Search "the+soul+session+one" 25868 Items

12" | 2022 | US | Original (Albina Music Trust)

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Limited Svart exclusive box set edition. The demo LP will not be available separately.

Hexvessel and Svart Records celebrate the 10 year anniversary of Hexvessel’s debut album Dawnbearer with a set of reissues, including CD, double vinyl plus an exclusive vinyl box set with a bonus LP containing demos and early versions of tracks on the album.

“Dawnbearer is a very important album for us, being our first album but also the first original album release for Svart Records. It’s also a very special record for our fans, and one that’s particularly close to my heart, in a world of its own when compared to the other records we have made. Considering that it’s been out of print now for some time, I’m delighted to be able to oversee a reissue of this album, together with original demos and out-takes, and liner notes showing the making of this album which carries the initial DNA of Hexvessel’s musical and spiritual journey”, says band leader Mat McNerney, “We haven’t touched a thing on the original layout, but added some bonus material for the limited edition, should you wish to own a luxury edition of this, our now classic debut.”

Hexvessel band was founded by English singer/songwriter Mat McNerney (Beastmilk, Grave Pleasures, Carpenter Brut etc) after he moved to Finland in 2009. Their style of music has been referred to as “forest folk” or as Noisey/Vice puts it: “Weaving English folk, lilting Americana, and mushroom-induced psychedelia”. Their debut album 'Dawnbearer' was released worldwide in 2011 on Svart Records and is considered to be an influential classic record of the modern Occult Rock revival. Highly popular with Hexvessel fans and unique in their catalogue, featuring guitars by Andrew McIvor (Code), violin work of Daniel Pioro (who works on Paul Thomas Anderson’s soundtracks with Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead), the early production work of Jaime Gomez Arellano (Ghost, Paradise Lost), and guest vocals from Carl Michael Eide (Virus, Ved Buens Ende, Aura Noir).

“Think Woven Hand, haunted ’60s/’70s pastoral folk, or a darker riff on Midlake. McNerney covers Clive Palmer’s post-Incredible String Band crew C.O.B. and successfully transforms and darkens Paul Simon’s “Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes.” He quotes Crowley, Truman Capote, Isaac Babel, etc. Unlike black metal-ready folk, this is folk by a talented, ambitious black metal musician. But the energy’s there. As is the atmosphere.” - Stereogum

“(Part of) a new wave of bands who share many of the original occult bands' musical and philosophical characteristics, spearheaded by Ghost, from Sweden, and the Devil's Blood, from Holland – have begun to lure in a new generation of fans, predominantly from the metal scene, their names alone – Ancient VVisdom, Hexvessel, Blood Ceremony– point to a focused step back to the age of Wheatley and Hammer. ” - The Guardian (2011)

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Lights Out

Dewa Alit & Gamelan Salukat

Release: 2022 / US – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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"There was no internet, no cell phones. We didn't have streaming services, cable television, or even VCRs. People in Portland were out to see music seven nights a week"

In 1982, it seemed club nightlife in downtown Portland had reached its zenith. Musicians could make a living in a multitude of clubs throughout the city. And they made music on their own terms. Calvin Walker's recollection above speaks to the sovereignty of an independent community devoid of the recording industry's bottom line.

Lights Out gained traction when Pleasure wasn't in the studio or on the road. They were led by Pleasure's trumpeter Tony Collins, whose agenda involved prodding his group with gnarled fusion covers, complex horn arrangements, and masterful wardrobe flexing. "We wanted to be better at what we did," claims Collins. "Everybody grew."

But even with platinum level players holding recording contracts a la Fantasy Records, Lights Out struggled to find bookings in Portland's white-owned club circuit. "There were rules to these things and you had to play by them," remembers Walker. "They had to push up against that."

"I remember it being tough to get this band booked on the West side of the Willamette River back then," remembers bassist John Mazzocco. "When Peter Mott at Last Hurrah called to book us on a Tuesday, I was elated."

Knee-deep in the jazz fusion sound made popular throughout the city, Lights Out soon evolved into a synthesizer-fueled funk group fronted by vocalist Andy Stokes and featuring guitarist Greg "Gee Mack" Dalton. It's this era of Lights Out that made converts of the haters and annihilated 800-capacity dancefloors. It’s this era of Lights Out that is being celebrated on this release.

Recorded in 1982 at Wave Sound Studios - a facility that housed local punk acts such as The Wipers and The Rats - the material on this LP was intended as a demo for Solar Records. As a touring trumpeter for The Whispers, Collins was to pass the reel up the chain. When Solar fumbled it, Collins and Dalton left Portland for Los Angeles signaling the end of the group.

Forty years later, the legacy of this canonical Stumptown act has been remembered in devastating detail. The vinyl package includes a 12-page booklet of the band's oral history and deluxe archival photography. With tape restoration and mastering by Gus Elg, this painfully obscure recording has been waxed and buffed by one of the reissue industry's greatest.

Lights Out personnel have since made waves beyond the Pacific Northwest. Collins founded NDN Records in Atlanta. Andy Stokes has received the Grammy nod, releasing singles with Snoop Dogg and Battlecat. John Mazzocco toured with John Lee Hooker and was recently inducted into the Oregon Music Hall Of Fame. Damian Dillon went on to a successful radio career in Germany. And Greg Dalton has sessioned relentlessly, working with everyone from Patrice Rushen to Kamasi Washington to Tupac.

As Stokes puts it, "Being in this band gave me the strength to branch out. You don’t just do that by yourself. You have a family. This a family.” credits released July 15, 2022

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Chasing The Phantom

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Black Truffle)

LP | 1978 | UK | Reissue (Pure Pleasure)

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Dewa Alit, Bali’s master of contemporary Gamelan composition, returns to Black Truffle with Chasing the Phantom, presenting two recent works played by the composer’s Gamelan Salukat, a large ensemble that performs on instruments specially built to his designs, using a unique tuning system that combines notes from two traditional Balinese Gamelan scales. Alit explains that the ensemble’s name suggests “a place to fuse creative ideas to generate new, innovative works” and both compositions demonstrate the composer’s ability to wring stunning new possibilities from variations on the traditional Gamelan ensemble. While using familiar elements of Balinese Gamelan music, such as unison scalar melodies and stop-start dynamics, Alit’s music is overflowing with harmonic, rhythmic, and timbral inventions, the latter often facilitated by unorthodox playing techniques.

“Ngejuk Memedi”, an English translation of which gives the LP its title, results from Alit’s reflection on the complex relationship between tradition and modernity in Balinese culture, particularly in the way that belief in the phantoms or spirits known as ‘memedi’ are shared through social media using digital technologies. Embodying this uncanny co-existence, the opening passages of the piece are at once immediately recognisable in their use of the metallophones of the Gamelan ensemble and strikingly reminiscent of electronics in their timbre and movement. At points, what we hear seems to have been fragmented with digital tools, or even to originate in some incessantly glitching DX7. Short melodic figures loop irregularly, with the ensemble splintering into polyrhythmic shards before unexpectedly recombining for intricate unison passages. After several minutes of this manically tinkling metallic sound world, the metallophones are joined by drums for a meditative passage of lower dynamics, as the uniformly high pitch range explored in the opening sections gradually opens up to include resonant low gong hits. Recovering some of the manic energy of the opening, but now enhanced with the full range of percussion, the piece weaves through a series of tempo changes to a stunning passage of rapid-fire melodies and ringing chords that sweep across the metallophones, their unorthodox tuning creating complex clouds of wavering harmonies.

“Likad”, written during Covid-19 lockdowns, channels anxiety and uncertainty into musical form, resulting in a piece that, even by Alit’s standards, is stunning in its complexity and the virtuosity it demands of Gamelan Salukat. Its opening section is perhaps most remarkable for its mastery of texture, with rapid transitions between dry, muted strikes and metallic shimmers calling to mind the use of filters in electronic music. At points, the complex irregular repetitions of short melodic patterns, where the music seems to get stuck or be suddenly interrupted by a skip, recall the mad sampler works of Alvin Curran or the skittering surface of prime period Oval more than anything familiar from acoustic percussion music. Moving through a dizzying series of twists and turns, the piece ends with a majestic sequence of chords possessing an almost hieratic power. A major statement from a radical contemporary composer, one cannot help but agree with Alit when he sees Chasing the Phantom as an answer to the “question of the future of Gamelan music”.

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Horace Tapscott

The Call

37,99 €*

2LP | 2021 | EU | Original (Greco-Roman)

Release: 1978 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Through his dedication to the Los Angeles grassroots projects that gave so much stability and focus to many younger musicians, artists and the community, Horace Tapscott became a neighbourhood hero at a time when the world wanted his presence. He stayed in Los Angeles and focused instead on building a community, rarely giving interviews and instead focusing on passing on the message from his mentors. He shaped a unique sound with his arkestra and community minded musicians. It was a close-knit family that emanated a sound that was deep and unique, flowing with a creative spirit that definitely comes through on this album. In 1961 he founded the Pan-African Peoples Arkestra, which aimed to preserve, develop and publicise African-American music through the ever-growing family that emanated within many of the deprived areas of Los Angeles. Through his subsequent collaboration with Bruce Albach, a producer and founder of Nimbus West Records, they sought to document the importance of this music alongside many artists who were energetically linked to the ethos and understanding which came from the collective dialogue. Here the composer leads four extensive arrangements through his 16 piece orchestra, featuring many of the Nimbus West artists including Adele Sebastian, Jesse Sharps and Linda Hill. The music weaves the sound of afro-futuristic music through changing tempos and a relentless dynamic expressive sound that is complex and beguiling with a deep spiritual sound throughout all four tracks. The ceremonial "Peyete Song no. Iii" is a great swirling evocative piece from the large collective, with amazing solos from especially Horace Tapscott who seems to find a sound from the piano that is from another dimension. The arrangement airs an important message of a people and their rituals. Horace Tapscott gives Cal Massey’s composition "Nakatini Suite" a splendid futuristic big band interpretation. The composition had been earlier illuminated by both Lee Morgan on his "Lee-Way" album and John Coltrane on his "Believer" album titled "Nakatini Serenade". Through the more expansive soundscape, the interpretation allows for some great interplay between saxophonist Jesse Sharps and drummer Everett Brown Jr. with the whole orchestra led by Horace Tapscott capturing the essence of Cal Massey’s message. Vocalist Adele Sebastian opens up the free probing arrangement "Quagmire Manor At 5am" composition with a similar delivery as with her "Day Dream" from the classic "Desert Fairy Princess" album before the music takes off onto the mothership adding a sense of what time and space within the manner was about amongst many great musicians and artists. Their journey and moments encapsulated within the music. There are certain albums you hear something new every time you revisit the music and this is one of those albums. An important part of Afro-American history; the politics and art which surrounded the album. If you get a chance check out the film "Horace Tapscott, Musical Griot", by filmmaker Barbara McCullough, or buy the book "Songs Of The Unsung": The Musical & Social Journey of Horace Tapscott’. Mark Jones/UK Vibe

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Lone

Always Inside Your Head

28,99 €*

Inner Song Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 2021 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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On 22nd October, the Nottingham-raised and highly-praised musician/DJ/producer Matt Cutler, AKA Lone, presents his 8th album – and first in 5 years – ‘Always Inside Your Head’. It marks two major changes, with both a new label and new approach – featuring vocalists for the first time. This deeply textural and ethereal artwork is situated high above the clouds, amidst the heavens, occupying a stratospheric state where swathes of synthesized vapour and azure rays sound like a literal breath of fresh air. A varied selection of music influenced the record, but two main influences were Cocteau Twins and My Bloody Valentine. “I wanted to approach a range of different styles, but attack them from their angle in a way, so for example on 'Inlove2' I tried to imagine what a Balearic / acid house tune might sound like if it were produced by Kevin Shields”, comments Lone. Another key example of Cutler’s strange but successful combination of elements is the halcyon bliss of ‘Echo Paths’, where his trademark fat drums and love for hip hop meet double-time pan pipes, dub effects and dream pop, mixed into a wonderfully lysergic concoction. This rarefied auditory stratus was previously evident in tracks like ‘Alpha Wheel 4 (Ambient Mix)’ from ‘DJ Kicks’, ‘Under Cherry Blossoms (Minds Eye Reprise)’ from ‘Ambivert Tools, Vol. 2’, ‘Pulsar’ (from ‘Ambivert 4’), and ‘How Can You Tell’ (from ‘Abraxas’), but is now more fully-fledged, broader in scope and even more celestial. In addition to the above, the LP exists somewhere between trip hop on Mo' Wax, 90s Warp, intelligent drum & bass and ambient house. There are heavier forays too, like ‘Mouth Of God’, where darker clouds emerge, but are pierced like acid lightning with fierce, tearing tech-step bass. Although still firmly rooted in club culture – here Lone shows a definite leaning towards a song-based sound, with several tracks edging towards the same crossover space as the nineties hits which also inspired him – particularly William Orbit’s production on Madonna's 'Frozen', and Olive's 'You're Not Alone'. This is especially evident on the bright, spacious brilliance of 'Hidden By Horizons', where vocals and synths swirl around one another, with crisp breakbeats and reggae rolls pushing purposefully through the ether. Despite initially seeming almost entirely sunny of disposition, upon deeper immersion there’s lot more beneath the album’s surface, both in its deep pools of immiscible layered elements, and also thematically. When recording Cutler kept in mind a loose narrative based on birth, death, and our existence in-between. He then extended this idea to reach what may happen after death, which is reflected in the sequencing: By penultimate track ‘Undaunted’ the life reflected in this longplayer has come to an end, which is then followed by 'Coming In To Being And Passing Away' – an afterlife epilogue, which evokes a transition from this world to the next.

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Kelly Lee Owens

2LP | 2020 | EU | Original (Smalltown Supersound)

Dogma Crystal Clear Vinyl Edition

Release: 2020 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Kelly Lee Owens' masterful second album Inner Song finds the convention-blurring techno producer and singer/songwriter diving deep into her own psyche — excoriating the struggles she's faced over the last several years and exploring personal pain while embracing the beauty of the natural world. It's a leap in artistry from a musician who burst forth on the scene with a confident, rich sound, and Inner Song is endlessly enticing when it comes to what Owens is capable of. Inner Song follows the star-making debut of her 2017 self-titled album, a quixotic blend of body-moving beats and introspective songwriting that garnered numerous accolades from the music press. Owens has indeed come a long way from her backgro
und as a nurse, since then she has remixed Bjork & St Vincent, released an indelibly clubby two-tracker, 2019's "Let It Go" b/w "Omen," and teamed up with likeminded auteur Jon Hopkins on the one-off "Luminous Spaces." Her latest album also comes off of what Owens describes as "the hardest three years of my life," an emotionally fraught time that, in her words, "Definitely impacted my creative life and everything I'd worked for up to that point. I wasn't sure if I could make anything anymore, and it took quite a lot of courage to get to a point where I could make something again." So while the lovely cover of Radiohead's "Arpeggi" might strike some as an unconventional way to open a sophomore effort, to Owens the winding take on the classic tune — recorded a year before work on Inner Song properly kicked off — represents the sort of sonic rebirth that's so essential to Inner Song's aura. Inner Song was largely written and recorded over a month last winter. As with her debut, Owens holed up in the studio with co-producer and collaborator James Greenwood — and letting loose in the studio and being open to whatever sonic whims emerge was essential to Owens' craftwork. The evocative title of the album is borrowed from free-jazz maestro Alan Silva's 1972 opus, which was gifted to Owens Smalltown Supersound's Joakim Haugland for her 30th birthday: "I'm so grateful for him and his perspectives — he's always thinking outside of the box. Those two words really reflect what it felt like to make this record. I did a lot of inner work in the past few years, and this is a true reflection of that." The hair-raising bass and tickling textures of Inner Song drive home that, more so than ever, Owens is locked in to delivering maximal sonic pleasure — as evidenced by the decision to make the album's vinyl release a sesqui album, or triple-sided album: "I'm still obsessed with frequencies that don't do well on vinyl if they don't have the space." "The power of conceptualizing who you are has really informed this album," Owens states about Inner Song's essence, and her second album is truly a discovery of self — the latest statement from a fascinating artist who continues to surprise, gesturing towards a rich and varied career to come.

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LSDXOXO

LP | 2024 | Original (Because Music)

12" | 2024 | UK | Original (Central Processing Unit)

Release: 2024 / Original

Genre: Hip Hop

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The principles of pleasure radiate a knowing, carnal heat throughout the genre-fluid sound of LSDXOXO. His decade of dedication to the sensibility of underground club culture has brought forth club classics interwoven with pop music hooks and subversive, tongue-in-cheek lyrics.

After four years of what LSDXOXO, real name RJ Glasgow, calls a period of "healing and self-discovery," he is consolidating his multiplicitous sound with one compelling masterstroke: the debut album DOGMA, to be released on his own imprint F.A.G. DOGMA marks a complete paradigmatic shift: it is a poetic and fantastical performance, a route for deep escapism through an expanded musical palette including piano and guitar, and a deeply personal confessional through a fresh approach to songcrafting.

Within DOGMA, RJ meditates on the interlinked qualities of fame, infamy, lust and submission, as he rediscovers a pure, unadulterated approach to music-making, all the while adopting a futurist approach to pop music appreciation. RJ's unmistakable signatures-the smutty dancefloor caller, the maker of irresistible bangers, the latter-day electroclash and DnB nostalgist-take on even more shades and intricacies. Despite his widespread acclaim as a collaborator with and songwriter for other artists, RJ strips DOGMA down almost exclusively to himself, carving out intentional space as a chameleonic vocalist and performer. He breathes life into the album with private thoughts, external fears and a red thread through personal themes that crystallise the album's narrative from front to back.

The album's promo single "Bloodlust" offers angsty, intimate indie-tronica, and musings on the intoxicating nature of love and infatuation. The lead single "Ghost" reaches beyond RJ's Philadelphia origins to find itself in the deep south, in a sultry fever dream of coquettish R&B featuring backing vocals from close collaborator Kelela. Elsewhere on the album futuristic love, pensive pop earworms, evocative vintage dance styles and sleazy club tracks intermingle. While the DOGMA era will eventually explore remixes and reworks, the album is RJ's purest embrace of himself and his artistry.

RJ first garnered attention as LSDXOXO in New York City with his on-the-pulse Soundcloud edits and then as part of the cult GHE20GOTH1K collective. His DJ sets and productions quickly earned him acclaim across globally-linked underground scenes. His decision to shift from sampled vocals to picking up the pen and microphone pushed his reach out to the stratosphere; his association with XL Recordings via the Dedicated 2 Disrespect EP in 2021 was a turning point for the burgeoning superstar.

This multiplicity of the LSDXOXO sound has led to enviable co-signs. These include being selected as the opening DJ for Beyoncé's German Renaissance tour dates, remixing Lady Gaga, Pink Pantheress and Shygirl and producing five tracks for Kelela's highly acclaimed 2023 album for Warp Records, Raven. His fully-realised live show has also taken to the stage, serving fierce charisma to huge audiences at festivals including Primavera, Nuits Sonores and Rewire.

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Karsten Pflum

Liars

12,99 €*

Up On Gravity Hill Yellow Vinyl Edition

Release: 2024 / UK – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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In a convergence of two of the most celebrated names in contemporary electronic music, Karsten Pflum steps out on Central Processing Unit with the Liars EP. As anyone who has followed either Pflum's work for labels such as Worm Interface/Furthur Electronix or the Sheffield imprint's recent run of top-quality electro joints will have expected, this coming together proves to be a match made in heaven.
What we have here is a tour de force of modern machine music. With Liars, Pflum achieves that rare feat of making something that is at once boundary-pushing yet also thrillingly immediate, his attention to detail shining through with each well-placed snare hit or leftfield structural choice. Equally apt for home listening or dancefloor deployment, Liars is a delight for heads and hedonists alike.
Constantly evolving while also cleaving to a relentless groove throughout, opener 'wan1' is a brilliant scene-setter for Liars. The track slinks between sections of seething post-Drexciyan acid and eerie vignettes which balance out haunted house synth licks with the sort of punishing bass blasts that recall early grime classics like Youngstar's 'Pulse X'. A sly shift of key halfway through the track only serves to redouble 'wan1's restless brilliance.
After 'wan1', 'lola' represents something of a gear-switch. The track's wiggly opening bassline is a red herring - make no mistake that we're fully into braindance territory on this one, the drums skittering across the mix as Pflum fills the track out with jungle-adjacent delays and softly insistent synth pads. As 'lola' goes on, blurts of synth and some stiffening in the drum work pushes the track into pure rhythm workout territory.
First B-side 'mousfolk' somewhat splits the difference between Liars' A-sides. This track has 'wan1's unyielding stomp and prominent acid bass line, but the helter-skelter drum breaks and wandering keyboard lines are very much pulling from 'lola's zanier energy. As with the other joints here, 'mousfolk' is elevated by Pflum's composerly touch, the Dane frequently throwing in new sonic tidbits - a skippy snare tattoo, a single-note synth loop which sounds like a hovering spaceship - that reinvigorate the mix.
Pflum's musicality is at the fore once more on closer 'balm'. For the first section of 'balm', a rich and sombre keyboard fugue, you'd be hard pressed to say whether you're listening to a producer of club music or a contemporary classical maestro. The way Pflum builds this central motif up with deft broken-beat drum programming, a wheezing synth countermelody and distant vocal sighs is equally delightful, the whole track coming off like a kindred spirit of the electronica-infused experiments on Radiohead's 2000 masterwork Kid A.
A brilliantly unorthodox collection of electro-braindance hybrids, Liars is a barnstorming Central Processing Unit debut from the seasoned Karsten Pflum.
Riyl: AFX, Silicon Scally, DMX Krew, Matmos

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Metz

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Sub Pop)

A Love Supreme Uhqr Limited Edition Box Set

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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With time, we come to understand the way the joy of connection is mirrored by the void of loss, how the constancy of love is matched only by the impermanence of life, the simple idea that we could not create light if we did not risk the dark - we'd never need to. So it is with Metz, a band once known for blowing out eardrums with songs of joyous rage who have, over their past few records, begun exploring ways to turn abrasiveness into atmospherics, the evolution of their sound not only a reflection of the maturing of the band themselves but also of a changed world that demands nuance and compassion to comprehend and to survive. It was a journey already underway on 2020's Atlas Vending, but one that reaches new heights on Up On Gravity Hill, where the Canadian trio creates a kaleidoscopic sonic world as tender as it is dark, aided once again by engineer Seth Manchester (Mdou Moctar, Lingua Ignota, Battles, The Body). Deep, detailed, and unyieldingly personal, it is not only Metz's most powerful record to date but also their most beautiful. Still three punks from Ontario at heart, guitarist and vocalist Alex Edkins, drummer Hayden Menzies, and bassist Chris Slorach waste no time as opener "No Reservation/Love Comes Crashing" sweeps in like a wave, sonically and thematically setting the scene for the record to come. A dynamic song about feeling suspended in stasis, layers of dissonance melt into a restlessly heady outro marked by escalating crescendos of shimmering noise that reach for the stars - and is that a violin quivering brightly beneath those elegant swells of guitar, those charging drum fills, those intricate bass lines? It is indeed, courtesy of composer Owen Pallett; his presence an immediate indicator that Metz are thinking more cinematically than ever before. The change is partially inspired by Edkins' work as a scorer for film and television and his pop-leaning solo project, Weird Nightmare, where, he says, he learned to write more intuitively, letting his emotions lead the way. But make no mistake: Up On Gravity Hill is a total band effort, the work of three musicians who have been playing together for over a decade, with all the trust that entails. For those who believe in the power of the rock band to exemplify the highest resonance of human connection, there is much on Up On Gravity Hill to lift the spirit, a puzzle worth repeated listening to unlock or just to get lost in again and again. Rather than the music being flattened into a single plane, the band explores "the space above the cymbals," resulting in some of the most spacious, sympathetic, and accessible songs - could we call them pop? - of their career. If this seems contradictory, well, Metz has always been something of a contradiction. "We've never been heavy enough for metal or hardcore purists, but we're way too heavy for indie rock. We just don't have a lane - and that's okay. We exist outside the lines of delineation. I think this record is even more like that," says Edkins.

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John Coltrane

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

201,99 €*

The Sound Of Love International 005

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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Orpheu The Wizard

2x12" | 2023 | UK | Original (Love International X Test Pressing)

LP | 2023 | EU | Original (Alien Transistor)

Release: 2023 / UK – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Orpheu the Wizard has a magic touch at finding records that fall between the gaps in music - oddities, curios, the weird, the wonderful. But that's just half the trick. It takes a sensitive and selective ear to construct a coherent, accessible narrative from them. So you get DJs who can play for the crowd and "selectors" adept at mining the black gold. In Orpheu, you've got yourself someone who can do both. On a festival main stage, he can keep it weird enough for the heads. In an audiophile setting, he'll keep the flow.

These skill sets come into play on the fifth The Sound of Love International compilation. Jumping between genres, decades, continents, the truly rare, and many B-side cuts that passed you by. But never eclecticism for its own sake; this collection makes sense. Orpheu never loses sight of the listener - he's a friendly and knowledgeable guide to the cosmic outer reaches.

He opens his account with the warm, psychedelic electronics of Drawing Future Life, with ‘1969’. Tucked away on the B-side of an LP of ambient/trance hailing from Fukuoka, this is a very pretty piece of music on a truly rare piece of wax. Then, leapfrogging a couple of decades and timezones, we have Rutuu Poiss' "IHATSIN." Off-kilter, experimental sounds with an endearing melodic hook, followed up by the with lethargic ambient breakbeat of Digital Distortion's "Mellow Bug".

On the B-side, things start to get lively. French Audacity featuring Valerie's "That Fine One" is Gallic garage that has simultaneously got it hugely wrong and massively right. Owing as much to new wave as New York house, this is propulsive and quirky dance music at its finest. Next, we're on a ferry over the channel for DJ Spike and "Gaps In Space." Up-tempo electro with a fondness for sampled vocal cut-ups, like its predecessor.

lnterdance's "Kurz" (another B-side) is the perfect segway - house from 1990 with that sweet, slightly goofy naivete. Things move toward the gnarly with Bad Behaviour and "Living on Smoke," a lesser-known cut on the legendary Atmosphere records. The tempo edges upward on "Systematic Input" by Frequency, hectic hardcore techno that still retains a lightness of touch.

"Lushes" by Diffusion spins us off into space, filigree techno with an emotive trance edge. The chiming intro of "Blue to Be Happy" by MFA lulls us into a sense of false security before massively putting the boot in with a pounding kick drum, bassline, and arpeggiation. From there, it's a sharp left turn into the urban psychedelic dub of R.I.P's "E.O Pan" on cult label Digi Dub.

Sticking with UK sound system music but taking it down a notch, Orpheu closes proceedings with a leftfield reggae excursion from the master of the mixing desk, Mad Professor’s"Oh Hell".

It's a compilation as varied as the many moods and grooves of Love International itself - from sun-dappled olive groves to moments deep in the strobes. This is serious music for party freaks or party music for serious freaks. Tisno is calling.

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Minhwi Lee

Borrowed Tongue

Tape | 2023 | US | Original (Tompkins Square)

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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Muireann Bradley

I Kept The Old Blues

13,99 €*

LP | 2024 | US | Original (Dandy Boy)

Release: 2023 / US – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Muireann Bradley is a young blues, ragtime, roots and folk guitarist and singer based in Ballybofey in County Donegal Ireland. Tompkins Square actually signed her when she was 13, but because of Covid and just “growing up", the process of recording took place over three years. She will be 17 in December, 2023. "This is my first album. Most of these tunes were originally recorded by the great blues men and women who were making records from the 1920s and 1930s right up in some cases to the early 1970s. I have also found inspiration for the renditions recorded here in the playing of some of the musicians who began recording this music in the 1960s and later, and who in some cases learned at the feet of the greats. Many of these guitarists played pivotal roles in the 1960s blues revival and subsequent 'rediscovery' of many of the greats of country blues. I grew up steeped in these old blues in the hills overlooking the valley of the River Finn just outside the town of Ballybofey in County Donegal. My father would play this music constantly at home and wherever we went in the car and talk about it endlessly whether anyone was listening or not, telling stories about the lives of these musicians as if they were legend, mythology or the evening news. My father could of course play all this stuff on guitar, I remember watching him when I was very young and thinking 'I want to be able to do that'. When I was nine he agreed to teach me and bought me my first little travel guitar. I worked hard to learn how to play but as time wore on I seemed to have less and less time to practice as I became more and more invested in the combat sports I was regularly training and competing in. Then in March 2020 the first Covid lockdowns happened and all contact sports were shut down. I was lost for a while but soon found my way back to the guitar. I was now listening, playing and practicing with a new intensity and focus. In a very serious moment I wrote out a list of tunes I was going to learn. The first tune on that list was Blind Blake’s 'Police Dog Blues'. I’m not sure now how long it took to get that arrangement together but when it was ready we videoed me performing it and posted it on YouTube. It ended up getting a lot of attention, I remember my parents being quite shocked and soon after that Josh Rosenthal got in touch… and here we are! Each individual track on this album was recorded live in the studio and represents one entire take with me singing and backing myself up on guitar simultaneously. Most are either first or second takes. Nothing has been added or taken away, no overdubs or modern recording tricks of any kind have been used at all so at least in some respects this album has been recorded in the same way as those classics of the 1920s and 1930s. I hope you enjoy the record."—Muireann Bradley May 2023

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Yea-Ming And The Rumours

I Can't Have It All

31,99 €*

An Evening With The Devil

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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Wendell Harrison

LP | 1973 | JP | Reissue (P-Vine)

36,99 €*

Black Harvest Orange Vinyl Edtion

Release: 1973 / JP – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Tribe co-founder and saxophone legend Wendell Harrison’s 1973 leader debut!

Following the 1972 release of Message From The Tribe, the second release from vaunted spiritual jazz label Tribe, was co-founder Wendell Harrison’s solo debut, An Evening With The Devil. Originally included on the A-side of Message From The Tribe’s first version (the edition featuring a photo of a quay on the cover), the release of An Evening With The Devil in 1973 saw the suite fully realized, with two additional songs and studio knowhow making the album a true spiritual jazz masterpiece. Opener “Mary Had An Abortion” is part-spoken word poetry and part-free jazz freak out, but as Harrison’s gravelly baritone intermingles with atonal piano lines, it transcends the limitations of both. “Consciousness” is in a similar vein, with cymbal crashes and drum fills serving as a backdrop for a poem with references to police brutality and racism that seem as relevant now as they were 50 years ago.

“Angry Young Men”, originally recorded on Message From The Tribe, is now split into two parts and placed at the end of the A-side and opening of the B-side, physically and musically bridging the original suite with the new compositions. A horn line that could only be described as angry descends over an aggressive drum pattern, and as Tribe regulars Marcus Belgrave, Phil Ranelin, Charles Moore, and William Austin take turns soloing, the rhythm section seems to get more aggressive, undulating under these solos that take the song’s message and express it through simple notes. But it’s Harrison’s extended solo on the B-side that truly makes the song. He starts out almost subdued, playing fairly standard hard-bop lines over minimal accompaniment. But he quickly picks up, letting his horn honk and screech, with flurries of notes that almost sound like screams. The rhythm section matches him, building and building until Harrison plays the head once more - finally allowing the band to return to normalcy.

In comparison, album closer “Rebirth” is almost calm, with Marcus Belgrave playing a somber melody over a bed of rumbling percussion. It practically sounds like a requiem, until five major chords are struck by the band, ending the album on a literal joyous note. If Harrison hoped to express death and rebirth with this final song, the juxtaposition of the two completely disparate sections does a perfect job.

The hallmarks of a Tribe album are all over An Evening With The Devil. It’s spiritual and technical, and words simply don’t do it justice (despite my best attempts). Yet it also stands out among the Tribe releases by being one of the first. The DIY aesthetic and iconic design language are all there, but when presented with a sound that could only be described as raw, these early recording techniques are just right. The only way to truly experience the album is to put the needle to the groove, and let the music of Wendell Harrison wash over you. P-vine is proud to be reissuing Wendell Harrison’s An Evening With The Devil with modern remastering and an obi-strip on limited edition black vinyl.

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Green Lung

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Svart)

33,99 €*

CD | 2022 | US | Original (Hip Hop Enterprise)

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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El Gant

O.S.L.O.

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Morr Music)

Release: 2022 / US – Original

Genre: Hip Hop

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It's here! HHE secured a limited CD release of the new El Gant album O.S.L.O! Production and features by DJ Premier, Marco Polo, Ras Kass, Planet Asia, Killah Priest, King Magnetic, J57, Jon Doe and more! What's even better is that 2 bonus tracks will be added! Very limited one-time press of 150 joints only!

Check the breakdown...

“This album outlines my growth as a human. I wanted to share it as a way to help others who have experienced personal tragedies and may need help processing that.” —El Gant on his new solo album, O.S.L.O.

Following several tragedies in his personal life, New York rapper El Gant had a decision to make—face those losses head on or bury them deep within. Luckily for us, he chose the former. The result is O.S.L.O., the emcee’s most gripping and personal project yet. It’s also his most relatable, because it shows what we’re all capable of when we’re equipped with the right tools to cope and, in El Gant’s case, transform that tragedy into something powerful.

The album arrives nearly a decade after his previous solo effort, 2014’s great Beast Academy, and after several years spent touring and recording with his group, Jamo Gang, with Ras Kass and J57. Despite the highs associated with that time, El Gant also experienced major personal losses. In particular, he lost three close friends—The Last Original, Bones, and Jim Misa—all of whom had a major impact on his life and career. In fact, the album’s title, O.S.L.O., references the Last Original, because it’s an acronym for “Our Sun the Last Original.”

“His death really made me think about life and I made some huge transformations after that mentally, physically, and financially,” El Gant says. You can hear that personal growth on standout tracks like “Leave It Alone” and “Rubber Match,” produced by the legendary DJ Premier and J57, respectively. But it’s the stirring closing track, “Beautiful Disaster,” where El Gant speaks on losing his close friend, the Last Original, and how he found beauty amidst the chaos of those final days.

But it wouldn’t be an El Gant project without some straight-up dope hip-hop, too. Tracks like “Avirex (feat. Innocent? & King Magnetic)” and “Chromed Out (feat. Ras Kass & Planet Asia)” are absolute bangers filled with shape-shifting flows and crazy wordplay.

There’s a reason for these tonal shifts, too; El Gant didn’t want to simply create a linear album. “I want to take the listener on a few ups and downs, just like life does for most of us,” the emcee says. It’s those qualities that make O.S.L.O. so immediately satisfying, and why it’s his most accomplished work to date.

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Haleiwa

Hallway Waverider

We Salute You, You, And You Colored Vinyl Edition

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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»Hallway Waverider« is Mikko Singh’s second album for Morr Music under his Haleiwa moniker. Blending the washed-out aesthetics of dream pop with a lo-fi take on modern psychedelia, it is a fuzzy record in more than one sense. The ten songs see the multi-instrumentalist explore the sonic idiosyncrasies of analogue recording equipment while also expressing a self-assured statement by a musician who has carved out a niche for himself and feels perfectly at home in it. “This record is like me telling my teenage self that I am OK,” says Singh. “Back then, I was recording my song ideas on cassette players but held the belief that music should be recorded in an expensive studio with expensive gear in order to be real.” As it turns out however, Singh had been right from the start, having come full circle as an established artist some twenty years later.

After exploring the affordances of vintage equipment for 2019’s »Cloud Formations« LP, Singh worked with a Tascam 244 4-track cassette recorder and Tascam 388 8-track reel-to-reel recorder to transform the sounds of his vintage synthesizers, bass, the occasional guitar part, and drums supplied by Svante Karlsson for »Hallway Waverider«. By experimenting extensively with the machines’ unique sonic qualities and constantly reworking the pieces in regards to their sound signature over the course of two years, Singh has found the perfect equilibrium of electronic music and lo-fi aesthetics while navigating with ease through styles like driving surf rock, gritty garage punk and ethereal dream pop. On his new record, he seamlessly integrates these influences into anthemic yet soothing songs.

The title of the album refers to Singh’s halcyon days as a teenager spent listening to punk music and—in wintertime—skateboarding in his own bedroom. The lyrics refer to surfing as a nod to both his own experiences with riding the waves and the music genre that has provided him with inspiration throughout his career as a prolific recording artist with three solo albums under his belt. However, surfing primarily serves as a metaphor for something bigger. “It’s about things in life that are important to me; things that make me feel good and soothe the mind,” he explains. It comes as no surprise then that »Hallway Waverider« is also dedicated to a key figure in his life. “The album is an ode to my mother who passed away in 2015,” says the artist. “She made it possible for me to have a good childhood and to be able to do what I love.”

This sense of closure and being at peace with himself is also expressed in lyrics like "A sea stroll. Going slower. Feeling featherlight,” expressing a calm that perfectly mirrors the music’s steady grooves and welcoming overall feeling. Starting with the upbeat »River Park/ Sleeping Pill«; to the almost ambient, synthesizer-heavy »A Bottomless Pit«; or short, punk-inspired and bassline-driven outbursts like »Watered Down« or »Halulu Lake«; to the blissful title track that closes the album, Singh opens up a whole panorama of different moods across a broad variety of musical styles. They are connected by that rare thing: a unique musical vision expressed by an instantly recognisable sonic signature.

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LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Pelagic)

Wanna Take You There Colored Vinyl Edition

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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After five years of radio silence Sweden's most accomplished cinematic post-rock ensemble EF return with a stunning comeback studio album which channels the band's raw emotion and aptitude for melancholia, capturing their signature sound in unprecedented clarity and richness. We Salute You, You and You! is the picture capturing a thousand words, like the first light of day falling on your face or the exuberant smile of a young lover_ it is the dance of eternity in the single moment: a warm "welcome back!" for long-time fans and a resounding "nice to meet you!" for those who yet have to get to know the great four-piece from Gothenburg. For over 20 years EF have been bridging the divide between the sublime and the fragile with magistral compositions characterised by moments of emotional catharsis and marked human frailty. Combining the indie rock mannerisms of Explosions IN THE SKY with the hardcore attitude of Mogwai and the orchestral approach of Godspeed YOU! Black Emperor, EF capture the magic of post-rock around the turn of the millennium, when the genre was still young and freshly exciting. Their 2006 debut album Give Me Beauty_ Or Give Me Death! is an underrated post-rock classic that marked the start of a storied career with many seminal studio albums ahead of them. However after 15 years that fabled career seemed to come to an end as: after one last performance at Pelagic Fest in Berlin in 2018, the members of EF became quiet and little was heard of them since. Mastered by Magnus Lindberg, We Salute You, You and You! is a veritable celebration of the grandeur of post rock. From the giant ringing piano intro of album opener Moments of Momentum to the massive syncopated bass lines of Wolves, Obey! all the way to the enchantingly beautiful lone horn break on Apricity and the intricate union of horn section, strings and band in the climactic build-up of Chambers. Sprinkled throughout the record are countless instances of these little grand moments and gestures. EF have opened their treasure trove to show what's still in it, and it is full of riches. But We Salute You, You and You! is not just induging in past glory, it is also transcending the narrow realm of instrumental rock: almost all tracks on the album have vocals this time around, and even screamed vocals make a debut in EF's discography here. "We've previously had pretty heavy aggressive parts in songs, but we've never screamed," explains A°strom once more. "With this album we've tried to be more direct, more consistent. Maybe take it back a few notches to rhyme better with our youth as hardcore musicians. The screaming just came naturally." EF have tremendously broadened their sonic palette with this album, while at the same time staying true to their charismatic formula of sound which we love them for. With a host of immediately memorable melodies and truly sublime compositions, the four from Gothenburg have once more delivered an overwhelming experience of glorious wistfulness and melancholia - an album which is right up there with the classics that have inspired them.

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Dives

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Siluh)

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Arjunamusic)

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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Samuel Rohrer

Hungry Ghosts

21,99 €*

DJ Tudo E Sua Gente De Todo Lugar

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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Pancada Motor - Transformacao E Cura

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

Let's Turn It Into Sound Neon Yellow Vinyl Edition

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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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)

LP | 2021 | EU | Original (Saturate!)

Release: 2022 / US – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Pixelord

Demonslayer

Release: 2021 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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"Insane and heavy beats by the og don Pixelord featuring great remixes by an all-star line-up comprising Dj Ride, Dj Pound, Starkey and Dranq!

Like a lightning bolt in the middle of a dark sea, Pixelord has returned once again from the frozen lands to shock and disquiet the tides of Futuristic Bass Music. Perhaps the best thing about Russian electronic music godfather Alexey Devyanin's Pixelord project returning to Saturate! for this "Demonslayer" release is not simply the exciting and hard-hitting beats contained within, but the simple fact that it shall be offered on delicious, glorious Vinyl. An artifact for all time, perhaps to be found in future wastelands by those who would consider this "Demonslayer" to be the VanHelsing (or perhaps Trevor Belmont) of the 21st century bass music scene.

The last decade has seen Pixelord riding the wave of forward-thinking bass music, and always staying at the crest, and 2020 is no different. "Doomguy" comes tearing straight in with menacing, distorted synth weaponry, assaulting with ballistic beats (even some nods to Junglism) until finally bestowing some glittering melody atop the fray, showing that not only is Alexey an elder-statesman of the genre, he's still the eager bass monster that explores his own depths. The depths are again evident in "Pain Elemental" where the vibe is established immediately, and only delves deeper into the slightly-detuned bass signals and ominous creeping atmosphere. The melodic elements are no longer here to sooth, they are newly charged laser beams that sear the flesh, scorching the eardrums.

This foreboding, demon-dispatching vibe is indeed present throughout this entire release, as you enter the "Bonus Stage" of this deadly game, where the aggression does not abate, and the bass plays backseat to the synth bell sonic geometry on display. The drums especially feel the wrath of Pixelord on this track, where some impossibly tortured tambourines take a beating, and the chopping and relentless reorganization of the rhythm keeps you churning with intensity. The title track brings the "wild style", even though the drums are less frantic, the bass frequencies and laser blasts from our protagonist, the ever-ready "Demonslayer", are sure to dismantle any submissive subwoofer in range.

"bfg" rounds out this collection in a disheveled fashion, dishing out low frequency divebombs and squelches, whilst otherworldly transmissions from synth realms afar come leaping in trying to assert their dominance, only to be eaten alive by daemonic bass and telluric currents of seismic drum activity. An utterly destructive end to this tale… BUT Wait, IT Gets Worse! We have here on hand Saturate! stalwarts DJ Ride, DJ Pound, Dranq and big daddy Starkey on remix duty, who all take the tracks down their own rabbit holes to parts unknown, with equal aplomb. The result is equal in intensity and aggression, but the textures by which this is conveyed are wholly transformed and re-imagined skillfully.

All this on one slab of gorgeous Vinyl. No demon shall stand a chance against Pixelord's battalion of beats and bass."

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LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Secousse)

OST Rumba Rules

Midwinter Frost - Complete Demo Tapes 1990-1997

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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The official soundtrack of the 2021 Rumba Rules, New genealogies documentary movie by Congolese artist Sammy Baloji and Quebec filmmaker David Nadeau-Bernatchez. A deep dive into Kinshasa’s vibrant Rumba scene, including remastered classics by Brigade Sarbati, Werrason, Papa Wemba, Franco & le Tout Puissant O.K. Jazz Rumba Rules, New genealogies is about contemporary rumba in Kinshasa, but this music has deep historical roots nevertheless. Born in the interstices of the colonial world and thriving during the three decades of the Mobutu era in Zaïre, Congolese rumba has been iconic and popular all over Africa for decades. The roots of Rumba are even deeper, and the many paths it evokes trigger the imagination. The story goes that this music came with the migration of the ‘Kumba’ drum and dance in previous centuries, African slaves having carried it all around the Americas and giving birth to Cuban ’Rumba’, Colombian ‘Kumbia’ and many others. With its varied rhythms, guitars and horns, through LPs and radio stations, Rumba came back to (re)conquer Africa throughout the 20th century, paving the way for new practices. One could say this music is a sort of palimpsest, a memory in itself of Atlantic migrations and histories. Rumba is nowadays discussed all around the world, igniting many debates among the Congolese diaspora. Being the constant talk of the town sometimes overloads public debate, and many people get tired of this broken record. Thus, over the last decade, enterprising producers have worked hard to promote Kinshasa’s musical diversity and tried to emulate new sounds to reach worldwide attention. But Kin’ locals and urban dwellers will not be fooled : new shoots cannot hide the forest. Despite some difficulties to innovate, despite the pastoralist sermons and the diaspora fighters pushing for concert cancelations, rumba is still at the core of the Congo today. Talented artists such as Fally Ipupa, Ferré Gola, Brigade Sarbati and others are leading the fifth generation, and the religious world has also proven to be a nurturing environment for the cultural and economic dynamism of this music. Focusing on the music of Brigade Sarbati and his Orchestra, this record offers a deep dive into Kinshasa’s rumba scene. Halfway between professional studios and Zoom H4 field recordings, the rumba herein is about today’s youth : dense, full of energy and breakdowns, insights and name-dropping. The cavacha rhythm, the solo and bass guitar’s playing style, the singing style and numerous dedications all resonate with the history of Rumba. In an era where digital sound is taking over, it is interesting to highlight the instrumental and live performance compositions of this music. Digital technology is indeed used during the recording and mixing phases, but Congolese rumba still relies strongly on instrumental playing. There is all that but also, many other things to hear on this record… It’s time to let it be. A big thanks to Étienne Tron for making it possible: it is on his initiative and through his patience that this album is in your hands today. (David Nadeau-Bernatchez, december 2021)

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Thromdarr

2LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Svart)

LP | 2022 | CA | Original (Constellation)

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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he final decade of the last millennium was a significant period for the birth of Finnish extreme metal. In the late 1980s, speed metal found its way into the country, and was immediately followed by thrash metal. Afterwards, death and black metal bands started to pop up in every nook and cranny. Some of those rose to an international fame, while others stayed in the shadows waiting for their turn. Through the years, Svart Records has already brought to light many lost treasures of the Finnish metal scene. This June it will be the turn of Thromdarr from Riihimäki and their old tapes excavated from the band’s archives.

The story of Thromdarr reaches back to 1989, when the band’s guitarist Mika Kyöstilä formed Nymphomaniac, a precursor to Thromdarr, together with Ari “Ave“ Auvinen. When the band went through a lineup change, they changed their name to Necrobiosis and eventually to Thromdarr in 1991. According to the band, they entered the scene with the punk attitude of learning by doing. They followed the steps of their idols and started to make fast and heavy metal in the vein of Sodom, Destruction, Kreator, Slayer, Possessed, Bathory, Celtic Frost, Sepultura, Obituary, Pestilence and Death.

When the demos and recordings started to pile up, the musical taste of the band members started to evolve into a more brutal direction.

-“We played the demo to our friends with great excitement and were often told we sound more like black metal than death metal. We didn’t mind this since we had already embarked on that direction and had face paint on the first band photos. We developed the name Thromdarr ourselves and it was supposed to sound phonetically like thunder”, the band’s frontman Kyöstilä recounts.

Early on in their career, Thromdarr had already played with many renowned metal acts, such as Barathrum, Sentenced, Archgoat and Demigod. The band took a couple of cassette pressings of their first studio demo As a Wind Cries and ended up selling 500 copies.

On their later demos, Thromdarr made more experimental material from the black metal canvas. On the other hand, going through a lineup change led to the band losing its driving force, the recording pace slowing down and the little live activity falling behind partying. In the end of the millennium, the band became active again and signed a contract with Solistitium Records, releasing their debut album NorthStorm Arrives in 1998

Svart Records has now compiled Thromdarr’s early demos into a single package. Kyöstilä and Svart’s producer Olli Hänninen have barely touched the original soundscape, instead remastering the demos the way they were originally made with all their faults and successes.

-“The tapes haven’t been remixed afterwards. Instead, they sound as primitive as when they were originally released. The material has also been copied from original recordings. Pick up a beer and listen to old school metal!”, Kyöstilä urges.

Svart Records will release Thromdarr’s Midwinter Frost – Complete demo tapes 1990-1997 double LP compilation and CD on the 17th of June 2022.

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Joyfultalk

Familliar Science

S.P.A.C.E. Colored Vinyl Edition

Release: 2022 / CA – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Joyfultalk returns with its third album for Constellation; another vibrantly divergent stylistic take on the analog materiality and sensibility of electronic composer-producer Jay Crocker, whose previous two records forged trance-inducing polyrhythmic intricacy, each from a distinct angle and sound palette, each enlisting a single instrumental collaborator. Familiar Science rallies contributions from a larger cast of musicians into a looser, cosmic recombinant combo_still shot through with Joyfultalk's singular mixing desk kinetics, but this time deep-diving into gnarled and twisted, spliced and diced out-jazz. Crocker draws inspiration from 1980s M-Base music and Ornette Coleman's harmolodic funk period, while his own prior history as an improv guitarist also resurfaces for the first time in many years_an element in this polyvalent artist's chemistry set that hasn't appeared prominently in his own music for over a decade. Familiar Science finds Crocker folding time (as lockdown will do), immersed in his present-day kaleidoscope of solitary art and music practices in rural Nova Scotia, while channeling his former life as a bustling jazz collaborator in Calgary, Alberta. Building outwards from roiling resampled acoustic drums, Crocker extracted additional sonic and rhythmic textures, then formed the head of each song using dusted-off archival recordings and his own bass, keys and midi sequencing. Albertan percussionists Eric Hamelin (Ghostkeeper, Chad Vangaalen) and Chris Dadge (Lab Coast, Alvvays) provided improvised drum tracks to be chopped and harvested; Nova Scotia-based Nicola Miller (Ryan Driver, Doug Tielli) laid down resplendent excursions on saxophone and flute; Crocker's own dexterous guitar appears on several cuts. Familiar Science also poignantly features samples from live recordings by the late Calgary saxophonisticonoclast Dan Meichel, catalysing some of the album's heaviest contortions. Crocker weaves all these raw materials into exuberant compositions that blur the line between sizzling corporeal combo and sampledelic futurist jamz, variously conjuring (leftfield) Flying Lotus, (later) Tortoise, Badbadnotgood and Squarepusher's Music Is Rotted One Note. The rubbery hyper-compression of boom-bap opener "Body Stone" initiates the séance, and the album offers a panoply of skittering grooves and soaring melodic pathways thereafter, through quags of heady jazz alternately streaked with dayglo delirium and other more vaporous states of revelry. Crocker's own wordless stacked vocals are the giddy secret sauce on several cuts, and his lead guitar work (in kinship with the lean progressions of Mary Halvorson or Jeff Parker) features on "Take It To The Grave", "Stop Freaking Out!" and the album's title track. More honeyed passages on songs like "Blissed For A Minute" and "Ballad In 9" center around Miller's bouyant alto sax and flute. Familiar Science is a rousing feast of noise-tinged polychrome electronic avant-jazz: richly harmolodic compositions teeming with intersecting textures and turbulences; exploratory, exhilarated and indeed joyful.

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Calibro 35

LP | 2015 | EU | Reissue (Record Kicks)

2LP | 2022 | UK | Original (Pan)

Release: 2015 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Dr.Dre and Jay-Z sampled, legendary cinematic funk combo Calibro 35 announces the reissue of their fifth album "S.P.A.C.E." on ltd edition Crystal Orange vinyl and digital deluxe edition with bonus tracks.

Record Kicks presents the reissue of Calibro 35's fifth acclaimed long-time sold out album "S.P.A.C.E." on limited edition Crystal Orange vinyl and digital "deluxe" version with bonus tracks.The publication is part of "The Record Kicks Trilogy" that follows the reissue of the first three albums of the band, released in 2020. This time, Milan label Record Kicks will repress on wax of three different colours and on digital deluxe edition, the fourth, fifth and sixth legendary studio albums of the Italian cinematic-funk cult band. The digital deluxe edition of "S.P.A.C.E." includes 3 bonus tracks: "clbr 35", originally released as a b-side of "Bandits of Mars" 45 vinyl, and the unreleased songs "Omicron Paradox"and "The Haploids".

Recorded to tape on an 8-track tape recorder at the 'analog mecca' Toe Rag Studios in London, the worldwide famous studio where The White Stripes penned "Elephant", "S.P.A.C.E." is the fifth studio album by Calibro 35. Forget about the gripping noir atmospheres of their previous full lengths, with this album the Milan combo escapes from planet earth and lands on their own satellite to write the perfect funk soundtrack of an imaginary sci-fi movie directed by Sergio Leone. They've thrown away the balaclavas and embraced a bunch of synthesizers in their new instalment where Calibro 35 explores fresh new territories.

From the storming imaginary main title notes of the title track "S.P.A.C.E." to the percussive effects and creepy organ of "Serenade for a satellite", with incursions into cosmic afrobeat ("Ungwana Bay Launch Complex"), lunar funk ("Bandits On Mars") and trippy atmospheres ("Something Happened on Planet Earth"), in "S.P.A.C.E." Calibro 35 sound as cinematic and groovy as ever. Captured live and direct to tape with no overdubbing or editing facilities by Tommaso Colliva (Muse/Franz Ferdinand), the sound is tough, warm and super tight and confirms the unique musicianship of the band able in few years to gain followers worldwide.

Active since 2008, Calibro 35 enjoy a worldwide reputation as one of the coolest independent bands around. During their fourteen-year career, they were sampled by Dr. Dre on his Compton album, Jay-Z, The Child of lov & Damon Albarn; they shared stages worldwide with the likes of Roy Ayers, Muse, Sun Ra Arkestra, Sharon Jones, Thundercat and Headhunters and as unique musicians they collaborated with, amongst others, PJ Harvey, Mike Patton, John Parish and Stewart Copeland and Nic Cester (The Jet). Described by Rolling Stone magazine as "the most fascinating, retro-maniac and genuine thing that happened to Italy in the last years", Calibro 35 now count on a number of aficionados worldwide including VIP fans such as Dj Food (Ninja Tune), Mr Scruff and Huey Morgan (Fun Lovin' Criminals) among others.

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Pan Daijing

Tissues

Outros Espaco White Vinyl Edition

Release: 2022 / UK – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Pan Daijing's exhibition-performance Tissues premiered in the Tanks at the Tate Modern in autumn 2019. A five-act immersion in performance, sound, movement, space, and most of all emotion in its most distilled and conflicted states, Tissues engaged with the conventions of opera and tragedy to present a searing representation of the embattled human psyche in space and time. While the ambitious multi-sensory artwork made use of the range of Daijing's artistic capabilities, music, particularly the voice, was at its formal and emotional core. The vinyl and digital release of Tissues on PAN serves as a record of that work, in the form of an hour-long audio excerpt: an invaluable archival document from Daijing's expansive live practice. Tissues is both a solitary work and a formal study in relation. Composed, directed, designed, written, and performed by Daijing (alongside a cast of twelve dancers and opera singers), the work_its libretto written in a mixture of old and modern Chinese_lingers inside a single human perspective. Daijing conjures states that are by turns delicate and severe, the tension between opposing modes animating the work as it unfolds. And yet, for all its interiority, Tissues foregrounds an intimate relationship with its audience through details like its engulfing visual landscape and its rattling, confrontational narrative arcs. Daijing uses the opera form as a prism through which to question the boundaries of music itself: perhaps, she proposes, music is much more than simply what is heard. It is in the relationship between voice and electronics that this limit is most clearly breached. Across the four acts gathered in this documentation, a counter-tenor, a soprano, a mezzo-soprano, and the artist herself voice a mixture of stunning laments and cries over an instrumental landscape, built out from industrial texture. Meant to be heard in a single listen, rather than track by track, the work unfolds through tender hollows and agitated peaks. At its crescendo, the operatic vocals melt away and the synthesizers themselves seem to howl with grief. Daijing uncovers an essential, sometimes painful, music in all that surrounds us, inviting something like catharsis but also a greater understanding of the thing she and her cast conjure and draw close. A tissue, after all, is both a disposable object one uses to wipe away a tear, and the building block of our fleshy human forms. Daijing reaches and excavates the roiling core of what it is to be alive and full of feeling. Music from Tissues, an opera of five acts at Tate Modern, London on Oct 2nd, 4th and 5th, 2019 Composed, written, produced and directed by Pan Daijing. Performed by Anna Davidson, soprano ; Marie Gailey, mezzo soprano, Steve Katona, countertenor and Pan Daijing, additional vocals. The recording is mixed by James Ginzburg , Jan Urbiks and Pan Daijing, mastered by Rashad Becker. *2xLP comes in a gatefold cover, and includes an obi strip and a booklet containing images from the performance & liner notes, as well as a postcard granting access to exclusive video documentation*

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Rodrigo Brandao

LP | 2021 | EU | Original (Comets Coming)

Tape | 2021 | EU | Original (Evar)

Release: 2021 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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The edition that marks the start of the brand-new Comets Coming, a label linked to Groovie Records and A Traineira, could not be more suitable: it is that Rodrigo Brandão, like his grandfather Herman Poole Blount, dust of stars that the world knows as Sun Ra, may have his feet on the Earth, but he has definitely a sidereal head.

Brandão arrived recently to Portugal, but already left a strong mark in the most adventurous Lisbon scene, having performed several concerts in which his language has been wrapped in the exploratory sounds of musicians such as Rodrigo Amado, João Valinho, and Hernâni Faustino. The agitator, poet and spoken word artist, brought a vast experience that over the years saw him collaborate with artists as distinct as the members of Metá Metá or Prince Paul (that one!) on Brookzill!.

This work, however, came in his luggage, across the ocean, on the rediscovery trip that brought him from Brazil to Lisbon. Outros Espaço was recorded in São Paulo in late 2019 with a luxury crew: Tulipa Ruiz and Juçara Marçal added to the microphone, Thiago França played flute and alto & tenor saxophones, Guilherme Granado dealt with the synthesizers and effects, Marcos Gerez measured the overall pulse with his electric bass, Thomas Rohrer played soprano and 'rabeca' (fiddle), and Paulo Santos dealt with the percussion. In addition to the base band, Outros Espaço also features some members of Sun Ra Arkestra's current incarnation. Respectively: Danny Thompson (rip) on baritone and bongo, Elson Nascimento on 'surdo' (tom drum), Knoel Scott on tenor and soprano, with the giant Marshall Allen in a prominent role leading the collective towards the unknown, while playing the alto sax and synthesizer.

In Outros Espaço, Brandão reaches for words from different origins, from contrasting times and cultures, all with magnetic resonance imaging: what is not from his furrow comes to him from Candomblé (“Quando Os Orixás Desfilam Sobre A Cracolândia”), from his readings of Sun Ra (“Eu Sou 1 Instrumento” is an adaptation of the poem I Am An Instrument), or from the school's playgrounds (“Jamais Nos Esqueceremos”). And in these words there are teeth and nails ingrained in injustice (“Quantos Coltrane...?, “Todo o Dia Tem +”) and kaleidoscopic delusions that result from the speed of light (“Sol da Meia Noite”).

The crew that travels through these Outros Espaço (PT for "Other Spaces") has freedom as the main fuel, jazz as a measure of their reach, and all swings in the world as maps, so they can lose themselves at the end of the cosmos. There is urgency and reflection, craziness and precision, surprise and well-known ancestral raw material, that makes us vibrate inwardly with the same trembling as the comets that are coming.

The visionary and veteran Scotty Hard was responsible for making everything sound like the music of the spheres, dealing with the mixing from his Inguasonic Sound studio in Brooklyn, NY.

And lastly, in January, Rob Mazurek, another frequent ally of Brandão, another notorious space traveler, offered a poem that frames this project. Among other things, he writes:

Make this place sing Make this place thunder Make this place shake

It couldn't be in any other way. Brandão: Outros Espaço (Text by Rui Miguel Abreu)

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Sha Sha Kimbo

Total Chaos

12,99 €*

Post Momentum Clear Vinyl Edition

Release: 2021 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Los Angeles native Sha Sha Kimbo undeniably lives for the rave. As exemplified through her every intentional move as a producer, DJ, promoter, radio host and label owner, Sha Sha radiates an unwavering love for amplifying, nurturing and supporting the culture of underground electronic music and the community that surrounds it, with her forthcoming release absolutely no exception to this.

Set for release as a digital download and limited edition cassette tape on August 13, the LA rave staple is happy to announce her debut EP on Evar Records, Total Chaos. A brilliant testament to the cathartic importance of staying up late and getting lost in a buzzing crowd of kindred spirits, Total Chaos harnesses the universal experience of having pent-up energy into massive, angst-ridden breakbeat anthems. Over six tracks, Sha Sha channels the hair-raising spirit of '90s rave along with her formative experiences with DMZ-via-Low End Theory dubstep and punk rock. Finding her place within LA's bass music, house, techno and rave scenes while defying easy categorization, Sha Sha personifies the no-rules electronic music ethos behind John Frusciante and Aura T-09's Evar Records. To supplement Total Chaos' three originals, Lyzza, Machine Girl and LCY provide three raw remixes highlighting various aspects of Sha Sha Kimbo's renegade rave spirit.

Drawing from the Los Angeles punk rock and '90s rave music that soundtracked her youth, Total Chaos personifies how she grew up on the dance floor, showcasing Sha Sha's tried and true ability to express rich, nuanced emotions through tracks that, first and foremost, can level a warehouse party. Kicking off the vibe on July 30, the EP's lead single "Save The World" is a perfect representation of this, with the jump-up rave cut employing a megaton breakbeat and sickly-sweet vocal samples over simmering base of dark, UK-influenced atmospherics. From the late night energy of the title track to the euphoric, dawn-breaking feel of "Limited Perfect," Total Chaos offers the refuge of a robust dance floor with the warm reassurance to be one with the universe.

Rounding out Total Chaos EP are three remixes that amicably and serendipitously support Sha Sha Kimbo's visionary aim to both explore the unknown and bring people together along the way. Brazilian-born, Amsterdam-based powerhouse Lyzza adds a full verse and a nest of serrated rhythms to her version of "Total Chaos," while New York's Machine Girl applies their trademark punk electronics approach to "Save The World." Meanwhile, Bristol's own LCY hollows out "Limited Perfect" into a haunting amalgam of post-punk minimalism and low-frequency pressure. A study of the opposing light and dark energies of underground dance music, Total Chaos presents a breakbeat-heavy vortex, sure to awaken everyone's inner raver.

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Calibro 35

LP | 2021 | EU | Original (Record Kicks)

LP | 2021 | US | Original (Western Vinyl)

Release: 2021 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Record Kicks is proud to present POST MOMENTUM, the new EP by Italian cult combo Calibro 35 to be released on limited edition 12" vinyl. The extended-play comes 17 months after the acclaimed previous Calibro 35 album MOMENTUM, which – as the band stated: "represented a look at nowadays and a reflection about making music right in the time that we're living". The tour began right after the album release in January 2020, but it was soon interrupted when the whole world suddenly stopped because of the Pandemic. Now "POST MOMENTUM" represents a re-start and the first step towards the future, picking up where they left off.

Among the six tracks of the EP, while "Digi-Tails" and "Stars and Stripes, Chirps and Bleeps" express the unique musicianship of Calibro 35 as we have come to know over the years, "Being a Robot is Awesome" and "Artificial Black Moon" see the participation of a guest from the world to come: Sophia, the humanoid developed by Hanson Robotics capable of interacting autonomously with everything around it, reminding us how being a Robot could prove to be the best strategy to survive sometimes. The opening of the EP is an alternative version of the single "Stan Lee" enriched by two heavyweights of Italian rap: Ensi and Ghemon that don't make us miss Illa J. The EP ends with another alternate version of "Stan Lee", this time in all its instrumental glory.
Active since 2008, Calibro 35 enjoy a worldwide reputation as one of the coolest independent bands around. During their thirteen-year career, they were sampled by Dr. Dre on his Compton album, Jay-Z, The Child of lov & Damon Albarn; they shared stages worldwide with the likes of Roy Ayers, Muse, Sun Ra Arkestra, Sharon Jones, Thundercat and Headhunters and as unique musicians they collaborated with, amongst others, PJ Harvey, Mike Patton, John Parish and Stewart Copeland and Nic Cester (The Jet). Described by Rolling Stone magazine as "the most fascinating, retro-maniac and genuine thing that happened to Italy in the last years", Calibro 35 now count on a number of aficionados worldwide including VIP fans such as Dj Food (Ninja Tune), Mr Scruff and Huey Morgan (Fun Lovin' Criminals) among others.

The band started back in 2007 when Grammy award winner producer Tommaso Colliva (Muse), invited some of the best musicians from the Italian indie scene - Enrico Gabrielli (PJ Harvey, Mike Patton, John Parish), Massimo Martellotta (Stewart Copeland, Adrian Younge), Luca Cavina (Retox, Zeus!), Fabio Rondanini (John Parish, Daniel Johnston) - to record some Italian golden age soundtracks. What started as a studio b-side project evolved in a full time band able to release 7 heavily acclaimed albums. Their last album MOMENTUM came out on Record Kicks on January 24th 2020. "MOMENTUM" stood out as a new starting point for the project.

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Hollie Kenniff

The Quiet Drift

2LP | 2021 | UK | Original (Leng)

Release: 2021 / US – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie, Electronic & Dance

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Director David Lynch once said "I long for a kind of quiet where I can just drift and dream. I always say getting inspiration is like fishing. If you're quiet and sitting there and you have the right bait, you're going to catch a fish eventually. Ideas are sort of like that. You never know when they're going to hit you." Inspired by this quote in both name and spirit, Hollie Kenniff's The Quiet Drift is an ambient gallery of cloudlike synths, seraphic strings, echoing guitars, and other celestial textures guided to cohesion by Hollie's own wordless singing. Though the album certainly creates (and originates from) the kind of space where Lynch's proverbial "fish" can be caught, The Quiet Drift is a fitting title for Hollie's own history, both recent and distant. During the course of the album's creation, Hollie and her family moved cross-country from an island in Washington state, to an island in Maine before ultimately relocating to Canada. "As a child I visited Ontario year-round," she explains in her own words. She continues "More than any other landscape, I think the lake, rivers, and woods there left the most enduring impression on me. The landscape and pace of life of these places will always stay with me." But the reverberant spaces Hollie crafts need no physical headquarters. Instead of conjuring views of nature at the ground level, her sound more readily evokes a top-down perspective, with the distinct features of the land shrinking underfoot as the listener becomes untethered from geography altogether. The Quiet Drift belongs more to the liminal spaces between life and afterlife, memory and fantasy, landscape and dreamscape, than any mappable locale. Describing her formative years, Hollie says "As a dual US/Canadian citizen who spent my childhood in a rural town-- one that I haven't returned to in many years - I have a sense of not entirely belonging anywhere. When I was a teenager my close friends were male musicians, so I was also an outsider to the degree that they were wild and anarchic in a way that I wasn't. I was a quiet book reader and avid music listener who enjoyed being around a creative group. I was also a radio DJ for alternative and punk music throughout high school." In this light, The Quiet Drift attests that creativity is placeless, and calls into question the stereotype of artists as scene-centric city dwellers. Having come of age in the absence of metropolitan sensory overload, Hollie learned to spot the muse in nature, and within herself, instead of the echo chamber of a frenzied peer group. On The Quiet Drift Hollie Kenniff wholly escapes from such pop-culture feedback loops into transcendent, shimmering realms, and she brings the listener along with her. In this age in which we have all been called to reevaluate our relationship to indoor spaces, and seek refuge in the great outdoors, The Quiet Drift provides an apt soundtrack for such rebalancing.

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Harvey Couture

Scelle' En Cristal

Europa White Vinyl Edition

Release: 2021 / UK – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Who is Harvey Couture? Some say he’s a survivor of French pop music’s sun-soaked synth-pop era of the early 1980s, others that he’s a more suave and stylish Serge Gainsbourg for the nu-Balearic era. There were even rumours circulating that he’s a musical mobster from the Cote D’Azure: a shadowy member of the mafia who deals in synths, drum machines and fretless bass guitars rather than guns, money and drugs.

In truth, not even Leng Records knows much about the man behind the moniker, though his vividly kaleidoscopic, retro-futurist debut album, Scellé En Cristal, does offer a number of crafty clues. Whether listeners will make the necessary deductions to solve the mystery remains to be seen; regardless, it’s the music that matters, and on that score Scellé En Cristal simply cannot be faulted.

Rich in humid, afternoon-bright musical delights, the set sees our publicity-shy hero mix and mangle a multitude of musical influences – think proto-Balearic European synth-pop, Prince style purple funk, immersive ambient, early INXS style synth-rock, the electronic end of zouk and much more besides – with constantly colourful and imaginative results.

Couture is most at home adding his variously seductive, sexy and sleazy vocals to bubbly, upbeat and mid-tempo numbers that combine delay-laden drum machine beats with surging synths, fluid bass, stylish guitars, lashings of leftfield pop nouse and plenty of tongue-in-cheek Gallic flair.

For proof, check the throbbing, off-kilter alien-funk throb of ‘Les Portes De La Perception’, the bustling, percussion-laden cheeriness of ‘Crème Solaire’ and the loose-limbed, toe-tapping brilliance of ‘Je Ne Peux Pas’, where chiming, steel pan style melodies and pots-and-pans percussion hits jostle for position with sliding fretless bass notes and flash-fried guitars. Check to ‘Passion’, a swaggering slab of bustling electrofunk/synth-rock fusion rich in ‘Rockit’-style scratches and restless synth-bass.

The influence of languid, sunset-ready European pop records of the 1980s – those cuts that would later become sought-after amongst dusty-fingered collectors of Mediterranean music – is another recurring feature of Couture’s cultured but joyous debut album. It can be heard amongst the drowsy guitars, yawning bass and tumbling lead lines of ‘Look Within’, the pleasingly laidback ‘Invincible Line’, the elastic bass, fluorescent synth sounds and stuttering machine drums of ‘Marche’.

Yet Couture is no one-trick pony. Horizontal and loved-up moments of a more downtempo hue can be found scattered across the album, with the enveloping ambient awe of ‘Les Portes’ – all swelling chords, gentle melodies and atmospheric field recordings – and slowly unfurling ‘Whale Song’ both lingering long in the memory.

Harvey Couture may not be ready to step out of the shadows just yet, but his music most certainly is. We have a feeling that Scellé En Cristal is just the start of the mystery monsieur’s musical journey.

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Molly Nilsson

LP | 2009 | EU | Reissue (Night School)

22,99 €*

Tape | 2020 | US | Reissue (Leaving)

Release: 2009 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Pop

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“Is the future any brighter? Is the darkness any lighter?

25% of all profits will be donated to sea- watch.org, A non-profit organization that conducts civil search and rescue operations in the Central Mediterranean.

When Molly Nilsson began recording her second album Europa in 2009 the world seemed to be at a turning point and she along with it. In the aftermath of a global financial crash, at the dawn of a new decade, the Stockholm-born, Berlinbased singer was busy moulding her songwriting into an idiocyncratic, personal mythology that would take her to every continent, speaking directly to hearts in every corner of the globe. The first album on her own Dark Skies Association imprint, the first recorded in her home studio The Lighthouse, Europa broke new ground for Molly Nilsson at the time. But also it spoke earnestly to the world about an idealism, an openness and hope that has not dimmed in the 11 years since its release. Europa contains the songs of a young, idealistic songwriter coming to terms with her genius for cutting to the chase, saying it as it is and, most importantly, as it should be. Over 10 years on the artists’ vim and urge for change has only got stronger but here you can see the bright hope begin to dawn. Europa saw Molly Nilsson move away from the minimal primitivism of her debut These Things Take Time and remastered by James Plotkin for it’s 2021 reissue it reveals a growing depth in her songwriting. Opener In The Mood For A Tattoo, with synth overdubs on top of impeccable vocal harmonising, boasts a killer chorus hook before melting into The Revenge Of The Stalker, with its shades of 80s synth pop building layered dynamics out of simplicity. More Certain Than Death is a song of youthful rebellion, even if you didn’t know it at the time, forever searching for a way out of youth while young. Of course now, over a decade since their release, these songs have been canonised in the alternative pop realm like all of Molly Nilsson’s catalogue. The DIY aspect of these recordings may place them firmly in the milieu they first gained popularity – the exploding world of DIY pop, blog-based music discovery and the seemingly endless possibilities of the beginnings of of social media – but Europa’s songs are really made to be sung to and by people, they’re statements of intent, of togetherness and defiance. The album’s title track is a kernel of righteousness, an archetypal Molly Nilsson moment that contains all hope in its fist, which steadily opens outstretched to everyone who listens. Europa was written in 2009 about the ongoing refugee crisis, an open love letter to humanity. “The borders are only lines in the sand, the borders are divided by land (and invented by men.)” Europa praises the idea of people coming together to make things better, to help each other. It’s not about this Europe but the idea of having no borders to imprison people. Think of Europa as an alternate universe, where no one is illegal, but free. It’s heady stuff to sum up in a song but of course Nilsson’s effortless chorus-writing render all these notions and feelings in a few simple words. This is of course her chief talent, whether singing about heartbreak or global financial meltdown and it is in abundance here.

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Nailah Hunter

Spells

14,99 €*

Artificial Dancers - Waves Of Synth

Release: 2020 / US – Reissue

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Spells is the debut release by Los Angeles based multi-instrumentalist and composer Nailah Hunter on Leaving Records. Each of the EP’s six tracks represent a spell, a unique sonic place forged by imagination and incantation. Ambient in nature, each spell highlights Hunter’s skills as a composer. “It really started off with me just wanting to kind of reclaim the way that I thought about creating music and then also performing it,” Hunter says. “I was like, okay. I need to get back to the basics of why I like to create and what it does for me … so I set out to make spells, in the sense that each layer is one of the steps in incantation... It became about purpose... the procedure and the ritual, so that when it came to performing it, I wasn’t able to get into my head about it because I was just carrying out these steps. Each track is its own incantation, its own spell, its own world.” Colorful atmospheres permeate Spells, each track offering tranquil, reflective setting. Hunter explains, “Another thing that I always wanted to focus on and through making this project have sort of been able to name is that, I like to create places, songs as locations ...whether there are field recordings [involved] or not.”

Opening track “Soil” is accompanied by a poem: “a seed is sown, a song from silence.” Its beautiful harp and angelic voices establish the album’s mode of beautiful stillness. This is followed by “Ruins,” a tranquil soundscape abetted by insect field recordings and a slightly warped, heaven-bound trajectory, described by Hunter as a love spell. “Another thing that’s really important to me about my relationship with music is synesthesia. It’s all very palette based... For the song “Ruins,” it comes on like magenta and clementine.” On the colors present in the single “White Flower, Dark Hill,” Hunter describes “the idea of the purples and navies of the night sky and the way that shadows appear under full moonlight, the different shades of moonlight, and how it always brings out the color white.” Each track’s nuanced production and big, emotional sounds do carry a charged energy, colorful and magnetic. The shifting phases and sustained drones of “Enter” mimic the feeling of approaching and walking through a rift into a fantastical world. The listener is advanced into album highlight “Quiet Light,” which Hunter states captures, “that feeling of being like golden light in a cold still pool of water, this very specific image and feeling that I just love so much.”

Spells is a powerful opening statement that uses this musician's innate artistic gifts to promote healing and self awareness. Of the album’s inspirations, she adds, “definitely rune magick and just the idea of creating places of rest … sonic places of rest, places to ponder and consider your feelings. Me making music, it’s always been about healing for me and making myself feel better. If other people listen to it and also feel better, then that is delightful.”

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Interstellar Funk

CD | 2020 | EU | Original (Rush Hour)

17,99 €*

Artificial Dancers - Waves Of Synth

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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Interstellar Funk

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

OST The Last House On The Left White Vinyl Edition

Release: 2020 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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David Hess

LP | 1972 | US | Reissue (One Way Static)

LP | 2018 | US | Original (Sub Pop)

Release: 1972 / US – Reissue

Genre: Soundtracks

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* The soundtrack to Wes Craven’s cult classic from 1972
* Composed & Performed by David Hess (Elvis, Sal Mineo)
* Seventeen tracks of psychedelic Manson-style folk music & soundscapes
* Comes with insert containing EXCLUSIVE liner notes and pictures
* Available on black vinyl and as a limited color variant (300 copies solid BROWN vinyl)
* Also available as a Digipack CD edition with bonus tracks and 12 page booklet

Born in 1936 in New York City, David Hess began his career recording million-dollar chart toppers for the likes of Elvis Presley, Sal Mineo & Andy Williams in the 50ies & 60ies. His biggest hit is probably ‘Speedy Gonzales’ which ended up selling more than eight million copies worldwide. After a career as a record company executive the 1970s, Hess took on the role of actor, writer, director and producer in the movie industry. Writing and working with directors as Rainer Werner Fassbinder and directing the 1980 slasher “To All A Good Night” were only a few of his many accomplishments.

Most of us will remember him as Krug Stillo, the leader of a gang in Wes Craven’s classic 1972 cult shocker “The Last House On The Left” as well as portraying the villains in Ruggero Deodato’s “House on the Edge of the Park” (1980) and Wes Craven’s “Swamp Thing” (1982). Other movie roles include ’21 Hours At Munich’, ‘Hitch-Hike’, ‘Body Count’ and ‘Zodiac Killer’. David Hess also appeared regularly on the TV screen with appearances in shows such as ‘Knight Rider’, ‘The A-Team’, ‘The Fall Guy’ & ‘Royal Pains’.

Throughout his film career Hess’ love for music never waned. He continued to produce music, including several albums (“Caught Up In The Moment” and “Live & Unplugged in Hollywood, 2002.”). Some of his music can also be heard on more recent soundtracks, such as ‘Cabin Fever’ (2002) and ‘Manhunt’ (2008). On October 7, 2004 just two years after his role in the 2009 horror epic “Smash Cut” starring Sasha Grey, David Hess sadly passed away at the age of 75. He will forever be in our hearts.

David Hess composed the soundtrack for ‘Last House on the Left’ & his work here contains some truly beautiful songs, the discovery of which, for some, may be in stark contrast to the brutal displays of sadism and violence for which he was known to purvey onscreen. The fact that Hess could perform as both the poet, and the monster, is a testament to his skill as an artist. The soundtrack to Last House On The Left is a brilliantly unique and diverse mixture of farcical comedy, poignant, reflective folk music and instrumental experimentalism. Hess constructed a wonderful counterbalancing entity, which serves only to accentuate the impact of the movie.

One Way Static Records now proudly presents the complete 1972 soundtrack to Wes Craven’s ‘THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT’ composed by David Alexander Hess. Available as a deluxe limited Black vinyl edition complete with insert containing rare pictures and exclusive liner notes. Also available as a limited color vinyl variant (300 copies solid BROWN vinyl).

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Moaning

Moaning Loser Edition

2LP | 2017 | US | Original (Dark Entries)

Release: 2018 / US – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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This Sub Pop Loser Edition is light blue Colored Vinyl! Moaning is a band defined by its duality. The abrasive post-punk trio comprised of LA DIY veterans, Sean Solomon, Pascal Stevenson, and Andrew MacKelvie, began nearly a decade after the three started playing music together. Their impassioned debut album comes born out of the member's experiences with love and distress, creating a sound uniquely dark and sincere. Although the band is just breaking out of their infancy, Moaning's sleek and cavernous tone emphasizes the turmoil of the era they were born into. One where the endless possibility for art and creation is met with the fear and doubt of an uncertain future. Solomon, Stevenson, and MacKelvie initially met as teenagers while growing up in the San Fernando Valley, and immediately developed a kinship through Los Angeles's local music scene. The three began regularly frequenting DIY institutions like The Smell and Pehrspace, eventually selling out dozens of their own shows at both venues with their first few bands. Moaning's conception came when Solomon sent Stevenson and MacKelvie the first demo for "Don't Go," setting the tone for the impulsive songwriting that would follow. The three fleshed out Solomon's primitive recordings, adding in MacKelvie's heavy syncopated drumming, and Stevenson's melodic driving bass and synth parts, capturing each member's personality in their sparse and fuzzed out tracks. Like many of their previous collaborative projects, Moaning forces pain up against pleasure, using the complexity of personal heart break to inform the band's conflicted sound. The band chose the moniker Moaning, admiring the ambiguity the name held, and hoping to reference both an intimate wail and an anguished scream. The band's homemade video for an early, home-recorded version of "The Same" caught the attention of Alex Newport, a seasoned engineer and producer who had previously worked with At The Drive-In, Bloc Party, and the Melvins. With Newport, Moaning began working on the tracks that would make up their self-titled release, employing a lush, open ended production quality that had never been at the band's disposal. Tracks like "Artificial" stand out among the recordings, where Moaning used the studio's recourses to take their frantic live arrangement and give it the intensity merited by Solomon's lyrics. As a whole, Moaning drifts from sentimental to catastrophic, hiding meek and introspective lyrics within powerful droning dance songs, giving sonic nods to some of the band's musical heroes like, New Order, Broadcast, and Slowdive. The band's youthful attitude is met with the weight of topics like loss, routine, and mental health, reflecting the anxiety towards the status quo that much of their generation faces today. Where many young bands take years to find their footing as writers and performers, Moaning has built up a confidence in sound and vision from the ten years of playing basements, bars, and ballrooms together in their previous projects. Yet, even with their polished exterior, Moaning continues to make the sacrifice of deeply personal anecdotes and emotions to their audience for the benefit of their craft.

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Hypnobeat

Prototech

12" | 1981 | US | Reissue (Dark Entries)

Release: 2017 / US – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Dark Entries and Serendip Lab have teamed up to release ‘Prototech’, the first vinyl retrospective by German electronic trio Hypnobeat, recorded 1984-86. James Dean Brown and Pietro Insipido formed Hypnobeat in 1983, but it was the addition of Victor Sol only a few months later that found the project reaching, as Brown puts it, "the desired level of technical sophistication." In time, Tobias Freund also lent his talents (and equipment) to this loose-fit sonic scheme, where the protagonists sought a new, electronic manifestation of mankind’s tribal music roots. Two cassette releases surfaced – 1985’s "Huggables", and "Specials/Spatials" the following year. By this point the Frankfurt-based group had already explored fiercely mechanical creative expression through various configurations of hardware and personnel, revolving around core ingredients such as the TR-808, TB-303 and MC-202. The project lived on in spirit as Brown activated Narcotic Syntax in the 90s. While a more modern, digital concern, rooted in the Perlon label family, NS still channeled the Hypnobeat concept of a "new tribalism", not least on their "Provocative Percussion" double 12" released in 2006. For all the punky veneer, there are instances where these tracks reach staggering levels of sophistication, not least on "Slash! Buffalo Eats Brass" with its intricately programmed 303 lines and nimble beats that sound a far cry from most machine music made in 1986. Prescient "Can God Rewind?" is also dazzling in the complexity of its percussion and the richness of its synth lines in C as they throb out a bastardised version of acidic Disco straight out of the rhythm collider. Elsewhere, some tracks are more primal in their execution. Visceral opening track "The Arumbaya Fetish" was a cathartic venting of Brown’s least favourite sound on the 808, the iconic cowbell, while the astounding proto-Acid miniature "Moon Jump" places limber 303 lead lines in a hail of thunderstruck patterns. "Kilian" has a stripped down quality that speaks more to the industrial era that Hypnobeat was conceived in, and "Mission In Congo" is a raw, reverb-soaked drum workout that captures the percussive-obsessive nature of Hypnobeat perfectly. Six of the seven tracks selected on this collection were primarily powered by two 808s. "I am amazed that the release sounds like we really had a plan back then…" states Brown, but this accidental magic is in fact the raison d’etre of Hypnobeat. They weren’t the only ones prefiguring the next big revolutions in electronic music in the mid 80s, but there certainly weren’t many artists stumbling across modes of expression that sound so relevant today.

All songs are remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. Housed in a jacket featuring cave engravings by Pietro Insipido of an archer and animal printed in a wallpaper pattern style designed by Eloise Leigh. Each copy includes an transparent insert of an x-ray photograph from 1984 of Romulus Cœurque holding the circuit board of a BOSS DR-55 rhythm machine.

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Codek

Tam Tam / Closer

15,99 €*

CD | 2024 | WW | Original (Mr Bongo)

Release: 1981 / US – Reissue

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Codek is the brainchild of Jean-Marie Salaun who grew up in Paris influenced by the folklore of the inner city. In 1978 he joined art rock group SpionS alongside Gregory Davidow and recorded two singles. Diving into the Paris post punk scene he met Claude Arto and designed the artwork for Claude’s single on Celluloid “Kwai Systeme / Betty Boop.” Robin Scott (M “Pop Music”) had produced the SpionS first single and wanted to collaborate further. With Claude, Jean-Marie wrote “Me Me Me”, intended for a choir, for M. Then SpionS split and Robin was off to Switzerland to record an album to follow-up his hit single. That left Jean-Marie alone in London, where he began working as Codek, a play on the brand name Kodak The “Me Me Me” single was released by MCA Records in 1980. Back in Paris, now with some studio experience, Celluloid Records hired Jean-Marie to produce records for Artefact and Les Orphelins. Over the next 2 years he began working on ideas for the next Codek single “Closer / “Tam Tam”

“Closer” started its life as an electric baseline played by Jean-Marie. Claude Arto sequenced the floating synthesizers. Laurent Grangier and Frédéric Lapierre of reggae band Immigration Act played the horns. The lyrics “Hard to say. Easy to do. We don’t need to say what we do” were a statement on creation as narration expressed Jean-Marie’s ennui, “I’m tired with it.” “Tam Tam” was inspired by Burundi drummers playing on the plaza in front of Beaubourg where the song was recorded. Jean-Marie enlisted one of the drummers from the circle, Georges Atta Dikalo, to lay down percussion for the song. The female singers were from the French Caribbean and added falsetto tribal chants. JM was part of the the African night scene in Paris, remixing Xalam’s “Kanu” and Touré Kunda’s “Salaly Muhamed.” Claude achieved complex rhythmic patterns using a modular synthesizer and heavy processing. Jean-Marie recorded himself beating his chest for the thump noises. The recording of “Tam Tam” and “Closer” spanned over two years. They started on 16-track in Studio d’Auteuil, where JM blew the woofers, before resuming in Studio Centre Georges Pompidou with an added 8-track recorder. Jean-Marie was producing other bands, and a lot of this was recorded on “borrowed” studio time. The single was released in 1981 on West African Music, a tiny label from the Ivory Coast, and was re-released a year later by Island Records in the UK (where the B-side was re-named “Tim Toum”). Both tracks were staples in the DJ sets of Beppe Loda and Daniele Baldelli, finding a spiritual home in the Cosmic scene of Italy.

Both songs have been remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The jacket is an exact replica of the 1981 edition with artwork by Angela Boy, inspired by primitive electronics and African paintings. Each copy includes an doubles-sided insert with photos and liner notes by Jean-Marie Salaun.

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New Regency Orchestra

17,24 €* 22,99 € -25%

Tape | 2024 | UK | Original (The Tapeworm)

Release: 2024 / WW – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Announcing the debut album from one of London’s most electrifying acts, New Regency Orchestra. An 18-piece Afro-Cuban big band, inspired by the musical melting pot of NYC in the 1950s, but with the punch and power of a whole host of London’s best Latin and jazz musicians. Blowing new life into these compositions, the album is a reimagining of some of the finest music from that golden era. From early 1950s René Hernandez and Tito Puente, through to the 1970s salsa of Rafael Labasta and Orlando Marin, produced and performed with fresh fire.

NRO is the brainchild of its artistic director, and the man behind Total Refreshment Centre and Church of Sound, Lex Blondin. Through a long-held passion for jazz, Lex discovered the explosive Afro-Cuban rhythms of mid-1940s NYC via the godfather of Afro-Cuban jazz, Mario Bauzá. A time when two musical worlds collided in a fusion of creativity and energy, jazz luminaries like Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker joining forces with Cuban greats like Machito and Chano Pozo. This vibrant sound was music to dance to and found a home at The New York Palladium, a formative space of freedom and expression that was key to the scene’s development.

Although dance-focussed in their makeup, those early recordings are not often heard in modern club environments and Lex dreamt of retelling their story with a contemporary dynamism. A slice of serendipity followed, as a slot at a new festival opened up and Lex jumped at the chance to make this idea a reality, an 18-piece big band breathing new life into these beloved songs.

Enlisting the expertise of some of the capital’s finest talent, Lex and co-captain Andy Wood, of Como No fame, put together a world-class line-up of talent. Bringing in Eliane Correa as musical director and bandleader, a fluid and interchanging 18-piece band was formed.

The album itself is a hand-picked selection of timeless Afro-Cuban jazz classics, reimagined with NRO’s unbridled energy. It contains ten incredible instrumental tracks including 'Pregon' with its anthemic horn stabs and the addictive head nod bounce of 'Mambo Rama', alongside two scorching vocal numbers in 'Papa Boco' and 'Labasta Llego'. Coupling a heavyweight rhythm section with a wall of horns, they provide a fresh spin on songs from Tito Puente and Chico O'Farrill, René Hernandez through to Rafael Labasta.

“Some of the tunes like Tito Puente’s ‘Mambo Rama’ and ‘Scarlet Mambo’ might sound like they went to a gym as extra drums and bass synth were added to them whilst the tune ‘Sahib & Tito’ is a mix of Tito’s ‘Mambo Buda’ and Sahib Shihab’s ‘Nus’. Our intention is to be both respectful to the innovators and inventors of this incredible music and to pay our dues, but also to add something special from London where the city’s new jazz scene connects with its Latin American musicians and the musical influences around us.”

This pure collective joy, shared experience and music you can’t help but move to.

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Runar Magnusson

Inside Out Of Chaos

12,99 €*

LP | 2024 | Original (Mr Bongo)

Release: 2024 / UK – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Runar Magnusson is an Icelandic/Danish sound artist and musician, currently based in Austria. With a masters degree in Electronic Music Composition from The Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus, Denmark, he is inspired by the sounds of nature, noise, and meditation. Magnusson specialises in atmospheric disturbances through minimalist compositions. A sly humour cuts through the dark hues of his works.

Magnusson writes: "The two works which make up "Inside Out of Chaos" are somewhat related. They were made at the same time and share the same source materials somewhat – a pool of sounds I had been experimenting with for a couple of years. Two separate projects created the opportunities for me to realise them in these finished forms.

At the beginning of 2020 I was invited to participate in an acousmatic concert series at the Traktorfabrikken in Vienna. Curated by Austrian composer Christian Tschinkel and performed on his Akusmonautikum sound system this particular event, titled Kill & Kaoss, was the last in the series. I named my piece after the event and dedicated it to Tschinkel´s Akusmonautikum system. Without my knowing, I had witnessed this system in action half a year earlier at a concert at the Hermann Nitsch Museum in Mistelbach, with Hermann Nitch playing the organ and Tschinkel operating the sound system – a profoundly enjoyable performance. I was very happy when I connected the dots soon after the invitation to participate. I intended my work for Kill & Kaoss to be a way to greet the new lunar year of the rat – a year which held many surprises… The event took place on 22nd of February 2020 at Traktorfabrikken, Vienna.

"Inside Out (for Trattner)" was composed for Austrian artist Josef Trattner. It was the soundtrack for a film that was a part of his exhibition "Inside Out" at the Kiesler Foundation in Vienna, 2020. I assisted with the installation of the exhibition, itself a filmed action that evolved into the movie of which this is the score. The installation was a very hard physical process that left me bloody and blistered. It was also a fascinating, trance-inducing experience. Mining with ones bare hands, digging out this huge structure and creating a womblike cave, a tunnel system, a playground, a hideaway while experiencing ever-increasing pain in the fingers and hands. The exhibition ran from 27 February 2020 until 23 December 2020.

I consider this release as the final part of a trilogy I refer to as "the three sisters of sorrow". These three releases are an insight into my state of mind at the time – a mental collapse, somewhat triggered by a move to a new country, the death of my friend Jóhann Jóhannsson and the loss of my father a year later. Between 2018 and 2021 I had the trilogy almost ready but had not been able to finish them. I sought professional help to lift me up from the deep and was diagnosed with Adhd, which explained many things in my life. Only after the darkness had lifted could I see that these three releases were connected. They depicted both the mental state I had been in – an incapacitating downward spiral, a crushing chaos – and also my search for the light, a way out of the maze and my path up to the surface."

Runar Magnusson, Vienna, 13 November 2023

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New Regency Orchestra

Here Orange Smoke Vinyl Edition

Release: 2024 / Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Announcing the debut album from one of London’s most electrifying acts, New Regency Orchestra. An 18-piece Afro-Cuban big band, inspired by the musical melting pot of NYC in the 1950s, but with the punch and power of a whole host of London’s best Latin and jazz musicians. Blowing new life into these compositions, the album is a reimagining of some of the finest music from that golden era. From early 1950s René Hernandez and Tito Puente, through to the 1970s salsa of Rafael Labasta and Orlando Marin, produced and performed with fresh fire.

NRO is the brainchild of its artistic director, and the man behind Total Refreshment Centre and co-founder of Church of Sound, Lex Blondin. Through a long-held passion for jazz, Lex discovered the explosive Afro-Cuban rhythms of mid-1940s NYC via the godfather of Afro-Cuban jazz, Mario Bauzá. A time when two musical worlds collided in a fusion of creativity and energy, jazz luminaries like Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker joining forces with Cuban greats like Machito and Chano Pozo. This vibrant sound was music to dance to and found a home at The New York Palladium, a formative space of freedom and expression that was key to the scene’s development.

Although dance-focussed in their makeup, those early recordings are not often heard in modern club environments and Lex dreamt of retelling their story with a contemporary dynamism. A slice of serendipity followed, as a slot at a new festival opened up and Lex jumped at the chance to make this idea a reality, an 18-piece big band breathing new life into these beloved songs.

Enlisting the expertise of some of the capital’s finest talent, Lex and co-captain Andy Wood, of Como No fame, put together a world-class line-up of talent. Bringing in Eliane Correa as musical director and bandleader, a fluid and interchanging 18-piece band was formed.

The album itself is a hand-picked selection of timeless Afro-Cuban jazz classics, reimagined with NRO’s unbridled energy. It contains ten incredible instrumental tracks including 'Pregon' with its anthemic horn stabs and the addictive head nod bounce of 'Mambo Rama', alongside two scorching vocal numbers in 'Papa Boco' and 'Labasta Llego'. Coupling a heavyweight rhythm section with a wall of horns, they provide a fresh spin on songs from Tito Puente and Chico O'Farrill, René Hernandez through to Rafael Labasta.

“Some of the tunes like Tito Puente’s ‘Mambo Rama’ and ‘Scarlet Mambo’ might sound like they went to a gym as extra drums and bass synth were added to them whilst the tune ‘Sahib & Tito’ is a mix of Tito’s ‘Mambo Buda’ and Sahib Shihab’s ‘Nus’. Our intention is to be both respectful to the innovators and inventors of this incredible music and to pay our dues, but also to add something special from London where the city’s new jazz scene connects with its Latin American musicians and the musical influences around us.”

This pure collective joy, shared experience and music you can’t help but move to.

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Mammoth Penguins

LP | 2024 | UK | Original (Fika)

LP | 2024 | UK | Original (Rocket Girl)

Release: 2024 / UK – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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12” Orange Smoke Vinyl, Gatefold Sleeve Edition Of 500. 6 Panel Digifile CD. Mammoth Penguins are a 3-piece indie powerhouse, showcasing the songwriting and vocal talents of Emma Kupa (Standard Fare) backed up by the noisiest rhythm section in indie pop. May 2024 sees the release of their fourth album Here on Fika Recordings. After 2019’s big, bold and confident There’s No Fight We Can’t Both Win, and the initial shock of the global pandemic cancelling a trip to Sxsw in 2020, the band returned to the studio in the summer of 2021 to start recording. The new record leans into a raw pop-punk power-trio sound more than ever, with a deep growl in layered guitars and bursts of percussion and harmony. The songs and artwork explore themes about finding a place for yourself and familiarity with people and places. Although it turns back towards a classic three-piece sound, the band weren’t restricted by that palette, adding finishing touches of percussion, extra guitars and backing vocals in short bursts in a garden shed, and also bringing in gorgeous strings to sweeten the title track. The sound builds on the band’s first album, Hide and Seek, which was released with the much-loved and sorely missed Fortuna POP! in 2015. The follow-up LP John Doe in 2017 was an ambitious concept album, exploring the feelings of loss and anger at a man who fakes his own death only to return years later, expanding well beyond the 3-piece rock‘n’roll template, with washes of strings, synths and samples. The ‘Penguins have been smashing it at some high-profile support slots in the lead up to this album release, including at Allo Darlin’s joyous reunion at Islington Assembly Hall (Oct 2023) and Muncie Girls last ever 3 London show (Dec 2023). They play the Leicester Indiepop all-dayer and Wales Goes Pop in March, before heading out on tour in support of the new album in May. Those big singalong choruses need your voice shouting back from the crowd with joy and defiance. Mammoth Penguins are Emma Kupa (guitar, vocals), Mark Boxall (bass, vocals) and Tom Barden (drums, vocals). Reminiscent of the pop melodies of The Beths, the indie dissonance of Land of Talk, and the guitar forward slacker rock of Weezer, Mammoth Penguins marry heart-ache indiepop with spiky guitars and Emma’s frank confessional songwriting. “wonderfully awkward indie pop with a literate flair, sounding a lot like a Weezer record or even a more feminine Wedding Present” Clash // “eminently relatable earworms” Brooklyn Vegan // “one of the finest examples of simple and true indie rock around” All Music // “her characterful voice still carrying masses of charm and the messier, grungey approach bringing a strength all of its own, aided by a clutch of cheerful hooks and riffs that contrast nicely with lyrics dealing mostly with heartbreak and misery” Drowned In Sound

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A.R. Kane

Up Home!

Magical Metamorphosis Third Eye Yellow Vinyl Edition

Release: 2024 / UK – Original

Genre: Pop

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A.R. Kane were formed in 1986 by Rudy Tambala and Alex Ayuli, two second-generation immigrants who grew up together in Stratford, East London. From the off the pair were outsiders in the culturally mixed (cockney/Irish/West Indian/Asian) milieu of the East End, with Alex and Rudy’s folks first generation immigrants from Nigeria and Malawi, respectively. The two of them quickly developed and fostered an innate and near-telepathic mutual understanding forged in musical, literary and

artistic exploration. Like a lot of second-generation immigrants, they were ferocious autodidacts in all kinds of areas, especially around music and literature. Diving deep into the music of afro-futurist luminaries such as Sun Ra, Miles Davis, Lee Perry and Hendrix, as well as devouring the explorations of lysergic noise and feedback from contemporaries like Sonic Youth and Butthole Surfers, they also thoroughly immersed themselves in the alternate literary realities of sci-fi and ancient history (the

fascination with the arcane that gave the band their name), all to feed their voracious cultural thirsts and intellectual curiosity.

It was seeing the Cocteau Twins performing on Channel 4 show the Tube that spurred A.R. Kane into being - “They had no drummer. They used tapes and technology and Liz Fraser looked completely otherworldly with those big eyes. And the noise coming out of Robin’s guitar! That was the ‘Fuck! We could do that!

The duo debuted with the astonishing ‘When You’re Sad’ single for One Little Indian in

1986. Immediately dubbed a ‘black Jesus & Mary Chain’ by a press unsure of Where to put a black band clearly immersed in feedback and noise, what was immediately apparent for listeners was just how much more was going on here – a tapping of dub’s stealth and guile, a resonant umbilicus back to fusion and jazz, the music less a conjuration of past highs than a re-summoning of lost spirits.

The run of singles and EPs that followed picked up increasingly rapt reviews in the press, but it was the ‘Up Home EP’ released in 1988 on their new home, Rough Trade that really suggested something immense was about to break. SimonReynolds noted the EP was: Their most concentrated slab of iridescent awesomeness and a true pinnacle of an era that abounded with astounding

landmarks of guitar-reinvention, A.R. Kane at their most elixir-like.

If anything, the remastered ‘Up Home’ is even more dazzling, even more startling than it was when it first emerged, and listening now you again wonder not just about how many bands christened ‘shoegaze’ tried to emulate it, but how all of them fell so far short of its lambent, pellucid wonder. This

remains intrinsically experimental music but with none of the frowning orthodoxy those words imply. A.R. Kane, thanks to that second generation auto-didacticism were always supremely aware about the interstices of music and magic, but at the same time gloriously free in the way they explored that connection within their own sound, fascinated always with the creation of ‘perfect mistakes’ and the possibilities inherent in informed play.

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Hibushibire

LP | 2023 | UK | Original (Riot Season)

Souvenir Silver Vinyl Edition

Release: 2023 / UK – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Osaka based psych-rock three piece Hibushibire return after a long break, with a new line up and a stunning third album. Produced by Acid Mothers Temple/Mainliner guru Makoto Kawabata who also guests on the album.

Following the successes of their debut album 'Freak Out Orgasm!' (2017), the follow up ‘Turn On, Tune In, Freak Out’ (2019) and two very well received UK tours. The band headed home to Osaka, Japan and then, the pandemic hit.

During this downtime, guitarist/vocalist Changchang decided to create a new power trio. Enter Tetsuji Toyoda (Bass/Vocals) & Aoi Hama (Drums/Vocals). The new trio have spent the last three years writing new music, playing live and honing their sound in Japan, and a short well received tour of Taiwan with Riot Season labelmates Dope Purple. And now finally, Hibushibire mark 2 is born properly.

“Hibushibire has returned after a change of members. A psychedelic, progressive work, suitable for a new beginning"

Entering the studio with Acid Mothers Temple/Mainliner guru Makoto Kawabata in the producer chair (and also as a guest musician) once again, the band recorded album number three, 'Magical Metamorphosis Third Eye’. Makoto also adds some of his own trademark guitar howls throughout the album, perfectly complimenting Changchang’s own growing prowess.

Here the band have taken their trademark psych-rock blasts and blended them perfectly with some more trippy, dare I say sweet progressive psychedelic sounds.

“The idea of this album is based on the theme of "occultism and mysticism". But it's not a serious thing, it's about the things we like (UFOs, pyramids, psychic phenomena, shamanism etc) and we all had fun

while making it. In terms of what makes it different from the previous Hibushibire albums, it’s where AOI HAMA's vocals are present. I had wanted to use a female vocalist for a long time, so it was a good feeling!”

Like the band's first two albums, 'Magical Metamorphosis Third Eye’ is very much an album of two halves. Side one again is full of killer shorter tracks, while side two is reserved for a blinding majestic 20 minute epic ‘Ayahuasca Witch Abduction’. Perhaps the biggest musical surprise here though is probably track two, the beautifully mellow tripped out ‘We Won't Go Back To The Past’, which sounds like it’s been beamed straight out of the late 60s/early 70s.

The band also tip a nod to the Beatles psychedelic classic ‘Tomorrow Never Ever Knows’, but with their own twist of course.

It’s clear with the line up changes, Changchang has decided to expand the band's musical pathway, and he’s achieved stunning results.

The band plan to return to the UK and Europe in 2024 to see friends old and new.

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Omni

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Sub Pop)

Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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The music of Atlanta trio Omni has always swung fast and hit hard. And Souvenir, their fourth album and second for Sub Pop, packs their biggest punch yet. Inactive during the majority of the pandemic-the longest downtime in their history-they approached this recording with lots of pent-up energy. Guitarist Frankie Broyles, singer/bassist Philip Frobos, and drummer Chris Yonker converted their creative fuel into sharp, driving songs that land immediately, sporting chopping riffs, staccato beats, and wiry melodies. Why does Souvenir sound so sharp? Because each track is a compact unit that stands on its own, reflecting the time and place in which it was created. That's why Omni called the album Souvenir: it's a collection of audio objects, a stash of musical miniatures. Think of it as a family photo album, a binder of rare playing cards, a shoebox holding precious gems. Take "Plastic Pyramid," the first song Omni wrote after coming out of lockdown. Filled with twists and turns, it's a journey unto itself, charged by clanging chords, spinning rhythm, and Frobos trading lines with Izzy Glaudini of Automatic, with whom Omni toured with last fall. (Glaudini sings on two other Souvenir tracks, the first guest vocalist the band has collaborated with). Or take opener "Exacto," a slicing web of intertwined guitar and bass. Its razor-fine notes and syncopated beats perfectly match pointillist Frobos lyrics such as "Exacto, de facto, concise, quite right"-a line that could well be an Omni mantra. The precision and clarity of Souvenir comes from some new Omni developments. For one, this is their first album with Yonker as their full-time drummer, and his forceful playing adds exclamation points to every pointed moment on Souvenir. In addition, the trio worked with Atlanta-based engineer Kristofer Sampson for the first time. Sampson pushed the band to a higher degree of power, with Frobos's vocals more upfront in his pulsing mix and the rest of the music leaping out of the speakers. You might notice that Frobos' singing is a bit more emotional and even nostalgic this time around. In crafting his vocals, he was inspired by the early college radio rock of formative favorites like REM, the Cure, and Big Audio Dynamite-the kind of bands whose melodies could have been top 40 hits in an alternative universe. The lyrics on Souvenir are also by turns funny, absurd, and even cryptic. A wry humor has always coursed through Omni's songs, and this time, it comes in shades of both dark and light. In "Granite Kiss," an "astronomical" love story concludes with the hope that "we can decay together," while in "PG," a romantic walk in the park includes a rose-colored mugging. Immediacy rushes throughout every moment of Souvenir, making it the band's most powerful album to date. Omni has truly crafted a musical keepsake-a set of songs that you'll want to keep close, an aural memento you'll cherish for the rest of time.

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Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung Black Vinyl Edition

LP | 2023 | EU | Original (Sub Rosa)

21,99 €*

Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung

Release: 2023 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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In 1995 the self-titled full-length debut of Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung (daau) was released. The band consisted of four young, 'classically derailed' musicians who played their own compositions with acoustic instruments such as violin, cello, clarinet and accordion. Their work contained influences from Roma music, Eastern European folk, klezmer and jazz, but was performed with the energy, rebellious spirit and Sturm und Drang of a bona fide punk band. Daau was part of the fertile Antwerp scene, which also produced dEUS, Zita Swoon and Kiss My Jazz, and soon signed an international record deal with Sony Classical.

The group's influential first record, which has been out of print for a while, is now finally being released again and is available on vinyl for the very first time.

In those early days, Daau consisted of four young, classically trained musicians who tackled their instrumental compositions with a true punk spirit. 'If we'd had guitars, bass or drums at that time, we would probably have been just another rock band', says accordionist Roel Van Camp, who, together with his schoolmates Buni Lenski on violin, the latter's brother Simon on cello and Han Stubbe on clarinet made up the Antwerp quartet. 'With our acoustic instruments we tried to create our own version of the music we loved listening to, from sixties rock and prog to new wave.'

The quartet, which initially played in streets and cafes, appealed to a diverse audience and sometimes joked that they were a classically trained unit that had 'gone off the rails'. 'As befits teenagers, we wanted to shake things up', Stubbe remembers, 'even though we always kept cherishing our classical backgrounds.' Van Camp: 'Our education was never supposed to feel like a straitjacket. We were free-spirited enough to ignore the laws and regulations of the music academy and to create our own sound. Our compositions were open to influences from Roma music, Eastern European folk, klezmer and jazz'. 'That eclecticism was a direct result of the zeitgeist', Han Stubbe adds. 'We loved different styles and happily mixed them together'.

The monniker Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung was derived from Steppenwolf, a novel by German writer Hermann Hesse about a character who was outside society. 'In the book, the narrator talks of a theatre', Van Camp explains. 'And at the entrance there is a warning sign sign that says: if you go in here, you are guaranteed to lose your mind. That was an apt description of the way our music worked'.

Almost all tracks on Daau's first album were 'Drieslagstelsels' (or 'three-course rotations'). The term referred to an agricultural method of the early Middle Ages, but also to the fact that each song of the group consisted of three major movements. Van Camp: 'The titles of those pieces referred to our method of writing. We piled up a huge bunch of ideas, because we wanted to tell more than just one story. With each composition, we took the listener for a ride'.

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Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung Marbled Vinyl Edition

LP | 2023 | EU | Original (Sub Rosa)

Turn To Earth Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 2023 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Carlton Melton

2LP | 2023 | UK | Original (Agitated)

21,24 €* 24,99 € -15%

Turn To Earth Colored Vinyl Edition

Release: 2023 / UK – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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First 400 LPs (300 Colour / 100 Black) Come With A Specially Compiled Limited 70+ minute Carlton Melton “Mandatory Melton” CD (7 tracks of magick Melton classics) & full size poster of the outer gatefold sleeve…pretty!!** Northern California psychedelic sorcerers Carlton Melton are brain surfers, mind trippers, … “psychlists,” if you prefer. The band will take your head for a ride, occasionally rushing at superluminal speeds through a wormhole or gliding softly on a gentle breeze in a leafy glade. Sometimes your brain needs to rage, and sometimes it needs to repose. For a decade and a half, the band has yo-yo’ed, almost schizophrenically, between these two modes: walloping space jams with furious guitar solos in one hemisphere of the brain and ethereal, feather-light splashdowns in the other. Not to mention a track here and there that builds from the latter into the former. But with two new releases in 2023, the band has evolved. Whether psych rock or ambient trance, their sound remains driving, organic, and flowing. With the addition of Anthony Taibi (White Manna, Ddt), however, the group’s metal freak-outs are Hawkwindier and their droning kraut trances are Spacemen 3-er. In January, the quartet released the playfully spacey Resemble Ensemble, recorded in Taibi’s home studio 3D Light. October now sees the band Turn To Earth, a work with scents of Autumn, a season of death and transition. The cover art evokes a vine-covered, electric crucifix. The sound is, well, earthy but also gritty and striving towards change. The album was recorded in Fall 2022 and now harvested in Fall 2023. Phil Becker (Terry Gross, Pins Of Light) contributed drums and percussion to a few tracks on Turn To Earth, recording the album at El Studio in San Francisco. With Becker at the helm, the synths have become more prominent (“Cosmicity,” “Roboflow,” “Migration”) and the tone heavier on the doom (“Cloudstorming,” “Unlock The Land,” title track): several moments could even serve as background music for epic dark fantasy films like Conan the Barbarian, Fire and Ice, or Heavy Metal. As exquisite as Turn To Earth is, Melton are best appreciated as a live act: their recordings as well as their gigs are largely improvised – not so much composed as birthed. And yet their most recent tour ended abruptly and perilously. The group had to cancel its final three shows once members were admitted to Arnhem hospital in the Netherlands. Five years later, reinforcements have strengthened the band and restocked its arsenal of great tracks. After the rockus interruptus of that 2018 tour and the tantric tease of the intervening Covid lockdown, Melton have some unfinished business. An October 2023 tour is poised to set the freshly minted quartet back onto the stages of Europe and within the cerebral folds of its fans. Turn To Earth, sure … but keep your head in outer space. Carlton Melton is: andy duvall – drums/gtr; clint golden – bass; rich millman – gtr/synth; and anthony taibi – synth/gtr.

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Carlton Melton

2LP | 2023 | UK | Original (Agitated)

32,99 €*

LP | 1972 | Reissue (Be With)

Release: 2023 / UK – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Guy Pedersen

Maxi Music

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

Release: 1972 / Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Guy Pedersen's magical Maxi Music, originally released on cult Parisian library label tele Music in 1972, is psyche-rock and jazz-funk gold. It's a vital Pederson outing, oscillating between the rough and the smooth, but always with those hypnotic grooves. It's a start-to-finish winner, yet the final 13-minute-long opus will blow minds. Trust!

Stirring opener, "Prétexte Pour Indicatifs" is so mighty, it was covered by Keith Mansfield on "Hot Property" from Big Business/Wind Of Change on KPM. It's a track in 4 deliberate parts, the first a rapid tour de force, the second and third presenting organ-and-wah-wah-drenched slo-mo funk workouts and the fourth a return to the frenetic energy of the opening bars. Phew, pretty sensational. "Purgatoire Mood (Interlude)" is a beautiful segue into the stunning horn-laced, swift-paced aggressive jazzy excellence of "Purgatoire Mood 1" and the more poetic "Purgatoire Mood 2". Fast-paced funk beats and dramatic interplay!

"Christophus Colombus" is another song with multiple sections; the intro a rapid wah-wah-enhanced psych-rock statement that truly thrills before settling into a more steady yet no-less unrelenting guitar-funk showcase with wordless vocals and, later, reflective guitar and piano in gorgeous harmony. Closing out this electrifying side, the elegant "Bass In Love" is a soft'n'sultry slo-mo funk instrumental, as rough cello, jazzy piano and salacious, breathy vocals combine to create the scent of lingering heat to pretty rousing effect.

Ushering in Side B, "Sing Song Bass" is a slow starter but, once the drums kick in brilliantly, we're treated to a deeply melodic, propulsive, organ-flute-piano-bass gem - it's truly memorable and absolutely fantastic. The wonky, delirious psych-pop of "Petit Moujik De Nuit" is a curiously compelling number but it serves, for us at least, only as the pre-curser to the phenomenal closing track. An absolute beast that totally slays all before it!

Yes, despite Maxi Music being that rarest of library records - a record that can stand up on its own from front to back - it really does contain that *one* absolute killer track. And Peterson saved the best until last. The real highlight - can you imagine there's better?! - is the blazing psych-rock funky burner that is the infamous 13 minute thriller "Kermesse Non Héroique". Containing a wicked flute solo it genuinely sounds like something off the first Dungen album. Yes, that good. What a way to go out!

The audio for Maxi Music has been remastered by Be With regular Simon Francis, ensuring this release sounds better than ever. Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the original, iconic Tele Music house sleeve has been restored here at Be With HQ as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue.

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Michael Abels

2LP | 2018 | US | Reissue (Waxwork)

45,99 €*

LP | 2023 | EU | Original (Tim Mariën)

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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Tim Mariën

A Basement Suite

10" | 2016 | UK | Reissue (Clay Pipe Music)

Release: 2023 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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The Italian philosopher Mario Perniola, in his 2001 essay collection titled Ritual Thinking cited above, dug deep into what it means to be on the go and somewhere in between. Transience becomes tangible. What was self-evident fades away without making room for new habits. Perniola's words run like a thread through A Basement Suite, the longest work on this portrait album by Tim Mariën, and resonate throughout the Belgian composer’s entire sound world. Mariën's music settles in Perniola's liminal world, between borders. Here too, musical self-evidences are called into question. Here too the listener can make a landscape of tones their own while listening and wandering.

At first, Mariën 'uproots' our listening experience through his use of unconventional musical tunings. These deviate from the normative division of the octave into 12 equal parts (the equal temperament), yielding a greater diversity of (microtonal) pitches. Mariën's use of tuning took shape during his musicological study of Harry Partch’s music theory, one of the 20th-century figures who, in Partch's own words, put an end to "the western world's three hundred years of 12-tone paralysis." In a different way than Partch, Mariën initially distills tunings from tones that are naturally present in the harmonic overtone series. He does this through his own, open method. In this liberating approach, turnings do not get bogged down in a fixed basic principle. They are changeable and are even mixed (as in A Basement Suite). They spread out and become a range of possibilities for the composer. Marien's flexible method is strongly tied to his practice of rebuilding and retuning instruments to play his microtonal scales. He seldom works with on perfect Steinways. Instead, his instruments are like antique, worn pianos, a discarded harpsichord, or a traveled mandolin. Mariën retunes these and gives them a new life. Sometimes the fragile state of these instruments prevents them from being tuned to perfection. But it is precisely this unruly materiality of sound, which runs counter to the theoretical perfection of tuning systems, that Mariën cherishes in his works.

Furthermore, Tim Mariën often allows the instruments, with their unique timbres and microtonal scales, to simultaneously develop varying transformational processes in his compositions. He himself imagines a sea with various undercurrents and 'audible' waves on the surface. To create the ‘inaudible’ processes that lie behind this layered structure, he approaches the intervals in the scales he works with as time intervals: when tonal distances shrink or increase, so too does the duration. But although it takes shape through this self-referential process, Mariën's music never becomes abstract. Instruments are in constant in interaction, taking over intervals, gestures and even playing techniques from each other. These sometimes theatrical gestures act as signposts for our ears, as we wander through Mariën's exciting soundscape. While the polyphonic mass of his music shrinks, swells and boils over into climaxes, images and choreographies of movements emerge. For even as Mariën challenges our familiar musical experience with his tunings and abstract procedures, communication remains present in his music. We become 'strangers' to it, but can still feel at home.

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Tyneham House

19,99 €* 24,99 € -20%

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

Release: 2016 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Back in 2011 when I was tentatively looking for a second release for my fledging record label Clay Pipe Music, I stumbled upon a mysterious MySpace page by a group called ‘Tyneham House’, the page was decorated with artwork by Rena Gardiner (who was unknown to me at that time) and the music was an otherworldly mix of field recordings, Mellotron and acoustic guitar. It turned out that Tyneham was promised to Glen Johnson’s Second Language label, so I offered to do the artwork, and in January 2012 the two labels co-released it on tape and CD in a cardboard box with a handmade booklet of my illustrations.

In 2016 Clay Pipe reissued it on 10” vinyl, in an edition of just 300, which has since become sort after. The new 2023 pressing is on blue and transparent marbled vinyl, with a reverse board cover and inner sleeve, and the booklet of illustrations has been given a complete redesign. Frances Castle 2023

The pastoral, wistful yet ineffably disquieting music of Tyneham House is made by artists who wish to remain anonymous here, save for their eponymous title. The musicians are happy, however, to let it be known that these recordings have been around for some years (many of them complied from old cassettes) and that they take inspiration from the 1960s/’70s/’80s work of the Children’s Film Foundation – a body who really ought to have made a film about this mysterious West Country curio. At least now we have its endlessly poignant soundtrack.

The small village of Tyneham, on the beautiful Isle of Purbeck, in Dorset, was once a thriving little community – that is until the British Government requisitioned it for training manoeuvres and other ‘strategic purposes’ in the run up to Wwii. This was supposed to be a temporary measure, but the area remained in military possession long after hostilities had ceased, causing distress among former inhabitants, many of whom were farmed out to prefabs in nearby Wareham and Swanage.

Tyneham was characterised by its red telephone box, a tiny parade of shops – Post Office Row – and a grand country pile which stood about half a mile away from the village: Tyneham House. The army removed the building’s oak panelling and ornate decorative details and promptly set about using it for target practice. So great was the shame expressed locally about the damage inflicted upon one of Dorset’s grandest houses that the powers that be decided to grow a copse around the remains of the structure to give the impression that it was no longer there. Despite this, a substantial part of the structure remains intact, including its Saxon hall.

Land access around Tyneham was opened up in the 1970s, but admission to the house remains strictly verboten. Those who’ve been found around the premises, especially anyone wielding a camera, have felt the full weight of military trespass law. Tyneham today is regarded as a nature reserve by some – as a national embarrassment by others. It’s still a political hot potato, in Dorset at least.

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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%

Malcolm McLaren And The Bootzilla Orchestra

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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Call A Wave Remixes

2x12" | 2023 | Original (Be With)

34,99 €*

Release: 2023 / Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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"Siri, what's 'Balearic'?"
Be With present the first ever reissue of the ultra rare double pack DJ promo of Malcolm McLaren & Bootzilla
Orchestra's "Call A Wave". Originally slipping out in 1989 to a select few, there were rumoured to be only ever 300
copies pressed. Indeed, the entire package never got a proper release and now goes for a small fortune.
Say what? Bootsy Collins, Jeff Beck and Malcolm McLaren, all in one band, composing over a Barry White sample?
And that's just the original. But you can forget about that for now. Here we have the incredibly sought-after "DFC
Dance Mix", mixed by Massimino Lippoli of Morenas / Sueño Latino fame for the legendary DFC Italy. It's a throbbing,
vital, dramatic slice of dreamy ambient house. A deep, entrancing track that's both blissful and dancefloor dynamite.
It features the iconic, disaffected female vocal chopped up over elegant piano snatches, Beck's ace guitar stylings
over rolling, heavy drums and a killer, hypnotic bassline with sparkling harp coming and going. It's exotic,
otherworldly and brimming with that very special late 80s/early 90s Mediterranean vibe. Yes, it's Balearic, it's House.
Above all else, it's a pure uncut slice of halcyon summer days, pressed on wax.
But on side B we also have the mesmeric "Breakdown Mix", again mixed by DFC Italy. For some, *this* is the mix to
have - and who are we to argue? This time, the vocals are treated so they're uttered backwards, contributing to the
wonderfully disorienting magic of this particular mix.
And how could we forget the equally iconic "Orbital Mix"? Not by the actual group Orbital, but courtesy of S'Express's
Mark Moore & William Orbit, no less. A brilliant, beautiful remix that's perhaps more musical. They make more
obvious use of the sample from the original Barry White track ("I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby") that
Malcolm was inspired by. Flip over to Side D to find the duo's uber-horizontal "Return To The Deep Ambient Mix", a
floaty, beatless gem that'll leave you swooning.
To round out this quite astonishing package, the "New Age Mix", again coming from the DFC Italy camp, elegantly
sends us off into the cosmos with minimal percussion and maximum vibes.
Every mix on this DJ double pack is truly killer. Simon Francis remastered the original audio for this release and
Cicely Balston's precise cut for Alchemy at AIR Studios ensures this 2x12" well and truly pumps. The immaculate
Record Industry pressing will ensure this incredibly sought-after masterpiece finds a home in many more DJ boxes
this and every summer. For the artwork, we've recreated the original DJ promo, a plain white gatefold sleeve
complete with the iconic burnt orange hype sticker. Hold tight. Roof down, tops off

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Dancefloor Classics Volume 3

12" | 2023 | EU | Original (Rajaton)

13,29 €* 18,99 € -30%

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

Release: 2023 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Sasu Ripatti presents the third volume in his "Dancefloor Classics" series with five 10" releases coming throughout 2023. Music for imaginary dancefloors, released on Ripatti's own label "Rajaton".

--

”Look up, into the light” she said, while the camera shutter clicked. ”Like this? Does it look holy?” His neck felt stiff. Her reply: ”Yes, just like that. What do you mean holy? Like religious? ”No, more like trying to look very far, somewhere beyond what we can see.” ”Okay, stand still, I’m going to come close to you now. The light hits your face great.” click, click, click. He noticed her fingernails. They were not polished. Natural. Even somewhat rugged, as if something wore out the fingers slightly. What had these hands held besides the camera? What made the edges of her fingernails drift off? He thought it’s weird to look straight into the camera. The photographer had closed her left eye, the one not looking into the lens. Then it opened, she looked up, perusing the surroundings, then she closed her eye again, then looked up, closed, looking up, very quickly. It all seemed very professional. Maybe she calculated the light, making sure it’s close to perfect. ”What will these photos look like?” – the thought popped into his head briefly. It was liberating to think it wouldn’t matter. ”What’s that song playing?” he asked. ”Wait a sec, Ol’ Dirty Bastard?” she replied. ”Oh yeah, right. But the sample?” ”Hey, could you look up again, like that. No, lower.” New directions: ”Look out from the window, turn left.” ”My left or yours?” ”Yours, I always try to think from the direction of my model.” How professional! This is a good shoot, so natural. Should I worry about how the photos look like? No, I don’t want to. His thoughts bounced around. What would the story be like? It’s a big newspaper, everyone will read it. Maybe someone drinks coffee and eats a stroopwafel while they do it. Will they place the waffle on top of the mug for a brief while, so that it gets hot and the syrup melts a little? Then it feels wet, and you can bend the cookie. She broke his train of thought off midway through: ”Now turn right, but look left, and slightly up, but don’t turn your face right.” ”Umm, like this? Sounds like a set of pilates instructions.” [she laughed] ”You do pilates?” ”Yeah, it’s hard sometimes. Have you tried?” ”No”, she said. ”I’m not good for sports that are done in groups.” ”Yeah, but in pilates you can just be inside your mind, drowning in your private thoughts.” ”What are you thinking in pilates?” she asked, taking more photos. ”Well, mostly just which way is right. And which left.” click, click.

--

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Pale Blue

Maria

Optical Delusion White 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.

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Orbital

2LP | 2023 | EU | Original (London)

38,99 €*

Optical Delusion Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 2023 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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“A human being experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest [of humanity] – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison…”

You many have seen this quote attributed to Albert Einstein on social media, the archetypal Smartest Guy Ever apparently having an out-of-character religious epiphany. It certainly leapt out at Paul Hartnoll of Orbital who spotted it in Michael Pollan’s 2018 book How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression and Transcendence.

“As soon as I saw ‘optical delusion’ I thought Oh hey, that’s the album title,” says Paul. “It just seemed to say so much about how people construct their own realities, how we see patterns that aren’t there, how we see what we want to see.

“But it’s actually a misquote. He never quite said that. In the German original what he’s really saying is that human experience is as relative as physics. Wouldn’t it be good if we could accept that, and find a kind of universal theory of everything for the human race? Then you look at everything from history to art to your Twitter feed and you think yeah, that’s what we’re all trying to do all of the time…”

Hence ‘Optical Delusion’, the tenth original Orbital album and the latest in a burst of renewed post-pandemic creativity for two brothers who’ve stayed at the top of their game longer than anyone from the post-1988 Class of Acid House.

Now with ‘Optical Delusion’ the Hartnolls dig deeper into the unquiet psyche of our increasingly surreal and disordered world. Sketched out partly during lockdown but fully recorded in the uncertain After Times, the album summons up conflicting emotions and sometimes beguiling images from years when the science fiction doomsdays that the Hartnolls watched on TV as kids finally came true. There are mesmeric tracks with names like ‘The New Abnormal’ and ‘Requiem For The Pre-Apocalypse’ and ‘Day One’. But there are also straight-up bangers and ethereal cosmic dreams, abstract sound wars and deeply human songs of separation and loss.

And it all starts with a bang. Lead single ‘Dirty Rat’, an outright Fall-meets-Front-242 class rant with vocals by Sleaford Mods mob orator Jason Williamson, harks right back to the Hartnolls’ days of politicised anarcho-squatpunk. It began as a remix swap (Orbital did the Sleafords’ ‘I Don’t Rate You’) and morphed into a comic, brutal, bass-driven harangue not so much against our rulers but at the petty, mean-spirited, frightened, Mail-reading voters who put them there: the people who are “blaming everyone in hospital/blaming everyone at the bottom of the English Channel/blaming everyone who doesn’t look like a fried animal.”

Also key to the album is opening track ‘Ringa Ringa (The Old Pandemic Folk Song)’ which returns to an Orbital truism, that time always becomes a loop. This chugging, cyclical Orbital groove gives way to an unnerving past-meets-present timeslip fit for ‘Sapphire And Steel’ as goth maenads The Mediaeval Baebes materialise to sing ‘Ring O’Roses’ – the innocent nursery rhyme whose roots are in the Black Death.

“I’ve always liked folk music and mediaeval sounds,” says Paul, himself an occasional Morris dancer. “I had the basis of that track and I wanted to spin it off somehow.” Trawling his archives he stumbled on The Mediaeval Baebes’ version of ‘Ring O’Roses’ “and my hackles just went up. I was like, my God, this is the original pandemic folk song.”

?his being Orbital, there are collaborations galore on the album, the roles once played by Alison Goldfrapp, Lady Leshurr or David Gray now filled by new talents. London singer-songwriter Anna B Savage contributes a compellingly fragile, Anohni-like vocal to ‘Home’, in which nature reclaims the scorched and vacant mega-cities. ‘Day One’ is a pulsing techno track featuring the singer Dina Ipavic. Paul got in touch with her after working on a score for a sculpture show of giant robotic installations by his friend Giles Walker during the pandemic. First Paul cut up his own score and Ipavic’s vocals on the track The Crane, which appears on the deluxe version of the album. Then he thought, Why not work with her for real? The result is school of ‘Belfast’, a bassy dreamscape with vocalised clouds billowing above.

The pensive ‘Are You ?live?’ adds to the Orbital product range of existential questions (‘Are We Here?’, ‘Where Is It Going?’) in collaboration Bella Union signings Penelope Isles, AKA brother and sister act Lily and Jack Wolter. “They’re our studio mates, they work upstairs!” says Paul happily. “And they’ve both got amazing voices.”

But Orbital are Orbital and never far from the dancefloor. “Eventually the more abrasive bits came back into the fold…” ‘You Are The Frequency’, first of two tracks to feature mysterious vocalist The Little Pest, surrounds the listener with warped voices ordering you to the dancefloor (Phil: “we wanted the idea that the music is kind of absorbing you”). And the second, the sinister ‘What A Surprise’, traps you in a paranoid electronic hall of mirrors.

In another nod to Orbital’s resurgent past the cover artwork once again comes from fine art painter John Greenwood, creator of fantastical grotesques for the covers of ‘Snivilisation’, ‘In Sides’ and Orbital’s most recent album, 2018’s ‘Monsters Exist’. Orbital had just had a slick Mark Farrow cover for ‘30 Something’ – this is a return to the overripe and bulbous techno-organic constructions that somehow express Orbital’s own uncontrollably fertile sound.

There are gaps in the future that Orbital are desperate to fill too; there will be tours and festivals and rooms and fields full of people. Those long paralysed months when we had little to look forward to but a Zoom DJ set made Paul and Phil appreciate the things that make life worth living.

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Orbital

2LP | 2023 | EU | Original (London)

CD | 2023 | EU | Original (London)

Release: 2023 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Orbital

Optical Delusion

Box | 2022 | US | Original (Nonesuch)

Release: 2023 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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John Adams

Collected Works

130,89 €* 153,99 € -15%

LP | 2024 | UK | Original (Pond)

Release: 2022 / US – Original

Genre: Classical Music

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The forty-disc box set features recordings spanning more than four decades of the composer’s career with the label. The release includes two extensive booklets containing new essays and notes by Timo Andres, Julia Bullock, Robert Hurwitz, Nico Muhly, and Jake Wilder-Smith. This will be released on the 24th of June via Nonesuch. Nonesuch Records releases the forty-disc John Adams Collected Works, a box set featuring recordings spanning more than four decades of the composer’s career with the label. The release includes two extensive booklets containing new essays and notes by Timo Andres, Julia Bullock, Robert Hurwitz, Nico Muhly, and Jake Wilder-Smith.

Nonesuch made its first record with John Adams in 1985. He was signed exclusively to the label that year, and since then the company has released forty-two first recordings and thirty-one all-Adams albums, of which six are full-length operas, oratorios, or staged theatrical presentations. Four of Adams’ Nonesuch records have won Grammy Awards, among other honours.

“John Adams coming to the label was one of the central events in our company’s history,” says Robert Hurwitz, Nonesuch’s longtime President and current Chairman Emeritus. “The idea of a label recording all of the works of its most cherished composers had been long established in the classical record business, most notably the efforts of Columbia with Stravinsky, Decca with Britten, and Deutsche Grammophon with Stockhausen.

“While most of Columbia’s Stravinsky recordings were made decades after the works’ premieres, and many of the admirable Decca Britten recordings came after his death, this Nonesuch collection is unique in the sense that the recordings were done in real time, mostly within a few months of a piece’s first performance. Every recording was either conducted by John, or made under close supervision of the composer, who was in the control booth for every album – when he wasn’t on the podium.”

Hurwitz continues: “As the record business changed, we realised the urgency of preserving this amazing accomplishment in a physical form; the music’s importance to our culture cannot be underestimated and the idea of much of it only being available digitally in the future was difficult to imagine.

“In making the box we left a little extra space, since Nonesuch plans to continue recording John’s work.”

John Adams occupies a unique position in the world of music. Long embraced by the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, instrumental soloists and singers, choreographers and opera directors, his works are among the most performed of all contemporary classical music. Early in his career, Adams was composer-in-residence of the San Francisco Symphony (1982-85), and creator of the orchestra’s highly successful and controversial New and Unusual Music series. Many of his landmark orchestral works were written for and premiered by the San Francisco Symphony, including Harmonium (1981), Grand Pianola Music (1982), Harmonielehre (1985), and Absolute Jest (2012).

In 1985, Adams began a collaboration with stage director Peter Sellars that has resulted in more than three decades of groundbreaking operas and oratorios: Nixon in China (1987) and The Death of Klinghoffer (1991), both to libretti by Alice Goodman; El Niño (2000), Doctor Atomic (2005); A Flowering Tree (2006); The Gospel According to the Other Mary (2012); and Girls of the Golden West (2017).

Since 2009 Adams has held the position of Creative Chair with the Los Angeles Philharmonic where he has been instrumental in the success of that orchestra’s highly creative Green Umbrella new music series.

Adams also has become a significant mentor of the younger generation of American composers. In his liner note, Adams’ label mate, composer and pianist Timo Andres, says: “I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that when Road Movies was dropped into my lap as a college freshman, it triggered a chain reaction that led me where I am now… John’s music has been such a constant in my life that it’s reached a base level of my consciousness – it’s part of the way I hear all music now.”

This year launched with a major focus on Adams’ music in Zürich with the Tonhalle Orchestra, from January to March. Orchestras around the world will likewise present major performances of his works including Cincinnati Symphony, NDR Elbphilharmonie, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Budapest Festival Orchestra. This spring, Adams’ piano concerto Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes? tours to orchestras around the world: Seattle, St. Louis, Cleveland, Zürich, Iceland, Gothenburg, and San Francisco; Adams conducted a performance of it by the Cleveland Orchestra and Jeremy Denk earlier this year. In September 2022, Adams’s new opera Antony & Cleopatra will open the San Francisco Opera’s centennial season.

Nonesuch Records has historically had close relationships with modern composers. During the years of Tracey Sterne, the label made multiple recordings of Elliott Carter, George Crumb, Charles Wuorinen, and William Bolcom. Since 1985, Nonesuch has made multiple recordings of works by Philip Glass, Stephen Sondheim, Laurie Anderson, Caroline Shaw, Louis Andriessen, John Zorn, Adam Guettel, Henryk Górecki, Timo Andres, Nico Muhly, and Donnacha Dennehy. For Steve Reich, like John Adams, Nonesuch has recorded every new piece of his music since 1985 and will also release a collection of his complete works – in 2023.

While Nonesuch recordings comprise thirty-five of the forty discs in Collected Works, the set also includes recordings from other labels, including: the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s recordings of The Gospel According to the Other Mary and Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes?, with Yuja Wang, on Deutsche Grammophon; a recording by Christina and Michelle Naughton of Roll Over Beethoven on Warner Classics; and the San Francisco Symphony’s recordings of Absolute Jest and Grand Pianola Music. The Berlin Philharmonic’s recording of Harmonielehre, conducted by Adams, is the final CD in the set, serving as the bookend to the piece’s first recording, by the San Francisco Symphony led by Edo de Waart on Nonesuch that is the first disc of the set.

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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)

LP | 2024 | UK | Original (Central Processing Unit)

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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Lina Filipovich

Idealized

16,99 €*

Estrellas Remixes EP Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 2024 / UK – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Filipovich is one of a kind. The Belarus-born, Paris-based artist works in a multitude of media - found footage films, painting, silkscreening and performance to name a few. It's her musical output that has caught the attention of late, though, with Filipovich dropping a run of releases in recent years which began with 2021's Magnificat on Time Released Sound. Filipovich takes as much of a novel approach to her music-making as she does with her other artistic endeavours - Magnificat was centred around treated samples of Sergei Rachmaninov's All-Night Vigil, and she's also combined classical composition with contemporary electronic techniques on her subsequent drops.
For Idealized, Filipovich's debut on Sheffield's Central Processing Unit, she maintains the gothic air which characterised her previous releases and applies it to a record of widescreen contemporary techno joints. These tracks represent something of a gear shift for CPU, a label which has long made its name by delivering top-quality electro and machine-funk jams, but such is the quality of Idealized that these superbly-executed techno productions are sure to win over label fans both old and new.
Idealized is very much schooled in the German tradition of minimal/dub techno. Tracks like 'Physical', 'Wave' and 'Dance Minor' all anchor themselves on single, steady drum pulses and delay-drenched single-chord loops. Filipovich generally lets the central idea of these tracks play out across several minutes while introducing increasingly disorientating elements into the rest of the mix - wiccan atmospherics, clashing chords, spiralling delays and so forth. It's an approach at once respectful of Filipovich's predecessors - Basic Channel, Deepchord, Ellen Allien and so on - but also full of idiosyncrasies and individuality.
Many of the club cuts here hardwire us into the moody, murky environs of the darkest Berlin Basements. 'Ultra Red' rides forward on a crisp drum machine snap, a menacing burble of bassline and an eerie single-note synth whistle in the upper end of the mix; 'Dance Minor' shows off a bit of KiNK in the brain-bending modular loop that waxes and wanes at its centre; the second-half run from 'Wave' to closer 'Small Cave' travels ever-further out into deep space - the kick drums remain insistent, yet the textural elements are delivered with an edge and flair that evidences Filipovich's ability to think outside the box.
Filipovich's unusual methods, and the influence of sound art and electroacoustic composition on her music, are drawn out further when Idealized steps away from the dancefloor. 'Hydra' comes off like a more gothic version of Pole - its central pulse draws from dub techno but never quite settles into a danceable groove, and this beat is combined with the kind of unnerving keyboard work that would make John Carpenter proud. Although closer 'Small Cave' eventually locks into another dark-room techno roller, the opening section of the track delivers a weightless soundscape of bright, tinny chords and a scene-setting field recording.
Idealized, the first drop on Central Processing Unit from Paris-based Belarusian Lina Filpovich, broadens the label's horizons with a selection of finely crafted minimal/dub techno joints.
Riyl: Andy Stott, Deepchord, Ellen Allien, Moritz von Oswald

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Guts

2x12" | 2024 | EU | Original (Heavenly Sweetness)

Blending White & Orange Smash Vinyl Editoin

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves, Electronic & Dance

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Limited to 1000 copies worldwide, only available with GUTS and HHV.

In 2022, Guts brought together his musical family for his ‘Estrellas’ album. An ambitious project that brought together musicians from: Franc, Cuba and various African countries. For a journey that was as rich artistically as it was humanly. The list of superlatives was almost endless, "Formidable", "incredible", "unforgettable" and "magical" all thrown into the pot, during these magical moments in the Dakar studio. From the seventeen tracks heard on the original album, three have been entrusted to the expert and inventive hands of four producers, who have come up with new interpretations bringing Africa and the Caribbean together for a modern dancefloor.

‘Por Que Ou Ka Fe Sa’ (Poirier Remix)

From his studio in Montreal, Canadian Poirier has opted for a strong groove and relentless bass drum to keep out intruders, putting vocalists David Walters and Brenda Navarrete in a rhythmic cocoon. Accompanied in a slightly moody bassline that adds some driving muscle to the track. The hooky guitar line eventually gives way to the saxophone that emerges from the mix to parade around the front line. The original electric piano is replaced by a synth pad that loops and spins driving the track to its conclusion.

‘Por Que Ou Ka Fe Sa’ (David Walters Remix)

Before recording this track, David Walters and Brenda Navarette didn't even know each other. So in the magic of the moment that brought them together is a genuine and sincere artistic bond. It is no longer Guts but David who is at the musical helm, and before they too can savour the connection between the two artists, the dancers will have to pass through an overheated corridor where a Caribbean rhythm resonates with percussion. Digital and woodwind swirl and clash until the vocal encounter with the artists. It's a moment of respite that's as suspended as it is life-saving, because the exit is also via the famous corridor.

‘San Lazaro’ (Bosq Remix)

On Bosq’s mix, he’s opted to maintain things focused on the dancefloor, keeping the percussion persistent for the unleashed bodies of the dancers to smile. It's once again the walking bass line rises to the forefront of the groove, softening the shocks of the relentless kick drum. Roberto Valdes's timeless piano has disappeared, while guitars float and add to the atmosphere. The track is no longer awash in cigar smoke. Under Akemis's powerful vocals the low ceiling has disappeared, and the open roof is more a brass-lit spectacle. That doesn't make things any less overheated though, this one is sweaty until the end.

‘Medewui’ (Captain Planet Remix)

Captain Planet brings the dancer’s attention to the Afrobeat flavored jam that rocked the original, highlighting the Pat Kalla & Assane Mboup duet. Despite the track remaining mid tempo, laying back is no longer the order of the day as this mix really develops. The drums are more present jolting along with the organ in the first half. Once all the storytellers have taken their microphones, the rhythmic beats are doubled and the track is carried towards a frenzy of Afro-Latin dancing. Fired up by the brass and percussion, it’s this almost switch up that takes hold of the second part of the tune, with some righteous authority and relentless piano and trumpet.

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High Vis

LP | 2022 | CZ | Reissue (Dais)

How Much Time Between You And Me?

Release: 2022 / CZ – Reissue

Genre: Rock & Indie

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High Vis were formed in 2016 from the ashes of some of the UK's best hardcore bands. Gild-toothed frontman Graham Sayle's anguished lyrics about life in working class Britain were familiar to fans of Tremors' full-throttle thrash, but alongside his former bandmate Edward `Ski' Harper and veterans of Dirty Money, DiE and The Smear, High Vis sought to transform that energy and intensity into something entirely new.Like scene-mates Chubby and the Gang did by pulling in unlikely source material from classic doo-wop or Micromoon have by combining everything from psychedelia and metal into their high potency mix, High Vis' 2019 debut album, No Sense No Feeling showed the band were never going to be constrained by any sense of genre rules or regulations. Its claustrophobic rattle bore traces of Joy Division, Bauhaus, Crisis, The Cure and Gang Of Four lurking in the shadows. 2020's synth-driven EP, Society Exists, was further evidence of the band's restless creative MO.High Vis' second album Blending sees them open their viewfinder wider than ever before. Alongside longstanding favourites such as Fugazi and Echo and The Bunnymen; Ride and even Flock Of Seagulls were shared reference points as the band worked on the album together.From the anthemic sweep of opener "Talk For Hours", through the title track's psychedelic swirl and "Fever Dream"'s baggy groove, it sees High Vis' sound blossoming into something with an unlimited richness. The hazy drift of "Shame" or the melodic jangle of "Trauma Bonds" may take them until uncharted waters, but they still have all the power and bite that made No Sense No Feeling so remarkable.Lyrically, the album represents another leap forward too. Talking frankly about poverty, class politics, and the challenges of everyday life, Sayle's lyrics have always addressed the downtrodden and discarded communities across Britain slipping below the waterline. This time around, Sayle's lost not of that social consciousness, but he's looked at himself and his own emotional landscape, and in the process created something that feels more universal, that reaches a hand-out to people and ultimately gives a message of hope."To me, the lyrics are less selfish," reflects Sayle. "In the past, I couldn't see past whatever was going on with me. It's about accepting things and being open to conversations and learning to talk to people rather than just thinking that we're all doomed."The song "Talk for Hours" is a prime example of that. Born out of an afternoon meeting up with an old group of mates "repeating the same thing and not actually learning anything about each other" it offers to actually break the cycle and to listen and speak frankly about shared feelings and experiences. "Trauma Bonds", meanwhile, traces the broken lines of those living in lost communities, but ultimately realises that despite our shared scars, there's still hope to move on to a better future."The message of the album is you're not who you're told you are," Sayle summarises. "You're not your class background. Whatever it is, you're not that. Don't resign yourself to thinking you can't be this and you can't be that."It's a vitally important message right now, and one that could be the motto for not only Blending, but for High Vis themselves.

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Perila

LP | 2021 | EU | Original (Smalltown Supersound)

In Search Of... White Vinyl Edition

Release: 2021 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Perila (Aleksandra Zakharenko) left her native Russia six years ago, landing in Berlin. Finding her place almost immediately - first at Berlin Community Radio and through that amongst a group of like-minded creative individuals (including her current flatmates Special Guest DJ and exael) - she started a regular practice of working on an expressionistic "sonic diary" of field recordings and electronic sound research for her own pleasure. When the opportunity arose to create her own podcast series, WET (or Weird Erotic Tension) was born. Upon hearing her evocative and atmospheric music layered with friends Nat Marcus and Inger Wold Lund's erotic spoken word poetry, Sferic Records asked to release it, and Perila - a project name originally used for her BCR show - truly came to be. Aleksandra, who was raised in St. Petersburg, has been involved in music since childhood thanks to her melomaniac father. She's been both drummer and singer in local bands in Russia, and is also the co-founder of radio.syg.ma - one of the first online stations in Russian focusing on experimental sounds - but Perila is something else entirely. You could loosely describe it as ambient, but her soundworld is so specific and transportative, filled with detail and movement, it's more akin to hauntological musique concrète, touched by song. Her fascination with voice and language - she studied English literature at university - is still evident, although that's now her voice, her texts, her crooning you can hear on the Everything Is Already There cassette (Boomkat Editions, 2020), her processed breaths on the Meta Door L cassette (Paralaxe Editions, 2020). The Wire Magazine got it right when they said about Irer Dent that, "Sensuality is presented as a secret pass to a higher consciousness." For her debut album, How Much Time it is Between You and Me?, released via Smalltown Supersound on June 11th, Aleksandra takes inspiration from the concept of time, which she felt keenly during the pandemic. Recorded primarily in September 2020 in a rural village in France - her only travel during the first year of the pandemic period - surrounded by mountains but otherwise alone with no internet, her perception of time there differed immensely. She describes the trip as, "an immersive experience into self," viewed through a "silence prism" where everyday sounds usually ignored felt amplified. While her work has always dealt in intimacy - be it the private thrills of WET or the audible closeness of our surroundings - the organic response and consistent feedback she gets for Perila made Aleksandra recognize a longing, a need for it in today's world. Intent on creating work based in honesty and tenderness, Perila's practice also explores how we feel music and emotion throughout the body and how sound can help to release it. How does the sound enter a body and travel through it? Where does movement start? How do you reach and unblock emotional clusters with the help of sound and deep listening of the body responses? Aleksandra likes to describe her music and performances as trips - thick narratives drifting along sound to get closer to self. Let Perila guide you through this journey.

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N.E.R.D

2LP | 2002 | US | Reissue (Virgin)

47,99 €*

Release: 2002 / US – Reissue

Genre: Hip Hop

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N.E.R.D’s "In Search Of..." is the debut studio album by the American band, originally released in 2001, and reissued in 2002 with a significant change in sound. The band, consisting of Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo (both also known as the production duo The Neptunes), and Shay Haley, crafted a genre-blending project that marked a shift in the way hip-hop, funk, and rock could come together in mainstream music.

"In Search Of..." fuses hip-hop, rock, funk, and R&B into an eclectic sound that was highly innovative at the time.

The album was released in two versions:
2001 Version: Heavily electronic, incorporating synthetic beats and drum machines, typical of The Neptunes' production style.
2002 Version: Re-recorded with live instruments, featuring the band Spymob. This second version has a rawer, more organic rock feel, giving the album a different energy and appeal.

The lyrics on "In Search Of..." are a mix of youthful rebellion, self-reflection, and social commentary. Some recurring themes include:

Personal freedom and identity: The album often explores the idea of breaking free from societal norms and expectations.
Power and politics: Tracks like "Lapdance" offer a cynical take on politicians and authority figures.
Relationships and desire: The album also delves into personal relationships, touching on lust, romance, and heartache.

Notable Tracks:
"Lapdance": A standout track known for its aggressive beat and politically charged lyrics, criticizing corruption and manipulation in politics.
"Rock Star": A high-energy anthem that channels frustration with societal pressures and celebrates nonconformity.
"Provider": One of the more introspective songs on the album, telling the story of a man struggling to provide for his family while making difficult choices.
"Truth or Dare": Featuring Kelis, this track mixes funky beats with provocative lyrics, offering a lighter, playful side to the album.
4. The Concept Behind the Album Title:
The album's title, "In Search Of...", reflects the band's desire to explore new musical and thematic territories. It’s also a nod to the 1970s American TV show In Search Of..., which investigated mysterious phenomena, paralleling N.E.R.D.'s exploration of uncharted musical landscapes and personal identity.

"In Search Of..." was groundbreaking in its approach to combining genres, breaking the mold of what was expected from a hip-hop project. Pharrell, Chad, and Shay’s ability to blend live instrumentation with hip-hop production created a blueprint for future artists to mix rock and urban sounds. The album became a touchstone for genre-bending artists and a precursor to Pharrell’s later solo work.

Although "In Search Of..." did not achieve massive commercial success upon its initial release, it was critically acclaimed and has since gained a cult following. The innovative sound and unique blend of genres helped establish N.E.R.D. as pioneers in the music world, influencing a wide range of artists across various genres.

N.E.R.D.'s "In Search Of..." remains a seminal album that pushed the boundaries of genre and sound. Its blend of live instrumentation with hip-hop, rock, and funk created a distinctive sonic identity that resonated with listeners seeking something outside the norm. The album not only showcased the diverse musical talents of Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo, and Shay Haley but also laid the groundwork for the genre-fusion movement that would follow in the years to come.

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12" | 2024 | EU | Original (COD3 QR)

[QR]V.200.SPK.24

14,99 €*

Vogel Colored Vinyl Edition

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Laurent Garnier select new tracks for [QR]V.200.SPK.24 by six COD3 QR favourites Jules Wells, Skatman, Works Of Intent, Squal G, YANNLEAN and Joaquim Plossu.

Following June's "[QR]V.172.TAM.24", featuring tracks by Avision, DJ Deep and Deetron, Laurent Garnier's COD3 QR label is back with another vinyl-only release. This varied 6-pack, coded "[QR]V.200.SPK.24" is comprised of exclusive tracks from members of the extended COD3 QR family: Skatman, Works Of Intent, Yann Lean, and Joaquim Plossu & Salem Focus, alongside Jules Wells' "Dreamer" (released digitally on the label in May) and Squal G's "Waiting 4U" (from April).

Skatman, the Berlin based, Tunisian born DJ, producer and label head of Cognitive Prophecy follows up his huge COD3 QR track "Tribute to a Dancefloor" with the deep, groovy and aptly titled "Transcending House". He has already gained recognition for his approach to electronic music, bridging the gap between classic and contemporary with tracks on Innervisions and Correspondent, becoming one of the most intriguing and captivating artists.

Jules Wells who delivered the infectious "The Clap" on COD3 QR 016 is back with the retro House sound of "Dreamer". Jules Wells is from Bordeaux, France. Strongly influenced by the Motor City, Jules has released on the likes of Submerge, Twilight 76, KMS, Planet E, Brique Rouge and Logos (Macedonia).

Works Of Intent, a core member of the UK South Asian collective DAYTIMERS and Emotional Weaponry label owner, has recently released an acclaimed guest mix for the legendary John Digweed's Transitions radio show. Known for his ability to blend emotive storytelling with rhythmic precision, he follows up his "Richer Sound" album (released last year on the label) with the intricate and uncompromising "Subversive".

Producer and manager of the Slates Records label, Squal G is a French artist who has been passionate about electronic music since the early '90s. Initially, he practised his art as a DJ before turning to machines and computers as he progressed with production. Never sticking to a single style, instead, allowing inspiration to lead him, he nevertheless remains in the Techno spirit, as heard on "Waiting 4U".

A multi-faceted composer and DJ, Yann Lean also works as a sound engineer for himself and other artists. Whether working as a duo with Madben and their side project Trunkline or as a solo artist, he has won the trust and support of prestigious labels such as KMS, Bedrock, Planet Rhythm, Skryptom and Materia, as well as COD3 QR who released "Hope" in 2020. Now he's back with tribal drums on "To Get Close".

French born, Mexican resident Joaquim Plossu has been making music as a producer, multi-instrumentalist and sound designer for the past 20 years with releases on COD3 QR, 31 Recordings, Fokuz, Repertoire, Deep Heads, Planet Rhythm and more. Both music composer and producer for TV and films, as well as Drum & Bass producer in his spare time, he teams up again with Leeds (UK) based Salem Focus (Fokuz Records / Soulvent / Galacy) for some energetic D&B on closing track "Cosmic".

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Ottla

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Unday)

28,99 €*

Blending Black Marble Vinyl Edition

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Limited edition LP on Colored Vinyl. The band around Bert Dockx (Dans Dans, Flying Horseman) transformed once again and is now a quartet.They developped new compositions with an even richer language fluttering and wailing in jazz, impro, electronics and krautrock.

Ottla is a bird that not only sings beautifully but also vigorously flaps and squawks. Also known as a band that Bert Dockx formed to play together once to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Jazz Lab concert series. Fortunately, Dockx and the musicians he gathered for that anniversary sextet quickly found much enthusiasm and more opportunities to play together. In 2019, what initially seemed like a fleeting experiment transformed into composing, rehearsing, recording an album, and playing more. Ottla's fluttering spirit appeared to have cooled down, at least for a while. However, when Josse De Pauw asked Dockx to improvise during a monologue he was working on in 2021, an alternative version of Ottla quickly appeared by Dockx's side. The mystery and madness of Eduardo Galeano's "Chronicle of Fire" (1986), the monologue in question, found a musical counterpart. In addition to the requested improvisation, Dockx developed several new compositions, expanded by Ottla with lyrical guitar passages, improvised clarinet solos, rustling effects, and a sometimes cool, then warm, dark rhythm section. The result was a powerful performance (and live EP) and the clear insight that this new Ottla is no mockingbird.

A new repertoire was in the works, but performing it was temporarily out of the question. Bert's acute back problems in the fall of 2021 dampened the enthusiasm. All music was set aside but fortunately only for a while. Music has always been the language through which Dockx found meaning and order in the world, so this heavy physical and emotional setback would also find its response in music. From that dark period emerged the album "Ghosts," released under the new name Bert Dockx Band in October of this year. That album seems much more like a cage in search of a bird, to speak with a Kafkaesque aphorism (Ottla is also Kafka's sister's first name).

Ottla's latest album, "Vogel" (Bird), is the full awakening after "Ghosts." The window flies open, the sun burns. Fluttering and wailing in jazz-improv-electro-noise-prog-afro-blues-groove-punk-krautrock, Ottla, true to its Kafkaesque nature, transformed once again, and the quartet began further developing the compositions with an even richer language. The album showcases significant contrasts in strength and color between songs, often even within one song. There exists no rivalry between Thomas Jillings and Bert Dockx, but rather a playful dialogue. Jillings, the multi-instrumentalist, expanded his setup and plays saxophone, clarinet, and various synthesizers. The bass and drum parts of Gerben Brijs and Louis Evrard provide tension and thunder, with effects resonating from their amplifiers like mist in an enchanted forest.

To further explore the new music, the quartet performed a series of café concerts in 2022 and some try-outs in 2023. Finally, last summer, they entered the studio to capture "Vogel." In Studio Ledeberg, Peter Desmedt's cage, the spontaneity and dynamics of the performances were preserved, with room for overdubs to enrich the songs just a bit more. The result is an album full of exciting twists: a series of new songs that will undoubtedly continue to transform live. The bird is free.

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High Vis

LP | 2022 | US | Reissue (Dais)

Pass The Loofah Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 2022 / US – Reissue

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Naked Roommate

LP | 2024 | US | Original (Trouble In Mind)

21,99 €*

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Gülbaba)

Release: 2024 / US – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Oakland's Naked Roommate have been slinking around the Bay Area lighting up stages, shaking asses & confounding listeners since 2018, when the group - originally just the duo of real-life partners Andy Jordan & Amber Sermeno (both formerly of The World) - self-released a cassette of demos (2018's "Naked Roommate"). Members Michael "Mig" Zamora & Alejandra Alcala (Blues Lawyer) joined soon after to augment the sound & live band with their proper full-length album "Do The Duvet", co-released in September of 2020 via UK label Upset! The Rhythm & Trouble In Mind. 2024 finds the lineup expanded even further to incorporate the horn section of Geoff Saba & Jeanne Oss on tenor & alto saxophones as well as percussion & marimba as the band readies their sophomore effort, the dizzyingly ecstatic "Pass The Loofah" Recorded by members Andy Jordan & Mig Zamora from 2021-2023 as time & restrictions allowed, "Pass The Loofah" retains the wild energy of their debut, but leans into the rhythmic throbs perpetuated by forbears like Kid Creole & The Coconuts, Lizzy Mercier Descloux & ESG; the signature sound of UK's On-U Sound & NYC's 99 Records, but with a decidedly West Coast irreverence & a knack for absurdist exposition. Make no mistake, this is music designed to make your body Move & Naked Roommate won't stop until they 've made sure every ass is shook. The band freely incorporates elements of the dancier side of post-punk (think A Certain Ratio or Liquid Liquid) as well as disco, funk, & house music. However, the group's uplifting melodicism belies a deeper subtext, understanding the importance of the sense of community of dance music & the culture surrounding it and leaning into a Neo-socialist lyrical context. Shit is fucked, & we get thru it by helping one another & acknowledging & addressing the failures of disaster Capitalism & tech-bro hegemony (a state the band is all-too familiar with, living in The Bay Area) Take the first single "Bus"; a four-on-the-floor banger & salutary paeon to the ups & downs of the people's transport that throbs & pulses with a late-night sashay (and a bridge that launches the tune into the stratosphere). Elsewhere, "Fight Flight "s funky horn stabs and Sermeno's slinky vocals swoon over Numan-esque synth squiggles that are fortified & funkified toward the dance floor. "Broken Whisper " edges into new territor y for the group, adding a Caribbean flavor a'la Kid Creole or The Specials that punctuates the persistent & synthetic beats underneath. Meanwhile instrumental interludes like "Ducky & Viv", "g-y pt. 1" & "g-y pt. 2" oscillate into zones of sci-fi meets soap opera soundtracks, sounding not unlike the electronic experiments of UK industrial pioneers Chris & Cosey. Album closer "I Can't Be Found" might be the album's secret weapon; It 's swooning synth melody & processed vocals recall early Daft Punk or Mgmt by way of Derrick Carter & The Au Pairs. It 's a beautiful song; perfect for the late night (or early morning) car ride home from the club. "Pass The Loofah" is released worldwide on October 25th, 2024 via Trouble In Mind Records digitally via most DSPs & on black vinyl & limited "disco ball " silver vinyl.

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Ozan Tekin

Anarya

Protect Me From My Friends

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance, Classical Music

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Preorder shipping from 2024-11-22

Cologne - based composer and multi - instrumentalist Ozan Tekin’s second studio album “Anarya” will be released via Gülbaba Records on May 27 th . Tekin winds his musical journey back from Cologne to Adana with a long layover in Istanbul in “Anarya”. A triangle of migration drawn by musical notation and performance. The album is composed of 14 tracks and each one of them is a sound story that echoes Tekin’s distinct memories from these three cities. “Anarya” is the end product of a process in which Tekin and his upright piano co - tuned each other. It is an artistic representation of the idiosyncratic phenomenon called stimmung in German; a spectrum of tones, moods and atmospheres expressed in personal and instrumental terms. Tekin concludes the piano conversations from his previously released EPs in 2021 (“Anarya I” and “Anarya Ii”). The remarkably catchy melodies and immersive melancholic arpeggios fl ow throughout. The transposed narrative of “Anarya” sprung up from its roots when Tekin came across with a 66 - years old worn out piano in Cologne. Mesmerized by its unique sound, he felt the urge to make recordings with this piano before it fell apart. Aft er spending months learning its mechanics, Tekin recorded his second album with the old upright piano he repaired and brought back to life. The uneasy changes in time signatures and ambient ornamentations with gloomy synths of 80’s, lush strings and room tones set up the atmospheric stage of “Anarya I” in the first five tracks. Following six tracks of the album attempts to revisit Tekin’s emotional and episodic memories in Istanbul. His unaffected absorption into piano music in the first two parts of “Anar ya” are followed by his coyishly joyful tracks later in the album: an idle “ode”, a lost “lament” and a colorful “jam”. These three tracks blend the neoclassical, jazz and ambient sounds of Cologne and Istanbul with sentiments of childhood and rascality in Adana. The piano conversations of Tekin throughout “Anarya” are accompanied by his analogue synthesizers, vocals, bass guitar, Hanitra Wagner’s violin and Berke Can Özcan’s drums , percussions and vibraphone, and Emre Malikler’s mix and mastering. The sou nds of collaboration go deeper and louder as the album’s tracks move forward and Tekin’s memories go backwards simultaneously. Anarya gitmek (“to go back”) is a vernacular saying from Tekin’s hometown Adana and Tekin makes a figurative attempt to migrate b ackwards via the compositions that came into being in his most recent home, Cologne. Having been born out of an upright piano, Tekin’s compositions have instrumental origins, however, due to his constantly mutating sense of belonging, his melodies can’t be pinpointed to any specific heimat . Tekin’s continuously transforming music is an invitation to his listeners to explore and experience his music in their own terms. Tekin’s personal memories that shape “Anarya” is open to new forms of sonic exploration and rearrangement. This openness lies in Tekin’s determined faith in not to be entrenched in any single genre. The immersive intimacy radiating from the collaborative piano conversations in “Anarya” is an invitation signature to his music’s current and fut ure followers. Text by Mehmet Ekinci

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Wallis

12" | 2024 | EU | Original (Boudica)

14,99 €*

Vertigo Days - Live From The Alien Research Center

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Boudica is proud to present their first record of 2024, featuring an artist who holds a special place within the platform - none other than DJ and producer Wallis. DJ, live-act and former mastering engineer, Wallis speaks for a generation searching for novelty and emotion in the electronic music realm. Sharp engineering skills coupled with a unique approach to sound design allowed her to develop a trademark sound. Using an array of synthesisers, effects units, and experimental studio techniques, Wallis produces melancholic electronic music rapidly shifting between different patterns and atmospheres. She tours as a DJ and Live Act around the world, having played large festivals such as Dgtl or renowned clubs like Berghain, and will happily play at a large stage one day but at a small intimate sweaty basement the next. In 2024, she started producing music for fashion shows and debuted that project by creating the music for the entire Natasha Zinko runway show at London Fashion Week February 2024. The EP's opening track, "Hell is a Girl from Before (Rainy Summer Mix)," introduces a stirring blend of emotions. Starting with an emotional melody, accompanied by synths and a plucked instrument, it swiftly transitions into energetic segments driven by the drums. Vocals emerge, their words almost imperceptible, adding an intimate layer to the experience. The track maintains a steady pace, evoking the ambience of a rainy summer day. This creates a melancholic yet hopeful mood, transporting listeners through a journey of introspection. As "Protect Me From My Friends" unfolds, it feels like being whisked away to a new dimension, greeted by otherworldly, robotic sounds. The introspective journey of the previous track mutates into raw emotions, driven forward by a relentless bassline. Clear vocals take the forefront, guiding the listener through the sonic landscape, only to be interrupted by the commanding presence of the bassline, which assumes the main character role.

In "Sleeping Pills Are Gone," an atmospheric and gloomy introduction is abruptly interrupted by an acid and hefty bassline that dynamically evolves throughout the track, plunging the listener into an eyes-open dream born of a sleepless night. The vocals echo the track's title, creating a haunting repetition. Wallis strategically grants brief breaks, constructing a powerful crescendo that heightens the experience. These are momentary escapes before immersing the listener once more into the hypnotic trance induced by the solid four-to-the-floor march. Closing the EP with a striking finale, "Teenage Apocalypse" introduces a clunky melody that encapsulates the signature sound of the record. Characteristic vocals weave throughout, guiding the listener towards the track's crescendo. Driven by a flawless fusion of drums, the song transitions seamlessly into a powerful breakbeat moment, accompanied by yet another impeccable bassline. True to its title, it evokes the intensity of a day of judgment, leaving a lasting impact as the EP draws to a close. This EP is a testament to Wallis's growth as a producer and her fantastic storytelling ability through sound. In the artist's words: "Sometimes life takes a weird turn. Angry, confused and dealing with moral: this EP targets the pain and absurdity of attachment and strongly themes Gregg Araki's teenage apocalypse trilogy. The artwork poem plastered on the wall was written by wallis." Order Bou004 now unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences distribution.triplevision.nl Triple Vision Record Distribution BV · Achterhaven 160 · Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland 3024 RC · Netherlands

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The Notwist

LP | 2023 | EU | Original (Morr Music)

Branislave Zivkovic / Andre Tschaskowski

Release: 2023 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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A Notwist concert is a Notwist concert is a Notwist concert. The band around the core trio of Cico Beck and the Acher brothers Markus and Micha usually takes its studio recordings as a mere starting point for their live performances, considering them to be possibilities that need to be explored further. This is especially true for »Vertigo Days - Live from Alien Research Center,« a live record made under unusual circumstances. The band members rearranged songs from their ambitious 2021 album »Vertigo Days« in their studio in Weilheim to record and film a special performance. The songs took on a new life, becoming more psychedelic and intense when rearranged into a spontaneous, Krautrock-esque collage.

»Vertigo Days« was meant to transcend the conventional notion of a band as well as the creative and geographic boundaries inscribed into that concept. And even though life had other plans, this is precisely what the album did when it was released to both commercial success and critical acclaim in early 2021. Contributions by Tenniscoats singer Saya, Angel Bat Dawid, Ben LaMar Gay, Juana Molina, among others, as well as new member Theresa Loibl on bass clarinet, harmonium, and keyboard, expanded the band’s sonic palette, stylistic range, and even lyrical focus through the addition of different instruments, artistic approaches, and languages.

All of that was missing when the band retreated to their studio—dubbed Alien Research Center in response to, and in spite of, a nearby church called Christian Outreach Center—to further explore the possibilities of the source material. The band members considered this a challenge rather than an insurmountable problem and not only accepted, but fully embraced it. Trying to work as little as possible with the computers and samples—Saya’s voice on »Ship« being a notable exception—the band rearranged six tracks from »Vertigo Days« and a piece from the »One of Those Days« film soundtrack in order to allow themselves to improvise more freely, especially thanks to Loibl, who takes on a key role during these 45 minutes.

The intro sets the tone for what’s to come, contrasting loose jazz drumming with curious synthesizer rhythms in an abstract rendition of the first sounds that greeted the listeners on »Vertigo Days«. While the next four tracks—»Into Love / Stars«, »Exit Strategy To Myself«, »Where You Find Me« and »Ship«—follow the chronology of the album, they use the originals as a blank slate for further experimentation. The first track morphs into a feverish long-form jam that draws on the underlying groove to shift the dynamics from and leave behind the song structure of the studio version. It’s an exemplary piece in a recording that sees each individual musician leaving their mark on the overall sound, all while being perfectly attuned to what everyone else is doing around them. This continues up until the record’s triumphant finale, a whirring rendition of »Loose Ends.«

»Vertigo Days - Live from Alien Research Center« is at once a snapshot of a certain moment in the band’s history and the quintessential Notwist live record: a unique performance that both explores the untapped potential of the »Vertigo Days« studio recordings while also serving as an inspiration for upcoming live shows.

As with the studio album, the artwork for »Vertigo Days - Live from Alien Research Center« features photographs by Japanese artist Lieko Shiga, taken in the '00s.

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Emotionally (Coloursound)

LP | 1986 | EU | Reissue (Be With)

Otakar Olšaník / Jan Martiš

Release: 1986 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Emotionally, crafted by Brainislave Zivkovic and Andre Tschaskowski in 1986 for Coloursound, is arguably the most beautiful library album ever produced. A start-to-finish masterpiece of powerfully melodic music for reflection and introspection. It is, indeed, deeply emotional.

Branislave Zivkovic handles the majority of Side A. Opener "Morning Light" evokes exactly that feeling, with a gorgeous and plaintive acoustic guitar solo combining with alto flute to stunning effect. Its immediate counterpoint, "Sundown", in no less arresting but brings with it an after-dark drama of almost Lynchian proportions, again drawing upon guitar and flute but with a slightly more melancholic, even sinister edge, also calling to mind Ry Cooder's score for Paris, Texas. It truly captivates when the strings arrive. Remarkable.

The reflective cello solo with swelling strings at the heart of "Pastoral Walk 1" ensure this track is aptly titled, with parts 2 and 3 adding more agitation - via keys and percussive elements - to great effect. "In The Garden 1" presents an elegiac cello solo whilst its second part elevates the romance. The four-part "Soft Thoughts" suite invites further introspection via reflective alto flute and guitar. Fans of The Durutti Column will need to seek this.

Andre Tschaskowski enters proceedings with three tracks at the end of the Side A. All of them aces in the pack. "Grief", whilst sorrowful, uplifts in its second half through beautiful keys. Equally hopeful are the two-part "Personal Mood" sketches, both dreamy exercises in optimistic ambience.

Tschaskowski controls the entirety of Side B. "Woodland Mood", with its pastoral flute and cor anglais and "Reminiscence", with its classical, emotional strings, both beguile. The piano and strings-heavy "Sentimental View" suite is one of the most beautiful, atmospheric things you will ever hear, particularly its second part. "Moonset 1" with it's wonderful Joe Pass-esque guitar is tense yet easy, the beauty elevated further with the introduction of strings and horns. The more restrained "Moonset 2" is pared back to its divine, sweeping essence and should surely have been sampled by now. To close out an album of almost impossible refinement, the brief 2-part "Emotional Tension" salvo brings both increased stress before resolving itself and the LP with a piano motif and atmosphere of serenity. Blessed relief.

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 Emotionally 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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Advanced Process (Coloursound)

LP | 1986 | EU | Reissue (Be With)

Release: 1986 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Heads have been after Otakar Olšaník and Jan Martiš's Advanced Process for a long time. That's because "coincidentally-cosmic disco" packed with spaced-out, smacky-synth dynamite tends to become sought-after. Originally slipping out on the mighty Coloursound in 1986, the label described the sound as "contemporary synthesizer underscores played by computers; depicting future technologies in today's process." If they'd just added "acid-drenched", they'd have been closer to nailing it.

The A-Side is totally beatless. It's also totally perfect. "Atomic Plant 1" is a pulsing synth epic and could've easily soundtracked a stylish 80s thriller such as Thief or To Live And Die In LA. It's a narcotically enhanced meeting between John Carpenter and Steve "Lovelock" Moore. "Atomic Plant 2" adds extra squelch and proper early computer synth squiggles. This stuff is addictive and truly ace. The 3 part "Fusion Point" showcases a dramatic and insistent industrial mood via a gripping sequencer pattern mixed with effects and accents. Menacing and magnificent. The trio of "Nuclear Radiation" tracks veer majestically from a hypnotic sequencer pattern with a heavy dramatic tune to hectic patterns without much of a tune, managing nevertheless to maintain a hold on the listener.

The drums enter proceedings on Side B and they're absolutely outstanding. Coming on like a slicker, heavier Johnny Jewel production, 20 years before Italians Do It Better, "Regulators 1" marries the smoothest head-nod beat you can wish for, with a murky mechanical rhythm and phasing effects. After the stunning beatless version ("Regulators 2") the suuuupppper slo-mo "Data Load" sounds like its wading through the heaviest K-Hole and is all the more thrilling for it. "Modem" is a brief and breezy funky bass and synth squiggle wonder, of the beatless variety. "Robot Masters", would you believe, actually sounds like something those Daft Parisians would've sampled on Discovery, over 15 years later. An uptempo, optimistic track with a real strut; propulsive rhythms with dramatic synths, what can only be described as "very-80s sounds" and digi-handclaps. The breathless "Digiheart" double bill rounds things out, one with a dynamic driving rhythm and more slick-as-hell beats and the other without drums. Mental, brilliant and completely essential.

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 Advanced Process 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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Claremont Editions Volume 3

2LP | 2022 | UK | Original (Claremont 56)

33,99 €*

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Black Truffle)

Release: 2022 / UK – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Since launching in early 2020, Claremont 56’s Claremont Editions series has served up two impeccably curated and lovingly curated compilations of label rarities, unheard archive cuts and brand-new music. Two years on from the release of the second volume, C56 boss Paul Murphy has finally got round to compiling a third instalment, and as you’d expect it’s full of attractive, sun-soaked treats.

The set introduces us to a handful of label debutants. German collective Neumayer Station, a group who emerged from the same musical and social circle as existing Claremont 56 artists Fürstattl, contribute two cuts: ‘Unterführung’, an evocative, low-slung, reverb-laden fusion of krautrock and horizontal psychedelic dream-pop featuring Fürstattl’s Frank Mollena and Patrick Göbel, and the subtly jazz-flecked krautrock hypnotism of ‘Crossings’, a cut whose atmospheric intent and well-placed dub delays make it undeniably Balearic.

Speaking of Balearic, experienced musical daydreamer Mike Salta finally makes his Claremont 56 bow, joining forces with regular collaborator Marty Mortale on the deliciously tactile, warming, electric piano-sporting sunset shuffle of ‘Seashore Redemption’. The final new addition to the C56 family is Taichi Arakawa, the DJ/producer behind Japan’s Café Goofy. His track, ‘Ocean Sunrise’, is a gorgeously dreamy and kaleidoscopic shuffle through drifting synth-sax, slow-motion beats, immersive pads and layered synthesizer melodies.

As with its predecessors, Claremont Editions Volume Three also boasts fresh, unreleased material from label stalwarts. Jpye, whose Samba With You album was one of the label’s highlights of 2021, once again joins forces with regular collaborator Renato – and newcomer Michael T – to deliver a dose of club-ready Balearic samba smothered in glistening jazz guitar licks, lazy synth solos and languid electric piano licks (‘Va Là-Bas).

Ferdi Schuster, who released his sole album to date on the label back in 2019, offers up the pastoral, folksy and hand percussion-heavy brilliance of ‘The Fuzz Version’, while C56’s own in-house trio, Hillside (aka Paul Murphy, Alex Searle and Patrick Dawes) deliver the utterly gorgeous and cinematic ‘Pole Vault’ – a delightful hat-tip to classic library music featuring brilliant brass and string arrangements from Michele Chiavarini.

Rounding off another excellent package are two remixes from the vaults: Bosq’s pitched-up, Latin-tinged Balearic jazz-funk interpretation of Hillside’s deeply personal and emotive ‘For Daniel’ (a revision previously only available digitally) and a previously unheard revision of Paqua’s ‘The Visitor’ from Idjut Boys’ Conrad McDonnell, a long-time friend of the label. His take is predictably magical and dubbed-out to the max, with Quinn Luke’s evocative vocals seemingly drifting above sparse, stripped-back beats, echoing guitars, hissing cymbals and hazy bass.

To complete the package, Claremont Editions Three features a specially commissioned cover painting from Andy Kehoe, an illustrator whose distinctively colourful, detailed and fantastical images are a perfect match for the vividly evocative music contained on the LP.

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Crys Cole

Other Meetings

2LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Morr Music)

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Following on from last year’s acclaimed Sylva Sylvarum, the epic double LP from Ora Clementi (her collaborative project with James Rushford), crys cole returns to Black Truffle with Other Meetings. Originally commissioned and released on cassette by Boomkat Editions in 2021, Other Meetings is a major addition to the body of carefully hewn solo work cole has released over the last decade, offering up two side-long suites of her radically intimate approach to sound. After many years dominated by touring and travel, cole found herself in lockdown in her Berlin apartment, working in a limited space with minimal equipment. Digging through archives of recordings taken overseas and exploring the sonic potential hidden in the objects surrounding her (including a coffee pot and a vase of dying flowers), she crafted what in her liner notes she calls ‘an internal dérive, a journey that drifted through many places without a defining compass’. Totalling over 50 minutes, the two pieces unfold at an unhurried pace, each containing four individually titled subsections. Beginning with a sequence of the highly amplified small sounds characteristic of much of cole’s work, the opening moments of ‘The time between two durations of sleep’ are underpinned by a gentle rocking motion, weaving together contact mic crunch, metallic resonance, glimpses of bird song, and isolated drum machine hits, the sonic space expanding and contracting as focus moves between elements. Briefly side-lined by a tactile but unplaceable sizzling, this complex weave of voices then returns in a kind of dubbed-out ‘version’, the percussive accents echoing around the stereo space. In one of the record’s most beautiful and unexpected moments, these sounds are joined by a sparse melodic line performed on a broken 1980s digital synth, the vaguely New Age timbres being taken on a long, tonally ambiguous wander. Cole’s immersion in memories of travel comes to the fore in the final section of the first side, titled ‘Wat Paknam’ after a royal temple in Bangkok, where snatches of voices, ringing bells and distant waves of chanting blur together with synth tones into an increasingly abstracted wave of sound. The second side, ‘Slices of cake’, opens in a similarly hallucinatory outdoor space of echoing bird song and liquified traffic before abruptly zooming in on a microscopic world of subtly processed and highly amplified objects, explored with a starkness and quiet insistence that calls to mind the fringe not-quite-concrète of outsiders like Paul A.R. Timmermans or Knud Viktor, whose obsessive interrogation of dripping water might also serve as a point of reference for the following sub-section, the aptly titled ‘magischer Abfluss’ (magic drain).

While Other Meetings develops many aspects of cole’s previous work – the hyper-magnification of small gestures, the unsettling edits and fades partly inspired by hypnagogic states, the location recordings smeared into oneiric haze – it is almost as if these pieces are somehow songs, the remnants of an evaporated music of which nothing remains except isolated hits from a synthetic drum, a handful of notes, or simply a duration of emptied atmosphere. Radically reductive yet deeply musical, Other Meetings is a major work from an artist driven by an uncompromising and idiosyncratic vision.

Presented with an inner sleeve with photos and liner notes from the composer and remastered audio.

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Tenniscoats

Papa's Ear

31,99 €*

Mahal Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Just over a decade ago, Japanese indie-pop duo Tenniscoats recorded »Papa's Ear« (2012) and »Tan-Tan Therapy« (2007), two albums made with musical and production help from Swedish post-rock/folk trio Tape. Originally released on Häpna, they are beautiful documents of the exploratory music made by a close-knit collective of musicians, fully at ease with each other, playing songs written by Tenniscoats and arranging them in gentle and generous ways. Released during a particularly productive time for Tenniscoats – during the late ‘00s and early ‘10s, they would also collaborate with Jad Fair, The Pastels, Secai and Pastacas – they have, however, never been available on vinyl. In collaboration with Alien Transistor, Morr Music is now reissuing these albums both digitally and on double vinyl, with extra tracks.

This reissue mini-series starts with »Papa’s Ear«. The second album from this expanded line-up of Tenniscoats, you can hear the musicians are immediately comfortable in each other’s presence, and they’ve almost intuitively understood what they can offer to one another. Saya and Ueno of Tenniscoats bring their magical, gentle folk-pop sensibility, and their winning way with straightforward, yet lush melodies. Johan Berthling, along with fellow Tape member Tomas Hallonsten, plus guests Fredrik Ljungkvist, Lars Skoglund, Andreas Söderstrom and Andreas Werlin, all generous and creative presences in the Swedish jazz underground, shades in the songs with endlessly inventive arrangements, highlighting the warmth and curiosity at the core of the Tenniscoats’ aesthetic – sometimes taking the songs in unexpected directions, other times pillowing the melodies with the softest of brushstrokes and the kindest of tones.

»Papa’s Ear« includes some of Tenniscoats’ most memorable songs. »Papaya« is a lustrous dreamland of a song, with the Swedish musicians singing ‘pa-pa-ya’ as an enchanted tattoo, while Saya’s piano and melodica clank and huff out, further expanding the song’s horizon. It’s followed by the spindly and mysterious »Sappolondon«, where drums and double-bass shuffle and pulse under weeping accordion and bittersweet clarinet. Saya’s voice sighs into the frame while the musicians breathe lungfuls of sweet drones and flick glittering countermelodies across the song’s surface. It reminds a little of the wild kindness of Movietone, or the regal charm of Carla Bley’s compositions.

Elsewhere, you can hear Tape and their friends embracing the freedom offered by the songs of Tenniscoats: see, for example, the glistening electronics in »På floden«, like a keyboard conducting a music box on a distant planet; or the descending phrase for winds on »Sabaku«, dovetailing beautifully into a creek of moon-lit texturology. The double-LP ends with two extra tracks, drawn from the 2008 Tenniscoats/Tape split single, also released by Häpna., »Lutie Lutie« is a sweet delight, driven by a clacking drum machine, the Tenniscoats duo joined by Hallonsten on glockenspiel and synthesizer, and special guest, Japanese indie-pop legend Kazumi Nikaido, as choir. »Come Maddalena« rounds off the set, a brooding cover of an Ennio Morricone tune, the music by Tape, the vocals by Tenniscoats and Nikaido. Open-hearted and full of puckish spirit, »Papa’s Ear« is an album of great tenderness and warm friendship.

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Toro Y Moi

LP | 2022 | US | Original (Dead Oceans)

Bruno Coulais, Kila & Aurora

Release: 2022 / US – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Toro y Moi's seventh studio album, Mahal, is the boldest and most fascinating journey yet from musical mastermind Chaz Bear. The record spans genre and sound_encompassing the shaggy psychedelic rock of the 1960s and `70s, and the airy sounds of 1990s mod-post-rock_taking listeners on an auditory expedition, as if they're riding in the back of Bear's Filipino jeepney that adorns the album's cover. But Mahal is also an unmistakably Toro y Moi experience, calling back to previous works while charting a new path forward in a way that only Bear can do. Mahal is the latest in an accomplished career for Bear, who's undoubtedly one of the decade's most influential musicians. Since the release of the electronic pop landmark Causers of This in 2009, subsequent records as Toro y Moi have repeatedly shifted the idea of what his sound can be. But there's little in Bear's catalog that will prepare you for the deep-groove excursions on Mahal, his most eclectic record to date. The second the album begins we're immediately transported into the passenger seat, jeep sounds and all, ready for the ride Chaz and company have concocted for us. Seeds of some of Mahal's 13 songs date back to the more explicitly rock-oriented What For? from 2015. Mahal was mostly completed last year in Bear's Oakland studio with the involvement of a host of collaborators, Sofie Royer and Unknown Mortal Orchestra's Ruban Neilson to Neon Indian's Alan Palomo and the Mattson 2. "I wanted to make a record that featured more musicians on it than any other record of mine," he explains. "To have them live on that record feels grounded, bringing a communal perspective to the table." As a result, Mahal is lush and surprising at every turn, from the cool-handed "The Loop," which recalls Sly and the Family Stones, to the elastic psych rock of "Foreplay" and the dizzying Mulatu Astatke-recalling of "Last Year." Lyrically, the album zooms in on generational concerns, picking up where the Outer Peace standout "Freelance" effectively left off. Bear seems to be surveying the ways in which we connect with technology, media, each other, and what disappears as a result. Cuts like the squishy "Postman" and the "Magazine" take a deep dive into our relationship with media in a changing digital world. "It's interesting to see how we adapt to this new age. We're so connected, but we're still missing out on things," Bear ruminates while discussing the album's themes. It's not all introspection. Bear cools things down near the album's end with the Mattson 2-featuring "Millennium," a laid-back jam with tricky guitar licks about ringing in new times even when everything else seems upside down. "It's about enjoying the new year, even when it's been shitty," Bear explains. "There's nothing else to do." Finding a sense of joy in the face of adversity is embedded in Mahal's DNA, right down to the jeepney that literally and figuratively brings the music out into the community. "We know that touring is messed up for now, and large gatherings are a fluke," he explains. "It's about the notion of us going out to the people and bringing the record to them." And with the wide-open atmosphere of Mahal, Toro y Moi stands to connect with more listeners than ever before.

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OST Wolfwalkers

LP | 2021 | EU | Original (22d Music)

LP | 2021 | EU | Original (We Are Busy Bodies)

Release: 2021 / EU – Original

Genre: Soundtracks

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In the cinema, the composer must go to meet the filmmakers, enter their world, but without giving up his own. This is the difficulty or the paradox of music for the image. By collaborating with directors from a wide variety of backgrounds, I think I have indirectly discovered a lot about myself. It helped me to progress, to explore territories that were not naturally mine. Cinema is a laboratory where I have sought to construct original orchestral formulas combining Corsican polyphonies, musicians from jazz, variety, classical, or even rappers. Like the world today, a fragmented world where all cultures mingle. So said Bruno Coulais, one of the most innovative composers of contemporary cinema, during the tribute paid to him in 2011 at the Cinémathèque de Paris

In 1978, Bruno Coulais, a young composer of concert works, discovered in film music a new means of expression, a way of bringing the demands of his writing to the masses. François Reichenbach, then Josée Dayan, Jacques Davila, Souleymane Cissé or Laurent Heynemann, first on television and then in the cinema, lead him of his own accord in the discovery of this new world.

In 1995, he composed the music for Microcosmos. This centimeter-scale initiatory journey offers him the opportunity to reveal the full dimension of his writing. He injects into his score a strange lyricism, between wonder and fantasy, confirming the lesson learned from François Reichenbach: "to any documentary image, music brings a part of fiction".

The success of Microcosmos established the musician and made him the indispensable composer of other natural tales, notably alongside Jacques Perrin (Le Peuple migrateur, Oceans, Les Saisons, etc.). Other long-term relationships will be forged, in particular with Benoît Jacquot, with whom he has worked for more than a decade, not to mention Frédéric Schoendoerffer, James Huth or Jean-Paul Salomé.

In addition to great popular successes such as Les Choristes, Brice de Nice or Sur La Piste Du Marsipulami, it is hardly surprising that this insatiable curiosity has found in the animated cinema the most inspiring playgrounds, in particular through his collaboration with two exceptional designers, Henry Selick and Tomm Moore.

The first, American director of The Nightmare Before Christmas produced by Tim Burton, invites Bruno Coulais to sign in 2009 the magnificent score of Coraline (film nominated for the Oscars). 10 years later, he is about to find him for a new and beautiful Wendell & Wild adventure. For Irishman Tomm Moore, Bruno Coulais has already composed the music for two Oscar-nominated films, The Secret of Kells (2009) and Song Of the Sea (2014), and in 2020 he will sign the score for Wolfwalkers.

Whether it is about author's films or more mainstream films, Bruno Coulais maintains the same standards, always considering his art as a window open to the world. Much less wise than it seems, he reveals in it a gift of a modern alchemist and a very personal way of mixing the most diverse cultures in universal harmony at work.

Tracklist :

A WolfWalkers Theme Wolves Running with the Wolves (WolfWalkers Version) Mechanical Wolf or Girl I’m a WolfWalker Howls the Wolf (Moll’s Song - Wolf Run Free) Our Forest

B What Are You Doing Here? This Is Intolerable Please Mummy My Little Wolf Our Victory Follow Me Mébh’s Tune Robyn’s Tune

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Vis-A-Vis

Odo Gu Ahorow

Sleep Now Forever Record Store Day 2024 Edition

Release: 2021 / EU – Original

Genre: Reggae & Dancehall

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Vis-A-Vis - Odo Gu Ahorow
by We Are Busy Bodies

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Odo Gu Ahorow (Medley) 00:00 / 15:16
Limited Edition 12" Vinyl
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
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As both a popular live act and in-demand studio musicians, Vis-A-Vis released 13 albums between 1975 and 1982, of which Obi Agye Me Dofo remains the most sought after. Led by vocalist Isaac “Superstar” Yeboah and featuring Sammy Cropper on guitar, Slim Manu on bass and Gybson “Shaolin Kung-Fu” Papra on drums, Vis-A-Vis helped propel K. Frimpong to fame as one of Ghana’s most popular stars of the 1970s. On some of Frimpong’s albums, they also overlapped as part of his other recording band, the Cubano Fiestas.

As We Are Busy Bodies begins its roll out the Vis-A-Vis catalogue, it will also simultaneously release another essential album by the group, 1976s Odo Gu Ahorow. Original copies of both LPs are scarce and in great demand, with Obi Agye Me Dofo briefly issued as an LP in the US in 1980, and again in 2011 by Continental Records. Along with the Frimpong albums, they remain some of the most sought after West African records from the golden age. These reissues have been handled with the utmost respect — every detail has been given strict attention and care, with albums being remastered by Senior Mastering Engineer, Noah Mintz at Lacquer Channel.

About the album:

"The Vis-A-Vis have had many good things to their credit, none more so than the collection of nostalgic items that make up this album “Odo Gu Ahoroo”. It has been able to achieve its well-deserved place in the Ghanaian musical best-seller parade. Now by the titles and programming this entirely new album benefits from Ofobros latest recording experience, bringing many plus-factors of listening pleasure.

With brilliant musicianship, the Vis-A-Vis as a group leads in the field of danceably rhythmic arrangements which do not obscure the enchanting melodies, such as “Abofra Ketewa”. Highlighting the softly soothing, yet richly textured blend of the organ and Slim’s bass work are solos by Sammy ‘red” Cropper on lead guitar, and other instruments as well.

The groups’ thirteen years’ experience in the field of dance music has made their melody reign supreme, and I hope these all are songs that will become a cherished part of our musical past in the future, and an enduring part of our musical period then. This recording the Vis-A-Vis with a new lustre that promises to glow through many mood-matching moments in the future.

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Sorrow

2LP | 2024 | Original (Night School)

Shriek + Vriations Orange Swirl Vinyl Edition

Release: 2024 / Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Sleep Now Forever is the second and final album released by Sorrow, the post-Strawberry Switchblade group fronted
by singer Rose McDowall. Originally released in 1999 and long since deleted it is a cornucopia of pastoral, elegiac folk
music, swirling atmospherics, hymnal compositions and above it all the alternating towering and fragile vocal
performances of McDowall. Recorded in the late 90s with fellow band member and co-songwriter Robert Lee, Sleep
Now Forever is the definitive statement by the now defunct group and Rose McDowall’s most complete long-form work
to date.
Released through the group’s own Piski Disk Records, Sleep Now Forever was distributed by World Serpent which
struggled through the early 2000s with financial woes, eventually folding due to bankruptcy in 2004. Due to the company’s
troubles, Sleep Now Forever was never distributed widely and was a victim of the company’s failure. Released on CD only,
original copies are now rare and only traded on second hand channels. Remastered by Mikey Young for a limited vinyl release,
Sleep Now Forever will be released on April 20th on double vinyl format, with one side an exclusive etching by Glasgow artist
Holly Allan.
Despite its rarity, Sleep Now Forever enjoys a firm cult following. The album’s textures are expansive, lush, deliciously detailed
and celestial. Recorded in home study Velvet Hole by Rose McDowall and then-husband Robert Lee, the album enlists an
array of players from the underground Neo-folk / industrial scene: Nigel McKernaghan (Uilleann pipes, Whistles), Susan
Franknel (Bassoon), John Contreras (Cello) and Lawrence Frankel (Oboe, Cor Anglais). The eleven songs here revolve
around McDowall’s instantly recognisable voice. Brought up singing in the Catholic Church, McDowall’s vocals are impeccable
and angelic, particularly on tracks like Turn Off The Light where her experiences with religion are canted over soaring oboe
and guitar backing. By far the most evolved and realised version of Sorrow’s vision, it feels somewhat criminal that music this
beautiful could be lost to time until now.
McDowall’s lyrics throughout Sleep Now Forever deal frankly with mental health, depression, altered states, death and
redemption. Wave upon wave of harmony drench each song, McDowal’s vocal multi-tracked and imperious. Opener Soldier
benefits from Robert Lee’s use of the studio as instrument, summoning forth a lilting group performance of sparkling guitar and
percussion that recalls the Velvet Underground. Mikey Love’s master treats the compositions to brand new frequency
dynamics and space. Harmonium and string drones form the counter to McDowall’s vocal on Love Dies, a slow, lurching
lament that feels transcendent. On Haunting, the arrangement is orchestral and aching, bleeding into Fear Becomes You, with
chord and harmony structure that recalls the baroque sixties pop of West Coast Pop Experimental Art Band or the 60s
psychedelic folk movement. A towering, beautiful statement, this elegy for times lost and moonlit-illumination is finally
resurfacing from the darkness.
Sleep Now Forever is being released on 2LP on April 20th, 2024. Limited to 500.

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Wye Oak

2LP | 2024 | US | Original (Merge)

42,99 €*

Extra Life Piosonbloom Vinyl Edition

Release: 2024 / US – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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In 2014, Wye Oak released Shriek, their fourth album. It was a necessary departure for Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack, who found themselves on uncertain ground after two years of constant touring for 2011's Civilian, living on opposite ends of the country and trying to revitalize their creative partnership. Wasner set aside her guitar for a bass. Stack took on the band's upper register, playing syncopated, meditative keyboard parts that interacted with Wasner's voice, which was newly freed from its call-and-response relationship to the guitar - what had been, until then, a signature of Wye Oak's sound. "This idea and the ensuing creative reworking of our band did what it was meant to do," Wasner writes in 2024. "It ended a long, painful period of creative stagnancy and reconnected me with the joy of making music." During that period, Wasner and Stack were introduced to William Brittelle, the Brooklyn-based composer whose 2019 LP Spiritual America featured Wye Oak, the Metropolis Ensemble, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. His orchestral reimaginings of five songs from Shriek (Shriek: Variations, if you will) are the centerpiece of this package, which serves not only to mark the tenth anniversary of a great album, but to demonstrate the richness of Wye Oak's compositions. Stack says of Shriek: Variations: "It's like looking at the songs in a funhouse mirror. The songs on Shriek can be stripped down or embellished - this is maximal embellishment. William took the album and blew it to smithereens, looking at it in a weird, prismatic way." Through Brittelle, Wasner and Stack found themselves at the intersection of classical, experimental, and pop music. Further collaborations, like the Brooklyn Youth Chorus- featuring No Horizon and Paul and Michi Wiancko's string arrangements on "My Signal" from The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs, followed, as this connection fundamentally changed the way Wye Oak approached making records, incorporating an entirely new palette of sound into their work. That shift began here. Shriek: Variations may feel like a startling take on the material, something like light bursting into a room through drawn curtains, but Brittelle's arrangements are largely original to his first collaborations with Wye Oak a decade ago, suggesting that his maximalist arrangements have lived comfortably within the framework of Shriek the whole time, waiting for the right moment to emerge. It's a fitting reintroduction to the album, which upon its initial release was pigeonholed into the easy one-note talking point of being the "no-guitar" record. But even so, as that happened, Shriek quietly started to become a staple among Wye Oak's core fans. Here, with help from Brittelle's expansive compositions, the release draws attention back to the songwriting - how, regardless of the instrumentation, Wasner and Stack's uncanny musicwriting partnership at the core is what makes both Shriek and Wye Oak excellent. Joined by the Metropolis Ensemble, Paul Wiancko, and Lizzie Burns, Wye Oak turn songs like "Logic of Color" inside out, reaching towards a kind of pastoral bombast, Brittelle's aesthetic with Wasner and Stack as an anchor. In fact, "Logic of Color" in this iteration takes that "no-guitar" script and flips it, with Wasner playing the synthesizer ostinato on acoustic guitar at its center. If Shriek is a record that charts the depths of solemnity and inner space, its Variations, roiling in a sea of winds, brass, and strings, recolors that space and complicates it, a gorgeous, unexpected response to the original's siren call.

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Crushed

LP | 2024 | US | Original (Ghostly International)

Cheb Terro Vs. DJ Die Soon

Release: 2024 / US – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance, Pop

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Los Angeles duo crushed announce their signing to Ghostly International and the first vinyl pressing of their 2023 debut EP, extra life. A love letter to `90s radio, the first collaboration from musicians Bre Morell and Shaun Durkan finds them tuning a shared taste for maximalist dream pop. Open-hearted hooks and melodic riffs move through a haze of breakbeats, spliced sound design, and distortion. Faithful yet fluid in its channeling of golden age alt-rock, Britpop, trip-hop, and electronica, there's a refreshing freedom to the sound, which quickly resonated with fans and critics upon initial release. Pitchfork called it "effortless, widescreen dream pop that's serene without being sentimental," and NPR cited its "deep sense of place and time." The music also struck Ghostly, and the first measure for crushed and their new label home is to give extra life a wider physical release paired with remixes from band favorites Real Lies and DJ Python. The story of crushed is written across midnight transmissions. In the early 2010s, Morell, who fronts the band Temple of Angels (Run For Cover Records), hosted a graveyard shift college radio show and used to play music from Durkan's former band Weekend (Slumberland Records). In 2020, Durkan, having focused on production work (Tamaryn, Young Prisms) following Weekend's run as a formidable shoegaze act, hosted a late-night program on a community radio station in San Francisco. Driving one day, he heard Temple of Angels by chance and was immediately drawn to Morell's voice. He added a song that night to his on-air tracklist. Morell saw it and reached out to thank him and point to that connection made a decade earlier. The exchange sparked a long-distance project. First, they filled an audible moodboard with `90s classics from the likes of Natalie Imbruglia, Sneaker Pimps, and The Sundays. Songs that transported them back to places of comfort and discovery; Morell's memories of a metallic, lavender boombox that dispatched past sounds from a world beyond her Houston suburbia, and Durkan, in his mom's car on the way to band practice. These touchpoints provided a palette for crushed to experiment without expectations, purely for the fun of it. A creative intimacy emerged; stepping outside the reverb walls of her full band, Morell embraced more clarity and a range of emotions in her vocals, while Durkan looked inward as a producer, collaging fragments from their everyday lives: voice memos, piano recordings, even the panting of Morell's late dog on "milksugar." The wistful ballad embodies extra life's feeling as a whole. "I am home again," sings Morell; her refrain cycles above a drum machine beat as Durkan colors their universe with star-lit strums, synth swells, and the crackle of fireworks in the distance. Elsewhere, the duo's uptempo mode is equally effective, like the super-charged duet "coil" or the propulsive opener "waterlily," which sets a cinematic tone for the set. Bold, bright, and replayable, extra life presents crushed as a project of immense promise, two artists unlocking something special within themselves, a space to hold both melancholy and bliss. Durkan adds, "To me, [extra life] is true and pure - in a way I haven't felt about music in a really really long time."

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Cheb Terro & DJ Die Soon

LP | 2022 | UK | Reissue (Drowned By Locals)

20,99 €*

Netherworld The Red Room Crystal-Ruby Splatter Vinyl Edition

Release: 2022 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Preorder shipping from 2024-11-08

Cheb Terro vs DJ Die Soon features Cheb Terro's posthumous vocals on Die Soon's beats; a work that was finished one day before Terro's tragic passing. Starting somewhere in the last quarter of 2020, having approached Daisuke Imamura aka DJ Die Soon for a release, and just heard about Cheb Terro's work with his Toxic Club, Drowned By Locals made the hook up that would result in a match made in the Underplanet, as Terro would describe it.

Hailing from the city of Sousse in Tunisia, the site of the worst of several Jihadist attacks in recent years, Cheb Terro's writings and delivery embody the violence stemming from the frustration shared by Tunisia's new generation; and reflect sadness, rebellion and an obsession with death.

Rayen Hermassi, aka Cheb Terro, was a multifaceted artist; writer, rapper, video editor, designer and founder of Toxic Club, the first Tunisian movement to merge horrorcore, hip hop, hardcore punk, Memphis gangster rap, devil shyt, vaporware, tinged with occult elements taken from the country's mystic past.

Daisuke Imamura is a Berlin-based artist born in Japan. His releases include 'Kappa Slap' [Morphine Records], in which Die Soon collaborates with Ecko Bazz, Infinite Livez, MC Yallah, Lord Spikeheart from Duma, and MA; and his latest production for Sekelembele split with Swordman Kitala [Hakuna Kulala].

In commemoration of the too-soon departed Rayen Hermassi, Cheb Terro vs DJ Die Soon is planned to release on March 25th, 2022, the day of Rayen's passing, on digital and vinyl - Mastered by Rashad Becker.

Rayen Hermassi's share of proceeds will go to his family.

released March 25, 2022

Music and cover art by Daisuke Imamura
Vocals and lyrics by Rayen Hermassi
Mastered by Rashad Becker

Dbl10lp

Patrick Clarke | The Quietus | The Quietus Albums Of The Year So Far Chart 2022
https://thequietus.com/articles/31727-the-quietus-best-albums-mid-2022
Matador Recommends | Playlist by Matador Records
https://spoti.fi/3yayJRC
Zoe Camp | Bandcamp Daily | Essential Releases
https://bit.ly/3FXDbGV
Emna Maaref | Ma3azef |شب تيرو ودي جاي داي سون(Cheb Terro Vs DJ Die Soon) Review
https://bit.ly/3sKA7Za
Toxic Club | Nika7 Official Video Premiere
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYUHaC2KoDw
Noel Gardner | The Wire — Issue 458 | Cheb Terro Vs DJ Die Soon Album Review
https://bit.ly/3loBBUO
Gonzo (circus) — Mind The Gap 154 | Cheb Terro Vs DJ Die Soon - Pine Review
https://www.gonzocircus.com/mind-the-gap-154/
Clot Magazine | Underplanet Official Video Premiere
https://bit.ly/39xZGWK
Nyshka Chandran | Resident Advisor | Cheb Terro vs DJ Die Soon - Abtal AL Digital Single Review
https://ra.co/reviews/34696
Ransom Note | Posthumous record from Cheb Terro alongside DJ DIE Soon set for release
https://bit.ly/3yJDpjn
Tom Ravenscroft | BBC Radio 6 Music
https://bbc.in/3G4JpVl

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Louise Patricia Crane

2LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Peculiar Doll)

36,99 €*

An Ever-Growing Meridional Entertainment Transgression At The Edge Of The Multiverse

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Preorder shipping from 2024-11-22

Netherworld marks a considerable step onwards from the territory that Louise Patricia Crane explored on her debut long player Deep Blue, crafting audial landscapes that go further into both inner and outer space; hallucinatory and surrealistic yet also grittier and more direct. For all that this stemmed in part from early Genesis and The Beatles, Netherworld also sits in alignment with the luxurious but oddly intimate realm of modern classics, by the likes of Tears For Fears, Tori Amos and Joni Mitchell, with passionate intensity set in a bold, cinematic vista. In realising these romantic and expansive visions, Crane not only wrote or co-wrote the entire album, but arranged, co-produced and played a wide variety of instruments on it. Yet as a supporting cast, she has surrounded herself with a formidable selection of mercurial contributors. Once again, Jakko M. Jakszyk (King Crimson) brings his fiery and mellifluous solo guitar work, as well as contributing backing vocals, keyboards and co-production. Elsewhere, the flute soliloquies of Tiny Bard are the work of Jethro Tull’s Ian Andersonwhile saxophone duties are handled by Mel Collins, whose work with King Crimson marks only one chapter in an incredibly storied life in music. Providing violin and viola across the stylistic expanse of the album, Shir-Ran Yinon (New Model Army / Eluveitie) returns as a collaborator. The rhythm section for the lion's share of the record consists of the dream team of Tony Levin (King Crimson / Peter Gabriel) and Gary Husband (John McLaughlin / Billy Cobham / Allan Holdsworth) with Nick Beggs stepping in on bass for Dance With The Devil and upright bass on Long Kiss Goodnight. Crucially however, even amidst this kind of company, Louise’s voice and vision is never remotely overshadowed—with the talents on offer only serving to make the backdrop to her songs still more vivid, sharp and intense. In as much as Netherworld is a work that exists on a lineage of progressive music and the visionary artists who’ve expanded their boundaries of exploration to form sound-worlds as big as their imagination, it’s also a work of magical realism in the tradition of Pan’s Labyrinth, The Company Of Wolves or the work of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Haruki Murakami—in which the supernatural and otherworldly, lead to a shortcut to the essence of being human. In this World, Louise Patricia Crane is our Storyteller. Disc 1 (CD)Dance With The DevilTiny BardCelestial DustLittle Ghost In The RoomToil And TroubleThe Red RoomLady Peregrine's ConcubineSpirit Of The ForestBête NoireLong Kiss GoodnightThieves Fools And CrowsMidnight View日本人形 (Japanese Doll) Disc 2 (DVD)Dance With The Devil (5.1 Mix)Tiny Bard (5.1 Mix)Celestial Dust (5.1 Mix)Little Ghost In The Room (5.1 Mix)Toil And Trouble (5.1 Mix)The Red Room (5.1 Mix)Lady Peregrine's Concubine (5.1 Mix)Spirit Of The Forest (5.1 Mix)Bête Noire (5.1 Mix)Long Kiss Goodnight (5.1 Mix)Thieves Fools And Crows (5.1 Mix)Midnight View (5.1 Mix)日本人形 (Japanese Doll) (5.1 Mix) "7 (Boxset only)A Ladies Of The Road (King Crimson) AA Dirty (Johnny Winter)

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Icarus

LP | 2024 | UK | Original (Not Applicable)

No Sound In Space Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 2024 / UK – Original

Genre: Electronic & Dance

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Icarus, comprising Ollie Bown and Sam Britton, have been described as a pair of young tearaways let loose in the sound labs, like delinquent chemistry students using test tubes, liquids and bunsen burners in the hope of creating explosions.There is a wonderful air of creative mischief about the duo.They channel the spirit of electronica denizens like Paradox, European outliers like the late Pita (Peter Rehberg), Aphex Twin in all his facetious, windowlicking glory and The Orb, like them at once beautifully grandiose and wittily self- deprecating. The title of their ninth and latest album, An Ever-Growing Meridional Entertainment Transgression At The Edge Of The Multiverse, recorded between London and Sydney, is an unabashed homage to The Orb’s epic “A Huge Evergrowing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld”, from their debut album. Icarus don’t merely imitate The Orb but use them as a jumping off point for quantum leaps and wormholes of their own, from infinity into the beyond. Take “Mazda Bogo Friendee”, with its fast cut, gamelan electronica, grasshopper disco, with cirrus shafts of reverberant electronics flooding its skies. From there a random skip to “I’m Like The Nutty Professor”, whose sampled voices are like holographic fantasies of the faintly familiar,TV broadcasts that are well on their way to Saturn. The field of activity of the pieces an An Ever-Growing . . . is positively Breugelian (any coincidence given their moniker, and Breugel’s own vast depiction of The Fall Of Icarus, the mythological figure’s descent a mere detail in the background?).Tracks like “Collectable Woodland Animals Armed With Heavy Weaponry” with its impossibly rapidfire windchime percussion, are simultaneist, accelerationist,Tex Avery cartoon-like in their manic mayhem, an ever-shifting tableau of wildlife activity, free jazz extremism rendered in electronics. Here, as elsewhere, light, metallic percussion,

triggers a dance of tiny, granular details, pixels, skipping about like popcorn on a hotplate, mingling, colliding, sparkling, rebounding. Massive synth barrages bull into the china chop of Icarus’s delicate arrangements of rhythms – perfectly organised chaos, an ordered illusion of total rhythmical disorder as balletic combat ensues. An Ever Growing... marks a significant milestone for Icarus and the artists’ collaborative process, as they reflect: "We’ve been making music together since we were 15 – now into a fourth decade. It’s natural we do so with bigger breaks in between, and this has been a particularly big break, but it’s essential to our being that we continue our music production dialogue. The album was made by remote collaboration between London and Sydney, although most of the arrangement work was done with us sitting together in the same place. It was started a very long time ago. Other projects took precedence while the tracks rested as loosely arranged sketches. As with many of our projects, there’s a moment with a track where you can either double down and get deep in to working it into shape, or you can step back and say “there’s beauty in these rough edges”. The tracks of this album went both ways. 'Canaletto Soup' settles around one singular progression of a drum solo, against a minimalist break backdrop. 'Mazda Bongo Friendee' is shaped in a million hyper edits, endlessly unsettled. 'Lemsip Max Relief' is a docile pause. 'Gandalf Speedway' is a stoppy starty orchestration of breaks and bass stabs. Many traditional Icarus tropes revisited."(Ollie Bown)

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Blake Lee

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Ofnot)

28,99 €*