UV & Nenor have been on a hot streak of late with great outings on the likes of the Fossils label and now they keep it up with a red hot new drop on the brand new Massa label. This tidy 7" packs a punch with two jams that will work the floor. The first is a slow motion but irresistible dub-disco fusion with squelchy bass and nice colourful, warm, gooey chords with vocals from Ranking Levy. On the flip is 'Tookey', a futuristic electro vocoder jam that comes to life with vivid synths circling round the mix and an unusual sense of swing. From laid back session at home to steamy club use, both of these are useful jams.

STAFF COMMENTS

Mine says: UV & Nenor follow up 'Bahia / Goombay' with another mega cosmic disco double header - the last one went out of stock quicker than you can say yes please. Blink and you'll miss it!

TRACK LISTING

Shmanman (feat Ranking Levy)
Tookey

Canadian performer and composer Sarah Belle Reid’s 2021 acclaimed album, first time on vinyl, expanded with two new incredible songs, remastered featuring new artwork.

From distant ocean song to the clang and howl of a murky forgotten memory, MASS is a dreamlike collage of shrill shrieks, gasps, corroded brass choirs, and melting modular synth soundscapes, all heard through a mist of hiss and noise. Fused with equal parts spastic improvisation, shrouded ritual, and meticulous arrangement, it presents a sonic topography at once tongue-in-cheek, sensitive, and nightmarish. With discordant chorales and angular trumpet improvisations churning in an ever-evolving wash of whispers and howls, MASS is a collection of three hazy, harsh, and frightful sound worlds. With tracks meandering between aggressive rhythms, eerie ambiances, and abrasive cut-up electronic textures, MASS draws inspiration from early tape music, horror film soundtracks, and grindcore. It was assembled between listening to extended doses of Else Marie Pade, Daphne Oram, Eliane Radigue, the Locust, Edgard Varèse, Maryanne Amacher, Dick Raaijmakers, Naked City, Mr. Bungle, and Thomas Ankersmit, bringing a little bit of all of them along with it. MASS was recorded and mixed over the course of three weeks in January–February 2021 while in the midst of a cross-country move. Recorded entirely in short-term housing away from her studio (and most of her instruments), Reid relied exclusively on her voice, trumpet, flugelhorn, household objects, and Make Noise's Strega semi-modular synthesizer for all sound materials. Original sound materials were recorded loosely and independently with little to no overdubbing, instead relying on meticulous editing and processing in the manner of classic tape music

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
1. Vessel
2. Passage
3. Collide
Side B:
1. Sublimate
2. Mass

In 1968, The Electric Prunes collaborated with classically-trained musician David Axelrod to create "Mass in F Minor", a religious-based rock opera. Even though the album is a head-scratcher side by side (BY SIDE!) with their previous records, this has become one of the era’s most bizarre and hypnotic releases. Sung in Latin with the band hanging onto Axelrod’s ambitious arrangements; you’ve never heard anything like it. It created enough of a cultural mark that the lead track ‘Kyrie Eleison’ was even used in the movie that defined the late 60’s generation, Easy Rider. 1968 Psychedelic Concept Record Arranged By David Axelrod. Cut from the Original Analog Master tapes by Kevin Gray. ‘Kyrie Eleison’ featured in the movie and soundtrack for Easy Rider.

TRACK LISTING

1. Kyrie Eleison
2. Gloria
3. Credo
4. Sanctus
5. Benedictus
6. Agnus Dei 

Action Adventure is DJ Shadow's seventh solo LP, an inward-looking project, made for Shadow alone without any collaborators. DJ Shadow explains, “This album is about my relationship to music. My life as a collector and curator. All my records and tapes.”

“Ozone Scraper” is the lead single of the album campaign. It represents the feeling of transportation, of jet engines lifting the passenger somewhere impossible. It's one of DJ Shadow's favorites on the album, as it's an invitation to strap in and also sets the table for the kind of deep listening Shadow loves.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It's DJ Shadow! You know you're getting a perfectly produced mix of cut-up hip-hop beats and funky electronica business. It's obviously brilliant, and sounds more like Entroducing than anyone else could muster to this day. Classic Shadow.

Making their debut appearance on Steel City Dance Discs, Clouds, an irrefutable powerhouse of sound consisting of Liam Robertson and Calum Macleod, exercise their intensely unapologetic musical personality with their latest venture with Mass Hysteria, for SCDD040.

The Scottish duo have become recognized for their heavenly balance of euphoric soundscapes, ladened with break-neck percussion, ecstasy-induced melodies and rupturing drum patterns. All of these highly characteristic elements are found in Mass Hysteria; an EP that highlights the hard-edged nature of Clouds’ ever-evolving style.

Mass Hysteria is a five-piece project that is nothing short of atomic. Typically energy-fueled, the duo coordinate a masterful blend of hard-hitting, four-to-the-floor basslines: a seemingly perfect marriage for an EP that sets the listener deep into a cosmic whirlwind of electronic emotions.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: It seems like each week we're treated to another wreckin' ball of techno destruction from Australia's Steel City Dance Discs. You might remember Scottish duo Clouds from Soma or Turbo. Hardware heavies that do not fuck about. "Mass Hysteria" is a proper slammer, designed for huge aircraft hangers and complicated lazer arrays.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Phoenix Crash
A2. Plastyx
A3. Proper Vanquisher
B1. Fate Curve (Hysteria)
B2. Crested Flair 

The Make-Up's second full-length LP, released in 1998.

Ian Svenonius vocals
James Canty guitar, organ, vocals
Michelle Mae bass, vocals
Steve Gamboa drums

TRACK LISTING

1. Black Wire Pt. 1
2. Live In The Rhythm Hive
3. Joy Of Sound
4. Watch It With That Thing
5. Drop The Needle
6. Earth Worm Pt. 1
7. Do You Like Gospel Music?
8. Come Up To The Microphone
9. Centre Of The Earth
10. (I've Heard About) Saturday Nite
11. Earth Worm Pt. 2
12. Time Machine
13. Caught Up In The Rapture
14. Black Wire Pt. 2

As the third installment of Nas and Hit-Boy's GRAMMY Award winning King’s Disease series, King’s Disease III is Nas' latest album, and marks the duo's highly anticipated return since 2021's surprise LP, Magic. Executive produced by Nas and Hit-Boy, the album finds the rap legend at his best, flowing effortlessly over signature punchy beats including "Legit," "Michael & Quincy," and "30" among others. "With ‘King’s Disease III’, the New York rapper has put the seal on a strong album trilogy that proves that, three decades in, he’s still a force to be reckoned with." - NME

TRACK LISTING

1. Ghetto Reporter
2. Legit
3. Thun
4. Michael & Quincy
5. 30
6. Hood2Hood
7. Recession Proof
8. Reminisce
9. Serious Interlude
10. I'm On Fire
11. WTF SMH
12. Once A Man, Twice A Child
13. Get Light
14. First Time
15. Beef
16. Don't Shoot
17. Til My Last Breath (Bonus Track)

‘Landmass’ Turtle’s first artist album since 2017’s ‘Human’. To be released on 24 March 2023, it is his third official album having also released the acclaimed ‘Who Knows’ EP in 2013.

‘Landmass’ is a beautiful body of work that flows naturally as one piece of music and is inspired by the sparse surroundings of Jon’s studio in Argyll, Scotland, an area he moved to to try and escape the noise of the city and a move that has directly impacted on his creative process.

Jon Cooper… “Since I started producing music I have never gone into a track with any preconceived ideas, I let the music develop in its own way so my direct surroundings have always played a huge part in how it sounds and the hustle of the city was something I felt I needed to get away from. This was a cathartic experience in making it - it's a real outpouring of love for the Scottish countryside and the beauty I’m lucky enough to live in and see every day!”

Jon’s musical journey is one of experimentation and passion. A regular of the electronic scene in Glasgow in the late 90's/early 2000’s, he started to experiment with DJing and music production more for his mates entertainment than with any aspiration of a career as one of the most understated electronic artists Scotland has produced.

His white label releases soon started to become a staple in the Scottish electronica scene, and Jon’s fascination with creating music purely through “trial, error and feel” started to grow and demand for his records became more and more.

Jon’s approach to music has never changed. Not musically trained and self proclaims to “not being able to read a note of music!”, he is heavily influenced by his surroundings and experimentation. Naturally his music evolved away from dance music to a much more fluid and experimental sound that was not defined by getting played in clubs.

TRACK LISTING

A1 - Landmass
A2 - North
A3 - Promise
A4 - Autumn Light
A5 - Earth
B1- Moon
B2 - So Many Gone
B3 - Pigeon
B4 - Fertile Ground
B5 - Elders
B6 - Appreciate

A legendary fan favorite Illmatic era demo, gets revisited and completed nearly 3 decades later! Available on vinyl for the first time.

TRACK LISTING

1. Life Is Like A Dice Game (Vocal Version Ft Cordae & Freddie Gibbs)
2. Life Is Like A Dice Game (Instrumental Version, Prod By Hit-Boy)

Instrumental version of the 15th studio album from American Rapper Nas.

TRACK LISTING

1. Speechless - Instrumental
2. Meet Joe Black - Instrumental
3. Ugly - Instrumental
4. 40-16 Building - Instrumental
5. Hollywood Gangsta - Instrumental
6. Wu For The Children - Instrumental
7. Wave Gods - Instrumental
8. The Truth - Instrumental
9. Dedicated - Instrumental 

Blanck Mass (Fuck Buttons, Benjamin J Power, The Editors) scored the new Amazon Prime series ‘The Rig’, staring Iain Glen and Emily Hampshire.When the crew of the North Sea stationed Kinloch Bravo oil rig is due to return to the mainland, a mysterious fog rolls in and cuts off communication with the outside world. The crew are then driven to the limits of their endurance and loyalties are forced into a confrontation with forces beyond their imagination.

“With ‘The Rig’ being the first TV show I have scored, I feel lucky to have worked with the team behind the show on a score which to my mind is my most concise and unified palette-wise in recent memory,” says Power. “The setting of the physical oil rig presented a very specific visual and sonic identity for me. The creaks and groans of the giant metal sculpture and how it is in a constant battle with the nature fed itself into the scoring process. This score is perhaps my most elemental to date and it was a joy to work on.”

TRACK LISTING

The Rig (Main Titles)
Wake Up
Omen
Fossils Digging Fossils
Flesh Meets Floor
Vision
Ghost
Helideck
S.B.V Lights
Body, Rejecting
Circles
Leck
Search For Hutton
Spiderdeck
Alwyn / Discovery
Surrender
No Fire Without Flare
We’ll Bring Him In
Survivors, Arriving
Person Unknown
Don’t Let Him Out Of Your Sight
ROV
The Altar
Fissures Spread
Sleep Tight
The Charlie
Rose Takes Control
Bigger Than All Of Us
It’s Quitting Time
System Priming
Life Remains In Life
The Wave
The Rig (End Credits)

Nas King's Disease II Album Following the Grammy Award winning album, King’s Disease, the king returns to his throne with the second coming, King’s Disease II. The star-studded project offers tacit game on life, love, and loss, uplifting through action and lived experience in a way only Nas can. This is a body of work for the fans, for the day 1’s that contributed to the legacy. Alongside the decorated production savant, Hit-Boy, Nas remains rooted in lyrical prophetism while proving that he constantly reinvents the wheel. The sequel to last year’s King’s Disease features Ms. Lauryn Hill, Eminem, EPMD, Hit-Boy, Charlie Wilson, YG and more.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Pressure
2. Death Row East
3. 40 Side
4. EPMD 2 (feat. Eminem & EPMD)
5. Rare
6. YKTV (feat. A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie & YG)
7. Store Run
8. Moments
9. Nobody (feat. Ms. Lauryn Hill)
10. No Phony Love (feat. Charlie Wilson)
11. Brunch On Sundays (feat. Blxst)
12. Count Me In
13. Composure (feat. Hit-Boy)
14. My Bible
15. Nas Is Good

Five live reworkings of tracks from their Requiem album.
Features an etched B-side.

TRACK LISTING

1. Start The Healing (requiem Mass)
2. Lost In The Grandeur (requiem Mass)
3. Hopeless And Beaten (requiem Mass)
4. Worst Is On Its Way (requiem Mass)
5. Let The Dark Do The Rest (requiem Mass)

Produced by Nas’ longtime collaborator Hit-Boy, Nas shares Magic, the transcendent 9 track album including “Wave Gods” ft. A$AP Rocky and DJ Premier. Magic follows the August 2021 release of Grammy nominated album, King’s Disease II.

TRACK LISTING

1. "Wu For The Children"
2. "Speechless"
3. "Wave Gods"
4. "Meet Joe Black"
5. "Ugly"
6. "The Truth"
7. "Dedicated"
8. "40-16 Building"
9. "Hollywood Gangsta"

This February the story of the infamous Unabomber Ted Kaczynski will receive its theatrical debut in a new Tony Stone directed film, Ted K. Kaczynski is notorious for both tragically murdering three people (and wounding an additional 23) via bombs sent in the mail and for his numerous writings on the evils of technology he composed during his primitive residency in the woods of Montana. Stone’s choice to have the renowned electronic artist Blanck Mass score the film is somewhat ironic and creates an obvious tension perfect for the controversial and complex subject matter.

2020 saw the first Blanck Mass movie score, for the soundtrack to Nick Rowland’s acclaimed cinematic debut Calm with Horses. This expansion into new areas of melodic composition and textural exploration won Blanck Mass many new fans, with the BBC’s acknowledged number one film buff Mark Kermode proclaiming the work the soundtrack of the year. In 2021, Blanck Mass won the prestigious Ivor Novello Award for Best Original Film Score and has firmly established himself at the forefront of the latest wave of experimental soundscape wizards.

Recording during lockdown at his studio in Edinburgh, Scotland, Blanck Mass’s Ben Power was in the perfect setting for a musical piece intended to capture the isolation central to Kaczynski’s story. Power was also working with a director in a time zone 10 hours behind and thus many sessions required working in the middle of the night, which added a fitting intensity to the composition process. He said of the project “I wanted it to feel like an ‘epic’” and drew on the legends Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone for inspiration in encapsulating the energy of the perceived good vs. evil.

The gentle madness of sound achieved is exquisite and slowly builds in intensity and desperation as the score moves along. Power is able to perfectly capture the complexity, the terror and the deep emotionality of the film while presenting an often breathtakingly beautiful and always masterful album that stands on its own as a work of art.

TRACK LISTING

1. Scroll
2. Montana (Main Theme)
3. Noise Destroys Something Wonderful
4. Pesticides
5. Revenge
6. ComTech
7. Greyhound
8. Second Test
9. Desecration
10. Tell Me Your Heart
11. Dark Materials
12. Becky’s Theme
13. Blue Tunnel
14. Manifesto
15. Ranger Gary
16. At Peace - Freedom Club
17. Prophecy
18. Skidders
19. Montana (Reprise)

In December 2021, Matador Records will celebrate the 21st anniversary of The New Pornographers’ debut record and breakout, Mass Romantic (2000), with a limited-edition LP reissue. The album – clocking three singers and twelve effervescent and undeniable power-pop gems – will return to us on red vinyl and will include a bonus 7”, “Letter From An Occupant”, which includes two rare B-sides, “The End of Medicine” and “When I Was a Baby.” 

TRACK LISTING

Mass Romantic
The Fake Headlines
The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism
Mystery Hours
Jackie
Letter From An Occupant
To Wild Homes
The Body Says No
Execution Day
Centre For Holy Wars
The Mary Martin Show
Breakin’ The Law

Letter From An Occupant (7”)
The End Of Medicine (7”)
When I Was A Baby (7”)

What is the utility of pain? Can it do anything but fester? In Ferneaux explores pain in motion, building audio-spatial chambers of experience and memory. Using an archive of field recordings from a decade of global travels, isolation gave Blanck Mass an opportunity to make connections in a moment when being together is impossible. The record is divided into two long-form journeys that gather the memories of being with now-distant others through the composition of a nostalgic travelogue. The journeys are haunted with the vestiges of voices, places, and sensations. These scenes alternate with the building up and releasing of great aural tension, intensities that emerge from the trauma of a personal grieving process which has perhaps embraced its rage moment.

An encounter with a prophetic figure on the streets of San Francisco presented the question of “how to handle the misery on the way to the blessing.” This is the quandary of the impasse we now all find ourselves in, trapped in our little caves, grappling with the unease of the self at rest – without movement, without the consumerist agenda of “new experiences.” The possibility of growth, always defined by our connections with others, held in limbo. Sartre said that “Hell is other people,” but perhaps this is the Inferno of the present: the space of sitting with the self.

A blessing is often thought of as a future reward, above and beyond the material plane. With In Ferneaux, Blanck Mass wrangles the immanent materials of the here-and-now to build a sense of transcendence. Here, the uncanny angelic hymn sits comfortably beside the dirge. The misery and blessing are one.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: If you know Blanck Mass, you know that his uncompromising mix of hypnotic synthy OPN business oft turns into an all-encompassing wall of tectonic noise and spine-tingling euphoric washes. Those of you who don't will find exactly that here, but constantly and perfectly progressing in both timbre and scope. It's intoxicating and unmissable stuff, Blanck Mass is never anything but.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Phase I (21:29)
B1 Phase II (19:33)

“I like the drive as much as the scenery”. Buckle up as producer, DJ, and archivist Cherrystones (Gareth Goddard) takes you on a return trip to Critical Mass! Those in the know speak of Cherrystones alongside the finest curators and compilers of our time. Preferring to move in the shadows, you won’t find Cherrystones on every identikit summer festival line-up or playing the big bucks Discogs tease on social media. However, it is why you will find him as one of the most long-standing members of the NTS family - “the greatest ever to do it”, according to founder Femi Adeyemi. And it’s why a host of underground artists make the call to check out his legendary record vault when passing through town. Or maybe you will have caught him at ease for hours behind the decks in the corner of an intimate, dimly lit joint pulling out killer jam after killer jam...

Running parallel to his world renown for collecting, archiving and sharing the furthest-flung sounds, Goddard’s own productions and soundtracks have long been revered - recently scoring campaigns for Adidas, Stone Island and YMC. Self taught as a teenager on a range of instrumentation and DIY production/programming techniques, his work is driven by the original idea of punk as an aesthetic - a creative portal devoid of rules. He has a life-long obsession with the soundtrack and was also gripped early by a love of rap (a trusted MPC 2000 never far from his side). The channeling of context, underscore, timing and placement has always fuelled the distinctive flavour of Cherrystones’ output. This open-eared and open-armed approach is what makes ‘Critical Mass Vol.2’ another stunning compilation.

As Goddard states: “this is not a rare-for-rare-sake appendix of bands designed to showcase exclusivity and superiority”. These are tracks that have lived with him, and he has lived within, gathered over travels throughout Europe - living, DJ-ing, and creating. Five years on from the first volume, this eighteen track compilation once again fully outlines the breadth and possibility of the post-punk and new wave era. “Many of these artists fell by the wayside as underdogs or were just too ahead of their time. These selections have strong rhythmic undertones - percussively and tonally - and you can hear the subtle influence of dance music and the dance floor as a reference point.”

On our journey we hear hyped up punk-funk from the Netherlands in the form of Koneć, the cosmic synth-stomp of Daniele Baldelli approved Italians - Neon, the gonzo, outsider shrieks of England’s Loco Lotus, through to the dark, dance floor groove of Belgium’s Siglo XX and, of course, there’s a whole heap more outré excursions on the way.

“From one of the last true originals - a personal, passionate draft of a "scene" that could have been. As far as possible from diggers' wet dreams - most of the music here is/was hidden in plain sight. So take one step back and figure out what might have gone wrong." Vladimir Ivkovic.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Danse Society - Dolphins
2. A Primary Industry - Bled Dry
3. Paul Lemos - Hog Rhythm
4. Koneć - Hey
5. Die Form - Slow Love
6. Neon - My Blues Is You (Slow Dub)
7. The Neon Judgement - Antoine
8. Loco Lotus - Passage
9. New Asia - Double Gates
10. The Mud Hutters - Bowl Of Cherries
11. Martin Rössel & The Dum Dum Boys - Pablo Picasso
12. Flue - Some
13. Unknown Gender - The Beast
14. Vitor Hublot - Clip Eroclap
15. Concise - Lady Run
16. Siglo XX - Moving Creatures
17. JP 118 - Le Vieux Satrape
18. November Group - Night Architecture 

Invada Records are proud to release Blanck Mass’ score to ‘Calm With Horses’ on vinyl and CD! Black Mass’ first feature length, synth-heavy score was previously released on digital platforms on 13th March.  Blanck Mass is the solo project of Benjamin John Power. The musician, also one half of Fuck Buttons, has been making music under the moniker since 2010 and has released three albums on Sacred Bones, 2015's Dumb Flesh, 2017's World Eater and 2019’s Animated Violence Mild. Calm With Horses, Nick Rowland’s feature film debut, is a raw and beautiful tale of one man’s struggle to navigate both crime and family life in rural Ireland.

TRACK LISTING

Violent Child
The Devers
Jack's Theme
Different Breed
Halfwit
Sleepless
The Cliff
Loyal Skins
Heck Speaks
Descent
That Plank In Your Eye
Manipulation
Prove Yourself
Photograph
Nothing That Cannot Be Turned Back
Leaving
Credits

The unassailable DJ Shadow finally returns to our humble shelves with an ambitious and exceptional double album, "Our Pathetic Age", once again on Mass Appeal. "Our Pathetic Age" is the result of an intensely creative period that found the hip-hop and electronic innovator delving further into original composition and experimentation. The first half of Our Pathetic Age features 11 new instrumental works that balance some of Shadow’s most menacing sounds with beams of hope, including his first fully composed orchestral piece. Mindblowing swathes of synth heft surge to trap percussion, sci fi sequences and distorted jukes, or else jazzy syncopation carries nebulous melodies into the upper atmosphere.
The second half of Our Pathetic Age is a full album of vocal collaborations, ranging from Run The Jewels, Nas and Dave East to Sam Herring, Paul Banks and Wiki, Inspectah Deck, Ghostface Killah and Raekwon. Shadow notably reunites with his early Solesides collaborators Lateef The Truthseeker and Gift of Gab (Blackalicious). It also features St. Louis MCs Rockwell Knuckles and Tef Poe, fellow Bay Area musicians Fantastic Negrito and Jumbo is Dr.ama, and Brookyln MC Stro. Full track list with collaborators is below.

"More than anything, I try to get a sense of the mood of society as a whole. The subtle signals that humans send each other, the way people behave, their frustrations and ebbs and flows. In my part of the world, people are scared. There's rampant homelessness, and a real fear of falling into generational poverty. People are addicted to, and addled by distraction; they're angry and confused, and disaffected by their own governmental institutions. There's songs on the record that are inspired by this energy and seek to harness it, to make sense of it. In some cases, there's attempts to salve the wound; in others, the songs merely observe but don't offer solutions. I want the album to reflect the times we live in, a signpost in the ground to mark the era...Our Pathetic Age." - DJ Shadow.

The album was produced by DJ Shadow, and the album art was created by Paul Insect, who also designed Shadow’s The Mountain Will Fall and Outsider covers.

TRACK LISTING

Vinyl Tracklisting:
Side A
1. Nature Always Wins
2. Slingblade
3. Intersectionality
4. Beauty, Power Motion, Life Work Chaos, Law
5. Juggernaut
Side B
1. Firestorm
2. Weightless
3. Rosie
4. If I Die Today
5. My Lonely Room
Side C
1. Drone Warfare (feat. Nas, Pharaohe Monch)
2. Rain On Snow (feat. Inspectah Deck, Ghostface Killah, Raekwon)
3. Rocket Fuel (feat. De La Soul)
4. C.O.N.F.O.R.M. (feat. Gift Of Gab, Lateef The Truth Speaker, Infamous Taz)
5. Small Colleges / Stay With Me (feat. Wiki, Paul Banks)
6. JoJo’s Words (feat. Stro)
Side D
1. Kings & Queens (feat. Run The Jewels)
2. Taxin’ (feat. Dave East)
3. Dark Side Of The Heart (feat. Fantastic Negrito, Jumbo Is Dr.ama)
4. I Am Not A Robot (Interlude)
5. Urgent, Important, Please Read (feat. Rockwell Knuckles. Tef Poe, Daemon)
6. Our Pathetic Age (feat. Sam Herring)

CD Tracklisting:
Disc 1
1. Nature Always Wins
2. Slingblade
3. Intersectionality
4. Beauty, Power Motion, Life Work Chaos, Law
5. Juggernaut
6. Firestorm
7. Weightless
8. Rosie
9. If I Die Today
10. My Lonely Room
11. WE Are Always Alone

Disc 2
1. Drone Warfare (feat. Nas, Pharaohe Monch)
2. Rain On Snow (feat. Inspectah Deck, Ghostface Killah, Raekwon)
3. Rocket Fuel (feat. De La Soul)
4. C.O.N.F.O.R.M. (feat. Gift Of Gab, Lateef The Truth Speaker, Infamous Taz)
5. Small Colleges / Stay With Me (feat. Wiki, Paul Banks)
6. JoJo’s Words (feat. Stro)
7. Kings & Queens (feat. Run The Jewels)
8. Taxin’ (feat. Dave East)
9. Dark Side Of The Heart (feat. Fantastic Negrito, Jumbo Is Dr.ama)
10. I Am Not A Robot (Interlude)
11. Urgent, Important, Please Read (feat. Rockwell Knuckles. Tef Poe, Daemon)
12. Our Pathetic Age (feat. Sam Herring) 

Nearly a decade since their last record, Jay Malinowski and Eon Sinclair better known as duo Bedouin Soundclash, return with their fifth studio album "Mass". While pulling from their old catalogue of eclectic post-punk world-beat tendencies, the band journeys further into New Orleans jazz, afro-pop, electronic and gospel on their latest offering, reflecting a creative rebirth influenced by the cities and musicians that surrounded them. Co-produced by Bedouin Soundclash and legendary Philadelphia House DJ King Britt, along with musical direction from Ben Jaffe of Preservation Hall, "Mass" spans two communities, recorded at Marigny Studio’s in New Orleans with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and in Vancouver at St. James Church with the children of the St. James Music Academy. Mirroring the magnetic energy of New Orleans, "MASS" is a dense sonic journey that incorporates an impressive array of musical influences including Big Band swing to New Orleans jazz, pop, electronica, and more. From the post-punksoca of album opener "Salt Water", the jangling Big Band swing-pop of recent single "Clockwork", to the Talking Heads-channeling "When We’re Gone", and the dubbing afro-pop gospel of "Holy" that features Mike Dillon distorting his marimbas into another sonic dimension, "Mass" is jam-packed with infectious melodies and summery feel-good vibes.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Pulling your heartstrings in all manner of directions, this bouquet of soulful flavours and varied styles has one coherant theme running throughout - a total grasp of what modern, tastefull pop music should entail and incite. Flawless.

TRACK LISTING

Salt Water
Born Into Bad Times
Clock Work
When We’re Gone
Holy
They Gutted This City
Drive
St Jude Of The Floors
All Tomorrows
Inversion Weather
Full Bloom
Better Days
Edges Of The Night
Just Like You

“In this post-industrial, post-enlightenment religion of ourselves, we have manifested a serpent of consumerism which now coils back upon us. It seduces us with our own bait as we betray the better instincts of our nature and the future of our own world. We throw ourselves out of our own garden. We poison ourselves to the edges of an endless sleep.

Animated Violence Mild was written throughout 2018, at Blanck Mass’ studio outside of Edinburgh. These eight tracks are the diary of a year of work steeped in honing craft, self-discovery, and grief - the latter of which reared its head at the final hurdle of producing this record and created a whole separate narrative: grief, both for what I have lost personally, but also in a global sense, for what we as a species have lost and handed over to our blood-sucking counterpart, consumerism, only to be ravaged by it. 

I believe that many of us have willfully allowed our survival instinct to become engulfed by the snake we birthed. Animated - brought to life by humankind. Violent - insurmountable and wild beyond our control. Mild - delicious.
This is perhaps the most concise body of work I have written to date. Having worked extensively throughout my musical life with dramatics, narrative, and ‘melody against all odds’, these tracks are the most direct and honest yet. The level of articulation in these tracks surpasses anything I have utilized before.”
- Benjamin John Power.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Huge lurching arpeggios and cavernous percussion snaps glitch their way around a solid core of 16-bit reductions and skittering vocal shards. Drawing a flawless line between game soundtracks, rawkous EDM and the slowly building electronics of dancefloor trance or the incremental atmospheric accentuation of 70's prog. Indescribably mad, but thoroughly addictive.

TRACK LISTING

1. Intro
2. Death Drop
3. House Vs. House
4. Hush Money
5. Love Is A Parasite
6. Creature/West Fuqua
7. No Dice
8. Wings Of Hate

An electronica-infused alternative version of Editors’ acclaimed Top 10 album ‘Violence’, ‘The Blank Mass Sessions’ casts the songs in a bold new light, offering a fascinating insight into the album’s creative process.

The eight track album, made up of producer Blanck Mass’ original productions of ‘Violence’, also includes the brand new single ‘Barricades’.

For ‘Barricades’, Smith’s hopeful lyrics combine with yearning synths over robotic drum machines and sweeping basslines, while ‘Cold’ is given a frostier edge through Blanck Mass’ harsh percussion and robotic directness.

‘Violence’’s stripped back beat builds and erupts into a synth-fuelled chorus brim-full of busy drum patterns and ‘Magazine’s jaunty, sweeping synths and rolling snares lend it even more electronic swagger than the original.

‘Hallelujah (So Low)’ gifts the greatest insight into the triangular relationship ‘Violence’ was born from. The warmth of the album version’s acoustic guitar and industrial fuelled chorus are replaced with sparse, ethereal synths, giving the track and ‘The Blanck Mass Sessions’ in general, a mechanical, other-worldly edge.

TRACK LISTING

Barricades - The Blanck Mass Recording
Cold - The Blanck Mass recording
Hallelujah (So Low) - The Blanck Mass Recording
Violence - The Blanck Mass Recording
Darkness At The Door - the Blanck Mass recording
Nothingness - The Blanck Mass Recording
Magazine - The Blanck Mass Recording
Counting Spooks - The Blanck Mass Recording

I've Tortured You Long Enough is the tongue-in-cheek title of Mass Gothic's second album. Husband/wife duo Noel Heroux and Jessica Zambri have always dipped in and out of each other's creative spaces, advising on their respective outputs and supporting one another. But, until this record, they had never completely committed to doing an entire album as a duo, sharing an equal load. The result is a record packed with the tension, chaos and beauty of a fluid and cathartic two-way conversation. In a universe that increasingly threatens our abilities to communicate and coexist, their creative union isn't just inspired but important.

When Heroux put out Mass Gothic’s 2016 debut, following the end of his prior band, Hooray for Earth, he did so as a solo entity. Plagued by insecurities and anxieties, Heroux wasn't ready to deal with putting his trust and confidence into another shared project. So what changed? He can't exactly pinpoint when the phrase “I've tortured you long enough” came to him, but it became a mantra, almost a premonition. He had tortured his own psyche long enough, and was particularly in need of forcing himself out of his comfort zone and letting go of that prior stubbornness. And the phrase has a broader application, too. “It covers so many bases but it's taken on extra meaning in the past couple of years when everybody is at each other's throats, frustrated and confused all the time,” Heroux explains.

Heroux and Zambri wrote I’ve Tortured You Long Enough while bouncing around the country without a place to call home. From working in a rented cabin in upstate New York, to living out of a car with a duffel bag of clothes, to crashing with their co-producer Josh Ascalon in LA, to ditching a mixed version of the album and rerecording the whole thing, the band worked tirelessly while their lives were totally in flux. “Maybe we wouldn't have been able to do it if we were anchored at home. We were forced into it. Jess was trying to open me up and if we could have just sat on a couch and thrown on the TV it probably wouldn't have worked.” The album was ultimately recorded in Brooklyn with Rick Kwan, and Chris Coady mixed the record and Heba Kadry mastered it.

The final product recalls the frantic energy of Animal Collective and the celestial torch-bearing of Bat for Lashes, and reveals a remarkable arc. It begins from a place of uncertainty, disquiet, and self-doubt, and concludes with the comfort in knowing that you can be both independent and successful in a relationship.

TRACK LISTING

1. Dark Window
2. Call Me
3. J.Z.O.K.
4. Keep On Dying
5. How I Love You
6. I've Tortured You Long Enough
7. New Work
8. The Goad
9. Big Window

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2018 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

These two tracks have been recorded specifically with RSD in mind, and were committed to tape in the space of a frenzied two day session in January 2018. Neither track will appear on any Blanck Mass album. They are in a style that is not normally associated with Blanck Mass. BM wanted to do something special and as RSD is a special day for all music fans and collectors of one off releases by their favourite artists, this is the perfect release date. 

Released on the Mass Appeal label comes the long lost vocal album, 'The Diary' which J Dilla completed for MCA in early 2000s featuring previously unreleased material by the legendary producer. The tracks come straight from multi-track masters found on 2-inch tape shortly after Dilla’s passing in 2006. Many were mixed by Dilla himself. Those that weren't have been mixed by engineer Dave Cooley, who worked extensively with Dilla during his years in Los Angeles. Using Dilla’s original demo mixes as his guide, Cooley attempted to finalize Dilla’s vision for these tracks, while keeping all of the elements that Dilla had in place in his original demos present. 'The Diary' is an album of vocal performances recorded between in the early 2000s over production by the likes of Madlib, Pete Rock, Nottz, House Shoes, Karriem Riggins and others. 

TRACK LISTING

1. The Introduction
2. The Anthem (feat. Frank N Dank)
3. Fight Club (feat. Nottz & Boogie)
4. The Shining Pt. 1 (Diamonds) [feat. Kenny Wray]
5. The Shining Pt. 2 (Ice)
6. Trucks
7. Gangsta Boogie (feat. Snoop Dogg & Kokane)
8. Drive Me Wild
9. Give Them What They Want
10. The Creep (The O)
11. The Ex (feat. Bilal)
12. So Far
13. Fuck The Police
14. The Diary

After nearly ten years as the creative force behind much-loved New York rock outfit Hooray For Earth, Noel Heroux had lost his way. “I was constantly cutting corners and phoning everything in,” he says. “I was super depressed. I was creatively frustrated. I was emotionally unavailable to the people I really, really wanted to be there for - and no matter how much I cared, I just couldn’t change. But when I realized that I needed to the end the band and just try again, my head cleared and the clouds parted. I’d been derailed somehow,” he adds

“So I allowed myself to return to the beginning.”

This year marks the release of ‘Mass Gothic’, the Massachusetts-bred, New Yorkbased singer / songwriter’s self-titled Sub Pop debut. Written and recorded at home over four months during the winter of 2013 - 2014, it’s a stunning reminder of not just Heroux’s own remarkable talents as singer and songwriter but how unbridled creativity can sound and feel: before Hooray For Earth had quickly become a fullyfunctioning band it began as a solo project. Not pressure or compromises, just Heroux, a four-track and an irrepressible urge to “jot down all of the noise and music floating around in my head” and make it available to other people. “All I wanted to do was whatever I do when I’m alone and I’m unconcerned with what anyone else wants or expects,” he says. “I did my best to let go, and what came out was pure, uncut. It reminded me of the first few times I made music, when I was a young kid. I didn’t set any rules and I had zero expectations.”

The result is an expansive, often exhilarating set of guitar-driven pop that required very little editing when it was done. Additional mixing was provided by Chris Coady (Beach House, TV On The Radio) with mastering done by Greg Calbi (Father John Misty, Tame Impala) at Sterling Sound. The album was engineered by Wall at Tastefully Loud and mastered by Eric Boulanger at The Bakery in Los Angeles.

From the iridescent doo-wop of ‘Every Night You’ve Got to Save Me’ to the skyward crescendo of ‘Mind Is Probably’ to the falsetto-streaked clatter of ‘Want To, Bad’, it’s a radiant retelling of Heroux’s starting over, with ‘Nice Night’ as its cathartic, electrifying centrepiece.

“A lot of these songs are more or less a really dramatic, loud apology / thank you note,” he says, referencing his partner, collaborator and future tour mate, Jessica. “It didn’t matter where any of the sounds came from. I just cared that it sounded big and heavy, and that it was moving when it was done. It’s a clean slate entirely - and I’m so relieved.”

TRACK LISTING

Mind Is Probably
Own The Road
Want To, Bad
Pier Pressure
Nice Night
Every Night You’ve Got
To Save Me
Money Counter
Territory
Soul
Subway Phone

Originally from Birmingham, now based in Reykjavik, MASS are drummer Jonathan Baker and Guitarist Clyde Bradford. This debut EP establishes a unique, dark and noisy take on hardcore, with almost indecipherable vocals, powerful crash cymbals, intricate rhythmic riffs and bassy digital processing. The influence of Noise and Black Metal is apparent in their intelligent approach to abrasive volume. The band’s self-described aims are to 'explore the inner extremes of music, aggression and anxiety.' For each of the four loud, aggressive songs, there is an equal measure of space left for noise, drones, loops, ambience and feedback.

TRACK LISTING

I. Bellum
II. Numbing
III. Detached
IV. Mute

The “Mass In F Minor” is best known for the song ‘Kyrie Eleison’ which was featured in the movie soundtrack of Easy Rider. Instrumentally the Prunes only appeared on the first three tracks. Jim Lowe, whose vocals were double-tracked for effect, later commented “David Axelrod was so far above what we as a garage band were able to deliver that outside musicians were used to complete the recording, including members of Canadian band The Collectors (later to become Chilliwack)”.

“Release Of An Oath” is based on one of the most sacred Jewish prayers, the Kol Nidre which is recited on the eve of Yom Kippur.

TRACK LISTING

1. Kyrie Eleison
2. Gloria
3. Credo
4. Sanctus
5. Benedictus
6. Agnus Dei
7. Kol Nidre
8. Holy Are You
9. General Confessional
10. Individual Confessional
11. Our Father, Our King
12. The Adoration
13. Closing Hymn

Taking their name from the phenomenon of analog television frequency disturbances, Lafayette, Indiana’s "TV Ghost" conjures an especially sludgy and punishing brand of art-punk. They began making a name for themselves in 2007, when their first 7-inch, "Atomic Rain", was released by Die Stasi Records, also home to the noisy likes of Pink Reason and Zola Jesus. TV Ghost's sinister sound - which echoes the Scientists, Suicide and The Cramps’ ’70s output - and frantic live show won them an underground following; a 12-inch EP on Die Stasi, a single on Columbus Discount Records and their debut album, "Cold Fish", followed in 2009 with several rounds of touring the US in support. The band’s trek across Europe in 2010 left a trail of busted gear, annoyed booking agents and new fans behind them.

TV Ghost’s sophomore full-length was recorded by Greg Ashley (Gris Gris), and "Mass Dream" is by far their clearest and most coherent release to date. While sacrificing none of the band’s scuzz-punk dementia, this album is far less dense and impenetrable than its predecessor; Ghost frontman Tim Gick’s lyrics are clearer and his complex song structure a bit easier to get a handle on. That said, this is still blood-boiling, spastic and down right evil music by anyone’s standards. Live, there are few who can match them. Their sets are explosive, destructive and out of control. Gick howls as if his bowels are being extracted through his gluteus, while his eyes roll back in his head and the rest of the band pummels away in noisy ecstasy. Every show they play is psychotic and chaotic perfection. "Mass Dream" is the first time it’s been captured on wax to perfection.

TRACK LISTING

1. Wired Trap
2. Sleep Composite
3. The Winding Stair
4. Cancor
5. An Absurd Laceration
6. The Inheritors
7. Doppleganger
8. Subterfuge
9. The Degradation Of Film
10. Tropes
11. Mass Dream

After the runnaway success of the first "Weapons Of Mass Creation" compilation, Hospital return with another creative melodic drum and bass assault, with a mixture of label artists and guests providing a solid and varied selection of tracks. Includes Cyantific & Tactile, Concord Dawn, Total Science, Danny Byrd, Logistics, Laroque and more.

A collaboration between Lin Culbertson, Tom Surgal (Collectively White Out) and the esteemed Jim O'Rourke. The Contents of this album are totally improvised, recorded in one take, with no over dubs.