Demon Music is proud to bring together a selection of popular and exciting classic Northern Soul Anthems on a new 2LP thirty three track collection. These are the original recordings by some familiar names and one or two that may have passed you by.

As the Sixties came to a close and the initial success of labels like Atlantic and Motown began to wane, there remained a dedicated fanbase of Soul devotees who would rather be out on the floor than wearing flowers in their hair. They continued to seek out new and previously overlooked releases, many on small labels that had never enjoyed chart success, making surprise hits of a few in the process.

Northern Soul could easily have passed into music history as a fad, something on the fringes of mainstream popular music; instead its popularity has remained and even grown. It is no longer the preserve of venues in the north of England (who had always attracted coachloads of devotees from across the nation), with Soul clubs opening in Europe , Asia , Australia and even in perhaps the ultimate example of "coals to Newcastle " America

Every few years Northern Soul enjoys a resurgence in popularity and welcomes a new generation of younger fans, keepers of the faith. This collection is for those with a passing interest and fans both old and new music fashions may change but the quality, the infectious excitement and the urge to get up and dance has endured in these fantastic records.

TRACK LISTING

LP1
A1. Dobie Gray - Out On The Floor 
A2. The Show Stoppers - Ain't Nothin ' But A House Party
A3. Richard Temple - That Beatin ' Rhythm' 
A4. Billy Butler & The Enchanters - The Right Track
A5. The Valentines - Breakaway 
A6. The M.V.P.'s - Turnin ' My Heartbeat Up 
A7. Melba Moore - Magic Touch 
A8. The Seven Souls - I Still Love You 
B1. James Barnett - Keep On Talking 
B2. The Olympics - Baby Do The Philly Dog 
B3. The Hesitations - I'm Not Built That Way 
B4. Eddie Parker - I'm Gone 
B5. Mary Love - Lay This Burden Down 
B6. Maxine Brown - It's Torture 
B7. Kim Weston - Helpless 
B8. Chairmen Of The Board - Give Me Just A Little More Time 
B9. Earl Van Dyke & The Motown Brass - 6 By 6

LP2
C1. Ann Sexton - You've Been Gone Too Long 
C2. Eloise Laws - Love Factory 
C3. Barbara Lynn - Movin ’ On A Groove 
C4. Tommie Young - Hit And Run Lover 
C5. The - Montclairs Hung Up On Your Love 
C6. Four Below Zero - My Baby's Got ESP 
C7. Freda Payne - Band Of Gold 
C8. Just Brothers - Sliced Tomatoes 
D1. Al Wilson - The Snake 
D2. The Chandlers - Your Love Makes Me Lonely
D3. The Monitors - Crying In The Night 
D4. Tommy Good - Baby I Miss You 
D5. Chuck Jackson - Hand It Over 
D6. Frances Nero - Keep On Lovin' Me 
D7. Edwin Starr - Headline News 
D8. Jimmy Radcliffe - Long After Tonight Is All Over

The band first entered a recording studio to record their debut single 'Living with Ghosts' in 2008, since then school friends Jessica Davies and Katherine Blamire have penned and recorded 18 singles as part of their incredible body of work.

This collection of singles is released on double-LP and CD and comprises all singles the band have released since that debut 7”.

“Singles” also features for the first time on CD and on an album the tracks 'Gastown’ and ‘River Song’, these Jack White produced tunes were originally released on double a-side 7” as one of Third Man Records’ infamous Blue Series with Jack joining the band on drums and guitar, the tracks have been live favourites and copies of the limited edition 7” still change hands for £100s of pounds.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Living With Ghosts
A2 Frozen Heart
A3 Sunshine
A4 Gastown
A5 River Song

B1 Hotel Room
B2 Strange Moon Rising
B3 Storm Song
B4 The Three Of Us
B5 Let Me Know

C1 Eclipse Them All
C2 We’ve Seen Birds
C3 Shadow Inversions
C4 Christmas Without A Kiss

D1 Out Of The Woods
D2 Disconnect
D3 Elevator
D4 No Matter How This Goes, Just Make Sure That You’re Kind

This previously unreleased album by the Horace Tapscott Quintet was unearthed from master tapes in the Flying Dutchman archives. Recorded in 1969 it was intended to be a follow-up album to the classic 'The Giant Is Awakened' which was released that year.

The iconic pianist and composer Horace Tapscott was one of the most unique and important figures in LA's jazz world. This lost recording was produced by one of the pivotal figures in jazz, Bob Thiele, a leading behind-the- scenes star who worked with many of the greats in jazz, such as Quincy Jones, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Della Reese, Shirley Scott, Gil Scott-Heron, the list goes on. His name can be seen gracing, arguably the best, Impulse! releases and those released on his own Flying Dutchman imprint set up in 1969.

Joining Horace for this three-track, deep, heavy, avant-garde session is the same stellar cast featured on 'The Giant Is Awakened'; Arthur Blythe on Alto Sax, Everett Brown Jr on Drums, with David Bryant and Walter Savage Jr. on Bass. Kicking things off we have 'World Peace', which starts with an almost baroque- esque melody, leading to an eruption in sound, it then ends in the same manner it began. The beautiful 'Your Child' is the jewel in the crown, skirting modal, deep jazz and introducing elements of free jazz. 'For Fats' with its bow bass and piano intro takes you on a journey, dropping into, at times dark, stormy melodies and developing a driving energy as the composition progresses.

TRACK LISTING

1. World Peace
2. Your Child
3. For Fats

Sporting unconventional structures, a blending of styles and a freewheeling approach in general, Gypsy was granted the rare privilege of making their 1970 maiden voyage a double album. Stadium-sized vocals, a torrent of thundering riffs, booming organ drills, and pounding drums all merge to form the band's powerful opening statement.

TRACK LISTING

Gypsy Queen–Part One
Gypsy Queen–Part Two
Man Of Reason
Dream If You Can
Late December
The Third Eye
Decisions
I Was So Young
Here In My Loneliness
More Time
The Vision
Dead And Gone
Tomorrow Is The Last To Be Heard

Born in Donauwörth, a small town in Bavaria in 1951, Götz Tangerding studied piano to concert level at the Leopold Mozart Conservatory in Augsburg. In the 1970s he started to make a name for himself on the local Munich jazz scene and travelled through East Europe with drummer Rudi Roth. In 1976 he came to New England Conservatory of Music in Boston to study compositions with George Russell and Jaki Byard with whom he played in the New York Big Band in 1978.

In 1980 he returned to Munich, Germany and founded his formation Bhakti Jazz as well his own record label Bhakti Records. "First Step", recorded at the Loft in Munich on May 1st and 2nd that same year, was the debut album and showcases the huge talent of the young and gifted band leader.

The two best known tracks are probably "Glimpses of Truth" and "Eastern Moods" which have been re-released back to back on 45RPM single by another german reissue label in the late 2000s. However, these are just two out of nine outstanding compositions from the prolific pianist to be found on this album. Tangerding's tasty style of playing, combined with the psychedelic maze created by his fellow band members on flute (Alan Ett), sax (Alan Ett again!), drums (Rudi Roth), and bass (Urs Hämmerli) plus Lisa Dawson's exotic vocal harmonies are sure grab your ear for a mind-blowing experience.

Götz Tangerding, who died much too young early in 1991, left us with dozens of wonderful compositons. "First Step" does not contain a single weak track. It's a true masterpiece and definitely one of the finest independent German jazz albums from the 1980s.

TRACK LISTING

1. Glimpses Of Truth
2. An Answer To My Soul
3. Opes De Salsa
4. First Step
5. Nitter One Pearl Too
6. Die Zeitmaschine
7. Eastern Mood
8. Tutankhamun
9. Crystallization 1

Josh Rouse wrote the songs for Going Places, while hunkered down in Spain with his family in 2020 and 2021 - The inspiration was to have a set of new songs to play in a small club run by a couple of his Spanish bandmates Josh recorded and produced the songs in his home studio. The result is a collection of songs that feel a bit looser, lean into the guitar a bit more and will sound great in the live setting. It's also another sonic shift for Josh, who is not afraid of changing things up. What remains consistent is Josh's ability to write hooks and fnd grooves that create a sound that is at once familiar, but wholly new. Fans will likely gravitate toward, "Hollow Moon," which in a just world, would be a massive hit single. It is classic Josh Rouse. But songs like, "Apple of My Eye," and "She's In L.A." defnitely show the Spanish infuence, which Rouse calls, "A Pan-American sound"

TRACK LISTING

Apple Of My Eye
City Dog
Henry Miller’s Flat
Hollow Moon
Waiting On The Blue
She’s In L.A.
There’s Somebody Whose Job It Is
The Lonely Postman
Indian Summer
Stick Around

Original 1980 album now released on coloured vinyl. Features full colour Insert with extensive sleeve notes

TRACK LISTING

Mechanical Devices
Natural Wild
My Generation
Natural (Reprise)
Spaceship
People's Minds
People Love Jah Music
Smiling Faces

Freestyle continues with their drive to unearth rare and classic UK funk, soul & boogie records with a reissue of a formerly white label-only, rare-as-hens-teeth debut 12" by UK soul icon Rick Clarke from way back in 1981.

Sharing the same line-up of performers as the eponymous group Potion (Rick Clarke, Carlton White on bass & Everton McCalla, formerly of Light of the World and later Freeez, on drums) though credited on the OG press as Rick Clarke alone, this 12" came out originally in the same year as the also sought after Potion 12" "Catch The Feelin' (Showstopper)" - a year before we would see Rick & Everton release the classic british electro funk of "Magic" as Side On (with Peter Mass) on Beggars Banquet.

This is a classic slice of British disco funk, showcasing an early vocal talent that would go on to become a key feature of the late 80s UK soul scene, alongside a tight-as rhythm section. The subtly dubbed-out instrumental mix is a real treat too, bringing those synth flourishes and soaring horns to the fore and letting us hear Carlton's bass work wonders unencumbered.

TRACK LISTING

1. Potion
2. Potion (Instrumental Mix)

High ranking Johnny Osbourne anthem from 1982 with Roots Radics in full effect. Sampled countless times in drum and bass – first time legit seven inch pressing for this original ruling version. Backed by world cup winning Scientist dub. Produced by Henry 'Junjo' Lawes, recorded at Channel One, mixed by Scientist at King Tubby's.

TRACK LISTING

Love Is Universal
Dangerous Match One

‘Reggae Feelings’ is a reminder of the continuing relevance of the dancehall style; rough, raw and rugged they represent the real authentic sound of young Jamaica from over thirty years ago when the youths “forgot their troubles and danced”.

The producer for the album, deejay turned record producer, Jah Thomas also recorded two songs which were critical to the development of the dancehall style: Triston Palma’s ‘Entertainment’ in 1981, a cut of ‘Heavenless’, and ‘Gunshot’ by Anthony Johnson.Born in Kingston, Jamaica 25th December 1957 Roy Anthony Johnson grew up in the notorious Trench Town ghetto where, inspired by local vocalists, Dennis Brown, Alton Ellis & John Holt, he made his debut recording ‘Free Black Man’ for Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee which remained unreleased. He went on to record with Jo Jo Hookim at Channel One before becoming a member of the Mystic I vocal trio alongside Les Clarke and Balvin Fials, who released the ‘Mysterious’ album, produced by Linval Thompson, on Burning Sounds.

TRACK LISTING

Fussing & Fighting
Run Too Much
Natty Dread Come In A Dance
Baby Your Loving
Reggae Feelings
Dread Locks
Mother Mother
Loving You
Settle Down
Sitting Everyday

In the late 1960s and early 1970s Italian soundtrack and library music went through its most experimental, prolific and dazzling period having a strong radio presence in both Europe and the US. Musicians and composers such as Piero Umiliani, Amleto Armando Roelens and even Ennio Morricone were regularly experimenting with idiosyncratic combinations of jazz, electronic, progressive, disco, funk and psych genres.

It was their mutual love of these 60s and 70s soundtracks that brought Lorenzo Morresi and Tenderlonious together. After performing alongside each other at a festival in Italy back in 2017 the idea was quickly conceived to put together a fresh take starting with that early 1970s Italian style, using contemporary analogue inspired arrangements combined with experimental and joyful 'tongue in cheek' sounds that could work on the dance floor as well as at home.

Tracks like "Nuda Sorgente", "Doppio Sogno" and "Estate" are club oriented with a musical crossover from old- to- new. 'Estate' is a cover from the classic jazz standard by Italian singer Bruno Martino. Tender and Morresi worked tirelessly between Italy and London for approximately 2 years carefully shaping their album 'Cosmica Italiana': "With this project we've done our best to deliver our own interpretation of this wonderful era of Italian music and rediscover a beautiful genre, whilst maintaining a strong respect and admiration for the sounds that those original Italian masters created. Their records impressed and inspired us and we hope it will be the same for our listeners today."

TRACK LISTING

1. Cosmica Italiana
2. Bazar Milano
3. Nuda Sorgente
4. Tema Cinque
5. Doppio Sogno
6. Interludio
7. Estate
8. 5:00 AM
9. Movimento Astratto
10. Classico
11. Acqua

Sonny Clark was the epitome of cool - he has nearly 300 playing credits to his name The partial list is staggering. Donald Byrd, Dexter Gordon, John Coltrane, Grant Green, Kenny Burrell, Sonny Criss, Hank Mobley, Jackie McLean, Charles Mingus, Sonny Rollins, Billie Holiday, Lee Morgan and many more. On Sonny's Crib, Clark used the sextet format consisting of one of the all-time great jazz line ups. John Coltrane, Donald Byrd, Curtis Fuller, Paul Chambers, and Art Taylor. Trane had struggled with addiction earlier in the year but by this session had quit heroin for good and was reclaiming his spot as a major force in Jazz. By any measurement Sonny's Crib is a classic that features remarkable solos. Two weeks later Coltrane would record the epic "Blue Train" with Fuller and Chambers. More than a few critics and fans have compared the two

TRACK LISTING

With A Song In My Heart
Speak Low
Come Rain Or Come Shine
Sonny's Crib
News For Lulu

Soopasoul is an enigmatic producer, whose purist approach to jazz, funk and soul music has resonated with DJs, break-dancers, music connoisseurs, critics and casual listeners alike. Since furthering his legacy by creating a hugely successful edits series, Soopasoul returns to one of the biggest cuts from his now legendary Jalapeno debut album Twin Stix - Brand Nu. The 142 mixes are the first versions of this now classic cut that were recorded and have a raw funk grit that became a little more polished for the album release version. Available in full vocal and instrumental versions, these alternative mixes showcase all the reasons why Soopasoul is a mainstay of funk & soul charts worldwide.

TRACK LISTING

1. Brand Nu (142 Original Studio Mix)
2. Brand Nu (142 Slippy Wah Instrumental)

To honour twenty years since the release of Sugababes iconic debut album One Touch, the band release a series of brand-new remixes. The reworks from Majestic, Metronomy, Blood Orange and MNEK offer a fresh take on classic singles Overload, Same Old Story and Run For Cover.

TRACK LISTING

Run For Cover (MNEK Remix)
Same Old Story (Blood Orange Remix)
Overload (Metronomy Vs Tatyana Remix)
Overload (Majestic Remix)

Our next release marks the return of Aura Safari to Terrasolare. This record is packed full of grooves, on the A-side is a breezy jazz-funk effort which gives us a taste of the summer ahead. On the flip side is more of a broken beat joint showcasing some funky electric piano, and a heavy bassline to round it off.

As always mastered and manufactured by Timmion Cutting. Comes with silver pantone label and premium brown paper sleeve.

TRACK LISTING

1. Arcipelago
2. Gemini

John McEntire is known for his work as a musician playing with Tortoise, Jim O’Rourke, Stereolab, and others. Owner and operator of Soma Electronic Music Studios, he is also known for his pioneering work as aproducer and engineer, working with Stereolab, Archer Prewitt, Yo La Tengo, Bright Eyes, The Fiery Furnaces and Chicago Underground, among many others. Prekop has put out five solo albums to acclaim and is also a well-respected visual artist who has published, shown, and sold works worldwide.

Sam Prekop describes his work with John McEntire as “a set of long evolving electronic pieces that traverse several movements or transformations, creating pieces that feel like ‘electronic suites’ while maintaining acontinuity/thread. So in my mind,” he continues“ each section is inspired by what just happened previously and so on, the foundation of the pieces are improvised and the work is a matter of focusing on the most interesting aspects creating the piece.”

For ‘Sons Of’, “we recorded our show at Chicago’s Constellation intending to release it as is ‘live’, but faced with some technical issues, and feeling like the pieces weren’t quite ‘finished’ led us to wanting to augment it with further recordings, which posed its own challenges and, well, opportunities, to reevaluate our original intentions. So even though we did a lot of work to the ‘live’ recordings, the foundation is that live performance and I think it’s essential to our process and will likely continue that way.”

TRACK LISTING

A Ghost At Noon
Crossing At The Shallow
A Yellow Robe
Ascending By Night

Mouse on Mars are recognised as one of Germany’s most defining and versatile electronic music projects. With their anarchic mixture of sound that oscillates between uncontrollable chaos and meticulously arranged structures, Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma have forged a unique musical language which is readily decomposed by the unpredictability of its myriad mutations. Free from schools of thought, genre conventions andfrom the constraints of the music establishment, they have worked under the Mouse On Mars alias for 24 years, mapping their own idiosyncratic trajectory through a no man’s land between pop, art, club music and the avant-garde.

TRACK LISTING

Mine Is In Yours
Wipe That Sound
Spaceship
Send Me Shivers
Blood Comes
The End
Detected Beats
All The Old Powers
Evoke An Object

For almost 5 decades, The Chocolate Buttermilk Band, led by Larry Akles, has been one of the busiest and most successful cover and backing bands in the Southern United States and has been touring as the Temptations backing band for years. While they're little known outside the region, their handful of singles from the early 1980s are, for record collectors, among the best and most desirable in modern soul and boogie funk. So what happened when the pandemic hit? Larry Akles got bored and decided to get the band back in the studio to record a new joint "No Money - No Honey". He actually thought about writing this song way back when serving in Vietnam…. The result is an infectious boogie funk tune that bring us straight back to the original Chocolate Buttermilk Band classic funk sound. Massive! On the B side, just for good measure we've added "Mr. LSD", another hitter from one of the rarest of the rarest 7" from the band. This Past Due Records release comes with a full sleeve and is strictly limited to 300 copies. Don't sleep!

TRACK LISTING

1. No Money - No Honey
2. Mr. L.S.D.

On ‘Third’, Jitwam expands upon his beat-making abilities and production, fusing live music with samples and edits while elevating his craft to new heights. He evokes memories of finding peace within the chaos of daily life. As it takes Jitwam “time to sit and reflect,”the album was years in the making, partly inspired by his time in London, but more so by his adventures in New York City. There are also guest features from Melanie Charles and Akhtari.

Like NYC, ‘Third’ skips across genres nimbly with a drunken bravado collecting along the way influences from Latin music, soul, punk, and a lot of disco. It melds all these genres into a singular rich sound showcasing, yet again, how Jitwam has carved out a path unto himself. Across ten tracks, he creates infectious songs which are gratifyingly hard to categorise with a mixture of modulated vocals and traditional instrumentation amalgamated with the headiness of soulful house and jazz.

TRACK LISTING

India
Confidence
The Get Down
Lalala
Equanimity (feat. Melanie Charles)
Money & Things!!!
Brooklyn Ballers
Stranger Danger (In The Streets Of Life)
Hey Papi
Maryjane

Isotope 217 is made up of Dan Bitney, John Herndon, and Jeff Parker from Tortoise, along with Rob Mazurek (ChicagoUnderground, Exploding Star Orchestra) and Matt Lux (Iron& Wine). The music of Isotope 217 is as complex and varied as the influences of its members.

Isotope 217 on Isotope 217:“It ishard to state exactly what this band is because of the diverseinfluences of the participants. One might say an eclecticavant funk ensemble dedicated to the Phonometric system ofuniversal thought. One might also say a freewheeling transmolecular unit dedicated to the betterment of all worlds.”

TRACK LISTING

Kryptonite Smokes The
Red Line
Beneath The Undertow
La Jeteé
Phonometrics
Prince Namor
Audio Boxing

Led by Will Turner and Georgie Fuller, the Brighton-based The Heavy Heavy warp time and place through an unfettered collision of rock & roll, psychedelic blues, acid rockand sunshine pop. Across their debut ‘Life And Life Only’ EP, the group breathe incandescent new energy intosounds from decades ago, transcending eras witheuphoric ease as they tap into musicaltouchstones that range from folk-blues duo Delaney & Bonnie, Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac and British Invasion acts like The Hollies to a sonic alchemy all their own.

TRACK LISTING

All My Dreams
Go Down River
Man Of The Hills
Miles And Miles
Sleeping On Grassy Ground
Why Don’t You Call?

Dougie Poole is a musician and songwriter living inBrooklyn, New York. Coming of age in Providence, he dabbled in heavier and more experimental music before maturing into a Country auteur. He writes earnestly about his experience (life inthe big city, heartbreak in the digital age) andapproaches Country as an experimental musicform, as well as a tradition.

TRACK LISTING

Vaping On The Job
Los Angeles
Claire
Buddhist For A Couple Days
Natural Touch
The Who's Who Of Who
Cares
To Not Have A Brain
These Drug's Aren't Working
The Freelancer's Blues

Available on vinyl for the first time in 10 years, with new cover design by the band’s Tim Rutilli. “Uniting where you come from - your roots - with what you strive to be or what you reinvent yourself to become - crowns,” explains Tim Rutili. “At the bottom of these songs are the memories and images you sift through in the process.”

TRACK LISTING

Pink And Sour
Spider’s House
Sunday Noises
The Eye You Lost In The
Crusades
A Chinese Actor
Alice Crawley
The Orchids (Psychic TV)
Burned By The Christians
Black Metal Valentine
Rose-Petal-Ear
3 Legged Animals

80's Boogie / MPB a la Marcos Valle / Tim Maia exquisitely orchestrated by the Napolitan Maestros Quiroga, (Programming) Dario Bassolino (Rhodes, piano, synth) and Errico Cutolo (Lead vocal).

A vocal and instrumental single nugget featuring Andrea De Fazio (Drums), Paolo Petrella (Bass), Paolo Batà Bianconcini (Percussions), Alessio Pignorio (Guitar) and Linda Feki (Backing vocals).

A latin connection between Salvador da Bahia, Porto and Naples!

As always mastered and manufactured by Timmion Cutting. Comes with silver pantone label and premium brown paper sleeve.

TRACK LISTING

1. Saideira
2. Saideira (strumentale)

The long-awaited memoir of The Human League and Heaven 17 legend, Martyn Ware.

This is a music autobiography to remember. This is the story of Martyn Ware. The Human League and Heaven 17 were among some of the most pioneering bands of the 1980s, with Ware having played an integral role in each of their numerous successes. A young lad from the heart of post-war Sheffield, Ware formed The Human League a few years out of school in his early twenties. Described by David Bowie as 'the future of music', it wasn't long before the band become known for their innovative and infectiously catchy singles such as 'Being Boiled', touring with the likes of Siouxsie and the Banshees and Iggy Pop before Ware's departure. Heaven 17 followed suit, with their soon-to-be classic albums, Penthouse & Pavement and The Luxury Gap, featuring several colossal hits. Ground-breaking icons in new wave and synth pop, both groups remain some of the biggest-selling bands across the UK and worldwide.

In Electronically Yours, Martyn takes us through his incredible route to stardom; from his austere upbringing in various council houses and close teenage friendship with formerbandmate Phil Oakey, to the white-hot experimentation in the 'Synth Britannia' era and his production career, which allowed him to work with some of the world's greatest singers, including Tina Turner. But it's not just his life inside the industry which is compelling; a proud socialist, Martyn writes poignantly about politics - how it can be a soulful, personal, moral duty - and its role in his music creation and Britain today. With charming meditations on culture, humour, travel and sport, Martyn also shares his love of 60s films, explains why Venice is the most beautiful city in the world, and reveals how Sheffield Wednesday has forever been his first and eternal passion.

A huge page-turner and always warmly told, Electronically Yours sees Martyn talk candidly for the very first time about his extraordinary journey. Discover amusing anecdotes, raw confessions, and moving reflections of a life well and truly lived at the height of the music industry.

Blue Note Re:imagined returns this year with a new 16-track compilation featuring fresh takes on music from the illustrious Blue Note vaults recorded by a heavyweight line-up of the UK jazz, soul and R&B scene’s most hotly-tipped rising stars. This 7” single features two covers from the upcoming album, from Ego Ella May and Theon Cross. Arriving off the back of the widespread international success of the first volume, which topped jazz charts around the globe, Blue Note Re:imagined II once again infuses the spirit of the new UK jazz generation into the legendary label’s iconic catalogue, balancing the genre’s tradition with its future and reflecting the melting pot of talent and diversity within the current scene.

Neil Young + Promise Of The Real release a new live album, ‘Noise & Flowers’, that captures the group in all their glory on their 2019 European tour. The release will be accompanied by a concert film that shares the same title and is included in the album’s 2xLP+CD+Blu-ray Deluxe Edition.

‘Noise & Flowers’ documents a 9-date tour that began just two weeks after Young’s lifetime friend and manager of more than 50 years, Elliot Roberts, passed away at the age of 76. Performing alongside a photograph of Roberts taped to his road case, Young approached each show as a celebratory memorial service to honour his late friend. It’s a trek the legendary singer/songwriter describes as “wondrous.”

In the album’s liner notes, Young says, “Playing in his memory [made it] one of the most special tours ever. We hit the road and took his great spirit with us into every song. This music belongs to no one. It’s in the air. Every note was played for music’s great friend, Elliot.”

In paying tribute to the manager who guided Young’s career for over a half-century, ‘Noise & Flowers’ explores all corners of his vast discography. It balances all-timer anthems (‘Mr. Soul’, ‘Helpless’, ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’) with rarely aired ‘70s deep cuts (‘Field of Opportunity’, ‘On the Beach’) and ’90s gems (‘From Hank to Hendrix’, ‘Throw Your Hatred Down’). His frequent backing band since 2015, Promise of the Real effectively bridges the extremes in Young’s sound, infusing his raging rockers and country serenades with their casual brilliance and telepathic intuition.

The companion film (directed by Bernard Shakey and dhlovelife) emphasizes both the intimacy and ecstasy of these performances.

‘Noise & Flowers’ is entry No. PS 21 in the Neil Young Archives Performance Series of live releases – a special addition to a robust, and still-growing catalogue.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
01 Mr. Soul
02 Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
03 Helpless
04 Field Of Opportunity
05 Alabama
Side B
01 Throw Your Hatred Down
02 Rockin’ In The Free World
Side C
01 Comes A Time
02 From Hank To Hendrix
03 On The Beach
04 Are You Ready For The Country
Side D
01 I’ve Been Waiting For You
02 Winterlong
03 Fuckin’ Up

Acid Rooster were described by ‘Le Guess Who Festival’ as a ‘wet dream for heads who cram their record collection with Amon Düül, Spacemen 3, Wooden Shjips, Tangerine Dream’ – a statement we wholeheartedly endorse.

Ad Astra was recorded live in July 2020 in a private garden with a field recorder in front of a small audience of friends during the lockdown in the middle of the corona pandemic. The two long jams were the opening and the closing track of a completely improvised concert and are a spontaneous snapshot of Acid Roosters approach to free floating consciousness expanding psychedelic music.

So 2 tracks and 46 minutes of Acid Rooster digging deep into the well of far-out psychedelic rock that is one mind-expanding journey to the innermost limits of your mind.

Zu den Sternen was the intro and is a slow-burn trip where you ride wave upon wave of ecstatic highs until you eventually hit the peak in freak out territory as Acid Rooster merge with the cosmos and then ride the golden afterglow home into an eternal locked groove.

Phasenschieber rides that afterglow of galactic intensity – a place where you can just let go as the music created drifts and pulses away. It is a Beautiful, hypnotic, spaced out, blissful state where Acid Rooster takes you beyond the Astral Planes.

If you've followed the San Francisco underground for the past ten years, you might already be familiar with John Dwyer. Or — tastes depending — you might not know him at all. A friend and devotee of pre-eminent Providence noise rock act Lightning Bolt, the majority of Dwyer's repertoire falls on the indie spectrum's more visceral wavelengths. He was Pink in Pink and Brown, fronted Coachwhips, and played guitar in the dysfunctional Hospitals. Formed in the wake of his more volatile commitments, Thee Oh Sees started as an extension of Dwyer's softer side. Their early recordings were somber and beautiful. Last year, Thee Oh Sees made an unexpected turn, delivering their wildest, weirdest, hardest rocking record yet with "The Master's Bedroom Is Worth Spending A Night In". Now Thee Oh Sees have followed it with an even wilder, more hard-rocking record, "Help". Recorded by Chris Woodhouse (the A-Frames, Mayyors), "Help" draws straight, dark lines to both the British psychedelic rock of bands like The Creation and the caveman thud of The Troggs while a Cramps-like appreciation for rockabilly lies not far below. The album weaves Dwyer's signature AM radio howl with the catchiest of driving tunes, Brigid Dawson's gorgeous harmonies, heightened fidelity, thick spring-reverbed bombast, mighty drums, and an undeniable pull. The result is a sound somewhere beyond nostalgia, beyond the garage, beyond the fireside song and supposed goo-rock. Modern rock'n'roll records don't come much better than this and Thee Oh Sees are one of the best bands going.

That we live in a world changed is beyond question. Since 2015’s Zenith, Berlin-based songwriter Molly Nilssonhas surrendered to the world, traveling from Mexico to Glasgow, observing the changing socio-political landscape and imagining a better world. For an artist who has so successfully created her own environment and gradually let others in, her 8th studio album Imaginations sees Nilsson directly engaging with her surroundings, engendering change and allowing love in.

Molly has built an almost 10 year career on perfectly summing up how we feel and this is no different... W ho else could write a song about privilege (Let’s Talk About Privileges) and make a heart-r endi ng c hor us of “It ’s never being afraid of the police, it’s expecting every thank you, every please.” The artist’s vision on this album is perhaps more forceful than the emotionally fragile moments of previous album Zenith, at times exemplified on songs like Memory Foam, a bright, driving pop song that belies themes of nostalgia and the past, reminding us that Molly alone can make us feel so welcome in loneliness.

If there’s overt anger in songs like Money Never Sleeps, an anthem for a post-capitalist utopia if ever there was one, there’s also seams of optimism sewn into the album’s genetic code. A ny revolutionary will tell you that anger alone achieves nothing - Nilsson’s mission on Imaginations is to offer some alternatives we can hold close. Not Today Satan is a song about accepting love as the agent of change; “D on’t be sad, but do get mad at all the small men who act so tall, in the end they always fall; there ain’t no sin in giving in to love, that’s just how we’re winning the f i g h t . ”

TRACK LISTING

1.Tender Surrender
2.Let's Talk About Privileges
3.Mona-Lisa's Smile
4.Memory Foam
5.American Express
6.Money Never Dreams
7.Not Today Satan
8.Think Pink
9.Modern World
10.Inner Cities
11.Theory Of Life
12.After Life

Imperfect Stranger is the pseudonym of Glasgow based soundtrack composer and producer Kenny Inglis. “Everything Wrong is Right” is his debut solo album for Castles in Space.

Born in 1975, Kenny didn't listen to much music, unless it was the opening credits to a TV show or a film score that had caught his ear. "I loved the pre-title music on a lot of those 80's U.S. TV shows. From the family orientated stuff like The A-Team, to darker dramas such as The Equalizer. My mother would let me stay up to watch the opening sequence of the latter then send me to bed because the story would be too heavy for a kid. That left me with this hanging sense of ambiguity as to what would happen in that hour after the titles came up.”

Exposure to a work colleague’s tiny project studio in a kitchen cupboard was a lightbulb moment for him and the experience of utilising music technology as a way of writing and producing entire tracks stirred a wave of determination to chase a career in music using the opportunities that technology could offer. Kenny figured the best way to move forward was to start a small project studio and learn his craft as a recording engineer. "It was a bit of a shock to the system. I literally had no idea how to work any of the equipment. Kenny focused on learning as much about the craft as he could whilst winging his way through recording and mixing everyone from the likes of singer/songwriters to bands, to voiceovers artists and anything in between. "Eventually, I stopped writing the music I thought people would want to hear, and started writing the music I wanted to make. I didn't come from a music loving background, but I was always obsessed by the way music and film would interact - how music brings this atmosphere and tone to even the most mundane visual stuff. I wanted to capture that. I wanted to grab some of that ambiguity I felt from the TV shows of my childhood and make it into a project of some sort". That project was Spylab. A dark, downtempo project with a cinematic edge. The initial demo consisted of three tracks, with the melancholic 'This Utopia' leading the playlist.

"At the time you did demos on normal cassette tapes. I remember having this endless battle with the bias control to try and get the best sound I could on these little tapes. Ten went in the post one Monday morning, and the following Monday there were three offers from three different labels. Studio K7 were interested in a singles deal, as was Flying Rhino in London. But then there was an offer from a Chicago based label by the name of Guidance Recordings. They wanted an album, and were offering a $15,000 advance. It wasn't a difficult decision to make"

Writing and recording Spylab 'This Utopia' began in 1999. The album took a whole year to produce. The album was to catch the attention of Mary Anne Hobbs at Radio One. At the time Mary Anne was presenting The Breezeblock - a late Sunday night show with an eclectic playlist of alternative electronic music. Picking out the album's title track 'This Utopia', Mary Anne would go on to play it no less than 8 weeks in a row. A request for Spylab to DJ on the show was to follow. "I had never DJ'd before. I think I had a week to figure out how to do that and put a playlist together. I'm not entirely sure how I pulled that off.” In March 2001 the Spylab album was finally released to a hoard of excellent reviews. A North American live tour would follow. From the launch party in Los Angeles, to a sell out show at SXSW in Austin. "I then started a new project under the name Cinephile. It had some of the core elements of the Spylab sound but it was deeper, more cinematic.” Kenny received news that a track from the previous project Spylab had been requested by HBO for the first episode of a new TV drama called Six Feet Under. This was to become a major turning point in Kenny's career. The Spylab track 'Celluloid Hypnotic' dropped during a poignant party scene of the first Six Feet Under episode. Within a couple of days Kenny was getting requests for music from other music supervisors. "It was a chain reaction. The Six Feet Under sync was like the tip of an iceberg. One day I called CBS in America and they put me on to the CSI music supervisor and I managed to get on a call with him. I sent the Cinephile stuff out and within a few months I got this fax through from CBS - a quote request for one of the tracks for a potential use on CSI. It changed my life."

The tone and style of Kenny's music sat perfectly with the CSI score requirements. So much so he found himself part of a pool of incidental writers who worked on all three aspects of the franchise - CSI, CSI: NY, and CSI: Miami. This would continue until 2013, when the last of the series would come to an end.

"I was juggling a bunch of stuff for those ten years. Writing material for CSI, whilst releasing new Cinephile stuff and playing live. As Cinephile continued to gather pace, one of the tracks from Kenny's efforts on CSI was chosen for the Hollywood trailer for the Samuel L. Jackson film 'Lakeview Terrace'. Further trailers would follow, from Gangster Squad to Dead Man Down, Spike Lee's Undisputed Truth, to Fifty Shades Freed.

At the same time, Kenny picked up his first factual commissions in the UK, and this too would be the beginning of a regular run of fully scoring factuals and documentaries. By 2021, six of these had won BAFTAs. He also would find himself soundtracking adverts for the likes of Nike, Audi, and American AirlinesIn early 2020, Kenny made a return to focusing on his own music under the pseudonym Imperfect Stranger. A tweet from Colin Morrison from Castles In Space regarding a charity compilation album 'The Isolation Tapes' caught his eye. Kenny had made a start on his debut album as Imperfect Stranger and submitted the track 'Hymn To The Sun' (which would become the lead track on the album). Further discussions ensued, and the album found a home on CiS. "I had been doing TV and film stuff for almost ten years. It paid the bills and was as close to a 'real job' as I'd had, but I yearned to get back to writing for myself, so doing an album for Castles in Space was a joy.

“The music I write is like a diary. There's an authentic narrative to everything i do. I don't write tracks for the sake of writing. I write tracks to diarise and process the stuff that I've lived through, and the experiences that have come along with the passing years. That's what makes me tick. It's a very public and vulnerable way of expressing myself. If people want to know the real me, all they have to do is listen."

Available for distribution for the first time! The new album by drummer producer Teppo "Teddy Rok" Mäkynen continues where his trio 3TM was last spotted: "Atonal Drums", out on Helsinki's We Jazz Records, lives someplace in & around the new spots where acoustic jazz and electronic music spill into each other in ways previosuly unheard. Each vinyl copy is unique and comes "edited" by Teddy Rok with personalized signatures and extra bespoke stickers glued in. "Atonal Drums", initially a Bandcamp only exclusive, was featured in Wilco's best albums of 2021. Vinyl and tape copies include download code.

TRACK LISTING

1. Empty
2. Door
3. Divide
4. Time
5. Suddenly
6. Cut
7. Flame
8. Awake
9. Stay
10. Just

Night School is proud and excited to team up with Frankie Rose to reissue her much loved interpretation of The Cure’s masterpiece Seventeen Seconds.

Pressed on Dark Red Transparent Vinyl with new, artist approved artwork, Frankie Rose’s Seventeen Seconds is the art of the cover album done right. "Since I already think it's a perfect record, I tried not to reinterpret too much and stick to similar sounds as the original, but with a twist.”

Dark Red Transparent Vinyl Pressing of 600.

TRACK LISTING

A Reflection
Play For Today
Secrets
In Your House
Three
The Final Sound
A Forest
M
At Night
Seventeen Seconds

Ichiko Aoba’s albums have only been available as expensive Japanese imports, until now. In November, Ba Da Bing will release Windswept Adan on 2xLP in North America, Europe and the United Kingdom, with deluxe packaging.

After creating her label, hermine, last year to celebrate her tenth anniversary in music, Aoba released the most complex and rewarding work of her career, 2020’s Windswept Adan. While audiences in the west are only just learning she exists, her accomplishments are unquestionable; she contributed to the soundtrack for The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, was cited by Owen Pallett as an inspiration (“I’ve never been so blindsided by a musician as I was by Ichiko Aoba”), and has collaborated with the likes of Haruomi Hosono, Cornelius (who met her only two years after she first picked up a guitar and was blown away), Ryuichi Sakamoto, and recently Mac DeMarco.

Ichiko Aoba’s iconic voice and classical guitar playing are immediately recognizable, timeless sounds. Windswept Adan, envisioned as a soundtrack for a fictional film, builds its own world with sweeping co-production and arrangements from Taro Umebayashi, which “recall the Wes Anderson scores of Mark Mothersbaugh or the cinematographic swells of American composer Jherek Bischoff” (Bandcamp). It’s the story of a young girl sent to the island of Adan, a place where there are no words.

While international listeners of Aoba may not understand the words she sings, and despite the central importance of lyrics in her writing, it’s a testament to the power Aoba wields that one can resonate so deeply with her work. No matter the breadth of her sonic palette, and on Adan her scope is as wide and encompassing as Joanna Newsom’s on Have One On Me, Aoba manifests an intimacy that makes one feel in the room with her.

Ichiko Aoba’s work gained greater exposure in the past year as the need for comfort grew while the world sequestered in solitude. She has a rare musical gift that is matched only by her ability to hone it into meticulous craft. Her music embraces and elevates alone time to a generous and tranquil place. In it, listeners are invited to feel a sense of consolation and possibility. The magic she imparts yields articles like “Ichiko Aoba and the emotion of space during the pandemic;” in other words, her effect is singular.

TRACK LISTING

1. Prologue
2. Pilgrimage
3. Porcelain
4. Horo
5. Easter Lily
6. Parfum D’étoiles
7. Kirinaki Shima
8. Sagu Palm’s Song
9. Chinuhaji
10. Chi No Kaze
11. Hagupit
12. Dawn In The Adan
13. Ohayashi
14. Adan No Shima No Tanjyosai

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Beastie Boys’ multi-platinum album Check Your Head, UMC will release a limited-edition reissue of the rare 4LP deluxe version of the album, originally released in 2009 as an artist store exclusive. The long out-of-print and much sought-after box set features the 2009 remaster of the original double album, plus two extra LPs of bonus content including remixes, live versions, and B-sides. All four LPs are pressed on 180-gram vinyl and housed in a fabric wrapped, stamped, hardcover case.

Originally released in April 1992, Check Your Head was a milestone for Beastie Boys on multiple levels: It was their first album to be produced, in its entirety, by Beastie Boys with Mario Caldato Jr. and to feature keyboard player Keyboard Money Mark, as well as the first to be recorded at the band’s own G-Son studios in Atwater Village, CA. Most significantly, however, Check Your Head marked the return of live instrumentation to the forefront and backbone of the Beastie Boys sound, with the bulk of the album featuring Mike D on drums, Adrock on guitar and MCA on bass for the first time since the band’s early 1980s hardcore punk recordings.

Since the early days of electronic music, white label records have been inextricably linked to DJ culture and the ways in which underground music has been disseminated. unknown - untitled draws on the white label concept withholding details about the producers behind the tracks and leaving listeners to draw their own conclusions about what they’re hearing.

The concept label focuses primarily on vinyl releases, with previews of the tracks available online, but information about the artists only to be found within the record sleeve itself. The roster ranges from new and emerging producers to more established artists looking to explore new sounds.

Picking up where they left off, the fourth release on the label is a powerhouse of mind melting, UK-flavoured, twisted techno-not-techno and breaks. Intricate rhythms, chest rumbling sub bass and deft samples destined for a heavyweight club system. With online personas often eclipsing the focus on music itself, here lies a return to form.

TRACK LISTING

A1. A1
A2. A2
B1. B1
B2. B2

A cult classic in the afro music scene has been given a fresh polish and two brand new remixes from Dave Lee and Doug Gomez.

Dave Lee brings the keys to focus with staccato Rhodes complimented by thick slappin’ disco bass and glistening afro percussion before a serious piano solo soars in and takes it home.

Doug Gomez brings his ‘Merecumbe Soul’ touch to the track, opting for a stomping afro house rhythm & shiny clav licks-a-plenty.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Dave Lee Afro Fusion Mix
A2. Accapella
B1. Doug Gomez Merecumbe Soul Remix
B2. Original

In 1994, hip-hop was going through an at-times painful growth spurt. Since NWA’s and Ice-T’s ascent in the late 80s, the rap game was no longer owned by the East Coast. After the worldwide popularity of Dr. Dre’s ‘The Chronic’ in 1992, things were looking even worse for hip-hop’s hometown. The East Coast / West Coast feud that would later indirectly claim the lives of Biggie and 2Pac was still in its infancy, but New York needed a shot in the arm. The hype behind young Queensbridge native Nasir “Nas” Jones had been in full swing months before his smash debut album ‘Illmatic’, thanks to Columbia Records’ promo machine. From his earliest appearance on Main Source’s ‘Live At The BBQ’, to his own accomplished debut ‘Half Time’ (as Nasty Nas, in late 1992), it was clear that this kid was something special. In fact, the pressure on him must have been overwhelming at times. April 19, 1994 couldn’t have come soon enough. And as soon as the first lines of ‘NY State Of Mind’ kick in, bolstered by perhaps DJ Premier’s darkest beat of all time, the entire East Coast breathed a collective sigh of relief. God’s Son had arrived. Backed by an absolute all-star cast of New York’s top-shelf producers - Premier, Pete Rock, Large Professor, Q-Tip and a youngster named LES - the album never lets up. Serious to a fault, and lyrically dense to an extent that has possibly never been matched, the 20-year old Nas stood on the shoulders of his predecessors and proudly proclaimed, “Don’t f*** with the East… we are BACK”. ‘Illmatic’ was actually a slow-burn, which might surprise fans that have come to its genius more recently. Despite an unheard-of “5 Mics” rating in The Source – breaking an unwritten rule of never awarding classic status to debuts - it didn’t go gold until early 1996, and didn’t hit platinum status until late 2001. But when you dive deeper that shouldn’t be a shock: like Black Moon and Wu-Tang’s debuts, it was a dark, hard record, made for heads in New York, not teeny-boppers in Des Moines. There were no dance beats, no crossover love songs. Just boom-bap and rhymes, skills and heart.

STAFF COMMENTS

David says: This album pretty much single handedly reignited the flame of East Coast hip hop. Produced by DJ Premier, Large Professor, Pete Rock AND Q Tip!! It's an authentic, masterpiece of minimal beats and street poetry that is universally recognised as one of the greatest rap albums of all time.

TRACK LISTING

40 Side North:
The Genesis
NY State Of Mind
Life's A Bitch
The World Is Yours
Halftime

41st Side South
Memory Lane (Sitt'in In Da Park)
One Love
One Time 4 Your Mind
Represent
It Ain't Hard To Tell

Following a CD-only release in Japan in 2021, legendary downtempo producer Calm finally releases his “Before” album on vinyl and digital courtesy of Hell Yeah. The 10-track record is a slow-burning Balearic beauty.

Calm aka Kiyotaka Fukagawa has never been to the White Isle, but he sure knows how to capture its musical essence. He has done so over a long and storied career that has taken in 17 albums and some 35 EPs on many labels including this one over the last 20-plus years. His unique blend of ambient, jazz and leftfield was last showcased on this label in 2018 with his By Your Side album, and now he does it again with another timeless and escapist offering.

The record was written, arranged, mixed and produced by Calm, but with gorgeous musical embellishments, trumpets, flutes, saxophones, violins, bass and keys played by friends and guests like Shiba, Sinsuke Fujieda, Fumiko Takeshita, Tomokazu Sugimoto, Yuichiro Kato and Toshitaka Shibata. Tracks from it have already had support from Cosmo Coleen Murphy on Worldwide FM, while Phil Mison says it is "100% reminiscent of an old Café Del Mar or José Padilla record." He is not wrong.

As soon as the opening chords of 'Beauty on Earth' wash over you there is no escaping the naturalistic charm and beauty of this record. 'Long Summer Dream' layers mystic wind sounds and gentle percussive patterns into suspensory bliss, 'Blue in Void' is a plaintive moment of sombre sax and pensive piano, then 'Liminal Moment' awakens the soul with its gorgeous flute lines and looping arps.

There is perfect horizontal sunset house on 'I Love You,' 'Feel It' picks up the pace with seductive saxophone motifs and psychedelic synth loops and 'Before Sunrise Blue' is crushing downtempo melancholia. 'Kunpoo' reawakens you with leggy bass and expansive synths that reach for the heavens, while 'Freedom Sunset' is an epic 10-minute journey out to sea. Lastly, 'Let's Make Harmony' is super slow motion jazz-funk that swells the heart. Before is a superb album that is well-deserving of this double vinyl pressing and is sure to become a Balearic classic.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Beauty On Earth
A2. Long Summer Dream
A3. Blue In Void
B1. Liminal Moment
B2. I Love You
C1. Feel It
C2. Before Sunrise Blue
C3. Kunpoo
D1. Freedom Sunset
D2. Lets Make Harmony

Everyone’s favourite Israeli digger is back for another round of gloriously rare edit heat on RNT!

‘Baila’ gets the party started with infectious flamenco chants and claps over a churning acidic groove, and ‘Disco Hummus’ rounds out the side with a bit of joyful disco cheek.

On the flip, ‘Sun’ turns an unlikely cover of a classic into an Afro Disco banger, and ‘Simba’ rumbles and rolls with restraint toward a hypnotic peak of brass and vocals.

Elado has done it again…Mazel Tov!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Baila
A2. Disco Hummus
B1. Sun
B2. Simba

Backatcha with some sweet, sunshine fuelled Bali business. This time Pantai People send a call out across the ocean to Brooklyn’s finest and Razor-N-Tape royalty Jkriv. In true Jkriv style he packs a punch across four peak-time edits, specially selected for the dancefloor.

From the gospel-tinged, disco house gem ‘Mountain’, to the soaring string laden epicness of ‘The House’ on the A. To the funk fuelled stomper ‘Down Slow’ and Latin loving ‘Terra Amor’, there truly is a cut for everyone on this EP.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Mountain
A2. The House
B1. Down Slow
B2. Terra Amor

Another essential Chaka tune getting the Krewcial treatment. Mixed from the original multitracks, with love and respect for the original. Three quintessential variations: a more intimate acoustic version, a completely new arrangement and of course a 9 minute never-ending dancefloor version with various breaks and climaxes.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Extended Clouds
B1. New Clouds
B2. Acoustic Clouds

NEU! announce the release of a brand new boxset marking the 50th anniversary of their first record, with a Tribute album featuring reworks from The National, Idles, Alexis Taylor (Hot Chip), Mogwai, Fink, Stephen Morris (New Order) & more.

NEU!’s influence is undeniable. Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother, who had both previously been members of Kraftwerk, are a product not only of West Germany but of Düsseldorf. Like other experimental bands of the late 60s and early 70s gathered under the banner of Krautrock, they were driven by a mixture of political and artistic imperatives to reject the cliches and conventions of orthodox, blues-based Anglo-American rock and create a music that was, formally, West German in origin.

NEU! are one of the great, belated success stories of rock music. Their influence is widespread, international, continued. Ian Curtis (Joy Division) played the rest of the group NEU! as part of their weekly education classes, David Bowie often spoke of his love for the duo and called them “Kraftwerk's wayward, anarchistic brothers”, in the 1990s Stereolab paid NEU! homage in their Franco-Germanic avant-Europop and further co-signs come from Damon Albarn, Brian Eno, Thom Yorke, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Sonic Youth and Placebo.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Hallogallo
A2. Sonderangebot
A3. Weissensee
B1. Im Glück
B2. Negativland
B3. Lieber Honig

C1. Für Immer (Forever)
C2. Spitzenqualität
C3. Gedenkminute (Für A + K)
C4. Lila Engel (Lilac Angel)
D1. Neuschnee 78
D2. Super 16
D3. Neuschnee
D4. Cassetto
D5. Super 78
D6. Hallo Excentrico!
D7. Super

E1. Isi
E2. Seeland
E3. Leb' Wohl
F1. Hero
F2. E-Musik
F3. After Eight

G1. Im Glück (The National Remix)
G2. Weissensee (Fink Version)
H1. Super (Mogwai Remix)
H2. Alexis Taylor – “4+1=5”

I1. Hallogallo (Stephen Morris And Gabe Gurnsey Remix)
I2. Lieber Honig (Yann Tiersen Remix)
I3. Super (Man Man Cover)
J1. Negativland (Idles Negative Space Rework)
J2. Guerilla Toss - "Zum Herz"
J3. After Eight (They Hate Change Cover)

The Old School Collection is back with a new volume, dedicated to Reggae. Discover the germs of Reggae on a double vinyl with Bob Marley, Max Romeo, Freddie McGregor, Gregory Isaacs, Horace Andy, Lee "Scratch" Perry & The Upsetters, Alton Ellis, Sly & Robbie and Black Uhuru.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Bob Marley - Sun Is Shining
A2. John Holt & Dennis Brown - Wildfire
A3. Johnny Clarke - Declaration Of Rights
A4. Max Romeo - Material Man
A5. Barrington Levy - Warm And Sunny Day
A6. Freddie McGregor - Big Ship Sailing
B1. Gregory Isaacs - Babylon Too Rough
B2. Dennis Brown - Africa
B3. Don Carlos - Rivers Of Babylon
B4. Fred Locks - Vision Of Redemption
B5. The Congos - La La Bam-Bam
B6. Horace Andy -Ain't No Sunshine
B7. Lee "Scratch" Perry & The Upsetters - Soul Fire
C1. Alton Ellis - I'm Still In Love
C2. Prince Lincoln Thompson - They Know Nat Jah
C3. The Heptones - Take Me Darling
C4. Beres Hammond - Rock Away
C5. Marcia Griffiths - Come See About Me
C6. Bob Marley - African Herbsman
D1. Sly & Robbie - We Are Africa
D2. Leroy Smart - Ballistic Affair
D3. Errol Dunkley - OK Fred
D4. Bob Andy - Teachers
D5. Black Uhuru – Sinsemilla
D6. Clint Eastwood - Love Story

Discover the gems of the old school hip hop with this double vinyl, focusing on the US scene, including great songs from Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, Fab 5 Freddy, West Street Mob, De La Soul and many more.

TRACK LISTING

1. Funky 4+1 - That's The Joint (Remix)
2. Spoonie Gee - Spoonin' Rap
3. Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - The Message
4. Double Trouble - Stoop Rap
5. Jimmy Spicer - Money (Dollar Bill Y'All)
6. King Tim III - Charley Says! (Roller Boogie Baby)
7. Super-Wolf - Super-Wolf Can Do It
8. Grandmaster Caz - South Bronx Subway Rap
9. Kev Luckhurst - Wild Style Lesson
10. Young MC - Bust A Move
11. Fab 5 Freddy - Down By Law
12. West Street Mob - Break Dance - Electric Boogie
13. The Pharcyde - Passin' Me By
14. Fantastic Freaks - Fantastic Freaks At The Dixie
15. De La Soul - Shopping Bags (She Got From You)
16. Tone-Loc - Wild Thing
17. RZA - Grits
18. Masters At Work Feat. Screetchy Dan - Give It To Me
19. Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz Feat. Ying Yang Twins - Get Low

From Tom Misch to Cookin' On 3 Burners or Leisure go deep into the best selection of Nu Soul.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Cookin' On 3 Burners Feat. Kylie Auldist - This Girl
A2. Leisure - Slipping Away
A3. (Re:jazz) Feat. Alice Russell - Gabrielle
A4. Beady Belle Feat. India Arie - Self-Fulfilling
A5. Da Break - Give Your Love
B1. Tom Misch Feat. De La Soul - It Runs Through Me
B2. Terry Callier & Paul Weller - Brother To Brother
B3. Dublex Inc. Feat. Sandhy Sandoro - Shine
B4. Normanton Street - Take A Walk With Me
B5. Aloe Blacc & King Most - With My Friends

From St Germain to Boogalox or Mighty Bop go deep into the best selection of Nu Jazz. 

TRACK LISTING

A1. St. Germain - My Mamma Said
A2. Boogalox - Chez Les Yé-Yé
A3. Mighty Bop Feat. Duncan Roy - Too Deep
A4. Nekta - No Need To Rumble
A5. Mr. Scruff - Get A Move On!
B1. Ayo - Beautiful
B2. Herbert - Suddenly
B3. Reminiscence Quartet - Inspiration
B4. The Quantic Soul Orchestra - Feeling Good (Feat. Alice Russell)
B5. Waldeck - Make My Day

From Kaytranada to The Souljazz Orchestra or The Bamboos go deep into one of the best sélection of Nu Funk.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Kaytranada - Breackdance Lesson N.1
A2. The Souljazz Orchestra - House Of Cards
A3. The Bamboos Feat. Fallon Williams - My Baby's Cheating (I Sure Got The Feeling)
A4. Marschmellows - Soulpower (Jazzanova Reworked - Extended Version)
A5. The Quantic Soul Orchestra - Hold It Down
B1. Cookin' On 3 Burners - Keb's Bucket
B2. Alice Russell - A Fly In The Hand
B3. Nubiyan Twist Feat. Soweto Kinch - Buckle Up
B4. Joel Culpepper - Remember
B5. Llorca Feat. Stefan Frank - All We Ever Have Is Now

Preceding the release of a new album next year, we’re pleased to announce two ‘Ayiti Kongo Dub’ EPs by Chouk Bwa & The Ångströmers. Following on from 2020s acclaimed album Vodou Ale, Chouk Bwa turn up the heat for this exhilarating trip into their bush of ghosts by introducing a new stripped down line-up to fire up the dance floor, based exclusively on the drums and rhythms of the Haitian kongo rite and deep electronic dub expansions by their trusted Belgian counterparts The Ångströmers.

Compared to the Vodou Alé album, 'Ayiti Kongo Dub' marks a change of direction. By developing the dimension of trance rather than elaborate structures, the music now aims itself at the dance floor. The kongo style with its Mambo, Anmin and Kongo Payèt rhythms, played with two drums and based on a pulse that is not subject to a measure, lends itself very well to linear developments, with the

constant and heady cue of the fè (literally a piece of iron) hammered out by the solo singer. Developed on the basis of ceremonial pieces, not originally intended for any form of performance, the repertoire includes a significant amount of improvisation characteristic of Kongo drumming. In their production, The Ångströmers have taken to heart to respect this sense of freedom by performing a large part of their interventions in an improvised manner. The beat is almost subliminal at the beginning and gradually made more explicit by electronic intervention. Deep bass, reverbs and delays inspired by Dub: this is music for clubs and sound systems of endless nights.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Agwetaroyo
B1. Similòm
B2. Vini Wè M

The follow-up to the band's acclaimed debut album, Endless Scroll (2018), and 2019's Shiny New Model EP, Broken Equipment was inspired by a book club. In the early months of 2020, the Brooklyn art-punk incendiaries gathered together with close friends to study the works of a wide range of philosophers. Passionate debates lasting long into the night became a regular occurrence, motivating the band to become as ideologically unified as the weighty tomes they were reading. Broken Equipment is Bodega’s attempt to interrogate the external factors that make them who they are, propelling existential quandaries with tongue-in-cheek humour, highly personal lyrics, and irresistible grooves.

Since Bodega’s formation in 2016, Ben and Nikki (who previously played together in the band Bodega Bay) have experienced a rare meteoric rise. The duo double as filmmakers, earning acclaim for their 2020 erotic drama PVT Chat starring Peter Vack, Julia Fox, and other recognizable faces from the Safdie Brothers’ cinematic universe. When the pandemic forced them to hit pause, they used the opportunity to regroup with drummer/performance artist Tai Lee, bassist/book club leader Adam See, and lead guitarist Dan Ryan. Broken Equipment was produced by Ben himself with Bobby Lewis, Bodega’s NYC live sound mixer. The record was mixed by Bryce Goggin, whom the band sought out for his work with Pavement, and Adam Sachs (WIVES).

The album’s 12 songs are set in present day New York City, packing in references to contemporary issues of algorithmic targeting, media gentrification, and the band itself. On 'NYC (disambiguation)', they break down how the Big Apple was “founded by a corporation” and history remains alive in the present. The poetic 'Pillar on the Bridge of You' is the first love song Ben ever wrote for Nikki, while 'All Past Lovers' gazes back to the “southern belle” and “chat room suitor” who still live inside him today.

To accompany the propulsive pace of 'Statuette on the Console' and its lyrics about switching perspectives, Nikki recorded alternate versions in eight different languages. “I used God in that song as this arch overlord character, but it could also be a real estate developer,” she explains. “It’s about anyone who puts their reality on your back and forces you to carry it around.” In that song, Nikki also wryly states that although she doesn’t have faith in this particular “God,” she is still “living life with (my) platitudes.” On 'Territorial Call of the Female', Nikki playfully quips that “when the man is around that’s when I’m putting you down,” highlighting how in the past she unknowingly reinforced patriarchal values by turning against other women to attract men. It’s moments like these where Bodega most exemplifies their self-professed motto that “the best critique is self critique.”

As the band’s art director, Nikki commissioned the sculpture featured on the cover of Broken Equipment as a companion to the cover of their debut, Endless Scroll. “They’re in the same world,” she explains. “The Endless Scroll sculpture was kind of shaped like a computer but also a gavel that a judge would have. That album was about how we do not yet know in the information age what technology is doing to our brains. It was almost on the precipice of a judgement. Now, with the pointing finger machine on the cover of Broken Equipment, I wanted to convey the sense in which social media and Web 2.0 turn people who would otherwise be allies against each other.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: There has been a huge surge in this sort of clashing post-punk of late but I remember Bodega's 2018 outing 'Endless Scroll' being one of the ones that really stuck with me, for the same reason that this is superb. Bodega craft endlessly enjoyable angular post-punk with a melodic sensibility and compositional flare you rarely see, and 'Broken Equipment' is the epitome of this. Brilliant.

TRACK LISTING

1. Thrown
2. Doers
3. Territorial Call Of The Female
4. NYC (Disambiguation)
5. Statuette On The Console
6. C.I.R.P.
7. Pillar On The Bridge Of You
8. How Can I Help Ya?
9. No Blade Of Grass
10. All Past Lovers
11. Seneca The Stoic
12. After Jane

Despite the impressive legacy Deaf Havana have built for themselves over the past decade, they’ve no interest in trading on past glories. Why would you, when the future is so exciting? They’re aware of the cliché but the siblings believe the new album ‘The Present Is A Foreign Land’ is the best thing they’ve ever made. A record that isn’t afraid of what other people might think, or where it sits in the wider rock scene, the twelve tracks are confident, cathartic and celebratory. Dealing in the expected and the surprising, it’s the album they’ve always wanted to make.

TRACK LISTING

1. Pocari Sweat
2. 19dreams
3. I Put You Through Hell
4. Nevermind
5. On The Wire
6. Trying/Falling
7. Someone/Somewhere
8. Help
9. The Present Is A Foreign Land
10. Kids
11. Going Clear
12. Remember Me

After nearly three years and sixty demos, Launder’s full-length debut is Happening. In 2019, Orange County-raised, Los Angeles-based musician John Cudlip signed to Ghostly International to build his recording project, developed out of casual sessions with friends Jackson Phillips (Day Wave), Soko, and Zachary Cole Smith (DIIV). Launder’s music had seen unexpected attention, with

Stereogum placing it “somewhere at the intersection of ‘90s lo-fi and shoegaze,” and Gorilla vs. Bear noting Cudlip’s “serious knack for the kind of wistful, soaring choruses that immediately make you feel like you’ve known these songs forever.” With live shows paused in 2020, he immersed fully into writing and arranging an overflow of ideas. Cudlip also embraced sobriety, redirecting his once-destructive addictive tendencies into studio craft — all his thoughts consumed by melody and texture, all his resources lobbed into gear, every buzz, hiss, and hum of this record became his entire world. The resulting set sprawls across a double LP release; it’s a considered beast of a debut and he’s proud of it, living with it, finally. Through its thirteen songs, Happening is timeless, grappling with something bigger than just melody, the cathartic and the tender, indebted to indie rock greats while informed by modern and prudent self-reflection.

“I feel like I’ve evolved into a much more self-reliant writer compared to the EP and 7-inch releases but I couldn’t have made this record without the band,” he says. “The songs came to life in the rehearsal space with them, it was like a light switch went on.” To record the album, Cudlip and collaborators — including Chase Meier (bass), Bryan DeLeon (drums), Nathan Hawelu (lead guitar) — joined co-producer, engineer, and mixer Sonny DiPerri (My Bloody Valentine, Nine Inch Nails, DIIV) at New Monkey Studio, the vintage analog/modern digital recording studio in Van Nuys, California once owned by Elliott Smith. Cudlip mapped out his dream setup; alternate-tuning a fleet of Fenders to facilitate his left-handed playing, experimenting with different amps (a late ‘70s Marshall JMP carried much of the sound), and getting the vocals just right on Smith’s old Neumann U48 microphone and Fairchild compressor. With each nuanced adjustment and improved take, they’d joke, “it’s happening.” The sort of phrase you say to keep the vibe light — but there was some gravity behind it — as the group was forced to wait to be safely in the same space again. It was apparent to them that something magnetic was shaping this record.

Where debuts often feel full of rough-hewn potential, Launder has crafted a deeply honed collection that is happening right now. A process-oriented album, the work of a person maturing with their art, the sound of a songwriter pushing through their limits with thrilling and anthemic outcomes.

TRACK LISTING

01. Unwound
02. Intake
03. Blue Collar
04. On A Wire
05. Become
06. Beggar
07. Rust
08. Withdraw
09. Lockwood
10. Harbour Mouth
11. Chipper
12. Parking Lot
13. Lantern

Following support from Mojo, 6Music, Amazing Radio, BBC Introducing and beyond, alongside their first headline dates, shows with The Coral, Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard and more, The Dream Machine have announced details of a vinyl release that collect together each of the band’s four track EPs in one place. Volume 1 - 3 features the twelve tracks released on Volume 1: Sacrements; Volume 2: On The Water and Volume 3: Pooch Slingers’ Wild Round-Up.

The Dream Machine are a four piece from Liverpool who tap into that city’s free flowing wellspring of glorious psychedelic melody; the latest in a long line of dreamers who effortlessly create the kinds of tunes that lodge deep inside your brain and refuse to move on. Twelve of those tunes can be heard on Volume 1 - 3, the collection of The Dream Machine’s EP releases of 2021/22.

Volume 1 - 3 finds The Dream Machine turned on and cranked up into blissful overdrive, blasting out a fuzztone howl (I Still Believe (In Jim Jones)) and daydream campfire soul (Days of Heaven), a woozy barroom stagger (The Sea Is My Friend) and a perfect hit of honeyed sunshine pop (Wild One). It’s the first physical release from a crazily prolific band who’ll be living inside your head before you know it.

TRACK LISTING

01 Introduction
02 Jesus BABE
03 I Still Believe (in Jim Jones)
04 Days Of Heaven
05 Oceans Wide
06 Me And My Ghost
07 The Sea Is My Friend
08 Taking The Reins
09 Too Stoned To Die
10 Wild One
11 Om Kring
12 Peregrine

Originally released in 2012,Tender Oppositesis TOPS’ debut album, nowcelebrating it’s 10year anniversary with a special edition LP. A lush array oftimelessly crafted songs,Tender Oppositesgathers its strength throughdelicate intimacy. These are moving songs that succeed earnestly,disregarding trends and myth-making, focusing instead on pure popcraftsmanship.

TOPS' tendency to opt towards making straight-forward, stripped down andhonest recordings lets their pop songwriting shine out in the open. With aheart frmly attached to their sleeves, their songcraft delves into theemotional intricacy of personal relationships, asking questions about powerand desire. Riley Fleck’s measured drumming and David Carriere’strademark guitar licks work in tandem and in service of Jane Penny’sunmistakable, wistful voice.

TRACK LISTING

1. Evening
2. Diamond Look
3. She's So Bad
4. VII Babies
5. Double Vision
6. Go Away
7. Turn Your Love Around
8. Rings Of Saturn
9. TOPS Theme

Some bands reveal themselves immediately, coming right out and winning the listener over the moment they hit play. And then there are bands that open up with time, rewarding repeat listens with new lyrical and musical thrills on every return. Glaswegian jangle pop extraordinaires U.S. Highball have the rare distinction of being both. The duo specialize in the kind of instantly charming songwriting that makes a great first impression, and an even better second, third, and beyond. Their songs are equal parts wit and heart, full of pop culture nods, inside jokes, and hooks upon hooks. Now U.S. Highball’s third full-length, A Parkhead Cross of The Mind, leans even further into their unique dichotomy, offering another goldmine of discovery set to their finest batch of pop gems to date.

Made up of James Hindle and Calvin Halliday, U.S. Highball is the result of a 17-year friendship. Upon meeting in 2005, the two quickly bonded over their overlapping musical interests, and when their previous group, The Pooches, began to fizzle, they soon found a new creative chemistry working as a duo.

“We have pretty much identical tastes in music, and culture in general, so we were both on the same page as to what we wanted the band to sound like,” Hindle explains. “It’s like having all the fun parts of being in a band, without any of the hassle!” The prolific songwriters released their debut LP as U.S. Highball, Great Record, in 2019, and quickly followed it with 2020’s Up To High Doh.

When crafting A Parkhead Cross of The Mind, U.S. Highball set out to make a louder, punchier version of their sound without sacrificing the idiosyncratic charm of their previous releases. They upgraded their gear and home recording setup and got to work, whittling down 40 potential songs to 12, which were then meticulously honed. “We definitely prefer to record at home,” says Hindle. “It gives us unlimited time to let the songs gestate for longer without the financial and time constraints of being in a studio.” This unhurried process is key, as much of U.S. Highball’s magic lies in the little things. The songs on A Parkhead Cross of The Mind are rooted in the chiming guitars of ‘80s indie pop and college rock, merging the scrappiness of Sarah Records with the catchy quirks of other inspirations like Fountains of Wayne and They Might Be Giants. And like those of their many beloved influences, U.S. Highball’s songs are packed full of undeniable melodies elevated by each precisely constructed sonic detail.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Mental Munchies
2. Double Dare
3. Get In The Van
4. I’ve Stopped Eating
5. By The Clydeside
6. (You’ve Got To) Activate A Carrot

Side B
1. Grease The Wheel
2. Down In Timperley
3. Almost Cut My Hair
4. Bleatings From Yorkshire
5. Jump To The Left
6. Let’s Save Bobby Orlando’s House

Rediscover the anthems of the French Electronic Scene in a double vinyl featureing Bob Sinclar, Mr. Oizo, DJ Gregory, St Germain, Guts, Soha, Laurent Garnier, Stereo Action Unlimited, Kid Loco, Vitalic, Superfunk, Thylacine, Gotan Project and Agoria.

TRACK LISTING

1. Guts - Man Funk
2. Cassius - I <3 U So
3. Stardust - Music Sounds Beter With You
4. Justice - Genesis
5. Breakbot Feat. Irfane - Baby I'm Yours
6. Myd - The Sun
7. Fkj & Masego - Tadow
8. Surkin - Radio Fireworks
9. Thylacine - Piany Pianino
10. Wax Tailor - Que Sera
11. Martin Solveig - Heart Of Africa
12. Laurent Garnier - Crispy Bacon
13. Mr. Oizo - Flat Beat
14. St Germain - Alabama Blues (Todd Edwards Vocal Radio Edit Mix)
15. Vitalic - Poison Lips
16. Etienne De Crecy - Tempovision ( Radio Edit)
17. Superdiscount - Smile (Vocal Mix)
18. Sébastien Tellier - La Ritournelle
19. Agoria - Up All Night (Radio Edit)
20. Cheek - Venus (Sunshine People) [DJ Gregory Remix]
21. Soha - Ëvë
22. Joris Delacroix - Air France
23. Alan Braxe & Fred Falke - Intro
24. Kid Loco - She's My Lover
25. Superfunk - The Young MC
26. Stereo Action Unlimited - Lovelight
27. Gotan Project – Diferente
28. Bob Sinclar - Save Our Soul
29. Dj Gregory - Block Party

Those reliable chaps at Wagram drop another essential bit of wax for the nerds, bar jocks and sample spotters here - putting together a flawless collection of funk killers (both classic and otherwise), which have become better known in their sampled form. Take a quick peek at the tracklist and you'll find nothing but gold from the likes of Eddie Johns, Ike Turner, Gwen McCrae and Bob James, all of which come approved by a who's who of contemporary hip hop and dance music. 

TRACK LISTING

A1. Eddie Johns - More Spell On You
A2. Incredible Bongo Band - Apache
A3. Ike Turner & The Kings Of Rhythm - Funky Mule
A4. Skull Snaps - It's A New Day
A5. George & Gwen McCrae - The Rub
B1. Instant Funk - I Got My Mind Made Up (You Can Get It Girl) [7” Version]
B2. Cymande - The Message
B3. Bob James - Take Me To The Mardi Gras
B4. Imagination - Just An Illusion
B5. Gwen McCrae - All This Love I'm Givin'
C1. Freeez - I.O.U
C2. The Whispers - And The Beat Goes On (Single Edit)
C3. Carol Williams - Love Is You
C4. Carrie Lucas - Dance With You
D1. George Kranz - Din Daa Daa (U.S. Mix Version)
D2. Jimmy Spicer - Money (Dollar Bill Y’all)
D3. Taana Gardner - Heartbeat (2012 – Remaster)

Hot on the heels of their ‘Sampled Funk’ selection, the folks at Wagram apply the same approach to soul, lounge and easy listening, raiding the crates for those smooth grooves, gospel scorchers and tearjerkers that generations of producer have flipped for high quality hip hop and house. Perfect for wax nerds, sample spotters and bar DJs, this collection features jamz from Ray Charles, Timmy Thomas, Dusty Springfield and Etta James.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Charles Aznavour - Parce Que Tu Crois
A2. Joe Simon - Before The Night Is Over
A3. Ray Charles - I Got A Woman
A4. Timmy Thomas - Why Can't We Live Together
A5. Vera Hall - Trouble So Hard
B1. Bob & Earl - Harlem Shuffle
B2. Syl Johnson - I Hate I Walked Away
B3. Dusty Springfield - Son Of A Preacher Man
B4. The Persuasions - Good Times
B5. Johnny Mathis - Come To Me
B6. Millie Jackson - All The Way Lover
C1. Etta James - Something's Got A Hold Of Me
C2. C.B. & The Ten Others With Axes - Rosie
C3. Bobby Bland - (If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want To Be Right - Album Version
C4. Bobby Caldwell - Open Your Eyes
C5. Boom Clap Bachelors - Tiden Flyver
C6. Galt MacDermot - Coffee Cold
D1. Gene Chandler - Duke Of Earl
D2. Marva Whitney - It's My Thing (You Can't Tell Me Who To Sock It To) [Album Version]
D3. Joe Simon - Walking Down Lonely Street
D4. Lowrell - Mellow Mellow (Right On)

Two LPs. 25 tracks from the legendary voices of soul music including Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Marvin Gaye & The Vandellas, James Brown, Little Willie John, Ben E. King, Al Green and more

TRACK LISTING

A1. Gwen McCrae - 90% Of Me Is You
A2. Gil Scott-Heron -Lady Day And John Coltrane
A3. Al Jarreau - Ain't No Sunshine
A4. Darondo - Didn't I
A5. Barry White - Ghetto Letto
B1. Nina Simone - Work Song
B2. Ray Charles - Unchain My Heart
B3. Otis Redding - These Arms Of Mine
B4. Curtis Mayfield & The Impressions - Gypsy Woman
B5. Diana Ross & The Supremes - Let Me Go The Right Way
B6. Sam Cooke - (What A) Wonderful World
B7. Dionne Warwick - Don't Make Me Over
B8. Ben E. King - Stand By Me
C1. James Brown & The Famous Flames - Please, Please, Please
C2. Aretha Franklin - Try A Little Tenderness
C3. George McCrae - Rock Your Baby
C4. Ella Fitzgerald - Georgia On My Mind
C5. Ike & Tina Turner - A Fool In Love
C6. Marvin Gaye & The Vandellas - Stubborn Kind Of Fellow
C7. Etta James -I Just Want To Make Love To You
D1. Aaron Neville - Hercules
D2. Terry Callier - Running Around (Fug City Mix)
D3. Aloe Blacc & King Most - With My Friends
D4. Cookin' On 3 Burners Feat. Kylie Auldist - This Girl
D5. Nostalgia 77 Feat. Alice Russell - Seven Nation Army

In the spring of 2020, Ben Cook — a.k.a. Young Governor, Young Guv, or just Guv — was holed up in the New Mexico high desert, his U.S. tour having been abruptly covid-cancelled during a southwest swing. He and his bandmates were living moment to moment in something called an Earthship, a solar-rigged adobe structure sustainably constructed with, among other things, recycled bottles and tires. And out there in the serene vastness, as a short ride-it-out stint turned into a nine-month sojourn, Ben was writing music, slowly, little by little, mostly at night while the others slept. By the New Year, almost in spite of himself, he had created a new album, two new albums actually, and through the ordeal he was forever changed.

In a place he never expected to be, under circumstances no one could have predicted, and in the face of physical isolation, emotional desolation, and existential dread, Ben created GUV III & IV, a collection of songs dedicated and testifying to the eternal healing power of love — how to find it in the world, in others, and most importantly, in himself. Written in the New Mexico wilderness and produced in Los Angeles, the double album will finally be available in it’s entirety this summer via Run For Cover.

Young Guv’s talent as a songwriter has been with us for a long time. From forming iconic hardcore act No Warning in 1998 to joining Toronto legends Fucked Up, Ben Cook started writing songs as Guv in 2008 between a slew of other projects that were ambitiously working to define the genres they operated in. When he first started working with Run For Cover in 2019, the plan was to release a single record - but with too many songs to turn away, the project expanded into his first double album, GUV I & II.

GUV III & IV finds the same ambition and expertise in hit-making, but this time the individual records hone into specific parts of Guv’s sonic palette. GUV III is full of iconic hooks, power-pop guitar riffs and dancable-rock songs, while GUV IV takes notes from psych rock, electro pop and Laurel Canyon jangle to make something that as a whole, can only be defined as definitively GUV.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
A1. Couldn’t Leave U If I Tried
A2. It’s Only Dancin’
A3. Lo Lo Lonely
A4. Only Wanna See U Tonight
A5. Good Time

Side B
B1. Take Up All My Time
B2. But I Ain’t Got U
B3. Same Old Fool
B4. She Don’t Cry For Anyone
B5. Scam Likely
B6. April Of My Life

Side C
C1. Too Far Gone
C2. Change Your Mind
C3. Sign From God
C4. Overcome
C5. Love Me Don’t Leave Me

Side D
D1. Cry 2 Sleep
D2. Cold In The Summer
D3. Maybe I Should Luv Somebody Else
D4. Helium
D5. Nervous Around U
D6. Nowhere At All
D7. Wind In My Blood

Canadian songwriter and producer Jeremy Haywood-Smith needed an escape from his state of mourning when he began working on Sling-shot, his most recent LP as JayWood. After the loss of his mother in 2019, and a global standstill with multiple social crises throughout 2020, Haywood-Smith yearned for some forward momentum. “The idea of looking back to go forward became a really big thing for me—hence the title, Slingshot.” Feeling disconnected from his past and ancestry after the death of a parent, Haywood-Smith made a conscious effort to better understand his identity and unique Black experience living in the predominantly white province of Manitoba. Merging fantasy scenarios, personal anecdotes, and infectious pop and dance instrumentals, Slingshot is a self-portrait of JayWood at his surface and his depths.

Musically, Slingshot reaches into sounds and styles Haywood-Smith has continued to explore throughout his catalog. “I think I made a really big deal to not pigeonhole myself,” he explains. “Whatever is inspiring me at one point will work it’s way into whatever I’m creating.”Slingshot is an amalgamation of Haywood-Smith’s many musical sensibilities, achieved with help from a crew of talented peers. Haywood-Smith wrote and performed a bulk of the track’s instrumentations, but the LP has notable appearances from Canadian contemporaries Ami Cheon (on “Just Say-in”) and Mckinley Dixon (on “Shine.”) The album’s penultimate track, “Thank You,” was co-produced with Jacob Portrait of Unknown Mortal Orchestra. The song brings JayWood’s sound full circle, offering something reminiscent of Haywood-Smith’s earliest recordings, while flaunting that “The best is yet to come.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Intro (End Of An Era)
2. God Is A Reptile
3. Pray, Move On
4. All Night Long
5. Just Sayin (feat. Ami Cheon)
6. Is It True (Dreams Pt. 3)
7. Kitchen Floor
8. Shine (feat. Mckinley Dixon)
9. Tulips
10. YGBO - Interlude
11. Thank You
12. Arrival (Outro)

In a natural departure from their intoxicating signature new-wave-jazz-funk sound, STR4TA present the double side 12” vinyl - “When You Call Me/Night Flight” available 8th July 2022.

‘When You Call Me’ is already available digitally and has received early support from Rampage (BBC 1Xtra) and Deb Grant (Jazz FM) plus NTS, MiSoul, Solar Radio, KCRW (US), KEXP (US), Concrete Islands, CRACK Magazine, Nu-Funk (Spotify) also achieved Jazz FM playlist since release in early April. In this latest offering, STR4TA unveil a refreshing neoteric layer reverberating with the essence of electro-street-soul in the UK.

STR4TA is the new wave jazz-funk project pioneered by Gilles Peterson and Jean-Paul “Bluey” Maunick. Long-time friends and collaborators, STR4TA sees them mine new musical possibilities inspired by a shared formative era. Their debut album ‘Aspects’ was released in March 2021 to a rapturous reception, in the first material that Maunick and Peterson have released together in over a decade. With standout tracks ‘We Like It’ achieving over 1 million streams on Spotify, ‘Rhythm In Your Mind’ exceeding 12 weeks on Jazz FM’s playlist, and a remix EP featuring Melé, Dave Lee, Greg Wilson, Dave Aju & more released at the end of 2021. Heavily supported by BBC 6Music, The Guardian, Wax Poetics, The Vinyl Factory, CLASH, Télérama (FR), Radio Nova (FR), Rolling Stones Italy & Japan.

STR4TA are in the studio working on their latest body of work tipped for release later in 2022, with selected live dates scheduled over the summer.

TRACK LISTING

A1. When You Call Me
AA1: Night Flight

Pink Floyd are to release two physical versions of their first newly recorded music in over 25 years, ‘Hey Hey Rise Up’. The single, which was initially released digitally in April in support of the people of Ukraine and was #1 in 29 countries, will be available on 7” and CD single. Both formats will also feature a newly reworked version of ‘A Great Day For Freedom’ from the band’s 1994 album, The Division Bell. The track sees David Gilmour and Nick Mason joined by long time Pink Floyd bass player Guy Pratt, with Nitin Sawhney on keyboards and a lead vocal by Andriy Khlyvnyuk of Ukrainian band Boombox. It also has vocal harmonies by Romany and David Gilmour

When the track was first recorded at the end of March, Andriy, who left his band’s US tour to return home and fight for his country, was in a hospital bed in Kyiv recovering from a shrapnel injury. Proceeds for the physical release and the ongoing digital proceeds will go to Ukraine humanitarian relief.

For this limited edition release, David Gilmour revisited The Division Bell track ‘A Great Day For Freedom’. He has reworked the song using the original tapes which, as well as David, feature Nick Mason on drums and Richard Wright on keyboards, along with backing vocals from Sam Brown, Claudia Fontaine and Durga McBroom. The artwork for the track ‘The Sunflower Look’ features a painting of the national flower of Ukraine with a twist by the Cuban artist Yosan Leon. The cover is a direct reference to the woman who was seen around the world giving sunflower seeds to Russian soldiers and telling them to carry them in their pockets, so that when they die sunflowers will grow.

The one that almost got away… A track that many thought would be destined to remain on only the most select of DJs USBs, Kieran Hebden finally clears the sample on one of the most talked about tracks of last year.

Flipping the script on 3LW’s 2000 R&B heater ‘No More (Baby I'ma Do Right)’, Four Tet, under his KH alias, works that untouchable magic on the sample in true Hebden fashion. Taking that peachy vocal snippet and looping it up to the high heavens with a chest rumbling, wobbler of a bass synth and skippy garage beat you’re treated to a Four Tet warper of gargantuan proportions, finally officially released via Ministry of Sound Recordings under the title ‘Looking At Your Pager’.

In Kieran’s own words, "This track was made in the summer last year just before my first festival set in a long time. I wanted something new to play that would feel universal, positive and futuristic and this is what I came up with.

"Since then I think more people have asked me about this track than for anything else I've ever made and I've had amazing times playing it to the best crowds you could ask for. It took quite a while to get approval for the vocal sample but it finally happened recently and now the music is out in the world for everyone."

Limited Edition promo version one-sider. 1000 only. Buy or Cry.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Looking At Your Pager

Stereolab announce the fifth in their ‘Switched On’ series of compilation albums, ‘Pulse Of The Early Brain [Switched On Volume 5]’ with the track ‘Robot Riot’.

‘Robot Riot was originally written for a sculpture made by Charles Long - an artist that Stereolab had previously collaborated with on 1995s ‘Music For The Amorphous Body Study Center’ project.

Track info:
Simple Headphone Mind’ b/w ‘Trippin’ With The Birds’ was the second collaboration between Nurse With Wound and Stereolab.
A 12” disk released on yellow vinyl [1000 copies] and black vinyl [4996 copies] The sleeve was made from a 'Mylar style’, aluminium coloured, material that was glued and sealed – each purchaser had to open the sleeve to discover which colour vinyl they had bought.
The CDs were also released in a sealed sleeve.
Originally released 28th April 1997 via Duophonic Super 45s. Catalogue numbers DS33-11 / DS45CD-11.

The ‘Low Fi’ EP - ‘Low Fi’, ‘[Varoom!]’, ‘Laisser-Faire’ and ‘Elektro [he held the world in his iron grip]’ was originally released as a limited edition clear vinyl 10” [approx 500 copies], black vinyl 10” and CD.
Released 28th September 1992 by Too Pure. Catalogue numbers Pure 14 / Pure CD14.

‘Robot Riot’ and ‘Unity Purity Occasional’ were both written for sculptures made by Charles Long - an artist that we had previously collaborated with on the ‘Music For The Amorphous Body Study Center’ project. ‘Unity Purity Occasional’ was used in 2000 for Charles' sculpture of the same name -
"Unity Purity Occasional is a sculpture with six hand-blown, tear-shaped glass cups filled with antibacterial hand gel that the visitor can pump out and disinfect their hands with. The song is channeled through three tubes that simultaneously blow the visitors’ hands dry with warm jets of air." [Text by Niki Kralli Anell].
‘Robot Riot’ is previously unreleased.

‘Spool of Collusion’ and ‘Forensic Itch’ were originally released on August 18th 2008 as a black vinyl 7” that was given away with the initial pressing [5000 copies] of the ‘Chemical Chords’ LP. Released via Duophonic UHF Disks / 4AD. Catalogue number AD2820.
‘Spool of Collusion’ was also added, as a bonus track, to the Japanese CD release of ‘Chemical Chords’.

‘Symbolic Logic Of Now!’ was one side of a split 7” with Soi-Disant. 100 copies on blue vinyl and 2000 copies on black vinyl.
Originally released in 1998 by Luke Warm Music. Catalogue number LWM001.

‘Ronco Symphony’ [Demo] – a demo version of the track from 1993’s 'The Groop Played "Space Age Batchelor Pad Music"’ album. Previously unreleased.

A cover of the track ‘ABC’ by The Multitude from The Godz album ‘The Third Testament’. The track was originally recorded for a Godz tribute album called ‘Godz Is Not A Put On’ and released in an edition of 500 copies by Lissy’s Records in 1996.
The track was later released as one side of a yellow glitter 7” that was part of an exclusive Japanese box set edition of ‘Aluminum Tunes [Switched On Volume 3]’.
Yellow glitter 7” – approximately 3000 copies. Catalogue number D-UHF-D21.

‘Magne-Music’ and ‘The Nth Degrees’ were added as bonus tracks to the UK limited edition CD of ‘Chemical Chords’ released 18th August 2008 via Duophonic UHF Disks / 4AD. Catalogue number CADD2815CD.
Both tracks also appear on the Japanese edition of ‘Chemical Chords’.

‘Blaue Milch’ was recorded for a Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra compilation album – each artist on the album was sent a Peter Thomas audio track and was asked to build it into a new track.
Originally released in 1998 by the Bungalow record label. Catalogue number Bung 048.2.

The original recording of ‘Plastic Mile’. The re-recording was released as a 7” b/w ‘I Was A Sunny Rainphase’ and subsequently compiled onto Stereolab’s ‘Fab Four Suture’ album.
Previously unreleased.

‘Yes Sir! I Can Moogie’ was originally released in 1995 as part of a single sided 3 track 7” flexi-disk via Wurlitzer Jukebox. Catalogue number WJ03 - 1000 copies were pressed.

‘Refractions In The Plastic Pulse’, a track from the ‘Dots And Loops’ album remixed by Autechre.
A 12” disk released on 20th April 1998 via Duophonic UHF Disks. Catalogue number D-UHF-D19. 500 copies pressed on translucent yellow vinyl and 2972 copies on black vinyl.

‘XXXOOO’ was originally released in 1992 as part of a single sided 3 track 7” flexi-disk via the Encore! label. The flexi-disk was given away with edition #6 of the 'Tea Time' fanzine. Catalogue number Encore 001.

A live version of the ‘Emperor Tomato Ketchup’ album track ‘Cybele's Reverie’. Recorded 26th September 2004 when Stereolab supported Air at The Hollywood Bowl, CA. USA.
Previously unreleased.

TRACK LISTING

Vinyl Tracklisting:
A1. Stereolab / Nurse With Wound - Simple Headphone Mind
B1. Stereolab / Nurse With Wound - Trippin' With The Birds
C1. Low Fi
C2. [Varoom!]
C3. Laisser-Faire
D1 - Elektro [he Held The World In His Iron Grip]
D2 - Robot Riot
D3 - Spool Of Collusion
D4 - Symbolic Logic Of Now!
D5 - Forensic Itch
D6 - Ronco Symphony [Demo]
E1. ABC
E2. Magne-Music
E3. Blaue Milch
E4. Yes Sir! I Can Moogie
E5. Plastic Mile [Original Version]
F1. Refractions In The Plastic Pulse [Feebate Mix] - Autechre Remix
F2. Unity Purity Occasional
F3. The Nth Degrees
F4. XXXOOO
F5. Cybele’s Reverie [Live At The Hollywood Bowl]

CD Tracklisting:
Disc 1
01. Stereolab / Nurse With Wound - Simple Headphone Mind
02. Stereolab / Nurse With Wound - Trippin' With The Birds
03. Low Fi
04. [Varoom!]
05. Laisser-Faire
06. Elektro [he Held The World In His Iron Grip]
Disc 2
01. Robot Riot
02. Spool Of Collusion
03. Symbolic Logic Of Now!
04. Forensic Itch
05. Ronco Symphony [Demo]
06. ABC
07. Magne-Music
08. Blaue Milch
09. Yes Sir! I Can Moogie
10. Plastic Mile [Original Version]
11. Refractions In The Plastic Pulse [Feebate Mix] - Autechre Remix
12. Unity Purity Occasional
13. The Nth Degrees
14. XXXOOO
15. Cybele’s Reverie [Live At The Hollywood Bowl]

The eponymous solo albums written, performed and produced by Paul McCartney: McCartney I from 1970, McCartney II from 1980, and McCartney III from 2020. With 3 LPs or CDs plus 3 photo prints in a beautiful slipcase box.

TRACK LISTING

McCartney I / II / III - LP Box
McCartney I -Side A
The Lovely Linda
That Would Be Something
Valentine Day
Every Night
Hot As Sun / Glasses
Junk
Man We Was Lonely
McCartney I - Side B
Oo You
Momma Miss America
Teddy Boy
Singalong Junk
Maybe I'm Amazed
Kreen-Akrore
McCartney II - Side A
Coming Up
Temporary Secretary
On The Way
Waterfalls
Nobody Knows
McCartney II - Side B
Front Parlour
Summer's Day Song
Frozen Jap
Bogey Music
Darkroom
One Of These Days
McCartney III - Side A
Long Tailed Winter Bird
Find My Way
Pretty Boys
Women And Wives
Lavatory Lil
Slidin'
McCartney III - Side B
Deep Deep Feeling
The Kiss Of Venus
Seize The Day
Deep Down
Winter Bird / When Winter Comes

McCartney I / II / III - CD Box
Disc 1
The Lovely Linda
That Would Be Something
Valentine Day
Every Night
Hot As Sun / Glasses
Junk
Man We Was Lonely
Oo You
Momma Miss America
Teddy Boy
Singalong Junk
Maybe I'm Amazed
Kreen-Akrore
Disc 2
Coming Up
Temporary Secretary
On The Way
Waterfalls
Nobody Knows
Front Parlour
Summer's Day Song
Frozen Jap
Bogey Music
Darkroom
One Of These Days
Disc 3
Long Tailed Winter Bird
Find My Way
Pretty Boys
Women And Wives
Lavatory Lil
Slidin'
Deep Deep Feeling
The Kiss Of Venus
Seize The Day
Deep Down
Winter Bird / When Winter Comes
Thanks

Recommended If You Like: Can, Tortoise, OOIOO, Sonic Youth, Ty Segall, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Bitchin Bajas, The Cars, Liars.

Experimental psych-punk institution Onedia returns with Success, the band’s most guitar-centric, rocking album in decades. Long straddling the gray area between the NYC punk/psych/rock community and the art/experimental world, the music of Oneida is celebrated for its mix of abstract, atmo[1]spheric sounds and pulsing, hammering anthems. Success finds the band getting to the core of what makes minimal rock music

so good - songs pared back to beat and melody with a limited number of guitar chords. If a song or two gets ripped in half later by a corrosive guitar solo, well, what did you expect? This is Oneida.



“Oneida are the rare experimentalists who can hammer away at a riff or idea incessantly and somehow make it really last.” Pitchfork

TRACK LISTING

1. Beat Me To The Punch
2. Opportunities
3. Low Tide
4. I Wanna Hold Your Electric Hand
5. Paralyzed
6. Rotten
7. Solid

Debut from genre-defying producer, Yosa Peit. Laurie Anderson meets Bjork; Prince overlapped with Arthur Russell and the hum of Blue Velvet, with jarred and splintered ambient production reminiscent of Aphex Twin. ‘Phyton’ gets a special expanded edition via Fire Records, featuring unreleased tracks; ‘Tyrann’, a live version of the haunting album track ‘Serpentine’ and end of the night lament, ‘Rise’.

‘Phyton’ is a conundrum with its own humour and beauty amid the electronica soundtracking; it’s a record that’s defied genre categories when first released on Tax Free Records two years ago. Yosa’s ascension from singer to producer is now complete.

“In my head I was making a movie,” Yosa told No Wave magazine, “I dreamed up a Coen Brothers’ movie scene for a few tracks.” The result is a haunting, provocative sound; a soundscape where songs merge and splinter, a trip that’s never predictable.

"The production is super fresh" Holly Herndon.

“Warped lo-fi meets glitchy electronica and pop” The Vinyl Factory.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Precious Lies
A2 Serpentine
A3 Anthy
A4 Curls
A5 Leaf I
B1 Serious People Chuckle
B2 Elephant
B3 Leaf II
B4 Lin
B5 New Stars
B6 Palm Tree Antenna
B7 Tyrann

Download Extras:
1. Serpentine (Live Bonus)
2. Rise (Bonus)

his is the "lost" second album by hard-prog band T.2., featuring demos recorded at Decca Studios by the original line-up in 1970, just after the release of their debut masterpiece It'll All Work Out In Boomland. Known also as T.2. and Fantasy, 1970 shows T.2. at their rawest, featuring the explosive guitar of KEITH CROSS, the powerful drumming and cool vocals of PETER DUNTON and the fantastic bass playing of BERNIE JINKS.

Sourced from the original master tapes.

Part-time farmer / musician Oliver Chaplin is the person behind one of the rarest private pressings from the UK. His cult masterpiece "Standing Stone" was recorded in early 1974 at a remote farm in Wales, using a portable 4-track Teac reel-to-reel machine. Helped by his brother Chris at the controls (an experienced BBC engineer who had worked on Syd Barrett sessions), surrounded by animals and "smaller winged creatures", Oliver sang and played acoustic and electric guitars filtered through tape echo, distortion and multi-tracking, creating a very unique sound, a kind of DIY mutant-psychedelic-blues (think Captain Beefheart) which sounded years ahead of its time. Despite the lo-fi nature of the recording, the sound quality is amazing and timeless.

A new studio album by the German progressive / hard rock legends. In the 1970s, Birth Control were one of the most internationally successful German rock bands . Since their spectacular album debut in 1970 on the cult label Ohr, the band has released more than thirty long players, including timeless classics such as "Operation", "Hoodoo Man" (which includes the disco hit "Gamma Ray") and "Plastic People".

Their 21st regular album is the first since the death of the band mastermind, singer and drummer Bernd Noske. Birth Control has always had a completely unique sound, showing the creativity and range of the current line-up on this album and gets to the heart of their wealth of ideas in 54 minutes, bringing 8 new studio tracks to the turntable, including a reworking of the 1972 hit Gamma Ray. Furthermore, seven new songs from the compositional pen of their songwriter duo Kühn/Ettrich, a brilliant mix of progressive/hard rock, blues and funk.

TRACK LISTING

1. Gamma Ray 2.0
2.The Last Word
3. Wrestling Mama
4. Open Sesame
5. I Don't Mind
6. Wannabe
7. Plans Get Lost
8. These Are The Days

The German progressive / hard rock legend's last studio album (2016) with Bernd "Nossi" Noske - released posthumously in 2016 two years after the sudden death of the band's mastermind, singer and drummer.

Thee Strawberry Mynde are a ModGarage/PowerPop band, who formed in the North East of England in the mid 90s when Paul Garner (vocals/guitar) & Mark 'Bazza' Barrett (bass) got together to make some noise after been introduced by a mutual friend. Both were big fans of the 60s American garage bands and wanted to put a band together to preach the gospel according to 'Pebbles'. Subconsciously the bands name was taken from a Robyn Hitchcock song.

In 1975 the second album of the Berlin based group MYTHOS was released. Mastermind Stephan Kaske and his band present a cosmic, trippy space-rock full of synths, flutes, and mellotrons. Steange and unique.This re-mastered re-releases on the original Kosmische Kuriere label.

Dynamite Cuts is proud to be able to press for the first time on 7” vinyl the explosive and super funky “I’ll Say It Again”, with super funky cover art work, heavy funk rock groove and the powerful uplifting vocal from the wonderful Linda Tillery aka Sweet Linda Divine. This track is the back-bone groove for the Black Sheep hip hop classic “Choice Is Yours”.

TRACK LISTING

A I'll Say It Again
B Same Time Same Place

The Jazz Messengers were a jazz combo that was founded by Art Blakey, together with Horace Silver. Soon after its founding, the Jazz Messengers became known as an incubator for young talent. Band leader Art Blakey led the collective for over 35 years. The 1978 formation has been described by critics as one of Blakey’s strongest groups in years, featuring trumpeter Valery Ponomarev, Robert Watson (also known as Bobby Watson) on alto saxophone, David Schnitter on tenor saxophone, Dennis Irwin on bass and James Williams on piano. With this formation, he recorded the album Reflections In Blue in 1978 in the Netherlands and released the year after on Timeless Records.

Reissue of the legendary and unbeatable first Gun Club LP, originally released on Ruby Records in 1981.

Jeffrey Lee Pierce - reggae enthusiast, heroin addict, and former president of the Blondie fan club - suffered a lonely, depressing death on March 31st, 1996 of a brain hemorrhage, after untold years of drug use and alcoholism. Why this event mattered much to anyone lay in a fantastic record by his band. The Gun Club recorded 16 years earlier, the masterful "Fire Of Love". A visionary and fierce moment in time when The Gun Club took the raw, dripping meat of shopworn delta blues and infused it with the energy and fire of the LA punk rock scene.

Inspired by bands like X, Television, the Cramps, he met Kid Congo Powers (who will later play with Nick Cave and Cramps) and they formed the Creeping Ritual in 1979, soon to be renamed The Gun Club. Pierce was already a notorious drunk, exhibitionist, poet and fanboy. The Gun Club were quickly a dangerous new spoke on the spinning wheel of dynamic LA alt-culture. By 1980, Jeffrey Lee had moved into a deep reverence for Mississippi delta blues. The Gun Club paid more than passing homage: they wholeheartedly swiped complete riffs, words and attitude from the masters. Pierce participated in the great blues singer tradition by cobbling together distinct lines from other people's songs to create new ones. Snatches of Blind Willie Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson and Robert Johnson can be heard throughout this debut LP –released in 1981 on Slash’s Ruby Records.

What makes "Fire Of Love" such a brilliant listen long after its time is that this blatant homage to the blues was amplified, energized and kicked into overdrive - in a new style that combined the ghostliness of the original model with a FAST, unwound and supremely energetic beat. The engineering feats of Pat Burnette contributed to that sound: he wielded his Quad-Teck studios like a weapon, and mastered some of the greatest sides in LA music history (such as Germs’ “GI”). Pure fullness of sound and the raw hot throb of records that were made to stand the test of time.

From the immensely dark and aggressive sexuality of "Sex Beat", Gun Club's most recognizable number, to the fetishistic salute to fellow traveler Poison Ivy of The Cramps in “For The Love Of Ivy”, including the hellfire classic “She’s Like Heroin To Me”, a 2:33 masterpiece in which everything comes together; “Fire Of Love” is pure perfection. They would never reach this level again. No one would, either. "Fire of Love " stands among the greatest classics of Rock history, and shows the genius of the great Jeffrey, whose haunted singing has never been replaced. It proved out to be one of
the most influential records of the 80’s, with countless musicians declaring their love for the Club. Can’t be recomended enough, this album is a real classic that has been criminally underrated. The beginning of a legend. Let's give the devil his due for this one, and ask him to take real good care of Jeffrey.

Five years after the release of 1989’s pop-oriented album Strange Angels, Laurie Anderson followed up with the avant-garde concept album Bright Red, a Brian Eno production exploring much darker territory. Eno also co-wrote four tracks; “The Puppet Motel”, “Muddy River”, “Poison” and “Tightrope”. For the recordings, Anderson was supported by Adrian Belew, who provided guitars on several tracks. Belew is best known as the lead vocalist and guitarist of King Crimson. During the time of the recording of Bright Red, Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed just started dating. They collaborated on a number of recordings together, including the duet “In Our Sleep”, that is featured on Bright Red.

Here Comes Shuggie Otis is the debut album by guitarist and songwriter Shuggie Otis, released when he was only 18 years old. Produced and arranged by his father, Johnny Otis, the set features nine original cuts co-written by the pair. The album is evenly divided between vocal tunes and instrumentals. It was this effort that earned him the title of “child prodigy”. The album stands the test of time, since tracks like “Gospel Groove” and “Funky Thithee” are fan favourites to this day. Shuggie's guitar-picking isn't a million miles away from Hendrix, and is backed by members of The Crusaders for this session. Listenin' to Shuggie Otis is like sitting on a Californian beach for the sunrise on a perfect Summer morning, watching the dolphins mingle with the surfers as the solar rays dapple on the rippling ocean currents. Every home needs one!

The live album from Windhand's show on Levitation Sessions. The Richmond, VA based quartet has quickly risen to the top of the heavy rock music scene, with their genre-defying take on doom and psychedelia. Perhaps the perfect soundtrack to these dystopian times.

“It was great to get together with the band after so many months apart, to plug in all the gear and let the demons loose once again. For a moment there it almost felt like being back on the road. We got to work with our old friends like Jonathan Kassalow (lighting and organ), and frequent music video collaborator Jordan Vance. They pulled it all together and made the show a heavy visual experience to pair with the audio which was recorded and mixed by our live sound engineer, Chris Moore. We look forward to seeing you on the road sometime soon at a real show, but this is as close as we'll get for now. Hope y'all enjoy.” - Dorthia, Garrett, Parker, and Ryan

Windhand is one of the key artists in the resurgence of heavy music, and in a scene teeming with great bands inspired by Black Sabbath, Pentagram, Sleep and Electric Wizard, Windhand stands apart due to their mastery of the craft and the stunning vocals of singer Dorthia Cottrell.

TRACK LISTING

DISC 1
SIDE A
1. Old Evil
2. Diablerie
SIDE B
1. First To Die
2. Forest Clouds

DISC 2
SIDE C
1. Three Sisters
2. Grey Garden
SIDE D
1. Orchard
2. Cassock

Pre-Order details for the vinyl editions will appear once we have the full info...

Lucrecia Dalt channels innate sensory echoes of growing up in Colombia on her new album ¡Ay!, where traditional instrumentation encounters adventurous impulse and sci-fi meditations on atemporality in an exclamation of liminal delight.

Dalt’s introspective approach to composition, last surfaced on her entrancing 2020 album No era sólida, refracts across ¡Ay! in a subconscious spectrum of the music genres she absorbed as a child. Treasured sounds and syncopations of bolero, mambo, salsa, and merengue rooted in Dalt’s early surroundings awaken on ¡Ay! and give glow to the album’s contours. The intuitive melodic structures of this music, processed by memory and modular synths, led Dalt to a mirage of her creative origins and the album she has always wanted to make.



¡Ay! is a tincture of rich acoustic textures filtered through the warmth of Dalt’s signature machinic distortion, diffused of easily-defined edges as previously explored on No era sólida and her 2018 album Anticlines. Here, vivid incantations of upright bass, wind ensembles and brass form shimmers of harmonic motif, distilled across radiant rhythms. Dalt worked closely with friend and collaborator Alex Lázaro to cultivate new shapes and colors for slowed down tumbaos and bolero percussion patterns. Together they deconstructed the traditional drum kit into serpentine expansions of congas, bongos, temple blocks and timbales, all of which they tuned to dance among Lucrecia’s lucid vocal processions.

Into this hallucinatory crossing of time and space, Dalt projects a sci-fi mythology rendered through theoretical exchanges with philosopher Miguel Prado. Their mutual interest in consciousness and atemporality summoned the tale of a metaphysical odyssey, cast by Dalt through silken lyrics in her native Spanish tongue. The lush musical world of ¡Ay! offers a soft but obscure landing for an alien entity called Preta, who has gathered a body in the hydrosphere from evaporated dead skin. We follow her first experiences of containment and composure as she navigates our geology and earthly markers of love and time, in contrast with her state as a timeless entity.

Through Dalt’s soaring vocals, the intimate monologues of this ethereal being oscillate with the album’s vibrant instrumental arrangements. ¡Ay! stages a rare encounter between tropical rhythms and sci-fi storytelling, where Dalt devises her amorphous character to explore love without the expected cliches of romantic genres. Dalt brings lightness and humor to the arc of this melodramatic tale, once again shedding the restraints of convention to break boundaries into abstract, fragmentary relics.

¡Ay! is an interjection through which Dalt enters a new dimension in her work – one which connects her legacy of electronic revelations with the moment she reaches a panoramic view of her musical source. In sound and spirit, ¡Ay! is a heliacal exploration of native place and environmental tuning, where Dalt reverses the spell of temporal containment. Through the spiraling tendencies of time and topography, Dalt has arrived where she began.

On behalf of Lucrecia Dalt and RVNG, a portion of the proceeds from this release will benefit Fundación Mareia, an interethnic, Chocó, Colombia-based organization led by women promoting Afro-centered emancipatory education around black feminism, decolonialism, and community, and encouraging activism, protection of nature, an ancestral care.

TRACK LISTING

A1. No Tiempo
A2. El Galatzó
A3. Atemporal
A4. Dicen
A5. Contenida
B1. La Desmesura
B2. Gena
B3. Bochinche
B4. Enviada
B5. Epílogo

The ultimate visual history of iconic band The Fall from renowned photographer Kevin Cummins, with a foreword by Poet Laureate and Fall fan, Simon Armitage.

'No one has captured the look of alternative UK music over the past half a century more tellingly than Kevin Cummins.' - Simon Armitage.

'Kevin Cummins is a true master in being able to capture the essence of music, the soul of the band. Whatever he does however he does it is a mystery to me but it's pure genius.' - Rankin.

'Kevin has the uncanny ability of capturing the inner mood of musicians. Be it the dynamics within a pensive Joy Division, or the sense surrounding the fledgeling Fall that something special was around the corner for us all. Kevin's book is nothing less than a remarkable document of a bewildering and defiant anti-fashion movement born in Prestwich, north Manchester in the grimy mid-70s.' - Marc Riley.

'Capturing forty years of the band's career via his archive, the legendary photographer (whose recent book, Juvenes, documented the story of Joy Division) gives his take on the phenomenon of The Fall and the late, great Mark E. Smith.' - Vive le Rock.

Contains never-before-seen images.
Foreword by Simon Armitage, Poet Laureate.

From chaotic early gigs to their final years, NME photographer Kevin Cummins provides a definitive, unique perspective on cult favourites The Fall. In this stunning visual history spanning four decades, discover how and why they emerged as one of the most innovative, boundary-breaking bands in modern music. With a foreword by Poet Laureate and Fall fan Simon Armitage and an interview with Eleni Poulou, as well as never-before-seen images from Cummins' archive, this is the ultimate visual companion to The Fall.

It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (Music from the Soundtrack) features some of the most iconic tracks in pop culture, including the instantly recognizable “Linus and Lucy,” as well as the languid, lyrical “Great Pumpkin Waltz.” The music was recorded on October 4, 1966 at Desilu’s Gower Street Studio in Hollywood, California by Guaraldi (piano) and his longtime friends and trio sidemen — bassist Monty Budwig and drummer Colin Bailey — joined by Emanuel Klein (trumpet), John Gray (guitar) and Ronald Lang (woodwinds). The entire scoring process was overseen by composer, arranger and conductor John Scott Trotter, well known for a three-decade run as Bing Crosby’s music director and close friend.

The slowdown of the pandemic gave the Mendelson family, (Lee Mendelson was the Executive Producer of the TV Special), an opportunity to dig deep through their archives and they discovered what were previously thought to be lost to time: the original analog session reels for It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. What you will hear on most tracks of this new and improved “best” version of It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown are the musical cues as recorded by Vince and crew before they were edited for the television special, in show order, as well as a selection of alternate takes.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Linus And Lucy
2. Graveyard Theme
3. Snoopy And The Leaf/Frieda (With The Naturally Curly Hair)
4. The Great Pumpkin Waltz
5. Linus And Lucy (Reprise)
6. Charlie Brown Theme/Charlie Brown Theme (Minor Theme)/Graveyard Theme (Reprise)
7. The Great Pumpkin Waltz (Reprise)
8. The Red Baron/Military Drum March
9. The Great Pumpkin Waltz (2nd Reprise)/The Great Pumpkin Waltz (3rd Reprise)
10. Graveyard Theme (Trick Or Treat) (2nd Reprise)
11. Fanfare/Breathless/ Graveyard Theme (Trick Or Treat) (3rd Reprise)
12. Charlie Brown Theme (Reprise)
Side B
1. Breathless (2nd Reprise)
2. It’s A Long Way To Tipperary/There’s A Long, Long Trail A-Winding/Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag/Roses Of Picardy
3. Graveyard Theme (Trick Or Treat) (4th Reprise)
4. Linus And Lucy (2nd Reprise)/Linus And Lucy (3rd Reprise)
5. Charlie Brown Theme (2nd Reprise)
6. Linus And Lucy (Alternate Take 1)
7. Graveyard Theme (Alternate Take 1)
8. Charlie Brown Theme (Alternate Reprise Take 1)
9. Linus And Lucy (Alternate Take 2)
10. The Great Pumpkin Waltz (Alternate Take 2)
11. Linus And Lucy (Alternate Reprise Take 1)
12. Charlie Brown Theme (Alternate Reprise Take 2)

David Versace is an Australian multi-genre keyboardist, composer and producer based in Meanjin, Queensland. Growing up in a very musical household it was always important to express and embrace all types of music and sonics. His sound ranges from Jazz and Samba to ambient works and the odd dance-floor heater. David also plays in Meanjin nu-jazz dance outfit First Beige.

Since late 2019, he has self released around 20 different tracks and with the most recent signing to La Sape Records David is excited to announce his debut solo album 'Okra' a conceptual body of work that flows through a culmination of raw organic concepts conceived by In The Moment, and his most elegant & articulated work yet.

TRACK LISTING

1. Summer Party
2. KP Cruisin
3. Saguaro
4. Awake For You
5. 45 Minutes
6. The More We Love
7. Heat Rays

Saxophonist, flautist Chip Wickham takes us to Cloud 10 with his most soulful and lyrical album to date

Chip Wickham is a jazz musician and producer who divides his time between Spain, UK and the Middle-East and who has made a name for himself with a series of beautifully crafted solo albums that draw equally on the hard swinging spiritual jazz of Roland Kirk, Yusef Lateef and Sahih Shihab, alongside the music of British jazz legends such as Tubby Hayes and Harold McNair and the more contemporary sounds of Jazzanova, Kyoto Jazz Massive and Robert Glasper.

Originally from Brighton, Chip studied in Manchester and became involved in the 00's UK jazz, soul. trip-hop and funk scenes, working with the likes of The Pharcyde, The New Mastersounds and Nightmares On Wax as well as playing with Matthew Halsall's Gondwana Orchestra. And his relationship with Gondwana Records goes right back to the very beginning as he played on Halsall's 2008 debut Sending My Love.

Cloud 10 is his debut album for Gondwana Records (following a 12" of Lonnie Liston Smith covers in May) and it is a wonderful, timeless, lyrical, slice of hard-hitting, soulful, spiritual jazz and modal hard-bop with a distinctly UK flavour - driven by Chip's deftly funky flute work and hard-hitting tenor. Underpinned by Chip's restless energy and driven by his desire to connect with the listener on a deeper level.

"My albums are my legacy. Each one is a statement to the world of music and my contribution to its growth, its energy and ultimately its history."

Cloud 10 features pianist Phil Wilkinson, vibes player Ton Risco, bassist Sneaky and drummer Jon Scott (all veterans of previous albums) together with harpist Amanda Whiting and percussionist Jack McCarthy whom Chip met touring in the Gondwana Orchestra, and rising star Irish trumpeter Eoin Grace who also doubles on flugel horn. The album was recorded at the legendary all analogue Estudios Brazil in Madrid, with the band spending a week at Chip's house in the mountains just outside the city, eating and drinking together, listening to music till the small hours and recording all day. It was a magical time and the positivity seeped into the recording.

"It was a beautiful week of pure music and joy, I think you can hear it in the recording and that's the inspiration for the title: Cloud 10 is a place of a great happiness, way out beyond Cloud 9!"

And it is that purity, energy and joy, that makes Cloud 10 such a life-affirming recording and makes Chip the perfect addition to the Gondwana Records family. Lean in, you'll be on Cloud 10 too!

Saxophonist, flautist Chip Wickham takes us to Cloud 10 with his most soulful and lyrical album to date

Chip Wickham is a jazz musician and producer who divides his time between Spain, UK and the Middle-East and who has made a name for himself with a series of beautifully crafted solo albums that draw equally on the hard swinging spiritual jazz of Roland Kirk, Yusef Lateef and Sahih Shihab, alongside the music of British jazz legends such as Tubby Hayes and Harold McNair and the more contemporary sounds of Jazzanova, Kyoto Jazz Massive and Robert Glasper.

Originally from Brighton, Chip studied in Manchester and became involved in the 00's UK jazz, soul. trip-hop and funk scenes, working with the likes of The Pharcyde, The New Mastersounds and Nightmares On Wax as well as playing with Matthew Halsall's Gondwana Orchestra. And his relationship with Gondwana Records goes right back to the very beginning as he played on Halsall's 2008 debut Sending My Love.

Cloud 10 is his debut album for Gondwana Records (following a 12" of Lonnie Liston Smith covers in May) and it is a wonderful, timeless, lyrical, slice of hard-hitting, soulful, spiritual jazz and modal hard-bop with a distinctly UK flavour - driven by Chip's deftly funky flute work and hard-hitting tenor. Underpinned by Chip's restless energy and driven by his desire to connect with the listener on a deeper level.

"My albums are my legacy. Each one is a statement to the world of music and my contribution to its growth, its energy and ultimately its history."

Cloud 10 features pianist Phil Wilkinson, vibes player Ton Risco, bassist Sneaky and drummer Jon Scott (all veterans of previous albums) together with harpist Amanda Whiting and percussionist Jack McCarthy whom Chip met touring in the Gondwana Orchestra, and rising star Irish trumpeter Eoin Grace who also doubles on flugel horn. The album was recorded at the legendary all analogue Estudios Brazil in Madrid, with the band spending a week at Chip's house in the mountains just outside the city, eating and drinking together, listening to music till the small hours and recording all day. It was a magical time and the positivity seeped into the recording.

"It was a beautiful week of pure music and joy, I think you can hear it in the recording and that's the inspiration for the title: Cloud 10 is a place of a great happiness, way out beyond Cloud 9!"

And it is that purity, energy and joy, that makes Cloud 10 such a life-affirming recording and makes Chip the perfect addition to the Gondwana Records family. Lean in, you'll be on Cloud 10 too!

TRACK LISTING

1. Cloud 10
2. Stratospheric
3. Lower East Side
4. Winter
5. Tubby Chaser
6. Dark Eyes
7. The Hit
8. Before I Go

Born in Japan in 1947, Ryo had a long and stellar career recording and releasing music up until his passing on 13 April 2020, in Tallinn, Estonia. Ryo is one of the pioneers of the jazz fusion genre, with the Japanese jazz fusion / funk sound becoming extremely influential within the 80s UK club scene and amongst its DJs. His track 'Trinkets & Things' became a bonafide underground classic. In the US he worked with some of the greats of jazz, such as Elvin Jones, Chico Hamilton and Bobbi Humphrey, to name but a few. A forward-thinking and ever-evolving musician,

Ryo collaborated with the Roland Corporation and Korg on the 'guitar synthesizer' and later wrote music software for computers. Later in life he relocated to Estonia and worked there, as well as Finland, Sweden, and the Baltic states.

'Juice' has become a much-loved album for crate diggers and jazz-funk enthusiasts, with its tracks frequently being sampled and re-imagined in hip-hop. The smoky, beat- down, spiritual funk jam 'Bamboo Child' has been flipped by Diamond D, Puff Daddy, and Kool G Rap. The album was released in 1976 on RCA Records and features the musicians' drummer Jimmy Young, rhythm guitarist Hugh McCracken, and bassist Stu

Woods amongst other luminaries. A solid album throughout that incorporates a heavy dose of tripped-out synths alongside the emerging disco sound of the time. Tracks such as the opener 'Raisins', with its drum beat intro and bubbling bass-line, rivals The Headhunters at their finest. A superb album from an underground legend.

TRACK LISTING

1. Raisins
2. Sometime
3. The Breeze And I
4. East Side Boogie
5. El Toro
6. Bamboo Child
7. Andes

The frontman and creative lynchpin of Oklahoma’s finest, Other Lives, described by MOJO magazine as “the next must have American pastoral sensation,” Jesse and his chief collaborator Kim Tabish used their time during lockdown to fashion a glorious record, as epic as it is intimate, distinguished by the same sweeping, cinematic arrangements and haunting, wistful melodies that typify the band’s catalogue, but with a rawer edge that reflects its’ home made origins.

“The album isn’t necessarily ‘western’ sounding; it’s more that, if I name something immediately, it sticks for me, so the album title stayed Cowboy Ballads.” The album’s ballads are represented by ‘New Love’, ‘Price In Full’, ‘Rituals II’ and the instrumentals ‘Italia Nite I’ and ‘Dread Harp Blues’, simmering episodes fit for a cowboy as he rides off into the sunset though few cowboys post the existential thoughts that Jesse does here.

TRACK LISTING

1. Cowboy Ballad
2. Da DA
3. Italia Nite I
4. Manchini
5. Bells And Whistles
6. Dread Harp Blues
7. New Love
8. Castro
9. Keep You Right
10. Price In Full
11. Fantastik
12. Halloween Day
13. Mystic I
14. Rituals I I

‘Enter The Kettle’ is the second album on Alex Paterson’s new label Orbscure. It’s primarily a duo LP with him and old friend Fil Le Gonidec, who together are OSS. OSS have played at Glastonbury, Fuji Rock, supported Kraftwerk and played chess with Robbie Williams, who also stole their speed. They were originally known as Orb Sound System – a half DJ/half live version of The Orb, which could gig more nimbly than the main machine. Early shows saw reggae-heavy selections and sometimes featured toasters, but seeing as they never actually had a sound system, can’t play out at the moment and have made a record – it’s currently just OSS, which now stands for On Sum Shit. Fil went on to feature on the albums ‘FFWD’, ‘Orbus Terrarum’, ‘Bicycles & Tricycles’, ‘Orblivion’ and ‘Orbsessions Volume 1’. He has played live with The Orb many times, and also released industrial techno as Autolump on BadOrb and Mike Coles’ Malicious Damage. Other guests on the album include official-other-half-of-The Orb Michael Rendall, plus Jah Wobble, Roger Eno and George Holt – whose credits include Depeche Mode and Erasure.

TRACK LISTING

1. Wow Picasso!
2. Whippersnapper
3. No Speed Limit
4. Disco Bombing
5. Digital Bicycle Clips
6. Delta River

Arp, a.k.a. Alexis Georgopoulos, makes his anticipated return to Mexican Summer with the second chapter in his ZEBRA trilogy. New Pleasures advances the narrative begun with 2018’s acclaimed ZEBRA; pastoral in mood, expansive in style, the record acted as a dawn on a nascent, Edenic landscape, reminiscent of a beautiful, long-lost Fourth World album. In this world, the music approximated the patient cadence of geological time – the way time suspends when you watch a river in motion. There was, nonetheless, the presence of something alien on the horizon. Now, Arp drops us deep into the grid of the city. (Or is it a complex lattice of microchips?) New Pleasures fast-forwards a few centuries, locating listeners in a post-industrial Sprawl (to borrow an expression from William Gibson’s Neuromancer) of concrete and glass, imbuing the album with the flinty glow of commerce, the sleek rhythms of industrialization, and the cool finesse of brutalism. The result is a collection of futuristic pop interiors with glinted exteriors; a prismatic inquiry into machine sentience, the economy of desire, and myriad forms of possession – a dystopian response to ZEBRA’s idyllic naturalism. Canny and time-bending, Georgopoulos sculpts angularities into fresh, alluring shapes, expanding and contracting song form into brain-teasing sound design. The sensation the music offers is almost rubbery; it makes you feel as if you could flex, bend and squeeze your body inside out – a vivid, deconstructed take on high-definition pop, avant-garde, and dance music forms.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Peripheral
2. Plaza
3. New Pleasures
4. Le Palace
5. Traitor (Dub)
6. Preset Gloss
7. Sponge (for Miyake)
8. Embassy Disco
9. Eniko
10. Cloud Storage
11. I: /o

In 1990 Ronald Lee Trent Jr. was the teenage creator of Altered States – a raw, futuristic techno-not-techno anthem, which in retrospect was something of a stylistic anomaly for the young artist. Across subsequent years, with time spent in Chicago, New York and Detroit, came the development of his signature sound, and renown as a world class purveyor of deep, soul infused house/garage. This story has already been told, and on casual inspection, the well-worn platitude ‘house music legend’ is an old shoe that still fits. However, in fact, he’s actually so much more, and has been for quite a while. A genuine musician, songwriter, and ‘producer’ in the proper, old-school sense, the artist today has more in common with Quincy Jones than he does your average journeyman DJ track-hack.

To those in the know, these broader skills haven’t gone unnoticed, which is why on the highly collaborative, career-topping new LP ‘What Do The Stars Say To You’, it took little persuasion to recruit serious star power. Brazilian royalty Ivan Conti and Alex Malheriros from Azymuth, violin maestro Jean Luc Ponty, ambient hero Gigi Masin, hype band Khruangbin and more performed, whilst NY cornerstone François K provided mastering duties. At various points Ron himself played drums, percussion, keys, synths, piano, guitar and electronics.

Harking back to the 70s and 80s boom in adventurous, luxurious albums, WDTSSTY is a love letter to the longplayer, where rich musicality and a liquid smooth, silky flow make seemingly odd genre bedfellows acquiesce harmoniously. Each song its own high-fidelity odyssey, Trent incorporated a broad range of live instruments and electronics into a sophisticated, euphonic whole. Described by him as being “designed for harmonising with spirit, urban life and nature”, this is aural soul food, gently easing you into balmy nights, where everything is alright.

Originally wanting to be an architect, Trent’s views his approach to collaboration and music in general as having the same principles. A firm believer in the nourishing qualities of sound, he sees direct parallels between the two disciplines, being as the purpose of good architecture is to improve quality of life. “With WARM, through sound design, I built frameworks for the musicians, who furnished and occupied these struc tures beautifully, which was a big compliment for me”, he comments.

The conditions required for a good collab are more than simply structural though, as Trent expounds, “I’m a huge fan of everyone on the record, especially Jean Luc and Azymuth, who’re part of my DNA. Each track was made with that guest in mind – for example, when I started writing ‘Sphere’, I immediately thought ‘this IS Ponty’. I played the keys in his style, and did a guide violin solo using a synth, which he then redid, amazingly. ‘Cool Water’ is based around Azymuth themes, so when I sent it to Ivan, he could immediately see himself in the piece; He got what I was going for straight away. For ‘Melt Into You’ I hit up Alex on Instagram, sent him the track, he liked it, and within 24 hours he’d sent back six different bass passes!”

TRACK LISTING

A1. Cool Water Feat. Ivan Conti (Azymuth) And Lars Bartkuhn
A2. Cycle Of Many
A3. Admira Feat. Gigi Masin
A4. Flowers Feat. Venecia
A5. Melt Into You Feat. Alex Malheiros (Azymuth)
B1. Flos Potentia (Sugar, Cotton, Tabacco) Feat. Khruangbin
B2. Sphere Feat. Jean-Luc Ponty
B3. WARM
B4. On My Way Home
B5. What Do The Stars Say To You

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

TRACK LISTING

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

Submitted for listener’s approval, …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead present their eleventh album, BLEED HERE NOW…in historic quadraphonic surround sound, giving listeners an immersive listening experience that will take them through a listening journey from one track to the next. Forced into a pandemic-necessitated cancellation of their 2020/2021 tours, the band retreated to lengthy period of doing nothing. After a lengthy period of doing nothing, the band decided to make an album in a way that hasn’t really been done since the 70s - in quadrophonic sound. From the opening bombast of “Our Epic Attempts” to the alternative drive of “Penny Candle” to the thunderous 11-minute opus “Taken By The Hand” this album is unlike anything the band has produced before, equal parts experimental and ambitious, yet still sounding honest and true to what the band is. XI: BLEED HERE NOW was produced by engineer Charles Godfrey alongside Trail’s own Conrad Keely, who also created, directed, edited and produced all of the album’s artwork again.

TRACK LISTING

1. Our Epic Attempts
2. Long Distance Hell
3. Field Songs
4. Penny Candle
5. No Confidence
6. Sting Theme
7. Kill Everyone
8. Growing Divide
9. Pigments
10. Golden Sail
11. A Life Less Melancholy
12. Taken By The Hand
13. Contra Mundum
14. Darkness Into Light
15. Water Tower
16. Sounds Of Horror
17. Protest Streets
18. The Widening Gyre
19. Millennium Actress
20. Salt In Your Eyes
21. English Magic
22. Calm As The Valley

Each year, in the weeks that follow End of the Road, the festival’s founder, Simon Taffe, receives a flurry of emails. There are notes of thanks, of course, and the tying up of festival business, but in amongst them he will find numerous messages asking urgent questions such as: “What was that song playing two songs before Mac DeMarco came on?” It was in answer to these persistent queries that End of the Road decided to launch the first of what will be an ongoing compilation series: Between the Music.

“A compilation based on all the tracks that I play in between bands on all the different stages. It’s not really necessarily bands that play End of the Road, it’s more like my whole record collection.”

Taffe has distinct memories of going to festivals that hadn’t given much thought to the music playing between performers; the repetition of it, the sudden jolt of it. When End of the Road first began, he was determined that his festival would not make the same oversight.

Before the first ever End Of The Road, Simon sat up all night with a friend, burning songs to CDs, considering every stage and every track in detail. He has continued this approach ever since, always finishing his playlists at the eleventh hour, always spurred on by the thought of what song will you have as the first song opening the main stage.

“I still get really excited to make a compilation, even though it’s a lot bloody harder these days because everyone’s heard everything on Spotify,” he says. “But I love sharing music with people and love introducing them to songs.”

To listen to Between the Music is something akin to spending a short while in Taffe’s company, or perhaps a long weekend at his festival. There is the sheer exuberant love for music, the sense of discovery, the delight in the unexpected rhythmic turn. Above anything, there is the feeling that Between the Music is a compilation series that could just play on forever.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Lifes To Short - The Lafayette
A2 Drip Drop - Dion
A3 Observeatory Crest - Beefheart
A4 Fallin Rain - Link Wray
A5 I Got A Name - Jim Croce
A6 Hey I Know You – Monzos
A7 Anchin Kifu Ayinkash - Hailu Megia Dahlak Band
A8 Im So Depressed - Abner Jay

B1 Have You Been Good To Yourself - Johnie Frieson
B2 Khala My Freind - Amanaz
B3 Looking For A Home - Al Kooper And Shuggie Ottis
B4 She Turns My Radio On - Jim Ford
B5 Any Other Way - Jackie Shane
B6 Any Day Now - Chuck Jackson

C1 Cripple Creek - Alexandra Skip Spence
C2 Sweet Memories - Micky Newbury
C3 Blue Vein - Lael Neale
C4 Mothers Last Words To Her Son -Washington Phillips
C5 I Stole The Right To Live - Michael Hurley
C6 Cold Bitter Tears - Ted Hawkins
C7 Child Of God - Josphine Foster

D1 Lucky Strikes And Liquid Gold - Jeff Cowell
D2 Clay Pigeons - Blaze Foley
D3 You Got Me - Crow Johnson
D4 Glücklich. Traurig. Seltsam - Die Wellttaumforscher
D5 Jesus Give Me Water - The Soul Stirrers
D6 Lazy Bones - Paul Robeson
D7 Please Stay - The Cryin Shames

Not to be confused with English commercial funk outfit, Lou Ragland’s Hot Chocolate trio steamed out of the Cleveland scene in the early ’70s powered by their own recipe of grooveforward R&B. Housed in a replica jacket showcasing Dick Dugan’s ubiquitous cartooning, Numero is proud to present the first American repressing of this Forest City touchstone since its original release; a steaming mugful of funkierthan-thou tunes from the incomparable Ragland songbook. Hot is, after all, funk’s ideal serving temperature.

TRACK LISTING

A
1 Ain’t That A Groove
2 So Dam Funky
3 Sexy Moods Of Your Mind
4 Messin’ With Sly
B
1 We Had True Love
2 What You Want To Do
3 What Should I Do

The last and most monumental chapter of Lou Ragland’s Cleveland career. Understand Each Other serves as a spiritual magnum opus of generations of soul luminaries from the Forest City. The album opens with the socially conscious title track backed by the full force of the Cleveland Orchestra, gutting out a second place finish to Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On in both its mission and its mix. This 45th anniversary pressing houses fresh remasters from the original reels in a replica jacket, while Remus Peterson’s handsketched depiction of Lou Ragland as peacemaker implores a sabretoothed tiger and a dove to “Understand Each Other.”

TRACK LISTING

A
1 Understand Each Other
2 What Happened To The Feeling
3 Since You Said You’d Be Mine
4 Just For Being You (Lovin You)
B
1 What Should I Do?
2 It’s Got To Change
3 The Next World
4 Understand Each Other (Instrumental)

A bona fide legend of the acid jazz / jazz funk scene, James Taylor returns with a stunning new James Taylor Quartet orchestral record MAN IN THE HOT SEAT. A sonic collossus of a record, particularly when listening on vinyl, it ties together the effortless melodic funk of the quartet, the fullness of sound that only an orchestra can bring, with James’ love of classic film soundtracks. Created and recorded with the musicianship and production mastery we have come to expect from JTQ this is undoubtedly one of the best sounding records you’ll hear in 2022.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Man In The Hot Seat
A2. The Danzig Connection
A3. The New Money Spyder
A4. Don’t Mess With The Champ
A5. Cold War Etiquette

B1. Murder On The Vaporetto
B2. Diametric Opposition
B3. The Gravedigger
B4. Time For Revenge
B5. Night Garden 

Ahead of a coveted slot at this year’s Glastonbury, The Snuts have announced their highly-anticipated new album Burn The Empire, out on Parlophone Records. The album follows their acclaimed, number 1-selling debut album, W.L and today sees the fourth taste of the record with new single ‘The Rodeo’.

One of the most exciting acts in the UK right now, The Snuts deliver 11 slices of sonic brilliance on Burn The Empire. Produced by longtime collaborators Detonate and Clarence Coffee Jr the album continues the band’s evolution both sonically and lyrically. A voice for the next generation lead singer Jack Cochrane attacks subjects affecting the youth of today. Opening with the album’s title track, a no holds barred protest against the corrupt corporations and politicians, the album delves into the negative effects of social media on ‘Zuckerpunch’ and ‘13’ tackles the lack of mental health services and the lethal effects of poverty across Britain and its impact on society.

“The universe delivered us time to create a record where we finally felt we could address some of the topics, be it societal or spiritual, that we have been dying to scream out,” lead singer Jack Cochrane said of the album. “There are songs about the highs & lows, stuff we really want to talk about and things we cannot help but feel, but have just never made the space to.”

Infectious, euphoric, heartfelt and packed to the brim with hooks, Burn The Empire is the work of a band living in the moment, with an eye to the future. Armed with a chart-topping album and an arsenal of adoring fans up and down the country, these four lads from Whitburn, West Lothian, are well on their way to being one of the most vital bands of recent years.

TRACK LISTING

1. Burn The Empire
2. Zuckerpunch
3. The Rodeo
4. 13
5. Knuckles
6. End Of The Road (feat. Rachel Chinouriri)
7. Pigeons In New York
8. Hallelujah Moment
9. Cosmic Electronica
10. Yesterday
11. Blah Blah Blah

A deluxe, remastered, 20 year anniversary edition of the Heads’ third album proper, the under-rated gem in their canon that is “Under Sided”.

Originally released in 2002 on the Sweet Nothing label (SNLP/CD 11), Under Sided was recorded in 2001 at WhiteHouse Studios in Weston Super Mare, with Martin Nichols engineering. The band had previously recorded tracks for Mans Ruin 10” at these studios (also famous for Ripcord, Heresy, Slowdive, Hardskin, Decadence Within, Icehouse.. amongst many others!).

For the reissue, the original recordings were remastered for vinyl and CD by long time Heads Masterer (!) Shawn Joseph. The resultant 8 tracks, spread over 4 sides of vinyl are some of the best music the Heads have recorded, after a bit of a hiatus following their 2000 US tour / Peel session, the band regrouped and worked out the tracks for the album, relentless rehearsing for the recording. Very few shows happened in that 2001-2002 timeframe.. band members were busy, earning a living, getting on with life, but they still had some riffs/songs there.

Upon release in 2002 the album got great reviews in the press, from Kerrang and MOJO to the Sunday Times, all helping the Bristol fourpiece confirm their cult status, which has continued to current times..

The remastered album is being reissued as a 4LP + 2CD boxset. The extra 2LP features their Peel session from 2000, as well as a couple of compilation tracks (For Mad Men Only / Born To Go), and some unreleased demo versions, as well as nearly 150 minutes of Live recordings (mastered, but RAW!) from their gigs on the Thekla in Bristol in 2001-2002.

The boxset will also have a special slipmat, stickers, and a 24 page booklet of photos /writings, including recollections by each band member, and others including a 1000 word essay by Stewart Lee.

Undersided is a pounding sike-nightmare that shows the Heads at the peak of their powers, theres a flow throughout the album of melding psychedelic noise rock to battering rhythms and creating a bad trip for all listening.. even the gentle sooth of “Energy” is enveloped by a white noise fuiry.. the intensity of some of the tracks: the terror inducing Bedminster or False Heavy (a tour worn riffmonger from 2000) or the Magnet-esque Heavy Sea, showed the band as ferocious as any of the insurgent “stoner” genre of that time.

They were never going to make their living out of touring , record sales …as Hugo mentions in his notes for the booklet, “.. we had less boundaries and felt we could experiment more and not worry about commerciality…” but they were able to make this album.

TRACK LISTING

LP TRACKLISTING: (Sides A,B,C,D)
Dissonaut
Il Ratto, La Ram, Il Gallo Ed Il Serpente
Trilogy Part 3
Bedminster #1
False Heavy
Vibrating Digit
Energy
Heavy Sea

2CD TRACKLISTING:
CD1
Dissonaut
Il Ratto, La Ram, Il Gallo Ed Il Serpente
Trilogy Part 3
Bedminster #1
False Heavy
Vibrating Digit
Energy
Heavy Sea
CD2
For Madmen Only
Born To Go
False Heavy (Peel)
You Took Me By Surprise (Peel)
Neu 75 (Peel)
Fuego (Peel)
Key Jam Short (Whitehouse Out-take)
Backwards (Whitehouse Out-take)
False Heavy (Band Demo)
Vibrating Digit (Band Demo)
Energy (Band Demo)
Heavy Sea (Band Demo)

BOX SET TRACKLISTING:
2LP 1 ( Sides A,B,C,D)
Dissonaut
Il Ratto, La Ram, Il Gallo Ed Il Serpente
Trilogy Part 3
Bedminster #1
False Heavy
Vibrating Digit
Energy
Heavy Sea

2LP2 (sides E,F,G,H)
For Madmen Only
Born To Go
False Heavy (Peel)
You Took Me By Surprise (Peel)
Neu 75 (Peel)
Fuego (Peel)
Key Jam Short (Whitehouse Out-take)
Backwards (Whitehouse Out-take)
False Heavy (Band Demo)
Vibrating Digit (Band Demo)
Energy (Band Demo)
Heavy Sea (Band Demo)

CD1
ROOSTER27BXCD1
1 Thekla 1
2 33 Min
CD2
ROOSTER27BXCD2
1 Thekla 2
2 Headsjam 2
3 Ital Prog

At the beginning of the ‘90s a new music wave was emerging in Italy. Inspired by an innate sense of freedom and experimentation and fuelled by the turmoil of the club scene and record shops, a generation of Italian DJs and producers envision the sound of the future.

Going further into connecting Two Generations, distant yet neighbouring: the one that blazed the trail in the early nineties and the one that continues to follow it today. A new volume animated by the same spirit and attitude as the first one: not a nostalgic or commemorative operation, but a propulsive thrust for a possible evolution.

In continuity with the first part of the project, ‘Ciao Italia. Underground Generations - Volume 2’ surfs between the past, present and future, delving further into the origins of an era whose sounds and atmospheres remain an endless source of inspiration today. Artists who were often forced to use multiple aliases, a story that still sounds incredibly current and that has had the merit of breaking that stereotype of xenophilia of which our country is an undying victim. Much more than just a "scene" it can be described as a mental state, a lifestyle, marked by unifying electronic pulsations, exotic and dreamy, ecstatic and liberating.

The collection, of which a second double volume is expected before the end of the year, cherry picks another selection of seminal producers of that all-Italian golden age. Alongside this, it includes productions from some of the new ‘Underground Generation’, ideally inspired by the iconic sound of that time, but at the same time kaleidoscopic and ultra-contemporary. Evidence of an avant-garde that is bright and alive not only in memories, but even now more than ever, in the tracks produced by the likes of Baia Club (Whodamanny, Walter Del Vecchio and Dario Bassolino), Cosmo, Donato Dozzy & Rumi, Lorenzo Morresi and many more.

Once again, while the record slides under the needle, the hope is to be able to capture that magnetic atmosphere and regain possession of it for a few moments, clinging to the indomitable charm of the ‘underground’ grooves. Yesterday, today and tomorrow.

TRACK LISTING

A1.  E.v.o.e ‘I Don’t Wanna Give Up Your Love’ (Leopardo Boom Boom Mix)
A2.  Exotica ‘Fluteride’ (5th Floor Mix)
A3.  Beat Foundation ‘More’
A4.  Marco Erroi & Luigi Cordella ‘Fututo Fluido’
B1.  Donato Dozzy & Rumi ‘Flusso’
B2.  World Famous Martinez Orchestra ‘Rushlight’
B3.  Edward’s World ‘Fluting With My Mc’
B4.  T.R.A. ‘Tribal Groove’
C1.  Baia Club ‘Shine On’ (Tides On The Bay Mix)
C2.  Riviera Traxx ‘Parfume 1’
C3.  TC 1992 ‘Funky Guitar’ (Sure Shot Groove Mix)
C4.  Joe Montana ‘Nimbus’ (Tulbat Mix)
D1.  Anjuna Feat. Cirillo ‘Anjuna’s Dream’ (Magia Version)
D2.  Leo Rosi ‘XTC (Walkin’ On Milky Way Blvd)
D3.  Cosmo ‘LaLaLaa’
D4.  Vienna ‘Tell Me’ (Innerspace Mix)