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Jeder, der mit dem zähneknirschenden, blutigen Punk-Knurren von Kid Kapichi vertraut ist, kennt ihre „Fearless Nature“, daher sollte es auf den ersten Blick keine Überraschung sein, dass das vierte Album der Band aus Hastings diesen Titel trägt. Der erste veröffentlichte Track, „Stainless Steel“, wird von Frontmann Jack Wilson als Brücke zwischen dem alten und dem neuen Kid Kapichi beschrieben. Mit seiner tödlichen, straffen und kraftvollen Effizienz trägt er zwar eindeutig die Handschrift des klassischen Sounds der Band, aber die Reife seiner Sichtweise und der Mut in seiner Verletzlichkeit sind etwas Neues. Das hört man auf dem gesamten Album „Fearless Nature“, das von Momenten der Selbstzweifel durchzogen ist und von einer Band stammt, die nach Jahren an vorderster Front mutig genug geworden ist, die Einschusslöcher in ihrer Rüstung zu zeigen. „Fearless Nature“ ist auch im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes eine Brücke zu einem neuen Kid Kapichi.

Im Mai 2025 gaben Gitarrist Ben Beetham und Schlagzeuger George Macdonald bekannt, dass sie die Band verlassen würden – eine Entscheidung, die sie bereits etwa sechs Monate zuvor intern getroffen hatten. Die Entscheidung fiel einvernehmlich, und „Fearless Nature“ steht an der Schnittstelle zwischen zwei Generationen: Die Songs wurden mit der alten Besetzung geschrieben, aufgenommen und produziert (Co-Produktion: Beetham und Mike Horner), werden nun aber mit der neuen Besetzung auf Tournee gehen. Gitarrist Lee Martin und Schlagzeuger Miles Gill sind beide langjährige Freunde von Wilson und Bassist Eddie Lewis und Veteranen unzähliger hart spielender Bands auf der Live-Szene im Süden Englands.

Die politische Botschaft der Band mag unverändert geblieben sein, aber mit „Fearless Nature”, das ihr Repertoire erweitert, hat sie nun Gesellschaft bekommen. Ihre Entscheidung, emotionale Komplexität in ihre lyrische Perspektive einfließen zu lassen, ist ein großer Schritt nach vorne, und die Vorteile liegen auf der Hand, aus denen alle Kraft schöpfen können.

Für Fans von: Fontaines DC / Gorillaz / Blur / Yard Act / Soft Play / Demob Happy / Queens of The Stone Age

The first and only covers release from Rush, originally out in 2004. Features covers by Buffalo Springfield, The Who, The Yardbirds and more.

Crafty dub techno n house at its best.

2025 Repress in Red Vinyl

This compilation features music from artists like Nima Gorji, James Dexter, NTFO, Politics Of Dancing, Steve Bug, Markus Homm, Mihai Popoviciu, Dilby & Pornbugs, Dejbali, Dust Yard, Alex Ranerro and Sascha Dive.

US Black Friday 2025 Release. There are very few albums in the psych/punk/hard rock/private presses strata that garner the sort of universal awe and accolades that Fraction’s almighty Moonblood LP does, and even fewer records in the world that could be dubbed ‘Christian Rock’ incur such fierce devotion. Indeed some records just meteorically lift themselves out any genre tag with brilliance and sheer defiance--and Moonblood is surely one of them. Based in LA, Fraction was a ragged collection of working-class musicians--the line-up was ringleader Jim Beach--vocals; Don Swanson--lead guitar, Curt Swanson--drums, Victor Hemme--bass, and Robert Meinel--rhythm guitar. Beach himself describes those early days: “The guys met through various acquaintances that we had in LA. All of us had been in bands before, but were seeking something with more teeth. We had a small studio in an industrial complex in North Hollywood and started practicing sometimes as early as 4:30 AM. We all had day jobs, so we did what we could.”

Amazingly the recording sessions for the album were recorded similarly on the fly, as Beach further states: “The Moonblood recording took place at Whitney’s Studio in Glendale, CA, early in 1971. On a strict budget, these songs were recorded in less than three hours—all of them “one takes.” We played, all 5 of us, simultaneously-- there were no studio effects, no overdubbing or any additional sound effects added. Basically what you hear is considered ‘old school’ recording.”

This workmanlike description in no way prepares one for the pure tortured genius the session wrought. Particularly noteworthy is Beach’s vocals—as commonly stated, the spirit of Jim Morrison is conjured in his deep baritone, which gives way to unparalleled pained howls, at times bathed in delay which trails into the abyss. Fascinatingly enough, Beach cites the much punker Love as his fave LA band over the Doors, and also gives influence-nods to proto-everything rockers The Yardbirds and to Dylan, whose dark word tapestries surely inspired Beach’s lyrics (though lines from The Doors’ “L’America” pop up on the LP) Whatever the case, the man clearly has a vision, as even the stark sleeve concept is Beach’s own. Equally as integral to the Fraction sound is lead guitarist Don Swanson—his blown-out fuzz riffs set a template for what is now commonly known as “stoner rock” or “acid punk,” and his solos consist of jagged, wah-wah-ed shards of notes, with his amplifier clearly pushed to the limit.

Beach says: “Don’s guitar was always my driving force and he did everything he could to keep it over the top. You’d never know that (his sound) was coming from an old, broken down Esquire. Don kept it alive!” The other members contributions shouldn’t be underappreciated though-- drummer Curt Swanson keeps things at a constant simmer, and then boils over when the whole band launches into snarling glory. The band and LP as a whole equals something indescribably intense from start to finish—comparisons to the Detroit late 60s high-energy bands like The Stooges and MC5 abound, as well as the sort of late 60s damaged spirit lurking in biker clubs and disgruntled Vietnam vets. The song cycle on side 1 of the LP in particular cuts to the emotional core, with severely charged dark lyrics like “Extend your thumbs and burn the darkness out of her.” Which brings us to the Christian aspect--it often can confuse listeners. The Fraction/Beach world of religion is complex and perhaps a bit pagan/sinister than most---fire and brimstone, temptation, and the truth-seeker being burned by this hell on earth—or perhaps as Beach himself best put it: “Speaking for myself, as a believer, it’s been a progressive experience since my childhood.

I think we’re all basically driven to live more than religion.” The album was pressed in a run of but a few hundred to little attention in the day, but now inferior bootlegs flood the marketplace, and originals of Moonblood command thousands of dollars. So enjoy this all-inclusive reissue, which also features for the first time on vinyl, 3 lost tracks-- like the more acoustic-minded “prisms” and “dawning light,” as well as the proto-metal choogle of “Intercessor’s Blues.”

"Die unangefochtenen Könige des Garage Rock" sind wieder da! Zwei Jahre nach ihrem Album "Irregularis (The Great Hiatus)" aus dem Jahr 2023 melden sich Thee Headcoats mit einer neuen Platte zurück, die sich nahtlos in die Reihe ihrer besten Alben aus den 1990er Jahren einreiht. Wir präsentieren Ihnen stolz "The Sherlock Holmes Rhythm ,n` Beat Vernacular". Mit 12 fantastischen Stücken (oder Liedchen, wenn Sie so wollen), die letztes Jahr in den Ranscombe Studios in Rochester aufgenommen wurden. "The Sherlock Holmes Rhythm 'n' Beat Vernacular" erscheint am selben Tag wie "Man-Trap", das brandneue Album von Thee Headcoatees, auf dem die Jungs als Backing-Band fungieren. Thee Headcoats ist eine der vielen Musikgruppen unter der Leitung von Billy Childish und (soweit wir wissen) seine bislang produktivste. Kein Wunder, wenn man Billys unermüdliche Kreativität und seinen vollen Veröffentlichungsplan bedenkt. Thee Headcoats spielen harten R&B, Rock 'n' Roll und Punk Rock, beeinflusst von den frühen Kinks, Pretty Things und vor allem The Downliners Sect, mit einem zusätzlichen Sinn für Humor, der durch Bruce, die Vorliebe des Schlagzeugers für Deerstalker-Hüte, geprägt ist. Thee Headcoats etablierten ihren Stil auf ihrer ersten LP "Headcoats Down" Hangman, 1988 und setzten ihn mit "The Earls of Suavedom" [Crypt, 1989] und "Heavens to Murgatroyd, Even! It's Thee Headcoats! (Already)" [SubPop, 1990] fort. Auf späteren Alben wie "The Messerschmitt Pilot's Severed Hand" aus dem Jahr 1998 kam ein schlankerer, punkigerer Sound zum Vorschein, doch die Jungs blieben ihrem rauen, von den 60ern inspirierten R'n'B treu und klangen auf ihrem Comeback-Meisterwerk "Irregularis (The Great Hiatus)" aus dem Jahr 2023 im Wesentlichen unverändert. "The Sherlock Holmes Rhythm 'n' Beat Vernacular" setzt da noch einen drauf und ist beeindruckenderweise eines der absolut besten Billy Childish Alben der letzten 25 Jahre. Das glauben Sie nicht? Dann kaufen und hören Sie es und lassen sich eines Besseren belehren_

As trans-Atlantic alchemists pulling from a shared dialectic that somehow encompassed both postmodern deconstructionist tendencies and a delightfully subversive sense of poptimism, it’s easy to see how David Cunningham and Peter Gordon immediately hit it off upon initially meeting each other back in the late-1970s at the height of their youthful transgressions. Having initially worked together on the second Flying Lizards’ LP fourth wall, with its ingenious fusion of dismantled rhythms and rearranged melodies juxtaposed against the slyly sultry singing of Snatch’s Patti Palladin— with Gordon adding a few sprinkles of mischievous sax in the mix— it’s no wonder the collaboration would lead to further musical adventures.

Which leads us directly to the genesis of The Yellow Box. Embarking on a collaborative exercise in the structural repurposing of music as untethered puzzle pieces in need of rearrangement with no predetermined outcomes, the duo gave birth to a project that would see them move through both time and recording studios across Europe, taking nearly two years from 1981-1983 to complete. Enlisting the great Anton Fier on drums from The Feelies/Lounge Lizards nexus and John Greaves on bass from Henry Cow/Soft Heap lore to round out their dueling creative counterparts, the album would be something of a lost treasure until its eventual release on Cunningham’s Piano imprint in 1996.

Cinematic in scope, and filled with drifting drones, beautiful counter-melodies, eery minimalism, Kraftwerkian synthesizers, looped voices, skronky interludes, and other shifting undercurrents of sound, it was an album that utilized both a diverse array of expressive languages, as well as early sampling techniques and prepared instruments, well before most people were thinking in such expansive, integrated terms at the dawn of the 80’s. But such is life at the vanguard of new music. And one of the reasons that it likely sat on the shelf for so long before finally being released well over a decade later. Like a sparser, less groove-oriented version of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, or a more radical take on the experimental work of Can’s Holger Czukay, The Yellow Box stands at the crossroads of time and technology, fusing multiple strands of musical thought and compositional techniques into a disjointed whole that somehow still comes off as a conceptually complete record.

Now, here it is again, over 40 years later, with perhaps even more historical resonance than it had before, remade and remodeled just waiting to be rediscovered again.

Tolle Dub-EP des Channel One Sound Systems, aufgenommen und abgemischt von D. Mathers in den Jamtone Studios, London. Gemastert von Nick Manasseh bei The Yard.

"The Bad Seeds and Zakary Thaks were mid ‘60s Texas garage rock bands formed in the wake of the British Invasion, influenced by The Rolling Stones, Kinks, Yardbirds and others, becoming top local live attractions at a time when the 13th Floor Elevators and Moving Sidewalks were leading the way into psychedelia. In late 1966 Rod Prince on guitar and Roy Cox on bass from Bad Seeds joined up with David Fore from Zakary Thaks on drums to create a new band out of San Antonio featuring two lead guitarists. Todd Potter filled out the quartet on second guitar and they chose the name Bubble Puppy, taken from Aldous Huxley’s 1932 dystopian novel Brave New World. Huxley was an early advocate of LSD, appropriately. In 1969 Bubble Puppy scored a top 20 hit single with “Hot Smoke & Sasafrass” which led to their LP “A Gathering Of Promises”. International Artists, the legendary Texas label that previously had unleashed mind expanding classics by the Elevators, Red Crayola, Golden Dawn and others was a perfect fit. After the LP and additional 45s didn’t repeat the success of “Hot Smoke & Sasafrass” the band hooked up with Nick St. Nicholas of Steppenwolf as their new manager and moved to Los Angeles. A new band name was in order, Nick St. Nicholas chose Demian, title of the 1919 novel by Herman Hesse. His books were popular with the counterculture at the time and had provided Steppenwolf with their new name after they changed it from the Sparrow and hit it big. Demian recorded the LP live in the studio at the Record Plant in one midnight to six session. They had their arrangements fully realized, allowing them to combine live show energy and economy with to-the-point delivery suitable for repeated listening. No doubt they were aiming for pop hit success, using proto hard rock skills in a radio friendly way without compromising the heavy guitar moves. The vocals have echoes of the earlier Bubble Puppy style in spots but are more melodic with vibrant harmonies reminiscent of Moby Grape, Buffalo Springfield, James Gang… at times flashing on Steve Stills/Richie Furay westcoast without being too sweet about it. It works terrifically when the radio friendly voices top off killer hard guitar ensemble action. Early hard rock that is too bluesy flashy can get tiresome with repeat listening, especially if overdosing on guitar solos with the band relegated to the background… Demian keep it interesting with inventive song structures allowing all four players to integrate constantly into an ever changing but focused whole. This LP is a grower, despite the basic two guitars, bass and drums lineup and no frills production you reach a lot of different places during the ride. Demian is deadly hard rock, a perfectly organized vibe straddling live energy and crafted itinerary, amongst the first obscure major label killers that commanded premium $$ with collectors even way back in the late ‘70s. It gets you there every time, even half a century later!"

French producer Fièvre drops his new EP *"Party Again"*, a bold fusion of dubstep and dub techno, featuring iconic grime MC Killa P. The project kicks off with an original mix laced with yardie vibes, followed by a deep, hard-hitting 2-step version. Special guest Hyas—one of the most exciting names in France’s breakbeat scene—jumps in with a razor-sharp, irresistibly catchy drum & bass remix. With *"Party Again"*, Fièvre delivers a UK-flavored EP built for sound systems!

2024 Reissue

“Tubby did three original dub albums, ‘Dub From The Roots’. ‘The Roots of Dub’ and the third is ‘Brass Rockers’ with Tommy McCook ‘pon the flying cymbals. Where he mixed it with the horn going in and out in a dub way and one named ‘Shalom Dub’ you can call Tubby’s too because he mixed the versions as they were off forty fives’’
Bunny ‘Striker‘ Lee

King Tubby and Producer Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee are intertwined in the birth of Dub Music. After discovering a mistake that made a ‘serious joke’ ( more of which later...) they went on to release the first pressings of this new musical genre namely ‘Dub Music’. Tubby’s vast knowledge of electronics and Bunny’s vast catalogue of rhythms would lay the foundations of what today is taken as a standard... the Remix / Version cuts to an existing vocal tune.

Osbourne ‘King Tubby’ Ruddock was born in Kingston, Jamaica on 28th January 1941 and grew up in the High Holborn Street area of downtown Kingston. He studied electronics at Kingston’s National Technical College and also on two correspondence courses from the U.S.A... When he had qualified Tubby began repairing radios and other electrical appliances in a shack in the back yard of his mother’s home. His work in the early days included winding transformers and building amplifiers for Kingston’s Sound Systems. Tubby built his first Sound System in 1957 playing jazz and Rhythm & Blues at local weddings and birthday parties. His reputation as a man who knew and understood both electronics and music grew steadily and as the sixties drew to a close. Tubby purchased his own basic two track equipment. He installed this alongside his dub cutting machine, a home made mixing console and his impressive collection of Jazz albums in the back bedroom of his home at 18 Dromilly Avenue which he christened his music room.

Tubby and Striker were at Treasure Isle Studio’s one day while Ruddy from Spanish Town was working with the engineer Byron Smith....

“Tubby and myself was talking when Ruddy was cutting some dub but Smithy (engineer) made a mistake through we were talking and forgot to put in the voice. It was two track recording in those days. Ruddy said ‘No Man! Make it stay! and so they cut the rhythm. When I went over to Ruddy’s that Saturday night a dance was in progress and when they played the vocal to the tune... then he said we’re going to play ‘Part Two’. They never called it ‘Version’..and then he played the rhythm track. The song was a catchy song and everybody started to sing along and the deejay started to toast so everything went down well. On Monday morning I went up and I said ‘Tubbs the mistake we made was a serious joke.It mash up Spanish Town! The people went wild. So you have to start to do that now ‘cause when the man put on the ‘Part Two’ everyone start singing this song. It played about twenty times. I said you try Tubbs!’...Well the next Saturday night now when Tubby strung up down the farm U Roy said he’s going to play ‘Part Two’ but Tubby did it different now. He started with the voice then dropped it out and let the rhythm run and then he brought in the voice in the middle and from there Tubby started to get really popular.’’
Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee

Dynamic Sounds upgraded to sixteen track recording in 1972 and Tubby purchased, again with the help of a deal brokered by Bunny Lee. The old four track equipment and the MCI console from their Studio B. The four tracks now gave him far wider scope to work with and he began to create a new musical form where the bass and drum parts were brought up while the faders allowed Tubby to ease the vocal and rhythm in and out of the mix. It was only a matter of time before Tubby’s dub plate experiments began to make it on to vinyl and the first ever long playing King Tubby releases would feature a collection of his mixes to a selection of Strikers rhythms. So please sit back and enjoy this historic set of sounds. Lovingly restored and with a few extra gems added to the CD Editions. These releases were the first to carry the name of King Tubby and the first to credit the great musicians that contributed so much to the rhythms that made these albums possible.

SKA was the name given to the music that came out of Jamaica between 1961-1966. Based on the American R&B and Doo-wop records that the Sound Systems in Kingston Town used to play. However, the American records style started to mellow out, while the Jamaicans preferred a more upbeat sound. So the Sound System bosses became record producers to cater for this demand. Sir “Coxonne” Dodd and Duke Reid led the way putting the top musicians on the Island in the studio to make music unmistakably Jamaican. A lot of their early recordings were cut at Federal Records before they built their own studios.

Federal Records was the first domestic Jamaican studio, based at 220 Foreshore Road, Hagley Park, Kingston. It opened it’s doors in 1961 owned by Ken Khouri who first licensed American records to the island of Jamaica, before cutting his own tunes, which were some of the first Jamaican RnB and Ska singles. Ken Khouri initial studio was Records Limited but very basic so with the help of engineer Graeme Goodall built the new studio complex at 220 Foreshore Road which also contained a pressing plant and disc cutting room. The studio was not only the forerunner for Ska music but the music that followed and in 1981 Ken Khouri sold the complex now on the renamed road Marcus Garvey Drive to Bob Marley who renamed the premises Tuff Gong Studios whose legacy carries on today.

We have compiled some of the best SKA SOUNDS that came out of the Federal Vaults, with some of the best artists, musicians from the time. The great Lord Tanomo, Don Drummond, Rico Rodriguez, Roland Alphonso, alongside some lesser known artist. However, one thing is for sure, the quality never drops on this fine collection of Ska Hot Tunes……

“Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream?” This quote from a poem by Edgar Allan Poe sums up the lamenting, primal work that is "All That We See or Seem"; a project conceived between Finland, England and Brazil. The self-titled album consists of two long-form pieces of droning mysticism hailing from the trio of Gruth (concept, production, electronics), Ellen Southern (vocals, field recordings, percussion) and Johanna Puuperä (violin, modular synthesizer, additional vocals).

The album opens straight into a thousand yard stare with “Myrskymielellä", adapted from a 1891 poem by the Finnish national poet, Eino Leino, who wrote it at the tender age of 13. Here a blank distant droning of synths and the sounds of flowing water hover underneath like a dark river observed from the air. This is a sound and feeling that will stay constant for the entirety of the piece´s thirty minute duration. It is a trance-inducing composition that slowly unfolds elements of pagan ancestry into its own life. At first, faint female vocals are introduced as distant spatial elements, which gradually advance into waves of cries and anguish as the piece progresses and moves further into the storm. The tranquility of the first half is slowly morphed into a full blown ceremony as driving ritualistic percussion and a foreboding witch-like presence shifts the piece into a Dead Can Dance-like territory. Here a constant enveloping mixture of violins, modular synths, field recordings and vocal screams creates the feeling of a grande finale. It is an astounding piece of music that develops like a drone symphony for the beginning of time.

With the second piece, “A Dream Within A Dream”, from Edgar Allan Poe´s 1849 poem, you are transported to the shores of an undisclosed island; a place where it´s only you, your thoughts and the endless emptiness. The continual sound of waves is soon brought together with a cloud of synths and mourning violins that will keep a steady dreamlike state during most of the piece´s duration. This time the wordless vocals feel almost angelic in their pageantry. The composition flows like a slow caress of the soul and feels like the spirit twin of Gavin Bryars' “The Sinking of the Titanic” with its lamenting slow movements towards the unknown.

Truly a ghost of a record, “All That We See or Seem” is an experience hard to shake and feels like entering sacred ground. We are in a place surrounded by earth, both ancient and present. "Let loose, Vanha, the rage of an earthly storm! Detach the elements, completely open the sky! In the Earth, let an incessant storm prevail, so that in my chest I would not feel the miserable pain” - Eino Leino

END[GER] Die Band Wednesday aus Asheville, North Carolina errichtet im Laufe der zehn Songs von "Rat Saw God" einen Schrein voller aufregender Details: Halb lustige, halb tragische Botschaften aus den Südstaaten, die sich klanglich irgendwo zwischen dem wimmernden Skuzz von Neunzigerjahre-Shoegaze und klassischem Country-Twang entfalten - mit verzerrter Pedal Steel und Frontfrau Karly Hartzman, die mit ihrer Stimme, den Lärm durchschneidet. Ein Song von Wednesday ist wie ein Quilt. Eine Kurzgeschichtensammlung, eine verschwommene Erinnerung, ein Flickenteppich aus Porträts des amerikanischen Südens, der disparate Momente einfängt und als Ganzes doch irgendwie einen Sinn ergibt. Karly Hartzman, die Songschreiberin, Sängerin, Gitarristin und Leiterin der Band, ist eine Geschichtensammlerin als auch eine Geschichtenerzählerin: Eine aufmerksame Beobachterin von Menschen und witzigen Bemerkungen. "Rat Saw God", das neue und beste Album des Quintetts aus Asheville, ist ekphrastisch, aber ebenso autobiografisch und vor allem sehr einfühlsam. Es wurde in den Monaten unmittelbar nach der Fertigstellung von dem zweiten Album der Band, "Twin Plagues", geschrieben und innerhalb einer Woche im Drop Of Sun Studio in Asheville aufgenommen. Die Songs auf "Rat Saw God" erzählen keine Epen, sondern das Alltägliche. Sie sind lebensnah, erzählen vom wahren Leben, sie sind verschwommen und chaotisch und seltsam zugleich - was Hartzmans eigenem Ethos entspricht: "Everyone's story is worthy. Literally every life story is worth writing down, because people are so fascinating." A Wednesday song is a quilt. A short story collection, a half-memory, a patchwork of portraits of the American south, disparate moments that somehow make sense as a whole. Karly Hartzman, the songwriter/ vocalist/guitarist at the helm of the project, is a story collector as much as she is a storyteller: a scholar of people and one-liners. Rat Saw God, the Asheville quintet's new and best record, is ekphrastic but autobiographical and above all, deeply empathetic. Across the album's ten tracks Hartzman, guitarist MJ Lenderman, bassist Margo Shultz, drummer Alan Miller, and lap/pedal steel player Xandy Chelmis build a shrine to minutiae. Half-funny, half-tragic dispatches from North Carolina unfurling somewhere between the wailing skuzz of Nineties shoegaze and classic country twang, that distorted lap steel and Hartzman's voice slicing through the din. Rat Saw God is an album about riding a bike down a suburban stretch in Greensboro while listening to My Bloody Valentine for the first time on an iPod Nano, past a creek that runs through the neighborhood riddled with broken glass bottles and condoms, a front yard filled with broken and rusted car parts, a lonely and dilapidated house reclaimed by kudzu. Four Lokos and rodeo clowns and a kid who burns down a corn field. Roadside monuments, church marquees, poppers and vodka in a plastic water bottle, the shit you get away with at Jewish summer camp, strange sentimental family heirlooms at the thrift stores. The way the South hums alive all night in the summers and into fall, the sound of high school football games, the halo effect from the lights polluting the darkness. It's not really bright enough to see in front of you, but in that stretch of inky void - somehow - you see everything. The songs on Rat Saw God don't recount epics, just the everyday. They're true, they're real life, blurry and chaotic and strange - which is in-line with Hartzman's own ethos: "Everyone's story is worthy," she says, plainly. "Literally every life story is worth writing down, because people are so fascinating." But the thing about Rat Saw God - and about any Wednesday song, really - is you don't necessarily even need all the references to get it, the weirdly specific elation of a song that really hits. Yeah, it's all in the details - how fucked up you got or get, how you break a heart, how you fall in love, how you make yourself and others feel seen - but it's mostly the way those tiny moments add up into a song or album or a person.

Der legendäre Gruff Rhys kehrt mit "Dim Probs" zurück, seinem neunten Soloalbum, dem vierten walisischen Longplayer und der ersten Veröffentlichung über Mogwais Rock Action Records.

Mit den walisischen Künstlerkollegen Cate Le Bon und H. Hawkline an den Backing Vocals und produziert mit seinem langjährigen Kollaborateur Ali Chant (Yard Act/PJ Harvey) in dessen Studio in Bristol, UK, erinnert "Dim Probs" an die Wärme und Nähe von Gruffs karrierebestimmendem ersten Soloalbum ("Yr Atal Genhedlaeth" von 2005) und die sternensuchende Melancholie von "Seeking New Gods" von 2021.

Auf „Dim Probs“, das komplett in Walisisch/Cymraeg geschrieben und eingesungen ist, sitzt der Hörer Seite an Seite mit einem der größten und nachdenklichsten Songwriter des Landes in einer Ecke des Studios, während die Songs sich aufbauen. Das Ergebnis ist eine intime und hypnotische Platte, die akustischen Folk mit dem Sound verkratzter, primitiver elektronischer Maschinen mischt.

"Dim Probs" ist Gruff Rhys' erstes komplett walisischsprachiges Album seit "Pang!" von 2019 und der Nachfolger seines gefeierten Albums "Sadness Sets You Free" von 2024, das bei Rough Trade Records erschienen ist und vom Mojo Magazine (UK) als eines der 20 besten Alben des Jahres bezeichnet wurde.

Der legendäre Gruff Rhys kehrt mit "Dim Probs" zurück, seinem neunten Soloalbum, dem vierten walisischen Longplayer und der ersten Veröffentlichung über Mogwais Rock Action Records.

Mit den walisischen Künstlerkollegen Cate Le Bon und H. Hawkline an den Backing Vocals und produziert mit seinem langjährigen Kollaborateur Ali Chant (Yard Act/PJ Harvey) in dessen Studio in Bristol, UK, erinnert "Dim Probs" an die Wärme und Nähe von Gruffs karrierebestimmendem ersten Soloalbum ("Yr Atal Genhedlaeth" von 2005) und die sternensuchende Melancholie von "Seeking New Gods" von 2021.

Der legendäre Gruff Rhys kehrt mit "Dim Probs" zurück, seinem neunten Soloalbum, dem vierten walisischen Longplayer und der ersten Veröffentlichung über Mogwais Rock Action Records.

Mit den walisischen Künstlerkollegen Cate Le Bon und H. Hawkline an den Backing Vocals und produziert mit seinem langjährigen Kollaborateur Ali Chant (Yard Act/PJ Harvey) in dessen Studio in Bristol, UK, erinnert "Dim Probs" an die Wärme und Nähe von Gruffs karrierebestimmendem ersten Soloalbum ("Yr Atal Genhedlaeth" von 2005) und die sternensuchende Melancholie von "Seeking New Gods" von 2021.

Auf „Dim Probs“, das komplett in Walisisch/Cymraeg geschrieben und eingesungen ist, sitzt der Hörer Seite an Seite mit einem der größten und nachdenklichsten Songwriter des Landes in einer Ecke des Studios, während die Songs sich aufbauen. Das Ergebnis ist eine intime und hypnotische Platte, die akustischen Folk mit dem Sound verkratzter, primitiver elektronischer Maschinen mischt.

"Dim Probs" ist Gruff Rhys' erstes komplett walisischsprachiges Album seit "Pang!" von 2019 und der Nachfolger seines gefeierten Albums "Sadness Sets You Free" von 2024, das bei Rough Trade Records erschienen ist und vom Mojo Magazine (UK) als eines der 20 besten Alben des Jahres bezeichnet wurde.

JayWood - the nom de plume of Jeremy Haywood-Smith - is embracing new pastures having moved his music-making from Winnipeg, Manitoba to Montreal, and his new album Leo Negro chimes with a different tone as it looks to reconnect the self and grapple with one's identity. Marking a moment of meaningful change where controlled chaos takes the lead, it philosophises on what it truly means to be an experimentalist building a multi-faceted world where genre is infinite through sounds braver, more playful, and truthful than he's dared deliver before. Despite its astute sampling with layers of twists and turns, Leo Negro doesn't showboat but roars in the presence of vulnerability as it considers one's absolutes as a way of navigating the identity crisis. "Always looking for attention, I admit it, I can't help it, I'm a Leo," he reasons between vintage hip-hop scrubs on `Pistachios,' recalling a childhood need to be the centre of attention then stepping out of the spotlight as a grown-up. "Leos are confident and sure about themselves, but this record isn't that; so really, when translated, the title inspires `black confidence.' It's an uncomfortable, weird, and surreal term which bends the truth and embodies everything within." Experimenting in both life and music, Leo Negro and its first cut, `Big Tings' (feat. California, art-pop duo Tune-Yards) couldn't be further from 2023's Grow On EP and the previous year's slick LP Slingshot. Moving with flow akin to D'Angelo with Toro Y Moi textures, its twinkling intro of whirling synth and playful approach circles back to Jeremy's adolescence when he'd reverse, slow down, and speed up his favourite songs through the media player on his computer. Encouraged by his musical squad Will Grierson, Arthur Antony, Brett Ticzon, and enlisting his stylist and thrifter friends to capture the Leo Negro aesthetic, JayWood's big `in' for 2025 is collaboration, with the tight-knit crew of likeminded musical colleagues captured in session photo grins beaming from his Instagram grid. Nominated for Canada's coveted Polaris Music Prize, it'd be easy to be the cowardly lion; to rinse and repeat what's worked up to this point. But for JayWood, leaning into his natural `what if?' curiosity to make up his own rules as he goes along ("I never really knew what they were to begin with") and venture into honesty's unsafe space to seek comfort, confidence and make even greater connections, really is the only option. After all, he can't help it; he's a Leo.