Amsterdam based, Brazilian-born producer and vocalist LYZZA is Big Dada’s latest signing since re-launching as a label run by Black, POC & Minority Ethnic people for Black, POC & Minority Ethnic artists. Making waves in the contemporary electronic scene since the age of 17, Lyzza is a force to be reckoned with and has been described by Beatport as 'one of electronic music’s most promising young avant-pop producers.'

With three EPs under her belt, her fourth project “Mosquito” strives to show her range of abilities within sound and interdisciplinary art. The 10 track mixtape draws inspiration from mosquitoes and the psychological associations we have with them. Characteristically, mosquitoes are invasive and take up space, and this is something that Lyzza strives to be as an artist of colour.

The mixtape boasts a catalogue of alt-pop tracks that mingle English, Spanish and Portuguese lyrics, and are set to be accompanied by several music videos, a series of vlogs and a short film.

Lyzza's mixtape features trap artist La Zowi from Madrid and Zambian-Canadian rapper Backxwash who were handpicked due to their physical locations and pre-established listeners in order to imitate how mosquitoes spread themselves over territories.

Lyzza has played across Europe, where she has played high-profile festivals such as Sonar, Melt!, Pukkelpop, Montreux Jazz Festival and Primavera Sound, the last performance resulting in Pitchfork recognising her as one of the Best of Primavera Sound 2018.

Most recent live performances include a set at Komedia Studio, The Great Escape Festival in Brighton, UK, Zoom Festival in Frankfurt, Germany. Recommended if you like… Shygirl, LSDXOXO, Rosalia, Arca, Sophie, Mykki Blanco, Grimes, Kali Uchis, Kelela, Tomasa Del Real, Tinashe

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Blush Me Out!
2. Lucky You
3. For When I Fall Again
4. Deserve It (feat. La Zowi)
5. Cheat Code

Side B
1. Eraser
2. Mind 2 Lips
3. Hold Me
4. Heathens Call (feat.Backxwash)
5. Ressaca

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2022 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Before her critically acclaimed album The Return (Ninja Tune), equal parts songwriter, poet, singer and lyricist Sampa The Great made her mixtape debut on Big Dada with Birds And The BEE9. The mixtape won the Australian equivalent of The Mercury Prize (The Australian Music Prize) and features production from Slowthai producer Kwes Darko and Silentjay (who produced the lionís share of The Return).

5 years on it's been repressed on yellow and orange splatter vinyl and a liner note from Sampa The Great.

King Geedorah aka MF DOOM is perhaps the most legendary and revered living figure in underground hip hop today. On the conceptual classic ‘Take Me To Your Leader’ he takes the form of a giant three-headed lizard from outer space to give you “Geedorah’s alien perspective on humans.” 13 tracks all produced, written, recorded, arranged, mixed and mastered by the Metal Fingered Villain himself, MF DOOM. A generation of musicians have grown up in awe of DOOM - he’s influenced and worked with Flying Lotus, Earl Sweatshirt, Madlib, Clams Casino, Danger Mouse, RZA, Ghostface Killah, De La Soul and more. Originally released in 2003 - a year before Madvillain ‘Madvillainy’, the collaborative opus with Madlib (Stones Throw / Jaylib / Quasimoto) - ‘Take Me To Your Leader’ was a critical success. Alongside the classic ‘Operation: Doomsday (Fondle ‘Em)’, ‘Take Me To Your Leader’ is a criminally rare full length studio production project from MF DOOM - off-centre beats that owe much to his love of jazz, fantastically skilled, charismatic MCing and ideas galore. Features a variety of vocal guests (some under alias) including MF DOOM, Kurious, MF GRIMM (as Jet Jaguar) and other members of NYC’s Monsta Island Czars. For fans of MF DOOM, Madvillain, Earl Sweatshirt, Run The Jewels, J Dilla, Ghostface Killah.

TRACK LISTING

Fazers
Fastlane Ft Biolante
Krazy World Ft Gigan
The Final Hour Ft MF DOOM
Monster Zero
Next Levels Ft Lil’ Sci, ID 4 Winds & Stahhr
No Snakes Alive Ft JetJaguar & Rodan
Anti-Matter Ft MF DOOM & Mr Fantastik
Take Me To Your Leader
Lockjaw Ft Trunks
I Wonder Ft Hassan Chop
One Smart Nigger
The Fine Print

Farai’s debut album (a collaborative project between London based vocalist Farai and artist, musician & producer TONE) documents a process of recovery. For the eponymous vocalist of the project, Farai, music has always been personal. Born in Zimbabwe and raised in London, her lyrics are coloured by the different cities she’s lived in, and how that series of different homes has shaped her perspective. ‘Rebirth’ weaves together South East London landmarks, the bare-bones ethos of post-punk, and the experience of being part of the African diaspora. The record is the biggest stepping stone yet in a journey which Farai started in 2012. She hit a period of feeling burnt out, and started attending weekly music therapy classes, where she started writing poetry and music for the first time. It charted a new direction, one that’s brought her to the exciting point where she now stands.

The album follows their debut EP, ‘Kisswell’, released through NON Worldwide in 2017, the label-cum-collective co-founded by Chino Amobi, Angel-Ho and Nkisi. It attracted support from Dazed, CRACK, The Fader and Pitchfork, the latter praising their “rethinking of post-punk and new wave.” Additional support has come from Annie Mac on Radio 1 and a variety of shows on NTS. They’ve performed on Boiler Room and at the Tate, the latter as part of a special one-off connected to their 2017 Soul of a Nation exhibition.

Farai’s partner in creating both ‘Kisswell’ and ‘Rebirth’ has been TONE, a producer she’s worked with from the early on. They’ve carved out an alternative vision of pop together, distinctive and many-sided at once, poised between punk directness and flourishes of soulful warmth. TONE’s heritage is Afro-Guyanese and Welsh, and their shared pan-African heritage was one of the things which drew them together. He spent part of his childhood in Germany before moving to the UK when he was nine. He visited the Caribbean growing up, where he was introduced to his grandmother’s roots as a performer, hearing soca, dancehall and dub.

The album’s opener sets the tone with a short news snippet, situating the album in London: the pair’s common ground and the city where the album was born. ‘Punk Champagne’ nods to a homemade cocktail TONE mentioned to Farai, made of buckfast and prosecco, and is characteristically stripped back, composed of simply drums, vocals and synths. On ‘This Is England’, they adopt a looser structure still, an ominous synth line framing Farai’s reflections on work and hardship in contemporary Britain.

Farai was born in Zimbabwe’s capital city, Harare, where she lived until she was 12. (Her name means “joy” in Shona, the most widely spoken of Zimbabwe’s 16 official languages.) She grew up listening to TLC, Mase and Notorious B.I.G., and at one time aspired to enter into Zimbabwe’s version of The X Factor. Her mother moved to the UK to work as a nurse, and when political unrest struck Zimbabwe around 2002, Farai followed, moving to live with her in Bermondsey. At school she studied art, including a three year stint at a college in Kentish Town, where one of her teachers had worked for John Galliano. She moved to Manchester to study fashion at university, but dropped out, finding the course overly business-focused. Instead, she moved to China for a year, and when she returned to London, became immersed in fashion and art circles, spending a lot of her time at socialite-heavy parties.

After a couple of years, this lifestyle caught up with her and she hit a wall. Feeling exhausted and with her mental health in a bad state, she started attending music therapy classes, where she began writing lyrics and ideas. She took a new direction: she moved to Lewisham, in South East London, and started promoting music shows. She became a regular at the Shop Floor Sessions, a series of open jam nights in Elephant & Castle, started in a shop that had been squatted, and which grew into a collective of like-minded musicians.

It was those sessions that led to her connection with TONE, who discovered a video Farai had posted of one of her appearances there. He got in touch, and they met in Gillett Square, in Dalston, where TONE found Farai dressed in a fur coat and sunglasses, playing a game of giant chess with the locals. They quickly struck up a creative dynamic, where Farai would read a poem, and TONE would work out hip-hop drum chops to accompany it. The first track they recorded, that same day five years ago, was ‘Love Disease,’ where police sirens can be heard outside TONE’s house. “I set the mic up and a guitar,” TONE recalls, “and we did it first go with the windows open.”

It was a shared learning experience: for Farai, learning how to adapt her spoken word poems into verse-and-chorus structures, and for TONE, learning how to arrange her poetry into song structures from a new vantage point. Later on, TONE having learnt his production skills from years of playing in bands, session playing for numerous artists and working on his own productions eventually took the raw sessions which were recorded with just guitar and drum loops and re-recorded all the drum parts for ‘Rebirth’ with Marc Pell from Micachu & The Shapes, who is currently Mount Kimbie's live drummer and performs under the alias Suitman Jungle. He also applied his love of electronic instruments into the recordings with his collection of 80s and early 90s analogue synthesisers in a studio he shares with Mica Levi aka Micachu. Much of the album was made with a sense of urgency, like ‘National Gangsters’, which was recorded in TONE's DIY studio, with neighbours in close vicinity, where they were conscious of the noise. They finished it after the second take, receiving angry complaints right afterwards. The track has a raw feel, where Farai reflects on heroin in London’s streets, and drums crash into tinny arpeggios, undergirded by a bloated synth bassline. It’s in the spirit of the album as a whole; for Farai, it’s about the act of musical expression as much as it’s about the music itself.

TRACK LISTING

LP
A1. Cray Cray
A2. Lizzy
A3. Punk Champagne (feat. TONE)
A4. Social Butterflies
A5. Talula
A6. This Is England
A7. National Gangsters
B1. Love Disease
B2. Secret Gardens
B3. Space Is A Place (feat. Chris Calderwood)
B4. Radiant Child

CD
1. Cray Cray
2. Lizzy
3. Punk Champagne (feat. TONE)
4. Social Butterflies
5. Talula
6. This Is England
7. National Gangsters
8. Love Disease
9. Secret Gardens
10. Space Is A Place (feat. Chris Calderwood)
11. Radiant Child

Reflection Of Youth - which was recorded in a studio on a working dairy farm deep in the wilds of West Wales as well as in the producer’s home studio in Cork, Ireland - is an album of visceral beauty and blistering honesty. It is a brave, candid and uncompromising record about finding purpose from confusion and strength in your weaknesses. It’s about learning how to work through your problems and take charge of your own life, instead of relying on others to do it for you. Its ten songs were largely composed in the small hours of the night and are arguably best experienced in that context, when soul-searching and introspection come naturally.

For Anna Lena, the album is a document of a tumultuous chapter in her life. It’s very much about living through your twenties, which in Norwegian society are “the years when you’re supposed to figure everything out.”

On Reflection Of Youth, EERA’s sound has already evolved into something rawer, rockier and noticeably angrier. "It was a really odd experience to listen back to the record and realise what I'd made," says Anna Lena. "I was surprised by how different, how much more powerful it felt from the EP. Those songs sounded like I was quietly knocking on the door, trying to get in, whereas the album feels like I'm stepping through it." If Anna Lena set out to achieve anything, she says, “it was to make an incredibly honest record that would give people a real sense of who I am. I think it’s important to be vulnerable, to not be afraid of showing emotion and be open about it with the people around you. We all face problems in our lives, so why not meet them head-on?”

TRACK LISTING

Living
Beast
Christine
I Wanna Dance
Survived
10 000 Voices
Watching You
Trust
Wise Man
Reflection Of Youth

Visionist AKA Louis Carnell returns with his second album, ‘Value’, a precise body of work which builds across its 10 tracks on his conceptual, thematic process, finding assertion in the values of self-discipline and self-education through meticulous composition. The sounds are crushingly epic, with pneumatic bursts of white noise mixed with torn apart beat reduction and angelic, reverb-drenched vocals meeting a modern symphony of strings, synths and glistening keys - all working to elevate the album into the heavens. 

The album features collaborative artwork from influential artist Peter De Potter (Kanye West ‘The Life Of Pablo’).

TRACK LISTING

Self-
New Obsession
Homme
Value
Your Approval
No Idols
Made In Hope
High Life
Exi(s)t
Invanity

ZOMBY, one of the UK’s most enigmatic electronic producers, underscores his already illustrious succession of releases with his latest EP “GASP!" ZOMBY’s ability to effortlessly shift aesthetics across his career has firmly stationed him as a producer that can’t be boxed, and “GASP!" sees him altering his often jungle-driven sound yet again, furthering him as a sonic chameleon among an ever-increasing landscape of musical similitude.  In his signature spirit of cryptic variety, “GASP!" explores another tectonic revision in ZOMBY’s style. A shift forward indeed, the compact, 3-track EP is a relentless, hardware-driven behemoth of beats and breaks that fit somewhere between a chugging steel factory and a darkened dancefloor.

TRACK LISTING

A1. GASP!
A2. ZKITTLEZ
B1. ZPRITE

Big Dada reissue the critically acclaimed debut and sophomore albums by Young Fathers, ‘Tape One’ and ‘Tape Two’. Both albums have been remastered for this reissue and are presented together as double CD, double LP and double cassette packages. "Tape One" and "Tape Two" are compellingly unique - the band make the sort of uncompromisingly leftfield, forward thinking hip hop that has nothing to do with artiness and everything to do with brilliance, all with grain silo production and genuine pop hooks.
"Tape One" was recorded within a week. It was first released in November 2011 as a limited edition cassette with individually spray-painted sleeves. "Tape Two" was recorded almost immediately afterwards, in January 2012. Eventually LA based label Anticon picked up both albums and gave them a limited release in the USA.  In 2014, "Tape Two" won the prestigious SAY Award (Scottish Album Of The Year) which brought a cash prize of £20,000.
If you like Massive Attack, Shabazz Palaces and Kate Tempest, or forward thinking hip hop brilliance in general, then this one's for you. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Essential reissue of Young Father's first two albums for those of us (myself included) who were sleeping at the time. Gritty production, innovative lyricism and plenty of hooks make this a must have for any respectable hip hopper.

TRACK LISTING

Tape One
Deadline
Sister
Rumbling
Romance
Fortunes
Remains
Rrramanda
Dar-Eh Da Da Du

Tape Two
I Heard
Come To Life
Only Child
Queen Is Dead
Bones
Freefalling
Mr. Martyr
Way Down In The Hole
Ebony Sky

Irish-born South-London vocalist Samuel returns to Big Dada with the new EP 'Luv Cry' - four tracks of R&B tinged electronica, produced by Kwes (Warp) and with additional production by Ozkharp (Hyperdub) and Lockah (Donky Pitch).

Coming from a tough upbringing in Ireland, raised in gypsy camps and children’s homes, and living homeless for periods, he found relief in the music programs on offer at the homes, finally earning a scholarship at Goldsmiths University in London. After moving to London he went on to collaborate extensively with Ozkharp on his 2014 EP Falling Star, receiving support from the likes of Pitchfork, Dazed, Dummy, Pigeons & Planes & DJ Mag. His recent single 'These Days' (produced by Kwes) premiered on The Fader and has had over 300k streams to date.

TRACK LISTING

Killr
Aleesha
Winnerz
Wildfire

Two and a half years on from the sad and untimely passing of Ewan Robertson aka Offshore, his label Big Dada can announce the release of a last album from the Aberdonian musician and designer. The tracks for the new record, 'Offshore' were all more or less completed before his death in 2012. His family, his partner and the label have pieced the album together as close to his original intentions as they could manage, to create a suite of music which in its openness, beauty, humour and joyfulness, both hints at what Ewan could have gone on to achieve, and celebrates what a unique and lovely human being and musician he was.

In addition, artists including Ikonika, Amon Tobin, Blue Daisy, Slugabed, Mamiko Moto, Lockah and Enchanté have all contributed remixes and expect videos and photographs from long time collaborators.

All profits from the record are to go to the Marfan Trust at his family's choosing, it was the condition that affected Ewan.

The sadness felt by those who knew and loved Ewan is still very real, but this record is a chance to celebrate what a unique and talented individual he was.

TRACK LISTING

J Bouncey
Make It Up
Barden’s Burden
Church Rhythm
Flickbook
NY In A Minute
Torry Tash
Olympian
Step Forward
Ruin
Swing
Start
Painting
Turn That Down Upside Frown
Off Peak

When everything is post-post-post-post something older and better where do the exceptions go? When the sci-fi 20’s ‘Urban’ might as well be the atomic 50’s ‘Race’, when R&B has no blues and hiphop is a boom bip with a shorty, a hoe, it’s off to the street corner we go… where does a group like Young Fathers, who ‘pick'n'mix from the popular music sweety shop and fly no flags and swear allegiance to no country’ (© - 100 interviews with the group in 2014) - where do they go?

They have to go to the place where Beck makes a sandwich with The Beach Boys and Captain Beefheart, where Faust and The Fall tango. In Rock and Pop you are allowed to pretty much be yourself. If you are a blue and green eyed boy from Brixton with the sallowest of white skin you can become the epitome of crystalised soul, itself. It swings both ways. So… Young Fathers are breaking out of the ghetto. Fuck these constrictive selling boxes.

For the purposes of this mission, this album, this 'White Men Are Black Men Too', is rock and pop. And hip hop, too No, you don’t box in the R&B Hits 2003 generation that easily. This sticker is only for the business. The listeners can decide for themselves.

The sounds are closer on this album, closer to your ears. It sounds as if you are in the room during the recording, possibly experiencing a little existential trauma, but not enough that you don’t notice an earworm hook when you hear one. These hooks, they stay with you. ‘Is that what they mean by pop’? you ask yourself. Could be, Madonna, could be. There are less words than before. Why, for fuck’s sake? Where is the hip hop? It slides in, like a reverse version, a negative, of the hip hop blueprint of eight verses and a sweet, female wail of a hook (while comedy rapper number 6 mutters ‘uh huh, uh huh’, you know, keeping it real). But YFs lob raps into songs that morph into sung verses then back into the tune, with no respect, none! for the law.

These are grown men, battle fit and in their prime. There are no celebrations of dole queue theatre, no fake politics - there’s no need. YFs are right there in the middle of the question: what is your ID? Why claim to speak for a dispossessed white or black class or group or generation? When you can only ever speak for yourself.

When they chant ‘nigger nigger nigger’ the group are singing their enemy’s song (and you can all sing along) - it’s not a war cry, it’s the off switch, the left hand turn in the ignition, the pop-hiss of deflation. No more war, motherfucker. The tension is sexual, tuneful, it’s only fun about to kick off.

TRACK LISTING

Still Running
Shame
Feasting
27
Rain Or Shine
Sirens
Old Rock N Roll
Nest
Liberated
John Doe
Dare Me
Get Started

A1. Still Running
A2. Shame
A3. Feasting
A4. 27
A5. Rain Or Shine
A6. Sirens

B1. Old Rock N Roll
B2. Nest
B3. Liberated
B4. John Doe
B5. Dare Me
B6. Get Started

Released as a sister package to 2005's "Awfully Deep", "Alternately Deep" (can you see what they've done there?) includes exclusive and unreleased tracks, rare remixes, B-sides and cuts only previously available as downloads. It features contributions from the cream of the UK scene, including vocals by Hazel Sims and Banana Klan member Ricky Ranking, plus remixes by Plan B, Steve Dub, Colossus and Jammer.