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Tango with Lions releases her fourth album entitled “you.me.”.

“you.me.” was created in Berlin and recorded in Athens, Greece, between September 2021-January 2022, at Lotus studios with producer Vasilis Dokakis. The nine songs of the album build a tale of reflection on heartbreak and significant life changes, written shortly after the artist’s permanent relocation in Berlin, amid the pandemic.

The lyrics express the need of introspection and of processing the impact of various interactions with different people, time passing and global events. The songs observe, address questions or come to realisations about a different “you”, from the perspective of a different “me” in each tale.

The arrangements are rich in synthesisers, nostalgic bass lines and distinct piano sounds. Some of the songs are built on outgoing beats and instrumentations, other songs are earthly, low-key and acoustic.

After a successful tour following the release of "Alors quoi!" on Bongo Joe records, accompanied by a drummer/percussionist change, the prospect of what comes next naturally arose. Elements surfaced, including a desire for more low frequencies, a fascination with the marimba/vibraphone, and a liberating indifference to the difference between recorded and live performances. To evolve, the team collaborated with outsider Kwake Bass, known for collaborations with Kae Tempest, Tirzah, Mica Levi, and others. Despite aesthetic differences from Meril Wubslin"s previous albums, this divergence was seen as key-an enriching risk that resulted in a unique blend of influences. The acoustic core of Meril Wubslin now embraces electronic elements, revealing a more powerful and urban dimension. While maintaining a commitment to French lyrics, the themes explore the concrete yet remain grounded in the intimate and the sensitive, avoiding overly clear and univocal messages.

Excellent works here, do not miss! TIP!

The sum to infinity of a sequence is the sum of an infinite number of terms in the sequence. It is only possible to compute this sum if the terms of a sequence converge to zero. “Sum To Infinity” is also the second release from Gamut Inc, the retro-futuristic ensemble around composers and curators Marion Wörle and Maciej Śledziecki.

This second album by Gamut Inc combines custom-built autonomous music machines with haunting classical synthesiser sounds to create a dense musical kaleidoscope.

The core of the album is formed by Risset rhythms – cyclic accelerations and decelerations, in which rhythmic layers repeatedly fade in and out, setting in motion a seemingly endless process of rhythmic movement. The motifs are taken from geometric and arithmetic series that create urgency and restlessness. The rigour of the construction is obscured by an orchestra whose timbres are reminiscent of a retro-futuristic indigenous ensemble. Gamut Inc translate strategies of electronic music like pulse-width modulation to music machines such as automated accordion, automated percussion or glockenspiels and create an intense atmosphere that is idiosyncratic, original and modern at the same time.

Gamut Inc build their music machines, play electronic music festivals internationally, curate the Aggregate festival for automated pipe organs and composes for film, radio drama, and theatre. Their first opera, “Rossums Universal Robots”, premiered in 2022. Since 2011, at the intersection of electronic club culture and experimental music, they have produced live music, music theatre, film and theatre scores (including for the Junge Staatstheater Berlin) with their specially developed musical robots. They composed for ensembles like the Rias chamber choir or the robot orchestra Logos Foundation and received invitations and commissions from international festivals and venues such as Sónar, CTM, Berghain, Sonic Acts, Technosphärenklänge or Numusic (no). Gamut Inc has received numerous scholarships, including the Villa Kamogawa scholarship from the Goethe Institute in Kyoto, Japan, 2022. Their first release, “Ex Machina” was produced exclusively with music robots and released in 2014 in cooperation with Bôłt Records.

The long lost 1968 debut album by singer-songwriter, Scott Fagan, once tipped to be bigger than Elvis, is set for release on 9th February 2024 via Earth Recordings. 'South Atlantic Blues' will be reissued for the first time in its original artwork, with an iconic portrait of Fagan by famed rock photographer, Joel Brodsky, following a widely celebrated 2015 release.Revisiting his mystical, mythical, and deeply soulful masterpiece, this psych-folk gem doffs a Tropicalia hat direct from downtown New York. "His songs embrace a broad sonic fantasia, swirling in '60s New York R&B and '40s jazz, as well as the Caribbean rhythms of calypso, meringue and Pachanga." New York TimesScott Fagan's story is worthy of a movie in itself. A swinging hipster who landed in 60s Greenwich folk scene, escaping the abject poverty of his U.S. Virgin Islands upbringing, Fagan found himself mentored by the Brill Building's Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, and feted as the next big thing. "Forget Rodriguez, forget Searching for Sugar Man," says Sharyn Felder, daughter of the late Doc Pomus, the legendary songwriter who signed Fagan to management in 1964. "Scott was so much more. He was cut from a different cloth."'South Atlantic Blues' is the perfect soundtrack to this tale, an epic song cycle wrapped around an impassioned love story, driven by Fagan's dense, allusive lyrics, and production by Elmer Jared Gordon (Pearls Before Swine) and rich arrangements by Horace Ott (Nina Simone, Sam Cooke, The Shirelles). The Earth Recordings reissue coincides with a resurgence in activity for Fagan, with a new album in the works - the never-recorded soundtrack to 'Soon', the 1971 Broadway rock musical he co-wrote and starred in - and a documentary 'Soon: the Story of Scott Fagan' currently filming through Scissor Kick Films, from director Marah Strauch, writer Chris Campion (who rediscovered the singer-songwriter in 2015), and producer Eric Bruggeman.Classic Black Vinyl + DLC

On Dispeller, Ben Woods’s beguiling new album, his intimate experiments in rock paint a vivid portrait. Here, the New Zealand artist leans comfortably into intuition and abstraction. Expansive arrangements are anchored by heavy-lidded prose, while carrying the air of the portside shack it was made in. Dispeller was recorded throughout a year in Woods’s hometown, Lyttelton, with Ben Edwards (Aldous Harding, Marlon Williams, Julia Jacklin) at the helm of the mixing console and co-producing. Utterings, footsteps, and the rattles of the room linger beneath the album’s dense instrumentation, alluding to the familiar space the songs were captured in. Here, Woods’s songs breathe and flourish into their own worlds. “I found my voice in trying to make atonality croon,” he says. “With Dispeller it was less about harmony—the blend was capturing the songs very honestly in the room, and still making each of them to transport you somewhere different.” Even beside Woods’s acclaimed debut, PUT (2019), which saw him sharing stages with Aldous Harding, No Age, Julia Jacklin and Steve Gunn, Dispeller enchants. The songs here are stronger, the instrumentation stranger. With chopped and screwed vocal contributions from underground hero Alastair Galbraith, “Speaking Belt” snaps and pulses with the sordid clatter of a lost Xpressway single. Charlotte Forrester from Womb (Flying Nun) adds their diaphanous voice to “The Strip And Punishing Type”. On fragile duet “Wearing Divine”, Lucy Hunter (Opposite Sex / Wet Specimen) threatens to steal the limelight, before a full hive of Marlon Williams’s honeyed vibrato comes spluttering out of what sounds like a rusted can. Woods’s melodies bring to mind Scott Walker’s dramatic tunefulness, while his voice holds something of Gordon Gano’s waver, pushed through New Zealand vowel mangling. Dispeller’s arrangements hit at the subtle, reactive instrumentation of late-era Fugazi, the glowing murk of Grouper, the Antipodean-gothic drudge of Tall Dwarfs, and the mechanical outer crust of Sparklehorse. However, while Woods experiments with the disparate and the disharmonious, it is the open heart which elevates Dispeller. His voice holds the physical and spiritual middle; flirting with, but never succumbing to the splendour and turmoil which surround it.

As Turkey's political factions turned more and more violent in the late 1970s, Buscemi- eyed Edip Akbayram was nearly beaten up by rioting audiences for daring to sing about rural points of view that were naturally critical of Istanbul's political leaders. This second album of Anatolian psychedelia, originally released in 1977, showed defiance even in its gatefold art, with a drawing of the band members seeming to grow straight out the ground, covered in plant tendrils. Akbayram poached members of Mo?ollar and Bari? Manço's Kurtalan Ekspres to get the best fuzz breaks and hammond slams & put 'em straight in your ears. The band also tried out some mixes that pushed the vocals or a particular instrument way up front, and of course long, low, reverberant welcomes from Edip's echo- covered voice. Remastered sound, insert / booklet with photos and liner notes by Angela Sawyer (Weirdo Records). Vinyl comes with exact reproduction of the original gatefold pop- up sleeve.

Will Johnson's ninth solo album, No Ordinary Crown,hums with palpable motion. Travelers, runners andconductors fill its lyrics, and gesticulating storms andemotional highs and lows seep through the instinctualquality of its rock 'n roll performances. It's also cabledby ephemeral momentum.The songs were conceived in stolen moments and briefwindows of time between the responsibilities of familyand a multi-hyphenate career. The singer, songwriter,multi-instrumentalist, painter and novelist describes thedemo process as "fairly jagged," a gathering andstitching of audio snippets recorded via cell phone anddictaphone over a year and half. "I finalized the songson short tours where I could hear my thoughts a bitmore clearly," he says."Somewhere along the line someone advised me tonever be afraid to hurt my characters, that I will alwaysbe able to get them out of it," he says. "I do want thereto be these small victories and small portals of hope."With No Ordinary Crown, people may behave badly,and the road may get rough, but the reward is in thejourney.

Will Johnson's ninth solo album, No Ordinary Crown,hums with palpable motion. Travelers, runners andconductors fill its lyrics, and gesticulating storms andemotional highs and lows seep through the instinctualquality of its rock 'n roll performances. It's also cabledby ephemeral momentum.The songs were conceived in stolen moments and briefwindows of time between the responsibilities of familyand a multi-hyphenate career. The singer, songwriter,multi-instrumentalist, painter and novelist describes thedemo process as "fairly jagged," a gathering andstitching of audio snippets recorded via cell phone anddictaphone over a year and half. "I finalized the songson short tours where I could hear my thoughts a bitmore clearly," he says."Somewhere along the line someone advised me tonever be afraid to hurt my characters, that I will alwaysbe able to get them out of it," he says. "I do want thereto be these small victories and small portals of hope."With No Ordinary Crown, people may behave badly,and the road may get rough, but the reward is in thejourney.

Bobby Lee Trades In A Wide Screen Brand Of Cosmic Country-Folk, Full Of Space And Pawn Shop Guitars. There Are Touches Of Jj Cale's Analogue Americana, The Swampy Groove Of Tony Joe White And Richard Thompson's Sinewy, Modal Guitar Work. Amps Hum In The Warm Afternoon Sun, Kids And Dogs Snooze On The Grass And Broken Drum Machines Keep Time With The Universe_open Sky/Scorched Earth Improvisations Recorded To Four Track Tape During The Rare Moments Of Solitude Afforded By Lockdown And Early Fatherhood. Bobby Lee's "Worn-Denim Psych-Country" Remains, But The Ancestral Spirits Of Ashra, Popol Vuh And Terry Riley Are Present Here Too. Time And Technological Limitations Have Been Embraced. A Song Dreamt Up, Tracked And Mixed In An Afternoon, Never To Be Tampered With Again. Imperfections Allowed To Stand; Knowing That Nothing Is Ever Truly Finished. The Bob Ross School Of Philosophy. "Overdriven Drum-Machine Low Slung Choogle" - Mojo "The Further Bobby Unmoors Himself From Songs And Heads Towards Long-Form Abstraction, The More Engrossing It Becomes" - Uncut

Matthew Davidson is a prolific contributor to beloved projects including Big Thief, whose latest album Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You features Davidson's distinct contributions on six songs, as well as a current member of Buck Meek's band. Davidson is also a former member of The Low Anthem, Spirit Family Reunion, and Deslondes and has toured with the likes of Langhorne Slim, Courtney Marie Andrews and more. He made his label debut as Twain with Rare Feeling in 2017. Twain's music resonates a transcendental weight, his performances reliably noted as raw and intensely emotional. The long-awaited album from Twain released via Keeled Scales is his first-ever double LP titled Noon. Twain's first album in three years, Noon looks to explore the balancing exercise between soul-fantasy and self-scrutiny. The songs on Noon try to sit in the liminal state between the spirit's ambition for itself and the often harsh truth of the present. The hope is to erode the barrier between those two states. 'Twain' is Mat Davidson's approach to reconcile those two states, and to forget that they could ever exist in opposition.

Djiguia is an Ode to Life. It is a calm breathing, a sigh, a rage to live, a reflection. a resistance as much as a letting go...It is the word, the silences and the cries of what Strange o'clock carries and defends.This new Strange o'clock album is intended to be even more distinctive and diversified, while keeping this African'Blues touch well known to the duo.Imbued with blues, rock, jazz, psyche, Tuareg and Mandinka music. this album is a real journey without borders or space-time...

Chico Bernardes is a singer, songwriter and multi instrumentalist from São Paulo, Brazil. In his first and self-titled record, 'Chico Bernardes' has arranged and recorded all the instruments, with the support of Gui Jesus Toledo from Selo Risco and owner of Estúdio Canoa, where the recordings took place. Surrounded by lots of coffee and low lights, Chico recorded part of the songs as if he was singing for nobody, in real time. The other half of the record was filled with drums, bass, electric guitar, percussions and a bunch of keys, from old casio keyboards to an indian harmonium. The songs structured above nylon strings guitar were recorded with a 1968 Di Giorgio Romeo 3, frequently used on the classical brazilian records from the 70’s and beyond, that carries a very popular Bossa Nova tone, but Chico reworked it’s approach with the use of alternate tunings, on a closer proximity to artists such as Duncan Browne, Sibylle Baier and Joni Mitchell. For the steel strings, he used a 60’s Martin 000, in order to reach the old and warm wooden sound of the record. The Lyrics mostly talk about his wandering dreams about different affections with people, the transitional moments of a lifetime and self discoveries, from his essential core to the external world.

A few copies arrived with split sleeve that we offer at a lower price.

Megan Siebe is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and arranger from Omaha, Nebraska. She’s cut her teeth as a member of bands such as Simon Joyner & the Ghosts, The David Nance Group, Cursive, Sean Pratt & the Sweats, The Jim Schroeder Sextet, and many others, touring nearly non-stop for the last decade. She’s also written string arrangements for albums by Refrigerator, John Davis, the Renderers, Dennis Callaci, L. Eugene Methe, Justin Townes Earle, and Anna McClellan. But all the while she was writing her own intimate, finely-crafted songs in secret, only breaking them out around the occasional Nebraska campfire amongst friends. A break from touring in other bands these last fifteen months has allowed Siebe more time to focus on a powerful cycle of songs she’s had brewing for some time. Grapefruit and Shrimper are proud to join forces to release Megan’s humble yet astonishing debut. Swaying Steady is a gorgeous collection of literate and evocative singer-songwriter, country-tinged, melancholy pop songs about relationships in crisis, bad seeds, family, and emotional endurance. For fans of Lucinda Williams, Harry Nilsson, Elyse Weinberg, Nick Drake, and Sibylle Baier.

Triple vinyl LP pressing. Odies But Goodies is the ultimate collection from 7-time and current Academy of Country Music and 6-time and reigning Country Music Association Group of the Year, Old Dominion. Thirty-one songs spanning the #1s, fan favorites and album cuts that have come to define the band songwriters Matthew Ramsey, Trevor Rosen, Brad Tursi, Geoff Sprung and Whit Sellers built taking their friendship on the road in a van for the sake of playing live in front of people who just wanted to come out and love the music. What began as a labor of fun turned into one of the most impactful country bands of the 21st Century. Headlining major arena tours and the biggest festivals, Old Dominion represents a space where people make the best of what is, find positivity in the low moments and exult in the wins. Real life songs for real life moments, full stop. To celebrate, they've gathered into one place all of the songs that define this no bad vibes group of musicians - "I Was On A Boat That Day," "Break Up With Him," "Some for Another Time," "Hotel Key," "Written In The Sand," "Memory Lane," as well as beloved deep tracks "Nowhere Fast," "Hawaii," "Fast Horses" and "Still Writing Songs." They've also added their take on Johnny Lee's #1 "Lookin' for Love" from the film "Urban Cowboy" and the brand new "Coming Home."

After the very successfull "jimmy Widener" first issue on the label dedicated to Hillbilly musice: "red Barn Record", We had dig a little more into our personnal shellac collection to offer you the complete Bullet sessions, 1950-52 of this obscure but very talentful "proto" rockabilly band. Two year before Elvis recordings at SUN, you already feel the wind of musical change' a coming!

In the life of any interesting artist, there is the perpetual war between the
simplicity of public perception and the complexities of reality. Consider Hanni
El Khatib, a definitive purveyor of visceral, blues-wracked, punk-spiked,
soul-warped, knife fight rock n’ roll over the last decade. You may be familiar
with him through any one of his four acclaimed solo albums on Innovative
Leisure, his work with Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys, or as one of the rare
polymaths able to artfully blend serrated guitars and hardcore rap on collaborations with GZA and Freddie Gibbs. And while these are all real things that
could accurately yield a sketch of the multi-dimensional Los Angeles-based
artist, they amount to little more than a black and white pencil sketch.
From 2010 until 2017, there was the usual cycle that consumes most working
21st musicians: make an album, and tour it for the next 18 months. Return
home, rinse and repeat. And with it came the predictable pitfalls that ensnare
too many artists whose professional obligations require high-octane performances before 1,000 or more strangers every night. It is a dream until that
one night when it isn’t any longer, and despite his gratitude for his fans and
station in life, El Khatib found himself wracked by depression and anxiety.
What had once been joyous creative outlet felt like a job. In the wake of the
release of 2017’s Savage Times, it became readily apparent that if El Khatib
didn’t make drastic changes to his lifestyle, there might not be a life to speak
of. So he quit drinking, stopped touring, and took an indefinite hiatus from the
studio. But eventually, the desire to create songs slowly returned.
What would eventually become El Khatib’s fifth studio album, the virtuosic
but characteristically raw FLIGHT began as spontaneous experimentation.
Over the last several years, El Khatib had become close friends with Leon
Michels, best known as the mastermind of the soul controllers, the El Michels
Affair, but who has also quietly racked up producer credits for the likes of pop
juggernauts like Lana Del Rey, Rick Ross, Travis Scott, A$AP Rocky, and
Eminem -- as well as frequently working in sessions with Grammy-winning
super-producer Mark Ronson. The finished result is a rollicking sampledelic
opus that recalls the beautiful chaos that the Dust Brothers created on Paul’s
Boutique and Odelay. It’s the type of thing that Dilla and Madlib would’ve
created if they had come up on The Cramps.
The irony, of course, is that for a record that sounds like little else El Khatib
has ever done, it’s the most complete embodiment of who he is as an artist.
It’s a record both dense and intricate yet direct and spontaneous. It is garage
rock, it is hip-hop, it is soul, it is blues, it is psychedelic, but more than
anything, it’s a brilliant Hanni El Khatib record -- one that taps into the adolescent spirit of creation that first stirred him to make songs in the first place.
Here he is on his fifth album, back for the first time.

When Italian composer Bruno Bavota and Dutch songwriter Chantal Acda first met several years ago, they knew almost instantly that they wanted to make music together. Bavota was already a fan of Acda's dreamy, orchestral folk, and in Bavota's intimate, picturesque piano compositions, Acda saw a potential for collaboration that was begging to be explored. As it would happen, the inherent loneliness and isolation of the Covid-19 pandemic would provide a most unusual opportunity to craft an album together - without ever being ion the same room. Originally conceived as a brief two- or three-song EP, A Closer Distance is the result of a month of seemingly endless and effortless creative connections between Bavota and Acda. Spawned from the opening piano phrase that became the album's title track, the nine songs that make up A Closer Distance were written and recorded by Bavota and Acda in their respective homes. No stranger to long-distance collaboration - having worked with an array of artists from Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker of Low to guitar legend Bill Frisell - even Acda was surprised by the ease and pace with which A Closer Distance came together: "This all came so weirdly natural. It woke up a part of me that had been asleep for a while." Mostly built around Bavota's solitary piano arrangements and Acda's layered, ethereal vocals, the songs on A Closer Distance reflect the intimacy and tranquility of their conception. It is a magical collection that connects to the listener with the same air of comfort and familiarity that inspired its creation.

When Italian composer Bruno Bavota and Dutch songwriter Chantal Acda first met several years ago, they knew almost instantly that they wanted to make music together. Bavota was already a fan of Acda's dreamy, orchestral folk, and in Bavota's intimate, picturesque piano compositions, Acda saw a potential for collaboration that was begging to be explored. As it would happen, the inherent loneliness and isolation of the Covid-19 pandemic would provide a most unusual opportunity to craft an album together - without ever being ion the same room. Originally conceived as a brief two- or three-song EP, A Closer Distance is the result of a month of seemingly endless and effortless creative connections between Bavota and Acda. Spawned from the opening piano phrase that became the album's title track, the nine songs that make up A Closer Distance were written and recorded by Bavota and Acda in their respective homes. No stranger to long-distance collaboration - having worked with an array of artists from Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker of Low to guitar legend Bill Frisell - even Acda was surprised by the ease and pace with which A Closer Distance came together: "This all came so weirdly natural. It woke up a part of me that had been asleep for a while." Mostly built around Bavota's solitary piano arrangements and Acda's layered, ethereal vocals, the songs on A Closer Distance reflect the intimacy and tranquility of their conception. It is a magical collection that connects to the listener with the same air of comfort and familiarity that inspired its creation.

2024 marks the 40th anniversary of Bruce Springsteen's 'Born In The U.S.A.' Although it would become his biggest selling album with seven top 1 0 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, Luther Dickinson of North Mississippi Allstars says "any of those songs could be played with acoustic guitar alone and still be great." Taking this idea as its premise, 'Dead Man's Town: A Tribute to Born in the U.S.A' strips the album's twelve indelible originals to the core, with contributions from Jason Isbell & Amanda Shires, Low, Nicole Atkins, Justin Townes Earle, Blitzen Trapper, Joe Pug, Trampled by Turtles, and more. Rolling Stone premiered Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires' Dave Cobb-produced cover of "Born I n The U.S.A," saying these artists are "reimagining 'Born in the U.S.A. with a reduced approach more influenced by that of the acoustic, "Nebraska."

Isbell says of his cover, ""Born In The U.S.A." is one of my favorites because so many people have seemingly misunderstood the lyrical content and the song's overall tone. When you listen to the demo, the dark, minor key arrangement makes it clear that this is not strictly a song of celebration. We wanted to stay true to that version." Amanda Shires adds, "I love that the song paints a picture of struggle in the face of the American dream, and the irony in the chorus is delivered with such force that it nearly transcends irony altogether."

Over the past decade, the visionary musician ARTHUR RUSSELL has entered something close to the mainstream. Sampled and referenced by contemporary musicians, his papers now open to visitors at the Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center in New York, and his name synonymous with a certain strain of tenderness, Russell is as widely known as he’s ever been. Thanks to Russell’s partner Tom Lee and to Steve Knutson of Audika Records, who have forged several records from Russell’s vast archive of unfinished and unreleased work, the world now hears many versions of Arthur Russell. There’s the Iowa boy, the disco mystic, the singer-songwriter and composer, and the fierce perfectionist deep in a world of echo. While all of these elements of Russell are individually true, none alone define him. Now, after ten years of work inside the Russell library, Lee and Knutson bring us Iowa Dream, yet another bright star in Russell’s dazzling constellation. Blazing with trademark feeling, these nineteen songs are a staggering collection of Russell’s utterly distinct songwriting. Features contributions from downtown NYC musicians ERNIE BROOKS, RHYS CHATHAM, HENRY FLYNT, JON GIBSON, PETER GORDON, STEVEN HALL, JACKSON MAC LOW, LARRY SALTZMAN and DAVID VAN TIEGHEM, along with PETER BRODERICK, who makes a contemporary addition to this list: more than forty years after Russell recorded several nearly finished songs, Broderick worked diligently with Audika to complete them, and performed audio restoration and additional mixing. At once kaleidoscopic and intimate, Iowa Dream bears some of Russell’s most personal work, including several recently discovered folk songs he wrote during his time in Northern California in the early 1970s.

More than 10 years ago, Vincent Dupas, Jean-Baptiste Geoffroy and Jérôme Vassereau created Binidu in parallel with their respective bands, Fordamage and Pneu, then very singular and of the most joyful french rock music. Their collaboration is a trek that started from green and sunny pastures to sink over time into mountains surrounded by storms. Binidu holds nothing back in composition, always ready to reinvent himself with each new album.

After "Yes", the first fresh and luminous one released in 2013, the second "Nouvel Ancient" in 2018, more adventurous and kind of lost in an apocalyptic world, the trio returns today just as adventurous but more in a peaceful way with "// ", a creation mostly focused on his appetite for the acoustics and electronics combination. A long-distance running music, which, from the top of the ridge lines, looks at the world with lucidity, embracing the entire landscape, valleys, towns, all the way to the sea.

It is their label, Kythibong, which, on the occasion of the festivities around his twentieth birthday, brings Binidu out of his brief hiatus. 2022 therefore sees the trio reunite and begin to compose a new repertoire with a strong desire to play at a low volume and thus be able to perform in a wide variety of locations. They then broached the composition of the third album changing their instrumentarium. The drums are now reduced to a split snare drum and a hi-hat, the modular synthesizers take an important place in the composition, Jérôme and Vincent play on small amps, the latter exchanges his electric guitar for an acoustic Parlor, and the sound of the voice is now devoid of any effect.

Over the course of rehearsals, Binidu starts to imagine “//” as an overall piece with five linked long compositions. Thirty-five minutes of music, alternating very acoustic phases and other electronic ones, creating supernatural spaces, moments of reflection, some pop, hypnotic and/or rhythmic bursts.

On 12 February 1949 an angry mob stormed into the centre of the Ecuadorian capital of Quito, burning the offices of the city’s main newspaper and its oldest radio station to the ground.

On that tragic day Radio Quito had just broadcast a local adaptation of H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds. The novel – first published in 1898 and famously adapted into a radio series by Orson Welles – is one of the earliest stories to depict a conflict between mankind and a hostile race of extra-terrestrials. The large audience - not understanding that it was pure fiction - believed that intergalactic intelligence had invaded the country as all hell broke loose. Thousands began running the streets of Quito looking for shelter, chaos broke out, causing a deadly stampede. People blamed the broadcaster for the tragedy, formed a dense crowd and stormed Radio Quito, setting it ablaze. Several musicians, who were there performing, were killed.

In the decades after the second world war, outer space was on everyone’s mind and the ‘space race’ of the 1950s and 60s not only produced groundbreaking efforts to launch artificial satellites, send space probes to Mars and land a human on the moon, it also had a huge impact on the movie and music industry which was taking advantage of the world‘s fascination with space voyages and lunar missions to create instruments capable of mimicking imaginary interstellar sounds. These synthesised space effects that captivated the imagination of a whole generation of young Ecuadoreans coincided with a period in which workers and musicians from the provinces started flocking to Quito and to the commercial port of Guayaquil, some hoping to find regular work, others looking to break into the musical big leagues by getting hired by one of the prestigious urban radio station. These artists brought riches of rhythms to the major Ecuadorian cities who would soon witness the explosion of what would be known as “Andean Cumbia”.

That fusion, of tropical electronics mixed in with Andean melodies and lyrics describing the cruel reality of migrant workers, achieved massive success. And so while budding Ecuadorian UFOlogy lead to widespread extraterrestrial sightings, Ecuadorian musicians began released various albums consisting of traditional music combined with synthesisers in order to bring their traditional music into the space age. One of these musicians is Polibio Mayorga who had travelled 160km from his hometown of Chisalata to Quito where he showcased his talent as he championed the art of modernising his region’s ancestral rhythms - Huaynito, Sanjuanito, Albazo and many others - using the latest in electronic instruments.

After 4 years with Los Locos del Ritmo, one of Ecuador’s most popular bands, Polibio joined Fadisa (Fabrica De Discos S.A) in 1973 as a solo musician and songwriter before becoming their musical director a year later. While there he would team up with saxophonist extraordinaire Olmedo Torres, and for 10 years they would compose and arrange hits, not only for themselves but also for their fellow artists in the Fadisa family. Although Fadisa had countless labels in their roster, the jewel in their crown was Rondador and it was on that imprint that Polibio would release “Ponchito de Colores” and his famous album “La Farra Está Aquí”. With their novel use of Moog synthesiser, both become huge hit records and were broadcast constantly by Cosmopolita and Marañón de Quito – the two major radio stations of the capital. This led to a surge of interest in Andean cumbia, and the subsequent record sales helped to revive the country’s flagging music industry, turning Polibio into Ecuador’s most influential musician.

Polibio has never considered his music to be “tropical psychedelia” - although he thinks it would make a good name for a band. He has the sense of humour of a genius and the ability to make anyone laugh, yet he remains discreet, eloquent and humble … but as a musician he is daring and visionary, with an intrepid, vigorous style almost impossible to imitate. More than perhaps any of his peers, Polibio Mayorga established a unique place for himself at the vanguard of tropical music.

The mesmerizing debut LP by Nova Scotia’s Quilting on October 7, 2022. The album is a quietly stunning collection of pastoral ambience dotted with moments of tension that reflects the maritime environment in which it was created, inadvertently paying homage to the light and darkness of rural life.

Co-founded by Holy Fuck’s Brian Borcherdt, the quartet is comprised of a diverse and accomplished collection of musicians who came together when he moved back to his home province in 2019 after a lengthy stay in Toronto.

The shock of settling into a town of 600 people was softened almost immediately by a care package left on Borcherdt’s front porch. It included the curious juxtaposition of homemade preserves and a circuit-bent keyboard. His interest was piqued. As luck would have it, his new neighbour happened to be renowned folk guitarist Kim Barlow.

“Kim was in the process of organizing an improvisation series featuring over a dozen Nova Scotia-based musicians. The series struggled under lockdown restrictions, and on the second attempt only the four of us showed up.” Borcherdt recalls. “We didn't really know each other that well, were a bit shy and played very quietly. However, we really enjoyed how spacious our jam was.”

One week after their initial jam, Borcherdt was invited to perform a solo set at a Halifax-based experimental festival called Open Waters. He instead volunteered the same lineup: himself, Barlow, distinguished Isle Of Skye harpist (and Berklee professor) Mairi Chaimbeul, and Sahara Nasr, a noted songwriter and player of the rare Indian Sarangi. It wasn’t long before they began recording and soon realized a name was necessary to make the project official.

“When we get together to play music, it's our 'poker night'. That led us to think of other community or 'grown-up' gatherings, similar or antiquated... like barnraising bees, quilting bees.” Explains Borcherdt. “We were sort of quilting: four corners of fabric, texture, sewing threads, telling a story, all making one complete piece while drinking a few beers. We could've also called it ‘Therapy’.”

While providing a necessary distraction from early-COVID life, Quilting also offered a chance to improvise within a uniquely ambient soundspace. This was a welcome change for some of the members, including Borcherdt, who was used to creating music with decidedly more volume.

“Space is welcome. Writing in Quilting is a spontaneous and thoughtful process, very synesthetic and, of course, collaborative. I've only really gotten to explore space and silence with solo music.” He reflects. “With my other bands, even when spontaneous and improvised, the result is dense and cathartic, expressive through pulse and rhythm and volume. With Quilting we get to drift, no beats, no safety net. Every note counts. Yet rather than being stressed or scrutinized under a microscope we all have fun and daydream a bit.”

Sonics aside, Quilting has also given all four members the chance to experiment with the boundaries created by headquartering in a remote area not commonly associated with the avant-garde music community.

“Nova Scotia, unlike other provinces, has basically one city, one place where musicians congregate, play shows and hang out. Anything happening outside of Halifax can be considered an experiment, a test to see anything can get off the ground.” Borcherdt explains. “ In Toronto there's already an infrastructure, whether you play the same venues or build your own new thing- there's an audience, there are friends and like-minded individuals. It's healthier. Here we have to take what we get. But the good news is that it's kind of a blank slate.”

The LP, which features hand-calligraphed cover art from Upstate New York-based artist and musician Sarah Le Puerta, features five songs all recorded live off-the-floor in a single live performance. Moods range from reflective to unsettled, and even at its loudest parts a sense of intimacy persists.

“This album feels like a complete picture, a snapshot of one fun night.” He states. “That seems to me to be a perfect introduction. The listener gets to “attend” the concert, which is an amazing way to discover new music.”

A long-lost Japanese acid folk gem, Niningashi’s 1974 private press debut Heavy Way shimmers with originality, deft song writing and a dream-like groove.

Although he was training as a pharmacist, Kazuhisa Okubo was much more interested in prescribing musical medicine.

A coming-of-age album, Heavy Way captured a turning point in Okubo’s life, and Japanese society more widely as a nostalgia for the pastoral calm of the traditional life, met the cosmopolitan thrill of coffee, sex and cigarettes in the big city.

Intoxicated by Tokyo, driven by a passion for music and surrounded by a thriving acid folk scene, the young student filtered his experiences through a psychedelic cocktail of soulful influences from the US and Japan.

Niningashi was his first band, and Heavy Way was their only album. It was honest and raw, deep and strangely funky, in an off-beat kind of way. Across nine tracks, Okubo and the 6-piece band put their own spin on the new folk sound of Japan, combining witty lyrics with electric guitar-driven solos and crisp, understated grooves.

Melancholy and profound, opening track ‘Ameagari’ feels like a synthesis of Harvest-era Neil Young and Haruomi Hosono’s Happy End. Then there’s the whimsical washboard country sound of ‘Semai Boku No Heyade’; the moody, low-lit charm of ‘Restaurant’; and ‘Hitoribotchi’, a sensitive portrayal of childhood, steeped in memories of rainfall that will resonate with fans of Woo and Mac Demarco.

While Okubo would go on to taste success with psychedelic folk bands Neko and Kaze, the latter of which scored three #1 albums, little is known about his mysterious debut with Niningashi.

Self-released by Okubo in 1974, and featuring album artwork by his brother, it has slowly generated a cult following online, intrigued by its soft and enchanting sound. So few records were ultimately pressed that those remaining have fetched up to £1,500 online.

Featured on Time Capsule’s era-spanning collection Nippon Acid Folk, Niningashi’s Heavy Way is a deep-cut grail of a vibrant time in Japan’s musical history, where even the pharmacists were making jams.

Friendship's Merge debut, Love the Stranger, moves like a country record skipping in just the right spot, leaving its fellow travelers longing for a place they've only visited in their dreams. Guitarist Peter Gill, drummer Michael Cormier-O'Leary, bassist Jon Samuels, and hawkeyed balladeer Dan Wriggins map out the group's particular, breathtaking landscape and invite the listener to share in its glory. Between instrumental pit stops at "Kum & Go" and "Quickchek," local references in Love the Stranger create a catalog of human perception, presented as roadside attractions. From grape jelly residue ("Ramekin") to the site of a demolished cathedral ("St. Bonaventure") to King of the Hill quotations ("Smooth Pursuit"), the record's images craft a symbolic language of high and low Americana, both evocative and consistently accessible. Spending time with Love the Stranger creates a community _ one in which the window between the listener and the musicmaker shatters in full, until all that remains are the fragments you decide to pick up together. Like its sprawling lyrical references, Love the Stranger's production is both familiar and capacious enough for pedal steel, synth strings, airy folk guitar field recordings, and Midi pad exploration to work in vital harmony. Influenced by Friendship's punk and indie peers as much as road-star forebears like Lucinda Williams and Lambchop, Wriggins says of the recording sessions: "I wanted the album to sound like Emmylou Harris and the Hot Band in the '70s. Pete wanted it to sound like a semi full of spent fuel rods, barreling towards a runaway truck ramp. Jon kept reminding us that the studio is an instrument, and Michael wanted it to sound like the breakdown two-and-a-half minutes into Shuggie Otis' `Strawberry Letter 23.'" Friendship is probably already your favorite band's favorite band, a long-revered Iykyk of DIY with a devoted cult following from Wawa to In-N-Out. With Love the Stranger, the Friendship universe only continues to expand and grow more open-hearted, more inviting, with every passing note. It's a record that locates the listener exactly where the listener is, and wherever that may be, makes a friend out of them, too.

Friendship's Merge debut, Love the Stranger, moves like a country record skipping in just the right spot, leaving its fellow travelers longing for a place they've only visited in their dreams. Guitarist Peter Gill, drummer Michael Cormier-O'Leary, bassist Jon Samuels, and hawkeyed balladeer Dan Wriggins map out the group's particular, breathtaking landscape and invite the listener to share in its glory. Between instrumental pit stops at "Kum & Go" and "Quickchek," local references in Love the Stranger create a catalog of human perception, presented as roadside attractions. From grape jelly residue ("Ramekin") to the site of a demolished cathedral ("St. Bonaventure") to King of the Hill quotations ("Smooth Pursuit"), the record's images craft a symbolic language of high and low Americana, both evocative and consistently accessible. Spending time with Love the Stranger creates a community _ one in which the window between the listener and the musicmaker shatters in full, until all that remains are the fragments you decide to pick up together. Like its sprawling lyrical references, Love the Stranger's production is both familiar and capacious enough for pedal steel, synth strings, airy folk guitar field recordings, and Midi pad exploration to work in vital harmony. Influenced by Friendship's punk and indie peers as much as road-star forebears like Lucinda Williams and Lambchop, Wriggins says of the recording sessions: "I wanted the album to sound like Emmylou Harris and the Hot Band in the '70s. Pete wanted it to sound like a semi full of spent fuel rods, barreling towards a runaway truck ramp. Jon kept reminding us that the studio is an instrument, and Michael wanted it to sound like the breakdown two-and-a-half minutes into Shuggie Otis' `Strawberry Letter 23.'" Friendship is probably already your favorite band's favorite band, a long-revered Iykyk of DIY with a devoted cult following from Wawa to In-N-Out. With Love the Stranger, the Friendship universe only continues to expand and grow more open-hearted, more inviting, with every passing note. It's a record that locates the listener exactly where the listener is, and wherever that may be, makes a friend out of them, too.

In The 1970s, Tucker Zimmerman made some low-key acoustic guitar records in England. He was raised in Caifornia, and sang like it. And between those two circumstances, Zimmerman happens to have sat in with a whole lotta famous people; The Spiders From Mars, guys from Yes & Traffic & T Rex, Mary Hopkin, Paul Butterfield, Aynsley Dunbar, Ricky Fataar, and plenty more. The seriously famous are always moving along to whatever's new. But Zimmerman has kept his hand in. There were a couple records in the 80s, an interest in novels and words, one in the 90s, an 00s collaboration with another American expat who works on the Belgian version of The Voice, etc. Now he has a new record for the teens. Of himself reading poetry no less. And that is exactly the sort of project that could easily degenerate into the underground dude's answer to a Stan Lee cameo. The reason it doesn't is less about the words chosen (though they're fine) and more about the obvious lived grit in the mucinex-wracked glottis that is Zimmerman's voice these days. The sensitive folk rocker has given way to a grizzled gentleman. Zimmerman is more confident as his 77 years and sounds like a paisley Sam Elliott who spends days wandering outside dispensing advice to clouds & dogs. Zimmerman has also found a precise complement in accompanist Josh Burkett, whose life reads like an indie update to the performer Zimmerman was in the 70s. Joshua Burkett runs a record store in Western Mass, and has been a heavy in interesting underground projects of one sort or another for roughly 30 years (vermonster, Bimbo Shrineheads, Tarp, playing with Ed Askew, & his array of solo records). The seams are allowed to show on these recordings. You can hear Zimmerman stop and go back to correct himself, and the sound levels vary. That puts things firmly in the contemporary camp, ensuring that this ain't no greatest hits that never were. In fact, Josh nips in with his acoustic guitar so subtly, and gets the rhythm of each talking point so just right so that the two performers dovetail again and again. And so the record can exist between them both, a new thing all it's own.—Thanks much, Angela Sawyer, 2022

Berlin producer Robot Koch is back for his third full length release, “The Other Side”.

Although Robot Koch has an international reputation as being “One of Europe's finest producers of the beat generation“ (Low End Theory), he is much more than just a beatmaker… “(Post)-dubstep infused Electronic Hip Hop“ is far too constrained a label to understand what this producer is all about. Instead of following the sound of his previous albums “Death Star Droid” (“Essential listening” – Bobby Friction BBC) and “Songs For Trees and Cyborgs“ (“Music for a modern age that has rarely sounded so good” – Boomkat), Koch takes the genre defying ingredients from these previous records to another level. There still are some of those “Galactic ten ton beats and space age melodies“ (Dazed and Confused) that made the previous albums staple drops in the playlists of Mary Anne Hobbs, Starkey, Daedelus and Gaslamp Killer to name a few, but there is a new dimension to Koch's production and songwriting that didn’t show on his previous records.

The cinematic vibe of tracks like “Nitesky”, the quirky and moody feel of “Bugs” and the electricity of “Tapedeck” show how Koch more than ever manages to create intimate and timeless pieces of music that are soulful, deep, mysterious and that will appeal to fans of cutting edge Electronica and modern pop music alike. This is the most personal record of Robot Koch to date. Instead of going for big name features Koch teamed up with lesser know artists like Kansas based vocal talent John LaMonica, long time friend and theatre composer Nielson and mexican singer/songwriter Graciela Maria to find the right voices for his compositions. John LaMonica infuses his whimsical and heartfelt melodies that breathe an air of darkness and nostalgia with Koch's fresh and forward thinking instrumentals to create something that fans of Radiohead, The XX and Jamie Lidell should not sleep on.

After the release of the John Robinson collaboration album (“Robot Robinson” – Project Mooncircle) earlier this year, it seems surprising how extensive Robert’s output is, but don’t be mistaken, this album is a longer term project than just releasing the songs Koch made in the last year. Some of the songs found on “The Other Side” were made seven years ago.

Berlin producer Robot Koch is back for his third full length release, “The Other Side”.

Although Robot Koch has an international reputation as being “One of Europe's finest producers of the beat generation“ (Low End Theory), he is much more than just a beatmaker… “(Post)-dubstep infused Electronic Hip Hop“ is far too constrained a label to understand what this producer is all about. Instead of following the sound of his previous albums “Death Star Droid” (“Essential listening” – Bobby Friction BBC) and “Songs For Trees and Cyborgs“ (“Music for a modern age that has rarely sounded so good” – Boomkat), Koch takes the genre defying ingredients from these previous records to another level. There still are some of those “Galactic ten ton beats and space age melodies“ (Dazed and Confused) that made the previous albums staple drops in the playlists of Mary Anne Hobbs, Starkey, Daedelus and Gaslamp Killer to name a few, but there is a new dimension to Koch's production and songwriting that didn’t show on his previous records.

The cinematic vibe of tracks like “Nitesky”, the quirky and moody feel of “Bugs” and the electricity of “Tapedeck” show how Koch more than ever manages to create intimate and timeless pieces of music that are soulful, deep, mysterious and that will appeal to fans of cutting edge Electronica and modern pop music alike. This is the most personal record of Robot Koch to date. Instead of going for big name features Koch teamed up with lesser know artists like Kansas based vocal talent John LaMonica, long time friend and theatre composer Nielson and mexican singer/songwriter Graciela Maria to find the right voices for his compositions. John LaMonica infuses his whimsical and heartfelt melodies that breathe an air of darkness and nostalgia with Koch's fresh and forward thinking instrumentals to create something that fans of Radiohead, The XX and Jamie Lidell should not sleep on.

After the release of the John Robinson collaboration album (“Robot Robinson” – Project Mooncircle) earlier this year, it seems surprising how extensive Robert’s output is, but don’t be mistaken, this album is a longer term project than just releasing the songs Koch made in the last year. Some of the songs found on “The Other Side” were made seven years ago.

Berlin producer Robot Koch is back for his third full length release, “The Other Side”.

Although Robot Koch has an international reputation as being “One of Europe's finest producers of the beat generation“ (Low End Theory), he is much more than just a beatmaker… “(Post)-dubstep infused Electronic Hip Hop“ is far too constrained a label to understand what this producer is all about. Instead of following the sound of his previous albums “Death Star Droid” (“Essential listening” – Bobby Friction BBC) and “Songs For Trees and Cyborgs“ (“Music for a modern age that has rarely sounded so good” – Boomkat), Koch takes the genre defying ingredients from these previous records to another level. There still are some of those “Galactic ten ton beats and space age melodies“ (Dazed and Confused) that made the previous albums staple drops in the playlists of Mary Anne Hobbs, Starkey, Daedelus and Gaslamp Killer to name a few, but there is a new dimension to Koch's production and songwriting that didn’t show on his previous records.

The cinematic vibe of tracks like “Nitesky”, the quirky and moody feel of “Bugs” and the electricity of “Tapedeck” show how Koch more than ever manages to create intimate and timeless pieces of music that are soulful, deep, mysterious and that will appeal to fans of cutting edge Electronica and modern pop music alike. This is the most personal record of Robot Koch to date. Instead of going for big name features Koch teamed up with lesser know artists like Kansas based vocal talent John LaMonica, long time friend and theatre composer Nielson and mexican singer/songwriter Graciela Maria to find the right voices for his compositions. John LaMonica infuses his whimsical and heartfelt melodies that breathe an air of darkness and nostalgia with Koch's fresh and forward thinking instrumentals to create something that fans of Radiohead, The XX and Jamie Lidell should not sleep on.

After the release of the John Robinson collaboration album (“Robot Robinson” – Project Mooncircle) earlier this year, it seems surprising how extensive Robert’s output is, but don’t be mistaken, this album is a longer term project than just releasing the songs Koch made in the last year. Some of the songs found on “The Other Side” were made seven years ago.

Berlin producer Robot Koch is back for his third full length release, “The Other Side”.

Although Robot Koch has an international reputation as being “One of Europe's finest producers of the beat generation“ (Low End Theory), he is much more than just a beatmaker… “(Post)-dubstep infused Electronic Hip Hop“ is far too constrained a label to understand what this producer is all about. Instead of following the sound of his previous albums “Death Star Droid” (“Essential listening” – Bobby Friction BBC) and “Songs For Trees and Cyborgs“ (“Music for a modern age that has rarely sounded so good” – Boomkat), Koch takes the genre defying ingredients from these previous records to another level. There still are some of those “Galactic ten ton beats and space age melodies“ (Dazed and Confused) that made the previous albums staple drops in the playlists of Mary Anne Hobbs, Starkey, Daedelus and Gaslamp Killer to name a few, but there is a new dimension to Koch's production and songwriting that didn’t show on his previous records.

The cinematic vibe of tracks like “Nitesky”, the quirky and moody feel of “Bugs” and the electricity of “Tapedeck” show how Koch more than ever manages to create intimate and timeless pieces of music that are soulful, deep, mysterious and that will appeal to fans of cutting edge Electronica and modern pop music alike. This is the most personal record of Robot Koch to date. Instead of going for big name features Koch teamed up with lesser know artists like Kansas based vocal talent John LaMonica, long time friend and theatre composer Nielson and mexican singer/songwriter Graciela Maria to find the right voices for his compositions. John LaMonica infuses his whimsical and heartfelt melodies that breathe an air of darkness and nostalgia with Koch's fresh and forward thinking instrumentals to create something that fans of Radiohead, The XX and Jamie Lidell should not sleep on.

After the release of the John Robinson collaboration album (“Robot Robinson” – Project Mooncircle) earlier this year, it seems surprising how extensive Robert’s output is, but don’t be mistaken, this album is a longer term project than just releasing the songs Koch made in the last year. Some of the songs found on “The Other Side” were made seven years ago.

2016 Grammys Best Historical Album Nominee
34 tracks newly re-mastered
Deluxe 3xLP set includes 60-page book housed in a “Tip-On” slipcase with three “Tip-On” jackets
Both 2xCD and 3xLP editions include comprehensive liner notes, artist interviews, unseen archival photos, and lyrics (with translations)
Vinyl pressed at RTI
Liner notes by Kevin “Sipreano” Howes

Largely unheard, criminally undocumented, but at their core, utterly revolutionary, the recordings of the diverse North American Aboriginal community will finally take their rightful place in our collective history in the form of Native North America (Vol. 1): Aboriginal Folk, Rock, and Country 1966–1985. An anthology of music that was once near-extinct and off-the-grid is now available for all to hear, in what is, without a doubt, Light In The Attic’s most ambitious and historically significant project in the label’s 12-year journey.

Native North America (Vol. 1) features music from the Indigenous peoples of Canada and the northern United States, recorded in the turbulent decades between 1966 to 1985. It represents the fusion of shifting global popular culture and a reawakening of Aboriginal spirituality and expression. The majority of this material has been widely unavailable for decades, hindered by lack of distribution or industry support and by limited mass media coverage, until now. You’ll hear Arctic garage rock from the Nunavik region of northern Quebec, melancholy Yup’ik folk from Alaska, and hushed country blues from the Wagmatcook First Nation reserve in Nova Scotia. You’ll hear echoes of Neil Young, Velvet Underground, Leonard Cohen, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Johnny Cash, and more among the songs, but injected with Native consciousness, storytelling, poetry, history, and ceremony.

The stories behind the music presented on Native North America (Vol. 1) range from standard rock-and-roll dreams to transcendental epiphanies. They have been collected with love and respect by Vancouver-based record archaeologist and curator Kevin “Sipreano” Howes in a 15-year quest to unearth the history that falls between the notes of this unique music. Tirelessly, Howes scoured obscure, remote areas for the original vinyl recordings and the artists who made them, going so far as to send messages in Inuktitut over community radio airwaves in hopes that these lost cultural heroes would resurface.

With cooperation and guidance from the artists, producers, family members, and behind the scenes players, Native North America (Vol. 1) sheds real light on the painful struggles and deep traditions of the greater Indigenous community and the significance of its music. The songs speak of joy and spirituality, but also tell of real tragedy and strife, like that of Algonquin/Mohawk artist Willy Mitchell, whose music career was sparked by a bullet to the head from the gun of a trigger-happy police officer, or those of Inuk singer-songwriter Willie Thrasher, who was robbed of his family and traditional Inuit culture by the residential school system.

Considering the financially motivated destruction of our environment, the conservative political landscape, and corporate bottom-line dominance, it’s bittersweet to report that the revolutionary songs featured on Native North America hold as much meaning today as when they were originally recorded. Dedicated to legendary Métis singer-songwriter and poet Willie Dunn, featured on the anthology but who sadly passed away during its making, Native North America (Vol. 1) is only the beginning. A companion set featuring a crucial selection of folk, rock, and country from the United States’ Lower 48 and Mexico is currently in production.