London Grammar’s success and longevity as a band has traced the British pop graph for over a decade.

The new album, Californian Soil, embodies a new clarity of purpose centred around frontwoman Hannah Reid, who crafts a message of femininity and power on the new material. 

STAFF COMMENTS

says: London Grammar's latest outing follows 2017's 'Truth Is A Beautiful Thing' and places much more emphasis on Reid's voice, veering into rich orchestral downbeat territory. Though the typical guitars and indie chord progressions are still present, it's a much more refined and nuanced direction, and one that suits them perfectly.

Following the release of their Top 20 charting second album So When You Gonna..., Dream Wife (Alice Go, Bella Podpadec and Rakel Mjöll) now share live album IRL – Live in London 2020, a limited vinyl pressed on Neon Orange wax. Fortuitously recorded by their FOH engineer at London's Peckham Audio this past January, it documents what was expected to be the band’s first of many shows of 2020. Featuring highlights from their first and second albums, plus the previously unreleased song "Cheap Thrills", the recording has undoubtedly captured a blistering performance that showcases the trio's trademark ferocity.

Dream Wife say that:

“The rock show is the beating heart of this band. We cut our teeth as a unit playing relentless DIY tours before ever releasing music. We often describe recordings as a snapshot of a song at a moment in time, but understanding them as living, breathing, transforming entities through the rock show. Kicking off this year we imagined 2020 to be seriously getting back to touring, to playing shows, to letting these songs live. But... 2020 and 2021 so far has not been what anyone expected it to be.

When we put on this small intimate ‘sort of’ secret gig for fans & friends at Peckham Audio back in January we thought it was the first but, as it turns out, it was going to be the only for a very long time. We truly believe in the transcendental power of live music; that you have the power to go somewhere together. We can’t wait to commune with you IRL, at the rock show; to share sweat and joy and rage and grief and energy and love. But for now, we offer you a snapshot of our only rock show of 2020. We offer you a little bit of that energy and rawness and connection captured digitally. It's not quite the same. But don’t worry we'll be together, we will be loud, and we will be unapologetically present soon. Lots of love, Your Wives xxx

STAFF COMMENTS

says: It's hard not to think of the gigs that could have been, but with this collection, the veritable Dream Wife allow us to put ourselves in the midst of a sweaty pit and feel the energy bashing through our lugs. It's a perfectly paced and brilliantly immersive set, and gives a flawless impression of just how superb the REAL live show could be.

TRACK LISTING

1. Hey Heartbreaker (Live)
2. So When You Gonna… (Live)
3. Hasta La Vista (Live)
4. Cheap Thrills (Live)
5. Somebody (Live)
6. Kids (Live)
7. Sports! (Live)
8. F.U.U. (Live)
9. Let’s Make Out (Live)

"Traditional Heart“ is the second album by Gianni Brezzo - the band or the studio project – of the Cologne-based musician Marvin Horsch.

The title is by no means to be understood in the sense of an authenticity pathos à la love in times of Tinder, but addresses the process of musical production itself.

Says Brezzo: “This time the process of making music was more important than the product. Not to allow even a thought regarding the effectiveness of the music; pick up the instrument on impulse and put it away again; record again. Finding a rhythm during the process. At home.”

The result is an ephemeral and emotional listen, a blend of dreampop, treated guitar and ambient in the lineage of Cocteau Twins, Durutti Column and July Skies. This is hazy and heavenly downbeat for horizontal afternoons and it gets the biggest Balearic thumbs up from me!

STAFF COMMENTS

says: This perfectly immersive collection of tenderly plucked guitar and ambient electronics is beautifully accentuated with moments of driving rhythm and jazzy brass, offsetting the lysergic horizontal drift with pointed and momentous groove. Thoroughly gorgeous and wholly essential.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Adult Ship
A2. Excited
A3. Mental Shower
A4. River
A5. Henry
A6. Hickup
B1. Moof
B2. I Told You
B3. Gwing
B4. Brem Bo
B5. More Hours
B6. The End Of

When Molly Nilsson began recording her second album Europa in 2009 the world seemed to be at a turning point and she along with it. In the aftermath of a global financial crash, at the dawn of a new decade, the Stockholm-born, Berlinbased singer was busy moulding her songwriting into an idiocyncratic, personal mythology that would take her to every continent, speaking directly to hearts in every corner of the globe.

The first album on her own Dark Skies Association imprint, the first recorded in her home studio The Lighthouse, Europa broke new ground for Molly Nilsson at the time. But also it spoke earnestly to the world about an idealism, an openness and hope that has not dimmed in the 11 years since its release. Europa contains the songs of a young, idealistic songwriter coming to terms with her genius for cutting to the chase, saying it as it is and, most importantly, as it should be. Over 10 years on the artists’ vim and urge for... more credits.

Written and Recorded by Molly Nilsson at The Lighthouse, Berlin, 2009.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: 2009's 'Europa' really shows the spark of songwriting genius and emotional heft that Nilsson has become known for, and is the perfect document of a talent in the very early stages of fruition. It's fitting then that this superb LP should be remastered by James Plotkin and reissued in it's full glory. Note too, the continuation of the superb monochaomatic visual theme consistent through all of Nilsson's albums.

TRACK LISTING

In The Mood For A Tattoo
The Revenge Of The Stalker
More Certain Than Death
When I Have No Words
Berlin, Berlin
Europa
I Whisper In My Ear
The Crisis
Asleep In Stockholm

Following the hard-hitting return single “Anxious” and a slew of mysterious ‘West Gazette' posters appearing around the UK hinting at the announcement (including Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Bristol and London), West London’s AJ Tracey last night assumed the character of a rising young basketball player, appearing in a live-streamed press conference to reveal his next move: a lucrative deal with major franchise ‘Revenge Athletic’ ahead of a crucial playoff game. The broadcast ended with the true reveal: AJ’s highly-anticipated sophomore album "Flu Game" will finally arrive on April 16th 2021.

Always pushing boundaries with his creative output, AJ’s campaign draws influence from the story of Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls team in the late 90s - with "Flu Game" referencing one of MJ’s most memorable championship games - where he overcame a nasty bout of food poisoning (brought on by a dodgy takeaway pizza) and took the Bulls to the championship. Revenge Athletic are a franchise on the brink of a massive championship win, and AJ is their new star. All we know for now, is that AJ is about to take us into this new world, as he dons the number 10 jersey, and states he’s “ready to get going [and] do what I’ve always done.”

Available for pre-order now with an extensive range of Revenge team apparel, "Flu Game" sees AJ showcasing twelve brand new tracks, with tantalising features including Kehlani, T-Pain, SahBabii, NAV and Millie Go Lightly. On the production front, AJ calls on regular collaborators Nyge, The Elements, Kazza, AoD and Remedee. The project also features the UK top five singles “Bringing It Back” with Digga D, “West Ten'' with Mabel, and the Platinum smash “Dinner Guest” feat. MoStack. The album news and its immersive accompanying campaign is sure to whip fans into a frenzy. 

STAFF COMMENTS

says: Alongside a dazzling array of guest stars, AJ Tracey reveals his newest LP, 'Flu Game'. Expect skittering trap percussion and huge sub-bass beneath Tracey's perfectly paced vocals, setting the scene perfectly for an artist at the start of a lengthy and lucrative career.

TRACK LISTING

1 Anxious [prod Remedee]
2 Kukoč (ft. NAV) [prod Pxcoyo + Yung Swisher]
3 Bringing It Back (with Digga D) [prod. The Elements + AoD)
4 Cheerleaders [prod Kazza & Swidom]
5 Draft Pick [prod 5ive Beatz]
6 Eurostep [prod AJ Tracey]
7 Cherry Blossom [prod Nyge & AoD]
8 Glockie [prod The Elements & AoD]
9 Little More Love [prod YOZ BEATZ, RyFy & Mark Raggio]
10 Top Dog [prod Nyge & AoD]
11 Summertime Shootout (ft. T-Pain) [prod Nyge & AoD]
12 Perfect Storm [prod YOZ BEATZ & JBJ]
13 Coupé (ft. Kehlani) [prod The Elements]
14 Numba 9 (ft. SahBabii & Millie Go Lightly) [prod The Elements]
15 Dinner Guest (ft. MoStack) [prod The Elements & AJ Tracey]
16 West Ten (with Mabel) [prod FRED & Take A Daytrip]

Songwriter and fingerstyle guitarist, Jason McNiff releases his 7th full length album, Dust Of Yesterday. Produced and engineered by Roger Askew (Joe Strummer, Wilko Johnson, Christy Moore) the album was recorded throughout the summer and autumn of 2020 in Roger's home studio in Eastbourne, UK. It features McNiff's signature acoustic guitar work throughout with significant contributions from Beth Porter (of Eliza Carthy's band) on cello and Basia Bartz (most London based folk bands) on violin.

His first album since leaving London - McNiff is now based in Hastings - Dust of Yesterday is an elegy on moving away from a beloved place and a lament for lost youth. We are treated to a musical tour of McNiff's life to date, from his 8-year residency as a Flamenco guitarist in a Spanish bar in Waterloo (Damaged Woman) to hopping the northbound train from King's Cross, hiding in the lavatory up to Nottingham (A Load Along). All the songs on Dust of Yesterday, in one way or another, speak of the past. But it is not bleary-eyed nostalgia.

"I read somewhere that it is possible to literally change the past and I became very interested in this idea. It so happened around the same time that I discovered the Greek/Egyptian poet, Cavafy. In his poems he would talk about the past, but the memory is not a thing of the past, but something that is still part of him in the present. I could relate to that. "

Musically, Jason is influenced by the British acoustic guitarists (Jansch, Graham, Wizz Jones) and the great folk/rock troubadours of the 60s and 70s. He loves Mark Knopfler in the early days; the English teacher turned reluctant rock star, singing about Leeds and Newcastle and sounding like JJ Cale. For McNiff, the lyrics are central, and he has been especially captivated by those considered poets and writers as well as musicians. He loves literature and cites Hemingway, Chekhov and the aforementioned Cavafy, as major influences in his work. ( He has 'translated' Hemingway's 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' into a song on a previous album, 'Nobody's Son')

Jason McNiff was born in Bradford, Yorkshire in 1974 to an Irish father and Polish mother. Academically gifted, he did well at school and went to the University of Nottingham to study French and Russian. He fell in with the Folk & Blues scene in that city before moving to London in the mid-nineties to do another degree in English Lit. He was just in time to catch the Bert Jansch residency at the 12 Bar club. For 6 months, every Wednesday night, McNiff would be in the front row of Soho's tiny club learning fingerstyle from the master. He would later sign his first record deal with Snowstorm Records, a label run by Bert's brother-in-law and found himself opening for Bert on numerous occasions. 

STAFF COMMENTS

says: This wonderful collection shines with the sort of understated beauty and accomplished but uncomplicated melodic phrasing you'd hear in a Jansch record, but brought to the modern day with unhurried production and brittle, tender vocals. Beautiful.

TRACK LISTING

1) For The First Time
2) Try For The Sky
3) Wherever I Choose
4) Mary Jane
5) Dust Of Yesterday
6) Tom
7) If You Could See Me Now
8) Damaged Woman
9) A Load Along

Finding Wildflowers (Alternate Versions) is the latest offering of Tom Petty music, curated with help from his loving family, bandmates and collaborators. The tracks, which were previously released on the limited-edition Super Deluxe version of 2020’s Wildflowers & All The Rest, will now be available on standalone CD & vinyl and digitally for the first time.

Finding Wildflowers (Alternate Versions) follows Wildflowers & All The Rest which was hailed by Rolling Stone as “the definitive artistic statement that newly illuminates one of the most fruitful, inspired periods of the American legend’s career,” and by Variety, who called it “the best and most justified boxed set of this kind since the Beatles’ White Album compendium.” In fact, the songs on Finding Wildflowers (Alternate Versions) first initiated the estate’s discovery and curation process for the larger project.

Finding Wildflowers (Alternate Versions) features 16 studio recordings of alternate takes, long cuts and jam versions of Wildflowers songs as Tom, band members and co-producer Rick Rubin worked to finalize the album in 1994. The release offers fans further deep access into the writing and recording of Wildflowers, as well as realizing the full vision of the project as Tom had always intended.

The collection was produced by Tom’s longtime engineer and co-producer Ryan Ulyate who listened to 245 reels of 24-track tape, revealing Tom and his collaborators’ evolutionary process and finding the group willing to do whatever it took to discover the essence and magic in the material.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: A beautiful gold vinyl edition of the rare outtakes and one-offs from the sessions for Tom Petty's legendary Wildflowers album. Though these have been available before in a huge boxset, this is the first chance to get them as a standalone record, and a brilliant document of one of the greatest musicians of the 20th Century.

TRACK LISTING

Side A

01 A Higher Place
02 Hard On Me
03 Cabin Down Below
04 Crawling Back To You

Side B
05 Only A Broken Heart
06 Drivin’ Down To Georgia
07 You Wreck Me
08 It’s Good To Be King

Side C

09 House In The Woods
10 Honey Bee
11 Girl On LSD
12 Cabin Down Below (Acoustic Version)

Side D

13 Wildflowers
14 Don’t Fade On Me
15 Wake Up Time
16 You Saw Me Comin’

Bureau B are excited to announce the arrival of a new Jimi Tenor double album! Following on from last year's NY, Hel, Barca compilation which showcased Tenor's early works and cuts from his first six albums, Deep Sound Learning shines a spotlight on unreleased tracks from 1993 to the year 2000. This intensely prolific period saw Tenor send countless DAT tapes to Warp Records, his label at the time, who stacked up the recordings in the office safe. Some of the songs preserved on those DATs made their way onto various Tenor LPs - whilst others remained unreleased to this day. Jimi Tenor and Bureau B have retrieved said tapes and crafted a double album (CD/LP) of previously unheard tracks in what is much more than a simple archival exposition.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: As a hugely talented and constantly prolific musical force, there was always going to be a wealth of unreleased gems from Jimi Tenor. It turns out that Lehto's unreleased cuts are considerably more capable than the majority of other artists' released work. A quintessentially Bureau B offering, full of groove and soul, and perfectly suited to home listening or a sunny outside dancefloor.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Exotic House Of The Beloved
A2. Sambakontu
A3. Dub De Pablo
A4. Baby It Hearts
A5. Anna Menna
A6. Heinola
A7. Jameson
A8. Another Space Travel
B1. Salo
B2. Downtown
B3. Bondage
B4. Doin' Alright
B5. Walkie Talkie
B6. Espoo
B7. O-Sex
B8. Plan 9
B9. Travellers Cape
B10. Super Beat
B11. My Woman

One would think that after the “Gullvåg Trilogy” - two double and a single album in a mere three years - this ultra productive trio might be in need of a break of sorts... but on the other hand, riding a golden wave like never before in their 30+ year existence, why stop now? Especially when constantly upping their own quality standards.The bulk of the album was recorded in France back before the pandemic, but was added to, expanded, tweaked and eventually finished last year. The initial idea was to collect big riffs on one album and do a pure hard rock record, but the objective changed along the way as they rediscovered their folkish bent and how this lighter touch gave it all a nice contrast. That said, the main musical thrust is pretty full-on, even by Motorpsycho standards.Kingdom of Oblivion was mixed by Andrew Scheps and produced by Bent Sæther.Reine Fiske guests on several tracks.Cover art is by Sverre Malling and cover design is by Håvard Gjelseth.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: Having been on a huge prolific streak, you may think that the quality of the material would be diluted a bit but this is without a doubt the most incendiary and quintessentially Motorpsycho release yet. Huge riffs are in abundance but it's not without it's more tender moments, and perfectly measured as ever. Ace.

Returning with another debut album for 2021, Music From Memory introduce a new band, The Zenmenn, with their first ever release ‘Enter The Zenmenn’. Whilst little about the band is made known, their work is described by writer Winton Rousseauas an “experiment in harmonic convergence emerging from a deep respect for cosmic symmetry and a resistance to the prevailing Zeitgeist.”

‘Enter The Zenmenn’ sounds as old as it sounds new, as organic as it is electric, as harmonic as it is rhythmic, and the album’s fusion of different palettes, colours, tempos, instruments and sources offer a harmonious balance and unity that already feels like the perfect soundtrack to a better world. In a time of what they see as spiritual neglect, it offers a “human kind of stillness” through the “dualistic fusions of complexity and simplicity, mystery and clarity and East and West”.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: As far as cryptic salesnotes go, this is up there. I don't have the musicological / anthropological knowledge to decipher the words of Winton Rousseauas (is that even a real person?) but can tell you that it's a gorgeous combination of Japanese flavours, indie jangle and jazzy moments which sounds simultaneously like Arthur Russell, Fieldwork era Sakamoto and our own Horsebeach. Music to swoon to!

TRACK LISTING

A1. The Magic Eye
A2. Homage To A Friendship (feat John Moods)
A3. Flags Of The World
A4. Bamboo Garden
B1. Stairway To Heaven
B2. Salad Bar
B3. Topaz (The Days Of Our Lives)

Award-winning, revered singer/songwriter Lucinda Williams is working to help independent music venues during this time with the announcement of Lu’s Jukebox. Scheduled as a sixepisode series of mostly full-band, HD video performances in-studio, Lu’s Jukebox will feature a themed set of songs by other artists curated by the multi-Grammy award winner. The first episode kicks off on October 22nd with Running Down A Dream: A Tribute To Tom Petty, featuring songs from his celebrated career in advance of his 70th Birthday.

TRACK LISTING

1. Rebels
2. Runnin' Down A Dream
3. Gainesville
4. Louisiana Rain
5. I Won't Back Down
6. A Face In The Crowd
7. Wildflowers
8. You Wreck Me
9. Room At The Top
10. You Don't Know How It Feels
11. Down South
12. Southern Accents
13. Stolen Moments

The Offspring is a punk rock band from Garden Grove, California, formed in 1984. The band's current lineup consists of lead vocalist Dexter Holland, guitarist Noodles, drummer Pete Parada and bassist Todd Morse. Over the course of their 36-year career, they have released nine studio albums.

The Offspring is often credited—alongside fellow California punk bands Green Day, Rancid, Bad Religion, NOFX, Pennywise and Jawbreaker—for reviving mainstream interest in punk rock in the 1990s. They have sold over 40 million records worldwide, making them one of the best-selling punk rock bands in history. The Offspring achieved its first commercial success with their third studio album, Smash (1994), which has sold over eleven million copies worldwide, setting a record for most albums sold on an independent record label, and was the first album released on Epitaph to obtain gold and platinum status. After switching record labels from Epitaph to Columbia in 1996, the Offspring continued their commercial success with its next six studio albums: Ixnay on the Hombre (1997), Americana (1998), Conspiracy of One (2000), Splinter (2003), Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace (2008) and Days Go By (2012); the first four were certified platinum, multi-platinum, platinum and gold status by the RIAA respectively.

The legendary So-Cal punk group The Offspring are back with their 10th album and first new offering since 2008. After releasing two standalone tracks in 2020 - the over-the-top cover of Joe Exotic's (of Tiger King infamy) "Hey Kitty Kitty" and a rendition of Darlene Love's classic "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" - the band is ready to plant their punk rock flag in the sand once again with their blistering new album Let the Bad Times Roll.

With the help of producer Bob Rock, Dexter Holland describes the album as "the most cathartic thing we've done. The messages might be dark, but at the end what's left is that communication is important, working through feelings is important and most of all, hope is important." 

Then let the bad times roll for now, in the hopes that good times lie ahead.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: I was a MASSIVE Offspring fan back in the day, I still have and play their first five albums or so on a regular basis, but I kind of stopped listening after Americana. Though there is a significant polish to their sound now, Holland's vocals are as ubiquitous as ever and I can tell without looking that Noodles is still on guitar duties. A superb outing for a band into album double-digits.

TRACK LISTING

1. This Is Not Utopia
2. Let The Bad Times Roll
3. Behind Your Walls
4. Army Of One
5. Breaking These Bones
6. Coming For You
7. We Never Have Sex Anymore
8. In The Hall Of The Mountain King
9. The Opioid Diaries
10. Hassan Chop
11. Gone Away Requiem
12. Lullaby 

It was in Benin City, in the heart of Nigeria, that a new hybrid of intoxicating highlife music known as Edo Funk was born. It first emerged in the late 1970s when a group of musicians began to experiment with different ways of integrating elements from their native Edo culture and fusing them with new sound effects coming from West Africa´s night-clubs. Unlike the rather polished 1980´s Nigerian disco productions coming out of the international metropolis of Lagos Edo Funk was raw and reduced to its bare minimum. Someone was needed to channel this energy into a distinctive sound and Sir Victor Uwaifo appeared like a mad professor with his Joromi studio. Uwaifo took the skeletal structure of Edo music and relentless began fusing them with synthesizers, electric guitars and 80´s effect racks which resulted in some of the most outstanding Edo recordings ever made. An explosive spiced up brew with an odd psychedelic note known as Edo Funk.

That's the sound you'll be discovering in the first volume of the Edo Funk Explosion series which focusses on the genre's greatest originators; Osayomore Joseph, Akaba Man, and Sir Victor Uwaifo: Osayomore Joseph was one of the first musicians to bring the sound of the flute into the horn-dominated world of highlife, and his skills as a performer made him a fixture on the Lagos scene. When he returned to settle in Benin City in the mid-1970s - at the invitation of the royal family - he devoted himself to the modernisation and electrification of Edo music, using funk and Afro-beat as the building blocks for songs that weren't afraid to call out government corruption or confront the dark legacy of Nigeria's colonial past. Akaba Man was the philosopher king of Edo funk. Less overtly political than Osayomore Joseph and less psychedelic than Victor Uwaifo, he found the perfect medium for his message in the trance-like grooves of Edo funk. With pulsating rhythms awash in cosmic synth-fields and lyrics that express a deep personal vision, he found great success at the dawn of the 1980s as one of Benin City's most persuasive ambassadors of funky highlife. Victor Uwaifo was already a star in Nigeria when he built the legendary Joromi studios in his hometown of Benin City in 1978. Using his unique guitar style as the mediating force between West-African highlife and the traditional rhythms and melodies of Edo music, he had scored several hits in the early seventies, but once he had his own sixteen-track facility he was able to pursue his obsession with the synesthetic possibilities of pure sound, adding squelchy synths, swirling organs and studio effects to hypnotic basslines and raw grooves.

Between his own records and his production for other musicians, he quickly established himself as the godfather of Edo funk. What unites these diverse musicians is their ability to strip funk down to its primal essence and use it as the foundation for their own excursions inward to the heart of Edo culture and outward to the furthest limits of sonic alchemy. The twelve tracks on Edo Funk Explosion Volume 1 pulse with raw inspiration, mixing highlife horns, driving rhythms, day-glo keyboards and tripped-out guitars into a funk experience unlike any other.

TRACK LISTING

1. Africa Is My Root - Osayomore Joseph And The Creative Seven
2. Ta Gha Hunsimwen - Akaba Man & The Nigie Rokets
3. Popular Side - Akaba Man And The African Pride
4. Iranm Iran - Sir Victor Uwaifo And His Titibitis
5. Sakpaide No.2 - Sir Victor Uwaifo And His Titibitis
6. Ta Ghi Rare - Akaba Man & The Nigie Rokets
7. My Name Is Money - Osayomore Joseph
8. Ogbov Omwan - Akaba Man & The Nigie Rokets
9. Aibalegbe - Sir Victor Uwaifo And His Titibitis
10. Who No Man - Osayomore Joseph And The Ulele Power Sound
11. Obviemama - Sir Victor Uwaifo And His Titibitis
12. Ororo No De Fade - Osayomore Joseph And The Ulele Power Sound

When Nkrumah Jah Thomas’ hit #1 on the Jamaican charts in 1976 with his debut single ‘Midnight Rock’ on Alvin Ranglin’s GG label it gave the new DJ a theme song and an entry into the world of music. Within 3 years he had launched his own label Midnight Rock and alongside more music under his own name he produced a series of classics by the likes of Tristan Palmer, Anthony Johnson, Early B and many more.

In 1997 he signed a deal with Acid Jazz’s Roots label and since then, through on-going collaborations, his career as a producer has been anthologised and developed, including the release of a series of archive King Tubby and Scientist mixes, the use of his masters to be sampled by Nas (on “The Don”), Protoje and others, and re-issues of his classic albums. To celebrate 40 year of Midnight Rock, last year Thomas went back into his tape archive to unearth another 10 tracks, either with original vocals or guest names brought in.

Behind original rhythms recorded at Channel 1, Tuff Gong and others, featuring the Roots Radics and The Midnight Rock Band and mixed in places like King Jammy’s and Tubby’s we are given a line-up of stellar talent. We have Lynval Thomson with the plaintive ‘I Can Be Your Man’, and forthright Super Cat on ‘Me Glad She Gone’ and first rare Luciano on ‘Good Thing Goin’ On. They are joined by Courtney Melody, Pinchers and Joesy Wales, Daville and more. Keeping the circle whole Thomas appears on two tracks including the future classic ‘Sounds A Go Dead Tonight’ with Junior Vibes.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Can Be Your Man - Linval Thompson
2. Good Thing Goin’ On - Luciano
3. Hey Sexy Lady - Courtney Melody
4. I Love To Smoke - Gryphan
5. Sounds A Go Dead Tonight - Jah Thomas & Junior Vibes
6. All A The Gal Them - Pinchers & Jose Wale
7. Me Glad She Gone-  Super Cat
8. Drunk And Stage - Jah Thomas
9. Since I Laid Eyes On You - Daville
10. Love Songs Are Back Again (Adopted Song) - Tony Curtis, Ghost & Mitch

The official soundtrack compilation release from Glitterbox and Defected Records first foree into Documnetary films : Where Love Lives. The film is a story of music’s enduring power to manifest diverse and inclusive community, and the power of that community to accept and embrace, to liberate, even to save lives. It’s a story of acceptance and creative expression – empowered, enabled and soundtracked by club music. Through extensive exclusive interviews with titans of nightlife culture, Where Love Lives contributors

Billy Porter, Honey Dijon, Kathy Sledge, Kiddy Smile, Lucy Fizz, John ‘Jellybean’ Benitez, Kae Burke (House Of Yes), Fiorious and many more explore how those driven to the margins of society are welcomed unconditionally to the centre of the dancefloor.

Featuring the likes of Roisin Murphy, Horse Meat Disco, The Shapeshifters, DC La Rue, The Vision and more, this compilation, expertly mixed by Simon Dunmore and Seamus Haji includes all of the music featured in the film alongside classic and fresh cuts from the Glitterbox label.

TRACK LISTING

CD1 - Seamus Haji

1. Smith & Mudd Featuring Quinn Lamont Luke ‘The Distance’ (Ron Basejam Remix)
2. Crazy P ‘Eruption’
3. Lovebirds Featuring Holly Backler ‘Give Me A Sign’
4. The Phenomenal Handclap Band ‘Judge Not’ (Ray Mang Disco Mix)
5. Luke Solomon Featuring Queen Rose & Amy Douglas ‘Light You Up’ (Accapella)
6. Róisín Murphy ‘Murphy's Law’ (Extended Mix)
7. Sure Thing ‘Holding You Tight’ (Extended DJ Mix)
8. Sunset City ‘Feels So Right’ (Art Of Tones '1982' Extended Remix)
9. Bobby D'Ambrosio Featuring Lasala ‘Runaway Love’ (Dr Packer Extended Remix)
10. Horse Meat Disco & Kathy Sledge ‘Jump Into The Light’ (Extended 12” Mix)
11. Melvo Baptiste Featuring Phebe Edwards ‘Bad Company’ (Extended Mix)
12. Birdee Featuring Angela Johnson ‘Something About You’ (Extended Mix)
13. William & The Young Five ‘You Turn Me On’ (JKriv Rework)
14. Bongoloverz Featuring An-Tonic ‘Power Of Music’ (Accapella)
15. Aeroplane Featuring Tawatha Agee ‘Love On Hold’ (Dr Packer Extended Remix)
16. Eli Escobar & Nomi Ruiz ‘Dance 4 Love ‘99’ (Club Mix)
17. Chasing Kurt ‘From The Inside’ (Henrik Schwarz Deep Version)
18. Audiowhores & Roland Clark ‘I'm Inspired’ (Spoken Accapella)
19. The Juan Maclean ‘A Simple Design’ (Purple Disco Machine Remix)
20. The Vision Featuring Dames Brown ‘Down’ (Extended Mix)
21. Horse Meat Disco Featuring Amy Douglas ‘Let’s Go Dancing’ (Dimitri From Paris Remix)
22. Seamus Haji Featuring Kathy Brown ‘A Better Place’ (Extended Mix)


CD2 - Simon Dunmore

1. Freeform Five & Carolyn Harding ‘Strength’ (JKriv Extended Remix)
2. Horse Meat Disco Featuring Fi McCluskey ‘Love If You Need It’
3. Hifi Sean Featuring Paris Grey ‘Lost Without U’ (Horse Meat Disco Extended Remix)
4. Nico Saav ‘Steam’ (Dicky Trisco Remix)
Escobar Featuring Nomi Ruiz ‘Can't Stop Dancing’ (Accapella)
Kings Of Tomorrow ‘Let Me Tell You Something’ (Sandy Rivera & C. Castel’s Accapella)
5. Powerdance ‘Power Dance’ (Mousse T.’s Disco Shizzle Extended Mix)
6. The Vision Featuring Andreya Triana ‘Mountains’ (Joey Negro Live And Direct Extended Mix)
7. D.C. LaRue ‘Cathedrals’ (Jamie 3:26 Ballroom Version)
8. Donald’s House ‘Piano Parfait’
9. Mike Dunn Presents The MD X-Spress ‘Git Cho House On (Children)’ (Accapella)
10. Antenna! ‘Rhombus’ (Extended Mix)
12. Ralphi Rosario With Linda Clifford ‘Wanna Give It Up’ (Dr Packer’s Légo’s Dub Accapella)
13. Fallout ‘The Morning After’ (Purple Disco Machine Re-Work)
14. Billie ‘Nobody’s Business’ (Extended Radio)
15. Mike Dunn ‘If I Can’t Get Down’ (Luke Solomon’s Extended Clubland Remix)
16. Mike Dunn ‘Strut Cho Phunky Stuff (Sho' Nuff)’ (Mike Dunn Extended Black Glitter MixX)
17. The Shapeshifters Featuring Kimberly Davis ‘Life Is A Dancefloor’ (Club Mix)
18. D.C. LaRue ‘Hot Jungle Drums And Voo Doo Rhythm’ (Dr Packer Dub)
19. Dimitri From Paris X Fiorious ‘Music Saved My Life’ (The Extended Discomix)
20. Casbah 73 ‘Love Saves The Day’ (Extended Mix)

CD3 - Simon Dunmore

1. Horse Meat Disco & Kathy Sledge ‘Falling Deep In Love’ (Joey Negro 12” Disco Blend)
2. The Shapeshifters Featuring Billy Porter ‘Finally Ready’ (Dimitri From Paris TSOP - The Sound Of Paris - Remix, Pts I & II)
3. Mike Dunn ‘Natural High’ (Mike Dunn Extended Black Glitter MixX)
4. Dam Swindle ‘Hey Mister’ (Extended Mix)
5. Debbie Jacobs ‘Don’t You Want My Love’ (Full Intention Extended Disco Mix)
6. DJ John ‘Julius’ Knight ‘Find A Friend’ (Dr Packer Extended Remix)
7. Luke Solomon Featuring Amy Douglas & Queen Rose ‘Love. Hope. Happiness’ (Accapella)
8. Fiorious ‘I’m Not Defeated’ (Catz ‘n Dogz Extended Pride Mix)
9. Junior Jack Presents Glory Featuring Jocelyn Brown ‘Hold Me Up’ (Riva Starr Tangerine Funk Extended Vocal Mix)
10. Quentin Harris & Jason Walker ‘Stronger’ (Extended Mix)
11. Romain & Danny Krivit Featuring Linda Clifford ‘Philly Groove’ (Joey Negro’s Philly Jump Extended Mix)
12. Soul Creation ‘Maestros Of House’ (Accapella)
13. Dirty Channels ‘Catch Me’ (Extended Mix)
14. Lupe Featuring Josh Caffe ‘Give Me Body’
15. Hifi Sean Featuring Celeda ‘The Music’ (Extended)
16. Catz ‘n Dogz ‘Force’ (Accapella)
17. Mighty Mouse ‘The Spirit’ (Extended Mix)
18. Gershon Jackson Presents Reset Preset ‘Hands Together’ (House Of Omni Hands Together Extended Club Mix)
19. Shakedown ‘At Night’ (Shakedown’s Galactic Boogie) 

“I wanted to try and showcase as many people as I knew on this mix. My idea of Late Night Tales was to distil a series of relaxing moments; the whole conceptual sonic of relaxation. So, I was trying to think of all the collaborators and friends that I knew, who’d recorded stuff with this horizontal vibe. Plus, I was also trying to help my friends' stuff get into the world. I know the story of Khruangbin blowing up after appearing on the series (in fact, I think that's how I discovered them). So, the main idea was to create a certain atmosphere, but also to help some of my favourite collaborators and bud- dies to give their songs a little push out into the world. Hope you like it” Jordan Rakei.

Late Night Tales celebrate their 20th anniversary with the release of multi-instru- mentalist, vocalist and producer Jordan Rakei’s majestic compilation. The 28-year-old modern soul icon effortlessly stamps his own jazz and hip-hop driven sound all over this gorgeous array of handpicked tracks. A beautifully layered blend that is mirrored in the music he’s made, it comes as no surprise that such a supremely gifted songwriter should deliver a mix that is all about the song.

Rakei, born in New Zealand, but raised in Australia, moved to the UK in 2015; he released his debut album, Cloak, with Oz label Soul Has No Tempo, but his two subsequent LPs, Wallflower and Origin, came out on Ninja Tune, the former #2 in Album Of The Year for Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide poll, while Origin was nominated for Best Album at the AIM Awards. Jordan had this to say on his upcoming mix:

As Jordan says, there’s so much more to the song selection on Late Night Tales’ latest outing than a random collection of artists. Many have some sort of personal connection, so just as Bonobo provided a platform for the breakout of Khruangbin on a previous LNT, this may have the same effect for Rakei’s friends. After a soothing opener from Fink, good friend and big influence Alfa Mist (part of the Are We Live collective) delivers ‘Mulago.’ “I want to champion their sound and show the world how good he is, and I thought it’d be fitting to start the mix with family,” says Jordan.

Next up is Charlotte Day Wilson with ‘Mountains,’ followed by ‘Count A Heart’ from Moreton, an exclusive collaboration with Jordan, who grew up on the same street in Brisbane, Australia. “She was the first artist I ever collaborated with, and one of the first artists to be involved in my career,” he explains. Elsewhere we hear Scottish producer and multi-instrumentalist C Duncan’s haunting ‘He Came from the Sun,’ Barcelona collective Oso Leone deliver a dreamy ‘Virtual U’ and Bill Lauren’s ‘Singularity,’ which evokes a striking sense of time and place.

Snowpoet’s ethereal ‘Evitenity’ is a “long mediative narrative over a beautiful soundscape,” which at times seems chaotic, nicely juxtaposed with undeniable beauty, and Maro’s kooky songwriting shines on ‘Always And Forever.’ Long-time buddy Armon-Jones contributes ‘Idiom,’ and Jordan’s exclusive cover version is a two-for-one, Radiohead’s ‘Codex’ merging with ‘Lover, You Should’ve Come Home’ by Jeff Buckley and another exclusive, original com- position by Jordan, ‘Imagination.’ The latter works as a piece with the spoken (Spanish) word voiced by movie director Alejandro González Iñárritu (Babel, Birdman, and The Reve- nant,) who is a big fan of Jordan’s. “He messaged me when I went to L.A and asked to come to my show. I was in such shock and we hung out after. I thought it would be nice to get him to do this in his native tongue, because I don’t think that’s been done yet on the series.” It certainly is a family affair. Not the blood is thicker than water kind, but certainly musical kindred spirits.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: There are very few labels as influential in the compilation game as Late Night Tales, and this newest outing from Jordan Rakei is one of the best yet. Flitting between downbeat jazz business and more ambient pieces, this collection is perfect for popping on and zoning out to. Brilliantly paced and superbly selected, this is a fascinating insight into Rakei's influences, and most of all, a great listen.

TRACK LISTING

Mixed CD Version
Incl. Unmixed Tracks Via Download As MP3 / FLAC/ WAV
1. Fink - Covering Your Tracks
2. Alfa Mist – Mulago
3. Charlotte Day Wilson – Mountains
4. Moreton Feat. Jordan Rakei – Count A Heart (Exclusive Track)
5. Puma Blue – Untitled 2
6. Connan Mockasin – Momo’s
7. C Duncan - He Came From The Sun
8. Oso Leone – Virtual U
9. Joe Armon-Jones - Idiom Ft. Oscar Jerome
10. Snowpoet – Eviternity
11. MARO – Forever & Always
12 Homay Schmitz – Speak Up
13. Bill Laurance - Singularity
14 Jordan Rakei - Lover, You Should've Come Over (Exclusive Jeff Buckley Cover Version)
15 Jordan Rakei – Codex (Exclusive Radiohead Cover Version)
16. Cubicolor - Counterpart
17. Jordan Rakei – Imagination (Exclusive New Track)
18. Alejandro González Iñárritu - Imagination (Exclusive Spoken Word Piece)

Unmixed Vinyl Version
(includes Mixed And Unmixed Tracks As Download As MP3 / FLAC / WAV)
A1. Fink - Covering Your Tracks
A2. Alfa Mist - Mulago
A3. Charlotte Day Wilson - Mountains
A4. Moreton Feat Jordan Rakei - Count A Heart (Exclusive Track)
B1. Puma Blue - Untitled 2
B2. Connan Mockasin - Momo's
B3. C Duncan - He Came From The Sun
B4. Oso Leone - Virtual U
B5. Joe Armon-Jones & Maxwell Owin - Idiom Ft Oscar Jerome
C1. Snowpoet - Everternity
C2. Maro - Forever & Always
C3. Homay Schmitz - Speak Up
C4. Bill Laurence - Singularity
D1. Jordan Rakei - Lover, You Should've Come Over (Exclusive Jeff Buckley Cover Version)
D2. Cubicolour - Counterpart
D3. Jordan Rakei - Imagination(Exclusive New Track)
D4. Alejandro González Iñárritu - Imagination (Exclusive Spoken Word Piece)

In a world that doesn’t seem capable of swaying, Silver Synthetic’s self-titled debut shakes and boogies.

In the midst of the thick New Orleans summer of 2017, Chris Lyons of garage punks Bottomfeeders found himself sitting on a small batch of songs that didn’t quite fit the fuzzed-out pileups of that band. He called in his trusted confidants: Bottomfeeders drummer and longtime musical partner Lucas Bogner plus

bassist Pete Campanelli, and Kunal Prakash (Jeff the Brotherhood) dug the songs and signed on, and the quartet started playing in earnest.



By the time the band played its first gig in late 2018 at the opening of Nola’s ManRay Records, the songs had multiplied and the members of the newly christened Silver Synthetic had become genuine rock & roll craftsmen.



It makes sense that the band’s first gig was in a record shop ‘cause folks, this is record nerd-core in a major way, evocative of the LP's first golden era, as the late sixties oozed into the strange 1970s, with the requisite T-Rex stomps, Britfolk twists and turns, and dueling Verlaine/Lloyd guitars. It’s about warmth, and you can practically smell the gently glowing amp tubes.

While many of their peers would be lost without their daisy-chained and tangled pedal-boards, there’s a refreshing directness here, unassuming but confident, the result of a band deliberately not fussing too much over the thing, maintaining a connection to the feeling of hearing a well balanced two-guitar/bass/drums combo at a house show.

And it kinda was a house show. The album was recorded with Ross Farbe of Video Age, who lugged his mobile rig over to Lyons’ place in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans. With the band set up in the living room the crew got down to business, striving to adhere to the live, honest approach. Minimal overdubs, dialed in tone, a good vibe.

You could call Silver Synthetic rock & roll formalists, but the truth is they're more like minimalists, stripping away tired clutter and unnecessary bloat and just zooming in on the essential. 

STAFF COMMENTS

says: It says Andy McQueen all over it this one, jangling harmonies, slide guitar and ROCK SOLID melodies. Brilliantly evocative and superbly produced, this is yet another hit for the ever-reliable Third Man records.

Deutsche Grammophon is pleased to announce the Yellow Label Debut of new signing Balmorhea! After touring in many constellations as an ensemble, for the upcoming album ‚The Wind‘, Lowe and Muller returned to their core as a duo. Working with producer Jonathan Low (Taylor Swift, The National) Balmorhea has delivered an album that tells a wonderful story through innovative composition, stretching across an extraordinarily wide instrumentarium that we have come to know as Balmorhea‘s unique musical language.

“Rich textures push it past the point of background music, and its gorgeous melodies serve as anchors for even the sparest moments”— Pitchfork.

Slow-burning ambient Americana that manages to captivate while avoiding the histrionics of its post-rock forebears - The New Yorker.

…listening will unravel hidden seams of loveliness. – BBC.

...a sound that evokes imagery of brilliant landscapes and quiet pastoral scenes. Their sweeping instrumentals and sporadic yet haunting vocals draw influence from both classical music and experimental acoustic folk. - NPR.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: Having been a huge fan of Balmorhea's work for Western Vinyl, their debut for legendary classical label Deustche Grammophon is obviously of huge interest. What we get is a beautiful collection of typically Balmorhean ambience, imbued with their post-rock roots and richly woven round a solid core of airy Americana. Gorgeous.

Building on the musical material of the first record, VOICES 2 extends the musical language into a purely instrumental and abstract direction. Where the first part of the project is very focused on the text of The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights, the 2nd part opens up a musical space to let these words and ideas sink in.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: Richter is never one to stay on the same theme for too long. He's worked on soundtracks and solo albums, but his 'Voices' project from last year was an interesting and important new direction. The second instalment of the same sees the spoken word swapped out in order to focus on the gorgeous musical phrasing and leaning more into his neo-classical roots. I've never been anything but imporessed with any of Richter's work, and this is no exception. Lovely stuff.

TRACK LISTING

1. Psychogeography
2. Mirrors
3. Follower
4. Solitaries
5. Movement Study
6. Prelude 2
7. Colour Wheel
8. Origins (Solo)
9. Little Requiems (Cello Version)
10. Mercy Duet

Operating in house music since the mid '80s, Charles Webster is revered as something like the producer's producer, spoken about in the same breath as Larry Heard or Ron Trent amongst the DJ cognoscenti.

Growing up in the Peak District and falling in love with electronic music through a parent's Kraftwerk record, Charles' apprenticeship was with Juan Atkins and Kevin Saunderson, back when they'd record at Square Dance studio in Nottingham, where Charles worked as a recording engineer. His production work started right at the roots of electronic music in the British Isles, writing tracks for electro/breakdance outfit The Rock City Crew and 1987 UK house cut T-CUT-F. Since then he's released music under 30 different pseudonyms with over 500 remixes.

'Decision Time' is Charles' first major solo record since 2001's 'Born On The 24th July', and features an array of artists from a number of different eras, guises and genres Charles has been involved with over his prolific career.

After moving to San Francisco in the late nineties, he created an album under the alias Presence entitled 'All Systems Gone'. The "pillowy" sound design of this classic is cited as a key influence on the music of Burial. For 'Decision Time', Burial has paid a further tribute here, contributing a rare co-production, 'The Second Spell'. This track featuring the words of Prince muse Ingrid Chavez. who also wrote the spoken word poetry in Madonna's 'Justify My Love'.

Charles was at the forefront of the halcyon years of deep house, working with vocal talents like Robert Owens, Tracey Thorn, Terra Deva (aka Furry Freaks), who features here on 'Wait And See', and Shara Nelson, perhaps best known for her vocals on Massive Attack's 'Blue Lines' album, featuring here on 'This Is Real'.

Charles' influence also spreads to the South African house scene with his Presence single 'Better Day' becoming a huge radio hit there in 1997. Charles later moved to South Africa and immersed himself in the local scene, collaborating with some of the country's most exciting talent, including Sio, Thandi Draai and Sipho – all of whom appear on this project.

With an album of this quality and the 20-year cycles of electronic culture, it feels like this is the perfect moment to celebrate the brilliance of Charles Webster's legacy. From the downtempo soul of 'This Is Real', to the impressionistic words and ethereal two-step on 'The Spell', a new generation of ears are about to discover the influential underground sound of Charles Webster.

TRACK LISTING

1. Burning (feat. Sio)
2. This Is Real (feat. Shara Nelson)
3. We Belong Together (feat. Thandi Draai)
4. Love Lives (feat. Sio)
5. I Wonder Why (feat. Sipho Hotstix Mabuse)
6. Music (feat. Thandi Draai)
7. Wait And See (feat. Terra Deva)
8. Secrets Held (feat. Emilie Chick)
9. The Spell (feat. Ingrid Chavez)
10. The Second Spell (feat. Ingrid Chavez)

Truly, the luscious, soulful new album from Manchester singer-songwriter Caoilfhionn Rose (pronounced Keelin) moves through a tapestry of curious musical inflections; nods towards folk, jazz, ambient, electronica and even a subtle influence of psychedelia, it never stands still to take a breath, despite its ethereal and delicate core. Out April 9th on Gondwana Records (Mammal Hands, Portico Quartet, Matthew Halsall, Hania Rani), in Truly, the young singer-songwriter has accomplished a body of work that is both sonically and lyrically wise beyond her years.

Co-produced by Kier Stewart of The Durutti Column following Rose's collaborative endeavours with them on their album Chronicle LX:XL, the musician's song writing draws from a diverse palette of influences, including Building Instrument, Rachel Sermanni, Alabaster dePlume and Broadcast. Rose also professes to a love for beautiful, stripped back, piano based music, such as Dustin O'Halloran and label mate Hania Rani.

Truly came to exist due to a deep-routed need to create – even though its conception was interrupted as Caoilfhionn Rose recovered in hospital from an illness, she found strength within writing music. "In Spring 2019 I took part in a gig swap with my good friend and fellow musician Kristian Harting who is from Denmark. We played several gigs in the UK but unfortunately the Denmark part of the tour was cut short as I was taken ill. I was hospitalised for several weeks and have taken the last year out to recover" says Rose. "I gradually returned to finishing my second album" she continues. "Coming back to creating after being unwell was challenging but also therapeutic. This record marks a difficult time of my life and writing it helped get me through that. I am really grateful to have music as an outlet." It may be this tremendously challenging period that has abetted its characterising qualities.

Rose's beautifully restrained vocal is all at once soothing yet mesmerising. She demands and holds attention through her evident talent yet hypnotises the listener into a trance with her experimental tendencies. "After being unwell, getting back to recording helped me recover my voice after not singing for so long. Finishing bits of songs, writing lyrics and recording vocals helped me get back on my feet and get better."

Lead single from the album – 'Flourish' – is an intoxicating song that meditates on being present in the moment, allowing peace to come to you. "The song 'Flourish' is about looking forwards with hope and possibility, 'let it flow away, let it turn around and flourish'. It's about finding peace and feeling wonder again" says Rose about the track. "'Flourish' hints at the ideas of what could be, how things can unfold if you let go 'and just be here'."

A message of hope is instilled throughout the record, echoed again in 'Fireflies', a song inspired by a campsite in France, which became filled with fireflies at night. "To me 'Fireflies' has a nostalgic and comforting feel. It's about feeling hopeful about the future 'though there may be dark clouds the sun will always come'. There are references to older lyrics I have written. The line 'free from all the chaos' is a nod to a song I collaborated on with The Durutti Column. The song is about acknowledging the past and moving on as 'time is always healing'."

A recurring theme of reflection and being grounded in the present, acknowledging the past and looking forwards with courage is one that envelopes 'Truly', and is something that is echoed in its beautiful swelling flourishes and its tranquillity – resonating with atmosphere, the album all at once sounds so large and yet so subdued. "The line on Every Waking Minute; 'we forget what lies behind the eyes' is about remembering that everyone has their own things going on and challenges to face but we should 'feel every waking minute', become aware of what's unfolding around us outside of our own stories. It's a self-reflective song really, reminding myself that 'life can take you bysurprise', there are going to be ups and downs along the way"

Elsewhere on the album, Rose explores the connection between nature and life on single To Me. "I love going on long walks and the healing power of nature is a recurring theme in a lot of my lyrics. I have a very optimistic outlook and I find solace in the small things like being outdoors."

Caoilfhionn's debut Awaken, co-produced with label mate Matthew Halsall, saw the singer, songwriter and producer tie together remnants of Manchester's musical past with its evolving present. Prior to this, the artist collaborated with one of her biggest musical influences, Vini Reilly of The Durutti Column. The musician worked with the Manchester band on four songs on their album Chronicle LX:XL. "I've learnt a lot from collaborating with musicians like Vini Reilly, Matthew Halsall and my bandmates" says Rose. "This is reflected in my current style and approach to making music. I no longer just write as a therapeutic or reflective process; I can write more abstractly and outwardly."

Kier Stewart of The Durutti Column co-produced her latest offering, Truly, following his band's collaborations with Rose. "I befriended Kier after we worked together. Collaborating with The Durutti Column was my first experience of recording music with other people in a studio." Together, the pair have created something expansive yet fragile – and altogether unique. "He's brought so much to this project" she says. "I feel Keir has brought out the best in the songs, adding really intricate and subtle details and effects. It was inspiring getting to work with Keir and I've learnt a lot from his approach of just experimenting and seeing what works."

TRACK LISTING

1. Flourish
2. To Me
3. Tubercular Skies
4. Fireflies
5. Every Waking Minute
6. Point In Time
7. Readiness Is All
8. Paths
9. Truly
10. Hold Your Own
11. All That Light

Four years after his Jakarta Records debut "A Safe Place to Be Naked" S. Fidelity has matured as a producer and as an artist: working and recording in London, Los Angeles, Paris and Johannesburg while building up his Manolo Purple Studios in Berlin with longtime collaborator, labelmate and soul brother Bluestaeb.

In 2021 S. Fidelity finally returns to the main program with his brand new solo album "Fidelity Radio Club" shaped in form of a genre crossing radio show exploring HipHop, R&B, Jazz, House and Funk in all their depths, creating the multi-layered album he always dreamt to do as he orchestrates a stoking line-up of equally talented friends and fellows like Bluestaeb, Melodiesinfonie, Suff Daddy, K, Le Maestro, Àbáse and many more while still delivering that very personal note every classic producer album needs and comes with. Or as the artist himself would put it: "17 different artists, producers and instrumentalists from all over the world helped me to bring this vision to life."

According to that the albums 1st single features Singer NDO from Florida, giving life to the hard hitting R&B gem "Mixed Signals" where warm neo soul harmonies meet with classic R&B vibes of early 2000. The song made it to Spotify's Butter Playlist right away and was picked for Deezer's "Date Night" Playlist and Apple Music's New Music Daily as well and received shout outs and further Playlist-placements by music blogs like Stereofox or MOW Mag.

The 2nd single comes as a double single featuring pianist, producer and main protagonist of Berlin's prog-jazz scene Àbáse on "Me At The Zoo" (reminding its listeners of London's new wave of jazz around Kamaal Williams or Yussef Dayes) on one side and the energetic, funk influenced disco tune "Something Good" on the other side.

The 3rd and final single "Love International Inc." then comes with a bumpy up tempo drum beat, which develops into an energetic and jazzy lo-fi house/deep house loop, featuring none other than Zürich's finest Melodiesinfonie as well as Paris-based Bluestaeb, marking this supergroup's 2nd appearance and giving a glimpse of what's yet to come.

Each of the album's single cuts comes with a visual treatment by HipHop's favorite photographer Robert Winter and his team (The Ottos), matching sound and artwork accordingly while the record's amazing and unique artwork comes from the Swiss based creative studio HOMI. The record itself contains a sticker sheet with customized S. Fidelity and "Fidelity Radio Club" stickers as well.

The whole album campaign is further accompanied by the Fidelity Radio Show hosted by S. Fidelity himself, sitting down with his featured guests talking about the music they love and they draw inspiration from – broadcasted via S. Fidelity's own youtube channel releasing its episodes in between the album's single drops.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: An array of jazzy lo-fi and deep house tracks from radio club resident S. Fidelity, the album feels effortlessly put together while merging so many genres seamlessly. More of where this came from please.

TRACK LISTING

1. I - Intro
2. Me At The Zoo (feat. Àbasé)
3. Mixed Signals (feat. NDO)
4. Love International Inc. (feat. Bluestaeb & Melodiesinfonie)
5. Backseats Cheat
6. II – James' Joint
7. Something Good
8. III – Yagi Uda
9. Presumably Broccoli (feat. Suff Daddy)
10. Temptations
11. IV – Trippin' (feat. K & Le Maestro)
12. Higher (feat. Àbasé & St. Ezekiel)
13. Members Only
14. V – ExtraDobro (feat. Noa Erni)
15. Tiara St. (feat. K. Le Maestro, Zae & Aspene)

Last seen a couple of years back on his debut long-player Stop Lying, Raf has today also shared Ample Change (feat. Lias Saoudi), the second track to be taken off the album following Monsterpiece on which he roped in the legendary Chas Jankel to provide his distinctive touch.

Featuring on the cover a striking Keith Haring meets the Green Man image from acclaimed artist and long-time collaborator Ben Edge, the picture was inspired by the folk tale of the giant of Dawson, who is both male & female, human and vegetation and lived in the imagination of Dawson’s Hill, a stretch of South London parkland a stones throw away from Dawson’s Heights, the flats featured on the cover of Raf’s debut Stop Lying.

Edge and Rundell, for reasons they can’t entirely comprehend, concocted a rite which took place the first full moon after this year’s summer solstice (the results of which can be seen in the short film trailer for the album). This involved the giant – also known as Tommy Hill Figure - being created on Dawson’s Hill. “Ben’s been digging deeper and deeper into ancient myths, the green man, all the stuff that’s been co-opted by organised religion,” Rundell explains. All this chimed with him because he is a magnet for signs and symbols. He has been ever since his Mod-loving parents named him after the RAF roundel symbol.

“We’d been talking about this sort of stuff a lot,” Rundell continues. “The rite was about the birth of the new and using the coronavirus as a catalyst for that change, like a full stop to the way things were before. The corona was called the spark in the ceremony, although we’re not being too specific about the virus because this is a thing we hope to do annually.”

This is the backdrop to the album, a record far larger and more confident than its creator could ever have imagined. Unlike his itinerantly created previous records, O.M. Days was entirely recorded in the same Forest Hill studio, with the aforementioned collaborators. “I love collaborating with people – like Lias Saoudi or Andy Jenkins, who are both on this record – that’s where it’s at for me,” Rundell says. “I worked really hard on this one. And although I had no plan about where it was going, I always have a notion about how I want things to sound. I had a particular idea about that.”

STAFF COMMENTS

says: There's always a considerable amount of rhythmic shuffling when Rundell comes on the stereo (I would obviously dance but am pretty terrible at it, so results in said shuffle). 'O. M. Days' has all of the latent melodicism we've come to expect from Rundell, but with an uplifting, post-pandemic groove sure to get the newly opened clubs moving It's a brilliantly produced and intensely enjoyable listen.

TRACK LISTING

1. More U Know
2. Down
3. Monsterpiece
4. Ample Change (feat. Lias Saoudi)
5. Always Fly (feat. Terri Walker)
6. Luxury (feat. Man & The Echo)
7. Miracle
8. The Ides Of Albion
9. Turning Tides
10. Butter Gold (feat. Andy Jenkins)

After releasing their outstanding 17th album 'Abolition of The Royal Familia' earlier this year, The Orb are back with further guest appearances on their remix album 'Abolition Of The Royal Familia - Guillotine Mixes' (April 2021). Including mixes from David Harrow, Moody Boyz, Youth, Violeta Vicci, Andy Falconer and more.

TRACK LISTING

DISC 1
SIDE A

1. Daze - David Harrow Remix (BLM Remix23)
2. Queen Of Hearts - Moody Boys Remix (Duck Or Drown)
3. Ital Orb - Gaudi Remix (Iron Chair)

SIDE B

1. Narcotics – David Harrow Remix 2 (Head Crusher)
2. Hawk Kings - Lost Stoned Pandas Remix (Pear Of Anguish)
3. Honey Moonies – Paul Metamono Remix (Burnt At The Stake)

DISC 2
SIDE A

1. Slave Til U Die - Andy Falconer Remix (Water Boarding)
2. Weekend - Dom Beken & Kris Needs Remix (The Judas Triangle)
3. Pervitin - Violeta Vicci Remix (The Saw Torture)

SIDE B
1. AAA - Violeta Vicci Remix (Hung, Drawn And Quartered)
2. Shape Shifting Part 1 - Youth Bring In The Clown Remix

'An Insight To All Minds' is Kaidi's 3rd solo album under his own name, following several EPs and two albums for First Word; 2018's acclaimed 'It's A World Before You' and the re-press of his seminal 2008 sophomore album 'In Search Of Hope' last year.

For those that don't know, Kaidi Tatham is a legendary multi-instrumentalist. Once dubbed "the UK's Herbie Hancock" by Benji B, he's a virtuoso on the keys and a true innovator in sound production as one of the original creators of the Broken Beat sound. Over the years his musical prowess has blessed numerous projects, initially with the likes of Bugz In The Attic and The Herbaliser, and more recently with DJ Jazzy Jeff (through the PLAYlist projects), Andrew Ashong (on the acclaimed 'Sankofa Season' EP last year) and with longtime accomplice, Dego. This in addition to session work for artists such as Mulatu Astatke, Slum Village, Amy Winehouse, Soul II Soul and Leroy Burgess, along with First Word label mates such as Eric Lau, Children of Zeus and Darkhouse Family. Kaidi is also a revered DJ known for rocking parties globally, whilst his solo catalogue spans tons of EPs and releases for labels such as 2000 Black, Eglo and Theo Parrish's Sound Signature.

On 'An Insight To All Minds', Kaidi says it's "not about a destination, but a process. It's about how you drive, not where you're going. Nothing in this world can torment you as much as your own thoughts… We are all going through it. We can all feel what the next person is feeling, believe it or not. It's learning how to tap into it".

The album is comprised of an assortment of Kaidi's unique flavours - uptempo jazz-funk bruk, laced with rhodes, flutes, live bass and delicious percussion. Using that blueprint he moves effortlessly through latin and samba, half-step, deep afro house and a sprinkle of curveballs, all presented in Kaidi's inimitable way.

'Intergalactic Relations' brings with it some 110bpm synthed-out spacey electro-breaks, 'Could It Be' sets off sounding like a Morricone film score, whilst 'Rodney' is some serious heads-down business; stark and punchy off-kilter broken beat and vocal stabs. There are a few guests too - 'Chungo' sees the return of Uhmeer (who previously appeared on 'Cupid' on the album 'It's A World Before You'); here the young Philly MC deftly rides a 9/4 time signature beat. Meanwhile 'Stro Kyat' invites in another supreme talent, Stro Elliot (The Roots), who provides a suitably crisp & crunchy riddim to accompany Kaidi's key play over a mind-bending 5/4 time signature.

With this new album, Kaidi Tatham adds further to his already impressive catalogue, a body of work that falls within the cracks of jazz and dance music, exemplifying modern British black brilliance once again; uncompromising, innovative, groundbreaking, intricately sophisticated and deeply funky. His fanbase expands on every release and it's no surprise that that fanbase includes peers such as Madlib ("ahead of his time"), Gilles Peterson ("a key part of an entire movement"), K15 ("a limitless source of inspiration"), Alexander Nut ("a true virtuoso") and Kyle Hall.

'An Insight To All Minds' is released on double vinyl & digital via First Word Records, April 2nd 2021.

TRACK LISTING

1. Try N Follow
2. Intergalactic Relations
3. Interlude
4. Carry It Mongo Man
5. Chungo (feat. Uhmeer)
6. Insight To All Minds
7. Nah Top Yuh Noise
8. DSXSWC
9. Rodney
10. Rain
11. Could It Be
12. Interlude 2
13. Stro Kyat (feat. Stro Elliot)
14. Tek Care
15. Enjoy Life

In an industry always pinning its hopes on the next big trend, Benny Sings is in it for the long haul. The Dutch artist has honed a signature sound while creating a colorful catalog of essential pop gems that have led to loyal global following. Music is Benny's 8th full length album, and his second on Stones Throw after City Pop. Featuring Tom Misch, KYLE, Mac DeMarco, Emily King, and more, this is a must have for fans of any of the above as well as Real Estate and Connan Mockasin.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: It's perfect for Stones Throw this, a heady combination of grooving soul, twinkling pop and downbeat percussion. If you're in any doubt, then have a quick glance at the collaborations the silken-voiced producer has got going too. Beautiful grooves all round.

TRACK LISTING

01. Nobody’s Fault (ft. Tom Misch)
02. Here It Comes
03. Sunny Afternoon
04. Rolled Up (ft. Mac DeMarco)
05. Lost Again
06. Break Away
07. Kids (ft. KYLE)
08. Run Right Back
09. Miracles (ft. Emily King)
10. Music

New LSD which sees the intrepid cartel sourcing more far-out sine tones, electronic library music and experimental tape experiments. Tracklisting to no-doubt follow on discogs, at which point you probably won't be able to buy it..

Buy now or cry later!!

Limited quants... 

Yoshinori Hayashi's second album Pulse of Defiance is an outstanding statement from the Tokyo-based producer, expanding his ever-growing world of sound and showcasing his musical versatility in the process. Spanning ecstatic jungle breaks, club-ready techno, and free jazz's unpredictable gait, Pulse of Defiance is a sonic journey through Hayashi's marvelous mind that provides new surprises at every turn, and with every successive listen.

Pulse of Defiance is the latest and most fascinating step in Hayashi's still-blooming career—a half-decade of fantastically quixotic output that's established him as one of electronic music's most fascinating aural conjurers. After a string of releases on esteemed labels like Lovers Rock, Going Good, and JINN, Hayashi made his Smalltown Supersound debut with 2019's Ambivalence, his first full-length album. An immersive and fascinating work, Ambivalence submerged Hayashi's sound in distant, underwater textures that added layers of allure to its loose, jazzy confines; it was followed up by last year's Y, a four-tracker that splayed drum-machine freakouts and wobbly low-frequency textures across techno's brittle framework.

Indeed, such virtuosic and diverse-sounding music collected in a single statement brings to mind myriad reference points; you can hear the eclecticism of post-rock greats Tortoise amidst the clattering drums of "Alone," while the expansive work of Thomas and Torske is recalled throughout as Hayashi plumbs his body-moving instincts more than ever before. But Pulse of Defiance is also a work that could only come from him at this point, the latest delightfully surprising release from a musician that continues to chart his own path.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:

1. Callapse
2. Make Up One’s Mind
3. Luminenscence
4. Touch

Side B:

1. Twilight
2. Go With Us
3. Morning Haze

Side C:

1. Frequency
2. Flow
3. Shut Up

Side D:

1. Gallop
2. I Believe In You

By the time Chris Korda broke one small, cis section of the internet (the Boiler Room comment section) the politically minded agent provocateur had been courting controversy for close to three decades. As the co-founder of the Church Of Euthenasia alongside Pastor Kim, Chris had promoted restoring the balance between Humans and the other remaining species on the planet via mass population reduction - Save the planet, Kill Yourself. As the world's only anti-human religion, the organisation encountered a whole load of opposition, not least when they took out advertisements for a suicide helpline, which helped you to commit suicide. Jerry Springer dubbed them a suicide cult, and their dadaist tactics bemused and enraged the minds of middle America in equal measure. But behind the scenes, behind the sensationalist headlines, Chris Korda was turning the fucking party with a string of essential techno, essentially militant club cuts, most of which are captured here. Highest grade tech-funk with heavily politicised messages and contributions from Chicks on Speed, Michelle Grinser and DJ Naughty. Anti-consumerist, anti-capitalist and heavily ecological hits for the thinking dancefloor.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Buy
A2. Six Billion Humans Can't Be Wrong
A3. Sex Is Good (With Marilyn)
B1. Save The Planet Kill Yourself
B2. Buy More
B3. Sex Is Good
C1. Victim Of Leisure
C2. Stencil
D1. Fleshdance
D2. Steel Peas

Tomemitsu launched his music career out of his bedroom in Echo Park, Los Angeles. Early singles "in dreams" and "runaway" found their way onto HBO's High Maintenance soundtrack and his knack for dreamy, freak-folk became a signature trademark.

After debuting on the label Friends of Friends with a collaborative single “I’m just waiting for your love” featuring tour mate & Coachella performers, Steady Holiday, he shared a new EP: the I’ll Be Alright EP ahead of his full-length follow-up album entitled ‘Sun’ made up of Bedroom Pop, Indie-Folk and feel good Indie.

TRACK LISTING

1. I'll Be Alright
2. Wish Erase Feat. Lala Lala, V.V. Lightbody
3. And Now (Sunrise)
4. The River
5. So Quiet
6. Say You Want Me Feat. Eva B. Ross
7. Secrets
8. Same Mistakes
9. A Little Prayer
10. When You Lay Your Head Down
11. Waiting For YOur Love (Acoustic)

Nick Waterhouse takes the colour blue as his hue of choice on Promenade Blue. In Nick’s musical and lyrical world, blue is a refraction of his life and memories — evoking the endless tours, marathon recording sessions, and highs and lows of success he’s experienced in his decade-long career; conjuring romances that were doomed, loves that lingered, and hope for future days of parity and partnership; summoning spirits of people who have gone but permeate his mind forever. That’s the world of Promenade Blue — one that is vivid and magnetic, buoyed by both light and density due to Nick’s newfound collaboration with producer Paul Butler (Michael Kiwanuka, The Bees, St. Paul and the Broken Bones). It’s not Gatsby’s New York in the 1920s, it’s Waterhouse’s California in the 2020s... but as anyone who’s ever listened to a Waterhouse record knows: time, though clearly pegged to the dawn of this new decade, is a more malleable concept. In no uncertain terms, Promenade Blue represents Waterhouse’s finest hour as a writer and bandleader — leveraging the musical partnerships he has built over many years to put something forth that is so fully realized and felt that it sparkles beatifically, reverberating with energy, heart, creativity, and vibe from start to finish.

For fans of: Phil Spector, Brian Wilson, Leon Bridges, Nathaniel Rateliff, Jon Batiste, Charles Bradley, Lee Fields, JD McPherson, Van Morrison, Ty Segall, Allah-Las, Michael Kiwanuka, St. Paul and the Broken Bones

TRACK LISTING

1. Place Names
2. The Spanish Look
3. Vincentine
4. Medicine
5. Very Blue
6. Silver Bracelet
7. Proméne Bleu
8. Fugitive Lover
9. Minor Time
10. B. Santa Ana, 1986
11. To Tell

"New Adventures In Pop" collection - Issue 052. Nine songs from this Valencian group that make it clear they meant what they were saying and doing on all of their early releases - with an attitude of youthfulness, spontaneity, rebelliousness and overflowing energy. Influences: Ramones, Bikini Kill, The Rezillos, The Shop Assistants.

Fuzz Club Records are back with the seventh volume of their annual Reverb Conspiracy compilation. Likened to the 'Nuggets' compilations that document the kaleidoscopic sounds of the 60s, the Reverb Conspiracy series provides a snapshot of the contemporary international psych scene in all its multifaceted glory. Concerned with all things fuzz, reverb and drone, you'll find underground artists and familiar names. Vice once described the Reverb Conspiracy as "a catalyst for the European Psych Nouveau movement... sparking more creative chemistry than a night of speed dating at Andy Warhol's" but, as of volume six, Fuzz Club have now gone fully international.

Like its predecessor, Volume 7 is a worldwide affair and all the better for it. From Australia, there's the hypnotic psych-surf of Chesta Hadron and driving krautrock jams courtesy of Mt. Mountain. Elsewhere, Mexico brings us a ten-minute motorik work-out from Sei Still and murky, reverb-soaked shoegaze from Lorelle Meets The Obsolete. Turning back to Europe, there is a whole heap of far-out sounds. France offers us electronic post-punk drones (Veik), gothic psych (Servo) and experimental electronica/Krautrock (Ashinoa). Representing Italy, there’s Kill Your Boyfriend’s psychedelic noise-rock and bludgeoning walls-of-sound from Rev Rev Rev. There's a piece of primal industrial psych via Germany's Flying Moon In Space and Austria’s Hypnotic Floor deliver a thrashing fuzz freak-out. Championing the UK, where Fuzz Club themselves are based, you'll find Autotelia's sprawling, minimalist soundscapes and dark, noisy post-punk from Mirna Way (who are based in London but originally hail from Poland.)

STAFF COMMENTS

says: Fuzz Club's Reverb Conspiracy series has become somewhat of a legendary compilation in the past few years, and you only need to look at the lineup on this to confirm that it has some of the most respected names in the burgeoning underground psych scene. Woozy psychedelia, chugging riffs and acidic groove make this yet another essential addition to the collection.

TRACK LISTING

1) Chesta Hedron - Pulse
2) Mt Mountain - Tassels
3) Sei Still - Tacticas De Guerrilla Urbana
4) Flying Moon In Space - Ardor
5) Kill Your Boyfriend - Agave
6) Veik - Difficult Machinery
7) Lorelle Meets The Obsolete - La Maga
8) Ashinoa - Koalibi
9) Autotelia - Floating Island Of The Gods
10) Hypnotic Floor - Beinwärts
11) Mirna Ray - Poziome Tornado
12) Servo - Yajña
13) Rev Rev Rev - Clutching The Blade

Young yet nervingly, already seminal UK acid house label Super Rhythm Trax, celebrates its wonderful roster of artists with an absolutely slamming bumper double pack. Cut loud for DJ use, and featuring 10 tracks of their exclusive warehouse music, this is a perfect snapshot of this pioneering and cult-adored imprint. It features artwork from Giacomo Run Bufarini, a prolific street artist whose work appears around the globe.

For newcomers to the label: expect a healthy dose of 303s, 808s and 909s; pilled-up hooks, blissed-out atmospheres and a shed of attitude. These bad boys snarl, bang and grind; there's no time for deep house dreaminess on this excursion.

In super limited supply and flying out quicker than pharoahs at Pomona - move quick if you want in on these exclusive, high grade, nightclub workouts.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: Highly anticipated, blink-and-you'll miss it comp from one of the leading lights of the UK acid scene. Hardcore warehouse business from start to finish. All hitter no shitter!

TRACK LISTING

A1. DMX Krew - Duke Beat
A2. Luke’s Anger - Blind Test
A3. Fear-E - Drunken Attic Conversion
B1. Jerome Hill - Plumphouse Groove
B2. Matt Whitehead - Mystery Of Mysteries
C1. DJ Raf - Espresso
C2. Cursor Miner - Back To Front Pants
C3. Mike Ash - Clone Cheek
D1. Dance System - Break It Down
D2. Jared Wilson - Srtraxx 2

A loving tribute to Wilco from the November issue of Uncut magazine, this collection comprises 19 Wilco covers recorded by notable artists such as Courtney Barnett, Kurt Vile, Sharon Van Etten, Low, Cate Le Bon and Parquet Courts, including one previously released version of “Jesus, Etc.” by Norah Jones’ band Puss N Boots and one recently unearthed (but never released) cover of “Casino Queen” by Billy F Gibbons of ZZ Top fame.

Originally released on vinyl in September 2020 for Record Store Day.

Dry Cleaning will release their debut studio album New Long Leg on 2 April, on 4AD. The 10-track long-player, which includes ‘Strong Feelings’ and last year’s single ‘Scratchcard Lanyard’, was recorded over two weeks last summer at Rockfield Studios in rural Wales with producer John Parish (PJ Harvey, Aldous Harding).

Following on from their thrillingly taut 2019 EPs Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks and Sweet Princess, New Long Leg is more ambitious and complex, with Shaw’s spoken vocals tightly intertwined with the band’s restless instrumentals. With lyrics preoccupied by themes like dissociation, escapism, daydreaming, complicated feelings of love, anger, revenge, anxiety, the kitchen, lethargy, forgetfulness, and survival, Shaw says, “the title is ambiguous; a new long leg could be an expensive present or a growth or a table repair.”

Dry Cleaning was formed by friends Tom Dowse, Nick Buxton and Lewis Maynard after a karaoke party in 2017 inspired a collaboration. They wrote instrumentally to begin with until six months later Florence Shaw, a visual artist, university lecturer and picture researcher by day – with no prior musical experience – turned up to a band rehearsal armed with reams of her own collected writing and a copy of Michael Bernard Loggins’ Fears Of Your Life to read out over the music. Before long she was the group’s frontperson, contributing words of her own, and serving as the perfect foil to the band’s music.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: Dry cleaning's wry humour and impeccable grasp of rhythm and mood permeates the entirety of their newest outing, 'New Long Leg'. Driven bassy groove and melodic guitar licks perfectly accentuate the sultry spoken word vocals, resulting in an impactful and dynamic whole.

TRACK LISTING

1. Scratchcard Lanyard
2. Unsmart Lady
3. Strong Feelings
4. Leafy
5. Her Hippo
6. New Long Leg
7. John Wick
8. More Big Birds
9. A.L.C
10. Every Day Carry

The inimitable GYBE returns with another soundtrack for our times. As the heretical anarcho-punk spirit of the title implies, Godspeed harnesses some particularly raw power, spittle and grit across two riveting 20-minute side-length trajectories of noise-drenched widescreen post-rock: inexorable chug blossoms into blown-out twang, as some of the band’s most soaring, searing melodies ricochet and converge amidst violin and bassline counterpoint. Field recordings and roiling semi-improvised passages frame these fervent epics, and two shorter self-contained 6-minute pieces find the band at its most devastatingly beautiful, haunting and elegiac.

Poignant atmospherics, noise-drenched orchestration, drone, hypnotic swingtime crescendos, inexorably-layered towers of distorted clarion sound: STATE’S END encapsulates every beloved facet of the band. Twenty-five years on, this new album is as vital, stirring, timely and implacable as any in Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s storied discography. Recorded and mixed by Jace Lasek, the veteran award-winning indie producer (and co-founder of The Besnard Lakes) who works with Godspeed for the first time on this recording.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: There’s a lot to be stressed about isn’t there? The ongoing climate crisis, an unprecedented pandemic and a worrying spate of governmental and social trends all coalescing into a time of undeniable reflection. It seems like GYBE would fit right in then, with cars on fire (and the lack of drivers therein) and the suchlike being canonically, their bag.

It might come as a surprise then, that while the classic themes of corruption, capitalism and greed are sewn into the fabric of this Canadian dectet, the accompanying music in this case is (to these ears), wilfully jubilant.

You’ll have to bear with me on the track titles, because much like the actual titles of confirmed ‘Best Album In The World’ (Barry, 2000 - present), ‘Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven’, the tracks here are broken down into their constituent parts, and named individually, and sequentially.

We kick things off with the first side of the 12” for you vinyl folk or what I believe they call ‘Track One’ for the CD crowd. ‘A Military Alphabet…’ begins with the newly fired up shortwave radios (for any of you that don’t listen to Set Fire To Flames a lot / at all, a brilliantly immersive and perfectly transportive collage of found sound and radio hiss), and slowly morphs into a similarly textural swell of strings and slowly trembled guitar. It’s really very reminiscent of the growing militaristic stomp of ’09-15-00’, the introductory piece from their last LP before their long Hiatus, ‘Yanqui U.X.O’, and is an undeniably necessary dipping of the toes before the full-spectrum swell and spine-tingling weight of the rest of the piece kicks in. It’s on the final movement of this 20-minute opus that carries all of the weight of the previous, bringing with an almost unbelievable levity. It’s an ode to a lost world, and a mournful but resigned grasp at the vestiges of a crumbling society.

‘Fire At Static Valley’ (the first piece from the 10”, or ‘Track 2’) is a shimmering, minor-key walk through the crumbling ruins, with tenderly strummed guitars and the ever-present strings both pulled and plucked, lending a sense of airy ambience and momentum to the rumbling bass boom, and culminating in a nigh-dissonant treble-heavy scree. It’s beautiful and mournful in equal measure, perfectly offsetting the uncharacteristic jubilance of the opener’s final movement before beginning our next selection of radio chatter and crackling hiss.

‘Government Came’ begins once again with the whirring crackle and oscillating drone of shortwave radios before a towering bass boom rises from the riotous audio throng. This is soon joined by a noticeably majestic sounding distorted guitar and monolithic percussive swells, drenched in reverb and delay, and alternating between barely noticeable melody and barely noticeable anything else. It’s not long before this characteristic unease lifts into a cathartic and intoxicating melodic counterpoint, rising into what is possibly the thickest wall of sound I’ve ever heard from them (and I’ve heard a LOT), and ending in organic panned sweeps of breathy instrumentation (didgeridoo?), and meandering guitar.

We end with the stunning ‘Our Side Has To Win (For D.H)’, an undeniably atmospheric number, rich with incidental harmonics and a perfectly balanced suggestion of exultation and resignation. Slow chord changes gently growing over a background of flickering strings and shimmering pizzicato.

It’s an album that takes their rightful anger of the early years, their moments of latent melodicism and tentative unease and brings them into one entirely cohesive and triumphantly essential album. A stunning, devastating return for one of the greatest bands of all time.

TRACK LISTING

12a [20:22] A Military Alphabet (five Eyes All Blind) (4521.0kHz 6730.0kHz 4109.09kHz) / Job’s Lament / First Of The Last Glaciers / Where We Break How We Shine (ROCKETS FOR MARY)
12b [19:48] “GOVERNMENT CAME” (9980.0kHz 3617.1kHz 4521.0 KHz) / Cliffs Gaze / Cliffs’ Gaze At Empty Waters’ Rise / ASHES TO SEA Or NEARER TO THEE


10a [5:58] Fire At Static Valley
10b [6:30] OUR SIDE HAS TO WIN (for D.H.)

Tune-Yards announces details of their fifth studio album, sketchy. The 11-track record, which includes last year’s single ‘nowhere, man’, will be released on 26 March 2021, on 4AD.

Tune-Yards’ last release I can feel you creep into my private life, was a self-reflexive question mark at the end of a decade of outspoken, polyphonic indie music. From 2009 to 2018, Tune-Yards (both Merrill and her partner and collaborator Nate Brenner) released four critically acclaimed albums, travelled the world relentlessly to play live shows, and composed the psychedelic score to Boots Riley's surrealist cinematic masterpiece Sorry To Bother You. "We had really been non-stop hustling," Merrill reflects. "And when we're hustling, we're complicit in all of the systems that I really don't believe in."

Interrogating these systems and her role within them had left Merrill feeling heavy with grief and lost about how to move forward. The duo pressed on, inspired by the Beastie Boys Book and Questlove’s Creative Quest, and began jamming daily for hours in their home rehearsal studio “like athletes”. They ditched computer screens for live instruments (Merrill on drums, Nate on bass) and before long full songs started to emerge.

Unlike the lyrical introspection of previous outing I can feel you..., on sketchy. Merrill balances self-inspection and reflection with bombastic rallying cries, reminiscent of the furious tones of early days Tune-Yards. The result is a colourful and joyous record with lyrics that cut to the bone. "I started remembering that people come to us to be entertained, to move, to feel joy. And together, I think, we can wake up.”

STAFF COMMENTS

says: 'Sketchy' brings the Tune Yards sound forward with a heavy af distillation of the restrained groove of their recent output, and the youthful exuberance of their early years, resulting in a wildly satisfying and rousing musical war cry. A brilliantly written and hugely varied gem.

TRACK LISTING

Nowhere, Man
Make It Right.
Hypnotized
Homewrecker
Silence Pt. 1 (when We Say “we”)
Silence Pt. 2 (who Is “we”?)
Hold Yourself.
Sometime
Under Your Lip
My Neighbor
Be Not Afraid.

With no touring in 2020, and possibly this year, Woods decided to take a deep dive into their archives and put together the first volume of their much discussed archival series, Reflections. Featuring rare and unreleased recordings from 2009 - 2013, including a ghost town desert jam off the side of the highway, their first live performance in Big Sur, the first recorded version of “Bend Beyond” and some shelved diamonds in the rough that were finished up during quarantine. Their hope is that it plays like a “lost record” from an extremely strange and fruitful period in Woods history.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: It's always a testament to the strength of a band's output when they can release a compilation of previously unhears recordings and have them be every bit as good as the ones comercially released. This is definitely the case with 'Reflections..' and brilliantly highlights the depth of talent and wealth of skill Woods have. Superb.

TRACK LISTING

1. Bumble Bee Crown King
2. Midnight Moment
3. Be Kind My Love
4. Skull
5. Party In The Pines
6. Space And Time
7. Ballad Of Jim Jones
8. Bend Beyond (First Version)

Not unlike the supernatural deities from which they take their name, DJINN - the Swedish collective featuring members of Hills and GOAT in their ranks - have proven themselves a potent and mysterious force. Their first release for Rocket Recordings was a portrait of open-minded explorers foraying into the realms of free and cosmic jazz, but never overly reverential or in thrall to their own influences.

Following the ‘Avant De Servir’ tape which was released on Swedish label Zeon Light last year, ‘Transmission’ is a still more intrepid step into new terrain for DJINN - the mantric rhythms are hypnotic here, the freeform extrapolations hit new peaks of vivid abandon, and the moments of calm are blissfully meditative. Yet their sound palette extends into refreshing collisions of intent and metaphysical intensity that echo across the psychic landscapes of Sunburned Hand Of The Man-style freak-folk, as well as the polylingual fusion of jazz, European and Asian music that Don Cherry essayed on 1969’s ‘Eternal Rhythm’ and 1973’s ‘Organic Music Society’.

Amidst these intoxicating and richly eclectic soundworlds, the band are just as comfortable invoking Popol Vuh (as on the mellotronabetted title track) Art Ensemble Of Chicago and the lineage of Swedish underground music that found epiphanies in the radical folk-psych of Arbete Och Fritid whilst also sounding - crucially - like no-one but themselves.

For all the far-reaching explorations of altered states by which DJINN set out their stall, this collection of mystical headspaces - in all its fearless and feral glory - is proof positive that the band’s journey has only just begun. This transmission is set to ring out across dimensions unknown.

The album, which is ltd to 400 copies on colour vinyl comes with a download code that also contains as a bonus their 2020 ‘Avant De Servir EP’ that was originally released on cassette via Swedish label Zeon Light.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: A heady and intoxicating mix of wandering percussion, jazzy groove and psychedelic arm-waving trippery, 'Transmisision' provides the perfect laid-back counterpoint to bands like like Goat or Altin Gun, with the free-flowing improvisational meandering perfectly offsetting the more standard psychey business. A brilliantly enjoyable journey.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sun Ooze
2. Creator Of Creation
3. Transmission
4. Nights With Kurupi
5. Jaguar
6. Urm The Mad
7. Love Divine
8. Orpheus

On her second full-length record, Head of Roses, Jenn Wasner follows a winding thread of intuition into the unknown and into healing, led by gut feelings and the near-spiritual experience of visceral songwriting. The result is a combination of Wasner’s ability to embrace new levels of vulnerability, honesty and openness, with the self-assuredness that comes with a decade-plus career as a songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist and prolific collaborator.  Simply put, Head of Roses is a record about heartbreak, but from a dualistic perspective. It’s about the experience of having one’s heart broken and breaking someone else’s heart at the same time. But beyond that, it’s about having to reconcile the experience of one’s own pain with the understanding that it’s impossible to go through life without being the source of great pain for someone else.

“Part of the journey for me has been learning to take responsibility for the parts of things that are mine, even when I’m in a lot of pain through some behavior or action of someone else. If I’m expecting to be forgiven for the things I’ve done and the choices I’ve made and the mistakes that I’ve made, it would be incredibly cowardly and hypocritical to not also do the work that’s required to forgive others the pain they caused me.” Showcasing the depth of Wasner’s songwriting capabilities and the complexity of her vision, Head of Roses calls upon her singular ability to create a fully-formed sonic universe via genre-bending amalgamation of songs and her poetic and gut punch lyrics. It’s the soundtrack of Wasner letting go – of control, of heartbreak, and of hiding who she is: “I think I’ve finally reached a point in my career where I feel comfortable enough with myself and what I do, that I’m able to relax into a certain simplicity or straight forwardness that I wasn’t comfortable with before.” Head of Roses puts Wasner’s seismically powerful voice front and center. Those vocals help thread it all together -- it’s a textured musicality, quilted together by intentionality and intuition. Wasner and producer Nick Sanborn (Sylvan Esso, Made of Oak) assembled Head of Roses in the same way you’d put together a mixtape, painstakingly and carefully melding disparate parts into a whole, transcending genre to weave a story of heartache and healing together.

And in the same way a homemade, painstakingly-crafted mixtape plays out, with the maker’s fingerprints left all over its songs – so goes Head of Roses. Carefully curated and culled from the depths of Wasner’s heartbreak and healing, it’s deeply, intensely personal. But just as we change ourselves by embracing the pain of loss and uncertainty, so too are the purpose of these songs changed through the act of creating them. Having succeeded in healing the person who made them, they now exist for those who find them in their own moments of need. Always in motion, the original spirit of creation has already flown from this place—but it’s left behind a blueprint, a tool for you, to lean on, too.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: Wasner's wonderfully evocative style of songwriting encompasses all of the melodicism and movement in her partnership with Any Stack for Wye Oak, but with a superb audible palette of influence seeping into the sound. Echoes of 80's synth and classic rock mix with soaring guitars and funky rolling bass. A wonderful triumph, and most importantly a great listen.

TRACK LISTING

1. 2 Heads
2. Price Of Blue
3. Two
4. Hard Way
5. Walking
6. Lightning
7. One More Hour
8. No Question
9. Awake For The Sunrise
10. Head Of Roses

Following a series of records with Thrill Jockey (including the sensational Seasonal Hire with Steve Gunn), the Black Twig Pickers return to the VHF mothership to continue their charming and original take on old time and Appalachianinspired string band sounds. Together since 2001, and a continuous presence in the music’s true home of Southwest Virginia, the Twigs represent the actively working evolution of the traditions—learning songs from other locals, playing dances at the Floyd Country Store, etc—without retroartifice or nostalgia.

The ragged-but-right performances and recording (and Sally Ann Morgan’s perfect cover design) sit at the ideal intersection of DIY / “underground” and local string-sound values. On Friend’s Peace, the band travels a range of styles, from the lovely harmony on the trad-classic “Moonshiner” to the racing fiddle / guitar / banjo on the “Money Musk” medley. Mixed in with the traditional songs are several perfectly-placed original tunes, including Mike Gangloff’s keening “Cara’s Waltz” and Isak Howell’s solo guitar spotlight on “Barnswallow.”

STAFF COMMENTS

says: Grand strings, plucked banjo and soaring vocal harmonies coalesce over traditional country ballads and southern folk songs, presenting a dynamic but comfortably familiar sound.

TRACK LISTING

1. Moonshiner
2. Money Musk/Icy Mountain/Tommy Hawk
3. Cara's Waltz
4. Sheets Of Rain, Streams Of Sun
5. Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone?
6. Roan Mountain Sally Ann
7. Knight On The Road
8. Barnswallow
9. St. Valentine's
10. March Elliston Joy
11. Dan Friend's Piece

Political punk rock legend returns with a much needed current situation skewering. First release in six years! Features supergroup of members of UK Subs, The Mob, Victims Family, Triclops and more!

Hot on the heels of five viral video singles, Tea Party Revenge Porn, the first full album since 2014 by Jello Biafra And The Guantanamo School Of Medicine, is finally here! This is very strong stuff. Hear the inimitable Mr. B skewer the place the country has put itself in like no one else would or could as he and The Guantanamo School Of Medicine capture the full power of their live shows on disc as never
before.

Only so many artists have a track record of lyrics this good, and back it up with music as good or better. It’s usually one of the other, but rarely this fierce, thanks to the wall of sound production of the mysterious Marshall Lawless, with Kurt Schlegel at the board this time. Co-conspirators now feature both string-titans of longtime AT mainstay Victims Family: guitarist Ralph Spight (also Freak Accident) and wonder bassist Larry Boothroyd (also Triclops, Brubaker); plus drummer / metal percussionist Jason Willer (UK Subs, Nik Turner, Charger, The Mob).

So as germs and police riots rage, there’s no better primal scream therapy than a long-awaited new Jello Biafra album. From Dead Kennedys to Lard to the now-classic albums with the Melvins, DOA, NoMeansNo, Mojo Nixon; and of course, The Guantanamo School Of Medicine, Tea Party Revenge Porn is right up there with all of it.

TRACK LISTING

1. Satan’s Combover
2. People With Too Much Time
On Their Hands
3. A Boring Day Is What I Need
4. We Created Putin
5. The Ghost Of Vince Lombardi
6. No More Selfies
7. The Last Big Gulp
8. Taliban USA
9. Let’s Go Stare At Bloody Dead People
10. Tea Party Revenge Porn

Diane Cluck co-produced her eighth album alongside multi-instrumentalist Colin Killalea. “It’s the first album I’ve recorded in my adopted hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia, and I let sounds of the region influence its making and bend my songwriting. I wanted to collaborate, and to focus on deep emotion including golden-yellow joyful. I wanted to make an album that honored my family and could resonate with young and old.” Spaciously arranged instrumentation highlights the strength of Diane’s lyricism and signature vocal style, described by NPR as “turning a pitch wheel with one hand and a tone knob with the other.” The album features an array of accompanying musicians including longtime collaborator Isabel Castellvi on cello, John D’earth on flugelhorn, Michelle Oliva on bass clarinet, John Ashley Murphy on harmonica, Brian Caputo on drums and Curtis Fye on bass. Diane and co-producer Colin Killalea each play piano, guitar, drums and percussion. Common Wealth deftly weaves disparate elements of old-time music, classical, folk, jazz improvisation and church hymn into something uniquely vibrant.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Power Of Allowing And Receiving
2. Float A Cuppa Tea
3. Jenny
4. To Love You This Much
5. Mama, Mom
6. Grandma Say
7. Red August
8. Pull Out The Bad Bone
9. The Smile
10. Lie Quiet With Me
11. Learn To Lose
12. Peace (hymn Adaptation)

The shadow that Gary Bartz casts over the last six decades of progressive Black music, and his continued dedication to same, makes him a logical and very welcome contributor to the Jazz Is Dead label. An alto saxophonist steeped in the history and tradition of his instrument who is also restlessly experimental and not prone to purism of any kind, he enjoys both the respect and admiration of his peers and the hero worship of several generations after him – including Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad, which inevitably led to Gary Bartz JID 006.

A look at his body of work reveals dalliances with bebop, hard bop, free jazz, spiritual jazz, soul jazz, jazz-funk, fusion and acid jazz, all while resolutely remaining unmistakably Gary Bartz. There's early work with Eric Dolphy and McCoy Tyner in Charles Mingus' Jazz Workshop, work with Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln, a stint in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, and also one with Miles. There's his groundbreaking and highly influential Ntu Troop albums of the early ‘70s and his jazz-funk work including two classic albums with the Mizell Brothers, one of which supplied A Tribe Called Quest with a sample that was smooth like butter. And while on the subject of samples, the Bartz catalog has provided hip-hop and other genres with a rich source of them, and artists who have gone to his well when producing beats also include Black Sheep, Jurassic 5, Casual, RPM, Warren G, Photek, Statik Selektah, Chi-Ali, 3rd Bass, Showbiz, ZTrip, Young Disciples, and many others.

The socio-political content of much of Bartz’s work, particularly during the early ‘70s, is another factor that has captured the attention of and influenced many. He was wide awake to the pressing issues of his day, which sadly haven't changed much in a half-century—long before the term "woke" was ever coined—which adds continued relevance and resonance to albums like the two Harlem Bush Music LPs. Speaking his mind and expressing thoughts and feelings lyrically and vocally were a consistent aspect of his work during this era, but even with all this there's always still a space within Gary's oeuvre for the celebration of simple and beautiful basic truths. “Working with Gary Bartz epitomizes the ethos behind Jazz Is Dead,” says Younge. “He’s a luminary that has contributed so much to music culture, for decades. His musical ability is expanding with age and we’re honored to be a part of his world.”

"Day By Day" brings Bartz full circle by placing him in a more modern context which he contributed to creating in the first place. It takes certain sonic cues from Muhammad's old group, A Tribe Called Quest, while also calling to mind neo-soul a little bit. But the icing on the cake is the unexpected and gorgeous vocal chorus which is like the sun coming out and which once again harks back to an element familiar to Mizell fans. With its propulsive bassline steadily prodding the track along, "The Message" is strongly rooted in classic ‘70s modal jazz and serves as the spiritual and emotional centerpiece of the album. The instrumental interplay and textures would have been perfectly at home on the Black Jazz label even though there's also a certain almost intangible postmodern, 21st century approach to that style, perfectly in keeping with Bartz's well-known tendency to look forward, not backwards.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Spiritual Ideation
A2. Visions Of Love
A3. Black & Brown
A4. Blue Jungles
B1. Day By Day
B2. Distant Mode
B3. The Message
B4. Soulsea

Who is Harvey Couture? Some say he’s a survivor of French pop music’s sun-soaked synth-pop era of the early 1980s, others that he’s a more suave and stylish Serge Gainsbourg for the nu-Balearic era. There were even rumours circulating that he’s a musical mobster from the Cote D’Azure: a shadowy member of the mafia who deals in synths, drum machines and fretless bass guitars rather than guns, money and drugs.

In truth, not even Leng Records knows much about the man behind the moniker, though his vividly kaleidoscopic, retro-futurist debut album, Scellé En Cristal, does offer a number of crafty clues. Whether listeners will make the necessary deductions to solve the mystery remains to be seen; regardless, it’s the music that matters, and on that score Scellé En Cristal simply cannot be faulted.

Rich in humid, afternoon-bright musical delights, the set sees our publicity-shy hero mix and mangle a multitude of musical influences – think proto-Balearic European synth-pop, Prince style purple funk, immersive ambient, early INXS style synth-rock, the electronic end of zouk and much more besides – with constantly colourful and imaginative results.

Couture is most at home adding his variously seductive, sexy and sleazy vocals to bubbly, upbeat and mid-tempo numbers that combine delay-laden drum machine beats with surging synths, fluid bass, stylish guitars, lashings of leftfield pop nouse and plenty of tongue-in-cheek Gallic flair.

For proof, check the throbbing, off-kilter alien-funk throb of ‘Les Portes De La Perception’, the bustling, percussion-laden cheeriness of ‘Crème Solaire’ and the loose-limbed, toe-tapping brilliance of ‘Je Ne Peux Pas’, where chiming, steel pan style melodies and pots-and-pans percussion hits jostle for position with sliding fretless bass notes and flash-fried guitars. Check to ‘Passion’, a swaggering slab of bustling electrofunk/synth-rock fusion rich in ‘Rockit’-style scratches and restless synth-bass.

The influence of languid, sunset-ready European pop records of the 1980s – those cuts that would later become sought-after amongst dusty-fingered collectors of Mediterranean music – is another recurring feature of Couture’s cultured but joyous debut album. It can be heard amongst the drowsy guitars, yawning bass and tumbling lead lines of ‘Look Within’, the pleasingly laidback ‘Invincible Line’, the elastic bass, fluorescent synth sounds and stuttering machine drums of ‘Marche’.

Yet Couture is no one-trick pony. Horizontal and loved-up moments of a more downtempo hue can be found scattered across the album, with the enveloping ambient awe of ‘Les Portes’ – all swelling chords, gentle melodies and atmospheric field recordings – and slowly unfurling ‘Whale Song’ both lingering long in the memory.

Harvey Couture may not be ready to step out of the shadows just yet, but his music most certainly is. We have a feeling that Scellé En Cristal is just the start of the mystery monsieur’s musical journey. 

TRACK LISTING

A1. Marche
A2. She Won't Answer My Calls
B1. Invisible Line
B2. Les Portes
B3. Les Portes De La Perception
C1. Je Ne Peux Pas
C2. Look Within
C3. Passion
D1. Creme Solaire
D2. Whale Song

With an Arturo Micro brute synthesizer put through psychedelic effects, Modern Ruins keeps the flame of Andrew Weatherall and Suicide burning through times of isolation and disarray. This Synth Wave/New Wave experience of an album, released on LP on Höga Nord Rekords, sums up 2020 with its dark and cold sound.

The title speaks for itself: “Unemployment Disco Line” reflects the desperation in the sound and the reverb-drenched vocals in the back of the soundscape comes from deep within the Covid hole. Sick, fed up and restless!

Drawing influences from masters like the legends above,Rowland S. Howard, Johan Balance + Peter Christopherson et cetera, this debut album by Modern Ruins sums up four decades of underground club music and no matter how long this pandemic goes on we are in “Nothing Blues” until the dance floors open again.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Hold
A2. Tense Soup
A3. Monkey
A4. No Place
B1. Cement Dust
B2. Nothing Blues
B3. Permanent Vacation
B4. Success

A new philosophy as time enters a radical history of our evolution. Being and nothingness in one, creatures of habit, the angels of nature, we can herald a new humanity.

DJN4 enters in homage. Optimus Yarnspinner. Edification through music bends, but does not break the untameable lost voices. This dissolution of ego, where culture exemplifies the principle of innovation through excess, the nocturnal brain sees only what it seeks.

The order of time is more than a conspiracy of the people, this enforced interlude does not mean culture's end. Our culture, music's culture, acts as a genome, a graffiti of society.

The psy, the rave, the sounds, the species, the food of the gods. Alpha Juno, Cyclon 303, mutable instruments and ideas collated, N4's modern mysticism to harness the Earth as a being of sound. This occult features an anarchism, offering us a collective immortality, allowing us, showing us, how to be more humane.

Across eight tracks, our DJ weaves a journey to the inner and outer digi sphere, a two-year search, in to steppas, out of dub, evoking legitimate synthesis and sensibility. Look beyond Zamonia. The lost Chord. An alien dreamtime. Tales of Z.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: AIWO exciter and TAFKA DJ Normal 4 finishes his time in the penalty box and glides out onto the ice with an 8 track odyssey into misty breakbeat, pineal prog and key-gen techno. File next to Bufiman and those Phaserboys.

TRACK LISTING

A1. The Orm
A2. Volzotan's Phogarr
B1. Natiff
B2. X Capsule
C1. Mind Expander XS
C2. Pillowed Zamomine
D1. Bollognaise
D2. Laptantidel

German pop-powerhouse Nina invites us to do the time warp again, enlisting collaborators LAU, Ocsillian, Richard X, Ricky Wilde and Til Wild to help render her retro-ist masterpiece in neon and colour block. 

Sounding almost exactly like 1986, this LP offers ten perfect synthwave moments, ranging between propulsive pop, heartwrenching power ballads and New Wave groovers. Think Madonna circa "True Blue", The Boys Of Summer, AHA and Annie, Belinda Carlisle, or the Italians Do It Better world of Jonny Jewel for the more modern reader.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Synthian [Feat. LAU]
2. Automatic Call [Feat. LAU]
3. Runaway [Feat. LAU]
4. Unnoticed
5. The Calm Before The Storm [Feat. LAU]

SIDE B
6. The Wire [Feat. LAU]
7. Love Is Blind [Feat. LAU]
8. Never Enough [Feat. LAU]
9. Gave Up On Us [Feat. LAU]
10. The Distance [Feat. LAU]

CD-R

1.Synthian [Feat. LAU]
2. Automatic Call [Feat. LAU]
3. Runaway [Feat. LAU]
4. Unnoticed
5. The Calm Before The Storm [Feat. LAU]
6. The Wire [Feat. LAU]
7. Love Is Blind [Feat. LAU]
8. Never Enough [Feat. LAU]
9. Gave Up On Us [Feat. LAU]
10. The Distance [Feat. LAU] 

On her "Synthian" LP, German pop-powerhouse Nina invited us to do the time warp again, enlisting collaborators LAU, Ocsillian, Richard X, Ricky Wilde and Til Wild to help render her retro-ist masterpiece in neon and colour block.

Sounding almost exactly like 1986, this LP offered ten perfect synthwave moments, ranging between propulsive pop, heartwrenching power ballads and New Wave groovers. Here we get a pack of remixes of tracks from NINA's second album, Synthian (feat. LAU) featuring big players like Robert Parker, Das Mörtal Highway Superstar, Sung and Maethelvin as well as Aztec's very own Zenith Volt and Ends 84.

The opening track deserves special attention since it gets a very rocky treatment from Ricky Wilde and features the legendary Kim Wilde on additional vocals. 

TRACK LISTING

LP
SIDE A
1. The Wire (feat. Kim Wilde & LAU) [Ricky Wilde Remix]
2. Unnoticed [Robert Parker Remix]
3. Synthian (feat. LAU) [Das Mörtal Remix]
4. Synthian (feat. LAU) [Ends 84 Remix]

SIDE B
5. Synthian (feat. LAU) [Maethelvin Remix]
6. Synthian (feat. LAU) [Sung Remix]
7. Synthian (feat. LAU) [Highway Superstar Remix]
8. Synthian (feat. LAU) [Zenith Volt Remix]


CD-R
1. The Wire (feat. Kim Wilde & LAU) [Ricky Wilde Remix]
2. Unnoticed [Robert Parker Remix]
3. Synthian (feat. LAU) [Das Mörtal Remix]
4. Synthian (feat. LAU) [Ends 84 Remix]
5. Synthian (feat. LAU) [Maethelvin Remix]
6. Synthian (feat. LAU) [Sung Remix]
7. Synthian (feat. LAU) [Sung Remix]
8. Synthian (feat. LAU) [Zenith Volt Remix] 

GRAMMY-nominated band Cha Wa will return on April 2 with My People, a new collection that draws from the rich and vibrant street culture of New Orleans. Arriving via the renowned southern independent label Single Lock Records, My People exuberantly infuses contemporary sounds with the music of street parades and the Mardi Gras Indian community a group of Black New Orleanians who pay respect to Native American tribes their wardrobe, music and dialect. Packed with a vivid assemblage of New Orleans sounds and stories, this collection of new original songs draws from the grooves of ‘70s New Orleans funk bands like The Meters (particularly on offerings like “Wildman” and “Bow Down”) and takes clear influence from the city's history of Brass band music, jazz, R&B, hip-hop, rock, soul and African-inspired arrangements (including a chilling cover of Bob Dylan’s “Masters Of War” in this style).

Cha Wa was formed by bandleader Joe Gelini shortly before the release of the group’s 2018 debut album Spyboy, which was recognized with a Best Regional Roots Album nomination at the GRAMMYs that year. A student of the legendary New Orleans drummer Idris Muhammad, Gelini was taken by the city’s street culture along with the sounds of the Mardi Gras Indians and began to immerse himself in that world after moving to the area. Working with vocalist Joseph Boudreaux Jr, a lifelong member of those New Orleans musical circles, and many of the top musicians from the city's Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs and Second Line brass bands, Cha Wa quickly became a staple of that street culture before bringing their spin on Mardi Gras Indian music to the GRAMMYs and around the world. With roots dating back to the 19th century, Mardi Gras Indians are most commonly associated with internationally-known New Orleans celebrations like Fat Tuesday, but the tradition is said to have started as a way for the city’s Black community to express gratitude to Native Americans for giving shelter to New Orleanians fleeing enslavement. In more recent years, Mardi Gras Indians have displayed their role as community leaders with front line responses to both Hurricane Katrina and the unlawful NOPD conduct that resulted in investigations by the Obama administration.

“Mardi Gras Indian songs are inherently songs about freedom,” Gelini says. “That struggle is as relevant today as it’s ever been.”

TRACK LISTING

My People
Wildman
Bow Down
Morning Glory (Intro)
Morning Glory
Uptown
Firewater
Love In Your Heart
Second Line Girl
Masters Of War
Shallow Water

Pylon were born in 1979 in Athens, Georgia. Throughout their brief history they were able to create influential work that would help foster the post-punk and art-rock scene of the early 1980s. Their 1979 single ‘Cool’ / ‘Dub’ has reached legendary status, with Rolling Stone calling it one of the 100 Greatest Debut Singles Of All Time and was followed by their albums ‘Gyrate’ (1980) and ‘Chomp’ (1983). The band would break up upon ‘Chomp’’s arrival but their music would continue to influence genres, musicians and fans for years to come.

New West Records are proud to present ‘Pylon Box’, a comprehensive look at the band that includes their studio albums ‘Gyrate’ and ‘Chomp’, both of which have been remastered from their original tapes, the 11-song collection ‘Extra’, which features rarities and previously unreleased studio and live recordings and ‘Razz Tape’, Pylon’s first-ever recording: a 13-song unreleased session that pre-dates the band’s seminal ‘Cool’ / ‘Dub’ debut.

‘Pylon Box’ also includes a hardbound, 216-page full colour book featuring pieces written by the members of R.E.M., Gang of Four, Steve Albini, Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney, Sonic Youth, Interpol, B-52’s, Bradford Cox of Deerhunter, Mission of Burma, Calvin Johnson of Beat Happening and K Records, Anthony DeCurtis, Chris Stamey of the dB’s, Steve Wynn of the Dream Syndicate and many more. It also features never before seen images and artifacts from the band’s personal archives as well as items now housed at the Special Collections Library at the University of Georgia and the Georgia Museum of Art, UGA.

TRACK LISTING

‘Gyrate’
Volume
Feast On My Heart
Precaution
Weather Radio
The Human Body
Read A Book
Driving School
Gravity Danger
Working Is No Problem
Stop It

‘Chomp’
K
Yo-Yo
Beep
Italian Movie Theme
Crazy
M-Train
Buzz
No Clocks
Reptiles
Spider
Gyrate
Altitude

‘Extra’
Untitled
Cool
Dub
Recent Title
Danger!! (Danger Remix)
Crazy (Single Mix)
Reptiles (Channel One Version)
No Clocks (Channel One Version)
Spider (Alternative Mix)
3 X 3 (Live)
Danger III (Live)

‘Razz Tape’
The Human Body
Modern Day Fashion Woman (Version 1)
Read A Book (Instrumental)
Working Is No Problem
Precaution
Cool
Functionality
Efficiency
Information
Dub
Modern Day Fashion Woman (Version 2)
Danger
Feast On My Heart (Working Version)

‘Conflict’ is an album on inviting peace in from pianist, producer and composer John Carroll Kirby.

Intended as a balm for this time of crisis, ‘Conflict’ aims to provide a welcome opportunity to step away from the breakneck pace and profound anxiety of the news cycle and take a moment instead to listen and reflect.

John Carroll Kirby follows up his Stones Throw debut ‘My Garden’ with this soothing collection of ambient pieces for piano.

For fans of Nils Frahm, Max Richter, Ólafur Arnalds, Brambles, Jóhann Jóhannsson, William Basinski, Peter Broderick, Rafael Anton Irisarri.

TRACK LISTING

A Pilgrims Trail
Anthony Joshua In My House (Anthony Joshua At Home)
Walking Through A House Where A Family Has Lived
Iconic Portraits Mutilated During The Spanish Civil War
Who Will Replace Brandon Lee
Canyon (Waiting Alive In A Canyon)
Inside A Ruin
Wabi

Luca Yupanqui was not yet born when she recorded her debut album. The music on the aptly titled Sounds of the Unborn out April 2 on Sacred Bones, is the expression of life in its cosmic state — pre-mind, pre-speculation, pre-influence, and pre-human. It is the first album created by a person while they were still inside the womb, the expression of a soul that hasn’t yet seen the light of day nor taken a single breath of air. It is a message that comes from a different realm, a sublayer of our existence.

Sounds of the Unborn was made with biosonic MIDI technology, which translated Luca’s in utero movements into sound. With the help of her parents, Psychic Ills bassist Elizabeth Hart and Lee Scratch Perry collaborator Iván Diaz Mathé, Luca’s prenatal essence was captured in audio. They designed a ritual, a kind of joint meditation for the three of them, with the MIDI devices hooked to Elizabeth’s stomach, transcribing its vibrations into Iván’s synthesizers. They let the free-form meditations flow without much interference, just falling deeper into trance and feeling the unity. After five hour-long sessions, the shape of an album began to emerge.

Elizabeth and Iván then edited and mixed the results of the sessions, respecting the sounds as they were produced, trying to intervene as little as possible, allowing Luca’s message to exist in its raw form.

This cosmic soul summoning created new sounds, striking into uncharted territory for Elizabeth and Iván as musicians. A new language was being created, a new form of communication. It was a music without intellect or intentionality behind it, with no preconception or attempt to create any specific sound or melody. Every note on Sounds of the Unborn occurred naturally.

It is human nature to wonder what life is like inside another human being’s consciousness. How does it feel? What does it sound like? All these questions became stronger and more important to Elizabeth and Iván while they were waiting for Luca to come into the world. At a certain point the questions turned into, What would she say if she could speak? How would she react to the outer world? And ultimately, What kind of music would she play if she was able to? This album is an attempt to answer those questions.

Elizabeth and Iván mixed the album in 2020. Luca, now an infant, sat in the studio with them while they worked. Her awareness of what was happening was astounding. She would open her eyes wide and stare at her parents, seemingly recognizing her own sounds from the womb, knowing that they were revisiting those rituals that made them come together as one. Those mixing sessions were technically the first time Luca had heard her own music, but her reaction made it clear that that wasn’t really the case — she had already lived it.

TRACK LISTING

1. V5
2.V4.3 Pt.2
3.V2.1
4.V2.2
5.V3.2
6.V4.2
7.V4.1
8.V1
9.V3.1
10.V4.3 Pt.1

Following on from the success of ‘Greg Belson’s Divine Disco’ series Greg Belson and Cultures of Soul team up again to explore the world of Gospel Funk. Belson is one of the world's leading collectors and DJs of gospel music. You hold in your hands a collection of some of the rarest Gospel funk records from Belson’s amazing collection featuring everything from the laid back breakbeat laced “I Don’t Want to Be Alone" by Allen Gauff Jr to the high octane and socially-on-point take of the Gospel classic ‘This Little Light Of Mine’ by the Gospel Ambassadors to drum break funk of the Wearyland Singers ‘If You See Me Doing Wrong” to the sublime soulfulness of Zella Jackson’s “Days Are Just Like People." Without a doubt though, all of the artists included in this compilation, believed in themselves, the message, and the direction of the Gospel Funk intensity you hear within these grooves. Gettin’ on the Good Foot for God? Listen and decide for yourselves!

TRACK LISTING

A1. The Chariettes Gospel Singers - Nobody But Jesus
A2. Allen Gauff Jr - I Don't Want To Be Alone
A3. The Christian Harmonizers - Troubles Of The World
A4. The Wearyland Singers - If You See Me Doing Wrong
A5. Gospel Travelers - Jesus Is Watching You
A6. Pearl Farano And The High Lites Of Joy - Who's Your Boss
B1. Gospel Ambassadors - This Little Light Of Mine
B2. Vocal Aires - Save A Seat For Me
B3. Birmingham Travelers - Call Me Answer (feat. Henry Burton)
B4. Zella Jackson - Days Are Just Like People
B5. The Original Christian Harmonizers - Blackman Keep Doing Your Thing
B6. Preacherman Isadore Womack - I’ve Got Power In My Mind 

You can't help thinking that everyone involved in this project was very, very pleased. For Sam Shepherd - graduate of Chethams School of Music - and a modern day dance music luminary, to play with one of the old school jazz greats, and perhaps the greatest saxophonists still alive, Pharoah Sanders must have surely caused untold sleepless nights of excitement. For Pharoah Sanders equally - to be brought back into service by a current musical stalwart, inflecting his timeless musical utterances onto a whole new generation of listeners, from jazz camps and beyond - another late honour for a lifetime of servitude to jazz.

Let's not forget London Symphony Orchestra either; who must have literally guffawed with astonishment when they were drafted in for the occasion - two musicians at the very top of their game spanning over 50 years of heritage is a badge of honour no-one can ever take away from you.

And so it is that you can almost feel the privilege and magic of the occasion within the first couple of languid, laid back, drumless tracks. Sanders' sax recorded close to the mouth so as to capture every last breath of personality as he meanders over a rather neo-spiritual-jazz soundbed crafted by Floating Points dazzling array of synths and keys. A proud owner of the Arp Oddessy 2600, he utilizes the instrument with his own virtuistic method; just as all the players approach their own personal instruments.

After spending much of side A in a celestial, horizontal slumber it's clear by side B's autumnal opening movement that the pace isn't going to increase in a hurry. Taking us through highly intimate orchestral passages and back to Sanders' expressive sax, Floating Points plays a supportive and directive role; guiding these musical dreams and spiritual jazz musings through subtle cues and atmospheric changes.

It's an ambitious project that could have failed miserably; cursed by over-excitable or worse still, conflicting egos. Instead there's an air of compassion, delicacy and sympathy to each and everyone involved - resulting in a completely uncluttered and rather quite outstanding body of music which does none of the artists involved a disservice - rather lifts their careers into new and pioneering realms.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: A beautiful orchestral piece that while both resplendent with FP's and PS's wonderful idiosyncrasies; recalls the gorgeous depth of Prefab Sprout's "I Trawl The Megahertz" but without the vocal parts! Epic!

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. Promises (Movement 1) (1:16)
2. Promises (Movement 2) (3:56)
3. Promises (Movement 3) (3:16)
4. Promises (Movement 4) (3:39)
5. Promises (Movement 5) (6:06)
Side 2
1. Promises (Movement 6) (8:25)
2. Promises (Movement 7) (3:26)
3. Promises (Movement 8) (9:57)
4. Promises (Movement 9) (5:43)

Produced alongside Aaron Dessner (The National, Sharon Van Etten, Taylor Swift), Collections From The Whiteout heralds the first time Ben has opened the door to production outside of he and his bands closer confines. The foreboding darkness that coated Ben’s second record I Forget Where We Were and thinly veiled its follow up Noonday Dream, isn’t so evident on Collections.. These are songs written from headlines scanned, or news stories scrolled past. Ben has taken those snippets and let his curiosity take control, creating an aural scrapbook that reverberates with tape loops and guitar FXs.

There are sounds akin to Brian Eno, Durutti Column and Steve Reich in there, but also Neil Young and Townes Van Zandt. It’s a million miles away from Ben’s multi-platinum selling debut, but a path plotted from Ben’s then to his now isn’t so far removed. The door was also left open to some new players too. Yussef Dayes, one of the UK’s most innovative young drummer/producer’ especially in the field of jazz features, as does Kate Stables from This Is The Kit, James Krivchenia from Big Thief, Kyle Keegan from Hiss Golden Messenger, and the aforementioned Aaron Dessner lent his hand too where needed. Long-term guitarist to Ben’s band, Mickey Smith, remains a reassuring presence. Rob Moose, a long-standing arranger of strings for Bon Iver and a collaborator to Laura Marling, Blake Mills, and Phoebe Bridgers is also present, peppering the mix.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: Ben Howard gives us his latest LP, full of brittle folky guitars and subtle percussive drive, all topped with his unmistakeable vocal drawl. More of a pensive affair than 2018's 'Noonday Dream', this is a beautifully composed and perfectly balanced juxtaposition of gloom and hope.

The name of this album is La Vita Olistica. La Vita Olistica is a film written by and starring The Orielles coming in 2021. This is the soundtrack.

We'd always shared an interest in writing music for film and so used lockdown as an opportunity to rewrite Disco Volador into a continuous score, which is what birthed the idea of La Vita Olistica.

Artwork by Raissa Pardini.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: Eschewing the more dancefloor-ready elements of last years' 'Disco Volador', the Orielles return with the lysergic smudged atmospheres and hazy psychedelic groove of 'La Vita Olistica'. A brilliantly immersive and impeccably performed outing from a band showing their wide range of influence, as well as their deftness crafting those influences into something new and exciting.

Performed across two nights at the Royal Dramatic Theater in Stockholm in March of 2017, the 20-track recording is a theatrical staging of Leonard Cohen’s songs, poems, and letters. Conceived and anchored by First Aid Kit, the Swedish sister duo were joined by an array of fellow Swedish guest artists, an 8 person band & strings, and two actors, as well as a 20+ person choir on two of the songs. 

Klara and Johanna, longtime fans and greatly inspired by Leonard Cohen, were deeply saddened by his passing in November of 2016. At the time, First Aid Kit shared: "… If you ever put a guitar in our hands and ask us to sing, we will always play ‘Suzanne.’ When we heard it for the first time we were transfixed. ‘How does one do that?’ we thought. ‘How does one write like that?’ One doesn't, we suppose, only Leonard Cohen does… In the midst of this deep sadness, we are so intensely grateful... [His art] has been a guiding light for us for these past ten years since we started making music, both a consolation and an arrow pointing at where to strive…”

Speaking today about Who By Fire, the Söderberg sisters say: "We recently listened back to this concert and realized that this was something out of the ordinary for us. It was a challenge to create a performance that wasn't centered around First Aid Kit songs. It was something we'd never done before, but everything came together so well. Dwelling deeply into Cohen's world was a pleasure, he was so prolific as both a poet and a songwriter, and everything he ever put out held a very strong standard. He cared immensely for his work. The band, the guest artists, the atmosphere on stage...everyone had a great passion and it felt magical. This is definitely a record that is best enjoyed listening to back-to-back with no interruptions. Allow yourself to just disappear into Cohen's world for a little while.

We decided not to edit any of the performances. The flaws are part of the live experience. In a time when you sadly can't go to an actual physical live show, you can listen to this and imagine you were there..."

STAFF COMMENTS

says: A wonderfully heartfelt tribute to Cohen, a superb selection of guests, and an unsuprisingly warm folky hue that we've come to expect from the Söderberg sisters. Really lovely stuff.

TRACK LISTING

1. Tired (First Aid Kit, Nina Zanjani, Maia Hansson-Bergqvist)
2. Suzanne (First Aid Kit)
3. Sisters Of Mercy (First Aid Kit, Nina Zanjani, Maia Hansson-Bergqvist)
4. Who By Fire / As The Mist Leaves No Scar (First Aid Kit, Nina Zanjani, Maia Hansson-Bergqvist)
5. Twelve O'Clock Chant (First Aid Kit, Nina Zanjani, Maia Hansson-Bergqvist)
6. Everybody Knows (Frida Hyvönen, First Aid Kit)
7. Avalanche (Loney Dear)
8. The Future (Maia Hansson-Bergqvist, First Aid Kit, Nina Zanjani)
9. Chelsea Hotel No.5 (Jesper Lindell, First Aid Kit)
10. You Want It Darker (First Aid Kit, Nina Zanjani, Maia Hansson-Bergqvist)
11. If It Be Your Will (First Aid Kit)
12. The Asthmatic (Nina Zanjani, Maia Hansson-Bergqvist, First Aid Kit)
13. Famous Blue Raincoat / Anthem (Maja Francis, First Aid Kit, Nina Zanjani)
14. Show Me The Place (Jesper Lindell, First Aid Kit)
15. Hallelujah (Annika Norlin, First Aid Kit)
16. Prayer For Messiah (Klara Söderberg)
17. Bird On The Wire (First Aid Kit )
18. Who By Fire (Reprise) / Letter To Marianne (First Aid Kit, Nina Zanjani, Maia Hansson-Bergqvist)
19. So Long Marianne (First Aid Kit, Frida Hyvönen, Loney Dear, Jesper Lindell, Annika Norlin, Maja Francis, Nina Zanjani, Maia Hansson-Bergqvist)
20. You'd Sing Too (Johanna Söderberg)

ASSEMBLY showcases carefully curated singles, fan favourites, and archival rarities from the JOE STRUMMER solo catalogue. This 16-track compilation features three previously unreleased versions of classic Clash tracks, including the never-before-heard "Junco Partner (Acoustic)" and electrifying live performances of "Rudie Can't Fail" and "I Fought The Law," the latter two of which were recorded by Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros at London's Brixton Academy on November 24, 2001.

George Harrison's passion for introducing the world to new music expressed itself in May of 1974 when he created his own new label - DARK HORSE RECORDS. The label contained a variety of talented artists on its roster, including George himself. ASSEMBLY marks the first new JOE STRUMMER title released via the newly relaunched Dark Horse Records.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: As one of the biggest names in punk-rock history, it's little surprise that there are untold heaps of archival material and live gems from Strummer's history. What we have here is amongst the best, spanning his solo career with some superb live sets and new versions of Clash classics.

TRACK LISTING

1. Coma Girl
2. Johnny Appleseed
3. I Fought The Law (Live)*
4. Tony Adams
5. Sleepwalk
6. Love Kills
7. Get Down Moses
8. X-Ray Style
9. Mondo Bongo
10. Rudie Can't Fail (Live)*
11. At The Border, Guy
12. Long Shadow
13. Forbidden City
14. Yalla Yalla
15. Redemption Song
16. Junco Partner (Acoustic)*

*Previously Unreleased

The Black Angels - Live at Levitation has been given deluxe treatment, mind melting vinyl available to Indie Stores in the USA and UK/EU. The LP captures a slice of the early days of the festival, and the band as a psychedelic rock powerhouse with tracks from The Black Angels 1st two LPs - with 6 tracks recorded at Austin Psych Fest 2010, 2011 and 2012.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: There are few bands more likely to lull you into an almost instant euphoric hypnotic state than The Black Angels, and though it might be hard to believe, that's even more pronounced in this stunning live show. Extended grooves and the live energy coalesce perfectly into one essential package.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Manipulation
2. Better Off Alone
3. Surf City

SIDE B
1. You On The Road
2. Empire
3. Young Men Dead

The new album, a sonic shimmer of textures and pulses that switches between raw atmospheric edges and environments, arrives with a fascinating history. As Peel explains, “The specialist library label KPM, gave me permission to reinterpret the original music of the celebrated 1972 KPM 1000 series: Electrosonic, the music of Delia Derbyshire and the Radiophonic Workshop.” This process of re-generation and finding fresh inspiration in pioneering, experimental electronics from the early 1970s is at the core of the album. Peel has made connections and new patterns that mirror the Earth’s ecological cycles through music.

Peel explains, “I’m drawn to the patterns around us and the cycles in life that will keep on evolving and transforming forever. Fir Wave is defined by its continuous environmental changes and there are so many connections to those patterns echoed in electronic music - it’s always an organic dis-covery of old and new.” As Delia Derbyshire revealed in 2000 to BBC sound engineer, journalist and academic Jo Hutton: “I like new things that don’t seem new . . . as though they’ve always been there.”

Known more recently for curating and presenting on BBC Radio 3’s Night Tracks, the Northern Irish Emmy-nominated composer and producer’s work is ambitious and forward-looking, adapting and re-inventing new genres and hybrid musical forms. Recent albums include the solo electronic and pop work of Awake But Always Dreaming, which became an ode to her grandmother’s mind as she lived with dementia; the electronic ruralism of Chalk Hill Blue, an album recorded with the poet Will Burns; and the space and the unparalleled vastness of Mary Casio: Journey to Cassiopeia, scored for synthesisers and a 30 piece colliery brass band. In 2019 she composed and recorded the soundtrack for Game of Thrones: The Last Watch which earned her an Emmy nomination for ‘Outstanding Music Composition For A Documentary Series Or Special (Original Dramatic Score)’. 

STAFF COMMENTS

says: While i'm a big fan of archival synth business, it's often hard to really listen to it in any other situation other than chin-scratching synth-nerdery. I know, i'm a fan of that and while the more esoteric synth explorations are great fun, they have nowhere near the amount of sheer depth and replayability that you get with 'Fir Wave'. A dynamic and cohesive set of rhythmic electronic pieces, moulded with the legendary influence from KPM. Stunning.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1 Wind Shadow
2 Emergence In Nature
3 Patterned Formation
4 Carbon Cycle

Side B
1 Ecovocative
2 Fir Wave
3 Reaction Diffusion 

serpentwithfeet is not only imagining, but exploring a world wherein Black love is paramount. His new album, DEACON, is “a study rather than a story,” delving into Black, gay love and the tenderness present in the best companionships, romantic or otherwise.

Fully self-actualized and more devoted than ever to personal fulfilment, DEACON highlights his growth as a songwriter, which he credits to taking a more straightforward approach to expression. Spending time with pop songwriters and observing how they traverse language encouraged serpent to take more risks lyrically, resulting in more purity.

Raised by religious parents in Baltimore, serpent’s flair for theatrical themes and gospel sensibilities can be traced to the Black church, a place where the artist had his earliest experiences with glamour and the ornate. Well-executed vocal flourishes and the implementation of a quickening vibrato are just a few of the skills he picked up during his time in a Pentecostal choir. He proudly follows in the tradition of R&B artists whose gifts were helmed in the church, and he approached DEACON with an undeniable passion and reverence for the genre.

In his love for love, serpentwithfeet is offering a look into the soul of a man who articulates his passion in a warmer, gentler way. He’s become wholly confident in his gift and messaging on DEACON, which is to be expected when one gives vent to maturity. Through his music, he allows compassion to be the backbone of his art, as he communes with his most loving self.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: 'Deacon' follows on brilliantly from 2018's 'Soil' but takes all of the shimmering production and and silken soulful instrumentation to the next level. We segue from downbeat hip-hop aesthetic into soulful lounge and deep synthpop without breaking pace. A singular and instantly recognisable talent.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
1. Hyacinth
2. Same Size Shoe
3. Malik
4. Amir
5. Dawn

SIDE B:
6. Sailors’ Superstition
7. Heart Storm (with NAO)
8. Wood Boy
9. Derrick’s Beard
10. Old & Fine
11. Fellowship

Esther Rose was in perpetual motion when she wrote How Many Times. In the span of two years, she moved three times, navigated the end of a relationship, and began touring more than ever. The New Orleans-based singer-songwriter used that momentum while she penned her third studio album. That’s why, as the album title’s nod to the cyclical nature of life implies, there’s a rush that accompanies How Many Times as if you’re experiencing an awakening, too.

“That’s how I untangle what’s on my mind, by going off for a walk into wild places. That’s what makes this album a country album,” says Rose. “It’s not really just about feeling better, it’s about feeling it, whatever it is.”
If Rose used time to frame the stories on her 2019 sophomore album You Made It This Far, then she’s swapped that clock for a heart monitor on How Many Times. While some may look outward and lament over hard times and bad luck, Rose turns inward. Instead of blaming an ex for failing to juggle her reactions on “My Bad Mood,” she examines her own blind spots where she hopes to improve as a partner. When her car’s engine blew up during an impulsive “pitstop” in Nashville, she wrote “Good Time” not to rue misfortune, but to toast her own recklessness. After losing her nerve and fleeing a New Year’s Eve date by bicycle half an hour before midnight, she immediately penned “Are You Out There,” confronting her fear of letting go and moving on.

With the integrity of Dean Johnson, Faustina Masigat, and Kiki Cavazos serving as primary influences, Rose expands her alt-country sound into a blossoming world of folk pop, rustic americana, and tender harmonies. “They’re the holy trinity of songwriter magic,” she says, “and when I listen to them I feel like I can explore my own heartache.” Creative touches add detail throughout the album. She uses a 1962 Gibson ES-120T, her first semi-hollow body electric guitar, to play unplugged for a distinct tone. On “Mountaintop,” she includes a blustery voice memo recorded at the summit of Mount Philo, an homage to the field recording in a Bright Eyes song she holds dear.

From “Coyote Creek” to “Without You,” Rose’s compelling voice is ferried masterfully by the musicians that join her: Matt Bell on lap steel, Max Bien-Kahn on electric guitar, Dan Cutler on upright bass, Cameron Snyder on drums, and Lyle Werner on fiddle. A collection of complete takes recorded live to tape with rich instrumentation, soul-tugging hooks, and resonating vocal melodies, How Many Times carries you into the room in which it was made. There to help realize this was co-producer Ross Farbe of synthpop band Video Age, who Rose also credits for bringing a stereo pop glow to these new songs.

The album opens with Rose reflecting on the mundane as she drifts around her house in How Many Times. She wrote it in a night of intentional sobriety, choosing to address directly emotions she had been avoiding until then, a theme that’s apparent throughout the record. “‘How Many Times’ shows that ‘face it’ moment: opening the fridge, staring down the bottles, opening a laptop, just bouncing around the house before you finally make room to face the pain and be with it,” she says. “I remember walking trancelike to my writing table thinking, No numbing tonight. I’m going to sit here and look at it.” From opening for Nick Lowe on tour to being asked to sing on Jack White’s new album, Rose’s journey through the past few years has been one of saying yes to new opportunities, all while nurturing and playing in bands in the New Orleans country music scene. The arrival of How Many Times is evidence of the sweeping growth Rose has undergone, both personally and artistically. 

STAFF COMMENTS

says: There's a lot to be said for a gently strummed acoustic guitar and a well sung tune isn't there? I mean, I know i'm a big fan of both bells and whistles (maybe not *actual* whistles), but Rose presents the stripped-back country aesthetic that is perfectly accentuated by a single lap-steel or a snappy percussive wander and executes it so perfectly, it's impossible not to be drawn in.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. How Many Times
2. Keeps Me Running
3. My Bad Mood
4. Coyote Creek
5. Good Time

Side B
When You Go
Songs Remain
Mountaintop
Are You Out There
Without You

Bonus Dinked Edition 7”
A1. Bitter Heart
B1. My Jealous Mind

Fresh off of their 2020 offering Adult Themes, El Michels Affair is back with a new full-length release. Titled Yeti Season, this newest album has everything we've come to expect from EMA’s patented cinematic style of instrumental soul music. Where Adult Themes inspired a soundtrack to an imaginary film, Yeti Season brings us to a different place in time with new inspirations. Taken with Turkish-styled funk and an almost Mumbai-esque take on soul, El Michels Affair offers us a different kind of drama and imagination with Yeti Season. If you've been following along, this shouldn't be viewed as too far a departure for El Michels Affair.

The first single off of Yeti Season showed their hand back in 2018. A double-sided banger, that release brought the musical textures to the fore that dominate this record. The first song, titled "Unathi," is fully realized with the beautifully haunting-yet-hopeful vocals of Piya Malik, formally of 79.5 another Big Crown artist. Singing in Hindi, Piya's ethereal voice is telling us to work and strive together toward progress.

Even if you don't understand her language, you can still hear the urgency of purpose, creating a lasting vibe that sits on top of it all. Leon Michels explains that Piya had a vital influence on this record: "When Piya started singing in Hindi, she had a different voice, a different tone. I knew we had to do something together." And so Piya appears on three other songs on Yeti Season: "Zaharila," "Murkit Gem," and "Dhuaan." Each providing particular signatures to the album. "Zaharila" is a building and changing love song punctuated by blaring trumpets, driving drums, and Piya's pleading lyrics. While the more upbeat "Murkit Gem" opens with a fuzzed out, Wu-Tang-esque baseline that buoys Piya's stylings. The psychedelic guitar and Piya's changing tones and textures singing about an all-consuming love are what pushed "Dhuaan" on to the second single from Yeti Season.

There is also a vocal appearance from Shannon Wise of The Shacks, yet another Big Crown artist. Her song called "Sha Na Na," lies more in the familiar EMA vein: melodic, hypnotic, soulfully visual. But between Shannon's airy singing, the jumpy baseline, moody vibes, the active drum lines, it sounds like a pensive walk home after a strangely dramatic night. So what is Yeti Season? It could be more of a feeling than an actual place or time of year. It's a heavy album as evidenced by the signature musicianship and dramatic vocal expressions. But it's also a hopeful record, with phrasings, textures, and chord changes that hint at something better or fuller coming our way. You hear it in songs like "Ala Vida," with its stabby, pulsing chords laying a bedrock for EMA's bright, atmospheric horn lines. Or even in "Fazed Out," which leaves you with a feeling of determination, a striving for resolution even though the driving, march-like song structure should accompany some conquering army.

This persistence has to come from the fact that Leon Michels and company finished this record during the lockdown. It was a tough and troublesome time. But look at what has come of it: Yeti Season a record of high and heavy drama, but also one of hope and promise. It may take a year like 2020 behind us to find hope in a winter big footed creature like a Yeti, but that's where we are.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: Another brilliantly rich and beautifully soulful suite from El Michels Affair here, flitting between eastern psychedelia and filmic grooves into more beat-driven downbeat territory. It's all wonderfully produced (as is the way with EMA) and presents a hypnotic and alluring repeat listen.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Unathi
A2. Sha Na Na
A3. Ala Vida
A4. Fazed Out
A5. Murkit Gem
B1. Lesson Learned
B2. Dhuaan
B3. Perfect Harmony
B4. Silver Lining
B5. Zaharila
B6. Last Blast

Gilles Peterson has partnered with Jean-Paul “Bluey” Maunick to reinvigorate the loose, protean energy of the early-80s Brit-funk scene. STR4TA sees them mine new musical possibilities outof that shared formative era. On “Aspects”, they revisit that important period and the spirit that guided it: self-taught, DIY vitality, and a raucous energy built on live performance. Bringing a fresh slant to a sound first developed by groups like Atmosfear, Hi-Tension, Light of the World and Freeez – with Maunick, it should be noted, also a member of the latter two bands – it’s the first material that Maunick and Peterson have released together in over a decade.

It’s an idea that had been in the works for a while, but which was encouraged by a surprising catalyst: the award acceptance speech by Tyler, the Creator at the 2020 Brit Awards, where he shouted out the influence of “British funk from the 80s”. It was an acknowledgement of the particular sound that Maunick and his peers had honed, where their US influences were reoriented through their own circumstances. “Like everybody else who plays music, we tried to emulate our heroes,” Maunick says. “But we didn’t have the tools, we hadn’t studied music: were all playing by ear, and we were coming off bits and pieces that we liked off certain records.” This record is guided by the same ethos. An array of musical touchpoints have fed into the album’s direct, no-frills entries: each track’s parts are cut back to the bare bone. In writing and recording the album, the pair of them would work together to strike upon the point of departure – more naive, less considered – that had produced that killer Brit-funk sound. Peterson would dig out records that showed particular flashes or moods as jumping off points, and Maunick would then work with collaborators to build new directions out of those prompts or suggestions.

It’s the latest chapter in a story that started with Peterson interviewing Maunick in his parents’ garden shed, the first interview that the former had ever conducted. Later, they would reconnect to put out a string of celebrated Incognito albums on Peterson’s pioneering, now-defunct Talkin’ Loud imprint. Now, linking up once more, they unpick an under-appreciated flashpoint in a vital musical lineage, one which each of them has been instrumental in shaping.

TRACK LISTING

1. Aspects
2. Rhythm In Your Mind
3. Dance Desire
4. We Like It
5. Steppers Crusade
6. After The Rain
7. Give In To What Is Real
8. Kinshasa FC
9. Vision 9

Cabaret Voltaire is Richard H. Kirk and "Shadow of Fear" was the band’s first studio album in 26 years and was released in 2020 to critical acclaim. New release Dekadrone delves deeper into Cabaret Voltaire’s arsenal of harsh rhythms and threatening detonations, pairing guttural drone with clipped mechanical idents and snarling LFOs.

TRACK LISTING

LP Tracklist :
A1. Phase 1
B1. Phase 2
C1. Phase 3
D1. Phase 4

CD Tracklist :
Dekadrone

Xiu Xiu makes beautiful music for hard times. For nearly 20 years, the band has a track record of crafting experimental music for moments when life’s harsh realities meet its existential mysteries. On the latest album, Jamie Stewart explores a recent revelation and is reminded of the power of the band’s music to surprise and connect. Listening to the songs on OH NO, it is hard to feel truly alone. Instead, it is a reminder that even when we’re alone, we’re alone together.

OH NO, the group’s newest album, is an album of duets, with Stewart sharing the stage with an array of guests who have made an impact on him personally and musically. This is the first Xiu Xiu album where every song spotlights Jamie Stewart and a collaborator. The album features artists across the musical spectrum, including Sharon Van Etten, Circuit des Yeux’s Haley Fohr, Grouper’s Liz Harris, Alice Bag, Chelsea Wolfe, Owen Pallet, and Twin Shadow’s George Lewis Jr., all drift into Xiu Xiu’s distinctive soundworld. The album was born out of anguish and isolation, but exists as it does because of a profound rediscovery of community and friendship. It is the sound of finding one’s place in the world after the destructive powers of jealousy and mistrust make any map seemingly unreadable.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sad Mezcalita
2. I Cannot Resist
3. The Grifters
4. Goodbye For Good
5. OH NO
6. Rumpus Room
7. Fuzz Gong Fight
8. I Dream Of Someone Else Entirely
9. One Hundred Years
10. A Classic Screw
11. It Bothers Me All The Time
12. Saint Dymphna
13. Knock Out
14. A Bottle Of Rum
15. ANTS 

The severity of grief often comes across most clearly in art. What is the purpose of art but to depict human emotions for others to understand and empathise with? On his gripping new album For Those I Love, David Balfe offers a highly personalised portrait of love, loss, confusion, nostalgia and pain – that is to say, the Dublin songwriter/producer walks you through the early stages of mourning. Each savage emotion comes across as tangible and real. Balfe makes spoken word music over urbane electronica that takes its cues from alternative hip-hop and various forms of club music. His heavily accented delivery and penchant for familiar Dublin cadences means writing can only be set in one place, elevating the album among the great modern works set in the city.

A project that started out as an ode to friendship was remodeled under a tragic cloud. Balfe conceived of For Those I Love as a solo project when he was still a member of punk band Burnt Out. Its purpose was to capture the tight-knit friendships – that is, the beauty of the relationships that exist between groups of young men that often go unspoken. Particularly, he wanted to depict his connection with best friend and Burnt Out bandmate, the poet Paul Curran. Tragically, Curran died in early 2018. In his grief, Balfe has created an album infused with the love and bond that existed between the pair.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
I Have A Love
You Stayed / To Live
To Have You
Top Scheme
The Myth / I Don't

Side B
The Shape Of You
Birthday / The Pain
You Live / No One Like You
Leave Me Not Love

'Floppy Computer' is the newest set of future-gazing grooves from Periodica Records and label partner Raffaele "Whodamanny" Arcella rescuing and restoring forgotten tape compositions from a legendary Italian pop producer using the pseudonym Nico Mecca. Produced during the years 1979-1985 using cutting edge home recording techniques and the latest synthesizer. The productions across the works are incredibly forward-thinking for that time with inspirations and track titles refering to hypermodern tech and a proto-cyberpunk soundworld and progressive rock and experimental electronic music that features novel combinations of mediterranean boogie, robotic funk, sci-fi balearic, hypnagogic pop and astrotribal jazz. The discovery of the 'Floppy Computer' project is dictated by destiny and a strong cosmic interference as not only were these tracks produced by Mecca during his 30s, they were discovered 30 years later by Raffaele Whodamanny, who is also in his 30s-- facts that give the project a mystical and numerological significance, since this number and age represent a divine midpoint between youthful enthusiasm and the wisdom of experience. Amazing record with both historical as creative value! Recommended.

TRACK LISTING

Floppy Computer
Boom!
PCM
Divagazioni
Floppy Computer II
Italo Music
I Guardiani Del Futuro

Just two months after the release of his seminal album After The Gold Rush, Neil Young played a solo show at The Shakespeare Theater, Stratford, CT on January 22 1971. The show was filmed and recorded, and the concert shown on German TV later in 1971.

In 2020, while Neil and his team were reviewing his Archive for future projects, Neil re-visited the 16mm film and audio recording of this show that had been preserved in the Archive for almost 50 years. Piecing together the tapes and footage, Neil realized that he had the full concert – the film of which is the earliest live footage of Neil performing that is known to exist.

Neil has written on NYA that this show is “superior to our beloved “Massey Hall”. A more calm performance, without the celebratory atmosphere of Massey Hall, captured live on 16mm. “Young Shakespeare” is a very special event. To my fans, I say this is the best ever.”

As an insight into Neil’s prolific song writing at the time, the concert features two songs from the recently released After The Gold Rush but four songs from the classic Harvest album that was still over a year away from being released. The wonderful set list also includes acoustic renditions of favorites such as “Ohio”, “Cowgirl In the Sand”, “Helpless”, “Down By The River” and “Sugar Mountain”.

The ancient analog tapes have been lovingly restored – resulting in (as Neil says on NYA) “one of the most pure sounding acoustic performances we have in the Archive”.

Young Shakespeare is being released almost exactly 50 years after the original performance.

Never one to sit still, Carwyn Ellis is continuing his voyage into Latin Americana with the release of his second album with Rio 18, ‘Mas’.

Like it’s predecessor, the acclaimed ‘Joia!’, this album is a collection of songs sung in Welsh combined with distinct pop and South American flavours drawn from Bossa Nova, Cumbia, Samba and Tropicalismo styles, recorded in Rio de Janeiro, Caernarfon and London.

Mas feels strangely right for our times: an album whose title means several things, as befits its global outlook. Mas means “out” in Welsh, “more” in Spanish, and “but” in Portuguese: these meanings filling that single syllable with promise, potential, but also the subtle edge of a warning. It’s a mood that fits the more political tenor of Rio 18’s second turn around the world, as Carwyn and his friends explore some substantial subjects: the drowning of villages, climate change, migration and the rise of megacities. They do so not in sober, serious settings, but beautiful, uplifting songs. Other tracks also celebrate the vivid pleasures of love, nature and our essential humanity.

Mas is a record of beautiful songs that says, wait, listen, delight, come together, then act. We owe it to ourselves, to each other, to our beautiful world.

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
Ar Ol Y Glaw
Cwcan
Dwyn Dwr
Golau Glas
Cestyll Papur

Side B:
Lawr Yn Y Ddinar Fawr
Hedyn Ar Y Gwynt
Y Cariadon
Cynara
Cwmwl Pluog
Dwfn

Cathal Coughlan is the co-founder and singer of acclaimed 80s/90s pop-rock groups Microdisney and Fatima Mansions, and widely considered to be one of Ireland's most revered singer/songwriters, beloved by fans of caustic literate music in the vein of Wilco, Robert Forster and Mark Eitzel. He's released four acclaimed solo albums and this will be his first new music in 10 years. Features and reviews are already set for Mojo and The Wire and expect plentiful support from BBC6 Music.

Enclosed in a stunning sleeve by award-winning Bruce Brand (The Darkness and White Stripes) with an eye-catching portrait by outsider artist Cristabel Christo. The new record not only has his usual backing musicians, The Necropolitan String Quartet, but also Luke Haines (Auteurs/Black Box Recorder), Sean O'Hagan (Microdisney/High Llamas), Rhodri Marsden (Scritti Politti) , Aindrías Ó Gruama (Fatima Mansions), Cory Gray (The Delines) and Dublin singer-songwriter Eileen Gogan..

Loosely conceptual, and based around the persona of Co-Aklan, the LP is melodic and inventive. Twelve fabulous new songs showcasing Cathal's signature caustic wit and smoky baritone, which has earned him comparisons to Scott Walker; three singles taken from the album will have promotional videos from Marry Waterson and Andy Golding of the Wolfhounds.

"Coughlan's intelligence and passion are a rebuke to a vapid music industry, his chronicles of disaffection and disgust an inspiration." - David Peschek, The Guardian

TRACK LISTING

1. Song Of Co-Aklan
2. Passed-Out Dog
3. My Child Is Alive!
4. Crow Mother
5. St Wellbeing Axe
6. Owl In The Parlour
7. Let's Flood The Fairground
8. The Lobster's Dream
9. The Copper Beech
10. The Knockout Artist
11. Falling Out North St.
12. Unrealtime

Highly anticipated record from New York's beloved act The Antlers, their first new music in seven music Perhaps what distinguishes Green to Gold from the rest of The Antlers’ canon is its arrival at a kind of quiet normalcy after a number of rather anxious records. Conceived and written almost entirely in the morning hours, Green to Gold is the easily their most luminous record to date. Following 2014’s Familiars, it looked unsure as to whether there would even be another Antlers album, after the onset of singer and primary songwriter Peter Silberman’s auditory problems.

Affecting his left ear, it was a condition that left him struggling to cope with commonplace noises. He was subsequently diagnosed with lesions on one of his vocal cords, requiring surgery for their removal and vocal therapy to retrain his voice to sing. Following a relocation to upstate New York and the 10th anniversary tour of 2009's 'Hospice', Silberman was rejuvenated and rediscovered the impulse to create new Antlers music. Of Silberman’s unique vocals, The Guardian wrote “His multi-octave voice is as intense as Jeff Buckley’s or Anohni’s, but it’s vulnerable without being precious or cloying” The first LP pressing is on ltd edition gold vinyl (represses will revert to black vinyl) September 2021 tour TBA, including two shows at EartH, London plus shows in Manchester and Edinburgh

TRACK LISTING

1. Strawflower
2. Wheels Roll Home
3. Solstice
4. Stubborn Man
5. Just One Sec
6. It Is What It Is
7. Volunteer
8. Green To Gold
9. Porchlight
10. Equinox

Musician and producer, Noga Erez finds her feet on KIDS, her bold second album for City Slang made with her creative and life partner Ori Rousso. Building from the raw politics of her 2017 debut, Off The Radar, KIDS moves closer to home while retaining her signature smarts and swagger. Its earworms and crisp productions are locked around lyrics that deal with the personal and the political; mortality and loss; war and peace, insecurity and ambition. As with Off The Radar, Erez never pulls her punches, whether that’s with politics or production. 

After a series of singles, KIDS comes packed with chart-worthy outspoken pop anthems for the 21st century. KIDS replaces the shadow and fury of Off The Radar with neon brights, bold lines, in determinedly audacious and confident productions that swap ferocity for bounce, gloomy moods for fierce swagger. Erez has truly found her style, growing into a crisp bombastic sound she crafts with Rousso, that contains tension and release, anxiety and remedy, and masterly melodic licks in swipes of stomping brass, all wrapped around Erez’s versatile vocals that quickswitch from clipped flow to smoky purr; from stadium chorus to streetready beats.

TRACK LISTING

A1. KTD
A2. Cipi
A3. VIEWS (feat. Reo Cragun & ROUSSO)
A4. YOU SO DONE
A5. End Of The Road
A6. Bark Loud

B7. KIDS (feat. Blimes)
B8. Story (feat. ROUSSO)
B9. Knockout
B10. NO News On TV (feat. ROUSSO)
B11. Fire Kites
B12. Candyman
B13. Switch Me Off

Hailing from Los Angeles, Jimmy Tamborello has been a key figure in refining what today is considered electronica for over 20 years. "The Seas Trees See" is the first of two Dntel albums to be released in 2021 by Morr Music in collaboration with Les Albums Claus: a free-floating and rather loose stroke of musical genius, giving ambience a whole new meaningful context. It combines crackles and hiss with deep, yet modest, synths and poignant, yet elegant, vocals and lyrics.

"Away", its counterpart album, will follow later in 2021. It will showcase Dntel's unapologetic love for pop music from a long-gone era, presenting yet another aspect of his multi-faceted personality. Dntel has always covered many musical grounds - from the pop-infused hits on "Life Is Full Of Possibilities" (Plug Research, 2001) to his much more abstract works on "Aimlessness" (Pampa Records, 2012), "Human Voice" (Leaving Records, 2014), and his electronics for The Postal Service (Sub Pop). Whatever his style - Tamborello has retained his very own musical voice. When it comes to producing music, it can be a good idea to get away from the studio and find a more relaxed environment. Inspiration does not necessarily require huge bass bins. Fewer pieces of gear make it easier to really focus on ideas first and let them be. After recording "Hate In My Heart" - his most recent album, released in 2018 - this way, Tamborello continued working in that fashion, mainly jamming and getting ideas together for upcoming live shows. One of the first results of this creative process was the opening track of "The Seas Trees See" - a cover version of "The Lilac and the Apple", originally recorded by Californian folk singer Kate Wolf in 1977. Tamborello turns the acapella song into a vocoder-like extravaganza.


Working with the original recording, the track perfectly sets the tone for what "The Seas Trees See" turns out to be - a quiet yet mesmerizing journey through sound and emotion, bringing together his very own sound design, disguised samples and an incredible feel for moods and atmospheres. "I thought a lot about making an album that you would find in a thrift store", Tamborello remembers. Something "like a mysterious collection of sketches that leaves a lot unanswered. It doesn't beg for attention or have any big moments." Despite its perfect and gentle flow, it is worth digging deeper, to surrender oneself to all the painstakingly placed details.


Whether the beautiful and haunting piano work on "Movie Tears" or the almost sidechained-sounding "Yoga App" - every aspect of this album has been beautifully crafted, often bringing one of life's biggest questions to the table: What if? What would have happened if Tamborello would have done this on that track or that on this track? It is good that he did not. Small things add up to something great, diverse and riveting. The subtlety of his latest endeavor is fascinating. It opens up a new world, in which small musical sketches mean at least as much as perfectly produced pop anthems - if not more.

TRACK LISTING

1 The Lilac And The Apple (remix)
2 The Seas
3 Whimsy
4 The Man On The Mountain
5 Back Home
6 What I Made
7 Movie Tears
8 Fall In Love
9 Yoga App
10 After All
11 Hard Weather 

Loney dear is the singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Emil Svanängen’s idiosyncratic musical project where classic song-writing meets complex productions – both wide open and uplifting as well as sensitive and heart breaking…

Recorded by Svanángen with producer Emanuel Lundgren in a mythical studio on western Södermalm in Stockholm, ‘A Lantern and A Bell’ is Loney dear’s second album for Real World, following 2017’s self-titled release.

Maritime themes permeate across ‘A Lantern and A Bell’ - the album arrives bearing artwork depicting the international nautical flag for distress and Emil’s voice is frequently bolstered by diffused water sounds at dark low frequencies and the calls of sea birds. For those who know their Loney dear, the constant references to sea and ships are hardly something new. All that is an important part of my inner life, maybe a romantic dream of adventure, but also a phobia, a danger I cannot help but be drawn to, says Emil; Near where I live, freighters pass by every day and the sounds of their engines get into my head. And further into the music.

Speaking about Emil’s new record - on which he has consulted as a sounding board, label founder Peter Gabriel says; Sad soulful melodies that create space in your head that fill with memories dreams and tenderness. I am very proud that we are working with such a gifted songwriter. When you’re isolating, what better than to be wrapped up in these beautiful imaginative constructions - the work of a master. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Mute / All Things Pass
2. Habibi (A Clear Black Line)
3. Trifles
4. Go Easy On Me Now (Sirens + Emergencies)
5. Last Night / Centurial Procedures (the 1900s)
6. Oppenheimer
7. Darling
8. Interval / Repeat
9. A House And A Fire

Producer extraordinaire John Morales returns to BBE Music, celebrating the life and work of R&B / soul legend Teena Marie with a double album full of brand new remixes, lovingly crafted from the original studio tapes, entitled ‘Love Songs & Funky Beats’. “Teena is somewhat underrated, and people don't really know much about her.” Says Morales. “I set out to immerse people in her music and represent what she really did. That meant for me a dive into more than her R&B hits, to dig into her ballads and dance cuts. People know she was talented. I don't really think they really knew the depth of her abilities, her complete confidence to take it upon herself to do everything – singing, producing, arranging, songwriting. Teena Marie was the total package.” John Morales had the pleasure of mixing many of Teena Marie’s original records over the years, so it felt natural to dig into the archives and select his favourite cuts to rework, extend and subtly update in his own distinctive style. While by no means a definitive collection of Lady Tee’s expansive musical catalogue, ‘Love Songs & Funky Beats’ represents a fitting tribute to a multifaceted and important voice in popular music, by one of the most storied mix engineers and remixers of our age. Jumping into the music industry deep end in 1979 with a three-year mentorship from Berry Gordy & Rick James at Motown, Teena Marie then spent seven fertile years with Epic, which yielded her greatest commercial successes (including the classic album 'Starchild'). After founding an independent label ‘Sarai’, Marie took a ten-year hiatus which ended in 2004 in a deal with hip hop label Cash Money Records; a less unlikely partnership than some might assume, given that Teena was one of the first ‘mainstream’ artists to perform a rap verse, on 1981’s ‘Square Biz’. Teena Marie Brockert forged a unique path through the industry, an artist in-charge of her own destiny, influencing (and heavily sampled by) both the hip hop and R&B sounds of the 90’s and early 2000’s. Her 1982 lawsuit against Motown records resulted in "The Brockert Initiative", which has benefitted literally thousands of other artists by making it illegal for record companies to ‘shelve’ artists by keeping them under contract without releasing their material. She continued to tour regularly and deliver commercially successful, expertly sculpted music, right up until her untimely passing in 2010.

TRACK LISTING

1 – I Need Your Lovin’ (John Morales M+M Mix)
2 – It Must Be Magic (John Morales M+M Mix)
3 – Aladdin’s Lamp (John Morales M+M Mix)
4 – First Class Love (John Morales M+M Mix)
5 – Now That I Have You (John Morales M+M Mix)
6 – I’m A Sucker For Your Love (Live In Long Beach, Ca 1981: Alternate Mix / John Morales M+M Mix)
7 – Behind The Groove (John Morales M+M Mix)
8 – Love Just Wouldn’t Be Right (John Morales M+M Mix)
9 – Portuguese Love (John Morales M+M Mix)
10 – Chains (John Morales M+M Mix)
11 – 365 (John Morales M+M Mix)
12 – Wasn’t I Good To You (John Morales M+M Mix)
13 – Square Biz (John Morales M+M Mix)
14 – More Love (John Morales M+M Mix)
15 – You Got Away (John Morales M+M Mix)
16 – You’re All The Boogie I Need (John Morales M+ M Mix)
17 – Lonely Desire (John Morales M+ M Mix)
18 – Fire And Desire (John Morales M+M Mix)

“The Obvious I would sound unutterably pretty even as an instrumental album. But once you factor in a voice whose purity has elicited comparisons to Robert Wyatt, Mark Hollis and Dean Wareham, the effect is something akin to hearing a ghost transmitting from a machine of its own making” - Pete Paphides.

‘The Obvious I’ is the second album from Ed Dowie and is the second new master release from Needle Mythology. In 2017, Ed released his feted debut album ‘The Uncle Sold’, leading The Quietus to hail him as a “bold and starry-eyed visionary”, The Skinny to praise his “beautiful… stolen snapshots of glimpsed futures and lost pasts.” and BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction made the record one of their albums of the year. Now, four years on, Ed is to return with an album that will surely find him new followers alongside longtime fans such as Lauren Laverne, who described its predecessor as an “absolutely extraordinary” achievement.

Adhering to Kraftwerk’s maxim about achieving the maximum emotional impact by the most minimal means 'The Obvious I' marks a pronounced evolution from Dowie’s earlier music. Co-produced by pioneering British experimental musician and sometime member of Polar Bear “Leafcutter John” Burton what ultimately emerged from these efforts – and what reveals itself with successive plays – is a beguiling process of alchemy. Each song from The Obvious I is the culmination of a beautiful process of distillation. A crystal extracted from chaos. Tumult distilled into lullaby. “My biggest battle,” says Ed Dowie, “was to ask myself how I can make something that reflects the turbulence of this period without adding to it.” By that metric, and several more, The Obvious I is no small triumph.

TRACK LISTING

1. Then Send Them
2. The Obvious I
3. Red Stone
4. How Light I
5. Number Eight Wire
6. Under The Waves
7. Dear Florence
8. The Island
9. Robot Joy Army

On "Neon Genesis: Soul Into Matter²" Meemo Comma (a.k.a. Lara Rix-Martin) takes Kabbalistic text and Jewish prayer and guides them through twinkling ambient synths, breakbeats and cranking industrial noise, full of strange wonder and drama. You can hear soft synths transmuted into choirs of seraphim and moments of occulted dancefloor rapture, from Aramaic chanting and ravey breakbeats to readings from the Zohar. It is quite beautiful at times. Jewish mysticism is at the root of Western esoteric beliefs and therefore has formed the structure of many films and books that explore the question of humanity.

Inspired by the visuals of Evangelion and nineties anime soundtracks such as Ghost In The Shell (and its later Stand Alone Complex series), the new Meemo Comma album is a soundtrack to an imaginary anime that, like its real counterparts (e.g. Full Metal Alchemist), takes the beautiful parts of Kabbalah and sets them to science fiction stories. When asked about the themes that inform her new album, Lara Rix-Martin says "Judaism is filled with many tales and teachings that prevail in science fiction to this day - whether consciously or not. Sci-Fi is the genre best equipped to explore the immensity and challenges of human experience. Something that Judaism has also been attempting for over three thousand years." "I watched Ghost in the Shell when I was 14 and it was so striking, visually and sonically. The soundtrack has acted as a backdrop to explore my Jewish identity. I have been reading the Talmud since last year, discovering a deeper love for Jewish stories and teachings.

There are some beautiful, hopeful ideas in Kabbalah too, which were a central inspiration to this album such as the idea that the first human was non-gendered and just this form made up from the qualities of HaShem (God) who performed 'Tzimtzum', contracted their form using their Ein Sof (eternal light) to create 'Adam Kadmon' whose form split into all human souls." Lara playfully subheads her album: “In the year 5781 humanity is ever closer to becoming a singular consciousness. A team of humans are forming an android, Adam Kadmon (CODENAME: UNIT KADMON). First, humans have to gain higher consciousness guided by the Sefirot.“ While you don't have to know about these influences to enjoy the music, it stands true that the intention is an irreverent love letter to the way grand myths are birthed into the future through new forms, retaining their beauty and elegance

TRACK LISTING

A:
1/Upload To Unit Kadmon
2/Neon Genesis: Title Sequence
3/Tikkun Olam
4/Ein Sof
5/Tzimtzum
6/Gevur
7/Genesis 8:22 – Annihilation
8/Tohu & Tikun

B:
1/Tif’eret
2/Unit Chai
3/Yetzirah
4/Merkabah
5/Nefesh
6/End Credits

Adult Books is the brainchild of Los Angeles-based writer and multi-instrumentalist Nick Winfrey. With the help of childhood friends Sina Salessi (drums) and Alex Galindo (guitar/synth), Winfrey crafts lyric-driven dark pop gems that recall the hook-heavy guitar work of Johnny Marr, the just-below-the-collar angst of Mission of Burma, and the doomsday bellow of early Echo and the Bunnymen.

After a well-received string of bedroom demos and cassettes, Adult Books released their first full-length album, Running from the Blows , in 2016, trading in their previous home-recorded sounds for a cleaned-up act that allowed Winfrey’s pop savvy and understated lyrical wit to shine through. Two years of heavy touring followed, after which Winfrey found himself both burned out and uninspired by the business of music.

Following a much-needed hiatus, Adult Books is finally ready to share their sophomore LP, Grecian Urn . Recorded with Jonny Bell (Crystal Antlers) and mastered by Dave Cooley (Animal Collective, J Dilla) , Grecian Urn was crafted over the course of nearly two years; however, the seeds of the album were sown more than a decade earlier. When sitting down to write Grecian Urn , Winfrey revisited old demos, forgotten voice memos and unfinished fragments of songs to create something wholly new.

The end result is a self-assured and intensely personal album that places Winfrey’s evocative images and economic storytelling approach front and center. A loose concept album of sorts, Grecian Urn draws on classical Mediterranean imagery and mythos as a means of exploring Winfrey’s past traumas and struggles with chronic anxiety.

TRACK LISTING

1) Innocence
2) Receiver
3) Grecian Urb
4) Holiday
5) Florence
6) 100 Dreams
7) Apologies
8) Cassy
9) Adriatics
10) Sparrows On The Razor Wire

The first new music since their 2017 release, Outrage! Is Now, Death From Above 1979 return with the unmistakably DFA album ‘Is 4 Lovers’. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Modern Guy
2. One + One
3. Free Animal
4. N.Y.C. Power Elite Part I
5. N.Y.C. Power Elite Part 2
6. Totally Wiped Out
7. Glass Homes
8. Love Letter
9. Mean Streets
10. No War

LA-based producer, composer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist James McAlister is a rare creator, and highly sought after collaborator. Perhaps best known for his work with Sufjan Stevens, McAlister has also appeared on record with Lorde amongst many others, and is a regular contributor to Aaron Dessner’s projects, including the latest albums from Taylor Swift, folklore and evermore. His regular work with film music includes The Two Popes, The Big Sick, and Ron Simonsen’s recent films. In 2018 he joined Stevens, Casey Foubert, St. Vincent and Moses Sumney for the Oscar performance for music from Call Me By Your Name, where he played piano and a bottle of cupcake sprinkles. With nearly countless projects to his name, it was in 2017 that his collaboration with Stevens, Nico Muhly, and Bryce Dessner entitled Planetarium was released by 4AD.

Around the same time McAlister started a deep dive into a personal sonic realm that has manifested as an ambient project under his own name. 2018 saw the release of Three Breaths, the first offering from this exploration. 2021 will see the second installment, an album called Scissortail which vividly puts McAlister’s evolving master craft on display. It is a collection of moving, meditative, immediately satisfying and quietly stunning work. It is the sound of an artist letting go entirely of pre-conceptions or expectations, instead mining the depths of that very real and abstract place of sound, texture, color and feeling. Some songs arrive almost intuitively, while others feel mechanically made, fed through the framework of synthesizers and the patchwork of recording gear. And with that comes a compelling duality to the work; a machine grace informing the on-going but subconscious dialogue between energy and material, sensitivity and asceticism.

TRACK LISTING

A
1. Portrait (5:39)
2. Slow Wave (5:14)
3. Cycle 3 (6:16)

B
4. Crowns (5:29)
5. G0 (5:33)
6. Cycle 5 (5:04)

Born and bred in the quiet, sleepy Derbyshire town of Matlock, Patawawa are a contemporary concoction of the sparkling synths and glittered guitar riffs popularised by Pet Shop Boys and Prince. Charismatic and cathartic in equal measure, Patawawa have stormed the indie DIY scene since their arrival in 2015 with their blood-pumping beats and biting bass lines.

With a BBC 6Music ‘Track of the Week’ and live session, soundtrack collaboration with Millie Bobby Brown’s new fashion brand and a viral Spotify hit with French producer Tez Cadey under their belts, Patawawa are quietly establishing themselves as disco-pop pioneers.

In addition, the band have announced UK-wide live performances in 2021. With their contagious energy, Patawawa’s live shows are an unmissable joy. 

TRACK LISTING

1) Title Screen
2) Galaxy Caramel
3) Just Not With You
4) Content
5) Quest
6) Forget About It
7) Disco Video
8) Harmonics
9) Adadadadeya
10) Side Mission
11) Red And White
12) So Late
13) Holmesfield Close
14) Victory Tap
15) Final Boss / Victory Lap

The Kraut Jazz Futurism compilation shows what's cookin’ in the new German Jazz scene. Young German bands and a few of the international musicians working in Berlin now. Fresh artists that combine Jazz, Krautrock, Afro, Hip Hop and Electronica in a new way. The first volume of the compilation came out last year and was described by The Wire as “... a re-drawn map of underground Berlin. Refreshingly new, eccentric, badassed and sometimes funny.” This 2nd part goes further. Similar to Gilles Peterson’s “We Out Here” compilation, where he shows mainly the new hip english Jazz artists, on Kraut Jazz Futurism, Kryptox records headhoncho Mathias „Kapote“ Modica puts together what’s hot in the new club jazz scene in Germany. And there is a lot cookin’ in Berlin right now. Kraut Jazz Futurism comes out on Kryptox. Sublabel of Gomma & Toy Tonics records.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Contrast Trio - In The Bottle
A2. Key Elements - Elemental
A3. CV Vision - 1 The U *
A4. Wanubalé - Hickups
B1. KUF - Only When I Sleep
B2. GTA Hofmann - Der Mogul (Kryptox Version) *
B3. Modha - Harzer Straße
B4. Triorität X Lukas Lehmann - Olk *
C1. Le Millipede - Compost Ghosts
C2. Ark Noir - Arkomplex
C3. Perilymph - She Fell
D1. Love-Songs - Kölner Straße *
D2. Kuhn Fu - The Flounder *
D3. Transport - Tanz Um Den Melkeimer
D4. Spiritczualic Enhancement Center - 360° Of Harmony *

Today Lana Del Rey releases her new song and visual ‘Chemtrails Over The Country Club’. The song is co-written by Lana Del Rey and Jack Antonoff, with the visual being directed by BRTHR.

Following the success of her 2019 GRAMMY®-nominated album Norman Fucking Rockwell, Lana has announced that March 19th, 2021 is the official release date for her highly anticipated seventh studio album Chemtrails Over The Country Club.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: Lana's 7th album, Chemtrails Over The Country Club brings all of the latent melodicism and swooning pop of her previous outings but with a more melancholic leaning, resulting in a hugely enjoyable distillation of pop with more esoteric production elements.

TRACK LISTING

1. White Dress
2. Chemtrails Over The Country Club
3. Tulsa Jesus Freak
4. Let Me Love You Like A Woman
5. Wild At Heart
6. Dark But Just A Game
7. Not All Who Wander Are Lost
8. Yosemite
9. Breaking Up Slowly
10. Dance Till We Die
11. For Free

‘Written & Directed’ is Black Honey’s second album. It follows their outstanding self-titled debut released back in 2018 when the world that surrounded the Brighton fourpiece looked and felt like a very different place. Black Honey however are still the bad-ass, truly original band they have always been, they’ve just graduated from the intriguingly anomalous newcomers to becoming one of UK indie’s most singular outfits. They've travelled the world and released a Top 40 album; graced the cover of the NME and become the faces and soundtrack of Roberto Cavalli's Milan Fashion Week show; smashed Glastonbury and supported Queens of the Stone Age, all without compromising a shred of the wild, wicked vision they first set out with.

It's now time for the next instalment of their story – ‘Written & Directed” – which see’s Black Honey deliver one, very singular, message – a 10 track mission statement that aims to unashamedly plant a flag in the ground for strong, world-conquering women. For fierce frontwoman and album protagonist Izzy B. Phillips – it’s the most important message she could send to inspire her cult-like fanbase and fill the female-shaped gap that she felt so acutely when she was growing up and discovering rock music for the first time.

Written throughout 2019 and recorded in fits and spurts between touring, ‘Written & Directed’ is drenched with a hedonistic, anything-goes attitude. It’s also the most full-throttle collection of music that Black Honey have ever-written – egged-on by their run of shows supporting long-term friends and collaborators Royal Blood. Exploring everything from womanhood, to identity and power, it’s an album that revels in the rich history of pop culture, throws a wink to its rock-and-roll heroes, but ultimately (and in true Black Honey fashion) it stands on its own two feet.

With a typically hyper-visual world referencing grindhouse cinema, kitschy pulp films and a flip-reverse of female cinematic representation all primed to unfurl and explode around them, 'Written & Directed' is the sound of Black Honey strapping in and saddling up, of harnessing their quirks, and, as the Phillips has always hoped, riding them joyously into the sunset.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: Black Honey return, bringing more of their scathing guitars and pummeling rhythms, pitch-perfect vocals and psychedelic grooves. A superbly singable and dynamic coalition of energy and politicism in one hugely enjoyable package.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Like The Way You Die
2. Run For Cover
3. Beaches
4. Back Of The Bar
5. Believer
6. I Do It To Myself
7. Disinfect
8. Summer '92
9. Fire
10. Gabrielle

"I’ve had the pleasure of being a Fall fan since I was a teen.

I was lucky enough to have some guidance from my local record shop stoner-lords.

They turned me on to many of my heroes, but once I heard my first slanted and barky Fall song, I was part of the army for life.

The word prolific gets tossed around a lot.

It almost seems like a slag-off in the press, as if they wish the artist would produce less so they wouldn’t have to do their self imposed job of judging releases for the rabble.

The Fall is subjected to this lazy word often.

Yet I can honestly say that I am SO thankful for any nugget of Fall that lands at my feet and in my brain.

Live Fall performances are always a pleasure because they seem to take what already made the Fall great and push it even a bit more into the rough and bloody uncharted wasteland that is drug scorched proto-punk and heady political poetry.

So, it is with great pleasure that we introduce this Fall bootleg soundboard recording to you.

Recorded during one of the many strong points in the bands vast and mighty history.

They really burn bright here and bring every ounce of what you expect from this formidable force.

We have reached out to every surviving member of the band, the sound person, the bootlegger who recorded it and the photographer and received their blessings & help piecing it all together.

Castle Face will be donating 50% of our profits to Centrepoint which helps the homeless in the Manchester area get back on their feet, so the local and deserving Fall fans get a little, and give a little back, too.

Nothing but the hits here folks and as raw as you dig it.

This one really is exceptional in terms of live sound for The Fall.

All the stars were aligned over St. Helens that eve.

And it wouldn’t be complete with a bit of Fall fan saltiness so, fuck you too, Jason.” - John Dwyer

STAFF COMMENTS

says: Well look at this. It's a Fall live recording, which is obviously superb but it's also presented by Castle Face records, who have a superb reputation for bringing lovely vinyl packages that sound great. If you like The Fall, then this really is a no-brainer.

TRACK LISTING

Blob ’59
Prole Art Threat
Jawbone And The Air Rifle
Middle Mass
Rowche Rumble
An Older Lover
City Hobgoblins
Leave The Capitol
The NWRA
Gramme Friday
Fit And Working Again
Muzorewi’s Daughter
Slates, Slags, Etc

It’s nearly a decade since William Doyle handed a CD-R demo to the Quietus co-founder John Doran at a gig, who loved it so much he set up a label to release Doyle’s debut EP (as East India Youth). Doyle’s debut album, Total Strife Forever, followed in 2014, as did a nomination for the Mercury Music Prize. A year later, he was signed to XL, touring the world and about to release his second album – all by the age of 25.

After self-releasing four ambient and instrumental albums, Doyle’s third full-length record – and the first under his own name – Your Wilderness Revisited arrived to ecstatic reviews in 2019: Line of Best Fit described it as “a dazzlingly beautiful triumph of intention” and Metro declared it an album not only of the year, but “of the century”. Just over a year later, as he turns 30, Doyle is back with Great Spans of Muddy Time.

Born from accident but driven forward by instinct, Great Spans’ was built from the remnants of a catastrophic hard-drive failure. With his work saved only to cassette tape, Doyle was forced to accept the recordings as they were – a sharp departure from his process on Your Wilderness Revisited, which took four long years to craft toward perfection. “Instead of feeling a loss that I could no longer craft these pieces into flawless ‘Works of Art’, I felt intensely liberated that they had been set free from my ceaseless tinkering,” Doyle says.

“The album this turned out to be – and that I’ve wanted to make for ages – is a kind of Englishman-gone-mad, scrambling around the verdancy of the country’s pastures looking for some sense,” says Doyle. “It has its seeds in Robert Wyatt, early Eno, Robyn Hitchcock, and Syd Barrett.” Doyle credits Bowie’s ever-influential Berlin trilogy, but also highlights a much less expected muse: Monty Don, presenter of the BBC programme Gardeners’ World, Doyle’s lockdown addiction.

“I became obsessed with Monty Don. I like his manner and there's something about him I relate to. He once described periods of depression in his life as consisting of ‘nothing but great spans of muddy time’. When I read that quote I knew it would be the title of this record,” Doyle says. “Something about the sludgy mulch of the album’s darker moments, and its feel of perpetual autumnal evening, seemed to fit so well with those words. I would also be lying if I said it didn’t chime with my mental health experiences as well.”

Great Spans of Muddy Time is a beautiful ode to the power of accident, instinct and intuition. The result, however, is far from an anomaly: this celebration of the imperfect album is one that required years of honed craft and dedicated focus to achieve. “For the first time in my career, the distance between what I hear and what the listener hears is paper-thin,” Doyle says. “Perhaps therein reveals a deeper truth that the perfectionist brain can often dissolve.”

STAFF COMMENTS

says: There has been a significant stylistic change in Doyle's output since his early material as East India Youth, and every single note oozes with the intellectual construction and well placed melodic sensibilities that will ensure his place in the musical landscape for years to come. 'Great Spans...' is a wonderfully rich and fascinating journey, and one that rewards with each further listen.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
I Need To Keep You In My Life
And Everything Changed (But I Feel Alright) 
Somewhere Totally Else
Shadowtackling
Who Cares
Nothing At All

Side B
Rainfalls
New Uncertainties
St. Giles’ Hill
Semi-bionic
A Forgotten Film
Theme From Muddy Time
[a Sea Of Thoughts Behind It]

“This is a weird record, for weird times, made by weird people, for weird people!” Says John Doran in his sleeve notes for the album.

Back in 2015, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the BBC broadcast of Delia Derbyshire & Barry Bermange’s “Inventions For Radio: The Dreams”, The Eccentronic Research Council released their own super-limited edition cassette soundtracking the recalled dreams (and nightmares) of friends, artists, actors, musicians, scientists, poets and filmmakers. The release was called “The Dreamcatcher Tapes Volume 1”. Five years on, and with a large part of the planet under lockdown and with nowhere to go but within their imagination, the ERC put a call out once again to music collaborators, nurses, teachers, truck drivers, writers, journalists and shop workers to upon waking, record their dreams straight into their phones and to then send them to the ERC to soundtrack. And thus, Volume 2 of The Dreamcatcher Tapes was born!

How did you make the album during lockdown?
“We got around 26 dreams sent to us via email over the space of a couple of weeks then Dean Honer my partner in The ERC and I revved up the old analogue equipment and would record music and collage sounds to the dreams (remotely) from our home recording studios and bounce them back and forth to each other till they were done. It was a really good way to work actually, sometimes I didn’t even have to put on any trousers!” says ERC/ Moonlandingz founder Adrian Flanagan. Why a second volume of The Dreamcatcher Tapes? “I was really interested to see how the enforced lockdown and the removal of people’s basic needs such as human contact and hanging out in close proximity to friends was affecting the dreams of my friends, peers and those at the very front line of this horrible pandemic”, Adrian continues. “The Important shared experiences for people’s mental health such as going out to gigs, the pub, the cinema etc. ”It was an interesting experiment. Nurses dreaming of inadequate PPE and having to use blow up Elvis costumes to protect themselves. Teachers dreaming of zombies and lots of people dreaming about sex - where the hair of Greek sorceress’s Circe meets bouncy castle breasts and where other dreamers dream of serial killers or seeing dead family members, or taking baby elephants for a walk, or having discos for one in the middle of the ocean and so much more. I’m really proud of this record. It’s psychedelic in its truest most cerebral form”

Who’s on “The Dreamcatcher Tapes Volumes 1 & 2”? Who are the dreamers?
“Although our long time collaborator Maxine Peake wasn’t on the very first tape (her dream ended up on LTD edition split 7” ERC single we did with Pye Corner Audio) - she was the first dream that we soundtracked when I came up with the idea of doing the concept record. However, on the new vinyl and tape box set - she opens volume 1. Across the 2 volumes there’s film maker Carol Morley, Andy Votel from Finders Keepers records, John Doran from The Quietus (who also wrote the albums brilliant sleeve notes), acclaimed writers Benjamin Myers & Adelle Stripe, musicians such as Evangeline Ling from the group Audiobooks, Lias Saoudi from my ‘semi fictional band’, The Moonlandingz and fat white family, Sidonie from The Orielles, journalists /writers Wyndham Wallace (he wrote lee Hazelwood’s brilliant biography) and Daniel Dylan Wray amongst a whole array of musician friends, eccentrics and people with actual proper jobs!”

Why did you chose Castles in Space for this release?
“Jim Jupp at Ghost Box records suggested them to me so I looked into them and saw they were doing loads of really great strange little bespoke electronic record releases. I think that because this is a very niche limited run release, it required a label that was willing to treat it like a piece of art and not a throwaway mass produced commodity. So making sure the packaging was special, the artwork was bang on point and the sleeve notes were written by a writer we like all were very important to us. “It was also important that we could turn it around from the finished recording to being in people’s hands really quickly as Dean and I have another ten projects between us on the boil - and so far, Castles in Space have been true to their word. It’s an artists label done with love and there’s not many of them about anymore - believe it or not.“

“The Dreamcatcher Tapes Volumes 1 & 2” is an immense collaborative achievement which makes for a thoroughly compelling, and gloriously disorientating listening experience.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: This really is an outlandishly special thing. Bonkers local(ish) favourites Eccentronic Research Council team up with a slew of collaborators and dream-describers including shop customer and all-round acting and spoken-word legend Maxine Peake, and it's all on my current favourite label, Castles In Space. What more do you need to know? This one WILL go quickly.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. Maxine's Dream
2. Brian's Dream
3. Carol's Dream
4. John's Dream
5. Zavier's Dream
6. Karen's Dream
Side 2
1. Innes' Dream
2. Tiana's Dream
3. Denise's Dream
4. Paul's Dream
5. Mick's Dream
Side 3
1. Evangeline's Dream
2. Ben's Dream
3. Lias' Dream
4. Sidonie's Dream
5. Adelle's Dream
6. Pete's Dream
7. Dan's Dream
8. Madge's Dream
Side 4
1. Cecilia's Dream
2. Wyndham's Dream
3. Olivia's Dream
4. Micky's Dream
5. Ami's Dream
6. Andrew's Dream
7. Sarah's Dream
8. Lydia's Dream
9. Dimitri's Dream

“Walk the dog. Exercise. Make art.’The mind is happy when the body is.’ Things I can potentially fill my days with if I am stuck at home for months on end…Then, one day, I hear a frenetic, free drummer playing in his garage a few blocks from me. And I think ‘interesting’. I stand outside his garage staring at the wall, like a fool, for a minute, then decide to leave a note on the car parked there. This is how I ended up meeting and working with Ted Byrnes. He wasn’t creeped out, and he ended up sending me a pile of truly spontaneous drums recordings from the carport to work with. I decided to have every musician come in one at at time and just take a wild pass at their track over the drums. None of these people had ever met or played together. I was the connecting thread. I scratched the surface initially with electric bass, saxophone, guitars, cuica, synthesizers, flute and effects, but soon realized I would need heavy hitters to make this place habitable. “Greg Coates, upright bass expressionist extraordinaire, hacked through the dense weeds, vines and frayed cabling. He lays the map out and makes breathing room. Space to swing a cat. Tom Dolas (keys), my often foil, came in and began tip-toeing through the rubble and refuse. Dotting the layout with flecks of light, flights of fancy and potential tangential trajectories. Then the finisher, Brad Caulkins on horns. As always, Brad came in like grace itself, scanned the floor for food, and huffed and puffed and blew the house down. He takes a bruiser situation and lends it some warmth and hospitality, old school. “After I spent a bit of time mixing and editing this down to a palatable offering I couldn’t help but think about human consumption. ...Endless Garbage seemed a fitting title. A cacophonous and glorious sketch of ourselves. For fans of Albert Ayler, ECM records, Gong, improvisation, sustainability and consumption” - John Dwyer.

TRACK LISTING

1. Vertical Infinity
2. No Flutter
3. Goose
4. Four
5. Lucky You
6. Pro-Death
7. A Grotesque Display
8. No Goodbyes

Erased Tapes announce Bell Orchestre’s House Music — an immersive ecosystem of an album to be released on March 19, and the first full-length work released by the acclaimed Montreal-based outfit in over a decade. House Music unfolds as one long piece, a recorded-then-sculpted improvisation that vastly expands their work, coalescing classical and electronic instrumentation in the creation of genre-defying musical worlds. After having shared the short film “IX: Nature That’s It That’s All.” — which layered archival visuals of blissed-out crowds at a carnival over one of the later, dreamier sections of House Music — Bell Orchestre presents a video for the one-track album’s most anthemic and explosive segment, “V: Movement”, directed by band member Kaveh Nabatian.

In the album’s liner notes, the group recalls countless moments when, in kinetic moments of improvisation, “a nuanced piece of music would emerge organically, completely formed, without any plan or discussion or rational thought” — and then be lost because it wasn’t recorded. In conceiving a new album, they decided to celebrate the spontaneous and accidental, to centrally situate the act of collaborative, democratic creation in their finished work. With the legacies of improvisation-exploring greats like Talk Talk, The Orb, Bitches Brew-era Miles Davis and the late Ennio Morricone in mind, on House Music, Bell Orchestre captures the impulsive, connective, mysterious poetics of musical invention happening in real-time.


With help from engineer Hans Bernhard, the band wired every corner of Sarah Neufeld’s (Violin, vocals) multi-story rural Vermont house. She and the mini orchestra’s other five members — Pietro Amato: French horn, keyboards, electronics; Michael Feuerstack: Pedal steel guitar, keyboards, vocals; Kaveh Nabatian: Trumpet, gongoma, keyboards, vocals; Richard Reed Parry: Bass, vocals; and Stefan Schneider: Drums — assigned themselves to different rooms. They spent two weeks together in camaraderie, creation, and focused isolation to record their improvised sessions every day, but ultimately structured a 45-minute album out of a one hour-and-a-half long improvisation.

“If you sliced away the front wall of the house and looked in, you’d see the horn section — with so many different things going on — down on the first floor of what would normally be the living/dining room, and it was full chaos with tables and tables of kalimbas and harmonicas and synthesizers and horns. Then you travel up a floor, and there’s me and Richie in an empty, warm sounding wooden bedroom. Mike was on pedal steel in the bathroom, on the same floor as us. And then up the stairs, through the ceiling and in the attic, was Stefan, alone on drums. It’s a big piece of land, and if you went outside to take a break, you’d look over and hear all of this crazy shit coming out of all the different floors, and it filled this valley, and there were lots of rocks so the sound would bounce around. It was spooky and glorious”, describes Sarah.

While edited and trimmed, and occasionally added to, the album itself is in large part the original recording — with the broad structure of its movements kept intact. This single piece of music — written almost entirely as it was being recorded — emerged with no parameters beyond the inclusion of a short harmonic loop Parry had brought in as a starting point, which coheres and propels the album as it moves forward through the birth; vigorous, unrestrained growth; and ultimate slowdown of the musical ecosystem it creates. What the band generated is an album that lays bare the contours of a lived musical moment.

“Most of my favorite recordings have some element of an explorative and accidental feeling within the music, a feeling which reflects the truth of musical minds which are partially super focused on specific musical ideas and partially wandering, exploring the musical world surrounding those ideas,” says Parry. “I think it’s really satisfying as a listener when you can hear a musical mind exploring an idea — not just a musician who has pre-formed an idea and rehearsed it 100 times until it’s totally perfect and ironed out. In this recording, every one of the six of us is simultaneously exploring our own ideas,

STAFF COMMENTS

says: As one of my favourite labels, it's always an exciting time when Erased Tapes put a new one out, and Bell Orchestre sees Arcade Fires' Sarah Neufeld and Owen Pallett percussionish Stefan Schneider team up with a host of others to create this jazzy, downbeat chamber classical gem.

TRACK LISTING

I: Opening
II: House
III: Dark Steel
IV: What You're Thinking
V: Movement
VI: All The Time Sorrow
VII: Colour Fields
VIII: Making Time
IX: Nature That's It That's All.
X: Closing

Lunar Tredd – Fimber Bravo’s first album on Moshi Moshi since the much acclaimed Con-Fusion – tells the tale. The highlife fusion of You Can’t Control Me resonates in the wake of the global Black Lives Matters protests. There is fire in these impactful clarion calls to resist oppression, recognise strength in resilience and fight against the corruption of power.

Bravo’s been a constant collaborative force - as his time as leader of 20th Century Steel Band, as musical director of Steel ‘n’ Skin, and appearances with everyone from Sun Ra Arkestra to Hot Chip, shows. Lunar Tredd reflects the influence of the music handed down to him by “ancestors” . Helped by an enviable cast of friends and collaborators, Fimber has shifted those touchstones to create something that sounds resolutely like the here and now.

Those friends that appear on Lunar Tredd, include Alexis Taylor of Hot Chip and The Horrors’ Tom Furse; The Invisible drummer Leo Taylor and Senegalese percussionist, Mamadou Sarr dropping in on rhythm duties, while there are also appearances from Susumu Mukai aka Zongamin, the brilliant Kora player Kadialy Kouyate, vocalist Cottie Williams, Vanishing Twin’s Catherine Lucas, and production from Lapo Frost and Ghostpoet producer Shuta Shinoda. Some, like Zongamin and Williams go way back with Fimber, other connections are newer, but all have quickly become part of the London-based musician’s musical family.

Indeed, Fimber never loses sight of where he’s come from on LUNAR TREDD - even as he looks to where he might go next. As a musician, he’s still finding new creative peaks nearly 50 years after he began.

TRACK LISTING

1. Can’t Control We
2. Can’t Control Me
3. Hiyah Man
4. Call My Name
5. Santana’s Daughter
6. Singo
7. Caribbean Bluez (In The Shadow Of Windrush)
8. F. Pan Landing
9. Coming Home
10. Lunar Tredd
11. Tabli Tabli
12. Woonya Waa

Following excellent reviews for her debut album Forever Blue, A.A. Williams announces news of Songs From Isolation, a 9-track LP of cover versions. The Songs From Isolation project began at the beginning of the UK’s nationwide lockdown in March. A.A. Williams took songs suggested by fans and created a series of videos presenting the tracks with stripped-down instrumentation, recorded and filmed from her home in North London. The album represents a continuation of the project into a full collection of recordings and features cover versions of The Cure, Pixies, Deftones, Nick Cave, Gordon Lightfoot, Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails and more.

TRACK LISTING

1 Lovesong
2 Where Is My Mind?
3 If You Could Read My Mind
4 Creep
5 Nights In White Satin
6 Be Quiet And Drive (Far Away)
7 Every Day Is Exactly The Same
8 Into My Arms
9 Porcelina Of The Vast Oceans

On August 20, 2020 the world lost an amazing light with the passing of Justin Townes Earle. Justin was a vibrant songwriter who could play the blues, country, and rock n roll all in the same song. In his short career, Justin released eight albums and one EP that all manage to sound classic and yet inventive.

Justin's father, Steve Earle, pays tribute to his son by recording an album of songs written by Justin titled, J.T. The album consists of ten Justin Townes Earle songs as well as one song written by Mr. Earle shortly after Justin's passing. J.T. features fan favorites such as "Harlem River Blues," "Far Away In Another Town" and "Champagne Corolla" along with lyrically heavy songs like, "The Saint of Lost Causes" and "Turn Out My Lights."

J.T. is a loving tribute to a loved son and beautiful songsmith who left this earth too early. But in his wake, Justin left a wealth of beauty. All proceeds from this release will be put into a trust for Justin’s 3 year old daughter, Etta.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: A heartbreaking but equally gorgeous collection of covers from Justin Townes Earle's father, Steve. It's a hard listen at points, but a stunningly effecting and beautiful rendition of these classic JTE songs. A warming but heartbreaking tribute.

TRACK LISTING

1 I Don't Care
2 Ain't Glad I'm Leaving
3 Maria
4 Far Away In Another Town
5 They Killed John Henry
6 Turn Out My Lights
7 Lone Pine Hill
8 Champagne Corolla
9 The Saint Of Lost Causes
10 Harlem River Blues
11 Last Words

Immigrants is a unique celebration of immigrants around the world. Showcasing works inspired and contributed to by artists who either identify themselves as immigrants, are from immigrant heritage, or wish to express support for those international immigrants who have found themselves judged or disadvantaged by pure accident of birth. Nitin has always intended Immigrants to be a sequel to his 1999 seminal album Beyond Skin.

Since the release of Beyond Skin, Nitin has successfully navigated a career in the arts that can only be described as polymathic. Nitin holds six honorary doctorates, two fellowships, an honorary degree, the 2017 Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement Award & a CBE. As a composer Nitin is a BAFTA and Academy member & he was also recently announced as the new Chair of Trustees for the PRS Foundation, the UK’s leading charitable funder of new music & talent development. 

STAFF COMMENTS

says: A wonderfully realised and brilliantly produced collection of songs from Sawhney here showcasing the rich social fabric woven by a melting pot of culture. A socially important statement, and absolutely brimming with superb songwriting.

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 & ‘Caracal’ in 2015) and 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 (including the Other Stage at Glastonbury) – something they do with ease whilst also enjoying playing to packed out sweaty clubs whenever they can. They have been nominated for the Mercury Music Prize, BRITs and five Grammy’s.

‘Caracal’ is a muscular and nuanced record, with a depth to it that will pin it to the canon of dance music history. It’s crunchy and gets under your skin. A proper album album, you might say. A number of exciting collaborator names appear on ‘Caracal’ including The Weeknd, Sam Smith, Lorde, Miguel , Gregory Porter , Nao, Lion Babe, Kwabs , Jordan Rakei & Brendan Riley. . These guest features sit perfectly alongside ‘Jaded’, ‘Echoes’ and ‘Molocules’ which are written and performed by Howard Lawrence himself. 

TRACK LISTING

Disc 1 - Side A

Nocturnal (ft. The Weeknd)
Omen (ft. Sam Smith)
Holding On (ft. Gregory Porter)

Disc 1 - Side B

Hourglass (ft. LION BABE)
Willing & Able (ft. Kwabs)
Magnets (ft. Lorde)
Jaded

Disc 2 - Side A

Good Intentions (ft. Miguel)
Superego (ft. Nao)
Echoes
Masterpiece (ft. Jordon Rakei)

Disc 2 - Side B

Molecules
Moving Mountains (ft. Brendan Reilly)
Afterthought

Consolidated, the political dance/industrial music band from the early 90ties joined again for a studio session in San Francisco last summer, resulting in a new album. 'We're Already There'. The first release on Consolidated’s own label 'The End Of Records'. What else to expect, the new recordings are an innovating mix of industrial, hip-hop, rock and funk with mixtures of live instruments and electronics. Topped with left political activism and politically radical lyrics address issues such as America, Covid and ecocide with song “The Flood”, demand ‘Free Music, Stop America’ with Musica Sin Frontieras & welcome guest vocalist GRETA THUNBERG on the track The “‘ol Mass Extinction Blues.”.

The album starts in traditional Consolidated groove with the song 'Capitalism A.F.', a mix of beats, industrial sounds and hiphop. Followed by funkypop songs, danceable industrial jams, techno beats, reggae and blues influences plus a remarkable noise track. Main musicians are Adam Sherburne (guitar/vocals) and Mark Pistel (synths/beats) backed by Lynn Farmer (Meat Beat Manifesto) on drums, who replaces the original drummer Phil Steir. The complete album is recorded, mixed and mastered by Mark Pistel at Room 5 in San Francisco. The cover shows art paintings from Ayelet Hay (front) and William Kendall (back). 

TRACK LISTING

Capitalism A..F.
The Flood
Two Minutes To Midnight
Riffin On Jimi
De-escalate And Dialogue Now
Music Is The Sound Of Life
Internationalism, Mutual Aid, Weed
Lamenting Autotuned Life
Musica Sin Fronteras
Noise Dancer
Who Controls The Past
The Ol’ Mass Extinction Blues
Robot Flamenco Shit
The Chickens Are Coming Home
THE Machine
From Civilization To Barbarism

Over the last two years, Sault’s music has arrived out of the blue: no interviews, no photos, no videos, no live appearances, no Wikipedia entry, a perfunctory and entirely non-interactive social media presence. Physical copies of their three previous albums have credited Inflo as producer – otherwise best-known as the producer of Little Simz’ Grey Area and co-writer of Michael Kiwanuka’s Black Man in a White World, each of which won him an Ivor Novello award. Kiwanuka got a guest artist credit on their last album, Untitled (Black Is), released in June. So did Laurette Josiah, the founder of a north London children’s charity, who it turns out is Leona Lewis’s aunt. The only other available fact is that proceeds from the album “will be going to charitable funds”. Speculation about the collective’s other members has neither been confirmed nor denied, nor has anyone claimed responsibility for music that’s thus far been rapturously received on both sides of the Atlantic.

TRACK LISTING

Strong 06:19
Fearless 04:09
Rise 01:01
I Just Want To Dance 04:21
Street Fighter 03:09
Son Shine 03:16
Rise Intently 00:50
The Beginning & The End 03:38
Free 05:05
You Know It Ain't 03:39
Uncomfortable 03:16
No Black Violins In London 01:28
Scary Times 03:39
The Black & Gold 03:04
Little Boy 03:53

Electric Jalaba comprises six accomplished musicians with an empathy that feels telepathic and a groove that immerses. In Arabic, the mother tongue of Moroccan-born singer and guimbri player Simo Lagnawi, a leading practitioner of Gnawa music in Britain, they call this indefinable quality, “El Hal” – “The feeling”.

“It’s the feeling that comes when we’re playing and totally forgetting where we are,” says producer and bassist Olly Keen. “The feeling of being grabbed by the music and lost in the groove.” ‘El Hal / The Feeling’ is the new third album from Electric Jalaba and their first release in five years. It’s a multi-faceted work that finds the band tighter than ever, deploying a vast cache of influences across nine tracks improvised and developed in their south London studio then deftly produced by Keen. Some tracks pay homage to the origins of Gnawa music, whose repertoire of Arabic-language praise songs contains remnants of West African dialects – Bambara from Mali, Fulani and Hausa from the Sahel region – that point to a centuries-old migration.

“The trance-inducing effect of Gnawa was what hit us first. It was visceral, heart stopping,” continues Olly, whose siblings – producer / keys player Henry Keen, guitarist / multi-instrumentalist Nathaniel Keen and singer / multi-instrumentalist Barnaby Keen – make up Electric Jalaba alongside revered Anglo-Italian kit drummer Dave De Rose and Simo on vocals, krakeb and guimbri. “Simo selected the chant from the traditional song suites and, as a band, we extended these short pieces of ceremonial music and experimented with sound and structure,” explains Olly. Tracks include the Juno-led dancefloor single ‘Cubaili Ba’, ‘Agia Hausa’, a multi-layered wig-out that partly takes its inspiration from Senegal’s fiercely percussive mbalax rhythms and ‘Daimla’, a gloriously dubby ode to Allah and iconic maalems including the late Mahmoud Guinea. “There’s a very strong rhythmic element within the band but because of our different perspectives but the melodic components are really unique as well,” says Henry. That feeling of being outside of yourself but totally within yourself at the same time… That’s what all of us, collectively, are striving for.”

TRACK LISTING

A1. Tora Tora
A2. Cubaili Ba
A3. Agia Hausa
A4. Daimla
A5. Hindewu
B1. Fulan
B2. Shabakru
B3. Briando
B4. Lagmami

South Africa's reputation for expanding dance music again with Amapiano.

The past five years have seen amapiano, South Africa’s electronic music movement born in the townships of the country’s Gauteng province, evolve from an underground sound to a nationwide mainstream staple. Even with its commercial success though, amapiano’s DIY ethos has continued to disrupt music creation and distribution in the country. Most amapiano commercial successes today began their careers on cracked versions of production software like FL Studio, distributed their work through file sharing platforms like datafilehost and marketed it using social media pages they controlled and influenced. Amapiano Selections, the debut album by DJ and producer Teno Afrika, gives listeners outside the movement’s online release economy an insight into the high-burn nature of amapiano that has spawned a distinct typology under its larger umbrella. Twenty-one-year-old Lutendo Raduvha has spent the bulk of his life moving between different townships on the outskirts of Johannesburg and Pretoria in the Gauteng province. The palette of amapiano styles on the album reflect these influences.

But at first, South Africa’s youngest electronic music movement lived underground with a small, loyal following. “Amapiano is a genre that I chose because I have a passion for it,” says Teno “I started following amapiano in 2016 because I wanted to explore how it’s produced. It was not taken seriously in our country.” Interestingly, Teno Africa only gives vocals prominence on the closing track “Chants of Africa.” As a way of making their music recognizable and relatable for broadcast, amapiano producers have sometimes overly relied on vocals in the form of singing, catch-phrases and party refrains for the purpose. “It was my decision not to use vocals on this project,” says Teno “The reason is I wanted people to feel my instrumentals and style because this is my first album.” On his closing track the young producer gives a glimpse of the considered approach to music which buoys anticipation for greater things from his future releases.

TRACK LISTING

01. Ambassadors Featuring Stylo Musiq & Flame Darula 
02. Storytellers
03. 8 Ubers (Tribute To DJ Jaivane)
04. Conka Featuring Stylo Musiq & Flame Darula Conka
05. Smooth Criminal (Main Mix) Featuring SilvadropZ
06. Lerato La Bass
07. Trip To Vlakas (Main Mix) Featuring SilvadropZ 
08. Chants Of Africa

Created slowly over a years-long span that encompassed the recording of 2019’s Stray Fantasies, wife and husband duo Hollie and Keith Kenniff deliver In a Deep and Dreamless Sleep, a distinctly hazier chapter of their technicolor pop venture Mint Julep. Where the former album bore a crystalline latticework of defined pop structure, the latter blunts the sharpness and softens the glare, striking a balance between songcraft, and Hollie’s solo material, as well as Keith’s output as Goldmund.

In a Deep and Dreamless Sleep assumes a more aerated form, exuding a heavy fog of shoegaze sensibility, though the infectious pop know-how of its precursor remains firmly intact. “Our previous material tended to be structured largely in a verse/chorus setting,” Keith explains, “but these songs are more free flowing and through-composed with a focus on mood and texture. He continues “A lot of the songs are more stream-of-consciousness than premeditated; we went with first ideas and let them guide the composition rather than planning a definitive road map-- which hopefully lends itself to creating a specific and unique emotional connection.”

Somewhat counter to its title, In a Deep and Dreamless Sleep is rife with dreamworld inclinations in which waking and sleeping, loving and leaving, living and dying, are all interchangeable. The album is imbued with the soft opiation of oncoming love-- or perhaps that’s the mournfulness of a love in its twilight. Or, further still, that feeling is the spousal duo nurturing their love against the backdrop of their busy lives. “Time is a valued commodity, but we make it a point to do this together.” Says Keith. “Mint Julep is a good bonding experience, it's akin to a date night. Our routine is not structured, but we chip away at it, sometimes in long bursts, sometimes in short windows of opportunity.” In a Deep and Dreamless Sleep is a window into an intoxicatingly romantic parallel world the Kenniffs have constructed out of analog synths, masterful sound design, nectar-drenched hooks, and airy vocals that wade way out into a sea of texture. They have managed to hone years worth of date-nights into a 46 minute collection of phosphoric ambient pop which bears a sense of skillful consistency that belies the album’s casual creation. 

STAFF COMMENTS

says: Having long been a fan of both Helios and Goldmund, i'm very familiar with Keniff's work, but as Mint Julep, with wife Holly, the Keniff's tread a much more dynamic path. It's an intoxicating mix of dream-pop and IDM that is bolstered with a strong melodic focus. Beautiful.

TRACK LISTING

01 A Rising Sun
02 Black Maps
03 Mirage
04 Lure
05 Longshore Drift
06 Pulse
07 Lost
08 In Your Sleep
09 Shores
10 In The Ocean
11 Westerly

The Sydney-based three-piece Middle Kids, formed of lead singer and songwriter Hannah Joy, multi-instrumentalist Tim Fitz and drummer, Harry Day, release their second album, Today We’re The Greatest via Lucky Number. Recorded and produced in Los Angeles by Lars Stalfors (St. Vincent, Soccer Mummy, Purity Ring), the follow-up to the band’s award-winning 2018 debut, Lost Friends, is their most personal and courageous effort to date. Moving away from lyrics of a more conceptual nature, Today We’re The Greatest is the open, uninhibited product of fearless collaboration. Showing a real vulnerability, Joy is pulling directly from her own experiences and breaking down barriers she had previously set for herself. About the new record, she said: “I want to make music that loves its listener. Music that makes people feel seen, seen in the tiny little places that hide away in their hearts. I want people to hear our music, and feel a sense of love. And when I say love, it can be challenging, intense and tough. But it’s in the guts.” She added: “It can be easier to live dualistically, splitting the world in two. We want to be able say it’s this or it’s that, but sometimes it’s both -- and can we hold both? Can we hold the brokenness? Can we hold the beauty? That has definitely been a defining bit of this album, the fragility in that dance.

The album includes "nervy Strokes-esque floorfiller" (The Guardian) “R U 4 Me?” and their monumental new single, “Questions”, a charged three-minute odyssey which sees Joy struggle poetically with concepts of honesty and intimacy over an explosive rhythm section and a stunningly orchestrated brass-filled climax. As Joy explains, “Questions” is about the fallacies of intimate relationships; “I used to drink a lot and most of my previous relationships revolved around this. I don’t think I ever really knew them or they me as a result. Questions is about people being around each other but not being close. People who are in intimate relationships can stop asking questions of each other because they are uncomfortable and confusing.”

Other tracks like “Run With You”, were written when Joy was a few months into pregnancy with her and Tim Fitz, her husband and bandmate’s, first child. They recorded her 20-week sonogram, and wove the gentle, rapid thump of their baby boy’s beating heart into the last 20 seconds of the track -- an exuberant declaration of devotion. Joy’s journey to motherhood and her marriage with Fitz has imbued her songs with a vibrancy that’s unabashedly romantic yet free of clichés. There’s also “Stacking Chairs,” with its unique allegories and Joy’s sunny vocals, that strikes this delicate balance beautifully: it’s a testament to her deep connection with Fitz and the new, “infinitesimal” love that transformed their lives with their son’s arrival.

TRACK LISTING

1. Bad Neighbours
2. Cellophane (Brain)
3. R U 4 Me?
4. Questions
5. Lost In Los Angeles
6. Golden Star
7. Summer Hill
8. Some People Stay In Our Hearts Forever
9. Run With You
10. I Don’t Care
11. Stacking Chairs
12. Today We’re The Greatest

2020 was a terrible year for gardening. It was terrible for peppers, it was terrible for tomatoes, it was terrible for the condition of the soul. But Chad VanGaalen somehow raised a garden all the same: carrots and sprouts and broccoli and a revivifying new album, all of them grown at home. He likes to eat directly off the plant, he says—"I get down on my knees and graze. It's nice to feel the vegetables in your face"—and the 13 songs on World's Most Stressed Out Gardener were harvested with just such a spirit: in their raw state, young and vegetal, at the very moment, they were made. What that means is that the Calgary songwriter's new album is a psychedelic bumper crop. A collection of tunes that does away with obsessiveness, the anxiety of perfectionism, in favor of freshness and immediacy — capturing the world as it was met while recording alone at home over a period of years. "Don't overthink it," VanGaalen told himself again and again, despite the push/pull love/hate of his relationship with songwriting. "I'm always trying to get outside of the song—but then I realize I love the song."


This is a record that gleams with VanGaalen's musical signatures: found sound, reverb, polychromatic folk music that is by turns cartoonish and hyperphysical—like ultra magnified footage of a virus or a leaf. Apparently, the LP began life as a "pretty minimal" flute record. (There's only a vestige now, on "Flute Peace"—one of three instrumentals.) Later it became an electronic record "for a while" and finally, "right at the last second," it "turned into a pile of garbage." The good kind of garbage: glinting, useful, free. Music as compost—leaves, and branches ready to be re-ingested by the earth, turned into a flower. Throughout these 40 minutes, VanGaalen floats from mania to solace to oblivion, searching for zen in all the wrong places. "Turn up the radio / I think we’re dead," he sings on "Nothing Is Strange"; or, on the inside-out rocker "Nightmare Scenario": "You’re stressed out when you should be feeling very well." The singer's mental landscape is rotting and redemptive, beautiful in spite of itself—and his soundscapes reflect this fertile decay. He has been influenced by his instrumental work on TV scores (Dream Corp's third season began this fall), but still "nothing can really replace the human voice,” he admits. Like Arthur Russell or Syd Barrett, it’s VanGaalen’s vocals that shine a path through the swampland—from the cello-lashed “Water Brother” to “Starlight”’s krautrock pipe-dream. These days, VanGaalen cherishes the privacy of the studio, the capacity to wander around, get distracted, and "move at the speed of life."


Whereas once he would obsess over mic techniques, now he puts the microphone in the same place every time—trying to capture a song quickly, the idea at its heart. He'll act on his infatuations—for the flute, a squeaky clarinet, his basement's copper plumbing (remade into xylophones for "Samurai Sword")—and then he'll try to get out, "veering away from responsibility," before he overdoes his stay. In the end, it's like gardening. You have to live with your horrible decision-making; the weather's going to fuck you if it wants to; and if you plant a hundred heads of broccoli, "now you gotta eat a hundred heads of broccoli—or watch them go to seed." But mostly VanGaalen just tries to be a deer: "I remember seeing some deer come out in the Okanagan Valley once," he says, "watching them wait for a sunbeam to hit a perfect bunch of grapes—and then eating them right out of the sunbeam. I'd recommend that."

TRACK LISTING

Spider Milk
Flute Peace
Starlight
Where Is It All Going?
Earth From A Distance
Nightwaves
Plant Music
Nothing Is Strange
Inner Fire
Golden Pear
Nightmare Scenario
Samurai Sword
Water Brother

Rooted in English pagan and sacred music, Deep England is an electronic-choral expansion of Gazelle Twin’s 2018 album Pastoral (Anti-Ghost Moon Ray). Here, tracks from Pastoral, an album whose political themes have only intensified since its original release, are radically reworked and presented alongside original compositions by NYX, Paul Giovanni and William Blake.Gazelle Twin (aka Elizabeth Bernholz) and NYX, the electronic drone choir reshaping the role of the traditional female choir, originally created Deep England for live performance with Movement Director Imogen Knight, Sound Associate Peter Rice and Designer Chloe Lamford. The performance, described by The Times in their 4* review as a “spellbinding febrile techno-pagan pageant”, premiered at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in November 2019.

Deep England was transferred to the studio soon after, and the resulting album shows a powerful and often dreamlike Jarman-esque depiction of a country divided by its many selves. The performers are Adélaïde Pratoussy, Cecilia Forssberg, Elizabeth Bernholz, Natalie Sharp, Ruth Corey, Shireen Qureshi and Sian O’Gorman. The album was co-produced by Marta Salogni, Sian O’Gorman (NYX) and Elizabeth Bernholz (Gazelle Twin) with mix and additional programming by Marta Salogni, and mastering by Heba Kadry.

TRACK LISTING

01. Glory
02. Folly
03. Fire Leap
04: Better In My Day
05. Throne
06. Deep England
07. Golden Dawn
(08. Jerusalem *bonus Track On Download Coupon)

No One Sings Like You Anymore is Chris Cornell’s handpicked collection of 10 cover songs, which he personally selected and sequenced to celebrate artists and songs that inspired him, including John Lennon’s “Watching The Wheels,” Janis Joplin’s “Get It While You Can,” a new recording of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U,” Ghostland Observatory’s “Sad Sad City,” Harry Nilsson’s “Jump Into The Fire,” Carl Hall’s “You Don’t Know Nothing About Love,” Electric Light Orchestra’s “Showdown,” Terry Reid’s “To Be Treated Rite” and two songs currently available as digital singles, Lorraine Ellison’s “Stay With Me Baby” (originally released for HBO’s show Vinyl) and Chris’s 2020 chart topping hit “Patience” originally recorded by Guns N’ Roses.

TRACK LISTING

Get It While You Can (Side A)
Jump Into The Fire (Side A)
Sad Sad City (Side A)
Patience (Side A)
Nothing Compares 2 U (Side A)

Watching The Wheels (Side B)
You Don't Know Nothing About Love (Side B)
Showdown (Side B)
To Be Treated Rite (Side B)
Stay With Me Baby (Side B)

“A weird trip of a band…the second this was playing I was immediately hooked. I initially dove in because their name was attached to Mikey Young for mastering (I have a rule with Mikey…if he had his hands on it, it’s probably worth a listen). This band exceeds in all my trials.

“Esoteric nature, but oddly poppy and ready to prick up any ears out there. Deconstructed, but full of hooks. If I were a lazy man, and I am, I would say its for fans of PiL, but they transcend that pigeon-hole.

“Wonderful production lends its self to this unique LP. It seems as if the room expands and contracts throughout songs. Pulling away, then blocking your field of vision entirely. Wasteland funk. Dub from the depths. Punk from the pit. “Even the instrumentation is worth mentioning: saxophone, drums (and cut-up drums), guitar, synthesizer, vocals (poetry) and general fuckery all combine to make this a very interesting and worthwhile escape from the average. And thank the Gods for that right now. Inspired and desired by the active mind. A job well done by EXEK, and there’s new stuff brewing too...

“For fans of BEAK>, Phantom Band, PIL and general Jah Wobbleness, Magazine, short-wave radio, ESG and underground Kraut”. - John Dwyer.

TRACK LISTING

1. Submitted
2. A Hedonist
3. Foreign Lesions
4. Replicate
5. Baby Giant Squid

Special Request continues his impeccable run of form with a typically fervent entry into the DJ-Kicks mix series. His adventurous 25 track mix takes in personal favourites, new school classics and of course a selection of his own brand new and exclusive edits, dubs and reworks next to some overlooked gems.

Leeds based Paul Woolford dares to go where few others do. He can do face-melting underground bangers, peak time piano anthems, ambient cinematics or chart climbing crossover hits. What unites his work as Special Request across labels like Houndstooth and R&S, though, is precision engineering, but never at the expense of real, raw emotion and visceral impact. He is an artist who very much pours his heart into everything he does, and has been on such a prolific run in recent years that it has been impossible to keep abreast of all his many projects. Even in this mix, he hints at yet more new sides and sounds.

As always with Special Request, this is an emotional, full spirited ride through the musical mind of one of the most accomplished artists of the day.

TRACK LISTING

CD
1. Intergalactic Quartet - Shores Of Alpha **
2. Sun Ra & Solar Arkestra - Cluster Of Galaxies
3. Alicia Myers - Right Here Right Now (John Morales M+M Remix)
4. Harvey Sutherland - Priestess
5. Morgan Geist - Lullaby
6. Intergalactic Quartet - Delta Waves **
7. Special Request - KissFM NY87 Mastermix
8. Special Request - Vellichor **
9. AS ONE - We Are But Shadow
10. Virgo - R U Hot Enough?
11. Krystal Klear - Tun Valve
12. Speedy J - De-Orbit
13. LS1 Housing Authority - Ultraviolet **
14. AceMo - Sequence Of Life
15. Symbols & Instruments - Mood (Tropical Dream Revisited)
16. LS1 Housing Authority - Life Moves Fast **
17. µ-Ziq - Drocovums
18. Psyance - Gates Of Heaven
19. FC Kahuna - Hayling (Special Request Mix) **
20. µ-Ziq - Twangle Frent (Special Request Rework)
21. Galaxian - Glasgow To Detroit
22. Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse - Drowning In Her (Sonar’s Ghost VIP)
23. Special Request - Pull Up (Tim Reaper VIP)
24. Special Request - Elysian Fields **
25. 96 Back X Special Request - Petrichor **
** = Exclusive

LP (Unmixed)
A1. Alicia Myers - Right Here Right Now (John Morales M+M Remix)
A2. Harvey Sutherland - Priestess
B1. LS1 Housing Authority - Ultraviolet **
B2. Virgo - R U Hot Enough?
B3. Speedy J - De-Orbit
C1. Symbols & Instruments - Mood (Tropical Dream Revisited)
C2. Psyance - Gates Of Heaven
C3. µ-Ziq - Twangle Frent (Special Request Rework)
D1. FC Kahuna - Hayling (Special Request Mix) **
D2. Special Request - Elysian Fields **
** = Exclusive

Fabled as the city where dreams come to thrive or die, Johannesburg is forever pumping out the life-giving force of criss-crossing sonic tributaries. As this collection of specially recorded new music shows, every generation must discover for itself what perfecting the alchemy of that expression entails. Indaba Is - produced and managed by pianist Thandi Ntuli and The Brother Moves On bandleader Siyabonga Mthembu, tackles that inquiry with refreshing insight.

The act of gathering to record in a time of isolation becomes one of anchoring and care, creating an energy field and capturing a living culture of making music. It is one in which bands exist to birth musical concepts as opposed to being static monoliths. Mostly recorded at Dyertribe Studio in Centurion, outside of Johannesburg, Indaba Is propels a collective of South African bands into the precipice of a new frontier. Jazz becomes a departure point as opposed to a tether.

“The magic was in the choosing of artists who kind of straddle different genres, different ideas and sounds,” says Ntuli. “We put together musicians who are not in that kind of straight-ahead place, even though some may have been in the jazz tradition or jazz-influenced styles of music.” The collection features eight tracks, attributed to Bokani Dyer, Lwanda Gogwana, The Brother Moves On, Thandi Ntuli, The Wretched, Sibusile Xaba and Iphupho likaBiko. Think of the names as thresholds through which ideas cross into the populace as opposed to being signifiers of strict ownership. For one, there is no mistaking the almost spectral presence of both Ntuli and Mthembu in and around the music. “Between me and Thandi, we pick up on the producer duties for four of the tracks,” says Mthembu. “Some of the bands came with already preconceived ideas of what they wanted to do and needed just facilitation on getting it done.” Overall, the pair also provided enabling briefs which harnessed the collective energy of scenes often seen as operating centrifugally to Johannesburg’s all-consuming pull, or a little further down in its tiers of visibility. There are several examples where this approach yields astounding results.

Indigenous knowledge is perhaps at the root of it, and a reverence for its treasures is instant, but there is an overall sense that Indaba Is asks us to consider the heavy lifting that remains.

Johannesburg, a city without a landmark water source, built on excavating the energy of its living dead, has never sounded so world-weary, and yet so ready to emerge out of the hold. With its unity of purpose, Indaba Is represents the crucible, untenable to the touch yet warm to the soul.

TRACK LISTING

LP
A1. Bokani Dyer - Ke Nako
A2. The Brother Moves On - Umthandazo Wamagenge
B1. Lwanda Gogwana - All Ok
B2. The Wretched - What Is History
C1. Sibusile Xaba With Naftali, Fakazile Nkosi, & AshK - Umdali
C2. The Ancestors - Prelude To Writing Together
D1. Thandi Ntuli - Dikeledi
D2. IPhupho L’ka Biko Ft Siyabonga Mthembu & Kinsmen - Abaphezulu

CD
1. Bokani Dyer - Ke Nako
2. The Brother Moves On - Umthandazo Wamagenge
3. Lwanda Gogwana - All Ok
4. The Wretched - What Is History
5. Sibusile Xaba With Naftali, Fakazile Nkosi, & AshK - Umdali
6. The Ancestors - Prelude To Writing Together
7. Thandi Ntuli - Dikeledi
8. IPhupho L’ka Biko Ft Siyabonga Mthembu & Kinsmen - Abaphezulu

Soul Jazz Records’ new Studio One release ‘Rocksteady Got Soul’ is a collection of uplifting and superb rocksteady and soulful reggae from the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Studio One is the number one label in the history of reggae and the album features - as ever with Studio One - an impeccable and unbeatable line-up of reggae superstars, all soaring at the height of their creative powers. Alton Ellis, John Holt, The Heptones, Jackie Mittoo, The Ethiopians, Lee Perry and more.

The album is a mix of classic tunes and rhythms alongside rarities that were released in a dazzlingly complex web of Studio One labels and issues, deftly navigated with new sleeve notes from author and Studio One authority Rob Chapman, plus exclusive photography.

TRACK LISTING

Alton Ellis - It’s True
The Heptones - You Turned Away
The Gladiators - Mr Sweet
The Jail Breakers - Work It Up
Lee Perry & The Gaylads - Run Rudie Run
The Heptones - Young Generation
Jackie Mittoo - Good Feeling
C. Marshall - I Need Your Loving
Alton Ellis - I’ll Be Waiting
The Clarendonians - The Tables Gonna Turn
Ken Parker - When You’re Gone
Sound Dimension - Traveling Home
Errol Dunkley - Get Up Now
John Holt - My Heart Is Gone
Freedom Singers And Larry Marshall - Monkey Man
The Ethiopians - Let The Light Shine
Im And David - Money Maker
The Viceroys - Lose And Gain

The Underground Youth is a Manchester-born, Berlin-based group led by Craig Dyer that, on March 12th 2021, will release their tenth album, ‘The Falling’, via Fuzz Club Records. The new full-length sees Craig and band trade their acerbic post-punk melancholy for a more refined and stripped-back sound that, instead, enters the world of romantic, shadowy folk-noir. A marked departure from the primal intensity often heard on the band’s previous work, ‘The Falling’ showcases a softer, more cinematic musical landscape shaped by acoustic guitars, piano, accordion and a heavy presence of violin and string arrangements. It’s not just the instrumentation and atmospherics that have undergone a transformation on this record, it is also Craig’s most sincere and introspective work to date. “Lyrically this album finds me at my most honest and autobiographical. I still shroud the reality of what I have written within something of a fictional setting, but the honesty and the romance that shines throughout the record is more sincere than it has been in my previous work. The idea was to strip back the band to allow for lyrical breathing space”, Craig reflects on the album.

With the original plans of heading into the studio upon their return from their 2020 USA tour grinding to a halt – the tour cancelled midway through due to the Covid-19 outbreak and followed by months of isolation in their Berlin apartments – the album is also very much a product of the distressing and unfamiliar world we now find ourselves in. As a result of the pandemic, ‘The Falling’ was recorded between Craig and guitarist/producer Leo Kaage’s apartments-turned-home-studios (also in the band is Craig’s wife, the artist Olya Dyer, and Max James, who formerly played in Johnny Marr’s live band): “The album sees me going back to my writing approach from our earliest records, writing the demos as stripped back acoustic tracks at home. What started out as a set of romantic and deeply personal songs also took on the surrounding frustrations and feelings towards the situation we found ourselves in. Born from the heartbreak of how the worldwide pandemic has changed the industry we were thriving within, this album also functions as a love letter to the past.”

STAFF COMMENTS

says: The gloomy, post-punk atmospherics of Undergound Youth past is eschewed for a more subdued, Dylanny guitar and harmonica vibe. It's a testament to an act when they can shift direction quite so capably and 'The Falling' shows every bit of the skill of previous releases, but wrapped in a new skin.

TRACK LISTING

1) The Falling
2) Vergiss Mich Night
3) Egyptian Queen
4) And I…
5) A Sorrowful Race
6) For You Are The One
7) Cabinet Of Curiosities
8) Letter From A Young Lover 

Digging deep through old and new, Basso captures arcane woodland fusion, serene electronic suites and wide eyed Balearic bliss on this first Growing Bin compilation.

This collection celebrates those precious records which land in your life on their own terms. Even the most advanced digger will admit that chance is the secret ingredient in any successful haul. Sure, it helps if you know where to look, but if you arrive a day early at that secluded second hand shop, or an hour late at the convention, you might miss out on a rare sight of sound. But there are still ways to skew the odds in your favour. Even in the most crowded urban environment, a solitary tree soon becomes a nest, and Basso’s fostered an abundant garden in his Hamburg hometown. A decade on and the Growing Bin is a safe haven for those exquisite sounds crowded out of the mainstream, the rare birds with the most striking song.

‘Coffee’ comes right after cocoa in the bin’s headquarter, though start your morning with One Tongue and be prepared for a different kind of day. A witch’s brew spiced with a hint of Durian and the early bird, this 1990 composition could be the blueprint for the Teutonic trance dancers beloved by the Salon set. A more meditative magic flows through the A2, a smooth blend of fusion guitar, softly syncopated drums and counterpoint keys from one time art-rockers Inandout. This Growing Bin favourite from their ’93-95’ LP sounds right at home beside the majestic melodies and spheric bass of Matthias Raue’s ‘Brücke am schwarzen Fluss 2’. Taken from the soundtrack to a TV drama filmed in Mali, this digital homage to African rhythm shimmies in step with New Age dancers from Mkwaju Ensemble and Louis Crelier. The A-side ends with the unbridled optimism of Kosmische maverick Hardy Kukuk. The synthesist hit the studio with friends Karsten Raecke and Andreas Schneider in 86, coalescing crystalline electronics and gentle guitar into tender chord progressions suited for sun bathing beside the Sea of Tranquility.

The second side slinks into motion with the deep beauty and sincere spoken word of Frank Suchland’s ’Schnee’, a subtle body in a cocoon of reverb which takes Sade’s ‘I Never Thought I’d See The Day’ to another level of placidness. Melancholic Germans Die Fische met in Cairo for the first time, and ‘Conversation Of Everyday Lovers’ could be the theme for that great city. Underpinned by primal percussion and a restrained groove, the track twists and turns between a trio of ineffable motifs, eternal combinations to the catacombs of Abusir. From there we go sublime, soaring skywards with a ten minute triumph from Hugh Mane. Balancing concentric sequences and space age synth riffs atop an irresistible breakbeat and bubbling bassline, the British producer finds a sensuous sweet-spot between fellow Growing Bin affiliates Krakatau and Singu.

Lucky are we who hear the Bin’s sounds.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: After showcasing his curatorial skills via a Comp Of The Year on MFD, Basso digs deep for a first compilation on his own Growing Bin. Woodland fusion, Balearic jams, sultry ambient and hazy wave await on this brilliant compilation.

TRACK LISTING

A1. One Tongue - Coffee 
A2. IAO - Helium Ills
A3. Matthias Reue - Brucke Am Schwarzen Fluss 2
A4. Hardy Kukuk - Freundschaft
B1. Frank Suchland - Schnee
B2. Die Fische - Conversation Of Everyday Lovers 
B3. Hugh Mane - Out In The Ether

Conjuring a next-generation fusion of folk, soul, gospel, country and transcendental blues, The Moon and Stars, Prescriptions For Dreamers, Valerie June’s third full-length album for Fantasy Records is a deeply affecting work of genuine beauty and unassuming wonder.

Produced by Jack Splash (Kendrick Lamar, Alicia Keys, John Legend) and Valerie June and recorded at Fresh Young Minds in Los Angeles, CA and Hit Factory Criteria in Miami, FL., the new album is her first release since 2017’s highly acclaimed The Order of Time and features 11 songs and three musical interludes, all written by Valerie.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: A nice mix of beautifully played instruments, delicate electronic flourishes and June's arresting and haunting voice make for a modern country-blues album that'll stand the test of time. Get those camera phones in the air folks!

TRACK LISTING

1. Stay
2. Stay Meditation
3. You And I
4. Colors
5. Stardust Scattering
6. African Proverb
7. Call Me A Fool
8. Fallin
9. Smile
10. Within You
11. Two Roads
12. Why The Bright Stars Glow
13. Home Inside
14. Starlight Ethereal Silence

One of the most highly-regarded modern Brazilian jazz trios, Caixa Cubo have announced details of the release of Angela, their latest album, and first to be licensed for European release by Heavenly Recordings.

Recorded in December 2018, the album features the singer Zé Leônidas on Palavras, and includes arrangements of songs like Baião Malandro by Egberto Gismonti and Dark Prince by Geri Allen, in addition to the group's original compositions.

Made up of Henrique Gomide (keys), João Fideles (drums) and Noa Stroeter (bass) the trio have split their time between Brazil and Europe in recent years, having been awarded scholarships to study at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, Netherlands.

They have performed at many respected European venues and festivals including Jazz à Vienne Festival (France), Anton Philip Hall (The Hague), A-Trane (Berlin), Riverboat Festival (Denmark) and others in Paris, Brussels, London, Birmingham, Lisbon, Rotterdam. They also performed in Maputo, Mozambique, as well as renowned venues in Brazil, mainly in Sao Paulo (Auditório Ibirapuera, SESC Consolação, Museu da Casa Brasileira).

Talking about Caixa Cubo and the album, the British DJ, broadcaster, producer, writer and jazz lover, Patrick Forge said:

It used to be the case that young Brazilians were either oblivious to or disdainful of their musical heritage, such was the omnipotence of “baile funk” and the influence of foreign music. (Heavy Metal acts that could barely get a booking in the U.K. selling out stadiums?!). A perplexing conundrum for those like myself who’ve found so much to treasure in those traditions, particularly from the 60s and 70s when Brazilian music culture reached an apotheosis of creativity.

It’s been so gratifying in recent years to witness a renaissance of those musical values, as a young generation of players more connected to worldwide trends have also sought to reconnect with their own lineage. Brazilian musicians have a unique feel, perhaps samba has literally infused their DNA, no matter what style or approach they take there is always that indigenous quality to the music.

Caixa Cubo are a jazz-fusion trio who plug in to a current of Brazilian music that was exemplified by Azymuth in the 70s; though these three players have their own twist. A touch darker and less obviously Brazilian, there is something so fundamental and pure about their sound, the interaction sounds fresh and spontaneous, intimate and real.

This is a record that will continue to delight with repeated listening such is the quality and grace of the playing. The sole vocal track Palavras (featuring Ze Leonidas) is a beguiling beauty evocative of Milton Nascimento and the best of Brazil’s melodic and harmonic traditions. Their version of Egbert Gismonti’s Baiao Malandro spins the off the wall funk of one of Brazil’s greatest composers into a more digestible contemporary form without losing any of its madcap brilliance. A triumph that will translate as well to fans of Yussef Kamaal and the younger generation of jazz converts as to seasoned old heads like myself.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: Laid back, rich jazz beaming with Brazilian elegance, a true feast for the ears whilst hammocking in the sunshine.

TRACK LISTING

1 Angela
2 Khanimambo
3 Palavras
4 Lua Nova
5 Dark Prince
6 Acalanto
7 Baião Malandro

'The Art of Losing' is the second album from Welsh multi-instrumentalist The Anchoress (aka Catherine Anne Davies), following up on her critically acclaimed debut album, 'Confessions of A Romance Novelist', which was named amongst the Guardian critics' Albums of the Year, won HMV's Welsh Album of the Year, Best Newcomer at the PROG awards, and a nomination for the Welsh Music Prize. Written and produced by Davies, the new album features guest performances from James Dean Bradfield (Manic Street Preachers) and drums from Sterling Campbell (David Bowie, Duran Duran) along with the mixing talents of Dave Eringa (Manics, Wilko Johnson) and grammy-award winner Mario McNulty (David Bowie, Prince, Laurie Anderson).

'The Art Of Losing' ambitiously navigates the topic of loss in all its forms and was written and recorded during an unfeasibly busy few years as Davies found solace and purpose in a range of projects whilst navigating her griefs. Most recently this came via the release of her collaborative album 'In Memory of My Feelings' with Bernard Butler (on Pete Paphides' label Needle Mythology), duetting with the Manic Street Preachers on 'Resistance Is Futile', and being personally invited by The Cure's Robert Smith to perform at his Meltdown Festival. She also brought a new generation of ears to legendary Scottish rock band Simple Minds, where she spent much of the last five years appearing on the 'Big Music' (2015) and 'Walk Between Worlds' (2018) albums. 

STAFF COMMENTS

says: 'The Art Of Losing' shows a superb grasp of melody and drive while still retaining the more nuanced songwriting and groove, reminiscent of recent shop hitters, The International Teachers of Pop or the superb new Róisín Murphy LP. Davies maintains the quality of her previous outing, pushing things a little further and that little bit more danceable. Superb.

TRACK LISTING

CD
1. Moon Rise ( Prelude ) ( 02:51 )
2. Let It Hurt ( 03:37 )
3. The Exchange Feat. James Dean Bradfield
4. Show Your Face ( 04:27 )
5. The Art Of Losing ( 04:07 )
6. All Farewells Should Be Sudden ( 05:02 )
7. All Shall Be Well ( 01:39 )
8. Unravel ( 04:05 )
9. Paris ( 02:01 )
10. 5AM ( 04:02 )
11. The Heart Is A Lonesome Hunter ( 04:06 )
12. My Confessor ( 03:56 )
13. With The Boys ( 05:57 )
14. Moon ( An End ) ( 02:52 )


LP X 2
1. Moon Rise ( Prelude ) ( 02:51 )
2. Let It Hurt ( 03:37 )
3. The Exchange Feat. James Dean Bradfield
1. Show Your Face ( 04:27 )
2. The Art Of Losing ( 04:07 )
3. All Farewells Should Be Sudden ( 05:02 )
4. All Shall Be Well ( 01:39 )
1. Unravel ( 04:05 )
2. Paris ( 02:01 )
3. 5AM ( 04:02 )
4. The Heart Is A Lonesome Hunter ( 04:06 )
1. My Confessor ( 03:56 )
2. With The Boys ( 05:57 )
3. Moon ( An End ) ( 02:52 )

LP X 2 + 7"
1. Moon Rise ( Prelude ) ( 02:51 )
2. Let It Hurt ( 03:37 )
3. The Exchange Feat. James Dean Bradfield
1. Show Your Face ( 04:27 )
2. The Art Of Losing ( 04:07 )
3. All Farewells Should Be Sudden ( 05:02 )
4. All Shall Be Well ( 01:39 )
1. Unravel ( 04:05 )
2. Paris ( 02:01 )
3. 5AM ( 04:02 )
4. The Heart Is A Lonesome Hunter ( 04:06 )
1. My Confessor ( 03:56 )
2. With The Boys ( 05:57 )
3. Moon ( An End ) ( 02:52 )
1. Unravel ( 7" Mix ) ( 03:34 )
1. Small Black Flowers That Grow In The Sky ( 03:09 )


3 CD Set
1. Moon Rise ( Prelude ) ( 02:51 )
2. Let It Hurt ( 03:37 )
3. The Exchange Feat. James Dean Bradfield
4. Show Your Face
5. The Art Of Losing ( 04:07 )
6. All Farewells Should Be Sudden ( 05:02 )
7. All Shall Be Well ( 01:39 )
8. Unravel ( 04:05 )
9. Paris ( 02:01 )
10. 5AM ( 04:02 )
11. The Heart Is A Lonesome Hunter ( 04:06 )
12. My Confessor ( 03:56 )
13. With The Boys ( 05:57 )
14. Moon ( An End )
1. Show Your Face ( Original Keys Demo ) ( 04:24 )
2. The Art Of Losing ( P Dub Alt Mix ) ( 04:06 )
3. Unravel ( P Dub Alt Mix ) ( 04:04 )
4. The Heart Is A Lonesome Hunter ( Original Demo Version ) ( 04:01 )
5. Show Your Face ( P Dub Alt Mix ) ( 04:24 )
6. With The Boys ( Original Demo Version ) ( 05:34 )
7. All Shall Be Well ( Instrumental Version ) ( 01:41 )
8. Paris ( Instrumental Version ) ( 01:56 )
9. Unravel ( Original String Demo ) ( 03:28 )
10. The Exchange (Dictaphone Writing Demo)
11. Let It Hurt ( Dictaphone Writing Demo ) ( 01:57 )
1. The Exchange Feat. James Dean Bradfield (Hinako Omori Remix)
2. Unravel ( Cross Bone T Remix ) ( 04:32 )
3. Show Your Face ( Worriedaboutsatan Remix ) ( 04:59 )
4. The Art Of Losing ( Jermaine Soul Remix ) ( 04:33 )
5. The Exchange Feat. James Dean Bradfield (Jermaine Soul Remix)

Modern rap's prolific, unapologetic, wry and perhaps funniest contributor: Your Old Droog drops another full length on his own label, Mongoloid Banks. Carrying on where "Jewelry", which discussed the rappers Jewish heritage left off, it connects the listener to his Ukranian and Eastern European roots and what it's like to be a Russian-speaking immigrant in Brooklyn. 

Executive produced by Mach-Hommy and Tha God Fahim, its tight, distilled production give the perfect floor for Droog's vivid story telling and quick-fired, trascendent lyrical skills. Featuring appearances El-P (Run The Jewels), Black Thought (The Roots), Phonte (Little Brother), and Billy Woods, "Dump YOD: Krutoy Edition" sees our favourite MC further cement as one of the sharpest on the scene at present. Recommended. 

STAFF COMMENTS

says: It's still impossible to fault him - remaining true to his identity, still not selling out and still churning out some of the creative, humble and understated bars on the block. Another winner from the main man.

TRACK LISTING

1. Dump YOD Intro
2. Kazakhstan
3. Ukraine
4. New Religion (feat. Tha God Fahim And Mach-Hommy)
5. Matryoshka
6. Odessa (feat. Billy Woods)
7. Malchishka Krutoy (feat. Tvoy)
8. Babushka III
9. Uzbekistan (feat. Phonte And Mach-Hommy)
10. Pravda (feat. Mach-Hommy, EI-P, Tha God Fahim And Black Thought)
11. Kyrgyzstan
12. Dump YOD Outro 

Mirry is one of those rare projects where the story seems so absolutely magical, that it’s almost impossible to imagine such beauty being lost in the shadows for so long.

30 years ago, Edinburgh based musician Tom Fraser was helping with the house clearance after his grandfather’s death and found an old scratched Transco record left out on the street. He took it home where it sat on a shelf for years until one day during lockdown, he gave it a play - and a whole world opened up to him - his Great Aunt Mirry had recorded a number of piano compositions which she had kept secret from her family. Since then, Tom has been re-working and re-mixing her compositions with his brother-in- law Simon Tong (The Verve, The Good the Bad and the Queen, and The Magnetic North) and together with project curator Kirsteen McNish they hope that this secret life will now reach beyond Mirry’s own four walls.

Mirabel Lomer was born in 1906 to a military family and for the best part of her life stayed at home in Ireland looking after her elderly parents. In the early 1950s she became a paid companion to another elderly couple in Wiltshire, both of whom she nursed until they died. While most of her life was spent caring for others it also transpired that Mirry had written music (despite the fact that as a young woman, her father actively discouraged her playing music in the family home). In quiet rebellion and creative escape, she composed this piano music secretly and her nephew and confidant Geoffrey captured it on his tape recorder.

Like untold numbers of women whose creative lives didnt find an outlet, Mirry never received any accolades for her work but enjoyed the act of creating work for herself. She died in the 1980s but the story of Mirry’s music and secret life is still unfolding.

The resulting album “Mirry” by Fraser and Tong is a celebration of Mirry’s work and a call and response to her original recordings with her family members – almost as if she were still in a room with them.

Since then Tong has retrieved whatever else he could find in the family attic. Hundreds of Stereoscopic slides, super-8 films, photography, stories, poetry and further recordings were found, all recorded by her nephew, (now in his nineties) who believes Mirry would be delighted that her work would be heard many years down the line.

Tong said “This project hopes to shine a light on carers, and how ones creative work can live on and continue to reverberate and evolve long after it’s original conception”

STAFF COMMENTS

says: I was (am) a big fan of The Books, and Mirry certainly shares elements of that kind of patchworked loop business, but what really sets this apart is the gorgeous depth of the brittle piano and organic echoes of the ambient instrumentation surrounding it. Really transportive and intoxicating suite of hazy ambience and almost veers into ragtime piano in parts too.

TRACK LISTING

Anthem
Idyll
Study In B Flat Minor
Caragh Lake
Study In F
Consolation
Reverie
Anthem Reprise
Nicholas And Alexandra

Cool Ghouls - a band fledged in San Francisco on house shows, minimum wage jobs, BBQ's in Golden Gate Park and the romance of a city’s psychedelic history turns 10 this year. What better a decennial celebration than the release of their fourth album, At George's Zoo!

How did San Francisco's fab four arrive at George's Zoo? The teenage friendship of complimentary spirits Pat McDonald (Guitar/Vox) and Pat Thomas (Bass/Vox) serves as square one. The Patricks were munching on Eggo-waffle-sandwiches and downing warm vokda in suburban Benicia (San Francisco bay) years before McDonald would hear George Clinton address his fans as "Cool Ghouls". The boys played their debut gig as Cool Ghouls at San Francisco's legendary The Stud in 2011, but there's no doubt the musical moment cementing the band's trajectory was much earlier at the 18th birthday party for boy-wonder Ryan Wong (Guitar/Vox) - at the Wong household.

You might remember the Ghouls' earliest days... McDonald’s hair hung luxuriously past his waist, Thomas dreamt of no longer having to crash on friends' couches to call SF home and Wong looked forward to turning 21. Cool Ghouls' Pete Best, Cody Voorhees, thrashed wildly – but briefly - on the drums and Alex Fleshman (Drums), who still claims he's not really "a drummer", turned out to be a really good drummer. Thomas would sleep pee on tour. Those were golden days!

Flash forward to today and everything is up in flames. No shows, parties or bars. Cool people are streaming out of SF. It's been 2 years since the last time Cool Ghouls have even played. The STUD is gone, The Eagle Tavern is for sale and The Hemlock has been demolished for condos. Your boss is an app. Fascism is no-knocking down the door. There's a pandemic.

Fortunately for us, the Ghouls got an album in before it all went to shit, and they made it count. At George's Zoo includes 15 of the 27 tunes they managed to eke out while simultaneously working through major life moves. It was a 5-month, all out, final sprint down the homestretch (to Ryan's moving day) with affable engineer Robby Joseph, at his makeshift garage studio in the Outer Sunset (pictured on the cover). Instead of recording the entire album over a few consecutive days - like they'd done with Tim Cohen, Sonny Smith and Kelley Stoltz for the first three LPs - the band took it slow by working through a few songs each weekend after rehearsing them the week before. Robby would cue up the tape, McDonald would throw some steaks on the grill and they'd get to work - much to the neighbor, George's, chagrin.

These guys have a real commitment to elevating as songwriters, musicians and ensemble players. It's always been for the music with Cool Ghouls and this long-awaited self-produced outing is a track by track display of the ground they've covered and heights they can achieve. Their vocals and trademark harmonies are front and center and out-of-control-good. Ryan's guitar solos are incredible. The horns by Danny Brown (sax) and Andrew Stephens (trumpet) hit in all the right places. Maestro, Henry Baker (Pat Thomas Band / Tino Drima), plays keys throughout. There's even a mesmerizing string section ("Land Song") by sonic polyglot, Dylan Edrich.

None of this growth is to the detriment of the fun, natural, feeling that fans have come to expect from the band. This is a fully realized Cool Ghouls album. It paints a remarkable portrait of SF's homegrown heroes and the many corners they've explored over the last decade. The songwriting, harmony and playing are nothing if not solid. The lyrics are keen. Robby's recording and mixing sound great start to finish and even better after mastering by Mikey Young. It's a triumphant addition to their catalogue. Recommended for Stooges and Beach Boys fans alike. Listen and see!

Yes, many things have changed since 2011. Who knows what the 20's will have in store for life on Earth, let alone the Cool Ghouls? We at least know that 2021 has At George's Zoo for us, a beautiful keepsake from the Before Times when we used to stand in living rooms together while bands played.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: Airy bedroom pop meets hazy west-coast psychedelia, with a measure of garage-rock thrown in for good measure. Dreamy but while retaining a palpable sense of drive and forwards momentum. Woozy, lysergic beats and swimming vox meet perfectly atop the psych backdrop. Lovely.

TRACK LISTING

1. It's Over
2. To You I'm Bound
3. Smoke & Fire
4. Flying
5. Land Song
6. In Michoacan
7. How Free
8. Helpless Circumstance
9. The Way I Made You Cry
10. 26th St. Blues
11. Surfboard
12. I Was Wrong
13. Feel Like Getting High
14. Look In Your Mirror
15. Living Grateful

Founded by childhood friends Evan Stephens Hall and Zack Levine, Pinegrove have already crafted three fantastic albums - Everything So Far (2015), Cardinal (2016), and Skylight (2018) – and achieved massive critical acclaim and a widespread and devoted listenership. The band’s latest album (and first for Rough Trade) Marigold, arrived in January of 2020, and its themes of reflection and resilience have resonated through an especially tumultuous year. Now with tours cancelled and time on their hands, the band have decided to put together something special for their fans.

Amperland, NY is yet another full album, this time accompanying a feature film of the same name. The collection features 21 brand new studio recordings spanning Pinegrove’s career & catalog, captured upstate in the house where the band lived and recorded for 4 years – a place they lovingly referred to as “Amperland”. But all good things (and leases) come to an end, and before they bid adieu to the space permanently, they gathered together for one last performance with friends and family.

Featuring original member and keyboardist/vocalist Nandi Rose (Half Waif) on many tracks – this collection will thrill old and new listeners alike – with the band breathing new life into fan favorites and deep cuts. From acoustic versions to unique arrangements featuring piano, pedal steel and organ, Amperland, NY touches on notes of folk and progressive rock previously unheard on their studio albums. This will be an essential addition to the Pinegrove catalog and encompasses all of the earnest and ecstatic live energy the band is known for.

The beautiful double album will be housed in a heavyweight matte gatefold package and comes with a fully annotated script and behind the scenes photos from the film. 

STAFF COMMENTS

says: A beautifully composed and wonderfully written juxtaposition of swooning Americana and shimmering post-rock, wrapped in a deeply melodic and rich folky background. Pinegrove take in influence from everywhere but manage to make it into an exciting and cohesive whole.

TRACK LISTING

Moment
Dotted Line
No Drugs
The Alarmist
Morningtime
Sunday
Alcove
Thanksgiving
Peeling Off The Bark
On Jet Lag
The Metronome
Skylight
Spiral
Overthrown
Hairpin
Need
Endless
Amulets/Light On
Paterson & Leo
Phase
Intrepid

Production supergroup Quakers are Portishead’s Geoff Barrow aka Fuzzface, Portishead engineer 7STU7 and Ashley Anderson aka Supa K.

Released on double LP around Quakers’ longawaited second album, ‘II: The Next Wave’, ‘Supa K: Heavy Tremors’ showcases the very best in instrumental hip-hop production.

Album artwork created by graphic novel artist Joe Currie.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: Leftfield hip-hop royalty, Quakers return with another jam-packed almanac full of the tastiest instrumentals around. Ditch those lame ass drill sample packs that are plaguing rap and try freestyling to this hot shit!

TRACK LISTING

Like A Drum
Speak 2 Me
Loud Music
Lets Get It
Life’s Highway
Flavor
Down Here
My People
It’s Here
Listen
Producer
I Know
The Gravy
Meditation
Magic
Power Struggle
Boogie Electric
Low Gear
Oh Shit
Blow Out
Spark Em
Wicked
Sucka
My Man
Sleep Talker
1967
Short Circuit
Zodiac
No Fakes
I Tried So Hard
WW3
Rain
Told Y’all
Think Positive
Lousy Odds
Heavy Tremor
It’s On
Ain’t Seen U Lately
First Light
Bust A Beat
Sparrow
Discrepancy
The Backburn
Liberation Is Near
Supa Fine
Bad Bwoy
Hang On
A Few Dollars More
A New Day
Think I’m Finished

Heady power pop trio Portable Radio announce the release of their debut eponymous LP on March 12th 2021 on Crimson Crow Records. Lead track and first single Hot Toddy, out in February, introduces the album with its ethereal brooding pop arrangement.

Some years ago, the world started to go weird – and that’s when the then duo, Portable Radio, decided it was as good a time as any, to start making first steps.

Phil … and Mof … shared some messages and a love of melodies, and as a gift to friends and those feeling the weight of everything, recorded a version of Brian Wilson’s gorgeous opus, ‘Love & Mercy’. The result was enough for them to start writing songs, and the blueprint for Portable Radio was born – hope, empathy, fun, love, and mercy.

Phil had cut his teeth in the Beep Seals and Mof was a DJ and student of pop, and in each other they both wanted to make music that was a tonic for the times; what transpired was a clutch of songs that were filled with uplifting, rich harmonies – stirring power pop inspired by Todd Rundgren, Wings, Carole King, Electric Light Orchestra, NRBQ, Emitt Rhodes, ‘70s West Coast AOR, The Zombies, and of course, The Beach Boys.

The duo released their Baroque Pop debut single with You Are The Cosmos recordings – the double A-Side of ‘Seven Hills’ and ‘Parades’. A cult following started and some shows and radio sessions ensued, joined by extended family – tap room-Mozart Jim Noir, shed-pop wizard Aidan Smith, and Phil’s previous bandmate, the supremely talented Ian Smith (Beep Seals/Alfie).

Soon, Robyn Gibson (The Junipers/Bob Of The Pops) joined the ranks for their star turn and appearance on the ‘12 String High’ compilation. The two becoming a trio, the output cranked up, seeing the release of the debut Portable Radio EP (produced by Jim Noir) and the Christmas Selection Box, all loaded with killer hooks, washes of dreamy harmonies, and just a sprinkling of cynicism because no-one is impervious to the all-encompassing weirdness of the last couple of years.

All of these things were the groundwork for the imminent full-length, self-titled debut, out in March 2021. The LP (vinyl/download/streaming) is full to bursting with big choruses, reflective popsike, FM ready pop, melancholic ballads, with each song is treated like it’s going to be a single.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: This is superb, a wonderfully listenable and eminently danceable collection of rock hooks, silken synth lines and perfectly balanced vocal leads. Owing debts to everything from 60's psychedelic, through disco all the way up to modern indie-pop or synth music. It's a beguiling and entrancing listen, and one that makes us eager for whatever comes next!

TRACK LISTING

1) Hot Toddy
2) Darling Hold On
3) Should’ve Bounced
4) Worst Case Scenario
5) Rise Above
6) And I
7) Colour Me Impressed
8) The Switch
9) Everything Is Fine
10) Walk Of Shame
11) Kick Me Out

Guedra Guedra presents Vexillology, an elevation of tribal consciousness and futurism from underground musical universes. The album offers listeners an immersive experience made from hypnotic and rhythmic arrangements, rooted in ancient culture. Referring as much to Sub-Saharan as to North African cultures, Guedra Guedra presents a synthesis of his pan-African appreciation and a full immersion into the traditional rhythms of these lands, especially within the Berber culture which is found in countries such as his home of Morocco, and across Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Northern Mali, Northern Niger and beyond. The body of work is a complete celebration of cultural roots and future bass, bubbling in hotbeds of the global underground.

Guedra Guedra is synonymously known for his ability to explore tribal rhythms and instruments of the past, as well as dancefloor innovations from contemporary underground scenes. For Vexillology and in true Guedra Guedra style, a myriad of immersive recording techniques were applied. The album is built upon a multitude of field recordings capturing live and ‘in the moment’ cultural happenings, encountered in everyday life, at tribal festivities and also on his travels. By also using video in his field recordings, Guedra Guedra enables himself to encapsulate the heat and entirety of the moment, applying this ‘moment’ and evolving it into his productions.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Seven Poets
A2. Stampede Step
A3. Complementariness
A4. When I Run
A5. Cercococcyx
A6. Clapping
B1. The Arc Of Three Colours
B2. Archetype
B3. People’s Cabaret
B4. Aura
B5. 40 Feet
B6. Berber Is An Alien

The Home Current

Danish musician resident in Luxembourg, The Home Current has released music on labels such as Polytechnic Youth, Castles In Space, Modern Aviation, Woodford Halse and Static Caravan. His album Civilian Leather made it onto Electronic Sound's Top 30 electronic album list for 2019. Remixer and vinyl DJ supporting acts including The Orb, Dreadzone, Autechre, Primal Scream and The Shamen, including slots at Roskilde and Distortion festivals.

Lonely Mountain Records

Independent Record Label established 2019, to release the finest electronica, ambient, psych and all things in between. Sister company to Independent Records store Eclipse Records, Walsall

STAFF COMMENTS

says: This latest Home Current offering follows on thematically from the superb Cylinder Moses (the first release for Lonely Mountain records), and sees Jensen joined by a few familiar collaborators. It's a brilliantly produced and typically diverse ride through downbeat electronica, flickering glittery disco and psychedelic nu-rave. It's a beguiling and gorgeous distillation of everything that makes Jensen's music so singular, and so brilliantly enjoyable.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Little Feelings
A2 Ku’damm Blues
A3 Mexico (feat. Visage Pale)
B1 Just Before Your Love
B2 Final Logic
B3 Aquamarine (feat. Oliver Cherer)
C1 Make Me
C2 Mornings In Loud
C3 Romford Street Scene
D1 Partial Attention
D2 Airbed Pops
D3 The Coyote Kiss

Nubiyan Twist return with their brand new album ‘Freedom Fables’ on Strut on 5th February, the follow-up to the acclaimed ‘Jungle Run’ from Spring 2019.

Woven around soul searching, cautionary tales and parables for modern life, the new album is the most accomplished yet by the Leeds / London collective, effortlessly fusing different soul, jazz and global styles with great musicianship and lyrics. “Freedom Fables reflects on the power of narratives. Each vocalist on this record explores their own memoirs, a freedom of expression underpinning our belief that music is the ultimate narrative for unity,” explains Tom Excell. “The record references a lot of music that we all loved during our formative years; you can hear touches of broken beat, blunted hip hop, highlife, Latin, jazz and UK soul running through the tracks.”

The album is also packed full with illustrious guest appearances: regular collaborator Cherise features on the brilliant ‘Tittle Tattle’, calling out gossip through acerbic nursery rhyming, the loping ‘Flow’ dealing with the ebb and flow of anxiety and the epic Brazilian jazz workout, ‘Keeper’; UK jazz saxman Soweto Kinch brings a burning alto solo and rhymes to the determined ‘Buckle Up’ alongside the band’s own vocalist Nick Richards as the track aims to “find the door to peace” among life’s challenges. “Soweto is a trailblazer of the UK scene both as an alto player and as a rapper with a unique flow and important lyricism,” reflects Tom Excell. “It was really important for us to invite him to contribute to the album.” Richards continues the “dust yourself off and find hope” theme on the rousing ‘Wipe Away Tears’; Ghanaian great Pat Thomas voices a gorgeous Accra meets London highlife jam; massive new vocal talent Ria Moran (a contemporary from the band’s time at Leeds College Of Music) steps up on the sensual ‘Morning Light’ tackling delicate complexities of the heart and long time friend of the band, KOG, brings his trademark full strength Afro dancefloor energy.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: Funky in parts, soulful throughout and beaming good vibes and positive attitude, Nubiyan Twist could be that perfect tonic for garden parties and park gatherings once the lockdown rules are lifted.

TRACK LISTING

1. Morning Light Feat Ria Moran
2. Tittle Tattle Feat Cherise
3. Ma Wonka Feat Pat Thomas
4. Buckle Up Feat Soweto Kinch
5. Keeper Feat Cherise
6. If Only Feat Ruby Wood
7. 24-7 Feat Ego Ella May
8. Flow Feat Cherise
9. Wipe Away Tears Feat Nick Richards
10. If I Know Feat Kog

After a 7-year hiatus, funk legend Steve Arrington returns with his uplifting and soulful new album ‘Down To The Lowest Terms: The Soul Sessions’, with artists including Mndsgn, Knxwledge and Jerry Paper on production. The album portrays his diversity of influences, which sees Arrington drawing on funk, soul, jazz, electronic and R&B.  

Steve Arrington is known for his innovative vocals on classics including ‘Watching You’ and ‘Just A Touch of Love’, with Slave, as well as his solo work with tracks including ‘Dancin’ in the Key of Life’, ‘Weak at the Knees’ and ‘Nobody Can Be You’. His music has greatly influenced the hip hop generation, having been sampled by Jay-Z, A Tribe Called Quest, Pharrell, 50 Cent, 2Pac, De La Soul, Snoop Dogg and many more.  

‘Down To The Lowest Terms: The Soul Sessions’ is Steve Arrington’s first solo album since 2009’s ‘Pure Thang’. 

Arrington’s recent collaboration with Thundercat on the single ‘Black Qualls’, for his album ‘It Is What It Is’, was added to the BBC 6 Music A-List and performed live on Jimmy Kimmel. Arrington’s latest release was the collaboration ‘Higher’ with Dam-Funk in 2013, praised by Pitchfork, Exclaim! and more.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: Rich in authentic, old school, proper FUNK; this one should appeal to fans of George Clinton's many projects as well as any newer modern funk devotees coming from the PPU, Star Creature angle. TIP!

TRACK LISTING

1. The Joys Of Love
2. Make A Difference
3.Soulful I Need That In My
4. Life
5. Keep Dreamin'
6. Love Knows
7. My Favorite Swing
8. Good Mood
9. Love Is Gone
10. Work On It
11. You’re Not Ready
12. Make Ya Say Yie
13. All I Wanna Do
14. It’s Alright

A warm welcome back to cheeky downtempo twosome Bent, who hear offer up their first studio set for 14 years. Up in the Air is full of neat reminders that what made them so popular first time round, namely a seductive, slinky, atmospheric, sample-heavy sound that tended towards the tongue-in-cheek and was more likely to draw influence from dodgy, radio-friendly 1980s soft-rock singles and vintage easy listening than obscure Balearic beats or austere electronica. There are of course a few differences - it's far more polished than their early works, and even more musically detailed - but for the most part this is vintage Bent. Given how miserable the world is right now, it's rather nice to listen to an album that prioritises cheeriness, quirkiness and musical colour above all else.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Take 15
A2. Come On Home
B1. When You Come By
B2. Eagle & Swan
C1. A Girl Like You
C2. Misty
D1. Remove All Clocks
D2. Friends

Dies Occidendum is a mythical voyage across fog-laden, scorched earth terrain from the original friar of dark hip hop, Dj Muggs the Black Goat. Known and revered as the sonic mastermind behind both Cypress Hill and his own Soul Assassins imprint, here Muggs sheds the MCs and presents his latest dark-soaked productions as an illuminated manuscript of sorts; a fully immersive, instrumental soundtrack to the mysterious Dies Occidendum. No one wields the Excalibur of sonic darkness quite like Muggs. Combining ingredients of psych rock, gypsy folk with modern elements of trap, forged together under layers of his signature sonic grime, Muggs has created yet another blueprint for the utmost sonic menace and macabre. The Renaissance is upon us. Long live King Muggs.

ABOUT DJ MUGGS:
One of the original architects of dark hip hop in the early ’90s, DJ Muggs helped craft a singular sound that blended darker sensibilities of psychedelic rock and hip hop in a unique way that influenced many in its wake. As the primary producer of legendary rap group Cypress Hill, Muggs’ productions and sonic sensibilities are unmistakable and deeply revered by the truest of hejkvgads. Muggs’ own MC round-robin imprint, Soul Assassins has been home to countless productions, laying sonic drop cloths for everyone from Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Chuck D, GZA, Mobb Deep to MF Doom, Freddie Gibbs, Roc Marciano and Mach-Hommy.

TRACK LISTING

1 Incantation (2:15)
2 The Chosen One (3:03)
3 Nigrum Mortem (4:07)
4 Liber Null (3:41)
5 Alphabet Of Desire (2:12)
6 Subconscious (2:42)
7 Veni Vidi Amavi (1:48)
8 Anointed (2:23)
9 Anicca (2:57)
10 Transmogrification (5:16)

“Music can be the space where people think––even just for a few minutes,” says Israel Nash. “The space is not about changing their lives or political views or their party ticket. It’s about creating something that prompts reflection in a moment––and those reflections have other chain reactions.”

Nash is sitting outside in the sun, thinking. It’s something he does often, looking out over endless Texas hills that surround his family’s rural home. He’s thought a lot over the last several years about music––not only how to make it, but why. What is the endgame for Nash, a critically acclaimed rock-and-roll groovesman, personally?

Nash’s magnificent new album, Topaz, is what happened when he found his answers. Nash recorded the album over the course of about a year in the Quonset hut studio he built about 600 feet from his house in the Texas Hill Country. While musician friends from nearby Austin contributed to the project, Topaz marks the first album Nash has recorded mostly on his own, both taking his time and relishing his newfound access to immediacy, punching the red button moments after an idea hit. “It's allowed me to capture sounds and ideas, to really get stuff out of my head and into the world so quickly,” Nash says.

Teeth Agency is the audio/visual project of London based multi-instrumentalist and producer Jesse Hackett and Chicago visual artist and gallerist Mariano Chavez. Their first full length LP You Don’t Have to Live In Pain will come out on Stones Throw in 2021.

The duo is united by their interest in experimental visuals and a varied range of unconventional musical styles including lizard lounge jazz, stoner doom pysch and absurdist soul horrorrama. The fourteen songs on their debut album curated by Peanut Butter Wolf, take the listener through a diverse range of moods and settings.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: DIY & lo-fi jazz, funk and lounge stuff here, which loosely sounds like a mix between Jeff Phelps, Cody Chestnutt, James Ferraro and Timmy Thomas (!!!). Absolutely uncategorizable genius only Stones Throw could release.

TRACK LISTING

1. Anon
2. Wolfs Jam
3. Many People (Remake)
4. Jesse / Eska Games
5. The Dummy Run
6. Fazer Folk (Teeth Version)
7. Abbana Kange
8. Queen Of The Night
9. One For Tusk
10. Harpoon Land (Remake)
11. Fly Porridge
12. Do You Like Bunnies
13. Chucky Had A Bad Day
14. Clean New Old Me

This is the follow up to the first volume of Soul Slabs, which is a collection of tracks from Colemine's 7” release series. For many of them, it's the first time they'll be appearing on an LP. Soul Slabs Vol. 2 is a collection of A-sides from the 7” catalog of Loveland Ohio’s Colemine Records. Specializing in heavy soul, funk, and R&B, Colemine prides itself on authenticity and an old school production style, while still making songs that seem fresh and are moving the genre of soul forward.

This 3LP collection of 27 tracks puts their diverse catalog on full display, many of these songs being presented for the first time on an LP. Featuring artists such as Durand Jones & The Indications, Kelly Finnigan, Ben Pirani, Jr. Thomas & The Volcanos, Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, Monophonics, Ikebe Shakedown, The Dip, The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble, Soul Scratch, and more! 

STAFF COMMENTS

says: A nice portrait of the Colemine's extensive roster as we find it 2021 with a wealth of unreleased, new and down right huge material.

TRACK LISTING

A1. The Gripsweats - Gripsweats Theme
A2. Kelly Finnigan - I Don't Wanna Wait
A3. The Flying Stars Of Brooklyn NY - My God Has A Telephone
A4. AJ & The Jiggawatts - It Is What It Is
A5. Ikebe Shakedown - Supermoon
B1. Derobert & The Half Truths - Judgement (part 1)
B2. Leroi Conroy - Tiger Trot
B3. Orgone - Big Day
B4. Jungle Fire - NUSAU
C1. Durand Jones & The Indications - Don't You Know
C2. True Loves - Famous Last Words
C3. The Soul Chance - Give Love A Try
C4. The Dip - Sure Don't Miss You
C5. The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble - Aragon
D1. Black Market Brass - War Room
D2. Jr Thomas & The Volcanos - What A Shame
D3. The Harlem Gospel Travelers - He's On Time
D4. Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio - Concussion
E1. Wesley Bright & The Honeytones - Happiness
E2. Thee Sinseers - It Was Only A Dream
E3. Soul Scratch - America
E4. Mestizo Beat - Featherbed Lane
F1. Ben Pirani - Light Of My Life
F2. The Freedom Affair - Rise Up
F3. Monophonics - Bang Bang
F4. Jake Najor & The Moment Of Truth - High Costa Living
F5. The Rugged Nuggets - Rugged Walk

“It's about hopelessness and darkness,” says Aidan Moffat. “But in a fun way.” The Arab Strap frontman is speaking about the band’s 7th studio album and their first since 2005’s The Last Romance. The band's exciting return saw the much lauded "The Turning of Our Bones" single achieve Record of the Week on Jo Whiley's BBC Radio 2 show and hit the B-list at BB6Music. The new album will appeal to longtime fans and pick up new ones who weren't ready for Arab Strap first time round!

STAFF COMMENTS

says: It's hard to believe it's been 16 years since the great Arab Strap hit us with a full LP. Sure we've had Moffat's decidedly excellent solo work but there's something to be said for the superb, ironic and cleverly written melodies and singeable hooks that only Arab Strap can bring. Brilliantly listenable and perfectly timed.

TRACK LISTING

1 The Turning Of Our Bones
2 Another Clockwork Day
3 Compersion Pt. 1
4 Bluebird
5 Kebabylon
6 Tears On Tour
7 Here Comes Comus!
8 Fable Of The Urban Fox
9 I Was Once A Weak Man
10 Sleeper
11 Just Enough 

‘Flock’ is the record that Jane Weaver always wanted to make, the most genuine version of herself, complete with unpretentious Day-Glo pop sensibilities, wit, kindness, humour and glamour. A consciously positive vision for negative times, a brooding and ethereal creation.

The album features an untested new fusion of seemingly unrelated compounds fused into an eco-friendly hum; pop music for post-new-normal times. Created from elements that should never date, its pop music reinvented. Still prevalent are the cosmic sounds, but ‘Flock’ is a natural rebellion to the recent releases which sees her decidedly move away from conceptual roots in favour of writing pop music. Produced on a complicated diet of bygone Lebanese torch songs, 1980's Russian Aerobics records and Australian Punk.

Amongst this broadcast of glistening sounds is ‘The Revolution Of Super Visions’, an untelevised Mothership connection, with Prince floating by as he plays scratchy guitar; it also features a funky whack-a-mole bass line and synth worms. It underlines the discordant pop vibe that permeates ‘Flock’ and concludes on ‘Solarised’, a super-catchy, totally infectious apocalypse, a radio-friendly groove for last dance lovers clinging together in an effort to save themselves before the end of the night.

The musician’s exposure to an abundance of lost records served as a reminder that you still feel like an outsider in this world and that by overcoming fears you can achieve artistic freedom. Jane Weaver continues to metamorphise…

“A mind-expanding delight, devoid of retro posturing.” The Guardian.

“Ominous and luminous, expansively spacious and sonically imploding, scientific, ephemeral and eternal” The Quietus.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: This new outing from Jane Weaver sees Jane and co skirting the outer reaches of Disco, Synth-pop and ambient to stunning effect, rich with hooks but unmeasurably deep, it's one that will reveal more and more with each listen. Unsurprisingly superb.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
A1 Heartlow
A2 The Revolution Of Super Visions
A3 Stages Of Phases
A4 Lux
A5 Modern Reputation

Side B
B1 Flock
B2 Sunset Dreams
B3 All The Things You Do
B4 Pyramid Schemes
B5 Solarised

Gil Evans to Miles Davis…. Holger Czukay to the ensemble known as Can….Jean Claude Vannier to Serge Gainsbourg on Histoire de Melody Nelson. That’s the only way to explain the specificity of Four Tet and Madlib’s collaboration, in this special album that showcases a two-decade long friendship that has resulted in an album that follows Madlib’s classics like Quasimoto’s The Unseen, Madvillainy and his Pinata and Bandana albums with Freddie Gibbs.

“A few months ago I completed work on an album with my friend Madlib that we’d been making for the last few years. He is always making loads of music in all sorts of styles and I was listening to some of his new beats and studio sessions when I had the idea that it would be great to hear some of these ideas made into a Madlib solo album. Not made into beats for vocalists to use but instead arranged into tracks that could all flow together in an album designed to be listened to start to finish. I put this concept to him when we were hanging out eating some nice food one day and we decided to work on this together with him sending me tracks, loops, ideas and experiments that I would arrange, edit, manipulate and combine. I was sent hundreds of pieces of music over a couple of years stretch and during that time I put together this album with all the parts that fitted with my vision.” Kieren Hebden AKA Four Tet.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: There's no denying that both Madlib and Hebden are two of the most renowned musicians on the scene, and 'Sound Ancestors' does exactly as you'd expect, cementing their reputations and collaborative capabilities with a rich and soulful fusion of IDM and shuffled beatplay.

TRACK LISTING

A1. There Is No Time (Prelude)
A2. The Call
A3. Theme De Crabtree
A4. Road Of The Lonely Ones
A5. Loose Goose
A6. Dirtknock
A7. Hopprock
A8. Riddim Chant
B1. Sound Ancestors
B2. One For Quartabê/Right Now
B3. Hang Out (Phone Off)
B4. Two For 2 -For Dilla
B5. Latino Negro
B6. The New Normal
B7. Chino
B8. Duumbiyay

Multidimensional duo Divide and Dissolve release their third full length studio album ‘Gas Lit’ on Invada Records, produced by Ruban Neilson of Unknown Mortal Orchestra.

Divide and Dissolve members Takiaya Reed (saxophone, guitar, live effects) and Sylvie Nehill (drums, live effects) create instrumental music that is both heavy and beautiful, classically influenced yet thrillingly contemporary and powerfully expressive and communicative. Their music has the ability to speak without words and utilises frequencies to interact with the naturally occurring resonance.

‘We Are Really Worried About You’ presents a formidable saxophone sound giving way to a surge of crushing percussion and heavy guitar riffs. ‘Denial’ is a potent blend of Takiaya’s ominous and unsettling sax that blows wide open into riff city for almost eight glorious minutes. Both tracks encapsulate the message behind the music: to undermine and destroy the white supremacist colonial frameworks and to fight for indigenous sovereignty, black and indigenous liberation, water, earth and indigenous land given back.

For fans of James Baldwin, Osa Atoe, Adrienne Davies, the ocean and freshwater, breath/breathing, Toni Morrison, Octavia Butler, Afro futurism, indigenous futurism, indigenous sovereignty, slavery abolition, resistance, the forest, bodies of water, being submerged, the railroad and Ai Ogawa.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: At no point throughout 'Gas Lit' do you come away with the impression that they're just having a good time. This is a visceral and intense, but entirely enjoyable fusion of neo-classical timbres with metallic heft and shoegazey walls of sound. Towering and impeccably constructed.

TRACK LISTING

Oblique
Prove It
Did You Have Something To Do With It (ft. Minori Sanchiz-Fung)
Denial
Far From Ideal
It’s Really Complicated
Mental Gymnastics
We Are Really Worried About You

After the heaviest of years, it should be time to take a little weight off with the playful sounds of The Person. Mapping its own Bermuda Triangle between dub-pop, sugary synthwave and Balearic boogie, 'Tide Life' transports Compass Point to Soggy Bottom, providing maximum fun, sun and bitmap escapism.

The eagle-eared may recognise The Person from the aspirational Italo-rockers Steaming Jeans, whose chalet-ready romp on Bordello A Parigi scored a Winter Olympic gold back in early 2020. Now left to her own devices, Minna Wight swaps the slopes for a jet ski and takes a Wave Race from Summer Bay to Monkey Island across 11 cuts of vintage oddball pop.

Whether she's borrowing Brenda's Beach Balls for the dubby daydream of 'Snail Cafe' and 'The Place', serving lost library cues to SNES club scenes on 'Barry R Reef' and 'Elastic Shoes' or spinning high school slow jams into synth soul ballads like 'Nice Feeling', Minna disguises serious musicianship behind a naive aesthetic. Disarmed by charm, we're powerless to resist her tidal pull.

TRACK LISTING

1. Snail Cafe
2. The Place
3. Nice Feeling
4. Tide Life
5. Barry R Reef
6. Planet Beach
7. Elastic Shoes
8. Current Affair
9. Tigereye
10. Rock Concert
11. Moonee Puddles

Jeremy Earl (Woods) and Glenn Donaldson (Skygreen Leopards, The Reds, Pinks & Purples) met sometime in the mid-oughts and bonded over a love of tambourines and DIY sounds. They shared many stages since, and their first serious collaboration was on the 2011 Woods album Sun & Shade. Around 2018, Earl was restless in upstate NY and accepted an invite to record in Donaldson’s studio in an undisclosed rural coastal town in Northern California. In a week they emerged with nearly an album’s worth of hazy folk-rock and psych-pop with touches of more outré lofi noise. Jeff Moller (The Papercuts) added bass, and they put the finishing touches on during quarantine. Heaven And Holy ebbs and flows like coastal fog between songs and dreamy instrumentals, splitting the difference between The Clean’s Unknown Country and The Byrds Fifth Dimension.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: Channeling the spirit of 70's psychedelia into a sound that has momentum and melodicism while retaining the airy and lysergic ambience isn't an easy feat, but Earl and Donaldson manage it with aplomb, 'Heaven & Holy' is a triumph.

Highly anticipated eighth studio album by the American rock band. The album was recorded at Nashville's famed Blackbird Studios, and produced by Grammy Award-winning Markus Dravs (Arcade Fire, Coldplay, Florence + the Machine). 'When You See Yourself' propels Kings of Leon into 2021 with a modern evolution of their sound.

TRACK LISTING

1. When You See Yourself, Are You Far Away
2. The Bandit
3. 100,000 People
4. Stormy Weather
5. A Wave
6. Golden Restless Age
7. Time In Disguise
8. Supermarket
9. Claire & Eddie
10. Echoing
11. Fairytale

Six studio albums, four original motion picture scores, and a plethora of side projects... Sebastien Tellier writes with every breath, composes melodies to the whim of his obsessions like his musical peers Robert Wyatt, Todd Rundgren or Ariel Pink. Since Sessions (2006), the first time he covered his own repertoire, Sebastien experienced an international success with Sexuality, and released the great epics of My God Is Blue and L’Aventura, and the bustle of his new role as a father with Domesticated.

His new album Simple Mind is a lush though very minimalistic resume of some of his most beautiful compositions ; a classic live-recorded album where old and more recent songs will find a confined listener caught in a wave of domestic bliss.

"Simple Mind is a total rebirth for my music. For this minimalistic live recording, I’m cleansing my own songs so you can (re)discover them in the most pure and intimate way. I want to take you to the closest of my chords, my melodies and my voice in order to share the essence of my art with you. As simple as that. Bisou." - Sébastien Tellier

TRACK LISTING

A1. Domestic Tasks
A2. L'amour Et La Violence
A3. Look
A4. A Ballet
A5. Divine
B1. Intromission
B2. Fingers Of Steel
B3. Stuck In A Summer Love
B4. Comment Revoir Oursinet?
B5. Ricky L'adolescent
B6. Against The Law

In the words of Mac DeMarco: “Eddie Chacon is planet earth’s number one musician. Yesterday, today, and forever.”

"'The soulful singer had a worldwide hit with 1992’s Would I Lie to You, but he was dropped and his musical partner died. Now, he has poured his pain into a cathartic comeback album''

Eddie Chacon experienced proper, peak-nineties acclaim in the soul duo Charles and Eddie: they scored a global No. 1 in 1992 with “Would I Lie To You,” appeared three times on Top of the Pops, and featured on soundtracks from True Romance to Super Mario Bros..

Produced by John Carroll Kirby, the like-minded artist and collaborator with Frank Ocean and Solange Knowles, it features restrained percussion from Kanye West’s Sunday Service drummer Lamar Carter. Celestial soul as a break from chaos, these are quietly challenging songs as timeless as they are contemporary.

By that time, Chacon had already been navigating music in interesting ways, all the way back to his teen garage rock band with the late Cliff Burton (Metallica) and Mike Bordin (Faith No More). In the late ’80s, he released a full-length on Uncle Luke from 2 Live Crew’s label and signed to Columbia as a solo act. He was a working artist, always popping up in unexpected places: through the course of his career, Chacon would write, sing, or produce ten Top 40 hits around the globe.

Years ago, Chacon retired from music for a second calling as a fashion photographer and creative director. In an interview at the time, he said, “I was fortunate to have a 35-year music career and felt that there wasn’t that much more for me to say or achieve.” Very thankfully, that’s no longer the case. Private experiments, far from the major-label center he once frequented, began to feel urgent and new. “There’s nothing more exciting for me than getting to start from the beginning again,” he says today.

“Pleasure, Joy and Happiness” will be available on the boutique Los Angeles-based label Day End Records. This is a thoughtfully considered album of quiet, confident R&B: it doesn’t jump out at you, but rather gets in you.

Produced by John Carroll Kirby, the like-minded artist and collaborator with Frank Ocean and Solange Knowles, it features restrained percussion from Kanye West’s Sunday Service drummer Lamar Carter. Celestial soul as a break from chaos, these are quietly challenging songs as timeless as they are contemporary.

“What a rare and cool challenge it was for me to help Eddie re-emerge after a long hiatus,” says John Carroll Kirby. “I was excited to produce a record for him that captured the chill, laid-back wisdom and easy vocal mastery he has that you don’t see that much these days.”

Lead single “My Mind Is Out of Its Mind” finds a deep groove to try and contain spiraling heartbreak, while the sweet and wobbly “Trouble” balances the delightful near whisper of the title track “Pleasure, Joy and Happiness.” But even the project’s lightest moments feel sincere and mature. Altogether: a truly unifying release, coming from a man who’s earned the right to share such a regal, romantic sound.

“I used to think to myself,” Chacon says, “if I ever make a record again, I’d want it to be a record you’d have to be my age to make.”

TRACK LISTING

A1. Trouble
A2. Hurt
A3. Outside
A4. My Mind Is Out Of It's Mind
B1. Pleasure Joy & Happiness
B2. Papa
B3. Wicked World
B4. Above Below

ALL PRE-ORDERS COME WITH AN EXCLUSIVE 12" x 8" SIGNED ART CARD. 

“Our first ever show in the UK was the opening slot at Brixton Academy so this is just totally emblematic of the support that has grown overseas we are ever grateful for. It’s still the greatest show we have ever played and we will never forget that night. See you all soon! Stay safe.” DMA’S

On March 6th, 2020 a sold-out audience filled the O2 Academy Brixton’s cavernous space from wall-to-wall. The band played the biggest headline show of their career to date half a planet away from home, yet the show conjured the atmosphere of an intimate homecoming celebration.

The O2 Academy Brixton show was immediately hailed as one of the highlights of the band’s career so far, and it has taken on whole new significance given the events that have followed. For many fans it was their final show before live music events were halted.

From early favourites ‘In The Air’ and ‘Lay Down’ to new material such as ‘Silver’ and ‘Life Is A Game Of Changing’ from ‘THE GLOW’ The show is documented in the ‘Live at Brixton’ album, which will be released almost a year to the day later on March 5th. ‘Live at Brixton’ will be released on a striking smoke-effect pink/orange limited edition double vinyl. Its design was inspired by a flare that was set off during the show. The album offers a chance to reminiscence on the life-affirming power of live shows, and also an inspiring reminder of what we’re all looking forward to returning to.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
Feels Like 37
Dawning
Too Soon
Hello Girlfriend

SIDE B
Silver
Time & Money
The Glow
The End
Step Up The Morphine

SIDE C
Delete
Life Is A Game Of Changing
In The Air
Tape Deck Sick

SIDE D
Play It Out
Timeless
Lay Down
Your Low

Visionist’s first release for Mute is a hypnotic elegy. ‘A Call To Arms’ is Visionist’s third album release and where previously the artist used his vocals as samples, we hear his singing voice in the form of song and lyric for the first time.

Along with the addition of Visionist’s vocals, the album is host to a varied list of collaborators including Haley Fohr (Circuit des Yeux) and Morgan Simpson (Black Midi).

TRACK LISTING

By Design
Form
Allowed To Dream
Nearly God
A Born New
The Fold
Lie Digging
Winter Sun
Cast

These 13 is a little bit folk, a little bit gospel, a little bit bluesy, a little bit Hank, a little bit hill country, but most emphatically, it is all heart. Andrew Bird and Jimbo Mathus have climbed the height of their creative ladders in this collection of soul-strung songs, both lyrically and musically, a synchronicity between the two that feels joined in some special imaginative place that can only be visited by the best of songwriters. All songs written and performed by Andrew Bird + Jimbo Mathus  and produced by Mike Viola. Themes: Connection, Humanity, Geography and Collaboration.

TRACK LISTING

1. Poor Lost Souls
2. Sweet Oblivion
3. Encircle My Love
4. Beat Still My Heart
5. Red Velvet Rope
6. High John
7. Stonewall (1863)
8. Bright Sunny South
9. Bell Witch
10. Dig Up The Hatchet
11. Jack O' Diamonds
12. Burn The Honky Tonk
13. Three White Horses And A Golden Chain

William The Conqueror have paid their damn dues. Like the sportsman cutting chipped teeth in the lower leagues before shooting to the very top, this band have lugged all the amps, placated the in-house sound guy for an easier life, their nails dirty, their hair unkempt. Enough.

Except it’s never enough, because despite their slinky, swampy, razor-sharp, blues-drenched, guitar thrashed alt. rock songs that form new album, Maverick Thinker and suggest that the door is opening for bigger rooms and broader audiences, it’s those sticky basement bar stages where the songs have always shed a skin and come alive. The record put the three piece behind the glass at Sound City Studios in LA, treading the same carpet as the likes of Nirvana, Johnny Cash, Neil Young, and Fleetwood Mac, and they might well have inhaled the spirit of them all.

William The Conqueror’s protagonist is Ruarri Joseph who knows his way around a melody and a verse. Joseph’s wryness suggests life just ain’t plain sailin’ and he fizzes that sigh and lament into something that breathes heavy with heart and with soul.

TRACK LISTING

A1 - Move On
A2 - The Deep End
A3 - Alive At Last
A4 - Jesus Died A Young Man
A5 - Quiet Life
B1 - Wake Up
B2 - Fiction
B3 - Suddenly Scared (24 Storeys High)
B4 - Reasons
B5 - Maverick Thinker

Venturing off course from his Post-Punk / Dark Wave project, The Soft Moon, Los Angeles born composer and multi-instrumentalist Luis Vasquez, embarks intonew territory with A Body Of Errors, a bold reimagining of the soundtrack genre.With this album, Vasquez felt the urgency to break away from The Soft Moon realm and deliver an even more intimate, self-reflecting body of work, while further unveiling inner demons & vulnerability. He continues to explore his notorious angst and visceral pain, but places them in the context of his own physical being, creating the deeply personal, yet relatable and compelling oddity that is A Body Of Errors, which Vasquez describes as a collection of themes to living in the human body.

Opening track “Interno” with its crushing synthesizers, is a blast off into the abyss of self. Sinister gasps introduce “Poison Mouth” stomping you with relentless torment before spiraling into oblivion. Halfway, we reach the mechanized rhythms and throbbing cardiac pulse of “Surgery” expressing Vasquez’s phobia with the body itself. “No Longer Human” with its hallucinogenic flutter and distant cries, imagines a fantastic universe beyond, with a nod to David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. The only lyrical appearance on A Body Of Errorsis “Used To Be” a gut-wrenching wall-of-sound ballad romanticizing the struggle between one's good side & bad side. Pulling you into armageddon, A Body OfErrors closes with “World On Fire” an epic post-apocalyptic battle-storm painted vividly through symphonic devastation.

TRACK LISTING

1 Interno
2 Poison Mouth
3 Under My Teeth
4 Decomposition (Part 1)
5 This Guilt
6 The Wasp
7 Surgery

Side B
8 In A Cage
9 No Longer Human
10 Decomposition (Part 2)
11 Used To Be
12 From The Drain
13 Arms & Legs
14 World On Fire

Features new collaborations with Todd Fleming Davis, Youmna Saba, H.C. McEntire, Marisa Anderson, Fadi Tabbal, Dena El Saffar, Danny Paul Grody, Bob Hoffnar, Tomás Lozano, Nathan Bowles, Alex Roldan, and María Medem.

The mystifying 9th album in the Field Works series, Cedars combines cosmic Americana with Western ambient and Middle Eastern influences. Delicate layers of pedal steel, banjo, oud, and hurdy-gurdy float atop looping guitar drones to create a soothing, atmospheric chamber where folk and electronic music coalesce. Set to Arabic and English poetry, the song cycle examines some of Earth’s most iconic and ancient forests, revealing our complicated relationship with the natural world. For this special dual-language release, Field Works producer Stuart Hyatt has assembled a supergroup of musicians, poets, and artists. The album is narrated by Youmna Saba and H.C. McEntire. Instrumentalists include Marisa Anderson, Fadi Tabbal, Dena El Saffar, Danny Paul Grody, Bob Hoffnar, Tomás Lozano, Nathan Bowles, Alex Roldan, Youmna Saba, and Stuart Hyatt.

Renowned illustrator María Medem brings poems by Todd Fleming Davis and Youmna Saba to life in the accompanying full-color Risograph comic book (in the vinyl edition); and longtime Field Works collaborators PRINTtEXT design the packaging.

TRACK LISTING

1. La’āli’ (2:54)
2. Thāk-al-yawm (2:10)
3. Badron Wa Qina‛ (2:19)
4. ’Arāha (2:02)
5. In‛ikās (2:01)
6. ’Aylūll (2:36)
7. Ar-raḥīl (1:56)
8.

Belgium’s sophisticated yet sometimes worldweary indie superstars return with their fifth album and follow up to 2019’s ‘Fever’.

Further pushing on from ‘Fever’’s shift into more soulful waters, ‘Sand’ presents a more cohesive body of work that flirts with a soulful indie vibe and an at times almost slow disco undercurrent, the two singles ‘Losers’ and ‘On A Roll’ perfectly capturing the mood.

Back when you could go to gigs the band were at the point where they were selling out the Scala in London and commanding decent size crowds regionally (especially Brighton, Bristol, Manchester and Glasgow).

TRACK LISTING

Moment
Losers
On A Roll
I Want You
You Won’t Come Around
Linger On
Hourglass
Passing Through
Leaving Antwerp
Halfway
Powerless

With a name as bold as Junglepussy and an artistry to match, Shayna McHayle is New York’s premier rap rule-breaker. Honest, funny and freaky, her rhymes span from the explicitly audacious to the tenderly relatable. Her unfailingly confident flow accentuates her roots in Brooklyn (her parents are from Trinidad and Jamaica) and her bars land with cool impact. In the universe that is Junglepussy, relationships are complicated, vegetables are magic and an excellently delivered flex on an ex is one punchline away.

‘Jp4’ is Junglepussy’s stellar next phase. With contributions from vocalist Ian Isiah, rapper Gangsta Boo and producers Dave Sitek and Nick Hook, ‘Jp4’ is Junglepussy ascended. After almost a decade of experimenting, Junglepussy feels she’s finally living up to her name. The numerology of four, in its foundational symbolism, is an apt frame for ‘Jp4’. Over an eight-year career, Junglepussy’s music has led her to lecture at Yale and Columbia, create her own Junglepussy Juice, star in 2018 feature film ‘Support The Girls’ and embark on sold-out domestic and international tours. For Junglepussy, ‘Jp4’ is a culminating moment - one that holds the essence of closure while hinting at an exciting and expansive future.

TRACK LISTING

Bad News
Main Attraction
Telepathy
Morning Rock
Out My Window (feat. Ian Isiah)
Spiders
What You Want
Arugula
Stamina (feat. Gangsta Boo)
No Band Aid

As escapism from corporate banality turned the corner in the ’90s, a new generation of vibrant, software generated soundscapes emerged. Communal access to the internet propagated the new hive mind of ideas online, giving way to smoother, stress-free textures. The PC revolution opened the gateway to ray-traced playgrounds of color and light, allowing for visions of utopic proportions to manifest themselves on screensavers far and wide. Boot up your machine, load the software on this floppy diskette, and drop out of a reality bounded by the physical laws of the universe. The eighth entry in Numero’s Cabinet of Curiosities series.

TRACK LISTING

1. Quiet Force - Listen To The Music
2. Barry Coates, The Hats - Hovercraft
3. Andrew Gordon - Walking The Lonely Streets
4. Steve Bach - Rain Dance
5. Angelo Vanotti - Sketches Of Anderland
6. Slap & Powell - Sex Drive
7. Jordan De La Sierra - Nimbu-Pani: The Lemon Water Song
8. Jessie Allen Cooper - In My Heart

Somewhere Between: Mutant Pop, Electronic Minimalism & Shadow Sounds of Japan 1980–1988 hovers vibe–wise between two distinct poles within Light In The Attic’s acclaimed Japan Archival Series—Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980–1990 and Pacific Breeze: Japanese City Pop, AOR & Boogie 1976–1986. All three albums showcase recordings produced during Japan’s soaring bubble economy of the 1980s, an era in which aesthetic visions and consumerism merged. Music echoed the nation’s prosperity and with financial abundance came the luxury to dream.

Sonically, Somewhere Between mines the midpoint between Kankyō Ongaku’s sparkling atmospherics and Pacific Breeze’s metropolitan boogie. The compilation encompasses ambient pop, underground electronics, liminal minimalism and shadow sounds—all descriptors emphasizing the hazy nature of the nebula. Out–of–focus rhythms wear ethereal accoutrements, ballads are shrouded in static, and angular drums snake skyward on transcendent tones. From the Avant–minimalism of Mkwaju Ensemble and Yoshio Ojima, to the leftfield techno-pop of Mishio Ogawa and Noriko Miyamoto (featuring members of YMO), and highlights from the groundbreaking Osaka underground label Vanity Records, these are blurry constellations defying collective categorization.

These tracks also exist in a space of transition when the major label grip on the Japanese recording market began to give way to the escalation of independents. Thanks to the idyllic economic climate and innovations in domestically–manufactured music gear, creators on the edges were empowered to focus on satisfying their artistic visions in the open headspace of home studios. While labels like Warner Music and Nippon Columbia explored new sounds through traditional channels, it was possible for Vanity, Balcony and other indie labels, not to mention self–released artists like Ojima and Naoki Asai, to publish their work via affordable media such as cassettes, 7" vinyl, and flexi–discs.

Expertly curated by Yosuke Kitazawa and Mark “Frosty” McNeill (dublab), Somewhere Between is a collection of music, much of it released for the first time outside Japan, that is bound more by energetic vibration than shared history, genre or scene. They are the sounds of transition and searching—a celebration of the freedom found in floating.

TRACK LISTING

Noriko Miyamoto - Arrows & Eyes
Mishio Ogawa - Hikari No Ito Kin No Ito
Yoshio Ojima - Days Man
Mkwaju Ensemble - Tira-Rin
R.N.A-ORGANISM - WEIMAR 22
Naoki Asai - Yakan Hikou
Takami Hasegawa - Koneko To Watashi
Mammy - Mizu No Naka No Himitsu
Dip In The Pool - Hasu No Enishi
Wha Ha Ha - Akatere
D-Day - Sweet Sultan
Perfect Mother - Dark Disco-Da·Da·Da·Da·Run
Neo Museum - Area
Sonoko - Wedding With God (À Nijinski)

Soul Jazz Records’ new ‘Two Synths, A Guitar (And) A Drum Machine’ is a new collection of current DIY post-punk shaped by the mutant sounds of no wave, punk funk and New York Noise bands from the late 70s and early 80s that collided with the world of underground dance music found at the Paradise Garage, Mudd Club in New York City (ESG, Arthur Russell, Bush Tetras, Talking Heads, Suicide, Liquid Liquid).

Other influences cited here include Manchester and Sheffield’s industrial post-punk sounds of the 1980s (Joy Division, Cabaret Voltaire, Gang of Four) as well as the 1970s German electronic experimentalism of Cluster, Neu!, Harmonia and Can.

Featured artists from around the globe include Los Angeles DIY band Automatic, New Fries from Toronto, artist/music collaborators Toresch from Germany, Susumu Makai from Japan/UK, Vex Ruffin from the Philippines/California and Madmadmad, Gramme, Tom of England and other UK groups.

That all the bands featured here manage to make distinctive contemporary music out of these 80s roots is testament to the wide range of other musics that are seamlessly absorbed into a modern melting pot of sound - hip hop, the electronic European avant-garde, rave culture and more.

TRACK LISTING

Automatic - Too Much Money
Zongamin - Underwater Paramid
New Fries - Lily
Vex Ruffin & Fab 5
Freddy - The Balance
Ixna - Somebody Said
Leroy Duncann - Dream River
Tom Of England - Neon Green
Toresch - Tocar
Becker & Mukai - La Rivière Des Perles
Gramme - Discolovers
Niagara - Ida
Charles Manier - Sift Through Art Collecting People
Black Deer - Baseball Shorts
Madmadmad - Hot Disco
Wino D - Untitled

A Winged Victory for the Sullen, the composer collaboration between Stars of the Lid founder Adam Wiltzie and L.A. composer Dustin O'Halloran, release new album ‘Invisible Cities’, the stunning score to the critically acclaimed theatre production directed by London Olympics ceremony video designer Leo Warner. Released on their own Artificial Pinearch Manufacturing label, the album comes as part of an agreement with A Winged Victory for the Sullen’s current label, Ninja Tune.

Premiering in July 2019 at the Manchester International Festival, the duo was commissioned by Warner’s 59 Productions to score the music for the 90-minute multimedia theatrical stage show, adapted from Italo Calvino’s 1972 novel, ‘Invisible Cities’. Described by The Sunday Times as “a beautiful frenzy of movement”, it fuses theatre, music, dance, architectural design and visuals and brings to life a series of fantastical places and disparate worlds, centred on the tense relationship between Kublai Khan, the volatile head of a vast empire, and explorer Marco Polo. Originally conceived as a touring project, it’s last performance was in Brisbane, Australia before COVID-19 changed the world as we know it.

“Four months is not a lot of time to create 90 minutes of music for a production using classical theatre, dance, & high res video mapping on a stage the size of 2 football pitches. It was a pleasure to work with 59 Productions, unlike other producers, they left the micro-managing at home, and let us get on with it. Early on in discussions with director Leo Warner it was realised that the human voice would take a central role in the score as it was essentially the only instrument we could see evolving over 600 years with a storyline that would not have the listener screaming “its Zimmertime”…,” says Wiltzie.

Transformed into 45 minutes of breathtaking beauty, ‘Invisible Cities’ opens with the numinous ‘So That the City Can Begin to Exist’, as Wiltzie and O'Halloran draw breath from distinctively enthralling and vastly expansive worlds. The ominous soundscapes of ‘The Dead Outnumber the Living’ contrast with the new beginnings that are presented in ‘Every Solstice & Equinox’, while the jagged and uneasy ‘Thirteenth Century Travelogue’ is one of tension and dread.

Elsewhere, ‘The Divided City’ captivates and intrigues while ‘Only Strings and Their Supports Remain’ and ‘There Is One of Which You Never Speak’ are bold roars for survival before the choral ambience of ‘Desires Are Already Memories’ and piercing drones of ‘Total Perspective Vortex’ bring down the curtain on a spectacular and incredibly emotive body of work.

Releasing their self-titled debut album in 2011 (Erased Tapes), A Winged Victory for the Sullen has developed something of a cult status over the past decade and alongside artists such as Max Richter, Hauschka, Hildur Guðnadóttir and Tim Hecker, are the vanguard of the neoclassical and ambient world and can count the likes of Jon Hopkins as fans.

The duo has gone on to release two further studio albums; ‘Atomos’ (Erased Tapes, 2014) and most recently ‘The Undivided Five’ (Ninja Tune, 2019) and were asked to perform at the BBC proms in 2015 by 6 Music presenter Mary Anne Hobbs. A Winged Victory for the Sullen also scored the music for the independent film ‘Iris’ (2016), directed by Jalil Lespert.

Wiltzie is best known as founding member of drone legends Stars of the Lid, The Dead Texan and Aix Em Klemm and has scored multiple film projects including ‘American Woman’ (2019) starring Sienna Miller, ‘Salero’ (2016) and The Yellow Birds (2017). In 2018, he also scored ‘Whitney’ (2018), the estate-approved documentary about the life of the late Whitney Houston, directed by Kevin Macdonald. Elsewhere, his original music has featured in Hollywood films including ‘Transformers: Dark of The Moon’ (2011), ‘Godzilla’ (2014), ‘Like Crazy’ (2011) and acclaimed TV shows including ‘House M.D’, ‘Nip/Tuck’ and ‘Top Boy’. He also collaborated with the late Jóhann Jóhannsson on his scores for ‘The Theory of Everything’ (2014) and ‘Arrival’ (2016).

O'Halloran, a self-taught pianist from the age of 7, began his musical life as a guitarist and formed the much-loved indie rock outfit Dévics with Sara Lov, releasing four albums on Bella Union. As a solo artist, he has composed music for numerous film and television projects including Sofia Coppola’s ‘Marie Antoinette’ (2006) and Drake Doremus’ ‘Like Crazy' (2011) starring Felicity Jones. Demand for his film scores is high and in 2015, he won an Emmy for theme music for the Golden Globe-winning Amazon series ‘Transparent’, starring Jeffrey Tambor. He has also collaborated with film composer Hauschka on numerous films, including ‘Lion’ (2016), with the score nominated for an Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe. Most recently, he co-composed the music for the film ‘Ammonite’ (2020) with Volker Bertelmann, directed by Francis Lee and starring Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: There are few experiences I treasure more than popping some slow moving ambient business on the stereo and sitting down, and there are few bands that do that exact business better than AWVFTS. One of my all-time favourites return for another gorgeous suite of swelling pads and tentative piano.

TRACK LISTING

1. So That The City Can Begin To Exist
2. The Celestial City
3. The Dead Outnumber The Living
4. Every Solstice & Equinox
5. Nothing Of The City Touches The Earth
6. Thirteenth Century Travelogue
7. The Divided City
8. Only Strings And Their Supports Remain
9. There Is One Of Which You Never Speak
10. Despair Dialogue
11. The Merchants Of Seven Nations
12. Desires Are Already Memories
13. Total Perspective Vortex

In 2017, Simon Raymonde and Richie Thomas had both abstained from making music for 20 years until they united as Lost Horizons and released a stunning debut album, Ojalá - the Spanish word for “hopefully” or “God willing.”

“These days, we need hope more than ever, for a better world.” Thomas said at the time. “And this album has given me a lot of hope. To reconnect with music.... And the hope for another Lost Horizons record!”

Thomas’ hopes had a mixed response. On the plus side, the new Lost Horizons album In Quiet Moments is an even stronger successor to Ojalá with another distinguished cast of guest singers and a handful of supporting instrumentalists embellishing the core duo’s gorgeously free-flowing and loose-limbed blueprint that one writer astutely labelled, “melancholy-delia.”

On the minus side, any hope for a better world, as Earth continues to freefall toward political and social meltdown. Then, to make matters worse, as Raymonde and Thomas buckled down to create the improvised bedrock that Lost Horizons is built on, the former’s mother died. At least Raymonde had a way to channel his grief. “The way improvisation works,” he says, “it’s just what’s going on with your body at the time, to let it out.”

Raymonde (bass, guitar, keyboards, production) and Thomas (drums, occasional keys and guitar) forged ahead, creating 16 instrumental tracks to send to prospective guests. When he did, Raymonde suggested a guiding theme for their lyrics: “Death and rebirth. Of loved ones, of ideals, at an age when many artists that have inspired us are also dead, and the planet isn’t far behind. But I also said, ‘The most important part is to just do your own thing, and have fun.”

And then Covid-19 hit. Half of In Quiet Moments’ lyrics were written after lockdown, but Raymonde saw a silver lining: people were slowing down and taking stock of their lives. Hearing a lyric written by veteran singer Ural Thomas, known as “Portland's Pillar of Soul", who fronts the title track, Raymonde singled out the phrase “in quiet moments” and made it the album title. “It just made sense,” he says. “This moment of contemplation in life is really beautiful. The title also went with the album cover, a photograph by Jacques-Henri Lartigue from the 1940s of a woman and dog on a beach, captured as if in flight.” 

STAFF COMMENTS

says: There are a frankly dazzling array of guests on this beautiful collection of slow-motion psychedelic drifts from Raymonde & Thomas, and each one seem to effortlessly glide into the instrumental core of ambient swells and subtle strings. A perfect tonic to the strains of a day.

TRACK LISTING

1. Halcyon - Lost Horizons Feat. Jack Wolter
2. I Woke Up With An Open Heart - Lost Horizons. Feat. The Hempolics
3. Grey Tower - Lost Horizons Feat. Tim Smith
4. Linger - Lost Horizons Feat. Gemma Dunleavy
5. One For Regret - Lost Horizons Feat. Porridge Radio
6. Every Beat That Passed - Lost Horizons Feat. Kavi Kwai
7. Nobody Knows My Name - Lost Horizons Feat. Cameron Neal
8. Cordelia - Lost Horizons Feat. John Grant
9. In Quiet Moments - Lost Horizons Feat. Ural Thomas
10. Circle - Lost Horizons Feat. C Duncan
11. Unravelling In Slow Motion - Lost Horizons Feat. Ren Harvieu
12. Blue Soul - Lost Horizons Feat. Laura Groves
13. Flutter - Lost Horizons Feat. Rosie Blair
14. Marie - Lost Horizons Feat. Marissa Nadler
15. Heart Of A Hummingbird - Lost Horizons Feat. Lily Wolter
16. This Is The Weather - Lost Horizons Feat. Karen Peris

Little Oblivions is the third studio album by Julien Baker. Recorded in Memphis, TN, the record weaves together unflinching autobiography with assimilated experience and hard-won observations from the past few years, taking Baker’s capacity for storytelling to new heights. It also marks a sonic shift, with the songwriter’s intimate piano and guitar arrangements newly enriched by bass, drums, keyboards, banjo, and mandolin with nearly all of the instruments performed by Baker.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: Julien Baker returns for another beautifully rich set of crescentic rock, coloured with an unmistakeable country hue. It's a delicate balance and is accomplished here with a beautiful warmth and comforting melodicism. Another wonderful journey, full of emotional duality and songwriting genius from Baker.

TRACK LISTING

1. Hardline
2. Heatwave
3. Faith Healer
4. Relative Fiction
5. Crying Wolf
6. Bloodshot
7. Ringside
8. Favor
9. Song In E
10. Repeat
11. Highlight Reel
12. Ziptie

With the band’s tenth anniversary in their viewfinder, CAMERA release “Prosthuman”, their fifth studio album. As befits an age in which realities can change in the blink of an eye, from one day to the next, the Berlin band never tire of changing themselves, their music or personnel.

As Karlheinz Stockhausen noted: “New methods change the experience. New experiences change man.”

Taking this as their lead, Michael Drummer (the drummer) and CAMERA surprise us once more on “Prosthuman” as they reinvent and reformulate their sound without sacrificing the project’s identity which has matured over the past decade. Less surprising is the fact that some record stores give CAMERA their own section, alongside Krautrock pioneers like NEU!, Can and La Düsseldorf. “Emotional Detox”, the predecessor to this album, was distinguished by the presence of two keyboard virtuosos (Steffen Kahles and CAMERA founder member Timm Brockmann). Finding replacements for “Prosthuman” was, as Michael Drummer stresses, “a difficult process.” The two keyboardists had – in different creative periods – formed the backbone of a band structure otherwise prone to fluctuations. Decisive input came from an unlikely source: Tim Schroeder, who first teamed up with CAMERA as a performance and video artist on their six-week tour of the USA in 2017.

Over the course of various jams and recording sessions, he was able to offer ample proof of his synthesizers skills. Alex Kozmidi, a musician and composer with a flair for experimentation, completed the triumvirate on guitar, with Michael Drummer adding his own guitar riffs here and there. Change and friction can be useful allies in pursuit of creativity, something to which Drummer has grown accustomed as the only ever-present member of CAMERA. The pleasures and pain of isolation – suddenly a mass phenomenon in pandemic times – are well known to the quasi frontman of the group. Over the years, he has spent many hours alone or with a shifting cast of co-musicians in the band’s basement studio, beneath a former factory site in a less than hip southern district of Berlin. Virus-induced social distancing a