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The legendary Ultramagnetic MC touches down in London for a one-away collab with We Are The Horsemen, featuring the one and only Kaidi Tatham.


What you sayin’, Kool Keith...? Enter your spaceship for a transatlantic meeting of minds as the legendary Kool Keith links up with We Are The Horsemen (Outernational Sounds head honcho Harvinder Singh Nagi and producer Sub One) and the great Kaidi Tatham for a future-jazz flavoured trip through the great MC’s London adventures.

Kool Keith needs no introduction to hip-hop heads worldwide. As one of the greatest MCs ever to touch the mic, Keith has never stopped innovating and progressing. From his days in the seminal 1980s Bronx unit Ultramagnetic MCs, through his pioneering development of new conceptual characters and styles in the 1990s (Big Willie Smith, Dr. Octagon, Dr. Dooom, Black Elvis), to his continuous run of radically independent recordings in the 2000s and beyond, Kool Keith defines rap longevity and artistic originality. No one else in hip hop has a comparable record of continuous reinvention, conceptual boldness, and stylistic panache.

And after four decades in rap, Keith is still one of the hardest working rappers in the game, perpetually seeking new sounds to spit on and new collaborators from across the musical spectrum. Fresh off the acclaim for his new Black Elvis 2 release, the protean MC has touched down on Outernational Sounds for a unique collab with We Are The Horsemen and Kaidi Tatham. ‘London Is The Place’ finds Keith riding the Horsemen’s atmospheric, break-toughened riddim and reaching back in time to drop kaleidoscopic, stream-of-consciousness impressions of the Ultramagnetic MCs infamous 1989 tour, before flashing forward to the present in order to namecheck Honest Jons Records, saxophone star Nubiya Garcia and master keyboardist and broken beat pioneer Kaidi Tatham, who contributes trademark jazz keys and bruk steez to the AA side remix. The 12” is closed out by a third version, the Horsemen’s own Kool Jazz Mix, bringing see- sawing organ stabs and a neck-snapping Ultra-sampling hook.

Kool Keith, Kaidi Tatham and We Are The Horsemen, taking it higher and overcoming the pressure with ‘music so progressive’, to quote Keith himself! Limited press – don’t sleep on this one!!

Alex "Omar" Smith has never been one for modesty, so we shouldn't be too surprised that he's called his latest full-length - his fifth in total - The Best. To be fair, he is rather good at producing high-grade deep house, and here unveils another eleven gems. Interestingly, he's recruited an impressive cast-list of collaborators and guests, including Norman Talley, Kyle Hall, OB Ignitt and, most surprisingly of all, Bristol-based Tom Bug. Highlights are plentiful, from the dusty afro and blues influences of the tribal "Chama Piru's", and hazy, Rhodes-heavy vocal cut "AhRevolution", to the hip-wigglin' disco-house influences of "Seen Was Set", and retro-futurist, Inner City style Divinity hook-up "On Your Way".

Hailing from the seaside communities surrounding Enoshima, a small island located 50 km southwest of Tokyo, Maya Ongaku is a ragtag collective of local musicians whose brand of earthy psychedelia transcends widely beyond the roots of their inner souls. The name derives not from any kind of ancient civilization, but rather a neologism defined as the imagined view outside one’s field of vision. The band—currently a trio of Tsutomu Sonoda, Ryota Takano, and Shoei Ikeda—finds sanctuary at the Ace General Store, a beachy vintage shop and salon-like space just hidden from sight from the bustling, touristy riverside Subana Street. Between discussions on music and art, curating the vinyl section and manning the register, and chatting up with locals young and old, the members find time to jam and record their spontaneous ideas in the studio tucked away in the back. It’s in this unlikely setting where Maya Ongaku finds its origins, the culmination of what Sonoda describes as 自然発生 (shizen hassei), meaning spontaneous generation, or the supposed production of living organisms from nonliving matter.

Approach to Anima, the group’s debut album released on Guruguru Brain, finds Maya Ongaku building a foundational groove while tapping into their innermost psyche. Sonoda’s malleable guitar and vocals, Takano’s sinuous bass lines, Ikeda’s floating woodwinds, and a sprinkling of delicate percussion—all coalesce into an aural experience that’s assertive yet abstract, calm but unsettling. The slow building, sax-laden “Approach” serves as an introduction to Maya Ongaku’s world, while the appropriately-named “Water Dream” floats its way toward the gentle finale of “Pillow Song.” It’s a concise distillation of their many interests and influences, from Neo-Dada and Fluxus, to where contemporary art intersects with the development of modern recording technology in the ‘60s and ‘70s.

As the title suggests, Approach to Anima is not intended to be a terminus; it’s merely the beginning of an exploration. The three childhood friends that comprise Maya Ongaku are always looking beyond the confines of the idyllic but rapidly gentrifying enclave of their beloved Enoshima. Feeding off of the energy that still radiates from the triumphant, decade-long journey of their label bosses’ band Kikagaku Moyo, who rose to global prominence from scrappy beginnings busking on the streets of Takadanobaba, they hope to go wherever inspiration takes them, to anywhere around the globe where their music can find a home.

Ultimately, Maya Ongaku’s uninhibited world-building will make it possible for us to see the unseen, expand the possibilities of the naked eye—all through the unbridled vibrancy of their music.

Coming straight outta Salerno's vibrant music scene, "Amo' / Voce 'e Notte" is the first 7" single from female rap duo Zetas. Released by DJ's Choice, a partner label of Four Flies Records, it contains two songs produced bybeatmaker, rapper and producer Tonico 70, a true veteran of Southern Italian hip hop.

Both young millennials, rappers Annarella and Miriade were exposed to the world of underground hip-hop from an early age, jamming, freestyling and listening to different music than their peers. Active as a duo since 2019, they're now making their official debut with this 7", which will be followed byan album at the end of September.

The A-side track "Amo'", which is about the overuse and loss of meaning of the word 'love' (amo' translates as 'luv'), makes their intentions clear. Zetas rap in the exuberant dialect and slang of their native city of Salerno, while their sound looks back to the '90s through a contemporary lens. Raw rhymes are delivered with an urgent flow over a beat that, rather than boom-bap nostalgia, is a modern take on classic production styles. The result is a happy medium between old school and fresh – one where the melody of dialect rap and rhymes blends wonderfully with the rhythms of funk, soul and reggae.

"Voce 'e notte", on side B, has a different mood, but the same approach. Here, Zetas weave wistful verses tinged with disillusionment and toughness on top of Tonico 70's 808-led beat, paying tribute to a classic Neapolitan song also titled "Voce 'e Notte". The result is a rap serenade that transforms and reimagines the Neapolitan song tradition through today's sensibility and, of course, through hip hop.

2023er LP Nachpressung auf schwarzem Vinyl! Nach eigenen Angaben verbrachten Gitarrist Mike Sullivan und Drummer Daniel Turncrantz eine gewisse Zeit in amerikanischen Nationalparks und fuhren durch Berglandschaften, als sie "Station" aufnahmen. Ihr Album klingt auch entsprechend episch, monumental und besitzt eine unglaubliche Tiefe. Sullivan und Turncrantz bekamen prominente Unterstützung vom THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES/BOTCH Bassisten Brian Cook, während sich Morgan Henderson von den BLOOD BROTHERS (R.I.P.) auf "Xavii" dem Kontrabass annimmt. Aufgenommen in Seattle von Mastermind Matt Bayles (ISIS, MASTODON, MINUS THE BEAR), verpasste er der Band diesen intensiven und beeindruckenden Klang und achtete gleichzeitig darauf, dass "Station" den Namen Album auch wirklich verdiente: ein kohärentes Werk, vom ersten Lied Campaign bis zum letzten Lied mit Double Bass Xavii. Insgesamt sechs Stücke befinden sich auf "Station" und es ist ohne Untertreibung instrumentaler Postrock at its best! Ein echtes Kunstwerk. Gegründet 2004 haben RUSSIAN CIRCLES von Anfang an mit Versatzstücken des Metal, Elementen des Minimal Jazz und kryptischen Riffs, die so klangen, als sei ein Komet in einer Großstadt eingeschlagen, verwirrt, polarisiert und unendlich verzückt. Ihre Musik verwebt einen Teppich aus intensivsten cinematischen Eindrücken, der einem auf der einen Seite mit seiner Härte den Boden unter den Füßen wegzieht, es auf der anderen Seite aber auch versteht, den Aufprall zu bremsen und für Kopfkino ohne Gleichen sorgt. "Enter", ihr Debüt von 2006, bescherte RUSSIAN CIRCLES Shows mit Größen wie TOOL, DALEK, DAUGHTERS und PELICAN. RUSSIAN CIRCLES setzen mit "Station" genau dort an, wo sie mit "Enter" aufhörten, erschließen sich aber gleichzeitig einen neuen Weg in die musikalische Tundra, um Kopf und Körper mitzuziehen und nicht nur dem Jahre 2008, sondern der ganzen Musikgeschichte ihren Stempel aufzudrücken.

2023er LP Nachpressung auf schwarzem Vinyl! Nach eigenen Angaben verbrachten Gitarrist Mike Sullivan und Drummer Daniel Turncrantz eine gewisse Zeit in amerikanischen Nationalparks und fuhren durch Berglandschaften, als sie "Station" aufnahmen. Ihr Album klingt auch entsprechend episch, monumental und besitzt eine unglaubliche Tiefe. Sullivan und Turncrantz bekamen prominente Unterstützung vom THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES/BOTCH Bassisten Brian Cook, während sich Morgan Henderson von den BLOOD BROTHERS (R.I.P.) auf "Xavii" dem Kontrabass annimmt. Aufgenommen in Seattle von Mastermind Matt Bayles (ISIS, MASTODON, MINUS THE BEAR), verpasste er der Band diesen intensiven und beeindruckenden Klang und achtete gleichzeitig darauf, dass "Station" den Namen Album auch wirklich verdiente: ein kohärentes Werk, vom ersten Lied Campaign bis zum letzten Lied mit Double Bass Xavii. Insgesamt sechs Stücke befinden sich auf "Station" und es ist ohne Untertreibung instrumentaler Postrock at its best! Ein echtes Kunstwerk. Gegründet 2004 haben RUSSIAN CIRCLES von Anfang an mit Versatzstücken des Metal, Elementen des Minimal Jazz und kryptischen Riffs, die so klangen, als sei ein Komet in einer Großstadt eingeschlagen, verwirrt, polarisiert und unendlich verzückt. Ihre Musik verwebt einen Teppich aus intensivsten cinematischen Eindrücken, der einem auf der einen Seite mit seiner Härte den Boden unter den Füßen wegzieht, es auf der anderen Seite aber auch versteht, den Aufprall zu bremsen und für Kopfkino ohne Gleichen sorgt. "Enter", ihr Debüt von 2006, bescherte RUSSIAN CIRCLES Shows mit Größen wie TOOL, DALEK, DAUGHTERS und PELICAN. RUSSIAN CIRCLES setzen mit "Station" genau dort an, wo sie mit "Enter" aufhörten, erschließen sich aber gleichzeitig einen neuen Weg in die musikalische Tundra, um Kopf und Körper mitzuziehen und nicht nur dem Jahre 2008, sondern der ganzen Musikgeschichte ihren Stempel aufzudrücken.

Third in a trilogy of LPs of Library Music miniatures from composer and multi-instrumentalist Daniel O’Sullivan (Æthenor, Ulver, This is Not This Heat, etc) following 2020’s Electric Māyā and 2021’s Fourth Density. For heads, the term “Library Music” in 2021 might evoke dodgy Italian gray market LPs and crate diggers hunting for “funky breaks” - but London’s venerable KPM Music is working with groundbreakers like Daniel to open up new avenues for composers to experiment. The 15 tracks on “The Physic Garden” are fully-formed and orchestrated compositions, which would be highlights on anyone’s LP, never mind as incidental music. Of the music, Dan says: “The Physic Garden is an album of diverse instrumentals inspired by a swathe of verdant vistas from manicured gardens and follies to urban common land, overgrown and forgotten. Convalescent memories in the shape of psychedelic auditory botanics.”

Key tracks include the droning acoustic folk of the title song; the Canterbury-esque rolling horn and woodwind melody of “Return the Heart” (with expert drum kit from Frank Byng); The prog-ish odd meter interlude “Buttercup Tea”; The quiet ambience and delicate melody of “Dusty Feather:”; and the Eno-like drift of “Vapourer Larvae.”

“Library music. Akasha. Here you accept that music behaves like a thing to accentuate another thing, seemingly unrelated. A beautiful, shining blankness. Not passive. An opportunity to wade. A brief encounter with an open-ended destiny. As in, you never know who or what it will be partnered with. With library music the emphasis tends to be on functionality and less on sonic self-portraiture. So it compels you to be concise, like what is the function of this work? The distance is liberating. It’s less “What Am I? and more “What Is This?”. It compels you to be brief, each little cell is a world of its own in an assemblage of miniatures all vibrating in their collective identity. Then there is the occult nature of library music which is fetishized by many for its ability to induce time travel, often to send us back to some televisual memory. However, despite its broad-brush strokes, the library can be so profoundly alien, especially when experienced independently of the televisual realm; an unruly chimera of genre mutations, compositional curiosities and the deepest wallpaper you ever laid ears on. Perhaps the observances of library music can help unshackle us from our artistic insecurities and delusions, where one is drawn to the shape of music as a whole instrument unto itself; as a vehicle carrying our intention and consisting of everything we have to give at that moment; so things that are seemingly unrelated are ultimately connected.” – Daniel O’Sullivan

Cable Ties are a fierce, tense rock’n’roll trio. They take the three-minute punk burner and stretch it past breaking point to deliver smouldering feminist anthems. Post-punk and garage rock hammered together by a relentless rhythmic pulse. Jenny McKechnie channels her struggles into songs that resonate deeply, giving voice to feelings often buried in modern life. Shauna Boyle and Nick Brown are a rhythm section anchored in Stooges primitivism, relentlessly hammering out a bedrock for McKechnie’s guitar pyrotechnics and vocal wallop. Three friends summoning a rhythmic tide to deliver anthems that turn latent anxieties into a rallying cry.

The band has been committed to an inclusive feminist and political outlook since its inception in 2015, exploring issues of gendered violence, colonialism, and sexual assault. The band members have been involved in benefit shows, organized DIY festivals, and volunteer with Girls Rock!, a not-for-profit organization that aims to empower female, trans, and gender non-binary youth in music.
Cable Ties are dedicated to their local community and independent networks, and to playing diverse and inclusive shows. They have toured Australia a number of times and have developed into a lean and efficient touring band who deliver powerful and meaningful shows. Their debut self-titled album, released in 2017 on Poison City Records, was a Triple J feature album and album of the week on 3RRR, with strong support nationally from community radio. They have also self released three 7” singles which have all sold out. The debut album is on its third vinyl pressing.

The band toured UK/Europe in 2017 supporting Jen Cloher, and played Punk’d Festival in Berlin. They returned to the UK in May 2019 to play The Great Escape and shows with Tropical Fuck Storm and Amyl & the Sniffers. In Australia they played Bigsound 2018 and festivals such as the national Laneway Festival tour in 2018, Boogie Festival 2018, The Plot 2017, and Meredith Music Festival in 2016. Cable Ties have supported artists such as Joan Jett, The Kills, Camp Cope, and Cash Savage. They won Best Hard Rock Act at the 2017 National Live Music Awards and were nominated in five categories. They won the Corner Music Award in 2017, have been nominated for eight Age Music Victoria awards, and were longlisted for The Australian Music Prize 2017.

"Hits & Pieces" showcases the band's most recent single releases, including "RATA-TATA", "Superlove", and "Diggin' It". Meanwhile, "Live at l'Olympia" captures some moments of the band's sold- out show in Paris, complete with a thrilling cover of Lenny Kravitz's "Are You Gonna Go My Way" featuring supporting act KO KO MO. With its stunning visual design and great energy, this vinyl is a must-have for any Royal Republic fan. So don't hesitate - add it to your collection today and experience the best of this incredible band!

One of Japan’s most riveting artists follows that KAKUHAN mindmelt from last year (our number 5 album, 2022) with an engrossing suite of wild field recordings and polymetric percussion featuring a whole raft of additional players weaving drums, wind and brass instruments, cello and electronics into a bewildering Acousmatic matrix. Highly recommended listening if you’re into Marginal Consort, Beatrice Dillon, Will Guthrie, Mark Fell, François Bayle.

Having made his mark on these pages over the last few years with appearances as part of Japan’s cult entities Goat and YPY, Koshiro Hino’s turn last year as KAKUHAN took things to a whole other level with an album that felt like some alchemical mix of elements borrowed from Autechre, Photek, Arthur Russell and Mica Levi - a complete stylistic futureshock that worked as well in the club as it did fuelling extended flights of the imagination.

For 2023, Hino takes us into a completely different headspace, assembling a cast of 11 players - the mighty Joe Talia and KAKUHAN’s other half Yuki Nakagawa among them - for a suite of untamed field recordings, clanging percussion, brass and synthesis that are about as far removed from the diaristic ambient de jour as you could possibly imagine. Instead, the ensemble conjure vibrant sound ecologies teeming with detail, mirroring the natural world and communal traditions to form shapeshifting, organismic soundworlds.

‘Geist II’ was written for 20 speakers, referencing François Bayle’s acousmatic music and David Tudor’s electro-acoustic environments. It paints a richly detailed scene of a nocturnal rainforest, replete with avian hoots and a skin-crawling patina of insectoid chatter that moves around the soundfield, stealthily growing in density with a more “musical” presence of super low end drone and drums converging form the peripheries to a ritualistic climax. In the second part, focus shifts to remarkably pure percussion-like tropical rain, invaded by swarms of scuttling and winged invertebrates that give way to a water music-like polymetric slosh, resolving to ringing tones and more mellifluous gestures that hark back to GRM’s most poetic, romantic urges.

It's a deeply psychedelic experience that harmonises tiny electronic fluctuations with bird calls and scraped, resonant drones that phase in-and-out of the mix. It's sound you can practically chew, and another crucial despatch from the contemporary Japanese avant-garde.

Those two prior releases were voted #4 and #5 best albums of the year, respectively, in the annual Francis Davis Jazz Poll of over 150 jazz critics. In two 4 1/2 Star reviews, Downbeat called Mesmerism "wonderfully simple, yet breathtakingly deep" and Off- Off Broadway (featuring saxophonist Greg Osby) "music robust enough to have you believe the energy generated by the group is its own discrete force."While the new release features the same musicians as on Mesmerism - Sorey on drums, pianist Aaron Diehl and bassist Matt Brewer - the result could not be more different.

Revised and remastered edition of Joe Henderson's 1987 album 'An Evening With Joe Henderson' with two bonus tracks from the same.


"Saxophonist Joe Henderson has been described as one of the great chord change players of jazz history, and this aspect of his playing, that had its roots in bebop and Sonny Rollins' approach to improvisation, is very apparent in the repertoire of songs he chose to play that night, each piece with interesting chord changes beginning with Thelonious ' Monk's Ask Me Now'. Although Henderson's style grew out of Rollins' sense of phrasing, rhythmically Henderson was a lot looser and built on Rollins's style to create his own approach to improvisation."

Lewis II was the follow up to Lewis Taylor's epochal, self-titled debut album. It was initially released in 2000 and this double LP release, its first ever vinyl edition, has been heavily anticipated for nearly a quarter of a century. It's often years before most listeners catch up with an album's breathtaking vision and devastating execution, and so it has proved with Lewis II; it stands up exceptionally well today.

After Island rejected Lewis Taylor's second release (later released as The Lost Album), he returned to the studio to record Lewis II. Less esoteric than Lewis Taylor, Lewis II is a more polished, sophisticated funk and mature uptempo soul than the dark psych-soul of his debut. The production, whilst slicker, is a bit tougher, with more crisp, R&B-flavoured grooves and head-nod beats and more bass pumping up his voice. The vocal intensity present on album number one doesn't abate. Indeed, as Lewis himself noted, "my voice is better on Lewis II and the vocals are high in the mix."

The moody funk of "Party" sounds like a mad blend of Riot-era Sly Stone and Brian Wilson. It rides a stuttering drum machine groove with acapella harmony vocals arriving halfway through to stay for the duration. "My Aching Heart", with its clean, slick, late 90s R&B drums, could surely have been a single. Perhaps Lewis's idiosyncratic melodies would've been too challenging for the charts. Lewis *had hoped* "You Make Me Wanna" would be a single but the dank, organ-drenched groove, coupled with the growling eroticism of Lewis's vocals would've, again, made this beyond the pale for most mainstream music fans. Somewhat incongruous acidic synths and bleeps give way to a laconic summertime groove on breezy highlight "The Way You Done Me", all funky acoustic guitars and stunning, good-time vocals. Sumptuous ballad "Satisfied", a real fan favourite, marries unusual instrumentation with classic soul-ballad structure and closes with a monster guitar solo which almost out-Princes Prince in its gritty melodicism, set against sweeping strings of real majesty. Prog-Funk-Rock!

The dubbed-out, spaced-out "Never Gonna Be My Woman" is the closest the album comes to classic D’Angeloesque neo-soul, with echoes of the esoteric funk featured across Maxwell's contemporaneous Embrya. But what follows is on some next level business. As Lewis's biggest fan, Geoffrey Scull, noted, "the "I'm On The Floor" / "Lewis II" / "Into You" song cycle stacks up against any other consecutive 15 minutes of recorded music, ever!" And who are we to argue with that? These could've been hits for Justin Timberlake during his fascinating Timbaland-collaborating days, such is the sonic and textural pop experimentation at play here. The extraordinary title track sounds like an outtake from Marvin Gaye’s Trouble Man and spends its last third as a searingly dark piano-led psychedelic-guitar-crunching soul instrumental. Just astounding. And then. AND THEN! The way it segues into, er, "Into You" is just straight up genius. Goosebumps galore on this one, no words can describe its celestial brilliance. Just kick back and be beguiled by the "Let me come on over again" refrain that ornately adorns its sensational coda. Phew.

The swoonsome, lovelorn ballad "Blue Eyes", apparently written in the spirit of Marvin’s "Vulnerable", is a lush, slow swinger with some gorgeous noir touches. To close, Lewis completely retools Jeff Buckley’s beloved, beautiful "Everybody Here Wants You" and, while talking some liberties, even manages to surpass the original. Yes, really! With soaring, fiery vocals set against icy piano and psychedelic guitars, Lewis recasts Buckley's effort as dramatic, ethereal soul.

When it came to translating the original CD booklet into a 12 inch LP sleeve, thanks to some suggestions from Cally Callomon (head of Island’s art department, who designed all the sleeves for Lewis’s two Island albums and their singles) and his trusting us with his “Lewis Taylor” folder full of various negatives, test prints and whatever else he was able to salvage from the old Island art department, we’ve gotten pretty close to what the original LP sleeve would’ve looked like if it existed. Simon Francis’s vinyl mastering, presents the eleven tracks over a double LP so, as ever, the record sounds outstandingly good. The records have been cut by Cicely Balston at Air Studios and pressed at Record Industry.

Lewis Taylor's legendary magnum opus: The Lost Album. "Now you're talking. That's my favourite LT album. Unlike all of the others, there isn't anything about it that embarrasses me." Straight from the genius's mouth. What can we say about this? Well, it's the most requested record ever at Be With Towers. The Lost Album was the intended follow-up to his first album but Island rejected it for fear of "confusing" the marketplace and its conception of Lewis as a soul artist. Their loss. It's a breezy sunset masterpiece.

The genesis of this incredible record needs unpicking a bit. Lewis stopped promoting the first album after a year and went home to record a completely different record that was the most un-R&B album you could probably ever hear: "I pushed in such an extreme direction the other way with what eventually became The Lost Album. It was a knee-jerk reaction to a perceived ‘trapped in R&B’ feeling I was going through at the time. Some people around me were in favour of it and others weren’t. In the end I think I lost confidence in it and did Lewis II instead." We did at least get Lewis II, which is a remarkable album, and he kept Island happy...for a bit. Not long after, Lewis was dropped. And what was to become The Lost Album could've been...er...lost. Forever.

Thankfully, however, Lewis and longtime partner Sabina Smyth revisited those scrapped demo tracks in 2003. They decided to re-arrange, re-record and then self-release them. So it was that the brand new version of The Lost Album finally dropped in late 2004. It's sheer perfection, and we don't say that lightly. The Lost Album was a fully 50/50 collaboration between Lewis and Smyth. As well as production, Sabina did a lot more writing on it, from the melody to "Listen Here" to the chord sequence for "Let's Hope Nobody Finds Us." Thankfully, Sabina is credited this time around.

No, it's not straight up "soul music" in the vein of his previous work. Yet, in its perfectly formed suite of one dozen songs, The Lost Album is dripping in soul. It's so warm, so effervescent and so alive with possibilities. It features deep, fresh imprints on well-loved, accessible sounds. It's a proper 70s style double album. Just one listen and the musical influences on The Lost Album are fairly self-explanatory, as Lewis recently told us, but it's always nice to hear that, in case we were in any doubt, he was definitely channeling Love, Yes, Brian Wilson, CSN, Laura Nyro and, of course, Todd Rundgren. The influences don't end there: "I’m particularly fond of my bass playing on that album, there’s a lot of Chris Squire going on which is cool."

Deep orchestral opener "Lost" is a sublime, harp-laced, string drenched gem, a cinematic, melancholic Axelrod-esque mini-epic that simply beguiles. Written by Smyth, it evokes Donny Hathaway's celestial "I Love The Lord, He Heard My Cry" from Extensions Of A Man. The only problem is the brief 90 seconds running time. It segues into the classic Brian Wilson-meets-power-pop-rock splendour of "Listen Here" which, with its outstanding extended harp-licked beatless intro, sounds like the younger cousin to Boston's "More Than A Feeling". We then drift into the ringing guitars of classic 70s rock anthem "Hide Your Heart Away". It's Lewis's personal favourite, "especially the multi-tracked guitar solo – I was listening to Boston at the time, which was fun." A-ha!

A new version of the heart-stopping, shoulda-been-a-massive-pop-hit "Send Me An Angel" opens Side B before the arrival of, in Lewis's completely correct words, "the clear standout, "Leader of the Band"; the perfect distillation of everything that album was trying to achieve." Soaring, piano-led Rundgren-esque power pop that makes the hairs on the back of your next stand on end. Truly, otherworldly. This is pure pop for now (and then) people. The simple jangly brilliance meets experimental prog-rock of "Yeah" sounds like simultaneously like prime CSNY and late 90s Radiohead (if they'd had a slightly more accessible bent and could write better tunes).

Oh, you wish The Beach Boys had continued writing amazing songs beyond Holland? Well, allow us to point you in the direction of the downlifting stunner "Please Help Me If You Can" and the warm textures and brilliant atmospherics of goosebump-inducer "Let’s Hope Nobody Finds Us". Words can't really describe the sheer beauty of these songs. So we'll stop trying. Just listen. Listen, listen, listen. Closing out this remarkable side of music, the accidentally Balearic "New Morning" should be blasting out at every sunrise set in Ibiza, this summer and forevermore.

The final side opens with the vaguely Beatlesey "Say I Love You". It's just classic, soaring pop-rock songwriting and should strictly be canonical. It's that good. The sassy, Stonesy swagger of "See My Way" injects enough rock'n'roll attitude to compensate for the rest of record's peace-loving, AOR sun-dappled vibe whilst album closer, "One More Mystery", emerging out of the rubble of the previous track, comes on initially like a Baroque-Pop George Harrison before piling crunching drums and screeching guitar solos atop the dreamy harmonies til close.

When asked what it means to have these records available on vinyl for the first time, Lewis is in no doubt: "It’s great and it’s really nice to be able to offer fans a different listening experience. There’s a whole other dimension with vinyl that taps into that whole nostalgia thing, well for me anyway. Something about the physical aspect of pulling it out of the sleeve and putting it on, it does tend to make you feel like you’re more engaged."

Lewis was adamant that he wanted all new artwork for The Lost Album vinyl sleeve and his brief was just the sort of classic tropical-beach-at-sunset you’d want to see on the front of a record that sounds like this. On the finished sleeve, the beach at sunset is just where we start out, before heading up through the painterly clouds and heading out into the stars. And yes, the lettering is a definite subtle nod to all those in-between-period Beach Boys bootlegs we all love. Simon Francis's sensitive mastering combines with Cicely Balston's precise cut for Alchemy at AIR Studios so the album sounds appropriately outstanding. The immaculate Record Industry double LP pressing will ensure this previously lost masterpiece stays forever found.

Marc Richter aka Black To Comm released his debut record 20 years ago. In 2023 he is still busy releasing music under various disguises and is currently signed to the Thrill Jockey label. To celebrate this anniversary his own Cellule 75 label is re-releasing some classic out-of-print vinyl albums that originally came out on the defunct Type and De Stijl labels. The LP will feature a full-colour printed inner sleeve exclusive to this edition.

In 2009 the Type Recordings label run by John Twells had just released seminal records by Grouper, Jóhann Jóhannsson and Yellow Swans when they signed Richter and put out his breakthrough Alphabet 1968 album. The LP sold out within two weeks, receiving a glowing full-page review in The Wire Magazine by the late Mark Fisher (later reprinted in his book Ghosts Of My Life), was selected for Boomkat's Top 10 releases of the year (alongside debut albums by Leyland Kirby, Demdike Stare and Oneohtrix Point Never) and was greeted with universal praise in the underground blog network as well as established magazines such as The New Yorker and Pitchfork.

The music itself played with the notion of nostalgia without being nostalgic itself. It's the sound of half-remembered dreams, a surreal distorted vision of the past, an aural polaroid of long forgotten musics, a ghostly voice from a non-existent era.

From the original Type one-sheet:
"The mission statement for Alphabet 1968 was to write an album of "songs" for want of a better word. Short tracks which represented genre points, the milestones which stuck in Richter's mind when he thought back to his favorite records. What we arrive at is a breathtaking 10-track album which, over the course of 45 minutes, explores world music, techno, noise, avant-garde, ambient music and even exotica. Each track is linked with a loose thread of radio static or environmental sound, dragging you through the album, as if tuning in to a stray broadcast or a particularly adventurous mix. Richter has pieced the album together from hours of recordings made at his studio with home made gamelan, small instruments and loops gathered from a collection of ancient vinyl and 78 records. The scope of the album is admirable, but ignoring this, it is simply a shockingly arresting collection of experimental oddities, with references ranging from Moondog to Basic Channel by way of Bernard Herrmann. It's not hard to fall in love with Alphabet 1968, far harder would be to place exactly where the record should fit into your collection."

Mark Fisher in The Wire:
"But what if we were to take Richter's provocation seriously - what would a song without a singer be like? What would it be like, that is to say, if objects themselves could sing? It’s a question that connects fairy tales with cybernetics, and listening to Alphabet 1968, I’m reminded of a filmic space in which magic and mechanism meet: JF Sebastian’s apartment in Blade Runner. The tracks on the LP are crafted with the same minute attention to detail that the genetic designer and toymaker brought to his miniature automata, with their bizarre mixture of the clockwork and the computerised, the antique and the ultramodern, the playful and the sinister. Richter’s musical pieces have been built from similarly heterogeneous materials - record crackle, shortwave radio, glockenspiels, all manner of samples, mostly of acoustic instruments. ….. JF Sebastian's apartment was itself an update of older spaces in which science and sorcery co-existed: the workshops of ETA Hoffmann's inventor-magicians, or of Pinocchio's creator, Geppetto. I think, too, of Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam's astonishing 1886 tale The Future Eve in which Edison, using the expertise he has recently acquired from inventing the phonograph, sets himself the task of constructing an artificial woman. But if there are songs here, they are sung by the gramophone and other recording and playback machines. Richter so successfully effaces himself as author that it is as if he has snuck into a room and recorded the objects as they played (to) themselves. Rather than simply automating his music, as in the case of Pierre Bastien and his mechanical machines, Richter makes us feel that he has merely recorded the unlife of objects. ….. Indeed, the impression of things winding down is persistent on Alphabet 1968. Entropy has not been excluded from Richter's enchanted soundworld. It feels as if the magic is always about to wear off, that the enchanted objects will slip back into the inanimate again at any moment."

Nothing compares to Lewis Taylor and nobody crafts a "B-Side" quite like him. Indeed, his long deleted B-Sides are the stuff of legend. So, gathered together for the first time on one slice of wax, we present The Damn Rest: an album's worth of B-Sides from the era of the 1996 Lewis Taylor ("Damn") album. More off-the-wall and abstract than the album proper, these rare, underheard tracks burst with Lewis's uncompromising genius. A lot more experimental, the music is still drop dead beautiful. The Damn Rest is the essential bridge between Lewis Taylor and Lewis II.

Lewis Taylor's self-titled masterpiece from 1996 was to be originally called Damn. You can see the word right there on the from cover. However, concerns over distribution in the US scuppered this desired title. When thinking about what to call this collection of essential B-Sides from the era of that first album, we thought The Damn Rest would be appropriate. But these tracks aren't simply throwaways or outtakes, as Lewis himself states: "each little group were recorded specifically for the release of each 'single'." These B-Sides were simply the next thing to happen after self-titled, and before Lewis II. In other words, you need this!

The collection opens with "Asleep When You Come", the A2 on the original "Lucky" 12". It's a slow-mo string-drenched soul offering, cast in cinematic soft-focus with a vocal performance from the heavens set against wonky, shuffling drums and delicate instrumental flourishes. Beautiful. Also from the "Lucky" single, "You Got Me Thinking" may actually be Lewis' funkiest moment and is definitely one of our favourites, a great, gently psychedelic funky club track, that's for sure. Next, the gorgeous, meandering "I Dream The Better Dream" is just sheer, metronomic bliss, with shades of Stevie Wonder. Just ask D’Angelo, who included the track on his Feverish Phantasmagoria show for Sonos. Not only a celebrity-fan-favourite, it's Lewis's, too: "My favourite has always been this track. In my fantasy it’s what early Soft Machine would’ve sounded like if Marvin Gaye was their lead singer."

As we move to the B-sides from the "Whoever" single, the first to feature is "Pie In The Electric Sky / If I Lay Down". It's a brilliantly sprawling classic. A head-nod funk workout in two parts; part psychedelic heavy soul jam, part breezy Marvin-esque near-instrumental of the deeply lush variety. It needs to be heard to be believed. Astonishing! Flip over for "Waves", a shimmering, dramatic, sweeping string-led fan favourite. The climax of the song is just too stunning for words. It's followed by the deep wyrd-soul of "Trip So Heavy" the final, dizzying track from the "Whoever" single and another celestial funk delight featuring strings, organ, twisted bass and heavy drums. From the "Bittersweet" 12", "A Little Bit Tasty" is a building, schizophrenic soul-jazz epic that starts out with Lewis performing a call and (distant) response with himself over a gentle mid-90s drum loop before snatches of heavy, crunching metal guitars blast apart the otherwise neat song structure. Ultimately, it's unarguable that The Damn Rest is worth it for the inclusion of the jaw-dropping "Lewis III" alone. A dazzlingly lush and stunningly sophisticated prog/soul hybrid that owes as much to "Pet Sounds" as "What's Going On" with arrangements that grow and unfold in layers. Just sparkling.

A compilation like this feels like one of those promo-only rarities they used to give out to a select few back in the good old days, so when it came to the artwork it only made sense to follow what Cally Callomon (head of Island’s art department) had done for the singles and promos back in the 90s. He even did us some fresh scribbles of “The Damn Rest” to match his handwriting that’s all over the first album and its singles. We hope you like it as much as the music contained within. Simon Francis’s vinyl mastering ensures these classic recordings sound as great as they deserve to. The record has been cut by Cicely Balston at Air Studios and pressed at Record Industry. We've lost Prince. We still have Lewis.

The English is Federico Jusid's sweeping, nostalgic and raw score to Hugo Blick's six part contemporary Western. Giving a nod to 1950s western soundtracks, the score is enriched by Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 12. known as the "American", written during Dvořák’s stay in America, and only three years after the events of the series. Also featured on the album are the beautiful folk songs by The Wailin' Jennys, Melanie, Crooked Still, Ora Cogan and Tom McRae. The second track on the album, Tâtačiksta_ - I Cherish You, features a tender reading by Emily Blunt.

Jusid’s music structure is based on leitmotifs, very simple and symmetric, constantly varied and developed to mirror the protagonists’ journeys. Big orchestral sounds underpin epic and romantic themes. Sound design, processed percussion and ethnic instruments effortlessly blend in with the orchestral material. Federico describes his compositional process – “Unlike other projects, I started working with Hugo Blick, at a very early stage, some time before he even started shooting. Inspired by the scripts, his story board and chatting about the classics, I wrote different piano tunes and first mock-ups and sent them over to him… Often, I have received scenes cut to my own music and that made the process deeply organic and profound. The music became a core element of the structure of the show, instead of a later addition. In the end, Hugo and I worked for an entire year to develop this score”.

Phi-Psonics is a meditative, deeply soulful immersive jazz group from
Los Angeles, led by bassist Seth Ford-Young and featuring Sylvain
Carton on woodwinds, Mitchell Yoshida on electric piano, and Josh
Collazo on drums. Their deeply soulful music draws on jazz and
classical influences together with Ford-Young’s own musical
experiences, relationships, and his introduction to spirituality, yoga and philosophy at a young age, along the way they create something
uniquely their own, beautiful landscapes for your thoughts to roam
within.

Octava is their second album and like the Cradle before it’s emotional,
introspective, and unusual approach to spiritual jazz offers us a
beautiful space for uplifting contemplation and wields a quiet power to create a spiritually inspiring world of timeless, warm melodies and
instrumental exploration for the deep listener. Originally from
Washington DC area, Ford-Young moved to California in the early 90s
and fell in love with the deep sounds of the upright bass and the music of Charles Mingus, John and Alice Coltrane, and Duke Ellington along with Bach, Chopin, Pärt, and Satie. He immersed himself deeply in music and keen to learn combined intense personal study with
collaborations, tours, and recordings with artists such as Tom Waits,
Beats Antique, and John Vanderslice. In 2010 he moved from the SanFrancisco Bay area to the Los Angeles hills and continued his
explorations and although Phi-Psonics music has been described as
spiritual jazz, or deep immersive listening music but this is music for
fans of Radiohead and The Invisible as well as fans of Alice Coltrane
and Pharaoh Sanders.

The album opens with Invocation as we embark on our journey. The
repeated melody at the end feels ancient but also contains an energy
that is driving forward. An Offering is a humble but beautiful tune full of texture and colour. We Walk in the Gardens of Our Ancestors shows clear eyed reverence for those who came before us as we walk through their gardens. Green Dreams is a tender, gentle love song to Seth’s wife.Where We've Been Is a group improvisation centered around the drums. Lunar Reflections is a romantic ode to nature that draws inspiration from where Seth lives a green oasis within the sprawling cityscapes of LA. Becoming draws on memories of the dark days of 2020 but this was a period that was also full of beauty and light and this song elevates and uplifts us. Finally New You offers hope of change