Imagine the Buzzcocks with Syd Barrett as the singer! "The Bachelor Pad : five lysergically-enhanced heads from Strathbungo, Glasgow. Psychedelic punks born into, but delightfully out of step with the UK indie fanzine culture of the time. Flashes of red and purple... Perfect pop buried amidst a nuclear maelstrom of noise and excitement. During their brief existence they burned bright, squeezing out an album, 5 singles and a flexi-disc, with the cream of the crop being served up on this career spanning compilation. Gatefold sleeve, color vinyl."...amid the sonic bedlam, they write the sweetest melodies, they've got the most agreeable harmonies.

It's all about extremes: "Do It For Fun" is the noise your brain makes when everything you've taken comes on top at once; "Tumble And Fall" is as cute as a squirrel's nut, "The Coroner's Wife" is.... well, answers on a postcard, please." Alexis Petridis

TRACK LISTING

1. The Albums Of Jack
2. Country Pancake
3. Girl Of Your Dreams
4. Abu Nidals Bus
5. I Feel Sick
6. Jack And Julian
7. Tumble And Fall
8. Do It For Fun
9. Coroners Wife
10. Garbagehead
11. Meet The Lovely Jenny Brown
12. I Want To Hold Your Head

The improbable missing link between ABBA and Daniel Johnston - RIYL Sparks, Electric Light Orchestra, Orange Juice.

Their music has been variously referred to as "garage rock" (Austin Town Hall), "no bullshit pop" (Tiny Mix Tapes)
"jangle-thrash" (My Old Kentucky Blog) 
" lo-fi-tropicalsurf-pop" (Nialler9) 
" b e d r o o m indie" (Impose Magazine)
"sugary artpop" (Gimme Tinnitus)
"new wave-y indie rock" (Brooklyn Vegan)
"like a stripped-down, sugar high Pet Sounds" (NYLON Magazine) 
"a bit like Girl Talk" (Vice Magazine)

TRACK LISTING

1. Waterfight
2. Save The Circus
3. Black And White
4. Spaceman's Gold
5. Telly Worldwide
6. MacGuyver
7. The Trundling Path
8. Ctrl-Alt-Delete
9. A Bugle Call
10. Case By Case Basis
11. Ticker Tape Parade
12. Walk The Plank 

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

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

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

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

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

STAFF COMMENTS

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

TRACK LISTING

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

Emotional Response present something intriguing and oh so fresh from Cherrystones, who has most commonly been spotted recently lurking about labels like Bahnsteig 23, but in fact has a legacy reaching back to the late 90s. This new mini-album is reportedly the result of a pointed retreat to Scotland - a period of semi-isolation with minimal distractions from the serious business of analogue synths and reel-to-reel tape. There's a lot going on, from the slinky, boogie-licked groove of 'Amaziac' to the sludgy, wave tinted 'Rave Digger', but throughout the common theme is one of rough, upfront waveforms - maximal sounds with lashings of character, wielded with glee by an artist knee deep in their craft.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Rave Digger
A2. Lavid Grinch
A3. Uhuru Glue
B1. Amaziac
B2. Silver Soarde
B3. Sethodone Recess Plant

Emotional Response and Ocean Moon come together for a special collaborative release, where Seahawks take the music of WOO on a journey to the inner sanctum. Immersive, psychoactive and phased to perfection. For those who know not the music of WOO, prepare to behold a rare and magical incarnation of transcendent beauty.

Perhaps Seahawks most spaced out voyage since Vision Quest One: Spaceships Over Topanga Canyon, ‘Celestial Railroads’ is a psychedelic odyssey that goes way beyond the norm. 'After the Last Train To Trancentral far Beyond The Wizards Sleeve, Celestial Railroads await….’

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: The nation's favourite cosmic seafarers return with cult oddball music mavericks Woo for one of their most star-flung voyages yet.

TRACK LISTING

1.The Next Level
2. Travel Softly
3. The Way Of Woo
4. Magic Totem ­­
5. Omotion
6. A Deep Trip Within
7. Angelic Forces Unite
8. All Beings Of Light
9. Magic Sphere
10. Distant River
11. The Heart’s Fandango
12. Seven States Of Bliss

Emotional Response close the year on a high with "Foreign Affairs" - a limited edition special remix 7-inch single featuring reworks from Alexis Georgopoulos & Jefre Cantu-Ledesma's "Fragments of A Season" album by Woo and Felicia Atkinson.
Last year's ""Fragments of A Season"" represented a unique chapter in both artist's canon. Georgopoulos, who released the Arp album "Zebra" in June this year and Cantu-Ledesma, who released "On The Echoing Green" in October 2017 - both on Mexican Summer and to critical acclaim - wanted to stretch out and create a discrete work. A peripheral listen to "Fragments" revealed a resonant album of delicate, ambient vignettes, suggesting a Balearic take on Vini Reilly, Young Marble Giants and other poetically-minded, minimalistic post-punk era bands.
The Brothers Ives aka Woo were a major influence on the album's makers and so AG and JCL are thrilled they've submitted a beautiful reworking of the album's "Marine". Whereas the original sounded like Marine Girls and The Gist getting together for a nice beach day jam, Woo's rework transforms it into pulsating track of glistening proportions. Percolating synths, some guitar and clarinet - the true classic, idiosyncratic Woo-ification - creates a woozy, romantic, impossible to categorize slice of Balearic meets dub atmospherics.

If "Marine" is all midday sun, intoxicating and potently optimistic, Atkinson's remake represents the literal and figurative flip, bringing out the overcast dreaminess to "Cleo". Sounding like an outtake from a Rohmer film, or perhaps Cocteau Twins and Broadcast having a picnic in Biarritz, the version veers between abstraction, celluloid ambiguity and suggested narrative. Atkinson's reworking adds poetry of the tune (quite literally!) with her soft vocal under-gliding to perfection. Representing a temporary idyll, a meeting point where cobblestone streets lead to the sea. At nightfall, a discotheque heard in the distance. The morning mist burns off. Only such memories remain.

TRACK LISTING

A. Marine (Woo Version)
B. AA Cleo (Felicia Atkinson Version) 

For the final part of SchleiBen 5 - 8, Emotional Response welcomes two Scottish based artists to close out the series. In Jon Keliehor you have a world and music traveler with history from psychedelic rock to fourth world exposure, alongside one of the best electronic producers of the last decade, Lord Of The Isles.  
As the drummer of West Coast folk rock / psychedelic band The Daily Flash, Keleihor spent much of the mid-60 based in and out of Seattle and Los Angles, playing alongside the likes of Jefferson Airplane, Cream and The Doors, before an increasing interest in meditation and philosophies outside of the 'rock' realm led him to England in the early 70s where he become involved in dance theatre. Teaching Advanced Rhythmic Music Studies at the London Contemporary Dance School, his music composition style became influenced by his studies of world music.
Finally settling in Glasgow for over 20 years, while running the Luminous Music label and Gamelan Naga Mas, his earlier recordings for labels like Indipop, Touch and Bruton have seen a recent revival, with music appearing recently on contemporaries Optimo Music and Invisible Inc.
The wonderful recordings included here span over 3 decades, from sessions at the Luminous Studio at The Diorama Theatre, London in the early 80s, through to recent field-work based recordings in the Cairngorms. Reconfigured and updated, a common thread appears through the pieces - a sense of longing and appreciation - as Jon's knowledge of outer-national instrumentation alongside equally extensive travels around the globe gives the recordings a seamless blend of organic craft.
The tonal consonances within unlikely combinations of instruments, with tuned glasses (tarang), tabla, jaw harps, clay flutes and ocarinas, Chinese instruments that include Xiao-Bo and Xiao-Ping, large Noah bells, small and larges gongs all employed, the recordings have been reconstructed, edited and updated via sampling and digital processing. Featuring the playing of John "Jhalib" Millar - the extraordinarily gifted musician and tabla player - who has appeared with an EP on sister label, Emotional Rescue (ERC029), sadly recently deceased, the contribution acts as a tribute and more.

To close, the music of Lord Of The Isles is an excellent companion to Jon's work. Neil McDonald's list of club-based releases on labels CockTail D'Amor, Ene, Firecracker, Permanent Vacation, ESP Institute and Phonica is comprehensive and exemplary, however within his productions has often been an other-worldly element, a space between the beats and occasional fully ambient pieces.
Approached originally for series one of SchleiBen, the 7 pieces included were worth the wait, a journey in themselves and the perfect completion. Spanning almost 5 years, the majority were written during an extended exile in the Cairngorms. The lifting, ethereal, but melodic nature of the music fits that aesthetic. Blue skies, snow, long walks, space to think, but with a longing and appreciation of family and friends.
The solitary nature found in SchleiBen 8 and the geographical incidence of both artist's recordings including sessions in the Scottish Highlands fits the series ideals and is a nice closure. Enjoy and listen.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Jon Keleihor - Serpent In The Sky
A2. Jon Keleihor - Emergence Of Light
A3. Jon Keleihor - Las Mujeres Passione
B1. Lord Of The Isles - T Minus
B2. Lord Of The Isles - Right For Us
B3. Lord Of The Isles - Zub-2
B4. Lord Of The Isles - Gone
B5. Lord Of The Isles - PSOX1
B6. Lord Of The Isles - Luv7
B7. Lord Of The Isles - Welcome Return

Following the critical success of last years mini-LP 'The Last Tortuga', Black Deer is back on Emotional Response with a 4 track remix EP featuring friends and alumni Nacho Patrol, Luke Wyatt, Sad City and Valet.

William Burnett returns to the label in the form of a remixes EP that takes his original productions and hands it to a broad selection of today's finest electronic producers, plus a rare outing from one of the label's favourite pyschedelic experimentalists. While Danny Wolfer's Legowelt project needs little introduction, it was only right that his inclusion on the label came from a more cosmic outlook. With must have EPs and a long player offered, his afro-infused Nacho Patrol moniker is a must check. In 'Circle Dance' the original is taken by the hand down to an afro-tech-funk'n'breaks basement for one of his best remixes to date and rightly so for one of his old buds. Luke Wyatt follows with an uplifting and warped retake on 'Meditation'. The kraut influence of the original is built on with fuzz guitar and a solo that builds across the track to a higher peak. Play this at sunrise for reaffirmation of life itself. Next is a big favourite of the label, Sad City, who caught the ear with his first release on Underwater Peoples and a lush follow up for Phonica. The pure ambience of a 'Highway' remix strips everything back and lets the 4th World shine. Finally, one of the main influences on the label when it started a few years back. Valet aka Portland multi-instrumentalist and mum, Honey Owens offers a deep, beautiful and haunting retake of 'Tortuga', adding whispers, drones, guitar, toms, keys and intonations to swallow you whole.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Circle Dance (Nacho Patrol Remix)
A2. Meditation (Luke Wyatt Remix)
B1. Highway (Sad City Remix)
B2. Tortuga (Valet Remix)

As one of the rising stars of the East Coast US electronic scene, Luke’s Torn Hawk releases on the cult L.I.E.S records introduced his cut up and glitchy take on R&B and house that have recently edged deeper and darker in to the noise and techno realms associated with the likes of Demdike Stare and Regis.

This has been complimented by two recent DVDs, self-released under his own name. Mixing his day as a professional multi-media artist with his night as an increasingly experimental musician, they have gained considerable acclaim that can’t be pigeon holed as yet another Brooklyn house-head.

However, as his first white label debut EP testified, there is also an ethereal and at times (*cough*) Balearic feel buried deep within this music and it is here, on 'Teen Hawk', this is as evident as his drone-based pieces.

While the looping percussion and rhythms of 'Bertone Stratos' and 'I Recommend Starman' echo the ethereal beauty of Cluster and La Dusseldorf, they are also mixed with the darker ambient and loop-based 'Wrong Crowd' or 'Greystoke One'.

Riding throughout much of this is his beloved looped guitar and eye for a breakbeat. Never more evident that on the album closer, 'Time For Thick'. Here his influences mesh to create a swirling, blissed out, hip-hop meets Aphex MDMA anthem (minus the sexist gangster rap - phew!)