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

Released in 1982, the album "Waka Juju" marks a return to Afrosound. We hear titles like "Douala Serenade" or "Ma Marie", a tribute to his wife. "Waka juju" is an ode to juju, the traditional Yoruba music that has become Nigeria's most popular style. Emmanuel N'Djoké Dibango (born 12 December 1933) is a Cameroonian musician and song-writer who plays saxophone and vibraphone. He developed a musical style fusing jazz, funk, and traditional Cameroonian music. He is best known for his 1972 single "Soul Makossa".

TRACK LISTING

A1. Waka Juju
A2. Douala Serenade
A3. Africa Boogie
B1. Mouna Pola
B2. Ma Marie
B3. Manga-bolo

"Tea House From Emperor Roscoe” by Dice The boss aka Pama Dice was first released as a B-side of the early Reggae classic “She Caught The Train” by Ray Martell released in 1970 on the Trojan sublabel Joe, whilst “Brixton Cat” was released in 1969 on the Duke Label under a Joe logo. Both titles are skinhead reggae classics that have never been reissued and are very much in demand.

TRACK LISTING

Tea House From Emperor Roscoe
Brixton Cat

Dick Stusso’s third album is a document of slow mental unravelling with a world in perpetual decay as its backdrop. With S.P., California-based singer and songwriter Nic Russo has created his most out-there and toothsome record to date, plunging his listeners into a strange and thrilling new world at every opportunity. S.P. is the first Dick Stusso record in four years, following his stellar Hardly Art debut In Heaven from 2018—but this latest missive is more of an indirect sequel to the buzz-building 2015 release Nashville Dreams / Sings the Blues, diving deeper into the fictional character Dick Stusso’s crumbling psyche and dystopian surroundings. If our introduction to Dick was someone trying to pursue their dreams and turning into a failure as a result, S.P. reflects the moment where, in Russo’s words, “The character is becoming unlikable. He’s succumbing to what is taking place around him. ”Nearly half of its 18 songs—spanning countrified rock duets, Guided by Voices-recalling anthems, and outro noise-burst sound experiments—were completed before the pandemic, when Russo decided to take a beat and allow the music to sprout new, weird buds in his rehearsal space. With mixer Andrew Oswald accentuating the record’s unique feel, S.P. bridges the gap between the ultra lo-fi confines of his 2015 debut Nashville Dreams / Sings the Blues and the lush echoes of In Heaven, with a few helping hands to fully flesh out Russo’s vision. Grace Cooper (The Sandwitches, Grace Sings Sludge) contributes vocals to “Dinner for Two” and “Self Reflection (Deep),” while his father Marc Russo—a Grammy-winning saxophonist who’s currently touring with the Doobie Brothers—lays down expert horn arrangements on “Garbagedump #1.” The myriad of twists and turns on S.P. further establish Russo as a fascinating craftsman who’s never bound to do the same thing twice.

TRACK LISTING

01. Rocking Machine
02. Part-time Apocalypse
03. The Check In
04. Convenient Life
05. Garbagedump #1
06. A Fairly Normal Guy
07. Dinner For Two
08. The Masterwork
09.Self Reflection (Deep)
10. Big Money
11. Haunted Hotel
12. Checking Back
13. How Do You Spell Success?
14. Doubt
15. Failure
16. Hell
17. Twilight At The Shareholders' Meeting
18. Tears Of Love

Dickie Landry’s saxophones have challenged, soothed, and blown minds around the world in his lengthy career as a jazz and avant-garde blower of the highest regard. He was a founding member of the Phillip Glass Ensemble and (according to Wikipedia lore) introduced Paul Simon to zydeco, one of the indigenous sounds of his native southern Louisiana. Rarely, though, does Dickie’s saxophone make you want to get up and dance like a crazy person.

Such is the effect of “Hang The Rich,” a nugget of slinky, ecstatic punk-funk that was until recently completely lost to the sands of time. Recorded in 1986 (or thereabouts) in New Orleans and featuring vocalist Evelyn Erhard, percussionist Billy Ware, drummer Ricky Sebastian and Dickie himself on saxophones and a Roland Jupiter 4 synthesizer, it’s the kind of song that compels you to move any which way you can, drunk on indignance and the power of satan’s music.

The track came to DFA via LCD Soundsystem’s Korey Richey, who knows Dickie from back home in Louisiana. After a lengthy search, we located the original tapes in a storage locker somewhere in the Southeast and finally were able to get a clean, quality transfer done here at DFA HQ.

From there, we only had one person in mind for a more DJ-friendly edit: Glasgow’s JD Twitch, one half of Optimo and a selector of similarly puckish spirit. Twitch’s ability to contextualize these older, skronkier sounds for a modern dancefloor are in full display on his version, which hits hard and jagged but then opens up into those ineffable rapturous moments.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: JD Twitch on DFA with a song called "Hang The Rich"? We were already won over! Add veteran Louisiana avantgarde saxophonist Dicky Landry for extra oddball pointage and you've got an indignant, punk-funk romp to kick off the 2024 in suitably rousing form.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Hang The Rich
B1. Hang The Rich (JD Twitch Edit)

The full-length debut by the man known as the Originator of rock & roll should need no introduction. Though never a top seller on par with his Chess Records rival Chuck Berry, Bo produced a catalog of classics to compete with all but a handful of the best early rockers, pushing rock and roll to its funkiest ever. The Bo Diddley beat - that “bomp, ba-bomp-bomp, bomp-bomp” to which the pop-garage 1965 hit “I Want Candy” by the Strangeloves owes everything - is one of rock and roll’s bedrock rhythms, showing up in the work of Buddy Holly, the Velvet Underground, and the Rolling Stones to name but a few. An all time classic that stretched back as far as Africa for its roots, and looked as far into the future as rap, while still remaining a milestone in the transition from blues to early rock and roll.

Die Antwoord follows up 2014's 'Donker Mag' with a new album 'Mount Ninji and Da Nice Time Kid'. Released on September 16 the album boasts guest appearances by Dita Von Teese, Jack Black and Lil Tommy Terror, among others. The duo describe the album variously as "dark and ratty," "a giant supernatural mega aura," and "epic and sometimes vulnerable and sometimes sweet and romantic and so brave and full of mystery and win".

TRACK LISTING

1. We Have Candy
2. Daddy
3. Banana Brain
4. Shit Just Got Real (Feat. Sen Dog)
5. Gucci Coochie (Feat. Dita Von Teese)
6. Wings On My Penis (Feat. Lil Tommy Terror)
7. U Like Boobies? (Feat. Lil Tommy Terror)
8. Rats Rule (Feat. Jack Black)
9. Jonah Hill
10. Stoopid Rich
11. Fat Faded Fuck Face
12. Peanutbutter+Jelly
13. Alien
14. Street Lights
15. Darkling
16. I Dont Care

Emotional Rescue takes another trip into the twisted world of post-punk dubs, electronics and oddities here at the hands of DJ, collector and radio host Gary The Tall. The original comes from German duo and new wave innovators Die Radierer whose pop-reggae jam 'Batman' is irresistibly catchy with its low-slung beats and lazy, sun-kissed melodies. It appeared on 1983's In Hollywood and was recorded at their home studio on a Tascam 4-track cassette recorder. Gary The Tall's remix finds him teaming up with Aaron Coyles under his new alias of Exotic Gardens and the results are loopy and dubbed out to perfection.

TRACK LISTING

Batman
Batman (Gary The Tall V Exotic Gardens Reversion)

The first ever Pampa record - repressed for the very first time!!

Pampa is a new label from old pals DJ Koze and Marcus Fink, dedicated to releasing club music that's seriously danceable without recourse to the tried and tested ingredients. A home for house and techno tunes that will conquer hearts and take root there forever, music that's brave and not afraid to break with convention. The first release is by Die Vogel, a collaborative project between Jakobus Siebels and Mense Reents. Jakobus is an innovative multi-instrumentalist who has previously recorded distinctive albums for Tomlab, Chicks On Speed Records, Karaoke Kalk; the no less talented Reents is a member of the groups Egoexpress, Die Goldenen Zitronen and Stella, and operates the Art Blakey Studios in Hamburg where this EP was recorded. Listening to A-side 'Blaue Moschee' you immediately know this going to be a strange and wonderful trip: oompa-style brass looped and layered over a stripped-back kickdrum, this tunes messes with all received notions of what house/techno music is! With a musicality and wicked sense of humour that naturally appealed to Koze and Fink, Siebels and Reents have created a timeless dancefloor banger using the most unlikely of elements. The result definitely isn't "jazzy techno" - the brass, far from being an afterthought, it's the very substance of the thing; it provides the melody, the bass, and the rhythm. Brass is the driving force behind the whole EP. B1, 'Petardo', is likewise driven by growling trombones and tubas, this time offset by cooing woodwind and set to a rolling, almost tribal drum tattoo. The horn chords are reminiscent of moody 60s British jazz, while the woodwind lends a South American fire and flair to proceedings. The track is full of subtle edits, but Siebels and Reents don't overwhelm the mix with synthesized sounds, instead letting the acoustic instruments speak for themselves. Closer 'Empire' again finds exquisitely arranged brass parts interlocking into a tough, single-minded groove, underscored with a skippy, broken 4/4 pulse and handclaps. Often when a new label claims to be taking risks and trying something new, the truth is rather less remarkable. Not in this case: Siebels and Reent have created a terrifically original, inimitable trio of tracks that combine the pop and the avant-garde, the cerebral and the physical, to absolutely stunning effect. It might be unusual and it might be clever, but it's still dance music pure and simple. magic!

TRACK LISTING

A Blaue Moschee
B1 Petardo
B2 Empire

When the Welttraumforscher (world dream explorer) started their journey on July 14, 1981, it was not foreseeable that it would last so long. For over 40 years now, Christian Pfluger from Zurich has been working with drawings, texts and songs on the idiosyncratic and fascinating universe of the imaginary trio. This has resulted in numerous cassettes, LP & CD releases.

Most recently, a two-part retrospective was released in the spring of 2021 on Hamburg's Bureau B, giving an insight into the wonderfully rapturous dream world of the project, which despite the continuous work remains something of an insider tip to this day. With their new collection "Liederbuch", the Welttraumforscher are going on tour for the first time in many years.

Die Wilde Jagd is the music project of producer and songwriter Sebastian Lee Philipp. Channelling minimalist, tenebrous intensity, Die Wilde Jagd's music weaves a dense and atmospheric web of drama, romance, ecstasy and melancholy Written for wooden organ pipes, cello, percussion and electronics.

A composition commissioned by Roadburn Festival. Performed by Sebastian Lee Philipp, Lih Qun Wong and Ran Levari.

Berlin based artist Sebastian Lee Philipp releases with his project Die Wilde Jagd a new work: "ATEM", a Live recording of his composition commissioned by the 2021 edition of Roadburn Festival, performed in Tilburg in the Netherlands on April 16th 2021.

An audacious 45-minute trip into the depths of evolution, organism and metabolism, this piece is an exploration of the mechanism and science of breathing and its essential role in life. Philipp himself plays synthesizers and an instrument developed specifically for the performance: a wooden organ pipe construction operated with an air compressor. The composer is joined on stage by collaborators Lih Qun Wong on cello and voice, as well as Ran Levari (who has played drums in Die Wilde Jagd since 2017) on percussion.

Speaking of his composition, Philipp says: "As human evolution enters new realms of reality, I find myself drawn to explore the basic essences of life: the things we are made of, that we take for granted and are, yet, still full of mystery. The parallels between breath and music are undeniable: pace, rhythm, volume and dynamic fluctuations influence us deeply. Breath is the elixir of life and the fuel for one of the most primitive vibrations: the human voice." The themes of creation and spirit within the composition are skillfully enhanced by Turkish Visual Artist Mürsel Güven.

Music from the "Rauhnächte" - DIE WILDE JAGD go hunting in the thicket of Neo-Krautrock, Electronica and Synthpop.

Every year anew, during the Rauhnächte (those harsh nights between Christmas and Twelfth Day), the Wild Hunt (Die Wilde Jagd) rides across the country: raucous, jeering hunters from the nether world, whose path it is better not to cross. This is an ancient Germanic myth, which, in slightly varied form, is known in many parts of Europe and whose name Ralf Beck and Sebastian Lee Philipp have aptly chosen for their new project. The two first met in 2006 in Düsseldorf's Salon des Amateurs , a meeting place for new and established experimental musicians and artists, also known as Germany's "postpunk Hacienda". It seems no coincidence that Düsseldorf is the duo's founding city: their music is full of subtle references to local acts, such as Kraftwerk, NEU!, DAF, Liaisons Dangereuses, Pyrolator, the Krupps and Propaganda. Since their first meeting, Beck and Philipp regularly come together during the time of the Rauhnächte to record in Beck's well-equipped studio. Using the numerous analog keyboards and recording devices assembled there, and combining them with a diverse range of percussion instruments, they create their own "hunting music", which at times sounds unsettling, like swampland or a dark forest, but also urgent and pressing, like incandescent lasers or a hypnotic dance. Their soundscape is marked by repetitive guitar loops, electronic percussion, drums and synthesizers. Booming tom-toms and medieval-sounding flutes herald the start of the hunt. Whispering, reciting voices conjure up the spirits of the woods, while synthetic sounds, melodies and noises flit about before they are re-captured, structured and grounded by crystalline beats and pulsating bass lines.

About the musicians: Ralf Beck is a musician and producer from Düsseldorf. He has released several albums as part of the duo Nalin & Kane, as well as under the name Unit 4. He collects old synthesizers and effect pedals and has already worked together with Karl Bartos. In his studio Uhrwald Orange he has recorded music by Propaganda, Kreidler, Black Devil Disco and many more.

Sebastian Lee Philipp is part of the Berlin-based electro-wave duo Noblesse Oblige and composes music for theatre and radio plays. Between 2001 and 2006 he lived in London where he ran the club night "Caligula" and performed as a DJ.

TRACK LISTING

1 Wah Wah Wallenstein (7:46)
2 Austerlitz (7:24)
3 Torpedovogel (3:59)
4 Durch Dunkle Tannen (4:56)
5 Der Elektrische Reiter (6:45)
6 Morgenrot (6:27)
7 Jagd Auf Den Hirsch (7:25)
8 Der Meister (4:18)

For eight years now, songwriter and producer Sebastian Lee Philipp has been steering his project Die Wilde Jagd through the field of tension between contemporary electronic music and avant-pop. Between 2015 and 2020, three studio albums were produced as documents of Philipp's rigorous musical creativity. Most recently, «Atem», a composition for Roadburn Festival, was released in 2022, documenting yet another, more experi- mental side of the project. On the new, eagerly awaited fourth album, all these multi- faceted worlds are brought together in an impressive way.

«Ophio, Ophio» you say. Lies in the end of you Still the best ahead of me? With these lines from the title track, Sebastian Lee Philipp poses the question that spans over the entire album like a parenthesis. The work entitled «ophio» tells of constant trans- formation, the blurring of beginning, end, and the various dimensions in between.

«It's about the constant unfolding of the self, about the seductive forces of life, an ode to existence and the transformation to happiness.» Says Philipp himself about his concept- tual direction of the album. The meandering between leaving behind and starting anew is not only found in the lyrics, but also in the music itself. The production seems more consistent than ever before, stripping away all frills and trinkets, like a skin that has become too tight. The compositions form a concentrate in which every single sound finds its space. In a certain sense, it's like listening to an introspection in which the bundled voices become a single, demanding murmur that is both drone and whisper in equal measure.

I see you in blows of delight
Where have you been?
Make my eyes to love the things that want to love
(From «In Wonnenhieben», engl. «In Blows of Delight»)

As on the previous album «Haut», the drums were played by long-time stage partner Ran Levari. The new album also features cellist and singer Lih Qun Wong («Lihla»), who first joined Die Wilde Jagd for the Live performance of «Atem». This collaboration sounds particularly impressive on «The Hearth», the band's first English-language song. A beguiling track as if of shiny, heavy tar, carried by Philipp's dense composition, Levari's pulsating beats and lyricist Wong's voice. Other production partners were Philipp Otterbach («Kelch») and Vactrol Park («In Wonnenhieben»). Nina Siegler, who could already be heard as a duet partner in the song «Himmelfahrten», also lends her voice again to the tracks «Ouroboros» and «In Wonnenhieben».

When the journey ends after just under 50 minutes with the questions «Will your songs blind me again? Be sparkling eyes to me in the dark?» and dissonant choirs release you out into the distance, it's as if you're right back at the beginning again, only to set off once more. An album as strange as it is beautiful.

TRACK LISTING

1) Ein Anfang
2) Ophio
3) Perseveranz
4) Gnafna Nie
5) The Hearth (ft. Lihla)
6) In Wonnenhieben
7) Kelch
8) Ouroboros

Bonus 12":
1. Obus
2. The Hearth (Shelter Mix Ft. Lihla)
3. In Wonnenhieben (Douce Mix Ft. The Allegorist)

The long overdue first best-of compilation by the Hamburg pop outsiders around Timo Blunck (also Palais Schaumburg) and Detlef Diederichsen, the Fun Boy 2 from Hamburg-Hummelsbüttel, contains all the hits, starting with the scratchy 1980s ska "So Froh" to the elegant funky guitar pop from the "1001 Ways to Make Love Without Having Fun" album from the great pop year 1982; all the hits from the 84 masterpiece "Goethe" to the most beautiful songs from the late works "Fortpflanzungssupermarkt" and "Ein Hund namens Arbeit.

Fourth full length album from one of Honest Don's best bands:they really know what they're doing. The band have developed a sort of niche for themselves as pop culture watchdogs and they hit the target again with the song "Emo Boy".

They’ve been compared to tornadoes, firecrackers, and lightning storms, and described as genuine, unapologetic, and down-to-earth. And today Alex Luciano and Noah Bowman of gutsy rock duo Diet Cig are excited to announce their sophomore full-length, Do You Wonder About Me? 

Do You Wonder About Me? Is the follow-up to 2017’s Swear I’m Good At This. The new record marks a more intentional, self-assured Diet Cig; not only in Luciano’s radically intimate, acerbic lyrics, but in the duo’s sound as well. Luciano and Bowman moved to Richmond, VA in the summer of 2017 as a place to “hide out and make music,” and it was there that they wrote Do You Wonder About Me?, Diet Cig’s ode to growing up.

“We spent a lot of time after the first record growing as people, being humans outside of tour for a little bit, and trying to shed the imposter syndrome.” Luciano says. Spending the time to make the kind of music they really wanted to make and making sure they felt good about it was crucial to the success of tracks like “Night Terrors.” It’s a slower-paced song than Diet Cig’s usual, but just as biting; a song about reckoning with all the past versions of yourself. As Luciano puts it, “Am I still these people, or have I shapeshifted?” It’s essentially the thesis of Do You Wonder About Me?, considering and accepting the embarrassing aspects of your identity, and how they’re just as much a part of you as the good stuff.

“When we made our first record we almost felt like we had something to prove,” Luciano says. Much of it was written on tour—the kinks in the songs worked out by playing them live. But the writing and recording of Do You Wonder About Me? was imbued with more freedom. Diet Cig had the sense that they could make whatever they wanted. Luciano and Bowman, instead of practicing live to an audience, worked on their songs over the course of a year in their practice space, and ended up finishing tracks with their longtime producer Chris Daly at Headroom Studios in Philadelphia, PA, and back in New Paltz, NY at Salvation Recording. Instead of making sure they’d fit their live show, Diet Cig tinkered with songs until they felt right to them. As a result, Do You Wonder has a freshness, a gleaming new direction. Fewer boundaries. More truth, more honesty.

Diet Cig are here to have fun. They’re here to tear you away from the soul-sucking sanctity of your dumpster-fire life and replace it with pop-blessed punk jams about navigating the impending doom of adulthood when all you want is to have ice-cream on your birthday. Alex Luciano (guitar and vocals) and Noah Bowman (drums) have been playing music together ever since Luciano interrupted the set of Bowman's other band for a lighter. The New Paltz, New York duo have since released the infectious, 2015 ‘Over Easy’ EP that introduced consistent sing-a-long lyrics with thrashing drums and strums that never held back. ‘Swear I’m Good At This’ is the first full-length from the band and accumulates their tenacity for crafting life-affirming, relatable tales with a gutsy heart at their core. Luciano has the ability to write lyrics that are both vulnerable and badass, perfecting a storm of emotive reflection that creates a vision of a sweaty, pumped-up room screaming these lines in unison. Diet Cig make it okay to be the hot mess that you are.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It's really done it for me this one, full of driving pop-punk hooks and snarling distortion, topped with dreamlike female vocals and lots of melodic 'Ooh's and Aah's' Think Joanna Gruesome, mixed with Alkaline trio and Dinosaur Jr and you're somewhere near. It's fully great.

Berliner Robert Dietz lands on the Rotterdam label Nous'klaer Audio with the summery (bit late! - Ed) five-tracker "RIP To My Idea Of You". A record infused with beautiful melodies and bright, energy boosting drums - for the club, home and everything in between. The vinyl comes with a special poster designed by Hendrik Schneider. We're really loving this record - it floats on electric energy, tantalizes with its textures and sounds hi-tech AF. Highly recommended! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Sophisticated dance music with a playful disposition and highly advanced synthesis. Some of the sounds on display are mesmerizing and there's plenty of variation across the five tracks.

TRACK LISTING

1 Crop Circle
2 Should I Get A Dog
3 Rip To My Idea Of You
4 Everything You Do Melody Version
5 Picking Grapes

New York band Diffuser teamed up with producer Mark Trombino to record a set of quirky punky pop songs that should appeal to fans of the Drive-Thru sound and bands like Jimmy Eat World, Blink-182, Finch and Brand New.

The transcendent new album from Ani DiFranco, 'Revolutionary Love' marks the latest proof of one of her most powerful gifts as an artist: a rare ability to give voice to our deepest frustrations and tensions, on both a personal and political level. Produced by DiFranco and recorded mainly in two whirlwind days at Overdub Lane in Durham, 'Revolutionary Love' more than justifies the mad dash behind its making. 'Revolutionary Love' arrives as an instantly transportive selection of songs. Rooted in her poetic lyricism and ever-commanding vocal work, the album unfolds in an understated yet captivating alchemy of folk and soul and lushly textured jazz-pop. Produced by Ani DiFranco and recorded mainly in two whirlwind days at Overdub Lane in Durham, Revolutionary Love more than justifies the mad dash behind its making. As her first studio effort since the release of No Walls and the Recurring Dream (DiFranco’s widely praised 2019 memoir), Revolutionary Love arrives as an instantly transportive selection of songs. Rooted in her poetic lyricism and ever-commanding vocal work, the album unfolds in an understated yet captivating alchemy of folk and soul and lushly textured jazz-pop. In sculpting that sound, DiFranco and Brad Cook assembled an eclectic lineup of musicians, including percussionist Brevan Hampden (Hiss Golden Messenger, Milton Suggs), horn/flute player Matt Douglas (The Mountain Goats, Josh Ritter), keyboardist Phil Cook (Megafaun, Shouting Matches), drummer Yan Westerlund (Quetico, Mipso) and Di Franco’s longtime touring band Terence Higgins on percussion and Todd Sickafoose on bass.

Consolidating 2 years of solo work, “Hard To Please” is the debut album by Canadian polymath Sally Dige. First coming to prominence in the synth-wave scene with an elusive, meta-persona in a blur of homemade costumes, Dige’s world has grown to encompass visual art, theatre and design elements. Most surprising on her long-awaited debut however is the occasional removal of the various masks and characters Dige has played to date, revealing something more tangible and fragile underneath.

“Hard To Please” still revels in a darkly thrilling, Euro synth-pop music, awash with dry ice and hidden in shadow, most personified on the instant classic 'Immaculate Deception'. However, on the long, nocturnal walk home Dige begins to sing of loneliness, being lost, the transience of our relationships. Attention to detail is paramount. On the title-track the crisp early-80s, swooning bass line duets with Dige’s desperate plea to a lover fading into the distance, a presence lamented with even more pathos on the towering, early-4AD-esque, slow-burner 'Your Girl'. It’s a new fragility that effortlessly manages to convey a luxurious, inescapable sensuality at the same time.

Indeed, 'Hard To Please' portrays a clear narrative, with electronic body movers like Doppelganger portraying an out-of control, self-obsessed persona at the beginning of the record. Breaking down into the foggy murk, the more hopelessly romantic album closers “A Certain Beauty” and “Dance Of Delusion” burn a ghostly image into the listener’s mind, as Dige, or someone like her, over Cure-like swooning reverberations entreaties the powers that be to let her dance. Dige never fully reveals her hand, but the game is worth playing endlessly.

TRACK LISTING

1. Hard To Please
2. Immaculate Deception
3. So Far Away
4. Doppelganger
5. Losing You
6. Your Girl
7. A Certain Beauty
8. Dance Of Delusion

Dee Diggs is having a big year. Opening for Beyonce, critical lauding from the likes of The New Yorkerr & DJ Mag, and having her vinyl debut "Toss It" listed among the best of the year by Mixmag and Berghain. This 3 tracker 12" includes the Ladymonix remix that's been melting global dance floors in 2023; alongside the original version and a new remix by Matt FX.

Prior to her recent Panorama Bar set, the Berghain crew wrote: '"Toss It" merges disco extravagance with vintage house deepness and is, in our humble opinion, one of the best dancefloor numbers with pop appeal of the year so far.'

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Classy and seductive house music from across the pond. There's even a bit of vogue energy coursing through its veins. Confident and with tons of swagger, this is a quality record with tons of personality.

TRACK LISTING

A1 - Toss It (Original Mix)
A2 - Toss It (LADYMONIX Strut Remix)
B1 - Toss It (Matt FX Remix)

Following Ben UFO and Four Tet’s selections last year, Hunee helms volume three which includes three tracks this time including music from Digital Justice, Dorothy Ashby and Frantz Tuernal.

In his own words: “These three distinct pieces of music tap into different layers of my memory. One being part of the imagination, the other two rooted in the memories of a special morning in the woods of Houghton (and other times and places). On one side we have a beatless ecstatic piece of electronic music by Digital Justice called Theme From ‘It’s All Gone Pearshaped’. Originally released in 1994 on Rob Gretton’s (ex-manager of Joy Division and New Order) label Robs Records, Pearshaped is a 13 minute live jam from two friends messing around in a loft studio full of synths, inadvertently creating magic that can “take many shapes and forms in the hands of a DJ and the movement of a dance floor, whilst its harmonic counterpoint shines through the wildest mixes and combinations”

On the flip, we have Dorothy Ashby’s spiritual piece featuring Koto and spoken word “For Some We Loved” from her classic album “The Rubáiyát Of Dorothy Ashby” originally released in 1970 on Cadet and Frantz Tuernal’s “Koultans” originally released in 1986 by l’AMEP (Association Martiniquaise d’Enseignement Populaire) which was also a school in Martinique. “After dancing to a set from Cedric Woo at an intimate, after-closing dance party at Brilliant Corners called “Freedom Suite” which completely re-calibrated my sense of experiencing and dancing to music, I went home and immediately searched through my collection for music to listen to and potentially play with these new found sensitivities - the very physical experience of music, the pulling force pushing one into the transcendence of time and space. Dorothy Ashby’s “For Some We Loved” immediately took me back to that feeling and opened up in front of me an otherworldly-world through it’s free flowing polyrhythms and sparkling Koto playing. I have yet to play my own “Freedom Suite” night, but I hope when that moment comes, I can give back what I have received back then, and “For Some We Loved” is a first step in trying just that. I have been shown Frantz Tuernal’s privately pressed 12“containing “Koultans” by my trusted music friend Nicolas Skliris from Paris a few years ago. An unlikely piece of music (a Zouk song with flamenco-inspired guitar playing) from Martinique that was both a highlight back at Giant Steps when I played the song 3 times in a row in the early morning, and a few weeks later in the woods of Houghton where a few thousand dancers were deeply moved to its melody, when the sun came up in the morning and started descending upon the lake behind the DJ booth, bathing the smiles upon the dancers faces with its reflection.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Hunee curates the third volume of the Floating Points-endorsed, Melodies Record Club. I'd heard of Dorothy Ashby, but the other two are new to me - championing the label's ethos of uncovering some overlooked and rare moments of musical brilliance from across the world. It's another winner make no mistake!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Digital Justice–Theme From “It’s All Gone Pearshaped”
B1. Dorothy Ashby–For Some We Loved
B2. Frantz Tuernal-Koultans 

Brand new on Feral Child, comes a sublime debut 45 from an incredible female electronic / performance duo Digital Roses. Following a chance meeting in a library and an overheard discussion about Daphne Oram, Delia Derbyshire and the Radiophonic Workshop- Dom FC was sent a bunch of demos and 2 of these fabulous pieces grace their first release on 7" here.

The band describe themselves and their sound thus: “Digital Roses are two queer multidisciplinary arts based in London, whose sound has been described as “hyper-soul” meets “Nordic noir electronica”; a musical feast of experimental art pop, ambient noise, and wistful soul melodies.
Rising from a multidimensional conceptual framework, Digital Roses avail contemporary visuals, computational forms, sound synthesis, and sound art, together with organic instrumentation and voice, to explore the emotional landscapes of the human condition. They aim to share their journey, observations, and musings with the same beautiful, painful, and sometimes aggressive nature that can be found everywhere there is humanity.
‘Waterfalls’ is a song inspired by the mysticism of the Toka Leya Waterfall tribes of Victoria Falls. The tribe’s name loosely translates to ‘those who crossed over to keep away from trouble’, and their drums are believed to hold supernatural powers. The song is the first stop in the imagined mystical journey the Digital Roses take us on. The aftermath of this musical exodus is where we encounter the mysterious and haunting lamentation that is the B-side track ‘Under the Sea’”.

Beating off a mini label tug of war for the right to release the mighty “WATERFALLS”, Feral Child is thrilled to bring this debut release to the table. Icy cool, elegantly experimental electronica which -to these ears- is one of the year’s best singles so far……

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: You always know you're in for a treat with a Feral Child release, but this particular blend of slowed-down post-dubstep and finessed synthetic soundscapes has me particularly floored. Glitched, but particularly organic sounding, pulsing with life and impeccably produced. Stunner.

TRACK LISTING

Waterfalls
Under The Sea

Occupying the corners between fuzzed-out shoegaze bliss, troubadour poetry, and metallic catharsis, DIIV –– Zachary Cole Smith [lead vocals, guitar], Andrew Bailey [guitar], Colin Caulfield [vocals, bass], and Ben Newman [drums] —— personally inhabit the recesses of their third fulllength album, Deceiver. A whirlwind brought DIIV here. On the heels of 2012’s Oshin, the group delivered the critical and fan favorite Is the Is Are in 2016. Praise came from The Guardian, Spin, Rolling Stone and more. Pitchfork’s audience voted Is the Is Are one of the Top 50 Albums of 2016, as the outlet dubbed it “gorgeous.” Simultaneously, frontman Zachary Cole Smith faced down seemingly dormant demons, and the momentum stalled.

Two years after embarking on a program of recovery, Smith has emerged with a clear head and renewed focus. For the first time, DIIV lived with songs on the road. During a 2018 tour with Deafheaven, they performed eight new compositions as the bulk of the set. The tunes progressed as the players did. By the time DIIV entered 64 Sound to record with producer Sonny Diperri, the band felt a certain confidence.

It’s evident on first single “Skin Game,” which gallops forth on a clean guitar riff before unfolding into a hypnotic hook offset by an off-kilter rhythm and hummable solo. “Being a recovering addict myself,” he says, “there are a lot of questions like, ‘Who are we? What is this disease?’ ‘Skin Game’ looks at where the pain comes from – the personal, physical, emotional, and broader political experiences feeding into the cycle of addiction for millions of us.”

A trudging groove and wailing guitar punctuate a lulling apology on the magnetically melancholic “Taker.” For Smith, it’s “about taking responsibility for your lies, their consequences, and the entire experience.” Meanwhile, the ominous bass line and crawling beat of “Blankenship” devolve into schizophrenic string bends with the vitriolic lyrics. The seven-minute “Acheron” offers a dynamic denouement, flowing through a hulking beat guided under gusts of lyrical fretwork and a distorted heavy apotheosis.

“We’re proud of this, because we earned it as a band,” Cole says. “I’m really happy and grateful just to do it in the first place. I can see the change. It’s not a record full of solutions, but I’m living my life. I’ve examined the consequences of my lies; I’ve got something to say now.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: 'Deceiver' is by far the most cohesive and thematically consistent DIIV release yet in a succinct, yet superb catalogue. Swathes of distortion and echoing guitars are expertly laid down before Cole Smith's hypnotic vocals make their mark, coalescing into a lysergic, shoegazing maelstrom.

TRACK LISTING

1. Horsehead
2. Like Before You Were Born
3. Skin Game
4. Honey
5. Taker
6. For The Guilty
7. Lorelai
8. The Spark
9. Blankenship
10. Acheron

Produced by Chris Coady and written by DIIV (pronounced Dive), Frog in Boiling Water, the band’s fourth full-length LP is a collection of snapshots that explores the brutal realities of end-stage capitalism and overwhelming technological advance. Across 10 dark and dazzling tracks, DIIV documents the collapse from various angles with unusual sensitivity and depth of purpose while expanding their grand, hypnotic shoegaze, to create a transportive, sensual work of hope, beauty and renewal.

"Musically, we were excited to explore new territory sonically. We collected and cataloged cassette tapes and made tape loops, used samples, weird guitar tunings, crude synthesizers. It’s the least “genre” record we’ve ever made and we’re excited to show everyone the musical world we’ve found."

STAFF COMMENTS

Liam says: I know it's only May, but this is most likely going to be my album of the year. Following on from their monumental 2019 album 'Deceiver', 'Frog In Boiling Water' sees DIIV still with their shoes set to gaze mode and it might be even be their best yet. With nods to Sonic Youth, Duster, Slowdive and MBV, 'FIBW' is also DIIV's most lyrically dense as it touches on brutal realities of end-stage capitalism and overwhelming technological advance - plus it sounds absolutely massive! The textures/sonics on here are incredible and the best DIIV have ever sounded, I truly can't recommended this album enough!!!

TRACK LISTING

1. In Amber
2. Brown Paper Bag
3. Raining On Your Pillow
4. Frog In Boiling Water
5. Everyone Out
6. Reflected
7. Somber The Drums
8. Little Birds
9. Soul-net
10. Fender On The Freeway

On June 26 2012, DIIV released their seminal debut record, Oshin . The album received critical acclaim from Pitchfork granting it “Best New Music,” NME ranked it in the Top 10 among its “Albums of the Year,” and it positioned DIIV as a central influence on the sound and aesthetic of the 2010s Brooklyn indie music scene.

Beginning in 2011 as the nom-de-plume of Z. Cole Smith, musical provo - cateur and frontman of the atmospheric and autumnally-charged four- piece, DIIV created instant vibrations in the blog-world with their impressionistic debut single “Sometime.” DIIV craft a sound that is at once familial and frost-bitten. Indebted to classic kraut, dreamy Creation- records psychedelia, and the primitive-crunch of late-80s Seattle, the band walk a divisive yet perfectly fused patch of classic-underground influence on their debut LP.

To commemorate the 10th anniversary, this limited edition 2xLP combines the Oshin tracklist with the original Oshin demos recorded by Smith, and two live cuts recorded at storied Brooklyn DIY venue Shea Stadium - including the never before released “Yuk”.

The expansive packaging includes a craft paper die-cut widespine housed in a clear printed PVC sleeve, vinyl pressed on blue marble (to commemorate the very first limited edition pressing of Oshin on Captured Tracks), a DIIV “Fuck The World” poster, and a retrospective booklet with archival photos, reflections from each bandmember, new writing from the original “Oshin” poet, Madeline Jones, and exanded liners by Shaad D’Souza

TRACK LISTING

LP1:
1. (Druun)
2. Past Lives
3. Human
4. Air Conditioning
5. How Long Have You Known
6. Wait
7. Earthboy
8. (Druun Pt II)
9. Follow
10. Sometime
11. Oshin (Subsume)
12. Doused 13. Home

LP2:
1. (Druun) (Demo)
2. Past Lives (Demo)
3. Human (Demo)
4. Air Conditioning (Demo)
5. How Long Have You Known (Demo)
6. Wait (Demo)
7. Earthboy (Demo)
8. (Druun Pt II) (Demo)
9. Follow (Demo)
10. Sometime (Demo)
11. Oshin (Subsume) (Demo)
12. Doused (Demo)
13. Home (Demo)
14. Yuk (Live At Shea Sta - Dium 07-29-11)
15. Sometime (Live At Shea Stadium 11-29-11 )

Before Oshin, there was ‘Sometime,’ ‘Human,’ and ‘Geist’... In 2011, a newly formed DIIV (known, at the time, as ‘DIVE’) created instant vibrations in the blog-world with their impressionistic debut single ‘Sometime’; finding its way onto the esteemed pages of Pitchfork a mere matter of weeks after the group’s formation. They quickly followed it up with the equally great ‘Human’ and ‘Geist’, with the latter featuring a b-side cover of Kurt Cobain’s “Bambi Slaughter.”

These very first offerings from DIIV chemically fused the reminiscent with the half-remembered, building a musical world out of old-air and new breeze. These are songs that remind us of love in all it’s earthly perfections and perversions, and work that ultimately put DIIV on the map, leading the way for the band to become a central influence on the sound and aesthetic of the 2010s Brooklyn indie music scene.

Now, to commemorate the 10 year anniversary of their seminal debut album Oshin, all three 7”s will be repressed for the very first time since their original release.

DIIV: “Looking back, these 7”s were really the thing that propelled the band into existence and pushed us to realize Oshin in the first place. This type of retrospective project wouldn’t feel complete without them.”

TRACK LISTING

SOMETIME
A. Sometime
B. Corvalis

HUMAN
A. Human
B. Big Joke

GEIST
A. Geist
B. Bambi Slaughter

Making his first vinyl appearance on the label, Luuk van Dijk is back releasing his long awaited 'Take Me For A Ride'. Remixing the title track is Berlin house talent Running Hot. The record is completed with 2 of Luuk’s originals on the B side with the garage influenced 'Doin' It’'and groovy 'Sexy M*therfucker'

TRACK LISTING

A1. Take Me For A Ride
A2. Take Me For A Ride - Running Hot Remix
B1. Doin' It
B2. Sexy Motherf*cker

‘Magnificent Ram A’ is the follow up to DiLego’s 2012 album, ‘Western & Atlantic’, which won an Independent Music Award for ‘Best Roots/Alt Country Album’.

“New York City’s emerging folk-twang songsmith, Don DiLego, is alt-country’s next poster boy” - Rolling Stone.

“’Drive Like Pirates’ could well be your new favourite song of the week” - Chris Hawkins, BBC 6Music.

“A record that hangs together like a star spangled cosmic nudie suit. This is country ‘cool’” - Americana UK.

TRACK LISTING

Karma King
A Wishful Poem
Drive Like Pirates
I’m On Fire
Go Pack Your Suitcase
Up In Smoke
Don’t Bury Me Alive
The West Side Oak
Running In Place With A Desperate Heart
Idiot Heart

Flagbearers in the early 1960s in the roots music revival, the Dillards reintroduced bluegrass into popular conciousness and carrying on the work of Earl Scruggs and Bill Monroe in reintroducing the music of Missouri and the American backwoods. By the time they released "Live!!! Almost!!!" in 1964 they had gone electric and were early progenitors of 'country rock'. They were an influence on the Byrds and many other rock acts of the late 1960s and these two Elektra label reissues are amongst their most definitive recordings.

The Dillinger Escape Plan seamlessly fuse extreme metal and punk hardcore into a most extreme package. This is their classic first mini album with brand new digipack artwork and as well as the original 6 track mini album there's three previously unreleased bonus live cuts.

The Dillinger Four are truly a musical force to be reckoned with as this, their third full-length release "Situationist Comedy" shows. Now on Fat Wreck Chords, whose reputation for discovering great new punk bands goes unsurpassed. A mid-western foursome harnessing fury and harmony to musical mayhem and making it into something people can dance to.

The out of control hype on this band is far from exaggerated. Now signed to Fat Wreck Chords this mid-western foursome harness the fury and harmony of hardcore and turn themselves into a mosh pit dance band from hell.

Dillinger's sparring partner on this album is 'Trinity' aka Wade Brammer, who was active during the 1970s and 1980s. Trinity vs Dillinger, is best known for deejaying over reggae and dancehall tracks. Clash albums became very popular at the tail end of the 1970's and into the 1980's with both singers and deejays competing against each other track by track.

TRACK LISTING

1. Rizla Skank
2. Spike Heel Shoes
3. Natty Dread Ah Carry The Swing
4. Natty Dread On The Ball
5. Jamaican Dollars
6. Shelly With The Electric Belly
7. Step It Brother Clem
8. Stumbling Block
9. Cricket Loving Cricket
10. Natty Passing Through A Curfew
11. Natty Dread Is Not The Prodigal Son
12. Starsky And Hutch

Dillinger one of the most consistently successful DJ’s to come out of Jamaica, fondly remembered for his massive ‘Cocaine In My Brain’ hit from the great CB200 album and the later reworked ‘Marijuana In My Brain’ which gave Dillinger crossover hits in both England and Europe. But the versatile DJ has many more strings to his bow.

Dillinger (born. Lester Bullocks,1953 Kingston, Jamaica) began his musical venture around 1971, working as a DJ to Sound Systems run by Prince Jackie and El Brasso.1974 saw his first vinyl release in the form of ‘Freshly’ for Producer Yabby U and in 1975 he came with the great ‘Brace A Boy’ for the young Mr Augustus Pablo.But his first album release was through Coxsone Dodd’s Studio One setup, where he let Dillinger fire some vocals over classic Rocksteady rhythms. It took the form of ‘Ready Natty Dreadie’. It was his time at Joseph ‘Jo Jo’ Hookim’s Channel One Studio that produced his second album set(a crossover release and fore mentioned) the timeless 1976 classic ‘CB 200’. It contained three big singles in ‘Plantation Heights’, ‘Cocaine In My Brain’ and ‘Crank Face’. The reworked ‘ Marijuana In My Brain’ even became a No 1 hit in Holland in 1979.

This set of tunes are taken from his classic 70’s period when Mr Dillinger could do no wrong. Alongside the big ‘Cocaine’ and ‘Marijuana’ hits the great opening track ‘Love Is All I Bring’ sees him working over Alton Ellis ‘Still In Love With You’ which Itself turned into ‘3 Piece Suite’. ‘Money Alone Is Not All’ where he works over Barry Brown’s ‘Mr Money Man’, ‘Hear and Deaf’ working over Johnny Clarke’s ‘Nobodies Business’. ‘King Pharaoh Was A Baldhead’ has him working Frankie Jone’s ‘ Jesse Black’ cut. ‘Concubine’ reworks the Mighty Diamond’s ‘Mother Winney’ and ‘Time So Hard’ sees Dillinger telling it like it is over Ronnie Davis’ original ‘ Time So Hard’ cut, empathizing the points in fine style.

A classic set of tunes all ‘Killer No Filler’ from the master of rhyme himself we hope you agree…..

TRACK LISTING

1. Love Is All I Bring
2. Cocaine In My Brain
3. Time So Hard
4. Don’t Want To Wait In Vain
5. Money Alone Is Not Enough
6. Some More Love
7. Hear And Deaf
8. Marijuana In My Brain
9. Bathe In A Washpan
10. King Pharaoh Was A Bald Head
11. Dub It In A Three Mile
12. I Want To Squeeze You
13. Rastafari Rule
14. Concubine
15. Mickey Mouse Crab Louse *
16. The Tuffest Of The Past *

Full length double LP from contemporary Irish guitarist Jonny Dillon. Beautifully recorded blues / folk guitar pieces. Essential for fans of John Fahey. TIP!

Jonny Dillon’s debut acoustic LP ‘Songs For A One-String Guitar’ took the listening public by surprise and the critics by storm when it dropped out of the blue on All-City in 2019. It represented a departure for an artist who was renowned for having the Midas touch when it came to coaxing dance floor fire from all manner of hardware. But fortune favours the brave and temporarily setting the machinery aside and following an acoustic path to the waterfall has already reaped rich rewards for Jonny Dillon. He’ll never say it in so many words but here’s a man on a mission: “Fail as I may, I have to go back and try again every time, to wait in hope for a glimpse of the spirit that hovers over the face of the deep, and to keep watch for the Light that shines in the darkness.”

The generosity of spirit which is the linchpin of all great music is something that can neither be cheaply conjured nor ever easily faked, god forbid. It’s the elusive emotional conductor in the spinal cord of sound - a foundational component of that mysterious feeling of connection we as listeners are seeking every time we put the needle on the record or press play on a song. The very essence of the thing we seek, in short. The holy grail. When sweet music hits, it’s the spirit that moves us and it’s both the source of the power within it as well as ultimately the place where it resides inside of us too, once heard. This is how music works. Journeying. Spirit to spirit. From the makers and dreamers of the dream to dreamers in general. The indomitable spirit inherent in the instrumental guitar compositions and distinctive finger picking style of Jonny Dillon is a case in point. This is spiritful music of a rarer kind made by an artist as inherently attuned to the troubling times we are living through as he is to the value of carving out new paths to the waterfall through the medium of sound on our behalf. Boom and there it is. Much needed guidance. A priceless new navigational tool of the imagination to help us all through the maze.

Just like the debut offering, this a path inherently worth following too, every step of the way. This time Jonny’s singular playing style finds true expression in a sound world expertly shaped by a master of the production craft, John ’Spud’ Murphy in Hellfire Studio. Masters at work, times two. Like all dream productions, it quickly assumes three dimensional proportions and becomes a place to go in and of itself, worth returning and retreating to, time
and again. On A New Directive From The Bureau of Compulsory Entertaintment, his mode of expression is as clear and impactful as the immediate impression the sound makes on us. His is a strong game. He rises to the occasion and fulfils a great need on our part in so doing. We have to give thanks where it’s due. Balms for the soul are hardly two-a-penny in these challenging times but this is a timely one and of a lasting kind too. In stripping everything back and breaking his sound down into the bare component parts of reverberating steel strings on resonant wood, he has tapped into a kind of universal music of the spheres. It’s in tune with the times and more. Big picture sound with heart and soul to match. The iridescent sound he conjures from that same deep is a joyous thing to behold imbued as it is with a kind of light that never goes out. A dozen jewels adorn this timeless creation, each one a glimpse of eternity. They will shimmer forever. Man gets tired. Spirit don’t.

Dónal Dineen, January 2023.

TRACK LISTING

Numinous Hedgerows Look See
Hey Who Put These Sunsets Here
Rose Gardens Requiems
Lifes Railway To Heaven
Heaven Knows
After Vastopol
The Corridor Of The Heart
I Used To Just Drink Linden Village But Now I Live There
Day Is Breaking In My Soul Blues
In Christ There Is No East Or West
The Great Big Ship That Came And Floated Everybody Away
Here Comes The Ladder Of Divine Ascent

Partisan Records are extremely excited to release ‘Sore’, the debut album by Canadian newcomers Dilly Dally.

Self taught guitarists Katie Monks and ? Liz Ball developed a sister?like bond in high school. Their shared love of influences such as Nirvana and The Pixies served as common ground to start their own band.

‘Sore’ is both heavy and melodic, with pop sensibilities that shine through the noise.

Dilly Dally sweep the listener along into a screaming psyche as Monks’ coarse holler slides in cadence and scale.

The production by Josh Korody (Fucked Up, Greys) and Leon Taheny (Owen Pallett, Austra, Dusted) further strengthens the band’s debut work.

CD and vinyl formats include a fold out poster.

After branching off from The Royal Jesters in the mid-1960s, Dimas Garza attempted a solo career and reinvented himself as Dimas III. Dimas recorded three singles on the Jesters’ own Clown label, all tracked at Abie Epstein’s studio off General McMullen in San Antonio, TX. The first were ‘So Funny’ and ‘I Won’t Love You Again’, which are almost impossible to find now. Garza never did manage to break beyond the Bexar County limits, but he left a rich legacy of recordings behind for lowrider enthusiasts and obsessed collectors alike. 

Following up from their smash collaboration with live band Cotonete, Dimitri From Paris and Heartbeat records shop boss Melik Bencheikh, team up once again to launch their new label, Le HeartBeat. In an ongoing mission to champion the live side of dance music, they locked themselves up in a studio, with the ace players of new Parisian combo, Chatobaron. The first outing on Le HeartBeat draws from the cheekiness of London’s punk-funk, meeting with New York’s disco-not-disco. The all acoustic performance invokes the spirits of Ian Dury and Arthur Russell, bouncing on the walls of the Paradise Garage, to enter the soul of Chatobaron’s expert players, each at the top of their game.

Dimitri gets on mixing duties and makes sure the rhythm section keeps the dancefloor busy. In his signature roller coaster style, he provides vocal and dub versions, chock full of breaks and drops. Working with seasoned players, using the best of vintage and modern recording techniques, Le HeartBeat Records aims to bring decades of record digging culture onto todays dance floors. A future collectors piece that both the dancers and DJs are gonna dig. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: As usual with a DFP tweak, there's an air of flamboyancy and celebration that few in the disco scene can replicate with such authority. It's like you're right there at Studio 54 in your best get-up living your best life!

TRACK LISTING

A1. I Like (The Music That You Play) - Club Vocal
B1. I Like (The Music That You Play)- Club Instrumental

Everyone's favourite globetrotting disco socialite is back in the house, bringing with him three tasty duty free treats from the land of the rising sun. So pop a cork and drop a shoulder, it's not every day you get down with Dimitri. Up first is a heavy duty groove you might recognise from Village People's "My Roommate. Dim adds one of his killer drum tracks with consummate ease, then extends the arrangement and works the filters like only he can as you get taken on a trip to disco heaven. Flip the disc for a killer looped up version of The Trammps' "Disco Inferno", which Dim revisits to remind us that beyond the now cliche chorus, there's plenty to be loved in this raw and soulful disco groove. Naturally, there are shredding guitars, roving clav, jazzy rhodes noodles, and red hot horns, not to mention that Jimmy Ellis is in fine fine voice on this cut. Massive rework from the Frenchman. Lastly, Dim takes on a big number from the Larry list, reworking Paradise Garage favourite "Bad Mouthin" by the Motown Sounds. Anyone who owns an original copy will tell you that this is one tough sucker to mix, so first off, Dim's straightened things out a little and beefed up the drums for contemporary DJ use. Dim then gets to work with the scalpel, pimping the arrangement for maximum floor burning intensity. All the gorgeous and intricate instrumental parts are EQ'd to the max to give them the limelight they deserve. Immersive and unstoppable disco magic which will be right at the front of the box for months to come.

Searching for Dimorphodons is the debut EP from multi-instrumental artist, producer, guitar builder, eccentric and visionary Dimorphodons, who describes his sound as “the fantasy world I’d like to live in”.

Trawling through psychedelic mind palaces and off-piste historical moments, the Searching for Dimorphodons EP presents five varied tracks representing a different time and place. Ranging from the Jurassic to the present day, each one is a kaleidoscopic take on psychedelia, with nods to sunshine pop and swamp rock along the way.

EP opener and title track Searching for Dimorphodons is a searing freakbeat hymn sung from the dual perspectives of palaeontologist Mary Anning and a long extinct proto-bird. An intense exorcism of rattling drums, 12-string electric guitars, a delirious meandering melody, and sunshine pop harmonies, Searching for Dimorphodons is an exploration of a life lived in two concurrent timelines, separated by millennia.

Snodohpromid takes us on a more experimental and ambient trip, a sound painting of an ancient swamp where half-speed birdsong and field recordings of mushrooms squeaking in a pan sonically depict the calls of long departed prehistoric creatures.

Petty Things Are All I Have and Know explores what Dimorphodons describes as “the tension between the life desired and the life attainable” to a backdrop of timeless British chamber pop. The song moves in a fluttering pace, with lush harmonies and hymnic crests, a Wilson-esque mini-symphony to unreachable dreams.

Next, another track indebted to Dimorphodon’s obsession with ’60s pop, this time the imagined narrative of The Factory moves away from the Jurassic and into more introspective realms, a person reflecting on the life lived and unlived, Lowry’s smoggy and short-distance horizons put to song.

And lastly, an untitled track of which the artist himself says: “I don’t know what this is. I like the way it wisps in and out and then goes away.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Searching For Dimorphodons
2. Snodohpromid
3. Petty Things Are All I Have And Know
4. The Factory
5. [untitled]

Leon Dinero returns with more rocksteady magic from producer Victor Axelrod.

Originally written and recorded by James Hunter, "Heartbreak" gets the Axelrod treatment, turning this mid-tempo R&B gem on its head. The laid back vocal and tasteful organ give "Heartbreak" a wholly fresh vibe whilst staying respectfully true to the original.

On the flip is "Cut Both Ways" an instrumental version courtesy of The Inversions. One listen and you'll find that these are some of the baddest musicians in the game.

TRACK LISTING

Side A – Heartbreak
Side B – Cut Both Ways

After a four-year hiatus exploring ambient and meditation music, Danish multi- instrumentalist Anders Rhedin has returned to his indie roots. Dream Work, his third album as Dinner, is a lush collection of synth and guitar-laden indie pop that expertly channels Ryuichi Sakamoto, early British indie, and the sound of water.

Like most worthwhile pursuits, the path to Dream Work hasn’t been straight. After signing to Captured Tracks in 2014, he released a series of synth-based avant-pop albums and toured the world with the likes of Mac Demarco, Sean Nicholas Savage, Prince Rama, and King Gizzard, all while splitting his time be - tween Berlin, LA and his native Copenhagen. This whirlwind period ended when, following the release of 2017’s New Work, Rhedin relocated to Copenhagen and took a step back from the Dinner project in order to explore his long standing personal interest in ambient production and guided meditation. Over the last few years, he’s released a series of ambient releases under his own name geared towards meditation, sleep, and relaxation. He’s also led live guided sound baths and meditations at art museums, churches, and rooftops all over the world.

The time away proved fruitful - returning to the Dinner project with fresh eyes, Rhedin sought not to reproduce his previous style, but rather to integrate these two components of his body of work. As a result, Dream Work sounds at once classic and entirely new; a deft balance of Rhedin’s trademark electro-pop with the meditative and organic elements of his ambient work. From the melancholy acoustic guitar and downtempo synth melody of “Spirit Voices” to the ethereal refrain on “Connection”, Rhedin washes his pop songwriting in dark, dreamy tex - tures. These textures lend cohesion to the far-reaching collection - Dinner effort - lessly floats from Stereolab-like electric guitar (“Anima”) to twinkling synth-pop (“Midnight In My Head”) to fluid ambient (“Drøm”) in the span of just 34 minutes. Contributions from labelmates Molly Burch and Charlie Hilton as well as Lina Tullgren, Nicolai Koch help bolster this quality: much like Rhedin himself, Dream Work feels well-traveled even when it’s standing in place.

TRACK LISTING

1. Midnight In My Head
2. How We Talk
3. Big Empty Sky
4. Like You Said
5. Anima
6. Connection
7. Spirit Voices
8. Grateful (Best Shit)
9. Born Again
10. Drøm 

Dinner is Danish producer and singer Anders Rhedin. Following the release of his EP collection and last year’s debut album, ‘Psychic Lovers’, the now LA-based artist presents New Work on Captured Tracks.

With ‘New Work’, Dinner had a wish to do things differently. “I just needed to get back to the approach I used when I was still self-releasing cassettes, back in Copenhagen. I spent way too much time on the previous record. I was sitting in front of a computer-screen alone for seven months working on it, obsessing over it. This time I wanted to work very fast in order to think less. I wanted to collaborate more. I hoped that other people’s presence would keep my perfectionism in check.”

Dinner enlisted Josh da Costa (Regal Degal, Ducktails) to produce the album with him. He and Josh worked in the night time at off hours at a studio in an industrial part of downtown LA. The album’s songs were recorded on the spot with no preparation time. In-between studio sessions, Dinner recorded and overdubbed material in his apartment on an early 80s 4-track recorder.

“We did very little editing, we just tried to record what was there. You’ll hear a lot of first-takes on the record. The best part of the process was driving home early in the morning though the empty streets of LA, listening to the night’s recordings. Because it was such an immediate experience.”

The two previous Dinner releases were recorded in Berlin and Copenhagen with mostly European musicians. This isn’t the case on ‘New Work’, which features performances by Andy White (Tonstartssbandht), Charlie Hilton (Blouse), Rori McCarthy (Infinite Bisous, Connan Moccasin), Staz Lindes (Paranoyds) and a duet with Sean Nicholas Savage. “A lot of my favorite music is American. I thought it would be fun to go a little bit less Euro on this one. I’m plenty Euro by myself, some might say. I wanted to add a different color.”

Asked to describe the sound of ‘New Work’ after the first listen, Captured Tracks owner Mike Sniper texted: “Julian Cope, 60’s Baroque Pop, early 70’s Canterbury Sound, Japan, Ryuichi Sakamato, ‘Raspberry Beret’-era Prince... Need to listen a few more times before anything concrete comes!”

TRACK LISTING

Un-American Woman
Don’t Belong
Walk Away
Siren Song
Marble Eyes
Illusions
Get Real
Copenhagen
Waitin’
Thwl

Dinner is Danish producer and singer Anders Rhedin. Dinner leads a nomadic existence, dividing his time between Los Angeles, Copenhagen and Berlin. So far Dinner has released three EPs and a guided hypnosis tape. Now he presents his debut album ‘Psychic Lovers’.

Whether the finished album lives up to Dinner’s vision only Dinner knows. Musically, the album exists in its own space between the 1980s, 1990s and the present. The songs are pop songs held together by somewhat idiosyncratic arrangements.

Opener ‘Cool As Ice’ sounds like the soundtrack to David Lynch directing ‘Miami Vice’ with overdriven synthetic strings and an equally eerie and funky slap bass that slowly grow into a pop structure.

‘Turn Me On’ invokes the feeling of Sade recorded on VHS fronted by Klaus Nomi’s baryton-possessed ghost, or a warped jingle from The Home Shopping Network.

The song ‘Lie’ has distinct Nico-esque undertones and John Cale-ish overtones wrapped in 1980s melancholy, while ‘Wake Up’ and ‘The World’ explore inverted 90s Euro-pop.

In the words of mix-engineer Filip Nicolic (Poolside), “The whole album sounds like Chimo Bayo produced by Marquis de Sade.” An even more concise definition of Dinner comes from labelmate Mac Demarco: “Great face, great body, great tunes.”

TRACK LISTING

Cool As Ice
The World
Turn Me On
Gone
What You Got
Wake Up
Holy Fuck!
A.F.Y.
Lie
Kali, Take Me Home

Celebrating the 15th anniversary since its original release, Dinosaur Jr. is reissuing “Beyond” on limited edition coloured vinyl with a special edition white vinyl 7”.

With J Mascis on guitar & lead vocals, Lou Barlow on bass and vocals, and Murph on drums, the 2007 album was the first from original lineup Dinosaur Jr. since 1988’s “Bug," kicking off a Dinosaur Jr. reunion which has lasted longer than the band’s original run.

"Less a theme park of the past and more of an actual trip there… Beyond is nostalgic for everything but the band's own glory days. If anything, it's an exercise in making their entire twenty-year output sound contemporary again.” - Zach Baron for Pitchfork.

"very existence of this new album is a surprise, but the real shock is that Beyond is a flat-out great record, a startling return to form for J Mascis as a guitarist and songwriter and Dinosaur Jr. as a band… Beyond isn't merely a worthy album from a reunited band, it's simply a great record by any standard.” - Stephen Thomas Erlewine for Allmusic Guide

"There is something almost eerie about how exactly the Dinosaur Jr of 2007 sound like the Dinosaur Jr of 1988: on occasion, listening to Beyond feels discombobulating, like meeting an old school friend 20 years on…" - Alex Petridis for The Guardian

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
1. Almost Ready
2. Crumble
3. Pick Me Up
4. Back To Your Heart
SIDE B:
5. This Is All I Came To Do
6. Been There All The Time
7. It’s Me
8. We’re Not Alone

BONUS 7“
SIDE A:
1. What If I Knew
SIDE B:
1. Yer Son

Bug is the third studio album originally released in 1988. It was the last Dinosaur Jr. album with original bassist Lou Barlow until Beyond in 2007. NME critic Jack Barron deemed Bug "the most comprehensive rock statement of the year so far" in a 1988 review for the magazine, noting Dinosaur Jr.'s predominantly "torpid" approach and commenting that the music "trepidates everyday reality away", while rating the album "8.999999" on a ten-point scale. In a retrospective review of Bug for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine described "Freak Scene" as the album's "masterpiece" and opined, "Although the majority of the album is firmly situated in the sprawling, noisy metallic fusion of hard rock and avant noise, Bug also demonstrates that J Mascis has a talent for winding folk-rock". While finding its songs "quite uneven", Erlewine concluded that the album nonetheless constitutes "a major step forward for Mascis". Writing for Drowned in Sound in 2005, Mike Diver said of Bug, "The songwriting has increased tenfold since You're Living All Over Me ... really, if you like music – be it grunge, indie, punk, whatever – you will love this. Period. Go spend some money already." Keith Cameron of Mojo wrote, "Bug marks the emergence of Mascis writing by rote. When applied to such an outlandishly great song as 'Freak Scene' his skills still blazed, however, and as formulaic exercises in discordant alienation go, Bug is better than most.

TRACK LISTING

1. Freak Scene
2. No Bones
3. They Always Come
4. Yeah We Know
5. Let It Ride
6. Pond Song
7. Budge
8. The Post
9. Don't
10. Keep The Glove 

Here is Sweep It Into Space, the fifth new studio album cut by Dinosaur Jr.. during the 13th year of their rebirth. Originally scheduled for issue in mid 2020, this record’s temporal trajectory was thwarted by the coming of the Plague. But it would take more than a mere Plague to tamp down the exquisite fury of this trio when they are fully dialed-in. And Sweep It Into Space is a masterpiece of zoned dialing.

Recorded, as usual, at Amherst’s Biquiteen, the sessions for Sweep It Into Space began in the late Autumn of 2019, following a West Coast/ South East tour. The only extra musician used this time with Kurt Vile. Indeed, Sweep It Into Space is a very cool album. As is typical, Lou Barlow writes and sings two of the album’s dozen tunes and Murph’s pure-Flinstonian drumming drives the record like a go cart from Hell. Lou’s songs here are as elegant as always. But there are very few moments where you wouldn’t know you were hearing Dinosaur Jr. in blindfolded needle drop.

They have a signature sound as sure as the Stooges or Sonic Youth or Discharge ever did. They continue to expand their personal universe with Sweep It Into Space, without ever losing their central core.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: There's something unmistakeable about the Dinosaur Jr sound. Not only do the melodic guitars and major-key melodies scream DJR, but Mascis' vocals bring back every memory of hazy summers spent listening to 'Green Mind' as a young teenager. 'Sweep It Into Space' has every bit of the charm and groove of their early years but with a maturity and musicianship that can only come from a band at this stage of their career.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
1. I Ain’t
2. I Met The Stones
3. To Be Waiting
4. I Ran Away
5. Garden
6. Hide Another Round

SIDE B:
7. And Me
8. I Expect It Always
9. Take It Back
10. N Say
11. Walking To You
12. You Wonder

Formed in 1984, Dinosaur Jr carved a singular path through the latter half of the 1980s and early 1990s, issuing a number of highly influential albums in the process before finding a home with Sire Records. ‘Where You Been’, their fifth record, emerged in 1993, at the height of enthusiasm for grunge and the alternative American rock scene the band had long been part of.

Produced by a new line-up of the group (longtime drummer Murph and new bassist Mike Johnson completing the three-piece), the album became the band’s most successful up to that point, reaching #50 in the US (where it sold over a quarter of a million copies) and #10 in the UK album charts, and spawning the hit single ‘Start Choppin’.

Released to unanimously positive reviews, and containing many tracks that would become staples and fan favourites, ‘Where You Been’ continued Dinosaur Jr’s global ascent, being issued simultaneously across the US, Europe, Australasia, Asia and South America.

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
1. Out There
2. Start Choppin’
3. What Else Is New
4. On The Way
5. Not The Same
Side B:
1. Get Me
2. Drawerings
3. Hide
4. Goin’ Home
5. I Ain’t Sayin

This 1988 LP is the final recording by the original line-up, and it opens with one of the greatest songs ever written! "Freak Scene" was massive in Manchester (just like everywhere else, I guess) in 1988 and the video for this perfect track was shot in John Robb's garden in West Didsbury! It's worth the price of the album alone. The rest of the tracks although perhaps never quite scaling those unbelievable heights, are some of Dinosaur's best work, fantastic song after fantastic song. J. Mascis had single-handedly resurrected the guitar as a freewheeling transcendental instrument, hurrah!!!! It was just a shame that the band hated each other, and this was to be their last as this line-up, but there can be no better way to go out than this. A true stone-wall CLASSIC!!!!

TRACK LISTING

Freak Scene
No Bones
They Always Come
Yeah We Know
Let It Ride
Pond Song
Budge
The Post
Don’t

Coming out of Massachusetts in 1985, this album brought the young, socially inadequate and self-absorbed J.Mascis dimly into focus. Dysfunction always rocks and J's solution / release was to build a wall of noise, with unbelievably loud guitars which were sometimes hazy, sometimes sprawling. The results were mesmerising. Like an East Coast version of The Meat Puppets, there was loser folk mumblings mixed with lo-fi hardcore mixed with psych-metal mixed with nervy U.K new-wave and even Goth! Add Neil Young guitar sprawls and bingo: this is music you've never heard in your life before. This debut is ramshackle and hotch-potch in places, but beneath the noise there's plenty of clever songs mixing pretty melody with brutal power.

TRACK LISTING

Forget The Swan
Cats In A Bowl
The Leper
Does It Float
Pointless
Repulsion
Gargoyle
Severed Lips
Mountain Man
Quest

PICCADILLY EXCLUSIVE: PRE-ORDER THE ALBUM AND ENTER A DRAW TO WIN A 100cmx100cm PROMOTIONAL FABRIC DISPLAY BANNER – ONLY 1 IN THE WORLD!!!

With all the insanity that is stalking the Earth in 2016, it’s nice to have something to rely on. Who’d’ve dared to think it’d be Dinosaur Jr.? There’s no doubt about it - this is the record that the fans have been waiting for since the original line up reformed.

The songs on ‘Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not’ were recorded over the past year or so, again at Amherst’s Bisquiteen Studio (located in a secret nook of J’s basement). The sound is great and roaring with J’s various bleeding ear psychedelic guitar touches oozing their way into the smudge-pop modelling, while Murph’s drums pound like Fred Flintstone’s feet and Lou’s bass weaves back and forth between proggy melodicism and post-core thug-hunch.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: As you would expect from Dinosaur Jr, this is an anthemic grunge tour-de force. Hard-hitting drums and distortion abound all topped with Mascis' snarling but perfectly tuned vocals. Rousing chord progressions are rife here, but not the only thing on offer,'Be A Part' shows a bit of single-note twiddling before breaking out into a melancholic minor-key chord fare. 'Knocked Around' could be the soundtrack to a particularly heartwrenching college-party romantic failure montage. A brilliant return to form for Dinosaur Jr, as exciting, dynamic and emotive as ever. Highly recommended.

TRACK LISTING

1. Goin' Down
2. Tiny
3. Be A Part
4. I Told Everyone
5. Love Is..
6. Good To Know
7. I Walk For Miles
8. Lost All Day
9. Knocked Around
10 Mirror
11. Left/Right

• RECORDED LIVE ON MTV’S 120 MINUTES , MARCH 7 TH 1993.
• THE CLASSIC, FAN - FAVOURITE SESSION, RE - MASTERED FROM THE ORIGINAL TAPES.
• FEATURING TRACKS FROM ACROSS THEIR CATALOGUE.
• NEVER BEFORE RELEASED! VINYL ONLY!

Captured at the height of their powers during the heyday of the grunge movement that they inspired, J Mascis and Dinosaur Jr perform tracks from their back catalogue live on MTV’s 120 Minutes show .

Loud and heavy as ever, the band turn in an inspired performance, which has since become a legendary favourite among fans.

Never officially released until now, and produced in association with MTV and the band, ‘Seventytwohundredseconds’ is the latest in our ongoing extensive exploration of Dinosaur Jr’s brilli ant Sire Records period. A must - hear glimpse of one of the treasures from the rich seam of American alternative rock and grunge artists who reinvigorated guitar - orientated music in the late 1980s and 1990s.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Severed Lips
2. Budge
3. Get Me
Side B
1. Thumb
2. Raisans

Dinosaur Pile-Up return with their fourth album Celebrity Mansions, a collection of songs that sizzle with big melodies, skewered through with raw, intoxicating emotion. To mark the album’s announcement the band have released the incendiary ‘Thrash Metal Cassette’, their most punk rock and in-your-face track to date.

DPU have long been talked about as one of British music’s most consistently exciting outfits, with singer/guitarist Matt Bigland forging a reputation as one of rock music’s finest songwriters. So having spent the best part of a decade building a fiercely loyal fanbase, and a stellar live reputation, now’s the time to prove it.

TRACK LISTING

01. Thrash Metal Cassette
02. Back Foot
03. Stupid Heavy Metal Broken Hearted Loser Punk
04. Celebrity Mansions
05. Round The Bend
06. Pouring Gasoline
07. Black Limousine
08. K West
09. Professional Freak
10. Long Way Down

Dinosaur Pile-Up's new album was again written and recorded entirely by the band's frontman Matt Bigland, who decamped to Courtyard Studios in Oxfordshire with Ian Davenport (Band Of Skulls) over six weeks last November to record the album.

TRACK LISTING

1. Arizona Waiting
2. Derail
3. Peninsula
4. Heather
5. Summer Gurl
6. White T-Shirt And Jeans
7. The Way We Came
8. Draw A Line
9. Start Again
10. Lip Hook Kiss
11. Nature Nurture

‘Together, As One’ is the third album as a leader from British award-winning trumpet player, composer and band-leader Laura Jurd and her debut with newly named band Dinosaur. Featuring Laura’s regular collaborators, friends and creative cohort Elliot Galvin, Conor Chaplin and Corrie Dick, ‘Together, As One’ is a coherently powerful and bold album that not only confirms her promise as one of the most important young musicians to emerge but is a statement that will launch her music further into the wider international jazz world. Laura Jurd’s rise as been nothing short of meteoric since she first burst onto the highly creative London scene in 2010. Very quickly she made a bold statement, releasing two highly acclaimed albums, leading to her selection as a BBC New Generation Artist. With her undeniably unique, creative and joyous spirit and approach to music making, she has developed a formidable reputation as one of the most creative young improvising musicians to emerge from the UK in recent years.

Mercury shortlisted band Dinosaur continue to surprise and impress with their remarkable new album ‘Wonder Trail’. Dinosaur’s second album is as electrifyingly different as anyone who knows Laura Jurd’s track record would expect. Never one to be labeled, the fearsomely talented and multiple award-winning Jurd has a Miles-like way of taking her work and tuning it to illuminate a vast array of musical worlds. She’s done orchestrated and meticulously composed; jazz rock grooves; electronic minimalism; mainstream jazz and now, with her new album, Wonder Trail, and band Dinosaur, keyboard maestro Elliot Galvin to the fore, she’s plundered the synth-pop of the 1980s for a new sound. But this is not gratuitous borrowing, or any kind of hipsterish, retro post-modernism. For one, these are very current sounds (Broen’s an indie band with similar reference points that comes up in conversation). And for two, Jurd and Galvin use the poptastic-ness of the keyboard sound as a sort of tin opener to get into all kinds of serious musical areas - improvisation, vocodered strangeness, strutting rockishness, bucolic folkiness. But, as with any proper stylistic amalgam, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

TRACK LISTING

1. Renewal (Part I)
2. Quiet Thunder
3. Shine Your Light
4. Forgive, Forget
5. Old Times' Sake
6. Set Free
7. Swimming
8. Renewal (Part II)
9. And Still We Wonder

Senegalese griot Aby Ngana Diop was famous for her taasu, a form of oral poetry spoken to the rhythmic accompaniment of sabar and tama drums. Taasu is typically created and performed by griot women (a class of poets, storytellers / musicians), with a lead taasukat (practitioner of taasu) performing her distinct style of heightened, rhythmically declaimed speech in call-and-response with a small chorus of female vocalists. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Diop developed a reputation for being one of the most sought-after taasukats in Dakar, performing with her backup singers, dancers and drummers at parties, weddings and baptisms of the Dakar elite, including government officials and dignitaries. Aby Ngana Diop was undisputedly the best taasukat of her generation!

In 1994, the Dakar diva released her one and only studio cassette recording, 'Liital', to the Senegalese market. 'Liital' was groundbreaking in the history of Senegalese music because it was the first commercial recording to feature a traditional female taasukat performing to the modern accompaniment of mbalax, Senegal’s quintessential pop genre. The combination of Diop and her backup vocalists with their powerful taasu, along with the driving, complex rhythms of the sabar and tama drums, mixed with key elements of mbalax (such as the syncopated, polyphonic marimba sounds played on the Yamaha DX7 keyboard) was something the Senegalese public had never heard before. But it wasn’t only because of the fusion of taasu with mbalax; unlike in other mbalax tunes, the musical arrangements on this cassette are instead peculiarly minimalist and almost trance-like, with static harmonies and melodic figures playing more of an atmospheric role.

The cassette became a huge hit, propelling Diop to a new level of superstardom. It could be heard blasting from taxis and from loudspeakers at house parties, weddings and baptisms for years to come. 'Liital' bridged the gap between the more traditional taasu and the modern mbalax sound, thus appealing to all generations of the Senegalese public – and they simply couldn’t get enough of it! When Aby Ngana Diop died unexpectedly on July 4, 1997, the country mourned her passing, but continued to celebrate her music. Other artists such as Cheikh Lô, Thio Mbaye and Lamine Touré released recordings based on some of Diop’s taasu and accompanying drum phrases, paying further tribute to her musical legacy. Although this cassette has caught the attention of some African music aficianados who have stumbled upon it in recent years, it remains largely unknown to the wider world. Hopefully this re-release from Awesome Tapes From Africa will change that.

TRACK LISTING

01. Dieuleul-Dieuleul 04:37
02. Ndame 06:36
03. Yaye Penda Mbaye 05:31
04. Liital 05:01
05. Sapaly 05:00
06. Ndadje 05:16

10 years since Diplo's breakthrough debut album, 'Florida', Big Dada drop this expanded reissue edition, the newly reconfigured 'F10RIDA'.

“I made Florida between a small apartment in Philadelphia and my mother’s house in Florida. I was working late nights and taking a bus through the city every night, smoking weed, putting on headphones and just making things I never heard before and could just imagine. Making this record created an entirely new it sworld for me. Now that I think back it’s a very strange beginning and it’s crazy it’s been 10 years since its first release, but really, this record represents my first 23 years of life - what I had inside of me and where I came from so I’m excited to revisit it.” - Diplo

Back in 2000, Big Dada received a package from a Wesley Pentz. Wesley was an American living in Japan and had read in a magazine that Big Dada were looking for “avant garde dancehall.” Along with the scribbled note was a CDR with FORMDIPLO. The CDR contained a series of musical sketches which would eventually form the basis of the debut Diplo album, ‘Florida’. Truth be told, this young guy in Japan seemed almost too good to be true - a beat-making cross between a young Jack Kerouac and an old Tom Sawyer flitting about the globe, telling tales of shrimp boats and Nepali chicks and making the freshest instrumentals around.

Much of the Diplo genius was already in evidence and Big Dada signed him to make a record. This was, of course, just the start of Pentz’s rapid rise, whether through his label Mad Decent; his work as a Grammy-nominated producer for artists such as Beyonce, Snoop Dog and Madonna and the associated 13 million track sales; his show on BBC Radio 1 / 1Xtra or his forthcoming TV projects.

The reissued ‘F10RIDA’ includes the stunning ‘Epistomology Suite’, released around the time of the original album plus 5 unreleased tracks / versions recorded by Wes during the Florida album sessions - all packaged in high quality print with artwork based on the original design for the Florida album and an iconic photo of Wes. The 3LP vinyl comes with a 1.5m pull out scroll of brilliant and surreal emails between Diplo and Big Dada from back in the day - an insight into how the 'Florida' album came to be.

In some ways, ‘Florida’ represents Diplo’s most personal work, with less thought for the dancefloor than for atmosphere (not least because it was mainly mixed on headphones, with no money for monitors or smart studios). To understand Wes Pentz, where he comes from and where he’s going, you have to go all the way back home - back to ‘Florida.’

Half-speed vinyl release of the Dire Straits number 1 album Brothers In Arms, mastered by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios. Originally released in 1985, the album features the singles ‘Money For Nothing’, ‘Walk Of Life’, ‘So Far Away’, ‘Brothers In Arms’ and ‘Your Latest Trick’. The winner of multiple Grammy awards, the album was the first ever to be certified 10-times platinum in the UK and is one of the world’s best-selling albums. Part of the UMC half-speed range, the package includes a branded obi-strip and a certificate of authenticity from Abbey Road.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1

So Far Away
Money For Nothing

Side 2

Walk Of Life
Your Latest Trick

Side 3

Why Worry
Ride Across The River

Side 4

The Man’s Too Strong
One World
Brothers In Arms

Universal Music are proud to make available the Dire Straits studio album selection as limited edition individual LPs, beatifully presented and repressed on 180 gram heavwight vinyl.

"Adding a new rhythm guitarist, Dire Straits expands its sounds and ambitions on the sprawling Love Over Gold. In a sense, the album is their prog rock effort, containing only five songs, including the 14-minute opener "Telegraph Road." - AllMusic.

STAFF COMMENTS

Martin says: Featuring one of the most unusual radio hits ever- "Private Investigations" seemed to vanish completely during it's ultra quiet bits (in those medium-wave radio days!) this record also has Knopfler's most epic song in his canon: "Telegraph Road" rolled between massively melodic guitar passages and doomy/ beautiful verses to wondrous effect.

Universal Music are proud to make available the Dire Straits studio album selection as limited edition individual LPs, beatifully presented and repressed on 180 gram heavwight vinyl.

"Without second guitarist David Knopfler, Dire Straits began to move away from its roots rock origins into a jazzier variation of country-rock and singer/songwriter folk-rock. Naturally, this means that Mark Knopfler's ambitions as a songwriter are growing, as the storytelling pretensions of Making Movies indicate. Fortunately, his skills are increasing, as the lovely "Romeo and Juliet," "Tunnel of Love," and "Skateaway" indicate. And Making Movies is helped by a new wave-tinged pop production, which actually helps Knopfler's jazzy inclinations take hold. The record runs out of steam toward the end, closing with the borderline offensive "Les Boys," but the remainder of Making Movies ranks among the band's finest work." - AllMusic.

STAFF COMMENTS

Martin says: More Springsteen than Dylan, but with a way with melody that was all Knopfler's own. The first side is seamless and features the still brilliant "Romeo and Juliet".

Reissue of the first Dire Straits greatest hits collection, originally released in October 1988 and featuring songs from their first five albums.

Fully remastered by Bob Ludwig, and cut by Bernie Grundman, this vinyl reissue includes ‘Telegraph Road (Live Remix)’ which was previously only available on the original CD format, and a brand new mix of ‘Portobello Belle (Live)’. It is cut over four sides of vinyl for the first time.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: I remember having a copy of this on CD when I was younger, and thoroughly believed it to be a proper album. Imagine my surprise then when it turned out it's just a really good compilation. Andy and I were talking about just this the other week. I love Dire Straits, and this is the best 'album' that never was.

TRACK LISTING

LP1 - Side A
Sultans Of Swing (5:46)
Down To The Waterline (4:01)
Portobello Belle (Live: Alternative Out-take) (4:33) – Previously Unreleased Version
LP1 - Side B
Twisting By The Pool (Remix) (3:30)
Tunnel Of Love (8:10)
Romeo And Juliet (5:56)
LP2 - Side C
Where Do You Think You're Going (3:30)
Walk Of Life (4:08)
Private Investigations (5:50)
LP2 - Side D
Telegraph Road (Live Remix) (11:59) – Previously Unreleased On Vinyl
Money For Nothing (Single Edit) (4:06)
Brothers In Arms (Edit) (4:49)

Jeffrey Alexander has always been into the cool, the weird, and the darkness. I consider him a kind of scholar of outsider and avant-garde music; over the years, hes run Secret Eye Records, been a member of Jackie O Motherfucker, Black Forest Black Sea, and managed to find a way to always remain genuinely excited about creating and performing music.

Recorded in Oakland, CA during a two day stretch, “Grow Towards the Light” is Dire Wolves 4th official full-length album (not including the fifteen or so minor releases, bootlegs, and tapes theyve put out over the years), and its the first without Lau Nau on main vocals. Taking over that role is the mystical Georgia Carbone, singing in her own invented language. Regarding the album title: you can really hear the sun pulsating through the space clouds, if you know what I mean. Jeffrey plays guitar and moog here, joined by Brian Lucas on bass, Sheila Bosco (from Faun Fables) on drums and piano, Arjun Mendiratta (Village of Spaces) on violin, and Taralie Peterson (Spires that in the Sunset Rise) on saxophone. Every Step Is Birth features a dark, plodding groove. It sounds like the soundtrack to a sinister after-party in a place you suspect might actually be purgatory.

Jeffrey tells me the album thematically tries to express the interconnectedness of all things, which makes perfect sense given even during some of the more unsettling jams and eerie melodies, this album always feels like a cohesive whole.Stylistically this is really a broad, painterly album that comes together in a beautiful, unexpected way. - Marissa Nadler, March 2019

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: I was a big fan of JOMF back in the day, and have tried to see them play on more than one occasion (once at the Ruby Lounge, their visa got cancelled and support act, a little known collective called GNOD had to take the whole show on). This has the hazy, lysergic meandering that JOMF did so well but is a little bit more airy and ambient. Beautifully understated but undeniably engrossing.

TRACK LISTING

I Control The Weather
Every Step Is Birth
Discordant Angels 
Spacetime Rider
Water Bearing One
Crack In The Cosmic Axis

In a musical history that spans nearly four decades, Ken Brown (aka Bundy K. Brown) was a member of noise-rock trio Bastro (along with David Grubbs and John McEntire) and a founding member of that group’s evolution into Gastr del Sol, before departing to form the iconic Chicago band, Tortoise. In 1995 Brown exited Tortoise to pursue a number of projects, including the group, Directions. After releasing one album on Thrill Jockey, the band went inactive, with Brown completing one final Directions release on his own before retiring the moniker. That record – a scarcely limited 12” called Echoes – would resonate with a diverse array of artists and producers, most notably Kieran Hebden, who would call Echoes “the blueprint for the Four Tet thing,” explaining to prominent UK broadcaster Gilles Peterson, “it’s basically where I got the idea for everything from…it changed my life, this record.”

Available for the first time since its original release in 1997, Echoes – Anniversary Edition includes the two original side-long tracks, and has been expanded to also feature the nascent 1995 demo of “Echoes”, as well as a brand new remix by Deadly Dragons – the 1990s Chicago DJ crew whose members included Brown, John Herndon, Casey Rice, and Daniel Marcellus Givens, among others. Briefly reunited during COVID lockdown specifically to craft this new Directions remix, Deadly Dragons separately but collectively contributed a new 9-minute pastiche of spiritual jazz, hip-hop, and dub.

TRACK LISTING

1. Echoes (Continental Drift Version) (9:24)
2. Echoes (The Asymmetrical Excursion) (7:14)
3. Echoes (1995 Demo Version) (5:06)
4. Echoes (Deadly Dragons Remix) (8:36)

A Canadian band with songs and songs with brains, The Dirmitts are a guitar-driven female fronted band reminiscent of a poppier Throwing Muses or a punkier Lush. They have Breeders and Sleater Kinney hints too (especially in Natasha Thirsk's vocals) with a dynamic sound and innovative, catchy songs that resist being pigeonholed into any one genre.

Joe Sutkowski (Dirt Buyer)’s new album is a documentation of making it to the other side. Sutkowski grew up in New Jersey, and although he lives in Brooklyn now, he remains “an emo kid at heart,” garnering inspiration from bands like My Chemical Romance and Muse, the latter of whose theatrical, dramatic performances inspired the band’s own vocal forward, soaring takes. Initially working together as a duo while Sutkowski and Ruben Radlauer (Model/Actriz) were at school in Berklee, the band’s self-titled 2019 debut album was recorded on an IPhone in their practice room on just drums and guitar, and the quietly striking, nuanced stylings earned them accolades far beyond the “fake record label” the two made up to originally release their music.

The band’s new album, Dirt Buyer II, was recorded in February 2020, and represents a foray into heavier material that marks a deeper shift for the band. Now working as a trio, Sutkowski is flanked by Tristan Allen on bass and Mike Costa on drums, a fellow Berklee grad who cut his teeth playing in bands across Boston including past collaborations with Sutkowski. Half-recorded while the band was on tour with Surf Curse, the record finds Sutkowski reaching out for places, people and beliefs to ground him. Throughout the album he attempts to wrap his head around the idea of fate and how you can brush up against other people and then leave them behind. The songs themselves play with this concept of light and dark intertwined. Oscillating between urgency and cathartic release and more stripped-back elegies, Sutkowski faces the reality that while the people he’d rather forget can still live on through music, he is able to move on at the same time.

Half-recorded in his mother and uncle’s upstate house where he turned the living room into a studio, he contemplates the beauty and disaster around him all refracted through visceral visual imagery of how the physical earth meets the unknown to converge in something greater than ourselves. “This is all a living chronicle of all I want to do, which is feel good and be happy,” he admits. “I’m a completely different person now a better version of myself.” Processing the past, Sutkowksi has emerged with newfound belief, fully intact and with a new path forward to the future.

RIYL: My Chemical Romance, Muse, Model/Actriz, Home Is Where, Microwave, Peaer, Pile, LVL UP, Cloud Nothings.

TRACK LISTING

1. Dirt Buyer II Theme
2. Heavy
3. Sand
4. Gathering Logs
5. Fentanyl
6. Tears My Heart In Two
7. Shame
8. Heartache
9. Wicked Branches
10. Heaven
11. Sounds Heard Through The Glass
12. On & On

Consistency Is The Enemy functions as the vinyl component of the Dirtbombs’ 2006 singles collection If You Don’t Already Have a Look. While that two disc, CD-only collection focused on the plethora of out-of-print vinyl singles the band had released up until that point, it also contained new songs and previously unreleased archival recordings. THOSE songs seemed to get lost in the shuffle and consequently, have never been released on vinyl until now. Highlights include tracks like “Here Comes That Sound Again” and “Candyass,” both consistent live favorites, or the quixotic cover of Yoko Ono’s “Kiss Kiss Kiss” not to mention the entirety of the Chariots of the Gods EP from 1999.

Waterloo To Anywhere was the debut album from the short-lived, briefly adored Dirty Pretty Things - Originally released on Vertigo Records in May 2006, the album reached No 3 in the UK charts and spawned three Top 40 singles - This re-issue is pressed on high-quality 180g black vinyl.

What do you do after being in the Libertines, one of the most notorious British bands of the early 21st Century? For Carl Barât, you form Dirty Pretty Things, something of an indie supergroup of their moment. Joining Barât was Libertines drummer Gary Powell, guitarist Anthony Rossomando, who'd stood in for Doherty, and former Cooper Temple Clause bassist, Didz Hammond.

Leading Waterloo To Anywhere was the infectious UK Top 5 hit Bang Bang You're Dead (better known in recent years as live favourite for The Mighty Olafs), which set the tone for the fabulous collection of rock, punk and ska. Recorded in Los Angeles with producer Dave Sardy and then later in Glasgow with Tony Doogan, the album showed the strength of the group's writing. Away from the standard high-octane indie of Gin & Milk and You F*cking Love It, The Gentry Cove was particularly captivating, marrying Barât's fascinating wordplay with robust Clash reggae/sea shanty interludes.

Two years later, it was all over; Barât and Powell rejoined the Libertines (and Rossomando later going on to win an Oscar for co-writing Shallow from the film A Star Is Born).

TRACK LISTING

1. Deadwood
2. Doctors And Dealers
3. Bang Bang You're Dead
4. Blood Thirsty Bastards
5. The Gentry Cove
6. Gin & Milk
7. The Enemy
8. If You Love A Woman
9. You Fucking Love It
10. Wondering
11. Last Of The Small Town Playboys

Dirty Projectors’ 2020 five four-song EPs, each strikingly different from the next, all come together in a 20-song anthology titled ‘5EPs’.

Each EP features lead vocals by a different band member: Maia Friedman, Felicia Douglass, Kristin Slipp and Dave Longstreth, who all trade verses on the series closer.

Maia’s ‘Windows Open’ is acoustic and folky, Felicia’s ‘Flight Tower’ is both soulful and electronic, Dave’s ‘Super João’ is a four-track bossa nova homage to João Gilberto, Kirstin’s ‘Earth Crisis’ is a cut-up orchestral collage in the mode of through-composed art song, whereas the final EP ‘Ring Road’ weaves together the emotional, stylistic, and lyrical threads explored in the prior four EPs.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: I was just listening to Dirty Projectors' song with David Byrne for the 'Dark Was The Night' compilation just the other day, which led me to wishing for a collection of some of the more unheard of tracks from their canon. Lo and behold, stone the crows etc. Here it is. You'll have heard some of these tracks before, but it's a brilliant document to have them all together like this.

TRACK LISTING

On The Breeze
Overlord
Search For Life
Guarding The Baby
Inner World
Lose Your Love
Self Design
Empty Vessel
Holy Mackerel
I Get Carried Away
You Create Yourself
Moon, If Ever
Eyes On The Road
There I Said It
Bird’s Eye
Now I Know
Por Qué No
Searching Spirit
No Studying
My Possession

The new Dirty Projectors song ‘Up In Hudson’ is an elegy — to the Obama years, to a generation of indie rock, and to a relationship. Over the course of nine verses and almost eight minutes, the lyrics situate David Longstreth & his band in the vivid textures of the recent past like a millennial Blood On The Tracks. It is a piece of epic storytelling unlike anything else in Dirty Projectors’ discography. 

To arrive where we began and know the place for the first time: ‘Up In Hudson’ is an origin story for a new chapter of Dirty Projectors. 

And with it, Dirty Projectors announce their long-awaited 7th LP. 

The new album does everything we want and expect from Dirty Projectors — but in a way we never could have imagined or anticipated. In a career of surprising conceptual gambits, unexpected stylistic evolutions, and continually changing lineups — this is, as DJ Khaled says, “ANOTHER ONE”!

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Soulful beats, driven choruses and synthy breakdowns clash headfirst with soaring melodies, rapidly flicking from glitchy meltdowns into beautifully formed jazzy flourishes and silken harmonies. Brilliantly written and constantly evolving, a true gem.

TRACK LISTING

01. Keep Your Name
02. Death Spiral
03. Up In Hudson
04. Work Together
05. Little Bubble
06. Winner Take Nothing
07. Ascent Through Clouds
08. Cool Your Heart
09. I See You

Dirty Projectors’ new album ‘Lamp Lit Prose’ is produced by Dave Longstreth at his studio Ivo Shandor in Los Angeles.

The album features guest appearances from Syd, Empress Of, Amber Mark, Haim, Rostam, Robin Pecknold and Dear Nora, as well as longtime Dirty Projectors rhythm section Nat Baldwin and Mike Johnson.

‘Lamp Lit Prose’ arrives just over a year after 2017’s self-titled ‘Dirty Projectors’. Here Longstreth’s band returns with a new album that is the yang to the yin of the 2017 effort. The songs signal a page turned for Longstreth: hope instead of heartbreak, a restorative balance. Guitars have returned to the Dirty Projectors’ world, intricate vocal harmony too. ‘Lamp Lit Prose’ is a recommitment to the sounds and ideals of Dirty Projectors, embracing the band’s trademarks while pushing forward the sonic envelope.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Luminous, dislocated, lushly produced warm vibes pervade on this gorgeous new record. Ace!

TRACK LISTING

Right Now (ft Syd)
Break-Thru
That’s A Lifestyle
I Feel Energy (ft Amber Mark)
Zombie Conqueror (ft Empress Of)
Blue Bird
I Found It In U
What Is The Time
You’re The One (Ft Robin Pecknold & Rostam)
(I Wanna) Feel It All (ft Dear Nora)

On Dirty Projectors sixth album, 'Swing Lo Magellan', songwriter and leader David Longstreth shows he really doesn't know how to do the same thing twice. Where prior Dirty Projectors albums investigated 20th-century orchestration, West-African guitar music and complex contrapuntal techniques in human voices, 'Swing Lo Magellan' is a leap forward again. It's an album of songs, an album of songwriting. 'Swing Lo Magella'n has both the handmade intimacy of a love letter and the widescreen grandeur of a blockbuster, and if that sounds like a paradox -- it's because it was until now.

STAFF COMMENTS

Ryan says: Long time projectors fans won't be disappointed, Swing Lo Magellan takes off were Bitte Orca left off. David Longstreth employs his usual spectacular song writing skills again to maximum effect.

TRACK LISTING

1. Offspring Are Blank
2. About To Die
3. Gun Has No Trigger
4. Swing Lo Magellan
5. Just From Chevron
6. Dance For You
7. Maybe That Was It
8. Impregnable Question
9. See What She Seeing
10. The Socialites
11. Unto Caesar
12. Irresponsible Tune

On Dirty Projectors sixth album, 'Swing Lo Magellan', songwriter and leader David Longstreth shows he really doesn't know how to do the same thing twice. Where prior Dirty Projectors albums investigated 20th-century orchestration, West-African guitar music and complex contrapuntal techniques in human voices, 'Swing Lo Magellan' is a leap forward again. It's an album of songs, an album of songwriting. 'Swing Lo Magella'n has both the handmade intimacy of a love letter and the widescreen grandeur of a blockbuster, and if that sounds like a paradox -- it's because it was until now.

STAFF COMMENTS

Ryan says: Long time projectors fans won't be disappointed, Swing Lo Magellan takes off were Bitte Orca left off. David Longstreth employs his usual spectacular song writing skills again to maximum effect.

TRACK LISTING

1. Offspring Are Blank
2. About To Die
3. Gun Has No Trigger
4. Swing Lo Magellan
5. Just From Chevron
6. Dance For You
7. Maybe That Was It
8. Impregnable Question
9. See What She Seeing
10. The Socialites
11. Unto Caesar
12. Irresponsible Tune

Directed and produced by David Toop, DIRTY SONGS PLAY DIRTY SONGS reacts against our poisonous present, inspired anti-nostalgically by similarly reactive records and live performances from the 20th century: The Soft Machine and Pink Floyd 1967-68, The MC5’s Kick Out the Jams, The Stooges, Sun Ra’s Cosmic Tones For Mental Therapy and The Heat Is On by The Isley Brothers.

DIRTY SONGS PLAY DIRTY SONGS is the musical offshoot of a project conceived by artist Maxime Rossi, originating in (among other things) speculations on the (then unreleased) legendary Pink Floyd "John Latham” recordings (1967) and FBI investigations (1964) into subversive and obscene messages supposedly buried within the recorded lyrics of The Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie”.

Developed through conversations between Maxime Rossi and David Toop and through support from Fondation Fiminco & MRAC, these ideas metamorphosed into the band and recordings known as DIRTY SONGS, existing both as audio recordings and audio-visual elements of Maxime Rossi’s installation Christmas On EarthContinued, exhibited at MRAC in November 2017.

DIRTY SONGS is David Toop (bass, guitar, digital electronics, VCS3 synth), Phil Minton (voices), Evan Parker (soprano and tenor saxophones), Steve Beresford (Farfisa organ, VCS3 synth), Mark Sanders (drums).

TRACK LISTING

1. Dirty Air
2. Dirty Tricks
3. Dirty Bomb
4. Dirty Harry
5. Dirty Songs
6. Dirty Laundry
7. Dirty Mind
8. Dirty Little Secret
9. Dirty Needle
10. Dirty Protest
11. Dirty Hippies
12. Dirty Mouth
13. Dirty Lie
14. Dirty Plotte
15. Dirty Politics
16. Dirty Rat
17. Dirty Planet (CD ONLY)

Emerging once again from the unending waves crashing upon our fragile time-craft (adrift on the eternal ocean, and taking on water), Dirty Three are (a) back, (b) tangled in seaweed, rank with saltwater and possessed of three rather ominous thousand-mile stares (at least!), and (c) not wasting another minute – as nothing is guaranteed.

For their first album in over a decade – yep, it’s been since 2012’s ‘Toward the Low Sun’ – they flew in, got together and started playing. End of story. What else is there to say or do but that? Music’s their language, their true love; they never stop listening to that. And like the label says, ‘Love Changes Everything’.

The Dirty Three – Warren Ellis, Mick Turner and Jim White – formed up in Melbourne in 1992, to play with guitar drums and violin or viola, and within a couple years, they’d broken out – out of Australia, out of anything else they might have been inside of, to boot – and got worldwide. Over the next ten years, they toured over and over the planet, ceaseless like, and cut seven albums out along the way. After this, their unique style of play, fitted together like puzzle pieces, was decoupled, more often than not, and pieced together in many other, fruitful collaborations with many other esteemed talents. Over the past 20 years, they’ve gotten together a few times, renewed the vow, revved the engines and played some shows, or made an album. Like now –

These are the sounds of Dirty Three getting up to speed again:
- the original fury of their drums/guitar/violin-or-viola power trio, cutting three unique paths through the wild into sudden convergence –
- piano-plucked melodies ringing sweetly out over an undulating landscape flowing with guitar, drums, violin or viola, and synths! And broken hills, forests, lakes and deserts. And mountains rising in the distance...
- mercurial shifts in mood; sudden descent from tumult of flights and heights into deep canyons of heart-struck adagio.

Equally sudden second-winds, feisty activity in their extremities never really ceasing. Opening depths. Wariness and patience allowing them to get caught up in loops, become ambient, transcend, and then fight their way back in again. Their wild and wandering heart not simply a spry derivative of collective sea legs; a telepathy already old as time evidenced way back in the beginning of their thirty-years-and-some run.
- such mood! Once desolate fields pouring full of emotion, wandered into, come upon as if by happenstance (but actually sourced by the divining rods in their hands).

- all of it – everything changed by love and bubbling up with the clarity of just-struck spring water; translucence giving way to muddy gushes of distortion – dirty guitar, smears of violin, drums at times pounded upon beyond the microphones’ ability to receive...

And when received, and committed to “tape”, or whatever they used – the master could well be carved in plates of amphibole – this music has been untethered from its streams of consciousness and reconsidered as a recording; brought to bear through edits, overdubs and mixes, re-sequenced and made suite-like. Made into this album. These lot were born to be as weathered as they are today. Time doesn’t matter. They make their gathered wisdom of the ages sing like something new every time. It renews. And Love Changes Everything. 

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Love Changes Everything I
Love Changes Everything II
Love Changes Everything III
Side B
Love Changes Everything IV
Love Changes Everything V
Love Changes Everything VI

Legendary instrumental trio Dirty Three will boldly break cover in February 2012 with a remarkable new album, 'Toward The Low Sun', on Bella Union records.

'Toward The Low Sun' is the product of the most ceaselessly creative period in the band’s career, in which Jim White, Mick Turner and Warren Ellis have relentlessly made music in different permutations and locations around the globe. No other Australian band has ever impacted on international music in such a subversive fashion. This is a band that exists within itself and outside of itself, generating a massive (and massively influential) body of work.

Mick lives in Melbourne where he has built his own studio space, developed a fine reputation as a visual artist and released the Blue Trees album alongside the occasional Tren Brothers release. Jim is based out of Brooklyn but endlessly tours the world, recording and/or performing with the likes of Cat Power, Bonnie Prince Billy, Nina Nastasia and PJ Harvey. Warren resides in Paris, though is regularly to be found touring with the Bad Seeds and Grinderman or working with Nick Cave on soundtracks for such films as The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Proposition and The Road. He recently made his acting debut in the film Médée Miracle, alongside Isabelle Huppert.

Dirty Three’s live appearances over the past few years reflect the band’s standing on the international stage. All Tomorrow’s Parties invited them to curate a three day event in the UK, and the band has also played at ATP festivals in Japan, Australia and the USA.

However, all of this frantic creativity and activity is now merely an exotic backdrop to the release of the new album Toward the Low Sun. A return to the mothership was inevitable. There is a certain magic that can only be invoked when these three elements are brought together. Nothing else sounds like the Dirty Three. They are one-off phenomena. As Warren Ellis says: “There is a dialogue within the group that we are all still keen to explore”.

Toward The Low Sun is not a cosy, nice-to-be-back, return to the comfort zone. There is an energy and a raw excitement evident from the first electrifying opening moments through to the album’s finale. In Warren’s words, “Dirty Three has always been about the way we play together and feed off each other. We wanted this one to be a return to the more improvised and instinctive approach of the earlier recordings”. And indeed Toward The Low Sun sounds like a first ever recording, a punk avant-garde art-jazz record! And for all their incredible music of the past, the Dirty Three have never seemed more relevant.

Toward The Low Sun is produced by Casey Rice and Dirty Three and was recorded in Melbourne at Head Gap studios and mixed at Sing Sing.

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: The return of the Australian instrumental trio, 'Toward The Low Sun' is a highly emotive avant-garde album - you can almost feel the baking hot Antipodean sun. Excellent as always!

Era is the fourth annual report from Chicago powerhouse quartet Disappears. It was formed during the gloom of the Chicago winter at Electrical Audio by now regular foil John Congleton.

Insular and dark, the album sees the band further re?ning their love of dub, minimalism and repetition into their most original and stark set yet.

It harks back to the early 80?s post punk period, when almost anything seemed possible with the classic two guitar, bass and drums lineup, and exploration and expansion of what could be done with these elements was at the fore.

Dueling wiry and squalling guitars lead the way while a lockdown rhythm section provides the perpetual forward motion.

Era is Disappears at their most abrasive, contemplative, and paranoid – it?s the sound of the void looking back.

Irreal, the fifth long player from Chicago's Disappears, is another trip down the rabbit hole. The album plays out as a dream sequence - hazed dub landscapes give way to the groupʼs most experimental and open music yet.

If their last album Era confirmed the fact that Disappears are on their own trip, then Irreal is where it kicks in. Eternalism, roboethics, identity - it's a Ballardian mix of imperfect melodies, half thoughts and good ol' dystopian modernity. Itʼs a master class in texture, pace and control.

Produced by John Congleton at famed Chicago recording institution Electrical Audio, Irreal sits in the negative space where art rock and post punk collapse onto each other. It's the sound of Disappears reporting back from The Void.

TRACK LISTING

1.Interpretation
2. I _ O
3. Another Thought
4. Irreal
5. OUD
6. Halcyon Days
7. Mist Rites
8. Navigating The Void

Celebrating 40 years since the release of their debut single in 1980, British hardcore punk band Discharge are surviving pioneers of the subgenre they invented; D-beat. Having had a worldwide influence on both extreme metal and punk with their uncompromising, raw sound over the last 40 years, Discharge’s political message is now relevant more than ever. Still performing globally in clubs and at festivals, the quintet are heralded as one of the godfathers of the political and anarcho punk scenes. Heavily championed by John Peel in their early years, they clocked up several chart singles and albums. They went on to influence metal bands like Metallica and Celtic Frost, as well as punk acts like Rancid.

The UKs finest purveyors of dancefloor dynamite, Disclosure return with their fourth album, ‘Alchemy’, their first album in three years.

The super duo, consisting of brothers Guy and Howard Lawrence, are one the world's most celebrated and well known electronic acts. With a career spanning over a decade, they have collected Grammy, Ivor Novello and Mercury Prize nominations, repeatedly topped the UK charts, and soundtracked the lives of a generation.

The album sees the duo produce the first Disclosure album with no features. A deeply personal album for Howard lyrically, ‘Alchemy’ also showcases Guy as a producer at the top of his game

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Looking For Love
2. Simply Won't Do
3. Higher Than Ever Before
4. A Little Bit
5. Go The Distance
SIDE B
1. Someday...
2. We Were In Love
3. Sun Showers
4. Purify
5. Brown Eyes
6. Talk On The Phone

Disclosure are brothers Guy & Howard Lawrence. This year marks 10 years since they released their debut single ‘Offline Dexterity’. In that decade (they are still only 28 and 25 respectively) they have released two number 1 albums (‘Settle’ 2013 & ‘Caracal’ in 2015) and clocked up 4.5 billion streams, 4.5 million album sales, sold 500k tickets to their headline shows and topped festival bills all over the world (including the Other Stage at Glastonbury) – something they do with ease whilst also enjoying playing to packed out sweaty clubs whenever they can. They have been nominated for the Mercury Music Prize, BRITs and five Grammy’s.

‘Caracal’ is a muscular and nuanced record, with a depth to it that will pin it to the canon of dance music history. It’s crunchy and gets under your skin. A proper album album, you might say. A number of exciting collaborator names appear on ‘Caracal’ including The Weeknd, Sam Smith, Lorde, Miguel , Gregory Porter , Nao, Lion Babe, Kwabs , Jordan Rakei & Brendan Riley. . These guest features sit perfectly alongside ‘Jaded’, ‘Echoes’ and ‘Molocules’ which are written and performed by Howard Lawrence himself. 

TRACK LISTING

Disc 1 - Side A

Nocturnal (ft. The Weeknd)
Omen (ft. Sam Smith)
Holding On (ft. Gregory Porter)

Disc 1 - Side B

Hourglass (ft. LION BABE)
Willing & Able (ft. Kwabs)
Magnets (ft. Lorde)
Jaded

Disc 2 - Side A

Good Intentions (ft. Miguel)
Superego (ft. Nao)
Echoes
Masterpiece (ft. Jordon Rakei)

Disc 2 - Side B

Molecules
Moving Mountains (ft. Brendan Reilly)
Afterthought

They say you know you're getting old when the policemen look like they've only just left school. The same adage could be said about bass music producers Disclosure, who don't look old enough to be growing the facial hair they've both been displaying in pics recently. However, looks can be deceiving as the brothers Lawrence (Guy and Howard) have been quietly getting on with transforming the state of UK dancefloors and even the pop charts over the past three years with a series of quality originals and remixes. After several years of mid-tempo, click-track driven electronic house music (yawn) holding sway in clubs, Disclosure have finally bring us the light at the end of what seemed like a never-ending tunnel of bland smoooothness. With inspiration taken from 90s UK garage, 2-step and rave, and given a new twist, the pair have brought a bit of life back to the dancefloor - the beats are up a few BPMs, the tracks swing, the guest vocalists (Sam Smith, AlunaGeorge, Eliza Doolittle, Edward Macfarlane, Jamie Woon, Jessie Ware, London Grammar, Sasha Keable) aren't autotuned, all the tracks have proper pop choruses that can sing along to etc. 'Settle' (with its rather unsettling sleeve image) is the perfect combination of tough-enough bass music and pop-garage - the perfect summer album! - PJ

TRACK LISTING

1. Intro
2. When A Fire Starts To Burn
3. Latch Album Version (Feat. Sam Smith)
4. Disclosure F For You
5. White Noise Album Version (Feat. AlunaGeorge)
6. Defeated No More (Feat. Edward Macfarlane)
7. Stimulation
8. Voices (Feat. Sasha Keable)
9. Second Chance
10. Grab Her!
11. You & Me Album Version (Feat. Eliza Doolittle)
12. January (Feat. Jamie Woon)
13. Confess To Me (Feat. Jessie Ware)
14. Help Me Lose My Mind (Feat. London Grammar)

The renowned Disco Dandies have made a triumphant return, emerging from their creative haven at the Old Course of the St. Andrews Golf Club. Following the success of their previous hit, “Inside Your Love” (2 People), they present their latest offering, a rework of the Miami T.K. Disco classic by Tamiko Jones, “Let It Flow.”

This new release showcases a heightened tempo and a fresh interpretation that irresistibly beckons the dancefloor. Featuring infectious rhythms and the candy sweet, soulful voice of Tamiko Jones, Disco Dandies have conjured up a new disco fire that'll spin the disco ball right off its fittings! Serious heat for your Saturday nights!

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: The irresistible voice of Tamiko Jones graces this NEW interpretation of the disco classic by Miami. It's a seriously strong update of this glitterball staple, and another fine addition to the High Fashion catalogue.

TRACK LISTING

1 Let It Flow (Extended Mix)
2 Let It Flow (DD Edit)
3 Let It Flow (Bonus Beats)