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Music and dancing is one of the last great unifiers that we have. It doesn’t discriminate, it doesn’t care about race, sexual preferences, religion or what side of the fence you are on politically. Music chooses you and you just have to submit yourself to its peculiar yet tender headlock! ‘Don’t Diss the Disco’ is about that. It references Studio 54, Grace Jones & Bianca Jagger on a White Horse - but it’s mainly about clubs where we and our friends frequent like ‘Homoelectric in Manchester. This is a song for our kind of freaks and miscreants and the incessant snobbery faced by them for liking good pop music, good disco, genre’s that on the surface might not be deemed cool, but actually save souls. Says ITOP founder Adrian Flanagan (The Moonlandingz/ Eccentronic Research Council/ Adult Entertainment).
Singer Leonore Wheatley adds.
We wanted to capture that sweaty, hazy, manic, exciting mess in a song, that captures those halcyon days of Clubbing in Sheffield & Manchester, that moment the adrenaline kicks in and everyone in the room is your brother or sister.”
Talking about the album, Adrian said:
We recorded it all and produced it all ourselves at Dean’s Bowling green studio in Sheffield, it’s the best thing we’ve done since the last thing we did, which I know sounds unbelievable, but it really is! We also included Katie Mason on this record who sings live with us as a double pronged two headed front person with Leonore - and their voices together work like a harmonious dream. Katie & Leonore have been friends since primary school so you can’t fake that dynamic, it’s unbreakable) .
Leonore adds:
We decided to go deeper into the club realm. We wanted the record and live shows to go hand in hand, bringing the spectators more into becoming part of the performance. Dean Honer who mixed the album and who has worked with everyone from Jarvis Cocker to Britney Spears said:
I like that we have a disco song about fillicide commited by the Queen. (The Tower) I wonder if Meghan and Harry heard our early demo?
Singer Leonore Wheatley adds.
We wanted to capture that sweaty, hazy, manic, exciting mess in a song, that captures those halcyon days of Clubbing in Sheffield & Manchester, that moment the adrenaline kicks in and everyone in the room is your brother or sister.”
Talking about the album, Adrian said:
We recorded it all and produced it all ourselves at Dean’s Bowling green studio in Sheffield, it’s the best thing we’ve done since the last thing we did, which I know sounds unbelievable, but it really is! We also included Katie Mason on this record who sings live with us as a double pronged two headed front person with Leonore - and their voices together work like a harmonious dream. Katie & Leonore have been friends since primary school so you can’t fake that dynamic, it’s unbreakable) .
Leonore adds:
We decided to go deeper into the club realm. We wanted the record and live shows to go hand in hand, bringing the spectators more into becoming part of the performance. Dean Honer who mixed the album and who has worked with everyone from Jarvis Cocker to Britney Spears said:
I like that we have a disco song about fillicide commited by the Queen. (The Tower) I wonder if Meghan and Harry heard our early demo?
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: ITOP return with their newest LP of thumping basslines, sparkling arpeggios and stone-cold groove. It's a heady combination that really captured our attention on the self-titled debut but goes even further this time. Neon grooves, huge monophonic basslines and all of the heart of the debut. Incredible record.TRACK LISTING
1. Don’t Diss The Disco
2. Gaslight
3. I Stole Yer Plimoles (feat. Jason Williamson)
4. Flood Club
5. A Change
6. Prince (The Final Wheelie) (Introducing Katie-Mason)
7. The Red Dots (Dirty Mind)
8. Beats Working For A Living (For Martin)
9. Ein Weiterer Stein In Der Wand (End Of Days Mix)
10. Femenergy
11. The Tower
Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids are back with their first major new studio album in over 3 years, an epic, sprawling new work exploring the future, the past and the urgent reality of the present, ‘Afro Futuristic Dreams’.
Recorded between San Francisco and London and brought together by the genius of Malcolm Catto at his analogue Quatermass Studio, the new recording represents another bold step in Ackamoor’s ever-evolving journey in jazz, adding full, intricate scores including string sections and choral elements to the Pyramids’ trademark spiritual Afro-jazz sound; Driven by the core Pyramids members Ackamoor (sax, keytar, organ), Margaux Simmons (flute), Sandra Poindexter (violin) and Bobby Cobb (guitar), tracks range from hard-hitting commentaries about police brutality (‘Police Dem’) to celebrations of the ancestors and departed loved ones (‘Requiem For The Ancestors’, ‘Re-Memory’) and hazy cosmic journeys, including the album’s title track and the sparkling, experimental closer, ‘Nice It Up’.
“This album has been many years in the making,” explains Ackamoor. “Back in late 2020, I set out to compose the first in a series of scores to take The Pyramids sound into brave new territory. All of the tracks involve issues that the core band is passionate about and the recording was a complex process involving many musicians and vocalists across two different time zones.”
The recording is the Pyramids’ first new release since the acclaimed ‘Shaman!’ in 2020 and rides a wave of interest in the band around their 50th Anniversary this year.
‘Afro-Futuristic Dreams’ is mixed by Malcolm Catto and mastered by Peter Beckmann at Technology Works. The superb cover artwork illustration is by David Alabo.
All recordings mixed by Malcolm Catto at Quatermass Sound Lab
Recorded between San Francisco and London and brought together by the genius of Malcolm Catto at his analogue Quatermass Studio, the new recording represents another bold step in Ackamoor’s ever-evolving journey in jazz, adding full, intricate scores including string sections and choral elements to the Pyramids’ trademark spiritual Afro-jazz sound; Driven by the core Pyramids members Ackamoor (sax, keytar, organ), Margaux Simmons (flute), Sandra Poindexter (violin) and Bobby Cobb (guitar), tracks range from hard-hitting commentaries about police brutality (‘Police Dem’) to celebrations of the ancestors and departed loved ones (‘Requiem For The Ancestors’, ‘Re-Memory’) and hazy cosmic journeys, including the album’s title track and the sparkling, experimental closer, ‘Nice It Up’.
“This album has been many years in the making,” explains Ackamoor. “Back in late 2020, I set out to compose the first in a series of scores to take The Pyramids sound into brave new territory. All of the tracks involve issues that the core band is passionate about and the recording was a complex process involving many musicians and vocalists across two different time zones.”
The recording is the Pyramids’ first new release since the acclaimed ‘Shaman!’ in 2020 and rides a wave of interest in the band around their 50th Anniversary this year.
‘Afro-Futuristic Dreams’ is mixed by Malcolm Catto and mastered by Peter Beckmann at Technology Works. The superb cover artwork illustration is by David Alabo.
All recordings mixed by Malcolm Catto at Quatermass Sound Lab
TRACK LISTING
1. Afro Futuristic Dreams
2. Thank You God
3. Police Dem
4. First Peoples
5. Truth To Power
6. Re - Memory
7. Garland Rose
8. Requiem For The Ancestors
9. Nice It Up
Influential jazz collective Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids return with an epic new opus, ‘Shaman!’, released on 7th August featuring a fresh line-up including original 1970s Pyramids member Dr. Margaux Simmons on flute Bobby Cobb on guitar, long-term associate Sandra Poindexter on violin, Ruben Ramos on bass, Gioele Pagliaccia on drums and Jack Yglesias on percussion. The band transitions from the political and social commentaries of 2018’s acclaimed ‘An Angel Fell’ into more introspective themes. “I wanted to use this album to touch on some of the issues that we all face as individuals in the inner space of our souls and our conscience,” explains Ackamoor. “The album unfolds over four Acts with personal musical statements about love and loss, mortality, the afterlife, family and salvation.”
Evolving around Ackamoor’s intricate compositions, the album takes us effortlessly across moods and emotions through a series of expansive, extended pieces. Starting with ritual, soul-searching, and masculine vulnerability on the title track, the band explores timeless existence on ‘Eternity’ and mourns the sudden loss of loved ones in the prescient ‘When Will I See You Again?’, a track which gains new relevance amidst the current COVID-19 crisis. Ackamoor pays tribute to his mentor Cecil Taylor on the angular ‘Theme For Cecil’ and renders homage to the ancestors on ‘Salvation’ and ‘The Last Slave Ship’, recalling the last ship to bring slaves to the US from Africa, the Clotilda. The superb ‘Virgin’ is an anthem of forgiveness, new beginnings and self-healing.
Evolving around Ackamoor’s intricate compositions, the album takes us effortlessly across moods and emotions through a series of expansive, extended pieces. Starting with ritual, soul-searching, and masculine vulnerability on the title track, the band explores timeless existence on ‘Eternity’ and mourns the sudden loss of loved ones in the prescient ‘When Will I See You Again?’, a track which gains new relevance amidst the current COVID-19 crisis. Ackamoor pays tribute to his mentor Cecil Taylor on the angular ‘Theme For Cecil’ and renders homage to the ancestors on ‘Salvation’ and ‘The Last Slave Ship’, recalling the last ship to bring slaves to the US from Africa, the Clotilda. The superb ‘Virgin’ is an anthem of forgiveness, new beginnings and self-healing.
TRACK LISTING
1. Shaman!
2. Tango Of Love
3. Eternity
4. When Will I See You Again?
5. Salvation
6. Theme For Cecil
7. Virgin
8. The Last Slave Ship
9. Dogon Mysteries
Influential jazz collective Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids return with an epic new opus, ‘Shaman!’, featuring a fresh line-up including original 1970s Pyramids member Dr. Margaux Simmons on flute Bobby Cobb on guitar, long-term associate Sandra Poindexter on violin, Ruben Ramos on bass, Gioele Pagliaccia on drums and Jack Yglesias on percussion. The band transitions from the political and social commentaries of 2018’s acclaimed ‘An Angel Fell’ into more introspective themes. “I wanted to use this album to touch on some of the issues that we all face as individuals in the inner space of our souls and our conscience,” explains Ackamoor. “The album unfolds over four Acts with personal musical statements about love and loss, mortality, the afterlife, family and salvation.”
Evolving around Ackamoor’s intricate compositions, the album takes us effortlessly across moods and emotions through a series of expansive, extended pieces. Starting with ritual, soul-searching, and masculine vulnerability on the title track, the band explores timeless existence on ‘Eternity’ and mourns the sudden loss of loved ones in the prescient ‘When Will I See You Again?’, a track which gains new relevance amidst the current COVID-19 crisis. Ackamoor pays tribute to his mentor Cecil Taylor on the angular ‘Theme For Cecil’ and renders homage to the ancestors on ‘Salvation’ and ‘The Last Slave Ship’, recalling the last ship to bring slaves to the US from Africa, the Clotilda. The superb ‘Virgin’ is an anthem of forgiveness, new beginnings and self-healing.
Evolving around Ackamoor’s intricate compositions, the album takes us effortlessly across moods and emotions through a series of expansive, extended pieces. Starting with ritual, soul-searching, and masculine vulnerability on the title track, the band explores timeless existence on ‘Eternity’ and mourns the sudden loss of loved ones in the prescient ‘When Will I See You Again?’, a track which gains new relevance amidst the current COVID-19 crisis. Ackamoor pays tribute to his mentor Cecil Taylor on the angular ‘Theme For Cecil’ and renders homage to the ancestors on ‘Salvation’ and ‘The Last Slave Ship’, recalling the last ship to bring slaves to the US from Africa, the Clotilda. The superb ‘Virgin’ is an anthem of forgiveness, new beginnings and self-healing.
TRACK LISTING
1. Shaman!
2. Tango Of Love
3. Eternity
4. When Will I See You Again?
5. Salvation
6. Theme For Cecil
7. Virgin
8. The Last Slave Ship
9. Dogon Mysteries
After Belgian electro-samba wunderkinds Antena split at the end of 1985, singer Isabelle Antena immediately shed her cold wave crown for a sophisticated pop princess tiara.
On 1986’s Martin Hayles-produced ‘En Cavale’, echos of Madonna and city pop abound, with a lipstick stain of L80s Euro dance and spilled cosmopolitan’s worth of bossa nova stirred in for good measure.
This elegant second chapter of a French pop diva has been expanded to include Antena’s shelved Island Records demo, adjacent B-sides and rarities, plus an expansive essay and previously unpublished photographs.
On 1986’s Martin Hayles-produced ‘En Cavale’, echos of Madonna and city pop abound, with a lipstick stain of L80s Euro dance and spilled cosmopolitan’s worth of bossa nova stirred in for good measure.
This elegant second chapter of a French pop diva has been expanded to include Antena’s shelved Island Records demo, adjacent B-sides and rarities, plus an expansive essay and previously unpublished photographs.
TRACK LISTING
Isabelle Antena - Play Back
Isabelle Antena - Easy Street
Isabelle Antena - Seaside Weekend
Isabelle Antena - Ten Minutes
Isabelle Antena - How Can They Tell
Isabelle Antena - Be Pop
Isabelle Antena - Magic Words
Isabelle Antena - Booby Trap
Isabelle Antena - Life Is Too Short
Isabelle Antena - Mummy’s Not At Home Tonight
Isabelle Antena - Don’t Think About It
Isabelle Antena - Time To Work
Isabelle Antena - Blow The World Away
Isabelle Antena - Behind The Door
Antena - Be Pop (12” Mix)
Antena - Life Is Too Short (New Dance 12”)
Antena - Mummy’s Not At Home Tonight (1983 Island Demo)
Antena - Achilles (1983 Island Demo)
Antena - Be Pop (1983 Island Demo)
To listen to Ichiko Aoba is to be drawn into a world as intimate as a warmly lit home, but cosmic in scale. The Japanese singer, songwriter, composer, and multi-instrumentalist, has taken a dedicated online fanbase built from TikTok sounds and critically acclaimed, and translated that into international tours spanning more than 20 countries. She was well known in Japan—collaborating with artists like Haruomi Hosono, Cornelius, and the late Ryuichi Sakamoto—but Windswept Adan earned the adoration of fellow musicians like Japanese Breakfast, Pomme and Weyes Blood. Aoba’s latest album, Luminescent Creatures, is the culmination of her 15-year long career and finds her deftly melding the jazz-infused folk with the orchestral world building. Available exclusively on eco-vinyl, the eco-friendly packaging reflects Aoba's deep commitment to environmentalism.
TRACK LISTING
1. COLORATURA
2. 24° 03' 27.0" N 123° 47' 07.5" E
3. Mazamun
4. Tower
5. Aurora
6. FLAG
7. Cochlea
8. Luciférine
9. Pirsomnia
10. SONAR
11. ƃ
For Boogie Butt's latest project, on side A you'll find 3 tracks: Ian Ash's cover of "I Want to Thank You", originally sung by Ms Alicia Myers and here performed by Ella May. Surrounded by fantastic musicians such as Mathieu Karcher, Olivier Magarotto and Jérôme Billeter, it offers his vision of this track with no samples, everything is played afresh. Welcome to Ian Ash's "Boogievision"!
Remix is by the impressive combo of Mr Doris and D-Funk who inject a certain degree of electricity and power into the track via a more digital instrumental and rhythm palette, plus some modern edits and chops.
On the B-side, "Try Again", originally created by Fostin with Jessie Wagner gets transformed into a bright, summery, acid-jazz version. Jessica has toured the world with Chic, Lenny Kravitz , Kid Rock and Duran Duran. Her liquid necter vocals give "Try Again" a sleek elegance that's highly infectious - just listen to those juicy clav sections!
Proper top drawer, connoisseur level, modern boogie. Don't sleep on this!
Remix is by the impressive combo of Mr Doris and D-Funk who inject a certain degree of electricity and power into the track via a more digital instrumental and rhythm palette, plus some modern edits and chops.
On the B-side, "Try Again", originally created by Fostin with Jessie Wagner gets transformed into a bright, summery, acid-jazz version. Jessica has toured the world with Chic, Lenny Kravitz , Kid Rock and Duran Duran. Her liquid necter vocals give "Try Again" a sleek elegance that's highly infectious - just listen to those juicy clav sections!
Proper top drawer, connoisseur level, modern boogie. Don't sleep on this!
STAFF COMMENTS
Matt says: Ian Ash offers up some stylish covers of two classic boogie tracks with impressive results. Smooth, soulful, summery vibes with maximum positivity.TRACK LISTING
A1. I Want To Thank You
A2. I Want To Thank You (Mr Doris & D-Funk Remix)
A3. I Want To Thank You - Instrumental
B1. Try Again
B2. Try Again - Instrumental
Ilya Beshevli’s sophomore album ‘Wanderer’, released in May 2016, gets a reworking of the title track by Dutch lo-fi house producer Kai Hugo aka Palmbomen as well as minimalist composer and labelmate Ryan Teague, whereas Simian Mobile Disco remix focus track ‘The Traveller’s Night Song’. The SMD rework on Side-A is a woozy warped-keys rework of the original, with throbbing kick drums and cosmic echoes swirling around the stereo field. Starting with driving pitched kicks and a faded melodic trill working its way to the forefront before introducing both rhythmic and (later) melodic counterparts. Half Way through and it descends into some echoey melodic black-hole before kick-starting the part with an anthemic and triumphant ambient electronic climax. Move into the latter half of side-A, and there is a perfect juxtaposition to the dancefloor ready vibes on the opener in Palmbomen's remix of 'Wanderer'. New-age pads and woodwind-esque squeals are thrown together with aplomb, whilst giving way gradually to an ever encroaching melodic foundation. Half-way through and a resonant 303 rips its way into the mix, slidding and shimmering about the place, before coaxing the formerly meek ambience into some sort of distorted empathy. On the flipside, the epic Ryan Teague remix displays the sort of arpeggiated electronic ambience you might expect from Ricardo Donoso or Ulrich Schnauss before scraping and droning into a skittering rhythmic glitch. Highly melodic, but littered with artifacts (tape-stop/beat repeat etc) pulling and pushing at the established foundation whilst still retaining a cohesion and dedication to the source material. An excellently curated trio of tracks here, remaining true to the spirit of the original, whilst forging a new path for the outer boundaries of the sound.
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: A perfectly flowing, and warmingly cohesive set of remixes from Ilya Beshevli's stunning 'Wanderer'. From cosmic electronic, to new-age with a bit of acid thrown in for good measure. A perfect digital counterfoil to the acoustic drive of the original.
In 1991, a loose-knit collective released a record called Blue Lines under the name Massive Attack, splicing together American hip-hop and soul with the sounds of the British underground. With its marauding bass lines, angular guitars, and psychedelic effects, Blue Lines built on the Caribbean soundsystems and nascent rave scene of the 1980s while also looking ahead to the group’s signature blend of epic cinematics and lush downtempo. In the process, Blue Lines invented an entirely new genre called trip hop and launched the career of a rapper named Tricky.
Ultimately, Blue Lines created the sonic playbook for an emerging future: hybrid, digital, cosmopolitan, and rooted in the black and immigrant communities who animated the urban wreckage of the postindustrial city. Massive Attack envisioned an alternate future in sharp counterpoint to the glossy triumphalism of Brit Pop. And while the group would go on to bigger things, this record was both a warning shot and a definitive statement that sounds as otherworldy today as on the day of its release.
As Blue Lines’s iconic flame logo spun on turntables the world over, Massive Attack and their spaced-out urban blues reimagined music for the 1990s and beyond.
Ultimately, Blue Lines created the sonic playbook for an emerging future: hybrid, digital, cosmopolitan, and rooted in the black and immigrant communities who animated the urban wreckage of the postindustrial city. Massive Attack envisioned an alternate future in sharp counterpoint to the glossy triumphalism of Brit Pop. And while the group would go on to bigger things, this record was both a warning shot and a definitive statement that sounds as otherworldy today as on the day of its release.
As Blue Lines’s iconic flame logo spun on turntables the world over, Massive Attack and their spaced-out urban blues reimagined music for the 1990s and beyond.
Igor Boxx known also as Igor Pudlo (from Ninja Tune's Polish act Skalpel) is opening a new decade with his first solo album, "Breslau". For Igor's solo debut album, the inspiration comes like before from his home country and his home town.
"Breslau" tells a tale of 1945 siege of Festung Breslau undertaken by the Red Army. This journey is musically so emotional and powerful that it allows anyone to follow the story behind the track. Sounds are used to depict the massive force and fury of bolsheviks' attack and the determination of the terrorized civil population of the city to hold on. Krautrock grinding illustrates the monotony of the endless battle, psychodelic ornaments underline the absurd of wartime madness, jazz rhythms sound off the chaos on both sides of the conflict whilst ambient timelessness paints the overwhelming desperation of city defenders' efforts. The live version is more dynamic than the studio version describing the atmosphere of the last group of terrified citizens of Breslau whose dramatic faith is drummed out by Stalin's organs. The dance macabre in the ruins of burning, doomed city will be explosive.
"Breslau" tells a tale of 1945 siege of Festung Breslau undertaken by the Red Army. This journey is musically so emotional and powerful that it allows anyone to follow the story behind the track. Sounds are used to depict the massive force and fury of bolsheviks' attack and the determination of the terrorized civil population of the city to hold on. Krautrock grinding illustrates the monotony of the endless battle, psychodelic ornaments underline the absurd of wartime madness, jazz rhythms sound off the chaos on both sides of the conflict whilst ambient timelessness paints the overwhelming desperation of city defenders' efforts. The live version is more dynamic than the studio version describing the atmosphere of the last group of terrified citizens of Breslau whose dramatic faith is drummed out by Stalin's organs. The dance macabre in the ruins of burning, doomed city will be explosive.
2005 debut album from the Sheffield born alternative singer songwriter. Written by one man and his guitar and produced by a duo more used to putting together breaks and beats this album has a lavish, transatlantic and timeless feel to it. The songs themselves, although based in a traditional songwriter approach, have a strong sense of individuality and self; a diverse and eclectic air about the sound, not least because it was almost three years in the making. Strong and soulful vocals and tasty guitar work interspersed with interesting, dramatic arrangements.
Ian Broudie’s beautiful solo debut Tales Told becomes available for the first time ever on vinyl and vinyl replica CD. The album was recorded in Liverpool during a series of sessions with members of The Coral and The Zutons.
On its original release in 2004, Tales Told marked a departure from Ian’s previous work with The Lightning Seeds. Instead, Ian stripped his songwriting to its bare fundaments, drawing on personal events in his life to create an album of tender, lovelorn ruminations. Ian is best known for his work with The Lightning Seeds, whose debut single Pure heralded a run of well-loved hits which included Sense, The Life of Riley, Marvellous, Lucky You, Change and You Showed Me.
With The Lightning Seeds, Ian was also responsible for the multi-platinum single Three Lions, which in 2018 made chart history when it enjoyed its fourth spell at number one – the most enjoyed by the same artist. Ian’s role in the history of Liverpool’s music scene over the last 40 years is impossible to overestimate. Since joining the founding line-up of Big In Japan, alongside Holly Johnson, Bill Drummond, Jayne Casey and Budgie, Ian went on to work on the first three Echo & The Bunnymen albums, collaborated with The Wild Swans’ Paul Simpson in Care, produced albums by The Pale Fountains and Shack and also the first three albums by The Coral.
On its original release in 2004, Tales Told marked a departure from Ian’s previous work with The Lightning Seeds. Instead, Ian stripped his songwriting to its bare fundaments, drawing on personal events in his life to create an album of tender, lovelorn ruminations. Ian is best known for his work with The Lightning Seeds, whose debut single Pure heralded a run of well-loved hits which included Sense, The Life of Riley, Marvellous, Lucky You, Change and You Showed Me.
With The Lightning Seeds, Ian was also responsible for the multi-platinum single Three Lions, which in 2018 made chart history when it enjoyed its fourth spell at number one – the most enjoyed by the same artist. Ian’s role in the history of Liverpool’s music scene over the last 40 years is impossible to overestimate. Since joining the founding line-up of Big In Japan, alongside Holly Johnson, Bill Drummond, Jayne Casey and Budgie, Ian went on to work on the first three Echo & The Bunnymen albums, collaborated with The Wild Swans’ Paul Simpson in Care, produced albums by The Pale Fountains and Shack and also the first three albums by The Coral.
TRACK LISTING
1. Song For No One
2. Whenever I Do
3. He Sails Tonight
4. Smoke Rings
5. Got No Plans
6. Always Knocking
7. Tales Told
8. Lipstick
9. Super Cinema
10. Home From Home
11. Something Street
12. Broudie's Blues
13. Home From Home (Band Version)
14. Song For No One (Demo)
15. Shifting Sands
16. Something Street (Early Version)
'One of the greatest rock 'n' roll stories of the past 50 years recounted with warmth and wisdom' - Hot PressFew musicians have lived a musical life as rich as the songwriter and producer Ian Broudie. From recording the glorious uplifting psychedelic pop of his band The Lightning Seeds to producing bands like Echo & The Bunnymen and The Fall, Ian has journeyed from the energy and potential of the 1970s punk scene to the madness of '90s indie - and out the other side. Throughout nearly fifty years of making music, he has had a front-row seat working with generations of fantastic musicians in the creation of countless groundbreaking records. In Tomorrow's Here Today, he reveals what he has learnt about creativity, how to work with musicians touched by genius and what it is like to stumble through an exploding industry without losing sight of your dreams. Along the way, Ian shares how he wrote the million-selling album Jollification and how - along with the comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner - he wrote and recorded the only single in chart history to reach number one in the UK on four separate occasions. 'Three Lions' has since become the undisputed unofficial anthem of English football, soundtracking heartbreaking defeats as well as the wondrous victories of the Lionesses. Following 2022's long-awaited Lightning Seeds comeback, Ian reflects on a life of cosmic adventures spent in thrall to the power of music.
Cheeky title, but what do you expect? This collects all his singles plus his two excellent collaborations with UNKLE. There's also three re-recorded, and far superior takes on a couple of B-sides and the gorgeous "Forever And A Day." As a romantic lover of the old '45' this is probably Ian's favourite LP that he's done. The photos and artwork are lush and the songs themselves are super-vibrant, catchy and groovy. If you only get one IB album then you better make it this. If you're a fan you'll be made-up with the new versions, and you can finally get to offload that dodgy second UNKLE LP!
Ian Brown's comeback record is everything you'd want from the funky monkey. Care-free, breezy, uplifting vibes with words that mix the cosmic with a conscience, this record was made almost totally independently. Just Ian, his sons and his old engineer provide that unique blend of the groovy, quirky, and endlessly catchy that we've all come to love and expect.
There's mellow, soulful, bluesy funkers, a rock reggae cover, a reggae reggae cover, a couple of slinky, bouncy, elastic shufflers, some massive, psych-tinged slowies (Syd meets Lennon!) and his most Roses sounding tune so far: evidently a ballad ABOUT The Roses (insert broken-hearted emoji here!?)
Soundwise this is Ian's most beautifully produced record by a mile. Warm, fat and analogue, with killer basslines and a big bottom end, there's a sparseness in the textures but a depth and width in the mix that's more akin to late 70's reggae than any old 'indie' rock. Ripples is all about the SPACE. Ian's voice and words, as charismatic and enigmatic as ever, are central to it all. And he's never sounded better. Self produced, self written (bar 3 co-writes with his sons. What could be more natural?) and with zero session musicians in sight, this feels like Unfinished Monkey Business, the Second Chapter. But with way better songs, way lusher production; a glorious combo of Tunes, space and sound. The dream belongs to the dreamers!
There's mellow, soulful, bluesy funkers, a rock reggae cover, a reggae reggae cover, a couple of slinky, bouncy, elastic shufflers, some massive, psych-tinged slowies (Syd meets Lennon!) and his most Roses sounding tune so far: evidently a ballad ABOUT The Roses (insert broken-hearted emoji here!?)
Soundwise this is Ian's most beautifully produced record by a mile. Warm, fat and analogue, with killer basslines and a big bottom end, there's a sparseness in the textures but a depth and width in the mix that's more akin to late 70's reggae than any old 'indie' rock. Ripples is all about the SPACE. Ian's voice and words, as charismatic and enigmatic as ever, are central to it all. And he's never sounded better. Self produced, self written (bar 3 co-writes with his sons. What could be more natural?) and with zero session musicians in sight, this feels like Unfinished Monkey Business, the Second Chapter. But with way better songs, way lusher production; a glorious combo of Tunes, space and sound. The dream belongs to the dreamers!
TRACK LISTING
First World Problems
Black Roses
Breathe And Breathe Easy (the Everness Of Now)
The Dream And The Dreamer
From Chaos To Harmony
It’s Raining Diamonds
Ripples
Blue Sky Day
Soul Satisfaction
Break Down The Walls (warm Up Jam)
Commenting on the reissue Isobel Campbell says: “I have such fond and special memories of writing and producing this album. 'Ballad of The Broken Seas' is so very dear to my heart and Mark is very much missed.” Originally released in 2006, 'Ballad Of The Broken Seas' has remained a touchstone for fans of folk and Americana, revered for its haunting melodies, rich storytelling, and the captivating interplay between Campbell's ethereal vocals and Lanegan's gravelly baritone. The album was the first in a celebrated trilogy of albums that Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan recorded together, being followed by 'Sunday at Devil Dirt' in 2008 and 'Hawk' in 2010. The album garnered widespread acclaim, with the duo being hailed as a modern day Nancy & Lee, and went on to be shortlisted for the Mercury Prize. From the brooding opener 'Deus Ibi Est' to the melancholic 'The False Husband' and the poignant title track, 'Ballad Of The Broken Seas' resonates as powerfully today as it did upon its initial release
TRACK LISTING
1. Deus Ibi Est
2. Black Mountain
3. The False Husband
4. Ballad Of The Broken Seas
5. Revolver
6. Ramblin' Man
7. (Do You Wanna) Come Walk With Me?
8. Saturday's Gone
9. It's Hard To Kill A Bad Thing
10. Honey Child What Can I Do?
11. Dusty Wreath
12. The Circus Is Leaving Town
Following excellent reviews for her recent solo album, 'There Is No Other...', released earlier this year, Isobel Campbell will reissue her third and fourth solo albums, Amorino and Milkwhite Sheets via Cooking Vinyl.
'Amorino' is the third solo album from the former Belle & Sebastian member Isobel Campbell. Obsessed with French New Wave, chanson, vintage European cinema, the beat girls and boys of the 1960’s, White Horses by Jacky, Peter Sellers and the bossa nova of Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto, Campbell, alongside fellow maverick composer and Scottish national treasure Bill Wells set about making their homage to such things.
'Amorino' is the third solo album from the former Belle & Sebastian member Isobel Campbell. Obsessed with French New Wave, chanson, vintage European cinema, the beat girls and boys of the 1960’s, White Horses by Jacky, Peter Sellers and the bossa nova of Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto, Campbell, alongside fellow maverick composer and Scottish national treasure Bill Wells set about making their homage to such things.
TRACK LISTING
1. Amorino
2. The Breeze Whispered Your Name
3. Monologue For An Old True Love
4. October's Sky
5. The Cat's Pyjamas
6. Why Does My Head Hurt So?
7. Johnny Come Home
8. Poor Butterfly
9. Love For Tomorrow
10. There Is No Greater Gold
11. This Land Flows With Milk
12. Song For Baby
13. Time Is Just The Same
Isobel Campbell is no stranger to navigating turmoil. On her previous album, There Is No Other (2020), she re-emerged after a decade of label trouble with a gem of subtly questing psychedelic folk. Four years on, Campbell spreads her net wider on Bow to Love, a soft-spun yet sharp-edged set of reflections on modern crises that doesn’t stop at diagnosing the problems: it goes further to ask how we might progress from our tense, conflicted times.
With all the dexterity the Glasgow-born singer-songwriter and cellist is known for, the result is an album of lambent surfaces and choppy riptides, a deeply personal record for today poised between hope and despair. “The album is about what we’re all in right now, and my response to that and my life as a microcosm within that,” says Campbell, before suggesting how exposing modern horrors might prove purgative. “I think there’s a quote from A Course In Miracles which says, ‘Love brings up everything unlike itself for the purpose of healing and release.’ Maybe these horrible things are coming up and out so we can get rid of them and things can be better.”
Her radar keenly attuned to inequities, Campbell spotlights toxic masculinity on the luminous ‘Everything Falls Apart,’ it’s circling lilt and warm, fretless bass framing a call to unmask patriarchal power in readiness for “a brand new start”. “My elegy to the patriarchy” is how Campbell pitches it, noting how “even the words we use to insult a substandard man will often blame the woman – ‘son of a bitch’, ‘bastard’.” The spellbinding psych-folk of ‘Spider to the Fly’ and ‘Second Guessing’ add themes of “narcissistic abuse” and “repetition compulsion”, lending bite to the album’s take on relationships.
Some songs were first conceptualised in 2016, when Brexit and Trump exacerbated what Campbell describes as “real tension” amongst people. Between its gently jazzy shuffle and cushioning arrangement, the Yoda-esque ‘Do Or Die’ foregrounds fortitude in the face of gnawing anxieties. The rainy-day soul-pop of ‘Keep Calm Carry On’ also started in 2016, when Campbell was staying at her aunt’s flat in Yoker and her then-husband and collaborator Chris Szczech texted her from New York about the Brexit vote. “Chris was saying, ‘It looks like it’s going to happen’ but I was like, ‘No way.’ And actually – ‘way’. It did happen.”
Technology is touched on with first single ‘4316’, an almost robo-folk-pop challenge to the idea of the “transhuman”: the idea that technology might sire a new stage in human evolution. Favouring “honest, decent communication” over AI, Campbell takes a dim view of our “friend, unfriend, block, unblock” culture. “I know what I love and it ain’t that,” she says. “I was talking to an Uber driver the other day and I said, ‘I don’t want to be living in a video game.’ And he said, ‘Well, we are.’ I feel like I’m offering a human element in these transhuman days of artificial intelligence.”
The looping sing-song swing of the title track applies that open, complex thinking to myths about love: “It’s not enough to bow to love” is the full lyric, offering a grown-up take on the matter. “I grew up loving The Beatles and ‘All You Need Is Love’,” Isobel says, “but sometimes love’s not enough. Sometimes love can get a bit wonky. Love brings up everything - good, bad, ugly - and it can push your buttons.”
To close the album, a warm cover of Dire Straits’s ‘Why Worry’ disregards any hipster disdain for Mark Knopfler’s band to find a core of consolation at the song’s heart. “I never really bought into all that hipster stuff,” says Campbell. “If something speaks to me, it speaks to me. My dad had all those records and I would always sing it to myself.”
In making the album, Campbell chose an environment that spoke to her. She recorded and co-produced the record with Szczech in his studio in Los Angeles, sticking with what works through the upheaval in their personal lives. “Chris Szczech and I made this record no longer as a couple. There’s been shit tons going on but then as I tell myself, things come up to be addressed and dealt with.”
The result is an inquisitive, complex and fully matured album from an artist who has travelled long and far. Campbell was first noticed as a teenage founder member of Belle & Sebastian, before she released two dream-folk solo albums under the name The Gentle Waves and left B&S in 2002. Two records under her own name followed, leading to a union with late rock-carved growler Mark Lanegan for three albums of gravel’n’honey Americana duets, where Lanegan would stand aside while Campbell called the creative shots.
A move to LA and a near-decade of label troubles followed; the latter ended with There Is No Other in 2020 before – as Campbell puts it – “the world went down the crapper” for the pandemic. And on Bow to Love, suggests Campbell, the world’s ongoing troubles are clear. “Anyone with two eyes, a brain and a heart can see that people are struggling, and I suppose I have a lot of thoughts about that. And it’s this album.”
An album that also, says Campbell, has thoughts about how the future remains unwritten. “I feel like we’re living in some kind of dystopia, but I think it’s up to us what we buy into and what we react to. We do have a choice, even if sometimes we think we don’t. You can still see acts of great kindness. In all the bleakness, that’s what I hang on to. We are co-creators. Where we go next is up to us.” Mounted with clear-sighted artistry and care, Bow to Love is a light in the dark of uncertain times.
With all the dexterity the Glasgow-born singer-songwriter and cellist is known for, the result is an album of lambent surfaces and choppy riptides, a deeply personal record for today poised between hope and despair. “The album is about what we’re all in right now, and my response to that and my life as a microcosm within that,” says Campbell, before suggesting how exposing modern horrors might prove purgative. “I think there’s a quote from A Course In Miracles which says, ‘Love brings up everything unlike itself for the purpose of healing and release.’ Maybe these horrible things are coming up and out so we can get rid of them and things can be better.”
Her radar keenly attuned to inequities, Campbell spotlights toxic masculinity on the luminous ‘Everything Falls Apart,’ it’s circling lilt and warm, fretless bass framing a call to unmask patriarchal power in readiness for “a brand new start”. “My elegy to the patriarchy” is how Campbell pitches it, noting how “even the words we use to insult a substandard man will often blame the woman – ‘son of a bitch’, ‘bastard’.” The spellbinding psych-folk of ‘Spider to the Fly’ and ‘Second Guessing’ add themes of “narcissistic abuse” and “repetition compulsion”, lending bite to the album’s take on relationships.
Some songs were first conceptualised in 2016, when Brexit and Trump exacerbated what Campbell describes as “real tension” amongst people. Between its gently jazzy shuffle and cushioning arrangement, the Yoda-esque ‘Do Or Die’ foregrounds fortitude in the face of gnawing anxieties. The rainy-day soul-pop of ‘Keep Calm Carry On’ also started in 2016, when Campbell was staying at her aunt’s flat in Yoker and her then-husband and collaborator Chris Szczech texted her from New York about the Brexit vote. “Chris was saying, ‘It looks like it’s going to happen’ but I was like, ‘No way.’ And actually – ‘way’. It did happen.”
Technology is touched on with first single ‘4316’, an almost robo-folk-pop challenge to the idea of the “transhuman”: the idea that technology might sire a new stage in human evolution. Favouring “honest, decent communication” over AI, Campbell takes a dim view of our “friend, unfriend, block, unblock” culture. “I know what I love and it ain’t that,” she says. “I was talking to an Uber driver the other day and I said, ‘I don’t want to be living in a video game.’ And he said, ‘Well, we are.’ I feel like I’m offering a human element in these transhuman days of artificial intelligence.”
The looping sing-song swing of the title track applies that open, complex thinking to myths about love: “It’s not enough to bow to love” is the full lyric, offering a grown-up take on the matter. “I grew up loving The Beatles and ‘All You Need Is Love’,” Isobel says, “but sometimes love’s not enough. Sometimes love can get a bit wonky. Love brings up everything - good, bad, ugly - and it can push your buttons.”
To close the album, a warm cover of Dire Straits’s ‘Why Worry’ disregards any hipster disdain for Mark Knopfler’s band to find a core of consolation at the song’s heart. “I never really bought into all that hipster stuff,” says Campbell. “If something speaks to me, it speaks to me. My dad had all those records and I would always sing it to myself.”
In making the album, Campbell chose an environment that spoke to her. She recorded and co-produced the record with Szczech in his studio in Los Angeles, sticking with what works through the upheaval in their personal lives. “Chris Szczech and I made this record no longer as a couple. There’s been shit tons going on but then as I tell myself, things come up to be addressed and dealt with.”
The result is an inquisitive, complex and fully matured album from an artist who has travelled long and far. Campbell was first noticed as a teenage founder member of Belle & Sebastian, before she released two dream-folk solo albums under the name The Gentle Waves and left B&S in 2002. Two records under her own name followed, leading to a union with late rock-carved growler Mark Lanegan for three albums of gravel’n’honey Americana duets, where Lanegan would stand aside while Campbell called the creative shots.
A move to LA and a near-decade of label troubles followed; the latter ended with There Is No Other in 2020 before – as Campbell puts it – “the world went down the crapper” for the pandemic. And on Bow to Love, suggests Campbell, the world’s ongoing troubles are clear. “Anyone with two eyes, a brain and a heart can see that people are struggling, and I suppose I have a lot of thoughts about that. And it’s this album.”
An album that also, says Campbell, has thoughts about how the future remains unwritten. “I feel like we’re living in some kind of dystopia, but I think it’s up to us what we buy into and what we react to. We do have a choice, even if sometimes we think we don’t. You can still see acts of great kindness. In all the bleakness, that’s what I hang on to. We are co-creators. Where we go next is up to us.” Mounted with clear-sighted artistry and care, Bow to Love is a light in the dark of uncertain times.
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: A beautiful mix of airy melodies and indie-adjacent electronica from former Belle & Sebastian member, Isobel Campbell. It's a perfect balance between driven hypnotic melodies like on opener 'Everything Falls Apart' and more punchy, acoustic folk numbers.TRACK LISTING
1. Everything Falls Apart
2. Do Or Die
3. Spider To The Fly
4. Second Guessing
5. Bow To Love
6. 4316
7. Dopamine
8. Keep Calm Carry On
9. Saturday’s Son
10. Take This Poison
11. Om Shanti Om
12. You
13. Why Worry
Originally release in 2006, "Milkwhite Sheets" was conceived and recorded in tandem and shortly after "Ballad Of The Broken Seas". It's a piercingly beautiful set of traditional folk songs and originals, on the surface tranquil, with turbulence underneath. More intimate, more deftly twisted than "Ballad…", it draws on broader and more personal influences.
TRACK LISTING
1. O Love Is Teasin'
2. Willow's Song
3. Yearning
4. James
5. Hori Horo
6. Reynardine
7. Milkwhite Sheets
8. Cachel Wood
9. Beggar, Wiseman Or Thief
10. Loving Hannah
11. Are You Going To Leave Me?
12. Over The Wheat & The Barley
13. Thursday's Child
Long awaited new solo album from Isobel Campbell.
It's been 10 years (yes really) since her last album, "Hawk", which was her third collaboration with Mark Lanegan and 14 since her last solo album, but it's been worth the wait.
Drawing on everything from the twee indie pop of Belle & Sebastian, 60s pop, and the dark Americana of her Lanegan collaborations, this is an absolute gem of a record.
It's been 10 years (yes really) since her last album, "Hawk", which was her third collaboration with Mark Lanegan and 14 since her last solo album, but it's been worth the wait.
Drawing on everything from the twee indie pop of Belle & Sebastian, 60s pop, and the dark Americana of her Lanegan collaborations, this is an absolute gem of a record.
TRACK LISTING
1. City Of Angels
2. Runnin’ Down A Dream
3. Vultures
4. Ant Life
5. Rainbow
6. The Heart Of It All
7. Hey World
8. The National Bird Of India
9. Just For Today
10. See Your Face Again
11. Boulevard
12. Counting Fireflies
13. Below Zero
Wicked previously unreleased late '80s combination tune from Icho Candy & his brother Prince Junior, who are sometimes confused for each other. On the same rhythm as King Kong's "Agony and Pain" (also repressed this week). Lyrically about the struggle for freedom of the day, as resonant today as it was nearly 40 years ago.
STAFF COMMENTS
Matt says: Icho Candy muses on the struggle for the freedom over King Kong's "Agony And Pain" riddim. Its another winner from the selection of Jah Life Time reissues we've been luckily blessed with this week.TRACK LISTING
A. Free Up
B. Free Up Dub
Official half-speed mastered re-issue of British trumpeter and bandleader Ian Carr's iconic jazz-fusion-rock hybrid ‘Belladonna’ from 1972.
Originally released on the Vertigo label, complete with collectable ‘swirl' record centre design, this sought-after jazz-rock-fusion rarity features some of the cream of the UK jazz musicians of the 70’s. Comprised from groups such as Nucleus, Brian Auger's band, Soft Machine, Stan Tracy group, the players included Brian Smith (tenor and soprano saxophones, alto and bamboo flutes), legendary guitarist Allan Holdsworth, Dave MacRae (Fender electric piano), and bassist Roy Babbington, to name but a few.
Seen as a benchmark point in Ian Carr's career, 'Belladonna’ is awash with atmospheric excursions and ethereal qualities, as well as a darker fusion aesthetic and prog-rock sensibility from Holdsworth's exceptional guitar playing. The moody, yet funky, vibe of the album has echoes of Miles Davis' electronic era à la 'In A Silent Way'.
The album is best enjoyed played in its entirety. There are ebbs and flows with certain tracks shining along the way. Standouts include the beautiful down-tempo track 'Summer Rain’, which has a soundtrack / library style brilliance and emotional electric piano soloing. Though recorded in the 70’s, the track has a timeless sound, a melancholic funk so often used in hip-hop and beat tape productions to this day. ‘Mayday's Shaft-like long extended intro builds the drama until the percussive release when the drums drop at over three minutes in.
To give a record of such quality the treatment it deserves, we have once again been lucky to enlist the service of mastering and lacquer cutting engineering don Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios, to cut a brand-new half-speed master and let the music speak for itself.
Originally released on the Vertigo label, complete with collectable ‘swirl' record centre design, this sought-after jazz-rock-fusion rarity features some of the cream of the UK jazz musicians of the 70’s. Comprised from groups such as Nucleus, Brian Auger's band, Soft Machine, Stan Tracy group, the players included Brian Smith (tenor and soprano saxophones, alto and bamboo flutes), legendary guitarist Allan Holdsworth, Dave MacRae (Fender electric piano), and bassist Roy Babbington, to name but a few.
Seen as a benchmark point in Ian Carr's career, 'Belladonna’ is awash with atmospheric excursions and ethereal qualities, as well as a darker fusion aesthetic and prog-rock sensibility from Holdsworth's exceptional guitar playing. The moody, yet funky, vibe of the album has echoes of Miles Davis' electronic era à la 'In A Silent Way'.
The album is best enjoyed played in its entirety. There are ebbs and flows with certain tracks shining along the way. Standouts include the beautiful down-tempo track 'Summer Rain’, which has a soundtrack / library style brilliance and emotional electric piano soloing. Though recorded in the 70’s, the track has a timeless sound, a melancholic funk so often used in hip-hop and beat tape productions to this day. ‘Mayday's Shaft-like long extended intro builds the drama until the percussive release when the drums drop at over three minutes in.
To give a record of such quality the treatment it deserves, we have once again been lucky to enlist the service of mastering and lacquer cutting engineering don Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios, to cut a brand-new half-speed master and let the music speak for itself.
TRACK LISTING
A1. Belladonna
A2. Summer Rain
B1. Remadione
B2. Mayday
B3. Suspension
B4. Hector’s House
Originally released on the Vertigo label, complete with collectable 'swirl' record centre design, this sought-after jazz-rock-fusion rarity features some of the cream of the UK jazz musicians of the 70's. Comprised from groups such as Nucleus, Brian Auger's band, Soft Machine, Stan Tracy group, the players included Brian Smith (tenor and soprano s axophones, alto and bamboo flutes), legendary guitarist Allan Holdsworth, Dave MacRae (Fender electric piano), and bassist Roy Babbington, to name but a few. Seen as a benchmark point in Ian Carr's career, 'Belladonna' is awash with atmospheric excursions and ethereal qualities, as well as a darker fusion aesthetic and prog-rock sensibility from Holdsworth's exceptional guitar playing. The moody, yet funky, vibe of the album has echoes of Miles Davis' electronic era à la 'In A Silent Way'.
The album is best enjoyed played in its entirety. There are ebbs and flows with certain tracks shining along the way. Standouts include the beautiful down-tempo track 'Summer Rain', which has a soundtrack / library style brilliance and emotional electric piano soloing. Though recorded in the 70's, the track has a timeless sound, a melancholic funk so often used in hip-hop and beat tape productions to this day. 'Mayday's Shaft-like long extended intro builds the drama until the percussive release when the drums drop at over three minutes in. To give a record of such quality the treatment it deserves, we have once again been lucky to enlist the service of mastering and lacquer cutting engineering don Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios, to cut a brand-new half-speed master and let the music speak for itself.
The album is best enjoyed played in its entirety. There are ebbs and flows with certain tracks shining along the way. Standouts include the beautiful down-tempo track 'Summer Rain', which has a soundtrack / library style brilliance and emotional electric piano soloing. Though recorded in the 70's, the track has a timeless sound, a melancholic funk so often used in hip-hop and beat tape productions to this day. 'Mayday's Shaft-like long extended intro builds the drama until the percussive release when the drums drop at over three minutes in. To give a record of such quality the treatment it deserves, we have once again been lucky to enlist the service of mastering and lacquer cutting engineering don Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios, to cut a brand-new half-speed master and let the music speak for itself.
TRACK LISTING
1. Belladonna
2. Summer Rain
3. Remadione
4. Mayday
5. Suspension
6. Hector’s House
Though it was recorded and mixed in the same sessions, ‘Katmandu’ was mysteriously omitted by Mam o from the Poison Fruit album, either accidentally or on purpose, he’s not quite sure. What is for sure is that it’s one of the most potent poison grooves of them all. The original mix, produced by Daniel Maunick, accompanies remixes from three of mainland Europe’s finest DJ/producer combos, prolific German nu-jazz collective Jazzanova, MCDE Recordings & Faces Records’ Pablo Valentino, and Croatian house veteran Eddy Ramich with assistance from Zagreb duo Jan Kinl & Regis Kattie. This EP is the second in a series of limited edition dance 12”s celebrating 25 years of Far Out Recordings and is housed in a special sleeve which uses the label’s original semiquaver logo from 1994.
TRACK LISTING
Katmandu (Original Mix)
Katmandu (Pablo Valentino Remix)
Katmandu (Jazzanova Remix)
Katmandu (Eddy Ramich Feat. Jan Kinl & Regis Kattie Remix)
*BIG FANFARE!!* New album from Inga Copeland who I'm hoping you're aware of via the cult group Hype Williams which she was in with Dean Blunt. A modern muse of mythical status, Inga's smeared synth-pop musings and radioactive downbeat exercises have become highly treasured amongst underground aficionados, reddit forum users and NTS listeners alike.
Stylistically it exists in that liminal / hypnogogic space between reality and dream world, with melancholic undertones reflecting, unfortunately, the current mood of our fractured country. With songs resembling traditional structures soon dissipating into the ether or crumbling into fried motherboards it draws comparisons with the recent Bar Italia album in terms of construction if not stylistic content. Her deliberately-almost-broken voice compliments the sorrowful machine music beautifully - the perfect ballad to soundtrack the end of humanity.
Her 'first and last' album, which has previously only been released digitally, gets a highly coveted vinyl edition here - if you're reading this and its still in stock then lucky you - click that buy button or hurriedly scamper up to our counter with this in your hand - proud in the knowledge that you've snaffled a piece of modern electronic music treasure everyone’ll be fighting over in a couple of weeks.
Stylistically it exists in that liminal / hypnogogic space between reality and dream world, with melancholic undertones reflecting, unfortunately, the current mood of our fractured country. With songs resembling traditional structures soon dissipating into the ether or crumbling into fried motherboards it draws comparisons with the recent Bar Italia album in terms of construction if not stylistic content. Her deliberately-almost-broken voice compliments the sorrowful machine music beautifully - the perfect ballad to soundtrack the end of humanity.
Her 'first and last' album, which has previously only been released digitally, gets a highly coveted vinyl edition here - if you're reading this and its still in stock then lucky you - click that buy button or hurriedly scamper up to our counter with this in your hand - proud in the knowledge that you've snaffled a piece of modern electronic music treasure everyone’ll be fighting over in a couple of weeks.
STAFF COMMENTS
Matt says: Bedroom blues, rain dappled electronica, exotic downbeat; Inga Copeland's liminal music is a music journalist's fantasy or horror, depending on how eloquent they might be feeling that day.TRACK LISTING
01 Faith
02 Light Up
03 A&E (Copeland Audacity Mix)
04 B.M.W.
05 Obsession 2
06 A World In Danger III (ft. Scratcha DVA)
The twenty-fourth - and final - issue in FatCat’s long-running and much-loved Split Series arrives on the 25th Anniversary of the Brighton-based label.
‘Split Series #24’ features acclaimed Canadian singer / composer Ian William Craig alongside the brilliant but little-known Estonian Kago - two artists each using their voice as a central element of their craft, mediated through technology to conjure startlingly singular soundworlds.
Neither side here will sound quite like anything you’ve previously heard. Ian William Craig provides a 19-minute-long immersive tape piece, with Kago delivering a warped, acid-tinged slice of Eastern European freak-folk to round off a killer release that fits the free-wheeling aesthetic of the Split Series perfectly.
Last ever release in FatCat’s long-running and much-hyped Split Series, described by NME as “a virtual academy of the abstract... [where] the shock troops of post-everything music gather” and by The 405 as having “left an indelible mark on the face of modern electronica.”
Hand-drilled and hand-numbered sleeves with full printed inner sleeve in a one-off vinyl pressing.
For fans of Tim Hecker, William Basinski, Ben Frost, The Caretaker, Maarja Nuut, Mari Kalkun.
‘Split Series #24’ features acclaimed Canadian singer / composer Ian William Craig alongside the brilliant but little-known Estonian Kago - two artists each using their voice as a central element of their craft, mediated through technology to conjure startlingly singular soundworlds.
Neither side here will sound quite like anything you’ve previously heard. Ian William Craig provides a 19-minute-long immersive tape piece, with Kago delivering a warped, acid-tinged slice of Eastern European freak-folk to round off a killer release that fits the free-wheeling aesthetic of the Split Series perfectly.
Last ever release in FatCat’s long-running and much-hyped Split Series, described by NME as “a virtual academy of the abstract... [where] the shock troops of post-everything music gather” and by The 405 as having “left an indelible mark on the face of modern electronica.”
Hand-drilled and hand-numbered sleeves with full printed inner sleeve in a one-off vinyl pressing.
For fans of Tim Hecker, William Basinski, Ben Frost, The Caretaker, Maarja Nuut, Mari Kalkun.
TRACK LISTING
Ian William Craig
Because It Speaks
Kago
Kröösnomi
Avovang
Suure Reede Lapsed
Leontiine Kirotosk
Tetermats 2
Käed Lahti On Ulga Kergem
Sõita
Uued Vigikad
In a Word, the sixteenth installment of the intergenerational collaboration series FRKWYS, brings together composer Daniel Lentz and vocalist and sound artist Ian William Craig for an album that embraces erosion and the potential of its loam left behind. A major figure in American composition, Daniel Lentz has worked at the middle and margins of postminimalism for more than four decades. A pioneer of “live multitrack recording” with the Daniel Lentz Group, he frequently writes for ensembles of similar instruments, from choirs to string orchestras to glass harmonicas. Like his west coast colleagues Harold Budd and Ingram Marshall, Lentz composes music of slow changes, built on fundamental harmonies and rhythms that evoke vast spaces and deep, ancient stone.
Canadian artist Ian William Craig combines his classically trained voice with precarious technologies: homemade analog synths, altered reel-to-reel machines, and faulty tape decks. His solo albums, including the acclaimed Centres (2016) and, more recently, Red Sun Through Smoke (2020), document a haunted nostalgia. In contrast to Lentz’s (sometimes) radical expansiveness, Craig’s music is fragile and self-consciously created alone, using his customized machination to create warped nocturnes of melody and dissonance. The sessions for In a Word took place in the Santa Barbara home studio of engineer Dick Dunlap. For both musicians the experience was an exploration toward each other. Craig with his rickety tape decks, Lentz sat at a grand piano. Lentz was immediately enchanted by Craig’s voice and equipment: “With the first note he sang, I was hooked. The beauty of his voice and his unique analog looping setup, all compacted into a small suitcase, were both remarkable and always surprising in what they could do. The music emerged spontaneously from simple, even cautious beginnings.
For Craig, who rarely works with other musicians, the sessions encouraged him to shed selfconsciousness and attune himself to his cocreator. Previously, he had regarded his tape decks and synths as bandmates, providing the creative energy he could get from other people. Recording with Lentz pushed him to find a new, more collaborative perspective. “I tried my best to control what was going on at first, and failed spectacularly. Once I let this aspect go and began to listen to Daniel, to my surroundings, and to the engineers, something finally clicked.” In a Word documents a coming together of two distinct musical personalities, and also a transformation. Lentz’s toiling, echoing piano, recalling his work on 1984’s Point Conception or the 1992 collaboration Music for 3 Pianos with Budd and Ruben Garcia, are churned into lush earth by Craig’s faltering machines. Craig’s folk-like tenor is realigned with Lentz’s crisp, minimalist repetitions; the combination is warm yet deeply layered, like the Californian sunset that would acknowledge the two composers at the end of each session day. Together, Craig and Lentz unearth deep forms of sonic expression from a common ground and newly seeded camaraderie. Lentz’s unmistakable piano sound is clearly relished by Craig’s tape decks, which add ghostly counterpoints of distortion and disintegration to its acoustic resonances. To this hall of haunted mirrors, Craig’s voice adds a yearning, human quality that is sometimes caught up in the same machinery, and is sometimes allowed to spirit above it.
An accompanying documentary of the collaboration directed by Eli Welbourne will be released in tandem. A portion of the proceeds from this release will benefit Wolfstone Ranch, a spiritually-based, activist community dedicated to making the rural Midwest a more compassionate place for all the animals who live there.
Canadian artist Ian William Craig combines his classically trained voice with precarious technologies: homemade analog synths, altered reel-to-reel machines, and faulty tape decks. His solo albums, including the acclaimed Centres (2016) and, more recently, Red Sun Through Smoke (2020), document a haunted nostalgia. In contrast to Lentz’s (sometimes) radical expansiveness, Craig’s music is fragile and self-consciously created alone, using his customized machination to create warped nocturnes of melody and dissonance. The sessions for In a Word took place in the Santa Barbara home studio of engineer Dick Dunlap. For both musicians the experience was an exploration toward each other. Craig with his rickety tape decks, Lentz sat at a grand piano. Lentz was immediately enchanted by Craig’s voice and equipment: “With the first note he sang, I was hooked. The beauty of his voice and his unique analog looping setup, all compacted into a small suitcase, were both remarkable and always surprising in what they could do. The music emerged spontaneously from simple, even cautious beginnings.
For Craig, who rarely works with other musicians, the sessions encouraged him to shed selfconsciousness and attune himself to his cocreator. Previously, he had regarded his tape decks and synths as bandmates, providing the creative energy he could get from other people. Recording with Lentz pushed him to find a new, more collaborative perspective. “I tried my best to control what was going on at first, and failed spectacularly. Once I let this aspect go and began to listen to Daniel, to my surroundings, and to the engineers, something finally clicked.” In a Word documents a coming together of two distinct musical personalities, and also a transformation. Lentz’s toiling, echoing piano, recalling his work on 1984’s Point Conception or the 1992 collaboration Music for 3 Pianos with Budd and Ruben Garcia, are churned into lush earth by Craig’s faltering machines. Craig’s folk-like tenor is realigned with Lentz’s crisp, minimalist repetitions; the combination is warm yet deeply layered, like the Californian sunset that would acknowledge the two composers at the end of each session day. Together, Craig and Lentz unearth deep forms of sonic expression from a common ground and newly seeded camaraderie. Lentz’s unmistakable piano sound is clearly relished by Craig’s tape decks, which add ghostly counterpoints of distortion and disintegration to its acoustic resonances. To this hall of haunted mirrors, Craig’s voice adds a yearning, human quality that is sometimes caught up in the same machinery, and is sometimes allowed to spirit above it.
An accompanying documentary of the collaboration directed by Eli Welbourne will be released in tandem. A portion of the proceeds from this release will benefit Wolfstone Ranch, a spiritually-based, activist community dedicated to making the rural Midwest a more compassionate place for all the animals who live there.
TRACK LISTING
A1. Tasteful Gloss
A2. Joyce
A3. Aphrodite
A4. Erebus
A5. Up Up Up Stay
B1. A Pair Of Pears
B2. Fragrance
B3. Stöltzle
B4. Poire
Vancouver-based singer/composer Ian William Craig returns with a brilliant and powerfully emotive new album. His first for a long while to be centred around the piano - and also one of his most pared back - the record was made through an intense period of personal loss and environmental catastrophe.
‘Red Sun Through Smoke’ was recorded over two cataclysmic weeks in August 2018 in Kelowna, whilst the city was encircled by the forest fires which, under a warming climate, now regularly rage through British Columbia in summertime. With smoke engulfing the landscape, it was recorded from start to finish in the living room of a small house owned by his grandfather, who was moved into palliative care and tragically died halfway through the recording, his lungs filled with fluid as a result of the smoke.
Forged in trauma and an intense, bewildering slew of mixed emotions, Ian William Craig has created an album of incredible beauty, sadness and depth. ‘Red Sun Through Smoke’ is a profoundly moving album, a standout record in a prolific body of work that shows no sign of faltering.
‘Red Sun Through Smoke’ was recorded over two cataclysmic weeks in August 2018 in Kelowna, whilst the city was encircled by the forest fires which, under a warming climate, now regularly rage through British Columbia in summertime. With smoke engulfing the landscape, it was recorded from start to finish in the living room of a small house owned by his grandfather, who was moved into palliative care and tragically died halfway through the recording, his lungs filled with fluid as a result of the smoke.
Forged in trauma and an intense, bewildering slew of mixed emotions, Ian William Craig has created an album of incredible beauty, sadness and depth. ‘Red Sun Through Smoke’ is a profoundly moving album, a standout record in a prolific body of work that shows no sign of faltering.
TRACK LISTING
Random
The Smokefallen
Weight
Comma
Condx QRN
Mountains Astray
Take
Last Of The Lantern Oil
Supper
Far And Then Farther
Open Like A Loss
Stories
Indigo De Souza announces her new album All of This Will End, the anticipated follow-up to her acclaimed 2021 breakthrough album Any Shape You Take. All of This Will End marks a warmer and unmistakably audacious era for her. It’s a statement about fearlessly moving forward from the past into a gratitude-filled present, feeling it all every step of the way, and choosing to embody loving awareness.
Across 11 songs, the album is a raw and radically optimistic work that grapples with mortality, the rejuvenation that community brings, and the importance of centering yourself now. These tracks come from the most resonant moments of her life: childhood memories, collecting herself in parking lots, the ecstatic trips spent wandering the Appalachian mountains and southern swamps with friends, and the times she had to stand up for herself. “All of This Will End feels more true to me than anything ever has,” she says.
Across 11 songs, the album is a raw and radically optimistic work that grapples with mortality, the rejuvenation that community brings, and the importance of centering yourself now. These tracks come from the most resonant moments of her life: childhood memories, collecting herself in parking lots, the ecstatic trips spent wandering the Appalachian mountains and southern swamps with friends, and the times she had to stand up for herself. “All of This Will End feels more true to me than anything ever has,” she says.
TRACK LISTING
1. Time Back
2. You Can Be Mean
3. Losing
4. Wasting Your Time
5. Parking Lot
6. All Of This Will End
7. Smog
8. The Water
9. Always
10. Not My Body
11. Younger And Dumber
“Everything has to be said.” This is the conviction guiding Indigo De Souza’s sophomore album, Any Shape You Take. This dynamic record successfully creates a container for the full spectrum—pushing through and againstevery emotion: “I wanted this album to give a feeling of shifting with and embracing change. These songs camefrom a turbulent time when I was coming to self-love through many existential crises and shifts in perspective.”
Faithful to its name, Any Shape You Take changes form to match the tenor of each story it tells. “The album titleis a nod to the many shapes I take musically. I don’t feel that I fully embody any particular genre—all of themusic just comes from the universe that is my ever-shifting brain/heart/world,” says Indigo. This sonic range isunified by Indigo’s strikingly confessional and effortless approach to songwriting, a signature first introduced inher debut, self-released LP, I Love My Mom. Written in quick succession, Indigo sees these two records ascompanion pieces, both distinct but in communion with each other: “Many of the songs on these two recordscame from the same season in my life and a certain version of myself which I feel much further from now.”
Throughout Any Shape You Take, Indigo reflects on her relationships as she reckons with a deeper need toredefine how to fully inhabit spaces of love and connection.“It feels so important for me to see people throughchange. To accept people for the many shapes they take, whether those shapes fit into your life or not. Thisalbum is a reflection of that. I have undergone so much change in my life and I am so deeply grateful to thepeople who have seen me through it without judgment and without attachment to skins I’m shifting out of.”
Growing up in a conservative small town in the mountains of North Carolina, Indigo started playing guitar when she was nine years old. “Music was a natural occurrence in my life. My dad is a bossa nova guitarist andsinger from Brazil and so I think I just had it in my blood from birth.” It wasn’t until moving to Asheville, NC that Indigo began to move into her current sound, developing a writing practice that feeds from the currents thatsurround her: “Sometimes it feels like I am soaking up the energies of people around me and making art from aspace that is more a collective body than just my own.”
“I feel very much like a shape-shifter with my music, I’m always trying to embody a balance between the existential weight and the overflowing sense of love I feel in the world.” It is exactly this balance that Indigostrikes in her Saddle Creek debut, Any Shape You Take. A listening experience that gives back, as you shed andshape-shift along with her.
Faithful to its name, Any Shape You Take changes form to match the tenor of each story it tells. “The album titleis a nod to the many shapes I take musically. I don’t feel that I fully embody any particular genre—all of themusic just comes from the universe that is my ever-shifting brain/heart/world,” says Indigo. This sonic range isunified by Indigo’s strikingly confessional and effortless approach to songwriting, a signature first introduced inher debut, self-released LP, I Love My Mom. Written in quick succession, Indigo sees these two records ascompanion pieces, both distinct but in communion with each other: “Many of the songs on these two recordscame from the same season in my life and a certain version of myself which I feel much further from now.”
Throughout Any Shape You Take, Indigo reflects on her relationships as she reckons with a deeper need toredefine how to fully inhabit spaces of love and connection.“It feels so important for me to see people throughchange. To accept people for the many shapes they take, whether those shapes fit into your life or not. Thisalbum is a reflection of that. I have undergone so much change in my life and I am so deeply grateful to thepeople who have seen me through it without judgment and without attachment to skins I’m shifting out of.”
Growing up in a conservative small town in the mountains of North Carolina, Indigo started playing guitar when she was nine years old. “Music was a natural occurrence in my life. My dad is a bossa nova guitarist andsinger from Brazil and so I think I just had it in my blood from birth.” It wasn’t until moving to Asheville, NC that Indigo began to move into her current sound, developing a writing practice that feeds from the currents thatsurround her: “Sometimes it feels like I am soaking up the energies of people around me and making art from aspace that is more a collective body than just my own.”
“I feel very much like a shape-shifter with my music, I’m always trying to embody a balance between the existential weight and the overflowing sense of love I feel in the world.” It is exactly this balance that Indigostrikes in her Saddle Creek debut, Any Shape You Take. A listening experience that gives back, as you shed andshape-shift along with her.
TRACK LISTING
01. 17
02. Darker Than Death
03. Die/Cry
04. Pretty Pictures
05. Real Pain
06. Bad Dream
07. Late Night Crawler
08. Hold U
09. Way Out
10. Kill Me
In The Kingdom Of Dreams is the debut solo album from Ian Felice of The Felice Brothers. The album was recorded in his childhood home of Palenville NY, with his brother Simone Felice on production duties. Simone produced and co-wrote recent hit albums from The Lumineers and Bat For Lashes. On the album, Ian was joined by fellow Felice Brothers James Felice on keys, Simone Felice on drums and Josh Rawson on bass. The Felice Brothers was conceived in 2006 after the recording of Iantown, a 10 song album of Ian’s first songs recorded in one night in January of 2006. In The Kingdom of Dreams is a collection of songs Ian wrote in 2016 and recorded over the course of 4 days in February of 2017, with his brother Simone at the helm.
MESTIZX is Bolivian-born singer and multi-medium performer Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti and renowned Chicago expat jazz drummer Frank Rosaly's debut album as co-composers, arrangers and musicians.
Partners in both marriage and art, the Amsterdam-based Ferragutti and Rosaly dove into the sounds of their respective ancestral roots in Bolivia, Brazil, and Puerto Rico to create a deeply personal meditation on decolonization and the defiant power of ritual and protest. They chose the title MESTIZX – a non-gendered version of the sometimes slurred Spanish colonial word for a “mixed person” - as a means of both challenging and embracing the liminality of their identities and artistic practices.
Rosaly says: “I grew up quite Puerto Rican in my home, but was taught to mask it outside my home. I wasn’t allowed to speak Spanish, so the drums eventually became my language, secretly tying together my own feeling of connection to mi tierra. This record is the first time I actively give voice to the nuance within myself, allowing me to take ownership of this in-between, which is what this album communicates for me… There is this unusual place that exists between these two cultures, of which I am both. There is a complex story in that sliver of in-betweenness, worthy of giving voice to all of us that live in-between.”
Ferragutti adds: “My personal understanding is one that stems from being placed in between lineages that carry the colonizer and colonized, the oppressor and oppressed, the demon and the angel… thus by definition is tied to post-colonial social constructs which we as Bolivians have to step in, like a 500 year novel that goes on and on… We have access to many memories and traditions, but not really, because we don’t fully belong to any of those… This makes us feel we're in a constant state of being the “visitors” and “outsiders.” On one hand, we are never truly part of one lineage. On the other hand, it makes us a travelers of worlds, storytellers in between multiple languages, cultures, and worldviews. We chose MESTIZX for this work as an act of recognizing the mixed state of being as a difficult and yet powerful one.”
The album was produced and recorded primarily at International Anthem Studios in Chicago, where Ferragutti and Rosaly were joined by a community of musicians and beloved friends including Matt Lux, Avreeayl Ra, Ben LaMar Gay, Daniel Villarreal, Bill MacKay, Rob Frye, and Mikel Patrick Avery, with addditional contributions from Chris Doyle, Guilherme Granado, Viktor Le Givens and Fredy Velásquez.
The music creatively infuses Latin rhythmic patterns and oblong swing from pre-and post-colonial Latin America into a collision of avant jazz, art punk, Chicago post-rock, bomba, plena, cumbia, Andean, minimal, electronica, and folk. A wholly original but undeniably universal sound – both of-the-moment and alluringly futuristic - MESTIZX contains points of reference and resonance for fans of Juana Molina, Café Tacvba, Max Roach & Abbey Lincoln, Liquid Liquid, Arto Lindsay, As Mercenarias, The Ex, Tortoise, Tom Zé, Elza Soares, La Mecanica Popular...
It’s a vast, vibrant and encompassing spectrum of sounds, but at its core MESTIZX is a lucidly conscious collection of auto-biographical statements from Ferragutti & Rosaly on the deeply personalized effects of colonialism on geography, history, and identity. Despite its heavy subject matter, however, MESTIZX finds a lifeline in communal, celebratory, soul-bearing and movement-inducing music.
Partners in both marriage and art, the Amsterdam-based Ferragutti and Rosaly dove into the sounds of their respective ancestral roots in Bolivia, Brazil, and Puerto Rico to create a deeply personal meditation on decolonization and the defiant power of ritual and protest. They chose the title MESTIZX – a non-gendered version of the sometimes slurred Spanish colonial word for a “mixed person” - as a means of both challenging and embracing the liminality of their identities and artistic practices.
Rosaly says: “I grew up quite Puerto Rican in my home, but was taught to mask it outside my home. I wasn’t allowed to speak Spanish, so the drums eventually became my language, secretly tying together my own feeling of connection to mi tierra. This record is the first time I actively give voice to the nuance within myself, allowing me to take ownership of this in-between, which is what this album communicates for me… There is this unusual place that exists between these two cultures, of which I am both. There is a complex story in that sliver of in-betweenness, worthy of giving voice to all of us that live in-between.”
Ferragutti adds: “My personal understanding is one that stems from being placed in between lineages that carry the colonizer and colonized, the oppressor and oppressed, the demon and the angel… thus by definition is tied to post-colonial social constructs which we as Bolivians have to step in, like a 500 year novel that goes on and on… We have access to many memories and traditions, but not really, because we don’t fully belong to any of those… This makes us feel we're in a constant state of being the “visitors” and “outsiders.” On one hand, we are never truly part of one lineage. On the other hand, it makes us a travelers of worlds, storytellers in between multiple languages, cultures, and worldviews. We chose MESTIZX for this work as an act of recognizing the mixed state of being as a difficult and yet powerful one.”
The album was produced and recorded primarily at International Anthem Studios in Chicago, where Ferragutti and Rosaly were joined by a community of musicians and beloved friends including Matt Lux, Avreeayl Ra, Ben LaMar Gay, Daniel Villarreal, Bill MacKay, Rob Frye, and Mikel Patrick Avery, with addditional contributions from Chris Doyle, Guilherme Granado, Viktor Le Givens and Fredy Velásquez.
The music creatively infuses Latin rhythmic patterns and oblong swing from pre-and post-colonial Latin America into a collision of avant jazz, art punk, Chicago post-rock, bomba, plena, cumbia, Andean, minimal, electronica, and folk. A wholly original but undeniably universal sound – both of-the-moment and alluringly futuristic - MESTIZX contains points of reference and resonance for fans of Juana Molina, Café Tacvba, Max Roach & Abbey Lincoln, Liquid Liquid, Arto Lindsay, As Mercenarias, The Ex, Tortoise, Tom Zé, Elza Soares, La Mecanica Popular...
It’s a vast, vibrant and encompassing spectrum of sounds, but at its core MESTIZX is a lucidly conscious collection of auto-biographical statements from Ferragutti & Rosaly on the deeply personalized effects of colonialism on geography, history, and identity. Despite its heavy subject matter, however, MESTIZX finds a lifeline in communal, celebratory, soul-bearing and movement-inducing music.
TRACK LISTING
1. Invocação
2. Destejer
3. Balada Para La Corporatocracia
4. Turbulência
5. Mestizx
6. Barro
7. Saber Do Mar
8. Bless Thee Mundane
9. Descend
10. Writing With Knots
11. Sirinus
The debut solo album from Ioanna Gika, Thalassa, takes its name from the primeval spirit of the sea, a nod to the singer's Greek heritage and a thematic touchstone for the self-produced 10 song set. Written in Greece during a period of familial grief and romantic dissolution, Thalassa documents an unanchored soul facing nature at its most unforgiving. Gika's unique voice is laid bare, a beacon above the black water of dense, looming production that lies beneath. Her elegiac lyrics chart a path through her own mourning, while luring the ear like a siren’s call.
From expansive opener “Roseate” to the stark loneliness of closer “Drifting”, she channels the helplessness of being plunged into the depths of Thalassa's great waves, along with the adrenaline of not knowing if she will come up for air. A member of the band Io Echo, Ioanna Gika toured extensively in support of the album Ministry of Love including performances at Coachella, Lollapalooza, and Moma Ps1 Warmup. The band also opened for Nine Inch Nails, Haim and Jon Hopkins. She co-wrote the score for a Louis Vuitton Ready to Wear collection and has also collaborated on two songs with producer and best friend TokiMonsta. Gika has also contributed original music to a number of noteworthy films, including Harmony Korine’s Rebel, Universal Pictures Dracula, and was shortlisted by the academy for her original song ‘Gone’ in Snow White and The Huntsman. Thalassa is the debut album from Ioanna Gika, formerly known as IO Echo. UK publicity handled by Kate Price at Stereo Sanctity.
From expansive opener “Roseate” to the stark loneliness of closer “Drifting”, she channels the helplessness of being plunged into the depths of Thalassa's great waves, along with the adrenaline of not knowing if she will come up for air. A member of the band Io Echo, Ioanna Gika toured extensively in support of the album Ministry of Love including performances at Coachella, Lollapalooza, and Moma Ps1 Warmup. The band also opened for Nine Inch Nails, Haim and Jon Hopkins. She co-wrote the score for a Louis Vuitton Ready to Wear collection and has also collaborated on two songs with producer and best friend TokiMonsta. Gika has also contributed original music to a number of noteworthy films, including Harmony Korine’s Rebel, Universal Pictures Dracula, and was shortlisted by the academy for her original song ‘Gone’ in Snow White and The Huntsman. Thalassa is the debut album from Ioanna Gika, formerly known as IO Echo. UK publicity handled by Kate Price at Stereo Sanctity.
TRACK LISTING
1 Roseate
2 Out Of Focus
3. Thalassa
4. Messenger
5. Swan
6. Weathervane
7. New Geometry
8. No Matter What
9. Ammonite
10. Drifting
The full 33-minute, unreleased, psychedelic funk jam session by Memphis rhythm kingpins the Bar-Kays, mixed directly from the original tapes. Contains bonus rhythm section instrumental and booklet detailing the history of this never-before-heard version of one of Isaac Hayes’ most famous songs by Hayes historian Bill Dahl.
Hayes was already a cutting-edge funk master at Stax Records when he accepted the unprecedented assignment of creating a soundtrack for the 1971 action flick Shaft. At a time when R&B songs routinely timed out at three minutes and under, Hayes’ albums for Stax’s Enterprise imprint had been breaking new ground since 1969. His masterpiece Hot Buttered Soul consisted of only four tracks, two songs on The Isaac Hayes Movement clocked in at a hair under 12 minutes, and one selection on his …To Be Continued stretched to 15:33.
But his epic “Do Your Thing,” one of the cornerstones of the two-LP Shaft soundtrack, outdid them all. Occupying nearly the entire last side of the set, it concluded after 19-and-a-half grooving minutes with the overdubbed sound of a needle scratching violently across a piece of vinyl. No one knew that jarring ending masked the existence of another 13 minutes of “Do Your Thing.” Consigned to the vaults, those improvisatory extensions—somewhere in between free-jazz and psychedelic rock—were seemingly destined never to be heard. Until now.
Hayes was already a cutting-edge funk master at Stax Records when he accepted the unprecedented assignment of creating a soundtrack for the 1971 action flick Shaft. At a time when R&B songs routinely timed out at three minutes and under, Hayes’ albums for Stax’s Enterprise imprint had been breaking new ground since 1969. His masterpiece Hot Buttered Soul consisted of only four tracks, two songs on The Isaac Hayes Movement clocked in at a hair under 12 minutes, and one selection on his …To Be Continued stretched to 15:33.
But his epic “Do Your Thing,” one of the cornerstones of the two-LP Shaft soundtrack, outdid them all. Occupying nearly the entire last side of the set, it concluded after 19-and-a-half grooving minutes with the overdubbed sound of a needle scratching violently across a piece of vinyl. No one knew that jarring ending masked the existence of another 13 minutes of “Do Your Thing.” Consigned to the vaults, those improvisatory extensions—somewhere in between free-jazz and psychedelic rock—were seemingly destined never to be heard. Until now.
THIS IS A BLACK FRIDAY 2024 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON FRIDAY NOVEMBER 29TH 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 8AM ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 30TH).
The Shaft-master is back! Varèse Sarabande’s Reel Cult series presents a new vinyl reissue of 1974’s Truck Turner, with the legendary Isaac Hayes pulling a double duty starring in the titular role and handling production duties for the groovy soundtrack. Back on vinyl after two decades, 2-LP set was cut from the original analog tapes, pressed on 180-gram Translucent Purple vinyl, and packaged in a tip on-jacket.
IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8AM ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 30TH).
The Shaft-master is back! Varèse Sarabande’s Reel Cult series presents a new vinyl reissue of 1974’s Truck Turner, with the legendary Isaac Hayes pulling a double duty starring in the titular role and handling production duties for the groovy soundtrack. Back on vinyl after two decades, 2-LP set was cut from the original analog tapes, pressed on 180-gram Translucent Purple vinyl, and packaged in a tip on-jacket.
'The Best of Isaac Hayes' brings together 10 soulful cuts from Stax Records’ incomparable creative force. As composer, producer, singer and multi-instrumentalist Isaac Hayes changed the face of music in the early 1970s and this collection is the perfect introduction to his music. Including the Academy Award Winning 'Theme From Shaft' with its distinctive wah-wah guitar intro, 'Walk on By', and 'Never Can Say Goodbye' all newly mastered by Paul Blakemore.
TRACK LISTING
1. Theme From Shaft
2. Walk On By
3. Never Can Say Goodbye
4. The Look Of Love
5. Theme From The Men
6. By The Time I Get To Phoenix
7. Joy (Pt. 1)
8. Do Your Thing
9. I Stand Accused
10. Wonderful
Habibi Funk is digging deep to present the songs of Ibrahim Hesnawi, otherwise known as "The Father of Libyan Reggae." Kingston meets Tripoli in this incendiary collection of Arabized roots, dub, dancehall and more. Featured on Habibi Funk's last compilation (HABIBI015) with his track "Tendme," Hesnawi crafts restless funk with evident buttressing from a reggae foundation. Highlighted across the LP is how Hesnawi essentially pioneered such an effortless synthesis between traditional Libyan music and Jamaican reggae stylings, plus the endlessly disparate funk, jazz, and disco accents which firmly situate Hesnawi in a league of his own. LP out everywhere October 6th.
Some years ago, we started a Facebook group named after our label "Habibi Funk" with the idea to create a space where everyone could share music they felt fit under this umbrella, one way or another. One day a Greek member, Thanasis Moutsopoulos, shared a photo of a vinyl record he found at the Monastiraki flea market in Athens, Greece. It was by a Libyan artist named Ibrahim Hesnawi and called "Hesnawi And Peace." At this point we had never heard of the artist and Thanasis was nice enough to record the album for us. We were immediately electrified by what we heard: A whole album full of classic reggae with some light touches of funk and disco here and there which Hesnawi had recorded in Italy more than 4 decades prior. We eventually decided we would love to learn more about reggae in Libya, and a mutual friend introduced us to Ahmed Abujazia, who was born and still living in Tripolis; through a shared appreciation of music, he agreed to help us work on the project. We asked around and eventually managed to get Ibrahim Hesnawi's telephone number. A few weeks later, Ahmed met Ibrahim in person and proposed our project. Hesnawi was happy to work on a rerelease of his music with us. Excited to share the story of his musical career, Hesnawi was apt to point us towards songs he felt like would be a great match for the tracks we had already expressed interest in. All of this happened in 2018, which was also when the licensing agreement was signed. It has taken us 5 years to actually bring the project to the world, mainly because of the challenge of finding tapes in good enough quality to release. Sadly, Ibrahim Hesnawi lost his studio reel tapes at some point and the digital files he had of his music were of poor quality. So, we spend years trying to find every Hesnawi tape we could get our hands on in order to find a copy that would suffice in terms of sound quality to be used as a source for remastering. Eventually, we had 5-6 copies of some albums, just to identify the ones that sounded the best. We've finally been able to find enough songs in great sound quality that has allowed us to create a selection that both we and Ibrahim were happy with. Now, we're able to share the story of the father of reggae in Libya with the sound quality his work deserves. In many countries, reggae was a widespread fad before its popularity gradually subsided. In Libya, however, the genre remained popular since its initial introduction in the late 1970s. Reggae's thematic throughlines like references to Pan-Africanism, liberation, and the end of oppression and exploitation resonated—and continues to resonate—forcefully amongst a Libyan audience. To this day, you will find countless bands playing variations of the genre as are there Facebook groups with predominantly Libyan members sharing old and new reggae tracks with ten-thousands of members. And no matter who you ask, chances are high that the genre's popularity in Libya will be largely attributed to one man: Ibrahim Hesnawi. Born and raised in Tripolis, the capital of Libya, Hesnawi was not initially interested in music. However, he credits Bob Marley, the universal face of the reggae genre, with changing his mind. Bob Marley was the artist that brought Reggae to Libya. And the two disparate musical cultures—Jamaican and Libyan—weren't so far apart. On the contrary: local musicians intertwined these influences quite fluidly. Libyan reggae borrows elements from its own culture, and is usually accompanied by a steady marching tempo, a significant hallmark of wedding chants. An effortless synthesis of Jamaican reggae and traditional Libyan sonics is featured throughout Hesnawi's catalogue. What better example of this audio amalgam than the LP's powerhouse lead single "Never Understand" which brings a roots and dancehall flavor into conversation with North African and Middle Eastern musical rhythms and Jamaican stylings. With warm keys, a thick, bouncing bass and English lyrics to boot, the track sounds like a missing Bob Marley cut. Fiery funk tracks "Tendme" (featured on HF015) and second single "Watery Al Kabir" bring a tireless groove to the record via chugging rhythms and key interludes that deliver searing harmonic motifs. Focus track "Only World" grounds the LP, placing an emphasis on its anthemic lyricism and subtle, yet slick guitar licks and synth runs that make Libya seem like the "only world" where Reggae continues to stand strong. As always, both vinyl and CD come with an extensive booklet featuring background and interviews with Hesnawi, including unseen photos, scans and more. "Ibrahim Hesnawi: The Father of Libyan Reggae" will be out everywhere October 6th.
Some years ago, we started a Facebook group named after our label "Habibi Funk" with the idea to create a space where everyone could share music they felt fit under this umbrella, one way or another. One day a Greek member, Thanasis Moutsopoulos, shared a photo of a vinyl record he found at the Monastiraki flea market in Athens, Greece. It was by a Libyan artist named Ibrahim Hesnawi and called "Hesnawi And Peace." At this point we had never heard of the artist and Thanasis was nice enough to record the album for us. We were immediately electrified by what we heard: A whole album full of classic reggae with some light touches of funk and disco here and there which Hesnawi had recorded in Italy more than 4 decades prior. We eventually decided we would love to learn more about reggae in Libya, and a mutual friend introduced us to Ahmed Abujazia, who was born and still living in Tripolis; through a shared appreciation of music, he agreed to help us work on the project. We asked around and eventually managed to get Ibrahim Hesnawi's telephone number. A few weeks later, Ahmed met Ibrahim in person and proposed our project. Hesnawi was happy to work on a rerelease of his music with us. Excited to share the story of his musical career, Hesnawi was apt to point us towards songs he felt like would be a great match for the tracks we had already expressed interest in. All of this happened in 2018, which was also when the licensing agreement was signed. It has taken us 5 years to actually bring the project to the world, mainly because of the challenge of finding tapes in good enough quality to release. Sadly, Ibrahim Hesnawi lost his studio reel tapes at some point and the digital files he had of his music were of poor quality. So, we spend years trying to find every Hesnawi tape we could get our hands on in order to find a copy that would suffice in terms of sound quality to be used as a source for remastering. Eventually, we had 5-6 copies of some albums, just to identify the ones that sounded the best. We've finally been able to find enough songs in great sound quality that has allowed us to create a selection that both we and Ibrahim were happy with. Now, we're able to share the story of the father of reggae in Libya with the sound quality his work deserves. In many countries, reggae was a widespread fad before its popularity gradually subsided. In Libya, however, the genre remained popular since its initial introduction in the late 1970s. Reggae's thematic throughlines like references to Pan-Africanism, liberation, and the end of oppression and exploitation resonated—and continues to resonate—forcefully amongst a Libyan audience. To this day, you will find countless bands playing variations of the genre as are there Facebook groups with predominantly Libyan members sharing old and new reggae tracks with ten-thousands of members. And no matter who you ask, chances are high that the genre's popularity in Libya will be largely attributed to one man: Ibrahim Hesnawi. Born and raised in Tripolis, the capital of Libya, Hesnawi was not initially interested in music. However, he credits Bob Marley, the universal face of the reggae genre, with changing his mind. Bob Marley was the artist that brought Reggae to Libya. And the two disparate musical cultures—Jamaican and Libyan—weren't so far apart. On the contrary: local musicians intertwined these influences quite fluidly. Libyan reggae borrows elements from its own culture, and is usually accompanied by a steady marching tempo, a significant hallmark of wedding chants. An effortless synthesis of Jamaican reggae and traditional Libyan sonics is featured throughout Hesnawi's catalogue. What better example of this audio amalgam than the LP's powerhouse lead single "Never Understand" which brings a roots and dancehall flavor into conversation with North African and Middle Eastern musical rhythms and Jamaican stylings. With warm keys, a thick, bouncing bass and English lyrics to boot, the track sounds like a missing Bob Marley cut. Fiery funk tracks "Tendme" (featured on HF015) and second single "Watery Al Kabir" bring a tireless groove to the record via chugging rhythms and key interludes that deliver searing harmonic motifs. Focus track "Only World" grounds the LP, placing an emphasis on its anthemic lyricism and subtle, yet slick guitar licks and synth runs that make Libya seem like the "only world" where Reggae continues to stand strong. As always, both vinyl and CD come with an extensive booklet featuring background and interviews with Hesnawi, including unseen photos, scans and more. "Ibrahim Hesnawi: The Father of Libyan Reggae" will be out everywhere October 6th.
TRACK LISTING
1. Never Understand
2. Tendme
3. Only World (feat. Suzan)
4. Kesati
5. Tayr Al Salama
6. Al Hob Wal Salam
7. Fouhi Ya Nesma
8. Enti
9. Watany Al Kabir
Following a well received two tracker a few months back, local four piece I Am Blackbird release their debut EP.
They kick off proceedings with the fiery "This Town", despite its nice lilting intro it soon twists into an uncompromising ode to the darker side of small town life. Track two, "Setting Sun" keeps up the firey delivery and adds some great Morricone-esque guitar twangs. Third track "One Good Reason" is a gorgeous slowey with bluesy vocals over strummed guitars and percussive drumming, and finally they up the tempo with "They Don't Speak For Me", which switches tempo between a galloping drum / vocal rhythm and a choppy chorus with subtle Mariachi-trumpets.
They kick off proceedings with the fiery "This Town", despite its nice lilting intro it soon twists into an uncompromising ode to the darker side of small town life. Track two, "Setting Sun" keeps up the firey delivery and adds some great Morricone-esque guitar twangs. Third track "One Good Reason" is a gorgeous slowey with bluesy vocals over strummed guitars and percussive drumming, and finally they up the tempo with "They Don't Speak For Me", which switches tempo between a galloping drum / vocal rhythm and a choppy chorus with subtle Mariachi-trumpets.
STAFF COMMENTS
Laura says: There's an abundance of folk-tinged bands around at the moment but I Am Blackbird really stand out from their contemporaries. They write great songs delivered with a real passion and honesty. Superb stuff - grab one now while you can!
If I Break Horses’s third album holds you in its grip like a great film, it’s no coincidence. Faced with making the follow-up to 2014’s plush Chiaroscuro, Horses’s Maria Lindén decided to take the time to make something different, with an emphasis on instrumental, cinematic music. As she watched a collection of favourite films on her computer (sound muted) and made her own soundtrack sketches, these sonic workouts gradually evolved into something more: “It wasn’t until I felt an urge to add vocals and lyrics,” says Lindén, “that I realized I was making a new I Break Horses album.”
That album is Warnings, an intimate and sublimely expansive return that, as its recording suggests, sets its own pace with the intuitive power of a much-loved movie. And, as its title suggests, its sumptuous sound worlds – dreamy mellotrons, haunting loops, analogue synths – and layered lyrics crackle with immersive dramatic tensions on many levels. “It’s not a political album,” says Lindén, “though it relates to the alarmist times we live in. Each song is a subtle warning of something not being quite right.”
As Lindén notes, the process of making Warnings involved different kinds of dramas. “It has been some time in the making. About five years, involving several studios, collaborations that didn’t work out, a crashed hard drive with about two years of work, writing new material again instead of trying to repair it. New studio recordings, erasing everything, then recording most of the album myself at home…”
Yet the pay-off for her long-haul immersion is clear from statement-of-intent album opener ‘Turn’, a waltzing kiss-off to an ex swathed in swirling synths over nine emotive minutes. On ‘Silence’, Lindén suggests deeper sorrows in the interplay of serene surface synths, hypnotic loops and elemental images: when she sings “I feel a shiver,” you feel it, too.
Elsewhere, on three instrumental interludes, Lindén’s intent to experiment with sound and structure is clear. Meanwhile, there are art-pop songs here more lush than any she has made. ‘I’ll Be the Death of You’ occupies a middle ground between Screamedlica and early OMD, while ‘Neon Lights’ brings to mind Kraftwerk on Tron’s light grid. ‘I Live At Night’ slow-burns like a song made for night-time LA drives; ‘Baby You Have Travelled for Miles without Love in Your Eyes’ is an electronic lullaby spiked with troubling needle imagery. ‘Death Engine’’s dark-wave dream-pop provides an epic centrepiece, of sorts, before the vocoder hymnal of closer ‘Depression Tourist’ arrives like an epiphany, the clouds parting after a long, absorbing journey.
For Lindén, Warnings is a remarkable re-routing of a journey begun when I Break Horses’s debut album, Hearts (2011), drew praise from Pitchfork, The Guardian, NME, The Independent and others for its luxurious grandeur and pulsing sense of art-pop life. With the electro-tangents of 2014’s Chiaroscuro, Lindén forged a new, more ambitious voice with total confidence. Along the way, I Break Horses toured with M83 and SigurRós; latterly, U2 played Hearts’ ecstatic ‘Winter Beats’ through the PA before their stage entrance on 2018’s ‘Experience + Innocence’ tour. Good choice.
A new friend on Warnings is US producer/mixing engineer Chris Coady, whose graceful way with dense sound (credits include Beach House, TV on the Radio) was not the sole reason Lindén invited him to mix the album. “Before reaching out to Chris I read an interview where he said, ‘I like to slow things down. Almost every time I love the sound of something slowed down by half, but sometimes 500% you can get interesting shapes and textures.’ And I just knew he’d be the right person for this album.”
If making Warnings was a slow process, so be it: that steady gestation was a price worth paying for its lavish accretions of detail and meaning, where secrets aplenty await listeners eager to immerse themselves. “Nowadays, the attention span equals nothing when it comes to how most people consume music,” Lindén says. “And it feels like songs are getting shorter, more ‘efficient’. I felt an urge to go against that and create an album journey from start to finish that takes time and patience to listen to. Like, slow the fuck down!” Happily, Warnings provides all the incentives required.
That album is Warnings, an intimate and sublimely expansive return that, as its recording suggests, sets its own pace with the intuitive power of a much-loved movie. And, as its title suggests, its sumptuous sound worlds – dreamy mellotrons, haunting loops, analogue synths – and layered lyrics crackle with immersive dramatic tensions on many levels. “It’s not a political album,” says Lindén, “though it relates to the alarmist times we live in. Each song is a subtle warning of something not being quite right.”
As Lindén notes, the process of making Warnings involved different kinds of dramas. “It has been some time in the making. About five years, involving several studios, collaborations that didn’t work out, a crashed hard drive with about two years of work, writing new material again instead of trying to repair it. New studio recordings, erasing everything, then recording most of the album myself at home…”
Yet the pay-off for her long-haul immersion is clear from statement-of-intent album opener ‘Turn’, a waltzing kiss-off to an ex swathed in swirling synths over nine emotive minutes. On ‘Silence’, Lindén suggests deeper sorrows in the interplay of serene surface synths, hypnotic loops and elemental images: when she sings “I feel a shiver,” you feel it, too.
Elsewhere, on three instrumental interludes, Lindén’s intent to experiment with sound and structure is clear. Meanwhile, there are art-pop songs here more lush than any she has made. ‘I’ll Be the Death of You’ occupies a middle ground between Screamedlica and early OMD, while ‘Neon Lights’ brings to mind Kraftwerk on Tron’s light grid. ‘I Live At Night’ slow-burns like a song made for night-time LA drives; ‘Baby You Have Travelled for Miles without Love in Your Eyes’ is an electronic lullaby spiked with troubling needle imagery. ‘Death Engine’’s dark-wave dream-pop provides an epic centrepiece, of sorts, before the vocoder hymnal of closer ‘Depression Tourist’ arrives like an epiphany, the clouds parting after a long, absorbing journey.
For Lindén, Warnings is a remarkable re-routing of a journey begun when I Break Horses’s debut album, Hearts (2011), drew praise from Pitchfork, The Guardian, NME, The Independent and others for its luxurious grandeur and pulsing sense of art-pop life. With the electro-tangents of 2014’s Chiaroscuro, Lindén forged a new, more ambitious voice with total confidence. Along the way, I Break Horses toured with M83 and SigurRós; latterly, U2 played Hearts’ ecstatic ‘Winter Beats’ through the PA before their stage entrance on 2018’s ‘Experience + Innocence’ tour. Good choice.
A new friend on Warnings is US producer/mixing engineer Chris Coady, whose graceful way with dense sound (credits include Beach House, TV on the Radio) was not the sole reason Lindén invited him to mix the album. “Before reaching out to Chris I read an interview where he said, ‘I like to slow things down. Almost every time I love the sound of something slowed down by half, but sometimes 500% you can get interesting shapes and textures.’ And I just knew he’d be the right person for this album.”
If making Warnings was a slow process, so be it: that steady gestation was a price worth paying for its lavish accretions of detail and meaning, where secrets aplenty await listeners eager to immerse themselves. “Nowadays, the attention span equals nothing when it comes to how most people consume music,” Lindén says. “And it feels like songs are getting shorter, more ‘efficient’. I felt an urge to go against that and create an album journey from start to finish that takes time and patience to listen to. Like, slow the fuck down!” Happily, Warnings provides all the incentives required.
TRACK LISTING
1. Turn
2. Silence
3. L A R M
4. I'll Be The Death Of You
5. D E N L I L L A P å S E A V L Y C K A
6. The Prophet
7. Neon Lights
8. I Live At Night
9. Baby You Have Travelled For Miles Without Love In Your Eyes
10. Death Engine
11. A B S O L U T A M O L L P U N K T E N
12. Depression Tourist
I Ching is Rollo Smallcombe and Kevin Emre. The pair met at art college in London and soon after started to make music together.
Although writing as a duo, the band play live as a four piece, adding Andrew Ford (keys) and Tom Jones (drums) to the line up. They currently write from a home studio in Finsbury Park.
I Ching are influenced by pop, the avant-garde, 60s psych and Turkish garage, as well as early 80s synthesiser music. With an emphasis on colour and texture in their sound, the songs are written and produced to probe the imagination and imagery inside the listeners’ head.
Although writing as a duo, the band play live as a four piece, adding Andrew Ford (keys) and Tom Jones (drums) to the line up. They currently write from a home studio in Finsbury Park.
I Ching are influenced by pop, the avant-garde, 60s psych and Turkish garage, as well as early 80s synthesiser music. With an emphasis on colour and texture in their sound, the songs are written and produced to probe the imagination and imagery inside the listeners’ head.
TRACK LISTING
A: It’s Me
B: Drive
London based DJ and producer I JORDAN releases their new EP ‘Watch Out!’ on Ninja Tune.
India is tipped as one of the world’s most exciting artists, producers and DJs of the moment following last year's’ hugely successful ‘For You’ EP. They have captured the attention of the scene’s top tastemakers and have received impressive support, with stellar reviews from Pitchfork (8.0), NME (5/5), Clash (8/10) and the EP’s title track ‘For You’ voted as Resident Advisor’s #1 Best Track Of 2020, Crack Magazine’s #2 and Pitchfork’s #21.
I JORDAN had quite the year despite most shows being cancelled in 2020 and was named as Pete Tong’s Breakout Star Of 2020 on BBC Radio 1, listed as one of The Guardian’s 50 Amazing Musicians To Watch in 2021 and won Best Breakthrough Producer at the annual DJ Mag Best Of British Awards.
‘Watch Out!’ sees I JORDAN reflect on how movement has tied into their life over the years. India describes the record as “a homage to both physical and conceptual movement” and comes as a result of their own pattern of movement being forcibly changed by lockdown.
India is tipped as one of the world’s most exciting artists, producers and DJs of the moment following last year's’ hugely successful ‘For You’ EP. They have captured the attention of the scene’s top tastemakers and have received impressive support, with stellar reviews from Pitchfork (8.0), NME (5/5), Clash (8/10) and the EP’s title track ‘For You’ voted as Resident Advisor’s #1 Best Track Of 2020, Crack Magazine’s #2 and Pitchfork’s #21.
I JORDAN had quite the year despite most shows being cancelled in 2020 and was named as Pete Tong’s Breakout Star Of 2020 on BBC Radio 1, listed as one of The Guardian’s 50 Amazing Musicians To Watch in 2021 and won Best Breakthrough Producer at the annual DJ Mag Best Of British Awards.
‘Watch Out!’ sees I JORDAN reflect on how movement has tied into their life over the years. India describes the record as “a homage to both physical and conceptual movement” and comes as a result of their own pattern of movement being forcibly changed by lockdown.
TRACK LISTING
A
1. Only Said Enough
2. Watch Out!
3. 10:58
B
4. You Can’t Expect The Cars To Stop If You Haven’t Pressed The Button
5. Feierabend
6. And Groove
LIKE TRAINS return with their razor-sharp new record KOMPROMAT. The Leeds band’s first studio album in eight years deals with knotted themes of information; how we consume it, and how we can possibly make any sense of it in an age of constant bombardment. It digs beneath populism’s rise, from the divide and conquer tactics that caused Brexit in the UK, to the ascent of Trump in America and the subsequent reign of lies and misinformation, to discover the grubby hands that have engineered it all.
I LIKE TRAINS - made up of Martin (vocals/guitar), Alistair Bowis (bass), Guy Bannister (guitar/synths), Simon Fogal (drums) and Ian Jarrold (guitar) - have never shied away from confronting the possibility of humanity’s collapse, of course. Early records, like the towering, Godspeed-influenced Progress Reform (Fierce Panda, 2006) and Elegies to Lessons Learnt (Beggars Banquet, 2007) took tales of tragic characters and events from history and applied them to the modern day, while He Who Saw The Deep (2010) looked uneasily ahead to the climate change battle we stand on the precipice of losing. Previous album The Shallows (2012) focused on how the internet and smart technology is re-wiring the human mind and affecting our concentration spans.
KOMPROMAT simultaneously sounds like none of those records, yet also contains DNA from all of them. The group have gone back to go forwards in some ways, returning to some of the primary influences that caused them to first form back in 2004: Joy Division, The Birthday Party, Gang of Four, Television and The Velvet Underground. It marks a welcome return for a band who remain a singular presence away from the ebb and flow of UK guitar music fashion; a band in their own orbit, working to their own distinctive style.
I LIKE TRAINS - made up of Martin (vocals/guitar), Alistair Bowis (bass), Guy Bannister (guitar/synths), Simon Fogal (drums) and Ian Jarrold (guitar) - have never shied away from confronting the possibility of humanity’s collapse, of course. Early records, like the towering, Godspeed-influenced Progress Reform (Fierce Panda, 2006) and Elegies to Lessons Learnt (Beggars Banquet, 2007) took tales of tragic characters and events from history and applied them to the modern day, while He Who Saw The Deep (2010) looked uneasily ahead to the climate change battle we stand on the precipice of losing. Previous album The Shallows (2012) focused on how the internet and smart technology is re-wiring the human mind and affecting our concentration spans.
KOMPROMAT simultaneously sounds like none of those records, yet also contains DNA from all of them. The group have gone back to go forwards in some ways, returning to some of the primary influences that caused them to first form back in 2004: Joy Division, The Birthday Party, Gang of Four, Television and The Velvet Underground. It marks a welcome return for a band who remain a singular presence away from the ebb and flow of UK guitar music fashion; a band in their own orbit, working to their own distinctive style.
TRACK LISTING
1. A Steady Hand
2. Desire Is A Mess
3. Dig In
4. PRISM
5. Patience Is A Virtue
6. A Man Of Conviction
7. New Geography
8. The Truth
9. Eyes To The Left (feat. Anika)
The new single, their first release since 2004's "Neveroddoreven" album, sees the I Monster duo of Dean Honer and Jarrod Gosling enlist the vocal talents of Philly, the ill wind of Michael Somerset Ward and the pounding drum cakes of Ross Orton. "A Sucker For Your Sound" comes backed with the exclusive "No Nice Strippers". The pair have been far from quiet over the last few years. In between journeying to the centre of the earth, vampire hunting and building kitchen extensions, they've co-written and produced tracks on both Finnish artist HK119's and Roisin Murphy's new albums, spent some time in the studio with queen of pop Cathy Dennis and worked on rapper Lupe Fiasco's Grammy winning "Daydreamin'" single, the track based entirely on their big hit "Daydream In Blue".
Valentine Records' resident bedroom-studio maverick Michael O'Connor (aka I-Node). Taking its cue from early electro and acid house records (such as 808 State's "Newbuild" and Stakker's "Eurotechno") "La Souteneur Numerique" is a 38-minute introduction to the weird and wonderful world of this self confessed "Digital Pimp".
I Speak Machine are vocalist and synth nerd Tara Busch and filmmaker Maf Lewis. Together they make brooding soundtracks and horror/sci-fi films, creating the audio and visual in unison and giving both elements equal prominence. Their approach is inspired by Spaghetti Western cinema duo Ennio Morricone and Sergio Leone, who used to play with score ideas for scenes while scripts were being written. Following the release of The Silence (the score to their own sci-fi short film) in 2014, Busch and Lewis have teamed up with Benge from Wrangler/John Foxx & The Maths to work on their latest short film and album, Zombies 1985
* For analogue synth enthusiasts and fans of John Carpenter scores.
* Tara Bush has previously collaborated with John Foxx, Clint Mansell, and Bat For Lashes
* For analogue synth enthusiasts and fans of John Carpenter scores.
* Tara Bush has previously collaborated with John Foxx, Clint Mansell, and Bat For Lashes
Mute releases I Start Counting’s Ejected on CD for the first time. Initially produced on the now sold out limited edition cassette for the 2021 Independent Label Market alongside Re-fused, these two albums contain unreleased I Start Counting tracks and demos recorded in 1985 and 1986 for their albums My Translucent Hands (1986) and Fused (1988).
The duo consisting of David Baker and Simon Leonard came together to form I Start Counting in 1982. Signing to Mute in 1984, the release of their first singles ‘Letters to a Friend’ and ‘Still Smiling’ were quick to follow, both produced by Daniel Miller. My Translucent Hands and Fused established a cult following for the duo, originating amongst American suburban teens who were discovering Depeche Mode and Kraftwerk for the first time. By the early 1990s, Baker and Leonard had evolved into Fortran 5, releasing three albums for the label before returning as Komputer in 1996. Their three incarnations finally met in 2011 through the release of Konnecting…, a record that showcased the duo's pure pop junctures.
The duo consisting of David Baker and Simon Leonard came together to form I Start Counting in 1982. Signing to Mute in 1984, the release of their first singles ‘Letters to a Friend’ and ‘Still Smiling’ were quick to follow, both produced by Daniel Miller. My Translucent Hands and Fused established a cult following for the duo, originating amongst American suburban teens who were discovering Depeche Mode and Kraftwerk for the first time. By the early 1990s, Baker and Leonard had evolved into Fortran 5, releasing three albums for the label before returning as Komputer in 1996. Their three incarnations finally met in 2011 through the release of Konnecting…, a record that showcased the duo's pure pop junctures.
TRACK LISTING
1 Charlie
2 Modern Sunbathing
3 Is She On Her Own
4 Cooler Than Calcutta
5 Red Car
6 My Sister's Friend
7 Million Headed Monster
8 I'm A Murderer
9 You Can't Write That Down
10 Rawhide
Mute releases I Start Counting’s Re-fused on CD for the first time. Initially produced on the now sold out limited edition cassette for the 2021 Independent Label Market alongside Ejected, these two albums contain unreleased I Start Counting tracks and demos recorded in 1985 and 1986 for their albums My Translucent Hands (1986) and Fused (1988).
The duo consisting of David Baker and Simon Leonard came together to form I Start Counting in 1982. Signing to Mute in 1984, the release of their first singles ‘Letters to a Friend’ and ‘Still Smiling’ were quick to follow, both produced by Daniel Miller. My Translucent Hands and Fused established a cult following for the duo, originating amongst American suburban teens who were discovering Depeche Mode and Kraftwerk for the first time. By the early 1990s, Baker and Leonard had evolved into Fortran 5, releasing three albums for the label before returning as Komputer in 1996. Their three incarnations finally met in 2011 through the release of Konnecting…, a record that showcased the duo's pure pop junctures.
The duo consisting of David Baker and Simon Leonard came together to form I Start Counting in 1982. Signing to Mute in 1984, the release of their first singles ‘Letters to a Friend’ and ‘Still Smiling’ were quick to follow, both produced by Daniel Miller. My Translucent Hands and Fused established a cult following for the duo, originating amongst American suburban teens who were discovering Depeche Mode and Kraftwerk for the first time. By the early 1990s, Baker and Leonard had evolved into Fortran 5, releasing three albums for the label before returning as Komputer in 1996. Their three incarnations finally met in 2011 through the release of Konnecting…, a record that showcased the duo's pure pop junctures.
TRACK LISTING
1 Talk About The Weather
2 You And I
3 625
4 Grass Snake
5 Pretty Too
6 Birmingham
7 The I Can't Express
8 Lose Him
9 Say Something
Having amassed numerous accolades and achievements, the electrifying DJ and producer I. JORDAN (they/them) is set for a huge year with their debut album, I AM JORDAN, due for release on 10th May 2024. Thanks to this extraordinary forthcoming album, complemented by consistently breathtaking visuals and creative concepts, Jordan is poised to breakthrough to the mainstream in 2024. Championing trans and non-binary voices, they have enlisted Aries Moross as Creative Director (Kylie Minogue, Spice Girls), and track collaborators include rising stars such as DJ and producer TAAHLIAH, and the star of Sex Education, Felix Mufti.
TRACK LISTING
1. When Lights Flash
2. Casino High
3. Real Hot N Naughty
4. The Countdown
5. Butterlick
6. Reification And Pathetic Fallacy
7. People Want Nice Things
8. Round N Round
9. The Woodpecker
10. 7 Degrees Of Despondent
11. Close To You
12. Rapt Finis
Combining all the traits of an international superhero or intrepid comic book adventurer, the true identity, whereabouts and history of the spectacular Italian composer known as Gerardo Iacoucci has been a mystery to record collectors for many years. As a result of the best efforts of secretive archivists and DJs as well as and the overprotective force field that surrounds the clandestine world of Italian library music, the commanding experimental psychedelic pop music made singlehandedly by this early pioneer of the anti-genre time after time rises to the top of collectors’ want lists, commands huge ransom notes, ignites dancefloors and decimates genre tags before returning to its mythical status as one of the kings of the underworld without removing his mask. Despite the fact that original Italian copies of records by Gerardo Iacoucci are amongst the rarest, enigmatic fixtures of European psychedelia, his music simply refuses to be ghettoised and as the name of this album suggests the history of this artist reads like the memoirs of a genuine musical adventurer as well as a well-travelled prophet of experimental music and unsung pillar of Italian jazz and sound design.
Recorded in early 1970, Iacoucci’s wide-eyed ‘L’Avventura’ suite spanned 6 sides of loud, heavyweight monophonic vinyl for Romano Di Bari’s Deneb label and created an epically detailed blueprint for independent mood music companies whilst sharing release schedules with likeminded workaholics Alessandro Alessandroni and A. R. Luciani. However, Gerardo’s adventure didn’t begin here...
As a published author, recorded musician, professor, film composer, gentleman, musicologist and scholar, Gerardo Iacoucci has managed to cram the stories of nine lifetimes into one heroic existence, while maintaining a humble, earnest and near-mythical status as one of the great lost progressive pop pioneers of one of the most important transitional eras of European music, cinema and general, seldom rivalled, creative super powers. When the needle drops, ‘L’Avventura’ has only just begun.
Continuing their mission to shine light on the genuine anomalies of 70’s Italian production music, Finders Keepers Records resurrects another unlikely transcription disc from the vaults of one of Rome’s most esoteric library music archives.
Finders Keepers Records, in continued collaboration with the Di Barri company, with the Casa/Ducros family blessing, proudly shine new light on this sonic sculptures and provide a fresh context where educated music listeners are ready to fill the gaps between Delia Derbyshire, Ennio Morricone, Suzanne Ciani and Harry Partch and patronise a very welcome considered alternative to the recent rise in popularity of Italian Giallo soundtracks from a seldom savoured feminine creative vantage point.
Recorded in early 1970, Iacoucci’s wide-eyed ‘L’Avventura’ suite spanned 6 sides of loud, heavyweight monophonic vinyl for Romano Di Bari’s Deneb label and created an epically detailed blueprint for independent mood music companies whilst sharing release schedules with likeminded workaholics Alessandro Alessandroni and A. R. Luciani. However, Gerardo’s adventure didn’t begin here...
As a published author, recorded musician, professor, film composer, gentleman, musicologist and scholar, Gerardo Iacoucci has managed to cram the stories of nine lifetimes into one heroic existence, while maintaining a humble, earnest and near-mythical status as one of the great lost progressive pop pioneers of one of the most important transitional eras of European music, cinema and general, seldom rivalled, creative super powers. When the needle drops, ‘L’Avventura’ has only just begun.
Continuing their mission to shine light on the genuine anomalies of 70’s Italian production music, Finders Keepers Records resurrects another unlikely transcription disc from the vaults of one of Rome’s most esoteric library music archives.
Finders Keepers Records, in continued collaboration with the Di Barri company, with the Casa/Ducros family blessing, proudly shine new light on this sonic sculptures and provide a fresh context where educated music listeners are ready to fill the gaps between Delia Derbyshire, Ennio Morricone, Suzanne Ciani and Harry Partch and patronise a very welcome considered alternative to the recent rise in popularity of Italian Giallo soundtracks from a seldom savoured feminine creative vantage point.
As a self-described sponge for club music, London-based Bristol transplant Ian DPM has cut a singular figure in both the West Country and the capital in just a handful of years. Already situated as the tastemaker behind music curation platform Definite Party Material, co-owner of Scuffed Recordings, and Noods Radio and Rinse FM resident, Ian DPM’s emergence as a producer has marked him as an expansively curious, bass-forward figure at the bleeding edge of genre boundaries.
After retreating to his hometown of Portsmouth during lockdown to absorb the blueprints of ‘90s techno, Ian emerged with a new phase of experimentation: techno-inspired and indebted, yet eschewing loops and grids for a loose-limbed, open minded engagement of the form.
Taking inspiration from the iconic carnival rides that are inseparable from their high-octane happy hardcore soundtrack, “One For The Waltzers” begins with a distant rumble of muffled breakbeats that inch ever closer. But rather than dizzying lights and in-the-red maximalism, “One For The Waltzers” gradually reveals its knowingly deep shimmy and groove. It is a drum-heavy and rhythmic production, masterfully using negative space to showcase every contour of its slowed-down rave horns and acid house synth lines.
“KE01” inhabits the flipside of the same sonic world. Here, feverish percussive energy contrasts against pensive melodic synth chords. It’s a heady warehouse affair, familiar and complex, referential yet contemporary, and only adds to the momentum that Ian DPM is gathering.
After retreating to his hometown of Portsmouth during lockdown to absorb the blueprints of ‘90s techno, Ian emerged with a new phase of experimentation: techno-inspired and indebted, yet eschewing loops and grids for a loose-limbed, open minded engagement of the form.
Taking inspiration from the iconic carnival rides that are inseparable from their high-octane happy hardcore soundtrack, “One For The Waltzers” begins with a distant rumble of muffled breakbeats that inch ever closer. But rather than dizzying lights and in-the-red maximalism, “One For The Waltzers” gradually reveals its knowingly deep shimmy and groove. It is a drum-heavy and rhythmic production, masterfully using negative space to showcase every contour of its slowed-down rave horns and acid house synth lines.
“KE01” inhabits the flipside of the same sonic world. Here, feverish percussive energy contrasts against pensive melodic synth chords. It’s a heady warehouse affair, familiar and complex, referential yet contemporary, and only adds to the momentum that Ian DPM is gathering.
STAFF COMMENTS
Matt says: Big n wobbly fairground tackle for rushing sonic nostalgia and dizzying, amyl-huffing greatness. Mega.TRACK LISTING
A. One For The Waltzers
B. KE01
Inspired by the infinitely numbered harmonies transmitted by Vista, a benevolent being from a distant dimension, Iasos broke ground for a new age of electronic sound manipulation. His was pioneering work - done from a bohemian boat-slip home office - on some of the first commercially available synthesizers and, on stage, into the kaleidoscopic heart of psychedelic-era concert visuals.
As life-affirming and attuned to spirit as Iasos' soul portraits were, prestigious psychology departments heard in them the tones humans hear at the precipice between life and death. Before ambient and New Age were so named and codified, the "Paradise Music" of Iasos (represented here by 13 selections transmitted between 1975 and 1985) brought Earth - transcriptions of a vast and galactic soundhealing to a planet much in need.
As life-affirming and attuned to spirit as Iasos' soul portraits were, prestigious psychology departments heard in them the tones humans hear at the precipice between life and death. Before ambient and New Age were so named and codified, the "Paradise Music" of Iasos (represented here by 13 selections transmitted between 1975 and 1985) brought Earth - transcriptions of a vast and galactic soundhealing to a planet much in need.
TRACK LISTING
1. I Passion You A Leap Of Love-Flame
2. Rainbow Canyon
3. The Angels Of Comfort
4. Blue Fire Realms
5. Siren Shallows
6. Crystal Petals
7. Procession On The Horizon
8. The Royal Court Of Goddess Vesta
9. The Winds Of Olympus
10. The Descent Of Spring
11. Cloud Prayer
12. Spring Temple Forest
13. Crystal*White*Fire*Light
After a decade of a break, in 2001 Iasos returned with a new, first in a new millennium, album – “Realms of Light”. Here you will hear 8 masterpieces of heavenly music that takes you to other-worldly realms just filled with Love and Light. This album continues where “Elixir” 1983 left off! Journey into heavenly celestial realms with a master of inter-dimensional music. Ecstatic planes of existence filled with love, light, color, fragrance, and sacredness. Unearthly sparkling beauty.
There are a few guest musicians who beautify the album: Joie Favier from Cybervixen, legendary violinist Steven Kindler who was one of the forerunners in playing multi-string electric violin, and another new-age music legend Sophia Roberts. To summarize, this album is intensely full of heavenly feelings that will make your heart glow.
There are a few guest musicians who beautify the album: Joie Favier from Cybervixen, legendary violinist Steven Kindler who was one of the forerunners in playing multi-string electric violin, and another new-age music legend Sophia Roberts. To summarize, this album is intensely full of heavenly feelings that will make your heart glow.
French-Cuban twins Ibeyi are back with their second album ‘Ash’, a record that tackles subjects as diverse as womanhood, spirituality, activism and racism, all conveyed in Ibeyi’s own unique blend of modern pop, hip-hop and electronic influenced music that incorporates the traditional sounds of Yorùbá. ‘Ash’ is the follow-up to the twin’s 2015 critically acclaimed, eponymous debut album that made Ibeyi a globally recognized name.
While Ibeyi’s first album grappled with the past—the sister’s relationship, origins, loss, and roots. It earned them fans and collaborators in some of the most iconic and crucial artists of today, Beyoncé and Alvin Ailey included. By contrast, Ash is a more visceral and potent political statement, and while firmly rooted in Afro-Cuban culture and history, finds itself entirely concerned with Ibeyi’s present: Who Lisa-Kaindé and Naomi are, what’s important to them, and how they live today, especially given that the spheres, both personally and politically, are entirely different from when Ibeyi was recorded.
‘Ash’ was recorded in November 2016 in London with producer Richard Russell at his studio The Copper House. The album features twelve new tracks, including ‘Away Away’ which was released in June, and includes appearances from Kamasi Washington, Mala Rodriguez, Chilly Gonzales, Meshell Ndegeocello.
‘Deathless,’ the second track to be debuted from ‘Ash’, features the incomparable Kamasi Washington on saxophone, and was written in the wake of an experience that Lisa-Kaindé had when she was sixteen that involved her being wrongly arrested by French police. She went home and wrote the emotive ‘Deathless,’ in which she describes her experience: “I was writing ‘Deathless’ as an anthem for everybody!” Lisa-Kaindé says. “For every minority. For everybody that feels that they are nothing, that feels small, that feels not cared about and I want them to listen to our song and for three minutes feel large, powerful, deathless. I have a huge amount of respect for people who fought for, what I think, are my rights today and if we all sing together ‘we are deathless, ’they will be living through us into a better world”.
Step out of the gloom and into Ibeyi’s world, a place of optimism, openness and acceptance. The modern world never looked so beautiful as it does through Ibeyi’s lens
While Ibeyi’s first album grappled with the past—the sister’s relationship, origins, loss, and roots. It earned them fans and collaborators in some of the most iconic and crucial artists of today, Beyoncé and Alvin Ailey included. By contrast, Ash is a more visceral and potent political statement, and while firmly rooted in Afro-Cuban culture and history, finds itself entirely concerned with Ibeyi’s present: Who Lisa-Kaindé and Naomi are, what’s important to them, and how they live today, especially given that the spheres, both personally and politically, are entirely different from when Ibeyi was recorded.
‘Ash’ was recorded in November 2016 in London with producer Richard Russell at his studio The Copper House. The album features twelve new tracks, including ‘Away Away’ which was released in June, and includes appearances from Kamasi Washington, Mala Rodriguez, Chilly Gonzales, Meshell Ndegeocello.
‘Deathless,’ the second track to be debuted from ‘Ash’, features the incomparable Kamasi Washington on saxophone, and was written in the wake of an experience that Lisa-Kaindé had when she was sixteen that involved her being wrongly arrested by French police. She went home and wrote the emotive ‘Deathless,’ in which she describes her experience: “I was writing ‘Deathless’ as an anthem for everybody!” Lisa-Kaindé says. “For every minority. For everybody that feels that they are nothing, that feels small, that feels not cared about and I want them to listen to our song and for three minutes feel large, powerful, deathless. I have a huge amount of respect for people who fought for, what I think, are my rights today and if we all sing together ‘we are deathless, ’they will be living through us into a better world”.
Step out of the gloom and into Ibeyi’s world, a place of optimism, openness and acceptance. The modern world never looked so beautiful as it does through Ibeyi’s lens
Ibeyi (pronounced “ee-bey-ee”) is Naomi and Lisa-Kainde Diaz, daughters of the late Cuban percussionist 'Anga' Diaz of Buena Vista Social fame. Naomi plays percussive instruments, the Cajon and the Batas, while Lisa plays piano. Together the twins have learned the songs of their father’s culture, Yoruba. Their love of Yorùbá choirs was inspired by their mother.
Yoruba travelled from West Africa to Cuba with slavery in the 1700s. The Yoruba people have the highest twinning rate in the World and twins occupy an important position within Yoruba culture.
Ibeyi sing in English and Yoruba and they have created a minimalist sound that merges elements of their heritage with their natural love of modern music as teenagers brought up in Paris. This self-titled debut album, produced by XL’s Richard Russell, is an inventive collision of the old and the new - stark electronic atmospherics, heartfelt soulful vocals and melodies inspired by slave chants to produce what Ibeyi themselves have dubbed “contemporary negro spirituals”.
For fans of James Blake, Bjork etc.
Yoruba travelled from West Africa to Cuba with slavery in the 1700s. The Yoruba people have the highest twinning rate in the World and twins occupy an important position within Yoruba culture.
Ibeyi sing in English and Yoruba and they have created a minimalist sound that merges elements of their heritage with their natural love of modern music as teenagers brought up in Paris. This self-titled debut album, produced by XL’s Richard Russell, is an inventive collision of the old and the new - stark electronic atmospherics, heartfelt soulful vocals and melodies inspired by slave chants to produce what Ibeyi themselves have dubbed “contemporary negro spirituals”.
For fans of James Blake, Bjork etc.
The third album from Afro-Cuban French twins Lisa-Kainde and Naomi Diaz who together are Ibeyi. Inspired by the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, this is a record celebrating their multitudes are harnessing their power to heal others. Featuring collaborations with Pa Salieu, Jorja Smith, BERWYN, Dave Okumu, Ben Reed and Owen Pallett, with production by Richard Russell.
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: Ibeyi fall perfectly in that magical middle ground between synth-pop disco and funk, imbued with musical sensibilities from their Afro-Cuban heritage, it's a beautifully balanced and eminently listenable triumph. The track with Jorja Smith on it is a particular delight too, probably my favourite piece of theirs to date. ace.TRACK LISTING
Side A
Sangoma
O Inle
Made Of Gold Feat. Pa Salieu
Sister 2 Sister
Creature (Perfect)
Side B
Tears Are Our Medicine
Foreign Country
Lavender & Red Roses Feat. Jorja Smith
Rise Above Feat. BERWYN
Los Muertos
Eno Williams, frontwoman of Ibibio Sound Machine, uses both English and the Nigerian language from which her band’s name is derived for the dazzling new album. Long lauded for jubilant, explosive live shows, Ibibio Sound Machine fully capture that energy on "Doko Mien", the followup to "Uyai". By pulsing the mystic shapes of Williams’ lines through further inventive, glittering collages of genre, Ibibio Sound Machine crack apart the horizon separating cultures, between nature and technology, between joy and pain, between tradition and future. That propensity for duality and paradox seems common in people whose lives span continents. Williams was born in the UK, but grew up in Nigeria, always steeped in her family heritage. She obsessed over West African electronic music, highlife, and the like, but was equally empowered by Western genres such as post-punk, disco, and funk.
The traditional Ibibio folk tale bobs over the waves of tuned percussion, chunky synth, and pinprick highlife-esque guitar, while Jose Joyette’s drums and Derrick McIntyre’s bass funk groove bring everyone to the dance floor. 'These stories won’t be forgotten. Feel the music: it speaks to everybody,' Williams says. 'We can travel back in time together, while convening on a futuristic, present tense. We hope that we can give people that reason to wake up, that one song to sing and dance and be happy.'
On their new album, Ibibio Sound Machine provide the perfect companion, ready to digest as much as possible and then further unfurl beauty and hope. They remember and honor the past and charge forward toward the future, all while intensely expanding the present.
The traditional Ibibio folk tale bobs over the waves of tuned percussion, chunky synth, and pinprick highlife-esque guitar, while Jose Joyette’s drums and Derrick McIntyre’s bass funk groove bring everyone to the dance floor. 'These stories won’t be forgotten. Feel the music: it speaks to everybody,' Williams says. 'We can travel back in time together, while convening on a futuristic, present tense. We hope that we can give people that reason to wake up, that one song to sing and dance and be happy.'
On their new album, Ibibio Sound Machine provide the perfect companion, ready to digest as much as possible and then further unfurl beauty and hope. They remember and honor the past and charge forward toward the future, all while intensely expanding the present.
TRACK LISTING
SIDE A
I Need You To Be Sweet Like Sugar (Nnge Nte Suka)
Wanna Come Down
Tell Me (Doko Mien)
I Know That You’re Thinking About Me
I Will Run
SIDE B
Just Go Forward (Ka I So)
She Work Very Hard
Nyak Mien, Kuka
Guess We Found A Way
Even in trying times, “there is no love without electricity.” Electricity is the fourth and most progressive album from Ibibio Sound Machine, and like all good Afrofuturist stories, it begins with an existential crisis. “It’s darker than anything we’ve done previously,” says Eno Williams, the group’s singer. “That’s because it grew out of the turbulence of the past year. It inhabits an edgier world.”
Electricity was produced by the Grammy Award and Mercury Prize nominated British synthpop group Hot Chip, a collaboration born out of mutual admiration watching each other on festival stages, as well as a shared love of Francis Bebey and Giorgio Moroder. The fruits of their labor reveal a gleaming, supercharged, Afrofuturist blinder. Electricity is the first album Ibibio Sound Machine have made with external producers since the group’s formation in London in 2013 by Williams and saxophonist Max Grunhard. True, 2017’s Uyai featured mixdown guests including Dan Leavers, aka Danalogue, the keyboard jedi in future-jazz trio The Comet Is Coming, but Hot Chip and Ibibio Sound Machine worked together more deeply throughout the process, collaborating fully. Along the way, the team conjured a kaleidoscope of delights that include resonances of Jonzun Crew, Grace Jones, William Onyeabor, Tom Tom Club, Kae Tempest, Keith LeBlanc, The J.B.’s, Jon Hassell’s “Fourth World,” and Bootsy Collins.
The hook of opener “Protection From Evil” has Williams wielding a massive synth line from Hot Chip’s Al Doyle like a spiritual shield against unspecified, malign forces unspecified because Williams is speaking in tongues. Her lyrics are onomatopoeic: their meaning is defined in her energetic delivery. As Electricity takes off, so do Williams’ words towards a brighter future, alternating between English and Ibibio, sometimes within verses, and propelled by Joseph Amoako’s unabating afrobeat. She digs into this sentiment further on single “All That You Want,” coolly assuring her romantic interest while also requesting reciprocity. Meanwhile, Scott Baylis’ playful Juno synth guides the listener’s feet along the dancefloor.
Electricity is a deep and seamless realization of Williams’ and Grunhard’s ambitious founding manifesto to combine the singularly rhythmic character of the Ibibio language which Williams spoke growing up in Nigeria with a range of traditional West African music and more modern electronic sounds. While the band enjoys veering further into electronic territory with the help of mutuals like Hot Chip, Grunhard emphasizes, “For us, it’s not just a matter of embracing new technology. What’s key is to keep the music grounded in African roots.” Ibibio Sound Machine best exemplify this on Electricity’s “Freedom.” That track was inspired by the water-drumming rhythms of Cameroon’s Baka women, which in turn fueled its lyrics, which in turn prompted Hot Chip and Ibibio Sound Machine to layer joyfully kinetic electronic counterparts on top in the studio. As the track culminates with the mantra of “rage, hope, cope, soul,” it’s clear that Ibibio Sound Machine have channelled, harnessed, and distilled these words as guiding principles, both for the album and for the turbulent world that awaits it.
Electricity was produced by the Grammy Award and Mercury Prize nominated British synthpop group Hot Chip, a collaboration born out of mutual admiration watching each other on festival stages, as well as a shared love of Francis Bebey and Giorgio Moroder. The fruits of their labor reveal a gleaming, supercharged, Afrofuturist blinder. Electricity is the first album Ibibio Sound Machine have made with external producers since the group’s formation in London in 2013 by Williams and saxophonist Max Grunhard. True, 2017’s Uyai featured mixdown guests including Dan Leavers, aka Danalogue, the keyboard jedi in future-jazz trio The Comet Is Coming, but Hot Chip and Ibibio Sound Machine worked together more deeply throughout the process, collaborating fully. Along the way, the team conjured a kaleidoscope of delights that include resonances of Jonzun Crew, Grace Jones, William Onyeabor, Tom Tom Club, Kae Tempest, Keith LeBlanc, The J.B.’s, Jon Hassell’s “Fourth World,” and Bootsy Collins.
The hook of opener “Protection From Evil” has Williams wielding a massive synth line from Hot Chip’s Al Doyle like a spiritual shield against unspecified, malign forces unspecified because Williams is speaking in tongues. Her lyrics are onomatopoeic: their meaning is defined in her energetic delivery. As Electricity takes off, so do Williams’ words towards a brighter future, alternating between English and Ibibio, sometimes within verses, and propelled by Joseph Amoako’s unabating afrobeat. She digs into this sentiment further on single “All That You Want,” coolly assuring her romantic interest while also requesting reciprocity. Meanwhile, Scott Baylis’ playful Juno synth guides the listener’s feet along the dancefloor.
Electricity is a deep and seamless realization of Williams’ and Grunhard’s ambitious founding manifesto to combine the singularly rhythmic character of the Ibibio language which Williams spoke growing up in Nigeria with a range of traditional West African music and more modern electronic sounds. While the band enjoys veering further into electronic territory with the help of mutuals like Hot Chip, Grunhard emphasizes, “For us, it’s not just a matter of embracing new technology. What’s key is to keep the music grounded in African roots.” Ibibio Sound Machine best exemplify this on Electricity’s “Freedom.” That track was inspired by the water-drumming rhythms of Cameroon’s Baka women, which in turn fueled its lyrics, which in turn prompted Hot Chip and Ibibio Sound Machine to layer joyfully kinetic electronic counterparts on top in the studio. As the track culminates with the mantra of “rage, hope, cope, soul,” it’s clear that Ibibio Sound Machine have channelled, harnessed, and distilled these words as guiding principles, both for the album and for the turbulent world that awaits it.
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: I remember buying ISM's self titled album from this very shop around 2014 because it was recommended highly, and it couldn't have been more of a welcome punt. It turns out that they've only gone from strength to strength, and 'Electricity' absolutely shines with the raw groove and scattered influences of the earlier LP's, but with a much more honed sense of rhythm and melody. Absolutely, unsurprisingly brilliant.TRACK LISTING
SIDE A
1. Protection From Evil
2 .Electricity
3 .Casio (Yak Nda Nda)
4. Afo Ken Doko Mien
SIDE B
5. All That You Want
6. Wanna See Your Face Again
7. 17 18 19
8. Truth No Lie
9. Oyoyo
CD & LP3 Download Bonus:
10. Something We’ll Remember
11. Almost Flying
12. Freedom
Ibibio Sound Machine finally release their hotly anticipated debut album on the ever brilliant Soundway Records. The self-titled set sees the group effortlessly combine diverse genres with an ease I've not heard since the days of LCD Soundsystem, pulling together elements of West African highlife, disco, post-punk, psychedelic electro soul and nasty ass P-funk. On the squelchy bassed "The Talking Fish" and the 6 Music fave "Let's Dance" and the more traditional highlife cuts "I'm Running", "Uwa The Peacock" and "Woman Of Substance", Ibibio Sound Machine pack the wax with pure effusive energy. Elsewhere, "The Tortoise", "The Talking Fish" and "Prodigal Son" are bursting with raw funk power, with British / Nigerian vocalist Eno Williams in particularly fierce form. Folk stories, recounted to Eno by her family as a child in her mother's South-Eastern Nigerian Ibibio language form the creative lyrical fabric of the album, as can be seen with the natural and proverbial track titles. What I love most about this record is the fact it flows together as an album so well, with a nice progression from highlife to funk and electro disco aided by the excellent musicianship of the players. The album has soul in abundance, bookended as it is by two beautiful spiritual pieces, but will keep the dancefloor just as happy as the congregation. After all, they're pretty much the same aren't they?
TRACK LISTING
A1. Voice Of The Bird (Uyio Inuen)
A2. I'm Running (Nya Fehe)
A3. The Talking Fish (Asem Usem Iyak)
A4. Let’s Dance (Yak Inek Unek)
A5. Uwa The Peacock (Eki Ko Inuen Uwa)
B1. The Tortoise (Nsaha Edem Ikit)
B2. Woman Of Substance (Awuwan Itiaba)
B3. Prodigal Son (Ayen Ake Feheke)
B4. Got To Move, Got To Get Out! (Ana Nkpong Ana Nwuoro)
B5. Ibibio Spiritual
Pull the Rope, the new record by Ibibio Sound Machine, casts the Eno Williams and Max Grunhard–led outfit in a new light. The hope, joy, and sexiness of their music remain, but, further honing the edge of their acclaimed 2022 album Electricity, the connection they aim to foster has shifted venues from the sunny buoyancy of a sunlit festival to a sweat-soaked, all-night dance club.
Williams and Grunhard attribute this shift to a matter of collaborators, recording Pull the Rope with Sheffield-based producer Ross Orton (Arctic Monkeys, M.I.A.) over the course of two weeks. The way the pair wrote songs changed significantly rather than Eno penning lyrics to music generated by Max and company’s jamming, Orton started with Eno and Max writing together before adding the band. With less time in the studio
and a new way of considering how they built songs, the duo found making decisions about Pull the Rope’s sound quicker and more instinctual than before.
“Ross is from Sheffield, which has an edgier, more industrial vibe than London,” Grunhard explains. “He hears things differently than us, is more grounded in rave and grungier sounds, and knew when to add drums or push the instrumentation more. It was very different for us, but it lends itself to where Ibibio Sound Machine is going.”
In melding their songwriting process, Grunhard and Williams have, impossibly, pulled the trick of making Ibibio Sound Machine a tighter band than ever before, building out from their core in a way that highlights the electrifying group of musicians they play with. Rather than recording with the full band in the room, Pull the
Rope was sculpted, elements added and shaped by Grunhard, Williams, and Orton along the way. As a result, Pull the Rope is a nimble, sleek machine that’s thrilling from the first note of the opening title track, Eno’s otherworldly voice and PK Ambrose’s throbbing bass driving through a kaleidoscopic array of house, post-punk, funk, Afrobeat and disco, bangers and ballads, making an argument for unity that begins on the dancefloor. “We are the places we grew up, the places we’ve been, and the people we’ve met along
the way,” Williams says. “Hopping around the globe, we’ve found that people are fundamentally the same they’re people. Opposing sides push and pull, but there is an alternative to war, violence, and suffering.”
Lead single “Got to Be Who U Are” literally globetrots, name checking locales across the world that would feel disparate were it not for how well-traveled they are. Eno growing up in the musical melting pot of the Ibibio region of Nigeria and Max being a conservatory-trained musician from Australia, one could call their meeting in London and formation of Ibibio Sound Machine predestined.
“Mama Say” and “Let My Yes Be Yes” touch themes of female empowerment. They’re indicative of the band’s depth as they push further into the electronic; “Mama Say” hits notes of electropop while “Let My Yes Be Yes” fuses electro to Afrobeat. Ibibio Sound Machine have always imbued their music with political consciousness, and the light that shines through in Williams’ vocals and voice has never felt more necessary. The sound of Pull the Rope, then, is hope in darkness, bliss in spite of bleakness. Once again, Ibibio Sound Machine are here to provide the soundtrack to the best night of your life, and the better world to come.
Williams and Grunhard attribute this shift to a matter of collaborators, recording Pull the Rope with Sheffield-based producer Ross Orton (Arctic Monkeys, M.I.A.) over the course of two weeks. The way the pair wrote songs changed significantly rather than Eno penning lyrics to music generated by Max and company’s jamming, Orton started with Eno and Max writing together before adding the band. With less time in the studio
and a new way of considering how they built songs, the duo found making decisions about Pull the Rope’s sound quicker and more instinctual than before.
“Ross is from Sheffield, which has an edgier, more industrial vibe than London,” Grunhard explains. “He hears things differently than us, is more grounded in rave and grungier sounds, and knew when to add drums or push the instrumentation more. It was very different for us, but it lends itself to where Ibibio Sound Machine is going.”
In melding their songwriting process, Grunhard and Williams have, impossibly, pulled the trick of making Ibibio Sound Machine a tighter band than ever before, building out from their core in a way that highlights the electrifying group of musicians they play with. Rather than recording with the full band in the room, Pull the
Rope was sculpted, elements added and shaped by Grunhard, Williams, and Orton along the way. As a result, Pull the Rope is a nimble, sleek machine that’s thrilling from the first note of the opening title track, Eno’s otherworldly voice and PK Ambrose’s throbbing bass driving through a kaleidoscopic array of house, post-punk, funk, Afrobeat and disco, bangers and ballads, making an argument for unity that begins on the dancefloor. “We are the places we grew up, the places we’ve been, and the people we’ve met along
the way,” Williams says. “Hopping around the globe, we’ve found that people are fundamentally the same they’re people. Opposing sides push and pull, but there is an alternative to war, violence, and suffering.”
Lead single “Got to Be Who U Are” literally globetrots, name checking locales across the world that would feel disparate were it not for how well-traveled they are. Eno growing up in the musical melting pot of the Ibibio region of Nigeria and Max being a conservatory-trained musician from Australia, one could call their meeting in London and formation of Ibibio Sound Machine predestined.
“Mama Say” and “Let My Yes Be Yes” touch themes of female empowerment. They’re indicative of the band’s depth as they push further into the electronic; “Mama Say” hits notes of electropop while “Let My Yes Be Yes” fuses electro to Afrobeat. Ibibio Sound Machine have always imbued their music with political consciousness, and the light that shines through in Williams’ vocals and voice has never felt more necessary. The sound of Pull the Rope, then, is hope in darkness, bliss in spite of bleakness. Once again, Ibibio Sound Machine are here to provide the soundtrack to the best night of your life, and the better world to come.
TRACK LISTING
1. Pull The Rope
2. Got To Be Who U Are
3. Fire
4. Them Say
5. Political Incorrect
6. Mama Say
7. Let My Yes Be Yes
8. Touch The Ceiling
9. Far Away
10. Dance In The Rain
Lempuyang is a label you will know and respect for its high quality stream of immersive dub techno. Now the man behind it, Alastair Kelly, debuts a new label with none other than revered UK techno mainstay Ibrahim Alfa Jnr. He opens up with 'Component A' which is a moody melange of slow, broken dub beats and fizzing synths. There is further experimentation on 'Untitled B2 1' which pairs a churning dub rhythm with naive and innocent melodies and lots of lo-fi static. 'Entangled' ups the ante with the suggestion of a fast paced rhythm through a skeletal groove and the flip brings broken beat dub weight, meaning and percussive bass with a 2-step swagger then deep introspection on the closer. A classy EP that suggests this label will be well worth watching.
TRACK LISTING
Component A
Untitled B2 1
Entangled
Are You?
648
Carrier
Reissue of Abdullah Ibrahim's stunning 1974 LP 'Good News From Africa' recorded with bassist Johnny Dyani.
Pianist-composer Abdullah Ibrahim ( formerly known as "Dollar Brand") has long ranked among South Africa's giants alongside Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba and the late Kippie Mokoetsi.
A master of improvisation with a distinctive African edge, the exiled Cape Town musician has developed a musical style over the past 30 years that defies categorization. Rather, it is a fascinating mosaic of diverse traditions including African rutal and township rhythms, classical jazz, and gospel. South African folk melodies are enriched with Western harmonies, coalescing into a gracefullly fluid and intensely spiritual whole.
Best known for his hypnotic and introspective stream- of- consciousness compositions and his innovative interpretations of Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk and Billy Strayhorn classics, Ibrahim's music is at once accessible and complex, intriguing and lyrical. He has indefatigably explored and fused classical jazz with the multitude of influences that make up traditional and contemporary South Afrian music.
Pianist-composer Abdullah Ibrahim ( formerly known as "Dollar Brand") has long ranked among South Africa's giants alongside Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba and the late Kippie Mokoetsi.
A master of improvisation with a distinctive African edge, the exiled Cape Town musician has developed a musical style over the past 30 years that defies categorization. Rather, it is a fascinating mosaic of diverse traditions including African rutal and township rhythms, classical jazz, and gospel. South African folk melodies are enriched with Western harmonies, coalescing into a gracefullly fluid and intensely spiritual whole.
Best known for his hypnotic and introspective stream- of- consciousness compositions and his innovative interpretations of Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk and Billy Strayhorn classics, Ibrahim's music is at once accessible and complex, intriguing and lyrical. He has indefatigably explored and fused classical jazz with the multitude of influences that make up traditional and contemporary South Afrian music.
TRACK LISTING
Ntsikana's Bell
Msunduza
Good News
Swazi
Waya- Wa- Egoli
Adhan & Allah-O-Akbar
The Pilgrim
Moniebah
The Pilgrim
THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.
The Icarus Line, a proper rock and roll gang, led by the fearsome Joe Cardamone, toured the UK in October 2011 in support of their Wildlife album. With stand in drummer Sammy as their drummer quit just before boarding the plane!! they slammed it, this was feral rock and roll grime, even original bass player Lance Arnao was back in the fold, someone recorded the London show.. and here it is, pressed on some limited edition vinyl..raw, bleeding, and a good indication of how the Icarus Line are...oh yes.. 100 copies only for the UK.
The Icarus Line, a proper rock and roll gang, led by the fearsome Joe Cardamone, toured the UK in October 2011 in support of their Wildlife album. With stand in drummer Sammy as their drummer quit just before boarding the plane!! they slammed it, this was feral rock and roll grime, even original bass player Lance Arnao was back in the fold, someone recorded the London show.. and here it is, pressed on some limited edition vinyl..raw, bleeding, and a good indication of how the Icarus Line are...oh yes.. 100 copies only for the UK.
Reduced
Hey, this aint no “follow up” number, this is a the other arm getting a shot; this is the Slave Vows era of the Icarus Line getting its I’s dotted. A sort of finality at play here, “Avowed Slavery” is the companion release to 2013’s well received SLAVE VOWS album, this completes the circle of fury.
With the video release of “City Job” at the end of 2013, and the Slave Vows album still making people talk, it was time to put these songs to wax, prepare the world for The Icarus Line's next move. Five tracks spread over the two sides, this mini album serves as aSlave Vows booster jab, the feral verocity of the last album is in spades here, maybe even more so, the fire in the band’s belly is roaring, and its only when the last track closes down do you realise quite fully, the impact.
Reference points take in a whole gamut of genres, styles, sounds, stances…… Cardamone leads the gang once more into the rough, the desecrated warzone that is the music industry, american culture and love , they (Cardamone, Hallet, De Guzman, Arnao) create their brand of “hellfire and brimstone” rock and roll…
Leeches and Seeds is a frenetic blast of noise with Hallets drums threatening to collapse your ears, driving you into live favourite Junkadelic. The bastard offspring of Clinton and Bargeld this grooves and slithers, winding its earworm abilities into your whole shuddering psyche…..
Raise Yer Crown closes off side one, with their LA swagger back in full effect, thump and grind from the Icarus Line, this is Los Angeles NOW…
Side two opens with the long awaited studio version of other live fave “Salem Slims”, first aired on the Killing Joke support tour in 2012, this fearless headrush is so adamantly an Icarus Line song, that theres no other comparison, howling stoogian vocal, building-destroying rhythms, shards of guitar gloss stunning all within range, this headrush of almost-insanity then moves into the last track, “The Father,. The Priest” , is this the calm after the storm, is this the comedown, is this the penance for the passion? Or is this the Vows era Icarus Line laying down tools to prepare for the next go?
Listen at full blast
- Joe Cardamone
With the video release of “City Job” at the end of 2013, and the Slave Vows album still making people talk, it was time to put these songs to wax, prepare the world for The Icarus Line's next move. Five tracks spread over the two sides, this mini album serves as aSlave Vows booster jab, the feral verocity of the last album is in spades here, maybe even more so, the fire in the band’s belly is roaring, and its only when the last track closes down do you realise quite fully, the impact.
Reference points take in a whole gamut of genres, styles, sounds, stances…… Cardamone leads the gang once more into the rough, the desecrated warzone that is the music industry, american culture and love , they (Cardamone, Hallet, De Guzman, Arnao) create their brand of “hellfire and brimstone” rock and roll…
Leeches and Seeds is a frenetic blast of noise with Hallets drums threatening to collapse your ears, driving you into live favourite Junkadelic. The bastard offspring of Clinton and Bargeld this grooves and slithers, winding its earworm abilities into your whole shuddering psyche…..
Raise Yer Crown closes off side one, with their LA swagger back in full effect, thump and grind from the Icarus Line, this is Los Angeles NOW…
Side two opens with the long awaited studio version of other live fave “Salem Slims”, first aired on the Killing Joke support tour in 2012, this fearless headrush is so adamantly an Icarus Line song, that theres no other comparison, howling stoogian vocal, building-destroying rhythms, shards of guitar gloss stunning all within range, this headrush of almost-insanity then moves into the last track, “The Father,. The Priest” , is this the calm after the storm, is this the comedown, is this the penance for the passion? Or is this the Vows era Icarus Line laying down tools to prepare for the next go?
Listen at full blast
- Joe Cardamone
Brand new album from LA hellions, the Icarus Line, is quite possibly their best album yet. Harking back to the fury of Mono, the fire of Pennance Soiree and dragging the swagger out of the Black Lives / Wild Life albums, "Slave Vows" is quite simply a fearsome vitriolic rock and roll outpouring that starts, and never lets up for every 45 minutes of Stoogian styled glory.
Evoking Funhouse, Everything Went Black, Goats Head Soup and Maggotbrain in one fell swoop, it could be said that the Icarus Line have finally made the album they set out on making in 2001... this is not for the fainthearted! Some of these songs were blooded on their support slot with Killing Joke on their European tour in 2012, this album also features the best rhythm section the band have had (new drummer Ben Hallett and original bassist Lance Arnao completely NAIL IT!), underpinning the white hot guitar flow from singer/leader Joe Cardamone, the songs..ebb, and flow, slash and burn...cauterizing any that stand in their way.
This is pure rock and roll hellfire distilled onto vinyl and CD.
Evoking Funhouse, Everything Went Black, Goats Head Soup and Maggotbrain in one fell swoop, it could be said that the Icarus Line have finally made the album they set out on making in 2001... this is not for the fainthearted! Some of these songs were blooded on their support slot with Killing Joke on their European tour in 2012, this album also features the best rhythm section the band have had (new drummer Ben Hallett and original bassist Lance Arnao completely NAIL IT!), underpinning the white hot guitar flow from singer/leader Joe Cardamone, the songs..ebb, and flow, slash and burn...cauterizing any that stand in their way.
This is pure rock and roll hellfire distilled onto vinyl and CD.
Brand new album from LA hellions, the Icarus Line, is quite possibly their best album yet. Harking back to the fury of Mono, the fire of Pennance Soiree and dragging the swagger out of the Black Lives / Wild Life albums, "Slave Vows" is quite simply a fearsome vitriolic rock and roll outpouring that starts, and never lets up for every 45 minutes of Stoogian styled glory.
Evoking Funhouse, Everything Went Black, Goats Head Soup and Maggotbrain in one fell swoop, it could be said that the Icarus Line have finally made the album they set out on making in 2001... this is not for the fainthearted! Some of these songs were blooded on their support slot with Killing Joke on their European tour in 2012, this album also features the best rhythm section the band have had (new drummer Ben Hallett and original bassist Lance Arnao completely NAIL IT!), underpinning the white hot guitar flow from singer/leader Joe Cardamone, the songs..ebb, and flow, slash and burn...cauterizing any that stand in their way.
This is pure rock and roll hellfire distilled onto vinyl and CD.
Evoking Funhouse, Everything Went Black, Goats Head Soup and Maggotbrain in one fell swoop, it could be said that the Icarus Line have finally made the album they set out on making in 2001... this is not for the fainthearted! Some of these songs were blooded on their support slot with Killing Joke on their European tour in 2012, this album also features the best rhythm section the band have had (new drummer Ben Hallett and original bassist Lance Arnao completely NAIL IT!), underpinning the white hot guitar flow from singer/leader Joe Cardamone, the songs..ebb, and flow, slash and burn...cauterizing any that stand in their way.
This is pure rock and roll hellfire distilled onto vinyl and CD.
BRAND NEW album from legendary LA firestarters, The Icarus Line. Their third full length release for Agitated (their eigth album in total), following on from their imperious return to the fray in 2013 with the much lauded release of 'Slave Vows', followed up by its companion "album release" 'Avowed Slavery' in 2014.
Recorded and arranged live as a group in Cardamone's studio, Valley Recording Company in Burbank, the sessions "were very private and conducive to conjuring," the frontman describes. "If you are lucky, you can capture something before it dies. I feel like all great music is a fleeting inspiration. You only have so much time to capture it before it either turns into routine or it turns its back on you."
The album features a guest appearance from legendary outsider artist Joe Coleman who helped coin the album title. Also appearing is Bad Seed / Grinderman/ Dirty Three band leader Warren Ellis who helped pen the track "Bedlam Blue" with Cardamone.
Art work for All Things Under Heaven was found during the making of the record. Veteran news photographer Randy Taylor was receiving attention for some works of his that were created out of destruction. During the Sandy hurricane his archive was flooded and many of his photos were "destroyed". The pictures that would make up the record's sleeve were simply a document of a 4th of July cookout but after the waters of Sandy they became the american dream in a car crash with mother nature. The perfect visual to compliment a document about a melted american dream.
All Things Under Heaven packs the kind of swagger, raunch & ascent that would make Iggy Stooge and Sun Ra proud parents. It is a record that expands the vocabulary of what rock music can be without sacrificing the critical spirit that makes it Rock N Roll. The Icarus Line have summoned up the demons from the past, paid their homage and taken the sound in an entirely new direction; because this band are never ones to be caught on their knees. The album is a sprawling sonic landscape that has a timeless quality about it as it traverses between low valleys, towering skyscrapers and all the dirty alleyways that connect them. It's a record that's as sprawling as the city of Los Angeles to which The Icarus Line have always called home. It's a fuck you to the bite size society that has become music consumption. Life is bigger than that. And just like LA, this is a record that from the opening hollow echo swallowed pounding drums of "Ride Or Die" to the final free jazz funeral lullaby of "Sleep Now" is all its own world.
The Icarus Line have been deep in the rock 'n' roll trenches since their debut album Mono in the late 90s, yet sound more significant now than ever. Over the years The Icarus Line have proved to be one of the most exciting and unpredictable live bands around, again and again. Their performances are explosive, dangerous and sexy all at the same time.
"Joe Cardamone slanks in a room like some sick fuck who actually knows how to live on the street, instead of pretending that he still does," writes Permanent Midnight author Jerry Stahl. "Walking down Vulnerable Hardass Ave " the one where OG rock'n'rollers, the early eat-their-arms screamers and bar walkers that paved the way for posers and haircuts to come, first started screaming out the truth that was eating them alive."
For fans of all music styles American Primitive: Ayler, Patton, Howlin Wolf, Gira, Velvet Underground, Funkadelic, Sun Ra, The Psychedelic Stooges, Black Flag, Charlie Feathers, Tony Conrad.
Recorded and arranged live as a group in Cardamone's studio, Valley Recording Company in Burbank, the sessions "were very private and conducive to conjuring," the frontman describes. "If you are lucky, you can capture something before it dies. I feel like all great music is a fleeting inspiration. You only have so much time to capture it before it either turns into routine or it turns its back on you."
The album features a guest appearance from legendary outsider artist Joe Coleman who helped coin the album title. Also appearing is Bad Seed / Grinderman/ Dirty Three band leader Warren Ellis who helped pen the track "Bedlam Blue" with Cardamone.
Art work for All Things Under Heaven was found during the making of the record. Veteran news photographer Randy Taylor was receiving attention for some works of his that were created out of destruction. During the Sandy hurricane his archive was flooded and many of his photos were "destroyed". The pictures that would make up the record's sleeve were simply a document of a 4th of July cookout but after the waters of Sandy they became the american dream in a car crash with mother nature. The perfect visual to compliment a document about a melted american dream.
All Things Under Heaven packs the kind of swagger, raunch & ascent that would make Iggy Stooge and Sun Ra proud parents. It is a record that expands the vocabulary of what rock music can be without sacrificing the critical spirit that makes it Rock N Roll. The Icarus Line have summoned up the demons from the past, paid their homage and taken the sound in an entirely new direction; because this band are never ones to be caught on their knees. The album is a sprawling sonic landscape that has a timeless quality about it as it traverses between low valleys, towering skyscrapers and all the dirty alleyways that connect them. It's a record that's as sprawling as the city of Los Angeles to which The Icarus Line have always called home. It's a fuck you to the bite size society that has become music consumption. Life is bigger than that. And just like LA, this is a record that from the opening hollow echo swallowed pounding drums of "Ride Or Die" to the final free jazz funeral lullaby of "Sleep Now" is all its own world.
The Icarus Line have been deep in the rock 'n' roll trenches since their debut album Mono in the late 90s, yet sound more significant now than ever. Over the years The Icarus Line have proved to be one of the most exciting and unpredictable live bands around, again and again. Their performances are explosive, dangerous and sexy all at the same time.
"Joe Cardamone slanks in a room like some sick fuck who actually knows how to live on the street, instead of pretending that he still does," writes Permanent Midnight author Jerry Stahl. "Walking down Vulnerable Hardass Ave " the one where OG rock'n'rollers, the early eat-their-arms screamers and bar walkers that paved the way for posers and haircuts to come, first started screaming out the truth that was eating them alive."
For fans of all music styles American Primitive: Ayler, Patton, Howlin Wolf, Gira, Velvet Underground, Funkadelic, Sun Ra, The Psychedelic Stooges, Black Flag, Charlie Feathers, Tony Conrad.
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: As brash as ever, The Icarus Line return to the fore with this, their latest outing since 2013. All Things Under Heaven sees the band in a more grungy, punk-influenced mood. Snarling vocals, and screaming call-to-arms refrains atop driving distortion and thumbing kick drums. Never likely to be accused of being boring, this is a new direction from a band that can do no wrong. A Political noise-punk statement, and a righteous performance from one of the greatest post-hardcore bands of all time.TRACK LISTING
RIDE OR DIE
TOTAL PANDEMONIUM
EL SERENO
ALL THINGS UNDER HEAVEN (featuring Joe Coleman)
LITTLE HORN
MILLENIAL PRAYER
INCINERATOR BLUE
MIRROR
BEDLAM BLUE (featuring Warren Ellis)
SOLAR PLEXUS
I DON'T WANNA STAY
SLEEP NOW
BRAND NEW album from legendary LA firestarters, The Icarus Line. Their third full length release for Agitated (their eigth album in total), following on from their imperious return to the fray in 2013 with the much lauded release of 'Slave Vows', followed up by its companion "album release" 'Avowed Slavery' in 2014.
Recorded and arranged live as a group in Cardamone's studio, Valley Recording Company in Burbank, the sessions "were very private and conducive to conjuring," the frontman describes. "If you are lucky, you can capture something before it dies. I feel like all great music is a fleeting inspiration. You only have so much time to capture it before it either turns into routine or it turns its back on you."
The album features a guest appearance from legendary outsider artist Joe Coleman who helped coin the album title. Also appearing is Bad Seed / Grinderman/ Dirty Three band leader Warren Ellis who helped pen the track "Bedlam Blue" with Cardamone.
Art work for All Things Under Heaven was found during the making of the record. Veteran news photographer Randy Taylor was receiving attention for some works of his that were created out of destruction. During the Sandy hurricane his archive was flooded and many of his photos were "destroyed". The pictures that would make up the record's sleeve were simply a document of a 4th of July cookout but after the waters of Sandy they became the american dream in a car crash with mother nature. The perfect visual to compliment a document about a melted american dream.
All Things Under Heaven packs the kind of swagger, raunch & ascent that would make Iggy Stooge and Sun Ra proud parents. It is a record that expands the vocabulary of what rock music can be without sacrificing the critical spirit that makes it Rock N Roll. The Icarus Line have summoned up the demons from the past, paid their homage and taken the sound in an entirely new direction; because this band are never ones to be caught on their knees. The album is a sprawling sonic landscape that has a timeless quality about it as it traverses between low valleys, towering skyscrapers and all the dirty alleyways that connect them. It's a record that's as sprawling as the city of Los Angeles to which The Icarus Line have always called home. It's a fuck you to the bite size society that has become music consumption. Life is bigger than that. And just like LA, this is a record that from the opening hollow echo swallowed pounding drums of "Ride Or Die" to the final free jazz funeral lullaby of "Sleep Now" is all its own world.
The Icarus Line have been deep in the rock 'n' roll trenches since their debut album Mono in the late 90s, yet sound more significant now than ever. Over the years The Icarus Line have proved to be one of the most exciting and unpredictable live bands around, again and again. Their performances are explosive, dangerous and sexy all at the same time.
"Joe Cardamone slanks in a room like some sick fuck who actually knows how to live on the street, instead of pretending that he still does," writes Permanent Midnight author Jerry Stahl. "Walking down Vulnerable Hardass Ave " the one where OG rock'n'rollers, the early eat-their-arms screamers and bar walkers that paved the way for posers and haircuts to come, first started screaming out the truth that was eating them alive."
For fans of all music styles American Primitive: Ayler, Patton, Howlin Wolf, Gira, Velvet Underground, Funkadelic, Sun Ra, The Psychedelic Stooges, Black Flag, Charlie Feathers, Tony Conrad.
Recorded and arranged live as a group in Cardamone's studio, Valley Recording Company in Burbank, the sessions "were very private and conducive to conjuring," the frontman describes. "If you are lucky, you can capture something before it dies. I feel like all great music is a fleeting inspiration. You only have so much time to capture it before it either turns into routine or it turns its back on you."
The album features a guest appearance from legendary outsider artist Joe Coleman who helped coin the album title. Also appearing is Bad Seed / Grinderman/ Dirty Three band leader Warren Ellis who helped pen the track "Bedlam Blue" with Cardamone.
Art work for All Things Under Heaven was found during the making of the record. Veteran news photographer Randy Taylor was receiving attention for some works of his that were created out of destruction. During the Sandy hurricane his archive was flooded and many of his photos were "destroyed". The pictures that would make up the record's sleeve were simply a document of a 4th of July cookout but after the waters of Sandy they became the american dream in a car crash with mother nature. The perfect visual to compliment a document about a melted american dream.
All Things Under Heaven packs the kind of swagger, raunch & ascent that would make Iggy Stooge and Sun Ra proud parents. It is a record that expands the vocabulary of what rock music can be without sacrificing the critical spirit that makes it Rock N Roll. The Icarus Line have summoned up the demons from the past, paid their homage and taken the sound in an entirely new direction; because this band are never ones to be caught on their knees. The album is a sprawling sonic landscape that has a timeless quality about it as it traverses between low valleys, towering skyscrapers and all the dirty alleyways that connect them. It's a record that's as sprawling as the city of Los Angeles to which The Icarus Line have always called home. It's a fuck you to the bite size society that has become music consumption. Life is bigger than that. And just like LA, this is a record that from the opening hollow echo swallowed pounding drums of "Ride Or Die" to the final free jazz funeral lullaby of "Sleep Now" is all its own world.
The Icarus Line have been deep in the rock 'n' roll trenches since their debut album Mono in the late 90s, yet sound more significant now than ever. Over the years The Icarus Line have proved to be one of the most exciting and unpredictable live bands around, again and again. Their performances are explosive, dangerous and sexy all at the same time.
"Joe Cardamone slanks in a room like some sick fuck who actually knows how to live on the street, instead of pretending that he still does," writes Permanent Midnight author Jerry Stahl. "Walking down Vulnerable Hardass Ave " the one where OG rock'n'rollers, the early eat-their-arms screamers and bar walkers that paved the way for posers and haircuts to come, first started screaming out the truth that was eating them alive."
For fans of all music styles American Primitive: Ayler, Patton, Howlin Wolf, Gira, Velvet Underground, Funkadelic, Sun Ra, The Psychedelic Stooges, Black Flag, Charlie Feathers, Tony Conrad.
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: As brash as ever, The Icarus Line return to the fore with this, their latest outing since 2013. All Things Under Heaven sees the band in a more grungy, punk-influenced mood. Snarling vocals, and screaming call-to-arms refrains atop driving distortion and thumbing kick drums. Never likely to be accused of being boring, this is a new direction from a band that can do no wrong. A Political noise-punk statement, and a righteous performance from one of the greatest post-hardcore bands of all time.TRACK LISTING
RIDE OR DIE
TOTAL PANDEMONIUM
EL SERENO
ALL THINGS UNDER HEAVEN (featuring Joe Coleman)
LITTLE HORN
MILLENIAL PRAYER
INCINERATOR BLUE
MIRROR
BEDLAM BLUE (featuring Warren Ellis)
SOLAR PLEXUS
I DON'T WANNA STAY
SLEEP NOW
Strut proudly reintroduces a classic from the Topomic catalogue, Ice’s ‘Each Man Makes His Destiny’, officially available on vinyl for the first time.
After relocating from the United States to Paris, Ice began performing regularly in the city’s Barbès district, a vibrant area with a large North African immigrant community. The band’s heavy Afro-funk sound caught the attention of producer Pierre Jaubert, leading them to become the resident session musicians at his independent Parisound studio.
Immersed in the local influences, Ice began integrating African-inspired chants, textures, and rhythms into their distinct funk style. In 1973, the group recorded their debut album, ‘Each Man Makes His Destiny’, a psychedelic funk exploration that hinted at the evolving sound that would later define them as the Lafayette Afro-Rock Band and, eventually, Ice once more.
Produced by Jaubert, the album brings some powerful social commentary on claustrophobic tracks like ‘Too Little Room’ and ‘Suicide’, under-pinned by a determination to succeed despite the adversity.
Remastered by The Carvery.
After relocating from the United States to Paris, Ice began performing regularly in the city’s Barbès district, a vibrant area with a large North African immigrant community. The band’s heavy Afro-funk sound caught the attention of producer Pierre Jaubert, leading them to become the resident session musicians at his independent Parisound studio.
Immersed in the local influences, Ice began integrating African-inspired chants, textures, and rhythms into their distinct funk style. In 1973, the group recorded their debut album, ‘Each Man Makes His Destiny’, a psychedelic funk exploration that hinted at the evolving sound that would later define them as the Lafayette Afro-Rock Band and, eventually, Ice once more.
Produced by Jaubert, the album brings some powerful social commentary on claustrophobic tracks like ‘Too Little Room’ and ‘Suicide’, under-pinned by a determination to succeed despite the adversity.
Remastered by The Carvery.
TRACK LISTING
1. Too Little Room
2. Suicide
3. One Chance
4. Love Can
5. There’s Time To Change
6. Put An X On The Spot (In The Sky)
7. Losin’
8. Dgunji
'Afro Agban' is the closest album in Ice’s catalogue to capturing the signature sound of the Lafayette Afro Rock Band. It showcases the band’s hallmark intricate rhythms and masterful soloing, delivering a collection of solid compositions that defined their first four records. Likely recorded during the 'Soul Makossa' and 'Malik' sessions, 'Afro Agban' (The Afro-Instrumental LP) is arguably their finest work, pushing further into jazz-rock territory with extended, dynamic arrangements.
A consistent treasure trove for sample hunters, 'Afro Agban' continues to resonate with jazz-rock enthusiasts worldwide. The album’s standout track, 'Ozan Kouklé', has long been a vinyl collector’s dream, finally receiving the reissue treatment. Strut is thrilled to present this full album as an authentic replica reissue, featuring an extensive remaster by The Carvery.
Blending funk, jazz, and African rhythms across seven mostly instrumental tracks, and once again produced by the prolific Pierre Jaubert—one of 1970s France’s most influential producers—Afro Agban is an essential addition to the Topomic/Parisound catalogue.
A consistent treasure trove for sample hunters, 'Afro Agban' continues to resonate with jazz-rock enthusiasts worldwide. The album’s standout track, 'Ozan Kouklé', has long been a vinyl collector’s dream, finally receiving the reissue treatment. Strut is thrilled to present this full album as an authentic replica reissue, featuring an extensive remaster by The Carvery.
Blending funk, jazz, and African rhythms across seven mostly instrumental tracks, and once again produced by the prolific Pierre Jaubert—one of 1970s France’s most influential producers—Afro Agban is an essential addition to the Topomic/Parisound catalogue.
TRACK LISTING
1. ODA MIMIAN
2. OZAN KOUKLÉ
3. AFON
4. ALOW ATON
5. AFRO-LOVE
6. SIKILIZA
7. RACUBAH
Debut release from Laissez Faire Club Records is the second single from Brighton based Ice Black Birds, "As Birds We’d Be Fine". It’s a slice of blues fueled, anthemic indie rock fit for the summer festival season, and has already been championed by Huw Stephens on Radio 1 as well as Steve Lamacq and Tom Robinson on 6Music.
The flip side is live favourite "Doors", a highly charged rock ‘n’ roll riot all over in two-and-a-half minutes – like they used to make in the good old days.
Fans of CCR, Kings Of Leon, White Denim and The Black Keys will love this.
The flip side is live favourite "Doors", a highly charged rock ‘n’ roll riot all over in two-and-a-half minutes – like they used to make in the good old days.
Fans of CCR, Kings Of Leon, White Denim and The Black Keys will love this.
TRACK LISTING
Side A:
As Birds We’d Be Fine
Side B:
Doors
35th Anniversary of the Platinum-selling Sophomore Album, co-produced by Ice-T and Afrika Islam. Releasing as a Limited Edition 'Ice Cold Gold' Colour Vinyl, this record includes legendary singles like "I'm Your Pusher" and "High Rollers" from one of rap's Original Gangsters.
TRACK LISTING
Side A:
1. Intro
2. Power
3. Drama
4. Heartbeat
5. The Syndicate
6. Radio Suckers
Side B:
1. I’m Your Pusher
2. Personal
3. Girls L.G.B.N.A.F.
4. High Rollers
5. Grand Larceny
6. Soul On Ice
7. Outro
Beyondless radiates joy. It’s an album that shows Iceage finally catching up with their ambition, all the while retaining the rich character of the band’s brash beginnings. It’s important to pay attention to the journey, from New Brigade (2011), a juvenile delinquent take on post-punk, full of cold, distant condemnation, and onto the ecstasy of You're Nothing (2013), shedding the more aggressive hardcore influence and dragging in more light, a tendency followed on Plowing Into The Field Of Love (2014). Throughout their career, the band’s charm has rested in their running ahead of themselves with blind confidence; on Beyondless, they are treading with a disarming assurance, but no loss of charm.
The album was produced by the band with Nis Bysted, and recorded all-analog by Mattias Glavå at Kungsten Studios in Göteborg, Sweden, and mixed by Randall Dunn at Avast Studios in Seattle. The album was played entirely by Iceage with additional performances by Nils Gröndhal (violin), horns by Kasper Tranberg (trumpet), Lars Greve (saxophones) and Morten Jessen (trombone).
The album was produced by the band with Nis Bysted, and recorded all-analog by Mattias Glavå at Kungsten Studios in Göteborg, Sweden, and mixed by Randall Dunn at Avast Studios in Seattle. The album was played entirely by Iceage with additional performances by Nils Gröndhal (violin), horns by Kasper Tranberg (trumpet), Lars Greve (saxophones) and Morten Jessen (trombone).
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: Switching from nodded-out psychedelic shambling melodies to driven garage-rock interludes, Iceage are brimming with spirit and equally matching their loosely laid melodic foundations with a relaxed but effective approach to songwriting.TRACK LISTING
Hurrah
2. Pain Killer
3. Under The Sun
4. The Day The Music Dies
5. Plead The Fifth
6. Catch It
7. Thieves Like Us
8. Take It All
9. Showtime
10. Beyondless
Shake The Feeling: Outtakes & Rarities 2015-2021, Iceage's second full length for Mexican Summer, is a collection of non-LP cuts (or “misfit children,” as lead singer Elias Bender Rønnenfelt describes them) from the seven years during which Iceage made Plowing Into the Field of Love (2014), Beyondless (2018), and Seek Shelter (2021). As with all of Iceage’s albums, whether it be the sensual daring-do of their dark-hardcore masterpiece debut, the Flying Nun-dappled “Oi!!!!” of You’re Nothing, the shift to cowpunk gothic romanticism on Plowing Into the Field of Love, or the space truckin’ gospel-rock of their most recent albums, Elias Bender Rønnenfelt, Johan Suurballe Wieth, Jakob Tvilling Pless and Dan Kjær Nielsen make the impossible seem effortless.
This collaboration between Spanish producer Nueen and Manc vocalist / rapper Iceboy Violet - who has previously sprinkled their magic dust across Hyperdub releases from aya and Loraine James - traces the arc of a four year relationship, memorialising its highs and documenting its lows, processing, reflecting, and then ending with the ecstatic spark of new love. It’s a magical, intimate and heartfelt album, sometimes anguished but often enchanting. Nueen's music responds with foggy, but richly detailed, production. Smudgy drill-laced beats contrast with curdled, spiralling chords, at times drawing out a malevolent ambience. ‘You Said You'd Hold My Hand Through The Fire’ is an immensely affecting and lucid album, powerfully wrought, ultimately hopeful.
TRACK LISTING
A1. Heartbreak Of A Broken Stitch (ft Harriet Morley)
A2. SM_FID
A3. Everything Ends With An Inhale
A4. Cement Skin
A5. Pixel Petals
A6. Slammd (Interlude)
A7. Closer
B1. Terrence’s Time Bomb
B2. Fragmentary (Eraser)
B3. Inside My Head (Interlude)
B4. Still (ft Dawuna)
B5. Fawning (Interlude)
B6. Kiss Me Again (6am In Helsinki) (ft Bennettiscoming)
"Ices" is a celebration of flight, levity, and the conviction that you can leave earth. You take wing in an airplane, you go to real places when you dream, you have out-of-body experiences, you get high, you lose yourself in someone else.
When we started work on these songs, I was beginning a gradual move to California, constantly traveling back and forth from New York. I was experimenting. I was falling in love. Our studio in the Hudson Valley was full of electronics and computers and the sounds of future ships sailing through the vastness of space, and I sometimes forgot where I was. The first songs we wrote were called "flying 1", then "flying 2", and so on, which eventually evolved into songs on the album. Flight became a metaphor for the ignition of the imagination. The process created a lightness in me, a freedom and positive energy that I¹d never before felt or explored.
This recording session became a two year music and spiritual retreat with my psychic twin brother, Eliot. A private journey during which we abandoned old habits and familiar sounds. We got really geeky and experimented in our studio. We obsessed over sympathetic magic, "Ancient Aliens", and the NBA. We allowed everything we loved to find its way in: Persian percussion, hip-hop beats, lo-fi, hi-fi, Pakistani pop, Link Wray, Jason Pierce, gospel, dub. We developed new systems; we worked with synthesis, software, and samples; we became producers. The Hudson Valley was home base, but I wanted to keep flying. I wrote songs in California, recorded vocals in Atlanta, and worked with Clams Casino in Brooklyn.
For the first time, Lia Ices felt like an inclusive project with its own identity, not just a name.
"Ices" as a whole is devoted to these certainties. While we have evolved, we are still animals. We respond to planets, patterns, and cycles. We require the sounds of our origins. We live in the future but stay bound to the primitive and primordial. We will always want tribe, we will always want rhythm, we will always need music to guide us into our deepest sense of what it means to be human. So we hear sounds from all over the planet in this album. We devour so much music, and with this album we allowed ourselves to claim bits from all of it.
When we started work on these songs, I was beginning a gradual move to California, constantly traveling back and forth from New York. I was experimenting. I was falling in love. Our studio in the Hudson Valley was full of electronics and computers and the sounds of future ships sailing through the vastness of space, and I sometimes forgot where I was. The first songs we wrote were called "flying 1", then "flying 2", and so on, which eventually evolved into songs on the album. Flight became a metaphor for the ignition of the imagination. The process created a lightness in me, a freedom and positive energy that I¹d never before felt or explored.
This recording session became a two year music and spiritual retreat with my psychic twin brother, Eliot. A private journey during which we abandoned old habits and familiar sounds. We got really geeky and experimented in our studio. We obsessed over sympathetic magic, "Ancient Aliens", and the NBA. We allowed everything we loved to find its way in: Persian percussion, hip-hop beats, lo-fi, hi-fi, Pakistani pop, Link Wray, Jason Pierce, gospel, dub. We developed new systems; we worked with synthesis, software, and samples; we became producers. The Hudson Valley was home base, but I wanted to keep flying. I wrote songs in California, recorded vocals in Atlanta, and worked with Clams Casino in Brooklyn.
For the first time, Lia Ices felt like an inclusive project with its own identity, not just a name.
"Ices" as a whole is devoted to these certainties. While we have evolved, we are still animals. We respond to planets, patterns, and cycles. We require the sounds of our origins. We live in the future but stay bound to the primitive and primordial. We will always want tribe, we will always want rhythm, we will always need music to guide us into our deepest sense of what it means to be human. So we hear sounds from all over the planet in this album. We devour so much music, and with this album we allowed ourselves to claim bits from all of it.
TRACK LISTING
1. Tell Me
2. Thousand Eyes
3. Higher
4. Love Ices Over
5. Magick
6. Electric Arc
7. Sweet As Ice
8. Creature
9. How We Are
10. Waves
A truly enigmatic character from the golden era of Jamaican roots music, Icho Candy is an artist that has, to me, always been shrouded in mystery. A devout rastafarian born with a gift for prophetic songwriting, Candy always writes in a way that is true to himself and his deep seated beliefs, regardless of the external pressures he endures as a veteran artist, an incredible feet for an independent artist with a career that spans fifty years.
First recording for the great Joe Gibbs and Jack Ruby in the late seventies, Icho's big break in the industry came with the hit record "Captain Selassie", a track that is widely considered to be one of the greatest rastafari anthems in dancehall. During this time Icho also recorded for labels such as Jah Life, Rockers International, Tesfa, Jah Shaka and many more. Like so many of the great artists in the eighties Icho recorded and toured in America for an extended period alongside Sugar Minott, Nicodemus, Nitty Gritty, King Kong before returning to Jamaica to record two amazing albums for the late Jah Shaka.
The A side of this latest seven inch gives us the classic writing style of Icho Candy. Pairing his lyrical depth with an early 70's Phil Pratt style production. An eerie horns line meets the clean sharp, older school backing vocals provided by The Mighty Viceroys to create something magical, the type of record we thought we may have already heard on some scratchy 45 deep in a soundmans crate.
Yakka once again returns to the label on B side duties, providing another Tubby inspired voyage into dusty fx units and quick draw fades. The bassline increases, the vocal decreases but the vibe never ceases.
First recording for the great Joe Gibbs and Jack Ruby in the late seventies, Icho's big break in the industry came with the hit record "Captain Selassie", a track that is widely considered to be one of the greatest rastafari anthems in dancehall. During this time Icho also recorded for labels such as Jah Life, Rockers International, Tesfa, Jah Shaka and many more. Like so many of the great artists in the eighties Icho recorded and toured in America for an extended period alongside Sugar Minott, Nicodemus, Nitty Gritty, King Kong before returning to Jamaica to record two amazing albums for the late Jah Shaka.
The A side of this latest seven inch gives us the classic writing style of Icho Candy. Pairing his lyrical depth with an early 70's Phil Pratt style production. An eerie horns line meets the clean sharp, older school backing vocals provided by The Mighty Viceroys to create something magical, the type of record we thought we may have already heard on some scratchy 45 deep in a soundmans crate.
Yakka once again returns to the label on B side duties, providing another Tubby inspired voyage into dusty fx units and quick draw fades. The bassline increases, the vocal decreases but the vibe never ceases.
TRACK LISTING
1. Pave The Way (feat. Yakka)
2. Pave The Dub (feat. Yakka)
“You like anchovies? Morning breath? Dried blood? The sun-up residue after a night of hard drugs? Well, you’re gonna love Icky Boyfriends.
“I painted houses for a couple years with an old-school San Francisco artist / musician dude who would let me run the boombox while we worked. This was right around the time I became obsessed with Icky Boyfriends. I would play the shit all day and wax about how I much I loved them. He piped up one day and asked what they were called again. ‘Icky Boyfriends,’ I said. ‘Oh yeah, I remember those guys…man, they could clear a room.’ “That’s the Ickys—an acquired taste for people who maybe have eyes that feel natural when trolling the gutter for nutrition. These are stories of strung-out super heroes singing the praises of the old school San Francisco freak scene. Hilarious at times, genius always and as scuzzy as anything you could ever hear. “Live in San Francisco was recorded masterfully by the Castle Face engineers team at the grand SF Eagle. There are many classic favorites here, as well as a couple new jams (I challenge anyone to tell the difference). We’ve kept it primal and simple as the Ickys always have. What a treat, now let’s eat!” - John Dwyer
“I painted houses for a couple years with an old-school San Francisco artist / musician dude who would let me run the boombox while we worked. This was right around the time I became obsessed with Icky Boyfriends. I would play the shit all day and wax about how I much I loved them. He piped up one day and asked what they were called again. ‘Icky Boyfriends,’ I said. ‘Oh yeah, I remember those guys…man, they could clear a room.’ “That’s the Ickys—an acquired taste for people who maybe have eyes that feel natural when trolling the gutter for nutrition. These are stories of strung-out super heroes singing the praises of the old school San Francisco freak scene. Hilarious at times, genius always and as scuzzy as anything you could ever hear. “Live in San Francisco was recorded masterfully by the Castle Face engineers team at the grand SF Eagle. There are many classic favorites here, as well as a couple new jams (I challenge anyone to tell the difference). We’ve kept it primal and simple as the Ickys always have. What a treat, now let’s eat!” - John Dwyer
TRACK LISTING
1. 22 Fillmore
2. Miss Nevada
3. Cuckoo
4. Ecophobia
5. My Disciples
6. I'm Not Fascinating
7. Frank's Mom
8. Don't Read The Bay Guardian
9. I Was?
10. Toenails
11. Even Richard Nixon's Got Soul
12. Bay Colony Baby
13. Rock And Roll Asshole
14. Resurrection Ale
15. Pigs 1
16. Pigs 2
17. No Duh
18. Drug Wars (Original)
Icons Cards - Fatalities Series
Barry White - 1944-2003
Icons Cards - Fatalities Series
Jim Morrison - 1943-1971
Icons Cards - Fatalities Series
Notorious BIG - 1972-1997
Icons Cards - Sugar & Spice
Debbie Harry
One of the greatest anarcho-punk bands of all time has returned with a brand new album that stands up to their brilliant early releases. Simply put, Icons of Filth have grown in stature to underground punks all over the world. "Nostradamndedus" features their trademark brash guitars and in your face vocals. Their confrontational lyrics take to task capitalism, corporate greed and a gamut of social issues that are more timely and important today than ever before.
The Icypoles grew out of a soundtrack to an experimental film. During the recording Isobel Knowles discovered a love for 60s girl group garage bands and film music that creates a particular dark ambience. She started the band with her best friends Tara Shackell and Kim White and together they became The Icypoles.
Tara and Isobel were invited to join Architecture In Helsinki soon after The Icypoles started playing to audiences and there was a long pause in the development of the band while AIH toured the globe. However, the idea stayed strong and more songs showed their faces over the years.
The time came to take The Icypoles more seriously. The band found a new drummer, Lani Sommer, and together went into the recording studio (a kitchen in a temporary house). The recordings were interspersed with shows around Melbourne and small tours (Sydney, Stockholm and New York City!). A cassette came out in London with Sexbeat zine in 2010. UK label Kooky Discs invited the Icypoles to release a limited edition 7” in 2011.
Then came a more serious stint in the recording studio with producer Haima Marriott (Architecture In Helsinki, Still Flyin’) and the mixing process began. Isobel and Haima had worked together on those first soundtrack recordings and revisited their recording experiments.
Tara and Isobel were invited to join Architecture In Helsinki soon after The Icypoles started playing to audiences and there was a long pause in the development of the band while AIH toured the globe. However, the idea stayed strong and more songs showed their faces over the years.
The time came to take The Icypoles more seriously. The band found a new drummer, Lani Sommer, and together went into the recording studio (a kitchen in a temporary house). The recordings were interspersed with shows around Melbourne and small tours (Sydney, Stockholm and New York City!). A cassette came out in London with Sexbeat zine in 2010. UK label Kooky Discs invited the Icypoles to release a limited edition 7” in 2011.
Then came a more serious stint in the recording studio with producer Haima Marriott (Architecture In Helsinki, Still Flyin’) and the mixing process began. Isobel and Haima had worked together on those first soundtrack recordings and revisited their recording experiments.
‘The Icypoles’ Story…The Icypoles grew out of a soundtrack to an experimental film. Here is the scene: a girl writes into a magazine with a problem about her teenage love life. She doesn’t know if she’s too young for love. The magazine is from a by-gone era, the music sounds something like Sixteen Candles with backing vocals to a ‘Dear Editor’ soliloquy. During the recording Isobel Knowles discovered a love for 60s girl group garage bands and film music that creates a particular dark ambience. She work-shopped some band names with her best friends Tara Shackell and Kim White and together with them created the idea of The Icypoles. Suddenly there was a new reason to write music and a small repertoire emerged. The songs featured on debut release, 'Promise To Stay' represent this first collection. Tara and Isobel were invited to join Architecture in Helsinki soon after The Icypoles started playing to audiences and there was a long pause in the development of the band while AIH toured the globe. But the idea stayed strong and more songs showed their faces over the years. The time came to take The Icypoles more seriously. The girls found a new drummer, Lani Sommer, and together went into the recording studio (a kitchen in a temporary house). The recordings were interspersed with shows around Melbourne and small tours (Sydney, Stockholm and New York City!). A cassette came out in London with Sexbeat ‘zine. Eventually some more recordings were made with producer, Haima Marriott and the mixing process began. Isobel and Haima had worked together on those first soundtrack recordings and revisited their recording experiments to come up with a sound for The Icypoles.
"The Lone Gunman" is Idaho's most keyboard intensive work featuring a collection of pianos, a Wurlitzer and an old Prophet 5. "The Lone Gunman" is already drawing praise as Idaho's most experimental album, 'a richly realized throwback to Eno's early work with Bowie.' Once dubbed 'the ultimate underground band', Idaho has garnered critical acclaim for 12 years, everywhere from the New Yorker to Paris's Liberation newspaper.
Funded by Capitol, tracked in 14 studios, issued by Tiger Style, and lost in the Y2K shuffle, Ida’s fourth album captures a band caught between Brooklyn and Woodstock, temping and adulting, burying a parent and birthing a child. A tireless compendium and ode to sleep, sex, all-night talking, and other bed-ridden activities, 'Will You Find Me‘s 14-songs are pillowed with 34 outtakes, alternate mixes, 4-track demos, and covers from the band’s extensive vault, unfolding thematically across four LPs. The accompanying 24-page booklet documents Ida’s major label album that never was in both stunning photographs and Douglas Wolk’s blow-by-blow essay. Who were you then?
TRACK LISTING
Will You Find Me Tracklist:
1. Down On Your Back
2. Maybelle
3. This Water
4. Shrug
5. The Radiator
6. Shotgun
7. Turn Me On
8. Man In Mind
9. Past The Past
10. Georgia
11. Triptych
12. Firefly
13. Encantada
14. Don’t Get Sad
15. Shrug (Brown Rice In A Magic Shop Dub)
16. Time To Listen To The Mystery Sound Of Your Own Heart
17. AZ U R
18. What Holds The World Together
19. The Great South River
20. Black Thumb
21. Better Days
Could Be The Door Tracklist:
1. Down On Your Back (Live On WFMU)
2. Maybelle (Strings And Piano Mix)
3. This Water (Capitol Demos Reel)
4. Shrug (The Woo Mix)
5. The Radiator (Pink Moon Mix)
6. Shotgun (Minimal Mix)
7. Turn Me On (Instrumental Mix)
8. Man In Mind (Vocal Only Mix)
9. Past The Past (Capitol Demos Reel)
10. Georgia Strings
11. Triptych Coda
12. Firefly (Rehearsal Excerpt)
13. Encantada
14. Don’t Get Sad (Dreamland)
The Reservoir Tracklist:
1. Never Goes Away
2. Shrug (4-track Demo)
3. Tales Of Brave Ida (4-track Demo)
4. Nothing But Sound (4-track Demo)
5. Love Streams (4-track Demo)
6. Mestizo Blues
A command across genres has distinguished Yasushi Ide’s work as a DJ and producer since emerging from the multiscene spawning big bang that was Tokyo’s highly influential club milieu of the 1980s. His productions draw variously from hip-hop, dub, house, punk, jazz dance, exotica and electronic music - and at their most expressive, synthesize sensibilities within a single track. The respect Ide’s earned is well evident in the impressive roll call of collaborators he’s accrued over the years - Masters At Work, Tom Verlaine, Don Letts, James Chance, DJ Krush, Pharaoh Sanders, U-ROY, and Bongo Herman, just to name a legendary few.
Now available for worldwide distribution from Love Injection Records in both digital and 7-inch 45 vinyl formats, the Yasushi Ide “A Place In the Sun (Kaoru Inoue Remix)” is paired with the equally gorgeous “A Place In the Sun (Dub).” On the former, Inoue’s treatment largely strips away the track’s beats, anchoring it to a subtle percussion pulse that emphasizes the composition’s irresistible melodic qualities. The latter finds Yoko Ota at the controls restoring and pushing reverb-soaked drums to the forefront of the mix, accentuating Ide’s affection for the sound system aesthetic while exercising just the right amount of spacial arrangement flourishes to inject some brawn amidst the beauty.
These serendipitously rediscovered renditions of a back catalog deep cut are just the latest examples of Yasushi Ide’s artistic reach. In addition to recording such acclaimed albums as 2020’s Cosmic Suite and its 2022 sequel (for which Love Injection has remixed a track), his work has spanned music supervision of some 200+ compilations for major labels, artist management, his Grand Gallery shop/gallery proprietorship, and books showcasing the depth of his archival sensibilities, including vintage t-shirt and ephemera curation. Perhaps most inspiring, however, is that Ide is still winning new appreciators and collaborators in unexpected ways four decades into a revered career that continues to evolve and expand.
Now available for worldwide distribution from Love Injection Records in both digital and 7-inch 45 vinyl formats, the Yasushi Ide “A Place In the Sun (Kaoru Inoue Remix)” is paired with the equally gorgeous “A Place In the Sun (Dub).” On the former, Inoue’s treatment largely strips away the track’s beats, anchoring it to a subtle percussion pulse that emphasizes the composition’s irresistible melodic qualities. The latter finds Yoko Ota at the controls restoring and pushing reverb-soaked drums to the forefront of the mix, accentuating Ide’s affection for the sound system aesthetic while exercising just the right amount of spacial arrangement flourishes to inject some brawn amidst the beauty.
These serendipitously rediscovered renditions of a back catalog deep cut are just the latest examples of Yasushi Ide’s artistic reach. In addition to recording such acclaimed albums as 2020’s Cosmic Suite and its 2022 sequel (for which Love Injection has remixed a track), his work has spanned music supervision of some 200+ compilations for major labels, artist management, his Grand Gallery shop/gallery proprietorship, and books showcasing the depth of his archival sensibilities, including vintage t-shirt and ephemera curation. Perhaps most inspiring, however, is that Ide is still winning new appreciators and collaborators in unexpected ways four decades into a revered career that continues to evolve and expand.
TRACK LISTING
1. A Place In The Sun (Kaoru Inoue Remix 45 Edit)
2. A Place In The Sun (Dub)
The Idle Suite are a six piece improv-rock group from Wellington, New Zealand. The band members come together from a variety of NZ underground acts including: King Loser, Sandoz Lab Technicians, Sferic Experiment, and Marineville. Driven by two drummers, the Idle Suite's music is open ended improv rock.
Since their inception, Seattle's eminently unique noise-benders, Idle Times have enshrouded their unhinged pop dexterity in an entire soiled spectrum of illustrious cloaks, assuring every angle they pursue is leveled with deranged precision. From the instant the lead off track kicks in on their debut LP, it's impossible to ignore the band's brainchild, Brian Standeford, utilizing an unreal and other-worldly scorching guitar tone, which very well might be what locks you in at first. But on closer listens, it's the scraps of distant-yet-familiar sound swatches, seamlessly patched together behind that inimitable guitar and vocal combination that make up the intensely diverse array of songs on their first full-length. It's never been more prominent than on their anxiously-awaited debut LP, where Idle Times are clearly pioneering a sound that's meshing so many degrees of varying styles from track to track, that it becomes easy to get lost in the staggering creativity of each intricate alcove.
With such an intense collection of tracks that crush and crackle with deranged delight, Idle Times wield both noisy pop hooks with subdued melodic mastery, and prove that following up Sic Alps/Guided By Voices-style grungy, yet fully jangled scratchy pop hits, with the twang and clang of a fried-out later-era Byrds studio outtake, is truly something fresh and exciting in this never-ending world of recycled ideas and ripped-off innovation. It just doesn't sound like anything else, and as shocking as that may seem, that's most likely why it's just so compelling. After a smashing debut single on Woodsist Records in 2009 and their elusive HoZac Hookup Klub single that followed it a few months later, Idle Times have been hard at work mastering these delicately agonizing tracks into a complete whole, reinstating the value of the full-length with its ability to showcase the broad variety of irresistibly catchy sonic sophistication included within. Dispositions and delusions aside, don't miss out on the Pacific Northwest's most enchanting underground pop ensemble of the moment, and hitch onto Idle Times while you still can breathe in the all-encompassing atmosphere of their wondrous world.
RIYL: Sonic Youth, Sic Alps, The Intelligence, Times New Viking, The Byrds, Guided By Voices
With such an intense collection of tracks that crush and crackle with deranged delight, Idle Times wield both noisy pop hooks with subdued melodic mastery, and prove that following up Sic Alps/Guided By Voices-style grungy, yet fully jangled scratchy pop hits, with the twang and clang of a fried-out later-era Byrds studio outtake, is truly something fresh and exciting in this never-ending world of recycled ideas and ripped-off innovation. It just doesn't sound like anything else, and as shocking as that may seem, that's most likely why it's just so compelling. After a smashing debut single on Woodsist Records in 2009 and their elusive HoZac Hookup Klub single that followed it a few months later, Idle Times have been hard at work mastering these delicately agonizing tracks into a complete whole, reinstating the value of the full-length with its ability to showcase the broad variety of irresistibly catchy sonic sophistication included within. Dispositions and delusions aside, don't miss out on the Pacific Northwest's most enchanting underground pop ensemble of the moment, and hitch onto Idle Times while you still can breathe in the all-encompassing atmosphere of their wondrous world.
RIYL: Sonic Youth, Sic Alps, The Intelligence, Times New Viking, The Byrds, Guided By Voices
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