Now, all of six months later, Mac is back with his first proper full length, Mac DeMarco 2. As opposed to RNRNC, “2” is a concerted effort to produce a cohesive work that showcases Mac’s natural ability as a songwriter, singer and producer. With a new arsenal of recording gear, the fidelity has substantially improved without compromising the immediacy and organic quality of his prior releases under any monicker. The results are immediately rewarding, from the warm “Cooking Up Something Good” to the heartfelt “My Kind of Woman.” It’s obvious Mac is presenting himself musically in the most sincere way possible, no matter what happens in his wild videos or live shows. “Freaking out the Neighborhood,” Mac’s apologetic ode to his loved ones about such public behavior, shows that Mac DeMarco is still with us, coming along for the ride, getting everyone else in trouble. Even so, the maturation process of Mac DeMarco, recording artist, is in full swing. He did, after all, turn 22 this April.

STAFF COMMENTS

Ryan says: His first full album, full of quirky garage gems, slightly odd but in a good way... I think it's awesome anyway.

TRACK LISTING

1. Cooking Up Something Good
2. Dreamin'
3. Freaking Out The Neighborhood
4. Annie
5. Ode To Viceroy
6. Robson Girl
7. The Stars Keep On Calling My Name
8. My Kind Of Woman
9. Boe Zaah
10. Sherrill
11. Still Together

Mac DeMarco’s debut full length, 2, released in 2012, cleaned up the songwriter’s warped take on soft rock and brought it to a broader audience. Given DeMarco’s affinity for keeping things lo-fi — 2 was the first time he’d bothered to record demos — it’s revealing to hear these songs in their most embryonic form. The performances here are a little looser and the sound a little hazier than on the actual LP, lending an atmosphere of dreamy vulnerability, especially to ballads like “Annie” and the Lennon-esque “Sherrill.”

TRACK LISTING

Disc 1
1. Cooking Up Something Good
2. Dreamin’
3. Freaking Out The Neighborhood
4. Annie
5. Ode To Viceroy
6. Robson Girl
7. The Stars Keep On Calling My Name 8. My Kind Of Woman
9. Boe Zaah
10. Sherrill
11. Still Together

Disc 2
1. Cooking Up Something Good
2. Stars Keep Calling My Name
3. Dreamin’ Slow
4. Lonely Shredder
5. Robson Girl
6. Annie
7. Harrison Ford Escort
8. Sherrill
9. My Kind Of Woman (Instrumental)
10. Dreamin’ Fast

Five Easy Hot Dogs is the fifth studio album by Canadian musician Mac DeMarco. A departure from the previous studio albums in DeMarco's discography, the album is entirely instrumental and was recorded during a road trip from Los Angeles to New York.

TRACK LISTING

Edmonton 2
Vancouver 3
Edmonton
Chicago
Portland 2
Portland
Crescent City
Chicago 2
Gualala
Gualala 2
Vancouver 2
Victoria
Rockaway
Vancouver

Following last year’s release of 'Here Comes The Cowboy', “his most introspective and refined work to date” (Billboard), Mac DeMarco is pleased to announce two new demo albums; 'Here Comes The Cowboy Demos', and 'Other Here Comes The Cowboy Demos', out  as a Record Store Day Exclusive.

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
1. Here Comes The Cowboy (demo)
2. Nobody (demo)
3. Finally Alone (demo)
4. Little Dogs March (demo)
5. Preoccupied (demo)
6. Choo Choo (demo)
7. K (demo)

Side B:
8. Heart To Heart (demo)
9. Hey Cowgirl (demo)
10. On The Square (demo)
11. All Of Our Yesterdays (demo)
12. Skyless Moon (demo)
13. Baby Bye Bye (demo)
14. The Cattleman's Prayer (demo)

Debut EP from the Canadian eccentric Mac Demarco. This record of weirdo blues rock is amazing. Think Scott Walker meets Ariel Pink. Mac DeMarco, formerly Makeout Videotape, is the anti-thesis to your stereotypical singer-songwriter. Disregarding the seriously somber moments, he replaces them with whimsical and youthful spontaneity, whilst retaining the endearing and subtle commentaries that exude his familiarity. Promptly after leaving his Edmonton garage for Vancouver he embarked on a North American tour accompanying fellow Canadians Japandroids on a grand voyage of enlightenment and alcoholic debauchery.

DeMarco's a weird cat cultivating an affinity for occult imagery, nudity and social satire. But his most impressive trait is his undeniable and instinctual ability to compose magical pop jangles, of which he'll likely refer to as "jizz jazz". His dusted jams have garnished him accolades that are as ever-increasing as his song writing abilities; his sound rendering comparisons, but in a nomadic fashion alluding no distinct origin. Come March DeMarco's debut solo EP entitled Rock And Roll Night Club will ramble into the great unknown guided by Captured Tracks, DeMarco's inner Elvis a tow.

TRACK LISTING

1. Rock And Roll Night Club
2. 96.7 The Pipe
3. Baby's Wearing Blue Jeans
4. One More Tear To Cry
5. European Vegas
6. 106.2 Breeze FM
7. She's Really All I Need
8. Moving Like Mike
9. Me And Jon, Hanging On
10. I'm A Man
11. Only You
12. Me & Mine

'Salad Days', is the follow up to 2012's lauded 'Mac DeMarco 2' which saw the Edmonton local propelled into the limelight. Written and recorded around a relentless tour schedule (which picked up all over again as soon as the LP was done), 'Salad Days' gives the listener a very personal insight into what it's all about to be Mac amidst the craziness of a rising career in a very public format.

The lead single, "Passing Out Pieces," set to huge overdriven organ chords, contains lines like "..never been reluctant to share, passing out pieces of me.." Clearly, this isn't the same record that breezily gave us "Dreamin," and "Ode to Viceroy" but the result of what comes from their success. "Chamber of Reflection," a track featuring icy synth stabs and soulful crooning, wouldn't be out of place on a fantasy Shuggie Otis and Prince collaboration. Standout tracks like these show Mac's widening sound, whether insights into future directions or even just welcome one-off forays into new territory.

Still, this is musically, lyrically and melodically good old Mac DeMarco, through and through. The same crisp John Lennon/Phil Spector era homegrown lush production that could have walked out of Geoff Emerick's mixing board in 1972, but with that peculiar Mac touch that's completely of right now.

STAFF COMMENTS

Ryan says: Having set the tone with his second album ‘2’ back in 2012 with an ode to cheap cigarettes and song after song of whimsical ambivalence, Mac Demarco offers up some fresh delights for us to sink our teeth into. This time there’s a few darker moments from the haunting synthpop masterpiece “Chamber Of Reflection” to a frosty “Passing Out Pieces” revealing the toll touring the world has taken on him. When Demarco isn’t passing out pieces he takes the time to dish out some of his best gap-toothed advice yet with “Let Her Go” and “Treat Her Better” topping it all off with his usual brand of crooning vocals, languid guitars and those ridiculously funky basslines, a definite step up from the last album. Mac takes things a little (only a tiny bit) more seriously this time and pulls off his best record yet!

TRACK LISTING

1. Salad Days
2. Blue Boy
3. Brother
4. Let Her Go
5. Goodbye Weekend
6. Let My Baby Stay
7. Passing Out Pieces
8. Treat Her Better
9. Chamber Of Reflection
10. Go Easy
11. Jonny's Odyssey

Originally released in conjunction with a barbecue DeMarco hosted to promote Another One and collect food bank donations, Some Other Ones soon gained cult status, now regarded amongst his fans as a key entry in his beloved catalog. Now, almost 10 years later, and following the success of his recent full-length instrumental album Five Easy Hot Dogs, Some Other Ones is finally getting the full release treatment.

TRACK LISTING

1. Little Pepper
2. Onion Man
3. Peter Pickles
4. Don Juan
5. Young Coconut
6. Hachiko
7. Fish Terry
8. Hoso Boyo
9. Special K

Captured Tracks have the album you've all been waiting for. Mac Demarco's 'This Old Dog' is finally upon us and for long-term fans or new listeners alike, it's a treat. Starting with the warming tribute, 'My Old Man' which begins rich with woody CR78 percussion and sumptuous acoustic guitar, soon to break into Demarco's unmistakeable vocal drawl. As the chorus grows from the tapestry of sound, the warmth of the reticent synth swells surrounds the stero image in a comforting blanket of organic haze. It's indicative of Demarco's earlier work, but more confidently approached, brilliantly minimal still but undeniably rich in it's simplicity. 

'Baby You're Out' grows from a more off-centred rhythmic approach but undergoes a shuffling transformation to swoon into the folky redux of the main choral refrain, it's an approach that could be jarring but in the capable sonwriting hands of the man himself, it predictably goes by without a hitch. Speaking of transformations, Mac seems to undergo a tranformation himself from shuffled syncopator into sleazy lounge singer in the oozingly laid-back 80's synth sizzle of 'For The First Time'. Decending digital pads and simmering DX7 tines coalesce into a melting-pot of reverb and polyester garments. 

There are pieces here like 'Sister' that really display the no-frills talent that has endeared us all to him for so long, comprising of hazy pitch-shifted guitar sitting right back in the mix while heartbreaking lyrics swim ever so briefly around the wistful plucking. 'Dreams From Yesterday' oozes with crackling tubes and hazy summer dreams to counteract the minimal aura of it's precident. And so it continues, from warm and full-bodied to cold and reticent, there isn't a bad moment here, only different emotions conveyed through a variety of techniques, and every one of them perfectly executed. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Mine says: "Mac DeMarco must be some kind of joke act, right?" Has this thought ever crossed your mind? I came across it in a festival review and I felt for the poor guy who just didn't seem to get what Vernor Winfield McBriare Smith IV (I'll give you a moment to let that settle in...) is all about. If you can relate but somehow feel intrigued, 'This Old Dog' is your perfect entryway into the wacky world of Mac DeMarco. It seems like everyone's favourite sleaze man is trying to show us that he has grown up, without having lost an inch of his quirkiness. It is okay to be vulnerable sometimes, the songs about his troubled relationship with his father seem to confess, just don't bury your head in the sand. 'This Old Dog' is stripped back, simpler and therefore easier to digest than his previous outings. It's dreamy and reflective but always light-hearted, and will leave you with a warm, fuzzy feeling in your chest. Careful, though, you might feel like you're floating on a cloud.

TRACK LISTING

1. My Old Man
2. This Old Dog
3. Baby You’re Out
4. For The First Time
5. One Another
6. Still Beating
7. Sister
8. Dreams From Yesterday
9. A Wolf Who Wears Sheeps Clothes
10. One More Love Song
11. On The Level
12. Moonlight On The River
13. Watching Him Fade Away

"A few years ago we received an anonymous email with a link to three tracks and a simple message: “Hi, maybe you would be interested in this music.”

It’s easy to be skeptical of yet another link from yet another artist in a world overcrowded with them, but listening is our job and so we do it. The songs were instantly striking: extraordinarily slow, somber, and spacious, each vaulted cathedral chord reverberating poetically into the distance, the melodies rolling out like fog across a cemetery.

Captivated, we requested more, receiving a single word in response: “Yes.” Then, nothing. Eventually, three months later, we received another email with slightly more information: a name (Irma Orm), a location (Stockholm), and a bit of context (she worked alone, and progress on music was slow but steady ).

Fast-forward to mid-2016: we’re informed the album is complete, and it is breathtaking. Hermetic gothic swan songs conjured from funereal piano, twilit ambience, minimalist percussion, and spellbinding vocals.

The mood is lulling and lush but lost in sorrow, stark grey structures looming in the night. Majestic open spaces between notes heighten the melancholic grandeur of Orm’s arrangements, blurring the line between lament and lullaby. The songs less end than ebb away, succumbing to their own downcast beauty." - Kranky.

From ‘OK Computer’ to ‘Screamadelica’, history has shown that a band’s third album is when shit starts to get real. When, after an introductory debut and a second that tests new waters, the particular alchemy of a group stamps its personality in ways that no other configuration of individuals can do; when the outside voices have been tempered and all that’s left is a perfect cocktail of confidence, skill and momentum. It’s a theory that’s been proven time and time again, and one that Newcastle trio Demob Happy are underlining with ‘Divine Machines’: a third album that harnesses their delicate tightrope of heaviness and melody, sweetness and riffs, and rides it up to the stratosphere.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: 'Divine Machines' shows Demob happy have perfectly harnessed the psychedelic heft and 60's leaning rock and / or roll of bands like The Dandy Warhols or one-time psych pals The Brian Jonestown Massacre. It's playful and melodic but filled with moments of unyielding heft and soring riffs.

TRACK LISTING

Token Appreciation Society
Voodoo Science
Earth Mover
Tear It Down
Musuclar Reflex
Are You Thinking?
Super-fluid
She's As Happy As A Man Can Be
God's Coffee
Run Baby Run
I Have A Problem (i Ignore)
Divine Machines
Hades, Baby

First two songs from next year's LP produced in conjunction with Mo Wax producers Parsley Sound. Stax Dempsey's "Monet Sky" is full of simple, beatific melody and gently plucked guitar BJ Cole adds his unique pedal steel guitar sound to "Endless Summer", but what you really have here are two simple, classic songs that come from a tradition that stretches from Leadbelly to Lambchop, from an American outsider with a guitar and a headful of dreams, and not much else that matters..

Debut album from Dempsey, split across two CDs, one "Sunrise" produced by Kieren Hebden (Fridge / Fourtet), the other "Sunset" produced by Trevor Jackson (Playgroup). A mixture of folk, classic rock, distorted loops, hip hop beats, jazz and funk, with a nod to "Screamadelica", Beck and The Rolling Stones.

Back digging in their prized vaults, Kaoz Theory cherry pick another two classics to be released for the first time on vinyl. Up first, one of Toronto’s finest Demuir enlists the signature soulfulness of Bluey Robinson for a bumping RnB-tinged, hazy house bomb entitled ‘Lusting U’. On the flip, Chicago legend DJ Sneak hits with a underground jackin’ groover ‘Judy Russell’ in trademark Windy City style.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Kaoz Theory cross the streams of Toronto and Chicago with a double header of soulful house goodness that's sure to please. It's also the second outing this week from DJ Sneak who returns to the floor in fine form.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Demuir Ft Bluey Robinson - Lusting U
B1. DJ Sneak - Judy Russell (Original Mix)

Based in Malmö, Sweden, Den Osynliga Manteln (The Invisible Cloak) comprises producer duo Ola Sandberg and Fredrik Grönvall.

They describe their intention as making albums that tell stories and make journeys through textures and soundscapes of fictional places and spaces. With one foot in the past and the other in the future, the music is created to conjure both nostalgia and activate the imagination of what’s not yet here, touching both the known and the unknown.

If Under Grön Himmel has an apocalyptic feel, it's reflective of our tumultuous times which pulled the music into a different and darker post-pandemic territory than their stunning debut. "Insekstfolk" (CiS, August 2021).

The title translates to "Under Green Skies" which points to the melancholy but also, the potential beauty of our doomsday. The fever dream depicts an alternate reality, a different planet, some kind of shift. A turbulent place, a fugue state, a death of sorts.

At the same time there’s a psychedelic undertone to the record, a transformational arc spanning from the first hiss to the last. The titles of the songs align with this theme, translating roughly as "Glitter Mountains", "Purple Forest", "Movement of the Hills", "Triple Moon", "The Planet Whisperer" and "Triple Sun"

An array of analog synthesizers and electrical organs rescued from flea markets meets tape hiss, saxophones and a hidden vibraphone. Drum kits, electric bass and guitars, the occasional vocals dubbed with an eighty year old piano and glittering bells. Under Grön Himmel has layers of dust from the distant past yet it arrives here in a polished chrome vessel from the future. It's like Neu! broke out the jazz chords and the whole album has an un-graspable quality that's hard to define. Like a benevolent psychedelic mist, it’s here to hold you at the end of times and celebrate its beauty.

More beautiful sadness for you! Sandy's 1973, third solo offering is rich with nostalgia. Not only are two of the songs covers from her father's record collection but Sandy's own tunes are heavy with romance, memory, loss and loneliness. There are five absolute anthems on this album and the singing is beautifully embroidered with subtle inflections and emotional nuances. It wasn't for nothing that Robert Plant named her as his favourite of all the British female singers. And this edition's unaccompanied take of "No End" has to be up there with her greatest ever performances.


Out of print on LP for a number of years, this re- issue faithfully replicates the original 1974 Island Records UK release with its embossed gatefold sleeve and is pressed onto high quality 180g vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

Solo
Like An Old Fashioned Waltz
Whispering Grass
Friends
Carnival
Dark The Night
At The End Of The Day
Until The Real Thing Comes Along
No End

From the power chords that open it, 1977's Rendezvous aimed squarely at giving Denny her commercial breakthrough. It demonstrates an artist evolving. Gold Dust really underlines how Denny could be viewed as the British Joni Mitchell, and its late- night jazz funk backing (with Steve Winwood on clavinet) offers a beguiling glimpse of where Denny may have travelled next. Rendezvous closes with No More Sad Refrains, which updated her late 60s ballad style. As Denny died tragically young less than a year after the album's release, it became a poignant full stop to such a promising career.

Long out of print on LP, this re-issue faithfully replicates the original 1977 Island Records UK release with lyric inner sleeve and is pressed onto high quality 180g vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

Wish I I Was A Fool For You (For Shame Of Doing Wrong)
Gold Dust 
Candle In The Wind
Take Me Away
One Way Donkey Ride
I'm A Dreamer
All Our Days
Silver Threads And Golden Needles
No More Sad Refrains

Sandy's second solo LP in 1972 was a bit less folky and more singer-songwriterly than her debut. She'd duetted on "Led Zeppelin Four" with Robert Plant and come up with perhaps her stongest set of songs. The arrangements were more expansive and the sound more ambitious, which was just as well since a number of the songs dealt with the healing powers of music. As she said herself: 'I can't write happy songs'... so here's another lush, melancholic, autumnal record for all you dreamers and true believers.

Out of print on LP for a number of years, this re- issue faithfully replicates the original 1972 Island Records UK release with gatefold sleeve and is pressed onto high quality 180g vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

It'll Take A Long Time
Sweet Rosemary
For Nobody To Hear
Tomorrow Is A Long Time
Quiet Joys Of Brotherhood
Listen, Listen
The Lady
Bushes And Briars
It Suits Me Well
The Music Weaver

After leaving Fairport Convention in '69, Sandy Denny made one record with her new group Fotheringay, and then this, in 1971, her first solo LP proper. The amazing Richard Thompson plays guitar and infact this album shares a similar, dense, drone-based tonality with his own debut solo effort. It's also a little idyosyncratic, truth be told, but there's still moments of unbelievable beauty here. 

Out of print on LP for a number of years, this re- issue faithfully replicates the original 1971 Island Records UK release with gatefold sleeve and is pressed onto high quality 180g vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

Late November
Blackwaterside
The Sea Captain
Down In The Flood
John The Gun
Next Time Around
The Optimist
Let's Jump The Broomstick
Wretched Wilbur
The North Star Grassman And The Ravens
Crazy Lady Blues

One of the murkiest, most foreboding excursions on the label so far - Vardøgr is the debut long player from the Dublin trio Dentistry.

The word vardøgr is a Norwegian term defined as 'a premonitory sound or sight of a person before he arrives’. Like a reverse episode of déjà vu possibly, the title hints at many of the mysterious sensory anomalies that have confronted many of the great thinkers and spiritualists as they have contemplated the philosophical minefield of trying to understand human consciousness and perception. And it is this foggy terrain that gets explored over the albums five tracks.

The arc of the album is easy to interpret, but the sounds are mysterious enough to beguile. This trio has done well to exercise restraint, to suggest rather than to show. In using this technique, they imitate the best directors, who create tension without resorting to shock.

Before there was (Taylor’s Version), there was (John’s Version).

“The Last Recordings,” the last known studio recordings from John Denver, recorded in Nashville in 1997 shortly before the singer’s untimely death, is a collection of Denver’s greatest hits reimagined as the singer wished to present them and intended by Denver to take the place of masters recorded under his decades-long run with a major label.

Previously released only in a limited CD pressing in Europe, Denver’s Estate and Windstar Records are excited to present “The Last Recordings” for the first time worldwide, at digital retailers everywhere, and available on CD and blue seafoam wave vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
Whispering Jesse
Dreamland Express
Rocky Mountain High
Take Me Home, Country Roads
Christmas For Cowboys
Love Again
SIDE B
Sunshine On My Shoulders
Perhaps Love
Leaving On A Jet Plane
Windsong
I’m Sorry
Back Home Again

After moving from Rio de Janeiro to New York in the late 60’s, Deodato would work as a composer, arranger, producer and keyboardist on nearing 500 records, under his own name and with the likes of Aretha Franklin, Earth Wind & Fire, Frank Sinatra, Kool & The Gang, George Benson, Tom Jobim and Bjork, to name a just a few.

But before that, a young Deodato had already cemented his status in Brazil as one of the country’s top musical minds. In the mid-sixties, when he wasn’t working with the likes of Roberto Menescal, Joao Donato, and Marcos Valle, Deodato recorded a string of albums with his lesser known instrumental samba jazz and bossa nova ensemble Os Catedraticos.

A masterpiece of hip Brazilian swing, Ataque reflects the deeper, groovier side of that magical, hazy sound of sixties Rio, with monster samba grooves backing big brass arrangements and scorching organ solos. Amongst Deodato’s own tracks, there are compositions by Marcos & Paulo Sergio Valle, Baden Powell and Luiz Bonfa, arranged for a big horn section, which includes trombone player Edson Maciel, and given an extra dose of cool from the inimitable drums of Wilson Das Neves and Ruebens Bassini on percussion.

One of Brazil’s most prolific artists, Eumir Deodato has racked up 16 platinum albums, won a Grammy (and been nominated for two more), and sold over 250 million records in the USA alone.

TRACK LISTING

Ataque
Os Grilos
Bom Parar...
Feitinha P’ro Poeta
Terra De Ningu M
Raz O De Viver
Tristeza
Samba Do Dom Natural
O Sol Nascera (A Sorrir)
Samba De Rei
At De Cavaquinho
Porque Somos Iguais

'Memento Mori' is Depeche Mode's 15th studio album and its first as a two-piece lineup of Dave Gahan and Martin Gore, following co-founder Andrew 'Fletch' Fletcher's tragic passing in 2022. Produced by James Ford, with additional production work by Marta Salogni, 'Memento Mori''s gestation took place during the early stages of the COVID pandemic, resulting in themes inspired directly by that period. The album's 12 tracks chart a vast expanse of moods and textures, from its ominous opening to its closing resolve-running the gamut from paranoia and obsession to catharsis and joy, and hitting myriad points between.

STAFF COMMENTS

Liam says: Their first album since the passing of Andrew Fletcher, Depeche Mode's 'Memento Mori' is celebration of life. Full of moments of classic anthemic Mode ('Ghosts Again'), but also plenty of time for self-reflection, this is their best album in years - gorgeous stuff!

The first Depeche album to sell over a million copies in the United States, "Violator" (1990) is often regarded as Depeche Mode’s finest work. Not only containing the world hits “Personal Jesus” (later beautifully reinterpreted by Johnny Cash) and “Enjoy The Silence” (with its epic video), each and every song on Violator is worthy of mentioning: for instance the beautiful and haunting album closer “Clean”, and two further hit singles “Policy Of Truth” and “World In My Eyes”, all fine examples of Gahan, Wilder and Gore’s combined magic.

TRACK LISTING

A1. World In My Eyes
A2. Sweetest Perfection
A3. Personal Jesus
A4. Halo
A5. Waiting For The Night
B1. Enjoy The Silence
B2. Policy Of Truth
B3. Blue Dress
B4. Clean

In order to record the compositions in his critically acclaimed 2022 release GOLD, Alabaster DePlume instilled a culture of creativity by leading his ensembles In spontaneous composition and development. This resulted in an abundance of material that he has since produced and arranged, resulting in this collection.

The direction here is firmly rooted in performance and less focused on post-production, featuring DePlume’s go-to collaborators in the London scene, and yielding particular space to percussionist Tom Skinner (The Smile, Sons of Kemet), vocalist Momoko Gill, and percussionist / vocalist Donna Thompson. The result is a raw, beautiful, percussive, group music, in-the-room music. You’re there. You’re here. Take a listen.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sibomandi (feat. Falle Nioke)
2. What Can It Take
3. To That Voice And Say
4. Greek Honey Slick (feat. Tom Skinner)
5. Give Me Away
6. Fall On Flowers
7. Did You Know (feat. Momoko Gill)
8. Levels Of Human
9. Not Even Sobbing
10. The Best Thing In The World
11. Naked Like Water (feat. Donna Thompson)
12. Broken Again

Gold, the follow-up to Alabaster DePlume's widely-acclaimed, 2020-released cinematic instrumental LP To Cy & Lee: Instrumentals Vol. 1, introduces the world to the artist’s truest self. That is... though DePlume’s now known across the globe as the saxophonist who created that collection of wonderful, wordless music, he’s most known to fervent fans in his home zone of London, UK, as an outspoken poet and orator, beloved for his inspiring words of encouragement and sing-a-long-able songs about vulnerability, humanity, and courage. Gold is a sprawling double album that finds DePlume expressing both sides of his artistic character beautifully: (1) an articulate singer and songwriter who invokes the melodious crooning of Donovan as much as Devendra Banhart or Syd Barrett, whose tunes are almost like mini-sermons, full of existential comedy and spiritual enlightenment; and (2) a brilliant composer of simple, soothing, and viscerally nourishing instrumental melodies, with a gift for expanding them into intrepid collective improvisations, led by a delicate and distinguished saxophone tone that conjures the fluttery sweetness of the great Ethiopique Getatchew Mekurya.

TRACK LISTING

1.A Gente Acaba (Vento Em Rosa)
2. Don’t Forget You’re Precious
3. Fucking Let Them
4. The World Is Mine
5. The Sound Of My Feet On This Earth Is A Song To Your Spirit
6. I’m Gonna Say Seven
7. Do You Know A Human Being When You See One?
8. Visitors YT15B – Jerusalem, Palestine
9. I’m Good At Not Crying
10. Now (Stars Are Lit)
11. Again
12. Mrs Calamari
13. People: What’s The Difference?
14. Visitors XT8B – Oak
15. Who Is A Fool
16. I Will Not Be Safe
17. Visitors YT15 – Krupp Steel Condition Pivot
18. Broken Like
19. Now (Pink Triangle, Blue Valley)

Salty Road Dogs Victory Anthem. Alabaster DePlume and his live band of Roxi Plain, Conrad Singh and Momoko Gill caught fresh off tour and recorded to tape at London creative hub Total Refreshment Centre by in-house engineer Kristian “Capitol K” Robinson, mixed by legendary UK producer Dilip Harris.

"To Cy & Lee: Instrumentals Vol. 1" has a suitably individual genesis. Alabaster DePlume was working for Ordinary Lifestyles, a charity in North Manchester UK which supports people with disabilities to live in their own homes and to live fulfilling lives. Specifically, he was working with the titular Cy and Lee. His job was to get the guys socializing and he did this by making up songs with them. They’d make up melodies together, humming tunes in the house when they needed something calm, or when they were haring round the city in a battered car. DePlume would record these impromptu sessions in his phone, then go to the studio and use the material as starting points for songs. He also ran music sessions for Cy, Lee and their friends. “People would focus on a central point, tuning in to one another. There are things we can’t put into words, which can be expressed with sound and music. These guys have fewer words than us, some of them have none. When we put some feelings into a music expression – that’s liberation.” It’s a method he uses in live shows wherever possible, placing himself and the musicians in the round. The aim is to maximize the creative benefits that a community of players and listeners can bring to the music. It’s a collectivist and humanist approach to making music that sits underneath everything he does. This is music made for a reason. “I like the idea that we’re not just doing frivolous decoration. We’re doing work for society. I like to listen for what needs to be said.”

Alabaster DePlume is a Manchester UK-born, London-based bandleader, composer, saxophonist, activist and orator. He’s a resident at the legendary London creative hub Total Refreshment Centre, a recording artist for the off-grid Scottish Hebridean island label Lost Map, and now the latest arrival into Chicago-based International Anthem’s growing family of progressive musical explorationists. Whilst much of his music contains vocals – often whispered imperatives – this is a collection of instrumentals. The music of To Cy & Lee… contains naturally elegant orchestration wrapped around something visceral and primordial. The music is filled with space, inspired, he says, by computer games and Japanese animation, particularly Joe Hisaishi’s soundtrack for Castle In The Sky. The record combines new compositions alongside bygone instrumentals and under-stated lullabies that feel like they’ve been picked from between the cracks of civilization. DePlume purposefully brings together players of different skill levels and different backgrounds so they have to interact differently, placing them in unusual situations in which to record. “I wanted to destroy the idea of correct so we were playing it different ways for fun. We had a very magical time playing the tunes.” This is activism expressed through gorgeous music that breaks down barriers by encouraging that most powerful emotion: connectedness.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A gorgeous collection of heady ambient ballads, flickering guitar and brilliantly crafted jazzy turns, all imbued with the fluid, understated vibe that Alabaster DePlume has become known for. Instrumentally rich, and a wonderfully crafted journey.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Visit Croatia
A2. What's Missing
A3. Song Of The Foundling
A4. Whisky Story Time
A5. Not Now, Jesus
A6. If You're Sure You Want To
B1. The Lucky Ones (with Danalogue)
B2. Why, Buzzardman, Why
B3. Not My Ask
B4. Turpentine
B5. I Hope

The final instalment (for now) in this little series of classic Der Plan album reissues. Eleven years had passed since the release of "Geri Reig", their debut album. Tiki and electronica, noise and schlager, psychedelia and industrial, Kurt Martin and jerry-rigging, Cargo Cult and Ata Tak, Wuppertal and Dusseldorf, Hans-Albers-Platz and West-Berlin, Emulator I and Emulator II, old pizzas and new masks, making the most out of the least and living in the gallery, abstraction and pop, Japan and Japlan. A lot going on in those eleven years! Good times ... they had a ball. Beautiful.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Es Werde Licht
A2. Die Peitsche Des Lebens
A3. Anders Sein
A4. Wenn Wir Beide Auseinander Gehn
A5. Kathedrale Der Konzentration
A6. Alles Ist Sinnlos
A7. Alter Mann
A8. Vive La Vie
B1. Wir Babies
B2. Kleiner Junge
B3. El Cigarro
B4. Live At The Village Vanguard
B5. Das Bose Kommt Auf Leisen Sohlen
B6. Erst Ich Dann Du
B7. Spiel 77
B8. Das War So Schon

Bureau B have already re-released four classic albums by Der Plan and now they present to you reissue number five. The name of the album is simultaneously the concept. Numerous diverse pieces which illuminate the world in all its absurdity. The album title is lifted from the David Lynch movie Blue Velvet (It’s a strange world). The songs on the album were, for the most part, composed in a legendary session, improvisations really. They decided to play each piece in a different key and use irregular time signatures: Der Plan was often seen as a fun, colourful, NDW (Neue Deutsche Welle) band and they wanted to counter that image by bringing their obscure roots to the fore. Ladies and gentlemen, lean back and enjoy the wonders of a strange and peculiar world.

TRACK LISTING

A1. 1 Moment = 2 Sec
A2. Ich Hab Den Jordan Gesehen
A3. Get Out!
A4. Frisch Verliebt
A5. Die Paranoia Kritische Methode
A6. Kennen Sie Koln?
B1. Komm Zuruck!
B2. Wenn Du Nicht Zuhause Bist
B3. Kreuze Niemals Deinen Weg!
B4. Die Geschichte Des Schwarzen Goldes
B5. Bleib Gold!
B6. Press G Punkt!
B7. 1 Mann, 1 Ball
B8. Bye Bye!

Der Plan have met in the studio after 25 years and recorded a new album. One can claim without exaggeration that DER PLAN were one of the - and perhaps the most -powerful German bands during the time of musical adventure at the beginning of the 1980s. Maybe they still are?

First Cut launches the new Industrial Lies sub-label with a timely reissue.

Der Strom originally released ‘Gleis Eins’ (‘Platform One’) in1987 on cassette only.

Now Industrial Lies has the pleasure of putting out the EP on vinyl for the first time.

From the menacing pulses of ‘Dammerung’ and the melodic synths of ‘Geil’ to the New Beat throb of ‘Gorky’ and the Italo-sounding ‘Repousser’, this four-tracker crackles with raw energy.

Limited edition of 100 vinyl copies.

Mastering by Tom Haunstein (Rand Muzik)
Artwork by Jonny Costello (Adult Art Club)

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: LIES kick off an interesting side project - reissuing classic industrial records. I'd never heard of this one before - and it's a suitably dark and narcotic offering to kick start the label.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Dammerung
A2. Geil
B1. Gorky
B2. Repousser

21 tracks on LP of synth and electronic recording exchanges between Delia Derbyshire and Martin Hannett. Forty years since Martin Hannett first used synths and electronic sound effects in production work on Joy Division's "Unknown Pleasures", this album looks at 21 tracks of electronic and synth music that Hannett had compiled in the the mid 70s to early 80s whilst exchanging tapes by post with electronic music pioneer Delia Derbyshire. The compiled work from the two electronic music geniuses was to have been released by Hannett but was shelved in the early 80s. Here it is as he put it together for the planned album.

Delia Derbyshire's work at the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop in the 60's was recognised initially for her realisation of the now iconic Doctor Who Theme which was written for the show by Ron Grainer. More recently though, she has been celebrated for her own compositions and experiments at what was then the cutting edge of electronic music. The AA side, Blue Veils and Golden Sands, was written for a TV documentary in 1967, a composition in which she used her own voice and a handy green BBC lampshade: "I analysed the sound into all of its partials and frequencies, and took the 12 strongest, and reconstructed the sound on the workshop's famous 12 oscillators to give a whooshing sound. So the camels rode off into the sunset with my voice in their hooves and a green lampshade on their backs."

On the A side is The Delian Mode, which was used as incidental music during The Sky At Night in 1969, finding critical acclaim in Gramophone Magazine's review of the album BBC Radiophonic Music (often known as The Pink Album), in September of the same year: "… Blue Veils and Delian Mode are probably the finest music here. It may be no accident that the latter is reminiscent of the beginning of Xenakis's OrientOccident for Delia Derbyshire follows the analytical approach of the more sustained electronic compositions. If her best pieces seem the most imaginative here—and they are—it is because she more fully explores the implications of her material."

Limited to 500 copies this all-Scottish split 7" contains "Side Effect" from the acclaimed self-titled debut album by Take A Worm For A Walk Week on Midmarch, and a previously unreleased track "25 Seconds Of Positive". Desalvo feature members of Idlewild and follow up their debut 7" on Rock Action Records with the awesome "Get Black".

“Oberst and company have effectively crafted a searing punk fueled half-hour funeral march for both small-town life and the days when you were more likely to hear the words mom and pop than multinational corporation. At the record's core, there is a sense of great disillusionment with watching the cold, calculated displacement of human interaction and community while the world tries to fill the void with money and chain stores.” - Tiny Mix Tapes

“Desaparecidos is like finding gold when you're looking for silver.” - Exclaim!


2022 finds us releasing the 20th Anniversary Edition of Desaparecidos' Read Music/Speak Spanish into a world in which the dread and disenfranchisement detailed throughout the album feel as pertinent today as they did then. The characters and settings may have changed, but the startling narrative has not.

In late 2001, Conor Oberst, Denver Dalley, Landon Hedges, Ian McElroy, and Matt Baum spent a week at Presto! Recording Studio in Lincoln, NE recording a punk album. That debut album, released in the post-9/11 fog of early 2002, screamed out observational commentary on urban development, the sacrifice of human value for the dollar bill, and the new American Dream in a way that felt distinctly out of sync with the hyper-patriotic atmosphere of peak G.W. Bush-era America.

The band toured, got a bit of attention, and then went their separate ways for a long spell. In the ensuing years, Read Music/Speak Spanish gained cult status and became one of the most beloved and meaningful documents of the era, capturing the alienation that those who had seen through the fog of war for $$$$ experienced at the time.

20 years on, those feelings are just as, if not more, relevant than they were in that moment. America has mutated into a new confused version of itself, in many ways unimaginable two decades ago. Yet, the fear and disgust voiced on Read Music/Speak Spanish now sound more prophetic than paranoid, making the album’s message as necessary as ever.

TRACK LISTING

01. Man And Wife, The Former (Financial Planning)
02. Mañana
03. Greater Omaha
04. Man And Wife, The Latter (Damaged Goods)
05. Mall Of America
06. The Happiest Place On Earth
07. Survival Of The Fittest / It's A Jungle Out There
08. $$$$
09. Hole In One

* Remastered from the original tapes
* Essay by “Punk Professor” Vivien Goldman, interviewing key players
* LP Includes download card for full album + 6 bonus tracks
* CD includes full album plus 6 bonus tracks

By the time bohemian singer/poet/artist Lizzy Mercier Descloux recorded her fifth album, 1988's 'Suspense', she'd enjoyed a recording career that was as far from the clichés of music lore as is possible, flitting between genres, continents and collaborators, enjoying great success and equally great failure and even stealing the final breaths of master trumpeter Chet Baker for 1986's One For The Soul. When she came to make 'Suspense' she was, for the first time, working without her longtime muse, partner and manager Michel Esteban, with whom she'd first moved from their native France to New York, where it all began.

The pressure was on to repeat the success of “Mais Où Sont Passées Les Gazelles”, a smash hit in France, and Descloux's label were keen to make a conventional artist of her, pairing her with John Brand, an in-vogue producer with a style geared to a big, shiny 1980s chart sound - an approach Lizzy had never experienced before, nor intended to.

In Vivien Goldman's new liner notes, Esteban notes that Suspense sounds "less Lizzy than the other records, less open," but in splitting herself into two – English and Francophone – the album has two personalities too; oddly, it shines a light on the real Descloux that her cultural experiments never did.

Though the initial aim was to make a folky, acoustic album, the pop sound suited the singer, and “A Room In New York” is as fine and sparky as AOR gets. But when early single “Gueule D’Amour/Cry of Love” stiffed, EMI lost confidence and buried the LP. Bound by her contract to the label, Descloux moved away from music and focused on painting. She eventually settled in Corsica, the French island, where she died, aged 48, of cancer. Descloux's musical career ended, therefore, with the aptly titled Suspense. It was only a matter of time before this furiously creative artist's work was re-evaluated, and with these deluxe reissues, that time is now.

TRACK LISTING

01 Gueule D’amour
02 Cape Desire
03 Salomé
04 Vroom, C’est La Voie Lacée
05 The Long Goodbye
06 2 Femmes À La Mer
07 L’heure Bleue
08 Once Upon A Time Out
09 Echec Et Mat
10 A Room In New York
11 Gypsy Flame (English Version) (Bonus Track)*
12 Lucky Strike Drive (English Version) (Bonus Track)*
13 Playtime 4:13 (English Version) (Bonus Track)*
14 Hurricane 4:26 (English Version) (Bonus Track)*
15 Calypso Moguls (7” Version) (Bonus Track)*
16 Calypso Moguls (Tender Dub) (Bonus Track)*
* Bonus Tracks Available On CD And LP Download Card

New album on Edinburgh's SL Records, from this band, formerly known as Khaya. Dark, minimal tracks inspired by Ennio Morricone, Pan Sonic and William Burroughs.

In 1997, Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) and a handful of friends retreated to the desert of Joshua Tree, CA in order to isolate themselves from the distractions and comforts of their everyday lives. What began as a casual writing and recording session amongst friends has since become a project of legend. Spanning twelve volumes over the course of two decades, Desert Sessions has featured some of music’s most cherished icons stepping out of their comfort zones and collaborating with one another to create some of the most exciting music of their careers.

After nearly sixteen years since its last entry, the longest-running mix tape in existence, Desert Sessions returns with two stunning new volumes in its already storied catalog, Vol. 11 & 12, featuring collaborations from Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), Les Claypool (Primus), Stella Mozgawa (Warpaint), Jake Shears (Scissor Sisters), Mike Kerr (Royal Blood), Carla Azar (Autolux, Jack White), Matt Sweeney (Chavez), David Catching (Co-founder of Rancho De La Luna studio), comedian Matt Berry (What We Do in the Shadows), Töôrnst Hülpft and newcomer Libby Grace.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It looks pretty mad, I know. Josh Homme collaborates with various standout members of rock / indie / grunge royalty (plus a killer tune with Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters), but believe me, it's very good. Country tinged rock, foot-stomping psychedelic shredding and damn good songwriting make for a really interesting combination of sounds, and in the end, a brilliant LP.

TRACK LISTING

Move Together (lead Vocal: Billy F. Gibbons)
Noses In Roses Forever (lead Vocal: Joshua Homme)
Far East For The Trees
If You Run (lead Vocal: Libby Grace)
Crucifire (lead Vocal: Mike Kerr)
Chic Tweetz (vocals: Töôrnst Hülpft, Matt Berry)
Something You Can’t See (lead Vocal: Jake Shears)
Easier Said Than Done (lead Vocal: Joshua Homme)

For Matthew Doty, Deserta has always been about exploring a sonic universe that allows him to express a kaleidoscope of emotions, without having to say much at all. Through a patchwork of reverb-tinged textures – drone guitars, lingering synths and driving percussion – the Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist weaves together stories of care, frustration and catharsis that ultimately stretch to a gentle resolve.

On new album Every Moment, Everything You Need, Doty chronicles the kind of year we all fear, full of uncertainty, tension and sustained pressure, and transforms it into a celebration of perseverance. It’s an essential reminder that we have the power to shape the stories we tell. The pandemic meant that Doty had to give up his studio and downsize a lot of his gear and instead, carve out a space in his two-bedroom apartment to craft the next chapter of Deserta.

Sharing the space with his wife and son, Doty and his partner are also essential healthcare workers, which meant the couple would often have to tag-team childcare, along with 13-hour shifts in PPE and people constantly calling with questions about the ever changing guidelines and protocols. Once the blueprint for Every Moment, Everything You Need was set, Doty reached out to a number of collaborators to stitch together his vision for the sonic landscape.

James McAlister (Sufjan Stevens, The National, Taylor Swift) came onboard to perform and record drums, while Caroline Lufkin (Mice Parade) wrote and performed vocals on the ethereal “Where Did You Go.” Elsewhere, the LP was mixed by Dave Fridmann (Tame Impala, Mogwai, Interpol), with Beach House and Slowdive producer Chris Coady engineering and co-producing, making this the first time Fridmann and Coady had worked together on a project.

While the vocals are more prominent than Deserta’s previous albums, it’s their amalgamation with the instrumental aspects that secures Every Moment, Everything You Need as Deserta’s most confident and assured release to date. An affecting emotional candor teamed with persistent riffs and tenacious rhythms sees Doty unafraid to dive deeper; an unrestrained approach that ushers in a lustrous purging of agitation and anxiety. Showcasing those dark, exhaustive thoughts through crucial swells and looped, electronic soundscapes, it’s an LP that’s infinitely layered, with something new to discover with each and every enchanting listen.

TRACK LISTING

01. Lost In The Weight
02. I'm So Tired
03. Where Did You Go
04. Far From Over
05. It's All A Memory
06. A World Without
07. Goodbye Vista
08. Visions

Multi-cultural, genre defying quartet who beat even Wolves! (Of Greece) in Nottingham's strange and loud stakes. Samples, scratching, blast beats, blues licks, creole singing. Designer Babies live in a world where Captain Beefheart, Jon Spencer, Melvins and Ruins are on constant rotation. Super limited 7" only.

Designers is a new trio by Joachim Florent (double bass), Will Guthrie (drums) and Aki Rissanen (piano). Florent and Guthrie are based in Nantes, France, Rissanen in Helsinki, Finland, and their debut album on We Jazz Records presents a band with highly original, forward-reaching sound that builds on the long tradition of the jazz piano trio, updating it successfully.

TRACK LISTING

1. Lebanon
2. Moulindjek
3. Procession
4. Folk Song
5. Engrenages
6. Point Ligne Sur Plan
7. Tintinabulisme
8. White Keys

Desire shares Escape, their new album written & recorded in Los Angeles & Palm Springs, California. Inspired by the ultra-vivid world of 1970's giallo films, they wrote the soundtrack of their dreams using their favorite musical instruments: Minikorg, Jupiter 8, 909, Mellotron, Simmons Rhythm Modules, String Machine, a D-50 & Fender Rhodes.

House music rhythms provide the canvas for girl group narratives & a children's choir to paint the picture. Throbbing synthwave & daytime drama soap operas all play into the color pallet of the album. The lyrics are sung in English, French, & Korean, adding even more drama to the mix. Through it all, there is the optimism of true love's compass navigating us through all the chaos life has to offer.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. Black Latex
2. Telling Me Lies
3. Liquid Dreams
4. Love Is A Crime

Side 2
5. Zeros
6. Dark Age
7. Haenim (ft. Ether)

Side 3
8. Ghosts
9. Escape
10. The Young And The Restless

Side 4
11. Days & Nights
12. Broken Windows
13. Friends & Enemies

The brand new album from local favourites The Desolation Angels. Displaying a passion for both gritty realism and intense beauty, they lay waste to pre-conceptions, confronting the senses with a distinctive brand of anti-pop, and conjuring a brooding atmosphere by way of intricate arrangements and canny guitar dynamics.

After releasing two strong albums within a mere 11 months, the DeSoto Caucus has taken their time completing this upcoming release. "4" is an album marking a change in the band's modus operandi; after consistent touring and shows everywhere from humble Reeperbahn bars to imposing concert halls, the former musical collective has steadily become more of a tight knit gang of four. Having picked up a great deal of dexterity in handling musical curve balls through years of touring and recording as Howe Gelb's Giant Sand, the intuitive way of playing is ever present. Along with still more personally engaged songwriting, the sound of the band is significant, intriguing and utterly unique. There's still the solid, liquid grooves made up of Peter Dombernowsky's rolling beats and dry percussion, perfectly matched by the rock steady flexibility of bass player Henrik Poulsen, the boiling organ, pensive piano and twang guitar of Nikolaj Heyman with the signature dual lead vocals he shares with main songwriter Anders Pedersen. At the same time, though, fans of the band will recognize new flavors not only in the fat sounds oozing from the album, but also in the expanded collaborative efforts of Heyman and Pedersen on stories of frailty, detachment and rupture.

For recording the band relocated to Heyman's north country studio in a former horse stable turned Big Pink, and isolated themselves, jamming and trying new approaches. The artistic benefits of being without cell phone signal and wifi are obvious, but during the winter the remoteness also meant having to deal with frozen pipes, and melting snow for the morning brew. Two and a half years down the road, the foursomes' fourth album is proof that the process, focused on gaining new territory while never abandoning your trademarks, was worth the wait. So join the DeSoto Caucus' continued journeys under the wide open sky, down red dirt roads, into towns without names, and into the hearts of people out of touch and out of time.

Not unlike the DeSoto Caucus itself, timeless as their take on contemporary independent rock is. Four brothers in arms. Four musketeers. Embarking on yet another sonic voyage. 

After releasing an EP and two singles themselves, now comes the heroically independent debut album, ‘Desperate Journalist’ by Desperate Journalist, which was recorded almost entirely live in London Soho’s Dean Street Studios, jointly produced alongside Keith TOTP and mixed by the band itself.

If that wasn’t organic enough Desperate Journalist designed their own artwork, get heavily involved in their videos and generally hark back to a time when an authentic DIY spirit pervaded, like a perfect indierock storm brewing on the horizon.

"Thoroughly ace." - THE QUIETUS

"Powerful, melodic and full of emotion." - ARTROCKER

"Shimmering post-punk." - TIME OUT

"Desperate Journalist is a rather beautiful thing." - THE GIRLS ARE

In Search of the Miraculous is the third album from much-loved indiegoth dreamboats Desperate Journalist and follows the bands critically acclaimed album Grow Up. If the title conveys a sense of wide- eyed ambition then the music on In Search Of The Miraculous fits the plot perfectly, featuring ten tracks fizzing with creative passion, giant choruses, heroic solos and poetic intensity. Warning: this album contains love songs, anti-love songs and other songs wandering about, lost in an in-between-daze. It’s a bit complicated. Boasting one of the most inspired band names of recent times, the quartet take their moniker from a 1979 John Peel Session track by The Cure. If you ever wondered what Harriet Wheeler from the Sundays would sound like fronting a rawer version of the Smiths or the Cocteau Twins with energy and a shimmering indie edge, then Desperate Journalist is a must hear.

TRACK LISTING

1. Murmuration
2. Cedars
3. Jonatan
4. International Waters
5. Argonauts
6. Black Net
7. Ocean Wave
8. Girl Of The Houses
9. Satellite
10. To Be Forgotten

"Music For Wood And Strings" might be the official follow-up to Bryce Dessner’s 2013 solo debut "Ahyem" but this ‘solo’ record is really the meeting of three great musical entities: Dessner (a member of The National) wrote the piece, renowned quartet So Percussion perform it and Aron Sanchez (of Buke And Gase) built the custom Chordstick instruments upon which it’s played. The music is pointillist then hazy, distorted then crisp and always hypnotic, melodic and engrossing. Weighing in at 35 minutes in length, "Music For Wood And Strings" is the most ambitious piece of music Dessner has released to date. The CD has a run time of 70 minutes, presenting the composition both as a full length concert piece and in nine playlist-friendly ‘sections’. Dessner et al lure the listener in with an assortment of gentle drones before the piece erupts into a mesmeric gossamer of chiming notes and cascading chords. Blossoming from the fertile space between the minimalism of Reich and Glass and the playful and emotive neo-classical of Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Haushka and Owen Pallett, "Music For Wood & Strings" is an unconventional triumph.

Cyrano is an upcoming American-British musical drama film directed by Joe Wright and written by Erica Schmidt, based on Schmidt's 2018 stage musical of the same name, itself based on the 1897 Edmond Rostand play Cyrano de Bergerac. The film stars Peter Dinklage, Haley Bennett, Ben Mendelsohn, Brian Tyree Henry and Kelvin Harrison Jr. The score is written by brothers Bryce and Aaron Dessner from The National with all songs written by Bryce, Aaron, Matt Berninger and Carin Besser. Features cast vocals including lead actor Peter Dinklage, with piano by Víkingur Ólafsson – including a solo piano track. 

Partyfine go in with the second release on their Insane Dances sublabel (great label name - Patch) as label head Yuksek goes deeper and more experimental than ever before under his new secret side project. Completely flipping the script from his previous jump up electro tackle, the Frenchman opens the set with the immersive live synth improvisation of "Orion", a Clusterish ambient track with a rumbling bass drone and refreshing digital rain. The kick hits for A2 banger "911" as Yuksek twists sirens, resonating synths and a bleeping bassline into a wonky house heater with just a hint of off-kilter disco shimmer. Over on the B-side Yuksek gets deep, daft and groovy with the playful electronic bounce of "Ceremony", a melodic house stroller with a sunny Balearic feeling. Finally Loopo up delivers a dark electronic disco groove for cosmic dancers, slotting in perfectly alongside the side chained and synthy stompers Baldelli's been rinsing of late.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Orion
A2 911
B1 Ceremony
B2 Loopo Up

Produced by JC/DC and recorded at their studio in Vancouver earlier this summer, ‘Five Spanish Songs’ features musical contributions from Nicolas Bragg, David Carswell, John Collins, Stephen Hamm, and Josh Wells.

Destroyer’s Dan Bejar writes: “It was 2013. The English language seemed spent, despicable, not easily singable. It felt over for English; good for business transactions, but that’s about it. The only other language I know is Spanish, and the only Spanish songs I really know are those of Sr. Chinarro, led by Antonio Luque. I've been a decades-long fan of how he conducted his affairs, his strange words, his melodies that have always felt so natural (this is important), his bitter songs about painting the light. Something about them, I knew I could do it...”

Have We Met, as Dan Bejar puts it, ‘came together in such a crazy way – all equal parts ecstasy and terror’. Initially conceived (but quickly ditched) as a Y2K album, Bejar was without a clear concept in mind. So he said “fuck it” and let it all rip while brainstorming at home. Culled from years’ worth of saved writing, set aside for projects “beyond music,” and recorded at his kitchen table, Have We Met harkens back to Kaputt-era Dan stringing together lyrics off hand while lounging on his couch. The resulting vocal sound exists in the sweet spot between two Destroyer worlds colliding: hints of the past, more strident Destroyer mixed in with a relaxed, new-aged Crooning one.

No re-recording. No cleaning up. Frequent collaborator John Collins was tasked with the role of layering synth and rhythm sections over a stream-of-consciousness Bejar, as Nic Bragg added ‘completely unexpected and somehow comforting’ three-dimensional, shredding guitar. The Destroyer band-orientated approach was shelved; “The record could have gone on and on, and the mixes kept evolving up until about a day before we sent them off to be mastered, which was also 48 hours before John and his wife went to the birthing centre, where their first child was born; our true deadline!” says Bejar.

Opener ‘Crimson Tide’ is a six-minute journey that takes its rightful place among other Destroyer epics. It welcomes with a sparse rhythm until percolating synths and propulsive bass build and make it all a reality with unsustainable imagery — oceans stuck inside hospital corridors and insane funerals. It’s the sound of a somewhat eccentric and unorthodox recording process laid out and built up by three musicians exploring the depth to which they can take an idea.

On “The Television Music Supervisor,” trickling keys, glitches, and “clickity click clicks” (a variation on the standard Bejar “la da das”) focuses on how those who dictate our relationships with music and media are susceptible to error, a most 21st century concern. Perhaps the most audacious Destroyer track yet, “Cue Synthesizer” steps back to address the rote and often-detached mechanics of music. Up next, the waltzy and woozy centerpiece “University Hill” drifts even further and applies that logic more broadly, insisting “the game is rigged in every direction” and “you’re made of string.”

Thirteen albums in, Have We Met manages to meet somewhere between trademarks and new territory – atmospheric approximations of feeling and place, wry gut-punches of one liners, and the deluge of energy meets a thematic catharsis of modern dread, delivered with an effortless, entrancing directness. But, no need to expound any further. He's got it all spelled out for you in the music.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: While still retaining the slightly oddball lounge aesthetic, 'Have We Met' takes all of Destroyer's myriad sounds and skilfully crafts them into an album full of twists and turns, brimming with warmth and rarely overproduced, Bejar is at his creative best.

TRACK LISTING

1. Crimson Tide
2. Kinda Dark
3. It Just Doesn’t Happen
4. The Television Music Supervisor
5. The Raven
6. Cue Synthesizer
7. University Hill
8. Have We Met
9. The Man In Black’s Blues
10. Foolssong

Destroyer is Dan Bejar from Vancouver, British Columbia. ‘Kaputt’ is his latest vision: an opulent, lyrical, game-changing masterpiece to rank with the choicest works of Sade, Scritti Politti, Simply Red and Steely Dan.

For a more contemporary touchstone, consider this album as the sad-eyed psychic cousin of GAYNGS’ smooth opus ‘Relayted’. These elaborate songs were lovingly crafted by a large studio ensemble of dedicated players; they are given fresh life on the road by an eight-piece touring band which will visit European shores for the first time this year.

‘Kaputt’ entered the Billboard chart at number 62 and received exultant hosannas from such publications as The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Spin and The Washington Post. Pitchfork awarded it their Best New Music accolade, noting that “‘Kaputt’ feels wise. Like a mirror that actually points back at something better. ‘Kaputt’ rolls luxuriously in its own plush soft-rock grandeur, powerfully alluring and deeply sad at the same time.”

Of his 12th studio album and its enigmatic title, Destroyer’s Dan Bejar offers the following:

Sometime last year, I discovered that the original name for “The Wild Ones” (one of the great English-language ballads of the last 100 years or so) was “Ken.” I had an epiphany, I was physically struck by this information. In an attempt to hold on to this feeling, I decided to lift the original title of that song and use it for my own purposes. It’s unclear to me what that purpose is, or what the connection is. I was not thinking about Suede when making this record. I was thinking about the last few years of the Thatcher era. Those were the years when music first really came at me like a sickness, I had it bad. Maybe “TheWild Ones” speaks to that feeling, probably why Suede made no sense in America. I think “ken” also means “to know.”

ken was produced by Josh Wells of Black Mountain, who has been the drummer in Destroyer since 2012. The album was recorded in its entirety in the jam space/studio space that the group calls The Balloon Factory. However, unlike Poison Season, ken was not recorded as a “band” record, though everyone in the band does make an appearance.

TRACK LISTING

1 Sky's Grey
2 In The Morning
3 Tinseltown Swimming In Blood
4 Cover From The Sun
5 Saw You At The Hospital
6 A Light Travels Down The Catwalk
7 Rome
8 Sometimes In The World
9 Ivory Coast
10 Stay Lost
11 La Regle De Jeu

Of his 12th studio album and its enigmatic title, Destroyer’s Dan Bejar offers the following:

Sometime last year, I discovered that the original name for “The Wild Ones” (one of the great English-language ballads of the last 100 years or so) was “Ken.” I had an epiphany, I was physically struck by this information. In an attempt to hold on to this feeling, I decided to lift the original title of that song and use it for my own purposes. It’s unclear to me what that purpose is, or what the connection is. I was not thinking about Suede when making this record. I was thinking about the last few years of the Thatcher era. Those were the years when music first really came at me like a sickness, I had it bad. Maybe “TheWild Ones” speaks to that feeling, probably why Suede made no sense in America. I think “ken” also means “to know.”

ken was produced by Josh Wells of Black Mountain, who has been the drummer in Destroyer since 2012. The album was recorded in its entirety in the jam space/studio space that the group calls The Balloon Factory. However, unlike Poison Season, ken was not recorded as a “band” record, though everyone in the band does make an appearance.

TRACK LISTING

1 Sky's Grey
2 In The Morning
3 Tinseltown Swimming In Blood
4 Cover From The Sun
5 Saw You At The Hospital
6 A Light Travels Down The Catwalk
7 Rome
8 Sometimes In The World
9 Ivory Coast
10 Stay Lost
11 La Regle De Jeu

Destroyer’s latest album, Labyrinthitis, brims with mystic and intoxicating terrain, the threads of Dan Bejar’s notes woven through by a trove of allusions at once eerily familiar and intimately perplexing. The record circuitously draws ever inward, each turn offering giddy surprise, anxious esoterica, and thumping emotionality at equal odds.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It's always been difficult to pigeonhole Destroyer, with a wealth of influence seeping into his sound from classic rock to soul and folk, as well as the core of classic indie anthems, so it's no surprise that this is a many-faceted treat. What is surprising is how far Bejar has come, and how each iteration of his sound is more profound than the last. Lovely.

TRACK LISTING

1 It's In Your Heart Now
2 Suffer
3 June
4 All My Pretty Dresses
5 Tintoretto, It's For You
6 Labyrinthitis
7 Eat The Wine, Drink The Bread
8 It Takes A Thief
9 The States
10 The Last Song

Destroyer's Poison Season opens swathed in Hunky Dory strings. Dan Bejar’s a dashboard Bowie surveying four wracked characters—Jesus, Jacob, Judy, Jack—simultaneously Biblical and musical theatre. This bittersweet, Times Square-set fanfare is reprised twice more on the record—first as swaying, saxophone-stoked “street-rock” and then finally as a curtain-closing reverie.

Broadway Danny Bejar dramatically switches scenes with “Dream Lover,” all Style Council strut and brassy, radio-ready bombast (echoes of The Boo Radleys’ evergreen earworm “Wake Up Boo!”). This being Destroyer, its paramours-on-the-run exuberance is judiciously spiked by his deadpan delivery: “Oh shit, here comes the sun…”

Like the other DB, Mr. Bejar has long displayed a chameleonic instinct for change while maintaining a unified aesthetic (rather than just pinballing between reference points). No two records sound the same, but they’re always uniquely Destroyer. His latest incarnation often appears to take sonic cues from a distinctly British (usually Scottish, to be precise) strain of sophisti-pop: you might hear traces of Aztec Camera, Prefab Sprout, Orange Juice, or The Blow Monkeys. These songs merge a casual literary brilliance with intense melodic verve, nimble arrangements, and a certain blue-eyed soul sadness.

Playfully rueful, “Sun in the Sky” foregrounds cryptic lyrical dexterity over pop-classicist strum before gradually left-fielding into rhythmically supple, delirious avant-squall. It’s as if Talk Talk took over a Lloyd Cole show. Originally released on a collaborative EP with electronic maestros Tim Hecker and Loscil (the latter’s drones are retained here), a retooled “Archer on the Beach” suggests Sade swimming in The Blue Nile, smooth-jazz marimba melancholy dilated by ecstatic ambience. Flecked in heady dissonance, elusively alluring, Dan hymns its eponymous “impossible raver on your death bed” while implicitly beckoning the listener: “Careful now, watch your step, in you go.”

That’s Poison Season in essence: familiar yet mysterious, opaquely accessible. Arch, for sure, but ultimately elevatory.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: After the incredible Kapputt, Destroyer change style again but crucially Keep The Tunes!

TRACK LISTING

1 Time Square, Poison Season
2 Dream Lover
3 Forces From Above
4 Hell
5 The River
6 Girl In A Sling
7 Times Square
8 Archer On The Beach
9 Midnight Meet The Rain
10 Solace's Bride
11 Bangkok
12 Sun In The Sky
13 Time Square Poison Season II

Anti-Flags label comes up with another winner with Destruction Made Simple. Formed two years ago in Southern California. Their musical demonstrates a love for all things underground, such as metal, ska and old skool punk rock. If you enjoy the music of Minor Threat, Dead Kennedys, Anti-Flag and Poison Idea this is for you.

“I believe Destruction Unit to be one of the most important underground bands in America. The live shows vary from dense chaos to dumbstruck pandemonium. The volume is always colossal. The spectacle, dramatic. “Putting microphones on these Arizona weirdos is similar to trying to get a decent recording of a soccer riot-getting Ryan [Rousseau] to sing into our microphone like shooting a hummingbird with a spitball from across a gorge… but we’ve done it. Polished up and pushing the red, we present this deathless comet captured to tape. Headphones on, lowlights flickering, spliff in hand-you are a warrior on the dawn of a new perilous passage…until you have to flip the LP. Enjoy.” - John Dwyer.

TRACK LISTING

1. The World On Drugs
2. Slow Death Sounds
3. Bumpy Road
4. Night Loner

Pioneering new music from members of the iconic and legendary funk band Parliament Funkadelic. Detroit Rising is an exciting artist collective created by 10 groove masters including the current and original members of P-funk, Prince, Public Enemy and Mary J Blige. Taking a break from relentless touring, the musicians step out in a whole new direction, creating a hybrid sound of funk-jazz with injections of soul and hip hop. The album, “A Cosmic Jazz Funk Adventure” was recorded live at the world famous Motown affiliated United Sound Studios in Detroit and studios in New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Baltimore and Florida.

For this remix release a handpicked selection of some of the top DJ producers in the UK have been brought together to create a soulful house and nu-jazz hybrid record: Jimpster, Kaidi Tatham, Sean McCabe with Z records (Dave Lee) and EVM128 – with mastering by UK wizard AtJazz.

First up, Jimpster remixes the Detroit Rising space opera, ‘Rocket Love’ – showcasing two funk-fused house tracks with guitar licks from Duminie Deporres (Public Enemy) and bass lines courtesy of Kern Brantley (Mary J Blige, Beyonce, Aretha Franklin). The vocal remix is expertly laced with parts of the original P-funk instrumental and hip-hop vocals, with the dreamy Dub version letting that infectious hook and melody hit hard.

Next up, Sean McCabe was brought in by Dave Lee of Z records to remix the original Detroit hit ‘Little Bit of Love’ into a fast-paced dance heater. King of the keys Kaidi Tatham is then welcomed to remix two different Detroit Rising tracks, creating a double dose of signature, broken beat infused cuts. ‘Our world’ stars P-funk vocalist and keyboard wizard Danny Bedrosian, alongside granddaughter of George Clinton, Tonysha Nelson.

The emotive, soulful broken brilliance of ‘Peace & Harmony’ also gets the Kaidi treatment starring Sue Ann Carwell and Steve Boyd, vocalists for Prince and Kool & The Gang respectively.

EVM128 of Coop rounds off the package presenting a fast futuristic Bruk beat from the romantic Detroit Rising song called ‘Gorgeous’.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Rocket Love (Jimpster Dub)
A2. Little Bit (Sean McCabe Remix)
A3. Our World (Kaidi Tatham Remix)
B1. Rocket Love (Jimpster Remix)
B2. Gorgeous (EVM128 Remix)
B3. Peace & Harmony (Kaidi Tatham Remix)

"Detroit Rising..." is an unprecedented project created by universally respected musicians, including current and original members of the archetypal funk band Parliament-Funkadelic, along with a selection of world class talent from across the country—is going to bring a new style of funk to audiences this spring.
The hybrid jazz-funk and R&B-flavored album is a collaboration between highly sought after young P-Funk artists and writers, and is supported by legendary industry veterans, including members that have performed with artists such as Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Mary J. Blige, Herbie Hancock, Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell, Theo Parrish and Red Hot Chili Peppers, in addition to their regular work with Parliament-Funkadelic. Key figures in the group also played regularly with late, great artists such as Prince and Miles Davis, among others.
The 10-track album—conceived and overseen by creative producer David Schwartz over the past three years—opens with the saxophone and keys-heavy “Lashing Out” followed by “Little Bit,” one of multiple tracks that musically stretches out over nine minutes in length. Elsewhere is the soulful “Rocket Love,” the sexy ode of “Gorgeous” and the groovy unity-themed anthem“With Peace & Harmony.” *See below for the full track listing.
DETROIT RISING was recorded live at the world famous Motown affiliated United Sound Studios in Detroit, as well as at renowned studios in New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and the Swamp Funk studios in Florida, and mixed and mastered by some of the best engineers in the business, including Richie Beretta (Beyonce), Tatsuya Sato (A Tribe Called Quest) and Mark Santangelo (Childish Gambino). The result is a highly skilled, vibrant and progressive album that combines elements of funk, jazz, soul, hip-hop and rock ‘n’ roll to capture a live sound that genuinely represents the next best thing to having the full band performing live in front of an audience.
After years of honing their performance skills on worldwide stages, the current touring musicians of Detroit Rising now take center stage, performing original compositions that shine a light on the true extent of their talent and creativity.

TRACK LISTING

Lashing Out
Little Bit
My Heart Is Frozen
Rocket Love
What’s That You Heard?
Our World
Gorgeous (CD Bonus Track)
With Peace& Harmony (CD Bonus Track)
Fly To Freedom (CD Bonus Track)
Song #4 Part 2 Funk Instrumental (CD Bonus Track)

Following on from the release of his first album in 10 years in 2022, the expansive ‘Fear Of Programming’, Berlin techno icon Marcel Dettmann today returns to announce a brand new EP, ‘Electric Drive’. His first release via fabric Originals, the flagship label from global club entity fabric.

A full-bodied cut of driving, digitised techno, ‘Electric Drive’ thrives on intensity from the outset. Pairing a hypnotic yet truly dynamic synth centrepiece with a hard-hitting, no nonsense percussive line, the track strips Dettmann’s signature sound to its raw elements - presenting an incendiary DJ tool that can ignite the potency of any set by force.

After spanning a host of genres within ‘Fear Of Programming’, Marcel Dettmann’s ‘Electric Drive’ finds one of techno’s most revered names returning to pure dancefloor ferocity. A glimpse of things to come, the project’s title track ensures that those tuned in to the more dynamic sounds of Berlin techno are satiated with a new soundtrack for late nights and early mornings from one of the sound’s most inventive artists.

The four track EP promises to build on the foundations of a classic sound of techno, taking a no holds barred approach to powerful, explosive electronic music.

TRACK LISTING

Electric Drive
Mission
No Return
Relink

“Dettmann II” is a sequel in a true sense, the album marks a return to the spirit of his debut, but things feel less tense this time around. Dettmann brings his recent experimental outlook and applies it to the album template, creating a record that lives and breathes with a naturalism rare for a techno album. Expertly paced, “Dettmann II” impresses especially with its carefully rising narrative. As the album barrels into action with the particulate grit of “Throb” and “Ductil”, Dettmann is in fine style. Each tune’s central theme is a bit more out there than usual, from the sheet metal racket of “Lightworks” to the house-hinting chorus of “Soar”, which is every bit as majestic as its title implies. He offers up some top-notch ambient material as well, like the trippy “Shiver”, or the ominous “Outback”, which features contributions from Levon Vincent.

Dettmann also reaches for a rare collaboration on his second album. Kindred spirit Emika lends her spectral gasps to “Seduction”, which stays stunningly antiseptic even as it weaves her voice into its wire framework. With “Dettmann II”’s stretch of tracks “Radar” and “Corridor”, the album finally takes flight into full-on club mania, fist-pumping career-high material with all the subtlety of his old work molded up into a spiky banger.

“Aim”, which ends the record in lofty fashion, hints at a new direction for Dettmann, uncharacteristically melodic and even uplifting. Co-produced by René Pawlowitz, it bears the Shed touch but keeps it firmly in Dettmann’s finely-honed world. The first track written for the album and the one that initiated the album sessions in the first place, it carefully hints at new directions while keeping its glance firmly in Dettmann’s established history - which you could say for the album as a whole, gently moving towards new horizons but always keeping in mind what made Dettmann’s past music so great in the first place.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Dettmann calls time on summer, speeding winter along with a majestic record for the long nights ahead. Rigid percussion is paired with shimmering melody as he takes a small step away from the brutal minimalism of his first album.

TRACK LISTING

01. Arise
02. Throb
03. Ductil
04. Shiver
05. Lightworks
06. Soar
07. Outback
08. Seduction Feat. Emika
09. Radar
10. Corridor
11. Stranger
12. Aim

dEUS have never really had a philosophy. Never wanted one. Yet they’ve remained true to certain guiding principles. “You don’t want to repeat yourself, but you have your style,” says Tom Barman, frontman and genial leader of the cult Belgian art-rockers. “You want to try new stuff and just react to whatever feels fresh at the time.” So it is with ‘How To Replace It’, their eighth studio album and first in ten years; distinctive and inventive, melodic yet defiantly off-kilter. Unique. And above all, unmistakably dEUS. Even that title – mysterious, oblique – scans as being fantastically unknowable, hinting at a deep sense of wisdom. “I like the openness of it,” says Barman. Follow the lyrical clues, and you might conclude “it” concerns romance and ageing; squint a little, and you might alight on modernity being the malaise described.

Either way, fueling intrigue is by design. “It’s a question, it’s an answer…it’s up to the listener to decide.” For the previous two records, jam sessions were long and structured – five days a week, noon till 6pm – with songs being moulded and developed over time. But for the How To Replace It sessions, Barman shook things up. “We had short, explosive jams. Very concentrated,” he says. “And when I heard something, I’d retreat with our engineers and do the heavy lifting. That’s how the album came together.” Twenty-eight years after their debut record, dEUS remain indie stalwarts, pushing ever forward, endlessly curious and creatively restless.

TRACK LISTING

1. How To Replace It
2. Must Have Been New
3. Man Of The House
4. 1989
5. Faux Bamboo
6. Dream Is A Giver
7. Pirates
8. Simple Pleasures
9. Never Get You High
10. Cadillac
11. Love Breaks Down
12. Le Blues Polaire

Having secured their status as art-rock legends during the 90s… lionised by the likes of Radiohead and REM… Deus stake out bold new frontiers for themselves. On "Vantage Point" there are the same art rock tendencies we know and love them for, but this time infiltrated with some solid grooves, at times even bordering of punk funk. They've also recruited guest vocalists on a couple of tracks: Guy Garvey from Elbow provides vocals on "The Vanishing Of Maria Schneider" and Karin Dreijer Andersson from The Knife sings on the superb brooding "Slow".

Les Disques du Crepuscule presents Space & Time, a brand new album by Deux Filles, the reclusive arthouse duo comprising Colin Lloyd-Tucker and Simon Fisher Turner, aka Gemini Forque and Claudine Coule.

The fictive French girls released two high-regarded albums of ambience and found sound at the dawn of the 1980s. More recently both Silence & Wisdom and Double Happiness drew praise from Richard King in his book Original Rockers for their “dreamlike solemnity immersed in a cloud of echo from which incorporeal voices emerged then retreated with unnerving suddenness” and “music sounding as if borrowed from a chamber piece and re-scored for an ethereal ensemble of recorded whispers and ticking clocks.”

Since the girls’ first aural stirrings Simon Fisher Turner has become a prolific soundtrack composer (Caravagio, Blue, The Epic of Everest), as well as finding cult pop success as The King of Luxemburg. Alongside a string of eclectic solo releases, Colin Lloyd-Tucker’s vocal and production credits include work with Kate Bush, The The and Sweet Dreamer.

Space & Time sees Deux Filles reunited after 33 and a third years of silence, recorded on a musical Grand Tour which took in France, England, Scotland, Nicaragua and Japan. Now, as then, fellow travellers include Matt Johnson (The The), Anni Hogan (Marc Almond) and The Elysian Quartet, as well as Paddy Bush, Maggie Ronson and David Coulter.

TRACK LISTING

1. Her New Master
2. Belle's Bell
3. Mandy's Playroom
4. Horsebox Parade
5. Moon Starers Return
6. Song For Ozu
7. Prayer For Vince
8. Mata Laya Pata
9. Shell-Like Cornice
10. Mouth Popsicle Explosion
11. Preparing Wet Piano Tuna
12. A440HZ (No Solids)
13. Oh How We Laughed With The Capsizing Girls
14. Happy Clappy
15. Soft Crushed Love
16. Spooky Gumbo Trance
17. Twinblade Sofa Cull
18. Deep Snowdrop
19. Pighouse Parachute Blues
20. Treasure Trove Of Memories
21. Gigante Beach (and The Giant Pig)
22. The Five Sexes
23. The Voice Of Experience
24. Happy Ending

Initially released in 2010, Minimal Wave's retrospective of obscure French '80s outfit Deux remains one of the label's most sought-after compilations. Here, it gets a deserved re-press, allowing a whole new generation of listeners to fall in love with the quirky works of the Lyon-based duo. The album's ten tracks, which were drawn from various obscure cassettes and seven-inch singles, effortlessly join the dots between moody electro, cold-wave, new wave and eccentric synth-pop, reflecting the pair's esoteric approach to wayward electronic pop. This second edition comes in a hand-numbered edition of 999 copies, with Minimal Wave's usual attention to detail present on the weighty packaging.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. "Game & Performance"
2. "Felicita"
3. "Decadence"
4. "Dance With Me"
5. "Le Couloir"

Side 2
1. "Paris Orly"
2. "Sex & Trouble"
3. "Ministry Of Love"
4. "Minimaliste"
5. "Le Camion"

'Aethernal Score', Aisha Devi’s commission for the BBC Concert Orchestra, is an attempt to intensify the vibrational capacities of the orchestra and divert the expected course of classical-electronic collaboration. Devi has always used her art to push against cultural presumptions, so it made sense to assemble the initial framework for the piece from some of her acclaimed back catalogue, meshing it with new compositions and reworking everything with orchestral elements that follow Devi's radical metaphysical and theoretical guidelines. It's best described as a twenty-minute "mixtape" that embodies the connections between the concert hall, the club and the sacred ritual - or even a demonstration of the orchestra's hidden potential.

Inspired by her Himalayan heritage, Devi has been exploring the entrancing sonic application of monastic practices such as throat singing for many years, as well as developing psychoacoustic methods. This led her to perceive sound as a way of expanding brain activity - something that also plays a shrouded role in the world of chamber music. Applying this to the orchestra, she began thinking about each instrument as a discrete frequency range, searching for its ethereal properties rather than fixating on an object saddled with cultural baggage. Using the density, amplitude and vibrational impact of the sounds in unison, Devi was able to summon the club environment, seizing that space's inherent power - Devi was making orchestral rave.

TRACK LISTING

1. Spacetime Expiration Binaural
2. Two Serpents Theme
3. DNA Morphosis
4. Aetherave Theme
5. Graal Interlude
6. Genesis Theme
7. Mind Vapor Interlude
8. Aethernal Binaural
9. And If You Had Eternity?
10. Al Kemie March
11. Neurobytes²
12. Antigravity
13. I’m Not Always Where My Body Is Theme

Retro house sounds from Italy on this release... tunes that still go down well with some of the big name festival dj's during their summer tour! A track that remained unpublished for 33 years until Devil Dee decided to make it public and bring his own voice to the spotlight joined by jazz-blues singer Joan Faulkner, (former supporting voice of Boney M and Milli Vanilli, also known by her stage name 'Dee-Vah'). Devil Dee is Davide Mancori - a cinematograph with a flattering career as a club-dj from 80s-90s onwards - who lovingly produced this release which differs from most of the releases on Best Record by its housey vibe. 'And The Beat Goes On' was written in Germany in 1989 by Leonie Gane and Ryan Paris laying the crucial foundations for an evolutionary step of the italian disco music. A step forward for the 'Italo' movement considered obsolete and defunct. In fact, the track is also referring to the latest Italo-Disco which entirely covered the scene of the 1980s with furious activity, If the meeting between Devil Dee and the famous interpreter of 'Dolce Vita' - Mister Ryan Paris - creates the alchemy, the explosive mix is completed with the precious work of Marco Magrini. The arrangement by Pierluigi Cerin and the executive work of Claudio Casalini close the magic circle. Five friends and a great singer from Indiana to fill the dance floors all over Europe, while the images of the provocative and surreal video-clip capture the audience by splitting in two. There are those who do not want to see certain issues publicized and those who appreciate their cheekiness, such as Best Record which by publishing the vinyl printed at 180 grams celebrates the 40 years of activity.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Can you believe this sat unreleased for 33 years? Can you believe it's actually 33 years old?! Unfathomable questions to a record that, if it had been released, would be WAY ahead of its time. Instead, we get it now, and it makes complete sense. Devil Dee - a timing genius.

TRACK LISTING

01 And The Beat Goes On (marco Magrini Extended Edit)
02 And The Beat Goes On (instrumental)
03 Devil Dee Ft Joan Faulkner And The Beat Goes On Club Version
04 And The Beat Goes On (electro Dub By Devil Dee Claudio Casalini)

The power of words isn’t lost on longstanding Americana triumvirate The Devil Makes Three - Pete Bernhard, Lucia Turino and Cooper McBean. For as much as they remain rooted in troubadour traditions of wandering folk, Delta blues, whiskey-soaked ragtime and reckless rock ‘n’ roll, the band nod to the revolutionary unrest of author James Baldwin, the noholds barred disillusionment of Ernest Hemingway and Southern Gothic malaise of Flannery O’Connor.

In that respect, their sixth full-length and first original material since 2013, ‘Chains Are Broken’ resembles a dusty leatherbound book of short stories from some bygone era. As the band began writing ideas for the record they veered off the proverbial path creatively. 

Instead of their typical revolving cast of collaborators, The Devil Makes Three stuck to the signature power trio, with one addition. This time they invited touring drummer Stefan Amidon to power the bulk of the percussion.

Another first, they retreated to Sonic Ranch Studios in El Paso, TX a stone’s throw from the Mexican border to record with producer Ted Hutt (Dropkick Murphys).

The incorporation of new sounds as well as the experimentation in space finds The Devil Makes Three crafting a new yet still familiar sound. Coupled with a continued focus on in-depth lyricism that tells a story in every song, ‘Chains Are Broken’ is a liberating, rump-shaking collection of past, present and future.

TRACK LISTING

Chains Are Broken
Pray For Rain
Paint My Face
Can’t Stop
Need To Lose
All Is Quiet
Bad Idea
Deep Down
Native Son
Castles
Curtains Rise

Kevin Devine is taking a leaf out of the books of emo darlings like Chris Cabbarra of Dashboard Confessional and Jonah Mantranga. A set of simple, six stringed, heartfelt melodies and his shivering and stirring voice. Now "Travelling the EU" features three new songs from Devine, including his interpretation of "You Are My Sunshine", cruising the continent for all you punk-rock romantics out there.

Devin’s debut EP entitled ‘You’re Mine’ is three tracks of classic rock & roll infused with elements of soul and punk; the passion of his vocal delivery combined with the high energy melodies introduce Devin as an exceptionally exciting artist. ‘You’re Mine’ was written while Devin worked at a Brooklyn shipping warehouse and contains what he calls his “first good songs.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: Love this! Raw garage rock that hurtles along at 100mph. Think The Strokes knack for a catchy tune mixed with the upbeat energy of The Hives.

TRACK LISTING

A: You’re Mine
B1: Thing On My Mind
B2: Black And Blue

DEVO marks half a century of de-evolution as the trailblazing band resumes their global tour this fall. Rhino pays tribute to the influential group today, unveiling a new career-spanning set that encompasses all of Devo’s hits and a selection of rarities. Formed back in 1973 US new wave band DEVO celebrate their 50th anniversary this year and we will be releasing a new collection spanning the bands entire career, 50 Years of De-Evolution 1973 – 2023.

Today, Devo’s innovative music and thought-provoking performances are celebrated for their profound influence on generations of new-wave, industrial, and electronic artists. 50 YEARS OF DE-EVOLUTION (1973-2023) stands as a testament to the band’s legacy, compiling key tracks from all nine of Devo’s studio albums, as well as rarities like the 1974 demo for “I’m A Potato” and single mixes for “Come Back Jonee,” “Snowball,” and “What We Do.” The band will be going on their farewell tour in UK and Europe shortly before the release.

TRACK LISTING

Vinyl Tracklisting:
Side 1
1. Mongoloid (Warner Version)
2. Jocko Homo (Warner Version)
3. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
4. Come Back Jonee (Single Edit)
5. Secret Agent Man
6. The Day My Baby Gave Me A Surprize
Side 2
1. Smart Patrol
2. Girl U Want
3. Whip It
4. Freedom Of Choice
5. Gates Of Steel
6. Working In The Coal Mine
Side 3
1. Beautiful World
2. Jerkin’ Back ’N’ Forth
3. Through Being Cool
4. Love Without Anger
5. Time Out For Fun
6. Peek•A•Boo!
7. That’s Good
Side 4
1. Big Mess
2. Here To Go (Go Mix Version)
3. Are You Experienced?
4. Disco Dancer (7-Inch Version)
5. Post Post-Modern Man (Macro Post - Modern Mix)
6. Fresh 

CD Tracklisting:
Disc 1
1. Mongoloid (Warner Version)
2. Jocko Homo (Warner Version)
3. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
4. Come Back Jonee (Single Edit)
5. Secret Agent Man
6. The Day My Baby Gave Me A Surprize
7. Smart Patrol
8. Girl U Want
9. Whip It
10. Freedom Of Choice
11. Gates Of Steel
12. Working In The Coal Mine
13. Beautiful World
14. Jerkin’ Back ’N’ Forth
15. Through Being Cool
16. Time Out For Fun
17. Peek•A•Boo!
18. That’s Good
19. Big Mess
20. Here To Go (Go Mix Version)
21. Are You Experienced?
22. Disco Dancer (7-Inch Version)
23. Post Post-Modern Man (Macro Post –Modern Mix)
24. Fresh
Disc 2
1. I’m A Potato (1974 Demo)
2. Mongoloid (Booji Boy Version)
3. Jocko Homo (Booji Boy Version)
4. Be Stiff (Stiff Version)
5. Uncontrollable Urge
6. Gut Feeling/(Slap Your Mammy)
7. Triumph Of The Will
8. Soo-Bawlz
9. It Takes A Worried Man
10. Snowball (Single Remix)
11. Mr. B’s Ballroom
12. Going Under
13. Love Without Anger
14. One Dumb Thing
15. Speed Racer
16. Theme From Doctor Detroit
17. Shout
18. Puppet Boy
19. I Wouldn’t Do That To You
20. Bread And Butter
21. Let’s Talk
22. Baby Doll (Devo Single Mix)
23. Some Things Never Change
24. What We Do (Single Edit)
25. No Place Like Home
26. Watch Us Work It

The spuds asked for it, and the spuds got it! Futurismo proudly present a standard 2xCD version of ART DEVO 1973-1977. The release all hardcore Devo fans have been waiting for, ART DEVO is a vital collection housing unheard and obscure mind blowers sourced directly from the vaults of The De-Evolution Band. This anthology takes you from the bandsinitial conception in Akron, Ohio to the moment before the world woke up, in a collection of sonic and visual art that captures Devo at the dawn of industrial death. ART DEVO showcases the mesmerizing evolution of a band on the brink of discovery, mining irony, wit and dark humour from the madness of a distorted modern world still coming to terms with aftermath of a collapsed economy and the Vietnam war. From 1973- 1977 Devo would transform from an art project, pop art in the literal sense, into the group David Bowie would declare “the band of the future”. Here you will find the audio mutations of a band at the edge of greatness, initial concepts that gave birth to a new aesthetic that continually challenged preconceptions about music, art, performance, culture, composition and consumption...it was also the birth of Booji Boy. While the songs here may not be fully grown, raw even, these are the seeds of subversion that kickstarted Devo’s fifty year legacy.

Spanning 2xCD’s almost completely unheard and unreleased material, this collection draws purely from that integral early history, garnered from unearthed basement recordings, original demo tapes, unfinished montages and rare live audio, all taken from the bands personal archive. This collection showcases why Devo was, and is still is, one of the most important bands in American history. De-evolution is real. The art of DEVO is real. Here is the evidence. This standard 2xCD version is housed in a gloss laminated digipak, it has a tracklist that has been curated by the band, and contains a fold-out containing rare imagery and liner notes by Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald V Casale

TRACK LISTING

Exhibit [A] 1973-1976
1. Booji’s Industrial Death
2. Total Love
3. Auto Modown (Early Version)
4. Space Girl Blues (Early Version)
5. Live Forever
6. Androgyny (Live At Kent Kove 74)
7. Fraulein (Kent Kove 1974)
8. Bicentennial Birthday
9. Man From The Past
10. Midget/My Lai Mama (Kent Kove 74)
11. Shimmy Shake
12. All Of Us
13. Hubert House
14. The Tinkle Tune
15. Private Secretary (Kent Kove 74)
16. I Don’t Know Why
17. Dixie
18. Pigs Waddle (Kent Kove 74)
19. Death Of Lt. Casanova (Kent Kove 74)

Exhibit [B] 1975-1977
1. U Got Me Bugged (Instrumental Version)
2. I Don’t Know What I Do Do
3. Huboon Stomp
4. Can U Take It (Early Version)
5. Uncontrollable Urge (Early Version)
6. Everything’s Gonna Be Alright
7. Falling In Love Again
8. Devo Corporate Anthem (Early Version)
9. Shrivel Up (Early Version)
10. Smart Patrol (Early Version)
11. I’m Lost At Home
12. Untitled
13. Never Go Back
14. Secret Agent Man (Mark Vocal)
15. Social Fools (Early Version)
16. A Plan For U (Early Version)
17. Nutty Buddy (Live At JB’s 76)
18. Dogs Of Democracy
19. Race Of Doom (Early Version)
20. Space Junk (Early Version)
21. Primal Satisfaction*
22. End Message

Futurismo proudly present the release all hardcore Devo fans have been waiting for: ART DEVO 1973-1977, a lovingly packaged box set housing rare, unheard and obscure mind blowers sourced directly from the vaults of The De-Evolution Band. This anthology takes you from the band’s initial conception in Akron, Ohio to the moment before the world woke up, in a collection of sonic and visual art that captures Devo at the dawn of industrial death.

ART DEVO showcases the mesmerizing evolution of a band on the brink of discovery, mining irony, wit and dark humour from the madness of a distorted modern world still coming to terms with aftermath of a collapsed economy and the Vietnam war. From 1973-1977 Devo would transform from an art project, pop art in the literal sense, into the group David Bowie would declare “the band of the future”. Here you will find the audio mutations of a band at the edge of greatness, initial concepts that gave birth to a new aesthetic that continually challenged preconceptions about music, art, performance, culture, composition and consumption...it was also the birth of Booji Boy. While the songs here may not be fully grown, raw even, these are the seeds of subversion that kickstarted Devo’s 50 year legacy.

Spanning 3 LP’s and a 7” of predominantly unreleased material, this collection draws purely from that integral early history, garnered from unearthed basement recordings, original demo tapes, unfinished montages and rare live audio, all taken from the bands personal archive. The music is set against rare imagery, photos and personal artwork, with liners penned directly from the hands of founding members Jerry Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh and packaged in a gold foiled archive box containing separate art cards, to evoke a pseudo auction house art catalogue. Did we mention one of the images is also Scratch ‘N’ Sniff!

This is a one-time only, strictly Limited Edition box set, never to be remade, showcasing why Devo was, and still is, one of the most important bands in American history. De-evolution is real. The art of Devo is real. Here is the evidence.

The tracklist that has been curated by the band, they come housed in a gold foiled archive box, and contain a set of Double sided art cards - including a Scratch ‘N’ Sniff image. Plus liner notes by Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald V Casale.

TRACK LISTING

TRACKLIST:
Side A: Exhibit [A] 1973-1976
Boojis Industrial Death
Total Love
Auto Modown (Early Version)
Space Girl Blues (Early Version)
Live Forever
Androgyny (Live At Kent Kove 74)
Fraulein (Kent Kove 1974)

Side B: Exhibit [B] 1973-1975
Bicentennial Birthday
Man From The Past
Midget/My Lai Mama (Kent Kove 74)
Shimmy Shake
All Of Us
Hubert House
The Tinkle Tune

Side C: Exhibit [C] 1973-1975
Private Secretary (Kent Kove 74)
I Don’t Know Why
Dixie
Pigs Waddle (Kent Kove74)
Death Of Lt. Casanova (Kent Kove 74)

Side D: Exhibit [D] 1975-1977
U Got Me Bugged (Instrumental Version)
I Don’t Know What I Do Do
Huboon Stomp
Can U Take It (Early Version)
Uncontrollable Urge (Early Version)
Everything’s Gonna Be Alright
Falling In Love Again

Side E: Exhibit [E] 1975-1977
Devo Corporate Anthem (Early Version)
Shrivel Up (Early Version)
Smart Patrol (Early Version)
I’m Lost At Home
Untitled
Never Go Back
Secret Agent Man (Mark Vocal)

Side F: Exhibit [F] 1975-1977
Social Fools (Early Version)
A Plan For U (Early Version)
Nutty Buddy (Live At JB’s 76)
Dogs Of Democracy
Race Of Doom (Early Version)
Space Junk (Early Version)
Primal Satisfaction*
End Message

7” Side G: Exhibit [G] 1975
Untitled Montage (Harlan Hall)
Untitled Montage (Harlan Hall)

Side H: Exhibit [H] 1975-1977
Untitled Montage (Harlan Hall)
Untitled Montage (Greenwood)

Futurismo present a new version of DEVO’s highly celebrated and sold-out box set release - 'ART DEVO 1973-1977'. Now available as a 3xLP in a choice of limited colours. The release all hardcore Devo fans have been waiting for, 'ART DEVO' is a vital collection housing unheard and obscure mind blowers sourced directly from the vaults of The De-Evolution Band. This anthology takes you from the band’s initial conception in Akron, Ohio to the moment before the world woke up, in a collection of sonic and visual art that captures DEVO at the dawn of industrial death.

In honour of their 50th Anniversary, 'ART DEVO' showcases the mesmerizing evolution of a band on the brink of discovery, mining irony, wit and dark humour from the madness of a distorted modern world still coming to terms with aftermath of a collapsed economy and the Vietnam war. From 1973-1977 DEVO would transform from an art project, pop art in the literal sense, into the group David Bowie would declare “the band of the future”. Here you will find the audio mutations of a band at the edge of greatness, initial concepts that gave birth to a new aesthetic that continually challenged preconceptions about music, art, performance, culture, composition and consumption...it was also the birth of Booji Boy. While the songs here may not be fully grown, raw even, these are the seeds of subversion that kickstarted DEVO’s 50 year legacy.

Spanning 3xLP’s almost completely unheard and unreleased material, this collection draws purely from that integral early history, garnered from unearthed basement recordings, original demo tapes, unfinished montages and rare live audio, all taken from the bands personal archive. This collection showcases why DEVO was, and is still, one of the most important bands in American history. De-evolution is real. The art of DEVO is real. Here is the evidence.

This 3xLP version is housed in a gloss laminated wide spined sleeve, it has a tracklist that has been curated by the band and contains a fold-out poster containing rare imagery and liner notes by Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald V Casale. 

TRACK LISTING

Exhibit [A] 1973-1976:
Booji’s Industrial Death
Total Love
Auto Modown (Early Version)
Space Girl Blues (Early Version)
Live Forever
Androgyny (Live At Kent Kove 74)+
Fraulein (Kent Kove 1974)

Exhibit [B] 1973-1975:
Bicentennial Birthday
Man From The Past
Midget/My Lai Mama (Kent Kove 74)
Shimmy Shake
All Of Us
Hubert House
The Tinkle Tune

Exhibit [C] 1973-1975:
Private Secretary (Kent Kove 74)+
I Don’t Know Why
Dixie
Pigs Waddle (Kent Kove 74)+
Death Of Lt. Casanova (Kent Kove 74)

Exhibit [D] 1975-1977:
U Got Me Bugged (Instrumental Version)
I Don’t Know What I Do Do
Huboon Stomp
Can U Take It (Early Version)
Uncontrollable Urge (Early Version)
Everything’s Gonna Be Alright
Falling In Love Again

Exhibit [E] 1975-1977:
Devo Corporate Anthem (Early Version)
Shrivel Up (Early Version)
Smart Patrol (Early Version)
I’m Lost At Home
Untitled
Never Go Back
Secret Agent Man (Mark Vocal)

Exhibit [F] 1975-1977:
Social Fools (Early Version)
A Plan For U (Early Version)
Nutty Buddy (Live At JB’s 76)
Dogs Of Democracy
Race Of Doom (Early Version)
Space Junk (Early Version)
Primal Satisfaction*
End Message

Devon Rexi return with the mini-LP “Biya Ba Man”, a new and improved take on the no wave steppers and post punk grooves of their debut “Tambal EP”.

This leftfield five tracker sees the band expand to a quintet, with originators Nic Mauskovic (drums and vocals) and Nushin Naini (bass and vocals) joined by Tobias Jansen on turntables and production, Lyckle de Jong on synths and effects and Goya van der Heyden on percussion.

The extra players collaborate to send Devon Rexi’s sound in new directions, amplifying the already extra-dimensional vibe. Synths and vinyl manipulation render a trip hop vibe to the post punk brew, reminding of zoned-out jams like Maxinquaye, or those heady early Mo’Wax.

Opening track “Sjikamo” sets the tone at a deconstructed hip-hop tempo, samples spliced up like a classic Celluloid album. “Fargh Nimikoone” ups the pace with a funky 135 bpm lean, and Nushin’s harmonized vocal sounding ever more alien over the conga rhythm. “Marde Pir” closes the first side at another beatdown tempo, the drums flexing like factory pistons.

The B side fires up with “Biya Ba Man Biya” - a proper steppers bounce, Nushin’s farsi singalong chorus is as catchy as it’s ever been. The Mini-LP concludes with “Koja Raftan” bringing plenty of Bomb Squad energy, a crescendo of fine maximal percussive style.

It’s no wave, but not as we know it. With new members bringing effects and collage elements to the spacious minimal wave core, there’s plenty of avenues for future formations of Devon Rexi to explore.

- Liner Notes by Fizzy Veins

TRACK LISTING

Sjikamo
Fargh Nimikoone
Marde Pir
Biya Ba Man Biya
Koja Raftan

This is The Dexateens' previously unreleased debut album. Recorded in Spring 2000, in two days flat, it laid down the foundations of what was to come with "The Dexateens" and "Red Dust Rising". This album finds them at their most primal Motorhead meets manic Southern-fried rock. Raw'n'rowdy porch blues at its finest.

It's been 11 years since the release of their last album of original music, the acclaimed One Day I'm Going to Soar, and they now return with this stunning new record. As you'd expect it's a dramatic soulful collection that swings from horn filled stomps reminiscent of early Dexy's Midnight Runners, to synth-heavy and (occasionally) doomy pop all delivered with a renewed energy and positivity.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: There are some enormous pop songs on this new Dexys record, which when coupled with Kevin Rowland's deeply personal, sometimes confessional but ultimately redemptive lyrics make this one of the most arresting albums of his whole career.

TRACK LISTING

1. The One That Loves You
2. It's Alright Kevin (Manhood 2023)
3. I'm Going To Get Free
4. Coming Home
5. The Feminine Divine
6. My Goddess Is
7. Goddess Rules
8. My Submission
9. Dance With Me

TRACK LISTING

Side A (Act 1: Getting Honest)
1. The One That Loves You
2. It’s Alright Kevin (Manhood 2023)
3. I’m Going To Get Free
4. Coming Home

Side B (Act 2: Attitude To Women)
1. The Feminine Divine

Side C (Act 3: The Relationship)
1. My Goddess Is
2. Goddess Rules
3. My Submission
4. Dance With Me

Side D (The Concert: Part 1)
1. Soon/Plan B
2. I’ll Show You
3. All In All (This One Last Wild Waltz)

Side E (The Concert: Part 2)
1. Until I Believe In My Soul
2. Free
3. Come On Eileen

Side F (Encore)
1. Geno
2. Jackie Wilson Said (I’m In Heaven When You Smile)
3. Tell Me When My Light Turns Green
4. Carrickfergus

Epoch is the story of DeYarmond Edison: Brad Cook, Phil Cook, Justin Vernon and Joe Westerlund, told as never before. It’s a tale of community, vision, family, and a quartet that wanted to be too good to last. Rendered in maximalist detail, Epoch explores their saga while also telling a more universal tale: it explores and celebrates what everyone else is doing, making and building outside those cities that live under a microscope. It treats “small town shit” with the canonical care it deserves.

Scenes, especially the so-called small ones, are stitched together by the friendships and relationships that lock arms to build it. In this way, Epoch is also a friendship fable; “There’s a coming of age when it comes together,” describes Executive Producer Grayson Haver Currin, “and a coming of age when it breaks apart.” The epilogue is nice-to-have – where are they now, and so on – but it’s not the story. The story is the moment, which is the people, which is the friendships, which is the scene, which is the moment.

The spectrum-spanning archive of Hudd Traxx grows at pace, and having rolled out jams from legends of the game on “Hudd Influences Vol. 1”, Eddie Leader’s acclaimed Manchester based imprint now hands a full debut to rising star… DFRA.

From label fan to label artist, Buenos Aires-based Colombian, Diego Ruiz, first featured on 2019’s”‘Out Of Order : Volume 3” with “I Am House”. His new “Blue Horizon” EP confirms that statement, as we’re presented with a trio of beautifully tailored tracks, highlighting a producer who is comfortable in his craft.

The shimmer and bump of the title track, evokes scenes of sun, sea and bodies moving in rhythm. A theme that runs throughout, as the perspiring vibes of “Hold Me” roll us into the club with its warm bass, pulsing keys and vocal, while final cut “Fallin’” with its hypnotic swing and thumping kick takes us deeper into the night.

Adding a final peak to the package is Real Tone boss, Franck Roger. Vocal flourishes, echoing keys and that renowned golden touch from the Frenchman round out this superb debut from DFRA.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: New record on Eddie Leader's seminal Hudd Trax featuring the one and only Franck Roger who rolls out a truly classic sound on his mix of "Fallin'". The three OGs from DFRA are equally quintessential, deep house done properly - understated but unequivocally sexy.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Blue Horizon 
A2. Hold Me 
B1. Fallin' 
B2. Fallin' (Franck Roger Street Mix) 

Colombian artist DFRA links with some of Argentina's finest musicians for a high-class mix of 90s and 00s deep house and a wide array of proper jazz stylings to this new EP on Deeppa, a well-formed young label that will soon hit release number 10. 'Sal Marina' kicks off with shuffling beats and nu-jazz chords that make you want to move, while both 'Green Line' and 'Manits' showcase some superb melodies over more percussive, busy beats that have a great sense of movement. 'Brown Sugar' then gets a little deeper with its withering cosmic lines and heartfelt vocals and the main man Atjazz works it onto something even more potent before 'Sal Marina (Lay-Far Remix)' closes down with a timeless soulful house vibe.

TRACK LISTING

Sal Marina
Green Line
Manits
Brown Sugar
Brown Sugar (Atjazz Remix)
Sal Marina (Lay-Far Remix)

Hybrid sounds are offered up by Sunderland born producer Dharma on his Lone Romantic debut. His ‘Clear Glass’ EP lands on Maceo Plex’s left of centre imprint, offering up four tracks of futuristic garage and electro-tinged sounds.

Having previously released on esteemed labels such as R&S Records, Man Power’s Me Me Me imprint and Permanent Vacation, Dharma readies a bustling EP for Lone Romantic that showcases the young producer’s deft capabilities at working through various shades and rhythms with ease.

From the shuffling beats and choppy vox of EP opener ‘Clear Glass’, to the low-slung hip hop meets IDM influences of ‘Work Over’, Dharma serves up a highly accomplished release that effortlessly traverses genres and tantalizes the big rigs. Recommended! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Future-proof, precision bass n breaks manoeuvres here by Dharma who unpacks a whole lot of pressure over four club friendly trax. TIP!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Clear Glass 
A2. BMO Tune 
B1. Scatty Brain 
B2. Work Over 

When songwriter and producer Sam Genders last donned his Diagrams hat, captive listeners found themselves truly stunned by the Streatham Hill artist’s imaginative and inventive arrangements that made up 2012's debut album Black Light. Having now upped sticks from his London lodgings and settled in Sheffield with a new lease of life and wife, fresh pastures and friendships are what form the heart of Diagrams’ brand new album Chromatics.

“Relationships are a constant thread. In all their frustrating, exciting, mundane, beautiful, wonderful, sexy, scary glory,” reveals Genders of the album’s themes." Whilst Black Light fizzed with electronic effects, synth-bass, programmed beats and low-key funk grooves that brought about comparisons to the leftfield pop of Arthur Russell, Metronomy, Steve Mason and Hot Chip, it’s without doubt that Genders’ next offering falls closer to home comforts and marks the next step in Genders’ renaissance. Take lead track ‘Phantom Power’; it’s the track which truly sums up what it’s like to find yourself forever reassessing. “It's about feeling like you're losing a grip on your sanity at one moment, then feeling inspired and up for anything the next. Or frustration with yourself yet believing that it's possible to sort yourself out,” explains Genders.

TRACK LISTING

Vinyl / CD Disc 1 
1: Phantom Power
2: Gentle Morning Song
3: Desolation
4: Chromatics
5: You Can Talk To Me
6: Shapes
7: Dirty Broken Bliss
8: Serpent
9: The Light And The Noise
10: Brain
11: Just A Hair's Breadth

Disc 2 (CD Only)
1: Phantom Power (Instrumental)
2: Gentle Morning Song (Instrumental)
3: Desolation (Instrumental)
4: Chromatics (Instrumental)
5: You Can Talk To Me (Instrumental)
6: Shapes (Instrumental)
7: Dirty Broken Bliss (Instrumental)
8: Serpent (Instrumental)
9: The Light And The Noise (Instrumental)
10: Brain (Instrumental)
11: Just A Hair's Breadth (Instrumental)

The Berlin-based musician Hákon Aðalsteinsson, originally hailing from Iceland, can be found fronting neo-psych outfit The Third Sound and gloomy alt-country troupe Gunman & The Holy Ghost, as well as being the live guitarist for The Brian Jonestown Massacre and Anton Newcombe’s ongoing collaborations with Tess Parks. Now, Hákon is also turning his attention to another project: an electronics-inflected solo endeavour going by the name of Diagram. His debut album under the new moniker, titled Transmission Response consists of 12 tracks that find a home somewhere between a pared-back, synthy post-punk sound and atmospheric dream-pop hues. Detailing the self-recorded album, a marked departure from his usual rock-oriented work, Hákon explains: “The sound is inspired by the minimalism of Suicide, Chrome and 70s German electronica, as well as the film music of Angelo Badalamenti and John Carpenter,” he continues: “In the beginning I had this one beat-up keyboard and limited knowledge of making electronic music so I was just learning as I went. As this was a process of exploration I ended up with around 40 song ideas before I even thought about making an album. After deciding I wanted to take things further I set upon the task of reworking all those ideas and cutting a lot of them to put together a record that worked as a whole, and this is the result.” Always one to immerse himself in new projects, Hákon Aðalsteinsson’s new material as Diagram witnesses him enter a whole new world, and a sublimely cinematic one at that. With plans for a live show in the works it’s more than likely we’ll be hearing quite a lot from this one too. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Like the electronics and percussion of Nine Inch Nails, mixed with the twinkling, melodic juxtaposition of 80's new-romantic synths and industrial vocal echoes all brought together with a strong rhythmic undercurrent, this is a heady and addictive mix perfect for the dancefloor or LOUD on your home stereo.

TRACK LISTING

1) Electroconclusive
2) In My Heart, In My Soul
3) Dark Omen
4) All Night
5) Radione
6) Remove The Veil
7) Our Fate
8) Gateway
9) Go To Pub (MES Tribute)
10) Panic Evoked
11) Eisern Union
12) Sleepwalking

Advanced Myth is the lucid debut album from Dialect, the long standing project of British composer, multi-instrumentalist, and field recordist Andrew PM Hunt. An enchanted exploration of unusual source synthesis, electroacoustic arrangements, and sound found in foreign environments, Advanced Myth is its own cosmos expanding and contracting in real time. Advanced Myth coincided with the creation of the Liverpool-based musician’s Dialect moniker, marking a more permanent uncoupling from the “frontman” dynamic Hunt wrestled with as part of Sophisti-pop band, Outfit. Happily unmoored ever since, Hunt has built a broad oeuvre with a quiet confidence across several album, including Gowanus Drifts (2015), Loose Blooms (2017), and Under ~ Between (2021), his debut for RVNG Intl., and its companion piece, Keep Going…Under.

“Doing something as abstract as Advanced Myth was a real change for me at the time and turned out to be something of a new start,” Hunt explains. “The band had a studio set up in a disused block of flats just across from the big, shared house we all lived in, and I started to record there by myself a lot. At some point in 2013, I realized I’d amassed a huge collection of miniatures and a few larger pieces which had nothing to do with what the band was doing. Dialect became a way to gather these ideas together and find my own voice.”

Steering towards lesser-explored musical terrains wasn’t new to Hunt even then; he’d toured the UK and Europe underground in various projects since his teenage days, and contributed to large ensemble performances of work by the likes of Terry Riley and John Cage. However, Advanced Myth was made amidst a correlation of events that set him on a fresh trajectory, including a new relationship (with his now-wife), the winding down of Outfit, and time spent living in New York City. Hunt says that he hears “a lot of beauty and excitement, but also the sadness and struggle” of NYC in Advanced Myth. Having left Liverpool to rent an apartment there in the fall of 2014, he immersed himself in the library of critical theory and art history books that its owners had amassed, alongside reading materials like the diary of Hercule Barbin and satirical short stories like The Nose by Nikolai Gogol. This almost academic absorption of ideas contrasted with the time Hunt spent volunteering at a homeless shelter, where hardship was on full display and privilege checked at the door.

It’s perhaps no surprise then, that although a largely meditative listen, Advanced Myth oscillates between moments of shimmering lucidity and corrosive washes of noise. Take the improvisational zither session he recorded one morning, sections of which appear on the almost folk-like “Hung Rose” and “Unanswered Prayers.” On the former, this chiming instrument twists unbridled until submerged by a discordant hiss, the sound of traffic, and the elevated ambience of a sporting event. On the latter, though, its delicacy and poise is bolstered further with the addition of strings and clarinet. Advanced Myth is a coil of both reflective and reactive composition.

In the absence of conventional structure, it’s these shifts in spirit that provide Advanced Myth’s emotive signposting, inspired in part by the likes of Laurie Spiegel’s The Expanding Universe and Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Company, European kosmische, but also purely textural sonic ideas from ‘70s and ‘80s GRM through to contemporary ASMR. In truth, though, Advanced Myth is to be received as its own, and as a whole. Tracks, as they are, don’t start or stop, instead bleeding into each other, in support or rebuttal, gently persuading the mood into the shadows. It’s a record from which you can sonically draw lines to everything Dialect has gone on to, yet it also stands alone as a document that’s relative tranquility doesn’t mask the sense of excitement from an artist standing at the precipice of new creative boundaries.

Originally released digitally by tasty morsels in 2015, Advanced Myth has been newly mastered by Stephan Mathieu from definitive mixes, and is available for the first time on vinyl and cassette from RVNG Intl. and Warm Winters, Ltd. on September 30, 2022. On behalf of Dialect, RVNG, and Warm Winters, a portion of the proceeds from this release will benefit The Whitechapel Centre, an independent local charity working to see an end to homelessness, social exclusion and housing poverty in Liverpool’s communities.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Developers
A2. Hung Rose
A3. Teams
A4. The Youniverse
A5. Shatters
B1. Chroma
B2. Strange Grave
B3. Unanswered Prayers
B4. Watermarks
B5. Jabba
B6. First Breath
B7. Waterfall End Sequence

Collaborating once again with legendary producer Rick Rubin (Johnny Cash, Tom Petty), "Home Before Dark" is a vivid 12 track masterclass in compelling songwriting and the follow up to 2005's highly acclaimed "12 Songs". "Home Before Dark" features twelve original songs written by Neil Diamond and was recorded in Los Angeles with guitarist Mike Campbell and keyboardist Benmont Tench (from Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers), along with bassist/acoustic guitarist Smokey Hormel and guitarist Matt Sweeney. Highlights on the album are many, including the stunning lead single "Pretty Amazing Grace" and a striking duet with the Dixie Chicks' Natalie Maines on "Another Day (That Time Forgot)".

Guillermo Scott Herren (aka Prefuse 73, Savath & Savalas) is one of the most renowned producers of avant-rock and hip hop around today. Zach Hill is an incredible, self-taught drummer, hailing from California. He's played in bands with Chino Moreno (Deftones), Rob Crow (Pinback), Marnie Stern and will soon be drumming with The Mars Volta, as well as playing in his main group Hella. Together they've formed Diamond Watch Wrists, and this is their debut album. "Ice Capped at Both Ends" shows an entirely new form of Herren creations, organic songs featuring Guillermo's plaintive vocals, guitar and studio wizardry, Hill's singular drumming as well as previously unheard nods to 60s European acid-folk, classic American singer-songwriters and krautrock. Ty Braxton (Battles) also guests on "Simple Love Notes (5 Years Later)". Deceptively complex in their arrangements, the songs never fail to strike a fascinating balancing act between brooding and uplifting, making for an uncommonly well-rounded album.

Tracklisting
1. My Last Time In This Place
2. Polite Passage
3. One Second Early Late
4. Onward Push Me Out
5. Diamond Falling Off My Grill
6. Dot Org Green Consumer
7. Start Wrong
8. Simple Love Notes (5 Years Later)
9. Speculative Forensic Investigation
10. Epidemic Episodes Of Epidemics
11. Taped Up Swagger (High School Version)
12. Ending

Since the early 90s Rotterdam is known throughout the world of dance music for its many influential creative endeavours and one of these was the short-lived label See Saw. Active between 1991 and 1995, the label was the home to mostly Dutch producers who were just dipping their toes in the waters of house and techno. Or, who already had a whole leg in like Speedy J.

Sandwiched between two of his early releases as The Melody (Discogs detectives know what’s up!) sits The Jewel EP, the only EP Gijs Vroom did under his Diamonds & Pearls alias. A kind stranger online once described the record as effective and joyful and we couldn’t agree more. It’s a mixed bag of zippy breaks, swirling pads, tight Lately basses, and foxy vocal snips and like many records of the era it maximises charm with minimal equipment. It’s these kinds of twelve-inches that stood at the cradle of the Dutch house sound and so it is very deserving of a little nook in your record bag.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: A really strong house artefact from 90s Rotterdam (at the time more known for its tougher, harder edged sound). This is a true gem - painfully hard to acquire until now. Props to Late Night Burners for gifting us this handy reissue.

TRACK LISTING

A1. What You Do To Me
A2. Perspective
A3. What You Do To Disco
B1. Rockin' Your World
B2. Blue Sunday

Diana are an enigmatic foursome from Toronto. Consisting of Joseph Shabason, Kieran Adams, and singer Carmen Elle, with Paul Mathew recently joining the live line up. Shabason and Adams met while studying jazz at music college, and there are soft-jazz touches on 'Perpetual Surrender', which pulls in references such as new age dreaminess, Sade-like mellowness and wistful acoustic soul-pop - there's even time for a yacht rock sax solo.

Kieran Hebden obviously takes the 4/4 route, with some of his layered, percussive, fidgety house-not-house rhythms possibly created from the parts of original version. His remix slowly builds until he adds Elle's sweet vocal for the full effect. Subtle and dreamy, this is a delightful piece of dance-pop a million miles away from autotuned fodder that clogs up the top 40 these days.

"To Be Still" is the follow-up to Alela Diane's critically-acclaimed 2006 debut "The Pirate's Gospel" which brought the Nevada City, CA reared musician a passionate following across the Globe especially in Europe where Alela has a huge fan base. Recorded in Nevada City and Portland, Ore, it's a gorgeous sonic expansion of her sparse debut, featuring pedal steel, violin and rustic percussion, with lyrics tangled up in brambles and foxtails and wind-whipped sea cliffs. From the woozy folk flourishes of opener "Dry Grass & Shadows" to the heart-shattering final track, "Lady Divine".

TRACK LISTING

1. Dry Grass And Shadows 
2. White As Diamonds 
3. Age Old Blue 
4. To Be Still 
5. Take Us Back 
6. The Alder Trees 
7. My Brambles 
8. The Ocean 
9. Every Path 
10. Tatted Lace 
11. Lady Divine

The album ‘LOOKING GLASS’ comes four years after the release of Alela Diane’s critically acclaimed fifth studio album ‘CUSP’, described by the Guardian as ‘outstanding’, and the reissue of Alela Diane’s mythical second album, ‘THE PIRATE’S GOSPEL’, which has gone on to sell over 100,000 copies.

This album represents a new artistic achievement for Alela Diane. ‘LOOKING GLASS’ is the first of her records to be produced by the famous TUCKER MARTINE Neko Case, My Morning Jacket, The The Decemberists).

TRACK LISTING

Paloma
Howling Wind
When We Believed
Strawberry Moon
Of Love
All The Light
Dream A River
Camellia
Moth In The Light
Mother’s Arms
Another Dream

Singer/songwriter Alela Diane and guitarist Ryan Francesconi have uniquely collaborated to create Cold Moon. The two musicians talked at a friend's show in October 2014, chatting about how they were both experiencing creative standstills.

Ryan was lacking inspiration to make more instrumental music, and Alela was at a loss for how to dive into writing a new record after the birth of her daughter. A few days later, Ryan asked Alela if she would be into collaborating and then sent her several recordings of intricate, beautiful guitar pieces. Alela listened on repeat while staring out the window at the changing leaves, initially unsure how to sing even a note over what she heard.

Eventually, something clicked. Words came first, and with words, melody followed. Throughout the winter, Alela made trips across town to Ryan's house to woodshed the songs over cups of tea. Before they knew it, they had a record-a collaboration of voice and guitar with intangible moods and resonances-a collection that calls you to reflect and be hopeful.

A wintry music born in December. And so rose the Cold Moon.

Alela Diane is a critically-acclaimed singer/songwriter from Nevada City, CA currently living in Portland, Oregon. She’s released four albums including “The Pirate’s Gospel” in 2007, “To Be Still” in 2009, “Wild Divine” in 2011 and “About Farewell” in 2013.

Ryan Francesconi is a composer, guitarist, balkan musician, programmer, and cyclist living in Portland, Oregon. Recent projects include arranging Joanna Newsom's "Have One On Me", a solo guitar record "Parables", and "Road To Palios" - his latest album of duets with Mirabai Peart released by Bella Union.

Third album from this trio, based around the core instrumentation of two bass guitarists and a drummer. Recorded by John McEntire (Tortoise) the album has a much fuller, lush sound than their previous (Albini produced) sharper, straight ahead albums.

The Diaphanoids come down heavy interiorly re-designed with an acid album full of 70s Kosmische flavours fuzzed-out guitars and motorik rhythms.

‘55th Dimension Nervous Meltdown’: Ultra sci-fi images on the VHS of your heart, braindrops falling from the head, a wall of noise, cosmic razorblade guitars, reverberated elevation, spherical soundwaves reversing, bodies mutate, thoughts escape then return, looking for visions in a supermarket fried chicken.

‘You Can’t Shine If You Don’t Burn’: Velvet drums, narcotic bass, guitar strings draw oblivion and bliss, any drug is candid, kiss the flame, silver missiles and nightingales, such a soulgasm.

‘How Can I Distinguish Sky From Earth If They Keep On Changing Their Place?’: Motorik, hallucinated guitars, acid ecstatic lava flow, roads widen, earth is soft, moon is inhuman, sun is balanced on a petal, colours change, the sky moved sideways.

‘Alltheconstellationsouttherearen’tworthapinpointofliquidlightinyoureyes’: A satellite of glittering oscillating keyboards, fluorescent dust, a crystal guitar, distant spiky lights, suspended on nothing, the milky way turns sour, shooting stars like vultures.

‘LSME’: The universe in and out of our bodies, still in the thin air, a swarm of synthesizers, oblique guitars, relentless pumping beat and abrasive bass, howling imploding abstractions.

‘The Blackest Sun’: Spatial cramps, fuzzed-out hiss, stuttering rhythms, astral bass, sidereal clangour, so far so high surfing on NEU jagged waves, to beam or not to beam, a space odd.

‘Our Own Private Elsewhere’: Reality is for those who can’t handle drugs, translucent guitars, phosphorescent bass, take a trip on Autobahn sick sick sick, carving miracles, this universe doesn’t really exist, come away with me.

‘These Nights Wear Three Heads, Five Arms And Ten Legs’: A sonic harassment, drums are random, bass is laconic and sinister, slashing duelling guitars, a vertigo with teeth, get a brainticket to Mind Central then queue up for the end of the world.

TRACK LISTING

1. 55th Dimension Nervous Meltdown
2. You Can't Shine If You Don’t Burn
3. How Can I Distinguish Sky From Earth If They Keep On Changing Their Place
4. Alltheconstellationsouttherearen'tworthapinpointofliquidlightinyoureyes
5. LSME
6. The Blackest Sun
7. Our Own Private Elsewhere
8. These Nights Wear Three Heads Five Arms And Ten Legs

Produced by Henry Jenkins (Surprised Chef), cinematic funk combo The Diasonics are back with a limited edition 45 feat. an explosive version of soul stormer "Beggin'. Limited to 500 copies worldwide.

Produced and mixed by Henry Jenkins (Surprised Chef), Russian cinematic funk combo The Diasonics unleash a limited edition 45 featuring an explosive version of soul classic "Beggin'. Composed by Bob Gaudio and Peggy Farina and initially brought to success by the Four Seasons of Frankie Valli in 1967, "Beggin" became a classic of the Northern soul scene in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. With a tight rhythm section, a super funky bassline and heavy wah-wah guitars The Diasonics version is an instant floorfiller. On the flip side the brand new track "Take One", an irresistible hammond-funk mover, full of heavy breaks and eastern spices.

Active since 2019 The Diasonics are five young and seriously talented Muscovite musicians: Anton Moskvin (drums), Maxim Brusov (bass guitar), Anton Katyrin (percussions), Daniil Lutsenko (electric guitar) and Kamil Gzizov (keyboards). In just a few years the band has amassed a cult following, releasing collectable and in-demand 45s on labels such as Funk Night Records and Mocambo Records. In 2021 they released their debut album "Origin of Forms" on Record Kicks produced by Henry Jenkins, producer amongst the others of the Australian cult instrumental band Surprise Chef. Thanks to the Diasonics's unique style that blends infectious Funk Instrumentals, East European flavours, abstract hip-hop and psychedelia, the album rapidly went sold out on vinyl and it's heavily praised on the international cinematic-funk scene.

TRACK LISTING

1. Beggin'
2. Take One

Diatom Deli’s Time~Lapse Nature is a channel between cerebral ascension and somatic memory, tethered to the micro-present though humbled by a beyond. Dilated by celestial fluctuations and dynamic flutters, the reverberations from the Taos-based artist’s new album culminate through airy tests of vocal layering, longing guitar laments, and discreetly sourced sound, compelling Deli’s commitment to esoteric precision and impulse.

Delisa Paloma-Sisk was born and raised in Clarksville, Tennessee, an hour north of Nashville and many more from Lares, Puerto Rico, where she spent extended time with her mother’s side of the family while growing up. Deli recalls hearing her grandmother’s neighbor playing classical guitar every night during one visit to Lares, the melodies lingering and resurfacing while she self-taught herself the instrument in her early teens and then formally studied it in college. Deli would gradually bring together the guitar, synthesizer, and her own voice, recording and releasing two albums, Feelsounds and TQM (Te Quiero Mucho), as Diatom Deli in 2015 and 2017.

Written between 2016 and 2019, Time~Lapse Nature embodies Deli’s generous, ongoing excavation of her inner emotive spectrum and offers listeners a lush, loving overgrowth; a hiding place for heart-centric radiation. After several synchronistic and collaborative encounters, the album was channeled with the help of Michael Hix (synthesizers, connective magic) and Bryan Talbot (engineering, soundscapes), Deli steadfast at the center, a transparent catalyst for the album’s omniscient landscapes and fleeting tenor.

Deli’s affecting process is palpable throughout the eight songs of Time~Lapse Nature; moods move like planets in thick orbit, spinning forward like an anti-apology, embracing new feeling frequencies where vulnerability radiates tenderly in tonal embers, conveying an exalted melancholy that sticks the moment it lands. “I cry a lot with any and all emotions: elation, sadness, laughter—you name it,” shares Deli. “And I wanted a space for these grand feelings to play a role in Time~Lapse Nature.”

In this environment, Deli honors passing friendships, repurposes creative lulls, and regales an earned inner clarity—palpable in every verse. Each song on Time~Lapse Nature ushers a glittering devotion, with special nods to loved ones, as in “Sonrisa“ (“Smile” in Spanish), dedicated to Deli’s grandmother. And “Sunday's Dying Light,” the opening movement, begins with one of many saved voicemails from her mother. Vulnerable relationality is the soil from which this work springs, illuminated by ambrosial strains, misaligned fires, and muted rainbows.

Time~Lapse Nature not only unveils what can emerge from surrendered songwriting, but also surrendering to the moment and the inevitable chance within. Throughout the album, field recordings are literally instrumental: melodies of life that harmonize with Deli’s vocals and guitar. “I listen to a lot of background noise in everyday life—kids playing in the park or bowling alley ambiance, or the satisfying sound of pages turning at the local library,” notes Deli. Here, reams of quotidian splendor are offered devotionally, decorating a broader planet of euphonic loops and psychedelic therapy, enchanting as magic hour or an overcast snow.

A clairsentient offering from Deli, where sound imparts knowing, and is felt more than heard, Time~Lapse Nature is a space to which listeners are invited to commune in a hymnal harmony, prismic beams stretching over sweet, nourishing water. Like a mist dissipating over open fields, Time~Lapse Nature incants a process of succulent renewal towards the mythic, eternal—summoning each listener to delight in the resounding stillness.

TRACK LISTING

1.Sunday’s Dying Light
2.Massive Headships Of Centering Tiles
3.Disarray
4.False Alarm
5.Sonrisa
6.Waves Will See (Your Smiling Face)
7.Deandre
8.Thank You, Maya

2023 marks the big comeback of Fatoumata Diawara.

After LAMOMALI (the afro-pop project of -M- awarded a Victoire de la Musique (French Grammy equivalent) and a double platinum album), her solo album FENFO (nominated for the Grammy Awards and the Victoires de la Musique) and successful international collaborations (Gorillaz, Disclosure…), one of Africa's greatest voices presents LONDON KO. Distinguished guests (-M-, Angie Stone, Roberto Fonseca, Yemi Alade, Ghanaian rapper M.anifest) and 6 tracks co-produced with Damon Albarn: a perfect combination between synthetic sounds and traditional Malian rhythms; a dive into an eclectic and an absolut avant-garde universe. Bamako versus London, London Ko, a story to follow and share!

TRACK LISTING

1. Nsera
2. Somaw
3.Sete
4. Seguen
5. Massa Den
6. Mogokan
7. Blues
8. Moussoya
9. Netara
10.Yada
11. Tolon
12. Dambe
13. Dakan
14. Maya

After releasing his Soul Makossa in 1972, Manu Dibango recorded that same year a musical monster both strange and majestic: Africadelic. Africadelic is a pure groovy pearl echoing James Brown or Isaac Hayes, who mixes Afro-Soul, Funk and Jazz, all against a background of Latin percussions nuanced by Rock guitars and a Soul organ

TRACK LISTING

A1. Soul Fiesta
A2. Africadelic
A3. The Panther
A4. African Battle
A5. Black Beauty
A6. African Carnival
B1. Moving Waves
B2. Afro Soul
B3. Oriental Sunset
B4. Monkey Beat
B5. Wa Wa
B6. Percussion Storm
B7. Soul Fiesta Remix

African Voodoo, Manu Dibango’s rare and unknown treasure !

1971 : Manu Dibango records the precious album African Voodoo in line with its twin Africadelic. Twelve masterful Afro Soul, Jazz, Funk or Latin nuggets without a ripple for more than fifty years, which are taking us deeply into Manu Dibango’s brilliant dicography.

The authentic material composing African Voodoo, modestly qualified by the maestro as « a bit spicy mood music », was promised to another destiny before representing one of the most emblematic albums of Manu Dibango’s discography.

Recorded in 1971 at Mondiaphone label studio, this album was not meant for sales. It followed a request of Afro-Urban sounds dedicated to French TV and radio shows seeking atmospheric background music.

Barely entered the studio, the eight musicians recorded it all in three days, without having planned anything !

« It was up to you to play what was coming through your mind, to broaden your imagination ! » entrusted Manu to Jacques Denis in 2008.

The one we call today « The Old Lion » did not take up this challenge lightly, or chose his musicians by chance ! The cream of the time formed his Afro-French-Carribean band :

Yvan Julien (Trumpet), Slim Pezin (Guitar), Jacques Bolognesi (Trombone), François Jeanneau (Saxophone), Lucien Dobat (Drums), Emile Boza (Percussions), Manfred (Bass Guitar), and Manu at Vibraphone, Marimba, Saxophone, Organ and Piano.

The same band who played by his side since 1967, in particular in the Television show « Pulsations », in which Manu conducted his very own orchestra. He was moreover the first musician to manage his regular orchestra on TV !

And the result of these recordings was mind boggling !
The freshness of the sound and groove emanating from it are undeniable, and straightaway place this album like a standard of the genre while listening to the first notes !
The very rhythmic Groovy Flute generously opens the album with its solar and constant flute melody. Our ears then savor an African Pop Session with a heavy and imposing rhythmic, or a Ba-Kuba with a slow and mesmerizing tempo. More rhythmic and percussive tunes like the wild Wilderness reminding us Isaac Hayes shaft, or the swinging Soul Saxes Meeting, one more time show the ingenuity of the composer and the extreme variety of styles he was able to play. The African and Latin tones are almost omnipresent all along the disc. Jungle Riders and its electric guitar and flute solos - as melting as jazzy - supported by Coconut and its very Caribbean rhythmic, or the transcendent Walking to Waza, bear witness.

As sublime as surprising, African Voodoo perfectly illustrated the « Afro Somethin’ » invented by the maestro during a time interview with Rolling Stone Magazine. Barely published, these words were then used by all medias. Simple description, and undoubtedly efficient, of the genres crossing Manu Dibango embodies through his music and his universal speech ; a REAL word citizen for whom music has no color.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Groovy Flute
2. Soul Saxes Meeting
3. African Pop Session
4. Walking To Waza
5. Out Of Score
6. Ba-Kuba
SIDE B
1. Zoom 2000
2. Aphrodite Shake
3. Wilderness
4. Jungle Riders
5. Iron Wood
6. Coconut