J A surfaces on RUBBER with six disorienting wave tracks, reigniting the catalogue after a short hiatus. Crafted by Andrea Noce (Eva Geist, As Longitude) and Jonida Prifti (Acchiappashpirt, Opa Opa), these productions find elegance in their noir aesthetic and sketch-like composition, breathing filmic atmospheres of its creative process and the hedonist self alike. Straying away from the societal drift for efficiency and make belief, this record was produced over a timespan of five years, while shifting between Berlin and Rome. Dancing and loafing, mirrors were splintered and scattered shards reflected a new light. Here, Noce's serpentine sense of melody guides uncharted signatures of reverberating syncopated drums, while soundscapes move in and out as apparitions fogging the mind. The poetic spoken-singing of Prifti subdues the tracks, through a linguistic form where Albanian and Italian intertwine, channeling her scientific field into art. Cleverly processed, the vocals take on many shapes, blurring lines between instrumentation and recognition, creating meaning where language ends.

TRACK LISTING

1. Akoma
2. Orlo
3. Find The Way
4. Fuso Orario
5. Orga
6. Ashensori

What do we have here? Something that'll make the legion of J Dilla fans dizzy with excitement that's what! For the first time in ages, the original "Charlie's Theme" by The Jimi Entley Sound b/w "Geek Down" - the track Dilla created from "Charlie's Theme".

Included on the legendary "Donuts" LP, "Geek Down" is a tense and rambunctous ride into the breakbeat of "Charlie's Theme"; drawing out that eerie string motif and adding flanged stabs of wah-wah'd organ, guitar and brass. 

"Charlie's Theme" was released in 2002 and produced by Portishead's Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley. The only single they did, its post-millennium release date hides its timeless library breaks / hard funk credentials - and is surely one of the most modern samples used by Dilla for his genre-defining LP. 

Artwork by Pete Fowler. Proceeds to the War Child charity. Limited copies. 

TRACK LISTING

J Dilla - Geek Down
The Jimi Entley Sound - Charlie's Theme

Taken from Dilla's 2001 BBE debut solo album "Welcome 2 Detroit", "Big Booty Express" gets the remix treatment from German duo Âme and Parisian Pépé Bradock.

Contributing two mixes to the EP, Parisian producer Pépé Bradock AKA Julien Auger needs little introduction to house music fans but hip-hop heads need not doubt his musical credentials. A natural guitarist and turntablist, he's provided solos, riffage, scratches, juggles and chops to numerous rappers and bands before turning his hand to the discipline of house music. Two remixes done in his inimitable style grace the twelve. Slightly skewhiff but deliciously musical, there's no-one quite does it like Pépé!

Also providing a remix of "Big Booty Express" is the German production duo of Frank Wiedemann and Kristian Beyer who work together under the name of Âme. After first meeting in Kristian's record shop in their home town of Karlsruhe and bonding over a shared love of Chicago house and Detroit techno the pair started working together and producing records for Sonar Kollektiv in 2003. Perfectly demonstrating their harmonic discord and big room sound, their remix here is a masterclass of wobbly, peaktime tech-house.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: House remixes of hip-hop legend J Dilla are bound to be divisive. But I'm surprised how well Ame and Bradock have rose to the occasion here - delivering high quality electronic dancefloor hedonism.

TRACK LISTING

1. B.B.E. - Big Booty Express (Âme Remix)
2. B.B.E. - Big Booty Express (Moulin Rouge Remix By Pépé Bradock)
3. B.B.E. - Big Booty Express (Memorex Interlude By Pépé Bradock)
4. B.B.E. - Big Booty Express

The late, great J Dilla is one of the greatest hip-hop producers of all time, in part because his ear for music was so diverse and expansive. As Dilla's mother Ma Dukes explains, "He didn't come with a limited capacity, and real producers produce, produce, and produce. There are no formats for genius workers…just non-stop creations." Now, a fresh batch of those creations is available to the world, in the form of the official J Dilla release Dillatronic. This 2LP edition from Ma Dukes and Vintage Vibez Music Group includes the full Dillatronic collection – over 40 rare instrumentals that showcase Dilla's undeniable electronic influences.

TRACK LISTING

Dillatronic 1 Through Dillatronic 41

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

TRACK LISTING

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

Released via 'Black Butter Records' - J Hus is back with his highly anticipated third album ‘Beautiful And Brutal Yard’, preceded by the raucous street track ‘It’s Crazy’ which charted Top 15 and ‘Who Told You’ (featuring Drake) which debuted at #2 with the 3rd highest UK week 1 singles sales of the year and Hus’ highest single chart to date. ‘B.A.B.Y.’ is the follow-up to his chart-topping album ‘Big Conspiracy’ which earned him the Best Male Award at the Brits and his Top 10 platinum debut ‘Common Sense’ which won an NME award and was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and Best Album at the Brits.

Fans have come to expect a range of influences and musical styles from Hus’ albums and they will not be disappointed. Across ‘B.A.B.Y’ Hus incorporates elements of afrobeats, drill, R&B and bashment, all delivered in his inimitable lyrical style. The album includes features from Drake, Burna Boy, Jorja Smith, Popcaan and Naira Marley as well as from UK up and comers CB, Villz and Boss Belly. 

Roska’s Kicks & Snares label returns with another cutting edge, bass heavy, club riddim, this time signing up J:Kenzo. Heavily affiliated with the Dub Police imprint and normally known for his dubstep stylings, Kenzo has come out of his comfort zone to provide us with a deep minimal, BASS-filled (funky) house track. Remix duties come courtesy of Blunted Robots mutant funky specialist Martin Kemp, who chops "Rukus" to pieces in a typically funky way. Lastly Kenzo remixes label boss Roska's "Feeline VIP", snagging the heavy drum pattern with retro rave keyboard lines. Already reciving support from Scratcha DVA, Brackles, MA1 and of course Roska.

In 2015, Spaceman, Coxon, and friends performed a new original score live at a special film screening at the Barbican Gallery in London. The recording sat on a shelf for 10 years, and will finally be unveiled through this release.. Stranded in Canton is a black-and-white film portrait of Memphis in 1974, shot in bars and on street corners, showing Eggleston’s friends carousing, playing music and firing pistols into the night sky. It is raw, greasy, Quaalude-y and hot. Jagged and intimate, the film is a handheld window into a different world; “Hogarth on Beale Street” as writer Richard Williams describes it in the album’s liner notes. The tones Spaceman and Coxon came up with mirror the ragged nature of the film perfectly. Riffs written under flickering light bulbs, hypnotic tremolo, boozy romances, some barroom boogie, the blues, and hoping the bottle won’t let you down tonight. The characters of Stranded in Canton dance around the music, living their best Memphis lives by any means necessary.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Was Stranded In Canton
2. Last Week I Took A Trip
3. It’s Not Gospel
4. What Train Blues
5. I Don’t Know What I Can Possibly Do
6. Mother’s Milk
7. Back Up William
8. Everybody In Their Life At One Time Or Another
9. Love For The Asking
10. Credits Roll

J-Walk return to BiD with a one off single 'Never Go Home' ahead of an album of new works to be released next year...

Recorded in his Stockport studio & channeling the DIY ethos of his previous BiD release 'Broken Beauty', 'Never Go Home' is a paeon to the mind-altering oeuvre of late 80's indie psychedelia, influenced by artists such as Spacemen 3, Nick Nicely & The Field Mice.

On the flip 'Dub Never Go' expands the vision with a version that wades deeper into dub territory, spacing out the stems & positioning the song in an abstract format.

This limited-edition vinyl release comes in a homemade sleeve which is stamped, numbered & implanted with J-Walks DIY DNA.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: The return of J-Walk! After dazzling us all with various Balearic, dubwise and downbeat projects, the multi-talented Mancunian, Martin Brew, turns his attention to wide-screen dream-pop indie-psyche on single "Never Go Home". Of course, he doesn't forget the stoners, with a tasty dub version on side B; all wrapped up in some highly collectible Before I Die deluxe packaging, handmade by Jason Boardman & co. Yes sir-ee!

TRACK LISTING

A. Never Go Home
B. Dub Never Go 

Obsidian rock is igneous, frequently dark, yet opaque. Hard edged and brittle, it’s often been used both for weaponry and alchemical pursuits. Therefore when Lorena Quintanilla – the Mexican-based artist from the group ‘Lorelle Meets The Obsolete’ and also known as J. Zunz – was searching for psychic inspiration for her next musical venture, she need have looked no further. “Once I chose the title, everything I read, saw, listened to, and thought about began to interconnect” she relates. “Obsidian became like a magnetic field.”



“In Mesoamerican cultures, it was used in many different ways – obsidian mirrors, for example, were tools for divination and spiritual vision". Thereafter, Lorena set about creating an album entirely on her own terms. Driven by both the ghost and the heart of the machine, ‘Obsidiana’ open up a portal whereby forbidding drone, ethereal ambience and insistent repetition intertwine elegantly to form a seamless whole.

A study in balance, its emotional charge remains strong and intact whether on the eerie, almost Radiophonic ambience of ‘Imago’ or the dancefloor-adjacent, Chris & Cosey-esque ‘Osiris’. Lyrically meanwhile, ‘Obsidiana’ intersects deep personal explorations with the conflicts and contradictions of life in the unforgiving realm of 2026 – as Lorena says; “he process behind ‘Obsidiana’ was very abstract, yet I wanted the lyrics to stay grounded in the present and in reality".

Ultimately however, ‘Obsidiana’, in all its sharp yet amorphous glory, is catharsis manifest. “Each song carries a clear and deliberate intention” Lorena emphasises. “To conjure, to exorcise, to strip away fear, to rediscover myself, to heal inherited sadness, and to reclaim the night that was taken from us.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Oscurecer
2. Final (feat. freddie Murphy)
3. Padre
4. Silvia
5. Imago
6. Exorcizo tu voz (feat. freddie Murphy)
7. Osiris
8. Sol
9. Esclarecer

J.Bernardt, the alter ego of Jinte Deprez (Balthazar), returns with third album Wild Swim that sits somewhere between a full- throttle lust for life and a kind of euphoric nihilism. Picture Jinte striding through Los Angeles in a blazing suit, like he’s auditioning for his own midlife crisis. A guy from Belgium suddenly deciding subtlety might be overrated, that sometimes the stories you tell about yourself hold more truth than the actual facts of your life. The result is a record that feels like liberation: wild, warm, and bursting with life.

Musically, J.Bernardt stretches further than ever. His signature is still there, but stretches into something retro-futuristic, with Motown-inspired backing vocals as a thrilling counterpoint to his vibrato. Butler's kaleidoscopic production makes it feel as if every window in J.Bernardt’s mind has been thrown open at once. The record is funky, euphoric, and reckless all at once.

A sense of liberation runs through the lyrics, too. Where
his previous records were explicitly personal, Jinte reaches here for something more universal, what he calls "a celebration of life's complete randomness." He insists that everything can be beautiful, difficult, and arbitrary all at once. That this feels like a departure from the weight of his earlier work makes total sense to him: "After the wreckage of a breakup, eventually you reach the point where you can see the humour in life again.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Four In The Morning
2. Remedy
3. Big Fat Moon
4. Children
5. Big Hopes
6. Love Is On My Mind
7. Wild Place To Start
8. Echo Chamber
9. Favorite Song

Multi-disciplinary producer and singer J.Lamotta teams up with Japanese beat-scene-monger BudaMunk to present collaborative album "Searching Skies" via Jakarta Records.

After the success of her recent releases J.Lamotta is clearly becoming an international name. She keeps this prolific momentum alive with "Searching Skies", the collaborative album with Tokyo-based producer-mastermind BudaMunk, marking Lamotta's fourth, and BudaMunk's first, album to be released with Jakarta Records.

The Longplayer perfectly merges J.Lamotta's iconic R&B, jazzy-Neo-Soul aesthetics with BudaMunks laid-back, impeccably-imperfect lo-fi hip-hop productions. It's a well-timed collaboration, as J.Lamotta sees her loyal fanbase growing in Japan, and will be a worthy follow up to her previous Jakarta releases while Tokyo-based heavyweight BudaMunk has received cosigns from a number of artists within the hip-hop arena, including Mndsgn, Eloquent, Pink Siifu, Suff Daddy, Kiefer, Swarvy and Lefto, among a host of others. His output is prolific and consistent, including releases on Jazzy Sport and Dogear Records, as well as LA-juggernaut Fat Beats' "Baker's Dozen" series; and his notoriety within the Japanese beat-scene is only growing. As Bandcamp's Max Bell writes of BudaMunk, "it takes years to perfect being this relaxed and this precise".

The album's 1st single, "Eyes To The Skies" is set to be released on September 24th alongside stunning visual accompaniments by Tokyo-based film, design and screen-print studio Damn Good Productions and multimedia artist 8mL. The laid-back production, full of warbly keys, pads and the angelic warmth of Lamotta's voice lets the listener float along as if they're in the skies themselves. It's a perfect vibe for the onset of the chillier Autumn weather.

The album's 2nd single, "Put It Aside" is set to be released on October 15th and will be accompanied by visuals once again provided by Damn Good Productions and 8mL. This second single takes blisteringly swinging percussive elements and melodies that warp into peculiar sounds that defy auditory recognition, yet tingle with familiarity. J.Lamotta's voice is as sweet as dates, and is the perfect accompaniment to BudaMunk's lo-fi headiness. The album's focus track, "Stay", will be released in conjunction with the album November 5th.

The album's single-releases and videos will be promoted via the artist's and the label's social media channels and will also be featured by music-blog Stereofox entirely, while Tokyo-based label Jazzy Sport will distribute and promote the release throughout Japan.

STAFF COMMENTS

Millie says: The collaboration only dreams are made of, two incredibly talented musicians making hazy and chilled jazzy hip hop. If you like lo-fi beats and deep neo-soul vibes then got on this!!

TRACK LISTING

1. Eyes To The Skies
2. Put It Aside
3. Stay
4. Running Slow
5. Light Overcast (Interlude)
6. Carry On
7. When We Get There
8. Searching Skies (Interlude)
9. The Very Thought Of You
10. Open Your Mind

JOB's musical journey started as students at the famed Booker T Washington High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma. United by a shared love of soul music and sweet harmonies, singers James Davis, Ollie Carbin, and singer-songwriter & musician Billy Bruner began to jam together and eventually formed their own band, J.O.B and, upon graduation in 1977. set to work building a reputation by playing local parties, venues and fashion shows. Very quickly the word of mouth on J.O.B became so strong that they were offered a house band gig at North Tulsa's most popular after hours spot, The Point After. During their tenure at the famed late night spot many bigger acts came to see J.O.B when in town. Tulsa's own Gap Band, Chaka Khan, and Bootsy's Rubber band all paying homage to the trio.
Good quality quarter inch recordings from 1977 are thin on the ground so I can only imagine AOTN delight when this turned up. So, sit back grab a beer and transport yourself back to Saturday evening, 20 August 1977.

TRACK LISTING

Keep On Smiling (Live)
Just A Song (Live)
Love Everything About You (Live)
Valentine Love (Live) 

Ajo Sunshine (pronounced “Ahh-Ho”) is heralded by an alarming horn ensemble, stabbing with the dramatic urgency of a killer’s theme in a midnight movie. It’s a jarring but appropriate entry point for this brilliantly blasted listen, an array of exquisitely sharp edges punctuated by kaleidoscopic respites of throbbing warmth and surprising tenderness. J.R.C.G. (Justin R. Cruz Gallego)’s previous work with Seattle’s excellent Dreamdecay may foreground the broad strokes here, but he’s pushed things way outward in terms of his sonic palette.

Abutting field recordings captured from rodeos off Ajo Way, a stretch of highway that leads one westward out of Tucson Arizona directly into the sun, both acoustic instruments and gleaming walls of synthetic noise are framed in dour and dissonant chord shapes, crackling with overdriven drum mics and seasick waves of distortion. It’s homage that plays out like a collage, a dream switching from station to station, a series of dedications broadcast on late night radio. All pin-hole size images from scenes never seen whole, strung together in but one version of complete, all making for a dazzling listen.

TRACK LISTING

1. I.L.W.T.W.
2. Rainbow
3. Holy Hope
4. V
5. De La Frontera
6. Brother Was A Bullrider
7. Ajo Sunshine
8. Lowrider
9. Bopp
10. Olga
11. Brown Boy
12. Love Is A Drum

To experience Justin R. Cruz Gallego’s pulverizing Sub Pop debut is to get burned down to ashes and burst forth, born anew. Grim Iconic...(Sadistic Mantra), the Tacoma-based artist’s second album, is driven by opposing forces: noisy abstractions and tightly structured beats, anguish and dissolution at the outside world and empowerment within, apathy and catharsis. Grim Iconic...(Sadistic Mantra) weds scouring electronics to hooky songs and Gallego’s powerful drumming in a way that feels visceral and new.

It’s his most personal statement to date, at once playful and intent, driven and combustible, total fucking chaos mixed into glints of broken-glass beauty. Born in Tucson, Arizona, Gallego experienced culture shock as a child after relocating to the frigid climes of the Pacific Northwest.

He found solace in the Seattle punk scene centered around Iron Lung Records and has since remained a fixture in the underground community. “I see this record as first and foremost a musical statement,” Gallego says. “I grew up in punk and DIY subcultures, but before that I had Latin music playing in the background through my childhood and every phase of adolescence. It was surprisingly natural to incorporate. I realized I wanted to go deeper into these rhythms. I wanted to make a record that felt as experimental as much as it felt from the perspective of a Latino. When I got a glimmer of that possibility, it felt exciting.”

Lead single “Dogear” is a face-melting party starter that sounds like someone forced Talking Heads and Rudimentary Peni to share a practice space. “I wanted a song that felt playful in the way it attempted to be dissonant without taking itself too seriously,” Gallego says. “Cholla Beat” is even more ambitious, an anthemic mix of WAR and Wire led by unruly synthesizers spiraling down a labyrinth of production. Gallego’s influences for the album are vast, ranging from British documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis to electric Miles Davis to audio miscreants like Demdike Stare and Oneohtrix Point Never. But it’s Gallego’s assured sonic vision that resounds the loudest. And, while J.R.C.G. is a solo project, conceived and executed primarily in Gallego’s home studio, he found strength in opening the project to others, starting with Seth Manchester as co-producer. Manchester’s penchant for bone-rattling frequencies, as seen in his production work with The Body, Battles, and Mdou Moctar, made him a natural fit for Gallego.

Together, they retained the intimacy of Gallego’s home recordings while taking advantage of the hi-fi stylings of his Machines With Magnets Studio in Rhode Island. The closing song, “World i,” offers a glimpse into the live experience of Grim Iconic...(Sadistic Mantra), with upwards of seven band members blasting off. The album features a fascinating mix of supporting players, many of whom cycle through J.R.C.G.’s live lineup: Morgan Henderson (The Blood Brothers, Fleet Foxes), Jason Clackley (Dreamdecay, The Exquisites), Jon Scheid (Dreamdecay, U Sco), Erica Miller (Casual Hex, Big Bite), Veronica Dye (Terminator) Phil Cleary (U Sco), and Alex Gaziano (Dreamdecay, Kidcrash, Science Amplification).

Taken as a whole, G.I.S.M. is a whirlwind of sound, pummeling, and cleansing. It’s a sweaty, thrilling aural adventure and, like a great basement show, it’ll leave you breathless, exhausted, and wanting to repeat it all over again. As any good mantra should.

TRACK LISTING

1.Grim Iconic
2.34
3.Dogear
4.Drummy
5.Liv
6.Party People (Heaven)
7.Junk Corrido
8.Cholla Beat
9.World I 

Originally released in 1976 on the Swiss label Delta Production, Contrast is a highly collectible and very rare example of Swiss Jazz that is now re-issued by BBE Music. Its new release is due in no small part to the diligence, enthusiasm and curatorship of IF Music's Jean-Claude. With mint copies of the original going for upwards of £350 the release of J&F Quintet's Contrast is a gift to all serious Jazz heads and collectors. Recorded by founding band members Stefan Schneller, Donat Beer and Toni Schädler, with the addition of drummers GieriBievi and Peter 'Huck' Hug and bassist Andri APiorta, Contrast fuses Jazz with music from the Swiss-Romansh traditions to create an absolute masterpiece of a debut album. Surprisingly, Contrast also constitutes the only release by J&F Quintet as the members were subsequently to go their separate ways to work on other projects. It is thanks to Jean-Claude's determination and ear for great music that we are able to hear this fantastic album. After hearing it played to him at a record fair, Jean-Claude set about tracking down the original members of the band with a view to re-issuing Contrast. Post pandemic he was able to contact the band members who, rather fortuitously, still had the original master tapes. It is from these tapes that the album has been beautifully remastered ready for release on BBE Music. Contrast by the J&F Quintet will be released on BBE Music and will be available as both 180 gramme vinyl and high quality digital formats.

TRACK LISTING

1. White Arena
2. L'Auca
3. Transistor
4. Shagalak
5. Sint-Flute
6. Basilio

Accomplished UK mainstay J1Mi launches the long awaited Beyonders label with a fantastic first EP that captures the eclectic nature of his sound.

J1mi aka James Hadfield has been making all manner of sounds for years - both solo and as one half of Lizards - from house to disco, Balearic to techno, and always on revered labels like MeMeMe, Not An Animal, Leng, Futureboogie and Phonica. He is part of the Beyonders collective that was started by Jason and Mark Goodings of 90’s pioneering breaks and drum and bass duo Hidden Agenda. The collective is now back after a hiatus following Mark's tragic passing in 2016 and is as fruitful as ever with members including James as well as Mal Sharp and Nick Grimes and now a new label.

James continues to host Beyonders Present events in his hometown of Newcastle and has played at the likes of Glastonbury, Stowaway and Pikes this year, as well as across Europe in the past. Luke Una and Man Power are big supporters of his work and this is the first EP from the collective and label, with the following four all mastered and ready to go over the next year.

The brilliant 'Sixes Now' has a menacing synth screwing about the mix before percussive grooves and elastic bass arrive to lock you into a dark disco groove full of menace and suspense. The thumping 'Modern Maze' is another hugely inventive sound with rickety rhythms, erotic vocal coos and wiry synths. A bewitching breakdown brings acoustic guitars and places the vocal front and centre before the punchy house kicks come back once more. 'Desire' featuring Crazy P vocalist Danielle Moore is an indie disco cut with jazzy chords and playful funk riffs that lift the spirits and cruise on smooth grooves. Closer 'Japanese Kipling' is a prickly brew with off-grid hots and vocal sounds, distant hits of melody and dubby rhythms that are wonderfully intoxicating.

This standout first EP very much sets the scene for what is sure to be a crucial UK artist. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Second release from James Hadfield's J1mi project. Having been involved in everything from Balearic to liquid DnB the sonics and rhythmic prowess on display here are nothing short of spectacular.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Sixes Now
A2. Modern Maze
B1. Desire (ft. Danielle Moore)
B2. Japanese Kipling 

Operating on the fringes of pure improv, organised chaos, minimal composition, lo-fi electronics and Italian spaghetti westerns, wide-eyed and with a healthy dose of DIY aesthetics lies the world of Jaan. It’s a poetic & cosmic universe, exploring “discreet music” whilst wandering on the edges of the Cat People soundtrack & Brian Eno’s more experimental output, in which you might yourself find floating, wandering or in the middle of a market place.

Jaan is a collective of one, a deliberately anonymous activistic unit with strong ties to the international art scene. Purposefully bypassing the know-it-all of the the internet & embracing the bygone mystery of dusty old archives and deep-dive searching, remarkably little is known about this project. Jaan is lead by veteran experimental sonic alchemist Jaan; they operate between Greenland, the Middle East and Europe, with frequent associates Lisqa, Mashid & Schneorr N. acting as local hubs for collaboration and exploration.

The purpose of this wilful obscurity: full focus on the actual music, whether live events or on recordings. Which brings us to 'Baghali', their first for World of Echo. It’s a deeply personal album, much like slowly browsing old family albums filled with vaguely remembered tales, some still very much present, some faded, leaving but a ghost-like reflection of what once was. 'Baghali' was compiled over the course of a year on the road, trapped in snow storms, waiting for cancelled flights and stuck rides. It’s made up of snippets of diary, quick recordings on road sides, abandoned buildings, garden ruins, vast desert and focussed studio sessions, following a collage-like aesthetic and steeped in an exploration of non-lineair storytelling. There’s broken memories, a sense of displacement and an occasional yearning for what can’t be again, clouded in fever and unrest, but there is also hope, wonderment and bright colours seeping through the cracks in the wall. Jaan weaves home-made instruments, old tape loops, broken synths, beat-up reeds, dusty beat boxes and the occasional doom guitar squall into a tapestry of fractured sound, with tracks following their own inherent logic rather than following formats. Sounds crash in and out, field recordings placing the listener firmly in an environment then throwing several perspectives at once onto them, with individual elements - a wandering clarinet, a lone mandolin, a beat out of place yet perfectly in place - slowly walking in and out & doing their thing.

The whole album is alive, breathes, takes a wrong turn, gets lost, somehow finds its way again - effortless and with a unique sense of space and flow.

TRACK LISTING

1. Scented Feathers
2. Purple Watermelon
3. JuJu
4. The Lust Greens Of The Restless Mind
5. The Girl Is A Lady
6. Mashid
7. Pomegranate Garden
8. Fragments Of Home
9. This Is The Year
10. Velesh Kon

Even from his earliest edits and deep but different club tracks on Wolf + Lamb, it was clear that Nicolás Jaar was a special talent, and once he'd arrived at his Essential Mix in 2012, he'd more or less mastered dance music. Since then, he's turned his attention to noise experiments, film scores, politico-punk and some inspired production work for other artists, most notably FKA Twigs second LP 'Magdalena'. 

Written and produced between 2017-2019, 'Cenizas' sees Jaar in introspective mode, leading us through deep waters and seductive darkness for a little under an hour. Almost entirely fluid, the thirteen tracks bleed from one to the next, occasional snatches of latin rhythm, sleek clarinet or jazzy keys disrupting the moody electronics and crepuscular vibrations. At times beautiful and beatless, incorporating elements of drone, modern classical, latin, jazz and electronica, this LP flows like a film score and captures the otherworldly atmosphere of his aformentioned Essential Mix perfectly. There's no one out there who sounds like him, and few who operate at his level. 

TRACK LISTING

A1. Vanish
A2. Menysid
A3. Cenizas
A4. Agosto
B1. Gocce
B2. Mud
B3. Vacíar
C1. Sunder
C2. Hello, Chain
C3. Rubble
D1. Garden
D2. Xerox
D3. Faith Made Of Silk

It's been 10 years since "Pomegranates" - Nicolás Jaar's unofficial/alternative soundtrack to Sergei Parajanov's 1969 film The Color of Pomegranates - was first released, and to highlight this occasion Other People are reissuing the album on vinyl, with the first edition (a collaboration with the label Mana) having long been out of print.

Longer and slower-releasing than his other albums, "Pomegranates" often parallels the cinematic epic on which it’s based, with ideas pursued over long timelines and across dark landscapes, assembling elements and moods from the aesthetic and folkloric landscapes of Armenia. Jaar’s identity is perceived within this, folding in his heritage as Palestinian and Chilean as he attempts to build a musical architecture outwards that frames as much of the mess and sprawl of life as possible; using a language that investigates the movement and fluctuation of his own artistic career and character similarly to the film’s tracing of the coming of age of the young poet, Sayat-Nova.

At times, Pomegranates feels profoundly intimate, as though looking through the archive of a friend’s music and discovering the accent and common currency that lives within each of these tracks. Much of Jaar’s most elegant and touching melodic work is nestled here, its power residing in its simplicity and willingness to speak to the heart and not the mind of the listener.

In the text document included in the first freely distributed version of the album in 2015, Jaar writes that the album was conceived during a moment of change, and that the pomegranate became an icon that heralded that passage of time. The physical publication of Pomegranates closes one door whilst opening another, keeping promises and marking a significant point in the career of an artist who restlessly reinvents himself, with a document that illustrates a common language of lyricism, freedom, and emotional resonance linking his many paths and projects.

TRACK LISTING

A1 - Garden Of Eden
A2 - Construction
A3 - Pass The Time
A4 - Survival
B1 - The Fool And His Harem
B2 - Nothingness
B3 - Near Death
B4 - Beasts Of This Earth
C1 - Fall Into Time
C2 - Folie à Deux
C3 - Screams At The Edge Of Dawn
C4 - Divorce
C5 - Three Windows
C6 - Tourists
D1 - Shame
D1 - Shame
D2 - Tower Of Sin
D3 - Club Kapital
D4 - Volver
D5 - Spirit
D6 - Muse

Blackest Ever Black presents "Sleep Heavy", the debut album of broken-hearted, downtempo R&B/street-soul and supremely atmospheric, introspective electronics from Jabu: a trio comprised of vocalist / lyricists Alex Rendall and Jasmine Butt, and producer Amos Childs. The group was born out of Bristol’s Young Echo collective: an ecosystem unto itself which has birthed and nurtured a number of other notable soundsystem-rooted projects and artists to date including Kahn & Neek, Sam Kidel, Ishan Sound, Ossia, Asda, chester giles (the title Sleep Heavy comes from a giles poem) and Killing Sound (Childs with Kidel and Vessel).Jabu’s previous 7” singles, though arresting, barely hinted at the level of accomplishment and emotional heft that Sleep Heavy delivers.

It’s a future Bristol classic with a universal resonance, with songs that are highly personal but deeply relatable, and tripped-out, time-dissolving sound design that both haunts and consoles. It is, first and foremost, a meditation on grief, on loss, making sense of separation and death; but it also looks forward to what might come after the aftermath: healing, acceptance, the chance to begin again.Childs is one of the most gifted producers of his generation and his work here, grounded in hip-hop but floating free, is a thing of sustained wonder: crepuscular, melancholic – funereal, at times – subtly psychedelic and heavily dubwise, but always concise and purposeful. Stitched together from deep-dug and beautifully repurposed samples, it draws on influences from US R&B to Japanese art-pop minimalism – Mariah to Mariah Carey, if you will – and a rich seam of underground UK soul, boogie, DIY/post-punk, library music and lovers rock; refining and reconstituting these inputs into powerfully immersive, emotionally ambiguous soundscapes as eloquent and engaging as they are understated and bottomlessly mysterious.

TRACK LISTING

1:Let Me Know
2:Tomb
3:Get
4:Fool If
5:Bones
6:On
7:Searc
8:Wounds
9:Which Way
10:Lay You Down
11:Give Listen: 

Features the talents of Loren Stillman, Bob Meyer and ECM bod John Abercrombie.

'Fade In' is the fourth studio album by the UK-based band The Jack Cades. Co-released by Beluga Records (Sweden) and Dangerhouse Skylab (France), the album was recorded using all-analogue equipment at Gizzard Recording Studios in London with engineer Ed Deegan.

The record showcases the band’s signature blend of 60s-inspired garage rock, jangly indie pop, and post-punk. It features standout tracks such as 'Coming Round', 'Sally Ride', and 'Solitary Game'.

TRACK LISTING

1. We'll Get It Right
2. Mute The Sound
3. Solitary Game
4. Blue Sky
5. Grown Up
6. Tears
7. Coming Round
8. Hanger On
9. All About Us
10. New Beginnings
11. Wrong Direction

Superbeat group The Jack Cades bring you the best of Thee Vicars, Baron Four, Higher State, Speedball Jr, State Records And Hipsville. The Jack Cades were born in late 2017 when Mike (Lead Guitar, Vocals) and Elsa (Rhythm Guitar, Vocals) decided to record some of their songs at Mole's (Drums) notorious State Records Studios in Folkestone, Kent. They invited John Gibbs (The Masonics, The Wildebeests) to record bass on some of their songs at the time, which resulted in a mini debut LP "Music for Children”. At first, the band wasn't sure if it could work full-time as everybody was pretty busy on the Garage/Soul/Freakbeat/other undefined musical genre scene. Mike, Mole, and Elsa were all in other bands (The Baron Four, The Embrooks, The Galileo 7, The Missing Souls...) But, after recording, it wasn't a difficult decision to make. It sounded too good!

The Jack Cades had to play live! They then had the brilliant idea of asking the lovely Alexandra (Speedball Jr) to join them on bass, who accepted the proposition, thankfully. The Jack Cades is a mix of a shared passion for inspirational sounds such as 1960s Garage bands, Snotty Punk from the 1970s, Sun-kissed sweaty Rhythm n' Blues, and a lot of inspirational people. If this means nothing to you, it doesn't matter. Just listen to The Jack Cades and come see them play live, as music is for the soul and the ears, not for the eyes! 

TRACK LISTING

Big Fish
Identity Crisis 
Two And Two Make Ten
Get A Life
You've Seen It All
Head In Sand
I'm Going 
Don't Let Them Bring You Down 

Long anticipated remastering and reissue of the Jack frost recordings featuring Steve Kilbey of The Church & Grant McLennan of The Go Betweens

TRACK LISTING

CD Tracklist:

CD1
1. Every Hour God Sends
2. Birdowner (As Seen On TV)
3. Civil War Lament
4. Geneva 4 A.M.
5. Trapeze Boy
6. Providence
7. Thought I Was Over You
8. Threshold
9. Number Eleven
10. Didn't Know Where I Was
11. Even As We Speak
12. Ramble
13. Everything Takes Forever
14.Jack's Dream
15.Dub Threshold ( Nightmare Mix )
16.Providence U.S Television Broadcast 28th April

CD2
1. Jack Frost Blues
2. Aviatrix
3. Running From The Body
4. Shakedown
5. You Don’t Know
6. Weightless And Wild
7. Pony Express
8. Cousin/Angel
9. Little Song
10. Empire
11. Angela Carter
12. Haze
13. Dry Dock
14. Persuasion
15. Bad For You

CD3
1. Providence
2. Didn't Know Where I Was
3. Civil War Lament
4. Ramble
5. The Wrong Road
6. Bye Bye Pride
7. Thought That I Was Over You
8. Every Hour God Sends
9. Number Eleven
10. Everything Takes Forever
11. Thought I Was Over You.
12. Didn’t Know Where I Was
13. Providence
14. Civil War Lament

LP Tracklist:
1. Every Hour God Sends
2. Birdowner (As Seen On TV)
3. Civil War Lament
4. Geneva 4 A.M.
5. Trapeze Boy
6. Providence
7. Thought I Was Over You
8. Threshold
9. Number Eleven
10. Didn't Know Where I Was
11. Even As We Speak
12. Ramble
13. Everything Takes Forever
14. Persuasion
15. Angela Carter
16. Haze
17. Dry Dock
18. Bad For You
19. Jack's Dream
20. Jack Frost Blues
21. Aviatrix
22. Running From The Body
23. Shakedown
24. You Don't Know
25. Weightless And Wild
26. Pony Express
27. Cousin/Angel
28. Little Song
29. Empire

Berlin-based disco don Tobi Schwermann aka Jack Tennis strides into his tenth year making music with a seance on his Art Groupie label. 'Billy's Family' is a heart-sweeping disco sound with sweeping Philly strings and neat guitar lines, golden chords and a nice plump mid-tempo rhythm. 'Lonely Streets' channels Bill Withers gritty soul and moody basslines into an infectious groove, then 'Some Kind Of A Lady' gets lips pouted and hands in the air with unrestrained disco joy. 'VO' closes with a rich ecosystem of whistles, organic percussive sounds and a strident electronic groove with fiery Latin vocals. Eclectic excellence once more.

TRACK LISTING

Billy's Family
Lonely Streets
Some Kind Of A Lady
VO

'This is the book we've been waiting for . . .

It is a biography to be treasured' Joe Boyd'The Drake completist could ask for nothing else' Telegraph'Illuminating. The definitive word on Drake' ObserverIn 1968 Nick Drake had everything to live for. The product of a loving, creative family and a privileged background, he was not only a handsome and popular Cambridge undergraduate, but also a new signing to the UK's hippest record label, Island.

Three years later, however - having made three well-reviewed but low-selling albums - Nick had been overwhelmed by a mysterious mental illness. He returned to live in his family home in rural Warwickshire in 1971, and died in obscurity in 1974, aged just 26. In the decades since, Nick has become the subject of ever-growing fascination and speculation.

Combined sales of his records now stand in the millions, his songs are frequently heard on TV and in films, and he has become one of the most widely known and admired singer-songwriters of his generation. Nick Drake: The Life is the only biography of Nick to be written with the blessing and involvement of his sister and Estate. Drawing on copious original research and new interviews with his family, friends and musical collaborators, as well as deeply personal archive material unavailable to previous writers - including his father's diaries, his essays and private correspondence - this is the most comprehensive and authoritative account possible of Nick's short and enigmatic life.

Includes a foreword by Gabrielle Drake and over 75 photos, many rare or previously unseen.

Julia Jacklin releases her highly anticipated debut album, ‘Don’t Let The Kids Win’, on Transgressive Records.

Hailing from the Australian Blue Mountains, Julia Jacklin’s music courses with the aching current of alt-country and indie-folk, augmented by her undeniable calling cards: her rich, distinctive voice and her playful, observational wit.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Sadly sung vocals are placed delicately atop swooning country instrumentals and jazzy slide guitars, elsewhere stripped back to the bare bones of Jacklin's soulful voice over a softly picked acoustic guitar backdrop. Heartfelt and touching to the end, and a great sign of what's to come.

TRACK LISTING

Pool Party
Leadlight
Coming Of Age
Elizabeth
Motherland
Small Talk
L.A. Dream
Sweet Step
Same Airport
Hay Plain
Don’t Let The Kids Win

The second full-length album from Julia Jacklin, Crushing embodies every possible meaning of its title word. It’s an album formed from sheer intensity of feeling, an in-the-moment narrative of heartbreak and infatuation. And with her storytelling centered on bodies and crossed boundaries and smothering closeness, Crushing reveals how our physical experience of the world shapes and sometimes distorts our inner lives. The follow-up to her critically acclaimed 2016 debut Don’t Let the Kids Win, Crushing finds Jacklin continually acknowledging what’s expected of her, then gracefully rejecting those expectations. As a result, the album invites self-examination and a possible shift in the listener’s way of getting around the world—an effect that has everything to do with Jacklin’s openness about her own experience.

Discussing the record, Jacklin offered the following;

I really like this album, I worked hard on it and I really like listening to it. That's not usually how I feel after making something. I've finally come to accept that right now for me, making records is about capturing a time; who I am at that time, what I need to say in the best way I can say it, with minimal studio frills to cover it up. So I'm really happy to announce this one and ready for whatever things get thrown my way because of it. The cover was hard to figure out, seemed like I couldn't think of what kind of image would represent the music in the right way. Hard deadlines always make me more creative surprisingly. I was on tour in the states with my best bud Nick Mckk who takes a lot of my photos, he took my first album cover. We pulled off the highway in Pennsylvania and found a town called Krumsville. There was an antique store with a very friendly owner who let us run free inside. I got the jumper made the day before in NYC, same day I decided on the album name. I think it works.

Produced by Burke Reid (Courtney Barnett, Liam Finn) and recorded at The Grove Studios, Crushing sets Jacklin’s understated defiance against a raw yet luminous sonic backdrop. “In all the songs, you can hear every sound from every instrument; you can hear my throat and hear me breathing,” she says. “It was really important to me that you can hear everything for the whole record, without any studio tricks getting in the way.”

On the album-opening lead single “Body” - released last month - Jacklin proves the power of that approach, turning out a mesmerizing vocal performance even as she slips into the slightest murmur. A starkly composed portrait of a breakup, the song bears an often-bracing intimacy, a sense that you’re right in the room with Jacklin as she lays her heart out. And as “Body” wanders and drifts, Jacklin establishes Crushing as an album that exists entirely on its own time, a work that’s willfully unhurried.

And whilst a moving and complex listen, Crushing unfolds with an ease that echoes Jacklin’s newfound self-reliance as an artist. “With the first album I was so nervous and didn’t quite see myself as a musician yet, but after touring for two years, I’ve come to feel like I deserve to be in that space,” she says. Throughout Crushing, that sense of confidence manifests in one of the most essential elements of the album: the captivating strength of Jacklin’s lyrics. Not only proof of her ingenuity and artistic generosity, Jacklin’s uncompromising specificity and infinitely unpredictable turns of phrase ultimately spring from a certain self-possession in the songwriting process.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It's no surprise that 'Crushing' shares a producer with the most recent Courtney Barnett opus, with it's infectious hooks and Jacklin's singular vocal talent shining through in a rich, sumptuous sea of satisfyingly crunchy guitar and thick percussion. All of this merely highlights Jacklin's unmistakable ear for melody and perfectly constructed melodic indie-rock. This is an absolute winner, and an undoubtable career high.

TRACK LISTING

1. Body
2. Head Alone
3. Pressure To Party
4. Don’t Know How To Keep Loving You
5. When The Family Flies In
6. Convention
7. Good Guy
8. You Were Right
9. Turn Me Down
10. Comfort

'Pre Pleasure' is the breath-taking third album from Australian singer-songwriter, Julia Jacklin. Co-produced with Marcus Paquin (The Weather Station, The National), 'Pre Pleasure' sees Jacklin as her most authentic self, delivering the most intimate, raw and devastating ten songs of her career to date. An uncompromising and masterful lyricist, always willing to mine the depths of her own life experience, and singular in translating it into deeply personal, timeless songs. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Lydia Wears A Cross
2. Love, Try Not To Let Go
3. Ignore Tenderness
4. I Was Neon
5. Too In Love To Die
6. Less Of A Stranger
7. Moviegoers
8. Magic
9. Be Careful With Yourself
10. End Of A Friendship

The fourth studio album from Julia Jacklin, The Gem, will be released on 25 September and marks the Australian musician’s debut release on 4AD.

The Gem was produced by Jacklin and Robert Muinos and recorded entirely in Melbourne. First single "Get Away From Me (I Think I’ll Love You Soon)’"is a bold and fun nod to eighties jangle rock and to the Melbourne sound she fell in love with.

ABOUT THE GEM:
“I want to love and be loved, but I also want to be free. The tension between those two things has been the central question of my life,” says Jacklin. It’s also the theme that underpins The Gem.

When Jacklin first moved to Melbourne from Sydney in 2017, she discovered a little bar on a back street in Collingwood, where bands pushed dining tables to the side and set up in a corner on the floor. She didn’t know anyone in town but knew she wanted to make the city her home, so she started hanging out there, forcing herself out of her comfort zone. The pub was named The Gem.

Fast forward eight years and Jacklin, with three celebrated solo records under her belt – Don’t Let The Kids Win (2016), Crushing (2019), and PRE PLEASURE (2022) – was looking to make a fourth. With time on her hands – she was out of contract with her record label, was searching for a manager – she decided to make the record at home in Melbourne, something she’d never done before.

She called up an old drinking buddy Robert Muinos, owner of Rat Shack studios, which is located above The Gem, and brought in friends Jacob Diamond (guitar), Mimi Gilbert (bass), and Jess Elwood (drums). Recording happened in close quarters, in converted hotel room accommodation upstairs at the pub. As it was a residential bar, they couldn’t record late into the night for fear of bothering the neighbour and sound bleed was a glorious constraint: foot traffic to the hairdresser and the tattoo parlour next door, loud music from the bands and the kitchen crew downstairs. If anyone needed a break from the sessions, they would venture downstairs and watch a band playing. Jacklin and the band even played two unannounced shows there to try out the songs before recording them.

They thought they’d smash out the record in two weeks, like she’d always done, but that wasn’t the case. In fact, it took nearly a year of tinkering to arrive at something Jacklin could get behind. “The Gem felt like a metaphor for the whole process, because a lot of it did feel like digging. I felt like I was doing it almost in the dark, just trusting I was going to find something.” It conjures images of excavation, of reinvention, of trusting your instincts and surrounding yourself with the people and things that make life worthwhile. It’s a soaring document of the songwriter’s journey back to herself.

The band got matching tattoos on the last day of The Gem sessions: a neat little circle to represent an opal – Jacklin’s favourite gemstone. Fittingly, one of the bartenders at The Gem did it. “It did really feel like we’d done something special together. And I think as a group, it felt important to commemorate it. I’m glad we all have these little gems on us.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Brand New
2. God Sometimes
3. If I Had The Hand Of God
4. The Hardest Thing
5. Angel Vision
6. Real Life
7. Get Away From Me (I Think I'll Love You Soon)
8. You Turned On The Tap
9. Walk On Me
10. I Wish

This is the second 7” released from the album “The Jacknife Lee” by “Jacknife Lee”. I absolutely loved the first two Sneaks albums, I just couldn’t get enough of them and I sent a fan letter to Eva saying if she ever wanted a studio or anything i would love to help out, and so we began working together. She sends ideas and I send her ideas. “Hit The Bell” was one of those. Eva came up with the chorus and then it needed some verses. Haviah Mighty released one of my favorite records last year so I asked her to try something.

Petite Noir’s “Blame Fire” and “Beach” blew me away. We met up in London last summer and came up with “Firewalls” one night. This is one of my favorites on the album.

All Nations Records comes back again with a 12" composed and mixed by established sound system and rising producer Agobun out of Lille, France. It features the sweet voice of Jacko, well known by the French sound system followers, here singing in his unique style, about the constant efforts and works that man and woman shall do all their life to be a better person. In a pure sound system tradition, this record comes with two dub cuts and a mesmerizing guitar cut for maximum playability in the dance.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Modern sound system pressue from this French talent. Deliciously rootsical yet poised with a modern prowess.

TRACK LISTING

All Life Long
Dub Life
Dub Action (Guitar Cut)
Dub Reaction

One of the new breed of American band to appear on the excellent Munich records label. Laconic, indie rock but laced with an Americana alternative country feel that at times is like new roots music. Then they sound like Crazyhorse or some blues band from Chicago. It couldn't originate in any country but the U.S. and in vocalist/songwriter Rusty Miller they have hit the Jackpot.

This CD and booklet package is the culmination of a years work from Jack The Man, a collection of free rhythms and words put together on a beach in Wales in front of a roaring fire!

"‘Glow’ is a game of musical obsessions and rageous pleasures. I've made it driven by feverish moments of revelation and sharing them with my friends” - Jackson Fourgeaud

Eight years since the critical acclaim of his first album, Jackson And His Computer Band finally returns with a new masterpiece, ‘Glow’.

Teaming up with amazing engineers like Phillipe Zdar and vocal collaborators like Planningtorock, the Parisian producer has expanded his sound to higher scopes, taking his sound into his own psychedelic universe. Heading in several different directions, 'Glow' takes in proto-pop ('GI Jane'), 60s songwriting ('Memory'), west coast disco ('Vista'), fierce electro bangers ('Arp £1', 'Pump') and even a homage to gabba ('Blood Lust').

TRACK LISTING

1. Blow
2. Seal
3. Dead Living Things
4. GI Jane (Fill Me Up)
5. Orgysteria
6. Blood Bust
7. Memory
8. Arp #1
9. Pump
10. More
11. Vista
12. Billy

Madlib reissues his long out of print collaboration with legendary Brazilian drummer Ivan “Mamao” Conti, propellant for lauded jazz fusion archetypes Azymuth, on his own imprint. Alternate cover artwork, photography by B+. When Madlib went to Brazil in 2002 with Mochilla to participate in the production of the Brazilintime documentary, his one mission was to meet Ivan “Mamao” Conti, the drummer of the legendary trio Azymuth. Madlib had made an Azymuth tribute record he wanted to play for him. On a rainy night in Rio, Mamao and Madlib went in the studio.

Several hours later the rhythm tracks that make up Sujinho were laid and the process began. Featuring the music of Madlib, Mamao, Edu Lobo, Chico Buarque de Hollanda, Luiz Eca, Baden Powell, Vinicius De Moraes, Marcos Valle, Joao Donato, Dom Um Romao, Airto Moreira and even George Duke… and with guest vocals by Thalma De Freitas — Sujinho is a unique and classic record. Filled with the angularity and edge of a Madlib production and underwritten by the polyrhythmics of Mamao — Sujinho takes Brazilian music into places it has never been, bringing oft forgotten classics like “Upa Neguinho” to 21st century ears.

TRACK LISTING

Mamaoism
Barumba
Anna De Amsterdam Interlude
Praça Da Republica
Papaia
Brasilian Sugar
Sao Paulo Nights
Xibaba
Upa Neguinho (feat. Thalma De Freitas)
Casa Forte
Amazon Stroll
Berimbau
Anna De Amsterdam Reprise
Waiting On The Corner
Tijuca Man
Nao Tem Nada Nao
Sunset At Sujinho
Segura Esta Onda (feat. Mamao On Vocals). 

AVAILABLE ONLINE ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 27TH FROM 8AM.

LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Madlib Invazion reissues Madlib’s collaboration with legendary Brazilian drummer Ivan “Mamao” Conti, propellant for lauded jazz fusion archetypes Azymuth. 5000 pressed for worldwide. Debuts on Black Friday. First released in 2008 on CD by the US based Mochilla imprint with vinyl being issued only in Europe on the Kindered Sprits label. Both formats are out of print with vinyl unavailble since its initial run. Alternate cover artwork, photography by B+.

When Madlib went to Brazil in 2002 with Mochilla to participate in the production of Brasilintime his one mission was to meet Ivan “Mamao” Conti the drummer of the legendary trio Azymuth. Madlib had made an Azymuth tribute record he wanted to play for him. On a rainy night in Rio Mamao and Madlib went in the studio. Several hours later the rhythm tracks that make up Sujinho were laid and the process began. Featuring the music of Madlib, Mamao, Edu Lobo, Chico Buarque de Hollanda, Luiz Eca, Baden Powell, Vinicius De Moraes, Marcos Valle, Joao Donato, Dom Um Romao, Airto Moreira and even George Duke… and with guest vocals by Thalma De Freitas — Jackson Conti is a unique and classic record. Filled with the angularity and edge of a Madlib production and underwritten by the polyrhythmics of Mamao — Sujinho takes Brazilian music into places it has never been, bringing oft forgotten classics like Upa Neguinho to 21st century ears. 

TRACK LISTING

Mamaoism
Barumba
Anna De Amsterdam Interlude
Praça Da Republica
Papaia
Brasilian Sugar
Sao Paulo Nights
Xibaba
Upa Neguinho (feat. Thalma De Freitas)
Casa Forte
Amazon Stroll
Berimbau
Anna De Amsterdam Reprise
Waiting On The Corner
Tijuca Man
Nao Tem Nada Nao
Sunset At Sujinho
Segura Esta Onda (feat. Mamao On Vocals)

Hank Jackson has been behind some of the most inventive techno to have left NYC in recent years, releasing music on his compadre Anthony Naples label, Proibito and Mister Saturday Night. If you're after a twisted NYC take on classic Chain Reaction and Monolake, then this is strongly tipped. One dancefloor(ish) number complimented by two abstract, atmospheric numbers. "Gacx" is the lead track, and one that'll (probably) garner most dancefloor play. It's a swirling, fragmented piece of celestial techno that should pique the interest of Huerco S fans as it's side chained atmospheres are permeated by stuttered concentric beats. "Snake Pit" and "Oebbbbbb" see the producer delve into the circuits of his synthesizers, churning out some proper analogue phlegm and mainframe juices as he rips apart circuit boards and CV inputs with abandon. Proper ear-grabbing music by one of the new school. TIP!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Gacx
B1. Snake Pit
B2. Oebbbbbb

‘British Road Movies’ is the long awaited debut solo album from Kate Jackson, former frontwoman of The Long Blondes. Co-written and produced by Bernard Butler (Suede, The Tears), ‘British Road Movies’ is a cinematic, eclectic and beautiful record.

Synth driven glam rock, ‘Blade Runner’ electronica, faded piano allure and sweeping Bond style string sections are topped with Jackson’s unique vocal style and Butler’s instantly recognisable guitar sound.

These are big, melodic, alternative pop songs with Butler’s production perfectly complementing the narrative of the record.

A shared love of Bowie, Eno, The Fall, Shocking Blue and Neil Young filters seamlessly into these recordings which sound both modern and timeless.

‘British Road Movies’ establishes Jackson as a solo artist and songwriter akin to the likes of Jane Weaver, Nadine Shah and Gwenno.

Jackson’s Brutalist paintings adorn the album sleeve.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Channeling the spirit of rock and roll through a psychedelic filter, 'British Road Movies' is melodic but textured, smooth but liberally saturated with a sort of kaleidoscopic warmth. Sunny and mellow, perfect summer anthems for the mildly inebriated. Brilliant stuff.

The second vinyl EP from Brian Jackson and Masters At Work’s highly anticipated ‘Now More Than Ever’ project is a masterclass in soulful innovation, musical legacy, and collaborative excellence. Carefully curated and expertly packaged for true fans, this release brings together extended versions and rare cuts that were simply too expansive, deep, and powerful to fit on the forthcoming triple LP — but far too important not to be heard.

The double pack also includes the title track off the forthcoming album ‘Now More Than Ever’, a brand-new, never-before-heard track birthed organically during the energy and creative momentum of the recording sessions. It stands as a testament to the spontaneous brilliance of Jackson, MAW and their collaborators, capturing a moment of pure musical inspiration.

The EP features seven tracks, including reimagined and extended versions of classics such as Kenlou Cult Classic ‘Moonshine’, Jackson and Heron’s ‘Lady Day and John Coltrane’, and ‘Home Is Where the Hatred Is’, plus a deep focus on ‘Racetrack in France’ — first recorded by Brian Jackson and Gil Scott-Heron in 1977 for their landmark Bridges album. Highlights include: The MAW (Masters at Work) Live Mix of ‘Moonshine’, featuring former Midnight Band/Amnesia Express multi-instrumentalist Carl Cornwell on saxophone. A sprawling 12" version of ‘Home Is Where the Hatred Is’ — a jazz-fuelled dancefloor reinterpretation blending political fire with sonic elegance. The 12” version of ‘Lady Day and John Coltrane’, featuring Rahsaan Patterson’s soulful vocal performance set against a lush, cinematic arrangement. A masterful reworking of ‘Racetrack in France’ featuring legends Josh Milan, J. Ivy, and Moodymann, each bringing their distinct voice and flavour to this seminal piece. The instrumental version is also included in this 2 x 12” EP.

Whether you're a long-time devotee of Brian Jackson and Gil Scott-Heron’s influential catalogue, a DJ or collector chasing rare wax, or a new listener drawn to future-leaning soul and jazz, Now More Than Ever ‘EP Two’ is an essential release — a bridge between the past, present, and the music still to come.

TRACK LISTING

Disc: 1
1. Racetrack In France (12" Version)
2. Moonshine (MAW Live Mix)
3. Now More Than Ever

Disc: 2
1. Lady Day & John Coltrane (12" Version)
2. Home Is Where The Hatred Is (12" Version)
3. Racetrack In France (MAW Instrumental Organ Mix)

'Collaboration is stimulating, it's in my blood.' Thus speaks Brian Jackson and his philosophy for making music and it's indeed collaboration that runs through this amazing album of reimagined and revisited songs from his artistic past. Featuring artists such as Black Thought, Rahsaan Patterson, Josh Milan, Moodymann, Omar, J. Ivy and others and being produced by Masters At Work, Now More Than Ever takes the enduring classic tracks that Brian made with Gil Scott-Heron and places them in the now over nineteen tracks and across a triple vinyl LP, CD and digital release.

Songs such as Lady Day & John Coltrane, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, Home Is Where The Hatred Is, Winter In America, The Bottle and more soundtracked a generational movement of Black Consciousness in the 70s and 80s. As Brian says, 'This album is one way to connect to what we were about in the 70s; we were about change and this is part of the lineage of resistance. These tracks mark a period of time when resistance was essential and now a younger generation has picked them up.' 'As young men in their twenties we (Brian and Gil) just wrote about what we saw and were feeling and people interpreted these songs in ways we never thought about but as Sly stone said the song comes from me but it's for you.' This statement from Brian perfectly sums up the collaborative nature of Now More Than Ever and the relevance of these songs in a contemporary perspective can be perfectly summed up by the songs themselves. The formidable stable of artists contributing to each track and the excellent production from Louie Vega and Kenny 'Dope' Gonzalez make this album an event in itself. However, these songs are there to be enjoyed as a canon or as individual masterpieces, whether on the dancefloor or on a home system.

TRACK LISTING

1. Poetic Sands (Interlude)
2. It's Your World
3. We Almost Lost Detroit
4. The Bottle
5. Peace Go With You Brother
6. Beautiful Dame
7. Lady Day & John Coltrane
8. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
9. Addiction (Interlude)
10. Home is Where The Hatred Is
11. Madison Avenue
12. Is That Jazz?
13. More Than Ever (Interlude)
14. Now More Than Ever
15. Home is Where The Hatred Is
16. Moonshine (Live)
17. Racetrack in France
18. Winter in America
19. New York City

Legendary American musician Brian Jackson announces his first solo album in over 20 years, ‘This Is Brian Jackson’, produced by Phenomenal Handclap Band founder Daniel Collás and released on BBE Music. Brian Jackson earned mythic status among music fans thanks to his pioneering work with Gil Scott-Heron in the 70’s, where his flute and electric piano performances on ‘Pieces of a Man’ and ‘Winter In America’ virtually defined the sound of an era. From the 80s onwards he went on to record with Kool & The Gang, Will Downing (whose debut album he produced), Roy Ayers and Gwen Guthrie among many others, and while many veteran musicians tend to stick with the sounds they know best at some point in their careers, Jackson remains an unusually adventurous, vital and broad-minded artist to this day. When the Phenomenal Handclap Band’s Daniel Collás first met Brian Jackson at a performance in New York, right off the bat he said “I think I could produce you”. “I wasn’t sure why he thought that,” says Jackson “but I considered it a challenge to find out. Turns out that he was right.” Early on in their friendship, Brian mentioned that he’d embarked on a solo project right around the time he recorded ‘Bridges’ with Gil Scott-Heron in 1976. There were even some unfinished demos, but the album had never materialised. Daniel leapt on the idea, asking “what would a Brian Jackson album sound like if the 21st century Brian were to complete that 1976 album today?” Completed in a series of twice weekly sessions over 11 months in Daniel’s Williamsburg studio, ‘This Is Brian Jackson’ provides the answer. “We sketched out musical ideas, drank way too much coffee, consumed way too many tacos and sampled perhaps a few too many exotic whiskeys while talking about things that were important to both of us personally. The lyrics for the songs are a result of those conversations” says Jackson. Contributors to the album range from Jackson’s guitarist, bassist and longtime friend Binky Brice (Billy Ocean, Evelyn Champagne King, Roy Ayers), Collás’s occasional writing partner Morgan Phalen, Latin Grammy-winning flautist Domenica Fossati, drummers Moussa Fadera and Caito Sanchez, and Phenomenal Handclap Bandmates Juliet Swango and Monika Heidemann. And the music? Vintage, soul-stirring Brian Jackson, with the great man’s warm vocals, distinctive flute and lyrical keys taking centre stage. The songwriting feels timeless, the arrangement effortless, the production human and analogue. From golden-era soul-funk opener ‘All Talk’, through soaring Afrobeat-inspired dreamscape ‘Mami Wata’ to compact groover ‘Little Orphan Boy’ which closes the album, ‘This Is Brian Jackson’ is simply some of the veteran artist’s best work yet, subtly and lovingly framed by Daniel Collás.

TRACK LISTING

1. C'est Cette Comète
2. All Talk
3. Nomad
4. Force Of Will
5. Little Orphan Boy
6. Path To Macondo
7. Mami Wata
8. Hold On

'Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?' is the debut album by Chicago-based Poet Laureate & singer-songwriter Kara Jackson.

'Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?', is a sonic invitation to process our grief. The title is a question the author is always answering. How do we give ourselves permission to yearn for the people we miss? How do we find the courage to let go of what begs to be released? How do we have the audacity to love in spite of everything invented to deter us from it?

Kara wrote and recorded the original demos in her childhood bedroom during the early days of the pandemic, drafting lyrics in bed and singing into a mic propped up on her dresser. From there she brought in Nnamdi, Kaina and Sen Morimoto to re-record the demos and help shape the production.

Wielding her voice like a honey-coated blade, Kara Jackson crafts a blend of emotional folk music and poetic alt-country. With the radical honesty of Nina Simone, the intricate lyricism of Fiona Apple and Joanna Newsom, and the straightforward, no-frills delivery of artists like Kimya Dawson, Kara’s writing blurs the line between poetry and song, demanding an attentive ear and a repeat listen.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Jackson's music is both intensely powerful and wildly understated, often relying upon an unadorned guitar and single vocal, before flourishing into orchestral swells and beautifully harmonised melodies. An arresting, cohesive debut LP with a singular sound.

we are marking 50-years since a 22 year old Michael Gregory Jackson recorded his groundbreaking first release, "CLARITY / CIRCLE / TRIANGLE / SQUARE", recorded with the mind blowing group of his contemporaries Oliver Lake, David Murray and Leo Smith. its a rare document of loft jazz NYC, a perfect balance between multiple genres. recoded in 1976 this is its first authorised reissue on LP. Michel Gregory Jackson - Electric Guitar, Mandolin, Bamboo Flute, Timpani, Marimba, Percussion Oliver Lake - Flute, SoIndian Fluteprano Saxophon, Alto Saxophone, Talking Drum,Cowbell David Murray - Tenor Saxophone Leo Smith - Trumpet, Trumpet soprano, Flugelhorn...

TRACK LISTING

01: clarity (feat. Oliver Lake, David Murray & Wadada Leo Smith)
02: a view of this life (feat. Oliver Lake, David Murray & Wadada Leo Smith)
03: Oliver Lake (feat. Oliver Lake, David Murray & Wadada Leo Smith)
04: Prelueoionti (feat. Oliver Lake, David Murray & Wadada Leo Smith)
05: Ballad (feat. Oliver Lake, David Murray & Wadada Leo Smith)
06: CLARITY 4 (feat. Oliver Lake, David Murray & Wadada Leo Smith)
07: Ab Bb 1-7 3o (feat. Oliver Lake, David Murray & Wadada Leo Smith)
08: IOMI (feat. Oliver Lake, David Murray & Wadada Leo Smith)

'Michael: Songs From the Motion Picture' is the official companion album to the brand new biopic, Michael. This album highlights 13 songs showcased in the film, spanning from The Jackson 5 to The Jacksons to Michael’s chart-topping solo success with 'Off The Wall' and 'Thriller'. This collection includes smash hits like 'Billie Jean', 'Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough', 'Human Nature' and more.

TRACK LISTING

1. I’ll Be There - Jackson 5
2. Never Can Say Goodbye - Jackson 5
3. Who’s Lovin’ You - Jackson 5
4. Medley: I Want You Back/ABC/The Love You Save - The Jacksons
5. Ben - The Jacksons
6. Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough – Michael Jackson
7. Beat It – Michael Jackson
8. Thriller – Michael Jackson
9. Billie Jean – Michael Jackson
10. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' – Michael Jackson
11. Human Nature – Michael Jackson
12. Working Day And Night – Michael Jackson
13. Bad – Michael Jackson

Available for the first time on vinyl, 'Number Ones' features 18 of Michael Jackson’s biggest hits. This double-LP collection includes iconic tracks across his discography, including 'Billie Jean', 'Smooth Criminal', 'Black or White', 'You Rock My World' and more.

TRACK LISTING

1. Don’t Stop “Til You Get Enough
2. Rock With You
3. Billie Jean
4. Beat It
5. Thriller
6. Human Nature
7. I Just Can’t Stop Loving You
8. Bad
9. The Way You Make Me Feel
10. Dirty Diana
11. Smooth Criminal
12. Black Or White
13. You Are Not Alone
14. Earth Song
15. Blood On The Dance Floor
16. You Rock My World
17. Break Of Dawn
18. One More Chance

Classic remix series re-up with a proper Masters At Work rework of the "Off The Wall" standout track, with a glittering Frankie Knuckles mix from 1995 on the B-side.Top drawer tackle for zee working DJ!

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Under-the-counter naughtiness from MJ (no not that kind!! - Ed) and two, bona fide house legends. No comment guv'nor.

TRACK LISTING

A. Rock With You (MAW Remix)
B. Rock With You (Frankie Knuckles Remix)

A solid, 1LP, 14-track collection of young Michael Jackson's hits on from his Motown era, including the iconic Jackson 5 hits from 'I Want You Back' to 'I'l Be There' and his solo smashes 'Got To Be There', 'Ben' and 'I Wanna Be Where You Are'.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Want You Back
2. Never Can Say Goodbye
3. I'll Be There
4. ABC
5. The Love You Save
6. Dancing Machine
7. I Wanna Be Where You Are
8. Ben
9. Rockin' Robin
10. Got To Be There
11. Who's Lovin' You
12. We’ve Got A Good Thing Going

For the first time ever, Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ is available on Red & Black Marble vinyl, celebrating the world’s biggest-selling album and the first album to be certified triple Diamond by the RIAA. Released in 1982, Thriller changed pop music forever, featuring seven U.S. Top 10 hits including “Billie Jean,” “Beat It” and “Thriller,” and helped Michael win a record-setting eight Grammy Awards in one night.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’
2. Baby Be Mine
3. The Girl Is Mine (feat. Paul McCartney)
4. Thriller

Side B
1. Beat It
2. Billie Jean
3. Human Nature
4. P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)
5. The Lady In My Life

Two heavy funk cuts pulled straight from Millie Jackson's It Hurts So Good sessions (Spring Records, 1973), issued on 45 for the very first time.

Side A brings "Now That You Got It", finally available on a 7-inch format. Millie in full early-'70s fire, tight groove and attitude to spare.

Flip it over for "Hypocrisy (Alternate Version)", making its first appearance on vinyl. A gritty, soulful variation on the LP classic, cut with the unmistakable Spring Records edge.

Essential early Millie! Raw, funky, and made for the turntable.

TRACK LISTING

1. Now That You Got It
2. Hypocrisy (Alternative Version)

Released in 1979, Millie Jackson’s “A Moment’s Pleasure” is a lost classic, chock-full of great songs.

First single ‘Never Change Lovers In The Middle Of The Night’ reached #33 on the R&B chart and the second part of the classic ‘What Went Wrong Last Night Parts I & II’ took Jackson onto the disco floor.

Throw in the great ballad ‘Seeing You Again’ as well as the title track, where Jackson’s man ends up snoring after a little heavy love-making and you have a classic.

“A Moment’s Pleasure” has not been reissued since 1979 and Ace are delighted to put this classic back into your racks and record collections. 

TRACK LISTING

SIDE ONE
1. NEVER CHANGE LOVERS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT
2. SEEING YOU AGAIN
3. KISS YOU ALL OVER
4. A MOMENT'S PLEASURE

SIDE TWO
1. WHAT WENT WRONG LAST NIGHT (PART I)
2. WHAT WENT WRONG LAST NIGHT (PART II)
3. RISING COST OF LOVE
4. WE GOT TO HIT IT OFF
5. ONCE YOU'VE HAD IT

Acid Jazz presents the next instalment of the Spring Revisited series, in collaboration with Ace Records. Continuing the theme of top dance DJ and producer talent exploring the Spring Records catalogue, NYC’s ’45 Queen’ Natasha Diggs takes on Millie Jackson’s ‘What Went Wrong Last Night’ over two sides.

After the series was launched in 2025, with another Millie Jackson mix (in the form of Dimitri From Paris’ take on ‘We Got To Hit It Off), it has continued to make waves, with a run of sell-out and charttopping 12” and 7” releases, before a remarkable 2LP compilation.

With deep roots in New York’s club legacy, Natasha Diggs is the perfect figure to explore the Spring Revisited vision - the originator meets innovator - and the original 7” B-side is a regular in her residency DJ box. Meanwhile, the original’s late-‘70s message of female empowerment felt like a natural fit:

'Instead of dealing with the heartbreak of waiting around for a man who’s not ready or who’s playing games, Millie picks herself up, gets herself looking fine, and goes out to DISCO!’ says Natasha.

She gives ‘Pt. 1’ an extended intro, reminiscent of some later-era Diana Ross, before escalating to a dancefloor frenzy for ‘Pt. 2’. We’ve given you both options, with Pt. 2 giving the straight-up hit on the A-side, while the B-side is pressed with both for the full experience.

TRACK LISTING

1. What Went Wrong Last Night, Pt. 2 (Natasha Diggs Remix)
2. What Went Wrong Last Night, Pts. 1 & 2 (Natasha Diggs Remix)

Shak Jackson is a UK female house producer fusing old school foundations with a sharp, tech driven edge. Built on raw piano, rolling basslines, stripped percussion and hypnotic grooves; her sound is raw, functional and unapologetically euphoria focussed. With a growing cult following drawn to her no frills approach and dancefloor instinct, Shak Jackson is steadily carving out her own lane in modern underground house.

A solid 3 track EP for the mighty HOOJ shows off Shak’s talents and helps cement her rise as a future star.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Rising new school talent Shak Jackson deploys an array of euphoric piano sugar rushes, primo house beats and up-all-nite energy to her debut on Hooj.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Routes
B1. Frisson
B2. Feelings 

"Hotel By The Sea" is a worthy introduction to JacksonsWarehouse, with its up tempo guitar driven energy, bouncy rhythm section, naïve yet distinctive and slightly shambolic indie edge, it rattles straight into your consciousness. The self assured vocal coupling draws you deeper into the track where the darker 'black satirical humour' elements of Stuart Brown's lyrics await to unfold an unlikely story. Taking influences from an eclectic mix of bands and artists such as The Doves, Nirvana, The Pixies, Arcade Fire JacksonsWarehouse remain a band whose integrity inspires the composition of far from ordinary songs.

2nd release in a 4-record series promoting the Bruise Cruise. Each release will feature 2 artists performing on the Cruise and is limited to a one-time pressing of 800 copies (300 to Cruise attendees and 500 available to retail). See www.bruisecruisefestival.com for more information on the Bruise Cruise.

TRACK LISTING

Jacuzzi Boys ''Your Flags''

Vivian Girls ''Surfin' Away (demo)''

The year, 2007. The Boys, Jacuzzi. Hatched inside a vulture’s nest, Jacuzzi Boys emerged from deep within the Florida wilds, three radioactive chicks cawing for their piece of electric rock pie.

With No Seasons (Florida's Dying) they freaked their way through the swamps, a psycho stomp of a record, all hallucinations and hand claps. Glazin’ (Hardly Art) found a more polished sound. They installed AC units inside their mobile homes, found a way to turn neon into ice cubes. Now, with their third full-length, the self-titled Jacuzzi Boys, they're going grand, building limestone monuments to those that boogied before them, while writing hypnotic ear worms by the light of a cigarette. Gone is the swamp-thing snarl. In it’s place, the indestructible cool of the casino slot-jockey with nothing to lose.

Recorded at Key Club Recording Co. in Benton Harbor, Michigan—same as 2011’s Glazin’—the new record takes full advantage of expert engineers Bill Skibbe and Jessica Ruffins' sonic sandlot, with Kramer in charge of mastering. The end result? A smashing set of tunes as dazzling as a sparkler.

It’s like that movie you once saw. The one with the boy and the girl and the plastic lounger on the beach. “Be My Prism” was the invitation. “Black Gloves” and “Double Vision” the promise. “Dust” was the rising tide. “Rubble,” the dirty uncle. “Hotline” was the lightning storm, and “Ultraglide” was the ending, the part where he drove her home with the windows down.

You remember you liked it.

It stayed with you while you swam alone in your pool that night.

TRACK LISTING

1. Be My Prism
2. Black Gloves
3. Double Vision
4. Dust
5. Rubble
6. Over The Zoom
7. Guillotine
8. Heavy Horse
9. Hotline
10. Domino Moon
11. Ultraglide

Fresh out of high school, Hannah Jadagu released her debut EP, What Is Going On?, a collection of intimate bedroom pop tracks recorded entirely on an iPhone 7, which was, at the time, Jadagu’s most accessible mode of production. An off-the-cuff approach to music making and instinctive ability to write unforgettable hooks belied the intensity of Jadagu’s subject matter. What Is Going On? confronted some of the nation’s most urgent struggles through Jadagu’s compassionate perspective. What Is Going On? built on the small online fanbase Jadagu had developed by releasing music on SoundCloud for years as she realized her growing passion for songwriting.

Now, Jadagu is releasing Aperture, her first LP and most ambitious work to date. Written in the years between graduating from high school in Mesquite, TX and her sophomore year of college in New York, Aperture finds Jadagu in a state of transition. “Where I grew up, everyone is Christian; even if you don’t go to church, you’re still practicing in some form,” Jadagu says, laughing. “Moving out of my small hometown has made me reflect on how embedded Christianity is in the culture down there, and though I’ve been questioning my relationship to the church since high school, it’s definitely a theme on this album, but so is family.”

As a kid, Jadagu followed her older sister – a major source of inspiration – to a local children’s chorus, where she received choral training. “I hated it,” Jadagu admits. “But it taught me how to harmonize, how to discover my tone, how to recognize and write melody.” The aching single “Admit It” is dedicated to Jadagu’s sister, whose love and impeccable taste have been a constant since Jadagu was a kid. The siblings were raised on mom’s Young Money mixtapes and the Black Eyed Peas (to whom Hannah credits her love of vocoder) but it was in the sanctity of her sister’s car that Jadagu discovered the indie artists who inspire her work.

With Aperture, Jadagu faced the challenge of finding a co-producer capable of complementing her work without dominating it. Enter Max Robert Baby, a French songwriter and producer who captured Jadagu’s attention with his take on Aperture’s lead single “Say It Now.” The duo worked remotely, sending stems to one another via email, before meeting in-person for the first time at Greasy Studios on the outskirts of Paris. “When I recorded my EP, it was all MIDI, but in the studio Max and I worked with a ton of analog instruments,” Jadagu says. “Every track on this album, except for ‘Admit It,’ was written first on guitar. But the blanket of synths throughout helps me move between sensibilities. There’s rock Hannah, there’s hip-hop Hannah, and so on. I didn’t want any of the songs to sound too alike.”

An aperture is defined as an opening, a hole, a gap. On a camera, it’s the mechanism that light passes through, allowing a photographer to immortalize a moment in time. For Jadagu, the word perfectly encapsulates the mood of her debut album. In the years it took her to complete, she faced moments of darkness, sure, but the process of making it was ultimately a cathartic experience, one she now shares with you. Let the light in.

TRACK LISTING

1. Explanation
2. Say It Now
3. Six Months
4. What You Did
5. Lose
6. Admit It
7. Dreaming
8. Shut Down
9. Warning Sign
10. Scratch The Surface
11. Letter To Myself
12. Your Thoughts Are Ur Biggest Obstacle

On Describe, Hannah Jadagu learns the hard way that distance is relative. After her 2023 debut album Aperture garnered glowing praise from outlets like The New York Times and NPR, Jadagu’s blossoming career took her away from her blossoming relationship in New York. Her expansive second album sees her grappling with that separation, finding connections that extend beyond the physical and strengthening her own voice in the process. Describe reverberates with that tension, between wanting connection and craving space. Its lyrics, as on her debut, ache with an emotional specificity that can only be pulled from lived experience. “I’ve been five thousand miles away,” she sings over ricochetting hi-hats on “More”—“Why does three thousand feel like more?”

But that distance also pushed Jadagu to explore new dimensions of her sound. “I'm super into artists that are able to mix analog with modern,” she said, and moving to California for the summer gave her the opportunity to meet new collaborators and experiment with analog synthesizers and drum machines. And while the warm hum of her guitar was her primary instrument for Aperture, she began to feel that her muscle memory of the instrument was holding her back. “It was freeing to be able to sit at a synth and drone on one note while I explored my vocals," she said. ”I found that to be a bit more freeing than playing on a guitar.” Working with producer Sora Lopez at his studio in Altadena and remotely on a few songs with Aperture co-producer and collaborator Max Baby out of Paris, Jadagu carved out a sound on Describe that is both distinctively hers and a total departure from the distorted guitar melodies of her debut.

Much of Describe, though, is about what goes unsaid: “A lot of this album is me trying to figure out how to express ideas that aren’t always so concrete,” Jadagu said. “It's just a flow of things that I'm feeling and going through and expressing.” It’s fitting, then, that Describe ends with “Bergamont,” which finds Jadagu singing some of her most brutally honest lyrics to date over a layered synth that mimics the tension and release of a long, cleansing breath. “I hope you find something true to you,” she sings. On Describe, Jadagu is searching for the words to describe the truth, on her terms, relishing in the uncertainty in that journey.

TRACK LISTING

1.Describe
2.Gimme Time
3.More
4.D.I.A.A.
5.Perfect
6.My Love
7.Couldn't Call
8.Tell Me That !!!!
9.Normal Today
10.Doing Now
11.Miracles
12.Bergamont

Jade Hairpins waste no time fulfilling their second album’s titular demand. From its harmony-drenched opening note to its baroque-anthemic conclusion, Get Me the Good Stuff is positively loaded with musical ideas, an absurdist buffet of sound and aesthetic that comes with one hell of a floorshow as the Hairpins stack those ideas higher and higher, almost daring them to crash to the floor. Instead, those elements punksploitation, power pop, baggy, funk, and Italo disco are just some touchstones are not only held aloft, they defy gravity and convention.

These pyrotechnics are, in true Jade Hairpins fashion, something of a sleight of hand. While the music swaggers and gallops, Get Me the Good Stuff grapples with anxiety and self-doubt, obfuscating pain and alienation with sparkling wit and some straight-up ravers. Get Me the Good Stuff opens with one of those, “Let It Be Me,” in which Jonah Falco shouts lyrics about being alone with one’s shortcomings against guitars, synths, and harmonized vocals that are on the verge of closing in. The song is just over 90 seconds long, hitting with the gnarled-barb ferocity of punk and the gleeful insanity of theatrical art rock.

It is, in other words, overwhelming. Or it would be if Jade Hairpins Jonah Falco and Mike Haliechuk weren’t remarkably nimble in their ability to bring unity to sounds by placing them in competition against each other. When those sounds are adjacent, like the glam and disco that saturate “Drifting Superstition,” the thrill of those universes colliding in the heat of an absolutely filthy clavichord line turns its lyrics, about the habit of solving personal problems by ignoring them, into a winner’s anthem on the order of Bowie or Hot Chocolate.

Get Me the Good Stuff arcs towards unequivocal joy as Falco, Jade Hairpins’ primary lyricist, breaks these cycles and attempts to run away with his dreams. The arc is roughly analogous to how the album came to fruition. Four years removed from Harmony Avenue, an album of material that proved too strong to be contained within the narrative universe of Fucked Up’s Dose Your Dreams, Jade Hairpins have gelled as a live act with Tamsin M. Leach and Jack Goldstein centering them on stage and planted their flag in the UK punk scene in which Falco has embedded himself. Working out new material live, Falco noticed that crowds were digging into his unfinished lyrics, and the album tightened around the anxieties of being in the spotlight, of being worthy of attention.

At times, those songs are eager to please, like the album’s title track in which a winking self-deprecation rubs up against the self-congratulatory bombast of Freddie Mercury, Falco simultaneously turning heads as a shooting star and a burning car. Elsewhere, as in “Better Here Than in Love,” Jade Hairpins pitch themselves towards creating gorgeous soundscapes that exist nowhere else, channelling postpunk through the glimmering haze of ’80s Japanese electronic music.

Theatrical and personal, absurd and true-to-life, playful and serious, Get Me the Good Stuff is album of tremendous personal and artistic growth that signposts towards dozens of potential futures to come. It’s not only worth the attention, it continuously rewards it.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Let It Be Me
2. Drifting Superstition
3. Our House That Doesn’t Change
4. Get Me The Good Stuff
5. Telltale Flyover
6. My Feet On Your Ground

Side B
7. Lost In Song
8. L. I. E.
9. Put Me In The Picture
10. Better Here Than In Love
11. Live Free Underwater
12. In The Heat Of The Sun

Jade Imagine burst out of the bubbling music scene of Melbourne, Australia, with their debut album, Basic Love. Emotionally dictated by the wit and noir of Jade McInally (vocals, guitar, synths) and propelled by a band that seamlessly fuses synthwave and art-rock, this album is an impressive culmination of Jade Imagine’s signature style of bleak pop and contemplative new-wave. Featuring singles Big Old House and Remote Control.

TRACK LISTING

Gonna Do Nothing
The News
Big Old House
Remote Control
I’ll Take You There
The Weekend
Cut Me Off
Past Life
Get Out Of Your Head
Don’t Say It’s Over

Deluxe edition of JADE's debut album, 'THAT'S SHOWBIZ BABY! THE ENCORE'.

The deluxe album features 8 new songs including the powerful single 'Church', the generational anthem 'This Is What We Dance For' and JADE's highly praised cover of the Madonna classic 'Frozen'. The Encore, also includes previously released singles ‘Angel Of My Dreams’, ‘Fantasy’, ‘FUFN (Fuck You For Now)’, ‘IT girl' and ‘Midnight Cowboy’.

This is the grand finale of the THAT'S SHOWBIZ BABY! era! 

TRACK LISTING

1. Angel Of My Dreams
2. IT Girl
3. FUFN (Fuck You For Now)
4. Plastic Box
5. Midnight Cowboy
6. Fantasy
7. Unconditional
8. Self Saboteur
9. Lip Service
10. Headache
11. Natural At Disaster
12. Glitch
13. Before You Break My Heart
14. Silent Disco
15. Church
16. This Is What We Dance For
17. Dreamcheater
18. Best You Could
19. Use Me
20. Frozen
21. If My Heart Was A House
22. Tar

“This area of the throat,” says Chelsea Jade, resting three fingers roughly where her neck meets her chest. “It’s particularly soft, and it's connected ... it's halfway between the heart and the mouth. And that's an interesting place of vulnerability.”

Soft Spot, the Los Angeles-based New Zealand artist’s second album, dwells somewhere between feeling and expression, certainty and doubt. It ventures beyond the exploration of delusions of grandeur that formed the focus of the critically acclaimed Personal Best (2018), and simultaneously promotes and undermines romance, specifically, in a more solemn way.

“Less glib,” offers Jade, who has opened for Lorde and Cat Power among others. Still deliciously glib in places: “Give your worst my best,” she sings on the wryly antagonizing, bass-heavy “Tantrum in Duet.” Soft Spot’s big pop tracks go hard on the interpersonal, physical and amorous, inviting the listener to entertain flirtation, lust, sex, even the experience, rare during its recording in 2020, of being in a room with more than three other people.

With the reinforcement of composition and arrangement by Leroy James Clampitt (Justin Bieber) and production by Brad Hale (Now, Now), Jade conjures up atmospheres conducive to feelings of place and potential. Created during a once-in-a-century pandemic, the album is an evocative assembly of found parts: recordings of sentences and asides delivered by friends, the sound of rain in LA, or the distant voice of bureaucracy against a backdrop of hold music. Seeming choruses were produced to give that impression, layered submission by individual vocal submission. On “Best Behavior,” the record’s danciest track, this illusory energy reaches its euphoric height.

The record transports the listener from speaker-side at a club, to wandering a party, to sitting at an open window with a pianist nearby. It shifts effortlessly from expansive sold-out-show sound to ethereal, twinkling detail. The writing on Soft Spot outwits even its clever, resourceful production, the lyrics a testament to the multi award-winning songwriter’s belief in the pop format as a venue for prose. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Soft Spot
2. Optimist
3. Superfan
4. Best Behaviour
5. Big Spill
6. Good Taste
7. Tantrum In Duet
8. Real Pearl
9. Night Swimmer

Kassel Jaeger (aka François J. Bonnet) returns to Shelter Press after 'Swamps / Things' (SP119), 'Shifted in Dreams' (SP144), and the recent reissue of the classic 'Zauberberg' (SP068), co-composed with Akira Rabelais and Stephan Mathieu.

With this major new album, entitled 'Sub Re', Bonnet continues his long exploration of the musical possibilities of sound, extending the concrete approach developed at the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (the historic and essential Parisian studio that Bonnet has been directing since 2018) and revitalizing it through an exposition that focuses less on the clear manifestation of sound material than on its ambiguous evocation.

'Sub Re', in Latin, can mean “under the thing, under the substance, under the matter.” It’s precisely this direct approach to music, drawing on the extraction of raw sound material, that forms the basis of this album. Under the matter thus signals the concrete aspect of music, but not the concrete that is transfigured, becoming vapor and form, the substrate of an idea. Rather, it signals the concrete beneath the concrete, in the immanence of sounds, in their becoming, as a driving force, like a tide, like a vault of imperious and powerful matter. To achieve this, Bonnet draws on a multitude of sound sources (acoustic, electronic, natural or artificial, created on purpose or found by chance) and a plurality of contexts and occasions to give them form.

The movement, a shell, a bell, a spell, for example, was heard for the first time during a concert organized in Venice in connection with Latifa Echakhch’s contribution to the Swiss Pavilion at the 2022 Art Biennale, while the last movement on the record, signalmirror, concluded a piece presented at the first Sound Biennale in Sion (Switzerland) in 2023. These elements, formed and detached from their original context of appearance, of the places and people who made them possible and listened to them, contribute to a complex layering of climates and sonic worlds and help create a contrasting album, where density and tenuity coexist in a succession of moving waves, sometimes laden with memories, sometimes filled with regrets, always set in motion by their own morphology.

'Sub Re' also refers to a chapter in Victor Hugo’s Toilers of the Sea, a key passage in which the main character, faced with a colossal task, finds himself alone in the middle of the sea, beneath a gigantic shipwreck caught in the jaws of an isolated reef, surrounded by water, currents, and winds, alone to face the impossible. It is indeed beneath the surface that actions arise, decisions are made, and intuition guides us.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sub Re (Part I) 
2. Sub Re (Part II)

"Few years ago, an idea germinated while reading The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. An idea not driven by the narrativity of the book, but by the traces and the aura invoked in it. That was it: an audible auratic journey trough the memories of a place lost in the heights of the swiss mountains. A century after the events depicted in the book, we went where the story took place, trying to capture the remaining sounds that could have been heard at the time, and the ghosts who might have still wandered around. 'Zauberberg' is based on these captures, on recordings of the music played by Hans Castorp (the novel’s main character), on acoustic/electronic instrumentation and digital processing. The result is an evokation of time and duration, an exploration of what remains and what is lost, a meditation of the dissolution and persistence of the aura surrounding everything." — Kassel Jaeger, Nov. 19, 2015

TRACK LISTING

1. Zauberberg (Part I)
2. Zauberberg (Part II)

Jaffna, the melodic Deep-House duo formed by Bravin and Stan, is finally releasing its first album after four years of existence. Their debut EP Ripples in 2017 surprised everyone with over 9 million plays on Spotify and they opened for Thylacine for two years. Since then, their EP or music videos have been regularly supported by DJ Mag, Konbini or Les Inrockuptibles in France, but also the BBC (UK), Tonspion (DE), or influential American blogs such as Earmilk or Dancing Astronauts. Jaffna was created on a trip to Oslo ("Oslo"). Odyssey is a sonic travel diary, going from Sri Lanka ("Roots", "Bhairavi"), to Germany ("Sturm und Drang") through London ("Hackney Boy", "You Got Together", " Rival ", Manifest") in the footsteps of the childhood of Bravin, classical pianist and keyboard player of Thylacine. "Headlines" or "Outro" retrace their Parisian life more. Stan has been a DJ and house music producer for several years in Paris. Their subtle and airy mix of melodic Deep-House tinged with a few forays into Indian vocal harmonies is a gentle immersion in their very singular universe ("Oslo", Hollow Fields). On stage, they add a touch of power propelling their melodic Techno or UK House / Future Garage tracks. Jaffna is to be classified between Rone, Bicep, Ross from Friends, French 79 or N'To. Rediscovering the minimalism of their early career, Jaffna surprises us again with aerial melodies in duality with a melodic Future Garage / House rhythm.

TRACK LISTING

1. Hollow Fields
2. Oslo
3. You Got Together
4. Roots
5. Manifest
6. Hackney Boy
7. Follies
8. Headlines
9. Byzance
10. Rival
11. Bhairavi
12. Sturm Und Drang
13. Outro

'A Living Room Hush' gets the 25th Anniversary reissue treatment on cult
British independent Ninja Tune. Originally released in 2001 by the
legendary Norwegian eight-piece, this new reissue arrives for the first time
as a 2LP, pressed on limited edition orange vinyl.

Jaga Jazzist have been a beacon for musical fusion and hybridity for nearly
30 years, each of their albums characterised by a curious, experimental spirit
and an insatiable desire to evolve and innovate. The 'A Living Room Hush'
sashays through post-rock, jazz, psychedelia and IDM/dance influences.
Breathless and exhilarating. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Animal Chin
2. Going Down
3. Press Play
4. Airborne
5. Real Racecars Have Doors
6. Low Battery
7. Midget
8. Made For Radio
9. Lithuania
10. Cinematic

Jaga Jazzist return with new album “Pyramid”, where the legendary Norwegian eight-piece takes a deep dive into post-rock, jazz and psychedelia influences. It’s their first album since 2015’s “Starfire”, their ninth album in a career now spanning four decades, but it marks the group’s debut on Brainfeeder, the LA-based imprint curated by Flying Lotus. On “Pyramid”, Jaga Jazzist have crafted a suitably cosmic sound to match their new label home, all the while nodding to forebears spanning from 80s jazz band Out To Lunch and Norwegian synth guru Ståle Storløkken, to contemporaries Tame Impala, Todd Terje and Jon Hopkins. Each of the album’s four longform entries evolves over carefully plotted movements, the tracks’ technicolour threads dreamily unspooling.

The band, led by Lars Horntveth and his compositions, took a direct approach to the creation of “Pyramid”. Whereas “Starfire” saw them take the idea of a traditional studio record to extremity, with different members dipping in and out of the booth to write, record and experiment over two years, the process behind “Pyramid” was almost the polar opposite: it took just two weeks. Both records were driven by the same curious, experimental spirit, but the processes were very different. Retreating to a secluded woodland studio in neighbouring Sweden, they bunkered into the studio for 12 hour days. “The most important thing is that we didn’t want to over-analyze every musical idea” says co-founder and drummer Martin Horntveth. “We wanted to follow the first and original idea and keep the freshness.” For a band which has never settled on any one sound or style, the continuity lies in their constant willingness to evolve, experiment and improvise.

“Pyramid” is Jaga Jazzist’s first self-produced album (most of their records being produced by close collaborator Jørgen Træen) and it meant a change in the way they operate. On the one hand, there were lots of different voices jostling to be heard. On the other, they didn’t have an independent figure to make a call on whether something was a good idea. “It was hard but felt natural to do ourselves, as five of us are producers and make records for a living,” Martin says. The result is an album that feels more collaborative than ever.

Whilst they wouldn’t describe “Pyramid” as a concept album, the band see the track titles as a conceptual starting point from which the listener can construct whatever story flows out of the songs. The album title refers to the building blocks which make up a pyramid, and how each of the four tracks – and their constituent parts – fit together. ‘Tomita’ is a nod to Japanese composer and synth player Isao Tomita, and ‘The Shrine’ alludes to Fela Kuti’s legendary Lagos venue. Lars says: “I felt that this album is a small symphony, each part containing its own rooms to explore.” 

TRACK LISTING

1. Tomita
2. Spiral Era
3. The Shrine
4. Apex

Jaga Jazzist's 'Pyramid' displayed a wonderful mix of soaring electronics and jagged avant jazz, and their latest eandeavour sees a number of shining lights in today's electronic music landscape pull out the stems for a brilliantly diverse and wonderfully exploratory set of remixes. 

Petter Eldh's remix of 'The Shrine' sees the main refrain chopped up and scattered liberally among a few shards of industrial noises and shimmering synth swells, kicking things off in wonderful fashion before the pulsing dystopian glimmer of the OKIOK rework of the same piece. It seems odd to have two remixes of the same piece following each-other but in this instance they're so wildly different that you can hardly even tell they're from the same stock. 

Lindstrom' & Prins Thomas' rework of 'Apex' is one of the top cuts for me, forging a perfect mixture of the former's airy euphoric electronica, and the latter's laid-back house into a by-the-pool groover that continues to grow organically into a not inconsiderable near-12-minute anthem. 

Prins makes an appearance again later on with the snappy tribal funk of 'Spiral Era', before the set closes out with André Bratten's woozy saturated ambient rework of the wonderful 'Tomita'. 

A worthy and wonderfully varied collection of home listening house, or cosmic jazz for a VERY chilled dancefloor. 

TRACK LISTING

A1. The Shrine (Petter Eldh Remix)
A2. The Shrine (OKIOK Remix)
B1. Tomita (Paul Bender Remix)
B2. Apex (Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas Remix)
C1. The Shrine (Ian Chang Remix)
C2. Tomita (OKR Of Once And Future Band Remix)
D1. Spiral Era (Prins Thomas Remix)
D2. Tomita (André Bratten Remix)

In December 2012, Jaga’s main songwriter, Lars Horntveth, left Norway and moved to Los Angeles. There, on the other side of the world, inspired by the space around him, the size of the sky above him, the endless light flashing past as he drove round the city at night, he began composing the new suite of works which would become 'Starfire'. Periodically he was joined by other members of the 8-piece band who would lay down their contributions in his apartment / studio before returning home to Norway. When the basics of the album were in place, he went back to Oslo to finish the record in the professional studios that the band had built and furnished over the years.

The result is a revelation. After the more heavily scored work of 'One Armed Bandit' and 'Live' with the Britten Sinfonia, 'Starfire' moves to a more experimental studio-led approach - "The idea was that we thought about the songs as both the original song and a remix in one" - morphing each song into a variety of sonic directions. With an increase in the use of electronics and the guitar work of Marcus Forsgren given new prominence, it’s probably the least straightforwardly “jazz” of their records. Instead, all the elements which have made them such an important band - the way their technical chops combine with the kind of mutual sympathy which comes from growing up together - are here melded into an utterly unique sound on what could turn out to be the group’s crowning achievement.

'Starfire' is a beautiful, visceral, utterly exhilarating piece of work that keeps spiralling up and away, structurally complex, musically rigorous, but without ever losing touch with a certain earthy sensuality and human sympathy. It could just be Jaga's masterpiece.

"The Stix" combines the digital-dancefloor-jazz-jiggery-pokery of their debut with the energy and exuberance of their live shows. As well as the gentle flowing loose avant-jazz grooves of previous tracks, "The Stix" includes much more upbeat tracks that take 70s jazz-fusion and time changing jazz-rock as a starting point and add modern production techniques to create fresh new sounds.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Kitty Wu
Day
Another Day
Side B
Suomi Finland
Aerial Bright Dark Round
Side C
Toxic Dart
I Could Have Killed Him In The Sauna
Doppelganger
Side D
Reminders
The Stix 

Thomas V. Jäger is best known as the vocalist/guitarist in Monolord, the hottest, most crushing melodic doom band in the world. So, releasing an intimate, deeply and boldly personal album of acoustic and synth based songs hot on the heels of the band’s most successful and powerful album to date, No Comfort might seem like a risky move. And yet, that’s not even the most daring and inspiring thing about A Solitary Plan. Rather, this 7-song album is a cathartic depiction of very real and heart-wrenching situations as a means of musical therapy for the artist and, hopefully, for the listener as well. “This album is me venting all of this emotional energy I’ve been carrying around,” Jäger says. “Now I’m feeling more open about it, but at the start I had a hard time talking with friends and family. The record is what came out instead of talking about it.” The central lyrical theme to the album is a coming to terms with the likelihood of not becoming a parent after wanting to have a family for a long time.

“When I put down vocal tracks on the last song ‘The Bitter End’, you can hear my voice is trembling at parts. Every time I listen I get goosebumps, which rarely happens with songs I write.” Other songs also deal with personal challenges, like health scares, existential searching, and death in the family. “Goodbye” is written for Monolord bassist Mika and his wife Emma. “When they had to put down their dog Eskil it affected me greatly. This song is him talking to them and telling them it is gonna be alright.” Heavy stuff, indeed — but in a different way from Monolord’s pummeling riffs. Jäger doesn’t intend for the album to be a “woe is me” exercise, but rather something constructive. “I know that music helps people,” he says. “This is without any irony, it’s therapeutic. I know fans can interpret and use the songs for their own purposes. That feels meaningful to me.”

The album began organically, as Jäger often writes and records at home, sketching out song ideas on acoustic guitar into a computer with no set goal for anyone else to hear them. RidingEasy Records chief and Monolord manager Daniel Hall cajoled the guitarist into sending him some of the home recordings he’d been working on, and he immediately pushed for them to be released in this stripped-down form. “I could’ve rearranged them to get a Monolord vibe, but I wanted the basis of just voice, guitar and synths,” Jäger says. “Really laid back and mellow.” He completed the album between tours, with mixing and mastering by Kalle Lilja at Welfare Sounds. Emil Rolof plays a real Mellotron on the title track, all other instruments and voices are Jäger himself. A Solitary Plan will be available on LP, CD and download on July 24, 2020 via RidingEasy Records

TRACK LISTING

01. A Solitary Plan
02. Creatures Of The Deep
03. It's Alright
04. From The Ashes
05. The Drone (Oh Why)
06. Goodbye
07. The Bitter End

Ben Jagga’s long-deleted sole solo release is the epitome of Tabansi/Taretone soul-funk-boogie-disco in its prime, and is very much a family affair. This is the first-ever reissue. Producer is Ephraim Nzeka (of Brother To Brother fame, as ‘Ephraim’), and backing vocals come courtesy of artists all with their own solo efforts out on the label: BummyOlajubu, Judith Ezekoka, Zak Roberts, Eric Kol and NkemNjoku (see the BBE reissue catalogue for killer LPs from the last two artists, in particular). Instrumentation is a tight, stripped-down unit: bass, guitar, drums and keyboards – and the mixdown man is Martin Ikebuaku, one of the unsung geniuses of the West African boogie sound, with literally hundreds of well-regarded sessions on almost every major Nigerian label under his belt. The album has long been in-demand among outernational boogie fans, and usually changes hands privately for princely sums (as of the date of writing these notes, it’s never been offered for sale on Discogs, probably the world’s leading rare vinyl sales site).

TRACK LISTING

1. Hold On Pretty Woman
2. Aliyenju
3. You're The Light Of My Life
4. Just Forgive And Forget
5. Let's Vow We'll Never Part
6. It's You Forever
7. You're My Reason For Living
8. Jack And Jill

Berlin and Dresden trio JAGUWAR played their way into the hearts of noise romantics with the sprawling sonic landscapes which characterized the trio's 2018 debut album. Their sophomore album GOLD, is set for release in October 2021.

GOLD is a supercharged blast of future pop, transcending borders and defying pigeonholes, an album arising from the band's predisposition to experiment. GOLD is not only danceable, poppy and endearingly intricate, it also flys in the face of the status quo, ask questions of the current state of affairs and the oppressive mechanisms in our society. GOLD is no blunt denunciation, however, but a soundtrack to accompany the realization that there is strength in individuality, thereby unlocking a new level of productiveness.

Since the release of 2013’s ‘Howlin’ Jagwar Ma have played sold out shows across the world and supported the likes of Tame Impala, The xx and Foals, filling festival tents and clubs alike with their explosive, hypnotic live performances, not to mention legendary DJ sets - most recently illustrated through their televised Park Stage performance at Glastonbury, and a raucous closing DJ set at the Crows Nest the same weekend.

Now the song-writing duo of multi-instrumentalist and producer Jono Ma, singer and guitarist Gabriel Winterfield return with their second album ‘Every Now & Then’.

The new record returns to the melody soaked nods to club culture and instantaneous vocal hooks they’ve become well known for, but has also seen them employ their passion for the Beastie Boys, citing this eclectic album as their ‘Paul’s Boutique’. Overall this stunning record encapsulates the band at their most entrancing and anthemic – a wig out of oscillating acid bassline, ricocheting dub-fused guitars and heady pop psychedelia bathed in strobe-lit sonics.

It was self-produced and recorded in the United Kingdom, Australia and France, then tweaked and mixed with the assistance of some of their brightest contemporaries, James Ford (Florence and The Machine, Arctic Monkeys), Blue May (Kwes, Kindness), Ewan Pearson (LCD Soundsystem, Chemical Brothers) and David Wrench (Caribou, FKA Twigs, Glass Animals).

TRACK LISTING

Falling
Say What You Feel
Loose Ends
Give Me A Reason
Ordinary
Batter Up
O B 1
Slipping
High Rotations
Don't Make It Right
Colours Of Paradise

Jagwar Ma, the duo Jono Ma and Gabriel Winterfield, first bonded in Sydney, Australia over a mutual passion of melody and experimental beats, setting out to create a sound that would capture their love for contemporary electronica & classic American pop harmony, Joe Meek & King Tubby, vintage drum machines & radio frequency manipulation, Ray Davies’ vintage amp noise and improvised percussion. Hot on the heels of powerhouse singles ‘The Throw’ and ‘Man I Need’, Jagwar Ma are now pleased to announce their debut album Howlin

The album was recorded in a secluded town in the North of France, just the two of them in an almost farm with an 808, a Fender jaguar, a laptop & a pair of vintage Neve console channels, and neighbors with a thing for hardcore sound systems. Collaborators along the way included long-time friend & Warpaint drummer, Stella Mozgawa and renowned Berlin producer/mixer, Ewan Pearson, adding another station to the globe-spanning journey the songs have travelled.

Across its eleven tracks, Howlin twists addictive hooks around often dirty and clanking breakdowns. Pop songwriting is buried in layers of crunching synths and pedal effects, from 60’s beat to the strobe-lit warehouses of acid house via the techniques and sonic feel of dub and the touchstones of anthemic British guitar music, reveling in the vibrant tension between the discovery of something classic and future-looking experiments

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Big, baggy, psychedelic pop. This could be the sound of the summer!

TRACK LISTING

1. What Love
2. Uncertainty
3. The Throw
4. That Loneliness
5. Come Save Me
6. Four
7. Let Her Go
8. Man I Need
9. Exercise
10. Did You Have To
11. Backwards Berlin

Nkrumah Jah Thomas is one of the great Deejay voices of Jamaican music.

Through his Midnight Rock label, he is also known as a formidable producer - making important records with the likes of Anthony Johnson, Early B, King Tubby and Super Cat.

His 80s dancehall hit with the latter ‘Dance Inna New York’ was sampled on the hit single by Nas, ‘The Don’, and in recent years, his rhythms have been sampled by Protoje and Kabaka Pyramid.

Acid Jazz group label Roots Records has worked with Jah Thomas since the late 1990s, and is set to release the first ever collection of his vocal work.

A versatile and nimble word-smith, The Music Maker from Jamaica is represented by 12 of his most vital cuts. These include his debut hit ‘Midnight Rock’, hits such as ‘Dance Hall Connection’ and ‘Dance On The Corner’, his own versions of ‘Cool Profile’ and 'Joker Smoker’ (hits he produced for Earl Cunningham, and Tristan Palmer respectively.)

Tracks are newly remastered and the package includes sleeve notes by reggae historian Tony Rounce – a must-have for classic Dub and Dance Hall enthusiasts.

TRACK LISTING

1. Midnight Rock
2. Shoulder Move
3. Dance On The
Corner
4. New Dress Style
5. Get A Girl Tonight
6. Cricket Lovely
Cricket
7. Dancehall
Connection
8. Love You One
Another
9. Cool Profile
10. General 007
11. Joker Smoker
12. Adapter Chapter

This is Jah Wobble’s first post punk LP in recent years following travel and dub records. The brash guitar driven tracks reflect his continuing preoccupation with the declining state of the nation. Driven by his experience working each week at a music based community project in Merton, with Jon Klein, it is reminiscent of Mark Stewart. Angry in an empathetic, constructive way it resolved with the beautiful instrumental ‘Brockwell Lido’. Like much of his work these days, much of the lyrical content comes while traversing London’s transport system.

Jah Wobble, is an English bass guitarist and singer. He became known to a wider audience as the original bass player in Public Image Ltd (PiL) in the late 1970s and early 1980s; he left the band after two albums.

Following his departure from PiL, he developed a solo career. In 2012, he reunited with fellow PiL guitarist Keith Levene for Metal Box in Dub and the album Yin & Yang. Since 2013, he has been one of the featured pundits on Sunday morning's The Virtual Jukebox segment of BBC Radio 5 Live's Up All Night with Dotun Adebayo. His autobiography, Memoirs of a Geezer, was published in 2009.

Jon Klein Is an English guitarist and producer, best known for being a member of Siouxsie and the Banshees for seven years, from 1987 until 1994. He also founded Specimen and The Batcave nightclub. Klein has worked for other artists including Talvin Singh and Sinéad O'Connor. More recently he has worked as a co-producer and guitarist with Jah Wobble.

TRACK LISTING

Fading Away
Make It Stop
Who Wins
Read Between The Lines
Automated Paradise
Terminal Terminal The End
Endless Sky
Brockwell Lido

Dimple Discs is pleased to announce its first release from the legend that is Jah Wobble - an exclusive dub LP with full colour outer and inner sleeves based on paintings by Wobble himself. It is a completely solo work with Wobble writing playing and arranging. Lee Perry and King Tubby are deep influences with astounding top layer sonics.

Expertly mastered by Anthony Chapman of Collapsed Lung and cut to get maximum clarity and volume.

Jah Wobble, is an English bass guitarist and singer. He became known to a wider audience as the original bass player in Public Image Ltd (PiL) in the late 1970s and early 1980s; he left the band after two albums.

Following his departure from PiL, he developed a solo career. In 2012, he reunited with fellow PiL guitarist Keith Levene for 'Metal Box in Dub' and the album 'Yin & Yang'. Since 2013, he has been one of the featured pundits on Sunday morning's The Virtual Jukebox segment of BBC Radio 5 Live's Up All Night with Dotun Adebayo. His autobiography, Memoirs of a Geezer, was published in 2009.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A full LP of dub musings by the great Jah Wobble, with rich basses and horn stabs the order of the day, and beautifully produced and mastered to give that classic dub shake in the belly. A brilliant set of dubs from one of the great modern bassists.

TRACK LISTING

1. Dub In The East
2. Tyson Dub Remix
3. Existential Dub
4. Losing All Sense Of Balance Dub
5. Lovers Rock Dub
6. Tragic Slavic Dub
7. Sweet Dub
8. Old Jewish East End Of London Dub

Since his days with Public Image Ltd., Jah Wobble has been carving a unique niche on bass guitar, drawing on myriad musical styles for his prolific output of over forty albums and countless collaborations. Following the critical acclaim afforded to last year’s 6-CD box set Redux, Jah Wobble In Dub is an affordable entrée to one aspect of JW’s music, a style with which he is most commonly associated and yet is somehow difficult to define.

Compiled and annotated by Wobble, who has also contributed some of his paintings for the front cover and the booklet, Jah Wobble In Dub picks up where Redux left off, sampling his 30 Hertz catalogue from the mid-1990s onwards while also dipping back into his 80s solo work. In Dub also boasts four brand new recordings. ‘Metamorphosis (Burnt Umber Youth Dub)’ and ‘Inspector Out Of Space (Youth Inner Space Dub)’ are taken from Wobble’s new album with legendary producer Youth, Everything Is Nothing while ‘Forest Funk Dub’ and ‘Forest Gate Dub’ are brand new tracks, also recorded by the new-look Invaders Of The Heart. In addition, In Dub includes a previously unissued mix of ‘The Sweetest Feeling’ from 2007’s Heart & Soul’ album (re-named ‘The Way I Feel’).

Written in his own unmistakable voice and with a new afterword by the author, this is the frank and fascinating memoir by arguably the greatest bass player of his generation. Beginning with an East End childhood in a London barely recovered from the War, he takes us on a journey through the beginnings of punk and post-punk as a founding member of Public Image Limited, an illustrious forty-year solo career which has seen collaborations musical greats such as U2, Brian Eno and CAN and a Mercury Music Prize nomination through to the present day still playing to sell out audiences. Along the way we hear how Wobble navigated chronic alcoholism and marital breakdown and has emerged as a national treasure.

If you ever wondered how got his name, the answer is here: his teenage pal Sid Vicious gave it to him when he drunkenly slurred Wobble's real name, John Wardle.

The Jahari Massamba Unit features Madlib on all instrumentation with the exception of drums, which are laid down by Karriem Riggins. Like Madlib, Riggins is well-versed in both the worlds of Jazz and Hip Hop. Musically, Madlib’s label says “we would call the project Spiritual Jazz, but jazz great Phil Ranelin told us to call it Black Classical Music, so that’s what we’re going with it.” This is an album put together by students of jazz in its myriad and historic corms who are also proponents of jazz’s future. The resulting recording reflects a lifetime of record collecting, musical study, woodshedding, and a reverential respect for one another’s craft. Regardless of categorization this is an exciting an all new entry in Madlib’s Yesterdays New Quintet canon of difficult to categorize music. 

TRACK LISTING

Je Prendrai Le Romanée-conti (putain De Leroy)
Les Jardins Esméraldins (pour Caillard)
Un Bordeaux Pré-phylloxéra (pour Le Riche Enculé)
Deux Fakes Jayers (aussi Pour Le Riche Enculé)
Riesling Pour Robert
Du Morgon Au Moulin-à-vent (pour Duke).
Trou Du Cul (ode Au Sommelier Arrogant)
Etude Montrachet
Le Feu (pour Belluard)
Merde (basse-cour)
Inestimable Le Clos
La Closerie (pour Prévost)
Hommage à La Vielle Garde (pour Lafarge Et Rinaldi)

Madlib & Karriem Riggins’ All New Jazz Project! The Jahari Massamba Unit features Madlib on all instrumentation with the exception of drums, which are laid down by Karriem Riggins. Like Madlib, Riggins is well-versed in both the Jazz and Hip Hop worlds. Musically, Madlib’s label says: “we would call the project Spiritual Jazz, but jazz great Phil Ranelin told us to call it Black Classical Music, so that’s what we’re going with.” This is an album put together by students of jazz in its myriad and historic forms who are also proponents of jazz’s future. The resulting recording reflects a lifetime of record collecting, musical study, woodshedding, and a reverential respect for one another’s craft. Regardless of categorization, this is an exciting and all-new entry in Madlib’s Yesterday’s New Quintet canon of difficult to categorize music. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Je Prendrai Le Romanée-Conti (Putain De Leroy)
2. Les Jardins Esméraldins (Pour Caillard)
3. Un Bordeaux Pré-Phylloxéra (Pour Le Riche Enculé)
4. Deux Fakes Jayers (Aussi Pour Le Riche Enculé)
5. Riesling Pour Robert
6. Du Morgon Au Moulin-À-Vent (Pour Duke)
7. Trou Du Cul (Ode Au Sommelier Arrogant)
8. Etude Montrachet
9. Le Feu (Pour Belluard)
10. Merde (Basse-cour)
11. Inestimable Le Clos
12. La Closerie (Pour Prévost)
13. Hommage À La Vielle Garde (Pour Lafarge Et Rinaldi)

Jahlin, whose real name is Colin Pitter, was born in Clarendon, Jamaica and moved to Canada in 1975 for his education. He graduated from high school majoring in welding in 1979 and began working as a welder in Toronto while pursuing his musical career.

In 1980, Jahlin joined the reggae band Joshua on the recommendation of a fellow musician, Gregory Frank. Later, he recorded his first single "Roots Reality" under his own label, Black Echo.

Jahlin's "Roots Reality" is a roots reggae song that was originally released on the Roots Reality label in 1983. Overall, "Roots Reality" is a powerful roots reggae song that showcases Jahlin's talent as a singer and songwriter, as well as his commitment to spreading messages through his music. Its particularity is the addition of violin which is rarely heard in roots reggae music.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: More deeply dug, hard to find roots from the Jamwax firm. Another 12" that'll cost you a few ton for an OG; the label have done a great job of this repress with the original artwork included for good measure. Not often you a hear a fiddle in a reggae jam - but it works!

TRACK LISTING

Roots Reality
Roots Reality (Version)

It’s a family affair on the second Growing Bin 7”, as Peter & Patrick Jahn enjoy some father and son boogie with a smooth split release. A sunblushed moocher served two ways, this disc is designed for horizontal dancing…

Rooting around the cupboards in his family home outside Nuremberg, Patrick Jahn unearthed a dusty box of cassettes, saved for posterity but eventually forgotten. Somewhere between ‘True Blue’ and ‘Brothers In Arms’ was a faded C60 full of unreleased demos by his father Peter, recorded in the mid to late 80s. Back then Jahn Sr owned a pub club called Schrank (Cupboard to the Anglophones), with an upstairs office he used as a music studio. In amongst naïve synthesiser experiments and carefree noodling was a Balearic boogie bomb, all strolling synth bass, clipped funk guitar and seaside melancholy – like Brenda Ray on a Wim Wenders soundtrack.

Too impressed to keep it a secret, Patrick played the cut to Carsten “Erobique” Meyer, when he was over there jamming, and Hamburg’s premier funk freak suggested this might be of interest to his likeminded hometown freak Basso. Instantly in love, the Growing Bin boss suggested Patrick provide his own version for the flipside, and so it was, reborn with percussive sway, moonlit keys and beefy bass tones for the next generation. Here’s to the Jahn family, father and son but brothers in calms…

TRACK LISTING

A. Abenteuer überm Schrank (Peter‘s Original 1987 Version) 
B. Abenteuer überm Schrank (Patrick‘s Own 2019 Version)

Jailcell Recipes: Perhaps the last untold chapter in the story of the rapidly-detonating, late 80’s UK Hardcore scene. Often overlooked in favour of their contemporaries, this re-mastered/re-modelled retrospective collection of songs finally puts the record straight, giving them the recognition they deserve. It showcases the band’s importance within that scene and throws light on their unique standpoint and their growth over a 4 year period.

This release is not intended as a discography, rather a selected ‘strongest hand’ from between the years 1988 to 1992. It features the definitive line up of Robbie Reid (vocals), Jamie Owen (guitar), Dave Arnold (bass) and Ian Barwick (drums). It's a game of two halves; the faster, straight ahead hardcore stylings make up Side One (practically the entire first album recorded in 1988), whilst the more melodic, mid-tempo material completes the set on the flipside - Robbie's unmistakable vocals being the constant throughout that makes it all work, he provided the band with a unique identity. Side Two closes with previously unreleased studio tracks from 1992 - virtually unheard until now, we believe these final three tracks to be amongst their best. The songs now sound as the band intended all the way back in 1988.

Largely down to a relentless run of gigs back in their heyday, Jailcell Recipes gained a strong reputation for being an exciting and energetic ‘live’ hardcore band, playing with Bad Brains, All, Gorilla Biscuits and including tours with Youth Of Today (1989), Green Day (1991), Naked Raygun (1988). It’s the 35th Anniversary of the release of their debut album “Energy In An Empty Tank World” and after all these years, we finally have the recorded output to match the ‘live’ performance!

TRACK LISTING

Side One
1. Our Recipes
2. John Is God
3. Kick Yourself
4. Dreaming
5. Wide Open Eyes
6. Part Of Me
7. Endless Grind
8. Screams Of Blood
9. Drown

Side Two
1. Forced (Poulton Rd EP)
2. Arm-Twister (Poulton Rd EP)
3. Those Long Days ( Poulton Rd EP)
4. Such Is Life (Two Years Of Toothache)
5. Smiles (Two Years Of Toothache)
6. Fight Night (Two Years Of Toothache)
7. Down On Luck (previously Unreleased)
8. Carefree (previously Unreleased)
9. Take The Long Walk (previously Unreleased)

Twenty-nine-year-old British-born Essie Jain makes her recorded debut with the glacial delights of "We Made This Ourselves", an album whose quiet, powerful minimalism is undeniable. Recorded mostly in her apartment, the album is based around Jain's piano and restrained, cool fire vocals with occasional discreet brushstrokes of brass, accordion, strings, guitar or hushed percussion. The record 'ended up with an intimacy and a character that I don't think we could have got any other way', Jain considers. 'I meant it to be a record for that 'dark hour' – when someone most needs a way to heal or cry, when walls close them in, to have quiet from the things that the world throws at a person. Looking back, there are moments where it can be almost uncomfortable, but that's what I feel those times are about.' The effect is stately chamber-folk, delicate and painfully honest, seemingly detailing a wrought and failing relationship, and a disintegrating emotional self.

Hot on the heels of their ARIA-nominated debut The Stranger in the Mirror, Australia's Jake Mason Trio return with their highly anticipated second album The Modern Ark.

Anchored by Jake Mason (Hammond organ), James Sherlock (guitar) and Danny Fischer (drums), the Trio draw from the golden age of organ jazz (Jimmy Smith, McDuff, McGriff) while carving a distinct modern voice. Recorded in Melbourne with vintage gear, the album captures the fire and finesse of a band with over 30 years' shared history.

Standout features include Grammy-winning vocalist Kurt Elling on the cinematic title track The Modern Ark and Australian icon Kate Ceberano on the soul-jazz ballad Stop Searching For Love.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Last Piece
2. The Modern Ark (feat. Kurt Elling)
3. Boogaloo Popcorn
4. Green Pick
5. Sharks In The Paddock
6. Virgin River
7. Stop Searching For Love (feat. Kate Ceberano)
8. Danny's Blues
9. Beyond Kavik
10. Here's Your Change

'Tết 41' is the latest record by modular synthesist and Berghain resident JakoJako (Sibel Koçer), marking her album debut for Mute.

Recorded during a trip to Vietnam and bookended by field recordings from Tết Lunar New Year celebrations, the album is illuminated by references to Koçer’s heritage. The melodic palette breaks away from traditional Western scales, drawing instead from the tonal intricacies of the Vietnamese language, inspired by overheard conversations. The album and track titles further honour the vibrant Tết festivities, shrines, and landmarks she encountered during her travels.

This album is, in many ways, a distillation of ideas she has been exploring for years. Tapping into a deep understanding of machine-based music, crafted with a minimalist setup consisting of a Eurorack and Waldorf Iridium Core, 'Tết 41' reflects on notions of rebirth, and the pursuit of a sonic core. From this simplicity emerge some of her most expansive, unworldly compositions to date. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Shimmering, paddling arps and swirling FM synth blips coming together into a beautifully smooth but undeniably textural selection of blissful modular synth soundscapes.

TRACK LISTING

1. Xin Chào
2. Kumquat
3. Lì Xì
4. Hoa đào
5. Ghi-Ta
6. Đà Nẵng
7. Dragon Bridge
8. Chim Sẻ
9. Gió
10. Cảm ơn

Berlin-based modular synthesist and Berghain resident JakoJako returns with her Mute debut, Verve EP.

Although newly-signed, JakoJako is not a new name within the Mute catalogue with appearances on both Martin Gore’s The Third Chimpanzee Remixed and New Order’s Be a Rebel Remix 12”. This release follows her immersive debut album Metamorphose, and presents four brilliant new songs including the icy techno track ‘Auris’, released exclusively on Beatport in November 2022. 

TRACK LISTING

A1 Impetus
A2 Opak
B1 Auris
B2 Nexus

Fresh from Japanese dates with countrymen Super Furry Animals, Cardiff's Rhys Edwards - the young man behind the zoned-out, otherworldly sounds of Jakokoyak - is creating quite a stir. Occupying a hazy position somewhere between The Beta Band, Serge Gainsbourg, Super Furry Animals' "Mwng" and Aphex Twin's "Selected Ambient Works", Jakokoyak's music is proof that Welsh-language music can be adventurous, forward-thinking and totally accessible - even if you don't speak the lingo! And on top of all that, he's been voted 20th sexiest man in Wales in a recent newspaper poll! (But he doesn't like to talk about that!)

Manchester's very own The Jakpot are back with the follow up to last years instantly sold out 7" debut. This is a limited German-import with six brand new tracks fronted up with live favourite "Turning Point".

This is a record about love and resistance. After the broken frigidity of ‘Classical Curves’, Jam City return with an urgent, fearless and strikingly sensitive album of modern pop songs, both crushingly heavy and glitteringly light.

Made by modest means, made by any means, the DIY origin of the record speaks to the artist’s faith in the power of music to not only transcend but also to confront, unsettle and suggest an alternative to the total colonisation of art by neo-liberalism. Always raw, always in the red.

There’s no question that you’re listening to the same artist responsible for some of the most intense and influential club tracks of the last 5 years, on an album that could only be realised by Night Slugs. ‘Dream A Garden’ is not a total break from the world of ‘Classical Curves’ but rather an inversion: what becomes of the people struggling to live and love beneath the chrome-plated, vacuous and superficial machinery that we must fight to see beyond?

While drawing on a diverse musical history (sound system guitar dynamix, punk, hip hop, grime, country, the gothic and the modern), ‘Dream A Garden’ remains rooted in the bleakness of the present: everyday life under the regime of high capitalism. Turning the avenues of lifestyle fascism we walk through everyday into psychedelic, surreal daydreams; Jam offers his songwriting as a coping mechanism, a form of rescrambling a landscape dominated by ideologies of selfishness and hatred.

Originally released in 1983, Snap! was the first ‘greatest hits’ collection from The Jam and appeared just after Paul Weller took the shock decision to split up the band at the height of their popularity and success.

The title Snap! originates from the production, the A&R team and the band in the studio listening back to recording sessions and deciding if the track had the necessary distinctive Jam ‘snap’ sound to make the cut…!!

The original 29-track album with chronological sequencing clearly illustrates their brief but stunning story, from explosive debut on the embryonic English punk scene and their meteoric rise to become one of the greatest and best-loved British bands.

From their thrilling debut single – In The City to their farewell – Beat Surrender the collection features 16 top-30 singles – 4 number ones!

Features hit singles – Down In The Tube Station At Midnight, Strange Town, When You’re Young, Going Underground, That’s Entertainment, Start!, Town Called Malice , The Eton Rifles and many more. Also includes remarkable B-side tracks such as The Butterfly Collector and Tales from the Riverbank.

“One of the greatest ‘greatest-hits’ albums of all time”.

TRACK LISTING

LP1 - Side A
1. In The City
2. Away From The Numbers
3. All Around The World
4. The Modern World
5. News Of The World
6. Billy Hunt
7. English Rose
8. Mr. Clean

LP1 - Side B
1. David Watts
2. 'A' Bomb In Wardour St
3. Down In The Tube Station At Midnight
4. Strange Town
5. The Butterfly Collector
6. When You're Young
7. Smithers-Jones
8. Thick As Thieves

LP2 - Side A
1. The Eton Rifles
2. Going Underground
3. Dreams Of Children
4. That's Entertainment
5. Start!
6. Man In The Corner Shop
7. Funeral Pyre

LP2 - Side B
1. Absolute Beginners
2. Tales From The Riverbank
3. Town Called Malice
4. Precious
5. The Bitterest Pill (I Ever Had To Swallow)
6. Beat Surrender

7" - Side A
1. Move On Up (Live)
2. Get Yourself Together (Live) 

7" - Side B
1. The Great Depression (Live)
2. But I'm Different Now (Live)

Tellingly, when Weller came to record 2010’s Wake Up The Nation, it was Sound Affects that his collaborator and producer Simon Dine held up as a model. “He referenced it right at the start,” says Weller. “That was the sort of sound he imagined we should be going for: hard, metallic, quite stripped-down… jagged.”

Sound Affects was originally released in November 1980 at a time when The Jam was considered the biggest band in Britain. The album followed the band’s first number one single – Going Underground and features the group’s second UK number one single, Start! – a track built around almost exact copies of the bass-line and guitar solos from The Beatles’ Taxman (at the time Weller considered the album a cross between Off the Wall and Revolver!).

It includes many of the band’s classic songs - That’s Entertainment (written in a caravan in Selsey, after the pub), never released as a single in UK, the German import was a UK hit (subsequently covered by Morrissey), the political Man in the Corner Shop, Pretty Green (now inspiration for Liam Gallagher’s clothing range!), the pure-pop of Boy About Town and Dream Time.

It’s regarded by critics and fans (as well as Weller) as their most adventurous and experimental collection of material, drawing musical influences from the ‘post-punk’ groups of the late-70s - Wire, Gang Of Four and Joy Division as well as neopsychedelic touches from The Beatles and The Zombies etc.

The distinctive cover art is a pastiche of the artwork used on various BBC sound effects records of the 1970s, incorporating ‘pop-art’ imagery.

Now, to celebrate the band’s 30th anniversary, Universal Music present the classic albums in exact replicas of the original vinyl editions.

Strictly limited edition – one print run only.

“I still feel it was our best record. There are loads of other things I like, but as an overall body work, I thought it was great. To me, it still sounds fresh.”

Paul Weller – August 2010

On Ahmad Jamal ’73, one of jazz's most acclaimed small-group pianists traded in his most familiar instrument for something with a new spin, recording his first of seven studio works for the 20th Century label from behind the electric piano. Backed by an expanded orchestra arranged and conducted by album co-producer Richard Evans, the ensuing album merges familiar jazz traditions with the sound of a new era, pairing Jamal's leads with massive string, vocal, and horn arrangements on versions of then-current soul-funk hits (Stevie Wonder's "Superstition," War's "The World is a Ghetto") and spiritual jazz and funk numbers ("Sustah, Sustah," "Peace At Last").

The Verve Vault series is all-analog, cut from the original master tapes by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound and pressed on 180-gram vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

The World Is A Ghetto
Children Of The Night
Superstition
Trilby
Sustah, Sustah
Soul Girl
Peace At Last

Vibe's Maestro Khan Jamal's "Infinity" features a Stellar line up, a drums and percussion-rich sextet that features altoist Byard Lancaster and a Philadelphia-based rhythm section, Clifton Burton on harmonica and the legendary free drummer Sunny Murray. Khan Jamal contributed four of the five songs, while pianist Bernard Sammul brought in a cooking "The Angry Young Man."

The music stands up to and can be compared to anything released on the great Jazz labels and just like a Classic Blue Note, Prestige, Verve or Impulse release this is an absolute Stand Out Session.

For the London, Tokyo and all points West End crowd the Worldwide Sound is "The Known Unknown" which has been featured on several underground compilations back in the Acid Jazz Heydays of the 1990's, but the whole album is a complete undiscovered gem.

Self released in 1984 and long out of print, original copies fetch $1000 and upwards, so Jazz Room Records are proud and pleased to bring this Spiritual Soul Jazz gem out to a wider audience.

TRACK LISTING

1. Nubian Queen
2. Infinity
3. Lovely Afternoon
4. The Known Unknown
5. The Angry Young Man

Following much acclaim for their sophomore album ‘A Hermitage’, which was released in June 2016 via Bella Union, South Korean trio Jambinai announce that their debut album ‘Differance’ will be released on vinyl for the first time outside of South Korea. The debut full-length from Jambinai, originally released in February 2012, is a challenging and compelling affair that won them the prize for Best Crossover Album at the 2013 Korean Music Awards. A heady mixture of traditional instrumentation, crashing percussion and classic crescentic post-rock, Jambinai manage to maintain the brooding atmospherics and driven aesthetic through rapid-fire stylistic changes and skillful segues. Part metal, part instrumental and cinematic rock, and entirely fascinating, this is an excellent standalone outing, and a brilliant insight into the formation of the sound heard on their latest epic 'A Hermitage'.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Gloomy, brooding instrumental rock meets crashing metallic bursts, all interspersed with forlorn strings, floating ambience and triumphant crescendos. A superb outing, and a vastly underappreciated gem now available on vinyl!

TRACK LISTING

Time Of Extinction
Grace Kelly
Glow Upon Closed Eyes
Paramita Pt. 1
Paramita Pt. 2
Hand Of Redemption
Empty Pupil Pt. 1
Empty Pupil Pt. 2
Connection

Jambonne make their return to Space Grapes with two fierce dancefloor cuts! A studio moniker for label mainstays Another Taste, their previous single “Carpet Ride” has been a firm favorite for many with a more peculiar taste. This time around they’re sure to bring the flavor once again. Jam on, Jambonne!

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: The hottest firm doing it right now return with one of their original signings - Jambonne. Two monstrous tunes that belie their 7" format! No smoochy b-side dross - just two sparkling discoball jams that'll have you dancing all night long. Don't sleep!

TRACK LISTING

Jambonne, Jam On
I Know Just Where You're Coming From

Recorded in part before the Covid pandemic struck, the album was produced by the Grammy award-winning Jacknife Lee (U2, REM, Taylor Swift, Snow Patrol, The Killers). On production duties with James for the first time, he bought a fresh approach to their sound, working remotely from his studio liaising with Tim (his Topanga Canyon neighbour) liaising with Jim in a daisy chain, reimagining their demos, and capturing the band in all their virtual glory.

The result is a record with the most fresh and festival ready tracks of their 38-year career, the sound of one of Britain’s best bands, deconstructed and reassembled by one of the world’s most renowned producers. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: There's no denying that James have a legendary legacy behind them, but with 'All The Colours Of You' we get proof that Booth & co are far from finished. Beautifully written stadium rock pieces sit well with more downplayed, hushed numbers and form a cohesive and enjoyable whole.

TRACK LISTING

1. ZERO
2. All The Colours Of You
3. Recover
4. Beautiful Beaches
5. Wherever It Takes Us
6. Hush
7. Miss America
8. Getting Myself Into
9. Magic Bus
10. Isabella
11. XYST