Debut of the "Hit + Run Presents Road Kill" compilation series. Volume 1 includes 29 exclusive and unreleased tracks by the Los Angeles underground and beyond, available on a limited-edition digipak CD. We're talking beat builders, wonky-hoppers, hip hopers, down-beaters, electronica lovers and just, in the case of the Gaslamp Killer, bonkers mentalists.

Previously only available digitally and on CD, the compilation features some of LA’s best and brightest, along with a whole host of artists from around the world - including J Rocc, the Gaslamp Killer, Ras G, Daedelus, Knxwledge, Mndsgn, Jeremiah Jae, Kutmah and many more - all contributing tracks unavailable anywhere else.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Gaslamp Killer - Bullet Shells In My Sneakers
2. Mono/Poly - Crew
3. Shash’U - Akira
4. Matthewdavid - Funky Yelling
5. Jeremiah Jae (feat. Isreal And Oliver The 2nd) - ShamWow
6. Mestizo - Love Me Hard
7. Mndsgn - Golf Shirt
8. Computer Jay - The Opposing Turf
9. N8No Face (feat. Zackey Force Funk) - Fame
10. The Gaslamp Killer - Road Kill Interlude
11. Ras G - Coto Loco
12. Daedelus - If I Fail
13. J.Rocc - Red Wing
14. Knxwledge - Need Wun
15. Seven Davis Jr. - Samurai
16. Sweatson Klank - Little Time To Fly
17. Kutmah + Tehbis - Griots
18. Mr. Feeds - Ride To The Moon
19. Bei Ru - Bekaa Valley Hash
20. Zackey Force Funk - Birdz
21. Kevin D. Mize - Better Late Than
22. Thavius Beck – Noble Roble
23. Alter - Calle Primera
24. Eras - Bangoria
25. Bobby Evans - Le Witt
26. Subtitle - 555 + 333
27. Biff Chitlins - Dulce
28. Adventure Time - Kick It
29. Zackey Force Funk (feat. Reggie Blount) - Where Buffalo Roam.

BJÖRK: Our cover feature is a career-spanning piece by Tamara Palmer on Iceland’s most noted export since the foundation of their parliament in 930, with a terrifically gorgeous cover image by our illustrator, Marly Beyer. -MARCELLUS HALL delivers a 30-plus page excerpt from a graphic novel about life in indie-rock in the early 1990s that’s just stunning and lyrical and we are so stoked to be able to run it. -Hot on the heels of their world tour, it’s an engaging photo essay from Detroit’s premier music photographer Doug Coombe on the return of garage punk heroes BE YOUR OWN PET. -Mike Turner spends serious time with BMX champion CHELSEA WOLFE, right when she might be suspended from competition for being trans. -Ana Gavrilovska digs deep into the work of up-and-coming multimedia artist WAYNE PHOENIX. -Uncharacterizable instrumental musicians PENGUIN CAFE are back (under the direction of originator Simon Jeffes' son Arthur Jeffes) and Kurt Reighley is writing beautifully on them. (Their first two records for Eno’s label are The Shit.) Cassette tape reviews; Lucy Sante delivers a tribute to the olden days of mp3 blogs, because she writes in every issue and we are lucky AF for this fact; Mimi Lipson weighs in on cats versus dogs in her advice column; Andy Beta talks of Annea Lockwood in the Icons column; the reissue of the issue is a box set of Pauline Anna Strom, by Michelle Dove; Fred Thomas on “why Sonic Youth's most underrated record deserves a second look” (guess which one it is!); an overview of reissue label Mesh Key for a new column on the people who run labels and stuff like that. In the new column Tracked (on music supervisors) Martin Douglas talks to Tiffany Anders, and it’s largely about her work on RESERVATION DOGS! Then there’s the column PHYSICAL GRAFFITI by editor McGonigal, an epic look at dozens of recent LP releases plus a few books (that’s right, it’s a bona fide multi-page record review column), plus the debut of our food column with a disastrous visit to the Russian Tea Room courtesy of noted genius QUINTRON.

The Sofrito crew return with four more tropical bangers to heat up the dancefloor! For the label's fifth outing they join forces with Joining forces with the talented Tropical Treats outfit from Sweden, who you'll remember from the ace "Afrikan Rhythms" 12″ on GAMM in 2009. The "Tropical Soundclash EP" covers raw Afro-funk, heavy cumbia, Caribbean disco and hot carnival rhythms, perfect for your Tropical Discotheque! On side A "Rift Valley Groove" is a wicked piece of Afro-funk, while "Cumbia Colombiana" features a heavy percussive rhythm and blasting horns. Side B opens with the speedy carnival drumming and call-and-response vocal of "Ca Ca Yé" - perfect for a mood change on the dancefloor - with "Tabou For The People" bringing up the rear in Afro-disco style, all played live.

TRACK LISTING

A Side:
Rift Valley Groove (Tropical Treats Edit)
Cumbia Colombiana (Tropical Treats Edit)

B Side:
Ca Ca Yé (Frankie Francis Edit)
Tabou For The People (Sofrito Edit Feat. L. Barrabas)

In May 1976 a record was released that would have an unforeseen and lasting impact on the music industry “Ten Percent” by Double Exposure was an early release on the New York independent label Salsoul Records. America was in the grip of a disco explosion with new clubs opening on a weekly basis; Salsoul saw what was happening and swiftly created a sound for their label, heavily influenced by the music then coming out of Philadelphia, aimed directly at New York’s dance-floors. Records like “Salsoul Hustle,” “Tangerine” and “You’re Just The Right Size” by The Salsoul Orchestra borrowed heavily from the beautifully orchestrated Philadelphia International records but added a more percussive, bass heavy depth that New York’s DJs loved. So what was so special about this particular single then? Double Exposure was, after all, just another band, “Ten Percent” just another song; one of many “disco” records released that week. First of all Salsoul became the first record label to make a twelve inch single available to Joe Public - the exotic format was previously only available to DJs as promotional items or bought under the counter at certain record stores. Not only that though, the extended version was created by Walter Gibbons, a DJ at New York’s Galaxy 21 who’d built his reputation making exclusive versions of tracks to play in his sets.

In 1976 it was unheard of for a DJ to set foot in a recording studio, being seen as little more than living jukeboxes by the serious music industry. Recording studios were strictly the domain of recording artists and producers so Walter found himself in a unique position, gaining access to a world no DJ had been granted before.

Or so we thought...
The Men In The Glass Booth tells the full story. Featuring ground breaking re-edits and remixes by some of the Disco era's most influential DJs including Walter Gibbons, Bobby DJ Guttadaro, Tom Savarese, Jellybean Benitez, Tee Scott and John Luongo, this opulent release also includes a 40 page book which features exclusive photos and insights from some of the story's key figures.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: BBE answer the prayers of all us non-millionaire disco fans, taking us on a journey through the alternative 12" history via this exhaustive collection of acetates and DJ edits. Mega!

**Import item!! {DETROIT}

- Strictly pre-orders only!

- Limited copies!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Marcellus Pittman - Everybody Party
A2. Javontte - Late Night Love
A3. Rick Wilhite And Delano Smith Ft Jon Dixon - Neo Solaris
B1. Rick Wilhite And Delano Smith - 11 Minutes Of Funk
B2. Jon Dixon - Belle Isle Bounce
C1. Norm Talley - Dreaming In Detroit
C2. Gerald Mitchell AKA Soul Saver - KAORI
D1. Kenny Dixon Jnr - I'm Goin Black
D2. Delano Smith - Hot Lovely Relations
E1. Omar S. - VAT 69 (Godson Mix)
F1. Rick Wilhite And Delano Smith - Pipe Putta 

One of the most politically charged terms of the 20th century, the Iron Curtain was a metaphor for political and cultural division. In a post-war telegram Winston Churchill referred to the fault line that ran through Europe between East and West as "an Iron Curtain is drawn down upon their front. We do not know what is going on behind".

In this two-part album, as far as jazz is concerned, we will showcase, describe and celebrate exactly what was 'going on behind'. We see that music is the power supreme, with the ability to transcend all barriers, be they physical, political or metaphorical.

Our liner notes illustrate the complex and contradictory history of Soviet jazz, and the tracks we've chosen cover the key period of the early 1960s to the 1980s. It was during these dark years of the Cold War that the Soviet Union and its satellite states produced a number of outstanding artists playing in a variety of styles. The impact of modernism, from hard bop and Latin to modal and cool jazz, had found its way through cracks in the curtain. The deeply-felt ancestral strains of traditional European folk music were combined with the exciting new and progressive sounds of the West, and a radical, intoxicating brew was created that no amount of guns, tanks or polonium tea could overcome.

We chronicle the triumph of jazz at a time of extreme geopolitical conflict. What went on behind the Iron Curtain in these countries was once mysterious and unknown to the West, but the perseverance of their artists provided sound and light amid the secretive, dark days of the communist-capitalist standoff. There was no end of life-affirming spiritual jazz behind the Iron Curtain.

"Whether it's by improvisation in the African-American jazz tradition, or by a village kobza player standing on top of a damn hill - he feels connected to the stars."

TRACK LISTING

1. Collage - Halb Sirp (Bad Sickle)
2. Manfred Ludwig - Sextett
3. Krzysztof Komeda - Crazy Girl
4. Polish Jazz Quartet - Promenade Through Empty Streets
5. Vagif Mustafa-Zade - Caucasus
6. Quartet "Jazz Focus-65" - Monday Morning
7. Theo Schumman Combo - Karawane
8. Vaclav Zahradnik - Podzimní Slunce
9. Karel Velebny - Lori
10. Sevil - Mugam
11. Focus '65 - Autumn Sun
12. Golstain-Nosov Quintet - Rosinent In Toledo
13. YU All Stars 1977 - Kosmet
14. Michael Fritzen Quartett - Rien
15. Dan Mindrila - Sonet

One of the most politically charged terms of the 20th century, the Iron Curtain was a metaphor for political and cultural division. In a post-war telegram Winston Churchill referred to the fault line that ran through Europe between East and West as "an Iron Curtain is drawn down upon their front. We do not know what is going on behind".

In this two-part album, as far as jazz is concerned, we will showcase, describe and celebrate exactly what was 'going on behind'. We see that music is the power supreme, with the ability to transcend all barriers, be they physical, political or metaphorical.

Our liner notes illustrate the complex and contradictory history of Soviet jazz, and the tracks we've chosen cover the key period of the early 1960s to the 1980s. It was during these dark years of the Cold War that the Soviet Union and its satellite states produced a number of outstanding artists playing in a variety of styles. The impact of modernism, from hard bop and Latin to modal and cool jazz, had found its way through cracks in the curtain. The deeply-felt ancestral strains of traditional European folk music were combined with the exciting new and progressive sounds of the West, and a radical, intoxicating brew was created that no amount of guns, tanks or polonium tea could overcome.

We chronicle the triumph of jazz at a time of extreme geopolitical conflict. What went on behind the Iron Curtain in these countries was once mysterious and unknown to the West, but the perseverance of their artists provided sound and light amid the secretive, dark days of the communist-capitalist standoff. There was no end of life-affirming spiritual jazz behind the Iron Curtain.

"Whether it's by improvisation in the African-American jazz tradition, or by a village kobza player standing on top of a damn hill - he feels connected to the stars."

TRACK LISTING

1. Leningrad Jazz Ensemble - Aria
2. Sh Jazz Quintet - Delilah
3. Josef Blaha Trio - Inter Mezzo Forte
4. Csaba Deseo Ensemble - Beyond The Csitári Mountains
5. Manfred Ludwig-Sextett - Skandinavia
6. Anatoly Vapirov - Mystery
7. Zbigniew Namyslowski - Piatawka
8. Andrzej Trzaskowski Quintet - Synopsis (Expression I)
9. Tomsits Quartet - Dhrupad
10. Nicolai Gromin Quartet - Corrida
11. Valery Kolesnikov, Vyacheslav Novikov, Vladimir Molotkov & Alexander Christidis - Rainbow
12. Tone Jansa - Goa
13. S+HQ - My Girl (And Other Things)
14. Pege Jazz Workshop - Hungarian Folk Song

A dark Italo compilation not for the faint of heart with the mystery, murder and madness of all that is Giallo. Serving as a soundtrack to a fictitious film Luna Rossa, Johnny Jewel of Italians Do It Better fame laces the opening with the breathy arsenic laced "Flesh" as Simple Symmetry's "Il Gatto Nero delivers a disco banger that even samples a cat's heartbeat. Legowelt creeps into lens with "Oberalp Catarsi under his Occult Orientated Crime moniker. Other suspects include Prefuse 73, Antoni Maovvi, Makeup And Vanity Set and Om & Grails member Emil Amos. Lucky dip vinyl with base transparent blood base edition with a red moon marbled rare version. QR code on label for a secret non album track! Limited and will be gone by nightfall!!

STAFF COMMENTS

Mine says: Secrets Of Sound are back with their third comp, this time introducing us to considerably darker sounds (which - shock, horror - I am totally on board with). Look at that sleeve too, what a beaut!!

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. Johnny Jewel - "Flesh"
2. Makeup & Vanity Set - "Notte Della Norte"
3. Simple Symmetry & Gilbert Broid - "Il Gatto Nero"
4. Occult Orientated Crime AKA Legowelt - "Oberalp Catarsi"

Side 2
1. Umberto - "Nightwish"
2. Prefuse 73 - "Snare Attack Illusion"
3. Antoni Maiovvi - "The Emperor Drowns Three Times"
4. Emil Amos - "Realistica II"

Picture the scene, The year 2000 has passed and the new millenium is just getting underway - A new scene explodes onto the nation's Indie Dancefloors - some called it Indie Sleaze, Nu Rave, Future Disco or even Electroclash – ‘Strobes in Space’ takes you back to a time when the Indie kids re-discovered the joys of dancing, raving and having fun at Indie clubs. Day-Glo, Light Sticks, Baggy T-Shirts and Hedonism on the Dance Floors - welcome to Strobes in Space!

When the Indie Dance / Nu Rave scene crashed onto the dancefloors and ignited the youth of the time it seemed like uber cool and incredible new bands were appearing from all corners of the globe almost every day. An explosion of creativity and excitement flooded the clubs and airwaves. From the UK you had bands like Bloc Party, Klaxons, Test Icicles, Playgroup, Simian Mobile Disco. Coming out of NYC you had the likes of LCD Soundsystem, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Fischerspooner. From France you had Phoenix from Versailles and Black Strobe coming out of Paris. DJ / Producer Tiga from Canada, Digitalism from Hamburg Germany, Cut Copy from Melbourne Australia, and from Belgium Soulwax and Goose, and even spreading to South America with CSS coming out of Sao Paolo, Brazil. It really was a global scene.

Two-Piers Records brings you a snapshot of that scene at the time on their latest compilation ‘Strobes in Space’. Spanning across 3 x LPs, 30 tracks and artists. Hopefully it has captured a slice of the excitement and creativity of the time, and this compilation makes you feel joyful, happy and you just want to get Up, Dance and have Fun!

TRACK LISTING

Vinyl Tracklist:
A1) New Young Pony Club – Ice Cream
A2) Bloc Party – Banquet (Phones Disco Remix)
A3) Datarock – Fa-Fa-Fa
A4) LCD Soundsystem – Tribulations
A5) TokTok & Soffy O – Missy Queen’s Gonna Die
B1) Justice V Simian – We Are Your Friends
B2) Digitalism – Zdarlight
B3) Soulwax – NY Excuse
B4) Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Heads Will Roll (A-Trak Remix Radio Edit)
B5) Klaxons – Two Receivers
C1) The Rapture – Sister Saviour (DFA Vocal Remix)
C2) Goose – Black Gloves
C3) Simian Mobile Disco – Hustler
C4) Test Icicles – What’s Your Damage (Alan Braxe & Fred Falke Remix)
C5) CSS – Let’s Make Love And Listen To Death From Above
C6) We Have Band – Hear It In The Cans
D1) Fujiya & Miyagi – Knickerbocker
D2) Friendly Fires – Jump In The Pool
D3) Playgroup – Make It Happen
D4) Tiga – You Gonna Want Me
D5) Tom Vek – I Ain’t Saying My Goodbyes
D6) Shit Disco – OK

Bonus Vinyl – Limited Edition Deluxe
E1) Zongamin – Bongo Song
E2) Black Strobe – Italian Fireflies
E3) Fischerspooner – Emerge
E4) Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Satan Said Dance
F1) Phoenix – 1901
F2) The Killers – Mr Brightside (Jacques Lu Cont’s Thin White Duke Radio Remix)
F3) Cut Copy – Going Nowhere
F4) !!! – Me And Guiliani Down By The School Yard – A True Story

2CD Tracklist:
CD1
1) New Young Pony Club – Ice Cream
2) Bloc Party – Banquet (Phones Disco Remix)
3) Datarock – Fa-Fa-Fa
4) LCD Soundsystem – Tribulations
5) TokTok & Soffy O – Missy Queen’s Gonna Die
6) Justice V Simian – We Are Your Friends
7) Digitalism – Zdarlight
8) Soulwax – NY Excuse
9) Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Heads Will Roll (A-Trak Remix Radio Edit)
10) Klaxons – Two Receivers
11) The Rapture – Sister Saviour (DFA Vocal Remix)
12) Goose – Black Gloves
13) Simian Mobile Disco – Hustler
14) Test Icicles – What’s Your Damage (Alan Braxe & Fred Falke Remix)
15) CSS – Let’s Make Love And Listen To Death From Above
CD2
1) We Have Band – Hear It In The Cans
2) Fujiya & Miyagi – Knickerbocker
3) Friendly Fires – Jump In The Pool
4) Playgroup – Make It Happen (Full Length Version) **
5) Tiga – You Gonna Want Me
6) Tom Vek – I Ain’t Saying My Goodbyes
7) Shit Disco – OK
8) Zongamin – Bongo Song
9) Black Strobe – Italian Fireflies
10) Fischerspooner – Emerge
11) Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Satan Said Dance
12) Phoenix – 1901
13) The Killers – Mr Brightside (Jacques Lu Cont’s Thin White Duke Radio Remix)
14) Cut Copy – Going Nowhere
15) !!! – Me And Guiliani Down By The School Yard – A True Story
** Exclusive Version To CD Format 

WHEN A NIGHT IN SOUNDS LIKE A NIGHT OUT

A dazzling 11-track journey through the rich, handpicked gems of Numero’s finest. Blending the timeless warmth of classic soul with a fresh, modern twist, 'Eccentric Modern Soul' delivers an expansive soundscape that feels both nostalgic and new

TRACK LISTING

1. Mind & Matter - I’m Under Your Spell
2. Ujima - Maybe
3. Cosmos Universal Band - Third Eye
4. 94 East - If You See Me
5. Crystal’s Image - A Friend
6. Arabi - Times Three
7. Universal Togetherness Band - Dreamality
8. Third Rail - Just Had To Tell You
9. Clifton Dyson, Gwen Matthews - I’m Giving Up
10. Wind - Best Thing I Can Do (Vocal)
11. Wee - Take To The Sky

Happiest of birthdays to Super Spicy who celebrate half a decade in the game with an EP of irresistible tunes. Phunque kicks the party off with an old school vibe that pairs a superb male vocal with crisp, effective drums. Bob Musella brings sample magic on 'Baby Hot Stuff' and Ysheso, Ralo keep the disco-tinged house feels flowing with a percussive monster. After the smoother sounds of Ghosts Of Venice, the flip side brings a trio of funked-up and guitar-laced house grooves that take it back to the glory days of New York.

STAFF COMMENTS

Mine says: Super Spicy are unstoppable. After now 7 volumes of their Super Spicy Recipe series this 12" marks volume 2 of their best of celebrating 5 years of releasing records. Happy Birthday (part 2), here's to many more spicy years!

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. Phunque - "You Got The Love"
2. Bob Musella - "Baby Hot Stuff"
3. Ysheso, Ralo - "Right On Ponce"
4. Ghosts Of Venice - "Disco Nouveau"

Side 2
1. Sebastian Badi, Nico Cortazzo - "You Know What I Want"
2. Monsieur Van Pratt, BROLORIZO - "Ticket 2 Ride" (Extended Mix)
3. Monsieur Van Pratt, BROLORIZO - "Ticket 2 Ride" (Derrick McKenzie Mix)

Townies, homecoming queens, and big men on campus manifest a homegrown and revolutionary sound in Civil Rights-era Greensboro. Among presidential hopefuls and future astronauts, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, located in Greensboro, was a hotbed of black excellence, activism, and raw talent. At the helm of a half-dozen labels, local yokel Walter Grady assembled a rotating cast of townies, homecoming queens, and big men on campus to manifest a scintillating sound that was both homegrown and revolutionary. 'Eccentric Soul: The Linco Label' compiles melodic milestones from the birthplace of the civil rights movement.

TRACK LISTING

1. Gin And The Gents - Dreams For Sale
2. Four Wheel Drive - Fussin’ & Cussin’
3. Ronn Feaster - Don’t Laugh In My Face And Steal My Man
4. The Opells - Day And Time
5. The Versatile Gents - You’ve Blown My Mind
6. The Blenders - Nothin’ But A Party
7. Gin And The Gents - Boy And Girl
8. Cathy Smith - Baby, You Got It
9. Electric Express - Life Ain’t Easy
10. Bryant Headen - Guess I Better Move On
11. Roy Roberts Experience - Stop (Watch What You Doing To Me)
12. The Opells - You Know I Love You
13. Gin And The Gents - Could This Be Love
14. The Party Brothers - Let Me Be The One
15. Soul Hustlers - Super Party
16. John McCain - They Call Me The Man
17. Second Movement - People Get Down
18. True Transfusion - No Communication
19. EW Funktionäre - Disco Spirit
20. Roy Roberts Experience - I Can’t Go On (Without Your Love)
21. Inner City Funktion - Don’t You Need Someone Like Me (I Can Set Your Love Free)
22. Bridge - Stick Your Finger In The Ground (And Turn The World Around)
23. Human Blood - Blood City Funk
24. EW Funktionäre - Noah
25. Rufus Thompson - What’s Happening To My World (Extended Version)
26. Human Blood - She Makes My Temperature Rise (Because She’s Bad)

Pavilion are proud to announce a new compilation 'Break the Glass, Burn the Cage (The Sound of Indie Punk Rock)'. This compilation celebrates all that is Indie and Punk. Immerse yourself in cramped and sweaty grassroots venues with these bands’ electrifying guitar riffs, infectious basslines and voices that require being heard. Featuring standout tracks from Lime Garden, SPRINTS, Lambrini Girls, Sunflower Bean, English Teacher, Dream Wife, Panic Shack, Big Joanie and more, this compilation channels the raw energy and rebellious spirit that can only be acquired through caring deeply about the injustices and hatred seen in this world. It is a sonic journey through the angst, passion, fun and freedom found through “sticking it to the Man”.

'Break the Glass, Burn the Cage (The Sound of Indie Punk Rock)' is announced coinciding with International Women’s Day 2025 as a charity record, and all the tracks on this record have kindly been donated by the bands for free. This means that for every sale, the entirety of the profits will go to our two chosen charities that do their utmost to help women and girls from all backgrounds and ages, covering everything from domestic abuse, bereavement, homelessness and war - Brighton Women's Centre & War Child.

TRACK LISTING

1. SPRINTS – Up And Comer
2. English Teacher – R&B (Theo Verney Version)
3. Lime Garden – Clockwork
4. ĠENN – Reprise (That Girl)
5. Panic Shack – I Don’t Really Like It
6. Big Joanie – Taut
7. Kynsy – Stereo Games
8. Du Blonde - TV Star
9. Prima Queen – Ugly
10. Housewife – I Lied
11. Pom Pom Squad – Street Fighter
12. Jopy – Graveyard Romance
13. Lambrini Girls – Company Culture
14. Dream Wife – Room 341
15. Queen Cult – Be Better
16. Sunflower Bean – Teach Me To Be Bad

Acid Jazz presents a very special compilation marking the 40th Anniversary of group label Countdown Records. Countdown was originally founded by Eddie Piller, Maxine Conroy and Terry Rawlings and distributed by legendary UK independent Stiff Records. The label reflected the burgeoning Mod revival scene of the mid ‘80s, alongside a vibrant New Wave sound, as Ed began to find his way as a label executive. It was a fresh and unique take on Mod that attempted to place the scene’s main acts in the mainstream world. It almost worked too. But despite the brilliance of the signings, it was tripped up by the demise of Stiff, and the corporate domination of the mid-80s charts. Lessons would be learned and applied with Piller’s next label Acid Jazz, where Countdown refugees such as James Taylor, and Mother Earth’s Chris White went on to greater success. This collection tells the label’s story through the best of its musical output, from mainstays such as Makin’ Time, The Prisoners and The Kick, alongside classics and

TRACK LISTING

1. Pump It Up – Makin’ Time
2. Whenever I’m Gone – The Prisoners
3. I Can’t Let Go – The Kick
4. Falling For You – Long Tall Shorty
5. I Don’t Need No Doctor – Fast Eddie
6. Guilty – The All Jacks
7. The More That I Teach You – The Prisoners
8. Here’s My Number Baby – Makin’ Time
9. Dreams Come True – The Combine
10. Don’t Ever Change – The Ambassadors
11. Stuck On The Edge Of A Blade
12. Ivor The Engine Driver – The Daggermen

Demon presents the second volume of the Tim Burgess Listening Party compilation. Following on from the success of 2024’s listening party, Tim is back with a further 24 eclectic cuts. This 2LP collection is pressed on blue translucent vinyl, bringing together 24 further highlights from the 1,278 Listening Parties that took place. The parties themselves were an eclectic mix of genres and eras, and the compilation reflects that with track from Paul McCartney, The Magic Numbers, Ibibio Sound Machine, Róisín Murphy, Iron Maiden, Laurie Anderson and Norah Jones.

As well Tim's Twitter Listening Party, Tim's Listening Party is also a six-part radio and podcast series airing on Sunday nights on Absolute Radio.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Magic Numbers - Love Me Like You
2. Paul McCartney - The Kiss Of Venus
3. Talking Heads - Heaven
4. Ibibio Sound Machine - Tell Me (Doko Mien)
5. Hot Chip - Hungry Child
6. Boy Azooga - Breakfast Epiphany
7. Biffy Clyro - Tiny Indoor Fireworks
8. Pixies - Debaser
9. Georgia - About Work The Dancefloor
10. Michael Kiwanuka - Piano Joint (This Kind Of Love)
11. Run The Jewels & El-P & Killer Mike Feat. 2 Chainz - Out Of Sight
12. Róisín Murphy - Murphy's Law
13. The Soft Boys - Insanely Jealous Of You
14. Iron Maiden - Powerslave (2015 Remaster)
15. Gang Of Four - Natural's Not In It
16. Jesus Jones - The Devil You Know
17. Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg
18. Laurie Anderson - Born, Never Asked
19. Metronomy - Corinne
20. Flyte - Cathy Come Home
21. The Pipettes - Pull Shapes
22. Joel Culpepper - Black Boy
23. Saint Etienne - Pond House
24. Norah Jones - Come Away With Me

Here you are in 2025 about to take the Twentieth Trip! The ten vintage early local hard rock eruptions here will swarm around you like fear and loathing bats, zapping you from unexpected angles, beyond-a-reasonable-doubt proof that the inevitable collapse of the American Psychedelic ’60s Utopian Dream into hard guitar low ball self absorbed human nature endures. These killer tracks may be a half century in the rear-view mirror now but...since We Can’t Work It Out… we gotta mess it up! A vibe that resonates timelessly, real life ripped out of the haze by real people, fresh and unfiltered right out of the gate. Getting it while they can. These are no mere historic sound recordings, they are life itself! If you’re looking for trouble, you just found it!

TRACK LISTING

1. Afterflash – Cookbook
2. Polvo – Have You Ever Been There? (Has Estado Ahí)
3. Hot Candy – Darkened Passage
4. Banana Bros – Suck You In
5. The Jordan Brothers – Thank You For The Ride
6. Osage Lute – Watch Em Shine
7. Sandy Torano And The Nimo Spliff – A Year Ago Today
8. Lazy Day – Don’t Dance In My Song
9. Flavor – Hot And Tot Woman
10. Frozen Sun – Jamm Pt. 1

Take a ticket, find yourself a comfortable seat and embark on a musical journey across the underground musical landscape of 1970s Germany…. As the sound of the 1960s drifted off into outer space, open-minded musicians across Germany - East and West - forged their own unique path into the 1970s and beyond, strangely free of the overtly commercial and conformist concerns of their neighbours around Europe. Why this generation from this particular nation might be beyond giving a ficken is a topic for someplace else, but for reasons of their own Tangerine Dream, Popol Vuh, Faust, Conrad Schnitzler and their contemporaries sought not to explore the pop charts but the boundaries of inner space and intellectual curiosity, veering with wild and free abandon from rock to jazz to lengthy progressive wig outs and formative electronica in the process. Many never returned, lost and adrift on a sea of dope smoke and Moog arpeggios, but ‘Electric Junk’ nevertheless charts and documents their journey for future generations.

Compiled and sequenced with your own journey into inner space in mind, we proudly present a remarkable snapshot of a movement like no other. Rebellious, politically charged, communal and lysergically informed, these artists took their non-macho, long-haired proto punk outlook around the world in its many forms, finding favour throughout Europe, Asia and the US. Critical acclaim and the occasional hit were their rewards, alongside inadvertently inventing and influencing uncountable niche genres, questionable fashion statements and must-hear bands.

TRACK LISTING

DISC ONE
1 GURU GURU - Electric Junk
2 JANE - Early In The Morning
3 BRAINTICKET - Black Sand
4 KRAAN - Head
5 KARTHAGO - Why Don't You Stop Buggin' Me
6 EPSILON - She Belongs To Me
7 ELOY - Daybreak
8 MESSAGE - Dreams And Nightmares (Dreams)
9 NOSFERATU - Highway
10 LA DÜSSELDORF - Silver Cloud

DISC TWO
1 KLAUS SCHULZE - Satz Gewitter (Energy Rise, Energy Collapse)
2 LAVA - Piece Of Peace
3 TANGERINE DREAM - Movements Of A Visionary
4 HANS-JOACHIM ROEDELIUS - Regenmacher
5 CONRAD SCHNITZLER - Wild Space 6
6 NINE DAYS' WONDER - Moment
7 FAUST - Jennifer
8 NOVALIS - Dronsz
9 AGITATION FREE - You Play For Us Today
10 SILBERBART - Brain Brain 

DISC THREE:
1 EDGAR FROESE - Epsilon In Malaysian Pale
2 CLUSTER - Georgel
3 MY SOLID GROUND - The Executioner
4 POPOL VUH - Ah!
5 KLAUS SCHULZE - Some Velvet Phasing
6 TRIUMVIRAT - March To The Eternal City
7 TANGERINE DREAM - Ultima Thule Pt 1
8 EMBRYO - A Place To Go
9 FAUST - On The Way To Abamae
10 ELECTRIC SANDWICH - China (Single Version)
11 MY SOLID GROUND - Dirty Yellow Mist

DISC FOUR:
1 RAMSES - La Leyla
2 FRAME - Frame Of Mind
3 A.R. & MACHINES – Als Hätte Ich Das Alles Schon 'mal Gesehen
4 JANUS - Red Sun (2013 Remix)
5 GURU GURU - Stone In
6 HOELDERLIN - Schwebebahn
7 ORANGE PEEL - We Still Try To Change
8 PELL MELL - City Monster
9 OS MUNDI - A Question Of Decision
10 SWEET SMOKE - Darkness To Light

A comprehensive overview of soul music from the great state of Illinois, this 732-page, two volume set chronicles over 3200 artists, 1200 record companies, and 10,000 individual releases between the years of 1960 and 1990. From Chicago to Cairo, East St. Louis to Kankakee, from The Accents to Ze-Majestiks, Soul Music Of Illinois serves as discography, field manual, atlas, telephone directory, and coffee table book, all presented in glorious full-color and wrapped in handsome woven linen.

After the incredible success of the film Easy Rider, Dennis Hopper was given complete freedom to direct and star in the bizarre, surrealist The Last Movie – released in 1971. Filmed in a drug fuelled haze in Peru with Hopper, Peter Fonda, Kris Kristofferson, Dean Stockwell, Michelle Phillips, Russ Tamblyn, and Samuel Fuller – there has never been a soundtrack to this film until now! Featuring the first ever performances of Kristofferson’s legendary “Me and Bobby McGee” plus sublime country-folk songs from John Buck Wilkin, Peruvian folk & dance music – all recorded live on set in Peru – nothing was overdubbed! Plus, provocative movie dialogue from Dennis Hopper, Sam Fuller and others – coupled with the ambient sounds of the mountains and villages of South America – reissue producer Pat Thomas and Hopper Estate archivist Jessica Hundley have assembled a groovy listening experience that will melt minds. Packaging includes rare vintage photos, detailed liner notes, et al. The Last Movie audio recordings are being released for the first time on CD taken from the original movie reels!

TRACK LISTING

1 Opening Scene
2 Good For Nothing Is Good Enough For Me
3 Me And Bobby McGee
4 The Party Walk
5 Billy Don't Shoot
6 Rolling
7 La Di Da
8 Daydream
9 Conversation
10 Only Once
11 I'm The Hottest
12 Un Baracho, Baracho
13 Maria Suenas, Dos Claveles
14 Chinchero Chant
15 Sympathetic Scarecrow
16 Music!
17 The Final Procession
18 Only Once
19 Boo-hoo In Tinseltown 

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Of all the independent record labels of the 1980s, él was the most singular and exciting. él only existed for a few short years and yet paradoxically - given its modest commercial success - was hugely influential. For writer Jonathan Coe, one of the label’s many devotees, él was ‘Britain's great musical secret’.

This ‘best of’ compilation LP, curated by label supremo Mike Alway himself, will remind the world of the greatness of él. The secret is out…

él was created in 1984 by Alway, a mercurial A&R man for Cherry Red signing outstanding artists like Everything But the Girl, The Monochrome Set and Felt. Alway briefly co-ran Blanco Y Negro (an offshoot of WEA) but was soon constrained by the conservativism of the commercial music sector and left to set up his own label. él was once described as ‘the most innately English record label there has ever been’ and yet the look and the sound of the label achieved global reach.

Always ‘hands on’ approach was to take complete control of the philosophy of the label’s releases and even the titles of songs in the manner of pop impresarios of the past. Alway became a curator, selecting, shaping and overseeing the records issued on él. He employed songwriters proficient in classical pop techniques such as Nicholas Currie (AKA Momus) and Philippe Auclair (AKA Louis Philippe) who issued their own records while writing, arranging and performing for other él artistes. Great musicians such as Simon Turner (AKA The King of Luxembourg), Dean ‘Speedball’ Brodrick and producer Richard Preston completed the picture.

él had a unique musical flavour, eschewing rock music for 1960s bubbelgum, chamber pop, European chanson, Latin rhythms and film scores (see in particular the work of Marden Hill). The label was decidedly un-macho and key artists such as Would Be Goods, Anthony Adverse and Bad Dream Fancy Dress examined the modern world through the female gaze. Alway saw él as a celebration of elegance and beauty: ‘a pop world beyond leather jackets and jeans’.

The fantastic visual style of the label, adopting the aesthetics of high fashion, art photography and pop graphics was created by Alway with photographers Nick Wesolowski and Pete Moss and designer Jim Phelan. The él ‘look’ was so strong that one UK music paper even reviewed the records simply on the basis of the sleeves!

él was critically acclaimed in the UK and popular in America and mainland Europe but in Japan had a profound effect, directly influencing the Shibuya-kei phenomenon that included Pizzicato Five, Kahimi Karie and Cornelius.

The Rubens Room accompanies the book Bright Young Things by Mark Goodall (Ventil) the first publication to tell the fascinating story of the music found on The Rubens Room.

Mike Alway writes in his sleeve notes that ‘él was the joy of my life. It was monumental’.

With The Rubens Room, we can all share that joy.

TRACK LISTING

1. Louis Philippe - Anthony Bay
2. Louis Philippe - Like Nobody Do
3. Louis Philippe - Guess I'm Dumb
4. Louis Philippe - Touch Of Evil
5. Louis Philippe - If You're Missing Someone
6. Anthony Adverse - Now Listen
7. Anthony Adverse - Ulysses And The Siren
8. The King Of Luxembourg - A Picture Of Dorian Gray
9. The King Of Luxembourg - The Rubens Room
10. The King Of Luxembourg - Smash Hit Wonder
11. Would-Be-Goods - The Camera Loves Me
12. Would-Be-Goods - Velasquez & I
13. Would-Be-Goods - Cecil Beaton’s Scrapbook
14. Marden Hill - Curtain
15. Marden Hill - Oh Constance
16. Marden Hill - The Execution Of Emperor Maximillian
17. Bad Dream Fancy Dress - Choirboys Gas
18. Bad Dream Fancy Dress - Where Have All The Schoolboys Gone?
19. Bad Dream Fancy Dress - Lemon Tarts
20. The Monochrome Set - Jet Set Junta (Single Version)
21. Always - Thames Valley Leather Club
22. Always - Park Row
23. Momus - John The Baptist Jones
24. Momus - Paper Wraps Rock
25. Simon Fisher Turner - Umber Wastes

Japan’s cult, half-forgotten goldmine DD. Records opened and closed within a few frantic years. In that short time (from 1980 to 1985), they released exactly 222 cassettes (and a handful of vinyl records) of the strangest, boldest, most arresting and addictively subversive music within their social and creative circles.

Each of their cassette releases came with abstract, xerographic artwork, often created by the musician themselves, while the label’s recorded output encompassed avant-punk, Cubist ambient music, sound collage, pop concréte, jazz-prog, early computer music, and anything else their roster cared to throw at them. Housed in sleeves of found imagery taken from classical and Medieval literature, contemporary and historic photography, science textbooks, magazines, homemade erotica, and endless more, these records reveal not only the strength of the community the label had fostered, but also the insular self-reference and in-jokes that kept the music from outsiders for decades.

Two facets of DD. Records shine through even this unique story: firstly, they were friends. Founder T. [Tadashi] Kamada formed the label alone, but it wasn’t long before he was joined by like-minded allies T. [Teruo] Nakamura, K. [Koshiro] Yoshimatsu, K. [Keiichi] Usami, and T. [Takafumi] Isotani, among a few others. All were contributors to Kamada’s tape-trading network The Recycle Circle, formed at the University of Yamanashi, most of its members at the time around 20 years old. Their bond was a love of exploratory sounds and a hunger for deeper excavations into the tunnels and caves of experimental music. “An independent, private circle where members who owned expensive records or rare imported vinyl with limited distribution could send a cassette tape and a return postage stamp to dub the record back to each other for free,” Usami explains, in interview with Jon Dale for Bandcamp Daily.

Secondly, the aforementioned cassettes remained almost entirely unavailable to the world outside Japan, with only a single US retailer engaged to carry the releases. Forty plus years hence, many of the records have been lost to time, but occasionally surface when (so writes an online observer) “a private collector has a medical bill to cover.” A German archivist, Jorg Öpitz, is primarily (and almost exclusively) responsible for the entire English-language directory of the label’s output, cataloguing online surviving and lost cassettes with completist dedication. Largely autodidactic and almost always hermetic, this company of hobbyist and amateur (and in many cases, totally untrained) musicians rarely performed live. Many of them collaborated remotely, sending home-recorded tapes and collaged artwork in the post. “[We were] isolated from the rest of the [Japanese] indie movement,” Usami remembers. Strangely, and sadly for many, Tadashi Kamada has completely retired from public view. According to one-time collaborators, it is likely he is unaware of the cult following his label has garnered over the decades. Some sources point to a successful career in consumer electronics, a family, and a contented indifference to his early experiments in record label curation. But no-one seems certain about these details, none of which has harmed the image of a label that revels in mythmaking. An artefact left behind was Disk Musik.

Though compilations were not unknown to DD. Records, vinyl was rare. Only a handful of Kamada titles - presumably self-funded - were released on vinyl, right at the start of the label’s life, and it is not until 1985 and Disk Musik that the format reemerges. It appears to be their final release: a parting gift to neatly bookend five feverish years of new music, rubber stamping their creative identity. In the twenty-first century, the second hand market for original copies is limited to scarce private sales at seriously hefty prices. There are endless and curious gems within. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Circadian Rhythm - Shela
2. Kum - One Day With Kakusuko
3. 10T - Israel
4. Abnormal Sex - NHK
5. T. Isotani - 1/2 Orange
6. Mask - In And Out
7. Mosque Of Torment - Ceramic Dance
8. T. Tukimoto - Did The Thought Of Love Surpass Everything?
9. T. Kamada - Muzikapart
10. Y. Tabata - Summer Initiation
11. Cat Dog - Grain
12. Young Hormones - Egg
13. K. Usami - Soma Illusion

Italian house was the first, anticipating the irruption of the digital scenarios that have forever changed 'making art', to redefine, to redraw a map that did not exist, that of the 'young' sound that shifted its creative trajectories from the megalopolises overseas (with all their urban poetics) to the Italian province, inside recording studios where a group of young maniacs of machines, mixers, synths, appropriated a language that was not their own and declined it by opening their minds, demonstrating, that indeed, anything is possible. They studied patterns that came from afar, they applied to those patterns the natural force of moving with sensuality, they showed that they knew perfectly how to build what rappers, a few years later, would call 'The Perfect Rhythm'. They sought it out in the endless nights of discotheques, of dance halls, from the glitziest ones that would set the standard for Ibizan nightlife to the after-hours clubs on the outskirts of small towns. They succeeded in defining a syntax that, shortly afterwards, would mark, with its influence, the advent of what would become 'club culture'. So many theme songs, often created for the occasion, rhythmic and melodic sequences packaged with the awareness that there are codified rules that can enhance 'body language'. Sequences that, often, with their authors, would then fly to New York in search of the splendid voice to hire for a turn in the recording studio, to give the song that definitive and planetary dimension that has, with great ease, spanned the decades.

TRACK LISTING

1. Montego Bay - Everything (Paradise Mix)
2. Atelier - Got To Live Together (Club Mix)
3. Golem - Music Sensations
4. The True Underground Sound Of Rome - Gladiators (feat. Stefano Di Carlo)
5. Eagle Parade - I Believe
6. D.J. Le Roy - Yo Te Quiero (Detroit Version) [feat. Bocachica]
7. Green Baize - Synthetic Rhythm
8. MCJ - Sexitivity (Deep Mix) [feat. Sima]
9. Kwanza Posse - Wicked Funk (Afro Ambient Mix) [feat. Funk Master Sweat]
10. Progetto Tribale - The Bird Of Paradise
11. MBG - The Quiet

The great Clint Eastwood first started his career as an actor, but later gained further prestige as a director with films such as Unforgiven (1992), for which he won the Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture, Bridges of Madison County (1995), and Mystic River (2003), among many others.

Also, as a piano player and composer himself, Eastwood's love for jazz and blues is apparent when listening to the music he chose for the soundtracks of several of his movies. In fact, he used Erroll Garner's celebrated song "Mist y" in the first film he directed, titled Play Misty for Me (1971). Presented here is a collection of classic jazz, blues, swing and country performances featured in the soundtrack of some of his films.

Clint Eastwood interview Jazz Times in 2007: "When I was a kid growing up in Oakland, I started listening to a program called The Dixieland Jubilee. For fifteen minutes every day, they'd play the Frisco Jazz Band, Lu Watters' Yerba Buena Jazz Band, stuff like that. Then there was a jazz store out near El Cerrito, and I went out there and started listening to things and purchased a few records. Bop was starting to come in pretty good. So I went over and saw Dizzy Gillespie with a big band in San Francisco. There was a lot of blues being played around Oakland at that time - Ivory Joe Hunter, Joe Houston, Wynonie Harris - and I got wrapped up listening to that.

TRACK LISTING

Errol Garner - Misty (from Play Misty For Me)
Dinah Washington - I’ll Close My Eyes (from The Bridges Of Madison County)
Stan Getz - All The Thing You Are (from The Rookie)
Billie Holiday - I’ll Be Seeing You (from J. Edgar)
Thelonious Monk - Round Midnight (from Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser) 
Marty Robbins - Don’t Worry (from A Perfect World)
Johnny Cash - Folsom Prison Blues (from Escape From Alcatraz)
Ahmad Jamal - Poinciana (from The Bridges Of Madison County)
Charlie Parker - Laura (from Bird)
Dinah Washington - Blue Gardenia (from The Bridges Of Madison County)
Perry Como - Catch A Falling Star (from A Perfect World)
Johnny Hartman - I See Your Face Before Me (from The Bridges Of Madison County)
Tony Bennett - I Wanna Be Around (from Midnight In The Garden Of Good and Evil)
Dean Martin - Ain’t That A Kick In The Head (from White Hunter Black Heart)
Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons - Sherry (from Jersey Boys)

An eclectic compilation album celebrating twenty ‘tips of the tongue’ from David Keenan, released to coincide with a book of his collected music writing.

As well as being the title of a book. Volcanic Tongue was a record shop that existed in Glasgow from 2005 to 2015, run by David Keenan and Heather Leigh, it championed contemporary DIY music from around the world, often released in tiny runs on homemade CD-Rs, and also sought to shine a light on forgotten artists from the past, who had often released their music as a ‘private press’ LP. The shop was also known for it’s weekly mailing list, with Keenan enthusiastically rapping about new arrivals, especially the record of the week, given the sobriquet ‘tip of the tongue’. This collection has been put together from releases that were a ‘tip of the tongue’, containing music that runs the gamut from outsider synth to psych-folk to damaged rock’n’roll, with tracks recorded between 1968 and 2013, a celebration of a vibrant and eclectic underground avant-garde.

Printed inner sleeves with original notes on each artist by David Keenan, housed in a sleeve designed by Julian House.

TRACK LISTING

1. Ashtray Navigations - Mailshot Slot
2. Elli And Bev - 31Men
3. The ScrotumPoles - Pick The Cats Eyes Out
4. The Bachs - Tables Of Grass Fields
5. Fille Qui Mousse - Fraîcheur Et Amalgame
6. Idea Fire Company - Romance
7. Hollywood Autopsy - Lost Finding Gone
8. ESP Kinetic - Metropoline
9. Hospitals - This Walls
10. Counter Intuits - Anarchy On Yr Face
11. Metal Rouge - Grey AreaII
12. Simon Finn - Patrice
13. A To Austr - Thumbquake And Earthscrew
14. Christina Carter - Seals
15. Sachiko Yama - Keburi
16. JD Emmanuel - Attaining Peace
17. Vox Populi! - Gole Mariam
18. Circuit Des Yeux - Serenade To Sophia
19. Bronze Horse - Number 1
20. Orphan Fairytale - Phantom Shapes

Pete Herbert is back with another tasteful assembled and escapist compilation. This one focuses on slowed-down, low-slung sounds for the golden hour when love is in the air and the vibes are blissful. Balearic mainstays feature throughout with Max Essa's 'Warm Enough' a delightfully humid and synth-laced deep house jaunt, Fernando's 'Moon Rocks' full of shimmering synth lushness and Pete Herbert's remix of Mantas & Vencla's 'Sun' offering some piano laced fun to rouse the 'floor.

STAFF COMMENTS

Mine says: The last Music For Swimming Pools compilation has gone down a treat and I think this one might prove just as, if not more, popular. Featuring a smorgasbord of balearic and electronic noise makers, including our album of the year 2020 chart toppers Rheinzand.

TRACK LISTING

Marius Vareid - "Nite Drive"
Max Essa - "Warm Enough"
Fernando - "Mareas" (Pete Herbert Remix)
Dan Jarvis - "Schema"
12Tree - "Deep Souflee" (Gafas Du Soul Remix)
Fernando - "Moon Rocks"
Mantas & Vencla - "Sun" (Pete Herbert Remix)
Fabulous Lover - "On The Run"
Rheinzand - "Queen Of Dawn" (Pete Herbert Instrumental Remix)

Armed with a passion for discovery and an ear for extraordinary sounds, Atjazz has handpicked an exquisite selection of tracks to take you on a journey through the depths of Deep Afro and soulful house and then a delve into Broken Beat & Nu-Jazz.

The A- side dives deep into Atjazz's Galaxy Aart guise with 2 stirring remixes: Halo featuring Maiya's 'Glory' and Imaani's 'Found My Light'. Adding to the glow is the 2019 sun- soaked remix of Canadian jazz sensation Dominique Fils- Aime's radiant masterpiece, 'Sun Rise'.

Flip to the B-side, and you're swept into a Love Soul journey. Feel the lush warmth of Ralf GUM featuring Monica Blaire's 'AWA' and the rediscovered magic of Nathan Haines' 'U See That', elevated by the glorious vocals of Vanessa Freeman and Marcuss Begg. Closing this stellar sampler is the awe-inspiring collaboration between The Realm, Atjazz, and Kelli Sae--a modern remake of Incognito's timeless B-Side gem, 'On The Road'.

TRACK LISTING

1. Halo Feat. Maiya - Glory (Atjazz Galaxy Aart Remix)
2. Imaani - Found My Light (Atjazz Galaxy Aart Remix)
3. Dominique Fils-Aime - Sun Rise (Atjazz Remix)
4. Ralf GUM Feat. Monica Blaire - AWA (Atjazz Love Soul Mix)
5. Nathan Haines Feat. Vanessa Freeman & Marcus Begg - U See That (Atjazz Love Soul Mix)
6. The Realm X Atjazz X Kelli Sae - On The Road (Vocal Mix)

Wewantsounds is delighted to announce the release of "Sweet Rebels – The Golden Era of Algerian Pop-Raï" Selected in Paris by Cheb Gero. The set features the raw energy of the Algerian Raï scene from the 80s and early '90s and its young stars Cheb Zahouani, Chaba Zohra and Abderrahmane Djalti. Newly remastered and including liner notes from Raï authority Rabah Mezouane, the compilation brings together eight cassette tracks from the electrifying period when Raï music was evolving from a more traditional sound to the mesmerising electro funk sound of the 80s.

TRACK LISTING

1. Cheikha Djenia El K'bira - Chabe Rassi
2. Cheb Zahouani - Zinek Bekani
3. Chaba Zohra - Ki Bghitouni Nabra
4. Cheb Abdelhak - Ghir Hbibi Ouana
5. Abderrahmane Djalti - Ala Bladi Nebki
6. Chaba Amina - Kindi Ebatal
7. Cheb Tahar & Chaba Noria - La Hbibi Ouaalah Ela
8. Djilali Tiarti & Chaba Zohra - Matczaafiche Omizi

Soul music has always been in Paul Weller’s blood from early Jam covers of Martha & the Vandellas 1963 classic ‘Heatwave’. Along with other forms of music, soul found its way into Paul’s record collection, nourishing his ears and informing his own songwriting

We don’t need to recap a questing musical career from the Jam to the Style Council and then blossoming into one of the most productive and revered careers of any UK solo artist. Paul has written anthems, standards and a songbook that have always developed from his own feelings.

Whilst Paul has talked about his love of soul music he has, before now, simply been too busy to sit down and curate a collection of his favourite tracks and get it into the record racks.

Ace Records are honoured and delighted to finally release that Paul Weller curated collection which he has aptly titled, “That Sweet Sweet Music”.

This 2-LP set and CD open the curtains on 26 tracks that are some of Paul’s favourite soul records most of which nestle on vinyl in his own collection. He can still recall paying £70 for his copy of Jon Lucien’s 1971 ‘Search For The Inner Self’ 7” at a record shop in Leicester in the 90s. Some of these tracks are soul classics like James Carr’s 1966 ‘Pouring Water On A Drowning Man’ and Brother to Brother’s brilliant take on Gil Scott Heron and Brian Jackson’s ‘In The Bottle’ from 1974. Others are deliciously obscure wonderous gems like the A-side of Blackrock’s sole 1971 single ‘Blackrock “Yeah, Yeah”’, ‘Life Walked Out’ from the same year by the Mist or Syl Johnson’s ‘Black Balloons’ taken from his 1970 album “Is It Because I’m Black?”.

There are plenty of big vocal hitters such as Darrell Banks, Spinners, Joe Simon, O.C. Smith, the Dells and Betty Davis. Whilst the core is vocal soul the music does branch out with Paul selecting a wicked instrumental from the flipside of the Isley Brothers’ ‘Twist & Shout’ from 1962 and the funky jazz of the Headhunters ‘God Made Me Funky’, the A-side of their first 1975 seven-inch.

Paul has not only written an introduction but the way he has curated the music allows each side of the vinyl and the CD to flow like a river taking the listener on a journey through some of his favourite music.

It’s a Sweet Sweet collection indeed...

TRACK LISTING

SIDE ONE
1. GOD MADE ME FUNKY - The Headhunters
2. SPANISH TWIST - The I. B. Special
3. BREAKAWAY - The Valentines
4. TOP OF THE STAIRS - Collins & Collins
5. DONT LET THE GREEN GRASS FOOL YOU - The Spinners
6. BLACK BALLOONS - Syl Johnson

SIDE TWO
1. SOULSHAKE - Peggy Scott & Jo Jo Benson
2. I CAN'T MAKE IT ANYMORE - Richie Havens
3. YOU GOT TO HAVE MONEY - The Exits
4. PULL MY STRING (TURN ME ON) - The Joneses
5. RUN FOR COVER - The Dells
6. ON EASY STREET - O.C. Smith
7. IT AIN'T NO BIG THING - The Radiants

SIDE THREE
1. SUMMERTIME - Billy Stewart
2. IN THE BOTTLE - Brother To Brother
3. HARD TIMES - Baby Huey
4. MAGGIE - Johnny Williams
5. WHEN - Joe Simon
6. POURING WATER ON A DROWNING MAN - James Carr
7. THAT'S ENOUGH - Roscoe Robinson

SIDE FOUR
1. BLACKROCK “YEAH, YEAH” - Blackrock
2. GOLDEN RING - American Gypsy
3. SEARCH FOR THE INNER SELF - Jon Lucien
4. LIFE WALKED OUT - The Mist
5. IN THE MEANTIME - Betty Davis
6. BEAUTIFUL FEELING (SINGLE MIX) - Darrell Banks

Originally released in 2014, Strut re-introduces 'Hardcore Traxx: Dance Mania Records 1986-1997', the highly sought-after definitive retrospective of one of Chicago’s most important and innovative house music labels.

Emerging as a raw alternative to the powerhouses of Trax and DJ International during the mid- ‘80s, Dance Mania continued to represent street-level Chicago club music into the ‘90s, helping to pioneer the Ghetto House sound.

Hardcore Traxx traces the full story of the label from its heyday. Founded in 1985 and managed by Ray Barney from Barney’s Distribution HQ on Ogden Avenue (moving later to West Roosevelt Road), Dance Mania hit the ground running with its second release in ’86, the incendiary ‘Hardcore Jazz’ EP by Duane & Co. Barney quickly became a trustworthy outlet for early house and acid productions by upcoming Chicago artists such as Lil Louis, Marshall Jefferson and Farley Keith aka Farkey “Jackmaster” Funk.

The label set out its stall with a series of landmark Chicago releases including ‘7 Ways’ by Hercules, Li’l Louis’ ‘The Original Video Clash’ and international smash ‘House Nation’ by Housemaster Boyz. During the ‘80s, it cemented its reputation for uncompromising club records and DJ Tools with sounds spanning raw garage (Victor Romeo’s ‘Love Will Find A Way’), acid trax (Robert Armani) and quality house (Da Posse).

Into the ‘90s, Barney unleashed the groundbreaking ‘Hit It From The Back’ by Traxmen and Eric Martin, ushering in a primitive new sound around faster, stripped down rhythms and X-rated party-starting lyric lines. Barney remembers, “Guys used to call in and ask for music on Dance Mania – they were saying, ‘gimme some of that ghetto stuff’. ’ Dance Mania producer DJ Slugo adds, “when we made Ghetto House… we made music for the b*tches. Music for the grinding sh*t and all of that. ” The sound spawned a whole new swathe of homegrown producers releasing a fast flow of no-compromise dancefloor bangers: Paul Johnson, DJ Deeon, DJ Funk, DJ Milton, Waxmaster and Slugo all became leaders of the scene. The influence of ghetto house became widespread, not least for Daft Punk, whose track ‘Teachers’ from their ‘Homework’ album in 1997 was effectively a tribute to Dance Mania. The new wave of productions also paved the way for the later Chicago juke and footwork scene.

Now revitalised under the leadership of Ray Barney and Parris Mitchell, Dance Mania remains a cornerstone of Chicago’s dance music culture. With Hardcore Traxx, Strut delivers the ultimate tribute to the label, featuring a meticulously curated compilation of its classics, Ghetto House anthems, and hidden gems. The release was produced in collaboration with Dance Mania and compiled by Conor Keeling (creator of the popular Daft Punk-inspired Teachers mix) with contributions from Miles Simpson of Ransom Note. The vinyl edition includes a comprehensive history of the label, artist interviews by DJ Chrissy Murderbot, and rare archival photos.

TRACK LISTING

1. Hercules– 7 Ways (Club)
2. Victor Romeo Featuring Leetrece Brown
3. Club Style– Crazy Wild
4. Tim Harper– Toxic Waste (Club Mix)
5. Vincent Floyd– I'm So Deep Mixed By – Armando
6. 3 2 6– Falling (Armando's House Mix) Remix – Armando
7. DJ Deeon– Da Bomb
8. Parris Mitchell Project Featuring Wax Master – Ghetto Shout Out!!
9. Traxmen & Eric Martin– Hit It From The Back
10. DJ Funk – The Original Video Clash: Video Clash II (Street Mix)
11. Paul Johnson – Feel My M.F. Bass
12. Top Cat – Work Out

Whipped up in the dust of Rene & Rene’s Tejano tornado “Angelito,” the Dynamic label was just one among San Antonio record and real estate mogul Abe Epstein’s enterprises. Dynamic’s flagship outfit, the Commands, marched “No Time For You” up to the middle of the charts in 1966 with performance chops honed jet-sharp by the demanding Air Force Base circuit. That take off paved a runway for 20 more soulful Dynamic singles over an impressive 30-month campaign. Epstein’s open-door policy brought a diverse cross-section of Texas talent into convergence within his General McMullan Drive studio, as whites, blacks, and Latinos alike suited up for service in whichever new group the call of duty called for. Epstein’s Alamo City melting pot is ladled out here in 21 (28 on the 2LP) of Dynamic’s most intriguing dishes by the Tonettes, Little Jr. Jesse & the Tear Drops, Don & the Doves, Willie Cooper & the Webs, Bobby Blackmon & His Soul Express, and Doc & Sal. Lone Star pic sleeves, full-color dancehall photography, and rich ephemera plant a new flag for soul in soil that’s seen its share of hoisted banners.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Commands – Hey It's Love
A2 Little Jr. Jesse & The Tear Drops – Give Your Love To Me
A3 Tonettes – I Gotta Know
A4 Doc & Sal – Can't Get You Offa My Mind
A5 Commands – I've Got Love For My Baby
A6 Willie Cooper & The Webs – You Don't Love Nobody
A7 Little Jr. Jesse & The Tear Drops – Ain't No Big Thing

B1 Commands – No Time For You
B2 Webs – Little Girl Blue
B3 Tonettes – My Heart Can Feel The Pain
B4 Doc & Sal – Cry & Wonder Why
B5 Commands – Don't Be Afraid To Love Me
B6 Willie Cooper & The Webs – I Can't Take No More
B7 Don & The Doves – Together

C1 Webs – Don't Ever Hurt Me
C2 Commands – Must Be Alright
C3 Bobby Blackmon & The Soul Express – She's Gotta Have Soul
C4 Doc & Sal – Laughing To Keep From Crying
C5 Webs – Try Loving Me
C6 Commands – Too Late To Cry
C7 Doc & Sal – My Dream

D1 Little Jr. Jesse & The Tear Drops – If You Don't Love Me
D2 Webs – Can't Let You Go
D3 Commands – A Way To Love Me
D4 Little Jr. Jesse & The Tear Drops – It Keeps Rainin'
D5 Don & The Doves – I Need You
D6 Bobby Blackmon & The Soul Express – You'll Find Another
D7 Commands – Around The Go-Go 

Tsunaki Kadowaki, a staff member at Kyoto’s record store Meditations, the supervisor of "New Age Music Disc Guide", and the founder of Sad Disco, curates the fourth installment of "Midnight in Tokyo" themed around Ambient Kayō.

The album presents 12 exquisite pop tracks infused with an ambient feeling, resonating deeply with the evolving landscape of the mid-2020s—a time of post-hyperpop and Y2K revival.

The Midnight in Tokyo series by Studio Mule focuses on Japanese music, serving as a soundtrack for Tokyo nights—whether for home listening, club play, or as a driving BGM, transcending location and space. After a six-year hiatus, the fourth volume takes "Ambient Kayō" as its new perspective, compiling genre-defying tracks released between 1977 and 1999 to explore the intersection of Japanese ambient and pop music.

For this long-awaited fourth installment, selections were made regardless of record label status (major or independent), era, format (vinyl or CD), original release price, or prior reissues. Instead, the focus was on music that deeply moves the listener, is open-minded and evocative, brims with inspiration and spiritual insight, and embodies the "utagokoro" (singing heart) of Japanese artists.

Opening the compilation is "Umi e Kinasai" by Yōsui Inoue, a legendary Japanese singer-songwriter whose works have recently gained renewed interest as hidden gems of Walearic and ambient pop

Composed and arranged by Katsu Hoshi—who is also known for his arrangements on Inoue’s masterpiece Ice World—the track features renowned players such as Masayoshi Takanaka, Hiroki Inui, and Shigeru Inoue. The song embodies a yearning for Balearic horizons, tinged with youthful vibrancy and sentimentality.

Next, "Oritatamu Umi", compiled from Keiko Nosaka, a 20-string koto player, and George Murasaki, a pioneer of Okinawan rock, is an instrumental track from their album "Niraikanai Requiem 1945". As the title suggests, it carries themes of requiem and remembrance, conveying poetic lyricism even without words. Blending Ryukyuan/Okinawan harmonies and indigenous elements, it unfolds as an intimate and nostalgic piece of progressive rock.

Also featured is "Natsu no Kowareru Koro" by Higurashi, a folk-rock band led by Seiichi Takeda, formerly a guitarist of The Remainders of The Clover, the predecessor of RC Succession. Like the opening track "Umi e Kinasai", this song was also produced by Katsu Hoshi. It stands as a folk/new music piece that takes a step into an "otherworldly" realm, recommended for fans of Twin Cosmos and Masumi Hara.

From the enigmatic Blue, the only work left by the mysterious composer S.R. Kinoshita, comes "Mangrove", a hidden treasure of Japan's ambient/new age scene from the CD era. With an oriental and enigmatic atmosphere, the track evokes a mystical world of deep, uncharted jungles, unfolding as an otherworldly New Age Kayō.

"Yaponesia Sakura", selected from Rehabilual’s sole album New Child, is a masterpiece of Japanese new age music. Produced by Swami Dhyan Akamo, a disciple of Indian meditation teacher Osho and a renowned balafon player, the track features Michio Ogawa (Chakra) and Atsuo Fujimoto (Colored Music). Their collective artistry creates an exquisite spiritual ambient pop sound.

"Asa no Hitoshizuku", the opening folk song from Sachiko Kanenobu’s album Sachiko, is also included. Known for her legendary folk album Misora, produced by Haruomi Hosono, Kanenobu’s fourth album after resuming her career was inspired by her experiences living in San Francisco and revolves around the theme of "love." This track carries the same intimate poetic world as Misora, imbued with a pure, crystalline innocence.

From the synth-pop band E.S. Island, known for the Haruomi Hosono-produced *Teku Teku Mami", comes "Yume Fūrin ", selected from their long-lost new age classic Nanpū from Hachijo. Created while the band’s core duo was living in Hachijō Island, the album aimed to sonically capture "the high and happy vibrations of everyday island life." This track offers a dynamic, tribal-infused New Age Kayō experience.

Dubbed "the world's first Min’yō House Mix" "Esashi Oiwake (Maeuta) " comes from Kanazawa Akiko HOUSE MIX Ⅰ, a collaboration between Japanese house music pioneer Soichi Terada and Akiko Kanazawa, a renowned min’yō singer. Through the prism of club music, Hokkaido's Esashi Oiwake, one of Japan’s most iconic folk songs, is transformed into a futuristic ambient pop piece with intricate sound design.

The compilation also includes "Sweet Ong Choh", a track from Voice From Asia, a group active between 1989 and 1992 featuring vocal artist Shizuru Ohtaka. Taken from their imaginative minimal work Voice From Asia, released under Aoyama Spiral’s music label Newsic, the song presents a tranquil, tribal-minimal soundscape enriched by ethnic instruments.

Hailed by Haruomi Hosono as having “a shaman residing in her voice,” singer-songwriter Nami Hōdatsu also appears in the selection. Known for her collaborations with Henry Kawahara, her debut album featured "Asa-Hikari-Ame-Yume", a track that now stands as a precursor to modern vocaloid/synthesized vocal music—a hidden gem of post-choir aesthetics that deserves rediscovery.

Likewise, "Tennessee Waltz", from Naomi Akimoto’s album One Night Stand, supported by members of Mariah, serves as another early prototype of vocaloid/synthesized vocal music. The track weaves fragmented vocal samples, pastoral yet sweetly minimal synth sounds, and mechanical beats into a strikingly unconventional piece in the history of Japanese music.

Closing the compilation is "Heaven Electric", a track from Nav Katze’s album Gentle & Elegance, which featured remixes by Autechre, Seefeel, and Sun Electric. Merging elements of IDM, ambient techno, and chillout, the song embodies an optimism reminiscent of space music while seamlessly blending a mystical Japanese aesthetic—an ambient pop masterpiece. 

TRACK LISTING

A1 Yousui Inoue Umi He Kinasai 00:05:29
A2 Keiko Nosaka / George Murasaki Oritatamu Umi 00:05:17
A3 Higurashi Natsuno Kowareru Koro 00:03:56
B1 Blue Mangrove 00:06:45
B2 Rehabilual Yaponesia Sakura 00:05:07
B3 Sachiko Kanenobu Asano Hitoshizuku 00:04:36
C1 E.S.Island Yumefurin 00:03:47
C2 Akiko Kanazawa Esashi Oiwake(Maeuta) (Virtual Reality Mix) 00:05:53
C3 Voice From Asia Sweet Ong Choh 00:04:43
D1 Nami Hotatsu Asa Hikari Ame Yume 00:01:53
D2 Nav Katza Heaven Electric 00:05:26
D3 Naomi Akimoto Tennessee Waltz 00:03:01

Soul Jazz Records’ ‘Studio One Showcase 45’ features a roll call of classic Studio One reggae legends including Horace Andy, Cornell Campbell, Bob Marley and The Wailers, Jackie Mittoo, The Heptones, The Skatalites and more - seminal reggae artists who all launched their careers at the legendary Studio One label.

Featuring seminal cuts like Bob Marley and The Wailer’s original version of ‘One Love’, Freddie McGregor’s take on the classic ‘Beat Down Babylon’, Judah Eskender Tafari’s re-version of ‘Danger In Your Eyes’ plus tracks from The Skatalites, Lone Ranger, Johnny Osbourne and more.

The album was previously only ever released as a long-deleted limited edition 7” box set for Record Store Day. This album has now been expanded into a lavish double vinyl album edition as well as a first-time release on CD, with both formats featuring a massive eight bonus tracks of wicked Studio One classics and rarities. The album also comes with newly commissioned sleeve and track notes by Noel Hawks.

TRACK LISTING

Freddie McGregor - Beat Down Babylon
Cornel Campbell - No Man's Land
Judah Eskender Tafari - Danger In Your Eyes
Tony & Howie - Fun It Up
Liberation Group - Namibia
Winston Francis - Love Me Today, Not Tomorrow
Roland Alphonso - Jah Shakey
Joe Higgs - Dinah
Brown Eagle - Natural Living
Freddie McKay - So Long, Farewell
Jackie Mittoo - Mixing
The Heptones - How Can I Leave You
The Skatalites - Sudden Destruction
Lone Ranger - Dance A Fe Cork
Horace Andy - Mamie Blue
Johnny Osbourne - Run Up Your Mouth
Bob Marley And The Wailers - One Love
The Cables - What Am I To Do

Agree to disagree: A selected Krautrock discography

Krautrock, what is it anyway? A genre, a derogative term, a song by Faust, … or: a welcome (and recurring) opportunity to talk about all of this. The music associated with the term in question has eagerly been canonized. From the enthusiastic and idiosyncratic ramblings of Julian Cope’s 'Krautrocksampler' to encyclopaedic approaches like Alan and Stephen Freeman’s 'Crack in the Cosmic Egg', there are plenty of books to read and lists to discuss: Who’s in, who isn’t? The quarrels and disputes surrounding the terms "Krautrock" and "Kosmische Musik" are a testament to their enduring relevance and fascination. I won’t get into the weeds discussing how to separate one from the other – for all those who do want to, the book 'Krautrock Eruption' by Wolfgang Seidel addresses some of those questions. In this book, you will find an annotated discography of fifty albums. Out of these fifty, we are presenting an even narrower selection of tracks from twelve albums on this compilation. Lists and compilation track listings inevitably see tracks missing and being left out. In our case, the compilation was produced in cooperation with the label Bureau B and therefore has a partial focus on some of their back catalogue. That said, the list is meant to inspire repeated or further listening, to spark discussions and – potentially – to provoke new lists, perhaps your own! It’s all part of the fun. Music is made for enjoyment in the first and for friendly debate in the second place, after all.

TRACK LISTING

1. Conrad Schnitzler - Ballet Statique
2. Faust - I’ve Heard That One Before/Watch Your Step
3. Eno Moebius Roedelius - Foreign Affairs
4. Harald Grosskopf - Emphasis
5. Cluster - 21:32 (bureau B Edit)
6. Moebius & Plank - Rastakraut Pasta
7. Roedelius - Glaubersalz
8. Pyrolator - Minimal Tape 3/7.2
9. Riechmann - Himmelblau (bureau B Edit)
10. Kluster - Kluster 2 (Electric Music) (bureau B Edit)
11. Günter Schickert - Apricot Brandy II (bureau B Edit)
12. Asmus Tietchens - Falter-Lamento

13 years in the making, Mr Bongo proudly presents a new compilation of beloved Brazilian disco and boogie finds from the legendary London disco connoisseurs, Horse Meat Disco

A labour of love, it showcases a tantalising cross- section of disco, funk, boogie, samba and MPB, from past to present. Unearthing tracks from the seemingly endless gold mine of Brazilian gems, the compilation features legends such as Jorge Ben, Gretchen, Marcos Valle and Robson Jorge & Lincoln Olivetti, alongside unsung heroes including Ze Carlos and Carlos Bivar.

Over 20 years ago, the Horse Meat Disco crew (James Hillard, Severino Panzetta, Jim Stanton and Luke Howard) began their weekly residency at Eagle London back in 2003. That same year, Luke made his first visit to Brazil, beginning a musical love affair that is still going strong. "I had always wanted to go to Brazil since I was a kid, and when I finally had the opportunity to go with Princess Julia, I was just blown away. I've visited Rio every year since 2003, and in that time, I've learned Portuguese and tried to discover as much as I can about Brazilian music and popular culture. I learned to dance samba with the Paraiso School of Samba in London and paraded three times at Rio Carnival. Brazilian music was a brand- new world for me to explore and get excited about--a whole universe of genius musicians, singers, and styles." 9 years later, Mr Bongo invited Luke down to their Brighton HQ for a listening session of some of his favourite Brazilian boogie and disco 7" finds. A compilation was greenlit, but multiple licensing delays and the release of other HMD compilations meant that it lay dormant for years. Fast forward to 2024, and with the help of esteemed, Rio based record collector Tee Cardaci, along with suggestions from HMD's James Hillard, the dream of an HMD Brazilian compilation finally materialised.

It's a carefully curated collection that includes the electronic-boogie/italo-disco-esque 1984 groover 'Venha (Remix)' by the singer Ze Carlos, two cuts by Luiza Maura taken from her sought- after Deixa Girar 7", and Gretchen's sultry 'Ela Tem Raca, Charme, Talento E Gostosura' written by Jorge Ben. At its core, this compilation captures the excitement and sense of discovery that won over Horse Meat Disco's heart more than 20 years ago.

A vibrant mix of feel-good favours, it homes in on a sun-soaked strand of disco and boogie that has been enriched with the spirit of a nation where music serves as a central pillar of life.

TRACK LISTING

1. Harmony Cats - Harmony Cats' Theme
2. Luiza Maura - Sorriso Vermelho
3. Gretchen - Ela Tem Raca, Charme, Talento E Gostosura
4. Coisa Quente - Edmundo (In The Mood)
5. Ze Carlos - Venha (Remix)
6. Robson Jorge & Lincoln Olivetti - Suspira
7. Os Carbonos - Passaro Selvagem
8. San Rodrigues - Fofa
9. Marcos Valle - Parabens (Danca Do Daniel)
10. Lafayette - Sol De Verao
11. Roberto Cesar - Fevereiro (O Bamba)
12. Arlete - Quero Ser Sua Mulher
13. Waldirene - Queima Como Fogo
14. Luiza Maura - Deixa Girar
15. Jorge Ben - Rio Babilonia
16. Carlos Bivar - Elo

Second instalment of this wonderful compilation of gems from the 60s and 70s Singapore music scene, focused on the amazing ladies that helped make it so vibrant. 14 gems of female fronted Pop & Yeh Yeh, documenting one of the most vibrant music scenes during those incredible years.

After the big success of Call Edan, Sounds Better collective comes back with four banging tracks from the crew: Pop Panic, Aut Zebel, DJ GLC and G PUNX. Mix of 2000's vibes with electro and UK tech house thrown into the mix. Super limited copies. 

TRACK LISTING

1 Pop Panic - Your Body
2 Aut Zebel - Flipped Smile
3 DJ GLC - Trance Dance
4 G Punx - Electro Baked

Music From Memory turns 50 with a special release "Virtual Dreams: Ambient Explorations In The House & Techno Age, 1993-1997". The first in a series of compilations, alongside more in depth artist-focused releases, "Virtual Dreams devles into music produced during the 1990’s that redefined the boundaries of ambient. This was music that explored the possibilities of ambient within a new setting, created often by house & techno music producers for a world beyond dancefloors but made very much with the pre and post-clubbing listener in mind.

When house and techno exploded out of America in the mid 1980s a whole generation was redefined not only musically but also culturally and chemically speaking. Peaking, quite literally, with a second Summer of Love in 1988, millions of young people across the world would experience the life-changing ups of a brave new world but with it of course came the downs; enter the concept of a Chill-out room. Whilst early Chill-out rooms lacked a specific sound and were often soundtracked by music such as reggae and soul, slowly young techno and house producers themselves would become increasingly interested in developing a futuristic ‘Ambient’ soundtrack to a world beyond the thud of the main room.

Ambient in this new age now though had sharper teeth than in Brian Eno's key text for “Music for Airports”, instead here the sounds were the mode of transport rather than the backdrop. While the melodies were pretty, the soundscape steered away from the pastoral, dreaming of outer-space and technology as opening up exciting new dimensions. Much like in the first Summer Of Love; the musicians were again exploring psychedelic, mind-altering and transcendental possibilities of music. And also much as in the first Summer Of Love, a psychedelic visual language would accompany the music. Though now the tracks could be accompanied by music videos, utilising early CGI techniques, they would look almost entirely to the future: envisioning technology, nature and humanity intertwined in a new Utopian future. Virtual Dreams of a better world.

From ambient and early Chill-out classics, to lesser known one-off projects, as well as ambient deviations by some of house and techno’s leading producers, “Virtual Dreams Volume 1” features tracks by Bedouin Ascent, LA Synthesis, LFO, Marc Hollander, Mark Pritchard & Kirsty Hawkshaw, Richard H. Kirk and more.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. MLO - Birds & Flutes
2. Pulusha - Isolation (part Two)
3. Space Time Continuum - Fluresence
Side 2
1. David Moufang - Sergio Leone's Wet Dream
2. LA Synthesis - Frozen Tundra (dub)
Side 3
1. Richard H Kirk - Oneski
2. A Positive Life - The Calling (Loved'Ub Mix)
Side 4
1. Sideral - Mare Nostrum
2. Primitive Painter - Levitation
3. Sun Electric - Love 2 Love
Side 5
1. LFO - Helen
2. Dubtribe Sound System - Sunshine's Theme (Sunshine Remix)
3. Human Mesh Dance - 8 (Infinit)
Side 6
1. Link - Arcadian (Global Communication Remix)
2. The Arc - Orphic Mysteries
3. Bedouin Ascent - Joyriding III

Strut introduces the highly anticipated third volume in the Disques Debs International series, diving deeper into the archives of one ofthe greatest French Caribbean labels, Disques Debs, based in Guadeloupe. Founded by the visionary Henri Debs in the late ‘50s, thelabel and studio operated for over 50 years, releasing more than 300 7” singles and 200 LPs, making it a cornerstone of Caribbean music history.

By the dawn of the 1980s, Henri Debs had already established himself as a prolific producer, with a record of releases unmatched in Guadeloupe and Martinique. From its humble beginnings with a 2-track tape machine in the back of a clothes shop, Disques Debsevolved into a powerhouse, boasting a state-of-the-art studio in downtown Pointe-à-Pitre, retail shops for records and musical instruments in Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Paris, a nightclub in Gosier, and international distribution deals reaching Europe, the U.S.,and South America.

Disques Debs played a pivotal role in shaping modern Caribbean music. The label bridged traditional genres like biguine and gwoka with contemporary styles like cadence, compas, and zouk, the latter becoming a global phenomenon in the 1980s with contributions from iconic acts like Kassav’ and Zouk Machine. The period also saw Disques Debs champion a new generation of artists while maintaining ties with legendary figures from earlier decades.

Volume 3 in this series spotlights one of the label’s most dynamic and influential periods as it expanded its global reach during the1980s. Across 2 LPs, the release features a curated selection of tracks from the Disques Debs circle, highlighting both emerging talents and established artists who defined the era.

This collection not only celebrates Henri Debs’ unmatched legacy but also offers a snapshot of Caribbean music’s golden age, cementing Disques Debs as a cultural institution.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sadi Lancreot – Dou Se Vou Ki Siwo
2. Max Et Henri – Sé Pou Demen
3. Dominique Panol – Come On Baby
4. Mariz – Si On Jou
5. Jocelyn Mocka Et Kassav – Mizik Maladi
6. Christian Yéyé – Misyé Zanndo
7. Ramon Pyrmée – An Mwe
8. Expérience 7 – Bel Toubonman
9. Ka Lévé – Apre Nou Byen Cheche
10. Horizon - Neg Mawon
11. Ti Celeste – Testaman
12. Yo – Fo’w Maye
13. Alex Rosa – L’appel Des Champions
14. Gwo Siwo – Bèlè

The historical origins of cumbia are nebulous and imprecise. The mythology surrounding it suggests an ancient past when Amerindian, African and European musical sounds were mixed together.

After digging deep into the overwhelming archives of Discos Fuentes and Codiscos in our previous volumes, this third instalment in the series 'Cumbia Cumbia Cumbia!!!' comprises a selection of 28 Peruvian cumbia bangers for the dance floor from the deep vaults of Discos MAG, all of them originally released between 1964 and 1987.

'Cumbia Cumbia Cumbia!!!' combines well-known classics and rarities that are difficult to find in their original formats. An invitation to enjoy and be amazed, above and beyond ethnographic and academic concerns.

TRACK LISTING

1. CUMBIA MORENA - CARLOS PICKLING Y SU ORQUESTA
2. OLGUITA - LOS CHICOQUES
3. CUMBIA EN DOMINANTE - LOS DEMONIOS DE COROCOCHAY
4. LA BLANQUIÑOSA - LOS FELCAS
5. CHINITA - SONORA CASINO DE HUGO MACEDO
6. LA POLLERA AMARILLA - SAM BRASIL
7. ANITA - VOLADA 5
8. CUMBIA PUEBLERINA - OTTO DE ROJAS Y SU ORQUESTA
9. YOLANDA - CARLOS PICKLING Y ÓRGANO ESPACIAL
10. AREQUIPEÑITA - SILVESTRE MONTEZ Y SUS GUANTANAMEROS
11. LUCERITO - ÑICO ESTRADA
12. CUMBIA SABROSA - FREDDY ROLAND Y SU ORQUESTA DE MODA
13. LA CUMBIA DEL BURRO - LOS AVILEÑOS
14. CUMBIA 73 - LOS DEMONIOS DEL MANTARO
15. QUE SIGA LA CUMBIA - CARLOS PICKLING Y SU ORQUESTA
16. CHIN CHIN - JOE DI ROMA Y SU CONJUNTO
17. RITMO DE CUMBIA - LOS RUMBEROS DEL SOLAR
18. AC CHA CHAU - LOS PAVOS REALES
19. CUMBIA BONITA - NILO ESPINOSA Y SU ORQUESTA
20. OH CONDOR - VOLADA 5
21. CUMBIA DE COLOR - TITO CHICOMA Y SU ORQUESTA
22. CUMBIA Y AMOR - LOS DEMONIOS DE COROCOCHAY
23. NEGRITA LINDA - NELSON FERREYRA Y SU SONORA
24. BAILA MI CUMBIA - CARLOS PICKLING Y SU ORQUESTA
25. TIERRA LINDA - LOS KINTOS
26. POCHITA - MANZANITA CON LOS CAÑEROS
27. LA COLOCHA - LOS FELCAS
28. LA CELOSA - LOS BELKING’S

Soul Jazz Records’ new ‘Secret Superstar Sounds - Scraping Bubblegum Off My Soul 1977-80: Punk - Powerpop - New Wave - DIY’ brings together a wealth of incredibly catchy tunes from late 1970s / early 1980s British groups that you have probably never heard of! Power pop mixed together a love of lyrical and melodically beautiful 1960s pop and garage sounds, together with the energy and attitude of 1970s punk. Almost completely out of kilter with the fashions of the day (punk, new wave and post-punk) these bands managed to fall between the musical cracks at almost every step of the way, leaving them practically unknown to all but a few.

Inspired by the DIY messaging of bands like The Desperate Bicycles, Sniffing Glue fanzine and early UK punk labels like Stiff, Chiswick and Rough Trade, these bands chose mainly to go into a studio and make their own private press / DIY records themselves - then try to work out everything else (promotion, marketing, etc.) afterwards. As mainly outsiders to the mainstream music industry, and usually unable to make any inroads into it, save for sending their own record to John Peel, most of these bands fell at the first hurdle.

These records remain both beautifully crafted three-minute musical gems and long-lost micro-histories of an essentially hidden genre.

Featured bands here include The Squares, The Meanies, The Monitors, Plummet Airline, Tours, Gobblinz, Krypton Tunes and more. Most of these records were selfpublished DIY releases made in very limited editions and were often the only tracks ever released by these groups.

TRACK LISTING

Gooblinz - London
Plummet Airlines - It’s Har
Xdreamysts - Right Way Home
Tours - Language School
The Squares - No Fear
The Monitors - Compulsory Fun
The Meanies - It’s True
Jeff Hill Band - Something’s Wrong With My Baby
The Squad - 24 Hours
Krypton Tunes - Limited Vision
The Zeros - Hungry
The Wardens - Do So Well
The Letters - Nobody Loves Me
The Tunnelrunners - Forever Crying At Love Songs
Comic Romance - Cry Myself To Sleep

Four exclusive, unreleased tracks lifted from the forthcoming 'Eglo Records Volume 3' compilation,available on a limited edition 12" vinyl EP to celebrate 15 years of our trend setting, littlei ndependent label, born out of the basement of the legendary Plastic People night club.

Featuring the don Zed Bias on the remix for Chunky's 'Dancing On Tables' alongside fellow Mancunian talent Metrodome, as well as Liverpools young Broken Beat wizard Sticky Dub, who serves up a deep, brukwise bubbler on 'Minerals'. Flip it over for brand new material from House music aficionado Giles Smith (formerly of Secret Sundaze) and the official debut release form label boss Alex Nut onhis lo-fi Electro House jawn 'Arcade Fun Pt.1'

.The full compilation will be out in April featuring new tracks and previously released material fromthe likes of label artists Shy One, Steve Spacek, Stefan Ringer, Last Nubian, Malik Hendricks, Fatima, Destiny71z, Natalie Slade and many more.

TRACK LISTING

1. Chunky - DOT (Zed Bias & Metrodome Remix)
2. Sticky Dub - Minerals
3. Giles Smith - Hercules
4. Alex Nut - Arcade Fun Pt. 1

Running Back’s Double Copy subsidiary for house music history returns with four musical masterpieces from Chicago, London and an international cast from Italy on its first various artist sampler.

Originally released on Roy Davis Jr.’s Undaground Therapy outlet, "Destination Heaven" by the enigmatic Earth Boys project delivers a piece of cloud-nine-deep-house that was a staple at Frankfurt’s Wild Pitch Club and during the early days of its successor Robert Johnson. Produced by Cloudy Eyes and Cole Brooks, we unfortunately have never heard from the duo again. Luckily, Family of Few have been a little bit more productive. Also known as Mind Readers, Kevin Elliot and Billy ‚Jack“ Williams produced some of the more tender moments on Detroits 430 West label. "Intervoles" is amongst the most peculiar and catchy tracks that slow-burning dancefloors can hope for.

The flip side turns the attention to the conclusions that Europe drew from its US-role-models. Released in 1992 on Rena Records with the involvement of New York’s JoVonn (a distinct genius of deep grooves himself), the keyboard skills of Pierre Audetat and the production work of I. Betti, M. Clemente and W. Brown, Dummy Head is one of a kind. Swirly echoes, dubby textures and a heavy bass line mate on the Edit Mix of "I Have Been Wanting You" to create one of the very first examples of fully formed dub-house.

Similar pioneering properties can be ascribed to the work of Rob Mello. We don’t have enough room here to list all his merits, but rest assured that the UK’s house scene wouldn’t be the same without him (Luxury Service Records, Classic et al). Under the Karim guise, Mello delivered a unique stroke of genius. Distilling the essence of deep house, while looking far into the future, "In My Mind" is many things at once: broken beat, electro, house with embracing chords, and - if you will - a warm-up banger. and does, what all the tracks in here do: turning heads then, turning heads now. Hardcore deep house!

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Running Back's Double Copy series continues to mine some choice nuggets of house music gold from across the years. Four pieces of 24 carat sonics that have more than stood the test of time - they've become brighter!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Earth Boys - Destination Heaven
A2. Family Of Few - Intervoles

B1. Dummy Head - I Have Been Wanting You (Edit Mix)
B2. Karim - In My Mind

Mark Grusane presents "Midwest Rhythms Vol. 3" on Disctechno: a compilation of five stripped down, off-kilter house tracks from four producers out of Chicago and Detroit and one from Grusane himself. On the A side is a spaced out synth-laden “Memory Blank” from DJ Slush (aka Eric Schwab) and a pulsing, bass-heavy beatdown on “AYYYO” from Deon Jamar. The B side features Jordan Zawideh’s reverb-heavy drum machine & synth duet “Axolotls”, Mark Grusane’s pounding, in-your-face atonal track “The Recoil”, and finishes with Thomas Xu’s grooving arpeggios on “School Street.” Not to be missed for fans of the contemporary Midwest underground.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Mark Grusane gets together with some more pals for a highly expansive dive into his 'Midwest Rhythms'. Taking cues from jak beat, acid and proto-house, these tracks have their own fiercely independent personality and are guaranteed to get the real club freaks salivating at the mouth.

TRACK LISTING

Dj Slush - Memory Blank
Deon Jamar - Ayyyo
Jordan Zawideh - Axolotls
Mark Grusane - The Recoil
Thomas Xu - School Street

Part one of a new Salsoul Re-edits series launches with four reworks from disco aficionado DimitrI From Paris. Available on vinyl for the very first time, Dimitri adds his deft remix touch to Salsoul favourites from Loleatta Holloway, Inner Life, Love Comitte and Skyy.

Each of these four edits is on the PENG side of things, but it's that Love Committee edit which has done maximum damage for me over the years.

TRACK LISTING

A. Loleatta Holloway - Love Sensation (Dimitri From Paris DJ Friendly Classic Re-Edit)
B. Inner Life - Moment Of My Life (Dimitri From Paris DJ Friendly Classic Re-Edit)
C. Love Committee - Law & Order (Dimitri From Paris DJ Friendly Classic Re-Edit)
D. Skyy - Here's To You (Dimitri From Paris New DJ Friendly Classic Re-Edit)

Needle Mythology, the label founded by music writer, author and broadcaster Pete Paphides, is thrilled to announce the release of Sensitive, a vinyl anthology to cover the indiepop scene of the 1980s. Sensitive features 30 songs in total by artists who defined the indiepop aesthetic, among them The Jesus & Mary Chain, The Sea Urchins, Primal Scream, The Pastels, Talulah Gosh, Orange Juice, The Field Mice, The Primitives, The Wedding Present, Miaow, Razorcuts, Dolly Mixture, The Bodines, Shop Assistants, The Soup Dragons, The Loft, The Chills, That Petrol Emotion and The Railway Children.

Sensitive takes its name from the single released by The Field Mice, and marks the first time that The Field Mice have allowed one of their songs to be used on a compilation released by any label other than Sarah Records, who released all their records at the time. Also features on Sensitive is Dying Day from Orange Juice’s hugely influential debut album You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever – marking the only time that Edwyn Collins and his wife and manager Grace Maxwell have given permission for an Orange Juice song to be featured on an anthology.

Many of the records featured on Sensitive have become highly sought-after collectors’ items since their original release. The Sea Urchins’ Pristine Christine changes hands for up to £400. Original mint copies of April Showers’ only single Abandon Ship command up to £380. If you were to try and individually buy all the records featuring the songs on Sensitive, you can expect to pay something around £1150.

Sensitive features 10,000 words of extensive track-by-track notes and an essay by Pete Paphides, who was and remains an avid proponent of the indiepop scene that this collection chronicles. All the songs on SENSITIVE have been newly mastered at Abbey Road by Miles Showell.

TRACK LISTING

DISC 1
1. Pristine Christine - The Sea Urchins
2. Get Out Of My Dream - The Clouds
3. Truck Train Tractor - The Pastels
4. Once More - The Wedding Present
5. Almost Prayed - The Weather Prophets
6. If She Doesn’t Smile (It’ll Rain) - Fantastic Something
7. Talulah Gosh - Talulah Gosh
8. Crash - The Primitives
9. It’s A Good Thing - That Petrol Emotion
10. Hang-Ten! - The Soup Dragons
11. When It All Comes Down - Miaow
12. Kaleidoscope World - The Chills
13. Somewhere In China - Shop Assistants
14. I’ll Still Be There - Razorcuts
15. Abandon Ship - April Showers

DISC 2
1. Someone Stole My Wheels - Biff Bang Pow!
2. Dying Day - Orange Juice
3. Hammering Heart - Del Amitri
4. Why Does The Rain - The Loft
5. Yesterday - The Nivens
6. Ten Miles - Phil Wilson
7. Sensitive - The Filed Mice
8. Brighter - The Railway Children
9. Adam’s Song (Pour Fenella) - The Sun And The Moon
10. She Looks Right Through Me - The Waltones
11. Therese - The Bodines
12. Velocity Girl - Primal Scream
13. Will He Kiss Me Tonight - Dolly Mixture
14. Some Candy Talking - The Jesus And Mary Chain
15. Candydiosis - Pop Will Eat Itself 

Massive 3x12" compilation curated by Swiss Underground Icon - DJ Princess P. This features hard-to-find gems from a Spacemen 3, Atypic, LFO, Mimi Majick (Irdial), Marco Passarani, Cyclone and more. Includes liner notes from JD Twitch (Optimo).

This is a journey, not a compilation, it’s an immersive journey into the depths of sonic exploration, lovingly selected by Swiss underground DJ Princess P. Known for her ability to craft deeply emotive and genre-blurring DJ sets, she takes you on a transcendent musical voyage, hat moves effortlessly between euphoric dancefloor moments and introspective soundscapes. From the pulsating echoes of Spacemen 3 to the ethereal tones of Natalie Beridze, while unearthing hidden gems from Atypic, LFO and Irdial Discs' Mimi Majick, her selection spans over decade of blending electronic dreamy soundscapes with ecstatic rhythms. This selection offers a rare glimpse into the mind of an artist who masterfully bridges the gap between ambient introspection and club euphoria.

ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Princess P is a staple of the Swiss underground scene, renowned for her unique approach to DJing that combines deep cuts, rare finds, and her love for blending unexpected genres. Her sets are journeys, meticulously crafted to take listeners on emotional and sonic adventures, from hypnotic basslines to celestial synths. Princess P has become a cult favorite, frequently playing intimate underground venues while also gracing selected major festivals with her eclectic, forward-thinking sound. This release is a reflection of her wide-ranging musical tastes and deep knowledge of electronic music history.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Intriguing compilation that ties together a wide range of music into a somehow coherent body of work that's far greater than the sum of its parts. Princess P finely showing off the range of her digging talents.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Spacemen 3 - Big City Remix - 10:45 (1991, UK)
A2. Love Spirals Downwards - Sunset Bell - 5:46 (1998, USA)
B1. Anaconda - Ideas For Virtual Reality - 10:54 (1993, Netherlands)
B2. Cyclone - Beautiful Minds - 4:51 (1991, UK)
C1. Fred Gianelli - 1st Premonition - 9:18 (1993, UK)
C2. Marco Passarani - Zep Teti - 5:28 (2000, Italy)
D1. Nail - Volterage - 10:41 (1994, UK)
D2. TBA, Natalie Beridze - Forever Has No Shadow - 5:57 (2011, Georgia)
E1. LFO - Loop (Journey Mix) - 10:52 (1996, USA)
E2. Mimi Majick - Mimi‘s Majick Utilities One - 6:07 (1996, UK)
F1. Atypic - Otaku - 8:54 (1993, UK)
F2. Tek Jam & Inzekt - Driver - 7:54 (1999, Switzerland)

Restoring balance to our series of earthly compilations, one that has brought to you an array of different artists, all with the collective goal of sharing the joy of exploring musical wonders with no borders, we have Earthly Tapes 04.

In keeping with the series so far, nature and electronica intertwine in unison to share a space as befitting to hedonistic dancefloor groovers as it is to homebound explorations. With this release, we have 7 wonderful artists expressing their creativity across 6 carefully curated tracks, with native roots connected to 5 different countries across South America and Europe.

2 years in the making and chopping and changing as it’s passed through the motions, what has remained is the concept behind it. On this edition, we're shining a light on a small portion of female producers within a music scene that we’re fortunate to be a part of.

Each artist that has carefully created a track for this compilation, has also contributed their beautiful crafts within the Organica/Folkloric/Downtempo scene and we’re truly blessed to be able to share them with you. The countdown to the release of this next chapter finds us coinciding fittingly with International Women’s Day.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Manu Ela - Animals
A2. Barda - Atardecer Rioplatense
A3. Shigara - Azul Profundo Ft. Nanki
B1. Sahale & Samarana - Mesege
B2. Carla Valenti - Camino Pa La Playa
B3. NoN Project - Lo Perdido

A collection of the best gospel - soul thumpers from the Boddie Recording Company and BOS Records by way of The Numero Group. Great Lakes Gospel Vol 1 features some of Cleveland’s purest and sweetest gospel rarities. An overflowing chalice of funky gospel gems from the Forest City. You could start a church with this thing. PULPIT NOT INCLUDED.

TRACK LISTING

1. Juanita Ellis - Make A Joyful Noise
2. Sounds Of Soul - Gospel Train
3. Sensational Saints - How Great Thou Art
4. The Mighty Imperials - Unity
5. The Capitalaires - Glory Glory
6. The BOS Singers - My God On High
7. Rev. R.L. Hubbard - Child Of The King
8. Randall Stephens - Love
9. Brother Bill - Wha’s Happ’nin
10. Gospel Ensemble - What You Need
11. The Corinthian Singers - Why? (It’s A Shame)
12. Preacher & The Saints - Jesus Rhapsody, Pt. 1

Pacific Rhythm’s “Rhythms Of The Pacific” series returns with a 12” sampler of material that will be included as part of a larger 10-year anniversary compilation later this year. Tunes from LNRDCROY, Khotin (under his Waterpark alias), Active Surplus, and Kennedy are on deck to set the tone. Limited and downright essential for enthusiasts of the sound Pacific Rhythm has cultivated since 2013. 

Mood Hut / Pender Street Steppers, Future Times / Beautiful Swimmers 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Tricksy and fun in parts, deep and sensual in others; landing somewhere between the Mood Hut / Pender Street Steppers, Future Times / Beautiful Swimmers axis with a little bit of that antipodean influence a la Andras Fox / Public Possession thrown in too. Very good!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Lnrdcroy - Galaxio Salaxio
A2. Waterpark - Coastal Plus
B1. Kennedy - A Calling
B2. Active Surplus - Blue Beam

Toolroom’s latest Sampler sees 4 big releases from KC Lights, Milk & Sugar & James Hurr, Crusy, and Illyus & Barrientos.

TRACK LISTING

A1. KC Lights & Welt – Fly (Extended Mix)
A2. Milk & Sugar & James Hurr – I Love Music (Extended Mix)
B1. Crusy – Hey Girls, B-Boys (Extended Mix)
B2. Illyus & Barrientos - D.A.N.C.E (Extended Mix)

Following on from his stellar record store day 2017 double-pack, Dimitri is back with another clutch of indispensable disco edits from his impressive archive for the legendary Salsoul label. Any self-respecting DJ or Disco-lover will be brimming over with excitement upon looking at this impressive selection of tracks, all respectfully and lovingly tweaked by Disco-Dim. Salsoul Orchestra's "Ooh I Love It (Love Break)" kicks things off, a true blue classic, just gently touched in all the right places for extended pleasure. Cooing vocals, girl talk, infectious bass AND the "This is a journey into sound" chimes - what more could you possibly want. Next up is Skyy's total anthem "First Time Around", a classic Garage groover, previously flipped by Cosmo V and Spandex Ste. Dimitri dodges his predecessors' drugged up vibe and gets into dub mode, upping the ante with choice delays and cool loops! Essential stuff. On the flipside The Jammers' "Be Mine Tonight" is another massive Garage smasher, and here Dimitri almost edges Shep Pettibone's OG mix into the Boogie stratosphere. Hydraulic bass reverberated through your cranium, synths whir and buzz and cowbells ring on for days - this is a bona fide dancefloor destroyer! If all that weren't enough, this double-pack finishes is with one of Dim's most sought after reworks, "Just As Long As I Got You" by Love Committee. Beloved by both myself and Dave Walker, this deep, dark and emotional disco stomer has it all - searing guitar solos, screeching strings, big brass and a rhythm section to die for not to mention the most eyes-closed, head shaking, hands aloft heartbreak vocals you'll ever here. Meet me under the mirror ball y'all!

TRACK LISTING

A1. The Salsoul Orchestra - Ooh I Love It (Love Break) (Dimitri From Paris DJ Friendly Classic 12" Re-edit)
B1. Skyy - First Time Around (Dimitri From Paris DJ Friendly Classic Re-edit)
C1. The Jammers - Be Mine Tonight (Dimitri From Paris DJ Friendly Classic Re-edit)
D1. Love Committee - Just As Long As I Got You (Dimitri From Paris DJ Friendly Classic Re-edit)

With a string of glowing reviews and handful of awards already behind it, the Irish-language semi-biopic award-winning film is one of the most-acclaimed movie releases of the year playing in over 500 cinemas across the U.K and Ireland. The film was recently selected by the Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA) to represent Ireland in the Oscar International Feature Film category having previously scooped the ‘Next Audience Award’ at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and the ‘Audience Award’ at the Galway Film Fleadh in July.

Kneecap (Original Soundtrack) features tracks from the trio themselves alongside Bicep, Fontaines DC, Orbital plus the film’s incidental music composed by Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante MBE interspersed with snippets of the film’s dialogue. The physical edition is available on double LP (featuring gatefold sleeve and colour vinyl) and CD.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: There are few bands that have made as much of an impact as Kneecap have, with their debut album hitting our end of year charts pretty heavily. Here we get the soundtrack to the film, following Kneecap around their scene and their peers and contemporaries. Including Kneecap (obv), Fontaines DC, Bicep and loads more.

TRACK LISTING

1. 'Every Fucking Story About Belfast Starts Like This' – Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh
2. Parful – KNEECAP
3. ITS BEEN AGES – KNEECAP
4. Run – Mikey J
5. ‘Nothing But A H.O.O.D’ – Marty Maguire & Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh
6. Civil Rights – Mikey J
7. ‘A Wee Operation’ – Michael Fassbender & Cillian Kernan & Aidan McCaughey
8. Dad's Gone – Mikey J
9. Amach Anocht – KNEECAP
10. ‘You Bring A Stolen Car Here’ – Michael Fassbender & Naoise O Caireallain      
11. Ceasefire Babies – Mikey J
12. Guilty Conscience – KNEECAP
13. ‘Love Affair With The Shniff’ – Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh
14. C.E.A.R.T.A – KNEECAP
15. Arrested – Mikey J
16. 80% – Dirty Faces
17. 3CAG (ft. Radie Peat) – KNEECAP
18. The A Minor Set – The Bonny Men
19. ‘No Need To Panic’ – Naoise O Caireallain & Gerry Adams      
20. Thart Agus Thart – KNEECAP
21. ‘What The Fuck Was That?!’ – Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh & Jessica Reynolds
22. Glue – Bicep
23. Sick In The Head – KNEECAP
24. Liberty Belle – Fontaines D.C.
25. ‘Special Delivery’ – Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh & Naoise O Caireallain & Adam Best & Cathal Mercer 
26. Phone Booth – Mikey J, Gemma Doherty And Simone Kirby
27. Ash Plant – Absolute Lilt
28. Belfast (Fuck The Fuck Off) – Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh & Kerri Quinn & Orbital
29. Better Way To Live (ft. Grian Chatten) – KNEECAP
30. Kneecapped – Mikey J
31. Fall In Love Again – Alanna Royale
32. Is A Bullet – Mikey J, Gemma Doherty And Simone Kirby
33. ‘The Irish For The End Is...’ – Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh        
34. H.O.O.D – KNEECAP

Flexi is still spinning, louder and prouder, as it marks 40 years of igniting dancefloors and fueling underground happiness. From its humble beginnings as a haven for vinyl enthusiasts to a cultural stronghold amidst the turbulent waves of the music industry, Flexi has become a name synonymous with passion, resilience, and the relentless pursuit of quality sound. To honor this milestone, Flexi’s indie label, Flexi Cuts, is dropping a second, limited-edition compilation. Aptly named "Musica Solida" this collection is spread across three or possibly four lush 12-inch samplers (we're up to volume 2 here), each showcasing a handpicked selection of tracks from Flexi's cherished circle of artists and producers. This release is more than just a celebration; it’s a declaration - a call to arms to keep the spirit of the scene alive and thriving in Italy and beyond, against all odds.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: More from the classy and understated deep house collection from Flexi Discs. Volume 1 didn't leave my record bag last summer, and I think this new one's already got its eye on doing similar.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Minimono - Before Morning
A2. Delphi - Neon Pulses
B1. DJ Rou - Elastic Body
B2. Relative - The Piece 

For Peggy Gou, recording an instalment of !K7’s DJ-Kicks series was one of the items on her list of career goals. “It’s the premier class of DJ mixes,” she says. “Some of my favourite selectors have contributed to it.” In 2019, Peggy Gou was able to tick that off her list as she proudly presented the 69th edition of the mix series.

To kickstart 2025, which is !K7's 40th anniversary year, the release is re-issued on a tigerfur-coloured 2LP. Peggy started working on the mix in 2018. It was a busy time for the then 28-year-old: she’d just scored her first Mixmag cover and her single ‘It Makes You Forget (Itgehane)’ was receiving awards and critical acclaim. Each month she would DJ in 20 nightclubs all over the world. And yet, the goal for her mix was ambitious: instead of trying to capture the energy of her DJ sets, she aimed to create a portrayal of her own musical journey.

TRACK LISTING

1. Peggy Gou - Hungboo (DJ-Kicks)
2. The System - Vampirella
3. Pegasus - Perseguido Por El Rayo
4. I:Cube - Cassette Jam 1993
5. Sly And Lovechild - The World According To Sly & Lovechild (Andrew Weatherall Soul Of Europe Mix)
6. Deniro - Epirus
7. Psyche - Crackdown
8. Hiver - Pert
9. Aphex Twin - Vordhosbn

Yet another album of musical excellence compiled by If Music’s Jean-Claude for the excellent and massively collectible ‘You Need This’ series. This release marks the 4th volume in the A Journey Into Deep Jazz portfolio in the If Music cannon released on BBE and will be available on a double vinyl LP and as a digital release.

Deep Jazz volume 4 continues to meet the high quality bar set by the previous releases in the series and the If Music presents… catalogue. Its global diversity of artists is represented in the tracklisting. This nine track offering ranges from the slow, lush Bobby Hutchersonesque, never repressed ‘Process of a Cloud’ from Japanese Drummer George Hirota to Oakland artist Phavia Kujichagulia’s Congolese themed, black consciousness Fancy Footwork and the mighty combination of Ginger Baker and Ransome Kuti on their co-written N’Kon Kini N’Kon N’Kon, a chunky, Lo-Slung Afro-Beat celebration of Fela Kuti’s Kalakuta Republic.

Jean-Claude’s excellent track record of creating and curating compilation albums and rediscovering rare gems and private presses for re-issue follows a philosophy of cross- genre music appreciation that can be traced even further back than to his time as one half of the innovative, genre bending, DJ and production duo The Amalgamation of Soundz. Jean- Claude has been a mainstay of London’s Black Music scene for some four decades with his record shop, his shows on NTS and Soho Radio, his excellent ‘In Conversation with…’ series of chat shows, his Djing and curation of event stages at Across the Tracks Festival and, of course, his excellent compilations.

There has always been a broad picture of the scope of music that has come out of the Bristol and Bath areas. It may surprise observers that some of that heady creativity included the more commercial end of straight up pop music.Did it lead anywhere, or have any merit? Were they, the acts, any good? Did they get any exposure and recognition? In the end the 18 tracks on the CD and 11 on the vinyl editions of the compilation do the 'talking'. It's a treasure trove of glorious commercial, but savvy and sexy pop music. Get into the groove of this wonderful west of England sonic pleasure feast!

At the start of the 60s, a new wave of gospel-influenced jazz started to emerge, with hits such as Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers' "Moanin'" and Cannonball Adderley's "Work Song" epitomizing this evolution in the genre. The terms "soul jazz" and "funky jazz" were coined as a way to describe this new sound that was making an impact in the US and also on the other sides of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

In 1964, Ray Charles made his first visit to Japan. Then, in 1968, Martha & The Vandellas and Stevie Wonder set foot in the country, followed by Sam & Dave in 1969, Ike & Tina Turner in 1970, and B.B. King in 1971. The TV show "Soul Train" also began airing in Japan in the early 1970s. A watershed moment happened in 1973 when Sammy Davis Jr. was cast in a TV commercial for Suntory whisky — and the influence of the US Black entertainment world had really landed, with soul, jazz, and funk artists becoming household names.

Nippon Columbia played a pivotal role during this turning point. The company had contracts with Buddah Records and Blue Thumb Records, releasing notable works by artists such as Gladys Knight & The Pips, Curtis Mayfield, The Crusaders, and The Pointer Sisters. At the same time, the label was also releasing several Japanese soul, jazz, and funk projects under the lead of music director Jiro Inagaki. Inagaki, a saxophonist who began his professional career in the early 1950s, honed his skills at U.S. military camps, where he shared his love of music with the Black servicemen. In the 1960s, he played with drummer Hideo Shiraki's band, which was widely considered to be Japan's representative group of the funky jazz movement. Later, Inagaki went on to pursue more cutting-edge sounds with his Soul Media project, including being a pioneering figure in the "jazz rock" genre. By working closely with Inagaki and his various musical projects, Nippon Columbia really placed the company at the center of an exciting and important period in Japanese music.

In 1965, Nippon Columbia opened a recording studio in Tokyo's Akasaka neighborhood. Akasaka was also home to the first ever discotheque in Japan, the legendary MUGEN, which ran from 1968 to 1987 and where many acts performed, including Con Funk Shun, the Bar-Kays, Ike & Tina Turner, B.B. King, Sam & Dave, Three Degrees, and Edwin Starr, as well as many local Japanese singers and musicians. This melting pot of creativity in the area led to the recording of many singles and albums by Japanese artists that were infused with the sounds of soul and funk. Most of these recordings were not available outside of Japan and remain rare and unknown musical gems. The selection you are holding in your hands is an explosive collection of 10 essential tracks released by the legendary Nippon Columbia label between 1969 and 1977, capturing the raw, unapparelled energy that was flowing through the air of the Akasaka streets at this electrifying time. Enjoy!

TRACK LISTING

1. Mieko Hirota - Soul Lady
2. Shinji Maki & Black Jack - Nabeyoko Soul
3. Tan Tan - Happy Day
4. Kenji Niinuma - Airenki
5. Hatsumi Shibata - Furui Fuku Nanka
6. Strawberry Jam - Arimasen
7. Mieko Hirota - Anata Ga Inakute Mo
8. Akira Yasuda & Beat Folk - Kaeroka Kaeroka (Single Version)
9. Miki Hirayama - Hatachi No Koi
10. Masaaki Sakai - Baby, Yuki Wo Dashite

King Street Sounds continues to deliver deep house classics with the third various artist sampler in the series. This release taps into the essence of original house music and features iconic names such as DJ Pierre, Blaze, Kenny Bobien, Palmer Brown, Dannell Dixon, and Big Moses.

The EP begins with Dannell Dixon's track 'Dance Dance (DJ Pierre’s Wild Pitch Mix).' This engaging piece features a steady groove, multiple percussive elements, and captivating vocal hooks that keep listeners immersed in the rhythm.

Next is Big Moses' 'Brighter Days (Extended Mix),' which showcases the unmistakably smooth and sultry vocals of Kenny Bobien. As is often the case with Kenny's lyrics, this song explores themes of love, hope, and the promise of 'brighter days,' delivering uplifting dance music.

On the B-side, DJ Pierre makes a second appearance with 'Dancin’ (Club Mix).' This track radiates sunshine and block-party vibes, effortlessly transporting listeners to a lively street party in New York City.

Finally, the record concludes with 'Shine (Shelter Vocal Extended Mix)' by Blaze. This track brings down the tempo just a notch, making it a perfect addition to sets when the dancefloor needs a moment to catch its breath and regain its energy.

Once again, King Street Sounds delivers a knockout release that is a must-have for collectors and DJs alike.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Danell Dixon – Dance Dance (DJ Pierre’s Wild Pitch Mix)
A2. Big Moses Feat. Kenny Bobien – Brighter Days (Extended Mix)
B1. DJ Pierre – Dancin’ (Club Mix)
B2. Blaze – Shine (Shelter Vocal Extended Mix)

‘Waterloo Sunset’ is now regarded as the greatest song about London. It comes as a shock, then, to discover it was originally about another city altogether. Watching acts who had been huge stars just three years earlier but now couldn’t buy a hit – the Searchers, Billy J Kramer, Gerry and the Pacemakers – the Kinks’ Ray Davies wrote ‘Liverpool Sunset’ in sympathy.

Compiled by Saint Etienne’s Bob Stanley, with comprehensive sleeve-notes, “Liverpool Sunset” investigates a thrilling but overlooked era in the city’s musical history, covering soul, R&B, psychedelia and freakbeat. 

As this collection makes clear, the city was still producing new acts in the late 60s, and still making great records, it was just that the world had started looking elsewhere for its musical fix. 

By 1965 the Iron Door club, once the Searchers’ Merseybeat home, was beginning to host soul all-nighters where local band the Chants were often on the bill. The Cavern was by now hosting the likes of Solomon Burke, Stevie Wonder and Ben E King.

All of this music was an inspiration to the next wave of Liverpool acts such as Just Four Men, Tiffany’s Thoughts and the Clayton Squares. The latter were so highly regarded that breaking out nationally seemed a formality: they had two singles released on Decca, a six-week stint in Hamburg, a Ready Steady Go performance, and management by both the Cavern’s owner Bob Wooler and London tough-nut Don Arden.

“Liverpool Sunset” also includes overlooked tracks by some of the original Merseybeat stars: Billy J Kramer’s soulful ‘We’re Doing Fine’ deserves to be better known, and Cilla Black’s wildly odd ‘Abyssinian Secret’ in 1968 was considered too outré by Parlophone and ended up buried on an EP. Adventurousness wasn’t an issue. Joe Meek produced both the Cryin’ Shames and Billy Fury’s brother Jason Eddie, while McGough and McGear had Jimi Hendrix helping out on the terrific psych-pop So ‘Much To Love’. 

Here are two dozen lost gems; 60s Liverpool classics once hidden now uncovered…

TRACK LISTING

1. IT'S A CRIME - The Kirkbys
2. FIND OUT WHAT'S HAPPENING – Tiffany With The Thoughts
3. NOBODY LIKE MY BABE - The Dennisons
4. JUST TO BE WITH YOU – Johnny Gustafson (aka Johnny Gus & Johnny Gus Set)
5. IT'S ALMOST GOOD - Eddie Cave & The FYX
6. YOU DON'T HAVE TO WHISPER - The Dimensions
7. WHATCHA GONNA DO – Jason Eddie & The Centremen
8. DON'T LET A LITTLE PRIDE (STAND IN YOUR WAY) – Billy Fury
9. IMAGINATION - The Clayton Squares
10. COME ON BACK - Paul & Ritchie & The Crying Shames
11. NEVER LEAVE YOUR BABY'S SIDE - Tony Jackson
12. THE CAT - The Merseys
13. ATMOSPHERES – The Wimple Winch
14. SO MUCH TO LOVE - McGough & McGear
15. MICHAELANGELO - 23rd Turnoff
16. SUMMER COMES SUNDAY - Swinging Blue Jeans
17. A MAN WITHOUT A FACE - The Chants
18. ABYSSINIAN SECRET - Cilla Black
19. WE'RE DOING FINE - Billy J Kramer & The Dakotas
20. COME ON - The Carrolls
21. CONSTANTLY CHANGING - The Koobas
22. GIRL ON THE CORNER - Focal Point
23. IT HAPPENS ALL THE TIME - Crackers
24. INTO MY LIFE SHE CAME - The Penny Peeps

Super Spicy celebrates getting to five years old in the best way it knows how - with a new release, of course. This one comes on translucent red wax and brings together a blend of seasoned and fresh talent including Hotmood, Shalvoy, Diana Swan, Musta, Adam Nova and Uptown Funk. These tracks do a fine job of reflecting the label's dedication to innovation right from the off. Musta's 'Fresco' is a nice jumbled percussive disco funker, Hotmood's 'Ayaaa' rides on some electric synth waves and Shalvo's 'Dancin' is a smooth cruise for the midnight hours. On the flip side are three more vibrant and vivacious disco dancers for good times only.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. Musta - Fresco
2. Hotmood - Ayaaa
3. Shalvoy - Dancin'

Side 2
1. Adam Nova - Do It Push
2. Uptown Funk - Yendo Loco
3. Diana Swan - We Gotta Boogie

Since its inception in 2010, A Love from Outer Space (ALFOS) has been a steady presence in the underground music scene, fostering a close-knit community with its regular, transformative dancefloor experiences.

Founded by the late Andrew Weatherall and Sean Johnston, both highly regarded DJs and producers, ALFOS was born out of a shared love for slower-paced music and quickly became a lasting and adventurous clubbing experience. Initially conceived as a response to the fast-paced mainstream scene, ALFOS took a different approach, maintaining a tempo of no more than 122 bpm.

The club night started in the intimate surroundings of The Waiting Room in North London, where its distinctive musical ethos found an immediate following. Over time, it evolved into a British clubbing institution, expanding to larger venues and eventually reaching an international audience.

ALFOS became known for its eclectic and hypnotic sound, blending everything from kosmische and house to dub and post-punk. The night developed a loyal following, with residencies at London's Phonox and Glasgow's Berkeley Suite, and it has taken its sound to various settings, from the Croatian coastline to the Golden Lion Pub in Todmorden.

Following Andrew Weatherall's passing in 2020, Sean Johnston has carried on the ALFOS legacy. During the pandemic, he launched the A Love from Outer Space Emergency Broadcast System, a series of livestreamed DJ sets that kept the community connected during a challenging time. These broadcasts were crucial in maintaining the ALFOS spirit when live events were paused, attracting a global audience and reinforcing the collective bond of the community.

This compilation reflects the music that has shaped ALFOS over the past 15 years while also hinting at its future. Compiled and mixed by Johnston, the 19-track album pays tribute to the club night’s rich history and its commitment to pushing musical boundaries forward.

Johnston explains, "The thing about ALFOS is that while we've always had one eye on the past, much of the music we play is forward-looking. This compilation seeks to captures that balance."

The album features a variety of exclusive tracks, including the sought-after Neville Watson remix of The Blow Monkeys and Brioski's "Call 626," alongside a wide range of sounds that both honour the past and embrace the future.

As ALFOS prepares to celebrate its 15th anniversary, its influence remains strong, offering a space for music lovers to come together, slow down, and explore new sounds.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: One of the most legendary labels in the electronic music space, and a compilation that perfectly outlines their unique musical vision. Act quick on that Piccadilly exclusive version!

TRACK LISTING

Vinyl:
A1. Blow Monkeys - Save Me (Neville Watson's Dub)
A2. Cisco Cisco - If You Want Me (Jay Shepheard Remix)
A3. Bongo Entp. - Drømmen (SIRS Remix)
B1. Darlyn Vlys - Wuzu (Tyu Tribe Remix)
B2. Kimo - Whirl
B3. Discoscuro - Discoscuro
C1. Popular Tyre - Feel Like A Lazer Beam
C2. Class B Band - Repli-can (Edit)
C3. Bal5000 - Bleu Infini
D1. Phil Kieran - Find Love (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
D2. Das Komplex - 89
D3. Brioski - Calling 626 (Edit)

CD:
Disc 1 (Mixed)
1. The Blow Monkeys - Save Me (Neville Watson Remix)
2. Jonny Sender - Zhivago Zhivago
3. Cisco Cisco - If You Want Me (Jay Shepheard Remix)
4. Laars – None
5. Duncan Gray - Gone & Forgotten (feat Dominic Silvani)
6. Secret Circuit - JungleBones (Tiago Mix)
7. Bongo Entp. - Drømmen (SIRS Remix)
8. Feon - Round Earther
9. Darlyn Vlys - Wuzu (Tyu Tribe Remix)
10. Niv Ast - Jungle Marvin
11. Kimo – Whirl
12. Bal5000 - Bleu Infini
13. Discoscuro – Discoscuro
14. Popular Tyre - Feel Like A Lazer Beam
15. Class B Band - Repli-can
16. Phil Kieran - Find Love (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
17. Jazxing, Das Komplex - Neu Nostalgia (Das Komplex Remix)
18. Das Komplex – 89
19. Brioski - Calling 626

Disc 2 (Unmixed)
1. Blow Monkeys - Save Me (Neville Watson's Dub)
2. Cisco Cisco - If You Want Me (Jay Shepheard Remix)
3. Bongo Entp. - Drømmen (SIRS Remix)
4. Darlyn Vlys - Wuzu (Tyu Tribe Remix)
5. Kimo - Whirl
6. Discoscuro - Discoscuro
7. Popular Tyre - Feel Like A Lazer Beam
8. Class B Band - Repli-can (Edit)
9. Bal5000 - Bleu Infini
10. Phil Kieran - Find Love (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
11. Das Komplex - 89
12. Brioski - Calling 626 (Edit)

Japanese Funk, Boogie and City Pop from King Records 1974-88 selected by Dj Notoya. DJ Notoya is back with a new selection of Japanese funk and boogie from the label king records between 1974 and 1988. Featuring Buzz, Fujimaru Band, Keiko Toda, Kumiko Sawada.

Following the success of the 'Tokyo Glow' and 'Funk Tide' sets, Wewantsounds once again teams up with Tokyo-based DJ Notoya for a breezy selection of Funk and Boogie recorded in Japan for King Records in the 70s and 80s. Most tracks here are making their debut on vinyl outside of Japan and the album, like its predecessors, has been designed by Optigram's Manuel Sepulveda and is annotated by DJ Notoya. The audio has been newly mastered in Tokyo by King Records.

TRACK LISTING

1. BUZZ - Garasumado
2. Mami Ayukawa - Sabita Gambler
3. Johnny Yoshinaga - The Rain
4. Keiko Toda - Fade In
5. Koji Kobayashi - Bokura No Date
6. Yuko Imai - Hotel Twilight 4.49
7. Kumiko Sawada - Your Love's Away
8. Masatoshi Kanno - Day By Day
9. Yuji Mitsuya - After Five At Café-Bar
10. Fujimaru Band - Paper Machine

Welcome to 'Instrumental Dubs #3', the ongoing series that delves into the world of the dub Version and beyond. Side one explores the axis of UK street soul and reggae with the opening two tracks produced by Howard Hill and originally released on his Passion Enterprises label in the late eighties. Both 'Versions' have a machine lead rhythm section paired with a reggae skank and snippets of soulful vox. The proto house of Protek's 'I Love To Dance With You' featured on a Jura Soundsystem DJ Mix for Planet Trip, a one off single from the now sadly deceased Errol Parkes that's been re-edited with love by The Nightlark from Edinburgh.

The B side features The Cool Notes 'Natural Energy', which isn't strictly speaking a dub Version, but it has that vibe with a primarily instrumental backing track featuring sparse vocals and spacey FX. The album closes with a secret weapon of Ilija Rudman 'Dub 4 Love' that pays homage to a famous track from acid house's heyday.

Pressed on 180g heavyweight vinyl with full sleeve jacket design by Bradley Pinkerton.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Without doubt, the hottest instalment of this killer series to date. These are sizzling hot, dubbed-out, street-soul boogie bombs that are truly irresistible.

TRACK LISTING

Granti Asher Paulette Tajah - Love Or Physical Instrumental
Michael Prophet - Body Fusion Version
Protek - I Love To Dance With You The Nightlark
The Cool Notes - Natural Energy
Ilija Rudman - Dub 4 Love Secret Weapon

You know Dolly, Loretta, Tammy, and Bobbie—but what about Joyce, Mona, Cathy or Judy? Barnyard Beehive lassos 16 Opry hopefuls from across the Numeroverse, corralling the timeless tropes of heartbreak, trouble, and the bottle into one 12” pen.

TRACK LISTING

1. Joyce Street - Mississippi Moonshine
2. Judy Brackin - Mama’s Baby Again
3. Jenny Jordan With Billy Carnes And The Lee Riders - Walking In The Sunshine Of Your Love
4. Vanita Thompson - You Always Break My Heart
5. Edna Lee - You Can’t Deceive Me
6. Cathy Collins - Token Of Love
7. Connie Caddell - Angel
8. Ellie Shepherd And The Countrymen - I Love You Only
9. Julie Durocher And The Plainsmen - Bad News
10. Mona Lunsford - I’m Getting Restless
11. Bonnie Lee And The Country Men - Don’t Think That I May Never Go
12. Nancy Lee Jourdan - I’m A Woman Who Needs A Man
13. Katy Cricket - Society Girl
14. Molly Fay - The Bottle Or Me
15. Skip & Gail - That’s All I Want From You
16. Country Girl Kay - No One Loves You Like I Do

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Bob Sinclar's iconic label, Yellow Productions, step into the catchy world of the French touch with an exceptional and limited boxset with 3 LP vinyl records plus a poster. Discover hits, unreleased nuggets and rare tracks ranging from house to trip-hop, jazz and hip-hop. Discover some of the biggest names on the electronic music scene : Like Dimitri From Paris, DJ Gregory, Kid Loco, Martin Solveig and David Guetta

TRACK LISTING

1. DJ Cam - DJ Cam Theme
2. Cutee B - Jazz Ob Piano
3. The Right Vibes - What Is Jazz
4. Reminiscence Quartet - Inspiration
5. Bob Sinclar - Gym Tonic
6. Calm - People From The Sun And The Earth (Dixon's ADVC Remix)
7. Tom & Joy - Queixume (Masters At Work Remix)
8. Salomé De Bahia - Outro Lugar
9. Bob Sinclar Feat. Ron Carroll - House Music
10. Africanism Presents Bob Sinclar, David Guetta, Joachim Garraud & Tim Deluxe Feat. Ben Onono - Summer Moon (Eran Hersh & Stadiumx Remix)
11. East - Bundle O'Jazz
12. La Yellow 357 - Quelle Sensation Bizarre
13. SomethingALaMode Feat. Karl Lagerfeld - Rondo Parisiano
14. Artofdisco Presents Martino - 4.00 AM In The Mourning (Putsch'79 Remix)
15. Bob Sinclar - New New New (Avicii Remix)
16. Artofdisco Presents Accident In Paradise - Don't Be Late
17. Africanism Presents DJ Gregory - Bloc Party
18. BangBang - Shoot The Model (Teen Remix Edited By Shield)
19. Bob Sinclar & Dimitri From Paris Feat. Byron Stingily - Love Is The Answer
20. Artofdisco Presents DJ Yellow - Mosheeba
21. Louise Vertigo - Où Est La Femme?
22. The Mighty Bop Feat. Duncan Roy - Too Deep
23. Africanism Presents DJ Gregory Feat. Salomé De Bahia - Tourment D'Amour
24. Bob Sinclar Feat. Sofiya Nzau - Digane
25. Artofdisco Presents Farrell Lennon - Ten Thousand Women (Boris Dlugosch Remix)
26. The Mighty Bop Feat. EJM - Freestyle Linguistique
27. Kid Loco - She's My Lover
28. Artofdisco Presents Vince - Superworld (DJ T. & Booka Shade Remix)
29. Africanism Presents Martin Solveig - Edony (Clap Your Hands)
30. Bob Sinclar Feat. Steve Edwards - World Hold On (Children Of The Sky)

In celebration of one of the most dynamic and diverse periods ever in the singles charts, NOW are proud to present ‘NOW That’s What I Call An Era: The Sound Of The Suburbs’!

Spanning multiple genres that contributed to the rich diversity of the era – including punk, new wave, reggae, ska, mod and electronic – between 1977 and the end of 1980, and all of which would inspire the wave of new art and club influenced pop that would come to define the musical landscape of the early 80s…

TRACK LISTING

CD Tracklist:

CD1
1. The Clash - London Calling 
2. Ramones - Blitzkrieg Bop
3. Iggy Pop - Lust For Life
4. The Jam - Going Underground 
5. The Boomtown Rats - Rat Trap 
6. The Undertones - Teenage Kicks
7. Siouxsie And The Banshees - Hong Kong Garden 
8. The Rezillos - Top Of The Pops
9. Plastic Bertrand - Ça Plane Pour Moi
10. Squeeze - Cool For Cats
11. The Cure - Boys Don't Cry 
12. Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart 
13. Dexys Midnight Runners - Geno 
14. The Police - Roxanne 
15. Pretenders - Brass In Pocket 
16. Blondie - Atomic 
17. Martha And The Muffins - Echo Beach 
18. Joe Jackson - It's Different For Girls
19. Roxy Music - Over You 
20. Adam & The Ants - Antmusic 

CD2
1. The Members - The Sound Of The Suburbs 
2. The Stranglers - No More Heroes 
3. The Ruts - Babylon's Burning
4. Ramones - Sheena Is A Punk Rocker 
5. The Runaways - Cherry Bomb 
6. Generation X – King Rocker 
7. Patti Smith Group - Because The Night 
8. Joe Jackson - Is She Really Going Out With Him?
9. Elvis Costello & The Attractions - (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea 
10. Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers - Roadrunner (Once)
11. The Tom Robinson Band - 2-4-6-8 Motorway 
12. Dr. Feelgood - Milk And Alcohol 
13. Yellow Dog - Just One More Night 
14. Eddie & The Hot Rods - Do Anything You Wanna Do
15. The Only Ones - Another Girl, Another Planet 
16. Skids - Into The Valley 
17. Magazine - Shot By Both Sides 
18. The Vibrators - Automatic Lover
19. Sham 69 - If The Kids Are United
20. The Dickies - Banana Splits 

CD3
1. The Specials - Gangsters
2. Madness - The Prince
3. The Selecter – On My Radio  
4. The Beat - Mirror In The Bathroom 
5. Bad Manners - Special Brew
6. UB40 - Food For Thought 
7. The Clash - (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais 
8. The Boomtown Rats - Like Clockwork 
9. Public Image Limited - Death Disco 
10. Grace Jones - Love Is The Drug
11. Devo - (I Can't Get Me No) Satisfaction 
12. The Slits - Typical Girls 
13. The Regents - 7 Teen
14. XTC - Making Plans For Nigel 
15. Squeeze - Take Me I'm Yours
16. Blondie - Hanging On The Telephone 
17. Pretenders - Stop Your Sobbing 
18. The Motors - Airport 
19. Secret Affair - Time For Action 
20. The Jags - Back Of My Hand 
21. The Jam - All Around The World 

CD4
1. The B-52's - Rock Lobster 
2. Bow Wow Wow - C30 C60 C90 Go 
3. Adam & The Ants - Dog Eat Dog
4. Toyah – Ieya
5. Siouxsie And The Banshees - Happy House 
6. Hazel O'Connor - Eighth Day 
7. Devo - Whip It 
8. The Flying Lizards - Money
9. The Human League - Nightclubbing 
10. The Psychedelic Furs - Sister Europe
11. Joy Division - Atmosphere 
12. John Foxx - Underpass  
13. Tubeway Army - Are ‘Friends’ Electric? 
14. Japan - Life In Tokyo 
15. Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - Messages
16. The Number One Song In Heaven (From The Album No. 1 In Heaven - 1979) 
17. Ultravox – Sleepwalk  
18. Spandau Ballet - To Cut A Long Story Short 
19. The Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star

LP Tracklist:

LP1
1. The Clash - London Calling
2. Ramones - Blitzkrieg Bop
3. Iggy Pop - Lust For Life
4. The Jam - Going Underground
5. The Undertones - Teenage Kicks
6. The Cure - Boys Don't Cry
7. Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart
8. XTC - Making Plans For Nigel
9. The Boomtown Rats - Rat Trap
10. Blondie - Hanging On The Telephone
11. Siouxsie And The Banshees - Hong Kong Garden
12. The Rezillos - Top Of The Pops
13. Plastic Bertrand - Ça Plane Pour Moi
14. The Dickies - Banana Splits
15. Squeeze - Cool For Cats
16. Skids - Into The Valley
17. Magazine - Shot By Both Sides
18. Public Image Limited - Death Disco

LP2
1. The Members - The Sound Of The Suburbs
2. The Stranglers - No More Heroes
3. The Ruts - Babylon's Burning
4. The Runaways - Cherry Bomb
5. The Only Ones - Another Girl, Another Planet
6. Elvis Costello & The Attractions - (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea
7. Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers - Roadrunner (Once)
8. The Tom Robinson Band - 2-4-6-8 Motorway
9. Patti Smith Group - Because The Night
10. Pretenders - Brass In Pocket
11. The Police - Roxanne
12. Dexys Midnight Runners - Geno
13. Secret Affair - Time For Action
14. The Motors - Airport
15. Martha And The Muffins - Echo Beach
16. Roxy Music - Over You
17. Joe Jackson - Is She Really Going Out With Him?

LP3
1. The Specials - Gangsters
2. Madness - The Prince
3. The Selecter – On My Radio
4. The Beat - Mirror In The Bathroom
5. UB40 - Food For Thought
6. Japan - Life In Tokyo
7. Sparks - The Number One Song In Heaven (From The Album No. 1 In Heaven - 1979)
8. The B-52's - Rock Lobster
9. Adam & The Ants - Dog Eat Dog
10. Bow Wow Wow - C30 C60 C90 Go
11. The Flying Lizards - Money
12. The Human League - Nightclubbing
13. Tubeway Army - Are ‘Friends’ Electric?
14. John Foxx - Underpass 
15. Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - Messages
16. The Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star

Watch out! You are holding the 125th (one-hundred-and-twenty fifth!) album on Tramp Records in your hands! We are honored to celebrate this impressive anniversary with the tenth volume in the Praise Poems series. This time, too, we go on a journey to discover previously unheard regions of jazz, folk and AOR from the 1970s and 80s.


Praise Poems Vol.10 presents sixteen (almost) forgotten rare groove gems, all released between the years 1970 and 1984. One of the many highlights is the opening track: "Fields of Laughter" by Color Me Blu - originally released on an acetate only of which two copies exist worldwide. But there is much, much more to discover. This brandnew volume features a wide range of genres, from AOR (Whiz Kids, Ross Miller, and another previously unreleased track by Harve & Charee) to Latin-Rock a'la Santana (Color Me Blue, Tribal Sinfonia, and Apple) to Soul-Jazz (Ernie Lewis Trio, Joe Bozzi Quintet or Dutch saxophonist Frits Kaatee). Right at the end, one track in particular stands out: the wonderful "It's Good Not To Forget" by George Melvin and his quintet - a fabulously dreamy, thoughtful instrumental piece in the style of Ramsey Lewis with catchy tune potential.


Not many compilation series make it to a tenth edition. And if they do, then you often notice that the quality of the songs goes in the opposite direction to the increasing number of series: namely decreasing. Not so with Praise Poems Vol. 10, which the creators prove in an impressive new way. They have found tracks that were originally either a) pressed by the musicians themselves in very small editions or b) released by small, regional labels. It is understandable that neither the musicians nor these small labels had the necessary knowledge or budget to market their albums or singles professionally. The majority of the bands therefore did not manage to reach a large audience - although they certainly had the potential for the big stage

TRACK LISTING

1. Color Me Blu - Fields Of Laughter
2. Apple - Love Melody In E Minor
3. Tribal Sinfonia - Do You Want Me
4. Harve And Charee - New Me
5. Kwartet Frits Kaatee - Easy Evil
6. Ernie Scott Trio - Souled Out
7. Bunker Hill - Dionysis
8. San Diego - Sands Of Malibu (Pt.1 & 2)
9. Synod - Sheryl Song Is Gonna Do My Dancing
10. Whiz Kids - Long Time Gone
11. Ross Miller - I Can Love Her Anyway
12. Thunderbolt The Wondercolt - Ragged Edge
13. Eyrle Oliver - Lovely Lady
14. Lisa Richards - A Day In The Life Of A Fool
15. Joe Bozzi Quintet - Masquerade
16. George Melvin Quintet - It's Good Not To Forget

Here is the much anticipated Hot Sauce Volume 5, showcasing some seriously groovy and rare Rocksteady, Boss and Reggay tracks mixed expertly for yet another thrilling early Reggae experience on vinyl. Hot Sauce Volume 5 is dedicated to the Trojan related labels between 1965 and 1975 and features outstanding original Rocksteady, Boss Reggae and early Reggae (“Reggay”) tracks including rare songs, overlooked gems, hidden treasures and a couple of hits. The record labels showcased on this fourth volume are Amalgamated, Bread, Downtown, Duke, Explosion, Grape, Harry J Records , JJ Records, Rio, Splash, Upsetter and Techniques. The tracks here have been selected according to their musical interest firstly, their rarity, and their complementarity. These tracks are all outstanding “killer tracks”, there is no “filler” whatsoever. Particular attention has been paid to the way the songs are sequenced (or “mixed”) so that the album builds up nicely and gradually, generally starting with the Rocksteady songs on the A side and the 70s songs on the B side.

The Hot Sauce series is a musical journey across Trojan and its labels showcasing early Jamaican Reggae’s diverse musical genres and outstanding artists. Since the early 70s’ “Tighten Up” and “Club Reggae” series, no compilations have really explored these labels in depth on vinyl. It might be the last volume of the series as we know it so we wanted to make a splash for volume 5. It is a nod to self-censored lewd Reggae covers from Trojan and Pama in early 70s. So don't fret, a collectible yellow sticker has been strategically applied on the shrink-wrap to cover Miss Rocksteady's bottom!! With its striking cover and its thrilling Reggay selection, volume 5 is bound to become another successful album in the Hot Sauce series...

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. The Soul Leaders & Carib Beats - "Pour On The Sauce"
2. Lynn Taitt & The Jets - "I Spy"
3. The Kilowatts - "Real Cool Operator"
4. Sir Collins & The Black Diamonds - "Black Diamonds"
5. Clive's All Stars & George Murphy - "San Sebastian"
6. Eric Monty Morris - "Cinderella"
7. Dell Williams - "Searching For Your Love"

Side 2
1. Derrick Morgan - "I Who Have Nothing"
2. Chenley Duffus - "To Be A Lover"
3. Lloyd Charmers - "President" (version)
4. Tony Bins - "Musical Shower"
5. Annette Clarke - "Just One Look"
6. The Jay Boys - "Del Gago"
7. Desmond Riley - "Tear Them"

Following the success of 'The Original Sound of Mali' compilation, we return with another explorative delve into the wonders of Malian music compiled by French writer, journalist and Grammy-nominated compiler Florent Mazzoleni and Mr Bongo's very own David Buttle.

Restoring, reissuing and contextualising iconic tracks from Ousmane Kouyate & Ambassadeurs Internationaux, Rail Band, Les Messagers du Mali, Mystere Jazz de Tombouctou and many more, the second compilation in this series dives ever further into the richness of post-independence music emanating out of Mali. One in which traditional foundations and instrumentation, blended with modern musical advances and infuence.

Following Mali's independence, after ten years of maturation, the 1970s saw modern Malian culture revealed to the world through musical anthologies and overviews of national and regional productions. It was a remarkably fertile period of the country's musical history, with state- sponsored bands and orchestras now able to be documented and recorded by sound engineers. Mali has always had a diverse storytelling tradition through music, with each province and ethnic group having its own unique character and nuances. As infuences and sounds from the West drifted over the Atlantic, Malian musicians began hearing artists like John Lee Hooker, Wilson Pickett, Johnny Pacheco, Celia Cruz and James Brown. Elements and ideas from blues, soul, rock and funk led to bands covering artists they'd heard from these genres. The Tjiwara Band de Kati's raw cover version of Pickett's soul / R&B classic 'In The Midnight Hour' and the James Brown funk-channelling cut 'Get Up James' from Les Ambassadeurs du Motel de Bamako, are two such examples featured on this compilation.

Most bands also relied on playing in hotels in Mali's capital, Bamako, which naturally became where they honed their sound. With guests wanting to hear the infuence of foreign styles and modern instrumentation becoming more available, this fusion of Western ideas with traditional Malian rhythms and organic instruments led to a oneof-a-kind musical excellence.

TRACK LISTING

1. Ousmane Kouyate & Ambassadeurs Internationaux - Kefmba
2. Bouba Et Sokona Sacko - Mamaniya
3. Les Ambassadeurs Du Motel De Bamako - Get Up James
4. Allata Broulaye - Moussokeleyato
5. Tentemba Jazz Du Mali - Yayoroba
6. Tjiwara Band De Kati -- Kogola
7. Rail Band - Massare Mousso
8. Les Ambassadeurs Du Motel De Bamako - Matou Kagni
9. Mystere Jazz De Tombouctou - Sidi Yahia
10. Allata Broulaye - Yayoroba
11. Les Messagers Du Mali - Diamana Diarra
12. Tjiwara Band De Kati - Midnight Hour

Paul Hillery has once again handpicked a must-have compilation of little-known and high-quality tracks for his ongoing 'Folk Funk and Trippy Troubadours' series. This third volume, the first on BBE Music, is an essential companion to Paul's 'Children Of The Sun' trilogy, also released on BBE Music.

Featuring an array of funky folk, jazzy AOR grooves, fuzzed-out lo-fi dub, DIY folktronica, private-press grails and previously unreleased material, Folk Funk and Trippy Troubadours Volume 3 has 22 tracks over triple vinyl and comes with extensive sleeve notes. Includes such gems as the ethereal sound of Sheila Chandra, the euphoric groove of Tim Green, the infectious bass-heavy folk of Dave Smith & Judy Dinning, dreamy Alaskan soft-rock from Soapstone and a West Coast call to enlightened celebration by Rhythm & Bliss. This compilation could soundtrack a cross-continental journey with the music lover sat on a Greyhound bus with earphones on and a battered copy of Kerouac's On The Road. Paul Hillery has curated releases by Will & James Ragar, Forest, and Monica Rypma for BBE Music. Described as an 'enlightened heathen' Paul has shared music via his highly influential Folk Funk and Trippy Troubadours persona on social media for over a decade, cultivating an unerring knack for uncovering rare and lost sounds. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Once again, Paul returns to BBE for the follow-up to his previous two Folk Funk compilations, and his superb 'We are The Children Of The Sun' that was one of our favourite compilations in 2023. Wonderfully obscure folky gems, lo-fi funk and heartfelt, organic electronic pieces that lean into Balearic and ambient. Unsurprisingly superb.

TRACK LISTING

1. One
2. Got More Love
3. What Have You Seen
4. Seven Letters
5. Something About Nothing
6. Night Blooming Thing
7. Give Me Time
8. Beside You
9. Provincetown
10. You Brighten Up My Day
11. Love Strain
12. Rainy Day Dreams
13. Sail Far
14. Joshua
15. Friendship
16. Montse’gur
17. Movin’ On
18. Take It If You Try
19. Love Is The Sun
20. Going All The Way
21. Motivationen Måste Vara Stor
22. Feel The Spirit

Little John is one of the most loved and prolific 80s dancehall artists. He started as a child artist in 1979 and by the mid 1980s had recorded for every major producer. In 1984 at age 14 he already knew the ropes of the business and started to produce 45s on his own Romantic label, which he continued sporadically releasing tunes on up until 1993. For us this is one of the coolest looking labels of the latter 1980s, and has a handful of hard to find killer 45s, mostly obscure and mostly slept on. So naturally we needed to corral these for another all killer no filler compilation. True to his own roots, Little John’s label mostly features fresh youthman artists, though a handful of veterans, like Frankie Paul and Early B who are both featured here, also recorded for him. The ten songs on this comp are our favorites from the label, featuring a selection of killer rhythms spanning the heavy mid 80s style, the proper late 80s digital style, and the more uptempo early 90s style. Hardcore DKR heads take note - this features three cuts on that most hallowed 1987 digi rhythm.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: We've had a fresh drop of reggae, dub and dancehall from Digikiller. I reckon this compilation of hard to find 45s produced and in some instances voiced by Little John is the most intriguing. Authentic, mid 80s dancehall that's been painfully hard to acquire.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Jughead - Get Up And Fight
A2. Dutch Man - Weh Yu Wah Mi Do Ballay
A3. Frankie Paul - No I Wooden Mind
A4. Little John - I'm Lonely Too
A5. Little Chukie - Show You That I Love You
B1. Prince Oret - Getto Youth
B2. Lee Crystal - Give My Loving A Try
B3. Early B - Come
B4. Little John - Champion Lover
B5. Baker B - Cowboy MC

Cold Blow proudly presents Bonus Beats: Rare & Unreleased Finnish Electro 1990–2002, a landmark compilation capturing Finland's underground electro scene from the late 1990s and early 2000s. This double-LP features 9 rare and 3 previously unreleased tracks from pioneering Finnish artists, showcasing a distinctly Nordic approach to the genre. With contributions from notable names such as Jori Hulkkonen, Mr. Velcro Fastener, Mono Junk, and the late Mika Vainio, this release highlights the experimental and DIY ethos that defined Finland's electronic music scene during this period.

Carefully curated by Erkko Lehtinen, a key figure in Finland's electro scene as a DJ and promoter, the compilation explores a broad sonic palette, spanning early techno influences, robotic allure, and dark, bass-heavy tracks. Standout contributions include Decepticons and Dr. Robotnik's unreleased dark electro cuts, with the latter veering into minimal wave territory. Feng Shui feat. Monsieur delivers a striking collaboration that fuses a trance-like lead with raw, industrial beats, uniting members of Huoratron, Nu Science, Polytron, and Op:l Bastards. Keeping alive the legacy of Perttu Häkkinen (aka Randy Barracuda), this release wouldn't be complete without Imatran Voima's bass-driven anthem from their debut EP. Also featured are Spektor's retro synth experiments, Tero's Commodore 64-based creations, Brothomstates' (later a Warp signee) futuristic soundscapes, and a rare cover of Kraftwerk's The Model by the anonymous duo Markus & Kristian. Erkko's extensive liner notes provide additional insight into this culturally and musically significant era.

TRACK LISTING

1. B-Rock & Mono Junk - My Mind Is Going
2. Orchestra Guacamole & Mika Vainio - Theme For 'The Lost Diamonds'
3. Mr Velcro Fastener & Mesak - Robotic Appliances (Original Demo)
4. Jori Hulkkonen - Whispers (Extended Dance Version)
5. Markus & Kristian - Hän Malli On
6. Spektor - Rubic's Cube
7. Imatran Voima - It's Time To Testify
8. Decepticons - We Are The Decepticons
9. Dr. Robotnik - Own Commands
10. Feng Shui - Hao Hao (I'm Back) [feat. Monsieur]
11. Brothomstates - Naeae Eletrok
12. Tero - Music

Another 4 tried and tested club weapons straight from the Toolroom with huge support across clubland from LF System, Bob Sinclar, Claptone, David Penn, Ferreck Dawn, Danny Howard, Low Steppa, Roger Sanchez, Jodie Harsh, MK, James Hype, ACRAZE, Tiesto, Adam Beyer, Duke Dumont, Dombresky & the Solardo boys!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Mark Knight & James Hurr - You Take Me Higher
A2. Friend Within - Chain
B1. Martin Ikin & Winnie Ama – Control It
B2. Flashmob & Raumakustik – Club Talk

There's No Stopping Us Now: The Female Mods' Forgotten Story' - a title that pays homage to one of The Supremes' many infectious floorfillers - is a celebration of the inspirational women singers and groups who provided a brilliant and timeless soundtrack to an exciting moment in British pop culture.

Bringing together the queens of Motown and Stax, classy chanteuses from around the world, and some homegrown dancefloor divas, these 98 songs on four discs were not only a key component of the enduring Mod scene, but many of the performers, musicians, songwriters and producers were the audible and visible representation of a way of life that publicist Pete Meaden described as "clean living under difficult circumstances".

The origins of the male Mod style are well documented but female Mods were too often relegated to a supporting role, which makes the work of these singers, and musicians, plus the actresses, artists, designers, media figures, models and writers of the time all the more pioneering.

Of course, female singers had been successful prior to the Mod era (among those included here, the great Dinah Washington made her recording debut in '44) but to add some context, in 2023 - some sixty years after the original flowering of Mod - nine of the 16 UK No. 1 singles were performed by or featured female artists. That compares to none of the 17 chart toppers in 1963. 

The inspiration for this new collection came from the book Ready Steady Girls: The Female Mods' Forgotten Story, first published in 2016 as a (quickly sold out) compendium of first-hand accounts by girls and young women drawn to the Mod way of life in the first half of the '60s, or the revival at the end of the following decade.

In 2024 that book is being made available once again, and we have the opportunity to create a fitting musical companion piece to that volume's striking and original words and images.

This stylishly packaged four disc set features female artists who went on to become household names (including a surprising number who found fame as actors), some one-hit wonders, a few acts who only found their audience years later, and a selection of deeper cuts that should get nodding approval from the Mod cognoscenti of either sex. The extensive sleeve notes provide a track-by-track commentary, with informative details of the singer and the song.

TRACK LISTING

CD1:
1. Aretha Franklin - Respect
2. Erma Franklin - Big Boss Man
3. Doris Troy - You'd Better Stop
4. Dusty Springfield - Can I Get A Witness
5. Martha & The Vandellas - Nowhere To Run
6. Dinah Washington Soulville
7. Carla Thomas - Something Good (Is Going To Happen To You)
8. Inez & Charlie Foxx - My Momma Told Me
9. Thelma Jones - Stronger
10. Etta James - I'm So Glad (I Found Love In You)
11. Betty Everett - I've Got A Claim On You
12. P.P. Arnold - If You See What I Mean
13. Billie Davis & The LeRoys - Whatcha Gonna Do
14. The Exciters - Do-Wah-Diddy Diddy
15. Lydia Marcelle - It's Not Like You
16. Brenda Holloway - When I'm Gone
17. Maxine Brown - One Step At A Time
18. Mary Love - Think It Over Baby
19. Nina Simone - I Put A Spell On You
20. The Cake - You Can Have Him
21. Lesley Gore - California Nights
22. Sharon Tandy - Love Makes The World Go Round
23. Mary Wells - What's Easy For Two Is So Hard For One
24. The Velvelettes - These Things Will Keep Me Loving You
25. The Supremes - Stop! In The Name Of Love

CD2:
1. Ketty Lester - Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid
2. Helen Shapiro - Fever
3. Dionne Warwick - Another Night
4. Cilla Black With George Martin's Orchestra - I've Been Wrong Before
5. Julie Driscoll - I Know You Love Me Not
6. Nancy Wilson - Where Does That Leave Me?
7. Baby Washington - That's How Heartaches Are Made
8. Barbara Lewis - Baby I'm Yours
9. Dee Dee Sharp - My Best Friend's Man
10. Timi Yuro - You Can Have Him
11. Patti LaBelle & The Blue Belles - You Forgot How To Love
12. Sonny & Cher - Little Man
13. Ernestine Anderson - Keep An Eye Out For Love
14. Joy Marshall - The More I See You
15. Nico - I'm Not Sayin'
16. Julie Felix - I've Got Nothing But Time
17. Barbara Lynn - You'll Lose A Good Thing
18. Kim Weston - A Little More Love
19. Bettye Swann - Make Me Yours
20. Tammi Terrell - Come On And See Me
21. Jackie Ross - New Lover
22. The Toys - A Lover's Concerto
23. The Shirelles - Too Much Of A Good Thing
24. Kathy Kirby - You're The One

CD3:
1. Lesley Gore - You Don't Own Me
2. Dodie West - Goin' Out Of My Head
3. Kiki Dee - (You Don't Know) How Glad I Am
4. Gillian Hills - Look At Them
5. Francoise Hardy - All Over The World
6. Twiggy - Beautiful Dreams
7. The Honeycombs - That's The Way
8. Dick & Dee Dee - Thou Shalt Not Steal
9. Glenda Collins - Baby It Hurts
10. Dana Gillespie - Pay You Back With Interest
11. Louise Cordett - Two Lovers
12. Sandie Shaw - Girl Don't Come
13. Petula Clark - I Know A Place
14. Lulu - Can't Hear You No More
15. Susan Maughan - Call On Me
16. The Caravelles - New York
17. Julie Grant - Can't Get You Out Of My Mind
18. The Shangri-Las - Right Now And Not Later
19. The Dixie Cups - People Say
20. The McKinleys - Sweet And Tender Romance
21. The Orchids - I've Got That Feeling
22. The Breakaways - He Doesn't Love Me
23. Polly Perkins - The Girls Are At It Again
24. Miss X - Christine

CD4:
1. The Chiffons - One Fine Day
2. The Ronettes - Baby I Love You
3. Little Eva - Keep Your Hands Off My Baby
4. The Crystals - I Wonder
5. Candy And The Kisses - Keep On Searchin'
6. The Ad-Libs - The Boy From New York City
7. The Soul Sisters - Good Time Tonight
8. Brenda Lee - What'd I Say?
9. Goldie & The Gingerbreads - Please Please
10. Millie - Sweet William
11. Derrick And Patsy - Troubles
12. Norma Tanega - Bread
13. Irma Thomas - Break-a-way
14. The Shondells - My Love
15. The Sapphires - Evil One
16. Madelaine Bell - I Really Got Carried Away
17. Elkie Brooks - Something's Got A Hold On Me
18. Cleo Laine - Don't You Pass Me By
19. Aretha Franklin - Baby I Love You
20. Sugar Pie DeSanto - I Don’t Wanna Fuss
21. Fontella Bass - Recovery
22. Dee Dee Warwick - Worth Every Tear I Cry
23. Sandy Wynns - A Touch Of Venus
24. The Marvelettes - Danger Heartbreak Dead Ahead
25. The Supremes - There's No Stopping Us Now

This compilation features tracks released between 1978 and 1988 in Western France.

Through this compilation, we strove to highlight a little-known regional scene, characteristic of the diverse and sometimes opposing music movements of the 80s. Through this musical journey across the Brittany, Normandy, and Pays-de-la-Loire regions, we sought to showcase a resolutely indie aesthetic, sometimes conceived in some of France’s most unusual studios, such as a bunker and a caravan.

We’ve found it difficult to make attribute an established, well-defined genre to some of the tracks featured on this compilation. They draw, each in their own way, from the rock scene that dominated the 80s in France, from countercultures, from American stars who shone on the country’s radio stations and in its record stores, and even from local folk music.

While one could hear an harmony across the tracks featured on Le Grand Ouest, channeling this manifold energy onto a record required extensive research through the Brittany, Normandy, and Pays de la Loire regions’ discographies. Over the three years since the release of Le Grand Sud-Est, we have meticulously researched the references of artists, musicians, studios, labels, and publishers from each region. We sought to trace each artist to identify and listen to all their works from that period, and, when possible, collect unreleased recordings, left as demo cassettes on the artists' dusty shelves.

The synthesis of this research, presented here under the title Le Grand Ouest, hopes to remind us of the timelessness of the indie scene in our country, through the lens of the 80s Western France’s scene. Whereas Le Grand Sud-Est exhibited the funkiest sides of the Provençale and Rhône-Alpes scene, Le Grand Ouest leans towards a more mellow, introverted music, an expression of groups of friends united by the joy of playing together.

The first 500 copies of the record come with an extensive booklet with unpublished photos, press clippings, and texts for each track.

TRACK LISTING

A1.Bleu Nuit - Spanish Harlem
A2.Sepia - Stress
A3.Bleu Nuit - En Bas De Chez Toi (Live)
A4.Les Espions - Casse-Tête Jungle
A5.Avel Nevez - Naufrage (Partie 1)

B1.Claude Robert Hit Orchestra - Dance The Disco Sound
B2.Marie-Ange Cousin - Molle Ouate
B3.Quai 21 - Music Man
B4.Maderson - Tourne La Page

Volume 1 of this expertly curated project of 90s Italian House - put together by Don Carlos.

If Paradise was half as nice… by Fabio De Luca.

Googling “paradise house”, the first results to pop up are an endless list of European b&b’s with whitewashed lime façades, all of them promising “…an unmatched travel experience a few steps from the sea”. Next, a little further down, are the institutional websites of a few select semi-luxury retirement homes (no photos shown, but lots of stock images of smiling nurses with reassuring looks). To find the “paradise house” we’re after, we have to scroll even further down. Much further down.

It feels like yesterday, and at the same time it seems like a million years ago. The Eighties had just ended, and it was still unclear what to expect from the Nineties. Mobile phones that were not the size of a briefcase and did not cost as much as a car? A frightening economic crisis? The guitar-rock revival?! Certainly, the best place to observe that moment of transition was the dancefloor. Truly epochal transformations were happening there. From America, within a short distance one from the other, two revolutionary new musical styles had arrived: the first one sounded a bit like an “on a budget” version of the best Seventies disco-music – Philly sound made with a set of piano-bar keyboards! – the other was even more sparse, futuristic and extraterrestrial. It was a music with a quite distinct “physical” component, which at the same time, to be fully grasped, seemed to call for the knotty theories of certain French post-modern philosophers: Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, Paul Virilio... Both those genres – we would learn shortly after – were born in the black communities of Chicago and Detroit, although listening to those vinyl 12” (often wrapped in generic white covers, and with little indication in the label) you could not easily guess whether behind them there was a black boy from somewhere in the Usa, or a girl from Berlin, or a pale kid from a Cornish coastal town.

Quickly, similar sounds began to show up from all corners of Europe. A thousand variations of the same intuition: leaner, less lean, happier, slightly less intoxicated, more broken, slower, faster, much faster... Boom! From the dancefloors – the London ones at least, whose chronicles we eagerly read every month in the pages of The Face and i-D – came tales of a new generation of clubbers who had completely stopped “dressing up” to go dancing; of hot tempered hooligans bursting into tears and hugging everyone under the strobe lights as the notes of Strings of Life rose up through the fumes of dry ice (certain “smiling” pills were also involved, sure). At this point, however, we must move on to Switzerland.

In Switzerland, in the quiet and diligent town of Lugano, between the 1980s and 1990s there was a club called “Morandi”. Its hot night was on Wednesdays, when the audience also came from Milan, Como, Varese and Zurich. Legend goes that, one night, none less than Prince and Sheila E were spotted hiding among the sofas, on a day-off of the Italian dates of the Nude Tour… The Wednesday resident and superstar was an Italian dj with an exotic name: Don Carlos. The soundtrack he devised was a mixture of Chicago, Detroit, the most progressive R&B and certain forgotten classics of old disco music: practically, what the Paradise Garage in New York might have sounded like had it not closed in 1987. In between, Don Carlos also managed to squeeze in some tracks he had worked on in his studio on Lago Maggiore. One in particular: a track that was rather slow compared to the BPM in fashion at the time, but which was a perfect bridge between house and R&B. The title was Alone: Don Carlos would explain years later that it had to be intended both in the English meaning of “by itself” and like the Italian word meaning “halo”. That wasn’t the only double entendre about the song, anyway. Its own very deep nature was, indeed, double. On the one hand, Alone was built around an angelic keyboard pattern and a romantic piano riff that took you straight to heaven; on the other, it showcased enough electronic squelches (plus a sax part that sounded like it had been dissolved by acid rain) to pigeonhole the tune into the “junk modernity” section, aka the hallmark of all the most innovative sounds of the time: music that sounded like it was hand-crafted from the scraps of glittering overground pop.

No one knows who was the first to call it “paradise house”, nor when it happened. Alternative definitions on the same topic one happened to hear included “ambient house”, “dream house”, “Mediterranean progressive”… but of course none were as good (and alluring) as “paradise house”. What is certain is that such inclination for sounds that were in equal measure angelic and neurotic, romantic and unaffective, quickly became the trademark of the second generation of Italian house. Music that seemed shyly equidistant from all the rhythmic and electronic revolutions that had happened up to that moment (“Music perfectly adept at going nowhere slowly” as noted by English journalist Craig McLean in a legendary field report for Blah Blah Blah magazine). Music that to a inattentive ear might have sounded as anonymous as a snapshot of a random group of passers-by at 10AM in the centre of any major city, but perfectly described the (slow) awakening in the real world after the universal love binge of the so-called Second Summer of Love.

For a brief but unforgettable season, in Italy “paradise house” was the official soundtrack of interminable weekends spent inside the car, darting from one club to another, cutting the peninsula from North to centre, from East to West coast in pursuit of the latest after-hours disco, trading kilometres per hour with beats per minute: practically, a new New Year’s Eve every Friday and Saturday night. This too was no small transformation, as well as a shock for an adult Italy that was encountering for the first time – thanks to its sons and daughters – the wild side of industrial modernity. The clubbers of the so-called “fuoriorario” scene were the balls gone mad in the pinball machine most feared by newspapers, magazines and TV pundits. What they did each and every weekend, apart from going crazy to the sound of the current white labels, was linking distant geographical points and non-places (thank you Marc Augé!) – old dance halls, farmhouses and business centres – transformed for one night into house music heaven. As Marco D’Eramo wrote in his 1995 essay on Chicago, Il maiale e il grattacielo: “Four-wheeled capitalism distorts our age-old image of the city, it allows the suburbs to be connected to each other, whereas before they were connected only by the centre (…) It makes possible a metropolitan area without a metropolis, without a city centre, without downtown. The periphery is no longer a periphery of any centre, but is self-centred”.

“Paradise house” perfectly understood all of this and turned it into a sort of cyber-blues that didn’t even need words, and unexpectedly brought back a drop of melancholic (post?)-humanity within a world that by then – as we would wholly realise in the decades to come – was fully inhuman and heartless. A world where we were all alone, and surrounded by a sinister yellowish halo, like a neon at the end of its life cycle. But, for one night at least, happy.

TRACK LISTING

Progetto Tribale - The Sweep
Onirico - Echo Giomini
Open Spaces - Artist In Wonderland
Alex Neri - The Wizard (Hot Funky Version)
M.c.j. Feat. Sima - To Yourself Be Free - Instrumental Mix Energy Prod
Mato Grosso - Titanic Expanded
Dreamatic - I Can Feel It (Part.1)
Carol Bailey - Understand Me Free Your Mind (Dream Piano Remix)
The True Underground Sound Of Rome - Secret Doctrine
Don Carlos - Boy
Lazy Bird - Jazzy Doll (Odyssey Dub)

We are overjoyed to present this album, another one from our bucket list and another one to set the record straight and illuminate the history of another much loved, but until now mysterious group. The Invaders made some of our all time favorite records - back in 2013 we issued five 45’s of their brilliant, sometimes plaintive, sometimes hopeful and sweet early roots music. Their sound touches folk and gospel in lovely subtle ways that elevate them above the many harmony groups of the early roots reggae era. Since the start of DKR we were striving to learn more about the group - and despite being able to license a portion of their output for reissue, and get anecdotes about them here and there, we were never able to connect with the group themselves. But we never gave up asking about them, and finally in 2024 we were able to link with Delroy “Bongo Pat” Forde, the surviving member of the group. Unfortunately other Invader, Lloyd “Paddy” Campbell passed on several years back. To hear and learn their full story, you need to check out this album and read the liner notes. This 13 song LP corrals much of their output - some of the tracks we previously issued but have been long out of press, some more never before reissued, and some great related solo works by the duo. And to cap it all off we’ve added two new voicings on a couple of our favorite vintage rhythms, by Invader Bongo Pat himself, live in 2024, singing two Invaders songs written way back in the early 1970s but never recorded back then. All together this is a long overdue document of one of the 1970’s finest groups and one dear to our heart.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Invaders - Story Of Love
A2. Invaders - Holy Mountain
A3. Invaders - A Way Home
A5. Splenders - African Safari
A6. Invaders - Conquering Lion
B1. Invaders - Heaven & Earth
B2. Invaders - Heaven & Earth Version
B3. Paddy And Peps - Give Jah The Glory
B4. Stepping Stones - Paddy's Version
B6. Bongo Pat - You Got To Have Love

'Midnight In Tokyo' is a compilation series that aims to be the perfect companion to nights in Tokyo, collecting tracks by Japanese artists that sound best at night. While vol. 2 focused more on ’80s jazz fusion, the latest installment, Vol.3, picks up where Vol.1 left off, bringing together forgotten soul, disco, and new wave gems.

The compilation opens with Japanese rare groove classic “More Sexy,” a provocative song by “the queen of sexy songs,” Yoko Hatanaka. “Kimi No Yume,” from the album Yume No Yonbai by the wandering poet Masumi Hara, is one of the best balearic acid folk songs to come out of Japan. “Silhouette Call” is an electric bossa nova track—in the vein of Antena—taken from the rare album called Octopussy by Yuki Nakayamate, a singer songwriter who also worked as a backing vocalist for Motoharu Sano.

“Theme Of High School Student” is a dubby cut featured on the soundtrack to the Japanese ’80s film Kougen Ni Ressha Ga Hashitta, written by Atsuo Fujimoto of Colored Music—one of the key artists in the recent wave of global interest in Japanese music.
“Get To Paradise” is a stone cold funk jam by Mari Kaneko, who was known as the Janis Joplin of Shimokitazawa in her heyday, and is now known as the mother of the drummer and the bassist of popular rock band Rize.

Following that is one of Japan’s greatest new wave disco track, “Hannya,” taken from Tomoko Aran’s popular third album Fuyu-kukan—produced by Masatoshi Nishimura who was part of the Friends Of Earth Project with Haruomi Hosono. Masako Miyazaki—whose rendition of Seawind’s “He Loves You” is a fan favorite—puts her own spin on the Earth, Wind & Fire classic, “Fantasy,” singing in her accent-heavy English which gives the song an undeniable character. “Watashi No Koukoku” is a certified disco boogie classic by popular singer Junko Sakurada. The Brazilian-esque jazz fusion, “Sunshine Bright On Me” is by a fusion group called Kangaroo, who were often billed as “the Japanese Shakatak.”
“Stranger’s Night” is a synth-pop number by pop idol Maiko Okamoto, which bears a suspicious resemblance to Rah Band’s “The Shadow Of Your Love.” Electro-pop disco “Singing Lady”—off the sole album released by the one-off project the Fad—sounds like something Giorgio Moroder could’ve cooked up. “Magic Eyes” is a disco anthem recorded by songwriter Tetsuji Hayashi’s disco project, the Eastern Gang. following that is Japanese soul gem “Crazy Baby,” found on a rare 7 inch entitled Minato No Soul by Rinda Yamamoto—also composed and arranged by Tetsuji Hayashi. and last but not least, closing out this collection of 14 Japanese rare groove goodies is “I’m in love”, a bittersweet mellow dance number by Tomoko Aran.

TRACK LISTING

1/a1 Yoko Hatanaka - More Sexy
2/a2 Masumi Hara - kimi No Yume
3/a3 Yuki Nakayamate - silhouette Call
4/a4 Atsuo Fujimoto - theme Of High School Student
5/b1 Mari Kaneko - get To Paradise
6/b2 Tomoko Aran - hannya
7/b3 Masako Miyazaki - fantasy
8/c1 Junko Sakurada - watashi No Koukoku
9/c2 Kangaroo - sunshine Bright On Me
10/c3 Maiko Okamoto - stranger’s Night
11/c4 The Fad - singing Lady
12/d1 The Eastern Gang - magic Eyes
13/d2 Rinda Yamamoto - crazy Baby
14/d3 Tomoko Aran - i’m In Lov

This collection features sixteen of the most renowned salsa and Latin soul singles released on Fania Records, and its subsidiaries, between 1964-1978, making it the perfect introduction to the legendary catalog. It celebrates the trailblazing label’s 60th anniversary, and iconic artists Willie Colón, Héctor Lavoe, Rubén Blades, Johnny Pacheco, Celia Cruz and more. Archival images and new liner notes, in English and Spanish, by New York-based music historian Aurora Flores are also included. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Pete Rodriguez – I Like It (I Like It Like That)
2. Eddie Palmieri – Café
3. Joe Bataan – Gypsy Woman
4. Ray Barretto – Acid
5. Héctor Lavoe – Mi Gente
6. Richie Ray/Bobby Cruz – Aguzate
7. Cheo Feliciano – Anacaona
8. Celia Cruz/Johnny Pacheco - Quimbara
9. Ismael Rivera – Las Caras Lindas
10. Willie Colon/Héctor Lavoe – Che Che Colé
11. Héctor Lavoe – El Cantante
12. Ray Barretto – Indestructible
13. Joe Cuba Sextet – El Ratón
14. Fania All Stars – Estrellas De Fania
15. Willie Colón – La Murga
16. Willie Colón/Rubén Blades – Pedro Navaja 

Venomous Tex-Mex R&B and early rock n’ roll from San Antonio’s West Side scene. From 1961-67, Bexar county kingmaker Abe Epstein cut every teen combo to grace the Patio An daluz stage, launching the careers of Doug Sahm, The Royal Jesters, Sonny Ace, The Dreamliners, and hundreds more throughout the decade. Spread across two luxurious slabs of vinyl, The Cobra Label compiles 28 neuro toxic sides from Epstein’s first bite in the biz.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sonny Ace & The Twisters - Wooleh Booleh
2. Mike & The Belairs Ft: Nyolia Moore - Buscando (Searchin’)
3. Royal Five - My Baby Cares For Me
4. J. Jay & The Dell-Tones - Just A Matter Of Time
5. Little Henry & The Laveers – I Don’t Want No Woman
6. Danny Segovia And The Sessions - Hey Babe
7. Dell Tones - Golly Gee
8. Sonny Ace & The Twisters - Stand-By Love
9. Henry & The Kasuals - Funny Funny Funny
10. The Royal Jesters With The Jimmy Johnson Combo - Is That
11. Good Enough For You?
12. Mad Mods - Warm And Tender Love
13. J. Jay & The Dell-Tones - If I Cry A Little More
14. The Dreamliners - Just Me And You
15. The Royal Jesters And The Memphis III - Love Me
16. Doug Sahm - Just A Moment
17. Henry & His Kasuals - Slowly But Surely
18. Dell Tones - The Best Man Cried
19. Royal Five - Someone Who Cares
20. J. Jay & The Dell-Tones - Too Late To Forgive
21. Shades McRay & The Invictas - Summer Is Here
22. The Royal Jesters With The Casuals - I Want To Be Loved
23. Sonny Ace & The Twisters - Fever
24. Rod Andrea & The Ram Rods - If It’s Lovin’ You Want
25. Little Henry & The Laveers - Break It To Me Now
26. Mike & The Belairs Ft. Nyolia Moore - She’s Mine
27. Dino & The Dell-Tones - Sticks And Stones
28. Henry & His Kasuals - Workout
29. Freddie Martinez - Summer Rain

A psych and garage-rock compilation record featuring 12 bands who have played one of Sour Grapes Records' hectic and sweaty SQUEEZE nights at Big Hands Bar, Manchester.

TRACK LISTING

1. Drunk Mums - Magazines
2. Ahmed & The Romans - Mathematics
3. Dead Stilettos - Dead Stilettos
4. Slap Rash - Protective Paints
5. Wax Head - Rusty Cutter
6. A/lpaca - Inept
7. Hot Garbage - Look At My Phone
8. Delivery - Baader Meinhof
9. Dr Sure's Unusual Practice - Infinite Growth
10. Chemtrails - Sycophants Paradise
11. Fruit Tones - Back In The Night Again
12. Naked Soft Men - Bad Daddy 

The heyday of American baroque pop – or chamber pop - ran from 1966 to the turn of the seventies. It used string quartets, harpsichords and woodwinds to create a summer-into-autumn melancholy that was quite new, and quite far removed from rock‘n’roll as Eddie Cochran would have known it. Baroque pop’s musicians often came from a folk background, with an affinity for acoustic instrumentation. Linda Ronstadt's first band the Stone Poneys had introduced the autoharp to their line-up in 1965, while the likes of Bonnie Dobson and Nico experimented with string quartets, searching for different, post-electric Dylan directions.

You can trace it back to the Left Banke who created a sound that was soft but insistently sad - where were the guitars! Their guitarist Rick Brand claimed their lyrics "were written as rather self-consciously beautiful musical whimsy, as you find in the latter 18th-century Romantic music, pre-Beethoven". They had a huge hit with ‘Walk Away Renee’ and effectively invented a genre before combusting after just one album. Splinter group Montage produced a very rare album and singer Steve Martin Caro an equally rare single - both are represented on “American Baroque”.

Though the baroque sound was quickly forced into a corner by the back-to-basics stance of power trios like Cream and Blue Cheer, many musicians weren’t yet ready to ditch cellos and harpsichords. Some groups like the Blades of Grass aimed their minor key melodies at an early or even pre-teen following. And others like Emmit Rhodes' Merry-Go-Round, H.P. Lovecraft and Appaloosa simply loved the feel of string quartets and woodwinds and continued to explore orchestral pop further, into the early seventies.

In doing so, they created this tapestry of delights. There was no single blueprint for the American baroque sound – it could be bordering on the gothic (Russ Giguere of the Association’s extraordinary ‘My Plan’) or as small and precise as a music box (Tom Northcott’s ‘Other Times’).

Here is some of the most deeply atmospheric, original and enduring music of the late 60s. Incredibly, this is the first compilation of its kind. It has been compiled by Saint Etienne's Bob Stanley and has a booklet packed with rare photos and ephemera, plus thorough and enlightening sleevenotes.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE ONE
1. YOU'RE A VERY LOVELY WOMAN - The Merry-Go-Round
2. I SHALL CALL HER MARY - The Montage
3. RAGGEDY ANN - John Randolph Marr
4. TULU ROGERS - Appaloosa
5. TURNAWAY - The Pleasure Fair
6. DIFFERENT DRUM – The Stone Poneys Featuring Linda Ronstadt

SIDE TWO
1. EMILY'S ILLNESS - Nora Guthrie
2. BAREFOOT GENTLEMAN - The Association
3. LAND OF SENSATIONS & DELIGHTS - J.K. & CO
4. BLUE JACK OF DIAMONDS - H.P. Lovecraft
5. TIME - Bonnie Dobson
6. SATIN SLIPPER - The Blades Of Grass

SIDE THREE
1. MY SILENT SYMPHONY - Chris & Peter Allen
2. MR WEBSTER - The Monkees
3. AGAIN AGAIN - Eternity's Children
4. MY PLAN - Russ Giguere
5. THE FAIREST OF THE SEASONS - Nico
6. OTHER TIMES - Tom Northcott

SIDE FOUR
1. YOU LIED - The Neon Philharmonic
2. CLOSE TO CARMEL - The Fun & Games
3. HOME BEFORE DARK - Nora Guthrie
4. I HAVE BEEN ALONE - The Common People
5. TWO BY TWO (I'M LOSING YOU) - Steve Martin
6. LORELEI – Rosebud