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Bella Brown & the Jealous Lovers Unveil "Soul Clap" LP: A Fusion of Retro Soul/Funk and Modern Grooves

Los Angeles-based retro soul/funk sensation Bella Brown & the Jealous Lovers are set to ignite the music scene with their highly anticipated LP, "Soul Clap." Born from the creative genius of Grammy Award-winning vocalist/songwriter Carol Hatchett, Bella Brown emerges as a diva with a fiery stage presence, drawing inspiration from the likes of Tina Turner and Sharon Jones, and channeling the empowered female leads of 70s Blaxploitation films. Led by producer/bassist/songwriter Daniel Pearson, The Jealous Lovers assemble an impressive ensemble of A-list musicians, boasting pedigrees that include names like Mick Jagger, Elton John, Whitney Houston, Prince, and Stevie Wonder. This musical collective is on a relentless quest to redefine the boundaries of music, infusing soul and funk with elements of jazz, rock, and Afro-Caribbean influences.

The essence of "Soul Clap" is derived from the cultural phenomena it is named after—a shared and improvised rhythm-making by a collective. The LP, spanning 40 minutes of pure musical bliss, invites the audience to immerse themselves in the groove and discover their individual truths in the music.

The title track, "Soul Clap," and the infectious "Living Proof" serve as funky dance bangers, echoing the spirit of Bohannan and The Tramps. These tracks, punctuated with jazzy improvisations and soulful horn arrangements, are simple yet joyful expressions of shared humanity and self-love.

"Coming For You" is Bella's audacious response to the soul/funk classic Apache, boldly announcing her and The Jealous Lovers' arrival on the modern soul landscape. "I Found You" takes a northern soul love song approach, reminiscent of Gloria Jones with a touch of modern influence, giving it a distinct Amy Winehouse feel.

Bella Brown seamlessly weaves social commentary into her art. "Bang Bang Bang," an uptempo, funky Motown groove, cleverly uses Curtis Mayfield's sense of sarcasm to reflect on American gun culture. "Lady Time" takes a driving afrobeat groove, employing brassy horns and reggae-like echoes to address the issue of homelessness.

However, the album is not without its lighthearted moments. "Fast As Lightning" celebrates a cleaner future by imagining Jimi Hendrix joining Ike and Tina Turner's band to create a classic Chuck Berry car song. "There Is Love" blends horns, strings, and vocals reminiscent of The Stylistics over a Chi-Lites style rhythm section, to create a lush message of support to those among us that may find the world a bit overwhelming at moments. Finally, "What Will You Leave Behind," is a revamped version of the group's sold-out vinyl 45 release. This track serves as a powerful call to action for a better future, delivered over a straight-up Motown groove with a funky Sly Stone finish.

Bella Brown & the Jealous Lovers have crafted an album that transcends genres, embracing the roots of soul and funk while pushing musical boundaries.

"Soul Clap" is a celebration of individual truths, shared experiences, and the timeless power of music.

Rated 5/5 in UK Music Republic Magazine

In the beginning was a half-truth, the truth was of war and the half-truth was post-war. Fancying the pretensions of its cultural superiority, a continent chose to hide the truth behind ridiculous jargon and the soothing distance of offshored ?????????. Europe wished itself beyond war because it thought the privilege of peace a birthright, just as it refused to understand that post-war was a euphemism for interbellum. Then the truth has set us free.

The delusion was discarded and war was revealed as an inconceivable horror. Almost immediately it turned familiar and virtually comfortable. Novelty songs of drones gutting tanks became a laughing matter and the burning tanks, their crew inside, entertainment. Consequently, a plurality of people started to collectively dream of new stages of the righteous kind of carnage. This happened within weeks.

Our imagination has swollen to the point of loss of consciousness, compounded by the narrative form long in the sways of atrophy. All of this raises the question of to what degree were the years of peace culturally squandered. The art of the previous age prided itself on self-awareness, today we fail to even notice that we no longer recognize ourselves. But we have arrived where we started and our issues were not too complex for expression.

Since no art form generates action, the most appropriate art for a culture on the edge of extinction is one that simulates pain. In these times we shouldn't produce any other music, none but this, intended to prevent our silence from being misinterpreted.

For the last seven years, sound artist, technologist, and electronic musician Moisés Horta Valenzuela (aka Hexorcismos) has been studying artificial intelligence and generative art, wondering how these new technologies might be augmented into his musical process. Born in Tijuana and currently based in Berlin, Hexorcismos has long attempted to break down the permeable borders between musical styles and expressions, using the spaces in between to reinforce his politics and worldview. And on 'MUTALISMX - becoming sonic network', he expands his vision, inviting artists from across the globe to collaborate on work that questions the biases inherent in AI models, offering a collective alternative that could serve as a blueprint for further research.

The majority of AI art at this stage works with "big data", taking ideas from the cultural canon and muddying them with our contemporary reality. But if we accept that mass culture is always politically biased, always swaying towards historical prejudices, then there must be a counter-narrative. Hexorcismos began to develop a bottom-up approach, using "small data" to interrogate his idiosyncratic approach to art; he built a tool called SEMILLA.AI based on neural audio synthesis that could not only mimic his sonic fingerprint but transform it into another. So when he offered the synth to his network of collaborators, he gave them the option of either using only their data or sharing the signatures of each other artist involved in the project, blurring their identities into a mutual voice.

The result is a compilation that unspools with the coherence and fluidity of a single-artist album or adventurous DJ mix, genreless and boundless but unified by a singular message. Hunanese-American artist Kloxii Li for example takes rugged percussion and tense, industrial ambience, smudging her soundscape into a swirling gust of ghostly dissonance. Hexorcismos himself contributes two compositions: the lengthy, hypnotic 'Acaso de veras se vive con raíz en la Tierra', an AI-powered scramble of his pointed tribal guarachero experiments; and 'Interferencias', a collaboration with Mexican club veteran Bryan Dálvez, aka El Irreal Veintiuno that drives intense dancefloor rhythms into a dense haze of frozen drones and radio static. Elsewhere, Berlin-based Lebanese artist and writer Jessika Khazrik dissolves her voice into a mesh of obscured rhythms and dissociated whirrs, blending the organic with the artificial but retaining an overpowering sense of humanity.

Some artists were drawn to the nebulous aspects of the technology, searching for truth in a soup of different sounds, while others, such as KMRU, used Hexorcismos's synthesizer the examine their output. On 'hidden options', the Kenyan sound artist fed his immense catalog into the neural net, bringing out his mannerisms and tendencies in the process. Each track is singular but myriad, prompting both mutual respect and a sonic becoming, a feedback process between the artist and the tool, the individual and the collective. Data sets are made by people, and by engaging directly with musicians, Hexorcismos suggests a new way of utilizing a technology demonized and glorified without careful examination. Each artist owns their AI model, and alongside the album Hexorcismos will release SEMILLA.AI to the public (with custom-made models to start the process), allowing anyone to access this revolutionary technology.

Even the album's artwork reflects the political message, conceptualized by Chilean duo hypereikon, who used AI processes to develop a visual reflection of the technology and its possibilities. Operating outside of academia and capitalist enterprises, MUTUALISMX proposes an alternative future - one without borders that's not beholden to the Western canon, where independent labor can be prioritized and celebrated, and where creativity can truly flourish.

Limited pastel red LP version! 2022 RZA LP, who reprises his own Bobby Digital Production Persona for this one, produced in association with DJ Scratch. Back in 1998, RZA had already cemented his status as Wu-Tang Clan's man behind the boards, producing the entirety of the group's respective solo albums. But when it came to his own breakout moment, the producer opted to introduce the world to Bobby Digital, a cartoonishly hedonistic mad-rapping alter-ego and grew so fond of the character that he released another album under the moniker before finally delivering 2003's Birth of a Prince as the RZA. Now it seems Bobby Digital is back in the picture and potentially set square up with his host. On Friday, RZA announced a new album, RZA vs. Bobby Digital, with the release of the hard-hitting new single, "Saturday Afternoon Kung Fu Theater." According to a press release, production on the album is handled by DJ Scratch. "Giving Scratch the reins as a producer and me taking the reins as an MC, that's what frees me up creatively and lets me play more with lyrical gags and lyrical flows because I don't have to be focused on everything," the producer noted in a statement. The new single marks the second Bobby Digital drop of the year, following "Pugilism," which was slated to be featured on the long-rumored project, The Cure, but seems to be a part of another upcoming collection of songs under the moniker titled Digital Potions. However, neither of those projects have a firm release date at the moment.

This release captures the joyous and confrontational performance by the pioneering experimental electronic-pop outfit The Knife, 'Shaking the Habitual: Live at Terminal 5.' After a seven-year hiatus from playing live, the resulting musical saw The Knife expand from Karin Dreijer and Olof Dreijer to a 11-piece dance troupe. The show was recorded at the Hell’s Kitchen venue Terminal 5 in 2014. It was the Knife’s last tour before the band called it quits in November of that year

"Due to the huge success of the Original Source Series and due to frequent wishes by both fans and critics alike, DG have decided to launch a reprint of all four titles of Batch 1 – marked as “SECOND EDITION”. Same Quality, just without numbering. THE ORIGINAL SOURCE is a new series of celebrated albums reissued on vinyl. These new releases include Claudio Abbado’s fascinating interpretation of works by Debussy and Ravel with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (1 LP), the legendary recording of Brahms’s Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 with Emil Gilels, the Berliner Philharmoniker and Eugen Jochum (2 LPs), and Verdi’s Messa da Requiem in the iconic version of Herbert von Karajan and Berliner Philharmoniker (2 LPs). The renowned Berlin-based Emil Berliner Studios are remastering 4-track recordings from the 1970s, using their own cutting-edge and 100% pure analogue techniques (AAA) to create versions of the highest possible audio quality. Compared to the original releases, the advantages in sound are outstanding: More clarity, more details and a better frequency response, less noise, less distortion, less compression – the highest possible audiophile quality which gives listeners the chance to enjoy this repertoire like never before.
Produced on 180g virgin vinyl by Optimal, these limited and numbered releases will be issued in deluxe gatefold editions featuring the original artwork and liner notes, with additional photos and facsimiles of the recording documentation on the inner sleeve. Furthermore, each release includes a note by Rainer Maillard/EBS detailing the technical background and procedure of the Original Source Series, and an additional insert with a photo of the original tape box. Each LP comes in a protective cellophane jacket with a sticker highlighting the

"Atlanta Millionaires Club" von Faye Webster ist für die 21-jährige Songwriterin und Fotografin aus Atlanta bereits die dritte Albumveröffentlichung, aber die erste für Secretly Canadian. "Atlanta Millionaires Club" ist eine Sammlung von Songs, die dem Gefühl der Einsamkeit inmitten einer vorhandenen Gemeinschaft auf den Grund gehen. Die Musik basiert auf Alternative-Folk, bedient sich jedoch einer weiten Vielfalt von musikalischen Einflüssen und Genres, auch beeinflusst durch Websters Zeit in der Hip-Hop-Szene Atlantas in den Rap-Kollektiven von PSA und Awful Records. Die genreübergreifende Sammlung an Songs verbindet Websters federleichten Gesang, intimes Songwriting und ihren Scharfsinn, weil sie auffallend verletzlich und mutig aus ihrer eigenen Introvertiertheit und Herzschmerz schöpft. Den zehn Songs des "Atlanta Millionaires Club" unterliegt eine ganz eigene Traurigkeit, die von flüchtigen Beobachtungen und einem unerwarteten, schlitzohrigen Sinn für Humor unterbrochen wird: "Everything is way personal. I've never been that kind of person who can read a book and then write a song about the book," so Webster. "I have to write about very personal things for me to even want to write". "Atlanta Millionaires Club" wurde von Webster und Drew Vandenberg koproduziert und bei Chase Park Transduction in Athens, Georgia, aufgenommen. Der Titel geht auf Websters Vater zurück, der zusammen mit seinen Freunden während der Schulzeit regelmäßig an Aktionen für wohltätige Zwecke teilnahm und irgendwann dieser Gruppe den ironisch zu verstehenden Beinamen verpasste - als protzigen Kontrast zur harschen Realität.

Thom Yorke ist Sänger, Songwriter und Sprachrohr der Alternative-Institution von der Insel. Mit "Ok Computer" lieferten Radiohead einst ein massenkompatibles Rockalbum, mit "Kid A" zeigten sie sich von ihrer avantgardistischen Seite, um mit "Hail To The Thief" wieder zugänglicher und dafür politisch ausdrücklicher zu werden. Welche musikalische Richtung sie auch einschlugen, die Fans folgten. Nun warten die Eingeweihten seit einem Jahr auf Neues aus dem Radiohead-Camp, und der Kopf überrascht erneut: mit einem Soloalbum, das Split-Gerüchten neue Nahrung geben könnte. Und mit Musik, die auch auf einem Radiohead-Album entzückt hätte.

United Kingdom-based Dirty Water Records has signed the California-based rock and roll / Power Pop outfit The Tearaways to a 5-year deal. The label has released the Ed Stasium-produced (Ramones, Talking Heads, Smithereens) digital version of their new record called “And For Our Next Trick.” The band features the dual lead singers of bassist John “Fin” Finseth and rhythm guitarist Greg Brallier, lead guitar David Hekhouse and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame drummer Clem Burke (Blondie). Also, from Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Benmont Tench played keyboards and Steven McCarthy (Jayhawks, The Long Ryders) added pedal steel guitar. The new record was recorded at legendary Village Recorders in Los Angeles and mastered at Sterling Sound by Greg Calbi. The first single being released to radio was “Charlie, Keith and Ringo,” along with the the award-winning video (Raindance Festival directed by Stephen David Brooks (“Flytrap”). The spring single is called “Saturday Everyday” and is being serviced to radio stations and other outlets right now. Label chief Paul Manchester: “We are thrilled to have assembled an all-star team of distributor Cargo Records UK, Wipe Out Music Publishing, Seán Crossey from the UK promotion firm High Violet PR & Plugging, and US publicity specialist Lou Mansdorf to help launch this project.“

Skyjack is what happens when a heavyweight South African jazz trio meets a pair of Swiss reed and brass hotshots. Over the course of a decade, this all-star quintet has forged a reputation as an innovative and adventurous force in contemporary African and European jazz. Combining deep grooves with thrilling rides and avant-garde experimentation, Skyjack is a powerhouse both on stage and in the studio.

Light Cycle is the band's third recorded outing and documents a seasoned outfit at its most ambitious and accomplished. Featuring compositions from all members of the group, the album is a multidimensional creature with a big heart and a powerful imagination. Part science fiction adventure, part sentimental journey, Light Cycle reconciles expansive cosmic soundscapes with a deep grounding in memory and folklore.

Issued as a double-LP on the As-Shams/The Sun label, Skyjack joins both a catalogue and tradition of groundbreaking South African jazz dating back to the 1970s. The album's cover features the work of esteemed Cape Town artist Igshaan Adams.

Warehouse find!

With '100% Dope' we find Central Processing Unit bringing up their hundredth catalogue number, and you'd struggle to find a more fitting artist to ring in a century of releases for the label than Cygnus. The one born Phillip Washington has been with CPU since the very beginning, his 2012 LP 'Newmark Phase' representing the first record ever released on the imprint. That album's combination of textured techno and grizzly Drexciyan electro set the tone for CPU perfectly, and it's no surprise that Cygnus has returned to the Sheffield imprint several times down the years.

While '100% Dope' is an expert demonstration of what Cygnus and CPU do, this EP also shows just how much both artist and label have grown over the past nine years. At its heart '100% Dope' is a set of prime machine-funk from a master of the form, but these are also some of the most daring and innovative tracks that Cygnus has ever produced.

Take opening cut 'Bad RGB Controller'. In the undulating synth lines we have a ghost of grime as well as Drexciyan drive, and as such the track reminds one as much of Mr. Mitch or Last Japan as it does, say, Dopplereffekt. Furthermore, 'Bad RGB Controller' shifts gear around the halfway mark into a highwire electronica mode which has the wit and spark of prime Bogdan Raczynski. Entries like 'Float Back To The Surface' are similarly unpredictable. There's some lovely industrial techno bite to this one - the snare drum will echo in your head long after the party's died down - but Cygnus periodically pulls out the rug from underneath us with passages of impressionistic texture that almost border on sound art.

'Float Back To The Surface' is one of a trio of vocoder-led jams here. On 'Throwing Shade' we hear I-F and Egyptian Lover, with Cygnus' vocals clattering around like pronouncements from some funked-out robot overlord atop hissing-piston drums. Then there's the enticingly-titled 'CPU Records'. 'CPU Records' delivers all the crisp electro snap we've come to expect from a record emblazoned with that signature black-and-white artwork, yet this thing is also widescreen and cinematic in ways that demonstrate the maturation of the Cygnus sound. With a wicked vocoder vocal that celebrates the label's many achievements, 'CPU Records' is a victory lap tune if ever we've heard one.

Central Processing Unit keep it 100 on for this new EP. '100% Dope' by Cygnus is CPU's 100th catalogue number, and the Texan producer delivers on the promise of the record's title with a collection of brilliantly unique electro joints.

Mixed LP:

tracklist:

A1 Dimples D– Sucker DJ
A2 The KLF– 3 AM Eternal
A3 Nomad– Devotion
A4 2 Brothers On The 4th Floor– Can't Help Myself
A5 Twenty 4 Seven– Are You Dreaming?
A6 Afrika Bambaataa– Just Get Up And Dance
A7 FPI Project– Everybody
A8 Real McCoy– Don't Stop
A9 Quadrophonia– Quadrophonia
A10 A Homeboy, A Hippie & A Funki Dredd– Total Confusion
A11 DJ Dick– Weekend
B1 Various– Radio Mix Version
B2 Various– Dimples Beat (112 Bpm)
B3 Various– Twenty Beat (124 Bpm)
B4 Various– Two Beat (123 Bpm)
B5 Various– Devotion Beat (120 Bpm)
B6 Various– Afrikan-Baataa Beat (123 Bpm)
B7 Various– Mc Beat (122 Bpm)
B8 Various– Replay Beat (122 Bpm)
B9 Various– Get Bussy With Skateboard 2

Elias Landberg, channeling the rich techno legacy of Skudge, presents "The Wind" EP on Syncrophone Records. This 3-track odyssey pays homage to Skudge's atmospheric finesse and hypnotic rhythms, showcasing Landberg's seamless blend of raw analog energy. Limited Edition: Immerse yourself in the Skudge-inspired techno experience with the exclusive golden-colored vinyl, a sonic canvas capturing the essence of the genre's pioneers. Embark on a journey through "Wander's" hypnotic beats, unravel the enigmatic "Hidden Location," and surrender to the ambient allure of the title track, "The Wind." Secure your golden vinyl copy now, and let Elias Landberg guide you through the echoes of Skudge's influential sound, inviting you into the heart of techno exploration.

Now in its tenth year, Frankfurt-based record label Die Orakel has earned itself a strong catalogue of classy releases in a distinct sonic and visual attitude, its latest being a compilation called Braindance.

A fair assumption about Braindance as a genre could be, that it's rather in the zone of kaleidoscopic and whimsical quirktronica, less about IDM's futurist tropes. From Die Orakel's point of view, its very own Braindance compilation marks the label's tenth anniversary by releasing an intense listener's atlas, to its own and their creative collaborators' musical slant of mind.

While much could be said about spectral traces of a leftfield past, nostalgia isn't heard anywhere. The more you listen to this selection, the deeper the tracks plug into your brain—stretching from ethereal harmonic licks rippling with fragile glitches, bleepy to bass-heavy electroid steppers of any BPM range, to abstract-scientific neo-modular artistry.

Die Orakel's Braindance transmission can be had as a 15-track digi-release, as well as a 4-track vinyl EP. Pick either for your library of the future. The Braindance compilation will be released on 16 February 2024.

The Decline And Fall Of Heavenly’ Gets Re-Issued On Vinyl. Skep Wax Records are re-issuing all four Heavenly albums over a two year period, and this is the third instalment, following on from ‘Heavenly vs Satan’ and ‘Le Jardin De Heavenly’. Each LP includes relevant single releases as additional tracks, a 7” booklet with lyrics, pictures, and new sleeve notes by the members of the band. Altogether, the four albums will amount to a thorough collection of the band’s recorded output. Heavenly will be playing gigs in various countries in 2024. The third Heavenly album will be re-released by Skep Wax Records on Friday 2nd February. The re-release will also include all five tracks from the Atta Girl and P.U.N.K Girl 7” singles. The Atta Girl and P.U.N.K. Girl singles were released in 1993; album The Decline and Fall of Heavenly came soon after in 1994: collectively they show a band that is rapidly expanding its scope. The album veers confidently from high speed indiepunk (Me And My Madness) to cool surf instrumental (Sacramento) and back again to the sweetest indiepop (Itchy Chin). Meanwhile, the singles, which include the band’s most celebrated tune - P.U.N.K Girl – demonstrates how much confidence Heavenly were deriving from their involvement in the nascent Riot Grrrl scene. All the anger is there, the politics are direct and crystal clear – yet the whole thing is still delivered with the sweetest pop melodies. It’s like being punched and kissed at the same time. The three releases also show how Heavenly had come to feel equally at home in the UK and in the US. The album maybe feels more British, as demonstrated by the Old World irony of the ‘Decline and Fall’ title. At Heavenly gigs in the UK, often playing with other bands on the increasingly influential Sarah Records, audiences were getting bigger, while the bands were finding a sweet spot where anti-corporate understatement and a dismissive attitude to an increasingly misogynist UK Press was no barrier to success. P.U.N.K Girl and Atta Girl on the other hand, are more gleeful, more headlong, and somehow feel more American: they are carried along by the excitement and adrenaline of having found another spiritual home - the indiepunk Riot Grrrl scene that was focussed on Olympia, WA, the HQ of Heavenly’s US label K Records. (K released P.U.N.K Girl and Atta Girl together on one 10” EP.) Amelia Fletcher and Cathy Rogers were now confidently sharing vocals, sometimes harmonising, sometimes taking it in turns, sometimes singing over each other. Peter (guitar) Mathew (drums) and Rob (bass) had become adept at changing gear from ornate pop to full-on punk, unafraid of genre rules and increasingly happy to make up their own version of what pop music should sound like. The more delicate, more decorative arrangements of Heavenly’s first two albums had been left behind. The band – or more accurately, the women in the band – were still dogged by accusations of being too fey, too ‘twee’: not ROCK enough. But, as the chorus of Atta Girl makes clear, any attempts to define Heavenly by their ‘cuteness’ now received an unambiguous response: ‘Fuck you, no way!’ The fourth and final Heavenly album ‘Operation Heavenly’ will be released later in 2024. Heavenly were: Amelia Fletcher (guitar, vocals), Cathy Rogers (guitar, vocals), Rob Pursey (bass), Peter Momtchiloff (guitar), Mathew Fletcher (drums).

10 Year Anniversary Vinyl Release (first time vinyl pressing of Blake Mills’ debut album). Includes Hi Res Audio Download Card & Poster Foldout. BLAKE MILLS is a Grammy-nominated songwriter, guitarist, producer, and composer based in Los Angeles. In 2010, Blake’s solo career began with this self titled critically acclaimed album released only on a limited run of CDs and digitally. It became a cult favorite over the years, with 2019 marking the first time it will be pressed on vinyl. In 2015 he produced the highly acclaimed sophomore album SOUND & COLOR for ALABAMA SHAKES. The album reached #1 on Billboard charts and was nominated for six Grammys, winning Best Alternative Album, Best Engineered Album, Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song. Blake went on to produce the albums NO SHAPE for PERFUME GENIUS, DARKNESS AND LIGHT for JOHN LEGEND, WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE for DAWES, and SEMPER FEMINA foR LAURA MARLING - earning him his second Producer of the Year Grammy nomination. Blake also composed original music for DAVID O’RUSSELL’S Academy Award nominated film JOY. As a session player and sideman he has worked with BECK, CASS MCCOMBS, JACKSON BROWN, LUCINDA WILLIAMS, BAND OF HORSES, FRANK OCEAN, RANDY NEWMAN and NEIL DIAMOND, among others. RICK RUBIN and T BONE BURNETT frequently call upon his services as a guitarist, and equally enamored is ERIC CLAPTON who told Rolling Stone magazine “Blake Mills is the last guitarist I heard that I thought was phenomenal

We are very excited about Lizz Wright’s new album, and her 2024 European tours. The initial teaser single, Sweet Feeling, is doing quite nicely on Spotify, Apple, etc. and the second single, Your Love, featuring Meshell Ndegeocello, to be released in February, will have a dance remix as well. The album will be April 12. Her London date of March 15 at Cadogan Hall is confirmed, and Virgin staff is invited. Joe Baxter is doing PR and radio for the UK.

11 song LP, one track in extended mix.

Classic LP recorded circa 1980 in the Radics / Scientist era, this is a reissue of the 1997 pressing with 2 bonus tracks, but with a fresh new layout for 2024. Timeless stuff here that is the top shelf of its era.

Considered an underground classic by many, XL Middleton's “Tap Water” was released at the height of the fervor over 'modern funk' music, brought to life by Dam Funk & carried on by a small but dedicated cadre of artists including Middleton. Always in demand, “Tap Water” has become scarce in the aftermarket and demands collector-level prices when it does sell; thus a reissue was inevitable.

Mentions in LA Weekly, The Wire (UK), Washington Post

DJ support from: - J Rocc
- Soul Clap
- Dam Funk
- Walla P (Voyage Funktastique)
- Tim Zawada (Star Creature, Numero Group)
- WeFunk Radio

XL Middleton has continuously toured the US and internationally throughout Europe, as well as Japan, China, & Canada.

Warehouse find!

While the German producer Martin Matiske averages a new release under his given name every few years, there was a long stretch of time in which sightings of his Blackploid alias were much more rare. After dropping an EP for Frustrated Funk in 2006, fans found further material hard to come by over the next decade or so. However, Matiske has reinvigorated Blackploid in recent times, with the project making a few compilation appearances and dropping a couple of EPs across 2020.

That run now culminates inCosmic Traveler, a four-track affair which marks Matiske's debut appearance on Sheffield's Central Processing Unit. Given the long wait, it's great just to see Blackploid back among the fray once again. But for the project's CPU curtain-raiser to be an EP of such high-quality techno jams? Now that really is spoiling us.

Cosmic Traveler's title nods towards the sort of stargazing aesthetics one finds in classic Detroit techno. However, while there are undoubtedly ties to the Motor City in this music, the record ultimately steers less towards spacious atmospherics and more towards the taut, lean machine-funk of seminal practitioners like Dopplereffekt.

Matiske sets his stall out from the off. Opener 'Electric Engine' begins with a run of stiff-necked 808 kicks before hissing hi-hats, a grizzly bassline and all manner of futuristic sounds enter to warp the tune into hyperspace. Following cut 'Night Drive' repeats the trick of 'Electric Engine' but adds a pleasingly dinky synth lead in order to nudge itself slightly towards bleep-techno territory.

The two cuts on Cosmic Traveler's B-side are pure late-night goodness, a pair of mid-set heaters primed for dark basements. 'Pleasure Activism' delivers on the promise of its title and then some, pushing the Kraftwerk template to extremes by bringing a load of gnarly synth lines into play over a wobbling acidic chug. Finally, EP closer 'The Race' is reminiscent of both the twisted machine-funk of Gerald Donald's Japanese Telecom project and the playful modern evolutions of artists like fellow CPU high-flyer Jensen Interceptor.

The resurgence of Martin Matiske's Blackploid project continues withCosmic Traveller, an EP of timeless electro-funk and techno.

FFO: Dopplereffekt, Japanese Telecom, Jensen Interceptor, Cardopusher

We Release JAZZ is so happy to announce the fourth Bruno Spoerri release in the WRWTFWW discography, this time focusing on the Swiss legend’s unheard jazz catalogue. The pristine 6-track album Musiques Légères (1976-1982) is available as a limited edition half speed mastered biovinyl LP housed in a heavy 350gsm sleeve with superb design by Nicolas Eigenheer and the classic WRJ obi.

Swiss jazz and electronic music pioneer Bruno Spoerri unveils a treasure trove of never-before-released songs in this rare archival collection recorded between 1976 and 1982 that includes collaborations with the fabled Radio Suisse Romande-backed music ensemble GIR (Groupe Instrumental Romand) which featured the crème de la crème of Helvetic forward thinking musicians with an international reputation. The super team of instrumentalists / composers represented Swiss national radio in endeavors that spanned a vast array of music genres such a jazz, pop, experimental music, or what they referred to as “musiques légères” (light music), their very own brand of jazz and funk infused easy listening. One notable member of GIR was drummer extraordinaire Stuff Combe that We Release JAZZ collectors will know from his Stuff Combe 5 + Percussion LP.

Musique Légères (1976-1982) offers a marvelous blend of easy listening jazz, joyful synth improvisations, and soulful funk ballads, a testament to Bruno Spoerri’s multifaceted talents and ability to approach various genres while keeping his very personal and very magical touch. Among the hidden gems on the carefully curated collection is the immensely catchy "Prince Karl", an undeniable hit that truly deserves to be heard.

This is the fourth Bruno Spoerri release from WRWTFWW, following the synth heavy and galactic Voice of Taurus and The Sound of the UFOs, and the compilation of unreleased experimental tracks Rare & Unreleased 1971-1998.
Musiques Légères (1976-1982) is pressed on biovinyl, a sustainable alternative to traditional vinyl. Biovinyl replaces petroleum in S-PVC by recycling used cooking oil or industrial waste gases, resulting in 100% CO2 savings in bio-based S-PVC production. Furthermore, it is 100% recyclable and reusable, embracing the circular economy ideology.

Clear Vinyl

Blue Lake is the musical moniker of American born, Copenhagen based multidisciplinary artist and musician Jason Dungan, who signs to the Tonal Union imprint for the release of his new longform album ‘Sun Arcs’. It follows 2022’s release ‘Stikling’, earning a nomination for ‘Album of the Year’ at the Danish Music Awards plus warm praise from The Hum blog and musicians and DJs alike including Jack Rollo (Time is Away/NTS) and Carla dal Forno. A self taught player, Dungan began freely experimenting with self-built multi-string instruments, preferring to build his own hybrid 48-string zither and working in the realms of left-field ambient music, off kilter folk and improvised acoustic minimalism.

The starting point of ‘Sun Arcs’ saw Jason travel for a week alone to Andersabo, a cabin set in the idyllic Swedish woods just outside of Unnaryd, known also as the music project, festival and residency space which has been run by Dungan since 2016, hosting artists like Sofie Birch, Johan Carøe and Ellen Arkbro. Whilst writing 1-2 pieces per day, a conscious decision was made to leave behind everyday distractions and shut out the outside world to instead focus on the natural passage of time as Dungan recalls: “My only sense of time came from these daily walks out in the woods with my dog, and an awareness of the sun’s path as it moved across the sky each day.”

The album’s immersive world unfolds with the opener ‘Dallas’, an ode to his home state and a musical synthesis of these two disparate spaces (Texas and Denmark), the touchstones of Dungan’s life. A folk-esque single acoustic builds to a flowing arrangement of clarinets, organ and cello drones coupled with percussion. ‘Green-Yellow Field’ chimes in as the first of two solo oriented zither recordings twinned with the dreamlike title track ‘Sun Arcs’, both densely rich as cascading and overlapping harmonic tones resound. ‘Bloom’ emerges with a krautrock psyche before an eruption of cello drones, slide guitar and free-ranging zither playing, ushering in the anticipation of spring. With half of the recordings conceived in Andersabo, Jason returned to Copenhagen to form the album's centre piece ‘Rain Cycle’ which features a tempered Roland drum machine alongside shifting zither improvisations. ‘Writing’ explores the shimmering harp-like qualities of sweeping playing figurations with Dungan mapping out adjusted tuning “zones” on the zither for unconventional but creatively liberating effects. ‘Fur’ captures the feeling of openness and the momentum of time, seeing Dungan perform waves of solo clarinet, often in one takes and embellished with textural drones, a zither solo, and layers of guitar. ‘Wavelength’ the album's closer is fondly inspired by the film works of Michael Snow and Don Cherry’s seminal live album ‘Blue Lake’ (1974), as it builds out from a drone-generated zither chord and features an alto recorder solo. Dungan found a deep connection to Cherry’s stripped back performance ethos, focusing on the core beauty of minimal instrumentation creating a genre-less meeting between folk and jazz. A dialogue is formed between the solo and the bandlike performances, interlinked in a geographical duality with all finding a sense of commonplace as musical sketches of visited landscapes. The bountiful instrumentation ebbs and flows as further layers emerge with Dungan constructing his material much like an artist would, recording and reviewing, adding and subtracting.

Musically it portrays a form of double life led by an American-identifying person living in Scandinavia, and a new found presence in Denmark, seeking out underdeveloped marshlands and barren stretches of beach adrift from other rhythms and distractions. Highlighting their individual and potent importance Dungan concludes: “Both places feel like “me”, I think on some level the music is always some kind of self-portrait.” ‘Sun Arcs’ depicts the intricate balance of nature’s cycles and the paths outlined by the seasons, from a winter dormancy to a warm sun drenched scene. The album scales new glorying heights and further defines Dungan’s musical narrative, inhabiting a unique space in left-field, improvised and experimental music, borning his most accomplished compositions to date. A singular and visionary expression, drawing on an array of instruments and sound worlds with a renewed sense of joy and discovery.

The album's rich tapestry was mixed by Jeff Zeigler (Laraaji, Mary Lattimore, Kurt Vile /Steve Gunn) and mastered by Stephan Mathieu (Kali Malone, KMRU, Félicia Atkinson).

Vladislav Delay presents the fifth and last EP in his "Hide Behind The Silence" series. Intuitive and raw music, momentary and reflective, released on Ripatti's own label "Rajaton".

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Stillness is a myth. Consider concepts such as ”still water”, or ”still air” for that matter. Go to a restaurant, ask them for a glass of still water, hold it against the light and see where we’re at. Even though the water itself has been captured and imprisoned in the glass, it never stops breathing. It’s filled with tiny particles, dancing. Everything can be explained on a molecular level, but since we’re not scientists – and even if you happen to be – it’s the natural world of perception that moves me.
Still air is very similar. A hot summer’s day with zero wind feels completely still. It’s the closest I have felt to complete stillness. Or for a more urban adaptation, imagine the same vibe inside a normal apartment. In those moments, revelations and mind- blowing experiences can be had with experiments in stillness.
Try this: Just sit down for a minute on a sunny day, making sure there’s enough natural light. Do absolutely nothing. Try not to breathe for a bit. (If you need a mental anchor, you can play Cage’s 4’33” in your head but nothing else.) Watch the tiny dots of dust dancing :..’ ̈.:; ́ ́*°.,’:,. ̈ ̈ ̈ ̈:,.’
The movement is crazy, but the feeling of stillness comes from witnessing how subtle it is. In (perceived) complete stillness, every act of microscopic mobility seems to speak volumes. Yet, it feels both reassuring and oddly threatening that the stillness is never complete. What if we would need absolute stillness? Or is it just enough that we can perceive something as such? Extremes attract, so for both water and air, extraordinary movement is equally fascinating. That is also a luxury item of sorts. For us to enjoy a very ”loud” body of water or air, we need to be safe, in enough control of the situation. So when you are, it’s worthwhile to pay attention and take it all in.
A rapid flowing free with extreme strength and just barely in control. Look at that water go! No still water on this one, only ”sparkling”. A windy day when birds seem surprised how hard it is to fly, but in the end they make it. Trees bend but don’t break. The wind shows you its movement but doesn’t hurt you. It feels friendly, like a big clumsy dog that doesn’t quite understand its size.
It’s beautiful to be a guest of the elements, but not at the mercy of them. A new kind of dialogue forms.

For their first album, Seth Troxler and Phil Moffa joined forces and became multidimensional creative dissidents Lost Souls Of Saturn. This time, even further into the vortex, they’ve metamorphosed into sci-fi AR comic characters John and Frank who’ve explored the galaxy and returned with this perception-melting new LP.

Although ‘Reality’ still possesses the wigged-out conceptual brilliance which garnered installations and performances at Saatchi Gallery (London), Fondation Beyeler (Basel), The Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC), and Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, plus live sets at Field Day, Glastonbury and Kappa Futur, as its title might suggest, there’s vividness amidst the mind-bending. Where its predecessor was a murky exploration of weird and dark cerebral passageways, this album – though still fathoms deep – has a dazzling clarity of sound, as if listeners are beginning to crack the arcane codes, and reach for enlightenment.

A prime example of these newfound beams of light guiding participants through the maze is their recent single; the chugging cosmic techno synth pop of ‘Mirage’, featuring the voice of Adam Ohr. Also guesting on the album is Lvv Gvn, whose honeyed Billie-Holiday-meets-Rickie-Lee-Jones tones adorn the tranquil pixelated broken beat of ‘Click’, Greg Paulus’s trumpet sessions on ‘Zorg Arrival’ and ‘Scram City’, and Protomartyr’s vocalist Joe Casey and guitarist Greg Ahee, who grace the liminal drifting celestial plane of ‘Lilac Chasers’. Sitarist Rishab Sharma, the last disciple of guru Ravi Shankar, also shreds on ‘Scram City’.

Elsewhere, across the LP’s immensely inventive instrumental passages techno, dub, house, jazz, psych and ambient are vapourised into an expansive yet pleasingly concise series of morphing dream states. Fans of Air Liquide, Ravi Shankar, Ray Manzarek, Carl Craig, Pole, The Orb and ‘Son Of A Lung’ era FSOL should find much to like.

Canadian artist Jay Tripwire delivers his new three-track EP ‘Gone Insane’ via Jamie Clarke’s Either imprint this February.

Vancouver, Canada’s Jay Tripwire has long been a beloved producer in the world of stripped back house and techno with releases dating back to the turn of the millennium on the likes of Steve Bug’s Pokerflat, D’Julz’ Bass Culture, Roger Gerressen’s Irenic and of course his own Witching Hour among many others. Here though, we see him joining the roster of Irish artist Jamie Clarke’s Either imprint which has played host to numerous releases from the label boss himself and featured remixes from Silverlining, Ryan Crosson, Barac and more.

Title track ‘Gone Insane’ opens the release and perfectly sets the tone with Tripwire’s signature murky atmospheric style, crisp driving rhythm, gritty bass and intricately programmed effects. ‘Workhorse’ follows next and diverges into haunting minimal realms with swirling synth textures, glitched out bass flutters and crunchy low-slung drums.

‘Still A Raver’ then rounds out the EP, shifting things back up a gear with bouncy, twitchy synth melodies, twisted vocal murmurs and pulsating subs all underpinned by heavily shuffled, raw percussion.

repressed !

Say what you wanna say, but you have to give Strahil Velchev this: the man's a powerhouse. Recording and playing live under the KiNK alias, he went on to become one of finest purveyor's of funk in techno and house. What it is, by definition, ain't exactly clear. And that is the beauty of it.

KiNK's music is unifying in the best possible way. Channeling the spirit and feeling of a time where it didn't really matter who the faces behind the music were, KiNK plays with the elements of genres and sub-genres as if the future of it all is still wide-open. At the same time it could be accused of retro-fetishism, as much as the Pope himself is infallible.

The pure need to recreate moments, feelings and experience - rather than carbon copies of existing designs - was what started KiNK's production work. Hailing from Bulgaria, it was nearly impossible to get your hands on all the records and music that fed into a system of raves, clubs and record shops that seemed far away from Sofia, and financially it might as well have meant another galaxy. Wanting to DJ without having access to the tracks that spun the carousel meant that you had to create them yourselves. So, here we go with a private bootlegger gone public mastermind and one of the loudest voices in house, techno and beyond.

From KiNK's early productions with Neville Watson to his smash-hit for Ovum, a cerebral album for Macro, tons of remixes & tracks and his mind-bending live act, Playground seems to take all that into a blender. Simultaneously a sound-summary, the harvest of a field of ideas, and the exhibition of an artist in his prime, it also works as a sort of KiNK dictionary: avant-garde soundscapes stand next to boisterous bangers, classic club tracks and peak time emotions find their idiosyncratic and contemplative counterparts - all of it coming down like a torrent in a drought.

Purple Vinyl Repress is coming

One of Smiths favourite pieces of music, At Les, has been a remix target of his for a long time but earlier this year inspiration and motivation combined and resulted in two brilliant interpretations which were immediately sent to Carl Craig, purely out of respect. Craig loved them, granted his permission and approval for a special remix package release on Tronic and now, here we are with one of the biggest releases of 2010.

Delivered in both Tronic Treatment and Hypnotica Remix forms, Smith has taken the originals warmth, musicality and emotion and given them the sort of energy and power which has made him one of the most bankable producers of recent years.

The Tronic Treatment remix starts slow but with careful and patient layering of melodies builds to an epic, peak time track which takes on an almost orchestral feel while the aptly titled Hypnotica Remix takes a slightly more aggressive, loopier and hypnotic take.

Repressed on Clear Vinyl for 2022


Dave Clarke Very good, congratulations!

Slam awesome mixes. played last night - a classic just got better really love both mixes

Laurent Garnier what a classy remix of this stunning classic—Will play everywhere and will playlist on the radio BRAVO

John Digweed "Massive!" Both Remixes!

Dubfire "Christian has managed to do a great remix of a timeless classic which is both reverent and of the moment. Well done! I closed with it at Awakenings festival and it sounded wicked!"

Adam Beyer Love the "Hypnotica" remix that Christian made. Been playing it over and over and it was one of the biggest trax during WMC for me!

James Zabiela Oh My God!!!!!! Going on my essential mix that was meant to be handed in this morning. Re-working to fit this in. ANTHEM!!!!!

The organic minimalism of composer and producer Kirk Barley is collected on his new studio album Marionette, released via Odda Recordings.

Whether drawing from field recordings, found sound, instrumental improvisations or synthetic processes, Barley’s compositions evoke unfolding sound worlds, as simple ideas or motifs are layered and developed into complex set-pieces that reveal themselves over time.

Marionette showcases the breadth and variety of the Yorkshire-born artist’s sound, weaving together familiar and uncanny moods of rural England and its Victorian architecture, as suggested by the gated garden print of the album’s cover. Unfurling between physical textures – the patina of vinyl crackle or gentle rain – and the hyper-real spaces that his music inhabits, Barley describes the compositions as “landscape or static scene paintings,” with many of the album’s tracks taking nature’s rhythms as their compositional cue.

On ‘Seafarer’, this manifests in the repeated synth swells of a boat on rough waters, while title track ‘Marionette’ imagines an eerie scene, were shadows flicker by an open fire. Similarly,‘Lake of Gold’ layers plucked strings at different scales and velocities to create what Barley calls the “rain-like quality” of the rhythm.

Drawing from jazz, minimalism and techno, Barley focuses on the detailed qualities of sound, experimenting with time signatures, temporals and tuning systems. His esoteric alter-ego Bambooman (2013-2018) found a home on Matthew Herbert’s Accidental imprint, releasing the album Whispers in 2017.

In contrast, under the pseudonym Church Andrews (most notably in collaboration with drummer Matt Davies), he produces synthetic, often beat-focused music, using digital synthesis and algorithmic composition techniques, with the live drum performances triggering and modulating Barley’s synths. The duo has recently performed at festivals such as Rewire and Waking Life, filmed sessions for Fact Magazine and Slate & Ash, and recently had their music played out by Aphex Twin.

Under his own name, Barley released his debut album Landscapes in 2019 on 33-33 Records and received support from the likes of NTS Radio and BBC 6 Music. Barley has performed at events across the UK and Europe alongside the likes of Andy Stott, Beatrice Dillon, Jan Jelinek, MF DOOM and Madlib. He has also completed commissioned work for the British Art Show, Camden Arts Centre, MSCTY and the Open Music Archive.

After almost 6 years of silence since “Akelarre”, Synths Versus Me, the personal musical project of Nico Cabañas, co- founder of Oráculo Records alongside the young Italian promise India Nardone. Recorded analogically in just 2 months, fluctuates in a futuristic way between different kinds of unusual dark sub styles such as industrial noise, proto- tribal, synthpunk or krautwork, and, of course, among other dance-oriented such as EBM, new beat, synthwave, electro/breakbeat or trance. Presented in ONE-OFF truly limited edition of 300 copies lacquered pressed on 180 gr. high quality solid BLACK vinyl. All tracks have been specially mastered for vinyl by Daniel Hallhuber at Young and Cold Studios (Germany).

Sylvain Chauveau has been releasing quiet and minimal compositions on various labels for more than two decades. ultra-minimal marks his debut for Sonic Pieces and takes the minimal approach even further, centring on reduction and limitation.

The album was recorded live at Café Oto, London in March 2022 - one of Sylvain’s rare solo concerts and the first time he performed publicly with only acoustic instruments; no machines, no recorded sounds have been used, only piano, guitar, harmonium and melodica, played one at the time. While some of the compositions are completely new, others are live versions of previously released pieces which have either been performed close to their original or stripped-down, reduced to a single instrument and partly rearranged. This reveals a predilection for repetitions and variations that Sylvain shares with Jim Jarmusch, and at the same time it is a personal attempt to avoid electronic devices as a tool for live music.

The artwork and track titles follow this reductionist idea and an aesthetic of miniaturization that Sylvain has developed for many years. They refer to the minimalist, concrete poetry that he writes regularly. In this context rewriting some of the original titles was a consistent implication to achieve a complete work, an album that perfectly represents Sonic Pieces’ aesthetics, both musically and visually.

White vinyl, limited to 500 copies. Liam Cromby, known for his work as the lead singer and songwriter of We Are The Ocean until 2017, has today announced his forthcoming debut solo album What Can I Trust, If I Can't Trust True Love, due for release on December 1st 2023, also sharing the title track, available to stream/download worldwide now. "Drawing from my own experiences, this song is a testament to those early, fragile moments of a relationship_where every misstep feels like a fall and every kind gesture feels like flying," he explains. "Choosing to name the album after this song was instinctive, given that it was among the final tracks to be crafted. Even though it came later in the creative journey, it perfectly embodies the central theme of the album." Since revealing the first taste of new music in March, with the release of `Here I Am' - accompanied only by a contemplative, artful film featuring an elaborate dance between two performers - followed by `Breakdown', and last month, `At This Table', this new phase of his career is already off to an impressive start. With early airplay from BBC Introducing and Absolute Radio Country among others, an appearance at The Great Escape festival and sold-out headline shows across the country, Cromby was invited to play at the prestigious Black Deer Festival of Americana, and along with a full-band set, joined Brandy Clark, Drake White, Elles Bailey and Bella White for a Songwriter Session. Although recorded in a matter of days, the project was at least five years in the making.

Brasilian Producer Apoena kicks off 2024 in style for Hudd Traxx following an impressive back catalogue of releases on labels like Jimpster's Freerange and Jus Ed's Underground Quality.

Pure Feeling opens up proceedings in a deep and hypnotic style reminiscent of Ron Trent and Chez Damier's early releases on Prescription. Rico Balanço follows in a similar vain oozing with raw Berlin vibes, which is where Apoena currently resides.

The B side features In between the beat and the title track Mystic which are melodic trippy groovers for early hour vibes. 2024 is shaping up to be a big year for Hudd Traxx keep em' peeled.

Hail the sonic mayhem as we commemorate two decades of groundbreaking beats! Bong-Ra's iconic masterpiece, 'Bikini Bandits Kill! Kill! Kill!,' is set to make its vinyl debut on Rotterdam's Redrum Recordz. This record is a genre breaking fusion of breakcore, jungle and experimental electronic sounds that define Bong-Ra's visionary work. Safe to say; a classic! With guest appearances of The Dirty Dred (Skindred / Dub War), Mike Redman (Deformer) and Lolita Storm. In homage to the album's relentless energy and fiery spirit, the 20th-anniversary edition comes in striking red double vinyl. Order now to ensure you don't miss out on this limited release.

Founding member of Band of Horses, Tyler Ramsey, returns with his fourth solo, full length studio record “New Lost Ages” - finding him facing the harsh realities of the world as we know it. Fans of Ramsey’s former projects, Father John Misty and Lord Huron will find “New Lost Ages” to be a relatable reprieve - one that feels both familiar and starkly new. Traversing genre-bending terrain, the new record from Ramsey is as indie and psych-rock as it is singer-songwriter, showcasing his talent and dedication to the craft.

Champagne Dub is a collective of selected artists who come together to practice psychedelic dub rituals. Lysergic weather front top-loaded via betamax"s hippocampus trapdoor melding Catto"s studio into a rainbow of textures, formless places, and emotional sonics awash with resonant poy-rhythms. Champagne Dub is a mission in space-dub whose "crew" took a few too many wrong turns. "We are here to bring raw metamorphic rock-rituals that escaped our minds."

Currently celebrating ten years of releasing music on vinyl & cassette and following hype for recent releases from Moscow (via Tallinn)’s Galun (glagol album) and Osaka's Kiji Suedo (Hosek EP & Riot album), Edinburgh's Hobbes Music label continues to mine a leftfield seam with this brand new album from singer/songwriter George Demure (Tirk, Output) aka DJ/producer George T (Greco Roman, Optimo), better known as George Thomson to his mum. And it’s another absolute peach if you have a taste for post-club sounds of a more leftfield persuasion.

This is the follow-up to his 'The Record Store' EP which came out via George's own All Noise imprint in 2021. He has also released the Roll On, King's Cross single via Hobbes Music under his George T moniker last November (plus various bits for the Paradise Palms and Ramrock labels in the interim).

“It all began with the Record Store EP in 2021,” explains George. “Limit my options. No samples, one drum machine, two analog synths (mono and poly), computer simply to record. I was so happy with the results I began with what you hear today. Same drums, same machines (or lack thereof) maybe some real percussion and melodica but hey, I only answer to me.”

Imagine, if you will, Scott Walker jamming with Kruder & Dorfmeister in a very small studio…

Bonus Album ‘Dandy In Dub’ features dubs, instrumentals and bonus tracks, with yet more regular flashes of pure brilliance. Be sure to check out opener 'After' and closer 'Blue Lou', which sound like George might well have sound-tracked some French 80s flick of the 'cinema du look' period (Betty Blue, Diva et al) in another life. Plus ‘Mr Minilogue’ with its clarinet-like synth.... Does it really get any better than this?!!

Sleeve art by the amazingly talented Bernie Reid, another local legend.

Feedback/Reviews to date:

'He's so talented!' JD TWITCH (Optimo)
'Love the LP. Sounds really together, production is awesome. I love the aesthetic. Vocal tracks sit nicely with instrumentals. Vocals sound light-hearted' THE MAGHREBAN
"On a bobbled and float-y, light sunbeam dappled vapor of deep house, garage, electro, kosmische, leftfield pop electronica, dub and new wave (both the German and UK’s), the Edinburgh DJ/producer and singer-songwriter George Thomson continues the good work he laid down on the last EP... It’s a most lovely, swimmingly blend of motivations, feels and deep grooves that effortlessly comes together in a generous offering of electronic music: the very epitome of the Hobbes label’s remit in delivering leftfield unique visions of now techno, house and club sounds." MONOLITH COCKTAIL
‘I love the album’ LEO MAS
‘Lovely stuff’ S/A/M (Music For Dreams/DK, Cafe Del Mar, Pikes, Playasol Radio and many more, Ibiza)
Plus play/s from Andy Wilson on ‘Balearia’ Ibiza Sonica Radio
+ DJ Dribbler (Pikes, Ibiza // Paradise Lost, Red Light Radio, Pure)

Robert Wienes Stummfilmklassiker von 1920 in neuem Klanggewand, komponiert von ex-Kraftwerk-Musiker Karl Bartos. Die Filmzeitschrift Licht-Bild-Bühne hatte damals nicht mit Superlativen gegeizt: "Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari" sei nichts Geringeres als "der modernste, aktuellste, gewagteste Film, den die Welt je gesehen hat", schrieb das Magazin 1920 und damit kurz nach der Premiere über den ersten Psychothriller der Filmgeschichte. Einer, der sich besonders intensiv mit diesem Meilenstein der Geschichte des expressionistischen Films auseinandergesetzt hat, ist der Komponist und Musiker Karl Bartos - vielen gut bekannt als langjähriges Bandmitglied und Co-Komponist von Kraftwerk, jenen Pionieren der Elektronischen Musik, die in ihrem Bereich mindestens ebenso "modern, aktuell, gewagt" waren. Seit fast 20 Jahren hegt der ursprünglich klassisch ausgebildete Musiker eine Leidenschaft für diesen wohl einflussreichsten deutschen Stummfilm aller Zeiten und arbeitet daran, dem experimentellen Film ein ebenso experimentelles Klanggewand zu schneidern. Mit kristallklaren Bildern, die von der Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung digital restauriert wurden, ist der Film nun in der besten Qualität zu sehen, die es je gab, und mit Bartos" Soundtrack gibt es nun auch einen beeindruckenden Sound zu der eindringlichen Vision.

Ein bisschen Sommer im tiefsten Winter. Auf “Home Soon…” kombinieren Cassia ihre tropischen Feel-Good Vibes mit feinfühligem Tiefgang. Gerade in Songs wie ‘whatstheuse’ oder ‘Find My Way Around’ zeigen sich die drei Briten verletzlicher und nachdenklicher denn je. Dabei fehlt es Cassia aber keinesfalls an warmen Gitarrenmelodien, verspielten Grooves und griffigen Basslines. Wenn sie eins nach wie vor hochhalten, dann ist es Freude, Optimismus und Leichtigkeit. Bei Cassia dauert es nie zu lange, bis die Sonne durch die Wolkendecke bricht.