones. Another statement track from Perc, sidestepping the current trend for rave revivalism whilst matching its energy toe to toe.

'E Mono' is a classic Perc drum track, skipping big builds for an unexpected switch in the middle section, whilst 'Snare' goes in the opposite direction, breaking down into two minutes of abrasive feedback before finally kicking back in.

Shogun Audio are proud to present the eighth volume of the acclaimed Shuriken vinyl series - featuring four of the most popular tracks from the Shogun vaults that have never previously appeared on vinyl

Set on yellow vinyl, this is a strictly limited edition collector’s item so don’t miss your chance to assemble a set of weapons any warrior would be proud of, when they are gone they are gone…

Club / DJ Support
Target to over 400 key DJs and tastemakers on the Shogun Audio mailing list including but not limited to Skrillex, Andy C, Goldie, Calyx & Teebee, Friction, Alix Perez, SpectraSoul, Rockwell, Technimatic, Bailey, Breakage, Danny Byrd, Roni Size, LTJ Bukem, Fabio & Grooverider, High Contrast, Lenzman, Camo & Krooked, Skream, Sub Focus, Zinc plus many others

2023 Repress

Shpongle came to light 20 years ago, emerging from the burgeoning Trance music scene. Simon Posford aka Hallucinogen and Raja Ram aka The Infinity Project were already leading lights on the pioneering new sonic realms of Trance music.

The Shpongle sound was formed out of the desire to share another side of the psychedelic spectrum of music and in doing so established themselves as important innovators and arguably, inventors of genres we now know as PsyChill, Psybient, Psydub or Psybreaks.

Are you Shpongled? contains 7 tracks of epic audio adventure. Each one taking the listener on a journey, with sensurround sounds emerging from the caves of tribal reality. Across the globe, both seasoned aficionados and new sonic surfers alike take delight in the original worlds of sound explored by these visionary pioneers on their debut album which still takes pride of place in many collections.

The Shpongle sound planted sonic seeds in fertile imaginations across the world and over the past 2 decades their fanbase has grown exponentially, creating an unforgettable impression on the minds ear of all who listen. With a full live band to compliment their studio origins, Shpongle have been headlining large scale concerts and festivals across the globe, most notably two sell out shows at The Roundhouse London in 2009 and more recently their legendary performance at Red Rocks in Colorado where Shpongle performed to a sell out crowd of 1000. They have also completed numerous tours of the USA with stateside crowds showing huge love for the band and establishing a loyal following. 

2023 Repress

* Tales of the Inexpressible” was released on Twisted Records in 2001.

It was a much anticipated and well loved successor continuing in the pioneering spirit of the debut album and in this exceptional follow up they gave us plenty more multi-dimensional surprises and new sonic realities to explore and immerse ourselves in.
From the opening sounds on “Dorset Perception”, the first track featuring flamenco guitar and Latin percussion, we can tell we are in for some incredible planetary as well as interplanetary trips on this musical voyage as Si & Raj take us for a spin though their musical worlds, full of influences garnered on their travels to the 4 corners of the earth.

As the Star Shpongled Banner unfurls, the immeasurable beauty of the album is illustriously illustrated with blissful cascades of Indian Flute washing over the minds ear and achingly beautiful synths rippling with dimensional dub effects throughout. As the Shaman’s voice resonates through the digital dream, the Shaman’s drum begins to beat leading us to a vedic celtic crescendo.

By the time Room 23 emanates from the loudspeakers, Shpongle have confirmed their position as the true pioneers once again, shining a light on the deeper development of the Psybient and Psychill sound and unmistakably elevating the consciousness of the listener to previously unheard of heights by bringing the eddying currents of Raj’s magical flute lines and Simons mellifluous keyboard riffs and genius production style together in an extraordinary hallucinogenic mix.

The album holds 9 gems glistening in hyperspace, gems of unmistakable brilliance and radiant beauty in which every composition contains worlds within worlds, as explored by Raja and Simon on their epic voyages into the depths of musical exploration and recounted in these tales.

They have been the soundtrack to innumerable visionary voyages for the neuronaut cognoscenti, because of the multi layered sounds, shapeshifting focus and awe inspiring depths of the advanced Shpongle production techniques. Tales of the inexpressible is quite literally, beyond description and has been a part of creating so many beautiful moments that its absence from our lives is unimaginable. 

Mit dem 2008 erschienenen Album „Gumbo“ fiel der Startschuss für Brenk Sinatras interna-tionale Producerlaufbahn. Vom JUICE Magazin zu einem der Top 20 besten Instrumentalalbenaller Zeiten gewählt, schaffte „Gumbo“ mit seinen brachialen und zugleich sehr souligen,sample-basierten Instrumentals den Sprung raus aus Österreich und rückte Brenk als Aus-nahmeproducer erstmals in den Fokus.Der Nachfolger„Gumbo II“erschien 2011 über das Kölner Label MPM, das mit Brenk Sinatra so-wie weiteren Ausnahmeproducern an Bord den wachsenden Hype um instrumentalen Hip-Hopmitzündete. Brenks kompromissloser, zweiter Part der Gumbo-Reihe katapultierte ihn kurzer-hand in die Riege der gefragtesten Beat-Produzenten Europas. Seither war auch der dritte undfinale Teil der Gumbo-Reihe in Planung, jedoch hinderten die immer mehr werdenden musi-kalischen Projekte und nicht zuletzt auch der Druck, die ersten beiden Albumteile zu toppen,Brenk an der Fertigstellung seiner Instrumental-Trilogie. Der Folder mit den dafür selektiertenInstrumentals wuchs auf weit über 100 Beats, wurde teilweise gelöscht und ständig in seinerZusammenstellung verändert, bis Brenk das gezielte Sammeln von Gumbo-Material 2017 vor-erst einstellte. Damals vollzog Brenk einen stilistischen Wechsel, der ihn weg von klassischen,Samplebasierten Beats hin zu jenen entspannten Trap-Hybriden führte, die heute als seinTrademark-Sound bekannt sind. Auch wollte sich das Mindset für die Fertigstellung von „Gum-bo III“ nicht einstellen und andere Projekte wurden vorgezogen, bis das Album komplett in denHintergrund rückte. Über die Jahre wurden Fans und Journalist*innen auf die Frage nach einemRelease Date immer wieder von Brenk vertröstet, „Gumbo III“ wurde zu einem sehnsüchtigerwarteten Phantomprojekt.

Fast Forward in das Jahr 2021: erstmals seit vier Jahren klickt sich Brenk wieder durch den Folder mit den einst für die „Gumbo III“ produzierten Interludes, musikalischen Skizzen undbereits fertiggestellten Beats. Mit einer neuen Label- und Verlagssituation im Hintergrund(2021 gründete Brenk das MusiklabelWave Planet Recordssowie den dazugehörigen VerlagWave Planet Publishing) fällt er den Entschluss, dass die Zeit für den Abschluss der Gumbo-Trilogie nun reif ist und Wave Planet Records zur neuen Heimat dieses Projekts werden muss.Danach folgt eine wochenlange und mühselige Wiederherstellung der in den Jahren 2012 bis2016 produzierten Instrumentals. Brenks Hauptaugenmerk war es, den musikalischen Spiritder Instrumentals unverändert zu lassen und den Sound nicht zu modernisieren. Aus heutigerSicht klingt das mit unzähligen Vinyl-Samples gespickte Chop-Gewitter auf der „Gumbo III“wie man es von Brenks früheren Beats kennt, anachronistisch und gerade dadurch erfrischendanders. Als einziges Update für die „Gumbo III“ Instrumentals wurden lediglich ein neuesMixing von Brenk sowie das Mastering seines hochkarätigen Producer-Kollegen Dexter zu-gelassen.Für die perfekte visuelle Ergänzung des Gumbo-Sounduniversums sorgt das verspielte, vorDetails strotzende Cover-Artwork von Cone The Weird, der bereits das markante Artwork zum„Gumbo II“ Album lieferte.Die Vollendung der Trilogie wird unter anderem mit einer ganz besonderen „Gumbo TrilogyBox“ zelebriert, die im Oktober 2022 erscheinen und das Herz jedes passionierten Sammlershöherschlagen lässt

Red Vinyl

Initial LP copies pressed on opaque red vinyl! As its name suggested, the intimate and sultry Cuntry Covers Vol. 1 was always going to have a follow-up. Led by the brooding vocals of Bria Salmena, Cuntry Covers Vol. 2 is every bit as potent as its predecessor whose noir-inflected alternative country-rock stood in sharp contrast to the singer's commanding delivery as leader of post-punk revivalists FRIGS. Debuting the project in 2021, the languid, reverb-drenched Cuntry Covers Vol. 1 saw her artfully collaborating with multi-instrumentalist Duncan Hay Jennings and reimagining a carefully picked collection of Americana anthems. Vol. 2 pushes the envelope further and harder. Encompassing feverish takes on tracks by Gillian Welch, Paula Cole, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Robert Lester Folsom, Glenn Campbell - by way of Nick Cave - and the late, great Loretta Lynn, Bria's deliciously dark approach shimmers through these six startling songs. Created during a break from Salmena and Jennings' work in Orville Peck's world-conquering backing band, Vol. 2 was recorded directly after Peck's second album and Bria's US tour supporting Wolf Alice. Embracing contrast, the sunny circumstances in which Vol. 1 was made were flipped on their head. Instead of a bucolic barn in the Canadian countryside, they recorded the new tracks in chilly Toronto, huddled together in their tiny makeshift home studio, with Jennings at the controls. They enlisted the help of local Toronto musicians Lucas Savatti (FRIGS), Simone Baril (US Girls, The Highest Order, Darlene Shrugg, Partner), Andrew Manktelow, and frequent collaborator Jaime Rae McCuaig. While Vol. 1 was Bria's attempt at subverting country music's conservative roots and primarily white and heterosexual agenda, here the emphasis was on experimentation. While Vol. 2 might be less personal, it's just as idiosyncratic, with half of the reversions staying true to the originals and others taken to a different universe entirely. Building on the tried-and-true/bold-and-new duality of Cuntry Covers' first offering, Vol. 2 delivers a deeper dive into the duo's brilliant alchemy of traditional and contemporary reinterpretations. The added experimental flourishes, from dizzying electronica and pulsing bass to sax-driven soul, take Bria's new EP into previously uncharted territory, signalling a thrilling new step in Bria's adventurous evolution.

Summertime sounds abound on the sixth Drum Chums disc, which comes lovingly dubbed and diced by our friendly Fruit Merchant Hidden Spheres.

Known globally for his free-flowing DJ sets, halcyon house hits and mastery of melody, Tom's been at the top of his game for time now - just check those releases on Rhythm Section and Scissor & Thread - and it's a pleasure to carry his drum sticks for this one. Cracking open his vault of top secret DJ tweaks, Spheres explores sweltering proto-house, tropical disco lilt and deepest waters across three floor-ready cuts.

The Fruit Merchant plucks something ripe from the Kalimba Tree on the A side, starting the party properly with joyous Afro-house jam 'Stolen'. Carnival-friendly drums and a Boyd Jarvis bassline wind up your waist while the call-and-response vocals and exuberant brass send hands and heads skywards before the track transitions into an utterly ecstatic sax-led breakdown. This is magic.

For the B-side, Hidden Spheres treats us to a couple of deep digs from his time in Australia, both originating in the Aboriginal community.
Emerging from the astral vibrations of a didgeri-drone, 'You Better Dance' casually locks into an irresistible 105bpm groove, strolling through the echo-laced dub space as its poetic vocal speaks to your soul.
Balearic-paced and cosmic-minded, this one plays perfectly next to those I-Level 12's.

For finale 'Together', Spheres shifts back into proto-house mode, locking a hypnotic piano riff into some militant snare rolls to lay the foundation for the impassioned vocal. Delivering the occasional diversion into more mournful territories, Spheres reminds us why deep house deity DJ Sprinkles always takes his calls.

100% Drum Fun Guaranteed.

A matter of pace, an analog memory…
Feel safe: like newborn, take your first careful steps on a clean slate while Maayan is your supervisor. Naïve and happy, you leave carbonbon footprints on your way into the positives. Then a faster pace: some tribal folk music from a tiny world, where people dance around an LED fire, commands a gallop to the one and ollam. Latinfection guaranteed.
Your nonplus motion interferes with environmental geometry. A memory from an analog past flashes like a daydream. Upward and rising, your smile workout succeeds while scintillating waves say “hello!”. Having grown up to a motorik being, the determined goal however never appears. The journey into a perfect storm is the reward. Maayan sends you some motivating words.
Then have a break and jump on the light train of thoughts to enjoy blurred reflections: on the water and in your mind. Sing your body beautiful and free. Words come in bubbles, a heart-throb away from a light tower. Feel like stumbling into new adventures on a pathless terrain.
Slowly and cautious, the novemberme, which is the one that approaches dawn, celebrates tristesse with a funny accent. Kick the blues with a beat. Somewhere lost but regenerated, find sisyphos’ generator of vitality. A nascent religious mood at the Autobahn service station fades into the fog.
Finally, the circle of pace is almost closed. After laughter of amazement, Maayan leaves you with a soothing mantra of confidence: an everyday ritual fun you should indulge yourself in. It comes in waves.

”Look up, into the light” she said, while the camera shutter clicked. ”Like this? Does it look holy?” His neck felt stiff. Her reply: ”Yes, just like that. What do you mean holy? Like religious? ”No, more like trying to look very far, somewhere beyond what we can see.” ”Okay, stand still, I’m going to come close to you now. The light hits your face great.” *click, click, click.

He noticed her fingernails. They were not polished. Natural. Even somewhat rugged, as if something wore out the fingers slightly. What had these hands held besides the camera? What made the edges of her fingernails drift off?

He thought it’s weird to look straight into the camera. The photographer had closed her left eye, the one not looking into the lens. Then it opened, she looked up, perusing the surroundings, then she closed her eye again, then looked up, closed, looking up, very quickly. It all seemed very professional. Maybe she calculated the light, making sure it’s close to perfect. ”What will these photos look like?” – the thought popped into his head briefly. It was liberating to think it wouldn’t matter.

”What’s that song playing?” he asked. ”Wait a sec, Ol’ Dirty Bastard?” she replied. ”Oh yeah, right. But the sample?” ”Hey, could you look up again, like that. No, lower.”

New directions: ”Look out from the window, turn left.” ”My left or yours?” ”Yours, I always try to think from the direction of my model.” How professional! This is a good shoot, so natural. Should I worry about how the photos look like? No, I don’t want to. His thoughts bounced around. What would the story be like? It’s a big newspaper, everyone will read it. Maybe someone drinks coffee and eats a stroopwafel while they do it. Will they place the waffle on top of the mug for a brief while, so that it gets hot and the syrup melts a little? Then it feels wet, and you can bend the cookie.

She broke his train of thought off midway through: ”Now turn right, but look left, and slightly up, but don’t turn your face right.” ”Umm, like this? Sounds like a set of pilates instructions.” she laughed ”You do pilates?” ”Yeah, it’s hard sometimes. Have you tried?” ”No”, she said. ”I’m not good for sports that are done in groups.” ”Yeah, but in pilates you can just be inside your mind, drowning in your private thoughts.”

”What are you thinking in pilates?” she asked, taking more photos. ”Well, mostly just which way is right. And which left.” *click, click.

Canto Ostinato is the new volume of classical minimalism from musician and producer Erik Hall. Written for four pianos in 1979 by Dutch composer Simeon ten Holt, the piece is freshly framed as an intimate, hour-long solo performance consisting of multitracked grand pianos, electric piano, and organ. Modern yet warm, ethereal yet tangible, Hall's Canto Ostinato expertly bridges a revered piece of meditative concert repertoire with a tactile and highly personal studio setting. Chicago-born and Michigan-based, Erik Hall is known as a multi-instrumental pillar for the groups NOMO, Wild Belle, and his own songwriting moniker In Tall Buildings. He has composed music for feature films, and as a producer/engineer he has shaped records for Natalie Bergman and Western Vinyl labelmates Lean Year. In a 2020 creative pivot, he chose to reinvent composer Steve Reich's monumental contemporary classical masterpiece Music for 18 Musicians as a solo undertaking, applying the piece's score to the familiar keyboards, guitars, and synthesizers in his studio. "At the time I think I was working through my identity as a musician and an artist," Hall explains, "and on a level there was some sort of exorcism of a long held pop spirit." The album was celebrated for being "freshly thrilling" and "legible in history but assertive of the moment" (Pitchfork) and "beguiling, meditational, and magical" (Electronic Sound). It won the 2021 Libera Award for Best Classical Record, and it quickly joined the canon of the piece's quintessential recordings. "There is a pseudo-meditational benefit to working on a longform piece that's built on repetition," Hall says. "Every stage- from internalizing the music, to executing the performance, to editing and mixing the record- requires deep and sustained presence of mind. I've always been drawn to a hallucinatory combination of harmony and repetition, and I found the entire process addictive." An apt second chapter, Canto Ostinato is inherently vast, and its score gives great creative license to the performer. Comprising 106 sections, complete freedom is given to repeat each one as many or as few times as desired. Additional leeway is given with regard to dynamics, articulation, and even instrumentation. On the heels of his previous, rather maximal arrangement, Hall chose to limit this album's palette to three foundational keyboards of his studio: a 1962 Hammond M-101 organ, a 1978 Rhodes Mark I electric piano, and his family-heirloom 1910 Steinway grand piano. "This particular piece brought the added challenge of rekindling my dexterity as a pianist, something I haven't maintained in earnest since I was a teenager," he admits. The ensuing five-note rhythmic motif- the piece's primary building block- is steady and workmanlike, forgoing virtuosic flare for depth, texture, and resonance, and eventually giving way to the stunning gratification of a gorgeously lyrical left turn. As with Music for 18 Musicians, Hall employed no loops nor quantization nor any programmed or sequenced instruments of any kind. Every part was performed live in a room and captured with microphones, one at a time, each informed by, and reacting to the last. In this way the record breathes with interplay and an organic humanity, complete with flaws, noise, and the faint sound of turning pages. The recording quality is nonetheless toneful and saturated, characteristic of Hall's production style and straying from the usual transparency of classical albums by using gear with tubes, transformers, and various stages of compression in the signal path. Always there is unmistakable realism and the feeling of being present in the room, sitting among the keys, hammers, and tines. Ten Holt said: "Time, patience and discipline are the prerequisites for making a genetic code productive." His landmark composition provides Hall once again with a wondrous space in which to reverently embody this sentiment and deftly convey the elegant beauty of this music.

A Detroit resident, William Odell Hughes is a much-loved street educated singer-songwriter and music composer. As a regular passenger riding to work on the Detroit East Side bus route in the early eighties, he met jazz pianist Pamela Wise who also rode the bus to work every day and who he noticed was always reading music. Pamela told him about saxophonist, clarinetist, and producer Wendell Harrison (founder of the legendary Tribe collective and a regular collaborator of Pamela Wise). She introduced Odell to Wendell, who was impressed with William’s compositions and felt that it would be a great project for release on his WenHa record label.

Hughes and Harrison began producing and recording the album to be called “Cruisin”featuring musical arrangements by both Wendell Harrison and Pamela Wise. This album (released in 1981) was the first recording for Hughes and the beginning of a long musical journey that continues to this day. Cruisin’ features an all-star line-up that includes Andrew Gibson (The Counts), Pamela Wise (Tribe) and award-winning Detroit Jazz icon Wendell Harrison…all doing their bit and making this a monster of an album!

William Odell Hughes’ debut album has all the best characteristics of an 80s album: it’s filled with funky playful beats and has excellent soulful honey-dipped vocals. On Cruisin’ the listener is treated to both mellow soul sounds and electrifying disco boogie (that’ll make even the shyest of club goers want to get up and dance) and Wendell Harrison’s instantly recognizable flute-playing and synth pads give the record a warm, relaxed groove. Prepare yourself for funky vibes, cool soothing feet-tapping rhythms, fantastic interplays on vocal tempos…all backed by a beautiful array of soulful synthesized and cosmic music.

References to universal awareness are plentiful throughout and the spirituality of The Tribe remains a constant undertone; a gentle reminder of WenHa’s roots. With a sound like this, it’s no wonder that this album has long been considered a grail for crate diggers around the world. All of the above makes this incredible record both timeless and as relevant today as it was back when it was initially released.

Tidal Waves Music now proudly presents the first ever vinyl reissue of this rare funk & soul album (original copies go for large amounts on the second-hand market) originally released in 1981 on WenHa records. This unique record comes as a deluxe 180g vinyl edition (strictly limited to 500 copies worldwide) with obi strip. This vinyl edition also features the original photography by acclaimed British photographer Brian Smith known for his work with artists such as Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Howlin’ Wolf, Chuck Berry and John Lee Hooker.

With his new album, Gecko Turner confirms that he is a standout artist in the global groove scene, a must for the outernational sounds aficionados.

Somebody From Badajoz is the fifth studio album in his much lauded discography and his first in seven years, eagerly anticipated by both his fans and himself: "this business of dedicating yourself to music and making songs... it's a long game."

With the release of his first two, remarkable, albums, Guapapasea! (2003) and Chandalismo Ilustrado (2006), Gecko started cultivating what one astute journalist defined as Afro-maduran soul—the "maduran" bit referencing Extremadura, a region in central-western Spain.

Badajoz, Gecko's birthplace, is the biggest city in the area, on the border with Portugal, by the Guadiana River. It is a place that oozes history, where there is constant movement at the border, and people's character is friendly and open-minded with foreign habits.

Gecko's Afro-maduran soul isbuilt on Afro-American music and drenched in Brazilian, African, Latin American and Jamaican sounds. There are also echoes of a youth marked in equal parts by our man's admiration for the Beatles and the flamenco that could be heard everywhere in Badajoz in the seventies. It makes for a singular sound and a musical language of its own—spicy, succulent, full of nuances, but with a very personal flavour.

The album opens with the Nigerian talking drums of Twenty-twenty Vision, (neo) soul in a magical falsetto, carried by a sumptuous orchestral arrangement with a cinematic flavour: "I'd been thinking about doing something called 'Twenty-twenty Vision' for some time, making a play on words with the vision we have of the world after the year 2020 and the medical expression, which, in ophthalmological terms, means 'normal or complete vision.' Beyond that particular song, I think that's the mood of the album: a look at society in the twenties of the 21st century and the feelings and demons it produces."

It's followed by De Balde, a very special song born from a posthumously discovered lyric by the great writer Carlos Lencero, a regular collaborator of Camarón, Pata Negra, and Remedios Amaya, and also from Badajoz. While conceived as a fandango, Gecko has moulded it into his sound in such a seamless way it now seems as if the words could only have been written to be embraced by the percussion, brass, and backing vocals heard on the album. It's the only lyric on Somebody From Badajoz not written by Turner, still it sits rather comfortably with the rest, sharing the same emotivity and sensitivity, as well as the trademark humour and irony.

Other tracks see more protagonism for the rhythm.The beat-driven Ain't No Fun Preachin' to the Choir features Gecko's vocals walking the thin line between singing and talking over a phenomenal afro-disco-funk-infused trailblazer. In Am I Sad? it's impossible to not bob your head to the queen of Papatosina's mongrel rhythm, as close to the banks of the Guadiana river as it is to the shores of the Mississippi. Qué Siesta Tan Buena, He Babeao Y To! is an ode to the snooze in true Afro-Maduran fashion. And in Come And Try, the Caribbean influence is evident—lovers' rock that invites you to dance in good company.

In these songs, and throughout the album, for that matter, the musicians accompanying Gecko, who himself plays many of the instruments as well, shine brightly. All hailing from Extremadura, Javi Mojave (percussion), Álvaro Fdez 'Dr. Robelto' (bass), and Rafa Prieto (guitar) have been carrying him with delicate forcefulness since he started out as a solo artist. At the same time, the wonderful and essential voices of Deborah Ayo, Astrid Jones, Fani Ela Nsue, and Miriam Solís give the album a sunny variety of colours. And there are many more—a sensational group of musicians contributes dazzling harmonic bursts to many of the songs. The palette of sounds is very diverse and rich in textures and nuances, including, for example, the ngoni, bells, and various repurposed kitchen utensils.

The groove is always around, moving between the magical border sound of Everybody Knows Somebody From Badajoz and Little Dose, the silky soul of The Sibariteo Appreciation Society, and the exultant celebration of End Of The World (which surprisingly sees Gecko turning to the occasional use of autotune), a piece that could be used for the final credits of a Monty Python film and, in fact, closes the album.

Gecko Turner has done it again with Somebody From Badajoz, looking to the future without losing sight of the roots. In times of upheaval all over the globe, when people are looking for purity, he delivers a formidable piece of work: risky, optimistic in spite of everything, and with a decidedly bastard sound. Let's rejoice.