'Moogmemory' is the latest album from multi-award winning pianist and composer Matthew Bourne, who has turned his considerable talents to the world of analogue synthesizers.

Very much in demand as a collaborator and co-conspirator, Bourne has his fingerprints on a huge number of projects, having worked with artists as diverse as John Zorn, Annette Peacock, Nils Frahm, Nostalgia 77, Amon Tobin and Broadway Project.

Growing from spontaneous improvised live performances, the album took shape in the studio as Bourne explored and moulded the vast sonic possibilities of voltage-controlled oscillators, creating beautiful, brooding landscapes of thick impasto and translucent sunbursts.

The seed for this project was planted when Bourne acquired an uncooperative 1982 Memorymoog, having it painstakingly modified and upgraded by Rudi Linhard in Germany .

Created without the use of computers or sequencers,Moogmemory is the first album to be recorded using only the Lintronics Advanced Memorymoog.

Bourne will tour moogmemory in collaboration with brilliant visual artist Michael England, who has worked with Autechre, Bola, Leila, Demdike Stare and many more.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Bringing to mind the more ambient, beat-less works of Alessandro Cortini (or indeed Nine Inch Nails), or the early electronics-heavy compositions by Nils Frahm ; Moogmemory is unsurprisingly, unashamed synth-worship. Through the impeccably textured compositions and characteristic, classic sound of a legendary instrument, this collection is breathtaking.

TRACK LISTING

1. Somewhere I Have Never Travelled
2. Alex
3. Nils
4. On Rivock EdgeE
5. B2 Sam
6. B3 Andrew
7. A3 Horn And Vellum
8. B4 Daniziel
9. I Loved Her, Madly

'Dark Matter’ is a landmark record, a producer album by a young auteur, threading several thrilling musical traditions into a bold new tapestry: the raw energy of grime and afrobeats and the rolling club rhythms of the London underground, combined with the freewheeling creativity and collaborative spirit of his jazz training. With that mentality in mind, it’s no surprise that his talents have trickled over into fashion, producing original compositions for the Louis Vuitton Foundation x MoMa Archive film (2017) and most recently scoring the Men's Dunhill Paris Fashion shows in both 2018 and 2019.

A double MOBO & Jazz FM Award winner, Boyd’s live and studio collaborations have been as varied as they have been prolific, from touring with Sampha & Kelsey Lu, to drumming on Sons of Kemet’s Mercury-nominated album, to his recent collaboration with South African Gqom king DJ Lag, which made its way onto Beyonce’s official soundtrack for The Lion King. He produced Zara McFarlane 's 2017 full-length, Arise, in its entirety, for Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood label, and released several acclaimed solo projects though his Exodus record label. Boyd has produced original scores for major Paris fashion shows, and with saxophonist Binker Golding, he’s co-leader and co-producer of the ferocious semi-free group Binker and Moses.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: Sitting at the heart of the British Nu-Jazz scene, Moses Boyd steps forward to bring us ‘Dark Matter’. An upbeat album with amazing depth and complexity, featuring the likes of Nathaniel Cross, Joe Armon Jones, Theon Jones, Nubya Garcia and Ife Ogunjobe.

TRACK LISTING

A.
Stranger Than Fiction
Hard Food Interlude
B.T.B

B.
Y.O.Y.O
Shades Of You (ft. Poppy Ajudha)

C.
Dancing In The Dark (ft. Obongjayar)
Only You
2 Far Gone (ft. Joe Armon Jones)

D.
Nommos Descent (ft. Nonku Phiri)
What Now?

I am sure that what I remember is not necessarily what actually happened, but I can only write what I remember. Wildly inventive and magnificently surreal, The Smiths: A Novella recounts the impact of an unconventional pop group from Manchester on one man's life. Taking the form of a flâneuring journey through the landscape of memory, our anonymous protagonist is accompanied by the iconic French actress Carole Bouquet, who becomes his guide and interlocutor, asking about his life during the years The Smiths were together and the profound effect of their music upon him.

As the unlikely couple perambulate from the old Selfridge Hotel to West Hollywood by way of a park bench in Cavendish Square, their conversation interrogates and celebrates the joys of outlandish pop genius, the zealous dedication of fans and the cult of outsider disaffection given uproarious voice. As such, this is not a book about The Smiths but one that emerges from their music, their emotional register and their literary resonance. Michael Bracewell's novella cum-fairy tale is at once deeply romantic and laced with comedy - not unlike the band themselves - and perhaps (in fictional form) the most astute and celebratory portrait of The Smiths to date.

Mansur Brown returns with ‘NAQI Mixtape’ - a vinyl release that combines both ‘NAQI’ EPs from earlier in the year.

Side A was made for the summer - hard hitting drums and low-end sub, whereas Side B is more for the winter - introspective songs that are cinematic and otherworldly in sound.

TRACK LISTING

No Way
My Luck
Fever
Rise
Me And You
Mission
Naqi
Path
Touch
Meikai

Mansur Brown shares his truest, most honest album to date. 'Rihla' is the Arabic word for a journey but can also refer to writings about that journey. Embarking on this voyage, you’re hearing an artist in full flow – bucking trends and freely making music that isn’t confined by genre. This new chapter sees Mansur introduce his vocals for the first time, alongside a heavier rock & electronic undercurrent, whilst maintaining the melodic essence you’d expect from Mansur.

There are echoes of r&b, and sci-fi-esque synthesisers that beam vivid imagery. Guitar remains at the centre of Mansur’s music, but it’s by no means the only component. Straddling the roles of songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist, this spirit of self-sufficiency cuts through everything Mansur does. Previous collaborations include Yussef Dayes, Joy Orbison, and Little Simz.

TRACK LISTING

1. Fasiha
2. Love Is Mine
3. Dreaming
4. Ghost
5. Alone
6. Toguchi
7. Faded
8. Mansur's Message Pt.2
9. Warehouse
10. Change
11. Rihla

Guitarist Mel Brown’s 1967 Impulse! debut is possibly both the funkiest and most unique album ever released on the label. Brown’s clean blues picking style—honed while playing in John Lee Hooker’s and T-Bone Walker’s bands—marinates funkily with the swinging soul-jazz organ of Gerald Wiggins. Especially noteworthy are the title track, “Greasy Spoon” and the simmering lament of “I’m Goin’ to Jackson”. Audio transferred from the analog tapes.

Verve By Request Series features 180-gram vinyl, pressed at Third Man in Detroit.

TRACK LISTING

1. Chicken Fat (Side A)
2. Greasy Spoon (Side A)
3. Home James (Side A)
4. Anacrusis (Side A)
5. Hobo Flats (Side B)
6. Shanty (Side B)
7. Sad But True (Side B)
8. I’m Goin’ To Jackson (Side B)
9. Slalom (Side B)

Romantic Images, Molly Burch’s third album, marks a distinct evolution for Burch, both emotionally and sonically. Recorded in Denver with Tennis’ Alaina Moore and Pat Riley producing, the collection celebrates the timeless delights of a well-crafted pop song, flirting with Blondie, Madonna, and even Mariah Carey as it forges a joyful soundtrack to liberation and self-discovery.

Burch deliberately worked with more women collaborators than ever before on the album, and the results are transcendent, reveling in the passion and the power of the divine feminine. The collection prioritizes ecstasy and escape, and Burch’s commitment to collective catharsis in her lifted, airy delivery manages to exude both thoughtful introspection and carefree abandon all at once. The shadow still lurks on the album, to be sure, but the light ultimately wins, and the result is an intoxicating collection all about coming into our truest selves.

When it came to mixing and mastering the material, Burch put her faith in Gloria Kaba (Lauryn Hill, A Tribe Called Quest), Mikaelin “Blue” Bluespruce (Solange Knowles), and Heba Kadry (Bjork, Beach House) to truly understand where she was coming from with the music.

Burch designed the record to mirror the emotional journey that went into creating it, sequencing the music to work its way from jittery indecision to poised certainty over the course of ten mesmerizing tracks. Exhilarating opener “Control” takes a leap of faith as it learns to make peace with letting go, while the infectious “Heart Of Gold” grapples with wanting what you can’t have. By the time the silky “New Beginning” rolls around, Burch begins settling into a newfound sureness that dominates the collection’s second half, with the addictive “Emotion” (a collaboration between Burch and her Captured Tracks labelmate Wild Nothing) celebrating a spectrum of emotions as fuel for creativity.

“I’ve written quite a bit about anxiety and heartbreak in the past,” Burch reflects, “but this record is more inspired by confidence and self-love. This is the most me I’ve ever sounded on an album.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: With a pretty legendary lineup of collaborators and producers working in conjunction with Burch, this was never going to be anything but superb. It's with a great deal of pleasure then, that I can confirm her singular writing style and unmistakeable vocal direction is at it's peak here. A brilliantly enjoyable and gorgeously evocative selection, drenched in nostalgic production and clever writing.

TRACK LISTING

1. Control
2. Games
3. Heart Of Gold
4. Romantic Images
5. New Beginning
6. Took A Minute
7. Emotion
8. Honeymoon Phase
9. Easy
10. Back In Time

For Molly Burch, the age 13 was a seminal moment in life that has shaped the path that she is on now. Burch's fourth album, Daydreamer, explores the feelings and insecurities of this critical stage. Burch has recently relocated to her hometown of Los Angeles, but while she was still residing in Austin, she visited home and did that thing our parents love to have us do: rummage through old boxes to see what shit we can throw away. Upon finding her old diaries from age 13 and younger, Burch was brought to tears. Realizing how cruel she was to herself then, and how she still harbors many of those same self-critiques. It was this visit that forced her to take responsibility for where she was currently at in life, anxiety and body issues and all, and to try to let go of old habits.

The thematic territory mined on Daydreamer makes it her most personal album yet, and though yes, she says that about all of her albums, this one in particular is a conversation between Burch's state of being when she was younger and how she feels currently as an adult. Daydreamer boasts a sharper, much cleaner production approach and a bit more pop than Burch's previous records, thanks to producer Jack Tatum (Wild Nothing). The result is music that feels stirring and sweeping, pulling in sounds and influences of the past, while also propelling Burch into a further development of herself as an artist.

On the surface, lead single "Physical" is a dark and sultry '80s mid-tempo jam with an intro that could very well be on the soundtrack to a John Carpenter horror film. It's also about Burch's public struggles with PMS. The album also returns to themes that have become somewhat of a signature for Burch, such as unrequited love on "Unconditional." And then there's "Tattoo," one of the more emotional songs on the album, where Burch writes an ode to her best friend in high school who took her own life in 2009. It's the longest Burch has ever taken to write a song, an ethereal ballad featuring sweeping harp and backup vocals from Luna Li (Hannah Kim).

Though the album spends time with mournful, anxious reflections, the songs on Daydreamer never feel bogged down in bleakness or morbidity. Burch's ability to take the darkest moments of her life and translate them to a universal language lays the ground for her most masterful pop writing to-date. Daydreamer is dedicated not only to her thirteen year-old self, but the thirteen year-old selves of listeners that still lingers within them. As children, we escape the world and our scariest thoughts through daydreaming. When Burch was a kid, she would daydream about how life would look when she was older, when she'd presumably have all her shit together. Now, as an adult, she finds herself daydreaming about what's next in life, what she'll create in the future, and the person she wants to be.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Molly Burch has always been a big hit in the shop, with her 2021 LP 'Romantic Images' proving a bit hit with customers too, so it's exciting to get her latest for Captured Tracks, the captivating 'Daydreamer'. With heartfelt lyrical emotion bombs like 'Tattoo' interspersed with less emotionally wrought, but equally beautiful 50's adjacent lounge-pop swooners. It's a beautifully written, deeply emotional journey.

TRACK LISTING

1. Made Of Glass
2. Physical
3. Baby Watch My Tears Dry
4. 2003
5. Tattoo
6. Unconditional
7. Heartburn
8. Champion
9. Beauty Rest
10. Bed

Austin singer and songwriter Molly Burch returns this new year with a fresh sound on “Emotion’’, a disco-tinged, dynamic shot of adrenaline produced by Captured Tracks label-mate Wild Nothing (Jack Tatum).

In January 2020, Burch headed to Tatum’s hometown of Richmond, Virginia, looking to write new material with a distinct pop sound and production in mind. Sharing some of her latest demos and a playlist of her favorite pop bangers with Tatum, they set out to make a heart-pumping dance track of their own.

On “Emotion”, Burch’s voice is as strong and masterful as ever, pairing a lighter, polished vocal performance - a surprising, but captivatingdeparture from her signature smoky delivery - with Tatum’s compelling bass lines, beats, and shimmering synths. Burch says, “for me, the theme of the song is about feeling a spectrum of emotions, embracing that sensitivity, and using it as fuel to create something positive. “Emotion” is a celebration of being alive.”

TRACK LISTING

Side A: Emotion Feat. Wild Nothing
Side B: Needy

Seven fretboard fantasias from California’s mysterious mail order mystic.

1973’s ‘Guitar Grimoire’ is a collection of reverberant and original charms establishing Burchette as the white wizard of tremolo theurgy.

Warning: Psychic energy shift probable.

TRACK LISTING

Birth Of A Witch
Raising The Pyramid Of Power
Love Call
Invocation To The Horned One
Fire Spell
Building The Circle
Witch’s Will

On 1977’s ‘Mind Storm’, the final album made prior to his emphatic retirement, Master Wilburn Burchette employed ‘pink sound’, a phenomenon known in acoustical science to open the mind to thrilling psychic revelations, setting down two sidelong pieces forming a reflecting crystal ball for squalls of deep br ain imagery.

TRACK LISTING

Deep Dimensions
Ceremony Within

Supernatural meditation, with a drum machine, from California’s mysterious mail order mystic.

1975’s ‘Music of the Godhead’ is the ambient alchemy that established Master Wilburn Burchette as the white wizard of tremolo theurgy.

Warning: Inner peace likely.

TRACK LISTING

Godhead
Resurrection
Eternal Light
Psychic Fire
Godward
Divine Revelation
Contemplation
Cosmic Celebration

California mail order mystic Master Wilburn Burchette was first known from his ads, hidden in the back pages of Fate Magazine, Beyond Reality and Gnostica News.

On his 1972 sophomore album, Burchette channels dreamy early music, druid folk, electric fingerstyle, psychedelic balladry and new age ontology, to create a visionary guitar technique all his own.

This faithful reproduction includes the original 12- page full colour instruction book for the secret method of piercing the psychic heart.

TRACK LISTING

Dawn Of Awakening
Regeneration
Transformation
Piercing The Psychic Heart
Invoke The Name Of God
Introversion
Realization

After three albums of reverberated guitar wandering, Master Wilburn Burchette’s 'Psychic Meditation Music' takes a turn towards the kosmiche. Two side-long synth explorations transport the listener to the avocado hues of 1974, expanding consciousness one oscillation at a time. Bug out your third eye!

TRACK LISTING

1. Yin
2. Yang

Self-examination via the synthesizer from California’s mysterious mail order mystic.

1976’s ‘Transcendental Music for Meditation’ is Burchette’s deepest exploration with the karmic keyboard.

As Burchette warned: Please do not listen to this album until you have prepared yourself!

TRACK LISTING

Part One
Part Two

Marti Caine's infamous Point Of View is a groovy blend of slow-mo funk, dark disco and precise pop. Originally released on BBC Records in 1981, it has attracted a considerable cult following this century. The odd charity shop score aside, it has been impossible to find a copy for less than eye-watering sums (often selling for over £200) and, as such, it's an honour to present the first officially licensed vinyl reissue of this sublime record. Featuring expert liner notes written by Bill Brewster - perhaps the record's most notable champion - this lovingly curated release is limited to just 500 copies.

Marti Caine was a popular UK TV entertainer in the late 1970s onwards and Point Of View presented her with an opportunity to proceed in a hip direction by working with British R&B heavyweight Barry Blue. His legendary reputation was secured with a string of great records, among them the first three Heatwave albums, the Balearic hit "Afro Dizzi Act" by Cry Cisco and the cult smash "Breakin' In" by Javaroo. However, despite the array of talent working on the album, Point Of View sank without trace at the time. It's something that Blue attributes to the bizarre way BBC Records worked, and he entertainingly expands upon this within the liner notes.

Musically, the highlights are many and memorable. Its most notorious track is the sublime soul stepper "Love The Way You Love Me", the reason most people covet this album so profoundly. However, from the dark dubby disco of "Snowbird City" to the moody ballad "Love Is Running Through Me", the lesser heralded tracks are nothing short of exquisite. Indeed, the chugging elegance of sleazy disco opener "Can I Speak To The World Please?" showcases a string-drenched strutting-funk that would've been enviable the world over. It's that good.

The outlandish artwork - presenting a striking, green-eyed Marti treating a tiger to a headlock - has been faithfully restored and is arguably worth the price of admission alone. With access to the original tape transfers, Simon Francis' sensitive mastering elevates the sound throughout and, as ever, it has been pressed at a reassuringly weighty 180g. Sadly, Marti died of lymphatic cancer at the tragically early age of 50 in 1995, so is not here to experience what we hope will be a long overdue reappraisal of the hitherto underheard genius of Marti Caine, the singer.

STAFF COMMENTS

Millie says: Marti Caine slaying it with this groovy disco and funk-filled reissue of Point of View. Featuring the legendary track ‘Love The Way You Love Me’ which is an anthem in itself. This Be With release is super limited so don’t hesitate.

TRACK LISTING

1 Can I Speak To The World Please?
2 I'll Never See You Again
3 Bitch Is Love
4 Love Is Running Through Me
5 Who
6 Love The Way You Love Me
7 You Pick Me Up (And Put Me Down)
8 Snowbird City
9 Tin Heart And The Rebel
10 Too Much Between Us 

"absent origin" is the latest album by multi-disciplinary artist Mira Calix released via Warp Records.

After periods when many things break down, new things need to be made from fragments. absent origin uses the process of collage to make sense of such fragments. Burrowed deep in rolling hills of books and magazines of her source material, Mira Calix’s studio took shape of a Scandi-Noir detectives office but in place of suspect is Calix herself cut and pasted into the artworks that circle this album. Immersing herself into the history of collage, she researched the various processes applied by artists, as well as the medium's history in relation to the 20th century and political upheaval.

Every song on the album was created by applying a different collage process relating to a different visual artist, spanning the history of collage to contemporaries of the practice. The sonic materials are subjected to a myriad of processes; layered, synthesised, constructed and assembled into electronic melodies, textures and complex, frisky dance rhythms that are constantly shifting in surprising ways. absent origin employs collage to make sense of the current moment of displaced voices, disjunction and political unrest.

On mark of resistance the collage works of Hannah Wilke have been used as inspiration; Wilke’s work is known for exploring feminist issues and aesthetics which is a fitting source of power and solidarity for the first female signee to Warp. The shredding and recreating continues on silence is silver where Matisse’s later works are referenced and on GARGLE (command V) Hannah Höch’s pioneering collage form techniques can be heard as Calix draws our attention back to the present chaos of politics and media. Syncopated and manipulated voices of rap, poetry and found sound jitter through like Jenga, fractions fractured factions and GARGLE. Although an album of sonic splinters, the consistent form is a stance on changing society for the better through art - an ethos she shares with her muses.

Calix’s recording sessions are from all over the world are the many fragments we hear across the record; from India to Tasmania, Jordan to Belgium, China to Uganda, her former home of South Africa, to her current home in Britain. Slicing into these are further recordings of vocalists, percussionists, choirs, orchestras, quartets and soloists, never appearing in the form in which they were originally intended. The record is a polyphony of predominantly diverse female voices held together by pulsating baselines, haunting electronic sounds and orchestrated melodies and with them, we travel.

As we travel, we glimpse artifacts, as if from the train window; a familiar voice, an image we once knew, but by the time we are able to focus it is long gone. The album fizzes with a political energy and the interconnectedness of everything. At this moment in time, there is an impossibility of separating one thing from another; the effect is strange and not exactly reassuring. Collage suggests infinite possibilities and each track here is a singularly unique compositional combine, a dizzying hall of mirrors with its own unlikely harmony, it’s own distinctive rhythm. On absent origin, collage becomes the tool to make sense of a present that is often anything but.

*Please note that the strike-through and lower casing are deliberate in the album title and track names*

TRACK LISTING

01. A Mark Of Resistance
02. There Is Always A Girl With A Secret
03. Silence Is Silver
04. Bower Of Bliss
05. Wooddrifts
06. Nkosezane - For My Daddy
07. Like Jenga (only It Reaches All The Way To The Sky And It’s Made Of Knives)
08. Doggerland (between The Acts)
09. Fundamental Things
10. Fractions Fractured Factions
11. I’m In Love With The End
12. Surrender
13. GARGLE (command V)
14. Dishàng Shuãng (edit)
15. Transport Me
16. An Infinite Thrum (archipelago)
17. The Abandoned Colony Collapsed My World

A mature and accomplished set of 14 songs on the timeless subjects of love, sex and the passage of time, with Chapin Carpenter at the peak of her powers writing with an assurity and vision seldom found in the more disposable aspects of today's music industry.

"The Breaks is an album of staggering neo-classic rock ambitions" - Uncut - 7/10 October 2014.

Martin Carr was the main songwriter of The Boo Radleys. He was the force behind their position as stars of Alan McGee's Creation Records, their chart hits and NME front covers, and also retains an indelible pop sense and great song craftsmanship.

The former Boo Radleys artist released previous album 'The Breaks' a few years back now, an intriguing document that dealt with the songwriter's increased feeling of isolation from the world around him.

Spending time working - unsuccessfully, he adds - on pop projects for other acts, the death of David Bowie left an enormous impact on Martin Carr.
Sparking a period of re-analysis, he emerged stronger and definitely reinvigorated. He explains: "I was wasting my time scrabbling around in the dirt for pennies, making myself more and more miserable. I reflected on how many years I'd wasted chasing smoke and mirrors, living the life of an artist but neglecting the art."

"I ditched everything else I was working on and decided to write a new album rather than waiting until I had a few songs. I started completely from scratch, writing and recording, often at the same time, in my home studio in Cardiff. I was looking for a sound and a voice to call my own. That was the starting point. The theme was to be myself, to attempt to discover what made me tick, to work out why I behaved the way I did. I wanted to go deeper and find more room in the depths."

Re-pressing of Martin Carthy's debut album, originally released on Fontana in 1965 and re-issued by Topic in 1977. In the early 1960s, the approach Martin Carthy took to folk music was nothing short of revolutionary, albeit a relatively quiet revolution befitting of his humble nature.

You wouldn't find Carthy's music clambering up the singles charts; his was not a face adorning the teen magazines. Instead, his influence was felt at a grass-roots level. He plied his trade in the folk clubs, which is where the likes of Bob Dylan and Paul Simon sought him out, enamoured of his traditional repertoire and keen to learn songs like 'Scarborough Fair' and 'Lord Franklin' directly from him before adapting them for their own purposes.

His debut eponymous album, re-released here, on vinyl by Topic Records as part of their ongoing Topic Treasures series, is a snapshot of the work he was doing at the time.

Originally finding its way into the world in 1965, courtesy of Fontana Records, Martin Carthy pulled together 14 songs from his burgeoning repertoire. Produced by Terry at the Philips Recording Studios in Marble Arch, the album was a must-learn checklist for budding guitarists and folk club orgas, and, to this day, remains an essential listen for anyone attempting to find their way into traditional English folk music. Most people turn up for 'Scarborough Fair', very few leave without getting hooked on 'High Germany', 'Sovay' and 'Ye Mariners All'.

The album also introduces Carthy's earliest collaborations with Dave Swarbrick, an enduring and much-copied partnership that lasted, off and on, until Swarbs death in 2016, and became a blueprint for how guitar and fiddle duos ought to sound. While Carthy had been building up his solo repertoire over the previous five or six years, several of the duo arrangements on this album ('Lovely Joan', 'A Begging I Will Go', 'Broomfield Hill') were thrown together in the studio, adding a fizz and freshness to the recordings. This became the pair's standard way of working. "We used to rehearse on stage, in front of the audience," he explains today.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. High Germany
2. The Trees They Do Grow High
3. Sovay
4. Ye Mariners All
5. The Queen Of Hearts
6. Broomfield Hill
7. Springfield Mine Disaster

Side 2
1. Scarborough Fair
2. Lovely Joan
3. The Barley And The Rye
4. The Wind That Shakes The Barley
5. The Two Magicians
6. The Handsome Cabin Boy
7. And A Begging I Will Go

In celebration of his incredible career, Martin Carthy's brand-new album, 'Transform Me Then Into A Fish' marks both his 84th birthday and a full-circle moment in his musical journey.

This special release revisits his iconic 1965 debut album, featuring newly recorded arrangements of its classic tracks, reimagined with the wisdom and experience of six decades in folk music.

Fans can expect fresh interpretations of beloved songs like 'Scarborough Fair' and 'High Germany', infused with Carthy's ever-evolving artistry while staying true to the deep tradition he has championed throughout his life.

This album not only honours his roots but also reaffirms his enduring influence on the folk genre, offering both longtime listeners and new audiences a chance to rediscover the timeless magic of his music.

Nominated for the 2025 Mercury Prize

TRACK LISTING

1. The Trees They Do Grow High
2. Ye Mariners All
3. Lovely Joan
4. Dream Of Napoleon
5. Eighteenth Of June
6. The Handsome Cabin Boy
7. A- Begging I Will Go
8. High Germany
9. The Famous Flower Of Serving Men
10. Scarborough Fair
11. The Ballad Of Springhill 

Two giants of the English folk scene with a canny selection of tracks from their early years together. Carthy has never been better than on "Lucy Wan", "Davy Lowston" and the equally haunting "Long Lankin" all songs dripping in blood and death. The understanding between the two players is there for all to see and the intervening years has simply enhanced these tracks.

Influenced by a life split between Lima, London, and Twentynine Palms, Peru-born M. Caye Castagnetto’s Leap Second is an intriguingly personal and hard to classify debut album. The album is a thick collage of samples Caye recorded with different artists and musicians, including Beatrice Dillon and the late Aileen Bryant, that spans five years in the making. There is something in Leap Second that tracks the speed of bodies, how they approach and retreat. The ten tracks are speedy and languid, thick ruffles, and dirges. In parts it feels like one’s stumbled upon a forgotten incredible ’70s folk record but that feeling gets broken quickly by clever sleights of hand. Caye’s balladry is angular, time is elastic. Each song is a fresh cape. How dandies really mean it, so masc- that it’s fay, how the only moment is this one and it’s just passed, etcetera.

“While it doesn’t really sound like anything else, there are moments that feel like a Latin-flavored Nico, that’s edging its way towards some of the outings of the Sun City Girls. In my opinion it checks all the boxes, by checking none of them.” —Bjorn Copeland, Black Dice. 

“A truly interesting conglomeration of loose inspirations and conjurings. A hard to decipher sound all together which makes it worth every moment...a sprinkling of Catherine Ribeiro, Dr. John, Terje Rypdal and Nico. Far-out sun-soaked odysseys and moon-dappled woodland night creepers...” —John Dwyer.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Invented Disco
2. Stopping You
3. Slippery Snakes
4. Mi Mentira
5. All Points North
6. Amor Cabra
7. Hands On The Business
8. Until
9. Street Trees, Evening Green
10. Chase Water, Blue Moon

The Brazilian composer, pianist and producer, Mario Castro Neves and his group, Samba S A's self-titled album from 1967 is oozing with class.

It possesses that archetypal 60's bossa nova, jazz, samba sound. We'd place it up there with Sergio Mendes at his finest, Tambo Trio or Milton Banana. It's a breezy ride that touches on easy listening at times, but it holds it together with a cool swagger. Biba and Thais Do Amaral's vocals are on point, with a relaxed delivery that compliments the tracks with the sublime beauty a la vocal groups such as Quarteto Em Cy, who Biba also sang with, as well as with Antonio Adolfo's e A Brazuca. Also appearing on the record is bassist extraordinaire, Novelli who worked with Milton Nascimento, Nelson Angelo E Joyce, Airto, and many of the greats of Brazilian music of the time.

The album has long been a favourite with DJs and collectors over the years, with songs selected for compilations by Gilles Peterson and Nicola Conte. One of the centrepieces of the album, 'Candomble', has been sampled by Cut Chemist on his track 'Povo De Santo'. The song 'Nana' is punchy and light with dancefloor- jazz appeal. The gloriously catchy 'Vem Balancar' is a brilliant bossa shuffler. A superb listen throughout, the album sticks to a framework but delivers in spades.

Though released on the major- label RCA Victor, original copies are elusive, sought-after items with a price tag to match. For this reissue, we have opted for the Mono master, mirroring the original 1967 Brazilian pressing. Instantly familiar, the album has a welcoming feeling of nostalgia and is something that stays with you from the first listen.

A sublime bossa nova and samba rarity from 1967.

Includes 'Candomble', as sampled by Cut Chemist.

For fans of early Sergio Mendes and Quarteto em Cy.

TRACK LISTING

Candomble
Yearning Lovers
Nana
De Brincadeira
Bye Bye Blackbird
E Nada Mais
Keep Talking
Vem Balancar
Once More
Morte De Um Deus De Sal
Ta Por Fora
Corcovado

The masterful follow-up to his universally celebrated 2017 album 50, Michael Chapman’s True North finds the elder statesman of British song writing and guitar plumbing an even deeper deep and honing an ever keener edge to his iconic writing. This authoritative set of predominantly new, and utterly devastating, songs hews to a more intimate sonic signature—more atmospheric, textural, and minimalist than 50, stately and melancholy in equal measure. Recorded in rural West Wales, True North unflinchingly surveys home and horizon, traveling from the Bahamas to Texas to the Leeds of Chapman’s childhood, haunted by the mirages of memory and intimations of mortality. Joining him on this introspective journey is a cast of old friends and new disciples: once again Steve Gunn produces and plays guitar, and fellow UK song writing hero Bridget St John sings, collaborating with cellist Sarah Smout and legendary pedal steel player BJ Cole, who has accompanied everyone from John Cale to Scott Walker, Elton John to Terry Allen, Felt to Björk.

The album begins with the gnawing regret of “It’s Too Late,” and every song Chapman sings thereafter directly references the passing of time—its blind ruthlessness, its sweet hazy delights in noirish language almost mystical in its terseness and precision. (The two transportive, gorgeous instrumentals, one per side, both have appropriately evocative—though decidedly not Northern—pastoral place names for titles: Eleuthera is an island in the Bahamas where Chapman habitually holidays every winter, and Caddo Lake straddles the border between Texas and Louisiana.) This is Chapman at his darkest and most nocturnal, yes, but also his most elegant and subtle, squinting into the black hours with an unseen smile. By the time True North is out in the world, Chapman will be seventy-eight years old and will have released nearly as many records, a staggering achievement. True North represents the most nakedly personal album of his career, his most authoritative, unguarded, and emotionally devastating statement. His universally celebrated full-band 2017 album 50 flirted with much-deserved triumphalism, offering a retrospective of his illustrious career, revisited in the company of the fellow UK song writing hero Bridget St John and a rowdy gang of younger acolytes including Steve Gunn, James Elkington, and Nathan Bowles. The production hearkens back to Chapman’s classic Millstone Grit (1973), as well as recalling Bob Dylan’s Time Out of Mind (1997); True North shares something of that album’s spectral gloaming, midnight heartache, and sly, self-knowing winks. Compared to 50, these recordings feel narrower in range, less overtly narrative and dynamic and more impressionistic and restrained, but they are correspondingly more piercing and arrow-like in their rending impact, more concerned with an archer’s deadeye aim than pyrotechnics. Whereas 50 featured two new songs among radical reinterpretations of material from Chapman’s deep catalogue, True North includes twice as many new numbers among its quiver of eleven arrows—“It’s Too Late,” “Eleuthera,” the fiery “Bluesman,” and slow-rolling album centre piece “Truck Song”—confirming the exultant return of Chapman the songwriter. The other songs were selected from various obscure corners of Chapman’s vast catalogue (“Youth Is Wasted on the Young” was previously recorded with Thurston Moore and Jim O’Rourke for a compilation, for example.) In these renderings they receive their definitive treatments, utterly transformed.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Chapman once again providing a tender but devastatingly evocative suite of brittle acoustic numbers, slowly strummed or skilfully picked cascades of guitar, all topped with Chapman's husky but perfectly fitting vocal accompaniment. Encompassing aspects of outsider folk and campfire revelry with the characteristic shadowy acoustic undercurrent inherent in all of his work. Quintessentially Chapman.

TRACK LISTING

A1. “It's Too Late” 4:25
A2. “After All This Time” 4:06
A3. “Vanity & Pride” 3:34
A4. “Eleuthera” 2:50
A5. “Bluesman” 3:35
A6. “Full Bottle, Empty Heart” 3:20
B1. “Truck Song” 6:08
B2. “Caddo Lake” 5:55
B3. “Hell To Pay” 4:13
B4. “Youth Is Wasted On The Young” 4:02
B5. “Bon Ton Roolay” 2:43

The legendary Guitarist chooses tracks from his two Americana albums and releases them on 180 gram 12” vinyl, featuring extensive sleevenotes.

Michael also took the photograph for the front cover.

TRACK LISTING

Swamp
Ponchateulah
Caddo Lake
Anything But The Blues
Blues For The Mother Road
When Dottie Goes Dancing
Apache Creek
Looking For Charlie In Nogales
Dust Devils
So Many Echoes

Martin Christie, beat-box poet and purveyor of electronic music open mic's across the country brings us his newest outing, 'The End Of All Things', brimming with snappy chiptune percussion, bitcrushed wordsmithery and tongue-in-cheek political commentary. We kick things off with the pocket-operated pinging envelopes and panned percussive glitches of 'No Stranger To Controversy', as hypnotic and propulsive a beginning as you could hope for. The machinated and industrious instrumental backline providing a stark contrast to the warmingly frank lyrical themes. 

The following duo of 'All The Worlds Strangers' and 'Smells Of London' clearly owe a little more to classic singer-songwritery than the opener, with the former holding a frankly jaw-dropping falsetto amongst it's warmingly full-sounding folky soundscapes and perfectly recorded sparkling acoustic guitar, and the latter edging more towards mellow indica-dominant downbeat, flecked with spikes of snares punctuating the solid synth bassline. 

As we move into the latter half of this delightful mini-album, Christie shows his diverse range of skills, with minimalistic vocal synth-pop (Hurricane Desmond) and pulsing, machinated synth swirls coupled with bit-crushed squeals and blipping, off-kilter percussives (Fighting Men). Finishing things off with the killer closing duology of 'Silent Spring', redolent of classic folk-pop moving slowly and gracefully into the end of all things, 'The End Of All Things' moving back into glitched-out Italo territory for a finishing and frankly spine-tinglingly effective closing salvo. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Christie is both a clear talent and undeniable bastion of the DIY electronic scene, offering a keen ear for melody and an understated and frankly astounding vocal accompaniment. Superb stuff.

TRACK LISTING

1. No Stranger To Controversy
2. All The Worlds Strangers
3. Smells Of London
4. Hurricane Desmond
5. Fighting Men
6. Silent Spring
7. The End Of All Things

He teams up with the cult Brighton based experimental artist Alasdair Willis (The Vitamin B 12) who plays saxophone on 3 of the 11 tracks on the album.

The album has all the hallmarks of an Emote record and more. Likely to be listed as down tempo / abstract ambient and blending many different styles together.

If you are in tune with free jazz and abstract electronic tribal music you should find this good home spooky listening .

Supported by Chloe Alice Frieda of Alien Jams and Damo B of the Outer Limits Radio Show 

TRACK LISTING

A1. Home And Dry
A2. Poi Poi Poi
A3. Are Gate
B1. Homage To V Neck
B2. Old Duck.
B3. Loaded
C1. Segway
C2. Odd Stoop
C3. Naughty Letter
D1. ESP Gulls
D2. Mask-Debate 

On June 15th, 2014, Jason Isbell reunited with former bandmates Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood for an in the round style acoustic performance at the Shoals Theatre in Florence, AL. Now the special night is available as a 4 LP boxed set and on CD. The setlist includes acoustic versions of Isbell-era Drive-By Truckers gems as well as post-Isbell Truckers tracks and solo Isbell favorites,

TRACK LISTING

1. Intro
2. Tornadoes
3. Carl Perkins' Cadillac
4. Decoration Day
5. Heathens
6. Eyes Like Glue
7. TVA
8. Puttin' People On The Moon
9. Marry Me
10. Goddamn Lonely Love
11. My Sweet Annette
12. Women Without Whiskey
13. Outfit
14. Daddy Needs A Drink
15. Self Destructive Zones
16. Cover Me Up
17. The Living Bubba
18. Space City
19. Danko/Manuel
20. Grand Canyon
21. Cartoon Gold
22. Alabama Pines
23. Zip City
24. Never Gonna Change
25. Let There Be Rock

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2016 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

First-ever reissue of Cooper’s rare first recordings and PoB’s first Record Store Day release. RIYL Mike Cooper, Michael Chapman, Jackson C. Frank, Davey Graham, Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Wizz Jones, or Clive Palmer. Available on virgin vinyl as a limited-edition 45 rpm 7”, with heavy-duty color jacket, restored original artwork, and notes. In 2014 Paradise of Bachelors reissued iconoclastic English-born, Rome-based folk and experimental music legend Mike Cooper’s classic triptych of early 1970s avant-folk-rock records—Trout Steel (1970) and Places I Know/The Machine Gun Co. with Mike Cooper (1971-72)—to widespread critical acclaim, including Best New Reissue recognition from Pitchfork and Rolling Stone. But Cooper sowed the seeds of his deconstructivist music five years earlier in his rare earliest recordings, until now scarcely known and never reissued—fitting fodder for PoB’s very first Record Store Day release. Named for The Shades, the Reading, UK folk club where he regularly performed, and which employed and housed guitar prodigy Derek Hall—who later played on Cooper’s 1969 debut LP Oh Really!?—the little-heard Out of the Shades EP was released in an extremely limited edition by local label Kennet Recordings in 1965 as KRS 766. The songs were recorded live to a single microphone in the kitchen/bathroom/former outhouse of Mike’s rambling Georgian apartment, on a portable Ferrograph reel-to-reel that the engineer otherwise used for “recording birds and trains.” By 1965 Mike had already progressed beyond and exhausted his interest in electric Chicago blues with his first band The Blues Committee. He was now a peer of British folk scene stalwarts like Davey Graham, Wizz Jones, Bert Jansch, and John Renbourn, hosting folk nights up to five nights a week at venerable Reading and London clubs like Les Cousins, The Latin Quarter, The Elephant, and The Shades, Hall’s home base. Cooper recalls his former partner’s artistry and skill with fondness and wonder:

TRACK LISTING

A1. "Paul’s Song" 3.20 A2. "Darlin’" 2.33 B1. "Livin’ With The Blues" 2.57 B2. "Skillet" 2.51

RIYL: Derek Bailey, David Bowie, Tim Buckley, John Cale, Michael Chapman, Lol Coxhill, Davey Graham, Steve Gunn, Van Morrison, Louis Moholo, Mike Osborne, Lou Reed, Sonny Sharrock & Television.

Mike Cooper wrote his final songwriter record, a suite of gloaming glam-rock anthems performed with a spiritual jazz trio, while living on the Costa Tropical of Granada, Spain, an era when he was considering retiring from music altogether. A chance encounter and a last-ditch record deal convinced him to make one last album, which he recorded in 1974 at Pathway Studios in London, with “The Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World,” featuring the inventive South African jazz rhythm section of Louis Moholo and Harry Miller with UK saxophonist Mike Osborne.

This first-ever reissue includes a bonus CD of Milan Live Acoustic 2018, a previously unreleased solo set that represents Cooper’s return, after forty-four years pursuing free improvisation and electronics, to a new, deconstructed approach to singing, steel guitar, and songcraft.

The deluxe LP+CD edition also features a six-panel insert with additional artwork and an essay by the artist about both records. The deluxe 2xCD gatefold edition features an eight-panel version of the same insert.

In the wake of his magisterial triptych of early 1970s avant-folk-rock records Trout Steel (1970), Places I Know (1971), and The Machine Gun Co. (1972) the British songwriter, guitarist, and fledgling improviser Mike Cooper retreated to the Costa Tropical of Granada, Spain. With no prospects for touring or recording again, his fiery band the Machine Gun Co. had disintegrated. Cooper sets the scene in his liner notes of the first-ever reissue of his unjustly forgotten next album Life and Death in Paradise (1974): No one came running with offers of fame and riches, and we fell apart, and I left the country and headed for the beach, disillusioned and a bit disorientated musically. I went to Almuñécar in Andalusia, a place I had been going since 1969, because a painter friend from Reading, Rowland Fade who made the collage in the gatefold of my earlier album Trout Steel had moved there in 1968.

It was in this synthetic coastal “paradise,” unmoored and adrift, considering retiring from music altogether, that he began tentatively writing new songs. A chance encounter with producer Tony Hall, who offered Cooper a last-ditch record deal on Hall’s nascent Fresh Air label, convinced him to make one last album with the stipulation that he could assemble what he called “The Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World.” I told Tony that I would do it if I could hire some of my South African jazz musician friends that I had used on my Pye/Dawn albums and some friends from Reading that I still knew and admired. I called up Harry Miller, Louis Moholo, and Mike Osborne, who were in fact a trio at the time … and several local Reading heroes, including the singer-songwriter Terry Clarke. The result, recorded live with minimal overdubbing at Pathway Studios in London, was Life and Death in Paradise, an utterly singular suite of gloaming glam-rock anthems performed with a spiritual jazz trio comprising the inventive South African jazz rhythm section of Moholo and Miller with UK saxophonist Osborne. Unlike anything else in Cooper’s extensive catalog. Fresh Air fizzled, and Life and Death became Cooper’s final record as a songwriter, having pushed the form as far as he could.

Drifting north from Spain back to the UK, he fell into the scene of the London Musicians Collective (LMC) including Paul Burwell, David Toop, and saxophonist Lol Coxhill, Cooper’s bandmate in the Recedents and fully embraced free improvisation. He was still, however, interested in singing and lyrics, so, influenced by Tom Phillips, William Burroughs, and Brion Gysin, he began experimenting with text collage and cut-up techniques, arriving at his own hybrid compositional strategy for improvisatory songs. The previously unreleased solo set Milan Live Acoustic 2018 represents Cooper’s return, after more than four decades pursuing free improvisation and electronics, to a new, deconstructed approach to singing, lap steel guitar, and songcraft. Presented here together with Life and Death in Paradise, the two records provide fascinating bookends to Mike Cooper’s long, mercurial, and pioneering practice as a songmaker.

TRACK LISTING

Life And Death In Paradise:
A1. Rocket Summer
A2. Black Night Crash (including “Horry Rocker Show”)
A3. O.M.M. Coda
B1. Suicide De Luxe (including “Rock And Roll Hi Way”)
B2. Life And Death In Paradise (including “Through A Veil,” “Beads On A String,” And “Reprise”)
B3. Critical Incidents

Milan Live Acoustic 2018:
1. Migrants Song
2. Approaching Zero
3. Industrial Hazard
4. In Moments Of Reverie
5. Peach Trees
6. Sage And Thyme
7. Lord Franklin

While self-proclaimed "garage and jackin' house" revivalist Marc Cotterell has developed his Plastik People label into a fine outlet blessed with an ever-growing family of artists, he still maintains a steady release schedule of his own. The British producer is naturally in good form on his latest Plastik People missive. Check first opener 'Take Your Time', where breezy piano stabs and deliciously soulful vocals ride a squelchy bassline and loose-limbed garage-house beats, before admiring the more "trad" soulful house flex of the gorgeous and lightly funky 'Mysterious Ex'. Over on side B, 'Feed The Soul' is a string-laden slab of revivalist New Jersey garage-house goodness which doffs a cap to the early 1990s, while 'This Life Living' re-casts Jill Scott R&B classic 'Golden' as a rolling soulful house delight.

TRACK LISTING

Take Your Time
Mysterious Ex
Feed The Soul
This Life Living

When Martin Courtney was a teenager, he knew how to get lost. In the late ‘90s and early 2000s, there’s Martin, loaded into a car with friends. They’re navigating the suburban sprawl of New Jersey with no destination in mind. He and his friends would “get thoroughly confused and look for familiar green signs with arrows pointing to towns we’d heard of. We’d call them ‘magic signs,’” he says.

That’s the thing about magic: when you go looking for it, you start to see it everywhere. And you can hear it twinklingly throughout the ten songs on Magic Sign, the second solo album written, performed, & produced by the Real Estate songwriter. The album was recorded, mixed & co-produced by Rob Schnapf. Additional performers include Matt Barrick, Oliver Hill, Kacey Johansing, and Tim Ramsey

Prepare to experience a true soul gem reimagined for the modern age with this special 7-inch reissue of Matt Covington’s classic, I'm So In Love With You. Originally released in 1983, this rare groove masterpiece captures the essence of early '80s R&B with its smooth, heartfelt vocals and lush instrumentation. Covington’s romantic delivery and the track's elegant arrangement have made it a coveted piece for collectors and soul aficionados alike, with the original pressing becoming increasingly hard to find over the years. For the first time ever, I’m So In Love With You is being reissued, allowing a new generation of listeners to discover its timeless charm. On the flip side, we’ve included Muhammad Ali, a standout cut from Covington’s self-titled album that resonates with soul, funk, and infectious energy. A favorite of acclaimed DJ Floating Points, Muhammad Ali pays tribute to the legendary boxer with a groove that’s as fierce as its namesake. Whether this has been sat in your wantlist for years or new to Matt Covington’s music, this 7-inch offers an essential addition to your collection. With its impeccable blend of silky soul and rhythmic punch, this reissue promises to become as cherished as the original release.

Mikal Cronin releases Seeker, his fourth and finest full-length to date. Recorded live with a crew of close friends and engineer Jason Quever at Palmetto Studios in Los Angeles, it finds Cronin pushing his often devastating power pop into darker territory—from the isolation of “Show Me” to the desperation of “Fire” to the unadorned heartache of “Sold.”

It comes with a backstory that feels like fate. Cronin writes:

I was stuck. I’d had a rough few years. Relationships end, begin, and end again. I had to stay active, tour with other bands, make music through various other avenues—writer’s block is real and it can crush you, scratching at an itch you can’t quite get. I needed to clean up, to stop leaning on external crutches to get through the anxiety. I needed to grow the fuck up.

I needed a change.

I went to the woods, to Idyllwild, a small town in the mountains of southern California. I spent a month in a cabin there, alone with my cat, Ernie. It was so quiet and peaceful. I got weird looks at the store. I got bug bites that didn’t heal for months. I walked around a small lake a few times. I wrote. I took literally something that’s usually a hypothetical, something every artist thinks about doing. It worked: A large majority of Seeker was written and demoed there.

But then I had to go, immediately. An arsonist had sparked a series of fires and the woods exploded. I saw the flames coming up the hill as I packed up all my instruments and recording equipment. Ernie hid under the bed and was the last to go. I got him in the car just as the police came up the street to help with evacuations. I ended up home in LA a few days early; a small blessing because I was losing my mind a bit.

Once I was back, I was ready to make something. I needed help. I found Jason [Quever] and his studio. I collected as many friends as I could and brought them in to record live with me. I needed the energy of a group of people in a room playing together—a simple concept but one that I had never tried with my own songs. Most of the record is backed by Ty Segall’s Freedom Band. I play bass in this band. We had been touring and playing together for a long run over a few years, so it seemed natural to stick together.

I aimed for nature. I wanted organic sounds. I wanted to bring you into the room. Jason and I talked about The Beatles’ White Album a lot when placing mics. I brought a charred pine cone from the woods to the studio, just in case it would help. Fire—specifically its cycle of purging and reseeding the landscape—is a central theme to the record. Death and rebirth.

I was looking for something: answers, direction, peace. I am the seeker.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Superb new album from Ty Segall's Mikal Cronin, encompassing the shredding psych-rock vibe of his parent band but with a definite sound of his own. Tender moments are cut through with a swathe of distorted guitar and Cronin's gravelly vocals. At points, 'Seeker' veers towards country-rock but with a more edgy, saturated edge. A brilliant development for Cronin, and a thrilling journey for us.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1 Shelter 3:48
2 Show Me 4:50
3 Feel It All 4:58
4 Fire 4:35
5 Sold 3:27
Side B
6 I've Got Reason 3:46
7 Caravan 2:05
8 Guardian Well 5:17
9 Lost A Year 5:07
10 On The Shelf 2:59

Bonus 12" On Dinked Edition:
Side A
Arsonist 17:07
Side B
Tsinosra 17:07

On May 4, Mikal Cronin will return with MCIII. Marked by the lush arrangements, stunning melodies, and deeply personal lyrical work for which Cronin is now known, the album is also a deliberate attempt to simply “go big.”

As he did on his self-titled 2011 debut and 2013’s MCII, Cronin arranged and played nearly all of the record himself, including the tzouras, a traditional Greek string instrument he heard and subsequently bought while on tour in Athens. There’s French horn, saxophone, and trumpet. There are mood-altering crescendos and heartbreaking turns-of-phrase, guitars both gorgeous and pugnacious. No longer satisfied with the sound of “just one string player,” Cronin arranged parts for a full string quartet instead.

"What if you had the chance to tell your hero just how much they meant to you? If Nick Drake came to my house and knocked upon the door, I’m sure I’d be more happy than I’ve ever been before…"

In If Nick Drake Came to My House, Mackenzie Crook – the creator of Detectorists and Worzel Gummidge – explores the power of art to impact our lives, expressed through an imaginary visit from the late, great singer-songwriter. A tender homage to a classic book by Joan Gale Thomas, Crook’s first book for adults is infused with his characteristic warm humour, both in the story and his beautiful illustrations. It’s a book for anyone who has ever wished they had the chance to tell their hero how much they meant to them.

Analog Africa's new release 'Siria' is a collection of carefully selected tracks drawn from the great Mestre Cupijo's six studio albums. Coming from the state of Para in Northern Brazil 'siria' is a cross pollination between the music of the inhabitants of the Quilombos, a Brazilian hinterland settlement founded by escaped slaves of African origins, and the indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest.

It is a breathing, pulsing, emphatic beat, and the modernised version of this local music, created by Mestre Cupijó, has been igniting street parties and traditional festivals across the state of Pará in Northern Brazil for decades.

To grasp the soul of this music, Cupijó went to its source and lived with the quilombolas (maroon) community of the Amazon. Upon his return, enriched by this life-changing experience, he founded the band Jazz Orquestra os Azes do Ritmo with the goal of reinventing siriá and modernising samba de cacete, banguê and other folkloric music of the state of Pará. Airwaves from the Caribbean and Latin America had also brought the cumbia sound of the mighty Colombian orchestras, merengue from the Dominican republic and Cuban music to the Amazon, all of which had an impact on the music of Northern Brazil, mambo especially! Mestre Cupijó took these influences and mixed them in with the ingredients he had studied in the Quilombos. That fusion - as we are witnessing on this record - had explosive effects.

Analog Africa are ferociously proud and honoured to have the chance to present these carefully selected tracks from Mestre Cupijó's six studio albums. They hope that his music captivates you with the magic and bewilderment and they recognise his compositions as true anthems of life and vitality, vibrantly encouraging all to drink and dance until sunrise! Let go of your inhibitions and immerse yourself in the wonderful world of Mestre Cupijó - Segura!

North UK-based tape musician Michael Cutting makes his album debut with STILLS on Salford’s beloved imprint Ono. Relish- ing in the lo-fi, analogue textures offered by the pairing of fender rhodes piano and reel to reel tape machines, the album’s seven tracks act as vignettes; tempting with loop-induced isorhythms of warping, disintegrating harmonies. An extended re- working of Cutting’s live set for the same instruments, STILLS heavily retains the sense of live process, evoking precariously balanced loops between tape machines and thermoflasks, with the distinctive clicks and clunks of the reel to reels’ buttons and levers an intrinsic element to the sonic discourse.

Cutting’s use of melody — plaintive, jaunty, occasionally drifting off-key — perfectly suits the nature of his tape-based ‘instruments’, with their inherent flaws, uncertainties, and means of making sound [...] STILLS is full of such attractive contrasts of melody, harmony, and rhythm, made all the more compelling by the ways in which they incorporate the material nature of the machines and processes that produce them

TRACK LISTING

1. Smoke
2. Scorch
3. Skint
4. Slate
5. Silk
6. Salt.
7. Sway

The live version of French pianist's covers album available for the first time on vinyl. Songs covered along with a couple of originals by The Pixies Joy Division, Arcade Fire, Nirvana, Depeche Mode. Also included are a new exclusive rework of The Pixies 'Where Is My Mind' by the Toxic Avenger.

TRACK LISTING

1. Please Have A Seat (Maxence Cyrin)
2. Disorder (Joy Division)
3. Behind The Wheel (Depeche Mode)
4. No Cars Go (Arcade Fire)
5. Lithium (Nirvana)
6. Empty Church (Maxence Cyrin)
7. Where Is My Mind ? (The Pixies)
8. Where Is My Mind ? (The Pixies) - The Toxic Avenger Rework

It's already been a full decade since mega pop star Miley Cyrus went on a crash course to shatter her Hannah Montana image with the "controversial" Bangerz. Cropping her hair to near skinhead levels, endorsing free love and marijuana usage, and shooting an array of music videos that became viral hits thanks to endless twerking and nakedly riding atop a wrecking ball, the era was a ludicrous yet retrospectively vital time in the pop icon's career. The semi-aforementioned 'Wrecking Ball' would become a global smash hit while 'We Can't Stop' and 'Adore You' also made for chart-toppers that led to the album becoming an assured outlier in the once Disney-approved songstress' catalogue. Celebrating its ten year anniversary with a sea glass double LP reissue, there's never been a more ideal time to revisit this array of transformative, carefree bangers.

Released on RCA Records, "Endless Summer Vacation" is the eagerly anticipated new album from recording artist, songwriter & trailblazer Miley Cyrus. This collection is Miley’s eighth studio album & the follow up to 2020’s album, ''Plastic Hearts''.

2023 finds Miley the strongest and most confident she’s ever been, with the music and imagery of ''Endless Summer Vacation'' serving as a reflection of that. Recorded in Los Angeles & produced with Kid Harpoon, Greg Kurstin, Mike WiLL Made-It and Tyler Johnson, Miley describes the album as her love letter to LA.

Miley Cyrus' ninth studio album, 'Something Beautiful' features 13 original tracks and is executive produced by Miley Cyrus and Shawn Everett.

Captured by renowned fashion photographer Glen Luchford, the album artwork features Miley Cyrus draped in archival 1997 Thierry Mugler couture, a striking nod to the album’s bold aesthetic and visual storytelling.

TRACK LISTING

TBA

Everyone wanted Madonna’s 1992 album Erotica to be a scandal. In the midst of a culture war, conservatives wanted it to be proof of the decline of family values. The target of conservative loathing, gay men reeling from the AIDS epidemic wanted it to be a celebration of a sexual culture that had rapidly slipped away.

And Madonna herself wanted to sell scandal, which is why she released Erotica in the same season as her erotic thriller Body of Evidence and her pornographic coffee-table book simply titled Sex. But Erotica is more sentimental than pornographic. This ambivalence over sex is what makes the album crucial both for understanding its time and for navigating culture a generation later.

As queer politics were transitioning from sexual liberation to civil rights like same-sex marriage, Madonna tried to do both. Her songs proved formative for works of queer theory, which emerged in the academy at the same time as the album. And Erotica was—and is—central to a developing consciousness about cultural appropriation.

In this book, Michael Dango considers Erotica and its legacy by drawing both on the intellectual traditions at the center of today’s hysteria over critical race theory and “don’t say gay” and on his own experiences as a gay man too young to know the original carnage of AIDS and too old to grow up assuming he could get married. Madonna offered up Erotica as a key entry in the 1990s culture wars. Her album speaks all the more urgently to the culture wars of today

Renowned US-Dutch gospel-soul powerhouse Michelle David & The True-tones mark a bold new chapter with their forthcoming album, 'Soul Woman'. Building on the critical acclaim of 2024’s 'Brothers & Sisters', a record that held a mirror to the complexities of the world, the new LP 'Soul Woman' turns inward — a deeply personal exploration of identity, healing, and spiritual resilience.

TRACK LISTING

1. Running
2. Soul Woman
3. Golden Sun
4. You’ll Never Know
5. Flow
6. Speak To Me
7. Pick Up The Pieces
8. When All Is Said And Done
9. Seasons
10. I Thank You

'The Best Of Miles Davis' is a new compilation released to celebrate the legendary jazz trumpeters centennial in 2026. Designed as an introduction to this influential artist, it covers his prime years between 1956 and 1961, during which time he recorded albums including 'Workin', 'Cookin', 'Steamin' and 'Relaxin'. The 8 cuts included feature 'Round Midnight', 'My Funny Valentine', 'Just Squeeze Me (But Don't Tease Me)' and more.

TRACK LISTING

1. Just Squeeze Me
2. Oleo
3. ’Round Midnight
4. Airegin
5. My Funny Valentine
6. Well, You Needn’t
7. You’re My Everything
8. Four

Marie Davidson is back with a new album “Renegade Breakdown” on Ninja Tune. A new band, and a bold new sound under the banner of Marie Davidson & L'Œil Nu, it is a trio formed of old-time friends with shared roots in Montreal’s DIY scene: Marie, Pierre Guerineau (also in Essaie pas on DFA) and Asaël R. Robitaille. The record follows previous album “Working Class Woman” (2018) and is drawn to the idea of the eternal return, they deliver a forward-facing, innovative pop record that builds on the classic tenets of Marie’s music to create something that strikes out towards a broader audience. With dark humour and interpolated musical influences from Fleetwood Mac to Kraftwerk, Billie Holiday and Chet Baker. 

If there’s a mood that encapsulates “Renegade Breakdown”, it’s the one found at 3AM after a long night, when it’s time to start putting on the classics.

TRACK LISTING

Renegade Breakdown
Back To Rock
Worst Comes To Worst
Center Of The World (Kotti Blues)
La Ronde
C’est Parce Que J’m’en Fous
Just In My Head
Lead Sister
My Love
Sentiment

Canadian DJ-producer Marie Davidson releases her sixth studio album 'City Of Clowns', made in collaboration with Soulwax and Pierre Guerineau (Essaie pas, L’Œil Nu, Feu St-Antoine), via Soulwax’s own Deewee label. Earlier this year, Davidson debuted on the legendary Deewee imprint with her single 'Y.A.A.M. (Your Asses Are Mine)', reuniting with the Belgian powerhouse Soulwax, who previously reworked Davidson’s acclaimed 'Work It' anthem. Her all-out blistering club cut “Contrarian” soon followed, evoking Davidson's heavier output.

'City Of Clowns', marks a return to the club – but not as you know it. The techno thump and scathing spoken-word delivery of 'Working Class Woman' resurface at points, but the pop structures and melodic sensibilities of 'Renegade Breakdown' also remain. It’s a “strange” sonic blend even by Davidson’s own standards. “It’s definitely linking back to what I was doing pre-pandemic, but with a bit of an evolution,” she says. “I didn't want to just repeat myself.” The sound and the spirit of the album are shaped, too, by the fact that Davidson has a new antagonist. This time it’s not club culture that’s coming for her sense of self, it’s Big Tech.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Scattered electronic fragments melt together into a big, robotic monolith of Linn drums, glitchy vocals and melted oscillators.

TRACK LISTING

1. Validations Weight
2. Demolition
3. Sexy Clown
4. Push Me Fuckhead
5. Fun Times
6. Statistical Modelling
7. Y.A.A.M.
8. Contrarian
9. Unknowing 

Marie Davidson Returns with a club-ready 12”: ‘City Of Clowns (MDJ Tools)’ - Featuring Soulwax Dubs on DEEWEE.

Utilising their inimitable remixing style, Soulwax pump up and strip back Davidson’s ‘Push Me Fuckhead’ and ‘Sexy Clown’ for maximum dancefloor effect. The release also includes an electrifying contemporary version of 'Sexy Clown,' co-produced in the studio with Pierre Guerineau and tailored for Davidson’s acclaimed 2025 live performances.

This latest release follows Davidson’s 2025 album, a record that saw her expand her artistic language through a fusion of 90s Detroit techno grit, fired-up circuitboard breakbeats and skewed club minimalism. As with much of her work, the album used music as a means to navigate her place in the world - as an artist, as a woman, and as an entertainer. Conceptual yet emotionally raw, Davidson continues to push the boundaries of electronic music, creating work that is both deeply cerebral and disarmingly human.

With both Soulwax and Marie sharing a commitment to bold, physical sound and restless reinvention, ‘City Of Clowns (MDJ Tools)’ stands as a natural meeting point - a late-night dialogue between two of modern electronic music’s most distinctive voices.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Maria's patented brand of future-electro-aggression gets tweaked further by label heads Soulwax. Just try to sit still to this shit I challenge you!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Push Me Fuckhead (Soulwax Dub Mix)
B1. Sexy Clown (Soulwax Dub Mix)
B2. Sexy Clown (MDJ Tool) 

More than sixty years old, Walkin' still remains a crucial staging post in the history of jazz. Originally recorded in 1954 and initially issued on a couple of 10 albums, it features a mix of quintet and sextet material, recorded during his spell with Prestige Records and produced by Bob Weinstock. The various tracks were gathered together, along with a previously unreleased track, and issued as a 12 album in 1957. The end result is an important album in the development of bop music, a genre Miles Davis practically owned. 

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Walkin'
2. Blue N' Boogie
Side B
1. Solar
2. You Don't Know What Love Is
3. Love Me Or Leave Me 

Miles marries Betty, gets the funk and this is the end result: Along with "Kind Of Blue", but coming from a completely different angle, "Bitches Brew" is probably Davis' most celebrated work. Recorded in three days in August of 1969 and often heralded as the first shot fired in the fusion movement, "Bitches Brew" melds jazz with rock, and as an essential part of any psyche-prog head's record collection as jazz fans. Davis had already spearheaded two major jazz movements (cool and modal jazz) and was about to initiate another major change (the album's cover also sports the phrase "Directions In Music By Miles Davis" above the title). Most of the musicians (Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul, Jack DeJohnette, Chick Corea ) who played on the album went on to become giants of the 1970s fusion movement, with "Bitches Brew" being the jump-of point. Artists as disparate as Carlos Santana, Joni Mitchell and Radiohead cite this epic long player as an influence.

In 1955 Miles Davis played an all-star jam session at the Newport Jazz Festival with Thelonious Monk on piano, Gerry Mulligan on baritone sax and Zoot Sims on tenor sax. This performance immediately drew the attention of Columbia Records' George Avakian, who was so impressed that he immediately offered Davis a contract if he could form a regular band. The group he then assembled would go down in history as Davis' so-called "First Great Quintet", consisting of John Coltrane on tenor sax, Red Garland on piano, Philly Joe Jones on drums, Paul Chambers on bass and of course Miles himself on trumpet. 'Round About Midnight is Miles Davis' first record for Columbia and also the first studio recording of the First Great Quintet. The recording sessions began on October 26 1955 but the album wasn't released until 1957 as Davis was still under contract at Prestige at the time. These respective sessions yielded Steamin', Workin', Cookin' and Relaxin'; albums that would go down in history as quintessential blueprints of late 1950s hard bop. The record is made up of a collection of standards and one traditional song ("Dear Old Stockholm", from the 19th century). Notably, it features what may be considered the most well-known versions of Thelonious Monk's "'Round Midnight" and "Bye Bye Blackbird". That Avakian made a golden signing was sufficiently clear from the start, but no one could foresee that it would be this quintet on Columbia that would go on to change the course of modern jazz forever with Kind of Blue.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. 'Round Midnight
2. Ah-Leu-Cha
3. All Of You

Side B
1. Bye Bye Blackbird
2. Tadd's Delight
3. Dear Old Stockholm

Agharta was recorded in the afternoon in 1975, at one of two concerts Miles Davis performed at the Osaka Festival Hall in Japan. He performed with his septet—flautist and saxophonist Sonny Fortune, bassist Michael Henderson, drummer Al Foster, percussionist James Mtume, guitarist Reggie Lucas, and Pete Cosey, who played guitar, synthesizer, and percussion. Produced and recorded by Teo Macero, the album’s four seemingly unstructured segments emphasize the playing of Davis’ sidemen rather than his own trumpet. It eschews both melody and harmony in favor of a combination of riffs, crossing polyrhythms, and Funk-oriented grooves for soloists to improvise throughout. The album has received retrospective acclaim as an important and influential Jazz-Rock record. Its abrasive music and Cosey’s innovative playing influenced a generation of young musicians, including those in the British Jazz scene.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
Prelude (Part 1)

SIDE B
Prelude (Part 2)

SIDE C
Interlude / Maiysha

SIDE D
Theme From Jack Johnson

In the summer of 1948 Miles Davis, in collaboration with the arranger Gil Evans, whom he had met several years earlier, decided to carry out his project by detaching himself from the principles of bebop to participate in a new form of jazz. Installed in New York, he founded a new group, intermediate between the big band and small bebop groups. Cool jazz was born, but it was not an immediate revolution: the nonet was quickly dissolved, and this new music took several years to establish itself among jazz musicians and the public.

On September 18, 1948, the nonet performed for the first time in public, opening for Count Basie's show at the Royal Roost in New York under the title "Nonet by Miles Davis, arrangement by Gerry Mulligan, Gil Evans and John Lewis ". An unusual name which betrays the desire to create music based largely on arrangements.

This release is part of the New Ermitage collection available from January 2024: 18 jazz and soul titles reissued on yellow vinyl with new codes and renewed graphics.

TRACK LISTING

1. Move
2. Jeru
3. Moon Dreams
4. Venus De Milo
5. Budo
6. Deception
7. Godchild
8. Boplicity
9. Rocker
10. Israel
11. Rouge

"Black Beauty, Miles Davis At Fillmore West", was recorded on April 10, 1970 at Fillmore West, San Francisco, when Davis performed as the opening act for the Grateful Dead. The recording took place shortly after the release of Miles’ classic album Bitches Brew. The album was released in 1973, originally in Japan only. "Black Beauty", a true jazz-rock album, captured one of Davis’ first performances at a rock venue during the early stages of his electric period. At the concert, he led his band (saxophonist Steve Grossman, bassist Dave Holland, keyboardist Chick Corea, drummer Jack DeJohnette, and percussionist Airto Moreira) through one continuously performed set list.
The songs in the band’s set list were as followed: “Directions”, “Miles Runs the Voodoo Down”, “Willie Nelson”, “I Fall In Love Too Easily”, “Sanctuary”, “It’s About That Time”, “Bitches Brew”, “Masqualero”, “Spanish Key”, and “The Theme”. They were performed as one continuous and uninterrupted piece of music, a practice Davis had begun in 1967. He later explained in his autobiography that performing these kinds of long musical suites without breaks allowed more space for improvisations in concert.

The original Japanese booklet is included in this vinyl package.

TRACK LISTING

Directions
Miles Runs The Voodoo Down
Willie Nelson
I Fall In Love Too Easily
Sanctuary
It's About That Time
Bitches Brew
Masqualero
Spanish Key/The Theme

Miles Davis' quintet with John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones was formed in 1955 and is widely regarded as one of the greatest combos in jazz history. Like its followers Steamin', Workin' and Relaxin', Cookin' is the product of two massively productive recording sessions during May and October of 1956, which ended his obligations with Prestige Records.

"Miles' peculiar blend of pure melody and acidulous accents never has sounded better. This is one of the best LPs of the year."- ***** Ralph J. Gleason, DownBeat

TRACK LISTING

My Funny Valentine
Blues By Five
When Lights Are Low (Bonus Track - Quartet Version]
Airegin
Tune Up
When Lights Are Low

Decoy is the 1984 album by the famous jazz musician Miles Davis, re- corded in 1983. Robert Irving III on keyboards took over the role that Miles had assumed with a true sense of harmony and only a rudi- mentary mastery of synthetic sounds and movements. Irving shared the responsibilities of directing with the trumpet player’s nephew Vince Wilburn, Jr., but Al Foster continued to lead the tempo. John Scofield drew the funk of bassist Darryl Jones in the direction of chromatic abstraction. The two tracks that he cowrote with Miles are fragments of solos, “That’s What Happened” reprising the beginning of his solo on “Speak” (Star People).

Decoy offered a good balance between the dominant funk that sub- sequently took over and the jazz tradition, reflected by Scofield’s angularities, Marsalis’ freedom of tone, and the breadth of Miles’ playing that had recovered its full power.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Decoy
2. Robot 415
3. Code M.D.
4. Freaky Deaky

Side B
1. What It Is
2. That's Right
3. That's What Happened

In a Silent Way is a studio album by American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Miles Davis, released on July 30, 1969, on Columbia Records. Produced by Teo Macero, the album was recorded in one session date on February 18, 1969, at CBS 30th Street Studio in New York City. Incorporating elements of classical sonata form, Macero edited and arranged Davis's recordings from the session to produce the album. Marking the beginning of his "electric" period, In a Silent Way has been regarded by music writers as Davis's first fusion recording, following a stylistic shift toward the genre in his previous records and live performances. 

Kind of Blue is a studio album by American jazz trumpeter Miles Davis. It was recorded on March 2 and April 22, 1959, at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York City, and released on August 17 of that year by Columbia Records. The album features Davis's ensemble sextet consisting of saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, pianist Bill Evans, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Jimmy Cobb, with new band pianist Wynton Kelly appearing on one track in place of Evans. Kind of Blue has been regarded by many critics as the greatest jazz record, Davis's masterpiece, and one of the best albums of all time. Its influence on music, including jazz, rock, and classical genres, has led writers to also deem it one of the most influential albums ever recorded. 

TRACK LISTING

So What 
Freddie Freeloader 
Blue In Green 
Flamenco Sketches 
All Blues

The complete 1959 Miles Davis album 'Kind of Blue', one of the most influential Jazz albums of all time, presented here as a 2LP set in its original mono and stereo versions.

TRACK LISTING

1. So What
2. Freddie Freeloader
3. Blue In Green
4. All Blues
5. Flamenco Sketches
6. So What
7. Freddie Freeloader
8. Blue In Green
9. All Blues
10. Flamenco Sketches

Milestones is Davis's recording in a sextet configuration with John Coltrane, Paul Chambers, Cannonball Adderley, Philly Joe Jones and Red Garland.

This 1958 masterpiece captured Davis's modalism that introduced on this album continues toinfluence the genre globally. It's the last studio session saw the rhythm section of Garland, Chambers and Jones assembled (Jones was both Garland left the line-up shortly after signing up). In this album, Davis start to study (particularly in the song that gives the album its title) the type of modal jazz that eventually adopted and popularized in the album Kind of Blue.

This release is part of the New Ermitage collection available from January 2024: 18 jazz and soul titles reissued on yellow vinyl with new codes and renewed graphics.

TRACK LISTING

1. Dr. Jekyll
2. Sid's Ahead
3. Two Bass Hit
4. Milestones
5. Billy Boy
6. Straight, No Chaiser

The album was recorded in four sessions, July 22, 29, August 4, and August 18, 1958, at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York and released in March 1959. It's the second collaboration between Davis and Evans, beautiful version of famous George Gershwin's masterpiece.

This release is part of the New Ermitage collection available from January 2024: 18 jazz and soul titles reissued on yellow vinyl with new codes and renewed graphics. 

TRACK LISTING

1. The Buzzard Song
2. Bess, You Is My Woman Now
3. Gone
4. Gone, Gone, Gone
5. Summertime
6. Bess, Oh Where's My Bess
7. Prayer (Oh Doctor Jesus)
8. Fisherman, Strawberry And Devil Crab
9. My Man's Gone Now
10. It Ain't Necessarily So
11. Here Come De Honey Man
12. I Loves You, Porgy
13. There's A Boat That's Leaving Soon For New York

Miles Davis is regarded to be one of the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. At the request of Columbia Records executive George Avakian, he formed his first regular quintet in 1955. After all members of the first quintet left Davis a few years later, he hired the core of the second quintet in 1963 and the final member in late 1964. The second quintet would record and play together until the end of the 60s. Sorcerer is the third album by the Second Great Miles Davis Quintet. The quintet consisted of Miles Davis on trumpet, Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone, Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass and Tony Williams on drums. It was recorded in May 1967 and contains a darker sound. The last song on the album, "Nothing Like You", features vocals by Bob Dorough.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Prince Of Darkness
2. Pee Wee
3. Masqualero
4. The Sorcerer

Side B
1. Limbo
2. Vonetta
3. Nothing Like You

One of the four classic albums Miles Davis recorded in 1956 to fulfil his contract with Prestige before signing to Columbia, Steamin' features Davis leading his iconic quintet with John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones. Contains new specially prepared liner notes by Penguin Guide to Jazz 's writer Brian Morton.

"This album is a must for anyone seriously interested in jazz." - Down Beat, 4.5 STARS (Don DeMicheal)

TRACK LISTING

Surrey With The Fringe On Top
Salt Peanuts
Something I Dreamed Last Night
Diane
Well You Needn't
When I Fall In Love
Well You Needn't

3CD description:
That’s What Happened 1982-1985: Bootleg Volume 7 is the next installment in the celebrated, award-winning archival series that began in 2011, shining an in-depth light onto different eras of the legendary career of Miles Davis. In the 1980s, popular music had moved to a smoother, electronic-based sound that traded the steam of previous years for subdued arrangements meant to elicit peace and deep reflection. Miles Davis embraced this era, pulling inspiration from FM radio and an upstart music video channel called MTV. He was searching for the next frontier, letting his creativity roam. This music on The Bootleg Series Vol. 7 captures that exploration, and finds Miles beginning to re-emerge in a creative landscape far different than the one he left in 1975. He’s touched every inch of pop culture while keeping true to his iconoclastic vision of jazz as amorphous art that’s supposed to bend and flow and mutate to something else. On That’s What Happened, we get to play in the rubble of what would become yet another period of unprecedented innovation. Beauty resides in evolution. The set collects nearly 4 hours of unreleased music including 2 CDs of studio material from 1982 to 1985 plus another CD containing a complete, blistering show of one of Miles’ last amazing bands captured live at the Festival International De Jazz De Montreal in July 1983. Side men include a multi-generational who’s who of jazz talent from JJ Johnson, John McLaughlin, Al Foster and John Scofield to Mike Stern, Marcus Miller, Daryl Jones and Vince Wilburn.

2xLP Highlights description:
That’s What Happened 1982-1985: Bootleg Volume 7 is the next installment in the celebrated, award-winning archival series that began in 2011, shining an in-depth light onto different eras of the legendary career of Miles Davis. In the 1980s, popular music had moved to a smoother, electronic-based sound that traded the steam of previous years for subdued arrangements meant to elicit peace and deep reflection. Miles Davis embraced this era, pulling inspiration from FM radio and an upstart music video channel called MTV. He was searching for the next frontier, letting his creativity roam. This music on The Bootleg Series Vol. 7 captures that exploration, and finds Miles beginning to re-emerge in a creative landscape far different than the one he left in 1975. He’s touched every inch of pop culture while keeping true to his iconoclastic vision of jazz as amorphous art that’s supposed to bend and flow and mutate to something else. On The Bootleg Series Vol. 7, we get to play in the rubble of what would become yet another period of unprecedented innovation. Beauty resides in evolution. This double LP collects highlights of Bootleg Volume 7 with over 80 minutes of unreleased studio material from 1982 to 1985 on white vinyl. Side men include a multi-generational who’s who of jazz talent from JJ Johnson, Al Foster and John Scofield to Mike Stern, Marcus Miller and Daryl Jones.

TRACK LISTING

3CD Tracklist:
CD1
1. Santana (13:06)
2. Minor Ninths, Part 1 (3:13)
3. Minor Ninths, Part 2 (4:13)
4. Celestial Blues, Part 1 (8:05)
5. Celestial Blues, Part 2 (4:04)
6. Celestial Blues, Part 3 (6:57)
7. Remake Of OBX Ballad (5:00)
8. Remake Of OBX Ballad Sessions (7:17)
9. Freaky Deaky, Part 1 (9:50)
10. Freaky Deaky, Part 2 (5:25)
CD2
1. Time After Time (alternate) (5:53)
2. Time After Time (full Session) (8:58)
3. Theme From Jack Johnson (Right Off) / Intro (8:30)
4. Never Loved Like This (studio Session Demo) (5:00)
5. Hopscotch (slow) (5:39)
6. Hopscotch (fast) (6:59)
7. What’s Love Got To Do With It (4:25)
8. Human Nature (alternate) (5:59)
9. Katia (full Session) (10:24)
CD3 (Live In Montreal, July 7, 1983)
1. Speak (That’s What Happened) (12:27)
2. Star People (9:21)
3. What It Is (6:58)
4. It Gets Better (12:25)
5. Hopscotch (7:51)
6. Star On Cicely (9:12)
7. Jean-Pierre (7:34)
8. Code 3 (6:36)
9. Creepin’ In (10:36)

2xLP White Vinyl Tracklist:
LP 1 Side A
Santana (13:06)
Duet (Part 2) (4:32)
Celestial Blues (Part 2) 4:03
LP 1 Side B
Remake Of OBX Ballad (4:59)
Time After Time (alternate) (5:53)
What’s Love Got To Do With It (4:25)
Human Nature (alternate) (5:59)
LP 2 Side C
Freaky Deaky (vinyl Edit) 7:48
Never Loved Like This (studio Session Demo) 5:16
Hopscotch (fast) (6:59)
LP 2 Side D
Intro (8:30)
Katia (full Session) 10:24

Charlie Parker had just died (March 1955) and Miles Davis was in the process of forming his first classic quintet when he recorded this quartet session with celebrated bassist Oscar Pettiford, pianist Red Garland, and drummer Philly Joe Jones, both of whom would also form part of the quintet with John Coltrane on tenor sax and Paul Chambers on bass.

The program consisted of four standards, a blues, 'Green Haze', and the original tune 'I Didn't', which was Miles' humorous answer to Thelonious Monk's 'Well, You Needn't'. The interpretations are lyrical and melodic, and even 'A Night In Tunisia' sounds mellow.

A version of 'How Deep Is the Ocean?' from Miles' only other studio session with Oscar Pettiford is include here as a bonus track.

TRACK LISTING

1. Will You Still Be Mine?
2. I See Your Face Before Me
3. I Didn't
4. A Gal In Calico
5. A Night In Tunisia
6. Green Haze
7. How Deep Is The Ocean?

Legendary trumpeter Miles Davis was still near the start of his storied career when he cut the three sessions that comprise his Blue Note recordings in 1952, 1953, and 1954. Blue Note later compiled the tracks into two 12” LPs as part of the 1500 series. The music presents all the hallmarks of his early style from blazing bebop to beautiful ballads. This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is mono, all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original masters, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Take Off
2. Weirdo
3. Would'n You
4. I Waited For You
5. Ray's Idea – Alternate Take
6. Donna

Side B
1. Well You Needn't
2. The Leap
3. Lazy Susan
4. Tempus Fugit – Alternate Take
5. It Never Entered My Mind

Though allegedly a Texas native, Milton Davis first recorded in Los Angeles in 1967 as a member of The Four Tempos. When that act split, he trekked up the coast in stages, eventually settling in Portland. Here he secured the lead vocal role for local scene heroes, Slickaphonic. Though a full album of their own was taped, another reel of material was cut centred on Milton as a solo artist. Neither set of tracks saw release in their day, but from the latter collection we've pulled a bona fide 1977 disco-soul smasher and a mid tempo flipside with a sheen that belies its depth. First time ever on 7" 45, dinked centre hole with picture sleeve, 500 numbered copies only.

TRACK LISTING

1. Headed For The Disco
2. All I Want To Do

‘Il Viaggio’ is an offering, a quest for musical, physical, and spiritual renewal, born from an emotional memory awakened. Joining the concrete and ambient, it drifts from the natural sounds of a new day towards a dreamed world.

Taking to the road to reinvent oneself is the common thread running through this album, which is organized as a sonic journey in two parts, Lay Your Ear To The Rail (Disc 1) and The Chaos Azure (Disc 2).

TRACK LISTING

1 Lay Your Ear To The Rail
2 Nonnarina
3 Il Vento
4 We Never Kneel To Pray
5 I'm Looking For
6 Mi Ricordo Di Te
7 Chiesa
8 Now Is Narrow
9 San Liberatore
10 The Chaos Azure
11 Alba

Electronic jazz pioneer, pianist, producer, re-mixer Mark de Clive-Lowe has an envious reputation as a cross genre creative artist who blends acoustic, electronic and world music exploring themes of belonging and identity. Equal parts jazz, house, hip hop and broken beat artist, Jazziz summed him up perfectly - "way before jazz hybridity became a worldwide phenomenon, de Clive-Lowe was busy designing its blueprint.”

Freedom is a live concert recording made at the Blue Whale, Los Angeles - where Mark put together a Los Angeles based collective made up by very accomplished and suitably talented Teodross Avery – saxophone, Corbin Jones - bass, souzaphone drummer Tommaso Cappellato Carlos Nino – percussion and the highly renowned spiritual jazz vocalist Dwight Trible.

Reinterpreting a set of Pharoah Sanders highly respected music is not for the creatively timid, and Mark himself sets out the approach and philosophy this collective took when approaching this project: “This album is a celebration of the music, joy and spirit that the great master-teacher Pharoah Sanders brings to the world through his lifelong creative journey. We gathered at Los Angeles’ Blue Whale jazz club to perform some of our favorite Pharoah compositions from a place of love, respect and gratitude for all the inspiration he’s brought to each of us. No one can play this music how Pharoah plays it - his expression is unique and imprinted on every one of his compositions in the deepest of ways. We can’t possibly improve on his mastery and share this music simply as a heartfelt thank you to Pharoah - we celebrate you, and are so grateful for all the timeless - and timely - music you have gifted to the world”.

Across this 12 track album the unique approach of improvised jazz is embellished with MDCL’s tasteful and subtle touches of electronica played & triggered – from behind his array of equipment he reinvigorates and energises the music with a deft and tasteful approach and the interplay between the musicians including vocalist Dwight Trible is flawless and more akin to a extensively rehearsed studio recording than a live concert, such are the skills of all the players.

The highlights are many and varied, from the delicate, sensitive Mansions World and Astral Travelling to the intense and rhythmically driven tracks OreSe-Rere and Teodross Avery’s spine tingling saxophone clarion call that opens the ever green ‘You’ve Got To Have Freedom’ is a beautiful tribute from one generation of master musicians to Pharoah – one of the greatest ever.

STAFF COMMENTS

Millie says: A beautiful, touching tribute of Pharoah Sanders, Mark De Clive Lowe and a host of other artists reimagine his powerful music which is no easy task but it's delivered in the most celebratory way, filled with emotion and admiration for a great musician while exploring important themes of freedom and identity.

TRACK LISTING

LP
DISC ONE
A1 Upper Egypt
A2 Elevation
A3 Colors
B1 You’ve Got To Have Freedom
B2 Thembi
B3 Astral Travelling
DISC TWO
C1 The Creator Has A Master Plan
C2 Greeting To Saud (Brother McCoy Tyner)
C3 Love Is Everywhere
D1 Mansions World
D2 Ore-Se-Rere
D3 Memories Of Lee Morgan

CD
DISC ONE
01 Upper Egypt
02 Elevation
03 Colors
04 You’ve Got To Have Freedom
05 Thembi
06 Astral Travelling
DISC TWO
01 The Creator Has A Master Plan
02 Greeting To Saud (Brother McCoy Tyner)
03 Love Is Everywhere
04 Mansions World
05 Ore-Se-Rere
06 Memories Of Lee Morgan

Haven Trax welcomes a standout 12" from Dutch mainstay Michel de Hey. On the A-side, he delivers a warm and rolling house cut with a catchy piano melody, featuring the soulful vocals of Michael Sebastian -- a track that blends depth and emotion with undeniable floor appeal. The B-side sees Michel join forces with Orlando Voorn for a rawer, more stripped-back club workout. Two generations of Dutch electronic music finding common ground in groove, texture, and timeless dancefloor energy. Essential! 

TRACK LISTING

1 Michel De Hey & Michael Sebastian - Move With Me (Open Air Mix)
2 Michel De Hey - Dreamin'
3 Michel De Hey & Orlando Voorn - Deep Down Inside My Soul
4 Michel De Hey & Orlando Voorn - Brownie

Max Dean and Prunk come together in superb fashion for a new EP on South. It features three new cuts from Max, with a Prunk remix making it another explosive package.

Up first is "Loving Saturday", a driving house track with a nagging, soulful vocal that really tugs at the heart strings. The bass is warm and the drums kick hard, but this one really has some standout emotion to it. "This Party" is a more loose, fluid, ducking and diving groove, with rich percussion making it a perfect late night groove. More deft vocals add some human emotion as this one drives on.

"This Party (Prunk Remix)" is a nice spaced out deep house cut that has real bite. The kicks and hi-hats fuse together perfectly, while balmy pads encircle the groove to bring the vibes. Last of all, "Sunshine Upon the 33" is another big hearted out track with an irresistible groove. The dynamic drums never let up, while the spaced out pads work and great vocal samples all elevate the track.

This is a fantastic four track package from this new one to watch label.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Tech house has a dirty name these days but red light rollers like this suck me back into the scene! Max Dean with that kinetic energy its hard to ignore. Make sure you stretch your shoulders!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Loving Saturday
A2. This Party
B1. Sunshine Upon The 33
B2. This Party (Prunk Remix)

Released in 2010, nearly a decade into his craft, Black City was a watershed moment for Matthew Dear. A steely noir set that straddled electronic dance and indie rock classification, earning him Best New Music from Pitchfork and a worldwide tour with a besuited band, the album unlocked Dear's darkest and most engrossing ideas to date. The love-obsessed songwriter of 2007's Asa Breed had given way to a more existentially paranoid entity. Creeping disco tempos, cavernous atmospherics, and strange distortions brought his signature avant-pop sound to a moodier place. Black City wasn't to be found on any map. It was a composite, an imaginary metropolis peopled by desperate cases, lovelorn souls, and amoral motives, with flashes of sweetness and hope.

In Black City, nothing is at it seems: leadoff single "Little People (Black City)" is a nine-and-a-half minute disco odyssey, subverting its gleaming electronic lead with eerily giddy backing vocals and cryptic, ominous lyrics ("a frozen wasted heart / has died", "love me like a clown"); "You Put a Smell on Me" is a sordid sex romp set to hysterically chattering percussion and a serrated synth line that will set your teeth on edge; "More Surgery" at first recalls the barely-there Krautrock of Harmonia in its burbling minimalism, until Dear's chanted chorus of "Alter genetics / to make my body glow / I need more surgery / there's so much more to know" sends the track hurtling into a dystopian future.

And yet, for all the foreboding moods on Black City, it's the album's sweeter moments that illustrate Matthew Dear's growing maturity as a songwriter. "Slowdance" is a futuristic lullaby in which Dear articulates a lover's helplessness ("I can't be the one to tell you everything's wrong") over breathy, Arthur Russell-esque cello swishes; the album-closing "Gem" is an achingly simple, reverb-drenched piano ballad that ends with a long, slow fade.
"...it's not too surprising when Dear takes Reznor's ‘Closer’ pulse out for a moonless 4 a.m. test drive on ‘You Put a Smell on Me.’ With Black City, Dear offers a precisely thought-out guide to losing your mind.”
- in Pitchfork’s Top 50 Albums of 2010

Matthew Dear toured Black City worldwide with a full band, presenting a unique crossover between electronic and indie circles, landing support tours with Depeche Mode, Hot Chip, Interpol, and later, MGMT.

Matthew Dear's work traverses myriad musical worlds while belonging to none; he also helped shape the sound of Ghostly's dancefloor offshoot, Spectral Sound, with several releases under his techno alias Audion and DJ Mixes for DJ-Kicks, Fabric, and more.

Dear has collaborated with Tegan and Sara, The Drums, Protomartyr, and Ricardo Villalobos and released remix projects with Spoon, Charlotte Gainsbourg, The Postal Service, and MGMT.

TRACK LISTING

1. Honey
2. I Can’t Feel
3. Little People (Black City)
4. Slowdance
5. Soil To Seed
6. You Put A Spell On Me
7. Shortwave
8. Monkey
9. More Surgery
10. Gem

Matthew Dear is a shapeshifter, oscillating seamlessly between DJ, dance-music producer, and experimental pop auteur. He is a founding artist on both Ghostly International and its dancefloor offshoot, Spectral Sound. He writes, produces, and mixes all of his work. He straddles multiple musical worlds and belongs to none, now nearly 20 years into his kaleidoscopic career, with five albums and two dozen EPs plus millions of miles in the rearview of his biography.

Bunny is the name of Matthew Dear’s fifth album. His first since 2012, it bounces into plain sight preceded by two slyly different singles in 2017: the moody, urgent "Modafinil Blues” and the buoyant, blithe, Tegan and Sara-featuring “Bad Ones.” Bunny follows both modes, among others, parading down a rabbit hole of unhinged phrasings, dreams, and interludes. It saunters in the shadows; it stands brightly in the moonlight. Bunny is a dual vision of avant-pop; an artistic reckoning from a 21st-century polymath; persona splintered, paradox paraphrased, a riddle rendered.

TRACK LISTING

01. Bunny’s Dream
02. Calling
03. Can You Rush Them
04. Echo
05. Modafinil Blues
06. What You Don’t Know
07. Horses (feat. Tegan And Sara)
08. Moving Man
09. Bunny’s Interlude
10. Duke Of Dens
11. Electricity
12. Kiss Me Forever
13. Bad Ones (feat. Tegan And Sara)
14. Before I Go

Twenty-plus years into his career, producer / vocalist / songwriter / DJ Matthew Dear remains artistically unpredictable in pursuit of his prescient strain of electronically-formed, organically-delivered indie pop. His work traverses myriad musical worlds, belonging to none. But these fluid moves have not been without a few forks in the road, decisive turns, and what-ifs. Most notable is the pivot-point following Dear’s acclaimed 2007 avant-pop LP, “Asa Breed”, in which he broke away from the 4/4 grid of his techno / house debut “Leave Luck To Heaven” and into something much more wild and idiosyncratic. Traveling between his adopted Detroit and his home state of Texas throughout 2008 and 2009, Dear amassed a set of personal, playful, looping guitar-centric recordings he’d consider for his next album. Given the new momentum of the hybrid electronic pop of “Asa Breed” which led to an opening slot for Hot Chip and remixes for ‘00 heroes like Spoon and Postal Service, Dear decided to shelf the material. He moved ahead to work on his watershed 2010 album, “Black City”, a steely noir set which earned him a Best New Music on Pitchfork and a worldwide tour with a besuited band. This lost album had a sound, a spirited country romp in the techno barn, and it had a rough title, a scribble on one of the CD-Rs passed to Ghostly label founder Sam Valenti IV, Preacher’s Sigh & Potion. He never fully walked away from it, and merely kept moving down the road, waiting for the audience to catch up. Over a decade later, that time is now.

“Preacher’s Sigh & Potion” finds Dear unknowingly at an intersection in his young run, a burgeoning songwriter at his most freewheeling and unaffected. In hindsight, there were hints of Preacher’s sound on “Asa Breed”, but the set still registers endearingly out of step with his eventual direction. This was the first time Dear tapped so directly into his late father’s influence as a fingerpicking guitar player in the 1960s and ‘70s and a gateway to the music of John Prine, Townes Van Zandt, and Emmylou Harris.

From the twang and tambourine stomp of album opener “Muscle Beach,” to the metronome-like pulse of “Hikers Y” complete with an unmistakable Matthew Dear dryly dismissive mantra, to the gloomy carnival-leaving-town pomp of “Gutters and Beyond”, “Preacher’s Sigh & Potion” is filled with the reckless notions of an artist dashing the history of pop and rock, the twang of country, the build and release of techno. Dear is an auteur, and in retrospect, so many of his signatures crop up in these relics from his former self. Dear remembers him well: ‘It’s crazy how music memory exists in a very deep and indescribable tangibility. I know the person who made all these, and remember glimpses of the desk, or studio set up for each recording. I know who wrote these lyrics, and where they were mentally during that process.’ Revisiting this material now also has Dear thinking about his father’s legacy.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: A cosmic-acid, hillbilly-'tronica album anyone? It sounds pretty batshit, but I can't help thinking this was everything Moby was trying to achieve in 1999.

TRACK LISTING

01. Muscle Beach
02. Sow Down
03. Hikers Y
04. Never Divide
05. All Her Fits
06. Supper Times
07. Crash And Burn
08. Heart To Sing
09. Eye
10. Head
11. Gutters And Beyond

The debut solo album by Mother Earth singer, Paul Weller band member and erstwhile Noel Gallagher replacement in Oasis, Matt Deighton.

A pastoral folk album that sits perfectly alongside Nick Drake’s ‘Bryter Layter’ and ‘Solid Air’ by John Martyn.

Originally released in 1995, ‘Villager’ garnered great reviews from NME, Q and The Guardian, and, on its 2011 reissue, was named by Mojo as a Buried Treasure.

Remastered from the original production master by Nick Robbins at Sound Mastering (Ace Records, The Small Faces), the vinyl sounds incredible.

TRACK LISTING

Good For Us
Stones Around The Candle
Villager/ Bone Dry Boat
Jesus Loves The Rain
Get Out The Road
Hey, My Mind
Pure English Honey
The Windmills Of Norfolk
Two Piece Jigsaw Puzzle
Hiding In The Breeze

Italian singer songwriter Marta Del Grandi returns with ‘Selva’, her most intricate and shimmering effort yet, a refined devotional suite of astute pop that flows effortlessly, uniting emotional complexity, divine organic arrangements with a sci-fi finish.

If her debut ‘Until We Fossilize’ showed all the qualities of Marta’s unique approach, tip-toeing between Laurel Canyon dust, Lynchian etherealism and dramatic Morricone scores, ‘Selva’ delves deeper into the undergrowth, showcasing an ambition to deliver a whole new universe, her own ecosystem, where the strength of her voice alone is the pillar to build on.

Beams of choral light radiate and permeate each track, with layered vocal drones creating a cathartic collision of sharp and soft textures, as almost to guide us hand in hand across Marta Del Grandi’s enchanted universe. The ambition is blinding and the outcome is here to prove it: 12 songs of sprawling ethereal pop that is vivid, immense and fully illuminated.

“Ultimately compels with its detached, lynchian ambience.” ALLMUSIC

“Bucolic yet often emotionally complex, her songwriting – patching electronic synths against ambient elements, with a touch of modern classical – taps into areas that go beyond words.” CLASH.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
A1 Mata Hari
A2 Eye Of The Day
A3 Chameleon Eyes
A4 Snapdragon
A5 Marble Season
A6 End Of The World Pt.1
Side B
B1 Two Halves
B2 Polar Bear Village
B3 Good Story
B4 Selva
B5 Stay
B6 End Of The World Pt.2

Italian singer-songwriter Marta Del Grandi returns with Dream Life, an album that bustles in a field of dreams, a multi-dimensional panoramic snapshot punctuated with serene disillusionment, that transcends musical boundaries as personal hopes and aspirations are cast against the vastness of the stars and beyond.  

The record opens with Antarctica, addressing the world’s ethical dilemma and shaking us out of our comfort zone with a riff reminiscent of Talking Heads in their prime, infused with Laurie Anderson-like abstract phrasing.  While Neon Lights underlines the sentiment but tackles it on a more personal level, its fuzzy guitars and roaming bass offering a harsher slice of rebellious self-exploration set in a symphonic swirl of sound. 

“My previous album Selva had a poetic and bucolic nature - in my head I can picture each song as an oil painting - Dream Life has a more contemporary approach, with lyrics touching political and social issues, a more explicit personal storytelling and a more defined pop sound. It’s more like a photobook, more defined and detailed”. - Marta Del Grandi 

Further into Dream Life, Alpha Centauri is a haunting introspective slice of pop magic that allows Marta’s gorgeous vocal to prowl in nostalgia for teenage times, rediscovering her inner child while a distant tuba carries a counter melody. The title track examines the quantum leap between reality and our dreams and ambitions, a counter point to Shoe Shaped Cloud and its brooding study of a relationship gone awry that’s propelled by an aching vocal which recalls Radiohead at their most brittle.  

The album reflects a growing awareness that we cannot fully control the future or the outcome of our plans. This thread weaves throughout the record, a journey that is poetic, ironic, and deeply grounded in the present.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Bright, understated melodies and organic rhythms mix with jazzy flourishes and off-kilter production, all topped with Del Grandi's quirky vocal affectation, resulting in an album that defies categorisation in the best possible way.

TRACK LISTING

A1 You Could Perhaps
A2 Dream Life
A3 Antarctica
A4 20 Days Of Summer
A5 Alpha Centauri
B1 Shoe Shaped Cloud
B2 Neon Lights
B3 Gold Mine
B4 Some Days (feat. Fenne Kuppens)
B5 Oh, My Father

‘Until We Fossilize’ is the debut album from Marta Del Grandi, an eclectic singer songwriter from Italy. This is an award-winning jazz vocalist set in new territory, crossing borders of genre and style from West Coast ‘60s to ambient exotica, from plaintive Lynchian etherealism to dramatic Morricone scores. Marta gathers influences from near and far to create a unique genre-splicing style who’s now travelling her own unique and unchartered path.

Newly signed to Fire Records, this debut is an unravelling of time and distance; a breath taking journey from mainland Europe to the Far East and back again, delivered as an eerie, soundtrack by a captivating vocalist. A self-produced gem; filled with lush strings and electronic ambience and an eclectic vocal that transcends boundaries.

Lead single ‘Amethyst’ takes inspiration by the myth of Amethyst, filled with Greek mythology, touching the wildest manifestation of imagination, it’s the story of a woman who frees herself from the expectations imposed on her by patriarchy. Composed with Indian drummer Tarun Balani, Marta sounds like Sandy Denny backed by Eno on Gamelan with a nod to Sun Ra.

‘Until We Fossilize’ is a lyrically aware set of dramas littered with life-affirming couplets over gorgeous, dramatic turns.

“It’s modern and ancestral at the same time.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Del Grandi flirts with exotica, ambient, Mediterranean and West Coast moods on this LP, providing an accidental Balearic hit.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
A1 Taller Than His Shadow
A2 Shy Heart
A3 Amethyst
A4 Swim To Me

Side B
B1 Somebody New
B2 Lullaby Firefly
B3 Birdsong
B4 Totally Fine

World renowned handpan player and composer Manu Delago presents his unique new album, ‘Environ Me’, via One Little Independent Records. Constructed using his signature percussive skills as well as electronic manipulation and sounds recorded directly from an array of natural sources, the LP is a dynamic and poignant exploration that harnesses the best of his adventurous spirit and singular vision.

An audio-visual journey accompanied by a collection of expertly made films, each track also represents a different element and contains its own inspired and individual concept, varying from the use of wildlife, fire and water to the manmade steel, gears, Velcro and more.

On ‘Environ Me’ Manu Delago asks his listener to join him on a multisensory adventure with their eyes wide open, an intriguing experience that constantly evolves over the course of its 12 tracks, through electronica and ambient and carries with it an important environmental message at its core.

Manu Delago has performed in prestigious venues in more than 50 countries around the world. The Grammy-nominated artist runs his own band and has collaborated with various artists such as Björk, Anoushka Shankar and Olafur Arnalds and has appeared as a soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra.

TRACK LISTING

1. Interference
2. Liquid Hands
3. Transformotion
4. Curveball
5. ReCycling
6. Autoshred
7. Pattern Pulse Popcorn
8. FaunaSauna
9. Trees For The Wood
10. Acoustic Aviation
11. Footsteps (feat. Isobel Cope)

Like the water that runs like a current through ‘Snow From Yesterday’, the album is fluid, versatile, and powerful. Represented in all its forms, from glacial mountains, to rivers, and even the smallest drop into watercolour, the album is about journeys and the stages of life that may change you, but also links you to others, in other times and other places. A flowing, tangible energy connects each track to its subject matter, and each track to one another. What’s important on ‘Snow From Yesterday’ is how the highs are grounded in very real, personal moments. It can at once tackle mammoth climate issues, while conveying moments of incredible intimacy. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Modern People
2. Little Heritage
3. Polar Bear
4. Paintings On The Wall
5. Ode To Earth
6. Stay Afloat
7. Immersion
8. Slow-Mo Moving River
9. Oxygen
10. Docklands
11. Snow From Yesterday 

"Psychic Death Hole”, the ultra limited 6 song cassette released early in 2013 introduced the world to Morgan Delt’s self-produced, genre-bending flavor of brown acid-dosed flowerdelia. Equal parts 'Odyssey & Oracle’ and ‘Parable of Arable Land’ Morgan Delt ’s debut self titled album expands on those initial tracks and brings forth one a fully realized glimpse into the California native’s twisted brain.

Morgan cites influences from Curt Boettcher to West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band and rounds it out with golden age Sunset Strip heavies like The Byrds and Love. It’s all in there; obsessively studied, mastered and then mutated. Side one opens with the one/two punch of ‘Make My Grey Brain Green’ and ‘Barbarian Kings’ blasting apart 40 years of pop-psych and stitching it back together in a way that is both familiar but also refreshingly new. ‘Beneath the Black and Purple’ soars with a chiming guitar grumble right out of "8 Miles High" & “Chakra Sharks” squirms it’s way out of the speakers like a snake - oiled up with the stink of not only what came before, but what’s happening NOW. The drums pound hard and heavy, while the backups “la-la-la” all over your noggin like a Frankenstein version of The Flaming Lips & Thee Oh Sees. Each track worms it’s way into your brain and takes hold.

The finale ‘Main Title Sequence’, is all Stu Phillips-worship, right out of the soundtrack to your favorite 60’s cult classic with it ’s angelic backing vocals and lilting tremolo lead but somehow still buzzes with a modern current. As Morgan so keenly described his notion on the current state of genre bending music “I think we’ve become unstuck in time and everything is going to happen all at once from now on.”

RIYL: Flaming Lips, Thee Oh Sees, Curt Boettcher, Red Krayola, Byrds, Love, White Fence.

TRACK LISTING

1. Make My Grey Brain Green
2. Barbarian Kings
3. Beneath The Black & Purple
4. Mr. Carbon Copy
5. Obstacle Eyes
6. Little Zombies
7. Chakra Sharks
8. Sad Sad Trip
9. Backwards Bird Inc.
10. Tropicana
11. Main Title Sequence

The invocation of classic west coast psychedelia that permeates Morgan Delt's Sub Pop debut LP feels like a continuous sunrise, never concealing its influences yet perfectly putting its songs through a gauzy lens that blurs and obscures. Is such a thing even possible after witnessing umpteen reverb-jockeys creating their own take on the genre? Can anything truly different be done in the realm of being both original and reverent, wearing favorite records and artists' moves on one's sleeve? Definitely the case with our man here. After releasing a 6-song cassette in 2013 followed by a full length for the Trouble In Mind label, the California native now fine-tunes his sound world outwardly rather than honing in on a specific trajectory, allowing all of said influences to coexist together in a unique yet undoubtedly Californian vision.

The resulting 10-song collection, performed entirely by Delt, recorded in his Topanga Canyon studio, and mastered by JJ Golden, is a home-fi construction with a more subtle, brain-tickling character than its predecessor, and somewhat reflects a realist take on the flower power fantasy of 1967. Doused in echo and haze, slow chords lap in like Pacific waves, flanked by gentle whispers of multi-tracked, cooing vox, phased guitars and fuzz that calmly surrounds the listener's head less than it jabs at the cortex.

The great thing about Delt's approach to such history is (and sorry to sound harsh) that unlike too many of his so-called L.A. psych-rock peers, there's no costume involved, no application of a conjured identity to match a specific image. He's no psychedelic Civil War re-enactor, so to speak. It's subtle and tactful revisionism without using psychedelia as a crutch/easy marketing tool and letting the sounds come out and make their own case.

It takes a creative mind to make psychedelic rock music – tablas, drones, hallucinatory vocal effects, and all – without slipping into cliché, but Delt can transport what would normally be a dark-n-druggy blanket into a much more optimistic and friendly listening experience. Despite his voice being channelled through hallucinatory effects, it's warm and inviting, projecting a sense of hope (particularly in “Some Sunsick Day,” which evokes the hopeful “We'll Meet Again” as the world explodes at the end of Dr. Strangelove, later covered by the Byrds). It's more or less just an invite to watch the sun rise too. -Brian Turner, WFMU

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Hazy Late-60's tinged psych on the newest LP from hippie music maestro Morgan Delt. Swirling whirs of analogue synths, torn speaker-fabric fuzz and twangy guitars intersperse with sunny blissed-out guitar and delayed falsetto vocals. Mellow, warming summer feels. Lovely.

Andy says: I loved Morgan's debut but this ups his game tenfold! Still with that fuzzy, warm, home-made feel, but so much deeper and better and with stronger songs all round, this is the perfect soundtrack for your hazy Indian Summer.

TRACK LISTING

I Don’t Wanna See What’s Happening Outside
The System Of 1,000 Lies
Another Person
Sun Powers
The Age Of The Birdman
Mssr. Monster
A Gun Appears
The Lowest Of The Low
Escape Capsule
Some Sunsick Day

The invocation of classic west coast psychedelia that permeates Morgan Delt's Sub Pop debut LP feels like a continuous sunrise, never concealing its influences yet perfectly putting its songs through a gauzy lens that blurs and obscures. Is such a thing even possible after witnessing umpteen reverb-jockeys creating their own take on the genre? Can anything truly different be done in the realm of being both original and reverent, wearing favorite records and artists' moves on one's sleeve? Definitely the case with our man here. After releasing a 6-song cassette in 2013 followed by a full length for the Trouble In Mind label, the California native now fine-tunes his sound world outwardly rather than honing in on a specific trajectory, allowing all of said influences to coexist together in a unique yet undoubtedly Californian vision.

The resulting 10-song collection, performed entirely by Delt, recorded in his Topanga Canyon studio, and mastered by JJ Golden, is a home-fi construction with a more subtle, brain-tickling character than its predecessor, and somewhat reflects a realist take on the flower power fantasy of 1967. Doused in echo and haze, slow chords lap in like Pacific waves, flanked by gentle whispers of multi-tracked, cooing vox, phased guitars and fuzz that calmly surrounds the listener's head less than it jabs at the cortex.

The great thing about Delt's approach to such history is (and sorry to sound harsh) that unlike too many of his so-called L.A. psych-rock peers, there's no costume involved, no application of a conjured identity to match a specific image. He's no psychedelic Civil War re-enactor, so to speak. It's subtle and tactful revisionism without using psychedelia as a crutch/easy marketing tool and letting the sounds come out and make their own case.

It takes a creative mind to make psychedelic rock music – tablas, drones, hallucinatory vocal effects, and all – without slipping into cliché, but Delt can transport what would normally be a dark-n-druggy blanket into a much more optimistic and friendly listening experience. Despite his voice being channelled through hallucinatory effects, it's warm and inviting, projecting a sense of hope (particularly in “Some Sunsick Day,” which evokes the hopeful “We'll Meet Again” as the world explodes at the end of Dr. Strangelove, later covered by the Byrds). It's more or less just an invite to watch the sun rise too. -Brian Turner, WFMU

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Hazy Late-60's tinged psych on the newest LP from hippie music maestro Morgan Delt. Swirling whirs of analogue synths, torn speaker-fabric fuzz and twangy guitars intersperse with sunny blissed-out guitar and delayed falsetto vocals. Mellow, warming summer feels. Lovely.

Andy says: I loved Morgan's debut but this ups his game tenfold! Still with that fuzzy, warm, home-made feel, but so much deeper and better and with stronger songs all round, this is the perfect soundtrack for your hazy Indian Summer.

TRACK LISTING

I Don’t Wanna See What’s Happening Outside
The System Of 1,000 Lies
Another Person
Sun Powers
The Age Of The Birdman
Mssr. Monster
A Gun Appears
The Lowest Of The Low
Escape Capsule
Some Sunsick Day

Like the days of Steely Dan, Harry Nilsson or Prince releasing a classic every year (or less) comes Mac DeMarco's Another One, a mini-LP announced almost one year to the date of the meteorically successful Salad Days. Conceived and recorded entirely by himself in a short period between a relentless tour schedule at his new place in Far Rockaway, Queens, Another One is eight, freshly written songs, expanding the arsenal of Mac's already impressive catalog. There’s a bittersweet, romantic sensibility present. The overall feeling is lost love, or perhaps love never found, yet Mac embraces this without making it an overly somber experience for the listener. It’s at times haunting and warm, and a bit more refined and sophisticated, but still plenty playful, retaining the guts and soul of classic Mac.

TRACK LISTING

1 The Way You'd Love Her
2 Another One
3 No Other Heart
4 Just To Put Me Down
5 A Heart Like Hers
6 I've Been Waiting For Her
7 Without Me
8 My House By The Water

Like in the days of Steely Dan, Harry Nilsson or Prince releasing a classic album every year (or less), ten years ago Mac DeMarco released the mini-LP 'Another One' only about a year after the meteorically successful album 'Salad Days'. An eight track release that expands the arsenal of Mac’s already impressive catalog, 'Another One' was conceived and recorded entirely by Mac at his house in Far Rockaway, Queens, and displays the maturity of Mac’s progression as a songwriter: a little bit more refined, a little bit more sophisticated than his previous albums, but nonetheless chock-full of the guts and soul of any classic Mac release.

The overall feeling of the mini-LP is lost love, or perhaps love never found, a topic that the world never tires of, and one that Mac can move through without it being a dour and somber experience. The record leaves you with the same satisfaction as an old Bogart movie: he’s still the hero, but he doesn’t quite get the girl.

Great singer/songwriters don’t need to reinvent themselves; they just need to keep going and let the songs out in the world, and with that, Mac DeMarco gave us 'Another One'.

This limited edition 10 year anniversary pressing collects both 'Another One' and newly remastered 'Another One Demos' on 2 LPs housed in a gatefold jacket and pressed on clear & blue Far Rockaway vinyl. Includes a 12 page booklet with new liners written by Mac, and previously unpublished photos from the era by Laura-Lynn Petrick.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Way You’d Love Her
2. Another One
3. No Other Heart
4. Just To Put Me Down
5. A Heart Like Hers
6. I’ve Been Waiting For Her
7. Without Me
8. My House By The Water
9. A Heart Like Hers - Demo
10. Another One - Demo #1
11. Another One - Demo #2
12. At Ron’s Bris
13. B^)
14. I’ve Been Waiting For Her - Demo
15. No Other Heart - Demo
16. Just To Put Me Down - Demo
17. Prem + Prickle
18. Reggie’s First Date
19. Rick’s New Haircut #1
20. Rick’s New Haircut #2
21. The Way You’d Love Her - Demo
22. Without Me - Demo
23. Zhe Doan #1
24. Zhe Doan #2

Guitar is the first studio album from Mac DeMarco since 2019's Here Comes The Cowboy. Following the two most recent releases - the 199-track One Wayne G and the instrumental, tour-inspired collection Five Easy Hot Dogs, Guitar features 12 new songs written, performed and recorded in its entirety by Mac between November 16th-28th in 2024 at his home studio in LA. Mac writes, “I think Guitar is as close to a true representation of where I’m at in my life today as I can manage to put to paper.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It's been a while since a new Mac DeMarco record, and this latest is what I, a moderate DeMarco enjoyer would consider one of his best. I'll tell you why, it absolutely swims in the sort of friendly vibes that MDM excels at, and (for me) he's at his best when he's writing mellow acoustic guitar parts below his warmingly evocative vocals.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
A1. Shining
A2. Sweeter
A3. Phantom
A4. Nightmare
A5. Terror
A6. Rock And Roll

SIDE B
B1. Home
B2. Nothing At All
B3. Punishment
B4. Knockin
B5. Holy
B6. Rooster

Debut EP from the Canadian eccentric Mac Demarco. This record of weirdo blues rock is amazing. Think Scott Walker meets Ariel Pink. Mac DeMarco, formerly Makeout Videotape, is the anti-thesis to your stereotypical singer-songwriter. Disregarding the seriously somber moments, he replaces them with whimsical and youthful spontaneity, whilst retaining the endearing and subtle commentaries that exude his familiarity. Promptly after leaving his Edmonton garage for Vancouver he embarked on a North American tour accompanying fellow Canadians Japandroids on a grand voyage of enlightenment and alcoholic debauchery.

DeMarco's a weird cat cultivating an affinity for occult imagery, nudity and social satire. But his most impressive trait is his undeniable and instinctual ability to compose magical pop jangles, of which he'll likely refer to as "jizz jazz". His dusted jams have garnished him accolades that are as ever-increasing as his song writing abilities; his sound rendering comparisons, but in a nomadic fashion alluding no distinct origin. Come March DeMarco's debut solo EP entitled Rock And Roll Night Club will ramble into the great unknown guided by Captured Tracks, DeMarco's inner Elvis a tow.

TRACK LISTING

1. Rock And Roll Night Club
2. 96.7 The Pipe
3. Baby's Wearing Blue Jeans
4. One More Tear To Cry
5. European Vegas
6. 106.2 Breeze FM
7. She's Really All I Need
8. Moving Like Mike
9. Me And Jon, Hanging On
10. I'm A Man
11. Only You
12. Me & Mine

'Salad Days', is the follow up to 2012's lauded 'Mac DeMarco 2' which saw the Edmonton local propelled into the limelight. Written and recorded around a relentless tour schedule (which picked up all over again as soon as the LP was done), 'Salad Days' gives the listener a very personal insight into what it's all about to be Mac amidst the craziness of a rising career in a very public format.

The lead single, "Passing Out Pieces," set to huge overdriven organ chords, contains lines like "..never been reluctant to share, passing out pieces of me.." Clearly, this isn't the same record that breezily gave us "Dreamin," and "Ode to Viceroy" but the result of what comes from their success. "Chamber of Reflection," a track featuring icy synth stabs and soulful crooning, wouldn't be out of place on a fantasy Shuggie Otis and Prince collaboration. Standout tracks like these show Mac's widening sound, whether insights into future directions or even just welcome one-off forays into new territory.

Still, this is musically, lyrically and melodically good old Mac DeMarco, through and through. The same crisp John Lennon/Phil Spector era homegrown lush production that could have walked out of Geoff Emerick's mixing board in 1972, but with that peculiar Mac touch that's completely of right now.

TRACK LISTING

1. Salad Days
2. Blue Boy
3. Brother
4. Let Her Go
5. Goodbye Weekend
6. Let My Baby Stay
7. Passing Out Pieces
8. Treat Her Better
9. Chamber Of Reflection
10. Go Easy
11. Jonny's Odyssey

Captured Tracks have the album you've all been waiting for. Mac Demarco's 'This Old Dog' is finally upon us and for long-term fans or new listeners alike, it's a treat. Starting with the warming tribute, 'My Old Man' which begins rich with woody CR78 percussion and sumptuous acoustic guitar, soon to break into Demarco's unmistakeable vocal drawl. As the chorus grows from the tapestry of sound, the warmth of the reticent synth swells surrounds the stero image in a comforting blanket of organic haze. It's indicative of Demarco's earlier work, but more confidently approached, brilliantly minimal still but undeniably rich in it's simplicity. 

'Baby You're Out' grows from a more off-centred rhythmic approach but undergoes a shuffling transformation to swoon into the folky redux of the main choral refrain, it's an approach that could be jarring but in the capable sonwriting hands of the man himself, it predictably goes by without a hitch. Speaking of transformations, Mac seems to undergo a tranformation himself from shuffled syncopator into sleazy lounge singer in the oozingly laid-back 80's synth sizzle of 'For The First Time'. Decending digital pads and simmering DX7 tines coalesce into a melting-pot of reverb and polyester garments. 

There are pieces here like 'Sister' that really display the no-frills talent that has endeared us all to him for so long, comprising of hazy pitch-shifted guitar sitting right back in the mix while heartbreaking lyrics swim ever so briefly around the wistful plucking. 'Dreams From Yesterday' oozes with crackling tubes and hazy summer dreams to counteract the minimal aura of it's precident. And so it continues, from warm and full-bodied to cold and reticent, there isn't a bad moment here, only different emotions conveyed through a variety of techniques, and every one of them perfectly executed. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Mine says: "Mac DeMarco must be some kind of joke act, right?" Has this thought ever crossed your mind? I came across it in a festival review and I felt for the poor guy who just didn't seem to get what Vernor Winfield McBriare Smith IV (I'll give you a moment to let that settle in...) is all about. If you can relate but somehow feel intrigued, 'This Old Dog' is your perfect entryway into the wacky world of Mac DeMarco. It seems like everyone's favourite sleaze man is trying to show us that he has grown up, without having lost an inch of his quirkiness. It is okay to be vulnerable sometimes, the songs about his troubled relationship with his father seem to confess, just don't bury your head in the sand. 'This Old Dog' is stripped back, simpler and therefore easier to digest than his previous outings. It's dreamy and reflective but always light-hearted, and will leave you with a warm, fuzzy feeling in your chest. Careful, though, you might feel like you're floating on a cloud.

TRACK LISTING

1. My Old Man
2. This Old Dog
3. Baby You’re Out
4. For The First Time
5. One Another
6. Still Beating
7. Sister
8. Dreams From Yesterday
9. A Wolf Who Wears Sheeps Clothes
10. One More Love Song
11. On The Level
12. Moonlight On The River
13. Watching Him Fade Away

Martin Denny returns with his loyal crew of multi-instrumentalists that had previously performed on Forbidden Island, Primitiva, Hypnotique & Quiet Village: stand up bass player Harvey Ragsdale, vibe player Julius Wechter (also a member of the legendary recording unit The Wrecking Crew) and percussionist Augie Colon who was called the “Grandfather of Hawaii Percussion”. And of course, the famous cover girl on Martin Denny’s albums, Sandy Warner, otherwise known as “The Exotica Girl”, returns as well. Although Denny was recording his output at an astonishingly brisk rate, there’s something about Exotica Vol. III, which makes it one of his best and most sought-after with collectors and listeners. Of course, the brilliance of the lead-off track of Les Baxter’s “Jungle River Boat”, with its tight vibe-and-percussion workout intertwined with Colon’s iconic bird calls and other worldly sounds, only makes the sweet, lazy water sounds of the following track “Harbor Lights” all the more delightfully mysterious. So pour your drink of choice, dim the lights, open the windows, and let Exotica Vol. III roll across you. “His last volume is a no-brainer. The material is simply too good to avoid.” – AMBIENT EXOTICA

TRACK LISTING

1 Jungle River Boat
2 Harbor Lights
3 Manila
4 Mama Iti E Papa E
5 Bamboo Lullaby
6 Ringo Oiwake
7 Moon Of Manakoora
8 Limehouse Blues
9 Beautiful Kahana
10 Caravan
11 Congo Train
12 Hello Young Lovers

In 1964, Martin Denny looked beyond the Hawaiian and Asian influences of his previous records to find another place to plant his umbrella in the sand, as well as in your drink: the sounds of Latin America. With this new sound to hang his exciting arrangements on, Latin Village has long been considered one of Denny's high-water marks, and Jackpot is thrilled to have this long-cherished LP back in print. This is an album that rips through what was considered "The Now Sound From Overseas," a sophisticated mash-up of sambas, bossa novas, and Latin jazz. From the first track, "Angelito" (the hit song written by Réne y Réne, later to also be covered by Trini Lopez & Herb Albert), all the way through to its closer, "Flying Down To Rio" (a song which Roxy Music later referenced in their 1972 song "Virginia Plain”), the album is a hypnotic listen. Latin Village also drops in some serious jazz numbers, with respected compositions such as "On Green Dolphin Street" by Kaper & Washington (which has been covered by Miles Davis, Bill Evans & Sarah Vaughn), "Malagueña" the sixth movement in Ernesto Lecona's Suite Andalucía & "Corcovado" by Antônio Carlos Jobim (who merged samba with jazz to create bossa nova). Latin Village is comforting in its familiarity within Denny's sonic world, but steps refreshingly out of the smoke-filled Tiki bars of his previous records and straight into the sunlight where this music still strolls around in a listener's heart, soul, and mind. “Latin Village is a triumph of Martin Denny’s search for a new style, post-exotica.” – ALLMUSIC, 4 stars.

TRACK LISTING

1 Angelito
2 On Green Dolphin Street
3 Corcovado
4 Without You (Tres Palabras)
5 Ho-Ba-La-La
6 Something Latin
7 Manha De Carnaval
8 Latin Village
9 The Girl From Ipanema
10 Malaguena
11 Sugar Cane
12 Flying Down To Rio

“Dettmann II” is a sequel in a true sense, the album marks a return to the spirit of his debut, but things feel less tense this time around. Dettmann brings his recent experimental outlook and applies it to the album template, creating a record that lives and breathes with a naturalism rare for a techno album. Expertly paced, “Dettmann II” impresses especially with its carefully rising narrative. As the album barrels into action with the particulate grit of “Throb” and “Ductil”, Dettmann is in fine style. Each tune’s central theme is a bit more out there than usual, from the sheet metal racket of “Lightworks” to the house-hinting chorus of “Soar”, which is every bit as majestic as its title implies. He offers up some top-notch ambient material as well, like the trippy “Shiver”, or the ominous “Outback”, which features contributions from Levon Vincent.

Dettmann also reaches for a rare collaboration on his second album. Kindred spirit Emika lends her spectral gasps to “Seduction”, which stays stunningly antiseptic even as it weaves her voice into its wire framework. With “Dettmann II”’s stretch of tracks “Radar” and “Corridor”, the album finally takes flight into full-on club mania, fist-pumping career-high material with all the subtlety of his old work molded up into a spiky banger.

“Aim”, which ends the record in lofty fashion, hints at a new direction for Dettmann, uncharacteristically melodic and even uplifting. Co-produced by René Pawlowitz, it bears the Shed touch but keeps it firmly in Dettmann’s finely-honed world. The first track written for the album and the one that initiated the album sessions in the first place, it carefully hints at new directions while keeping its glance firmly in Dettmann’s established history - which you could say for the album as a whole, gently moving towards new horizons but always keeping in mind what made Dettmann’s past music so great in the first place.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Dettmann calls time on summer, speeding winter along with a majestic record for the long nights ahead. Rigid percussion is paired with shimmering melody as he takes a small step away from the brutal minimalism of his first album.

TRACK LISTING

01. Arise
02. Throb
03. Ductil
04. Shiver
05. Lightworks
06. Soar
07. Outback
08. Seduction Feat. Emika
09. Radar
10. Corridor
11. Stranger
12. Aim

2x GRAMMY-nominated singer-songwriter Madi Diaz is known for searing
explorations of romance and has created her most powerful statement.

Raw and stripped down, 'Fatal Optimist' is Madi at her most intimate and most bold. She and producer, Gabe Wax (Soccer Mommy, Zach Bryan), set out to strip these songs back, relying on her performance and her writing. The result is a classic and timeless indie-folk album. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Hope Less
2. Ambivalence
3. Feel Something
4. Good Liar
5. Lone Wolf
6. Heavy Metal
7. If Time Does What It's Supposed To
8. Flirting
9. Why'd You Have To Bring Me Flowers
10. Time Difference
11. Fatal Optimist

Richmond, Virginia-based artist McKinley Dixon has always used his music as a tool for healing, exploring, and unpacking the Black experience in order to create stories for others like him. For My Mama And Anyone Who Look Like Her, Dixon’s debut album on Spacebomb, is the culmination of a journey where heartbreak and introspection challenged him to adapt new ways of communicating physically and mentally, as well as across time and space. The language accessibility aspect of this project draws right back to communication and connecting,”

Dixon explains. “I think about the messaging, and how this can be a way for another Black person, someone who looks like me, to listen to this and process the past. Everything I've learned about communication for this album culminates with this bigger question about time. Is time linear when you’re still healing and processing? Westerners look at time travel as something to conquer or control—it's a colonizer mindset. That’s ignoring how time travel can be done through stories and non-verbal communication, and doesn't acknowledge how close indigenous people are to the land and the connections groups have because they’ve existed somewhere for so long. Storytelling is time travel, it's taking the listener to that place. Quick time travel. Magic.” Never relying solely on beats, Dixon taps into a hybrid of jazz and rap, pulling in an array of piercing strings, soulful horns, percussion, and angelic vocalists throughout the album—plus features by Micah James, Lord Jah-Monte Ogbon, Pink Siifu, and more. Jazz instrumentals add a level of uncertainty, with the sounds and shifts evoking a lot of emotion and vulnerability.

It’s an energy he describes as “Pre-Kendrick Lamar To Pimp A Butterfly,” the era when rap adopted more live instrumentation. The best way to sum up this album is: I was sad, I was mad, and now I’m alive,” Dixon explains. “These things I talk about on the record have had harmful and brilliant effects on my timeline, and have forced me to be cognizant of the fact that living is complex. Rap has allowed me the language to communicate, and be someone who can communicate with people from all over. Knowing how far I’ve come, I think people will find trust in the message I’m sending.”

TRACK LISTING

1 Chain Sooo Heavy
2 Never Will Know
3 Bless The Child
4 Make A Poet Black
5 Protective Styles
6 Swangin’
7 Brown Shoulders
8 B.B.N.E
9 Grown Man Voice
10 Mama’s Home
11 Twist My Hair

Magic, Alive! Began life when Dixon received an unexpected email from English producer Sam Yamaha. Dixon’s early beats had inspired Yamaha’s own nascent work, and he wanted Dixon to listen. Before long, Dixon rendezvoused with him in London, digging through his archive to find a wealth of beats that resonated with his own approach and with the burgeoning concept for Magic, Alive! In July 2024, Dixon returned to his native Richmond, Virginia, with a tranche of sounds from Sam Yamaha and Koff, with whom he’d worked before.

Alongside a cavalcade of guests and friends, from the mighty singer Anji mile and imaginative Alabama emcee Pink Siifuto trombonist Reggie Pace and harpist Eli Owens, Dixon split these beats wide open, adding hooks and horn lines and guest spots. He strung several songs together, too, so that Magic, Alive! moves like adream or, at the very least, an alternate reality where new rules reign.

For the better part of a decade, Dixon has been turning his experiences as a native Southerner sometimes living in Queens and an eager student of literature into vivid reflections on joy, pain, and perseverance. His breakthrough, though, began with2021’smuch-lovedFor My Mama and Anyone Who Look Like Herand continued with 2023’s Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?, both instrumentally rich exercises in storytelling wrapped up in the trauma and grief of losing a young friend. Those albums were emotional expurgations, Dixon dumping his feelings into marathons of literary references where Toni Morrison and Greek mythology shared space with detailed personal reflections.

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
01. Watch My Hands
02. Sugar Water (feat. Quelle Chris And Anjimile)
03. Crooked Stick (feat. Ghais Guevera And Alfred.)
04. Recitatif (feat. Teller Bank$)
05. Run, Run, Run Pt. II
06. We're Outside, Rejoice!

Side B:
07. All The Loved Ones (What Would We Do???) (feat. ICECOLDBISHOP And Pink Siifu)
08. F.F.O.L. (feat. Teller Bank$)
09. Listen Gentle
10. Magic, Alive!
11. Could've Been Different

Former Mind & Matter bandmates James “Jimmy Jam” Harris and Michael Dixon teamed up for 1978’s gospel-boogie banger “You’re All I Need” b/w “You’re Everything” on the private Mad label.

TRACK LISTING

A. You’re Everything
B. You’re All I Need

Very groovy Latin Jazz from the amazing Mike Dogliotti featuring two Funky Afro-Uruguayan versions of big 1970's Jazz Funk Fusion hits in "Hagalo" originally by New York/Panama crossover group Mandrill and a stomping version of Herbie Hancock's Headhunters Classic "Chameleon", both cuts full of Funk Grooves and Afro-Latin Percussion. Never before released on a 45 single this is a Jazz Room Release that is going to fly out of the stores and into DJ record boxes.

TRACK LISTING

1. Hagalo
2. Camaleon