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Eponymous first album by Continuity, the new project of Swedish artist Martin Herterich, whose sonic explorations of memory and imagination have come to full bloom in this atmospheric and elusive narrative of seven intense cityscapes. Martin Herterich previously released music (as Sand Circles, etc) on labels like Posh Isolation, Not Not Fun Records, iDEAL and Irrlicht.

Hot on the heels of a sold out first volume, Elle Andrews & Jon K’s MAL serve a sick second battery of broken club PRESSURE featuring new and exclusive cuts from Jana Rush, Filter Dread, Time Cow, Avon Blume, Soltura and King Maceeyar, together making for the label’s hungriest delivery to date with skews of grime, breakbeat hardcore, footwork and gqom from friends and fam strewn between the Caribbean, South Africa, the US and the UK.

Avon Blume lights it off with screwed hardcore jungle drumfunk ‘3 Minutes Short’ like some vintage Mo Wax cut that's had years of heavy rotation by the likes of Tom Boogizm, while the consistently brilliant Filter Dread fires up the Amiga for the cuboid amen atom-splitting of ‘Digital Voodoo’ on a Rufige Kru flex, beside a sharp twist by Soltura, who makes good on the promise of her All Centre releases with a deadly new one on a sci-fi-drill tip.

‘A Study Of Asoa’ features Duster Valentine indexing the Soundcloud commentary of internet figure A Study of Arpeg (something to do with AYYA from PAN’s ‘Mono No Aware’ comp, maybe?), while ‘Real Pirates Don’t Say Okie Dokie Then’ finds Equiknoxx’s Time Cow on a freaky, tracky NYC buzz, based around a box of samples Jordan ripped after spending an afternoon pillaging Jon K’s record collection in Manchester, 2016.

South Durban’s enigmatic King Maceeyar came to Elle and Jon’s attention via Okzharp and the track included here has been heavily rinsed in recent MAL sets - 'Our Memories' serves a mad slice of emosh gqom, marrying melancholy pads to the taxi techno template including a literally tear-inducing spoken word section, and Chicago legend Jana Rush closes things off by reducing footwork to its sexiest, jazziest and most minimalist ends on the real future shockout ‘Pink Guava’ - a weightless monster.

All Killer²

“Upopo Sanke“ means “Let's sing a song" in the Ainu language. Umeko Ando (1932-2004) was one of the best-known artists of the Ainu, an indigenous, long-suppressed community in northern Japan. She sings their traditional songs together with Oki Kano on the Tonkori harp, who also recorded the album. The two are supported by members of the female vocal group Marewrew as well as Ainu percussionists, a string player and a male singer who provides rhythmic shouts and also throat singing. The call-and-response structure of many of the songs is performed with a mantric quality in a vocal style that is perhaps best described as elastic and breathing. There seems to be a gentle smile in every note and syllable. This music softly hits the heart.

Upopo Sanke was recorded on a farm in Tokachi in the summer of 2003. We hear dogs barking, a distant thunderstorm and voices imitating animals. The liner notes that accompany the 2LP release gather the anecdotal memories of Umeko Ando and Oki Kano about the stories of the 14 songs. Oki Kano is a musical ambassador of the Ainu culture who tours worldwide with his Oki Dub Ainu Band and also gives solo concerts, always playing the Tonkori, the five-stringed Ainu harp.

The Ainu have suffered from the oppression of their culture and language by Japan, especially since the 18th and 19th centuries. Only recently, in 2008, were the Ainu officially recognized again as an indigenous people culturally independent of Japan. As a result of the marginalization, there are now only a few hundred native speakers of the Ainu language left, making it a particularly worthy object of preservation.

"Upopo Sanke" was mixed again in part by Oki Kano, before being mastered and cut to vinyl by Kassian Troyer. The 2LP plays on 45rpm and it sounds fantastic. This album was the second album by Umeko Ando, the follow-up to „Ihunke" and also re-released in 2018 by Pingipung together with Oki Kano.

Recital presents a new double album of rarely heard Robert Ashley compositions performed by baritone singer Thomas Buckner.

“(Robert Ashley) turned speech into music” - Alvin Lucier.

In the 1960s, Robert Ashley pioneered the American avant garde with the Once Group and festivals, before irrefutably changing the face of American opera later in the 20th century. Buckner, in addition to running the fabulous 1750 Arch record label in the 1970s and 80s, is a noted baritone who has collaborated for decades with the likes of Roscoe Mitchell, Annea Lockwood, and the late Noah Creshevsky, amongst countless others.

The title of the album, Spontaneous Musical Invention, refers to Ashley’s method of instructing the singer to do what he called “spontaneous musical invention based on the declamation of the text.” A vocal practice that Thomas Buckner perfected over the 33 years that he collaborated with Ashley. First performing in Ashley’s 1984 opera Atalanta (Acts of God), Buckner continued on as an integral performer in the ensemble until Ashley’s death in 2014.

The album is composed of two halves, the first is a new rendering of Ashley’s second opera Atalanta (Acts of God). Robert Ashley wrote about ten hours of music for the opera Atalanta, divided into three acts: ‘Max', for the surrealist artist Max Ernst; ‘Willard', for the composer’s uncle, Willard Reynolds, a great story teller; and ‘Bud', for Bud Powell, the great jazz pianist and composer. One is invited to construct a version using any material from these ten hours. Over the years they worked together, Thomas Buckner commissioned three reworkings of arias from Atalanta that he could perform in concert: the ‘Odalisque' aria from Max, 'The Mystery of the River' from ‘Willard', & 'The Producer Speaks' from ‘Bud'. So this first section of the album is one of many possible versions of Atalanta, albeit in strikingly different versions from the originals.

The second section of the album is dubbed Occasional Pieces, and holds two unpublished Ashley works. ‘When Famous Last Words Fail You' & 'World War III Just the Highlights' are not from any Ashley opera. However, each is highly dramatic and theatrical. They were written as standalone pieces for Thomas Buckner. Buckner’s distinct vocal cadence projects the sharp wit and wry storytelling of Ashley’s librettos.

A portion of the record was recorded live at Roulette in Brooklyn, NY, at an intimate memorial concert held for Robert Ashley in 2014. Spontaneous Musical Invention, in essence, functions as a tribute to both exceptional artists, and to their decades of collaboration.

Vinyl edition comes with a 24 page 12” x 8.5” booklet of Ashley librettos, scores, & program notes, with an introduction by Alvin Lucier.