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A GROOVY SELECTION IN THREE ORIGINAL VINYLS TO DISCOVER THE GOLD NUGGETS OF FUNK, SOUL & HIP-HOP ! Selection by the journalist Olivier Cachin and illustrations by the artist LAZOO.

Discos Transgénero re-issue the Marnie Weber classic first solo LP, “Songs Hurt Me” originally from 1989. This seminal record was an important part of the Los Angeles post-punk performative art rock scene. Brooding synthesizers, heavy bass, strange melodies, and poetic lyrics lead you through an industrial journey. These songs were born from Weber’s earliest performance art characters: a deer, an old woman, a manic courtesan, and a butterfly. Songs Hurt Me was originally co-produced by Phillip Drucker AKA Jackson Del Ray of Savage Republic and 17 Pygmies fame.

Marnie is a pioneer in art rock from the 80’s in Los Angeles. She emerged early in the music scene as the bass player in the Party Boys, a formative and important Los Angeles post-punk downtown art scene band. During this period, the Party Boys performed shows with The Minute Men, Savage Republic, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Fourwaycross, The Blue Daisies, Perry Farrell’s first band Psi Com, Camper Van Beethoven, and many more. Bruce Licher of Independent Project Records, whom Marnie met in art school, released the first Party Boys record. After performing with the Party Boys, Marnie went on to become a noted solo performative art musician in her own right. She has released five solo records and numerous group album releases.

As a visual artist Marnie created the cover of Sonic Youth’s A Thousand Leaves album – interesting to note Marnie is the hamster girl on the cover. She also designed posters for Sonic Youth and did a co-release of her second album with Thurston Moore on his label Ecstatic Peace. Expanding from her musical roots, Marnie exhibits artwork, films, sculptures, collages, sound installations, and costumes internationally in museums and galleries. She has had two extensive survey exhibitions of her artwork ­– most recently at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Geneva.

Songs Hurt Me was remastered by Mark Wheaton at Catasonic Studios Los Angeles using the original tapes for an unprecedented restoration of this historic album. Discos Transgénero has thoughtfully designed and pressed the reissued LPs in Germany. This unique edition of Songs Hurt Me is a limited release of 400 copies distributed worldwide.

Die Brüder Scott und Bryan Devendorf (The National), Ben Lanz (The National, Beirut) und Multi-Instrumentalist Aaron Arntz (Beirut, Grizzly Bear) sind mit Stirnlampen und Höhlenausrüstung ausgestattet und tauchen in einen somnambulen Raum ein. LNZNDRF's II wirkt wie eine trance-induzierende Massenhypnose. Aufgenommen in ausgedehnten, schamanistischen Jam-Sessions im Public Hi-Fi Studio in Austin, Texas im September 2019 und später bearbeitet, um dem Ganzen eine Form zu geben. Der Titelsong "Ringwoodite" mit seinen flinken, geschmeidigen und präzisen Drums ist ein sommerlicher Wunderkerzen-Song, der so schnell vorbeirauscht, dass einem schwindlig wird, wenn man seinen Spuren folgt. Es folgen das computerverliebte "Gaskiers" und die langsame Motorik-Hymne "Stowaway", die zwar klanglich nicht miteinander verbunden sind, aber LNZNDRF voll in den Kanon des seltsamen und unauslöschlichen Krautrocks einreihen. "II" scheint die Dystopie der Gegenwart ebenso zu beschwören wie das große Mysterium, das uns erwartet, wenn wir endlich die Barriere durchbrechen. Es wird keine Utopie sein, aber es wird zumindest etwas anderes sein. So heißt es im lysergischen Post-Punk-Stück "You Still Rip": "We'll live like fruitless trees towards endless breeze linked as we please, the burning bridges smolder in our wake."

I first discovered khroniky – Ukranian folk songs – in the Highlands of Scotland. I was watching a screening of Bajka, a mesmerising documentary made by the filmmaker Lucia Nimcová and sound artist Sholto Dobie. I knew nothing about these ballads beforehand, but I was fascinated by these odd, beautiful songs, especially the easy way in which they mixed misery and levity, where gentle melodies blend with tales of dark violence. The folk songs describe hardship, murder, torture, death in gulags, heavy drinking, outsmarting men, love affairs. But they’re often very funny too – many of the songs make fun of marriage, and there’s an amazing subcategory of khroniky songs called potka (vagina) songs.

The khroniky have never been properly documented because they were considered too crude, or contained lyrics that were problematic, politically. When Ukrainian folk songs have been archived in the past, it’s normally a sanitised, more polite version of the ones that Lucia remembers from her childhood. Lucia grew up on the other side of the Ukrainian border in Slovakia. She is part of the Rusyn (Ruthenian) minority ethnic group found in the borderlands of Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine and Poland. Rusyn is a centuries-old Slavic language, looked down upon as a poor, uneducated dialect by the neighbouring Ukraine and Slovakia. It was forbidden to talk about Rusyn culture at Nimcova’s primary school, but the khroniky stayed in her memories.

“I remember weddings when I was young,” says Lucia, who now lives in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia. “At the end of the night, when everyone was drunk and the young couple would go around their guests, people would sing in Rusyn. There was singing and dancing, and songs about being in prison or falling in love. I picked up the lyrics and sometimes my mum would make my sister and I sing them for people we met on the train. I was about five or six but the lyrics still come back when I sing to my kids.”

Determined that these rich, nuanced, unique songs shouldn’t be forgotten, she decided to record them. Over two years, Lucia, joined by experimental musician Sholto Dobie, visited Rusyn villages high in the Carpathian mountains to rediscover the songs and make the documentary. It was at the beginning of war breaking out in Ukraine in 2014.

“The Rusyn community is a very closed one,” explains Lucia. “Sometimes we’d have to wait several days to hear someone sing; we had to earn their trust before they shared something very personal to them. We’d stay up ‘til 5am at a wedding, then go straight to a morning baptism, or collect haystacks with the villagers, hoping they’d sing while they were working.”

DILO is named after an important independent Ukrainian daily newspaper that was shut down when the Red Army entered Lviv in 1939. The four long tracks on DILO blur field recordings with song; an unpolished, privileged glimpse into a private world. We hear dogs barking and insects buzzing in the summer heat, then a blast of hurdy gurdy or violin will drift in, or a plaintive song soars softly over the rural background noise, with casually harrowing lyrics about a cuckoo, “lifeless in a world of misery”, as translated in the album’s booklet.

For both Lucia and Sholto, it was important not to tamper too much with what they heard. “When you think about ethnography,” Lucia explains, “you have to have a lot of time, love and respect to document it with sensitivity.”

“The songs all have their own atmosphere and intimacy from the spaces they were recorded in and it was important to maintain these particularities and move with them,” adds Sholto, who now lives in Vilnius, Lithuania. “They guide and sometimes interrupt a journey between interiors – domestic spaces; in kitchens, by the fire – and exteriors; marketplaces, cow sheds. We used contact microphones to record metal bridges and fences, and we spent one afternoon recording a wool processing machine, the details of the rattling and tuning wheels are the ground layer for the third track.”

Lucia took rough notes and diary entries during the recording process, which are now shared in the booklet alongside a selection of lyrics, loosely translated, but revealing the depth and astonishing beauty that sometimes lies in the language of these folk songs.

The feel of the album is intimate, flipping between laughter, where a woman sings about selling her pussy to buy a cow in one track, then shifts to a raw, painful truth; an adult son asks his mother why his dad won’t be back for dinner, as he’s gone to war.

Since Lucia and Sholto began working together in 2014, they have shared the audio recordings on radio and film and shown photos in gallery spaces, making sure these special, smutty, poignant songs don’t get lost. This new record and booklet joins that same continuum, another glorious fruit from the same rare tree.

Up to kick off 2021 in the most adequately frenzied, thoroughly corrosive fashion, DDS04 serves up a quintet of chrome-tanned, hi-velocity beats courtesy of Italian hardware fetishist Anna Funk Damage (previously heard on the likes of Mind Records, Lux Rec, Lazy Tapes and more) and Austrian-Hungarian outfit Dutch Courage - alias Superskin & Új Bála - each of whom step up to the plate to deliver an exquisitely ear-wormy slice of their deranged industrial gospel.

A-side starts off to the sound of AFD's hard bouncin' "48 Hours Death" - a raw-cooked deluge of head-reducing EBM grit, flaring binary signals and Giallo-infused arpeggios out a blood-stained Suspirian tale. Fear for the deadly scalp hunters lurking in the club's darkest nooks, they've just sniffed out your trail.

Brutal churner "Youssef" picks up the torch and pulls out the quake-inducing breaks without further ado, dressed out with languorous Orientalistic melodies and steely distortions tailored to bend mind by the dozens. Forged in the furnace, the full-out punk-minded "I Come From Fire" rounds off the side on a drum and bass-heavy note, drawing as much from 60s psych-garage as it does from 80s deconstructionist tape music.

Flip sides and here's Budapest unit Dutch Courage taking the reins with the off-kilter treat "Hand Of The Sword" - navigating a weird zone of its own, floating astride post-apocalyptic Bristol bass, sliced-and-diced abstraction and overly textured yet equally bone-bruising riddims.

Wrapping up the journey with both force and serenity, "Neo-Soulmates" follows a similar path with its warped synth flexions and raucous machine cries making the rounds from one end of the spectrum to the other effortlessly, merging to give birth to something genetically contrasting from any contemporary. A most fitting finale to an EP that celebrates and encourages sonic bizarro in all its forms and manifestations.

8-Infinities represents Discos Transgénero’s first contemporary release after several reissues and archival projects. Stepping away from customary North-American guitar traditions, Ameel Brecht (core member of Razen) presents an utterly singular take on early European music with an album which evokes the inner conflicts of growing up and their connection to the concerns of fatherhood.

A classically trained musician, Brecht resorts once again to the use of resophonic guitars and mandolins as a way of finding a middle ground between the virtues of being a schooled musician and the ability to escape pre-established tendencies in pursuit of what he has referred to as ‘metaphysical freeform string music’.

Additionally, the album features a series of fascinating and subtly merged contributions by label associates Marnie Weber and Jabir, along with Bob Rutman’s distinguished steel cello and Walter Hus’ automated glockenspiel. Echoing the likes of Renaissance and Baroque music on plucked instruments, Brecht assembles here a collection of timeless compositions.

Leng Records has long had close ties with the underground music scene in San Francisco, with low-slung dub disco and psychedelic disco outfit 40 Thieves releasing their acclaimed album The Sky Is Yours on the imprint way back in 2014. Now Leng has turned to another stalwart of the Bay Area scene, Cole Odin, on a single that’s every bit as trippy and engrossing as you’d expect from one of San Francisco’s most frequently overlooked talents. Cole made his Leng debut earlier in the year, contributing the electro-influenced track ‘Numbers Game’ to the label’s 10th anniversary compilation. On ‘Little Boxes’, he’s joined by good friend Eddie C, a much-loved disco and house producer from Canada best known for his releases on Endless Flight and Red Motorbike. The pair recorded the track while Eddie was staying with Cole in San Francisco last year.



In keeping with the low-slung, hallucinatory sound that has always been a big feature of the San Franciscan scene, ‘Little Boxes’ is a trippy, mind-altering affair in which waves of sitar sounds, cosmic synths, effects-laden guitars and kaleidoscopic electronics rise above a weighty punk-funk bassline and crunchy, snare-heavy beats. It has serious dancefloor chops but is also atmospheric and immersive: perfect 5am music for Bay Area beach parties and mushrooms-fuelled forest raves.



Fittingly, it’s 40 Thieves who provide the accompanying remix, a 10-minute epic created with the assistance of Adonis and Rodney from the psych rock band ‘Guavatron’ for additional synths and the guitars. Beginning with tabla-style percussion, swirling chords, psychedelic guitar licks and mystical sitar sounds, the remix builds in waves, with looser drums and even weightier bass propelling the track forwards at a metronomic and hypnotic pace. By the time the eyes-closed guitar solos drop two thirds of the way through, you’ll be tripping hard and reaching for the lasers. It’s a genuinely stunning remix of a genuinely intoxicating, mind-mangling track.

Made during summer 2020, Loraine James’ second Hyperdub album, ‘Reflection’, is a turbulent expression of inner-space, laid out in unflinching honesty, offering gentle empathy and bitter-sweet hope. ‘Reflection’ further develops a unique pop sensibility realised on last year’s ‘Nothing EP’, while tones of Drill and R&B seep through into this collection too. In contrast to the brash splashes of 2019’s ‘For You And I’ LP and the grimey anger of ‘Nothing’, ‘Reflection’ is pared-down and confident, taking the listener through how last year felt as a young black queer woman in a world that has suddenly stopped moving, the arc of the album peppered with Loraine's diaristic confessions. Starting positively with the gentle pop-trap of ‘Built To Last’ ft Xzavier Stone, into the bumpy instrumental of ‘Let's Go’, the album switches tone with ‘Simple Stuff’, followed by regular collaborator Le3 bLACK amplifying Loraine's vulnerability on the downcast drill of ‘Black Ting’, then ‘Insecure Behaviour And Fuckery’ is a techno glide which pairs Nova's confrontational plea for respect, delivered in monotone autotune, against deep Drexciyan chords. With Baths on vocals, the weightlessness of ‘On The Lake Outside’ soothes numb feelings, and Eden Samara explores the shadow world of anxious dreams on the airy R&B of ‘Running Like That’. Closing track ‘We're Building Something New’ with Manchester rapper Iceboy Violet brings the album together, confidently suggesting a new world is in reach. ‘Reflection’ is a brave step forward for a unique and creative 21st century musician.

Strut presents one of the most in-demand and significant albums from the archives of Jimmy Gray's Black Fire Records, 'Bow To The People' (1976 )by theatre collective Theatre West, based out of Dayton, Ohio. Recorded at Arrest studios in Washington in '76, 'Bow To The People' brought together songs from several of Theatre West's best known plays including Bow To The People, The System and Black Love and unflinchingly explored serious issues around drug addiction, mental health and cultural awareness. "The whole idea of Bow To The People was to honour our black forefathers," explains Dillard. "It was important to do that for the kids that didn't know." Shelved following the original recording, the Bow To The People album eventually surfaced on a limited CD on Black Fire in 1993. Now receivingits first full international release, the album features the previously unreleased tracks 'Man Of Many Means' and 'I Don't Know Much About Love'

A fantastic little record – and very much the kind of set that the Strata East label was created to represent! The music here would hardly have found a home on the bigger jazz labels of the period – not because it's too avant-garde or non-commercial, but just because it's so deeply personal and powerful – the boldest vision on record of trombonist John Gordon, who composed a mind blowing suite of tracks for the first side of the album, as well as some equally great tunes for the second half! Gordon leads the group on trombone – with solos that are soaring and soulful, alongside work by the great James Spaulding on alto and flute, Waymond Reed on trumpet, John Miller on piano and keyboards, Lyle Atkinson on bass, and Frank Derrick on drums! If you know some of the other players here from their own work of the time, you know you're in for a treat – as the music has this fantastic sound of strong individual voices coming together, instruments lifted high on a mission of music – with results that are as fantastic all these many years as they were in the 70s.

Re-mastering by: Cicely Baston at Alchemy/Air Mastering, Lyndhurst Hall, London

A two-LP set on Theresa, Rejoice features Pharoah Sanders in excellent form in 1981. Sanders sounds much more mellow than he had a decade earlier, often improvising in a style similar to late-'50s John Coltrane, particularly on "When Lights Are Low," "Moments Notice," and "Central Park West." The personnel changes on many of the selections and includes such top players as pianists Joe Bonner and John Hicks, bassist Art Davis, drummers Elvin Jones and Billy Higgins, vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, trombonist Steve Turre, trumpeter Danny Moore, a harpist, and (on "Origin" and "Central Park West") five vocalists. The music always holds one's interest, making this one of Sanders' better later recordings. Scott Yanow/AMG

COLTRANE'S classic "Moments Notice" is a complete gas! Sanders like Coltrane, pulls and holds attention with his entrances. Bobby Hutcherson's and Hicks solo's are heated and models of vivid imagination. The three put forth some of the very best solo...'s in the entire album.

Then there's the arresting new talent introduced here -GEORGE V JOHNSON JR., whose marvelous lyrics and vocal work are truly auspicious! He sings with James Moody on occassion and is happily remindful of the insistent giftness of the late EDDIE JEFFERSON. Johnson's three stanzers close with "Relax dig the sounds of Coltrane's Music. Coltrane fills your heart with love and harmony. Trane played with magic. Listen to the melodies and you will see momently. When you here the message of his song!". There's no doubt in my mind that henceforth George V Johnson should and will be sought for his own gift to the music. He sang the song for Sanders at the Village Vanguard, and Sanders "felt that George ought to be heard".Thank you, Pharoah Sanders for Sharing.... by Herb Wong

Repress! This is the first full length release from The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble. The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble - If you are a fan of the organ, gritty Funk, and beautiful original soundtracks, these guys are for you. The SFSE is a heavy, original, instrumental soul band based out of San Diego, CA that released their debut self titled album on Colemine Records in June of 2015, and the band will be releasing their sophomore album in the fall of 2016 on the same label. The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble has recently shared the stage with Lee Fields and the Expressions, Big Sam's Funky Nation, Kung Fu, Polyrhythmics, New Mastersounds, Monophonics, Kamasi Washington, and many others. They draw influence from the masters of the style from the past and modern day, including: The Meters, Isaac Hayes, El Michels Affair, Mulatu Astatke, Budos Band, The Nite Liters, Menahan Street Band, Fela Kuti, and The Poets of Rhythm.

I attended a trade fair in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In this show, we met producers, label and festival managers. It is a privileged moment when it is possible to learn about new trends, new musical forms, emerging groups. The timing of the meal is undoubtedly the most important. We take the time to introduce ourselves and discover each other. When my turn arrived, I took out my little map to locate the town of Sète on the map of France. There, an American promoter exclaimed "Yeah! You live in this beautiful city. Where there is this incredible music. ” I admit that at the time I didn’t quite understand what he meant but flattered by his remark I told him yes. Later, I realized that he was talking about gypsy music that made the whole world dream.



When my friend shared this anecdote to me, it resonated deeply with me. Indeed, for us, people of the south of France, this was nothing exceptional. Indeed, every day you could meet in the street a gypsy musician performing a rumba, another declaiming a fandango or another who liked to paraphrase the maestro Django. It is part of our daily environment, but it is indeed a peculiarity of this region. The territory of the Mediterranean arc, from Arles to Perpignan, is indeed the cradle of gypsy music in France. In addition, we must underline the major influence of the Gypsy artists of Catalonia in the development of these different artistic forms. Through weddings and family reunions, the repertoires have shifted to be reinterpreted according to the identities specific to each and the territories of residence.



With this new collection, we wanted to show, to hear all the musical richness of Gypsy and Manouche artists populating the territory. From appropriation to recreation, they never stop bringing this music to life, re-enchanting it and offering it a resolutely modern reading, open to the world. In this first opus, devoted to the guitar, we will take the routes of latin music, flamenco or jazz alongside renowned artists and young talents. With "The sound of guitars", it is a first door open to the gypsy music of the Mediterranean Arc, that we will discover gradually through the "Mediteranean Gypsies roads" collection.

Los Angeles based Alt-rock quartet THE INTERRUPTERS are releasing their first-ever live album "Live In Tokyo!" with a set list that captures the live power that made them one of the busiest touring bands in the world, with fan favorite songs from each of the bands three albums including hit tracks such as "She's Kerosene," "Gave You Everything," "Take Back The Power" and "Bad Guy." Their greatest hits performed in the greatest way you can see THE INTERRUPTERS: LIVE! The past three years have been pivotal for THE INTERRUPTERS. The band toured the world in support of their Fight the Good Fight (2018) album, including their first ever tour stop in Japan, where they captured this energetic live performance for their first live album "Live In Tokyo!" This recording captures the band that is known for their powerful live performances which features the band's most popular tracks from their three Hellcat Records albums. Not to mention, an onslaught of successful touring worldwide including many sold out headlining dates as well as appearances at Download Festival, Slam Dunk and support runs with Green Day and Rancid throughout Europe and the UK. The band shows no signs of slowing down and have recently announced tour dates next year with the Dropkick Murphys across Europe and the UK.

Limited coloured marbled vinyl edition of this album
Sam Cooke is considered one of the „fathers“ of soul. Already as a child he performs together with his
siblings. His first successes came with the band The Soul Stirrers. His first hit was as a solo artist with You
Send Me. Cook wrote his own songs and founded his own label, which signed musicians such as Bobby
Womack and Johnnie Taylor. He himself celebrates his greatest successes at RCA with world hits such as
Cupid, Bring It On Home To Me and Wonderful World. The last proves to be an evergreen until today;
whether in the jeans advertising of Levi‘s or through successful cover versions of Herman‘s Hermits, Bryan
Ferry or Otis Redding.
At the age of only 33, Sam Cooke dies. The motel manager Bertha Franklin shoots him in the Hacienda
Motel in Los Angeles and later claims self-defense. The exact circumstances of his death remain unclear
to this day. Posthumously, Sam Cooke receives all the major awards. A small excerpt: He is part of the
Rock and Roll and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, he was also awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement
Award. Rolling Stone magazine lists him 16th among the 100 greatest musicians of all time and fourth
among the best singers of all time. What A Wonderful World...

Repress! Seventh album by Minneapolis hip hop heroes Atmosphere. Producer Ant and lyricist / rapper Slug have been making music together as Atmosphere for over 20 years and have managed to continually tweak and strive to perfect their formula, while neither straying too far off their path, nor resorting to playing it safe and that holds true on the new set. Fishing Blues is a collection of songs that both define and redefine the Atmosphere sound and features 18 new tracks written and produced by Atmosphere with appearances from DOOM, Aesop Rock, Kool Keith, The Grouch, deM atlaS, and more.

Vinyl kommt in blau, Klappcover und bedruckter Innenhülle! Die meisten Dinge im Leben entstehen zufällig. Die große Liebe, eine schicksalhafte Begegnung und manchmal auch eine zweite Karriere. Oliver Perau alias Juliano Rossi hätte 1996 sicherlich nicht damit gerechnet, dass er 2021 immer noch als Rossi unterwegs sein würde. Damals hatte sich gerade die alternative Rockband Terry Hoax, die Perau 1988 mit einem Freund gegründet hatte, nach acht europaweit erfolgreichen Jahren aufgelöst. Doch Perau wollte sein Versprechen, bei der ersten Ausstellung des befreundeten Fotografen Olaf Heine zu singen, halten. Also fragte er den Jazzpianisten Lutz Krajenski, ob man zusammen alte Swing-Klassiker präsentieren könnte. Schließlich war Perau seit frühster Kindheit begeistert von Sammy Davis jr., Dean Martin, Burt Bacharach, Barbra Streisand, Tom Jones und Frank Sinatra. So stand Perau im Sommer '96 mit dem eilig ironisch hinzugefügten Künstlername Juliano Rossi vor Galeriebesuchern und Terry-Hoax-Fans und sang entrückt What the world needs now von Bacharach. "So viele entsetzte Gesichter habe ich selten gesehen" sagt Perau lachend und ergänzt nach kurzer Pause "aber für mich war es wie eine Offenbarung". 25 Jahre später veröffentlicht Juliano Rossi sein fünftes Album, Terry Hoax gibt es auch wieder und zusätzlich tourt Perau seit 9 Jahren durch Pflegeheime und macht Musik für Menschen mit Demenz. Ein sehr ungewöhnliches und in dieser dreigleisigen Konsequenz sicherlich einzigartiges Sängerleben, dass offensichtlich glücklich macht. So jedenfalls wirkt Herr Rossi und sein neues Album "Drunk On Love". Aus der Zeit gefallene glamouröse Songs irgendwo zwischen The Doors, Burt Bacharach und Dean Martin.

A modal masterpiece from 1959, Kind of Blue is a true classic that never gets old, no matter how many times you listen to it. Bill Evans’ understated piano is the perfect foil for Miles’ melodies, contrasted by the soaring alto sax of Cannonball Adderley; Jimmy Cobb and Paul Chambers keep the rhythm section steady but unobtrusive, allowing Miles and Cannonball to shine. ‘So What’ and ‘Freddie Freeloader’ are seductive, deceptive gems, imparting all the frustration, begrudging and joy as only a great jazz record can; ‘Blue In Green’ and ‘All Blue’ have melancholy hues and ‘Flamenco Sketches’ a precursor to Sketches Of Spain. Every household should have at least one copy of Kind Of Blue, one of the greatest records ever made.

In Post-Heretic Dracula X Chronicles II the Dracula figure functions as a part fictive and part autobiographical metaphor. Dracula mirrors certain systematic (therefore also internal) conditionings and attributes in its whole ambivalent fluctuations. This character represents the complex relationships of a loving/living person in a neo-liberal capitalist system while oscillating between melancholia & rage, facing the preservation or loss of his love and standing in an alienated position towards the ruling order. The eleven featured compositions and their respective song names (both of them are riddled with references) playfully touch on conflicts between love, life and system-critique, without being too upfront about the subject-matter.

Nicola Kazimir (*28.05.1990 in Zürich, Schweiz)

A DJ, producer, musician, artist, space-owner, record label owner and party organizer, Nicola Kazimir works freely across platforms and communities. For Kazimir, these numerous positions are not static, and they can actfluidly and reciprocally as a whole, or as separate entities. His artistic and acoustic productions are mostly based on topics that include the institutionalization of techno, copyright, dividualism and the human perception of repetitive rhythm patterns mixed with aesthetic codes of b-movie horror movies or occultism. He is one of the founders and still part of the labels Les Points/ Gentrified Underground / Infoline and the offspace Mikro Zürich. Other projects include a supporting role in the organization of Zentralwäscherei Zürich and being part of the Clubbüro-team at Rote Fabrik.

Wagram turn their attention to the hip-swivelling world of Afro-disco and Afro-Funk, putting together a sizzling set of pan African sounds covering a whole host of dance styles from all over the continent. Deeper diggers may recognise some of these gems from individual reissues over the last few years, but this is the only time you'll find them all in one place.

Alleged Witches debut album breaks down centuries of human labour into an eight-part instruction manual for company best practice, stock control and tips for the optimum commute. The final break from nature, it's Pagan funeral marches, insect rhythms and doomed ambience for one last trip up the river. Artwork from Bill Connors.

With his ongoing commitment to like-minded archivist label Finders Keepers Records, industrial music pioneer Steven Stapleton further entrusts us to lift the veil and expose “the right tracks” from his uber-legendary and oft misinterpreted psych/prog/punk peculiarity shopping list known as The Nurse With Wound List.
Following the critically lauded first instalment and it’s exclusively French tracklisting both parties now combine their vinyl-vulturous penchants to bring you the next ‘Strain Crack & Break’ edition which consists of twelve lesser-known German records that played a hugely important part in the initial foundations of the list which began to unfold when Stapleton was just thirteen years old.
From the perspective of a schoolboy Amon Düül (ONE) victim, at the start of a journey that commenced before phrases like kosmische and the xeno-ignant Krautrock tag had become mag hack currency, this compendium is devoid of the tropes that united what many would accurately argue to be the greatest progressive pop bands in Europe
(namely CAN, Neu! and Kraftwerk) and rather shatters the ingredients across a ground zero landscape for both inquisitive fans and socially rehabbing musos to begin to assemble a unique self-styled identity. If Krautrock was the music that journalist told us lurked behind schlager (German pop) in the 1970s, then this record includes the music that skulked behind Krautrock and perhaps refused to polish its backhanded name belt.
Including lesser-known artists like the late Wolfgang Dauner, whose career proceeded and outlived the kosmische movement while consistently informing and outsmarting them whenever they got stuck in their metronomic ruts, or how about Fritz Müller, the man who
was to Kraftwerk what Stuart Sutcliffe was to The Beatles but had more in common with Yoko and quite rightly couldn’t give a stuff about the Fab Four’s Hamburg roots.
Elsewhere we have a plethora of German bands made for German audiences as they try and shed secondhand flower power Americanisms and feel the benefits of much harder drugs and the realisations of difficult second album budgets while Kommune 1
newsflashes wipe smiles from everybody’s faces and replace them with opioid chic or acid-sarcastic grins. Bonzo Cockettes show us their Big Muffs and drummers ask for extra mics while Conny Plank goes for parliamentary office and gives babies good firm handshakes for the camera.
‘Strain Crack & Break: Volume Two’ is the sound of Steve Stapleton’s sponge-like mind and the dividends of anyone who was brave enough to even peek inside those brick-thick gatefold covers never mind drop the needle.
Over forty years since Nurse With Wound’s first album was released, Finders Keepers Records and Steve Stapleton take connoisseurs of our kind of music back to the disused elevator shaft towards ground zero. Arriving at the same checkout from different departments, Finders Keepers and Nurse With Wound continue to sing from the same hymnal with this ongoing collaborative attempt to officially, authentically and legally compile the best tracks from Steve’s list, where many overzealous erds have faltered (or simply, got the wrong end of the stick).
After ‘Strain Crack & Break: Volume One’ merely scratched the surface of this DIY dossier of elongated punk-prog peculiarities, this second lavish metallic gatefold double vinyl compendium drives a much deeper groove which, in accordance with Steve’s wishes, focusses exclusively on individual tracks of German origin - the country whose music forged the prototype of the NWW inventory in the form of his secondary school vinyl wantlist in the early 1970s, comprised of disassembled free jazz, unshowered stoner psych, hypnotic prog, deranged monk funk and fuzzed out Deutschmark bin bonzo beats.

Nonesuch Records releases an album of songs written and performed by Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion, Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part. The musicians, who have known each other since their student days, were presented with three days of gratis studio time and decided to experiment with ideas they had begun putting to tape during the sessions for their January 2021 Nonesuch release Narrow Sea. With Shaw on vocals and Sō – Eric Cha-Beach, Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, and Jason Treuting – filling out this new band, they developed songs in the studio, with lyrics inspired by their own wide-ranging interests: James Joyce, the Sacred Harp hymn book, a poem by Anne Carson, the Bible’s Book of Ruth, the American roots tune ‘I’ll Fly Away’, and the pop perfection of ABBA, among others. The album is co-produced by Shaw, Sō Percussion, and the Grammy Award–winning engineer Jonathan Low (The National, Taylor Swift).

Shaw, who won a Pulitzer Prize for her vocal composition Partita for 8 Voices, written for and performed with Roomful of Teeth, makes her solo vocal debut with Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part. The album’s first track, ‘To the Sky’, from the Sacred Harp, takes its lyrics from Anne Steele. “I love the songs about death, and going home, and looking toward a time that is better or brighter, which, if there’s one thing to think about in the world, maybe that’s the thing,” Shaw says. “This one I love in particular. There’s a line, ‘Frail solace of an hour / So soon our transient comforts fly / And pleasure blooms to die.’ It’s meditation on the ephemeral, and I love it.”

“I hadn’t written very many songs, but I have certainly loved many in my life. I’ve been thinking of making a solo album for seven or eight years, but it takes having the right friends and community in the room,” Shaw says. “The prompt for all of us was: What would we make in the room together with no one person in charge, like a band writes in the studio?”

Cha-Beach recalls of the early test run during the Narrow Sea session: “It had that capturing-lightning-in-a bottle feeling.” When the opportunity to have three days in their friends’ studio, Guilford Sound, came up, the five musicians decamped for Vermont with engineer/co-producer Jonathan Low. “Jon is an amazing editor,” Cha-Beach says. “He is so helpful in thinking about: ‘We have these ideas: how do we shrink those and make them come across on an album?’”

One such idea was for Shaw to do a duet with each member of Sō. She sings with Josh Quillen on steel drums on the title track, which she wrote in under an hour in a “free-writing zone, very inspired by James Joyce, taking on that brain space,” she says. Lyrically, the song is “related to some math bits that I love, but also memory, and love songs of somebody who’s gone or passed away, or that you’re no longer with: what is the sound of that kind of devastation or confusion or love?” They recorded the song only twice, and the first take is on the album. “It’s very spare. The playing is very Josh; it’s so sensitive,” Shaw says.

Adam Sliwinski’s marimba duet with Shaw is an interpretation of the ABBA song ‘Lay All Your Love On Me’. She explains, “It’s really a Bach chorale. Also, the idea of someone singing ‘Don’t go wasting your emotion / Lay all your love on me / Don’t go sharing your devotion / Lay all your love on me,’ over and over again very slowly, there’s a certain tragedy in it. And then Adam did some absolutely exquisite layering that built this stunning world from the marimba.”

Jason Treuting on the drum kit joined Shaw for ‘Long Ago We Counted’. She suggested, “Why don’t we start with the voice and the kit having a weird conversation, sort of like two babies talking to each other? And then we built this loop, and we go from this place that’s totally uncomfortable and nonsensical to something that’s rich and rolling and satisfying.” For ‘Some Bright Morning’, the duet with Cha-Beach – who here plays electronics, piano, and Hammond organ – Shaw drew upon a twelfth century liturgical hymn she had sung regularly in church during her college years: ‘Salve Regina’.

“Some songs on Let the Soil… were very specifically composed by Caroline,” Cha-Beach says. “But others were this assemblage of ideas: finding words, an idea for how a melody could work, a harmony, and then tossing it in a blender and trusting each other.” Shaw adds, “What I love about Sō is the curiosity about how objects make sounds and how they speak to each other. There was an underlying thread of thinking about what goes into soil, how we take care of it, how we allow it to be itself, how we contain it, and what can come out of it if you cultivate the right environment, which for me is always this wonderful metaphor for creativity and collaboration: let people be themselves and see what happens,” she concludes.

Caroline Shaw is a New York–based musician – vocalist, violinist, composer, and producer – who performs in solo and collaborative projects. She was the youngest recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2013 for Partita for 8 Voices, written for the Grammy–winning Roomful of Teeth, of which she is a member. Shaw’s film scores include Erica Fae’s To Keep the Light and Josephine Decker’s Madeline’s Madeline as well as the upcoming short 8th Year of the Emergency by Maureen Towey. Hailed for ‘astonishing both the pop and classical music worlds’ (Guardian), she has produced for Kanye West (The Life of Pablo; Ye) and Nas (NASIR), and has contributed to records by The National and by Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry. Shaw currently teaches at NYU and is a Creative Associate at The Juilliard School. Her 2019 Nonesuch/New Amsterdam album Orange won a Grammy Award.

Through its interpretations of modern classics, innovative multi-genre original productions, and ‘exhilarating blend of precision and anarchy, rigor and bedlam’ (New Yorker), Sō Percussion has redefined the scope and role of the modern percussion ensemble. Sō’s repertoire ranges from twentieth century works by John Cage, Steve Reich, and Iannis Xenakis, to commissioning and advocating works by contemporary composers such as David Lang, Julia Wolfe, and Steven Mackey, to collaborations with artists who work outside the classical concert hall, including Shara Nova, choreographer Susan Marshall, The National, Bryce Dessner, and many others. Sō has recorded more than twenty albums, including a performance of Reich’s Mallet Quartet on the Nonesuch record WTC 9/11; appeared at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Walt Disney Hall, the Barbican, the Eaux Claires Festival, MassMoCA, and TED 2016; and performed with Jad Abumrad, JACK Quartet, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, and the LA Phil and Gustavo Dudamel, among others.

Death Drives A Cadillac was Spike In Vain’s second
album, never officially released and unheard in its final
form until now. Like many hardcore bands circa ’84 and
’85, the group was ready to further expand its palette and
ease off the thrash tempos. Recorded roughly a year after
Disease Is Relative with a bigger budget, the album is even
more wide-ranging, and the songs are more fleshed out.
“Despair grew inside her, I grew inside her. She named
me Spirit Death, and this is my song” sings Chris Marec,
the vocalist on half of this LP. Though less “young” than
their debut, that album’s darkness lingers, but here has a
more removed, observational quality, with many songs
sung in character or in the third person, along with a
tendency for anthropomorphic allegory. It has a bit less to
do with screaming for death to come than with a growing
resignation to being the other, a recognition of inescapable
alienation and its relation to childhood trauma. —all with
a heaping side of absurdity and a sense of wonder at the
gradually unfolding endtimes.
That said, many of the tracks wouldn’t be out of place
on the debut, and some feature exotic tunings. Bits of roots
music come into play as well—gospel, blues, and country
figure to some extent in a third of the songs, sometimes
in convoluted, Beefheart-esque ways, and at other times
toying with genre archetypes as a cat does a mouse.

Highlights from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Cinderella” features music from the original cast recording of the highly anticipated new theatre production.

Kojaque follows his critically acclaimed cult concept record, ‘Deli Daydreams’, with an
expansive, urgent debut album. In this landmark debut, Kojaque mines both his
emotional interior as an artist, and the external forces of a love triangle barrelling
towards chaos. ‘Town’s Dead’ is a mind-bending, explosive and expansive trip,
documenting a tumultuous love triangle that unfolds across New Year’s Eve in a
place where gentrification poses as much a threat as the violence of street dealers.
Sonically, the record smashes any previous expectations, stretching an aural palate
that leaps from rage to solace, from clattering musical combustions to tender
ruminations. The tremendous scope and scale of ‘Town’s Dead’ demonstrates an
artist utterly untethered to assumptions about what a particular voice or genre should
be, and instead explores radical musical territory. Dark corners of parks, bedrooms,
clubs, streets and psyches are excavated and pouring over the rubble is an artist
who refuses to conform, unafraid of the vulnerabilities that are exposed when the
voice rings true, because there’s just no point in being anything else.
Kojaque is part of a new wave of Irish artists flooding the world with blistering and
sophisticated literature, film and music - ideas and work that emerged from a social
revolution stonewalled by late-stage capitalism. Welcome to that state of mind, where
the path less travelled is the only one worth taking.
On the announcement of his debut album Kojaque has said: “‘Town’s Dead’ comes
from the potential that I see in Dublin and in the people I’m surrounded by day in and
day out. There’s nothing but talent and ambition among young people, I’m constantly
reminded of that through the art and music that I see being made but I think so often
the city grinds you down, it takes your hope and your ambition. I know that it can
change because so many of my friends express the exact same wants, desires and
frustrations with living in Ireland. If so many of us are on the same page then I know
that things can change, there just needs to be some sort of catalyst to kick start that
change and for me that’s always been art and music. Time and time again, amazing
art continues to be made in spite of the struggles and setbacks that are presented
when living here. The title track and the album is a fight against what can sometimes
feel inevitable, it’s a rejection of what people tell you is your destiny as a young
person in the city, Town’s NOT dead it’s just Dormant.”
CD housed in digisleeve containing 12-page lyric and photo booklet.
Black double vinyl housed in 5mm wide spine single sleeve with 12-page lyric and
photo booklet.
“Hints of Odd Future and its offspring... Kojaque is not your average rapper” - i-D
“Dublin’s hip-hop community are making waves right now... an intimate introduction
to the world this bold artist inhabits” - Clash
“Social realist rhymes set to silky hip-hop” - NME
“Likeable and funny” - Trench
“The Dublin MC forcing us to face real life; both the gory and the glory” - Wonderland
“Ireland’s freshest hip-hop hope, Kojaque, serves ‘soft hip hop’ with a side order of
poetry and performance art” - Notion

New Vinyl Repress ! Available on March 2021

"Plague of Shadows" is the first DLC campaign for Shovel Knight. Released in September 2015, the game features boss villain Plague Knight as its playable character with new gameplay twists not found in the original.

Composer Jake Kaufman takes the sound and feel Manami Matsumae established for Plague Knight in her tracks for the main game, but takes things even further, giving Plague Knight a unique, yet cute and charming identity.
Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows The Definitive Soundtrack features all 14 tracks found in the original digital release, with a brand new cover designed by illustrator Hitoshi Ariga. The booklet includes a comprehensive interview with Jake Kaufman, an essay by Bob Mackey of Retronauts, and original archival artworks.

Ohne Übertreibung kann man SKYEYE aus Slowenien als DAS Heavy-Metal-Wunderkind bezeichnen.
Gegründet im Jahr 2014 von Gitarrist Grega Stalowsky, Bassist Primož Lovšin und Sänger Jan Leščanec
überzeugt die Band durch einzigartiger und kraftvoller Gesang, kombiniert mit rauen und melodischen
Gitarrenriffs, die der Band ihren charakteristischen Heavy-Metal-Sound verleihen. Damit müssen sie sich
vor den großen Vertretern des Genres, wie Iron Maiden, Saxon oder Judas Priest, nicht verstecken. Die
Band hatte ihren ersten Auftritt im Juni 2017 und brachte nur vier Monate später ihre erste EP unter
dem Titel ”Run for Your Life” heraus. Die überwältigend positive Resonanz und der starke Support bei
ihren Auftritten trieb SkyEye zurück ins Studio, um ihr Debütalbum ”Digital God” aufzunehmen, das am
9. November 2018 veröffentlicht wurde.
Durch den Auftritt beim EMFA-Streaming-Festival im Sommer 2020 sorgte die Band erstmals auf internationaler Bühne für Aufsehen und galt für viele Besucher als DIE Entdeckung des Festivals. Daraus
resultierte der erste Plattenvertrag mit Reaper Entertainment und die nun weltweite Veröffentlichung ihres
zweiten Studioalbums ”Soldiers Of Light”. Das Album steckt voller wahrer Heavy Metal Hymnen, nach
denen man sich bereits jahrelang gesehnt hatte

Etta James: The Montreux Years is released as part of a brand new Montreux Jazz Festival and BMG collection series “The Montreux Years”. The collections will uncover legendary performances by the world’s most iconic artists alongside rare and never-before-released recordings from the festival’s rich 55-year history, remastered in superlative audio. Each collection will be accompanied by exclusive liner notes and previously unseen photography.

‘Etta James: The Montreux Years’ is a treasure trove of timeless classics, powerful and electrifying performances and raw, soaring vocals by one of the greatest ever female vocalists. The collection, featuring recordings from James’ Montreux Jazz Festival concerts in 1977, 1978, 1989 1990 and 1993, encapsulates and reflects Etta’s dynamic artistry and long-lasting impact. Spanning performances from across three decades, ‘Etta James: The Montreux Years’ offers deeply personal and intimate snapshots into James’ acclaimed musical journey, highlights and her phenomenal career.

From one of Etta James’ earliest successes, the infectious and endlessly elegant Something’s Got A Hold On Me, a medley that consist of At Last, Trust In Me and Sunday Kind of Love, which is a fusion of highlights from the early 60s, to the raw and emotional I’d Rather Go Blind and soulful horn-driven Tell Mama. The collection closes with Baby What You Want Me To Do, James’ homage to Jimmy Reed and the encore of her 1979 concert.

In 1975, Montreux Jazz Festival captured a significant moment of musical history – Etta James’ very first concert in Europe, performing at the festival’s 9th edition. The CD edition of ‘Etta James: The Montreux Years’ will include this special landmark concert, held at Montreux Casino on 11 July 1975.

From Jagjaguar: “Somewhere along the way, I got the idea
that Richard Youngs’s ‘Sapphie’ was all about a dead dog.
“I don’t know if someone insinuated this idea in front of me
or if I psychologically tethered the title to the tenderly
printed dog paw on its cover. Either way, I’ve gone over a
decade thinking this remarkable, windswept album of torch
songs was about a dearly departed pet.
“And yet, as we approached a reissue of this Jagjaguwar
classic and a new, reimagined version by artists Hypnotic
Brass Ensemble, Moses Sumney, Sharon Van Etten, and
Perfume Genius, Richard Youngs was straightforward and
unsentimental about its meanings. ‘The lyrics are not
about anything in particular,’ Youngs wrote.
“The paw prints on the cover are, in fact, that of a friend’s
dog (‘The first dog I ever loved,’ Richard said), but there is
no devastating loss at its center.
“And so, I want to tell Richard how this album has become
a centering album for a great many of us, a transcendent
and meditative piece of art.
“‘What does ‘the mindfulness drill’ have to do with it?’
Richard asks me dryly in a note.
“It’s about being relentlessly present, Richard. It’s how
when we listen to your album, we feel like a lonely traveler
in a foreign country. How everything has a newness to it
and there’s no one to share it with but the you inside of
you. And that fine, fine line is where ‘Sapphie’ lives,
Richard. Thank you for this, Richard.”
A reimagining of Richard Youngs’ ‘Sapphie’ with
instrumentals from Hypnotic Brass Ensemble and vocal
contributions from Moses Sumney, Perfume Genius and
Sharon Van Etten.
Available on Opaque Black & White Explosion vinyl.

I Be Trying might be the title of the new record from two-time GRAMMY nominee Cedric Burnside, but it's also a mission statement in an era when plenty of us have discovered what "the blues" really means. Recorded over three days at Royal Studios in Memphis (the home studio of Al Green and Hi Records in the 60s and 70s), this album is the ultimate statement of purpose for a critically acclaimed artist who has proudly carried the mantle of Mississippi Hill Country blues around the world. Over thirteen tracks, Burnside delivers his bruised but unfettered truth over blistering guitar and deep pocket drums-a sound birthed in his soul but developed and perfected on the road. But no matter how far he travels, the righteous sound he makes could only come from one place. I Be Trying is the sound of modern Mississippi. Produced by second-generation Memphis soul trailblazer Boo Mitchell ("Uptown Funk") and featuring guest appearances from Luther Dickinson (North Mississippi Allstars) and Zac Cockrell (Brittany Howard), I Be Trying takes the sound that Burnside learned from his grandfather, blues legend R.L. Burnside, and reinterprets it into a modern, bold Black American sound that expands the sonic landscape while respecting and honoring its roots.

I Be Trying might be the title of the new record from two-time GRAMMY nominee Cedric Burnside, but it's also a mission statement in an era when plenty of us have discovered what "the blues" really means. Recorded over three days at Royal Studios in Memphis (the home studio of Al Green and Hi Records in the 60s and 70s), this album is the ultimate statement of purpose for a critically acclaimed artist who has proudly carried the mantle of Mississippi Hill Country blues around the world. Over thirteen tracks, Burnside delivers his bruised but unfettered truth over blistering guitar and deep pocket drums-a sound birthed in his soul but developed and perfected on the road. But no matter how far he travels, the righteous sound he makes could only come from one place. I Be Trying is the sound of modern Mississippi. Produced by second-generation Memphis soul trailblazer Boo Mitchell ("Uptown Funk") and featuring guest appearances from Luther Dickinson (North Mississippi Allstars) and Zac Cockrell (Brittany Howard), I Be Trying takes the sound that Burnside learned from his grandfather, blues legend R.L. Burnside, and reinterprets it into a modern, bold Black American sound that expands the sonic landscape while respecting and honoring its roots.

Originally released digitally in August 2020 and supported by DJ Stingray, Martin Gore (Depeche Mode), Manni Dee, Rommek and Tapefeed, OBSCUUR is thrilled to present the vinyl issue of Catartsis & Ōtone's split EP "Mechanical Gesture". Catartsis and Ōtone explore, both in their collaborative and respective work, a wide spectrum of electronic and electroacoustic music with the practices of field recording and attentive listening at the core of their creative process. Inspired by musique concrete and electroacoustic sonic manipulations, they combine and alter sounds from the real, from their surroundings and from found (mainly metallic) objects. Stemming from this approach, they engage in rhythmical and textural research to elaborate a - peculiar, acousmatic and almost tangible - percussive and club-oriented music. With "Mechanical Gesture" Catartsis & Ōtone bring us an EP that is the very definition of the word "groove" while investigating rhythms and timbres from various mechanical apparatuses. Press, slice and carve your way through this assortment, it's guaranteed to get you moving.

Beautiful orange & yellow sunburst vinyl - Solstice '21 sees twelve bright lights of independent electronic music mark the coming Summer Solstice. In such dark days, the age-old practice of celebrating the move from shadow to light, feels steeped in a renewed symbolic power. Solstice '21 marks this significant moment with a rich array of musical offerings. Reflective, lively, and always powerful, this collection is spun with modern twists of an ancient thread. Rotator - This is the first outing under this moniker from Justin Owen, also known under the alias Licit, as well as being a protagonist in the world of modular synthesis as the man behind the Abstract Data modules; Letters from Mouse - "Bubbling analogue synthesis from Scotland." This analogue synth maestro and inimitable broadcaster (aka The Magic Window), boasts a string of quality releases, including the recent highly acclaimed album An gàrradh, also on Subexotic; Cub/cub - "Cub/cub explores the world in-between nostalgia and nihilism, analogue and digital, real and false; creating evocative and mournful musical collages." First discovered on Boards of Canada forum Twoism, Cub/cub's two debut releases with Subexotic demonstrated his considerable talent to mix fascinating texture with beguiling melody. With an astonishing follow-up album coming soon, his rising star feels unstoppable; Orbury Common - "aural ephemera from the home of the orbs." This mysterious duo from the West of England are blessed with delightful musical cunning; their brilliant debut on Subexotic lifted the lid, and this offering reaffirms exciting times lie ahead; Onepointwo - "Minimal electronics, abstract radio signals and dystopian soundscapes are proceeded from both digital and analogue sources." A creator of intricate yet powerful collage, with finely wrought motifs that repeat and build to create a shimmering psychedelic impact. This is Onepointwo's glorious trademark. Spell-binding releases already exist on Woodford Halse, Poeta Negra, Lotus, as well as an imminent powerhouse album forthcoming on Subexotic; Giants of Discovery - "Experimental electronica with the occasional noisy guitar thrown in." Giants of Discovery's ability to get to grips with the musicality of his subject, has lead to previous exquisite sojourns into realms such as Victorian cosmic horror and Greek mythology, as well as an equally fantastical, towering follow up album on Woodford Halse; Wonderful Beasts - "A Wonderful collaboration between boycalledcrow and Xqui." Their playful interaction finds ways of crafting acoustic fragments into unexpected kaleidoscopes of sound. With beguiling debuts on cult label Wormhole World (soon to be followed up by an extraordinary new album on Subexotic), there is a kind of breathless magic about everything they do; Dogs versus Shadows - Electronic Sound Magazine says "A rare example of gamekeeper turned poacher...a welter of impressive electronica." Lee Pylon's ability to straddle a wealth of uncompromisingly inventive creations, and his broadcasting prowess as the much loved Kites & Pylons, is already the stuff of legend. A multitude of releases across many labels including Subexotic, Woodford Halse, Miracle Pond, Third Kind, Submarine Broadcasting, Sensory Leakage, provide a glittering treasure trove of work; Counter Silence - A stalwart of Subexotic, Counter Silence's sparkling and wistful musical work very much stands alone in temperament and style. 2020's Pathways EP on Subexotic remains a precious oasis, imbued with a haunting solitude that lives on in the memory; Transient Visitor - "All music unlocked by Alex Cargill (C.O.I. Central Office of Information) and Martin Jensen (The Home Current)." These two intercontinental maestros (well Sidcup & Luxembourg) boast impressive solo back catalogues across many labels (including Castles in Space, Polytechnic Youth, Woodford Halse). Their newly conceived collaborative Transient Visitor project, brought about the superb TV1 album in 2020 - we can see the sparks fly again in this welcome 2021 return; Simon Klee - "Natural, Electric, Organic Psychedelic - Sounds, noise and psychedelic beats." Klee's playful alchemy engages the mind and spirit, as witnessed in a flurry of top quality releases in recent times (e.g. Subexotic, ANR, Woodford Halse), and there is a visceral joy in his work that is perfectly placed for a midsummer celebration. Klee also produces a truly excellent mixcast and increasingly essential tape label, both under the guise of Anticipating Nowhere; Rupert Lally - "Hailing originally from England but now based in Switzerland, Guitarist, Percussionist and Electronic Musician Rupert Lally began his career as a Sound Designer and Composer for Theatre and TV, before launching his solo career in 2005. Since then his releases have blurred the boundaries between electronic and acoustic music." Lally's consistently brilliant work is always a highlight of the electronic music calendar, including recent stellar works across many labels such as Spun Out Of Control, Third Kind, Woodford Halse, and Modern Aviation.

Bring me a record, and I’ll show you a record! Laced Records and Gearbox Software have peeped in the oven and the extended Borderlands 2 soundtrack on piping hot wax is nearly ready to serve.

The seminal first-person looter-shooter returned in 2012, expanding upon the first game. Players were pitted against the quippiest antagonist of them all, corporate dictator Handsome Jack, as they battled across Pandora to just find that one killer Maliwan Shock Sniper Rifle...

The game’s music team comprised Jesper Kyd (Assassin’s Creed, Hitman), Sascha Dikiciyan & Cris Velasco (dual and individual credits include Quake 2 & 3, Unreal Tournament, Mass Effect 3, God of War 3, and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided) and Raison Varner (Borderlands series), all of whom collaborated on the 2009 original. Together they honed the series’ Western-tinged, electronic and guitar-driven sound to create a fan-favourite soundtrack.

46 tracks (23 from the OST, 23 from the extended soundtrack and DLC) have been specially mastered for vinyl and will be pressed to audiophile-quality, heavyweight 180g black discs.

Produced by long-time friend Cate Le Bon, ‘Boy from Michigan’ is Grant’s most
autobiographical and melodic work to date. Grant stopped being a boy in Michigan aged
twelve, when his family moved to Denver, Colorado, shifting rust to bible belt, a further
vantage point to watch collective dreams unravel. Across 12 tracks, Grant lays out his
past for careful cross-examination.
In a decade of making records by himself, he has playfully experimented with mood,
texture and sound, all the better for actualizing the seriousness of his thoughts. At one
end of his musical rainbow he is the battle-scarred piano-man, at the other a robust
electronic auteur. ‘Boy from Michigan’ seamlessly marries both.
With Le Bon at the helm, Grant pared back his zingers, maximizing the emotional impact
of the melodies. A clarinet forms the bedrock of a song. One pre-chorus feels lifted from
vintage Human League. There is a saxophone solo.
‘Boy from Michigan’ ultimately swings between ambient and progressive, calm and livid.
The album’s narrative journey opens with Grant at his artistic prettiest, three songs drawn
from his pre-Denver life (the Michigan Trilogy, as Grant calls them): the title track, ‘The
Rusty Bull’ and ‘County Fair’. Each draws the listener in to a specific sense of place,
before untangling its significance with a rich cast-list of local characters, often symbolizing
the uncultivated faith of childhood.
Elsewhere, tracks like ‘Mike and Julie’ and ‘The Cruise Room’ offer an affecting plunge
deep into Grant’s late teenage years in Denver, while the midpoint of the album is
highlighted by ‘Best In Me’ and ‘Rhetorical Figure’, a pair of skittish, scholarly dance tunes
that build on the lineage of Grant’s electropop heroes, Devo.
Childhood as a horror narrative is the theme of ‘Dandy Star’, which observes a tiny Grant
watching the Mia Farrow horror movie ‘See No Evil’ on an old family TV set and finally, on
‘The Only Baby’, Grant removes his razor blade from a pocket to cleanly slit the throat of
Trump’s America, authoring a scathing epitaph to an era of acute national exposition.
Though he has lived in Iceland since 2011 - the same year he was also diagnosed HIVpositive - Grant spent his childhood and formative years in the US and maintains US
citizenship. Growing up, Grant was subjected to a deeply ingrained hatred of anyone
perceived as homosexual at school. Following the demise of his first band The Czars,
Grant left music entirely for over five years, only to achieve greater success as a solo
artist (his acclaimed 2015 solo LP ‘Grey Tickles, Black Pressure’ went Top Five in the
UK). Grant has sold out Royal Albert Hall, performed at Glastonbury, Latitude and more
and his song ‘Snug Snacks’ was featured on Pitchfork’s Songs That Define LGBTQ Pride.
BBC Radio 6 host Mary Anne Hobbs described Grant’s music: “Most songwriting, even if
it’s based on a true story ... is embellished in some way. But John's lyrics - they’re so true
they might as well be written in blood.”

Deluxe 2LP pressed on 140g black vinyl in inner sleeves with paintings by Gil Corral, 2
unique prints, 36-page photo booklet, pull out lyric sheet and digital download card, all
housed in a beautiful black velvet O-Card gatefold sleeve with Glitter Spark Eye.

Produced by long-time friend Cate Le Bon, ‘Boy from Michigan’ is Grant’s most
autobiographical and melodic work to date. Grant stopped being a boy in Michigan aged
twelve, when his family moved to Denver, Colorado, shifting rust to bible belt, a further
vantage point to watch collective dreams unravel. Across 12 tracks, Grant lays out his
past for careful cross-examination.
In a decade of making records by himself, he has playfully experimented with mood,
texture and sound, all the better for actualizing the seriousness of his thoughts. At one
end of his musical rainbow he is the battle-scarred piano-man, at the other a robust
electronic auteur. ‘Boy from Michigan’ seamlessly marries both.
With Le Bon at the helm, Grant pared back his zingers, maximizing the emotional impact
of the melodies. A clarinet forms the bedrock of a song. One pre-chorus feels lifted from
vintage Human League. There is a saxophone solo.
‘Boy from Michigan’ ultimately swings between ambient and progressive, calm and livid.
The album’s narrative journey opens with Grant at his artistic prettiest, three songs drawn
from his pre-Denver life (the Michigan Trilogy, as Grant calls them): the title track, ‘The
Rusty Bull’ and ‘County Fair’. Each draws the listener in to a specific sense of place,
before untangling its significance with a rich cast-list of local characters, often symbolizing
the uncultivated faith of childhood.
Elsewhere, tracks like ‘Mike and Julie’ and ‘The Cruise Room’ offer an affecting plunge
deep into Grant’s late teenage years in Denver, while the midpoint of the album is
highlighted by ‘Best In Me’ and ‘Rhetorical Figure’, a pair of skittish, scholarly dance tunes
that build on the lineage of Grant’s electropop heroes, Devo.
Childhood as a horror narrative is the theme of ‘Dandy Star’, which observes a tiny Grant
watching the Mia Farrow horror movie ‘See No Evil’ on an old family TV set and finally, on
‘The Only Baby’, Grant removes his razor blade from a pocket to cleanly slit the throat of
Trump’s America, authoring a scathing epitaph to an era of acute national exposition.
Though he has lived in Iceland since 2011 - the same year he was also diagnosed HIVpositive - Grant spent his childhood and formative years in the US and maintains US
citizenship. Growing up, Grant was subjected to a deeply ingrained hatred of anyone
perceived as homosexual at school. Following the demise of his first band The Czars,
Grant left music entirely for over five years, only to achieve greater success as a solo
artist (his acclaimed 2015 solo LP ‘Grey Tickles, Black Pressure’ went Top Five in the
UK). Grant has sold out Royal Albert Hall, performed at Glastonbury, Latitude and more
and his song ‘Snug Snacks’ was featured on Pitchfork’s Songs That Define LGBTQ Pride.
BBC Radio 6 host Mary Anne Hobbs described Grant’s music: “Most songwriting, even if
it’s based on a true story ... is embellished in some way. But John's lyrics - they’re so true
they might as well be written in blood.”

Deluxe 2LP pressed on 140g black vinyl in inner sleeves with paintings by Gil Corral, 2
unique prints, 36-page photo booklet, pull out lyric sheet and digital download card, all
housed in a beautiful black velvet O-Card gatefold sleeve with Glitter Spark Eye.

Purple Vinyl

Even if you're well-acquainted with composer and multi-instrumentalist Colin Fisher's richly varied output, his gentle fifth solo album, Refections of the Invisible World may come as a surprise. Psychedelic lyricism has always been a fundamental aspect of his sonic signature, but his second collaboration with producer Jeremy Greenspan (Junior Boys, Jessy Lanza, Morgan Geist) finds the Toronto native luxuriating in expansive atmospherics for its full duration.
That's not to downplay the eclecticism he finds within this ethereal landscape. Each track tills its own discrete sonic acreage, and while every one emanates from a clear focal point, the spontaneous impulse that drives Fisher's more audibly improvisational music always remains close at hand. Some pieces unfold rippling aquatic vistas or delight in prismatic guitar arpeggiation, elsewhere his plaintive, blues- infected tenor saxophone wafts like some strange jazz apparition, or becomes a chorus of cosmic murmurs. The presence of electronics is undeniable, but equally irrefutable is the organic instrumental sources of these disparate hues. In fact he's discovered a rare balance: no matter how effects-saturated, every gesture on the record feels palpably sculpted by Fisher's hands and breath. As such, Refections of the Invisible World carries a sense of intimacy at the heart of its diffuse, dream-like sonics.
Fisher has a been a major presence in Canada's music community for more than twenty years—particularly in more experimental and improvisational circles. Nothing short of a guitar virtuoso, he also wields saxophone, drums, and various other instruments with similarly refined musicality, vivid textural imagination, and sometimes feral abandon. His one-man-band tape Garden of Unknowning for Manchester's Tombed Visions, showcase all of this as he spars with different iterations of himself. The Quietus' cassette critic Tristan Bath extolled it as "miraculous," adding that "it’s a visceral experience soaking up this record, and it’s all down to Fisher’s utterly innate sense of musicality." He subsequently cited it in his 2018 contributor's year-end chart for the Wire.
In 2014 his partnership with Nick Millevoi's trio Many Arms on Suspended Defnition (Tzadik) prompted Spin's Brad Cohan to remark "Many Arms have dug even deeper into math-metal wizardry, bolstering their already imposing lineup with gale-force blowing guest saxophonist Colin Fisher, thus blasting their outré sonic blitz into a fire-breathing free jazz otherworld." Fisher later engaged the band's bassist, Johnny DeBlase, to team up with him and Kid Millions (Oneida, Man Forever) as Monas. As an ongoing collaborator to introspective dance music auteur Caribou, Fisher frst appeared in offshoot project Caribou Vibration Ensemble, and subsequently on acclaimed albums Swim and Suddenly. He's also made two duo albums with celebrated Nova Scotian jaw harp innovator chik white for Dylan and Lisa Nyoukis' Chocolate Monk label. In addition to performing alongside the likes of Jaime Branch, Joe McPhee, William Parker, Laraaji, Gerry Hemmingway, and Fred Frith, he has contributed to recordings by the Constantines (Sub Pop), Bernice (Arts & Crafts), Rhys Chatham (Table of the Elements), Born Ruffans (Warp), Anthony Braxton and AIMToronto Orchestra (Spool), and many more.

Quietschbunte Indie-Pop-Tunes Nachdem das letzte Tune-Yards-Album "I can feel you creep into my private life" 2018 auf 12 Songs Themen wie Geschlechterteilung, Politik, Feminismus und die nach wie vor um sich greifende Umweltverschmutzung behandelte, hinterfragen sich Merrill Garbus und ihr langjähriger Mitstreiter Nate Brenner auf dem fünften Studioalbum "sketchy." selbst. "We had really been non-stop hustling," reflektiert Merrill, die zwischen 2009 und 2018 vier hoch gelobte Alben als Tune-Yards veröffentlicht hat, durchgängig auf Tour war und zusätzlich noch den Score zum surrealistischen Boots Riley-Film "Sorry To Bother You" kreierte. Ihre eigene Rolle in den von ihr so verhassten, eingefahrenen Systemen, lähmte Merrill, ohne Idee, wie sie nun weitermachen sollte. Inspiriert vom Buch der Beastie Boys und von Questloves "Creative Quest" machte sich das Duo daran täglich für mehrere Stunden in ihrem Proberaum zu jammen, um sich ähnlich wie Athleten vor einem Wettkampf zu trainieren. Dabei tauschten sie Computer-Samples gegen Live-Instrumente ein (Merrill an den Drums, Nate am Bass) und schon nach kurzer Zeit entstanden die ersten neuen Songs. Das Ergebnis ist ein farbenfrohes und fröhliches Album mit Lyrics, die es in sich haben.