As Riding Easy Records’ highly successful Brown Acid series (now at 10 volumes and counting) proves, there is a massive amount of incredible heavy psych and proto-metal music that has been lost to the sands of time. Case in point, the astoundingly great 50- year-old album The Ice Age by Indianapolis quintet ICE was never even released upon its completion.

In 1970, the band recorded 10 original songs at 8-Track Studios in Chicago, only to break up shortly thereafter. Two of the tracks were eventually released as a 45 in 1972, but confusingly under a different band name, Zukus! The A-side of that single was featured on Brown Acid: The Ninth Trip, which led RidingEasy Records to discover when licensing the track that an entire album had been languishing in obscurity all of this time. The 2-inch master tapes had been shelved and forgotten until recently when The Ice Age tracks were converted to digital and remixed, preserving the sounds of the original vocals & instruments. Finally, half a century later, this 10-song album of radioready rock will finally see light of day.

The Ice Age is an exceptional archive of hard edged rock with serious pop hooks akin to something like Grand Funk Railroad meets The Guess Who and The Move. It rocks hard, but is also interlaced with glorious melodic hooks. Had fate been less fickle, this album would’ve long been a classic rock radio staple. Album opener “Gypsy” is a chiming Byrds-like rocker, with glistening 12-string guitar, organ and somewhat over-zealous vibra-slap. “Satisfy” and “3 O’Clock In The Morning” nicely pair up as the most pop friendly tunes, but with very clever melodies and structures sounding ahead of their time, the latter with an extended entrancing and droning refrain led by shimmering organ run through a Leslie speaker. “Running High” and “Catch You” were the two tracks released in ’72 under a different band name, which received considerable local radio airplay. And, for good reason: Their nice balance of wayward psychedelic pop and troglodyte thunder is exactly what makes The Ice Age so captivating. Album closer “Song of The East” shares the growling glissando and orchestral style that made Vanilla Fudge and The Moody Blues household names.

In the late 1960’s five young men formed a rock & roll band on the west side of Indianapolis, Indiana. They chose the coolest name possible: ICE. The group consisted of vocalist/keyboardist Barry Crawford, lead vocalist/ bassist Jim Lee, drummer Mike Saligoe, lead guitarist John Schaffer and rhythm guitarist/vocalist Richard Strange. They was among the first bands to perform an all original set throughout the Midwest at high schools, colleges & concert venues. They opened for national acts like Three Dog Night, SRC, Kenny Rogers & the First Edition, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and others in arenas and theaters. The Ice Age is truly an incredible and unprecedented find, particularly when we’d all thought the glorious history of rock’n’roll had long ago been written and sealed as complete.

Castles in Space brings you a stunning collection of new music recorded in isolation during the COVID19 On April 3rd 2020, two weeks into the UK's total coronavirus lockdown and in an attempt to find something positive as a break from ping-ponging between high anxiety and frustrated bemusement, I sent out the call for submissions for a new compilation of music, which had some clear stipulations: the music must be new and recorded between 23rd March and 17th April.

The results were positively overwhelming and surpassed anything that I could have hoped for. I thought that I might be tapping into something as conversations with musicians I know and work with were indicating that the enforced period of downtime was proving to be extremely productive. Albums were being finished. Ideas exchanged over Zoom conversations were being laid down on hard drives around the world. There was, quite literally, something in the air.

By the end of the 2.5 week period the window for submissions was open, I had received somewhere in the region of 250 submissions. Pretty much all of them being of astonishing quality and accomplishment. While this was extremely heartwarming and satisfying, it also presented a real challenge in that the editing job was going to be massive and difficult. Further criteria were therefore set to assist the selection process.
1. As a general rule, anything too dark or dystopian was out. Quite a lot of submissions sampled politicians and there were several creeped out drone-a-thons. I quickly came to the decision that this release had to offer something uplifting for the listener. We had to find some light and positivity in the darkness. For me, the tracks that worked best offered a droll commentary on our unprecedented situation without being overwhelmed by it.
2. The works really did have to be conceived and completed between 23rd March and 17th April. That rule was enforced pretty hard. Anything that had been "finished" or had undergone a "final mix" during that time was deemed to not meet meet the criteria for submission. It was important for me to capture the moment in the reaction of the contributors. Hopefully this global lockdown situation will never happen again, so I was viewing this as a one time only opportunity to document something unique.
3. As the submissions rolled in via email, Twitter, Instagram and facebook, it quickly became apparent that the original idea of releasing one cassette volume was not going to be sufficient. There was simply too much good stuff coming in. The scope was therefore quickly expanded out to include a CD volume and a cassette with three sides. 'Side three' being a download only selection.

And so began the selection of around 60 tracks which went forward for mastering by Jez Butler. Jez did a fantastic job of carefully mastering everything to a consistent, steady level. Brightening and de-harshing where necessary. There than began the marathon weekend long session of sequencing what tracks were going to go where. Once a final selection and sequence was decided upon, Nick Taylor was engaged to do his usual superb job on the artwork.

The finished compilation offers more than 50 tracks across CD, cassette and digital download. The highlights are too many to list here, but a few things to note are perhaps:

• Triple BAFTA award winning soundtrack composer Kenny Inglis, recording here as Imperfect Stranger. His long CD opening track "Hymn To The Sun" captures the mood perfectly. It's three minute tension build is utterly irresistible.
• On "Lock-in", The Twelve Hour Foundation provide a percussion track for their Moogs constructed from beer cans and bottle tops. Their musique concrète credentials still gloriously intact.
• Teleman's Peter Cattermoul provides a slice of airy poolside grooviness in "New Targets".
• Concretism's Chris Sharp takes a break from recording the follow up to 2018's "For Concrete and Country" to deliver "New Town Shopping Centre", his first new track to get a full release in 18 months.
• Fellow New Yorkers The Listening Center and Salvatore Mercatante both sent a pair of intricately beautiful synth pieces. Both of them approaching a classic New York minimalism style.
• The UK North Western electronic cluster is amply represented with new tracks from Polypores, Field Lines Cartographer, Warrington Runcorn Development Co. and Guerilla Biscuits, whose "What Makes Us Human" is imbued with a spirit of sci-fci scratching.
• The Heartwood Institute's Jonathan Sharp and Panamint Manse both contribute beautiful works following their sellout collaborative LP which was released on Castles in Space earlier this year.
• Hawksmoor's exquisite Durutti Column-esque washes of "La Peste" are quite the thing to behold.
• We also have a few incognito contributors including one of The Divine Comedy and one of the UK's most loved DJs and our foremost tape magician working together in a new collaboration.
• North Portugal's Stellarays sent an absolutely delightful space pop song full of longing and mournfulness.
• The British Stereo Collective's Roy Budd inspired "Circle Of Isolation".
• And on and on...
The images submitted by the contributing artists add another dimension to the project and are available to see at castlesinspace.com

The Isolation Tapes project is sold in support of the magnificent Cavell Nurses' Trust. A wonderful organisation which helps nurses, midwives and healthcare assistants, both working and retired, when they’re suffering personal or financial hardship. This is often due to illness, disability, older age, domestic abuse and the impact of coronavirus.

It is sincerely hoped that you will find much to enjoy in The Isolation Tapes. It was both an absolute joy and an arduous headache to put together (in a good way). The final edit was extremely difficult and there is certainly enough stuff in the can for further releases if these volumes find some appreciation.

Punk Slime Recordings are proud to present the new full-length album from Birmingham, UK’s Swampmeat Family Band. Their new album Muck! is a massive step forward both songwriting and production-wise, offering up a blend of uptempo garage rock and gentle americana. Featuring members of PNKSLM’s own The Castillians and Terror Watts as well as Low Cut Connie, PWEI and Bentley Rhythm Ace, Swampmeat Family Band have already drawn praise from the likes of KEXP, The Line of Best Fit, DIY and GoldFlakePaint while turning heads with their live shows around Europe, and the band will be making their US debut at the SXSW festival in Austin, TX this year.

Amongst the new additions on Muck! are vocalist Joni Coyne as the group’s fifth member; she lends an extra dimension as she echoes lead vocalist Daniel Finnemore throughout throughout Muck. On top of that, horns form part of the palette for the first time on a Swampmeat record, as shown on the handsome instrumental ‘The Ballarat Ghost’ as well as perhaps the album’s most crucial track, the gorgeous ‘Mother’s Lies’, which represents the Swampmeat evolution in four-minute microcosm.

Polypores (AKA Stephen James Buckley) new work, “Flora" was written and recorded in the long, hot summer of 2018. Says Stephen “I didn't intend to write a record with a specific theme or sound, but, as is often the case, something eventually presented itself once I started playing around with my machines. I spent a lot of time walking in the woods and exploring some of the beautiful countryside around the North West of the UK. Whilst doing this I got a collection of field recordings, which ended up forming the compost from which the album grew. I'd have the recording playing in the background whilst writing, or running through loop pedals. I found that if I blended the field recordings in with my initial synth pieces, it added a whole new texture and depth to what was already there.

"It created a place in which the music lived. And that place was most definitely a forest. As I got deeper into the writing process a vague narrative formed. Entering a strange forest, where everything was unnaturally huge. Towering flowers and fungus. Both frightening and overwhelmingly beautiful. Then, emerging at the end through the canopy of trees into bright daylight. The last track, Sky Man, represents this I think. Like I say, it's a very loose narrative. I don't even feel like I wrote it myself - more that I channelled it from that strange ether out of which music comes.”

“Flora" is an astounding record. Electronic Sound Magazine reviewed the LP in issue 54, declaring that “Flora” '…is just as good as you would expect from this superb analogue synthesist. From the eerie grittiness of the title track to the bleepy, sombre wobbles of “Golden Mould”, “Flora” has a touch of science fiction enveloping it for a record "about flowers”. “Giants" could soundtrack the exploration of a distant, long abandoned alien planet, all ambient whines and echoing, stargazing synthesis…There’s a lot to enjoy here.' 

• British synthesist, Stephen James Buckley returns to Castle in Space for the release of a brand new Polypores record.
• Azure is a beautiful new age symphony of blissed out water music.
• It’s his first full length LP since the release of last year’s “Flora”, which is also reissued in a stunning new two coloured ”earthtones” edition.
• Flora was included in several end of year best of charts last year including Electronic Sound and Norman Records best of 2019.

Stephen explains the genesis of Azure:
“As with a lot of my music at the moment, the original inspiration from Azure started out with the music itself, rather than an initial concept. That is, it came through playing. I noticed that a lot of what I was writing seemed to lend itself to water imagery. It was flowing, fluid, bubbling. The album was written late 2019, when it seemed to be perpetually raining, so that might have been a factor.

I was also listening to a lot of new-age music at the time. Whilst I didn’t purposely set out to do a "new-age" album as such, I think a lot of that crept in there - but with it's own Polypores-esque twist. Rather than working in a specific genre, I much prefer to take elements and signifiers from a genre, and warp them into my own vision.

Once I'd decided to go down this route the writing became more focussed, and I was also able to immerse myself in various books, films, and documentaries related to the ocean, particularly the mythology and lore surrounding it. I imagined this to be the music that the sunken stone heads from Easter Island would have on their record players. A relaxation tape for dolphins.

The album was created with a modular synthesizer, which was still fairly new to me at the time. As with most of my music, it was a fairly quick process, as I tend to record live rather than overdubbing/multi-tracking. I find this way of writing more immediate, it gives me a more direct link to my creativity, without too much thought or analysis getting in the way. I used a lot of New-Age type sounds, and one of the tracks uses a Gamelan scale. I made heavy use of granular synthesis on the human voice, to create the choir sounds.
I think I did subconsciously want to create something similar to Flora. Not sonically (as it's a very different sound palette) but more the idea of it being an exaggerated, almost fantastical response to an environment. So whilst Flora takes place in the forest, Azure takes place in the ocean, but both focus on the fantasy elements, as opposed to the mundane or harsh reality. I wasn't going to do an album about overfishing or something. It's a form of escapism I suppose.

Some interesting facts about the album are:
- One of the tracks has a short sample from the soundtrack to a well known 1990s point-and-click adventure game, set deep in the Caribbean,
- I was listening to Rime Of The Ancient Mariner by Iron Maiden a lot around the time of writing.”
Castles in Space presents ”Azure” in a deluxe azure blue vinyl pressing in a full gloss varnished sleeve and foldback tabs. The LP includes a beautiful art print designed by the sleeve designer, Nick Taylor. French comic book legend Moebius was an inspiration for Nick along with taking direction from the luxurious flow of the music.

RIYL: Deerhoof, Bush Tetras, Kleenex/Liliput, Delta 5, Pylon, Y Pants, Liquid Liquid, Sex Clark Five, Grass Widow, Palberta. After introducing themselves to the world with 2016's "Borrowed Floors" (Water Wing) and throwing down the gauntlet with 2018's "Mating Surfaces" on Kill Rock Stars, Lithics make the jump to Trouble In Mind for "Tower of Age". "Tower of Age" bristles with invention, wedging lyrical Dadaism into right angles of rhythmic minimalism. This is music in ellipses. A circular communication and a fusion of decades worth of musical insight into a singular refraction of thought & sound. Guitars plunk and scratch, and rhythms pulse and syncopate tightly wound around an imagist's philosophy to "use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation." The band's austere approach to composition and wordplay elevates them above and beyond bands seeking similar sounds; it's not that they use less; it's HOW they use less. 

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Limited white, black & yellow “tri-color” vinyl version is for Indies only.

Since writing the last Sergeant Buzfuz album, 2015's "Balloons For Thin Linda", songwriter Joe Murphy has lost both parents, got married, been a victim of a smear campaign (as a whistleblowing union rep), co-founded charity QQF (a theatre company for adults with special needs) and relocated to his native Sheffield. Joe has also continued to co-run Blang, the DIT* label he started in 2005 (including working on the first album from ex-Fall members Brix & The Extricated) and has worked part-time in special needs schools in London and Sheffield to fund the recording of "Fox Pop".

"Balloons For Thin Linda" received positive press but life events got in the way of much live promotion. The band recruited Joss Cope on bass, Stu Crane on slide guitar and Polly MacLean on backing vocals and released the "Humble Pie" EP in 2017. The debut album from the new line-up is finally here. It's the seventh Buzfuz album. It's got tunes bursting out all over the place, lyrics from the head, heart and fist and is rich in variety with two-minute pop songs, ballads, post-punk, freakbeat and strands of the band's Celtic DNA.

Opening track ‘There’s Idiots, Then There’s Idiots With Money’ “is about me imagining I'm attending one of those Mansion House dinners where the Chancellor gets summoned to report to the City.” Says Joe. It’s a stomping working class anthem that quickly gets under the skin with intricately woven shuffling guitars and percussion that make way for a psychedelic flute solo. Second track ‘Theresa McKee’ is a refreshing lively blast of pop peppered with mandolin and acoustic guitar, showing off the band’s more folky roots with finesse. Other album highlights include ‘Who Art In Seven Hills’, a clever and humorous re-work of The Lord’s Prayer replacing names and places with those of Joe’s native Sheffield (a la Ian Dury's Bus Driver's Prayer). The interlude makes way for the jollity off-kilter harmonies of quirky ‘Rare & Racy’, a busker-esque jam about a second hand record/book shop in Sheffield which had to close when the Council, having to obey new Tory Government planning laws, approved the property owner's plans to turn the building into flats. ‘Fill In The Blanks’ and ‘Rear View Mirror’ are other great moments of raw and instantly familiar catchy classic punk on this album which celebrates real lives and real musicianship through the band’s own unique lens. The album, with its Squeeze & Kinks like anti-folk chant singalongs and storytelling is a perfectly crafted antidote to chart pop, Brexit and the current state of the world. It’s fun and meaningful and a constantly surprising delight from this band who are well sewn into the fabric of the UK music scene.

Buzfuz have played three live 6 Music sessions for Marc Riley and Tom Robinson and had lots of radio support from Gideon Coe as well as press acclaim across the board including from the likes of NME who described them as ‘Universally Charming’. There will be full band shows and solo shows from Joe to come around the album release where you can rest assured Buzfuz will fill you up with ‘Fox Pop’. *DIT = do it thissen, when Yorkshire people do things themselves. Joe promotes his own gigs (Blang emerged from live nights he ran at London's now sadly defunct 12 Bar Club), runs his own label and started his own charity.

Laura Marling’s exquisite seventh album 'Song For Our Daughter' arrives almost without preamble or warning in the midst of uncharted global chaos, and yet instantly and tenderly offers a sense of purpose, clarity and calm. As a balm for the soul, this full-blooded new collection could be posited as Laura’s richest to date, but in truth it’s another incredibly fine record by a British artist who rarely strays from delivering incredibly fine records.

Taking much of the production reins herself, alongside long-time collaborators Ethan Johns and Dom Monks, Laura has layered up lush string arrangements and a broad sense of scale to these songs without losing any of the intimacy or reverence we’ve come to anticipate and almost take for granted from her throughout the past decade.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Indies exclusive marble vinyl.

LP Info: Single LP, black 140g vinyl, gatefold packaging.

CD Info: Digipak CD with booklet.

In 2017 Built To Spill was invited to play a few shows as Daniel Johnston's back up band This is what those rehearsals sounded like. 11 tracks of Johnston's fractured pop presented through the eyes of Built To Spill.

11 track collection of demos of all songs from the debut studio album Dry by PJ Harvey, available for the first time since 1992, and previously unreleased as a standalone album.

Features brand new artwork with previously unseen photos by Maria Mochnacz.

FORMAT INFORMATION

LP Info: 1LP, 180gsm black vinyl.
Full colour outer sleeve, with printed inner sleeves.
Artwork includes 3 previously unreleased photos.
Download card.

CD Info: Mini-gatefold style outer sleeve, with printed inner sleeve.
Artwork includes 3 previously unreleased photos.

Dry is the debut studio album by English singer-songwriter and musician PJ Harvey, originally released on Too Pure Records on 30 March 1992. The album was recorded at The Icehouse, a local studio in Yeovil. Critically lauded both on release and retrospectively, the album contains the singles “Dress’ and ‘Sheela-Na-Gig’

Back in print for the first time in almost 20 years, Beggars Archive on behalf of Too Pure Records is pleased to announce the re-issue of Dry on vinyl. The album was remastered by the original producer “Head” and has been replicated to the original version as much as possible. 

Pitchfork – “On her debut, Polly Jean Harvey matched Patti Smith’s incandescence with Bessie Smith’s lasciviousness, outplayed everyone on the British indie circuit, and became an instant star - 9.2”

The premise for Quindi Records is simple – to represent music with a universality at its core. Without adhering to specific genre tropes, the releases are intended to have a meaning and purpose in all kinds of situations – a social soundtrack as much as a stimulating experience, feeding emotions and the psyche with a sentimental palette of sounds. Lovers’ music, loners’ music, music for friends and family alike.

Woo makes for a perfect choice to meet this loose concept head-on – the music of Clive and Mark Ives straddles disparate worlds and finds its own peculiar balance. On one hand it’s delicate synthesizer music with a minimalist bent, while on the other their joyous, twinkling harmonies have an immediacy that speaks to the soul. You can detect privacy in their craft – the brothers originally recorded their music in relative isolation in London in the 70s, 80s and early 90s. It’s only in recent years their sublime work has enjoyed a wider audience through an extensive run of reissues.

Arcturian Corridor presents a rare, previously unreleased piece of music from Woo – the expansive suite of the title track that unfurls across five parts. It’s an enchanting listen that shows a new breadth and depth to the duo – detailed drum programming and a broader palette of synth tones cascading in elegant unison. The name refers to Arcturus, the fourth brighteststar in the night sky. As Woo themselves explain, “The Arcturian Corridor is said to be a channel of light that brings.

Oakland artist Madeline Kenney bounds toward the unknown on her third album, Sucker’s Lunch, expanding on the idea of what a love song could be – a little more cautious than exuberant, more nuanced than blazing devotion. Sonically, the album expands upon Kenney’s earlier, guitar-driven sound – a definitive step forward from an artist adept at communicating universal sentiments in a voice unmistakably her own.

To help realize her vision, Kenney once again enlisted Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack, previous collaborators and friends. Together, the trio carefully constructed the songs in a few compact sessions in Oakland, San Francisco, and Durham. Stack and Wasner’s rhythm section trace circles around Kenney’s off-kilter guitar, with verdant curls of synths, saxophone, and complex harmonies. Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner lends his distinctive tenor to lead single “Sucker.” The resulting songs are immediate and deeply moving, somehow feeling familiar while they defy expectations at every turn.

“I’m not interested in something easy or immediately apparent,” Kenney says. “My experience writing these songs wasn’t easy, it was painful and difficult. I was terrified of falling in love, and as much as I’d like to write a sticky sweet song for someone, it doesn’t come naturally to me. Instead I wanted to explore the tiny moments; sitting alone in my room guessing what the other person was thinking, spiraling into a maze of logical reasons to bail and finding my way out again. When I spoke with friends about the theme of the ‘idiot’, it became apparent that everyone understood that feeling and was relieved to hear it echoed in someone else.”

Thematically, Sucker’s Lunch sees Kenney soberly contrasting the risks and rewards of falling in love, eventually deciding to dive headfirst into her own foolishness and relish in the unknowing. The tracks explore new love from every angle – “Picture of You” is a soundtrack- worthy lamentation of never truly knowing what someone has been through (“growing up is so hard, I don’t know why”) while tender vulnerability shines on “Tell You Everything” (“When your eyes say ‘we’ve had a day, love’, I get to fall in”). Kenney audibly loses her mind on “Double Hearted,” where the playful arrangement and lyrics spark a firestorm of heartache and wild abandon. “Cut The Real” pairs synth drones with syncopated lyrics to work through a depressive mind state, and the near-devotional “White Window Light” accepts uncertainty as a beautiful gift.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Limited Custard Colour LP.

For fans of Khruangbin, Tom Misch & Yussef Dayes, Kamasi Washington, Strut Records, Analog Africa & Soundway.

New eagerly awaited LP from the maverick Kutiman, based on field recordings he made in Tanzania of local musicians, then manipulated, layered and expanded in his home studio. A one of a kind opportunity for a musical trip to the motherland, through the eyes, ears and heart of one of the most fascinating and adventurous musicians in contemporary music.

People have been living around the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro for millennia. One day in 2014 another jeep pulled up, in a rural neighbourhood where many people from the Wachaga nation live, work and play. This jeep contained Ophir ‘Kutiman’ Kutiel, the producer, multi-instrumentalist and filmmaker who is get-stopped-in-the-supermarket famous in his home country despite being terminally shy of the spotlight.

Kutiman carried microphones, video recording equipment and a request for creative collaboration to Tanzania – and he left Wachaga with a set of recordings. Some of these were of everyday sounds and some contained special sounds: school children from the city of Arusha playing drums or the dancers who wore bells to add a percussive element to the movement, like the metal plate in a tap dancer’s shoe.

This fourth studio album is a combination of the material he collected on his 2014 trip with recordings made with saxophonist Shlomi Alon, trumpeter Sefi Zisling and trombonist Yair Slutzki, alongside his own playing and studio wizardry. He was listening to a lot of spiritual jazz during the recording, and in a departure from his usual cut and paste style, played on top of the recordings.

It’s a creative push that has paid off: Horns and synth melodies spiral across borrowed rhythm patterns and chants which provide the bedrock around which Kutiman builds his own musical dwelling, creating new pathways of jazz, psychedelia and circular meditative zone-outs.

Returning home from his trip to the self-organised kibbutz community where he lives in the western Negev desert, he began dipping into the recordings to see how he could use them as a starting point for his own musical and visual explorations.

Fast forward six years, and we have ‘Wachaga’, an audiovisual feast which contains nine tracks and nine kaleidoscopic video pieces, named after the 2.4 million Tanzanians who live mostly on the southern and eastern sides of Mount Kilimanjaro.

He made the video strand of the release over a couple of years. The films are trippy and hypnotic, reflecting the emotions he felt while recording the music. They’re made using vintage analogue techniques and gear including a rare 1980s Fairlight CVI video synthesiser, a Videonics equaliser and a Panasonic mx50 video mixer.

Kutiman might be well-known at home but he’s also internet-famous thanks to his million+ viewed ThruYou series ("Top 50 Inventions of 2009" by Time Magazine) which edited together samples of bedroom YouTube videos from around the world and his Mix The City platform.

He’s well known to music heads for his 2007 eponymous debut, 2016’s ‘6am’ and 2018’s ‘Don’t Hold Onto The Clouds’ alongside co-signs by the likes of Maribou State who featured one of his tracks on the most recent Fabric Live mix or the modern classical solo album he made for Greenpeace last year.

Following the huge buzz built around his Anatolian rock collaboration with Turkish singer Melike Sahin in 2019 ('Sakle Beni'), and the critically acclaimed limited edition 7” record featuring the warm and brassy middle eastern ‘Saluf’ and percussive slow burner ‘Badawee’ was released in February, and another psychedelic jazz-funk EP called 'Layla' was released in April to rave reviews and support from Peter Kruder, John Gomez, Bradley Zero, Dom Servini and Toshio Matsuura to name a few.

Kutiman is now in one of the greatest artistic peaks of his diverse career and Wachagga is the first in a string of releases, which explore Kutiman’s singular vision through a variety of musical lens including melodic techno, ambient electronica and sweeping, motorik jazz. 

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Limited edition 180 gram gatefold sleeve SPLATTER vinyl for INDIE STORES ONLY. 300 Copies.

Ltd LP Info: Limited edition 180gram gatefold sleeve BLACK vinyl – 300 Copies.

Shine is Joni Mitchell’s 19th studio album. Recorded in 2007 at Castle Oaks Productions by Dan Marnien, Shine was the first album of new songs since 1998’s Taming The Tiger, featuring 10 new songs written by Joni, as well as a guest appearance by longtime friend James Taylor and an updated version of her 1970 single “Big Yellow Taxi.” Shine has been certified gold by the RIAA and won the 2008 Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance for “One Week Last Summer.” Never before available on vinyl, this 1LP release has been pressed on 180-gram vinyl at RTI.

‘A Day in a Yellow Beat’ is Yellow Days’ sophomore record and his first for Columbia. George is a self-taught multi-instrumentalist and self-medicated auteur who has never quite fitted into one style or space. As he readies his new album, his sound continues to warp funky, while his words dig deeper into modern malaise and mental health. It is, as he says, "Upbeat existential millennial crisis music."

On his current musical direction, George explains "I'm trying to brand my own version of ironic dance music full of depressing truths about feeling distant from your friends, or a sense that nothing is worth anything," In particular he's been diving into the '70s: fusion-era works of Herbie Hancock and Quincy Jones, the funkier phases of Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield, and the keyboard wizardry of Don Blackman and Weldon Irvine. He's been staying up until 5 a.m. watching Soul Train on YouTube, and testing his falsetto. ‘A Day in a Yellow Beat’ is a real-time culmination of ideas, however wild they may be.

Having previously released music produced out of his garden shed in surrey, Yellow Days has spent a lot of time writing and recording this current wave of music in LA with a whole host of incredible artists and musicians – many of whom have / still play for the likes of Raphael Saadiq, Frank Ocean, Weldon Irvine, Kanye West. In doing so, George has taken it back to a more traditional way of making music – from hand-picking the collaborators, selecting the perfect studio setting to recording everything on analogue, vintage gear; all of which has vastly enhanced the sound Yellow Days is now capable of creating. By overseeing the production process, George is more in charge of his own fuzzed-out, technicolor vision than ever. "This is really my first record where I can let it fucking all out," he says.

Yellow Days remains at its heart, a project about youth. His career trajectory, which began at a very young age, has been a musical outlet for his teenage years and the complexities of transitioning into adulthood. ‘A Day in a Yellow Beat’ is the culmination of this process to date; a coming of age moment as he commits a wealth of emotions into a vision that projects well beyond his garden shed and onto the global stage. Ever-evolving creatively, George is always thinking of the next steps and where his journey will go, ‘When I become a bit older, maybe I'm not Yellow Days anymore' At which point, he'll most likely find himself leading the house band in a quantum disco at the edge of the universe. But until then, ‘A Day in A Yellow Beat’ is coming, so settle in for the ride.

Ryan Lee West aka Rival Consoles announces details of his highly anticipated new album Articulation, released on Erased Tapes on 31 July 2020.

‘Articulation’, the lead track and album centrepiece, links the record back to the analogue fluidity and colour of 2016’s Night Melody. The division of varying time signatures, intertwined with a complex structure of notes, creates an expression of a moving structure and conjures a dreamy motorik energy. Ryan Lee West explains, "The title track is about articulation and playfulness with shape and time. Its structure is very machine-like, but I was really interested in how melody and sense of story could develop out of this, and it became an exploration of mathematical structures - patterns and shapes having a conversation. I love that something on paper can appear rigid and calculated, but then take on new meaning based on the context that surrounds it, or how it changes over time."

Articulation (which follows 2018’s Persona) was conceived with a very visual way of thinking, unusual for the London musician and producer. During the writing process Ryan drew structures, shapes and patterns by hand to try and find new ways of thinking about music, giving himself a way to problem-solve away from the computer. The album title references a piece by the avant-garde contemporary composer Györgi Ligeti, though not for its music, but for the non-traditional graphic score that accompanied it.

“I find electronic music is often battling to say something with integrity because technology and production can easily get in the way. I think the goal of a lot of electronic composers is to find a balance between the vision of the idea and the power of possibilities on the computer. With a pen and paper sketch you can compose and rethink ideas without technology getting in the way, so for me it acts as a very helpful tool to refresh the process.” - Ryan Lee West

The idea of using analogue drawings and tools to bolster digital creations can be heard in the structure of the pieces that make up Articulation from the broody techno opener ‘Vibrations on a String’ all the way to the album’s boundless closer ‘Sudden Awareness of Now’. While the anthemic rise and fall of ‘Still Here’ and the beatless ambient meditation ‘Melodica’ evoke a certain nostalgia, ‘Forwardism’ achieves the very opposite by burying its melody within the fast-paced rhythm of its pulsating synths.

Rising out of birdsong heard from his studio window, ‘Sudden Awareness of Now’ has a particular urgency about it and seems to perfectly capture a longing for escape. Built around a simple and repetitive melodic theme, expanding and retracting over the course of its seven-minute odyssey, Lee West explains; “I like the fact that if you say something over and over again in music, then over time it can become something else, something reflective.”

Since the release of Persona, Ryan Lee West has taken his captivating live A/V set to all corners of the world. Last seen live on stage with 17 players of the London Contemporary Orchestra for a sold-out orchestral performance at Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall in January 2020.

Meanwhile Lee West has kept busy. After contributing an exclusive track titled ‘Them Is Us’ to Adult Swim’s coveted Singles series, he recently shared the beautifully textured solo piano piece Winter’s Lament on this year’s Piano Day. He has also been in high demand as a composer, scoring Charlie Brooker’s much talked about Black Mirror episode Striking Vipers, composing original music for Secret Cinema presents Stranger Things as well as renowned choreographer Alexander’s Whitley’s groundbreaking new work Overflow which was set to premiere at London’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre this spring.

Articulation will be available worldwide on 31 July, with live activities to be announced as soon as the situation allows safe event planning.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Clear vinyl in screen printed pvc sleeve.
First 500 come with signed postcard.

Like most of us, Tender (Ed) has faced many troubles in his life. Music has been a guiding light, leading him onto the right path. It was whilst in his darkest place, that he taught himself to play the soprano saxophone, bringing much needed focus and discipline back into his life. Much like his musical heroes, John Coltrane and Yusef Lateef, who were both inspired by eastern spiritualism and the deep tradition of Indian classical music, Tender has always been searching for something different and much deeper.

The seeds for a young Tender to embark on the right musical path of transcendence were planted during his father's secondments to the East as a result of being a Ghurkha officer. However it was after hearing the North Indian Classical flautist Ronu Majumdar's "Raga Mangal Bhairav" that Tender knew this was a spiritual seed he had to fully develop.

This particular seed however was ironically sowed in a grimy Peckham pub, after one too many beers - like many of our endeavours. Whilst reminiscing about previous musical journeys in Poland, we were reminded of an instrumental quartet from Lahore, Pakistan - Jaubi. We later discovered that Jaubi is an Urdu word for "whatever/whoever" and creating whatever sounds good with whoever feels good is the groups guiding principle - a vibe we could relate to. Drinks continued to flow and we further explored the idea of a trip to Lahore in Pakistan, where the band resides.

That evening after getting home from the pub, we both told our family and friends that we were planning to go to Lahore, Pakistan and record an album with Jaubi. We were met with heavy resistance from family and government officials. Our families constantly fed us articles and WhatsApp links about why it is dangerous to travel to Pakistan due to terrorism, kidnappings, tropical diseases…the list was endless. The Pakistani embassy also showed resistance by rejecting our Visas twice. The project felt destined for failure, however we slowly persevered with the Lahore dream. We learned not to believe everything people are telling you, this was more than a musical quest now, it was about breaking down cultural misconceptions.

Through many hours of hard work and planning, we arrived in Lahore on the 9th of April 2019, greeted with nothing but love and humbleness. Lahore is something special, full of positivity, humility, care and hope. Thankfully all a stark contrast to the negativity we heard about Pakistan before arriving. It was not long into the first day and that first studio session, where we realised this trip would be a real awakening. Nothing whatsoever was written down during the recording sessions - no sheet music, no song titles. It was sincere, all egos were left behind and hearts and souls were open and poured into the music.

'Impressions' is a pure raga (Raga Ba Khizer), the taala (rhythmic cycle) is Ektaal (12 beat cycle). It is the raga that Tender first heard Ronu Majumdar play. This beautiful scale, thatTender would often practice back home, becomes the musical framework for rich improvisations. Joined by Zohaib Hassan Khan on the stringed instrument called sarangi - Zohaib is a 7th generation sarangi maestro and one of only 5 professional sarangi players left in Pakistan practicing this ancient art form. Kashif Ali Dhani provides the stunning backdrop on tabla, weaving in and out of complex rhythmic patterns.

'Kirwani' is composed by Dhani and is based on a raga that resembles the harmonic minor scale in western music. Whilst 'Shalamar Gardens' provides a peaceful moment for reflection with Tender on soprano sax and Dhani on vocals.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Ltd 10" Info: Hand stamped 10" with an insert, limited to 350 copies.

Italian Ice is the brand new studio album from Nicole Atkins, recorded over a week at historic Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Featuring contributions from Britt Daniel (Spoon), Jim Sclavunos (Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds), Seth Avett (The Avett Brothers), John Paul White (The Civil Wars) and David Hood and Spooner Oldham (Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section), Italian Ice is what happens when the Jersey Shore and Muscle Shoals collide.

WHAT WE DREW 우리가 그려왔던 is titled intentionally; for Yaeji, the title captures the spirit of the project as a whole which she explains, "is so much about friendship, family, gratitude and support - support that I've felt, that I've given, and that we all share."

Produced entirely by Yaeji over the course of two years, she started writing the music for WHAT WE DREW with no specific narrative in mind, each track becoming a snippet of her life, a look into her diary. This total sense of freedom in her newly-built design and recording studio in Brooklyn allowed her to draw on a wide range of sounds, including the Korean indie rock and electronica that she listened to as a teenager in Seoul, and late ’90s and early 2000s hip hop and R&B she grew up listening to.

The guests featured on the project represent her community in New York City and beyond, including Brooklyn-via-Oakland rapper Nappy Nina, London performance artist Victoria Sin, London producer Shy One, and Tokyo DJ and producer YonYon; tracks like “FREE INTERLUDE,” featuring Lil Fayo, trenchcoat, and Sweet Pea, capture the open and collaborative spirit of afternoons at Yaeji headquarters. Although the mixtape is much indebted to Yaeji’s newfound laser focused creative vision and self-taught production work, it’s largely informed by her network of close-knit collaborators and friends.

Since the release of Yaeji’s 2017 EP’s (Yaeji and EP2), which broke her out as one of the most exciting new voices in dance music, she’s produced remixes for Charlie XCX and Robyn, sold out two headlining worldwide tours, and was included on the BBC’s Sound of 2018 list. In the midst of her swift rise, she has remained devoted to New York’s underground dance music scene; in 2019, Yaeji curated and organized Elancia, a massive Brooklyn warehouse rave where she gave her favorite local parties headlining slots. An artist who many pegged as the one to watch, Yaeji now aims beyond expectations, with an eye toward the worlds of music production, visual art, game design and more.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Clear yellow vinyl.

David & Stephen Dewaele (aka Soulwax/2manydjs) have always been fascinated by collecting instruments and recording gear. Their passion hasn’t been born by completism: simply every new item inspires a world of possibilities. The one item that always eluded them was the EMS Synthi 100—a huge and rare analogue synthesizer, of which there were only 31 ever produced, that can create a near infinite array of sounds.

The album sounds simultaneously futuristic and retro as it highlights the versatility, uniqueness and warmth of the Synthi 100. Remarkably, a synthesizer that was first launched in 1971 continues to excel in 2020, aided only by patient restoration and fresh creative input. Each side of the vinyl features a long piece of music, each of which is divided into three movements. While they can be heard separately, David & Stephen urge people to listen to the entire experience from start to finish.

‘DEEWEE Sessions Vol.01’ is a highly collectible package featuring the album on heavyweight 180g vinyl along with a fully-illustrated 48-page book which explores the background behind the album and history of the Synthi 100. The book compiles a foreword from David & Stephen Dewaele; an introduction from 3030, the specific Synthi 100 unit that was used for the album; a history of its creation and an exploration of its sounds; and finally an interview with Ivan Schepers, the IPEM technician who has been 3030’s long-term custodian.

Fittingly, this tribute to such an elegant machine is presented in a beautiful style, art directed by Ill-Studio. The vinyl is held in a perforated ‘patch bay’ cover with a fully artworked inner sleeve, while both the disc and book are housed in a clear PVC bag.

Darkstar announce their fourth album ‘Civic Jams’ for release on Warp.

On their most personal record to date, Darkstar counterbalance observations of their home with those of the community surrounding it. ‘Civic Jams’ is a photonegative of a dance record shaped by a dialogue between shoegaze atmospherics and UK bass music’s ‘hardcore continuum’. Darkstar find themselves at once looking homeward and venturing further into their own psychic hinterland with each record.

They’ve covered a lot of ground from the introspective expanse of their debut ‘North’ [2010], to utopian visions of society in ‘News From Nowhere’ [2013] and the unique dynamics of a pre-Brexit northern England on ‘Foam Island’ [2015]. On their latest offering, home is within reach.

Inspired by the intervening years, Darkstar (aka Aiden Whalley and James Young) show how the personal can be political and reveal more of themselves than they’ve ever done before. Imagine emotional realism built from spectral rave echoes, anchored in timeless songs of love and loss in the digital now and you’ve got it. Patterns of isolation are increasingly easy to fall into, especially when public spaces where people play, socialise, dance and protest are closed. ‘Civic Jams’ is about reminiscing over loss, whilst moving forward with those we love. It offers an abstract look at life’s nuances and the search to find something to hold on to and enjoy.

Ulrich Schnauss, the highly respected German electronic music composer, has taken the opportunity to remaster his entire back catalogue, having recently had all his recording rights returned to him.

The last of the five albums, ‘No Further Ahead Than Tomorrow’ was originally released in 2016 and has been rerecorded and reworked as well as being remastered. It now sounds the way Ulrich had intended, hence the change of title from ‘Today’ to ‘Tomorrow’.

Ulrich Schnauss, the highly respected German electronic music composer, has taken the opportunity to remaster his entire back catalogue, having recently had all his recording rights returned to him.

The second of five albums, ‘A Strangely Isolated Place’ was originally released in 2003. It is generally regarded as a landmark electronic music statement.

Equally at home on and off the dancefloor, it’s wave-kissed dreariness dripping with cold sensuality is both vibrant and brooding. Showcasing her unique sound in the saturated world of electronica, Touch successfully draws from electropop and disco influences, combining 80’s vintage synths with industrial soundscapes, delivered with a visceral post-punk snarl. Introduced to 80’s pop and new wave via her father’s extensive collection of Human League, Karat and Duran Duran, she honed her trademark sound with the likes of The KLF, Karen O and PJ Harvey motivating her early productions. The results led to releases on Catz ‘N Dogz’ Pets Recordings and Lunatic Records, as well as making regular appearances on Riotvan, the Leipzig-based record label run by Peter Invasion and co-owned by Panthera Krause. ‘Behind the Wall’ opens with the dark and powerful ‘Imaginary Boys,’ a soundtrack to Touch’s long journey through the city to the studio each day. It is followed by ‘Attic,’ which she describes as the “driving point of the whole album.” It’s an invitation to dance with me, a lullaby, a consolation,” she says. “Like a mantra.” And that is exactly what this record feels like.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Translucent Red Vinyl.

Romare returns with his third studio album via Ninja Tune, ‘Home’, on 31 July 2020. The album follows his recent 12” single “Gone / Danger” in 2019 (‘Gone’ opens the album). The album represents his most intentional and direct nod to the dancefloor to date while retaining all of the signature melodic charm and sonic textures synonymous with his music.

When Mildlife’s debut album, Phase, was released in 2018 it didn’t so much explode on to the scene as ooze. Their mellifluous mix of jazz, krautrock and, perhaps more pertinently, demon grooves, was the word of mouth sensation of that year among open-minded DJs and diggers searching for the perfect beat.

Their emergence was backed up by European tours that demonstrated a riotously loose-limbed ap-proach to performance that was every bit as thrilling as Phase’s tantalising promise. What was more impressive was how lightly they wore influences that took in Can, Patrick Adams and Jan Hammer Group, while primarily sounding precisely like Mildlife.

By the end of 2018 they’d been nominees for Best Album at the Worldwide FM Awards (World-wide’s Gilles Peterson was a notable champion) and won Best Electronic Act at The Age Music Victoria Awards back home in Melbourne. Their progress post-Phase was cemented with a UK deal with Jeff Barrett’s Heavenly, who released How Long Does It Take? replete with Cosmic doyen Baldelli and Dionigi remixes, while last year they were officially anointed by DJ Harvey when he included The Magnificent Moon on his Pikes compilation Mercury Rising Vol II.

With Automatic, the band have made a step-change from their debut. It’s more disciplined, direc-tional and arguably more danceable. As on Phase, they are unafraid to let a track luxuriate in length without ever succumbing to self-indulgence. The arrangements, tightly structured thanks to Tom Shanahan (bass) and Jim Rindfleish’s fatback drumming, permit space for the others to add spice to the stew, topped off with Kevin McDowell’s ethereal vocals as Mildlife effortlessly glide between live performance and studio songwriting. “The recorded songs kind of become the new reference point for playing the songs live,’ says Kevin. “They both have different outcomes and we make our decisions for each based on that, but they’re symbiotic and they both influence each other. It’s usually a fairly natural flow from live to recorded back to live.”

With the current climate as it is, opportunities to take this album out into the live arena where the band truly come alive, might well be scant, but they are working on ways around this. “We were hoping to visit new places with this album but that’s required a bit of rethink. We have a lot more videos planned for this year and we’ll be doing shows in Australia when things re-open but it’s still all just wait and see for now.” One thing’s for sure, post-lockdown will be one hell of a party.

The centrepiece of Automatic is the title track where the band sound like Kraftwerk and Herbie Hancock on quarantined lockdown in Bob Moog’s Trumansburg workshop. It’s both a departure and quintessentially Mildlife. This is music you can dance to rather than ‘dance music’ and it’s all the better for it.

- Bill Brewster

FORMAT INFORMATION

LP Info: Black heavyweight vinyl with locked groove.

Canadian by birth and now London based, Jayda G releases her new EP, ‘Both Of Us / Are U Down’ on Ninja Tune. The new EP perfectly captures the energy, vitality, rhythm and boundless enthusiasm that has seen Jayda rise through the dance music underground. There will also be an official video to accompany ‘Both Of Us’ single featuring Jayda.

‘Both Of Us / Are U Down’ was made in collaboration with Fred Gibson aka Fred again.. (2020 BRIT Awards' Producer of the Year - Stormzy, Ed Sheeran, Jamie XX, FKA Twigs, Headie One and more).

On “Dizzy Strange Summer”, Genevieve Artadi offers a window into her ad-lib creativity and the LA community where it’s been nurtured. This is the vocalist, composer and producer’s second solo album, and it sees her stake out her own ground outside of her other groups KNOWER, Expensive Magnets and Everything’s Under Control. She brings her own slant to the DIY LA scene that she’s grown up in, melding influences from jazz, psychedelia, bossa nova and avant-garde electronics. “Dizzy Strange Summer” marks not only Artadi’s debut on Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder imprint, but her first self-produced project released on any record label.

An impulsive spirit underwrites every part of the album, something reflected in the energy Genevieve devotes to create the videos to accompany them. It’s an honest, unmediated reflection of the period in which she created the music, supported by a close circle of like-minded musical friends including - but not limited to - Louis Cole (Brainfeeder), Sam Wilkes (Leaving Records), Henry Halliwell, Daniel Sunshine, Adam Weissman (Pollyn / Real Bad Man), Ruslan Sirota, Ross Garren, David Binney and Jacob Mann — each of whom she tapped up to add their flavour to songs where she felt their styles or talents aligned. Most tracks would begin life on her laptop, be sent to a friend for them to add their spin to it, before coming back to Artadi to be elevated to their final form. Reflecting on what drives her to create, she says: “Sometimes I just really get that burning feeling to make something and get it out there.” Above all, this is an album that speaks to that drive: to create something and share it with people.

The album was written in a time of upheaval, something reflected in both the lyrics and the sound of the record. “I was pretty lost… but enjoying feeling lost,” Artadi says. Drawing inspiration from the tumult around her and she relished the opportunity to express herself uninhibited by the shackles of compromise associated with collaboration. Crucially, this often means a silly, playful side being played off against a serious one; but she doesn’t think the former undercuts the latter, seeing the two as vital shared ingredients to what she does. “I don’t feel like I would be giving an honest picture if I didn’t do both,” she says.

“Dizzy Strange Summer” revels in juxtapositions, unleashing high energy assaults at full tilt before giving way to soft-focus melancholia, allowing Genevieve to show off the full spectrum of her vocal prowess. On the first single ‘Living Like I Know I’m Gonna Die’ for example, her delivery is beautifully understated and airy: “Living like the future is a guess, living like I’m smaller than a speck”. “I sing it softly ‘cos it’s an internal proclamation... a message to myself,” she explains. She displays this vulnerability on ‘All I Want For Now’, ‘Before The Dark’ and ‘Will You Tell Me’ too - the latter a stunning duet with harp. Elsewhere, on ’Godzillaaaa’ for example, her delivery is informed by ESG and Talking Heads, stomping past on a stark riddim in a whirlwind of distorted percussion and synths.

Twin sisters Georgina and Una McGeough who comprise Song Sung, grew up in Monaghan, a gnat’s width away from the border with Northern Ireland, and since the past decade have been based out of New York.

Via a mutual friend, the film-maker Seamus Hanrahan, Song Sung got a connection to David Holmes (Killing Eve, Noel Gallagher), and following their chance meeting in early 2016, spent three days holed up in Holmes’ studio laying down the tracks for an album. They had been collaboratively bouncing tracks back and forth between New York and Belfast for a short period, with Holmes sending the arrangements and Song Sung writing the lyrics and vocal melodies.

Fast forward four years and the result is a hypnotically unique sound that is strangely anthemic, coming on like a space-age girl-group transmitting directly from Jupiter. Holmes, known for his many film scores co-wrote and produced the album with fellow composer and Unloved band-mate Keefus Cian- cia (True Detective and The Ladykillers). The pair have a long standing working relationship and have worked on numerous scores including The Fall and Killing Eve (for which they won a BAFTA) as well as both Unloved albums.

Meanwhile, Song Sung, forging careers in the art world, have simultaneously managed to amass this vast catalogue of ma- terial in, quite frankly, the most unorthodox way imaginable (possibly contributing to the idiosyncrasies of their songwrit- ing). “We make melodies using alternative ways, but we also dabble in software” explains Georgina, “in the beginning, we created melodies by using our own vocals over some of our favourite music. Our first apartment in the East Village, was located above a bar and our back room was situated directly above the DJ booth. This is going to sound ridiculous, but it’s true, we started making melodies over the bass of the tracks coming through the floor from the bar below.” From that, a process of layering vocals, however obscure, was how the band started to formulate songs.

“We were very excited to work with David, the whole process was amazing and such a privilege. He got us immediately", claims Una. Georgina nods her approval. “Working on this album was an absolute dream. We only hope that the songs resonate, as they make their journey out into the world."

Influential jazz collective Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids return with an epic new opus, ‘Shaman!’, released on 7th August featuring a fresh line-up including original 1970s Pyramids member Dr. Margaux Simmons on flute Bobby Cobb on guitar, long-term associate Sandra Poindexter on violin, Ruben Ramos on bass, Gioele Pagliaccia on drums and Jack Yglesias on percussion. The band transitions from the political and social commentaries of 2018’s acclaimed ‘An Angel Fell’ into more introspective themes. “I wanted to use this album to touch on some of the issues that we all face as individuals in the inner space of our souls and our conscience,” explains Ackamoor. “The album unfolds over four Acts with personal musical statements about love and loss, mortality, the afterlife, family and salvation.”

Evolving around Ackamoor’s intricate compositions, the album takes us effortlessly across moods and emotions through a series of expansive, extended pieces. Starting with ritual, soul-searching, and masculine vulnerability on the title track, the band explores timeless existence on ‘Eternity’ and mourns the sudden loss of loved ones in the prescient ‘When Will I See You Again?’, a track which gains new relevance amidst the current COVID-19 crisis. Ackamoor pays tribute to his mentor Cecil Taylor on the angular ‘Theme For Cecil’ and renders homage to the ancestors on ‘Salvation’ and ‘The Last Slave Ship’, recalling the last ship to bring slaves to the US from Africa, the Clotilda. The superb ‘Virgin’ is an anthem of forgiveness, new beginnings and self-healing.

Wu Hen is the sophomore album from Peckham visionary Kamaal Williams -- an invitation to elevate to a higher state. Cinematic strings from Miguel-Atwood Ferguson and virtuoso saxophone from Quinn Mason are textural additions that make for a deeper, multi-layered experience than previous releases.

Bringing groove back to the forefront, Wu Hen oscillates between celestial jazz, funk, rap and r&b reinforced with the rugged beat-heavy attitude of grime, jungle, house and garage – a self-styled fusion Kamaal describes as Wu Funk.

New players on this record include LA’s Greg Paul on drums (of Kalayst Collective), Rick Leon James on bass, Quinn Mason on saxophone alongside vocal features from cult rapper Mach-Hommy and Kaytranada collaborator Lauren Faith. Multi-talented renaissance musician Miguel Atwood-Ferguson (who has worked with Ray Charles, Flying Lotus, Dr. Dre, Mary J. Blige, and Seu Jorge) contributes signature strings, which add vivid colour and rich depth, evoking vintage David Axelrod.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Indies exclusive red vinyl.

Inspired equally by the soul and funk of the Black Rio movement and the samba rock innovations of Jorge Ben, Serginho Meriti’s classic debut album presents one of the best - if least known - examples of funky Brazilian soul.

Brazil’s Black Rio movement had a lasting impact on the country’s marginalised black youth. Inspired by the African-American Civil Rights Movement and the revolutionary, politically conscious soul and funk being produced by the likes of James Brown, Curtis Mayfield, Gil Scott Heron, Billy Paul and Nina Simone, a new scene began to incubate in Rio’s poor and oft-neglected North Zone - one which put black culture front and centre. At bailes funk (funk balls) revellers proudly sported afros and danced to their own beat while artists such as Banda Black Rio, Trio Ternura, Tim Maia and Emilio Santiago subverted officially-sanctioned Brazilian styles by fusing elements of imported soul, funk and jazz with samba rhythms to create a new form of music they could call their own.

Sérginho Meriti was one of many young artists caught up in the excitement of the movement. Born Sérgio Roberto Serafim and raised in the north Rio suburb of Meriti (from which he’d take his stage name), he began his career with Black Rio funk/soul outfit Copa 7, for whom he penned the stridently funky dance floor hit Som Da Copa 7.

Snapped up by Polydor at the turn of the 80s, Bons Mementos was his first work as a solo artist. It’s the work of a young musician brimming with musical ideas and creating a new take the Black Rio sound - one he would refer to variously as Meritiense (the sound of Meriti) or as Electric Samba. The title track is perhaps the perfect distillation of his ideas, mixing Black Rio’s funky bass and guitar lines with a healthy dose of the samba rock style developed by Jorge Ben, a pinch of eighties synths, and some of the best call-and-response female vocals this side of Fela Kuti. The result is a potently-rich musical stew that has made the track a compilation favourite and the album hugely collectable among funk connoisseurs.

Elsewhere on an all-killer-no-filler effort, Madureira adds reggae-fied guitar rhythms and low-slung bass to the mix while Malandro’s added bursts of brass give playful homage to Glenn Miller’s Big Band standard In The Mood. Memorias demonstrates Meriti’s mastery of tempo. Beginning with a languid slice of samba rock the track abruptly changes speed half way through for a bright and zippy finish of brass-heavy funk. Serjane adds layers of flute and saxophone the latter adding to the natural warmth of Serginho’s rough-hewn vocals. Tipo is a classic funk workout with some deliciously squelchy synths, while Batalha ends the album with a warm slice of funk, it’s yin and yang melding of joyful horn bursts with mournful vocals a potent demonstration of the sadness that underpins the album’s seemingly sunny soul.

Interviewed recently, Serginho says the message he wanted to convey was that of “love, equality, [and] a portrait of how we were living at the time… the story of black people coming to Brazil, and the dissatisfaction of our life”. It’s a thought worth bearing in mind while taking in this shimmering gem of an album; one that was crafted with a yearning wish (as yet unfulfilled) that Black Rio’s dreams for black equality in Brazil might one day be realised.

One of Australia’s finest musical exports, Dr Packer returns to Glitterbox forDifferent Strokes Volume after the incredible three-part first edition of the series. Ahead of the full-length album, this first sampler highlights three stellar cuts from the forthcoming LP, showcasing Dr Packer’s expert abilities to produce soulful versions of house and disco essentials. If this sampler is anything to go by,Different Strokes Volume 2 is set to be a stunning album from one of disco’s brightest stars.

Transition East features two new pieces of music created by Angel Bat Dawid in response to Emma Warren's 2019 book Make Some Space – i.e. the book that chronicles the history of London DIY music institution Total Refreshment Centre.

Angel Bat Dawid, who first met Emma Warren at Total Refreshment Centre in 2017, composed & recorded "Transition East" alone in her space on the Southside of Chicago, originally to be an accompaniment for the audiobook version of Make Some Space.

Angel conceptualized & named “Transition East” in commemoration of the storied Chicago community center that was a hub for the AACM and icons from the Black Arts Movement in the 1960s, and was recently revived by one of her mentors, Eliel Sherman Storey.

"No Space Fo Us" was composed & recorded at a space in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, where Angel travelled with a crew of Chicago artists (including IARC label mates Ben LaMar Gay & Damon Locks) on a collaborative mission called Close to There (Perto de Lá). The track features Angel with Ben LaMar Gay and new Brazilian friends Edbrass Brasil, Romulo Alexis, Tadeu Mascarenhas, Nancy Viégas & Germano Estacio.

International Anthem is proud to present these two beautiful pieces of music on a deluxe 45rpm 7" vinyl inside a picture sleeve designed by Jeremiah Chiu.

Strut present the first ever compilation bringing together classics and rarities from the seminal spiritual jazz and conscious soul label Black Fire, covering 1975 to 1993.

Formed by DJ and record producer Jimmy Gray in Richmond, Virginia, and following in the footsteps of other influential black-owned independent labels like Strata-East and Tribe, the foundation of Black Fire coincided with saxophonist James “Plunky” Branch returning to the city from New York to form Oneness Of Juju. The band’s ‘African Rhythms’ album in 1975 was the perfect fusion of jazz, deep African polyrhythms and empowering lyrics and bassist Muzi Branch, a trained artist, created the first of many Black Fire handillustrated sleeves for the label’s debut release.

The album set the tone for a series of landmark releases on the label including Oneness Of Juju’s ‘Space Jungle Luv’ (1976) and debuts from soulman Wayne Davis (1976) and early go-go pioneers Experience Unlimited (1977). Gray continued to use his influence and strong A&R instincts to bring in more key artists – great jazz players like Byard Lancaster and Hamiet Bluiett, Ghanaian master percussionist Okyerema Asante and collectives including Southern Energy Ensemble and music / drama troupe Theatre West. Due to personal and cashflow issues, many releases had to be canned and only later surfaced on CD during the early ‘90s

‘Soul Love Now’ brings together some of the many highlights from the label onto one essential compilation. Opening with Theatre West’s powerful soul message ‘Children of Tomorrow’s Dreams’, the tracks include a Byard Lancaster recording with Tunde Kuboye’s Drummers Of Ibadan in Nigeria and Lon Moshe’s driving jazz dance classic ‘Doin’ The Carvin’ For Thabo’. Wayne Davis brings the explosive gospel rare groove ‘Look At The People’ while Plunky’s JuJu and Oneness Of Juju feature with three tracks spanning their career, including a storming previously unreleased version of the classic ‘African Rhythms’ recorded in DC in 1975.

The release features extended sleeve notes features extended sleeve notes around the history of the label alongside interviews with featured musicians. The 2LP format includes a reprint of one of the three original Black Fire magazines published by Jimmy Gray which predated the launch of the label.

DNGDNGDNG is Dengue Dengue Dengue's new alias for this release of extra sensory perception. The duo have projected rhythmic visions of lost continents, unknown worlds and the unseeable past and future that is present all around us. By channeling rhythmic patterns from the matrix they're able to translate the waves of radiation around us which originated at the cosmic event which created the universe. DNGDNGDNG reach deep into their sonic imagination to draw from interlocking time signatures and variant tempos. From the cosmic interference and mathematics DNGDNGDNG create a polyrhythmic theme that brings the sound of continents lost and imagined to our ears. Dengue Dengue Dengue have established themselves as one of the most pioneering artists on the leftfield electronic scene in recent years with heavyweight support by the likes of Boiler Room, Resident Advisor and Bandcamp weekly.

Heavily influenced by the sounds of UK bass sub-cultures Dengue Dengue Dengue are drawing on their decade of entrancing audiences around the world to connect to dances of the mythical past and lands of the dance beyond their alter ego Afro Peruvian invocations via ancient future rhythms. With the futurist alias of DNGDNGDNG the duo are able to break expectations and swing into imagined realities on a 6/8 rhythm.

Behind the masks are Felipe Salmon and Rafael Pereira, two producers, dj’s and graphic designers from Lima, Perú. Their work explores the rhythms from Peru and other parts of the world, recreating them electronically by mixing new and old, analog and digital, to create a unique sound and visuals. Their musical explorations go from psychedelic cumbia to dub, from salsa to footwork, from tribal to techno. Their visual and sound palette continues to grow and add new flavours to this melting pot.

DNGDNGDNG is the new alter ego of pioneering tropical bass duo Dengue Dengue Dengue

‘Continentes Perdidos' breaks expectations and swings into imagined realities on a 6/8 rhythm

“No one really encouraged me to take up music,” says Callum Easter. “It's just been in my gut for a long time.” The original rumblings of music came from childhood growing up on the east coast of Scotland but it was the discovery of an accordion that led to the biggest shift in Easter’s musical life to date “It's not an instrument I considered playing until I picked one up in a charity shop,” he says.

At the time Easter was playing in and around Edinburgh. He realised he wanted an instrument that would allow him to engage more with the audience. “I wanted to face the crowd and sing,” he says. “The spectacle appealed too, it's pretty physical singing and playing whilst on your feet. I think people enjoy seeing you struggle and take chances.”

By the time 2019 arrived, Easter had transformed his live show and sound from his early days so after signing to Moshi Moshi, it made sense to go back into the studio and rerecord tracks from his first two EPs and debut album Here or Nowhere (released on Lost Maps). “The premise was to record the versions of the songs I'd been performing live using mainly accordion, drum machine and drone,” he says. “One take, no overdubs, straight to tape. All done in Glasgow’s Green Door Studios.”

The result captures a stark and potent sense of musical evolution and growing craftsmanship. Music that wrestles equally with honesty, fragility and intensity. Lyrically, the album is introspective, covering the subjects of “Love, injustice, commonality, longing, acceptance, and having no regrets.” With Easter joking that, “I probably do melancholy a bit too well. But I'm working on that.” Balanced with the melancholy is beauty and tenderness however.

With Easter reconnecting with music of his past, it also highlights how far he’s come on his idiosyncratic journey. A determined and impassioned artist who follows his musical gut rather than any defined career plan. “I don't feel comfortable with purpose,” he says. “It sounds a bit steady, like you're responsible for something. I don't really know what I'm looking for. For now, it’s just me in a room with plenty of scope.”

Z Records continues its commitment to unearthing the obscure and long forgotten tracks from the last 40 years through the ever-popular Under The Influence series. Following on from Red Greg, Paul Phillips, James Glass, Nick The Record, Sean P, Faze Action and Winston. It’s now the turn of one of the Italy’s most impressive collectors; Woody Bianchi.

The story behind U.T.I is this, being a seasoned record collector Z label boss Dave Lee (Joey Negro) has made the acquaintance of many of the worlds other vinyl junkies. People that may be unknown to the general public but are hardcore enthusiasts who have built some of the best collections of soul, funk and disco on the planet. The idea of UTI isn't about big name djs but is to give a musical platform to those who have the knowledge to put together a track listing of killer tunes.

Woody Bianchi is a prolific DJ, producer, remixer and record collector. His International collaborations with Bob Sinclar,Todd Terry, Arthur Baker, Full Intention, Eric Kupper, Jocelyn Brown, Marshall Jefferson and many others have created an remarkable profile for him. He has released over 300 productions worldwide and has toured side by side with many of the scenes greatest names. Here we get the pleasure of delving into his vast collection and plucking some of the rarest records out there, with many of the tracks costing hundreds if you were able to find the originals.

As always with ZR compilations a lot of time and effort has been spent on creating these masters from the original vinyl, cleaning them up, removing all the clicks and pops resulting in the cleanest sounding copy possible.

Ruby Rushton are back, unveiling a fresh limited 7" single for the South London based, 22a imprint. The Tenderlonious led quartet hit new heights on this one, recalling the spirit of their debut 2015 album "Two For Joy", with two brand new, afro-tinged, jazz-fusion winners.


"Sun Khosi" is a tribute to Tender's father who spent many years in Nepal working as a Gurkha Officer. The name is taken from one of the most famous rivers in Nepal, which runs through the Himalayas. It translates to "River of Gold" and is an appropriate title for this uplifting, feel-good summertime tune. It's also Tender's first composition and recording to feature him playing the alto flute, which has a deeper, more mellow tone compared to the usual concert flute that he plays.

The B-side "Chrysalis" composed by keys and synth bass maestro Aidan Shepherd, is inspired by the playing of pianist and British jazz legend John Taylor, who had something of an obsession with music in 3/4 time. 'Chrysalis' breaks into two distinct parts; kicking off with with Ruby Ruston's signature tight, snappy melodies and driving groove, then reversing back into the bands carefree 'Two for Joy' sound of 2015, when the bass is given a rare chance to come to the forefront by joining the flute and trumpet melody. Herbie Hancock's classic track "Butterfly" has become a staple in the bands set, so the snappy melodies and driving groove of "Chrysalis" represent the restless energy of the butterfly about to emerge from its chrysalis.

Jadu Heart's new album Hyper Romance is their second album, following last year's Melt Away. They quickly followed up on their debut by retreating to their new basement studio to write the bones of the forthcoming sophomore album. The resulting project blends raw, energetic psych-rock with sonic healing and displays the versatility of the band.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Purple / deep red vinyl with sticker sheet.

Keleketla! is an expansive collaborative project, reaching outward from Johannesburg to London, Lagos, L.A. and West Papua, “Keleketla!” started as a musical meeting ground between Ninja Tune cofounders Coldcut and a cadre of South African musicians (introduced by the charity In Place Of War), including the raw, South African-accented jazz styles of Sibusile Xaba, and rapper Yugen Blakrok (Black Panther OST). From those initial sessions, the record grew to encompass a wider web of musical luminaries, including Afrobeat architects Tony Allen and Dele Sosimi, legendary L.A. spoken word pioneers The Watts Prophets, and West Papuan activist Benny Wenda.

Album collaborators include South Africa sessions with Yugen Blakrok, Nono Nkoane, Thabang Tabane, Tubatsi Moloi, Gally Ngoveni, Sibusile Xaba, Soundz of the South Collective, DJ Mabheko and London sessions with Tony Allen, Shabaka Hutchings, Dele Sosimi, Ed ‘Tenderlonious’ Cawthorne, Tamar Osborn, Miles James, Joe Armon-Jones, Afla Sackey, Wenda Family, Eska Mtungwazi, Jungle Drummer, DeeJay Random.

Additionally, The Watts Prophets (Los Angeles) and Antibalas (New York) have contributed to the album.

Michelle are a musical collective hailing from New York City.

Weaving in and out of R&B, 80’s synth pop, jazz and indie, Michelle is refreshingly predominated by queer and POC members, showcasing a transformative era in pop music.

Written and recorded in a bedroom over the span of two weeks, their debut album “Heatwave” captures a compilation of sentimental moments – snapshots of youth in a New York summer, all immediately recognizable to those who’ve lived them (and those that have wished to).

James Krivchenia (b. Minnesota, 1988) is a many-armed sculptor of music. The gentle but fierce wisdom of his drumming in Big Thief; the exceptionally loving chime-, drum-, and studio work with Mega Bog; the acoustic mirror framing the living collages of Causings. A through-line crossing this variegated musical landscape is his solo electronic work. Krivchenia’s solo works are the images that result from experiments with his conceptual particle colliders: an interlocking of idea and process, of determinism and chance, of abstraction and concreteness.

His previous solo work, No Comment (Left Door Tapes, 2018), shows an increasing clarity of intentional framing while never sacrificing the material joy of making music. No Comment worked through heavier concepts, culling from the audio of body camera footage of gun skirmishes from wars around the world uploaded to the internet, processing this material to bring the shadowy regions of our psyche to light as music, while making us aware of the pervasiveness of violence all around us.

A New Found Relaxation is a refinement of Krivchenia’s method of transforming concrete found material into abstract crystals that still shine with their original glow. Realized in spring of 2019 in the tiny town in New Mexico where he was living at the time, A New Found Relaxation is made from hundreds of tiny fragments of internet spa radio, ASMR youtube holes, field recordings and cast off muzak, processed through Krivchenia’s magic box of extreme outboard manipulations. This mass of fragments was then organized into an albumlike frame that maintains this elusive balance between the surfacey calm of spa radio and the frenetic effects of the hyperreal processing. This balance illuminates the deep-structural mania of a globalized world ensnared in the internet, the ever-quickening global whirl of information and capitalism, the tenuousness of our collective life in unprecedented isolation. But it does so without obliterating the spiritual glow of that world, that information, that life. This record is far from a joke at spa radio’s expense: on the contrary, the calming, healing presence of the much-maligned new age/background music is taken up with care and appreciation. It’s just that the frantic energy that carries this calm is lifted up and made audible within it. Still relaxing, sure, but a relaxation we might have to grow accustomed to: a new found relaxation.

"I put together this record in the spring of 2019 in New Mexico from a cache of 500 small fragments of mangled, smeared, manipulated, and artifacted 'beauty', achieved through hours of knob twisting and droning. These were then meticulously assembled into a densely layered song / record format soaked in ear tickle and water. I wanted to make something that contained the seeds and quality of "relaxation" but was fast paced and hard to fully sink into....like these little glimpses of peace piled on top of each other.....like the world as I experience it much of the time. I wanted to embrace paradoxical approaches and moods within one piece - the drone/the edit; the frantic/the calm; confusion/tranquility. I wanted to make something that made me feel weird. I hope it does something for ya." - James Krivchenia

A global spectrum of talented artists grace the record – and for the first time this includes rappers. Appearances from Mick Jenkins, Channel Tres, Aminé and slowthai sit comfortably alongside the legend that is Common. Other features include the inimitable Kelis who opens the album and Fatoumata Diawara who the boys have also linked up with previously. Cameroon’s Blick Bassy brings his own flow to the table while a powerhouse team of Kehlani & Syd ease the pace with their contribution.

For the exhilarating new album ‘ENERGY’ the title is everything. “The thing that decided which songs made it and which songs didn’t was that one word: energy. Every track was written really quickly. That’s why we had to write so many songs because those ones don’t come up every day. Or every week. Or every month.” Through an epic process of creation and distillation the path to producing their shortest, most direct album - 11 songs, 39 minutes - ran through around 200 tracks: everything from drum loops to fully realised songs.

Since live touring has been paused during the global pandemic and their own plans for 2020 now being put on hold, Guy (and sadly not Howard as they isolated in different countries) found an outlet for his desire to give people a good time no matter what the circumstances by doing a regular run of their popular Kitchen Mix parties via live stream, a set for Boiler Room and a one off special to celebrate Earth Day.

‘ENERGY’ will be available on vinyl, CD and cassette. Disclosure have worked hard to produce environmentally responsible products by focussing on a number of recycled and sustainable materials across all formats. These include forgoing plastic hard-cases for both the CD and cassette formats, utilising vegetable and water-based inks and varnishes and opting for a mixture of recycled and FSC approved cardboard which extends to two of the three vinyl options.

For the third vinyl option ENERGY will be available on Supereco vinyl format which utilises re-granulated PVC pellets in which to press the vinyl (with no loss of audio quality), a fully 100% recycled Bargesse board derived from sugarcane for the sleeve and shrink-wrapped in a sustainable sugarcane based plastic. 

FORMAT INFORMATION

2xColoured LP Info: Clear Transparent 2LP.
2LP gatefold both pockets open on Standard board 100% mix of re-cycled and or FSC board print reverse side of the board.

2xColoured LP includes MP3 Download Code.

LP Info: 2LP gatefold.

LP includes MP3 Download Code.

Disclosure are back with brand new music. They started teasing the return on socials over the weekend and began the global roll out of tracks on Monday evening. Mirroring their Moonlight EP in 2018, the duo released a new track every day across the week.

The EP’s title track ‘Ecstasy’ kicked off the week when the brothers played it during a live mix on the band’s YouTube channel from Guys kitchen. On the track they said “This song came into existence early 2019 during a writing session at Guy’s house in London. We were curiously chopping up samples from various 70s disco and soul records when suddenly, Fantasy by Aquarium Dream gave us the exact thing we were searching for. This song is made entirely to get a human being to their feet and directly to the dance floor.”

Next up was ‘Tondo’ – which received a BBC Radio 1 play from Annie Mac on Tuesday night: “Over the past few years, we have been exploring more and more African genres of music. This specific track samples the great Cameroonian musician Eko Roosevelt. If this track is anything, it’s fast, punchy & above all... fun..”.

The brothers took to YouTube to premiere the third track ‘Expressing What Matters’ on Wednesday night which saw fans tuning in to chat to Guy & Howard and hear the latest release. “This track samples the legendary song Lowdown by Boz Scaggs. We really wanted to try and focus in on those wonderful backing vocals that permeate through the original & give it such soul. They ended up becoming the focal point of the entire track… being chopped and skewed to their limit. The whole thing was one big audio science experiment for us.”

Zane Lowe premiered yesterday’s track ‘Etran’ on his Beats 1 show – which once again, explores further African flavours. “The bulk of the song samples Niger-based band Etran Finatawa. With this track we are exploring an idea... How far can we take a sound that is somewhere in the realm of house music, until it morphs into a whole new being? Colliding genres together in a mash of pulsating, repeating rhythms and tones... this is the furthest we have ever taken that idea.”

Following the Zane play of Etran, Disclosure later confirmed that a fifth and final track ‘Get Close’ would be available at midnight GMT completing the five track ‘Ecstasy’ EP. On this final offering of the week, Disclosure said “Years ago we wrote a song called Get Close that never saw the light of day. We aren’t usually ones to go back to an old idea after so long, but we never got that hook out of our heads.”

Disclosure are brothers Guy & Howard Lawrence. This year marks 10 years since they released their debut single ‘Offline Dexterity’. In that decade (they are still only 28 and 25 respectively) they have released two number 1 albums - Settle (2013) and Caracal (2015) - clocked up 4.5 billion streams, 4.5 million album sales, sold 500k tickets to their headline shows and topped festival bills all over the world – something they do with ease whilst also enjoying playing to packed out sweaty clubs whenever they can.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Ltd 12" Info: 180g heavyweight 12” blue vinyl.

From the 2017 press release: DFA Records and Bokeh Versions have teamed up for a joint release - a reworking of the freaky post-punk stylings of Guerilla Toss by Athens, Greece-based musician and producer Dimitris Papadatos, a.k.a. Jay Glass Dubs.

The EP comes on the heels of the former’s latest record, GT Ultra, which was released in June 2017. Jay Glass Dubs vs Guerilla Toss turns the hyper-bouncy pop and deeper, darker tracks of GT Ultra into four, stripped-down dub ruminations, each one spacier and weirder than the last.

The frenetic, zany tempos of songs like “Skull Pop” and “Can I Get The Real Stuff?” are transformed into slow, viscous existential crises that focus in on Kassie Carlson’s echoing vocals.

Jay Glass Dubs works headphone magic with reverberating percussion and slinky basslines, as always keeping one foot in dub’s past but both eyes on its horizon.

Artist in demand and Bokeh-affiliate Patrick Savile’s artwork eloquently articulates the ethos of the EP – speedy, psychedelic textures are blurred and made malleable, gracefully reflecting the sounds of original album through a hazy prism. If you know Bokeh, you know Jay Glass Dubs.

This Guerilla Toss soundclash hints at new sonic territory that he’s been quietly exploring in email threads with Bokeh Edwards. The trip-hop stylings and mechanical dub futurism foreshadow his debut 12” which will be out at the tail end of 2017.

Sixty five plus minutes of breath-taking material recorded under smooth circumstances in lovely Nashville, TN. This one will without a doubt appeal to long time Yo La Tengo fans, considering the fact that this is their very best one yet. The really good thing, though, is that a lot of people who will buy this record will do so without knowing that it probably is the only TRULY GREAT record they will buy in their lives. Until the next one comes out, of course!!

FORMAT INFORMATION

2xColoured LP Info: Olive green vinyl edition.

Attempts to pigeonhole The Jayhawks have long been fruitless, as any longtime fan or fellow musician knows. The band habitually transcends any label - Americana, Roots Rock, or Alt-Country: you name it - with great songs, musical adventure and sheer derring-do.

'XOXO' is the latest addition to the band's varied catalog. While still very much a true Jayhawks record, this newest offering finds other band members exercising their songwriting prowess and sharing in on vocal duties alongside Gary Louris.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Indies exclusive white vinyl.

Sometime in 2006 or 2007, Jason Molina moved from the midwest to London. Separated from his bandmates and friends and never one for idleness, Molina explored his new home with fervor. Sometimes he’d head out on foot, often with no destination in mind. Other times, he’d pick a random tube stop and find his way back home. He’d pick up on arcane trivia about London’s rich history, and if the historical factoids weren’t available — or weren’t quite to his liking — Molina was quite comfortable conjuring his own history. His adoration of The Great American Tall Tales like John Henry and Paul Bunyan’s blue ox Babe stretched across the Atlantic, where he created his own personal Tall Tales. And when he learned of the London Wall’s seven gates (itself a misconception), Molina went ahead and called it eight, carving out a gate just for himself. The eighth gate was Molina’s way into London, a gate only passable in the mind.

Fast forward to 2008, Molina set off on an experimental solo tour through Europe. While in Northern Italy, Molina claimed to have been bitten by a rare, poisonous spider. A debilitating bout of illness ensued. “I was in the hospital here in London,” Molina wrote in a letter. “Saw six doctors and a Dr. House-type guy. They are all mystified by it, but I am allowed to be at home, where I am taking a dozen scary Hantavirus type pills a day that are all to supposedly help — but they make me feel like shit.” There is no record of a single doctor visit, not any prescription record for these medications. It is entirely plausible there was no spider and that whatever was keeping him indoors during this time was entirely self-induced. While at home, he of course wrote songs.

Molina also claimed that during this time, he fed several bright green parrots that would gather in his yard. While often associated with a greyscale sensibility, Molina was oft-clad in a Hawaiian shirt and had, at least in part, selected the name Songs: Ohia for his first project as a nod to Hawaii’s ‘Ohi’a lehua flower. Which is all to say, the tropical element the parakeets brought to those sick days delighted Molina. He made short, crude field recordings of them with his trusty four-track. Only once Molina was officially on the mend and re-exploring the streets of London would he learn that those parrots had their own fabled tale. Back in the 60s, Jimi Hendrix — in a moment of psychedelic clarity — released his pair of lime green ring-necked parakeets from their cage, setting them free into the London sky. Now, their decendents are spotted regularly around certain parts of the city. Or so we’re told.

Eight Gates is the last collection of solo studio recordings Molina made before he passed from complications related to alcoholism in 2013. Recorded in London around the time of the supposed spider bite and Jimi’s supposed parakeets, some of the songs (“Whispered Away,” “Thistle Blue”) are fully-realized — dark, moody textures that call to mind his earlier work on The Lioness. Knowing what we know about those parakeets and their peppered presence on the recordings, one can’t help but think of that colorful tree of birds on Talk Talk’s classic Laughing Stock, certainly a spiritual guide for much of the set. Other songs (“She Says,” “The Crossroads and The Emptiness”) lay in a more unfinished states, acoustic takes that call to mind Molina’s Let Me Go Let Me Go Let Me Go, and still tethered to Molina’s humorous studio banter. You remember how young Molina was, and how weighty this art was for such a young man. On the closer, “The Crossroads and The Emptiness,” Molina snaps at the engineer before tearing into a song in which he sings of his birthday (December 30), a palm reading and the great emptiness with which he always wrestled. It is a perfect closer and, in many ways, the eighth gate incarnate: mythical, passable only in the mind, built for himself and partway imaginary but shared, thankfully, with us.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Indies exclusive 'Shortcake Splash' coloured vinyl!

Squid are back with ‘Broadcaster’, the AA-side companion to their recent offering ‘Sludge’. The tracks are getting a limited edition vinyl pressing, released via new label Warp Records, featuring an extended version of ‘Broadcaster’.

‘Broadcaster’ is built around an arpeggiated synth sequence that was conceived during a writing session in a woodland cabin by Arthur whilst the rest of the band were out hiking. As the song develops, guitars, drum machines and delays join the fray, pushing the track into its chaotic and visceral crescendo. All this works as the perfect foil to singer Ollie Judge’s oblique lyrics. Paired with their richly percussive and sonically evolving ‘Sludge’, the quintet not only opens up their sound, but they do so without abandoning the experimentation and playfulness that made them such an exciting prospect when they burst on the scene just over a year ago.

Produced and recorded by Arca, KiCk i defines a new era of multiplex harmony for the Venezuelan artist, singer, DJ, performer and experimental music composer. With appearances from Björk, Rosalía, Shygirl and SOPHIE, this is the first time Arca has invited collaborators into her world, previously having lent her sound to some of the decades most avant-pop artists. With the release of “Nonbinary” kicking off the new era, today Arca shares the first single from KiCk i called “Time”:

“Time” originally premiered in September 2019 at Arca’s Mutant;Faith, a four-part experimental performance cycle at the new NYC performing arts space The Shed. The performance “stood to prove why Arca’s work is beyond innovative, and why her vision for the future of pop is so thrilling,” declared them., with Pitchfork revering Arca’s ability to “continue to create a singular world.” Captured on the fourth-day of Mutant;Faith performance cycle, the video for “Time” was conceptualized by Arca, Carlos Sáez and MANSON, who directed the video in front of a live audience at The Shed and on the streets of NYC.

KiCk i is a celebration not only of the joy Arca’s been able to find in her life, but the sometimes arduous journey it took for her to find it. Her struggles to reconcile her Venezuelan heritage and her trans Latinx identity emerge as reggaetón and pop en Español. But KiCk i isn’t just a pop record, or an experimental record, or even simply a mix between the two, but rather all of them at once- and so much more. Depending on where you drop the needle you’ll find bubblegum, harsh noise, electronic psychedelia, balladry, bangers, laughter, tears, passion, and expressions of faith - sounds and ideas that don’t simply blend together, but coexist simultaneously in quantum superposition made possible inside the sonic worlds Arca builds in her music.

“I don't want to be tied to one genre,” Arca explains. “I don't want to be labeled as one thing.” Where she is now, being nonbinary doesn’t end with her gender identity. It’s become a mindset where no one thing has to be just one thing, where multiple meanings, multiple realities can coexist in superposed balance. In this space between states, where one thing is the other, Arca has discovered a vast field of untapped creative power. KiCk i is the sound of her plugging in.

Four years on from the release of her last, critically acclaimed LP, Julianna Barwick returns with “Healing Is A Miracle”, to be released on July 10th on new home, Ninja Tune.

A distinctive meditation on sound, reverb and the voice, “Healing Is A Miracle” is a record built on improvisation and a close affinity to a couple of trusted items of gear, from which she spins engrossing, expansive universes. Additionally, Barwick draws on the input of three collaborators with whom she has nurtured deep friendships with over the years: Jónsi (Sigur Rós), Nosaj Thing and Mary Lattimore; who each gently nudge out at the edges of her organically-evolved sound.

Recorded in the wake of a seismic shift in her life following a move from New York—where she had lived for 16 years—to Los Angeles where she is now based, the title of the record came to her after thinking about how the human body heals itself, of the miraculous processes we pay little attention to: “You cut your hand, it looks pretty bad, and two weeks later it looks like it never happened… That’s kind of amazing, you know?” It’s a sentiment that feels particularly apt for the moment. From there, she conceived of the record’s simple statement title, ran it past a couple of friends, and it was settled. Like with the record itself, and all of her work, it’s about following her gut, and seeing where it takes her.

“Healing Is A Miracle” began life in spring of last year, when Barwick sat down with her vocal looping set-up and began sketching out some ideas for new solo material. “It had been so long since I had done that,” she recalls, “making something for myself, just for the love of it… it was emotional, because I was recording music that was just from the heart, that wasn't for an 'assignment' or project… it brought me to tears a little”.

Part of the joy also came from a small but significant switch up to her recording process: the addition of some studio monitors—a birthday gift from Jónsi and Alex (Somers)—having previously recorded all of her music on headphones. “The first song I remember making with those was the first song on the album, Inspirit.” she explains, “When I added the bass I really felt it in my body, you know, in a way you just wouldn’t with headphones… it was kind of euphoric and fun. I got really excited about making the record in that moment, and I think that really had an impact on the sounds I ended up making.”

Excitement too came from the chance to work with three dream collaborators. Her connection to Jónsi began via producer Alex Somers, when Barwick flew to Reykjavík to record some sessions with him for her 2013 record “Nepenthe”, a trip which would begin a long-standing affinity with Iceland and the people she connected with there. “I think he has the best voice in the world,” she says, “and hearing my voice with Jonsi's is one of the joys of my life.” Nosaj Thing—the highly respected electronic producer and stalwart of the LA scene who has worked with the likes of Kendric Lamar—had gotten in touch to express his affection for her 2011 album “The Magic Place”, and they’d since been trying to find a way to work together. Barwick and Lattimore had struck up a friendship over many years performing live together, and had moved to LA around the same time. Finding herself in the same city as all three for the first time, it felt natural to include them in her process, and added to the feeling of newness, support and friendship she had while producing the record.

Beyond her records, Barwick’s impressive live shows have gained incredible praise over the years from the likes of The Guardian—who described her performance as “exquisite in its eloquence, reflection and compassion” in their 5* review—The New York Times, NPR, and more. She has also supported and performed with an amazing array of artists including Bon Iver, Grouper, Explosions in the Sky, Sigur Rós, Sharon Van Etten, Angel Olsen, Perfume Genius, Mas Ysa, and Nat Baldwin.

Barwick has additionally been involved in some head-turning collaborations over the years. In 2015 she took part in The Flaming Lips’s Carnegie Hall show, performing music from their reimagining of “Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band”, alongside Phillip Glass, Debbie Harry, Laurie Anderson and Pattie Smith. That same year she was invited to play two shows with Yoko Ono, one at MoMA (“my favorite thing ever”) and one in Central Park. In 2012 she released a collaborative album with Helado Negro as OMBRE, and has also released a collaborative single with Rafael Anton Isarri, on the super-limited Thesis label, and most recently, the “Command Synthesis” EP, on RVNG Intl. sub-label Commend There, which employed AI to build five tracks that responded to the airborne environment outside a hotel room. In 2019 she teamed up with Doug Aitken on his nomadic art project, and created stunning performances in the Massachusett wilderness.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Ltd LP Info: Limited edition first run includes a 12"x12" signed artboard print.

Band of Gypsys was originally released in March 1970, at a time when Hendrix was at the peak of his powers. Featuring a new line up consisting of drummer Buddy Miles and bassist Billy Cox, it was recorded across two performances at the Fillmore East on New Year’s Day 1970. The resulting live album captured an incendiary mix of blues, rock, and funk.

The 50th anniversary edition of Band of Gypsys features an 8 page book featuring rare archival photos and an essay by Hendrix archivist John McDermott, and has been remastered from the original analogue stereo tapes by Eddie Kramer, long time engineer to Jimi Hendrix. 

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: 180 gram audiophile pressing on dark red marble effect vinyl.

Berlin-based, Swiss singer, multi-instrumentalist and film composer Sophie Hunger will release her seventh studio album - her first in two years - ‘Halluzinationen’ on August 28, 2020 via Caroline International. The album - recorded at Abbey Road Studios in live continuous takes - is produced by MPG UK Producer Of The Year, Speedy Wunderground’s Dan Carey (Kate Tempest, Fontaines DC), also at the helm for 2018’s ‘Molecules’ which featured 6Music play-listed single ‘I Opened A Bar’.

‘Halluzinationen’ arrives bearing an emphatic German title, as Hunger - still resident in Berlin’s Kreuzberg neighbourhood - picks at the creative dependency between loneliness and the imagination. Electing this time around to decamp from Carey’s Speedy Wunderground studio in South London to the august surrounds of Abbey Road’s Studio 2, ‘Halluzinationen’ is suffused with the nervous energy of its continuous live recording technique, with the album captured in sequence just six times over the course of two days. It’s an approach Hunger succinctly identifies as ‘Full risk’.

Sophie Hunger’s six solo albums to date have accrued over a quarter of a million sales, drawing her comparisons to contemporaries including Sharon Van Etten and PJ Harvey, with fans as wide-ranging as Lauren Laverne (who says of Sophie ‘I love this woman’), Steven Wilson (who tapped Hunger to guest on his UK Top 3 album ‘To The Bone’) and unlikely enough, footballing legend Eric Cantona (a long-standing fan of Sophie’s who guested to intone in French on ‘Supermoon’). Sophie made her debut at Glastonbury in 2010 as the first Swiss artist to ever play the festival (since selling out 1,000 capacity venues with ease on the continent), and 2016 saw Hunger also make her - very successful - first outing in film scoring, with her soundtrack for the Oscar & Golden Globe-nominated Ma Vie de Courgette earning her a Cesar nomination to boot.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: 12” Heavyweight Transparent ‘Smokey’ Vinyl.
60x60 poster.

LP Info: 12” Heavyweight Black Vinyl.

Bhajan Bhoy is the brainchild of Ajay Saggar (King Champion Sounds / Deutsche Ashram) and Bless Bless is the wondrous and beautiful debut album that is filled with kosmische guitar psych magick / sonic raga trips / melodic mantras / esoteric electronica. Self-proclaimed fans of this album include Moon Duo, J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr.) and Stuart Braithwaite (Mogwai). This album has a limited edition run of 250 copies worldwide. Don’t miss out!

Detroit Swindle follow up last year’s soulful highlight ‘The life behind things’ with some impeccable disco-funk on steroids: the Coffee in the Morning EP featuring Jitwam. The ep features 2 originals, a dub mix and a stunning extended remix by Norwegian disco don Prins Thomas. For Coffee in the morning, Detroit Swindle team up with India-via-London-to-NYC vocalist Jitwam, whose recent album Honeycomb on Tartelet and his live collaboration with Kamaal Williams have shown the world just how talented he really is.

Coffee in the morning is more than anything a funk fueled disco bomb. The energy is set by a rolling bassline with a live touch (thanks to Xander Vrienten) and percussion courtesy of their go-to-percussion-guy: Mauskovic Dance Band member Chris Bruining. The track bursts into action once Jitwam’s vocals come in. His purple colored vocals push through with a full-on slapback delay, which adds nicely to the vintage vibe of the track. The lyrics are fun in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way and deal with life’s more pressing matters like all the things you can have alongside your coffee. You could argue that this track is not really about coffee, but something far more perverse, but that’s up to you decide. Back on topic: The track takes a sharp jazzy turn once the saxophone is introduced (played by UK bred, Amsterdam based jazz dude Finn Peters), which moves nicely between catchy riffs and completely berserk jazz-isms. Its the full on original that works best for us, but if you’re not really into coffee –or vocals for that matter- there’s a more straightforward dub mix as well that steers away from all the breakfast related insinuations.

The a-side also holds the second collaboration, which moves into NY garage territory. Shuffling 909 percussion, live shakers and snares set the vibe along with Jitwam’s vocals directing you to ‘Move out the way!’. The track is bumping, the bassline is thumping and the crowd could very well be … (yes, it rhymes). The energy pitches up a notch once the synth hits come in and it flows up and down nicely into a section where strings, Rhodes and cowbells take over into the breakdown. That’s where you get a moment to catch your breath, just before the full track comes back into action again. If it weren’t for Corona, we’d see this funky house tune played at beach parties, rooftops, intimate clubs and house head-gatherings across the world for sure.

On the B-side, its Prins Thomas who takes you on a 10 minute long Scandi-disco trip with live drums and Thomas himself funkin’ on the bass. He makes perfect use of the dreamy elements of Coffee in the morning, making his version an intimate and provocative dubby disco burner. If the energy of the original is too much, this version might just be perfect for you. This is a special piece of music for us that we’ve worked on for a long time and we’re really happy to finally share it with you. Let’s hope we all get a chance to play the music out loud to more people than just your neighbors and your cat.

Yours Sincerely,
Lars & Maarten

Originally released in 1989. The Enraged Will Inherit the Earth is a musical molotov cocktail that’s a mixture of power chords and virile, virtuous lyrics.

The songwriting is tightly forged and their knack for producing raw pop is at its finest here. The Enraged Will Inherit The Earth is a powerful weapon that didn’t get enough of a user base to make its intended impact. If the question was ever proposed, “can art be a weapon?” I think this album answers with a bold and resounding “yes.”

Including the singles Boy Meets Girl, So What; Should The Bible Be Banned; Keep An Open Mind Or Else & This Nelson Rockerfeller. 

FORMAT INFORMATION

2xColoured LP Info: This limited edition set contains the original LP plus a 10 track bonus LP and a bonus 7” with 2 previously unreleased tracks.
Remastered and pressed on colour vinyl with a reworked sleeve by original designer Andy Royston.

Burning deep in Girl Friday's music is an unquenchable will to survive. The LA-based band don't blunt the impact of the themes they work through in their ferocious, knotty rock songs, but they don't let the more harrowing aspects of being alive and young in the 21st century daunt them, either. Dystopian shades of post-punk and noise rock abound alongside abundant optimism on Girl Friday’s arresting debut LP, Androgynous Mary. The world is a hellscape, but the four of them are in it together.

With bold, dramatic guitar lines and tightly wound vocal harmonies, Girl Friday - guitarist Vera Ellen, bassist Libby Hsieh, guitarist Sierra Scott, drummer Virginia Pettis - negotiate the stress and alienation of being sidelined by society. "Does the average man feel like he's on the outside?" goes the beginning of "Public Bodies," a wistful jangle-pop gem that shudders open into a snarling punk coda. Taking cues from boundary-pushers Sonic Youth, Girl Friday favor the rush of jarring turns over the safety of well-defined pop taxonomy. Looking to queer provocateurs like Placebo, they cherish the frisson of incongruous musical elements: "really dark, heavy things mashed up with quite beautiful things, whether that be a distorted guitar line and a sentimental vocal or vice versa," as Ellen puts it. That duality dovetails with the thematic friction running through the album, the alternating despair and hope that intertwine in the fight to survive as disenfranchised people in the US.

Written during a year of personal struggle for all four band members, Androgynous Mary reflects the solace they took in each other -- as a band, but also as a microcommunity and a chosen family. On the record's final song, "I Hope Jason Is Happy," Girl Friday sing in unison: "My head is on your chest / In the end I'll be happy if you do your best / You've got to fight to keep your breath in this world." It's a testament to the power of their bond, and a gesture of solidarity with those listening. Alone, we suffer under the weight of everything designed to keep us down. Together, we stand a fighting chance. Girl Friday place their hope squarely on that chance.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Dinked Edition LP Info: • Exclusive Pink/White marble vinyl.
• Hand-numbered edition of 350.
• Exclusive Obi Strip.
• Signed band photo.

Dinked Edition LP includes MP3 Download Code.

Coloured LP Info: Dark green coloured vinyl.

Gábor Lázár's colourful discography extends from sound art to his more recent dancefloor detonations. From his first release on Lorenzo Senni's Presto! label to his collaborations with Russell Haswell and his popular 'seizure inducing' team-up with Mark Fell entitled 'The Neurobiology of Moral Decision Making' to his last album 'Unfold' on The Death of Rave, where he balanced relentless, snappy rhythms and wonky melodic tones against more measured chords to create a deliciously fruity futurism.Gábor has now signed to Planet Mu for his new album 'Source' which moves forward with the dance music direction he started to formulate with 'Unfold'. Gábor first fell in love with electronic music simultaneously through dance music and it's IDM offspring, and also with harsher, noisier computer music on labels such as Editions Mego.

This collection, which develops slowly over 8 tracks, works its way through his own take on these influences, moving across themes and loops as if each track is a different stage in a process. All these tracks sound incredible on a club sound system. The listener can hear nods to hoover bass and 2-step in 'Phase', or trance techno in ‘Excite', the dive-bombing bass of dubstep in 'Effort ' or the frantic techno influence of 'Route', emulated in the minimal forms Gábor has created with a sound artist's precision and a strict adherence to his vacuum-like grids. Gábor bends his sounds, abstracts them and re-contextualises them; basslines fire out of the grid at strange angles and squirm as if they've come alive, shards of melody shoot off at wild angles, attacking with drama and a thrilling sense of energy.

The special 40th anniversary edition of the Red Cross EP, which includes the band’s six-song eponymous debut and adds five contemporaneous extra tracks, is the most comprehensive document to date of the extraordinary birth of Redd Kross. In a single 12-month period, Jeff and Steven McDonald, two adolescent brothers from Hawthorne, CA, went from posing with cheap guitars and singing into hairbrushes in front of their bedroom mirror to recording in world-class studios and performing live at punk shows/riots that are still being pondered and written about for their pioneering cultural relevance within the Southern California punk landscape. Redd Kross incubated alongside such SoCal luminaries as Black Flag, Descendents, and the Minutemen, and this new 11-song collection which includes a live track recorded in 1979 at “The Church,” the infamous Black Flag birthplace in Hermosa Beach, CA puts in proper perspective the McDonald brothers’ contribution, at the ridiculously precocious ages of 12 and 16, to that area’s punk scene.

The demo session was recorded at Media Art in Hermosa Beach, the same studio where Black Flag made their Nervous Breakdown EP. Engineered by Spot and produced by power pop godfather Joe Nolte of the Last, these four tracks mark the first time the band had ever stepped foot in a recording studio. Notably, the demo session was paid for with 12-year-old bassist Steven’s paper route money. A couple of months later, in October 1979, the band recorded the “Posh Boy” sessions at the Shelter, a studio in Hollywood owned by Shelter Records, which was home to rock vet Leon Russell and relative newcomers at the time Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. Engineered by guitarist Jim Mankey (Sparks, Concrete Blonde), this session produced the proto power pop punk classics “Annette’s Got the Hits” and “I Hate My School,” both of which would appear on their 1980 self-titled debut EP on Posh Boy Records.

The entire birth story of Redd Kross is being celebrated on this 40th anniversary edition of Red Cross (known to many as “the Posh Boy EP”), and these tracks sound as fresh and vital to our ears now as they did when they were originally released four decades ago.

'Interzone' is the third full-length album by New York’s electro post-punk duo The Vacant Lots, to be released via Fuzz Club on June 26th 2020. A genre-blending synthesis of dance and psych, 'Interzone' is made for secluded listeners and all-night partygoers, meant for headphones and the club. Uninhibited by the limitations of two people and continuing their mission of “minimal means maximum effect,” The Vacant Lots’ Jared Artaud and Brian MacFadyen create an industrial amalgam of icy electronics and cold beats with detached vocals and hard hitting guitars.

'Interzone's trance-like opener ‘Endless Rain’ and the kinetic Krautrock stomper ‘Into The Depths’ are followed by scintillating dark disco anthems 'Rescue' and 'Exit’. Side 2 kicks off with 80’s synth-pop track ‘Fracture’ and haunting after-hours minimal wave ‘Payoff,’ while ‘Station’ and album closer 'Party's Over' deal with disillusionment and conquering one’s indifference to make real change. The album creates order from chaos and delves into escapism, isolation, relationship conflicts, and decay. With nods to William S. Burroughs and Joy Division’s song of the same name, “Interzone is like existing between two zones,” Jared says. “Interzone doesn't mean one thing. It can mean different things to different people depending on their interpretation. Working on this album was a constant struggle reconciling internal conflicts with all that’s going on externally in the world. Interzone, in one word, is duality."

On Interzone, the band produced the 8 songs, 30 minutes record and teamed up with long term collaborators Ivan Liechti who designed the album artwork, and Ted Young who engineered the record. Maurizio Baggio mixed the record and contributed additional production and it was mastered by Gianni Peri. The Vacant Lots have released singles with Mexican Summer and Reverberation Appreciation Society, collaborated on their debut album 'Departure' with Spacemen 3’s Sonic Boom, their second album 'Endless Night' with Alan Vega, and most recently on their two EPs, 'Berlin' and 'Exit', with Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Anton Newcombe at his studio in Berlin. The group has toured with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Suicide, Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Growlers, Dean Wareham, The Dandy Warhols, and Spectrum. 

Fans of Wolf Alice, Smashing Pumpkins and Tame Impala should get onto this one now. GIG SOUP
It's dark, but still somewhat upbeat. INDIE SHUFFLE…

Koyo Return With sophomore album ‘You Said It’ released on 26th June 2020. “We were attracted to the ambiguity of the phrase,” explains frontman Huw Edwards. “Originally it was inspired by the notion that once something has been said between two people, once certain boundaries have been crossed, it can sometimes be impossible to move on. You can try to backtrack, but trust is already undermined and relationships damaged. Or maybe a truth was spoken and ‘You Said It’ represents a kind of catchphrase - a final coming-to-terms with the fact that a relationship has become un-saveable.” Relationship breakdown and loss are themes that thread their way through this album, as is an overall sense of coming-of-age. From the straight-up no nonsense statement of intent of album opener ‘Same Mistake Twice’, to the triumphant driving rock of ‘Surrounded’ - which deals with the theme of needing to get away after a breakup - to the claustrophobic ‘Out of Control’.

According to the band, the various faces in the album artwork, “represent the many facets of someone’s personality; the underlying layers beneath the visible surface that can become disorientating and untrustworthy,” as explored on ‘Circles’ and ‘Ostracised’. “Like walking through a hall of mirrors and being unable to distinguish between truth and illusion.” Following the instrumental “palette cleanser” ‘Murmur’, ‘Confused’ returns to the band’s more traditional prog sound, with an epic chorus. By far the darkest track on the album both sonically and lyrically is ‘Obelisk’, which deals with a different sort of break up, this time observing that of cult etiquette. ‘Rolling in my Head’ was written, “right in the middle of the grieving stage of a break up,” Huw says. “Hopefully there’s a rawness there that people can relate to.” Album closer ‘Against All Odds’ is an epic, energetic 8-minute wig-out. Formed in Leeds in 2015, KOYO have fast become a major force in the city’s thriving alternative scene. A powerful live act, the band create sonic spectacles through soaring layers of sound. This electric show has blown away audiences at Reading & Leeds, Download, Ramblin’ Man, Live At Leeds and Camden Rocks Festivals. 

ATA Records is pleased to announce the release of Early Works: Funk, Soul & Afro Rarities From The Archive, a compilation of tracks that were recorded at the very outset of the label and haven't been available since the initial limited run (Released as Funk, Soul & Afro Rarities: An Introduction To ATA Records on Here and Now Recordings) sold out 5 years ago.

Since 2013 label founders and musicians Neil Innes & Pete Williams have been tirelessly fulfilling their shared dream of making the records they weren't hearing. Having spent years working in various bands both players felt the desire to break free of the constraints of working within another band and started on the slow path to creative autonomy by starting to work on the 12 tracks presented on this compilation.While deliberating their next steps they were approached by Here & Now records who licensed the 12 tracks and released them under the titleFunk, Soul & Afro Rarities: An Introduction To ATA Recordsin 2014 as a limited run of 300 copies that sold out within weeks of release.

Now in 2020, celebrating their 5th year of running successfully as a label in their own right, ATA are re-releasing these 12 tracks on a new vinyl pressing under the titleEarly Works: Funk, Soul & Afro Rarities From The Archivewith new artwork and liner notes that detail the labels birth.

The compilation features 12 tracks that include the very first 3 tracks from The Sorcerers that led to their self-titled debut LP & the first proper release on ATA, as well as the first recordings by The Mandatory Eight and The Yorkshire Film and Television Orchestr

The third release from Night Dreamer’s essential “Direct-to-Disc” sessions sees an incredible meeting between legendary US saxophonist Gary Bartz and leading UK spiritual jazz ensemble, Maisha, featuring two Bartz classics and three brand new joint songs written by both Bartz & Maisha in close collaboration.

Having cut his teeth playing with the likes of Charles Mingus, Max Roach, Art Blakey and finally in 1970, Miles Davis at the peak of his electric period, Gary Bartz became a leading figure of the early-to-mid 70s spiritual jazz movement, releasing a string of ground-breaking albums on legendary NYC jazz label Prestige Records with his NTU Troop, featuring classics such as “Celestial Blues”, “Uhuru Dance” and “I’ve Known Rivers”, before collaborating on Blue Note Records with the Mizell Brothers on the anthemic jazz funk of “Music Is My Sanctuary”. An oeuvre much loved by soul jazzers and hip hop fans alike.

Led by drummer Jake Long, Maisha have been central to the UK’s jazz explosion, and have fast become the UK’s most exciting and in-demand young spiritual jazz ensemble, from steller shows at Jazz re:freshed, Total Refreshment Centre & Church of Sound and supporting the Sun Ra Arkestra, to releasing their critically acclaimed debut LP, “There Is A Place” on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings in 2018. Theirs is an organic & explosive sound that blends influences from afrobeat and broken beat to Persian music, with a deep love and understanding of jazz, particularly the heritage of spiritual jazz led by titans such as Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coltrane and of course, Gary Bartz.

Which makes this collaboration even more special. Bartz was first invited to share a stage with Maisha by Gilles Peterson to headline the inaugural We Out Here festival. Their chemistry was rich and instantaneous, certainly a two-way street, with the young musicians reinvigorating the legend’s performance and wowing the intergenerational festival audience. A European tour followed, including a London Jazz Festival highlight at the Royal Festival Hall, celebrating the 50th anniversary of his album “Another Earth”, originally featuring fellow legends, Pharoah Sanders, Charles Tolliver, Stanley Cowell, and John Coltrane’s own bassist, Reggie Workman. Now the relationship has evolved into a special straight-to-disc recording for Night Dreamer Records, that captures the vitality of their collaboration. Whilst Bartz and Maisha reinvent classic Bartz compositions “Uhuru Sasa” and “Dr Follows Dance”, extending the pieces into long piece improvised grooves, their recording session gave birth to three brand new joint compositions, written the very same day. These include the propulsive “Leta’s Dance” that magically combines the Bartz’ soulful musical lyricism with Maisha’s African-jazz influences, and the organic jazz funk of “Harlem to Haarlem”, featuring a hot solo from guest trumpeter Axel Kaner-Lidstrom of Cykada & Levitation Orchestra fame.

Like previous Night Dreamer efforts from afrobeat star Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, and the beautiful collaboration between Brazilian stars Seu Jorge & Rogê, the album was recorded in Haarlem’s Artone Studio, a stones throw from Amsterdam, in just one-take, straight-to-disc, avoiding postproduction embellishments and retaining the purity of the performance lost in modern recording techniques.

This record really is an event, in and of itself, a meeting of talents, minds, generations and zeitgeist moments, captured in a unique and pure manner. The music does not disappoint, as Maisha have been inspired to reach new heights whilst we find Bartz truly reinvigorated, and both artists in tune to the spirit of the other.

Martin Jenkins, more commonly known as the artist Pye Corner Audio, epitomizes Lapsus' commitment to cutting edge sound experimentation. In 2017, he beguiled the electronic music community by releasing the 'Where Things Are Hollow' EP, on Lapsus Records. The Barcelona label is delighted to announce the release of ‘Where Things Are Hollow 2’, consisting of three brand new original cuts and a remix from none other than John Talabot.

'Where Things Are Hollow 2' explores a spectral and hypnagogic terrain, establishing an electronic sound that at times invokes Jenkins’ more dance friendly facet -'Self Synchronize', 'Weather The Storm'– while also offering his familiar iridescent dreamlike ambient textures –'Phase B'– that featured prominently on his first EP. This second EP also includes a remix from John Talabot, unquestionably one of Spain’s most internationally recognised names over the last decade, who exquisitely reimagines 'Resist' -a song from the first EP-, transforming it into a cross between EBM and hypnotic techno. From a graphic design perspective, renowned artists Alex Trochut and Basora have once again collaborated on this project, repeating the formula that made the artwork for "Where Things Are Hollow" such a collector's item.