London, UK— Musicians Mats Gustafsson, Neneh Cherry, Joe McPhee, Thurston Moore, along with music writer Byron Coley have contributed to an illustrated collector’s guide to records — replete with 277-pages pages of beatific album art, labels, sleeve notes and collector musings on their life-long obsessions of record collecting, with a distinct focus on the recorded history of Free Jazz and Free Improvisation.

Compiling personal archives with discussions and debates of their selections of recordings which could be contenders within a list defined by a parameter of 100 most essential releases presented in chronologic order, acknowledging the music to be preternaturally non-competitive, non-hierarchical, and of equal value. NOW JAZZ NOW is a book for all adventurous music lovers, whether ravenous record collectors, avant-garde jazz enthusiasts, students of radical culture, or simply curiosity seekers in wonder to this music’s illustrious history and lineage.
The gleanings of Cherry, Coley, Gustafsson, McPhee and Moore will enlighten, delight, amuse, and bemuse all who follow their streams of consciousness, knowledge, perception, and, most importantly, unbridled respect and regard for a genre of music dedicated to the dignity of practicing freedom.

Originally released in 1972 on the iconic Muse label, 'The Free Slave' captures Roy Brooks at the peak of his powers – a drummer of deep conviction and fire, blending soul-rooted swing with the outer reaches of post-bop and avant-garde expression. This landmark live session brims with energy, featuring extended improvisations and tight interplay between some of the most vital players in modern jazz; Woody Shaw (trumpet), George Coleman (tenor sax), Hugh Lawson (piano), and Cecil McBee (bass).

TRACK LISTING

1. The Free Slave
2. Understanding
3. Will Pan's Walk
4. Five For Max

Four decades after it lit up college radio and launched R.E.M.’s remarkable career, 'Radio Free Europe' is sending out a brand-new signal. Overseen by original producer Mitch Easter—who mixed the band's very first recording of 'Radio Free Europe' back in 1981—the EP opens with a never-before-released 2025 remix by GRAMMY®-winner Jacknife Lee (U2, Snow Patrol, Taylor Swift, The Killers). Lee, who produced R.E.M.’s final two studio albums, Accelerate and Collapse Into Now, gives the track a fresh take, while staying true to its indie-rock DNA. The 5-track set also features rarities from 1981—including the Original Hib-Tone Single mix of 'Radio Free Europe', B-side 'Sitting Still', plus demos 'Wh. Tornado' and 'Radio Free Dub', the latter making its digital debut. In 2009, 'Radio Free Europe' was inducted into the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry for “setting the pattern for later indie-rock releases.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Radio Free Europe 2025 (Jacknife Lee Remix)
2. Radio Free Dub 1981 (Mitch Easter Remix)
3. Radio Free Europe (Original Hib-Tone Single)
4. Sitting Still (Original Hib-Tone B-Side)
5. Wh. Tornado (From Cassette Set) 

In the world of Smote, going further out means going inward. Less a metaphysical journey into inner space, more a physical journey into the ground itself, converging with its roots and vibrations. Forged from repetition and mantric intensity and possessed of formidable psychic fortitude, Songs from the Free House - their fifth release for Rocket Recordings - proves that the only retro-chic Smote indulge in is liable to go back several centuries. The megalithic monomania of last year's A Grand Stream set a formidable precedent, and Smote's live shows in its wake have gradually built a reputation as visionary seers building audial monuments by cranked amplification and atmospheric intensity alike. Yet these five gnostic serenades offer portals and paradigms anew.

In terms of locating this album in place, this new foray also differs from Smote's past work in terms of its recording - although once again chief architect Daniel Foggin played and sang almost everything on this record (bar guest appearances from Sally Mason of the Smote live band on vocals and Ian Lynch from Lankum on Uillean pipes) his recording Songs From The Free House in Blank Studios with Sam Grant (Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs) marked a journey from the DIY minimal approach of yore into more widescreen visions without compromising the singular intent within.

Wrought from the earth, transposed to the ether, and now shared with the world at large, this album marks a transcendental journey where Smote render ancient and modern indivisible. Just as traditional music is passed down through generations, Songs From The Free House is where the primal collides with the eternal.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Cottar
2. The Linton Wyrm
3. Snodgerss
4. Chamber
5. Wynne

Originally released in 1972 on the iconic Muse label, ‘The Free Slave’ captures Roy Brooks at the peak of his powers - a drummer of deep conviction and fire, blending soul-rooted swing with the outer reaches of post-bop and avant-garde expression. This landmark live session brims with energy, featuring extended improvisations and tight interplay between some of the most vital players in modern jazz: Woody Shaw (trumpet), George Coleman (tenor sax), Hugh Lawson (piano) and Cecil McBee (bass).

Remastered and cut directly from the original analogue tapes by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab. Pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal Media and housed in Stoughton Old Style Tip-On Jackets. Includes an insert with newly written liner notes by Shannon J. Effinger and Barney Fields, with rare photography by Raymond Ross.

TRACK LISTING

The Free Slave
Understanding
Will Pan's Walk
Five For Max

How does an artist follow a critically-acclaimed breakthrough record like 'Southeastern'? For Jason Isbell, the answer was 'Something More Than Free'. With songs like '24 Frames', 'Flagship', and 'Children of Children', the 2015 album found Isbell tackling the subjects he knows best: the dignity of work, the difficulty of love, the friction between the present and the past. 'Something More Than Free' further established the North Alabama native as a bonafide songwriter, and also netted him his first two Grammy Awards, for Americana Album of the Year, and for American Roots Song of the Year ('24 Frames'.)

10 years later, 'Something More Than Free' has been re-mixed by the legendary Sylvia Massy (Prince, Johnny Cash, Tom Petty), breathing new life into these now classic songs in the Isbell canon. And as a cherry on top, the man has broken his normal rule and included a b-side here. 'Should I Go Missing' is a bluesy jammer highlighted by Isbell's slide guitar playing.

TRACK LISTING

1. If It Takes A Lifetime
2. 24 Frames
3. Flagship
4. How To Forget
5. Children Of Children 
6. The Life You Chose
7. Something More Than Free
8. Speed Trap Town
9. Hudson Commodore
10. Palmetto Rose
11. To A Band That I Loved 
12. Should I Go Missing

Released in 1996 at the height of Britpop’s cultural takeover, Free Peace Sweet saw Dodgy break into the mainstream with a sun-drenched sound that set them apart from their more angst-ridden peers. Bursting with optimism, melody, and a touch of psychedelic sparkle, the album became the band’s biggest commercial success. Its lead single, "Good Enough", was a bona fide anthem, climbing to No. 4 on the UK Singles Chart — Dodgy’s highest-charting track to date. Follow-ups "In a Room" and "If You're Thinking of Me" also struck a chord with listeners, hitting No. 12 and No. 11, respectively. Even "Found You", the album’s final single, secured a strong No. 19 spot, solidifying the band’s chart credentials. Free Peace Sweet reached No. 7 at the UK Albums Chart and later achieved certified platinum.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. In A Room
2. Trust In Time
3. You've Gotta Look Up
4. If You're Thinking Of Me

Side B
1. Ain't No Longer Asking
2. Good Enough
3. Found You

Side C
1. Prey For Drinking
2. Jack The Lad
3. Long Life

Side D
1. One Of These Rivers
2. U.K.R.I.P.
3. Homegrown

To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Camper Van Beethoven’s groundbreaking debut 'Telephone Free Landslide Victory', this special re-issue features the band’s preferred running order of tracks, with cult classics like ‘Take The Skinheads Bowling’ showcasing Camper Van Beethoven’s unique blend of folk, punk, ska, and absurdist wit. Beloved for its playful, offbeat charm and eclectic instrumentation, 'Telephone Free Landslide Victory' cemented the band’s status as pioneers of alternative music.

TRACK LISTING

LP Tracklisting:
1. The Day That Lassie Went To The Moon
2. Border Ska
3. Wasted
4. Yanqui Go Home
5. Oh No!
6. 9 Of Disks
7. Payed Vacation: Greece
8. Where The Hell Is Bill?
9. Vladivostock
10. Skinhead Stomp
11. Tina
12. Take The Skinheads Bowling
13. Mao Reminisces About His Days In Southern China
14. I Don't See You
15. Balalaika Gap
16. Opi Rides Again - Club Med Sucks
17. Ambiguity Song

CD Tracklisting:
1. The Day That Lassie Went To The Moon
2. Border Ska
3. Wasted
4. Yanqui Go Home
5. Oh No!
6. 9 Of Disks
7. Payed Vacation: Greece
8. Where The Hell Is Bill?
9. Vladivostock
10. Skinhead Stomp
11. Tina
12. Take The Skinheads Bowling
13. Mao Reminisces About His Days In Southern China
14. I Don't See You
15. Balalaika Gap
16. Opi Rides Again - Club Med Sucks
17. Ambiguity Song
18. Balalaika Gap (1983 Demo)
19. The Day That Lassie Went To The Moon (1983 Demo)
20. Vegetables (1983 Demo)
21. White Riot (1983 Demo)
22. Before I Met You (1983 Demo)
23. Wasted (1983 Demo)
24. Take The Skinheads Bowling (1983 Demo)
25. I Don't See You (1983 Demo)
26. I Can't Take It Anymore (1983 Demo)
27. Border Ska (1983 Demo)
28. Skinhead Stomp (1983 Demo)
29. Wasting All Your Time
30. Epigram #5
31. At Kuda
32. Epigram #2
33. Cowboys From Hollywood (Original)
34. Colonel Enrique Adolfo Bermudez
35. Heart (Remix)

Radio Free Alice sound like the sense of freedom you get when your bouncing up and down in the mosh. This fast-rising, Naarm-based sextet are our hot tip for summer, with a sound so moreish we can’t help but go back for more. Put Radio Free Alice on, cut about your bedroom and get excited before they unavoidably start skyrocketing.

TRACK LISTING

1. 2010
2. Johnny
3. Spain
4. On The Ground

What a debut. A hint of New York, but actually, it's from Naarm. Singularity, angularity, passion. A driving force of guitars that doff their hat to The Walkmen and The Strokes but know and understand the melody of Talking Heads and The Cure. And a group that aren't afraid to use a saxophone, either.

TRACK LISTING

1. Waste Of Space
2. Paris Is Gone
3. I Gotta (Fall In Love)
4. Look What You’ve Done

Following standout releases on acclaimed underground imprints like Klasse Wrecks, Planet Trip, Superior Elevation, and more, Brooklyn-based producer Gee Dee steps into a new chapter with the launch of his very own label, Free Universe. The debut release, "It's A Feeling" is a vibrant four-tracker that showcases his deep-rooted love for hypnotic grooves, playful textures, and dancefloor-ready energy.

The title track, “It's A Feeling” leads the charge - a punchy, genre-blurring cut that captures the essence of Gee Dee’s sound: raw, emotive, and rhythmic. “Energy Loop” follows with a bright, bouncing bassline and cheeky percussion, keeping spirits high and bodies moving.

On the B-side, the legendary Kim Ann Foxman delivers a sped-up, psychedelic reimagining of “It's A Feeling” The remix brings a darker, tunneling energy to the original, twisting it into a late-night trip that’s equal parts hypnotic and propulsive. Closing things out is “Two Voices” - a heady, '90s-inspired roller drenched in spaced-out textures and woozy synths. A bold first statement from Free Universe, this release marks a fresh new chapter for Gee Dee - producer, DJ, and now label head - continuing his journey of pushing boundaries across the spectrum of underground dance music.

TRACK LISTING

A1. It’s A Feeling (Original Mix)
A2. Energy Loop
B1. It’s A Feeling (Kim Ann Foxman Mix)
B2. Two Voices

Former Harry Pussy guitarist, Palilalia label boss and post-punk blues survivor, Bill Orcutt has been especially prolific in recent years. A sustained proliferation of live and studio-based activity has consolidated his profile as both a collaborator, mentor and leading light to a new generation of six-string explorers such as his guitar quartet bandmates Shane Parish, Ava Mendoza and Wendy Eisenberg. By Tony Rettman.

Every copy of the August issue will come with a free CD of The Wire Tapper 68 attached to the cover. This latest edition of the Tapper features a cover designed by Firpal and contains 16 new tracks by Nadah El Shazly, Lyra Pramuk, RG Rough, Bhajan Bhoy, Annie A, Hyperrêve + CoH and more.

“LOVING, JOYFUL AND FREE” by MOTHER NATURE. Cynical con-marketing for something as unloved, unjoyful and unfree as any SECOND CHILD.

Strap it on and you’ll be back yomping through their uncanny valley of HARDCORE STANDARDS. Elevation comes from half-remembered licks, lifted from some strange sources indeed: YDI, LAUGHING HYENAS and even the phasered single-string solos of THE SCIENTISTS. In keeping with the LEEDS credo, there are even some UNSUSTAINABLE PITS scattered about.

On “Loving…”, the MAMAS don’t bring THE POPPERS, beyond amyl-headache tempos that remain resolutely mid-. Sure, sometimes they show enough songcraft to court catchy, but these NATURALS never let it cop a full feel. It’s that ol’ ‘show-and-no’, handed down through the corecraft of COLD SWEAT to these MUTHAS.

“ARE YOU EXPERIENCED?” – because these MOTHERLESS FUCKS surely are. CRED piled up in inverse proportion to sales during solid stretches with PERSPEX FLESH, MOB RULES,BRAIN DEAD, WHIPPING POST and THE FLEX. But by 2025, long robbed of their youth and beauty, what was left but to grow older and uglier.

MOTHER NATURE ain't looking right pretty, but she's whispering your name again….Friend, that’s some OEDIPAL KICK right there. - Conor Rickford

TRACK LISTING

1. Dark Passenger
2. H.H.
3. Intro / An Infinite Sphere
4. Journey To The Corner Of The Room
5. I’m Tired
6. Everyone Wants Something

It says a lot about the interconnectedness of the global dubwise underground that it took downtime with Bristolian Neek in Portland to spur the link between ZamZam and Feel Free Hi Fi out of the Minneapolis Twin Cities. Once he put us on to them we were hooked- not only by their brilliant music but by their rigorously DIY approach and aesthetic. Heavily inspired by the more esoteric angles of early digi-era JA dancehall and UK dub (Shaka, Disciples, Mixman and Gussie P being some touchstones) the duo create a sound both reverential and unique, steeped in the traditions but striking out hard left into idiosyncratic territory all their own. Releasing all of their works up to this point on their own fantastic Digital Sting label, we’re excited to showcase them on ZamZam.

In “Voyageur” an ominous mid-range figure, heaving synth bass and complex intertwining melodies drive the tune into heavily cinematic territory, thick atmospherics and strange synthetic animal calls like a lost John Carpenter soundtrack-in-dub. The duo says, “Voyageur in its title speaks a bit to the mythic, mysterious, but also very real wild places of the North Country where we live... and how it all rubs up against the contemporary urban environment.”

“Underground”s opening stabs, bassline and drums could have time-travelled from Unity Sounds or Jammys, but bring an eerie darkness in their deployment that is unmistakably now. Feel Free Hi Fi explain, “Underground in its title is a tribute to the spirit of underground music, of the DIY non commercial ethos... So the tunes together kind of speak to time and change, and the struggle of what's going on now. Trying to preserve the environment and and also the wild places of basement and warehouse gigs, and the outsider mentality of underground music that also seems like it's fading away but hopefully isn't lost.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Leading soundsystem killers, ZamZam Sounds enlist Minnesota's avant dubwise fashionistas Feel Free Hi Fi to ramp up the low hertz for a double header of digi-dub steppers aggression.

TRACK LISTING

A. Voyageur
B. Underground 

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2025 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 12TH 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 14th.

Gary Bartz (alto & soprano sax, vocals) - Charles Mims (piano, syntheziser) - Curtis Robertson (electric bass, back vocals) - Howard King (drums). A fantastic live recorded in Bremen on 8th November 1975 set from reedman Gary Bartz – captured here with his ultra-hip NTU group – who you might know from their classic albums on Milestone in the 70s! 1 hour and 46 minutes of free and spiritual jazz.

TRACK LISTING

1. Nation Time (Live)
2. Ju Ju Man (Live)
3. Medley: Rise / Celestial Blues / The Sounding Song / Incident / Uhuru Saga (Live)
4. Peace And Love (Live)
5. Sifa Zote (Live)
6. I've Known Rivers (Live)
7. Sweet Tooth

'Let's Get Free' was the debut studio album by hip-hop duo Dead Prez, originally released in 2000. Critically acclaimed upon its release, 'Let's Get Free' was called a "return to politically conscious rap" and, "the most politically conscious rap since Public Enemy"; the duo's messages also earned them favorable comparisons with Brand Nubian, The Coup, Def Jef and X-Clan. The album's lyrics, performed in front of sparse beats are startlingly direct, militant, and confrontational. M-1 and stic.man excoriates the media, the music industry, politicians, and poverty, and urge their target audience to study socialism and ideas of black power. Rolling Stone gave the album four stars and lauded its equation of "classrooms with jail cells, the projects with killing fields and everything from water to television with conduits for brainwashing by the system".

TRACK LISTING

1. Wolves (Intro)
2. I'm A African
3. They School
4. Hip-Hop
5. Police State (feat. Chairman Omali Yeshitela)
6. Behind Enemy Lines
7. Assassination
8. Mind Sex
9. We Want Freedom
10. Be Healthy
11. Discipline
12. Psychology
13. Happiness
14. Animal In Man
15. You'll Find A Way
16. It's Bigger Than Hip-Hop (feat. Tahir And Peoples Army)
17. Propaganda
18. The Pistol (feat. Maintain Of Illegal Tendencies) (feat. Maintain Of Illegal Tendencies)

On the cover: Raven Chacon: The Diné/Navajo composer foregrounds unheard and silenced voices in his radical works for ensembles, electronics and noise. By Esi Eshun. Inside: Ingrid Laubrock: The New York based reedist creates settings for koans and poems as part of a unique new compositional practice. By Stewart Smith; Bastard Assignments: The radical new music ensemble get lost in the woods with their satire of the English countryside. By Robert Barry; Infinity Knives: From Tom And Jerry to sociopolitics, rapper Tariq Ravelomanana keeps it unreal. By Lucy Thraves; Cleaners From Venus: Martin Newell’s songcraft and wordplay across many DIY albums evidence a uniquely wired mind. By Mike Barnes; Lukas De Clerck: Brussels musician extends ancient pipe instruments into the present moment. By Antonio Poscic; Penelope Trappes: Australian artist voices griefs past and present. By Spenser Tomson; Ciaran Mackle: Sample manipulator twists folk song into cubist forms. By Daryl Worthington; Invisible Jukebox: Jeff Mills: Will Detroit techno’s great conceptualist be a wizard IDing The Wire’s mystery record selection? Tested by Chal Ravens; Unlimited Editions: Robert Ridley-Shackleton’s Cardboard Club cutouts. By Spenser Tomson; The Inner Sleeve: Loraine James on Circa Survive’s On Letting Go; Global Ear: Osaka’s proto-industrialists revitalise the city’s experimental music scene. By Jere Kilpinen; Epiphanies: Golem Mecanique rewinds to a treasured VHS tape of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Accattone; Against The Grain: Mosi Reeves takes on underground hiphop’s gender imbalance. Plus 40 pages of reviews including Backxwash: Done and dusted. By Claire Biddles; Labyrinthe Des Esprits: Therapeutic settings. By Spenser Tomson; The Texas Chain Saw Massacre OST: Pleasures of the flesh. By Philip Brophy; BEAM SPLITTER x Xiu Xiu: Pan-Asian improv. By Daniel Glassman; and much, much more.

Crucial version of the classic Deniece Williams number! Karen Dixon sings it in a Lovers Rock style. From the Neville King archive and licensed for it’s first ever 7 Inch press. Complete with Instrumental Version on the flip!40 years of endless play!

TRACK LISTING

A1. I Just Want To Be Free
B1. Dub To Be Free

Vincent Arthur’s masterpiece LP ‘Esi Vivian’, originally inspired by and named in tribute to his daughter Vivian, was the work of a skilled group of musicians from Africa, The Caribbean and Germany. The record remained relatively unknown for 30 years, apart from a small circle of collectors, until a very well known DJ closing Dekmantel reached the climax of his set with an 'unknown' euphoric afro disco track. Taking to the forums, internet sleuths didn’t stop until it was found that this anthem was ‘Travel With The Music’!

Remastered by the ever patient and talented Frank at The Carvery, SFA002 breathes new life into the 3 standout tracks from Esi Vivian, allowing these timeless sounds to be shared on new dancefloors. All three tracks have been elevated whilst staying true to the original and cut at 45rpm for ideal club playback.

‘Travel With The Music’ takes pole position on the A-side, a piece of music perfect in every way. Mixing afro, disco and that euphoric gospel-like chorus, this is the record you want to hear played out with all your friends at once.
Leading the B-side is Afro Disco, a track that always works on the floor, it’s tempo shift injecting a playful energy that leads the party into it’s next stage. Closing out the release, ‘Jubilation’ takes us deeper and in the right dance, is a powerful end-of-the-nighter.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: The modern disco scene is in fine fettle, but sometimes you can't beat the golden oldies, with certain tracks coming in and out of fashion in tune with the times. "Travel With The Music" has recently caused a stir at Dekmantel so Sweet Free Association felt it right to reissue the track with two extra cuts from Esi Vivian.

TRACK LISTING

Travel With The Music
Afro Disco
Jubilation

Dummy is a rock band from Los Angeles comprised of Alex Ewell, Emma Maatman, Nathan O’Dell, and Joe Trainor. Their debut full-length “Mandatory Enjoyment” (Trouble in Mind) arrived in late 2021, becoming one of the year’s sleeper hits and garnering praise from Pitchfork, Stereogum, and more. Coming out of lockdown, the band spent two years touring in support of the record, and it is this transformational experience that pulses through “Free Energy”, the exhilarating follow-up to “Mandatory Enjoyment”.

A creatively restless band, Dummy (Ewell: drums, synths, bass; Maatman: vocals, synths, organ; O'Dell: vocals, guitar, organ; Trainor: guitar, bass, synths) wanted to get harder, dancier, more psychedelic for their next record. This meant applying explorative potentials of electronic textures to the elemental qualities of rock i.e. more vocal loops, sampling, more crazy rhythms, and playful synths - but make those samples of Trainor’s guitar, let Maatman sing bolder, experiment with using cold mechanical elements in warm and sparkly ways, and lean harder into traditional-yet-still-awesome forms of rock guitar experimentation like feedback. The result is a record that celebrates music’s ability to move the body, whether that be through a teeth-rattling wall of MBV-esque noise, a sticky pop chorus, or a joyous drum machine or, if you’re Dummy, maybe all of them in the same song.

Pop music has always been a big part of Dummy’s sound and it manifests in different ways all over Free Energy: the bubbly synth sequence made with a Korg EM1 popping all over “Nullspace,” the revved-up drone-pop inspired by second and third wave Dunedin Sound bands like Look Blue Go Purple and Dadamah, and the motorik beat powering “Nine Clean Nails,” perhaps the most confidently pop song Dummy has ever recorded and one that exemplifies “Free Energy”’s balancing of live performance intensity with electronic augmentations, the dancier rhythmic elements created out of a drum loop recorded by Ewell while the bridge recalls the Feelies with call-and-response guitars from O’Dell and expressive vocals from Maatman.

“Free Energy” also features guest appearances from Oakland-based saxophonist and electroacoustic artist Cole Pulice (Moon Glyph) contributes saxophone and wind synths and Jen Powers of Powers / Rolin Duo (Astral Editions, Feeding Tube Records).

TRACK LISTING

1. Intro-UB
2. Soonish
3. Unshaped Road
4. Opaline Bubbletear
5. Blue Dada
6. Nullspace
7. Minus World
8. Dip In The Lake
9. Sudden Flutes
10. Psychic Battery
11. Nine Clean Nails
12. Godspin

BBE Music is thrilled to present J Jazz: Free and Modern Jazz From Japan 1954-1988, a remarkable large-format book covering some of the deepest, rarest, and most innovative jazz music released anywhere in the post-war era. Compiled by Tony Higgins and Mike Peden, co-curators of BBE Music's acclaimed J Jazz Masterclass Series, the book also features a foreword by Japanese jazz icon, Terumasa Hino.

This is the first time a book of this type has been published outside of Japan and the first anywhere of this size and scale. It is a unique collection of over 500 albums of free and modern jazz released in Japan during a period of radical transformation and constant reinvention. An era that saw Japan return from the ravages of World War Two to become a global economic power and emerge as both a technological leader and an international cultural force. Through a unique gallery of albums, J Jazz charts the development of jazz in Japan from the first stirrings of the modern jazz scene in the mid to late 1950s and on through the hard bop and modal jazz of the 1960s.

It steers the reader into the radical directions of the 1970s when free jazz, fusion, post-bop, and jazz-funk opened up a growing number of Japanese jazz artists to a new global audience before consolidating in the mid to late 1980s with a musical scene that laid the path for the contemporary jazz generation to follow. Over 500 full-colour sleeves from many of the leading names in Japanese jazz sit alongside rare and private pressings that tell a story of constant change and musical exploration. J Jazz includes profiles of several leading record labels such as East Wind, Frasco, King Records, and Nippon Columbia as well as critical independents such as Three Blind Mice, ALM, and Aketa’s Disk. J Jazz includes interviews with celebrated jazz photographer Tadayuki Naito, and pianist Tohru Aizawa, bandleader on the totemic spiritual jazz album, Tachibana Vol 1, as well as free-jazz record collector and jazz musician Mats Gustafsson.

The book also features a chapter on albums by non-Japanese artists that only received a Japanese release, with collectible, rare, and obscure releases by figures such as Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Mal Waldron, Steve Lacy, and Art Blakey. J Jazz includes Japanese jazz charts from some of the world's leading jazz DJs including Gilles Peterson, Toshio Matsuura, Paul Murphy, and Shuya and Yoshihiro Okino. Among the specialist content is a feature on obi strips by record dealer and Japanese jazz expert, Yusuke Ogawa, plus a special article on Japanese Blue Note albums.

Across its 300-plus pages, J Jazz includes a detailed introduction contextualising the music, tracing the story of Japan's fascination with jazz back before the war. It also features biographical information on many of the key artists involved in shaping the post-war Japanese jazz scene including Sadao Watanabe, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Masabumi Kikuchi, Masahiko Togashi, Terumasa Hino, Yosuke Yamashita, Fumio Itabashi, Masayuki Takayanagi, Takeo Moriyama, Isao Suzuki, and many more.

TRACK LISTING

1. Philosopher's Stone - Tohru Aizawa Quartet
2. Love Talken - Kohsuke Mine
3. Little B's Poem - Hideto Sasaki, Toshiyuki Sekine Quartet + 1
4. Take - Takeo Moriyama
5. Takeuma - Makoto Terashita Meets Harold Land
6. Dog's Dance - Miyasaka + 5
7. Future On You - Shintaro Quintet
8. Blue Road - Masaru Imada Trio + 1
9. Zekatsuma Selbst - Koichi Matsukaze Trio + Toshiyuki Daitoku
10. Rerev (Extended Version - Live) - Hideyasu Terakawa Quartet

Belgian artist Gratts wrote 'Sun Circles' as an empowerment anthem for his two sons and it dropped to plenty of acclaim last year. In its wake, Gratts DJed with Adelaide's multi-talented Alexander Flood on percussion and after some conversations he was enlisted to bring his jazz background to a remix of the original. He did so live as part of a quintet and the result is a super summery, airy rework with soulful vocals that linger long in the air. Detroit-based techno and ambient maestro John Beltran appears on the flip to bring a classy Balearic remix that will have you dreaming of longer, warmer nights and plenty of sun-kissed dancing fun.

TRACK LISTING

Sun Circles (Alexander Flood Live Rework)
Sun Circles (John Beltran Project Remix)

Belgian DJ and producer Gratts have joined forces with London-based vocalist Mr. Beale to follow up on to success of their well-received 'Sun Circles' release last year. Here, on the sublime 'Submerge Me', they are in fine form once more with a brooding sound that features the uniquely mesmerising mantras of Beale and plenty of raw, compelling and percussive grooves that fully lock you in and get you going. Versatile Records' own Gilb'r then steps up on the flip and manages to take things even deeper with some fine liquid dub excursions to complete a top 7"

TRACK LISTING

Submerge Me (Original Version)
Submerge Me (Gilb'r Remix)

Over the years, Bonny Light Horseman has accumulated many miles on the collective odometer of life. The band’s core trio – Anaïs Mitchell, Eric D. Johnson, and Josh Kaufman – has amassed an incomparable collected resume. Mitchell is a celebrated solo artist as well as the playwright and songwriter behind the hit Broadway musical Hadestown, which notched eight Tony Awards and a Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album. Johnson is best known as the mind behind beloved indie mainstays Fruit Bats, as a longtime collaborator with The Shins, and as a film score composer. And Kaufman is a multi-hyphenate extraordinaire: songwriter, producer, and position player, having recorded and performed with artists ranging from Bob Weir to The War on Drugs to Taylor Swift, Hiss Golden Messenger and The Hold Steady. As a group, Bonny Light Horseman’s debut album received a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album, and the track "Deep in Love" was nominated for Best American Roots Performance.

More important than any of this, though, they’ve also lived a big ol’ messy and tangled up pile of life, and all that living permeates their music with the wisdom, humor, and depth that underlies the accolades. Theirs is the stuff that defines folk music as a genre: love and loss, hope and sorrow, community and family, change and time. The Big Stuff, with the stakes sky high.

At the center of Bonny Light Horseman is, always, the singular combination of three powerful and tender artists, artists who expertly dodge superlatives but are quick to acknowledge that their bond makes each one better, braver and more vulnerable than they’d be on their own. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the force of their voices together, which work with complete trust in one another through the gentlest moments and the most ruthless wails.

Bonny Light Horseman’s new album, Keep Me on Your Mind/See You Free, is an ode to the blessed mess of our humanity. Confident and generous, it is an unvarnished offering that puts every feeling and supposed flaw out in the open. The themes are stacked high and staked even higher: love and loss, hope and sorrow, community and family, change and time all permeate Bonny Light Horseman’s most vulnerable and bounteous offering to date. Yet for all of its humanistic touchpoints, Keep Me on Your Mind/See You Free was forged from a kind of unexplainable magic.

TRACK LISTING

1. A Keep Me On Your Mind
2. Lover Take It Easy
3. I Know You Know
4. Grinch Funeral
5. Old Dutch
6. When I Was Younger
7. Waiting And Waiting
8. Hare And Hound
9. Rock The Cradle
10. Singing To The Mandolin
11. The Clover
12. Into The O
13. Don’t Know Why Youmove Me
14. Speak To Me Muse
15. Think Of The Royalties Lads
16. Tumblin Down
17. I Wanna Be Where Youare
18. Over The Pass
19. Your Arms (All The Time)
20. See You Free

Twin Cities duo Feel Free Hi Fi return to their in-house imprint Digital Sting with their first full length entitled “I was so far in I was out.” After two prior EP's and collaborations with Equiknoxx and Duppy Gun Feel Free Hi Fi deliver 8 new tracks of their distinct but eclectic digital dub. Amalgamating many of the sounds, sonics, and aesthetics of prior releases into these eight percussive instrumentals. The industrial dub and weirdo dancehall remain but the focus is further refined while also exploring environmental and cinematic sounds to create often dark and heavy versions that are as singular as they are collective, as introverted as they are expansive.

The records come in double sided silk-screened printed custom DJ Jackets, with Obi Strip style stickers and hand stamped white labels created and printed by Digital Sting.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Blood
A2. Gateless Barrier
A3. Spring Rain
A4. Triton
B1. Marauder
B2. Vexed
B3. Digital Tomb
B4. Computer Paul

On 'Strange Medicine', acclaimed roots musician Kaia Kater succeeds in the act of transformation, alchemizing grief into joy, sorrow into hope. Kater's captivating songs celebrate the power of oppressed people and act as an antidote to centuries of exploitation, fear, and greed. This collection of ten songs, featuring appearances by today's finest roots musicians such as Allison Russell, Aoife O'Donovan, and Taj Mahal, showcases Kater's biting topical songwriting and deft arranging chops. 'Strange Medicine's' intricate orchestrations were inspired by diverse sources: composer Steve Reich's propulsive minimalism, the frenetic jazz drumming of Brian Blade, the unsettling orchestral scores of film composer Jonny Greenwood, and the spiraling rhythms of the West African kora. Furthermore, Kater's delicate yet robust banjo playing charts new territory well beyond what's expected of the instrument. With 'Strange Medicine', Kater taps into the full kaleidoscope of her artistry, creating an outlet for our collective grief and celebration and inviting the ancestors to a place of honor at the table.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Witch Ft. Aoife O'Donovan
2. Maker Taker
3. Mechanics Of The Mind
4. In Montreal Ft. Allison Russell
5. The Internet
6. Fedon Ft. Taj Mahal
7. Floodlights
8. Often As The Autumn
9. History In Motion
10. Tigers

"She and Me Fall Together in Free Death" is probably the most approachable, largely "musical" album that NWW has released since Rock N' Roll Station . It's also one of his strangest concepts, a marriage of trance inducing Krautrock grooves with a traditional jazz standard and some jarringly atonal musique concrete. Side A is the 20- minute title track: a slow-motion jam reminiscent of of one of Can's sidelong tracks on Tago Mago or the more avant-garde grooves of Tony Conrad and Faust's Outside the Dream Syndicate. The propulsive Jaki Liebezeit drumbeat is the foundation for a long jam session with what sounds like a dijderidoo and layers of guitar feedback. It's a massive, heavy sound, the kind that Julian Cope would devote a whole chapter to in his "Kratrocksampler". Side B is one long piece with three distinct movements. Beginning with those familiar, World Serpent-trademark windchimes, the listener is quickly ushered into Staple- ton's singing debut (!) in a rendition of the oft- covered traditional jazz ballad " Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair " This was a favorite of the recently deceased Nina Simone, and also of the avant- jazz screamer Patty Waters. Nurse With Wound's version is backed by cello drones, repetitive guitar strums and tambourine, sounding very much like The Velvet Un- derground's " Venus in Furs ". It's such a treat to hear Steven Stapleton's multitracked vocals cover this classic song, and this eerie version rates as one of my favorites. This song and the title track prove to the naysayers that Nurse With Wound is equally adept at rock n' roll songcraft as he is at demented sound collages. The creepy jazz cover seques into "Chicken Con- cret (For Missy E)", a truly warped tape-edit job that juxtaposes chicken squawks and sythesized birdcalls with random bleeps, speaker hiccups and gongs.

Could this be Steven Stapleton 's tribute to Timbaland and Missy Elliott's incomparable use of musique concrete techniques on their major label hip- hop anthems? Hard to say, but I like to think so. Side B ends with the hyper-sexualized "Gusset Typing", in which a mutated woman's voice describes her masturbation and orgasm in in- timate, anatomical detail. Her monologue is set against an intense rhythmic throbbing that builds as she reaches her climax. At the end, she blows her load and the record ends. This certainly qualifies as an active listening experience, and it's also a great make-out rec

TRACK LISTING

1. She And Me Fall Together Like Free Death
2. Black Is The Color Of My True Loves Hair
3. Chicken Concret 
4. Gusset Typing
5.She And Me Fall Together Like Free Death (Phosphorous Mix) 
6. Chicken Korma
7. Fine Writin'
8. She And Me Fall Together In Free Death (Funereal Mix)
9. Yellowed
10. Seeting Red
11. Black

Keyboardist and composer Carl Moore originally wrote, recorded and pressed only 100 (!) copies of these tracks, grabbing a quick moment of studio time during a tour of Japan in the early 1980s. Moore’s purple patch saw him becoming peers with artists such as Phyllis Hyman, Jean Carn, Janet Jackson and ‘The King of Gospel’, James Cleveland.

Carter Lake is an energetic 2 minutes 30 second blast of pure dance floor joy, that looks back at carefree days, teenage love and love lost. Moore’s voice soars, and showcases his love for the powerful stylings of jazz and gospel. On the flip, Must Be The Beat sees him explore very different textures and could easily be a long lost Prince recording found in the vaults in Paisley Park. Sounding like something jammed late at night, this one is perfect for the afterhours when there are 30 sweaty dancers left on the floor at 5am that just don’t want to go home!

This is the first release on Sweet Free Association, a new label founded by Sam Don, the DJ and curator responsible for the recent lovers rock and UK soul comps For The Love of You and Just A Touch. Born out of the wish to find another way of sharing ‘the fruits’ from his Free Association radio show and parties, these impossibly rare disco tracks are now available to a wider audience for the first time, as the vast majority of the original copies have been long lost.

Mastered at The Carvery, the lo-fi recordings have been skilfully lifted by Frank Merritt to sound big in the club, while retaining the original charm in the sound that made the tracks stand out to Sam in the first instance.

TRACK LISTING

Carter Lake
Must Be The Beat

DJ and producer Gratts returns to his own imprint with the third instalment of the "Balearic but bumpin'" trilogy. Here, the Belgian puts forward a captivating piece of organic, Body & Soul NY inspired deep house, assisted by Cata Mansikka-aho on vocals. As always, an instrumental is provided for maximum nightclub daydreaming. On the flipside, British duo Faze Action up the energy levels with an equally musical disco version that hits in all the right spots. Artwork once again by Mads Cooke.

TRACK LISTING

Rhythm Of Love
Rhythm Of Love (Daydreamin' Instrumental)
Rhythm Of Love (Faze Action Remix)

"Free, Dancing" is the first release by a new trio with percussionist and producer Carlos Niño, luminary multi-instrumentalist Idris Ackamoor (of The Pyramids), and wizard guitarist and producer Nate Mercereau. They have been playing concerts together in California since June 2022, sharing a unique, vibrant sound, whilst exploring their own musical findings and energies. It's a contemporary offering soaked in intimacy and spiritual nuances (as you'd expect from these two astral planers). 

Artwork by Nep Sidhu.

TRACK LISTING

We Love You So Much
Heaven Cruise Heaven Humming 2
Lightning Progression
Group Effervescence With Jesse Peterson
Wylde Life Thyme Decoration
Friends Now
Time On Earth

Wicked previously unreleased late '80s combination tune from Icho Candy & his brother Prince Junior, who are sometimes confused for each other. On the same rhythm as King Kong's "Agony and Pain" (also repressed this week). Lyrically about the struggle for freedom of the day, as resonant today as it was nearly 40 years ago.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Icho Candy muses on the struggle for the freedom over King Kong's "Agony And Pain" riddim. Its another winner from the selection of Jah Life Time reissues we've been luckily blessed with this week.

TRACK LISTING

A. Free Up
B. Free Up Dub

Incredibly, “Sadness Sets Me Free” is the 25th album Gruff Rhys has released in his 35 year career individually, collaboratively and as a member of various bands. “Sadness Sets Me Free” is also the follow up to 2021’s “Seeking new Gods”, his first solo top ten record.

Lead-off single “Celestial Candyfloss” is a telling four minute glimpse of the forthcoming album, revealing the heady wonders and classic pop sounds within. Soaring strings carry the sweet melodies along, anchored by just enough necessary melancholy to add emotional ballast. The eye-popping video was created by long-time collaborator Mark James and compliments the scope and style of the song on a galactic scale.

“Celestial Candyfloss” is, Gruff says, “an attempted pocket symphony about the cosmic lengths that people will travel in the pursuit of love and acceptance. Mark James has brought the Sadness Sets Me Free album cover to life & managed to place me watching TV interference in a shipping container that’s lost in space. For what is apparently the 25th album I’ve had a hand in writing I’ve reverted to a rich seam of inspiration relating to shedding some light on sadness and the general terror of cosmic loneliness.”

And so it was that Gruff and his band – Osian Gwynedd (piano), Huw V Williams (double bass) and former Flaming Lips drummer turned Super Furry Animals archivist Kliph Scurlock (drums) piled into a van driven by the late, legendary tour manager “Dr” Kiko Loiacono and raced from Dunkirk, where they had just played the final show of a tour of Spain and France, to the outskirts of Paris in the early hours of a March morning in 2022. There, in La Frette Studios, a recording facility installed in a 19th-century house, Gruff and his road-hardened group tracked “Sadness Sets Me Free” in just three days. Backing vocals were added along the way by Kate Stables from This Is The Kit along with additional strings and orchestration and it was mixed between Marseille and Cardiff. What finally emerged from these intense bouts of cross-continental activity was Gruff’s most accomplished and beautiful record to date.

In a career that has taken him from the slate-mining towns of north-west Wales, down to the expat communities of Patagonia, up to the Mandan tribe of the Great Plains of North America and across to the Tuareg rock groups of the Saharan Desert, Gruff Rhys, one of Britain’s most beloved and successful singer-songwriters, has always been willing to follow an opportunity, wherever it may lead him. “At this point I quite like working with serendipity,” he says. “Not in a cosmic way, [but] I try and leave things open to chance encounters and chance geography. As I'm around 25 albums in I’m always looking for ways to make a different-sounding record”.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Gruff is one of the masters of musical disguiuse, effortlessly turning his hand to any number of genre leanings, but it's in effortlessly melodic albums like 'Sadness Sets Me Free' that we get to hear the true genius and uplifting glee that only he can bring. There are moments of orchestral majesty and brittle, tentative sadness but every moment is a delight. A reminder of why Gruff is one of the greatest songwriters of our times.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sadness Sets Me Free
2. Bad Friend
3. Celestial Candyfloss
4. Silver Lining (Lead Balloons)
5. On The Far Side Of The Dollar
6. They Sold My Home To Build A Skyscraper
7. Peace Signs
8. Cover Up The Cover Up
9. I Tendered My Resignation
10. I’ll Keep Singing

Dinked Edition Bonus 7”:
A. Amser
B. (etching, No Audio)

Released in 1971, Gil Scott-Heron’s second album “Pieces Of A Man” is a stone-cold classic and rightly seen as one of the greatest albums of all time.

There is a reason why a full album of songs did not appear as a follow-up. Both Thiele and Scott-Heron’s writing partner Brian Jackson had been keen to move forward quickly with song-based material, but Scott-Heron saw himself first and foremost as a writer. A new novel, The Nigger Factory, would be published in 1972 and he also enrolled for writing seminars at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Once the decision was made to combine poetry and song, sessions were booked for the 2nd and 3rd March 1972. The first session with Bernard ‘Pretty’ Purdie (drums), Hubert Laws (flute/piccolo), David Spinozza (guitar), Jerry Jemmott (bass) and Brian Jackson (electric and acoustic piano) recorded the songs with Horace Ott taking care of the arrangements. The second was dedicated to poetry, recorded with Scott-Heron, Jackson, Eddie Knowles and Charlie Sanders from their college group Black & Blues. “Free Will” was released in 1972.

The song side included the heart-rending Vietnam war commentary of ‘Do You Hear What They Said?’, the propulsive title track and the beautiful ‘The Middle Of Your Day’. The poetry side immerses you in the radical politics of the day via ‘No Knock’ and ‘The King Alfred Plan’, and ends with his heartfelt tribute to John Coltrane ‘...and then he wrote Meditations’. Like “Pieces Of A Man” it is a classic and a cornerstone of any record collection.

When BGP inherited the honour of looking after the Flying Dutchman legacy we discovered that, as well as being almost unparalleled in his discovery of great talent, Bob Thiele also recorded it immaculately. The label’s master tapes sounded exceptional and when it has come to our reissue series have only ever required the most minimal of EQ before transferring them onto disc.

With this is mind we have embarked on a series of all analogue re-mastering projects, to bring the listener as close to the sound captured on tape as possible. Our first release was Gil Scott-Heron’s “Pieces Of A Man” which was released early in 2023 and this second outing is “Free Will”. We took the original master tape to Frank Merritt at the Carvery who transferred the audio and mastered it before making this new cut himself. We then had it pressed on 180 gram vinyl and our only wish now is that you drop the needle, sit back and go back to 1972 to enjoy Gil Scott-Heron in his prime.

TRACK LISTING

Side One
1. Free Will
2. The Middle Of Your Day
3. The Get Out Of The Ghetto Blues
4. Speed Kills
5. Do You Hear What They Said?

Side Two
1. The King Alfred Plan
2. No Knock
3. Wiggy
4. Ain’t No New Thing
5. What Would Become Of Me
6. Billy Green Is Dead
7. Sex Education: Ghetto Style
8. … And Then He Wrote Meditations

Expanded 2xLP 10th Anniversary Edition includes two studio outtakes from the original sessions, and a side-long live session recorded at WFMU by the then brand- new Solar Motel Band.

Over the last two decades Philadelphia-based guitarist Chris Forsyth has released over a dozen critically lauded albums that have established him as one of today's most unique and acclaimed guitar player /composers - a forward-thinking classicist synthesizing cinematic expansiveness with a pithy lyricism and rhythmic directness that makes even his 20-minute workouts feel as clear, direct, and memorable as a 4-minute song.

Named after a run-down lodge in New Jersey near where he grew up, Solar Motel was the first full-band project from Chris Forsyth. Originally released in 2013, it was considered his most ambitious and sublime work of Cosmic Americana to date, and the idea of the Motel also figured into a band where vacancies would open and close.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: One of the finest examples of psychedelic country music from the 2010's get a much needed and wonderfully accentuated reissue. Chris Fosyth's lysergic journey, 'Solar Motel' flows like a dreamy trip, swerving from heady distorted bliss into woozy, minimalist primitive. Brilliant.

TRACK LISTING

A1 - Solar Motel Part I (11:41)
A2 - Solar Motel Part II (10:05)
B1 - Solar Motel Part III (12:17)
B2 - Solar Motel Part IV (07:26)
C1 - Harmonious Dance (08:43)
C2 - Long Warm Afternoon (06:47)
D1 - Solar Motel Part I - Paranoid Cat - Live On WFMU (20:44)

“Incident At a Free Festival” is a tribute to the mid-afternoon slots at Deeply Vale, Bickershaw, Krumlin, Weeley, and Plumpton – early 70s festivals that don’t get the column inches afforded the Isle of Wight or Glastonbury Fayre, but which would have been rites of passage for thousands of kids. Bands lower down the bill would have been charged with waking up the gentle hippies and appealing to both the greasy bikers and the girls in knee-high boots who wanted to wiggle their hips. And the best way to do that was with volume, riffs and percussion.

Compiled by the venerated Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs of Saint Etienne, this is the heavier side of the early 70s they summarised on the acclaimed “English Weather” collection. There’s an air of menace and illicit thrills among tracks by Andwella, Stack Waddy and Leaf Hound (whose “Growers of Mushroom” album is worth well over £1,000). Bigger names include the rabble-rousing Edgar Broughton Band and kings of the festival freakout, Hawkwind. They are represented by their rare version of ‘Ejection’

For every mystical Tyrannosaurus Rex performance there was something like Atomic Rooster’s Tomorrow Night or Curved Air’s Back Street Luv to capture the spirit of the day and stir the loins of festival goers; the tracks on “Incident At a Free Festival” were inspired by both Chicago’s percussive wig-outs and the Pink Fairies’ anarchic spirit. The sounds were heavy and frequently funky, with a definite scent of danger. Their message was clear and simple: clap your hands, stamp your feet, hold on to your mind. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Chasing Shadows - Deep Purple
2. One Way Glass - Manfred Mann Chapter Three
3. Hold Onto Your Mind - Andwella
4. Hot Pants - Alan Parker & Alan Hawkshaw
5. Do It - Pink Fairies
6. Tomorrow Night – Atomic Rooster
7. Taken All The Good Things - Stray
8. Out Demons Out - Edgar Broughton Band
9. For Mad Men Only - May Blitz
10. Back Street Luv - Curved Air
11. Ejection - Hawkwind
12. Meat Pies ’Ave Come But Band's Not ’Ere Yet - Stackwaddy
13. Lovely Lady Rock - James Hogg
14. Third World - Paladin
15. Taking Some Time On - Barclay James Harvest
16. Ricochet - Jonesy
17. Led Balloon - Steve Gray
18. Big Boobs Boogie - Slowload
19. Freelance Fiend - Leaf Hound
20. Confunktion - Dave Richmond 

Another much-needed repress from Surfin In Kansas. This one hanged ten just under three years ago and has since become one bodacious and highly sought after slice of beach grooving joy.

"I Love You" samples The Gap Band's "Big Fun", extending the percussive breaks, doing away with all the smoochy vocal bits and upping the tempo jussst a tad before adding smatterings of extra piano goodness.

On side B, Johnny Bristol 's "Love No Longer Has A Hold On Me" is reduced to a dubbed out vox and hefty raregroove lick; the Strat part chiming away over a foundation shaking b-line and manly horns. A hefty slab of soul which is perfectly snipped and tucked by A Good Christian.

This repress won't hang around long - you have been warned! 

TRACK LISTING

A. I Love You
B. Free To Be Me

In late 1996, after two years of persistent touring, Chisel was eager to document its quickly evolving sound. Decamping from their native D.C. to Brooklyn’s Rare Book Room, the power trio of Ted Leo, Chris Norborg, and John Dugan teamed with engineer Nicolas Vernhes and came away with Set You Free, a remarkable, but largely overlooked, classic of the era. Originally issued on the venerable Gern Blandsten imprint in April 1997, Set You Free presaged the turn of the century 60s rock revival, providing a counterpoint to second-wave emo. This deluxe 25th anniversary edition has remastered and expanded the original’s 17-song track list with five period alternates and rarities, plus a booklet of lyrics, photos, and an essay by Jes Skolnik. Get ready for the invasion.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1 On Warmer Music
2 All My Kin
3 It’s Alright, You’re O.K.
4 The Mutable Mercury
5 The Town Crusher
6 The Unthinkable Is True

SIDE B
7 River High
8 Every Is A Good Trip
9 Do Go On
10 Privileged & Impotent
11 Oh Dear Friends

SIDE C
12 An Amateur Thief
13 In Our Time
14 Morley Timmons
15 The O.T.S.
16 Rip Off The Gift
17 The Last Good Time

SIDE D
18 The Guns Of Meridian Hill
19 The Town Crusher (live)
20 Morley Timmons (early Version)
21 Every Is A Good Trip (extended)
22 The O.T.S. (early Version)

Free Love (FKA Happy Meals) and their music are a conscious study in duality: thumping live tracks and meditational mantras, pop songs and esoteric experiments, acoustic and electronic instrumentation, lyrics in French and English, the Masculine and the Feminine, all side-by-side. Paragons of the cross-pollinating Glasgow DIY scene, their rapturous psychedelic odysseys have been emanating from the city since 2013 via esteemed labels including Night School and Optimo Music. Free Love’s debut EP Luxury Hits was released in 2018 to much critical acclaim (“a groovy fever dream” – Line of Best Fit) and saw them shortlisted for the Scottish Album of the Year Award (Suzi and Lewis’s third SAY Award nomination in all, following two under the Happy Meals moniker). It was followed in 2019 by the mini-album Extreme Dance Anthems (“music to move both body and mind” – Clash). In 2018 Free Love released a limited-edition vinyl EP, written and recorded on the isle of Eigg as part of Lost Map’s V I S I T ▲ T I O N S residency programme – strengthening a long-standing kinship between the band and the label which has seen them perform live many times at Lost Map events on Eigg and elsewhere.

It leads to the release on Lost Map in 2023 of Free Love’s latest opus INSIDE. Written and recorded at the band’s Glasgow home studio during and after the lockdowns of 2020-2021, and completed just before the birth of Lewis and Suzi’s son Echo in the summer of 2022, its 10 tracks of house-quaking acid pop, celestial drones and yogic devotionals are a by-turns banging and blissed-out meditation on life and death, community and seclusion, worlds both outwith and within. A song about “coming back to the centre after spiralling too far and recognising you’re not the only person wondering what’s going on”, ‘Open The Door’ reaches for the fresh silicon sound of Yellow Magic Orchestra. ‘Stop’ and ‘Golden Goose’ channel the space age pop dreams of Broadcast, while ‘Le Mirage’ and ‘Dans Le Noir’ take influence from 1970s electronic dance music pioneer Patrick Cowley – the former his gay porn movie soundtracks, the latter Cowley’s game-changing hi-NRG productions such as ‘Menergy’ and ‘Megatron Man’. Transportational seven-minute album closer ‘I Become’ sees Free Love borrow lyrics from the first track Lewis and Suzi ever recorded together, ‘Crystal Salutation’. “In doing, we become.”

“The sounds and themes on INSIDE came from the experiments we started working on throughout lockdown in our home studio, FULL ASHRAM CELESTIAL GARDEN,” says Lewis. “Sometimes we’d leave a sound running on loop until little melodies would come in and then that would start to take the form of the track. It has been a weird time for anyone to be making anything creative – to make sense of any reason to it all, we had to position creating music as an essential ritualistic part of our daily existence. We used the studio as a portal and made INSIDE.”

Free Love’s euphoric live show has seen them tour Europe, USA, India and Russia with the likes of The Flaming Lips, Liars and James Holden and The Animal Spirits, with Suzi often tearing through the audience centring the energy in the middle of the room over the live hardware electronics operated by Lewis from the stage turning into a ritualistic communal catharsis. As well as performing their debut Boiler Room live set from their home studio during lockdown, the band remixed music for Django Django and Charlotte Gainsbourg.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Woozy electronic stabs and rich scattered bass weave around lysergic floating vocals. Free Love present a perfect mix between euphoric synth-pop and darkened basement dancefloor grooves.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Le Mirage
2. Open The Door
3. Fight Or Flight
4. All The Same To Me
5. Golden Goose
Side B
1. Dans Le Noir
2. Don’t Stop
3. Stop
4. It’s A Feeling
5. I Become

Initially released in 2012, I Will Set You Free amalgamated elements of Barry’s previous work, resulting in an album that is unmistakably Barry Adamson. Like many of Adamson’s records, the album is a genre odyssey that jumps from garage rock rock, to blues, to new-wave pop, with the adventurous brass section injecting an acid jazz touch. His overwhelming desire to examine cultural shifts and embrace them within the quest to improve oneself that often centres in Adamson’s art is clearly present in I Will Set You Free. This subsequently makes it a quintessential Barry Adamson record that fits right in with the back catalogue. 

TRACK LISTING

A1 Get Your Mind Right
A2 Black Holes In My Brain
A3 Turnaround
A4 The Power Of Suggestion
A5 Destination
B1 The Trigger City Blues
B2 Looking To Love Somebody
B3 The Sun And The Sea
B4 If You Love Her
B5 Stand In

OFF!, the punk braintrust formed in 2010 by Keith Morris (ex-Black Flag, Circle Jerks) and Dimitri Coats (ex-Burning Brides), will release their first new album in eight years, Free LSD on Fat Possum Records.

The band’s powerful new rhythm section: bassist Autry Fulbright II (...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead) and drummer Justin Brown (Thundercat, Herbie Hancock) accompany the release. The injection of new energy into the band’s signature high-anxiety hardcore is palpable and volatile, adding a new swing to the music’s incendiary thrust.

Psyched out, feedback fried blues-punk reissue, originally released by fans but now remastered and released via Tax Free. Featuring Gerry Franke on guitar, recorded live in 1986!

Real raucous beer-soaked, leather n denim freakouts - the kinda shit your mum warned you against!

TRACK LISTING

Spiesser Und Dichter
Alkohol Ii

The fourth release in Fu Manchu’s 30th Anniversary vinyl reissue series, No One Rides For Free, is a new vinyl specific remaster of the band’s debut album. These songs are the only recordings of the band’s line-up of Scott Hill (vocals/guitar), Mark Abshire (bass), Eddie Glass (guitar) and Ruben Romano (drums). The 8 song collection was recorded on April 16 and 17, 1993 at Sandbox Studios in LA, produced by the band along with Brant Bjork. This reissue was remastered by Carl Saff for optimum fidelity. This limited edition 2,000 unit LP run is pressed on red vinyl with white splatter and the newly designed gatefold package includes never before seen photos of the band and flyers from the shows of the era. The limited edition 1,000 unit CD run also features the updated art and a digital specific remaster.

TRACK LISTING

1. “Time To Fly”
2. “Ojo Rojo”
3. “Show And Shine”
4. “Mega-Bumpers”
5. “Free And Easy (Summer Girls)”
6. “Superbird” “Shine It On”
7. “Snakebellies

Free Time is the new album by Jerry Paper – a synth-pop, weird-rock, bizarro-muzak masterpiece.

This playful and joyous album captures Jerry Paper’s unique persona and tells the story of their self-discovery as a nonbinary artist.

Jerry Paper has previously collaborated with Tyler, The Creator, Weyes Blood, Charlotte Day Wilson, Kari Faux and BadBadNotGood, and they recently supported Flying Lotus live.

TRACK LISTING

1. Kno Me
2. Just Say Play
3. Second Skin
4. Shaking Ass
5. Myopitopia
6. Duumb
7. Second Place
8. DREEMSCENES
9. Gracie III
10.Flower, A Square

A wonderfully weird and wacky one from Iris on Tax Free, "Speah" contains 21 cute little sonic sketches or vignettes. Slightly spellbound, with gamelon, Reichian minimalism and nods to Manhattan Research Project - it's like ⅓ downbeat, ⅓ library, ⅓ DIY electronix - all made to pleasure the ears and put a smile across one's heart.

If you've already a sucker for the wild world's inhabited by Max Graef, Glenn Astro, Funkycan, Employee etc - this one for you!A wonderfully weird and wacky one from Iris on Tax Free, "Speah" contains 21 cute little sonic sketches or vignettes. Slightly spellbound, with gamelon, Reichian minimalism and nods to Manhattan Research Project - it's like ⅓ downbeat, ⅓ library, ⅓ DIY electronix - all made to pleasure the ears and put a smile across one's heart.

If you've already a sucker for the wild world's inhabited by Max Graef, Glenn Astro, Funkycan, Employee etc - this one for you!
 

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. Rub Ix (1:25)
2. Steely Dreem (1:09)
3. Dreem Reprise (1:17)
4. T 7 Ret (1:31)
5. Down By The Rivrrrs (1:08)
6. Werld (1:20)
7. Deth (1:40)
8. Miragem (1:29)
9. Deadlocked (4:32)
10. Flesh (1:07)
11. I Speah (2:42)
Side 2
1. Leer Die Kasse (1:14)
2. Dezert (1:21)
3. Maga (2:33)
4. Bels (1:34)
5. Thee Sun (0:45)
6. JPT Acid (4:08)
7. Graveyard (1:54)
8. Resurec (2:58)
9. Wav (0:13)
10. Dezert (Other) (1:47)

‘Free World’ is the first full-length issue from an ongoing collaboration between Behavior (Bedros Yeretzian, Evan Burrows, Justin Tenney, Robbie Cody) and Mayako XO (Sara Gernsbacher). It was tracked between 2019 and 2020 and assembled over the course of the last year in Los Angeles.

The album reflects its creation under open-ended yet intent circumstances. What’s recorded is a tangled pas de deux between discredited and demonstrative characters, singing through shifting voices over a living, melancholic music rendered legible by surveillance.

Mastered by Sarah Register.

For fans of Sonic Youth, Velvet Underground, Dead C, Blonde Redhead.

TRACK LISTING

I Love Music
Keeling Curve
So I Know
Waiting Song
Loud As Hell
1997
Trouble
Open Claim
For A Mood
Turnkey Smile
One Time Goodbye

Is there a better pairing of kindred spirits than a split seven-inch single featuring Le Butcherettes and Death Valley Girls? We're hard pressed to think of one. Sure, the interaction is fleeting, but damn is it satisfying.

We've got Le Butcherettes on side A taking on one of Death Valley Girls' most cosmic numbers, the kaleidoscopic centerpiece off Under the Spell of Joy album, "The Universe." Le Butcherettes' fearless and charismatic mastermind Teri Gender Bender takes the tune into even trippier territories, replicating the original song's sonic tapestry of synth, sax, and guitars with layer upon layer of vocals. Only the sparse accompaniment of acoustic guitar and modest percussion keeps the song from being fully a capella. It's a perfect interpretation of Death Valley Girls' communal and choral aims.

On side B, Death Valley Girls offer up a new tune - the deliciously ecstatic "When I'm Free." Like every great Death Valley Girls song, it's a celebration of life bolstered by fiery rock n' roll riffage, spiritual organ, dizzying sax, and Bonnie Bloomgarden's defiant and triumphant vocals. Suicide Squeeze Records is proud to offer up this meeting of mystical minds on vinyl and digital platforms on February 11, 2022.

Max Graef's oddball eccentricity continues to yield stranger and quirkier offerings as Tax Free sign up the indecipherable, post-minimal-wave brilliance / madness of Running Out Of Time.

A mix of Detlef Weinrich & Madteo modern new wave EBM, Total Stasis' opiated haze and Tax Free's own recklessly playful experimentalism. It'll appeal to lovers of minimal wave and DIY electronics - Throbbing Gristle, Suzanne Ciani, Delia Derbyshire, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith etc. - but also modernist labels like Youth and Beat Bude.

Sequenced and arranged to be left in the shadows, the space and the silence resonate almost as much as the music itself. It's like you're lost in the vast catacombs of the BBC Radiophonic Sound Labs..... or perhaps stuck in Vendel's studio under Oklahoma circa 2006... Freakish, circuit bent found sounds rub up against playful mechanized rhythms and a tense, cinematic quality. It's bloody brilliant!

Limited copies, comes with a WINAMP-inspired sleeve (if you know you know!). Highly recommended! 

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. Business Trip (5:15)
2. Ice (1:59)
3. Dog Treat (2:10)
4. Jongles Ambiance (2:20)
5. Trader Jazz 1 (1:01)
6. Jongle & Woodencastle (3:58)
7. Lava (3:06)
8. Wasteland Waterlands (4:24)
9. Water Gost (1:30)
Side 2
1. Abandoned Watertanks (1:52)
2. There Is No Way Out (1:18)
3. Reprogrammed Prototypes (3:12)
4. Last Breath (0:58)
5. Lifeforms (1:39)
6. Helper Unit (1:57)
7. The Big City (4:29)
8. Rocker (2:24)
9. Trader Jazz 2 (1:58)
10. Sono (1:49)
11. Friendly Primates (2:03)

Tough Love have partnered with West Coast imprint Mt St Mtn for the release of Free Advice, the instant slowcore/dreampop classic by San Fran four piece, Cindy. The full album is available to stream/download now, while a highly limited transparent vinyl pressing will be released on 20th November. Limited to just 250 copies, this pressing follows the long sold-out edition of 100 released earlier in the year and which was previously only available in the US.

Free Advice offers a somber-yet-uplifting take on sobered dream pop. Imagine if Galaxie 500’s On Fire didn’t have a guitar solo or if The Trinity Session was stripped of its folk & blues roots; it’s just pure mood. Like sitting in a half-empty movie theater that’s playing Alphaville or Wild Strawberries and watching patron’s heads briefly illuminated from the screen; Free Advice (and all of the Cindy output) transfers you to these momentary worlds.

Cindy is Karina Gill on guitar/vocals, Aaron Diko on synth/keys, Simon Phillips on Drums/Percussion, and Jesse Jackson on Bass/Keys + Simon and Jesse on backing vocals. The songs on Free Advice are these moments in mood: Phillips & Jackson’s rhythms create the foundation, while Diko’s keys rise and fall. Gill’s guitar rattles, vocals brood, and lyrics create these narratives that depict observers, not necessarily wronged rather, cautious and investigative of the world around them. 

TRACK LISTING

1 Discount Lawyer
2. Falcon Heavy
3. Seeing Double
4. Wrong Answer
5. Song 23
6. Fixed Idea
7. A Song In French
8. CSI: Creeptown
9. April Magazine
10. Free Advice
11. Lost On Me

AVAILABLE ONLINE ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 27TH FROM 8AM.

LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Out Of Print On Vinyl For A Decade And A Half Mobb Deep’s “Free Agents” Hits For RSD Black Friday In A Never Seen, Never To Be Repeated Colored Vinyl Pressing. 5000 pressed worldwide.

First released in 2003 on CD and LP. Out of print on vinyl since the mid-2000s. Mobb Deep redefined East Coast hip hop in the early 90s with their release “Juvenile Hell” and the break-out follow up “The Infamous.” As the group moved into the 2000s and parted ways with their long-time label, Loud, they released “Free Agents” as a celebration of their moving on to … well, free agent status. With Havoc handling production on all but 3 cuts and only two guest appearances (one being from long-time Queensbridge associate Big Noyd) “Free Agents” is uncut, undiluted Mobb Deep all the way through. The reaction from fans was solid catapulting the record to peak at number 21 on the Top 200 with a top 5 position on the R&B/Hip Hop charts. Out of print for well over a decade, this chapter in Mobb Deep’s legacy is back in effect for RSD Black Friday. 

TRACK LISTING

This Is Not Supposed To Be Positive (intro)
Solidified
Survival Of The Fittest 2003
Paid In Full
Double Shots (feat. Big Noyd)
What Can I Do?
Favorite Rapper
Let's Pop (feat. Acd)
It's Over
The Illest
Just Got Out The Box... (skit)
Narcotic
Clap First
Watch That Nigga
Came Up
Don't Call Tasha

Very useful ringers for multiple purposes by J-R! As always accepting all payment methods.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Der Koenig
A2. Bockafen Veirhozen
A3. Jan Min-Soek
A4. Veirgehozt
B1. Stauferpark
B2. Gornalo Dortolan
B3. Enkeltrick

R.E.M.’s first and breakthrough single “Radio Free Europe” was initially released by a small Atlanta-based record label, Hib-Tone Records. Produced by Mitch Easter, the original recording of the single had different mixes by Easter and by label-owner Johnny Hibbert. Although the band preferred Easter’s mix, Hibbert chose his version for the 1981 limited pressing 45RPM single, which is now a coveted collector’s item, packaged in a black and white sleeve featuring original photography by Michael Stipe.

“Radio Free Europe” was later re-recorded for the band’s first album release on major record label I.R.S. Records and went on to land the band their chart debut, peaking at number 78 in the Billboard Pop Chart. That album, Murmur, went on to reach number 36 in the album charts, and set the band steadfastly on the path to college radio domination and critical acclaim. The band’s 1988 compilation album, Eponymous, included what was called the Original Hib-Tone single, but what was in fact Easter’s original mix, not Hibbert’s.

This limited edition 7” pressing represents the first-ever re-release of the original Hib-Tone recording of “Radio Free Europe,” and comes housed in a replica sleeve.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Radio Free Europe

Side B
Sitting Still

El Perro del Mar releases her new EP FREE LAND on 20 November 2020 on limited edition hand numbered 12” vinyl via Memphis Industries. “FREE LAND” is about deconstruction and construction. It’s about resisting giving in. It’s about freedom of creativity and freedom of thought. It’s also an appraisal of the free artist as a well as a reclaiming of creative integrity in an over-commercialized world. The EP includes a collaboration with Devonté Hynes of Blood Orange who lends his vocals to a cover of Black Sabbath’s song “Changes” (“Alone in halls”).

TRACK LISTING

1. Enter
2. Life Is Full Of Rewards
3. White On White
4. Free Land
5. Alone In Halls (feat. Blood Orange)
6. Dreamers Change The World
7. EXIT

'Leaders of the Free World', Elbow's third album, sees the band try to beat down their major league contemporaries with a more ambitious set of songs. The results are impressive and may form the band's best work yet. Beginning with the beautiful, slow-building "Station Approach", and ending with the short but touching "Puncture Repair", 'Leaders of the Free World' takes in an a host of minor classics along the way including the captivating title track. The album is the result of a collaborative projecy between the band and film-makers, the Soup Collective.

TRACK LISTING

1. Station Approach
2. Picky Bugger
3. Forget Myself
4. The Stops
5. Leaders Of The Free World
6. An Imagined Affair
7. Mexican Standoff
8. The Everthere
9. My Very Best
10. Great Expectations
11. Puncture Repair

The ideal of the residency was to mix things up with special guests, different band lineups, and varied set lists, keeping things fresh and new week-to-week, and this show was the wild card of the bunch.

That's because although Ryan and I have played together for years, and Dave and Spencer have played together for years, neither half of the band had ever met each other. I was tangentially aware of Dave and his music and was intrigued by what I'd heard, so I thought it was a cool idea when Chris Tart, the residency promoter, suggested a collaboration.

So, about 30 minutes after we'd all heard each others voices for the first time, we got up and played for a little over an hour, uninterrupted. The only thing discussed beforehand was that we shouldn't discuss anything beforehand - not a key or a riff to start with, nothing - so as to preserve maximum spontaneity.

I think this music demonstrates a real connection on stage. In other words, each player was completely present and actively listening on the bandstand. Listening back, there are moments I can hear Ryan saying - musically - "Hey, let's go over here! Check this out!," or Spencer being like "Wouldn't it be cool to go down this path?" And we followed. And it was cool.

In my mind, that listening thing is the number one most important factor in any collaboration or cooperative effort, but especially in improvised music.

And I think it's fair to say that a little more listening, a little more presence, would do the whole world some good right about now, don't you think?

-Chris Forsyth

What started out in LA with Jon Hill and was finished back in North Carolina at Sylvan Esso’s home studio, "Free Love" asks major questions about self-image, self-righteousness, friendship, romance, and environmental calamity with enough warmth, playfulness, and magnetism to make you consider an alternate reality. These are Sylvan Esso’s most nuanced and undeniable songs—bold enough to say how they feel, big enough to make you join in that feeling.

TRACK LISTING

1. What If
2. Ring
3. Ferris Wheel
4. Train
5. Numb
6. Free
7. Frequency
8. Runaway
9. Rooftop Dancing
10. Make It Easy

Hen Ogledd - the quartet consisting of Dawn Bothwell, Rhodri Davies, Richard Dawson and Sally Pilkington - take a deliberately organic and natural approach on their second album ‘Free Humans’, out on Weird World.

Inspired as much by ABBA as the work of 12th Century mystic-composer-naturalist-visionary Hildegard von Bingen, touched equally by the spirits of radical philosophical plumber Mary Midgley and PC Music star Hannah Diamond, as quiet as the paintings of Agnes Martin yet bombastic like a Werner Herzog documentary... it’s an album of seamless, glorious contradictions.

Tackling themes of love, friendship, Gaia theory, sewers, the nature of time, human stench and the thrills of wild swimming, it’s remarkable that, given the intense collision of influences and wide-ranging ideas at play, ‘Free Humans’ somehow coheres into a marvellous whole.

TRACK LISTING

Farewell
Trouble
Earworm
Crimson Star
Kebran Gospel Gossip
Remains
Paul Is 9ft Tall (Marsh Gas)
Space Golf
Time Party
The Loch Ness Monster’s Song
Flickering Lights
Bwganod
Feral
Skinny Dippers

The first new Iggy Pop album since 2016’s Post Pop Depression.

While it follows the highest charting album of Iggy’s career, Free has virtually nothing in common sonically with its predecessor—or with any other Iggy Pop album. On the process that led Iggy and principal players Leron Thomas and Noveller to create this uniquely somber and contemplative entry in the Iggy Pop canon, Iggy says:
"This is an album in which other artists speak for me, but I lend my voice...By the end of the tours following Post Pop Depression, I felt sure that I had rid myself of the problem of chronic insecurity that had dogged my life and career for too long. But I also felt drained. And I felt like I wanted to put on shades, turn my back, and walk away. I wanted to be free. I know that’s an illusion, and that freedom is only something you feel, but I have lived my life thus far in the belief that that feeling is all that is worth pursuing; all that you need – not happiness or love necessarily, but the feeling of being free. So this album just kind of happened to me, and I let it happen."

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Iggy's back! One of the most recognisable figures in the punk community returns with his latest solo effort, shining with contemplative melodies and loungey percussive pieces, clearly showing a move towards a more freeform approach than his previous outings, with smooth jazzy horns and slow-burning developmental shifts. Lovely stuff, and perfectly illustrative of his mastery of a wide variety of disciplines.

TRACK LISTING

1. Free
2. Loves Missing
3. Sonali
4. James Bond
5. Dirty Sanchez
6. Glow In The Dark
7. Page
8. We Are The People
9. Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
10. The Dawn

Mainly recorded and produced at Brooklyn’s Figure 8 Studios, with Ty Ueda later assisting on final tracking at his Mount Misery studio, Lina Tullgren’s Free Cell is masterfully confident. Some rock elements like nonlinear song structures and syncopated rhythms bleed over from the debut album Won era on tracks like “110717,” but the album offers a wider musical palette than its predecessor, with lush arrangements utilizing strings, brass and sculpted synths throughout.

“Golden Babyland” abounds in tension and claustrophobia, finding Tullgren alone and “in the kitchen melting Legos,” while the elegant and introspective ballad “Bad at Parties” scores a moment of quiet social paralysis. The strings (arranged by Simon Hanes) that carry through Free Cell echo back to Tullgren’s education as a classical violinist, and Lina moves deftly between these various soundscapes, resulting in their most dynamic music to date.

Throughout Free Cell , Tullgren looks back on their memories from the position of an analyst, often cool and cynical but always with an undercurrent of humor and deep feeling. In their poetry Lina Tullgren writes anthems for the alienated, for those alone on busses, at parties, at their parents’ house, for those who cannot help but feel lonely even if they are surrounded by others. Free Cell invites us to sit and listen, to reflect, but with no guarantee of any of those things being easy.

TRACK LISTING

1. Free Cell
2. 110717
3. Golden Babyland
4. Bad At Parties
5. Saiddone
6. Soft Glove 1
7. Glowing X 10000
8. Wow, Lucky
9. Soft Again
10. Nervous Yet
11. Soft Glove 2
12. Piano

Formed in recent years in San Francisco, though it may seem more likely that they hatched fresh out of a time travel portal from the mid-80s Bay Area thrash scene, Hell Fire have the classic look and sound of modern metal’s halcyon days. Hell Fire’s sonic assault warmly condenses elements of influences like Angel Witch, Iron Maiden, Rainbow, Exodus, Metallica, Riot, Virtue and Diamond Head into 8 tracks of headbanging MUYA anthems.

The free-wheelin’ creativity and infectious vitality of Bay Area thrash is a moment forever locked in time, but its spirit lives on in Hell Fire’s galloping guitar picks, soaring harmonies and blistering rhythms. The band’s perfect hybrid of NWOBHM theatrics and American thrash attitude delivers a rousing and genuine expansion on sounds long lost to pointless battles over who can be the most “extreme.”

Hell Fire began when bass player Herman Bandala moved to San Francisco from Tijuana, Mexico with the hopes of forming a heavy metal band. Herman posted an ad to Craigslist which caught the attention of guitarist Tony Campos. They bonded over a mutual love of 80s thrash and NWOBHM, which was a hard thing to find in the Bay Area scene at the time. Just before Hell Fire entered the studio to record their debut album Metal Masses, Jake Nunn joined on vocals. The lineup continued to develop over time, finally solidifying with Nunn also taking up second guitar duties and drummer Mike Smith joining prior to recording Free Again.

Hell Fire’s 2017 sophomore album, Free Again is being released for the first time on vinyl and remastered for CD and download in January 2019. it was recorded over 5 days in Grass Valley, California at engineer Tim Green’s Louder Studios (The Fucking Champs, Melvins.) Where Metal Masses showcased aesthetic nods to Metallica’s Kill ‘Em All album (as well as a cover photo brilliantly depicting a blurry hand speedily playing a Flying-V guitar), Free Again finds the band coming into their own with emphasis upon grooves, a beefier sound and tighter songs that expertly shift into new parts at the drop of a hat.

Opener “Free Again” kicks things right off with a galloping riff forming out of a haze of feedback as the tape machine comes up to speed. The anthemic chorus showcases Nunn’s powerful voice as twin guitar harmonies lead into a thundering double-time coda reminiscent of Iron Maiden’s “Aces High.” Elsewhere, a marching snare drum beat and totemic blasts set up dueling guitar leads of “City Ablaze” while dizzying, chugging 16th-note guitars drive the blistering “Live Forever” into oblivion. “Wheels of Fate” and “The Dealer” echo the groove based tunes and harmonies of Rainbow and Gary Moore era Thin Lizzy. Album closer “End of Days” is a chorus effect drenched ballad that builds into a crushing lament over the constant beckoning of depression and the struggle for freedom and clarity. It’s a touching and powerful closing to an album that traverses many moods and packs in more great parts into a single song than most thrash bands do on an entire album. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Free Again
2. City Ablaze
3. Live Forever
4. Wheels Of Fate
5. Beyond Nightmares
6. The Dealer
7. Destroyers
8. End Of Days

When, last year, Deep Distance released the Free / Slope debut full length “Daydream Melodies”, it came out seemingly from nowhere, with little fanfare. A first release from Swedish musician Daniel Fridlund Brandt with no previous, as they say.

However, the magnificent kosmische collision of Neu! and Harmonia grooves, with added guitar flourishes that tip a nod to Manuel Gottsching with an overall vibe straight outta’ “The Perfect Prescription” era Spacemen, meant it soon sold out it’s pressing in less than a week as word-of-mouth interest built.

So, to use the age old expression “long awaited follow up” more than rings true with LP number two, the equally fabulous “Abracadabra” LP.

As with last year’s record, the new one sees a split label release with Athens’ psych maestros “Sound Effect Records” (and is released with reverse board sleeves and on white wax.)

Musically, the new record once again draws heavily upon the kosmische sound of those revered key Sky, Brain, Ohr and co. releases. To these ears, it’s arguably less beaty, more ambient than motorik, more “Sowiesoso” / “Zuckerzeit” era Cluster than Neu! Beautifully organic electronics grow and swell, recalling moods akin to some of Popol Vuh and Ashra’s epic, unsurpassed highs, with more of that Gottsching inspired guitar genius sprinkled throughout….

Another truly lovely record. Beautiful, kraut inspired psychedelia, timeless, momentous and like it’s predecessor, sure to sell out super quick….

Sami Baha is a Turkish producer based in South East London. His music was introduced to the world via his 2016 EP 'Mavericks'. Sami got into producing through being a rapper himself, working with local rappers in Turkey and producing beats for them, before setting his sights outside the country. 'Free For All' features MCs from all corners of the globe: UK drill squad 67's Dimzy, Stockholm's Yung Lean and Chicago rapper and singer DJ Nate (aka Flexxbabii). The record also features Egyptian MCs Dawsha and Abanob. Sami's production is refined and elegant, familiar tropes are reassembled in original ways, the instrumentation reflecting his background and influences simultaneously. Everything Sami brings to the album sounds relaxed and minimal, but tough, built from thoughtful arrangements and instruments, shot through with emotion and a dreamy night-time feel. 

TRACK LISTING

LP A:

1/Cash Rain
2/Discreet (ft. Dimzy)
3/Aliens
4/Gambit
5/Thugs (ft. DJ Nate)
6/Free For All
7/NAH

B:

1/When The Sun's Gone (ft. Yung Lean)
2/Path Riot
3/Glory (ft. Kufura)
4/Ahl El M8na (ft. Dawsha & Abanob)
5/Limbo
6/Cold Pursuit

Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury return to score Ben Wheatley’s 1970s based epic shoot-out ‘Free Fire’, executively produced by Martin Scorsese.

Compiled by director Ben Wheatley himself, the soundtrack will be released on CD and double LP, featuring the full score by Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury, dialogue from the film and licensed tracks (The Real Kids, Creedence Clearwater Revival, John Denver).

‘Free Fire’ sees Barrow and Salisbury take a huge directional curve away from their intense, synth-based Ivor Novello award winning score for ‘Ex Machina’, with the composers curating a prog rock, free jazz, psychedelic journey influenced by bands such as King Crimson, Camel and Magma and tips its hat to the Lalo Schifrin thriller genre scores of that era.

Both the LP and CD will include a digital download card which features the full soundtrack as well as additional unheard bonus material not used in the score.

TRACK LISTING

Where We Going?
Do The Boob (The Real Kids)
I’m I.I.F.M
Sledgehammer Cracks Nut
This Is Ord
Docks Beat
Step Into My Office
Run Through The Jungle (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
Raw Onions
Vern
Come Out
Gorgeous As Ever
Money Count
Nice Teeth
Harlequins Reunion
Steven’s Been Reprimanded
Stevo Apologises
Suck On This
First Shot
Mostly The Suit
Martin Shot
Will Everybody Calm The Fuck Down
Snipers
Good To Go
Free Firing Gunshot Solo
The Phone Rings
Watch And Vern
Crawl Chase
So That’s What A Fucking Brain Looks Like
Lead Lobotomy
Poke Him In The Eye
We Can’t All Be Nice Girls
That’s Why I Appreciate The Arts
Leary
Aiming For The Nose
Oh Fuck
Where Do You Think You’re Going Little Harry
Annie’s Song (John Denver)
A John Denver Story
Justine’s Theme
This Old Guitar (John Denver)

Auckland-based guitarist Oscar Dowling embarks on his debut solo album, leaving his deepest emotions laid bare across the table. The former New Gum Sarn member has created a subdued guitar record in the great indie tradition of his homeland. One that leads into the abyss, tantalising with heartbreak and his unsettling bitterness towards life and death. Influenced heavily from the identity of his country and battling with "my own identity, falling in love, anxiety and mental illness, friends, family and enemies to name a few".

Free And Easy was recorded and mixed with Ben Lawson at The Red Bull Studios in Auckland. The album features local luminaries Steven Huf, Will Wood, Mason Fairey, and Sam Hamilton. Dowling recalls; "Ben heard me play at my neighbours wedding and later asked if I wanted some studio time at Red Bull. He gave me a week in between other projects and last minute I realised I didn't want to record solo and asked friends Steven Huf and Will Wood if they wanted to help me out. I'd seen both of them play with a lot of different people over the years and knew they could pull it off without much warning. I think we only practiced 3 times."

Recording in such swish surrounding felt alien to Oscar, as he states "it was different to the DIY style I'm used to, lots of fancy gear and a soundproofed, air conditioned live room. We had a reasonably strict time schedule so when we were there it was all go and no fucking around."

Whether soaked in Oscar's melancholy voice and warped out guitars, ('Sally Free and Easy'), or accompanied by a delicate piano ('Low Moon') or the jarringly raw ('Ease My Passing') each track paints a vivid picture of Oscar's life. Title track ('The Life') is best at transcending this portrait of the hardship of life with an entrancing melody line and ruthless lyrics, those lyrics severing as a medium for "understanding subjects such as death and love" and finding comfort in writing about his relationship with mental health, the outcome being "very therapeutic."

After spending the past year beekeeping with his brother, Oscar is still able to live out the perfect balance between city life and the countryside. Having grown up in the sticks, he tells us that the reason for moving to the capitol was that "people from all over come here to make music and find others making music, so it has a decent scene. I moved here for that reason and it has influenced me massively in terms of how I think about music and why I continue to make it."

The heavy use of dialogue is what will transcend Free and Easy to it's listeners - reconnecting us with our own identity and making us remember what really is important. "My family, my girlfriend and my friends. They are the people I look to for inspiration everyday."

TRACK LISTING

1. The Life
2. Ease My Passing
3. Sally Free And Easy
4. Human Connection
5. Fair Weather Friend
6. Cream And Peaches
7. Low Moon
8. The Circus
9. Rotten Apple
10. Motorway

U.S. Girls is Illinois-born, Toronto-based artist Meghan Remy. A captivating musical force, Meg has evolved from the raw, corrosive 4-track fidelity found on her early records to the more unabashed art-pop of recent works ‘U.S. Girls’ on KRAAK (2011) and ‘Gem’ (2012); the latter managing to “widen and universalise her music without losing a drop of what previously made it so special and personal” - Pitchfork.

‘Half Free’ is the next step in this impressive transformation, an honest and lyrically jarring exploration of emotions, drenched in a bath of raw beats and loops that have become the hallmark of her work with producer and frequent collaborator Onakabazien.

Other album guests include Slim Twig (DFA), Ben Cook (Fucked Up, Young Guv), Amanda Crist (Ice Cream) and Tony Price.

Featuring recent singles ‘Damn That Valley’ and ‘Woman’s Work’, ‘Half Free’ is Meg’s first album for 4AD. Again emerging as a vital voice among the noise, ‘Half Free’ is an enchanting document of life at the point when it feels most on its knife-edge.

“She’s the fast-rising exponent of luscious lo-fi DIY pop.” - The Guardian

“With each successive release, you’re never quite sure which Girl you’re going to get: the avant-pop deconstructionist, the 1960s traditionalist, the basement R&B diva.” - Pitchfork

The Free Fall Band are five very young timeless pop creators bursting with melody and sublime choruses, hailing from Mataró, a village north Barcelona.

‘Elephants Never Forget’ was the band’s debut album, produced by Miqui Puig and released on LAV Records. The record sums up The Free Fall Band perfectly: echoes of The Beatles, Jonathan Richman, The Shins, The Zombies… fun and emotion in equal measure, carefully assembled arrangements and a youthful image.

2013 put them at the forefront of Spanish pop, thanks to landmark moments such as their performance at the Primavera Sound Festival and supporting Rodriguez in Barcelona. They also released their first step on El Segell del Primavera, an EP with covers of The Strokes, Violent Femmes, New Order, Booker T. & The MGs and Jonathan Richman.

And now their second album arrives. It’s called ‘The Münster Sights’ and shows the band in another level: the songs reflect a band that have been playing and growing as musicians. The album was produced by Darren Hayman (he used to play in Hefner and has a long and amazing solo career) and engineered by Giles Barrett (from London popsters Tigercats), a perfect choice for The Free Fall Band as they’ve long been fans of both musicians. As a result ‘The Münster Sights’ sounds richer and fatter than their previous efforts and contains such great numbers as ‘Fontana’ and ‘I Want To Know’.

TRACK LISTING

I Want To Know
City Of Raleigh
Fontana
Look At Me Run, Dear
Lonesome Cowboy, Solitary Peggy Sue
Oh, What An Awkward Day
By Your Window
Every Man
The Barbershop
A Friend’s Homecoming
The Münster Sights

A short while removed from his acclaimed Brothers Fowl album, released in late 2012, Dam Mantle returns as part of the Free Association collective with a new three-track 12” on NOTOWN Recordings.

A loose collective of musicians from his Glasgow home, this EP showcases, according to Tom Marshallsay AKA Dam Mantle, ‘a small glimpse of what's been getting made in the studio recently. There's quite a few other folks who feature on some of these tracks, so it's a demonstration of the collective attitude behind all this’.

The EP is a glimpse of the moods being explored in his live sets, where his diverse productions converge in a fervent sonic assemblage. The A side gives two heads-down hip shakers which explore a diverse sound palette, while the flip-side adds urgency and steady syncopation with a streak of dark intent and an anticipatory glimmer.

Since the release of his Brothers Fowl album, Dam Mantle has been busy ‘mainly playing records and putting on parties, living life, working’. In addition, he’s spent a bit of time working on collaborative projects, mainly as General Ludd, releasing via the Mister Saturday Night banner, the NYC promoter and label.

TRACK LISTING

A1. The Free Association - Heavy Velvet Affair
A2. Dam Mantle Feat. Baker - Simultaneous Fall
B1. Dam Mantle - The Underlying Issue

The Free Fall Band are five very young timeless pop creators bursting with melody and sublime choruses. They appeared out of nowhere three years ago from the Maresme. They quickly gained recognition: finalists of the Demoscópicas de Mondo Sonoro or at the Villa de Bilbao (where they were the winners of the Pop Rock category in 2011) azzaldia de Donosti, Faraday, popArb… a series of achievements that led them to record their debut album, produced by Miqui Puig and released on LAV Records (co-released with Buenritmo).

The record sums up The Free Fall Band perfectly: echoes of The Beatles, Jonathan Richman, The Shins, The Zombies…fun and emotion in equal measure, carefully assembled arrangements and a youthful image.

2013 has put them at the forefront of national pop, thanks to landmark moments such as their performance at the Primavera Sound Festival and supporting Rodriguez in Barcelona. Before the year is out they will play at BAM and will also take part in the Primavera Sound Touring Party that will take them all around Spain.

This next step is a mini album of covers (their first record on El Segell Del Primavera) that includes covers of The Strokes, Violent Femmes, New Order, Booker T & The MGs and Jonathan Richman.

Their second album is planned for the beginning of 2014.

TRACK LISTING

‘Love Vigilantes’ (New Order)
‘The Modern Age’ (The Strokes)
‘When We Refuse To Suffer’ (Jonathan Richman)
‘Green Onions’ (Booker T & The M.G.s)
Violent Femmes Medley

On the heels of last years critically acclaimed debut LP “Under the Pale Moon,” and “Earth Has Doors” EP comes the sophomore full length from Wymond Miles, guitarist of San Francisco garage-pop titans The Fresh & Onlys. “Cut Yourself Free” assembles another convergence of moon-lit romantic swagger and post-punk massacred urgency. Again self recorded and produced to tape, Miles’ song-craft has emerged more refined and poignant, benefitting from the avalanche of his frenzied live shows, but also adhering to a more minimalistic fashion with crooning mid-era Nick Cave or Bowie/Roxy Music strains of pop-modernism. But what stands at the forefront is Miles’ command of his textural guitar and vintage-synth sprawl that on his choosing can open dream-like vistas, or pierce with an engine’s snarl. Turning to the narrative, Miles weaves each song with its own vignette of story line, often with a vaguely obscured protagonist/antagonist dialog. Relationships in Miles’ sketches are always tangled, if not licentious affairs, but are presented more as lustrous gateways to mend and revitalize rather than squalor in.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Ascension (5:33)
2. Passion Plays (3:27)
3. Night Drives (4:06)
4. White Nights (2:12)
5. Bronze Patina (1:32)
6. Vacant Eyes (5:30)
7. Anniversary Song (4:43)
8. Why Are You Afraid? (3:17)
9. Love Will Rise (2:59)

Edward “Apple” Nelson is best known for the small clutch of 45s he released under the Apple And The Three Oranges name on local Los Angeles labels in the 1970s. He first found credit as “Apple” on a Marie Franklin single released the Stage Music imprint which led to the issue ‘Free And Easy’, the first record released as Apple And The Three Oranges. This rapid development from road hog to recording artist inspired him to found Sagittarius Records, named after his zodiac sign. His run with Sagittarius contains six unimpeachable soul and funk numbers released under the Apple And The Three Oranges banner and one issued under his own name, Ed Nelson. This material is ripe for a historical reappraisal. The low fidelity of every Apple And The Three Oranges single was never a problem for the low-riding Eastside Angelenos, who lionized tracks such as ‘True Love Will Never Die’, but their muddy quality cast Nelson outside of the canon in which troubled soul singers like Bobby Womack have held court for decades. Nelson’s master tapes - lost in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina - will never surface to right this wrong. And the records themselves are rare: the ‘Love Brings Out The Best Of You’, ‘Curse Upon The World’ and ‘I’ll Give You A Ring (When I Come, If I Come)’ singles are amongst the most sought after and expensive Los Angeles soul and funk records to ever list at auction. Nearly 40 years after he gave up on his recording career, we’re left with little more than Nelson’s explosive music and his straight-shooting stories of his life’s arc in this anthology of his complete works. Whether it’s his first hand experience with the great New Orleans drummers who laid the foundations of funk, or his relating the oft-told, and always sad, tale of lust supplanting love, Nelson offers confounding words to complement his all too beautiful soul and funk music.

TRACK LISTING

1. What Goes Around Comes Around
2. Free And Easy Pt. 1
3. Free And Easy Pt. 2
4. Down Home Publicity
5. True Love Will Never Die
6. My Baby
7. Curse Upon The World
8. Moon Light
9. Gotta Stand For Something Pt. 1
10. Gotta Stand For Something Pt .2
11. Love Brings Out The Best Of You
12. My Love Needs Your Love (And Everybody Needs Love)
13. I'll Give You A Ring (When I Come, If I Come)

‘You Are Free’ is the sixth album by American singer / songwriter Chan Marshall, a.k.a. Cat Power.

The album was released in 2003 on Matador Records. Dave Grohl of Nirvana and The Foo Fighters plays the drums, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam provides backing vocals on two tracks, and Warren Ellis played violin on two songs.

Incendiary debut album from Liverpudlian music legend Edgar Jones' new band Free Peace.

Earlier this year NME dedicated a whole page to Edgar 'Jones' Jones and his classic album from 2005, 'Soothing Music for Stray Cats (Viper).

Free Peace's line-up is completed with Nick Miniski on drums + Stuart Gimblett on Guitar. Their sound is loud and heavy with a touch of soul.
Since touring with Oasis, they have been working on their album making sure it is just right. Edgar in his time has worked with the best - Paul Weller, Johnny Marr and Lee Mavers amongst others.

Shake it loose!

Two years after the beloved "Ice Scream Spiritual" album, Ponytail return with "Do Whatever You Want All The Time".

Like "Ice Cream Spiritual", the energy of Ponytail is still alive and full throttle, but on ‘Do Whatever You Want All The Time’ there is a more sophisticated and experimental approach to the song.

This is complex intellectual pop - their most phenomenal album thus far.

First up on Rong's shiny, new DFA collaborating imprint RongDFA is Free Blood's "Never Hear Surf Music Again" 12". This two-piece Brooklyn band has more street cred than you can shake a stick at, and for good reason. Consisting of Madeline Davy (Octopi NYC) on the microphone and John Pugh (formally of !!!) also on microphone, Free Blood has got some serious, serious heat on the mic and mixing board. Hey, really, who needs other band members when you're rockin' a style this damn hard? "Never Hear Surf Music Again" is an unpredictable druggy number, a mangled hybrid of disco-not-disco rhythms fused angrily with a Butthole Surfers song and a hint of Beatles melodies later on. It's followed by the steaming mayhem of "Quick and Painful", a raucous affair that delivers a swift kick to the head in an indie-meets-R&B fashion. On the flip, the Barfly boys stretch things out a bit with a nine-minute Arthur Russell-style disco (not disco) remix of the title track. After tearing the roof off and burning down the place with their mind-crunching sound, this band is ready to clear out any venue at a moment's notice.

Out originally on Bullwackies' Aires offshoot, in a plain, stencilled sleeve, this is a thrilling early-mid-70s dub album based around three cuts of the dreader than dread "Free For All" rhythm. The title track was recorded at Randy's, and was originally put out on The Heptones' Hepic label, featuring Family Man Barrrett on keyboards, complete with deejay cut "Meditation Dub" which sounds like Charlie Ace. There are dubs of Little Roy's "Tribal War" and "Black Bird". Stranger Cole's "My Application", later re-voiced by The Heptones, turns up as "Dis Ya Dub"; and if things weren't smoke-filled enough, "Roots" is the rhythm of KC White's "All For Free". Melvin 'Munchie' Jackson and Lloyd Barnes production work for the album began in Jamaica and finished at the Sounds Unlimited studio in New York.

Epic, intelligent, melodic, groove-based and atmospheric - this is the sound of Working For A Nuclear Free City. Descendents of "Fools Gold" era Roses, Spiritualized and The Beta Band, Working For A Nuclear Free City represent the best of Manchester's new experimental underground.

This album of classic 60s tinged pop, co-produced by Matthew Sweet, is now available in this expanded edition. Remastered and with new liner notes and photos, it also includes a bonus disc of demos.

This is the new band project from David Holmes and Steve Hilton, with Sean Reveron and Petra Jean Phillipson providing vocals. Imagine a fantastic mash up of psyche and avant rock, blues, funk, hip hop and general sleazy grooves.

Almost a companion piece to last year's wonderful "Carthy Collecton" from the Free Reed label. This 3xCD set collects rare and classic tracks from this independent folk label's most respected artists and recordings. Some of the greatest names in British folk music have recorded for Free Reed over the years and this is a welcome reminder of the potency of traditional music in all its guises.

One of the greatest rock bands of all time with their classic debut. Now remastered with eight rare bonus tracks, full of youthful vitality and a sense of invulnerability, listen to Kossof on "Goin' Down Slow" to get a real idea of what blues-rock guitar is all about.

Epic organ led prog, strong vocals and more riffs and time changes then you can shake a stick at.