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Emotional Rescue and Jamwax end their Capo Disco series by returning to Glen Adams and his cover of Bob Marley’s classic. The early 70s Lee Perry produced original raw sound is taken to the disco reggae dancefloors of the early 80s with a bottom heavy jam, while his Capo Crew works a killer dub flipside.
“Fussing & Fighting” was originally released on the 1971’s Soul Revolution album and for many came during the pinnacle of Bob Marley & The Wailers output, before the smoothing out of their sound during the later “Island” years. Whichever, the guidance and collaboration with Perry transformed the Wailers from a successful Ska / Rocksteady group towards a visionary, conscious, crossover phenomenon. Perry’s in-house band, The Upsetters, lent so much to this early period, the brothers Aston and Carlton Barrett creating a perfect drum and bass bedrock. With Glen Adams on organ, the original version known simply as is an incessant, rumbling message and in that light, Adams return to it over a decade later makes justified and righteous sense.
Actually released on both Capo Disco and Marley’s own Tuff Gong, Adams’ vocal marries a disco-dub and guitar groove, dropping, in the latter half, right down to tambourine into perfectly stretched Discomix. Things get even more laid out on “Mad Blank” aka the version. Riding the desk, “Capo” lets each instrument time and space, dropping to just a kick and dubbed piano before slowly coming back with hats, guitar and then when the bass comes, the Gospel purity of dub reggae shines, all before the teasing fade calls for a rewind. Rest and rise, Glenroy “Capo” Adams.
“Fussing & Fighting” was originally released on the 1971’s Soul Revolution album and for many came during the pinnacle of Bob Marley & The Wailers output, before the smoothing out of their sound during the later “Island” years. Whichever, the guidance and collaboration with Perry transformed the Wailers from a successful Ska / Rocksteady group towards a visionary, conscious, crossover phenomenon. Perry’s in-house band, The Upsetters, lent so much to this early period, the brothers Aston and Carlton Barrett creating a perfect drum and bass bedrock. With Glen Adams on organ, the original version known simply as is an incessant, rumbling message and in that light, Adams return to it over a decade later makes justified and righteous sense.
Actually released on both Capo Disco and Marley’s own Tuff Gong, Adams’ vocal marries a disco-dub and guitar groove, dropping, in the latter half, right down to tambourine into perfectly stretched Discomix. Things get even more laid out on “Mad Blank” aka the version. Riding the desk, “Capo” lets each instrument time and space, dropping to just a kick and dubbed piano before slowly coming back with hats, guitar and then when the bass comes, the Gospel purity of dub reggae shines, all before the teasing fade calls for a rewind. Rest and rise, Glenroy “Capo” Adams.
Fresh from touring with Hugh Masekela (“The Boy’s Doin’ It”), Gboyega Adelaja goes into the lab to drop heavy keyboard science on his Moog and Fender Rhodes. Its Joe Sample meets the Afro Funk of BLO. With names like Jake Sollo on guitars, Mike Odumusu (BLO, Osibisa) on bass guitar and Gasper Lawal on percussion. This is a top quality, Afro-Funk, all-stars affair that shines from the inspired interventions, masterly arrangements to the sublime production.
“I was already following Hugh Masekela when I met him, he was an outstanding musician and I knew of his collaboration with
Hedzoleh, that band brought him nearer to many of us, because he was playing authentic African melodies with the Hedzoleh
sound which was mostly percussion oriented. Yes I knew about Hugh’s music before I met him. Infact when we started playing
together, he insisted that I stay with him in our three bedroom apartment, other members of the band had their own apartments,
but Hugh and myself shared the same 3 bedroom apartment”.
“We were touring, under Casablanca owned by Neil Boggart, we toured as professional musicians, flying to our gigs. There was
a time when we were touring with George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic we had two luxury buses deployed for our use.
We made many friends where ever we went to play, we met many big and popular musicians who came to watch our shows, the
Spinners came to see us in Detroit, we met Wayne Shorter of Weather Report, Freddie Hubbard, we played a gig with Herbie
Hancock at the Carnegie Hall New York City, we toured almost all the 50 States of the US.”
“I was already following Hugh Masekela when I met him, he was an outstanding musician and I knew of his collaboration with
Hedzoleh, that band brought him nearer to many of us, because he was playing authentic African melodies with the Hedzoleh
sound which was mostly percussion oriented. Yes I knew about Hugh’s music before I met him. Infact when we started playing
together, he insisted that I stay with him in our three bedroom apartment, other members of the band had their own apartments,
but Hugh and myself shared the same 3 bedroom apartment”.
“We were touring, under Casablanca owned by Neil Boggart, we toured as professional musicians, flying to our gigs. There was
a time when we were touring with George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic we had two luxury buses deployed for our use.
We made many friends where ever we went to play, we met many big and popular musicians who came to watch our shows, the
Spinners came to see us in Detroit, we met Wayne Shorter of Weather Report, Freddie Hubbard, we played a gig with Herbie
Hancock at the Carnegie Hall New York City, we toured almost all the 50 States of the US.”
An absolute must for all fans of the most extreme rock and roll figure of the past century this ‘singles’ compilation includes the entire “Bored To Death” 7´´ E.P. (1979), “1980´s Rock´n´Roll” 7´´ (1979), “Gimme Some Head” 7´´ (1981), “You Hate Me + I Hate You” 7´´ E.P. (1982), “No Rules” 7´´ E.P. (1982) plus the relevant tracks from the posthumously released “Out For Blood” 7´´ E.P. (1997) an“Occupation” 7´´ E.P. (2000).
Prepare yourself for new directions in Afro-funk. During the 1980s, ghanaian bandleader Gyedu-Blay Ambolley began to experiment with electronic instruments, and the result was a potent cocktail of highlife, funk, exploratory synths and righteous vocals, the sound of a restless genius intent on pushing the traditional sounds of highlife into a brave new future.
By the end of the 1970s, Ambolley was already a legendary figure on the ghanaian music scene. A drummer, turned guitarist, turned bassist, turned lead vocalist, he rose to prominence during the late 1960s, serving with countryman Ebo Taylor in the Stargazers and the Uhuru Dance Band before launching his own career with ‘Simigwa-do’, the 1972 hit that propelled him to West African stardom.
As a founding member of the Apagya Show Band and the Complex Soundz, he stretched the boundaries of highlife with electric instruments, funky rhythms and socially charged lyrics in Fante and English. If he had retired in 1978, Ambolley’s place in the history of ghanaian music would have been secure. Instead, he dissolved the Complex Soundz and embraced the synthesizer. With a new band, Zantoda Mak III, he recorded ‘The Message’, a seven minute funk workout built on a highlife foundation, and decorated with shimmering synths. Recorded in 1980, the song became a hit that would change the direction of Ambolley’s music: over the next decade, electronic instruments played a much larger role in his sonic experiments.
‘The Message’ receives a long overdue re-release on this 12” along with three other peaks from Ambolley’s eighties output. The futuristic funk of ‘Akoko Ba’ strips down the rhythm, raises the intensity of the vocals, and adds a dose of serpentine saxophone. On the B-side, ‘Simigwa Soca’ sets classic highlife horns against an unshakable bass groove, while the incredible ‘Burkina Faso’ is Ghana’s great lost electro-funk gem, a sleek construction of robotic bass, calland-response vocals, and fat stabs of slippery synth. Difficult, if not impossible to find for decades, Analog Africa is proud to make Gyedu-Blay Ambolley’s extraordinary eighties recordings available to a wider audience.
By the end of the 1970s, Ambolley was already a legendary figure on the ghanaian music scene. A drummer, turned guitarist, turned bassist, turned lead vocalist, he rose to prominence during the late 1960s, serving with countryman Ebo Taylor in the Stargazers and the Uhuru Dance Band before launching his own career with ‘Simigwa-do’, the 1972 hit that propelled him to West African stardom.
As a founding member of the Apagya Show Band and the Complex Soundz, he stretched the boundaries of highlife with electric instruments, funky rhythms and socially charged lyrics in Fante and English. If he had retired in 1978, Ambolley’s place in the history of ghanaian music would have been secure. Instead, he dissolved the Complex Soundz and embraced the synthesizer. With a new band, Zantoda Mak III, he recorded ‘The Message’, a seven minute funk workout built on a highlife foundation, and decorated with shimmering synths. Recorded in 1980, the song became a hit that would change the direction of Ambolley’s music: over the next decade, electronic instruments played a much larger role in his sonic experiments.
‘The Message’ receives a long overdue re-release on this 12” along with three other peaks from Ambolley’s eighties output. The futuristic funk of ‘Akoko Ba’ strips down the rhythm, raises the intensity of the vocals, and adds a dose of serpentine saxophone. On the B-side, ‘Simigwa Soca’ sets classic highlife horns against an unshakable bass groove, while the incredible ‘Burkina Faso’ is Ghana’s great lost electro-funk gem, a sleek construction of robotic bass, calland-response vocals, and fat stabs of slippery synth. Difficult, if not impossible to find for decades, Analog Africa is proud to make Gyedu-Blay Ambolley’s extraordinary eighties recordings available to a wider audience.
FORMAT INFORMATION
Coloured LP Info: 180g Vinyl with silkscreen printed cover.
Written and produced with Ebo Taylor and originally released in 1975, "Simigwa" is Ambolley's debut solo album. It's a legendary Ghanain album - with one of the music iconic covers ever! - that fuses Highlife, afrobeat, folk and funk.
Ambolley grew up during the peak of Highlife in Ghana and was a key figure in its fusion with soul and funk influences from the USA. He played in many bands including Houghas Extraordinaires, Meridians Of Tema, Ghana Broadcasting Band and the Uhuru Dance Band, for which he was recruited by his friend, Ebo Taylor. The group went to Nigeria in 1973 to play with Fela at his legendary Shrine spot.
‘Simigwa’ was a chance for Ambolley to release his own productions and to experiment to a certain extent. A main inspiration for this album was the work of the mighty Mr. James Brown, something that is evident from the rhythm section, horns, vocal stabs and percussion breaks throughout the record.
Ambolley grew up during the peak of Highlife in Ghana and was a key figure in its fusion with soul and funk influences from the USA. He played in many bands including Houghas Extraordinaires, Meridians Of Tema, Ghana Broadcasting Band and the Uhuru Dance Band, for which he was recruited by his friend, Ebo Taylor. The group went to Nigeria in 1973 to play with Fela at his legendary Shrine spot.
‘Simigwa’ was a chance for Ambolley to release his own productions and to experiment to a certain extent. A main inspiration for this album was the work of the mighty Mr. James Brown, something that is evident from the rhythm section, horns, vocal stabs and percussion breaks throughout the record.
Debut album from Gabrielle Aplin for Parlophone Records. Entitled English Rain, the album was recorded with Mike Spencer (Rudimental, Alex Clare) in his Buckingham studio over a period of 6 months. Gabrielle wrote or co-wrote all the new songs on the album, and played the majority of the instruments herself.
Hardware peddlers First Cut return with their forth installment. Gotta love this label's ethos - shining a light on the lesser discovered knob twiddlers and the shadowy DIY electronix scene; offering a platform for producers that would otherwise be buried too deep into their gear to ever get round to actually releasing anything.
Giles Armstrong has spent years in the so-called 'SCENE' but never actually made a record, until now. Whilst admitting it's not the most polished or technically accomplished; Giles says he's managed to get his personality across through a select but impressive array of synthesizers, noise boxes and rhythm machines.
With hefty kicks and a steady, deliberate tempo, the tracks unfurl at their own pace, but pack enough punch for the most demanding of club crowds. Non-linear arrangements hint at a producer not bogged down with tradition and in turn, offer up moments of ingenuity and expression. Strong stuff carrying this maverick label forward.
Giles Armstrong has spent years in the so-called 'SCENE' but never actually made a record, until now. Whilst admitting it's not the most polished or technically accomplished; Giles says he's managed to get his personality across through a select but impressive array of synthesizers, noise boxes and rhythm machines.
With hefty kicks and a steady, deliberate tempo, the tracks unfurl at their own pace, but pack enough punch for the most demanding of club crowds. Non-linear arrangements hint at a producer not bogged down with tradition and in turn, offer up moments of ingenuity and expression. Strong stuff carrying this maverick label forward.
FORMAT INFORMATION
Ltd 12" Info: Hand numbered & limited to 150 copies. No repress.
Greg Ashley has tracked across the States’ metropolises, fringes and sticks for years now, releasing records under his own name and earlier on with black magic psych cult The Gris Gris.
Now together with the Western Playboys, you can hear the dusty technicolor Rio Grande fl owing in the veins of these new recordings. Many of these songs are Greg’s indomitable take on waltz, country swing and golden honky-tonk songwriters like Cowboy Joe Babcock and Hank Mills, but lest we forget the cover of Estrus records’ finest garage rock nihilists The Makers. This 12” EP plays out from start to finish like a band in a washed out juke joint at a desert outpost from a Barry Gifford novel - strung out, sharp-witted and never dull.
Square it up and spin it now!
Now together with the Western Playboys, you can hear the dusty technicolor Rio Grande fl owing in the veins of these new recordings. Many of these songs are Greg’s indomitable take on waltz, country swing and golden honky-tonk songwriters like Cowboy Joe Babcock and Hank Mills, but lest we forget the cover of Estrus records’ finest garage rock nihilists The Makers. This 12” EP plays out from start to finish like a band in a washed out juke joint at a desert outpost from a Barry Gifford novel - strung out, sharp-witted and never dull.
Square it up and spin it now!
Greg Ashley has been a ¬fixture on the underground music scene since the late 90’s while stra¬ng eardrums as a teenager in Houston in garagepunk band The Strate-Coats. Since then he’s proven himself not only as a songwriter, singer and guitar player in bands like The Mirrors & The Gris-Gris, but also as a producer / sound engineer.
His career as a solo artist is vast & varied, spanning the gamut between fried & beautiful psychedelia, gorgeous & cathartic symphonic suites & gentle, damaged folk music, beginning with 2003’s “Medicine Fuck Dream” & last leaving us with 2014’s “Another Generation of Slaves”. His latest, “Pictures of Saint Paul Street” carries forward that album’s musical palette (a rootsy amalgam of tortured, Cohen-esque folk tinged with the beer soaked recklessness of a West Texas honky-tonk).
The songs on “Pictures of Saint Paul Street” are lush & beautiful autopsies of society’s underbelly, with stark and brutally honest ruminations on humanity. Songs like “A Sea of Suckers” & “Pursue The Nightlife” pull no punches, while “Jailbirds & Vagabonds” and “Blues For A Pecan Tree” carouse on a more abstract, human (almost romantic) level. By the time you’ve hit the album’s centerpiece; “Bullshit Society”, Ashley’s songs move from ballads of hopeless misery to rallying anthems for the dispossessed.
His career as a solo artist is vast & varied, spanning the gamut between fried & beautiful psychedelia, gorgeous & cathartic symphonic suites & gentle, damaged folk music, beginning with 2003’s “Medicine Fuck Dream” & last leaving us with 2014’s “Another Generation of Slaves”. His latest, “Pictures of Saint Paul Street” carries forward that album’s musical palette (a rootsy amalgam of tortured, Cohen-esque folk tinged with the beer soaked recklessness of a West Texas honky-tonk).
The songs on “Pictures of Saint Paul Street” are lush & beautiful autopsies of society’s underbelly, with stark and brutally honest ruminations on humanity. Songs like “A Sea of Suckers” & “Pursue The Nightlife” pull no punches, while “Jailbirds & Vagabonds” and “Blues For A Pecan Tree” carouse on a more abstract, human (almost romantic) level. By the time you’ve hit the album’s centerpiece; “Bullshit Society”, Ashley’s songs move from ballads of hopeless misery to rallying anthems for the dispossessed.
Oakland' s psychedelic savant, Greg Ashley, has gone through a tremulous year. Gentrification sent an eviction notice to the doors of his Creamery Analog studio where he recorded such acts as The Dutchess and the Duke, TV Ghost, and The Mantles over almost a decade-long residence.
After a spiritual retreat to Texas, Ashley returned to the Bay Area and began work on a new studio, inhabiting a church just blocks from his former location. In celebration of this transcendence, Bad Diet is releasing two archival nuggets that exhibit Greg Ashley 's genius, described by SF Weekly as a true psychedelic visionary, maybe the greatest of his generation. Living Underground is a slip inside the peak years of Ashley' s widely-lauded act, The Gris Gris. Recorded in 2005, the lost gem s haunting vocals and pounding back beat combine in a ritual resurrecting the band' s nest offerings. It also grounds The Gris Gris stake as progenitors of the Bay Area s contemporary psych and garage scene. Psychopathia Homosexualis provides a glamorous look into the heart of Sir Lord Von Raven, Ashley' s Oakland supergroup with Eric Von Raven (Time Flys), Josh Miller (Wrong Words), and the late, great Jay Bronzini. It was recorded live at the Creamery in 2010.
After a spiritual retreat to Texas, Ashley returned to the Bay Area and began work on a new studio, inhabiting a church just blocks from his former location. In celebration of this transcendence, Bad Diet is releasing two archival nuggets that exhibit Greg Ashley 's genius, described by SF Weekly as a true psychedelic visionary, maybe the greatest of his generation. Living Underground is a slip inside the peak years of Ashley' s widely-lauded act, The Gris Gris. Recorded in 2005, the lost gem s haunting vocals and pounding back beat combine in a ritual resurrecting the band' s nest offerings. It also grounds The Gris Gris stake as progenitors of the Bay Area s contemporary psych and garage scene. Psychopathia Homosexualis provides a glamorous look into the heart of Sir Lord Von Raven, Ashley' s Oakland supergroup with Eric Von Raven (Time Flys), Josh Miller (Wrong Words), and the late, great Jay Bronzini. It was recorded live at the Creamery in 2010.
Greg Ashley has been melting minds since he was a teenager growing up in central Texas; first in his paint-peeling garagepunk band The Strate-Coats, then in lysergic psych band The Mirrors, and finally to great acclaim in his highly influential quartet The Gris Gris. If that weren’t enough, Ashley has peppered multiple solo albums in between all of these releases tracing along a path that veers to & fro from heady psychedelic freakouts to sensitive, folky tunesmithing. “Another Generation of Slaves” is a bold step off that acid-soaked artery, the nine tunes herein are Ashley ’s most directly poetic suite of songs both melodically & lyrically. “Another Generation...” FEELS different. Recorded in 2013 with a cadre of jazz musicians, the malleablity of his players belies dizzying results, allowing Ashley to focus on communicating the feeling of the tunes in addition to playing them. Lyrically, Ashley has never been one to mince words, but the songs are almost joyously direct.
Songs like “Brother Raymond” & “Prisoner #1131267” are character studies, while somber cuts like the folky opener “East Texas Plain” & the sultr y “Patterns Of Days” are extremely insular tunes, unquestionably personal & beautifully unfolded. Ashley ’s grown so comfortable in his ability to craft songs, that even the breezy “Awkward Affections”s brazenly honest lyrics don’t feels forced, but like another piece of the puzzle here. The stories fit together like Ashley ’s own version of “Songs Of Love & Hate” or “Trouble Is A Lonesome Town”. A collection that doesn’t work unless the listener is fully immersed in it ’s world, shackled to it ’s narrative.
The first vinyl edition is pressed on randomly mixed 150-gm vinyl, includes a printed inner sleeve with lyrics & a download code. All other pressings will be on basic black.
RIYL: Kurt Vile, Lee Hazlewood, Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, Bill Fay, Mikal Cronin.
Songs like “Brother Raymond” & “Prisoner #1131267” are character studies, while somber cuts like the folky opener “East Texas Plain” & the sultr y “Patterns Of Days” are extremely insular tunes, unquestionably personal & beautifully unfolded. Ashley ’s grown so comfortable in his ability to craft songs, that even the breezy “Awkward Affections”s brazenly honest lyrics don’t feels forced, but like another piece of the puzzle here. The stories fit together like Ashley ’s own version of “Songs Of Love & Hate” or “Trouble Is A Lonesome Town”. A collection that doesn’t work unless the listener is fully immersed in it ’s world, shackled to it ’s narrative.
The first vinyl edition is pressed on randomly mixed 150-gm vinyl, includes a printed inner sleeve with lyrics & a download code. All other pressings will be on basic black.
RIYL: Kurt Vile, Lee Hazlewood, Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, Bill Fay, Mikal Cronin.
Greg Ashley (The Gris Gris, The Mirrors, Strate Coats, solo fame, record maker extraordinaire) continues along his path as a troubador, with two new countrified crooners which’ll find you alone, sittin’ at the bar in broad daylight, lookin’ down low. Skirting the line between legitimate Nashville tears in your beers and marvelous, near-classical new Americana folk, these two sorry sons-a-guns are slowly revealing the full count of Ashley’s skills as a singer, songwriter and arranger.
As meteoric rises go - Gareth Ashton's takes some beating. Born and bred in Derbyshire, he had always been a keen drummer, like his father and in 1977 discovered the joys of punk via The Jam's performance on Top Of The Pops. Within weeks he was forming his own band The Ruin and within months he was playing on the same bill as punk trendsetters The Damned on a nationwide tour and living the dream with the short-lived The Irritators. After gigs in Sheffield, Edinburgh, Dundee and Manchester Gareth went on to pursue other musical goals but never quite hit those heights again. Nonetheless he drummed successfully all over the UK for over two decades playing everything from jazz-funk to country & western. Now retired, Gareth reflects on the lot of a semi-professional musician, a world away from the gilded lives of rock stars and their entourages.
Copenhagen’s Tartelet continues its 10 th anniversary with another an EP in their Limited Edition Series. This one finds Glenn Astro serving up five exclusive tracks on the 12". The EP takes inspiration from Keith Haring’s celebrated Crack is Wack mural in New York, which was a reaction to the drug epidemic of the time. Only 250 copies will be released worldwide.
In a short space of time, Glenn Astro has cooked up his own unique musical world. He has released full-lengths on Ninja Tune alongside Max Graef, and recently on Apollo Rec, sister label of R&S, in conjunction with Hodini.
The opener ‘Crack Is Wack’ is a loose and live sounding jam with warm synth chords, alternating 808 drumpatterns and breaks. It has a celebratory feel as expressive keys and walking basslines take turns to take the lead and move things forwards. The feel good ‘Der Langweiler’ is a much slower and loveably lazy joint, incorporating a cosmic 808 drum groove mixed with arpeggiated Wurlizer chords and a grooving e-bassline sinking you deep into the late night groove.
On the flip and switching up the vibe again is ‘Der Maschine’, which has frazzled electronic synths next to wooden hits and a playfully distorted drum machine to make for something that brims and bristles with dance floor energy in inventive new ways.
‘Boring Times On Beleuse Five’ is a tripped out sci-fi track with percolating drums and heavenly chords. It’s sparse and dynamic but with a compelling rhythm. ‘Discomania’ is an exclusive and vinyl-only cover version of Piero Umiliani’s eponymous electronic disco classic, is a gorgeously spaced out disco instrumental with expressive keys, drums and percussion all adding up to something impossibly infectious.
This is another remarkable EP of effortlessly fused sounds, showcasing Glenn’s new steps exploring cosmic and electronically driven aesthetics.
In a short space of time, Glenn Astro has cooked up his own unique musical world. He has released full-lengths on Ninja Tune alongside Max Graef, and recently on Apollo Rec, sister label of R&S, in conjunction with Hodini.
The opener ‘Crack Is Wack’ is a loose and live sounding jam with warm synth chords, alternating 808 drumpatterns and breaks. It has a celebratory feel as expressive keys and walking basslines take turns to take the lead and move things forwards. The feel good ‘Der Langweiler’ is a much slower and loveably lazy joint, incorporating a cosmic 808 drum groove mixed with arpeggiated Wurlizer chords and a grooving e-bassline sinking you deep into the late night groove.
On the flip and switching up the vibe again is ‘Der Maschine’, which has frazzled electronic synths next to wooden hits and a playfully distorted drum machine to make for something that brims and bristles with dance floor energy in inventive new ways.
‘Boring Times On Beleuse Five’ is a tripped out sci-fi track with percolating drums and heavenly chords. It’s sparse and dynamic but with a compelling rhythm. ‘Discomania’ is an exclusive and vinyl-only cover version of Piero Umiliani’s eponymous electronic disco classic, is a gorgeously spaced out disco instrumental with expressive keys, drums and percussion all adding up to something impossibly infectious.
This is another remarkable EP of effortlessly fused sounds, showcasing Glenn’s new steps exploring cosmic and electronically driven aesthetics.
A German dream team pairing on Apollo here as Glenn Astro joins Hodini for a deliciously sprawling EP that covers Astro's crate-dug style and Hodini's keen ear for electro-jazz sketches. "Turquoise Tortoise" is a masterful, unique concoction that infuses future soul experiments into Detroit influenced house, broken beat and even technoid, up tempo percussions rounded off with classic boom bap sounds.
Conceived as a loose limbed creative experiment, 'Turquoise Tortoise' was not written and recorded in the classical sense of a collaboration as Astro explains: 'We had the idea of doing an album together for quite a while, but with one of us living in Cologne and the other one in Berlin we never really had the chance to spend enough time together in one place and go to the studio together properly.'
Unsatisfied with simply sending files back and forth via the net, they struck upon the idea to produce tracks individually, bringing them together finally on one album. - 'Although we didn't make the music together it still was really important to us to have a motif and to keep it cohesive.' Astro adds.
Hodini's experience working with vocalists proved invaluable, as "Turquoise Tortoise" is the first time that Glenn has worked on a record with such a portfolio of talented featured artists - Ajnascent contributes his dulcet tones to "Found!' and "Viktor And The Quasar" to mesmerising effect. Longtime Astro pal Max Graef shows up to play bass on the vibey b-boy workout "Malaysian Moped" alongside a carefree vocal contribution by Knowsum. A UK flavour comes courtesy via the rap / toasting talents of Peckham's MC Pinty on the beatific "Beautiful Music'".
Within the first three tracks we're hurtled through neo-soul, boom-bap hip-hop and frenetic future jazz before sinking into another opiated sections rich with liquid soul inflections and drizzled in phosphorescent jazz stylings. The perfect album for the intrepid, ADHD-fuelled modern music fan, the depth of Astro & Hodini's musicality, and reinforces anyone that's seen Astro's live performances as a completely multi-talented instrumentalist. A tour de force!
Conceived as a loose limbed creative experiment, 'Turquoise Tortoise' was not written and recorded in the classical sense of a collaboration as Astro explains: 'We had the idea of doing an album together for quite a while, but with one of us living in Cologne and the other one in Berlin we never really had the chance to spend enough time together in one place and go to the studio together properly.'
Unsatisfied with simply sending files back and forth via the net, they struck upon the idea to produce tracks individually, bringing them together finally on one album. - 'Although we didn't make the music together it still was really important to us to have a motif and to keep it cohesive.' Astro adds.
Hodini's experience working with vocalists proved invaluable, as "Turquoise Tortoise" is the first time that Glenn has worked on a record with such a portfolio of talented featured artists - Ajnascent contributes his dulcet tones to "Found!' and "Viktor And The Quasar" to mesmerising effect. Longtime Astro pal Max Graef shows up to play bass on the vibey b-boy workout "Malaysian Moped" alongside a carefree vocal contribution by Knowsum. A UK flavour comes courtesy via the rap / toasting talents of Peckham's MC Pinty on the beatific "Beautiful Music'".
Within the first three tracks we're hurtled through neo-soul, boom-bap hip-hop and frenetic future jazz before sinking into another opiated sections rich with liquid soul inflections and drizzled in phosphorescent jazz stylings. The perfect album for the intrepid, ADHD-fuelled modern music fan, the depth of Astro & Hodini's musicality, and reinforces anyone that's seen Astro's live performances as a completely multi-talented instrumentalist. A tour de force!
STAFF COMMENTS
Matt says: After winning me over on Money $ex, Glenn Astro continues to tickle my fancy as he joins Modini for an expert lesson in downbeat / hip-hop and jazz-tinged vibrations. Check!
Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury return to score Ben Wheatley’s 1970s based epic shoot-out ‘Free Fire’, executively produced by Martin Scorsese.
Compiled by director Ben Wheatley himself, the soundtrack will be released on CD and double LP, featuring the full score by Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury, dialogue from the film and licensed tracks (The Real Kids, Creedence Clearwater Revival, John Denver).
‘Free Fire’ sees Barrow and Salisbury take a huge directional curve away from their intense, synth-based Ivor Novello award winning score for ‘Ex Machina’, with the composers curating a prog rock, free jazz, psychedelic journey influenced by bands such as King Crimson, Camel and Magma and tips its hat to the Lalo Schifrin thriller genre scores of that era.
Both the LP and CD will include a digital download card which features the full soundtrack as well as additional unheard bonus material not used in the score.
Compiled by director Ben Wheatley himself, the soundtrack will be released on CD and double LP, featuring the full score by Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury, dialogue from the film and licensed tracks (The Real Kids, Creedence Clearwater Revival, John Denver).
‘Free Fire’ sees Barrow and Salisbury take a huge directional curve away from their intense, synth-based Ivor Novello award winning score for ‘Ex Machina’, with the composers curating a prog rock, free jazz, psychedelic journey influenced by bands such as King Crimson, Camel and Magma and tips its hat to the Lalo Schifrin thriller genre scores of that era.
Both the LP and CD will include a digital download card which features the full soundtrack as well as additional unheard bonus material not used in the score.
FORMAT INFORMATION
CD includes MP3 Download Code.
Proper banger from Greg Beato on Apron. "Respect The 78" deploys those bit-crushed, saturated drums that the new school of techno seem to willing to embrace. A consistent sonar bleep rattles through the track as well while hi-hat fizz right off the tape and the odd cowbell makes an appearance too! Jump further into the track and we're treated to corrosive synth riffs cascading through the mix, dissolving quickly onto the fried tape or being mangles into oblivion through Beato's scorching outboard. Moving through a strange series of fried percussion passages, you'll need some cooling agent for your stylus after this jam burns out. "Let Em Know" takes the momentum and swing from New Jersey house and hypes it up even further, adding an attack of off-beat kicks and snares that gets the whole thing almost taking off with energy. You'll really have to tear them off the ceiling after this thing drops. Finally "3" is a crazed LFO assault, a wobbling sine tone careering through its course while saturated hats and a fat kick provide a steady groove. Proper acidic chaos, great stuff. Apron records seem to sell out super quick so get your orders in ASAP.
Music From Memory’s latest release sees the reissue of G.B. Beckers' 'Walkman' album from 1982.
A painter and musician from Aachen, Germany, Günther Beckers created his third album ’Walkman' to coincide with an exhibition of his latest body of artwork in 1982. Released on his very own 'Milky Music' label with a run of just 500 copies and original pieces of artwork included with some copies, most copies of the album however remained amongst art collectors and with the painter himself. Rediscovered a few years ago through a friend of Music From Memory in the archives of a local radio station where all but one of the stations copies had been destroyed, it has been an album the label have been in love with since the first listen.
Touring as a guitarist with ECM affiliated Jazz musicians such as Alex De Grassi, William Ackerman, Ralph Towner & Larry Coryell to name but a few, Günther Beckers also would record on a number of releases of Klaus Schulze’s cult electronic music label ‘Innovative Communication’.
Always exploring new ideas and the possibilities of technology within his music, Günther would record the ‘Walkman’ album utilising the ‘Kunstkopf’ technique of sound recording. Kunstkopf or ‘Dummy Head’ recording is a 3D audio recording technology that enables listeners to define each source of sound as if they were in the original recording situation itself. Using two microphones which are usually mounted in the ears of a mannequin (giving it the ‘Dummy Head’ name in English) the technique exploits certain basic principles of human spatial hearing.
Listeners to ‘Kunstkopf’ recordings are in fact encouraged to listen to such recordings on headphones, as the 3D perception is often greatly diminished on speakers. With the title ‘Walkman’ G.B. Beckers was very much hoping the album would be enjoyed on headphones, even portably through a Walkman. Minimalist variations around an acoustic guitar, guitar synth, rhythm box and with wordless female vocals, G.B. Beckers' 'Walkman' drifts in and out of moods; it is a unique and at times hauntingly beautiful album, which the Kunstkopf recording technique further adds to the albums at times often otherworldly feeling.
A painter and musician from Aachen, Germany, Günther Beckers created his third album ’Walkman' to coincide with an exhibition of his latest body of artwork in 1982. Released on his very own 'Milky Music' label with a run of just 500 copies and original pieces of artwork included with some copies, most copies of the album however remained amongst art collectors and with the painter himself. Rediscovered a few years ago through a friend of Music From Memory in the archives of a local radio station where all but one of the stations copies had been destroyed, it has been an album the label have been in love with since the first listen.
Touring as a guitarist with ECM affiliated Jazz musicians such as Alex De Grassi, William Ackerman, Ralph Towner & Larry Coryell to name but a few, Günther Beckers also would record on a number of releases of Klaus Schulze’s cult electronic music label ‘Innovative Communication’.
Always exploring new ideas and the possibilities of technology within his music, Günther would record the ‘Walkman’ album utilising the ‘Kunstkopf’ technique of sound recording. Kunstkopf or ‘Dummy Head’ recording is a 3D audio recording technology that enables listeners to define each source of sound as if they were in the original recording situation itself. Using two microphones which are usually mounted in the ears of a mannequin (giving it the ‘Dummy Head’ name in English) the technique exploits certain basic principles of human spatial hearing.
Listeners to ‘Kunstkopf’ recordings are in fact encouraged to listen to such recordings on headphones, as the 3D perception is often greatly diminished on speakers. With the title ‘Walkman’ G.B. Beckers was very much hoping the album would be enjoyed on headphones, even portably through a Walkman. Minimalist variations around an acoustic guitar, guitar synth, rhythm box and with wordless female vocals, G.B. Beckers' 'Walkman' drifts in and out of moods; it is a unique and at times hauntingly beautiful album, which the Kunstkopf recording technique further adds to the albums at times often otherworldly feeling.
STAFF COMMENTS
Patrick says: Music From Memory visit the evocative sounds of Gunther Beckers for their new release, bringing us a ten track excursion into rainsoaked windows, introspective guitar and bedroom beauty. Folk-meets-Balearic with a twist of ambience...
Dusty archives, the backrooms of record stores, private reel to reel stashes, master tapes - these are the environs of the Dynamic Range experience.
Dynamic Range is a new label focused on unearthing deep Soul, Funk and Disco jams that continue to resonate with todays dancers and DJ's. Time spent scouring the bowels of the majors and independents has unsurprisingly resulted in numerous gems being added to the DR wants list. High quality, fully licensed reissues are the order of the day, always taken from the correct master source and re-presented to hungry record heads the world over. To repeat, this is a fully legit operation - Avoid the sharks at all costs!
For their second release they treat us to one of the finest moments in George Benson's catalogue, the Theo-approved "The World Is A Ghetto". His 1977 version of the classic 'The World Is A Ghetto' features beautiful string-laden production and of course, Benson's languid guitar playing that graces the wonderful Claus Ogerman arrangements effortlessly. As well as being an underground disco classic, this amazing groove has been sampled by numerous contemporary producers, most notable Moodymann, Kanye West, Bob Sinclair and many more, a testament to the lush production and soul contained within the grooves of this classic. This repress is programmed exactly like the '77 disco promo 12" that record pool members and DJ's would have received and due to licensing constraints it features the same 9 minute 41 second mix on both sides.
Dynamic Range is a new label focused on unearthing deep Soul, Funk and Disco jams that continue to resonate with todays dancers and DJ's. Time spent scouring the bowels of the majors and independents has unsurprisingly resulted in numerous gems being added to the DR wants list. High quality, fully licensed reissues are the order of the day, always taken from the correct master source and re-presented to hungry record heads the world over. To repeat, this is a fully legit operation - Avoid the sharks at all costs!
For their second release they treat us to one of the finest moments in George Benson's catalogue, the Theo-approved "The World Is A Ghetto". His 1977 version of the classic 'The World Is A Ghetto' features beautiful string-laden production and of course, Benson's languid guitar playing that graces the wonderful Claus Ogerman arrangements effortlessly. As well as being an underground disco classic, this amazing groove has been sampled by numerous contemporary producers, most notable Moodymann, Kanye West, Bob Sinclair and many more, a testament to the lush production and soul contained within the grooves of this classic. This repress is programmed exactly like the '77 disco promo 12" that record pool members and DJ's would have received and due to licensing constraints it features the same 9 minute 41 second mix on both sides.
STAFF COMMENTS
Patrick says: Soothing, swooning, soulful and sublime, George Benson's "The World Is A Ghetto" is arguably the finest disco soul cut around, and absolutely slays a dance floor. This 12" press is cut loud and proud folks.
Sao Paulo’s Gui Boratto has been an innovator and leading member Brazil's dance music community for some time. His versatility to cross genres and remain faithful to the floor has been proven time and time again. Be it from “Beautiful Life” to “Azzura” or “No Turning Back”, his influence has struck a permanent chord in melodic dance music.
"Pentagram" sees Boratto expand and diversify his catalogue. It opens with the sublime, electrified beauty of "The Walker" before dropping to the drum-kit guided chaos of "The Black Bookshell". Beautiful Life vocalist Luciana Villanova sings on "Overload", a fast paced and evocative track that's ridiculously now, whilst "The Phoenix", featuring another guest vocalist - Nathan Berger - sees more emotive moods contrasted against Boratto's impressive electronic underlay.
Through his signature kaleidoscopic approach, Boratto has delivered a far-reaching, all-encompassing album that's wonderfully accessible. At once able to soundtrack a cocktail party on the beach, a night out on the town with the ladies / lads as well as the Sunday afternoon chores; it's radio crossover potential is also painfully apparent from the very first track with the Brazilian producer embracing a pop-like charm and songwriting style throughout.
Whereas "Spur" (a field-tested 808 and 909-heavy 'purist track', 'very, very old school' Boratto insists) and "Alcazar" are sheer smooth-edged 4/4 epics, the album also has some surprising, startling moments up it's sleeve: the John Barry-esque "Scene 2" (with a hint of Amon Tobin, "Easy Muffin" style, throw in) and its refined string-laden buildup, 100% fitted for a 007 opening credit sequence; or with "Hallucination" (feat B.T.) and the further James Holden-ish title-track "Pentagram" (think 'The Idiots Are Winning'); 'one of those exercises I did when I got my Buchla modular synth', Boratto analyses, 'I think I’ve used more than 30 different snares, with different delays and reverbs. The whole song is alive'. And so is "Pentagram" in its entirety: alive and definitely just as manifold and hopeful as its architectonics are; the stuff of science and dreams all at once.
"Pentagram" sees Boratto expand and diversify his catalogue. It opens with the sublime, electrified beauty of "The Walker" before dropping to the drum-kit guided chaos of "The Black Bookshell". Beautiful Life vocalist Luciana Villanova sings on "Overload", a fast paced and evocative track that's ridiculously now, whilst "The Phoenix", featuring another guest vocalist - Nathan Berger - sees more emotive moods contrasted against Boratto's impressive electronic underlay.
Through his signature kaleidoscopic approach, Boratto has delivered a far-reaching, all-encompassing album that's wonderfully accessible. At once able to soundtrack a cocktail party on the beach, a night out on the town with the ladies / lads as well as the Sunday afternoon chores; it's radio crossover potential is also painfully apparent from the very first track with the Brazilian producer embracing a pop-like charm and songwriting style throughout.
Whereas "Spur" (a field-tested 808 and 909-heavy 'purist track', 'very, very old school' Boratto insists) and "Alcazar" are sheer smooth-edged 4/4 epics, the album also has some surprising, startling moments up it's sleeve: the John Barry-esque "Scene 2" (with a hint of Amon Tobin, "Easy Muffin" style, throw in) and its refined string-laden buildup, 100% fitted for a 007 opening credit sequence; or with "Hallucination" (feat B.T.) and the further James Holden-ish title-track "Pentagram" (think 'The Idiots Are Winning'); 'one of those exercises I did when I got my Buchla modular synth', Boratto analyses, 'I think I’ve used more than 30 different snares, with different delays and reverbs. The whole song is alive'. And so is "Pentagram" in its entirety: alive and definitely just as manifold and hopeful as its architectonics are; the stuff of science and dreams all at once.
FORMAT INFORMATION
2xLtd LP includes MP3 Download Code.
"Bredow's cast of alumni - the holy trinity o f Atkins, May & Saunderson at the front - fill out this tale with passion, pride and, oddly for music of the future, nostalgia too." - Dazed and Confused
"An enjoyable education into the music, the city and the main players past, present and future." - DJ Magazine
"An enjoyable education into the music, the city and the main players past, present and future." - DJ Magazine
This release contains the finest songs the old man has ever committed to tape - a smorgasbord which encompasses expansive sonic meanderings, unselfconscious indie-rock thrashing, sad-eyed melodrama and the kind of wised-up humour we might expect from a statesman and scholar with such a track record, but which is a rarity in these youthquaking, moronically-earnest and docile times. Here we have George Washington Brown comprehensively topping his past endeavours, having created a truly cherishable thing - a humanistic modern record, a gift from one adventurer to others. For fans of Guided by Voices, Animal Collective, Van Dyke Parks and the Elephant 6 collective.
FORMAT INFORMATION
Ltd LP Info: 330 edition heavy duty vinyl in a paste on sleeve, with a CDR included.
Reduced
Gabriel Bruce’s first solo single, Sleep Paralysis is the sound of the ex-Loverman vocalist finding a new voice, with that band’s primal energies being recalibrated into an impassioned sweeping synthesizer symphony. The track recalls Leonard Cohen’s late 80s synth production on I’m Your Man, yet is altogether murkier and more foreboding, interested in depth of darkness rather than surface glimmer. B-side No Love Lost draws the Cohen connection deeper, primarily through Bruce’s deep vocal range, though tonally Bruce reaches something smoother and more versatile than Cohen did, and the track has shades of Nick Cave’s possessive obsessions and fascinations in subject matter.
Bruce's debut 7” is incorporated into a 50 page illustrated book which looks into the phenomenon of sleep paralysis itself, featuring cuttings and ephemera of people’s recollections of the sensation. The book features three different paper stocks, colour photos, a variety of different printing effects, a card cover and facsimile of rare writings on Sleep Paralysis. The cover is hugged by a bellyband, available in scarlet, royal blue, sapphire or mandarin.
Written by Gabriel, edited and designed by London creative collective Off Modern and released on their label of the same name the release of Sleep Paralysis this December signals the end of months of close collaboration. No wonder this unique single has been picked up on by the likes of the Guardian and The Fader.
Bruce's debut 7” is incorporated into a 50 page illustrated book which looks into the phenomenon of sleep paralysis itself, featuring cuttings and ephemera of people’s recollections of the sensation. The book features three different paper stocks, colour photos, a variety of different printing effects, a card cover and facsimile of rare writings on Sleep Paralysis. The cover is hugged by a bellyband, available in scarlet, royal blue, sapphire or mandarin.
Written by Gabriel, edited and designed by London creative collective Off Modern and released on their label of the same name the release of Sleep Paralysis this December signals the end of months of close collaboration. No wonder this unique single has been picked up on by the likes of the Guardian and The Fader.
A double album celebrating the 60th birthday of this wonderful musician. Gavin Bryars is one of Britain's foremost contemporary composers. His work draws together minimalism, ECM style 'chamber-jazz' and classical music creating a sound that merges them all into a perfect symbiosis of sound. The brilliant "Cello Concerto (Farewll To Philosophy)" is just one highlight on this excellent set.
THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2016 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.
Commonly referred to as “the first existential country song”, Stuart Maconie has hailed ‘Wichita Lineman’ as “the greatest pop song ever composed”, its reputation further enhanced by its inclusion in Rolling Stone’s ‘500 Greatest Songs Of All Time’ poll. Written by Jimmy Webb and inspired by the image of a solitary lineman atop a telegraph pole, observed while driving through rural Oklahoma during sunset, this definitive version, released as a single in 1968, would go to Number 3 in the US chart and enter the top ten in the UK. In celebration of Campbell’s 80th birthday in April 2016, we’re reissuing it on red coloured 7” vinyl, using the original artwork from the ‘68 Spanish release.
Commonly referred to as “the first existential country song”, Stuart Maconie has hailed ‘Wichita Lineman’ as “the greatest pop song ever composed”, its reputation further enhanced by its inclusion in Rolling Stone’s ‘500 Greatest Songs Of All Time’ poll. Written by Jimmy Webb and inspired by the image of a solitary lineman atop a telegraph pole, observed while driving through rural Oklahoma during sunset, this definitive version, released as a single in 1968, would go to Number 3 in the US chart and enter the top ten in the UK. In celebration of Campbell’s 80th birthday in April 2016, we’re reissuing it on red coloured 7” vinyl, using the original artwork from the ‘68 Spanish release.
The in-depth history of the rise, fall and rise of the independent record shop in the UK. Travelling the length and breadth of the UK, Garth Cartwright conducted 100+ interviews with many record shop pioneers, noted musicians and record collectors. Utilising comprehensive research, Cartwright traces record retail history across a century of unprecedented social, cultural and political change.
With foreword by Stewart Lee
From market traders selling music hall 78s via HMV's gloved classical emporium through Soho's post-WW2 jazz, blues and folk scene to mods hungry for imported ska and soul 45s, Going For A Song documents how popular music and youth fashions took shape around influential record shops. Brian Epstein, the genius behind Liverpool's NEMS shops, utilises his trade contacts to launch The Beatles. Psychedelia's golden dawn is overseen at Mayfair's One Stop (Jimi Hendrix's being a regular) while A Clockwork Orange is filmed in the Chelsea Drug Store. The '70’s finds Richard Branson’s Virgin shops leading a revolution in record retail. Rough Trade and Small Wonder launch punk record labels from within their respective shops. Disco and reggae, techno and dubstep, are all shaped by visionary record shops. Then, at the dawn of this century, hundreds of record shops crash. From these ruins rise independent shops surfing the vinyl revival and Record Store Day.
Never before published research documents how a young Bob Dylan records in the basement of a Soho shop while David Bowie, Dusty Springfield, Elton John, Danny Baker and Pete Burns all first entered the music industry via working in record shops. Here friendships were forged, knowledge shared, bands formed and history shaped.
With foreword by Stewart Lee
From market traders selling music hall 78s via HMV's gloved classical emporium through Soho's post-WW2 jazz, blues and folk scene to mods hungry for imported ska and soul 45s, Going For A Song documents how popular music and youth fashions took shape around influential record shops. Brian Epstein, the genius behind Liverpool's NEMS shops, utilises his trade contacts to launch The Beatles. Psychedelia's golden dawn is overseen at Mayfair's One Stop (Jimi Hendrix's being a regular) while A Clockwork Orange is filmed in the Chelsea Drug Store. The '70’s finds Richard Branson’s Virgin shops leading a revolution in record retail. Rough Trade and Small Wonder launch punk record labels from within their respective shops. Disco and reggae, techno and dubstep, are all shaped by visionary record shops. Then, at the dawn of this century, hundreds of record shops crash. From these ruins rise independent shops surfing the vinyl revival and Record Store Day.
Never before published research documents how a young Bob Dylan records in the basement of a Soho shop while David Bowie, Dusty Springfield, Elton John, Danny Baker and Pete Burns all first entered the music industry via working in record shops. Here friendships were forged, knowledge shared, bands formed and history shaped.
First official appearance of legendary Sings For You demos from The Byrds’ co-founder. Also includes six additional previously unknown demos submitted to The Rose Garden (band). Restoration by Grammy -winning engineer Michael Graves.
Liner notes by John Einarson, author of Mr. Tambourine Man: The Life and Legacy Of The Byrds’ Gene Clark. Project produced in cooperation and with the approval of the Gene Clark estate. For longtime Gene Clark fans and aficionados, the tracks on this remarkable archival release are the stuff of legend. Since word first spread in the 1980s about the discovery of these 1967 recordings on a rare acetate in Liberty Records’ vaults, fans have come to regard Gene Clark Sings For You as nothing less than the Holy Grail of the singer-songwriter’s extraordinary body of work.
Shrouded in mystery and the subject of much speculation and conjecture, few have ever had the opportunity to hear these forgotten gems from one of Gene Clark’s most prolifically creative periods. Until now. from the liner notes by John Einarson, author of Mr. Tambourine Man: The Life And Legacy of The Byrds’ Gene Clark. Finally available, the legendary Gene Clark Sings For You acetate appears on CD, 2-LP, and Digital June 15, 2018. In addition to the Sings For You 8 songs, this new release also features an additional five demos from a second acetate lent courtesy of The Rose Garden’s John Noreen, as well as one further demo of the song “Till Today.”
The Rose Garden acetate and the “Till Today” demo were submitted to the band, The Rose Garden, with whom Clark had grown close, for consideration for their debut Atco album (also being reissued in expanded form at the same time as Sings For You). Produced for release by Grammy -winning producer, Cheryl Pawelski with restoration from Grammy-winning engineer, Michael Graves, this historic release features previously unseen photos and an essay by Gene Clark biographer, John Einarson.
Liner notes by John Einarson, author of Mr. Tambourine Man: The Life and Legacy Of The Byrds’ Gene Clark. Project produced in cooperation and with the approval of the Gene Clark estate. For longtime Gene Clark fans and aficionados, the tracks on this remarkable archival release are the stuff of legend. Since word first spread in the 1980s about the discovery of these 1967 recordings on a rare acetate in Liberty Records’ vaults, fans have come to regard Gene Clark Sings For You as nothing less than the Holy Grail of the singer-songwriter’s extraordinary body of work.
Shrouded in mystery and the subject of much speculation and conjecture, few have ever had the opportunity to hear these forgotten gems from one of Gene Clark’s most prolifically creative periods. Until now. from the liner notes by John Einarson, author of Mr. Tambourine Man: The Life And Legacy of The Byrds’ Gene Clark. Finally available, the legendary Gene Clark Sings For You acetate appears on CD, 2-LP, and Digital June 15, 2018. In addition to the Sings For You 8 songs, this new release also features an additional five demos from a second acetate lent courtesy of The Rose Garden’s John Noreen, as well as one further demo of the song “Till Today.”
The Rose Garden acetate and the “Till Today” demo were submitted to the band, The Rose Garden, with whom Clark had grown close, for consideration for their debut Atco album (also being reissued in expanded form at the same time as Sings For You). Produced for release by Grammy -winning producer, Cheryl Pawelski with restoration from Grammy-winning engineer, Michael Graves, this historic release features previously unseen photos and an essay by Gene Clark biographer, John Einarson.
At long last, these 24 thought-to-be-lost recordings by the late, great Gene Clark are being released on Sierra High Fidelity as a 2XLP Set. These incredible recordings, which have never been released commercially, are from the original analog master studio recording sessions held in Los Angeles between 1964 and 1982.
1964 SESSIONS
The Way I Am/I'd Feel Better/That Girl/A Worried Heart/If There's No Love
These Jim Dickson-produced tracks reveal a sensitive acoustic balladeer honing his songwriting craft. Already apparent are the unexpected chord changes, soaring tenor and preoccupation with heartache that would characterize his later, more well-known work, both with The Byrds and as a solo artist.
HUGH MASEKELA SESSIONS, 1967
Back Street Mirror/Don't Let It Fall Through
On the verge of being dropped by Columbia following disappointing performance of his debut album, Gene Clark with The Gosdin Brothers, Gene hooked up with South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela to record several songs in the spring of 1967. Back Street Mirror, released later that fall by actor David Hemmings (produced by Dickson as well) on his Happens LP (using the same backing track), recalls the rich baroque stylings of 'Echoes'; while the spirited 'Don't Let It Fall Through' shows Gene was no slouch singing swinging, R&B-based rock.
1969-1970 SESSIONS-SOLO
Back To The Earth Again/The Lighthouse/The Awakening Within/Sweet Adrienne/Walking Through This Lifetime/The Sparrow/Only Yesterday's Gone
Virtually an album within an album, these seven tracks constitute a convincing, cohesive testament to Clark's extraordinary growth as a writer, especially when juxtaposed with the 1964 material. Temporarily eschewing the pressures of life in LA for the pastoral peace of his Northern California retreat, Gene's music reflected uncommon maturity, grace and scope, with songs that embraced philosophy, ecology and spirituality.
WITH THE FLYING BURRITO BROTHERS
She Darked The Sun
Recorded in spring of 1970 before Gram Parsons' firing, Gene revives a song that first appeared on the first Dillard and Clark album (also covered by Linda Ronstadt). This up-tempo interpretation shows how effortlessly Gene could have slipped into another band situation had he chosen to do so. One can't help but think that this version, paired with Gene's other Burritos-backed song, 'Here Tonight,' would have made a dynamite 45.
1972 SESSIONS
Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms/She Don't Care About Time/Don't This Road Look Rough and Rocky/Bars Have Made a Prisoner Out Of Me
Similar to the situation with 'Back Street Mirror,' two of these tracks eventually saw release on Terry Melcher's self-titled album from 1974; Gene's vocals having been wiped and replaced by Melcher's. Thankfully, Chris Hinshaw had the good sense and vision to record these featuring Gene's original vocals. Jim Dickson always maintained that "these were the best Gene ever sounded!" One would be hard pressed to argue.
1982 NYTEFLYTE - Gene Clark, Chris Hillman, Herb Pedersen, Al Perkins, Michael Clarke
One Hundred Years From Now/ (The) Letter/ Still Feeling Blue/No Memories Hangin' Round/I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better
The July 1982 "Nyteflyte" sessions were an effort by the team of Tickner & Dickson to reenergize country-rock in Nashville. Alas, they were too early; so-called "New Country" had not yet hit Nashville tune masters. Nyteflyte's music, featuring Gene as lead singer, may not have caught on with the 16th Avenue Music Row crowd, but we may now enjoy these exciting, previously unreleased recordings. Sadly, this would be the final occasion in which ex-Byrds Clark, Hillman and Clarke would record together.
1964 SESSIONS
The Way I Am/I'd Feel Better/That Girl/A Worried Heart/If There's No Love
These Jim Dickson-produced tracks reveal a sensitive acoustic balladeer honing his songwriting craft. Already apparent are the unexpected chord changes, soaring tenor and preoccupation with heartache that would characterize his later, more well-known work, both with The Byrds and as a solo artist.
HUGH MASEKELA SESSIONS, 1967
Back Street Mirror/Don't Let It Fall Through
On the verge of being dropped by Columbia following disappointing performance of his debut album, Gene Clark with The Gosdin Brothers, Gene hooked up with South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela to record several songs in the spring of 1967. Back Street Mirror, released later that fall by actor David Hemmings (produced by Dickson as well) on his Happens LP (using the same backing track), recalls the rich baroque stylings of 'Echoes'; while the spirited 'Don't Let It Fall Through' shows Gene was no slouch singing swinging, R&B-based rock.
1969-1970 SESSIONS-SOLO
Back To The Earth Again/The Lighthouse/The Awakening Within/Sweet Adrienne/Walking Through This Lifetime/The Sparrow/Only Yesterday's Gone
Virtually an album within an album, these seven tracks constitute a convincing, cohesive testament to Clark's extraordinary growth as a writer, especially when juxtaposed with the 1964 material. Temporarily eschewing the pressures of life in LA for the pastoral peace of his Northern California retreat, Gene's music reflected uncommon maturity, grace and scope, with songs that embraced philosophy, ecology and spirituality.
WITH THE FLYING BURRITO BROTHERS
She Darked The Sun
Recorded in spring of 1970 before Gram Parsons' firing, Gene revives a song that first appeared on the first Dillard and Clark album (also covered by Linda Ronstadt). This up-tempo interpretation shows how effortlessly Gene could have slipped into another band situation had he chosen to do so. One can't help but think that this version, paired with Gene's other Burritos-backed song, 'Here Tonight,' would have made a dynamite 45.
1972 SESSIONS
Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms/She Don't Care About Time/Don't This Road Look Rough and Rocky/Bars Have Made a Prisoner Out Of Me
Similar to the situation with 'Back Street Mirror,' two of these tracks eventually saw release on Terry Melcher's self-titled album from 1974; Gene's vocals having been wiped and replaced by Melcher's. Thankfully, Chris Hinshaw had the good sense and vision to record these featuring Gene's original vocals. Jim Dickson always maintained that "these were the best Gene ever sounded!" One would be hard pressed to argue.
1982 NYTEFLYTE - Gene Clark, Chris Hillman, Herb Pedersen, Al Perkins, Michael Clarke
One Hundred Years From Now/ (The) Letter/ Still Feeling Blue/No Memories Hangin' Round/I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better
The July 1982 "Nyteflyte" sessions were an effort by the team of Tickner & Dickson to reenergize country-rock in Nashville. Alas, they were too early; so-called "New Country" had not yet hit Nashville tune masters. Nyteflyte's music, featuring Gene as lead singer, may not have caught on with the 16th Avenue Music Row crowd, but we may now enjoy these exciting, previously unreleased recordings. Sadly, this would be the final occasion in which ex-Byrds Clark, Hillman and Clarke would record together.
FORMAT INFORMATION
2xLtd LP includes MP3 Download Code.
No Other is an absolutely incredible record, and the album that Clark himself thought of as his masterpiece. Despite being a critical and commercial failure at the time of its release in 1974, the years have been kind to No Other and it is now thought of as a classic solo album from one of the founding members of the Byrds. Written in the quiet sobriety of his Mendocino family home, yet recorded in the cocaine excess of Hollywood, No Other is a perfect blending of those two poles. A stunning and important folk-rock record. Comes with a reproduction of the original poster insert.
Gabriella Cohen’s debut solo full-length is the product of ten days and two microphones. Co-produced alongside close friend, bandmate and engineer Kate ‘Babyshakes’ Dillon, the record is the result of what Cohen describes as the “ceremony” of reflecting on a relationship.
The album’s raw, personal side could be traced back to its place of birth at Dillon’s parents’ place in the country, or to the Brisbane streets the songs were composed in. The songs are soaked in the kind of aching nostalgia that is tinged with equal measures of sadness and triumph. On ‘I Don’t Feel So Alive’ Cohen warns: “This could be the last time we get together” and on one hand it’s melancholy but it’s in the spirit of endings that are also beginnings. After finishing the record, Cohen and Dillon hit the road down Australia’s East Coast, from Brisbane to Melbourne, a truck full of instruments and gear following in their wake.
There are two sides to Cohen’s coin though - for every moment of raw, cutting emotion, there’s one of otherworldly ethereality. It’s what makes the record feel timeless, which doesn’t mean old-fashioned - it means that the vocoder on ‘Feelin’ Fine’ and the fuzzy, frenzied drums of ‘Alien Anthem’ don’t feel at odds with the dreamy, ambling melodies and old-school ethos at the heart of Cohen’s songwriting.
‘Full Closure And No Details’ is a definitional labour of love: when Cohen talks about her collaborators she sounds like she’s talking about her family - her bass player and backing singers, ring-ins that recorded after Cohen and Dillon finished up in the country, are ‘dear friends’; and Dillon is her ‘sister’. The songs were written on Cohen’s grandpa’s nylon string guitar and ‘Piano Song’ was recorded on Dillon’s parents’ old, out-of-tune upright, the same piano she learned on as a child.
“‘Full Closure And No Details’ is quietly impressive - a slowburning fusion of defiance and heartache.” - The Guardian
The album’s raw, personal side could be traced back to its place of birth at Dillon’s parents’ place in the country, or to the Brisbane streets the songs were composed in. The songs are soaked in the kind of aching nostalgia that is tinged with equal measures of sadness and triumph. On ‘I Don’t Feel So Alive’ Cohen warns: “This could be the last time we get together” and on one hand it’s melancholy but it’s in the spirit of endings that are also beginnings. After finishing the record, Cohen and Dillon hit the road down Australia’s East Coast, from Brisbane to Melbourne, a truck full of instruments and gear following in their wake.
There are two sides to Cohen’s coin though - for every moment of raw, cutting emotion, there’s one of otherworldly ethereality. It’s what makes the record feel timeless, which doesn’t mean old-fashioned - it means that the vocoder on ‘Feelin’ Fine’ and the fuzzy, frenzied drums of ‘Alien Anthem’ don’t feel at odds with the dreamy, ambling melodies and old-school ethos at the heart of Cohen’s songwriting.
‘Full Closure And No Details’ is a definitional labour of love: when Cohen talks about her collaborators she sounds like she’s talking about her family - her bass player and backing singers, ring-ins that recorded after Cohen and Dillon finished up in the country, are ‘dear friends’; and Dillon is her ‘sister’. The songs were written on Cohen’s grandpa’s nylon string guitar and ‘Piano Song’ was recorded on Dillon’s parents’ old, out-of-tune upright, the same piano she learned on as a child.
“‘Full Closure And No Details’ is quietly impressive - a slowburning fusion of defiance and heartache.” - The Guardian
Australia’s sweetheart, Gabriella Cohen struck gold with the release of her internationally acclaimed debut, Full Closure and No Details in 2016. After extensively touring the album worldwide and sharing the stage with musical heavyweights like The Flaming Lips, Marlon Williams and Rodrigo Amarante, fans and industry alike embraced the dreamy, fuzz-soaked popscapes created by Cohen. The Guardian praised: “Seductive, broody and occasionally sinister,” and it drew four-star reviews from MOJO, UNCUT and Q Magazine.
In the summer of 2017, Cohen moved to a farm in countryside Victoria, Australia, to record and self-produce her second album with engineer and partner-in-crime, Kate ‘Babyshakes’ Dillon. There, amidst flocks of screeching white cockatoos and herds of Black Angus cows, they etched the beginning of Pink Is The Colour Of Unconditional Love. The record was almost complete when the band was invited to join Foxygen’s U.S tour, compelling the girls to finish the album on the road. Armed with a microphone and an interface, Dillon and Cohen captured the final touches on a boat in England, the coast of Portugal; in the mountains of Southern Italy, cafes of Mexico, and finally in Venice Beach, Los Angeles.
Pink Is The Colour is an expansive and exciting body of work, showcasing Cohen’s unusually refreshing twists on pop arrangements. ‘Baby’ was born in the graveyard of unrequited love, while ‘Music Machine’ became a swagger of sultry defiance set in LA. Throughout the new album Cohen creates complex and sugary backing vocals. These signature vocal arrangements—contoured with classic harmonies and nostalgic melodies—form songs remarkable in their originality. Honest heartache is woven into glory throughout the record, and during eleven tracks a candid, almost ethereal self-portrait of its songwriter emerges. For Gabriella Cohen, it’s an epitaph of electric wonder, and a definitive fact: Pink is the Colour of Unconditional Love.
“A modern psychedelic prophet who layers drawling vocals, heartache, and healing over a background of Velvet Underground-esque guitar distortion.” - Rookie Mag
In the summer of 2017, Cohen moved to a farm in countryside Victoria, Australia, to record and self-produce her second album with engineer and partner-in-crime, Kate ‘Babyshakes’ Dillon. There, amidst flocks of screeching white cockatoos and herds of Black Angus cows, they etched the beginning of Pink Is The Colour Of Unconditional Love. The record was almost complete when the band was invited to join Foxygen’s U.S tour, compelling the girls to finish the album on the road. Armed with a microphone and an interface, Dillon and Cohen captured the final touches on a boat in England, the coast of Portugal; in the mountains of Southern Italy, cafes of Mexico, and finally in Venice Beach, Los Angeles.
Pink Is The Colour is an expansive and exciting body of work, showcasing Cohen’s unusually refreshing twists on pop arrangements. ‘Baby’ was born in the graveyard of unrequited love, while ‘Music Machine’ became a swagger of sultry defiance set in LA. Throughout the new album Cohen creates complex and sugary backing vocals. These signature vocal arrangements—contoured with classic harmonies and nostalgic melodies—form songs remarkable in their originality. Honest heartache is woven into glory throughout the record, and during eleven tracks a candid, almost ethereal self-portrait of its songwriter emerges. For Gabriella Cohen, it’s an epitaph of electric wonder, and a definitive fact: Pink is the Colour of Unconditional Love.
“A modern psychedelic prophet who layers drawling vocals, heartache, and healing over a background of Velvet Underground-esque guitar distortion.” - Rookie Mag
Reduced
It’s been an extraordinary journey for Gaz Coombes, from flashily whiskered pop tearaway to Ivor Novello and BRIT award winning rock star. The mega-watt melodic genius responsible for ten Top 20 hits and six Top 20 albums - 'I Should Coco' was Parlophone’s fastest selling debut since the Beatles 'Please Please Me' - returns with his remarkable new album, entitled 'Matador'.
“There’s this disposable vibe around music at the moment which is odd, because it’s so obviously central to most people’s lives,” says Gaz. “Life is full of moments of fear, loss and longing, but it’s how you get through those things and triumph over them which define you. But there’s as much light as there is dark on this record; there’s beauty in both of those states and that has always intrigued me."
“There’s this disposable vibe around music at the moment which is odd, because it’s so obviously central to most people’s lives,” says Gaz. “Life is full of moments of fear, loss and longing, but it’s how you get through those things and triumph over them which define you. But there’s as much light as there is dark on this record; there’s beauty in both of those states and that has always intrigued me."
World’s Strongest Man is the magnificent third solo album by Gaz Coombes. Inspired variously by Grayson Perry’s the Descent of Man, Frank Ocean’s Blonde, Californian weed, British woodlands, unchecked masculinity, Neu! and hip hop (and a whole lot more besides), it’s a truly remarkable collection of eleven deeply personal songs each set to expansive, addictive melody.
FORMAT INFORMATION
Coloured LP Info: Gatefold Sleeve Pink Coloured Indies Exclusive.
The two singles preceding this (Graham's back playing ball, back on a major) hinted at a return to the poppier, more direct music of Blur's heyday, and sure enough, that's what you get here. There's even chugging new-wave barre-chords where once there was atonal tinkering. It's all very welcome. Produced by Stephen Street (this isn't art, it's pop) he's having fun again: there's no time for chin-stroking. It's a catchy, punky, poppy sixties / noughties record for the summer. Welcome back on board, Graham Coxon!
Ltd CD Info: These are very limited SIGNED copies.
FORMAT INFORMATION
Ltd LP Info: These are very limited SIGNED copies.Ltd CD Info: These are very limited SIGNED copies.
More new-wavey, punky pop from the ex-Blur man: dumb, fun and revelling in it. Is it alright to say he sounds like Damon Albarn on this one? He's coming in the shop this week so don't tell him I said that, will you?!
FORMAT INFORMATION
Ltd CDS Info: Limited and numbered maxi CD single. Includes "Life It Sucks" and "I Wish (Live)", plus the video for "Spectaclular". These are very limited SIGNED copies!!!
"The Spinning Top", Coxon's seventh studio LP to date, is also his finest yet whether the folky blues shuffle of "Sorrow's Army", menacing thrashes of "Dead Bees", or eight-minute daydream opus, and perhaps album centrepiece, "In The Morning". Comprising 15 original new songs, the album was produced by Stephen Street and featuring collaborators such as Danny Thompson and Robyn Hitchcock. Graham's most intimate and beguiling work to date, "The Spinning Top" ploughs depths, textures and lyrical furrows that few of his contemporaries are still able to muster, especially this far down the line. Conversely, this is the sound of a man rejuvenated and refocused, ready for yet another flourish in an-already compulsive and vital career.
Blur’s Graham Coxon releases a special new single on Parlophone Records on December 15th. ‘Falling’ is a double A-side single which was written by the talented, but unknown song-writer and musician Luke Daniel.
One side features ‘Falling’ recorded by Graham and the other features Luke Daniel’s original recording of the same track.
Proceeds from the sale of this single will be donated to CALM (the Campaign Against Living Miserably), an award-winning charity dedicated to preventing male suicide, the single biggest killer of men under the age of 45 in the UK.
One side features ‘Falling’ recorded by Graham and the other features Luke Daniel’s original recording of the same track.
Proceeds from the sale of this single will be donated to CALM (the Campaign Against Living Miserably), an award-winning charity dedicated to preventing male suicide, the single biggest killer of men under the age of 45 in the UK.
The release of the debut original soundtrack score from Graham Coxon to accompany Channel 4/Netflix series ‘The End of the F***ing World’. .
Recorded in Graham’ home studio in Summer 2017 the album was written, composed and performed by Coxon and marks Coxon’s original soundtrack debut. The first track to be released from the album is titled Walking All Day
The project saw Coxon write over 40 original pieces for the show. He said:
“There were days were I wrote and finished three or four new songs in a single day. It was mental, I’ve never worked to that kind of schedule before. But the creative process around observation and interpretation is one that is very familiar to me. I feel very comfortable reacting to things and adding my bit.
And this show particularly appealed to both my appreciation of dark music as well as my dark sense of humour. It felt like a good fit.”
The End of the F****ing World is an eight part darkly comic TV series based on the 2011 graphic novel by Charles Forsman which follows teenage runaways James and Alyssa (Alex Lawther and Jessica Barden) as they embark on a road trip across England. Directed by Jonathan Entwhislte and Lucy Tcherniak, the critically acclaimed series is described by Noisey as “Richard Ayoade's Submarine meets David Lynch's Wild At Heart with a splash of Black Mirror's bleakness and ink-black humour thrown in.”
Recorded in Graham’ home studio in Summer 2017 the album was written, composed and performed by Coxon and marks Coxon’s original soundtrack debut. The first track to be released from the album is titled Walking All Day
The project saw Coxon write over 40 original pieces for the show. He said:
“There were days were I wrote and finished three or four new songs in a single day. It was mental, I’ve never worked to that kind of schedule before. But the creative process around observation and interpretation is one that is very familiar to me. I feel very comfortable reacting to things and adding my bit.
And this show particularly appealed to both my appreciation of dark music as well as my dark sense of humour. It felt like a good fit.”
The End of the F****ing World is an eight part darkly comic TV series based on the 2011 graphic novel by Charles Forsman which follows teenage runaways James and Alyssa (Alex Lawther and Jessica Barden) as they embark on a road trip across England. Directed by Jonathan Entwhislte and Lucy Tcherniak, the critically acclaimed series is described by Noisey as “Richard Ayoade's Submarine meets David Lynch's Wild At Heart with a splash of Black Mirror's bleakness and ink-black humour thrown in.”
Graham Coxon returns to Parlophone for his new album titled A+E, which will be released on 2nd April. A+E is Coxon’s first release since the acclaimed, acoustic-driven The Spinning Top.
Aptly named not only for the sense of scratchy, frantic urgency that suffuses its 10 songs, A+E finds Graham continuing with his singular vision as a truly eclectic artist. Playing all the instruments and improvising in the studio, Coxon found himself preoccupied with lyrical themes around the effects of weekend hedonism in modern Britain, on which A+E shines an outsider’s light, albeit with a mordant, sharp wit.
Produced by Ben Hillier, A+E features Coxon’s distinctive, visceral garage-punk-pop and is inspired by the experimental genres of Krautrock and the black & white, post-punk era – bringing to mind artists such as Neu! (‘City Hall’), Can and Kraftwerk (‘What’ll It Take’), as well as Peter Hamill, Joy Division (‘Knife In The Cast’) and Monochrome Set - with hypnotic, driving grooves (‘The Truth’). This may be the closest Graham has ever come to making, in a skewed sense of the word, ‘dance’ music.
Coxon describes the album as, “Improvisations, experiments in beats, rhythms. A chance to uninhibitedly make some sort of perversely sad, danceable and funny and despondent songs.” Adding “I didn’t want to get caught up in my usual struggle with trying to make things sound really posh. I didn’t want lovely 60s-sounding drums and valves.”
Aptly named not only for the sense of scratchy, frantic urgency that suffuses its 10 songs, A+E finds Graham continuing with his singular vision as a truly eclectic artist. Playing all the instruments and improvising in the studio, Coxon found himself preoccupied with lyrical themes around the effects of weekend hedonism in modern Britain, on which A+E shines an outsider’s light, albeit with a mordant, sharp wit.
Produced by Ben Hillier, A+E features Coxon’s distinctive, visceral garage-punk-pop and is inspired by the experimental genres of Krautrock and the black & white, post-punk era – bringing to mind artists such as Neu! (‘City Hall’), Can and Kraftwerk (‘What’ll It Take’), as well as Peter Hamill, Joy Division (‘Knife In The Cast’) and Monochrome Set - with hypnotic, driving grooves (‘The Truth’). This may be the closest Graham has ever come to making, in a skewed sense of the word, ‘dance’ music.
Coxon describes the album as, “Improvisations, experiments in beats, rhythms. A chance to uninhibitedly make some sort of perversely sad, danceable and funny and despondent songs.” Adding “I didn’t want to get caught up in my usual struggle with trying to make things sound really posh. I didn’t want lovely 60s-sounding drums and valves.”
F*CLR Music are proud to present Irish producer/DJ, Glenn Davis and his debut release.
A deep soulful affair aimed firmly at the dance floor fusing his love of all things Chicago, Detroit & NYC.
The title track 'Body & Soul' has its roots firmly in the Strictly Rhythm/Nu Groove groove - a lush, organ driven banger that is guaranteed to incite hands in the air mayhem.
Ashley Beedle & the North Street crew put a different spin on 'Body & Soul' giving it a spaced out, Balearic feel while 'I ain't got nothing' has got attitude and then some.
The held string, melancholy chords and beautifully ethereal vocals take you to that tiny, dimly lit backstreet club in your mind - you've all been there - the one you never want to leave.
The gasping interjections on 'I feel it' are underpinned by ominous synths while 'Emotional Intelligence' takes you in an even darker Detroit direction.
A deep soulful affair aimed firmly at the dance floor fusing his love of all things Chicago, Detroit & NYC.
The title track 'Body & Soul' has its roots firmly in the Strictly Rhythm/Nu Groove groove - a lush, organ driven banger that is guaranteed to incite hands in the air mayhem.
Ashley Beedle & the North Street crew put a different spin on 'Body & Soul' giving it a spaced out, Balearic feel while 'I ain't got nothing' has got attitude and then some.
The held string, melancholy chords and beautifully ethereal vocals take you to that tiny, dimly lit backstreet club in your mind - you've all been there - the one you never want to leave.
The gasping interjections on 'I feel it' are underpinned by ominous synths while 'Emotional Intelligence' takes you in an even darker Detroit direction.
This is a reissue of ‘Casioworks’ by Gust De Meyer, originally released as a cassette on Ding Dong Tapes and Records in 1983. This stuff has been making crooked collectors, old and young minimal-wave heads and other music lovers going bonkers for years. At the age of 35, back in 1983, Gust De Meyer was working as an assistant at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Catholic University of Leuven, were he did some groundbreaking work. He got a PhD in musical industry and introduced the study of video games.
Besides that he was busy writing texts and selecting records for a weekly 4-hour pioneering radioshow called ‘Funky Town’ on Belgian national radio. The show was specialized in the Afro-American dance music of the era: discofied electronics, funk, boogie and rhythm & blues. Next to brand new American records, from Chicago, Philly and New York there was also room for European stuff, sharing a likewise bouncy character or electronic groove: italo-boogie, kraut-grooves and some local danceable new-wave. Slick, glossy and commercial but also groundbreaking and goddamn funky. No wonder this radioshow became a hit in no time, even outside the national borders.
The producer of this radioshow was the now world famous composer of minimal and soft classical music Wim Mertens. Around 1981 he started up his Soft Verdict project. The first LP Wim released under this name, was in fact a collaboration with Gust: ‘For amusement only’, a rather radical and raw experimental album concentrating on sounds made by pinball-machines and early computer games like Space Invaders and Pac-Man. It was released in 1982 on the now legendary Les Disques du Crépuscule label. This label was promoting a fresh and eclectic mix of ambient, post-punk, exotic electro-pop and contemporary music, all nicely dressed up in well designed sleeves.
Continuing the interest in the chipset sounds of those early videogames, Gust soon released his own magnum opus and: ‘Casioworks’. After which he, strangely enough, never ever released music again.
‘Casioworks’ was made at home with only one instrument: the then very popular and cheap Casio VL Tone 1 synthesizer. Every track was recorded in one take on a porta-sound Fostex 250 4 track cassette recorder/mixer. For a first record it’s very focused and mature but also playful and heavy with urgent and visceral power.
Besides that he was busy writing texts and selecting records for a weekly 4-hour pioneering radioshow called ‘Funky Town’ on Belgian national radio. The show was specialized in the Afro-American dance music of the era: discofied electronics, funk, boogie and rhythm & blues. Next to brand new American records, from Chicago, Philly and New York there was also room for European stuff, sharing a likewise bouncy character or electronic groove: italo-boogie, kraut-grooves and some local danceable new-wave. Slick, glossy and commercial but also groundbreaking and goddamn funky. No wonder this radioshow became a hit in no time, even outside the national borders.
The producer of this radioshow was the now world famous composer of minimal and soft classical music Wim Mertens. Around 1981 he started up his Soft Verdict project. The first LP Wim released under this name, was in fact a collaboration with Gust: ‘For amusement only’, a rather radical and raw experimental album concentrating on sounds made by pinball-machines and early computer games like Space Invaders and Pac-Man. It was released in 1982 on the now legendary Les Disques du Crépuscule label. This label was promoting a fresh and eclectic mix of ambient, post-punk, exotic electro-pop and contemporary music, all nicely dressed up in well designed sleeves.
Continuing the interest in the chipset sounds of those early videogames, Gust soon released his own magnum opus and: ‘Casioworks’. After which he, strangely enough, never ever released music again.
‘Casioworks’ was made at home with only one instrument: the then very popular and cheap Casio VL Tone 1 synthesizer. Every track was recorded in one take on a porta-sound Fostex 250 4 track cassette recorder/mixer. For a first record it’s very focused and mature but also playful and heavy with urgent and visceral power.
This 1975 album is a studio session organized by Maestro Giacomo Dell'Orso (the husband of Edda) here released under his given name and not the Oscar Lindok pseudonym he's better known for. This album had the simple purpose of a fun and playful session without preconceived models. The result is a carefree album, from the friendly cover (Orso means Bear) to the music that is interwoven with bossa nova, samba, jazz and funk in a style that recalls in many ways the work of Maestro Piero Piccioni. Dell'Orso plays organ, electric piano and Bulisacchio (a synth with metal slats that simulate bass), Nino Rapicavoli on flute and sax, Jimmy Tamborelli on guitars and Ciro Cocozza on percussion.
FORMAT INFORMATION
Ltd LP includes MP3 Download Code.
One of our favourite labels, Tirk issue forth this debut EP from George Demure following releases on Output he turns to Tirk to unleash his masterplan. "No Confrontation has 5 tracks of varying influence and flavour, firstly "New Confrontation" offers a dour vocal delivery over a tireless electro-house groove, "Paperclip Millionaire" is a funky lowstrapped guitar groove with George delivering more deadpan vocals. Onto "Sister Valhalla" which is a driving punchy tech house slab, with bouncing analogue bass and crispy beats. Followed by "Atari Swansong", which indicates George is finally getting a new Mac for his production, or an XBox for Christmas over a dark Phuture-istic electro groove. lastly yet by no means least is an unaccompanied fingerpicked folky Americana offering "Rose-A-Lee". In conclusion then a strangely varied offering from George, but a fitting release for Tirk all the same.
Gareth Dickson has spent the last two and a half years touring with Vashti Bunyan as her guitarist. This gave him the opportunity to work with great musicians like Devendra Banhart, Juana Molina and Coco Rosie, as well as the chance to perform in some of the great venues all over the world from The Barbican (London) to Carnegie Hall (New York). Gareth, who hails from Glasgow, Scotland, uses a steel stringed acoustic guitar and effects (delay and reverb) in his quest to recreate the ambiance of some of his more recent musical influences (Aphex Twin, Brian Eno) while drawing on the guitar techniques of some of the finger-picker guitarists of the past (Bert Jansch, Robert Johnson, Nick Drake).
Two all-time George Duke greats, 'I Want You for Myself' & 'Brazilian Love Affair', get the official remastered, reissue treatment.
First up, 'I Want You For Myself' Duke's 1979 jazz funk, R&B tinged gem has got all the ingredients of classic from his illustrious catalogue. A funked up guitar and exuberant percussion, compliment Lynn Davis' fabulously soulful vocals perfectly to make this a love song that's sweeter than most. A Duke classic wouldn't be complete without a killer, keys solo and 'I Want You For Myself' shows off his talents in abundance. The infamous Tom Moulton takes on edit duties splicing it into a 10-minute exploration of this fusion powerhouse, extending and enhancing elements in the mix, alongside adding an epic breakdown in a way that only he knows how.
On the B side, the stone-cold killer 'Brazilian Love Affair' is a Latin American, jazz funk classic. Recorded in Rio de Janeiro, Duke drafted in a host of greats to guest on the track, each bringing something unique to the table. From Airto Moreira's expert latin drumming, to Byron Miller's heavyweight bass and Roland Bautista's overdriven guitar. Duke supplements this to a tee with his blissful vocals and an otherworldly Rhodes solo. Much sampled, much loved, this is a masterpiece that needs a place in the collection.
First up, 'I Want You For Myself' Duke's 1979 jazz funk, R&B tinged gem has got all the ingredients of classic from his illustrious catalogue. A funked up guitar and exuberant percussion, compliment Lynn Davis' fabulously soulful vocals perfectly to make this a love song that's sweeter than most. A Duke classic wouldn't be complete without a killer, keys solo and 'I Want You For Myself' shows off his talents in abundance. The infamous Tom Moulton takes on edit duties splicing it into a 10-minute exploration of this fusion powerhouse, extending and enhancing elements in the mix, alongside adding an epic breakdown in a way that only he knows how.
On the B side, the stone-cold killer 'Brazilian Love Affair' is a Latin American, jazz funk classic. Recorded in Rio de Janeiro, Duke drafted in a host of greats to guest on the track, each bringing something unique to the table. From Airto Moreira's expert latin drumming, to Byron Miller's heavyweight bass and Roland Bautista's overdriven guitar. Duke supplements this to a tee with his blissful vocals and an otherworldly Rhodes solo. Much sampled, much loved, this is a masterpiece that needs a place in the collection.
“The Naked City” album is the musical portrait of a city. It’s a bold portrait told in striking, vivid tone colors, bringing to life the throbbing intensity of a great metropolis and its people. It’s a musical portrait with the pulse-pounding rhythm of the city’s heartbeat and melodies drawn from the dreams, the triumphs, the tragedies of the people (...)”
Naked City is a police drama series which aired from 1958 to 1963 on the ABC television network. It was inspired by the 1948 motion picture The Naked City and mimics its dramatic “semi-documentary” format and filmed on location in New York City.
Ned Washington, author of the lyrics and narrative for “The Naked City” album, is one of the best known and most honored musical collaborators on the Hollywood scene.
Naked City is a police drama series which aired from 1958 to 1963 on the ABC television network. It was inspired by the 1948 motion picture The Naked City and mimics its dramatic “semi-documentary” format and filmed on location in New York City.
Ned Washington, author of the lyrics and narrative for “The Naked City” album, is one of the best known and most honored musical collaborators on the Hollywood scene.
George Duning & The Brothers Candoli / Gianfranco Reverberi
Bell, Book And Candle / The Reincarnation Of Isabel
Finders Kreepers / Finders Keepers
For the final chapter of the Finders Kreepers 7″ series of bygone supernatural psychedelic cinema scores we combine a true universal classic with a very deep underground gem for this unlikely pairing of witchcraft films from entirely different cinematic perspectives.
Taken from a South American only 7″ EP dedicated solely to the nightclub music of The Brothers Candoli in Richard Quine’s Bell Book And Candle, the tongue-in-cheek cat magic theme on the a-side of this release combines whirring electric pianos and muted horns to provide a classic kitsch-witch freaky tiki theme complete with purrs, meows and magical spells sharing the same dark comedic approach to the looming domestication of witchcraft shared in haxan classics like Rosemary’s baby and Virgin Witch as wellas comedies like Bewitched and Saxana.
The final side to this ten-part series finally sees the obscure ritualistic funk soundtrack to Renato Polselli’s Reincarnation Of Isobel available on vinyl for the first time since its ultra rare 1973 release (under a different name) on a small Italian imprint. Composed by library music stalwart Gianfranco Reverberi for a film that also goes by the name of Rites, Black Magic and Secret Orgies In The Fourteenth Century, the bizarre feature-length score does little to authenticate the stylistic vintage of the films plot and brings psych rock, synth and sound effects to the proceedings bequeathing gems such as this impending bass and percussion driven title sequence. Complete with explicit feminine vocalisations and sedated Euro mock afro rock textures this rare theme for the X-rated 1970s take on the 1922 Benjamin Christensen film Haxan does its best to provide a musical backdrop for a film that combines witchcraft, vampires and zombies combining all the key fantasy figures found in the Finders Kreepers series for an ultimate deep groove crescendo.
Taken from a South American only 7″ EP dedicated solely to the nightclub music of The Brothers Candoli in Richard Quine’s Bell Book And Candle, the tongue-in-cheek cat magic theme on the a-side of this release combines whirring electric pianos and muted horns to provide a classic kitsch-witch freaky tiki theme complete with purrs, meows and magical spells sharing the same dark comedic approach to the looming domestication of witchcraft shared in haxan classics like Rosemary’s baby and Virgin Witch as wellas comedies like Bewitched and Saxana.
The final side to this ten-part series finally sees the obscure ritualistic funk soundtrack to Renato Polselli’s Reincarnation Of Isobel available on vinyl for the first time since its ultra rare 1973 release (under a different name) on a small Italian imprint. Composed by library music stalwart Gianfranco Reverberi for a film that also goes by the name of Rites, Black Magic and Secret Orgies In The Fourteenth Century, the bizarre feature-length score does little to authenticate the stylistic vintage of the films plot and brings psych rock, synth and sound effects to the proceedings bequeathing gems such as this impending bass and percussion driven title sequence. Complete with explicit feminine vocalisations and sedated Euro mock afro rock textures this rare theme for the X-rated 1970s take on the 1922 Benjamin Christensen film Haxan does its best to provide a musical backdrop for a film that combines witchcraft, vampires and zombies combining all the key fantasy figures found in the Finders Kreepers series for an ultimate deep groove crescendo.
Sounding a little like a lost Balearic / house treasure, only refracted back through a modern prism, George Earnest's EP here on Pear seeks to update templates laid down by proto- British House pioneers as much as it delivers paradisiacal music for the sunshine isles.
After an ambient, coastal introduction we're flung into the lush driving house of "Organ Of Evening Calm" - with big pitch bent solos enthusiastically jumping from a bed of delicate rhythms and synthy flute licks. The perfect track to get lost in as the stars begin to shine across the outdoor arena. "Dreaming Island" hires in a bolshie breakbeat for extra bump while majestic keys paint a tantalizing picture of serotonin flooded fun. Cheeky, groovy and oh-so-nice this'll have the whole floor smiling at each other. The appropriately named "Mermaid Dive" sounds exactly as describes, as sonar bleeps and underwater bubbles cascade past our ears as we sink deeper and deeper into a swirling sonic world. Finally, another beatless, coastal excursion closes proceedings entitled "A Sea" and decorated beautifully with bird song. I love bird song. I love this EP!
After an ambient, coastal introduction we're flung into the lush driving house of "Organ Of Evening Calm" - with big pitch bent solos enthusiastically jumping from a bed of delicate rhythms and synthy flute licks. The perfect track to get lost in as the stars begin to shine across the outdoor arena. "Dreaming Island" hires in a bolshie breakbeat for extra bump while majestic keys paint a tantalizing picture of serotonin flooded fun. Cheeky, groovy and oh-so-nice this'll have the whole floor smiling at each other. The appropriately named "Mermaid Dive" sounds exactly as describes, as sonar bleeps and underwater bubbles cascade past our ears as we sink deeper and deeper into a swirling sonic world. Finally, another beatless, coastal excursion closes proceedings entitled "A Sea" and decorated beautifully with bird song. I love bird song. I love this EP!
Four Flies keep their quality control sky high with the first vinyl reissue of the original soundtrack to "Io Emmanuelle (also known as A Man For Emmanuelle) – Cesare Canavari’s 1969 erotic-drama starring Italian scream-queen Erika Blanc. The score was composed and arranged by maestro Gianni Ferrio, who created one of his most famous and iconic soundtracks ever, with music that perfectly follows the neurotic character of the young protagonist – from moments of intimacy and introspection, to those of insanity and madness. The result is a terrific cocktail of late 60’s Italian grooves: orchestral beat, RnB, jazz, and avant garde numbers, with an essential contribution of “I Cantori Modernidi Alessandro Alessandroni” (vocal and choir), and featuring Gino Marinacci on flute. One of the rarest records from CAM archives is finally back in the spotlight, remastered from or iginal master tapes and pressed on 180gr vinyl, including an inner sleeve featuring original movie artwork by renowned Italian cinematic painter Sandro Symeoni.
‘Fading Love’ is the debut album from British DJ and producer George FitzGerald and was recorded and produced both in London and George’s Berlin studio.
FitzGerald made his name DJing on the world’s most prestigious club and festival stages and has also held a residency at Radio 1 for the past two years. He's also released records on labels such as Aus Music, Hotflush and Hypercolour as well as his own ManMakeMusic imprint.
‘Fading Love’ offers deep tech-house tracks that would work equally well (if not better) at home as in a club. Mid-tempo rhythms, nods to EDM in the synths, nods to synthwave in the treated and filtered emotive vocals combine to create a smooth ride.
“Slot it next to the kind of cerebral, intimate electronic music of Caribou and Jon Hopkins.” - Stereogum
FitzGerald made his name DJing on the world’s most prestigious club and festival stages and has also held a residency at Radio 1 for the past two years. He's also released records on labels such as Aus Music, Hotflush and Hypercolour as well as his own ManMakeMusic imprint.
‘Fading Love’ offers deep tech-house tracks that would work equally well (if not better) at home as in a club. Mid-tempo rhythms, nods to EDM in the synths, nods to synthwave in the treated and filtered emotive vocals combine to create a smooth ride.
“Slot it next to the kind of cerebral, intimate electronic music of Caribou and Jon Hopkins.” - Stereogum
FORMAT INFORMATION
LP includes MP3 Download Code.
Double Six and Domino Records present ‘All That Must Be’, the second full length album from George FitzGerald. It features collaborations with Lil Silva, Hudson Scott, Bonobo and Tracey Thorne.
‘All That Must Be’ is a record with its psychological roots in two cities - Berlin and London. It documents a period of time when FitzGerald’s decade-long stint in the German capital came to an abrupt end, seeing him back in his hometown of London and becoming a father for the first time. It was against this backdrop that ‘All That Must Be’ started to form and the result is a record that deals with the processes of upheaval, change, acceptance and renewal that affect us all.
‘All That Must Be’ is a record with its psychological roots in two cities - Berlin and London. It documents a period of time when FitzGerald’s decade-long stint in the German capital came to an abrupt end, seeing him back in his hometown of London and becoming a father for the first time. It was against this backdrop that ‘All That Must Be’ started to form and the result is a record that deals with the processes of upheaval, change, acceptance and renewal that affect us all.
Mr 'Please Don't Send Me Away' Garfield Fleming returns to vinyl for the first time since the early 1980s with this 7" release on Cordial Recordings with the boogie bounce back of "Ain't Nothing Too Good For My Woman" coupled with the acoustic version of Hustlin'. Both songs are new productions with Devon based Ourra (Star Creatures) providing the magic of "Ain't Nothing Too Good For My Woman" which has received radio support from Gilles Peterson (BBC Radio 6) and Richard Searling (Solar Radio) amongst many others. New York based Ben Pirani producing the acoustic version of "Hustin'", which does not feature on the forthcoming mini album by Garfield Fleming.
"The Gradual Progression" is a transformative collection of new music by Greg Fox. The seven pieces of "The Gradual Progression" activate spiritual states through physical means, Fox’s rigorous inner rhythms the mandalic vessel for unbound expression and arrangement. "TGP" signals both a reconciliation of disparate musical ventures and a new nirvanic stage in the artist’s oeuvre.
Fox views "TGP" as an exploration of selfhood, and more specifically, the search for his true voice as an artist. Though such a journey is by nature ongoing, if not essentially elusive, the discoveries along the path are the musical riches of "TGP". For his second solo album, Fox employs new methods of externalizing his polyrhythmic virtuosity into non-physical realms.
This transfer of energy is achieved through responsive environments tethered to various aspects of the performance. Sensors attached to Fox’s drum kit trigger tonal palettes, or virtual instruments invented for each piece, which Fox communes with in the post-Free Jazz manner. That is, locating and emphasizing states of universal resonance in solo and ensemble settings in place of demonstrating individual ability.
This is where the album’s canonic influences – and inventors – are most recognizable. Pharoah Sanders’ "Elevation" and Don Cherry’s "Organic Music Society" come to mind, though the guidance of master drummer and holistic healer Milford Graves ultimately made TGP possible. For Fox’s astonishing 2014 album Mitral Transmissions, Graves assisted Fox in adapting software that translated output signals from biological sources to virtual instruments. For TGP, Fox again used percussion to initiate passages whose intensity and vibrancy match Fox’s energetic presence and focus.
Adapting the ‘intuitive gesture’ of action painting, and other responsive means of art-making, Fox developed a musical language constructed to isolate its most emotional and felt states for exploration. The subjective themes that inspired these deep spaces of TGP are numerous: personal loss, self-improvement, and artistic struggle, to name a few.
Another theme, hiding in plain sight, is Fox’s drumming. Years of supplying spin in collaborative bodies (Guardian Alien, Ex Eye, Liturgy, Zs) becomes a symbol of materiality on TGP, of organic animated energy seeking beyond its boundaries. Fox describes this tactile element as “sensing the emotionality and physicality of the world with the senses and through mental processes––about touching the walls of a pitch black room.”
TGP includes contributions from musicians Curtis Santiago, Michael Beharie, Maria Kim Grand, and Justin Frye, all lending various voices through instrument and from within. Fox considers the power of Sensory Percussion, the software program developed by Tlacael Esparza that helped facilitate the vision for TGP, unprecedented – something akin to magic.
Though TGP tackles technical challenges, the inspirational core is the humanist goal of social progress and its parallel pursuit of self-knowledge. Fox strives for a new musical paradigm that focuses less on his drumming and more on its untapped potential as one element in a polyphonic unity. This dissolution of the self into a wider melodic abstraction signifies Fox’s real artistic accomplishment in The Gradual Progression, rendering percussion’s dark matter as an invisible but essential element between rhythm and life.
Fox views "TGP" as an exploration of selfhood, and more specifically, the search for his true voice as an artist. Though such a journey is by nature ongoing, if not essentially elusive, the discoveries along the path are the musical riches of "TGP". For his second solo album, Fox employs new methods of externalizing his polyrhythmic virtuosity into non-physical realms.
This transfer of energy is achieved through responsive environments tethered to various aspects of the performance. Sensors attached to Fox’s drum kit trigger tonal palettes, or virtual instruments invented for each piece, which Fox communes with in the post-Free Jazz manner. That is, locating and emphasizing states of universal resonance in solo and ensemble settings in place of demonstrating individual ability.
This is where the album’s canonic influences – and inventors – are most recognizable. Pharoah Sanders’ "Elevation" and Don Cherry’s "Organic Music Society" come to mind, though the guidance of master drummer and holistic healer Milford Graves ultimately made TGP possible. For Fox’s astonishing 2014 album Mitral Transmissions, Graves assisted Fox in adapting software that translated output signals from biological sources to virtual instruments. For TGP, Fox again used percussion to initiate passages whose intensity and vibrancy match Fox’s energetic presence and focus.
Adapting the ‘intuitive gesture’ of action painting, and other responsive means of art-making, Fox developed a musical language constructed to isolate its most emotional and felt states for exploration. The subjective themes that inspired these deep spaces of TGP are numerous: personal loss, self-improvement, and artistic struggle, to name a few.
Another theme, hiding in plain sight, is Fox’s drumming. Years of supplying spin in collaborative bodies (Guardian Alien, Ex Eye, Liturgy, Zs) becomes a symbol of materiality on TGP, of organic animated energy seeking beyond its boundaries. Fox describes this tactile element as “sensing the emotionality and physicality of the world with the senses and through mental processes––about touching the walls of a pitch black room.”
TGP includes contributions from musicians Curtis Santiago, Michael Beharie, Maria Kim Grand, and Justin Frye, all lending various voices through instrument and from within. Fox considers the power of Sensory Percussion, the software program developed by Tlacael Esparza that helped facilitate the vision for TGP, unprecedented – something akin to magic.
Though TGP tackles technical challenges, the inspirational core is the humanist goal of social progress and its parallel pursuit of self-knowledge. Fox strives for a new musical paradigm that focuses less on his drumming and more on its untapped potential as one element in a polyphonic unity. This dissolution of the self into a wider melodic abstraction signifies Fox’s real artistic accomplishment in The Gradual Progression, rendering percussion’s dark matter as an invisible but essential element between rhythm and life.
STAFF COMMENTS
Patrick says: Greg Fox drops some serious rhythmic cleansing on RVNG, harnessing the spiritual vibrations of Pharoah Sanders or Don Cherry and blasting them way into future.
"Resembling a hybrid of John Martyn and Gerry Rafferty on the inside sleeve photo of his second album, the Stalybridge singer-songwriter also demonstrates throughout a similar knack for innovative songwriting talents as the aforementioned duo.
Away From The Bright Lights is awash with fine, sensitively delivered Frith originals that superbly demonstrate his versatility: smooth acoustic soul on 'Not The Man' stomping bare bone blues on 'Pretty Penny', an absorbing full-band sound with sweeping violin and a perfectly laid-back rhythm section on 'This One' the mandolin and violin colours the celtic flavours of 'RocknRollBand' and the rich strain of gritty Americana that runs through 'Good Thing'.
What sets Frith apart is his warm and welcoming voice, which maintains its authority and stamps its mark on an album of understated confidence, possessing a beautifully brooding mood and atmosphere." - Danny Moore
Away From The Bright Lights is awash with fine, sensitively delivered Frith originals that superbly demonstrate his versatility: smooth acoustic soul on 'Not The Man' stomping bare bone blues on 'Pretty Penny', an absorbing full-band sound with sweeping violin and a perfectly laid-back rhythm section on 'This One' the mandolin and violin colours the celtic flavours of 'RocknRollBand' and the rich strain of gritty Americana that runs through 'Good Thing'.
What sets Frith apart is his warm and welcoming voice, which maintains its authority and stamps its mark on an album of understated confidence, possessing a beautifully brooding mood and atmosphere." - Danny Moore
Like some latter-day beat-centric version of Goffin & King, Georgia and Dudley have been on a collective creative roll in 2007 that shows no sign of stopping yet. Their futuristic hip hop-soul has already been aired on Georgia's "Olesi" and "Patti Blingh" albums, and their "Beautiful Minds" project with Brit DJ / producer 2Tall. Now "The Message Uni Versa" presents a further 20 tracks of the Stones Throw duo's inimitable peace, rhythm and rhyme.
The Moods & Grooves classics series returns with three stone cold belters. G Flame & Mr. G send us hurtling into the A-side with "Pulsez". A massive bass-heavy, tech-house roller. If you like those Delano Smith / Boo Williams type grooves then you're gonna love this. Clever little breakdowns apply a little deceleration before building us right back up again to full power. Marvelous. Demarkus Lewis grabs hold of the B-side, deploying two house jams across the side of wax. "Blown Away" has some lush flute and rich xylophones paired with another rolling house groove and enveloping live finger bass. Hypnotic, and slowly drawing you in to its concentric goodness; you'll be completely powerless to stop this effecting your hips. "Needless" concludes the set with more grooves that would make Rick Wade blush. This time it’s a deep, lights down affair, just made for losing it with your eyes closed next to the speaker stacks; just you and the music. Reminds me of many a fine night spent dancing in Manchester.
The long-awaited Volume 4 in the G-Edits series from G. Markus, here to spill drink, induce table dancing and overall rambunctiousness to your all night tropical dance party!
"Eternal" sees one of those CLASSIC disco chord progressions garnished beautifully with electric guitar solo and big bolshy brass for the kinda of disco-ball spiraling madness that used to characterize El Diablo's parties at MCR's Deaf Institute.
"Partee" concludes with another number that'll easily find home any number of Manchester's celebrated knees ups. With a smattering of French touch filter use, catchy vox and a hook that'd make Roule jealous, the track gives new house stables like Shir Khan and Me Me Me and Mister Saturday Nite a run for their money... check!
"Eternal" sees one of those CLASSIC disco chord progressions garnished beautifully with electric guitar solo and big bolshy brass for the kinda of disco-ball spiraling madness that used to characterize El Diablo's parties at MCR's Deaf Institute.
"Partee" concludes with another number that'll easily find home any number of Manchester's celebrated knees ups. With a smattering of French touch filter use, catchy vox and a hook that'd make Roule jealous, the track gives new house stables like Shir Khan and Me Me Me and Mister Saturday Nite a run for their money... check!
South Central, Los Angeles rapper G Perico has established himself as one of the most promising and consistently great voices in West Coast hip hop over the past year with his updated take on classic gangster rap. Having already released a full-length album in "All Blue" earlier this year and recently following it up with the G-Worthy project that sees him joining forces with rapper Jay Worthy and super-producer Cardo, Perico is now announcing a third album. "2 Tha Left" picks up where All Blue left off and showcases a prolific young rapper who is relentless about honing his craft and is getting better with every new verse he records. The album features LA rappers TeeCee4800, AD, and Polyester alongside Northern California's Nef The Pharaoh and Mozzy in addition to the legendary New Orleans rapper Curren$y. Production on the project is characterized by a modern take on classic G-Funk courtesy of longtime collaborators Poly Boy, Polyester, Westside Webb, and Cardo amongst others.
FORMAT INFORMATION
Coloured LP Info: A limited clear with blue splatter vinyl. Hand numbered in matte sleeve
Bordello A Parigi treat us to some hand-stamped limited isht here as G-Machine come through with double disco trouble. Already in the hands of the global Italo elite, this sequinned two piece packs punchy percussion, funked up synthery and the kind of frothy melodies that can have me tops off in a heartbeat. On the A-side the titular "Disco Nightmare" pilots the spaceship through seesawing bass sequences, triumphant melodies and a whole load of laser fire before heading through an Einstein-Rosen bridge for a spot of wormhole funk. Muscular, crepuscular and just a little eerie, this turn of pace should work perfectly on Manctaloween. Over on the flip "Flying Over The Island" offers a little something for the tropical jocks out there, serving smooth synth funk and limber bass over a killer rhythmic lilt. Blessed with the kind of sweltering sound design we loved that Domenique Dumont record for, this is surely top of your tropical pops?
G. Markus - recently revealed as Ben Gomori of Monologues Records and Sterns Edits - returns with the fifth volume of his vinyl-only edits series: G-Edits.
"Lifted" is a roughly chopped and hard bumping gospel-house edit; cleverly slicing those buoyant vocal passages into a raucous, arm-raising peak timer tied to a gritty, no-nonsense beat.
Flip it over and "Panties" hits you with a wobbly party jam that samples Jackson Jones' 1981 wigged-out disco prototype "I Feel Good / Put Your Pants On". Full of phazing guitar licks, fizzing hats and funked out space bass this is a proper leftfield disco classic that's not had too much attention over the years but always goes down a storm.
Two killer edits once again from the G-Edits camp!
"Lifted" is a roughly chopped and hard bumping gospel-house edit; cleverly slicing those buoyant vocal passages into a raucous, arm-raising peak timer tied to a gritty, no-nonsense beat.
Flip it over and "Panties" hits you with a wobbly party jam that samples Jackson Jones' 1981 wigged-out disco prototype "I Feel Good / Put Your Pants On". Full of phazing guitar licks, fizzing hats and funked out space bass this is a proper leftfield disco classic that's not had too much attention over the years but always goes down a storm.
Two killer edits once again from the G-Edits camp!
Here at Piccadilly we love us a good edit record, and that's exactly what this is, a VERY GOOD edit record! Up first, "Rockin" is the kind of slow and steady, loopy disco-funk head nodder you'd have found on a vintage NY Edits 12". Blaxploitation bass slaps, chunky percussion and wah-guitar, all transformed into a mid tempo looper with cool as fuck funk vox pops - TOP! Next up, "Something" slips into the comfortable cosmos of the 70s symphonic discotheque with brass, smooth vocals and pinging synth bass - ZOOMIIIING! Onto the flip and "Spider" traps us in an irresistible web of jazz-funk tonality, driving disco bass and wiggy electronic fx, before dropping into the finest slap bass solo you'll hear this side of 2k18 - NASTY! Saving the best till last, G&D unleash the languid, loose and properly lysergic wrong speed edit of Harry Thumann's cosmic bomb "Underwater". All that super-wiggy synth wonderment served at space-walking tempo - GROOOVIIIIIIING!
Brimming with creativity, “Fluff” is the debut album from singer-songwriter Andy Gabbard (Buffalo Killers). This is “Modern Grunge Fuzz Pop with 60’s aura”. On “Fluff” you can hear the deeply-solid effects of the grunge genre and mid-90’s ‘alternative music’ in a sonic gestalt. Exhibiting characteristics of fairly recent genres, as well as some classics that surrounded him during his youth, the album breaks barriers of seemingly comfortable, unthreatening music cultivating a physical embodiment of Nirvana, Dinosaur Jr, latter Beatles and even Brian Wilson! Buffalo Killers continue their successful run and now, it’s not running alone. “Fluff” is the start of something great.
Sampled by Drake (“Jungle”) and G-Eazy (“Running”). Instrumental versions of Gabriel’s Stones Throw Records debut Jardín now available on limited edition wax. Gabriel Garzón-Montano’s formidable skills have come to fruition on Jardín in his Stones Throw debut. “This album came out of wanting to make music that reminds people how beautiful life is and how delicate their heart is,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to make music that is healing, comforting, and funky. I named the album Jardín hoping for it to create a space for healing when people put it on. “A garden is full of life, growth and beauty,” Gabriel said of choosing that unifying image as the title for his new album. “It makes me think of green and white and all the colors as they appear in different flowers.” That vivid spectrum bursts forth on Jardín itself and the album contains references to fruit of all sorts, sour mango, juicy tangerines and sweet peaches. From the heartache and aching vocals that float over the dusty drums of “Crawl” to the stutter-step thump of “Bombo Fabrika” to the high falsetto he nails on “Octave,” Garzón-Montano proves himself to already be one of 2017’s biggest breakout talents.
Sick of Roy Wood's Wizzard, Cliff Richard's "Mistletoe and Wine" or even carols from Kings? Here's a chance to experince the ambience of the first Mass of Christmas in St. Mark's as it might have been celebrated in Venice around 1600. Featuring the music of Giovanni Gabrieli (1554-1612) and Cipriano De Rore (1516-1565) and exquisitely played on period instruments by the Gabrieli Consort and conducted by Paul McCreesh, this is a brilliant spiritual and joyous disc with the wonderful Archiv Production sound quality that recaptures the reality of the voices and instruments.
The story began like this ...We heard Daniel Gadd by pure chance. A flickering neon sign occupied one corner of the stage. Daniel took centre stage. He plays guitar and sings. We happened to be there. Immediately we began to listen. That dark basement in central London, a haven far from the concerns of people on the streets above, was the best place to be in London that night. The audience was spellbound. And then just as he seemed to be finishing up, someone shouted out “one more!” “Okay, thanks…is it okay if I do one more?” asked Daniel, wondering for a moment, not sure if it was. The venue booker by the door did not hesitate and nodded the go-ahead. Daniel played on. And we were very glad to be there. It turned out that Daniel Gadd had somehow got to London via Spain, and he had been in London for a year. He’d trained at Berklee College of Music in Valencia, Spain. He composes and scores for film, and also works as a film composer’s assistant, during the daytime.
At night he likes to play gigs. He’d even recorded an album of songs by the sea at Kalk Bay, a small fishing village that’s now become part of Cape Town. But he hadn’t known what to do next. Well we said we love your music so let’s meet up soon. A few days later we met Daniel at Foyles bookstore café at 107 Charing Cross Road. The album he’d mentioned is his remarkable debut. So here it is…. the album will now be released on CD and digital through Cargo. Daniel named his label 107 Recordings in recognition of the Foyles meeting where the idea for the release of this album was born. Daniel Gadd is 26 years old. He’s British-South African. He grew up in South Africa, he lived in Spain for a year and after that he found his way to London…
At night he likes to play gigs. He’d even recorded an album of songs by the sea at Kalk Bay, a small fishing village that’s now become part of Cape Town. But he hadn’t known what to do next. Well we said we love your music so let’s meet up soon. A few days later we met Daniel at Foyles bookstore café at 107 Charing Cross Road. The album he’d mentioned is his remarkable debut. So here it is…. the album will now be released on CD and digital through Cargo. Daniel named his label 107 Recordings in recognition of the Foyles meeting where the idea for the release of this album was born. Daniel Gadd is 26 years old. He’s British-South African. He grew up in South Africa, he lived in Spain for a year and after that he found his way to London…
Gaika presents his debut album, "Basic Volume" after captivating listeners with a blistering pair of acclaimed, self-released mixtapes "Machine" and "Security" and the Warp-released EPs "Spaghetto" and "The Spectacular Empire". The 15 track collection is co-produced by Gaika, with additional production from similarly forward thinking contemporaries, including SOPHIE, Dutch E Germ, Dre Skull and DADRAS, Aart as well as previous collaborators including Jam City, Nick Leon and Frank Ocean’s "Blonde" and "Endless" collaborator Buddy Ross. Speaking about the album, Gaika says, “Basic Volume" is collection of alchemical parables for all the Immigrants who wander the earth in search of themselves”
FORMAT INFORMATION
2xLP includes MP3 Download Code.
While they’ve released records on their own, and even collaborated in the past (Orcas), Rafael Anton Irisarri and Benoit Pioulard have never made music quite like they do with Gailes. This is a pure winter doldrums soundtrack, when the stillness after a snowstorm ends elongates into deep contemplation.
It’s not surprising that Seventeen Words was conceived, composed and recorded as the duo weathered a brutal winter squall, the remains of which can be viewed on the album’s artwork. This is bottomless music, minimal in sound yet majestic in presentation. Snow slows, time freezes. This is the world of Gailes, just a fragment of our own writ large for eternity.
It’s not surprising that Seventeen Words was conceived, composed and recorded as the duo weathered a brutal winter squall, the remains of which can be viewed on the album’s artwork. This is bottomless music, minimal in sound yet majestic in presentation. Snow slows, time freezes. This is the world of Gailes, just a fragment of our own writ large for eternity.
Charlotte Gainsbourg releases her new album ‘Stage Whisper’ through Because Music. An album of live and unreleased studio tracks, it is the follow up to the critically acclaimed ‘IRM’ album, which was released in January 2010. ‘Stage Whisper’s studio material features collaborations with Beck, Conor O’Brien of Villagers, Noah and the Whale and Connan Mockasin.
Many of the studio tracks on ‘Stage Whisper’ originate from the sessions for ‘IRM’, which enjoyed critical claim across the globe. The Sunday Telegraph declared the album to be a work of “borderline genius”, Mojo claimed “IRM marks Charlotte Gainsbourg’s musical coming of age”.
Many of the studio tracks on ‘Stage Whisper’ originate from the sessions for ‘IRM’, which enjoyed critical claim across the globe. The Sunday Telegraph declared the album to be a work of “borderline genius”, Mojo claimed “IRM marks Charlotte Gainsbourg’s musical coming of age”.
Brimming with lust, drama, and dark humour, "Histoire De Melody Nelson" is widely acknowledged as Gainsbourg's masterpiece. The 1971 release was criminally ignored outside France, despite the godfather of French pop's decade of cutting-edge songwriting. It's now something of a cult classic, and artists as diverse as Air, Nick Cave, and Portishead have all cited the album as an influence. Don't be put off by the 'concept album' tag. There are no goblins here. Instead, Gainsbourg concentrates on his favourite subjects - sex and death. Most of the lyrics are intoned in Serge's seedy seductive whisper, intertwined perfectly with the cinematic music. From the slow, smoky funk of "Melody" through intricately arranged ballads and the final apocalyptic "Cargo Culte" (featuring a 70-strong choir), there's never a dull moment. In lesser hands, this would be an overblown mess. "Histoire De Melody Nelson", in its subtlety and invention, remains a testament to Gainsbourg's genius.
THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2018 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 21st ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON. IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 12.01AM SATURDAY APRIL 28th.
3 original tracks from "Rest" album by Charlotte Gainsbourg remixed : "Deadly Valentine" Soulwax Remix, "Ring-A-Ring O'Roses" Sebastian Remix & "Les Oxalis" Alan Braxe Remix.For yhe first time collected on Vinyl. Special cover printing, exclusive 12'' release
3 original tracks from "Rest" album by Charlotte Gainsbourg remixed : "Deadly Valentine" Soulwax Remix, "Ring-A-Ring O'Roses" Sebastian Remix & "Les Oxalis" Alan Braxe Remix.For yhe first time collected on Vinyl. Special cover printing, exclusive 12'' release
Produced by Ed Bangers’ SebastiAn (Frank Ocean, Kavinsky) and mixed by Tom Elmhirst (Adele, Lorde, David Bowie), the album features collaborations with Sir Paul McCartney, Daft Punk’s Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, Connan Mockasin and Owen Pallett (Arcade Fire, Caribou).
Having previously written lyrics with Jarvis Cocker and Air on ‘5.55’ (2006) and Beck on ‘IRM’ (2010), ‘Rest’ is the first album where Gainsbourg penned all the words. Feeling daunted by the desire to poetise her ideas, deliverance would arrive initially courtesy of Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, who provided the music for the title track, steering Charlotte toward a forensically focused approach to lyric writing. “Those were the first words that I actually sang on the album. I came in with all my bunches of lyrics… It was too much, really, and Guy-Man was saying, ‘you can’t say all that, you have to simplify it,’ and he reduced it to three words! It felt so innocent in a way, but it was exactly what I needed at that time”. On the album, Gainsbourg addresses personal topics ranging from the death of her father Serge and more recently sister Kate Barry, to the tensions between her shyness and her life as a performer and public figure, to charmingly illogical childhood fears.
The album’s major production lynchpin would be French DJ, remixer and producer Sebastian Akchoté-Bozovic, aka SebastiAn, best known for his releases on French house label Ed Banger and for his production work for Frank Ocean. His background in electronic music accorded with Charlotte’s desire for a sound with a disquieting, mechanistic edge, inspired by Giorgio Moroder and, perhaps unsurprisingly for a revered, award-winning film actress, movie soundtracks, particularly Pino Donaggio’s score for Brian De Palma’s ’70s horror classic Carrie and Georges Delerue’s music for Jean-Luc Godard’s nouvelle vague masterpiece Le Mepris, as well as the chilly, unsettling ambience of films like Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining and Hitchcock’s Rebecca.
The eleven essays on ‘Rest’ are nothing if not sure-footed, proffering a compelling fusion of gleaming, string-emblazoned modern electro-pop and cinematically textured avant-chanson – their magical music box melodies kissed by bruised, introspective, occasionally disquieting lyrics. The album opens with the nursery rhyme enchantment of ‘Ring a Ring a Roses’, a hazy mosaic of nostalgic childhood snapshots – the verses delivered in intimately captured French, the instantly infectious chorus in coolly clipped English – and ends with the electro-disco-flavoured ‘Les Oxalis’ (named after the eponymous woodland flower). “Those two songs were always the bookends of the album”, Charlotte explains. The latter’s rhythmic energy cuts against the lyric, describing a lachrymose promenade through a cemetery. “I remember SebastiAn asking, ‘Are you sure that’s what you want to say against that rhythm?’ But that’s how this album made sense to me, in the contradiction between things, with the music taking you somewhere and the words going the opposite way”.
It’s a potent dichotomy that permeates much of ‘Rest’, from ‘Lying With You’, whose busy drums and angular synths frame a lyric about Serge Gainsbourg’s death (“Like everyone who’s gone through this, you have to deal with the memory of someone who is still alive in your head, and the way you’ve seen them dead. I wanted to talk about the crudity of this”, explains Charlotte), to the frank, self-examining ‘I’m a Lie’ (“…about not knowing if you’re able to collapse or fly. It’s something that I’m always wrestling with”), and the wonderfully Giorgio Moroder-esque ‘Deadly Valentine’, whose lyrics, essentially a string of uncannily delivered wedding vows, play out against a motorik Euro-disco beat and soaring strings.
Another essay, ‘Songbird in a Cage’, was penned for Charlotte by Sir Paul McCartney, no less. “We had a very nice lunch about six-and-a-half years ago”, she recalls. “I couldn’t believe that I was actually sitting next to him. I told him that if he ever had a song for me it would be a dream come true. A few weeks later he sent this track. It was a demo. I didn’t know what to do with it, because I wanted it to be part of the album. We had to reinvent it. Paul very sweetly came to Electric Lady. He did a bit of piano, some bass, a bit of guitar. It was incredible, just to see him work”.
The aides-de-camp may have played their role on Rest, but it remains undeniably the work of a singular artist, one who has explored her personal darkness in pursuit of a sense of purpose and a place of resolution, purging herself of creative shyness and timidity in the process. “This time it felt like flying on my own. I knew I needed the right collaborator, and SebastiAn was always there, but all the same, this time the album is really mine”.
Having previously written lyrics with Jarvis Cocker and Air on ‘5.55’ (2006) and Beck on ‘IRM’ (2010), ‘Rest’ is the first album where Gainsbourg penned all the words. Feeling daunted by the desire to poetise her ideas, deliverance would arrive initially courtesy of Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, who provided the music for the title track, steering Charlotte toward a forensically focused approach to lyric writing. “Those were the first words that I actually sang on the album. I came in with all my bunches of lyrics… It was too much, really, and Guy-Man was saying, ‘you can’t say all that, you have to simplify it,’ and he reduced it to three words! It felt so innocent in a way, but it was exactly what I needed at that time”. On the album, Gainsbourg addresses personal topics ranging from the death of her father Serge and more recently sister Kate Barry, to the tensions between her shyness and her life as a performer and public figure, to charmingly illogical childhood fears.
The album’s major production lynchpin would be French DJ, remixer and producer Sebastian Akchoté-Bozovic, aka SebastiAn, best known for his releases on French house label Ed Banger and for his production work for Frank Ocean. His background in electronic music accorded with Charlotte’s desire for a sound with a disquieting, mechanistic edge, inspired by Giorgio Moroder and, perhaps unsurprisingly for a revered, award-winning film actress, movie soundtracks, particularly Pino Donaggio’s score for Brian De Palma’s ’70s horror classic Carrie and Georges Delerue’s music for Jean-Luc Godard’s nouvelle vague masterpiece Le Mepris, as well as the chilly, unsettling ambience of films like Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining and Hitchcock’s Rebecca.
The eleven essays on ‘Rest’ are nothing if not sure-footed, proffering a compelling fusion of gleaming, string-emblazoned modern electro-pop and cinematically textured avant-chanson – their magical music box melodies kissed by bruised, introspective, occasionally disquieting lyrics. The album opens with the nursery rhyme enchantment of ‘Ring a Ring a Roses’, a hazy mosaic of nostalgic childhood snapshots – the verses delivered in intimately captured French, the instantly infectious chorus in coolly clipped English – and ends with the electro-disco-flavoured ‘Les Oxalis’ (named after the eponymous woodland flower). “Those two songs were always the bookends of the album”, Charlotte explains. The latter’s rhythmic energy cuts against the lyric, describing a lachrymose promenade through a cemetery. “I remember SebastiAn asking, ‘Are you sure that’s what you want to say against that rhythm?’ But that’s how this album made sense to me, in the contradiction between things, with the music taking you somewhere and the words going the opposite way”.
It’s a potent dichotomy that permeates much of ‘Rest’, from ‘Lying With You’, whose busy drums and angular synths frame a lyric about Serge Gainsbourg’s death (“Like everyone who’s gone through this, you have to deal with the memory of someone who is still alive in your head, and the way you’ve seen them dead. I wanted to talk about the crudity of this”, explains Charlotte), to the frank, self-examining ‘I’m a Lie’ (“…about not knowing if you’re able to collapse or fly. It’s something that I’m always wrestling with”), and the wonderfully Giorgio Moroder-esque ‘Deadly Valentine’, whose lyrics, essentially a string of uncannily delivered wedding vows, play out against a motorik Euro-disco beat and soaring strings.
Another essay, ‘Songbird in a Cage’, was penned for Charlotte by Sir Paul McCartney, no less. “We had a very nice lunch about six-and-a-half years ago”, she recalls. “I couldn’t believe that I was actually sitting next to him. I told him that if he ever had a song for me it would be a dream come true. A few weeks later he sent this track. It was a demo. I didn’t know what to do with it, because I wanted it to be part of the album. We had to reinvent it. Paul very sweetly came to Electric Lady. He did a bit of piano, some bass, a bit of guitar. It was incredible, just to see him work”.
The aides-de-camp may have played their role on Rest, but it remains undeniably the work of a singular artist, one who has explored her personal darkness in pursuit of a sense of purpose and a place of resolution, purging herself of creative shyness and timidity in the process. “This time it felt like flying on my own. I knew I needed the right collaborator, and SebastiAn was always there, but all the same, this time the album is really mine”.
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: Brilliant goth-pop, throbbing basslines and the undeniably exotic and infinitely more alluring addition of vocals 'En Fraincaise' (that's french for 'In French'). Lovely.FORMAT INFORMATION
Vinyl comes with CD version of the album enclosed.
After decades in the making Finders Keepers Records proudly present us with the first-ever pressing of Serge Gainsbourg’s most elusive and coveted soundtrack studio recordings - co-written, arranged and orchestrated by the genius Jean-Claude Vannier (‘Histoire De Melody Nelson’) during what many consider to be the dynamic duo’s most definitive creative period.
Believed to have been lost in a studio fire by Gainsbourg enthusiasts for over forty years (a myth that also shrouds Morricone’s lost ‘Danger Diabolik’ soundtrack) the misplaced master-tapes for the drug-fuelled/Mai 68 cash-in/road-movie ‘Les Chemins De Katmandou’ have been widely considered the final audio jigsaw piece in an immaculate discography/filmography thus earning this soundtrack bone-fide Holy Grail status amongst the most avid disc detectives.
Featuring the original crack team of Paris based players now recognised as French library music royalty, this LP epitomises the inimitable musical direction and expert psychedelic pop musicianship that graced classic Gainsbourg/Vannier soundtracks like ‘La Horse’, ‘Cannabis’ and ‘Sex Shop’. Laying the stylistic, futureproof foundations for subsequent decades of forward-thinking Gallic funk mastery.
Comprising Vannier’s signature recipe of thick plucked bass lines, close-mic’d drums, biting Clavinet and Eastern influenced strings and percussion (and a sprinkling of subtle traditional French instrumentation) the soundtrack to ‘Les Chemins De Katmandou’ (aka ‘The Road To Katmandu’ or ‘The Pleasure Pit’) captures Vannier and Gainsbourg in the first year of their creative partnership capturing their unique embryonic energy.
This previously lost full soundtrack score now exists on vinyl for the first time ever as an infinitely important milestone in the early development of the duo who would shape the sound of French pop music for years to come.
Believed to have been lost in a studio fire by Gainsbourg enthusiasts for over forty years (a myth that also shrouds Morricone’s lost ‘Danger Diabolik’ soundtrack) the misplaced master-tapes for the drug-fuelled/Mai 68 cash-in/road-movie ‘Les Chemins De Katmandou’ have been widely considered the final audio jigsaw piece in an immaculate discography/filmography thus earning this soundtrack bone-fide Holy Grail status amongst the most avid disc detectives.
Featuring the original crack team of Paris based players now recognised as French library music royalty, this LP epitomises the inimitable musical direction and expert psychedelic pop musicianship that graced classic Gainsbourg/Vannier soundtracks like ‘La Horse’, ‘Cannabis’ and ‘Sex Shop’. Laying the stylistic, futureproof foundations for subsequent decades of forward-thinking Gallic funk mastery.
Comprising Vannier’s signature recipe of thick plucked bass lines, close-mic’d drums, biting Clavinet and Eastern influenced strings and percussion (and a sprinkling of subtle traditional French instrumentation) the soundtrack to ‘Les Chemins De Katmandou’ (aka ‘The Road To Katmandu’ or ‘The Pleasure Pit’) captures Vannier and Gainsbourg in the first year of their creative partnership capturing their unique embryonic energy.
This previously lost full soundtrack score now exists on vinyl for the first time ever as an infinitely important milestone in the early development of the duo who would shape the sound of French pop music for years to come.
At last, 12 years after his death, a proper retrospective of France's greatest export! His recording career spanned four decades, taking in everything from jazz to rock to reggae, but it's probably for his orchestral easy listening and low-slung cinematic funk that he's best loved round thse Northern Quarter parts. Everyone from Air to David Holmes and Andy Votel are hugely influenced by his sound. If all you know is "Je T'aime... Moi Non Plus", then prepare to have your life enriched with the delights of "Bonnie & Clyde", "Requiem Pour Un C", "Ballade De Melody Nelson" etc. 23 tracks in all, on both vinyl and CD.
This is Gajek. This is '17. Come in, feel free. Don´t worry if you see a flute in the sink.
Matti Gajek's followup to his 2014 debut album 'Restless Shapes' opens the floodgates to signals from a future best navigated by ear. Moving through polyphonic pulses, layers of grooves and sounds, zooming in and out of ever evolving patterns of concentration and decomposition, the ten tracks of Gajek´s '17 are electrifyingly futuristic clubmusic true to the almost five decades old motto of Berlins Zodiak Free Arts Lab: „Total freie Musik“ - totally free music.
Paying tribute to electronic pioneers like Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Florian Fricke while staying clear of historical mystification Gajek revisits the abstract clarity and improvisational audacity of 1970s electronics from a perspective firmly rooted in the digital now – this is not '71. Today motoric rhythms emerge and elapse from postdigital aural scapes, intense and sublime, linking the thermodynamic to the ephemeral. Beyond the echoes of past utopias '17 discovers present signs for possible tomorrows.
Matti Gajek's followup to his 2014 debut album 'Restless Shapes' opens the floodgates to signals from a future best navigated by ear. Moving through polyphonic pulses, layers of grooves and sounds, zooming in and out of ever evolving patterns of concentration and decomposition, the ten tracks of Gajek´s '17 are electrifyingly futuristic clubmusic true to the almost five decades old motto of Berlins Zodiak Free Arts Lab: „Total freie Musik“ - totally free music.
Paying tribute to electronic pioneers like Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Florian Fricke while staying clear of historical mystification Gajek revisits the abstract clarity and improvisational audacity of 1970s electronics from a perspective firmly rooted in the digital now – this is not '71. Today motoric rhythms emerge and elapse from postdigital aural scapes, intense and sublime, linking the thermodynamic to the ephemeral. Beyond the echoes of past utopias '17 discovers present signs for possible tomorrows.
‘Gagakiriseye’ is a collaboration between the Japanese noise rock duo Gagakirise and EYE, the legendary founder of Boredoms.
Gagakirise are the Tokyo based duo of Sachio Yoshizawa on guitar and Ryo Inoue on drums. They are a major force in the Japanese underground since 2006, having released two albums and a split with Juiceboxxx, as well as touring the US several times as well as Japan with the likes of Black Pus and others.
Gagakirise’s music is a reconstruction of rock music, using the basic elements and merging them with other Japanese styles and playing as energetically and as loudly as they can. EYE adds a distinctive percussive and maniacal presence to the proceedings. This is wild, unrestrained music that is boundless in its creativity, color, and hunter for the new. Gagakirise are currently recording their third LP and are playing live throughout Japan as much as possible.
‘Gagakiriseye’ is released as a 7” pressed on virgin vinyl and packaged in a full colour jacket with postcard insert. Exclusively available to independent retailers.
This is the first new recording to feature EYE in over five years.
Gagakirise are the Tokyo based duo of Sachio Yoshizawa on guitar and Ryo Inoue on drums. They are a major force in the Japanese underground since 2006, having released two albums and a split with Juiceboxxx, as well as touring the US several times as well as Japan with the likes of Black Pus and others.
Gagakirise’s music is a reconstruction of rock music, using the basic elements and merging them with other Japanese styles and playing as energetically and as loudly as they can. EYE adds a distinctive percussive and maniacal presence to the proceedings. This is wild, unrestrained music that is boundless in its creativity, color, and hunter for the new. Gagakirise are currently recording their third LP and are playing live throughout Japan as much as possible.
‘Gagakiriseye’ is released as a 7” pressed on virgin vinyl and packaged in a full colour jacket with postcard insert. Exclusively available to independent retailers.
This is the first new recording to feature EYE in over five years.
A duo of funky strutting numbers from the Galactic Funk Milita via Sheffield's Black Beacon Sound. On the first part of the Dance Floor Grinder duology, the strutting snappy percussion and super smooth vocal delivery (both rhythmic and melodic) roll around the funked-out rhythmic backline, before peaking in a cacophony of frantic horns and perfectly executed drum licks.
The second side bring a rubberlips remix, breaking down into more of an instrumental redux, with phasing and instrumental solos taking centre stage, backed by the vox rather than led by them. The wig-out peak hits after a few blissful minutes, breaking down into it's component parts before juddering and fading away. A fantastic remix, taking the component parts and inverting them into a fresh take whilst still retaining the heat of the original.
The second side bring a rubberlips remix, breaking down into more of an instrumental redux, with phasing and instrumental solos taking centre stage, backed by the vox rather than led by them. The wig-out peak hits after a few blissful minutes, breaking down into it's component parts before juddering and fading away. A fantastic remix, taking the component parts and inverting them into a fresh take whilst still retaining the heat of the original.
Galactic Zoo Dossier
#10
After a four year wait the world’s greatest psychedelic underground, hand-drawn pro-zine is back. Lauded by the likes of international taste-making publications everywhere, ‘Galactic Zoo Dossier’ returns with a brand new, mind-expanding issue.
Painstakingly illustrated by Plastic Crimewave and contributors from around the globe, ‘Galactic Zoo Dossier’ are also celebrating their 20th anniversary (fifteen of which have been arm-in-arm with the forces of Drag City).
Issue 10 of ‘Galactic Zoo Dossier’ is subtitled ‘The Interview Issue’ and features sixteen interviews with inimitable subjects such as Shirley Collins, Michael Chapman, Giorgio Gomelsky, Edgar Broughton, Arthur Brown and other legends of the blown mind.
Of course, it wouldn’t be complete without a full set of ‘Damaged Guitar Gods’ / ‘Astral Folk Maidens’ trading cards (collect them all).
Also, this issue heralds a return to that zeitgeisty format originally included with early issues of ‘Galactic Zoo Dossier’, a mixtape, on a real live cassette, compiling totally unreleased magical sounds by Bang, Comus, Edgar Broughton, Richard Pinhas, Judy Dyble, Michael Yonkers, Red Square, Peter Daltrey and Michael Chapman, amongst others. This is the largest and most exciting issue yet.
‘Galactic Zoo Dossier’ has been praised in Mojo, The Wire, Spin and Pitchfork and the magazine has even branched out into the successful Galactic Zoo Disk LP reissue label.
Available exclusively to independent retailers.
Painstakingly illustrated by Plastic Crimewave and contributors from around the globe, ‘Galactic Zoo Dossier’ are also celebrating their 20th anniversary (fifteen of which have been arm-in-arm with the forces of Drag City).
Issue 10 of ‘Galactic Zoo Dossier’ is subtitled ‘The Interview Issue’ and features sixteen interviews with inimitable subjects such as Shirley Collins, Michael Chapman, Giorgio Gomelsky, Edgar Broughton, Arthur Brown and other legends of the blown mind.
Of course, it wouldn’t be complete without a full set of ‘Damaged Guitar Gods’ / ‘Astral Folk Maidens’ trading cards (collect them all).
Also, this issue heralds a return to that zeitgeisty format originally included with early issues of ‘Galactic Zoo Dossier’, a mixtape, on a real live cassette, compiling totally unreleased magical sounds by Bang, Comus, Edgar Broughton, Richard Pinhas, Judy Dyble, Michael Yonkers, Red Square, Peter Daltrey and Michael Chapman, amongst others. This is the largest and most exciting issue yet.
‘Galactic Zoo Dossier’ has been praised in Mojo, The Wire, Spin and Pitchfork and the magazine has even branched out into the successful Galactic Zoo Disk LP reissue label.
Available exclusively to independent retailers.
FORMAT INFORMATION
Magazine Info: Limited edition magazine and cassette.
Galactic Zoo Dossier
#9
After three years the ‘hand-drawn psychedelic bible’ is back, leaving no stone unturned in the quest for mind-blowing illumination.
‘Galactic Zoo Dossier #9’ has over 100 pages on overlooked freak rock bands, heady comics and populist pop-psych.
Contributors include creator Plastic Crimewave, Byron Coley (The Wire), Eric Colin (Ugly Things / Shindig), Avi Spivak (Human Being Lawnmower) and Scott Wilkinson (Ugly Things, Endless Trip).
Interviews with Arthur Brown, Black Widow, Poppy Family, Rodriguez and Mark Fry.
Features on Egg & East Of Eden, Collectors & Folklords, Curtis Knight, John Berberian, Psyched Archie & Mad, Kirby, Texas psych scene, Kak, Moody Blues, White Witch.
Trading cards of damaged guitar gods and astral folk maidens, in full colour.
CD compilation of unreleased and mind-frying sounds by Mainliner, Secter Syde, Ultima Thule, Mark Fry, Daze Of Night and The Light Company, amongst others.
‘Galactic Zoo Dossier #9’ has been praised in Mojo, The Wire, Spin and Pitchfork, and the magazine has even branched out into the successful Galactic Zoo Disk LP reissue label.
‘Galactic Zoo Dossier #9’ has over 100 pages on overlooked freak rock bands, heady comics and populist pop-psych.
Contributors include creator Plastic Crimewave, Byron Coley (The Wire), Eric Colin (Ugly Things / Shindig), Avi Spivak (Human Being Lawnmower) and Scott Wilkinson (Ugly Things, Endless Trip).
Interviews with Arthur Brown, Black Widow, Poppy Family, Rodriguez and Mark Fry.
Features on Egg & East Of Eden, Collectors & Folklords, Curtis Knight, John Berberian, Psyched Archie & Mad, Kirby, Texas psych scene, Kak, Moody Blues, White Witch.
Trading cards of damaged guitar gods and astral folk maidens, in full colour.
CD compilation of unreleased and mind-frying sounds by Mainliner, Secter Syde, Ultima Thule, Mark Fry, Daze Of Night and The Light Company, amongst others.
‘Galactic Zoo Dossier #9’ has been praised in Mojo, The Wire, Spin and Pitchfork, and the magazine has even branched out into the successful Galactic Zoo Disk LP reissue label.
At Saint Thomas the Apostle Harlem documents Galás' volcanic May 2016 performances at Saint Thomas the Apostle church in Harlem, NY, described by the New York Times as "guttural and operatic, baleful and inconsolable, spiritual and earthy, polyglot and wordless, nuanced and unhinged." Sung in Italian, German, French, and Greek, the performances include Galás' dramatic settings of the death poems by Cesare Pavese and Ferdinand Freiligrath, as well as interpretations of songs by Jacques Brel ("Fernand", "Amsterdam") and Albert Ayler ("Angels," sung by Galás, who has always believed that Ayler's work is also vocal music).
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