Columbia Records release the eighth studio album from Grammy Award winning, multi platinum selling US rockers. An 11 track song album which includes the current single 'The Bandit'. Black vinyl double LP and standard CD. Radio support across R1, R2, Absolute, Virgin, Radio X, ILR network with playlists, ad campaign and interviews/sessions. Video plays across MTV/Vevo/Tik Tok. Digital campaign. Ads, features, interviews and reviews across all press. Online/social media activity. TV promo to follow. Poster campaign and database mailout. TV ad campaign.
It doesn't happen too often that you come across someone with Sam's composure and artistry at such a young age. 22 year old Sam De Nef has been in music for a while as lead singer of indie outfit 'Danny Blue and the Old Socks', but It wasn't until last year he started thinking of a solo career. Influenced by a generation of songwriters he listens to every day, Sam felt an urge to follow his own path and write genuine songs he could play all by himself and at any time, unadorned and without pretence.
He started recording demo's during the March lockdown, swiftly landed a record deal and started recording his debut with Nicolas Rombouts (Dez Mona, Ottla, Stef Kamil Carlens) and PJ Decraene (Rhinos are People too) - also his live band - in an old house in the French Vosges mountains.
The first tracks he released did not go unnoticed at national radio, press and streaming playlists alike. Sam is a prolific writer and lyricist, he recorded a 7 track debut mini album, expected in February. We are instantly struck by his stunning vocals, his versatility and maturity as a songwriter, embracing the classics but never without transcending their influence.
Sam De Nef's first solo project is a vehicle to tell his own stories and write songs that come to him in the most natural way. His debut mini album is an inspired collection of visceral folk and singer songwriter tunes, drenched in nostalgia. He's inspired by the likes of Dylan, Jack Kerouac, Leonard Cohen and Karen Dalton, but displays a unique voice and decidedly steers clear of platitudes.
"On my first trip to Serbia, visiting my girlfriends family, I discovered a whole new world in music. People played their songs around the diner table. What I saw was a family sharing food, alcohol and stories everyone could relate to. This experience opened up a new window, the wind blowing inspiration. I want to tell stories and touch people with simple songs and colorful language."
There is a directness and intimacy throughout each of the record's 23 minutes, which both sparks universal melancholy and makes Sam De Nef's debut very personal.
Standard Light Rose LP! 'Flock' is the record that Jane Weaver always wanted to make, the most genuine version of herself, complete with unpretentious Day-Glo pop sensibilities, wit, kindness, humour and glamour. A consciously positive vision for negative times, a brooding and ethereal creation. The album features an untested new fusion of seemingly unrelated compounds fused into an eco-friendly hum; pop music for post-new-normal times. Created from elements that should never date, its pop music reinvented. Still prevalent are the cosmic sounds, but 'Flock' is a natural rebellion to the recent releases which sees her decidedly move away from conceptual roots in favour of writing pop music. Produced on a complicated diet of bygone Lebanese torch songs, 1980's Russian Aerobics records and Australian Punk. Amongst this broadcast of glistening sounds is 'The Revolution Of Super Visions', an untelevised Mothership connection, with Prince floating by as he plays scratchy guitar; it also features a funky whack-a-mole bass line and synth worms. It underlines the discordant pop vibe that permeates 'Flock' and concludes on 'Solarised', a super-catchy, totally infectious apocalypse, a radio-friendly groove for last dance lovers clinging together in an effort to save themselves before the end of the night. The musician's exposure to an abundance of lost records served as a reminder that you still feel like an outsider in this world and that by overcoming fears you can achieve artistic freedom. Jane Weaver continues to metamorphise_ "A mind-expanding delight, devoid of retro posturing." The Guardian "Ominous and luminous, expansively spacious and sonically imploding, scientific, ephemeral and eternal" The Quietus
"The Queen", they called her and Dinah Washington's regality
was nowhere more apparent than in the recording studio,
where she was uncompromising in her demands for the best in
material and in backing. She is marvelous in this recording,
which dates from 1957, for not only did she have some great
standards to sing in arrangements by Quincy Jones and Ernie
Wilkins, two of the best around at that time, but she also had
behind her a star-spangled band (the trumpet section alone is
sufficient indication of its quality) that gave her every
opportunity to be at her best.
The Pet Parade,” the title track to Fruit Bats’ newest album, might be a surprising opening track for longtime fans of Eric D. Johnson’s beloved indie folk-rock project. The six-and-a-half-minute tone poem smolders and drones over just two chords, inspired by the strange and silly community events that he saw growing up outside of Chicago, in La Grange, Illinois, in which people dressed up and showed off their pets. Decades later, The Pet Parade emerges in troubled times, living within what Johnson refers to as the beauty and absurdity of existence. While many of the songs on The Pet Parade were actually written before the pandemic, it’s impossible to disassociate the record from the times. As an example, producer Josh Kaufman (Bob Weir, The National, and Bonny Light Horseman, in which he plays with Johnson and Anaïs Mitchell) was brought in for his deep emotional touch and bandleading abilities. However, Johnson, Kaufman, and the other musicians on The Pet Parade drummers Joe Russo and Matt Barrick (The Walkmen, Fleet Foxes), singer-songwriter Johanna Samuels, pianist Thomas Bartlett (Nico Muhly, Sufjan Stevens), and fiddler Jim Becker (Califone, Iron & Wine) were forced to self-record their parts in bedrooms and home studios across America. Still, says Johnson, “The songs have enough intimacy that it doesn’t sound like it was made a million miles away.” Such tension and turmoil also impacted the lyrics of The Pet Parade. While “Cub Pilot” and “Here For Now, For You” began as more traditional love songs from a personal “I” to a specific “you” Johnson quickly realized that these songs needed to comfort broader audiences, changing the words to a more inclusive “we” and “us.” So too in “The Balcony,” a song ostensibly about a particular space in his grandmother’s apartment, but one that evolved into a metaphor on patience. At times upbeat and reassuring (“Eagles Below Us”) and at times quietly contemplative (“On the Avalon Stairs”), The Pet Parade marks a milestone for Johnson, who celebrates 20 years of Fruit Bats in 2021. In some ways still a cult band, in other ways a time-tested act, Fruit Bats has consistently earned enough small victories to carve out a career in a notoriously fickle scene. And Johnson himself who has played in The Shins, composed film scores, gone solo and returned back to the moniker that started it all, and most recently, earned two GRAMMY® nominations with Bonny Light Horseman doesn’t take this long route of life’s pet parade for granted. “I’m still really excited to make records,” he says. “Lucky and happy and maybe happier that things went slower for me. I’m savoring it a lot more.
Clock, featuring two extraordinary songs written and performed by Arden herself. A vinyl-only edition of 250 copies, with fold-out poster and insert containing sleevenotes by Jack Bond, Sam Dunn, Charlotte Procter and Sebastian Saville. Arden and Bond’s collaborative career gave Britain some of the most extraordinary films it ever produced. Their filmography is woefully short - but it’s full to the brim of incredible, daring ideas and completely unfettered imagination. It’s packed, too, with pain and a disconcerting honesty about the human condition; challenging commonly-held ideas about madness and positing ideas which are far less easy to categorise or control. Anti-Clock, their final work together - Arden took her own life three years after its release - is a complex, contemplative piece, and Arden’s apparently comforting delivery of her self-penned songs and the see-saw flow of Mihai Dragutescu’s delicate instrumentation act only as a means to lure us in; to begin the de-programming. In Arden's book You Don’t Know What You Want, Do You?, the basis for the network of ideas at play in Anti-Clock – the motif of the rat is used as a metaphor for the rational mind. The lyrics to ‘Sleepwalking’ (living in a daze, wandering in a maze) also conjure up images of lab rats, of unthinking beings adhering to rules and systems, never questioning what is beyond what they think they know to be true. At the close of Anti-Clock, the central character, Sapha, simply says, ‘It has been my whole life's will to decode this puzzle, as though inside the answer to this equation was the insurance of that peace of mind that had eluded me. But there is no puzzle. And the mind is never peaceful. And dawn’s already here as the stars appear.’
In early 2018, Nathan Jenkins returned from the coast of Arrábida to his new home studio in a cottage tucked behind the grand hotel setting of Wim Wenders’ Lisbon Story. Breaking for lunches under a Datura tree in the garden and a far cry from the Finsbury Park basement flat he rented the previous year, a set of recordings followed that galvanised into an EP - ‘We Had A Good Time’. Music informed by out-of-town trips in a 1987 Renault 9 Super, Pitchfork attributed “remarkable healing powers” to lead song ‘Hula’.
After leaving London for a spell in Portugal, Nathan lost his taste for the night life and drew a line under a long-running NTS radio show. Much of the time spent abroad was dedicated to a longstanding collaboration with Westerman, whose album they recorded in a remote part of the Algarve countryside in 2019. Nathan’s own discography opened in 2007 with ‘Pet Sounds: In The Key Of Dee’, before pivoting in a more electronic direction via ‘Get Familiar’ and ‘Young Heartache’. From the sampledelia of 2011’s ‘Too Right’, the new wave and rave of ‘Say Arr Ee’ to the Robert Wyatt-influenced ‘Love Me Oh Please Love Me’, he’s mapped a deliberately peculiar path. 2015’s ‘Rooster’ was Eno & Byrne’s ‘Bush Of Ghosts’ given a shangaan-electro lick and clip. While Nathan’s partnership with fellow out-there pop auteur Jesse Hackett, as Blludd Relations, staggered like a half-cut Prince.
Collaged, rhythmic alternatives. Syncopated avant-garde sambas. Off kilter Sci-Fi jazz. Think Asha Putli in the spot at the Star Wars cantina. Arty, angular. Rich, but uncluttered. Frenetic, electric, blurring the boundaries between what is sampled, what is played. Nathan’s is a wilfully weird Pop, showcased in 2016 on his album ‘Loop The Loop’. Wayward but woven with hooks that come out of nowhere. Lyrical, often beautiful, solos on violin, oboe and desiccated guitars. Songs that demonstrate a nose-thumbing playfulness, a refusal to sit still. Where there’s always the urge to interrupt a carnival beat with a burst of galloping horse hooves. Or juxtapose ambient chords with a kazoo.
A roll call of Nathan’s broader musical adventures encompasses work with Paul Epworth, Sampha, Westerman and Nilüfer Yanya. Commissioned remixes reach from Dita Von Teese to Model 500, Tricky, Todd Terje and Lee “Scratch” Perry. Solo efforts gracing labels Honest Jon’s, R&S, Young Turks, Whities and The Trilogy Tapes. ‘Blue Pedro’, on the latter, making it into Crack Mag’s Top 100 Tracks Of The Decade.
In 2012 Nathan started his own label, DEEK Recordings, assuming the role of inhouse producer to collaborators. The imprint’s tagline and aesthetic - Pop, not slop! - is illustrated by an ongoing playlist of the same name and further explored in a series of compilations where Nathan and friends cover and reinterpret unsung ‘unclassics’ from alt. country to obscure 80s European arthouse scores, bouncing between Captain Beefheart, The Pixies, Sade and Mazzy Starr. DEEK’s roster is equally eccentric, non-linear and pop-literate. Laura Groves and Nautic - the realization and crystallization of a shared love for the Cocteau Twins.
12” pressed on crystal clear vinyl.
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For 'Music For Dreams’ collector’s series, we aim to bring you something a little different, something a little out there. After eclectic contributions from Jan Schulte, Moonboots and most recently Basso, we’ve lent the slot to Belgian sonic globetrotter DJ soFa. As always, he’s been granted supreme curatorial sovereignty, and trust us, he held us to our word on that one. For elsewhere Jr I, soFa takes us on a trip to the alluring and magical reality of childhood - and a trip, it is.
This double LP features both new and old compositions from a wide range of countries, all centered around the youngest citizens of planet earth. The compilation has been 2.5 years in the making, with soFa collecting obscure pieces from all over the world and inspiring young collaborators to produce new tracks mostly by means of analogue synthesizers and vintage drum machines. The result is a thematically and sonically homogenous collage of cosmic children’s music.
'soFa' starts us off with Milo Kolarov’s exercise in sonic imagery ‘Analogue Beam’, a story about animal characters, presented to us as distinct motifs of bleeps and blitzes. Next up is the surreal jigsaw puzzle dub ‘Totti und Pippo’ by Jah Limonardi and 'Die Kleine Gräfin Dubski'.
Here, we come bouncing on giant, iridescent mushrooms, lulled deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole by incantations of a child’s voice. Throughout, the record is full of these synaesthetic properties, immersing the listener in creative ways, nudging you down hidden experiential pathways.
All of the tracks, more precisely ... they were pleasantly engaging, often blooming with charming grooves and provided with a whimsical melody.
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Frontman of Nottingham punk band Kagoule, Cai Burns, returns as Blood Wizard. Arriving with no fixed direction, Blood Wizard is a project that sees Burns explore himself as a brand new entity, an artist beyond boundaries and preconceptions.
First single ‘Breaking Even’, showcases Burns’ impeccable songwriting skills and acts as the perfect introduction to this exciting project. With jangled, stop-and-go instrumentation, it is sheer artistic satire with an added charm.
Burns says about ‘Breaking Even’: “Breaking Even is a song about doing a lot for someone, changing yourself to fit their ideas of you but not getting the same in return. It's a satirical commentary on the effect that can have on a friendship or relationship”
Western Spaghetti, out 5th March 2021 via Moshi Moshi Records. Filled with crisp hooks, it is an album that has a predominant folk undertone that also expertedly navigates through various textures and dark melodies. There was not an album in
mind when Burns first started recording with Tom Towle at Random Recording Studio - just fragments of songs that all came together when the world paused in the spring and Burns realised that what he had been working on over the last few months could become a full record. The structure of the album follows suit, chopping and changing between harder-edged sounds and acoustic meanderings.
There is a forward honesty and a witty wryness to Blood Wizard. “Hooray to the big news, got my mouth around the spoiled fruit” he sighs on Fruit, a song about keeping happy for your friends’ achievements while your life feels static. Meanwhile, Total Depravity’s stand-out, bittersweet lyric “I’m never going to get that jacket back” pinpoints a singular moment amongst an anxious blur and a time he cannot return to. The infectious and fuzzy Carcrash draws on the weird ways love can be displayed, whilst in stark contrast, the subdued Somehow I Knew tells of the people you’ve never got to know.
I’ve known Alex Bleeker my entire life. Well, okay, maybe not since I was born, but there’s no doubt that I’ve shared a fair bit of memories with him over the years. We’ve acted in high school productions of Shakespeare together, gone on late-night diner runs, argued about which Weezer album is the band’s best, and swapped mutual appreciation for the music of Yo La Tengo on car rides careening around the snaky suburbia of our hometown. Just like his Real Estate bandmates Martin Courtney and Julian Lynch, we attended high school in the New Jersey enclave of Ridgewood, a place where sticky summer days yielded cool nights with a glow so nocturnal that you can practically hear the fireflies buzzing off of this sentence alone.
Indie rock—a type of music that can easily be made or listened to in someone’s garage—often dominates teenage suburban preoccupations, and both Alex and I were no exception. You can hear this legacy of listening on his new album Heaven on the Faultline, which departs from his last full-band outing as Alex Bleeker and the Freaks, 2015’s Country Agenda. Whereas that album had a more full-bodied explicitly folk-y feel, Heaven on the Faultline finds Bleeker getting back to his homespun roots over the course of its 13 songs, from the jangly guitar pop of New Jersey heroes the Feelies and YLT’s hushed, acoustic reveries to the open-hearted folk rock that marks so much of the Grateful Dead’s early catalog.
Written and recorded over the last several years, Heaven on the Faultline’s songs were initially recorded straight to GarageBand in Bleeker’s bedroom before receiving further studio refinement in co-producer Phil Hartunian’s Tropico Beauty space in Los Angeles. With contributions from Confusing Mix of Nations’ Josh Da Costa, Cameron Stallones of Sun Araw, singer-songwriter Kacey Johansing, and Parting Lines’ Tim Ramsey, Heaven on the Faultline achieves a warm and intimate feel that defines Bleeker’s mission for the album: “I wanted to capture the moment in which I fell in love with making music to begin with. This is music for myself—me getting back to music for music’s sake.”
The unsteady times we live in certainly creep into view on Heaven on the Faultline. The deceptively easygoing “D Plus” was written on the day of President Donald Trump’s inauguration with the cursed event in mind, while the anxiety of climate change hovers just above the lovely guitar loops of “Felty Feel.” “The album is very much about dealing with the anxiety of a sense of impending doom,” Bleeker states while discussing the album’s portentous vibes. “When is the hammer going to fall? How do we go forward in the face of such anxiety and experience the complexity of life?”
Tough questions with few answers, but try not to stress too much. It’s possible to experience such existential doubt while also enjoying the simple pleasures that life has to offer, and that ethos is square at the heart of Heaven on the Faultline. It defines who Alex Bleeker is, too, and is one of many reasons why I’m proud to have known this special person and artist for so long.
Jesse James rides again! Rejoining the Soul Junction label to bring you his previously unreleased original version of the song “(The Girl In) Clinton Park”
The song is more widely known through the version recorded by the group Masterplan in 1974 as part of their trilogy of 45 releases on the West Coast Fos-Glo label, with this particular release being later picked up and released on The East Coast Delite label.
The story behind Jess’s solo version began 3 years earlier when following his first spell with the 20th Century label Jesse found himself without a label feeling a little disillusioned with major labels but undeterred in his own ability he decided to finance and record his own masters. Hence on 29th of April 1971, Jesse entered the Searra Sound Studio in Berkley C.A under the direction of producer and friend Willie Hoskins (Wilhos Productions, and the man who gave the world the Natural Four on Boola, Boola and ABC, prior to them joining Curtis Mayfield at Curtom). Jesse recorded a five song session, with one particular song being the Stanley Lippett composition “(The Girl In) Clinton Park”. Lippett who prior to becoming part of the Wilhos Productions team sang with the early 60’s group The Five Brooks before recording two very sought after Northern Soul 45’s “The Stran” and “Outta Sight Loving” for Dick Vance’s Out Of Site Label. Stanley later joined Marvin Holmes & The Uptights Band. It had been Marvin Holmes (he of Brown Door Records fame) who introduced Stanley to Willie Hoskins with Stanley subsequently joining Boola Boola Records and Wilhos Productions. Stanley repaid Marvin for this introduction by composing a song based on Marvin’s 3 year daughter, she being the actual girl from Clinton Park!
Returning to Jesse James, two other songs from this session, a cover version of Etta James “At Last” and “I Know I’ll Never Find Another” did gain a release at the time on the Zay label.
We’ve known about Jesse’s version of this song for many years now but the tape was nowhere to be found and even without hearing it, just knowing the song and that Jesse was a great singer I always promised him that one day I’d put it out. But if there is some good to come out of this pandemic then it was during Jesse’s lock down in Richmond and while browsing through his possessions he luckily found the missing tape, bingo we’re in business!
For this release we have coupled “(The Girl In) Clinton Park” with Jesse’s oh so soulful cover version of the Terry Callier/Larry Wade composition “ Just As Long As We’re In Love” (also recorded by Callier himself and The Mighty Dells), previously issued by Soul Junction on Jesse’s 2012 album “Let Me Show You” (SJLP 5005), enjoy.
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Frank Nuyens, alias Rainman, was the guitarist for bands like Circus and a founding member of Q65. His solo debut album from 1971 is a slice of psychedelic folk & rock sounds and features fellow Q65 member Jay Baar, Dick Beekman and Eelco Gelling (Cuby & The Blizzards). Rainman is a very rare and hard to find album from the Dutch psychedelic
70’s era. The album is part of Music On Vinyl’s Behind The Dykes series, which comprises rare and sought-after albums from the Netherlands.
Rainman celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2021. This release includes an insert with song lyrics and is available as a limited individually numbered edition on transparent green vinyl.
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"Ultra Eczema rarely reissues records: firstly, because we believe it's hard to improve on a good original (and we would never want to republish anything that isn't); and secondly, it's called the Internet and you can find everything on it. Nonetheless, in 2015 we reissued Kraus' 'I could Destroy You With A Single Thought', a CDR from 2004, because it was camping in our all-time favourite records list for a decade and the data on this erratic medium tends to erase itself, much like a troubled past. 'A Golden Brain' was published in the first wave of the Covid pandemic via Kraus' bandcamp as a digital release. And once again we couldn't help ourselves. This is Kraus at his best: if a bedroom could be a stadium, he would play the main stage! Limited edition of 300 copies. Includes an insert, download code and a UE sticker."
NOTE: ALL FORMATS CONTAIN THE FULL VERSION OF "RAUSCH". THE ALBUM IS MEANT TO BE HEARD FROM BEGINNING TO END AS A WHOLE. IT HAS BEEN TRACK MARKED OR SEPARATED DUE TO FORMAT RESTRICTIONS
Rausch with no name / My beautiful shine / You are the sun / This is where I want to be / Rausch with no morning / This is where we burn / The Stars sparkle / In a sea of flames / Horns and fanfares / Fanfares of joy / Fanfares of fear / The wine we drink through the eyes / The moon pours down at night in waves / Careful with that axe Eugene / Personal Jesus / No beginning no end / Eighteenth of Oktember / The night falls / The king comes / The hunt starts / Freude schöner Götterfunken / The long march through the underwood / Trust me there's nothing / Once upon a time there was a bandit / Who loved a prince / That was long ago / Spring Summer Fall and Gas / There is a train heading to Nowhere / Drums and Trumpets / Future without mankind / Warm snow / Alles ist gut / The bells toll / You are not alone / The murmur in the forest / The murmur in the head / Light as mist / Heavy as lead / Music happens / To flow like gas / A clearing / Heavy baggage / Debut in the afterlife / Death has seven cats / World heritage Rausch / Finally infinite
Wolfgang Voigt 2018
Rausch ohne Namen / Mein schöner Schein / Du bist die Sonne / Hier will ich sein / Rausch ohne Morgen / Wir brennen hier / Die Sterne funkeln / Im Flammenmeer / Hörner und Fanfaren / Fanfaren der Freude / Fanfaren der Angst / Den Wein den man mit Augen trinkt / Gießt Nachts der Mond in Wogen nieder / Vorsicht mit der Axt Eugene / Personal Jesus / Kein Anfang Kein Ende / Achtzehnter Oktember / Die Nacht bricht an / Der König kommt / Die Jagd beginnt / Freude schöner Götterfunken / Der lange Marsch durchs Unterholz / Glaub mir da ist nichts / Es war einmal ein Räuber / Der liebte einen Prinzen / Das ist lange her / Frühling Sommer Herbst und Gas / Es fährt ein Zug nach Nirgendwo / Pauken und Trompeten / Zukunft ohne Menschen / Warmer Schnee / Alles ist gut / Die Glocken läuten / Du bist nicht allein / Das Rauschen im Wald / Das Rauschen im Kopf / Leicht wie Nebel / Schwer wie Blei / Musik ergibt sich / Strömt wie Gas / Eine Lichtung / Schweres Gepäck / Einstand im Jenseits / Der Tod hat sieben Katzen / Weltkulturerbe Rausch / Endlich Unendlich
The music on Dance Nos. 1-5 was originally conceived as a three-way collaboration between composer Philip Glass, choreographer Lucinda Childs and artist Sol LeWitt. Dance received its world premiere in Amsterdam on October 19, 1979 and its New York premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on November 29, 1979.
Post-dating Einstein on the Beach - Glass’s 1975-76 collaboration with director Robert Wilson - Dance was another Glass collaboration, this time with choreographer Lucinda Childs, known for her austere, athematically exact dances, and artist Sol LeWitt, who provided a ghostly, gigantic black- and-white film for several of the piece’s five sections.
RELEASE: 5-3-2021
• 180 GRAM AUDIOPHILE VINYL
• DELUXE HEAVYWEIGHT SLEEVE WITH GLOSS LAMINATE
• PVC JACKET
• THE COMPLETE ALBUM, AVAILABLE ON VINYL FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ITS ENTIRETY ON A 3LP-SET
WITH FIVE SIDES OF MUSIC
• INCLUDES PHILIP GLASS CATALOGUE WITH INFO ON THE PHILIP GLASS SERIES ON MOV
SIDE A
Dance has an abstract purity that easily earned it the label “minimalist,” a term that Glass himself disavows but that seems appropriate, at least in this case. After Dance, Glass’s music took several turns, not so much in style as in the various new contexts in which it was presented: major opera commissions and film scores led him to write for forces other than those of the Philip Glass Ensemble. At the same time, an attempt to reach a wide audience resulted in some shorter, perhaps more accessible, narrative pieces. Dance marked the blossoming of the composer’s experimental work. Here, though, the music - particularly Dance Nos. “1”, “3” and “5”, all written for the Ensemble— has an unforgettable exuberance that somehow speaks all at once of joyful innocence, intense erotic desire, tenderness, regret and, finally, acceptance. On the other hand, Dance Nos. “2” and “4” see Glass composing several large-scale works for solo organ; for instance, Dance No. 2 originated as a 1978 work entitled Fourth Series Part Two. This piece, later incorporated into Dance, and Dance No. “4” as well, have a more subdued, more darkly romantic quality than the work’s other sections and are quite unlike anything Glass had previously written. Still, they too, with their mysterious tilts of time and key signatures, continue the exploration of polyrhythms and harmonic complexities within the context of Glass’s repetitive, “minimalist” style.
The complete Dance Nos. 1-5 album is now available on vinyl for the first time in its entirety on a 3LP-set with five sides of music. The 3 LP’s are housed in a heavyweight sleeve.
No other pairing in the history of Darkwave ever matched the unfettered creativity, resolve, and DIY attitude from the collaboration between the two creative minds that compromise Lebanon Hanover.
The meeting of the Swiss musician Larissa Georgiou, aka Larissa Iceglass and British artist William Maybelline a decade ago in the latter’s hometown of Sunderland in the UK, was a monumental occasion, reverberating throughout the European music scene and even across the Atlantic.
Lebanon Hanover would emerge from the peak of the world-wide minimal wave revival, with their 2011 split 7-inch record with La Fete Triste issued as the catalog debut of Europe’s most ubiquitous Techno-Industrial EBM labels, Aufnahme + Wiedergabe
With Berlin as their new physical home, William and Larissa would soon, however, join the Fabrika Records family. From here, they would go on to release two full-length albums through the Athens based label, starting in early 2012 with their winter debut LP The World Is Getting Colder, and it’s All Hallows Eve follow up Why Not Just Be Solo.
It was Lebanon Hanover’s 2013 third studio outing Tomb for Two that would go on to cement the duo’s legacy, with the album’s single “Gallow Dance” becoming a post-punk anthem for the times, with artwork became the band’s defacto logo. Not only that, the song “Sadness is Rebellion”, also featured on the album, became the band’s official Mantra.
Two years would pass before the release of 2015’s critically acclaimed fourth record, “Besides the Abyss”. In the intervening years, William and Larissa, initially a couple, would find other partners, and relocate to Athens.
Meanwhile, Lebanon Hanover as a live act would expand rapidly in popularity, exceeding capacity during their performances at Wave Gotik Treffen in Leipzig, and performing sold-out shows across Europe and the UK.
With the playful Babes of the 80s maxi-single released in the interim, three years would pass before the next record from Lebanon Hanover, with 2018’s Let Them Be Alien, the band’s fifth studio album.
At the dawn of the global pandemic, where dystopian nightmares that were only ever seen before within the pages of books and flashes of silver screen celluloid, has become a daily reality, a new kind of darkness envelops the world. It was at this Lebanon Hanover returned, sharing a glimmer of hope with the single “The Last Thing,” the duo’s first song from their forthcoming sixth studio album Sci-Fi Sky.
Spanning an epic journey across ten tracks that wander through industrial landscapes, and ascend beyond the atmospheric aether, Sci Fi Sky is Lebanon Hanover’s most cohesive artistic statement to date. With their icy hearts on their sleeves, this is the culmination of a decade’s worth of musical creativity radiating from the minds of both Iceglass and Maybelline, and altogether an otherworldly beacon of hope in a time of sheer darkness.
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500 only LP. One of the first full-length recordings of Hauka ritual music. Praise songs and sacred incantations to the spirits to inhabit the body. Call and response chants, the pluck of a monochord lute and relentless pounding percussion combine in a dizzying nonstop session. The Hauka movement started nearly a century ago and has persisted on the fringes of Nigerien society. Documented in the 1955 Jean Rouch film Les maitres fous, the Hauka are a pantheon on spirits mirrored on colonial and military figures. Central to the religion is the "Holley Hori" possession ceremony, a ritual driven by militaristic percussive music, wherein spirits come into the body in powerful and violent manifestations. Lingo Seini has played ritual music for almost 60 years, learning from his father. He is joined by his son Youssouf on the calabass and Issaka Moulla, playing his homemade kuntigi. The group regularly accompanies Hauka priests in ceremonies. Recorded with a single microphone in the outskirts of Niamey.
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Second album released on Insanity Records from London based/Bedford born pop/soul singer. This is the follow up to 2018's gold certified 'Lighting Matches'. A 14 track album whose production credits include Dan Grech, Eg White and Lostboy among others. Single LP on black vinyl and standard CD. Plenty of radio support across all the singles released so far: 'Little Bit Of Love', 'Amen', 'Something Better', 'Oh Please' and 'This Is The Place'. Digital campaign. Video plays across MTV/Vevo/Tik Tok. Online/social media activity. Ads, features, interviews ad reviews across all press. TV promo includes Graham Norton Show interview and performance plus more to follow. TV ad campaign. Pending UK tour dates. Poster campaign and database mailout.
Following the release of the single of the same name, Dutch duo Tunnelvisions return to Disco Halal with new EP ‘Gold Teeth’, out on Friday 27th November.
A three-track release, ‘Gold Teeth’ opens with an extended version of the title track, an infectiously feelgood house number, characterised by driving synths, busy percussion and catchy vocals. Next up, ‘Hyperfocus’ is a slow-burning progressive house cut that unfurls steadily across its six minutes. Closing things out, ‘Heat Wave’ harnesses an old school house vibe, characterised by deep bass and fluttering percussive elements.
Speaking about the EP, Tunnelvisions says: “We’re proud to present you our next EP called ‘Gold Teeth’. Three tracks combining our percussional and synthpop influences into something we’re very excited about.”
With an unmistakable ear for imaginative, melodic themes and entrancing rhythms, Tunnelvisions hit the sweet spot by seamlessly fusing worldly influences with analog synthesisers.
A diverse collection of tracks, ‘Gold Teeth’ sees Tunnelvisions skilfully explore various shades and tones on the house music spectrum.
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Modern sounds for the 21st century featuring modal, progressive and esoteric contemporary jazz from the UK, Spain, Netherlands, Finland, USA, Belgium, Canada, South Africa, Sweden, Germany & Italy.
The first 12 volumes of our hugely popular Spiritual Jazz series have unearthed a wealth of historic recordings in the genre, collating a variety of works from the '50s to the '80s by artists from all around the world.
And so, with Volume 13, we turn our attention to what's happening NOW.
Over the course of 24 tracks and spanning 2 x 2LPs, we present an overview of the contemporary exponents of Spiritual Jazz; musicians who are intent on bringing something personal to the table, as much as they recognize the importance of those who have paved the way for them. We feature music recorded within the past 20 years and from 15 different countries, including modern classics from veterans Steve Reid and Idris Ackamoor, providing a vital link between the past masters and the enlightened new generation.
It's pioneers such as John Coltrane, Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders et al, with their innovations in reaching another plane of consciousness that was and remains uppermost in the minds of exponents of Spiritual Jazz. Fittingly, several of the artists featured on this compilation, such as Cat Toren and David Boykin, are practitioners of the art of music therapy and sound healing, and have absolute conviction in the role of song as solace. The pioneers may no longer be with us, but their saintly selves loom large, shining a light in the darkness, inspiring many a brave new disciple today, as this album will testify: the new wave of jazz is gathering pace and still sounds fresh, vibrant and as relevant as ever.
Available as 2 x 2LP sets each with gatefold sleeves, extensive liners, download card & pics inside.
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The saga of composer Tim Story's 1982 debut is a case study in the shifting sands of the early progressive music industry. Recorded on a Tascam 4-track reel-to-reel in his basement bedroom in Whitehouse, Ohio using a ragtag array of equipment – salvaged vibraphone, pawn shop Les Paul, his mother's spinet piano, a PAiA synth kit assembled by his girlfriend's father, and a Yamaha CS-30 – Story optimistically dubbed six cassettes and sent them around the world. Following a polite rejection from Klaus Schulze, the French avant-garde label Atem (This Heat, Univers Zero, Art Zoyd) reached out with an offer to release Threads via their new instrumental electronic subdivision, Labyrinthes. After several letters confirming terms of the arrangement as well as multiple rounds of test pressings, correspondence suddenly ceased. Some months later the label folded, never having begun. Synchronistically, however, Schulze's copy ended up in the glovebox of an engineer associate, who happened to play it for a couple visiting journalists with contacts at a newish Norwegian imprint, Uniton Records (Popul Vuh, Harold Budd).
Impressed, they connected Story to the label head, but by then he'd already recorded a follow-up, the more neoclassical-leaning In Another Country, which became his inaugural release. Finally, 40 years later, Dais Records is rectifying history's error by properly issuing Threads on vinyl for the first time. It's a beautiful, beguiling work, exploratory but emotive, documenting, as Story puts it, “the path not taken... like the first chapter of a book that was set aside to begin another.” Despite only being in his early twenties at the time of its creation, Threads feels finessed and considered, weaving through a diverse spectrum of moods and minimalist melodies. From sunburst synthesizer devotionals (“Tethered By A Thread”) to shadowy cosmic drift (“Without Waves,” “Iso”) to fragile piano vignettes (“Burst,” “Scene And Artifact”), Story's compositional instincts skew subtle and sophisticated, carving gemstones of fluctuating radiance. He cites his discovery of tape loops as a central tool in the process, allowing him to generate recurring patterns of echoes and texture, decaying in volume and fidelity as desired: “A whole new and inspiring world opened up.” As both time capsule and discographical fountainhead, Threads vividly captures the threshold sensation of early 1980's electronic music: post-kosmische, prenew age, before ambient became codified, just as synthesizers began slipstreaming into the underground. It's an album of beginnings and forking paths, inner space voyaging towards limitless horizons, born of “youthful dedication to something one loves, in a world that feels uncertain.”
· First ever vinyl edition, originally set to be released in 1982 but due to original label's untimely demise, it was never issued until now.
· Collaborative releases with Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dwight Ashley, with releases on notable labels Uniton, Windham Hill, and Hearts of Space.
· For fans of Harold Budd, Brian Eno, Roedelius, Nils Frahm, Klaus Schulze, Popol Vuh, Vangelis, Jean-Michel Jarre · The song "A Thousand Whispers" has been in regular rotation at Sirius XM.
· Tim Story is a Grammy nominated artist in 1988 for his "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" recording with Glenn Close.
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Hot Creations continues its 2021 release schedule this February with a four-track EP from Josh Hvaal. Getting Better sees the UK talent return to the label, fresh from releasing his maiden EP, The Sound, on the imprint in March last year.
Basic leads the charge and takes no prisoners as it goes, pairing rapid kick-hat combos against layered vocal tones to create Josh’s signature late-night sound. Getting Better comes next, blending a retro acid vibe with an up-tempo lead bassline before the near six-
minute Oi takes the form of a heavyweight techno number. Tiptoe brings things to an emotive close, showcasing Josh’s eclectic style with drawn-out chords and percussion- laden breaks.
Josh Hvaal has become a household name in the contemporary house sphere in recent times. It was in March that the young UK-native achieved a remarkable feat: releasing his debut EP on Hot Creations. Such an achievement didn’t go unnoticed, with industry heavyweights soon playing his music in the form of Joseph Capriati, Andrea Oliva and many more. Releases have since followed on Yousef’s Circus Recordings, Malgado’s Distortion and Hot Creations’ offshoot Hottrax, standing him in good stead for another successful year in 2021.
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“Our first ever show in the UK was the opening slot at Brixton Academy so this is just totally emblematic of the support that has grown overseas we are ever grateful for. It’s still the greatest show we have ever played and we will never forget that night. See you all soon! Stay safe.” DMA’S
On March 6th, 2020 a sold-out audience filled the O2 Academy Brixton’s cavernous space from wall-to-wall. The band played the biggest headline show of their career to date half a planet away from home, yet the show conjured the atmosphere of an intimate homecoming celebration.
The O2 Academy Brixton show was immediately hailed as one of the highlights of the band’s career so far, and it has taken on whole new significance given the events that have followed. For many fans it was their final show before live music events were halted.
From early favourites ‘In The Air’ and ‘Lay Down’ to new material such as ‘Silver’ and ‘Life Is A Game Of Changing’ from ‘THE GLOW’ The show is documented in the ‘Live at Brixton’ album, which will be released almost a year to the day later on March 5th. ‘Live at Brixton’ will be released on a striking smoke-effect pink/orange limited edition double vinyl. Its design was inspired by a flare that was set off during the show. The album offers a chance to reminiscence on the life-affirming power of live shows, and also an inspiring reminder of what we’re all looking forward to returning to.
"… an album as hummably lovely as it is knowingly referencing of a certain tradition of neo-psychedelic English whimsy." - The Observer
“… sets the pair into new experimental territory” - NME
Mute / BMG announce the long-awaited vinyl reissue of Goldfrapp’s fourth album, Seventh Tree. Out on 5 March 2021, this is one of a series of Goldfrapp vinyl releases on special edition coloured vinyl.
Originally released in February 2008, Seventh Tree has been out of print for many years and will be reissued here as a yellow vinyl pressing in a gatefold sleeve, with an exclusive art print of the original artwork.
Featuring the singles ‘A&E’, ’Happiness’, ‘Caravan Girl’ and ‘Clowns’, the album was written by Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory and recorded at their own studio deep in the English countryside.
Seventh Tree followed the glitterball glamour of platinum-selling album, Supernature (2005), and is very much its sensual counterpoint. Where its predecessor came cocooned in style and sex, Seventh Tree emerges gilded in the butterfly colours of an English surrealism. It shimmers and shines with the warmth of a hazy summer, an electric whirlpool of sound over which Alison’s glistening voice soars.
Alison Goldfrapp described the album as “English romanticism with a hint of California sunshine.” while Will Gregory called it “heartache dressed in ten louche outfit”’.
Overcoming all manner of obstacles and finally raising £16,000 via their committed fanbase through Kickstarter, in November 2019 fast rising rockers Mason Hill recorded 11 songs at Riverside Studios in Glasgow, with Scott Taylor later travelling to New York to track his vocals at the legendary Electric Ladyland Studios. Titled in acknowledgement of struggles overcome, the result is Against The Wall, the most hard-hitting and engaging debut album to emerge from the British rock scene in 2020.
From its seductive, inviting opening notes, Against The Wall is an enthralling, spellbinding distillation of everything Mason Hill have learned in their 7 year history. It opens, in dramatic fashion, with the self-explanatory Reborn, climaxing with the lyric, “No more pain, I feel reborn”, a declaration of intent and purpose which sets the tone for what is to follow.
Another lyric encapsulating the defiant resolve of Against The Wall, is the opening line of the stirring, impassioned Hold On. “Wake up, wake up,” Scott Taylor sings. “Did you really think I'd disappear?” That same swagger runs through the album’s gritty title track, an anthemic modern rock masterclass to file alongside the likes of Shinedown and Alter Bridge. Their influence can also be detected in the beautifully bruised climactic epic Where I Belong, where Taylor sings, “I know who I am, and I know where I’ve been” before Bird launches into a stunning solo that recalls Guns N’ Roses legend Slash at his most lyrical.
Overcoming all manner of obstacles and finally raising £16,000 via their committed fanbase through Kickstarter, in November 2019 fast rising rockers Mason Hill recorded 11 songs at Riverside Studios in Glasgow, with Scott Taylor later travelling to New York to track his vocals at the legendary Electric Ladyland Studios. Titled in acknowledgement of struggles overcome, the result is Against The Wall, the most hard-hitting and engaging debut album to emerge from the British rock scene in 2020.
From its seductive, inviting opening notes, Against The Wall is an enthralling, spellbinding distillation of everything Mason Hill have learned in their 7 year history. It opens, in dramatic fashion, with the self-explanatory Reborn, climaxing with the lyric, “No more pain, I feel reborn”, a declaration of intent and purpose which sets the tone for what is to follow.
Another lyric encapsulating the defiant resolve of Against The Wall, is the opening line of the stirring, impassioned Hold On. “Wake up, wake up,” Scott Taylor sings. “Did you really think I'd disappear?” That same swagger runs through the album’s gritty title track, an anthemic modern rock masterclass to file alongside the likes of Shinedown and Alter Bridge. Their influence can also be detected in the beautifully bruised climactic epic Where I Belong, where Taylor sings, “I know who I am, and I know where I’ve been” before Bird launches into a stunning solo that recalls Guns N’ Roses legend Slash at his most lyrical.
Off the back of her critically acclaimed self-titled
debut album released last year on Invada Records,
Billy Nomates returns with her new EP, ‘Emergency
Telephone’.
The EP is pressed on ‘Ocean Blues Blue’ vinyl and
housed in a deluxe spined sleeve with digital
download card included.
With huge support from BBC 6Music, the year
came to a climax when she was asked by Iggy Pop
to step into his shoes to cover his Christmas show
and, together with featuring on the new Sleaford
Mods single ‘Mork n Mindy’, Billy Nomates has
proved herself to be one of the most original and
respected new artists coming through this year.
‘Emergency Telephone’ sees Billy Nomates develop
her unique sound and unflinching lyrics. Of the
new EP she says, “‘Emergency Telephone’ is
predominantly about communication breakdowns;
personally, mentally, physically. A strange thing to
happen while communication has never had so
many channels. Perhaps we need a direct line.”
“A weird trip of a band…the second this was playing I was
immediately hooked. I initially dove in because their name
was attached to Mikey Young for mastering (I have a rule
with Mikey…if he had his hands on it, it’s probably worth
a listen). This band exceeds in all my trials.
“Esoteric nature, but oddly poppy and ready to prick up
any ears out there. Deconstructed, but full of hooks. If I
were a lazy man, and I am, I would say its for fans of PiL,
but they transcend that pigeon-hole.
“Wonderful production lends its self to this unique LP.
It seems as if the room expands and contracts throughout
songs. Pulling away, then blocking your field of vision entirely.
Wasteland funk. Dub from the depths. Punk from
the pit.
“Even the instrumentation is worth mentioning:
saxophone, drums (and cut-up drums), guitar, synthesizer,
vocals (poetry) and general fuckery all combine to make
this a very interesting and worthwhile escape from the
average. And thank the Gods for that right now. Inspired
and desired by the active mind. A job well done by EXEK,
and there’s new stuff brewing too...
“For fans of BEAK>, Phantom Band, PIL and general
Jah Wobbleness, Magazine, short-wave radio, ESG and
underground Kraut”. —John Dwyer
Ståle Storlokken - Rhodes piano, Hammond organ, grand piano, Eminent 310, Mellotron, Continuum Nikolai Hængsle - Electric bass, electric and acoustic guitars Torstein Lofthus - Drums, percussion. After a solid run of five studio albums and 2019's two double live albums, Psychedelic Backfire I and II, Elephant9 had taken their groovy mix of high energy rock and power jazz as far as they could. In this respect Arrival Of The New Elders comes as a welcome and most timely addition to their recorded output. More varied, mature and reflective, don't let the self-ironic (?) title mislead you, they are as groovy as ever, but more structured and less jam oriented, with the longest track clocking in around the seven minute mark. Rather short, by their standards.Having built a solid live reputation even before their brilliant 2008 debut Dodovoodoo, the trio boasts what is probably the strongest rhythm section in Norway, complemented with keyboard magician extraordinaire, the one and only Ståle Storlokken. And boy, does he excel himself on this album, notably with more focus on the Rhodes than before. That said, this is nothing if not another strong group effort from what has been a very tight unit straight from the outset. Seven brand new compositions from Storlokken and one from Hængsle make way for what we consider to be their finest and most cohesive album to date. Arrival Of The New Elders was recorded by trusted stalwart Christian Engfelt, with early Dungen producer Mattias Glavå handling the mixing duties.Ståle started his musical journey in Veslefrekk with Jarle Vespestad and Arve Henriksen in the 90s, soon morphing into Supersilent with Helge Sten on board. He's also a member of Moster! and Humcrush, and have collaborated with a number of artists, most notably Motorpsycho. Nikolai is also a member of Bigbang, Needlepoint and Band Of Gold and have appeared on a couple of hundred records. The same goes for Torstein, an associate member of numerous bands ranging from pop and soul to free jazz. But Elephant9 has always been their special baby.
Ella Fitzgerald was, by any yardstick, a remarkable singer. She
had achieved much by the time she signed to the newly created
Verve Records in 1956, but it was the genius of Norman Granz,
her personal manager and Verve founder, in suggesting she
tackle the material of great contemporary composers in themed
albums that sent her career into orbit. As the New York Times
wrote on her passing in 1996, "These albums were among the
first pop records to devote such serious attention to individual
songwriters, and they were instrumental in establishing the pop
album as a vehicle for serious musical exploration." The song
selections ranged from standards to rarities, and the eight-title
series represented an attempt by Fitzgerald to cross over to a
non-jazz audience that may have been unaware of the talents
she first committed to vinyl in 1935.
Thumbing Thru Foliage is a blunted journey through YUNGMORPHEUS’ mind where personal lyrics intertwine with socio-political themes and tongue in cheek humour. Produced entirely by ewonee. Lead single ‘Fistfulofgreens’ grooves on a g-funk-esque plain and is an assured mission statement - “original man who got the game plan, I aint switching my hands inside these strange lands” whilst also sharing some intimate insight “I don’t ever answer questions that the feds askin, they were cuffin’ my mama, you know I had to blast them”. Second single ‘Sovereignty’ takes a more soulful turn with ceremonial strings and r&b samples ringing under braggadocious bars. Third single ‘Middle Passage’ is a more introspective cut - sombre vocal and piano loops are juxtaposed with neck snappin’ energetic drums. Describing the project in his own words, YUNGMORPHEUS says, “Peace peace, I consider this album a call to action of sorts. The world is rife with distractions and oppressive tactics but niggas move through it nonetheless ! Respect to ewonee for providing a beautiful backdrop for me to get some much needed shit off my chest. Maneuver through the foliage yall... Power to all black people ! Salute to those who listen”. ewonee adds, “Growing up like we did in this corporation Neegas deal with a lot. Usually gotta go through the mud to get to the greens. Good comes with the bad and vice versa, learning how to adjust is a must. Hope y’all get that from this. Roll up count up and mount up. PEACE”. YUNGMORPHEUS is an American rapper and record producer, originally from Miami but now based in LA. He has released music on Leaving Records and Rap Vacation as well as collaborating with Pink Siifu, Fly Anakin, Koncept Jack$on and Ohbliv. Previously supported by Okayplayer, XLR8R, Bandcamp, DJ Booth, Tiny Mix Tapes, Earmilk, BBC6 Music, Dublab, NTS and Worldwide FM. ewonee is an American Multi-instrumentalist, Producer, Beat-maker & Audio engineer from New York. Part of the Mutant Academy crew and also involved with the Beat Haus Show, ewonee has previously produced & collaborated with the likes of Your Old Droog, Fly Anakin, Reginald Chapman and Koncept Jack$on.
Slotface-Bassist Lasse Lokoy gehört mittlerweile zu den spannendsten Produzenten Norwegens und präsentiert - nach ersten Kollaborationen mit Girl On Red und dePresno - sein Solodebütalbum "Badminton". Darauf gehen seine Pop-Experimente aus Hip-Hop, Pop und Rock laut NME mehr in Richtung Gorillaz statt Green Day, im Vergleich zum Pop-Punk von Slotface. Ihm zur Seite stehen eine Vielzahl an Featuregästen wie Nils Bech, Moyka und Safario.
PRESSESTIMMEN
"A kaleidoscopic, mutating take on pop, more at home with Gorillaz than Green Day." - NME
"An unexpected left turn." - DIY
"A melting pot of experimental sounds and feel good rhythm that'll have you pressing play straight after it finishes." - The Line Of Best Fit
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Since the February release of Suddenly - Dan Snaith aka Caribou's critically acclaimed seventh album - tracks from the album have been remixed by Four Tet, Morgan Geist and Floating Points. Snaith follows up with a new EP of remixes by four exciting new artists - Shanti Celeste, Kareem Ali, Logic1000 and India Jordan - each with their own unique takes on standout tracks from the record.
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Clive Phillips, Dominic Goodman, Peter Blundell are Mosquitoes, a somewhat inscrutable London-based outfit in operation for something close to seven years now, and have released music across a host of celebrated and broad-minded underground labels. Give or take the occasional interview in the less-straight parts of the music press, this is as much formal biography as their music has thus far allowed, for there's something essentially unknowable at the centre of what makes Mosquitoes what they are. So murky is their early history in fact, the first two self-released Mosquitoes records seemed to disappear from sight before really becoming visible. As more records have emerged, those first communications accumulate new meanings, acting as vital documents in tracking the evolution of a band who stand at the vanguard of contemporary British music.
The second of these records, recorded to tape in summer 2016 and first released as a single-sided 12" under the name MOS-002, is arguably the first true iteration of Mosquitoes. Now fittingly renamed Mosquitoes for its reissue as a dubplate-style 10" on World of Echo on 5th March, these five cryptically titled, shape-shifting tracks, see the trio embrace a near-genre-less fluidity, and in doing so express a unique combination of both freedom and intent. By design or instinct, Mosquitoes stand at their own inverted rock nexus, presenting a music that's turned inside out, and in doing so, music that twists the listener the same way.
In that sense, Mosquitoes plug into a long lineage of DIY savant iconoclasts, those outliers who would deny orthodoxy in order to excavate new languages and ideas - The Dead C, This Heat, the anti-formalism of No Wave, David Toop's General Strike. As such, Mosquitoes rely on a musical pluralism in order to take it apart - you must know how something is made before you reassemble it anew. Labelling this an EP may possibly underplay the breadth and ambition of what's on show. Later records would arguably be more cohesive, but what stands as particularly startling with this early work is their fearless and all-encompassing dive into the avant garde. Consider the anti-rockism of the scorched earth 90s re-imagined through a distinctly avant filter of free jazz and dub aesthetics. And it's the latter which perhaps shapes Mosquitoes most, dub the perfect vehicle for the articulation of such wilful anti-formalism. Make no mistake, this is music that's unafraid to be tough, to demand something of the listener and to not ask permission. And to bear witness to a rejection of formalism so aggressively pursued is to be reconciled.
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Kuldaboli returns to bbbbbb records, this time with a 6-track EP on which his idiosyncratic sound of icy, cryptic electro fully emerges. BBB015 being the second release of Kuldaboli on bbbbbb records is destined to be a historical release for the Icelandic dance music scene and a very important one for Kuldaboli’s legacy. The EP title ‘Ekkert nema ískaldur veruleikinn’ roughly translates to “nothing but the ice cold reality” and that is exactly what is delivered across the six tracks laden with poetic lyrics and spoken word.
In the opening track ‘Ég er bara ég’ Kuldaboli’s signature sound of uncompromising electro is overlaid with haunting vocals recited in Icelandic saying “I am only me and you are only you, people exchange words measuring each other out, trying their best at discerning life’s riddles’’. It is easy to say that Kuldaboli knows how to capture the listeners with deep reflections on subjects that most people are aware of but hardly ever speak of.
A2 ‘Ískaldur veruleikinn’ or ‘the ice cold reality’ is the most bouncy dancefloor track of the EP with the openings lyrics saying ‘’Are you telling me the truth? If I were to guess you are lying cold to my face’. The power of word play in this release is by far the most interesting poetic turn for Kuldaboli to date, where he shows great insight to the subconscious and human behaviour.
The smooth sounds of possessed Italo disco on A3 ‘Finn innri frið’, along with the funky bassline and trance like synths has perhaps the most positive vibe to it if you are not familiar to Kuldaboli, along with the playful opener of B-side ‘Afi kenndi mér íslensku’.
Following B2 no-bullshit-electro-track ‘Kuklari’, the final track B3 ‘Fönix úr ösku’ shows the haunting dark depth of depressurisation that vocal and electronics can create, where melancholic lyrics convey images of lost dreams of former lives.
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pink vinyl limited to 500
Insides’s music shimmers and tingles with the tantalising promise of a different direction that UK pop could’ve gone: future-facing and fresh, rather than nostalgic regurgitation.” Simon Reynolds, author and music critic, writing in Euphoria re-issue liner-notes in 2019
“A sound still as dew fresh, dawn dazzled and shot through with luscious darkness as it was nigh on three decades ago.” Neil Kulkarni, The Wire, 2019
Insides are Julian Tardo and Kirsty Yates. They first recorded together in the early 90s as Earwig, and released an album, 'Under My Skin I am Laughing', which brought them to the attention of 4AD. Earwig morphed into Insides and two further albums were released on 4AD’s Guernica imprint: ‘Euphoria' (1993) and 'Clear Skin' (1994). In 2019 ‘Euphoria' was reissued for US Record Store Day by Beacon Sound, and was hailed as a lost treasure by discerning outlets.
'Soft Bonds' is Insides’ first release for 20 years. It’s the sound of heart-stopping slow motion, blood rushes, fingers digging into bruised flesh, and sleeping with clenched fists.
“We found some things that were recorded a long time ago. We added some things that have been haunting us for for years and recorded some other ideas that we’d just thought of. Recording started at home in 2012, and continued every now and then in our studio, on trains, in the Greek island of Naxos and while wandering around Cissbury Ring, Chanctonbury Ring and Devil’s Dyke in the South Downs. We finally walked away from the recordings in late 2019 and decided to release a small run of CDs and LPs on our own Further Distractions label.
'Soft Bonds' is about the past haunting the present, and gripping onto your crumbling sense of self. It’s informed by the spirit of This Heat/This Is Not This Heat, Patty Waters, Annette Peacock, Eartheater, Mhysa, Hailu Mergia, Scott Walker and Arca.”
The first track to be released, 'Ghost Music', was also the first to be finished and came about by scrapping the original structure, leaving only the trace elements. Working in the negative space that’s left behind, where rhythms are pulses and heartbeats and melodies are memories, it’s insistent, staring, but not shouting. Almost absent, or heard from another room. The video uses footage of Kirsty and Julian filmed and used in live shows in 1993 and cut with more recent footage from 2016. The past haunts the present.
“Pop loving the sound of itself to death. And hating the fact that it can’t stop loving.” Rob Young, The Wire, 1993
“...they seemed to be creating an entirely new version of pop. Their hooks were unmistakable, in that they triggered movement like perpetual-motion clockwork. Their grooves were sparse and spectral and nagged at you like breakbeats but made your heart and hair-follicles dance more than your feet. Their music was amniotic, ebbing and alive with iridescent melodic detail and lyrics that turned the turmoils and trauma of love into the sweetest searing honesty you’d been privy to since you first heard the Supremes.” Neil Kulkarni, The Quietus, 2011
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• When David Bowie and Iggy Pop relocated from LA to continental Europe, taking trains to Berlin, Paris and Warsaw, they would have come across new music that was very different to the burgeoning disco scene they left behind. “Cafe Exil” – named after one of Bowie’s favourite Berlin haunts – imagines the soundtrack that would have informed “Low”, “Heroes” and “Lodger”. It’s an awesome mix of electronica, Krautrock and experimental treats.
• There are key tracks from members of Can and Tangerine Dream, fascinating obscurities by German act Streetmark and Italian library maestro Piero Umiliani, the Herzog-soundtracking Popul Vuh, and highly collectible avant-strangeness by Annette Peacock. Czech-born Jan Hammer’s beautiful, light, atmospheric groove is among myriad surprises.
• “Cafe Exil” has been put together by Saint Etienne’s Bob Stanley and Jason Wood, author of multiple books on cinema and programmer at Home in Manchester. It fits in with other recent Ace compilations such as “English Weather” and “76 In The Shade” – it creates a mood, a time and a place. You’re right there, sat next to Bowie, drinking his Pernod and black, in a darkly lit Berlin bar.
• This 2LP set features a bonus track from Edgar Froese.
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Martin Georgi is not a newcomer. He is more like one of those who like to stay under the radar. The sample-based music producer made his debut in the deephouse sector on his own more than 10 years ago, completely without a label or distribution. In 2016, the Berlin record label OYE Records became aware of the hitherto unknown artist and finally re-released the tracks from his debut. Since then, his early tracks have been compared around the world with the early works of Moodyman or Theo Parrish.
After more than 10 years and the maxi “9 to 5 is killing me” (2018), a second album is finally released on the underground label quietelegance records. Stylistically it ties in with the first work. “Money from the trunk” is the title of the new album and it includes socially critical issues such as class differences that are created by capital. Georgi plays with a large portion of irony and of course plenty of samples, which the passionate record digger skillfully processed into eight new songs.
Georgi not only stands out from the conforming deep-house crowd with his raw, unconventional production style, but also ensures that old-school sampling continues to have its place in current club music. In doing so, he reacts to global music trends, which he incorporates into his tracks through the finest sample operations. So it is not surprising that his new album “Money from the trunk” has a rap song as title song, for which the renown artistic-activist rap duo Fokn Bois from Ghana is jointly responsible. Also on the list of prominent guests are Felipe Gordon from Colombia and Delfonic from Berlin as well as Cornelia Lund from fluctuating images. Roskow Kretschmann appears as co-producer, whose name is associated with many other well established musicians.
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Funkiwala Records presents the third in the series of "Lokkhi Terra meets"albums, with the London fusionistas creating another unique sound-clash, this time with ex-Fela Kuti keyboardist and legendary UK Afro-beat ambassador Dele Sosimi, and members of his critically acclaimed Afro-beat Orchestra.
This particular collaboration has been bubbling away for a few years now, teasing audience expectations with a handful of sold out shows each year in between both bands busy schedules.
Featuring the two pianos of Kishon Khan and Dele Sosimi – Cuban percussionists/vocalists Geraldo De Armas (Yoruba Andabo), Oreste Noda (Ariwo), Javier Camilo (Ibrahim Ferrer) - a horn section led by Justin Thurgur (Bellowhead) featuring Yelfris Valdes (Sierra Maestra) and Graeme Flowers (Kyle Eastwood) to name a few – this is an All-star cast.
Kishon Khan's Lokkhi Terra have over a number of years now been quietly establishing themselves as one of London's more unusual heavyweight outfits, described as "Stunning Headliners… A majestic multi-cultural blend of sounds… effortlessly builds bridges between rolling Indian raga rhythms, Afro-Cuban grooves, Acid Jazz/funk and free flowing improvisation" (Timeout London). Included amongst the band members are London's top Cuban musicians, adding their infectious rich musical history to the city's melting pot.
When the band wanted to explore Cuban links with another of their favourite traditions, Afrobeat, who better to bring in then one of the Afrobeat originators – maestro Dele Sosimi – "Sosimi creates some of the most bewitching grooves in modern African music" E Jazz News.
Bringing together two Yoruba speaking musics - with different accents, from different sides of the Atlantic - Havana meets Lagos in London – A Cuban-Afrobeat-Experience. CUBAFROBEAT.
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