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ATLAS

Little is known about Sun Atlas. The group members are hidden behind masks and costumes to keep their identities secret and to put the focus entirely on the music and oneness. A sense of community and universal spirit as an alternative to idolization and individualism is heavily reflected in their eclectic musical style.

The sound of Sun Atlas is mystical and cosmopolitan, combining afrobeat, cinematic soul, spiritual & ethio jazz with space sounds, hiphop-breaks and a garage funk vibe.

Their cryptic first 45 single "The Mystic Parade" b/w "Grand Theft" sold out immediately after release and has often been mistaken for either "lost" hiphop samples, 70s habibi funk or another project in disguise from the inner circles of the Mocambo, Big Crown or Daptonefamilies (which it is not).

Return To The Spirit picks up where Sun Atlas' first single leftoff, with everyone wondering where the journey might lead. With the door to a colourful universe opened, the full-length format gives time & space for further exploration.

TRACK LISTING

1. Return To The Spirit
2. 12th Dimension Caravan
3. Wandering Around Haccika
4. Message From The Snakes
5. The Source
6. Cure The Sick
7. Phases Of The Moon
8. Intergalactic Medium
9. Sky World
10. The Renewal Of Sunface Mirror

Gabriels

Love And Hate In A Different Time

    Jacob Lusk, Ryan Hope & Ari Balouzian; an acclaimed gospel singer and choir director, an established film director and a classically trained musician and soundtrack artist. This is the trio that fate brought together and now make up Gabriels.

    Their debut EP ‘Love & Hate In A Different Time’ comprises five songs that sound instantly of another era without faltering into throwback territory. True masters of story-telling, their timeless take on vintage soul, new R&B and just a hint of ultra-contemporary altpop have seen them become firm favourites of Gilles Peterson, Off White’s Virgil Abloh, Benji B, Annie Mac, Elton John... the list goes on.

    The lead track and new single, ‘Love & Hate In A Different Time’, showcases their sound perfectly. A soul-stirring song with elements of funk and that joyous gospel influence too. Jacob has one of those terrifically cavernous deliveries and understands the power of when to adopt restraint and when to let rip. It’s raw, show-stopping and combines to form a magical few minutes of cinematic sound, unlike anything else out there today.

    In the song’s long-form video, directed by band member and British born musician Ryan Hope (himself a celebrated music video director), we’re taken through a history of the dancefloor in archive footage, culminating in Jacob singing Billie Holliday’s Strange Fruit to a rapt audience during a Black Lives Matter protest in LA last year. It’s an engrossing, moving watch and an evocative listen.

    The rest of the EP stands tall with its lead track, shoulder to shoulder. Experimental flourishes, sultry beats and jazzy polyrhythms. Intoxicating stuff, it’s music that is hard not to like. Simply riveting and a hugely promising introduction to an already accomplished new act.

    STAFF COMMENTS

    Matt says: Repress of pretty much the biggest soul 12" of the year. There's been no escaping these tracks and now they're available for all once again.

    TRACK LISTING

    A1 - Loyalty (Featuring Ashley Sade)
    A2 - In Loving Memory
    A3 - Professional
    B1 - Love And Hate In A Different Time
    B2 - The Blind
    B3 - Love And Hate In A Different Time (Alternate Version)

    Embark on a sonic journey with Gabriels' 'Love and Hate' as it undergoes a mesmerizing transformation through the skilled hands of Xpress 2.

    The Xpress 2 remix propels the track to new heights, infusing it with dynamic beats and an infectious rhythm that beckons listeners to the dancefloor. In addition, this vinyl edition also includes the Kerri Chandler remixes, adding a more soulful touch.

    Kerri expertly blends emotive melodies with a pulsating energy that captivates the senses. This remix package is a testament to the collaborative prowess of these musical maestros, offering a transcendent experience for electronic music aficionados and dance enthusiasts alike.

    Dive into the reimagined soundscape of 'Love and Hate' – a fusion of artistic brilliance and dancefloor magic.

    STAFF COMMENTS

    Matt says: Still some juice left in this pear! A nice smattering of fresh remixes of the already classic Gabriels track. Includes the universally adored Kerri Chandler vocal mix, along with a new, high voltage one from the New Jersey house cat. London's X-Press 2 also contribute two chunky house versions. Top stuff indeed.

    TRACK LISTING

    A1. X-Press 2 Love & Honesty Remix
    A2. X-Press 2 Love & Honesty Hypno Dub Remix
    B1. Kerri Chandler Vocal Mix
    B2. Kerri Chandler 623 Again Mix

    This four track EP features the LA band’s single’s Blame and the EP’s title track Bloodline.

    Quickly finding fans in the likes of Elton John, Celeste, Paul Weller, Benji B, and Gilles Peterson, the band should soon find plenty more on a record that could soundtrack a David Lynch epic such is its drama and suspenseful, late-night orchestral ruminations. Capped by Lusk’s voice, a weapon that swoops through the octaves breathlessly, Gabriels have that rare ability to make you re-evaluate music, and what it can do, in a heartbeat.

    Whilst Lusk provides the wow factor with that ridiculous larynx, Gabriels are very much a close-knit trio. Producer, keyboardist (and full-time video director) Ryan Hope hails from Sunderland but calls LA home. Fellow producer-composer and violinist Ari Balouzian, a man with endless musical projects on the go at any one time, gives Gabriels’ songs a real ‘feel’ to them.

    Sultry, soulful mood music certainly isn’t the band’s modus operandi, with debut track If Love & Hate In A Different Time having originally identified Gabriels as a loose-limbed, soul-stirring funk and gospel-flecked odyssey. But this experimental EP should paint an altogether more rounded idea of where Gabriels are at… !

    TRACK LISTING

    A1. Innocence
    A2. Blame
    B1. Stranger
    B2. Bloodline

    Grammy nominated DJ and production mastermind Paul Woolford steps up to deliver a timeless house reworking of Gabriels 'Angels & Queens'.

    The title track from the trio's debut album (part 1) that took 2022 by storm. Endeared by the masses and critically acclaimed Gabriels set out a refreshing new take on soul that the world was subconsciously crying out for - an antidote to over produced pop - providing a deeper, more meaningful and heartfelt cause at its centre.

    Tantalising from the outset, Woolford steps up to the plate with a hard-hitting remix that drives in straight to your centre. Punchy TR-909 drums combine with thundering bass tones and his archetypal, rising piano hooks. A combination that brings Jacob Lusk's inimitable vocals to new heights.

    After a feverish reception to Paul's Instagram tease of the track, we've been itching to release this remix into the wild. It's a big one, don't miss it!

    'Three supremely talented artists simply excelling at what they do' - Paul Woolford

    Gerd Janson - 'Gabriels!!! - Total madness at Panorama Bar. Like it was made for the room'

    TRACK LISTING

    A1. Paul Woolford's Special Request Mix
    B1. Original Version
    B2. Paul Woolford's Special Request Radio Edit

    Laurel Halo

    Atlas

      Currently based in Los Angeles, Laurel Halo has spent over a decade stepping into different towns and cities for a moment or more, to the point where everywhere almost became nowhere. Atlas, the debut release on her new imprint Awe, is an attempt to put that feeling to music. Using both electronic and acoustic instrumentation, Halo has created a potent set of sensual ambient jazz collages, comprised of orchestral clouds, shades of modal harmony, hidden sonic details, and detuned, hallucinatory textures. The music functions as a series of maps, for places real and imaginary, and for expressing the unsaid.

      The process of writing Atlas began back in 2020 when she reacquainted herself with the piano. She relished the piano's physical feedback, as well as its capacity to express emotion and lightness. And when the legendary Ina-CRM Studios in Paris invited her to take up a residency the following year in 2021, she spared no time to dub, stretch and manipulate some of the simple piano sketches she'd recorded over the prior months; these subtle piano recordings and electronic manipulations would go on to become the heart of Atlas. In the remainder of 2021 and 2022, with time spent between Berlin and London, Halo recorded additional guitar, violin and vibraphone, as well as acoustic instrumentation from friends and collaborators including saxophonist Bendik Giske, violinist James Underwood, cellist Lucy Railton and vocalist Coby Sey. All of these sounds were shaped, melted, and re-composed into the arrangements, their acoustic origins rendered uncanny.

      In short, Atlas is road trip music for the subconscious. With repeated listens, it is a record that can leave a deep sensorial impression on the listener, akin to walking at dusk in a dark forest. Its humor and sharp focus would dispel any notions of sentimentality. Completely distinct from the rest of Halo's catalog, Atlas is an album that thrives in the quietest places, rejecting bombast and embracing awe. Fitting that it's the debut release on her new recording label, whose slogan parallels the mood and atmosphere of the album: Awe is something you feel when confronted with forces beyond your control: nature, the cosmos, chaos, human error, hallucinations.

      TRACK LISTING

      A1 Abandon
      A2 Naked To The Light
      A3 Late Night Drive
      A4 Sick Eros
      A5 Belleville

      B1 Sweat, Tears Or The Sea
      B2 Atlas
      B3 Reading The Air
      B4 You Burn Me
      B5 Earthbound

      Frànçois & The Atlas Mountains

      Banane Bleue

        ‘Banane Bleue’ (French for blue banana), the brand new album from Frànçois & The Atlas Mountains, is a nomadic and truly European record, hailing from rented workspaces in some of the continent’s key cities - Berlin, Athens and Paris - and recorded with instruments that were often borrowed from likeminded musicians.

        Written solely by Frànçois Marry himself, close collaborator and Weird World artist Jaakko Eino Kalevi was enlisted for production duties whilst Renaud Letang (Feist, Gonzales, Connan Mockasin) mixed the album.

        The title of the album is taken from the ‘blue banana’ concept, a geographical theory that groups together a corridor of Europe’s biggest cities, originally conceived in the 1980s. The theory states that the blurring of these cities’ boundaries has resulted in the formation of one massive, interconnected megalopolis.

        Expanding on the theory, Frànçois poetised it, picturing a luminescent blue banana shape that you can see from space with vibrant, ethereal currents that surround and bind us. It explores common cultural and romantic ground, creating an album full of missed meetings and misunderstandings.

        TRACK LISTING

        The Foreigner
        Coucou
        Julie
        Par Le Passé
        Holly Golightly
        Lee-Ann & Lucie
        Tourne Autour
        Revu
        Gold & Lips
        Dans Un Taxi

        Metz

        Atlas Vending

          “Change is inevitable if you’re lucky,” says guitarist/vocalist Alex Edkins while talking about Atlas Vending, the fourth full-length album by Toronto’s METZ. “Our goal is to remain in flux, to grow in a natural and gradual way. We’ve always been wary to not overthink or intellectualize the music we love but also not satisfied until we’ve accomplished something that pushes us forward.” The music made by Edkins and his compatriots Hayden Menzies (drums) and Chris Slorach (bass) has always been a little difficult to pin down. Their earliest recordings contained nods to the teeming energy of early ‘90s DIY hardcore, the aggravated angularities of This Heat, and the noisy riffing of AmRep’s quintessential guitar manglers, but there was never a moment where METZ sounded like they were paying tribute to the heroes of their youth.

          If anything, the sonic trajectory of their albums captured the journey of a band shedding influences and digging deeper into their fundamental core—steady propulsive drums, chest-thumping bass lines, bloody-fingered guitar riffs, the howling angst of our fading innocence. With Atlas Vending, METZ not only continues to push their music into new territories of dynamics, crooked melodies, and sweat-drenched rhythms, they explore the theme of growing up and maturing within a format typically suspended in youth. Covering seemingly disparate themes such as paternity, crushing social anxiety, addiction, isolation, media-induced paranoia, and the restless urge to leave everything behind, each of Atlas Vending’s ten songs offer a snapshot of today's modern condition and together form a musical and narrative whole. The song sequencing follows a cradle-to-grave trajectory, spanning from primitive origins through increasingly nuanced and turbulent peaks and valleys all the way to the climactic closer, “A Boat to Drown In.” The lyrics speak to this arc as well, with the songs addressing life’s struggles all the way through to death, as Edkins snarls “crashed through the pearly gates and opened up my eyes, I can see it now” before the band launches into the album’s cascading outro. 

          While past METZ albums thrived on an abrasive relentlessness, the trio embarked on Atlas Vending with the goal to make a more patient and honest record—something that invited repeated listens rather than a few exhilarating bludgeonings. It’s as if the band realized they were in it for the long haul, and their music could serve as a constant as they navigated life’s trials and tribulations. The result is a record that sounds massive, articulate, and earnest. Bolstered by the co-production of Ben Greenberg (Uniform) and the engineering and mixing skills of Seth Manchester (Daughters, Lingua Ignota, The Body) at Machines with Magnets in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, METZ deliver the most dynamic, dimensional, and compelling work of their career. 


          STAFF COMMENTS

          Barry says: Metz have always provided a glimpse into the more uncompromising but undeniably tuneful side of indie-rock, and 'Atlas Vending' if anything cements them as one of the most necessary voices in modern guitar music. Brutal but balanced beautifully with more cohesive, melodic sections.

          TRACK LISTING

          1. Pulse
          2. Blind Youth Industrial Park
          3. The Mirror
          4. No Ceiling
          5. Hail Taxi
          6. Draw Us In
          7. Sugar Pill
          8. Framed By The Comet’s Tail
          9. Parasite
          10. A Boat To Drown In 

          Demolition 9 is New York electronic music pioneer Martin Rev’s ninth solo album, and first new material since 2009. Comprised of 34 wildly divergent vignettes – only one of which reaches three minutes in length – he describes it as autobiographical “yearning for joy and the unattainable perfection of the artistic ideal.” The record spans a lifetime’s worth of moods and musings, encompassing fragments of Rev’s varied passions accrued across his nearly half-century long career. From violent percussion experiments to neo-classical reveries to noir-sleaze abstractions and beyond, Demolition 9 offers a radically non-linear spelunk through the dreams and distractions of one of the 20th century’s most influential sonic iconoclasts.

          TRACK LISTING

          1 Stickball
          2 Salve Dominus
          3 Deus
          4 Pace
          5 My Street
          6 T'Amo
          7 Into The Blue
          8 Requiem
          9 Now
          10 Blayboy
          11 In Our Name
          12 Never Mind
          13 Vision Of Mari
          14 Warning
          15 Salvame
          16 Dies Irae
          17 RBL
          18 Venitas
          19 Stretch
          20 Creation
          21 Toi
          22 Pièta
          23 It's Time
          24 Tacha's Toy
          25 Back To Philly
          26 Stelle
          27 Inside Out
          28 Beatus
          29 Tuba
          30 Rêve
          31 Concrete
          32 She
          33 Darling
          34 Excelsis

          François & The Atlas Mountains

          Solide Mirage

          ‘Solide Mirage’, the follow up to the 2014 album, ‘Piano Ombre’, offers a glimpse of coherence in a distorted world. The album was recorded in the chaotic-yet-calm environment of Brussels - the capital of Europe - a city where the future of a million ‘others’ is being decided.

          Fránçois Marry and his shape-shifting band The Atlas Mountains recorded with Ash Workman (Christine & The Queens, Metronomy) before Owen Pallett added violins from his home in LA.

          ‘Solide Mirage’ - like an imperceptible dream, a fantasy where reality shifts as one approaches it - is a perfect definition for this protean, changeable-yet-direct album which reveals new facets and new territories in every listen. Sometimes soft (on ‘1982’, ‘Apocalypse à Ipsos’, ‘Pepétuel été’, ‘100.000.000’), sometimes tough (‘Bête Morcelée’ and its rush of pure grunge, ‘Grand Dérèglement’ and the roughness and splinters of ‘Jamais Deux Pareils’), sometimes crazy (the digitized trance of ‘Âpres Après’) but always highly political, whether direct or reading between the lines.

          TRACK LISTING

          Grande Dérèglement
          Tendre Est L'Âme
          Apocalypse à Lpsos
          1982
          100.000.000
          Âpres Après
          Bête Morcelée
          Jamais Deux Pareils
          Perpétuel Été
          Rentes Écloses

          Atlas Sound

          Parallax

            Welcome to ‘Parallax’, the third long player from Atlas Sound, the ever expansive solo project of Bradford Cox from Deerhunter.

            Atlas Sound is not a side-project, but rather a fully-fleshed musical landscape chock full of pop chronicles culled from sci-fi fever dreams and midcentury rock.

            All songs were written and performed by Bradford, except on ‘Mona Lisa’, where Andrew VanWyngarden (MGMT) plays piano.

            ‘Parallax’ was recorded at New York’s Rare Book Room with Nicholas Vernhes, where Cox’s band Deerhunter recorded 2009 album, ‘Microcastle’.

            This is perhaps Cox’s best work to date, juxtaposing his modern, sometimes avant songwriting sensibilities against a backdrop of ambient loneliness and a quiet feeling of desperation.

            Visuals for Parallax were provided by Mick Rock, the photographer famous for his work with the likes of David Bowie, Blondie, Queen, Roxy Music and Lou Reed.

            ‘Parallax’ is dedicated to Trish Keenan RIP.

            STAFF COMMENTS

            Darryl says: Dreamy off-kilter indie-pop from Bradford Cox's (Deeerhunter) solo project. Liking this a lot.

            Blind Atlas

            Iron Wall

            Hailing from Denver (Colorado USA) and disparate points around the UK, Blind Atlas came together in the bohemian suburbs of south Manchester; united by a shared preoccupation with drinking, failed relationships and the Flying Burrito Brothers.

            Led by singer/guitarist Ross Thompson, Blind Atlas concoct a new take on American alternative country and classic British Rock ‘n’ Roll; taking inspiration from The Rolling Stones to Townes Van Zandt right through to artists such as Calexico and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy.

            Familiar faces on the Manchester circuit, Blind Atlas have notched up headline slots at some of the most iconic venues in the city, as well as supporting the likes of The Acorn, Blitzen Trapper, Buffalo Tom, The Features, and The Bees

            '... grizzled vocals and a heart-wrenching lyric sheet … think Ryan Adams fronting The Black Keys, or perhaps Fleet Foxes with a Led Zeppelin fixation; and clearly all designed to soundtrack long, whisky-addled nights of anguished soul-searching'. - City Life.

            James Blake

            James Blake

              The past couple of years have seen creative explosions and new generations coming through in both dancefloor electronics and heartfelt, introspective singer-songwriting, but self evidently they’ve remained mutually exclusive genre islands. Until now. With a uniquely emotional electronic production style every bit as deeply personal and impassioned as his voice or songwriting, James Blake is sketching out his own place in the musical universe.

              When a teenage James first visited the pivotal London dubstep night FWD>> in 2007, he’d already been to drum ’n’ bass nights with schoolfriends, but the music and atmosphere there were unlike anything he’d experienced. This was what James had been waiting for – he just hadn’t realised. This midnight epiphany in Plastic People’s Shoreditch cellar led, in a few short years, to the James Blake of 2010, a surefooted 22-year-old composer whose extraordinary tracks are not so much breaking down existing musical barriers as leaping over them and creating an entirely new kind of pop that belies its author’s tender age.

              Although loosely tethered to the cutting edge of contemporary electronics, James’s songs possess uncommon grace and soulfulness. Whether intended for the FWD>> dancefloor or, like new single "Limit to Your Love", destined to melt hearts and prick ears, his music is characterised by a playful and arresting honesty, a human touch that, despite his status as a hugely in-demand DJ, naturally aligns him with contemporary artists such as Bon Iver or Laura Marling or the xx.

              Yet more than this, it is the shock of the new in James’s music that’s causing real commotion: the sounds, that voice, the silence, the rhythm (or lack of it), the waiting, the tension. You have to know the rules in order to break them with such conviction, and by daring to be different, James stands head and shoulders above his peers. No doubt, you’ll remember where you were when you heard tracks like "Limit to Your Love" or "I Never Learnt to Share" for the first time.


              TRACK LISTING

              CD Tracklisting:
              1. Unluck
              2. Wilhelms Scream
              3. I Never Learnt To Share
              4. Lindesfarne I
              5. Lindesfarne II
              6. Limit To Your Love
              7. Give Me My Month
              8. To Care (Like You)
              9. Why Don’t You Call Me
              10. I Mind
              11. Measurements

              LP Tracklisting:
              Side 1
              1. Tep And The Logic
              2. Unluck
              3. The Wilhelm Scream
              Side 2
              1. I Never Learnt To Share
              2. Lindisfarne I
              3. Lindisfarne II
              Side 3
              1. Limit To Your Love
              2. Give Me My Month
              3. To Care (Like You)
              Side 4
              1. Why Don't You Call Me?
              2. Blake I Mind
              3. Blake Measurements
              4. Blake You Know Your Youth

              Hailing from Denver (Colorado USA) and disparate points around the UK, Blind Atlas came together in the bohemian suburbs of south Manchester; united by a shared preoccupation with drinking, failed relationships and the Flying Burrito Brothers.

              Led by singer/guitarist Ross Thompson, Blind Atlas concoct a boozy stew of American alternative country with a classic, Northern English edge; taking inspiration from Waits to Morrissey to map their trademark soulful melancholia and defining the territory where Americana meets Mancunia.

              Familiar faces on the Manchester circuit, Blind Atlas have notched up headline slots at some of the most iconic venues in the city, as well as supporting the likes of Manchester’s Liam Frost, Brooklyn’s Lucy Wainwright Roche and Detroit's Deadstring Brothers.

              '... grizzled vocals and a heart-wrenching lyric sheet … think Ryan Adams fronting The Black Keys, or perhaps Fleet Foxes with a Led Zeppelin fixation; and clearly all designed to soundtrack long, whisky-addled nights of anguished soul-searching'. - City Life.

              Atlas Sound

              Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel

                Atlas Sound is the solo moniker of Deerhunter frontman / provocateur Bradford Cox. Here on his debut album, Cox's sound moves out of dank nightclubs filled with eternal existential drone punk, and relaxes at home in his Grant Park, Atlanta bedroom. And this is, essentially, a bedroom album, a collage, mixing the garage rock and ambient electronic influences previously explored with Deerhunter into a new context, with newly explored recording techniques, mainly laptop-based, learned with guidance from Kranky artist Nudge's Brian Foote. The result is fourteen songs of melancholy and mania. This is a true solo album, entirely created and produced by a single person. That is certainly not unique, especially in the contemporary scene. But Bradford Cox's unusual talent is the ability to take a wide variety of seemingly incongruous sound elements, and seamlessly meld them into a cohesive pop narrative. Ultimately it is this innate ability to combine all these disparate elements into a singular whole that makes this album such an enjoyable, and unique listen.

                Natacha Atlas

                Something Dangerous

                  Natacha Atlas has had a truly 'global' background so evident in the music on "Something Dangerous". She grew up in the Moroccan suburbs of Brussels, speaks several languages fluently, is an expert of the raq sharki (belly dance) and has a devastating voice. On "Something Dangerous" she opens with a Jocelyn Took arranged orchestral ballad "Adam's Lullaby" sung in Arabic that has an epic, haunting brilliance. Bursts of reggae, dub, rap and echoes of Bollywood style pop follow making this her most diverse album yet. Guest appearance from Sinead O'Connor too on "Simple Heart".


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