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KARATE

Karate Boogaloo

Access All Areas

May it please the people of the known universe that the multi-monikered musical ensemble legally trading as Kay-Bee Funk Music Group are releasing what will alphabetically be their first album, ‘Access All Areas’. Created with Karate Boogaloo’s patented ‘Lovely Recording Technique’ these recordings let you know that everyone’s a VIP when you’re listening to KB.‘ Access’ was the one word maxim philosophically guiding The Old Kar-Boo’s this innings. If a tune became convoluted, to the bin it went. Only those that could be hummed by any and all were kept. This sieve was on hand throughout the whole process, arrangements and forms were kept watertight, bells and whistles to a minimum. If 2024’s ‘Hold Your Horses’ was an epic, ‘Access All Areas’ is a haiku. The band’s tried and true recording process was dutifully respected save for one wonderful addition, the magnificent ‘Sound Recordings’ helmed by its proprietor and engineer extraordinaire Alex Bennet. Steering the 4 track Ampex 440 off road when required and making sure the vibes were constantly correct, Alex is a bonafide Booger.

Although it feels only a moment, the clock tells us it’s been nearly 20 years since Kay’s Bees first tried to play the songs of their musical heroes, The Meters, Booker T & The MG’s, and The JB’s to name but a few. Since then The Famous Flying Karate Boogaloo Brothers have put one foot in front of the other and distilled their own sound, one that respectfully acknowledges the history of instrumental Funk & Soul music, and reflects the time they’ve spent crafting their distinctive sound.

As bright as each member shines individually, it is a special event when all four planets in the Booger System align. ‘Access All Areas’ is one such eclipse, it is an artistic expression of equal measure by each member and it casts a shadow unique to the occasion. Every second of music was composed and produced with all hands on deck, mixing was handled by Henry Jenkins, artwork by Hudson Whitlock and Callum Riley, and Darvid Thor did things you’d have to see to believe. Music is a team sport and there’s no I in Funk. Coming out on the two greatest record labels in the galaxy ‘Colemine Records’ from Loveland, USA, and College of Knowledge from Coburg, Australia, please listen to Karate Boogaloo’s new album ‘Access All Areas’.

TRACK LISTING

1. Butterfly
2. Hooks, Lines, and Sinker
3. Tremendous Fantastic
4. Wet Day Timetable
5. Head First
6. Small Business
7. Booger’s Bounce Of Joy
8. Ballroom Blitz
9. AAA
10. Down Home
11. We’ve Lost Something We Can’t Replace

Karate

Pockets - 2026 Repress

Karate’s defiant and (then) final studio album that punctuated a 12-year discography that spanned harDCore-style catharsis to feedback-saturated improv. This ’04 classic skipped the Friendster migration for back-to-basics songwriting suffused with jazz phrasings and beat-inspired lyricism. Featuring Codeine/Come guitarist Chris Brokaw, Pockets is remastered from the original analog tapes and housed in a deluxe tip on sleeve with reproduction lyric sheet.

TRACK LISTING

1. With Age
2. Water
3. “The State I’m In” Aka “Goode Buy From Cobbs Creek Park”
4. Cacophony
5. Alingual
6. Tow Truck
7. Pines
8. Concrete

Karate

If You Can Hold Your Breath

Karate’s first five years, boxed in classic Numero fashion and annotated by frontman Geoff Farina. Collaging DC posthardcore, De Stijl, and Django Reinhardt, this five LP set includes their self-titled debut, In Place of Real Insight, The Bed Is In The Ocean, period 7”s, and previously unissued 1993 demo. 41 late millennium accounts of 2AM bike rides, punk house floors, skinny dipping, regrettable tattoos, and Interstate 95 commuting, all remastered from the original tapes and housed in sturdy tip-on sleeves for the discerning Karate enthusiast. Don’t drown.

TRACK LISTING

LP1 S/T
A1 Gasoline
A2 If You Can Hold Your Breath
A3 Trophy
A4 What Is Sleep?
A5 - - -
B1 Bad Tattoo
B2 Every Sister
B3 Bodies
B4 Caffeine Or Me?

LP2 In Place Of Real Insight
C1 This, Plus Slow Song
C2 New Martini
C3 Wake Up, Decide
C4 It’s 98 Stop
D1 New New
D2 The New Hangout Condition
D3 On Cutting
D4 Die Die
D5 Today Or Tomorrow

LP3 The Bed Is In The Ocean
E1 There Are Ghosts
E2 The Same Stars
E3 Diazapam
E4 The Last Wars
E5 Bass Sounds
F1 Up Nights
F2 Fatal Strategies
F3 Outside Is The Drama
F4 Not To Call The Police

LP4 Demo
G1 Cherry Coke
G2 Remembering To Forget
G3 Hard Song
G4 First Time
H1 Dating Is Stupid
H2 Starfish
H3 Schwinn
H4 Remembering Reprise

LP5 7” And EPs
I1 Death Kit
I2 Nerve
I3 Cherry Coke (7inch Version)
J4 The Schwinn (7inch Version)
J5 Operation: Sand
J6 Empty There

Karate

Unsolved - Y2K 25th Anniversary Edition

As Warped Tour pop-punk and American Apparel indie rock dominated the strange post-Y2Kguitar-band milieu, Boston’s Karate delivered an engrossing shot of rock that constantly shifted between several shades of subterranean sounds. The quiet moments on Karate’s millennium busting fourth album carry much of that old, unbridled intensity, braided into subdued jazz melodies and slowcore restraint. This 25th anniversary edition of 'Unsolved' replicates the original 2000 pressing’s side D, and includes the 'Death Kit' 7” and split with Crown Hate Ruin. God forgive us.

TRACK LISTING

1. Small Fires
2. The Lived-But-Yet-Named
3. Sever
4. The Roots And The Ruins
5. Number Six
6. One Less Blues
7. The Halo Of The Strange
8. The Angels Just Have To Show
9. This Day Next Year
10. Cherry Coke
11. Death Kit
12. Nerve

Karate

Make It Fit

The first new music from the postemo trio in two decades. Out of the brain of Geoff Farina spills 10 new tales from their unlikely reunion, tracked with long-time Karate collaborator Andy Hong. Make It Fit crams 35 minutes of Wes Montgomery homage, Fugazi dub plate party rocking, Lynott lyricism, and Clash city crooning into a graceful seventh album.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. Defendants 2:39
2. Bleach The Scene 2:05
3. Cannibals 2:25
4. Liminal 4:23
5. Rattle The Pipes 4:32

Side 2
1. Fall To Grace 4:59
2. Around The Dial 2:37
3. People Ain’t Folk 2:32
4. Three Dollar Bill 3:29

Karate Boogaloo

Hold Your Horses

For Fans Of...Surprise Chef, Magic In Threes, The Rugged Nuggets, The ProTeens, Ikebe Shakedown.

First LP to be co-released under Colemine Records and College of Knowledge. Band shares members with Australian band Surprise Chef. Karate Boogaloo are proud to present Hold Your Horses, a mesmerizing new long-playing disc of original instrumental tunes from Melbourne, Australia's most dedicated. Sitting at the core of Melbourne's burgeoning movement of cinematic instrumental soul, Karate Boogaloo's roots go deep into the fabric of the DIY soul idiom. A mainstay of the Melbourne underground over the last decade, their now sought-after series of LPs delving into hip-hop sample culture and its relationship to funk music, The 'KB's Mixtapes', are evidence of their long-standing contribution to the development of the Melbourne cinematic soul sound.

Henry Jenkins, Hudson Whitlock, Callum Riley, and Darvid Thor have been playing music together since their playground days. Meeting as high school preteens, these four friends explored the teachings of the great small combo instrumental bands à la Booker T & The MG's and The Meters. With these lessons in one hand and their characteristic sense of goofy humor in the other, the ensuing 15+ years saw Karate Boogaloo develop the kind of shared musical language that can only be built through countless hours spent together existing as friends and musical allies. Karate Boogaloo's singular bond shines brightly on Hold Your Horses, the second album of original Karate Boogaloo compositions. Following on from the cult classic Carn The Boogers (College Of Knowledge Records, 2020), Hold Your Horses is a document of KB's distinct interpretation of instrumental funk.

A bona-fide journey from start to finish, each tune melds seamlessly into the next, deftly creating a world built on moments of cinematic tension, whimsical melodies and eerie discordance and underpinned by undeniable super heavy funk. Hold Your Horses respectfully builds on a legacy of soul music whilst remaining unimpeachably unique and authentic. Recorded and mixed by bassist Henry Jenkins, the mind responsible for the sound of the entire College Of Knowledge catalogue (Surprise Chef, The Pro-Teens, Let Your Hair Down, Karate Boogaloo), Hold Your Horses employs a methodology for writing and recording music that mirrors KB's long relationship together.

"It's always instrumental, and it's always recorded live. We have a strict no overdubs policy," Jenkins explains. All of the songs were written collaboratively in the studio, with no pre-prepared material being brought in by any member. It's a process specifically designed to maximize the strengths of the band and their relationship to one another; KB's MO is enabled by their innate understanding of one another as people and musicians. Stylistically, links can be drawn to the deep funk of the late 60s and early 70s, certain examples of European film music and new wave of instrumental soul. The restrained instrumental palette is limited to drums, guitar, bass and organ, establishing a distinct and consistent tone throughout, yet the use of dynamics, space and finite execution in the playing carves the experience, keeping the listener glued to their headphones from start to finish.

The artwork, created by organist Callum Riley aka Drez, is a stunning visual representation of the 12-track medley. To add to the experience, the LP cover creates an interactive optical art experience, straight from the brain of someone uniquely equipped to convey Karate Boogaloo's sounds into a visual representation. Karate Boogaloo is a quartet greater than the sum of its parts; and the parts are very, very good. 

TRACK LISTING

1. All Aboard
2. The Early Bird Catches
3. Eyes On The Prize
4. Not For The Last Time
5. PS EmmyLou
6. One Hand One Bounce
7. Onwards And Upwards
8. Family Song (Sing-A-Long)
9. 8th Movement
10. Incredible Wonderful
11. There Is No Rush
12. Alighting Lullaby

Karate

Some Boots

On 2002’s Some Boots, Boston indie rock trio Karate further plumb the depths of their omnidirectional musical explorations. Every chord and beat works to deepen the pensiveness of Geoff Farina’s impressionistic lyrics, that explore the emotional complexities of nostalgia. The eight-song LP is housed in a tip-on jacket, and includes a replica lyric sheet for the original kids and spies alike

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Original Spies
2. First Release
3. Ice Or Ground?
4. Remain Relaxed

SIDE B
1. In Hundreds
2. Airport
3. Baby Teeth
4. South

Karate

Complete Studio Recordings

Crashing at the unlikely intersection of posthardcore, slowcore, and jazz-rock, Karate spent a dozen years producing peerless recordings in their adopted hometown of Boston.

Collected here are their six albums - ‘Self-Titled’, ‘In Place of Real Insight’, ‘The Bed Is In The Ocean’, ‘Unsolved’, ‘Some Boots’, ‘Pockets’, plus the ‘Cancel’ / ‘Sing’ and ‘In The Fish Tank’ EPs, singles, and split 7”s, a whopping 69 tracks spread across eight glorious compact discs.

Leor Galil’s career spanning essay is illustrated with dozens of period-appropriate photos in the accompanying 80-page book.

TRACK LISTING

CD1 - ‘Self-Titled’, ‘Death Kit’ Single, ‘The Schwinn’ &
‘Cherry Coke’

Gasoline
If You Can Hold Your Breath
Trophy
What Is Sleep?
- - -
Bad Tattoo
Every Sister
Bodies
Caffeine Or Me?
Death Kit
Nerve
The Schwinn
Cherry Coke

CD2 - ‘In Place Of Real Insight’ & ‘Operation: Sand’ /
‘Empty There’ Single

This, Plus Slow Song
New Martini
Wake Up, Decide
It’s 98 Stop
New New
The New Hangout Condition
On Cutting
Die Die
Today Or Tomorrow
Operation: Sand
Empty There

CD3 - ‘The Bed Is In The Ocean’
There Are Ghosts
The Same Stars
Diazapam
The Last Wars
Bass Sounds
Up Nights
Fatal Strategies
Outside Is The Drama
Not To Call The Police

CD4 - ‘Unsolved’
Small F Ires
The Lived-But-Yet-Named
Sever
The Roots And The Ruins
Number Six
One Less Blues
The Halo Of The Strange
The Angels Just Have To Show
This Day Next Year

CD5 - ‘Cancel’ / ‘Sing’
Cancel
Sing

CD6 - ‘Some Boots’
Original Spies
First Release
Ice Or Ground
South
In Hundreds
Airport
Baby Teeth
Corduroy
Remain Relaxed

CD7 - ‘Pockets’
With Age
Water
“The State I’m In” Aka “Goode Buy From Cobbs
Creek Park”
Cacophony
Alingual
Tow Truck
Pines
Concrete

CD8 - ‘In The Fishtank 12’
Strange Fruit
The Only Minority
Tears Of Rage
Bob Dylan Wrote Propaganda Songs
Need A Job
This Ain ’t No Picnic
Colors
A New Jerusalem

Karate

Time Expired

At the turn of the century and after three albums, Karate’s tenure within the insular east coast indie rock scene had expired, but the band was just getting started. Collected here is the band’s spacious, adventurous, and sometimes difficult second half presented in fastidious detail. This five LP box includes the trio’s Unsolved, Some Boots, and Pockets albums, a first time vinyl pressing of their Cancel/Sing EP, and recently unearthed rehearsal recordings of two unreleased tracks, all annotated by Geoff Farina’s account of Karate’s adulthood and Andy Hong’s insights into the trio’s recording process.

TRACK LISTING

A: Unsolved
1 Small Fires
2 The Lived-But-Yet-Named
3 Sever

B: Unsolved
4 The Roots And The Ruins
5 Number Six
6 One Less Blues
7 The Halo Of The Strange

C: Unsolved
8 The Angels Just Have To Show
9 This Day Next Year

D: Unsolved
10 Get Reborn (Rehearsal)
11Old Code (Rehearsal)
12 The Angels Just Have To Show (Rehearsal)

E: Cancel/Sing
13 Cancel

F: Cancel/Sing
14 Sing

G: Some Boots
15 Original Spies
16 First Release
17 Ice Or Ground?
18 Remain Relaxed

H: Some Boots
19 In Hundreds
20 Airport
21 Baby Teeth
22 South

I: Pockets
23 With Age
24 Water
25 “The State I’m In” Aka “Goode Buy From Cobbs Creek Park”
26 Cacophony

J: Pockets
27 Alingual
28 Tow Truck
29 Pines
30 Concrete


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