This is the highly demanded second edition of System Olympia's first release "Dusk & Dreamland" EP.
Originally pressed by a small Italian label in an unknown number of copies, this EP was the first appearance of System Olympia's very own blend of funk, melancholy and female sensuality that defined a whole new department in the Italo / nu disco scene.
Features two new original tracks never pressed on vinyl before, "Girl On Girl" and "Signal Your Love", and a new edition of the cover art illustrated by Pip Carter. Essential record for your home collection, club nights, late night car rides and bedroom entertainment.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A sleek, sultry collection of dusky disco ballads and shimmering synth swells, some of it so impeccably produced that it grabs you right by the brain, and doesn't let go, while some of it sounds like it's been recorded onto a VHS and then pressed back on vinyl, in Italy, in the 1970's. All of it is brilliant. 11/10

TRACK LISTING

A1. Call Girl
A2. Lamb
A3. Close To My Nebula
A4. Girl On Girl
B1. Night Rise
B2. 8
B3. Yoon
B4. Signal Your Love

LA-based trio ASHRR return with another sunkissed dose of cosmic new wave and indie electronica laced with psychedelic hues in the form of ‘Sway’. This time they’re joined by internationally renowned DJ and ESP Institute imprint manager ‘Lovefingers’ on remix duties, who supplies three genre-bending experimental dance gems perfect for summer terraces, pool-side parties or the dance floors of Pikes Ibiza. Lovefingers’ ESP Institute has dropped releases that have found their way into the bags of dance-floor heavy-hitters from Harvey to Weatherall and Moodymann to the legendary David Mancuso. His take on ASHRR original showcases dubbed-out oddities and psychedelic left turns in signature style. In addition to the Lovefingers remixes, ASHRR returns with their very own ‘ASHRR Soundsystem Version’ offering up a tripped-out feel-good cut for the dance floor.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: ASHRR continue to make their mark with another 12" single graced by a stellar remix talent. "Sway" is a dubby-disco delight with coastal leanings, which Lovefingers manages to accentuate even further across his three varied versions. Top drawer stuff for boats and beaches.

TRACK LISTING

Sway (Lovefingers Rimini Remix)
Sway (ASHRR Soundsystem Version)
Sway (Lovefingers Lechuza Dub)
Sway (Lovefingers Skeleton Dub)

The Swedish stallion comes correct once again with another clutch of mash-ups. This time turning his hand to the poppier end of the spectrum, as Tailor Swift, Peggy Gou and many more are given the Beatconductor treatment.

Pre-orders advised!

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: He's been keeping bar DJs on trend and Karen's at bay for over a decade now, Beatconductor can mashitup like no one else! This one's gonna be a big one, the ultimate get-out-of-jail-free card; as it features the monolith that is Taylor Swift.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. Fallin'
2. Sugar And Spajs

Side 2
1. Tell Me U Luv Me
2. Peggy Swift

woooahh there playboy, let's slowww things down a little - get a bit lOoSe..

La Rama is one of those labels we go nuts for here at Picc HQ. Understated Canadian dance music made with love, sentiment and shunning and notable trends for something authentic, rock solid, and made to last. The equivalent of a good pair of shoes...

Bunzinelli drops the second essential release on the label here with four tracks which stradle cosmic, EBM and fresh-as-you-like night club trickery in one succinct package. Excited? You should be.

Immediately causing one Jason Boardman to purchase a copy upon hearing about 3 bars, "Call In Blue" is the club weapon you've always wished you had. Built around a beat n bass structure as impenertrable as an army bunker, these narcotic vocal chops are layered overhead in an effort to channel pure shamanic energy into the dance. Serious, if you're not wiggling to this after 30 seconds I doubt there's any circulation to your hips. Breathtaking, incredible, and coming in at under 110BPM to boot!

"Godspeed" follows, a EBM-infused chugger charged with electrostatic and creeping forward with a tectonic force. "Nova" mixes said energy with a baggy flavour, keeping Andrew Weatherall and Baldelli fans equally engaged with with a mid-session roller that'll have the floor in a coital throb.

Finally, Bunzinelli lets loose with a 130BPM techno rocket from inside the bunker. Machine gun snares and more of that highly charged electrical energy coursing through its stems. Sure to blast away all but the most ardent rave goblin come the witching hours of the morning....

Bunzinelli has been personally involved in serving sonic treats to the world via his label and mix series Chambre Noire. He was also part of the team behind Cosmic Tones which in 2019 released "Montreal Pleiades" featuring his first musical outing alongside local major players Priori, Dust-e-1, URA, Temple's M. Salaciak & R. Weng (the wizard behind the first DJ Medallion release on La Rama Records).

Trust me, if your job is to make a mass of people move in unison, you need this tool in your arsenal!

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Unparalleled club tool that due to its restrained tempo should find favour across a variety of tribes. That A1 track man, "Call In Blue" - literally unmissable if you play in nightclubs.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Call In Blue
A2. Godspeed
B1. Nova
B2. Yellow Feeling

Adored alt-pop duo Cults announce their fifth studio album TO THE GHOSTS out July 26 via IMPERIAL. The NY-based duo compromised of multi-instrumentalists Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion, confidently and clearly perfect their vision with the cinematic new album.

To the Ghosts was meticulously crafted; the earliest ideas dated back to the pandemic when they wrote music on weekdays from 10am-5pm with no deadlines or distractions. The album was written and recorded in Brian’s apartment; in 2022 they traveled to Los Angeles to collaborate with longtime producer and trusted creative confidant Shane Stoneback, because “nobody can read our minds like he can,” jests Madeline. To the Ghosts was co-produced by Cults & Shane Stoneback, mixed by John Congleton, and mastered by Heba Kadry NYC.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Hazy emotional pop pieces, swimming with soul and bolstered with tastefully applied modern production techniques, Cults' fifth LP is their most dynamically rich yet. Wistful, hook-laiden and brimming with melodic beauty.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
A1. Crybaby
A2. Left My Keys
A3. Onions
A4. Crystal
A5. Leave Home
A6. Eat It Cold

SIDE B
B1. Honey
B2. Knots
B3. Behave
B4. Open Water
B5. Cells
B6. You're In Love With Yourself
B7. Hung The Moon

Signed to Virgin Records, debut single “(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang” attracted a lot of attention in March 1981, and a BBC Radio 1 ban. Recorded in Sheffield and London, debut album “Penthouse And Pavement” was released in September 1981 and was certified Gold the following year, and also contained the singles “Play To Win”, “Penthouse And Pavement”, and “The Height Of The Fighting”.

TRACK LISTING

PAVEMENT SIDE
1. (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang
2. Penthouse And Pavement
3. Play To Win
4. Soul Warfare

PENTHOUSE SIDE
5. Geisha Boys And Temple Girls
6. Let's All Make A Bomb
7. The Height Of The Fighting
8. Song With No Name
9. We're Going To Live For A Very Long Time

Released in April 1983, second album “The Luxury Gap” featured the Top 5 hits “Temptation” and “Come Live With Me”, as well as “Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry” and “Let Me Go”. The album was certified Platinum in February 1984 for sales of over 300,000.

TRACK LISTING

1. Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry
2. Who'll Stop The Rain
3. Let Me Go
4. Key To The World
5. Temptation
6. Come Live With Me
7. Lady Ice And Mr Hex
8. We Live So Fast
9. The Best Kept Secret

The first new album from Lilacs & Champagne in nearly a decade. Features members of Grails, Om, Holy Sons, Zombi, and NickeL Plated.

Nearly a decade after their last album, Lilacs and Champagne picks up right where that record, Midnight Features Vol. 2: Made Flesh, left off. With bizarre excursions into pillowy, sentimental made-for-TV music – and children's choirs incanting the blackest dread-filled music the band has conjured to date Fantasy World is both transcendent and traumatic.

Despite sharing two founding members of Grails (multi-instrumentalists Emil Amos and Alex Hall) Fantasy World only peripherally resembles their core group. Lilacs & Champagne have exaggerated their early record's implications and accelerated their mercurial rearranging of music history by deftly incorporating live instrumentation and samples with equal amounts of deference and disregard. Previously existing primarily in a realm adjacent to instrumental hip-hop (J Dilla, Clams Casino, Madlib), Fantasy World exposes Lilacs & Champagne's deeper lineage as playful tape-collage culture jammers in the vein of legendary sound satirists, Negativland and Severed Heads.

It embraces the effect of a child entering a dollar store: the immediate euphoria felt upon discovering the seemingly endless aisles piled impossibly high with novelty toys, utensils, party decorations, and toiletries eventually gives way to the overwhelming realization that they're actually just a tourist in a perilous mountain of colourful garbage. From those mountains, Lilacs & Champagne mold monuments to curiosity and confusion. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Ashley says: There isn't an Emil Amos project I don't love. Grails, Holy Sons, Watter, Om, I love them all. Obviously I was over the moon that sleazy b-movie outlet Lilacs & Champagne are returning, and bring with them another glitzy mix of found-sound glitchy electronica and lounge-adjacent horror pop. It's as mad and brilliant as it sounds.

TRACK LISTING

1. Ill Gotten Gains (2:49)
2. Rude Dream (3:13)
3. Fantasy Land (2:19)
4. Melissa (2:37)
5. Betraying Yourself (2:44)
6. Ready Rubbed Blue (2:03)
7. Evil Has No Boundaries (2:42)
8. No More Sherry (2:59)
9. Gentle Man (2:31)
10. Leprotic Phantasies (2:06)
11. 144 York Way (2:40)
12. Last Frontier (2:16)
13. Dr. Why (3:14)
14. Ordinary Man (4:08)

Pye Corner Audio shows off his love of acid on the first of two EPs for Emotional Response that drop simultaneously. This first one is his debut on the label and comes with a gorgeous cover that perfectly encapsulates the sounds within. 'Dust Acid' is a sparse cut with dusty drums and meandering basslines that slowly sink you in, then 'Magnetic Acid Two,' which like all of these was recorded live, is another expertly reduced brew of murkiness with plenty of frayed edges and vintage analog sounds. 'Wanna Show U Acid' is a late-night acid dream and 'Magnetic Acid Four' shuts down slightly more bite. Four timeless backroom cuts, make no mistake.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Two stunning EP's of PCA acid mayhem. We've heard a little of his acidic excursions under the 'Head Technician' moniker, but this time has all of the bristling tension and building groove of classic 'cid with PCA's more recognisable saturated tape hiss business. 'Wanna Show You Acid' is particularly reminiscent of the Black Mill Tapes days. Amazing.

TRACK LISTING

Dust Acid
Magnetic Acid Two
Wanna Show U Acid
Magnetic Acid Four

Two revered dance music institutions come together here as Pye Corner Audio steps up to Emotional Response with his debut EP for the label. What's more, it is a two-parter with the first half also available now. This one from Martin Jenkins finds him making an homage to the acid house he has always loved with opener 'Stegan Acid' starting with slow grocers and foggy moods run through with subtle 303 modulations. 'Magnetic Acid Three' is another deep and stripped-back sound with rumbling drums and bass coloured with soft acid contours and 'Thermionic Acid' gurgles a little more as the icy hi-hats cut through a mutant deep techno swamp. 'Magnetic Acid One' is one final meditation on acidic house depths.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: If anything, this is the more sonically downbeat of the two offerings, contrasting the perky hands-in-the-air acid of 'Acid 1' with a slightly more dubby set of slow-building crackly numbers and weird blissed-out crackle. They're both brilliant, and quite different to what he's done before. A perfect addition to Emotional Rescue.

TRACK LISTING

Stegan Acid
Magnetic Acid Three
Thermionic Acid
Magnetic Acid One

Alexis Taylor – front man of celebrated indie-electro band Hot Chip – joins the eclectic Paris-born DJ and producer Pilooski (real name Cédric Marszewski) on a remix of Weller’s recent single ‘Flying Fish,’ while British drummer, producer and engineer Richie Stevens of virtual band Spacemonkeyz reimagines the track ‘Nothing.’

TRACK LISTING

A: Flying Fish – Alexis Taylor & Pilooski Remix
B: Nothing - Richie Stevens Smudge Remix

Originally released on Island Records in June 1969, this re-issue faithfully
eplicates the original UK release and is pressed onto high quality 180g vinyl. A collaboration between David Vorhaus, Brian Hodgson and Delia Derbyshire, White Noise's 'An Electric Storm' is the very epitome of a cult album.

Its capitalized rear sleeve message told prospective listeners all they needed to know: MANY SOUNDS HAVE NEVER BEEN HEARD BY HUMANS: SOME SOUND WAVES YOU DON'T HEAR BUT THEY REACH YOU. 'STORM TECHNIQUES' COMBINE SINGERS, INSTRUMENTALISTS AND COMPLEX ELECTRONIC SOUND. THE EMOTIONAL INTENSITY IS AT A MAXIMUM.

Derbyshire and Hodgson worked for the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Vorhaus, a student at North London Poly, attended a lecture by them and wanted to fuse his ideas with their pioneering sound capabilities. By blending electronics, tape loops and vocals with live percussion, future sounds of the strange are embedded here Hawkwind, Tangerine Dream and avant garde noise collagists Throbbing Gristle all owe a debt. The vocals, delivered by three unknowns (Annie Bird, John Whitman, Val Shaw) are like untutored folk singers offering lullabies to the unknown, against beds of cries of ecstasy and pain distant thunder, car crashes and more.

While the first side offers moments of Beach Boy harmony and lightish relief ('Here Comes The Fleas' for example), phase II of the album 'The Visitation' and 'The Black Mass: An Electric Storm In Hell' is a bleak, chilling and exhilarating listen. White Noise's 'An Electric Storm' was the sound of the underground, a soundtrack to an unmade turn- of- the-70s horror film; a secret collection for insiders that continues to unnerve well into the 21st century.

TRACK LISTING

1. Love Without Sound
2. My Game Of Loving
3. Here Come The Fleas
4. Firebird
5. Your Hidden Dreams
6. The Visitation
7. The Black Mass: An Electric Storm In Hell

Spanning the tracklist of the original album, the fresh, exciting, and utterly surprising reinterpretations create new content for longtime Talking Heads fans and introduce a new generation to the magic of the music. The brilliant selection of artists recontextualizes 'Stop Making Sense' in popular music and culture, with a focus on generational and stylistic breadth.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A baffling collection of some of the biggest names in pop music today 'cover' tracks from The Talking Heads and redesign them to fit in with today's musical trends and production aesthetic. It's brilliantly done, and shines a light wonderfully on the brilliant original compositions while giving their concepts room to breathe.

TRACK LISTING

1. Miley Cyrus - Psycho Killer
2. The National - Heaven
3. Blondshell - Thank You For Sending Me An Angel
4. The Linda Lindas - Found A Job
5. Él Mató A Un Policía Motorizado - Slippery People
6. Paramore - Burning Down The House
7. Dj Tunez - Life During Wartime
8. Teezo Touchdown - Making Flippy Floppy
9. Jean Dawson - Swamp
10. The Cavemen - What A Day That Way.
11. Bad Bad Not Good (Feat. Norah Jones) - This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)
12. Kevin Abstract - Once In A Lifetime
13. Toro Y Moi (feat Brijean) - Genius Of Love
14. Girl In Red - Girlfriend Is Better
15. Lorde - Take Me To The River
16. Chicano Batman (Feat. Money Mark) - Crosseyed And Painless