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This wildly acclaimed Istanbul-based artist, delivers an unforgettable 4th album Anadolu Ejderi (Anatolian Dragon). Building upon her mélange of Turkish psychedelia, empowered commentary and retro-futurist sonics, her vision is more personal and uncompromising than ever before. Courage. Bravery. Daring. Those are the watch words that guided Turkey"s Gaye Su Akyol when she was making Anadolu Ejderi, her first full-length release in four years. Already lauded for her startling, innovative mix of Turkish psychedelia and folk song, surf music and ʼ90s Western rock, a global sweet spot where Anatolian music heroine Selda Bagcan rubbed shoulders with Kurt Cobain, Akyol was ready to expand her vision after a relentless period on the road. "I was tired of touring," she says. "I really needed a break, some fresh air." The Covid pandemic gave her that, even if it was for the wrong reasons. "With everything closed, we all had to sit at home. The isolation gave me time to write. I ended up with over 100 songs. I tried to broaden the palette: to start with Anatolian folk and pop, then see how to add African and Middle Eastern sounds, the soul revolution, disco, and rock from other cultures. The music is still quite psychedelic, but it connects to different areas, all the pop genres I love so much. The hard part was picking the right songs and the correct order." Everything on Anadolu Ejderi - the title translates as "Anatolian Dragon" - breathes fire. It takes chances, the lyrics offer an exploration of politics in today"s Turkey. The personal is very much part of that. "In a political climate where a woman"s commitment to her passion, to falling in love, to her sexual identity is revolutionary enough, she is deeply passionate and able to express her love freely," Akyol notes. "It would have been easy to sit in the comfort zone of the past."

Matthew Doty didn't set out to write a solo album. His first batch of weightless and brightly lit material under the name Deserta began to take shape in 2017. Shortly after finding out he was going to be a father, Doty started working on a batch of songs inspired by the joy and the unknown of the world he was about to enter. That inspiration is the sonic and emotional backbone of debut album Black Aura My Sun.

Like a hot air balloon headed straight for the stratosphere, Deserta reveals yet another side of the songwriting Doty has spent decades refining. As experimental as it is enthralling, Black Aura My Sun applies the vapor-trailed production values and sublime dynamics of Doty's previous group projects (including post-rock band Saxon Shore and the synth-laced post-punk of Midnight Faces) to a shoegaze-y sound that splits the difference between Slowdive and Sigur Rós.

Doty began finding his own musical voice in the early '00s with the sky-piercing efforts of Saxon Shore. While it was initially a collaboration with Josh Tillman (a.k.a. Father John Misty), Doty was Saxon Shore's only consistent member over the course of five acclaimed records. His responsibility spilled over into everything from booking shows to the songs themselves. He was never completely alone in his pursuit of post-rock perfection, however, so Deserta is very much a new endeavor: a trial-by-fire that was written, recorded, and mixed in total solitude.

Deserta expands and contracts, with chords that drift like clouds, drums that drag and dissipate, and hooks that hang in the air for what feels like forever. That doesn't mean Black Aura My Sun is a subtle or soft record. It actually whips up quite a racket and is particularly heavy when piped through a pair of headphones.

Deserta is Doty's main creative outlet right now and a one-way ticket to another dimension entirely.

Johannes Schebler's musical output is all about establishing a dreamlike territory where sonic settlements can spread at ease. While Grykë Pyje (Johannes Schebler's duo with Jani Hirvonen) presents musical landscapes as open and clear spaces, Baldruin's miniature pieces tend to narrow them down, zooming into domestic sceneries that shift like malleable rooms inside a magic building. These are the quarters where the inhabitants of Schebler's musical world are configured.

Rendered in a tender manner, the tunes in Kleine Freuden (in English: small joys) unfold like a collection of fairy tales and bedtime stories. Fables and lullabies performed in whispering tones seem to carry us through a child's dream where images blend into each other. Compact, yet gauzy and free flowing melodies gather up revealing an ensemble of households where fanciful entities play care freely, leading us along their musical maze. The music is placid, childlike and playful. It wanders around in unwavering estrangement, organizing an unprecedented and intimate space as seen from a bird's eye view.

In the landscape of a bedroom where the night lamp is the sun, we take part in a lively journey, as wonder is warrant and keeper of a warm and pristine environment. Perspective shifts as we rise from bed sheet folds that turn into fragile mountain ranges. We crawl behind furniture and take shelter in secret hideouts while dust falls upon us like a blizzard. Transfiguring notions of scale and time, we are left wondering how long have we been here, wondering if music is the only true measurement of time.

White Vinyl

An outstanding 2LP compiling the best instrumentals of the greatest white rap group ever: the Beastie Boys. New Yorkers Ad-Rock, MCA and Mike D crossed over into the mainstream in the mid 80s with their full-length Licensed to Ill and exploded any notions of one-dimensionality with its ambitious followups such as Paul's Boutique, On Check Your Head and Ill Communication. Taking influences from hardcore and hip hop, these innovators performed most of the music while integrating an array of rock samples, 808 beats and witty wordplay into an ever-intriguing sonic smorgasbord.

"Her voice is a mesmerizing thing, deep and plummy enough to shake
trees and stir hearts" " PitchforkThis wildly acclaimed Istanbul-based
artist, delivers an unforgettable 4th album Anadolu Ejderi (Anatolian
Dragon)
Building upon her mellange of Turkish psychedelia, empowered commentary and
retro-futurist sonics, her vision is more personal and uncompromising than ever
before.Courage. Bravery. Daring. Those are the watch words that guided Turkey's
Gaye Su Akyol when she was making Anadolu Ejderi, her first full-length release in
four years. Already lauded for her startling, innovative mix of Turkish psychedelia
and folk song, surf music and E 90s Western rock, a global sweet spot where
Anatolian music heroine Selda Ba can rubbed shoulders with Kurt Cobain, Akyol
was ready to expand her vision after a relentless period on the road.
ONLINE. LondonJazz News - Album review due PRINT
Mojo magazine - Album review due (should be a half-page) + Album included with
a photo in the "Coming Next Month …" section at the end of their reviews pages
(December 2022) / Uncut magazine Album review due (January 2023 issue) +
Album mentioned in 'Coming next month' box in review section (December 2022)
+ pitched her for a 'I'm New Here' feature, is being considered / The Wire
magazine - Want her to do the 'Inner Sleeve' column + still considering her for a
feature at a later stage + might be included in a possible Istanbul feature + is
being considered for an album review / Songlines magazine - 'Spotlight' (1 page)
feature due (issue out December 2022) + album review due (issue out December
2022) / New Internationalist magazine - Considering her for a 'Spotlight' feature +
Might review the album / Hi-Fi Choice magazine Album review due (January 2023
issue, out 1 December 2022))

Ltd edition Double Sky Blue Vinyl, Gatefold sleeve w/ spot gloss, liner notes + DL card. Classic Double Black vinyl, Gatefold sleeve w/ spot gloss, liner notes + DL card. Bending scuzzy boundaries, ‘Good Bad Not Evil’ is a coming-of-age garage rock classic record. Full of hedonistic delinquent anthems, the fourth studio album from Atlanta punks Black Lips reaches it’s 15 year anniversary. This deluxe edition includes unearthed photos and new liner notes from Jared Swilley and King Khan. The second disc features B-sides and rarities including ‘Cruising’, ‘I Wanna Dance With You’ and ‘Leroy Faster’. ‘Good Bad Not Evil’ perfectly encapsulates the disillusionment of the mid-00s America, slammed between warehouse parties, DIY generator shows and scattered party pics, which was recorded in a little house in Atlanta that had been converted into a studio called the Living Room. Referencing Shangri-Las in the title, this is where their knack for garage gems met Motown; with bass heavy grooves (later remixed by Diplo), a certified country twang and unabashed bravado. Instant hits like ‘Veni Vidi Vici’, ‘Cold Hands’, ‘Bad Kids’ and ‘O Katrina!’ immediately became Black Lips staples. This was a band caught in the eye of the storm, the touring continued, the parties didn’t stop, this was a band bending the scuzzy boundaries of their chosen genre. The record was hailed by the likes of Pitchfork, who proclaimed, “Black Lips are a go-to band for vintage lo-fi freaks, and their raucous live shows have helped them cross over outside of crusty dive bars. ‘Good Bad Not Evil’, however, is the record where naysayers, disinterested friends and acquaintances, people on the street, and anyone else within earshot has to sit up, shut up, and listen.” …and, shut up and listen they did. “A perfect tapestry of sordid pleasure.” NME // “The same rapturous energy as the Sonics and the 13th Floor Elevators.” The Guardian // Track List: Disc One – Good Bad Not Evil. A1 I Saw A Ghost (Lean) A2 O Katrina! A3 Veni Vidi Vici A4 It Feels Alright A5 Navajo A6 Lock and Key A7 How Do You Tell a Child That Someone Has Died B1 Bad Kids B2 Step Right Up B3 Cold Hands B4 Off The Block B5 Slime and Oxygen B6 Transcendental Light… Disc Two - B-Sides & Rarities. C1 Cruising C2 Make It C3 I Wanna Dance With You D1 Best Napkin I Ever Had D2 My Trouble D3 Leroy Faster D4 Buried Alive

Ltd edition Double Sky Blue Vinyl, Gatefold sleeve w/ spot gloss, liner notes + DL card. Classic Double Black vinyl, Gatefold sleeve w/ spot gloss, liner notes + DL card. Bending scuzzy boundaries, ‘Good Bad Not Evil’ is a coming-of-age garage rock classic record. Full of hedonistic delinquent anthems, the fourth studio album from Atlanta punks Black Lips reaches it’s 15 year anniversary. This deluxe edition includes unearthed photos and new liner notes from Jared Swilley and King Khan. The second disc features B-sides and rarities including ‘Cruising’, ‘I Wanna Dance With You’ and ‘Leroy Faster’. ‘Good Bad Not Evil’ perfectly encapsulates the disillusionment of the mid-00s America, slammed between warehouse parties, DIY generator shows and scattered party pics, which was recorded in a little house in Atlanta that had been converted into a studio called the Living Room. Referencing Shangri-Las in the title, this is where their knack for garage gems met Motown; with bass heavy grooves (later remixed by Diplo), a certified country twang and unabashed bravado. Instant hits like ‘Veni Vidi Vici’, ‘Cold Hands’, ‘Bad Kids’ and ‘O Katrina!’ immediately became Black Lips staples. This was a band caught in the eye of the storm, the touring continued, the parties didn’t stop, this was a band bending the scuzzy boundaries of their chosen genre. The record was hailed by the likes of Pitchfork, who proclaimed, “Black Lips are a go-to band for vintage lo-fi freaks, and their raucous live shows have helped them cross over outside of crusty dive bars. ‘Good Bad Not Evil’, however, is the record where naysayers, disinterested friends and acquaintances, people on the street, and anyone else within earshot has to sit up, shut up, and listen.” …and, shut up and listen they did. “A perfect tapestry of sordid pleasure.” NME // “The same rapturous energy as the Sonics and the 13th Floor Elevators.” The Guardian // Track List: Disc One – Good Bad Not Evil. A1 I Saw A Ghost (Lean) A2 O Katrina! A3 Veni Vidi Vici A4 It Feels Alright A5 Navajo A6 Lock and Key A7 How Do You Tell a Child That Someone Has Died B1 Bad Kids B2 Step Right Up B3 Cold Hands B4 Off The Block B5 Slime and Oxygen B6 Transcendental Light… Disc Two - B-Sides & Rarities. C1 Cruising C2 Make It C3 I Wanna Dance With You D1 Best Napkin I Ever Had D2 My Trouble D3 Leroy Faster D4 Buried Alive

Recorded in the summer of 2020 whilst the world was in flux, the album is drenched with a feeling of freedom as Garwood and drummer Paul May sheltered from the world outside. It was, Garwood explains, “a heat soaked fever dream of our soul nectar in sonic form”. Recalling the past, gathering the elements from the present, the two artists – whose knowledge of one another’s playing is apparent throughout – work together with exquisite tones and percussive detail in this intimate recording. Garwood expands, “In the deep summer heat wave of ‘20, when everything was closed and people were hiding, I hit the road West to join my brother in music in his place, bungalow magic. We knew we had to play - for our souls, for the soul of humanity, to bring down the machine and tyranny, to invite the angels in, to save ourselves from insanity. Play we did, the guitars detuned until bee’s wings would make the strings sing. We began with the drum, and the things that shake and rattle, the drones of the heat, we sweated and we worked it until the night calmed us.This is not a lock down album, for we were free in our spirits when this was created, free from any desires to conquer and fill our pockets with the booty of success.”

Brimming with breezy melodies, breakneck percussion, & electronic flourishes. Back in print 10th Anniversary, on Orange Vinyl. 181.8 k Spotify Listeners, 1.12 Million Streams. Recommended If You Like: Do Make Say Think, Explosions in the Sky, Ratatat, The Album Leaf, Mogwai, Positive/uplifting instrumental loopage ‘n riffage. Transitions is the 2012 album by post-rock duo El Ten Eleven. Bobbing and weaving from one time signature and tempo to another, the duo of Kristian Dunn and Tim Fogarty jolt the listener into new sonic territories with the delicacy of a tilt-o-whirl. Includes a cover of Duran Duran's "Tiger Tiger". Back in print on Orange Vinyl. A refreshing trifecta of compositional prowess, intricate riffage, and experimental pop melodies. --Premier Guitar // “El Ten Eleven is proof that live looping and programming can rock; and that instrumental tracks can captivate and hold a room’s attention as well as any vocal-led group.” --Tape Op! // Track Listing: Transitions / Thanks Bill / Yellow Bridges / No One Died This Time! / Birth / Tiger Tiger / Lullaby

This release is a promise from Micron Audio to provide only carefully crafted and curated electronic music from progressive minded artists. Nothing friendly... Period. Galaxian: An intelligent, intricate composition of titanium android parts and artificial intelligence. LOKA: Sidewalk cracking, body moving waveforms, that strongly reflect the title of the track. Ctrls: Like listening to an audio book on neuroscience except you can dance to it and raise your IQ at the same time. 6SISS: This sonic blast gives you fair warning that you're going to travel about 20 years into the future. DJS 313

Melbourne artist Angel Wash delivers his debut release and sixth disc for the Felt Sense imprint in ‘Under Silver Cloud’, channeling the visual inspiration of Shin'ya Tsukamoto’s ‘A Snake of June’ (and other turn of the millennium Japanese Cinema) into ominous DnB soundscapes across 6 tracks.

Cavernous synth reflections & translucent textures meld intermittently with expertly chopped breaks, sharp, sinister lead synthesis & sub aquatic bass, drawing from an eerie, yet euphoric sonic palette.

Given the respective outputs of committed ambient explorers and sound designers zake (best known for releasing no less than five fine albums in 2019) and 36 (most recently seen on A Strangely Isolated Place with the superb album "Fade To Grey"), you'd expect this trip into aural deep space to be rather good. It is of course, with the four tracks mixing echoing sonic tones and drifting sound effects with slow-burn electronic melodies and the kind of immersive, sustained chords that were once the preserve of German maestro Pete Namlook. The third track in the suite, appropriately titled 'Stage 3', is little less than stunning, in part because of its grandiose, almost classical intent. No surprise to discover, then, that after a stretch of being out of print it's back via a reissue, this version being a limited clear vinyl edition.

Given the respective outputs of committed ambient explorers and sound designers zake (best known for releasing no less than five fine albums in 2019) and 36 (most recently seen on A Strangely Isolated Place with the superb album "Fade To Grey"), you'd expect this trip into aural deep space to be rather good. It is of course, with the four tracks mixing echoing sonic tones and drifting sound effects with slow-burn electronic melodies and the kind of immersive, sustained chords that were once the preserve of German maestro Pete Namlook. The third track in the suite, appropriately titled 'Stage 3', is little less than stunning, in part because of its grandiose, almost classical intent. No surprise to discover, then, that after a stretch of being out of print it's back via a reissue, this version being a limited clear vinyl edition.

If it's really a post-genre world, why does everything sound the same? The two halves of Tampa rap duo They Hate Change_Dre (he/him) and Vonne (they/them)_first came together in front of the apartment complex where they both lived as teens. Dre had just moved down from Rochester, NY; Vonne was trying to sell him bad weed. It was clear from the start that the two listen to music differently from most people_they're sonic omnivores, obsessive deep-divers, lovers of rare and radical sounds. Starting as kids trawling the internet for tracks, they've been collecting music from around the world and across the decades, amassing a shared sonic knowledge so deep that "encyclopedic" barely begins to cover it _ not just the East Coast hip-hop that Dre grew up on, or the hyperlocal bass-music variants like jook (the Gulf Coast's twerkably raunchy answer to house) and crank (think "Miami bass meets NOLA bounce"), but also drum `n' bass, Chicago footwork, post-punk, prog (they're, like, seriously into prog), grime, krautrock, emo, and basically any genre on the map. Once they graduated to DJs on the Tampa DIY scene _ which includes everything from punk rock house parties to the black "teen nights" that pop up in rec centers and ballrooms _ they figured out how to pull all these disparate sounds together into a cohesive style. More importantly, they figured out how to make it something people will actually move to. When they made the transition to rapping and making beats, they brought that pleasure-seeking approach to sonic experimentation with them. "With this album, Vonne says, "it's really like, okay, you know how you talk about the internet breaking down borders? Here's what that actually sounds like. It's not just a hip-hop record with a couple more weird sounds. You want homegrown DIY? This is a record that was written, produced, and recorded in a 150-squarefoot bedroom from the least cool city you could think of." Finally, New is what a truly post-genre musical landscape is supposed to be: building deep connections that transcend outdated distinctions between them, spilling over with the joy of exploration and possibility, and daring other artists to think broader, go deeper, take bigger risks. Let the rest of them keep playing by the old rules_They Hate Change will keep changing the game.

Hailing from Bristol and based in London, Ashley Thomas routinely passes the storied music heritage of both cities through his own singular, prismatic filter. As Otik he produces brilliant and complex hues, forming compositions from weightless neon-tinged trails, richly layered melodic webs and inky, subaqueous bass lines.

The prolific artist recently created his own imprint, Solar Body, to accommodate the expanse and volume of his unfettered productions; now with his !K7 Record debut, Otik deepens his sonic explorations for the label he credits as a crucial discovery portal.

“CRYSTAL CLEAR” is inspired by a personal epiphany, and it shines through with sparkling clarity. With the unmistakable signifiers of dancehall in its bassline and drum programming, Thomas turns these references outwards and upwards, finding a new expression with glistening drops of cosmic colour, gauzy pads, and soft crescendos of cymbals.

Despite coming in hard and fast with a bruising 130BPM bass rhythm “RAINBOW RHYTHM'' evokes a positively disorienting kaleidoscope for Thomas, courtesy of its sugary, euphoric synth sounds. It is a balance of hard and soft, leading heavily with drums throughout, contrasted with the track’s delicate and sweetly warped melody.

A collaborative melting-pot takes the form of a luminous, candy-coated rhapsody

Drivetrain (Detroit, USA) The Greatest (Hard Times Mix)
taking flavorful elements from his deep house original, this is a killer dose of thick-set, granular house-meets-techno; blissfully wrapped in plush, woozy, jazz-flecked overtones.

Motomitsu (Paris, FRANCE) - Bless
perfectly appointed, synthetic strings rise and fall; back-dropping deep, purling bass, anesthetic keys and distant, wraithlike vocals drifting in and out of view.

Jani Ho (MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA) - Mono Charge
club weaponry delivering an exhilarating, full-throttle ride through a menagerie of ever-shifting layers, which themselves are in a constant state of leg-sweeping flux.

Owen Ni (ATHENS, USA) - Another Sunny Afternoon
a stratospheric, psyched-out house heater, fired up of aerial synthesizers, whisking off to beatific and unearthly sonic euphoria.

Egg Meat is a new project from London based artists Tooth Rust aka Laurel Uziell and Georgie McVicar, their self-titled EP features poems spoken by Danny Hayward.

The EP features speech-jammed text skittering across insistent rhythms, clipped signals and buzzing, saturated grains. You hear the racket of gunshots, mechanical clutter and punctuating tones that ring out impatiently like an unanswered phone call. Hayward's words at times surfacing as meaningful utterances, at others buried under this dense sonic matter.

The manipulations of voice are also at times so extreme as to render them indistinguishable from the clattering electronics that engulf them. The speech shapeshifts, shudders, and shatters in the way a violin glides and trills above an orchestra. The EP ends with an ambiguous promise: "Don't worry", Hayward assures us, "we'll be back."

San Diego born and raised DJ/Producer, Dillon Marinez, today releases his latest EP ‘Wormhole’, out now on Dirtybird.

Curated by Claude VonStroke, the compelling two-track project presents a dynamic soundscape showcasing the sonic duality of one of Dirtybird’s newest rising stars. The chaotic, high-energy sound of its titular track ‘Wormhole’ is instantly mesmerizing, while its companion ‘Facelift’ is a deep, rolling burner.

Regarding the EP, Dillon Marinez said, “My first Dirtybird Campout inspired both tracks. Claude’s set especially was full of some thick stabby bass which was right up my alley. This sound gave me an idea for each lead and the rest flowed naturally.”

Continuing to grow as a consistent member of the Dirtybird flock, Marinez’s latest EP, ‘Wormhole’ marks his fifth release on the esteemed label following last year’s ‘No Pressure’ EP and earlier singles like ‘Dance For Me.’

Taking inspiration from funk, hip hop, and reggae, Marinez credits his father and brother for exposing him as a kid to the multi-genre sounds that shape his music style today. A bassist since childhood, it was only natural for Dillon to be drawn to the ebbs and flows of house music. Learning Ableton in college, Marinez was able to incorporate a blend of rhythmic elements to create his unique bass lines and incredibly catchy beats known to captivate crowds.

Releasing music on Dirtybird marks a full circle moment for Dillon, as he has previously named Dirtybird’s artists Justin Martin and Shiba San as major sources of inspiration for his music.

Marinez invites fans to join him on his rhythmic journey and stream ‘Wormhole’ today.

Special 10th Anniversary Edition In Brown Card Artboard Sleeve With Additional Lyric Print Insert

Slowdive singer and songwriter’s third solo album, which was originally released in November 2012. It is a stunning record and one which, upon its release, underlined the claims that Neil was one of the finest and most underrated British songwriters of recent times. It’s also a very special release in the Sonic Cathedral catalogue; the shoegaze label licensed the record from Jack Johnson’s Brushfire imprint for the UK and Europe and it was the start of a relationship that also gave us the Black Hearted Brother album in 2013 and, ultimately, brought about the reformation of Slowdive in 2014. But Palindrome Hunches is a very different beast. Both stately and understated, this moody and mesmerising collection of peculiarly British folk songs was made with the Band of Hope, a Wallingford, Oxfordshire based collective consisting of Ben Smith (violin), Drew Milloy (double bass), Paul Whitty (piano) and Tom Crook (guitar). Together with producer Nick Holton, banjo player Kevin Wells and backing singer Aimee Craddock, they recorded the album to tape over a few weekends in the music room of their local junior school. “At first we were going to record in a studio, but everything seemed too clean,” said Neil at the time. “We just went through the songs and recorded them live without very much rehearsal. We wanted to be spontaneous and simple and to keep the little mistakes that sneaked in.” This goes a long way to explaining the album’s humanity and intimacy, and also why it has had a quiet life of its own over the past decade, gradually growing in stature alongside Neil’s more high-profile activities with Slowdive; copies of the 2012 original and even the 2017 repress currently fetch up to triple figures on Discogs. The stunning opener ‘Digging Shelters’ was used to devastating effect in the posthumously released James Gandolfini movie Enough Said – a fitting home for a song that rubs shoulders here with ruminations about love and loss such as ‘Tied To You’ and ‘Spin The Bottle’ and, on ‘Wittgenstein’s Arm’, an Austrian pianist who had his right arm amputated in World War I and lost three of his brothers to suicide. The wordplay of the title track is almost light-hearted in comparison; “I wanted to write a song that was the same forwards and backwards, but it didn’t quite work out,” explained Neil, adding that he also chose ‘Palindrome Hunches’ for the album’s title because “I like the idea of things being reversible”. A couple years later, by reforming his old band, he proved that. And now, ten years on, it’s the perfect time to rewind to this understated, underrated classic. Side A 1 Digging Shelters 2 Bad Drugs and Minor Chords 3 Wittgenstein’s Arm 4 Spin The Bottle 5 Tied to You Side B 1 Love Is a Beast 2 Palindrome Hunches 3 Full Moon Rising 4 Sandy 5 Hey Daydreamer 6 Loose Change. Praise for Palindrome Hunches on its original release: ““Nope, it ain’t shoegaze as it's been codified and re-codified. But why be disappointed in someone following his muse to a logical conclusion when that path was always the one he walked on?” – Pitchfork An exquisite set of dark folk music” – The Times “Draws from the same understated, reflective well as John Martyn” – MOJO “‘Tied To You’ doesn’t merely evoke Nick Drake but withstands the comparison – evidence of the songs’ quality” – Financial Times “Halstead’s songs breathe the sort of honesty and goodness that’s harder and harder to find in the iTunes age” – The Independent “Given the chance, they could be songs that continue to enchant for many years to come” – The Line Of Best Fit

Rastafarianism came to prominence in the late 1960's/ 1970's and had a huge influence on the musical culture in Jamaica. The sentiments of the songs reflected the struggles of life, as reggae music always did but now with an added spiritual/conscious element to the lyrics. By the mid 1970's most, if not all the top flight singers were following the doctrine and growing their har to dreadlocks.
Everything was truly 'Dread'.
At the heart of this musical explosion was again Bunny 'Striker' Lee a man who was always at the heart of the action and many times in his career ahead of the musical game. As Bunny Lee's stable of singers were at this time nearly all Rasta's and with the worldwide acceptance of Bob Marley, in especially the foreign territories, this musical style was the way forward for reggae music in the mid 1970's. The visual focal point of this new turn in reggae music would be a call to all things 'Dread'. Add to the mix Bunny Lee's close working relationship with studio wizard King Tubby, again not a Rasta himself, but someone who could sonically bring what was needed to the table and enable the whole musical chemistry to fall into place.
Heavy rhythms were created to match the heavy and serious lyrics and 'Versions Galore' as they say were coming out fast and furious.
We have compiled a set of conscious tunes that not only match the 'Dread' criteria, but also are just great tunes. The great Jacob Miller's 'Zion Gates', Cornell Campbells 'Two Faced Rasta', Horace Andy's 'It's Gonna Be Dread' alongside Linval Thompson's 'Never Conquer Jah'. Two timeless cuts from the 'The Abyssinians' get a fresh outing by two great singers, firstly Don Carlos' cut to 'Satta Massaganna' and the prince of reggae himself, Dennis Brown works 'Declaration of Rights' in fine style. Johnny Clarke's 'Man like Me' and 'Dem Say Rasta' still sound as fresh today as when they were first laid down and Wayne Jarrett's 'Live On Jah' and Frankie Jones 'Satta and Praise Jah' add to this great selection. All great 'Dread' tunes that were cut or voiced at King Tubby's giving them that extra shine.
So if you are Rasta or not this is a great set of tunes to make you move and also like all of the best things in life, make you think.........

















Track 14 WICKED BABYLON - LINVAL THOMPSON

Wau Wau Collectif's second album, Mariage, is instilled with a newfound sense of purpose. Expanding upon the inspirational themes of their acclaimed 2021 debut, Yaral Sa Doom (Educate The Young), this long distance collaboration from musicians in Senegal and Sweden's Karl Jonas Winqvist is an even more stylistically expansive affair. Joyful children's songs collide with fuzzy guitar solos and thumping hip-hop beats. Shimmering synths lift off from the plunky percussion of the balafon and versatile sounds of the 22-string kora. Familiar voices from the first album return with more explicitly political lyrics, while the music feels both rhythmically dense and sonically weightless, flowing from one spellbinding moment to the next. For Mariage, band members from each country were inspired to include a wider array of instrumental flourishes unique to their cross-continental collaboration. "Yay Balma" revolves around the cycling riffs of Jango Diabaté's xalam guitar, as this song's fuzzy tones and soaring sax solos open side two with a bang. "Pitchi Goubidi" provides a stark contrast, with the kora played like a harp and Gilbert Badji's gravelly lyrics about "the bird of the night" disappearing into dubbed-out chamber pop. Winqvist's omnichord hovers back into focus on "Yonou Natangue," a free-floating jam that maintains the messages of Wau Wau Collectif's debut, promoting youth education to address the social issues facing contemporary Senegal: "Peace is the better wealth / The way to wander."

ATALAYA is new work by bassist Dezron Douglas, and it is alive. Alive in all the ways that jazz is at its best - as a pure and personal expression of Black Music filtered through time-honored traditions by a group of musicians who practice sonic coherence through musical unity. Followers of contemporary jazz might recognize Dezron for his bass work behind Pharaoh Sanders, Louis Hayes, or Ravi Coltrane. Steady International Anthem listeners might remember him from the New York side of Makaya McCraven"s Universal Beings. More recently we presented Force Majeure, his sublime duo record with harpist Brandee Younger which compiled the best of livestream performances from their Harlem apartment during the original covid lockdown. That album reflected the speed and feeling of the moment while somehow simultaneously distracting from the harsh reality of it. It also captured a very vulnerable, intimate, and real impression of Dezron on double bass, sharing his power and truth without abandon.

A new compilation titled Erased Tapes _+ù_¦ö, encompassing a two hour cross-section of the label"s 15-year history including hidden gems and previously unreleased material, will be available on November 4 to coincide with specially curated festivals in London and Berlin. The first offering comes from UK producer Kevin Richard Martin aka The Bug and Japanese voice artist Hatis Noit who share their paranormal first collaborative cut After the Storm amongst other unique pairings such as The Art Ensemble of Chicago featuring Moor Mother, Bell Orchestre interpreted by Colin Stetson, Douglas Dare joined by The London Contemporary Orchestra and Ben Lukas Boysen remixed by Kiasmos. Premiered exclusively via The Wire magazine in form of a free download ahead of their debut live performance at Le Guess Who? Festival 2019 in Utrecht, the track is now finally made available on vinyl and streaming platforms alongside other previously unreleased pieces from electronic producer Ryan Lee West aka Rival Consoles and Icelandic composer Högni. "As a solo vocalist and voice artist, I"d always dreamed of floating and being drowned in a beautiful sonic storm. And then I met Kevin Martin" - Hatis Noit The artwork is composed of the Japanese kanji for "15" - calligraphed by label founder Robert Raths and designed by Munich-based artist Bernd Kuchenbeiser.

Felix Laband’s The Soft White Hand is the masterwork of an artist who expresses himself through musical and artistic collage acting together to reinterpret his sources and to express significant elements of his own personal story.

Released by Munich-based Compost Records, the 14-track album is Laband’s first full-length offering since the critically acclaimed Deaf Safari in 2015. It is heralded by the single “Derek and Me”, and is being pressed on vinyl for distribution globally.

In The Soft White Hand Laband works with source materials that will be familiar to those who know his previous four records – Thin Shoes in June (2001), 4/4 Down the Stairs (2002), Dark Days Exit (2005) and especially Deaf Safari which reached deep into the South Africa scene and its political culture to inspire its vocal and music sampling. However, the disengagement he felt from his homeland during his latest album’s creation – an abiding sense of untethered-ness to place and space, exquisitely rendered in tracks like “Death of a Migrant” – is perceptible in Laband’s desire to illuminate instead aspects of his own life.

“For this album, my source material became almost autobiographical as opposed to African statements I’ve worked with previously,” says the artist. “I have sampled a lot from documentaries from the 80s crack epidemic in impoverished African American communities and believe my work speaks unapologetically for the lost and marginalised, for those who are the forgotten casualties of the war on drugs. In the past, I have had my issues with substance abuse, and I know first-hand about the nightmares and fears, what it feels like to be isolated and abandoned.”

Few artists have managed to air these intimate aspects of their life so luminously as Laband does in tracks like “5 Seconds Ago”, “They Call Me Shorty” and in the strange and meditative “Dreams of Loneliness”. “I’ve been building this weird, autobiographical story using other people talking. It’s kind of humorous but it is also sad and beautiful,” says Laband.

Yet, as in all of Laband’s recorded output, the delineations between emotions are never starkly drawn and The Soft White Hand is also shot through with beauty. Nature appears in recordings made in his garden in the intimate early morning hours, whether as in the calls of the Hadada Ibis and other birdsong in “Prelude” or of the vertical-tail-cocking bird in “Derek and Me”. The last is a wonderful track with Derek Gripper, the South African experimental classical guitarist of international renown, whose 2020 song “Fanta and Felix” imagines a meeting between Fanta Sacko and Laband.

Laband’s eloquence in reinterpreting classical composers such as Beethoven in “We Know Major Tom’s a Junkie” is another thrilling aspect of the new record. “I’ve been properly exploring classical music on this album,” explains Laband, “taking melodies from classical compositions and reinterpreting them”. A fresh quality comes to his work through this sonic adventuring: the tender manipulation of the mundaneness of the computer’s AI voice to reimagine and reinvent iconic lyrics and melodies in strange and unexpected configurations.

The Soft White Hand is Laband’s most cohesive body of work to date. Yet it remains, in its sheer artistic scope, impossible to describe fully. Darkness abuts the gossamer light. A song that summons the sunrise and all the hope of a new day could also be about the final dipping down of the sun that portends a troubled night ahead. Interludes are invitations to expand outwards or shift inwards. Mistakes and “weird fuckups” in the sound are cherished as convincing statements against what Laband calls the “grossness” of perfect sound in modern music.

For this world-leading electronic artist, the boundaries are unfixed. He is inspired by the German Dada artist, Hannah Höch, who memorably declared: “I wish to blur the firm boundaries which we self-certain people tend to delineate around all we can achieve.” His music consequently reflects a primal artistic impulse that is also visible in Laband’s considerable visual art output as seen recently in several solo exhibitions such as that held in the No End Gallery in Johannesburg in 2019 and in the works he produced during his 2018 Nirox Foundation Artists Residency. “My music is always about collage, as is my art,’’ he affirms. “Everything I do is collage. It is a medium I find very interesting because you are taking history and distorting it and changing its meaning and turning it upside down and back to front.” In her book Recollections of My Non-Existence, Rebecca Solnit calls collage “literally a border art”; it is “an art of what happens when two things confront each other or spill onto each other”.

With The Soft White Hand, Laband is confirming his singular ability to achieve this in both art and music, melting the divisions between the two creative disciplines until they become one. He is also affirming his belief that an album of music should be more than a collection of unrelated tracks, but should unfold a fully integrated, cohesive story as in the song cycles of the great classical composers. In doing so, he claims his position as one of the most significant artists working today.

Artist Statement – Felix Laband – August 2022

When the Khmer Rouge took their captives for processing, they identified their class enemies by looking at their hands. If they were sunburned, rough and calloused, they were those of a peasant, a proletarian to be spared. But if they were soft and white, then they were those of a city-dweller, an intellectual or bourgeois, an adversary to be liquidated.

In calling this album The Soft White Hand, I was reflecting on the Cambodian genocide and how it resonates in contemporary South Africa. The apartheid era is over, and gone with it is white political domination. Yet economic and social privilege is still held in soft white hands. But those who grasp it know just how tenuous is their hold, how it singles them out, and my music reflects their subconscious fears, the stress and guilt of clinging on to what others envy and desire.

The soft white hand of the title suggests to me a further image, one that relates to all of postcolonial Africa. In my mind’s eye, I see the soft, duplicitous handshake of the smooth representatives of the superpowers making deals and promising gifts that benefit only them, and not their African dupes.
Yet, soaring above the wailing of sirens sampled from the first day of the invasion of Ukraine, my music is also about love gained and passion lost. It is about the tender caress of a soft white hand that conducts you into a place of dreams to be enfolded by nocturnal melodies.

4 Cuts Placed In "A First Quarter", the companion piece to Solos, is the sonic result of a collaboration with artist Lawrence Weiner. As Landry remembers, “I was working for Keith Sonnier at Castelli Gallery and met Lawrence. He asked ‘can you make a video for me?’ So we did "To and Fro..." At some point he was working on "A First Quarter" (1973) and wanted me to do the music. I said ‘I already have the music.’ He said ‘what do you mean?’ I had recorded several pieces with Kurt Munkcasi and walked around the set playing the music on a boom box.”

The set features one solo each by Landry and contrabassist Rusty Gilder, a duo for the tenor saxophones of Landry and Richard Peck, and an ensemble piece for Landry, Peck, Gilder, trumpeter Robert Prado, and drummer David Lee, Jr. Starting the record off is “Requiem for Some,” inspired by Gil Evans’ long, placid tones. The anchor is Lee’s dry cymbal attack and fancy footwork, dancing around overlapping and recombining horns, chords held just shy of splintering. “4th Register” is a grainy delayed solo tenor piece, presaging “Kitchen Solos” from Fifteen Saxophones by several years. “Piece for So” was, according to Landry, “a chance to give Rusty a solo”. Mostly known as an ensemble bassist, Gilder bounced between Lafayette, Charlotte, and New York, leaving a slim recorded legacy. Here, he stretches out for twelve minutes and change – with keen upper register detail and meaty up-tempo walk, he could have been mentioned in the same breath as players like Dave Holland and Barre Phillips. The closing “Duo Vivace” finds Landry and Peck sparring on tenors, the latter holding a melodic line while Landry leans into explosive glossolalia, until both become birds in flight.

Këkht Aräkh is the Ukrainian project founded in 2018 by Dmitry Marchenko. Originally released on the Finnish label Livor Mortis in 2021, Pale Swordsman goes to even greater extents in building a bold and atmospheric sonic palette, and it’s now seeing a worldwide reissue via Brooklyn label Sacred Bones.

For the sound design of the album, Dmitry was inspired by The Stooges’ Raw Power to deliver a more soft sounding album, decisively less “metal”. Traditional black metal song structures still persist in songs like “Night Descends” and “In The Garden”. However, their rawness and fast tempos is quickly cut through by dark ambient passages in “Amor” and “Intro” and softly played desolate ballads like “Nocturne” and “Lily”.

Këkht Aräkh is the Ukrainian project founded in 2018 by Dmitry Marchenko. Originally released on the Finnish label Livor Mortis in 2021, Pale Swordsman goes to even greater extents in building a bold and atmospheric sonic palette, and it’s now seeing a worldwide reissue via Brooklyn label Sacred Bones.

For the sound design of the album, Dmitry was inspired by The Stooges’ Raw Power to deliver a more soft sounding album, decisively less “metal”. Traditional black metal song structures still persist in songs like “Night Descends” and “In The Garden”. However, their rawness and fast tempos is quickly cut through by dark ambient passages in “Amor” and “Intro” and softly played desolate ballads like “Nocturne” and “Lily”.

New pressing of the old RSD LP , now on black vinyl. An essential vinyl release of the Throwing Muses’ mainstay’s 2016’s CD and essay book that featured stories from “her life's most perception-altering junctures” (NPR). “As memoirs, her albums are so intensely personal... as art, they’re arguments for the value of unapologetic individuality” Pitchfork. “This music reminds you how alone you are; it consoles you through its insolubility, comforts you by jabbing you in the chest and letting you know how complex the struggle is, how inaccessible we are to each other but just how universal our pain can be.” The Wire. This sonically rich and fragmented record references to Hersh’s past material and sees her perform on guitar, bass, drums, piano, horns and cello. There’s a mysticism and sense of life wonderment throughout ‘Wyatt At The Coyote Palace’ that also has death as a central theme rather than the contemplation of death itself it’s reaching the end of something and beginning a new life. Tracklist: Side A. 1 Bright 2 Bubble Net 3 In Stitches 4 Secret Codes 5 Green Screen 6 Hemmingway's Tell. Side B. 7 Detox 8 Wonderland 9 Day 3 10 Diving Bell 11 Killing Two Birds 12 Guadalupe. Side C. 13 American Copper 14 August 15 Some Dumb Runaway 16 From the Plane 17 Sun Blown 18 Elysian Fields. Side D. 19 Soma Gone Slapstick 20 Cooties 21 Christmas Underground 22 Between Piety and Desire 23 Shaky Blue Can 24 Shotgun

MP3 album download included. Best New Music… 9.2 // ‘Dear Science’ cuts through genres like a laser through a music encyclopaedia, making strange connections, but always with pop clarity as the ultimate aim. — NME // Dear Science reprograms old‐school rock thrills for an ear‐budded nation, using surprising juxtapositions to explode familiar sounds. — Rolling Stone // (Dear Science) boldly took guitars where no album had gone before. And it did so with more creativity, daring and flair than any record since Radiohead's OK Computer. — The Guardian // The band’s third studio album released in 2008, Dear Science, opened with vintage TVOTR, but the nostalgia does not last. With Dear Science, the band continue to push the limit with sonic experiments that fill out the rest of the album. Track Listing: 1 Halfway Home 2 Crying 3 Dancing Choose 4 Stork & Owl 5 Golden Age 6 Family Tree 7 Red Dress 8 Love Dog 9 Shout Me Out 10 DLZ 11 Lover’s Day

Repress in soon, note new price. RIYL Steve Gunn, Hiss Golden Messenger, Ryley Walker, Itasca, Bill Callahan, Kurt Vile, Angel Olsen. “Timeless ... Measured, perceptive storytelling. A singer with an unmistakable and communicative voice, able to convey hope and hurt with equal clarity.” Pitchfork / “She writes literate songs with unusual precision and sings them in an understated, open-hearted way that lends good poetry the directness of conversation.” Uncut / On her fourth album as The Weather Station, Tamara Lindeman reinvents, and more deeply roots, her extraordinary, acclaimed songcraft, framing her precisely detailed, exquisitely wrought prose-poem narratives in bolder and more cinematic musical settings. The result is her most sonically direct and emotionally candid statement to date. The Weather Station is her most direct and candid record, and the first one to include tracks one might characterize as pop songs. Throughout, the record grapples with some of the darkest material Lindeman has yet approached: it is, according to her, the first album on which she touches on her personal experiences of mental illness. And yet the gesture inherent to the record is one of unflinching embrace. Despite it all, the characters “fall down laughing, effervescent, and all over nothing, all over nothing.” “Well, I guess I got the hang of it” she sings wryly, “the impossible.” By saying more than ever before, The Weather Station seeks to reveal the unnamable, the unsayable void that lies beneath language and relationships. It’s willfully messy and ardent and hungry. Tracks : A1 Free A2 Thirty A3 You and I (on the Other Side of the World) A4 Kept It All to Myself A5 Impossible B1 Power B2 Complicit B3 Black Flies B4 I Don’t Know What to Say B5 In an Hour B6 The Most Dangerous Thing About You

Deca’s streak of entrancing releases continues with Smoking Gun, an album that deftly blends psychedelic, raw production with sharp insights and clever lyricism. But it’s also much more than that. Smoking Gun is a sonic representation of an artist grappling with living in America, a country with a network of broken systems that leaves Deca questioning when and if it may turn around. To say this all makes for a compelling listen would be a vast understatement, because the New York City-based rapper/producer knows the key to presenting this material. He does it in a way that’s both refreshing and new, but never isolating or simply too oddball. There’s a left-field quality to his work, but Deca knows exactly what he’s doing. To prove that point, he enlisted fellow outside-the-box thinkers like Blu and Homeboy Sandman to appear on some of the album’s standout cuts. “Shelter,” which features Blu, is a jazzy, dusty piece of thoughtful hip-hop with crazy flows and lyrics to match. It’s so good you’ll wish these two would record an entire project together, and the same goes for Boy Sand’s appearance on “Dawn Wind.” Backed by Deca’s own low-key funky production, both he and Homeboy Sandman go verse for verse, each offering their own take on how to liberate yourself from the machine that aims to surveil and control both our outer world and inner peace. Other tracks embody a similar energy, including the justifiably cynical “St. America (feat. DJ Stan Solo)” and stunning “Tuning.” The latter track may just be the most impressive piece on Smoking Gun, thanks in part to the mind-melting beat-switch. It’s a thrilling musical journey that furthers Deca’s narrative about mankind’s ethical plight, and the problems we collectively face. TRACKLIST: 1. Smoking Gun (Intro) 2. St. America (feat. DJ Stan Solo) 3. Tuning 4. Blight 5. Flight Path (feat. Ichiban, DJ AWHAT!) 6. Hive of Industry 7. Crab Apples 8. Shelter (feat. Blu) 9. Tunnel Under 10. Dawn Wind (feat. Homeboy Sandman) 11. War Heads 12. The Eagle's Descent

Originally released in 2006 as a mini-CDr in a limited edition of 300
signed and numbered copies, this immersive selection of solo recordings
by Savage Republic, Scenic and Independent Project Records founder
Bruce Licher finally gets the expanded reissue treatment
Newly packaged in oversized die cut pocket folders complete with various inserts
to give a more complete artistic presence to the unique and special music that is
being shared. CD packaging is designed by world-renowned graphic design artist
Bruce Licher.
The three original tracks "recorded in the summer of '97 on a cassette 4-track" are
now accompanied by a fourth instrumental that ventures into atmospheric
electronic territory. The bonus track was composed on an old Roland SH-2000
synthesizer Licher found while living in Arizona; it is, rather fittingly, named
"Number 09" "an homage to the Beatles' most adventurous piece of
experimentation. 'Exploratorium' reclaims equal fondness for the natural and the
industrial. This inquisitive approach is made clearer "and intriguing" by the
unexpected pairing of the original three tracks with "Number 09". Whereas "Peak",
"Going Home" and "The Penstemon Field" eagerly play with stretching the role of
guitars and bass, "Number 09" takes its cue from the hypnotic synths of the
Human League's 12" from 1979 'The Dignity of Labour' and sets off for an
unconstrained sonic trip that goes from the jarring to the meditative. It's a
mesmerizing blend of ambient and post- rock, noisy shoegaze and pastoral
melodic structures, droning avant-garde and soundtracks at their most.

Back in print after a decade, bringing with it covers of The Lemonheads,
Carole King, Olivia Tremor Control, and Tom Waits! Cut by Kevin Gray and
spread over two LPs to give it the sonic awe it deserves! Packaged in a
gatefold jacket chock-full of new liners from Jim Allen in conversation
with Eef Barzelay (Clem Snide)

MP3 album download included. Best New Music… 9.2 // ‘Dear Science’ cuts through genres like a laser through a music encyclopaedia, making strange connections, but always with pop clarity as the ultimate aim. — NME // Dear Science reprograms old‐school rock thrills for an ear‐budded nation, using surprising juxtapositions to explode familiar sounds. — Rolling Stone // (Dear Science) boldly took guitars where no album had gone before. And it did so with more creativity, daring and flair than any record since Radiohead's OK Computer. — The Guardian // The band’s third studio album released in 2008, Dear Science, opened with vintage TVOTR, but the nostalgia does not last. With Dear Science, the band continue to push the limit with sonic experiments that fill out the rest of the album. Track Listing: 1 Halfway Home 2 Crying 3 Dancing Choose 4 Stork & Owl 5 Golden Age 6 Family Tree 7 Red Dress 8 Love Dog 9 Shout Me Out 10 DLZ 11 Lover’s Day

Luuk van Dijk has unveiled his hotly-anticipated debut album First Contact, out 11th November on his own Dark Side Of The Sun label. The Dutch DJ and producer’s maiden LP is the end result of a long and intense voyage of discovery.

Years in the making, it’s a project that Luuk can fully stand behind and be proud of. Next to a search for his own identity and his own place in music, it has also become a passage
through time.

By far his largest body of work to date, the 13-track release kicks off with the suitably-titled ‘Cosmiq’, a deep, grooving sonic exploration that immediately sets the tone. “Because of this
track I wanted to make an album to showcase my other kind of music that people won’t maybe expect of me,” Luuk explains.

Next up is the shimmering, ethereal sounds of ‘Love You’, a track that features the irresistible vocals of US singer-songwriter Dawn Richard and will be released as a single in October. “She really brought this track to a whole new level,” says Luuk. “I couldn’t be more happy with the result.”

Further collaborations come in the form of ‘Wolf’, a majestic, strings-led house cut featuring Steve Burton of oneofmanysteves; ‘Master Plug’, a deep, jackin’ number with Chicago artist
Kid Enigma; and the Detroit-indebted ‘Together We Rise’, punctuated by the spiritual vocals of MC Roga. “I tried making a track the way they used to make music,” Luuk says of the latter.

“With as few machines as possible, just a mixer, sampler and some synths.” Additional highlights include the enchanting ‘Let The Bass Kick’, orchestral ‘Lightning
Striking’ and hypnotic ‘Hot Stuff’, before ‘Knowing How To Love’ closes things out on a peculiarly wistful note. “The last track of the album, also a track that started as an interlude and
ended up being a full song,” says Luuk.

“This song basically sums up how I’ve been feeling the years 2020 and 2021, very emotional, sad, but also hopeful. Everything will be alright.”

One of the hottest new names coming out of Amsterdam’s bustling club scene, Luuk van Dijk is currently making waves in international waters with his infectious take on spirited house
music.

He has already released on labels like Hot Creations, Cuttin’ Headz, Solid Grooves Records and Eastenderz have established his name as a house music prodigy.

He launched Dark Side Of The Sun in 2020 with the aim of exploring a broader approach to his signature style.

First Contact represents a vivid sonic snapshot of one of electronic music’s brightest young talents.

Early DJ Support :

Jamie Jones
Marco Faraone
Carl Craig
Yuksek
Sasch BBC
CamelPhat
Paco Osuna
Stacey Pullen
Tocadisco

*Ltd Coloured Vinyl on Transparent Blue Vinyl* London-based musician and producer Ryan Lee West, aka Rival Consoles, creates driving, experimental electronic music that makes synthesisers sound human. His consistent desire to create a more organic, living sound, sees him forming pieces that capture a sense of songwriting behind the machines.

‘Now Is’ marks a new chapter in an ongoing quest for refinement and evolution. More playful and melodic, the album draws from much experimentation in minimalist songwriting and seamlessly blends synthesisers and acoustic instruments. “There are some pieces that are influenced quite strongly by the isolation and anxiety of these times. There are also pieces which are more optimistic and vibrant, which I think is a consistent attitude of my records, as I want art to express many aspects of life.”

From the elevating arrangements of ‘Beginnings’ and motorik beats of ‘World Turns’, to the isolation of ‘Frontiers’, influenced by the barren landscapes of Iceland, Rival Consoles’ eighth studio album subtly morphs and evolves. “The title of the record ‘Now Is’ interests me because it is the beginning of a statement, but it is incomplete. I like art that is open and suggestive of ideas even if they are inspired by very specific things. With my previous record ‘Overflow’ being very dark, heavy and almost dystopian, I wanted to escape into a different world with this music and ended up creating a record which is a lot more colourful and euphoric.”

For the sonic ‘Vision of Self’, West looked to create the kind of movement and colour a string section in an orchestra would construct, but with synthesisers. “I think there’s a lot of synergy between the two worlds. I wanted to create a hypnotic journey, where the synths and sounds weave in and out of each other, so you get lost in the music and don’t know where one sound starts or another ends.” This “journey” West refers to is symbiotic of the way he has approached music throughout a progressive career – an ongoing project that is never static and always moving forward.

A sense of euphoria is reached with the pulsating title track which bursts into colour like the appearance of the summer sun, while ‘Echoes’ is a vivid exploration of rhythm and sound for summer nights. The track starts with a dense collage of modular synths, fragmented metallic tones, broken sounding drums and a downcast melodic synth line. “This is a piece where the main melody has been in my head for a long time and was just waiting to come out. I kind of think of it as the sonic equivalent to an impressionist painting in that I wanted to explore the sensation of lots of small layers of different colours and textures that are constantly moving around each other.”

Rival Consoles is set to appear at festivals across Europe this summer, with headline shows expected to follow in the autumn.

In 2003, Pisco Crane assembled a six-piece band from motivated and talented like minds in the Kinshasa slums where he grew up. Pisco had been involved with a handful of local rap acts when he was younger, but after meeting legendary instrument builder Bebson De La Rue, he was inspired to follow a new path. He set about building instruments from the discarded trash that surrounded his city: bits of old computers or oil cans were fashioned into bass guitars and drums, and keyboards were bashed together using springs, metal pipes, and offcuts of tubing. If there was a core philosophy that guided Pisco at this stage in his journey, it was that everyone should have access to instruments, no matter where they come from or what their budget might be. And following in the footsteps of Bebson, Pisco locked into a Congolese tradition that touches on the eccentric genius of globally lauded artists like Konono Nº1 and Staff Benda Bilili. Over the years, Fulu Miziki's notoriety grew in the Kinshasa underground - their utopian vision of the future was infectious. Eventually, they were joined by performance artist, sculptor and fashion designer Lady Aisha, who offered the band unique colour and a soulful central focus. Influenced by Kinshasa's street performance scene, Aisha helped the band devise vivid masks and costumes that were as electric and singular as the instruments they played, and the scene was set. In 2020, as the world was plunged into lockdown, footage of Fulu Miziki went viral and their star began to grow exponentially, with a video of the band preforming the track 'Tikanga' racking up millions of views on Facebook. The band used this opportunity to work on documenting their sound, and shored up at the Nyege Nyege studios in Kampala for a year to assemble a definitive album. Recorded by HHY & The Macumbas' Jonathan Saldanha, this record captures the band's furiously innovative mixture of industrial sonics, spiritual jazz, punk, and Congolese soukous pressure. At their best, Fulu Miziki sound almost completely out of time, curving pounding rhythms around microtonal clanks, rousing chants and spiky sonics. On 'Mutangila', there's a hint of disco in the 4/4 stomp, but it's been shifted into a post-punk ritual, adorned with complex bell percussion and overlapping vocals. 'Congo' is even harder to define; electrified buzzes form a bassline, but it's the mindboggling rhythms that shuttle the track into psychedelic realms, led confidently by Lady Aisha's limber rhymes. Fulu positively slither on the sultry, industrial-influenced 'Sebe', while 'Tikanga' reminds of Congo's rumba-derived soukous traditions, materializing the sounds into the future with tight, pounding percussion and head-melting fx. The story of Fulu Miziki is sprawling and complex and constantly evolving, with various offshoots and band iterations. Two members left the band in 2016 to form KOKOKO! with French producer Débruit. Not long after they recorded this magnum opus album, several other original members left to form a similarly named outfit currently based in Europe. This other incarnation recently released an EP of electronic productions without the band founder Pisko Crane and lead vocalist Lady Aicha, on the UK based Moshi Moshi records. Pisco and Lady Aicha currently lead a different outfit in Kinshasa made up of completely new musicians. This full-length is the remaining proof of Fulu Mziki at their most vital and most complete - it won't be repeated - and can never be recreated. It's an essential portrait of one of the Democratic Republic of Congo's most innovative contemporary outfits, and some of the most surprising hybrid music you're likely to hear.

Twisted and irreverent, The Rabbits combined ear-splitting guitar shrapnel with one of punk’s greatest-ever snot-nosed vocalists. With hints of PIL or Chrome, but beamed in from a parallel dimension and filtered through the warped lens of visionary loner Syoichi Miyazawa. First-ever vinyl release, fully remastered from the band’s original early ’80s cassette releases, and housed in a sturdy tip-on sleeve. Includes a double-sided, printed insert. Edition of 500

Singer-songwriter Syoichi Miyazawa’s tale is a confounding one.

He grew up in a small town in Yamagata Prefecture (in northern Japan), loved Dylan and The Beatles, and had very little exposure to, or interest in, underground music. And yet, shortly after 24-year-old Miyazawa arrived in Tokyo in 1978, he began performing solo shows at tiny clubs in the city, singing and playing guitar. His performances quicky devolved from brisk acoustic jaunts to lengthy, heavy dirges sung in a snot-nosed wail over a blown-out electric guitar detuned to produce a kind of sonic sludge.

At one of his earliest gigs, a mutual friend introduced him to Endo Michiro, who would soon become the legendary front man of Japanese punk icons The Stalin. It turned out Miyazawa and Endo had attended Yamagata University at the same time just a few years earlier, but hadn’t known each other at school. In Tokyo, they became fast friends, moved into the same apartment building, and for years were inseparable. Endo played guitar and drums on Miyazawa’s debut release, the “Christ Was Born in a Stable” flexi disc. But while Endo was social and outgoing, Miyazawa preferred to be alone, avoiding concerts unless he was performing.

Despite these antisocial tendencies, Miyazawa came to despise playing solo. In 1982, an eccentric high school student named Chika introduced herself at one of Miyazawa’s gigs, and Miyazawa asked if she’d play bass. She agreed and drafted two of her friends to play second guitar and drums. The Rabbits were born.

Miyazawa wrote the tunes, and had a clear vision for the group, but struggled to get the sound he wanted from the other members. His second guitarist was more of a fusion player, and Miyazawa took great pains to get him to tone down the shredding. The group quickly went through multiple line-up changes. Frustrated with the sound of their first proper recording (self-released as the “X1(x)” cassette), Miyazawa spent a full year mixing their second cassette, “Winter Songs,” on his own.

The hard work paid off — the sound of “Winter Songs” is striking, and unlike anything the band’s peers produced. There’s liberal use of delay on the vocals, giving the music a psychedelic feel, but the guitars are caustic, cutting through the mix like metal shrapnel. The rhythm section seems on the verge of teetering out of control throughout, an overdriven and pummeling current below abrasive slabs of guitar and vocals. Even at their most aggressive, though, The Rabbits had strong pop sensibilities, complete with cooing backing vocals and the occasional harmonica solo. Miyazawa delivers his borderline nonsensical lyrics with equal amounts of menace and gaiety, consistently riding that fine line as only a natural oddball can. At times, the band sounds like a distant cousin of PiL, Chrome or The Homosexuals, but beamed in from a parallel dimension and filtered through Miyazawa’s warped lens.

Although The Rabbits briskly sold all 500 copies of the "Winter Songs" tape, live audiences at the time seemed dumbfounded by the group, and would stare at them in silence. After two years together, The Rabbits called it quits in 1984.

When asked if any of the many legendary groups (Les Rallizes Desnudes, G.I.S.M., etc.) he shared stages with left an impression, Miyazawa recently revealed that he always left the venue as soon as he finished performing, so he never caught any of the other bands…

All of which is to say —

The Rabbits are one of the great punk bands of the early ’80s, but their leader had no interest in the punk scene and always thought he was making “normal” music. They rubbed shoulders with a slew of notable groups of the era, and their singer was best friends with arguably the most famous Japanese punk of all time, but Miyazawa shunned fraternization and purposefully distanced himself from his peers.

Could this be why so few underground music fans are familiar with the group, even in Japan? Why they seem to have been written out of the official history of Japanese punk? One can never know for sure, but Mesh-Key hopes to remedy this travesty by offering this compilation, the first-ever official LP by The Rabbits, to a new generation of punk and psychedelic music connoisseurs.
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Toronto’s Dan Lee steps out of the spotlight and into the producer’s chair on the new collaborative Lee Paradise LP, Lee Paradise & Co., due October 28 2022 on Telephone Explosion. Lee Paradise & Co. follows 2020’s critically acclaimed The Fink LP, and finds Lee flipping the shadowy nihilism of the project’s previous releases upward into a sort of cybernetic universality. This is Dan Lee in producer mode, veering away from the pursuit of a singular musical direction rooted in personal vision, towards of a process rich in collaboration, emotional expansion and tonal exploration.

Starting off as a set of mood-focusedinstrumental sketches drafted by Dan on his own, the compositions began coloringthemselves in after he started sending the tracks out to collaborators, asking them to contribute without much in the way of direction or intention. With help from an ensemble cast of artists including Carlyn Bezic (Jane Inc.), Jonathan Pappo (Scott Hardware, No Frills, Ducks Ltd), Scott Hardware, Isla Craig, Victoria Cheong (New Chance), Jay Anderson, Charise Aragoza & Lukas Cheung (Mother Tongues) and Daniel Woodhead (Moon King), nearly every aspect of this album’s creation eventually became open to collaboration, from musical performances, lyric writing, and vocals all the way through to mixing and mastering.

Sonically, the record is still unmistakably Lee Paradise: a widescreen polyrhythmic psychedelia that melts, bubbles, whirrs and klanks; the sound of the human and the machine grooving in accordance towards new futures. The album’s sonic palette is at once synthetic, warm and extraterrestrial. Arpeggiated square wave melodies dance in lockstep with crunching hi-hats, digital bells and chimes fall like crystal rain in stereo above plush pads and gurgling bass figures. Used to finishing the records on his own, Lee mixed this album with Montreal’s Asher Gould-Murtagh and the results are spacious, dusty and dubbed out. “Carnival” sets the scene with it’s stuttering, busted funk groove and ribbons of aqueous vocal harmony from New Chance’s Victoria Cheong. “Raffles”(featuring one of Daniel’s two vocal performances on the record) radiates a mellow optimism in its solar-warped balearic bliss. The album’s final track, “Youngish” is a gliding, melancholic downtempo instrumental thumper saturated in a kaleidoscopic array of lysergic tones. As always, the record anchors itself to the dancefloor with the screwed-down electro of “Cement”, the swinging midnight afterglow of “Leaving” and “CS2X”’s fluttering rave arpeggios.

Lee Paradise & Co. is the sound of an expert producer and sound sculptor conceding to the elusive flows of inspiration, knocking genre conventions askew and hopscotching between a variety of styles, musical identities and sound worlds with absolute panache.

new pressing on red & black swirl vinyl. RIYL: New Order, Drab Majesty, The KVB, Black Marble, The Soft Moon. Layering synths, guitars, electronic percussion and live drums, Houses of Heaven fuses early industrial and techno rhythms with the melodicism of shoegaze and a heavy dose of dub-influenced effects on their first full-length album titled 'Silent Places.' Written against the backdrop of the Northern California wildfires, ever-growing tent cities and the continued rise of empty luxury housing in the Bay Area, the album explores the intimate experiences that transpire within the chaotic confines of modern living. Opener "Sleep" basks in the tension surrounding the album's inception with blown-out kick drums, claustrophobic verses, and deteriorating vocal effects. Sharp arpeggiated synths and woozy strings neutralize the track's subterranean anxiety with texture and sensuality. Produced by Matia Simovich (Inhalt) and with engineering credits that include Monte Vallier (Weekend) and John McEntire (Tortoise), it's a potent introduction to the muscular sound design underpinning the album. Booming taiko drums sound the beginning of "Dissolve the Floor," the album's most club-ready track. A pulsing arpeggio gives the song its industrial heartbeat while disintegrating tape delay throws menace into the hazy atmosphere. The undulating techno beat breaks and repairs itself with seductive and satisfying timing. "In Soft Confusion" doesn't stray from the album's obsidian narrative as it envisions and ponders the aftermath of human extinction. Sonically speaking, though, it's the album's most uptempo offering with Tecon's supremely infectious chorus vocal hook and Beck's dizzying guitar riffs. The intricate electronic drum programming is elevated by Ott's live drumming, which lends a refreshingly human touch to the potentially icy, and often mechanical, sonic territory of synthdriven music. Adding density to the album's shadowy allure are the unusual sounds and vintage outboard effects that Tecon and Simovich impressively maneuver into the album's tonal palette. Great care has been taken to finesse familiar pop structures with an inventive edge. It's this mindfulness of past and present that is sure to secure Silent Places as a standout album in the new decade. Also Available From Houses Of Heaven: Remnant 12" EP