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Today sees Belgian-Caribbean provocateur Charlotte Adigéry and her long-term musical partner, Bolis Pupul announce their debut album Topical Dancer, via Soulwax’s iconic label DEEWEE.
Cultural appropriation. Misogyny and racism. Social media vanity. Post-colonialism and political correctness. These are not talking points that you’d ordinarily hear on the dancefloor but Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul are ripping up the rulebook with their debut album Topical Dancer. The Ghent-based duo, who broke out with their 2019 Zandoli EP, are rare storytellers in electronic music: they take the temperature of the time and funnel them into their playful synth concoctions – never didactic and always with a knowing wink.
Cultural appropriation. Misogyny and racism. Social media vanity. Post-colonialism and political correctness. These are not talking points that you’d ordinarily hear on the dancefloor but Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul are ripping up the rulebook with their debut album Topical Dancer. The Ghent-based duo, who broke out with their 2019 Zandoli EP, are rare storytellers in electronic music: they take the temperature of the time and funnel them into their playful synth concoctions – never didactic and always with a knowing wink.
TRACK LISTING
Bel Deewee
Esperanto
Blenda
Hey
It Hit Me
Ich Mwen (with Christiane Adigéry)
Reappropriate
Ceci N'est Pas Un Cliché
Huile Smisse
Mantra
Making Sense Stop
Haha
Thank You
Admiral Fallow are thrilled to announce their new album, ‘The Idea Of You’, their first in six years, on Chemikal Underground.
Written and mostly recorded in 2019, ‘The Idea Of You’ is a captivating collection of songs - generously melodic, confidently executed and festooned with intricacies. In true Admiral Fallow fashion, these tales of friendship and carefree adventure take the road less travelled, rarely finding their terminus where it might be most expected.
Warmth, empathy and contentment course through the nine songs, a response to its makers having navigated personal and professional challenges to emerge with their identity - both as a group and as individuals - intact. ‘The Idea Of You’ traverses Philly soul, sophisticated pop and guitar-driven rock, delivering humbly anthemic choruses by the barrowload.
The recording of ‘The Idea Of You’ took place in Chem19 on the outskirts of Glasgow under the aegis of producer Paul Savage, who worked on the group’s first three albums - ‘Boots Met My Face’ (2010), ‘Tree Bursts In Snow’ (2012) and ‘Tiny Rewards’ (2015). Written and recorded pre-pandemic, the album inadvertently bears the hallmarks of a less fretful era, concerned with themes of growth and bloom in contrast to those of anxiety and fear.
Written and mostly recorded in 2019, ‘The Idea Of You’ is a captivating collection of songs - generously melodic, confidently executed and festooned with intricacies. In true Admiral Fallow fashion, these tales of friendship and carefree adventure take the road less travelled, rarely finding their terminus where it might be most expected.
Warmth, empathy and contentment course through the nine songs, a response to its makers having navigated personal and professional challenges to emerge with their identity - both as a group and as individuals - intact. ‘The Idea Of You’ traverses Philly soul, sophisticated pop and guitar-driven rock, delivering humbly anthemic choruses by the barrowload.
The recording of ‘The Idea Of You’ took place in Chem19 on the outskirts of Glasgow under the aegis of producer Paul Savage, who worked on the group’s first three albums - ‘Boots Met My Face’ (2010), ‘Tree Bursts In Snow’ (2012) and ‘Tiny Rewards’ (2015). Written and recorded pre-pandemic, the album inadvertently bears the hallmarks of a less fretful era, concerned with themes of growth and bloom in contrast to those of anxiety and fear.
TRACK LISTING
Sleepwalking
Electric Eyes
Three Weeks
The Grand Naional, 1993
Dragonfly
Night, Shortly
Tuesday Grey
The Possiblity
Soliton
After her surprise debut "Mam Pe'ela Su'ure", Ghana's Frafra gospel queen Florence Adooni is back with her second single on Philophon. Born as Frafra in Kumasi, the capital of the Ashanti, she combines the best of both cultures into a unique fusion. The meandering, mostly pentatonic melodies of the Frafra glide over the high-life rhythm of the Ashanti with incredible ease. "Yinne" means The Creator and is one of the songs sung at the culmination of the Sunday service. Its driving rhythm usually guarantees a collective ecstasy in the community. "Fo Yelle", on the other hand, has more of a meditative effect on the listener. Its rather solemn rhythm leads you into tranquility and opens your soul to receive the divine spark.
TRACK LISTING
Yinne
Fo Yelle
Adorable formed in Coventry in 1990. The band consisted of vocalist and guitarist Pete Fijalkowski, guitarist Robert Dillam, bassist Stephen 'Wil' Williams and drummer Kevin Gritton. Against Perfection is their debut album, which was released in 1993. In 2016, Pitchfork included it in its list of "The 50 Best Shoegaze Albums of All Time".
STAFF COMMENTS
Mine says: I have a difficult relationship with Shoegaze (that I won't go into now) but remember liking this record a lot in my early twenties so for nostalgic reasons decided to listen to it again. It's been a while but Sistine Chapel Ceiling is still giving me goosebumps - worth it for this gem of a song alone!TRACK LISTING
Side A
1. Glorious
2. Favourite Fallen Idol
3. A To Fade In
4. I Know You Too Well
5. Homeboy
Side B
1. Sistine Chapel Ceiling
2. Cut #2
3. Crash Sight
4. Still Life
5. Breathless
Late 80s / early 90s body music, Attack Decay Sustain Release, or ADSR, was the name of Todd Nickolas and Dominic Paterson's high school synthesizer group, an outlet for their electronic music experiments recorded on Todd’s parents’ farm in Southwestern Ontario, Canada.
In the idyllic rural setting of the Nickolas' dairy and crop farm, the juxtaposition of natural ambience and the repetitive rhythms of the machinery merged within their youthful music-saturated subconscious and found its way into their recordings. This bucolic environment also inspired the teenagers to channel their restless energy into endlessly experimenting with whatever gear they could get their hands on and listening to a steady diet of new music.
A big part of that exposure to non-mainstream sounds came via CBC Radio's Brave New Waves program - a saviour for adventurous and curious listeners living outside of major urban centres. The title "Poised Over Pause Buttons" is directly borrowed from a live studio broadcast by Severed Heads, where host Brent Bambury introduced the set by saying, 'Do you know how many fingers are poised over pause buttons right now?' The title is also a head nod to those early processes of recording onto cassette decks or 4-track tape recorders, and to the tape culture of the time, capturing favourite songs off the radio with precision and making mixtapes from owned or borrowed record collections.
Todd was constantly seeking new electronic music through those formative years - whether it was the futuristic space rock of ELO's “Time” in grade school, Skinny Puppy’s blistering electronic body music in high school, or the ambient bliss of Aphex Twin in university. The tracks coming from their studio in those early days were inspired by a steady diet of these new discoveries. They were rapidly devouring a wide variety of acts from 4AD and Wax Trax!, indie artists like Husker Du, Chicago house to Belgian New Beat, the On-U Sound label to Public Enemy, and all points in between.
The unreleased cassettes that Todd recently rediscovered (some of which are included on this release) are a flashback to that era of pure discovery but also a reminder of the explorations and achievements accomplished by the confidence of the fearless amateur. Over the past three years, Todd and Linus Booth have compiled their favourite glimpses from that '87-'91 period and present them to you as a personal reflection of that time and place.
In the idyllic rural setting of the Nickolas' dairy and crop farm, the juxtaposition of natural ambience and the repetitive rhythms of the machinery merged within their youthful music-saturated subconscious and found its way into their recordings. This bucolic environment also inspired the teenagers to channel their restless energy into endlessly experimenting with whatever gear they could get their hands on and listening to a steady diet of new music.
A big part of that exposure to non-mainstream sounds came via CBC Radio's Brave New Waves program - a saviour for adventurous and curious listeners living outside of major urban centres. The title "Poised Over Pause Buttons" is directly borrowed from a live studio broadcast by Severed Heads, where host Brent Bambury introduced the set by saying, 'Do you know how many fingers are poised over pause buttons right now?' The title is also a head nod to those early processes of recording onto cassette decks or 4-track tape recorders, and to the tape culture of the time, capturing favourite songs off the radio with precision and making mixtapes from owned or borrowed record collections.
Todd was constantly seeking new electronic music through those formative years - whether it was the futuristic space rock of ELO's “Time” in grade school, Skinny Puppy’s blistering electronic body music in high school, or the ambient bliss of Aphex Twin in university. The tracks coming from their studio in those early days were inspired by a steady diet of these new discoveries. They were rapidly devouring a wide variety of acts from 4AD and Wax Trax!, indie artists like Husker Du, Chicago house to Belgian New Beat, the On-U Sound label to Public Enemy, and all points in between.
The unreleased cassettes that Todd recently rediscovered (some of which are included on this release) are a flashback to that era of pure discovery but also a reminder of the explorations and achievements accomplished by the confidence of the fearless amateur. Over the past three years, Todd and Linus Booth have compiled their favourite glimpses from that '87-'91 period and present them to you as a personal reflection of that time and place.
STAFF COMMENTS
Matt says: An expansive and intriguing EBM curio from Canada. ADSR take cues from Belgium new beat and that fertile pre-house period to concoct their own blend of throbbing, coital dance music.TRACK LISTING
Dreampain
Nightlife
I Dont Understand
Far Too Late
Great Mysteries
Herethere
Is This The World
Suboceana Demo
Your Whole Life
Freak Response
Fathom
Perpetual
As Soon As Possible V2
Where Are They Now
Adult Books is the brainchild of Los Angeles-based writer and multi-instrumentalist Nick Winfrey. With the help of childhood friends Sina Salessi (drums) and Alex Galindo (guitar/synth), Winfrey crafts lyric-driven dark pop gems that recall the hook-heavy guitar work of Johnny Marr, the just-below-the-collar angst of Mission of Burma, and the doomsday bellow of early Echo and the Bunnymen.
After a well-received string of bedroom demos and cassettes, Adult Books released their first full-length album, Running from the Blows , in 2016, trading in their previous home-recorded sounds for a cleaned-up act that allowed Winfrey’s pop savvy and understated lyrical wit to shine through. Two years of heavy touring followed, after which Winfrey found himself both burned out and uninspired by the business of music.
Following a much-needed hiatus, Adult Books is finally ready to share their sophomore LP, Grecian Urn . Recorded with Jonny Bell (Crystal Antlers) and mastered by Dave Cooley (Animal Collective, J Dilla) , Grecian Urn was crafted over the course of nearly two years; however, the seeds of the album were sown more than a decade earlier. When sitting down to write Grecian Urn , Winfrey revisited old demos, forgotten voice memos and unfinished fragments of songs to create something wholly new.
The end result is a self-assured and intensely personal album that places Winfrey’s evocative images and economic storytelling approach front and center. A loose concept album of sorts, Grecian Urn draws on classical Mediterranean imagery and mythos as a means of exploring Winfrey’s past traumas and struggles with chronic anxiety.
After a well-received string of bedroom demos and cassettes, Adult Books released their first full-length album, Running from the Blows , in 2016, trading in their previous home-recorded sounds for a cleaned-up act that allowed Winfrey’s pop savvy and understated lyrical wit to shine through. Two years of heavy touring followed, after which Winfrey found himself both burned out and uninspired by the business of music.
Following a much-needed hiatus, Adult Books is finally ready to share their sophomore LP, Grecian Urn . Recorded with Jonny Bell (Crystal Antlers) and mastered by Dave Cooley (Animal Collective, J Dilla) , Grecian Urn was crafted over the course of nearly two years; however, the seeds of the album were sown more than a decade earlier. When sitting down to write Grecian Urn , Winfrey revisited old demos, forgotten voice memos and unfinished fragments of songs to create something wholly new.
The end result is a self-assured and intensely personal album that places Winfrey’s evocative images and economic storytelling approach front and center. A loose concept album of sorts, Grecian Urn draws on classical Mediterranean imagery and mythos as a means of exploring Winfrey’s past traumas and struggles with chronic anxiety.
TRACK LISTING
1) Innocence
2) Receiver
3) Grecian Urb
4) Holiday
5) Florence
6) 100 Dreams
7) Apologies
8) Cassy
9) Adriatics
10) Sparrows On The Razor Wire
Following a flurry of critical acclaim for their debut single ‘Springful / Am Gone in January, Adult Jazz have announced their anticipated debut album Gist Is via their own label Spare Thought.
A single-note drone fills the air, joined by a lilting, pitch-shifted vocal. The mercurial melody falls between folk, plainsong, pop and jazz, the words trigger equally beguiling images and the voice has an uninhibited, freestyle timbre. At seven minutes and twenty nine seconds, ‘Hum’ is as audacious as it is a brilliant introduction to a record. Through nine tracks and 51 minutes, their debut album Gist Is, released on the band’s own label Spare Thought, is a voyage that’s startling, mesmerising and magical from start to finish.
Gist Is also evolved intuitively, taking four years to finish. Studies (and more recently, day jobs) had to be factored in, but the dominant factor was having the freedom, “to write and to realise a direction as we went along. There was no prescribed path for the album, so we could take an internalised approach.”
"Their signature sound comes in the form of frazzled melodies, punctuated by the most joyously uninhibited vocals. ‘Springful/Am Gone’ encompasses all we love about the whirling, anti-pop throws of Wild Beasts” NME
“Few debut tracks offer as many mindblowing oddities as Leeds band Adult Jazz’s first effort . . . it weaves and turns in mysterious ways, but always ends up at a gorgeous, inclusive endpoint” DIY
“Guitar jabs, indie pop melodies, experimental subtle electronics in the back, layered over with a sweet, indie rock vibe and fitting vocals, ‘Springful’ is absolutely gorgeous and unique” Disco Naïveté
“Adult Jazz have shown that they can create such intelligent, alternative-pop that it demands re-listen, upon re-listen, upon re-listen” The Line Of Best Fit
“Adult Jazz are making some pretty amazing music.” AltSounds
“A beguiling beauty . . . feels committed to its own sparseness, experimentally building each counterintuitively catchy groove from as few sonic elements as possible” THE FADER
“Quirky and disjointed, yet somehow gliding gracefully through the air . . . this is a hell of a song, understated and powerful” Stereogum
A single-note drone fills the air, joined by a lilting, pitch-shifted vocal. The mercurial melody falls between folk, plainsong, pop and jazz, the words trigger equally beguiling images and the voice has an uninhibited, freestyle timbre. At seven minutes and twenty nine seconds, ‘Hum’ is as audacious as it is a brilliant introduction to a record. Through nine tracks and 51 minutes, their debut album Gist Is, released on the band’s own label Spare Thought, is a voyage that’s startling, mesmerising and magical from start to finish.
Gist Is also evolved intuitively, taking four years to finish. Studies (and more recently, day jobs) had to be factored in, but the dominant factor was having the freedom, “to write and to realise a direction as we went along. There was no prescribed path for the album, so we could take an internalised approach.”
"Their signature sound comes in the form of frazzled melodies, punctuated by the most joyously uninhibited vocals. ‘Springful/Am Gone’ encompasses all we love about the whirling, anti-pop throws of Wild Beasts” NME
“Few debut tracks offer as many mindblowing oddities as Leeds band Adult Jazz’s first effort . . . it weaves and turns in mysterious ways, but always ends up at a gorgeous, inclusive endpoint” DIY
“Guitar jabs, indie pop melodies, experimental subtle electronics in the back, layered over with a sweet, indie rock vibe and fitting vocals, ‘Springful’ is absolutely gorgeous and unique” Disco Naïveté
“Adult Jazz have shown that they can create such intelligent, alternative-pop that it demands re-listen, upon re-listen, upon re-listen” The Line Of Best Fit
“Adult Jazz are making some pretty amazing music.” AltSounds
“A beguiling beauty . . . feels committed to its own sparseness, experimentally building each counterintuitively catchy groove from as few sonic elements as possible” THE FADER
“Quirky and disjointed, yet somehow gliding gracefully through the air . . . this is a hell of a song, understated and powerful” Stereogum
London-based four-piece Adult Jazz announce their first full-length album in a decade, So Sorry So Slow, out 26 April 2024 via Spare Thought. Alongside the announcement comes lovesick new single ‘Suffer One’ featuring Owen Pallett, a cautious excavation of self and sexuality, clambering across a gorgeously shapeshifting, filmic five-minutes.
Containing some of the band’s most abrasive but gentle, beautiful and melismatic work to date, So Sorry So Slow has many defining characteristics: romance, panic, devotion and remorse, threaded together by an intentionally laser-focused love. It’s deeply personal, bruised and candid in its expressions of tenderness, and deeply pained in its concurrent reflections of ecological regret. Across its hour-long runtime, a delicate, frenetic energy and glacial heaviness coexist, the band pitting those paces against one another. In their richly experimental timbre, dancing strings and fluttering falsettos prang against a bed of brass drones like a wounded bird.
“We started writing in 2017 and began recording in 2018,” says vocalist Harry Burgess. “We genuinely thought it might be finished in 2018! But things kept developing and, having resolutely not struck while the iron was hot, there was no real external push to rush things after that, so we just kept letting things shift and unfold until it felt right. Listening back to my voice notes it’s nice to notice that there are fragments of ideas from the whole period 2017-2023 which have shaped the record.”
Recorded in bursts at studios across London and in the band members’ flats, at Konk, on the Isle of Wight and in Sussex, So Sorry is unambiguous in its evolution. Sonically, there are sparks of the arrhythmic brightness that afforded the band’s critically acclaimed debut album Gist Is its cult adoration, for fans of Arthur Russell and Meredith Monk, but with a blossoming, melancholic darkness often overhead. Piano sprees and luscious string sections appear like low-hanging stars on a night-time drive, whilst plunging vocal distortions and humming brass loops resurrect heavy limbs in a bad dream.
“I usually have objects as kind of totems for ideas,” explains Burgess. “The album initially started out to do with performance… [the totem] was a head mic, one of the subtle skin-tone ones, discreet on the forehead of a West End star. A number of the first songs in their original forms were almost musical theatre piano ballads. I think that was really a device to write about my life as the ‘main character’ (pre internet-speak reframing): regrets about romance, relationships - unsustainable relationships with the self and others.”
“However, once we started writing, the ideas about unsustainable personal relationships, loving unevenly and heartbreak conflated with a more expressly ecological regret. Like contending with big feelings of loss, endings, beauty, desolation, and with how much joy the earth contains in it. Feeling so much gratitude bound up in waves of sadness. Maybe witnessing a slow-motion goodbye to all that, or its last gasps. I love the earth and the life it supports so much. I love how ecosystems fit together - even the brutal stuff. It may be basic to say, but now is the time to be laser focused on that love. I was thinking about human centrality on earth, us as the ‘main character’, the way that is served by faith and romanticism, and the subsequent disingenuous understandings of our position in the ecosystem, as only stewards somehow, rather than subjects. The totems at this point: a herald’s horn, lorry inner tubes, archaeological tools. I guess from doom, industry, history respectively.”
“Now I would say the record is about gripping. Totems being: crampons, rope, drips, desalination equipment, accruing various survival tech. I think gripping sums up both of the threads. There’s the emotionally correct clinging to the earth that is the substrate of everything we value, or the delusional clinging to our imagined dominant position. But also the practical, technological aspects of creating a sustainable relationship, of remaining here. Then I think of romance again.”
So Sorry So Slow comes out 26th April 2024 on Spare Thought, mixed by Fabian Prynn at 4AD Studios and mastered by Alex Wharton at Abbey Road.
Adult Jazz is Harry Burgess, Tim Slater, Steven Wells and Tom Howe.
Containing some of the band’s most abrasive but gentle, beautiful and melismatic work to date, So Sorry So Slow has many defining characteristics: romance, panic, devotion and remorse, threaded together by an intentionally laser-focused love. It’s deeply personal, bruised and candid in its expressions of tenderness, and deeply pained in its concurrent reflections of ecological regret. Across its hour-long runtime, a delicate, frenetic energy and glacial heaviness coexist, the band pitting those paces against one another. In their richly experimental timbre, dancing strings and fluttering falsettos prang against a bed of brass drones like a wounded bird.
“We started writing in 2017 and began recording in 2018,” says vocalist Harry Burgess. “We genuinely thought it might be finished in 2018! But things kept developing and, having resolutely not struck while the iron was hot, there was no real external push to rush things after that, so we just kept letting things shift and unfold until it felt right. Listening back to my voice notes it’s nice to notice that there are fragments of ideas from the whole period 2017-2023 which have shaped the record.”
Recorded in bursts at studios across London and in the band members’ flats, at Konk, on the Isle of Wight and in Sussex, So Sorry is unambiguous in its evolution. Sonically, there are sparks of the arrhythmic brightness that afforded the band’s critically acclaimed debut album Gist Is its cult adoration, for fans of Arthur Russell and Meredith Monk, but with a blossoming, melancholic darkness often overhead. Piano sprees and luscious string sections appear like low-hanging stars on a night-time drive, whilst plunging vocal distortions and humming brass loops resurrect heavy limbs in a bad dream.
“I usually have objects as kind of totems for ideas,” explains Burgess. “The album initially started out to do with performance… [the totem] was a head mic, one of the subtle skin-tone ones, discreet on the forehead of a West End star. A number of the first songs in their original forms were almost musical theatre piano ballads. I think that was really a device to write about my life as the ‘main character’ (pre internet-speak reframing): regrets about romance, relationships - unsustainable relationships with the self and others.”
“However, once we started writing, the ideas about unsustainable personal relationships, loving unevenly and heartbreak conflated with a more expressly ecological regret. Like contending with big feelings of loss, endings, beauty, desolation, and with how much joy the earth contains in it. Feeling so much gratitude bound up in waves of sadness. Maybe witnessing a slow-motion goodbye to all that, or its last gasps. I love the earth and the life it supports so much. I love how ecosystems fit together - even the brutal stuff. It may be basic to say, but now is the time to be laser focused on that love. I was thinking about human centrality on earth, us as the ‘main character’, the way that is served by faith and romanticism, and the subsequent disingenuous understandings of our position in the ecosystem, as only stewards somehow, rather than subjects. The totems at this point: a herald’s horn, lorry inner tubes, archaeological tools. I guess from doom, industry, history respectively.”
“Now I would say the record is about gripping. Totems being: crampons, rope, drips, desalination equipment, accruing various survival tech. I think gripping sums up both of the threads. There’s the emotionally correct clinging to the earth that is the substrate of everything we value, or the delusional clinging to our imagined dominant position. But also the practical, technological aspects of creating a sustainable relationship, of remaining here. Then I think of romance again.”
So Sorry So Slow comes out 26th April 2024 on Spare Thought, mixed by Fabian Prynn at 4AD Studios and mastered by Alex Wharton at Abbey Road.
Adult Jazz is Harry Burgess, Tim Slater, Steven Wells and Tom Howe.
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: It always surprises me when a band can inoffensively arrhythmically skip between themes and motifs in their music, because It never strikes me as something that should be doable without a noticeable thematic shift. There's something about the staggered determination and swaying dreamlike haze of Adult Jazz's music that has always been seamless and so organic, and remains in abundance here.TRACK LISTING
Side A
Bleat Melisma
Suffer One
Y-rod
Side B
No Relief
Plenary
Marquee
Side C
Dusk Song
Earth Of Worms
No Sentry
Side D
Bend
I Was Surprised
Windfarm
After a quarter century of nearly nonstop activity, dystopian Detroit synth-punk institution ADULT. have perfected a strain of stylistic cohesion in the album format, “but for this we wanted something that’s falling apart.”
Becoming Undone, the 9th official full-length by co-founders Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller, explicitly succeeds in this aim, simultaneously rejecting and reflecting the planetary discord that inspired it. Begun in the latter half of 2020 against a backdrop of unprecedented flux and seismic isolation, the duo kickstarted their muse by sourcing fresh additions to the rig: a vocal loop pedal for Kuperus and Roland percussion pads for Miller. Reconnecting with legacy influences like the politicized industrial percussion of Test Department and the queasy miscreant synthetics of TG’s 20 Jazz Funk Greats sparked a series of fruitfully frenetic sessions, centered on themes of impermanence and dissonance. Miller’s rationale is blunt: “We weren’t interested in melody or harmony since we didn’t see the world having that.”
From the tense technoid blitz of “Undoing / Undone” to the twitchy EBM of “Fools (We Are…)” and “I Am Nothing,” the sides bristle with strident acidic revolt and black leather sequential circuits, unhinged and unforgiving. Elsewhere, slower tempos of purgatorial unravelling (“Normative Sludge,” “She’s Nice Looking”) showcase a breadth of vocal FX, Kuperus sounding alternately indignant and possessed, decrying the crimes, fears, and failings of a deluded world. Throughout, the band’s chemistry crackles with revulsion and strobe-lit dissent, equal parts exorcism and denunciation. “Humans have always been pretty terrible,” Kuperus explains. “But every year the compromises of culture just accelerate.”
Becoming Undone is also freighted with a more personal pain, as Kuperus’ father passed away during the height of the pandemic, just before the album took root. As his hospice caretakers, she and Miller faced the banality of finality, surrounded by objects drained of meaning, “the joy of having a body, but also the drudgery of having one.” The record’s bewitching closing track, “Teeth Out Pt. II” – which happens to be the first ADULT. song in the group’s history without drums – speaks to this sense of doomed corporeal mass and the looming, lightless unknown that binds us all. A seasick haze swells and subsides in slow, low waves, flickering with ring modulation, above which Kuperus sings in a dazed, brooding, transcendent state, as if having finally glimpsed beyond the pale: “Some day / some day I will be silent and free / of this relentless gravity.”
Becoming Undone, the 9th official full-length by co-founders Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller, explicitly succeeds in this aim, simultaneously rejecting and reflecting the planetary discord that inspired it. Begun in the latter half of 2020 against a backdrop of unprecedented flux and seismic isolation, the duo kickstarted their muse by sourcing fresh additions to the rig: a vocal loop pedal for Kuperus and Roland percussion pads for Miller. Reconnecting with legacy influences like the politicized industrial percussion of Test Department and the queasy miscreant synthetics of TG’s 20 Jazz Funk Greats sparked a series of fruitfully frenetic sessions, centered on themes of impermanence and dissonance. Miller’s rationale is blunt: “We weren’t interested in melody or harmony since we didn’t see the world having that.”
From the tense technoid blitz of “Undoing / Undone” to the twitchy EBM of “Fools (We Are…)” and “I Am Nothing,” the sides bristle with strident acidic revolt and black leather sequential circuits, unhinged and unforgiving. Elsewhere, slower tempos of purgatorial unravelling (“Normative Sludge,” “She’s Nice Looking”) showcase a breadth of vocal FX, Kuperus sounding alternately indignant and possessed, decrying the crimes, fears, and failings of a deluded world. Throughout, the band’s chemistry crackles with revulsion and strobe-lit dissent, equal parts exorcism and denunciation. “Humans have always been pretty terrible,” Kuperus explains. “But every year the compromises of culture just accelerate.”
Becoming Undone is also freighted with a more personal pain, as Kuperus’ father passed away during the height of the pandemic, just before the album took root. As his hospice caretakers, she and Miller faced the banality of finality, surrounded by objects drained of meaning, “the joy of having a body, but also the drudgery of having one.” The record’s bewitching closing track, “Teeth Out Pt. II” – which happens to be the first ADULT. song in the group’s history without drums – speaks to this sense of doomed corporeal mass and the looming, lightless unknown that binds us all. A seasick haze swells and subsides in slow, low waves, flickering with ring modulation, above which Kuperus sings in a dazed, brooding, transcendent state, as if having finally glimpsed beyond the pale: “Some day / some day I will be silent and free / of this relentless gravity.”
TRACK LISTING
SIDE A:
A1. Undoing / Undone
A2. Our Bodies Weren’t Wrong
A3. Fools (We Are…)
A4. Normative Sludge
SIDE B:
B1. I Am Nothing
B2. She’s Nice Looking
B3. I, Obedient
B4. Teeth Out Pt. II
ADULT. (Detroit’s Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller) release the new album, ‘Detroit House Guests’, their first for Mute.
‘Detroit House Guests’ is a collaborative project conceived by ADULT. in the early 2000s. The concept became a reality in 2014 after receiving a John S and James L Knight Foundation grant.
Based on the visual artist residency model, each musician came to ADULT.’s studio for a three week period with the parameter that they all live, work and collaborate together. The result, a total anthropological sound experiment and a full length album.
The album features collaborations with a whole host of musicians and artists - Douglas J McCarthy from Nitzer Ebb, Michael Gira from Swans, Shannon Funchess from Light Asylum, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe AKA Lichens, Austrian thereminist Dorit Chrysler and multidisciplinary artist Lun*na Menoh.
ADULT. are the Detroit duo Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller. They played their first live show together in Germany in 1997 under the name Artificial Material. In early 1998 they released their first 12” under the moniker Plasma Co. Later that year, they released their first 12” under the name ADULT. Currently, they have released six albums and 19 EPs / singles on Ghostly International, Thrill Jockey and Clone Records, as well as on their own label Ersatz Audio (which currently has over 40 releases since it was founded in 1995). They have remixed over 20 acts as well, including Tuxedomoon, John Foxx, Death In Vegas and Pet Shop Boys (for Moog Music).
‘Detroit House Guests’ is a collaborative project conceived by ADULT. in the early 2000s. The concept became a reality in 2014 after receiving a John S and James L Knight Foundation grant.
Based on the visual artist residency model, each musician came to ADULT.’s studio for a three week period with the parameter that they all live, work and collaborate together. The result, a total anthropological sound experiment and a full length album.
The album features collaborations with a whole host of musicians and artists - Douglas J McCarthy from Nitzer Ebb, Michael Gira from Swans, Shannon Funchess from Light Asylum, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe AKA Lichens, Austrian thereminist Dorit Chrysler and multidisciplinary artist Lun*na Menoh.
ADULT. are the Detroit duo Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller. They played their first live show together in Germany in 1997 under the name Artificial Material. In early 1998 they released their first 12” under the moniker Plasma Co. Later that year, they released their first 12” under the name ADULT. Currently, they have released six albums and 19 EPs / singles on Ghostly International, Thrill Jockey and Clone Records, as well as on their own label Ersatz Audio (which currently has over 40 releases since it was founded in 1995). They have remixed over 20 acts as well, including Tuxedomoon, John Foxx, Death In Vegas and Pet Shop Boys (for Moog Music).
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: Detroit residents, and lovers of a good collaboration Adult bring together some of the greatest names in avant, experimental and electronic music to form this exciting and varied tour-de-force. Pulsing electronics, spoken word interludes and industrial rhythms form into a brilliantly fascinating epiphany of sound. Highly recommended.TRACK LISTING
P Rts M Ss Ng (ft Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe)
Breathe On (ft Michael Gira)
Into The Drum (ft Lun*na Menoh)
We Are A Mirror (ft Douglas J McCarthy)
Enter The Fray (ft Dorit Chrysler)
Uncomfortable Positions (ft Lun*na Menoh)
We Chase The Sound (ft Shannon Funchess)
They’re Just Words (ft Douglas J McCarthy)
Inexhaustible (ft Dorit Chrysler)
Stop (And Start Again) (ft Shannon Funchess)
This Situation (ft Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe)
As You Dream (ft Michael Gira)
"Detroit House Guests", a project conceived by ADULT., was released earlier this year. A full length album featuring collaborations with a whole host of musicians and artists - Douglas J McCarthy from Nitzer Ebb, Michael Gira from Swans, Shannon Funchess from Light Asylum, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe aka Lichens, Austrian thereminist Dorit Chrysler and Lun*na Menoh. This Remix EP sees a selection of these tracks reworked by Barry Adamson, Shannon F, Silent Servant and label mates LIARS. Its Juan Mendez who kicks things off, sharing credits with his Silent Servant alter-ego. His version of "We Chase The Sound" is a suitably acidic and corrosive roller, keeping the industrial, Nitzer Ebb-era chants and littering an electro-focused drum palette with squelchy reverbs and metallic swirls. Shannon F's gated drums grace an alternative remix as glitchy, staccato synth elements are added to this Detroitian, electro-punk stomper. On the flip local legend Barry Adamson offers his morose and shadowy vocal talents to "We Are A Mirror", stretching it out into a paranoid, claustrophobic piece of vacuumy electronic soul. Very interesting, very out there! Finally, Mute bed fellows LIARS turn "Breathe On" into a post-coital swirl of ambience and released tension; the strung-out, narcotized mood collapsing into a state of blissed-out carnal abandon. Clever, intriguing set of remixes, lots of variation and highly listenable. Mega!
Discos Perdidos - which translates as Lost Records - is a new series started by Lisbon label Paraiso, dedicated entirely to releasing archival music that, for a reason or another, never saw the light of day. The first outing on this adventure into the unknown is by none other than the legendary Portugal-born, London-based techno instigator The Advent aka Cisco Ferreira. The three tracks on this EP were written in 1998 and were meant to be released on a label that another Portuguese techno legend - Jiggy - meant to start running, but other projects got in the way. Fast forward to early 2023, Jiggy showed the Paraiso crew the DATs containing these gems - immediately entrancing - and both him and The Advent agreed to give Discos Perdidos the honours of putting them out. Titled "Shiolas", this three-tracker opens with "Don't Do It", a relentless techno banger that, albeit its four to the floor drum pattern, feels swingy thanks to cleverly programmed percussion and claps. A concise but extremely effective bassline and synth lead guides the energetic smasher, with cut-up vocals, timely placed filters and hi-hats giving it a final shimmer. It's followed by the Piano Mix, with an equally strong and raw arrangement and a new element - an alien, sound-sculpted piano that gives it an extra sense of urgency. The closing track "Jacker" has more abstract leanings, although similarly dancefloor-ready, featuring an off-kilter yet driving conversation between stabs and bells in a display of expertly crafted dubby yet visceral sound design. A piece of dance music history is recovered - techno is now a story told more accurately.
STAFF COMMENTS
Matt says: Primal techno shirt-lifters of the prime-era DJ Rush / Jeff Mills ilk. Nice to see these early 00s sounds making a come back. See also: Max Watts, Kettama, David James Drume etc.TRACK LISTING
1. Don't Do It
2. Don't Do It (Piano Mix)
3. Jacker
Adventures Of Salvador have clearly been working hard since 2016's 'Chocolates & Drugs', because whilst it clearly had all the spirit and drive we see in their latest offering, 'Welcome To Our Village' is a more precise, more rawkous and more improved offering in every way.
We kick things off with 'Girl With The Broken Face', showcasing AOS' dedication to a snappy distorted guitar riff and chanty singalong backing vox, flitting perfectly between almost spoken word vocals and minimal percussive backdrop into a momentum-filled, soaring rock and roll number. This drive continues into the fuzzy basses and southern rock attitude of 'Uncle Walt' and 'Retroman', with the former slightly more downbeat, with it's galloping percussives and hammond organ solo, and the latter relying heavily upon a perfectly fuzzed out bass guitar and crescentic culmination through its brief four minute duration.
Later on, things get a little more punk, eschewing the surf-tinged rock and rollers of the first half and opting for the snapping 12-bar and Idles-esque vocal snarl of 'Prettier Than You', or the catatonic heft and scrappy sludgey oy vibes of 'King Kong'.
Adventures Of Salvador really are one of the most prominent acts in this scene right now, forming a perfect culmination of instrumental skill, songwriting prowess and all-out rock power. A brilliant return, and one that will surely be as well recieved as their last outing. Lovely stuff.
We kick things off with 'Girl With The Broken Face', showcasing AOS' dedication to a snappy distorted guitar riff and chanty singalong backing vox, flitting perfectly between almost spoken word vocals and minimal percussive backdrop into a momentum-filled, soaring rock and roll number. This drive continues into the fuzzy basses and southern rock attitude of 'Uncle Walt' and 'Retroman', with the former slightly more downbeat, with it's galloping percussives and hammond organ solo, and the latter relying heavily upon a perfectly fuzzed out bass guitar and crescentic culmination through its brief four minute duration.
Later on, things get a little more punk, eschewing the surf-tinged rock and rollers of the first half and opting for the snapping 12-bar and Idles-esque vocal snarl of 'Prettier Than You', or the catatonic heft and scrappy sludgey oy vibes of 'King Kong'.
Adventures Of Salvador really are one of the most prominent acts in this scene right now, forming a perfect culmination of instrumental skill, songwriting prowess and all-out rock power. A brilliant return, and one that will surely be as well recieved as their last outing. Lovely stuff.
TRACK LISTING
1 Girl With The Broken Face
2 Uncle Walt
3 Retroman
4 Welcome To My Village
5 Prettier Than You
6 King Kong
7 Moody Blues
8 Now Look What You Made Me Do
For Adventure’s 2011 album, "Lesser Known", mastermind Benny Boeldt dived deep into pop songcraft. Unlike Adventure’s self-titled debut, this record was full of earworm vocal hooks - a big leap from the chiptune-indebted songs of his first album.
Boeldt’s third Adventure LP, "Weird Work", remains in the same sonic space as "Lesser Known" but abandons its sing-alongs. The album veers from a Square Enix-style video game soundtrack (“Alone”) to a strange lecture leaking from a high school’s ceiling PA (“Constantly”). The frenzied "Laser Blast" and the smooth "Nervous" encourage dance floor crowding. Weird Work is the result of Adventure’s 8-bit tendencies running free in an IDM landscape built on Aphex Twin and early Warp Records.
Stepping back from the strictures of pop music, Boeldt was once again free, with only an allegiance to his creative muses. “This record is about taking away any restrictive guidelines to the way I play or compose,” Boeldt says. “It's about isolation, confusion, doubt, growing up, growing out, losing control.” Despite the lack of deliberate confines on the music, there is still a feeling of control to these tracks. The music came into existence freely, but has found order.
In today’s digital age, when so many try to find definition with online tools and seek identity in downloadable content, it’s nice to know that Adventure has it figured out with Weird Work. “This record is about recognizing myself again,” Boeldt says.
“This record is about realizing who I am as a musician, and what I sound like. For better or for worse.”
Boeldt’s third Adventure LP, "Weird Work", remains in the same sonic space as "Lesser Known" but abandons its sing-alongs. The album veers from a Square Enix-style video game soundtrack (“Alone”) to a strange lecture leaking from a high school’s ceiling PA (“Constantly”). The frenzied "Laser Blast" and the smooth "Nervous" encourage dance floor crowding. Weird Work is the result of Adventure’s 8-bit tendencies running free in an IDM landscape built on Aphex Twin and early Warp Records.
Stepping back from the strictures of pop music, Boeldt was once again free, with only an allegiance to his creative muses. “This record is about taking away any restrictive guidelines to the way I play or compose,” Boeldt says. “It's about isolation, confusion, doubt, growing up, growing out, losing control.” Despite the lack of deliberate confines on the music, there is still a feeling of control to these tracks. The music came into existence freely, but has found order.
In today’s digital age, when so many try to find definition with online tools and seek identity in downloadable content, it’s nice to know that Adventure has it figured out with Weird Work. “This record is about recognizing myself again,” Boeldt says.
“This record is about realizing who I am as a musician, and what I sound like. For better or for worse.”
TRACK LISTING
1. Days Off
2. Laser Blast
3. Nervous
4. Flower
5. Reality Shift
6. Alone
7. Constantly
8. Catching Up
9. Happiness
Aeon Station’s ‘Observatory’ is an epic statement more than a decade in the making, with miles of timeless melodies and the kind of overpowering songwriting that will reaffirm your belief in life itself.
Band leader Kevin Whelan co-founded and was a key songwriter for New Jersey indie-rock legends The Wrens. The Wrens’ landmark 2003 album, ‘The Meadowlands’, received a 9.5 Pitchfork review and made Pitchfork’s Albums Of The Year list. Since that album, fans and press have been eagerly awaiting new material from The Wrens members.
Whelan’s scope of musical vision on ‘Observatory’ is wide open and free with possibilities - at once recalling the reflective wisdom of Bruce Springsteen, Broken Social Scene’s huge anthemic burn, and the Wrens’ own pulsing-with-life take on rock music. Above all, this is music not only for dreamers but for those who realize and appreciate the enormity of every moment. “It’s about never letting go about those dreams and your passion,” he states. “The album starts from a place of realizing that everything is temporary, what we love eventually changes or leaves us, and regardless we continue to search and find our way back home.”
If you’ve ever caught air in your lungs or felt your heart beating in your chest, there’s no doubt that you’ll find some level of connection with ‘Observatory’’s openhearted, instantly classic-sounding rock.
Band leader Kevin Whelan co-founded and was a key songwriter for New Jersey indie-rock legends The Wrens. The Wrens’ landmark 2003 album, ‘The Meadowlands’, received a 9.5 Pitchfork review and made Pitchfork’s Albums Of The Year list. Since that album, fans and press have been eagerly awaiting new material from The Wrens members.
Whelan’s scope of musical vision on ‘Observatory’ is wide open and free with possibilities - at once recalling the reflective wisdom of Bruce Springsteen, Broken Social Scene’s huge anthemic burn, and the Wrens’ own pulsing-with-life take on rock music. Above all, this is music not only for dreamers but for those who realize and appreciate the enormity of every moment. “It’s about never letting go about those dreams and your passion,” he states. “The album starts from a place of realizing that everything is temporary, what we love eventually changes or leaves us, and regardless we continue to search and find our way back home.”
If you’ve ever caught air in your lungs or felt your heart beating in your chest, there’s no doubt that you’ll find some level of connection with ‘Observatory’’s openhearted, instantly classic-sounding rock.
TRACK LISTING
Hold On
Leaves
Fade
Everything At Once
Move
Queens
Empty Rooms
Air
Better Love
Alpine Drive
Josh Scott is ready to unveil the unique and stunning fruits of his labour on his self-titled debut album as the distinctively named Aero Flynn - a record that may never have seen the light of day, had it not been for his old friend Justin Vernon of Bon Iver fame.
Up to now Scott may have been living life as an outsider but solid relationships sit at the very heart of his musical make up. Whilst his grandfather played a key influence on his life and new stage name (“I grew up with him and he worships old cinema so I’ve seen every Errol Flynn film,” explains Scott of the reason behind his new guise, “It’s my Narnia.”), his saving grace has become those who surrounded him during the 2000s while attending the University Of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. During that time Scott’s band Amateur Love was the most talked about band in the small college town’s scene.
After struggling with the high expectations thrust upon him (so esteemed was his song writing to those who knew him back then that the ‘Lip Parade’ sited in Bon Iver’s ‘Holocene’ is a direct reference to one of Scott’s earlier songs), Scott disbanded the group, moved to Chicago and stepped further back into the shadows. After being diagnosed with a mysterious autoimmune disease affecting his kidney in addition to crippling untreated depression, he went underground. That is, until now.
Refusing to let Scott go without a fight, Vernon eventually managed to coax him back out of hibernation by establishing a label on which to reissue the one and only Amateur Love album. This was the spark; Scott’s interest was piqued and he began writing and recording what would become Aero Flynn’s deeply personal self-titled debut. The writing for it began in Scott’s empty Chicago apartment and it brilliantly displays a newfound exploration of longform composition techniques and ambiguities rather than the simple versechorus- verse-type song structure he had mastered. Once the songs arrived at Vernon’s April Base Studios in rural Wisconsin (where he and Scott coproduced the self-titled debut together) the songs were stretched and manipulated further into their spaced out ethereal final form.
With a dazzling cast of musicians, including Bon Iver players Mike Noyce, Sean Carey, Rob Moose and CJ Camerieri plus Justin Vernon himself, guitarist Matt Sweeney, pedal steeler Ben Lester and Solid Gold’s Adam Hurlburt, recording progressed well and, over the course of a year, an album that many had spent over a decade waiting for was finally finished.
Up to now Scott may have been living life as an outsider but solid relationships sit at the very heart of his musical make up. Whilst his grandfather played a key influence on his life and new stage name (“I grew up with him and he worships old cinema so I’ve seen every Errol Flynn film,” explains Scott of the reason behind his new guise, “It’s my Narnia.”), his saving grace has become those who surrounded him during the 2000s while attending the University Of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. During that time Scott’s band Amateur Love was the most talked about band in the small college town’s scene.
After struggling with the high expectations thrust upon him (so esteemed was his song writing to those who knew him back then that the ‘Lip Parade’ sited in Bon Iver’s ‘Holocene’ is a direct reference to one of Scott’s earlier songs), Scott disbanded the group, moved to Chicago and stepped further back into the shadows. After being diagnosed with a mysterious autoimmune disease affecting his kidney in addition to crippling untreated depression, he went underground. That is, until now.
Refusing to let Scott go without a fight, Vernon eventually managed to coax him back out of hibernation by establishing a label on which to reissue the one and only Amateur Love album. This was the spark; Scott’s interest was piqued and he began writing and recording what would become Aero Flynn’s deeply personal self-titled debut. The writing for it began in Scott’s empty Chicago apartment and it brilliantly displays a newfound exploration of longform composition techniques and ambiguities rather than the simple versechorus- verse-type song structure he had mastered. Once the songs arrived at Vernon’s April Base Studios in rural Wisconsin (where he and Scott coproduced the self-titled debut together) the songs were stretched and manipulated further into their spaced out ethereal final form.
With a dazzling cast of musicians, including Bon Iver players Mike Noyce, Sean Carey, Rob Moose and CJ Camerieri plus Justin Vernon himself, guitarist Matt Sweeney, pedal steeler Ben Lester and Solid Gold’s Adam Hurlburt, recording progressed well and, over the course of a year, an album that many had spent over a decade waiting for was finally finished.
TRACK LISTING
Plates
Twist
Dk/Pi
Crisp
Tree
Floating
Maker
Brand New
Moon Beams
Both Aesop Rock and Homeboy Sandman are regarded as top tier lyricists known for pushing the envelope of creativity in their writing, while covering a wide range of topics and moods. However, sometimes things are inherently simple. Take for example, the origin of their collaboration, born from a mutual appreciation for each other as artists which became fully realized when Aesop Rock invited Homeboy Sandman to join him on tour in 2015. Traveling the country together, they built a connection beyond the music, resulting in a friendship that led to recording a few songs together, and before they knew it, "Lice" was conceived.
Initially released in 2015 as a free direct download, followed by an extremely limited vinyl pressing sold exclusively on tour, Aesop Rock and Homeboy Sandman's "Lice" is finally available to fans everywhere. The first in a series of EP releases, "Lice" featured production from DJ Spinna, Optiks, Blockhead, Alex 'Apex' Gale and Mike Shinoda. The original cover art was designed by renowned illustrator Jeremy Fish.
Initially released in 2015 as a free direct download, followed by an extremely limited vinyl pressing sold exclusively on tour, Aesop Rock and Homeboy Sandman's "Lice" is finally available to fans everywhere. The first in a series of EP releases, "Lice" featured production from DJ Spinna, Optiks, Blockhead, Alex 'Apex' Gale and Mike Shinoda. The original cover art was designed by renowned illustrator Jeremy Fish.
TRACK LISTING
1. Vertigo
2. Katz
3. Environmental Studies
4. So Strange Here
5. Get A Dog / Fort Minor Remix
Both Aesop Rock and Homeboy Sandman are regarded as top tier lyricists known for pushing the envelope of creativity in their writing, while covering a wide range of topics and moods. However, sometimes things are inherently simple. Take for example, the origin of their collaboration, born from a mutual appreciation for each other as artists which became fully realized when Aesop Rock invited Homeboy Sandman to join him on tour in 2015. Traveling the country together, they built a connection beyond the music, resulting in a friendship that led to recording a few songs together, and before they knew it, they were in the middle of a three EP run of records.
Initially released in 2016 as a free direct download, followed by an extremely limited vinyl pressing sold exclusively on tour, Aesop Rock and Homeboy Sandman's “Lice Two: Still Buggin'” is finally available to fans everywhere. The second in a series of EP releases, “Lice Two: Still Buggin'” featured production from Dan Hayden, Mondee, Aesop Rock, SoberMindedMusiC and Mono En Stereo. The original cover art was designed by renowned illustrator Jeremy Fish.
Initially released in 2016 as a free direct download, followed by an extremely limited vinyl pressing sold exclusively on tour, Aesop Rock and Homeboy Sandman's “Lice Two: Still Buggin'” is finally available to fans everywhere. The second in a series of EP releases, “Lice Two: Still Buggin'” featured production from Dan Hayden, Mondee, Aesop Rock, SoberMindedMusiC and Mono En Stereo. The original cover art was designed by renowned illustrator Jeremy Fish.
STAFF COMMENTS
Matt says: My favourite of the three records. There's just something almost telepathic about their interplay and question & answer flow. Both rappers possess a unique voice, both sharp and drawl in equal measure - it must be a New York thing!TRACK LISTING
1. Zilch
2. Couple Things
3. Oatmeal Cookies
4. Mud
5. Stop The Bleeding
Both Aesop Rock and Homeboy Sandman are regarded as top tier lyricists known for pushing the envelope of creativity in their writing, while covering a wide range of topics and moods. However, sometimes things are inherently simple. Take for example, the origin of their collaboration, born from a mutual appreciation for each other as artists which became fully realized when Aesop Rock invited Homeboy Sandman to join him on tour in 2015. Traveling the country together, they built a connection beyond the music, resulting in a friendship that led to recording a few songs together, and before they knew it, the “Lice” project had been conceived – a three record series concluding with this, “Triple Fat Lice”.
Initially released in 2017 as a free direct download, followed by an extremely limited vinyl pressing sold exclusively on tour, Aesop Rock and Homeboy Sandman's “Triple Fat Lice” is finally available to fans everywhere. The third in a series of EP releases, “Triple Fat Lice” features production from Cohen Beats, Oh No, Ben Boogz (of 2 Hungry Brothers), Quelle Chris and M Slago. The original cover art was designed by renowned illustrator Jeremy Fish.
Initially released in 2017 as a free direct download, followed by an extremely limited vinyl pressing sold exclusively on tour, Aesop Rock and Homeboy Sandman's “Triple Fat Lice” is finally available to fans everywhere. The third in a series of EP releases, “Triple Fat Lice” features production from Cohen Beats, Oh No, Ben Boogz (of 2 Hungry Brothers), Quelle Chris and M Slago. The original cover art was designed by renowned illustrator Jeremy Fish.
STAFF COMMENTS
Matt says: Concluding the tryptic on a lyrical high, Homeboy and Aesop collude on subject matter such as parent's disappoint, food, pandemic woes and a whole host of other quick-witting, sharp observations. Two of the most unique voices in the rap game; the production is deliciously old skool - with whiffs of boom-bap mixed in with experimental sample usage and skeletal instrumentals. A masterpiece!TRACK LISTING
1. Pins And Needles
2. Comfy
3. Pizza And Burgers
4. Yoohoo
5. Panacea
The explosion of indie Hip Hop labels in the early 90s resulted in an ongoing snowball effect that started to shift the narrative around an artist’s need to sign to a major label. Coincidentally, quality home recording equipment was also becoming more easily accessible and, with the rising popularity of CD-R technology, this allowed artists to write, record, and manufacture their own albums right at home.
Appleseed was a highly celebrated and influential release from that era, cementing Aesop Rock as a new face whose talent could not be denied. The album explores creative concepts with inventive writing and stripped-down yet melodic and melancholic production. Six out of the eight songs were produced by Aesop Rock, with Omega One producing “Sick Friend” and longtime collaborator Blockhead handling “1000 Deaths”, and the project’s sole guest lyricist was Doseone.
The DIY process was followed in every aspect, as Aesop himself recalls, “I did the Appleseed hand style while working at Tepper Galleries in NYC. The cover was made at Kinko’s. The first Appleseed CD’s were CD-R’s I duped at home and sold from my backpack at an MF DOOM show at Brownies, which was right below my apartment at the time. I continued to sell hand to hand in NY, while Blockhead started fielding some mail orders from a young internet. People would send us cash or a check, and he’d cut the covers out and mail them off.“
The two of them were able to move a couple thousand CDs that way before turning their attention to newer projects, particularly Float in Aesop’s case. As a result, Appleseed went out of print for many years before resurfacing as a merch item on tour. However, in all that time it was only available on CD, directly from Aesop. Finally, 21 years after its debut, Appleseed officially returns, now available on all digital platforms, as well as on vinyl for the first time!
Appleseed was a highly celebrated and influential release from that era, cementing Aesop Rock as a new face whose talent could not be denied. The album explores creative concepts with inventive writing and stripped-down yet melodic and melancholic production. Six out of the eight songs were produced by Aesop Rock, with Omega One producing “Sick Friend” and longtime collaborator Blockhead handling “1000 Deaths”, and the project’s sole guest lyricist was Doseone.
The DIY process was followed in every aspect, as Aesop himself recalls, “I did the Appleseed hand style while working at Tepper Galleries in NYC. The cover was made at Kinko’s. The first Appleseed CD’s were CD-R’s I duped at home and sold from my backpack at an MF DOOM show at Brownies, which was right below my apartment at the time. I continued to sell hand to hand in NY, while Blockhead started fielding some mail orders from a young internet. People would send us cash or a check, and he’d cut the covers out and mail them off.“
The two of them were able to move a couple thousand CDs that way before turning their attention to newer projects, particularly Float in Aesop’s case. As a result, Appleseed went out of print for many years before resurfacing as a merch item on tour. However, in all that time it was only available on CD, directly from Aesop. Finally, 21 years after its debut, Appleseed officially returns, now available on all digital platforms, as well as on vinyl for the first time!
TRACK LISTING
1) Appleseed Intro
2) Dryspell
3) Same Space (The Tugboat Complex, Part 2)
4) Sick Friend
5) Hold The Cup
6) 1,000 Deaths
7) Blue In The Face
8) Odessa Feat. Doseone
Originally released in 2003, Bazooka Tooth was the fourth studio album by Aesop Rock. His first full-length recording following the lauded Labor Days album, Bazooka Tooth debuted at #112 on Billboard’s Top 200 chart and #44 on their Hip-Hop and R&B charts. On Bazooka Tooth, Aesop’s dizzying delivery and oscillating growl paired well with the produc- tion, delivering more apocalyptic angst and future-funk flavor than its predecessors. Buried within these sawtooth grooves, listeners have discovered a plethora of Aesop’s keen observations on the state of the industry, the state of the world and the state of humanity.
TRACK LISTING
01 : Bazooka Tooth
02 : N.Y. Electric / Hunter Interlude
03 : Easy
04 : No Jumper Cables
05 : Limelighters / Flunkadelic Interlude (feat. Camp Lo) 06 : Super Fluke
07 : Cook It Up (feat. Party Fun Action Committee)
08 : Freeze / Honeycomb Interlude
09 : We’re Famous (feat. El-P)
10 : Babies With Guns
11 : The Greatest Pac-Man Victory In History
12 : Frijoles
13 : 11:35 / Ketamine U.S.A. Interlude (feat. Mr. Lif)
14 : Kill The Messenger
15 : Mars Attacks
Originally released in 2002, 'Daylight' EP was the follow-up to Aesop Rock’s critically-acclaimed 'Labor Days' album, a cult classic released only six months prior. The EP was built around its titular opening song, 'Daylight', one of the standout tracks from 'Labor Days', and continued expanding upon the range and depth of Aesop’s multi-talented gifts for writing and producing. In addition to the title track, 'Daylight' EP also included its counterpoint, 'Night Light', an alternate version in concept whose paraphrased lyrics simultaneously refer back to– and stand in stark opposition to– the original's, over darker, more menacing production. The tracklist for 'Daylight' EP boasted seven songs plus a hidden track for a total of eight, and collectively featured production by Blockhead, El-P, Blueprint and Aesop Rock himself, as well as guest appearances from Vast Aire (Cannibal Ox) and Blueprint.
At the time of its initial release, 'Daylight' EP was only offered in CD and digital formats, while the vinyl was stripped back, available only as a three-song 12” single. Now, Rhymesayers Entertainment is pleased to present the complete EP on vinyl for the first time ever, pressed on two-color side A/B effect orange & blue vinyl to complement the original artwork. Finally, fans and vinyl collectors everywhere can own this integral piece of Aesop Rock’s legacy and enjoy the genius behind this project.
At the time of its initial release, 'Daylight' EP was only offered in CD and digital formats, while the vinyl was stripped back, available only as a three-song 12” single. Now, Rhymesayers Entertainment is pleased to present the complete EP on vinyl for the first time ever, pressed on two-color side A/B effect orange & blue vinyl to complement the original artwork. Finally, fans and vinyl collectors everywhere can own this integral piece of Aesop Rock’s legacy and enjoy the genius behind this project.
TRACK LISTING
1. Daylight
2. Night Light
3. Nickel Plated Pockets Feat. Vast Aire
4. Alchemy Feat. Blueprint
5. Forest Crunk
6. Bracket Basher
7. Maintenance
Aesop and Blockhead have never done a full album together, until now. “Garbology” came together over the course of the pandemic during stagnent periods for both – a dry creative period with neither really having any focus – so Blockhead started sending Aesop some beats for him to write over; with no real expectation, direction or end goal in sight, their creative juices began to flow naturally once more…
“Garbology” encapsulates much of the claustrophobic tension of of current times, capturing a snapshot of Aesop and Blockhead expressing a means of entertaining themselves the midst of a major global crisis.
Blockhead’s thick, atmospheric street beats compliment Aesop’s unique, quick-fire flow perfectly. Almost instantly transporting you under railway bridges, to underground subway stations, crumbling corner shops and abandoned waste grounds. If you’ve obsessed over the gritty cinematography of Detroit, Baltimore, Gary and other forgotten industrialized areas of the US (the label is based in Minneapolis); then this dark, isolated and wrought piece is the perfect soundtrack. Lyrically it’s poignant and tight, Aesop’s storytelling able to evoke thoughts, feelings and memories that the listener may not have experienced first hand but can completely sympathize with through the duo’s honest and authentic presentation. Possibly my favourite release from Aesop Rock and a brilliant showcase of Blockhead’s beats – which are unlike any other available in the market! 10 outta 10 all around – top of the class for these two.
“Garbology” encapsulates much of the claustrophobic tension of of current times, capturing a snapshot of Aesop and Blockhead expressing a means of entertaining themselves the midst of a major global crisis.
Blockhead’s thick, atmospheric street beats compliment Aesop’s unique, quick-fire flow perfectly. Almost instantly transporting you under railway bridges, to underground subway stations, crumbling corner shops and abandoned waste grounds. If you’ve obsessed over the gritty cinematography of Detroit, Baltimore, Gary and other forgotten industrialized areas of the US (the label is based in Minneapolis); then this dark, isolated and wrought piece is the perfect soundtrack. Lyrically it’s poignant and tight, Aesop’s storytelling able to evoke thoughts, feelings and memories that the listener may not have experienced first hand but can completely sympathize with through the duo’s honest and authentic presentation. Possibly my favourite release from Aesop Rock and a brilliant showcase of Blockhead’s beats – which are unlike any other available in the market! 10 outta 10 all around – top of the class for these two.
TRACK LISTING
1. The Only Picture
2. Jazz Hands
3. Wolf Piss
4. Legerdemain
5. Difficult
6. All The Smartest People
7. Oh Fudge
8. More Cycles
9. Flamingo Pink
10. All Day Breakfast(feat. Homeboy Sandman)
11. Fizz
12. That Is Not A Wizard
13. The Sea
14. Abandoned Malls
A tech company's "senior spirit guide" finally comes to the defense of the "financially unsuccessful" Vincent van Gogh; wonders of the natural world are reimagined as "muster points for brainstorming innovators"; the "artificial char lines" on fast-food burgers are cited as if signs of the apocalypse. For the better part of three decades, Aesop Rock has used the syntax of the moment to pinpoint the fault lines in that moment's supposedly solid foundation. With his tenth album, Integrated Tech Solutions, Aes wields insidious corporatespeak as a tool to pry that parasitic worldview away from the parts of life that truly matter.
A concept album about an organization offering "lifestyle- and industry-specific applications designed to curate a desired multi-experience," Integrated Tech Solutions picks apart the charlatan language that hears app inventors put themselves on continuums starting with cavemen and continuing through da Vinci. On "Mindful Solutionism," the wheel evolves seamlessly into modern agriculture—and then into atomic bombs, Agent Orange, cigarettes, and surveillance cameras. In a rare moment of transparency, the engineers Aes give voice to sum up this spiral in just a few words: "We cannot be trusted with the stuff that we come up with."
Appropriately, the album sounds like the past and future at once. Largely self-produced, Integrated Tech Solutions catches Aes at his leanest and most innovative, leveraging "Solutionism"'s careening bounce against the wistful "By the River" or the slow creep of "Salt and Pepper Squid." The effect is a record that sounds itself like an organism growing, mutating, hurtling toward profitability-and then destruction. As fans have come to expect, Aes is cuttingly funny and slyly profound at once, whether recounting a childhood restaurant run-in with Mr. T ("100 Feet Tall") or quipping, on "Pigeonome- try," that "white dove is a pigeon-you motherfuckers is bigots." At the same time, Integrated Tech Solutions is working on another parallel project: tracing the sprawl of modernity and cutting directly to its core. "I've been doing laps of the lost worlds," he raps on "All City Nerve Map," sounding at once wearied and reinvigorated. "I can draw a map to the raw nerve."
A concept album about an organization offering "lifestyle- and industry-specific applications designed to curate a desired multi-experience," Integrated Tech Solutions picks apart the charlatan language that hears app inventors put themselves on continuums starting with cavemen and continuing through da Vinci. On "Mindful Solutionism," the wheel evolves seamlessly into modern agriculture—and then into atomic bombs, Agent Orange, cigarettes, and surveillance cameras. In a rare moment of transparency, the engineers Aes give voice to sum up this spiral in just a few words: "We cannot be trusted with the stuff that we come up with."
Appropriately, the album sounds like the past and future at once. Largely self-produced, Integrated Tech Solutions catches Aes at his leanest and most innovative, leveraging "Solutionism"'s careening bounce against the wistful "By the River" or the slow creep of "Salt and Pepper Squid." The effect is a record that sounds itself like an organism growing, mutating, hurtling toward profitability-and then destruction. As fans have come to expect, Aes is cuttingly funny and slyly profound at once, whether recounting a childhood restaurant run-in with Mr. T ("100 Feet Tall") or quipping, on "Pigeonome- try," that "white dove is a pigeon-you motherfuckers is bigots." At the same time, Integrated Tech Solutions is working on another parallel project: tracing the sprawl of modernity and cutting directly to its core. "I've been doing laps of the lost worlds," he raps on "All City Nerve Map," sounding at once wearied and reinvigorated. "I can draw a map to the raw nerve."
TRACK LISTING
1. The ITS Way
2. Mindful Solutionism
3. Infinity Fill Goose Down
4. Living Curfew ( Feat. Billy Woods)
5. Pigeonometry
6. Kyanite Toothpick [feat. Hanni El Khatib]
7. 100 Feet Tall
8. Salt And Pepper Squid
9. Time Moves Differently Here
10. Agressive Steven
11. Bermuda [feat. Lealani Teano]
12. By The River
13. All City Nerve Map
14. Forward Compatibility Engine [feat. Rob Sonic]
15. On Failure
16. Solid Gold
17. Vititus
18. Black Snow [feat. Nikki Jean]
Here’s some things you should know about Larry: His legs are long. His heart is true. His heroics are unmatched. Leaky faucet? Stolen bike? Trouble with your math homework? Fear not! Larry is here and he’s got what it takes to ease your troubles. We can’t keep this green guy away from a good cause! The song "Long Legged Larry" details 3 instances where Larry’s valiance shines.Draftsman and renowned amphibian consultant Jeremy Fish created the artwork, and helped visualize Larry in the form of a beautiful plush toy with sick shorts and a big beard. Furthermore - visionary Rob Shaw has captured some of this frog’s finer moments through the magic of stop-motion animation in a music video available right now for your viewing pleasure.
STAFF COMMENTS
Patrick says: Aesop gets his Slick Rick on, swerving into story teller mode to tell the story of a freaky frog called Larry over some brill boom-bap snatched from psych funk nuggets.TRACK LISTING
A. Long Legged Larry
B. Long Legged Larry (instrumental)
Originally released in 2007, None Shall Pass was the fifth studio album by Aesop Rock. Created over a two year period following the release of his Fast Cars, Danger, Fire & Knives EP, the album would prove to be Aesop’s final release on the now defunct Def Jux label. The critically acclaimed album debuted at #50 on Billboard’s Top 200 chart and #35 on their Hip-Hop and R&B charts, and includes the title track “None Shall Pass” which has proven to be one of Aesop’s most popular songs to date. None Shall Pass documents the vast amounts of personal change Aesop had been experiencing at this time while still deftly depicting scenes and stories relative to all ages of life.
TRACK LISTING
01 : Keep Off The Lawn
02 : None Shall Pass
03 : Catacomb Kids
04 : Bring Back Pluto
05 : Fumes
06 : Getaway Car (feat. Breeze Brewin & Cage)
07 : 39 Thieves
08 : The Harbor Is Yours
09 : Citronella
10 : Gun For The Whole Family (feat. El-P)
11 : Five Fingers
12:NoCity
13 : Dark Heart News (feat. Rob Sonic)
14 : Coffee (feat. John Darnielle Of The Mountain Goats)
"Be not afraid! Whether you’re simply sightseeing, enjoying temporary flights of fancy or considering a more permanent relocation, the all-new Spirit World Field Guide offers twenty-one insightful chapters of firsthand know-how into the terrain, wildlife, and social customs of our parallel universe. The narrator’s vast expertise of multiple global entry points and various modes of interdimensional transport informs a rich tapestry of tips, tricks and tools to unfailingly aid in your ultimate survival. If you are among the countless individuals who find themselves feeling both dead and alive at the same time, the information contained within may serve as an invaluable asset to your journey. Godspeed and good luck."
Those are the words of the album’s narrator -- an attempt to prepare listeners, both old and new, for a safe entry into the Spirit World.
It’s been a long road for Aesop Rock to get here, releasing a steady stream of impressive albums, singles, and collaborative projects that have continued to invigorate, solidify and grow his diverse fan base, but he shows no signs of slowing down or deviating from his path, constantly pushing his creative limits. Last year saw the release of Malibu Ken, a joint effort featuring the psychedelic and trippy sounds of producer Tobacco, providing a different type of intrigue for Aesop's descriptive, compelling, and often humorous, writing. Then, he kicked 2020 off with a hard-driving single, "Rogue Wave", followed not long after by Freedom Finger, which found Aesop immersing himself in the video game world that the music was written and produced for. And this year still has a few exciting releases on the horizon yet, including the infinite heroics of "Long-Legged Larry", a 20-year anniversary vinyl release of his debut album, Float, and now his brand new album, Spirit World Field Guide.
Since his debut in the late nineties, Aesop Rock’s writing has been of the highest caliber, but one thing that has continually evolved is his near-flawless and diverse flow, now perfectly infused with his personality and a gift for visual imagery. On Spirit World Field Guide, characters, inanimate objects, and their surrounding environments vividly come to life as Aesop describes each passing moment throughout the album’s twenty-one chapters.
Welcome to the Spirit World. Explore with intention.
Those are the words of the album’s narrator -- an attempt to prepare listeners, both old and new, for a safe entry into the Spirit World.
It’s been a long road for Aesop Rock to get here, releasing a steady stream of impressive albums, singles, and collaborative projects that have continued to invigorate, solidify and grow his diverse fan base, but he shows no signs of slowing down or deviating from his path, constantly pushing his creative limits. Last year saw the release of Malibu Ken, a joint effort featuring the psychedelic and trippy sounds of producer Tobacco, providing a different type of intrigue for Aesop's descriptive, compelling, and often humorous, writing. Then, he kicked 2020 off with a hard-driving single, "Rogue Wave", followed not long after by Freedom Finger, which found Aesop immersing himself in the video game world that the music was written and produced for. And this year still has a few exciting releases on the horizon yet, including the infinite heroics of "Long-Legged Larry", a 20-year anniversary vinyl release of his debut album, Float, and now his brand new album, Spirit World Field Guide.
Since his debut in the late nineties, Aesop Rock’s writing has been of the highest caliber, but one thing that has continually evolved is his near-flawless and diverse flow, now perfectly infused with his personality and a gift for visual imagery. On Spirit World Field Guide, characters, inanimate objects, and their surrounding environments vividly come to life as Aesop describes each passing moment throughout the album’s twenty-one chapters.
Welcome to the Spirit World. Explore with intention.
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: 'Spirit World Field Guide' sees Aesop Rock mix some brilliantly rich beats with Bavitz' unmistakeable flow and background brimming with VHS saturated 8bit arpeggios and thumping bass.TRACK LISTING
01. Hello From The Spirit World
02. The Gates
03. Button Masher
04. Dog At The Door
05. Gauze
06. Pizza Alley
07. Crystal Sword
08. Boot Soup
09. Coveralls
10. Jumping Coffin
11. Holy Waterfall
12. Flies
13. Salt
14. Sleeper Car
15. 1 To 10
16. Attaboy
17. Kodokushi
18. Fixed And Dilated
19. Side Quest
20. Marble Cake
21. The Four Winds
Following the success of Aesop Rock's most recent solo album, Spirit World Field Guide, he returns to deliver the instrumental version of those interdimensional adventures. Aesop has long been celebrated for his talents as a lyricist, but he has continually grown and evolved as a producer as well. While the original Spirit World Field Guide was packed with insightful chapters of firsthand know-how into the terrain, wildlife, and social customs of our parallel universe, the Spirit World Field Guide Instrumentals not only set the tone but also provide the roadmap for you to take your own journey. Welcome to the Spirit World. Explore with intention.
TRACK LISTING
1. Hello From The Spirit World (Instrumental)
2. The Gates (Instrumental)
3. Button Masher (Instrumental)
4. Dog At The Door (Instrumental)
5. Gauze (Instrumental)
6. Pizza Alley (Instrumental)
7. Crystal Sword (Instrumental)
8. Boot Soup (Instrumental)
9. Coveralls (Instrumental)
10. Jumping Coffin (Instrumental)
11. Holy Waterfall (Instrumental)
12. Flies (Instrumental)
13. Salt (Instrumental)
14. Sleeper Car (Instrumental)
15. 1 To 10 (Instrumental)
16. Attaboy (Instrumental)
17. Kodokushi (Instrumental)
18. Fixed And Dilated (Instrumental)
19. Side Quest (Instrumental)
20. Marble Cake (Instrumental)
21. The Four Winds (Instrumental)
Blackest Ever Black presents a new vinyl edition, and the first CD edition, of Af Ursin’s 2005 masterpiece 'Aura Legato'. Af Ursin is the alter ego of Finnish autodidact composer / improviser Timo van Luijk. His work is rooted in the use of acoustic instruments (wind, percussion, strings), but his special sensitivity to the timbral qualities of each instrument, and his deft blurring of them, results in a sound-world that is mysterious, amorphous and hallucinatory, full of suggestive shadows, creaks and whispers. Informed by years of intensive listening to various types of free music, exploratory drug use and especially the “irregular organic forms” of the Belgian countryside where he resides, van Luijk’s process begins always with pure improvisation: music played in an intuitive, sensual way, without the employment of conscious technique. He performs and overdubs each instrumental component himself, and out of this process micro-structures and loose arrangements emerge: the piece becomes an improvised composition. Over time he has evolved his own richly poetic musical language, full of allusions to drone, acid folk, classical, Musique concrète and jazz, but beholden to none. 'Aura Legato' is one of van Luijk’s darker and more acutely psychedelic offerings: a work of profound interiority, but one that also conjures images of old Europe and fin-de-siècle decadence – dabblings in Thelema, the fog of the opium-den – and has earned comparisons to Third Ear Band, Nurse With Wound, Mirror and HNAS. Fully remastered and housed in die-cut sleeve with gold detailing and individually hand-glued labels.
TRACK LISTING
1. Rêverie En Mineur
2. Capsule Détachée
3. Tableau Fluide
4. Aphanes
Manchester band Afflecks Palace return with their sophomore LP.
Produced by J. Fender, Afflecks Palace vocalist and Spirit Of Spike Island label boss said “This album is an ode to escapism from the modern day obsession with superficial status, wealth and success - propelled by social media F.O.M.O (fear of missing out)”.
If you're not from round here, the band are named after the legendary shopping emporium which is just down the road from us. Afflecks Palace was, and still is, a mecca for all things "alternative"( a word from back in the day!) and rose to fame during the heady days of Madchester. It was also home to the Identity clothing shop which became famous for it's legendary "On The Sixth Day God Created Manchester" t-shirts.
Afflecks Palace are real music magpies, in the best possible sense. They've taken the energy and attitude of '89 and created super melodic guitar gems that tip their (bucket) hat to The Stone Roses, Inspirals and the like, as well as plundering classic pop from the 60s via Britpop and right through to the present day. In doing so they've managed to create their own euphoric, hook filled sound.
The new soundtrack to dancing til the sun comes up and weekends mooching around the Northern Quarter, thers's just a vibe and spirit around this band that's gonna be difficult to resist.
Produced by J. Fender, Afflecks Palace vocalist and Spirit Of Spike Island label boss said “This album is an ode to escapism from the modern day obsession with superficial status, wealth and success - propelled by social media F.O.M.O (fear of missing out)”.
If you're not from round here, the band are named after the legendary shopping emporium which is just down the road from us. Afflecks Palace was, and still is, a mecca for all things "alternative"( a word from back in the day!) and rose to fame during the heady days of Madchester. It was also home to the Identity clothing shop which became famous for it's legendary "On The Sixth Day God Created Manchester" t-shirts.
Afflecks Palace are real music magpies, in the best possible sense. They've taken the energy and attitude of '89 and created super melodic guitar gems that tip their (bucket) hat to The Stone Roses, Inspirals and the like, as well as plundering classic pop from the 60s via Britpop and right through to the present day. In doing so they've managed to create their own euphoric, hook filled sound.
The new soundtrack to dancing til the sun comes up and weekends mooching around the Northern Quarter, thers's just a vibe and spirit around this band that's gonna be difficult to resist.
STAFF COMMENTS
Andy says: Like a greatest hits of Manchester music, all rolled up into one jangling, baggy, indie-pop nugget, this band are gonna go far.TRACK LISTING
1. Dancing Is Not A Crime
2. Holidays
3. Wide Eyes On The Night Bus
4. WAKE UP!
5. Patchwork Quilted Veins
6. Big Fish, Small Pond
7. Ghosts On The Underground
8. I'm So Glad You're On Ecstasy
9. Hey Stranger
10. Find Your Place
LOS ANGELES – In 1996, The Afghan Whigs were fresh off the worldwide success of Gentlemen. They had toured the world, graced magazine covers, television performances, major festivals, the works. However, their follow up album would not be Gentlemen II. It would be a pivot and a full public display of the growth and maturity of Greg Dulli’s songwriting.
Released in the spring of 1996, Black Love was the Afghan Whigs’ fifth studio album overall. The music was inspired by lead singer Greg Dulli’s idea to make a film noir movie. Although the film was never made, it did help inform the album’s dark tone and fuel songs like the singles “Honky’s Ladder” and “Going To Town.” The album opener, “Crime Scene Part One” was inspired by the screenplay for “The Million Dollar Hotel,” while “Blame, Etc.” reflected on the troubled life of Temptations singer David Ruffin.
This 20th Anniversary edition includes nine previously unreleased recordings. Among the standouts are acoustic versions of “Going To Town” called: “Go To Town” and “Crime Scene Part Two.” Also included is a demo for “Faded,” which closed the original album, as well as a solo piano cover of the New Order classic “Regret.” The unreleased material also highlights the band’s creative process with “Mick Taylor Jam” and “Wynton Kelly Jam.”
Released in the spring of 1996, Black Love was the Afghan Whigs’ fifth studio album overall. The music was inspired by lead singer Greg Dulli’s idea to make a film noir movie. Although the film was never made, it did help inform the album’s dark tone and fuel songs like the singles “Honky’s Ladder” and “Going To Town.” The album opener, “Crime Scene Part One” was inspired by the screenplay for “The Million Dollar Hotel,” while “Blame, Etc.” reflected on the troubled life of Temptations singer David Ruffin.
This 20th Anniversary edition includes nine previously unreleased recordings. Among the standouts are acoustic versions of “Going To Town” called: “Go To Town” and “Crime Scene Part Two.” Also included is a demo for “Faded,” which closed the original album, as well as a solo piano cover of the New Order classic “Regret.” The unreleased material also highlights the band’s creative process with “Mick Taylor Jam” and “Wynton Kelly Jam.”
“Divination/Cleromancy/Comes the card that I refused to see” – The Afghan Whigs, “Oriole”
“Cleromancy” isn’t a word one normally finds in rock lyrics. Then again, In Spades – the new album by The Afghan Whigs, from which the new song “Oriole” hails – is defined only by its own mystical inner logic. The term means to divine, in a supernatural manner, a prediction of destiny from the random casting of lots: the throwing of dice, picking a card from a deck. From its evocative cover art to the troubled spirits haunting its halls, In Spades casts a spell that challenges the listener to unpack its dark metaphors and spectral imagery.
On the one hand, In Spades is as quintessentially Afghan Whigs as anything the group has ever done – fulfilling its original mandate to explore the missing link between howling Midwestern punk like Die Kreuzen and Hüsker Dü, The Temptations’ psychedelic soul symphonies, and the expansive hard-rock tapestries of Led Zeppelin and Lynyrd Skynyrd. At the same time, this new record continues to push beyond anything in the Whigs’ previous repertoire – another trademark, along with the explosive group dynamic captured on the recording.
Indeed, the chemistry of the lineup – Dulli, guitarists Dave Rosser and Jon Skibic, drummer Patrick Keeler, multi-instrumentalist Rick Nelson, and Whigs co-founder/bassist John Curley – set the tone for In Spades’ creation. When it came to follow up the band’s triumphant return to recording – Do To the Beast (Sub Pop 2014), which was the band’s first ever Top 40 album, – the die was cast. “This is the first time since Black Love [the Whigs’ 1996 noir masterpiece] that we’ve done a full-blown band album,” Dulli says.
The joys, sorrows, and upheavals of innocence and experience echo throughout In Spades: it powerfully documents where The Afghan Whigs have been, and where they might go next. For Dulli and Curley, it’s a journey that, since their origins as one of the first Sub Pop acts to be signed from outside the label’s Pacific Northwest base, has spanned decades. Dulli notes they were barely in their twenties when they first started the band, and yet here they are, fulfilling dreams long held and frequently realized. “Having a break from the Whigs helped me remember what made it so rewarding,” Curley says. “Over the course of a lifetime, there are constants, and there’s also change. You see who’s dropped off the vine – who’s going in reverse, and who’s still by your side. It’s interesting to see where life takes you, and where it doesn’t. That’s the journey and it hasn’t stopped.”
“Cleromancy” isn’t a word one normally finds in rock lyrics. Then again, In Spades – the new album by The Afghan Whigs, from which the new song “Oriole” hails – is defined only by its own mystical inner logic. The term means to divine, in a supernatural manner, a prediction of destiny from the random casting of lots: the throwing of dice, picking a card from a deck. From its evocative cover art to the troubled spirits haunting its halls, In Spades casts a spell that challenges the listener to unpack its dark metaphors and spectral imagery.
On the one hand, In Spades is as quintessentially Afghan Whigs as anything the group has ever done – fulfilling its original mandate to explore the missing link between howling Midwestern punk like Die Kreuzen and Hüsker Dü, The Temptations’ psychedelic soul symphonies, and the expansive hard-rock tapestries of Led Zeppelin and Lynyrd Skynyrd. At the same time, this new record continues to push beyond anything in the Whigs’ previous repertoire – another trademark, along with the explosive group dynamic captured on the recording.
Indeed, the chemistry of the lineup – Dulli, guitarists Dave Rosser and Jon Skibic, drummer Patrick Keeler, multi-instrumentalist Rick Nelson, and Whigs co-founder/bassist John Curley – set the tone for In Spades’ creation. When it came to follow up the band’s triumphant return to recording – Do To the Beast (Sub Pop 2014), which was the band’s first ever Top 40 album, – the die was cast. “This is the first time since Black Love [the Whigs’ 1996 noir masterpiece] that we’ve done a full-blown band album,” Dulli says.
The joys, sorrows, and upheavals of innocence and experience echo throughout In Spades: it powerfully documents where The Afghan Whigs have been, and where they might go next. For Dulli and Curley, it’s a journey that, since their origins as one of the first Sub Pop acts to be signed from outside the label’s Pacific Northwest base, has spanned decades. Dulli notes they were barely in their twenties when they first started the band, and yet here they are, fulfilling dreams long held and frequently realized. “Having a break from the Whigs helped me remember what made it so rewarding,” Curley says. “Over the course of a lifetime, there are constants, and there’s also change. You see who’s dropped off the vine – who’s going in reverse, and who’s still by your side. It’s interesting to see where life takes you, and where it doesn’t. That’s the journey and it hasn’t stopped.”
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: Encompassing aspects of stoner, psych and indie-rock, Afghan Whigs have always veered towards the art-rock end of the spectrum, but this is their most direct and cohesive offering yet. Heavy but highly melodic, full of anthemic highs and measured restraint. A brilliantly formed tornado of rock and/or roll.TRACK LISTING
Birdland
Arabian Heights
Demon In Profile
Toy Automatic
Oriole
Copernicus
The Spell
Light As A Feather
I Got Lost
Into The Floor
‘Do To The Beast’ is the first new album by The Afghan Whigs in over a decade and a half. Founded in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1988, the band has long stood out from its peers, with their savage, rapturous blend of hard rock, classic soul, and frontman Greg Dulli’s searing angst and obsessions.
The new album is both a homecoming - it marks their return to Sub Pop, for whom the Whigs were the first signing from outside the label’s Northwest base - and a glimpse into the future of one of the most acclaimed bands of the past twenty five years.
‘Do To The Beast’ is an appropriately feral title for one of the most intense, cathartic records of Dulli’s entire career. It adds fresh twists to The Afghan Whigs canon: there’s the film noir storytelling of ‘Black Love’, the exuberance of ‘1965’, the brutal introspection of ‘Gentlemen’. However, the album exudes a galvanized musical spirit and rhythmic heft that suggest transcendence and hope amidst the bloodletting.
Recorded in LA, New Orleans, Cincinnati, and Joshua Tree - a virtual map of the band’s past and present homes, the album features Whigs co-founders Greg Dulli and John Curley, along with the core band of guitarists Dave Rosser and Jon Skibic, multi-instrumentalist Rick Nelson and drummer Cully Symington. Also featured are soul iconoclast Van Hunt, Mark McGuire (Emeralds), Johnny ‘Natural’ Nagera (Usher’s musical director), Alain Johannes (Queens Of The Stone Age, Arctic Monkeys), Clay Tarver (Bullet LaVolta, Chavez), Dave Catching (QOTSA, Eagles of Death Metal), among others.
The new album is both a homecoming - it marks their return to Sub Pop, for whom the Whigs were the first signing from outside the label’s Northwest base - and a glimpse into the future of one of the most acclaimed bands of the past twenty five years.
‘Do To The Beast’ is an appropriately feral title for one of the most intense, cathartic records of Dulli’s entire career. It adds fresh twists to The Afghan Whigs canon: there’s the film noir storytelling of ‘Black Love’, the exuberance of ‘1965’, the brutal introspection of ‘Gentlemen’. However, the album exudes a galvanized musical spirit and rhythmic heft that suggest transcendence and hope amidst the bloodletting.
Recorded in LA, New Orleans, Cincinnati, and Joshua Tree - a virtual map of the band’s past and present homes, the album features Whigs co-founders Greg Dulli and John Curley, along with the core band of guitarists Dave Rosser and Jon Skibic, multi-instrumentalist Rick Nelson and drummer Cully Symington. Also featured are soul iconoclast Van Hunt, Mark McGuire (Emeralds), Johnny ‘Natural’ Nagera (Usher’s musical director), Alain Johannes (Queens Of The Stone Age, Arctic Monkeys), Clay Tarver (Bullet LaVolta, Chavez), Dave Catching (QOTSA, Eagles of Death Metal), among others.
STAFF COMMENTS
Laura says: Greg Dulli and co return in fine style with this swaggering blend of rock'n'roll angst, classic r'n'b and soul. A dark and uncompromising tour de force.
The Afghan Whigs are set to release their first studio album in five years, How Do You Burn?, on 9 September. How Do You Burn?, the ninth studio album from The Afghan Whigs, finds the band in peak form, making the most vaulting and thrilling music of their lives. The album is virile, ready-for-action, and finds frontman Greg Dulli as swaggering, enigmatic and darkly charismatic as ever, and singing up a storm.
The album reaches corners of sound that, twenty-six years after the band's inception, find them at an apex. Referencing Warren Zevon, Prince, and Zeppelin all while plugging in to the soul and R&B influences that have always set them apart, The Afghan Whigs are at a precipice of greatness. Says Dulli, “I’m beginning to see there are a million places we can go. I feel virile, ready for action, and I want to keep stalking greatness.”
The album reaches corners of sound that, twenty-six years after the band's inception, find them at an apex. Referencing Warren Zevon, Prince, and Zeppelin all while plugging in to the soul and R&B influences that have always set them apart, The Afghan Whigs are at a precipice of greatness. Says Dulli, “I’m beginning to see there are a million places we can go. I feel virile, ready for action, and I want to keep stalking greatness.”
TRACK LISTING
I’ll Make You See God
The Getaway
Catch A Colt
Jyja
Please, Baby, Please
A Line Of Shots
Domino And Jimmy
Take Me There
Concealer
In Flames
'Though the Afghan Whigs were still about a year away from hitting the peak of their powers in the studio, their second album, 1990's "Up in It", was a major improvement over their self-released debut, and it was their first recording to suggest that they would mature into one of the best American rock bands of the 1990s. As a songwriter, Greg Dulli was starting to really get in touch with his self-loathing, and "Retarded," "White Trash Party," and "I Know Your Little Secret" offer a powerful and sometimes disturbing look into one man's obsessions. Just as importantly, the band had finally learned to make the most of their musical muscle; Greg Dulli's nicotine-laced growl merged 'heavy-alternative' bellow with a soul man's sense of phrasing, while the guitars of Dulli and Rick McCollum and the rhythm section of John Curley and Steve Earle managed to combine bruising power with a remarkable sense of drama and dynamics.'
The legendary collaboration between master percussionist Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah and producer Adrian Sherwood return with their first new studio album in twelve years. Originally conceived in 1981 as an attempt to make Brian Eno’s “vision of a psychedelic Africa” exist in musical form, the project has evolved and mutated over the years but all the hallmarks of their classic sound are present and correct on this record: hypnotic hand drums driving rhythms to move your head and feet; coupled with mind-bending arrangements and dubwise production. Inimitable guest vocals by the award winning Ghanaian kologo master, King Ayisoba lend an extra dimension. An act of cultish proportions, African Head Charge have been compared to Sun Ra “for their same ability to head into the unknown” - Echoes magazine. Recorded between Ghana and the UK, A Trip To Bolgatanga is a triumphant comeback.
TRACK LISTING
1. A Bad Attitude
2. Accra Electronica
3. Push Me Pull You
4. I Chant Too
5. Asalatua
6. Passing Clouds
7. I’m A Winner
8. Trip To Bolgatanga
9. Never Regret A Day
10. Microdosing
African Head Charge's third album from 1983. Described by producer Adrian Sherwood as: "Experiments in active frequencies, out of time noises, rhythms within rhythms, and endless tape edits (edits on edits) resulting in the ultimate cut-up and paste job..." whilst an On-U press release of the time declared: "A high-tech rhythm mix of human, animal and machine sounds, captured on the Southern Studios digital rig by the "wackid' mixer Adrian Sherwood, up in sunny Wood Green, 'Drastic Season' features that On-U rugged bass sound. Check it if you're a dancer, a listener, a film maker, a computer programmer, a human or an animal. Special treats in store for steam locomotive enthusiasts and biologists. You've never heard such sounds in your life (to quote ESP)."
Loose echoes of traditional African percussion music, field recordings and roots reggae inform the mix, whilst some parts conjure up the stripped-back post-rock of Can or Tortoise.
Re-cut at Dubplates & Mastering in Berlin for maximum bass pressure. Includes printed inner with sleevenotes by Steve Barker (‘On The Wire’), plus download card for full album.
Loose echoes of traditional African percussion music, field recordings and roots reggae inform the mix, whilst some parts conjure up the stripped-back post-rock of Can or Tortoise.
Re-cut at Dubplates & Mastering in Berlin for maximum bass pressure. Includes printed inner with sleevenotes by Steve Barker (‘On The Wire’), plus download card for full album.
TRACK LISTING
A1 Timbuktu Express
A2 I Want Water
A3 Bazaar
A4 African Hedge Hog
B1 Depth Charge
B2 Fruit Market
B3 Snake In The Hole
B4 Many Generations
Experimental studio album from 1982 that saw African Head Charge working manipulated and vari-speeded 1/4 inch tape loops that were re-recorded back to the multi track, soaked in reverb and delay, and then applied to the performances of the musicians, not to mention extensive use of found sounds and field recordings, hence the title.
The brainchild of Adrian Sherwood and percussionist Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah, the group forged their own undefinable sound on these early albums which sound eerily contemporary, predating the experimental bass music of labels such as Hyperdub and Tectonic.
Features contributions from Bruce Smith (The Pop Group), Style Scott (Roots Radics) and Deadly Headley (The Wailers).
Re-cut at Dubplates & Mastering in Berlin for maximum bass pressure. Includes printed inner with sleevenotes by Steve Barker (‘On The Wire’), plus download card for full album.
The brainchild of Adrian Sherwood and percussionist Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah, the group forged their own undefinable sound on these early albums which sound eerily contemporary, predating the experimental bass music of labels such as Hyperdub and Tectonic.
Features contributions from Bruce Smith (The Pop Group), Style Scott (Roots Radics) and Deadly Headley (The Wailers).
Re-cut at Dubplates & Mastering in Berlin for maximum bass pressure. Includes printed inner with sleevenotes by Steve Barker (‘On The Wire’), plus download card for full album.
TRACK LISTING
Crocodile Hand Luggage
Dinosaur's Lament
Beriberi
Snakeskin Tracksuit
High Protein Snack
In A Trap
Breeding Space
Primitive
Latin Temperament
Originally issued in 1993 and the last African Head Charge album on On-U Sound for 12 years, released at the height of the band’s popularity as a staple of live music festivals. Continuing the skillful fusion of styles they had explored on “Songs Of Praise”, this album added elements of trance and electronica to their trademark percussion-heavy sound. This expanded reissue adds 8 bonus tracks to the original vinyl edition, including 2 that have never been released before. Includes a download card for the full audio plus a double-sided poster insert with excerpts from a new interview with band leader Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah.
TRACK LISTING
Side One
1. Heading To Glory
2. Pursuit
3. One Destination
4. No, Don't Follow Fashion
Side Two
5. Animal Law
6. Learning
7. Fever Pitch
8. Somebody Touch I
Side Three
9. Fever Pitch (Raw Cut)
10. Pursuit (Underpulse Motion DJ Edit)
11. No Don’t Follow Fashion
12. On The Off Beat
Side Four
13. Rastaman
14. Run Come See Me
15. Kumasee
16. Mama Shante Garden
Originally issued in 1990 and considered by most fans to be AHC’s masterpiece. Religious chants set to an African dub backdrop of layered hand percussion, with a mighty sonic and great musicianship places the record in a unique place. An outernational classic. For this reissue the album has been expanded to a double LP with all the tracks from the original vinyl release plus bonus tracks previously only available on CD. Includes a download card for the full audio plus double-sided poster insert with excerpts from a new interview with band leader Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah.
STAFF COMMENTS
Matt says: Yes there's plenty of get stuck into with AHC, but if you insist on only one - then make this one it! The quintessential set from the pioneering transcendental dub wizards! Every home deserves one...TRACK LISTING
Side One
1. Free Chant (Churchical Chant Of The Iyabinghi)
2. Orderliness, Godliness, Discipline And Dignity
3. Hymn
4. Dervish Chant
Side Two
5. Hold Some More
6. Healing Father
7. Healing Ceremony
8. Cattle Herders Chant
Side Three
9. Ethiopian Praises
10. My God
11. Gospel Train
12. Chant For The Spirits
13. God Is Great
Side Four
14. Deer Spirit Song
15. Full Charge
16. Fullness
17. Special Mix
The first album African Head Charge made for On-U since 1993, this 2005 set was a triumphant return that saw longtime collaborators Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah and Adrian Sherwood reunited in the studio once more, the album title referring to the project’s original mission statement (nicked from Brian Eno!). This album is African Head Charge at their very best, rich in varied percussion and spiritual chants, set over hypnotic and transcendent layers of African rhythms, trippy and bubbling dubbed-out effects, and trademark pounding bass. This is the first time the album has been released n vinyl. Cut over 4 sides for maximum dynamics by King Kevin Metcalfe. Includes double-sided poster insert featuring a new interview with Bonjo, download card for full contents and two bonus tracks.
STAFF COMMENTS
Matt says: More from the post-millennial incarnations of the African Head Charge catalogue. This is a particularly third-eye-opening set, rich in spirituality and oneness with Eart'.TRACK LISTING
Side One
1. The Big Country
2. Surfari
3. Positive Thoughts & Mind
4. Unplanned
Side Two
5. Treatment For A Septic Horn
6. Drumming Is A Language
7. Mr. Whippy Does Djibouti
8. Run Come See
9. Ran Came Saw
Side Three
10. Blessed Works
11. Work Blessed
12. More Fluid
13. Who Are You?
Side Four
14. Ready You Ready
15. Ready You Ready Part 2
16. What Is The Plan? W/ Mutabaruka
17. What Is The Plan? (Version) W/ Mutabaruka
Seven-and-a-half thousand kilometres of cold ocean separate West Africa from Haiti. But music can cover that distance in a heartbeat, crossing the Atlantic to reunite the rhythms and religion of people torn from their homes to be sold into slavery on the Caribbean island. And on its self-titled album, the Afro-Haitian Experimental Orchestra honours those ghosts of the past even as it walks steadfastly and hopefully into the future.
Experimental by name, the band was definitely experimental by nature. The concept started with Corinne Micaelli, the director of the French Institute in Haiti. She wanted to bring drummer Tony Allen, the power behind Afrobeat and one of modern music’s towering figures, to the island. A performance with Haitian musicians at a major public concert would be perfect. Allen agreed, and Erol Josué, a singer, dancer, voodoo priest, and director of the Haitian National Bureau of Ethnology, helped to recruit local percussionists and singers. They decided, in order for different strands of Haitian music to be represented, that the musicians would be drawn from a cross-section of the country’s foremost bands, including Racine Mapou de Azor, RAM, Erol's own band, the Yizra'El Band and Lakou Mizik, the group of Sanba Zao, one of Haiti's leading percussionists and traditional singers.
Together, the musicians had just five days to compose and rehearse the set they’d play in the main square of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, and broadcast live throughout the country.
What emerged from the subsequent long, hot sessions were a series of tracks with roots on both sides of the Atlantic, compelling layers of subtle polyrhythms that bridge centuries and cultures. Relentless grooves become the foundation for soaring, utterly modern melodies like the swirling, electronica-fuelled “Salilento” or the Afro Vocoder ritual sound of “Yanvalou” that’s inspired as much by Krautrock and Sun Ra as Lagos or Port-au-Prince. Flying on inspiration and adrenaline, it’s roots music for a global future.
Experimental by name, the band was definitely experimental by nature. The concept started with Corinne Micaelli, the director of the French Institute in Haiti. She wanted to bring drummer Tony Allen, the power behind Afrobeat and one of modern music’s towering figures, to the island. A performance with Haitian musicians at a major public concert would be perfect. Allen agreed, and Erol Josué, a singer, dancer, voodoo priest, and director of the Haitian National Bureau of Ethnology, helped to recruit local percussionists and singers. They decided, in order for different strands of Haitian music to be represented, that the musicians would be drawn from a cross-section of the country’s foremost bands, including Racine Mapou de Azor, RAM, Erol's own band, the Yizra'El Band and Lakou Mizik, the group of Sanba Zao, one of Haiti's leading percussionists and traditional singers.
Together, the musicians had just five days to compose and rehearse the set they’d play in the main square of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, and broadcast live throughout the country.
What emerged from the subsequent long, hot sessions were a series of tracks with roots on both sides of the Atlantic, compelling layers of subtle polyrhythms that bridge centuries and cultures. Relentless grooves become the foundation for soaring, utterly modern melodies like the swirling, electronica-fuelled “Salilento” or the Afro Vocoder ritual sound of “Yanvalou” that’s inspired as much by Krautrock and Sun Ra as Lagos or Port-au-Prince. Flying on inspiration and adrenaline, it’s roots music for a global future.
Afrodeutsche (Henrietta Smith-Rolla), is a British born Ghanaian / Russian / German artist, composer, producer, and DJ based in Manchester.
Afrodeutsche’s DJ style is a synthesis of Drexciyan and Underground Resistance - inspired selections, intercut with a variety of forward thinking UK techno such as Bola and Lego Feet.
"Break Before Make" seeks to re-align the disposia of global electronic community into a united universal consciousness. You won't find standard chord progressions and linear arrangements here; instead, an almost cinematic journey through mainframes, drum machines and synthesizes voiced and transferred through a modern, mystic muse.
Certain to take the listener on a journey when enjoyed start to finish, whether in a crowd or solo; but there's plenty of nuggets can be mined from the album for the adventurous DJ too. In particular, Afrodeutsche's attention to new and evolved displays of rhythm, texture and mood elevate the album into a so-far unchartered realm. Top marks.
Afrodeutsche’s DJ style is a synthesis of Drexciyan and Underground Resistance - inspired selections, intercut with a variety of forward thinking UK techno such as Bola and Lego Feet.
"Break Before Make" seeks to re-align the disposia of global electronic community into a united universal consciousness. You won't find standard chord progressions and linear arrangements here; instead, an almost cinematic journey through mainframes, drum machines and synthesizes voiced and transferred through a modern, mystic muse.
Certain to take the listener on a journey when enjoyed start to finish, whether in a crowd or solo; but there's plenty of nuggets can be mined from the album for the adventurous DJ too. In particular, Afrodeutsche's attention to new and evolved displays of rhythm, texture and mood elevate the album into a so-far unchartered realm. Top marks.
STAFF COMMENTS
Matt says: A long time cometh for this local lass destined for big things. If you don't know by now... get to know! Big ups Hen !TRACK LISTING
Side 1
1. Day Tuner (2:27)
2. And! (3:54)
3. Guess What (7:08)
Side 2
1. Work It (4:53)
2. Now What (5:15)
3. Start Again Part Four (4:23)
Side 3
1. Blanket Ban (5:07)
2. Filandank (4:02)
3. Wtfwtfwtf (3:37)
4. You Heard Me The First Time (3:30)
Side 4
1. The Middle Middle (4:16)
2. Hiaea (6:46)
3. OD (2:33)
4. The Beginning (2:49)
Both songs had been previously recorded and included on Afrosound’s 1974 album “Carruseles” - recently reissued on Vampisoul - but these new versions from 1983 feature an updated sound with an extensive use of space effects and unexpected sonic tricks. Taking advantage of the pull the film was having at the time, the result was carefully packaged with an E.T. themed artwork, aiming for commercial success. First time reissue.
STAFF COMMENTS
Matt says: Space-age cumbia anyone? Bat shit bonkers but sonically ahead of its time - this is the kinda of 7" lovers of exotica / library / psyche-grooves is gonna wet their pants for!
Vocalist Arooj Aftab, the first Pakistani to win a Grammy, wows audiences worldwide with her mesmerizing live shows; MacArthur genius and Grammy nominee Vijay Iyer is one of today’s most influential pianists; multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily’s sensitivity and technical acumen has made him a legend among musicians like the late Lou Reed for whom he was a session player. Together the three players merge to create a singular, gorgeous sound. Their new collaborative album Love In Exile asks you to step inside its sense of time, to stretch out alongside these delightful and unhurriedly unfolding songs. Profound impact is achieved with minimal instrumentation: Vijay Iyer on pianos and electronics, Shahzad Ismaily on bass and Moog synth, and Arooj Aftab’s exquisite Urdu vocals. Subtle musical interrelationships build into moments of deeply felt drama. Shimmering keyboard melodies and stirring vocals, earthy basslines, and hypnotic drones: together they create an album of stunning gravitas and beauty.
TRACK LISTING
1. To Remain/To Return (9:19)
2. Haseen Thi (12:09)
3. Shadow Forces (14:11)
4. Sajni (8:15)
5. Eyes Of The Endless (14:50)
6. Sharabi (13:42)
Grammy®-winning Arooj Aftab is set to release Night Reign, the follow up to her critically-acclaimed album Vulture Prince, on 31 May on Verve Records. Aftab makes the night the focus of this nine-song collection. Entirely in her own voice and through her own story, she delves into the multifaceted, bold and fascinating realm that comes to life after dark. Some nights are for falling in love, some are for solitude and introspection, some are to be annoyed at a forced social gathering–and so go the stories of Night Reign. The album features new friends like Cautious Clay shredding on flute, Moor Mother echoing Aftab’s sentiment of how cruel the world is, and Chocolate Genius aka Marc Anthony Thompson lending his tender sensibilities to a song about being grounded. Longtime collaborators Petros Klampanis and Maeve Gilchrist also continue their musical partnership as core members of Arooj’s musical family. The resulting new music again showcases Aftab’s striking ability to build a thing of beauty from distinct elements. Night Reign is a clear departure from tradition or the reinvention of ancestral music. It’s a reflection of Aftab’s 15 years living in New York City and her unapologetic commitment to stay true to herself. With open-heartedness, candour and wit, Aftab lets us get even closer to her.
TRACK LISTING
Side A
1. Aey Nehin
2. Na Gul
3. Autumn Leaves (ft. James Francies)
4. Whiskey
5. Zameen (ft. Chocolate Genius, Inc.)
Side B
1. Raat Ki Rani (version Exclusive To Vinyl)
2. Saaqi (ft. Vijay Iyer)
3. Bolo Na (ft. Moor Mother & Joel Ross)
4. Last Night (Reprise) (ft. Cautious Clay, Kaki King, Maeve Gilchrist)
Deluxe offering of Grammy® Best New Artist nominee Arooj Aftab’s breakthrough album Vulture Prince, featuring Grammy® Best Global Music Performance-nominated track “Mohabbat”.
Aftab’s remarkable voice, backed by a team of renowned musicians, transports listeners to the composer’s world. Intimate piano and swelling orchestral strings unveil mystical passage into Aftab’s emotionally gripping symphonic world - vast with colorful sounds and transcendent of genre.
Aftab’s remarkable voice, backed by a team of renowned musicians, transports listeners to the composer’s world. Intimate piano and swelling orchestral strings unveil mystical passage into Aftab’s emotionally gripping symphonic world - vast with colorful sounds and transcendent of genre.
TRACK LISTING
1. Baghon Main (feat. Darian Donovan Thomas)
2. Diya Hai (feat. Badi Assad)
3. Inayaat
4. Last Night
5. Mohabbat
6. Saans Lo
7. Suroor
8. Udhero Na (feat. Anoushka Shankar)
Tasty 12" featuring two of the greatest legends in electronica: Aphex Twin and Autechre. A side features AFX's remix of Curve's "Falling Free" - a cavernous, eerie trip into the dark recesses of mainframe funk - complete with the producer's sonar bleeps and morse code percussion.
Autechre's "444" originally appeared as the last track on 1993's "Incunabala". It's a brilliant example of the duo's expert handling of control voltage emotion and otherworldly rhythm sequences. Sounds like a spaceship slowly gliding forcefully through interstellar nebula.
Super limited copies.
Autechre's "444" originally appeared as the last track on 1993's "Incunabala". It's a brilliant example of the duo's expert handling of control voltage emotion and otherworldly rhythm sequences. Sounds like a spaceship slowly gliding forcefully through interstellar nebula.
Super limited copies.
TRACK LISTING
Falling Free
444
The first AFX release since the mighty "Analord" series sees Richard D James and Warp Records go back to the old skool in a big way. From the fly-poster campaign and retro rave Designers Republic sleeve to the fearsome acid breaks held within, this release is a celebration of the days when Tangled was still at the Phoenix, City were still at Maine Road and Me and Piccadilly's Matt Ward were locked in our bedrooms playing Dungeons and Dragons (the early 90s). Going in hard from the get go, AFX fires up the 303, 808 and whatever else he's got lying around to deliver the bleeping, squeaking acid assault of "Serge Fenix Rendered 2". A simple beat holds things together nicely while the raucous acid lines, head spinning sequences and trippy out chords threaten to throw the whole thing off kilter. Next up, "DMX Acid Test" sees the producer weaving fluid 303 lines around an ever changing collage of breakbeats and tough snares, before "Oberheim Blacet1b" mashes your brain, blows the speakers and scares children as RDJ adds gloomy pads and hollow wood blocks to the rapid fire sequences and thundering drums. Speaking of thundering drums, if you were looking for a room wrecking percussion track for your next sally into a rave bunker, "Bonus EMT Beats" will suit you to a t. Opening the B-side in textbook Ronseal fashion, "Simple Slamming B 2" does exactly what it says on the tin, ramping up the LFO and LPF for truly murky bass while a drum track bangs out at breakneck pace. "Midi Pipe1c Sds3time Cube/klonedrm" sees RDJ in piss-take mood, utilising his synth set up to deliver some deranged pygmy polyphony perfectly suited to patchouli-scented after parties the nation over. From that strangeness we skip into the mid tempo headnod of "NEOTEKT72" a dense, bass heavy breakbeat cut in line with RDJ's hip hop inspired moments, before closing on the organic percussion of drum track "R8m Neotek Beat".
Hot on the heels of "2017-2019", his second album of angular, off-kilter electronics and mechanical rhythms work under the Against All Logic alias, Nicolas Jaar offers up a 12" containing two eyebrow-raising collaborative cuts. Legendary alternative artist Lydia Lunch, who also features on the album, pops up on A-side "Illusions of Shameless Abundance", adding a out there spoken word vocal - much of which is presented as a series of overlapping loops - to Jaar's skewed modular electronics and trippy, out-of-this-world sounds. Estado Unido and FKA Twigs lend a hand on flipside "Alucinao", providing gently soulful lyrical flavour to a distorted, thrillingly aggressive South American electro rhythm, sweaty pots-and-pans percussion and metallic melodic elements.
TRACK LISTING
A Illusions Of Shameless Abundance
Featuring – Lydia Lunch
B Alucinao
Feat. Estado Unido & FKA Twigs
'Perceptions' is the debut vinyl release from Age Coin, the Danish duo of Simon Formann and Kristian Emdal whose work you may have previously encountered as members of the Copenhagen based bands Lower, Var and Girlseeker. Originally issued as a short-run cassette on the Posh Isolation label in 2012, Alter is pleased to rescue this powerful industrial gem from potential obscurity and present a vinyl edition. Two long pieces of slowly developing wind-tunnel noise and air-craft hangar electronics that bring us close to the reality of what Mika Vainio and Esplendor Geometrico jamming over a desolate and barren landscape might sound like. Mastered for vinyl by Stephen Bishop and cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, August 2013.
TRACK LISTING
1. I
2. II
Ages And Ages first came together in 2009 thanks to Portland’s ever-fertile music community. An ardent audience surfaced for their US debut, ‘Alright You Restless’, including committed cohort Barack Obama, who added (without permission, mind) the album’s ‘No Nostalgia’ on his 2012 campaign playlist.
Ages And Ages spent much of the subsequent two years in wilful isolation following a barrage of unhappy events that befell some of the band members. As a result, they have composed an emotive and emotional song set that sees a band wrestling with many of the contradictions and confusion that life has to offer.
Fraught with heartfelt drama, celebratory spirit, and sonic ingenuity, ‘Divisionary’ shows a band torn and frayed but optimistic, empowered and transcendent in spite of their turmoil and trials.
Ages And Ages recently played their first ever European dates, including gigs in Berlin, Copenhagen, Paris, Amsterdam, London, Brussels and Haldern, preceding the band’s scheduled shows at this year’s SXSW Festival in Austin, with more festivals expected in summer 2014.
Ages And Ages spent much of the subsequent two years in wilful isolation following a barrage of unhappy events that befell some of the band members. As a result, they have composed an emotive and emotional song set that sees a band wrestling with many of the contradictions and confusion that life has to offer.
Fraught with heartfelt drama, celebratory spirit, and sonic ingenuity, ‘Divisionary’ shows a band torn and frayed but optimistic, empowered and transcendent in spite of their turmoil and trials.
Ages And Ages recently played their first ever European dates, including gigs in Berlin, Copenhagen, Paris, Amsterdam, London, Brussels and Haldern, preceding the band’s scheduled shows at this year’s SXSW Festival in Austin, with more festivals expected in summer 2014.
TRACK LISTING
Light Goes Out
I See More
No Pressure
Big Idea
The Weight Below
Over It
Our Demons
Ante Up
Calamity Is Overrated
These Ravines
Divisionary (Do The Right Thing)
Ages And Ages first came together in 2009 thanks to Portland’s ever-fertile music community. An ardent audience surfaced for their US debut, ‘Alright You Restless’, including committed cohort Barack Obama, who added (without permission, mind) the album’s ‘No Nostalgia’ on his 2012 campaign playlist.
Ages And Ages spent much of the subsequent two years in wilful isolation following a barrage of unhappy events that befell some of the band members. As a result, they have composed an emotive and emotional song set that sees a band wrestling with many of the contradictions and confusion that life has to offer.
Fraught with heartfelt drama, celebratory spirit, and sonic ingenuity, ‘Divisionary’ shows a band torn and frayed but optimistic, empowered and transcendent in spite of their turmoil and trials.
Ages And Ages recently played their first ever European dates, including gigs in Berlin, Copenhagen, Paris, Amsterdam, London, Brussels and Haldern, preceding the band’s scheduled shows at this year’s SXSW Festival in Austin, with more festivals expected in summer 2014.
Ages And Ages spent much of the subsequent two years in wilful isolation following a barrage of unhappy events that befell some of the band members. As a result, they have composed an emotive and emotional song set that sees a band wrestling with many of the contradictions and confusion that life has to offer.
Fraught with heartfelt drama, celebratory spirit, and sonic ingenuity, ‘Divisionary’ shows a band torn and frayed but optimistic, empowered and transcendent in spite of their turmoil and trials.
Ages And Ages recently played their first ever European dates, including gigs in Berlin, Copenhagen, Paris, Amsterdam, London, Brussels and Haldern, preceding the band’s scheduled shows at this year’s SXSW Festival in Austin, with more festivals expected in summer 2014.
TRACK LISTING
Light Goes Out
I See More
No Pressure
Big Idea
The Weight Below
Over It
Our Demons
Ante Up
Calamity Is Overrated
These Ravines
Divisionary (Do The Right Thing)
Musicians include Aston 'Family Man' Barrett, Carlton Barrett, Robbie Shakespeare, Sly Dunbar, Ansel Collins, Ossie Hibbert, Earl 'Chinna' Smith, Tommy McCook, Cornell Campbell, Jackie Mittoo.
Both The Aggravators and The Revolutionaries were influential in creating the distinctive sound of reggae music during its formative years, contributing their talents as studio bands behind some of the most significant recordings in the history of Jamaican music. 'Guerilla Dub' provides an illustration and insight into the close working relationships between the many producers, musicians and mixing engineers who created so many of Jamaica's marvellous musical masterpieces during its golden age and how interwoven and interconnected they were during this period of intense musical creativity.
Both The Aggravators and The Revolutionaries were influential in creating the distinctive sound of reggae music during its formative years, contributing their talents as studio bands behind some of the most significant recordings in the history of Jamaican music. 'Guerilla Dub' provides an illustration and insight into the close working relationships between the many producers, musicians and mixing engineers who created so many of Jamaica's marvellous musical masterpieces during its golden age and how interwoven and interconnected they were during this period of intense musical creativity.
TRACK LISTING
Cuddoe Dub
Garvey Dub
Paul Bogle Dub
Malcolm X Dub
Martin Luther Dub
Swapo Dub
Guerilla Dub
Maroon Dub
Ethiopean Dub
P.L.A. Dub
New York hardcore legends Agnostic Front have outlived contemporaries such as Minor Threat, SS Decontrol, Black Flag and are, on this evidence, still capable of producing a very mean noise. It's all here; the trademark sledgehammer rhythms, chainsaw guitar hooks and street anthem choruses. Produced by Hatebreed's Jamey Jasta, and featuring Terror's Scott Vogel and Karl Bleuchner of Earth Crisis.
One year after his surprising debut, Agosta, the Catania musician-non-musician and Space Echo Records return to the point with "Reworks and Remixes". Which from the very title disengages itself from the industrial 'album+remix album' chain and on listening reveals itself to be a record capable of moving, in total autonomy from its antecedent, on three different levels of reading. For, at its base, we would say, there is a much more stimulating idea than the simple compulsion from alternative versions, b-sides and so on.
Point 1, transfiguration. Because, contrary to the genre stereotype, the remix mode allows songs to express themselves in creative and experimental ways.
Point 2, the Rorschach Test. Because, on those songs, there is the personality, that is, the result of the cross-vision with experience, of the individual producers being measured against itself.
Point 3, the stage backdrop. That is, its ability to show a cross-section of the current electronic scene in Etna.
Agosta wanted some of the pillars of Catania's black-minded electronic scene with him and, together with them, reinterpreted songs from his first album. The result is a work that is as multifaceted, in terms of the specific weight of the artistic individualities involved, as it is homogeneous, in their idea of a sound that is as physical as it is mental and, above all, in terms of a totally Mediterranean underlying taste with which every single track is imbued.
Whether it is the pensive house of "Apple 65" or "Lady G" (Butterfly Agosta's Rework) as much as AN-AN's dub on "Varanni", between Grace Jones and Adrian Sherwood, or Galathea's more psychedelic and twilight Trip-Hop on "Three Chestnuts". The Shaft-esque swagger of Salvo Borrelli and Reverend James, the donwnbeat pop of "Cellars" by Go.Soul.Map. and the caress of "Hearing The Call" (Lady G In A Rainy Day Version) by The Invisible Session, in which spoken and what they once called nu jazz flirt.
Don't Miss It!!!!
Point 1, transfiguration. Because, contrary to the genre stereotype, the remix mode allows songs to express themselves in creative and experimental ways.
Point 2, the Rorschach Test. Because, on those songs, there is the personality, that is, the result of the cross-vision with experience, of the individual producers being measured against itself.
Point 3, the stage backdrop. That is, its ability to show a cross-section of the current electronic scene in Etna.
Agosta wanted some of the pillars of Catania's black-minded electronic scene with him and, together with them, reinterpreted songs from his first album. The result is a work that is as multifaceted, in terms of the specific weight of the artistic individualities involved, as it is homogeneous, in their idea of a sound that is as physical as it is mental and, above all, in terms of a totally Mediterranean underlying taste with which every single track is imbued.
Whether it is the pensive house of "Apple 65" or "Lady G" (Butterfly Agosta's Rework) as much as AN-AN's dub on "Varanni", between Grace Jones and Adrian Sherwood, or Galathea's more psychedelic and twilight Trip-Hop on "Three Chestnuts". The Shaft-esque swagger of Salvo Borrelli and Reverend James, the donwnbeat pop of "Cellars" by Go.Soul.Map. and the caress of "Hearing The Call" (Lady G In A Rainy Day Version) by The Invisible Session, in which spoken and what they once called nu jazz flirt.
Don't Miss It!!!!
TRACK LISTING
1. Three Chestnuts (Galatea's Psychedelic Pepper)
2. Millstone (Agosta's Rework In The New Mill)
3. Apples 65 (Agosta)
4. Hearing The Call (Lady G In A Rainy Day) [feat. The Invisible Session]
5. Varanni (ANAN Remix)
6. Unna (Salvo Borrelli)
7. Lady G
8. Cellars (Go.Soul.Map. Remix)
9. Carricante
10. Don Alfio (Reverend James)
Agrio is a duo from Madrid, Spain and using a "what if..." methodology they write instrumental songs that they send later to a revolving cast of their talented and generous friends so they can add their magic. With this in mind they sent music to MARK LANEGAN, Enablers frontman PETE SIMONELLI & to SCOTT MCCLOUD from Girls Against Boys, Soulside and so much more.
'El Amigo Americano' is the result of these collaborations, 10 tracks of some of the most beautifully striking music around. The work with Mark Lanegan and Pete Simonelli were originally released as two vinyl EPs and Scott McCloud as a digital EP.
EP 1 - EP one 'La Murga Ep' with Mark Lanegan was their debut on Feb. 2020 EP2 - followed it that same autumn with The Thin Man EP featuring Pete Simonelli (Enablers). Both were originally released on vinyl via the San Francisco based label Broken Clover Records. These records sold out fast. EP 3 - "Repeat to Infinity EP" (digital only), with Scott McCloud's (Girls Against Boys, New Wet Kojak, Paramount Styles) on voice and guitar. The three EP's are compiled together on one LP as "El Amigo Americano".
La Murga Ep* + The Thin Man Ep** + Repeat To Infinity EP*** = EL AMIGO AMERICANO
The album is mastered by John McBain (Monster Magnet, Wellwater Conspiracy) Agrio is David Flores and Jorge Fuertes with Mark Lanegan, Pete Simonelli and Scott McCloud.
'El Amigo Americano' is the result of these collaborations, 10 tracks of some of the most beautifully striking music around. The work with Mark Lanegan and Pete Simonelli were originally released as two vinyl EPs and Scott McCloud as a digital EP.
EP 1 - EP one 'La Murga Ep' with Mark Lanegan was their debut on Feb. 2020 EP2 - followed it that same autumn with The Thin Man EP featuring Pete Simonelli (Enablers). Both were originally released on vinyl via the San Francisco based label Broken Clover Records. These records sold out fast. EP 3 - "Repeat to Infinity EP" (digital only), with Scott McCloud's (Girls Against Boys, New Wet Kojak, Paramount Styles) on voice and guitar. The three EP's are compiled together on one LP as "El Amigo Americano".
La Murga Ep* + The Thin Man Ep** + Repeat To Infinity EP*** = EL AMIGO AMERICANO
The album is mastered by John McBain (Monster Magnet, Wellwater Conspiracy) Agrio is David Flores and Jorge Fuertes with Mark Lanegan, Pete Simonelli and Scott McCloud.
TRACK LISTING
1. Nike Italy France
2. Dj's In Heaven
3. People Used To Dream
4. A Mayores
5, Nomeolvides
6. A Drink Of Poison Water
7. Cisnes
8. The Scales Of Embrace
9. Waking
Chilean born, German raised Matias Aguayo is Kompakt's most blogged about musician today thanks to a string of successful 12" releases on Soul Jazz, Kompakt and his own imprint Comeme. "Ay Ay Ay" was recorded in Buenos Aires, Santiago de Chile and Paris together with Vicente Sanfuentes (Original Hamster) and was mixed down in Berlin together with long time collaborator Marcus Rossknecht (of Broke fame). Matias has conjured an impossibly unclassifiable full length set that is certain to surprise and uplift. Take opener "Menta Latte", countless layers of his voice revel in a psychedelic dream park together with a simple xylophone chord. First single "Rollerskate"'s chorus is sure to stay on auto repeat in your head for days after first listen. Aguayo's leanings to traditional African music resonate on the beautiful crooner "Koro Koro". Fans of his recent singles will rejoice to the rhythm of songs "Me Vuelvo Loca" and "Juanita"'s Latin harmonies embraced with Matias coaxing you to get up and dance.
Renowned electronic music producer & DJ Matias Aguayo presents his new project, which will unfold on several levels. The Desdemonas are a 4-piece rock band, fronted by Aguayo (who sings and plays a variety of instruments). It’s also a fictional story about a group of teenagers in a dystopian world (the story will be told in the lyrics, and in cartoons and videos based on Aguayo’s drawings). And it’s of course an album, in which Matias digs deep into some dark forms of rock music which inspired him as a teenager, and brilliantly revisits them in a moody, compelling, post-electronic 2017 style. Based in Berlin, the band will be touring around Europe and beyond, starting before the album’s release and continuing through 2018. Their line-up consists of drummer Matteo Scrimali from Italy, keyboard player Henning Specht from Germany, guitarist/bass player Gregorio Gomez from Colombia, and Matias Aguayo on vocals, keys etc. Matias Aguayo in a nutshell: born in Chile and raised in Germany, he’s created a varied body of genre-defying work since the early 00s, including several albums with legendary Cologne-based electronic music label Kompakt. A much in-demand DJ, he’s constantly been performing all around the world, appearing in the most prestigious festivals. Matias Aguayo has always been an original, iconoclastic artist: starting out “the man who helped popularize and expand minimal [techno]” (Pitchfork).
Ahem is a new project from Housecraft Recordings head Jeffry Astin (aka Xiphiidae, Digital Natives) along with co-conspirators J.P. Wright and Brian Kinkade. It's a crystaline, shimmering and immersive listen; like you've been wrapped up in settled snow of an avalanche, cocooned inside but safe and serene. Help is on its way but you're in no rush to get rescued. Sounds vibrate through the ice and frozen air, rhythms thud gently, cushioned by snow.
Recommended for fans of smoked out dub-bient and deep Appalachian drones.
-Cover art by Joe Roberts (LSD Worldpeace)
-Housecraft Recordings has been active as a cult favorite ambient / tape label for ~20 years now.
Support from: Ian Kim Judd (Fifth World/NTS), Hank Jackson (Anno Records), Jacob Gorchov (Palto Flats), Eli Libman (Quiet Time Tapes).
Recommended for fans of smoked out dub-bient and deep Appalachian drones.
-Cover art by Joe Roberts (LSD Worldpeace)
-Housecraft Recordings has been active as a cult favorite ambient / tape label for ~20 years now.
Support from: Ian Kim Judd (Fifth World/NTS), Hank Jackson (Anno Records), Jacob Gorchov (Palto Flats), Eli Libman (Quiet Time Tapes).
TRACK LISTING
A1. Angels Whisper (pspsps)
A2. Cryptids
B1. Kuwabara Kuwabara
B2. Project Bluebird
C1. Back In The Bush
C2. One Hand Washes The Other
D1. Northwoods
D2. …and Drunk The Milk Of Paradise
The Current Inside”, Marja Ahti's sophomore album for Hallow Ground, plays with the theme of currents - connecting and animating movements in the form of air, water and electricity. It approaches sound as a poetic medium, focusing both on the experience of sound as form and energy and on a loosely narrative arc, suggesting a riddle on the relations between the sounds. It implements alternative as well as intuitive tunings, analog and digital synthesis, recordings of sonorous spaces and vessels, electromagnetic fields transduced into audio, acoustic close-ups of elements in motion and other field recordings. Fluently connecting quite diverse sound sources, Ahti's music lingers in a zone between abstract sonorities and vaguely familiar acoustic environments. The first half of the album consists of ”The Altitudes”, a piece commissioned by Ina GRM for Présences Électronique and Sonic Acts. It was inspired by descriptions of the layers of Earth's atmosphere. Imagining a movement through layers of air, the piece unfolds with a slow intensity, interweaving concrete sounds and closely tuned electronic sonorities.
Traversing the altitudes, a landscape of entangled elements, masses and currents emerges. The air around us has weight and it presses against everything it touches. As gravity pulls it to Earth, it is sensed as pressure. The rotation of the planet, the angle of the sun at any new moment sets the elements in motion in a chain reaction. The other side consists of four shorter pieces. ”The Currents” opens with a dance of trembling charged movements. ”Lost Lake” extracts resonant tones from a trail of close-up recordings of winter environments, while ”Fluctuating Streams” channels streaming air in different forms. The closing track, ”Sundial”, could be construed as the steady turning of the planetary angle towards the sun, unfolding through fragments of everyday activity against the backdrop of piercing, slowly twisting, suspended tone. Marja Ahti (b. 1981) is a musician and composer based in Turku, Finland. Originally from Sweden, Ahti has been a part of the Finnish experimental music scene for more than ten years in different constellations.
Traversing the altitudes, a landscape of entangled elements, masses and currents emerges. The air around us has weight and it presses against everything it touches. As gravity pulls it to Earth, it is sensed as pressure. The rotation of the planet, the angle of the sun at any new moment sets the elements in motion in a chain reaction. The other side consists of four shorter pieces. ”The Currents” opens with a dance of trembling charged movements. ”Lost Lake” extracts resonant tones from a trail of close-up recordings of winter environments, while ”Fluctuating Streams” channels streaming air in different forms. The closing track, ”Sundial”, could be construed as the steady turning of the planetary angle towards the sun, unfolding through fragments of everyday activity against the backdrop of piercing, slowly twisting, suspended tone. Marja Ahti (b. 1981) is a musician and composer based in Turku, Finland. Originally from Sweden, Ahti has been a part of the Finnish experimental music scene for more than ten years in different constellations.
TRACK LISTING
1.The Altitudes (20:09)
2.The Currents (04:21)
3.Lost Lake (04:25)
4.Fluctuating Streams (06:12)
5.Sundial (04:43)
The groove of the 70s dancefloor jazz made an impact on the Finnish jazz scene and the track 'Grandma's Rocking Chair' is viewed as a highlight of that era. Featured on the original pressing in 1976, the track was picked up by legendary US house producer Kenny Dope when he sampled the track for his record 'The Illout'. Most likely the track was taken from a "Finnish Jazz 66 - 75" bootleg album.
Born 6 August 1949, Olli Ahvenlahti is a Finnish pianist, composer, and conductor and has been one of Finland's leading Jazz artists since the 70s. He has recorded with several artists including UMO Jazz Orchestra. There was a small group of very talented jazz musicians in Finland during the 70s, of which Ahvenlahti was one of the key players. His band consisted of the cutting-edge musicians of that decade, including Markku Johansson, Bertil Strandberg and Pekka Pöyry.
The LP version is manufactured in Japan in Mr Bongo's new, improved, super high quality sleeves and replicates the original 1976 release exactly.
Born 6 August 1949, Olli Ahvenlahti is a Finnish pianist, composer, and conductor and has been one of Finland's leading Jazz artists since the 70s. He has recorded with several artists including UMO Jazz Orchestra. There was a small group of very talented jazz musicians in Finland during the 70s, of which Ahvenlahti was one of the key players. His band consisted of the cutting-edge musicians of that decade, including Markku Johansson, Bertil Strandberg and Pekka Pöyry.
The LP version is manufactured in Japan in Mr Bongo's new, improved, super high quality sleeves and replicates the original 1976 release exactly.
Taken from the acclaimed "The Habit of a Lifetime (And How To Kick It)", Aim & QNC's "How It All Got Started" and "We Don't Play" boasts two tasty reworkings from super-producer Curt Cazal (JVC Force, Strong Island) plus an all-new, Aim produced track, "Lyrical Expert". "How It All Got Started" is a retrospective, biographical look at the development of their rhymes, career and all the twists and turns that go with a spending a long time in the showbiz lifestyle. QNC's (Q-Ball and Curt Cazal) delivery is beautifully - interchanging lines at a whim with almost telepathic synchronicity while their lines and delivery are smooth and succinct like a the best jar of peanut butter you ever tasted. On "We Don't Play" we get a darker, more aggressive Dilla-esque beat. QNC's dueling raps again are ridiculously poignant and biting, with subject matter landing more in the 'battle' style. On new track "Lyrical Expert" we get crunchy, gated drums beats, squelchy bass and some fine scratched choruses, with another 'battle' style vocal delivery which slays all in its path. On the flip Curt offers up instrumentals of all the tracks, making this a DJ friendly excursion. The EP is presented on delicious cream. coloured 140g 12" vinyl with sleeve art by AFU. RIYL the
conscious hip-hop style of the late nineties - The Roots, Dilated Peoples, Blackalicous etc. Infact, it's totally essential if you're into these sounds.
conscious hip-hop style of the late nineties - The Roots, Dilated Peoples, Blackalicous etc. Infact, it's totally essential if you're into these sounds.
TRACK LISTING
How It All Got Started Curt Cazal Remix
We Don’t Play (feat. Grand Puba & Sean Price) Curt Cazal Remix
Lyrical Expert
How It All Got Started Curt Cazal Remix Instrumental
We Don’t Play (feat. Grand Puba & Sean Price) Curt Cazal Remix Instrumental
Lyrical Expert Instrumental
In 1999 Aim changed the game with debut album Cold Water Music. Timeless and genre defining, Cold Water Music crossed musical boundaries, inspired countless producers and 125,000+ physical copies and millions of streams later sounds as fresh and as relevant today as it ever did.
In 2002 Aim achieved the seemingly impossible with his critically acclaimed follow up Hinterland. At once a continuation and development of his trademark sound, Hinterland proved the notoriously difficult second album could not only equal its predecessor but surpass it. Featuring intricate instrumentals and inspired guest spots from the likes of Diamond D (‘The Omen’), Souls of Mischief (‘No Restriction’) and Stephen Jones (’Good Disease’), Hinterland is an understated masterpiece that seamlessly combines crisp hip-hop beats (‘Linctus’, ‘From A Seaside Town’) and up-tempo grooves (’Guimar’, Vipco’) with Aim’s bucolic aesthetic and ever-present sense of blissful melancholy.
Over twenty years on from its original release ATIC Records is thrilled to present the definitive Hinterland vinyl reissue. Fully remastered from the original DAT master tapes with all-new artwork, Aim explains why it’s taken so long; “I’ve wanted to re-release Hinterland on vinyl for years but it’s only now that the time felt right. I found the perfect new cover image and, amazingly, the long-lost instrumental of ‘A Twilight Zone’ turned up in a dusty attic corner. I was never comfortable with my singing on this track and replacing the vocal version with the instrumental makes Hinterland the record I always thought it should be. I think it’s my best album and it’s exciting to get it out there again for fans that have hounded us for a fresh vinyl release for years and for new ears yet to discover it.”
Hinterland Remastered. Some things are worth waiting for.
In 2002 Aim achieved the seemingly impossible with his critically acclaimed follow up Hinterland. At once a continuation and development of his trademark sound, Hinterland proved the notoriously difficult second album could not only equal its predecessor but surpass it. Featuring intricate instrumentals and inspired guest spots from the likes of Diamond D (‘The Omen’), Souls of Mischief (‘No Restriction’) and Stephen Jones (’Good Disease’), Hinterland is an understated masterpiece that seamlessly combines crisp hip-hop beats (‘Linctus’, ‘From A Seaside Town’) and up-tempo grooves (’Guimar’, Vipco’) with Aim’s bucolic aesthetic and ever-present sense of blissful melancholy.
Over twenty years on from its original release ATIC Records is thrilled to present the definitive Hinterland vinyl reissue. Fully remastered from the original DAT master tapes with all-new artwork, Aim explains why it’s taken so long; “I’ve wanted to re-release Hinterland on vinyl for years but it’s only now that the time felt right. I found the perfect new cover image and, amazingly, the long-lost instrumental of ‘A Twilight Zone’ turned up in a dusty attic corner. I was never comfortable with my singing on this track and replacing the vocal version with the instrumental makes Hinterland the record I always thought it should be. I think it’s my best album and it’s exciting to get it out there again for fans that have hounded us for a fresh vinyl release for years and for new ears yet to discover it.”
Hinterland Remastered. Some things are worth waiting for.
TRACK LISTING
A1. Forlorn (Intro)
A2. The Girl Who Fell Through The Ice Feat. Kate Rogers
A3. What Do People Do All Day
A4. No Restriction Feat. Souls Of Mischief
B1. Fall Break
B2. Guimar
B3. Good Disease Feat. Stephen Jones
C1. The Omen Feat. Diamond D
C2. Linctus
C3. Vipco
D1. A Twilight Zone (Instrumental)
D2. From A Seaside Town
D3. Hinterland
Ainotamenishis is a loud, heavy guitar group from Tokyo who were birthed from one oviduct marked 'Velvet Underground' and a massive salpinx marked 'Gaseneta'. Their high-energy rock'n'roll action was first captured on an extremely limited CDR release, now released for the first time on vinyl. Ainotamenishis's brand of controlled panic is sure to spike the tongues of all those who purport to talk about the rock. It is primal, punk, eerie, harsh, and utterly essential.
Lydia Ainsworth’s 3rd album, Phantom Forest, introduces a lush, complex dream world that the singer, composer, and producer created and inhabited largely on her own. She produced all the songs, and wrote and performed everything on the self-released collection outside of a re-imagined cover of Pink Floyd’s “Green is the Color” and 2 other tracks (“The Time,” “Give It Back To You”), which started as instrumentals written by Survive’s Kyle Dixon (who composed the Stranger Things soundtrack with his bandmate Michael Stein), to which Ainsworth wrote melodies and added lyrics. Ainsworth, who’s relocated to Los Angeles from Toronto since 2017’s Darling of the Afterglow, explains that the collection revealed itself to her “as a play taking place in Mother Nature’s vanishing home,” aka Phantom Forest, and that she’s singing from 3 perspectives: herself, Mother Nature, and Greek Chorus.
For instance, of the album’s opener, “Diamonds Cutting Diamonds,” she explains: “The Greek Chorus sets the scene, narrating and offering direction on how to enter Phantom Forest. It’s my hope that the listener will imagine the narration to be directed to them as well, as they begin the journey of the album.” You’ll get a sense of this from the collection’s edenic cover art and the playful, pastoral video for the album’s first single, “Can You Find Her Place.” Its inspiration came from Ainsworth’s love for Italian Renaissance painter Botticelli’s 15-century masterpiece “Primavera,” an allegorical representation of the burgeoning fertility of the earth in spring. She notes: “The video features the Greek gods of the painting in a choreographed Baroque style dance.”
Keeping with the personal feel of the collection, her sister Abby Ainsworth directed the clip. In line with the classical and historical depths of Phantom Forest, Ainsworth, who holds a Masters Degree in film scoring composition from NYU and studied composition as an undergrad at McGill, notes that although the album might be considered pop, she approached it as an orchestrator. “Even if I’m dealing purely with synths,” she says, “The songs are like a score, each one an evolving journey. I love to use strings so I’ve included my string arrangements on ‘Tell Me I Exist’ and ‘Can You Find Her Place.’ I recorded live musicians on drums, bass, and guitar on ‘Edge of the Throne,’ ‘The Time,’ and ‘Floating Dream,’ and wove those live elements into my programmed elements.” Phantom Forest is a beautiful, vast collection that mixes the historical and the hands on, with hooks about the apocalypse and people obsessively using face-recognition software to see what paintings their face match with, in search of some kind of connection. It’s a journey that holds up to close listening (and lyric reading) and to dance floors, but that can also exist on a purely emotional plane. In all cases, it asks that you listen, and take some kind of action.
For instance, of the album’s opener, “Diamonds Cutting Diamonds,” she explains: “The Greek Chorus sets the scene, narrating and offering direction on how to enter Phantom Forest. It’s my hope that the listener will imagine the narration to be directed to them as well, as they begin the journey of the album.” You’ll get a sense of this from the collection’s edenic cover art and the playful, pastoral video for the album’s first single, “Can You Find Her Place.” Its inspiration came from Ainsworth’s love for Italian Renaissance painter Botticelli’s 15-century masterpiece “Primavera,” an allegorical representation of the burgeoning fertility of the earth in spring. She notes: “The video features the Greek gods of the painting in a choreographed Baroque style dance.”
Keeping with the personal feel of the collection, her sister Abby Ainsworth directed the clip. In line with the classical and historical depths of Phantom Forest, Ainsworth, who holds a Masters Degree in film scoring composition from NYU and studied composition as an undergrad at McGill, notes that although the album might be considered pop, she approached it as an orchestrator. “Even if I’m dealing purely with synths,” she says, “The songs are like a score, each one an evolving journey. I love to use strings so I’ve included my string arrangements on ‘Tell Me I Exist’ and ‘Can You Find Her Place.’ I recorded live musicians on drums, bass, and guitar on ‘Edge of the Throne,’ ‘The Time,’ and ‘Floating Dream,’ and wove those live elements into my programmed elements.” Phantom Forest is a beautiful, vast collection that mixes the historical and the hands on, with hooks about the apocalypse and people obsessively using face-recognition software to see what paintings their face match with, in search of some kind of connection. It’s a journey that holds up to close listening (and lyric reading) and to dance floors, but that can also exist on a purely emotional plane. In all cases, it asks that you listen, and take some kind of action.
TRACK LISTING
1.Diamonds Cutting Diamonds
2 Tell Me I Exist
3 Can You Find Her Place
4 Edge Of The Throne
5 Kiss The Future
6 The Time
7 Give It Back To You
8 Floating Dream
9 Green Is The Color
The Aints! comprise Ed Kuepper, Peter Oxley, Paul Larsen Loughhead, Alister Spence & Eamon Dilworth.
Formed in 2017 The Aints! original brief was to recreate the sound and energy of The Saints, the band co-founded by Kuepper in 1973, as they celebrated 40 years since the release of that band's groundbreaking debut (I’m) Stranded in 1977. With such talent at play though, it wasn’t long before this inspired five piece created material of their own. An album The Church of Simultaneous Existence, comprised entirely of Kuepper originals written in the period 1969-1978, was was released internationally to much fanfare and was a hit with fans and critics alike.5-6-7-8-9 is the next release from The Aints!
A 5-track mini-LP comprising alternate versions of album tracks Goodnight Ladies (single edit) and Country Song in G (acoustic) plus reworked versions of tracks from Kuepper’s 50 album strong catalogue including Memories Are Made Of This (The Saints, 1978) Laughing Clowns (Laughing Clowns, 1980) and Hang Jean Lee (Ed Kuepper & The Kowalski Collective, 2007).
Formed in 2017 The Aints! original brief was to recreate the sound and energy of The Saints, the band co-founded by Kuepper in 1973, as they celebrated 40 years since the release of that band's groundbreaking debut (I’m) Stranded in 1977. With such talent at play though, it wasn’t long before this inspired five piece created material of their own. An album The Church of Simultaneous Existence, comprised entirely of Kuepper originals written in the period 1969-1978, was was released internationally to much fanfare and was a hit with fans and critics alike.5-6-7-8-9 is the next release from The Aints!
A 5-track mini-LP comprising alternate versions of album tracks Goodnight Ladies (single edit) and Country Song in G (acoustic) plus reworked versions of tracks from Kuepper’s 50 album strong catalogue including Memories Are Made Of This (The Saints, 1978) Laughing Clowns (Laughing Clowns, 1980) and Hang Jean Lee (Ed Kuepper & The Kowalski Collective, 2007).
TRACK LISTING
GOODNIGHT LADIES (I HEAR A SOUND WITHOUT) (SINGLE EDIT)
HANG JEAN LEE
MEMORIES (ARE MADE OF THIS)
THE LAUGHING CLOWNS
COUNTRY SONG IN G (ACOUSTIC)
“Rock music in the seventies was changed by three bands —the Sex Pistols, the Ramones and The Saints.” - (Bob Geldof)
THE AINTS! THE CHURCH OF SIMULTANEOUS EXISTENCE
Forty years after the release of one of the great Australian debut albums of all time Ed Kuepper returns with a brand-new band and a brand new contender for the title.
When the heavily lauded, heavily influential first incarnation of The Saints split in 1978, Ed Kuepper, the sonic architect and primary songwriter of the original band and their three albums: the proto-punk classic (I’m) Stranded (1977), the r’n'b infused Eternally Yours (1978) and the brass-laden genre-defying Prehistoric Sounds (1978) left behind a plethora of unreleased material, however, rather than attempt to salvage what could have been Kuepper chose to move on forming the legendary Laughing Clowns performing and recording in Australia and the U.K. from 1979 through 1984 before embarking on an ARIA award winning solo career that has kept him touring and recording steadily since 1985.
Come 2017 though, and the 40th anniversary of The Saints seminal debut Kuepper was persuaded it was time to revisit and celebrate the music of his youth. Recruiting like-minded souls in Sunnyboys bassist Peter Oxley, drummer Paul Larsen Loughhead (The Celibate Rifles / The New Christs), jazz pianist Alister Spence and trumpeter and brass arranger Eamon Dilworth the band performed as The Aints! Play The Saints (’73 - ’78) covering Kuepper’s tenure with the band and all the classics including This Perfect Day, Know Your Product, Swing For The Crime and (I’m) Stranded to large crowds and a hugely appreciative response. But rather than purely recycle those formative songs Kuepper began to introduce the new-old material to an audience eager to hear what else Kuepper had been sitting on since 1978. A further positive response from the music department of the ABC saw these two iconic Australians join forces and bring to light what is in essence, the long lost fourth album by The (original) Saints.
THE AINTS! THE CHURCH OF SIMULTANEOUS EXISTENCE
Forty years after the release of one of the great Australian debut albums of all time Ed Kuepper returns with a brand-new band and a brand new contender for the title.
When the heavily lauded, heavily influential first incarnation of The Saints split in 1978, Ed Kuepper, the sonic architect and primary songwriter of the original band and their three albums: the proto-punk classic (I’m) Stranded (1977), the r’n'b infused Eternally Yours (1978) and the brass-laden genre-defying Prehistoric Sounds (1978) left behind a plethora of unreleased material, however, rather than attempt to salvage what could have been Kuepper chose to move on forming the legendary Laughing Clowns performing and recording in Australia and the U.K. from 1979 through 1984 before embarking on an ARIA award winning solo career that has kept him touring and recording steadily since 1985.
Come 2017 though, and the 40th anniversary of The Saints seminal debut Kuepper was persuaded it was time to revisit and celebrate the music of his youth. Recruiting like-minded souls in Sunnyboys bassist Peter Oxley, drummer Paul Larsen Loughhead (The Celibate Rifles / The New Christs), jazz pianist Alister Spence and trumpeter and brass arranger Eamon Dilworth the band performed as The Aints! Play The Saints (’73 - ’78) covering Kuepper’s tenure with the band and all the classics including This Perfect Day, Know Your Product, Swing For The Crime and (I’m) Stranded to large crowds and a hugely appreciative response. But rather than purely recycle those formative songs Kuepper began to introduce the new-old material to an audience eager to hear what else Kuepper had been sitting on since 1978. A further positive response from the music department of the ABC saw these two iconic Australians join forces and bring to light what is in essence, the long lost fourth album by The (original) Saints.
TRACK LISTING
1. Red Aces
2. The Church Of Simultaneous Existence
3. You'll Always Walk Alone
4. You Got The Answer
5. Country Song In G
6. Elevator (A Song For Barking Lord Jeff)
7. This Is Our Summer
8. Winter's Way
9. S-O-S '75
10. Demo Girl Part 2
11. Good Night Ladies (I Hear A Sound Without)
12. The Rise And Falls Of James Hoopnoch Eefil
Brighton-based shoegazers Air Formation are set to release their self-titled sixth studio album this spring via Club AC30. Inspired by bands such as Flying Saucer Attack, Spiritual- ized, Explosions In The Sky and The Jesus and Mary Chain, Air Formation's music incorp- orates heavily delayed guitar and feedback, with droning keyboards, and ethereal vocals. Forming in 2000, long before spiritual forbearers Slowdive, Ride and Loop were consid- ered acceptable influences, the five-piece have been a mainstay of the modern shoegaze scene and have gained a devoted following, receiving critical acclaim from tastemakers including Consequence of Sound, Clash, and Louder Than War.
Briefly splitting in April 2011 after the release of their fourth studio album 'Nothing to Wish For (Nothing to Lose)', they reformed in 2014 for a special one-off show to celebrate 10 years of Club AC30. In 2018, the band released the critically acclaimed album 'Near Miss'. "Time goes fast," says guitarist and vocalist Matt Bartram. "We're still figuring it all out. But most importantly, I think Air Formation still feels totally relevant. All the time we enjoy doing it we will keep at it," he adds.
When it came to the writing and recording of the album, the band went back to listening to their favourite artists for influence including Bardo Pond and Mogwai to name a few, but ultimately, the album is influenced by all the Air Formation music that had come before. "How can we do something a bit different, but it still be Air Formation," says Bartram.
From the blissed-out vibes of album opener 'Pressure Drop' to the anthemic guitar crescendos of 'Only So Much Light', Air Formation are masters of noise and effects, constantly exploring the outer limits of guitar texture and volume. On 'Finding Gravity', fuzzed-out guitars explode into beatific distortion, while 'I Don't Want To Talk' and 'Crashing Out' shimmer and swirl. Elsewhere, the deafening waves of noise of 'The Day After Day' and dreamy 'Sparks Dies' reveal a band who find the heart in fuzz, while album closer 'The Final Wave' is a gorgeous, heavily textured expanse.
Air Formation is Matt Bartram (Guitars & Vocals), Ben Pierce (Bass), James Harrison (Drums), Ian Sheridan (Guitar) and Richard Parks (Keyboards).
Briefly splitting in April 2011 after the release of their fourth studio album 'Nothing to Wish For (Nothing to Lose)', they reformed in 2014 for a special one-off show to celebrate 10 years of Club AC30. In 2018, the band released the critically acclaimed album 'Near Miss'. "Time goes fast," says guitarist and vocalist Matt Bartram. "We're still figuring it all out. But most importantly, I think Air Formation still feels totally relevant. All the time we enjoy doing it we will keep at it," he adds.
When it came to the writing and recording of the album, the band went back to listening to their favourite artists for influence including Bardo Pond and Mogwai to name a few, but ultimately, the album is influenced by all the Air Formation music that had come before. "How can we do something a bit different, but it still be Air Formation," says Bartram.
From the blissed-out vibes of album opener 'Pressure Drop' to the anthemic guitar crescendos of 'Only So Much Light', Air Formation are masters of noise and effects, constantly exploring the outer limits of guitar texture and volume. On 'Finding Gravity', fuzzed-out guitars explode into beatific distortion, while 'I Don't Want To Talk' and 'Crashing Out' shimmer and swirl. Elsewhere, the deafening waves of noise of 'The Day After Day' and dreamy 'Sparks Dies' reveal a band who find the heart in fuzz, while album closer 'The Final Wave' is a gorgeous, heavily textured expanse.
Air Formation is Matt Bartram (Guitars & Vocals), Ben Pierce (Bass), James Harrison (Drums), Ian Sheridan (Guitar) and Richard Parks (Keyboards).
TRACK LISTING
1. Pressure Drop
2. Only So Much Ligh
3. Finding Gravity
4. I Don't Want To Talk
5. Crashing Out
6. The Day After Day
7. Sparks Die
8. The Final Wave
Air Formation formed in 2000, long before spiritual forbearers Slowdive and Loop were considered acceptable influences. Since signing to Club AC30 back in 2005, a long time bastion of the modern shoegaze sound, the band have gained a devoted following and received critical acclaim, with Drowned In Sound describing the band as "one of the nation's most consistent outfits" and their incendiary live shows have seen them share stages with the likes of Swervedriver, Chapterhouse and The House of Love.
Originally released in February 2007 on CD, 'Daylight Storms' quickly became a classic album in the genre. Glowing reviews followed in the likes of Drowned In Sound, NME and Brooklyn Vegan, alongside radio play from 6Music's Steve Lamacq and Gideon Coe.
Air Formation in 2007 are: Matt Bartram (Guitars & Vocals), Ben Pierce (Bass), James Harrison(Drums), Phil Macy (Guitar) and Richard Parks (Keyboards).
Originally released in February 2007 on CD, 'Daylight Storms' quickly became a classic album in the genre. Glowing reviews followed in the likes of Drowned In Sound, NME and Brooklyn Vegan, alongside radio play from 6Music's Steve Lamacq and Gideon Coe.
Air Formation in 2007 are: Matt Bartram (Guitars & Vocals), Ben Pierce (Bass), James Harrison(Drums), Phil Macy (Guitar) and Richard Parks (Keyboards).
TRACK LISTING
1. Cold Morning
2. Tidal
3. Daylight Storms
4. I Can't Remember Waking Up
5. Into View
6. Formation 1
7. You Have To Go Somewhere
8. Adrift
9. The Dark Has Fallen
10. Before We Forget
Double LP reissue of Air Miami’s lost-classic 1995 album, ‘Me. Me. Me.’ Remastered from original 2” tapes and now including 3 extra tracks. This one time pressing comes on coloured vinyl and in a gatefold sleeve.
Made up of UNREST’s Mark Robinson and Bridget Cross, Air Miami formed shortly after the D.C. indie rock mainstay’s demise in 1995, and together with drummer Gabriel Stout and producer Guy Fixsen (The Breeders, My Bloody Valentine, Stereolab), they travelled to their namesake land of Miami to record the entirety of Me. Me. Me. over the month of May at the famed Criteria Studios; a place where James Brown, Aretha Franklin, the Bee Gees, Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, AC/DC and countless more have recorded classic works. The album was then mixed at a studio in London where labelmates Lush were recording their 1996 LP Lovelife at the same time.
Nearly thirty years on, this deluxe reissue sees the 1995 album expanded to include all sixteen tracks from the album sessions, three of which are new to the tracklist: ‘Warm Miami May’ (not on original LP), ‘Pucker’ (previously unreleased), and the full version of ‘See-Through Plastic’ (edited version only previously seen on the EP). The record also features singles ‘I Hate Milk’ and ‘Seabird,’ a track that found new life recently when covered by current 4AD artist Maria Somerville, her first release for the label and part of the label’s 40th anniversary compilation Bills & Aches & Blues.
Made up of UNREST’s Mark Robinson and Bridget Cross, Air Miami formed shortly after the D.C. indie rock mainstay’s demise in 1995, and together with drummer Gabriel Stout and producer Guy Fixsen (The Breeders, My Bloody Valentine, Stereolab), they travelled to their namesake land of Miami to record the entirety of Me. Me. Me. over the month of May at the famed Criteria Studios; a place where James Brown, Aretha Franklin, the Bee Gees, Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, AC/DC and countless more have recorded classic works. The album was then mixed at a studio in London where labelmates Lush were recording their 1996 LP Lovelife at the same time.
Nearly thirty years on, this deluxe reissue sees the 1995 album expanded to include all sixteen tracks from the album sessions, three of which are new to the tracklist: ‘Warm Miami May’ (not on original LP), ‘Pucker’ (previously unreleased), and the full version of ‘See-Through Plastic’ (edited version only previously seen on the EP). The record also features singles ‘I Hate Milk’ and ‘Seabird,’ a track that found new life recently when covered by current 4AD artist Maria Somerville, her first release for the label and part of the label’s 40th anniversary compilation Bills & Aches & Blues.
TRACK LISTING
1. I Hate Milk
2. World Cup Fever
3. Seabird
4. Warm Miami May (not On Original LP)
5. Special Angel
6. Afternoon Train
7. Dolphin Expressway
8. Sweet As A Candy Bar
9. Pucker (previously Unreleased)
10. You Sweet Little Heartbreaker
11. Neely
12. Bubble Shield
13. See-Through Plastic (full Version)
14. The Event Horizon
15. Definitely Beachy
16. Reprise
Two songs on the album feature vocals by Jana Hunter of Lower Dens. The album features members of Woods, Crystal Stilts, Ava Luna, and Hospitality.
In 2010 Nicole Schneit aka Air Waves released Dungeon Dots, an album Aquarius Records called "...pretty much perfect pop music." For her new album Parting Glances, Schneit enlisted friends from Brooklyn's music community to contribute to the record, including members of Woods, Crystal Stilts, Ava Luna, and Hospitality. Additionally, Jana Hunter of Lower Dens contributes vocals to two songs. The album's title comes from the 1986 film Parting Glances in which Steve Buscemi portrays a gay man navigating the difficulties of being in a relationship in Reagan-era New York. More than just identifying with the story, Schneit is interested in the in the lasting effect of the parting glances we share with strangers in our everyday encounters. She explains "You see all sorts of physical and emotional traits on the train. From people puking, making out, screaming, crying, laughing, dancing, grooming, etc. We encounter each other in the thick of our complex lives by simply looking at each other all the time. These glances are mundane and fleeting but also powerfully intimate." The lingering impact of those brief moments seeps into the details and imagery she delivers with energizing hooks and a disarming lack of pretense on Parting Glances.
In 2010 Nicole Schneit aka Air Waves released Dungeon Dots, an album Aquarius Records called "...pretty much perfect pop music." For her new album Parting Glances, Schneit enlisted friends from Brooklyn's music community to contribute to the record, including members of Woods, Crystal Stilts, Ava Luna, and Hospitality. Additionally, Jana Hunter of Lower Dens contributes vocals to two songs. The album's title comes from the 1986 film Parting Glances in which Steve Buscemi portrays a gay man navigating the difficulties of being in a relationship in Reagan-era New York. More than just identifying with the story, Schneit is interested in the in the lasting effect of the parting glances we share with strangers in our everyday encounters. She explains "You see all sorts of physical and emotional traits on the train. From people puking, making out, screaming, crying, laughing, dancing, grooming, etc. We encounter each other in the thick of our complex lives by simply looking at each other all the time. These glances are mundane and fleeting but also powerfully intimate." The lingering impact of those brief moments seeps into the details and imagery she delivers with energizing hooks and a disarming lack of pretense on Parting Glances.
TRACK LISTING
01. Horse Race
02. Calm
03. Lines
04. Fantasy
05. Frank
06. Milky Way
07. Touch Of Light
08. Thunder
09. Sweet Talk
10. Older
11. 1000 Degrees
12. Tik Tok
Heady with hooks and unforgettable melodies, gliding on deeply danceable grooves, always with Air Waves’ innate compassion, concision and uncanny pop sense shining throughout. A masterpiece that’s beautifully simple, instantly accessible and entirely addictive. Featuring Cass Mccombs, Skyler Skjelset (Fleet Foxes, Beach House), Luke Temple, Brian Betancourt (Hospitality, Sam Evian), Rina Mushonga, Frankie Cosmos, Lispector, David Christian, Ethan Sass, and Ben Florencio.
‘The Dance’ has waited three years to see the light of day and it comes to us now, blinking, smiling in the widening light of 2022 feeling more needed and necessary but also more joyous than ever before. It’s both a snapshot of these songs as they were recorded but crucially, in the intervening time those songs have had additional arrangements crafted by Nicole, created remotely and virtually, with a few like-minded collaborators. The result is simultaneously Air Waves freshest, most spontaneous yet finessed album yet.
Nicole Schneit released their first independent album in 2009 under the Air Waves moniker, a name inspired by a Guided By Voices song - subsequent albums like 2010’s ‘Dungeon Dots’ (which featured a guest vocal from fellow Brooklynite Sharon Van Etten), 2015’s ‘Parting Glances’ and 2017’s stunning ‘Warrior’ crystallised Schneit’s vision of loose-but-focused, convivial but startling pop. ‘The Dance’ continues that trajectory but finds Schneit opening up their music to a more fluid sense of space and movement, while keeping their lyrical eye between the personal and the political, from the specific to the universal with a haiku-like directness and suggestion.
You won’t find a better soundtrack for the solidarity, strength, romance and movement we all need right now than ‘The Dance’ - Air Waves’ best album yet.
‘The Dance’ has waited three years to see the light of day and it comes to us now, blinking, smiling in the widening light of 2022 feeling more needed and necessary but also more joyous than ever before. It’s both a snapshot of these songs as they were recorded but crucially, in the intervening time those songs have had additional arrangements crafted by Nicole, created remotely and virtually, with a few like-minded collaborators. The result is simultaneously Air Waves freshest, most spontaneous yet finessed album yet.
Nicole Schneit released their first independent album in 2009 under the Air Waves moniker, a name inspired by a Guided By Voices song - subsequent albums like 2010’s ‘Dungeon Dots’ (which featured a guest vocal from fellow Brooklynite Sharon Van Etten), 2015’s ‘Parting Glances’ and 2017’s stunning ‘Warrior’ crystallised Schneit’s vision of loose-but-focused, convivial but startling pop. ‘The Dance’ continues that trajectory but finds Schneit opening up their music to a more fluid sense of space and movement, while keeping their lyrical eye between the personal and the political, from the specific to the universal with a haiku-like directness and suggestion.
You won’t find a better soundtrack for the solidarity, strength, romance and movement we all need right now than ‘The Dance’ - Air Waves’ best album yet.
TRACK LISTING
A1. The Roof (feat. Luke Temple & Rina Mushonga)
A2. The Dance
A3. Star Earring (feat. Lispector)
A4. Alien (feat. Cass McCombs)
B1. Black Metal Demon (feat. Frankie Cosmos & Merce Lemon)
B2. Treehouse
B3. Wait
B4. The Light
B5. Peer Peer
In 2001 iconic French Touch duo and electronic music pioneers AIR released their second proper album 10 000 Hz Legend.
Recalling everything from classic Seventies rock to Eighties synthesiser experiments while still looking forward to a bright shining digital music future, the record which sold a million copies worldwide when it first came out, is a far reaching love letter to both technology and musical history, which still sounds fresh & new 20 years later.
Recalling everything from classic Seventies rock to Eighties synthesiser experiments while still looking forward to a bright shining digital music future, the record which sold a million copies worldwide when it first came out, is a far reaching love letter to both technology and musical history, which still sounds fresh & new 20 years later.
TRACK LISTING
CD1 & BLU RAY DOLBY ATMOS
Electronic Performers
How Does It Make You Feel?
Radio #1
The Vagabond
Radian
Lucky And Unhappy
Sex Born Poison
People In The City
Wonder Milky Bitch
Don't Be Light
Caramel Prisoner
The Way You Look Tonight
CD2 BONUS LIVE AND DEMOS
Electronic Performer (KCRW Live 2001)
How Does It Make YOU FEEL (KCRW Live 2001)
Radian (KCRW Live 2001)
People In The City(Live At The Mayan Theatre, Los Angeles, Ca 2001)
Dark Angel 2.2 – Radio Number 1(Demo Version)
Bad And Sad 4.2(The Vagabond Demo Version)
How Does It Make You Feel(Demo Version)
People In The City La (Demo Version)
Less easy, more sleazy listening than "Moon Safari", this "Virgin Suicides" follow up wraps you in layer upon layer of warm electronic production, sounding like a fusion of early '70s Pink Floyd, mellow ELO and warmer Kraftwerk. Guests include Beck and Buffalo Daughter. We like this a lot.
To coincide with the deluxe reissue of “The Virgin Suicides”, Warner / Parlophone will also release remastered versions of Air’s five album discography on 180-gram vinyl with original artwork - their first EP 'Premiers Symptômes' (1997), 'Moon Safari' (1998), '10,000 Hz Legend' (2001), 'Talkie Walkie' (2004), and 'Pocket Symphony' (2007).
To coincide with the deluxe reissue of “The Virgin Suicides”, Warner / Parlophone will also release remastered versions of Air’s five album discography on 180-gram vinyl with original artwork - their first EP 'Premiers Symptômes' (1997), 'Moon Safari' (1998), '10,000 Hz Legend' (2001), 'Talkie Walkie' (2004), and 'Pocket Symphony' (2007).
'For Years', the debut album from Airhead aka Rob McAndrews marks the four year transition from student producer to international touring musician, playing to vast audiences across the world as guitarist for his childhood friend James Blake, writing and jamming in the studio with James and Brian Eno, and DJing on the finest club soundsystems modern technology has to offer.
It spans from tracks like 'Azure Race', 'Milkola Bottle' and 'Knives' (featuring James) - the kind of intensely introspective and sometimes “forlorn and sad” atmospheres you'd expect from a young man fiercely dedicated to his craft above all else - through to more recent tracks like 'Callow' and the sun-dappled 'Fault Line' with their gentle female vocals and playful rhythms.
Enter into 'For Years' and it's like a strange and beautiful building that you'll want to explore differently each time. Even after many listens you'll find spaces opening up you'd never come across before, sometimes with the finest detail revealing something new that will leave you breathless and speechless... in a good way.
It spans from tracks like 'Azure Race', 'Milkola Bottle' and 'Knives' (featuring James) - the kind of intensely introspective and sometimes “forlorn and sad” atmospheres you'd expect from a young man fiercely dedicated to his craft above all else - through to more recent tracks like 'Callow' and the sun-dappled 'Fault Line' with their gentle female vocals and playful rhythms.
Enter into 'For Years' and it's like a strange and beautiful building that you'll want to explore differently each time. Even after many listens you'll find spaces opening up you'd never come across before, sometimes with the finest detail revealing something new that will leave you breathless and speechless... in a good way.
TRACK LISTING
1. Wait
2. Milkola Bottle
3. Callow
4. Masami
5. Pyramid Lake
6. Azure Race
7. Autumn
8. Fault Line
9. Lightmeters
10. Knives
Air's Nicolas Godin and Jean Benoit Dunckel were a couple of cerebral keyboard geeks from Versailles, France, where they obviously don't get out of the studio much. Their space-pop debut, "Moon Safari", was a truly obsessive hommage to easy listening, a sublime Eurocheese omelet. They built their music out of classic 60s French schlock: bongos, castanets, vintage electric piano, dream-weaver synths and shag-carpet organ straight from the soundtracks of movies like Un Homme et Une Femme. The music is full of hidden jokes, as when "Remember" replicates the distorted drum intro from the Beach Boys hit "Do It Again"; Air's Brian Wilson allusion isn't some "Smile"-era obscurity - it's a beach-party blowout. Loads of American bands tried to emulate the fab tackiness of 1960s French pop. But Moon Safari proves that the French really do it better themselves.
To coincide with the deluxe reissue of “The Virgin Suicides”, Warner / Parlophone will also release remastered versions of Air’s five album discography on 180-gram vinyl with original artwork – their first EP 'Premiers Symptômes' (1997), 'Moon Safari' (1998), '10,000 Hz Legend' (2001), 'Talkie Walkie' (2004), and 'Pocket Symphony' (2007).
To coincide with the deluxe reissue of “The Virgin Suicides”, Warner / Parlophone will also release remastered versions of Air’s five album discography on 180-gram vinyl with original artwork – their first EP 'Premiers Symptômes' (1997), 'Moon Safari' (1998), '10,000 Hz Legend' (2001), 'Talkie Walkie' (2004), and 'Pocket Symphony' (2007).
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of their seminal debut, iconic French duo AIR releases a 2CD/1BLU-RAY reedition with rare and even unreleased material of their most legendary album “Moon Safari”.
The package includes a Spatial Atmos audio version of the original album, along with a remarkable selection of previously unreleased track versions, as well as the 1998 documentary film "Eating, Sleeping, Waiting & Playing" by acclaimed director Mike Mills in HD format. This documentary follows band members Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel during their first ever tour stops in New York, London, and Paris. AIR will accompany this release with a huge international tour throughout the whole year sold out in no time, with more than 50 dates in 18 countries across the globe.
The package includes a Spatial Atmos audio version of the original album, along with a remarkable selection of previously unreleased track versions, as well as the 1998 documentary film "Eating, Sleeping, Waiting & Playing" by acclaimed director Mike Mills in HD format. This documentary follows band members Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel during their first ever tour stops in New York, London, and Paris. AIR will accompany this release with a huge international tour throughout the whole year sold out in no time, with more than 50 dates in 18 countries across the globe.
TRACK LISTING
CD1
1. La Femme D'argent
2. Sexy Boy
3. All I Need (feat. Beth Hirsch)
4. Kelly Watch The Stars
5. Talisman
6. Remember
7. You Make It Easy (feat. Beth Hirsch)
8. Ce Matin Là
9. New Star In The Sky (Chanson Pour Solal)
10. Le Voyage De Pénélope
CD2
Bonus Disc With Approx. 10 Unreleased Tracks (live/radio Versions)
Blu-Ray
“Moon Safari” Dolby Atmos Album
1. La Femme D'argent
2. Sexy Boy
3. All I Need (feat. Beth Hirsch)
4. Kelly Watch The Stars
5. Talisman
6. Remember
7. You Make It Easy (feat. Beth Hirsch)
8. Ce Matin Là
9. New Star In The Sky (Chanson Pour Solal)
10. Le Voyage De Pénélope
+ Official Video Clips From “Moon Safari” Album + “Eating, Sleeping, Waiting And Playing”: HD Documentary By Acclaimed Director Mike Mills
Air are back to making pop music. Here's 10 gorgeous, perfectly executed, lovingly produced songs that make a woozilly indulgent whole. It's 43 minutes- just right for a single listen - and crammed full of the most charming, comforting, blissful, seductive dream pop. They're playful again too. One minute cute and silly (one song has the whole tune whistled, another's called "Surfing On A Rocket" though J.B. sings "Wocket" in his sweetest franglais- and it's lovely!) the next all baroque with electronic 'harpsichords' and churchbell pianos (" Mike Mills"). The proggy portent of "10,000 Hertz" has been reduced to backdrop status, whilst the songs take centre stage in all their melodic glory. There's so many subtle delights in the mix and they still have that naive fascination with making retro electronics sound futuristic. It's nostalgic for the 70s yet intent on building a dream world for us right now. Second cloud on the right. All aboard!
To coincide with the deluxe reissue of “The Virgin Suicides”, Warner / Parlophone will also release remastered versions of Air’s five album discography on 180-gram vinyl with original artwork – their first EP 'Premiers Symptômes' (1997), 'Moon Safari' (1998), '10,000 Hz Legend' (2001), 'Talkie Walkie' (2004), and 'Pocket Symphony' (2007).
To coincide with the deluxe reissue of “The Virgin Suicides”, Warner / Parlophone will also release remastered versions of Air’s five album discography on 180-gram vinyl with original artwork – their first EP 'Premiers Symptômes' (1997), 'Moon Safari' (1998), '10,000 Hz Legend' (2001), 'Talkie Walkie' (2004), and 'Pocket Symphony' (2007).
Following the hard-hitting return single “Anxious” and a slew of mysterious ‘West Gazette' posters appearing around the UK hinting at the announcement (including Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Bristol and London), West London’s AJ Tracey last night assumed the character of a rising young basketball player, appearing in a live-streamed press conference to reveal his next move: a lucrative deal with major franchise ‘Revenge Athletic’ ahead of a crucial playoff game. The broadcast ended with the true reveal: AJ’s highly-anticipated sophomore album "Flu Game" will finally arrive on April 16th 2021.
Always pushing boundaries with his creative output, AJ’s campaign draws influence from the story of Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls team in the late 90s - with "Flu Game" referencing one of MJ’s most memorable championship games - where he overcame a nasty bout of food poisoning (brought on by a dodgy takeaway pizza) and took the Bulls to the championship. Revenge Athletic are a franchise on the brink of a massive championship win, and AJ is their new star. All we know for now, is that AJ is about to take us into this new world, as he dons the number 10 jersey, and states he’s “ready to get going [and] do what I’ve always done.”
Available for pre-order now with an extensive range of Revenge team apparel, "Flu Game" sees AJ showcasing twelve brand new tracks, with tantalising features including Kehlani, T-Pain, SahBabii, NAV and Millie Go Lightly. On the production front, AJ calls on regular collaborators Nyge, The Elements, Kazza, AoD and Remedee. The project also features the UK top five singles “Bringing It Back” with Digga D, “West Ten'' with Mabel, and the Platinum smash “Dinner Guest” feat. MoStack. The album news and its immersive accompanying campaign is sure to whip fans into a frenzy.
Always pushing boundaries with his creative output, AJ’s campaign draws influence from the story of Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls team in the late 90s - with "Flu Game" referencing one of MJ’s most memorable championship games - where he overcame a nasty bout of food poisoning (brought on by a dodgy takeaway pizza) and took the Bulls to the championship. Revenge Athletic are a franchise on the brink of a massive championship win, and AJ is their new star. All we know for now, is that AJ is about to take us into this new world, as he dons the number 10 jersey, and states he’s “ready to get going [and] do what I’ve always done.”
Available for pre-order now with an extensive range of Revenge team apparel, "Flu Game" sees AJ showcasing twelve brand new tracks, with tantalising features including Kehlani, T-Pain, SahBabii, NAV and Millie Go Lightly. On the production front, AJ calls on regular collaborators Nyge, The Elements, Kazza, AoD and Remedee. The project also features the UK top five singles “Bringing It Back” with Digga D, “West Ten'' with Mabel, and the Platinum smash “Dinner Guest” feat. MoStack. The album news and its immersive accompanying campaign is sure to whip fans into a frenzy.
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: Alongside a dazzling array of guest stars, AJ Tracey reveals his newest LP, 'Flu Game'. Expect skittering trap percussion and huge sub-bass beneath Tracey's perfectly paced vocals, setting the scene perfectly for an artist at the start of a lengthy and lucrative career.TRACK LISTING
1 Anxious [prod Remedee]
2 Kukoč (ft. NAV) [prod Pxcoyo + Yung Swisher]
3 Bringing It Back (with Digga D) [prod. The Elements + AoD)
4 Cheerleaders [prod Kazza & Swidom]
5 Draft Pick [prod 5ive Beatz]
6 Eurostep [prod AJ Tracey]
7 Cherry Blossom [prod Nyge & AoD]
8 Glockie [prod The Elements & AoD]
9 Little More Love [prod YOZ BEATZ, RyFy & Mark Raggio]
10 Top Dog [prod Nyge & AoD]
11 Summertime Shootout (ft. T-Pain) [prod Nyge & AoD]
12 Perfect Storm [prod YOZ BEATZ & JBJ]
13 Coupé (ft. Kehlani) [prod The Elements]
14 Numba 9 (ft. SahBabii & Millie Go Lightly) [prod The Elements]
15 Dinner Guest (ft. MoStack) [prod The Elements & AJ Tracey]
16 West Ten (with Mabel) [prod FRED & Take A Daytrip]
Tokyo based band and Afrobayashi pioneers Ajate are back with their third album: experience the explosive encounter of Afro groove and Japanese traditional Ohayashi music!
During a stay in West Africa in the late 2000's, Japanese musician Junichiro "John" Imaeda was taken aback by the similarities he felt between the Afrobeat that resonated in the streets of Accra, and the sounds of the "Ohayashi", the music played during ancestral Japanese festivals, in which John had participated since his childhood.
On his return to the archipelago in 2009, Imaeda created Ajate, a collective of ten passionate musicians. Together they started crafting music that moves from one world to another, with intertwined roots. The drums, flutes and bells are joined by curious instruments handmade by John himself with the essential material of the Japanese countryside: bamboo. The "Jaate", an amplified xylophone-balafon equipped with piezoelectric sensors on each of its keys, or the "Piechiku", a bamboo version of the Malian "Ngoni" or the Gnawa "Guembri", equipped with shamisen strings and connected to an arsenal of guitar pedals, give Ajate an absolutely unique sound. Powerful and catchy Japanese female and male vocals bring the final touch to an incredible groove where Afrobeat and Ohayashi music are woven together so seamlessly that Ajate has managed to capture a truly distinct fusion. The band sings about the power of human connections, the force of being and living all together, the joy of sharing, and the beauty of life. Ajate's music is a magnificent example of the way sounds are able to migrate in contemporary music.
The band's explosive live performances have taken Ajate to the most prestigious stages in Japan, such as the Sukiyaki Meets The World and Fuji & Sun festivals. The release on French label 180g of their "Abrada" and "Alo" albums, in 2017 and 2020 respectively, opened the doors to Europe, with memorable shows at the Transmusicales de Rennes festival - followed by a session on KEXP (Seattle, USA) - at Jazz a Vienne, and at WOMAD UK, among many others. With their brand new album "Dala Toni", Ajate prove once again that they are at the forefront of global music "made in Japan".
During a stay in West Africa in the late 2000's, Japanese musician Junichiro "John" Imaeda was taken aback by the similarities he felt between the Afrobeat that resonated in the streets of Accra, and the sounds of the "Ohayashi", the music played during ancestral Japanese festivals, in which John had participated since his childhood.
On his return to the archipelago in 2009, Imaeda created Ajate, a collective of ten passionate musicians. Together they started crafting music that moves from one world to another, with intertwined roots. The drums, flutes and bells are joined by curious instruments handmade by John himself with the essential material of the Japanese countryside: bamboo. The "Jaate", an amplified xylophone-balafon equipped with piezoelectric sensors on each of its keys, or the "Piechiku", a bamboo version of the Malian "Ngoni" or the Gnawa "Guembri", equipped with shamisen strings and connected to an arsenal of guitar pedals, give Ajate an absolutely unique sound. Powerful and catchy Japanese female and male vocals bring the final touch to an incredible groove where Afrobeat and Ohayashi music are woven together so seamlessly that Ajate has managed to capture a truly distinct fusion. The band sings about the power of human connections, the force of being and living all together, the joy of sharing, and the beauty of life. Ajate's music is a magnificent example of the way sounds are able to migrate in contemporary music.
The band's explosive live performances have taken Ajate to the most prestigious stages in Japan, such as the Sukiyaki Meets The World and Fuji & Sun festivals. The release on French label 180g of their "Abrada" and "Alo" albums, in 2017 and 2020 respectively, opened the doors to Europe, with memorable shows at the Transmusicales de Rennes festival - followed by a session on KEXP (Seattle, USA) - at Jazz a Vienne, and at WOMAD UK, among many others. With their brand new album "Dala Toni", Ajate prove once again that they are at the forefront of global music "made in Japan".
TRACK LISTING
1. Waya Yawa
2. Iduchihemo
3. Nagi Yoni
4. Kopi Lakanka
5. Roghinaware
Poppy Ajudha epitomises the uniquely diverse musical culture that exists in London. Her South London, St. Lucian-British background, the scene she has grown up in, and the musicians and creatives she regularly works with have all been pivotal in the forward thinking, socio-politically aware unique blend of R&B, Soul and Pop that she creates. Unafraid to stand up for what she believes in, her lyrics speak of the feminism, colonialism, gender politics, current social issues and more.
Speaking on her upcoming debut album, Poppy says:
“This album is made up of all the things swimming in my mind, from women’s rights, to the right to cross borders, to the power of young people to inspire and be unafraid to rock the boat in the name of progress. Women don’t have to be just what they are taught to be, there is so much more to us than Mothers, Sisters, Daughters, Girlfriends and our relation to men. I want men to engage more heavily in feminism and really see how their defiance against it only holds both women and men back. There are so many boxes we put ourselves in; I want us all to break out of them. We are in an era of so much information and I feel the weight that young people take on because we are the generation bombarded with global politics and a million causes that need fighting for. This calls for better understanding around mental health and a society that nurtures us rather than demands of us everything we have until all that is left is our Demons. Every song on this album touches on these issues because they are all I think about everyday, all I see around me in my friends and my family. I hope it flips a switch in your mind, like it did for mine.”
The album features a host of stellar production including Joel Compass (Jorja Smith, Snoh Allegrah, FKA Twigs, Mabel), Karma Kid (Dua Lipa, Octavian, Arlo Parks, Shy Girl), Wyn Bennett (Janelle Monet, Goldlink, Haim), Itai Shapira (Grammy nominated, Baby Rose, Rhye, Kadjha Bonet), Wesley Singerman (Anderson Paak, Kendrick Lamar, Pink Sweat$)
Speaking on her upcoming debut album, Poppy says:
“This album is made up of all the things swimming in my mind, from women’s rights, to the right to cross borders, to the power of young people to inspire and be unafraid to rock the boat in the name of progress. Women don’t have to be just what they are taught to be, there is so much more to us than Mothers, Sisters, Daughters, Girlfriends and our relation to men. I want men to engage more heavily in feminism and really see how their defiance against it only holds both women and men back. There are so many boxes we put ourselves in; I want us all to break out of them. We are in an era of so much information and I feel the weight that young people take on because we are the generation bombarded with global politics and a million causes that need fighting for. This calls for better understanding around mental health and a society that nurtures us rather than demands of us everything we have until all that is left is our Demons. Every song on this album touches on these issues because they are all I think about everyday, all I see around me in my friends and my family. I hope it flips a switch in your mind, like it did for mine.”
The album features a host of stellar production including Joel Compass (Jorja Smith, Snoh Allegrah, FKA Twigs, Mabel), Karma Kid (Dua Lipa, Octavian, Arlo Parks, Shy Girl), Wyn Bennett (Janelle Monet, Goldlink, Haim), Itai Shapira (Grammy nominated, Baby Rose, Rhye, Kadjha Bonet), Wesley Singerman (Anderson Paak, Kendrick Lamar, Pink Sweat$)
TRACK LISTING
1. Who's Future? Our Future!
2. Playgod
3. Holiday From Reality
4. Mothers Sisters Girlfriends
5. Interlude / Reclaim Yourself
6. Demons
7. Interlude / All For You
8. Fall Together
9. Fall Together Outro (Ft. Nubya Garcia)
10. Land Of The Free
11. London's Burning
12. Power You Might Share
Akae Beka's inimitable style of rich, deep, multi-layered songwriting, uncompromising devotion to RasTafari and soulful healing melodies developed over decades performing with St. Croix based band Midnite and countless recordings. At the point of his untimely passing in 2019, he had released over 70LP's. He is without a doubt one of the most prolific reggae artists ever known.
The stellar production trinity that is Zion I Kings have been involved collectively and individually in creating some of the most highly regarded contributions to the vast Akae Beka catalogue. Beauty For Ashes was named as the best reggae album of 2014 according to iTunes. A monumental achievement for undiluted, uncompromising RasTafari roots reggae music this side of the millennium. Two of the LP's tracks, Weather the Storm and Same I Ah One, have been catapulted into global notoriety in part due to the viral success of the YouTube video of the 'Dub in the Rainforest' session organised in St. Croix by Tippy I in 2014. The video offered an unparalleled audio visual insight of the powerful, captivating, energy of Vaughn Benjamin, Pressure Buss Pipe, Ras Batch, and many of the bredrin and sisterin of St. Croix rallying around the I Grade Dub living dub experience.
Following 8 years of anxious anticipation, for the countless Akae Beka fans that are also vinyl connoisseurs, this LP is now being released on as a 12" vinyl LP courtesy of Before Zero Records. This offers the listener not only the chance to enjoy this LP in an analogue form, but also the chance to hold the artwork as a 12" square masterpiece, created by the hands of Ras Marcus, the artist who gave the powerful visual presence that became synonymous to much of the I Grade / Akae Beka works over the years.
The stellar production trinity that is Zion I Kings have been involved collectively and individually in creating some of the most highly regarded contributions to the vast Akae Beka catalogue. Beauty For Ashes was named as the best reggae album of 2014 according to iTunes. A monumental achievement for undiluted, uncompromising RasTafari roots reggae music this side of the millennium. Two of the LP's tracks, Weather the Storm and Same I Ah One, have been catapulted into global notoriety in part due to the viral success of the YouTube video of the 'Dub in the Rainforest' session organised in St. Croix by Tippy I in 2014. The video offered an unparalleled audio visual insight of the powerful, captivating, energy of Vaughn Benjamin, Pressure Buss Pipe, Ras Batch, and many of the bredrin and sisterin of St. Croix rallying around the I Grade Dub living dub experience.
Following 8 years of anxious anticipation, for the countless Akae Beka fans that are also vinyl connoisseurs, this LP is now being released on as a 12" vinyl LP courtesy of Before Zero Records. This offers the listener not only the chance to enjoy this LP in an analogue form, but also the chance to hold the artwork as a 12" square masterpiece, created by the hands of Ras Marcus, the artist who gave the powerful visual presence that became synonymous to much of the I Grade / Akae Beka works over the years.
TRACK LISTING
1. A Reminder
2. When JAH Arise (feat. Lutan Fyah)
3. Same Boat We
4. Beauty For Ashes
5. Betterment Mouth
6. Same I Ah One (feat. Pressure Buss Pipe)
7. Holy Mountain
8. All I's On You
9. Weather The Storm (feat. Ras Batch)
10. A Healing
Akae Beka's inimitable style, developed over decades performing with St. Croix based band Midnite and countless recordings (including 2014 iTunes reggae album of the year BEAUTY FOR ASHES and RIDE TRU). At the point of his untimely passing in 2019, he had released over 70LP's. He is without a doubt one of the most prolific reggae artists ever known and his quanity is always matched with quality, with his albums consistently featuring in the top 10 on the billboard charts reggae LPs.
A unique contribution to the sea of Akae Beka titles, this LP showcases Vaughn Benjamin in a stripped back, raw accoustic fashion. An LP which will not be easily confined to any one genre, but for the fans of Vaughns uniquly rich, deep, textrued songwriting, uncompromising devotion to RasTafari and soulful healing melodies an absolute must have!
A unique contribution to the sea of Akae Beka titles, this LP showcases Vaughn Benjamin in a stripped back, raw accoustic fashion. An LP which will not be easily confined to any one genre, but for the fans of Vaughns uniquly rich, deep, textrued songwriting, uncompromising devotion to RasTafari and soulful healing melodies an absolute must have!
TRACK LISTING
1. Tempest I've Seen
2. Rallying Cry
3. Melodies
4. Here Hear
5. Going Thru
6. Clarify And Resume
7. Real Ranks
8. Perdon
9. Topaz
10. Edgy Business
Aigul Akhmetshina is the fiery young mezzo taking the opera world by storm. In her debut album Aigul, the illustrious young opera singer Aigul Akhmetshina finds her voice in the role of Carmen and traces a path through her own remarkable journey. Her story is one of determination and perseverance against the odds, starting in a rural village in the mountains of Bashkortostan. She left home aged 14 to pursue her singing career. Despite facing rejection from a conservatory in Moscow, where she was told she lacked the right voice and appearance, at the age of 27 Aigul has already etched her name in history. She has become the youngest artist ever to take on the title role of Bizet’s Carmen at both the Royal Opera House and the Metropolitan Opera, both of whom have created new productions around her. Performing the role all over the world, Aigul feels an affinity with the character.
First time repressed since 1982, Akin Nathan was a seasoned session saxophonist who featured on several albums but was chiefly known for his tenure with Sonny Okosuns' Ozziddi during the group's most productive period in the 70s & 80s.
Nathan's Ijama 1982 solo outing Sweet Country, includes drummer Geoffrey Omadehbo, guitarist Brother Didi Lead, bass guitarist Yakubu Daniel, keyboard player Johnny Woode, trumpet Big John Oaikhena & piano Brother Francky Ntoh Song.
Featured cuts are K'ale San Wa, Congratulation & Free Namibia.
Played by dearly beloved luminaries such as Tone Nimble, Ge-ology, Sadar Bahar & Charlie Dark.
Nathan's Ijama 1982 solo outing Sweet Country, includes drummer Geoffrey Omadehbo, guitarist Brother Didi Lead, bass guitarist Yakubu Daniel, keyboard player Johnny Woode, trumpet Big John Oaikhena & piano Brother Francky Ntoh Song.
Featured cuts are K'ale San Wa, Congratulation & Free Namibia.
Played by dearly beloved luminaries such as Tone Nimble, Ge-ology, Sadar Bahar & Charlie Dark.
TRACK LISTING
A1. Haleluyah
A2. Sweet Country
A3. K'ale San Wa
B1. Congratulation
B2. I Want To Know
B3. Free Namibia
Ambrose Akinmusire follows his acclaimed, genre busting best of 2018 manifesto "Origami Harvest" with another visionary statement on his new album "on the tender spot of every calloused moment," which finds the trumpeter examining blackness on an uncompromising set of modern jazz laced with a heavy feeling of the blues. The album presents 11 new compositions by Akinmusire and features his quartet with pianist Sam Harris, bassist Harish Raghavan, and drummer Justin Brown with guest vocals from Genevieve Artadi and Jesus Diaz.
Due to popular demand, the final two remixes which completed Akkord’s recent ‘HTH035’ package have been pressed to vinyl.
Fis (Tri-Angle / Loopy) and Regis (Downwards / Sandwell District) both sourced elements from ‘Gravure’ and ‘Continuum’, tracks from the ‘HTH020’ EP. The former conveys experimental drones and left-of-centre D&B abstraction in his reworking, whilst the latter loops sludgy dub techno atmospherics in his inimitable style.
Mastered by Matt Colton at Alchemy and pressed on 180g white vinyl, the ‘HTH040’ 12” is a companion piece to the ‘HTH020’ and ‘HTH035’ EPs, with a complimentary colour scheme and debossed cover with postcard insert.
Fis (Tri-Angle / Loopy) and Regis (Downwards / Sandwell District) both sourced elements from ‘Gravure’ and ‘Continuum’, tracks from the ‘HTH020’ EP. The former conveys experimental drones and left-of-centre D&B abstraction in his reworking, whilst the latter loops sludgy dub techno atmospherics in his inimitable style.
Mastered by Matt Colton at Alchemy and pressed on 180g white vinyl, the ‘HTH040’ 12” is a companion piece to the ‘HTH020’ and ‘HTH035’ EPs, with a complimentary colour scheme and debossed cover with postcard insert.
Rich, deep, percussive soulful folk album from master Togolese singer, Akofa Akoussah, the record moves through uptempo afro-folk-funk on ‘Tango’ to deep ballads of ‘Ramer Sans Rame’ and ‘I Tcho Tchass’ and lighter moments on ‘G Blem Di’ and ‘Mitso Aseye’. Akofas exceptional songs and soaring vocals are decorated with percussion, guitar lines, subtle backing vocals and horns to create a unique, rich sonic. The album was recorded for release by French label Sonafric in 1976. Produced by Gerard Akueson; founder & owner of African record label, ‘Akue’, based in Paris.
Music was truly in the blood of Julie Akofa Akoussah. She began singing at the age of three, inspired and led by her mother and older sister and became principal soloist in her school choir, St. Peter & Paul Choir of our Immaculate Conception Parish of Nyekonakpo, at the age of 8. From there her career blossomed, and singing often took precedence over her studies. In order to master her art she spent time studying and working closely with local groups including Melo Togo, Rocka Mambo, Rio Romamcero, Ok Fiesta, Eryco Jazz, Afro Cubano, Los Muchacho, Elegance Jazz and Togo Star amongst others.
In her own words: “Luck opened the door in January 1966 where I had the honour of being selected to share the stage with Bella Below - one of the best voices of Africa - at the 1st ‘Negro Arts Festival’ in Dakar. On my return, I was approached by Ambroise Ouyi, the highly respected singer & poet, and we wrote ‘Tu Ne M’Ecris Plus’, my very first opus."
The popularity of her work led to an increased exposure for Togolese music outside of the country, in neighbouring Ghana and Benin most notably. During her career she collaborated and performed with greats including Manou Djibango, Queen Pelagie, Abeti Massikini, Aycha Kone and Myriam Makeba. Akoussah was also dedicated to, and widely recognised for, her work for social causes, championing and nurturing young musical talent, and the fight against AIDS. She was president of the National Union of Artists Musicians of Togo (UNAM) before sadly passing away in April 2007 after a long illness, at the age of 57.
Music was truly in the blood of Julie Akofa Akoussah. She began singing at the age of three, inspired and led by her mother and older sister and became principal soloist in her school choir, St. Peter & Paul Choir of our Immaculate Conception Parish of Nyekonakpo, at the age of 8. From there her career blossomed, and singing often took precedence over her studies. In order to master her art she spent time studying and working closely with local groups including Melo Togo, Rocka Mambo, Rio Romamcero, Ok Fiesta, Eryco Jazz, Afro Cubano, Los Muchacho, Elegance Jazz and Togo Star amongst others.
In her own words: “Luck opened the door in January 1966 where I had the honour of being selected to share the stage with Bella Below - one of the best voices of Africa - at the 1st ‘Negro Arts Festival’ in Dakar. On my return, I was approached by Ambroise Ouyi, the highly respected singer & poet, and we wrote ‘Tu Ne M’Ecris Plus’, my very first opus."
The popularity of her work led to an increased exposure for Togolese music outside of the country, in neighbouring Ghana and Benin most notably. During her career she collaborated and performed with greats including Manou Djibango, Queen Pelagie, Abeti Massikini, Aycha Kone and Myriam Makeba. Akoussah was also dedicated to, and widely recognised for, her work for social causes, championing and nurturing young musical talent, and the fight against AIDS. She was president of the National Union of Artists Musicians of Togo (UNAM) before sadly passing away in April 2007 after a long illness, at the age of 57.
TRACK LISTING
Tango
Ramer Sans Rame
La Rem
Mitso Aseye
Dandou Kodjo
Kimbumbu
G Blem Di
I Tcho Tchass
Akron/Family return with the Randall Dunn (Sunn O))), Black Mountain, The Cave Singers, Boris) produced album, ‘Sub Verses’.
“The album started with visions of large monumental sounds inspired by the land artists Heizer and Turrell; American works on a grand scale, monuments, dirty hands and an epic American masculinity. Dust, Stone, Sky, Earth. These broad, bold strokes would come to pass but not quite as expected. A Sci Fi aesthetic narrative emerged. How to deal with it open heartedly? The plots within plots of ‘Dune’ mirrored in many layers of sound. Creating 3D sonic atmospheres that our songs and singers inhabit. Our story, a story, all stories. Of the future, of yourself. Of everyone. We are all we are, only this and yet we move forward. Along some line to somewhere. And who knows?” - Seth Olinsky, Akron/Family
“Music dissolves in sad earnest mist of drenched melancholy, spent... […] They’re inside the music, grinding it, fighting it, chewing it, digesting it, then spewing it up to the sky in a multicolored spray of endless sound and love.” - Michael Gira, Swans / Young God Records
This is Akron/Family’s seventh album / masterpiece of musical mayhem and meditations.
“Innovative no-holds-barred pop music” - Mojo (*****)
“The album started with visions of large monumental sounds inspired by the land artists Heizer and Turrell; American works on a grand scale, monuments, dirty hands and an epic American masculinity. Dust, Stone, Sky, Earth. These broad, bold strokes would come to pass but not quite as expected. A Sci Fi aesthetic narrative emerged. How to deal with it open heartedly? The plots within plots of ‘Dune’ mirrored in many layers of sound. Creating 3D sonic atmospheres that our songs and singers inhabit. Our story, a story, all stories. Of the future, of yourself. Of everyone. We are all we are, only this and yet we move forward. Along some line to somewhere. And who knows?” - Seth Olinsky, Akron/Family
“Music dissolves in sad earnest mist of drenched melancholy, spent... […] They’re inside the music, grinding it, fighting it, chewing it, digesting it, then spewing it up to the sky in a multicolored spray of endless sound and love.” - Michael Gira, Swans / Young God Records
This is Akron/Family’s seventh album / masterpiece of musical mayhem and meditations.
“Innovative no-holds-barred pop music” - Mojo (*****)
This album was written in a cabin built into the side of Mount Meakan, an active volcano in Akan National Park, on the island of Hokkaido, Japan. It was recorded in an abandoned train station in Detroit with Chris Koltay (Liars, Women, Deerhunter, Holy Fuck, No Age).
Akron/Family spent the end of 2009 and half of 2010 exploring the future of sound through bent acid punk diamond fuzz and underground Japanese noise cassettes, lowercase micro tone poems and emotional Cagean field recordings, rebuilding electronic drums from the 70s and playing them with sticks they carved themselves.
Akron/Family spent the end of 2009 and half of 2010 exploring the future of sound through bent acid punk diamond fuzz and underground Japanese noise cassettes, lowercase micro tone poems and emotional Cagean field recordings, rebuilding electronic drums from the 70s and playing them with sticks they carved themselves.
Formed with a sense of urgency and a reductive approach ‘Lines’ is almost entirely comprised of alto saxophone, clarinet and piano with embellishments of ambience and minimal percussive elements. Recorded in full at his home studio in London, Pascal Bideau speaks about the process:
“I wanted to go a bit more a bit more horizontal and ambient, work with layers of lines, might they be dotted or straight, and leave them to unfold and see where they would take me.”
‘Secant’ is the electrifying and cinematic opener, emerging with the main motif deriving from the recording sessions of ‘Fleeting Future’. It’s distinct sound echoes New York, a homage in part to the works of Steve Reich and inspired also by train travels across the English countryside. Rhythmical looping pianos unite with shifting strings that build to a symphony of hypnotic rich layers, towards a euphoric and filmic climax.
‘Oblique’ on the other hand is otherworldly and hopeful, a breathtaking musical meeting between Jazz and Ambient minimalist music. Rich layered saxophones sound a patterned melody, meshed with dotted piano, swirling electronics and percussive hits, before deep diving into shimmering ambient tones echoing like summer rainfall against windows. Akusmi uniquely finds the spaces in between experimental, crossover classical and ambient music.
‘Parallel’ is the ambient companion to the acclaimed title track ‘Fleeting Future’, featuring a stripped back chord progression constructed with less order and written render.
‘Tangent’ is a pointillist piece that stemmed from a session with friend and collaborator Daniel Brandt. Cyclical guitars loop ebb and flow reminiscent of Manuel Göttsching.
Akusmi is the project moniker of French-born, London based composer, multi- instrumentalist and producer Pascal Bideau
“I wanted to go a bit more a bit more horizontal and ambient, work with layers of lines, might they be dotted or straight, and leave them to unfold and see where they would take me.”
‘Secant’ is the electrifying and cinematic opener, emerging with the main motif deriving from the recording sessions of ‘Fleeting Future’. It’s distinct sound echoes New York, a homage in part to the works of Steve Reich and inspired also by train travels across the English countryside. Rhythmical looping pianos unite with shifting strings that build to a symphony of hypnotic rich layers, towards a euphoric and filmic climax.
‘Oblique’ on the other hand is otherworldly and hopeful, a breathtaking musical meeting between Jazz and Ambient minimalist music. Rich layered saxophones sound a patterned melody, meshed with dotted piano, swirling electronics and percussive hits, before deep diving into shimmering ambient tones echoing like summer rainfall against windows. Akusmi uniquely finds the spaces in between experimental, crossover classical and ambient music.
‘Parallel’ is the ambient companion to the acclaimed title track ‘Fleeting Future’, featuring a stripped back chord progression constructed with less order and written render.
‘Tangent’ is a pointillist piece that stemmed from a session with friend and collaborator Daniel Brandt. Cyclical guitars loop ebb and flow reminiscent of Manuel Göttsching.
Akusmi is the project moniker of French-born, London based composer, multi- instrumentalist and producer Pascal Bideau
TRACK LISTING
A1. Secant
A2. Oblique (LP Exclusive Version)
B1. Parallel
B2. Tangent
B3. Longing For Tomorrow (Brandt Brauer Frick Remix) – (vinyl Exclusive)
‘Medieval Femme’, Fatima Al Qadiri’s new ten track suite inspired by the classical poems of Arab women, invokes a daydream through the metaphor of an Islamic garden, at the border between depression and desire, where the present temporarily dissolves, leaving only past and future. Mixing neon drones and the faint outlines of Arabesque melody, ‘Medieval Femme’ reveals a fully-realised, dreamlike setting, shaded with colour and subtle friction. Conveying a thematic state of melancholic longing, Fatima seeks to transport the listener to a place of reverie and desolation, to question the line between two seemingly opposite states and rejoice in celestial sorrow. ‘Medieval Femme’ takes instrumentation from music of the Middle Ages, recast in a futuristic setting; soft-synth lutes, organs and pipes reverberate in space while gauzy pulses ripple in response. Fatima's vocals of repeated, mantra-like phrases are sometimes pitched and altered, drawing out increasingly intense peaks, angelic choruses and yearning incantations. On ‘Tasakuba’, Kaltham Jassim’s recitation of a couplet from the 7th century poet Al-Khansa', the sorrow of her words are given a turbulent, hallucinatory setting, before the album resolves on the final song, the limpid, airy ‘Zandaq’.
STAFF COMMENTS
Matt says: I'm loving all these hybrids of neo-classical, bass and ancient music that seem to be coming out right now. File next to: Doon Kanda, Faten Kanaan, Lee Gamble etc. Mega!TRACK LISTING
A1. Medieval Femme
A2. A Certain Concubine
A3. Sheba
A4. Vanity
A5. Stolen Kiss Of A Succubus
B1. Golden
B2. Qasmuna (Dreaming)
B3. Malaak
B4. Tasakuba
B5. Zandaq
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