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A dramatic encounter between the elite group led by Shuya Okino and a legendary drummer. Connecting the past and present of Japanese jazz and illuminating the future that is an extension of it.

●kyoto Jazz Sextet is an acoustic jazz unit started in 2015 by Shuya Okino of Kyoto Jazz Massive, a DJ/music producer unit that is active worldwide. With the concept of expressing the "current state of jazz" rather than just a nostalgic hobby, he has released two albums so far: "mission" (2015) and "unity" (2017).

●Fully featuring Takeo Moriyama, the pinnacle of Japanese jazz drumming. The two performed together for the first time as headliners at Tokyo Crossover/Jazz Festival 2021 held at Shinkiba ageHa@STUDIO Coast on November 20, 2021. The audience was overwhelmed by the spirited collaboration that transcended generations.

●In addition to Moriyama's representative repertoire, which is popular among club jazz listeners, the album includes a new song "Father Forest" written by Shuya Okino. The all-analog recording and cutting from a half-inch analog tape master create a robust and dynamic sound.

Kyoto Jazz Sextet Shinpei Ruike trumpet Ken Kurihara tenor saxophone Yusuke Hirado piano Yoshihito"P"Koizumi. bass Shuya Okino (vision, sound effect on Watarase) featuring Takeo Moriyama drums

Produced by Shuya Okino (Kyoto Jazz Massive) Recorded, Mixed and Mastered by Akihito Yoshikawa (studio Dedé)

■Live information Kyoto Jazz Sextet feat. Takeo Moriyama 3rd Album "succession" LP Release Live Friday, September 20, 2024 @cotton Club

For live inquiries: Extra Freedom info@extra-freedom.co.jp

Glim Spanky, a male-female rock unit consisting of Remi Matsuo and Hiroki Kamemoto, is releasing two popular songs released in 2021 as limited 7".

Trans-Active Nightzone was formed in 2005 by Keen K (Divider), Dirk-Torben Klein (Echo West, Silent Signals, Flashbacks) and Niclas Brückner. They are heavily influenced by Killing Joke, Joy Division and They Might Be Giants and early 80's minimal wave synth pop which reflects in their own musical universe.

Released on their own label Sterbt Menschen, Reemplazante is Mueran Humanos’ latest and final album. Undoubtedly, Mueran Humanos have crafted another indispensable album within the realm of alternative sounds. Their music, while clearly not appealing to all, embodies the essence of darkwave as their way of life. By honing this rhythm into their specialty and lyrically delving into the shadows of the human experience, they have undeniably left a mark. The album was recorded and mixes in Germany by Pablo Thiermann (Chilean producer and also member of the outfit Chicos De Nazca)."

Chinese-born singer "Rushika (る鹿)," active as a fashion model in Japan, made her debut by releasing a cover of Yura Yura Teikoku's "Kudou Desu" (Hollow). Her 3rd single, "Karada ga Shibareru Atama ga Yorokobu," released in October 2023, features an original composition by Shintaro Sakamoto and Seiichi Yamamoto, influential figures in Japan's alternative music scene. The song, a blend of catchy, danceable, and psychedelic elements, intertwines with a memorable poetic world carrying an unsettling atmosphere, bringing out Ruka's newfound charm. This 7-inch single includes versions sung in Japanese on the A-side, and B-side is a remix that features remixes by Meitei.

Swedish synth-pop phenomenon Kite's second 7 inch since signing with Dais in 2023 finds the duo of Nicklas Stenemo and Christian Hutchinson Berg swinging for new heights of romantic desolation and baroque grandeur. They describe the A Side, "Losing," as a "six-minute empty call for emotional response." Stately piano and anguished voice reverberate in a vaulted hall, before gradually building into a widescreen anthem of synths, drums, and soaring vocals decrying the steady deadening of life and love: "It's deadly quiet in your old heart / Are you there? / I see dark skies on the rise / And daylight shows no remorse / And I realize it is my life / But It's losing all meaning." Swedish dark music icons Anna von Hausswolff and Henric de la Cour join the chorus as the song cascades towards an ominous horizon. The B Side, "Glassy Eyes," showcases Kite's mastery of somber, sweeping balladry. Hushed church organ elevates and anchors Stenemo's devastated confessional, swaying between resilience and defeat. The band describes the song as a reckoning with "the privileged and existential anxiety of drifting through life dispassionately," contrasted with "the yearning to connect profoundly with others and a desire for experiences that stir the soul before facing one's final moments." Like a hymn, the emotion thickens as it deepens, approaching both darkness and divinity: "Deep as I go, nothing to find / Oh catatonia, I won't cry / Nothing can grow, everything dies / Behind my glassy eyes."

Based out of Nola, Delores Galore is creating sounds inspired by '70s disco '80s synth-pop '90s house classics and beyond. Galore's album Don't Get It Twisted reflects their battle with everyday obstacles and how they push forward with resilience. Two cassette EPs released on one 12”. Future soul, freestyle, dance music.

Friction is one of the first Japanese punk bands and formed by Reck, Chiko Hige and Lapis in Tokyo in March 1978, and now the band is still keeping active. Reck and Chiko Hige had previously been on the NY no wave scene as founding members of James Chance and the Contortions, and brought back the experience and influence to the Japanese music scene. It's no exaggeration to say that the band laid the foundation for alternative music in Japan. P-vine is proud of reissuing all of their albums on vinyl.

79 Live" captures Friction's live performance at a venue in Kyoto, called TakuTaku in December 1979, four months before the release of their debut album "Friction" which is known as a masterpiece of the history of Japanese punk. This live performance has widely been regarded as the best performance in their career and Reck himself referred to it as "it was like a miracle,".

The much-talked-about album featuring vocalist Sincere is finally being released on analogue vinyl!

Synthwave. Darkwave. Silhouettes is a strong debut album that captures the shifting perspectives of its five-year writing period, and the emergence of Yama Uba’s uniquely crafted sound. With Akiko Sampson's charismatic vocals and rumbling bass combined with Winter Zora's sweeping guitar and saxophone soaring over velvet synthesizers and synthpop beats, Yama Uba makes several nods to their post-punk and darkwave predecessors while creating a sound entirely their own. Throughout each track, Yama Uba emerges as a songwriting unit able to capture the complexities of the human spirit, as fragile as it is powerful, as it experiences its own evolution. States Sampson, ‘‘As a whole, Silhouettes is about personal transformation and self-discovery, and is a reckoning with the power of time.”

"Yama Uba’s modern-yet-nostalgic sound plays beautifully into the emotional cadences of Silhouettes, reflecting on personal growth and transformation with the cutting insight of the hard-won wisdom that can only come with age. The band’s nods to earlier darkwave movements evoke past eras and distant memories, but Sampson’s powerful lyrics and no-holds-barred delivery remind us that some wounds don’t heal with time, even as they make us stronger."

Continue As Amery is the debut album by Montreal-based artist Amery. Formerly recording under the moniker Alpen Glow, Continue As Amery sees the songwriter step out into a bold, colourful world full of pop hooks, snagging feelings of abandon and the mornings after.

Amery Sandford began releasing as Alpen Glow in 2020 after years playing in punk groups in Newfoundland and as half of Montreal pop duo Born At Midnite (Arbutus). Recorded in Montreal by David Carriere (tops, Marci), Patrick Holland, and Kristian North, Continue As Amery is a blast of melodic joie de vivre. On her debut Sandford brings her punk and DIY credentials into sharp focus on 8 perfect pop odes to city living, making mistakes and figuring it out as you go along. Suffuse with powerful imagery and an almost uncanny talent at spinning out hooks brimming with humour and spirit, Amery’s soundworld is informed by friendship, experience and by her day job as a renowned illustrator and visual artist. Beginning Alpen Glow in a spirit of fun and now shedding the alias, Amery’s ready to hotwire the nite.

It’s True What They Say is the debut EP from Edinburgh-based, husband-and-wife duo Sarah/Shaun (pronounced simply Sarah Shaun), aka Sarah and Shaun McLachlan (pronounced “McLochlin”).

“Sarah and I both have a love for nostalgia,” explains Shaun. “We watched that amazing old 80’s Sci-Fi, (John) Carpenter movie, Starman, a few months back. Myself and my brother David used to watch it all the time. We must have been, roughly, 5-7 at the time. I remember loving the movie but the end, you know, with the beautiful, atmospheric, synth ending, I love that particular moment the most - best part of the movie, you know, when he goes home… It’s heartbreaking but stunning, all the same. It’s the music that moves you most… It did when I was 5 and it still does to this day. It must have had some form of a (much deeper) impact on me.”

The duo narrates stories across themes of love, hope, family, friends, dreams and sadness - the good that comes with the bad in everyday life, not just on a personal scale but within a community as well.

“Starbed is the first song I have ever written and just came out of the blue really, with Shaun playing a melody and me singing along,” says Sarah. “It’s simple and just about two people in love. Love songs are always the best songs, after all… Music has been a big part of my life from a young age. I was unwillingly dragged to piano and violin lessons, which I’m thankful for now! I’d say the first band I really became obsessed with growing up were the Beatles, and on the back of that a lot of 60s music and fashion. From then on, I had a love for music.”

“Shaun definitely opened my ears to a lot of sounds and got me thinking about soundtracks and all the noises that can be made,” she goes on. “We love just spending time experimenting in the house with instruments, pedals etc and Ali is a real magician to work with, too…”

The recordings took place over the summers of 2022 and 2023, with fellow Delta Mainline member Ali Chisholm (aka Jaguar Eyes) plus long-term friend and collaborator Gavin King. Further collaboration then came via the ‘net from the (international) likes of Chris Dixie Darley (Father John Misty), Darren Coghill (Neon Waltz) and Daniel Land (The Modern Painters), among others (see a full list of credits below).

Both Sarah and Shaun have a love for uber-soundtrack producers such as Hanz Zimmer, Max Richter, Cliff Martinez plus live acts such as Beach House, Spiritualized, M83, Suicide, Moby and OMD (to name a few). Shaun also credits the work of Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein (from Survive) on the Stranger Things score… “Even a moment in a movie, whether it be just 30 seconds during a particular scene, it grips you,” he says. But there’s something much deeper at play as well. “Music is a healer,” he goes on, “and I write from my own perspective but more so for others. Once I've done my bit, it doesn't belong to me any longer. It belongs to whoever wants it or needs it.”

The result is a cinematic, synth-wavey, dream poppy and downright beguilingly beautiful body of work. And they’re just getting started…

Scottish trio Lylo emerge from a six year hiatus today with news of a new album, Thoughts of Never, a pristine body of work built on foundations of vulnerability and cinematic pop sensibilities, set for release May 10th, 2024 via El Rancho Records. The announcement comes paired with a first look into the album through a fusion of downbeat pop-club, Balearic beats and soul grooves in the form of ‘Hush’, featuring Esmé Dee (The Orielles), along with a string of UK live dates.

Thoughts of Never, engineered and co-produced with friend Joel Patchett (Billy Ocean, King Krule), was written with the members residing in both Berlin and Glasgow, directly affecting the album's motifs.

Present in the album are topics of emotional communication, melancholy in metropolis and the willingness to (re)connect, which are all explored through a wonky Japanese inspired pop soundscape, with new and obvious nods to R&B soul intertwined with ambient pads. The album is littered with an abundance of influences from musicians and movies alike, stretching from names such as Sade, The Blue Nile, The Pet Shop Boys, Eddie Chacon to The Great Beauty (2013) and Hana-Bi (1997), the latter in which the band would mute and play their songs over each day, “treating the album mixes as a soundtrack”, which in turn, heavily influenced the tracklisting composition.

The album includes several features and collaborations from artist friends, with the likes of Cassandra Jenkins (Lylo were Cassandra’s backing band on her last Uk/eu album tour), Gerard Black (Babe), Esmé Dee Hand-Halford (The Orielles) and spoken word poet alore,, all making an appearance on the captivating new record.