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Violet vinyl, limited to 400 copies. New super-band featuring desert rock legends Mario Lalli, Brant Bjork, Sean Wheeler and Ryan Güt. The first release from this band of pioneering Desert rock musicians captures the band and its purest form exercising the desert born ethic and approach of rock improvisation, psychedelic and flowing, heavy and explorative. The foundation of Mario Lalli's grooving heavy bass lines and meditative themes with a intuitive guitar work with Brant Bjork and percussion of Ryan Güt set the scene for Sean Wheeler's poems and songs capturing the dark and beautiful stories and images of life in the Mojave desert of Southern California. This is a representation of desert rock in its purest form. A very special live performance in Gold Coast Australia.

For Fans Of... Thee Sacred Souls, Joey Quinones, Durand Jones & The Indications, Thee Midniters, The Altons, Trish Toledo, Sunny & The Sunliners.To say that The Sinseers play oldies would be a misnomer. Fronted by bandleader and son of East Los Angeles Joey Quiniones, the group has quietly chipped away at the sounds of R&B and soul for the last half-decade. Quinones and his crew have continuously created a distinctive vibe that explores all aspects of a timeless genre, bringing together their interpretation of music through an unmistakable modern lens. With their most recent effort, the aptly titled Sinseerly Yours (Colemine 2023), the band recorded most of the album live in the studio. With Quinones on vocals and keys, vocalist Adriana Flores, Christopher Manjarrez on bass, Francisco Floreson on guitar, Bryan Ponce on guitar and vocals, Luis Carpio on drums and vocals, saxophonists Eric Johnson and Steve Surman, and Jose Luis Jimenez on trombone, The Sinseers achieves their most fully realized sound to date. All of the album's stunning tracks were recorded in a converted studio space in Rialto, California, known as Second Hand Sounds. The converted studio space, which used to be a dentist's office, allowed the group to experiment with their sound like never before - this time, the group managed to take a series of big swings, only to emerge with a fuller, more pronounced version of themselves. Despite those new strides, the band remains wholly committed to its sonic aesthetic while injecting its brand of vibrant 21st-century cool. Of course, the group has never been the type to shy away from their influences as they expertly toggle between 60s pop vis-à-vie early Beatles records to obscure dancehall Jamaican tunes - all fully extrapolated and reinterpreted through modern Chicano soul sound that the group has built their everlasting repertoire on. Quinones and bandmates have continued to apply what they've learned from their previous releases and their relentless touring schedule throughout the country. It's clear here that the work is paying off, putting to practice their musical chops thoroughly with all members expertly honing their sound. The melting pot of ideas is showcased with incredibly lush orchestrations and arrangements, married with pitch-perfect harmonies, allowing the group to further solidify themselves in the pantheon of the Southern Californian songbook. Also Available From Thee Sinseers: What's His Name 7”, It Was Only A Dream

Kjetil Mulelid's various projects have received international acclaim, ranging from his duo with Siril Malmedal Hauge, his trio, and the quartet Wako. His first solo album, "Piano" (Rune Grammofon, 2021) received plaudits that placed him in the same company as pianists like Keith Jarret, Brad Mehldau, and Bill Evans. With "Agoja" Mulelid demonstrates what a musician and composer worthy of such acclaim can do with an ensemble cast of musicians of the highest calibre. On "Agoja" three features are immediately apparent. First, that Mulelid's compositions are melodic, yet frequently surprising in their path from their beginning to end; second, that he is a generous band leader, allowing the musicians both to be themselves and to express themselves, often while he merges almost completely into the background; finally, that each composition has its own unique identity, yet bears Mulelid's hallmark clearly and distinctly. Kjetil Mulelid (b.1991, Hurdal, Norway) has distinguished himself as an inventive artist, blending jazz, psalms, and improvised music in both his own playing and compositions. After graduating from the famous "Jazzlinja" in Trondheim back in 2014, he has been heavily touring the world's nooks and crannies with his own music and projects. He has played concerts in large parts of Europe and Japan and released several well-received albums as a solo artists, as well as with his own Kjetil Mulelid Trio, the jazz quartet Wako, with singer Emilie Storaas as the duo Kjemilie, and with singer Siril Malmedal Hauge - both as a band and as a piano / vocal duo.

Tha God Fahim has earned his spot at the forefront of hip-hop’s modern underground movement, crafting immersive musical experiences rooted in raw instrumentation and elevated by razor-sharp lyricism. A frequent collaborator of enigmatic rap god Mach-Hommy, Fahim has steadily bolstered his mystique with a wealth of acclaimed releases, embodying the themes of self-empowerment and continual expansion contained in his verses. Two decades after the release of his classic debut "The Disrupt", renowned California artist Oh No has become an undeniable creative force, balancing rap success with production work for Mos Def, Action Bronson, Prodigy, Dilated Peoples, Aesop Rock, Rapsody, Elzhi, and many more. Tha God Fahim recently recruited Oh No to produce the new album "Berserko", and now this stellar collaboration is receiving a vinyl release for the first time ever. The collection finds Fahim in peak form, with Oh No’s hypnotic sonic textures sparking some of the Atlanta emcee’s most complex rhymes to date. With guest appearances by Your Old Droog and Jay NiCE, "Berserko" is a wild ride showcasing the unbridled creativity of two remarkable artists.

Helping to spearhead a revival of neo-psychedelic pop, California's Sugar Candy Mountain emerged in the early 2010s fusing sunny, retro sounds with lush, sophisticated composition. Ranging from lo-fi experimentation to vibrant Tropicália, early releases like 2013's Mystic Hits soon gave way to a brighter, synth-driven brand of psych-pop on 2018's Do Right. Sugar Candy Mountain's evolution continued with their eclectic fifth album, Impression, in 2021.The band initially began oin 2010 as the recording project of Oakland-based musician Will Halsey. From early on, his partnership with collaborator Ash Reiter yielded a unique sound blending classic '60s West Coast psychedelia with pastoral folk and pulling inspiration from pop experimentalists like Brazil's Os Mutantes, the Flaming Lips, and Brian Wilson. The band's self-titled 2011 debut drew largely from Halsey's early, more lo-fi recordings. By the time of 2013's Mystic Hits, Sugar Candy Mountain had evolved into a fully fledged live group with Halsey and Reiter at the helm. The album also expanded on their Brazilian influences and was partially recorded in Sao Paulo.Reissued for it's 10th Anniversary, Mystic Hits returns to vinyl under their newly minted home record label, Sugar Candy Mountain Records. Available in March 2024 on Lava Splatter (ltd to 1000) and Blood Red vinyl.

Marilyn Monroe (born June 1, 1926, Los Angeles, California, U.S.—died August 5, 1962, Los Angeles). Known for playing comic "blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as well as an emblem of the era's sexual revolution. She had a good voice that matched her seductive visual appeal, and her limited catalog includes effective interpretations of the work of such songwriters as Harold Adamson and Hoagy Carmichael, Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer; Irving Berlin, Sammy Cahn and Cole Porter. Marilyn Monroe's singing constitutes a significant part of her overall appeal as a performer. On this album “Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend”," I Wanna Be Loved By You", “Happy Birthday (For President Kennedy) ”, “The River of No Return ”, “Two Little Girls From Little Rock (ft. Jane Russell)”. a.o. Limited Edition on Blue Transparent coloured vinyl.

Reissue of the 1995 compilation of long deleted demos and early recordings from the cult band of the 'first wave' of Black Metal ABRUPTUM.

"As Bill Orcutt’s most mature and exhilarating LP to date, Music for Four Guitars was a slab of undeniable Apollonian beauty. Its approachability and obvious novelty landed it not only on the year- end lists of every key-pushing codger in the underground in 2022, but also on NPR in the form of the Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet, an ensemble assembled to perform this music and featuring Wendy Eisenberg, Ava Mendoza, and Shane Parish in addition to Orcutt. But while their Tiny Desk Concert gave a whiff of the quartet’s easy intimacy, the sterile confines of the virtual recital medium still left a puzzle unsolved: how might these brutally mannered bricks of minimalist counterpoint sound on a stage in front of actual breathing bodies?" "This was the question foremost in my mind when I first saw the quartet in San Francisco a few months before this double live LP was recorded. I was already familiar with the prowess of Eisenberg and Mendoza, two of the most technically intimidating shredders to blast out of the noise/improv underground, and knew Parish as the mastermind behind the epic translation of Orcutt's quartet recordings into a fully notated score. I was ready to be 'blown away'—and I most assuredly was. The quartet navigated Orcutt's jaggedly spiraling right angles into the shining core of the compositions with joyous ease, faithful to the originals in nearly every way (though their tempos were slightly ramped up, Blakey style, to communicate their breathless rush). The renditions were flawless, stellar and inspiring. I had expected nothing less." "Which leads us to this album, Four Guitars Live, recorded in November of 2023 at Le Guess Who? festival during the quartet’s first European tour. The true essence of this set is not simply in its faithfulness to the source compositions, but in the group's easy familiarity (no doubt the result of weeks on the road) and the generosity of their improvisations, both collective and solo. Orcutt, clearly cognizant of both the caliber of his collaborators and the singularity of their voices, has given everyone room to stretch out, and all have delivered some of their most moving passages to date." "One of this record's great thrills for me is imagining a listener, perhaps unfamiliar with the outer limits of contemporary guitar improvisation (or the Tzadik catalog), slammed into catatonia by Mendoza's liquefying lines on Out of the corner of the eye, then revived and healed by the languid, breathy lines of Parish's unaccompanied, spaced-out breakdown of the track's main theme, finally only to be crushed by Eisenberg’s staggering extended solo on Only at dusk (somehow channeling both Eugene Chadbourne and Buck Dharma)." "There's another peak, which begins at the end of side B, in Orcutt's own languid solo, encapsulating the flowing focus of his recent solo LPs, and serving as an introduction to the next side's ensemble tour de force, the psychic heart of the album, On the horizon: its melodic core passing first to Orcutt, launching into a sublime solo turn by Eisenberg, a duo of Parish and Mendoza, before parachuting back into the ensemble for a smashup rendition of Barely visible and Glimpsed while driving (renamed Barely driving) knitted together with an softly bubbling ensemble improvisation. The transfer is orchestrated yet seamless, its tonal form undeniable even in the presence of obvious dissonance." "The breadth of Four Guitars Live gives lie to the false notion that agile, polytonal improv is necessarily without soul, is necessarily inaccessible. Rather, Four Guitars posits a human avant-garde music that the most conservative will recognize as virtuosic and revel in its classic intervals, boiling counterpoint, and precisely- layered facets. Even the rockers in your life might dig it, so why not pass it on?"—Tom Carter

96kHz - 48-bit HD Audio with digital booklet including original photography by Christopher Kayfield and liner notes by Shaun Brady.

Pianist Kevin Hays, bassist Ben Street, and drummer Billy Hart reunite for a second, scintillating trio date, BRIDGES, featuring original compositions by Hays and Hart with classics by Wayne Shorter, Bill Frisell, The Beatles, and Milton Nascimento.

Hays Street Hart, the trio of pianist Kevin Hays, bassist Ben Street, and legendary drummer Billy Hart, recorded their acclaimed 2021 debut, ALL THINGS ARE, under less than optimal conditions. The album began life as a performance in honor of Hart’s 80th birthday in December 2020, live-streamed from an empty Smoke Jazz Club in the final weeks of that grueling pandemic year. Despite those adversities, the music they created that night was spectacular enough to convince all involved that it should be released.

Two years later, the trio has reconvened, this time fully cognizant that they were going to record an album at Sear Sound Studios in NYC. The captivating BRIDGES brilliantly spotlights the unique chemistry and shared spirit of exploration that emerged fully formed on that initial impromptu session. The title succinctly hints at some of the reasons why Hays, Street and Hart work so well together: this is a trio that bridges generations, certainly, as well as a wealth of diverse experience and inspiration. But it also sums up a mutual desire to bring people together through music.

“In this world that seems to be crumbling beneath our feet,” Hays explains, “we sense the need to make allies where there might be adversaries. On the most intimate level, interpersonally and inter-psychically we set out to overcome any number of misunderstandings and adversarial situations.”

Not that there was any antagonism to overcome within the trio itself. More than anything, Hays Street Hart is a mutual admiration society of the highest order. The esteem in which the pianist and bassist hold Billy Hart likely goes without saying. The drummer was ordained in 2022 as an NEA Jazz Master, just one of the many honors he has chalked up over a breathtaking career. He began his career with an apprenticeship under the revered vocalist Shirley Horn and went on to make notable music with such luminaries as Miles Davis, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Wes Montgomery, Jimmy Smith, Stan Getz, and as part of the quartet Quest featuring David Liebman and Richie Beirach.

But Hart is if anything, even more laudatory toward his younger bandmates. Street has been a member of the drummer’s stellar quartet for two decades, alongside pianist Ethan Iverson and saxophonist Mark Turner, a tenure that speaks for itself. As for Hays, Hart is quick to place the pianist in the exalted company of some of his iconic former collaborators.

“I’ve been lucky enough to have the chance to perform with Herbie Hancock and McCoy Tyner,” says Hart modestly. “Each generation presents their own equivalent, and Kevin is an example of the latest innovations. There was Herbie and McCoy, then it was Chick Corea and Keith Jarrett, and then you have what's coming next. I think Kevin is definitely part of that continuum.”

Though Hays sticks strictly to the piano on BRIDGES, he is also an accomplished singer whose vocal instincts fuel his inventive and lyrical melodicism. Street points to those facets as key to the connection between the pianist and Hart, who has enjoyed several meaningful collaborations with vocalists.

“It always seems to me that Kevin has the capacity to sing in his mind and then accompany himself on the piano,” Street describes. “That makes for such a nice connection with Billy, who has played with and learned from so many singers. I don't even feel like we're playing as a piano trio most of the time; it feels more like a quartet.”

Those qualities are especially clear on Hays’ “Butterfly,” which opens the album. Though it’s performed here as an instrumental, the pianist has composed lyrics for the piece, and its gorgeous, song-like quality shines through. Hays also contributed the breathtaking ballad “Song for Peace,” highlighted by Hart’s gentle, embracing brushwork and Street’s sturdy, stentorian tone. The pianist’s third original, “Row Row Row,” is constructed on a twelve-tone row, but as the playful title suggests, it has none of the more stringent qualities of the serialist composers.

Hart’s stunning “Irah,” originally recorded on his quartet’s self-titled 2006 debut, is dedicated to the composer’s mother and was recorded at Street’s suggestion. The bassist also brought guitarist Bill Frisell’s reflective “Throughout” to the date, imagining Frisell’s Americana influences would resonate with the similarly inclined Hays, who approaches the tune with a harp-like beauty. Hays’ love of pop and rock music is also reflected by the inclusion of The Beatles classic “With a Little Help from My Friends.”

The trio pays tribute to the late, great Wayne Shorter with “Capricorn,” originally released on the composer’s 1969 Blue Note album SUPER NOVA and later included on the Miles Davis Quintet set WATER BABIES. Hart called Shorter one of a kind. I think of the many times I heard him excel – with the Maynard Ferguson Big Band, with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, with Weather Report. And in each case, he was innovative.”

BRIDGES closes with the title track, a dazzling piece by the great Brazilian singer and songwriter Milton Nascimento, which Hays calls “one of my favorite compositions ever, by anybody.”

BRIDGES was recorded under ideal studio conditions by a now-established trio with a weeks-long European tour under their belts. Perhaps what’s most remarkable about the album is not that Hays, Street, and Hart play so masterfully together – with three artists of their caliber, who could expect any less? – but that this second outing maintains the bold spirit of inquisitiveness and spontaneity that its predecessor naturally possessed. Credit that to a trio perpetually determined to discover new bridges worth building.

Mood II Swing are giants of NY metro area club culture. On calibre with heavy-hitters like Masters At Work and Blaze, Lem Springsteen and John Ciafone's output boasts the bejeweled crown of deep house supremacy, spanning from the early 1990's to the latter part of the decade, molding and modeling a sound painstakingly tailored to the vanguard of minority and transgendered club scenes, pre-purge New York. One of their first and most explosive claims to the throne was 1992's "Wall of Sound" EP, a no-prisoners-taken masterpiece with the confidence and cockiness of two producers just out the gate and fully assured of their total domination of the craft. "I Need Your Luv" is, to this day, the indisputable measuring stick of cunty club tracks, opening as the curtain lifts with the outpouring of one fierce ruling diva, quickly picking up force in a storm of wide swinging-drum programs, punching bass drives and sparse, splitting synth stabs, all punctuated with unyielding vocal cut-ups and yearning cries. On the flip, "Penetration" delivers the same expert method, albeit with a more abstract, dreamy air about it, a bumping, endlessly ascending standard of the vocal-sample driven deep house track of the early 1990's, constantly building and morphing in its deceptive complexity. Brilliant, timeless and time-defying, "I Need Your Luv" & "Penetration" have finally been reissued for the first time since their original debut 21 years ago, the latest feature in Slow to Speak's ongoing CORE series, a testament to the formative years of NY house lore.

2024 Purple Vinyl Repress

Shogun Audio are proud to present the sixth volume of the acclaimed Shuriken vinyl series - a remix special edition, featuring four of the most popular remixes from the Shogun vaults that are no longer available to purchase new.

Set on majestic purple vinyl, this is a strictly limited edition collector’s item so don’t miss your chance to assemble a set of weapons any warrior would be proud of, when they are gone they are gone…



b A2. Alix Perez - Forsaken ft. Peven Everett & SpectraSoul (Calibre Remix)
c B1. Icicle - Dreadnaught ft. SP:MC (Phace Remix)

IZIPHO SOUL are incredibly proud to announce our 100th 7” single!

LAWRENCE BEAMEN - THINKING OF YOU

The unsurpassable bass-baritone voice of LAWRENCE BEAMEN originally recorded THINKING OF YOU in 2008. After years of pleas for a vinyl release; it’s finally here and sounding fresher than ever.

THE 7 REMIX has added a magic touch and beefed up this classic even further!

Arranged and produced by Narada Michael Walden and Lawrence Beamen. Music Produced by Narada Michael Walden. Lyrics by Lawrence Beamen.

On the flip is a new recording entitled BEEN A LONG TIME - a banger of a tune, straight outta Oakland, California.

Packaged in a hole backed picture sleeve.

IZIPHO SOUL are incredibly proud to announce our 100th 7” single!

LAWRENCE BEAMEN - THINKING OF YOU

The unsurpassable bass-baritone voice of LAWRENCE BEAMEN originally recorded THINKING OF YOU in 2008. After years of pleas for a vinyl release; it’s finally here and sounding fresher than ever.

THE 7 REMIX courtesy of Don Turney at DKS Productions has added a magic touch and beefed up this classic even further!

Arranged and produced by Narada Michael Walden and Lawrence Beamen. Music Produced by Narada Michael Walden. Lyrics by Lawrence Beamen.

On the flip is a new recording entitled BEEN A LONG TIME - a banger of a tune, straight outta Oakland, California.

Packaged in a hole backed picture sleeve.

In conjunction with the publication, by Hachette Books, of Truckload of Art: The Life and Work of Terry Allen, an authorized biography by Brendan Greaves of Paradise of Bachelors, Gonna California imagines an alternate reality where Allen's long-lost first studio recordings, captured with a full band in LA in 1968, saw a proper release. (Instead nearly the entire pressing was destroyed by a fire set by the so-called "Hollywood Arsonist," and remaining copies were repurposed in artworks.) This first-ever (re)issue edition, limited to 500 copies, features recently rediscovered and remastered early (and superior) mixes of both songs; the original liner notes by Allen; an excerpt from the book; a lyrics insert; and Allen's contemporaneous visual art in an arresting gatefold jacket. No veteran country songwriter sounds more attuned to the national mood. His songs still feel like little guidebooks for staring down a harsh universe. - The Washington Post

Immerse yourself into the psychedelic electronic pop of Talee, a rising Dutch artist weaving together the tapestry of contemporary indie dance with threads of early 90s British contaminated indie rock.

A multi-instrumentalist, previously championed by Disco Halal, Talee is set to unleash his debut EP “Waiting for Tomorrow” on the esteemed Californian label Underground Pacific, promising an unforgettable sonic journey.

Talee’s music transcends the boundaries of genre, seamlessly blending the warm rhythms and catchy melodies of Watherall’s Primal Scream and the lysergic groove of Happy Mondays with contemporary electronic textures.

This debut EP serves as a powerful statement of Talee’s artistic vision, showcasing his unique neo-romantic wave songwriting and great capturing riffs. The release also features an exciting collaboration with the acclaimed Irish Sullivan brothers SX2, who lend their signature touch to a captivating remix of “How High?” recalling the early irreverent and raving Underworld energy. Joining them is none other than Cantor, the musician and producer behind Underground Pacific himself, ensuring a Burning Man sunrise-inspired remix of “Be Here Now”.

The EP’s visual identity mirrors Talee’s artistic creativity with artwork conceptualized by the artist himself, complementing the music and offering a glimpse into Talee’s vibrant inner world.

Rock & Roll, indeed. Ruth Brown’s sizzling full-length debut — also known by its eponymous title — symbolizes what was exciting, fresh, invigorating, and raw about the burgeoning style in its halcyon days. Originally released in 1957, and reissued here in audiophile quality for the first time in partnership with Atlantic Records’ 75th anniversary, the set remains a testament to one of the most pioneering and talented vocalists to ever command a stage.

Mastered on Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab's renowned mastering system in California, pressed at RTI, housed in a Stoughton jacket, and strictly limited to 2,000 numbered copies, Mobile Fidelity’s 180g mono LP of Rock & Roll plays with an immediacy, vibrancy, and fullness that showcase the reach, power, and emotionalism of Brown’s voice. The sound of her support musicians — brassy horns, swinging rhythm combos, echoing backing vocalists, rollicking pianists, jaunty guitarists — is made clear and vivid, helping the upbeat fare to jump, juke, and jive with newfound energy and exuberance. In a related manner, Brown’s slower, more understated material crackles with an intimacy and passion that let you know you're in the presence of a woman who has lived what she sings. The longtime Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member deserves nothing less.

In an era dominated by big-throated vocalists, few — if any — came grander than Brown. The singer, whose repeat million-selling ‘50s success with Atlantic Records led many to call the then-indie label “The House That Ruth Built,” charted two dozen R&B hits in the span of a decade for the fledgling imprint. Rightly coined “Miss Rhythm,” the extroverted Brown put Atlantic on the national map, became the best-selling female musician of the ‘50s, and established a precedent that would ultimately lead to Grammy and Tony Awards. Her early works have lost none of their fire or flair.

Akin to many full-length LPs of its era, Rock & Roll doubles as a collection. Its 14 tracks comprise some of the more famous sides Brown recorded for Atlantic, beginning in 1949 with the all-time-great rendition of the ballad “So Long,” and continuing through 1956. After the song caught the public’s ear, the Virginia native briefly became known for her smoldering style with lovelorn material and torch songs, approaching them (see “Oh What a Dream,” “Old Man River”) with a combination of pained sadness and hardened resilience that had no contemporary equal. Encouraged to pursue the style by Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmt Ertegun, her R&B-driven material soon made her a constant chart presence.

Demonstrating what fellow legend Bonnie Raitt deemed “sex with class and dignity,” Brown merges blues and jazz, swing and gospel in electrifying fashion. She dares you not to move, dance, and get on your feet. A majority of Rock & Roll explodes with uptempo runs and jaunty readings of hot-blooded R&B numbers. Sweaty and sultry, bawdy and bold, Brown eclipses the anthemic blare of the saxophones and joyful clatter of the 88s, singing with a slight catch in her voice and hurricane-gale force that threatens to blow the roof off whatever room her voice occupies.

Evidence abounds. Listen to her prod the band and encourage the band members to blow a fuse on a sizzling “Hello Little Boy,” complete with cries and wails; stretch her phrasing to the heavens on the swaying “Wild Wild Young Men,” laden with romp-and-stomp beats; plead and persuade on the snaking “5-10-15 Hours,” which flips the script on the age’s notions of dominance; use her raspy tones, high notes, and breath control to mesmerizing effect on the smash “Mama He Treats Your Daughter Mean,” recorded with a group led by Ray Charles; survey the scene and take charge on the steaming “As Long as I’m Moving”; and tap a classy albeit flirtatious vein on “Lucky Lips,” which dented the pop charts as her first crossover hit.

Throughout Rock & Roll, Brown knows the lyrical connotations and spirited architecture of the songs inside-out. Her assertive voice — never harsh, strident, or false — is the epitome of the passionate desires and sonic strains that turned into nascent rock ’n’ roll. Brown played a pivotal role in helping the style develop, the record a timeless reminder of a lasting legacy that will never be forgotten.

Of the countless accolades and analyses that surround Blue, no point is more significant than the fact that the 1971 Joni Mitchell album continues to become more popular, revered, referenced, and relevant with each passing day. Such vitality is not only extremely singular; it is the ultimate measure of great art and, in the context of Blue, indisputable proof of the record's accessibility, integrity, and timelessness. If the most brilliant and everlasting music seeks to find truths shared by all of humanity, Blue can be said to be universal doctrine.

Sourced from the original analogue master tapes, pressed on MoFi SuperVinyl, and strictly limited to 12,000 numbered copies, Mobile Fidelity's UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP box set presents the landmark album with reference-grade detail, tonality, and directness. Marking the first time the beloved LP has received audiophile-quality treatment, it's one of six iconic 1970s Mitchell records Mobile Fidelity is reissuing on definitive-sounding vinyl and SACD sets.

Everything about Blue sounds more intimate, involving, and inescapable on this transparent pressing, which benefits from a virtually non-existent noise floor and superior groove definition. Mitchell's voice, positioned front and center, and primarily accompanied by minimalist acoustic guitar, piano, and dulcimer playing, comes across clearly and prominently. Suspended notes and radiant chords double as question marks, commas, and phrases. The in-the-room presence and spatial dimensionality make absolute the full-range spectrum of introspective emotions — hurt and distress, self-awareness and joy, difficulty and uncertainty, warmth and desire — Mitchell navigates, queries, and contemplates throughout the record. The defencelessness the singer once spoke about is laid bare here like never before.

The packaging of the Blue UD1S set complements its distinguished status. Housed in a deluxe box, both LPs come in special foil-stamped jackets with faithful-to-the-original graphics that illuminate the splendor of the recording. This UD1S reissue exists as a curatorial artifact for listeners who prize sound quality and production, and who desire to engage themselves in everything involved with the album, including the unforgettable cover photograph of a ruminative Mitchell shot by Tim Considine.

Deemed the third Greatest Album of All Time by Rolling Stone; universally celebrated by critics, fans, artists, and educators; and defined by a spell of disarmingly vulnerable songs that are at once confessional, intense, spare, honest, painful, hopeful, and exquisite, Blue charts love, spiritualism, independence, and loss like no record before or since. Widely considered the album that established the singer-songwriter template, the largely autobiographical LP changed everything shortly after its original release in June 1971. Amazingly, it continues to do so more than five decades later.

An incalculable influence on generations of artists, it stands as the through-line from Carole King, Elton John, James Taylor, Joan Armatrading, and Leonard Cohen to Patti Smith, Carly Simon, Emmylou Harris, and Rosanne Cash to 21st century contemporaries like Brandi Carlile, Taylor Swift, Sharon Van Etten, and Courtney Barnett. Teetering between agony and optimism, it is — to borrow a phrase from Mitchell's eternal "A Case of You" — a bottomless "box of paints."

The beauty of the stripped-down arrangements, intoxicating melodies, and Mitchell's wisdom on Blue didn't go unnoticed. Critical acclaim, coupled with the depth of the material and Mitchell's reputation, propelled the album into the Top 20 in the U.S. and Top 10 in the U.K. Yet while so much pop music diminishes with age, Blue has defied norms and headed in the opposite direction. Its 50th anniversary year witnessed an outpouring of tributes, reflections, and testimonials that helped frame the record's escalating importance and symbolism — apt in an age in which women have become the prominent trailblazers in rock, R&B, and hip-hop.

Perhaps most succinctly, in a 2021 article celebrating the LP, the Los Angeles Times declared: "In 1971, nothing sounded like Joni Mitchell's Blue. 50 years later, it's still a miracle." Nothing, indeed. Yet "miracle" suggests Blue partially owes to a divine agent or inexplicable circumstance. And though Mitchell's bracing conviction and forthright sincerity can appear otherworldly, her musical approach and lyrical storytelling is nothing if not personal and human. What we hear is pure truth — no matter how aching, complicated, or stark.

Much has been written about the circumstances that inspired the songs on Blue: Mitchell's romances; her time overseas; her disdain for celebrity; her lingering sense of loss at having given up her daughter for adoption; her treatment by the very same industry that her music made uncomfortable; her prolonged search for resolution. These situations and experiences pushed Mitchell to question everything — especially big-picture concepts that have always obsessed mankind: fulfilment, autonomy, love, honesty, being.

"I wanna make you feel free," Mitchell sings on the record-opening "All I Want." Mission accomplished. Blue is liberation — and the start of a freedom that continues to impact music, culture, and identity today.

More About Mobile Fidelity UltraDisc One-Step and Why It Is Superior
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab's UltraDisc One-Step (UD1S) technique bypasses generational losses inherent to the traditional three-step plating process by removing two steps: the production of father and mother plates, which are created to yield numerous stampers from each lacquer that is cut. For UD1S plating, stampers (also called "converts") are made directly from the lacquers. Since each lacquer yields only one stamper, multiple lacquers need to be cut. Mobile Fidelity's UD1S process produces a final LP with the lowest-possible noise floor. The removal of two steps of the plating process also reveals musical details and dynamics that would otherwise be lost due to the standard multi-step process. With UD1S, every aspect of vinyl production is optimized to produce the best-sounding vinyl album available today.

Repress!

Coming as the ninth edition of the series, ‘EP9’ stays true to committing Defected’s biggest digital releases to wax, delivering an upfront package of house heat previously unavailable on vinyl. Kicking off the A-Side with Riva Starr’s remix of Defected anthem ‘Hey Hey’ by Dennis Ferrer, a tribute to Giorgio Moroder’s pivotal sound and the Paradise Garage early house vibe and serious dancefloor weapon. Ferreck Dawn’s ‘By My Side’ follows, a refined house groover with melodic keys, a soft filtered vocal and undulating beat featuring Californian producer Anthony Valadez. The flip opens with John Summit’s ‘Deep End’, a captivating house cut from the rising star that achieved Beatport #1 weeks after its release. Closing out the EP is Defected regular OFFAIAH, a slick, dancefloor-ready cut with OFFAIAH’s signature grooving bassline and an irresistible melody.

ARN4L2 (pronouced arn-al-dos) aka Arnaldo Berdugo is a producer and DJ from Cartagena, Colombia. He grew up surrounded by music, namely the vinyl treasures that his grandfather accumulated as director of a local radio station in San Estanislao de Kotska, Bolívar, a Colombian Caribbean town with a large Afro-descendant population.
In his productions, ARN4L2 combines Colombian musical traditions such as Bullerengue, Chalupa and Tambora with electronic elements such as synthesizers, samplers, and drum machines, resulting in a unique sound that reflects his own, strongly African- influenced Caribbean vision.
Galletas Calientes is proud to release his first solo project on vinyl: a collection of 5 upbeat tunes for the floor, blending Congolese soukous, Colombian Bullerengue, Nigerian highlife, Caribbean soca, and House; with a uniquely distinctive, progressive and psychedelic touch.
His Colombian, Caribbean and African roots have been shaping this young producer’s personality as an artist and a human being, and the distinguished style he has developed over the years is definitely the result of all these influences.
“Caribe” is the third volume of Galletas Calientes Records “Colombian Singles Series”, a series with a purpose of awakening interest in modern Colombian electronic music.

Born from a virtual encounter in lockdown between two Parisian neighbors, the DJ/producer Prosper and saxophonist Le Marabout, “Le Moustache Conspiracy” is a playful and deeply joyous album, pulling freely from the Afro, Funk, Disco, Hip-Hop, Oriental and Electro influences of the two artists. The iconoclastic DJ Romain “Prosper” Coolen, fervent purveyor of no holds barred euphoria on the dance floor, and the versatile saxophonist, composer and jack-of-all-trades Johann “Le Marabout” Guihard offer us a lavish, eclectic, uninhibited, coherent and furiously groovy album!

The king of Colombian Bass is back on another low-end adventure!
In the vein of his previous work "Colombian Party", "Sendero" is another homage to the diversity of Colombia’s musical cultures and the artist's all-time favorite genres such as bass music, Hip-Hop and Dancehall. The album was entirely recorded between Bogotá and Sunka’s countryside farm, where the artist has been living for the past few years, growing all kinds of fruits and vegetables, Sunka’s new album “Sendero”, featuring Medellin-based hip-hop and reggae singer Raspapulaman, rising stars La Bembera and Zam El Caribean, Bogotá-based hip-hop and punk singer Jacob DMC, hip-hop maestros Kontent Thug and Santacruz Medina of Kartel Pacifico, is not your typical tropical album.
As accustomed , Sunka delivers a perfect blend of sub frequencies, heavy electronic drums and organic elements. Sweet and sharp at the same time,"Sendero" will make you
whine your waist at home and in the club, and will certainly go heavy on your speakers!

Free, Dancing . . . is the first release by a new trio with percussionist and producer Carlos Niño, luminary multi-instrumentalist Idris Ackamoor (of The Pyramids) and wizard guitarist, producer Nate Mercereau. They have been playing concerts together in California since June 2022, sharing a unique vibrant sound, findings and energetics... Including download code for the full album.

Artwork by Nep Sidhu.

Das Debütalbum von Bryndle, einem Kollektiv aus Karla Bonoff, Kenny Edwards, Linda Ronstadt, Andrew Gold und Wendy Waldman, bietet
angenehmen Folk-Pop, der an die Soloarbeiten der einzelnen Mitglieder erinnert. Ursprünglich 1995 erschienen, ist es jetzt wieder auf Vinyl
erhältlich.

In the UK ‘Garage’ is most commonly used to refer to Rock music –
mostly of the kind that’s a bit rough (and ready) round the edges. Most
of the Punks were Garage bands, and before them were Psychedelic
Rockers, and before them Surfers and Beat bands. All the groups on
this compilation hail from the late 1950s and very early 1960s. Featured genres are Surfer instrumentals, Doo-Wop, ‘Trash’ Doo-Wop, Frat-Rock and Beat music.

Limited orange vinyl. We've all heard the axiom, "if you ignore it, maybe it'll go away." That goes double for a lot of people who wish to apply that saying to rap music. But when it comes to the West Coast "gangsta rapper" genre made popular by the likes of NWA, Eazy E, Ice-T and his Rhyme Syndicate cohort, King Tee, the truth is hard to ignore. King Tee aligns producer DJ Pooh on this Bass EP consisting of tracks recorded in 1987. They're joined by The Compton Posse that includes the late Mixmaster Spade and J-Ro from Tha Alkaholiks. This EP sharpens the skillful word play King Tee made famous on his debut album Act A Fool. From song to song, this EP has a superior sheen, a tightness and cohesiveness between rhyme and music. Born in Los Angeles and now a resident of the infamous West Coast rap capital, Compton, California, King Tee truly is a product of the streets. He openly admits to running with gangs in his youth, causing his mother endless embarrassment and frustration. So much so that, in a desperate attempt to turn his life around, she turned King Tee into the authorities when she discovered him stealing from her. Once out of jail, King Tee ran of to Houston, Texas. Trouble is that he was underage atthe time, so his mother again had King Tee locked up in a juvenile camp. When King Tee finally realized why his mother did what she did, he decided to turn his life around by dedicating himself to music. He listened obsessively to the radio and chose to become a DJ. When King Tee was released from juvenile camp he secured a mixing gig at KSU and then KYOK in Houston. Between station gigs he handled the mix at various venues and clubs. After gaining the necessary experience behind the tables, King Tee moved back to Los Angeles and hooked up with Ice-T. In rapid succession, King Tee met Du Pooh who enlisted him into his rap group (after King Tee bugged Pooh for months), then Pooh introduced Tee to DJ Unknown with whom he made several 12" records for the Techno Hop labelwhich is now released on this EP for the first time since then. Ice-T's influence brought Rhyme Syndicate Management's Jorge Hinojosa into the picture. King Tee eventually signed with Hinojosa who then secured a contract with Capitol Records for King Tee. The result was 1988's Act A Fool.

Albert Hammond is one of the most prolific, versatile songwriters and performers of his or any generation. His earliest solo hits include “It Never Rains in Southern California” and “The Free Electric Band.” His contributions to popular music (writing and and/or contributing to hit songs by Tina Turner, Whitney Houston, Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias, Diana Ross, Starship, The Hollies, Joe Cocker, Johnny Cash, Aretha Franklin) cross genres and generations.  Body of Work is an all-new, original, and essential addition to this iconic canon. Written during a time of tumultuous change, Body of Work is the moment a master songsmith takes a step back to reflect on the world, “This is the first step I had to take and the album is what I discovered about me and all of us once I started here,” says Albert. “I can feel the discomfort and impatience in it. That’s just the honest feeling when the world changes for you from oasis to desert, from beauty to chaos… freedom to fences.” From gutsy opener “Don’t Bother Me Babe” through the wistful “Looking Back” and closing with the reflective “Goodbye LA,” Body of Work is an album for the ages, crafted with 50 years of words, experience, and wisdom.

Cam aka Cam the Wizard is a Canadian MC from Edmonton, Alberta. Gram, aka Graham Murawsky, better known as Factor Chandelier, is a Canadian producer from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and owner of Side Roads Records. G.A.M. aka Giovanni Allen Marks, aka Subtitle, is an MC/producer hailing from Los Angeles, California. He is affiliated with the legendary Project Blowed Crew and one half of Lab Waste, with partner Thavius Beck.

Several unique features set the debut studio album by folk rock supergroup Crosby, Stills & Nash, released in 1969 by Atlantic Records, apart. It's the only album by the band before adding Neil Young to their lineup. The album spawned two Top 40 singles, "Marrakesh Express" and "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," which peaked respectively at No. 28 during the week of August 23, 1969, and at No. 21 during the week of December 6, 1969, on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. The album itself peaked at No. 6 on the U.S. Billboard Top Pop Albums chart. It has been certified four times platinum by the RIAA for sales in excess of 4 million copies.

Instantly lifting the group to stardom, along with the Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo and the Band's Music from Big Pink, the previous year, the album is cited by music reviewers for initiating sweeping changes in popular music. In 2021 the album held the rank of No. 161 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.

Crosby, Stills & Nash was "the perfect blend of David Crosby's social conscience, Stephen Stills's virtuoso musicianship and Graham Nash's ability to craft the perfect pop melody for radio," writes Rolling Stone, in its review.

The band was brought together after Crosby was fired from The Byrds, Stills's band, Buffalo Springfield had broken up (a band which also featured later member, Neil Young) and Nash's departure from The Hollies. The three decided to form a band after an informal jam led them to discover how well their voices harmonized. Released in May 1969, the band would perform nine of the album's 10 songs at Woodstock, which was the second time they ever did, in August of the same year.

The album features some of CSN's most well known and iconic songs; "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," "Marrakesh Express," "Guinnevere," "Wooden Ships," "Helplessly Hoping" and "Long Time Gone." This album saw a shift in sound to what was popular at the time — blues based rock, opting for a more folk rock, and sometimes jazz-based sound. It would lay the foundations for the California Sound that would be popularised out of Laurel Canyon in the ‘70s. Artists such as The Eagles, Jackson Browne and Fleetwood Mac would take inspiration from the sound of this record.

All the hallmarks of a top-notch Analogue Productions reissue are here for you to savor: Mastered directly from the original master tape by Bernie Grundman and cut at 45 RPM. Pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Quality Record Pressings, and housed in tip-on old style gatefold double pocket jackets with film lamination by Stoughton Printing.

If I Could Only Remember My Name was the debut solo record from David Crosby. Recorded in 1970 after the passing of his girlfriend Christine and released in February of 1971, the album explores themes including loss and disorientation. The album features a who's who of contributors from the San Francisco Bay area including Paul Kantner and Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane, Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, and Santana, and his cohort from Los Angeles including Graham Nash, Neil Young, and Joni Mitchell.

The album has attained a cult status throughout the last 50 years, hailed for its spooky, psychedelic, and truly unique sounds.

AllMusic gave the album 4.5 stars, with reviewer Stanton Swihart writing: "With his ringing, velvety voice — the epitome of hippie crooning — and inspired songwriting, he turns If I Could Only Remember My Name into a one-shot wonder of dreamy but ominous California ambience."

All the hallmarks of a top-notch Analogue Productions reissue are here for you to savor: Mastered directly from the original master tape by Bernie Grundman and cut at 45 RPM. Pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Quality Record Pressings, and housed in tip-on old style gatefold double pocket jackets with film lamination by Stoughton Printing.

Though often lumped in with New Orleans sludge bands like Eyehategod and Crowbar, Thou shares a more spiritual kinship with '90s proto-grunge bands like Nirvana, Alice in Chains, and Soundgarden (all of whom they've covered extensively, both in the studio and onstage). The band's aesthetic and political impulses reflect the obscure '90s DIY hardcore punk found on labels like Ebullition, Vermiform, and Crimethinc. From 2004 through 2016, the band has released four full-length albums, six EPs (some bordering on full lengths), two collaboration records with The Body, and enough material spread out over splits to make up another four or five LPs.

Sacred Bones Records is proud to present the new album, Magus, Thou's first full-length since 2014's Heathen. In the months leading into the new album, Thou will be releasing three drastically different EPs: The House Primordial on Raw Sugar, Inconsolable on Community Records, and Rhea Sylvia on Deathwish, Inc. Each record will focus on a particular sound—noisy drone, quiet acoustic, and melodic grunge—all of which is incorporated into the new LP, subsumed in the band's more standard doom metal.

While sonically, Magus may be a continuation of Heathen, thematically it stands as a stark rebuttal, a journey beyond the principles of pleasure and pain. It is more the culmination of these distinct EPs, which all orbit some internal black hole. FFO alienation, absurdity, boredom, futility, decay, the tyranny of history, the vulgarities of change, awareness as agony, reason as disease.

Lodged between a heartbreak and a smoke break, Kathy Heideman's Move With Love wandered off I-5 somewhere just south of Hungry Valley State Vehicular Recreation Area and broke down. At its dusty roadside, cheap truck-stop java flows over plaintive coffeehouse tunesconcerning "Bob" and "Need." Her session hand's lanky, echo-laden guitar might've twanged a bit strong for the typical sandal-shoed hitchhiker, who'd have fell harder for Dylanesque grandeur on "The Earth Won't Hold Me." More Bakersfield than Laurel Canyon, and set to walkingin 1976 by the one-off Dia imprint in a plain-Jane, black-on-white sleeve, Heideman's lone LP suffered the geographical misfortune of having ripened in the presilicon orchards of San Jose, California, far from more marketable realms_Emmylou's backyard, say, or Joni Mitchell's summery lawn. Heideman herself faded out thereafter, packing her shaken, singular voice into a rustic suitcase, moseying on, and leaping into the moving sun.

Danielle Boutet’s P »Pièces« is a mysterious artifact of Quebecois marginalia, self-released in 1985. Moving from languid ennui to high drama, »Pièces« is a dreamy gestalt, an album that borders Chanson, spoken-word, jazz noir, and minimalism, conjured from the chasm between acoustic and electronic realms. »Pièces« allows us a window into the highly intimate songcraft and compositional skill of an artist who longed to linger not in the public eye, but in relation with others and the world around her.

Born in Quebec City, Boutet studied music at the University of Montreal, where she focused on composition and percussion, before becoming involved in Montreal’s feminist and lesbian art scene. Primarily written, performed, and recorded by Boutet, with voice, guitar work, and technical assistance by Sylvie Gagnon, Pièces was created during a paradigm shift in home recording. Originally composed for the piano, Boutet and Gagnon utilized a consumer-friendly Tascam 4-track Portastudio and versatile Yamaha DX-7, alongside guitar, bass, marimba, and the human voice, to expand and contemporize the original composition’s scope.

Inspired by prog rock and British poet and musician Anne Clark, »Pièces« translates Boutet’s influence by moving between sunny, wistful fairytale and dark, wintry dirge. Filled with longing marimba, vertiginous, startling synth pads, and folk guitar, each track on Pièces offers a wholly unique proposition. Some are modal and rife with the ethereal psychological tension of a sci-fi soundtrack, while others are more like entering a smoke-laced lounge, the entertainer embodying seduction.

With the sprechgesang of artists like Serge Gainsbourg, there is an intense intimacy to Boutet’s delivery, sometimes as if she is performing for an audience of one. As one lyric goes, translated to English from French: “Like holograms/ Images from a world/ That inhales souls/ And exudes drama.” Another song contains an excerpt from The Tao of Physics: “The eastern sages specify clearly that they do not identify an ordinary void, but rather, a void having an infinite creative potential.”

To English-language audiences, the album’s title, »Pièces«, might seem to simply refer to the eleven different pieces. The title can also, of course, refer to parts of a larger whole, but Boutet is keen to point out that there is also another meaning: In French, a pièce is a room. On the cover of the original cassette, Boutet is seen sitting on a chair, alone in an empty apartment, a cable snaking at her feet. Listening to »Pièces« is like entering eleven different rooms: whether a study encased in shadow, a greenhouse left to wither in an eternal frost, or a divine nave.

Boutet sold a few dozen copies around Montreal, a scene mostly occupied by the new wave explosion de rigueur, but the inclusion of Pièces in the 1987 issue of Ladyslipper—the North Carolina-based mail order catalog that championed women musicians of all calibers and careers—led to more exposure throughout North America. “In the catalog,” Boutet says, “they included it in the New Age section, but I was, and still am, aware that this album is relatively unclassifiable.”

Boutet would release one more album, titled Musiques Urbaines, before getting pulled in the direction of interdisciplinary art and theory. “Although I never stopped making music, I lost all interest in public diffusion or performance,” Boutet says. Despite her departure from performance and publicly releasing music, she left behind a strange and enthralling document of Montreal’s 1980s feminist fringe, an aural document of the historic moment when self-recorded music and its practical potential became a prismatic reality.

Danielle Boutet’s Pièces arrives February 16, 2024 as part of uncommon¢ (“uncommon sense”), an open-ended, serialized endeavor from Freedom to Spend that provides new meaning for rarefied recordings from music’s outermost fringe.

glass beach's debut album the first glass beach album is the first album from glass beach. That's a good place to start, but the album's plain & descriptive title does little to explain exactly what goes on in the hour-long adventure contained therein.the first glass beach album was initially self-released by the band in Spring 2019, but it's roots date back to as early as 2015 - songwriter & band leader j mclendon started demoing songs for the album when they first moved to Los Angeles & spent three years polishing those first demos into these songs with bassist Jonas Newhouse & drummer William White. On their Bandcamp page, the band describes their sound as the accumulation of jazz, new wave, synth music, and emo distorted through the lens of punk. The songs that make up the first glass beach album are ambitious, theatrical and chaotic. Abandoning genre limitations makes glass beach's talent for songwriting all the more apparent - mathy guitar leads, catchy drum grooves and the constant interplay of horns, synths, and even the intermittent theremin set the perfect scene for j's stunning vocal performance, which can shift from a charming falsetto to the lead of a sing-a-long in an instant.

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.“

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.

Creeping through an imaginary border, sidesteppin’ through the night like cyber phantoms eavesdropping on early morning machinery shifts, an industrial solstice for pagan mystics. After five years Torino’s mysterious SabaSaba are back with ‘Unknown City’ an imaginary soundtrack for a dystopian city: digital raga, horror Exotica, half-speed techno, metallic dub and organic electronics.

The duo of Andrea Marini (synth, guitar, electronics, tapes) and Gabriele Maggiorotto (drums, percussion, effects, programming) return with their most political manifesto yet, an intricate musical essay inspired by China Miéville’s novel ‘The City And The City’, examining border control, repression, an unknown city where people move like ghosts without personality and without communicating, monitored on sight by the authorities. SabaSaba’s personal OST is a whirlwind of analog and digital instruments colliding, textured samples, syncopated drums and spiritual synth sweeps often heightened by Ambra Chiara Michelangeli’s eerie viola playing, an ancestral force resisting under a cement tower, modulars gasping for air, endlessly reverberating into noir-soul and gray landscapes.

Like Miéville’s two imaginary cities Ul Qoma e Besźel, SabaSaba’s journey is cavernous, claustrophobic at times, but a clear sense of evasion and resistance breaks through, small flickers of light, like a cyborg calibrating himself - the hypnotic dub ambient of ‘False Speech’ - for an ecstatic liberation - the trance inducing ‘Wrists Free’ featuring UK industrial techno duo Jerome. ‘Ul Qoma’ unites

repressed !

Birthed at the turn of the ‘80s, synth and wave music has remained a constant force over the last four decades, with a recent spike in interest in the sound offering further proof of its’ timeless, out-of-this-world quality. It’s against this backdrop that Dutch DJ Interstellar Funk presents his celebration of the style, “Artificial Dancers – Waves of Synth”.

A bumper compilation bristling with obscure and hard-to-find gems, the set sees the Artificial Dance label founder joining the dots between synthesizer and drum machine-driven tracks in a variety of subtly different styles. It’s the result of hundreds of hours spent digging through dusty old records, tapes, and the Bandcamp accounts of DIY musicians who have been active since the sound’s first boom in the early 1980s.

The 11-track set draws on tracks made and released at different times over the last 40 years, with the earliest cut committed to tape in 1978 and the most recent in 2018. While the tracks date from the ‘80s, ‘90s, noughties and 2010s, the showcased cuts are united by a primitive but futuristic quality that makes dating them difficult. In many cases, it’s hard to tell which tracks were made in the early 1980s and which were conjured up in 21st century studios.

As you’d expect, highlights are plentiful with a number of the most unknown or sought-after cuts appearing on vinyl for the first time. In this category you’ll find the Human League’s odd but inspired early number “4JG”, a near mythical 1982 live version of Liasons Dangereuses’ “Dias Cortas” (previously only available on a VHS video) and Chris and Cosey’s “Hybrid C”, a brilliant mid-’90s cut plucked from their CD-only album “Skimble Skamble”. You’ll also find a rare demo version of Clan of Xymox’s Dutch darkwave classic “Stranger”, which became a club smash across Europe in 1983.

Interstellar Funk has also chosen to showcase tracks by a range of DIY producers and lesser-known artists. These include Californian band Batang Frisco, who self-released a sole private press album in 1986 (their contribution, “Sewing Machine”, is dedicated to founder member Bill DiMichele, who passed away this year), Matthias Schuster’s Im Namen Des Volkes project – which contributes the previously unreleased 2014 track “Alles Ist Gewinn” – and Zahgurim, a short-lived early ‘80s act who reunited in 2018 to record their first new material since 1983.

If that wasn’t enough to set pulses racing, the compilation also showcases a solo track by sadly departed Psyche member Stephen Huss. Nobody is quite sure when Huss recorded “Infinity Sign”, but we can confirm this is the first time that one of his solo productions has ever appeared on vinyl.

Everybody Trance is more than proud to crash onto labels bubble, with the first episode: Various Vol. 1., illustrating our bash vision with a frenetic and hypnotic grooves tour. Dense, knotty and intoxicating tracks, overflowing with finesse, display all over this EP, including Maelita & Kick 21, Botwin, Gogo Gadgeto, Subsism and Ekzander, mastered by Alden Tyrell and designed by Jimmy Premier.

Sharpshooters is the long-awaited collaborative album from Destruct & DJ Zole. The two Natives from Southern California who have been true contributors to the Los Angeles Hip-Hop scene for over a decade now. Sharpshooters showcases a vast arrangement of styles blended into one solid LP with a hint of nostalgia hence the title of the project.

Sharpshooters while paying homage to the golden era of Hip-Hop also has a fresh perspective on how the culture sounds today and at the same time inspired one of the greatest wrestlers, Bret Hart.

In a refreshing way it all culminates into a unique experience for the listener with amazing guest features to back it, at the end of the day Sharpshooters represents two genuine and diverse artists entering their prime and creating a timeless piece of art appropriately named after a legend’s finishing move.

Sharpshooters is released on vinyl by the label Mind The Wax as of March 8th, 2024 and includes 11 tracks.
Destruct has been in the music scene and has released over 30 studio albums including two with his live band "Inner City Soul". He has been blessed as well to run his own studio "Area 52" where he provides recording and executive producer services. He also has a film production company now called “The Resident People” where he has directed and filmed several music videos and short films with much more to come.

By today, Destruct has rocked hundreds of shows with legends like KRS-One, Slum Village, Dilated Peoples, Rakim, Psycho Realm, Method Man from Wu-Tang & more. He has also collaborated with artists such as Grammy award-winning Sirah, Sean Price, Kev Brown, Blu and Exile to just name a few.

All and all Destruct is here to be much more than your everyday Hip Hop artist, but a true contributor to the culture and lifestyle, progressing the movement forward. Destruct is here for a legacy, not a trend.

DJ Zole is a DJ/Producer from Southern California. He gained his experience coming up as a touring HipHop DJ and Producer/ Turntablist who has been a DJ for major acts ranging from Sage Francis (Strange Famous Records), Atmosphere, Abstract Rude, Project Blowed, 2Mex, and many others.

Since 2004, DJ Zole has travelled the globe performing and creating. He's a highly decorated engineer and producer with his degree in Audio Engineering Mixing and Mastering Certified through Musicians Institute Hollywood.