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La Clave Verve By Request Edition

Release: 2023 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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mule musiq welcomes british producer jimmy wallace, presenting his debut album “red, yellow, black” - a nine track strong record that partly leaves the dancefloor behind.

since childhood, music has been a strong influence on the 33-year-old artist. his mother, a music teacher, exposed him to classical sounds from an early age.

but it was hearing the electronic tones of the french touch movement, which really ignited his mu-sical journey. a year later he started to dj, acting out his love for four-to-the-floor grooves in local clubs. today you'll find him on the bill with artists like ruf dug, mr scruff, or bradley zero, heating up the dance floors.

as a producer he has already released a handful of stunning eps, including one for sweden’s finest house label studio barnhus, and one for london’s revered rhythm section international imprint.

both feature house tunes with an edge, house tunes with a love for the roots of the genre along-side more reflective, ambient moments. he also runs the label tartan records, where he publishes dancefloor focused white labels.

his music has been championed by titans of the scene such as palms trax, ryan elliott, dj tennis, gilles peterson, dixon, and hunee. axel boman even coined his debut ep as “one of the very best demo emails ever received at label studio barhnus hq”.

an advance praise, that wallace now acknowledges with an album full of deeply crafted music. some tracks lean towards the dancefloor, like the swung sounds of “bubbles”, the hypnotic mael-strom of “good morning”, or the epic, jazzy moments of “labyrinth”.

the theme of nature is evident throughout, with field recordings and environmental sounds he rec-orded on the road, being fused with his own musical ideas.

tracks like “waterfall” and “tokyo street”, draw influence on time spent in asia, whereas "dhq", "by the river", and "by the lake" are inspired by his childhood and hometown in the shropshire country-side. “i’ve been writing ambient and more nature focused material for a few years now without really having a plan for it.

finally, this year after writing the tune “labyrinth” i felt i had a body of work which was both diverse and cohesive enough to bring together on a record. so, the album represents moments of time i have spent in various outdoor spaces around the world, using sound to try and turn these experi-ences into musical format.” wallace discloses.

the result is a mesmerizing long player featuring an evocative, emotional story arc that avoids ste-reotypes and straight party orientated narration. “having written plenty of club music for the past few years, i wanted to show a different side to my sound.

something more intimate, private, experimental which can be listened to away from the party.” he reveals on the meditative, blissful “red, yellow, black” - an album, which has the power to transport listeners to places and spaces new – for inspiration, relaxation, and dancefloor moments off the beaten path

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La Clave

LP | 2023 | EU | Reissue (Verve)

31,99 €*

12" | 2023 | EU | Original (Black Truffle)

Release: 2023 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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The White Stripes' Elephant Analogue Productions' Uhqr, the pinnacle of high-quality vinyl! 200-gram 45 RPM double LP limited to 10,000 copies! Mastered from the original analogue master tapes by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound Pressed at Quality Record Pressings using Clarity Vinyl® Includes a 12-page booklet featuring liner notes from Ben Blackwell (co-founder and minority owner at Third Man Records and the official archivist of The White Stripes) and never-before-seen session photos by David Swanson Purest possible pressing and most visually stunning presentation and packaging!

The fourth studio album by the American rock duo the White Stripes was an extraordinary success. It peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard charts and topped the U.K. Albums Charts. To date it's sold 4 million copies worldwide, achieving platinum-sales certification from the Recording Industry Association of America and 3x platinum from the British Phonographic Industry. It spawned the hit single "Seven Nation Army," the band's signature track that's become a sports anthem, plus the hits "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself," "The Hardest Button to Button" and "There's No Home for You Here." Elephant has received critical acclaim and it's often cited as the White Stripe's best work, including receiving a nomination for Album of the Year and a win for Best Alternative Music Album at the 46th Grammy Awards in 2004.

Rolling Stone ranked the album No. 449 on its 2020 list of the 500 Best Albums of All Time. The Stripes, it said, exploded out of Detroit with a minimalist garage-blues attack: just Jack White on guitar and Meg White on drums, taking on the world.

To give Elephant the sonic perfection and signature packaging it deserves, Analogue Productions and Third Man Records have teamed up for the ultimate reissue edition. We present in Uhqr format on Clarity Vinyl this rock masterpiece, limited to 10,000 copies. It comes with gold foil numbered jackets, housed in a premium slipcase with a wooden dowel spine.

Jack and Meg insisted they were a brother and sister, even after people learned they were secretly a divorced couple. But against all odds, the low-budget duo became a global sensation for their sheer rock power. Rolling Stone says Elephant "seethes with raw desperation and lust" in "Seven Nation Army," "Hypnotize," and "The Hardest Button to Button." Jack plays guitar hero in the seven-minute jam "Ball and Biscuit."

More About Clarity Vinyl

The off-white color of the record you are receiving is the color of raw vinyl in its purest form (un-tinted vinyl). To make the ultimate record, we decided to enhance sound quality by removing potential sources of noise contamination or sonic interference. By not adding traditional carbon black colorant, we eliminate that potential due to carbon black particles, instead allowing your stylus to effortlessly slide down a silky smooth groove wall.

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Marja Ahti

Tender Membranes

A Love Supreme Uhqr Limited Edition Box Set

Release: 2023 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Black Truffle is pleased to announce Tender Membranes, the label’s first release from Swedish-Finnish sound artist and electro-acoustic composer Marja Ahti. Active for a decade in the Finnish underground music scene, in recent years Ahti has developed a distinctive approach to patiently unfolding electro-acoustic constructions, documented on a string of solo releases and collaborative projects with Judith Hamann and her husband Niko-Matti Ahti. Working with concrete and instrumental sounds, field recordings, and electronics, Ahti favours neither disjunctive collage nor monolithic consistency; rather, her work is composed of organically unfolding sequences of details and textures, which, as she says, ‘can stretch out or cut fast as long as they have a sense of inner stillness’, a sense that she connects to moments of heightened attention in everyday life. Tender Membranes consists of four lengthy pieces, partly inspired by the image of the senses and mind as membranes allowing for the passage between inner and outer spaces, sensation and its causes, creating a world. Ahti’s unhurried pacing encourages this sense of listening as an opening or surrender to sound, which can often create the impression that the listener is moving through a space zooming in on details. The opening Shrine (Aether) exemplifies this aspect of Ahti’s approach: a bell clears the air with a single long tone, followed by the ambience of outdoor spaces, crackling electronics, an archival recording of a horsefly on a windowpane. Dozens of these moments, varying in length, density, and intensity, move past the listener’s attention, momentarily brought into focus then slipping away. Like those of the masters of the French musique concrète tradition, Ahti’s sounds are not often recognisable, though they might suggest proximity or distance, open environments or closed spaces, the urban or rural, day or night. In Ahti’s work, we do not encounter spectacular metamorphoses à la Parmegiani but rather a state of ambiguity where the listener is often unsure what is organic and what is inorganic, where the careful productions of the synthesizer might end and sounds discovered in the environment begin. What Ahti calls her ‘poetic way of experiencing and organising the familiar and the unfamiliar’ is sustained throughout Tender Membranes, but each piece has its own character. On Dust / Light, human presence is more overt, as what appear to be whispers, singing, and distant speech thread between high frequencies, untraceable drips and pops, and metallic shimmers. In all this there is a melody that you can sing and to which you may dance makes more prominent use of musical instruments, gaining a sombre beauty from half-buried piano chords and organ tones. On the closing Oh Fragrant Witness, a delicate cloud of subtly bending pitches is repeatedly disrupted by a resounding, almost ominous mass of low tones, at once a strange detour from much of what has gone before and an almost classical finale. Arriving in a sleeve reproducing contemporary Finnish photographer Sini Pelkki’s fragmented visions of the everyday, Tender Membranes is a balm to reawaken tired ears.

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John Coltrane

LP Box | 1964 | US | Reissue (Analogue Productions)

201,99 €*

LP | 2023 | EU | Original (Alien Transistor)

Release: 1964 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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John Coltrane Quartet — A Love Supreme Analogue Productions' Uhqr, the pinnacle of high-quality vinyl! 45 RPM Ultra High Quality Record release. Limited to 10,000 copies. Mastered from the original tape by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound Pressed at Quality Record Pressings using Clarity Vinyl® Includes a 12" x 12" 12-page booklet featuring liner notes by Ashley Kahn and images from the Coltrane home

Audiophile reviews rave about saxophone master John Coltrane's immortal Impulse! records, A Love Supreme (1964) and Ballads (1963). In fact, jazz critics have lauded A Love Supreme as Coltrane's most important recording. The rave reviews which appeared in the magazines Downbeat, Jazz Hot, Jazz Podium and Swing-journal reflected this: critics all over the world, in America, Europe and Japan recognized that Coltrane's deep religious belief had influenced both his approach to life and his music-making.

You're about to experience A Love Supreme at its peak of vinyl perfection — in Uhqr format on Clarity Vinyl, with the added bonus of a double 45 RPM cut by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound. Ryan's cut has his characteristic clarity and transparency all set against Quality Record Pressing's usual noiseless backgrounds on 200-gram flawless records. Each Uhqr will be packaged in a deluxe box and will include a booklet detailing the entire process of making a Uhqr along with a hand-signed certificate of inspection. This will be a truly deluxe, collectible product.

For this 45 RPM 2LP edition you'll also receive a 12" x 12" 12-page booklet featuring liner notes by Ashley Kahn and images from the Coltrane home.

The original master tape is available but it's not in the best shape. This LP was cut from a flat tape copy made by Rudy Van Gelder and used for cutting in the UK in April of 1965. Of course, the original recording was in December '64, so only a handful of months later. This tape was discovered at Abbey Road and had been untouched between 1965 and 2002. So while the original tape is available and while we would always opt for the original whenever we can, in this case this copy was the better choice as the tape has incurred less overall wear and sounds much better than the original.

A Love Supreme was Coltrane's pinnacle studio outing that at once compiled all of his innovations from his past, spoke of his current deep spirituality, and also gave a glimpse into the next two and a half years (sadly, those would be his last). Recorded at the end of 1964, Trane's classic quartet of Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, and Jimmy Garrison stepped in and created one of the most thought-provoking albums of their relationship.

The album not only enabled Coltrane to express himself with great intensity but also lent him the necessary inner peace to conceive a work of almost 40 minutes in length and to lead his quartet along the same path as himself.

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Minhwi Lee

Borrowed Tongue

LP | 2024 | US | Original (Dandy Boy)

Release: 2023 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Borrowed Tongue is the debut solo album by Korean singer-songwriter Minhwi Lee. It’s a mysterious, strangely compelling thing, an album of rare poetry, and remarkably self-assured. Originally released in November 2016, the album made waves, winning best folk album of 2016 at the 14th Korean Music Awards. Its eight songs, written and predominantly arranged by Lee, don’t reveal their secrets easily, or at first blush; rather, they take their time slowly to unfurl in her listeners’ worlds. There are hints of other music here, from time to time: the intimacy of Stina Nordenstam, perhaps; the gauzy haze of Hope Sandoval, on the blissed-out pop of “Broken Mirror”; there are touches of acid-folk, and ECM jazz, and a slyly filmic approach to songwriting and arrangement that makes every song fit perfectly into the album’s arc.

Lee arrived at her solo music through a complex, circuitous route. After studying musicology in Seoul, she learned her trade, film scoring, in New York and Paris. She also studied classical music, blowing off steam in a wild punk duo, Mukimukimanmansu, who released one album, 2012, on Korean indie label Beatball. Subsequently, Lee has been refining her music, focusing both on her solo songs, and on writing for television series and films; she’s written scores for films by such directors as Sangmoon Lee, Jeongwon Kam, and Wanmin Lee. She also plays in the jazz outfit Cubed, and recently joined doom metal group Gawthrop on bass.

Since its release in 2016, Borrowed Tongue has slowly bewitched listeners with its idiosyncratic arrangements and evocative songwriting. It’s an album that hints at plenty, but refuses to make grand statements, something Lee seems intent to pursue: in correspondence, she’s very clear that she wants these songs to enact a kind of transmutation, to be adopted into the listeners’ lives and exist within their own imaginings. She does, however, offer a few hints to what propels these mercurial songs, explaining, “this album is about a person who again opens their mouth, which was once shut. The album deals with what it means to speak: things that are known but not said, things that should be said but are not, things that cannot be said but nonetheless are.”

This may well explain the curious mood of Borrowed Tongue, the multiple ‘voices’ that inhabit the album; Lee’s singing voice is pliable and mutable, approaching each song as its own diorama and ensuring the song is sung with just the right tone. The arrangements Lee conjures for her songs are all in service to narrative and melody; they appear to her alongside the composition, which is surely why everything here fits together so beautifully. From there, Lee approaches her songs carefully, in deference to their ‘need to be sung’ a certain way. There isn’t a moment wasted: everything on Borrowed Tongue is as it needs to be, whether a melancholy folk song taking to the air, or a psychedelic reverie dreamed into being. It’s a beautiful, poised and confident debut.

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Yea-Ming And The Rumours

I Can't Have It All

31,99 €*

Dessogia / Queetch / Fauch

Release: 2024 / US – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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I Can’t Have It All is the third studio album by Yea-Ming and The Rumours and marks a new line-up and creative era for the band. Frontwoman Yea-Ming Chen has masterfully curated her self-proclaimed “pop record.” Weaving melancholy narratives with catchy hooks in a sound that is more surfy, more punk and more indie than anything the Rumours have done before. Fuller sounding production heavily influenced by groups like Yo La Tengo, Camera Obscura and other early '90s underground college radio favorites, I Can’t Have It All marks the band’s continued evolution.

Alongside the usual beautiful imagery, Yea-Ming’s songwriting remains as introspective as ever, but I Can’t Have It All marks a changing point both creatively and personally in the songstress’ life. Written during a difficult period in which she struggled to identify and painfully shed a “false-self" imposed by the outside world, the album follows the personal and relatable journey of accepting loss and making changes. “I realized one day that I have spent most of my life pretending to be someone that other people wanted me to be, and that was probably the source of my anxiety and depression.” Recalls the songwriter. “So I made changes that were really hard and I experienced a lot of grief in letting go of people and situations that held a lot of power over me emotionally—even if it wasn’t intentional—and I became someone that is closer to who I want to be. In that transition, I discovered that it is completely possible to experience total sadness and extreme happiness simultaneously within the same body." These complicated feelings are clearly reflected in the new record—especially in ‘Pretending’, ‘Somebody’s Daughter’, ‘I Can’t Have It All' and ‘Ruby’.

The title track and the first single, “I Can’t Have It All”, describes the ugly journey of accepting unrequited love. Brutally honest and painful, the narrator confesses to finding solace in a night of drinking and a stranger in their bed as they accept they can’t have it all. The lyric video features animated drawings offering an innocent and playful take on the somber and sobering realization that everything might not work out in the end and a bit of distraction helps ease the pain.

Produced by Chen, the album was mostly recorded and sculpted in her home studio after basic tracks were recorded with Meric Long (The Dodos) at Tiny Telephone Studios and Mike Walti at Wyldwood Studios. As usual, the record is performed by Yea-Ming with the help of long-time Rumours collaborators Eóin Galvin on lead guitar, lap steel and backing vocals and Sonia Hayden on drums and percussion on several of the tracks. New Rumours members Jen Weisberg (Hits) and Luke Robbins (Latitude) also make their debut and appear on bass and drums throughout the record. I Can’t Have It All is a new album with a new line-up and a new perspective, signifying Yea-Ming and The Rumours’ entry into a new era.

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Limpe Fuchs / Mark Fell

3LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Black Truffle)

42,99 €*

LP | 2024 | US | Original (Recital)

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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The 2015 edition of Winnipeg’s send + receive festival, focussed on rhythm, turned out to be a generative meeting of minds. There, Mark Fell encountered the music of Will Guthrie, a meeting that was eventually to result in the frenetic acoustic drumkit and digital synthesis pairing heard on Infoldings and Diffractions (2020). At the same festival, Limpe Fuchs first heard and appreciated the music of Mark Fell, planting the seed of a collaboration that came to fruition when Fell (along with his son Rian Treanor) visited Fuchs at her home in Peterskirchen, Germany in September 2022. Black Truffle is pleased to announce the release of the results of this extensive session in the audacious form of a triple LP, housing over two hours of music across its six sides. The collaboration might appear unlikely: what common ground could exist between Fuchs, classically trained pianist, legend of improvised music, instrument builder and sound sculptor active since the 1960s, whose group Anima Sound connected the dots between free jazz, krautrock and ritual, and Fell, proponent of radical computer music, known for his bracingly austere productions that twist remnants of club music into algorithmic stutters? For all their seeming disparity in technology, approach and background, the music on Dessogia/Queetch/Fauch makes it immediately evident the pair share a great deal in their essentially percussive approach and ability to, in Fuch’s phrase, ‘establish silence’. Recording at her home studio, Fuchs had the use of her entire array of instruments, found, invented, and traditional, and treats the listener to some that don’t often make their way to concerts, including extensive passages performed (with Gundis Stalleicher) on pieces of wooden parquetry. Alongside metallic, wooden and skin percussion of all kinds, sounded and struck in every conceivable way, we also hear bamboo flute, viola, and Fuchs’ distinctive free-form vocalisations. Fell also stretched himself, with his contributions ranging from characteristically fizzing pitched percussive pops to swarms of sliding tones and abstract digital noise. Showing both remarkable restraint and improvisational freedom, much of the music consists of duets between a single percussion instrument and a distinctive mode of digital sound, often lingering in one timbral-rhythmic space for minutes at a time. Improvisational forward momentum coexists with a free-floating, wandering quality. On opener ‘Dessogia I’, the shimmering almost-gilssandi tones of Fuchs’ enormous set of microtonally tuned metal tubes ripples across Fell’s rubbery pulse, which moves up the frequency spectrum as Fuchs becomes more animated and switches to horn. At some points, as on the metallic chiming tones that open ‘Fauch I’, only the unexpected dynamic behaviour of Fell’s sounds distinguish them from Fuchs’ acoustic instruments. At others, like on ‘Queetch Iii’, the waves of sliding tones and noise textures are bracingly synthetic, joined by piercing squeaks and scrapes from Fuchs’ metal objects. Epic in scope, immersing the listener in an entirely distinctive world of sounds, and thrillingly bold in its melding of the most ancient musical procedures with cutting edge technologies, Dessogia/Queetch/Fauch is an unexpected major statement from two of the great mavericks of contemporary music.

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Nour Mobarak

Dafne Phono

36,99 €*

I Want To Leave This Earth Behind Green Vinyl Edition

Release: 2024 / US – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Nour Mobarak’s Dafne Phono is an adaptation of the first opera, Dafne, composed and written by Jacopo Peri and Ottavio Rinuccini in 1598. Drawing on the myth of Daphne and Apollo from Ovid’s Metamorphoses—a story of unrequited love, patriarchal possession, conquest, and transformation—Mobarak’s multimedia and multispecies reimagining splinters the opera’s Italian libretto. Alongside English and Greek versions, it is translated into some of the world’s most phonetically complex languages—Abkhaz, San Juan Quiahije Eastern Chatino, Silbo Gomero, and !Xoon. In this process, the narrative—and an artifact of Western culture—is dismantled, metabolized, and rendered into unruly utterances that shape the sensorium as much as they do the capacity for sense-making. These voices are given material form by a cast of mycelium sonic sculptures whose rhizomatic compositions and broadcasted recordings resemble the formation and mutation of language over time, reconstituting speech into a new, polyphonic body politic, composed of voices whose striking, poetic utterances transfix and transcend meaning.

The A-Side of the record presents a stereo version of Mobarak’s 15-channel sound installation, Dafne Phono. The B-Side uses a recording of a portion of the translation process the libretto underwent in Namibia, live-processed by the artist.

The LP is published on the occasion of Nour Mobarak’s exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, New York (October 26, 2024–January 12, 2025), with support from Sylvia Kouvali.

Artist Bio: Nour Pamela Mobarak (Lebanese-American, b. 1985, Cairo, Egypt) lives and works between Los Angeles; Bainbridge Island; and Athens, Greece. Her works have been shown at Sylvia Kouvali (formerly Rodeo), London/Paris; Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin; MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, MA; Amant, Brooklyn; Joan, Los Angeles; Kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga; Miguel Abreu Gallery, New York; Hakuna Matata, Los Angeles; and Cubitt Gallery, London. Exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and Castello di Tivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Turin, are forthcoming. She has performed at Western Front, Vancouver; 2220, the Hammer Museum, and Laxart, Los Angeles; Cafe OTO, London; Renaissance Society, Chicago; the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; and elsewhere. Her music has been released by Recital (Los Angeles), Cafe OTO’s TakuRoku (London), and Ultra Eczema (Antwerp), and she has had sessions on BBC Radio 3, NTS Radio, and Dublab Radio. Mobarak’s writing has been published in Triple Canopy, F.R. David, The Claudius App, and the Salzburg Review, and her first catalog, Sphere Studies and Subterranean Bounce was published by Recital (2021). She received a BA in English and Media Studies from Sussex University and did further studies at Université Paris-Sorbonne, Paris IV. She has held residencies at Denniston Hill, New York and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and was the recipient of the 2023 Foca fellowship award. Mobarak was a 2024 faculty at Bard College MFA program.

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Stefana Fratila

2LP | 2023 | UK | Original (Halocline Trance)

LP | 2023 | EU | Original (Wewantsounds)

Release: 2023 / UK – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Gatefold Green Vinyl Double LP with design by Dian Vandermeulen, the popular Canadian visual artist

(limited edition cassette version will be released by Not Not Fun).

Between December 2018 and 2019, Stefana Fratila embarked on a series of research trips across North America (including to Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Nasa Goddard Space Centre), meeting with astronomers and scientists in order to address a complex question: “If each planet in our solar system were a different room, what would each room sound like?”

Her ongoing creative research culminated in Sononaut, eight open-source VST plug-ins created for digital audio workstations (DAWs) that emulate the atmospheric conditions of the planets in our solar system (made in collaboration with artist and coder Jen Kutler, using calculations by Nasa astronomer and planetary scientist Dr. Conor Nixon).

Her forthcoming album I want to leave this Earth behind is the sonic extension of her creative research.

In her own words: “The album is conceptual, in that it centres on outer space exploration and my understanding of 'Crip futurity'. My vision is for the album to engage listeners in an exercise of imagining the sounds of interplanetary atmospheres– conditions which are inherently unlivable, unbreathable, converting all human body-minds into disabled-bodied-ness. Since I identify as Crip, or disabled, this idea deeply resonates with me. I am the first artist (a disabled producer/musician, no less) to have worked with Nasa researchers on a sonic imagining of the solar system’s atmospheres that incorporates real scientific data. If we are all 'disabled' in (or by) outer space, my music is concerned with propelling all listeners into space, leaving Earth behind them, through my music.”

The solar system’s planetary bodies are inherently prohibitive even in regards to Earth’s most ‘able-bodied’ subjects. Her project seizes upon a form of radical agency and science-fictive ambition, placing all human subjects within new worlds, into the interplanetary bodies of our solar system, through her own sonic imaginings.

The album will be released by Toronto-based label Halocline Trance (Casey MQ, myst milano, ACT!).

During a 2019 residency at Cmmas (Centro Mexicano para la Música y las Artes Sonoras) in Morelia, Mexico, Fratila began writing the album on an octophonic sound system (8 planets = 8 speakers).

Afterwards, from her home studio in Toronto, she recorded additional synthesizer parts, finalized arrangements, and incorporated Sononaut (her 8 solar system VST plug-ins) into the album’s production. The album was recorded, written, and produced by Fratila. She worked with mixing engineer Jeremy Greenspan (Jessy Lanza, Caribou, Junior Boys), as well as mixing engineer Lisa Conway and mastering engineer Sage Kim.

Underlining each track is a five-minute soundscape representing the weather on that planet, based on Fratila’s research at Nasa. The weather patterns are interwoven with layers of synths and time-stretched samples.

There are very few disabled femme electronic artists gaining exposure in Canada today.

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Lalo Schifrin

OST Man On A Swing

Release: 2023 / EU – Original

Genre: Soundtracks

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Wewantsounds is delighted to release for the first time on vinyl the Lalo Schifrin"s soundtrack for Frank Perry"s thriller "Man On A Swing" from 1974. Featuring Schifrin"s superb mix of Jazz, Bossa, Groove and atmospheric soundscape, the soundtrack, recorded in LA with the Wrecking Crew"s Emil Richards, Bud Shank and Howard Roberts among others, finds the composer at his most inspired. Delving in the Paramount tapes, the label has re-sequenced the soundtrack from scratch and found several unissued cues as bonus tracks. Among which the mindblowing rhythm track for the title "Radio Source", featuring a super Funk breakbeat. The Soundtrack has been remastered for vinyl by Colorsound studio and features liner notes by Jeremy Allen with artwork by Eric Adrian Lee. By the time Lalo Schifrin composed the soundtrack for Frank Perry"s psychological thriller in 1974, starring Cliff Robertson and Joel Gray (who"d just won an Oscar for his role in Bob Fosse"s Cabaret) he was Hollywood royalty having worked on such iconic films as Bullitt and Dirty Harry. Perry on his side, had caused a stir with The Swimmer in 1968 starring Burt Lancaster (although he would dismiss the film after being fired from the production) and followed up with a string of great cult movies including "Last Summer" (1969), Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970) starring Carrie Snodgress - whom Neil Young famously fell in love with upon seeing the film and "Play It as It lays" in 1972, adapted from Joan Didion"s eponymous novel. Breaking from the social dramas from of his previous films, Perry decided to shoot a thriller based on journalist William Arthur Clark"s book "The Girl on The Volkswagen Floor." The film follows a police officer investigating a murder with the help of a strange ambiguous clairvoyant played by Gray. For the score Perry went to Lalo Schifrin who"d just come out of a bad experience on The Exorcist working with William Friedkin who"d rejected his music in favour of Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield! The score was recorded in LA with the Wrecking Crew and, although the full line up is not known, it included Emil Richards, Howard Roberts, Bud Shank and of course Schifrin on piano. "Man on a Swing" is pure undiluted Schifrin from the early 70s. The score plays like a long suite alternating Bossa Nova ("Juke Box Source"), Lounge Jazz ("Trip to La") and groove ("fm Groove") with superb "suspense" soundscapes like "Rosehaven Hotel". The label has gone back to the Paramount 3-track tape transfers and come up with an updated tracklist (a CD version briefly appeared in the 2010s) - re-sequenced and augmented with a handful of bonus tracks and alternate takes. A highlight is certainly "Radio Source Rhythm" which, losing the guitar and organ, reveal a jaw dropping funk breakbeat that is in the league of Dirty Harry and Enter the Dragon. This and the whole soundtrack, will ravish all the funk diggers and Lalo Schifrin fans around the world.

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Stanton

STX

309,00 €*

Black Harvest Orange Vinyl Edtion

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STANTON STX
LIMITED EDITION PORTABLE SCRATCH TURNTABLE
RAZOR SHARP CUTS, RIGHT AWAY

The STX is the only portable turntable that comes with a factory-installed mini Innofader Nano crossfader. Designed to last over 4 million cycles, this buttery-smooth fader and can be easily swapped between left and right positions to accommodate both left-handed and right-handed scratch styles. The independent crossfader Cut-In and Curve knobs deliver an unrivaled level of crossfader customization, allowing DJs to precisely calibrate the crossfader to suit their own style. This level of customization, along with the ultra-stable platter and tonearm, makes it easy to achieve the absolute cleanest cuts possible.

SCRATCH WHENEVER, WHEREVER
Second only to a sharp, ultra-precise crossfader, ease of portability is vital for a portablism-focused turntable. High-quality rechargeable Lithium-ion batteries are included with the STX, providing enough portable power for hours of mobile use.
The batteries can easily be charged by connecting the unit to a computer or wall charger using the USB-C input. For extended scratch sessions, the USB-C input can also be used with external power sources for even more cutting time.
To top everything off (literally), the latching lid also functions as a stackable, latching base, to bring the STX to standard turntable height.

WELL-CONNECTED FOR CREATORS
Performing with beats and loopers is as simple as connecting a smartphone wirelessly with Bluetooth or with the 1/8” stereo input. The USB port with one-touch recording makes it fast and easy to record high-quality session audio for social media content creation, while the stereo RCA outputs allow you to connect external mixers and speakers for live performances.

PERFORMANCE READY
The modification culture is alive and well in the portablism world. Since the inception of this art form, we’ve seen ingenious designs and customizations. The most popular and utilitarian mods are already included on the STX, including a Start/Stop button, an on-board speaker, and a pitch slider with Ultra-Pitch selection switch. These key features allow for inspiring performances right out of the box and provide a solid foundation upon which DJs can further customize to match their own unique portablist style.

Technical Specifications
Connections (1) RCA line-level output (stereo pair)
(1) 1/4” (6.35 mm) stereo headphone output
(1) 1/8” (3.5 mm) stereo headphone output
(1) 1/8” (3.5 mm) stereo input
(1) USB-C port (charges the internal battery)
(1) USB-A port (USB flash drive recordings

Speeds 33 1/3, 45, 78 RPM (45 RPM adapter included)

Power (2) 3.7V Li-ion batteries

Dimensions
(width x depth x height)
13.0” x 13.0” x 4.0” (3.25” without cover attached)
330.2 x 330.2 x 101.6 mm (82.6 mm without cover attached)

Weight 5.3 lbs.
2.4 kg

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Green Lung

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Svart)

Cruisin' Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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In four short years of existence, Green Lung have risen from the murk of the UK heavy underground to become a true cult band with a devoted following. Debut album Woodland Rites, released independently in early 2019, quickly garnered attention, resulting in a single being named ‘Track of the Week’ in the Guardian, plays on Daniel P. Carter’s Radio One Rock Show, a tour with fellow UK heavies Puppy and festival appearances across Europe.

This brought the band to the attention of the wider music industry, and after multiple offers from a variety of labels, the band decided to stay true to their roots and sign with the Finnish audio wizards at Svart Records, home to several of their doomy inspirations including Reverend Bizarre and Warning. Svart’s deluxe reissue of the album, and the preceding EP Free the Witch, sold out several pressings.

Two years later, the folk horror-obsessed fivesome have re-emerged from their mulchy catacombs armed with dozens of freshly-whittled riffs. Black Harvest, the sequel to Woodland Rites, is a more colourful reimagining of the band’s sound - Dawn of the Dead to its predecessor’s Night of the Living Dead.

Recorded at Giant Wafer Studios in rural mid-Wales over the course of two weeks with longtime producer Wayne Adams (Petbrick, Big Lad), it’s a more expansive and textured record than anything the band have done before, boasting a cinematic quality and more attention to detail. All samples were sourced from the local countryside and from instruments found in the studio, including the haunting opening vocal of ‘The Harrowing’ which was recorded on a whim after the band broke into the local church (the organ can be heard creaking in the background). The album was recorded in late autumn, and the seasonal atmosphere seeped into the music, which is redolent of mists, falling leaves, and the crumbling glory of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries of London, the city the band call home.

The album also soaks in new sonics beyond the ‘Black Sabbath meets Brian May’ blueprint of what went before. ‘The Harrowing’ takes the band’s tradition of instrumental opening tracks to dizzy new heights, like Atomic Rooster jamming with Boston, while ballad ‘Graveyard Sun’, based on the folklore around the ‘Highgate Vampire’, adds gothic synth lines that would give Type O Negative pangs of jealousy. That’s not to say the hooks n’ heaviness approach that made the band’s name isn’t here in abundance, as the Sabbath-meets-Purple chug and groove of revolutionary lead single ‘Leaders of the Blind’ and the Hammer Horror riff frenzy of ‘Upon the Altar’ prove. Closer ‘Born to a Dying World’ is unlike anything the band have written before; an endtimes ballad with an almost gospel feel, tying the band’s omnipresent nature themes to the Anthropocene.

Mastered by John Davis at Metropolis (Led Zeppelin, Royal Blood), Black Harvest comes packaged in stained glass artwork by renowned artist Richard Wells (Doctor Who, Dracula, Ben Wheatley’s In the Earth), and is available in gatefold vinyl and CD formats.

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William Odell Hughes

LP | 1981 | US | Reissue (Tidal Waves Music)

19,99 €*

LP | 2022 | UK | Original (Beatservice)

Release: 1981 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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180g Black vinyl limited to 500 copies (w/obi strip)
Rare Detroit Funk Soul album
First ever vinyl reissue since 1981
Featuring Tribe founder Wendell Harrison A Detroit resident, William Odell Hughes is a much-loved street educated singer-songwriter and music composer. As a regular passenger riding to work on the Detroit East Side bus route in the early eighties, he met jazz pianist Pamela Wise who also rode the bus to work every day and who he noticed was always reading music. Pamela told him about saxophonist, clarinetist, and producer Wendell Harrison (founder of the legendary Tribe collective and a regular collaborator of Pamela Wise). She introduced Odell to Wendell, who was impressed with William’s compositions and felt that it would be a great project for release on his WenHa record label.

Hughes and Harrison began producing and recording the album to be called “Cruisin”featuring musical arrangements by both Wendell Harrison and Pamela Wise. This album (released in 1981) was the first recording for Hughes and the beginning of a long musical journey that continues to this day. Cruisin’ features an all-star line-up that includes Andrew Gibson (The Counts), Pamela Wise (Tribe) and award-winning Detroit Jazz icon Wendell Harrison...all doing their bit and making this a monster of an album!

William Odell Hughes’ debut album has all the best characteristics of an 80s album: it’s filled with funky playful beats and has excellent soulful honey-dipped vocals. On Cruisin’ the listener is treated to both mellow soul sounds and electrifying disco boogie (that’ll make even the shyest of club goers want to get up and dance) and Wendell Harrison’s instantly recognizable flute-playing and synth pads give the record a warm, relaxed groove. Prepare yourself for funky vibes, cool soothing feet-tapping rhythms, fantastic interplays on vocal tempos...all backed by a beautiful array of soulful synthesized and cosmic music.

References to universal awareness are plentiful throughout and the spirituality of The Tribe remains a constant undertone; a gentle reminder of WenHa’s roots. With a sound like this, it’s no wonder that this album has long been considered a grail for crate diggers around the world. All of the above makes this incredible record both timeless and as relevant today as it was back when it was initially released.

Tidal Waves Music now proudly presents the first ever vinyl reissue of this rare funk & soul album (original copies go for large amounts on the second-hand market) originally released in 1981 on WenHa records. This unique record comes as a deluxe 180g vinyl edition (strictly limited to 500 copies worldwide) with obi strip. This vinyl edition also features the original photography by acclaimed British photographer Brian Smith known for his work with artists such as Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Howlin’ Wolf, Chuck Berry and John Lee Hooker.

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Legs 11

Welcome Home

Andrzej Marko / Andre Mikola

Release: 2022 / UK – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Oslo-based four-piece Legs 11 return to Beatservice Records with their third studio album, serving seven beguiling tracks on the delightfully off-kilter 'Welcome Home'.
Comprising of deviant players Sigmund Floyd, Torstein Dyrnes, Nils Tveten, and Audun Severin Eftevåg, Legs 11 have been Beatservice mainstays since making their label debut back in 2016. Fusing a disparate blend of esoteric sounds that include synth-pop, post-punk, new wave, house and more, the quartet journey from the murkiest depths into the pop-leaning stratosphere, taking in all manner of mind-altering detours along the way. Throughout their production journey, they've revelled in the unexpected, and 'Welcome Home' masterfully continues this aberrant trajectory.
Kicking things off in energetic mood, the new wave swagger of 'Flawless Logistics' dives deep into late-night rave abandon, Unhinged vocals and throbbing synth bass drive the cut through a futurist landscape of stripped rhythms and sinister tones before an atmospheric sax solo rises in to augment the searing lyrical message. Casting a critical eye on consumer-driven culture and mercenary musical forms, the vital composition is at once an unmissable social commentary and an irresistibly floor-filling groove.
Next, the glistening synths and sing-along vocals of 'Coup' saunter over bouncing bass notes and crisp machine drums. Acid licks rise in to add thrust to the club-primed groove while brooding pads and sultry spoken words meander through the sonic space. Elegantly sashaying into post-punk swirls, the hallucinatory swagger of 'Sax Consensual' bursts with theatrics. Seductive dart across the hyper-atmospheric backing track of pointed instrumentation, with glassy synths and fizzing drums joined by an evocative sax solo to vividly conjure late-night moods.
'Into The Darkness' bubbles with sinister intent, as striking bass and stripped rhythms charge through nocturnal synths, the serrated vocals purposefully projecting through the powerfully vivid subterranean mist. Maintaining the floor-focused tempo, 'This Is Your Home' sees sleazy vocals soar across an alien landscape. Distorted toms drive the groove as mysterious swirls and metallic textures fizz across the off-world horizon. Growling bass arrives alongside a searing sax lead as the endlessly-morphing rhythm undulates and evolves.
'The Crawley Within' sees darkly suggestive vocals enveloped by ominous synths and snarling acid licks, the determined rhythm steering the sparsely-woven instrumentation across alien topography as sensual whispers permeate the groove as the music undulates to an aberrant climax. Finally, completing a strikingly coherent collection, 'fuckboi' brims with attitude, with unhinged synths joined by growling rhythm guitar as the erotically-charged vocals project the steamiest of post-club invitations.
This is entirely unique work from Legs 11. Deviant, potent, and fiercely energetic, each track is propulsive enough to ignite dancefloors while embodied with more than enough profundity for headphone immersion. Utterly compelling.

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Fly Me To The Sun (Coloursound)

LP | 1983 | EU | Reissue (Be With)

Hardy's Jet Band / Orchestra Klaus Wuesthoff / Jan Troysen Band / Orchestra Gary Pacific

Release: 1983 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Fly Me To The Sun is a breathtaking German library gem from the hallowed Coloursound label. Originally out in 1983 it features two Polish composers, Andrzej Marko and André Mikola. If outré synth-funk is your thing, you need this record.

Almost blindingly luminous with positive vibes and radiant optimism, Fly Me to the Sun is a collection of funky, sun-dappled compositions for synthesizer and live instruments like drums, bass and guitar. A dope blend of beatbox driven future jazz and electro pop.

The wonderfully sleaze-adjacent opener "Dhamma" includes some grandiose piano chords amid floating ambient sounds a la Steve Hillage with slick drums entering the fray at a languid pace. "Circulation" sounds like Bowie ran into Chaz Jankel during an extended stay in Los Angeles, the Thin White Duke emerging out of a studio at 6am, bleary-eyed and clutching this filthy, bleepy instrumental of sonic smut. "Magic Scenery" is as delicate and astounding as the title suggests, a deep ambient movement conjuring halcyon images of rolling fields with abundant fauna and flora; acid-tinged visions of intense colour and natural beauty. Cool, slo-mo breaks adorn the strutting melancholy of “Longing for Tomorrow” and “Nocturnal Flowers” to close out Side A.

Skip the title track, which opens up Side B, and head straight to “Birth of a Butterfly” for a slice of creeping digi-dub-soul niceness. This should've been front and centre of that Personal Space compilation a decade ago. Raising both the tempo and the temperature, “Riding on a Sunbeam” continues in the mesmerising cosmic funk style before "Osmosis", one of the clear stand-outs, presents a fine vintage synth solo over a mellow funky rubberband beat. The closing track, "Solar Heating", warms things up with slapped bass and bold drum machine beats and the synth lends Sci-Fi vibes to the dark dub-funk-reggae rhythm.

As David Hollander, in Unusual Sounds: The Hidden History of Library Music, states, Coloursound was "founded in 1979 by composer, music lawyer, and vibraphonist Gunter Greffenius. A Munich-based library with a reputation for releasing innovative and ambitious music, it catered largely to the market for experimental sounds, its first release was 1980’s Biomechanoid, an abstract synthesizer excursion by Joel Vandroogenbroeck, of the pioneering kosmische band Brainticket. The record — complete with imposing, anonymous title and unearthly H.R. Giger cover art — set the tone for the label’s progressive leanings. The label’s catalogue stands as a tribute to the unfettered creative license that libraries were able to provide to forward-thinking musicians who, frustrated by the whims and constraints of the commercial scene, found complete freedom in the world of production music."

As with all our library music re-issues, the audio for Fly Me To The Sun comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. Richard Robinson has brought the original Coloursound sleeve back to life in all its metallic silver glory.

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Blue Butterfly

LP | 1971 | EU | Reissue (Be With)

2LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Hold Your Ground)

Release: 1971 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves, Soundtracks

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Behold! Yes, Blue Butterfly, one of the absolute stunners on the revered Selected Sound, is finally available for all the beat-heads. Heavyweight library funk with a psychedelic touch, the super in-demand Blue Butterfly from *deep breath* Hardy's Jet Band, Orchestra Klaus Wuesthoff, Jan Troysen Band and Orchestra Gary Pacific - was originally released in 1971. Incredibly ahead of its time, it's been rare and sought-after for decades.

For many aficionados, this is the best Selected Sound release. Loaded with fuzzy wah-wah guitar, deep flute-lines atop soulful psych-rock breakbeats and huge organ action, its uncompromising funk will blow you away. Sampled for many hip hop beats and dropped by well known rare groove DJs around the world, one jewel in particular from this glorious German vault needs little introduction. The intro to Orchestra Gary Pacific's mesmeric "Soft Wind" rides the illest, crispest drum break you've perhaps never heard - like, the drum break to end them all - alongside a smooth, deep bass line from the heavens. It featured notoriously on the beloved Dusty Fingers comps of the 90s and was brilliantly sampled by Pacewon for his eternal "Sunroof Top". Just listen and be dazzled.

Beyond this mini-masterpiece, the other killer tracks offer brilliance in abundance. Hardy's Jet Band take control of the full A side, and it's full of dynamic psych-funk bombs. Hard, "big city" industrial groovers. In particular, the initial one-two of "Sorry, Doc!" and "Wind It Up" provide thrilling funky-blues rock instrumentals showcasing relentless guitars, flutes, sax and organ, the latter containing gorgeous, hypnotic breakdowns; these tracks just slay. The title track, "Blue Butterfly" is a real deep strut of a track with fantastic soloing from guitar and flute over crisp drums whilst the highway banger "What You Call To Be Free" certainly sounds a lot like unbridled, rhythmical liberty.

On the flip, the ghost-riding "Lady In Space" is a string-drenched acid-western foxtrot. Yep. “Pop Happening” by Jan Troysen Band is a heavy, druggy psych-fuzz organ groover whilst their slow beat-organ-flute gem "A Blue Message" is a gorgeous psych floater conjuring deeply strange frontier lands. Preceding their monster "Soft Wind", the soulful, uptempo groover “Ghetto Gap” by Orchestra Gary Pacific contains solo piano and flute whilst closing out the set is the free-and-easy samba beat of "So Far".

Founded in the late 60s by German composer and musician Klaus Netzle (who recorded under the alias Claude Larson for Sonoton) Selected Sound began as a production music company specialising in jazz, orchestral and electronic recordings. You can’t miss those early LPs in their iconic glossy metallic copper sleeves with minimal German typography. Serious, classy stuff.

The audio for Blue Butterfly has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis whilst Richard Robinson has handled reproducing the glossy metallic (iconic) original Selected Sound sleeve. Essential.

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Rampue

Tragweite

Wanna Take You There Colored Vinyl Edition

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Berlin-based producer Rampue has not released an album in 14 (in words: fourteen) years. Between 2008 and 2020 he toured the world and worked mainly on his live sets in the meantime. So now only a worldwide pandemic had the power to prevent the traveling musician from continuing this hustle and bustle and eventually share a new record with the public. Corona was what brought this standstill and the otherwise well- traveled individual experiences cabin-fever during lockdown. Hence, the new Rampue album "Tragweite" came into existence in February 2021, which portrays the artist's desire for experimentation. Inspired by a modular synthesizer (Buchla), Rampue has seemingly put himself into a kind of trance, in which he lets the machines work and combines randomly created sounds with airy structures such as low drums or simple grooves. Rampue accomplished to break free by using random sounds as a new impulse and a way out of a creative crisis, which stemmed both from the enforced home isolation and from the self-perceived paralysis. The result is literally unique, as many of the sound products cannot be reconstructed and are preserved in album form for the general public. Listening to "Tragweite" one gets the impression that the dialectical relationship between chaos and order, further supported by its production, is the defining theme of the album. After an initially perceived chaos, a delicate order, which is determined by structuring drum patterns and basslines, takes over throughout the course of the album. Later, it frays and loses itself again in sounds and tones created mechanically However, it never seems arbitrary, but willful and skillfully staged. For instance, "Furo?" begins with apparent arrhythmia. The combination of bass and subtle percussion, however, gives this arrhythmia a shape, guiding the track which gradually becomes more and more driving without losing its original playfulness. Although one might be inclined to think of genres such as Downtempo or Ambient at the beginning in the further course of the album results in such a diverse sound and rhythmic landscape that one willingly questions one's own perception of music while listening and finally throws every type of categorization overboard joyfully. The listening experience is too intoxicating and enlightening to stick to simple genre boundaries. The musical spectrum ranges from straight arrangements that live entirely without a drum foundation ("Fu?r Dich") to almost meditative sound collages ("Regengesicht") to the four-to-the-floor banger "Kembang" which adds a grimmer note with a certain industrial appeal to the overall rather melancholic-progressive curation. "Direct Faden" on the other hand, surprises with its simple guitar-based foundation on which the omnipresent synth snippets and pads are allowed to let off steam towards the end of the record. The track that most closely combines the progressive production style with a danceable club atmosphere is probably "Phobia". Wafting, partly breaking away synthesizer sounds rise higher and higher, while the driving mixture of bass and drums consistently march forward. Rampue breaks with his old, musical habits as "Tragweite" creates the impression of improvisation and jam character without getting lost. Rampue takes his listeners on a journey that is stirring and moving, sometimes demanding or even a bit disturbing, yet always one thing: incredibly exciting.

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Dives

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Siluh)

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Analog Africa)

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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"A melodic, harmony-driven slice of laid back, surfer indie-guitar." Louder Than War "Teenage angst has paid off well, Dives are now ready to have it all." Guitar Girl Mag "Catchy, vigorous surf-pop." - Nothing But Hope & Passion Vienna 3-piece Dives are shaping up to be mainline Europe's biggest export. Since forming at pink noise Girls Rock Club in 2016, they have played over 150 gigs in over ten countries, toured with LA Witch and Courtney Barnett, headlined Viennese Popfest, played big name industry festivals such as Eurosonic, Reeperbahn Festival and c/o pop, accompanied the Vengaboys at the Viennese Ballhausplatz party (celebrating the resignation of Austria's corrupt right-wing Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Starche in 2019), and supported various established international artists including Franz Ferdinand, AnnenMayKantereit and Bilderbuch - whilst also building a huge grassroot fanbase playing beloved underground venues (8mm Bar, Ostpol Dresden). Dives forthcoming second album Wanna Take You There is the first to be released in the U.K. and follows their debut self-titled EP (2016) and debut album Teenage Years Are Over (2019). Whilst the debut album was characterised by unpolished garage-guitar sounds, new album Wanna Take You There is a collection of smoother, more compact pop moments. Garage-rock, surf-pop, 90s-flavoured indie, and harmonies à la The Breeders blend with a touch of Riot Grrrl attitude, present in the lyrical presentation of Dives' manifesto: Anti-discrimination and pro-equality and humanity. Dives's sound is fun in a big way, but also clever and versatile, veering from upbeat power pop on 'Walking The Dog', big anthems on '100 Times', or dream pop on 'Only Lies.' Album opener and title track 'Wanna Take You There' adds to the renaissance of playfully clever guitar songs to dance to as trailblazed by Wet Legs. Dives know how to party with their sound evoking images of road trips with friends and long days on the beach, "Oh let's head out, to a place that's pretty", sing Dives on 'Streets', "Where the lights, they never go out". Simultaneously Dives Riot Grrrl energy sees them sharing important messages and personal experiences within their danceable indie-pop tunes. The trio's first UK single 'Ego' is about one-way conversations with narcissists "This conversation is too odd; you got to listen and stop". Or on the song 'Burger,' they lay bare every woman's experience of patriarchal society's enabling in the purposely antagonising line "You cannot blame him anyway, 'cause honey you know, he doesn't mean it that way. " Wanna Take You There is a vibrant, fun, danceable and socially conscious ride. On it Dives rally against the wrongs in the world whilst reminding us to live life to the full, and simultaneously offering us the perfect soundtrack to do just that. Marbled white vinyl version!

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Ernesto DJedje

Roi Du Ziglibithy

32,99 €*

12" | 2022 | UK | Original (Central Processing Unit)

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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If someone would have told me years ago, when I started the label, that one day I would be releasing music by Ernesto Djédjé, the king of Ziglibithy himself, I would have personally driven them to the closest psychiatric institute such is the magnitude of the artist and his iconic tune “Zighlibitiens”.

The star of Ernesto Djédjé started rising in the late 60s, when he became the guitar player and leader of Ivoiro Star, founded by Amédée Pierre, star of Dopé, the leading musical style at the time. Annoyed by the “congolisation” of the Ivorian music that was taking place within the band, Ernesto left the group and emigrated to Paris in 1968 to record his first few singles arranged by Manu Dibango and influenced by Soul, Rhythm & Blues and Jerk. Those recordings reflect the musical mood at that time which was dictated by two musical trends within the Ivoirian scene: Traditional music, embodied amongst others by Amédée Pierre on one hand and imported music from the States, Cameroon and Zaïre on the other. And while the first trend was generally neglected, the youth fully embraced the second and as a result bands such as „Les Black Devils“, „Djinn-Music“, „Bozambo”, “Jimmy Hyacinthe”, shot to stardom overnight by recording mainly funk and disco music. It is within this context that Ernesto would draw the inspiration for a future formula.

Returning to Côte d‘Ivoire in 1974 Ernesto began looking for like minded musicians to form the mighty “Ziglibithiens”. Diabo Steck (drums), Bamba Yang (keyboards & Guitar), Léon Sina (Guitar) and Assalé Best (chef d´orchestre and Saxophon) would become the core of the group and together with Ernesto they began thinking of ways of combining the rhythms and chants of the Bété people and fuse them with Makossa, Funk and Disco and create a musical style that was both Ivorian and International. He called his experiment Ziglibithy and his first two albums, immortalised at the EMI studios in 1977 in Lagos and released on the Badmos label, took West Africa by storm turning Ernesto Djédjé into an icon overnight and one of the legends of African music. Ernesto Djédjé died in mysterious circumstances on June 9th, 1983 - at the age of 35 - shocking the whole Ivorian nation. And although the end came abruptly, it didn’t come soon enough, and Ernesto had time - within 5 albums - to cement his legacy as one of the most innovative artists the Ivory Coast ever produced.

The song Zighlibitiens, brought to Colombia by an aeronautical mechanic in the early 1980, would become a huge hit on the Caribbean Coast. Renamed “El Tigre” by locals soundsystem operators - certainly due to the Badmos logo - that particular song would reach legendary status in Barranquilla and Cartagena. Setting fire to uncountable local parties, it has become one of the most sought-after Album in that part of the world. And so, while Ziglibithy has mostly disappeared from the airwaves of its country of birth, on the other side of the Atlantic, its fire continues to shine bright.

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Blackploid

Planetary Science

Release: 2022 / UK – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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The Blackploid resurgence of recent years continues to gather steam. After laying dormant for some time, Martin Matiske's project roared back into life in 2021 with a pair of EPs for Central Processing Unit. It doesn't look like he'll be taking his foot off the gas any time soon - not only does the new Blackploid collectionPlanetary Sciencecomplete Matiske's hat-trick for the Sheffield label, but it also serves as a prelude to the full-length album which Blackploid will deliver on CPU in 2023.
If that LP is as good as the tracks we get here, then it's safe to say that we're on to a winner. This EP contains a quartet of top-tier machine-funk productions, the kind of crisp post-Drexciya joints we've come to know and love Blackploid for. Each track onPlanetary Sciencemakes good on the record's title by delivering club tackle flecked with FX which sound distinctly like spaceships blasting off into the cosmos.
There is also progression acrossPlanetary Science. While it still aims for the dancefloor,Planetary Scienceis a somewhat more textured listen than eitherStrange StarsorCosmic Traveler, Blackploid's previous CPU drops. Most notable is the increased use of synth pads, with Matiske draping chord progressions over all of these tracks in order to give his music a newfound depth.
Blackploid's subtle evolution is clear from the opening track. 'Dimension Unknown' may begin with a precision-engineered groove reminiscent of an early Legowelt joint, but things soon soften with the introduction of some rich keyboard chords. A few well-chosen bleeps and bloops flit in and out of the mix, but whereas some would use these to scuff up the track further here they are warm and playful.
The more confrontational stance of following cut 'Magnetron' makes it a yin to 'Dimension Unknown's yang. Blackploid works with similar tools here - machine-gun beat programming, chords playing off boinging bass - but there is a tension and buzz to the track which isn't apparent on its predecessor. The synths have a slight Eighties deep space thriller vibe about them, and the FX cut through the mix with more bite.
'Magnetron's energy carries through to 'Wire', the first track on thePlanetary ScienceB-side. Here a big, brutish bassline takes centre stage from the off, a chunk squarewave equal-parts Dopplereffekt and early Eskibeat. Around this swirls a queasy brew of synthesised tones, with the component parts all arranged in order to channel 'Magnetron's sense of unease.
Planetary Sciencecloses out with 'Neurotransmitter'. On this cut, Blackploid returns somewhat to where we started off, finding a midpoint between 'Dimension Unknown's more spacious feel and the livewire flavour of 'Magnetron' and 'Wire'. Tension remains, particularly when Matiske serves up one of the EP's snakiest basslines, but there's also a deftness to the synth pads here which makes 'Neurotransmitter' a little softer around the edges.
Blackploid limbers up for a forthcoming full-length on Central Processing Unit withPlanetary Science, an EP of stargazing electro joints that quietly expand the project's sonic world.
RIYL:Drexciya, Dopplereffekt, DMX Krew, I-F, Annie Hall

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2LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Antinote)

10 Years Of Loving Notes

22,49 €* 29,99 € -25%

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Kommerz)

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Pop

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Hugging the bend and blowing kisses since 2012, Antinote has been a vessel of choice for lovers of left-of-centre dance music and retro-laced boogie. Covering a supremely wide range of styles, the Parisian outlet has carved out a musical lane truly its own by putting on a nonstop celebration of electronics’ inexhaustible power of enthralment. A pledge of quality-driven curation and never-ending search for the next thrill that’s proven untiringly relevant throughout the years and opens onto its second decade of existence with equal panache.

Toasting to its ten years splashing the game with continuously reasserted outsider bravura, label captain Zaltan has bottled some of the finest expressions out Antinote’s versatile vaults of sound to form the present “X” compilation, “ten years of loving notes and foolin around 2012-2022". From totem animal IUEKE’s oddball musique concrète (“fiano-church") to the candid synth-pop of Lithuanian outfit Domenique Dumont (“La Dolce Vita"), via Feminielli’s outré mix of ghetto-house and ominous croon (“Nobody’s Boy”) and Tel-Aviv vibist Alek Lee’s signature synth-splattered 80s wave (“Different Plans”), it’s a smorgasbord of colours and vibrations that prepares to avalanche across your sound system.

Take the esoteric shoegaze of Epsilove, Shelter and Thomas Riguelle (“From The Spaceship in My Room”) and prepare to move upstream a river of saturated guitars and all-engulfing reverbs; let Low Jack’s jagged floor aggressor drill a hole in your head (“Feel 2020”) or opt for further ankle-breaking UK-bass-influenced riddim traction from DK & Geena (“BelleTech One”). A further cosmic-friendly epic, Chimère FM (I:Cube!) embarks us on a ride near Saturn’s belt (“La Genèse du Monstre à Suze") whereas former Antinote apprentice River Yarra snipes a hail of Italo-informed arpeggios and giallo-esque bass murk to compelling effect (“Blooms”) and L.I.E.S. head honcho Ron Morelli goes all in with a formidable, old-school dusty house chugger (“Tribute”).

There’s obviously more to "Antinote X" than the sum of its parts, and Jean Luc’s post-Plantasia jazz hybrid (“La Truite”), Arabica’s decadent, anti-colonial spoken number (“Multo Storia") or fellow Antinote in-house visual designer Nico Motte’s vintage disco churner (“All The Money In The World”) are there to attest. Not to forget Panoptique, up with a lashing, dissonant treat for the senses (“Un Licenciement”), Leo Martelli under guise as Sammy Patanegra with a tribal jacking weapon (“Maria”), Pont Levis floating into emotional hyperspace (“L’Espace et le Coeur de L'Âme”), Trigger Moral in with a marvel of a hip-hop gem emerged from some retro-futuristic wormhole (“soul assssn”) and Laporte rounding it off downtempo, modular ambient style for good measure (“Sleepers”). Ten years on, Antinote still leading the pack.

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DJ Piper

A Dream In A Dream

22,99 €*

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Arjunamusic)

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Hip Hop

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“A Dream In A Dream” is the debut LP by DJ Piper, also known as Felix Wagner of techno superstar duo Fjaak. One might be surprised about this all hip-hop instrumental album looking at Felix’ all dance music focussed musical resumé. Nevertheless, he has been crafting rap beats ever since he started producing as a teen, but had his childhood friends freestyle over the tracks solely. It took until 2020 when he teamed up with Lukas and lim.

“A Dream In A Dream” is the debut LP by DJ Piper, also known as Felix Wagner of techno superstar duo Fjaak. One might be surprised about this all hip-hop instrumental album looking at Felix’ all dance music focussed musical resumé. Nevertheless, he has been crafting rap beats ever since he started producing as a teen, but had his childhood friends freestyle over the tracks solely. It took until 2020 when he teamed up with Lukas and Jonathan Nixdorff of Kommerz Records to release his first solo track “Iluminay”, which was part of “Kommerz Season 1: Anti-Virus” compilation and shared by B-Real of Cypress Hill right away.

Now, 2022, marks the right moment to share his debut album, a waltzing ode to hip-hop’s golden era. The Berlin-Spandau original merges the legacies of both Pete Rock and Dr. Dre, while funky breakbeats meet laid back SoCal “Chronic” vibes. 12 instrumental tracks and 2 skits strong, his album tells the story of a young man, who lives up to his wildest teenage dreams. Most of the track ideas came up while being on tour with Fjaak. Between international transit areas, making inspirational new friends and bizarre encounters all over the world, beat making became DJ Piper’s safe space to process all the positive madness around him. As a result, “A Dream In A Dream” breathes that raw, untamable creative energy around Felix’ extraordinary day-to-day life, while being heavily influenced by the sound of his childhood, 90s and 2000s rap.

To visualize “A Dream In A Dream” DJ Piper and Kommerz Records joined forces with Raman Djafari, a childhood friend of the artist, who illustrated music videos for Dua Lipa and Elton John (no joke!) and worked for New Release Information Adult Swim. Raman’s supernaturalistic aesthetics bring life to DJ Piper’s somewhat psychedelic, somewhat nostalgic fantasy, locating the album in an otherworldly version of Spandau, hometown to both of the artists. As one half of Fjaak Felix became an icon of Berlin techno conquering major festival stages and mainstream audiences while heavily representing underground D.I.Y. mentality up to this very day. As an initiator of Spandau20 label and collective, Felix pushes his creative family and day 1’s regardless of commercial potentials. The same ethos and love for culture fuels the DJ Piper project. No matter if it’s Fjaak or DJ Piper, techno or hiphop. Integrity is key!

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Samuel Rohrer

Hungry Ghosts

Monte Carlo Alien Eggshell Pink Vinyl Edition

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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A download code is included. With his Arjunamusic label and a growing catalog of category-defying releases, Samuel Rohrer continues to quietly, yet confidently, make a name for himself as a genuinely unique figure within the European electronic music realm. Over the past decade he has assembled a repertoire of music that fills a sadly neglected gap in the modern musical landscape. That is to say, he has made a number of “electronically”-aided works that never seem to make “electronic-ism” the main selling point or raison d'être. Rohrer understands that we inhabit a networked media landscape that no longer sees a novelty value in every synthetic or technological sound, and by realizing this, he makes a music that fully engages with the present without completely disregarding the exciting speculative sensibility that has allowed electronic music to solidify into a tradition. His latest solo album, Hungry Ghosts, again shows the high quality of sonic design that can be achieved by conceptualizing musical passages as living, breathing entities rather than as signposts to some still distant reality. Maybe more so than any of Rohrer’s solo records to date, Hungry Ghosts is the one that most unambiguously displays the artist as a kind of inspired sound “cultivator” or landscaper rather than just a straightforward “producer”. The emphasis here seems to be biological growth processes rendered in musical form, and in fact some track titles namechecking the biodiversity of the external world (“Slow Fox”, “Ctenophora”) and neurochemistry (“Serotonin”) lend some additional credence to this interpretation. As with previous outings, Rohrer starts with his skills as a genre-resistant percussionist and builds from there, with dense clusters of drum hits and icy cymbal exclamations leading the way into a wide-open atmosphere full of fragmented phrases, marked with strange reversals or compressions of time. The percussive portions and other ambiences merge together in such a way that the latter seems like a kind of shifting, holographic camouflage for the former; an effect which makes for a greater than usual number of shifts in mood. Rohrer’s already established ambiguity and mystery are the moods that permeate throughout, to be sure, but there are also surprising moments of humorous whimsy (the flourishes of cartoon mischief and teasing silences on the tracks “Human Regression” and “Bodylanguage”), reverence (the optimistic organ swells d steady sequencer guiding “Ceremonism”), and meditative focus (the slow-motion spectral waltz of “Treehouse”). Also notable here are very brief etudes, such as “Window Pain,” whose dark, lush ebb and flow actually seem tailored to repeated or looped listening. It’s particularly remarkable that almost all of this material is recorded solo and in a “live / no overdubs” mode, given how much it feels like well-rehearsed ensemble playing, and given the impeccable timing involved in continually exchanging the sounds at the very forefront of the mix. And here we come full circle to the idea of “electronic music” mentioned at the beginning here: instead of making us feel that we are in the presence of some fully-realized form brought back from “the future,” Rohrer invites us instead to witness fascinating processes of transition and mutation, and to value them for what they are now as much as for where they are headed.

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Abraxas

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Suicide Squeeze)

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Black Truffle)

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Carolina Faruolo (ex-Los Bitchos) and Danny Lee Blackwell (Night Beats) had been friends and mutual admirers of each other's musical projects for years, though with Faruolo residing in the UK and Blackwell residing in Texas, their interactions were limited. Yet as was so often the case for many of us during the shelter-in-place stretches of 2020, geographic proximity wound up being a non-issue as our socializations became almost exclusively online endeavors. In this era of isolation and uncertainty, Faruolo and Blackwell invented their own private escape to Latin rhythms, colorful vistas, and smoky revelries under the project name of Abraxas. Combining their shared love of Wendy Renee, Los Destellos, doo-wop and R&B, they crafted their debut album Monte Carlo by bouncing ideas across the Atlantic. "Planet Abraxas is a world filled with jungles, mist-covered rivers, panthers lurking in the night, desolate shopping malls, Neolithic citadels and sand-worn walls," Blackwell says of the muse behind Monte Carlo. "The nights are usually dense with fog and the air is filled with the sounds of cicadas and faraway drumming." This visual manifestation of their sound stands in stark contrast to the environment in which the songs were written. "I remember the feeling I got the first time Danny added vocals to one of my tracks," Faruolo recalls. "I was sitting on my sofa in rainy Manchester in the middle of winter. I pressed play and the song just made my heart jump. It instantly felt special and, more importantly, it felt like a perfect portrait of both of us." Uruguayan-born Faruolo grew up with the tropical beats of cumbia and the psychedelic flavor of classic chicha artists, and it became her mission to infuse those sunny influences in her work as a UK musician. Blackwell's work under the Night Beats handle involves the fusion of outlaw soul and R&B with a resourceful DIY spirit. Despite the apparent contrast in their styles, the two musicians bonded over their reverence for Selena and Sade, exemplars of the humid pulse and sultry spirit of their respective approaches. As Abraxas, their distinctive musical perspectives created a sound that encompassed the tropicalia of Os Mutantes, the scrappy songwriting of Cleaners From Venus, and the trippy production of Lee "Scratch" Perry, though the duo is quick to assert that they were finding their own distinctive voices rather than adhering to pre-existing stylistic codes and constraints. And indeed, Monte Carlo feels rooted in tradition but blossoms into its own unique timbres and vibrations. Monte Carlo opens with "Sunrise State (of Mind)," where a hypnotic cumbia beat serves as the bedrock for cosmic guitar leads, hazy choral melodies, and Blackwell's seductive vocals. From there, the album continues its steady Latin pulse on "Mañana," a perfect soundtrack to feverish nights in dancehalls, sipping on caipirinhas and sharing cigarettes with strangers on the dancefloor. Across its twelve tracks, Monte Carlo unfurls a myriad of exotic influences, from the Eastern melodies and guitar trills on "Sultan," through the dub-infected stomp and scorching fuzz of "La Estampida," and on to the Anatolian psych-funk of album closer "Göbekli Tepe."

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Alvin Curran

Drumming Up Trouble

DJ Tudo E Sua Gente De Todo Lugar

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Black Truffle is thrilled to announce Drumming Up Trouble, the first release of previously unissued music by Alvin Curran on the label. Collecting works recorded between 2018-2021 and a side-long epic dating back to the early 80s, as the title suggests, Drumming Up Trouble focuses on a hitherto almost unknown aspect of Curran’s encyclopaedic and omnivorous musical world: his experiments with sampled and synthesised percussion. As Curran’s wonderful, wildly sweeping liner notes make clear, his fascination with drumming belongs to the radical investigation of music’s fundamental elements that has marked his output since the beginnings of MEV, who aimed (as he says in a recent interview) to return ‘in some collective way to a non-existent start time in the history of human music’. Whatever kind of music our proto-human ancestors played, he writes, ‘drums were front and centre in the mix. Drums rule!’

In a paradox typical of Curran’s approach, Drumming Up Trouble interrogates this most ancient dimension of music with contemporary technology. On the first side, we hear recent pieces performed using the sampling software and full-size Midi keyboard setup Curran has refined since the 1980s. Two of them are wild real-time improvisations, primarily utilising an enormous bank of hip-hop samples. Building from polyrhythmic layers of drum machine fragments to wild cacophonies of clashing vocal samples, scratching, and frantic pitch shifting, these energetic and at times hilarious pieces occupy a space somewhere between John Oswald’s Plunderphonics, Pat Thomas and Matt Wand in the Tony Oxley Quartet, and the propulsive Kudoro/Grime fusion of Lisbon’s Príncipe label. They are improvisations are accompanied by two austere, minimal compositions realised in collaboration with Angelo Maria Farro: ‘End Zone’ for orchestral bass drum and high oscillator, and ‘Rollings’, where a snare roll is gradually stretched and filtered by digital means into ‘floating electronic gossamer’.

The incredible breadth of Curran’s output makes it pretty unlikely that a listener familiar with his work would be surprised to find it branching out in a new direction. But no degree of familiarity with his work can really prepare for side B’s epic and bizarre ‘Field it More’. It’s perhaps best to let the maestro describe this unhinged and infectious offering in his own words: ‘It features an 8 bar funky minimal riff à la James Brown, played on synth and an-out-of-tune piano, synced to a pre-paid patch on the Roland drum machine. Over this is laid a heavily processed track of the voices of dancer Yoshiko Chuma and movie-maker Jacob Burckhardt discussing an upcoming performance of theirs at the Venice film festival, capped by a track of my playing an increasingly out of control blues over the top of all of the above’. Only Pekka Airaksinen’s Buddhas of the Golden Light comes to mind as a reference point that might even vaguely compare to this wild home-brew of drum-machine funk, mad improvisation and squelching electronics, which eventually dissolved into a massive, layered cluster. Ancient and modern, synthetic and human, hysterical and rigorous, Drumming up Trouble is 100% Curran.

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Pancada Motor - Transformacao E Cura

2LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Mundo Melhor)

30,99 €*

It Should Have Been Me / Brand New Lover

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Hip Hop, Organic Grooves

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DJ Tudo e sua Gente de Todo Lugar’s 7th album, breed from Brazilian field recordings and made between 2007 and 2019 in trips around the world - Brazil and 11 other countries. It is a project that should have come out in 2013, but the “Pancada Motor - Manifesto da festa” came out ahead, having as a sequel the two volumes of Gaia Music series. By early 2019, the album was finalized. Pancada Motor is a term derived from the Alagoas traditions like the Samba de Matuto, Cambinda, Baianá and Caboclinha, about their cultural make or their rhythms. Here this name has been expanded to other cultures and rhythms of Brazil. Transformation and Cure are urgent needs for humanity and our relation with the planet, we need to transform our relationship with each other and Mother Earth for our healing as a whole. Artists from many countries and different cultures contributed to this work. It is hard to place an order of greatness and importance but certainly the traditional Brazilian groups were the initial inspiration: Matutinhas do Pontal de Coruripe, Cambinda Palmeirense de Porto de Pedras, Maracatu Nação e Rural de Recife, Caceteira do Seu Rindu de São Cristóvão, Terno de Congo 13 de Maio de Goiânia, Reisado São Miguel de Juazeiro de Norte, Carimbó Raízes de Coremar de Salinas and Queen Dona Neta from Maracatu Cruzeiro do Forte do Recife. Equally fundamental is the contribution of Sérgio Ricardo, legend of MPB (Brazilian Popular Music), and Chilean rapper Ana Tijoux that features the track “Terra para todos (Land for all)”. From Belgium, Rolland Van Campenhout, Steven de Bruyn, Bart Maris, Tuur Florizoone and David Bovée. Alan Bryden and Stuart Brown, BigTad and duo Twelfth day Esther and Catriona from Scotland. From Paris, guitarist Stefane Goldman who has participated in several DJ Tudo’s albums. From London, the percussionist Crispin Robinson, Lopa Kotari and Mariana Pinho. From Rio de Janeiro, the keyboardists Sacha Amback and Marcos Lobato. Lu Dlamini from South Africa. American drummer Marque Gilmore, who was recorded in Stockholm, Sweden. From Istanbul the Zas Player Murat Ertel. Rajasthan musicians met unexpectedly at a casual ride in a hotel elevator in Durban, South Africa. Brasília singer Ana Soares. From Ljubljana, Slovenia, accordionist Uros and Beth. From São Paulo, my brothers and sisters in arms: Gente de Todo Lugar - drummer Gustavo Souza, percussionist and singer Rafaella Nepomuceno, guitarist Rafael Martinez, saxophonists Marcelo Monteiro and Filipe Nader and trumpeter Amílcar Rodrigues. Planetary voices in the track “Nietzsche era triste ....” recorded in several countries. Thank you so much for the music and the affection that you put in this work, the result is nine songs and nine seasons linked to life. Knowing and respecting cultures is an eternal path of transformation, that this work reaches each one as a transforming element, especially in this almost inexplicable moment that we live on the planet.

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Mr K

7" | 2022 | US | Original (Most Excellent Unlimited)

13,99 €*

Let's Turn It Into Sound Neon Yellow Vinyl Edition

Release: 2022 / US – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves, Electronic & Dance

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Mr. K is back again with a double-sider that tackles the ups and downs of love and does it in fabulous style with two solid soul classics.

Yvonne Fair was a veteran of the soul music world when she finally got the chance to record her first full length album in 1975. She had recorded multiple singles under the guidance of James Brown (her “I Found You” was reworked by Brown into the chart-topper “I Got You (I Feel Good)”) and, after leaving the JB camp for the auspices of Motown, a clutch of 7-inches with Norman Whitfield. These were gathered together to form her first (and only) full-length, but before the album was completed a final song was added to fill things out. This last minute touch would turn out to be the crowning achievement of her career. “It Should’ve Been Me” didn’t seem to be a notable addition at first. The song was originally done by Kim Weston a decade earlier and then by Gladys Knight. But Fair’s version had something special. In addition to the novel addition of a percolating drum machine pulse, Fair imbued the lyrics with a heartfelt sincerity and gruff emotion that touched listeners in a way that other versions had missed. Released as a single in the UK in late ’75, the song rose to the top ten of the British charts by February of the following year, inspiring Motown to release it as a US single. The song never replicated its UK success in the States, but went on to have a long life as a staple of drag performances and gay club life. Gay club life being the heart of all great club life, it’s only natural that the impact of the song has continued to spread, from Adeva’s hit house version in 1991 to Miley Cyrus’s recent revival of the song. Danny Krivit pays tribute to this storied history with his own version, a simple yet effective edit that stays true to the original but gives DJs a little more room (and fans a little more time to sing along!) than the all-too-brief original.

Continuing on our theme of lovelorn loss and redemption, Mr. K turns his attention to the New Birth’s “Brand New Lover” for our B-side. While the original slowly moves from the tentative, immediate aftermath of breakup to the eventual positive path forward, Krivit’s edit jumps straight to the joyous resolution to find new love, riding a delicious call and response chorus punctuated by signature breakdowns from master producer Harvey Fuqua. Danny’s edit provides a natural uplifting opportunity that never stops building over the course of its extended five minutes. Until now, the track has only been available on the group’s debut 1970 full-length, and never on a 7-inch single.

As always, this release has been mastered to the highest standards and is certain to find a spot in the bags of discerning listeners and DJs alike.

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Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith

LP | 2022 | US | Original (Ghostly International)

Let's Turn It Into Sound Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 2022 / US – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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"Art is awe, art is mystery expressed," writes Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith. "Art is somatic, even if it is experienced cerebrally. It is felt." The central mysteries of Smith's ninth studio album, Let's Turn it Into Sound, have to do with perception, expression, and communication: How can we communicate when spoken language is inadequate? How do we understand what it is we're feeling? How do we translate our experience of the world into something that someone else can understand? For Smith, a self-described "feeler," the answers are inspired by compound words in non-English languages, translation, sculptural fashion, dance, butoh, wushu shaolin, and other forms of sensory and somatic experience. Just like fashion uses lines, shapes, colors, textures, and silhouettes to communicate on a sensual level separate from the conscious mind, Let's Turn it Into Sound strives to use sound to communicate what words alone cannot. "The album is a puzzle," Smith says. "[It] is a symbol of receiving a compound of a ton of feelings from going out into a situation, and the song titles are instructions to breaking apart the feelings and understanding them." The energized "Is it Me or is it You" comes from traversing the gaps between how you see yourself and how another might see you, through a filter of their own projections. The hushed sense of revelation that brackets "There is Something" refers to the feeling of walking into a room and being subconsciously aware of the dynamic present. All the while, Smith interprets these feelings through sound. This auditory interpretation process, driven by earnest curiosity, led Smith to record some thoughts and questions that popped up along the journey in Somatic Hearing_a booklet which accompanies the album. Over three frenzied months, recording alone in her home studio, Smith allowed herself to pursue new experiments to accompany her usual toolkit of modular, analogue, and rare synthesizers (including her signature Buchla), orchestral sounds, and the voice. She created a new vocal processing technique, and gave herself permission to pursue a pacing that felt intuitive, rather one that followed typical song structures. She walked around in the windiest season with a subwoofer backpack and an umbrella, listening to the low end of the album amidst 60mph gusts. She listened to herself, and, in doing so, to an inner community which suddenly opened to her. Underlying the album is a dynamic relationship between what Smith describes as six distinct voices, each a multifaceted storyteller. By acknowledging these characters, she was acknowledging her whole being: the woven plurality of self, the complex process of noticing and resolving inner conflicts, and the joy of finding harmony in flux. "I started to feel so embodied by all of these characters. This is all the felt, unsaid stuff [my inner community] wants to communicate but it doesn't have the English language as its form of communication, and so [this album was a form of] giving space to let it talk and not judge it and just let it play." By not adhering to expected song structures, each song feels even more like a conversation, with each character getting to express themselves in full.

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Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith

LP | 2022 | US | Original (Ghostly International)

Release: 2022 / US – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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12" | 2022 | EU | Original (Kicks & Hugs)

Kicks & Hugs 01

14,99 €*

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Black Truffle)

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Kicks & Hugs, a multi-disciplinary platform established in 2017 to hold space for like-minded creators, now launches its own label showcasing emerging sonic spheres that reach beyond momentary hype and trends alike. Based in Berlin, the foundation of Kicks & Hugs lies at intersectional crossroads of music and art, with their first record establishing a definite attitude towards contemporary artistry. Kicks & Hugs celebrates an immersive spectrum of talent across different mediums and promotes ideas composed of color to challenge a steady current of long exhausted black & white patterns within the realm of electronic music. The debut EP available on black & limited edition colored marble vinyl assorts a kinetic flow of ideas produced by a seemingly divergent roster. Completely ecstatic & exhilarating maze of rhythm by The Lone Flanger, additionally reworked with Varg2TM versus contrasting yet innovative dancefloor mechanics by Bertrand., ending with a hypnotic mix by Dasha Rush, the record is an absorbing material of dynamics that subtly surprise and leave nothing but an ambitious statement for what’s yet to come. Kh01 is dedicated to a musical shape-shifter, a paramount figure, ephemeral talent & a dear friend – Andrew Smith. To end in his own words, Keep It Fungki. The Lone Flanger was an audio-visual project from the artist Jasen Loveland also known as Andrew Smith (1980-2021). Dedicated to exploring the intersection of music and visual arts in the expanded dimension, the work of TLF picked up where Loveland’s eponymous acid-based project left off, aspiring for a kind of transcendence that takes the listener beyond the previously known concepts to experiments with the possibility of creating a resonant bridge between frequencies, worlds and dimensions. The work of TLF questions, obfuscates and complexifies notions of rhythm, melody and musical genre… even our ability to rely on our senses for accurate information about the work in question Varg2TM also known as Jonas Rönnberg casts a cryptic shadow from the North over contemporary aesthetics, continuing to create in his largely collaborative and always thrilling approach. Tempering a caustic rhythmic sensibility with a pneumatic palette for high definition synthesis, his unique embrace of risk tests the reliability of the forms he works in as well as the genre borders he surveys. Bertrand.’s work as a producer incorporates a wide spectrum of influences and aims to create beyond the common means of electronic dance music. Bertrand.’s restless nature and desire for technical perfection bleed into his productions of bass-heavy futuristic soundscapes often juxtaposed with playfully intense dancefloor fundamentals. Dasha Rush constructs a rather wide assortment of electronic music and arts projects. She sees the genre as a starting place, not a destination. Rush brings up a mixture of rather rare electronic experimentation more akin to the brief movement of underground music. Credits: Mastering and mastercut by Andreas [lupo] Lubich at Loop-O Cover artwork by Fredrik Altinell Graphic Design by Marta Braga Inner label artwork by Tommy Dwane Vocals by Kawala Bravo

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Toshiya Tsunoda

Landscape And Voice

Happening Limited Pink Noise Vinyl Edition

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Black Truffle is pleased to present Landscape and Voice, a radical new work (and rare vinyl release) from major Japanese sound artist Toshiya Tsunoda. Undoubtedly one of the most influential artists working with location recordings since the 1990s, Tsunoda’s work possesses a rigorously searching quality that sets him apart from his contemporaries. Tsunoda is known to many listeners for the subtle atmospheric poetry of his early Extract from Field Recording Archive series, which focussed on vibrations recorded in various indoor and outdoor environments in his native Miura Peninsula, often inside pipes, bottles and other vessels. In more recent years, his work has explored the implications of his claim that field recording should be seen as ‘depiction’ rather than ‘documentation’. He has explored disorienting editing and processing in his works with Taku Unami, and, perhaps most radically, represented Maguchi Bay as a kind of kinetic sculpture for shaking speakers by removing all but the inaudible low frequencies from a field recording (Low Frequency Observed at Maguchi Bay).

One of the recurrent concerns of Tsunoda’s recent work, as he explains in the crystalline liner notes accompanying this release, is ‘exploring how I can establish a subjective relationship with an environment, rather than seeing it merely as an object to be recorded’. This has taken various forms, from documenting simultaneously an outdoor environment and the blood flowing through the listener/recorder’s body (captured with a stethoscope) on The Temple Recordings, to representing his own experience of the landscape as made up of ‘grains of space and time’ by inserting looped fragments into field recordings in Grains of Spring.

On Landscape and Voice, this meeting between subject and object becomes an almost mystical union between the natural and the human. As with all of Tsunoda’s work, a relatively simple concept leads to compelling, thought-provoking results. Landscape and Voice combines vowel sounds spoken by six voices with short, looped fragments of field recordings, their noise character suggesting consonants: voice and landscape thus join together in something like words. The record consists of three pieces, each using a different, richly evocative field recording, which periodically freezes, catching on a looped fragment to which is synchronised an abruptly looped spoken vowel sound. The lengths between these interruptions vary, as do the tempi of the loops. The interruption of these lushly immersive recordings of the world – bristling with bird song, rushing water, distant traffic, and clinking metal – only serves to intensify them, as if the depicted environment itself had been returned to the listener each time it abruptly reappears. At the same time, the constant interruption creates an uncannily frozen effect, as if the recorded environment were an object rather than a stretch of recorded time. When combined with the bare human presence of the vowel sounds, the result is both austere and magical. Pressed on 45rpm for maximum fidelity, in a gorgeous sleeve designed by Lasse Marhaug with liner notes from the composer, Landscape and Voice is a radical proposition from one of the deepest thinkers in contemporary sound.

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Launder

2LP | 2022 | CA | Original (Ghostly International)

Happening Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 2022 / CA – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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After nearly three years and sixty demos, Launder's full-length debut is Happening. In 2019, Orange County-raised, Los Angeles-based musician John Cudlip signed to Ghostly International to build his recording project, developed out of casual sessions with friends Jackson Phillips (Day Wave), Soko, and Zachary Cole Smith (diiv). Launder's music had seen unexpected attention, with Stereogum placing it "somewhere at the intersection of `90s lo-fi and shoegaze," and Gorilla vs. Bear noting Cudlip's "serious knack for the kind of wistful, soaring choruses that immediately make you feel like you've known these songs forever." With live shows paused in 2020, he immersed fully into writing and arranging an overflow of ideas. Cudlip also embraced sobriety, redirecting his once-destructive addictive tendencies into studio craft _ all his thoughts consumed by melody and texture, all his resources lobbed into gear, every buzz, hiss, and hum of this record became his entire world. The resulting set sprawls across a double LP release; it's a considered beast of a debut and he's proud of it, living with it, finally. Through its thirteen songs, Happening is timeless, grappling with something bigger than just melody, the cathartic and the tender, indebted to indie rock greats while informed by modern and prudent self-reflection. "I feel like I've evolved into a much more self-reliant writer compared to the EP and 7-inch releases but I couldn't have made this record without the band," he says. "The songs came to life in the rehearsal space with them, it was like a light switch went on." To record the album, Cudlip and collaborators _ including Chase Meier (bass), Bryan DeLeon (drums), Nathan Hawelu (lead guitar) _ joined co-producer, engineer, and mixer Sonny DiPerri (My Bloody Valentine, Nine Inch Nails, Diiv) at New Monkey Studio, the vintage analog/modern digital recording studio in Van Nuys, California once owned by Elliott Smith. Cudlip mapped out his dream setup; alternate-tuning a fleet of Fenders to facilitate his left-handed playing, experimenting with different amps (a late `70s Marshall JMP carried much of the sound), and getting the vocals just right on Smith's old Neumann U48 microphone and Fairchild compressor. With each nuanced adjustment and improved take, they'd joke, "it's happening." The sort of phrase you say to keep the vibe light _ but there was some gravity behind it _ as the group was forced to wait to be safely in the same space again. It was apparent to them that something magnetic was shaping this record. Where debuts often feel full of rough-hewn potential, Launder has crafted a deeply honed collection that is happening right now. A process-oriented album, the work of a person maturing with their art, the sound of a songwriter pushing through their limits with thrilling and anthemic outcomes.

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Launder

2LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Ghostly International)

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Editions Gravats)

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Yann Dub & Explore Toi

Nation De La Boue

LP | 2022 | US | Original (Carpark)

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Brittany’s fabled Frenchtek rave scene is subject to a long overdue retrospective, spanning 10 frazzled hardcore techno oddities produced by key players Yann Dub & Explore Toi plus pals, made in the ‘90s and into the ’00s - Massive Riyl La Peste, Nomex, Praxis! The sound of choice for spangled refuseniks in north western France; Frenchcore is the hardcore techno subgenus notorious for soundtracking 100,000+ crowds at Teknivals - Europe’s answer to the UK’s free parties - as well as scuzzier, smaller raves in the region since the ‘90s. ‘Nation De La Boue’, or ‘Nation of Mud’, is among the first excavations for this pivotal era of contemporary French counterculture. Focussed on the work of two wayward players in the late, great Yann Dub and spar Explore Toi, their uncompromisingly weird and psychoactive rave music is held up as emblematic of French traditions of protestation and celebratory expression, and resonates heavily with Editions Gravats’ remit to highlight vital undercurrents of French music to the wider world. Yann de Kéroullas, pseudonymously known as Yann Dub, was a french sound engineer, founder of Reverse-Primecut mastering studio, and leading proponent of frenchtek’s weirdest sounds. He passed away in 2013, but not before driving myriad minds to delirium with his experimental strains of speedcore for long over a decade via his Reverse Records label. Yann’s work accounts for about half of ‘Nation De La Boue’ - a worthy posthumous testament to his wayward style, characterised by its raw concrète-mechanical textures and the kind of pelting kick drums that drive K’d out ravers to trample puddles in the mud. His wickedly unyielding ‘Untitled’ is a case in point, while ‘Bruit Blanc’ shares a more psychoactive sound design with his peer, La Peste, and the radioactive abstraction ‘Brest sa plage son port industrial et sa base atomique’ channels the region’s mix of rugged beauty and industry into pure noise grot. But if you want the full frontal experience, we’d advise downing a bucket of cheap red wine and rail a line of K the size of your middle finger before submitting to the 10 minutes of his ‘Untitled (Bonus)’ for optimal frenchtek effect. Explore Toi accounts for the other half of madness here. The wind-tunnel triplet coefficients of his ‘Kilos d’Huitres SVP Madame’ jam with Yann speaks to their shared, unhinged sidespin on hardcore techno, while the welting pulses of ‘Flamings Terminal’ gives a more personalised take on frenchtek standards, and the blasted 909 of his ‘Urban Groove’ follows a more psychedelic hunch to tonal paintings such as ‘Face Ambiance (Outro)’ and the monotonic structure of ‘Motherf#cker’s And Fatherf#cker’s (Bonus)’ that hail his background as a visual artist. ’Nation De La Boue’ renders a definitive cross-section of France’s alternative rave scene, one effectively light years away from more popularised strains of French touch filter house and electro-rock that paralleled the years covered inside. It’s an intriguing snapshot of a largely undocumented scene and a vitally unhinged - and largely forgotten - cog in the rave continuum.

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Deer Scout

Woodpecker

17,99 €* 23,99 € -25%

CD | 2022 | UK | Original (Mr Bongo)

Release: 2022 / US – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Deer Scout’s debut full length Woodpecker is a record about memory and the subconscious. And like an unforgettable dream that keeps you puzzling over its riddles for days, it’s as packed with direct symbols as it is with ruminative haze. “I approach songwriting as a process of boxing things up, or putting away a time capsule,” explains front person Dena Miller, who wrote the album over a period of six years. It’s a culminating collection of the project’s many sounds and influences to date, from Philly’s punk cooperatives to Oberlin’s conservatory experimentalism to New York’s DIY history. At the center is Miller’s assured guitar fingerpicking and boldly clear voice, firmly grounded even as it gently probes uncertain emotional and musical terrain.

Raised by two folk musicians in Yonkers, Miller began recording songs as Deer Scout her freshman year of college in Philadelphia. There, she wrote Woodpecker’s earliest song “Synesthesia” about a train ride home from a basement show: “Night in the city / Big house on the corner / Her voice has the timbre of summers ago,” recalls Miller resonantly. After Miller’s transfer to Oberlin College, Deer Scout began touring DIY venues around the country and sharing stages with favorite artists including Waxahatchee and Told Slant. The twinned intimacy and intricacy of those two influences is reflected in the carefully adventurous arrangements on Woodpecker, which features, among other contributors, bass from close collaborator Ko Takasugi-Czernowin, cello from Zuzia Weyman, drums from Madel Rafter, and guitar from Miller’s father Mark—who also wrote the song “Peace with the Damage” and originally released it with his band Spuyten Duyvil in 2011.

Many of the songs on Woodpecker were written during periods of grief or change. “I used to sing myself to sleep as a baby and I think music still plays the same role in my life—it’s a way of self-soothing or seeking comfort,” explains Miller. “But there’s also part of it that comes from wanting to connect with people." Recorded and mixed primarily by Heather Jones at So Big Auditory in Philly with overdubs by Miller at home, Woodpecker is an exercise in portraying the incommunicable. “Cup”—about a relational psychology test called “a walk in the woods” that turns encounters with symbols into meaning—uses watery arpeggios, wintry strings, and roving bass to create a liminal sonic space, optimistic but tense. “Cowboy,” with airy layers of acoustic guitar riffs and Miller’s charmingly double tracked voice, takes its little fish, big pond inspiration from the character Joe Buck in Midnight Cowboy. And “Afterthought,” with its unexpectedly bright resolutions, is about God, love, and the complexity of empathy; “Heaven isn’t watching us,” sings Miller candidly over pedal steel.

Though Woodpecker is a record about uncertainty and the unknown, it’s also about compassion and connection—as Miller was able to find over the course of writing and recording this next chapter for Deer Scout and first release for Carpark, which she’s excited to at last share with the world.

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Project Gemini

The Children Of Scorpio

14,99 €*

Alexis Georgopoulos / Jefre Cantu Ledesma

Release: 2022 / UK – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Good things come to those who wait. The album 'The Children of Scorpio' by Project Gemini aka Paul Osborne is a result of his steeped 30-year musical journey that’s seen him dig deep, study his record collection and re-emerge to fine-tune his craft.

A cinematic musical journey that plays out like a long-lost soundtrack (think cult B-movies of the 60s and 70s); 'The Children of Scorpio’ was formed from Paul's love of a myriad of genres; from European library music, acid folk, psych-funk, vintage soundtracks and the contemporary breaks scene. The album draws on iconic classics such as the masterful cinematic funk of Lalo Schifrin's 'Dirty Harry', Ennio Morricone's 'Vergogna Schifosi’ and Luis Bacalov’s 'The Summertime Killer’, to name but a few. You can also hear the folk sounds of Mark Fry's iconic 'Dreaming With Alice', the Britsh folk-jazz of The Pentangle and the David Axelrod-produced 'Release Of An Oath' by The Electric Prunes, woven into the cultural tapestry of this gem. The influence of these vintage productions of the 60s and 70s is evident; however, it could be argued that there’s also echoes of the funkier psychedelic moments of bands such as The Stones Roses and The Charlatans, alongside contemporaries such as The Heliocentrics and Little Barrie, thus giving the album a broader crossover potential beyond the world of crate digging and vintage soundtracks.

A bass player and musician since the age of 16, the arrival of his first child in 2010 saw Paul move away from live performance and retreat to his home studio, recording a wealth of music that was destined to never be heard. One of the first tunes to be made was a demo entitled ‘The Children Of Scorpio’, inspired by his long-time obsession with Lalo Schifrin’s soundtrack to violent Clint Eastwood cop classic 'Dirty Harry'. Recorded for fun, the track was fated to sit in the archives untouched. However, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, connections to a wealth of inspirational musicians and labels would re-ignite Paul's musical fire and give him the impetus to develop his slept-on ideas into something more concrete. Firstly resulting in releasing two limited 7'' records on Delights Records and now the long-player for Mr Bongo.

Assisting in the recording of the record were several close friends that have helped spark Paul's musical creativity along the way, including well-renowned guitarist and Little Barrie frontman Barrie Cadogan (who contributes killer six-string guitar to four tracks), Delights Records head-honcho Markey Funk (who adds spooked out keyboards to ‘Path Through The Forest’), Kid Victrola, the chief songwriter and guitarist with French psych girl group Gloria who added wild 12-string to ‘Scorpio’s Garden’, Haifa-based multi-instrumentalist and producer Shuzin who brings the heat behind the drum kit, and Paul Isherwood, co-founder of Nottingham’s The Soundcarriers, who mixed the album on his wealth of vintage gear.

We are delighted to be releasing this slowly-brewed timeless classic that manages to achieve that rare feat of keeping one foot firmly in the past whilst still sounding totally contemporary.

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Fragments Of A Season 2022 Repress

LP | 2017 | EU | Reissue (Emotional Response)

22,99 €*

Release: 2017 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Emotional Response celebrates it's 10th Anniversary in repressing a label's long held favourite - Jefre Cantu-Ledesma and Alexis Georgopoulos wonderful Fragments Of A Season - coming together perfectly for an album of laconic story-telling and atmospherics.

Over the past decade, Cantu-Ledesma and Georgopoulos have been frequent collaborators. With one another - Jefre's recent ""On The Echoing Green' Mexican Summer), Arp's "The Soft Wave" Smalltown Supersound) and The Alps "Le Voyage" Type) - and with others. Jefre has worked with Grouper aka Liz Harris), filmmaker Paul Clipson and has released music by Harold Budd, Oneohtrix Point Never and Keith Fullerton Whitman on his Root Strata imprint, while Alexis has worked with visual artists Tauba Auerbach and Doug Aitken, scored dance for Merce Cunningham, choreographer Jonah Bokaer and made liminal classical music with Canterbury composer Anthony Moore Frkwys 3 / Rvng Intl.).(Emotional) Especial

In all of their projects, the two have always been masters of atmosphere. Veering between romantic abstraction, filmic ambiguity and suggested narrative, their music draws on personal and collective memory, letting things surface. Fragments Of A Season represents a new and distinct chapter in their ongoing work together, continuing this lineage of understated but resonant work.

Arising from conversations wherein each revealed that they'd been working on tracks with a similar feel in mind, the two quickly realized their songs fit together quite effortlessly. The goal was to do something immediate and spare - most songs simply use an old drum machine and a few chorused guitars, featuring live performances with minimal editing. The result, and indeed the goal of the project, was not to make an album that would simply sounds like what one would expect of the two - there are no modular synths or sequenced basslines, no motorik rhythms or overdriven distortions. Rather, to pursue a tangent of simplicity and clarity.

The result is an album of warmth and cool, sparse but evocative, earthy and luminous, narrative and abstract, taking influence from Les Disques Crepescule and early Cherry Red artists i the duo also cite Eric Rohmer's "A Summer's Tale" and the photography of Luigi Ghirri, whose image graces the cover.

Song titles provide narrative hints. As does New York-based writer Leigh Gallagher's short story enclosed within. Each song finds the story advancing - on the beach ""Marine""); at a discotheque ""Madagascar""); sleeping in the afternoon "Mirror The Sky"). Memory of cobblestone streets and a recent relationship ""Cleo"", "The Streets Are Filled With Rain"). A sense that this temporary idyll will end casts a shadow. Ultimately, for reasons unclear, it does ""Lost Summer"").

There is the sense that a distinct arc has taken place. On some faraway beach, the buildings are white, the skies and sea turquoise. Waves rise and crest. A shaft of light crosses an empty room. A discotheque can be heard in the distance. A mist burns off. Over the course of the ensuing astral summer weeks, an encounter sets the world known previously in relief. Days stretch out and the nights hum.

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2LP | 2021 | EU | Original (Elkar)

Katebegiak

38,99 €*

Bill Callahan & Bonnie Prince Billy

Release: 2021 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves, Rock & Indie

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Music produced in the 70’s in the Basque Country got trapped between two earth shattering artistic currents; Ez Dok Amairu in the 60s and Basque Radical Rock in the 80’s, and unfortunately, most of the lovely discs and tunes created at that magical time have been pushed to a remote (and sometimes even despised) corner of our collective memory. 60’s and 80’s music currents are almost opposite, and both work as magnetic poles with a very strong power of attraction, and maybe also as a burden for any of the later artistic currents. 60’s generation of artists searched within their rich and ancient cultural roots to acknowledge and update them, in proud, hopeful and unforgettable folk songs. The 80’s one on the other hand, worked in a flammable environment in constant social and political conflict and found in punk the perfect way to express their anger and weariness for so many unfulfilled promises and the lack of opportunities into short, noisy, direct and corrosive songs, technically sparse but full of energy and expressive power. Most of the “classic” names engraved in our memory come from one or the other like Benito Lertxundi, Mikel Laboa, Lourdes Iriondo and Xabier Lete or Kortatu, Hertzainak, Zarama, Las vulpes, Eskorbuto or Cicatriz. 70’s generation and their music works somehow as the “missing link” (“katebegia” in Basque) between the two. They loved folky tunes and don’t forget their ancient roots, but they also look outside for inspiration and experimentation. Just as the 80’s boys and girls found punk the 70’s guys found a completely different sonic and aesthetic landscape in the works of Grateful Dead, Fairport Convention, King Crimson, Soft Machine, Gong,… and worked closely with keen souls in other neighboring regions such as Maquina!, Pau Riba or Sisa in Catalonia or Smash and Triana in Andalusia. This resulted in more abstract and poetic lyrical content, much longer psych-folk-prog-jazz tunes, full of complex instrumental passages and mesmerizing structures of sheer ambition and masterful execution in many cases. But, most important of all, they found a voice of their own, rich, unique, and fascinating, and that’s what makes them so valuable to us. Not only to us, but also to lots of vinyl collectors and crate-diggers around the world, who have in many cases paid fortunes for some of the original editions of LPs that are the source of tunes in this compilation. Mikel Unzurrunzaga Schmitz aka DJ Makala, Dj and producer of worldwide scope and wisdom, noticed this fact first and decided to pay homage to these wonderful tunes through this masterful and dedicated selection for your pleasure and as an open invitation to dig deeper into your adventures in the dark and hidden side of Basque popular music. The album Katebegiak, now published by Elkar, contains 13 tunes on double LP gatefold edition from Haizea, Izukaitz, William S. Fischer, Magdalena, Enbor, Itoiz, Koska, Itziar, Errobi, Lisker, Amaia Zubiria & Pascal Gaigne, Gontzal Mendibil & Taldea and Urria, and the CD-Book edition adds an extra bonus track by the great unknown artist Juan Arkotxa. Along with this compilation, and as a sample of the era, we reissued two more little gems of which we have included a track on the compilation.

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Blind Date Party

2Tape | 2021 | US | Original (Drag City)

LP | 2021 | EU | Original (Concentric)

Release: 2021 / US – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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The Blind Date Party hosted by Bill Callahan and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and featuring Azita, Matt Sweeney, Alasdair Roberts, Matt Kinsey, Sean O’Hagan, Bill MacKay, George Xylouris, Dead Rider, David Pajo, Mick Turner, Meg Baird, Ty Segall, Emmett Kelly, Cory Hanson, Six Organs of Admittance, David Grubbs, Cassie Berman, Cooper Crain and Sir Richard Bishop happened online in the fall and winter of ’20–’21 — but the party planning dated back to the spring of 2020. Stuck at home, with no gigs in the foreseeable future, Bill, Bonnie and Drag City needed an outreach program to keep themselves busy, not to mention sane. In the absence of any company or anything on the calendar, playing songs they loved was an idea; playing with people they loved, the desire. And making it fun — so pairing someone with someone else having no say in the matter, the essence of the blind date, was the plan. Favorite songs were chose; players from around the Drag City galaxy were messaged. Pretty soon, songs were flying back and forth — music in the air! And thus, they were entertained throughout the summer of 2020, when so much else in the world seemed so completely wrong. By the fall, the songs started to appear online: Bill and Bonnie singing a song by someone they loved and admired; each song cut by another another artist they loved and admired, then sent to Bill and Bonny to provide the finishing touches. The spotlight pointed in every direction each week: toward the singers and writers who’d originally played the songs (Yusuf Islam, Hank Williams Jr., Dave Rich, The Other Years, Billie Eilish, Steely Dan, Lou Reed, Bill Callahan, Jerry Jeff Walker, Robert Wyatt, Lowell George, Johnnie Frierson, Air Supply, Will Oldham, Leonard Cohen, David Berman, Iggy Pop and John Prine), toward their featured collaborators, the artists whose artwork adorned each digital single and videos made by still more collaborators. And you, the listener. Like the best parties, it turned out to be everything and more than they’d even hoped for. So many more people were involved in the process that we can get on the page here. Suffice to say, making records over the years has required a broad sense of community and an always-surprising mix of independence and unity, inspiration and utility. Some of our best memories are those where as many of our folks as possible were together in one place at one time. In those moments, it was just a great thing just to be there. And with others looking in . . . this was a joy one could only be infinitely lucky to feel and to take for granted, as well. The Blind Date Party was one of these, maybe the most improbable one yet. It’s for everyone who’s here and it’s in the name of everyone who’s gone but will never go and will always live with us here. This album will too. And thus, we are entertained.

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Tobias.

Hall Ov Fame

LP | 2021 | US | Original (Carpark)

Release: 2021 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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The ambient / cross-genres label Concentric Records launches its first solo release as a special edition LP written and composed by the celebrated and influential techno / experimental producer Tobias. It is the first strictly-ambient solo album of Berlin's Tobias. aka Tobias Freund.

Entitled Hall Ov Fame, the 42min. full length album is a rare ambient journey into a sonic world that is full of narrative and cinematic imagination, blurring boundaries between perceived and staged reality, past and future memory.

“I have movies in my head” describes Tobias Freund the source that inspired his new album to fill it with a fantastic life of its very own. Consequently, each of the eight tracks represents a scene out of a fictitious short film, some of them with a claustrophobic and tense atmosphere while others appear light and hopeful on the screen of imagination. What they have in common is an adventurous spirit that is inherent in and played out by three main characters: repetitive electronic and acoustic patterns, voices from far away and field recordings of obscured origin. All the episodes combined introduce this “Hall Ov Fame” as a psyche-cinematic event which resonates with “ambience in its natural shades” to evoke the whole range of sensations that make a proper, suspenseful mind movie.

Tobias. (Freund) is long established as an influential artist and has - since the early 1990s - been working as a professional producer, sound engineer, label owner and strictly live musician. The Berghain resident constantly keeps exploring the vast synth-driven Techno, Experimental and Ambient territories on journeys in-between genres, both as a live act and on his countless releases. Besides his early solo projects (such as Pink Elln, Metazone or Phobia) he’s also been collaborating with Dandy Jack (as Sieg Über Die Sonne), Ricardo Villalobos (as Odd Machine), Max Loderbauer (as NSI.), Valentina Berthelon (as Recent Arts) and AtomTM to only name a few. With his vast experience, diverse output and interests, Tobias. doesn’t tire to actively push against existing boundaries and explore new areas of electronic music. By this he stands in a long tradition of electronic music, scrutinizing the self while reaching out towards the unknown, approaching sound with an appetite for the new, in the tradition of true innovators.

Hall Ov Fame follows a compilation in three parts that introduced Concentric Records’ roster and exploratory sonic realm over the past year and half, featuring unique and wide-ranging works by (in order of appearance) Pole, Daniela Huerta feat. Cornelia Thonhauser, Samuel Rohrer, Vladislav Delay, Jake Muir, Hotel Neon, Soundwalk Collective, Etapp Kyle, Tragic Selector (Daisuke Tadokoro & Terre Thaemlitz), Kareem Lotfy, Christina Vantzou, Jana Winderen, Echium, Max Loderbauer, William Selman, Petre Inspirescu, Supply, The Waves, Holovr, Aswa.

Written and Produced by Tobias Freund at Non Standard Studios, Berlin. Mastered by Tobias Freund. Lacquer Cut by Mike Grinser. Cover Image: TV Caption of Marcello Mastroianni in 'La Città delle Donne' by Federico Fellini, 1980. Artwork by Blackbirds Inc.

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Ducks Ltd.

Modern Fiction

20,99 €*

2LP | 2021 | EU | Original (Keplar)

Release: 2021 / US – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Toronto’s Ducks Ltd. (formerly Ducks Unlimited), the bright jangle-pop duo of Tom McGreevy (lead vocal, guitar, bass, keyboards) and Evan Lewis (guitar, bass, drum programming), accomplish the impossible. The pair craft songs that play to very specific inspirations without drowning underneath them—immediately evidenced on their critically acclaimed EP, Get Bleak, and sharpened on Modern Fiction, their debut LP. “The Servants, The Clean, The Chills, The Bats, Television Personalities, Felt,” Evan rattles off. “Look Blue Go Purple is one I reference a lot with our production.” Echoes of ‘80s indiepop abound, but they never overwhelm. This is not a nostalgic record, after all, nor is it a derivative one. Instead, across 10 cheery-sounding songs, Ducks Ltd. explore contemporary society in decline, examining large scale human disaster through personal turmoil (hence the title, taken from a university course called Gnosticism and Nihilism in Modern Fiction, influenced by Graham Greene novels. Bookish indie fans, look no further.)

Writing the album was intimate. Tom drafted the nucleus of a song on an unplugged electric guitar and brought it over to Evan’s apartment, where the pair sat in his bedroom, placing percussive beats from a drum machine under nascent melodies, passing a bass back and forth, adding organs and bridges where necessary. “It’s computer music trying extremely hard not to sound like computer music,” Tom jokes. Fearful that limited and expensive studio time would kneecap the project creatively, eroding their charming naivete, the pair re-recorded the album in a storage space owned by Evan’s boss. Ornamentation through collaboration followed: there’s Aaron Goldstein on Pedal Steel in the Go-Betweens’ “Cattle and Cane”-channeling interlude “Patience Wearing Thin,” Eliza Niemi on cello (“18 Cigarettes,” a song loosely inspired by a 1997 Oasis performance of “Don’t Go Away”), and backing harmonies from Carpark labelmates The Beths (on an ode to friendship at a distance, “How Lonely Are You?,” “Always There,” and on the sped-up Syd Barrett stylings of “Under The Rolling Moon.”) While in his native Australia due to covid-19, Evan worked closely with producer James Cecil (The Goon Sax, Architecture in Helsinki) on Modern Fiction’s finishing touches—at one point, in the mountains of the Macedon Ranges in Victoria, recorded a string quartet (featured on “Fit to Burst,” “Always There,” “Sullen Leering Hope,” “Twere Ever Thus,” “Grand Final Day.”)

It’s danceable, depressive fun, with some relief: in “Always There” and “Sullen Leering Hope,” Modern Fiction’s faithful heart. “There’s a tendency in my writing, because of my world view, to be very bleak.” Tom explains. “A quality I don’t always see in myself and really appreciate in others is the courage to go on.” And yet, the record manages resiliency—enough for pop fans to fall in love with.

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Shuttle358

Chessa

LP | 2021 | EU | Original (99Chants)

Release: 2021 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Keplar re-issues the fourth album 'Chessa' by Dan Abrams' project Shuttle358 on vinyl for the first time. The double LP edition includes 3 previously unreleased tracks from the same recording sessions back in 2004, as well as an extended artwork with unseen photographs by Dan Abrams. While undoubtedly associated with the microsound and 'clicks & cuts' movement around the turn of the millennium, on 'Chessa' Shuttle358 left behind the classical rhythmic patterns of the genre and shifted further towards warmer territories, meandering between modern digital minimalism and the soft tones of ambient music. Counter to his microsound synthesis approach on Frame (2000), Abrams created Chessa by writing software that manipulated samples from his unreleased songs, guitar pieces, and vintage japanese films sampled from video tape. In particular, a special granulating technique was written and performed at intentionally low sample rates that gave the uniquely fragile, yet dense sound to the album. Over fourteen tracks Abrams arranges slowly evolving sonic entities of unfading elegance. Strayed and hazy melodies pulse and cascade, elongated but brittle harmonies shimmer and disappear, echoing far-off in the rounded corners of the mind. The patient and detailed way Abrams combines the broken with the beautiful in creating organic collages of sound that retain the euphonic essence of a song, makes this piece of work so powerful and timeless, sounding just as relevant today, as it did 17 years ago. Under modern scrutiny in Abrams latest studio, he refocused the original recordings to emphasize the elements most important to the original vision. The final mastering and vinyl preparation was done in collaboration with Stephan Mathieu, vinyl was cut by Lupo. From the original press release in 2004 by Taylor Deupree: Without a doubt Shuttle358 has become one of the most admired artists to emerge from modern electronic music’s sea of musicians. From the humble beginnings of a demo CD in 12k’s mailbox to 4 critically acclaimed CDs, Dan Abrams is, to some, the one credited for bringing a warmth and human touch back into what has often been considered a very cold, sterile genre. It began with 1999’s Optimal.lp (12k1005), a groundbreaking debut release that immediately defined the Shuttle358 sound; a hybridization of the then-emerging “microsound” genre with Eno’s true ambient explorations. In 2000 Abrams outdid himself with Frame (12k1011) by honing his sound design and exploring production techniques at rates that made his “now” quite brief and creating what was to become one of the most sought-after CDs in the 12k catalog. Chessa is the third release from Abrams’ Shuttle358 moniker on 12k and he continues to do what he does best: attempt to move microsound away from the world of theory and towards absolute real life. Like his photographs, Chessa is music about, and to be listened to in, unexpected places. It is a narrative, a simple slice of life that plays out through the incidental photography of the cover artwork. To achieve this Abrams fuses irregular granular sound particles, like the movements of everyday life, with a deliberate melodic base that captures emotion and simplicity.

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Equations Collective

The Helicon Sessions

19,99 €*

5 S-Bahn Blue Vinyl Edition

Release: 2021 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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The Equations Collective is an experimental sound project formed by a multi-disciplinary group of artists, active in the fields of music, photography, sound design & software development.
In 2018, the collective set up a temporary outdoor recording studio, 1130 meters above sea level, on the slopes of Mount Helicon in Greece, with the ambition of recording their work in a natural environment. A 'mobile and modular' construction, fully powered by solar panels, the design of the studio showcases the possibilities of a progressive, environmentally sustainable future through renewable energy.
Embodying ecological incentives, and representing an immersive engagement with the landscape, the 'Helicon Sessions' document this extraordinary residency, capturing a profound dialogue with the eponymous mountain region.
Situated in Boeotia, Central Greece, Mount Helicon has a prominent archaic significance. A historic location where stories of sacred springs and the epic origins of the Muses and Narcissus converge. Steeped in the heritage of ancient narratives, Helicon is seen as a principal symbol of poetic inspiration.
On the 'Helicon Sessions' the collective draw upon the inspiring topography and fabled mythological resonances of the area, unfurling an expansive, hypnotic suite of abstract electronics. Liberated by an open-ended, improvisational dynamic, the collective move through a mysterious, elemental cycle that mirrors the imposing scale and dramatic atmospheres of the setting.
Across an entrancing, fluid sequence of five designated 'cuts', the collective traverse the borderlands of drone, techno, dub, and acid, amplifying the acoustic traces of Helicon by integrating field recordings collected at the site into this arresting body of work. With these recordings, the collective delineate an odyssey of subverted 303s, sputtering drum machines and formidable, oscillating low end that drifts and coalesces like an amorphous mirage; a spellbinding sound world of clarity and shadow.
The 'Helicon Sessions' signify a symbiosis (between the terrestrial and the engineered, between wildlife and futurism, between the intrinsic and the synthetic, between the innate and the manmade) And with their conception of a portable, eco-friendly studio The Equations Collective focalize valuable ideas centred on ingenuity and evolution. The outcome of this project illustrates a unique collaborative exchange which acknowledges the deep nuances of environment and the enduring echoes of history.
The Equations Collective is a collaboration between Artefakt, Aroma Pitch, Aphelion and Sphera De Noumenon across Berlin, Amsterdam, Cologne and Hamburg. Together they have established an all night long live event in Berlin, starting at Sameheads and Acud Macht Neu, which eventually lead to their residency at OHM (Tresor).
For this format they have collaborated with the following artists: Alex The Fairy, Anna Z, D-ix, Eliad Wagner, JÃ³n FriÄ‘geir SigurÄ‘sson, Orson Wells, Phillip Jondo, Philipp Matalla, Prsmc, Rabih Beaini, Sabrina Gricourt, SÃ©bastien Robert, and Vida VojiÄ‡.
The respective members of The Equations Collective have released a range of output on the likes of Field Records, Delsin, Semantica Records, De Stijl, & Soul People Music.

Since 2018 their visual identity has been shaped by Elias Hanzer.
The 'Helicon Sessions' is their debut release.

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Lucy Railton

LP | 2021 | EU | Original (Boomkat Editions)

Silver Flames Red Vinyl Edition

Release: 2021 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Mastered by Rashad Becker for this vinyl edition, ‘5 S-Bahn’ finds Lucy Railton rendering a sublime, haunting impression of Berlin made in early Spring 2020 for our Documenting Sound series of sonic postcards from around the globe. It’s essentially a recording of a world-renowned cellist duetting with the S-Bahn outside her apartment in Prenzlauer Berg, playing with, thru, and against the atmosphere of Berlin in spring during lockdown, capturing a scene that feels timelessly nostalgic, pregnant with an unresolved and restless quietude. For a compelling 45 minutes Railton describes the slow daily arc of life under lockdown in a usually bustling Berlin slowed to stasis. Quite brilliantly, her voice and her musical gestures become fleeting ephemeral presences as much as the passing trains, planes overhead, birdsong, and the gorgeous church bells of P’Berg, which all unfold and recede in languorous turns. It reminds us of the exquisite, seemingly effortless location recordings used in Hitchcock’s ‘Rear Window’ - ambient sound in the truest sense of the word; suggestive of life just outside our field of view; close - and out of reach. Railton’s ear for ghostly haptics serves to search out an underlying poetry in the ubiquitous and everyday, highlighting the serene yet dread-filled uncanniness of a usually bustling Berlin awakening from winter into the torpor of lockdown. Railton sets the scene: “On the other side of our backyard wall is Berlin’s main railway line, the Ringbahn. A train passes the apartment block about twenty times an hour, drowning out our conversations and waking us up at night. It is a communal annoyance you learn to love. It structures the shape of this place and enforces a rhythm. I’ve always been glad of these interludes, they provide rich listening material that heightens an otherwise peaceful sonic space. ‘5 S-Bahn’ is my attempt to inscribe part of my sonic location and my own position within it. Over the wall, I learn the look of the garage, the church, the rows of Maple trees, the tracks, a playground and the graffiti. Up here, the traffic on Schoenhauser Allee is more pronounced and the deep hum of the city funnels in along the tracks. The machines and people who had been in our ears all this time are now visible. Pressing record I start the process of learning this space and its articulations, hearing it washed out over and over again by the train’s intense interruptions. I wash out with it too, listening from inside my apartment with my headphones on, playing along, singing along, in duet with the tones and frequencies of this space and the organic shapes of its drama. There is so much music already here, maybe this is a collaboration or a dedication of some sort. I find myself admiring its virtuosity and its personality: relentless, seductive, beautiful in all its variation. By taking part in collaboration, I learn and absorb the character of the other, and through the sitting process, I find new shapes and tonalities and temperaments.”

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The Flaming Sideburns

LP | 2021 | EU | Original (Svart)

25,99 €*

Malagasy At Newport-Paris

Release: 2021 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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It might’ve taken 20 years but here it is: the original line-up of the Flaming Sideburns unleashes a brand new album “Silver Flames”. It can be seen as a follow-up to their now legendary debut “Hallelujah Rock’n’Rollah”, which was released two decades prior in 2001. “Silver Flames” is an album nobody expected to happen. Most certainly it’s out of time and out of place in 2021 but that has never stopped the Flaming Sideburns on their mission. Instead they launch a rock’n’roll assault at full throttle. It’s all there from straight-ahead rockers (“Silver Flame”, “Searching Like a Hyena”) to deep psychedelia (“Niburu”, “Reverberation”) and from classic rock (“A Song for Robert”) to pop-tinged choruses (“Perfect Storm”, “Cast out my Demons”). The album is wrapped-up by “Trance-Noché” and its unusual combination of Latin American madness and Arctic hysteria — topped with the lyrics en Español. ”Silver Flames” might be versatile but all of the tracks have a common goal: to make it on the album they had to be good enough to stand on their own as a single release. “Hallelujah Rock’n’rollah” gave us seven singles and “Silver Flames” is well on its way to top that. “Soulshaking”, “Trance-Noché”, “Neverending” and “A Song for Robert” are already out on 7” vinyl and there’s more to come later this year. The Flaming Sideburns started out in Helsinki in 1995 and soon found themselves touring both sides of the Atlantic. Their early releases were compiled on “It’s Time to Testify” but it was the launch of “Hallelujah Rock’n’Rollah” that put the band on top of the early 2000s garage rock revival. Stateside the record was released under a new moniker “Save Rock’n’Roll”. “Hallelujah Rock’n’Rollah” kept the band busy touring across the world and sharing the stages with their original inspirers like The Sonics or The Stooges. It also gained them exposure on U.S. television: “Loose My Soul“ was featured on HBO’s “The Wire,” “Flowers” made it to Fox’s “The O.C.” and “Street Survivor” was picked up by Toyota for a tv commercial. The break-through album also meant the end of the original line-up. Soon after the release, the guitar player Arimatti Jutila moved to the United States and the band was forced to soldier on with various line-ups. After two more albums, “Sky Pilots” and “Keys to the Highway,” and hundreds of shows, the Flaming Sideburns found themselves inactive for the first time in their career in 2016. That was not bound to last long. In 2018 the five original members — four Finns led by Argentine-born vocalist Eduardo Martinez — joined forces for a string of shows in The UK, Spain and The Nordics. As soon as they hit the road, the new songs started coming out. Soon the band hit the studio and the old gang was completed by Jürgen Hendlmeier who’s been serving as the producer for the Flaming Sideburns since day one. “Silver Flames” makes the comeback complete. Enjoy.

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Jef Gilson

LP | 1973 | EU | Reissue (Souffle Continu)

25,99 €*

Novaphonia Clear Vinyl Edition

Release: 1973 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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In 1973, Jef Gilson gave new impetus to his already long career by reforming ‘Malagasy’ with young musicians from Madagascar exiled in Paris. The group was very successful and played in clubs and festivals on the same bill as Ray Charles, Sun Ra, Terry Riley, Hal Singer or Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath. The meeting between two generations and two cultures created a new mix between jazz, traditional music and electric funk. Jef Gilson had reinvented himself yet again, and it wouldn’t be the last time.

"In May 1972, the wave of anger and the thirst for freedom that had swept the world in 1968 arrived in Madagascar. The Malagasy youth took the opportunity to exile in search of a brighter future. Several of them, all jazz musicians and often polyintrumentalists, came to Paris with their afro hair and bellbottoms. Their names were Sylvin Marc, his cousin Ange "Zizi" Japhet, Del Rabenja, Gérard Rakotoarivony and Frank Raholison.

By chance, they crossed paths with pianist and bandleader Jef Gilson, who they had already met as kids during a series of concert and workshops in Tananarive four years earlier. Gilson was far from an unknown on the French jazz scene. He had played with Boris Vian and André Hodeir at the end of the forties, he was one of the first French composers to move away from the New-Orleans style to try his hand at bebop, had launched numerous young stars (Ponty, Texier, Portal...), was a polemical critic for Jazz Hot, had opened for Coltrane at Antibes/Juan Les Pins, and was part of the Double Six... But it was tough to make a living playing personal compositions and Jef, who didn’t have enough money to return to the island and continue mining the seam of Malagasy jazz, saw an opportunity to relaunch ‘Malagasy’.

He had his recording studio in the Les Halles area, at the Foyer Montorgueil, where he was teaching jazz to a choir. He set to work with the new Malagasy group, working on a repertoire and reviving some of his compositions from the 50s/60s ("Requiem Pour Django", "Dizzy 48", "Anamorphose" here renamed "Salegy Jef" as a nod to an ancestral rhythm reworked in a contemporary style...), and also included more recent tunes ("Newport Bounce" which opens this current album is a reworking of a track called "Interlude", recorded in 69 with the drummer from Miles Davis’ first quintet, Philly Joe Jones). The group Malagasy 73 gigged a lot. One of their concerts was recorded on the 14 March in a club, ‘Le Newport’, in rue Grégoire de Tours, Saint Germain des Prés, not far from the ‘Kiosque d'Orphée’ where Gilson worked at the beginning of the 60s when he brought bebop and avant-garde jazz to the attention of a generation of musicians with his records imported from USA.

This meeting between two generations and two cultures created a new mix between jazz, traditional music and electric funk. Jef Gilson had reinvented himself yet again, and it wouldn’t be the last time." --- Jérôme « Kalcha » Simonneau

Album Release

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Antonio L. Newton

LP | 1987 | US | Reissue (Tidal Waves Music)

31,34 €* 32,99 € -5%

Novaphonia Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 1987 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Limited to 200 copies.
Antonio L. Newton AKA Tony Newton (born 1948) is a multi-instrumentalist from Detroit, MI who began his professional career at the age of thirteen, playing bass guitar with blues legends like John Lee Hooker and T-Bone Walker. Discovered by Motown executive Hank Cosby while playing the Detroit blues circuit at the age of 18, he became the touring bassist with Smokey Robinson and the Miracles on the famed 1965 European ‘Motown Review’ tour. Within two years, Newton became the Miracles’ musical director.

Tony Newton also toured and recorded with other Motown artists such as The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Jackson 5…and countless others. Earning the nickname “the Baby Funk Brother” he left his trademark of solid, hard-driving and deftly clever grooves on such timeless hits as “Where Did Our Love Go,” “Baby Love,” “Stop In The Name Of Love,” “Nowhere to Run,” “ABC,” “Never Can Say Goodbye,” “Don’t Leave Me This Way,” and many others. Next to his impressive body of work for Motown, Newton can be heard on several hit singles from labels like Invictus-Hotwax and Stax. Later, Newton gained recognition as a member of both the acclaimed jazz-rock fusion group: The New Tony Williams Lifetime (headed by Miles Davis’ drummer Tony Williams) and the British hard rock group: G-Force (with veteran guitarist Gary Moore).

Tony Newton also recorded several solo albums during his impressive career, including the two total classics: ‘Mysticism & Romance’ (1978) and ‘Novaphonia’ (1987).

On the album, we are presenting you today (Novaphonia from 1987) the listener is treated to something Unique (and this is not an overstatement). Newton really puts the ‘multi’ into multi-instrumentalist, playing the synthesizers, the electric bass and the drum machine. Experimental is the keyword here, sounds vary from psych/trance (almost like a soundtrack from a space movie), to funk, fusion, rock, R&B, soul and jazz. Novaphonia has both elements of Tony Newton’s impressive musical past and his vision for the future.

Spacious synths, unusual instruments and an all-around cosmic approach make this an ‘out of this world’ and Very intriguing album. Resonant, sonically rich, sonorous, colorful, mind-expanding sounds are what one should expect from the 20th century Novaphonic sound developed to its greatest extent. These harmonies are innately pleasing to the human ear, mind and nervous system.

Explore new musical frontiers intended to catapult the listener towards new dimensions…this is an album that just begs for a special place in your record collection!

Tidal Waves Music now proudly presents the first-ever vinyl reissue of ‘Novaphonia’ since its release in 1987. This rare & private pressed album (original copies tend to go for large amounts on the secondary market) is now finally back available as a limited 180g vinyl edition (500 copies) complete with the original artwork.

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Antonio L. Newton

LP | 1987 | US | Reissue (Tidal Waves Music)

19,99 €*

Silver Flames Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 1987 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Antonio L. Newton AKA Tony Newton (born 1948) is a multi-instrumentalist from Detroit, MI who began his professional career at the age of thirteen, playing bass guitar with blues legends like John Lee Hooker and T-Bone Walker. Discovered by Motown executive Hank Cosby while playing the Detroit blues circuit at the age of 18, he became the touring bassist with Smokey Robinson and the Miracles on the famed 1965 European ‘Motown Review’ tour. Within two years, Newton became the Miracles’ musical director.

Tony Newton also toured and recorded with other Motown artists such as The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Jackson 5…and countless others. Earning the nickname “the Baby Funk Brother” he left his trademark of solid, hard-driving and deftly clever grooves on such timeless hits as “Where Did Our Love Go,” “Baby Love,” “Stop In The Name Of Love,” “Nowhere to Run,” “ABC,” “Never Can Say Goodbye,” “Don’t Leave Me This Way,” and many others. Next to his impressive body of work for Motown, Newton can be heard on several hit singles from labels like Invictus-Hotwax and Stax. Later, Newton gained recognition as a member of both the acclaimed jazz-rock fusion group: The New Tony Williams Lifetime (headed by Miles Davis’ drummer Tony Williams) and the British hard rock group: G-Force (with veteran guitarist Gary Moore).

Tony Newton also recorded several solo albums during his impressive career, including the two total classics: ‘Mysticism & Romance’ (1978) and ‘Novaphonia’ (1987).

On the album, we are presenting you today (Novaphonia from 1987) the listener is treated to something Unique (and this is not an overstatement). Newton really puts the ‘multi’ into multi-instrumentalist, playing the synthesizers, the electric bass and the drum machine. Experimental is the keyword here, sounds vary from psych/trance (almost like a soundtrack from a space movie), to funk, fusion, rock, R&B, soul and jazz. Novaphonia has both elements of Tony Newton’s impressive musical past and his vision for the future.

Spacious synths, unusual instruments and an all-around cosmic approach make this an ‘out of this world’ and Very intriguing album. Resonant, sonically rich, sonorous, colorful, mind-expanding sounds are what one should expect from the 20th century Novaphonic sound developed to its greatest extent. These harmonies are innately pleasing to the human ear, mind and nervous system.

Explore new musical frontiers intended to catapult the listener towards new dimensions…this is an album that just begs for a special place in your record collection!

Tidal Waves Music now proudly presents the first-ever vinyl reissue of ‘Novaphonia’ since its release in 1987. This rare & private pressed album (original copies tend to go for large amounts on the secondary market) is now finally back available as a limited 180g vinyl edition (500 copies) complete with the original artwork.

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The Flaming Sideburns

LP | 2021 | EU | Original (Svart)

20,99 €*

LP | 2020 | US | Original (Carpark)

Release: 2021 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Dent May

Late Checkout

18,99 €*

LP | 2020 | US | Original (Carpark)

Release: 2020 / US – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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“Full speed ahead now, no more looking back.” Dent May confidently croons on his fifth LP, Late Checkout. The un-nostalgic sentiment and sobering clarity of May’s latest body of work signifies the 35-year-old songwriter from Mississippi taking a reflective rest-stop on the winding road of his now decade-long career. After relocating to Los Angeles in 2015, touring his last record Across the Multiverse around the world, and building his own Honeymoon Suite Recording Studio with friends Pat Jones and Michael Rosen, May suddenly found himself with the chance to take his time making a record. Through the dozen thematically-linked tracks on Late Checkout, May grapples with the swinging emotions of our contemporary reality with a rare optimism and distinguished sound. Bearing the torch of classic American songwriters that have inspired him like Harry Nilsson, Carole King, and Randy Newman, May has gingerly cultivated his iPhone note scribbles and subconscious melodies into songs that could stand the test of time. Leaving the comfort of home-recording, May set out to elevate the production quality on Late Checkout while maintaining some intimacy through sparse arrangements. After writing and performing parts for a bulk of the instruments on the album, May filled out his orchestrations by inviting string players, a horn section, background vocalists, and a pair of auxiliary drummers to play on the album. Contrary to the instant gratification permitted by modern home-recording, May made a conscious decision to slow down and pay careful attention to his songwriting on this album. He began to savor the minutiae of his daily life spent wandering around LA, not getting invited to hang with friends, and waking up in hotel rooms after DJing weddings. May drew on these moments in his lyrics and began assembling ballads at his new studio, mimicking the bittersweet tone and consistent work ethic of Motown. “I’ve been collecting stationery from almost every hotel I’ve stayed at for the past ten years.” May reveals about the album’s opener “Hotel Stationary.” “I’ve always been drawn to the nature of hotels. I think it relates to this sense of always feeling out of place and my constant wanderlust.” On Late Checkout’s first single, “I Could Use A Miracle,” May sings about the desperation of feeling down-and-out against a lush and upbeat pop instrumental. The groovy “Easier Said Than Done” is decorated with bright keys and syncopated drums while May sings about coming to the end of his journey to find love. “Sea Salt & Caramel,” spilled out of May as a saccharine love song to his girlfriend, adding pure sweetness to balance the record’s melancholy pallet. From beginning to end, May bares his soul on each track across Late Checkout, offering a reluctant goodbye to his former selves, before wandering home.

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Madeline Kenney

Sucker's Lunch

18,99 €*

Artificial Dancers - Waves Of Synth

Release: 2020 / US – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Oakland artist Madeline Kenney bounds toward the unknown on her third album, Sucker’s Lunch, expanding on the idea of what a love song could be – a little more cautious than exuberant, more nuanced than blazing devotion. Sonically, the album expands upon Kenney’s earlier, guitar-driven sound – a definitive step forward from an artist adept at communicating universal sentiments in a voice unmistakably her own.

To help realize her vision, Kenney once again enlisted Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack, previous collaborators and friends. Together, the trio carefully constructed the songs in a few compact sessions in Oakland, San Francisco, and Durham. Stack and Wasner’s rhythm section trace circles around Kenney’s off-kilter guitar, with verdant curls of synths, saxophone, and complex harmonies. Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner lends his distinctive tenor to lead single “Sucker.” The resulting songs are immediate and deeply moving, somehow feeling familiar while they defy expectations at every turn.

“I’m not interested in something easy or immediately apparent,” Kenney says. “My experience writing these songs wasn’t easy, it was painful and difficult. I was terrified of falling in love, and as much as I’d like to write a sticky sweet song for someone, it doesn’t come naturally to me. Instead I wanted to explore the tiny moments; sitting alone in my room guessing what the other person was thinking, spiraling into a maze of logical reasons to bail and finding my way out again. When I spoke with friends about the theme of the ‘idiot’, it became apparent that everyone understood that feeling and was relieved to hear it echoed in someone else.”

Thematically, Sucker’s Lunch sees Kenney soberly contrasting the risks and rewards of falling in love, eventually deciding to dive headfirst into her own foolishness and relish in the unknowing. The tracks explore new love from every angle – “Picture of You” is a soundtrack- worthy lamentation of never truly knowing what someone has been through (“growing up is so hard, I don’t know why”) while tender vulnerability shines on “Tell You Everything” (“When your eyes say ‘we’ve had a day, love’, I get to fall in”). Kenney audibly loses her mind on “Double Hearted,” where the playful arrangement and lyrics spark a firestorm of heartache and wild abandon. “Cut The Real” pairs synth drones with syncopated lyrics to work through a depressive mind state, and the near-devotional “White Window Light” accepts uncertainty as a beautiful gift.

“There’s so much love in it,” Wasner says of Sucker’s Lunch. “It’s the story of someone figuring out how to be a person in the world, and how to be with another person without losing oneself.” Sucker’s Lunch shines in its ability to speak the strange, ambiguous, impossible truth – nothing less than a balanced meal for the wise fool in us all.

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Interstellar Funk

CD | 2020 | EU | Original (Rush Hour)

17,99 €*

Tape | 2020 | EU | Original (Gang Of Ducks)

Release: 2020 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie, Electronic & Dance, Pop

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Birthed at the turn of the ‘80s, synth and wave music has remained a constant force over the last four decades, with a recent spike in interest in the sound offering further proof of its’ timeless, out-of-this-world quality. It’s against this backdrop that Dutch DJ Interstellar Funk presents his celebration of the style, “Artificial Dancers – Waves of Synth”.
A bumper compilation bristling with obscure and hard-to-find gems, the set sees the Artificial Dance label founder joining the dots between synthesizer and drum machine-driven tracks in a variety of subtly different styles. It’s the result of hundreds of hours spent digging through dusty old records, tapes, and the Bandcamp accounts of DIY musicians who have been active since the sound’s first boom in the early 1980s.
The 11-track set draws on tracks made and released at different times over the last 40 years, with the earliest cut committed to tape in 1978 and the most recent in 2018. While the tracks date from the ‘80s, ‘90s, noughties and 2010s, the showcased cuts are united by a primitive but futuristic quality that makes dating them difficult. In many cases, it’s hard to tell which tracks were made in the early 1980s and which were conjured up in 21st century studios.
As you’d expect, highlights are plentiful with a number of the most unknown or sought-after cuts appearing on vinyl for the first time. In this category you’ll find the Human League’s odd but inspired early number “4JG”, a near mythical 1982 live version of Liasons Dangereuses’ “Dias Cortas” (previously only available on a VHS video) and Chris and Cosey’s “Hybrid C”, a brilliant mid-’90s cut plucked from their CD-only album “Skimble Skamble”. You’ll also find a rare demo version of Clan of Xymox’s Dutch darkwave classic “Stranger”, which became a club smash across Europe in 1983.
Interstellar Funk has also chosen to showcase tracks by a range of DIY producers and lesser-known artists. These include Californian band Batang Frisco, who self-released a sole private press album in 1986 (their contribution, “Sewing Machine”, is dedicated to founder member Bill DiMichele, who passed away this year), Matthias Schuster’s Im Namen Des Volkes project – which contributes the previously unreleased 2014 track “Alles Ist Gewinn” – and Zahgurim, a short-lived early ‘80s act who reunited in 2018 to record their first new material since 1983.
If that wasn’t enough to set pulses racing, the compilation also showcases a solo track by sadly departed Psyche member Stephen Huss. Nobody is quite sure when Huss recorded “Infinity Sign”, but we can confirm this is the first time that one of his solo productions has ever appeared on vinyl.

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Camarades Breton

Artificial Dancers - Waves Of Synth

Release: 2020 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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The album will be released in a cassette format to encourage an uninterrupted listening, as suggested by the producer. For the same reason it will
be released into just two continuous tracks in the digital version as well.
The album has been entirely recorded by the artist at home, using only a CMX-5000 CD-J, a twin CD-mixing system rack distributed by Pioneer at the beginnings of the 2000s, and an old two-channel mixer he has been using since childhood.
Recordings started in a very instinctive and naif way, by simply putting together two very short loops taken from two different sources, just
for the fun of it. Quite soon however, this extremely simple technique turned into a proper method highlighting a constant struggle between two different forces. As a result of a constant shift of tempo and pitch, the two inputs rarely fit together perfectly. This conflict awakens the producer's vision, turning this clash of sounds either into an emotional struggle, in tracks such as Stella, or into a political struggle, like in the B-side opening track NoTav which, through the costant tension between the two audio sources, evokes the recent fight against the construction of theTurin-Lyon high-speed railway line that is causing huge social and environmental damages.
The sounds get hijacked and given a new meaning, mostly in a contradictory way, giving life to the sounds beyond their original sources.This method can be compared to that of the détournement, as Situationist Guy Debord named it.
The choice of using old material has political reasons as well. Feeling unconfident in producing new sounds in a consumerist and over- polluted Western world where culture has reached a saturation point, the artist decides to recycle some of the sounds recorded in the last fifty years, randomly picking bargain second-hand CD's or taking them away from the dust at people's places.
The artwork of the album, made by the artist himself, integrates the conflictual contrasts of the record, juxtaposing a photograph of the 1962 Algerian women's demonstration for Independence with a photograph of the May '68 Paris streets riots – two different struggles with a common revolutionary feeling.
French director Jean-Luc Godard once said that "you need to put together two images to let things happen". This is probably the best explanation for how this album has been recorded, treating two sound sources as if they were images, waiting for something to finally happen.
The album will be released in a cassette format to encourage an uninterrupted listening, as suggested by the producer. For the same reason it will be released into just two continuous tracks in the digital version as well.
Born in 1989, Stefano Murgia alias Camarades Breton is a producer and D.J. from Turin, Italy. Overly bored by the musical theory lessons he took as a child, pretty soon he starts experimenting with tape recording in his room and playing in a band. Deeply rooted into the underground scene of his hometown, he is currently working on different projects concerning music, film-making and editorial stuff, with a DIY approach.

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Interstellar Funk

2LP | 2020 | EU | Original (Rush Hour)

25,99 €*

Y Society (Insight & Damu The Fudgemunk)

Release: 2020 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Never Off (On & On) / Pyramids To The Ghetto

7" | 2017 | US | Original (Redefinition)

2LP | 2015 | UK | Original (Rough Trade)

Release: 2017 / US – Original

Genre: Hip Hop

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The lead single from the highly sought-after “Travel At Your Own Pace” features the exclusive, previously unreleased B-side, “Pyramids”. This song includes a rare vocal appearance from Damu The Fudgemunk.

This the song's first official reissue and its first appearance pressed on a 45. Both songs packaged in full color double sided cover art.

Known to many as the group Y Society, Insight the Truncator and Damu the Fudgemunk celebrate 10 plus years of friendship and a creative partnership that hold the two in high esteem of their fans. The MC & producer's new 7" is a compelling display of why the duo have always been at the top of their game despite their reserved output since debuting as a team in 2007.

Surprising the world at the top of the year with their full length, "Ears Hear Spears" was a great way to sound the alarm for the excitement of new activity. Selective by nature, Insight and Damu's calculations have served advantageous in making moves and presenting listeners with the right music at the right time. The latest incarnation of this truth can be heard in the previously unreleased b-side track entitled "Pyramids to the Ghetto." Although it was recorded in 2008, it was archived and remained unreleased until now. Now in 2017 this particular song couldn't be any more relevant in how the artists analyze the effects racism of the past & present and its correlation to black plight throughout the Americas (both Insight & Damu drop verses on this track).

Continuing narratives of such legends as Public Enemy and Jeru the Damaja in which the track title quotes, the group individually presents short essays in rhyme form that give a candid account of what they've witnessed as black U.S. citizens living in the 20th and 21st Century. Not only are the social effects on the table for examination, but the positive and negative impacts a racist society has had on black contributions to art and culture are discussed. For the songwriters, "Pyramids to the Ghetto" is therapeutic in which harsh realities are confronted in an unapologetic manner contrasting the previous socially charged material in Insight and Damu's back catalog.

For the listeners, it's a history lesson and a call to motivate us all that history doesn't always have to repeat itself even when it's been the norm for centuries. Adversity and oppression historically have hold some back and made some stronger, but acknowledgement is the first step of progression.

The A-Side, "Never Off (On & On)" speaks on just that. It's a roadmap to dealing with everyday adversity, maintaining faith in self and striving to reach your full potential. Insight presents sermons of encouragement to the everyday person over the Fudgemunk's uplifting beat. The producer chimes in on the chorus with a few words of his own that insists to keep on your path and never fall off. The old saying goes, "Life ain't easy", but the group knows success is not unrealistic. "Never Off (On & On)" was the debut single from the debut album, "Travel at Your Own Pace" which has remained a staple in Insight the Truncator's and Damu the Fudgemunk's legacy.

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Sun Kil Moon

Universal Themes

30,99 €*

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (31 Minuten)

Release: 2015 / UK – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Universal Themes is the follow-up to Sun Kil Moon's 2014 album Benji, which unexpectedly became one of the most critically acclaimed albums of that year. Like that album, Universal Themes is extremely autobiographical, with songwriter Mark Kozelek spinning yarns about friends, family, his childhood, and other life experiences, with frequent references to boxing, music, films, television, and food. Lyrically, Universal Themes isn't as heavily fixated on death as Benji; instead, there are more songs like "Ben's My Friend," wherein Kozelek sings about his experiences traveling and playing shows. Opener "The Possum" does both, intertwining a story about an old dying possum with an anecdote about hanging out with Justin Broadrick before witnessing an incredible concert by his band Godflesh. "Little Rascals" and "Garden of Lavender" reference previous Kozelek songs by name, as well as fans' reactions to his lyrics, such as a heckler who asks if he really hates Nels Cline (he doesn't; his name just happened to rhyme). The album doesn't contain any references to Kozelek's notorious one-sided media feud with the War on Drugs, but it does include "Cry Me a River Williamsburg Sleeve Tattoo Blues" (complete with text message notification sounds), which starts out from the point of view of a jaded fan who complains that Kozelek won't play his old material, before going into several grim short stories about early deaths and tortures, in order to drive home the first-world-problems message. There's also plenty of lighter, more joyous recollections, such as Kozelek's memory of receiving his first guitar, and a multitude of stories about the best times of his life spent with family and friends. Most of the album's eight songs hover around nine or ten minutes in length, and there are stretches of spoken monologue rather than singing. Musically, Kozelek plays almost all of the instruments himself, other than drums from Steve Shelley and guest appearances by bassist Alex Schwartz and keyboards by Chris Connolly on one track each. A few of the songs rock out more aggressively than any of Kozelek's previous work, and he practically barks out "With a Sort of Grace I Walked to the Bathroom to Cry." As with all Sun Kil Moon albums, Kozelek produced the album himself, and his arrangements remain inventive and gorgeous; the lengthy songs are layered, multi-part suites that frequently switch tempos, drifting off into ethereal passages or graceful tarantellas before snapping back to the driving rhythm framing the story at hand. Like Benji, Universal Themes is a challenging listen, and some might view it as Kozelek's most indulgent album yet. But his brilliant musicianship and guitar playing combined with his fascinating storytelling skills ensure that his music is as poignant and life-affirming as ever, and the album is yet another success in his remarkable catalog. - Paul Simpson at allmusic.com

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Menelaos Tomasides

Dreamhike

LP | 2024 | US | Original (Impatience)

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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The unconscious and unknown must be really nice places. In any case, if you take the second album of Menelaos Tomasides under his given name as travelogue. A trip into dreamlike territory, yet concrete enough, a journey without target yet looking forward and looking back into familiar places, „dreamhike“ both continues and departs from the style Menelaos has found earlier, in “When the Moon Comes Through”, or his more conceptual-intentional “31 Minuten” works. As the album title - which roughly translates to “dream hiking” but also hints on “walkabout” and “songlines” – suggests, we are rambling between the real and the imaginary. From the bucolic border triangle of Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands to the buzzing streets of the capital of Cyprus, where Menelaos has lived for many years, the tracks are about real places, about real experiences and emotions yet interwoven with a dreamlike fabric. Something that is just not tangible, yet substantial and palpable. Something concrete that manifests in the genuine and special sound design of this records - basically all of Menelaos’ works - his really special treatment of dynamics and loudness. It is one of the very few records where the established language of music making, specifically Techno, House, Dub, and early 2000’ Electronica, the clicks, thumps and plops from an earlier age of electronic music, transmogrify into slow movements of something new. Something that is gentle and truly personal, looking inwards. There are four-to-the-floor beats, there is wobbly bass, and dubby chords, even sublimated clarion calls. There is an immense energy in these tracks, the sheer materiality of low frequencies of a massive sound system manifested in a tiny room. Yet it is without any aggression, stripped bare of sonic pressure. It is quiet music no matter how high you turn up the volume. A rare treat, that requires exceptional skills and exceptional restraint and control on the technical side of music making. Probably it is a result of Menelaos specific combination of instinctual, intuitive approach to making music, which meets a genuine love for sound in seemingly endless loops of refinement that can lead to such a result as „dreamhike“. The elegant floating balance of control and playful experimentation manifests for example in a track that continues the ongoing collaboration with seasoned Cologne improviser Achim Fink on bass trumpet. Not only in this respect, the album can be described as a product of openness. It comes from a lot of taking in the world, of travel, of places and people met, of friendship and conversation (not necessarily with words). The deep trip of “dreamhike” further manifests Menelaos as one of the truly independent voices of electronic Cologne and beyond. Somewhat alike in character and attitude probably to what late Pete Namlook has established for Frankfurt with his label Fax +49-69/450464 (though ultimately warmer and much less uncanny) Menelaos has found his very own sound and vision. Music that answers to no one but speaks to everyone. Uncompromising yet gentle to the core: kind sounds from a kind spirit, arguably the most extraordinary and valuable quality music can have these days.

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Trypheme

Odd Balade

Smoker You Drink, Player You Get 180g Edition

Release: 2024 / US – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie, Electronic & Dance

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French artist Trypheme debuts on Impatience with “Odd Balade”, a darkly-hued collection of songs drawn from human delicacy and dreamworld mythology.

“Odd Balade” is Trypheme’s most ambitious and boldest record to date - both lyrically and musically. The album’s thirteen tracks resist rigid genre boundaries and flutter from medieval folk realms, sprawling synths, gothic 80s wave, leftfield pop, haunted vocals, mutant electronica to reverbed guitars - all reflected through her own shadowy prism. Especially album closer “A Walk In The Vercors” evokes a soothing serenity that echoes the sonic balm of Julee Cruise.

Trypheme’s musical repertoire trends heavily electronic and somewhat abstracted, but on “Odd Balade”, the artist slips into the role of the modern troubadour with a shift to a more poetically and personal songwriting that is infused with symbolism and dreamlike fantasies. The connective tissue of the album is the audacity to love and the vulnerability that ensues. As intimate and introspective as the lyrics are, the themes remain universal and human to the core: the fear of losing a loved one, the melancholia of leaving places and t“the fear of losing a loved one, the melancholia of leaving places and the cycles of life. The record was largely composed in Chars, stirred by the French village’s eerie atmosphere and frequent trips to the seaside in Brittany, where Trypheme resides. Drawing inspiration from the rugged terrain of the seaside landscapes, the writings of Allen Ginsberg and Mark Fisher and the hyperrealist art of Scott Prior, Trypheme uses her songs to depict life with broad strokes of rhythm.

On “Odd Balade” Trypheme consolidates herself as a gifted, nimble songwriter, masterly producer and subtly powerful vocalist. The record combines her skill for crafting lush, alien sound worlds and efficient, alluring arrangements with stealthily devastating songs. Belin’s voice becomes a key ingredient, appearing on eleven of Odd Balade’s thirteen tracks, by turns heavily manipulated, sampled and replayed as a form of percussion, or basically bare.

“Odd Balade” is the manifestation of Trypheme’s roving artistic practice, a ceremonial-grade sacrament cast in a rich nocturnal glow. Pairing the mundane with the mythic, the album stays true to its core: odd and strangely familiar.

Riyl - Riding off into the sunset to an unknown destination, hauntology, present, tales told by the fireside, hot summer rain, adventures, to feel a warm presence when you are walking in the forest or in the mountain, coastal landscapes, sailor’s stories, slow motion, vitesse, heavy blossoms, colors, the warmth of the sun, the tenderness of the moon, getting lost in unfamiliar streets, city’s lights, motorway rest area by night, magic numbers, rendez-vous, picnic, serendipity, poetry, the smell of old records and old books.

Tiphaine Belin has been releasing music as Trypheme since 2016. Odd Balade was written and produced by Belin, and mixed by Belin and Abel Roux. It was mastered by Amir Shoat. Cover art photography is by Ariane Kiks, with art direction by Ariane Kiks in collaboration with Mathilde Chaize.

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Joe Walsh

2LP | 1973 | US | Reissue (Analogue Productions)

75,99 €*

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Lossless)

Release: 1973 / US – Reissue

Genre: Rock & Indie

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True audiophile joy — now cut at 45 RPM 2LP for better tracking, exceptional bass!
Remastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio from the original master tapes
Plated and pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Quality Record Pressings!
Stoughton Printing gatefold tip-on heavyweight cardboard jacket

Praise for the 33 1/3 version of The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get:

"(Side one) ends with the appropriately titled 'Happy Ways,' a Latin-tinged guitar-fest with lovely chunky bass lines that sounds absolutely glorious on this Analogue Productions pressing. The zing of steel string guitar almost sounds dead on the CD and tired on my ancient vinyl pressing, so this is clearly not one of those remasters that's based on an umpteenth generation copy of the tapes. ... You owe it to yourself to hear this album — and it will not sound any better than this spectacular pressing." — Recording = 8/10; Music 10/10 — Jason Kenedy, Hi-Fi+, Issue 148

"An outstanding new 180gm LP reissue from Analogue Productions, with improved sound thanks to a sparkling new remaster by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio, makes it clear that this 1973 release remains — with the possible exception of 1978's But Seriously, Folks . . . — the undisputed highlight of Walsh's solo career. ... Another week, another beautiful-sounding, wonderfully packaged reissue from Analogue Productions." Read the whole review here. — Robert Baird, Stereophile.com, May 2017

In between his stints with the James Gang and the Eagles, Joe Walsh tackled his second solo studio album The Smoker You Drink The Player You Get which became his most successful solo outing. The 1973 LP continued the heavy and light rock mix of tracks found on his previous release, Barnstorm.

Analogue Productions has done reissue justice to the album that AllMusic decries "features some of the most remembered Joe Walsh tracks, but it's not just these that make the album a success. Each of the nine tracks is a song to be proud of. This is a superb album by anyone's standards."

To obtain the best sound possible we turned to Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio to remaster this superb album from the original analogue tapes. Next we plated the lacquers and pressed LPs on 180-gram audiophile vinyl at the world's best LP maker, Quality Record Pressings. Top it all off with a deluxe Stoughton Printing gatefold tip-on jacket and you've got the makings for audiophile joy.

But would we stop there? Hardly. Now with our 45 RPM release, the best-sounding version of this rock music gem gives listeners an even richer sonic experience. The dead-quiet double-LP, with the music spread over four sides of vinyl, reduces distortion and high frequency loss as the wider-spaced grooves let your stereo cartridge track more accurately.

This amazingly eclectic rock album has Joe's smash "Rocky Mountain Way," his hit "Meadows," plus "Bookends," "Wolf; Dreams" and more! Walsh's ability to swing wildly from one end of the rock scale to the other is unparalleled and makes for an album to suit many tastes.

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Atelier

Lights Towards The Exit

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Black Truffle)

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Pop

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Switching seaside ambience for a sound shaped by inner-city living, Atelier’s second full-length studio album, Lights
Towards The Exit, channels the mood of a sleepless cityscape.
Lights Towards The Exit is Atelier’s second full-length studio album. After the release of Varsam Court at the end of
2019 on Lossless, run by mentors and friends Mathias Schober and Thomas Herb, the duo experimented with different
ideas in the studio, and at the start of 2020 a common thread began to appear between a few of the tracks which laid
the foundation for the sound of their second album.
Both Alexander and Jas moved to Berlin in the period before the release of Varsam Court from their hometown of Cape
Town, South Africa, where their first album was written and recorded. Moving provided some challenges, particularly
with what was the most essential equipment to bring from their previous studio set-up, but those limitations proved to
be useful in incorporating new instruments and techniques to the recording process.
Lights Towards The Exit was written and recorded in different spaces in Berlin – from bedrooms in apartment blocks to
three different studios across the city. The different locations all had a specific ambience – such as 4th- and 5th-floor
bedrooms with busy street views; a studio with no windows in a typical old Berlin backyard complex forever under
threat of being sold and gentrified; and a bigger studio with windows on the opposite side of the corridor overlooking the
backyard of a mechanic workshop. The final details and edits were completed in Atelier’s current studio, in a
contrasting area surrounded by office blocks, plazas, 9-5ers and, most importantly, their friends and colleagues.
Swapping the mountains, sea and seclusion for tall buildings, backyards and a new community, Lights Towards The
Exit channels the sensation of being surrounded by people, but still feeling like you're on your own. The album was
written through three years of cold winters, sweaty summers and a period where the world stood still during the
pandemic. Frustrated with the cease of momentum, but still optimistic, Atelier disappeared from public view,
abandoning social media to focus on recording, songwriting and experimentation.
It was a difficult time: the duo longed to perform and continue producing music, and the imposed limitations sometimes
felt like an impossible obstacle. Ultimately, though, this would provide unexpected inspiration and influence the sound
and direction of the new album.
The sound of Lights Towards The Exit is not a departure from their first album, but a progression: influenced by the new
surroundings in the duo’s adoptive city, Atelier’s second album is an ode to first-time experiences, new languages,
challenges, club culture and the shift from youth to maturity, as well as a balm to those stuck somewhere in between.
The overall sound is a lift not in tempo, but in energy, matching the openness needed to make a new start in a new
place.

All tracks written, produced, arranged and performed by Atelier - Jás Miszewski & Alexander Inggs
Mastered by Mathias Schober, Artwork by David Kochs , Cover Photography by Alexander Inggs
A&R: Mathias Schober & Thomas Herb

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Dagar Brothers

Berlin 1964 - Live

Bella Brown & The Jealous Lovers

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Following on from last year’s acclaimed Vrindavan 1982 by rudra veena master Z.M. Dagar, Black Truffle is thrilled to present a pair of archival releases from the Dagar Brothers, among the most revered 20th century exponents of the ancient North Indian dhrupad tradition. The vocal duo of Moinuddin and Aminuddin Dagar (sometimes referred to as the ‘senior’ Dagar Brothers to distinguish them from their younger siblings, Zahiruddin and Faiyazuddin Dagar), belonged to the nineteenth generation of a family of musicians in which dhrupad tradition has been kept alive through patrilinear transmission, each generation undergoing a rigorous education of many years’ duration that can include singing up to twelve hours each day. Famed for the meditative purity of their approach to dhrupad, the Dagar Brothers helped to keep the tradition alive in the years after Indian independence in 1947, when the royal courts that had traditionally patronised dhrupad musicians were abolished. Many Western listeners were first introduced to dhrupad by the Dagar Brothers’ tour of Europe in 1964-65 and their LP in UNESCO’s ‘Musical Anthology of the Orient’ collection, both organised by pioneering musicologist and scholar of Indian culture Alain Daniélou. Documents from this tour are especially precious, as Moinuddin Dagar passed away in 1966. Unheard until now, Berlin 1964 – Live (released alongside Bt114, a newly discovered studio session from the same trip) documents a concert held at the Charlottenburg Palace in September 1964. Accompanied only by Moinuddin’s wife Saiyur on tanpura and Raja Chatrapati Singh on pakhawaj (a large double-headed drum), the brothers present stunning performances of two ragas stretching out over 65 minutes, exemplifying what a journalist at the time called the ‘pristine severity’ of their style. Much of each piece is taken up by the alap, the highly improvised exposition section where the notes of the raga are gradually introduced as the singing builds in intensity. As Francesca Cassio points out in her extensive liner notes, both performances are somewhat unorthodox in beginning with the raga scale being sung in its entirety, ascending and descending; this is probably, as she suggests, a strategy to introduce the European audience to the language of the music they are about to hear. From there, both ragas settle into alaps of breathtaking beauty, with the two brothers trading long solo passages that move gradually from extended held notes at the bottom of the scale to animated melodic variations as it ascends in pitch. Within the atmosphere of meditative attention, the range of melodic, rhythmic, and timbral invention is remarkable. Especially on the opening ‘Rāga Miyān kī Todī’, the final moments of the alap find the voices at a peak of intensity, their microtonal ornamentation taking on an ecstatic, warbling quality. Only once the wordless, free-floating alap is over and the composition proper begins to the brothers sing in unison, joined by the pakhawaj for a rhythmic section that in both ragas develops gradually into a propulsive display of melodic invention and metrical nuance. Accompanied by detailed liner notes and striking archival images, Berlin 1964 – Live is a rare document of these masterful exponents of one of the world’s most profound musical traditions.

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Soul Clap

LP | 2024 | UK | Original (Lrk)

20,39 €* 23,99 € -15%

Release: 2024 / UK – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Bella Brown & the Jealous Lovers Unveil "Soul Clap" LP: A Fusion of Retro Soul/Funk and Modern Grooves
Los Angeles-based retro soul/funk sensation Bella Brown & the Jealous Lovers are set to ignite the music scene with their highly anticipated LP, "Soul Clap." Born from the creative genius of Grammy Award-winning vocalist/songwriter Carol Hatchett, Bella Brown emerges as a diva with a fiery stage presence, drawing inspiration from the likes of Tina Turner and Sharon Jones, and channeling the empowered female leads of 70s Blaxploitation films. Led by producer/bassist/songwriter Daniel Pearson, The Jealous Lovers assemble an impressive ensemble of A-list musicians, boasting pedigrees that include names like Mick Jagger, Elton John, Whitney Houston, Prince, and Stevie Wonder. This musical collective is on a relentless quest to redefine the boundaries of music, infusing soul and funk with elements of jazz, rock, and Afro-Caribbean influences.
The essence of "Soul Clap" is derived from the cultural phenomena it is named after—a shared and improvised rhythm-making by a collective. The LP, spanning 40 minutes of pure musical bliss, invites the audience to immerse themselves in the groove and discover their individual truths in the music.
The title track, "Soul Clap," and the infectious "Living Proof" serve as funky dance bangers, echoing the spirit of Bohannan and The Tramps. These tracks, punctuated with jazzy improvisations and soulful horn arrangements, are simple yet joyful expressions of shared humanity and self-love.
"Coming For You" is Bella's audacious response to the soul/funk classic Apache, boldly announcing her and The Jealous Lovers' arrival on the modern soul landscape. "I Found You" takes a northern soul love song approach, reminiscent of Gloria Jones with a touch of modern influence, giving it a distinct Amy Winehouse feel.
Bella Brown seamlessly weaves social commentary into her art. "Bang Bang Bang," an uptempo, funky Motown groove, cleverly uses Curtis Mayfield's sense of sarcasm to reflect on American gun culture. "Lady Time" takes a driving afrobeat groove, employing brassy horns and reggae-like echoes to address the issue of homelessness.
However, the album is not without its lighthearted moments. "Fast As Lightning" celebrates a cleaner future by imagining Jimi Hendrix joining Ike and Tina Turner's band to create a classic Chuck Berry car song. "There Is Love" blends horns, strings, and vocals reminiscent of The Stylistics over a Chi-Lites style rhythm section, to create a lush message of support to those among us that may find the world a bit overwhelming at moments. Finally, "What Will You Leave Behind," is a revamped version of the group's sold-out vinyl 45 release. This track serves as a powerful call to action for a better future, delivered over a straight-up Motown groove with a funky Sly Stone finish.
Bella Brown & the Jealous Lovers have crafted an album that transcends genres, embracing the roots of soul and funk while pushing musical boundaries.
"Soul Clap" is a celebration of individual truths, shared experiences, and the timeless power of music.

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12" | 2023 | UK | Original (Bassmæssage)

Second Drop

17,99 €*

Release: 2023 / UK – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Bassmæssage is the heaviest and most consistent bass music night out of Leipzig, operating way over 30 low frequency terrapeutic events since 2007. Hosting ventral vibrations by the likes of Mungo's Hifi, Moonshine, Rupture, Hardwax and the homies of Jahtari, maintaining strong relations within the local soundsystem culture like Zoumo and Plug Dub and pushing a ton of grass-roots DJs and visual artists, out of doubt it is a sure shot for all who like it low and want it vibrant.

2015 saw the release of the "Volume One" vinyl, blending all kinds of styles and tempi by artists who had played at a Bassmæssage. Dub met Dubstep, Footwork went along some Snailfunk Drum'n'Bass and even Skweee had a cameo. And all this happened on one plate with a warm vibe from start to finish.

It is about time to revive the label with a new vinyl compilation named "Second Drop", following the tradition of a nice roundup across various bass music tearitorries. One side pumps at uplifting 160 BPM, while the flipside is shifting down to relaxing 135 and even 120 speeds.

Nuphlo and Bukkha team up for the energetic modern halftime piece "Drip". Nuphlo might ring a bell as part of The Nasha Experience from London and Leeds, connecting asian roots with nowadays UK bass sounds. Bukkha is state-side born and has recently emigrated to Spain, from where this worldwide touring DJ machine is firing a plethora of bass music styles on renowned labels like Moonshine, System and Innamind.

DjBadshape passes the breakbeat driven torch with handsome melodies and subby kickbass on "Drift" to reflect Leipzig's well various scenes. While checking her tracks on Defrostatica and Human, one may also find artworks for Bassmæssage and more.

Sun People is closing the 160 side with the deep but dirty retro 90s jungle bit "Rise Up". Combining Techno, Footwork and UK Hardcore Breakbeats, the Graz based bass buab made it to releases on Exit, Rua and Alphacut.

Flipping sides, Dub Across Borders redefines steppers dub into the dreamy yet rolling "Bass Tree Dream". The project was found by a Copenhagen dubber when living in Colombia, fusing the rural folklore with soundsystem energy into a world-bass music. This can be heard on labels like Basscomesaveme, Translation and 45Seven and is best to be experienced in its live dubbing appearance which premiered at a Bassmæssage in 2015.

Paranoid One grabs these feelings and drops them a bit more sinister, "Glimp" manages to hide a playful 4 to the floor kick as well beyond its smooth soundscapes and percussions. As Paranoid Society these split personalities from Tallinn were delivering to Modern Urban Jazz and Alphacut already since a decade at least.

bhed finishes with the slow far-away dubsteppish "Minerva". Make sure to not only check the releases on Row and Trusik but also the freshly baked Neuburg based live act in between cosy ambient and lush bass music at the next Bassmæssage on 18th November in LeipZig!

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John & Yoko / Plastic Ono Band

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An elegant presentation of interiors for introverts, placing the memorable work of London architect William Smalley alongside buildings around the world that have inspired his practice.

Quiet Spaces places the work of architect William Smalley alongside spaces that have inspired him. Places of private contemplation – calm spaces to read a book or listen to music in, to walk through or simply be in – they are spaces that achieve a rare sense of repose and peace.

From his own Bloomsbury Apartment and projects in the UK, France and New York, the book expands to include the work of other architects: a sixteenth-century villa by Palladio, houses in Mexico and Sri Lanka and the Secular Retreat in Devon by Swiss master architect Peter Zumthor. There are also places of making and displaying art: simplicity in Barbara Hepworth’s garden and studio in Cornwall, and intimacy in Kettle’s Yard gallery in Cambridge.

Specially commissioned photography by Harry Crowder conveys the atmosphere of the spaces. A foreword by acclaimed potter and writer Edmund de Waal records the small, unspoken ways in which we relate to buildings and how they come to have meaning for us.

'An object of great beauty and joy and more importantly a testament to a lifetime of creativity and responsiveness to the best aspects of architecture' Alain de Botton

'Quiet Spaces is a huge treat and I know will bring hours of pleasure and inspiration' Nigel Slater

'Projects by architect William Smalley; an essay by artist Edmund de Waal; photographs by Harry Crowder and Hélène Binet; this new book by Thames & Hudson has lots to entice with. Smalley's work, known for its elegance, poise and peaceful interiors, is placed here next to well-known examples of globally acclaimed “quiet spaces” - inspiring the book's title' Wallpaper*

William Smalley established his studio in London in 2010 with the simple aim of making beautiful spaces and places. He has since worked around the UK and abroad. He has been described as an architect of rare sensibility, and his work as having the simplicity of a limewashed medieval building, filtered and made lucid through a completely modern sensibility. Edmund de Waal is an internationally renowned artist and writer, best known for his large-scale installations of porcelain vessels, often created in response to collections and archives. He published his bestselling family memoir, The Hare with Amber Eyes, in 2010. He lives and works in London. Harry Crowder is a British photographer, based in London and working nationally and internationally, focusing on interiors and architecture. His work seeks to capture the feeling of being in a space. He travelled extensively with William in the shooting of this book. Hélène Binet is an internationally acclaimed Swiss-French photographer based in London. She studied photography in Rome, and over more than thirty-five years has captured both contemporary and historic architecture. She is a fervent advocate of analogue photography, working exclusively on film.

Format:Hardback Size:32.0 x 24.0 cm Extent:256 pp Illustrations:185 Publication date:12 October 2023 ISBN:9780500343692

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John Lennon & Yoko Ono

Thames & Hudson

44,99 €*

Tape Leaders: A Compendium Of Early British Electronic Music Composers

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The definitive exploration of John Lennon’s first major solo album after the break-up of the Beatles.

Described by Lennon as ‘the best thing I’ve ever done’, and widely regarded by critics as his best solo album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band was released alongside the remarkable Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band on 11 December 1970. With first-hand commentary by John & Yoko, members of the Plastic Ono Band and other key figures in their lives, and packed with evocative and revealing letters, artworks and photographs, this incisive volume offers new insights into the raw emotions and open mindset of Lennon after marriage to Ono and the break-up of the Beatles.

Following their wedding in March 1969, Lennon and Ono decided that their future musical endeavours should be credited to a conceptual vehicle, the Plastic Ono Band. The band featured an ever-changing line-up of musicians, including Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann, Ringo Starr, Alan White, George Harrison, Billy Preston and Jim Keltner, all of whom played live with Lennon and Ono, and contributed to their recordings. The fearless honesty that John & Yoko inspired in one another in their search for truth, meaning and peace had a huge impact on Lennon’s song writing, resulting in the creation of tracks that are intensely personal and unlike anything previously heard in popular music, including ‘Mother’, ‘Working Class Hero’ and ‘God’. This book takes those lyrics as a starting point and explores Lennon’s life, relationships and world view during this transformative period.

'A comprehensive, fascinating, well-produced, and finely printed publication that captures a moment of contemporary culture with breadth and depth. It brings then into now – and shows how similar and different life is today' Will Gompertz

'A handsome tome… never less than fascinating… The album was a high point in an astonishing career and the book does it justice' The Sun

'A hardback compendium of first-hand accounts about the band drawn from interviews over the years… It contains photos, lyrics, drawings and letters, and will be as interesting to Lennon completists as The Beatles Anthology was to general fans 20 years ago' Daily Telegraph

'A fine tribute to this intensely creative time in the couple’s joined-at-the-hip lives… A sumptuous and lovingly created example of the bookmakers’ art, an encyclopaedic extravaganza of reminiscences and memorabilia' The Budapest Times

About the Author: John Lennon (1940–1980) was an English singer, songwriter and peace activist who co-founded the Beatles, the most commercially successful band in the history of popular music. Yoko Ono is a globally renowned multimedia artist, singer, songwriter and activist. She married John Lennon in 1969 and became his creative partner and muse. She continues to work to preserve his legacy, funding, among other projects, Strawberry Fields in Manhattan’s Central Park, the Imagine Peace Tower in Iceland and the ‘Imagine There’s No Hunger’ campaign.

Format:PLC Size:30.8 x 24.0 cm Extent:288 pp Publication date:29 October 2020 ISBN:9780500023433

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Ian Helliwell

Velocity Press

29,99 €*

LP | 2023 | EU | Original (Unday)

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Tape Leaders is a richly illustrated A-Z compendium featuring over 100 composers active with tape and electronics in the analogue era. Containing information never previously uncovered, it shines a fresh light on many sound experimenters unacknowledged in the history of British electronic music. First published by Sound On Sound Magazine in 2016, this is the first time it’s been available outside their shop.

Tape Leaders is available as a hardback and the 224 pages are printed and bound on heavyweight 130gsm paper. The specially compiled 15 track CD of mainly unreleased early British tape and synthesizer works is exclusive to the Velocity Press shop.

In the form of a richly illustrated compendium, Tape Leaders: A Compendium Of Early British Electronic Music Composers is an indispensable reference guide for anyone interested in electronic sound and its origins in the UK. For the first time, a book sets out information on practically everyone active with experimental electronics and tape recording across the country to reveal the untold stories and hidden history of early British electronic music.

With an individual entry for each composer, it covers everyone from famous names like William Burroughs, Brian Eno and Joe Meek to the ultra-obscure such as Roy Cooper, Donald Henshilwood and Edgar Vetter. There are sections for EMS and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and amateurs, groups and ensembles that experimented with electronics, including The Beatles, Hawkwind and White Noise. Author Ian Helliwell draws on his experience and extensive research into electronic music. After six years and dozens of interviews, he has amassed information never before brought to light on this fascinating subject.

Included with the book is a specially compiled 15 track CD of mainly unreleased early British tape and synthesizer works (exclusively available to the Velocity Press shop), making this an essential book for anyone interested in electronic music history during the 1950s and 60s.

This hardback book is 22.7cm x 17.7cm, and the 224 pages are printed and bound on heavyweight 130gsm paper.

Quotes:
“Until now, the Radiophonic Workshop has somewhat eclipsed other players in British early electronic music history. The extent of this is laid bare in the revelatory book Tape Leaders – a landmark survey by the composer, film-maker, instrument-builder and researcher Ian Helliwell, who has uncovered hitherto unacknowledged independent electronic music composers.” Fortean Times

“For anyone with an interest in the early years of electronic music, Ian Helliwell’s book takes the reader on an enthralling tour of the pioneering British contributors to this genre.” Sound On Sound

“The work of computer music pioneer Peter Zinovieff, home-build guru FC Judd, UFO-believer and Spitfire pilot Desmond Leslie, and Tristram Cary – have all been reissued. Ian Helliwell’s new book, Tape Leaders, A Compendium of Early British Electronic Music Composers, goes further. It reveals that these figures collectively represent the tip of a hitherto unimaginably vast iceberg submerged for decades. Profiling dozens of composers, amateur and professional, and augmented by a 15 track CD of electronic music… it truly is a portal into a lost world.” Shindig

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Hydrogen Sea

Creature Comforts

12" | 2023 | EU | Original (A Harmless Deed)

Release: 2023 / EU – Original

Genre: Pop

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Hydrogen Sea's third full album Creature Comforts is a luscious, fresh, and vibrant collection of new songs that explore everything that offers us, fragile creatures, physical and mental comfort, and makes us feel good. It's the duo's first collaboration with producer Luuk Cox. The record sounds unapologetically light and colorful but dares to look at the shadows. As the soft-spoken TV painter Bob Ross once said, 'You need the dark in order to show the light.'

Hydrogen Sea started out in 2012 as the brain and love child of the duo Birsen Uçar and PJ Seaux. For their most recent record Automata from 2019, they wrote and performed in full band formation alongside Steven Van Gelder, Joris Caluwaerts, and Patricia Vanneste. Forced by (but also pretty much enjoying) the solitude during the pandemic, Birsen and Pj huddled together in their studio and started to write and demo their Creature Comfort songs. It was an attempt to find some hope, softness, and joy in the slow apocalypses we live through. The duo wanted to explore sounds and themes that offer us, fragile creatures, physical and mental comfort, and make us feel good. On the other hand, Birsen's lyrics could never overlook the mechanism of instant gratification and toxic consumerism. Above all, the new music was Birsen and PJ's way of relieving their own stress and soothe their nervous systems. In February 2023, after having written and recorded the bulk of the songs in the solitude of their home studio, Birsen and PJ called in the multifaceted skills of Luuk Cox. He was welcomed into their creative process and produced and mixed the album, making it sound effortlessly bright, crisp, and filled with color.

After opening the album with the atmospheric Ammonite, Hydrogen Sea offers you their first sun-filled single Candy. It is deliciously addictive with catchy vocals, playful drums, guitar, and percussion. Wine, PJ and Birsen's second single, starts out with bouncy vocals but its sizzling synths and beat mark the darker side of things that ignite pleasure in the world, pointing out that some creature comforts can be addictive or toxic if repeated too often. Dragons kicks off gorgeously bare and evolves into a sweeping, heart-pounding song with Birsen encouraging you to breathe, even if there's smoke and fire coming out. Cherry Milk is an upbeat invitation to go beyond superficial comforts and to try to talk about it with others, because it's important to look at the unrest beneath the surface. Wolves is a call to 'cradle every weird idea', to connect with your body and your true wild self. Electrifying and hypnotic Mycelium dives into the comforting psychedelic notion of never-ending and all-encompassing interconnectedness. Appalachia paints a picture of desolate mountains and describes the pitfalls of staring into the darkness too long. It also reminds you of the importance of finding someone to crawl back up seemingly insurmountable hills with. The velvety synths and vocals of Watermelon transport you to magical 'butterscotch fields, under sangria skies'. Finally, Creature Comforts ends elegantly with the brilliant and hope-filled Earth.

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Jose Cabrera

Le Bateleur

4x12" | 2023 | EU | Original (Oracle Bones)

Release: 2023 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Accomplished Spanish artist José Cabrera enters a fresh creative chapter with the new album Le Bateleur. The storytelling and hugely personal record arrives on his own A Harmless Deed label and is a deep dive into the house music he has always loved.

Over the last two decades and under several aliases, Madrid- born Cabrera established himself as a leading techno producer. He has released on influential labels like Fred P's Soul People Music, Tresor, Deeply Rooted and Ron Moreli`s' L.I.E.S. records and co-runs A Harmless Deed with friend Damian Schwartz. As a DJ he has toured Europe, Asia, North and South America and proven himself to be an experimental DJ with a long-standing residency at Tresor in Berlin.

When the pandemic hit in 2020, Cabrera felt detached from the techno world so used his time at home to explore new sounds. He has always had a love of house so set work on making a proper house record in the mold of greats who went before. He worked with other musicians and vocalists, made use of an array of Roland drum machines, Juno synths and Casio keys to cook up a raw and authentic sound and drew from a wide range of the back music that has soundtracked his life. The resulting album is packed with life and energy, skits from friends and timeless grooves.

The album opens up with cosmic synths radiating warmth and jazzy melodies then 'Endless Dream' is a steamy house thumper with aching r&b vocal fragments next to swirling pads. It's a passionate house cut followed by 'Live Your Life' feat Jae. This one brings classic piano energy and another gorgeous female vocal that explores dancers to cut loose and live. Following a dusty downbeat skit that features spoken word encouragement from former collaborator Fred P, 'Track For Clau' is hyper-speed future house with bumping kicks and busy synth arps bringing the light.

A prog rock guitar rings out in the cosmos during 'K-Brain Tribute' feat. NBlue and Damian Schwartz, and 'I Thought You Were the One' feat. Jae & Persa layers up booming kicks and claps with a spine tingling vocal and fat bassline. 'RL Stadium 92' taps into classic Chicago house and 'Halftime Report (For Little José)' gets down and dirty with a menacing bassline and dusty 909 sounds. Another US house heavyweight in DJ Qu features on the atmospheric ''Friends and Family Skit' alongside some of Jose associates and 'For Princess L (I Love You)' feat Jae is an exquisite deep house cut with crisp snares and a heart swelling that is loved up and blissed out. Another skit leads into the outro which is a melancholic ambient synth excursion that sends you off feeling utterly calm.

Le Bateleur is another captivating entry into the ever-evolving discography of José Cabrera.

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JEANS

Meng

64,99 €*

Release: 2023 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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In a realm where the threads of fate intertwined with the tapestry of existence, there existed a timeless construct we call “meng”. This transcendental domain pushed a sanctuary where an unholy wisdom was safeguarded. Within its twenty-two walls, the experiences of countless sages and seekers resided, forming a reservoir of enlightenment, of vision and of identity.

Among the enigmatic texts that adorned the shelves of The Memory Palace, one stood out—the "Tubular Heaven," a chapter that held the essence of the universe's patterns and transformations. The book we speak of is the Book of Change - I Ching. Legend has it that the Memory Palace embodied the vibrations of those who sought its wisdom, guiding them to the Slow-Chain’s pages where hexagrams unveiled the secrets of existence.

Amidst this cosmic dance of knowledge, there lived a young wanderer whose name we do not say out loud. Driven by a deep yearning for understanding, this Warrior ventured into the city of Tanoy. With every step, he felt the resonance of centuries long gone, as if the walls whispered to him the essence of reality itself - “you may fall as long as you stand up again. Repeat this 1000 times and you will understand me. Only then can we control the sound.” As he reached for the illuminated Book of Change, a light was cast onto a newly fabricated realm of questions. One hexagram, in particular, was essential. The cryptic symbolism was perplexing. Upon meditation, we slowly begin to realize that life is indeed a tapestry of imperfections, yet from these glitches we arise with profound growth and transformation.

As our curiosity spikes, we delve into the pages that follow, discovering an unexpected connection between I Ching and the world of Jeans, no denim. In ancient times, the craft of weaving denim mirrored the wisdom of these hexagrams. Just as threads interwove to create a durable fabric, I Ching reveals how life's experiences intertwine to form a meaningful existence. Denim, like life, is sturdy yet adaptable - a true testament to the harmonious balance between falling and standing.

As this journey comes to a gentle end, we must stress that hexagrams prove that other divination systems exist. It has become clear that the patterns hitherto observed are not confined to one culture, tradition, mind or body. Instead, they echo throughout history, manifesting in various divination systems across our globe. Hexagrams are a universal language, transcending boundaries and demonstrating the interconnectedness of humanity's pursuit of higher understanding.

We can now truly emerge from the Memory Palace, carrying the wisdom of everything above us. It’s time to Drag A Friend into this Made Up Reality. Or is it? We now understand that life's glitches are the catalysts for growth and that just as threads wove together to create denim, experiences wove together to create a meaningful existence. As we walk beneath the open sky, we whisper into the wind, "Hexagrams are the echoes of universal truths, proving that the search for wisdom knows no bounds."

The chimes tingle in the deep subset of your imagination. As the pages of the Book of Change unfurl one last time, the shimmering tapestry of our shallow minds unravels.

We have revealed the kaleidoscopic corridors where perceptions dance in hallucinogenic symphony to the hymns of our rich minds.

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LP | 2023 | EU | Original (Sounds Familiar)

Familiar Sounds Volume 2

21,84 €* 22,99 € -5%

Fatboi Sharif X Steep Tipped Dove

Release: 2023 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Sounds Familiar is celebrating a decade in dance music by releasing 3 LP’s throughout 2023. Titled “Familiar Sounds”, after vol 1 released in April 23 which featured the likes of Dego Kamma & Masalo, Aleqs Notal Feat Anu, Kai Alcé, Retromigration and Hu go LX, the second volume of the trilogy will be out on September 1st. Collecting six new tracks that join the dots between elastic acid house and candle - lit piano jazz, Familiar Sounds Volume 2 , features Kaidi Tatham, Carista, Gigi Testa, Zopelar, Alex F rom Tokyo and K15, on a 12” that reaches into all corners of the roster’s electronic jazz - influenced sound. The album begins with Kaidi Tatham’s upstart summer anthem ‘Misguided Youts’. Built on a piano vamp and an infectious horn line, the track eases in to a consummate piece of future fusion, stirring the melting pot of London’s jazz and broken beat heritage into the kind of soulful jam that has rightly earned him his legendary reputation. Things take a deep dive on track two with Carista tweaking the di als to deliver a slice of rubbery four - to - the - floor dancefloor business. Rattling snap - back snares give her track ‘Love Me Right’ a kind of early hours dynamism, the dream - like vocal sample drifting across a room of loose and swaying bodies. Gigi Testa ro unds out the A - side with shuffling outernational house track ‘Summer Snow’. Integrating his passion for global rhythms, the Rush Hour affiliate and Organica record shop owner channels the shimmering opulence of the Amalfi coast on what is an indulgent boat party of lush pads and sun - dappled melodies. Opening the B - side, Zopelar delivers the jazzy, disco - infused house of ‘Arapuca’. There’s a skittish energy to Zopelar’s latest offering, which wriggles and jives between muted trumpet improvisations, George D uke’s ‘A Brazilian Love Affair’ and the kind of in - the pocket synth work he is known to have among his arsenal of musical skills. Up next, Alex From Tokyo weaves in the striped back influence of his former Berlin home into the techno - pop landscape of his Japanese upbringing, heading in to go out on the cosmic club cut ‘Wa Galaxy’. Closing out the LP is DJ, producer and man of many monikers, K15. Putting on his jazz hat perhaps most associated with his work as Culross Close, ‘Autumn’ is a solo piano balla d that brings the exuberance of high summer to a reflective end, demonstrating just how varied and open - minded the world of Sounds Familiar is. Familiar Sounds Vol. 2 follows the release of Vol. 1 earlier this year and ahead of the final instalment in Dec ember 2023. Keeping it in the family, all three volumes will feature spot - varnished artwork and creative direction by Sounds Familiar logo creator and long - time collaborator Tyler Askew, and will be pressed and distributed by Mother Tongue.

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Decay

LP | 2023 | US | Original (Backwoodz Studioz)

34,19 €* 35,99 € -5%

OST Nope Cloud & Pennant Banner Tan Translucent w/ Red Color-in-color & Black & White Splatter Jean Jacket Vinyl Edition

Release: 2023 / US – Original

Genre: Hip Hop

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Decay, the new album from New Jersey rapper Fatboi Sharif and producer Steel Tipped Dove, is an anomaly. In an era of microwave projects and email collaborations, the duo spent more than a year writing, recording and mixing Decay together in Dove’s Brooklyn studio. At a moment when many independent hip-hop projects are sonically predictable, easily categorized, and derivative, Decay is unapologetically experimental. Love it or hate it, it doesn’t sound like any other record out. Add to all that the fact that, bucking the trend of feature-laden rap records, there isn’t a single guest appearance on Decay. This album is a one-of-one, handcrafted from the ground up by two of the genre’s most esoteric artists, under the umbrella of indie rap’s preeminent record label.

In October 2020 Dove got in touch with Sharif after hearing Gandhi Loves Children, Sharif’s project with Roper Williams.

“I really liked the experimental writing he was doing. The whole vibe was different from the beat choices, the visuals, the lyrics — all unique,” Dove explains. The two of them linked up and hit it off immediately.

“In the first session we had made two songs that ended up being some of the best work on the album,” Sharif says, “and as we worked on it we knew we had something special that we weren't hearing anywhere else and we kept building on that”

Sharif found himself digging deeply in order to write, which he credits to Dove’s attention to detail and ability to push the boundaries sonically. “Dove’s production kept me in the zone to touch on stories that I never touched on in my past work, from personal situations tucked away that I thought I wasn't ready to unveil yet, to convos we just would have regarding the state of everything going on in the world and beyond”

For his part, Dove was consistently impressed by the young artists’ dedication, as well as his ear for the unusual. “It was almost like a challenge to him, if I had a beat that no one had chosen, or that had kinda strange timing, he would almost always choose that one”

This is Koyaanisqatsi via Rahway, New Jersey. A winding nighttime drive along the narrow, rutted paths of a damaged psyche, dead deer watching from the roadside. Decay is a candlelit spades game in the parlor of a dilapidated mansion, eviction papers pasted atop one another on the front door. A black Woodstock in the wetlands, blotter acid in the headband, as ELUCID might say. Together, Sharif and Dove just flipped on the power to a carousel in the middle of an abandoned amusement park, and every horse has a rider, spinning and spinning in the dark

“Sometimes in life, we feel held down, tested and sought after by an unseen force that we can’t fully explain,” Sharif muses, “this album is a trip into the foundation of the dysfunction that surrounds us all in one way or another”

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Michael Abels

2LP | 2018 | US | Reissue (Waxwork)

45,99 €*

12" | 2023 | EU | Original (Black Truffle)

Release: 2018 / US – Reissue

Genre: Soundtracks

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Waxwork Records in partnership with Back Lot Music is honored to release NOPE Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Michael Abels. Oscar® winner Jordan Peele disrupted and redefined modern horror with Get Out and then Us. Now, he reimagines the summer movie with a new pop nightmare: the expansive horror epic, Nope.

The film reunites Peele with Oscar® winner Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out, Judas and the Black Messiah), who is joined by Keke Palmer and Oscar® nominee Steven Yeun as residents in a lonely gulch of inland California who bear witness to an uncanny and chilling discovery.

NOPE marks Abels’ third feature film score with director Jordan Peele, having previously scored Peele’s GET OUT and US. The album also features songs from the film, including a new version of Corey Hart’s classic “Sunglasses at Night (Jean Jacket Mix)”, Dionne Warwick’s “Walk on By”, The Lost Generation’s “This is the Lost Generation”, Exuma’s “Exuma, the Obeah Man”, and a never-before-released gem by a young Jodie Foster, “La Vie C’est Chouette” from the 1977 film MOI, FLEUR BLEUE. “NOPE is my most ambitious score to date,” says Abels. “There are elements from the genres of sci-fi, action, horror, and westerns, but always through the tonal palette of Jordan Peele’s unique vision. The lines between source music and score are blurred, as a good part of the score seems to be playing at the theme park, which is a key location in the story. The score is at times terrifying, yet also invokes the sense of awe and wonder that the characters feel as they realize what they are seeing. The film eventually becomes a grand adventure, and so the music expands into the larger-than-life scale we expect of a summer blockbuster.” He goes on to say, “it was a joy to compose a score that encompassed such a broad range of genres and emotions, and I’m thrilled to have audiences experience all of them through this album.”

“Michael is one the most exciting composers working today - he has this amazing ability to create new sounds which was important for this film,” Jordan Peele says. “He's able to play in the familiar and in the unfamiliar at the same time, so that helps give every film its own character, and he has an incredible mastery of so many different music genres.” Abels is known for his genre-defying scores for the Jordan Peele films GET OUT and US, for which Abels won a World Soundtrack Award, the Jerry Goldsmith Award, a Critics Choice nomination, and multiple critics’ awards. The hip-hop influenced score for US was short-listed for an Academy Award® and was named “Score of the Decade” by The Wrap. Abels is also co-founder of the Composers Diversity Collective, an advocacy group to increase visibility of composers of color in film, gaming and streaming media.

Waxwork Records is thrilled to present the official NOPE deluxe double LP soundtrack album. The package comes complete with 180-gram colored vinyl, quality packaging, original artwork by Ethan Mesa, heavyweight gatefold jacket with matte coating, a multi-page 12”x12” booklet, liner notes, & more!

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Otto Willberg

The Leisure Principle

2LP | 2021 | EU | Reissue (No Coincidence)

Release: 2023 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Black Truffle is pleased to announce The Leisure Principle, a new solo LP from London-based bassist and sound artist Otto Willberg. A key player in the London underground, Willberg is often heard on acoustic and electric bass in free improv settings and bands with Laurie Tompkins (Yes Indeed) and Charles Hayward (Abstract Concrete), as well as the fractured No Wave unit Historically Fucked. His previous solo releases have ranged from extended technique double bass to explorations of the acoustics of a 19th century artillery fort. But nothing Willberg has committed to wax so far prepares a listener for The Leisure Principle, six unashamedly melodic improvisational workouts created almost entirely with heavily filtered bass harmonica and electric bass. On the opening ‘Reap What Thou Sow’, a single-note bass harmonica loop pulses along underneath a roaming bass solo, the side-chained envelope filtering (where the dynamic behaviour of the bass determines the filter for both bass and harmonica) fusing the two instruments into a single stream of burbling shifts in resonance. After several minutes of patient exploration of this low-end landscape, the music suddenly opens up in widescreen with the entrance of Sam Andreae’s graceful melodica chords, spreading out across the stereo field. From this epic opener, each of the remaining pieces goes on to explore a slightly different aspect of the terrain. On ‘Shadow Came into the Eyes as Earth Turned on its Axis’, a similarly buoyant harmonica bass line provides the foundation, but this time playing a soulful descending riff, its almost R&B feel abstracted and half-obscured by the filtering. On ‘Mollusk’, echoed bass arpeggios skitter between elegiac chords somewhat reminiscent of the opening of John Abercrombie’s ‘Timeless’, before settling into a hypnotic groove. On the record’s second half, Willberg pushes further into the possibilities of his idiosyncratic instrumentation. On ‘Wetter’, bass and harmonica come together into a monstrous, growling jaw harp; on ‘Had we but world enough and more time’, the subtly shifting pulsating patterns start to feel almost like a kind of evaporated, drum-less dub techno until an eruption of wheezing bass harmonica gives the piece a comically folkish turn. Willberg’s melodically inventive and virtuosic bass performance calls to mind any number of fusion touchstones, from Jaco Pastorius to Mark Egan’s singing tone in the early Pat Metheny Group—even Anthony Jackson’s work with Steve Kahn. But with its radically reduced instrumentation, The Leisure Principle is also an exercise in minimalism, and the absence of percussion gives even its funkiest moments a strangely abstracted quality. At times, its uncanny blend of the abstruse and the immediate suggests the fried pop experiments of David Rosenboom or the skewed but deeply musical DIY of 80s underground groups like De Fabriek. Both easy on the ear and profoundly strange, The Leisure Principle proudly takes its place among the most eccentric offerings on the Black Truffle menu.

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Goose

Shenanigans Nite Club

37,99 €*

Pity By One All Good Treasure

Release: 2021 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Connecticut-based quartet Goose _ Rick Mitarotonda [vocals, guitar], Peter Anspach [vocals, keys, guitar], Trevor Weekz [bass], and Ben Atkind [drums] _ shimmy through the cracks between jam, funk, alternative, and rock with head-spinning hooks, technical fireworks, and the kind of chemistry only possible among small-town and long-time friends. After selling out theaters coast-to-coast and a series of seismic festival performances, the musicians welcome everybody to this place on their 2021 second full-length, Shenanigans Nite Club. "In many ways, Goose is a conglomeration of music from the town we grew up in, and the songs are a collection of many different experiences and influences," observes Rick. "Where we come from has inevitably informed and enabled our music. We get these four defined seasons in rural Connecticut, and there's a powerful stillness.""Our area is a very reflective place," agrees Peter. "We're in the woods, and we all find peace from the setting. Being in the sticks positively affected what we're trying to do.""While we've been touring, the record has been happening in the background," says Rick. "We've done our fair share of sweating it out and paying our dues on the road. There was a natural progression until we really got on the same page creatively. It's been a long, weird trip. At times, it was tumultuous. The record is a companion to those growing pains."Goose introduce the record with "So Ready" and it's counterpart "(s?tellite)." Just shy of ten minutes together, the tracks twist and turn through synthesizer "emitting hilariously sexual vibes," jazz-y bass, and a chantable hook."Labyrinth" dives down "a deeper rabbit hole" as warm guitar wraps around shimmering piano originally culled from Rick's school days."`Labyrinth' is one of the only pieces I wrote in my latter high school days," he recalls. "It's got this thematic relevance with the weird sense of humor, rambunctiousness, and partying from back in the day."As the first proper Goose song, "Spirit of the Dark Horse" originated after a "twelve-minute meditation" between Rick and Trevor back in 2015. It unfurls as a captivating trip in and of itself and "holds a lot of meaning." The same could be said of the album title. As legend has it, Shenanigans Nite Club really popped off in the eighties. Rick's uncle worked as a bouncer and manager for the iconic haunt and shared all manner of wild stories with his nephew. He even gave Rick a sign from the original club, which overlooks the basement where the boys jam."Shenanigans has always been around," Rick elaborates. "It became the idea of the record. It celebrates this element of nostalgia and good memories as we move forward."In the end, Goose chart their own course and ultimately encourage everyone else to do the same."In the end, our dream is to inspire people to step off the beaten path," Rick leaves off. "There are a lot of voices that tell you to play it safe. I think the coolest thing in the world is when someone breaks free and goes for whatever weird shit they dream of doing."

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LA Timpa

LP | 2023 | UK | Original (O___o?)

18,74 €* 24,99 € -25%

2LP | 2023 | UK | Original (Crosstown Rebels)

Release: 2023 / UK – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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LA Timpa snagged our attention with his exceptional debut ‘Equal Amounts Afraid’ for O___o?, and an acclaimed follow-up for Rabit’s Halcyon Veil, which eventually led to a guest spot on Space Afrika’s cult lightning rod ‘Honest Labour’ and a remix for Tricky. After letting the dust settle, he returns with a new collection of songs mired in rawly sublime melancholy, turning existential reflections into a richly evocative sort of chamber pop akin to Arthur Russell jamming with A.R. Kane. It drifts heavy-lidded between fully formed songs obfuscated by a dense fug to properly bezzonked lo-fi improv that follows his nose for detuned strings smudged and activated with field recordings. It’s all done in the loosest, most hypnagogic style, characterising how the spirits of ‘80s no wave NYC and even ‘90s Kiwi indie rock have sluiced into the truly singular milieu of South London in the 2020s. Sung in a fragile yet shatterproof falsetto to backdrops of smeared loops and lines of coruscating guitar and keys, ‘Pity By One All Good Treasure’ conveys itself by seduction and suggestion rather than any heavy handed or literal techniques. Whether by design or implication, its rhythmelodic make-up recalls how West African music surfaces in the lilt of Lifetones, or even how Jim Reeves’ country music unexpectedly percolates thru Nigerian styles, all obviously at a remove of decades, but nonetheless short-circuiting expectations and putative timelines in the process. The record wails into view with ‘Wide’, a properly bewildering opening of tangled flutes that sounds like Debit’s pre-historic wind instrument investigations as if treated by Alvin Lucier, before taking flight on a screwy trajectory that seems to reference a great deal of music we love; from labelmate Dawuna to Coby Sey’s pop inversions to Dean Blunt’s enigmatic world-building, from Tricky’s low-lit pre-millennial tension to Mica Levi’s unsteady phased strings - it all sounds immaculately produced and entirely unresolved. In fact, the glossolalic unintelligibility of the songs becomes a virtue it its own right, initially limning and drawing us into psychoacoustic parameters and occupying an elusive mid-distance throughout the album, form the slippery lilt of ‘It Smiles Without my Lie’ to the Blood Orange-esque nod of ‘City Hell Cast In Fire’, the haunted blooziness of ‘Treatment’ and eyes-in-backa-head grog to ‘Brave (forsake)’, and a properly wooze-inducing enigma on the nine minute denouement ‘Ruthless’ - a crumbling epic that centres negative space, splicing field recordings with instrumental strums. When a song does eventually appear from those embers, it’s like a queered response to Grouper’s enduring ‘Heavy Water’ as though perceived through layer upon layer of gauzy saturation. It all makes for a supremely unusual and engrossing listen, and provides further proof, if needed, that LA Timpa is an elemental force all of their own, a vital part of South London’s eminently watchable new musical ecology.

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Pale Blue

Maria

29,99 €*

OST Malum Colored Vinyl Edition

Release: 2023 / UK – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Electronic duo Pale Blue returns to Crosstown Rebels with their long-awaited sophomore album ‘Maria’, revealing a spellbinding eight-track trip across electronic spheres.

After forming their critically acclaimed Pale Blue project with their debut album ‘The Past We Leave Behind’ in 2015, Mike Simonetti (Italians Do It Better) and Elizabeth Wight (Silver Hands) have only furthered intrigue and interest in the years since, uniting for a series of expansive EPs on Simonetti’s own 2MR imprint exploring dancefloor-focused acid through to gripping electronica. Having already oﬀered a first look and preview into their long-awaited album return via three singles on the label, with remixes provided by DJ Tennis, Kölsch, Fort Romeau and Perel, mid-May sees Simonetti, and Wight finally reveal their sophomore album ‘Maria’ on Damian Lazarus’ Crosstown Rebels - oﬀering a uniquely raw yet seamlessly polished trip into their idiosyncratic world.

“‘Maria’ is an album of love songs - the good, the bad, and the ugly… The album is written entirely in Elizabeth’s voice. These are all her words - her thoughts, based on her personal experience. When writing this record I took inspiration from classic rock LP sequencing, and tried to dial in on a coherent concept, a natural flow. Although these are clearly techno tracks, one would argue they have more in common with rock music than dance music. I wanted to try make something a little diﬀerent, verse/chorus/verse tracks but still heavy enough for the club, full of melody and emotion… poppy but not That kind of poppy. Pale Blue has been known to take on political subject matter in the past, but the politics of love is something we can all relate to.” - Mike Simonetti.

Opening with the slow-blooming and beautifully crafted dreamlike melodies of the aptly titled ‘Spells’, the eight-track long-player navigates and traverses the broader realms of electronica through to lighter pop-influenced touches and sonics for an absorbing and compelling dive. ‘Dive’, the first single from the project, provides a hazy but resonant web of polyrhythms and textures guided by Wight’s captivating vocals, while ‘Laura’ reaches for sparkling leads synths amongst sweeping tones and moments of bliss. Oﬀering up change to the aesthetic ‘Ice Is Falling’ is a stripped-back and haunting production as Wight’s vocals carry eerie tones and pockets of space for a hair-raising eﬀort.

The second half of the project welcomes second and third singles ‘No Words’ and ‘Together Alone’, with the playful tones of the former complementing the wistful and floaty soundscapes of the latter for two tracks to keep listeners in a trance. Closing out the package, ‘The New Year’ is a delightfully worked pop-leaning gem built on electronic foundations with a slinking acid-tinged bassline snaking through the mix, before shaping things up with the anthemic and rosy glow of final track ‘The Last Song’.

Further emphasising Simonetti and Wight’s innate connection and bond when creating and crafting music, ‘Maria’ is an exemplary display of the two at their best across a collection of eight productions straddling the electronic-pop border with poise and aplomb.

Go to Item

Samuel Laflamme

2LP | 2014 | US | Reissue (Waxwork)

42,74 €* 44,99 € -5%

Shirt Kings: Pioneers Of Hip Hop Fashion

Release: 2014 / US – Reissue

Genre: Soundtracks

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Waxwork Records is proud to present MALUM Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Samuel Laflamme. MALUM is a bold and expanded reimagining of the 2014 horror cult classic, LAST SHIFT. On a search to uncover the mysterious circumstances surrounding her father’s death, a newly appointed police officer, Jessica Loren (Jessica Sula) is assigned to the last shift in a decommissioned police station where a notoriously vicious cult saw their demise years prior. The lone officer at the station, she soon finds herself barraged by terrifying paranormal events, and in the process, is taken on a journey during which she learns the shocking truth behind her family’s entanglement with a demented cult leader. MALUM takes the premise of the 2014 festival hit and flips it on its head, thrusting viewers into an unrelenting, adrenaline-fueled, bloody cult nightmare.

About the Composer

Samuel Laflamme is a composer who has strengthened projects across the film, television and video game worlds. Samuel Laflamme began his composing career scoring numerous television shows, documentaries, and ad spots across a multitude of genres. He has collaborated with many of the top video game companies in the industry, including Ubisoft, Activision, and Red Barrels where he worked on the critically acclaimed survival horror-game Outlast. Samuel’s other credits include French Canadian dramatic comedy series Le Chalet, along with the 2016 Canadian-American co-production, fantasy film Wait Till Helen Comes, based on Mary Downing Hahn’s best-selling novel from the 1980’s.

About the Director

Protégé of filmmaker/novelist Clive Barker, Anthony DiBlasi partnered in Barker’s production company Seraphim Films for nearly ten years, serving as a key executive & producer on films such as MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN starring Bradley Cooper and BOOK OF BLOOD. DiBlasi adapted and directed DREAD from the Barker short story, starring Laura Donnelly (HBO’s The Nevers) which won "Best Independent Feature" at the Spike Scream Awards. DiBlasi has adapted several Barker novels for the screen including THE DAMNATION GAME (Warner Bros) and THE THIEF OF ALWAYS (Fox).

DiBlasi directed, co-wrote and edited “Last Shift” a critically acclaimed supernatural horror film released by Magnolia Pictures in 2015. Last Shift was named among the top 5 horror films of 2015 and won both a Golden Skull award and an iHorror award. DiBlasi has directed 8 features including the critically acclaimed thriller MISSIONARY and MOST LIKELY TO DIE for Netflix. DiBlasi recently wrapped production on MALUM, an expanded reimagining of “Last Shift,” and is currently in development on the thriller THE STEP COUNTER with his writing partner and wife Natalie Victoria and Malcolm Spellman’s The 51 (The Winter Soldier).

The debut vinyl release of MALUM features the complete soundtrack by composer Samuel Laflamme pressed to 180 gram colored vinyl.

MALUM Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Features:

The Complete Soundtrack by Samuel Laflamme
180 Gram Colored Vinyl
Original artwork by Jérémy Pailler
Deluxe gatefold packaging

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Edwin "Phade" Sacasa

Dokument

29,90 €*

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he exiting story about how the street wear pioneers Shirt Kings created a style that would define hip hop culture in the 1980s and beyond. Jamaica, Queens, New York in the mid 1980s. Rappers, celebrities and hip hop fans came from all over the city to get their own customized T-shirt by the Shirt Kings. The style traveled all over the world through record covers and music videos, and the Shirt Kings designs soon became synonymous with hip hop and the culture of making something out of nothing. Shirt Kings: Pioneers of Hip Hop Fashion looks at the early days of street wear through the lens of the pioneering group of artistic entrepreneurs known as the Shirt Kings. By adapting the graffiti skills from the trains and spray cans to shirts and airbrush they created a new look for a new generation. Edwin Phade Sacasa is a founding artist of the group and it is through his archives that we are transported to the 1980s in New York City where the fashion was loud, colorful, and filled with cartoon imagery. But not just any cartoon imagery for the cartoons where urbanized. Mickey Mouse with a Fila suit, Casper the Friendly Ghost with gold teeth and Pink Panther with gold chains. People from across the city made their way to Jamaica, Queens to a small shopping mall known as the Coliseum where you could easily bump into the biggest names in hip hop of the day. From DJ Red Alert to LL Cool J to Big Daddy Kane to Mike Tyson – they all had to have their Shirt Kings designs. Shirt Kings: Pioneers of Hip Hop Fashion chronicles the art, the styles, and the people who where loyal supporters of the Shirt Kings, and takes us on a trip down memory lane to when customization and art reigned supreme in New York City. After the hardcover has been sold out for years, just in time for Hip Hop’s 50th anniversary comes another chance to take part of the Shirt Kings’ inspiring history as pioneers of hip hop and street wear in this beautiful soft cover edition. “Shirt Kings brought the hip hop element into the clothes for real and integrated it, and it was the first time I saw hip hop culture completely merged with clothing.” — LL Cool J “The Shirt Kings network was fashion TV of the times, and advertising and promotion way before it became trendy.” — Chuck D, Public Enemy ”Phade and the Shirt Kings are pioneers of hip hop fashion, also it is duly noted that the graffiti element has been elevated and made fashionable thru their airbrushing work.” – RZA ”Phade has been my go to guy since the eighties for all airbrush collabos!” – Dapper Dan Born in East New York, Brooklyn, Edwin Phade Sacasa founded the Shirt Kings in the mid 1980s, where he serviced many of todays Hip Hop stars and pioneers, such as Jay Z and Run DMC. Phade is working with youth in the inner city and have developed a program that teaches urban fashion through art therapy and entrepreneur skills. Alain KET is an artist, photographer, author, artistic consultant, marketing professional and frequent lecturer on the topic of graffiti.

Go to Item

Technics

SA-C600

999,00 €*

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Premium Class Network CD Receiver

Introducing the Network CD Receiver SA-C600—your ultimate gateway to a universe of music experiences, all wrapped up in a single, sleek device. Say hello to seamless integration of your favourite music sources, from cherished vinyl and classic CDs to the latest radio hits and limitless streaming options, while experiencing the pinnacle of audio excellence.

Elevate your listening journey to new heights with the SA-C600, meticulously crafted by the masters of sound engineering at Technics. Immerse yourself in a luxurious sonic landscape where every note, every beat, resonates with unparalleled clarity and richness.

Full Digital Amplifier
The SA-C600 boasts a fully digital amplifier and transmission system, ensuring minimal outside noise interference for accurate signal transmission. Enjoy high-quality digital audio with the smooth texture of analog recordings.

Designed for Sophisticated Music Listening Experience
To keep things visually cohesive, the SA-C600 borrows style elements from Technics turntables, including colour, texture, and dimensions, giving the system a sleek and unified look. Plus, the aluminium top panel houses a convenient CD player with a manually operated lid, adding both practicality and a touch of elegance to the setup.

Twin Power Supply Circuit System
The SA-C600 boosts amplifier performance with a separate power supply exclusively for its circuits, ensuring stable power to two independent transformers. Additionally, the optimized wiring minimises noise for exceptional sound quality.

Built-in Phono Equaliser compatible with MM Cartridge
The SA-C600's built-in phono equaliser is specifically designed for MM cartridges, giving you better performance. It runs on its own power supply circuit, separate from the control circuit, which helps reduce background noise for clearer sound. In addition, its shielded construction keeps out external noise, so your music gets amplified without losing any quality.

Space Tune™
The Space Tune feature—an innovation that customizes your sound experience to fit any space, ensures incredible music no matter where you're listening. Whether you're using the user-friendly Technics Audio Centre app, or selecting from one of the four presets directly on the main unit—Free, Wall, Corner, or Shelf—you can tailor the sound to perfectly suit your acoustic surroundings.* Available for iOS devices only

Compatible with a variety of music sources
The SA-C600 supports a variety of music sources including CD, radio, phono input, optical digital input (including TVs), coaxial digital input, USB input, and more.

Enjoy high-quality sound wirelessly
The SA-C600 can playback high-resolution music wirelessly. It supports not only Bluetooth® and AirPlay 2, but also Spotify Connect®, TIDAL, Amazon Music, and more, and comes with Chromecast built-in™.

Compatible with MQA
The SA-C600 supports MQA and can playback MQA-CD and MQA files downloaded from music streaming services with outstanding sound quality.

Specs:
• JENO Engine (Jitter Elimination and Noise-shaping Optimisation)
• Twin Power Supply Circuit System
• Clean Powered Clock Generator
• Built-in Phono Equaliser compatible with MM Cartridge
• Space Tune™
• Supports a Wide Range of Music Content

Technical Data:
• Output Power: 60 W + 60 W (1 kHz, T.H.D. 1.0%, 4Ω, 20 kHz LPF)
• Load Impedance: 4Ω - 16Ω
• Frequency Response:
- PHONO (MM): 20 Hz - 20 kHz (RIAA DEVIATION ±1dB, 8Ω)
- LINE: 20 Hz - 80 kHz (-3dB, 8Ω)
- DIGITAL: 20 Hz - 90 kHz (-3dB, 8Ω)

• Input Sensitivity / Input Impedance
- PHONO (MM): 2.5 mV / 47 kΩ
- LINE: 200 mV / 22 kΩ
• Analogue Input Terminal:
- LINE x 1
- PHONO (MM) x1

• Digital Input Terminal:
- Optical digital x 1
- Coaxial digital x 1
- USB-A x 1
- USB-B x 1 (PC)

• Analogue Output Terminal: Sub Woofer x 1
• Headphone Output: Yes, Stereo Φ3.5 mm
• Disc Compatibility: Audio CD, CD-R/CD-RW (CD-DA, Discs recorded and finalized on recording devices)

• USB-A
iPod/iPhone/iPad: No
Support Codec:
- WAV: Yes (32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192, 352.8, 384 kHz / 16, 24, 32 bit)
- FLAC: Yes (32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192, 352.8, 384 kHz / 16, 24 bit)
- DSD: Yes (2.8 MHz, 5.6 MHz, 11.2 MHz)
- AIFF: Yes (32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192, 352.8, 384 kHz / 16, 24, 32 bit)
- ALAC: Yes (32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192, 352.8, 384 kHz / 16, 24 bit)
- AAC: Yes (32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96 kHz/16-320 kbps)
- MP3: Yes (32, 44.1, 48 kHz / 16-320 kbps)

• PC(USB-B)
USB Audio Class Specification:
- USB 2.0 high-speed
- USB Audio Class 2.0, Asynchronous mode
Support Codec:
- LPCM Yes (32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192 kHz / 16, 24 bit)
- DSD Yes (2.8 MHz, 5.6 MHz)
DSD control mode: ASIO Native mode, DoP mode

• MQA Decorder: Yes

• LAN(DMR):
- WAV: Yes (32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192, 352.8, 384 kHz / 16, 24, 32 bit)
- FLAC: Yes (32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192, 352.8, 384 kHz / 16, 24 bit)
- DSD: Yes (2.8 MHz, 5.6 MHz, 11.2 MHz)
- AIFF: Yes (32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192, 352.8, 384 kHz / 16, 24, 32 bit)
- ALAC: Yes (32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192, 352.8, 384 kHz / 16, 24 bit)
- AAC: Yes (32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96 kHz/16-320 kbps)
- MP3: Yes (32, 44.1, 48 kHz / 16-320 kbps)

• Ethernet Interface: LAN (100 Base-TX / 10 Base-T)

• Wi-Fi:
- IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
- 2.4 GHz / 5 GHz Band

• Chromecast built-in: Yes
• AirPlay 2: Yes
• Bluetooth® (Support codec): Yes (AAC, SBC)
• Tuner: DAB / DAB+ / FM
• Power Supply: AC 220 V - 240 V, 50/60 Hz
• Power Consumption: 46 W
• Dimensions (W x H x D): 340 mm x 94 mm x 341 mm
• Weight: Approx. 4.8 kg
• Accessories: AC Cord, DAB Indoor Antena, Remote Control, Batteries for Remote Control, Owner's Manual

Go to Item

Technics

SA-C600

999,00 €*

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Go to Item

Technics

SA-C600

999,00 €*

LP | 2010 | EU | Reissue (Sony Music Catalog)

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Go to Item

Sade

Love Deluxe

Release: 2010 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Pop

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Love Deluxe is the fourth studio album by the British band Sade, released on October 26, 1992. The album is widely regarded as one of the band’s most critically acclaimed works, featuring a smooth, soulful blend of R&B, jazz, and sophisti-pop, with lyrics that explore themes of love, heartbreak, and introspection. Fronted by the captivating vocals of Sade Adu, the band created an atmospheric, emotionally rich album that remains one of their signature works.

Love Deluxe marked a return after a four-year hiatus following their previous album, Stronger Than Pride (1988). The band continued to refine their signature smooth, sensual sound while introducing new elements, such as more pronounced soul and trip-hop influences.
The album was both a commercial and critical success, peaking at #3 on the US Billboard 200 and earning platinum certifications in multiple countries. Its success solidified Sade's position as one of the most important and enduring acts in contemporary music.
Lyrically, the album revolves around themes of love in all its forms—romantic, painful, and self-reflective. It balances deep vulnerability with strength, as Sade Adu's mesmerizing voice delivers the poetic lyrics with grace and subtlety.

The album combines elements of smooth jazz, soul, R&B, and ambient music, creating a lush and atmospheric soundscape.
The production is minimalist yet sophisticated, with the band opting for understated instrumentation that allows Sade Adu’s vocals to take center stage. The music is moody and introspective, often using spare arrangements to highlight emotion.
There are hints of early trip-hop in some of the tracks, with slower beats and a focus on deep bass and textured sound design, particularly in songs like "Feel No Pain."

Key Tracks and Highlights:
"No Ordinary Love" – One of Sade’s most iconic songs, this track features a mesmerizing bassline, lush synths, and Sade’s haunting vocals. The song explores the pain and intensity of unrequited love. Its atmospheric production and emotional depth made it one of the standout singles from the album.
"Feel No Pain" – A politically charged track, this song addresses themes of poverty and social struggle, reflecting on the effects of unemployment and hardship on families. It features a groovy bassline and more prominent use of percussion, adding a subtle funk influence to the smooth jazz sound.
"Kiss of Life" – A breezy, upbeat song compared to some of the darker tracks on the album, "Kiss of Life" is a love song that feels light and joyful. The smooth, soulful arrangement and optimistic lyrics make it one of the most uplifting moments on the album.
"Cherish the Day" – A standout track known for its hypnotic guitar riff and understated groove. This song is both romantic and meditative, with Sade’s voice soaring above the dreamy instrumental backdrop, expressing devotion and love.
"Bullet Proof Soul" – One of the more emotionally complex tracks on the album, "Bullet Proof Soul" reflects on the aftermath of heartbreak and the armor people build to protect themselves from further pain. The song’s slow, sultry rhythm and melancholic lyrics add to its emotional weight.
"Pearls" – A powerful, introspective ballad that takes on a more global perspective, dealing with the suffering of women in the developing world. Sade Adu’s voice is filled with emotion as she reflects on themes of sacrifice and hardship. The sparse arrangement, featuring strings and soft percussion, complements the poignancy of the lyrics.
"Like a Tattoo" – This track is a quiet, intimate ballad that deals with memory, regret, and the lasting impact of love. The acoustic guitar and Sade’s delicate vocals give the song a fragile yet beautiful quality.

Love and Heartbreak: Many of the songs, such as "No Ordinary Love" and "Cherish the Day," explore the complexities of romantic relationships, touching on themes of devotion, longing, and heartbreak. The lyrics often reflect on love’s power to both uplift and wound.
Resilience and Strength: Tracks like "Bullet Proof Soul" and "Feel No Pain" delve into themes of emotional resilience and survival, both on a personal level (in love and heartbreak) and in the face of societal struggles like poverty.
Global and Social Concerns: "Feel No Pain" and "Pearls" reflect on broader social issues, such as economic inequality and global suffering, adding a layer of socio-political consciousness to the album.
Production and Sound:
The production on Love Deluxe is both sophisticated and restrained. Stuart Matthewman (guitar, saxophone), Paul S. Denman (bass), and Andrew Hale (keyboards) work together to create a cohesive sound that relies on subtle, detailed arrangements.
The use of space in the production is key to the album’s atmosphere. The arrangements are minimal, allowing Sade’s voice to carry much of the emotional weight. This approach highlights the introspective nature of the songs and gives them a cinematic quality.
The instrumentation features a mix of acoustic and electric instruments, often layering guitars, bass, and keyboards to create lush textures. There is also a strong emphasis on rhythm, with percussive elements adding depth to the slower, groove-based tracks.

Upon release, Love Deluxe received widespread critical acclaim, with many praising its emotional depth, elegant production, and Sade Adu’s vocal performance. The album’s timeless quality has made it a favorite among fans and critics alike.
It was lauded for continuing to push the boundaries of sophisti-pop and smooth jazz, blending these genres with elements of trip-hop, R&B, and world music.
The album was commercially successful, selling millions of copies worldwide, and it has since been recognized as one of Sade’s best works. It was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.
Legacy and Impact:
Love Deluxe remains one of Sade’s most iconic albums, with tracks like "No Ordinary Love" and "Cherish the Day" becoming staples in their live performances and enduring as fan favorites.
The album’s influence extends beyond the soul and R&B genres, with artists in neo-soul and alternative R&B citing it as an inspiration. The album’s minimalist production, emphasis on mood and texture, and themes of emotional complexity have influenced a generation of artists, including Maxwell, D'Angelo, and The Weeknd.
"No Ordinary Love" has been covered and remixed by numerous artists over the years, further cementing its place in popular culture.

Love Deluxe is a beautifully crafted album that captures Sade at the peak of their creative powers. Its blend of sensuality, introspection, and sophistication makes it one of the defining albums of the early 1990s. With its timeless themes of love and resilience, the album continues to resonate with listeners today and remains a cornerstone in Sade’s illustrious career.

Go to Item

Be With 10 Years : Joyride + Labour Of Love

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Be With)

59,99 €*

2LP | 2009 | UK | Reissue (Be With)

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Preorder shipping from 2024-11-15

Housed together in a stunning 380gsm board slipcase with a matt laminate soft touch finish and a UV spot varnish on the beloved Be With logo, we proudly present the Be With 10 Years record and book package.

Record contains 10 exclusive never-before-on-vinyl tracks from 10 Be With family members. 310mm square softcover book printed on a 350gsm woodfree uncoated board. Book block printed on 120gsm Dadong Lucky Bird woodfree uncoated paper. 140gram vinyl with a 380gsm jacket. 1000 copies only for the world, no repress!

THE RECORD: JOYRIDE

10 tracks for 10 Years of Be With from 10 of our favourite artists we've ever worked with over the past decade. As a happily "all over the place" label, the music, accordingly, had to be varied in vibe and style.

We start with a gorgeous acoustic folk track from Thomas Almqvist. I first heard this when our dear friend Andre Allday - who first suggested and then facilitated the Nyanser reissue - played it during our release party for the record at the amazing Hosoi in Stockholm. As something to grab your attention from the off, it's a pretty good opener, I reckon - it'll stop you in your tracks.

We move into an almost totally "lost" Lewis Taylor track, known to and beloved by only his hardest of hardcore fans. Before now, it has only ever seen the light of day on some obscure late 90s CD of "lullabies" compiled by Joan Armatrading. Us neither!

Mic Murphy from Sass/The Mighty Soulmates/The System (!!!) allowed us to use an unreleased track from his mysterious late 90s period. He sent over 7 stunning tracks and, over breakfast one winter morning with my two sons, Rocco and Bruno, the 3 of us selected the track that made us bounce the most while chomping on our cereal.

In deep fall of 2023, myself and Steven (The Funky Paramedic™) had the great pleasure of visiting Tony Henry, leader of the legendary Manchester 80s soul-funk act 52nd Street (those who "put the dance into Factory") to speak some more about a forthcoming retrospective that's been in the works for 5 years now. Fear not - it's coming! Anyway, we went into Tony's amazing studio and he played us the track you hear, here. A demo originally meant for Phyllis Hyman (I mean, come on!), he's very kindly let us use it for this record. A thousand thank yous. It's sensational.

Side A closes out with an elegant exclusive from our favourite Japanese duo, Coastlines, a tropical jazz-funk-fusion track that only they can so effortlessly craft. Sublime.

Side B opens with another total exclusive, and the title track of this compilation. "Joyride" is like some kind of swinging, G-Funk library from the Californian master of modern cinematic soul - Maston. We love everything about this dude. Speaking of California, next up is possibly the coolest ex-pat Manc in all of the Golden State.

Kenny Dickenson's instant classic "Stupid Rain" knocked me out the first time I heard it. The way it starts as a beautifully ornate ambient piece before introducing the barest of pulses to then segue into a full slo-mo cosmic chugger just gets me every time. Man's a genius.

Our great friends from Wilco, Pat and John, comprise The Autumn Defense. Two of the nicest humans in the game and "Bluebirds Fall" is chiming folk-rock at its finest. What they do best and, beyond a tiny-run CD EP decades ago, this is the only way to own this majestic stunner.

Stimulator Jones is a Stones Throw artist who we've loved ever since the epochal "Soon Never Comes" graced our ears. We're putting out his archive beats and when I asked if he had anything fresh that hadn't yet found a home, he sent over a modern / spiritual jazz movement that just blew me away. It's here.

We round out the compilation with a staccato funk-rock track from a Prince alumnus, the one and only Andre Cymone. If this track isn't blasting from radio stations from Dublab to Gilles to NTS then there's no justice in the world.

Of course, as is our way, none of these tracks have ever appeared on vinyl before. This is the only way to own them on wax. Pretty cool. As ever, all we ever want to hear is music with soul and personality. And that's what's contained here. We think we've nailed it. We think you'll like it too.

THE BOOK: LABOUR OF LOVE

Created in conjunction with the editor and design team behind Disco Pogo, Labour Of Love is our first ever book and serves as a brilliantly rich and varied document of Be With's first 10 years. It surveys our entire catalogue with the artwork for every single release faithfully reproduced in full colour accompanied by Rob's inimitable reviews.

The book contains fresh, exclusive interviews with Ned Doheny, Leon Ware, Lewis Taylor, Tommy Guerrero, Wally Badarou, Steve Moore, Pete Fowler, Kimiko Kasai, Tony Henry (52nd Street), The Autumn Defense, Coastlines and The Mighty Soulmates.

There's also fantastic contributions from a whole host of well regarded fans of the label. We have Gilles Peterson on Ned, Trevor Jackson on Nucleus, Efficient Space on Steve Hiett and the joy of collaboration in a competitive industry, Bill Brewster on Marti Caine, Balearic Mike on Kylie and Lou Hayter on her beloved Air.

We explore the development of the Be With logo and also take an insider's look at the journey of a typical Be With record; from the mastering stage with Simon Francis, cutting it up with Cicely Balston, the artwork ordeals with Chris Stevenson, pressing matters with Record Industry, slinging product with ace distributors Word And Sound, stocking product with our favourite London record shop When Spaceships Appear and even packing records for direct orders with our very own Funky Paramedic.

There's also an irreverent look at the legendary Reissue Request Line over on Facebook, with many hints at things to come.

Beautifully designed and printed, the book is a large format (310mm square) softcover gem, printed on a 350gsm woodfree uncoated board. It's been block printed on 120gsm Dadong Lucky Bird woodfree uncoated paper. It's housed in a stunning 380gsm board slipcase with a matt laminate soft touch finish and a UV spot varnish on the beloved Be With full colour logo.

Go to Item

Superstar Quamallah

Invisible Man

34,99 €*

Siegfried Schwab / Larry Coryell / Jasper Van't Hof / Michał Urbaniak / Urszula Dudziak / Chris Hinze / Joachim Kühn

Release: 2009 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Hip Hop

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Holy grail hip-hop alert! Superstar Quamallah's Invisible Man was never released on wax so, to celebrate the 15th anniversary of this astounding record, we present the first ever vinyl edition. A stunning record which gained accolades upon its initial release, such as a prominent feature on Gilles Peterson's renowned Best Of 2009 show, it's one of the most essential jazz rap albums of all time. Cut across double vinyl, it’s exceedingly limited, with just 500 pressed for the world.

Deep jazz rap on that mellow-melodic tip, Invisible Man is an unforgettable album with nothing but dope beats and dope bars. There's a strong chance this album has passed you by but we truly believe it to be a lost hip-hop masterpiece. It supremely captures the essence of a golden age classic without being slavish to the past. No, this ain't some facile throwback rap. It's a fresh and deeply soulful, original album shot through straight from the heart. Perfect to chill to, Invisible Man is profoundly jazz-oriented and captures with simplicity and sincerity the essence of hip-hop circa 1983-1994. It sounds like vibing with your nearest, dearest and oldest friends on a long hot summer night as the tantalising thought that anything is possible fills the air. You know what, we can just call this "magic hour rap" and we think you'll know what we mean. It's just beautiful. Just Listen.

Brooklyn-born, California-based emcee, DJ, and producer Superstar Quamallah was active in the West Coast underground scene throughout the 90s and recorded extensively with such revered names as Defari and Tajai. His parents were some serious artistic heavyweights, too; his father was soul organist Big John Patton, a giant in the jazz world known for his releases on Blue Note whilst his mother was an active designer. However, he remains relatively unknown. Invisible Man, named ostensibly after the classic Ralph Ellison novel, could also refer to how he is viewed by the public at large. With close affiliations to the Hieroglyphics, Dilated Peoples and Likwit crew, his debut EP "Don't Call Me John" arrived in 1999 on ABB Records, after which he took a sabbatical from recording which included graduate school, travelling, teaching at Inglewood High and eventually a professorship of African Studies at Berkeley.

With a laidback flow and deep, relaxing presence on the mic, Superstar Quamallah is equal parts Big Daddy Kane, Rakim and Guru. Invisible Man is refined, soulful, feel-good hip-hop of the old school. Its wise, spiritual and literate sound, combined with the summertime vibes projected by the smooth beats and the nostalgia-inducing samples and vocal scratches, created jazzy boom-bap rap reminiscent of prime De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest and Gang Starr.

Irresistibly bouncing opener "You Need Knowledge" loops sparkling pianos, horns and a nagging whistle refrain with scratched vocal refrains from Slick Rick, Mobb Deep and Guru. The super-smooth head-nod classic "88 Soul" also utilises a beautifully swelling piano line and dusty breaks whilst Quamé reminisces about his childhood in NYC. Deeply moving, the silky, sultry "Black Shakespeare" is built around an elegant piano loop and goes hard on the superman lover tip whilst "For My People...It's Spiritual" is transcendental rap in conversation with Rakim and older gods. The "Moment Of Truth"-sampling "Lonely At The Top" is striking for its undiluted boom-bap stylings and the staccato flute-hop of "Just Listen" is riddled with soulful refinement. The deeply-affecting, wistful-yet-triumphant bells and horn-drenched single "California Dreamin'" is top-tier rap of unimpeachable quality. What a flow!

Another highlight is the rich melodic piano-rap of "Purity", a beautiful ode to the foundations of rap and those keeping the culture authentically alive. Beautifully played instruments and spiritual jazz samples elevate the deep thinking present on "Kunta Kente" whilst the darker jazz-tinged battle-rap of "93 Shit" goes super hard both in a lyrical sense and with its no-holds drum punches. The breezy Rhodes and string loops that serve as the sonic backdrop to the slinky jazz rap of "We Got Plots" are just gorgeous as our hero evokes Common's "I Used To Love H.E.R." with a head-spinning tale of crime, deception and double crossing. And some twist! "Do Win-Dis" has a tense crime-funk backing and rolling beats which complement Quamé's flow perfectly before the record is rounded out by the tough yet jazzy brilliance of rap confessional "Hope She Remembers Me". Just sensational.

Upon its original release, Quamallah himself declared: "My favorite time period for Hip Hop music was definitely between 1983 and 1994 with 1988 and 1993 being two years that standout as extremely impressive years musically and culturally. The fashion, slang, movies, TV shows and vibe during those years was incredible. While totally submerged in the feelings and music of that entire time period, I went to work on Invisible Man and I am excited for people to hear the result! It is an album that I would want to hear from some of my favorite artists of the past and present today. This is not a RETRO trip for me; this is me at my best lyrically and spiritually using the accessories of the 80s and 90s to fuel me. I am a 88 soul as the song states!"

This album goes deep. It goes all in. When Invisible Man first came out it had a real hold on us here at Be With HQ. We couldn't stop listening to it. We'd venture to say it's one of the top 25 rap records of the 2000s. In the years since its release, it has remained a criminally underrated record, an increasingly hidden gem. We sincerely hope this first time double LP release will go some way to correct this. It's been mastered for vinyl by Simon Francis, cut by Cicely Balston and pressed at Record Industry. Finally available on the format it should always have been on, it must never be rendered invisible again.

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Solo's, Duo's And Trio's

LP | 1982 | NL | Original (Keytone)

9,99 €*

Rita Straps, Mieze Slipper, Reiner Maco, Arno Zwickel, Fritz Hüpfauf, Karl-Heinz Bums, Die Nacketolls

Release: 1982 / NL – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Used Vinyl

Medium: VG+, Cover: VG

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Heiße Höschen Party

3LP | 1979 | DE | Original (SR International)

14,99 €*

Ensatina HHV Exclusive Marsh Green Smoke Colored Vinyl Edition

Release: 1979 / DE – Original

Genre: Pop

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Used Vinyl

Medium: VG+, Cover: VG

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Homer

LP | 2024 | US | Original (Big Crown)

LP | 2024 | UK | Original (Pond)

Release: 2024 / US – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Limited to 150 copies, only available at HHV!

Homer Steinweiss has an incredibly storied career in music that started when he was just a teenager. He's drummed for nearly every "retro soul" group that mattered and his distinctive stickwork helped blend the raw-but-receptive soul sound back into the mainstream via the likes of Amy Winehouse & Sharon Jones. He's now one of the most in demand drummers in the world, playing with Jonas Brothers, Clairo, Solange, Adele, and Bruno Mars to name a few. With his debut solo release Ensatina, Homer is stepping to the forefront as both musician and producer. His new record is a reection of who he is now and a testament to how struggle often brings about a needed change. In 2020 Homer had to reckon with considerable emotional turbulence; at the same time that his band Holy Hive broke up, a personal relationship of 20+ years fell apart putting Homer in an uncertain place mentally. The fallout was signicant enough for him to seek professional help. "I was going through these super manic highs and then very depressive lows," Homer describes. "And being in all that, it's just so tough to imagine that the other side is there, that it'll be ok." But, with time, professional help, and support from friends and family, Homer made it through and has been forever changed. This album is a product of that period of his life. The rst song from these sessions, "Now That It's Over" perfectly sums up Homer's triumph through those tough times. It's a song of changing perspective and contemplation with haunting vocals from Hether and Flikka. "Paul (Castelluzzo_ aka, Hether), as a friend, saw me through these highs and lows," Homer points out. "I only had the one line, 'Now that it's over, I'm alright,' but he felt that lyric so much that he wrote all these sections and lyrics and basically completed the song. It was like he was writing to me." Hether also features on album standouts "Deep Sea", a modern love song, "Start Select", a juxtaposition of inspiration and melancholy, and "Forever and Ever and Ever and Ever" which is an incredible contemporary take on the B side soul ballad. Homer uses his innate gift for bringing seemingly opposing energies together on "Racecar Driver", pairing the vocals of Hether & long time friend and collaborator KIRBY to make a genre challenging banger. KIRBY also graces the album opener "Rollin'", an airy, warm-weather invoking song that her raspy voice perfectly compliments. He puts his drumming front and center on "So Get Up!", a bottom heavy infectious track that MINOVA's vocals turn into an instant hit that is sure to smash speakers. On "Wishing Well" & "Hide It Behind the Light I'm Shining Through" Homer is joined by girl named GOLDEN, who's unique voice effortlessly nds the pocket in each tune. The man on trumpet, and fellow Big Crown label mate Dave Guy, puts his incomparable playing on the album closer "Goldie" which Homer says is the part of the movie where the credits roll. Making this album was a refuge for Homer and it put him back on track. Ensatina is a glimpse into the different energies and inuences that make Homer tick. To say he was always much more than a drummer would be an understatement, and this rst solo offering is just the beginning of his next chapter.

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Mura Masa

Curve 1

Sorry! We Did Something Wrong

Release: 2024 / UK – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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a masterclass in hardcore dancefloor and bittersweet feeling...Alex Crossan is both acclaimed and not feted enough' **** The Observer

Available on his own Pond Recordings, Curve 1 is a love-letter to club spaces, and the music and people who fill them.

Mura Masa’s forth album is a full-circle moment. Departing from the pop-leaning narrative and who’s-who guestlist of his most recent records, Curve 1 heads back down the rabbit-hole of club music that’s alternately euphoric, introspective, nostalgic and future-facing. Full of tension and release, ambiguity and playfulness, the significance of Curve 1 is left up to the individual: whether enjoyed solo or in the sweat of a packed room, here is music as enigmatic and layered as its author.

Mura Masa himself introduces Curve 1 as 'a manifestation of an attitude I’ve been cultivating in my personal life; ignore everything. All the content, all of the attention economy, all of it. In doing that, the really meaningful and vital parts of what’s around you make themselves known and unignorable, demanding your energy. It’s my first offering as an independent artist through my own record label, and as such I wanted it to be as free and anti-narrative as possible. Impressionistic. Music as entertainment has in many cases, to me, become very advertorial and excessively sentimental in terms of creating narrative around albums and artists. I wanted to strip this away as much as possible to leave room for the music to create its own meaning in the lives of people who form connections with it. It's hard for me not to explain away the intricacies and ideas contained within these records after having theorised and tolled and executed them over the course of nearly three years, but I think it’s far more fitting of the album’s intent to say simply: listen to it in the dark.'

Curve 1 pulls Mura Masa into focus as one of this generation’s most influential figures. Aptly reflecting his rare standing at the heart of youth culture, Mura Masa recently co-wrote long standing collaborator PinkPantheress’ single ‘Turn It Up’, as well as creating a series of remixes for Troye Sivan’s ‘Honey’. From producing global hits like ‘Boy’s a liar Pt.2’ to seminal records like Shygirl’s Mercury-nominated Nymph, it’s a juncture that has also seen Mura Masa embark on a new chapter of his own. He has set up his label and a creative hub and arts space - The Pond - in Peckham as a base for emerging artists and likeminded creatives, which will launch officially next year. Across his three critically-acclaimed solo albums, Mura Masa has built an audience who will follow wherever his genre-defying work goes next; with 2 billion streams, headline festival sets around the world, and live shows ranging from Alexandra Palace to Warehouse Project.

Curve 1 marks a back-to-your-roots approach whilst also highlighting the trailblazing young star’s recurring theme: to capture ‘that’ curvature in pop culture, to make it Mura Masa’s own, and to push things forward.

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Simple Symmetry

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (New Ears / DIG)

18,99 €*

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Normally records that take a long time to make can sound fractious, convoluted self-absorbed. This is not the case with Sorry! WE DID Something Wrong, the debut from Moscow’s Simple Symmetry, which despite taking three years to create, is a total gas to listen to. Simple Symmetry — aka the Lipsky brothers (Sasha and Sergey) — haven’t really looked to reinvent any wheel, rather they have managed to collate a vast amount of good vibes and well-loved sonic conceits and breathe new life and colour into them. Temporarily ditching the electrifying dance music they are famous for in favour of a universal pop sound — replete with flutes, cello, “all kinds of percussion” and synths, sitar and guitars — the brothers have made an upbeat and incredibly accessible record; a tonic for these uncertain times. At first glance, some of the titles: ‘End of Days’, ‘I Must Not Fear’, ‘Oh Lord’, and ‘Out Of Body Experience’ don’t suggest the expansive and very danceable soundtracks we get to hear. But with the aforementioned tracks and rug cutters like ‘Che Che’, Simple Symmetry re explore those moments in the early-to-mid 1990s when artists like David Holmes, St Etienne, Andrew Weatherall and Death in Vegas looked to plunder the grooves and licks of the 1960s and early 1970s. The bell rings, flutes, harpsichord and vocal harmonies in ‘End of Days’, for instance, suggest the Beach Boys at their most laid back and sunkissed. Or The Monkees when they chowed down with Zappa and made Head. Even the countdown makes direct reference to the 60’s Space Race. Sometimes, the Lipsky’s reappropriations of these kinds of moments in popular music’s history are so brazen it’s best just to laugh at the sheer cheek of it all. Whilst shaking your hips, of course. Life-affirming, comforting even, Sorry! WE DID Something Wrong shows that old tricks can still be magical if used with the right spirit. This record is also the sound of coming together. Literally, as well as metaphorically. Simple Symmetry confirms that “there were many collaborations with artists we love and admire from all over the world, from Russia, Israel, Germany, UK, Brazil and the USA.” Including a guest vocal by their good friend Petr Chinavat on the beautiful, hippy-dippy technicolour paean to one of the ocean’s most mysterious creatures, ‘Octopus’. After a while it’s impossible to think too critically about the whys and hows, especially when confronted by floorfillers like ‘I Must Not Fear’ or the marvellous, gonzoid ‘Koko the Gorilla’ which stomps its way through the simplest, sugariest of melody lines and throwing out kooky vocal samples and comic roars for good measure… Koko turns up on the album cover, courtesy of Athens artist Dimitris Rocos. In a way the beast is a spirit animal for this release: in your face and brazen but (to steal a lyric from Julian Cope) kinda cute. For those needing some respite from all the high jinks, there is plenty of space to sink into a pleasant reverie, courtesy of the Gong-like comedown that goes by the name of ‘What A Relief’ and the Glide-tastic ‘Rounded with a Sleep’; both of which allow the gentlest of comedowns in your favourite seat at the Korova Milk Bar.

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Ilan Pdahtzur presents Night City Life

2LP | 2019 | EU | Original (Spacetalk)

29,99 €*

Godspeed You Black Emperor!

Release: 2019 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Should you find yourself taking a Thames-side stroll in the shadow of the City of London, keep an eye out for the headphone-clad figure of Ilan Pdahtzur. While be-suited bankers and frustrated office workers scurry home to their families, Ilan can frequently be found casting admiring glances towards the blinking lights of towering skyscrapers while filling his ears with the synthesizer-driven sounds of lesser-known 1980s dance music. Ilan, an avid but little-known record collector best known for sharing the artwork of obscure and under-appreciated early-to-mid ’80s club cuts on his popular Instagram feed, has been digging for vibrant, kaleidoscopic records since his teens. Now, thanks to Spacetalk, he’s been given a chance to offer a glimpse into his neon-lit nocturnal musical world. The result is Night City Life, a killer collection of 1980s synthesizer songs inspired by Ilan’s admiration for the glow of London’s late night skyline. Over the course of 13 essential tunes, Ilan escorts us on a vibrant sprint through rare Italo-disco, steamy South African synth-boogie, fizzing American freestyle, oddball Austrian electrofunk and so much more.
There are naturally a fair few sought-after cuts present, but also a fine selection of under-appreciated gems that for one reason or other have been all but ignored since they were released three and a half decades ago. In fact, some selections are so obscure that barely any information exists about them online. Check for example Preludio’s “Mysterious Nights”, an evocative fusion of slow electronic grooves, dreamy chords and twinkling piano motifs previously buried on a lesser-known album of unremarkable German synth-pop, or the dollar-bin brilliance of Fragile’s sweet synth-pop gem “We’ve Got Tonight, Boy”, a cut that Ilan says is capable of “wrapping itself like tendrils around your soul”. He’s not wrong.
At the other end of the scale you’ll find the ultra-rare Italo-disco breeziness of Friend of Mine’s incredible “Just Your Pride” and Mac & Monica’s soulful 1986 South African synth-boogie cut “You’re So Good To Me”, copies of which regularly change hands for hundreds of pounds online. Ilan originally reached out to the men behind the record last year to tell them how one of their other forgotten gems had been played on a Boiler Room session; naturally, they were thrilled. There’s plenty to admire elsewhere on the compilation, too, from the waves of analogue synths, bubbly melodies and bobbing beats of the instrumental dub version of Brian Tatcher’s “Hot Love” – a cold-war era cut inspired by the idea of love blossoming in the midst of a nuclear meltdown – to the Bobby Orlando-esque freestyle bustle of Janelle’s “Don’t Be Shy (Dub)” and the sparkling post-boogie brilliance of Jarmaz’s “Night City Life (Disco Remix)”, a track Ilan has listened to countless times while admiring the midnight skyline of his home city.

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Luciferian Towers

LP | 2017 | CA | Original (Constellation)

Ensatina Orange Vinyl Edition

Release: 2017 / CA – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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The seventh record by Godspeed You! Black Emperor will be released 22 September 2017 on Constellation.

‘Luciferian Towers‘ was recorded during the winter of 2016/2017 at Montreal’s Hotel2Tango, with Greg Norman once again engineering and co-producing (as he did on the band’s previous album ‘Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress‘).

The music on ‘Luciferian Towers‘ took shape over the past two years, amidst GYBE’s collaborative performances with the Holy Body Tattoo dance company’s monumental, and spurred by the commissioning of new compositions memorializing the 100th anniversary of the WWI Battle of Messines, which premiered at a live concert event on the site of the massacre at Heuvelland, Belgium this past June.

‘Luciferian Towers‘ is Godspeed’s third album since the group’s ‘reunion’ in 2011 and their second consecutive single LP-length record (following three double-album releases in 2000, 2002 and 2012).

this, this long-playing record, a thing we made in the midst of communal mess, raising dogs and children. eyes up and filled with dreadful joy – we aimed for wrong notes that explode, a quiet muttering amplified heavenward. we recorded it all in a burning motorboat.

(context as follows:)

1. UNDOING A LUCIFERIAN TOWERS – look at that fucking skyline! big lazy money writ in dull marble obelisks! imagine all those buildings much later on, hollowed out and stripped bare of wires and glass, listen- the wind is whistling through all 3,000 of its burning window-holes!

2. BOSSES HANG – labor, alienated from the wealth it creates, so that holy cow, most of us live precariously! kicking at it, but barely hanging on! also – the proud illuminations of our shortened lives! also – more of us than them! also – what we need now is shovels, wells, and barricades!

3. FAM / FAMINE – how they kill us = absentee landlord, burning high-rise. the loud panics of child-policemen and their exploding trigger-hands. with the dull edge of an arbitrary meritocracy. neglect, cancer maps, drone strike, famine. the forest is burning and soon they’ll hunt us like wolves.

4. ANTHEM FOR NO STATE – kanada, emptied of its minerals and dirty oil. emptied of its trees and water. a crippled thing, drowning in a puddle, covered in ants. the ocean doesn’t give a shit because it knows it’s dying too.

finally and in conclusion;
the “luciferian towers” L.P. was informed by the following grand demands:
+ an end to foreign invasions
+ an end to borders
+ the total dismantling of the prison-industrial complex
+ healthcare, housing, food and water acknowledged as an inalienable human right
+ the expert fuckers who broke this world never get to speak again

much love to all the other lost and wondering ones,
xoxoxox god’s pee / montréal / 4 juillet, 2017

PERSONNEL
Aidan Girt: Drums
David Bryant: Electric guitar, MG-One
Efrim Manuel Menuck: Electric guitar, organ, OP-1
Karl Lemieux: 16mm film projections
Mauro Pezzente: Electric bass
Michael Moya: Electric guitar
Sophie Trudeau: Violins, organ
Thierry Amar: Contrebasse, electric bass
Timothy Herzog: Drums

GUESTS ON TRACK ONE
Bonnie Kane (saxophone, flute, electronics)
Craig Pederson (trumpet)

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Homer

LP | 2024 | US | Original (Big Crown)

There Is Always A Solution

Release: 2024 / US – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Preorder shipping from 2024-11-15

Homer Steinweiss has an incredibly storied career in music that started when he was just a teenager. He's drummed for nearly every "retro soul" group that mattered and his distinctive stickwork helped blend the raw-but-receptive soul sound back into the mainstream via the likes of Amy Winehouse & Sharon Jones. He's now one of the most in demand drummers in the world, playing with Jonas Brothers, Clairo, Solange, Adele, and Bruno Mars to name a few. With his debut solo release Ensatina, Homer is stepping to the forefront as both musician and producer. His new record is a reection of who he is now and a testament to how struggle often brings about a needed change. In 2020 Homer had to reckon with considerable emotional turbulence; at the same time that his band Holy Hive broke up, a personal relationship of 20+ years fell apart putting Homer in an uncertain place mentally. The fallout was signicant enough for him to seek professional help. "I was going through these super manic highs and then very depressive lows," Homer describes. "And being in all that, it's just so tough to imagine that the other side is there, that it'll be ok." But, with time, professional help, and support from friends and family, Homer made it through and has been forever changed. This album is a product of that period of his life. The rst song from these sessions, "Now That It's Over" perfectly sums up Homer's triumph through those tough times. It's a song of changing perspective and contemplation with haunting vocals from Hether and Flikka. "Paul (Castelluzzo_ aka, Hether), as a friend, saw me through these highs and lows," Homer points out. "I only had the one line, 'Now that it's over, I'm alright,' but he felt that lyric so much that he wrote all these sections and lyrics and basically completed the song. It was like he was writing to me." Hether also features on album standouts "Deep Sea", a modern love song, "Start Select", a juxtaposition of inspiration and melancholy, and "Forever and Ever and Ever and Ever" which is an incredible contemporary take on the B side soul ballad. Homer uses his innate gift for bringing seemingly opposing energies together on "Racecar Driver", pairing the vocals of Hether & long time friend and collaborator KIRBY to make a genre challenging banger. KIRBY also graces the album opener "Rollin'", an airy, warm-weather invoking song that her raspy voice perfectly compliments. He puts his drumming front and center on "So Get Up!", a bottom heavy infectious track that MINOVA's vocals turn into an instant hit that is sure to smash speakers. On "Wishing Well" & "Hide It Behind the Light I'm Shining Through" Homer is joined by girl named GOLDEN, who's unique voice effortlessly nds the pocket in each tune. The man on trumpet, and fellow Big Crown label mate Dave Guy, puts his incomparable playing on the album closer "Goldie" which Homer says is the part of the movie where the credits roll. Making this album was a refuge for Homer and it put him back on track. Ensatina is a glimpse into the different energies and inuences that make Homer tick. To say he was always much more than a drummer would be an understatement, and this rst solo offering is just the beginning of his next chapter.

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Vel

2LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Mama Told Ya)

31,99 €*

Spaces And Places Transparent Green Vinyl Edition

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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On October 4, 2024, Vel will make a splash with the release of her debut LP, MTY-011 «There is Always a Solution», through Anetha’s label, Mama Told Ya. After 3 exciting EPs and the recent rise of her Live performance, Vel made waves last year with the track «Velds1» on MTY-AIR «Mille Attaques, Les Vents Contrèrent» in collaboration with LDS. She is now ready to unveil her first full-length album.
«There is Always a Solution» flows with two slippery vinyl records and 10 immersive tracks. Nine tracks are produced solely by Vel, while one is co-produced by Vel and Anetha. Once again, Mama Told Ya returns with a valuable lesson: no matter the challenge, you will flow a way.

Vel is back with a mesmerizing new album featuring 10 tracks that draw you in with her captivating energy. Are you ready to heed the call? The High Priestess of Drums plunges us into a world of vibrant Techno and brisk Tribal rhythms, while her Ambient passages offer a calming retreat and her Mental influences are bound to stir your emotions. Rest assured, “there is always a solution.” Renowned for her expertise in rhythmic innovation and spatial soundscapes, Vel presents a revitalizing and dynamic release. MTY-011 promises to cleanse and rejuvenate—let yourself be immersed.
With a hint of irony, The Babe (A1) playfully teases, “Do you love me? Do you love my music?” But Vel’s real question is more reflective: you’re in deep water. Dive into the sound bath of Humans in Cafe (A2), close your eyes, and let the drums, the kicks, the bangs, and the buzz wash over you. One Xanax Introspection (A3) later, Vel is inviting us to explore the full spectrum of frequencies—a galloping race of deep bass and high treble in this ambient choreography.
« Don’t let the relentless BPM Anxiety (B1) drown you. Its tortured synth may try to hold you back, but you’re free. You’re in your Pop Tribe (B2), and nothing can stop you—DRUM BIG. »
Darling it's better down where it's wetter: joining Vel for a jam session « under the sea », it’s Anetha! Driving percussions are combining with a pulsating psytrance bassline, pure magic: « Ain’t We Mermaids (C1), dear? » Vel, ever the master of the salty beats, slows it down just enough to say, «I Don’t Care (C2),» as she deconstructs. A few moments later… She’s at it again—just when the BPMs are peaking, she draws us into a state of floating lethargy. That’s the absorbing power of Ambient Core (C3).
The current is strong with this one—prepare for a challenge. Deep Tracks Don’t Sell (D1) will drift you away in a swirl of intertwining undulations and dripping drums. It’s time to return to the surface: with a bubbly twist of whimsy, Oh La La (D2) pops in, full of new-wave energy. Vel gently swims us back to shore.
For this new LP, the artwork was crafted in-house under Vel’s artistic direction. The design was skillfully executed by Diplomatie Studio, while mastering was entrusted to In Aeternam Vale, Vel’s close friend and mentor.

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Kerri Chandler

3LP | 2023 | UK | Original (Kaoz Theory)

43,99 €*

El Michels Affair & Black Thought

Release: 2023 / UK – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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House music icon Kerri Chandler unveils his first album in 14 years, Spaces and Places, a global celebration of club and sound system culture, meticulously created by the New Jersey producer/DJ over several years on location at twenty-two of the world’s most distinguished nightclubs. Each track built on the spaces individual relationship with Kerri, often through decades of live shows or appearances, and in the process capturing unique rhythmic and emotional nuances. Written and performed with a temporary studio on the centre of each dance floor, this jaw dropping 3 x LP pressed on transparent green vinyl in a stunningly designed tri-fold picture sleeve complete with A2 poster insert, showcases Kerri at his finest. Taking in never before heard tracks, versions and mixes separate to the four samplers that preceded it, this incredible body of work and concept has seen the album submitted for two Grammy awards. As one of dance music’s most respected and authentic figures, Kerri Chandler is a true originator of his genre, with an impeccable discography and signature sound to match. He has unquestionably helped to shape house music’s positive outlook over the last 30 years. Not only from the DJ booth and studio, but also as an A&R via his Kaoz Theory label which has worked with contemporary talents like Jamie Jones, Seth Troxler and The Martinez Brothers. Now, Kerri Chandler is set to release a carefully rendered and truly unique body of work. Spaces and Places will undoubtedly be seen as a timeless tribute that underscores the originality that has kept him as one of the most in-demand artists for so many years. “The first time I stepped into a nightclub was with my father as a child. I saw the magic of what a club space could sound and feel like as my Dad set up the DJ equipment at The Rallye Racquet Club. Hearing the power of those huge Altec Lansing "Voice of the Theater" Speakers and Horn-loaded JBL subwoofers fascinated me! In the late 80s, I was spoiled sonically by playing on several Richard Long Sound Systems around New York and New Jersey. This is why ever since I first ventured away from home, I have been infamous with my soundchecks at any space I have performed in. I make sure, with the help of the engineers in these “Spaces and Places”, many I have known most of my career, to get the best from each system. Each sound system is unique to each venue, even if it's the same type of gear, because of the physical space. And when you add the right audience to that specific nightclub, it comes to life! The club owners and engineers were gracious enough to let me take over each club and turn each venue, into a recording studio. I wanted to express the love of what could be possible in capturing my productions in the venue, from the heart of each space, right on the dance floor and I translate it onto this album, which I created over the course of 4 years and 24 venues later. I hope you enjoy this journey as I have. I present to you: "Spaces and Places". With Love, Respect and Admiration.” – Kerri Chandler

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Glorious Game Sky High Blue Vinyl Edition

LP | 2023 | US | Original (Big Crown)

22,99 €*

Release: 2023 / US – Original

Genre: Hip Hop, Organic Grooves

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Includes 60 x 60 cm poster of the album artwork! The poster is only available at HHV!

When Leon Michels and El Michels Affair released their rst record, Sounding Out The City, in 2005, it was hard to guess what was next for Michels and his then-introduced, now-patented "cinematic soul" sound. Now, four EMA studio albums and scores of tribute and remix projects later - all while producing for some of the biggest names in the industry - Michels has trademarked his sound, with each project taking audiences somewhere new and pushing the boundaries of what he is known for. The man is a river, not a lake and this time he takes his golden touch into the realm of hip-hop laying down a musical bed for one of the greatest to ever rhyme into a microphone: Black Thought of The Roots crew. Releasing on Big Crown Records, the LP is called Glorious Game and it is a remarkable debut partnership in more ways than one. Michels provides his bottom-heavy, soul-tinged production for Black Thought who gives us some of the more personal and transparent verses we've ever heard from him. Michels and Black Thought have been in each other's orbit for a while now. The two first met in the 2000s when Thought was first getting familiar with the contemporary soul scene. "Out of that whole world, Menahan Street Band was probably my favorite," recalling the funk and soul group Michels was a founding member of back in 2007. Fast forward a few years and musicians from that collective - Dave Guy on trumpet and Ian Hendrickson-Smith on sax - are now full time players with The Roots. This connection eventually led Leon and Thought to doing a few fundraising events around NYC and Philly together. "Before long, Black Thought was coming around the studio and would jam with us from time to time," Michels explains. "Then, fast forward to 2020 and Covid lockdowns, he just hit me up out of the blue, wanting me to send him stuff to write to. We both were looking to stay busy." Being that Black Thought is the co-founder and emcee for, hands down, the best live-band group in hip-hop. Michels took a decidedly different approach to this project and instead of sending recorded tracks of live compositions, he pulled out the sampler and sampled himself and some records from his collection. "I'm a big fan of soul music," as if Michels has to remind us. "And part of hip-hop's appeal to me has always been the sample-based production" For Glorious Game, Michels would make wholly composed and recorded soul songs in his studio, sample himself, then chop and/or loop up his sounds and create instrumentals for Black Thought. On some tracks he took a more traditional hip-hop approach, starting from samples of other people's music but then adding live instrumentation on top. But for the most part, it's him reinterpreting his own compositions into something new. The result is an organic feel of loop-based tracks that breathe and uctuate enough for Black Thought to ex on. "What I write about is determined by the equation of the producer's energy and my energy," Black Thought says. "It's about where we meet." So armed with Michels sampled and re-sampled soul cinematics, Black Thought rhymes through personal memories.

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2x12" | 2022 | EU | Original (Cease And Desist)