Suche:casual

Those familiar with the sound and style of the DIY scene in Chicago's Logan Square may be surprised to find out that it was the birthplace of psych pop quintet Lucille Furs. They are a little surprised themselves.

At the time it wasn't exactly the place to hear harmonies and harpsichords so much as songs about sniffing glue. This isn't to say they didn't like the raucous power of Magik Milk, on the contrary. But, as the people who would come to make up the band began to talk, it became clear that they wanted to make something different entirely. They wanted to make something with the heartbeat of sweaty city basement shows but with the unrestrained imagination of places and times where they had never been.

Bassist Patrick Tsotsos will tell you about the music of post-war Greece where his grandparents grew up. Guitarist Nick Dehmlow will tell you about the garage bands of LA. Drummer Brendan Peleo-Lazar can fill you in on a late 60s London studio session as though he was running the tape machine. Mellotron/organ player Constantine Hastalis can show you a record by some long-forgotten folk singer who writes so earnestly you won't forgive the world for forgetting it. Singer Trevor Newton Pritchett is unapologetic about what they borrow. "You might hear the Zombies for their kind of haunting and contemplative quality, the Kinks kind-of casual criticism, the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band for their distant romantic quality, Temples, Love, Diane Coffee, Charles Bradley or our Chicago people Post Animal, Jude Shuma and Whitney." Now that half of the band is located in Los Angeles you'll be likely to hear those influences, too.

And that's what becomes crystal clear when listening to the upcoming album Another Land. It's an immersive listen, the kind of record you can get lost in on a cross-country drive from the midwest to the west coast. A record with warm blood running through its veins. Music where thought can be abandoned.

The whole record is dressed up in surreal and esoteric terms, in exchange for being topical. Think Dylan lyrics from the late 60s. "Paint Euphrosyne Blue" is kind of a meta-level example of that. The song is a reference to the goddess of mirth, about the human need to adapt to the point of becoming unoriginal. It's about chasing Van Gogh's depression because it makes you feel like a better painter.

The album was written through September 2017 and was recorded following the release of the self-titled Lucille Furs album later that year. It was recorded direct to tape before being completed at Treehouse Records in Chicago.

For fans of: The Kinks, The Zombies, Love, West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, The Byrds, The Beatles, Foxygen, Triptides, Temples, Mystic Braves, Levitation Room

Those familiar with the sound and style of the DIY scene in Chicago's Logan Square may be surprised to find out that it was the birthplace of psych pop quintet Lucille Furs. They are a little surprised themselves.

At the time it wasn't exactly the place to hear harmonies and harpsichords so much as songs about sniffing glue. This isn't to say they didn't like the raucous power of Magik Milk, on the contrary. But, as the people who would come to make up the band began to talk, it became clear that they wanted to make something different entirely. They wanted to make something with the heartbeat of sweaty city basement shows but with the unrestrained imagination of places and times where they had never been.

Bassist Patrick Tsotsos will tell you about the music of post-war Greece where his grandparents grew up. Guitarist Nick Dehmlow will tell you about the garage bands of LA. Drummer Brendan Peleo-Lazar can fill you in on a late 60s London studio session as though he was running the tape machine. Mellotron/organ player Constantine Hastalis can show you a record by some long-forgotten folk singer who writes so earnestly you won't forgive the world for forgetting it. Singer Trevor Newton Pritchett is unapologetic about what they borrow. "You might hear the Zombies for their kind of haunting and contemplative quality, the Kinks kind-of casual criticism, the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band for their distant romantic quality, Temples, Love, Diane Coffee, Charles Bradley or our Chicago people Post Animal, Jude Shuma and Whitney." Now that half of the band is located in Los Angeles you'll be likely to hear those influences, too.

And that's what becomes crystal clear when listening to the upcoming album Another Land. It's an immersive listen, the kind of record you can get lost in on a cross-country drive from the midwest to the west coast. A record with warm blood running through its veins. Music where thought can be abandoned.

The whole record is dressed up in surreal and esoteric terms, in exchange for being topical. Think Dylan lyrics from the late 60s. "Paint Euphrosyne Blue" is kind of a meta-level example of that. The song is a reference to the goddess of mirth, about the human need to adapt to the point of becoming unoriginal. It's about chasing Van Gogh's depression because it makes you feel like a better painter.

The album was written through September 2017 and was recorded following the release of the self-titled Lucille Furs album later that year. It was recorded direct to tape before being completed at Treehouse Records in Chicago.

For fans of: The Kinks, The Zombies, Love, West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, The Byrds, The Beatles, Foxygen, Triptides, Temples, Mystic Braves, Levitation Room

Sistro (Sistrum) is a kind of percussion instrument that has had several incarnations and names in various cultures since the time of the Sumerians and throughout history has always been associated with religious rituals. It’s from this relationship between music and the transcendent that Nuno Oliveira (Nuno O, Judas Triste, José Pinhal Post-Mortem Experience), Tito Silva (Vasco da Ganza, José Pinhal Post-Mortem Experience) and Rodolfo Oliveira (Oficinas TK) were gradually inspired to create a trio that pays homage to this instrument of ancient times.

The project was born casually and without intentionality throughout several incursions into megalithic monuments in the hills and mountains of northern Portugal, culminating in an unusual two-day session of musical experimentation in Esposende, in September 2019. In this two-day session, codenamed “Arménio Sessions”, the trio explored a sound based on sea soundscapes, electronic beats, electric noises and the strings of na altered guitar. Channeling the strength of the elements and the mystique of the place in the form of a musical experience.

In 2021, Sistro collaborated with Mario Klingemann (aka Quasimondo) who created a music video especially for the band, created using a vintage video mixing board. Then using feedback loops and a process that Klingemann calls “Neural Edit”, which uses an artificial intelligence algorithm to correlate the raw video material with the sound.

After a long period of incubation, the group's first full-length release sees the light of day on the 31th October, 2023, moment in which a sequence of rituals begins to present and celebrate the relationship between music and the transcendent. Sistro's debut album will be released by Favela Discos, having been mixed by Tito Silva and mastered by Pedro Augusto. The photography and graphics are by Oficinas TK.

For Fans Of... El Michels Affair, Adrian Younge, Roy Ayers, Karriem Riggins, The Roots, Khruangbin. Producer "Grimez" has been making music for 20 years deep Grimez has ghost produced tracks for 50 cent, Hi-Tek, Kool Keith, Stick man (DEAD PREZ), Killah Priest, Sadat X, MOOD & Talib Kweli, and Mighty Diamonds to name a few. Gritty & raw analog instrumentals. Jason Grimes is all about making timeless music. The Cincinnati-based DJ and producer has a long history of record collecting, sampling, and creating new sounds with analog gear. Grimes works with some of Cincinnati’s finest studio musicians to create raw, soulful, instrumental hip-hop under the moniker Doctor Bionic. As a teenager in the 90s, Grimes fell in love with hip-hop at an early age. He became comfortable scratching on a pair of 1200s and sampling records with an NPC in high school. After years of collecting records and working on his sound behind the scenes, he had compiled a huge discography of original songs – but he wasn’t sure how to share them. “I got pretty burnt out and I had to take a hiatus for a few years,” he explained. “There wasn’t much going on in the Cincinnati music scene, and it always felt like an uphill battle.” Then, on a casual bike ride with his wife through Loveland in 2015, Grimes came across a new record shop. “I heard some music playing and I saw a sign that read ‘funk/soul’ – I had to go in and see what these guys were all about.” He spoke with Terry Cole, co-owner of Colemine & Plaid Room Records. “It was a breath of fresh air to meet Terry. The interaction inspired me to start making records again.” A short time later, Grimes started his independent label Chiefdom Records. His studio persona Doctor Bionic was one of the first to see a release on the new imprint. “Doctor Bionic is a studio band of session musicians,” he shared. “The personnel changes on every record. It depends on the sound I’m going for.” For every record, the goal is to make timeless music. Grimes is responsible for writing, recording, producing, mixing, and releasing the records. Spiritual Conquest features several heavy hitters from the Cincinnati music scene. Brad Myers and Brandon Scott played guitar on a few tracks each. Marvin Hawkins laid down some live drums. The album offers a dynamic mix of instrumental hip-hop sounds. From punchy, head-bobbing beats to ethereal, floating piano lines, the mix offers a little something for everyone

CUT THE ENGINES is the third album by All Structures Align, following the critically acclaimed Details And Drawings and Distance And Departure (both released on Wrong Speed Records in 2022). All Structures Align began as a studio project reuniting brothers Tim and Adam Ineson of 90s underground rock heroes Nub. Their debut album Details And Drawings took everyone by surprise.

Rather than sounding like a tentative bedroom project, it arrived fully formed and with its own identity. It was an album of unhurried patience, of mounting tension (and eventual release) and it possessed a depth that rewarded repeated listens as irresistible hooks revealed themselves almost casually to the listener.

It also felt slightly out of time: no rush to the chorus, no gimmicks, no desire to pack out every second of space with sound. Lots of people agreed and the limited vinyl pressing sold out almost instantly. The follow-up came within the same year with the brothers recruiting drummer extraordinaire Neil Turpin (Objections, Bilge Pump, Polaris) to bring swing and pulse to their songs.

Distance And Departure was the result and widened their audience and acclaim further. So much so that the brothers decided to venture out and play live. To do so they brought in Oli Heffernan (Ivan The Tolerable, King Champion Sounds) on bass and Andrew Pollard (Polaris) on guitar and additional vocals.

If you’ve been lucky enough to see All Structures Align live over the last year, you’ll know this expanded band bring the songs to life beyond simple recitation. Those dynamic shifts in the music are now larger than life and fully multi-dimensional. Cut The Engines is the first All Structures Align release to capture the five-piece live band in the studio. Eight songs as spacious and measured as their previous work but with an increased directness and drama that seems to come from the interplay between people in a room.

Whilst never getting down to Ramones levels of brevity, the songs are compact and sharper than before, as though the addition of extra personnel has allowed their musical language to become more concise and effective. The songs still feel like rich novels condensed into short stories, but the band format has brought a confidence and ease to the telling that increases their impact. The resulting record is their most accessible yet, a slow-core indie-rock masterpiece that will intrigue and delight existing fans and newcomers alike for decades to come.

Singer, songwriter and author Ali Sethi had been entranced by Jaar's music long before they began collaborating. He'd absorbed the sounds over a number of years, listening casually and taking in their subtleties in bars and rooftop parties across Lahore and London. "It felt familiar to me, that sense of adventure you have when you hear his music, like a tale that teases you and plays with your expectations as it unfolds," says Sethi. "In that sense it resembled the leisurely improvised ghazals and qawwalis I grew up hearing in Pakistan." So when the two were finally introduced by Indian visual artist Somnath Bhatt, a regular Jaar collaborator who also handled the album's artwork, Sethi was well prepared. He began to sketch out voice notes using loops snipped from Jaar's acclaimed 2020 album 'Telas', improvising vocalizations and seductive Urdu poems over Jaar's weightless, time-bending productions. Jaar was astonished by the result; "It was what 'Telas' had been missing," he explains.

Improvisation has been important to the Chilean artist for many years. Before he had even started making electronic music, Jaar jammed on accordion with friends on the street in New York City. It's at the core of his practice, "a moment in time," in his own words. 'Intiha', the opening track on the album, is the first they finished together, and positions Sethi's evocative phrases over Jaar's faded, metallic percussion. It's a perfect proof of concept, re- imagining the world of 'Telas' and augmenting it with a sense of ancestral melancholy and giddy euphoria that's truly transformational.
Sethi is best known globally for his attempts to revive the ghazal, an ancient poetic form that was taken by Sufi mystics from the Arab world to Persia and throughout the Indian subcontinent, where it captivated the royal court. It's been unfashionable in the last few decades, a mannered style associated with decadence, and Sethi offers it a new lease of life through his playfully revisionist covers and renditions. (His most popular single 'Pasoori' is a global phenomenon, one of the most Googled songs of 2022, with hundreds of millions of listeners tuning into its timeless message of forbidden love.) Sethi updates the ghazal form by using his years of training in raga music, lifting metaphors that reflect his journey as an out-of- place queer kid in Pakistan who became a US citizen and now lives in New York City.

Binary Cells is back for a new VA compilation.
This new physical episode features unique gems crafted with love from Gotshell, Uvall, Casual Treatment and Dejan (SE).
Four confirmed ans emerging artists combining their strenghts and talent in order to immerse you in a qualitative and deep techno vibe.
Strong and colorful cuts all the way.

After touring the world's Techno and Goths clubs intensively, Die Selektion are back with their unique blend of Synth- Pop and Electronic Body Music. Heavyhearted but hopeful trumpet melodies, German lyrics that make you question your past and future once again, synthesizer sounds in the great tradition of '80s Wave and Pop, combined with hard-hitting drum machines - this forms the base of their self- proclaimed Prosecco Wave world. Their new album "Zeuge aus Licht" features 9 hits to live, love and laugh to, and makes you forget your everyday worries.

Die Selektion sat down together in a new line-up consisting of all three founding members Gillian, Rief and Rieger, as well as Savenberg, who joined in 2013.

The outcome of this mesmerising gathering is a supersonic experience for body, heart and soul. The new songs expand the sound of the band with an almost casual, elegant diversity. Every single component shines and an understanding of what makes pop really pop comes through, adding ironic glitter to the black nihilism of Dark Wave. With "Zeuge aus Licht", Die Selektion opens a new door in their fluid band set- up. And we should all be excited to find out what's hiding behind it.

Auf ihrem neuen Album vereint Lucky Lo Menschen durch Musik, indem sie Licht auf die dunkle Seite der Existenz wirft und Traumata in Triumph verwandelt. Mit ihren aufrichtigen und farbenfrohen Alternative-Pop-Songs bewegt sich die Musik der schwedischen Künstlerin im Bereich organischer und handgespielter Klänge ihrer Band und gelegentlicher Anspielungen auf größere Pop-Produktionen. The Big Feel dreht sich thematisch um große Lieben, tiefe Sorgen, berauschende Freuden und Reflexionen über aktuelle Bewegungen wie Klimawandel, sexuelle Freiheit und psychische Gesundheit. Die Musik lädt alle, Jung und Alt, dazu ein, ein kollektives Gefühl der Zugehörigkeit und Gemeinschaft zu entwickeln. CD und LP enthalten zwei exklusive Bonustracks.

2023 will see Billy Bragg and Cooking Vinyl celebrating forty years of music from the singer, songwriter, activist and author, with a selection of releases to appeal to casual admirers and die hard fans alike. Each format has been compiled by Billy beginning with a 1LP 13-song "primer" on LTD Edition orange coloured vinyl, a 40-song LTD Edition Deluxe 3 LP collection on three shades of green vinyl, and a 40-song 2CD in card digisleeve with 16 page booklet. The vinyl formats contain a download card.

2023 will see Billy Bragg and Cooking Vinyl celebrating forty years of music from the singer, songwriter, activist and author, with a selection of releases to appeal to casual admirers and die hard fans alike. Each format has been compiled by Billy beginning with a 1LP 13-song "primer" on LTD Edition orange coloured vinyl, a 40-song LTD Edition Deluxe 3 LP collection on three shades of green vinyl, and a 40-song 2CD in card digisleeve with 16 page booklet. The vinyl formats contain a download card.

Appleton, Wisconsin’s Dusk may seem to have fallen from the sky. Surrounded by a music climate of destination festivals and instagram celebrity, they’ve remained reclusive, yet focused on the proverbial
carrot on the end of the stick that’s hard for so many working musicians to define. For the past four years, they’ve maintained a steady schedule of recording and “hitting the dirt,” as they say: spending weeks on the road playing dives and basements. The group was conceived in 2014 as a casual recording project between vocalist and bassist Amos Pitsch and drummer Colin Wilde. Amos had just
completed recording Predatory Headlights, the critically acclaimed double album by his other group, Tenement, and with the new found down time, he and Colin arranged their own versions of vintage
soul songs. The intention was to treat the project like a revolving door for collaborators, but soon the permanent additions of vocalist/pianist Julia Blair, lead guitarist Tyler Ditter, and Ryley Crowe on pedal steel, rhythm guitar, and vocal duties would cement the band into a connsistent rock and roll ensemble; informed by soul music, country, jazz, and beyond.

Lucky number 17? You better believe it. We here at Brown Acid have been scouring the highways and byways of America for even more hidden stashes of psych/garage/proto-punk madness from the so-called Aquarian Age. There’s no flower power here, though—just acid casualties, rock stompers and major freakouts. As always, the songs have been officially licensed, and all the artists get paid. Kicking off this trip, Grapple’s “Ethereal Genesis” is a heavy psych gem from 1969 written by J. Bruce Svoboda, a.k.a. Jay Bruce, formerly of The Hangmen and The Five Canadians (who were actually the same San Antonio band). The latter’s 1966 garage favorite “Writing on the Wall” has been endlessly covered, but Grapple were never heard from again. With a guitar riff that blatantly rips off Sabbath’s “Black Sabbath,” Image’s mostly instrumental lysergic obscurity “Witchcraft ’71” (originally unveiled that very year) also boasts a horror-movie organ intro, a voodoo drum break and some championship chanting. Private press heads might recall late Image drummer John Beke from his ’80s reemergence with country rockers Crossfyre. Stone Hedge were a seven-piece rock band out of Michigan with a penchant for Creedence and anthropomorphism. “Smokey Bear” is their 1972 tribute to the official mascot of the U.S. Forest Services—not to mention the A side of their sole single—and it recalls the kind of organ-drenched swamp jam that soundtracked many a Burt Reynolds flick back in the day. If you think being a Southern rock band from Milwaukee doesn’t make much sense, that’s probably why Crossfire changed their sound along with their name—to Bad Boy—after signing with United Artists. Bad Boy’s severely underappreciated second album, Back To Back, is a 1978 hard rock jewel, but you can hear their boogie-woogie roots on this rare 1975 single. With a band name like Primevil and song title like “Too Dead To Live,” you probably expect some gnarly proto-metal riffage. Instead, you a get a harmonica-drenched, soul-infused rock rave-up from 1972. Primevil would release their sole LP two years later: Entitled Smokin’ Bats at Campton’s, it’s a reference to their trusty singer, harp player (and bat smoker?), Dave Campton. Brown Acid regulars already know Pegasus from their appearance with “The Sorcerer” on our Seventh Trip. “Ready to Rave” is the flipside to that 1972 single, in which they explain how they like their whiskey cold and their women hot. It’s another killer glimpse of what might have been if these one-and-done Baltimore hard rockers had been able to keep it together. One of two obscure singles released by Texas musician Bobby Mabe in 1969 (the other appears under the name The Outcasts), “I’m Lonely” delivers a heavy dose of vocal soul to the otherwise psych-garage presentation. Fans of fellow Houstonians the Moving Sidewalks—whom Bobby and his Outcasts may well have gigged with—will especially dig this one. Cedar Rapids, Iowa, may not be known as a cultural mecca, but they did give us Truth & Janey. This deadly hard rock trio delivered their holy grail full-length, No Rest for the Wicked, back in 1976. “Around and Around” is a Chuck Berry cover that originally appeared on a 1973 single the band released under the earlier name Truth. Originally released in 1973, “High School Letter” is the debut single from San Diego rock squad Glory. This infectious bonehead cruncher features future Beat Farmer Jerry Raney and the original rhythm section of Iron Butterfly in bassist Greg Willis and drummer Jack Pinney. Glory is what they got up to after their former bandmates left for L.A.’s garden of Eden. “Jack the Ripper” is a mercilessly bootlegged Cleveland classic from 1978 with a serrated punk edge and vocals that recall Mick Blood of Aussie savages the Lime Spiders. Or maybe it’s the other way around—the Lime Spiders formed the year after Strychnine carved off this lethal paean to the infamous Whitechapel slasher of olde.

‘It Takes Grit’ is the 4th release on Kerrie’s Dark Machine Funk label. 4 tracks that were initially ideas from her ever changing Live Set performed in clubs and festivals such as Freerotation, Freedom Medellin, Tresor & FOLD and have made the cut to finished tracks. All tracks have elements of Kerrie’s signature gritty machine funk sound, and carry her notable influences from Detroit / UK techno especially the Birmingham sound. Gnarly sci-fi infused sound design meets a raw stomping groove, the ‘It Takes Grit’ EP is aimed directly at the dancefloor. This one bangs!

Early DJ support from James Ruskin, Daniel Avery, Kwartz, Tensal, Casual Treatment.

"Neural transmissions of crisis on the eve of WEB 3.0"

Net Prophet finds the band moving deeper into the vaporous territory of 21st century excess, where power casually corrupts absolutely and the mental netscape is more deranged in the membrane than we ever knew possible. A world on the edge, where imminent ecocide and violent social upheaval lurk beneath every minute mental distraction. The doomscroll gets longer and the attention span shorter as a disconnected global internet life takes over with its scepters of promise and looming evasiveness.

The sound is rich in variety from the darkwave pulsing synths of "Lichtenberg Monologue" reminiscent of Shape / Shifting's "Tomahawk" to the growling, slowdriving bass of "A New Dawn" which harks back to the bands S/ T 1st record, albeit with a synth instead of guitar. Even with the stark contrasts of murder-punk "AR-15" and jangle- pop "Purgatory Mall" the record never strays from the prime colors of the band: Vox, Drums, Bass, Guitar, Synth.

Recorded live in the Berlin studio Monoton, the record demonstrates the band in its prime - tightened up and influenced by their extensive touring, who have honed their sound from simple elements into a rich and tasty nugget, easily digestible for the modern consumer. Always true to their company slogan "tight, loose and evil".

European funk fusion of the highest order, Michel Gonet's Phasing News Volume 1 is the essential companion piece to the venerated Volume 2. It's truly a library treasure that every home must own. As Tele Music themselves said, it contains "tense and mysterious underscores in a range of styles"; whilst we don't disagree, we'd add swaggering, orchestral drama-funk-jazz-breaks. Vital.

Opener "Moon To Light (Number II) - A" is a total wonder. It's incredible, and what a way to begin a record. The percussion is electrifying, complimenting the dark, heavy piano, eerie organ work, electric guitar soling and rhythm section brilliance. Part B is virtually identical but without the electric guitar. The slow "Soul Cathedral (Number II) - A" is an ambient spacey synth gem which is both beatless and drenched in phased organ. Pretty captivating. Part B plays it rather straighter, a church organ continuing the same melody and tempo but with less of the swirling synthy effects.

"Light In The Rains (Number II) - A" sounds like something Diamond D would've sampled in the mid-to-late 90s, conjuring as it does that peculiar, creeping Axelrod-funk, all eerie electric guitar and organ, bass and spacey effects. Part B loses the electric guitar and adds brass.

The swirling, dramatic "Mondial Scoop (Number II)" has that urgent News At Ten feel with its prominent timpani drums whilst "Mecanic Bird Song" is a frenetic, abstract track with disorientating keyboard interplay.

*Total highlight* "Mephisto Jet (Number II) - A" rides a slick, proto-hip-hop beat with melodic, warm Rhodes yet, thrillingly, casually ups the drama with strings and timpanis. It then returns to its more mellow state. Ace. Part B adds acidy, phased percussion to create a more hypnotic, tripped out feel to proceedings. Part C is half as long but, pared back to just drums and Rhodes, it's arguably twice-as-nice.

To close, the shuffling, bell-laced urgent jazz of "Phasing News - A" is another highlight, riding a great bassline and augmented by ace drums, organ and electric guitar. Part B is also great, removing the guitar and doubling down on the head-nod funk.

The audio for Phasing News Volume 1 has been remastered by Be With regular Simon Francis, ensuring this release sounds better than ever. Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the original, iconic Tele Music house sleeve has been restored here at Be With HQ as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue.

"A marvellous piece of lazy rock"n"roll that does for the current American new wave what Teenage Fanclub"s "A Catholic Education" did for British guitar music... Almost unintentionally they"ve forged one of the most refreshing American noises for ages," - NME "Perhaps because one half of Pavement lives in New York City and the other in a sleepy, rural, central California town called Stockton, the spirit of the band"s music is split right down the middle. Simultaneously sophisticated and unpretentious, heartfelt and totally goofy - but always entirely sincere - Pavement exhibits its genius casually. The group"s first full-length album, Slanted and Enchanted, is brimming with beautiful pop songs, soured a bit by the rhythmic clamour of harder guitar rock. You can hear Pavement"s effortless charm in the evocative lyrics of songs like "Loretta"s Scars" ("How can I make my body shed for you?") and, ultimately, in the sheer, clangy joyfulness of the band"s playing. Pavement does lapse occasionally into superdense experimental noise fests, but it more than compensates for these indulgences with 10 cuts of solid songwriting. No matter where Pavement lived, it would be brilliant." - Entertainment Weekly

"A marvellous piece of lazy rock"n"roll that does for the current American new wave what Teenage Fanclub"s "A Catholic Education" did for British guitar music... Almost unintentionally they"ve forged one of the most refreshing American noises for ages," - NME "Perhaps because one half of Pavement lives in New York City and the other in a sleepy, rural, central California town called Stockton, the spirit of the band"s music is split right down the middle. Simultaneously sophisticated and unpretentious, heartfelt and totally goofy - but always entirely sincere - Pavement exhibits its genius casually. The group"s first full-length album, Slanted and Enchanted, is brimming with beautiful pop songs, soured a bit by the rhythmic clamour of harder guitar rock. You can hear Pavement"s effortless charm in the evocative lyrics of songs like "Loretta"s Scars" ("How can I make my body shed for you?") and, ultimately, in the sheer, clangy joyfulness of the band"s playing. Pavement does lapse occasionally into superdense experimental noise fests, but it more than compensates for these indulgences with 10 cuts of solid songwriting. No matter where Pavement lived, it would be brilliant." - Entertainment Weekly

The show, which rolled over the open-air stage of the Greek Theatre night after night in the late summer of 1963, attracted fans as if on a pilgrimage to the mountains of Hollywood. Many who could not get hold of a map climbed the surrounding trees to be able to admire the Calypso man at least from a distance.

Also on the lookout and with sound equipment at the ready were the people of the company RCA, which released the eagerly awaited album the following year. Some of the songs like the wriggling "Zombie Jamboree", "Look Over Yonder" and the wonderfully dripping Schmonzette "Try To Remember" were previously only available as studio versions. Most of the other numbers were brand new and sounded for the first time in a sparkling live atmosphere, which is authentically reproduced on this record.

Here a laugh as a receipt for a casual saying, there a rumble of boards, then again concentrated silence of a spellbound listening audience - something like this only happens on stage.

For Belafonte connoisseurs, these recordings are regarded as the crowning glory of the artistically highly productive phase of the years 1959 to 1963. Of the many good albums, this is one of the best.

Personnel: Harry Belafonte (voc); Howard Roberts (cond); William Eaton (clavietta); Ernest Calabria, Jay Berliner (g); John Cartwright (b); Percy Brice (dr); Ralph MacDonald (perc), choir and orchestra

In 2023 Deutsche Grammophon celebrates a wonderful milestone: its 125th birthday. To mark the occasion the Yellow Label makes a selection of LPs available on vinyl for the first time ever. Including legendary recordings by Daniil Trifonov, Hélène Grimaud, Hilary Hahn, Jan Lisiecki and many others. Perahia's grandiose recording of Bach's French Suites is a true feast for music lovers and connoisseurs. Never has Bach sounded so natural and casual as in the hands of Perahia. The New York-born, multiple Grammy and Echo Klassik award winner has felt a close connection with Bach for decades. At the age of 15, a performance of the St. Matthew Passion made such an impression on him that it sparked a remarkable passion for the master of baroque music. Thanks to Perahia's intensive study of Bach's works, one can enjoy the enormous emotional range of the French suites from the very first minute: From bittersweet melancholy to exultant joy, Bach's masterpiece covers an incomparably rich spectrum of emotions. Due to Perahia's brilliant interpretation, this recording will certainly join the ranks of the most legendary contemporary piano recordings.

After the release of 2001's 'Fuck Art', The Dirty Nil jammed in their practice space for weeks, not overthinking anything or taking any external input. They didn’t sweat the small details or fret over transitions and arrangements. Less second guessing, more reckless abandon. It’s the same approach to rock they’ve taken since they were kids. “We had the best time pulling these songs together. It made me feel like a teenager in my parents’ basement again,” Bentham says. What came out was the appropriately titled Free Rein to Passions. Their youthful rock-worship approach is immediately apparent on the album’s opener “Celebration,” which cuts in via a chugging metal riff, a subtle ode to one of the Nil’s influences, Power Trip’s late frontman Riley Gale. From there, the band indulges their loudest, gnarliest inclinations, making casual nods to their more chaotic favorites, including everything from the Jesus Lizard to the Blood Brothers. And on the album’s catchiest single, “Nicer Guy,” the Nil reminds listeners that they also still wield the power to stitch a perfect, infectious pop hook into their rock fabric. Free Rein to Passions keeps things simple lyrically as well, and doesn’t get bogged down with overly complicated messaging. Nothing overwrought, nothing didactic. Just songs about working soul-sucking jobs, shredding on guitar, and striving to be a kinder person. “The only real central theme of the album is an acknowledgment of the crazy circumstances that we all occupy at this point in time, and being nice,” Bentham stresses. “It’s about being nice to everyone around you, and enjoying your silly little life and not getting too smashed down by prevailing negativity in the air.”

For Potency's third instalment Cromby drops some acid on us like a funky trip to a neon-coloured alternate universe where the beat drops harder than a hot potato, and the 303 synthesizer squiggles like a wiggly worm on a funky dancefloor. It's the perfect soundtrack for a time-traveling adventure, where the future is now and the party never stops!

Along with Wu-Tang Clan's Inspectah Deck and 7L, MC Esoteric is probably best known as 1/3rd of the acclaimed trio CZARFACE. Before creating the comic friendly hip-hop supervillain, Eso developed and unleashed another fictional anti-hero that bolstered his music, and that character was dubbed EGOCLAPPER. You could view Egoclapper as Czarface's predecessor. Esoteric's legacy as a leading vanguard of Boston's underground rap scene extends far beyond CZARFACE, AOTP, and recent collaborations with MF DOOM, it leaps across multiple decades of records both solo and in collaboration with 7L. So now, Eso's imprint Fly Casual Records is proud to present this sterling reissue of his 2007 solo debut; the twitchy, punchy, eccentric Egoclapper. Not only has this record never previously been released on vinyl, but it is now presented on exclusive transparent blue wax.

As the siren’s song echoes out of systems worldwide, perhaps we are (re)turning to the liquid age of dance; with natural ephemera such as moss, sentiments for ecology such as swamps, and mercurial aspects of water all absorbing the aesthetic forefront. A return to nature, a deep dive under the lily pads. Here Marijn with her debut EP guides our plunge, a trip previously taken via her podcasts on Kulture Lab, where you can also find her previously released music.

Whispers from the ethereal plane drift around the headspace, a rumble in the distance of sound traversing the water, voices to guide and to keep you from floating too far from the line. Audio hallucinations are aplenty when submerged, a serenity of space, yet distant growls assure that peace is not always 2 be found. The melancholia within the daydream, the pang of loss caught in reflections, internal and from the water, with the lily pads floating above as a guiding entity, an anchor, something to hold. Under the lily pads we rumble.

On the flip everyone’s fav casual breaks n rave hooligan Luca Lozano asks the recurring thought within dance music, a question we quest, yet rarely want the answer. Abstraction via squeaks and tweaks, you better bop your bleepin’ head to this 1.

‘Leave A Message’ leaves the tranquil waters disturbed and rippling to the outer edges, providing jumps for the lily pads to ride on the incoming tide, with the ebb and flow making way for a storm surge. Aka big beats are the best, a notion the directly honest final track ‘Made (Drums)’ follows, bringing a twisted jack attack logic to a deranged assembly of samples, a manic orchestra of tumbling drums who have conspired to freak out, albeit with cute bubbles underneath to revel in the allure of sonic mania.

Black Light Smoke is the electronic music moniker of Jordan Lieb - producer, songwriter, and award winning film and TV composer. A Chicago native, Jordan transplanted to New York City in 2001, where his career as a multi-disciplined musician has taken flight in many forms.

Currently residing in upstate New York, Black Light Smoke returns to Scissor and Thread for his first full length debut-album: Ghosts.
The 12 tracks (plus three digital bonus tracks) span everything from 90s house, smooth and deep soulful beats, dusty grooves and thoughtful treaties on the state of creativity, capitalism and identity.
It’s a collection that sits together as a listening experience perfectly, building peaks and sliding into serene troughs, all with a strong sense of radical thought and creative experimentation. Tracks bend and warp in unexpected directions, while gritty, distortion and overdrive counterpoint classic rave stabs and vocal samples. Taken as a whole, the album could be the soundtrack to a night drive through the city, as much as certain tracks will no doubt find themselves woven into the sets of the more leftfield and genre pushing DJs. Either way, it’s an essential release from one of the most exciting and vital producers out there and the first artist signed to Scissor and Thread back in 2011.

The album title, Ghosts, tells two stories. One is personal - an artist embracing the shadows of his past in order to move forward and complete a body of work. The second story is a search for the original meaning of house music - not just the usual sample, appropriation or casual nod to the originators of house - but a meditation on the living story of Black America in which house music is an inseparable chapter. Both stories are a reflection on grief and the transformation of trauma into celebration.

100% of Jordan Lieb’s personal proceeds from this record will go to Little Bit Foundation, empowering students living in poverty to achieve their academic goals.

With this release TAL delves deep into the very beginnings of Düsseldorf's post punk scene of the early 1980s. STUMM was the duo of Detlef Funder and Bernd Sevens who both would become pivotal figures in the tape underground movement of West-Germany, when they launched the SDV label in 1986. Individually they went on to produce boundary defying works as Konrad Kraft and Seventh Day respectively.

The material on this album was recorded by Funder and Sevens quite casually in 1980 in a rehearsal studio in the centre of Düsseldorf. Right from the beginning the two young musicians incorporated the atmosphere of the space in order to document the process of their sound experiments on a 4-track tape machine. For those recording sessions, which are now released for the first time ever on vinyl and download, Funder and Sevens managed to get their hands on a very rudimentary set of equipment consisting of merely a Korg MS 20 synth, a Roland CR 78 drum machine, a few electronic effects and a drum kit. The urgent and rough sound of the recordings imbues their production with a characteristic and era-specific edge that's hard to imitate today. Spontaneity and understatement were key elements in the brief creative period of STUMM. The recordings still have a uniquely dizzying quality and are somewhat of a basic blueprint for a lot of industrial/techno and post punk which was about to loom in all corners of the world. These tracks are also a testament to the vivid spark of a period in time that would soon be radically changed through the rise of digital technology.

Bernd Sevens: “Around 1980 there was a great musical awakening. Punk, New Wave, Industrial and of course Dub Reggae -- the electronic music blew us away. Everything we heard influenced us. Back then, cassette tapes were cheap and easily available. We could record our ideas on the spot and then copy and distribute the tapes. That's how it started. Giving it a go, experimenting, trial and error. The music you hear on the record was spontaneous and had no concept. Our collaboration was also not intended to be a permanent project. You could say we were dilettantes setting out on our journey, making it up as we went along. It felt like a beginning.”

A nomad in France and elsewhere, a dandy of the highways and byways, Antonin carries his poetically gaunt figure along the beaches of Cap-Ferret, where he is originally from, his long Cossack hair and his profile of a night owl with a sharp sweetness. Born "sea-drunk", he grew up in a wooden hut on the sand in the middle of the pines, and his only masters are time, the ocean and the six strings of his acoustic guitar. His music is like him: sun-drenched, free as air, necessary as water. Heady pop ritornellos, ballads to sing in chorus and dance barefoot, island saudades. Somewhere between Nino Ferrer and Nino Rota, Air and Moustaki, with Antonin's casual and chameleon-like ability to pass himself off as an Italian or an Israeli when the wine or the atmosphere encourages him to do so.

Void+1 is proud to present their 2nd record of 2023. You know how in superhero movies there's always a point where the "good guys" face someone who wipes the floor with them and then out of nowhere, a character appears that is so ridiculously overpowered that he solves the situation while casually drinking a beer?

This is exactly how this record sounds like and it is by none other than master Perc himself. "Wave Cannon" is a stomping floor-scorcher, "Loose fit" is a groove-monster that we can't get enough of and "Crowd Control" has some eerie, dangerous vibes.

Of all the things that can and should and will be said of Sam Wilkes’ & Jacob Mann’s Perform the Compositions of Sam Wilkes & Jacob Mann, let’s begin at the beginning and acknowledge that it is an aptly named record indeed. An ideal collaborative effort (which is to say, greater than the sum of its parts), here we have two longtime friends, two luminaries of the New Weird Los Angeles — the experimental, genre-encompassing underground—who have, at last, devoted a full-length record to their signature musical admixture.

Since their meeting as USC music students (Wilkes studied bass, and Mann, jazz/piano), the two have, with a kind of ceaseless abandon, chased the music to the ends the earth — oftentimes quite literally; travel is a recurrent theme in Compositions’ track titles (Pre-board, Soft Landing, and Around the Horn), and the record’s second track, Jakarta, was sketched out in a hotel room in the city of the same name, where Wilkes and Mann were performing at a jazz festival in 2019. Having initially bonded over a mutual and abiding appreciation for the Soulquarians, the two have spent over a decade playing and traveling, together and separately, their styles coevolving all the while.

Across its thirteen tracks, Compositions captures the relaxed creative flow of two consummate musicians. Most of the record’s sessions (“four-to-five-day summits” in an apartment studio, occasioned by “blasts of inspiration”) began with casual improvisation, and, indeed, roughly half of the final material was composed in this manner: Wilkes and Mann squaring off, a Yamaha DX7 facing a Roland Juno 106, alternating leads, two co-pilots with no set course. And though the songs are polished to a shine, there are artifacts of the intimacy of these sessions. Yes It Is concludes with a snippet of just-intelligible studio chatter: “…A flat minor, then A major.” A figuring-it-out-as-we-go moment that briefly renders explicit the warmth, friendship, and creative freedom that is the album’s heart.

The duo WILDES from the south of Germany, consisting of Jana Pantha and Jenny Tulipa, presents a musical mix of electro-synth-pop, post-punk and dark disco influences. After the release of their first EP “RAWWR” in 2021, their debut album entitled “KLISCHEE” will be released on 3 February 2023. Released via the Kommando 84 label, the album features 11 songs and a musical re-interpretation of German-language Neue Deutsche Welle sounds. The songs combine spoken word passages in which the singers combine a certain irony with word-playful rhymes. In addition to world-political, social issues, the songs revolve around the complexity of the new romance in love - between cosmos and stereo. The strong and experimentally avant-garde lyrics accompany the danceable pulse of the drum computer, melodic synth waves and the shimmering solos of the lead guitar.

The album “Klischee” begins with an electro-pop track that combines consistent grooves with atmo- spheric sound arrangements and a lead guitar that accompanies our journey to the moon. With the chorus’ high-pitched words, „Konsum - leg mich auf den Moon“ (“Consumption - put me on the Moon”), WILDES dryly yet humorously allude to a society that couldn’t fly “higher”.

The following cheeky song Leger in Schwarz combines impeccable post punk with influences from the NNDW scene. A short love story led by the electronic beat of the synthesizer makes the hearts of the night beat faster. With casual reduction, a guitar riff leads through the song. The guitar solo finally rounds off the plea about the longing for a good flirt.

Italo disco shimmers and pulsates on the driving song Capri. With lyrics like “Pack the boats - Vai a bordo”, Capri is a homage to the tried and tested Italo feeling with a cappucino on the terrazza, or indeed on the yacht with a view of the rocky walls of the island. An electric charge of sequencers and synth tracks acts here as a lightness of being in contrast to the porosity of the rock.

An electrifying electric guitar solo kicks off the fourth track with a mysterious invitation to Steig ein translated, get in. Hypnotised by the lights of the road, dazzled in the side mirror, a clearly repeating rhythm leads into the chorus and through the coming verses. English spoken-word lyrics add to the stoicism of the German language. The song’s great power ends with the line Lost in the dark, holding open the finale of the “Night Drive” encounter.

Digital and stereo on all channels, the distinctly tight and robust rhythm sounds in the song Apparat. A clear and simple synth melody is heard as a contrast and the electric bass gives the balance of the machine at points. Hiddenly, WILDES points here to the superior power that can control human action beyond all limits. A piece as a laudation to all the science fiction novels that play with the switching of the individual parts.

Side One of the vinyl is finalised by a song called La Grande Bellezza that motivates to dance and sing along. The punky pop craft lives through the recurring beat of the rhythm guitar. Here the focus is on the woman in all her facets. The great beauty, una donna, who can do everything as well as wanting everything and nothing...a strong woman who, however, also staggers and wants to jump off the cliff. Clearly and distinctly, the musical accompaniment of the drum machine and the accompanying synth melody reflect hidden parallel worlds and the ambiguity of character - of life? We get a desire for more and turn the round record.

The B side starts with a powerful guitar riff, complemented by a catchy and strong bassline that runs through the song. In this work, WILDES provocatively describes the West’s lust for the much-cov- eted Schwarzes Gold black gold. The song is reminiscent of the works of the band D.A.F. and thus ties in with the electronic punk sound spate.

The driving guitar riff joins in with the reduced synth bass sequence - the electro-pop song with the title Hitze (Heat) came onto the digital music market as the first single from the LP in the summer of 2022. Pulsatingly, the drum computer lets the beats vibrate to the rhythm of heated air. The duo po- etically describes heat with supercooled voices, a clarity in the sky that makes everything flow, that makes the breath dry. The work ends with a melodic synth solo.

Ich lad dich ein, I invite you - we have all said or heard this sentence before. A chance meeting of two people later leads to the altar in love. A far-reaching question that more or less arises in many love relationships at some point “Do you dare?” positions itself in lyrical contrast to the simple ques- tion in the refrain “Do you need sugar?”. WILDES plays with laconic poetry and, full of irony, makes the listeners think about living together. Krautrock contours are skilfully used in this piece. Reduced to the essentials, the chorus immediately sticks in the ear. A cheerful mix of steel drums and infec- tious solo.

Toccami - touch me! We sit on padded leather chairs - “you’re a rocket! Peng Puff Peng” - this song by the band WILDES joins experimental art-punk-pop, electronically with flowing synth waves we take off immediately. Melodically sung, lyrical layers of lyrics dance loosely light and gracefully in the ears of the viewer. The rhythmic beat visualises the feeling of floating in a spaceship. It’s love in the universe - “I love you, my darling” sounds tipsy in the beat-heavy disco refrain.

Hypnotically, WILDES launches into the final song of the entire LP. The title Zone takes us on a journey through time. Inspired by the film Stalker, we find ourselves in a science fiction setting that couldn’t be more present in today’s European events. The musicality of the electric guitar riffs ac- companied by simple new wave drums drives the listener into unknown realms.

Repetition and electronic synth sounds play a compositional role alongside rocking guitar riffs like their forerunners in the NDW scene. Lyrically, each song varies between pop-romantic and politically critical passages. Listeners start pondering about hedonistic life and its consequences. Sometimes it feels like listening to a Tarantino soundtrack in German, other times it feels like listening to an 80s track by a James Bond. Science fiction fantasies and reality add up in dadaistic theatricality to spir- ited synthpunk of the New German Wave from the South. Discoid beats and driving drums in digital are included.

The second in a series of self-released Liquid Earth Physical Records, “The Breakdown” is a front flip into curbside clubbing.

The Aside offers two impeccably tight mixes of the 12” title tune, both providing different licks of pleasure for the casual clubber. “Charms Of Gaia” is forward leaning, equipped with big room, big energy type vocal breaks. “Trips & Skips” is an ode to the stripped down wigglyness of one of UK Tech House’s greatest, Nathan Coles - a clear influence of Mr. Earths.

From here, we are sat next to the two black sheep of the 12” on what seems like the most pleasurable road trip of a record. B1 being the beefed-out break tune titled “The Closer” and B2 the straight and narrow slammings of “Cobblestone Stomper,” a track surely given its holy legs by the OG Jerusalem Cruiser.

What you won’t find on this record is senseless filler, instead, you’ll surely be pumping your face with the permanent botox that is Liquid Earth. Now let’s see that smile!

40th Anniversary Edition - newly remastered from the master tapes, with an additional bonus LP of instrumentals and the previously unreleased "Narration Theme."
Daytime Viewing (1979-80) is an extended narrative song, based on a casual analysis of daytime television drama and the audience phenomena such programming addresses. The piece explores the use of fantasy as a survival mechanism against loneliness, illustrating the human compulsion to inflate the mundane to mythological proportions. A central female character weaves tales, using threads of personal experience and the idea of TV as friend, as mantra, and as transformational window between imagined spectacle and the pedestrian plane.
Originally released as a private cassette edition recorded, 1982; Chez Hum-Boom release, 1983 documenting the collaborative performance piece of the same name by Jacqueline Humbert g David Rosenboom. This heady, thoroughly enjoyable work was first made available on CD and LP in 2013 by Unseen Worlds. Jacqueline Humbert (aka J. Jasmine) is a songwriter of brains and wit on
par with Robert Ashley, with whom she's worked extensively. David Rosenboom's complex, harmonic electronic arrangements are accentuated brilliantly by percussion from William Winant. Daytime Viewing can happily be added.

Hotflush Recordings celebrates 20 years in the game this year, with a triple pack vinyl compilation featuring some of the key musical events in the label’s catalogue.

Born in 2003, Hotflush stands as one of electronic music’s most influential labels. A multi-dimensional imprint that helped define the development of bass music throughout the mid-2000s, in the last decade it would evolve towards the liminal spaces between house, techno, and beyond - a journey which has given the dancefloor some of its true underground classics.

This celebratory release covers every era and stylistic area of the Hotflush output. 2005’s proto-dubstep face melter ‘The Knowledge’ by Toasty kicks off Side A, with the key sides of bass music development all covered with tracks from James Blake, Loefah, Sepalcure, and Scuba.

UK techno legend Surgeon appears with his seminal remix of Scuba’s ‘Ruptured’ (2008), while the early Paul Woolford classic ‘MDMA’ reminds us of how ended up working with Diplo.

George FitzGerald and Recondite reprise some of their key formative material, while newer names Lawrence Hart, OR:LA and breakout Seoul artist Closet Yi also make appearances.

Canadian mastermind Jacques Greene rounds off the release with his slamming remix of Kiimi’s Breaking My Mind.

This is a compilation 20 years in the making, containing some of the key tracks from the electronic underground - curated and compiled by label boss Scuba.

Jeugdbrand is the voice (Dennis Tyfus) and the beat (Jeroen Stevens) of Antwerp. They perform a sparkling drama, a theatrical tragedy, marinated in our classic Antwerp anarchic sense of humor. Recorded at Joris Caluwaerts’ Finster Studios - a landmark in Belgian music.

Inside the multiverse that is Dennis Tyfus’ oeuvre there exists this body of detailed pencil drawings of various sizes. In these drawings the artist puts himself in many tragic situations. Like vomiting on his way home after a long night at the bar. Boiling right wing idiots. Telling sweet little lies on your Tinder profile. Or, you know, taking out the garbage on a Sunday evening. The horror. These seemingly hermetic pencil drawings show a deceivingly simple world. But you’re often stuck with a bitter aftertaste when you understand a bit more what is actually happening behind the colorful masque.

When it comes to his music - and in contrast to aforementioned drawings - Dennis pencils a more piecemeal picture. His recordings and performances often feel like spliced excerpts. Strange sentences and funny remarks waiver by and interconnect. Musical symbols are casually thrown on the table. Instead of a clear picture, we now have the feeling of looking at a bunch of different doodles. Like… sometimes I have the feeling compared to how focussed Dennis works on his drawings, how unfocussed and sketchy he treats his music. We are simply thrown from emotion to emotion. From laughter to tears. It’s a bumpy ride.

I’d like to imagine that Dennis constantly notates all the shards of conversation he picks up during his regular walks in the centre of Antwerp - a wormhole congested with characters, the one more tragic than the other. In a kind of R. Murray Schafer way, Dennis takes in every sentence very un-arbitrary… and that’s the soundscape. Dramatic, normal, boasted, silly, urgent…

Enter Jeroen Stevens. Antwerp’s number one percussionist. If I would have to list all the bands he performs in this text, well, we would be truly wasting data and printers. Jeroen is the grand gift of the wellschooled session musician. But thank the heavens of white improv, he is also sweet and creative. Jeugdbrand is his second entry in the Edições CN catalogue, after taking care of some of the percussive fragments on the “KAGIROI" LP with Sugai Ken (2021). Recently Jeroen has been performing very lengthy - thus correct - performances of Satie’s Vexations for midi instrumentation; Christmas music; and his famed De Stoeltjes project, where he covers Stooges songs on a camping chair. Apparently much to the confusion of Iggy himself. This might all feel like a big joke to you, but when you dare to listen, you will have to admit that Steven’s adventurous music is very rewarding. Special stuff.

The music of Jeugdbrand reminds me a bit of the music of the late Ghédalia Tazartès - especially when it comes to reinterpreting and combining musical idioms - but trying to put a direct reference on this album does it a bit short. Most important, this is music how it could be: incomprehensible, hilarious, serious, ludicrous, well crafted, sloppy, non-genre. With a strong sense of personality. You know, a fragmented beam for your own overstimulated temple. To shake things up a little … “They told us, they told her. I told everybody.”The albums comes with a drawing by German artist Albert Oehlen and with a text by Angela Sawyer of Weirdo Records, Boston.

Lovesick – everyone knows it, everyone hates it. Everyone feels alone. Everyone questions the previous relationship and what has been said during it. Everyone tries to numb the pain of this all-encompassing suffering with alcohol and drugs. Everyone calls at four in the morning and leaves embarrassing love confessions on the answering machine that will be never heard. Everyone feels alone and tries to find solace in casual acquaintances in bars, only to be turned away for being pushy. Everyone lays up for weeks stalking the likely reason this relationship ended, oh! It didn’t have to end, it was all so nice and this new one can’t be good and he/she won’t be good if the plans I’ve been making here for nights come true…oh how nice would this be! Oh it can’t be, maybe I just can’t be loved… maybe I just should…

Everybody knows it.

But from now on you never have to go through all that heartbreak alone again because we Herzschmerz Versicherungen have the solution! We are a band from Stuttgart, somehow only classified as dilletantic strange in the genre. We are at your side and take care of you when your heart hurts!

Book one of our numerous insurance packages today, or just listen to our songs – that helps too!

“Denn wenn du dir nicht sicher bist und deine Liebe bald zerbricht: Komm, schöner Mensch und kauf doch eine Versicherung bei mir, Bei Herzschmerz bin ich dann immer da, bei dir!”

Iassen Markov & Jannik Haller

Summertime sounds abound on the sixth Drum Chums disc, which comes lovingly dubbed and diced by our friendly Fruit Merchant Hidden Spheres.

Known globally for his free-flowing DJ sets, halcyon house hits and mastery of melody, Tom's been at the top of his game for time now - just check those releases on Rhythm Section and Scissor & Thread - and it's a pleasure to carry his drum sticks for this one. Cracking open his vault of top secret DJ tweaks, Spheres explores sweltering proto-house, tropical disco lilt and deepest waters across three floor-ready cuts.

The Fruit Merchant plucks something ripe from the Kalimba Tree on the A side, starting the party properly with joyous Afro-house jam 'Stolen'. Carnival-friendly drums and a Boyd Jarvis bassline wind up your waist while the call-and-response vocals and exuberant brass send hands and heads skywards before the track transitions into an utterly ecstatic sax-led breakdown. This is magic.

For the B-side, Hidden Spheres treats us to a couple of deep digs from his time in Australia, both originating in the Aboriginal community.
Emerging from the astral vibrations of a didgeri-drone, 'You Better Dance' casually locks into an irresistible 105bpm groove, strolling through the echo-laced dub space as its poetic vocal speaks to your soul.
Balearic-paced and cosmic-minded, this one plays perfectly next to those I-Level 12's.

For finale 'Together', Spheres shifts back into proto-house mode, locking a hypnotic piano riff into some militant snare rolls to lay the foundation for the impassioned vocal. Delivering the occasional diversion into more mournful territories, Spheres reminds us why deep house deity DJ Sprinkles always takes his calls.

100% Drum Fun Guaranteed.

In a blizzard of delirious sonics and twis’ up samples extracted from the annals of dancehall and ragga, Seekersinternational return to Sneaker Social Club to double down on the manifesto they laid out with the original RaggaPreservationSociety EP way back in 2016.

As ever, the SKRS magic lies in their ability to convey a deep affection and serious dedication for the source material while simultaneously getting shamelessly weird with it, taking the mutant tendencies of dancehall’s wildest instrumentals and injecting some added cosmic sauce into the mix. On this new record, they’re also embracing the volatile potential of junglist breaks - always intrinsically linked to Jamaican music at the point of inception, especially in the rough and ready daze of ragga jungle.

‘No Parasites (Lickshot)’ is a fierce mission statement, raining down mayhem without ever slipping into familiar modes - the emphasis is on the ragga, the jungle is there as a piquant flavour in the stew, but as ever the SKRS sound remains entirely out on its own. In contrast, ‘CaughtUp (HeartBreaks)’ almost edges closer to hardcore structures, but something keeps slipping in to run the interference, hovering just beyond perception for that all important woozy feeling.

‘2GoldChain (DriveUCrazy)’ is cut up enough to be another interstellar voyage, but here SKRS keep the music back in the mix and let a tapestry of chat lead out front as though capturing a casual street level chaos - bewildering and familiar in equal measure. ‘OriginaloftheOriginal’ completes the set with an earth-shattering script flip once more, coming on like square wave grime and half-speed breakbeat set to emotional stun. If it takes a minute to make sense, that’s because you’re hearing something entirely new.