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Southern soul singer Z.Z. Hill was Kent/Modern's main artist in the latter half of the 60s. In 1967 the company recorded him on an LP of soul classics and rightly chose Bettye Swann's hit from only a few months before as one of the tracks. The label may have missed a commercial trick as his male-angle on the marvellous song gave it a new dimension and would surely have fared well as a 45. The UK licensors Action Records spotted the song's potential and it was well received, although the much smaller UK soul market of the time could rarely achieve big sales. Since its release more soul fans have become aware of its quality and at last it is available again for discerning collectors.

Peggy Woods' classic Northern Soul stomper was first on 45 in 1988 as a 100 Club anniversary single. With only approximately 400 pressed it was inevitable this and other such singles would become sought-after. Here is Peggy in her original glory singing her Kent/Modern masterpiece.

For the first time ever this 27 track double album collects all of their singles on Red Rhino and Beggars Banquet/Situation Two on Vinyl. A mandatory compilation that also includes the bonus 7 inch originally appeared on the first ltd version of the 1986 album ‘Paint Your Wagon’ (Paint Your Wagon/More Jipp), an alternative and harder rendition of ‘Beating My Head’ (originally appeared o the Ep ‘This Today’) and ‘Russia’ from the 1984 Ep ‘Hollow Eyes’. Red Lorry Yellow Lorry were one of the most successful independent bands of the 80’s with their dark and often manic rhythms.

7TH May sees the release of London based trio Penya’s self-titled Sophomore LP, a wild and untamed album that reimagines the global music landscape

It’s an exciting return for the band who have been championed by the likes of Gilles Peterson and lit up festival and club stages in the UK and beyond. Penya look set to carry on the momentum with high profile support on BBC Radio 6 music and Worldwide FM to add to an influx of preorders from fans. Penya;s debut LP “Superliminal” was released via On the Corner Records in 2018. Gilles Peterson highlighted the band as “one to watch” and they enjoyed widespread support that included Tom Ravenscroft, Stuart Maconie, Jeremy Soul, Bonobo Worldwide FM, Boiler Room and The Vinyl Factory, not to mention a spin from Jordan Rakei while he was sitting in for Mary Anne Hobbs on BBC Radio 6 music,

Penya have made numerous live appearances, Worldwide Festival Leysin, We Out Here festival, Fusion Festival (Germany) and End of the Road festival (where they featured in a live broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction to name a few, as well as supporting bands like Melt Yourself Down, and Sons of Kemet.

Studio work has expanded via collaborative releases with Dengue Dengue Dengue, Photay, Sarathy Korwar and the Tanzanian artist Msafiri Zawose

“Penya” will be released on 7th May 2021 via the band’s own label “Liminal Recordings” with support from PRS foundations Momentum fund

Straight Outta Caledonia is the first commercially available “Greatest Hits” of the outsider songwriter Jackie Leven, an artist
who has largely remained in obscurity in his native Scotland despite being one of the greatest wordsmiths – and singers – it ever
produced. A well-travelled musician who began making psychedelic, progressive music in the late 60s before emerging as an
epic storyteller full of pathos, humour and humanity in the 90s, Leven lived and wrote like many of the fragile, gregarious
characters of his songs; large, full of life and empathy. Leven passed away in 2011 after recording 30+ albums under different
guises or with his briefly successful New Wave band Doll by Doll. Straight Outta Caledonia is a compilation collated by Night
School Records on its Archival label School Daze that seeks to introduce Leven’s music to new generations.
In an age of isolation, alienation and loss of visceral experience, Jackie Leven’s music can be massive and welcoming. It feels
connected to some universal humanity and vibrates with vitality. His songs are often full of tragedy and comedy simultaneously,
cutting straight to the heart, often plugging directly into the nervous system of the listener. His lyrics are rich, dense with imagery
that can veer from apocalyptic to the comically banal in a sentence, with a songwriting panache that can be heavy handed to
almost bursting point before skewering the song with a clownish, warm punchline. His productions ranged from Bob Dylan’s
Rolling Thunder Revue style rock band orchestrations with strings and organ as on the epic Ancient Misty Morning or they could
be pared down to the purest form of folk song as on Poortoun: Leven on stage alone with an acoustic guitar, albeit played with a
mastery of the instrument that he often only hinted at. Musically his sound can bend traditional structures or stay completely
confined within them yet still forever push towards an ecstatic release, as on the cinematic Snow In Central Park.
The most exciting, jaw-droppingly effective tool at Leven’s disposal was his voice. A multi-octave instrument that, though
damaged during a savage assault in Fife, he used with flair; he had both a brazen disregard for the rules and a deep humility, all
of which is evidenced with every phrasing. A baritone that could flit up through the register – always touched by his gentle
Kirkcaldy accent – it’s the prime delivery method for his songs. Leven’s voice enabled him to inhabit the characters in his songs to
an uncanny degree, a skill that in turn enables the listener to empathise with them and, subsequently, the singer. It’s most evident
in stand out song The Sexual Loneliness Of Jesus Christ, a breathtaking re-telling of the life of its protagonist, not as a pure,
sinless messiah but as a sexually frustrated, solitary man condemned to an existential loneliness no one else will ever feel. In
many ways the track is the archetypal Jackie Leven song. Produced by Pere Ubu’s David Thomas, what strikes the ear first –
after the samples of unemployed workers in Glasgow following the closing of the Clyde shipyards – is the audacious, rhythmic
tremolo effect Leven employs through the verses before the production opens up to allow Leven’s vocal to lift into a soar, a
freeing glide powered both by the force of the singer’s chutzpah and the inherent, doomed destiny of the protagonist. With any
other singer such subject matter could come across as gauche or worse, pretentiously sonorous, but Jackie Leven’s genius was
such that he could be this cinematic and brazen while touching something elemental and true in the beholder. It’s a skill evident in
every song on Straight Outta Caledonia, the trademark of a songwriter who revelled and excelled in intensity with a lightness of
touch.
In his lifetime, Jackie Leven toured, wrote and recorded at a ferocious rate. He recorded under aliases to avoid record contract
restrictions, played house shows in Europe after or instead of official concerts, events which were often spoken word story telling
masterclasses as well as performances of his often bewilderingly dense songbook. His music has traditionally been catalogued
as “folk” music and has been largely banished to a small, dedicated group of international fans and apostles both private and well
known, like author Ian Rankin or Glenn Matlock. Since his passing in 2011 however, there has been a growing recognition
amongst a newer generation, with artists like James Yorkston or Molly Nilsson publicly stating the influence of the unsung
troubadour on their own craft. Jackie Leven’s fairytales for hard men are often forensic deconstructions of masculinity, sad and
ecstatic, light and shadow, always endlessly rich, a resource as bountiful as Leven himself’s human spirit undoubtedly was.

Dalhous end the 5-year silence with the long awaited follow up to 2016's House Number 44, presenting the second volume of The Composite Moods Collection. "Point Blank Range" reinterprets the established narrative with an inverse look at the proceedings. Taking the “point of view of the disease", the perspective is now turned inside out, revealing an alternate account from the eyes of the photographed subject of House Number 44. If Vol.1 was a documented presentation of another person's condition, Vol.2 takes the listener behind the facade.

From the outset, the album offers a narratively uncooperative stance, weaving together layers of anxiety and painful specificity that often overtly manifests the psychotic protagonist's stormy interior state. A clearly subjective assault, which is made evident right from opening track 'Transceivers' through to the imploding nature of 'Intramuscular Administration’, to the vulnerable, psychedelic mania of 'Open As A Glade Unfolding'. Continuing to work within the framework of a soundtrack-like structure, Dalhous ramps things up to provide the aural equivalent of sound and picture, manifesting an almost quasi-visual experience.

The entire record can be listened to as a continuous piece, each track seamlessly linked together as though part of an interconnecting nervous system. Where House Number 44 offered airy, widescreen soundscapes of detached detail, Point Blank Range presents an altogether different form. Creating airtight vacuums of agitated twitching feeling, tracks are pulled to the forefront of the stereo field, continually mutating their densely painted neurochemical hallucinations with a breadth of sound previously unheard on previous releases.

Listeners will be able to decipher nods to long standing soundtrack influences from composers such as Fabio Frizzi, with his use of strikingly bold and haunting melodies, to Tangerine Dream’s distinctively foggy atmospheres of The Keep. There are moments that evoke the nihilistic drones of Brian Gascoigne’s soundtrack to Phase IV, and the more horrific passages of metal clanging ambience from the likes of Chu Ishikawa with his scores for Shinya Tsukamoto.

After their former record label Blackest Ever Black disbanded, Dalhous found themselves out on a limb. It took 5 years to find a new home with Denovali. Given the unusually extended period between records, Dalhous had the time to dive deeper into the material, rendering a level of experimentation previously unavailable to them. Over 4 hours of material was created, a total of 1TB of data. Countless revisions to the track listing ensued with some of the unused material being reutilised in the making of the final chapter in the trilogy to form a direct companion piece.

1. SINGLE - EN Crowned by expert, airtight vocal domination from frontwoman Skye “Sever” Sweetnam, “Bystander” owns the listener with its aggressive, fast-paced attack of low, grooving metal riffage, relentless, erratic drums and slinking electronic accents. Tied together with a gritty hook, the track cements what “Cycos” can expect from the heavier side of Initiation. 2. SINGLE - EN Sauntering, forceful and haunting, “No Surrender” track shines as a prime pick on Initiation. The anthem fills the room with a pointed vocal attack and chugging lead riff of the heaviest metal, underlined by creeping electronic murmurs, seamlessly blending several more under-the-radar genre influences ranging from industrial to world while never losing its primary hard rock flavor. 3. SINGLE - EN Purely electrifying and in-your-face throughout, “Vertigo”, unlike its title suggests, is nothing but balanced – connecting like a sucker punch as soon as its electro-laced intro breaks into the first verse. Featuring the production mastery of Juno Award-winning producer Kane Churko (Ozzy Osbourne, In This Moment, Papa Roach), the anthem stands tall with its airtight, gritty pop rock sensibility. 4. SINGLE - EN As unpredictable and infectiously manic as the news itself, “Bad News” is a rollercoaster of charging, metallic rock riffage, jolting rhythms and catchy, sing a-long vocal lines. Poised as one of the most eclectic offerings on Initiation, lyrically, the timely track careens the listener down a road all too universally familiar – exploring tensions and eventual emotional explosions ignited by the cycle of never-ending bad news that has seemingly saturated the world.

Clear Vinyl

Post-minimalist American composer Rafael Anton Irisarri makes his Umor Rex debut with his new album, The Shameless Years. Inspired by a troubled socio-political climate, buried melodies punch their way through a bleak cover of noisy drones, periodically veering into some of Irisarri's most eerily pertinent music to date.

One of Rafael Anton Irisarri's most thematically and sonically cohesive records to date The Shameless Years came together in a relatively short burst of creativity starting at the end of 2016. Rediscovering some relatively older tools - namely Native Instruments' Reaktor, Absynth, and Kontakt software - Irisarri combined them with his collection of guitars, pedals, amps, and analogue processing gear, turning his Black Knoll Studio north of NYC into a powerful writing tool. Completed quickly by Irisarri's standards, let alone during a period of social upheaval in American society, the record faces down several key personal themes. The title, suggests Irisarri, could in fact be seen as a reflection of the era of shamelessness we're currently living in, a time of fake news and alternative facts.

Two tracks were completely remotely between Irisarri in New York and Umor Rex veteran Siavash Amini from his home in Tehran, Iran. This music came together at the peak of all the anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant rhetoric happening in the USA, not to mention the banning of Iranians from entering the country, explains Irisarri. The diptych with Amini, 'Karma Krama' and 'The Faithless', seems bathed in additional waves of sorrow and dread. The wash of symphonic stormclouds of synth drones and processed notes on the latter gradually appears and disappears over the course of thirteen mournful minutes.

'Rh Negative' marches gigantic guitars through towering valleys of scarred ambient noise dealing with Irisarri's own heritage, many of his ancestors having come to America to escape poverty and oppression. The refusal of modern America to extend similar sanctuary to refugees escaping turmoil weighs heavily on the composer. Elsewhere an emotional onslaught of notes buried in mounds of greyscale noise on 'Sky Burial' aims to deal with Irisarri's very own mortality - something he was recently confronted with following health scares, an accident, and a near-death experience in 2016. Pushing 40 as this album was being made, the composer is constantly aware that he's already outlived his own father, who died at the age of 32. Facing down both intolerance and the void, the epic soundscapes of The Shameless Years are a vast cry of emotion from Irisarri. The clock is ticking - gotta make the most out of it while you still can.

All songs written and performed by Rafael Anton Irisarri, except #5 & #6 written and performed with Siavash Amini. Design by Daniel Castrejón, photos by Camilo Christen. Mastered by James Plotkin.

With unfettered access to the Zappa Trust and all archival footage, ZAPPA explores the private life behind the mammoth musical career that never shied away from the political turbulence of its time. Alex Winter’s (Bill & Ted’s movie franchises, The Lost Boys) assembly features appearances by Frank’s widow Gail Zappa and several of Frank’s musical collaborators including Mike Keneally, Ian Underwood, Steve Vai, Pamela Des Barres, Bunk Gardner, David Harrington, Scott Thunes, Ruth Underwood, Ray White and others. The soundtrack is a perfect complement to the film available as a limited edition 5-LP 180-gram vinyl set for the Zappa completist. Showcasing 69 total songs, there are 12 previously unreleased recordings from the Zappa archive along with his 1978 Saturday Night Live performance; 24 additional Zappa songs from his extensive catalog spanning four decades; songs from Zappa’s labels Straight / Bizarre Records like “No Longer Umpire” by Alice Cooper and “The Captain’s Fat Theresa Shoes” by The GTO’s; 2 classical compositions by Edgard Varese and Igor Stravinsky; and 26 Original Score cues newly composed by John Frizzell for the documentary – all of which give the universe a sonic exploration into the musical brilliance of Frank Zappa. A 2LP edition on 180-gram clear vinyl will also be available, collecting together eight of the unreleased recordings from the Zappa archive, the SNL performance and 13 recordings from Zappa’s extensive recording career.

With unfettered access to the Zappa Trust and all archival footage, ZAPPA explores the private life behind the mammoth musical career that never shied away from the political turbulence of its time. Alex Winter’s (Bill & Ted’s movie franchises, The Lost Boys) assembly features appearances by Frank’s widow Gail Zappa and several of Frank’s musical collaborators including Mike Keneally, Ian Underwood, Steve Vai, Pamela Des Barres, Bunk Gardner, David Harrington, Scott Thunes, Ruth Underwood, Ray White and others. The soundtrack is a perfect complement to the film available as a limited edition 5-LP 180-gram vinyl set for the Zappa completist. Showcasing 69 total songs, there are 12 previously unreleased recordings from the Zappa archive along with his 1978 Saturday Night Live performance; 24 additional Zappa songs from his extensive catalog spanning four decades; songs from Zappa’s labels Straight / Bizarre Records like “No Longer Umpire” by Alice Cooper and “The Captain’s Fat Theresa Shoes” by The GTO’s; 2 classical compositions by Edgard Varese and Igor Stravinsky; and 26 Original Score cues newly composed by John Frizzell for the documentary – all of which give the universe a sonic exploration into the musical brilliance of Frank Zappa. A 2LP edition on 180-gram clear vinyl will also be available, collecting together eight of the unreleased recordings from the Zappa archive, the SNL performance and 13 recordings from Zappa’s extensive recording career.

Gordon Koang, South Sudan’s enigmatic superstar and ceaseless fountain of infectious, upbeat pop music, kick starts 2021 by revealing a series of remixes from his recent Unity album, this time partnering with two of the undisputed leaders of electronic music in his adopted home city of Melbourne, Australia - Sleep D and Andras.

Stranded overseas after civil war tore apart their country over six years ago, Gordon and his cousin Paul Biel Kueth, who were on tour performing to expatriate communities in Australia, were forced to apply for humanitarian protection and made the heartbreaking decision to leave their families stranded at home, on the chance that citizenship would be granted and reunification made possible.

After languishing on the outskirts of Melbourne’s suburbs for many years, Gordon met the Music in Exile label, a not-for-profit run by members of Melbourne’s flourishing music scene in order to create more opportunity for the city's numerous refugee and migrant musicians. He immediately assembled a band and tracked his eleventh full-length album, Unity (his first recorded album featuring performances in English and made widely available).

In the midst of a successful run of singles and festival performances around Australia, the Covid-19 pandemic hit, derailing Gordon’s newfound success and growing status as the darling of Melbourne’s vibrant music scene. Forced to find alternatives, Gordon reached out to some of his newfound friends in that city’s community. The result - this set of startling remixes by some of the finest voices in electronic music today.

Gordon, who was born blind in a small village in South Sudan’s Upper Nile Valley, began composing on the thom, a five-stringed instrument sometimes referred to as a Sudanese banjo, He started busking on the streets of Juba, accompanied by his cousin Paul Biel, who would sell homemade cassettes and CD’s. His anthems of peace, love and unity struck a chord, and before long Gordon found himself as something of a folk hero and a voice for peace in a country torn by ongoing conflict.

Now resettled in Australia, Gordon records and releases music in order to support his family back home in East Africa. He still awaits Australian citizenship, and forges on in the hope that this may one day be granted, allowing him to reunite with his wife and family in his newfound home.

Unity is Gordon’s eleventh full-length album and first to be recorded in Australia. It was produced by Stefan Blair and Liam Parsons of Melbourne lo-fi legends Good Morning, and features an ensemble cast of Australian performers. South Sudan and Y Dah are taken from the album, reimagined here by Andras and Sleep D. The remixes were a gift to Gordon and his family, with no fees paid or royalties due - all proceeds go directly to Gordon to help him reunite with his family.

The demo take of “That’s Why I Love You” was recorded within the Detroit - Memphis workflow of award winning producer Don Davis alongside several other cuts which never saw the light of the day. In pursue of our label main commitment, we have tried hard in the completion of the vocal take to preserve the original southern feel of the demo and at the same time we are offering it to you on the flip side exactly as it came out of the magnetic tape. Hope you like the whole Detroit project as it unfolds. Many stoiries about the people behind the shades of our beautiful music in our book FUNK INVESTIGATORS

Few bands in the UK's heavy underground have quite managed to reach the dizzying technical heights of progressive death metal quartet LUNA'S CALL. The Lincolnshire based band are now ready to surpass their own high watermark they set with 2015's debut record Divinity, with their long-awaited sophomore album 'Void' being set for release on Listenable records. 'Void' is a highly ambitious opus crafted from extreme technical wizardry and an eclectic sound palette that reaches from progressive rock, technical death metal and neo-classical. The album has been mixed and mastered by legendary producer Russ Russell (Napalm Death, At The Gates, Amorphis). Listeners will stand in awe of the complexity and dynamic ebb and flow that Luna's Call conjure, pushing their sound and scope further forward with an even grander and more epic statement. 'Void' is a delightful showcase of pummeling drums, shredding riffs, spacey synths and varied vocal styles, across a record that explores themes of observing the Earth's environmental destruction from the vastness of outer space. LUNA'S CALL have become a vital staple-piece of the UK's vibrant metal scene with performances at Bloodstock Open Air Festival 2018 and Badgerfest 2019. LUNA'S CALL have performed with acclaimed acts including Hundred Year Old Man, Moloch, zhOra and more. With 'Void', Luna's Call aim to take themselves further forward with the potential to tour and play large festivals in the future.

After two UK #1 albums, 2 million album sales and an array of international acclaim, you might’ve thought you knew what to expect from Royal Blood. Those preconceptions were shattered when they released ‘Trouble’s Coming’ last summer. Hitting a melting pot of fiery rock riffs and danceable beats, they delivered something fresh, unexpected and yet entirely in tune with what they’d forged their reputation with.

The reaction was phenomenal, with highlights including 20 million streams, a premiere as Annie Mac’s Hottest Record and a run on Radio 1’s A-list and earned alternative radio support and media attention across the globe. In short, Royal Blood are primed to be bigger than ever before. That feat is set to be realised when they release their eagerly anticipated third album ‘Typhoons’ on April 30th via Warner Records.

When Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher sat down to talk about making a new album, they knew what they wanted to achieve. It involved a conscious return to their roots, back when they had made music that was influenced by Daft Punk, Justice, and Philippe Zdar of Cassius. It also called for a similar back-to-basics approach to what had made their self-titled debut album so thrilling, visceral and original.

“We sort of stumbled on this sound, and it was immediately fun to play,” recalls Kerr. “That’s what sparked the creativity on the new album, the chasing of that feeling. It’s weird, though - if you think back to ‘Figure it Out’, it kind of contains the embryo of this album. We realised that we didn’t have to completely destroy what we’d created so far; we just had to shift it, change it. On paper, it’s a small reinvention. But when you hear it, it sounds so fresh.”

Those traits pulsate throughout the new single and title track. Kerr’s spiralling bass riff casts an hypnotic allure as it grows in intensity, while his vocals switch at will between a raw rock roar and a soulful falsetto. It’s underpinned by Thatcher’s thundering beats, his taut rhythms infused with groove-laden hi-hats.

After setting the tone with ‘Trouble’s Coming’, the album opens in breathless, take-no-prisoners style with the fierce metallic grooves of ‘Who Needs Friends’ hitting an early visceral peak. Royal Blood further reference their fresh array of influences by deploying vocodered vocals on ‘Million & One’ before dynamically switching between the biggest contrasts of their sound with ‘Limbo’. Already a fan favourite having been a regular during the duo’s 2019 shows, ‘Boilermaker’ lives up to its reputation and is more than matched by ‘Mad Visions’, which evokes a hyper-aggressive Prince. It ends with a final surprise in the shape of the stark piano ballad ‘All We Have Is Now’, a vulnerable and revealing reminder to live in the moment.

That song’s unguarded sentiments gives the album a redemptive finale. Whether directly or allusively, the album focuses on exploring the flipside of success that they’ve experienced. It comes from the realisation that success is much more complicated than it seems and that having the time to regain perspective is a precious commodity which becomes ever more elusive. The situation called for reflection and change, which Kerr addressed in Las Vegas. He downed an espresso martini and declared it to be his last drink, and soon discovered that his new-found sobriety would have a positive impact upon his creativity and life as a whole.

That new approach manifested itself in the duo’s decision to produce the majority of ‘Typhoons’ themselves. ‘Boilermaker’ was produced by Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme, the two bands having first connected when Royal Blood supported them on a huge North American tour. Meanwhile, the multiple Grammy Award winner Paul Epworth produced ‘Who Needs Friends’ and contributed additional production to ‘Trouble’s Coming’.

After two UK #1 albums, 2 million album sales and an array of international acclaim, you might’ve thought you knew what to expect from Royal Blood. Those preconceptions were shattered when they released ‘Trouble’s Coming’ last summer. Hitting a melting pot of fiery rock riffs and danceable beats, they delivered something fresh, unexpected and yet entirely in tune with what they’d forged their reputation with.
The reaction was phenomenal, with highlights including 20 million streams, a premiere as Annie Mac’s Hottest Record and a run on Radio 1’s A-list and earned alternative radio support and media attention across the globe. In short, Royal Blood are primed to be bigger than ever before. That feat is set to be realised when they release their eagerly anticipated third album ‘Typhoons’ on April 30th via Warner Records.
When Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher sat down to talk about making a new album, they knew what they wanted to achieve. It involved a conscious return to their roots, back when they had made music that was influenced by Daft Punk, Justice, and Philippe Zdar of Cassius. It also called for a similar back-to-basics approach to what had made their self-titled debut album so thrilling, visceral and original.
“We sort of stumbled on this sound, and it was immediately fun to play,” recalls Kerr. “That’s what sparked the creativity on the new album, the chasing of that feeling. It’s weird, though - if you think back to ‘Figure it Out’, it kind of contains the embryo of this album. We realised that we didn’t have to completely destroy what we’d created so far; we just had to shift it, change it. On paper, it’s a small reinvention. But when you hear it, it sounds so fresh.”

Those traits pulsate throughout the new single and title track. Kerr’s spiralling bass riff casts an hypnotic allure as it grows in intensity, while his vocals switch at will between a raw rock roar and a soulful falsetto. It’s underpinned by Thatcher’s thundering beats, his taut rhythms infused with groove-laden hi-hats.



After setting the tone with ‘Trouble’s Coming’, the album opens in breathless, take-no-prisoners style with the fierce metallic grooves of ‘Who Needs Friends’ hitting an early visceral peak. Royal Blood further reference their fresh array of influences by deploying vocodered vocals on ‘Million & One’ before dynamically switching between the biggest contrasts of their sound with ‘Limbo’. Already a fan favourite having been a regular during the duo’s 2019 shows, ‘Boilermaker’ lives up to its reputation and is more than matched by ‘Mad Visions’, which evokes a hyper-aggressive Prince. It ends with a final surprise in the shape of the stark piano ballad ‘All We Have Is Now’, a vulnerable and revealing reminder to live in the moment.

That song’s unguarded sentiments gives the album a redemptive finale. Whether directly or allusively, the album focuses on exploring the flipside of success that they’ve experienced. It comes from the realisation that success is much more complicated than it seems and that having the time to regain perspective is a precious commodity which becomes ever more elusive. The situation called for reflection and change, which Kerr addressed in Las Vegas. He downed an espresso martini and declared it to be his last drink, and soon discovered that his new-found sobriety would have a positive impact upon his creativity and life as a whole.

That new approach manifested itself in the duo’s decision to produce the majority of ‘Typhoons’ themselves. ‘Boilermaker’ was produced by Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme, the two bands having first connected when Royal Blood supported them on a huge North American tour. Meanwhile, the multiple Grammy Award winner Paul Epworth produced ‘Who Needs Friends’ and contributed additional production to ‘Trouble’s Coming’.

New album by jazz pianist & composer Rolf Zielke on Agogo. "Beaches In Your Soul" is a reflection of Contemporary Jazz, Latin, Brazilian Jazz and music of the 'Middle East: The pianist Rolf Zielke has been a constant in the German Jazz scene for many years. The spectrum of his work, bands and projects is huge and he keeps surprising us with new ideas and concepts.

Die 7-fache Grammy Gewinnerin Carrie Underwood veröffentlicht ihr neues Album „My Savior“ Seit ihrem Gewinn der amerikanischen TV-Show „American Idol“ 2005 geht es für die 37-Jährige steil Bergauf: Mit mehr als 64 Millionen verkauften Platten weltweit, 27 Nummer eins Hits (14 davon als CoAutor) und sieben Alben die mit dem RIAA Platin Award ausgezeichnet wurden zählt Carrie Underwood
zweifelsohne zu den Ausnahmetalenten im Pop-Olymp.
Mit „My Savior“ erscheint nun das nächste Werk der Amerikanerin. Das Album enthält eine intime Sammlung traditioneller Gospel-Hymnen und ist das spirituelle Gegenstück zum Weihnachtsalbum „My Gift“: ”Diese beiden Alben stehen seit Beginn meiner Karriere auf meiner musikalischen Bucket List und waren
lange vor den Ereignissen des vergangenen Jahres geplant, aber irgendwie fühlt es sich wie der perfekte
Zeitpunkt an, diese Songs mit der Welt zu teilen.”, so Underwood.
Der Grammy Preisträger David Garcia ist als Co-Produzent beteiligt und wirkte bereits an Carrie Underwood‘s mit Platin ausgezeichnetem Album „Cry Pretty“ mit.

Critically acclaimed debut studio album by American soul/R&B singer. Originally released digitally/CD in 2019 by Keep Cool Records via RCA. The album was broken up into two EP's, part of a series to lead up to his debut album. The album received a nomination for Best R&B Album at the 62nd Grammy Awards, while the album's lead single "Roll Some Mo" received nominations for Best R&B Song and Best R&B Performance. Album cut "Real Games" received a nomination in the Best Traditional R&B Performance category. To mark the album's first anniversary, a deluxe edition of 'Painted' was released digitally in May 2020 including new mixes and alternative versions of previously released songs as well as four new tracks. Here the album is available phisically for the first time, as a double LP. Specialist marketing activity.

2x Grammy nominated band Gojira have announced details of their long-awaited new album, FORTITUDE, which will be released April 30th via Roadrunner Records and have released the forthcoming album’s first single, “Born For One Thing”. FORTITUDE stands is Gojira’s first album in five years and the follow-up to 2016’s Grammy nominated LP MAGMA.

Recorded and Produced by Joe Duplantier at Silver Cord Studio - Gojira’s Ridgewood, Queens, headquarters – and mixed by Andy Wallace (Nirvana, Rage Against The Machine), FORTITUDE is a collection of songs urging humanity to imagine a new world—and then make it happen. The band initially laid the foundation for FORTITUDE last year with the surprise release of the 2020 single “Another World.” NPR hailed the track as “an apocalyptic banger,” while STEREOGUM declared, “Gojira are one of this century’s most important underground metal institutions.” Voted by fans as the #1 release on REVOLVER’s “5 Most Anticipated Albums of 2021,” FORTITUDE continues Gojira’s career-long tradition of harnessing their music as a vehicle for environmental activism with songs like “Amazonia” and “The Chant” not only surveying critical cases, but also catalyzing listeners to take action.

On 2016’s MAGMA, Gojira found strength—and crossover success—through a singular commitment to self-reflection. The intensely personal record, penned in memory of the Duplantier brothers' late mother, was a painful significant turning point for the French group. The album earned the band two GRAMMY nominations - ‘Best Metal Performance’ and ‘Best Rock Album,’ and upon release, MAGMA took the #1 spot on BILLBOARD’s ‘Hard Rock Albums’ chart, a first for a French band. MAGMA also asserted itself as one of the most acclaimed albums of 2016, earning METAL HAMMER’s coveted “Album of the Year” title while also landing on ROLLING STONE’s “Top 20 Metal Albums of 2016,”

Recorded sporadically over five years from 2015 to 2019, Sixty Summers was shaped profoundly by Stone’s key collaborators on the album: Thomas Bartlett, aka Doveman, and Annie Clark, the Grammy-winning singer, songwriter and producer known as St. Vincent. Bartlett and Clark were the symbiotic pair Stone needed to realise her first pop vision. A wizard of production and songwriting, Bartlett helped coax Sixty Summers’ independent, elemental spirit from Stone, writing and recording over 50 demos with her at his studio in New York. Itself a thoroughfare for indie rock luminaries, some of whom, such as The National’s Matt Berninger and Bryce Dessner, ended up on the album, Bartlett’s studio was perfect fertile ground for Stone’s growth.
Clark was the incisive yang to Bartlett’s yin, a sharp musical polymath who, when presented with the work Bartlett and Stone had made together, quickly helped fashion Sixty Summers into the album it was destined to be. Contributing vocals and guitar in addition to production, Clark’s revered acidic touch ignited the sparks of Stone’s creations.
The scope of Sixty Summers is dizzyingly vast; miles away from Stone’s past work, it is a world unto itself, a surreal and breathtaking new landscape. Where Stone’s previous solo records, 2010’s The Memory Machine and 2014’s By The Horns, found her grappling with the natural darkness that comes with loving too much, Sixty Summers finds Stone claiming every part of herself: fire, fury, love, lust, longing. Touching on reference points as disparate as the avant-funk of Talking Heads (on ‘Break’) the romantic 2am musings of Serge Gainsbourg (‘Free’, ‘Dance’) and the sleek, ecstatic synth work of Lorde’s Melodrama (‘Substance’), Sixty Summers is an album you can dance to and one you can lose yourself in completely.

Still just shy of legal US drinking age, GRAMMY®-winning Atlanta hard rock juggernaut Mastodon turns 20 this year! Celebrating two decades together, the group will unleash a rarities collection, Medium Rarities, which includes among the many rare highlights an unreleased track “Fallen Torches,” recorded in 2019.

The band explains, “‘Fallen Torches’ is an unreleased track from Mastodon that will appear for the first time on Medium Rarities. This classic Mastodon track was recorded in Atlanta in 2019, originally planned to be released in support of a European tour, the track was delayed so the band could focus on the release of Stairway to Nick John, a tribute to their late, long time manager Nick John, with proceeds going to the Hirshberg Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research in his honour. ‘Fallen Torches’ is written by Mastodon and features guest vocals by longtime friend and collaborator Scott Kelly from the band Neurosis.”

Medium Rarities presents a bevy of classic covers, soundtrack contributions, instrumentals, B-sides, and live recordings on one complete package for the very first time. Among an eclectic array of covers, the musicians tackle “A Commotion” by Feist, “A Spoonful Weighs A Ton” by The Flaming Lips, and “Orion” by Metallica. It also features soundtrack cuts such as “White Walker” Game of Thrones and “Cut You Up With A Linoleum Knife” [Aqua Teen Hunger Force]. Meanwhile, they get under the hood with instrumental versions of “Asleep in the Deep,” “Toe To Toes,” “Jaguar God,” and “Halloween.”

Another new Mastodon track “Rufus Lives” will be included in the forthcoming Orion Pictures film Bill & Ted Face The Music, expected to be released in September 2020. Written, performed and produced by the band and recorded in their hometown of Atlanta, the track will also appear exclusively on the film’s official soundtrack album. Further details to be revealed shortly.

The anniversary celebration only continues. At the moment, Mastodon are hard at work on their anxiously awaited ninth full-length and first record since the GRAMMY® Award-winning Emperor of Sand in 2017.

RAWAX proudly welcomes Luca Piermattei to the family! Luca blowed us away with his great demos. To make a decision and select only 4 tracks was simply impossible, so we took nearly all of them and decided to make series of 4 records, starting with "Serotonin EP".

Rich in musical associations yet utterly singular in its voice, joyous with an inner tranquility, the music of Natural Information Society is unlike any other being made today. Their sixth album in eleven years for eremite records, descension (Out of Our Constrictions) is the first to be recorded live, featuring a set from London’s Cafe OTO with veteran English free-improv great Evan Parker, & the first to feature just one extended composition. The 75-minute performance, inspired by the galvanizing presence of Parker, is a sustained bacchanalia of collective ecstasy. You could call it their party album.

This was the second time Parker played with NIS. Joshua Abrams: “Both times we played compositions with Evan in mind. I don’t tell Evan anything. He’s a free agent.”

The music is focused & malleable, energized & even-keeled, drawing on concepts of ensemble playing common to musics from many locations & eras without any one specific aesthetic realization completely defining it.

“The rhythms that Mikel plays are not an exact reference to Chicago house, but that’s in there,” Abrams says. “I like to take a cyclic view of music history, can we take that four-on-the-floor, & consider how it connects to swing-era music? Can we articulate a through line? I dee-jayed for years in Chicago & lessons I learned from playing records for dancing inform how I think about the group’s music. The listener can make connections to aspects of soul music, electronic music, minimalism, traditional folk musics, & other musics of the diaspora as well. It’s about these aspects coming together. I don’t need to mimic something, I need to embody it to get to the spirit, to get to the living thing.”

For jazz fans, the sound of Parker’s soprano & Jason Stein’s bass clarinet might evoke Coltrane & Dolphy, even though they didn’t necessarily set out to do that & they play with complete individuality. Abrams sees a bridge to the historical precedent, too. “Since we first met in the 1990s, one of the things that Evan and I connected on was Coltrane’s music,” he says. “I hoped that we would tap into that sound world intuitively. In this case, I think that level of evocation adds another layer of depth, versus a layer of reference.”

Indeed, this is a performance in which the connections among the ensemble & the creative tension between improvisation and composition build into a complex mesh of associations & interactions. While the band confines itself to the territory mapped out by Abrams’ composition, they are remarkably attentive & responsive, making adjustments to Parker’s improvisations. When Parker’s intricate patterns of notes interweave with the band, the parts reinforce one another & the music rockets upward. Sometimes, Parker’s lines are cradled by the group’s gentle pulse & an unearthly lyrical balance is struck.

Drummer Mikel Patrick Avery is locked-in, playing with hellacious long-form discipline, feel & responsiveness. Jason Stein’s animated, vocalized bass clarinet weaves in & out with Lisa Alvarado’s harmonium to state the piece’s thematic material; the pulsing tremolo on the harmonium brings a Spacemen 3 vibe to the party. Abrams ties together melody & rhythm on guimbri, a presence that leads without seeming to. Like his bandmates, he shifts modes of playing frequently, improvising & then returning to the composed structure.

“As specific as the composition is, the goal is to internalize it & mix it up,” Abrams says. “The idea is to get so comfortable that we can make spontaneous changes, find new routes of activity, stasis & byways every gig. It’s like a web we’re spinning. If someone makes a move, we all aim to be aware of it, make room for it. Experiencing & listening is what it’s about, & Evan supercharges that.”

& “supercharged” is the word for this album. With Parker further opening up their music, descension (Out of Our Constrictions) is the sound of Natural Information Society growing both more disciplined and freer, one of the great bands of its time on a deep run.

Aguirre edition: Mastered by Helge Sten, Audio Virus, Oslo. Lacquers by Dubplates & Mastering. Liner Notes by Theaster Gates. LPs pressed on premium audiophile-quality vinyl at Pallas Records. US 2xLP edition available thru Eremite records.

The term "Guitar Hero" is bandied about loosely these days. Seems like all you have to do is look good holding the thing and you qualify. But if you ask the actual guitar heroes---like Brian May, Jeff Beck, and Eric Clapton---who THEIR Guitar Heroes are, Steve Cropper is definitely on the shortlist. If all he had done were the records with Otis Redding that would be enough, but shortly thereafter he was leaving his fingerprints on records by Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, Johnny Taylor, Albert King, and virtually anybody worthy who came within earshot of Memphis. He was a Guitarist's Guitarist, and a Songwriter's Songwriter.

Fire It Up is Steve Cropper's first album of new Soul/R&B material in 10 years. The album was produced by Steve and Jon Tiven, and will be released worldwide on April 23, 2021 via Mascot Label Group/Provogue.

On October 12, 1929, Kathryn Culp and Sammie Lee Brown had the idea to name their first-born baby Napoleon. With such a vital beginning, little Nappy was already predestined to hit the mark, so from a very young age he stood out for his vocal qualities, well cultivated in gospel, which he practiced assiduously in The First Mount Zion Baptist Church run by his father.

To Mr. Brown's chagrin, after his first forays into religious music participating in vocal gospel groups such as The Golden Crowns, Golden Bell Quintet and The Heavenly Lights, with whom he recorded his first single for Savoy in 1954, the young Napoleon decided to try his hand at secular music, convinced by Herman Lubinsky, the big boss man of the New Jersey label.

In this way, between 1954 and 1962, Napoleon recorded a total of 28 singles at Savoy, clearly marking the transition from Rhythm & Blues to Rock’n’Roll, and also his subsequent jump to Soul, being the natural link between the late 40s southerners like Wynonie Harris or Big Joe Turner and artists like Jackie Wilson or James Brown, who cemented the black sounds of the 60s.

This LP includes a compilation of some of his best songs at Savoy, high class rock'n'roll, with a lot of dancefloor favourites like DON'T BE ANGRY, compiled in its two versions, or JUST A LITTLE LOVIN ', but also his more Bluesy sides, with songs like the fabulous DOWN IN THE ALLEY, which would be recorded years later by that certain singer born in Tupelo, Mississippi, that many times declared how much he dug Nappy Brown’s Rhythm & Blues.

In the same bluesy way Nappy wrote the iconic THE RIGHT TIME, one of the first stones of the Soul cathedral, originally recorded by Nappy on 1957, and revised one year before by Ray Charles. Ray’s version, renamed Night Time Is The Right Time, would be included as the main theme of the award-winning film IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT. We´ve also included Nappy’s own answer to this song, recorded in 1961 and titled as ANY TIME IS THE RIGHT TIME.

Finally can´t avoid to name some of the backing musicians you´ll hear in these tracks, Sam ‘The Man’ Taylor, Mickey Baker, Panama Francis… have a look on notes bellow, oh boy! the A-Team of the mid-century New York Rhythm & Blues!

Nappy disappeared from the music scene in 1962, remaining anonymous until 1969, when he would return to Rhythm & Blues on Elephant Records with an LP whose title could not be more eloquent: THANK YOU FOR NOTHING.

Since then, Nappy was very active until his death in 2008, alternating his love for gospel and Rhythm & Blues, touring the United States and Europe and releasing no less than a dozen LPs.

Heavyweight (180gm), double black LP.

Gatefold sleeve with 16 page booklet and download code insert.

Favorite Recordings and Charles Maurice proudly present the 5th edition of the AOR Global Sounds compilations series: 8 rare and hidden tracks, produced between 1977 and 1984 in various parts of the world. Started in 2015, the AOR Global Sounds series was born from the will of Charles Maurice (aka Pascal Rioux) to share his longtime love for the AOR and WestCoast movement and highlight its influence for many artists in the late 70s and early 80s. In this 5th volume, he selected again highly forgotten productions, deeply infused with Disco and Soul flavors.

Half of the compilation’s tracklist is naturally coming from the US, homeland of this music style, while the other half is made of productions from all over the globe, from France or United Kingdom to Venezuela. And for most of these beautiful songs, it came from artists and bands rather unknown and often released as private press.

Often, these records will have a special story, sometimes they’re just part of the universal quest of finding true love. Nonetheless, they all carry a wide range of emotions magnified by the music.

For example, “Don’t Take It Away” by Westside is as a love song about a new relationship, recorded in Minnesota and mastered on Sunset Bld. (Hollywood) by Bernie Grundman, who worked on Thriller – funny thing, the original LP is a picture-disc, which was still quite rare back in the days because the singer saw one from Mickael Jackson when visiting the studio. “Til’ Mornin’ Comes”, the only release by The Ferry Brothers, is also a love song, recorded in NYC with notably Gwen Guthrie, Vivian Cherry & Patti Austin singing as backup vocalists. On “What Its Meant To Me”, Jonathon Hansen remembers with emotion the good times spent with the members of his band including the vocalist he was in love with. On “J’Irai Squatter Ton Cœur”, Didier Makaga better-known as a French Boogie & Pop singer, arranger & composer, sings a charming declaration of love on a heavy and groovy eighties production. “You Never Know” by Rhapsody, recorded in Connecticut, sounds more like an East coast fusion of Soul and Jazz-Funk à la James Mason. “What You Do To Me” by Sugar Cane was highlighted on a Pittsburgh Rock Radio compilation: listening to this smooth ballad with its amazing Moog synth break will lift your soul. “Kailua” by Venezuelan Jazz-Funk band Esperanto, is a song about Hawaii which evocates bucolic dreamy nights facing the ocean, a typical AOR vibe. Finally, “I Need You” from Mark Williamson is a blue-eyed soul UK groover ending on a four-on-the-floor climax!

And we could detail stories but our guessing is the best way to learn more about all these gems is to listen to the compilation, fully remastered from originals, and whether your preference is for vinyl or CD formats.

don Grammar’s success and longevity as a band has traced the British pop graph for over a decade now. The new album embodies a new clarity of purpose centred around frontwoman Hannah Reid, who crafts a message of femininity and power on the new material. Their debut double platinum selling record 'If You Wait' garnered huge success on its release in 2013, which was followed up by their #1 record 'Truth Is A Beautiful Thing' in 2017. To date the band have sold over 3 million records and 1 million tickets globally, whilst their music has been streamed 1 billion times. Having garnered numerous BRIT nominations and awarded a prestigious Ivor Novello, London Grammar remain rooted as one of the most exceptional and successful artists of a generation.

super deluxe box set/20 page hardback book featuring artwork, unseen photos and an exclusive lithograph art print on 300 GSM card. Inside you’ll find the album on CD, 12” 180g transparent white vinyl plus a special blue 10”.

LEGENDARY SESSION ! FIRST TIME EVER ON VINYL AND CUT DIRECTLY FROM THE ORIGINAL MASTER TAPES WITH NO DIGITAL PROCESS WHATSOEVER!!!

TIP ON SLEEVE PRINTED JUST LIKE THE OLD NIMBUS LP’s FROM THE 70’s and 80’s… BRAND NEW ARTWORK FROM ORIGINAL SESSION PHOTOS AND LINER NOTES BY Mark Weber

At long last…On Vinyl…From original tapes. 3/5ths of the Quintet that recorded "‘the Giant is Awakened’ LP in 1969…this album sat unreleased for 20+ years before it saw a small run on cd (with poor mastering the early 2000’s), now, 40 years after it was recorded, finally released in the original format it was intended for….This LP sounds fresh and amazing…if you’ve only heard the cd, you’ve not truly heard this lost gem in its full glory. edition of 500




Born in Mississippi in 1937 and beginning to play the saxophone at 14, Billie Harris relocated to Los Angeles in 1965 after a 4 year stint in the Air Force, becoming one of the great, unsung forces of underground jazz in the city for many years (he later relocated to the Mojave Desert, where, at last record, he still plays in a church band). A Venice Beach street musician and longtime member of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra - you can hear him playing on Live at I.U.C.C. and Flight 17, as well as Jesse Sharps Quintet & P.A.P.A.’s Sharps and Flats (reissued in 2018) - he was also director of the AZZ IZZ jazz club in Venice Beach during the 70s.




On April 29 and May 3, 1980, Harris entered the studio, backed by Horace Tapscott on piano, David Bryant on bass, Daa’oud Woods on percussion, and Everett Brown Jr on drums, recording, over those two days what was to be his only outing as a leader. Once heard, the tragic lack of further material can’t be ignored. It is a truly stunning piece of work, even more surprising for the fact that it sat unreleased for over 20 years, only to be released as a small, poorly mastered edition on CD during the early 2000’s. Now, finally appearing very first time on the format and label for which it was intended, 40 years after it was recorded, we can hear this lost gem in all its glory.




Harris was 43 years old at the time of the Nimbus West sessions that resulted in I Want Some Water, and the power and experience of his playing, honed over three decades, shows in full force. The band is equally imbued with power, sensitivity, and experience. Tapscott, Bryant, and Brown’s working partnership goes back to 1969, when they recorded Tapscott’s debut as a leader, The Giant Is Awakened. In quintet’s hands, channeling the heavy modal relationships pioneered by Coltrane, heavy spiritual groove lock and unfurl, threaded by the release via incredibly forward-thinking improvisation.




Like so much of the work that came out of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra scene, I Want Some Water has a giant sound, each track long in length, building slowly over time toward towering heights that leave the listener immersed in one of the greatest treasures of spiritual jazz that almost nobody ever heard. Rhythmic, rollicking, and tonally inspired, the joyous interplay of the band goes deep, locked in, and challenging the predictable path, while making nods to numerous, discreet traditions of music.




As far as reissues go, Nimbus’ first ever vinyl pressing of Harris’ I Want Some Water is about as good as it gets. Not only does it deliver some of the best music we’ve heard all year, but it takes huge steps toward allowing a crucial artist to be celebrated in a way that he’s always deserved.

Cut directly from the original master tapes, featuring brand new artwork from the original sessions and liner notes from Mark Weber, and issued in a limited edition of 500 copies, it’s an absolute must that can’t be missed.

Songwriter and fingerstyle guitarist, Jason McNiff releases his 7th full length album, Dust Of Yesterday, on April 16th. Produced and engineered by Roger Askew (Joe Strummer, Wilko Johnson, Christy Moore) the album was recorded throughout the summer and autumn of 2020 in Roger's home studio in Eastbourne, UK. It features McNiff's signature acoustic guitar work throughout with significant contributions from Beth Porter (of Eliza Carthy's band) on cello and Basia Bartz (most London based folk bands) on violin. 
 
His first album since leaving London - McNiff is now based in Hastings - Dust of Yesterday is an elegy on moving away from a beloved place and a lament for lost youth. We are treated to a musical tour of McNiff's life to date, from his 8-year residency as a Flamenco guitarist in a Spanish bar in Waterloo (Damaged Woman) to hopping the northbound train from King's Cross, hiding in the lavatory up to Nottingham (A Load Along). All the songs on Dust of Yesterday, in one way or another, speak of the past. But it is not bleary-eyed nostalgia. 

"I read somewhere that it is possible to literally change the past and I became very interested in this idea. It so happened around the same time that I discovered the Greek/Egyptian poet, Cavafy. In his poems he would talk about the past, but the memory is not a thing of the past, but something that is still part of him in the present. I could relate to that. "

Musically, Jason is influenced by the British acoustic guitarists (Jansch, Graham, Wizz Jones) and the great folk/rock troubadours of the 60s and 70s. He loves Mark Knopfler in the early days; the English teacher turned reluctant rock star, singing about Leeds and Newcastle and sounding like JJ Cale. For McNiff, the lyrics are central, and he has been especially captivated by those considered poets and writers as well as musicians. He loves literature and cites Hemingway, Chekhov and the aforementioned Cavafy, as major influences in his work. ( He has 'translated' Hemingway's 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' into a song on a previous album, 'Nobody's Son')
 
 
Jason McNiff was born in Bradford, Yorkshire in 1974 to an Irish father and Polish mother. Academically gifted, he did well at school and went to the University of Nottingham to study French and Russian. He fell in with the Folk & Blues scene in that city before moving to London in the mid-nineties to do another degree in English Lit. He was just in time to catch the Bert Jansch residency at the 12 Bar club. For 6 months, every Wednesday night, McNiff would be in the front row of Soho's tiny club learning fingerstyle from the master. He would later sign his first record deal with Snowstorm Records, a label run by Bert's brother-in-law and found himself opening for Bert on numerous occasions. 
There followed a string of albums on various labels, including 2003's Nobody's Son (Americana UK album of the year) and 2011's April Cruel (nominated for best alt-country album at the Independent Music Awards in the US.)

Scorpion is the second studio album by Eve. It was by Ruff Ryders Entertainment and Interscope Records on released 6th March, 2001. The album’s title is a reference to Eve’s zodiac sign, Scorpio. It features the Grammy-winning hit single, “Let Me Blow Ya Mind”, a duet with Gwen Stefani, winning their first Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, a new category at the time.

Scorpion was a critical and commercial success, debuting at number four on the US Billboard 200 and became her second consecutive number-one album on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. Scorpion was later certified Platinum by the RIAA on 10th May, 2001. Scorpion was also nominated for Best Rap Album at the 44th Grammy Awards in 2002

Scorpion will release on 16th April in 2LP 180 gram black vinyl.

Following the hard-hitting return single ‘Anxious’ and a slew of mysterious ‘West Gazette’ posters appearing around the UK hinting at the announcement (including Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Bristol and London), West London’s AJ Tracey assumes the character of a rising young basketball player appearing in a livestreamed press conference to reveal his next move: a lucrative deal with major
franchise Revenge Athletic ahead of a crucial playoff game. The broadcast ends with the true reveal: AJ’s highly anticipated sophomore album ‘FLU GAME’ will finally arrive.
Always pushing boundaries with his creative output, AJ’s campaign draws influence from the story of Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls team in the late 90s, with ‘FLU GAME’ referencing one of MJ’s most memorable championship games where he overcame a nasty bout of food poisoning (brought on by a dodgy takeaway pizza) and took the Bulls to the championship. Revenge Athletic are a franchise on the brink of a massive championship win and AJ is their new star. All we know for now is that AJ is about to take us into this new world, as he dons the number 10 jersey and states he’s “ready to get going and do what I’ve always done.”
‘FLU GAME’ sees AJ showcasing twelve brand new tracks, with tantalising features including Kehlani, T-Pain, SahBabii, NAV and Millie Go Lightly. On the production
front, AJ calls on regular collaborators Nyge, The Elements, Kazza, AoD and Remedee.
The project also features the UK Top Five singles ‘Bringing It Back’ with Digga D, ‘West Ten’' with Mabel and the Platinum smash ‘Dinner Guest’ featuring MoStack. AJ Tracey is a man on an unstoppable, independently built trajectory. 2020 was his
biggest year to date, with (certified Gold) single ‘West Ten’ alongside Mabel landing in the wake of chart-scaling ‘Dinner Guest’ featuring MoStack (Platinum), Number 1 charity single ‘Times Like These’ (alongside Dua Lipa, Rag & Bone Man and The Foo Fighters) and the Platinum-certified TikTok sensation ‘Rain’ with Aitch, which went on
to become the most watched UK YouTube video of 2020. AJ finished the year with a stand-out feature on Headie One’s enormous anthem ‘Ain’t It Different’ alongside Stormzy, a Platinum certified track that peaked at Number 2 in the UK Singles Chart.
In 2019, AJ released his debut self-titled album which, after landing at Number 3 in the UK Official Charts, has gone on to clock over 350 million streams globally and is certified Gold. His Conducta-produced breakout hit ‘Ladbroke Grove’ was officially the
top selling independent single of 2019, spending an astounding 14 weeks in the UK Top 10, and is now certified Double Platinum (over 1.2 million sales). It was nominated for a BRIT, was named Best British Song at the NME Awards and is now the biggest-selling UK Garage record of all time - an incredible feat. AJ rounded off a
huge 2019 with two sold-out headline shows at London’s 10,000 capacity Alexandra Palace.
A music and cultural icon, and boasting over 1 billion global streams independently, AJ’s formidable talent and unmatched creative vision is set to see him scale even higher heights in the coming months.

a Anxious [prod Remedee]
[b] Kukoč (ft. NAV) [prod Pxcoyo + Yung Swisher]
[c] Bringing It Back (with Digga D) [prod. The Elements + AoD)
[d] Cheerleaders [prod Kazza & Swidom]
[e] Draft Pick [prod 5ive Beatz] Eurostep [prod AJ Tracey]
[f] Cherry Blossom [prod Nyge & AoD]
[g] Glockie [prod The Elements & AoD]
[h] Little More Love [prod YOZ BEATZ, RyFy & Mark Raggio]
[i] Top Dog [prod Nyge & AoD]
[j] Summertime Shootout (ft. T-Pain) [prod Nyge & AoD]
[k] Perfect Storm [prod YOZ BEATZ & JBJ]
[l] Coupé (ft. Kehlani) [prod The Elements]
[m] Numba 9 (ft. SahBabii & Millie Go Lightly) [prod The Elements]
[n] Dinner Guest (ft. MoStack) [prod The Elements & AJ Tracey]
[o] West Ten (with Mabel) [prod FRED & Take a Daytrip]

[a] Anxious [prod Remedee]
[b] Kukoč (ft. NAV) [prod Pxcoyo + Yung Swisher]
[c] Bringing It Back (with Digga D) [prod. The Elements + AoD)
[d] Cheerleaders [prod Kazza & Swidom]
[e] Draft Pick [prod 5ive Beatz] Eurostep [prod AJ Tracey]
[f] Cherry Blossom [prod Nyge & AoD]
[g] Glockie [prod The Elements & AoD]
[h] Little More Love [prod YOZ BEATZ, RyFy & Mark Raggio]
[i] Top Dog [prod Nyge & AoD]
[j] Summertime Shootout (ft. T-Pain) [prod Nyge & AoD]
[k] Perfect Storm [prod YOZ BEATZ & JBJ]
[l] Coupé (ft. Kehlani) [prod The Elements]
[m] Numba 9 (ft. SahBabii & Millie Go Lightly) [prod The Elements]
[n] Dinner Guest (ft. MoStack) [prod The Elements & AJ Tracey]
[o] West Ten (with Mabel) [prod FRED & Take a Daytrip]

Powerfull hardcor on the A side with Line Killas, bringing kick variations and braindead awaker dancefloor tricks... Followed byu The Death Chamber, my fave track here, a masterpiece ! Fucking weldone kicker... Full of breaks and speeding up the brain. The label visuals speeks for itself^^ krkrkr
The flip opens with one of the slowest tune on Deathchant ever on the flip ^^ ahahah And a massive finisher behind.

Lu's Jukebox is a six-volume series of mostly full-band performances recorded live at Ray Kennedy's Room & Board Studio in Nashville, TN. Each volume features a themed set of songs by other artists curated by the multi-Grammy award winner, Lucinda Williams. The series aired as ticketed shows through Mandolin in late 2020 with a portion of ticket sales benefitting independent music venues struggling to get by through the pandemic. Like thousands of artists, Williams cut her teeth and developed her craft by playing in small, medium and large clubs throughout the country, and the world. These venues are vital to the development of artists and their music. Williams has never forgotten her roots, and often performs special shows in some of her favorite halls. This year, the Lu's Jukebox series will be made widely available on vinyl and CD. Volume 1, Running Down A Dream: A Tribute to Tom Petty, features songs from the namesake's celebrated career and is scheduled for an April 16th, 2021 street date.

“This is the time. And this is the record of the time.”

Laurie Anderson’s 1982 debut album, Big Science, will return to vinyl for the first time in 30 years with a new red vinyl edition on Nonesuch Records. The release includes the re-mastered original album first released on CD for the 25thanniversary in 2007.

In the early 1980s, Laurie Anderson was already respected as a conceptual artist and composer, adept at employing gear both high-tech and homemade in her often violin-based pieces, and she was a familiar figure in the cross-pollinating, Lower Manhattan music-visual art-performance circles from which Philip Glass and David Byrne also emerged. While working on her now-legendary seven-hour performance art/theater piece United States, Part I–IV, she cut the spare ‘O Superman (For Massenet)’, an electronic-age update of 19th century French operatic composer Jules Massenet’s aria ‘O Souverain’, for the tiny New York City indie label 110 Records. In the UK, DJ John Peel picked up a copy of this very limited-edition 33⅓ RPM 7” and spun the eight-minute-plus track on BBC Radio 1. The exposure resulted in an unlikely #2 hit, lots of attention in the press, and a worldwide deal with Warner Bros. Records.

’Cause when love is gone, there's always justice.
And when justice is gone, there's always force.
And when force is gone, there's always Mom. Hi Mom!

At the time of its original release, the NME wrote of Big Science, ‘There’s a dream-like, subconscious quality about her songs which helps them work at deeper, secret levels of the psyche.’ With instrumentation ranging from tape loops to found sounds to bag pipes, Big Science anticipated the tech-savvy beats, anything-goes instrumentation and sample-based nature of much contemporary electronic and dance music. On the album’s 25th anniversary, Uncut noted, ‘The broader themes of alienation and disconnection still resonate, while Anderson’s use of loops and traditional/synthesized instrumentation is prescient.’

“In the ’70s I travelled a lot,” Anderson recounts. “I worked on a tobacco farm in Kentucky, hitchhiked to the North Pole, lived in a yurt in Chiapas, and worked on a media commune. I had my own romantic vision of the road. My plan was to make a portrait of the country. Big Science, the first part of the puzzle, eventually became part two of United States I–IV (Transportation, Politics, Money, Love). My goal was to be not just the narrator but also the outsider, the stranger. Although I wasfascinated by the United States, this portrait was also about how the country looked from a distance. I was performing a lot in Europe, where American culture was simultaneously booed and cheered. But the portrait was also a picture of a culture inventing a digital world and learning to live in it. Big Science was about technology, size, industrialization,shifting attitudes toward authority, and individuality. It was sometimes alarmist, picturing the country as a burning building, a plane crash. Alongside the techno was the apocalyptic. The absurd. The everyday. It was also a series of short stories about odd characters – hatcheck clerks and pilots, preachers, drifters and strangers. There was something about Massenet’s aria ‘O Souverain’ – which inspired ‘O Superman’ – that almost stopped my heart. The pauses, the melody. “O souverain, ô juge, ô père” (O Lord, o judge, o father). A prayer about empire, ambition, and loss.”

Laurie Anderson is one of America's most renowned – and daring – creative pioneers. Her work, which encompasses music, visual art, poetry, film, and photography, has challenged and delighted audiences around the world for over 40 years. Anderson released her first album with Nonesuch Records in 2001, the critically lauded Life on a String. Her subsequent releases on the label include Live in New York (2002), Homeland (2010), the soundtrack to Anderson’s acclaimed film Heart of a Dog (2015), and her Grammy-winning collaboration with Kronos Quartet, Landfall (2018). Additionally, Anderson’s virtual-reality film La Camera Insabbiata, with Hsin-Chien Huang, won the 2017 Venice Film Festival Award for Best VR Experience, and, in 2018, Skira Rizzoli published her book All the Things I Lost in the Flood: Essays on Pictures, Language and Code, the most comprehensive collection of her artwork to date.

With over 5,000 performances spanning four decades, 20 million records sold worldwide, and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, CHEAP TRICK are undoubtedly one of the most influential classic rock groups of the past 50 years.

Produced by longtime associate Julian Raymond, IN ANOTHER WORLD sees Cheap Trick doing what they do better than anyone -- crafting indelible rock ‘n’ roll with oversized hooks, mischievous lyrics, and seemingly inexorable energy.

Trademark anthems like “Light Up The Fire” and “Boys & Girls & Rock N Roll” are countered by more introspective – but no less exuberant – considerations of times past, present, and unknowable future on such strikingly potent new tracks as “Another World” and “I’ll See You Again.” IN ANOTHER WORLD – which marks Cheap Trick’s first new LP since 2017’s double-header of WE’RE ALL ALRIGHT! and CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS – further showcases Cheap Trick at their most eclectic, touching on a myriad of distinct sounds and song approaches, from the swampy Chicago blues number, “Final Days” (featuring fiery harmonica from GRAMMY® Award-nominated singer and Wet Willie frontman Jimmy Hall) to a timely rendition of John Lennon’s still-relevant “Gimme Some Truth,” originally released for Record Store Day Black Friday 2019 and featuring the instantly recognizable guitar sound of erstwhile Sex Pistol Steve Jones.

As irresistible and immediate as anything in their already awesome catalog, IN ANOTHER WORLD is Cheap Trick at their irrepressible best, infinitely entertaining and utterly unstoppable

Raf Rundell announces the release of his second album, ‘O.M. Days’,
released on Heavenly Recordings.
Features guest appearances from Chas Jankel, Lias Saoudi, Terri Walker,
Andy Jenkins and Man & The Echo.
The cover features a striking Keith Haring-meets-the Green Man image from
acclaimed artist and longtime collaborator Ben Edge, the picture was
inspired by the folk tale of the giant of Dawson, who is both male and
female, human and vegetation and lived in the imagination of Dawson’s Hill,
a stretch of South London parkland a stone’s throw away from Dawson’s
Heights, the flats featured on the cover of the debut album ‘Stop Lying’.
Edge and Rundell, for reasons they can’t entirely comprehend, concocted a
rite which took place the first full moon after this year’s summer solstice
(the results of which can be seen in the short film trailer for the album).
This involved the giant - also known as Tommy Hill Figure - being created
on Dawson’s Hill. “Ben’s been digging deeper and deeper into ancient
myths, the green man, all the stuff that’s been co-opted by organised
religion,” Rundell explains. All this chimed with him because he is a magnet
for signs and symbols. He has been ever since his Mod-loving parents
named him after the RAF roundel symbol.
“We’d been talking about this sort of stuff a lot,” Rundell continues. “The
rite was about the birth of the new and using the coronavirus as a catalyst
for that change, like a full stop to the way things were before. The corona
was called the spark in the ceremony, although we’re not being too specific
about the virus because this is a thing we hope to do annually.”
This is the backdrop to the album, a record far larger and more confident
than its creator could ever have imagined. Unlike his itinerantly created
previous records, ‘O.M. Days’ was entirely recorded in the same Forest Hill
studio, with the aforementioned collaborators. “I love collaborating with
people - like Lias Saoudi or Andy Jenkins, who are both on this record -
that’s where it’s at for me,” Rundell says. “I worked really hard on this one.
And although I had no plan about where it was going, I always have a
notion about how I want things to sound. I had a particular idea about
that.”
Initial copies are eco-wax vinyl, reverting to standard vinyl (HVNLP181)
when sold out.
Digital download code included.

The fifth album from Oklahoma-bred singer/songwriter Parker Millsap, Be Here Instead emerged from a wild alchemy of instinct, ingenuity, and joyfully determined rule-breaking. In a departure from the guitar-and-notebook-based approach to songwriting that shaped his earlier work, the Nashville-based artist followed his curiosity to countless other modes of expression, experimenting with everything from piano to effects pedals to old-school drum machines (a fascination partly inspired by the early-’70s innovations of Sly Stone and J.J. Cale). As those explorations deepened and broadened his musical vision, Millsap soon arrived at a body of work touched with both unbridled imagination and lucid insight into the search for presence in a chaotic world. Produced by John Agnello (Kurt Vile, Sonic Youth, Waxahatchee) and mainly recorded live with Millsap’s full band, Be Here Instead marks a stylistic shift from the gritty and high-energy folk of his previous output, including 2018’s acclaimed Other Arrangements and 2016’s The Very Last Day (an Americana Music Association Awards nominee for Album of the Year). With its adventurous yet immaculately detailed sonic palette, the album warps genres to glorious effect, at one point offering up what Millsap aptly refers to as a “disco-Americana showtune.” In another creative breakthrough, Be Here Instead forgoes the character-driven storytelling of his past in favor of a more introspective and endlessly revelatory form of lyricism, an element he traces back to the charmed nature of his songwriting process. “Because the lyrics were appearing seemingly out of nowhere and with no prior intent, some of them started to feel like transmissions from my subconscious, rather than the preconceived linear stories or waking thoughts of my earlier songs,” says Millsap. “They feel like words I needed to hear from myself, and not just things I wanted to say to someone else.”

First released in 2013, Build Me Up From Bones—Sarah Jarosz’ third Sugar Hill Records release—finds the singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist exhibiting an assured and striking musical voice, proving the promise of her early acclaim. Upon initial release, the album reached #1 in the Americana Chart. It features the title track “Build Me Up From Bones,” GRAMMY®-nominated for Best American Roots Song, as well as covers of Joanna Newsom’s “The Book Of Right-On” and Bob Dylan’s “Simple Twist of Fate” which reflect the breadth of Jarosz’ evolving influences. HIGHLIGHTS •#1 Americana Chart-topping album •From multi-Grammy Award® winning artist (seven nominations, and three wins to date) • Includes title track “Build Me Up From Bones” – top streamer for Jarosz and nominated best American Roots Song •Also features covers of Joanna Newsom’s “The Book Of Right-On” and Bob Dylan’s “Simple Twist of Fate”

Steppin up, steppin in. Detroit native Jason Hogans supplies the goods for ALELAH014 with a five-track journey though the depths of the downtown. With releases on the likes of Planet E and Moods & Grooves, Hogans hits with a serious dose of deep, emotive, crunched up cuts, heavy on the over-driven basslines and melodic synths that echo through the night.

Nocturnal house business, from the heart of Detroit.

As long-time fans of this sublime four-track compacto 7" by the illustrious Brazilian duo Luli Lucinha e O Bando, we have floated the idea of re-issuing this beauty for several years now. So finally, the time feels right to release this beloved gem back into the world.

Originally issued on Som Livre ‎Records in Brazil in 1972, this rarity has long been lost to only but the most hardened Brazilian record collectors and those lucky few who own an original copy. The four genre-defying compositions blend elements of psychedelic rock, MPB and folk, and are glued together by the synergy of Luli and Lucinha's vocals and the outstanding arrangements by Zé Rodrix. Whether it be the lost Brazilian-psych anthem of 'Flor Lilás’, or the tripped out folk-funk of 'Dourado Da Manhã’, the EP oozes magic and brilliance. The record also features the Brazilian percussionist, Alyrio Lima, who later became a member of the iconic Weather Report.

Luli (Heloisa Orosco Borges da Fonseca) and Lucinha's (Lucia Helena Carvalho e Silva) records have become extremely sought-after in recent years. Their inclusion on John Gómez's superb 2017 'Outro Tempo' compilation helped spread the gospel about their beautiful folky, MPB, private press albums from the late '70s and '80s. Prior to their musical partnership back in 1965, Luli released a heavenly Bossa Nova 7" nugget entailed 'Baleiro' and a self-titled solo album on Philips Records, which are now also highly-prized by collectors.

Here at Mr Bongo we feel Luli and Lucinha's names should be more widely recognised and break out of their cult artist status. They should be rated up there amongst some of the progressive, left-field greats of Brazilian music of their era. Sadly Luli passed away in 2018, but left behind an inspiring musical legacy for us all to savour.