Cerca:body of work

Toronto’s infamous psychedelic multimedia collective, Intersystems, make a surprise return with a new full-length LP, #IV. Coming via Waveshaper Media, #IV is Intersystems’ first new material since 1968! Intersystems’ pioneering avant/electronic music sounded positively alien in the 1960s, and more than 50 years later, this latest body of work sounds just as otherworldly.

When they arrived on the scene in the late 1960s, Intersystems stood out from their peers. Comprised of architect Dik Zander, light sculptor Michael Hayden, poet Blake Parker, and musician John Mills-Cockell (of Syrinx, Kensington Market and more), the group mounted groundbreaking pan-sensory events and released a trilogy of defiantly disorienting records.

Where more conventional purveyors of sonic psychedelia were content with fuzztone guitar and orientalist tropes, Intersystems managed to approximate the full psychedelic experience in all its euphoric wonder and terror. Initially wrangling homespun gadgetry, feverishly spliced-together tapes, and mutant beat poetry, Intersystems were also among the very first to deploy a Moog Synthesizer; their Moog modular system was the first to be imported into Canada. Intersystems’ three vinyl LP recordings, meanwhile, justifiably became coveted collector's items given their scarce quantity and singular unsettling vision.

The reissue of Intersystems’ full discography in 2015 prompted acclaim from a number of major outlets. Among them, PopMatters hailed the set as "one of those great lost recordings (three of 'em actually) that comes from the lysergic era..." Mills-Cockell’s work in Syrinx has also been reissued to great acclaim in recent years.

Fifty-plus years after their 1968 album Free Psychedelic Poster Inside, Hayden and Mills-Cockell decided to revive the long-dormant project with a series of sessions at Hamilton's storied Grant Avenue Studio. The resultant music remains remarkably congruent with the project's original vision while clearly emerging from the present moment. With original poet/lyricist Blake Parker now deceased, Hayden and Mills-Cockell made the counterintuitive (yet strangely apt) decision to render Parker's words electronically. As the computer-synthesized voice alternates between an eerily life-like delivery and slurred cybernetic faltering, it brings a new dystopian tint to the group's anxious surrealism. Taking cues from its predecessor, Free Psychedelic Poster Inside, a modular Moog Synthesizer system is the primary instrument, yet here it offers a dynamic blend of different sonorities: barbed wire basslines, Subotnickesque chirping, gestural plumes of colour and percussive filigree.

While the group cut their teeth in the 1960s, make no mistake these new Intersystems recordings aren't a “comeback" or an attempt to rehash the "good old days". What one hears instead is the sound of Mills-Cockell and Hayden re-energizing the project, bringing with them the myriad experience they’ve accumulated in the intervening 50 years. These aural concoctions—no less perplexing than their 1960s predecessors—build upon the Intersystems foundation but very decidedly reside in the present moment, reminding listeners of just how forward-looking this group was in the first place.

On April 30, Mascot Label Group/Provogue will release "How Blue Can You Get", a collection of previously unreleased songs from Gary's substantial body of outstanding work in his back catalogue. The album contains 4 originals, and 4 songs previously recorded and made famous by classic bluesmen like Elmore James, Sonny Thompson, Memphis Slim and BB King.
Venturing deep into the Moore family archives, some previously unheard and unreleased deep cuts and alternative versions surfaced to accentuate the beguiling mastery of one of blues' finest modern exponents. Amongst the songs are unheard and unreleased Moore originals - "In My Dreams," a lusciously glorious slow-moving ballad with every note and bend weeping as Moore pours out his heart along with the stunningly melancholic "Looking At Your Picture".

The album kicks off a rip-roaring take on Freddie King's "I'm Tore Down," a Moore live favourite before he slips into a previously unreleased virtuosic version on Memphis Slim's "Steppin' Out." Elmore James' "Done Somebody Wrong," is another that showcases his blues chops, as does the enormous 7-minute never been released before scorching take on BB King's 1964 hit "How Blue Can You Get." An alternative version of "Love Can Make A Fool Of You," makes itself at home deep into the blues-rock heart of Moore, in a way that his most loved songs do, whilst the finale soars into the stratosphere with the beautifully aching "Living With The Blues."

It's our hope that current and future generations of music fans discover and re-discover Gary Moore, revelling in the artistry of not just a great guitarist, but a supremely talented musician. Back to the future with Gary Moore.

Optimo Music presents “Janara” the new album from Italy’s José Manuel. We always have our ears open for music that is unique, powerful and that can conjure up a ritualistic atmosphere, and this meistrerwerk did all that, and then some. We knew we had to release it after the first listen.

We’ll let José tell you about it….

This album is a result of the necessity of exploring and opening my mind to new musical horizons, by testing the main traditional instrument of the Italian region Campania, whose name is “Tammorra”. It is a big drum, which must not be confused with the typical tambourine, made from a wrap of wood shaped in a circle and covered with dried skin (almost always goatskin or sheepskin). This instrument was used during playful events, especially during rituals and ceremonies, such as the frequent devotional pilgrimages in honour of the Virgin Mary. By using this instrument, the sound, the rite and the magic could take possession of the mind and the body creating a perfect union. Also, the dancers, as if they were bitten by a tarantula and possessed by a strange evil, launched themselves to an uncontrolled dance by moving every part of their body.

In addition to the Tammorra, I also inserted some texts, which have been written by some Neapolitan friends and interpreted with Neapolitans voices, in honour of the “JANARA”. The Janara represents a popular belief of the Southern Italian regions, particularly of the Benevento area. The Janara is one of the many types of witches represented by folktales belonging to the rural tradition.

The Janara was expert in medical herbs, which were also be used for her magical practices, such as the manufacturing of ointment. The ointment gave her the power to become incorporeal with the same nature as the wind. According to the tradition, in order to snatch the Janara it was necessary to grab her by the hair. It was also said that if anyone was able to capture the Janara during her incorporeal moment then Janara herself would offer protection to them and their family for seven generations, in exchange for her freedom.

With this work I hope that the listener might get carried away by the spirit of this pagan and popular legend that can be still be considered as current. As a matter of fact, the folk tales speak of a probable comeback of the Janara, who after being burned at the stake seems to be thirsting for revenge for the evil suffered.

La grande vallée (1993/95), 20'41

Musical composition, design and sound production carried out at the INA grm Studios (Paris) in 1993/95

Original audio recordings in the Drôme and the Mont Ventoux areas

Voice: Hélène Bettencourt

Vocal occurrences: Frédéric Malenfer, Bruno Roche, Lionel Marchetti

Bass clarinet (for processing): Jean Andréo

Micro-climat (1989/90), 21'33

Micro-climat is the first movement of the Sirrus cycle (Micro-climat, Passerelle, Sirrus) composed in 1989/90

Musical composition, sound design and production, audio recordings in 1989/90 at the CFMI studios in Lyon (Lumière University, Lyon 2)

"I wonder if my fascination for clouds (without being an obsession) may have risen at the end of the 80s as, whilst composing Micro-climat, I would regularly wander between the Vercors mountains and the high plateaus of the Monts du Forez discovering, through my eyes, body, breath, active observation and walk, that natural forms when constantly changing and yet swollen with a unity of matter (in this instance, water) open one up to a deep, fundamental breath and a clear field for the mind. The sky and its forces: our ally.

A model for a natural music which, although fixed, as in musique concrète (a rule of the genre), moreover on a recording tape, will remain charged with such a poetic quality that (isn't it its role or rather its reality?) it will ensure a perpetual renewal for our senses, so as to reach another idea of the world, far more open and richer than what we could have imagined."

Lionel Marchetti, 2011

Lionel Marchetti is a major figure of the "third generation" of concrète musicians, a term he values. Listening to these works, imbued with poetry and traversed by micro-narratives, one can indeed retrieve the original concrète spirit, the one that draws from the sonic world, with ears wide open, so as to extract a fertile, rich and multiple substance then shaped and conveyed towards a formal and musical abstraction. Lionel Marchetti has mastered this process, but his real distinctive feature is a truly unique talent for setting climates (as one sets traps) and keeping us on constant alert. The two pieces in this record perfectly illustrate the entrancing dimension of Lionel Marchetti's music, whose charm leads us, through each successive listening, to become voluntary captives so as to better liberate ourselves.

François Bonnet, Paris, 2020

On February 27, 2018, Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band (comprised, in this iteration, of long-time SMB bassist Peter Kerlin and Kerlin’s Sunwatchers battery mate Jason Robira on drums) were close to wrapping up an 18-date tour of the EU and UK with a two-set, one hour and 45 minute show at Cafe OTO, London’s premier venue for adventurous music. Highlights of that show are included in this live release, RARE DREAMS: SOLAR LIVE 2.27.18, recorded before a packed house seated mere feet from the band’s amplifiers. These recordings reveal a band that is clearly in high spirits and high gear, operating with an expansive, improvisatory fleetness that allows them to stretch the material to almost ludicrous extremes and then let it to snap back to some semblance of form while somehow seemingly never wasting a note, a beat, a gesture. The four tracks included here comprise material culled from (at the time) the two most recent Solar Motel Band records DREAMING IN THE NON-DREAM (No Quarter, 2017) and THE RARITY OF EXPERIENCE (No Quarter, 2016) plus covers of two Neil Young songs - the autobiographical plaint “Don’t Be Denied,” lyrically relocated by Forsyth from Young's Canada and Hollywood to the more personally relevant geography of New Jersey and Philadelphia, and encore “Barstool Blues” (they’d run out of material to play, so another Neil Young tune it was). While the covers establish Forsyth’s basis, serving as an homage to Young and the quest for self-realization, the long tracks’ jams showcase the trance-inducing power of the Solar Motel Band as a performing entity. Kerlin’s gymnastically propulsive bass playing locks in with Robira’s relentless thud, each serving as counterpoint to some of the most blistering guitar work of Forsyth’s career. The telepathically dynamic interplay of the trio explodes with whiplash intensity across the 15-plus minute takes of “Dreaming In The Non-Dream” and “The First 10 Minutes of Cocksucker Blues,” each song’s structure serving as a framework for extended lava flows of energy. At one point late in the “Dreaming” jam, Forsyth unplugs the jack from his guitar, dragging it across the strings and lashing the body of his single-pickup “parts" Esquire, producing a desiccated barrage of percussive static. This is music beyond the notes; it is an expression of pure electric ecstasy, a simultaneous negation and celebration of rock music’s (indeed all musics’) essential energy. In contrast to the expansive but meticulously detailed guitar arrangements of his recordings, here Forsyth’s unhinged live guitar sound positively roars with a barely restrained vocal intensity, from liquid melodic lines to gnarled blasts of free jazz scree, to pulsating lead/rhythm vamping. I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing this band up close for a number of years now and I can authoritatively attest that while every show is different, when the SMB is running down a steep hill at full speed (as on these takes), they become a single leaderless vibrating sonic tornado, possibly beyond the control and logic of the players themselves, picking up listeners along the way and taking them along for the ride straight into a solar furnace of sound. - Jerome Onfront, Philadelphia

QThree returns with his 3rd full length LP. Fully mixed and produced by himself, he re iterates his neo blaxploitation sound. “persevere” is a reflection of black empowerment, cultural, political, and social views from the perspective of a black human. This full body of work is mostly inspired by social turmoil, indifferences with loved ones and enemies, disappointment in mentors, spiritual growth, and faith of a better tomorrow. Executively produced by himself, Darien “Brax” Schell and Mark Ryan of Baked Recordings, this project is a full circle representation of the Baked Life Brotherhood. Power to The People!

Sometimes a work of art comes unintentionally from a place from deep within the soul. It meanders and flops onto a table and sits and waits for its birth.
The album begins with "Wait Till The Stars Burn", a planetary ode to the Sun. The second track "Tribute to the Pharoahs Den", is a requiem for Danny Ray Thompson (R.I.P.) of the Sun Ra Arkestra, his music and legacy now floating above us in the infinity of space. Both tracks and featuring Marshall Allen and Knoel Scott (of the Sun Ra Arkestra).
The album ends with a requiem for Hal Willner (R.I.P.) whose devotion to celebrating the weird and insane was like an insatiable thirst leading to deep introspection and joy in harmony and sonic dissidence.
These compositions have all come from this place inside my bipolar, seroquil ridden mind. It is as much a tribute to the great composers who have inspired me; Alice Coltrane, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Philip Kelan Cohran, Bernard Herrmann, Ennio Morricone, Miles Davis, Sun Ra, John Carpenter, Quincy Jones, Old Bollywood, Film Noir, to name just a few. In my 23 years of being a composer of music I have had the great opportunity to score several films all of which never got any commercial fame. These films were made from the blood and sweat of film directors and their crews who tirelessly made incredible documents that were ultimately ignored by humanity. But that never stopped them nor will it stop me. These tracks are from the infinite celluloid that runs deep in my mind, body and soul. In my lifetime i never thought i would see the deaths of "Celluloid" or "analog recording". I refuse to accept the coroner reports on said fatalities, so here is my offering to the canon of cinematic overtures and analog self-preservation, for the films in our heads yet to be made.

Zaumne's new album titled Élévation is a multifaceted yet subtle work, an abstract collage that is equally entrancing and immersive. Quoting passages from Baudelaire’s “Flowers of Evil”, the Polish musician promises to elevate the soul and consciousness “Beyond the sun / Beyond the ether”. Yet simultaneously, the artist wants us to stay where we are and focus on the immediate surroundings in search of our personal attachment to the world.

Initially recorded for the WET (Weird Erotic Tension) online community the four pieces are an exploration of erotic aspects of the environment and uncanny intimacy with other beings and objects that dwell in our nearest proximity. Just like on previous releases for labels like Czaszka Rec. or Perfect Aesthetics, on Élévation Zaumne maintains his interest in emotional aspects of sound and internet culture – he builds his compositions from fragments of ASMR-whispered poetry, samples of natural phenomena and field recordings from his family home and its environ.

What starts as an escapist exercise driven by uneasiness and ennui becomes an individual healing process, in which the subject rediscovers the strangely intimate relationship with the world and opens up to almost magical methods of communicating with other beings. ASMR samples and sounds of the artist touching, playing with and exciting different objects are an experiment in establishing contact with the non-human realm and a method of attuning the body and the mind to the reality in which everything is interconnected.

Zaumne tests Einstein’s “spooky action at a distance” through radical, sensual intimacy with what’s near, finding a glimpse of the absolute in his own room, again quoting Baudelaire: “To a child who is fond of maps and engravings / The universe is the size of his immense hunger”.

Zaumne is the moniker of Polish musician Mateusz Olszewski. In the past few years, he has released music on labels like Magia, Perfect Aesthetics, BAS or Czaszka Rec. Élévation, released by Mondoj and initially commissioned by WET, is his first vinyl release. Blending elements of genres like ambient, dub, minimalism and tape music with ASMR samples, field recordings and spoken word, he creates work with deep emotional focus and impact.

Coming in the form of a beautiful antique pink and dark green
3-shutter digipack and gatefold double LP, ‘Two Roses’ is, in
Avishai’s words, “a once in a lifetime project.”
Associating his core trio (Mark Guiliana, Elchin Shirinov) with
the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Avishai Cohen offers a
very cinematic project between jazz, Mediterranean folklore
and classical music, re-exploring a part of his musical journey.
As well as offering new orchestrations of his most successful
works, ‘Two Roses’ also features ‘When I’m Falling’, an original
composition showing how far the sound of Avishai Cohen has
developed.
The 180g double vinyl edition features two exclusive tracks,
including a symphonic version of ‘Seven Seas’, which is one of
Avishai’s most beloved compositions.
“For many years I had thought of writing some of my existing
music and new compositions for a full orchestra. Though it
seemed more like a fantasy for a while, at a certain point it felt
like the right time. So I decided to contact some good
orchestrators and begin the journey. Diving into the assignment
getting deeper and deeper into it and within a few years this
incredible body of work was ready to be performed and
recorded.
“As soon as we finished recording, it was clear something
special had been achieved and now I can’t wait for more.
“Playing and singing with an orchestra is pure magic. I’m
feeling very fortunate for this incredible opportunity and wish to
thank everyone who is a part of it, especially my manager Ray
Jefford who was the main anchor behind this wonderful
production.
“Enjoy” - Avishai Cohen

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

- Rare 1987 Detroit experimental Funk/Soul album - Solo album by Tony Newton (Motown, Funk Brothers) - First ever vinyl reissue - 180g Black Vinyl Edition - Limited to 500 copies // Antonio L. Newton AKA Tony Newton (born 1948) is a multi-instrumentalist from Detroit, MI who began his professional career at the age of thirteen, playing bass guitar with blues legends like John Lee Hooker and T-Bone Walker. Discovered by Motown executive Hank Cosby while playing the Detroit blues circuit at the age of 18, he became the touring bassist with Smokey Robinson and the Miracles on the famed 1965 European 'Motown Review' tour. Within two years, Newton became the Miracles' musical director. Tony Newton also toured and recorded with other Motown artists such as The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Jackson 5_and countless others. Earning the nickname "the Baby Funk Brother" he left his trademark of solid, hard-driving and deftly clever grooves on such timeless hits as "Where Did Our Love Go," "Baby Love," "Stop In The Name Of Love," "Nowhere to Run," "ABC," "Never Can Say Goodbye," "Don't Leave Me This Way," and many others. Next to his impressive body of work for Motown, Newton can be heard on several hit singles from labels like Invictus-Hotwax and Stax. Later, Newton gained recognition as a member of both the acclaimed jazz-rock fusion group: The New Tony Williams Lifetime (headed by Miles Davis' drummer Tony Williams) and the British hard rock group: G-Force (with veteran guitarist Gary Moore). Tony Newton also recorded several solo albums during his impressive career, including the two total classics: 'Mysticism & Romance' (1978) and 'Novaphonia' (1987). On the album, we are presenting you today (Novaphonia from 1987) the listener is treated to something UNIQUE (and this is not an overstatement). Newton really puts the 'multi' into multi-instrumentalist, playing the synthesizers, the electric bass and the drum machine. Experimental is the keyword here, sounds vary from psych/trance (almost like a soundtrack from a space movie), to funk, fusion, rock, R&B, soul and jazz. Novaphonia has both elements of Tony Newton's impressive musical past and his vision for the future. Spacious synths, unusual instruments and an all-around cosmic approach make this an 'out of this world' and VERY intriguing album. Resonant, sonically rich, sonorous, colorful, mind-expanding sounds are what one should expect from the 20th century Novaphonic sound developed to its greatest extent. These harmonies are innately pleasing to the human ear, mind and nervous system.

Cold Body Music vol 1 is the first part of a new series of releases focused on cold wave, EBM, industrial etc. Vol 1's concept, curation and design are all our own work which we build around demos we’ve had in our hands for a while now. That is to say, all music on the album is previously unreleased. The format, design and fidelity pay homage to the early 80s “cassette culture” championed by bands such as Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle, Clock DVA, and many more

Artists on the release: Victor 25-2 / Often A / Antoine Heroics / Silens Letum / Halvtrak / Schnell Funktion (H. Puolitaival & K. Rapatti)

The NE-21 return to She Lost Kontrol after their first pitch-perfect 80s dark wave release in 2016. After releasing a collaboration with Donato Dozzy with the project ‘Men with Secrets’ at the beginning of the year, the duo lands on the label with their new work “In The Realm of Electricity”. The album is a collection of 8 tracks composed and recorded between 2012 and 2020 at the Sy6 studio in Boscoreale. The outcome is a perfect blend of synth pop and minimal wave, filled with icy synths, shuddering bass, and anthemic vocals, ranging from mumbled vocoder to arch talk-singing. While diverse in atmospheric scope, swells of ghostly synths circle the driving beat throughout, producing a haunting totality drenched in an ethereal midnight trance; the submerge of cold, spectral vocals sing within the darkest depths of a starry soundscape – the gloomy romanticism of low, distant vocals bursting with post-punk melancholia. The track’s unease between purpose and utility create a discrete synthesis, and, like a piece of speculative fiction, the memory of the body and its coalescence with the future become prime motives for this liquid age. Akin to Ballard or Philipp K. Dick, the workis not only dreamlike and surreal, but vocally sinister, as if this spectrum of lush new wave ‘80s pop and Almond-style weirdness hides a truth waiting to be grasped. The album in essence sounds unashamedly distinctive, unique and charming. Whether you fall in love with the whole act or you’re just stunned by the bizarreness of it all, one thing’s for sure – you’ll be compelled and gripped right to the infectiously smutty end. Composed, recorded and mixed by Nicola Buono & Lino Monaco at Sy6 Studio. Vocals and lyrics by Lino Monaco. Mastering by Joshua Eustis, Los Angeles. Design By Michelangelo Greco She Lost Kontrol Records 2021

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.”

After an almost 6 year hiatus, and the break up of the audio-visual trio it had evolved into, Origamibiro returns with Miscellany, a body of work amassed during the years since the release of 2014’s Odham’s Standard.

Though the group never officially disbanded, a number of life-changing events meant it simply became impossible to continue together. As such, the project organically reverted back to the solo pursuits of composer Tom Hill. Fellow multi-instrumentalist Andy Tytherleigh, however, remains a strong collaborator.

Miscellany comprises a varied mixture of work, ranging from electroacoustic to orchestral chamber music. Drawing upon much of the found-sound style for which Origamibiro became known, the DIY approach to sampling and composing continues to play a central role in the process.

Exploration into the tangible nature of everyday objects and textures - both in and outside of the home - is a theme relished in much of Origamibiro’s work. Forest brambles and plastic toy Easter eggs are examined in surgical detail alongside the debris of demolished piano parts, to be repurposed into whatever sonic potential they offer up.

However, new additions to the instrumental palette - viola da gamba, piano, zither, singing bowl, glockenspiel, drum machines and gongs - contribute to an even broader timbre.

The three players in Chicago’s Moontype orbited each other for years before they came in phase. Bodies of Water, their debut album for local label Born Yesterday, documents travel, insecurity, friendship, and the titular element—all of which are representative of the band members’ strong connection to place and to one another. “Being rooted in the landscape became important to me while studying geology, which completely changed how I think about the world,” offers songwriter, vocalist and bassist Margaret McCarthy of the album’s central themes. The arrangements themselves feel like open-hearted negotiations; sparse fingerpicking gives way to saturated tube-screaming as naturally as the changing of tides. Over twelve tracks, Moontype revels in the woozy concoction of its many influences, but always lands on punchy hooks, shifting between arrangements both spacious and mystifying without abandoning their conversational warmth.

Conservatory students at Oberlin College’s prestigious music program, each member focused on exploring different sounds. Guitarist Ben Cruz, who came up on classic rock shredding and migrated into jazz performance, admired the indie pop of Fountains of Wayne, the groundbreaking composition work of pianist Vijay Iyer, and the genre-morphing folk of heavy hitters like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. He played in several projects alongside Emerson Hunton, who’d drummed from age six and entrenched himself in the Twin Cities improvised music scene before even heading to college. Margaret—who grew up outside of Boston playing piano, singing in choirs and writing on guitar—spent her time creating knotty, riot grrrl-and-hyperpop inspired songs for bass and voice, as well as noise soundtracks for art installations. Inspired by artists like Adrianne Lenker and Gillian Welch, she recorded the EP bass tunes at home in an apartment over the town’s optician, releasing it upon graduation. A week later she migrated even farther west to Chicago, where Ben and Emerson had already enmeshed themselves in several projects, from avant garde ensembles to a country group.

Ben was instantly impressed by Margaret’s songs, at once “challenging and unlike anything I had played before.” The duo decided to try performing together, but knew this special music would be even better fortified with drums. Emerson was the obvious choice—as Ben puts it, “He’s our great friend and also the best drummer we know. Who else do you call?” Moontype-as-trio gigged around town, eventually embarking on a first fall tour in Emerson’s Prius. On that trip, they felt the music morph into something living, and the care and trust between them intensified. They decided to put together songs for a record, recorded at the end of 2019 with Jamdek Recording Studio’s Doug Malone, a dependable collaborator whose patient process perfectly captured the magic of their newfound familiarity. While Margaret’s skeletal demos still informed the bulk of Moontype’s full-band debut (some of which are re-recordings of bass tunes cuts), the resulting arrangements are songs reborn and strengthened by the three musicians’ absorption of one another’s ideas.

On Bodies of Water, Margaret’s soothing, unadorned alto is often peppered by the gliding, eerie harmonies of her bandmates. “We love the act of singing together,” explains Ben, who describes it as “connecting and grounding and wholesome.” The push-pull search for common ground characterizes the instrumentals as well. Round basslines occupy higher octaves, trading space with guitars chugging in lower registers, and all the while drums break apart and glue back together in idiosyncratic grooves that never lose the pocket. Of the complicated rhythms that sometimes result: “Any mathy moments are based on how the lyrics fall naturally, which feels like it frees us up from having to stay in one time signature,” says Emerson. “Rhythmic elements never feel like they’re being added in, more like they’re already there and we just float on through.”

Touring’s restlessness informed these songs, but so did the DIY scene that welcomed Moontype to Chicago—including, according to Margaret, the “wild harmonies” of Ohmme, the “deadpan explanatory rock” of Ratboys, and the “luxe math rock pattern music” of The Knees. Working at beloved venue Sleeping Village inspired Margaret’s observational vignettes; “We are sitting at the desk and you are mixing all the bands,” she reports in the middle of the dextrous folk hammer-ons of “3 Weeks,” gently admitting, “I am trying to have fun and I am trying to get paid” in a world of bikes, trucks, and velvet. “About You,” a robust power-popper written about a post-gig romp around Richmond with artist Bebé Machete, opens with a Phair-ian quip: “Looking at you with my fuck me eyes / Do you wanna get inside of mine?” Meanwhile, the spectre of lost camaraderie looms over “Ferry,” an atmospheric and anthemic standout that questions, “If I’m not your best friend / then who am I to anyone?” Alongside water, this preoccupation with friendship is a focal concern lyrically, but the palpable love between Moontype’s players is essential in communicating that desire for connection, and all three members are dedicated to exploring sound and meaning organically and together. Care and generosity are at the core of Moontype, and Bodies of Water is a clever album full of insightful music, as cosily enveloping as it is incisively honest.

The shadow that Gary Bartz casts over the last six decades of progressive Black music, and his continued dedication to same, makes him a logical and very welcome contributor to the Jazz Is Dead label. An alto saxophonist steeped in the history and tradition of his instrument who is also restlessly experimental and not prone to purism of any kind, he enjoys both the respect and admiration of his peers and the hero worship of several generations after him - including Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad, which inevitably led to Gary Bartz JID 006. A look at his body of work reveals dalliances with bebop, hard bop, free jazz, spiritual jazz, soul jazz, jazz-funk, fusion and acid jazz, all while resolutely remaining unmistakably Gary Bartz. There's early work with Eric Dolphy and McCoy Tyner in Charles Mingus' Jazz Workshop, work with Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln, a stint in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, and also one with Miles. There's his groundbreaking and highly influential Ntu Troop albums of the early '70s and his jazz-funk work including two classic albums with the Mizell Brothers, one of which supplied A Tribe Called Quest with a sample that was smooth like butter. And while on the subject of samples, the Bartz catalog has provided hip-hop and other genres with a rich source of them, and artists who have gone to his well when producing beats also include Black Sheep, Jurassic 5, Casual, RPM, Warren G, Photek, Statik Selektah, Chi-Ali, 3rd Bass, Showbiz, ZTrip, Young Disciples, and many others.

Since his 2012 debut as Heathered Pearls, Jakub Alexander has constructed art — music, objects, installations, performances — as a way of re-imagining fragments of his past and mapping ideas for his future. The Polish-born, Michigan-raised, New York-based artist and producer sees imagery and narrative framework as fluid components to his craft. Alexander’s first album, Loyal, mimicked the hypnotic motions of ocean waves at night, offering melodic, loop-based ambient music as a tribute to the tasteful influence of his mother and aunt. The second Heathered Pearls album, Body Complex, found inspiration from comfort, imperfection, and visions of interior architecture, transforming Loyal’s soft textures into driving 4/4 figures, glacial tone drifts, and starry synth plateaus. His 2017 EP, Detroit, MI 1997 - 2001, reflected on a formative era through ephem- eral dance music. The third Heathered Pearls full-length,


Cast, returns to moodier loop formats joined by the distinctly new presence of the spo- ken word. The move mirrors the multitudes of its namesake: collaborators comprise a cast, healing in the bind of a cast, complex emotions and the shadows they cast. Alexander started work on Cast when living in Berlin and in Queens.

“I hit a wall listening to these tracks when they were instrumental.” This is where he diverged from previous modes, deciding to integrate speech. With a healthy distaste for aspects of performance art, he invited strictly non-scripted recordings, a series of anti-performances. This new format adds a surprising human element to music that has previously operated as sea-shapes or infrastructure. These flashes of language, Alexander’s close friends speaking about things, narratively and cerebrally, casually and profoundly, turn the distinctive Heathered Pearls sound into some- thing surprisingly gritty, tangible, and in certain sweeps, cinematic. It is as if the world outside of these compositions bleeds into the music, casting their verbal being from just off the surface, like the album’s cover artwork where the light hits the plexi object but misses the wall.

Alexander sees his covers as naturally unfinished workstations; the gauzed and patinaed copper on Cast continues in this philosophy. This is all to say Cast deals with absence as much a presence. Among the guest storytellers is Alexander’s friend and tourmate Nick Murphy (formerly Chet Faker), who unwinds a series of tender observations on “Basic Needs.” The swirling synthesizer immerses a series of empathies; feeling like an egg yolk, a window’s view, his love for the color yellow, and wanting yellow to love him back.

Richard Youngs' e work can traverse everywhere from avant-folk or otherworldly pop to minimalist electronics or some of the most fervent 'outer sounds' one can dredge from the deepest crevices of their doubtlessly life battle-scarred imagination. On Metal River, Youngs offers four songs of deep space beamed curdled electronics not far removed from being akin to the contorted death caterwauls of a cyborg species reaching out in uttermost anguish. It's like prime Edgar Froese getting snagged on Incapacitants before tumbling headlong into a dingy cellar that then has its door slammed shut and locked before one notices the only company is accorded by body parts in dusty and mouldy demijohns. Features three songs on the first side, 'Days of Gravity Indoors', 'Metal River' and 'Rainy Days Static Caravan', plus the side long 'Dual Monody of Accumulated Detritus'. The perfect follow up to the 2dicks 7" lathe-cut also featuring Richard Youngs and released by FD in June. White vinyl, too. What more could you possibly ask for? "

Wait for Me is the compelling new album by Snowpoet, created by Irish vocalist and lyricist Lauren Kinsella and producer Chris Hyson. After their hugely successful release of 2018 Thought You Knew, this fourth body of work is a bold, flowing statement offering a mantra evocation to explore the deeper questions of how we love, how we accept our faults and how we let go in a time of profound confusion. With storytelling at its core and impeccable taste they weave their signature and evocative hook-like melodies, rich harmonic movements, flutters of emotive sung-spoken singing and thick, rich production to create an album that suggests repeated listening.

“Fans will be overjoyed to have a solid body of work from Lava and the first
collection of tracks since 2019’s STITCHES mixtape.
A truly matured sound, Lava’s Butter-Fly is an iconic moment for the young star,
who is truly cemented as a firm one to watch for 2021. Without a doubt, one
of the UK’s most exciting artists, Lava’s success far outweighs their young years.
The West London musician has seen themself collaborating with, and recognised by, the likes of COLORS Berlin, Converse, The Tate, ELLE, Noisey, The
Guardian, Dazed, British Vogue, i-D, Crack, Aries, Henry Holland, Tyler The Creator, Calvin Klein, Aries and more.Tracks
Featuring the incredible singles “Angel” ft. Deb Never and “G.O.Y.D.” ft. Clairo,
the project sees production from the likes of Isom Innis (Foster The People) and
Vegyn (Frank Ocean). “

Popcaan first unveiled his latest project titled FIXTAPE via Unruly / OVO Sound last year.

FIXTAPE includes a star-studded lineup, such as the Nineteen85-produced track “TWIST & TURN” featuring Drake and PARTYNEXTDOOR. Additional guest appearances include French Montana, Preme, Masicka, Stylo G, Dane Ray, Frahcess One, Tommy Lee, and Jada Kingdom. FIXTAPE continues Popcaan's historic narrative as one of the most prominent global superstars in the reggae space today. It is also the follow-up to his Vanquish mixtape, which was released after it was announced that he had signed to OVO Sound.

The 19-track body of work is powered by Popcaan’s potent energy, lyrics, and unique amalgam of genres from hip-hop to dancehall and pop. FIXTAPE is further proof that his cultural appeal spans from the streets to the club.

The latest from Mr. K and Most Excellent Unlimited pairs lowdown and stomping disco from an unlikely source with a funked-out floorfiller from some very familiar voices.

Minnie Riperton’s 1977 single “Stick Together” was an outlier in her catalog of smooth modern soul, an intentional nod in the direction of the prevailing disco sound. Co-written with Stevie Wonder, “Stick Together” in its original single release was divided into two parts, the first a fairly conventional uptempo cut with all the catchy qualities you’d expect from Stevie and the husband and wife team of Richard Rudolph and Minnie. It was the second half of the song that caught the ears of DJs who played for funkier dancefloors, however. Freddie Perren, a former member of Motown’s legendary Corporation collective of songwriters and producers, and a man then red-hot off his success with Tavares’ “Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel” and the Sylvers’ “Boogie Fever,” was on production duties, and the song clearly benefits from his disco-friendly touch. In Mr. K’s epic edit we are treated to a lengthy exploration of the second part of “Stick Together,” featuring keyboardist Sonny Burke (veteran of Marvin Gaye’s band and fresh from playing on Candi Staton’s disco smash “Young Hearts Run Free”) working out an irresistible Jingo-esque piano part, Riperton’s sensual ad-libs, and, as if that wasn’t enough, a cameo appearance by Pam Grier on finger snaps! Krivit’s 8-minute-plus edit passes way too quickly to get enough of the hypnotic groove — rewinds are called for!

Our flip side, “Body Language,” originated as an album cut on the Jackson Five’s last album of original material for Motown, Moving Violation, recorded before Jermaine left to go solo and the remaining brothers joined Epic Records in a new incarnation as the Jacksons. For such an obvious heater it’s puzzling why the label never released it as a single; but regardless of that apparent misstep, “Body Language” has long been a sure shot in many DJs’ bags. With his new edit, Mr. K presents the track in its ultimate form, loud, remastered, stretched out and rippling with energy over a full six minutes. With an iconic bass line that just doesn’t quit, and Michael and the boys in fine form, it’s impossible to imagine a situation where this wouldn’t set the room on fire.

“Walk the dog. Exercise. Make art.’The mind is happy when the body
is.’ Things I can potentially fill my days with if I am stuck at home
for months on end…Then, one day, I hear a frenetic, free drummer
playing in his garage a few blocks from me. And I think ‘interesting’.
I stand outside his garage staring at the wall, like a fool, for a minute,
then decide to leave a note on the car parked there. This is how I ended
up meeting and working with Ted Byrnes. He wasn’t creeped out, and
he ended up sending me a pile of truly spontaneous drums recordings
from the carport to work with. I decided to have every musician
come in one at at time and just take a wild pass at their track over the
drums. None of these people had ever met or played together. I was
the connecting thread. I scratched the surface initially with electric
bass, saxophone, guitars, cuica, synthesizers, flute and effects, but
soon realized I would need heavy hitters to make this place habitable.
“Greg Coates, upright bass expressionist extraordinaire, hacked
through the dense weeds, vines and frayed cabling. He lays the map
out and makes breathing room. Space to swing a cat. Tom Dolas
(keys), my often foil, came in and began tip-toeing through the rubble
and refuse. Dotting the layout with flecks of light, flights of fancy and
potential tangential trajectories. Then the finisher, Brad Caulkins on
horns. As always, Brad came in like grace itself, scanned the floor
for food, and huffed and puffed and blew the house down. He takes a
bruiser situation and lends it some warmth and hospitality, old school.
“After I spent a bit of time mixing and editing this down to a
palatable offering I couldn’t help but think about human consumption.
...Endless Garbage seemed a fitting title. A cacophonous and glorious
sketch of ourselves. For fans of Albert Ayler, ECM records, Gong,
improvisation, sustainability and consumption” —John Dwyer

Guedra Guedra presents Vexillology, an elevation of tribal consciousness and futurism from underground musical universes. The album offers listeners an immersive experience made from hypnotic and rhythmic arrangements, rooted in ancient culture. Referring as much to Sub-Saharan as to North African cultures, Guedra Guedra presents a synthesis of his pan-African appreciation and a full immersion into the traditional rhythms of these lands, especially within the Berber culture which is found in countries such as his home of Morocco, and across Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Northern Mali, Northern Niger and beyond. The body of work is a complete celebration of cultural roots and future bass, bubbling in hotbeds of the global underground. Guedra Guedra is synonymously known for his ability to explore tribal rhythms and instruments of the past, as well as dancefloor innovations from contemporary underground scenes. For Vexillology and in true Guedra Guedra style, a myriad of immersive recording techniques were applied. The album is built upon a multitude of field recordings capturing live and 'in the moment' cultural happenings, encountered in everyday life, at tribal festivities and also on his travels. By also using video in his field recordings, Guedra Guedra enables himself to encapsulate the heat and entirety of the moment, applying this 'moment' and evolving it into his productions.

Originally founded in Spain and now based out of Berlin, Golden Soul Records, the brainchild of James Rod, Aleito and Azaria has been releasing synth-heavy, mind melters and brain busters that traverse the galaxies of Italo, nu disco, synth pop and new beat since 2015. The best remixes from the label have now been perfectly packaged onto this new 2021 EP.

Kicking things off, a slice of futuristic machine funk from James Rod who puts a cosmic twist on Javier Busto - Robot in Mars, before Aleito works up a arpeggiated whirlwind with From Beyond - Body Resonance.

On the B side Azaria lets loose a new beat monster remix of Tiempo de Maldad - Disco Gold with Jarle B providing an Italo stomper of a rework for Aleito’s - Always Here to close out proceedings.

Brain Dance is the debut EP from Sydney artist and Velodrome’s resident dancefloor darling, Posture. Following on from his single ‘Zoom Dates’ released on Velodrome Recordings in 2020, this EP affirms Posture’s ability in creating heavy-hitting techno with heart.

A bold and refined body of work, Brain Dance is a masterclass in brooding high-energy dance music. Blending sombre tonal palettes with intricate driving percussion, Posture has crafted a suite of 4 peak-set techno cuts that retain a delicate, fluid energy throughout.

Written in isolation, Brain Dance is pensive in its mood while remaining wholly inspired by dance floor energies from past and future - a record that invites introspection in the peak of dance floor hypnosis.

This record also comes packaged with a limited edition 250gsm A4 print designed by Bradley Pinkerton.

Belgium’s sophisticated yet sometimes worldweary indie superstars return with their fifth album and follow up to 2019’s ‘Fever’.
Further pushing on from ‘Fever’’s shift into more soulful waters, ‘Sand’ presents a more cohesive body of work that flirts with a soulful indie vibe and an at times almost slow disco undercurrent, the two singles ‘Losers’ and ‘On A Roll’ perfectly capturing the mood.
Back when you could go to gigs the band were at the point where they were selling out the Scala in London and commanding decent size crowds regionally (especially Brighton, Bristol, Manchester and Glasgow)

"Sassy" Sarah Vaughan was a singer whose respect from fellow
artistes was as great as her popularity with fans. No less a
personage than Frank Sinatra once said, with tongue firmly in
famous cheek, that "Sassy is so good that when I listen to her I
want to cut my wrists with a dull razor." Vaughan certainly had
the smoothest voice of her generation. She could swoop from
the highest of notes down to the depths. The material
showcased here ranges from 1945 to 1959 and majors on
excerpts from the Great American Songbook like Nice Work If
You Can Get It, tackled here in 1950 with George Treadwell
and his All-Stars.

Waking the Dreaming Body is the follow-up to Tucson artist Karima Walker's 2017 standout album Hands In Our Names, which garnered praise from Pitchfork, MOJO, and Bandcamp. The album includes dense harmonic arrangements of synthesizer, guitar, piano, percussion, field recordings, tape loops and Karima's dulcet singing voice. The final result is a 40-minute dream-narrative of her conscious and subconscious minds that oscillates between the rich textures of her ambient work and the melody and poetry of her melancholic, Americana-tinged songwriting, their ebb and flow recalling liminal states of half-sleep where images and emotions are recalled and forecasted from the previous night's dreams. Night falls in regular intervals throughout the album, forming a natural dialogue between waking and dreaming.

Waking the Dreaming Body is the follow-up to Tucson artist Karima Walker's 2017 standout album Hands In Our Names, which garnered praise from Pitchfork, MOJO, and Bandcamp. The album includes dense harmonic arrangements of synthesizer, guitar, piano, percussion, field recordings, tape loops and Karima's dulcet singing voice. The final result is a 40-minute dream-narrative of her conscious and subconscious minds that oscillates between the rich textures of her ambient work and the melody and poetry of her melancholic, Americana-tinged songwriting, their ebb and flow recalling liminal states of half-sleep where images and emotions are recalled and forecasted from the previous night's dreams. Night falls in regular intervals throughout the album, forming a natural dialogue between waking and dreaming.

Waking the Dreaming Body is the follow-up to Tucson artist Karima Walker's 2017 standout album Hands In Our Names, which garnered praise from Pitchfork, MOJO, and Bandcamp. The album includes dense harmonic arrangements of synthesizer, guitar, piano, percussion, field recordings, tape loops and Karima's dulcet singing voice. The final result is a 40-minute dream-narrative of her conscious and subconscious minds that oscillates between the rich textures of her ambient work and the melody and poetry of her melancholic, Americana-tinged songwriting, their ebb and flow recalling liminal states of half-sleep where images and emotions are recalled and forecasted from the previous night's dreams. Night falls in regular intervals throughout the album, forming a natural dialogue between waking and dreaming.

Lost Horizons release their new album ‘In Quiet Moments’ via Bella Union. The album features a stellar array of musical guests including John Grant, C Duncan, Marissa Nadler, Porridge Radio, Penelope Isles, Karen Peris (the innocence mission), Tim Smith (Midlake), Ren Harvieu and many more.
In 2017, Simon Raymonde and Richie Thomas had both abstained from making music for 20 years until they united as Lost Horizons and released a stunning debut album, ‘Ojalá’ - the Spanish word for ‘hopefully’ or ‘God willing.’
“These days, we need hope more than ever, for a better world.” Thomas said at the time. “And this album has given me a lot of hope. To reconnect with music.... And the hope for another Lost Horizons record!” Thomas’ hopes had a mixed response.
On the plus side, the new Lost Horizons album ‘In Quiet Moments’ is an even stronger successor to ‘Ojalá’ with another distinguished cast of guest singers and a handful of supporting instrumentalists embellishing the core duo’s gorgeously freeflowing and loose-limbed blueprint that one writer astutely labelled, “melancholydelia.”
On the minus side, any hope for a better world, as Earth continues to freefall toward political and social meltdown. Then, to make matters worse, as Raymonde and Thomas buckled down to create the improvised bedrock that Lost Horizons is built on, the former’s mother died. At least Raymonde had a way to channel his grief.
“The way improvisation works,” he says, “it’s just what’s going on with your body at the time, to let it out.”
Raymonde (bass, guitar, keyboards, production) and Thomas (drums, occasional keys and guitar) forged ahead, creating 16 instrumental tracks to send to prospective guests. When he did, Raymonde suggested a guiding theme for their lyrics: “death and rebirth. Of loved ones, of ideals, at an age when many artists that have inspired us are also dead, and the planet isn’t far behind. But I also said, ‘The most important part is to just do your own thing, and have fun.’”
Lost Horizons’ melancholy-delia also feels buoyed aloft by airy currents, informed in part by Raymonde and Thomas’ former respective bands: the legendary Cocteau Twins and Dif Juz. Their former bands were labelmates on 4AD in the mid-80s, which is how they first met.
“I think ‘In Quiet Moments’ is more in the direction of where we’re going,” Thomas concludes. “People have retreated into their lives and, in those quiet moments, reflected on the world, how we fit in and who we and trust. Maybe the next album will be about rebellion! But the road is long and winding. We just need to express ourselves in how we feel at the time.”
Coloured vinyl 2LP (disc one green, disc two blue) in PVC outer sleeve with printed text, 350gsm wide spined sleeve on uncoated/reverse board, 16pg booklet on standard paper with contributions from all featured artists and digital download code.

On his first full length effort, singer / songwriter Mav Karlo, otherwise known as Menno Versteeg, offers up a much more elaborately realized, yet no less intensely intimate body of work. With its gracefully sparse arrangements, the album centres on Versteeg’s lyrical storytelling, revealing a narrative voice deeply attuned to the beauty in the ordinary and routinely overlooked. Strangers Like Us closely documents an especially tough period in Versteeg’s life but the album ultimately showcases an undeniable courage in its commitment to truth-telling and unsparing self- examination. He is supported by spirited guest performances from Katy Goodman of Vivian Girls (on vocals), Charlie Spencer of Dizzy (keys, drums) and Versteeg’s Hollerado bandmate Nixon Boyd (guitar, bass). Album produced by Chris Coady (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Amen Dunes, Beach House) and recorded at Sunset Sound and Sonic Ranch. Menno Versteeg is the owner of Royal Mountain Records and a former member of both Hollerado and Anyway Gang.

We were playing the track ‘Common Ground’ out and it was getting the dance floor hot! It was an instrumental at the time and Renato Paris was in the dance (a singer that EVM has been working with, plays keys with Moses Boyd and is one of Gilles Peterson's one to watch) he came up and asked, “What's This?” grabbed the mic, peak time and layed down this dope freestyle vocal, it was a jaw drop kinda moment for us all! That was it, we had to make it happen! So we linked up Renato and Duke and it became the lead track on the EP. An infectious song that literally drips in soul and future R&B, and just fits perfectly over the strings on this killer broken beat track! It’s one that will stick in your head and make you play it twice!

The whole EP is nothing short of quality. From the sultry jazzy Bruk vibes of '2017 Heat Wave' to the monstrous club track ‘ Nighthawks’ an up front stomper with live drums and a bassline that'll make you shiver inside that funky top line.

‘Got My 606 Back’ has been getting rinsed by the Summer dance Forever crew’s KC The Funkaholic and was well received by dancers worldwide when it was used for an SDF promo earlier in the year. We’ve since had many of them asking when this is coming out! This one is a real body mover, sweat towel advised!

Finishing up on ‘IFZ Shuffle’ a wicked little house shuffler that almost takes you back to the 90’s. It has this sweet piano breakdown that then introduces synths and congas until the groove kicks back in again. This track and the whole EP for that matter, works in a multitude of situations. It wont fail!

Three years in the making only to be held up nearly another whole year due to COVID, this dark brooding monster of an EP by Brussels based Strapontin, aka multi-disciplinary artist Patrick Belmont, is finally seeing the light of day.

Clocking in at over 35-minutes the record is almost album length and spans a multitude of depths and moods with elements of techno, new wave, rock 'n' roll, house and tribal…...all glued together with a sleazy atmosphere reminiscent of the electronic body music pioneered by Strapontin’s Belgian forefathers Front 242 and their German peers DAF.

Add to this a heads-down-no-nonsense darkroom beast of a remix by techno maestro Sascha Funke and the package is complete.

Strapontin provides us with some insight:

“It started with a desire to move away a bit from my 'dancefloor' side and go into more undefined fields, I wanted to work with blurry sensations that I can't understand. I like mixed feelings. Dramatex 300 is made of that ambivalent mood. The voice is saying 'I'm feeling empty' and 'I'm feeling healthy' at the same time. I like that paradox. Eunuque is a song but is also a character I will develop in a short movie (which will act as the 'music video' of the song). The Eunuque is a character full of anger yet he doesn't want to fight nor has he a target to aim at. A restrained aggressivity is boiling inside him/it that has no opportunity to escape from the body and gain release. The song is the fever he feels from these inner battles. I think Le Bain d'Huile and Anti-sceptical have the same slow and angry feeling. I'm proud of these tracks because they are a bit mysterious to me and it feels like they controlled me more than I controlled them.”

Getting plays from Monika Seta & Alexis Le-Tan

Emmylou Harris made her Nonesuch Records debut with the release of her album Red Dirt Girl 20 years ago, in September 2000. To mark its twentieth anniversary, Nonesuch releases the album – which won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album – on limited-edition, translucent red vinyl.

Harris – whom the Los Angeles Times dubbed ‘the most captivating female artist ever in country music’ – wrote all but one of the twelve tracks on Red Dirt Girl, marking only the second time in her career that she had been so involved in the composition of an album. ‘In songs about lonely journeys and lost companions,’ said the New York Times, ‘Ms. Harris has found herself.’

Red Dirt Girl was produced by Malcolm Burn, who had worked with Harris engineering and mixing her previous solo studio recording, 1995's Wrecking Ball, and features Burn on piano, guitar, and bass; Buddy Miller on lead guitar; Daryl Johnson on bass and drums; and Ethan Johns on drums, guitar, and other miscellaneous instruments. Dave Matthews sings a duet with Harris on the album, and Bruce Springsteen, Patti Scialfa, and Patty Griffin also contribute vocals.

Commenting on her new label and record back in 2000, Harris said: "I take pride in my new association with Nonesuch, a label for whom I have great admiration. Red Dirt Girl is a very meaningful record for me. I’ve only written this much for an album once before – The Ballad of Sally Rose – and I’m very pleased as well with what we have accomplished in the studio."

Nonesuch Records President David Bither said at the time: "We have had the privilege over many years to work with some of the most creative and influential artists and producers in music. This launches a new area of musical exploration for Nonesuch, and we are thrilled that Emmylou is the artist to open this door for us. It is an honor to work with an artist who has such a formidable body of work behind her, but who is now creating possibly the best music of her career."

Harris has since released three additional solo studio albums on Nonesuch, Stumble into Grace (2003), All I Intended to Be (2008), Hard Bargain (2011); reissues of Wrecking Ball (2014) and her 1992 album with the Nash Ramblers, At the Ryman (2017); two duo albums with Rodney Crowell, the Grammy-winning Old Yellow Moon (2013) and The Traveling Kind (2015); two releases in 2006 with Marc Knopfler, All the Roadrunning and Real Live Roadrunning; and vinyl box sets of her early albums, in 2017 and 2019.

Repress in Pink Marbled Vinyl

'Fleischberg' is the 2nd vinyl iteration of Berlin's body focused Fleisch collective, following hot on the heels of last year's highly acclaimed release by Schwefelgelb. This 12' starts with a relentless six and a half minute assault by Australian native and Berlin based Halv Drøm, a fitting vinyl debut for the talented producer. DSX follows up with a finely tuned EBM track tactfully layered with obscure vocal samples and paired with piercing, frenetic drum programming.

The B side starts with a slightly different approach, recalling a more classic techno and electro tone without losing sight of the release's progressive focus; Privacy's catchy 'Work' recalls late 80s Chicago masterpieces without becoming overly nostalgic. Sekunde rounds out the compilation fully with a plodding and minimal piece that would be best appreciated while being blasted driving 300 km/h down a moonlit back road somewhere in the Black Forest.

Jupiter, the gas giant in our Solar System, with thunderstorms a thousand times more powerful than on Earth, rainfalls of diamonds in the atmosphere, temperatures below -100°C, plenty of hydrogen, 79 moons and a South pole that looks like an abstract painting, has just the kind of environment this music seems to emanate from.

Jupiter and Beyond, the second collaborative effort of composer/performer Rafael Toral and percussionist João Pais Filipe as a duo (after Saturn in 2016), is definitely not quite a record of Earth music. On the contrary, Jupiter and Beyond, is indeed gas music, unfolding over two long movements without solid body or any tangible outline, between ambient and noise. A music of sheer volume and beauty, icy, massive, in which the elements of Toral's signature, in particular his use of jazz-inspired electronics and feedback, dissolve to become a labile, nebulous, expansive material, occasionally struck by abyssal depressions and masterful densities, magnified by the return, after 17 years of silence, of the electric guitar in Rafael Toral's instrumentarium.

Towards the end of Beyond, the second piece on the record, lurking behind the volutes of feedback, a bell and a bass drum, one can detect from the distance... a barking dog, as a surreptitious and prosaic reminder of where we are here and now, a calling back to Earth. Between sadness and joy, anger and peace, movement and stillness, Jupiter and Beyond is indeed a mirror held out to us, music reflecting our times and that emotionally speaks first of all about us.

"While João Pais Filipe was drummer in the Space Quartet, we played a live duo set. During soundcheck we were jamming for a while on bowed gongs and feedback and lost track of time, it just flowed so well. I joked "we could make a whole record with this!". But later we took the idea seriously and set to record an improvised session at his cymbalsmith workshop (he made the gong on the cover and it was used in the recording). When we listened to the first take the mass of sound was amazing. At some point it reminded me of the complex clusters of sound in Ligeti's music as it appears on Kubrick's 2001 scene "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite". In the end the title felt like an apt choice for Saturn's successor. Back at my studio I felt the need for some more layers of density in some sections. I thought of using trombones, but ended up picking up the electric guitar, which I hadn't used since 2003.” Rafael Toral