In 20 Jahren hat Sänger und Gitarrist Thomas Gurrath ein ganzes Banduniversum aus Debauchery, Blood God und Balgeroth erschaffen und vereint diese Trinity of Blood Gods nun unter dem Namen BLUTGOTT. Musikalisch genreübergreifend gibt es stampfenden Death Metal, klassischen Heavy Metal und groovigen Hard Rock, mal mit kreischenden Vocals, mal mit der markanten Monsterstimme, mal clean und alles dazwischen.
Die Texte - mal deutsch-, mal englischsprachig - handeln von Gurraths eigenem Dark Fantasy Universum, der World of Blood Gods, benannt nach den Blutgöttern - biomechanischen Vampirdrachen mit dämonischen Fähigkeiten.
Jeder der 10 Songs kommt auf einer separaten CD erstmalig in der deutschen Balgeroth-Version, in der Blood God Heavy Metal-Version und in einer alternativen Debauchery-Version daher und ist somit eine Sammlung mit Gurraths persönlichen Favoriten in einem neuen Gewand.
The iconic Is It Balearic heads to the slightly less iconic - in Balearic terms - West Midlands to retrieve this great EP of electric dance effort gems from Wrekin Havoc. 'Camino' is a loose, melody-rich sound with silvery drums and real nostalgia, then 'Moon Dance' it's a more laidback and zoned out sonic daydream for lazy and sunny afternoons by the pool. There is an electro vibe to 'RLTW' which is a reworking of a Christopher Cross Yacht classic then a T Kurt Remix reworks it into a boogie banger. Another varied and vital EP of grown up dance sounds.
NYC speed rockers PONS are wound up and hot for skronk on The Liquid Self, a golden spiral into insanity at sea surfacing on cassette and streaming October 6, 2023. Besieged by a lighthouse panopticon of pummeling, engine-room percussion, The Liquid Self rises higher than the tides of destiny. These eleven songs churn like a gluttonous maelstrom consuming everything in its path. The Liquid Self chums indie rock’s murky waters with bloody chunks of Lightning Bolt, Van Halen and King Crimson to lure PONS’ mythical and unhinged rock ‘n roll creation to the surface. Harpoons in hand, the dual drums and guitar trio swing, shuffle and strut across oceanic horizons of playful, unhinged garage-prog-pop inhabited by a cast of unreliable narrators; bottom feeders carrying the entire ocean’s weight on their polyrhythms.
On the single “Coral King,” PONS usurp noise rock’s old guard while pledging fealty to the dystopia under the sea with a foamy, froth-mouthed manic industrial scuzz-prog rant seething with sludgy, dissonant bile oozing from every sour note. Furious violin-fuzz riffs and a chorus of lost souls lead the procession at this brutal coronation of the damned.
“Sinking Feeling” hangs ten with bright and beachy major chords anchored by fleet-flippered guitar solos breaching the surf like suppertime at SeaWorld. Chaos reigns on “Queen Conch,” soaking the splash zone with misty waves of undulating percussion and tsunami force sheets of six-string shredding. Barbed post-punk rager “Hooks” swallows the bait whole—and it turns out PONS fish with dynamite.
Now in its tenth year, Frankfurt-based record label Die Orakel has earned itself a strong catalogue of classy releases in a distinct sonic and visual attitude, its latest being a compilation called Braindance.
A fair assumption about Braindance as a genre could be, that it's rather in the zone of kaleidoscopic and whimsical quirktronica, less about IDM's futurist tropes. From Die Orakel's point of view, its very own Braindance compilation marks the label's tenth anniversary by releasing an intense listener's atlas, to its own and their creative collaborators' musical slant of mind.
While much could be said about spectral traces of a leftfield past, nostalgia isn't heard anywhere. The more you listen to this selection, the deeper the tracks plug into your brain—stretching from ethereal harmonic licks rippling with fragile glitches, bleepy to bass-heavy electroid steppers of any BPM range, to abstract-scientific neo-modular artistry.
Die Orakel's Braindance transmission can be had as a 15-track digi-release, as well as a 4-track vinyl EP. Pick either for your library of the future. The Braindance compilation will be released on 16 February 2024.
Sun Yellow LP[21,22 €]
Clear Vinyl
Blue Lake is the musical moniker of American born, Copenhagen based multidisciplinary artist and musician Jason Dungan, who signs to the Tonal Union imprint for the release of his new longform album ‘Sun Arcs’. It follows 2022’s release ‘Stikling’, earning a nomination for ‘Album of the Year’ at the Danish Music Awards plus warm praise from The Hum blog and musicians and DJs alike including Jack Rollo (Time is Away/NTS) and Carla dal Forno. A self taught player, Dungan began freely experimenting with self-built multi-string instruments, preferring to build his own hybrid 48-string zither and working in the realms of left-field ambient music, off kilter folk and improvised acoustic minimalism.
The starting point of ‘Sun Arcs’ saw Jason travel for a week alone to Andersabo, a cabin set in the idyllic Swedish woods just outside of Unnaryd, known also as the music project, festival and residency space which has been run by Dungan since 2016, hosting artists like Sofie Birch, Johan Carøe and Ellen Arkbro. Whilst writing 1-2 pieces per day, a conscious decision was made to leave behind everyday distractions and shut out the outside world to instead focus on the natural passage of time as Dungan recalls: “My only sense of time came from these daily walks out in the woods with my dog, and an awareness of the sun’s path as it moved across the sky each day.”
The album’s immersive world unfolds with the opener ‘Dallas’, an ode to his home state and a musical synthesis of these two disparate spaces (Texas and Denmark), the touchstones of Dungan’s life. A folk-esque single acoustic builds to a flowing arrangement of clarinets, organ and cello drones coupled with percussion. ‘Green-Yellow Field’ chimes in as the first of two solo oriented zither recordings twinned with the dreamlike title track ‘Sun Arcs’, both densely rich as cascading and overlapping harmonic tones resound. ‘Bloom’ emerges with a krautrock psyche before an eruption of cello drones, slide guitar and free-ranging zither playing, ushering in the anticipation of spring. With half of the recordings conceived in Andersabo, Jason returned to Copenhagen to form the album's centre piece ‘Rain Cycle’ which features a tempered Roland drum machine alongside shifting zither improvisations. ‘Writing’ explores the shimmering harp-like qualities of sweeping playing figurations with Dungan mapping out adjusted tuning “zones” on the zither for unconventional but creatively liberating effects. ‘Fur’ captures the feeling of openness and the momentum of time, seeing Dungan perform waves of solo clarinet, often in one takes and embellished with textural drones, a zither solo, and layers of guitar. ‘Wavelength’ the album's closer is fondly inspired by the film works of Michael Snow and Don Cherry’s seminal live album ‘Blue Lake’ (1974), as it builds out from a drone-generated zither chord and features an alto recorder solo. Dungan found a deep connection to Cherry’s stripped back performance ethos, focusing on the core beauty of minimal instrumentation creating a genre-less meeting between folk and jazz. A dialogue is formed between the solo and the bandlike performances, interlinked in a geographical duality with all finding a sense of commonplace as musical sketches of visited landscapes. The bountiful instrumentation ebbs and flows as further layers emerge with Dungan constructing his material much like an artist would, recording and reviewing, adding and subtracting.
Musically it portrays a form of double life led by an American-identifying person living in Scandinavia, and a new found presence in Denmark, seeking out underdeveloped marshlands and barren stretches of beach adrift from other rhythms and distractions. Highlighting their individual and potent importance Dungan concludes: “Both places feel like “me”, I think on some level the music is always some kind of self-portrait.” ‘Sun Arcs’ depicts the intricate balance of nature’s cycles and the paths outlined by the seasons, from a winter dormancy to a warm sun drenched scene. The album scales new glorying heights and further defines Dungan’s musical narrative, inhabiting a unique space in left-field, improvised and experimental music, borning his most accomplished compositions to date. A singular and visionary expression, drawing on an array of instruments and sound worlds with a renewed sense of joy and discovery.
The album's rich tapestry was mixed by Jeff Zeigler (Laraaji, Mary Lattimore, Kurt Vile /Steve Gunn) and mastered by Stephan Mathieu (Kali Malone, KMRU, Félicia Atkinson).
and the novelty goes on: mule musiq welcomes another fresh producer to its vast catalogue of music from all around. this time andro gogibedashvili aka saphileaum. he is coming from tbilisi, georgia and already released an impressive body of work, considering he just publishes music since 2016. countless eps and albums, digital, on tape, documenting his feverish creative urge on labels like not not fun records, good morning tapes, diffuse reality, or vodkast. they cover a comprehensive stylistic range from ambient and downtempo to tribal, house, and techno nuances. a deeper shade of soul, precisely fashioned, growing from different playgrounds of inspiration. he was born into a musical family. as a kid he studied georgian folk. in his school rock band, he sang, and the guitar was his love. then electronic music called the tune, and techno hit his heart. in the midst of it all the 26-year-old never lost contact with his spiritual home. “i find deep inspiration in georgian myths and legends, occultism and esoteric teachings, lost civilizations, earth, unity, truth, information, and the secrets of the universe. these things, to name a few, inspire me daily and help me create the music I make.” saphileaum reveals. “exploring together”, his debut album for mule, navigates all these elements through a merry-go-round of gentle driven rhythm zones. fourth-world spheres, balearic tropes, field recording zones, tropical downbeat, tribal percussions, trancing sounds, balafon hums, mallet airs, hooky house – it’s all there, circling the eavesdropper into a dreamland of melodic undercurrents. “my loops come from tribal and cosmic inspirations. tribal, as below, and cosmic as above. the combination of these two, is very interesting to me”, he clarifies, while joking “but, to put it super simply, loops are super handy for djing”. which brings us to the final promotion of “exploring together” - it’s playability. its vast. multifunctional. spiritual. made for gatherings, were all dance time away. lost in music actions, only touched by the hand of rhythm and sound. his ten tracks are created for such flashes, wide spreading a musical narration of illuminating durability. “cosmic, relaxing, fun, tribal, and mystic.”, as saphileaum declares.
Die chilenischen Death-Rocker Hellman präsentieren ihr erdrückendes Debütalbum 'Born, Suffering, Death'! Absolute Empfehlung für Fans von Motörhead, Entombed, Pantera, Anthrax, Wratchild America, Nailbomb oder Sepultura!
Craig Clouse has devoted the past several decades to exploring a wide range of avant-garde avenues for his brainchild Shit & Shine. The monolithic riffs of raw and powerful psych'n'roll hysteria, the freeform dance miasma, sub-heavy electronica and the blissful stupidity crafted for ecstatic ascension: all perfectly-placed in the idiosyncratic world of Shit & Shine. There's also fertile soil for twisted noises in their lowest form, often obscured by groovier comrades in S&S releases yet vitally important for the substance of Clouse's compositional carcass and OOH-sounds has given him the required space to stretch out his longtime interest in developing loose structures and crackling landscapes to transcend his rhythmic comfort zone.
Making an enthusiastic transgression into noisy tones, "Joy Of Joys" has a friendly way of presenting difficult material. The rough and ready cheapo electronics sparkle in full electrifying mode, welding an ascetic gamut of aural hypnotics with a wormhole of uncompromising loop brut. Clanks, bangs, twangs and creeping, ragged globs of sound bloom on the bones of repetition to focus on the swinging stream of dirty anarchy. Stepping out of any context and genre disciplines, S&S finds new sonic trajectories in "Joy Of Joys" which perfectly sit in-between a wobbly cabal of international sub-underground acts: the idiot-avant strategies of LAFMS, early Mego bad digitalia, no-brow enthusiasm of Wolf Eyes family, micro-DIY ethos of Chocolate Monk and the sheer hellish nonsense of US noise circa '00s.
Clouse was already established as a landscape painter with a series of faux naïf paintings charmingly accompanying his releases. With his heart full of passion for abstract minimalism, he continued these narrative forms but was always in search of the confidence to paint non-figurative art. The first step into the chaotic abyss is coming from his sonic side by abandoning the beat and riff layers of his previous works to complete nakedness and reductionist courage. At once Clouse makes an evolutionary lurch into extremes as well as taking us back to basic forms in "Joy Of Joys". He creates an entire new parallel world to Shit & Shine with his maverick imagination presenting us with one of the most mutant releases to bear his name. Arthur Kuzmin
LP[27,61 €]
Andreas Dorau wird am 19. Januar 2024 zum ersten Mal sechzig. Anlässlich dessen legt er sein neues Album "Im Gebüsch" vor. Darin lauern 13 Stücke, auf denen Kaleidoskop-artig verschiedene Pop-Realitäten aufblitzen, erstmals auch auf Englisch: "Touristen-Englisch", wie es Dorau selbst bezeichnet, die Platte als eine Sightseeing-Tour des Pop. Dabei begibt sich Dorau auf einen Streifzug durch diverse Spielarten elektronischer Musik, wobei eine fröhliche Traurigkeit seine treue Begleitung ist. Außerdem wurden für dieses Album u. a. Gäste wie die Musikerinnen Güner Künier und JJ Weihl (Discovery Zone, Fenster) sowie Brezel Göring (Stereo Total) rekrutiert. "Im Gebüsch" ist modern, retro und postmodern gleichzeitig. Das kann nur einer, das kann nur Andreas Dorau!
Very limited vinyl pressing, 500 copies, housed in a full colour sleeve & printed inner sleeve & download. CD in a 4 panel digipack with a 4 page lyric booklet. New Heavy Sounds are always on the lookout for new bands that are looking to push the boundaries of what is considered as inhabiting the ‘heavy’ or ‘metal’ spectrum’. Stuff that pricks up the ears, a bold new voice within a maelstrom of genres and sub-genres. We believe we have found such a band. New York-based GUHTS (pronounced ‘guts’) declare themselves to be an ‘avant-garde post-metal project, delivering larger than life sounds through, deeply emotional music’. We are thrilled to be able to deliver that statement in the form of their debut album ‘Regeneration’. By their own admission, GUHTS' musical style is influenced not only by iconic metal bands like Gojira, Cult of Luna, YOB and Deftones, but more unconventional acts like Bjork, Subrosa, Isis, Julie Christmas, and even PJ Harvey. It’s undoubtedly heavy, with a strong feminist streak, it’s cathartic and weighty, a formidable debut for such a new band. Founded in 2020 as a passion project by Scott Prater (Witchkiss), and Amber Burns (Witchkiss) and then Dan Shaneyfelt (Black Mountain Hunger), GUHTS became its members’ main focus following the release of their first EP 'Blood Feather' which itself received rave reviews from the likes of Decibel Magazine, Invisible Oranges, The Obelisk, Cvlt Nation, and more. Brian Clemens Sleaping Dreaming) & Daniel Martinez (Nefariant) joined GUHTS in 2022 and the band swiftly started booking tours and making plans to record 'Regeneration'. Since then GUHTS have been steadily making a name for themselves with their powerful live performances., sharing stages with the likes of Yob, Cave in, Marissa Nadler, plus appearances at the Maryland Doom Fest, Crucial Fest and Ohio Doomed and Stoned Fest. ‘Regeneration’ is set to cement their status as one of the coolest and most interesting bands on the scene. Of the album, vocalist Amber says. "Regeneration" symbolizes the power of self-renewal, often overlooked. Embracing it means shedding old layers and welcoming new beginnings. Without this, life stagnates and is “sustaining”. Through regeneration, change becomes empowering, allowing new facets to emerge. It's a courageous, transformative process, inspiring others to overcome fear and embrace change. The album embodies the human spirit's resilience and capacity for growth. Musically ‘Regeneration’ is a powerful and intense series of songs, topped off by some seriously powerhouse and expressive vocal performances. It’s slow-moving chords, moving like sheets through sludge. High guitar lines above, ranging from piercing and shimmering to nasty. Drums pound but not without groove. There are strings, pianos and synths widening the palette. Atmospheric sludge, Metalgaze, maybe, but there’s also that link to the New York Noise lineage from The Velvets and Sonic Youth, becoming a type of post-hardcore in the process, while gaining a connection to metal partly due to the sheer heaviness. A raft of creative experimentation that pushes beyond the realm of post-metal. And then of course, the very first thing that hits you is Amber Gardner's unbelievable, hypnotising vocals - as scary as a banshee while also intimate and persuasive. Amber means it for sure and almost dominates the proceedings. Her lyrics are eclectic, thoughtful. Immersed in women's narratives frombooks like "Women Who Run With the Wolves" or works like "On Our Best Behavior" by Elise Loehnen. Amber advocates stepping beyond comfort zones, believing it's transformative for individuals and vital for Earth's future. Hokey occult rock it is not. In short ‘Regeneration’ is a bold and startling debut, that will reward and enthral listeners the deeper they delve into its many layers.
Some Female:Pressure right here with the latest NVST release; Silence Itself Is Noise! This is her debut for SSPB delivering a 6 track ep which are a reflection of her adventurous club sets, a well-balanced mix of powerful beats and expansive atmospheres haunted by skittering echoes of the dancefloor. Each track feels like fleeting memories of the club filtered through the human experience - flickering moments illuminated by strobes and shrouded in smoke, laced with the tang of sweat and psychedelics. Opener "Tiny Mistakes Feeling HOT (Hellisnotamyth version)" coalesces from curling vapors into infernal acid lines and rhythmic fragments that evaporate almost as soon as they appear. "The Devil Loves The Detail (Lucifer's Fire Version)" builds into an inescapable pulse amidst frayed synthesizers, pressure building to fever pitch before "The Danger Zone Of GFY (Freedom Version)" opens out into icy, astral synths. "Monster of Business (Style Edition)" shifts closer to the dancefloor with a slinking, syncopated groove, conversations from the smoking area or studio creeping in at the edges, before erupting into the frazzled bounce of "The Goat and the Night." "The Silence Itself is Noise (Nonstop Bass Version)" loops back once again to more cavernous atmospheres, warped bells and strafing melodic flourishes ringing out amidst fizzing distortion and skeletal percussion. Silence Itself is Noise doesn't clamour for attention, it necessitates it. Once again, NVST proves herself unafraid to challenge club orthodoxy, and unwilling to patronize listeners, instead making deft use of tension and release to create genuine moments of surprise and transcendence.
In the midst of the pandemic, Enjoy Jazz Festival has developed a musical project whose members will be recruited new every year and then debut at a concert on UNESCO International Jazz Day, April 30. The members come from the jazz scene of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. "We wanted," festival director Rainer Kern stresses, "not only to revitalize the fragile network of outstanding creative minds, but also to rethink it artistically as a rolling system." Two experienced and renowned band leaders, Alexandra Lehmler and Erwin Ditzner, now curate an annually changing ensemble of outstanding artists of the most diverse provenance. As part of a voluntary commitment, the ensemble is to be organized in a sustainable, diverse, and, in three years at the latest, completely gender-equal
and climate-fair manner. Thus, as a commitment to the goals of the "European/Local Green Deal" (and with reference to the jazz standard "On Green Dolphin Street"), the name Green Dolphin Orchestra was created. Another special feature: The renowned Oriental Music Academy Mannheim (OMM), a long-standing partner of the Enjoy Jazz Festival, receives a white card, so that musicians with a migration background or protagonists from other musical cultures are always part of this "orchestra of many" and constantly expand its sound language.
The project has a free improvisation approach with changing personnel. "We actually even thought of drawing lots for the different formats within the band pool," explains saxophonist Alexandra Lehmler. "We decided against it in the case of the first concert and instead put together curated formations." And drummer Erwin Ditzner adds, "In principle, however, this procedure remains an option." It was important to the two of them to also mix the genres represented by the individual musicians in such a way that free space for something truly new could emerge. "We wanted to challenge ourselves," Lehmler sums it up. The only restriction: a time code was assigned to each sub-project. "Each formation was given a time limit, although it was possible to virtually override this limit by spontaneous
reshuffling," says Ditzner, explaining one central of the few rules. "In concrete terms, this meant that after eight minutes, the improvisation in progress was either ended or new musicians simply joined in the ongoing creative process, while others took themselves out of the game."
Alexandra Lehmler summarizes the artistic impact of the ensemble as follows: "We really cross-fertilize each other. In order to push this process even further, we forced ourselves when putting together the ensemble not to fall back on our 'favorite playing partners', i.e. musicians with whom one feels particularly at home. In other words, we consciously wanted to step out of our comfort zone with this project." The present pieces were recorded live in Heidelberg during the ensemble's premiere concert on the occasion of International Jazz Day on April 30, 2022.
Andreas Dorau wird am 19. Januar 2024 zum ersten Mal sechzig. Anlässlich dessen legt er sein neues Album "Im Gebüsch" vor. Darin lauern 13 Stücke, auf denen Kaleidoskop-artig verschiedene Pop-Realitäten aufblitzen, erstmals auch auf Englisch: "Touristen-Englisch", wie es Dorau selbst bezeichnet, die Platte als eine Sightseeing-Tour des Pop. Dabei begibt sich Dorau auf einen Streifzug durch diverse Spielarten elektronischer Musik, wobei eine fröhliche Traurigkeit seine treue Begleitung ist. Außerdem wurden für dieses Album u. a. Gäste wie die Musikerinnen Güner Künier und JJ Weihl (Discovery Zone, Fenster) sowie Brezel Göring (Stereo Total) rekrutiert. "Im Gebüsch" ist modern, retro und postmodern gleichzeitig. Das kann nur einer, das kann nur Andreas Dorau!
"Sleater-Kinney is one of the most iconic female-fronted rock bands of the last 30 years. Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein formed Sleater-Kinney in Olympia, WA in 1994. They were at the forefront of the riot grrrl movement and have grown into one of the most influential and enduring indie bands of all time. This is Sleater-Kinney's 11th studio album and first with producer John Congleton. It’s a roaring return to form that reaches the raw emotional depths of their seminal album Dig Me Out. Over the course of their career they have pushed themselves in and out of comfort zones, grown as musicians, grown as writers, grown apart and then back together again. This is a deeply personal record that is about grief, desperation and human connection. This is the new era of Sleater-Kinney. MEDIA SECURED: The Guardian Film+TV, Dork Magazine Cover (confidential), Kerrang! Joint cover band (condidential), Off Menu Podcast, The Telegraph, NME Feature, 6Music Maida Vale Session, DIY feature, Loud + Quiet feature, Record Collector feature, MOJO Q+A Feature, UNCUT Feature, Sodajerker Podcast, BEAT Magazine feature, Polyester Zine feature, Port Magazine, Hero Magazine, The Forty Five feature. CLASH - “Less a band, more a force of nature, they’ve always been – and continue to be – one of rock’s most electrifying experience.” The Telegraph - “Sleater-Kinney: the riot grrrls are riot women now – and they’re fiercer than ever” Loud + Quiet - “Little Rope should bring the focus back to what they still have: genuine magic, in the form of the shared musical language that Tucker and Brownstein have spent 30 years developing” MOJO – ‘ferocious, intelligent, and fore-grounding Corin Tucker’s elemental howl” (on ‘Hell’) "
Known for weaving together complex rhymes with style, Elzhi has been rapping circles around the competition for more than two decades. After years as a member of iconic group Slum Village, Elzhi’s impressive solo career has included projects produced by acclaimed artists like Black Milk, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Khrysis, and Will Sessions. Now, the Detroit emcee is linking with California beat maestro Oh No for the new collaborative album Heavy Vibrato. A multitalented underground hip-hop luminary, Oh No has built a formidable resume behind the boards, crafting tracks for Mos Def, Freddie Gibbs, MF DOOM, Action Bronson, Talib Kweli, Ab-Soul, Danny Brown, and more. Heavy Vibrato is a thrilling showcase for Elzhi’s lyrical wizardry and cinematic storytelling, as Oh No breathes new life into a compelling tapestry of jazz samples, producing the entire collection. “The only thing you need to absorb this experience is an open mind,” says Elzhi. With guest appearances by Blu and Guilty Simpson, Heavy Vibrato taps into an undeniable frequency.
Recorded in an abandoned water tank in rural northwest Colorado and inspired by Muriel Rukeyser’s circa-1935 poem of the same name, violinist Leslee Smucker explores the range and saturation of intense natural reverb on Breathing Landscape. The artist pushes her instrument to the limit –by turns percussive, sweeping, and scraping– and, on several tracks, utilizes her own voice as well, resulting in an album that combines breathtaking beauty and visceral texture. Leaning into the meditative quality being present in one moment can provide, this is music you can feel on your skin, calling out from our decomposing modernity into the indifferent sky above. Conjuring deep time but captured in one day, the album is simultaneously immediate and vaporous, primeval-sounding yet unapologetically modern. When you travel out of the mountains down into the rangelands of what we know today as western Colorado, the horizon opens up to reveal an ancient and scarred land. Cell phone coverage is spotty at best and towns are sparse. Time escapes our efforts to contain it and is instead etched into the hot, dry canyons. Approaching The Tank, outside the settlement of Rangely, oil pumps work ceaselessly on the other side of the gravel road, extracting a grim future. Inside The Tank it is 20 degrees warmer than outside, a zone of strange harmonics, exchanges of sound and stillness, and explorations of landscapes both exterior and interior. In what she describes as a "sauna of sound", Smucker "was transported by the reverberation to another realm. Birds and trucks passed outside, while the wind was an integral part to the sound making
Die Zeit ist gekommen für ein neues Scanner Album nach fast einem Jahrzehnt. Wie es die bisherige Diksographie fast zwingend verlangt, ist "The Cosmic Race" ein Konzeptalbum geworden: Das Überleben auf der Erde ist immer schwieriger geworden, Naturkatastrophen häufen sich und militärische Konflikte haben ihren Höhepunkt erreicht, große Teile der Kontinente sind nuklear verseucht. Das Leben konzentriert sich auf wenige Großstädte, und die Enge und die Hitze in ihnen ist unerträglich geworden. Der Scanner (eine Mischung aus Mensch und Androide), holt einen Teil der Menschen, um sie zu einem bewohnbaren Planeten namens Terrion in einer anderen Galaxie zu bringen. Die lange Reise endet erfolgreich. Aber auch in der neuen Welt müssen sich die Menschen gegen Aliens und Invasoren von anderen zivilisierten Planeten wehren und fangen wieder von vorne an. Sie wollen ihre zweite Chance nutzen und es besser machen als auf der Erde. Da es aber auch Zweifler und Abtrünnige unter ihnen gibt, die sich der neuen Gemeinschaft widersetzen, hat der Scanner ein System entwickelt, das diese Abtrünnigen in ihren nächtlichen Traumphasen identifizieren kann. Sie finden sich in einer Twilight Zone wieder. Sie werden schließlich in Trance an riesigen Totempfählen festgezurrt, in der Traum und Wirklichkeit gegeneinander kämpfen, bis sie gereinigt werden.
Die Zeit ist gekommen für ein neues Scanner Album nach fast einem Jahrzehnt. Wie es die bisherige Diksographie fast zwingend verlangt, ist "The Cosmic Race" ein Konzeptalbum geworden: Das Überleben auf der Erde ist immer schwieriger geworden, Naturkatastrophen häufen sich und militärische Konflikte haben ihren Höhepunkt erreicht, große Teile der Kontinente sind nuklear verseucht. Das Leben konzentriert sich auf wenige Großstädte, und die Enge und die Hitze in ihnen ist unerträglich geworden. Der Scanner (eine Mischung aus Mensch und Androide), holt einen Teil der Menschen, um sie zu einem bewohnbaren Planeten namens Terrion in einer anderen Galaxie zu bringen. Die lange Reise endet erfolgreich. Aber auch in der neuen Welt müssen sich die Menschen gegen Aliens und Invasoren von anderen zivilisierten Planeten wehren und fangen wieder von vorne an. Sie wollen ihre zweite Chance nutzen und es besser machen als auf der Erde. Da es aber auch Zweifler und Abtrünnige unter ihnen gibt, die sich der neuen Gemeinschaft widersetzen, hat der Scanner ein System entwickelt, das diese Abtrünnigen in ihren nächtlichen Traumphasen identifizieren kann. Sie finden sich in einer Twilight Zone wieder. Sie werden schließlich in Trance an riesigen Totempfählen festgezurrt, in der Traum und Wirklichkeit gegeneinander kämpfen, bis sie gereinigt werden.
Die Zeit ist gekommen für ein neues Scanner Album nach fast einem Jahrzehnt. Wie es die bisherige Diksographie fast zwingend verlangt, ist "The Cosmic Race" ein Konzeptalbum geworden: Das Überleben auf der Erde ist immer schwieriger geworden, Naturkatastrophen häufen sich und militärische Konflikte haben ihren Höhepunkt erreicht, große Teile der Kontinente sind nuklear verseucht. Das Leben konzentriert sich auf wenige Großstädte, und die Enge und die Hitze in ihnen ist unerträglich geworden. Der Scanner (eine Mischung aus Mensch und Androide), holt einen Teil der Menschen, um sie zu einem bewohnbaren Planeten namens Terrion in einer anderen Galaxie zu bringen. Die lange Reise endet erfolgreich. Aber auch in der neuen Welt müssen sich die Menschen gegen Aliens und Invasoren von anderen zivilisierten Planeten wehren und fangen wieder von vorne an. Sie wollen ihre zweite Chance nutzen und es besser machen als auf der Erde. Da es aber auch Zweifler und Abtrünnige unter ihnen gibt, die sich der neuen Gemeinschaft widersetzen, hat der Scanner ein System entwickelt, das diese Abtrünnigen in ihren nächtlichen Traumphasen identifizieren kann. Sie finden sich in einer Twilight Zone wieder. Sie werden schließlich in Trance an riesigen Totempfählen festgezurrt, in der Traum und Wirklichkeit gegeneinander kämpfen, bis sie gereinigt werden.
Repetitive actions, looping in your head forever. Forever? Never. Zero is endless. All flowers and fades. No permanence is ours. We are a wave, that flows to fit. And yet, “Music for a film”, a cassette tape by Swedish artists Sofie Herner aka Leda, inheres the power for perpetuity. A circulating dreamland, built on loop pedals, guitar, and tape manipulation.
The Malmö based artist, who is already famed in the global experimental, improvisational, lo-fi noise underworld for her own musical creations as well as being part of bands and projects like Enhet För Fri Musik, Källarbarnen, or Neutral, brings music made for the film “Dödfött“ - an interactive flick by director Niklas Hansson about failed online karate and caducity, screened with a stage art performance at Hypnos Theatre, Malmö, in early autumn 2022. Cinematic sounds for all the Velvets, that never awaken from their first DIY Super 8 dream.
Colorful, yet monochrome electrified and acoustic guitar melodies, monotonous, working like drones, getting all stranded in the zones. Six minimal compositions. Full of plenty, always friendly. Heavy, calm, dreamy, shredding, scratching, created for the woman of the world. And all other creatures, that seek features in unbroken repetition. As nobody keeps any of what he has, one day the eternal veil of forgetfulness will warp us all. Until that hour we dance in circles. Making karate moves, sidestepping caducity, reenacting ourselves, endless at the edges, through night and day, craving form that binds. As form is emptiness, emptiness is form itself. Welcome to the world of Leda, riff, 7/4, loop, the young, the middle aged, the old…
Tape is hand-stamped along the top, in printed card housing, with
Celebrating a year of Hagan’s critically acclaimed debut, Python Syndicate releases a limited double vinyl edition of Textures - Textures is an homage to global sounds and influences, an expression of his journey of self-discovery and reflection on his British-Ghanaian heritage, and showcases his keen love for collaboration. Recorded between London and Accra, the project draws out a range of Afro-influenced sounds while listing the collaboration of emerging talents across the vibrant landscape of contemporary African music, Aymos, Bryte, Meron T, Ayeisha Raquel, Griffit Vigo and more. Speaking on the album, Hagan says, “Making this album has taken me on a journey of mixed feelings. I’ve spotted areas of development in my production process but also fine-tuned my strengths to produce a well-rounded Hagan sound. The development of the album opened my mind to previously untapped styles and pushed me out of my comfort zones. At its core, the ‘Textures’ LP is about being proud of retaining heritage and culture through music but also exploring dual identities through fusing sounds. Embracing the power of rhythm and collaboration, ‘Textures’ is a fine benchmark for the next.” With support from DJ Mag, Crack, TRENCH, Trippin, Mixmag, GRM Daily, Pan African Music, Rinse FM, BBC 6Music and around previous singles ‘My Love’, ‘Pray For Me’ and ‘Sise Ntweni’, Textures demonstrates exactly why Hagan is widely celebrated and renowned as a fusionist - perfectly blending elements of Amapiano, Afro-house, UK Funky, Jazz, Neo-Soul, Broken beat and all that's in between with ease on the record.
Top-rated West Coast garage sounds from the vaults of maverick genius Gary S Paxton. Acknowledged classics, tantalising obscurities and several previously unheard gems, all from the original master tapes, including tracks by Limey & The Yanks, The Avengers, The Whatt Four, The Buddhas_ among many others. Vintage garage rock is only one of the many tributaries of popular music that the maverick Gary S Paxton recorded and produced in his 1960s heyday, and compared to other genres, the off-kilter genius behind 'Alley Oop' and 'Monster Mash' was hardly prolific with it. But for a producer-engineer of his repute, it was inevitable that Paxton would cross paths with the sudden surge of teenaged rock groups that emerged in the wake of the British Invasion. We've gathered the best of them on "Lost Innocence", and for any aficionado of the genre, a treat is in store. As well as a brace of acknowledged Californian punk classics present and correct for the first time direct from master tape, this rockin' little disc also shares further booty from the Garpax vaults, including some obscurities well worthy of re-appraisal, along with completely unreleased nuggets of note. Counting among the well-known are the Avengers, Bakersfield's top dogs in the punk bracket thanks to snot-nosed missives such as 'I Told You So' and the controversial 'Be A Cave Man'. Ken & the Forth Dimension and Limey & the Yanks serve up the highly regarded items 'See If I Care' and 'Guaranteed Love' respectively, with a trio of ear-opening unissued tracks from the latter as a bonus. Riverside's Whatt Four weigh in with the popular ear-burners 'Our Love Should Last Forever' and 'You're Wishin' I Was Someone Else'. And the Buddhas' title cut is still the most eloquent ode to carnal knowledge in the entire 60s punk pantheon. Compiled by genre expert Alec Palao and originally released by Big Beat/ACE on CD only a few years back, it is now available on vinyl for the first time.
An ode to nineties trance and the more introspective side of lower-mid tempo music. Drawing inspiration from the external environments that encompass Australia and the vast rural landscapes, Reflex Blue’s double LP is a reflection of migration, introspection and deeper meditative states.
Spanning across nine tracks the LP explores our deeper connection to the outside world.
Calibro 35 unleash the new OST for the second season of TV series BLANCA, to be released on limited edition LP on December 1st 2023.
Italian cinematic cult outfit CALIBRO 35 announces the release of the ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK of the second season of BLANCA, the TV series produced by Lux Vide in collaboration with Rai Fiction, broadcast in prime time on Rai 1 starting from Thursday, October 5th 2023 and directed byJan Maria Michelini and Michele Soavi. The soundtrack will be released worldwide on limited edition, crystal clear LP next December 1st via Milan based label Record Kicks.
The new thrilling episodes of Blanca Season 2 follows the success of the first season, that was aired worldwide on Netflix, M6 France and Telecinco Spain. Accompanying the journey is once again the original music of CALIBRO 35 the Italian "cult" cinematic combo active for over 15 years and with a fan base that includes superstars such as Dr.Dre, Jay-z and Damon Albarn. Made up of 20 tracks in total, the OST was entirely composed by CALIBRO 35 that created the sound universe of BLANCA: an impressive and choral work, which has engaged all the components of the band for a long time, giving the them the opportunity to develop a very vast soundscape.
"It's the first time that we deal with the creation of a 'season 2' and we discovered that the creative process can be very different" Calibro 35 says. "In the first season, we had to build from scratch a sound and musical world consistent with the idea that Jan had (Michielini, director and showrunner of the series); this time, however, we had to develop that already existing world further, in order to describe the new stories and new different characters of the second season. There had to be undiscovered musical territories, that forced us to step out of our comfort zone." The result is that on the 20 tracks of the ost, the heavy dose of Calibro's signature funk grooves of tracks such as "Badanti, "Carignano", "Cambio di Stagione" or "Sampierdarena" is mixed with more moody and soulful tunes, world music, opera and atmospheres à la John Carpenter. Amongst the album's highlights worth definitely a mention the Opening and End titles that feature the voices of Arya, MEI and Tahnee Rodriguez. Essential contribution to the recordings were made by Francesca Biliotti - mezzo soprano of the Monteverdi Choir, Valeria Sturba - exceptional multi-instrumentalist of the avant-garde music group OoopopoiooO, Rahma Hafsi and Elisa Zoot.
Described by Rolling Stone as "the most fascinating, retro-maniac and genuine thing that has happened to Italy in the past few years", Milan-based Calibro 35 enjoy a worldwide reputation as one of the coolest bands around. Active since 2007, during their long career they were sampled by Dr. Dre on Compton ("One Shot One Kill" feat. Snoop Dogg), Jay Z ("Picasso Baby"), The Child of Lov & Damon Albarn ("One Day") and Demigodz ("The Summer Of Sam"). They played major venues and festivals all over Europe and as unique musicians they collaborated with, amongst others, PJ Harvey, Mike Patton, John Parish, Stewart Copeland and Rokia Traoré. The BLANCA OST is the latest of many activities concerning cinema for CALIBRO 35: the band has been completely immersed in the world of soundtracks since the very beginning and they have recently worked on other productions as well, both as Calibro and individually. Last June, the band released their 8th studio album, NOUVELLES AVENTURES, recorded in Naples at Auditorium Novecento. With the new LP the group has made full use of their knowledge and resources, refined and enriched over the years, back to making "Calibro's music": a unique mix of funk, progressive rock, alternative jazz and wide-spectrum cinematic music the public has known them for in fifteen years of career.
This music unites our common love for the essence of music, which contains harmonic structures and emotionality without borders." — Musique Infinie
Musique Infinie, the new duo consisting of Noémi Büchi and Feldermelder, is rooted in a shared desire to intertwine two composing veins, and to merge them into a new, massive core. While Büchi combined her background in classical and electro-acoustic music with a bold approach to composition on her highly acclaimed debut album 'Matter' (-OUS, 2022), multi-disciplinary musician and artist Feldermelder has been expanding his artistic practice into unexplored realms for over 20 years. Mutually, they've challenged themselves to fully engage on an artistic exploration aimed at making use of the elementary forces that unfold between them.
Their debut album, simply titled 'I', is a musical hybridization. The compositions make use of simple motives that are radically transformed by expanding them into intricate structures and fantastic layerings. The overcoming of genres with eclectic elements from classical music, jazz, film music and traditional music, combined with the vocabulary of experimental electronic music, complete the vertical plunge into this thickness. The emerging pieces lead into a paradoxical world, both disturbing and euphoric. Pieces that don't give in to calculations and expectations, but progress through ruptures and repetitions. The richness of the compositions and their analog, acoustic and orchestral character reflect the density of the world with its violence, its decadence, its fragility, but also its power, its ingenuity and its beauty.
Composer and sound artist Noémi Büchi creates electronic, symphonic maximalism. Her music is defined by a delicate synthesis of textural rhythms and electroacoustic-orchestral abstraction. She explores the potential of consonance and dissonance, contrasts rhythmic physicality with disruption and playfully emphasizes irregularities, creating an expansive listening experience marked by detail and elevation.
Feldermelder is a polymathic creative whose artistry spans composition, sound design, installation and code. He is co-founder of -OUS Records and an active member of Encor.studio, a collective specialising in creating immersive audio-visual installations. Through his work, he explores the idea of secrecy and its impact on our lives, using music and sound to create a thought-provoking and immersive experience for his audience.
Late Night Tales reissues the classic and hard-to-find
‘Late Night Tales: Jamiroquai’, compiled by none other
than Jay Kay himself. The 10th edition of what is now
a classic series of compilations was originally released
20 years ago, and hasn’t been available on vinyl for
over 15 years. A blissful collection of soul, disco, jazz,
rare groove, and funk, this collection is an electrifying
journey through the aural influences of one of the UK’s
most seminal jazz bands.
Jay Kay showcases a wealth and breadth of inspiration
that wouldn’t be amiss on the late-night dancefloors
of the Loft (or Giant Steps, for that matter). From The
Pointer Sisters’ uplifting and soulful ‘Happiness’ and
jazz funk legend Johnny ‘Smith’ Hammond’s ‘Fantasy’
to the anthemic ‘Stay Free’ by Ashford & Simpson and
mellifluous ‘Music Of The Earth' by Patrice Rushen,
these two discs form a rite of passage into the creative
mind of a true musical legend.
Detroit-based label Choose Better Friends is a new outlet that is already mighty impressive after just three releases. This one lands quickly after the second from Jaco Matthews and it offers more traditionally included Motor City house sounds. Ryan McCray opens with weighty but dusty drums and grainy sustained chords that lock you into a trance straight off the bat, especially once the low-slung bass and steamy vocals arrive. From there, the wooden knocks and muffled kicks of 'What It Is' are paired with some nice dreamy chords and the flipside offers more zoned-out basement lushness with 'The Tide' and the heavier, more raw 'Rushin.' Essential.
Temple, Bassey, MacLaine and now, Hurt; in a world of Shirleys, the name Sophia Ruby Katz has chosen for her music is perhaps prophetic as it captures her stunningly emotive vocal approach. And whilst Shirley Hurt might be the perfect nom de plume for the creative Toronto-based artist, it’s her self-titled debut album which positions her as protagonist of her own universe.
Traversing sonic landscapes, Shirley Hurt’s vocals ebb and flow like lyrical Ley lines tracking the contours of her own well-travelled map. By the age of 18, Hurt had travelled extensively, having lived in upwards of 20 different apartments and houses, as a result never really feeling “at home” anywhere. At this age was when Hurt found herself in New York, dipping her toes into various scenes and musical realms. The first and only place she ever felt at home, and a partial home-base for her, she travelled between Toronto and New York until the age of 26.When the project she was working on in New York reached a dead-end she returned West, moving in with musicians Harrison Forman (Hieronymus Harry, Zones) and Patrick Lefler (Roy, Possum). Being surrounded by their improvising at all hours, a new approach emerged. “Harrison is a virtuosic guitar player, and I hadn't picked up a guitar in any serious way since I was 16,” she says, “by osmosis I started playing again for fun.” Without agenda, the process grew organically from there.
Hurt and Forman decided to travel across the US and Canada in a trailer for half a year, with the entire album written in the final months of their trip. Hurt had been writing loose ideas here and there but felt blocked creatively. When the pair reached Berkley, they wound up house-sitting for a tuned-in friend who recommended she pray, in a very direct way, to remove the block. “I took her advice and to my surprise it worked. The album was conceptualized and finished within a couple of months.” Shapeshifting in tone and phrasing, Hurt’s music alchemizes the furthest corners of experimental indie folk, pop, and country into a singular sound with elegant unpredictability.
Whilst Shirley Hurt’s lyrical and structural ideas may have emerged on the road, the album was self-produced and recorded at Joseph Shabason (The War on Drugs)’s Aytche studio in Toronto’s West End. It was engineered by Nathan Vanderwielen and Chris Shannon (Bart), and Hurt enlisted collaborators Jason Bhattacharya, Nick Dourado, Patrick Lefler, and Harrison Forman to hone her vision. “I wasn’t sure what was going to happen with the songs until we returned to Toronto,” she recalls. “Joseph and I had been talking about working together after sending across some demos and Jason happened to recommend his studio at the exact same time, so everything came together naturally at that point.”
Whilst her most recent adventures may have seen Shirley Hurt bound for Texas as an official SXSW artist (hand-picked by Gorilla Vs Bear to perform at their own showcase), she currently resides in her native Canada, more specifically rural Ontario, close to friends and family, and is already working on her second album. The ties to lineage are interwoven in the fabric of the music. Hurt’s mother, artist Leala Hewak, instilled a lust for life and innate value of creativity in her from a young age as she explored the role of gallery owner, vintage jewellery show host, mid-century modern furniture expert, real estate agent, painter. Hurt’s father, a civil litigation lawyer and new-wave obsessed music lover with an extensive vinyl collection, introduced Hurt to a wide-range of artists at a young age such as Nina Hagen, Laurie Anderson, Tom Tom Club, and endless others.
In her video for ‘Problem Child’ Hurt’s grandmother walks her through a generationally revered pie-making process. One would be tempted to hear this, and other songs, as autobiographical. Yet, Hurt’s lyrics are rarely pulled from her relationships or personal history––at least not consciously. Rather, they arise from somewhere less tangible or defined. “Lyrics tend to come to me when I am doing non-musical things - washing dishes, brushing my dogs, walking to the grocery store. I have a lot of voice memos on my phone and half-filled notebooks and when I hear something, I have to stop what I'm doing to get the idea down. Usually it’s bits and pieces. It's rare a full song comes to me in one go, but it's great when they do, and those are often my favourites.”
Carving out a space of her own in an all-encompassing universe, Shirley Hurt is the introduction to a long artistic story, and if the journey so far is anything to go by, it will be stippled with evermore unpredictable chapters.
Led by the legendary pianist and composer Chick Corea - the venerated 27-time Grammy winner and National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master - The Elektric Band stormed onto the jazz scene in the mid-1980s, making an immediate and lasting impact on the genre. With their electrifying performances and innovative blend of jazz fusion, the group produced a series of albums that set the bar for excellence in contemporary jazz. Featuring a core lineup of virtuosic musicians - John Patitucci on bass, Dave Weckl on drums, Eric Marienthal on saxophone and Frank Gambale on guitar - the group created a dynamic and electrifying sound that came to define the jazz fusion style. Their collective musicianship was on full display on each album, as they seamlessly blended complex compositions with captivating improvisations. With each outing, the band explored new sonic territories, incorporating elements of funk, Latin and Afro music, and pop sensibilities. Their 5-album studio discography is a masterful tapestry of multi-layered music, showcasing their creativity, innovation, and musicianship. A restlessly creative, eternally youthful and uncommonly generous spirit, Armando Anthony “Chick” Corea left behind an incredibly rich legacy of recorded music when he passed away on February 9, 2021. The music of the Elektric Band continues to inspire and influence musicians to this day, cementing their legacy as one of the most important and iconic jazz fusion bands of all time
Official reissue from the catalog of legendary UMM Records. Sub Authority Records is back with a true anthem of all House music lovers: ""Desafinado"" from Rhythm 3 Request.
This project draws on their unwavering knowledge of dancefloor culture and the quality of individual sounds. An ode to the legendary imprint of old school and house music, that builds infectious arrangements with ease before falling into an irresistible four-on-the-floor club sensation.
"Night Swim" is the debut LP from Bellofatto & Gentile, a collaboration that was founded on the soccer fields of Austin, Texas during the spring of 2019. The duo of Giovanni Bellofatto (an alias of Jesse Edwards) ) & Dan Gentile initially started exploring the melodies and textures of Italian dream house, but those experiments soon evolved to include modular synthesizers, breakbeats, and left-field samples.
Bellofatto's work dates back to the 90's and has credits on albums by Jessica Bailiff (Kranky), Odd Nosdam (Anticon), and His Name Is Alive. In the early 00's, he pioneered acoustic / electronic territories with his psychedelic project Red Morning Chorus. His forthcoming solo LP "The Otherworld" is due for release on Vancouver's Pacific Rhythm under the moniker C Thru. With 20 years of DJing under his belt, Gentile released his first house music productions as Time Zones in 2019 on Mystery Zone Records, with subsequent singles on Bay Area Disco and Moiss Music. He now lives in San Francisco, where he works as a journalist and creates visual art using a modular video synthesizer.
The legend John Beltran provides mixing treatments on half of "Night Swim" that will be released on Prins Thomas's balearic imprint Horisontal Mambo in 2023.
In 2022 we journeyed to the center of the earth with Agartha, Lasha Chkhaidze's first album. This time we go the opposite direction, and fly towards the outer edge of the atmosphere.
Atmos, the latest offering of the young and talented Georgian artist, sees him explore the ether. Subtle and intricate layers are weaved together on the course of six tracks. This ambient album offers a completely different artistic direction compared to his previous work. Where melancholia and piano dominated Agartha, we are throughout Atmos taken into an otherworldly environment. The LP’s atmospheric undertone combined with its glitchier elements brings it into a lightly psychedelic dimension. With its really beautiful soundscapes and subdued intricate ideas, Atmos will undoubtedly please listeners of finely written ambient.
Lasha Chkhaidez is a gifted musician capable of crafting evocative music, The Intergalactic Institute for Sound is glad to present his deeply immersive experience to the public.
Lucy Railton trusts in the nuance of her own creative instincts on an intensely modern, quietly radical new album, her second for Modern Love.
Following her 2018 solo debut »Paradise 94’« and countless collaborations in the time since, Railton’s diverse musical circles here bleed into each other, creating an insoluble testament to a lifelong pursuit of sound. The multi-instrumentalist further articulates her own tonal register, embracing her solo strengths and trusting the process to reveal vulnerable and compelling emotional facets through a fluid mix of composition, and pure expression.
On the simplest level, »Corner Dancer« is a record that revels in the momentum of creation. Through a range of approaches, Railton gradually loosens her grip and allows her identities to expose themselves; cut to the bone, sinew and spirit of music making. Reaching outside tried and tested zones, she lands at a charged space characterised by unmetered pacing and an embrace of imperfection, using cello, viella (a medieval cello), Buchla, 808, a fan, synths, horse hair whips, a hand held harp and her own voice, across 8 tracks that arc from an opening sequence of ruptured asymmetries, to something bordering the sublime on »Blush Study’« the album’s masterful closing flourish.
In between, Railton invokes psychoacoustic, heady spins and repetitions, while also allowing space for live performance, a mode to which she feels most attuned, and here captured best on »Held in Paradise« (her violin debut) and »Rib Cage«.
Collapsing boundaries, Railton harnesses a lifetime of formal training in order to patiently trace more ambiguous, intimate and sometimes deviant shapes, operating to a fuzzed logic that loops back to themes with an ingenious underlying dramaturgy of energies, dismantling the form from the inside out, in a way that bends through feeling, rather than design.
With J Jazz volume 4, the BBE J Jazz Bullet Train continues its journey traversing the expansive landscape of modern Japanese jazz. Volume 4 is the latest in the universally praised compilation series exploring the best, rarest and most innovative jazz to emerge from the Far East. Please take your seats for a first-class ticket to J Jazz central. This latest station stop off is with the famed Nippon Columbia label, one of the biggest labels in Japan, whose jazz output embraces every possible style imaginable. Focussing on the key years 1968-1981, J Jazz volume 4 sees compilers Tony Higgins and Mike Peden dig even deeper into their record collections and pull-out tracks that span styles ranging from solo to big band, jazz classical interpretations and heavy jazz rock, to febrile post-bop, white hot samba fusion, and modal psychedelic wig-outs. J Jazz volume 4 features icons such as drum master Takeo Moriyama, keyboard magi Hiromasa Suzuki, Fumio Itabashi, and Masahiko Satoh, and guitar wizards Kazumi Watanabe and Kiyoshi Sugimoto, alongside big band maestros and innovators Nobuo Hara and his Sharps and Flats, and Toshiyuki Miyama’s New Herd. Thunderous basslines nestle alongside glistening runs of electric piano, bubbling synths and air-tight drumming as the heavy psychedelic modal blues of Jiro Inagaki flows with the infectious samba grooves of Takashi Mizuhashi featuring Herbie Hancock; Shigeharu Mukai’s fusion funk epics take the music to another level and Mikio Masuda’s driving keyboard rhythms brings the heat to an incendiary dancefloor zone.
Jerome Hill returns with his 5th full EP on the label to warm you up for winter and it’s maybe stylistically, his widest offering yet.
A joyous mash of influences collide and Hill spits them out of the blender with some typically unexpected curveballs.
From the strikingly moody break beat acid of The Warning, to the 8 minute long extended Disco workout of ‘Harlseden Shuffle’. Then on the flip side, a reliably gnarly wedge of Technoey Acid House in ‘Combustion Zone’ and the EP culminates with a tip of the hat to mid nineties House with the rumbling bass and catchy percussion of ‘House Thing’.
Its obvious Jerome’s having fun with this EP and hopefully you will too !
Two leading lights of UK house join forces for a special collaboration which delivers every bit as much as you would expect from anything with the Jimpster & Crackazat stamp on. Having been introduced to Crackazat’s vocal and lyric writing on his acclaimed Evergreen LP from last year Jimpster was keen to team up to bring some of that flavour to his own sound. Born out of a desire to stretch outside of their comfort zones, and with a mutual respect for each others productions, the Natural Child EP brings us two original vocal tracks and two dub versions covering a spectrum of moods from classic soulful to deep, atmospheric, contemporary house.
Opening track Natural Child leads the charge with Crackazat’s trademark jazz-influenced piano part, swirling moog lines and vocal being complimented with Jimpster’s punchy drums and warm, rounded bassline. The result is a spacious and deceptively simple track which will wrap you up in its warm confines.
Next up we have a completely different take on Natural Child which ups the BPM and adds a more live, percussive and rolling vibe which will no doubt get the house dancers throwing down.
My Harmony comes next with its slick and soulful sound which draws inspiration from golden era NYC sounds of Blaze and Louie Vega while Nick Cohen’s live bass brings a bounce to the chunky, shuffling house beats.
Closing out the EP we have a dub version of My Harmony which loops up the Rhodes part, strips back the groove and adds layers of FX and arpeggiating synths resulting in a heads-down deep and soulful track to warm up the dance floor.
Repress!
Veteran Newcastle Drum & Bass producer Tyrone makes his debut on The North Quarter with Hurt Index, a bespoke six-track statement piece showing off a new dimension to his sound.
While writing Hurt Index on and off over a two year period, Tyrone challenged himself to step out of his comfort zone and to find a tone that balances his signature sound with that of The North Quarter. The end result is a collection of intricate hi-tech funk of the highest pedigree and a project of a more weathered artist, who has grown and expanded his repertoire.
Flying Objects is the new collaborative project from indie heavyweights Smoke DZA and Flying Lotus - featuring Black Thought (The Roots/Jimmy Fallon), Estelle, Conway The Machine, and more. Smoke DZA is a popular independent rapper from New York City who has worked with Big K.R.I.T., Wiz Khalifa, Action Bronson and ASAP Rocky among others, and is a founding member of the Smokers Club. His album, Rolling Stoned was awarded the High Times Doobie Award for Hip Hop album of the year for 2011. Other popular album releases include Rugby Thompson (produced by Harry Fraud), Dream.Zone.Achieve (features from Cam'ron, Joey Bada$$, Ab-Soul, Wiz Khalifa, Curren$y), and Don't Smoke Rock (produced by Pete Rock). Flying Lotus is a producer, DJ, filmmaker and rapper from Los Angeles who has worked with Kendrick Lamar, Danny Brown, Mac Miller, Chance The Rapper, Blu and more. He is also the founder of the record label Brainfeeder. He has released seven studio albums. His debut project 1983 dropped in 2006 on Stones Throw Records and his next six projects all came out on Warp Records - to critical acclaim.
Underground house and disco maestro Mark E makes a welcome return to Delusions following hot on the heels of last years Leaning Into The Light EP. The revered producer has been steadily doing his thing for almost two
decades now, racking up releases on Running Back, Golf Channel and Spectral Sound to name just a few. His sound is a unique, sublime vision of US deep house which transcends the dance floor and he proves his salt once again on the four new tracks that make up this stunning EP.
Title track Enchantment Under The Sea sets the mood with a minimal, low slung drum machine groove laying the foundation for layers of Rhodes and synth chords conjuring up images of a sub-aquatic vision of depth and beauty. Up next we have Zone Tonight, the epitome of a late night city scape driving track utilising heavily saturated drums, subtle acid line, distant piano melody and moody Detroit pads to draw you into its deep confines.
Flipping over we have Vertigo which treads a similar sonic path as Mark effortlessly fuses rich harmonies and entrancing melodies, inviting listeners to lose themselves in its depths. Closing out this blissful journey we have Bodymap which drops the BPM a little more with simple understated drums, melancholic string line and pulsating bassline.
The Zone Tonight EP is a testament to Mark E's unparalleled prowess in crafting immersive, uncompromising and emotive soundscapes for your aural pleasure. He also created the original artwork for this release.
First pressing of this album on White vinyl is now completely sold out via the band's wonderful fanbase. This Red Vinyl version is the first to receive a fully official commercial release.
To celebrate Ruts DC will be playing a headline tour across the UK between May 10th and 28th 2023.
'A resolute return to form, angry and articulate but without exploiting past glories.' Classic Rock
'Ruts DC continue to forge their own path, Counterculture is the natural progression from Music Must Destroy – the strength in the lyrics, the subtlety of the arrangements; Ruts DC remain a force to be reckoned with.' Louder Than War
'Drums and Bass building the defence wall. Guitar and whatever else lobbed in stun/attack mode. That is Ruts DC. That is all you really need to know.' Vive Le Rock
In apartheid-era South Africa, gospel music provided solace and served as a tool for covert communication to circumvent the censorship of the settler regime. By the 2010s, South African gospel, deeply ingrained in the soul of Soweto, assumed a new role—as a heartfelt cry against persistent failures and shortcomings, a cry mourning a South Africa that never materialized.
A new South Africa needed a new gospel sound.
In 2016, nine young men from different parts of Diepkloof, a celebrated neighbourhood brimming with talent within Soweto's sprawling township, came together to form the sound of a new South Africa under the name Diepkloof United Voice.
Diepkloof United Voice's music has gone viral multiple times on TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook, garnering between 60,000 to 2 million views. The comments section displays flag emojis from Brazil to India, showcasing the global reach of their music.
This album was recorded on site in Soweto, in an abandoned classroom of Lebowa Elementary School in Diepkloof Zone 3, where the choir rehearsed for years. Amid rolling blackouts, Diepkloof United Voice poured their heart, soul, and vocal chords into their debut record, combining classic South Africa gospel, Soweto's own kasi soul, American blues, and Zulu flavor, to present the contemporary gospel sound of a changing South Africa.
The promise of a new South Africa might finally be realized, as Diepkloof United Voice guarantees the country's future is guided by the truth, uttered with each gasp of breath from their inimitable voices.
In apartheid-era South Africa, gospel music provided solace and served as a tool for covert communication to circumvent the censorship of the settler regime. By the 2010s, South African gospel, deeply ingrained in the soul of Soweto, assumed a new role—as a heartfelt cry against persistent failures and shortcomings, a cry mourning a South Africa that never materialized.
A new South Africa needed a new gospel sound.
In 2016, nine young men from different parts of Diepkloof, a celebrated neighbourhood brimming with talent within Soweto's sprawling township, came together to form the sound of a new South Africa under the name Diepkloof United Voice.
Diepkloof United Voice's music has gone viral multiple times on TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook, garnering between 60,000 to 2 million views. The comments section displays flag emojis from Brazil to India, showcasing the global reach of their music.
This album was recorded on site in Soweto, in an abandoned classroom of Lebowa Elementary School in Diepkloof Zone 3, where the choir rehearsed for years. Amid rolling blackouts, Diepkloof United Voice poured their heart, soul, and vocal chords into their debut record, combining classic South Africa gospel, Soweto's own kasi soul, American blues, and Zulu flavor, to present the contemporary gospel sound of a changing South Africa.
The promise of a new South Africa might finally be realized, as Diepkloof United Voice guarantees the country's future is guided by the truth, uttered with each gasp of breath from their inimitable voices.
For that new release, we will take you on a trip from the South to the North of Europe.
On the A-Side, Sardinia-based producer ProOne79, known for bomb tracks he released on labels such as Circus Recordings and Kneaded Pains, delivers two catchy acid tunes, influenced by the Chicago and Detroit classic sounds.
On the B-side, Glasgow-based producer Fear-E, head of the label Posh End Music and responsible of some killer EPs on Dark Entries, Zone or Super Rythm Trax, gives us three techno cuts for the floor, with a totally disturbed 303 synth.
Five sick tracks for you, acid junkies !
“A piece of music never truly comes to An end. Revisiting a theme illustrates this idea that life goes on.” These are the words of Wayne Shorter, uttered in 2018 upon the release of Emanon, his final opus. On this record, the octogenarian uses dusky hues to shade in the passions of his youth - drawing and science-fiction, as well as the causes he has defended all his life - the fight against ecological upheaval and structural racism. This sentiment did not fail to resonate with Julien Lourau, who has reached a stage in life where he has begun to look back over certain pages written by the man he has always considered one of the masters of his trade. Five years later, this Parisian native has also chosen to revisit his glory days, offering reworked versions of specific tracks composed by his titular elder throughout the 80s. “When I play this music, I find myself back in my teenage bedroom. These are my standards, and they remind me of autumn in Rambouillet.” At that time, after practising his scales, Julien would also play Dungeons & dragons, and immerse himself in SF as well as heroic fantasy - epic influences which are not without a certain connection to the dreamworlds Shorter conjured up, as another fan of landscapes beyond the grasp of reality.
This album features four themes taken from Atlantis, which came out in 1985, and two from Joy Ryder, released three years later. To these, he has added a composition penned at around the same time for Sportin’ Life, the penultimate LP by Weather Report. This is rounded off by a tune taken
from Native Dancer, the record which, ten years earlier, in 1975, brought together this saxophonist who learnt his trade alongside Art Blakey, before joining Miles’ second quintet, and Brazilian Milton Nascimento.
“Between Native Dancer and Atlantis, Shorter did not release anything under his own name, but he took the time and care to really perfect his writing. Upon his return, he injected a very Brazilian form of subtlety into his compositions, especially rhythmically. And from a harmonic point of view, these themes are extremely sophisticated, and reveal truly singular colours. In fact, he decided to display the score as if it constituted the liner notes of Atlantis.”
Julien Lourau is a fan of every Wayne Shorter era, from his Blue Note days, where Mr Gone defined the bases of a truly unique repertoire, all the way to his final quartet - a reference like no other. He decided to focus on this “highly electric” period, which is not necessarily Shorter’s best known, nor his most widely appreciated - despite being a unanimous reference, Shorter has nonetheless never had a direct descendent. In Lourau’s line of sight there lies a desire to focus on typically South American tonic accents which characterise this repertoire, twinned with the ambition to switch up their actual sound “by attempting to open up onto a production highly influenced by eighties fusion". However, he admits that modifying the structures of these most unique of worlds constituted a fresh challenge. “There’s this labyrinthine harmonic system where you’ve no idea how it holds together, but where it’s actually impossible to touch the slightest element without the whole edifice wavering. It is in fact a very difficult thing to achieve!”
In order to successfully transcribe all this creativity free of obstacles, Julien Lourau once again called upon the help of Mathieu Debordes. From January 2023 onwards, Mathieu endeavoured to break down all the musical elements, on paper, before creating any actual music. The record was therefore constructed on the faith of these scores, without necessarily transiting through a creative residency - just two live gigs, to make sure the setup worked. Besides Mathieu Debordes and his synthesisers, Julien Lourau has assembled an ad hoc team by his side. On the bass, according to the track, we can hear erstwhile companion Sylvain Daniel or a new acolyte on the fretless bass, Joan Eche Puig.
Stéphane Edouard, on percussion, even dives headfirst into an unlikely proto-rap of sorts, on Pearl On The Half Shell (where, on the original version, Bobby McFerrin adjusted his interventions in a rather madcap style). Aesthete and drummer Jim Hart as well as pianist Leo Jassef also figure on this release - both were present on previous project devoted to label
CTI. “At sixteen, I wanted to sound like Michael Brecker rather than Ben Webster - that was equated with modernity in those days”, adds Julien with a smile, as for him, all this rings out a little like a logical next step, a joyful immersion into the fountain of youth. And if, for this record, he plays the soprano more than ever, the saxophone Shorter set in his sights on, he never tries to replicate an unattainable ideal note by note. What would be the point?
“Wayne Shorter is not just a saxophonist’s saxophonist. In fact, I don’t know a single person who has risen to challenge of his solos. I have not done it myself either, but on the other hand, I have retained a lot of his phraseology. His way of approaching the instrument reveals a more evanescent language, a work on colour and shape. Keeping this in mind has allowed me to gravitate towards certain elements, that in hindsight, I find echoes of in my work, even in Groove Gang.” Shorter etches out these phrases, creating a groove within which Lourau had traced subtle punctuation, managing, from a highly written base, to create fresh apertures, promises of a great escape. Emblematic of this standpoint, his regal version of Ponte de Areia, originally a wonderful dialogue between Milton Nascimento and Wayne Shorter. Here, the Frenchman takes liberties with the original melodies, without ever growing distant from the original spirit, extending one section with delicacy, offering a rubato development and then a groove “like a little suite”. Julien Lourau also renews with an accomplice from last century, Magic Malik, who lends his high-pitched vocals to the track. Though they had not recorded together for more than twenty years, the two of them got on as if they had only ceased collaborating yesterday, everything flowed naturally. The track was wrapped up in just one take, much like other themes, such as opener Who Goes There where the flautist deploys smooth, enchanted and smoky wisps.
Fundamentally, reflecting of the sleeve which features a child playing with a ball, image that could symbolise the sun just as much as the moon, Julien Lourau manages to translate the ambiguous candour which characterizes Shorter’s work - solar and crepuscular at the same time, that of a visionary and poet definitively situated outside of all chronology, but with whom Julien shares surprising and ‘timely’ coincidences. Shorter was born August 25, 1933, the same day as Julien’s father, “if we take time zones into account”, and who died on Lourau’s birthday, March 2, 2023. Should we take this as a random fact? Or could we not see here the sign of a destiny connecting the agnostic Frenchman to the man who, as a fervent Buddhist, believed in the transmission of his spiritual flow ?
The fledgling Deeppa label is back with a seventh sublime sound, this time from Eloi who brings plenty of fresh ideas and creative sound designs to four tasteful cuts. 'You'll Keep Going' is a lush late-night fusion of noodling basslines and jazzy chords with soulful vocals and 'Karma' then gets even more horizontal in balmy chords and lazy grooves. There is a little more bite to 'Manage Your Temper' but it is still a super cuddly house sound. On the flip, 'Mental Game' offers hazy late-night reveries and 'Confusion' is a swirling mix of warm and soulful house. 'A Few More Breaks Should Do The Trick' is a jazzy and zoned-out closer. What an EP.
Lonefront's new label Uncoiled returns with a four track offering featuring two collaborations with Dallas-based producer Decoder. The joint tracks are bookended by explorations in spectral tonality and employ subtle stereo-phonics with euclidean modulations to deliver a techno purity redux. Within, Decoder takes the lead on 'Null' a spacious yet jacking groove fit for peak-time. '56' defies Colundi convention with a monotonic motif before yielding with soft, undulating drones and harmonically-rich stabs.
'Bruno & The Birds' is an album by Jullian Gomes that dives into the depths of the internal battles we face and the courage required to break free from our comfort zones. With forward thinking production and introspective messages in the music, the album takes listeners on a transformative journey of self-discovery. Throughout the album, Jullian Gomes skilfully weaves a narrative centred around the character, Bruno, who serves as a metaphor for the struggles and conflicts we encounter within ourselves. The songs delve into the inner demons that individuals face, representing the personal challenges and doubts that affect us all. The album is thought-provoking and emotive, resonating with the universal themes of self-doubt, fear, and the quest for personal growth.
With its dynamic soundscapes and diverse musical influences, 'Bruno & The Bird' invites listeners to embark on their own introspective voyage. Jullian Gomes combines elements of electronic soul and jazz, and pushes the ideas of traditional house music, creating a rich and immersive sonic experience.
The album features the likes of Jordan Arts, Sio, Kuniyuki Takahashi, Sabrina Chyld, Dwson, NLite, Robin Fassie & KJM Cornetist which all add their unique touch to this soul-stirring album.
Here's the thing about ill peach: this band exists because they are too weird to not exist. The seed of ill peach was first planted in the recording studios of New York City where Pat Morrissey and Jess Corazza were working together as professional songwriters, collaborating with artists like Icona Pop, SZA, Weezer, Pharrell, Big Freedia, and others. Then came the day they were offered their own publishing deal. Cool, right? Well, about that: "Everyone kept saying, 'The stuff that you're writing is slightly too left-of-center-weirdo stuff," remembers Morrissey. "Why don't you start your own project?" Thus ill peach, a pop band with a punk streak and a taste for both the rotten and the sweet, with an approach to making music that goes something like: "Do you want to pick up a guitar and do you want to be on this water jug and we'll record it on the iPhone and create some weird drum pattern?" Following a series of well-received EPs on their own Pop Can Records (a record label and artist collective Morrissey and close collaborator Jesse Schuster run with friends), a digital single for Hardly Art's 15th anniversary series, and some colorful music videos that crystallized the band's visual aesthetic along with their sound, ill peach's "weirdo stuff" comes to fruition on first full-length THIS IS NOT AN EXIT: a collection of anthemic songs built out of bright pop and gritty experimental elements (Morrissey names the sculptural use of distortion on the final albums by Low as an inspiration), punctuated with hooky choruses ready to be screamed along to in the safety of your own bedroom or with a bunch of friends at one of ill peach's intense live shows. If ill peach first blossomed in New York, it took quarantine in Los Angeles for the project to ripen. The end of the world turned out to be what ill peach needed to get real with themselves. "It helped us creatively to zone in and removed us from the industry side of things to where we could just be like: this is our new identity, let's jump with both feet." THIS IS NOT AN EXIT's title is a reflection of something Corazza realized during a period of personal and familial crises "I kept walking into buildings and I'd try to exit somewhere and the sign would be like, 'This is not an exit,'" she says. "It just felt like a metaphor for a hopeful thing-don't give up yet." This combination of hope and anxiety is all over THIS IS NOT AN EXIT, reflected in a sonic palette (Alternative! Electronica! Indie! Radio pop! Coldplay!) as eclectic as it is unpretentious. Ultimately, THIS IS NOT AN EXIT is a record about healing, a process often spoken about in New Age-y terms but one that in reality can be really confusing and, yes, weird. But it is the beautiful strangeness of being alive that ill peach capture so well on THIS IS NOT AN EXIT.
MAGENTA MARBLE VINYL[46,18 €]
Planet P Project is Tony Carey's pseudonym for his science-fiction themed progressive rock side venture from his more pop-oriented rock releases. Its first three albums, Planet P, Pink World, and Go Out Dancing, Part I (1931) were released in 1983, 1984, and 2005, respectively, and the first two saw a fair amount of MTV video airplay. Planet P's most well known singles were Why Me?, a sweeping, energetic romp about outer space and isolation, and the downbeat Static. Go Out Dancing, Part I (1931) is the first of a trilogy; part two, titled Go Out Dancing, Part II (Levittown) was released in May 2008 and Go Out Dancing Part III (Out in the Rain) was released in 2011.
The visionary French musician stays true, in this third compendium too, to his path of planetary asceticism. A new treasure chest of secrets reveals to us the same spirituality of total experimentation, by balancing the universe and the inner soul. In Taste The Fullness Of Life Ariel builds his symphonic pillars toward the cosmos, eternal architectures that always smell of Indian fragrances. The music always communicates a state of full grace, spreading balms of bliss. An unprecedented whispered narrating voice, evident especially in Spiritual Chanson D'Esprit, is embellished with textures of harmonic bells, tropical flutes, spacey harmoniums and drones of mystical light. In the recordings of Going Inward, also made on the occasion of a Tantric workshop, Kalma oscillates between tribal electronic dances, metalic almost industrial rhythms, but then always falls back in a comfort zone made of desert carpets of synths and baths of sound (gong/bells). Harmonica Galactica crowns interestellar dreams with unscrupulous drum-machine gears and pulsing saxes, superb use of VCS3 with arabesque and Schulzian overtones, and suave touches of fingerpicking guitar with freak vibes typical of psych-folk.
Video Age make breezy and timeless songs that are so ineable, they can only be the result of a decades-long friendship and songwriting partnership. Across four albums, Ross Farbe and Ray Micarelli have gleefully worn their influences on their sleeve, writing inviting tunes that reference sounds ranging from disco to pop and indie rock. On their latest LP, Away From The Castle, the New Orleans duo have strayed from nostalgia and instead have honed their own unique musicality, making songs that sound like themselves with a taste of inspiration from classic singer-songwriters of the 60s and 70s. The album is a testament to the possibilities that come from getting out of your comfort zone, the freedom of writing vulnerably and unselfconsciously, and the joys of getting to work with your closest companions. After releasing and eventually touring their critically-acclaimed third album Pleasure Line in 2020, Farbe and Micarelli sought inspiration for their next project through collaboration. They worked with Drugdealer on his album Hiding In Plain Sight, Micarelli gigged throughout New Orleans' jazz and blues scenes, and Farbe recorded local artists at his home studio, most recently producing Esther Rose's new album Safe to Run. Feeling refreshed, they rented a cabin in Eunice, Louisiana with touring members Nick Corson and Duncan Troast, where they spent eight days in August 2022 jamming, cooking and writing together. Through this process, Video Age have made their best collection of tracks to date by perfectly alchemizing their influences and experiences into a record still tinged with nostalgia, but moving towards a more succinct and authentic voice. Away From The Castle is a document of a band having fun and rediscovering their love for making music together, but it's also their most honest and personal work yet-Video Age distilled to its purest form.
Video Age make breezy and timeless songs that are so ineable, they can only be the result of a decades-long friendship and songwriting partnership. Across four albums, Ross Farbe and Ray Micarelli have gleefully worn their influences on their sleeve, writing inviting tunes that reference sounds ranging from disco to pop and indie rock. On their latest LP, Away From The Castle, the New Orleans duo have strayed from nostalgia and instead have honed their own unique musicality, making songs that sound like themselves with a taste of inspiration from classic singer-songwriters of the 60s and 70s. The album is a testament to the possibilities that come from getting out of your comfort zone, the freedom of writing vulnerably and unselfconsciously, and the joys of getting to work with your closest companions. After releasing and eventually touring their critically-acclaimed third album Pleasure Line in 2020, Farbe and Micarelli sought inspiration for their next project through collaboration. They worked with Drugdealer on his album Hiding In Plain Sight, Micarelli gigged throughout New Orleans' jazz and blues scenes, and Farbe recorded local artists at his home studio, most recently producing Esther Rose's new album Safe to Run. Feeling refreshed, they rented a cabin in Eunice, Louisiana with touring members Nick Corson and Duncan Troast, where they spent eight days in August 2022 jamming, cooking and writing together. Through this process, Video Age have made their best collection of tracks to date by perfectly alchemizing their influences and experiences into a record still tinged with nostalgia, but moving towards a more succinct and authentic voice. Away From The Castle is a document of a band having fun and rediscovering their love for making music together, but it's also their most honest and personal work yet-Video Age distilled to its purest form.
Video Age make breezy and timeless songs that are so ineable, they can only be the result of a decades-long friendship and songwriting partnership. Across four albums, Ross Farbe and Ray Micarelli have gleefully worn their influences on their sleeve, writing inviting tunes that reference sounds ranging from disco to pop and indie rock. On their latest LP, Away From The Castle, the New Orleans duo have strayed from nostalgia and instead have honed their own unique musicality, making songs that sound like themselves with a taste of inspiration from classic singer-songwriters of the 60s and 70s. The album is a testament to the possibilities that come from getting out of your comfort zone, the freedom of writing vulnerably and unselfconsciously, and the joys of getting to work with your closest companions. After releasing and eventually touring their critically-acclaimed third album Pleasure Line in 2020, Farbe and Micarelli sought inspiration for their next project through collaboration. They worked with Drugdealer on his album Hiding In Plain Sight, Micarelli gigged throughout New Orleans' jazz and blues scenes, and Farbe recorded local artists at his home studio, most recently producing Esther Rose's new album Safe to Run. Feeling refreshed, they rented a cabin in Eunice, Louisiana with touring members Nick Corson and Duncan Troast, where they spent eight days in August 2022 jamming, cooking and writing together. Through this process, Video Age have made their best collection of tracks to date by perfectly alchemizing their influences and experiences into a record still tinged with nostalgia, but moving towards a more succinct and authentic voice. Away From The Castle is a document of a band having fun and rediscovering their love for making music together, but it's also their most honest and personal work yet-Video Age distilled to its purest form.
WRWTFWW Records is proud to announce the first ever release of the long-lost original motion picture soundtrack from the 1988 cult horror comedy sensation Ghoulies II by the incomparable Fuzzbee Morse. Digging deep to uncover a true gem of the VHS era, this limited-edition vinyl release (500 copies worldwide) marks history in the making as a piece of film score lore is resurrected from the depths of oblivion. The LP is packed with 39 tracks and features an exclusive artwork by French illustrator Pierre Thyss, as well an obi and composer notes.
The captivating melodies that once played hauntingly in the background of Ghoulies II were long believed to be lost forever. It took over 30 years and Fuzzbee Morse's unwavering determination to dig out the legendary recordings – and restore them for full audio pleasure!
The superb soundscape of Ghoulies II perfectly captures the chilling and wacky essence of the cult movie, as well as its creepy carnival setting. Morse, citing influences such as Bernard Hermann, Frank Zappa, and Igor Stravinsky, flexes his multi-instrumentalist skills, flowing with ease between magical fairground elements (with brilliant use of calliope, tuba, flutes and sparkly sounding synthesizers), dark atmospheres and frightening attacks (tribal percussion, strings, along with dissonant, atonal gongs, bowed cymbals), and goofy moods (bassoon, bass clarinet, glockenspiel, trumpet, clarinet). It’s big cinematic horror movie music with a lighter comedic touch – the 80s live again!
To complete this collector's edition, French illustrator Pierre Thyss (the man behind the WRWTFWW Records logo) lends his (immense) talent to provide awe-inspiring visuals that flawlessly encapsulate the juxtaposition of horror and comedy.
Ghoulies II follows the release of the full uncut soundtrack of Ghoulies (1985) which was released on vinyl for the first time ever by WRWTFWW Records in 2020 alongside soundtracks for other Richard Band-composed, Empire Pictures-produced classics: TerrorVision and Troll. All these 80s horror favorites are still available – complete the collection now!
PINK VINYL[39,37 €]
Planet P Project is Tony Carey's pseudonym for his science-fiction themed progressive rock side venture from his more pop-oriented rock releases. Its first three albums, Planet P, Pink World, and Go Out Dancing, Part I (1931) were released in 1983, 1984, and 2005, respectively, and the first two saw a fair amount of MTV video airplay. Planet P's most well known singles were Why Me?, a sweeping, energetic romp about outer space and isolation, and the downbeat Static. Go Out Dancing, Part I (1931) is the first of a trilogy; part two, titled Go Out Dancing, Part II (Levittown) was released in May 2008 and Go Out Dancing Part III (Out in the Rain) was released in 2011.
Remastered by Mischa Janisch 2LP
Das österreichische Musikduo Kruder & Dorfmeister, bestehend aus Peter Kruder und Richard Dorfmeister, startete in den 1990er Jahren eine Weltkarriere. Das Duo ist bekannt für seine Downtempo-Remixe von Hip-Hop-, Pop- und Drum-and-Bass-Songs. Ihr erfolgreiches Mix-Album "The K&D Sessions" (1998) wurde in Clubs von Ibiza bis New York rauf und runter gespielt und gilt als Klassiker des Genres. Im Laufe der Zeit wurden die beiden Musiker mit Remix-Arbeiten von Künstlern wie Madonna, Depeche Mode und Roni Size beauftragt. Danach gingen Kruder & Dorfmeister getrennte Wege und waren mit Soloprojekten erfolgreich. Mitten in der Pandemie 2020 veröffentlichten sie ein weiteres gemeinsames Album. Es trägt den Titel "1995" - eine Anspielung auf die Glanzzeit von Kruder & Dorfmeister. Im Oktober 2023 wird nun erstmals eine remasterte "Conversions - A K&D Selection" auf Doppel-Vinyl erscheinen. Ein nahezu historisches Musikdokument eines der erfolgreichsten österreichischen Musikduos
Metal-Legende Max Cavalera (Soulfly, Killer Be Killed, ex-Sepultura) und sein multi-talentierter Sohn Igor kehren mit ihrem zweiten Album zurück und werden damit für richtiggehende Aufstände in
den Pits und Wohnzimmern der Szene sorgen. Ihr Crust/Death/Thrash-Sound ist der Soundtrack für die rebellische Jungend in diesen chaotischen, gefährlich und verdrehten Zeiten.
Superb EP, printed sleeve, colored vinyl... Limited 300 in total (with 4 avalaible colors). Music is Industrial Hardcore, creative zone.
Indonesian trio Grrrl Gang builds on their considerable worldwide buzz with Spunky!, their full-length debut album. Released on 22 September 2023 by Green Island Music in partnership with exclusive licensees Kill Rock Stars (United States), Trapped Animal Records (United Kingdom) and Big Romantic Records (Japan and Taiwan), the album is preceded by its title track and first single dropped on May 30, featured from the same title of the album, 'Spunky!' Spunky! arrives following some major life changes for Angeeta Sentana (vocals, guitar), Akbar Rumandung (bass, vocals), and Edo Alventa (guitar, vocals), including a switch in locale from Yogyakarta, the city where they formed the band while still in college. “This is Grrrl Gang’s first release after we graduated and got day jobs that made us have to move to Jakarta, which is undeniably 180 degrees compared to Jogja,” says Rumandung. “But moving to Jakarta enabled us to work with Lafa on Spunky! from start to finish.” The song itself essentially describes Sentana's experience during a manic episode. “I feel like I’m on top of the world, untouchable. I do things without thinking, always chasing after that feeling of instant gratification. I feel extra confident in myself to a point of grandiose thinking and that I could do anything,” Sentana explains. That would be Lafa Pratomo, the in-demand producer brought in to help shape the ten tracks that make up Spunky! With a resume that includes the likes of the chanteuse Danilla and legendary singer-songwriter Iwan Fals, Pratomo might not seem the obvious choice to take the Grrrl Gang producer’s chair. But according to Rumandung, “In terms of production, this was something new for us by working with someone outside of Grrrl Gang’s comfort zone.” Indeed, Pratomo considerably beefs up Grrrl Gang’s sound particularly Alventa’s guitar tones, Rumandung’s rumbling bass, and touring drummer Muhammad Faiz Abdurrahman’s muscular beats while preserving the band’s signature raucous energy, catchy melodies, and Sentana’s attitude-filled, equal-parts-honey-and-vinegar vocals. The music video for Spunky! premieres on the Grrrl Gang YouTube channel on the same day as the release of the song. The video, directed by Bathroom Girls, is part of a continuous movie, with Spunky! being the second chapter. It tells the story of an introverted girl who goes to a house party to validate herself among her peers. Despite facing challenges to her self-esteem, she manages to overcome her discomfort to survive the night. During the party, she watches Grrrl Gang perform Spunky! and is mesmerized by the confident performance of Angee, the lead singer. The girl imagines herself as Angee, a confident and cool person that she will never be. Hailing from the cultural city of Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Grrrl Gang is a rising force in the independent music scene with their infectious melodies, anthemic songs, and electrifying live performances. The power trio, composed of Angee Sentana on guitar and vocals, Akbar Rumandung on bass, and Edo Alventa on guitar, has been making waves in the Southeast Asian music scene since their formation in 2016. Grrrl Gang's music is a celebration of their collective roots and a testament to the power of pop music to connect people across cultures and borders. Their lyrics touch on themes such as feminism, mental health, and relationships with a raw honesty that speaks to a generation of young listeners. With their infectious energy, socially conscious lyrics, and unique sound, Grrrl Gang is poised to take the global music scene by storm and become a voice for a new generation
It's time to clock up more Air Miles here as the small but well-formed label invites Supreems for another excursion into emotional yet robust breakbeats. 'Being' floats above the dancefloor on perfect frictionless drum loops that lurch to and fro and 'Touch' is a deep space trip with pensive cosmic pads and delightfully delicate but dynamic breaks. There is more weight and crispy texture to the zoned out sounds of 'Running Back', then 'Soft Spring' brings a heart aching female vocal to a loose cluster of beats, breaks, hits and churchy chords. 'Yunnan' shuts things down with a dark yet alluring energy. There is great craft in these cuts as well as plenty of dancefloor clout.
Für das Prequel 'Gears Of War: Judgement' (2013) schufen die Komponisten Steve Jablonsky und Jacob Shea eine brodelnde, industrielle Klanglandschaft aus gewaltig klingenden Synthesizern, knackigen Gitarrensounds und sparsamen orchestralen Elementen. Streng strukturierte, emotional angespannte Cues untermalen die Geschichte um Damon Baird und das Militärtribunal von Kilo Squad. Deluxe-Ausgabe auf dunkelrot und dunkelblauem 180g Doppelvinyl mit 30 remastered Tracks im Gatefold-Sleeve.
Legendary 2010’s indie band Crocodiles’ guitarist Charles Rowell’s new synthpop-meets-gothic rock project. Think Nick Cave crooning over Martin Rev’s minimal electronics or The Lords of the New Church-era Stiv Bators jamming with Wayne Hussey and Douglas Pearce.
After relocating from New York to France, Charles Rowell began stuffing his suitcase with various synths and samplers while taking cheap bus rides to bordering countries.
While living out of a hotel in north east Paris, he played his demos for Third Coming Records who quickly released the Bad Trip EP in 2020. Concerts became more frequent after the pandemic, with the release of Spellwound and a few have become infamous with guitars smashed to pieces, broken glasses, unruly audience front flipping onto the stage.
With Paris providing the background and a scene of friends such as avant-garde drag artist Tuna Mess and industrial techno veteran Poison Point who pushed his creativity even further, Crush Of Souls constant spirit is that it remains unpredictable and thrives on collaboration.
This is even more true with his upcoming album (A)Void Love.
Written over a period of intense insomnia that coincided with a run of shows playing guitar for Australian legend Harry Howard, Crush Of Soul’s main man Charles Rowell finally found rest after writing and recording the last song entitled World of Fear. Six months prior he had quit his job as a chef, traveled east to Prague for inspiration and returned ragged and sleepless.
Rowell’s insistence on keeping the instrumentation simple and clean came from an arduous two years of literal blood, sweat and tears. Every bit of drama, eastern excursion and sleep psychosis can be found within the walls of (A)Void Love.
Acoustic guitars and dramatic synths provide a cold wilderness for the various rhythms to inhabit; touches of minimal electronics, cold wave and synth pop can be found while the song writing remains classic for lovers of Echo & the Bunnymen and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds.
There’s always been a thread of synth-punk, death rock and DIY noise running through all of Charles’ projects (Crocodiles, ISSUE, Flowers of Evil), however Crush Of Souls pushes harder and further into the darkness with the new album ‘(A)Void Love’.
UK house icon Mr. G makes his FUSE debut alongside longtime friend and collaborator Duncan Forbes, with the two partnering for their excellent ‘Time To Dip’ EP.
An artist truly regarded as one of UK house music’s greats, Colin McBean, aka Mr. G, stands today as an individual at the pinnacle of the genre as his trademark sound and legendary live sets continue to tantalise crowds across the globe. A special guest at FUSE’s final show at London’s iconic Printworks in March, the event that went on to influence the EP’s curation, the UK mainstay heads to Enzo Siragusa’s globally renowned imprint for the very first time this September as he delivers his ‘Time To Dip’ EP alongside longstanding friend and regular collaborator, Duncan Forbes. Friends for many years, having known one another since Forbes’ Animated project, their collaborations on Phoenix G and 49North and recent LP have seen the duo uncover a selection of high- quality cuts from across the house spectrum - and here they showcase their innate chemistry across four tracks loaded with quality.
“Gotta say, this EP really is born outta standing on the stage before my set at FUSE at Printworks and listening to what was being played. When I got back I said to D that I wanted do something based around what I had heard, never really thinking Enzo or FUSE would get it, but how wrong we were. It’s another fab meeting of minds with D, which makes this joint EP so different yet special... I feel it covers many different bases and tempos, a real gem. Looking forward to see what folk make of it.” - Mr. G.
Title track ‘Time To Dip’ is classy house music that packs a punch typical of that trademark sound we’ve come to know and love. It’s heavy and tough yet stripped back and unquestionably dancefloor focused, all softened by hooky female vocals and hazy textures. Duncan’s ‘Sherbert Dip’ mix highlights the vocal and brings it to the fore as shuffling drums and sweeping melodies build around the elements. The flip welcomes ‘All Night’, a delightfully vibrant track pairing rich rhodes, swirling leads and sharp hats with an abundance of subtle jazzy textures, before Forbes’ ‘In The Zone’ remix delivers an immersive, heady and dubby late-night voyage for a mesmerising final ride.
Part of the St. Petersburg underground for more than a decade now, Hoavi (Kirill Vasin) has released on labels around the world since debuting with Cyclones in 2013. With Phases, he joins the Gost Zvuk roster and builds on his previous ventures into ambient and dub inspired house with a six track mini-album that channels elements of his Phobia Airlines LP. The general atmosphere is built through industrial sound design, moving from quick-fire broken beat and woozy downtempo into rhythmic noise and abstract reductivism. The whole thing collides to form a sort of futurist, machinic statement that relies more on rhythm and percussive synth work than the balancing of melody, seeing the artist hone in further on physical modelling synthesis and computer-generated textures. This mission statement only adds to the inescapable sci-fi aura at work, with Hoavi providing a fresh take on the kind of zones explored by luminaries such as Best Available Technology, Vainqueur / Hallucinator and odd moments of The Flashbulb.
Join Ryudo and his team on their greatest adventure yet! We're delighted to be collaborating again with Game Arts on this new vinyl edition of the Grandia II soundtrack, composed and arranged by Noriyuki Iwadare and entirely remastered for the vinyl format!
A cult title for the Dreamcast released in Japan in 2000 and acclaimed in particular for its innovative combat system, the game recently benefited from a remastered version in 2019 on Nintendo Switch and PC.
The Grandia II Memorial Soundtrack Edition comes in the form of a luxurious vinyl box set, newly illustrated for the occasion by the game's original character designer, Youshi Kanoe.
It contains 3 yellow color discs inserted in individually illustrated sleeves and a newly designed 16-page booklet with illustrations by Youshi Kanoe and new comments from the team, including Kei Shigema (Scenario Writer), Atsuko Nishida (Designer), Noriyuki Iwadare (Composer) and vocal Kaori Kawasumi.
The Grandia II Original Soundtrack CD Edition comes in the form of a luxurious box set, newly illustrated for the occasion by the game's original character designer, Youshi Kanoe.
It includes 2 CDs and a 16-page booklet with illustrations by Youshi Kanoe and new comments from the team, including Kei Shigema (scriptwriter), Atsuko Nishida (designer), Noriyuki Iwadare (composer) and singer Kaori Kawasumi.
On our latest Mojuba sublabel Frekoba, we welcome JJ, a friend of ours who we love for his unique approach to a truly diverse colorful palette of club tracks on his debut for us called OOPS! So what do these four tracks sound like?
Imagine a night at a club like Panorama Bar where Soundstream, Lil Silva & Errorsmith are having a blast. Now you are in the right zone to have fun with JJ's debut 12". House, Disco, UK funky and off-kilter cut-up grooves for your enjoyment, have fun!
Black Vinyl[38,03 €]
Invisible Inc is back with another remarkable release, this time diving even further into ambient, spiritual and folk-infused psychedelia.
“Mondo Organico”, as the name suggests, is a concept compilation that captures the “organic” side of Invisible Inc. The use of non-electronic instrumentation is a familiar theme explored by the label previously with the likes of Komodo Kolektif, Immaculate Rivombo and Peter Power...but this time the instruments and voices, tranquil and meditatively hypnotic in places, display an even deeper spirituality.
Featuring the talents of Andi Otto and his fello (electronic cello), Anna vs June's ethereal vocals, Tyler Ov Gaia's zoned-out mantra rhythms, Pieter Kock's 8-minute bass and guitar psych odyssey, as well as label favourites Sordid Sound System and Puma & The Dolphin, the record is enthralling and mesmerizing from start to finish - and yet another notch in Invisible Inc's rather idiosyncratic belt.
This record was pressed on eco vinyl. Everything from the sleeve to the inks are recycled too, in an attempt to address some the environmental issues we face today, albeit fractionally.
“Mondo Organico” is the future.
Der Soundtrack zur HBO-Serie "The Last of Us" basiert auf der beliebten Musik und Klangwelt des gleichnamigen Videospiels. Geschrieben wurde der Soundtrack vom mit einem Academy Award ausgezeichneten Komponisten Gustavo Santaolalla und von David Fleming.Die intime, gitarrenbetonte Klanglandschaft spiegelt die Emotionalität der Serie wider und nimmt die Hörer mit auf die ungewisse Reise durch die USA in einer postapokalyptischen Welt, zwanzig Jahre nach der Zerstörung der modernen Zivilisation durch eine, von einem Pilz verursachte Epidemie.
Based on the critically acclaimed video game of the same name developed by Naughty Dog for the PlayStation® platforms, The Last of Us is written and executive produced by co-creators Craig Mazin (Emmy® Award-winning creator of HBO’s “Chernobyl”) and Neil Druckmann (creator and writer of the award-winning “The Last of Us” franchise and Naughty Dog Co-President).
The Last of Us takes place twenty years after modern civilization
has been destroyed by a viral outbreak. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.
The vinyl release to the acclaimed series contains soundtrack
highlights from the show. Featured are score tracks by composer Gustavo Santaolalla, with additional music by David Fleming as well as songs by Depeche Mode, Pearl Jam, Jessica Mazin & Nick Offerman.
The package contains 2x vinyl, standard weight at 140g, 1x green and 1x clear, a double-sided poster of the show’s key art, spot gloss and soft touch on the gatefold and an insert featuring liner notes by Neil Druckmann, Craig Mazin, Gustavo Santaolalla & David Fleming and images from the show.
The Madlib Invazion Music Library Series Entry #1: JJ Whiteeld (Poets of Rhythm/Whiteeld Brothers/Karl Hector) takes on Ethiopian Jazz and Psychedelic Funk. This is the first in a series of music library releases, with future volumes produced by DJ Muggs, J-Zone, and Karriem Riggins, among others. The series starts here, with JJ Whitefield’s Ethio Meditations/Drama Al Dente. The Madlib Invazion Music Library Series was created by Madlib and Egon to give their creative friends a chance to stretch out and indulge in whatever type of music they wanted. This music was created for easy, one-stop clearance in film and television synchronization usage and for sampling. You can also enjoy these albums in the way that many do with the best of the best vintage library catalogs – listen, ponder, repeat.
The Madlib Invazion Music Library Series Entry #2: From The Nesta Vaults: Jake Ferguson with Malcolm Catto (Heliocentrics) take on Cosmic Funk and Psychedelic Jazz. This is the next up in a series of music library releases, with future volumes produced by DJ Muggs, J-Zone, and Karriem Riggins, among others. The series continues with Jake Ferguson’s Emotions Run Dry featuring Malcolm Cattio. The Madlib Invazion Music Library Series was created by Madlib and Egon to give their creative friends a chance to stretch out and indulge in whatever type of music they wanted. This music was created for easy, one-stop clearance in film and television synchronization usage and for sampling. You can also enjoy these albums in the way that many do with the best of the best vintage library catalogs – listen, ponder, repeat.
DJ Jus-Ed is a real house g. The New Jersey man has been keeping it deep for decades, mostly on his own Underground Quality label and that's what he does once more here. As is often the way, his own vocals infuse the opening track 'That First Touch' which is a happy house cut laced with feel-good pianos.
'The Freshness' hits the sweet spot between classic Chicago depths and dubby new school house with sustained chords and lo-fi drums. 'The Walk & Talk' has elastic bass and tumbling drums with zoned-out vocal musings and 'When I Met You' brings some cosmic synth radiance into Ed's smoky house basement.
The collaboration between Klara Lewis and Nik Colk Void somehow seemed inevitable. Both artists having seen their releases published by Editions Mego, individually carving out idiosyncratic voices in the worlds of extreme, abstract electronic music. With Full-On, Lewis and Void explore and assimilate the very edge of their individual practice where a unique collaborative interface allows two voices to combine and morph into a third voice.
Lewis and Void play ping pong with the conversation of sounds, generating ideas and bouncing them off each other, simultaneously encouraging the other to go further with their ideas opening up an opportunity to engage with previously unexplored terrain. Guitars, synths, euro rack modular systems, voice, sampling and outboard processing are folded in a playful unification with a propensity to tease, explore and extract new ideas and shapes, sometimes brutal, sometimes playful.
Trust was also a compositional tool allowing instinct to freely move on any aspect of the sound and space. This sound/feeling/instinct/association let this wild and wonderful material grow organically into something new.
The result of this exploratory interplay are 17 intense miniatures reveling in the process of unadulterated experimentation and whimsical interplay, not just between the humans, but the machines themselves. United in an endless series of sonic U-turns, this daring duo intertwine pop and noise whilst also bringing together visions of tender techno and forthright ambient.
The various zones which manifest from all this reveals vocals shifting in mysterious ways, dust drenched beats churning limpidly and devilish string loops navigating a disorientating domain. The experience of listening to Full-On is to be confronted with a range of ideas resulting in a platter of emotions. A place where beauty and the beast collide with the impulsive and outright weird. What a wonderful world.
Dark Entries has a surprise delivery! Malebox brings us six previously unreleased funk-fueled jams from the archives of the cybernetic disco titan himself, Patrick Cowley. Best known for his chart-topping disco anthems, Cowley left us with an incredible body of work before his tragic death in 1982 due to AIDS-related illness. Since 2009, Dark Entries has been working with Cowley’s friends and family to uncover the singular artist’s lesser-known sides, including his soundtracks for gay pornographic films on compilation albums School Daze, Muscle Up, and Afternooners.
But Malebox gives us more of the Cowley we know and love: churning disco-funk and hi-NRG tracks that are spacey and sleazy, gritty and sublime. Recorded from 1979-1981, these six tracks illuminate what was one of Patrick’s most creatively exciting periods. “If You Feel It” and “Love Me Hot” were both early Paul Parker demos; the former is a peak hour hi-NRG bomb, while the latter dips into Cowley’s zoned-out space disco sound. Jeanie Tracy’s soulful vocals feature on the demo version of “Low Down Dirty Rhythm”, which was later re-recorded by Sarah Dash. The slower, less-varnished rendition here hits with a wild psychedelic edge. Meanwhile, Patrick’s gifts for careful orchestration and infectious melodies shine on “Floating” and “Love and Passion”, which were likely demo tracks for Loverde. The songs on Malebox display the vitality and inventiveness of a brilliant composer taken from us too soon.
Malebox sleeve design was by Gwenaël Rattke, and features a hyper-color retro collage. Also included is an air mail envelope containing a letter from Patrick Cowley to French disco producer Pierre Jaubert as well as liner notes and hand-written lyrics. Malebox will be released on November 12th , which is the 40th anniversary of Patrick’s passing.
PRSPCTV aka XENTRIX is an emerging Belgian techno talent who steps out here with his first release on Musik is Egall. His moody and atmospheric original 'Perspective & Surface' is found on the B-side. It's a hunched-over, stripped-back deep techno and dub fusion with grotty synths and vast incendiary hi-hats hurrying you along.
Label co-founder Oliver Hess steps up with his own remix on the A-side and flips the track into something as as deep as they come, with dubbed out chords and warm, edgeless but driving kicks and smeared pads all laced up with muffled vocal mutterings and rising synths. It's one for early-evening groove sessions or late-night zone outs.
Southener Hiatt dB makes his debut on RNT with a 6 track mini-LP of swampy dance floor cuts. Born in Texas and based in New Orleans, Hiatt delivers a unique offering with “11pm-Til’” that bridges the gap between House, Breaks, Acid, Disco, Funk, and Boogie.
Having established his name with releases on Rhythm Section and his own Mystery Zone label, this record is his strongest musical statement yet, packed with live instrumentation, and vibrant organic productions that make for both a perfect listen and a groovy club spin!
DJ Support:
Charles Webster, Justin Robertson, Blair French, Moplen, Dicky Trisco, Nick The Record, Lex, Lars Behrenroth, Willie Graff, Ravanelli Disco Club, Androosh, Max Essa, & Massimiliano Pagliara
Part 2[12,19 €]
Last summer saw youANDmedelivered his “Diva 2022” mix of "PPPPP" a track that would ignite dancefloors across Ibiza and become one of the smashes of the summer in the process. The label was always certain the record was a hit and the response that followed justified their faith.
The track went on to be championed across the globe by the likes of Ame, Dixon, Matthias Tanzman and Pete Tong (Radio 1) leaving a succession of dancefloors demolished in its wake. Fast forward to 2023 and the Cult brings in a smorgasbord of house music’sfinest to breathe fresh verve into what is rapidly becoming a future house classic.First, comes the unmistakable dancefloor call of the “Diva” mix, with its fierce retro vocal and contagiously looping house sound. Its raw undeniable groove shook dancefloors for a reason the first time around and here it is to do the damage all over again. Next, house music legend Ian Pooley hops on board to serve up a delicious slab of fat analogue deepness.
A rework for the real house heads, it drenches the original vocals in reverb and creates a tough sub-laden groove bound to work deeper floors. House music’s producer of the moment Cinthie delivers a red-hot reinterpretation that ups the bpm count and zones in on the drums. The Berlin-based producer creates a colossal house-breaks crossover that is bound to tear apart dancefloors. Reese subs fill out the lows while organs deliver the original rave flavour and take the track into orbit.
Finally, Tel Aviv’s Yotam Avni turns out a remix that delivers shades of the pure old-school house with piano stabs sitting alongside deep chords before he puts his tougher-edged modern techno stamp onto it. Rhythm Cult is on a roll now returning with one of the most hyped tracks of 2022. This package delivers the goods with fresh remixes for 2023 from some of the best in the industry who are now added to the label's impressive roster.
From the city of Tampere, Finland, comes Type-303 with a brand new EP ”Näsinpuisto” on a new local label VERRAZZANO. This time we take a detour from his usual acid sounds and head to the park for summer vibes.
Taking inspiration from early 90’s Italo house and balearic scene, ”Näsinpuisto” EP gives four sunny, mysterious and long drink fuelled cuts to cheer up the thirsty crowd.
Opening with a lovely haunting flute melody, ”Is It Magic” asks the question if there is some special magic in northern summer days, and the answer is fairy whistling YES! Part nostalgic and part forward looking, the song is relaxing house par excellence.
Second track ”Sexy Sax” sounds something like it was meant for fashion shows in Milan, or to be played at terraces with international tasteful clientele. With solid bass, sophisticated rhythms, sax melody and sea-breeze sounds, 90’s N.Y. house vibes are evident.
”Garden Of Love” is a playful tune that might be playing in the background when you stumble upon a secret garden in the park. The question is dare you enter in? Because Ecstasy comes to those who dare to step out of their comfort zone.
Lastly ”Summer Nights” is a relaxing late evening tune, ending the summer day journey with reassuring sounds in the after glow. Still with enough punch to work great either as set starter, or when you want to chill the dance floor.
Verrazzano calls you to enjoy summer, love and friendships!
Remastered Reissue des Debüt-Soloalbums MANTARAY von Siouxsie Sioux, das ihre ersten Auftritte im UK, Europa und den USA seit über einer Dekade begleitet. MANTARAY wurde von Miles Showell in den Abbey Road Studios remastered, audiophil auf halber Geschwindigkeit geschnitten und erscheint erstmals seit dem Originalrelease 2007 mit neuem Artwork wieder auf Vinyl. In MANTARAY erweiterte Siouxsie in einem Gefühl der Freiheit den Horizont ihrer vorherigen Arbeiten, was Fans und Medien gleichermaßen begeisterte und zu einer restlos ausverkauften Tour führte. Siouxsie Sioux veröffentlichte mit den Banshees, The Creatures und ihrem Solowerk insgesamt 16 von der Kritik gefeierte Studioalben. Ihre letzte Soloarbeit war der Songbeitrag LOVE CRIME (2015) für das Finale der TV-Serie HANNIBAL.
Remastered Reissue des Debüt-Soloalbums MANTARAY von Siouxsie Sioux, das ihre ersten Auftritte im UK, Europa und den USA seit über einer Dekade begleitet. MANTARAY wurde von Miles Showell in den Abbey Road Studios remastered, audiophil auf halber Geschwindigkeit geschnitten und erscheint erstmals seit dem Originalrelease 2007 mit neuem Artwork wieder auf Vinyl. In MANTARAY erweiterte Siouxsie in einem Gefühl der Freiheit den Horizont ihrer vorherigen Arbeiten, was Fans und Medien gleichermaßen begeisterte und zu einer restlos ausverkauften Tour führte. Siouxsie Sioux veröffentlichte mit den Banshees, The Creatures und ihrem Solowerk insgesamt 16 von der Kritik gefeierte Studioalben. Ihre letzte Soloarbeit war der Songbeitrag LOVE CRIME (2015) für das Finale der TV-Serie HANNIBAL.
For the first release out on Entered Records it's EYA boss and London tastemaker, Jos, stepping up with four cuts of moody spirited machine sounds.
Entered, a label set up with the intention to create connection between the U.K, European and Naarm (Melbourne) scenes through music offerings. First up, the EP is full of spiraling emotive melodies and throbbing bass. This includes the introspective title track ‘Absence Of Thought’ with a refreshingly modern breakbeat rethink from Naarm based artist Dashiell alongside it.
Moving onto the B side you have rumbling 909 toms with dramatic swells of synth tension. Coiled energy in the restless amorphous zone, combining progressive elements of techno, electro, acid and everything in between. The EP closes fusing sci-fi melancholic synths, forward moving beats and a bass-line designed to ignite the dancefloor.
Heads-down, locked in music full of precision and class. A perfect alignment of analog sounds channelled from two sides of the globe. Out in July on Entered Records.
There is a wealth of talent on show on the third EP from the Fusion Sequence label which has put together this six-track deep house sizzler. The Variable Club' 'Biorhythms' is perfectly warm and dynamic for cosy backroom moments and Alpine DJ then brings an old school piano feel to 'Pepe Nony' before A Vision Of Panorama zones you out on lush chords and reverential keys on 'Kissing The Sun.' The flipside offers the more dark and heads-down 'Many Stories' while the blissed-out and feel-good grooves return with Common Mode's 'Bassface.' Body Corp shuts down with the slower, seductive sounds of 'Take It Or Leave It' which rounds out a top-class EP.
On the first of February, Golden Earring played in Ahoy, Rotterdam for the first time in 23 years. Their setlist included all of their biggest hits and fan favourites such as: “Twilight Zone”, “Radar Love”, “Another 45 Miles”, “Going To The Run”, and “Just A Little Bit Of Peace In My Heart” amongst others. After celebrating their 40th anniversary in 2005 this live registration shows how they were still eager, relevant and energetic as ever.
The recordings were originally released as a DVD in 2006 and are now available on vinyl for the first time. Live In Ahoy 2006 is available as a limited edition of 1500 individually numbered copies on gold coloured vinyl and includes an insert.
Loek Frey's Add Interaction is an exercise in damp, eerie atmospherics and intricate drum patterns. Released through Omen Wapta, the Dutch producer gets experimental through drum and bass, IDM and breakbeat deconstructed with unexpected tempo shifts and effects. Produced during the pandemic, the EP conjures loneliness, solitude and unfamiliarity. Expect tunneling, meditative, low-end structures fit for a journey through the earth's layers down to its core. And expansive, pearlescent vocals evoking spiritual bodies. Soundscape-leaning IDM weave into polyrhythms and muted breakbeats. Frey's release positions him as a teacher of brooding textures. The unpredictability can draw you deep into the sonic abyss -- if you let it.
Obsessive tekno/grime experiment from London's lostdomain producer Leeway following the great great Krevet EP. Very compatible with ~160 BPM hardtek/trance. Grainy desaturated claustrophobic sound progressing to full, crisp and dreamy with alien salival textures...
Whole album varies on two or three circling themes. Super zoney and subdued and spiritual but then jumps right out of the speakers with violence.
Selected by Jim O’Rourke for his Tone Glow list of 25 albums that “never got their due”, Org was founded in the early 90’s by Espen Jensen and Kjetil D Brandsdal who would later go on to variously record as Elektrodiesel, Noxagt and Ultralyd in the swirl of the highly active Norwegian underground. “Org" was the only album the pair recorded as a duo, pressed in a meagre edition of just over 100 copies which disappeared almost as soon as they were made, lodged in the memory of the select few who have managed to hear it in the years since.
Made up of three long tracks, the near 20-minute ‘001’ opens the album with an extended organ zone-out matched with scraping factory machinery saturated into a dense cloud of harmonic fuzz. There's something transcendental about the sound that intersects with microtonal Alice Coltrane (particularly the unfairly maligned organ-only edition of "Turiya Sings"), as well as Pauline Oliveros and Ramleh. It’s music that pulls you in subconsciously; before you know it, you're fixating on the uncomfortable grind of metal on metal, buried mechanical rhythms and liturgical organ vamps that wind between industrial cacophony and sacred ritual music. For its last few seconds, we go into a full death metal tearout that fades out before it takes full flight, a glorious wtf.
‘002’ connects between minimalist drone styles and shoegaze, distorting fuzzed organ into pliable, dreamlike warbles that end up sounding like Kevin Shields' ‘Loveless’-era glides, or even Sunn O))) at their most devotional. Never losing the numbing overdriven mettle, its a piece that sounds spiritually entwined with Matthew Bower's Skullflower - a minimalist re-reading of high-contrast guitar music that takes all the psychoacoustic power and none of the annoying posturing.
For ‘003’, subaqueous organ is joined by synth and drum machine, sounding like the inspirational spark for Religious Knives' screwed 'n chopped cosmic psychedelia. The choice of sounds links it to Antena's foundational electro samba recordings too, but the overwhelming drone - a constant on all three compositions - connects the music to minimalist spirituals that have simmered beneath the DIY/avant garde for decades.
‘Org’ sits heavy on the nerves with overproof levels of mulched amp worship and ungodly, palms-down organ chords and wheezing, bezonked lines of melodic thought. 25 years out of sight and marinading in the archives, with the benefit of hindsight we can better understand the role these sounds played in the development of music in the contemporary sphere. It’s an important piece of the puzzle, one that makes valuable connections that, over time, have looked progressively more faint.
Clear LP[22,65 €]
Blue Lake is the musical moniker of American born, Copenhagen based multidisciplinary artist and musician Jason Dungan, who signs to the Tonal Union imprint for the release of his new longform album ‘Sun Arcs’. It follows 2022’s release ‘Stikling’, earning a nomination for ‘Album of the Year’ at the Danish Music Awards plus warm praise from The Hum blog and musicians and DJs alike including Jack Rollo (Time is Away/NTS) and Carla dal Forno. A self taught player, Dungan began freely experimenting with self-built multi-string instruments, preferring to build his own hybrid 48-string zither and working in the realms of left-field ambient music, off kilter folk and improvised acoustic minimalism.
The starting point of ‘Sun Arcs’ saw Jason travel for a week alone to Andersabo, a cabin set in the idyllic Swedish woods just outside of Unnaryd, known also as the music project, festival and residency space which has been run by Dungan since 2016, hosting artists like Sofie Birch, Johan Carøe and Ellen Arkbro. Whilst writing 1-2 pieces per day, a conscious decision was made to leave behind everyday distractions and shut out the outside world to instead focus on the natural passage of time as Dungan recalls: “My only sense of time came from these daily walks out in the woods with my dog, and an awareness of the sun’s path as it moved across the sky each day.”
The album’s immersive world unfolds with the opener ‘Dallas’, an ode to his home state and a musical synthesis of these two disparate spaces (Texas and Denmark), the touchstones of Dungan’s life. A folk-esque single acoustic builds to a flowing arrangement of clarinets, organ and cello drones coupled with percussion. ‘Green-Yellow Field’ chimes in as the first of two solo oriented zither recordings twinned with the dreamlike title track ‘Sun Arcs’, both densely rich as cascading and overlapping harmonic tones resound. ‘Bloom’ emerges with a krautrock psyche before an eruption of cello drones, slide guitar and free-ranging zither playing, ushering in the anticipation of spring. With half of the recordings conceived in Andersabo, Jason returned to Copenhagen to form the album's centre piece ‘Rain Cycle’ which features a tempered Roland drum machine alongside shifting zither improvisations. ‘Writing’ explores the shimmering harp-like qualities of sweeping playing figurations with Dungan mapping out adjusted tuning “zones” on the zither for unconventional but creatively liberating effects. ‘Fur’ captures the feeling of openness and the momentum of time, seeing Dungan perform waves of solo clarinet, often in one takes and embellished with textural drones, a zither solo, and layers of guitar. ‘Wavelength’ the album's closer is fondly inspired by the film works of Michael Snow and Don Cherry’s seminal live album ‘Blue Lake’ (1974), as it builds out from a drone-generated zither chord and features an alto recorder solo. Dungan found a deep connection to Cherry’s stripped back performance ethos, focusing on the core beauty of minimal instrumentation creating a genre-less meeting between folk and jazz. A dialogue is formed between the solo and the bandlike performances, interlinked in a geographical duality with all finding a sense of commonplace as musical sketches of visited landscapes. The bountiful instrumentation ebbs and flows as further layers emerge with Dungan constructing his material much like an artist would, recording and reviewing, adding and subtracting.
Musically it portrays a form of double life led by an American-identifying person living in Scandinavia, and a new found presence in Denmark, seeking out underdeveloped marshlands and barren stretches of beach adrift from other rhythms and distractions. Highlighting their individual and potent importance Dungan concludes: “Both places feel like “me”, I think on some level the music is always some kind of self-portrait.” ‘Sun Arcs’ depicts the intricate balance of nature’s cycles and the paths outlined by the seasons, from a winter dormancy to a warm sun drenched scene. The album scales new glorying heights and further defines Dungan’s musical narrative, inhabiting a unique space in left-field, improvised and experimental music, borning his most accomplished compositions to date. A singular and visionary expression, drawing on an array of instruments and sound worlds with a renewed sense of joy and discovery.
The album's rich tapestry was mixed by Jeff Zeigler (Laraaji, Mary Lattimore, Kurt Vile /Steve Gunn) and mastered by Stephan Mathieu (Kali Malone, KMRU, Félicia Atkinson).
Beautiful mix of peak time minimalism, intricate electro, come-up euphorics and come-down remedies by the masterful 'not even noticed' duo on their Craigie Knowes debut EP Microtransitions.
A bit for everyone and something for every time, yet nothing out of place.
Ex Wiish is a fleeting dream. The new musical project of Ben Shirken, a sound artist and composer based in New York City.
Shirken is the founder of record label & performance series 29 Speedway which features improvisational electronic music, 4-point guerrilla sound installations, live multimedia performances and has hosted Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Poncili Creación, Debit, Pent, James K and various other New York-based artists. Shirken also produces for and plays modular synths in acclaimed free jazz group ‘Nu Jazz’ with Dan Orlowski of electronic hardcore staple Deli Girls.
Their debut record, “Shards of Axel'', is out on Incienso June 23, 2023. Born from a story-based video game composition; the listener finds themselves as the disoriented main player respawned into a harrowing, metallic landscape, wandering through cable ridden labyrinths, caught in progress traps as digital noises grind past submerged cityscapes.
Black Vinyl[34,24 €]
Das 5. Studioalbum von Django Django trägt den Titel ”Off Planet” und besteht aus 21 Titeln, die in vier Teile aufgeteilt sind. Ursprünglich sollten es vier experimentelle EPs werden, die aber schnell in ein richtiges Album verwandelt wurden, als die Band das Potenzial der Aufnahmesession erkannte. ”Off Planet” enthält einige der aufregendsten und dynamischsten Stücke, die Django Django je produziert haben. Das Album ist eine Rückbesinnung auf ihre experimentellen und elektronischen Wurzeln und enthält außerdem spannende Gastauftritte von Self Esteem, Jack Penate und vielen anderen.
Jeder Teil des Albums wird digital veröffentlicht und am Tag der Veröffentlichung des vierten Teils wird das gesamte Album auf Doppel-Vinyl und Doppel-CD erscheinen.
'Insight Into Mind And Space' is the latest full length project from techno producer and label owner 30drop. It's a 10 track collection compiled out tracks previously released on Jeff Mills' Axis imprint in digital formats. The original albums 'Soroban' and 'Photosynthetic Zone Manifesto' have been released in the years 2020 and 2021 and will now be available on vinyl in a limited edition for the first time. The compiled album includes pieces that, like the mind, evolve as a consequence of each other in an orderly way. Starting with the early origins represented by the track 'Dunkelblau' with which the album begins, going through 'Accepting The Future', which represent the complexity reached by the human brain. 'Insight Into Mind And Space' portrays those hypothetical and alternative molecular combinations in the form of songs. Exposed to different chemical elements, gravitational and environmental conditions, dormant genes and signaling pathways are activated and uncannily combined. And just like the molecular events, sounds are combined in different ways, whether simple or complex, to create songs that provide an artistic vision to that scientific concept that opens a hypothesis to other types of intelligence that are far from human and that could exist in the vast out there. About 30drop. In his formative years, the artist responsible for 30drop discovered new synthetic and electronic sounds that would later influence his work. From the year 1996, his activity as a DJ powered his link with music, focused on Detroit Techno and Techno sounds that held the transgressive references of Birmingham, UK. These impressions saw 30drop magnetize toward an industrial, experimental, noise-based sound, particularly in the mid-2000s. After a creative pause, 2014 brought his new project, '30drop', at this time his label 30D Records of which he is the Manager and joint A&R with Angel Molina, was also born. The conceptual part of this project has been done in collaboration and with the supervision of Meritxell Rosell, PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology.
White Vinyl[34,24 €]
Das 5. Studioalbum von Django Django trägt den Titel ”Off Planet” und besteht aus 21 Titeln, die in vier Teile aufgeteilt sind. Ursprünglich sollten es vier experimentelle EPs werden, die aber schnell in ein richtiges Album verwandelt wurden, als die Band das Potenzial der Aufnahmesession erkannte. ”Off Planet” enthält einige der aufregendsten und dynamischsten Stücke, die Django Django je produziert haben. Das Album ist eine Rückbesinnung auf ihre experimentellen und elektronischen Wurzeln und enthält außerdem spannende Gastauftritte von Self Esteem, Jack Penate und vielen anderen.
Jeder Teil des Albums wird digital veröffentlicht und am Tag der Veröffentlichung des vierten Teils wird das gesamte Album auf Doppel-Vinyl und Doppel-CD erscheinen.
More recently best regarded as soundtrack composer, Ben Frost here follows work with interdisciplinary sound artist Francesco Fabris on the »Dark« OST with a plunge into purest rock music, as in the actual sound of molten material rising to the surface and solidifying. With an impressionistic-artistic license also found in work by Chris Watson, Jana Winderen or Giuseppe Ielasi, the duo uncompromisingly revel in the sounds of nature’s biting point, using various production methods to make audible the sound of the earth beneath our feet in the process of creation, on location at Fagradalsfjall, Reykjanes Peninsula Iceland.
»As stable as we might choose to think it is, this planet is anything but that. A paper thin crust, the zone in which we find ourselves, and mostly concern ourselves with, exists as a modest veil cloaking a dynamic seismic turbulence that is as powerful as it is unknowable. There are moments though where ruptures occur. The pressure from within carves its way to, and through, the surface of the planet simultaneously delivering destruction and virgin landscapes, as primordial as any we might care to imagine. It is here, in these places, where we can literally see the living planet, that geologic time is condensed and world building is made visible, and audible to us, in an unrestrained and provocative detail.
These volcanic ruptures, such as those captured on Vakning by Francesco Fabris and Ben Frost, speak to the very living geology of Earth. These recordings, captured at close range, exist at a nexus where liquid rock becomes solid. They capture moments of transformation, of obliteration and of creation, often all at once. These are recordings of a living, material planet, dynamic and unrestrained«. (Lawrence English)
black vinyl[22,90 €]
High Roller Records, reissue 2023, blue jay/ white splatter vinyl, ltd 250, 425gsm heavy cardboard cover with 5mm spine, poster, insert, mastered and partially restored by Patrick W. Engel at Temple of Disharmony
splattered vinyl[24,83 €]
High Roller Records, reissue 2023, black vinyl, ltd 250, 425gsm heavy cardboard cover with 5mm spine, poster, insert, mastered and partially restored by Patrick W. Engel at Temple of Disharmony
“Are we having fun yet? Living in the grey zone”? The Toads ask the question and already know the answer. There’s many a wry smile, often packed with gallows humour, shared on the Melbourne groups’ debut album “In the Wilderness” (out June 9th on Anti Fade and Upset The Rhythm). Navigating the dross of modern life, whilst keeping one foot in a dream is the key to their nervy post-punk scuffle. Featuring members of The Shifters, The Living Eyes and Parsnip you’d be forgiven for guessing what The Toads sound like, but their mordant step and minor-key enchantment makes for an intriguing parry.
The Toads hatched after a short period of domestic readjustment mid-2021. Billy Gardner (guitar) found himself in need of a roof after his home was consumed by fire, and was kindly hosted by friend Stella Rennex (bass). Elsie Retter (drums) was a regular visitor to the house and after seeing Miles Jansen (vocals) tear it up with his other band at the local bowls club, they invited him along to sprinkle his deadpan musings across their fledgling sound. Pretty quickly they hit on their direction; a savvy, snappy lo-fi pop as openhearted as it is brooding.
After playing some formative shows, including a debut at Jerkfest in 2022, The Toads set about recording five songs mid-year for a tentative EP. Realising the songs were too long to fit on a 7”, they booked in another recording session the following September to extend the EP to 12”. Two tracks’ chords structures were fleshed out with new melodies and arrangements, and by this point The Toads were surprised to find they had an album’s worth of material. ‘In The Wilderness’ is a beguiling record, full of twists and turns. It’s arch, resilient, thoughtful and straight-at-your-head catchy to boot.
It’s fitting that the title track “In The Wilderness” draws this record to a close, being the peak of their invention so far. Drums pound and tumbling bass-lines sprint among the crisply stabbing guitar phrases and soaring horns outro. It’s a survivalist epic of hard-worn wisdom, ambling and restless. “I open up the door trying to get all of us through” sings Miles, becoming progressively more dizzy and despondent. There is a sense of toughing it out that never falters though and this is the essence of what The Toads do best. They push onwards into the darkness and keep their appetite, pulling us all into the light.
Following on from the Bergisch-Brandenburgisches Quartett’s anarchic Live ’82 (BT095), Black Truffle continues its deep dive into the archives of legendary drummer/accordionist/photographer/composer/conceptual prankster Sven-Åke Johansson with Scheisse ’71. Recorded in November 1971 during the Berliner Jazztage at a heavy-hitting concert that also included the Spontaneous Music Ensemble and groups led by Peter Brötzmann, Manfred Schoof, and Masahiko Sato, Scheisse ’71 is the only document of a wild, otherwise unrecorded quintet featuring Johansson on drums, accordion and oboe d’amore, legendary free jazz vocalist Jeanne Lee, her husband Gunter Hampel on vibes, flute and bass clarinet, live electronics pioneer Michael Waisvisz on modified Putney (VCS 3) synthesizer, and the unknown Freddy Gosseye on electric bass. Part of a festival centred on giants of jazz like Duke Ellignton and Dizzy Gillespie, the radical performance shocked its audience, who can be heard heckling and yelling abuse at points, including the titular exclamation of ‘Scheiße!’ Clocking at just over half an hour and recorded in raw but detailed stereo by Johansson himself, the music burns with intensity while also making room for spacious passages and frequent dynamic movement. Beginning with Lee’s voice, Hampel on flute and Johansson on oboe d’amore in a bird-like game of call and response, the unexpected entry of Waisvisz’s tortured, squelching synth bursts prompts the first of many changes in energy and instrumentation, as Gosseye’s busy, roving bass enters and Johansson moves to the kit, his swinging cymbal work and juddering toms extending the approach of Sunny Murray or early Milford Graves. The presence of synthesizer, electric bass, and Lee’s highly amplified voice moves the quintet away from conventional free jazz textures, at times pushing into zones of abstract free sound reminiscent of what groups like MEV, AMM or Johansson’s MND were exploring in the same years. But the energy and joyful melodicism of the music keep it rooted in the tradition of American fire music and its European inheritors. Capable of changing gears in an instant from ferocious blow outs to fragile tapestries of chiming vibes and fizzing synth, the music finds space for Lee’s post-bop free scat (which integrates shrieks and howls just as a post-Ayler saxophonist might), Gosseye’s virtuosic bass runs (a rare attempt to apply the classic free jazz style of players like Alan Silva or Henry Grimes to the electric instrument), Johansson’s folkish accordion interjections, and even a sustained passage of unison bass clarinet and electric bass riffing in its second half. Special mention should be made of Waisvisz’s Putney performance, one of the earliest documents of this under-recorded instrument inventor and player, here playing a major role in giving the music its wildly exploratory, primordial air, his buzzing glissandi and bubbling filter sweeps at times howling like a distressed monkey. Arriving in an austerely stylish sleeve with beautiful black and white photographs by Johansson, Scheisse ’71 is an essential recording that adds yet another layer to our appreciation of this golden era of radical free music.
From 1989 onwards, Richard was an obsessive collector of house and techno music, frequenting legendary London record shops such as Fat Cat, Silverfish, Trax and Red Records. He took record buying trips to NewYork to find second-hand disco, house and techno 12”s, which were lying around in bargain bins. The selection for this compilation are his own personal favourites from that era.
Back then, electronic dance music was young, innocent and fun; it hadn’t been analysed, theorised and fragmented into the multi-genre industry it is today.
What you hear on this compilation reflects what he was playing at that time; joining the dots between ambient, techno, tribal house, breakbeat and early trance productions from the UK.
Much house and techno from the US, Belgium, Germany and Holland has been well documented, but some of the more obscure British productions are lesser known and need to be showcased.
Hopefully, these tracks will inspire and educate a new generation of electronic music fans who weren’t born then and also trigger some acid flashbacks for the older,ravers as they take a trip down memory lane.
LDI Records is thrilled to present its latest release: 'Phantom Operation'. An EP by the rising electro talent, D3070. Hailing from Italy and inspired by the sounds of Detroit, D3070, aka Alboren Bani, is quickly making a name for himself in the electro scene with his fresh approach to the genre.
'Phantom Operation' features four original tracks and two remixes by The Exaltics and Lloyd Stellar. The EP showcases D3070's signature sound and style, combining haunting synths, driving rhythms and an overall ominous atmosphere that is sure to captivate fans of the genre.
The addition of the two remixes by The Exaltics and Lloyd Stellar add a unique dimension to the EP.
"Sunrise On Slaughter Beach" ist Clutch’s 13. Studioalbum, das im September 2022 veröffentlicht wurde. Es ist eine knallharte Zusammenfassung all dessen, was die Band großartig macht, und ein weiterer großer Sprung nach vorne in Richtung Langlebigkeit der Karriere.
Die hier vorliegende, limitierte Veröffentlichung besteht aus sechs hand gepressten 7" Vinyl jeweils in eigens hergestellten Jacken und hat drei zusätzliche Bonustracks: “Boogeyman Blues”, “Arts & Crafts”, und “Railroad Daisies”. Alle drei Songs wurden während der Aufnahmen von "Sunrise on Slaughter Beach" eingespielt. Ein 8-seitiges Booklet und eine 7" Plattenspieler Matte runden das Paket aus. Das Album wurde im The Magpie Cage Recording Studio, Baltimore, MD, von dem Grammy-nominierten Tom Dalgety (Ghost, Royal Blood, Pixies) produziert und gemischt, mit zusätzlicher Technik von J Robbins (Jawbreaker, Against Me!, The Sword).
Redshape's visits to Running Back are a welcome recurrence and a soothing reminder that techno and house can still come in several shapes and sizes. Related and referring to earlier acid studies on Release Me and to a certain extend on Rise, the masked man continues to find new approaches to the 303 canon with Acid Leak.
True to form, the seasoned producer choses groove over governance, lets batteries leak and strikes a chord or two with old lovers and new votaries of the classic club techno titans of the nineties - strings included.
Wing Wing is an exemplary excursion into the special and unmatched Redshape zone that rejoins rock and dental drillers, while Acid Flow counterpoints the titles track's opulence with a dub version - both hit like a streak. The curveball and icing on the cake is Frantic. Hi-tech-jazz in technique and -soul in attitude, it feels like a late contender to the quintessential Deepest Shade of Techno compilations. Four to the floor!
Svart Records are ecstatic to present the first ever vinyl edition of the Mad Juana debut album Skin Of My Teeth. Limited to 500 copies and including a bonus CD with 5 home demos. Mad Juana were Sam Yaffa (Hanoi Rocks) and Karmen Guy, and Skin Of My Teeth will see the light of day for the first time since 1997. After the years spent as the bassist for Hanoi Rocks and Demolition 23, Yaffa began to search for new musical enthusiasm by exploring a wide range of different genres of music, while learning to play numerous new instruments. Mad Juana allowed him to step outside his comfort zone and redefine himself as a musician. “Re-mastered, the record will get a new life in the spring of 2023. The album that was created 27 years ago is still one of my favorite records. Written and created with my ex-wife Karmen Guy, the album is an inspired celebration of limitless musical joy, which combines rock'n'roll, punk, experimental music, a little bit of ethno and whatever came to our minds in the creative process" says Yaffa. Mad Juana's Skin of My Teeth was born in two countries and broke musical boundaries. “The album was first recorded at our home studio in the small Mallorcan village of Montuiri in Spain and finished at the late Hombre Laitinen's studio in Tikkurila, Finland. The album that also featured the percussion maestro, Affe Forsman was a turning point for me personally in creating music and my approach to it. All the rules and habits of making music learned previously were tossed aside, and a door to a new musical world was kicked wide open with a big boot", Yaffa describes the making of the album and continues excitedly, ”Re-mastered and with Svart's great album packaging, the album will hopefully reach the ears and eyes of those who might not have even known about its existence. I'm going to blast the vinyl to 11 as soon as I get my hands on it!".
Jack Vegas is the sixth album by Swedish electro/post punk outfit Agent Side Grinder. It marks the band’s first exploration of American culture, drawing heavily on the beatnik-era works of Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs, as well as the proto-punk and avantgarde movements — while maintaining a contemporary storytelling perspective.
The American dream becomes a symbol for escape from a Europe ravaged by pandemics, war and financial instability. Lyrical themes revolve around boredom, resilience, government and corporate intrusion, and mental health — with the occasional glimmer of light. It’s a drum machine-driven road movie, plotting its course through the desperate heart of rural Sweden.
The name Jack Vegas’ is derived from a Swedish chain of low-stakes slot machines.
The album has been produced by former ASG member Henrik Sunbring, and recorded in Stockholm during 2022.
Genre-wise Agent Side Grinder has always existed in some kind of twilight zone. Deeply rooted in early electronic and industrial music as well as proto- and post punk, their sound is driven by iterative, suggestive beats and sudden bursts of untamed ferocity, built on equal parts dissonant samples and elegant melodies.
Die Musik von Soul Supreme bewegt, groovt, pocht und schlägt mehr denn je. Die farbenfrohe Klangpalette von 'Poetic Justice' bietet die bisher größte Besetzung mit Gastmusikern: darunter Drummer J-Zone, Bassist Glenn Gaddum Jr., Jeroen Verberne (Gallowstreet) und Johnny Biner und Euan Jenkins (beide Radiohop). Mit seinem bewährten Set-up und einem neu hinzugefügten Clavinet klingt Soul Supremes Schmelztiegel aus Jazz-Funk, Hip-Hop-Grooves, gefühlvollen Cuts und Library-Funk reicher als je zuvor.
Nucleus's Elastic Rock is undisputedly a milestone in Jazz-Rock. A beautiful and vital debut album, it was first released on Vertigo in 1970. Original copies are now very tricky to score and, like all the Nucleus records, it’s aged ridiculously well. This Be With re-issue, re-mastered from the original analogue tapes, shows off just why this deserves to be back in press.
Genius trumpeter and visionary composer Ian Carr was one of the most respected British musicians of his era. He was a true pioneer and saw the potential in fusing the worlds of jazz with rock, just as Miles Davis and The Tony Williams Lifetime did in the US. In late 1969, following the demise of the Rendell-Carr quintet, and tiring of British jazz, Carr assembled the legendary Nucleus. Regarding music as a continuous process, Nucleus refused to “recognise rigid boundaries” and worked on delivering what they saw as a “total musical experience”. We can get behind that.
Under bandleader Carr, Nucleus existed as a fluid line-up of inventive, skilled musicians. This constant evolution and revolution was all part of the continuous musical exploration and discovery that took jazz to new levels. And the music has kept relevant. To steal a line from a review of our re-issue of Roots, when it comes to anything Nucleus “it’s basically already hip-hop”.
The very title Elastic Rock could be regarded as the group's MO, describing a melting point between their rock and jazz impulses. Indeed, housed in a memorable gatefold jacket designed by Roger Dean, the die cut molten teardrop shape on the front sleeve opens to reveal a fiery volcanic crater. On the back, Dean's drawing has Carr with saxophonist Brian Smith, guitarist Chris Spedding, drummer John Marshall, bassist Jeff Clyne and sax, oboe and pianist Karl Jenkins in a circle, the central core of a movement and the basis for its activity.
Recorded over four days in January 1970, Elastic Rock didn't sound like any other British jazz album. Exploding out the gate, "1916" opens with Marshall's frantic pounding before melancholic horns enter. The smooth title track, "Elastic Rock" is just a gorgeous electric blues track. Light drums, gentle melodic horns, piano and a solid bassline serve as the perfect bed for Spedding's graceful bluesy guitar melodies. The serene "Striation", a Clyne and Spedding collaboration, is led by bowed bass and is the epitome of calm before the late night laid back vibe of "Taranaki" breezes along sweetly and smoothly with great trumpet and tenor.
The truly emotional "Twisted Track" is elegant with horns, while guitar is gently played with drums and bass. Initially deeply soothing, it gradually builds with various solos and duets. "Crude Blues (Part 1)" features an excellent oboe part by Jenkins with laconic guitar helping out. "Part 2" is livelier, with a heavy backbeat and great wind parts. "1916 (Battle Of Boogaloo)" features a steady bassline and great call and response parts from the horn section.
The highly-charged centrepiece of the record, the mesmeric epic "Torrid Zone" features an hypnotic bassline and hi-hat with some of the ensemble's best soloing. Brilliantly encapsulating the jazz fusion aesthetic so desired by the group, the rhythm section is rock-influenced but magically retains a laid-back jazz vibe. Just perfection. Spacey jazz in the style of In a Silent Way, the semi-ambient "Stonescape" features smooth, muted brass, warm, smokey keys and a barely-there rhythm section. Heavenly.
The bubbling, fragile restraint of "Earth Mother" partially utilises the "Torrid Zone" bassline but takes the energy in a different direction with Marshall's frenetic drumming and Spedding's unpredictable riffing. Next comes the very idiosyncratic drum solo track by Marshall in the appropriately-titled "Speaking for Myself, Personally, in My Own Opinion, I Think." The album closes with the raucous "Persephones Jive", a track that ends the album frantically, riotously, just as it began.
This Be With edition of Elastic Rock has been re-mastered from the original Vertigo master tapes, Simon Francis’ mastering working together with Cicely Balston's cut at AIR Studios to weave their usual magic with these wonderful recordings. The stunning die-cut gatefold sleeve has been restored in all its molten glory.
Bristol multi-instrumentalist, producer and nature freak Will Yates offers a new record from his Memotone alias, an expansive, hypothetical revue titled How Was Your Life?
Launching from terrains recognizable to fans of Will’s extensive, restless discography, How Was Your Life? packs up his penchant for baroque druid folk, homespun electronics and weightless woodwinds and explodes them into glistening, fractal star dust.
Instigated by the purchase of an antiquated Y2K era guitar synthesizer, the record was produced over the first half of 2022, in a large part a result of in-studio improvisation and carved by equipment that offered both possibilities and parameters that Will relished and explored to the nth degree. The Roland GR33 not only provided sublime guitar sounds but also empowered the guitar to convincingly mimic fretless bass, tabla and a vast percussive array, also summoning an artillery of uniquely outre atmospheres over the course of the record. The resulting concoction sounds familiar yet subtly, unshakeably otherworldly, shaping up as perhaps the most honed, energized and beatific Memotone album to date.
Paradise Drips gently lifts off with wobbly guitar, randomized sequences and unidentifiable percussive elements situating us somewhere in an unearthly realm, before Open World zaps the serotonin receptors and gushes with ecstatic warmth, it’s quietly insistent soft disco shuffle and levitational fretless driving towards a totally blissed and very soft “drop”. Forest Zone sees Memotone deep in the green, with a loose, propulsive groove and dancing flutes stumbling into a medieval ritual in the clearing halfway through, and Glow In The Dark deftly bounces between spacey ambience and an undulating no wave vamp. Carved By The Moon is a delightfully melted classical cut, while Canteen Sandwich offers the record’s most explicitly nod to modernity in the form of a nimble drum workout with samurai synths and melodic percussion that heaves towards a genuine peak. Lonehead immediately backs right off, viscerally melancholic clarinet and bubbling fx making for the records most hefty introspective moment, before Walking Backwards simmers all the way down on an wistful arpeggio, rooting back in earthly reality with charmed rhythms and jazzy tunings. Catharsis complete, Memotone is onto the next incarnation.
Will Yates has been making music as Memotone since 2010, releasing music on labels like Black Acre, Disktopia and Accidental Meetings, also releasing music as O.G. Jigg and Half Nelson. He’s worked as a producer, session musician and live performer on a broad spectrum of projects, and recently provided source sounds that made up Batu’s “Opal” on Timedance.
How Was Your Life? was written, produced and mixed by Will Yates. It was mastered by Chris Wang. Art and design by Hugo Bernier.
Baby Rose makes healing music for the aimless and heartbroken. The Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter and producer's uniquely rich voice naturally lends itself to her powerful, smoke-filled ballads lamenting lost loves and broken futures. "I make music to help myself get through things," she says. The piercing honesty and vulnerability she brings to her lyrics in turn helps others process their feelings and find a place of healing. For Rose, it's a journey that's still ongoing. "If I'm going to leave anything behind, it's going to be getting people back to themselves," she says. "As I get back to myself, it's a constant reset: Remember who you are, remember who you want to be." You can hear the impact of this approach in Baby Rose's upcoming second album, Through and Through. Take the hypnotic "Fight Club." Over the track's simmering baseline and crashing cymbals, she declares, "I don't need no one else to show me the way." She describes the song as a "breaking of the shell. It encourages me to just go for it and not care about what anyone else thinks." Therein lies Baby Rose's strength: a determination to live, love, and create on her own terms. "I'm not just a singer with a unique voice," she says. "I'm somebody that has something to say." In the years since releasing her last album, To Myself, Rose has been painstakingly piecing together its sequel. Started almost immediately after its release, her new body of work finds her in a state of musical and personal transition. It's a subtle merging of new sounds_stirring rock, upbeat r&b, psychedelic funk, pop, and soulful ballads_, all mastered through analog tape to make the music feel warmer and all-encompassing. It's also a journey inward as she battles past fear and self-doubt to finally discover_and love_who she is, where she is. Finishing an album with such peace and firm resolution is a first for Rose, but she makes it clear: She's nowhere near done writing her story. "I think as long as I'm being raw and trying to push past my comfort zone, it will feel rewarding," she says. "I don't want to be the type that doesn't take risks because I'm afraid. I have to trust that as long as the music is honest and innovative, it'll be timeless."
Third release in the 'first time on vinyl' trilogy, following the quickly sold out 'Pink Lady Lemonade - You're From Outer Space' (REPOSELP102) & 'Myth Of The Love Electrique' (REPOSELP111)
Here we have the bands classic 2007 double album 'Acid Motherly Love' pressed on vinyl for the first time.
This 2LP set is pressed on transparent orange vinyl, and comes housed in a fully redesigned gatefold sleeve complete with obligatory nudity.
'Acid Motherly Love' is another OUT-THERE ride through Acid Mothers weird and psychedelic world. Guitars howl, riffs grow BIGGER with each minute and brains get fried along the way. Recorded under falling ash and burning roof tiles, 'Acid Motherly Love' features every dimension of their legendary underground sound - from wild riff heavy jams, to quieter acoustic passages and spoken monologues, all capped by the trance inducing 15 minute-plus epic 'Santa Sanrodriguez'.
A dynamic configuration of rhythms plus melodies, overlaid with musings on repetitive neverlands: R.i.O. welcomes KXB, aka Sam Gill and Wes Holland, a duo that, as they put it, “was born and baptised on the balcony at Robert Johnson in 2019, while Wes lived in London and Sam in Melbourne.” “Areas of Uncertainty” is their first musical outcome. It carries a rhythmic show bag, that circumnavigates streamlined track architecture. From Can-ish live drumming submitted by guest rhythmist Graeme Pogson to sequenced synth spheres, the three multilayered groove landscapes of the Australian duo punch severely arcane. Sometimes techno frankness messes with the big bad dub universe. Or Hacienda- Breakbeats cut tellingly through looped vocal waters, sanctified sung in by “Thrush”, one third of the Melbourne based Aussie/Deutsch swamp beat trio Concentration. Additionally, their buddy Richard Fearless added a remix for the premiere, fishing in dark dub zones, bringing in anxious cosmic tones. All recorded in a deeper shade of space somewhere in Melbourne, Berlin, and Fearless’ Metal Box studio in London, while diving into an avalanche of infinitely hyperlinked cadences.
New signing to Xtra Mile Recordings - Hannah Rose Platt releases her new album 'Deathbed Confessions' on 19th May 2023. 'Deathbed Confessions' is a concept album inspired by classic horror, Rod Serling’s ‘The Twilight Zone’, BBC’s ‘Inside No 9’ and Samuel Pepys’s ‘Balladeer’ and is produced by Ed Harcourt. Available digitally, CD and beautiful gold vinyl, gatefold sleeve with special A3 Print of cover art. 'Deathbed Confessions' is an eclectic collection - sure to intrigue, disturb, and pull on the heartstrings of any listener. A collection of haunting vignettes linked through polarised themes of death, love, the afterlife, murder, regret, the uncanny, and bizarre… “Deathbed Confessions” boasts a wide dynamic curve, featuring the luscious swells of the Budapest Film Orchestra on ‘Inventing the Stars’, Harcourt’s signature piano playing and vocals (featured on the sea-shanty duet ‘The Mermaid and The Sailor’) and classical Ondes-Martenist Charlie Draper on ‘Home for Wayward Dolls’. Hannah Rose Platt is an acclaimed singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and storyteller, who merges the sinister authorial prowess of Nick Cave and Tom Waits, with the gilded Americana of Bobbie Gentry. Track 1 - 'Dead Man On The G Train' - released 24th February 2023 - Single ‘Dead Man on the G Train’ was the first song I wrote for the record and the opening title. I wanted to write little four-minute ‘pulp noir’ mystery thriller, which sets the tone for the rest of the record. Ed and I had such fun recording this track, expect to hear bombastic drums and beastly guitar train sounds. We hope to transport you to 1930s New York, someone’s boarding the G train to Brooklyn and they won’t be getting off… (listen out for the twist!)’ Track 2 - 'Feeding Time For Monsters' - released 29th March 2023 - Single “If a house represents the psyche – what would haunt the rooms of our very own haunted houses? I explore a mix of my own ptsd experiences and personal ghosts in this song. Ed and I wanted to create a sense of chaos and dissociation with woozy vocals and thrashing guitars (and the video animation by William Davies is just astonishing! Check it out!
RP Boo's essential first album, 2013's ‘Legacy’ caused a storm of acclaim worldwide as people finally started to piece together his true place in Footwork and the powerful legacy of his work as an innovator. In parallel with productions, his always on-point DJ sets have lit up festivals and clubs worldwide and continue to do so to this day, notably leading to him being named one of the ‘100 World’s Best DJs’ in a recent book by DJ Mag. Now on its 10th anniversary ‘Legacy Vol.2’ continues his story. Featuring tracks created between 2002 and 2007, this is a wonderous selection of material, some known, some unknown. The album kicks off with the dark and epic ‘Eraser’ created in September 2007, during a time RP was going to underground Footwork club War Zone on the west side of Chicago. The track was inspired by, and created to fuel, the “taunting words of intimidation” between dancers.” And now it makes for one intense album opener. Some cuts are inspired by everyday life – take for example 2005's ‘Pop Machine’, which was inspired by the time he was working at Speedway Oil Change who had a temperamental soda/pop machine. One day, a customer put money in the machine and nothing came out, so he continued to press the button, and for some reason RP found this funny so he went over to the machine and started pressing the buttons himself and everyone he touched started saying “Work!.” Inspired once he was back home in his studio he made ‘Pop Machine’ in tribute to the defunct machinery. When he came back to work the next day and played the track for all this co-workers it blew their minds and they also laughed with at how creative RP could get using things from his everyday life as inspiration. ‘Pop Machine’ also illustrates how RP’s Footwork uses repetition and minimalism as fuel. Years later RP Boo is still inspired by Foot Work – the art of dancing and working for dancers. He continues to shake up clubs and isn’t afraid to get out from behind the decks and drop some Foot himself. We’ll let the man himself have the final word - “What inspires me to keep going is seeing the people having an awesome time moving on the dance floor, as well as playing music that is a recognizable part of my life. I’m one with it.”
Lele Sacchi & Asian Fake’s Stolen Goods Records return with the third instalment of Black Loops & Innocent Soul’s ‘High Cutz’ series, accompanied by a remix from Italian house legends Pastaboys.
After a debut compilation featuring the likes of Bawrut, Elisa Bee, Ruff Stuff & label head Lele Sacchi, Stolen Goods Records amassed a following of Dixon, Harvey, DJ Seinfeld, Dam Swindle & many more. The Italian imprint returns this December, dropping two tracks from deep house mainstays Black Loops & Innocent Soul. Black Loops trawls the depths of his record bag in revered clubs around the world while tallying up releases on labels such as Madhouse, Shall Not Fade and Freerange. Additionally, Strictly Street Sound label boss Innocent Soul has made a name for himself for his energetic deep house music.
Together, they join forces for their collaborative ‘High Cutz’ series, which has previously been released via Toy Tonics and Rough Limited. Robust beats form the backbone of ‘Believe In U’, a plucked bassline brings the funk and passionate vocals provide the soul. They warp its earworm bassline deep into the jacking zone, closing out the first in a series of EP’s on Stolen Goods Records featuring established artists and talented newcomers.
Head of the Lo-Fi movement with the SP-404
-In 2006 he dropped the first SP404 kung fu inspired beat tape under the alias 5 ELEMENT NINJA Beatjitzu vol 1. Since then he has garnered a cult following of SP404 kung fu inspired producers and sparked a genre. He is the forefather of said style and has numerous beat tapes under various aliases such as 5 Element Ninja, Lords of da LO FI, GODZ of WuTang, MAZINGA Z, JIM KELLY and of course Bruce Li. -He has worked with Killarmy featuring Cappadonna of the WU TANG CLAN and others. He has complete production credit on albums with LONE NINJA, Recognize Ali and Verbal Kent(Dueling Experts) and lastly CLEVER 1 of DA BUZE BRUVAZ. -Also he has appeared on albums with credits alongside Hop hop royalty RZA, True Master, 4th Disciple and legendary PETE ROCK. Lord Beatjitzu presents 420, a densely packed album that captures the same sense of euphoria and paranoia one can gain from an extensive and smoky 4/20 celebration. He has crafted a soundtrack with loops upon loops of smoked-out loops. Sort of like the smoke rings that used to emanate from Cheech and Chong having one of their notorious sessions. Adding on to his varied discography, this fits more in line with the varied sample chops of his celebrated Mazinga moniker. Intricately woven to provide the perfect soundtrack for 4/20 and any other day or night that you have a moment to kick back and enter another zone. Lord Beatjitzu is a beatmaker originally from Mexico City D.F. who stays studying and constantly honing his craft. Extremely reclusive and low key, he is known strictly through sparse collaborations and various beat tapes which he has put out starting in 2006. He has put out over 100 beat tapes and collaborations under an innumerable amount of known and unknown aliases.
São Paulo-based carnival collective and brass band combine retro horns with cumbia, baile funk, jazz, Michael Jackson & more
A Espetacular Charanga do França started as a political act, part of a recent movement which has seen the people of São Paulo reclaim their streets, turning their city into a revelation of Brazilian carnival. The group takes equal inspiration from the powerful charanga horn and percussion bands that stir the crowds at Brazilian football matches, and the expertly-arranged sounds of 60s
samba, finding that sweet spot between musicianship and music that makes you lose your shit. And they do it with humour, clear as day in their covers of Michael Jackson and pagode pop hits, and the baile funk and Balkan rhythms that sneak their way in to the tunes.
Since forming in 2013 the group have become an iconic staple of São Paulo’s revived carnival, generating crowds 15,000 strong. Though COVID-19 put a stop to them hitting the streets this year, in 2020 they made their way to carnival with over 60 brass players and 30 percussionists, declaring their bloco an anti-fascist zone, their reply to a political climate in Brazil that is suffocating human rights, culture and any hope for equality.
“I like to think that Charanga is an oasis in the middle of all the shit that we live, where you don't have to be worried about who you are, what are your preferences, whether you can be comfortable. If you want to parade with us wearing a tea towel you can, you won't be harassed. And it's also about music, it's about listening to music. We do this thing the whole year, we rehearse all year, we do too much so that people can just get crazy and not care about the music.” Thiago França
The group is the brainchild of saxophonist Thiago França, best known as a founding member of Afro-punk explorers Metá-Metá, and one of São Paulo’s most in-demand horn men, with credits on influential albums by Criolo, Elza Soares, Céu and Lucas Santtana. A
Cavernous, mystical beat tribalism from the GT zone; loose yet conscious-minded dub-wise runnings land on planet Earth. Murderous tempos create fiery, twisted percussion dances, lifted and buried in blazing licks of dabbed bass-weight. 808 moves left to right, upside down, with a melodic, hypnosis-minded sway. DEEP transforms waves of metallic drum machines, isolated melodies, and wooden beats into rooted sonic spiritualism recalling distant, future bygone eras. Hand made cover artwork.
In hand-stamped, paper taped sleeve.
Lurka ended the year on a high with a kick-ass new EP on his own new label Make Your Own. He is now set to start 2023 in an equally strong fashion with four more futuristic bass fusions. 'Wire' is a minimal stepper with bursts of bass and flitting percussive lines. 'Molten Drum' is another twitchy mix of malfunctioning computer sounds, refracted vocals and fizzing synths that keep you on edge then 'Machine' picks ups the pace with jumpy rhythms and militant snare work. 'Zone (Packet)' rounds out with a double-speed workout and juke patterns that head out on a cosmic journey.
A precedent of sorts to, erm, Armand van Helden vs Fatboy Slim’s 1999 bout, ‘The Heavyweight Sound Fight’ takes pride of place among iDEAL’s hall of oddities with one of the zaniest recordings by three international leaders of the avant-garde. Double LP with an LP-sized 12-page booklet designed by Sean McCann of Recital.
Adapting all the pomp and ceremony of a boxing match to ludicrous ends - including a flier depicting each artist with their dukes up - they produced what sounds like a great night out for NYC’s experimental cognoscenti with Charlie Morrow (USA) vs Carles santos (Spain) each backed by a band - Soho Baroque Opera Company with the assistance of the New Wilderness Foundation - while Sweden’s Sten Hanson acts as referee, and Armand Schwerner takes the role of announcer in thick, nasal New York brogue. It’s brilliantly daft and subversive but accomplished in a witty way that maybe escapes too many solemnly po-faced avant-garde conceptualists nowadays, and remains a strange outlier in the history of NYC avant garde and beyond.
“Operating as an aural window into an happening that occurred more than 40 years ago, “The Heavyweight Sound Fight” unveils a different context of experimental music than is not often encountered today. Running across the album’s four sides, within all the seriousness of art and technique, is the unmistakable presence of humor, play, and the absurd. The audience can’t help but laugh and cheer as the announcer - effecting a deep New York accent and nodding toward notable attendees like Allison Knowles, Dick Higgins, and Jackson Mac Low - takes an active role in the fight, each artist delivering an array of vocalizations - from extended technique utterances to rants - against the next, with the bands weighing in and engaging in their own battles, ranging from big band dirges and marches, to outright experimental electronic madness. It’s a trully raucous affair that brings that radicalism carried by its sounds into entirely new zones.
According to Marrow, he was deemed “winner” in an “off-script” move by the judges, and Santos never spoke to him again, continuing the wild and wonderful mystery and humor of the performance into the present day. Who knows what Santos, who sadly passed away in 2017, would say.”
Limited Edition Clear 12” Vinyl Single (1 x 12” clear vinyl in sleeve). Soft Cell’s 2022 return with ‘*Happiness Not Included’, featuring hit single ‘Purple Zone’ with Pet Shop Boys, has proven to be well worth the 20 year wait, with the album receiving a deluge of critical acclaim as it raced into the UK Top 10 - making it their highest charting studio set in almost 30 years. ‘Light Sleepers’ was a ‘*Happiness Not Included’ highlight and band favourite, accompanied by a video directed by Charlie Ann Max and starred esteemed performer and winner of season 7 of the American RuPaul's Drag Race, Violet Chachki, as a young Marc Almond. Available on limited edition 12” clear vinyl, this release features new mixes of the track by The Grid. The 12” also features brand new re-recorded brass mixes of ‘Last Chance’, a track from previous album ‘Cruelty Without Beauty’. A huge fan favourite, the track was according to Marc Almond, “the natural successor to Say Hello, Wave Goodbye and one of my preferred Soft Cell songs period, why was this never a single?’. The re-reworked versions by Dave Ball and album producer Philip Larsen are now adorned with a full live brass section.
Hard rave wave brothers, Younger Than Me and Curses have joined forces once again for their 2nd EP as Y2C. This time, in collaboration with 24/Hrs- the electronic concept label part of Milano's invincible Tempio Del Futuro Perduto collective, club and creative community space.
The project invites artists to come spend 24 hours at the on-site studio located within Tempio, and create music inspired by the energy and vibe of the multi-dimensional space.
Y2C return harder this time. Dragging their rave roots into a rusty blender drenched in neon acid and metallic percussion heard in the tunnels of lost dystopian cities.
From heavy hitting club tracks to a hypnotic ambient escape, the EP rounds out furiously with an absolutely devious and destructive electro techno bomb of a remix from fellow Berliner, Infinity Division (ex Minimal Violence).
Get ready for the storm. Y2C is bringing the hail and snow.
Los Angeles based pianist, producer, and songwriter John Carroll Kirby traveled to Pietrasanta, Italy in the summer of 2018 on a self-imposed writing trip. During his stay he composed Tuscany, a two side-long solo piano exploration of this particular geographical envelope, a place where nature is shaped into form.
Kirby would cycle 12 kilometers each day to Cascata di Malbacco, a waterfall with jade pools and silver stone, and the inspiration for Side A of Tuscany. His own Cascata di Malbacco tumbles and shimmers along the piano as a gorgeous eighteen-minute-long improvised piece, some of it polished and some moments left raw.
On a ride to Sant’Anna, twenty-something kilometers away, Kirby took a wrong turn and got lost among the hills, where he encountered several monuments memorializing the victims of the Sant’Anna di Stazzema massacre. The dark history of an abandoned mill house served as the inspiration for the album’s haunting Side B, a eulogy for all of those forgotten by time.
Although Side A is inspired by the natural beauty of a waterfall, and Side B by the cruelty that people can inflict upon others, both pieces revolve around the same seven-note bassline. The idea Kirby is iterating on is the realization that darkness exists inside light, and vice versa; Tuscany is an inquiry into this duality and its consequences.
John Carroll Kirby has recently released records on Leaving Records, Outside Insight and Pinchy & Friends. In the studio and on the road, he’s produced and/or played with Connan Mockasin, Blood Orange, Sebastian Tellier, Shabazz Palaces and Solange.
He recently signed to Stones Throw Records.
Patience is a new outlet for exploring further beyond the break than usual. Inspired by the music perpetually on rotation at HQ – with E2-E4 representing the format’s high tide mark – each release will be one artist’s deep dive down one inspirational wormhole spread across two sides of vinyl, or two side-long sojourns making full use of a round 12” piece of plastic. Set and forget, zone out to tune in.
11th album by the one-of-a-kind collective: psychedelia and free form jazz (not jazz) trigger a sophisticated excursion into weird textures with drastic turns. Dislocated dense music full of secret connections!
Kammerflimmer Kollektief – "Schemen"
Before reason prevails, invoked by those who want everything to remain as it is, Kammerflimmer Kollektief disrupts the established supply chains of sound. It seeks more interesting ways to assemble them. Trusting in this, because of the fact that every sound that still comes out of a guitar, a bass, a harmonium, drums and electronic devices has already been taken into the common mangle of meaning anyway. Enough of all that. Here, nothing is explained. Here we speak in schemes. Polished and jerky.
The images that Kammerflimmer Kollektief conjures up therefore happen not in the focus of consciousness, but rather in its outer realms. In those to which one does not give one's full attention at the moment, but which are nevertheless perceived. For example, when a leaf falls from the ground back up to the tree in the corner of your eye, and for an instant you think this is possible, before you realize it was a small bird flying into the tree; it is in just such irritating moments between perception and realization that the art of the Kollektief also unfolds. On "Schemen", familiar fragments float gently around their core – a Fender Rhodes tone, a bass figure, a guitar motif, a masterful drum shuffle, a moment of icy stasis borrowed from the harmonium playing of Christa 'Nico' Päffgen. Triggering brief associations, they slowly rush off in other directions through free jazz-informed editing work, whereupon such zones can also arise in which perception has a few tricks ready and earlier experience suddenly breaks into the now in a completely different way. Half suspected, half seen.
Half-music like Can from Cologne – also masters of improvised editing – sometimes produced a few decades ago in their in-between moments. The first minutes of "Future Days" for example, which fade in gently, sketch a barely graspable figure emerging from all directions of the room. Kammerflimmer Kollektief also engages in similarly open moments of development. Loosely, it eludes the first formative impressions, keeping itself ready for moments that do not follow any logic of appointment. This looseness in handling makes Kammerflimmer Kollektief so fluidly audible, even when dissonant peaks and free playing arise. What Karlheinz Stockhausen is to Can's understanding of composition, the recordings of The Cocoon are to Kammerflimmer Kollektief. The Cocoon, a meeting of garage psychedelics from the Hannover area with free jazzers from the Galaxie Dream Band, whose album "While The Recording Engineer Sleeps", recorded in 1985 in unguarded moments, operates in a very similar way with decentralized perceptual ambivalences and only appeared more or less secretly four years later on Wilhelm Reich Schallspeicher. Other traces of "Schemen" lead to the debut album of Quicksilver Messenger Service. The guitars of Gary Duncan and John Cipollina, which refer to themselves in an unforced manner, are instructions to let go. They don't want to be traced in every note as a solo, but they give their music a sense that the essential takes place off center, in the mutual and intuitive gift of loving attentions. Consciousness-free.
Loving turns like the little guitar phrase that, like a kind of leitmotif, is repeatedly ghosting more or less unchanged through all of the Kammerflimmer Kollektief albums. A Coricidin induced, very catchy slide idea filtered out of ancient Æther, which – who knows – maybe even centuries ago found its way from somewhere to America – the old, the eerie – and from there wafted on through the ages to southern Germany, to a smoky studio in the Upper Rhine lowlands. A memory of which even the memory no longer knows what it once reminded. Unsaid, then forgotten.
In Kammerflimmer Kollektief you will also find a friend of slowly building, unhurried music, which probably would have been appreciated by the old Franz Mesmer, who 200 years ago, after tranquilizing treatments, sometimes used to play for his patients ambient melodies on the enormous glass harmonica. However, in order not to surrender completely to the flow of one's own life energy, as Mesmer had in mind with his therapies, Kammerflimmer Kollektief occasionally adds hectic tensions, gently embraced by the droning of a sine wave generator, as if a trance could briefly refesh. This old analog sine wave generator is new in the Kammerflimmer assortment of sounds. So, the art of the Kollektief likes to dock occasionally in modern times, yet with the past in mind. Mental states begin to flicker between imagination and certainty, between culture-bound art expression and coincidences: A cawing and scraping can always just be a cawing and scraping with Kammerflimmer Kollektief, the way Andy Warhol's mushroom eater just eats a mushroom.
Heike Aumüller's cover works, which illustrate all the Kammerflimmer Kollektief albums, additionally act as amplifiers of unexplained refractions. Her style consists of eye-corner art that remains so, even when looked at directly. Her shots remain disquieting because they do not jolt themselves into a reassuring order, even in retrospect. Rather than evading the fear that arises when looking at them by trying to impose some irrational rhyme or reason, that fear must simply be endured. This strategy of endurance is equally applicable to the music. The trick is to let parts be parts without compulsively seeking delusional patterns that lull us into a false sense of security and in doing so, possibly delude ourselves. In this context, freedom means not having to anxiously attach a fantasized superior meaning to everything. "Schemen" has an conspiracy disintegrating effect.
b A2 Zweites Kapitel (ruckartig) [feat. Heike Aumüller]
I was dancing when I was out, I was dancing when I was in. Is it strange to dance so late? Is it strange to dance so soon? Cosmic dancers always ball. Dancing with themselves, dancing space away. Right into the smallest hole a human brain can create: the inner cosmos, a psychedelic region, where time gets space and space turns to haze.
Berlin based producer TM Solver is such a kind of cosmic dancer. He has danced late. And so soon. Since 2008 he released yearly one, sometimes two albums via the German Berlin School dedicated label Syngate and its experimental subdivision Luna. Intensely meandering synthesizer journey music, that is pirouetting on inner universes, genuinely crafted in the tradition of Berlin School and Krautrock. You can catch the unearthly nuances of Can and the spaciously swinging psychedelic corners of Amon Dül, Embryo, Tangerine Dream, or Klaus Schulze. As TM Solver has been a lover of analog synthesizers for almost 30 years, all pulsates on analogue sound orbs under the zigzagging guidance of machines like Moog Prodegy, Korg MS20 and GRP A4, as well as state-of-the-art systems as ASM Hydrasynth and Korg Wavestate. When he got in touch with the Berlin club scene and all its propelling grooves in 2006, a new rhythmic universe joined his vast musical space of sound latitudes. “Tinkering around with sound structures is my thing. Leading the listener into a combination of music and sound spaces.“ he reveals on his emotive musical art. How affecting it works, is now displayed with four epic compositions for R.i.O., Berlin Wedding’s label of novel ways for caved rhythmic patterns. Grooving between 90 to 240 BPM, they offer a vast variety of emotional landscapes, slowing down, rolling up, drifting into genuinely layered tonality magic. Headspace music for vigilant wanderers. Utterly psychedelic and yet so clear. His R.i.O. debut “Subtraktiv Additiv“ comes with five additional remixes, fashioned by R.i.O. conspirator Benedikt Frey, Amsterdam based DJ and producer Mayo, “Die Orakel” magician O-Wells from Frankfurt, Siamese Twin Records co-runner Sunju Hargun, and the versatile club and beyond production duo Red Axes. They all respect TM Solver’s analogue zones and pitch them into the 115 to 130 BPM districts, while transcending his absorbing synth compositions into the world of nervous acid-laden ambient, slow-mo techno, industrial bass, post-trance, and all that hallucinogenic echo house. Nine subtle energy vibrations, epic and full of countless facets, shaped to turn on, tune in, and drop out.
The duo WILDES from the south of Germany, consisting of Jana Pantha and Jenny Tulipa, presents a musical mix of electro-synth-pop, post-punk and dark disco influences. After the release of their first EP “RAWWR” in 2021, their debut album entitled “KLISCHEE” will be released on 3 February 2023. Released via the Kommando 84 label, the album features 11 songs and a musical re-interpretation of German-language Neue Deutsche Welle sounds. The songs combine spoken word passages in which the singers combine a certain irony with word-playful rhymes. In addition to world-political, social issues, the songs revolve around the complexity of the new romance in love - between cosmos and stereo. The strong and experimentally avant-garde lyrics accompany the danceable pulse of the drum computer, melodic synth waves and the shimmering solos of the lead guitar.
The album “Klischee” begins with an electro-pop track that combines consistent grooves with atmo- spheric sound arrangements and a lead guitar that accompanies our journey to the moon. With the chorus’ high-pitched words, „Konsum - leg mich auf den Moon“ (“Consumption - put me on the Moon”), WILDES dryly yet humorously allude to a society that couldn’t fly “higher”.
The following cheeky song Leger in Schwarz combines impeccable post punk with influences from the NNDW scene. A short love story led by the electronic beat of the synthesizer makes the hearts of the night beat faster. With casual reduction, a guitar riff leads through the song. The guitar solo finally rounds off the plea about the longing for a good flirt.
Italo disco shimmers and pulsates on the driving song Capri. With lyrics like “Pack the boats - Vai a bordo”, Capri is a homage to the tried and tested Italo feeling with a cappucino on the terrazza, or indeed on the yacht with a view of the rocky walls of the island. An electric charge of sequencers and synth tracks acts here as a lightness of being in contrast to the porosity of the rock.
An electrifying electric guitar solo kicks off the fourth track with a mysterious invitation to Steig ein translated, get in. Hypnotised by the lights of the road, dazzled in the side mirror, a clearly repeating rhythm leads into the chorus and through the coming verses. English spoken-word lyrics add to the stoicism of the German language. The song’s great power ends with the line Lost in the dark, holding open the finale of the “Night Drive” encounter.
Digital and stereo on all channels, the distinctly tight and robust rhythm sounds in the song Apparat. A clear and simple synth melody is heard as a contrast and the electric bass gives the balance of the machine at points. Hiddenly, WILDES points here to the superior power that can control human action beyond all limits. A piece as a laudation to all the science fiction novels that play with the switching of the individual parts.
Side One of the vinyl is finalised by a song called La Grande Bellezza that motivates to dance and sing along. The punky pop craft lives through the recurring beat of the rhythm guitar. Here the focus is on the woman in all her facets. The great beauty, una donna, who can do everything as well as wanting everything and nothing...a strong woman who, however, also staggers and wants to jump off the cliff. Clearly and distinctly, the musical accompaniment of the drum machine and the accompanying synth melody reflect hidden parallel worlds and the ambiguity of character - of life? We get a desire for more and turn the round record.
The B side starts with a powerful guitar riff, complemented by a catchy and strong bassline that runs through the song. In this work, WILDES provocatively describes the West’s lust for the much-cov- eted Schwarzes Gold black gold. The song is reminiscent of the works of the band D.A.F. and thus ties in with the electronic punk sound spate.
The driving guitar riff joins in with the reduced synth bass sequence - the electro-pop song with the title Hitze (Heat) came onto the digital music market as the first single from the LP in the summer of 2022. Pulsatingly, the drum computer lets the beats vibrate to the rhythm of heated air. The duo po- etically describes heat with supercooled voices, a clarity in the sky that makes everything flow, that makes the breath dry. The work ends with a melodic synth solo.
Ich lad dich ein, I invite you - we have all said or heard this sentence before. A chance meeting of two people later leads to the altar in love. A far-reaching question that more or less arises in many love relationships at some point “Do you dare?” positions itself in lyrical contrast to the simple ques- tion in the refrain “Do you need sugar?”. WILDES plays with laconic poetry and, full of irony, makes the listeners think about living together. Krautrock contours are skilfully used in this piece. Reduced to the essentials, the chorus immediately sticks in the ear. A cheerful mix of steel drums and infec- tious solo.
Toccami - touch me! We sit on padded leather chairs - “you’re a rocket! Peng Puff Peng” - this song by the band WILDES joins experimental art-punk-pop, electronically with flowing synth waves we take off immediately. Melodically sung, lyrical layers of lyrics dance loosely light and gracefully in the ears of the viewer. The rhythmic beat visualises the feeling of floating in a spaceship. It’s love in the universe - “I love you, my darling” sounds tipsy in the beat-heavy disco refrain.
Hypnotically, WILDES launches into the final song of the entire LP. The title Zone takes us on a journey through time. Inspired by the film Stalker, we find ourselves in a science fiction setting that couldn’t be more present in today’s European events. The musicality of the electric guitar riffs ac- companied by simple new wave drums drives the listener into unknown realms.
Repetition and electronic synth sounds play a compositional role alongside rocking guitar riffs like their forerunners in the NDW scene. Lyrically, each song varies between pop-romantic and politically critical passages. Listeners start pondering about hedonistic life and its consequences. Sometimes it feels like listening to a Tarantino soundtrack in German, other times it feels like listening to an 80s track by a James Bond. Science fiction fantasies and reality add up in dadaistic theatricality to spir- ited synthpunk of the New German Wave from the South. Discoid beats and driving drums in digital are included.
This much delayed, and therefore much anticipated box set from Moondance, Dope Ammo and Kniteforce finally arrives. Containing too many epic tracks and remixes to mention, this is a truly incredible album of unstoppable music. The album has already streamed over 1/2 a million views, and the anticipation for the vinyl arrival is huge, not only because of the sheer weight of quality music on it, but because it was meant to be here in 2022, and due to the endless delays in vinyl production, has taken until now to land.
After releasing "Precipice Fantasy Part I" in October 2022, Koudlam delivers the second part of his album.
The first part is a salvo of meteorites where the artist uses, as usual, standardised pop motifs to better disrupt them, and always without deviating from the ultimate melody, chanted to trance.
The second part is an instrumental and contemplative record, a kind of music for an uncomfortable yoga session, that of a tourist who dreamed of climbing Everest but who no longer has the strength to get out of Kathmandu's underworld.
Koudlam thus delivers the soundtrack of summits and precipices. Or rather the path between the two, sinuous, vertiginous, always on the edge of the blade.
Berlin based producer Blush Response returns to Megastructure_ for his first full length release since 2021’s Reconstitution, NEUROSCAPE
9 tracks of absolutely screaming and energetic Post-Industrial Techno / IDM for those looking for sounds on the fringes of reality. Driving, pulsating, organic alien grooves populate the dense landscape of sound and showcase the next evolution in Blush’s sonic signature.
Neuroscape features collaborations from Bon Harris of Nitzer Ebb (a rare vocal appearance!) on Chained, and Richard Devine on Foldspace Transition – a track that was started in Devine’s studio in Atlanta and then completed in Berlin. Blush also makes his first apperance on vocals in nearly a decade, with the opening track, Submit.
h 8 Chained Feat. Bon Harris
Feat. Richard Devine
green marbled vinyl[13,87 €]
Paul 'Damage' Bailey, one of the original resident DJs at Birmingham's House Of God club nights along with Surgeon and Sir Real, strikes back on De:tuned with 2 new relentless techno cuts. On offer, a mind-bending modular exploration that takes no prisoners from the Brummie powerhouse accompanied by top drawer remixes. James Ruskin transforms 'Hadal Zone' into a rare darkroom electro orientated piece, while Makaton turns out a deep pulsating 4/4 techno version of 'Decompression'. It's a real burner.
Kevin Foakes (Openmind, DJ Food, Ninja Tune) created all the graphic work. Mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis and pressed on 180 gr vinyl. A separate digital release will also be available at the usual digital shops. Stay tuned!
Black Vinyl[12,82 €]
green marbled vinyl
Paul 'Damage' Bailey, one of the original resident DJs at Birmingham's House Of God club nights along with Surgeon and Sir Real, strikes back on De:tuned with 2 new relentless techno cuts. On offer, a mind-bending modular exploration that takes no prisoners from the Brummie powerhouse accompanied by top drawer remixes. James Ruskin transforms 'Hadal Zone' into a rare darkroom electro orientated piece, while Makaton turns out a deep pulsating 4/4 techno version of 'Decompression'. It's a real burner.
Kevin Foakes (Openmind, DJ Food, Ninja Tune) created all the graphic work. Mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis and pressed on 180 gr vinyl. A separate digital release will also be available at the usual digital shops. Stay tuned!
Over the past 20 years, The New Pornographers have proven themselves one of the most excellent bands in indie rock. The group's ninth album and first for Merge establishes them alongside modern luminaries like Yo La Tengo and Superchunk when it comes to their ability to evolve while still retaining what made them so special in the first place. A dazzling and intriguing collection of songs, "Continue as a Guest" finds bandleader A.C. Newman and his compatriots Neko Case, Kathryn Calder, John Collins, Todd Fancey, and Joe Seiders exploring fresh territory and shattering the barriers of their collective comfort zone. Newman began work on "Continue as a Guest" after the band had finished touring behind 2019's "In the Morse Code of Brake Lights". Themes of isolation and collapse bleed into this album, as Newman tackles the ambivalence of day-to-day life during the COVID-19 pandemic. But Newman says that the album's title track also addresses the concerns that come with being in a band for so long. "The idea of continuing as a guest felt apropos to the times," he explains. "Feeling out of place in culture, in society, being in a band that has been around for so long_not feeling like a part of any zeitgeist, but happy to be separate and living your simple life, your long fade-out. Living in a secluded place in an isolated time, it felt like a positive form of acceptance: find your own little nowhere, find some space to fall apart, continue as a guest." Newman discovered new vocal approaches within his own talent. There are new and rich tones to Newman's voice throughout Continue as a Guest, from his dusky lower register over "Angelcover" to his slippery slide over the glimmering synths of "Firework in the Falling Snow," to bold tones he embraces on the soaring "Bottle Episodes." Another sonic change comes courtesy of saxophonist Zach Djanikian, whose tenor and bass luxuriate all over Continue as a Guest's alluring chassis, especially on the menacing build of "Pontius Pilate's Home Movies." Along with Newman's usual collaborators, several songwriters contribute. The bursting opener and first single "Really Really Light" is a co-write with Dan Bejar (Destroyer, the New Pornographers). Then there's "Firework in the Falling Snow," a collaboration with Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz and Sad13. Even as Newman embraces a collaborative spirit more than ever, his new album is a testament to his ability to discover new artistic sides of himself. "Continue as a Guest" sounds like a thrilling path forward for The New Pornographers, with songs that generate a contagious feeling of excitement for the future as well.
Ltd. Green & Blue Vinyl
Over the past 20 years, The New Pornographers have proven themselves one of the most excellent bands in indie rock. The group's ninth album and first for Merge establishes them alongside modern luminaries like Yo La Tengo and Superchunk when it comes to their ability to evolve while still retaining what made them so special in the first place. A dazzling and intriguing collection of songs, "Continue as a Guest" finds bandleader A.C. Newman and his compatriots Neko Case, Kathryn Calder, John Collins, Todd Fancey, and Joe Seiders exploring fresh territory and shattering the barriers of their collective comfort zone. Newman began work on "Continue as a Guest" after the band had finished touring behind 2019's "In the Morse Code of Brake Lights". Themes of isolation and collapse bleed into this album, as Newman tackles the ambivalence of day-to-day life during the COVID-19 pandemic. But Newman says that the album's title track also addresses the concerns that come with being in a band for so long. "The idea of continuing as a guest felt apropos to the times," he explains. "Feeling out of place in culture, in society, being in a band that has been around for so long_not feeling like a part of any zeitgeist, but happy to be separate and living your simple life, your long fade-out. Living in a secluded place in an isolated time, it felt like a positive form of acceptance: find your own little nowhere, find some space to fall apart, continue as a guest." Newman discovered new vocal approaches within his own talent. There are new and rich tones to Newman's voice throughout Continue as a Guest, from his dusky lower register over "Angelcover" to his slippery slide over the glimmering synths of "Firework in the Falling Snow," to bold tones he embraces on the soaring "Bottle Episodes." Another sonic change comes courtesy of saxophonist Zach Djanikian, whose tenor and bass luxuriate all over Continue as a Guest's alluring chassis, especially on the menacing build of "Pontius Pilate's Home Movies." Along with Newman's usual collaborators, several songwriters contribute. The bursting opener and first single "Really Really Light" is a co-write with Dan Bejar (Destroyer, the New Pornographers). Then there's "Firework in the Falling Snow," a collaboration with Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz and Sad13. Even as Newman embraces a collaborative spirit more than ever, his new album is a testament to his ability to discover new artistic sides of himself. "Continue as a Guest" sounds like a thrilling path forward for The New Pornographers, with songs that generate a contagious feeling of excitement for the future as well.
Zur Feier des 40-jährigen Jubiläums von OMDs viertem Studioalbum ”Dazzle Ships” wird das Album in einer brandneuen, erweiterten Version veröffentlicht. Das Set besteht aus dem Originalalbum und einer BonusLP mit unveröffentlichten Demos und Raritäten, zusammengestellt und gemischt von Paul Humphreys.
Erhältlich in einer Standard-Gatefold-Hülle auf blauem und silbernem Vinyl und als 1CD
Over the past 20 years, The New Pornographers have proven themselves one of the most excellent bands in indie rock. The group’s ninth album and first for Merge establishes them alongside modern luminaries like Yo La Tengo and Superchunk when it comes to their ability to evolve while still retaining what made them so special in the first place. A dazzling and intriguing collection of songs, Continue as a Guest finds bandleader A.C. Newman and his compatriots Neko Case, Kathryn Calder, John Collins, Todd Fancey, and Joe Seiders exploring fresh territory and shattering the barriers of their collective comfort zone. Newman began work on Continue as a Guest after the band had finished touring behind 2019’s In the Morse Code of Brake Lights. Themes of isolation and collapse bleed into this album, as Newman tackles the ambivalence of day-to-day life during the COVID-19 pandemic. But Newman says that Continue as a Guest’s title track also addresses the concerns that come with being in a band for so long. “The idea of continuing as a guest felt apropos to the times,” he explains. “Feeling out of place in culture, in society, being in a band that has been around for so long—not feeling like a part of any zeitgeist, but happy to be separate and living your simple life, your long fade-out.
Living in a secluded place in an isolated time, it felt like a positive form of acceptance: find your own little nowhere, find some space to fall apart, continue as a guest.” Newman discovered new vocal approaches within his own talent. There are new and rich tones to Newman’s voice throughout Continue as a Guest, from his dusky lower register over “Angelcover” to his slippery slide over the glimmering synths of “Firework in the Falling Snow,” to bold tones he embraces on the soaring “Bottle Episodes.”
Another sonic change comes courtesy of saxophonist Zach Djanikian, whose tenor and bass luxuriate all over Continue as a Guest’s alluring chassis, especially on the menacing build of “Pontius Pilate’s Home Movies.” Along with Newman’s usual collaborators, several songwriters contribute. The bursting opener and first single “Really Really Light” is a co-write with Dan Bejar (Destroyer, the New Pornographers). Then there’s “Firework in the Falling Snow,” a collaboration with Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz and Sad13. “I was feeling like I wanted some help, so I sent it to Sadie and she sent me back this complete song that had these great lyrics,” Newman says. “She included the line ‘A firework in the falling snow,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s great.’ Sometimes you need that one thing to center the song, and even though I only used a few lines of hers in the end, I couldn’t have finished it without her.”
Even as Newman embraces a collaborative spirit more than ever, Continue as a Guest is a testament to his ability to discover new artistic sides of himself. “I started out as a songwriter more than as a singer, but at some point, you have to sing your own songs,” he says with a chuckle. “For a long time, I felt like the idea of changing a song because I couldn’t hit a note wasn’t okay—I could just get someone else to sing it. But I’m learning now that my songs can actually be a lot more malleable than I thought.” And it’s in that spirit that Continue as a Guest sounds like a thrilling path forward for The New Pornographers, with songs that generate a contagious feeling of excitement for the future as well.
As Al Cisneros continues to move through the dub
zone, a journey over a decade in length, his music
and production continue to evolve and deepen.
The sinew of the bass strings sets the pocket with
ever-focused raw and relentless drive, while the
rhythm section lays out an elaborate series of
movements to roll in perfect accord with its multisegmented melody.
As melodies of the ancient world emerge
prayerfully from the mist above the fray, all is right
in all of the worlds that we can hope to know.
On the ‘Akeldama’ version, the mixing desk
becomes its own instrument.
The friendship between Al Cisneros (Sleep/Om) and Kevin Martin (The Bug/King Midas Sound) begun when King Midas Sound supported OM at the Scala in London in 2012. Subsequently the duo quickly realised via passionately animated conversations, that they shared a serous addiction to reggae 7", and in particular, a mutually insatiable appetite for roots and the deepest dub versions being consistently transmitted from Jamaica...This resulted in Cisneros, then inviting Martin to specifically drop hardcore dub sessions as support to Sleep in Berlin, and on tour with OM. It was during the European Om tour in 2019, that Cisneros offered to record an ep for The Bug's fledgling PRESSURE label. And now 'Rosin' is the fulfilment of that promise. Al's side of the single, showcases the low end specialist extending the bassbin pounding methodologies of those incredible b-line masters who first inspired him to relentlessly explore the infinitely resonant worlds of bass and space. So 'Rosin Immersion' and it's subsequent dub 'Dabby You', echo 'Flabba Holt's classic work with the Roots Radics or Robbie Shakespeare 's tremendous output for Channel One with The Revolutionaries...These devastating mixes extend the hallowed roots tradition that Cisneros worships, and gleefully opts for an even lower, slower, grind .... It's another fantastic example of Al's parallel dub world, that he has been tirelessly promoting with his incredible Sinai label releases for the past few years, as he simultaneously continues to reshape Metal with Sleep and zoned 'out' rock with Om too. On the flipside, Martin took up Al's invitation to remix his original song, but Kevin here opts for radical mutation instead of homage. What may have begun as a single remix, ends as two militantly distinct future dubs aimed straight at the body and dome...Echoing Kevin's recent collaborations with Will Bevan aka Burial, for their collaborative Flame series, as previously released on PRESSURE, this pair of thundering tracks reflect The Bug at his most immersive and psychedelic. 'Fathoms' and '50 hz' revel in their otherness, and the sonic sorcery of his Brussels based sound lab. The twin rhythms are undoubtedly inspired by the spirit of The Bug's production heroes Scientist, King Tubby or Adrian Sherwood, but are set adrift in a futuristic sci-fi format for ambient heads and sound system disciples alike to get fully lost in.
2023 REpress
A North American road trip of coming of age garage soul mapped by Ivan Liechti, Ghost Riders is Efficient Space’s latest narrative compilation, hovering in a liminal emotional ravine between moonlight melancholy, teenage heartache and unchecked, unrealised ambition. Across seventeen open hearted ballads recorded 1965-1974, the 2LP collects and connects dots between British Invasion fanatics, child prodigies, the loners and the luckless, in a kind of trans-continental survey of those swept up in rock’n’roll mania and buoyed by local newspaper ads promising fame and gold records.
From the tangerine dreams of 8th grade all-girl combo The Mod 4 to the tri-state jukebox aspiring echoes of The Tempters, The Yardley’s poetic Farfisa vamp and lilting folk pop, and The Landlords’ weepy break up b-side blues, these are mostly one shots by dreamers whose experience was brief before being checked back to the reality of suburban normality and realistic career options. Hailing from the regional backwaters of Illnois, Arkansas, Nevada, Massachussets, Ohio, Idaho, Texas and beyond, the licensed artists were scouted by way of local fire departments, spiritualist fellowships and animal welfare centres, often barely a stones throw from where their contributions were originally laid.
A barely teenage Dennis Harte's ‘Summer’s Over’ perhaps best taps the collection’s essence. A gut-wrenching lament of the passing of the season as if it was the last on earth. Flanked by players from The Left Banke, Harte, a now-piano tuner to the stars, is from the minor segment that found longevity in showbiz. Likewise with Michigan icon Lyn Nowicki who cast her ghostly voice over Beatles cover song chameleons The Common People and Jerry McGee, The Ventures member and conduit of Dr. John’s ‘Twilight Zone’.
Ghost Riders simmers with the scent of youthful summers, the pang of schoolyard romance, and the excitement (and disenchantment) of teenage naïveté, delivered via a deceptively simple and frequently wonky garage band set up. The vision of record collector and graphic designer Ivan Liechti, these eternal psych-folk howlers are further crystallised by Colin Young’s fastidious audio restoration, the original artwork of Elise Ganebin-de Bons and an aptly penned forward from Sonic Boom.
When the pandemic hit, Hannah van Loon adopted a dog named Gizmo, who became a much-needed companion while the Bay Area musician wrote her second album as Tanukichan. Aptly Named after her new four-legged friend, GIZMO is an exercise in release, whether from situational hindrances—a forced lockdown, for one—or from self-imposed hedonistic coping mechanisms.“ A theme I always had floating around was escape,” van Loon explains of her follow-up to 2018’s Sundays. “Escaping from myself, my problems, sadness and cycles.”
To channel the more uplifting spirit she wanted for GIZMO, van Loon turned to the radio pop-rock of her childhood: “I was struck by the in-your-face positivity of the lyrics,” she adds,referencing artists like 311, The Cranberries, and Tom Petty. “I wanted to bring that positivity while writing about the sad and helpless emotions I’d been grappling with.” But GIZMO’s lightheartedness doesn’t make it shallow: “I think that I could let it go, as beautiful as snow,” she murmurs on “Don’t Give Up,” a nu metal-meets-Cocteau Twins groove about the sudden awareness that all the relationships you depend on could vanish instantaneously. Van Loon’s main collaborator on GIZMO was Toro y Moi’s Chaz Bear, and the jangly pop earworm “Take Care” showcases the heavily distorted, in-your-face guitar work reminiscent of Bear’s own psych joints What For? And Mahal. On the hypnotic, wall-of-sound-rocker “Thin Air” featuring Enumclaw, van Loon channels the triumphant grit of The Smashing Pumpkins as she ponders the impermanence of even the most impactful relationships: “I’ll always have the memories/Of how you used to make me see/Until they fell in the ocean/They’re not swimming/They’re not floating.”
Existentialism aside, GIZMO also sees van Loon break out of her sonic comfort zone. “One ofthe main changes of how I’m approaching music now is that I want to have more fun in the process,” she says, and she walks the line between melodrama and whimsy gracefully: “I can learn something because I’ve been here before,” she sings on the soaring, bittersweet “Been Here Before.” Deftones-inspired thrash drums and screeching electric guitars are gracefully contrasted with van Loon’s hypnotic, almost deadpan vocal style and a crystal clear acoustic guitar she describes as “cute.” Gizmo the dog suddenly passed away right as van Loon finished the album, but he’s immortalised with his photo on the cover—a fitting emblem of this new era of Tanukichan.
In the wake of their acclaimed comeback album Figures (2020), Aksak Maboul took a playful sideways step to create this total work, a 63-minute, continuous suite of fifteen pieces, which could be described as an experimental audio play. The thread running through Une aventure de VV (Songspiel) is Véronique Vincent"s text, an enigmatic philosophical-poetical tale unfolding through monologues and dialogues, spoken and sung by a series of characters. The music was written & arranged by Marc Hollander and features his characteristic genre-hopping tendencies: strands of electronica, pop, jazz, collage, techno, ambient, improv, krautrock, contemporary classical & systems music are merrily woven together, in the inimitable Aksak Maboul style. The album"s subtitle, Songspiel, highlights its theatrical/musical aspect: the work pays oblique homage to the those experimental radio plays that once emerged from the creative workshops of the BBC, the RTF and the RAI, and especially to those German Hörspiels which, at their best, might combine spoken word, instrumental or electronic music, songs and sonic research. The album features appearances by Alig Fodder, Audrey Ginestet & Benjamin Glibert (Aquaserge), Lætitia Sadier (Stereolab), Blaine L. Reininger (Tuxedomoon), Don The Tiger, and the members of AKsak Maboul"s current live line-up.
From his studio retreat in the heart of the Norwegian forest, Raaja Bones astral projects to adistant paradise, glancing the frosty tips of Norwegian fir trees on his way to exotic locations. Trading the Scandinavian fjord for a beach in Miami, Raaja finds a bounce in his step, moonwalking his way across groovy keys and shuffling beats through Boardwalks . A sonic palette echoing with the reverberations of bygone days, playing on a collective nostalgia, a Kodak moment turned gif, frozen on a telephone screen. Hazy chords and playful melodies glisten against temperate rhythmical zones as they roll through the arrangement. Disembodied vocals float in a steamy fog above warm tones, as Raaja's voice passes through the record like a spectral dream. A rusty vignette forms within crystalline tones as bold synthesizers are coerced into reluctant musical forms, ambling through cheery earworms and rousing rubber bass-lines.
For the first time the work of Jacqueline Nova is available to the public in vinyl LP format. - Jacqueline Nova is one of the pioneers of Latin American electronic music and an essential figure of the Colombian avant-garde. - Jacqueline Nova (Ghent, Belgium, 1935 - Bogotá, Colombia, 1975), a representative figure of Colombian avant-garde music, developed important and radical work within the field of electronic and instrumental music, as well as in interdisciplinary forms. This album CREACION DE LA TIERRA - Ecos palpitantes de Jacqueline Nova: Música electroacústica e instrumental (1964-1974) CREATION OF THE EARTH - Throbbing Echoes of Jacqueline Nova: Electroacoustic and Instrumental Music (1964-1974), under the curatorship and research of the Colombian composer Ana María Romano G., recovers Nova's most important electroacoustic works: Creación de la tierra Creation of the Earth (1972), Oposición-Fusión [Opposition-Fusion] (1968) and Resonancias 1 [Resonances 1] (1968-69), as well as the music for the film Camilo el cura guerrillero [Camilo the Guerrilla Priest] (1974), composed during her stay at the Centro Latinoamericano de Altos Estudios Musicales (CLAEM) , of the Torcuato Di Tella Institute, in Buenos Aires, as well as in the Study of Phonology of the University of Buenos Aires. The compilation also includes the instrumental works Omaggio a Catullus (1972-1974), Transiciones [Transitions] (1964-1965), and Asuimetrías [Asymmetries] (1967), in which she explores randomness, timbre possibilities or the encounter between acoustic and electronic media. - The interest in experimenting with the human voice, and interdisciplinary work involving visual arts, were some of the aspects that have defined Jacqueline Nova's work. Ana María Romano has written: "Nova lived in an environment hostile to change, to debate and discussion, hostile to her being an autonomous and lesbian woman. She undertook feats that make her a pioneer, even though she did not set out to be taken as one, but only as a result of the commitment, dedication and passion of a creator with her society. Jacqueline Nova died in Bogotá of bone cancer. Her tragic and early death not only cut short a career in full creative force, but also directly affected the development of electroacoustic music in the country. After her death there was a great silence -close to 15 years- in musical creation with electronic means. Nova challenged a conservative milieu and survived alone, working in a field thought to be exclusively masculine. But it was a woman who strengthened the use of technology in Colombian music. A risky bet that sadly represented a high cost: Nova was relegated during her lifetime, but her noises managed to shake and question the comfort zones of the Colombian musical establishment". - CREACION DE LA TIERRA - Ecos palpitantes de Jacqueline Nova: Música electroacústica e instrumental (1964-1974) [CREATION OF THE EARTH - Throbbing Echoes of Jacqueline Nova: Electroacoustic and Instrumental Music (1964-1974)] is published through Buh Records, on all digital platforms and in a double vinyl edition, limited to 300 copies. The album includes a booklet with extensive information written by Ana María Romano G. This publication was possible thanks to the Ibermúsicas fund.
BROODING PSYCHEDELIC REVELATIONS FROM THE STAVANGERIAN OUTSIDERCORE
The uncanny is never out of bounds in the debut release by shadowy Norwegian duo Firmaet Forvoksen. Gaute Granli and Thore Warland, two archetypes of the Stavanger experimental scene long active through solo work (Gaute Granli’s recent Ultra Eczema notoriety, for one) and other collaborative projects (Thore Warland’s ongoing drum devolutions with Golden Oriole, for another), have joined forces under multiple configurations over the years in order to finally coalesce under the FF banner. Together they project an ever-unfolding vision that sonically erodes into a radiant abyss, like some serious atonement from probable jazz school fugitives.
Undone Shal is an unfurling tapestry of erratic guitar pickings, muffled percussive conjurings, barging synths, and moans that are part lamentation, part incantation. These arrangements evoke a definite psychedelia, plunging the listener into unsettling yet luminous expanses of liminality that recall only the most brooding of outsiders. Like craggly rocks piled on top of each other forming an incomprehensible, gravity-defying tower, Firmaet Forvoksen’s disjointed musical deployments forge something lucid and concrete while grazing the edges of complete inscrutability. This strange relic of a record follows the lineage of KRAAK rosterees past and present - the KRAMPs, Ignatzes, Red Bruts and Calhau!s of our hearths - through its assemblage of crude elements that incite the universe to vomit its hidden harmonies and forcibly test the boundaries between fluency and unintelligibility. No Norwegian wood wisecracking to be made here, for these two dwell in a malleable zone where chaos aligns to draw you in, hinting at all that is obfuscated like a marching band to nowhere.
V.I.V.E.K announces his second release on the self-named VIVEK label. Known for his cult label, SYSTEM MUSIC, this label focuses more on eclectic 140 bpm outside the realm of the dance floor.
The 4 track EP explores broken beat, ambience, melody and rhythm at 140, something that has been missing over the last few years within the genre. Colours is not only the EP title, but a reflection of the diversity of the tracks. Musicality sits at the heart of this with a nod to easy listening.
“The main focus of this release was to take me out of my musical comfort zone. I wanted to work with other musicians as well as push myself to inhabit new creative ideas.” - V.I.V.E.K
Whether it’s as an artist, label owner, a deep-drawing world-touring selector or system-building soundman behind some of London’s most important dances, V.I.V.E.K has an inherent drive to push things forward and contribute to the craft of music with serious attention to detail. A life-long frequency student dedicated to soundsystem culture, he has total respect for the heritage, value and rich variety of true music, an ability to totally arrest your full attention and imagination with his music... And has done so since he emerged in the early 2000s.
Musically pressed and blessed on key imprints such as his own System Music, Deep Medi, Tectonic and iconic reggae imprint Greensleeves, V.I.V.E.K’s creations are a crucial brew of bass styles encompassing everything from heavyweight bass hypnosis to flighty, steppy garage hybrids via sweet dub soul and all-out low-end pressure. His self-built custom soundsystem, SYSTEM, meanwhile, is a unique force of nature in UK bass music culture; the most prominent modern system to be established this decade, it’s a whole new chapter in the UK’s longstanding and illustrious history of barrier-breaking soundsystem communities. As such, it attracts committed fans from around the globe and selectors from across the system spectrum.
His label System Music has the same treasured, trusted status; not only as a source of legit never-to-be-repressed artefacts that prize the real value of music, but also as a key platform for encouraging forward-thinking, powerful system music from across the OG – freshmen continuum. Karma to Kromestar, Sleeper to SP:MC, LAS to Egoless: System Music’s celebration of bass music’s sonic scope and nurturing of talent and craft ensures its consistent buy-on-sight ranking.
Most importantly it’s as a selector that V.I.V.E.K’s position is the most vital. The selective tailor of rich, immersive and eclectic sessions, few DJs dig as deep, join the dots or draw for dubs quite like this West London operator. Accentuating his influence as a producer, engineer, dubsmith, label curator and system builder; his creative excursions as a DJ, both on the dancefloor and the airwaves as a broadcaster on the likes of Rinse FM, galvanise his status as one of the most respected, influential and singular artists who is driven by nothing but craftsmanship, unity and the sense of culture that UK bass music needs to thrive and inspire.
Sublime Frequencies is honored to release the third LP from Baba Commandant and the Mandingo Band. Sonbonbela was recorded in the beginning of 2022 in the Republic of Burkina Faso. The group continue to hone their trademark fusion of Mandingue and afro-beat styles. The Mandingo Band are a hit machine, sculpting seven new tracks of near Beefheart/Magic Band dynamics, Fela inspired groovers dusted out in the Sahel zone, rather than the humidity and sweat of Lagos, creating one of the most original and propulsive musical statements to come from the contemporary West African cultural juggernaut. As with previous releases, the band features the legendary guitar pyrotechnics of Issouf Diabate, truly one of the greatest West African (or Earth for that matter) guitarists of the last forty years. The band is completed by a near bottomless barrel of artistry from the Ouagadougou and Bobo Dioulasso musical talent pool. On bass guitar, Wendeyida Ouedraogo, on drums Abbas Kabore, and on percussion and balafon, Nickie Dembele. Leading the charge again is the captain himself, Mamadou Sanou on the Doso Ngoni featuring one of the most distinctive voices of the modern era. The opposite of the banal trends of auto-tune that have pervaded most of West African popular music, Baba’s voice still impresses with its gravel and grit, showcasing a range that is ancient and defiant in equal measure. This LP is a non-stop hit parade of afro-beat bangers destined to light dance floors and living rooms ablaze!!! This album is dedicated to the memory of Massimbo Taragna, the bass player extraordinaire who was an integral part of the Mandingo Band’s trance stun musical power. He passed away in early 2022. RIP TRACKLIST: Side A: CHASSER LES SACHETS, KAMELEBA, AFRO MANDINGO, SEMAYALA Sida B: SEREJUGU, SONBANBELA, WARIKO
