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For Fans Of... Bewilderment - the feeling of being perplexed and confused - is the inspiration Mayer Hawthorne, Bobby Oroza, Burrito Eats, Holy Hive, The Dip. Bewilderment - the feeling of being perplexed and confused - is the inspiration behind Pale Jay's new album.

It's a soulful exploration of a family's gradual disintegration due to years of avoidance and miscommunication. During this difficult time, Pale Jay began to question the stories he had always lived with and re-examined his identity. The resulting work, Bewilderment, is his first full-length album, which strives to find answers to these questions and more. The album is set to release on 8/18/2023 on Karma Chief Records, a subsidiary of Colemine.

Pale Jay is a trained jazz vocalist and pianist, and he wrote, recorded, and produced all songs on the album, except for 'By The Lake', which is a collaboration with labelmates Okonski - Steve Okonski, Aaron Frazer, and Michael Montgomery. Pale Jay's music is influenced by a wide range of songwriters, including Labi Siffre, Carole King, and William Onyeabor.

'Bewilderment' is a seamless blend of Pale Jay's trademark dusty soul, slow disco, and Afrobeat, with string arrangements by Raven Bush adding an extra layer of magic to the beat- heavy productions. Pale Jay's debut LP is a captivating journey of self-discovery. Each song on Bewilderment tells a unique story, but they all share a common theme of personal growth and self-understanding. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A blistering set of dusty neo-soul, airy groove-heavy lounge and jazzy percussion. The real kicker here is Jay's hugely evocative vocals, swimming with feeling and perfectly sitting atop the perfectly manicured instrumental backdrop.

TRACK LISTING

1. Preface
2. In Your Corner
3. Dreaming In Slow Motion
4. By The Lake
5. Bewilderment
6. My Dirty Desire
7. Vladimir
8. Don't Forget That I Love You

Bettye LaVette

LaVette

    Together with Jay-Vee Records, Bettye has the freedom to explore new territory. Produced by Steve Jordan, LaVette! features 11 songs written by Georgia- born musician Randall Bramblett, who has been releasing solo albums since 1975. "Randall is the best writer that I have heard in the last 30 years," says Bettye. "He writes songs that are little soliloquies, they're like little stories about a moment, or a thing."

    Featuring Anthony Hamilton, John Mayer, Jon Batiste, Steve Winwood, Pedrito Martinez and Ray Parker Jr.

    The vinyl features an extra track, "What You Didn't Say".

    TRACK LISTING

    See Through Me (feat. Pedrito Martinez)
    Don't Get Me Started
    Lazy (And I Know It)
    Sooner Or Later (feat. Anthony Hamilton, Ray Parker Jr. & Rev. Charles Hodges)
    Plan B
    Concrete Mind
    In The Meantime (feat. John Mayer)
    Mess About It (feat. Ray Parker Jr. & Jon Batiste)
    Hard To Be A Human
    What You Didn't Say
    I'm Not Gonna Waste My Love* 
    It's Alright

    *Viny Only Track

    Jay Z

    At Studio One

      A huge download online, Jay Z's "At Studio One" now gets a very limited vinyl pressing. We get "Black Album" accapellas mashed up with classic Studio One reggae riddims striaght out of 70s Kingston. The killer backing tracks  have been cleverly synched up to Jay Z's vocals, and the whole LP works 100%. If you're a fan of reggae-hip hop blends then you should already have your eye on this!


      TRACK LISTING

      December 4th
      Encore
      Change Clothes
      Dirt Off Your Shoulder
      Threat
      Moment Of Clarity
      99 Problems
      Interlude
      Justify My Thug
      Lucifer
      Allure

      John Matthias And Jay Auborn

      Ghost Notes

        On Ghost Notes, John Matthias and Jay Auborn’s latest album, the British duo take their experiments with sound to new levels, catapulting their work into unexplored territories of human-robotic collaboration. Matthias and Auborn first partnered for the 2017 release Race to Zero. The album, and the soundtrack to the feature film, IN THE CLOUD (starring Gabriel Byrne) and the soundtrack to BROADMEAD (Stanley Donwood & Mat Consume) which they have collaborated on since, makes evident the musicians’ mutual desire to push hard at the boundaries between physical and digital sound worlds – an exploration they had been pursuing individually for years. Combining his expertise and interests in science and sound, the composer, violinist and physicist, John Matthias is known for blending tradition and futurism in his music. His work has taken the form of pioneering research on Neuronal Music Technology as well as 4 acclaimed studio albums and numerous collaborations with renowned artists including Radiohead, Matthew Herbert and Coldcut. Jay Auborn’s assiduous work in musical engineering, which takes sound as yet another malleable material to be played with, has made him into a sought-after musician, record producer and sound artist working on everything from large-scale sound installations to film music. Between their shared passions and complementary skills, the musicians found a unique and undeniably bold synergy. Ghost Notes continues to be driven by this force; for the album, John Matthias and Jay Auborn gave their computer limbs and unleashed its agency, improvising alongside this new band member to create mini electronic symphonies.

        The ghost in Ghost Notes refers to a robot drummer, although its appearance is less corporeal than it might sound. In fact, it employs quite crude technology not too different from your set of automatic car keys. John Matthias and Jay Auborn used solenoid magnets to convert audio signals sent from their computer into voltages that could fire hammers that would in turn hit a real drum kit. “It looks like a science experiment, all covered in wires”. Despite the rudimentary looks, ghost-drummer does an impressive job; allowing for digital collaboration with real instruments. In other words, instead of working with samples played off speakers, these can now be reproduced live, in a physical space.

        As if straight out of a scene in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, the first time John Matthias and Jay Auborn brought their creation to life was a haunting experience. They fed it complex rhythmic information from a 1950s jazz recording of drum solos and lo and behold the drum kit came alive in the room with shocking resemblance to the original performance. That chilling encounter which, in the musician's eyes took technological appropriation to new, terrifying levels, pivoted the musician’s ideas: “We realised that we could use the method to extract the low level often overlooked rhythmic patterns within our own recorded or live material. [...] We now focused on creating Ghostly echoes of our own performances rather than invoking the dead to be in our band”.

        This process became the bare bones behind the composition of Ghost Notes, rather than playing acoustic instruments and later digitally manipu- lating these recordings, these two stages were brought together in one moment and place in time, “The digital elements of our music were in the room with us during the improvisational stage, and in binding them together, we could create a live album of sorts”.

        Just like a live session is filled with and shaped by factors such as the energy emanating from the audience on any given night, or the acoustics of a particular venue, Ghost Notes also embraces and plays on the undetermined. As the computer struggled under the demands of interpreting John Matthias and Jay Auborn’s improvisations live, it would sometimes act unexpectedly, hitting the drums as if possessed by its own agency. “Errors in the digital processing became fruitful diversions, like John Cage’s Ghost in the machine”. The result of this cyborgian jam session? A high-energy album featuring a wide range of sounds and tempos. In this regard, Ghost Notes stands in stark contrast to the more minimal, ambient output of other artists experimenting with similar frameworks of digital- acoustic interplay. Perhaps it’s because of this immersive quality, where textures, layers and emotional dramaturgy all combine to create unheard of worlds and make it impossible for partial listening, that Ghost Notes’ first track is named Dive Into This. Matthias' soaring violin lures listeners into shifting landscapes of syncopated drum beats and cycling synths. Classical structures are deconstructed into electronica and back, all the while Auborn is distorting acoustic sounds beyond recognition. “It’s about screwing with the materi- ality of it,” he says.

        Although Ghost Notes is rich, layered and textured, it’s not one inch impenetrable. What could otherwise feel dense gets pierced by enthralling melodies such as virtuosic violin segments that pull on 19th-century romanticism, or soulful piano grooves à la Alice Coltrane or Marvin Gaye. At other times, the music tells imaginative stories, “In Christmas at the Twisted Wheel, we created a mini violin concerto which begins in an imagined Christmas advert for John Lewis through a dissonant landscape to The Twisted Wheel Northern Soul Club in Manchester”.

        Ghost Notes is a testament to the enormous artistic freedom John Matthias and Jay Auborn have achieved together. Within the conceptual framework they set for themselves, they trusted sound to be their one and only guide, a model which led the duo on a vast exploration between extremes and nuances, like the collision and subtleties laid out on Vodka and Coke. In the track, emotional violin comes together with raw, brutal textures – “caveman beats” as the duo calls them. White-washed static noises are heard as the track progresses, the result of the computer’s own interpretations of what it was being fed, creating a surprising unison between the two contrasting worlds. “The sounds were a kind of digital shadow of ourselves. An in-betweenness of acoustic and digital”. It’s in that in- betweenness which doesn't sit comfortably in either classical nor electronica that Ghost Notes succeeds. It’s within that grey space between humans programming robots, and robots breaking down and erring like humans that the album achieves its finest, most original aesthetic expression, opening a new path for human-robotic collaboration in music-making.

        ADDITIONAL NOTES ON THIS EDITION:
        The album cover was created by artist, Stanley Donwood, using a copper verdigris technique in which the original drawing is printed on a copper sheet and undergoes a chemical decay process.

        The original pencil drawing by Stanley Donwood is what is used for the print in our Dinked Edition. 6” x 6” with augmented reality experience information on the back.

        On the inside cover of the vinyl, the artist Mike Phillips has developed 100 new images using a Generative Algorithmic Network (GAN) - an algorithmic AI technique for which Mike Phillips used the AI to compare the front cover copper verdigris image with the pencil drawing and produce the new set of twisted forms. You can see these 100 new forms concatenated together in an Augmented Reality animation developed by Chris Price of Zubr with sound designed by John Matthias and Jay Auborn by pointing to a QR code on the reverse of the Donwood print in the Dinked vinyl edition. 

        TRACK LISTING

        Side A
        Dive Into This
        Long Time Dead
        Auto Psalm Engine
        Lovelaced
        Side B
        No Parable
        A Silver Solenoid
        Christmas At The Twisted Wheel
        Vodka & Coke

        Men From The Nile (Roy Davis Jr. & Jay Juniel)

        Watch Them Come - Inc. Green Velvet / Soul Clap / Matt N Ricky Remixes

        The newly revived Undaground Therapy Muzik label comes with one of the most sought after releases of the label... the 1999 classic Men From The Nile ft Peven Everett “Watch Them Come”. A highlight in DJ sets from people such as Theo Parrish, Kerri Chandler and many others. Standing the test of time and a testament to its dancefloor-ready grooves, “Watch Them Come” opens up the EP and still sounds as fresh as ever. Men From The Nile is a collaboration between Roy Davis Jr. and Jay Juniel, and for “Watch Them Come” they enlisted the legendary vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Peven Everett to complete the tribal cut. For the reissue, Men From The Nile are joined by some of the biggest names in dance music. Green Velvet aka Cajmere has been a mainstay in the Chicago circuit since the 90s, making a name for himself as a multifaceted artist as well as label head at Cajual Records and Relief Records. Key players in the club scene for over two decades, Boston duo Soul Clap add one of their tight, minimalist reduxes, while Matt N Ricky turn the swing up to +11 for a seriously wriggly Chi-town flavoured tweak. Recommended tribal pressure for every serious house head!

        STAFF COMMENTS

        Matt says: Tribal house zenith from '99 which Theo Parrish and many others got many dancing miles out of. Nothing epitomizes that red-lit, bassment buggin' house sound more than this. A true classic of the genre.

        TRACK LISTING

        Watch Them Come - Original Mix
        Watch Them Come - Green Velvet Rmx
        Watch Them Come - Soul Clap Rmx
        Watch Them Come - Matt N Ricky Rmx

        Dennis Brown, Azul & Jay Glass Dubs

        Milk And Honey / Bitter Sweet

          Dennis Brown's roots classic "Milk and Honey" freshly remastered, complete with Clive Hunt's original "Bitter Sweet" dub (under his Azul moniker) on the A Side On the B side, Jay Glass Dubs unfolds a skewed and deconstructed contemporary dub. Strictly limited- edition white label vinyl. Once it's gone its gone.

          STAFF COMMENTS

          Matt says: More fat modern dubs for your subs! An all star cast graces this one on Wise, and the hype is high!

          TRACK LISTING

          1. Dennis Brown - Milk And Honey
          2. Azul - Bitter Sweet
          3. Jay Glass Dubs - Milk And Honey Dub

          Bachelor (Jay Som + Palehound)

          Doomin' Sun

            Bachelor, the new project from Melina Duterte (Jay Som) and Ellen Kempner (Palehound), is not a band, it’s a friend-ship. After being mutual fans for years, they finally met when sharing the bill at a show in Sacramento in 2017. Keeping in touch over text and Instagram posts, Duterte and Kempner started recording together for fun in 2018, resulting with what would become "Sand Angel", the seductive slow-burner that convinced the pair to write an album together.

            Reconvening in January 2020, the duo packed the entirety of Duterte’s recording equipment into two cars and headed to a rental house in Topanga, CA. In this space Kempner and Duterte hybridized their individual song-writing talents, producing a collection that slips between moods with ease and showcases their lyrical prowess. Arriving with almost no songs written and no solid plan, they finished the 10 songs that make up Doomin’ Sun after two short weeks. That much work in so little time may sound exhausting, but it wasn’t, it was blissful and freeing.

            There was a lot of pain that went into the record, especially around themes of queerness and climate change inspired by the red skies and wildfires subsuming Australia at the time. However, when the duo did shed tears during the creative process, they weren’t tears of sadness, they were tears of laughter. When Kempner and Duterte look back on those weeks, what they remember first is shortness of breath and the inability to track vocal takes without falling to the floor howling. They couldn’t remember a time they’d ever been so delirious with creativity, so overwhelmed with joy.


            STAFF COMMENTS

            Barry says: With more than a little nod to seminal grunge bands of the 90's (and beyond), Bachelor sees Jay Som and Palehound team up for a riotous mix of pop-punk, grunge and grooving noisy rock. Tracks like 'Sand Angel' and 'Anything At All' tread a more minimal, psychy groove while 'Stay In The Car' is undoubtably the most riotous, melodic slice of pop on here. Really great stuff.

            TRACK LISTING

            Side A
            1. Back Of My Hand
            2. Sand Angel
            3. Stay In The Car
            4. Went Out Without You
            5. Spin Out

            Side B
            6. Anything At All
            7. Moon
            8. Sick Of Spiraling
            9. Aurora
            10. Doomin’ Sun

            Guido Spannocchi

            Periherlion (feat. Jay Phelps, Sylvie Leys, Robert Mitchell, Michelangelo Scandroglio & Tristan Banks)

            "Perihelion" is Guido Spannocchi's fifth studio album. The singles "Cafezinho", "A walk in Yoyogi Park" and "Nighttime in Soho" are enjoying regular airplay on JazzFm thanks to Chirs Philips: "The singles are great, i can't wait for the full album" the tunes are equally prominent on Worldwide Fm thank to the various shows by Tina Edwards, Charles Vaughan, Jay Phelps and Alabaster dePlume.

            Spannocchi has gathered an all-star group for his release featuring the talents of Jay Phelps on trumpet who is known for his work with Amy Winehouse, Reuben James, Soweto Kinch, Moses Boyd and many more, tenor saxophonist Sylvie Leys a Berklee alumni and George Garzone protegée is a fixture on the Parisian scene, Robert Mitchell who features on wurlitzer and piano is probably one of the UKs most important keyboard players and renowned for his work with Jean Toussaint, Steve Coleman, Omar Puente and most recently with his own project True Think, bassplayer Michelangelo Scandroglio is Italy's next generation Umbria Jazz price winner and current sideman of Enrico Rava, Logan Richardson, Seamous Blake as well as many of the new italian generation such as Emanuele Filippi. Tristan Banks is UKs No1 session drummer and has toured the world with the likes of Roy Ayers, Steve Winwood, Beverly Knight and Marcos Valle just to name a few.

            Recorded at London's tastemaking hub the Total Refreshment Centre by "The Comet is Coming" engineer Kristian Craig Robinson, Jordan Parry and Raphael Spannocchi the release was mixed at Fondle Studios Munich and Audiomanufaktur Vienna and mastered at BlackBay Studios Scotland.

            "Perihelion" is Spannocchi's most ambitious work weaving lush melodic lines with subtle interplay and generous arrangements all being first takes and no edits this album is as truthful to Jazz tradition as it is modern in sound and composition.

            TRACK LISTING

            1. Uphill Blues (feat. Jay Phelps, Sylvie Leys, Robert Mitchell, Michelangelo Scandroglio & Tristan Banks)
            2. Key Drop (feat. Jay Phelps, Sylvie Leys, Robert Mitchell, Michelangelo Scandroglio & Tristan Banks)
            3. Cafezinho (feat. Jay Phelps, Sylvie Leys, Robert Mitchell, Michelangelo Scandroglio & Tristan Banks)
            4. Strutting In Six (feat. Jay Phelps, Sylvie Leys, Robert Mitchell, Michelangelo Scandroglio & Tristan Banks)
            5. A Walk In Yoyogi Park (feat. Jay Phelps, Sylvie Leys, Robert Mitchell, Michelangelo Scandroglio & Tristan Banks)
            6. Das Ist Die Frage (feat. Jay Phelps, Sylvie Leys, Robert Mitchell, Michelangelo Scandroglio & Tristan Banks)
            7. 187 South (feat. Jay Phelps, Sylvie Leys, Robert Mitchell, Michelangelo Scandroglio & Tristan Banks)
            8. Midweek 330am Club Tune (feat. Jay Phelps, Sylvie Leys, Robert Mitchell, Michelangelo Scandroglio & Tristan Banks)
            9. Nighttime In Soho (feat. Jay Phelps, Sylvie Leys, Robert Mitchell, Michelangelo Scandroglio & Tristan Banks)

            Jay Dee Aka J Dilla

            Welcome 2 Detroit - 20th Anniversary Edition

              BBE Music announces a special 20th Anniversary edition of one of the most important records in the label’s history: J Dilla’s Welcome 2 Detroit, presented in a deluxe 7” vinyl box set boasting instrumentals, two brand new interpretations by Azymuth and Muro, a stash of previously unreleased alternative mixes and studio outtakes pressed over 12 discs, plus a book revealing the album’s hidden story, told by those who were there. First issued by BBE Music on Monday 26th of February 2001, Welcome 2 Detroit was James Dewitt Yancey aka Jay Dee’s first solo outing and the debut appearance of his new ‘J Dilla’ moniker (bestowed on him by none other than Busta Rhymes). The album also inaugurated the producer-led Beat Generation album series, which would later spawn classic LPs by DJ Jazzy Jeff, Pete Rock, DJ Spinna, Marley Marl and even will.i.am, all of whom had been inspired to reach for new creative heights by hearing Dilla’s magnum opus. Choosing to showcase his own voice and the voices of local rap-heroes from across the city instead of big stars, Welcome 2 Detroit marked a coming of age for the then 27 year-old producer, who fully embraced the creative-freedom offered by BBE for his first solo project. As Dilla tells it: “Peter (Adarkwah, founder of BBE) let me do whatever I wanted to do. So, I wanted to put people on there who are gonna spit y’know, lyrically and represent Detroit. Because I wouldn’t have been able to pull this album off if it came out under a major. Cos they’re not gonna let you just do a song or you can’t just do an instrumental. You gotta have this feature and you’re Jay Dee, why ain’t you got Erykah Badu? Why ain’t you got so and so on your album? I’d have had to go through all of that, instead of just putting out…y’know, Beej on this joint!” The album would prove to be the perfect distillation of Dilla’s Detroit. From Kraftwerk-inspired Tech Noir that would make Metroplex proud, through subtle echoes from Africa, live jazz-funk and bossa-nova grooves, to tough Midwest boom-bap, this record somehow showed reverence to the city’s past without ever leaving its present. Grimy street flows that somehow swayed like James Brown. Unquantized marvels, so free and alive in their bounce, that they could seduce the hardest of hard-rocks into the sweetest screwface! Diverse, multifaceted, super collaborative and yet somehow singular, Welcome 2 Detroit was the shy and humble James Yancey revealing his true self in the only way he knew how: through his music. “The numerous guest appearances from some of the city’s best MCs at the time — Beej, Big Tone, Elzhi, Frank N Dank, Phat Kat — added to the album’s immersive experience, offering listeners a taste of Detroit in a way that only Jay Dee could do." – Okayplayer To mark the 20th Anniversary of this momentous record, BBE Music is issuing a specially remastered edition of Welcome 2 Detroit, featuring a stunning new remix of ‘Think Twice’ by Japanese DJ/producer Muro and a stellar cover version of ‘Rico Suave Bossa Nova’ by legendary Brazilian jazz-funk juggernauts Azymuth, plus a stash of newly discovered alternate versions and work-in-progress recordings from the album sessions, lovingly reproduced from priceless cassette tapes recorded by J Dilla himself. An accompanying book by British writer and filmmaker John Vanderpuije offers an oral history of the album’s making, as told by Amp Fiddler, Ma Dukes and all of the album’s key musical contributors. The deluxe 7” vinyl box set and digital album will be released on February 5th 2021 during the annual #DillaMonth celebration, as close to the great man’s birthday as possible and will be available to pre-order from the BBE website and Bandcamp from November 3rd 2020. “I’m real happy that Welcome 2 Detroit was done by BBE. Because I don’t think another label would have helped him embrace his full creativity and given him the control to make it a piece of who he was! Because of BBE he was able to pour more of himself into it, into every bit of music on this album. His spirit lives in Welcome 2 Detroit. It’s him! Alive and thriving in every song!” – Ma Dukes

              TRACK LISTING

              Disc: 1
              1. Y’all Ain’t Ready (Instrumental)
              2. Y’all Ain’t Ready
              3. Think Twice (faded)
              4. Think Twice (Instrumental - Faded

              Disc: 2
              1. The Clapper Feat. Blu
              2. The Clapper (Instrumental)
              3. Shake It Down (Instrumental)
              4. Shake It Down

              Disc: 3
              1. Come Get It (Instrumental - Edit)
              2. Come Get It Feat. Elzhi (edit)

              Disc: 4
              1. Pause Feat Frank 'n' Dank
              2. Pause (Instrumental)
              3. B.B.E. - Big Booty Express (Instrumental)
              4. B.B.E. - Big Booty Express

              Disc: 5
              1. Beej-N-Dem Pt.2 (Instrumental)
              2. Beej-N-Dem Pt.2 Feat. Beej

              Disc: 6
              1. Brazilian Groove EWF (Instrumental)
              2. Brazilian Groove
              3. It’s Like That (Edit) Feat. Hodge Podge, Lacks
              4. It's Like That (Instrumental)

              Disc: 7
              1. Give It Up (Instrumental)
              2. Give It Up

              Disc: 8
              1. Rico Suave Bossa Nova
              2. Azymuth – Rico Suave Bossa Nova (Vinyl Edit)

              Disc: 9
              1. Feat. Phat Kat (Instrumental)
              2. Feat. Phat Kat

              Disc: 10
              1. African Rhythms (Instrumental)
              2. African Rhythms
              3. One (Instrumental)
              4. One

              Disc: 11
              1. It’s Like That (Alternate Version)
              2. African Rhythms (No Drums)
              3. Brazilian Groove EWF (No Drums, No Vocal)
              4. Beej-N-Dem (og) Feat. Beej
              5. Give It Up (Acapella)

              Disc: 12
              1. Think Twice (DJ Muro's KG Mix)
              2. Think Twice (DJ Muro's KG Mix Instrumental)

              Jaye Jayle

              Prisyn

                Prisyn features guest appearance by Emma Ruth Rundle. Evan Patterson has always been a wanderer and an explorer. It’s evident in the constant evolution of his music since his earliest days as a guitarist in left-of-center bands, but it’s best exemplified by the constant creative shifts within the fever-dream blues of Jaye Jayle. On the newest Jaye Jayle album, “Prisyn” Patterson takes his boldest leap into unknown territories, capturing immediate moments in his ever-shifting surroundings with the most basic tool at his disposal: the GarageBand app on an iPhone. Instead of his usual backing band, he paired up with Ben Chisholm (White Horse, Revelator, Chelsea Wolfe) as collaborator and producer to create an electronic album completely unlike anything else from Jaye Jayle and an ambitious step from 2018’s remarkable No Trail and Other Unholy Paths LP.

                The LP began with a request from couture designer Ashley Rose, when she proposed that Evan Patterson team up with Sargent House label mates Chelsea Wolfe and Ben Chisholm to create a soundtrack for one of her upcoming fashion shows. Patterson was in the early stages of a massive eleven-week stretch of touring and used his downtime in the van to flesh out ideas on his phone. “I sent a track to Ben and he sent it back the next day with additional instrumentation, sounds, and effects,” Patterson recalls. “It was wild. He suggested we make a whole record that way.” By the end of tour, Patterson and Chisholm had an LP’s worth of songs waiting for vocal treatments. “I printed out all these poems, stories, and journal entries I’d made on my phone over the course of the year and went into the studio with my friend Warren (Christopher Gray). We’d find things that rhythmically worked, and that’s how all the lyrics and singing happened. It was all gut instinct, improvisational,” Patterson recalls.

                “The vocal approach isn’t meant to be full of hooks and melody. The music is framed almost as a film score for my life. Instead of David Attenborough or William S. Burroughs as a narrator, I used this opportunity to narrate visuals from my reality,” he continues. The record's title “Prisyn” is a play on the idea of a synthetic prison, and alludes to Patterson’s desire for artistic freedom and the album’s conflicted use of addictive technologies. But in the time of the pandemic, he also views it as an example of overcoming adversity in desperate times; this is a record that could have been made under the jail-like confines of quarantine, with Patterson and Chisholm having never been in the same room at the same time. Patterson comments, “These songs have a totally different energy, and that’s the exciting thing about making art. Things have to progress. I don’t want to draw the same picture for the rest of my life. Maybe that keeps you from being a master at it, but being a master isn’t the key to art. It’s having that constant expression, the constant outlet, the constant change." 

                TRACK LISTING

                1. A Cold Wind
                2. Don’t Blame The Rain
                3. Synthetic Prison
                4. The River Spree
                5. Making Friends
                6. Guntime
                7. Blueberries
                8. I Need You
                9. The Last Drive
                10. From Louisville

                The Jay Vons

                The Word

                  The Jay Vons have toured all through the United States and internationally, opening for such legends as Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Charles Bradley & The Extraordinaires, Lee Fields & The Expressions; recorded all of their original tracks at Daptone Studios, Dunham Sound Studios, and Diamond Mine Studios with producers Wayne Gordon and Tommy Brenneck; and, while making a name for themselves, have been backing up Greg Cartwright as Reigning Sound.

                  The gentlemen who enjoy a fine slice, a fine libation, and an even finer haircut are known as The Jay Vons. The Word showcases how this rhythmic tour-de-force blends their love for ‘60s rock and soul with a deftness born from decades of obsessive record collecting and delivered by countless hours of writing and performing.

                  The lead single, “The Word,” is a veritable blueprint for The Jay Vons’ sound: spooky organ, undeniable groove, tasteful guitar, forlorn lyrics, all seasoned generously with handclaps and percussion. Just imagine if The Brothers of Soul (Bridges, Knight, Eaton) produced a session by The Young Rascals and you’re getting warm. “Night (Was Stealing from the Sun)” picks up the tempo with a fervor reminiscent of The Jam at their best — punchy drums and sweet harmonies transform this earnest tale of a misaligned affection into a dance-friendly feast for the soul. “Changing Seasons” finds the band dialing it back a bit, settling into a breezy, mid-tempo groove. The string arrangement and soft, pleading vocal give way to an explosive, anthemic chorus whose hook-heavy horn line enriches the melody, creating a perfect piece of mid-sixties pop. Other highlights include: the gorgeous ballad, “Never Take Me Back”; the full-throttle assault of “Keep On Moving”; and the flute-kissed hit “Did You See Her.” This album is an exercise in how to channel the past without ever being trite. This is no facsimile. This is The Jay Vons.
                  Although their roots stretch from New Jersey, Manhattan, and Long Island, their meeting was no accident. Mikey Post and Michael Catanese have been writing and playing music together since high school. They would later befriend Benny Trokan while living in Brooklyn, where Mikey would join Robbers on High Street. While all three were playing in various groups in New York, the guys wanted to start a new band together. They knew they needed that extra something. A man of speed, a man of action, a man that denies these times: Dave Amels. They would later find him on Lorimer Street, just taking in the views. 


                  Jay Reatard / Sonic Youth

                  Hang Them All / No Garage - 10th Anniversary Edition

                    Back in print for the first time in ten years on split black & white vinyl. All profits donated to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. #MatadorRevisionistHistory #JayReatard

                    TRACK LISTING

                    Jay Reatard – “Hang Them All”
                    Sonic Youth – “No Garage”

                    J Dilla

                    Rough Draft The Dilla Mix - RSD18 Edition

                      THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2018 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

                      The producer’s own mixes – recently rediscovered - of his seminal EP, expanded with bonus tracks into a 2LP set, with extensive liner notes and unpublished photos. When Ruff Draft saw its initial release in 2003, J Dilla possessed production skills on par with anyone in hip-hop – technically and creatively. “At the top of his game,” says longtime friend and collaborator, Karriem Riggins. After years of building while modestly deferring to others of both greater and lesser notoriety, Dilla finally completed the first solo endeavor on his own label, entirely on his own terms. The significance of such an autonomous success often gets overlooked, and partly accounts for why Ruff Draft is one of the lesser-referenced entries in Dilla’s oeuvre. “It’s a mysterious little project,” says his mother, Maureen Yancey. “But out of his entire career, that was the happiest time.” Prior to recording the EP, Dilla found himself at a crossroads. Estranged from his label, MCA, and separated from the mother of his youngest daughter, frustration abounded both personally and professionally. Dilla spent parts of 2002 and 2003 working on an album for MCA that featured his rapping over contributions from other producers with whom he had connected and whose music he respected. At the time, he was known primarily for his beats, yet reviled for his MCing by most anyone not from his hometown of Detroit. The project was to be an intentional freak of the industry. The project would go on to spur his collaborative album with Madlib, Jaylib, and would first showcase the template that he would take to his greatest heights with 2006’s Donuts. The Stones Throw reissue of Ruff Draft from 2008 featured remixes of the songs from the album, done without Dilla’s involvement. This version of the album takes Dilla’s recently discovered mixes of the album and restores his vision for the project. “Straight from the mothafuckin’ cassette,” as he phrased the sound he was going for on the EP’s intro. It is buttressed by unreleased tracks and is presented in two versions: LP one is the EP as it was originally released; LP 2 is the alternate version that Dilla had for the project. Author Ronnie Reese expands upon his original liner notes to further tell Dilla’s story, in a booklet complete with never before published photographs from the Ruff Draft photo session. 

                      TRACK LISTING

                      1. Intro 2. Let's Take It Back 3. Reckless Driving 4. Nothing Like This 5. The $ 6. Interlude 7. Make'em NV 8. Interlude 9. Crushin' 10. Shouts 11. Intro (Alt.) 12. Wild 13. Take Notice (Feat. Guilty Simpson) 14. Shouts (Alt.)

                      Jay-U Experience

                      Enough Is Enough

                        Reissue of the highly sought after Nigerian funk-rock album, moving effortlessly between reggae, jazzy afrobeat and psych rock. Soundway fans first got a taste of Jay-U’s infectious beats with the track ‘Some More’, featured on the Soundway compilation “Nigeria Disco Funk Special: The Sound Of The Underground Lagos Dancefloor 1974-79”.

                        Originally released by EMI Nigeria in 1977, this now-rare album was written by Jay-U and engineered by disco-boogie artist Goddy Oku. Opening with the up-tempo reggae number “Reggae Deluxe”, the album descends into mindblowing jazz-funk featuring several killer saxophone solos.

                        The journey ends with a trip into psych-prog rock, with a sound not dissimilar to that coming out of the early 70s British rock scene. (*Note: track 5 from the original recording is not included in this reissue)

                        For fans of: The Funkees, William Onyeabor, Soundway’s “Nigeria Disco Funk Special” compilation, Soundway’s “Doing It In Lagos” compilation

                        John Matthias & Jay Auborn

                        Race To Zero

                          ‘Race To Zero’ is the new album by musician and composer John Matthias and producer, musician and composer Jay Auborn, via the Village Green label.

                          The album’s starting point was a series of acoustic improvisations recorded in a variety of locations, from a 700-year-old chapel in the Devon countryside to a basement studio in Reykjavík, Iceland. In an attempt to create a fractured sense of space reflective of the digital condition, the duo found themselves working within a place that could only exist in the digital landscape. By crushing the recordings through a hundred different virtual rooms of reverb and other chaotic digital processes they collided, soared and splintered into sweeping new rhythms, melodies and drones. Pushing the computer’s processor beyond its limits threw up sonic ‘errors’ that wouldn’t be easily possible to create through standard methods. In response, these outcomes created new and unplanned inspiration for further composition. Elements of the album were then produced binaurally adding a three dimensional listening experience. The outcome is a unique landscape that blurs the line between the virtual and physical worlds.

                          “Cerebral yet accessible” - Uncut (8/10)

                          “A fascinating album that continually surprises with its neo-classical meets electronic template” - Clash

                          Jay Reatard

                          Watch Me Fall

                            In between his two albums, Jay Reatard has released two compilations of 7" singles for In The Red and Matador respectively (both 2008) and has also been busy with his own Shattered Records label (home to acts like Box Elders, Useless Eaters, Jeffrey Novak and Hunx). When people call him prodigious, they might be underselling him somewhat. For his second studio album, "Watch Me Fall", Jay has moved beyond his roots and recorded an album chockful of irresistible melodies and cascading with joyous hooks. He would not be Jay Reatard, however, if there wasn't a certain aggro negativity, and the song titles and lyrics do much to undercut the pop sensibility: "I'm Watching You", "Hang Them All", "Can't Do It Anymore", "Wounded" and "It Ain't Gonna Save Me", amongst others.


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