Salty Road Dogs Victory Anthem. Alabaster DePlume and his live band of Roxi Plain, Conrad Singh and Momoko Gill caught fresh off tour and recorded to tape at London creative hub Total Refreshment Centre by in-house engineer Kristian “Capitol K” Robinson, mixed by legendary UK producer Dilip Harris.

Fat Dog are the most exciting breakthrough band of the past few years, conjurers of the sort of frenzied and wild live shows not seen in the capital for years and now the creators of ‘WOOF’., a brilliant and mind-bending debut album. A thrilling blend of electro-punk, rock’n’roll snarling, techno soundscapes, industrial-pop and rave euphoria, ‘WOOF’. is music for letting go to or, in the words of frontman Joe Love, “screaming-into-a-pillow music”.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Vigilante
Closer To God
Wither
Clowns

Side B
King Of The Slugs
All The Same
I Am The King
Running
And So It Came To Pass

J & M Music Co US welcomes LeBaron James for another standout four-tracker that brings raw house and smooth disco together on one EP. Up first is 'Always Be True', a deceptively simple sound that brings straight-up dancefloor beats with hooky pads. 'House Party' then has more heavy kicks and wild percussive patterns to liven up any party and 'One' then brings a more cool and laid-back disco groove that has a slick modern twist. Last but not least is 'Sugar And Spice' which brings a touch of sophisticated and chic instrumental vibes. It's a fourth different sound on a versatile EP.

TRACK LISTING

Always Be True
One
House Party
Sugar & Spice

On Of Montreal’s latest album, 'Lady on the Cusp', Kevin Barnes shapeshifts between genres with each song. On tracks like 'Rude Girl on Rotation', Barnes revisits sounds of late 60’s guitar pop & psychedelia reminiscent of 2013’s 'Lousy With Sylvianbriar', while 'Young Hearts Bleed Free' and 'Music Hurts The Head' showcase Barnes’ love of experimental funk pop that has been present throughout much of the band’s discography. 'Lady on the Cusp' is another exciting listen from one of the most prolific and influential artists making music today.

TRACK LISTING

1. Music Hurts The Head
2. 2 Depressed 2 Fuck
3. Rude Girl On Rotation
4. Yung Hearts Bleed Free
5. Soporific Cell
6. I Can Read Smoke
7. PI$$ PI$$
8. Sea Mines That Mr Gone
9. Poetry Surf
10. Genius In The Wind

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2024 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 20TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM ON MONDAY APRIL 22ND.

Son of Todd Osborn (Soundmurderer/Ghostly) Kaito Ian makes a hugely impressing first outing on the Galaxy Sound Co label with a series of lo-fi hip-hop beat-strumentals that cannot fail to get your head nodding. He is a dedicated music lover and skater with a deep knowledge of his craft and that shows here with some refined sounds starting with the soul drenched 'Revert', then on to the warped angelic vocal samples of 'Sequoia' and the percussive jumbled and scratching of 'Trek'. 'Wait Up' is another excellently blissed out joint and 'Sloan' is a sunny, laid back, lazy vibe to close down a superb EP.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Phwoooar 'ave some of THAT! Todd Osborn's son (!!) drops a tidy package of hip-hop instrumentals which lands somewhere between DJ Dez (Andres), Madlib and some of the beat tapes we've had through Fat Beats. You'll be clambering after a whole LP once you've digested this 7"!

TRACK LISTING

Revert
Sequoia
Trek
Wait Up
Sloan

On June 29th, 2023, Jeremiah Chiu walked into the Vintage Synthesizer Museum (VSM) in Highland Park, Los Angeles, with no plan more specific than "let's fire this stuff up and see what happens." Exploring the VSMs' vast collection of classic, rare and staple synthesizers, he would sequence, trigger, and layer the machines together with help from VSM founder/curator Lance Hill.

The resulting album - In Electric Time - was recorded in just two days, and edited to completion in the two days following. It was captured fully analog by engineer Ben Lumsdaine, who contributes performances on a few tracks himself. Cooper Crain (of Bitchin Bajas) makes an appearance as well; but ultimately the collection is an intuitive expression of organic electronic music conceptualized and created in-context by Chiu alone, as he calls on a life time of work in sound synthesis to paint a fulgent, refreshingly undercut sequence of cinematic sketches and in-process themes. In some ways, In Electric Time reflects the directness of Raymond Scott's electronic studio recordings - with sharp cuts and room chatter - and, in others, it conjures the in-the-moment magic of Harmonia.

TRACK LISTING

1. ElectroComp 101
2. Seawater Swell
3. For Voices
4. Rococco Rondo
5. A Cloud Song
6. Rhythm Bell
7. Brush With Thin Air
8. Rhythm Serge
9. Static Stone Railway
10. Transparent Spheres
11. Echo Arp Hold
12. In Electric Time

The Galaxy Sound Co. is now up to number 41 in their buy-on-sight 45s series, this time with '1$ Bin Breaks'. It's another vital 45 rpm that packs a lot in with plenty of epic sound sources that you will recognise and love from some of your favourite hip-hop joints. Artists like Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth, Puff Daddy, De La Soul, Ghostface Killah, J Dilla, Redman and Alicia Keys have called upon the sounds you will hear here from original artists like Odessa, Milt Jackson With The Ray Brown Big Band, Issac Hayes and many more. File this one under essential breaks, library sounds and jazz nuggets.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
"Sakura"
"On The Hill"
"Enchanted Lady"

Side 2
"Survival"
"Sunrise"
"A Few More Kisses To Go"
"Go On & Cry"

Galaxy Sound Co. hits 40 releases deep with yet another buy-on-sight 7". This latest entry into the Sample Series kicks off with an edit of 'Lovely Is Today' by Eddie Harris from his 1968 album Plug Me In. It's steeped in delightfully conversational saxophone with rousing chords dancing beneath in a swinging 60s fashion. A real classy gem. On the flip, 'September 13' by Deodato gets reworked and is from his self-titled jazz-funk album. This one is more funky and it's led by some big, proud horn stabs and silky drum rumbles enriched with great synths. Another vital 45 from this fine label.

TRACK LISTING

Lovely
13

South African pianist Thandi Ntuli traveled to Los Angeles in 2019, where she recorded this album of bare, explorative piano and voice pieces at a Venice Beach studio with International Anthem artist Carlos Niho in the producer chair. An absolutely stunning, intimate listen, with Ntuli's prowess as a pianist and singularity as a vocalist on vivid display as much as her fearlessness, vulnerability and adventurousness during occasional experiments with synthesizers and percussion. Nino colors open minimalist soundscapes with overdubbed percussion, cymbals and plants.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sunrise (in California)
2. Rainbow Revisited
3. Breath And Synth Experiment
4. Nomayoyo (Ingoma Ka Mkhulu)
5. Piano EDIT (Original Mix)
6. Sunset (in California)
7. Voice And Tongo Experiment
8. The One (first Part)
9. The One (second Part)
10. Lihlanzekile

The Galaxy Sound Co's latest 7" kicks off with a remastered edit of 'Passion Play' by The Sugarhill Gang. It's a tune that was originally on their self-titled 1980 album and comes with background vocals from the superb funk and soul band Positive Force. Somehow the tune didn't make the charts at the time though it has been heavily referenced and sampled since, including by the likes of Kerri Chandler. The B-side is 'Who Is She (And What Is She to You)', a soul-jazz cover of a Bill Withers classic taken from Madelaine's only album, Who Is She, in 1978. It has a serious Chicago pedigree and great arrangements from Johnny Pate.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Galaxy Sound Co. continue to dish out the high grade edits. Now on 7" for extra effectiveness in the field (less weight for the real vinyl DJ!) they continue to mine sources of enjoyment for all with these two crowd pleasers sure to satiate even the rowdiest Christmas crowd...

TRACK LISTING

Love Play (Edit)
Who?

The second self-titled album from Will Miller's Resavoir interweaves modern-day soul-jazz with bedroom beats, synth serenades and twilight sonatas – an endlessly listenable, subtly radiant symphony suitable for both the composition-minded musician’s musician and the hook-seeking playlist populist.

This album follows Resavoir’s 2019 self-titled debut album, a breakout success that landed in ‘Best of 2019’ lists by NPR Music and BBC’s Gilles Peterson, and has logged over 8 million streams across DSPs to date, and counting.

Through his movement further into an expanded palette of synths, pianos, live and programmed drums in addition to his MIDI-augmented trumpet, Miller has developed a signature cinematic soul-jazz sound rooted in hip-hop structures. No surprise, then, that his profile as a producer has raised significantly since the Resavoir debut, and that the years since have seen him operating the controls and guiding the ship on tracks for Eryn Allen Kane, Whitney, Knox Fortune, and SZA’s recently-released album SOS (which spent 10 weeks as the #1 spot on the Billboard 200 chart).

This is the backdrop for Resavoir’s second self-titled effort, a more polished and focused presentation of Miller’s evolving skills as a studio producer. His compositional touch is more articulate than ever. The short but sweet album features a massive list of contributors including Elton Aura, Whitney, Akenya, Matt Gold, Eddie Burns, Lane Beckstrom, Jeremy Cunningham, Irvin Pierce, Macie Stewart, Peter Manheim and many more.

TRACK LISTING

1. Heavenly
2. Inside Minds
3. Sunday Morning
4. Robot Dreams
5. Midday
6. Sunset
7. First Light
8. Future
9. Oh N On
10. Blutopia
11. Facets

Berlin-based British composer, percussionist, and instrument maker Bex Burch was invited to spend a month in the US by International Anthem in Summer 2022. Burch immersed herself in the label’s creative community and listened to what it gave her, making field recordings and allowing There Is Only Love and Fear to emerge from the collaborations and environments she encountered.

Sessions for the album spanned multiple non-traditional recording spaces including a storefront in Bridgeport, Chicago and a canyon in Griffith Park, Los Angeles, with an eminent cast of creative musicians including Ben LaMar Gay, Macie Stewart, Anna Butterss, Mikel Patrick Avery, and Dan Bitney of Tortoise, all of whom Burch met for the first time in the moments before they played. These moments of instant collaboration were then edited, decomposed, and recontextualized by Burch, resulting in a deeply organic, energetic-yet-patient addition to the canon of modern composition.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A beautiful distillation of percussive new age, wandering jazz and heady melodicism from the always reliable International Anthem. Burch has crafted a hugely immersive, transportive piece of work.

TRACK LISTING

1. Dawn Blessings (feat. Macie Stewart)
2. If I Was You, I'd Be Doing Exactly The Same
3. Don't Go Back To Sleep (feat. Dan Bitney)
4. Fruit Smoothie With Peanut Butter
5. Pardieu
6. Start Before You're Ready
7. You Thought You Were Free?
8. "Joy Is Not Meant To Be A Crumb"
9. On Falling (feat. Diego Gaeta)
10. Follow Me, I Make You Happy
11. This Is The Sound Of One Voice
12. When Love Begins 

On October 15th and 16th, 2020, drummer Daniel Villarreal was joined by guitarist Jeff Parker and bassist Anna Butters for two afternoons of recording in the backyard of Chicali Outpost in Los Angeles. For all three musicians, ti was the first ensemble recording session they'd done in-person since the pandemic locked the world down just seven months prior. Some choice moments from these sessions made it onto Villarreal's critically-acclaimed 022 album Panamá 77, but most of the music remained unreleased.

Lados B is a deep dive into the high-level spontaneous music made by Villarreal, Parker, and Butters across those two days in 2020.Villarreal's heard leading the group through various rhythmic modes and structures of improvisation - flow as informed by the Latin soul of Fania Records as it is by the otherworldly humanity trance of Brain Records - while Parker and Butters draw on their extensive experience playing free together (as heard on Parker's recently-released Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy, and the LA side of Makaya McCraven's 2018 LP Universal Beings) to build harmonic buoys for their spontaneous melodicism. The result is a beautifully vivid illustration of context, creativity, and collective composition from a particularly rich moment in history.

TRACK LISTING

1. Traveling With
2. Sunset Cliffs
3. Republic
4. Chicali Outpost
5. Bring It
6. Salute
7. Daytime Nighttime
8. Things Can Be Calm
9. Rug Motif

Galaxy Sound Co is well known for its super 45 edit series but has also recently turned plenty of heads with their instrumental hip-hop interludes - and that's just what we have here. Up first is 'Loud & Clear', a brilliant boom-bap gem with a sweet soulful piano riff, great work from the classic MC and nice dusty beats. 'NORE' (Buttas remix) noise sup raw beats and squealing piano lines with lively bars that are a snippet from Noreaga's 'SuperThug'. Last of all is 'Cherry Blossoms (Love Notes Mix)' which is a perfect late 90s hip-hop joint that has a sample from 1969's 'Maybe So Maybe No' by the New Holidays, This is a summer gem to keep the long sunny day vibes alive as autumn arrives.

STAFF COMMENTS

Mine says: We love a nice hip-hop mash-up on 7" here at Picc HQ. Strictlybutters muscles in alongside Moar for BBQ-friendly beats and discourse.

TRACK LISTING

Loud & Clear
NORE (Buttas Remix
Cherry Blossoms (Love Notes Mix)

In order to record the compositions in his critically acclaimed 2022 release GOLD, Alabaster DePlume instilled a culture of creativity by leading his ensembles In spontaneous composition and development. This resulted in an abundance of material that he has since produced and arranged, resulting in this collection.

The direction here is firmly rooted in performance and less focused on post-production, featuring DePlume’s go-to collaborators in the London scene, and yielding particular space to percussionist Tom Skinner (The Smile, Sons of Kemet), vocalist Momoko Gill, and percussionist / vocalist Donna Thompson. The result is a raw, beautiful, percussive, group music, in-the-room music. You’re there. You’re here. Take a listen.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sibomandi (feat. Falle Nioke)
2. What Can It Take
3. To That Voice And Say
4. Greek Honey Slick (feat. Tom Skinner)
5. Give Me Away
6. Fall On Flowers
7. Did You Know (feat. Momoko Gill)
8. Levels Of Human
9. Not Even Sobbing
10. The Best Thing In The World
11. Naked Like Water (feat. Donna Thompson)
12. Broken Again

In July of 2022, just one month before jaimie branch’s death sent shockwaves around the world, the trumpet player and composer was in Chicago at International Anthem (IARC) studios putting finishing touches on an album. It was a suite of music she had composed and then recorded with her flagship ensemble, Fly or Die, over the course of a residency at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, Nebraska. In her wake, the album was near complete, with only mixing tweaks, final titles, and artwork to be fully realized. In the months following, her family (led by sister Kate Branch), her band (Jason Ajemian, Lester St. Louis, and Chad Taylor), and her collaborators at IARC (engineers Dave Vettraino and David Allen, comrades Alejandro Ayala and Scott McNiece) banded together to gather memories, texts, emails, photographs, artwork and fragments belonging to jaimie to light the path forward. The goal was always to do what jaimie would have done. Packaged in stunning artwork by John Herndon, Damon Locks, and branch herself, Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war)) is jaimie’s final album with the quartet.

TRACK LISTING

1. Aurora Rising
2. Borealis Dancing
3. Burning Grey
4. The Mountain
5. Baba Louie
6. Bolinko Bass
7. And Kuma Walks
8. Take Over The World
9. World War ((reprise))

Next up on Co-Accused Records - No Static / Automatic label boss Ara-U is piloting the craft with his "No Future EP". The Venezuelan electro producer provides four analogue cuts accompanied by a Radioactive Man remix.

It's a cosmic liftoff with the mind warping sonic sounds of "Planet Destroy". Radioactive Man's funk-fueled remix has an infectious 303 bassline that takes the listener on a jackin' journey. On the flip side "Exit Now" moves into driving hypnotic synths with sizzling percussion throughout. "No Future" dips the dancefloor into a twisting wormhole of intergalactic grooves. The EP closes with the dark dystopian synths and extraterrestrial layers of "It’s Only Lies Around Me".

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: As usual, mainframe destruction from Ara-U and Radioactive Man who deploy their own brand of funk-laced electro and growling analogue synthesis.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Planent Destroy
A2. Planent Destroy (Radioactive Man Remix)
B1. Exit Now
B2. No Future
B3. It’s Only Lies Around Me

After taking time out from working together to focus on separate musical projects, maverick composer Alan Roberts (Jim Noir) and crowd-rousing vocalist Leonore Wheatley (International Teachers of Pop / The Soundcarriers) have re-joined forces to introduce Co-Pilot. Each the other’s wing person, they’re plotting an escape through Manchester’s claustrophobic grey skies with the pencil case colour of a hand-sewn multi-coloured primary school patchwork quilt. “We are both the creators in charge of navigating Co-Pilot’s overall sound which changes from track to track,” Leonore hints at what to expect. “There are about 6 different genres on one album, it's a pick n mix record!”

Happy in the haze of many boozy hours the album was recorded over just a few months whilst holed up and hanging out in Al’s city centre Dookstereo studio. The former Mill allowed the pair to relax, laugh and create without constraint. Armed with their original demos and vocal recordings from Al’s flat, they’d nip by the offie to pick up some Dutch courage before setting to work: building arrangements from a drum beat and basic chord pattern, the pair were so in tune they rarely spoke, allowing only the music to lead the way. “We’d communicate through nods of agreement or grimaces of dismay,” Leonore recalls. “Using the instruments with Al in production mode, we let the sound dictate the process whilst being drunk enough to follow it.”

The sound of life coming full circle after honing their separate crafts, Leonore had previously played keys and vocals in Jim Noir’s live band before moving on to front International Teachers of Pop for two critically lauded albums of joyous dancefloor filling bangers - their self-titled debut (2019) and Pop Gossip (2020). During that time Al would further expand Jim Noir’s universe with AM Jazz, which was celebrated as the no.1 album in Piccadilly Records’ ‘End of Year Review’ (2020), followed by the Deep View Blue E.P. (2021) cementing his status as one of Manchester’s finest songwriters.

As Leonore added her vocal magic to Al’s early demos of what would eventually become Co-Pilot’s ‘Spring Beach’ and a crooked original version of closing track ‘Corner House’, the vibe was prophetic “like the ending of Grease as Danny and Sandy take flight through the clouds”, letting their imaginations fly. The songs were the catalyst to spark a new phase of the pair working together, picking up where they left off. “From messing about with sounds during rehearsals in the very beginning it was always clear we liked the combination of sounds we made,” Leonore recalls.

Powered by a ‘try anything’ approach, Co-Pilot blends the musical DNA of what you’ve come to expect from each of the pair’s previous flight paths. “Whatever is switched on or nearby gets used. There's no 'correct' for us. If it sounds good, record it,” Al tells. United through typically turbulent wonky pop and lurking samples, whether culled from 70s TV themes or recreations of past and found sounds (see Al’s 60s tropicalia guitar on ‘Brick’, or the innocent ‘Swim to Sweden’ which opens with an ice cream van jingle Al recorded from his bedroom window) their process offers up a bucket load of Easter eggs. The album even features snippets from dearly departed pal Batfinks whilst ‘Motosaka’ is perhaps the most expensive 2-minutes on the album, featuring a Columbia Records Japan-cleared sample of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s ‘Thousand Knives’. Its synth squelches and Tom Tom Club funk also received the blessing of Haroumi Hosono, Godfather of Japanese Electronica, who agreed to being sampled in an original version of the song. “We just kept listening back and hitting gold,” Al recalls. “I was thinking ‘yeah, not sure what this is but I like it! We were buzzing with what we had made.”

But the sound wouldn’t come without self-imposed instrumental challenges. Thanks to an old mellotron sample on ‘Move To It,’ the moog riff and nautical accordion breaks on ‘Swim To Sweden’ and the 6/8 and 7/8 jaunt of ‘Brick’, time signatures were lovingly skewed to create Co-Pilot’s unique mood. “It was a bastard getting the drums right,” Leonore reveals, “but I like the wonkiness”. Levelling up through the lyrics, the words of smoky and evocative ‘She Walks In Beauty’ are based on a Lord Byron poem, with the sentiment of remembering Leonore’s late grandparents. “I wanted to see how much I could get away with just singing on one note, and how I could harmonically change everything else around it vocally,” she says. Elsewhere ‘Can You See’ was written from the perspective of a concerned sister to a brother which tells of keeping someone safe. “The lyrics are quite metaphorical about day-to-day happenings, people loved and lost. Others are rhythmic nonsense! It’s up to the listener to figure out what’s true.”

It’s clear from Al’s productive production techniques and Leonore’s knack for vocals and lyricism, Co-Pilot’s course is engineered by two aeronautically adept sonic storytellers. “We share a pretty similar sense of humour,” Al tells, “It is funny listening to this quite serious album but knowing we were giggling as we recorded it all. It’s been great to have another brain to bounce off.” Their destination might be unknown, but the clouds are about to part for a sound that is light years ahead. “You'll like at least one song,” Leonore suggests, “and hopefully them all.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: What else would you expect from Jim Noir's Alan Roberts and the endlessly talented Leonore Wheatley from ITOP (and many others), than an evocative, beautifully written selection of grooving psychedelic beauties. 'Rotate' is swimming with fractured melodies, crisp melodic synths tempered with crunchy sycopated percussion and Leonore's haunting, beautifully rendered vocals. Stunner.

TRACK LISTING

1) Swim To Sweden
2) Move To It
3) Motosaka
4) Brick
5) Can You See
6) I Am 1
7) She Walks In Beauty
8) Spring Beach
9) Cornerhouse

New Future City Radio, the first duo collaboration of longtime creative partners Damon Locks & Rob Mazurek.

In a hyperactive 40-minute, 18-track suite that runs like a boombox mixtape, the two prolific multi-media artists contemplate community, transformation, and the future through the programmatic format of a pirate radio station for the people.

These two artists have worked together from the peak days of the late 90s / early 00s Chicago music scene up through the present day, which has seen Locks featured as lead vocalist of the multiple critically-acclaimed Exploding Star Orchestra albums composed/produced by Mazurek. In recent years, Locks has also earned great renown from his revolutionary, expansive latter-day gospel/jazz project Black Monument Ensemble.

New Future City Radio finds the duo creating a natural but innovatively-assembled blend of the sounds of those two projects, with Locks’s BME-style sample-based sound collage creating compositional beds underneath the signature Orson Wells-like vocal delivery he’s developed through his work with ESO, alongside Roland SP flourishes and arresting brass improvisations by Mazurek. The album is also filled with vignettes as fractured radio transmissions, featuring contributions by guests including Roberto Lange (Helado Negro) and Mauricio Takara (Sao Paulo Underground). It’s a deep avant-garde echo of the legendary Bomb Squad (Locks even sounding a bit like a tape-delayed Check D on the vox), with beat artifacts spanning the whole gamut from pre to post golden era hip-hop - mixing OG Brooklyn boombox sound with the sci-fi boom-bap of late 90s Def Jux and/or Dan The Automator’s 75 Ark.

STAFF COMMENTS

Martin says: Locks & Mazurek's ongoing collaboration results in an endlessly transforming dialogue, expertly crafted by these avant-garde jazz pioneers. It's free-flowing nature and organic drift is offset by the pirate-radio static and electronic glitch, a fascinating and terrific adventure.

TRACK LISTING

1. 5-4-3-2-1
2. Yes!
3. The Sun Returns
4. Breeze Of Time
5. Your Name Gonna Ring The Bell
6. New Future
7. Droids!
8. The Concord Hour
9. Future City
10. 10mins Past The Hour
11. Support The Youth (With Sound)
12. The Beat
13. Las Niñas Estan Escuchando (The Children Are Listening)
14. Flitting Splits Reverb Adage
15. Twilight Shimmer
16. Suspense In The Grip Of Suspense
17. Polaris Radio
18. Drop

On STRFKR’s newest offering, Running Around (Skeletron Mix), the band continue to deliver another batch of tracks full of dance-heavy grooves and irresistible melodies. Over the years and through the course of a discography that includes not just multiple studio albums but a wealth of fan-focused auxiliary releases, STRFKR’s combination of thoughtful lyricism and party starting hooks have made them a consistent success with critical music listeners and show-goers. They’ve played festivals like Coachella and Outside Lands, wowed audiences on impressive stages the size of Red Rocks, toured through Asia, Europe and Mexico and stacked up hundreds of millions in streaming numbers, all while continuing to grow as artists.

TRACK LISTING

1. Running Around (Skeletron Mix)
2. Waited For It (Skeletron Mix)

Cape Town, South Africa-based drummer Asher Gamedze explores relationships of time between music and history on his new album Turbulence and Pulse, out on International Anthem in collaboration with Johannesburg-based label Mushroom Hour Half Hour.

Though this is Gamedze's first record with International Anthem as a leader, fans of AngelBat Dawids' debut, The Oracle, might recognize his name from their epic first-meeting-turned-song: Capetown or from his drumming on Angel & Tha Brothahoods LIVE. Close followers of free music may also know Asher from last year's offering on Astral Spirits, Out Side Work (which features scorching duets with fellow Brothahood member Xristian Espino: Sun City GirlsA l a n Bishop), or from his ZUZU debut album Dialectic Soul, which was ranked in the New York Times' Top Ten Jazz Albums of the Year.

Turbulence andPulse comes as a reset and a reintroduction, even while Gamedze is again joined by his core quartet from Dialectic Soul -South African musicians Thembinkosi Mavimbela (bass), Robin Fassie (trumpet), and Buddy Wells (tenor sax).

The album opener "Turbulence's Pulse" serves as a manifesto to inform the album that follows: a multi-rhythmic groove exploration of a collection of pieces initially composed by Gamedze on piano. The result is his most soulful and accessible album yet, and a sweet-vet-energetic addition to the South African jazz cannon. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: A new rising jazz artist from Cape Town lays down his musical manifesto and boy is it impressive. Brimming with complex poly rhythms, highly eloquent sax and sentiment rich piano and vocal contributions its a top drawer addition to the South African jazz cannon.

TRACK LISTING

1. Turbulence's Pulse
2. Wynter Time
3. Locomotion
4. If It Rains. To Pursue Truth
5. Melancholia
6. Alibama
7. Can't See The Sun
8. Sometimes I Think To Myself
9. Out Stepped Zim
10. Underground Formation

Originally released in 2013, Kero Kero Bonito’s debut mixtape, Intro Bonito, was a monumental success in the underground hyperpop scene bubbling up throughout the band’s hometown of South London. The trio, featuring Gus Lobban, Jamie Bulled, and Sarah Midori Perry, started crafting their unique blend of electronic pop music after school friends Gus & Jamie met Sarah on the internet. With Perry’s unique singing style (featuring lyrics in both Japanese and English), the band went on to write influential tracks such as “Sick Beat,” “I’d Rather Sleep,” “Pocket Crocodile,” and others that were inspired by J-pop, dancehall, and video game music.

The Intro Bonito mixtape paved the way for Kero Kero Bonito’s rise from underground glitch pop wizards to a monumental act within the PC Music scene and beyond. Since its release, the trio has built up a devoted fanbase across the globe, racked up over 500 million streams & video views across multiple albums, EPs, and singles, collaborated with numerous high-profile artists (e.g. 100 gecs, Porter Robinson, Felicita, Soccer Mommy, Ashnikko, etc), and performed at festivals around the world.

TRACK LISTING

TRACKLISTING
1. Bonito Intro
2. Intro Bonito
3. Sick Beat
4. My Party
5. Cat Vs. Dog
6. Kero Kero Bonito
7. Babies (Are So Strange)
8. Bonito Jingle
9. Homework
10. Pocket Crocodile
11. Cat Vs. Dog
12. Park Song
13. Let's Go To The Forest
14. Small Town
15. I'd Rather Sleep

ADDITIONAL TRACKS FOR CD:
16. Bonito Shopping
17. Fans (Are So Cool)
18. Flamingo
19. Build It Up
20. Chicken
21. My Party - Bo En Remix
22. Sick Beat - Danny L Harle Remix
23. I'd Rather Sleep - Et Aliae Remix
24. Cat Vs. Dog - Kane West Remix
25. Pocket Crocodile - Toby Gale Remix
26. Small Town - Spazzkid Remix
27. Flamingo - Julien Mier Remix
28. Flamingo 

Spatial & Co is a synth-drizzled, spaced-out bass-heavy discoid-funk masterpiece from French disco lord and Arpadys maestro Sauveur Mallia. Recorded for French library label Tele Music, in 1979, it's by turns cosmic funk and creeping crime funk, bursting with low slung, k-i-l-l-e-r basslines, loping drum breaks and sparkling percussion. It's so funky it hurts.

Confidently swaggering out the gate is "Future Vision", with its loping yet dextrous bassline across strutting beats setting the scene. "Cosmic News", with its live crowd noises over killer bass work is reminiscent of Bernard & Nile's "Chic Cheer". The bass vs synth workout "Baby Bass" increases the propulsion whilst the dark and mysterious vibes of "Star Odyssey" serve as cosmic respite from being overpowered by funk. The temperature and tempo are raised with the bouncing sophisticated funk of "Meteor One", a slinky interstellar instrumental of the highest order before the sultry, melodic "Bass For Love" offers some attractive slow-mo sleaze to close out the first side.

Opening up Side B, the menacing, beatless "Space Alert" sounds like all those sci-fi theme tunes from your childhood, synthesised into one glorious (black) whole. "Galaxy Wars" is next, another majestic cosmic gem, sans drums. The ultra-percussive flex of "All The Bass" sees the return of the frenetic funky bass and neck-snapping drums. The stretched out funk of "O.V.N.I. Telex" is irresistible and cavernous in scope whilst the swirling, dramatic "Galactics" is an ominous yet melodic wonder. The throwaway funk-lite "Animals Bass" is a bit of a daft way to close out this otherwise flawless set but, hey, flirting with perfection is probably always more fun than actually achieving it.

Sauveur Mallia is a crucial figure in the history of electronic and dance music and a hugely underrated French library bass player and composer from the Arpadys / Voyage crew. This is just the beginning of Be With's Mallia - Tele Music reissue campaign!

The audio for Spatial & Co Vol. 1 has been remastered by Be With regular Simon Francis, ensuring the punch of Sauveur's bass and those sick drums come through to the fullest. Pete Norman’s expert skills has made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the original and iconic sleeve has been restored here at Be With HQ as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Future Vision (3:47)
A2 Cosmic News (2:25)
A3 Baby Bass (2:43)
A4 Star Odyssey (3:33)
A5 Meteor One (2:11)
A6 Bass For Love (2:46)
B1 Space Alert (3:24)
B2 Galaxy Wars (2:45)
B3 All The Bass (2:53)
B4 O.V.N.I. Telex (3:36)
B5 Galactics (2:50)
B6 Animals Bass (2:14)

Spatial & Co Vol. 2 may well be the best album in the Spatial & Co series. It's absolutely flawless. Again created by French disco lord and Arpadys maestro Sauveur Mallia for French library label Tele Music in 1979, it leans far more into the space disco sound than the clean cosmic funk of its predecessor. And it's all the more thrilling for it.

Spatial & Co Vol. 2 may well be the best album in the Spatial & Co series. It's absolutely flawless. Again created by French disco lord and Arpadys maestro Sauveur Mallia for French library label Tele Music in 1979, it leans far more into the space disco sound than the clean cosmic funk of its predecessor. And it's all the more thrilling for it.

Wide-eyed opener "Discomax" is starts as pure piano-disco brilliance with a bassline to die for before heading off into wigged out territory, all acidic squelches and jaw-dropping percussive breakdowns. Perfection. "Space People" follows, an eerie, half-beatless sci-fi synth workout played out against a hauntingly metronomic pulse for the first half - proper slow-mo space disco business - before the beat kicks in, the electric guitar solo wails beautifully and the bassline that emerges at its conclusion rides in on some other shit.

Closing out the A-Side, the six minute long "Bass Power" is, unsurprisingly, a deep, low-end roller with head-nod drums, whizzing synths, blissed out ambient vibes and Mallia's otherworldly bass playing super high in the mix. It's white hot funk, make no mistake, and it sounds like a re-geared library version of Roxy Music. Yes, *that* good.

Side B is laced firstly by "Holidays Morning", an emotional disco-pop groover, all electric guitars, skipping drums and synthy bleeps with more than a few moments of pure driving funk.
One for the deep heads, longtime favourite "Electric Maneges" follows, a bleepy, haunted dancehall gem, uncut tropical balearic-funk from another dimension. The sophisticated digi-soul of "Loving Discovery" comes on like a weird, interplanetary Sade instrumental, all swelling synths, warm keys and syrupy guitar rhythms. Hearing is believing.

Arguably saving the best til last, the fierce, proto-techno of "Exotic Guide" closes out this extraordinary set. The intro genuinely sounds like Detroit would a good few years later - just wild - before it glides into a driving percussive funk break complete with both stabbing, insistent synths and those of a more winding, laconic variety. The one complaint? It's over far too soon. Remarkable.

Sauveur Mallia is a crucial figure in the history of electronic and dance music and a hugely underrated French library bass player and composer from the Arpadys / Voyage crew. This is just the beginning of Be With's Mallia - Tele Music reissue campaign!

The audio for Spatial & Co Vol. 2 has been remastered by Be With regular Simon Francis, ensuring the punch of Sauveur's bass and those sick drums come through to the fullest. Pete Norman’s expert skills has made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the original and iconic sleeve has been restored here at Be With HQ as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue. 

TRACK LISTING

A1 Discomax (4:40)
A2 Space People (4:40)
A3 Bass Power (6:00)
B1 Holidays Morning (5:20)
B2 Electric Maneges (4:10)
B3 Loving Discovery (3:40)
B4 Exotic Guide (3:30)

Behold the might of Rodan, the giant monster from the sky! In 1956, Toho unleashed their first colour kaiju picture: RODAN, directed by Ishiro Honda and produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka, is a terrifying tale from the creators of the original Godzilla that sees a giant Pteranodon rise from a deep underground cave after being disturbed by miners. Like the Big G, Rodan has mutated to excessive size after being exposed to nuclear radiation, subsequently soaring free above Kyushu to cause as much mayhem as possible as the JSDF do their best to protect the island from his bloodthirsty rampaging. It was inevitable that the man behind the music of Godzilla would also take on scoring RODAN, and the great Akira Ifukube created a score with a solemn edge as with Godzilla, which makes the music of RODAN fit in the larger universe while allowing it to feel unique to the character. For the main theme, Ifukube introduces a malevolent low piano and brass phrase before cointerpointing it with horns to create a howling menace worthy of Rodan. In contrast, beautiful but melancholy material represents the carnage the monster has brought upon the Earth; in a more upbeat mode, the composer includes another of his jaunty and jazzy marches for the JDSF in the guise of "Get Rodan". It's another Toho triumph from the great maestro Ifukube! (Charlie Brigden)

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Main Title
2. The First Victim
3. Tragedy In The Tunnel
4. Meganulon Appears
5. The Terror Of Meganulon
6. The Meganulon Pursuit
7. Cave-In
8. Earthquake
9. Amnesia
10. Tracking Supersonic Speed
11. The Shadow Across The Sky
12. The Birth Of Rodan
13. The Huge Underground Cavern

Side B
1. Rodan Emerges
2. Get Rodan
3. Rodan Flies To Sasebo
4. Rodan And The Saikai Bridge
5. Rodan Attacks Fukuoka I
6. Shockwave Fury
7. Rodan Attacks Fukuoka II
8. The Self-Defense Force Heads To Aso
9. The Great Nature Of Aso
10. Ending

For the first time on vinyl and returning from a long time out-of-print, Secretly Canadian is proud to re-present The Sojourner Box Set from Magnolia Electric Co. The four LPs that comprise The Sojourner Box Set are from four distinct recording sessions that Magnolia Electric Co. undertook following the release of their debut studio album, What Comes After The Blues.

From these, sophomore album Fading Trails was born. But the four sessions, in full, chart the celestial map of Magnolia Electric Co.: its constellations and shooting stars, its Americana stompers and lean folk dirges. And, of course, the center of gravity that is Jason Molina’s mournful, incomparable voice. The session known as “Nashville Moon” was recorded by Steve Albini at his Electrical Audio studios in Chicago, Illinois.

The session known as “Sun Session” was recorded at the legendary Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. The session known as “Black Ram” was recorded by David Lowery at his Sound Of Music studios in Richmond, Virginia and features an entirely different cast of characters including Lowery, Rick Alverson, Andrew Bird, Molly Blackbird, Miguel Urbiztondo and Alan Weatherhead.

The session known as “Shohola” was recorded by Jason Molina alone, with a guitar and microphone. With LP covers drawn from original box illustrations and with the original box’s poster included, this LP edition of The Sojourner Box Set delivers for the most ambitious and robust Magnolia Electric Co. release to date.

TRACK LISTING

Nashville Moon
Side A
1. Lonesome Valley
2. Montgomery
3. Don’t Fade On Me
4. Hammer Down
5. No Moon On The Water
6. Nashville Moon
Side B
7. What Comes After The Blues
8. Don’t This Look Like The Dark
9. North Star
10. Bowery
11. Texas 71
09 North Star (3:55)
10 Bowery (3:38
11 Texas 71 (4:17
12 Down The Wrong Road Both Ways (3:21

Black Ram
Side A
1. In The Human World
2. The Black Ram
3. What’s Broken Becomes Better
4. Will-O-the-Wisp
5. Kanawha
Side B
6. A Little At A Time
7. Blackbird
8. And The Moon Hits The Water
9. The Old Horizon

Sun Session
Side A
1. Talk To Me Devil, Again
2. Memphis Moon
Side B
3. Hold On Magnolia 

Shohola
Side A
1. Steady Now
2. Spanish Moon Fall And Rise
3. Night Country
4. Shiloh Temple Bell
Side B
5. The Spell
6. Take One Thing Along
7. The Lamb’s Song
8. Roll The Wheel

ATALAYA is new work by bassist Dezron Douglas, and it is alive. Alive in all the ways that jazz is at its best – as a pure and personal expression of Black Music filtered through time-honored traditions by a group of musicians who practice sonic coherence through musical unity. As Dezron puts it in the opening statement of his liner notes for the album: “Mysticism, Magic, Faith, Love, Power, Discernment! These are words that embody the creative process of Music.”

Followers of contemporary jazz might recognize Dezron for his bass work behind Pharaoh Sanders, Louis Hayes, or Ravi Coltrane. Steady International Anthem listeners might remember him from the New York side of Makaya McCraven's Universal Beings. More recently we presented Force Majeure, his sublime duo record with harpist Brandee Younger which compiled the best of livestream performances from their Harlem apartment during the original covid lockdown. That album, which came out in December of 2020, reflected the speed and feeling of the moment while somehow simultaneously distracting from the harsh reality of it. It also captured a very vulnerable, intimate, and real impression of Dezron on double bass, sharing his power and truth without abandon.

ATALAYA, similarly, wasn’t processed in the lab, but rather, captured in the room. The realness factor is once again forefront in the sound, but the difference is in the energy and ambitions of the music, which reaches for the stratosphere. Again, let’s defer to Dezron here: “Welcome to the Black Lion rocket ship.” With Emilio Modeste on saxes, George Burton on keys, and Joe Dyson Jr. on drums, Dezron’s crew summons the dynamism of Coltrane’s classic quartet, swinging virtuosically and firing on all 4 cylinders. But not remotely revisionist – there’s poetry, presence, artistic and emotional clarity in every note. Free and dissonant, sweet and consonant, sweeping and pure. This is the band you hope is playing every time you walk into a club.

TRACK LISTING

1. Atalaya
2. Rose
3. Coyocan
4. Luna Moth
5. Wheeping Birch (feat. Melvis Santa)
6. Jones Beach
7. More Coffee Please
8. J Bird
9. Octopus
10. Foligno

An Offering is a new work by Photay, under the influence of a special creative partnership with International Anthem recording artist Carlos Niño. IARC followers should know Niño, or at least one of his 3 albums we’ve released in the last 2 years (Chicago Waves, More Energy Fields, Current, and/or EXTRA PRESENCE). A simple introduction to Photay (née Evan Shornstein) would be to say: he’s made some of the best ‘ambient’ music of the last five years.

Yes, “ambient,” in quotes. Nobody knows what that word means at this point, but luckily it doesn’t really matter. Nobody is listening to a marketing director’s idea of a filing system. It’s just a word and not what the word means. What we are listening to is quiet music, the best of which is quite often the most subtly chaotic and free. Multi-rhythmic, expertly constructed, free floating walls of sound. It’s not a new concept, and It’s been explored masterfully by composers from Steve Reich (The Desert Music) to Susumu Yokota (Grinning Cat), but for many it was uncharted listening territory until the start of the 2020 global pandemic. It fit right into the slow drip fried-nerve-cocktail of apartment gardening, antidepressants, and YouTube ASMR, and the tides don’t seem to be receding any time soon.

With any new wave, though, there should be an acknowledgment of the continuum and a nod to the Old Masters. The partnership between Shornstein and Niño is just that. Niño’s influence is vast (who comes here with a network of regular collaborators including Iasos and Nate Mercereau), as is the presence of harpist Mikaela Davis, and the result on this collaborative album is to push Photay towards the sounds of the earth. And the water. And the spaces that exist, somewhere, probably. Mysteries unfold around each corner on every listen. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Prelude
2. Current
3. Change
4. Exist
5. Pupil
6. Mosaic
7. Honor
8. Orbit
9. Existence

International Anthem proudly presents Step on Step, a double LP collection of newly unearthed solo home recordings created by enigmatic producer, arranger, and composer Charles Stepney in the basement of his home on the Southside of Chicago during the years before his untimely death in 1976. Stepney’s signature “baroque soul” sound is known to many as it’s heard in his prismatic orchestral arrangements for Rotary Connection, Minnie Riperton, Howlin Wolf, Terry Callier, Earth, Wind & Fire, and many more. His sound has been used by countless samplers in the hip-hop world including Kanye West, The Fugees, and MF Doom. But in comparison to the post-mortem renown of his sound, or the artists he supported while he was alive, Stepney is a greatly underappreciated figure… a genius relegated to the shadows.

Step on Step is Stepney’s eponymous debut album, featuring 23 bare-bones, demo-style home recordings, most of which are Stepney originals that were never again recorded by him or any other artist. Highlights from those original works include “Denim Groove,” which hears Stepney on piano and congas alongside his first instrument (the vibraphone), and “Look B4U Leap,” one of several kinetic lo-fi dance numbers that feature Stepney having fun with an early-gen Moog synthesizer. It also features prototypical, seedling-style demos of Stepney compositions for Earth, Wind & Fire, including “That’s The Way of The World,” “Imagination,” and “On Your Face,” as well as the original version of “Black Gold,” which would eventually be recorded by Rotary Connection (as “I Am The Black Gold of The Sun”).

TRACK LISTING

A1. Roll Tape
A2. Gimme Some Sugar
A3. Gotta Dig It To Dig It
A4. No Credit For This
A5. Roadtrip
A6. On Your Face

B1. That's The Way Of The World
B2. Imagination
B3. In The Basement
B4. Business

C1. Look B4U Leap
C2. Around The House
C3. Funky Sci Fi
C4. Mini Mugg
C5. Chicago Independent

D1. Surround Stereo
D2. Black Gold
D3. Notes From Dad
D4. Rubie & Charles
D5. Greatness
D6. Step On Step

Wren Hinds brought fresh thematic cogency to his third album, recorded in early 2020. The linking matter is his unerring ability to apply himself to each new situation, in this case a longing for connection - to humanity, nature - in a world tilted towards digital disconnection. While the lockdowns intensified the album's dystopian fears, the beauty and artistry in Wren's song craft counterpoint the shadows eloquently. The title-track laments "digital modification" over gamelan-ish flutters across six delicate minutes. All spectral voices and pining, 'Sign of Life' yearns for "some act of human kindness" to a wind-caressed cowboy lollop. 'The Pearl' longs for blissful quietude, while 'Wrenbird' evokes Sam Beam at his dreamiest. River's Song' adds soft, sure layers of accordion and guitar, before 'The Path' marshals misty harmonies and finger-picked guitar for a gentle declaration of resistance. "Bang your freedom drum," sings Wren, mapping out a singular path with understated assurance.

“Absolutely thrilled to be putting out ‘A Child’s Chant for the New Millennium’ with Bella Union! At the end of 2019 through early 2020 I buried myself amongst instruments, wires, synths, guitars and whatever I could get my hands on, I lost myself in the layering of textures, sounds and vocal overtones, armed with the scribbles of a couple new songs, ‘A Child’s Chant’ was born”.

TRACK LISTING

1. A Child's Chant For The New Millennium 06:01
2. Sign Of Life 05:28
3. The Pearl 05:44
4. Wrenbird 04:29
5. River's Song 04:04
6. The Path 02:37
7. Conclusion 00:19

For his lead artist debut Panamá 77 he engages a diverse array of friends and collaborators - including Bardo Martinez (Chicano Batman), Jeff Parker (Tortoise), Marta Sofia Honer (Adrian Younge), Anna Butterss (Jenny Lewis), and Aquiles Navarro (Irreversible Entanglements) - to create a vibrant and verdant suite of multi-textural psychedelic instrumental folk-funk

TRACK LISTING

A1 Bella Vista
A2 Ofelia
A3 Uncanny
A4 I Didn’t Expect That
A5 In/On
A6 Cali Colours
B1 Activo
B2 Sombras
B3 Parque En Seis
B4 Patria
B5 18th & Morgan
B6 Messenger

Gold, the follow-up to Alabaster DePlume's widely-acclaimed, 2020-released cinematic instrumental LP To Cy & Lee: Instrumentals Vol. 1, introduces the world to the artist’s truest self. That is... though DePlume’s now known across the globe as the saxophonist who created that collection of wonderful, wordless music, he’s most known to fervent fans in his home zone of London, UK, as an outspoken poet and orator, beloved for his inspiring words of encouragement and sing-a-long-able songs about vulnerability, humanity, and courage. Gold is a sprawling double album that finds DePlume expressing both sides of his artistic character beautifully: (1) an articulate singer and songwriter who invokes the melodious crooning of Donovan as much as Devendra Banhart or Syd Barrett, whose tunes are almost like mini-sermons, full of existential comedy and spiritual enlightenment; and (2) a brilliant composer of simple, soothing, and viscerally nourishing instrumental melodies, with a gift for expanding them into intrepid collective improvisations, led by a delicate and distinguished saxophone tone that conjures the fluttery sweetness of the great Ethiopique Getatchew Mekurya.

TRACK LISTING

1.A Gente Acaba (Vento Em Rosa)
2. Don’t Forget You’re Precious
3. Fucking Let Them
4. The World Is Mine
5. The Sound Of My Feet On This Earth Is A Song To Your Spirit
6. I’m Gonna Say Seven
7. Do You Know A Human Being When You See One?
8. Visitors YT15B – Jerusalem, Palestine
9. I’m Good At Not Crying
10. Now (Stars Are Lit)
11. Again
12. Mrs Calamari
13. People: What’s The Difference?
14. Visitors XT8B – Oak
15. Who Is A Fool
16. I Will Not Be Safe
17. Visitors YT15 – Krupp Steel Condition Pivot
18. Broken Like
19. Now (Pink Triangle, Blue Valley)

Composer, producer, percussionist Jamire Williams applies sound collage practice to modern jazz composition, beat production, MC/vocalist features, and his uniquely impressionistic drumming style to make the deeply spiritual But Only After You Have Suffered – an album as akin to minimalist painting as an art-house film soundtrack or a classic hip-hop mixtape.

"Williams shows himself to be an inspired crafter of sound." – Pitchfork

A creative collaborator of Solange Knowles and a first-call drummer for the likes of Jeff Parker, Blood Orange & Moses Sumney, on his new album Williams brings together artists from his hometown of Houston (vocalists Corey King, Lisa E. Harris, Fat Tony, Jawwaad Taylor), those he became close to over several years living in LA (Sam Gendel, Zeroh, Mic Holden, Josh Johnson, fellow International Anthem artist Carlos Niño), and other creative partners from his life-long Journey in sound (Chassol, Svet, Kenneth Whalum).

TRACK LISTING

A1. Hands Up
A2. Bow (feat. Corey King)
A3. Gly (feat. Mic Holden)
A4. Just Hold On
A5. Take Time, Look Up (Jawwaad Speaks)
A6. Safe Travels (feat. Fat Tony & Zeroh)
A7. C'est Un Mot
B1. For The Youth (feat. Corey King)
B2. Pause In His Presence (feat. Lisa E. Harris & Sam Gendel)
B3. No One Knows
B4. When It Gets Dark (feat. Kenneth Whalum)
B5. And Then The Anointing Fell

Originally conceived as a medium for Chicago-based multi-media artist/activist Damon Locks’s sample-based sound collage work, Black Monument Ensemble (BME) has evolved from a solo mission into a vibrant collective of artists, musicians, singers, and dancers making work with common goals of joy, compassion, and intention. A genuinely multi-generational collective, ages of BME members range from 9 to 52 years old; members include instrumentalists and fellow IARC recording artists Angel Bat Dawid and Ben LaMar Gay. Their debut album Where Future Unfolds was released in 2019 by International Anthem glowing praise; landing at #3 on Bandcamp’s “Best Albums of the Year,” #25 on WIRE Magazine’s “Best Albums of 2019,” and being repeatedly dubbed “The Best Album of 2019” by BBC/Worldwide radio titan Gilles Peterson.

Locks & BME’s new album NOW was created in the final throes of Summer 2020, following months of pandemic-induced fear & isolation, the explosion of social unrest, struggle & violence in the streets, and as the certain presence of a new reality had fully settled in. Set up safely in the garden behind Chicago’s Experimental Sound Studio, the music was recorded in only a few takes, capturing the first times members of BME had ever played or sang the tunes. For Locks, the impetus was more about getting together to commune and make art than it was about producing an album. In his words: “It was about offering a new thought. It was about resisting the darkness. It was about expressing possibility. It was about asking the question, ‘Since the future has unfolded and taken a new and dangerous shape... what happens NOW?’”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: What a wonderful collection this is, rich in spoken word and sound collage elements but at it's core, a brilliantly effective journey brimming with jazz, soul and gospel all brought together with a political directness and perfectly balanced concept and performance.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Now (Forever Momentary Space)
A2. The People Vs The Rest Of Us
A3. Keep Your Mind Free
B1. Barbara Jones-Hogu And Elizabeth Catlett Discuss Liberation
B2. Movement And You
B3. The Body Is Electric

More Energy Fields, Current is a definitive new peak in the recorded continuum of prolific producer/percussionist Carlos Niño. Featuring contributions from more than a dozen exciting voices in the creative music constellation of Los Angeles (of which Niño’s has been a central force for over 2 decades), including Sam Gendel, Nate Mercereau, Jamael Dean, and Jamire Williams, the album collects 10 pristine gems of collaborative communication helmed by the Southern Californian sage, elegantly presented in his unique “Spiritual, Improvisational, Space Collage” style.

The album is ripe with “ambient” passages that function like open portals between moments of consonance and clarity, and epic post-hip hop opuses like the heavy/heady “Thanking the Earth.” But even in the occasional absence of drums, there is a powerful pulse implicit in the program’s frequency of consciousness. It’s a testament to Niño’s foundations as a DJ. His distinct ability to craft a kinetic, cinematic sonic experience from dozens of independent, often rhythmically-ambiguous improvisational memories is more fluently displayed on More Energy Fields, Current than anything we’ve heard from him to date. It resonates, lucidly, with the way Niño’s mentor Iasos – who is known to the world as an original founder of New Age music – has described his work: "Real Time Interactive Imagination, Flow Texturization."

On More Energy Fields, Current, Niño immerses us in the watery depths of his world, spiriting us like a submarine through exotic nether-leagues of untouched sound. And when we arrive at the final, bookending piece “Please, Wake Up.” (an extended version of the opening theme, featuring saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings), it’s like a return, safely to shore.

TRACK LISTING

1. Pleasewakeupalittlefaster, Please...
2. The World Stage, 4321 Degnan Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90008
3. Nightswimming
4. Now The Background Is The Foreground.
5. Thanking The Earth
6. Salon Winds
7. Ripples, Reflection, Loop
8. Togetherness
9. Lasos 79 ‘til Infinity
10. Please, Wake Up.

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

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

Amidst frenetic modular synths and drums, “Susie Mullen” takes King Creosote (aka Fife’s Kenny Anderson)’s sound in a new direction whilst “Walter de la Nightmare” brings his beautiful vocals back centre-stage. Available on this AA 7" single, King Creosote's first new music since 2016.

Two rare and mystery-shrouded party-in-the-house sides from 1976. Willi J Coe’s Cleethorpes anthem ‘Boogie With Your Baby’ was a no-hit wonder that goes for around £100 if you can find a copy on the original shortlived Ki Ki label.
Produced by Willie J Key and arranged by Bob Holmes (Joe Tex / Freddie North / Slim Harpo) it’s a slice of funky party disco. A proper floorshaker. V Rare Function’s ‘Disco Function’ was originally on Soul Unlimited in 1976 and fetches around £50 a copy these days.
Sampled by Luke Vibert in more recent times, it’s a brass-stabbed party anthem with a nod to Kool And The Gang when they were funky.

TRACK LISTING

Willi J & Co. - Boogie With Your Baby
Rare Function - Disco Function

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

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A

1. Bloody Rainbow
2. Tell Me Now
3. Honey I Sure Miss You
4. Good Morning You
5. Heart, Mind And Soul

SIDE B

1. Life In Vain
2. Mountain Top
3. Queenie The Dog
4. Impossible Love
5. Fake Records Of Rock & Roll
6. Fish

Where Future Unfolds is a new work spirited by Chicago-based sound & visual artist Damon Locks. Starting as a solo sound collage piece (where Locks pulled samples from Civil Rights era speeches and recordings to create an improvisational pallet for performance on his drum machine), over 4 years the project has blossomed into his 15-piece Black Monument Ensemble – featuring musicians (including Angel Bat Dawid on clarinets and Dana Hall on drums), singers (alumni of the Chicago Children's Choir), and dancers (members of Chicago youth dance company Move Me Soul). Where Future Unfolds is a live capture of the ensemble's epic debut at the Garfield Park Botanical Conservatory on the West Side of Chicago. Recalling the spirits of Phil Cohran's Artistic Heritage Ensemble, Eddie Gale's Black Rhythm Happening, Archie Shepp's Attica Blues, and Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, the album presents an inspired, innovative & immediate intersection of gospel, jazz, activism & 808 breaks.

…about Damon Locks… Damon Locks is a Chicago-based visual artist, educator, vocalist, musician, and deejay. Known for decades of different projects in Chicago’s underground music scenes, Locks’s CV starts in the late 1980s with the band Trenchmouth (which featured Fred Armisen on drums) and is highlighted by work with The Eternals (coled by Trenchmouth bandmate Wayne Montana), Rob Mazurek’s Exploding Star Orchestra, collaborations with Nicole Mitchell, Ben LaMar Gay, and many others. In recent years Locks has traversed almost every media discipline… including sound/animation work using unheard Sun Ra recordings from Experimental Sound Studio’s archive (with Terri Kapsalis, Wayne Montana, and Rob Shaw); various collaborations with contemporary dancers & choreographers including Onye Ozuzu, Ayesha Jaco (of Move Me Soul), and Anna Martine Whitehead (on presentations & workshops with the Detroit Justice Center); participating in artist residencies at The New Quorum in New Orleans (alongside Nicole Mitchell, Lisa E Harris, Wadada Leo Smith, and others); teaching work with incarcerated artists for the Prison and Neighborhood Arts Project at Stateville maximum security prison; and producing album artwork for several International Anthem releases, including Makaya McCraven’s Universal Beings, Irreversible Entanglements, and more.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Statement Of Intent / Black Monument Theme
A2. Sounds Like Now
A3. Solar Power
A4. Rebuild A Nation
A5. Which I Believe It Will
B1. Which I Believe I Am
B2. The Colors That You Bring
B3. The Future?
B4. Power
B5. From A Spark To A Fire

As menacing and unhinged as ever, the pride of Staten Island is back with their fifth full-length offering, V. Raw and absent of modern technological trappings, the Budos pick up where they left off with 2014’s “Burnt Offering,” and finds the Budos expanding on the brooding, fuzz-fueled riffs, whilst harkening back to the Ethiopian inspired rhythms and percussive proclivity that put Budos Band on the map.

“Old Engine Oil,” a rocker at heart, kicks things into gear and delivers a high-octane burst of Budos mayhem. “The Enchanter” serves up a classic dose of upbeat afro-soul, drenched in a venomous assault of wall-melting proportions that leads you to the “Spider Web,” a rumbling ode to the Cowbell Colossus whose punctuated horn stabs take you on an untamed ride to the dark side of the spoon. The side closes with “Peak of Eternal Night,” whose odd time signature and haunting horns transport the listener to the peak of a menacing otherworldly landscape that’s further explored in the final track “Ghost Talk” – a guitar driven groover that gives way to an organ-washed space ritual beneath sun-summoning trumpet blasts.

Side Two opens with “Arcane Rambler,” an interstellar ramble across space and time that leaves the listener in cosmic purgatory. “Maelstrom,” released as a single shortly after the release of “Burnt Offering,” boasts waves of furious sonic power that batter the listener via a maw of snarling sea-foam bubbling with the power of the Budos. Soon darkness falls as “The Veil of Shadows” is draped across the land – in this realm of twilight one quickly loses their way, only to find themselves at a dusk-to-dawn pyre of budonian proportions. “Rumble from the Void” then pulls you into a percussive black hole of formless beat-worship. There are no horns to help you here, just the tentacles of rhythm that tirelessly pull you back into the void. “Valley of the Damned” closes the record, it’s twisting groove coupled with hypnotic drones of synth and horns transports you to a place of little hope and even less reason. You’ve been warned…

TRACK LISTING

1. Old Engine Oil
2. The Enchanter
3. Spider Web, Pt. 1
4. Peak Of Eternal Night
5. Ghost Talk
6. Arcane Rambler
7. Maelstrom
8. Veil Of Shadows
9. Rumble From The Void
10. Valley Of The Damned

Goshen Electric Co. happened both all at once and gradually: an electrifying culmination of Tim Showalter’s nearly two decades long love affair with Jason Molina’s craft and just one half-day in the recording studio with the members of Magnolia Electric Co. Ring The Bell, recorded in one take, roars in with a twinge of psychedelia, thrumming with vibe; Showalter’s wail recalls Molina’s sombre, choir-boy croon but roughened with sandpaper. The prophetic, dystopian darkness of ‘The Gray Tower’ captures the original soaring chorus and delicate melody with the power of a full band. Decades later, the intense, unflinching urgency of Molina’s songwriting endures. “There was such an intimate relationship with his music - it felt a lot deeper than just liking a song,” says Showalter. “You live in these songs.”

TRACK LISTING

The Gray Tower
Ring The Bell

The debut album from legendary Sheffield band Faerground Accidents sees a brilliant collection of late night songs, a missive from bohemia laced with perfect melodies and a bright and thrilling rush of neon melodies and great acidic lyrics from a band that Adam Ant calls the best new band in the UK and are also tipped for success by the likes of Richard Hawley and Jarvis Cocker.

“With witty vignettes comparable with the bedsit psycho-sexual melodrama of the likes of old Moz himself, witty kiss offs (“I went to the supermarket after every one of those/And I spent my last pennies on a value meal for one”) capturing the futility, fumblings and fragility of affairs of the heart, it’s a rather smart tune indeed..” GODISINTHETV

“An eclectic group that merges the fey eroticism of Pulp with the solid chops of a machismo rock band. Faerground Accidents have managed to forge a distinctive style that’s both enigmatic and direct. And, quite frankly, that I can’t get enough of!”
Lee Adcock (Dandelion Radio).

TRACK LISTING

Empty :
1. The Same Things
2. Woeful Small Town
3. My Former Baby
4. She Makes Me Want To Die
5. Please Stay

Full:
6. Gaslighter
7. Into The Wild
8. Sleep In The Woods
9.Claustrophobic
10. The Moralist
11. Ether Girl

Optimistic recluse Mike Gale and his Winchester/Oxford collective return with eclectic indie-alt-prog opus "Moon Lagoon", their 4th album in 4 years. Farm Music is a new label run from Farm Music studio in Oxfordshire, known for recording many acclaimed alternative albums (Black Nielson, Goldrush, Danny & the Champions of the World, Electric Soft Parade, The Dreaming Spires, Ralfe Band & Co-pilgrim). ‘Still Life Hear Me’ by Black Nielson was the first of these back in 2000, so it seems fitting that the label's first release should be from ex-Black Nielson frontman Mike Gale's present combo, Co-pilgrim. Opening track ‘Turn It Around’ is a clear statement of intent. Gentle acoustic strums swept along by synth and then blown away by power-fuzz guitar; a different Co-pilgrim to the harmony-pop exponents of yore, grittier and more robust, informed by past travails (Gale's recent loss of a parent and an often debilitating agoraphobia) yet resolute and optimistic in pursuit of the yearned-for mythical utopia of the 'moon lagoon'.

Both the second song, ‘You'll Look Pretty As a Picture When The Acid Rain Hits Ya’ and title track, ‘Moon Lagoon’ feed 90s American alt-rock through Copilgrim's pop filter (check the almost Kim Deal-esque BVs). However, it is first single and album centre-piece ‘Cylindrical Fire Escapes’ which really showcases the ambition of the record; producer & multi-instrumentalist Joe Bennett (Dreaming Spires, Goldrush, Saint Etienne, Danny & the Champs) paints an ethereal soundscape of swirling synths and chiming guitars, driven by Andy Reaney's rolling bass and bursts of pulsating rhythm from drummer/percussionist Mike Monaghan (Willie J Healey, Gaz Coombes, Man Without Country, Ralfe Band), and beautifully transcended at the finale by Claire Bennett's soaring vocals. 

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A

Turn It Around,
You'll Look Pretty As A Picture When The Acid Rain Hits Ya,
Cylindrical Fire Escapes,
Moon Lagoon,

SIDE B

Thank My Stars,
I'm Not A Wallflower,
I'm The Wall,
Digging Holes In The Whites Of Your Eyes,
Wouldn't You Like To Dance?

In 2014, after 10 years of touring the world in Black Lips and Diamond Rugs, guitarist and vocalist St. Pé needed a change. He packed up his gear and moved to Nashville, where he settled down in a log cabin formerly owned by country legend Roy Acuff. Before long, that home turned into a studio, and with the help of a number of friends ‘Fixed Focus’ was born. It’s less a departure from the sounds of the Lips and Rugs as it is an informed continuation of them that maintains all the hooks and pop sensibilities of his previous acts, while refining them with a bit of Nashville class and a hint of the darkness that ten years on the road imbues upon the soul. From sing-along stompers to Southern Gothic explorations, ‘Fixed Focus’ is a fully formed solo debut that sounds more like an album from deep into an established career.

TRACK LISTING

1. Street Lights
2. Renowned Movement
3. Kiss It Goodbye
4. Dawn Of Tomorrow
5. Carbon Maker
6. Sweet Laurel
7. Got The Look
8. Southern Sunshine
9. Spun And Spurn
10. As Of Late
11. Yesteryear Gone
12. Burning Bright

Recorded by John Congleton at Pachyderm Studios in rural Minnesota, this album is a massive leap forward, showcasing a broader instrumental range and their most focused, efficient songwriting. It's also within arm's length of matching the overwhelming glory of their legendary live shows, trading in the crystalline production of "The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place" for a paint-peeling intensity that blurs the lines between studio and live performance.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Eschewing the trademark sound that they established to some degree on their last album proper, Explosions In The Sky have instead opted for a more hard-edged sound, saturated and overdriven to a place that was only hinted at on previous outings. There are still build-ups, mellow sections, floating bass and shining beauty, but this time there is a more pronounced disparity between light and dark, perhaps further enhancing the golden beams within. A wonderful edition to their established canon, and with hindsight, a formative release in their great future.

TRACK LISTING

1. "The Birth And Death Of The Day" 
2. "Welcome, Ghosts" 
3. "It's Natural To Be Afraid" 
4. "What Do You Go Home To?" 
5. "Catastrophe And The Cure" 
6. "So Long, Lonesome"

A narrative of an imagined alien colony existing between the fabric of known / unknown worlds, Thug Entrancer’s 'Arcology' explores high tech / low life society, mechanical structures, and data-driven humanity in an evocative techno framework.

Though 'Arcology' was conceived in a similar improvisational womb as Ryan McRyhew’s debut, the new album moves subtly from free-form footworkouts of 'Death After Life' with an expanded palette vibrating brightly with melodic deployment.

“Curaga” and “Exo-Memory” triumph over established 303 / 808 interplay with uplifting melodies - ear-worms from outer space; “Bronze” pumps dub-tectonics within a minimalist reduction of Death After Life's modus operandi. Lighter than most of McRyhew’s output, album interludes “Low-Life”, “VR-Urge” and the finale, “Xeno”, beam satellite ballads through alien atmospheres.

“Ryan is a rare breed of producer+thinker who is able to hallucinate worlds beyond his music that recursively influence his sound. His understanding of science fiction's speculative potential combined with a virtuosic ability to program hardware synthesizers make him a techno fantasist of the highest order.” - Dan Lopatin

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: This one came out of the blue for me actually. Despite being a big fan of Oneohtrix Point Never, I hadn't heard of this upcoming release on his 'Software' label. Ironically, this release is distinctly hardware, and it sounds like it. Pumping acid basslines, ambient passages and LOTS of attitude. Just obtuse enough to be interesting but without alienating anyone who likes a bit of old-school.Including a 303, 404, all the other numbers, and all the fun.

‘Inji’ is the debut solo album by Sam Dust, AKA LA Priest.

Across its 10 audaciously imaginative tracks, ‘Inji’ reasserts Dust as a truly idiosyncratic voice in British music, applying the same frantically eclectic, mischievous and willfully absurd spirit of his previous band, the beloved Late Of The Pier, to ever more nuanced and affecting songwriting and composition.

From the obscene space-age stadium rock guitar solo of ‘Oino’, the maddeningly catchy digi-dub single that Dust leaked sample-by-sample on a suitably enigmatic website at the turn of the year, to ‘Learning To Love’, the record’s gargantuan, eight minute long prog-house centrepiece and ‘Occasion’, a melting Martian Prince come-on, ‘Inji’ confounds and delights in equal measure and at every turn.

TRACK LISTING

Occasion
Lady’s In Trouble With
The Law
Gene Washes With New
Arm
Oino
Party Zute / Learning To Love
Lorry Park
Night Train
Fabby
A Good Sign
Mountain

Jagjaguwar and Death Waltz Recording Company are proud and excited to release a true masterpiece into the world with the soundtrack to Panos Cosmatos' 'Beyond The Black Rainbow'. Posited as a "lost film" of the 1980s, the film is inspired by classic dystopian fiction and the obscure SF movies you used to see on the shelves of the local video store when you were a kid. As such, the brilliant soundtrack by Sinoia Caves - aka composer Jeremy Schmidt - blends seamlessly amongst its influences of Tangerine Dream, Wendy Carlos, and of course John Carpenter, with the latter's mark heard on the oppressive synth percussion of the main titles and the catchy melodies heard throughout.

Schmidt’s score is many things – haunting, uncompromising, intense – but is always a fascinating listen. While the seemingly retro-modernist sound is almost its own genre now, the music doesn’t come across as an imitation, and instead stands on its own as a genuinely original work. Using familiar elements such as the mellotron and the processed vocal samples, Schmidt puts it in that 70s-80s aesthetic and then builds a beautiful and terrifying score with those tools. Simply put, 'Beyond The Black Rainbow' is an astounding piece of work and must not be missed. Do you read me?

The Death Waltz Recording Company version is exclusive to Europe and housed inside a super glossy Stoughton tip on (Casebound) sleeve complete with an Obi strip and sleevenotes From Jeremy Schmidt.

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
1. Forever Dilating Eye
2. Elena's Sound-World
3. Run Program: Sentionauts
4. Arboria Tapes- Award Winning Gardens
5. 1983- Main Titles

Side B:
6. 1966 - Let The New Age Of Enlightenment Begin
7. Sentionauts II

'Remembrance' is the Software Recording Co. debut from Baton Rouge's Suicideyear (born James Prudhomme). Written and produced between Florida and Louisiana during the summer and fall of 2013, 'Remembrance' recalls those southern US landscapes and Prudhomme’s experiences across eight songs equally intimate, intoxicating and mercurial.

We first fell in love with Suicideyear by way of his Japan mixtape, a remarkable convergence of ATL trap beats and mid-late century American minimalism that turned and twisted more than a few heads. Software's own label head Daniel Lopatin was privy to an eerily similar convergence at an All Tomorrow’s Parties festival one year earlier in which two performers, Big Boi and Terry Riley, converged at a nearby Burger King. When James revealed his childhood adoration for Speakerboxxx, we knew it was on.

Prudhomme wrote 'Remembrance' while reflecting on themes of love and loss against the backdrop of the deep American south he calls home.

James’ experiences of reflection and resolution led to the vivid, emotionally charged production that makes up 'Remembrance'. Alive with an idiosyncratic sense of melodic space, his repertoire eschews a topical palette for a personal aesthetic that offers a visceral love letter to abstraction. Prudhomme references both forms we know to exist and speculates on how they can be newly realised.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2014 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Death Waltz Recording Company are extremely proud to present their first release by major Hollywood composer Clint Mansell (REQIUEM FOR A DREAM, NOAH), the score to the award-winning 2007 horror short IN THE WALL. Telling the surreal story of a man who accidentally kills his pregnant wife and hides her body in a cavity wall, only to be haunted by visions of her corpse escaping, the film deftly moves from psychological horror to creature feature propelled by Mansell’s intense music. The score is anchored by the main theme, a versatile string melody that moves from sinister to emotional to tragic to perfectly match the shocking events of the film. Mansell’s work continues in the same vein as the music composed for Darren Aronofsky’s films with the Kronos Quartet, expertly mixing the stripped-down string sound with electronic elements and percussion to create a vivid colour palette. The music plays with the conventions of the genre, at times Bernard Herrman-esque high strings pierce the silence, while intense electric guitar and feedback alternate with sparse, echoing drums. The electronics slowly undulate beneath the surface, winding up the tension and used more as a textural device until the final trip-hop rendition of the main theme takes your breath away. A classic score from a truly brilliant composer.

Featuring exclusive cover art by Jay Shaw and sleeves notes from Clint Mansell.

Package includes a 48 x 48 poster and 12 x 12 lithograph.

Hugely celebrated and acclaimed, Tinariwen released their debut album, ‘The Radio Tisdas Sessions’ in 2001, and over the past decade they have continually toured the world, picking up some of the most respected music awards, including a BBC Award for World Music in 2005, the prestigious Praetorius Music Prize in Germany in 2008, the Uncut Music Award in 2009 for ‘Imidiwan: Companions’ and, most recently, a Grammy for their 2011 album ‘Tassili’.

‘Emmaar’ was recorded in the Joshua Tree desert, California, due to political instability in their country - the first time the band have recorded away from their homeland. “It still had to be recorded in a desert,” says bassist Eyadou Ag Leche. “We would like to live in peace in the North of Mali, but this is very difficult, there is no administration, no banks, no food, no gas. Joshua Tree is in the high desert of California, we love all the desert, these are places where we feel good to live and to create.”

Recorded over three weeks in a home studio, ‘Emmaar’ has a distinctly organic feel. “We weren’t in a proper studio or outside in the desert like ‘Tassili’,” Ag Leche says. “We built a studio in a big house in Joshua Tree. Everybody in the same room, with no separation. We wanted something which sounded natural and live.”

Guests on the album include Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, Matt Sweeney from Chavez, Nashville fiddler Fats Kaplin, and poet Saul Williams.

TRACK LISTING

1. Toumast Tincha
2. Chaghaybou
3. Arhegh Danagh
4. Timadrit In Sahara
5. Imidiwan Ahi Sigdim
6. Tahalamot
7. Sendad Eghlalan
8. Imidiwanin Ahi Tifhamam
9. Koud Edhaz Emin
10. Emajer

Wake Up Awesome, by C. Spencer Yeh (Burning Star Core), Okkyung Lee, and Lasse Marhaug (Jazzkamer), is the second chapter of Software Studio Series - a new venture in the Software Recording Co.'s expanding catalog that invites artists in the field of electronic music to create collaborative works of quality and vision. Inspired by the historical intersections of live performance and studio post-production, Wake Up Awesome is a modern kind of fusion in technique as well as genre. At its core are three artists highly experienced with both instant and labored composition. Together, they found the studio generated improvisations were iteratively developed by each on their own.

Passages of real-time improvisation duck and swerve into electro-concrete tangles of samples, edits and juxtaposition – all you'd want out of a world of mechanical possibility. If it sounds intentional on the record, it was. If Yeh and Marhaug's more electronic affinities in their respective practices place them as the "producers," then Lee's cello often leads the drive as a sort of soloist.

The resulting conversation is genuinely both serious and iconoclastic. All three artists have a history of dialogue, but this is the first time they've hung out for the record -- we're very happy that they did.

TRACK LISTING

1. Wake Up Awesome
2. Hairslide
3. The Mermen Of Poetry
4. Ophelia Gimme Shelter
5. The Mermaids Of Extended Technique
6. Magic Seagull Lamp
7. Mission: Lazy
8. Mission: Nothing
9. Throw Down The Fishcake
10. Neutrons Whatever
11. Serious Cat's Milk
12. Anise Tongue And Durian Wet Dream
13. Mission: Possible
14. RSVP Skunk
15. Tonight We Sleep Like Empty Hard Drives

“These songs were recorded some time between ‘loyalty’ sessions and now. They didn’t belong there, but they kept hanging around, starting trouble; made friends, and insisted that their story be heard,” said Nathan Willett, CWK frontman…

TRACK LISTING

01 Audience Of One
02 Coffee Spoon
03 Santa Ana Winds
04 Sermon Vs The Gospel
05 Baby Boy

About halfway through Magnolia Electric Co.'s latest long player, "Josephine", there is a noticeable shift in weight. It's a release of some sort - the kind that comes when you give up holding back the tears. It's a heavy kind of freedom coming to the forefront, an empowering sadness. And when chief Electrician Jason Molina delivers the line 'an hour glass... filled with tears and twilight from a friend's dying day', the mood becomes clear. The band is back on its heels, yes, but they are going to fight back in the only way they know how. Molina's concept album is an honest-to-God effort on the part of Magnolia Electric Co. to pay tribute to the life and spirit of fallen bassist Evan Farrell (R.I.P. December 2007), as the ideas for "Josephine" were being pieced together. Molina said each tune is a good faith attempt to make real Evan's hopes for the record. And in doing so, Evan's spirit becomes part of the concept. The loss of "Josephine" becomes the loss of Evan. Molina's familiar lyrical allegories are still in tact. But here, in what is no doubt the strongest set of songs Molina has written since the inception of Magnolia Electric Co., those classic themes take on new meanings. Molina has approached the universal loneliness before, but never in such a focused, directed manner as found on "Josephine". Molina, Magnolia Electric Co. and legendary recording engineer Steve Albini have put it all to heart. Evan Farrell, Jason Molina and the band are on different journeys now - but maybe somehow, somewhere parallel. This is heartbreak at ten paces, to be sure.

TRACK LISTING

1. O! Grace
2. The Rock Of Ages
3. Josephine
4. Shenandoah
5. Whip Poor Will
6. Song For Willie
7. Hope Dies Last
8. The Handing Down
9. Map Of The Falling Sky
10. Little Sad Eyes
11. Heartbreak At Ten Paces
12. Knoxville Girl
13. Shiloh
14. An Arrow In The Gale

Bitter:Sweet are the intriguing musical partnership of Kiran Shahani and Shana Halligan. Shahani and Halligan's partnership thrives on "Drama" and captures their unique ability to simultaneously conjure vintage and futuristic sounds. "Drink You Sober" is filled with jazzy, dark intonations, while the throwback swing of "Sugar Mama" respectfully nods at Koop's recent work in electro-jazz. And the dream-like voyage of "A Moment" - with Halligan's playfully seductive whispers of 'Don't let go, I am only here for a moment' - is a movie in itself. Yet Bitter:Sweet can heat things up at will. The hard stabs of "Get What I Want" and the intense, luscious hook of "Waking Up" make heads and hearts bang alike. Credit Halligan's dexterous and impassioned vocal capabilities as much as Shahani's keen ear for cadence and production. The marriage is truly a splendid one, as is their ability to choose excellent studio and live musicians to complete their ever-evolving format.

Plainly stated, 31Knots hasn't moved in a new direction so much as they've ripened to full maturity, evolved into the creature they're meant to be. Previous efforts are just as tightly wrapped, just as fierce and incendiary. But something is different. Something here is new. It deserves to be called out as thought provoking and well written music in a time when substance is quickly giving way to music of commerce and palatability. There is no band like 31Knots and "Worried Well" finds them at the full height of their powers.

Pocket describe themselves as an urban surf quartet; twin guitars lead the way courtesy of John Bissset (also of Country Dad, the London Electric Guitar Orchestra (L.E.G.O.) and former front man of Object Music recording artist Grow Up) and Alex Ward (former Guillemot and current Gannet alongside Fyfe Dangerfield). Lead track "Ready To Go" surfs the skirmish that is the primal pleasure of pure rock'n'roll, whilst flip side "Stupid Cat" is a jazzy clutter of drums and guitar.

The Violets are four punk fantasists from London who set out to create a sinister mood with elemental and triumphant pop music. Drawing inspiration from a range of disparate influences such as Neue Deutsche Welle, David Lynch and French Coldwave, The Violets have created a monochrome corner of their own.

"Polemics" expands 31 Knots sound with the addition of new instrumentation, new timbre, and further experimentation on their syncopated style. 'Their sound swipes Fugazi's muscular rhythms and Gang Of Four's energetic musical dialectic, along with King Crimson and Yes' proggy forays into chord progressions unknown'. SF Bay Guardian.

This is where it all began and now you can own it for the first time ever on vinyl. The M's self titled debut album made waves when released just two years ago, earning the band a plethora of rave reviews and accolades, quickly propelling the band to a cult-like status in their beloved Chicago hometown.

Love them or hate them, you'll never forget them! Over the years Xbxrx's style of joyous musical assault has been championed by many major figures in the underground. Having opened up for Sonic Youth, Peaches, Unwound, Deerhoof and Q And Not U as well as having worked with accomplished producers such as Steve Albini, Ian Mackaye and Tim Kerr. This album shows a new found musical growth and maturity over its 18 tracks.