Search:you are

Florence + The Machine feiert gemeinsam mit Jules Buckley und seinem Orchester Lungs, ihr mit dem
BRIT Award ausgezeichnetes Debütalbum, das vor 15 Jahren mit großem Erfolg veröffentlicht wurde. Am
11. September 2024 wurde Symphony of Lungs bei den BBC Proms mit einer herausragenden Performance von Florence + The Machine und Jules Buckley zum Leben erweckt, die das Album Lungs in seiner
Gesamtheit neu interpretierten. Dazu gehörten die meistverkauften und bei den Fans beliebten Singles
„Dog Days Are Over“, „You’ve Got The Love“ und „Cosmic Love“ sowie Raritäten, die Florence nach
eigenen Angaben seit mindestens 15 Jahren nicht mehr gespielt hatte, darunter „Bird Song“ und „Falling“.
Jules Buckley und sein Team von Arrangeuren verwandelten das bereits wunderschön produzierte Album
in ein orchestrales und chorisches Meisterwerk.
Zusätzlich zur Live-Übertragung der Aufführung auf BBC Radio 3 wird Universal Music Recordings in
Zusammenarbeit mit der BBC die Live-Aufnahme dieser Aufführung offziell veröffentlichen, zunächst auf
digitalen Streaming-Plattformen im Oktober 2024, gefolgt von 2LP schwarz, 2LP farbig und 2CD-Formaten
im März 2025. Die physischen Produkte enthalten atemberaubende Bilder des Auftritts sowie eine herzliche
persönliche Notiz von Florence selbst.

For his next Token EP, Kr!z delivers squelchy synth sequences over robust kicks, reinforcing his no-nonsense approach to club music. Classic in its conception yet psychotic in effect, Ipso Facto is a record built for powerful sound systems during thenight's most delirious moments.



First impressions are important; the Belgian producer has never been one to waste time, and this record is no exception. What you hear is what you get-an anxiously slithering synth line makes his intentions clear in Defeat the Purpose, driving people to the dancefloor. Dry drum machine work thunders throughout, locking in the Token style with precision. Moving into the next track, 'Chrome Dust' focuses more on the tonal side of things and its irresistible groovemakes it an instant ear catcher. Playful rides and snares shape the progression, with Kr!z swapping percussion elements to keep the movement lively.
The title track is a true hip swinger on the B1 as he reaches in the low end of the synth sequence to establish a very compelling rhythm. Everything in its right place, and not a hair more, the percussion transitions are reminiscent of his 4 channel DJ sets, the energy always being on the move. Equilibrium closes the EP with high energy, opening up filters over a reliably bouncy rhythm. Years of experience behind the decks can be very instructive for a perceptive producer, and Kr!z proves us just that in this track and in the whole EP.

Mr Bongo is proud to present 'The Original Sound of Mali', compiled by Vik Sohonie & David Buttle.
Malian music is arguably deeper, more sophisticated and lyrical than any other form of African music. Those of us deeply entranced by Malian culture, and, in particular, the immense hypnotic beauty of Malian music, have put together a
selection of songs from across the country.
Compiled by Vik Sohonie & Dave 'Mr Bongo' Buttle, the story of this release began in 2015 when Dave happened upon the Soul Bonanza blog. A treasure chest of rare finds from around the world! One mix in particular stood out and totally enthralled Dave - le monde à change: a tribute to mali 1970 - 1991. He
already knew of Malian legends such as the Rail Band, Salif Keita, & Les Ambassadeurs du Motel de Bamako, but this mix was something else! Deep & culled from the collections of some of the heaviest African music collectors in the world, legends like Vik Sohonie, Hidehito Morimoto, Philippe Noel, Gregoire
Villanova, and Rickard Masip. Dave immediately contacted Vik and a journey of discovery tracking down the rights-holders began. He also turned to the font of Malian music knowledge, Florent Mazzoleni. Florent has written the definitive book about Malian music - 'Musiques modernes et traditionnelles du Mali'. He
proposed some incredible tracks to include and provided the back bone of the sleeve notes and photos that are used in the album. No Malian album would be complete without a striking front cover photo, and ours is sourced from the late great Malian photographer Malick Sidibé.
On this album you will find well-known artists sitting next to rarer
discoveries. The Rail Band, who are one of the best known of all the big bands in Mali, gave us the stars Mory Kanté and Salif Keita. Les Amabassedeurs du Motel de Bamako were another big act that had Idrissa Soumaoro, Kanté Manfila, and for a while Salif Keita in their ranks. Sometimes Salif would play in both bands in one night, quite a feat considering the bands were fierce rivals. As an albino Salif has had to face considerable prejudice from society, focussing on his musical career to help overcome this.

A major discovery on the album has been Idrissa Soumaoro et L'Eclipse de L'Ija. L'Eclipse de l'Institut des Jeunes Aveugles was a Blind teenagers institute and their record was produced by the German association that took care of blind Malian teenagers in Bamako. It was never properly released commercially and was the first recordings by the legends of Malian music Idrissa Soumaoro, Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia. Amadou & Mariam later got married and became household stars, including making an album with Manu Chao.
This album is a concerted global effort to showcase the most vital cornerstone of Malian culture in an attempt to preserve its reputation in the face of its current, grim reality. We hope our highlights of Mali's rich history of musical innovation will serve as a starting point for reclaiming an image tainted by unnecessary conflict. May peace and music return to Mali soon.
Dedicated to Malick Sidibé.

Now on album number seven , Metronomy has continued where many of their 2000s ‘cool’ band peers have dropped off along the way. Small World is a return to simple pleasures, nature, an embracing in part of more pared down, songwriterly sonics (some moments wouldn’t sound amiss on a Wilco release), all while asking broader existential questions: which feels at least somewhat rooted in the period of time during which it was made – 2020. For all that Mount seems to think he has made a comparatively sombre record, much of Small World still pulses with the zesty, tongue-in-cheek joie de vivre you’d expect of a Metronomy record.

So sure, things are different now Joe Mount is getting older and what’s on his mind is changing, but that doesn’t mark a change in quality for Metronomy. An immaculate set of tracks, Joe Mount’s ability as a songwriter and arranger shines through on Small World, evergreen. Metronomy might be growing up, but they’re not afraid to still have fun with it all. Through the tumultuous ebb and flow of the years, Metronomy continues to endure and make great pop music – and, really, that’s all that we could ask for.

This anthology follows Now-Again's Loving On The Flipside, issued more than a decade ago. And that anthology itself got its start in a different time, a decade even earlier - the era in which Now-Again's Egon and his friends chased down funk 45s and the odd LP for their testosterone riddled, aggressive sound. Often times the funk song on one of their chosen is would be the throw-away b-side, the hasty afterthought the band cobbled together the night before hitting - or while in - the studio because they'd put all of their energies into writing the amazing ballad that would ensure their entry in soul's history books. Every once in a while, that funk song they coveted could have been - in an alternate universe - a ballad. The Third Guitar's "Baby Don't Cry," El Pooks* "I Could Do The Impossible" and Spider Harrison's "Beautiful Day" all fit into this category. That realization notwithstanding, more often than not they shined over the ballads to get to the tough stuff. Then they started flipping those funk records over to find some loving on the flip side. Some marvellous tunes were there to be found. This is the long awaited follow up. Contained within this anthology are some of the greatest soul ballads that go sweet with a beat - or, to follow our tagline, epitomize "sweet funk." Most of these songs have never been compiled. Some have never been issued in any form. Some, like the Ledgends entry here, were sampled to great success (in that case for Freddie Gibbs and Madlib's "Deeper"). Some haven't been sampled, but, like Herb Johnson's entry, are patiently awaiting their day. It should go without saying that we're proud to present this music in good conscience; with the full participation of everyone but the most obscure names contained within. And, for those who we've not yet been able to contact, this is our message: We've found your brethren, we've placed them beside you on an album that we hope you feel is befitting of your collective contributions to soul music and now we're just waiting for you. Though the music you recorded is from the years past, vour time is now.

A new artist appears on the streets of City HC Records, he is Andrey Orenstein
multidisciplinary artist, part of the alternative Rock band ‘Tequilajazz’, with several solo musical incarnations such as: Amor Entrave, for electronic Indie beats with tocuhes of IDM of broken beats, Do you like trains? for Acid House, and 50DIX, dedicated to street beats such as jungle, drum n bass, ghetto house, Juke and Footwork, and the pseudonym he uses for Go Ahead! EP, the new and multifaceted 22nd release from the Valencian label.

IF U WANT 2 is the elegant track that takes us into the bustling avenues of the 2st century megapolis, where the urban rhythms of the dance battles in Chicago, Footwork and Juke, along with brief Jungle passages alternate in a brilliant composition with funk and jazz nuances accompanying tight percussion and distorted kicks at 160 BPM.

Tough and Ghetto House and rugged acid define FOOLZ, second track of the A-side in which the demonic power of the 303 sounds embrace the thick and husky voice that together with infectious laughter set a rhythm as pugnacious as it is playful.

FETTA DI LIMONE, Juke, Footwork and Jungle, a perfect combination of American influences, legacy of Dj Rashad together with the English tradition around bass music, are fused by 50DIX with the unexpected and playful Italian lyrics of Tomasso Girardi, in perfect conjunction with the pianos, ethereal pads and mutant synths, that forge the development of the track. Already anthemic before the first beat sounds.

Juke, IDM, Halftime and abstract broken beats combine for the ultimate dance elixir, in the last track of the vinyl titled ICE FEELS KEEN, reaching 170 BPM in a catharsis of braindance, soul and acid exaltation in a dreamy harmony, where the syncopated notes of Oleg Egorov's bass and the velvety voice of Julia Garnits (Ice Hokku) commune.

Bonus digital track - 50Dix ICE FEELS KEEN (DZA REFLIP). Hypnotic, sharp and minimalistic, DZA's remix transforms the original track into an intimate and evocative experience, in which every sonic element acquires more prominence and presence.

Bonus digital track 2 - Fetta di limone (Kaxtelian remix) Inspired by the classic hardtrance sounds of the 90s, from Valencian dance temples such as Chocolate, Kaxtelian reinterprets the track with distorted drums, catchy melodies and Rave spirit at 165 bpm.

Mastering by Steve Voidloss at Black Monolith Studios in London (UK), except for the Bonus track 2 mastered by Raszia.

Once again, artwork and design by Dani Requeni, giving artistic coherence to the label's aesthetic.

Ka§par & Sheri Vari! Vault! Death Posture! Muzikalist! All these incredibly talented artists are on the latest release of In The Dark Again!
They deliver four tracks full of gloomy beauty and bitter sweet delight. Let yourself be enchanted by this very special record.
Better be quick as this release is limited to 100 vinyl copies only.

Sixth album by Christoph Heemann and Timo van Luijk. Four years after we got Lost in Spice we reached the point of Arrival. An altar on the surface of the water is burning with flames. Behind it you can see a half of the Earth's globe, and on it there’s a bright throne. A pale, translucent ruler wearing a crown sits in the throne. The globe is surrounded by a ball of shadows on which sits a larger dark ruler on a dark throne. Behind the globe are mountain peaks, and all of it is reflected in the water. Above the mountains are clouds which merge into rivers and end in a curved horizon on which forests stand, and the sun rises between them. Above this horizon is another sky with lunar crescents and comets. Above this sky are rows of angels bent over, above which the stars shine. The sun shines in the top left corner and the crescent moon in the right.

NOW Music proudly presents NOW That’s What I Call Gold – The Ultimate Hits – this essential 3-LP set brings together 46 tracks by legendary artists with timeless anthems, celebrating some of the greatest hits of all time, including chart-topping classics and enduring favourites.



LP1 sets the stage with Queen’s electrifying ‘A Kind Of Magic’, followed by Philip Bailey & Phil Collins’ #1 ‘Easy Lover’. The Police feature with their #1 smash ‘Message In A Bottle’, while The Killers follow with their record-breaking anthem ‘Mr. Brightside’. The massive ‘Stick Season’ from Noah Kahan is up next before the first side finishes with Lana Del Rey’s stunning ‘Video Games’. Flip the LP over for contemporary classics from Coldplay and Duran Duran. Sinéad O’Connor’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ still sounds raw and breath-taking and is followed by classics from the Pretenders, Shirley Bassey, Dusty Springfield, and Soft Cell’s ‘Tainted Love’, one of the best-selling UK singles of the ‘80s, whilst another of those closes out the first LP: Ultravox with their masterpiece, ‘Vienna’.



LP2 delivers a legendary lineup, including Billy Joel with his Grammy-winning ‘Just The Way You Are’ and Céline Dion’s powerful version of ‘All By Myself’. John Denver’s ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’ and Paul Simon’s groundbreaking ‘Graceland’ are featured along with the pop genius of Electric Light Orchestra with ‘Last Train To London’. While on the other side timeless ballads from Elton John with ‘Tiny Dancer’ and Lewis Capaldi’s ‘Someone You Loved’ come ahead of Wings, Simply Red and ‘60s gems from Stevie Wonder, The Supremes and the peerless ‘Walk On By’ from Dionne Warwick.



LP3 opens with Neil Diamond’s universally beloved singalong anthem, ‘Sweet Caroline’ and Cliff Richard’s mid-70s classic, ‘Devil Woman’. Disco legends Donna Summer (‘MacArthur Park’) and Gloria Gaynor (‘I Will Survive’), lead into Sophie Ellis Bextor’s ‘Murder On The Dancefloor’ which became a smash for the second time recently. Ed Sheeran and Pharrell Williams had enduringly popular hits with ‘Galway Girl’ and ‘Happy’, and the side closes with the harmonic vocals of All-4-One and their beautiful signature song ‘I Swear’. The final side is packed with anthemic and uplifting classics kicking off with Spandau Ballet’s ‘Gold’, Survivor’s ‘Eye Of The Tiger’, and Take That’s soaring ‘Rule The World’. The remainder of the collection celebrates and showcases some of the ‘70s greatest tracks including Bonnie Tyler’s ‘Lost In France’, Marianne Faithfull’s poignant ‘The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan’ and Blondie’s era-defining and genre-defying #1 ‘Heart Of Glass’.



NOW That’s What I Call Gold is a must-have for all music lovers —packed with legendary artists, timeless hits, and unforgettable moments in pop. Don’t miss out on this golden treasure trove of musical brilliance!

Iron Curtis and Johannes Albert return to orbit with their highly anticipated Moon IV, the next chapter in their acclaimed lunar album series. Building on over a decade of collaboration and the cosmic groundwork in Moon I, II, and III, this fourth instalment is a testament to their ever-evolving artistry and expansive vision.

Released on their beloved Frank Music imprint, Moon IV sees the duo starring an 11-track journey that once again defies genres, challenges conventions, and charts a vivid course through the electronic cosmos.

From the warm opener "Void Gathering" and wistful melodies of "Silverclub" to the driving rhythms of "Sounds (The Feels)," which echoes the relentless pulse of NYC Post-Disco, Moon IV encapsulates the duo's signature blend of moods and eras.

"Club L'Avenir" & "Daso" serve up euphoric moments with a nod to the French Touch, while the ambient vignette "Into Somethin' (Interlude)" calms you down again. Electro cuts like "Pipeline" are reminiscent of earlier works in the Moon album series, and new paths are forged when the two are exploring Balearic Pop Music (BPM) territory in "Ohne Dich".

Returning from space with the elegant deepness of "Bliss (The Short Finale)", the duo gets you home safe and sound. Their unique studio alchemy shines brighter on this moonlit, flaring long-player than ever. So, buckle up and off we go.

Repressed! Archival reissue of the garage-psych Zamrock masterpiece (1974)

PRESSED ON OPAQUE GREEN VINYL

“Electrified by a diet of James Brown, the Stones and Deep Purple, WITCH were the stadium-filling kings of 70s Zamrock.” - MOJO
This landmark recording from Now-Again’s comprehensive overview of Zambia’s premier garage-, psych-, prog-, funk-,afro-rock ensemble WITCH, We Intend To Cause Havoc! is now available in a never before seen color variant. The audio is nigh-perfect – restored and remastered from the original master tapes. WITCH’s musical arc is contained to a five year span and, in retrospect, is a logical one. The band’s first two, self-produced albums - released in unison with the birth of the commercial Zambian recording industry – are exuberant experiments in garage rock, and are as influenced by the Rolling Stones as they are James Brown. In The Past, their second album, is the perfect follow-up for anyone exposed to the WITCH band through their landmark Introduction.

The complete album - pressed on limited edition 180g vinyl

Tenor saxophonist Ben Webster (1909 - 1973) had already enjoyed a long and fruitful
career by the time this 1957 session was recorded. However, as Bob Blumenthal
explains in the original liner notes, he still wasn't known for the sensual ballad feeling
that became his trademark during the last two decades of his life. At that time, he was
still recognized for the hard blowing fast tenor sax style he played with both the Duke
Ellington Orchestra and his own multiple small groups.
Even though his repertoire was generally linked to that of Duke Ellington, this classic
Norman Granz produced session presents Webster playing four popular ballads and
two of his own bluesy compositions, Soulville and Late Date. On hand in support are
the incredible Oscar Peterson Trio (Herb Ellis, Ray Brown), and drummer Stan Levey.
"The by turns grizzled and vaporous-toned Webster really hit his stride on the Verve
label. This 1957 date with the Oscar Peterson Trio is one of the highlights of that
golden '50s run. After starting off with two bluesy originals, Webster gets to the heart
of things on five wistful ballads. Providing sympathetic counterpoint, Peterson
forgoes his usual pyrotechnics for some leisurely compact solos; his cohorts -
guitarist Herb Ellis, bassist Ray Brown, and drummer Stan Levey - are equally assured
and splendid. Newcomers shouldn't hesitate to start here." - ***** Stephen Cook,
AllMusic

The late, great Calvin Keys’1971 debut album for the Black Jazz Records label announced the arrival of a new star in the jazz guitar firmament. Keys had spent the ‘60s backing up the crème de la crème of jazz organists—Jimmy Smith, Jimmy McGriff, Jack McDuff, Richard “Groove” Holmes—but for his first record as a leader, he was eager to play with a piano player instead. So he recruited one of the best—Larry Nash, who, besides being a member of the L.A. Express, played with everybody from Eddie Harris to Bill Withers to Etta James. Bassist Lawrence Evans, drummer Bob Braye, and flautist-songwriter Owen Marshall rounded out the group on Shawn-Neeq, which might remind some of Pat Metheny’s early work (Metheny acknowledges Keys as an influence), or Grant Green.

But what gives Shawn-Neeq extra depth is that it comes from the heart; as Keys says in Pat Thomas’ liner notes, which feature an interview with the artist: “My thing was, I write about some of the experiences that I’ve had in my life.” Keys became a fixture in the Bay Area jazz scene before he passed in April 2024; this is the album that started his journey. Another gem from the celebrated Black Jazz catalog, pressed in blue with black swirl vinyl limited to 750 copies!

Gold vinyl. Building on the momentum of their debut, Shooting Star returned in 1981 with Hang On for Your Life, a dynamic follow-up that further cemented their place in the AOR rock scene. The album delivered a mix of anthemic rock and melodic hooks, with standout tracks like "Hang On for Your Life," "Hollywood," "Breakout," and "Are You on My Side" all receiving steady radio airplay. One of the album's most unique moments came with "Flesh and Blood," an up-tempo rock song featuring a soaring violin solo_a rarity in the genre that highlighted the band's signature sound. While the record found success on rock stations, it also marked the end of an era, as founding keyboardist Bill Guffey departed the band following its release. With Van McLain, Gary West, Charles Waltz, Ron Verlin, and Steve Thomas still at the helm, Hang On for Your Life captured Shooting Star at their peak_an ambitious, hard-driving rock band with a sound that was both melodic and powerful.

White/Gold Sunburst Vinyl. Building on the momentum of their debut, Shooting Star returned in 1981 with Hang On for Your Life, a dynamic follow-up that further cemented their place in the AOR rock scene. The album delivered a mix of anthemic rock and melodic hooks, with standout tracks like "Hang On for Your Life," "Hollywood," "Breakout," and "Are You on My Side" all receiving steady radio airplay. One of the album's most unique moments came with "Flesh and Blood," an up-tempo rock song featuring a soaring violin solo_a rarity in the genre that highlighted the band's signature sound. While the record found success on rock stations, it also marked the end of an era, as founding keyboardist Bill Guffey departed the band following its release. With Van McLain, Gary West, Charles Waltz, Ron Verlin, and Steve Thomas still at the helm, Hang On for Your Life captured Shooting Star at their peak_an ambitious, hard-driving rock band with a sound that was both melodic and powerful.

21 tracks - pressed on limited edition 180g vinyl.This special LP edition showcases all of Elvis Presley's 1957 rock & roll studio sides

The core group backing him on all sides are Scotty Moore on guitar, Bill Black on bass, and D. J. Fontana on drums, plus The Jordanaireson backing vocals.

All tracks recorded at Radio Recorders, Hollywood between January and September 1957. Additional musicians to core group: Gordon Stoker (piano) Tiny Timbrell guitar), Dudley Brooks (piano).

When I first heard Elvis' voice, I just knew that I wasn't going to work for anybody; and nobody was going to be my boss. Hearing him for the first time was like busting out of ail." - Bob Dylan

Elvis was a unique artist... an original in an area of imitators." - Mick Jagger

Its sound veers away from raw black metal intensity, opting for expansive, dreamy
atmospheres. Damian Anton Ojeda's signature approach tempers the harshness of
black metal's usual bleakness with a delicate sense of beauty and melancholy. The
album builds around shimmering guitars and lush soundscapes, creating a sense of
longing rather than the frostbitten aggression typically associated with the genre.
A key characteristic of "I Want to Be There" is how the screamed vocals--reminiscent
of depressive black metal--are mixed to blend seamlessly with the instrumental layers.
This intentional obscuring of vocals, pushed toward the back, transforms the vocals
into another textural element rather than a dominant force. This aesthetic decision
diffuses the emotional weight usually carried by extreme metal vocals, steering the
listener away from despair and toward introspection.
The balance between black metal's darker elements and post-rock's ethereal qualities
gives this record its emotional depth. The opening and closing tracks, "In the Distant
Travels" and the title track, lean more heavily on black metal structures but never fully
embrace the genre's typical harshness. Instead, the fuzzy guitars and crashing
cymbals are imbued with hope and uplifting energy. The post-rock influence becomes
more pronounced in tracks like "I Want to Be With You," which forgoes black metal
vocals entirely in favor of a choral atmosphere, evoking a serene and heavenly quality.
Ojeda also demonstrates his talent for creating immersive soundscapes, drawing
comparisons to *Sigur Ros*. Both artists employ sweeping melodies that evoke
feelings of transcendence. Still, where *Sigur Ros* tends to embrace more overtly
uplifting and sentimental tones, Sadness anchors these grand moments in
melancholy, avoiding overindulgence. The album is a delicate dance between light and
shadow, making the listening experience emotionally rich and layered.
While it may not have the raw emotional punch of *Deafheaven* or the nostalgic
charm of *Alcest*, *I Want to Be There* stands as a polished and thoughtfully
composed entry into the post-blackgaze genre. Ojeda's ability to fuse the weightless
hypnosis of black metal with the airy beauty of post- rock results in a sound that is
both familiar and new. Sadness offers a captivating and often beautiful exploration of
blackgaze, making the album a worthwhile listen for fans of atmospheric and
introspective metal.

Blasé is a French-American pop artist, composer, arranger, producer, singer and author. Since his childhood and adolescence in New York, he experimented, mixed together 70s rock, electronic music, disco and hiphop, to create a sound that will take him directly to Paris with his first band Haute, with Anna Majidson. A first hit will be born, «Shut Me Down», whose session Colors accumulates more than 30 million views on YouTube.

After this first success, and following numerous collaborations with various artists such as Agoria, DJ Pone, Lala&ce, Niro or Jwles, he found his musical signature and started solo. The UFO Blasé released his first EP «Why Blasé? » in 2023 on Record Makers label, a unique fusion of Chic, The Strokes and Manu Chao.

Blasé releases his first album «BLABLABLA» in 2025, an album that stands as a personal manifesto of his sound obsessions that open almost as many tracks: 15 original titles in search of the groove.

With his educated ears to the radio and charts across the Atlantic, he honors this generous vision of pop that encompasses old-school hip-hop, R&B, jazz, funk, disco and new-wave, and navigates between different styles in the manner of American artists. Some songs are in French while others are in English, featuring singer Anna Majidson, rapper Jwles, and the late American artist Cola Boyy. So we go on «BLABLABLA» from a studio haunted by Quincy Jones to a cellar where he rehearses The Cure of «Boys Don’t Cry».

Capturing phantom drones behind dusty beats and haunted twangs, Ellis Swan and James Schimpl return for their third album as Dead Bandit. Locked into a musical language unique to their collaboration, the duo once again put us out to pasture across broad sonic plains, drums flapping like loose fence panels in the prairie breeze and bass rumbling like distant thunder. True to their previous two records, Swan and Schimpl keep the strung out guitars at the front of what they do, whether playing a naked, desolate strum or running six strings through disruptive effects processing until they're barely recognisable.
But while there are details of disturbance when listening to Dead Bandit's self-titled record up close, the wider impression is a smoother, more direct affair that toys with post-rock complexity and matches it with the emotional weight of melodic simplicity, gentle grooves and conscious arrangements. 'Weeds' offsets its languid fuzz guitar with shimmering sustained notes before settling into a patient, heavy-hearted composition charged with heartbreak leads pealing out in the middle distance.
By comparison, 'Glass' has a smoky, half-hidden backroom quality. Its brushed whisper of a beat, lingering guitar drones and subtle sub bass come on like a dub wise flip of a sad-eyed country ballad. The mood maintains on 'Half Smoked Cigarette', which captures the grey sky sullenness of post-punk and reframes it in the seductive isolation of rural America. While there's a thickness to the sound on these most direct of tracks on the album, there's also fragility inherent to the sound world Dead Bandit have been shaping out over these past few years.
'Buttercup' swaps sadness for sinister undercurrents, once more drawing on fulsome low end to fill out the sparse threads of instrumentation up top. 'Pink' finds a steady momentum for its own brand of brooding mystery, the sharp end of the beat bringing focus to the many-layered approaches to the guitar which roundly define the Dead Bandit sound. There's an even clearer direction mapped out in the vintage drum machine pulse of 'Koyo', all the better to carry swirling effects treatments and moody melodic figures. Even in these ominous climes there's space for plaintive, endearing hooks which land as the most direct phrases in Dead Bandit's musical lexicon to date.
The fundamental sound across this album holds true, but Dead Bandit are never bound to a singular practice. 'Lucien's Bitters' strikes up a pronounced drum machine beat which comes on like 90s downtempo, and it feels like a natural vessel for the heavy, shoegaze tinted lament of the guitars. At every turn, Swan and Schimpl prove their affinity for all kinds of approaches, and yet the end product is a deeply cohesive, immediate listen that shows just how clear their creative vision really is.

T. Gowdy returns with a major statement and luminous stylistic expansion on his third album for Constellation. Trill Scan is an exquisite suite of songs literally and figuratively about alchemy, where Gowdy melds his background in choral and medieval music with his trademark analogue electronics. Following the acclaimed Miracles (Bleep Album of the Week / Albums of the Year 2022), Gowdy's bar-raising new LP centers human voice for the first time. Choral set-pieces and solo lead vocals, along with his own lute playing, are novel elements in Gowdy's work, and draw on strains of Middle Ages polyphony and the Baroque "broken style" to further distinguish Trill Scan from anything in his discography to date. Gowdy sees "the modal language of medieval Europe as a less distant cousin to indigenous traditional music practice" compared to a Classical-colonial "patriarchal order of tonality that honours a system of domination." The 12th century Notre Dame School of choral music and 17th century style brisé each carry tonal materiality, heterodox technique, and cultural-historical symbolism central to Trill Scan's conceptual and compositional alchemy. Gowdy coheres these beautifully into his palette of serpentine slowburn electronics, a minimal analogue-driven techno shaped by aleatory strategies and tinged with post-punk grit. Gowdy's sound has been aptly described as "gently transportative, flickering like a busted halogen lamp" and his overriding pursuit of psychoacoustic immanence likened to "getting your brain massaged" and praised as "blissful work that bristles with effervescent energy, like brain waves coming in and out of focus." Trill Scan expands this sonic sensibility with more conspicuous harmonic complexity, stylistic variety, and humanistic narrative arc. Alternately sacramental and intimately personal vocals, sometimes wordless and sometimes lyrical, are worked into superlative instrumental tracks, yielding a warmly immersive concept album that's equally Gowdy's most musical. Gowdy sings explicitly of alchemy on the hypnotic album centerpiece "Novus Lumen" with lyrics that gesture at these medieval processes of material investigation. The tension between the scientific and esoteric is crucial; the separation and synthesis of physical substances in medieval alchemy maps onto his fixation with the interplay between the materiality of sound and psychoacoustics. Gowdy follows the Jungian interpretation of classic alchemical texts as an historical bridge to theories of the psyche, where consciousness itself is treated as materiality and similarly subjected to methodical analysis and experimentation, to deconstruction, dissolution, transformation, reintegration, metamorphosis. Song titles like "Arislei Bone" and "Materiadiscipuli" further reference these mythopoetic throughlines from medieval alchemy to modern psychology. Gowdy chooses disruptive forms from the history of Western music that symbolize and prefigure the modern psychological subject and its struggle for/against order, even as they also evoke liturgy and the Renaissance court. The sacramental adds a potent dimension to his pursuit of psychoacoustic activation, meditation, and transcendence, as choral passages intersperse with electronic drone and pointillism throughout the album. His gorgeous Fennesz-meets-lute rendition of the Baroque composition "Courante" by François Dufault offers idiomatic salon-secular counterpoint. Album closer "Strewn" is bookended by a final recurrence of choral invocation, with pulsing earworm motorik techno in between, over which Gowdy whisper-sings a dreamlike vision quest of mythic-alchemical imagery: "as I washed my eyes they turned to metal / and the memories melted to the metal / the metal of my heart." A mesmerizing final song that explicitly invokes Gowdy's search for materialized abstraction and substantive musical immanence wrought from his own psycho-therapeutic subjectivity, and encapsulates the album's turn towards more harmonic, historicized, and humanistic elements. Trill Scan commingles empyrean and earthly electronic songcraft to genuinely original and absorbing effect. Thanks for listening. RIYL: Coil, Nicolás Jaar, Alessandro Cortini, Pantha Du Prince, Fennesz, Visible Cloaks, Actress,