quête:cold end

ANATHEMA'S 'WEATHER SYSTEMS' NOW AVAILABLE ON 2LP GATEFOLD VINYL

'Weather Systems' is the ninth studio album from Anathema. Lead vocalist & guitarist, Daniel Cavanagh, discussed the album, "it feels like we are at a creative peak right now & this album reflects that. Everything from the production to the writing to the performances are a step up from our last album."

He continues, "This is not background music for parties. The music is written to deeply move the listener, to uplift or take the listener to the coldest depths of the soul."
The intertwining melodic structures, the profoundly beautiful & intensely powerful - yet simple - songs transports the listener closer to the heart of life, that is to say, to the heart of themselves.
Previous album, 2010's 'We're Here Because We're Here' was described by Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree) as, "definitely among the best albums I've ever had the pleasure to work on."

''Weather Systems' was recorded in Liverpool, North Wales & Oslo, each place significant to Anathema. The record was produced & mixed by 5-time Norwegian Grammy nominated Christer- André Cederberg (Animal Alpha, In the Woods...), who Daniel described as "a revelation. His calmness & brilliance helped to bring about the greatest inter- band chemistry that Anathema have experienced
together in their career."

This career stretches back to 1990 when the band formed in Liverpool. Since then, they have embarked on a remarkable musical journey, initially emerging as pioneers of melodic heavy music & continually evolving over the ensuing years, always remaining true to their original goal of creating forward thinking, meaningful, passionate & honest music.
"Absolute World Class" 'Detlef Dengler' Metal Hammer

nothing,nowhere. commented on the new album detailing, “TRAUMA FACTORY is an accumulation of songs written during a confusing time. it is about accepting the present and following your true north through the pain and suffering of human life. I wanted to make an album that was truly genreless and inspire others to challenge themselves artistically. I believe the most inspiring art is unpredictable and unrestrictive. to me that’s what TRAUMA FACTORY is.”

Over the course of 15 tracks, TRAUMA FACTORY cuts deep and finds nothing,nowhere. once again emerging from darkness, shedding external expectation, and moving forward into the glow of pure creation. Whether it be the anesthetized beats and intoxicating lull of “love or chemistry,” the cold piano-laden longing of “crave,” or the emotional immediacy of “upside down,” nothing,nowhere. paints from a wide palette of pain.

nothing,nowhere. is the musical endeavor of Vermont songwriter, singer and guitarist Joe Mulherin. For Mulherin, nothing,nowhere. is about a connection. It’s one he finds with fans around the world, who gather to see him play on tour and to listen to his songs online. It’s that connection that urges the singer to place his fears aside and step onstage each night to share his art. He sees the potential to help, to make a change, however small it may be and that is why he brings his music out of the Vermont wildness.

Highway Butterfly: The Songs of Neal Casal is a 5LP vinyl boxset
celebrating the prolific body of work Casal left behind over the course of
14 studio albums
Recording sessions for the project began in February 2020 led by co-producers
Dave Schools of Widespread Panic and seven time Grammy- Award winning
recording engineer/ producer Jim Scott at PLYRZ Studios in Valencia, CA.Over
forty artists appear on the tribute including Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks,
Jonathan Wilson, Phil Lesh and The Terrapin Family Band, Steve Earle, Warren
Haynes, Jaime Wyatt, and Shooter Jennings among numerous others. The first
single and video from the recording was captured during the initial sessions in
February 2020. It features Billy Strings with Circles Around the Sun performing
"All The Luck In The World.

Nonesuch Records releases Ghost Song, the label debut of singer/songwriter Cécile McLorin Salvant. Ghost Song features a diverse mix of seven originals and five interpretations on the themes of ghosts, nostalgia, and yearning. Salvant says, “It’s unlike anything I’ve done before – it’s getting closer to reflecting my personality as an eclectic curator. I’m embracing my weirdness!” Cécile McLorin Salvant plays at Cadogan Hall on November 16 as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival, four shows at SFJAZZ in February, and two nights featuring the music of Ghost Song at Jazz at Lincoln Center in May. Salvant says of the title track, out now, “What if the love has gone, the love has left you and you have the emotions around that, and you’re still going through them, still engaging with the ghost of that love?” She continues, “Some songs are so painful to come out but this one came out pretty quickly. I’ve had some loss the last couple of years: my grandmother, the drummer in my band Lawrence Leathers.”



Ghost Song opens and ends with a sean-nós (traditional Irish unaccompanied vocal style) performance by Salvant, recorded in a church. On track one, she transitions into Kate Bush’s 1978 classic ‘Wuthering Heights’. Salvant says of the song, “Wuthering Heights is a book that really struck me to my core as I was making this album, during the pandemic. And the best interpretation of the novel is Kate Bush’s song.” She continues, “It’s the most classic ghost story. I decided I wanted to do an album called Ghost Song, and I knew that one had to be on it. Then I had the idea to mix it in with the sean-nós ‘Cúirt Bhaile Nua’, which binds it to the traditional ‘Unquiet Grave’, the last track on the album. The ghost is not haunting me; now I am haunting the ghost. They parallel each other so well and they’re such different time periods. I wanted the album to be a circle, with the sean-nós reference at the beginning and at the end. So it is the first track but it’s also the last track and it’s also the middle track, which is how I listen to music, walking around my neighborhood, on a plane, travelling somewhere, putting stuff on repeat.” “All the songs on the album kind of mirror each other. I tried to create this strange symmetry. So as you go in from both ends, the songs are sort of matched together,” Salvant says. “‘I Lost my Mind’ is the center of the Russian doll. I wrote that in the middle of the pandemic. There were nights when I wanted to just scream. It was this deeper part of me saying, ‘It’s OK if this sounds completely crazy, OK to just go with the completely crazy thing and not worry if people think you have lost your mind for doing it.’



“The bands also mirror each other from top to bottom. In terms of the instrumentation, everything,” Salvant explains. “That’s why the songs are there in that relationship: they match each other, they’re like fraternal twins, or one is the evil twin of the other. I, as the living, am visited by the ghost, and then I go visit the ghost in turn. I am haunting the ghost and annoying the ghost, which is saying, ‘Get out of here and go live.’” Of the sonic variety on Ghost Song, Salvant says, “Texture is a big part of how I sing, having multiple textures in one song. It’s almost a compulsion. I can’t allow myself to stay in one texture. The instrumentation creates that but the recording process as well. It’s something I like, even when I’m eating. You want the creamy and chewy and crunchy at the same time. Warm and cold.”



Cécile McLorin Salvant, a 2020 MacArthur Fellow and three-time Grammy Award winner, is a singer and composer bringing historical perspective, a renewed sense of drama, and an enlightened musical understanding to both jazz standards and her own original compositions. Classically trained, steeped in jazz, blues, and folk, and drawing from musical theater and vaudeville, Salvant embraces a wide-ranging repertoire that broadens the possibilities for live performance. Salvant’s performances range from spare duets for voice and piano to instrumental trios to orchestral ensembles. Her unreleased work Ogresse is an ambitious long-form song cycle based on oral fairy tales from the nineteenth century that explores the nature of freedom and desire in a racialized, patriarchal world. Salvant studied at the Université Pierre Mendès-France. She has performed at national and international venues and festivals such as the Newport Jazz Festival, the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Village Vanguard, and the Kennedy Center. Salvant is also a visual artist.

Debut Album from UK singer-songwriter Nathan Ball. Having incrementally added house-inspired flourishes to each successive single, the 12 tracks which make up Under The Mackerel Sky effortlessly fuse these two worlds into a cohesive body of work. Nathan’s honest, often poetic lyrics remain the centrepiece, but now they weave through vivid, new, endlessly creative surroundings.

"The core of confusion and upheaval that drove some of the band's most fiery earlier work, however, is replaced by a more stabilized undercurrent, a mentality that's reflected in songs not afraid to try new things and honestly explore uncomfortable feelings. When combined with exciting production and songwriting choices, that mindset helps make Feels So Good // Feels So Bad one of the Shivas' best albums.” - AllMusic "Portland, Oregon-hailing psych-surf band The Shivas accomplish another time-traveling, reverb-ridden sound that refuses to get boring. Jared Molyneux’s guitar work knows when to be bright or bashful at the right times, breaking into guitar solos that possess a late-’60s groove… The Shivas seem to blissfully flourish” - Paste "a consistent treat for the ears” - The Vinyl District "Though the psych-tinged guitar riff that drives 'Feels So Bad' was written while The Shivas were still on the road, its lyrics didn’t fall into place until the band was well into lockdown, unsure of when they’d be able to return to their most imperative true love: Live shows... Accordingly, 'Feels So Bad' permeates with a sense of urgent desperation, building off a chugging prog-rock instrumental.” - Consequence (on “Feels So Bad”) "They hooked the audience with their throwback rock sounds. The guitar strums and rhythmic drum beats were layered atop smooth and hallucinogenic vocals. The eyes can tell the take at times and there was a sparkle there that said that the band members just love doing live performances." - California Rocker "This single layers on the fuzz but keeps it dreamy, with an especially sticky guitar riff sure to lodge itself in your brain with minimal effort." - Portland Monthly (on “If I Could Choose”) “'My Baby Don’t' translates the genuine vibrant joy


of the live experience into the studio, bringing the band’s ‘60s garage rock roots, sharp pop vocal harmonies, and fervent performances along for the ride." - Under The Radar "Perfectly straddling the line between a solid-head bopping track and an introspective deep cut, The Shivas’ 'Undone' is a rock & roll gem. The track sounds straight out of the late 60s and fits seamlessly in the Portland band’s electrifying catalog." - The Luna Collective "The first time I clicked play on this track, I knew it was a yes for me." - Ear To The Ground Music (on “If I Could Choose”) "The harmonies would make the “Happy Together” Turtles blush, but the unsettling guitar doesn’t shy away from the woollier implications of the ’60s." - Willamette Week (on “If I Could Choose”) "'Undone' is just the perfect song for the good days and the bad ones." - GlamGlare "another hit" - Austin Town Hall (on “Undone”) "one of the best forthcoming albums of the year" - Austin Town Hall RADIO: #3 Most Added @ NACC - 50 official adds BIO Every working musician has had their life turned upside down by Covid-19. For The Shivas, who had recently released a new LP and normally keep a rigorous touring schedule, it was a particularly screeching halt. “We were about to go to SXSW, the following weekend was Treefort in Boise, and then we were going to open for our friends’ band on tour in the US before going to Europe,” Jared Molyneux remembers. Then everything just stopped. They were faced with a dilemma. “It forced us to adapt or just quit,” Molyneux says. “The reality is that shows are our job.” In truth, live shows aren’t just The Shivas job: they are the band’s greatest love. Shivas shows are bombastic, explosive and thoroughly communal live rock and roll experiences where barriers between the performers and their audience seem to dissolve into the sweat and sound. The stage—or the basement, or the living room—that’s The Shivas’ true element. It’s their raison d’etre. It’s their religion. The band’s live urgency may have been born in 2006, when the band’s young members—who began booking West Coast tours while still in high school—waited without fanfare on sidewalks or in parking lots, before being rushed onstage for their sets at 21-and-up clubs. Maybe it developed a little later, as The Shivas blasted their way through Portland’s storied and unsanctioned mid-aughts house show scene. Whatever the origin of their famously kinetic live experience, it’s the show that keeps them coming back after over 1,000 performances spread over 25 countries in 15 years. In those 15 years, The Shivas have grown tight-knit as a group. Guitarist/singer Jared Molyneux, bassist Eric Shanafelt and drummer/singer Kristin Leonard have all been with the band since its earliest days; guitarist Jeff City, another high school friend, joined in 2017. Together they’ve learned to thread a seemingly impossible needle: They’ve honed and tightened their performances without sacrificing the element of surprise that makes each show special. And despite touring and recording for most of their lives, they speak about their project with humility, in the DIY vernacular of their Pacific Northwest upbringing. They talk up their own favorite bands, play all-ages shows as much as possible, and bring a sort of blue-collar humanism to the live performances they relish so much. “We just want to make people feel good,” Molyneux says. “We want them to forget they have to work tomorrow.” Kristin Leonard elaborates, “The live show is all about that feeling of catharsis—in ourselves and in everyone who comes out. We’re creating this safe space where we can all let go. Where we can exhale. And it feels really good when we are able to facilitate that.” So when Covid hit, the band knew it was time for transformation. After a settling realization that live music would be grounded for the foreseeable future, The Shivas booked significant studio time with Cameron Spies, who also produced the 2019 Dark Thoughts LP. They also transformed their lives: three of the band’s four members found work with a local nonprofit serving unhoused Portland residents. They became engaged in protests and fundraisers for social justice. They spent a whole summer actually living in Portland, settling into the city they had always called home, but that sometimes felt like a temporary stop between tours. “We got into a more community-minded headspace,” Leonard says. “And that did give us some purpose. It felt cool to see everybody come together to stick up for what they believe in. It feels like an incredibly formative last twelve months.” The album that emerged from this new moment finds The Shivas reborn as a band that seems seasoned and perfectly at home with itself. There is a calm, even a hopefulness, to Feels So Good // Feels So Bad that sounds new. The Shivas didn’t write or record the album with a particular theme in mind, but one seems to have emerged: where Dark Thoughts was about confronting your demons with fearless self-examination, much of Feels So Good // Feels So Bad is about what happens once you find that peace: how being honest with yourself changes your relationships and your priorities. “I do think it’s about acceptance,” Leonard says. “There’s a weird relaxation that comes with being at peace with things you can’t control or have regrets about.” Maybe that’s why the squealing, riff-laden break-up song opener, “Feels So Bad,” is such a shock to the system. But it’s more of an exorcism than a melodrama: more a song about not being able to do the thing you love (in


this case, playing live shows) than splitting with a partner. “It’s like part of you goes to sleep,” Leonard says. As bandmates who are also in a long-term relationship, Molyneux and Leonard know that their songs might be seen as glimpses into their personal lives, but their songwriting is rarely autobiography. Leonard compares their process to something more akin to screenwriting. “There’s bound to be some autobiographical material in there,” she says. “But the common denominator is the exploration of universal feelings: ones that everyone experiences or can relate to.” The goal is to use the music to drill down into something genuine and sincere, beyond genre or stylistic affectation. That’s where The Shivas have arrived. Whatever growth led the band to Feels So Good // Feels So Bad, plenty of their fascinations remain. They’re still turning love songs into psychedelic, transcendent epics. “Tell Me That You Love Me” subverts doo-wop extravagance and dabbles in Flamenco rhythms. “Rock Me Baby” is a bubblegum anthem soaked in so much reverb that we might just be hearing it from the stadium nosebleeds. “Sometimes” is almost impossibly huge, like a witchy outtake from the Brill Building era. Those songs feel like logical expansions from a band that has always excelled at a timeless sort of rock and roll that tinkers with and explodes elements from every era. But on the towering and mournful “You Wanna Be My Man,” a slow-burning six-minute shoegaze prayer for a higher sort of love, there is a level of emotional nuance that feels like something altogether revolutionary. It’s there again in the stripped-down vulnerability of the album-closing elegy “Please Don’t Go.” Yes, Feels So Good // Feels So Bad is an album about acceptance. Sometimes that acceptance feels enlightened and sometimes it feels like the end result of a lot of kicking and screaming. The Shivas have adapted in both of those ways. With new tours scheduled and a new album on the way, they’re still hoping--like all of us--for a new era of vibrant, cathartic live music. The lessons they learned from having their normal upended, though, have only helped them grow

Philadelphia based quintet, Grayscale, continue to break away from their punk roots & establish themselves firmly in pop leaning alternative rock with their third Fearless Records offering. After racking up 50 million streams and receiving praise from Forbes, Alternative Press, Billboard, and more, the quintet have opened up themselves and their sound throughout these 11 tracks. For Grayscale, Umbra is the end of the beginning. All previous records served as stepping stones accumulating and shaping the band's course and leading them down an artistic and aesthetic path to this point. Umbra is more of a feeling than a concept; it is an energy. It is all the things we keep underneath or to ourselves. It is the cold feeling of internal conflict, the bargaining, and the wickedness that exists within a space otherwise covered in light. The sounds don't necessarily match the stories; the energy doesn’t always match the intent. It's not about the light or the dark. It's about the light and the dark

Deluxe LP features 140g virgin vinyl; heavy-duty board jacket, artwork by Art Rosenbaum + DL. RIYL: Bob Dylan, John Prine, Townes Van Zandt, Ry Cooder, Michael Chapman, Michael Hurley, The Youngbloods & Bonnie “Prince” Billy. Jake Xerxes Fussell’s 4th album finds the acclaimed folksong interpreter, guitarist, and singer navigating fresh sonic and compositional landscapes on the most conceptually focused, breathtakingly rendered, and enigmatically poignant record of his wondrous catalog. Produced by James Elkington and featuring formidable players both familiar (Casey Toll, Libby Rodenbough) and new (Joe Westerlund, Bonnie “Prince” Billy), it includes Jake’s first original compositions; atmospheric arrangements with pedal steel, horns, and strings. One of the most striking and strangely moving moments on Jake Xerxes Fussell’s gorgeous Good and Green Again an album, his fourth and most recent, replete with such dazzling moments arrives at its very end, with the brief words to the final song “Washington.” “General Washington/Noblest of men/His house, his horse, his cherry tree, and him,” Fussell sings, after a hushed introductory passage in which his trademark percussively fingerpicked Telecaster converses lacily with James Elkington’s parlor piano. That’s the entire lyrical content of the song, which proceeds to float away on orchestral clouds of French horn, trumpet, and strings, until it simply stops, suddenly evaporating, vanishing with no fade or trace, no resolution to its sorrowful minor-key chord progression, just silence and stillness and stark presidential absence. It feels like the end of a film, or the cold departure of a ghost, and is unlike anything else Jake has recorded. In all his work Jake humanizes his material with his own profound curatorial and interpretive gifts, unmooring stories and melodies from their specific eras and origins and setting them adrift in our own waterways. The robust burr of his voice, which periodically melts and catches at a particularly tender turn of phrase, and the swung rhythmic undertow of exquisite, seemingly effortless guitar-playing here he plays more acoustic than ever before pull new valences of meaning from ostensibly antique songs and subjects. On Good and Green Again, Jake not only ventures beyond his established mastery of songcatching and songmaking into songwriting, but likewise navigates fresh sonic and compositional landscapes, going green with lusher, more atmospheric and ambitious arrangements. The result is the most conceptually focused, breathtakingly rendered, and enigmatically poignant record of his wondrous catalog. It’s also his most deliberately premeditated album, representing his fruitful return to a producer partnership after two self-produced projects, What in the Natural World (2017) and Out of Sight (2019) (William Tyler produced his friend’s self-titled 2015 debut.) This time James Elkington produced and played a panoply of instruments, bringing to Jake’s arcane song choices his own peerless sense of harmony and orchestration, balance and dramatic tension. The pair enlisted a group of formidable players including regular bandmembers Casey Toll (Mt. Moriah, Nathan Bowles) on upright bass, Libby Rodenbough (Mipso) on strings, and Nathan Golub on pedal steel. They were joined by welcome newcomers Joe Westerlund (Megafaun, Califone) on drums, Joseph Decosimo on fiddle, Anna Jacobson on brass, and veteran collaborator and avowed Fussell fan Bonnie “Prince” Billy, who contributes additional vocals. Album opener “Love Farewell” (featuring some beautiful singing by Bonnie “Prince” Billy), an elliptical tale of the folly of war, set to the world’s most heartbreaking goodbye march for a lover left behind. “Carriebelle” and “Breast of Glass” each similarly concerns, in its own way, romantic love and leavings. All three songs highlight Jacobson’s diaphanous, understated brass parts, tying them together in a true lover’s knot. “Rolling Mills Are Burning Down,” with its distant keening strings and capacious sense of space, observes and mourns the loss of work and community in the wake of elemental disaster. Nine-minute tour de force “The Golden Willow Tree,” the sole explicitly narrative song herein, is a hypnotic, minimalist rendering of a tragic maritime ballad about scuttling an enemy ship in exchange for wealth and glory and a captain’s inevitable betrayal. “Fussell is creating his own legacy within the long lineage of traditional folk musicians and storytellers that have come before him.” The New York Times // “So elegant … It’s relaxing in the way that pondering a Zen koan is relaxing, and sweet in the way that the wounded, honey-voiced blues of Mississippi John Hurt are sweet.” Pitchfork // “Music that resides at the seams of Appalachia and the cosmos.”

Translucent red LP housed in a beautiful gold mirror-board sleeve with large Thundercat logo hologram sticker and gold holofoil detail. Includes two bonus tracks: ‘$200 TB’ and ‘Daylight (Reprise)

Vinyl only (no digital) 2021 Black Friday release

If indeed "you blows who you is," as Louis Armstrong once famously said, then Stephen Bruner's bass is a mainline to the soul of a man whose DNA was transcribed from the stars onto staff paper. His Flying Lotus-produced debut, The Golden Age of Apocalypse, offers both stone-cold skill and uncanny astrality, picking up where the pair left off on 2010's Cosmogramma and further distilling the jazz current running through that landmark Lotus release. A longtime contributor to others' albums, Bruner, aka Thundercat, is accompanied by an impressive cast ranging from Erykah Badu to members of Sa-Ra and J*DaVeY, to pianist Austin Peralta and his own Grammy-winning brother, drummer Ronald Bruner, Jr. Still, the end result is unmistakably a Thundercat record -- a lush and magical document combining classic jazz fusion, futurist electronic strains and timeless musical seeking.

Spanning a cosmic stew of players, locations and times, The Golden Age of Apocalypse was years in the making. . There's the ebullient "Daylight," a soft whirl of bluesy piano, New Age synth, snapping beats and warm bass. There's "Walkin'," an upbeat soul strutter powered by Bruner's digitally distorted plucks. There are raw, improvised numbers like "Jamboree" and virtuosic bass pileups like "Fleer Ultra." One of the album's most stunning moments arrives with a spacious cover of George Duke's "For Love I Come," a taut beauty spangled with crystalline harp and keys. Bringing this string of divinely unexpected moments to a moody and cinematic close is "Return to the Journey." There, Bruner sings, "Time will pass us by," but listeners needn't worry. Inside of this space, time really isn't a thing.

Karma Sutra were an anarcho pacifist band from Luton, Bedfordshire who formed in the early 80’s after the demise of the legendary the Phallic Symbols. Karma Sutra only had one release at the time - an album self released in 1987 called Daydreams of a Production Line Worker which came towards the end of their lifetime. Sealed Records now release the earlier years of demos and compilation tracks on a 15 track round up. Be Cruel with Your Past and all Who Seek to Keep you There includes their first and primitive demo The New Economy Roast from 1983. It’s very basic and has a Bullshit Detector Compilation quality to it. A few years later came the second demo Shoppers Paradise which is the best material Karma Sutra recorded. Six tracks of well produced classic 80’s Anarcho punk with a driving sound. It’s passionate, tuneful and politically aware. How this wasn’t released at the time on vinyl, is a travesty. Also included is two tracks from the Mortarhate Compilations Who? What? Why? When? Where? and We Don't Want Your Fucking Law!. Finally the last three tracks were from the final line up of the band and were recorded with Spon from UK Decay adding more post punk elements to the sound. The LP comes with a 40 page booklet of Lyrics, handouts, fanzine interviews and statements. FFO: OMEGA TRIBE, CRASS, EXIT STANCE, ALTERNATIVE

Gwendoline, is a duo-antihero of the Rennes indie scene. Sensitive loosers and jaded start-up nation greats, Micka and Pierre shape their own style, a dark shlag wave in a percussive and poetic spoken-word style, with counter discussions as their primary source of inspiration, looking at those around them. Between fatalistic lyrics, self-deprecation, sarcasm and bitterness of the world's mediocrity, their sincere cold-wave is the symbol of a disenchanted youth and the perfect soundtrack to protest.

In 2017, they recorded their first album by locking themselves up for a fortnight to compose everything in one go, feeding off their daily environment in Rennes, numerous evenings spent at the bar and the anxieties of our time. At first self-produced on Bandcamp, this album "Après c'est Gobelet!" is pressed in confidence on vinyl in June 2020 on the Spanish indie label Dead Wax Records, whose stocks run out before the end of the year and which is now unavailable in France.

At the end of 2020, Gwendoline has also seen the doors of the Trans Musicales open to her, a favourite of Jean-Louis Brossard, for a live show at the Ubu, captured by FIP & Culturebox and accompanied by Maëlan and Romain, their stage accomplices.

Written without pretension and ambition, the duo is surprised by the interest shown in the project, between their programming at the Transmusicales, and the feedback from the press including major international media (KEXP, France TV, Les Inrocks, Post Punk Magazine...).

A video clip was released in April 2021 to illustrate one of their flagship tracks, the heady and heady "Chevalier Ricard", which was also a favourite of Franck Vergeade, music editor of Les Inrockuptibles (January 2021).

Gwendoline is the project from Micka (a.k.a. Mikoune) and Pierre (a.k.a. Daniel).

Based in Rennes, musically influenced by the classic cold wave which originated in their country, precarious and aimless, they shape Gwendoline to their own image.

Pure DIY ethics, quick recordings at their home studio.

Dark lyrics, self-mockery, criticism, sarcasm derived from the world’s mediocrity.

Copenhagen based label Escho release “Escho 15 år: Burgers for my new life” - an extensive compilation of exclusive material for their 15th anniversary (2005-2020). The compilation gathers music by all the currently active artists of Escho - both Danish and international - 27 artists in total. Contributing artists for the compilation are (in alphabetical order): Anders P Jensen, August Rosenbaum, Astrid Sonne, Baby In Vain, BishBusch, The Bleeder Group, Bona Fide, Collider, Dane TS Hawk, Eric Copeland, Excepter, First Hate, Gullo Gullo, Homies, iB101, Iceage, Joanne Robertson, Kh Marie, Liss, Puyain Sanati, Small White Man, Smerz, Søren Kjærgaard, Thulebasen, Varnrable, Yangze and Ydegirl. About Escho and the compilation: The Escho sound was born 15 years ago in small apartments around Enghave Plads, a slightly run-down square at the west end of Vesterbro, Copenhagen, past the kebab shops and the porno shops and the drunks. A few years earlier, as teenagers, several members of the Escho crew had made extremely strange, crisp metal in a very popular band. Escho was a promoter and booking agent as much as it was a label in the early days. They put on small shows to foster and hype the local scene and they brought important performers from all over the world to Copenhagen for the first time. Black Dice, Gang Gang Dance, White Magic, Excepter, Hype Williams, Boredoms, Charles Hayward, they rippled through Copenhagen after they came. Eric Copeland stayed for months. Lorenzo Senni, now well known as a vanguard dance producer, brought his high-school hardcore band to Copenhagen. Escho found and asked these artists to play. And Escho played their humble part in giving sound back to the world. Iceage, Posh Isolation and the Mayhem scene went global. Escho is a lot about being in Denmark, what that sounds like, and projecting it for anyone to hear. Across its releases, Escho’s aesthetic has allowed for the amateurish and the obsessive, the soft and the hard. Escho is about the power of shared experimental experience. Escho has been going for such a long time that the kids who started it are now twice as old as they were when they came up with the name, the idea, the desire to start something. Much younger people, generations younger, work at the label. The world has transformed since then. Escho was born in a period of time where alternative and underground music existed on a private, separate plane to mass culture, and it now finds itself in a time where mass culture and the underground are porous. Tribalism and niche knowledge has been blended by the internet, erasing the border between mainstream and underground modes. Alternative thinking takes many forms now, and new artists continue to expand and interpret the sound of Escho, carrying with them the same curiosity that lit the first Escho sparks 15 years ago. As a whole, this compilation — it is important to note — is jagged in form and tone. It is not even close to a conventional scene compilation, where the sound of a clan flows together. This record doesn’t flow like that. And this, fittingly, makes this anniversary album a ‘classic’ Escho release, because conventions about form and presentation are thrown out the window and new conventions proposed. It is a reminder that Escho quietly remains an ongoing art project as much as anything else. More than its form and tone, however, this compilation is jagged because it is a document of today. It is not final, or conclusive in any way, because the contours of contemporary music are boundless. It’s jagged because Escho has been to a million shows, and put on a million shows, and still loves going to shows. It is a picture of pluralism, discovery and openness. It makes a case for having ears, and making art, and propagating this so that successive generations of young people do it too. This is exactly as it was in the beginning






















[v] 22 First Hate – Vampire Boy ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ [2020 Demo]

Buckle in for an orgasmic Italo trip, courtesy of Argentinian duo Furor Exótica. The result of a sweaty and shaky journey in their Buenos Aires studio, here they deliver two stir-crazy babies, crafted for dancing lovers worldwide.

The title track ‘Macchina Bum Bum’ builds energy gradually from minimal beginnings, adding spine-tingling vocoder vocals, shimmering synth melodies and a familiar sample as it builds towards a euphoric climax. Prime sunset material.

Meanwhile ‘Fractal’ is a hot and heavy chugger, with its throbbing bassline, trippy vocals, and euphoric synth melodies swelling and swirling together. You can practically smell the sweat on leather.

On remix duties, Donald’s House kick things off with a brilliant reimagining of ‘Macchina Bum Bum’, complimenting the vocals with a squiggly, wiggly, funky and propulsive retro-futurist instrumental. Just try not to throw your hands in the air when the synth melody comes in around the halfway mark! A certified stone cold banger, ready for peak-time deployment.

Bringing things home, label founders Kayroy and GREETINGS deliver a dreamy, psychedelic rework of ‘Fractal’. The vocals are transformed into a trippy, gated refrain, taking center stage alongside mellow, warm synth lines, and underpinned by a robust 808 kick. The track ends in a final crescendo, which should please dancers in a club or lovers in a broom closet alike.

Lime/Black Vinyl. Limitiert auf 125 Exemplare. Additional Time wurde 2011 im Südwesten Deutschlands gegründet und stehen seitdem für Leidenschaft, Attitüde und das Festhalten an ihren persönlichen Werte. Von einem klassischen Hardcore-Hintergrund kommend, der Ihren rohen und aggressiven Background ausmachte, haben sie ihr neues Zuhause im Metalcore gefunden. Additional Time vereinen die Grundidee von Metalcore, Metal und NYHC und versehen genau diesen brachialen Sound mit ihrer ganz eigenen Note. "Dead End" ist ein neues Kapitel, das beweist, dass diese Band für ein neues und erfolgreiches Kapitel bereit ist.

Twang, Hmmm, click, thunk.



When XTC finally downed guitars after the recording and release of “Wasp Star”, their last album to date, one of Andy’s ideas about what to do next, was to become a songwriter in the traditional sense, writing songs for others…



It was something he had been asked to do throughout the XTC years, but never had the time.



Songs were written. Songs were sent. Sometimes speculatively, often specifically requested, many tailor-made for an artist's requirements, but then choppy waters could still lay ahead. Even where everyone seemed to think that newly written song A would be wonderful if recorded by singer B, whose manager C had initiated the request via music publisher D for album E on record label F…



Well, you begin to see the potential problems of such an approach – almost a quarter of the way through the alphabet and not a note recorded beyond Andy's original demo. That’s without detailing the sort of horrendous politics that makes a fresh batch of alphabet spaghetti of any of the above as they interact.



Still, songs are like children. A songwriter gives birth to them, feeds them, watches them grow before sending them out into the world. So it’s unfair to abandon them as orphans just because their first experience outdoors might be a traumatic one of being cold shouldered.

As a loving parent, Andy brought them all back together, re-Andy-fied them and buffed them up in his home studio, et voila! Here is the first selection of song siblings that resulted from all of this work, four brothers and sisters, happily reunited and presented as a family group aural snapshot for your entertainment and delight.



The story has a happy ending after all. It is almost as if The Sound of Music, had been set in Swindon.



If only we all failed so well…

After being out of print for several years, Duval Timothy’s phenomenal ‘Brown Loop’ has finally been reissued. Recorded in New York in the winter months of 2016, this brand-new edition features a slightly adjusted track listing. The release date is 2nd of October 2020, which happens to be the multidisciplinary artist’s birthday. Duval has asked me to write a few words about his record.

I often find myself listening to Duval’s music when travelling. On an aeroplane for example, where the comforting piano pieces are set starkly against the sound of the world passing by, the constant engine humming, air conditioning running. Or when I’m walking through a city I’ve not been to before, the music blending into the continuous noise of cars and motorbikes, anchoring me when I find myself in unknown surroundings. Grounding me, one note at a time, in contrast to a city that does the exact opposite. Duval’s compositions bring a sense of comfort where there is detachment. It’s the soundtrack for an immigrant (such as myself), alienated from wherever he came, but someone who also doesn’t fully belong to the place he set off to.

I heard Duval describe the music of Brown Loop as ascending a mountain, and after you reached the top you come down to the other end. Through rhythmic repetitive patterns, the music builds. Within the pieces, melodies stray away from the theme, into unknown territories, but always find their way back to a comfortable home. Most elaborately this happens on my favourite piece, ​Hairs. The patterns and melodies on pieces such as ​Through The Night and (recently added to the vinyl version) ​G are stripped down to their very essence.

It is not just jazz, it’s pure hip hop, as the hooks are reminiscent of the shards of melancholy legends like Dilla, Pete Rock and Havoc used in their best work. In terms of repetition, the music is also very techno. And like in all good techno, the patterns (perhaps contrary to popular belief) ooze humanity and emotion. But most of all Duval’s Brown Loop is a very personal record. it takes courage to expose your inner self like that in the most minimal of compositions. But once you find the right notes, the right pattern, music is the most beautiful thing in the world.

‘The Centre is Everywhere’ is our first album. We created it in rather extraordinary circumstances, at a time when we were all slowly sinking into the banal dystopia of a pandemic-stricken world. Our lives, it felt, had slowed to a crawl. Normally we’re fuelled by our audiences, but touring was off the menu. So, we made this record. For us, it was personal.

In such an uncertain time, we wanted to play music that we loved. We ended up with a set of work written over a 120-year period – weightless and transcendent new music alongside Schoenberg’s anguished fin de siècle storytelling.

Edmund Finnis’ work in particular (the titular ‘The Centre is Everywhere’) is important to us. He’s a friend and a colleague, and it’s been a profound experience for us to live with this piece, to tour it, and to make the first ever recording. Somehow in the writing of it, Edmund seems to have prefigured the lack of certainty that has been one of the defining characteristics of this period. His music spins freely through time and space, wraithlike and beautiful.

Whilst recording both ‘Company’ by Philip Glass and ‘Transfigured Night’ by Arnold Schoenberg, we found ourselves drawn to a pervading sense of wildness and nature. The hypnotic rise and fall of the rhythms and textures in Glass’ quartet (presented here in an arrangement for string orchestra) feel quite separate to industrial, man-made structures and forms. Like Edmund’s work, these short movements feel out of time and cyclical, like eternally repeating tides or moon-phases.

Schoenberg’s masterpiece for string sextet opens on a moonlit forest scene, two lovers venturing through a bare, cold grove. We’ve tried to create a recording that paints the violent contrasts of this piece as vividly as possible, from the claustrophobic confessions that open the work through to the gleaming sound world of the second half. As the piece closes, our wooden, earthbound instruments seem to have been transmuted by the glamour and glow of Schoenberg’s music. We finish amongst the stars.

Headline performance at this summer's BBC Proms at the royal Albert Hall

Since its creation in 2007, Hifiklub has led more than 150 collaborations which have allowed the Toulon trio to open its music to multiple artistic experiences revealing a constant desire for research and novelty. From unprecedented encounters to unique projects, Hifiklub has developed over the years a now substantial discography whose musical proposals range from pop to jazz through the most experimental sounds and even traditional music. One path, however, remained unexplored: contemporary music."Last Party On Earth" is organized around the association of three energies: contemporary composer Jean-Michel Bossini, singer Duke Garwood and the instrumental ensemble Hifiklub.

Surrounded by mysticism and darkness, the creation has cinematographic dimensions. It positions the listener in a depth and disposition of soul where the voice - and the poetry - of Duke Garwood is carried by Hifiklub and Jean-Michel Bossini around cold and tormented atmospheres. The album seduces by the detail of its sounds, its apparent tranquility and its intimate atmospheres thwarted by harsh flashes.

Mixed by Alain Johannes (Queens of the Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultures, Eleven), the album sees the exceptional participation of the string trio Anpapié (Alice Piérot, Fanny Paccoud and Elena Andreyev) who magnificently perform the score by Jean-Michel Bossini.

All songs performed by Hifiklub, Duke Garwood and trio Anpapié (conducted by Jean-Michel Bossini)

Pascal Abbatucci Julien – drums, percussion
Eléna Andreyev – cello
Jean-Loup Faurat – guitar
Duke Garwood - vocals, guitar
Régis Laugier – bass
Nico Morcillo – guitar
Alice Piérot – violin
Fanny Paccoud – alto

Collaboration is an essential ingredient to this open trio’s creative approach, forming a recurring theme in Hifiklub’s extensive discography and filmography. Based in Toulon, the hyperactive experimental rock band offer a diverse ever-evolving catalogue that now boasts over 150 artist collaborations since they started in 2006. Over the years they have formed as many fruitful artistic friendships allowing them to explore the endless possibilities of expression combining sound, image and text.

Some of the artists that feature in Hifiklub’s kaleidoscopic discography: Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), Alain Johannes (Queens of the Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultures, Eleven), Roddy Bottum (Faith no More, Imperial Teen), Matt Cameron (Pearl Jam, Soundgarden), The Legendary Tigerman, Jad Fair (Half Japanese), Iggor Cavalera (Sepultura, MixHell), Jean-Marc Montera, R. Stevie Moore, Mike Watt (Minutemen, The Stooges), Fatso Jetson, Nels Cline (Wilco), Scanner, Mike Cooper, Eugene Chadbourne…

On 12th November 2021, Coldplay release a black, 7” recycled vinyl edition of their modern festive classic, "Christmas Lights". The b-side features Coldplay's take on "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" which was recorded for a Jo Whiley, BBC Radio 1 live session, at the tail end of 2000.



The release will be supported by socials and crm activity from official Coldplay & Parlophone channels.

By now you’re probably familiar with our wildly popular Brown Acid series of rare, lost and unreleased proto-metal and stoner rock singles from the 60s-70s. In the endless pursuit of those glorious gems, we often uncover equally brilliant rarities from the late-70s to late-80s Golden Age of Heavy Metal that also just must be heard, but they don’t fit the series’ aesthetic. Scrap Metal, Volume 1 collects some of the greatest unknown and lost Heavy Metal tracks, long buried beneath the avalanche of the era’s classic output.
We all know the old adage that history is told by the winners. But sometimes the losers tell the best stories. And while none of these bands found fame and fortune, this artifact and the volumes to come are testament to the enduring power of heavy music. You can hear the blood, sweat and beers that went into each of these singles. The recordings may be low budget, but the inspiration and talent is immutable. Not only are the amps turned up to 11, the boyish sexual innuendo is cranked to 69. You can hear the convergence of influences — NWOBHM, thrash, glam metal, doom, etc — colliding at once as the era birthed a wellspring of subgenres.
Many of these singles are self-released and were thus limited to a small run of copies. Those that remain are hoarded by collectors and sold for exorbitant amounts. We’ve collected the best of the best for you here. As with Brown Acid, all of these tracks are licensed legitimately and the artists all get paid. Because it’s the right thing to do.
LINER NOTES:
Rapid Tears launch this series with the perfect christening. The Toronto, ON quintet’s 1981 single “Headbang” is such the pinnacle of heavy metal madness that it almost sounds like a spoof. There’s also enough of the rapid-fire sputum that inspired Metallica to bang the head that doesn’t, as such, engage in said practice, to be found on the band’s sole full length Honestly. But “Headbang” is a straightforward glammy anthem for the ages.
Air Raid’s “69 In A 55” may be lyrically so sophomoric that it’s actually pretty clever, but this 1983 Bay Area power metal single is loaded with sleek Judas Priest riffs and interwoven melodies that are downright sublime. The band’s sole release, the 2-song Rock Force 7” features a curious band photo in which 3 band members — dolled up in Crüe makeup and leather — are sexually menacing the lead singer/guitarist tied to a bed. Another low budget highlight is when singer/guitarist Tommy “Thrasher” Merry imitates a delay effect on his vocals as he sings, “tonight!...tonight...night.”
Hades’ “Girls Will Be Girls” has a real demo cassette feel to its vastly uneven mix, but the energy to the performance makes this an undeniable keeper. The long running Paramus, NJ quintet’s 1982 2- song debut 7” titled Deliver Us From Evil features this blistering thrasher dominated by shimmering leads and confident vocals that show why the band went on to near-fame on Metal Blade Records.
Resless don’t need no T to prove that they’ve got “The Power” with this 1984 driving mid-tempo rocker in the vein of Mötley Crüe and Ratt. The River Vale, NJ quartet’s tight crunch wails all over Bon Jovi posers but it’s the band’s unique and subtle deployment of background vocals that gives this rager its staying power.
Pittsburgh, the Steel City, is home to Don Cappa, a band that pays tribute to the burgh, the metal, and the awesomeness of both with “Steel City Metal.” Their lone single, issued in 1987 with only 300 copies released, sounds like the work of some serious steel driving men, with a drummer who might’ve forgotten to wear a hard hat one too many times on the construction site.
The Beast has more of a punk feel to their aggressive “Enemy Ace” track from the 4-song Power Metal EP from 1983 — something like Dr. Know meets D.O.A. But their look, artwork and lyrics all prove that Heavy Metal is where their hearts lie. And this hook filled monster delivers repeated lines like, “I command them all in my lofty realm,” with commendable conviction.
Dead Silence from Denver, Colorado, debuting in 1984 is not to be confused with Dead Silence from Denver, Colorado, who also debuted in 1984. The former a workman’s hard rock bar band, the latter a political peace punk band and neither knowing of the other’s existence throughout their tenure. The pre-internet days were a marvel, indeed.This Dead Silence spits out a slick, Nugent tinged rocker called “Can’t Stop” about life on the road.
The Danger Zone is, by all accounts, not the place to be. And, Hazardous Waste of Boston, MA saw fit to add their two cents on the matter with this 1986 single that combines Van Halen’s flashy musicianship with NWOBHM aggression that sounds so awesome it teeters on itself entering the “Danger Zone.”
Czar’s heavy, doomy “Iron Curtain” single from 1982 hearkens to the sleazy sounds of Saint Vitus and Pentagram with its cranked up DOD Distortion pedal in a Peavey combo amp guitar tone and meaty, barking vocals. The upstate NY quintet only issued this 2-song single, but its driving rhythm, nosedive whammy-bar guitar solos and comparatively mature Cold War subject matter show they had real potential.
Not much is known about Real Steel’s majestic “Viking Queen” from 1987, other than it rocks hard and the 7” 45 sells for upwards of a grand on the collectors market. The Flint, Michigan band recorded at the home studio of local radio personality Bill Lamb, who primarily released Christian Gospel recordings. So, perhaps the band was struck down by a bolt of lightning shortly after this rare single’s release. Whatever the case may be, it’s a must have for fans of classic metal mayhem.

Red Vinyl

nown for her delicate compositions, soaked in dream-like surrealism, Icelandic musician Sóley has attracted a huge following since launching her solo career back in 2010. Her 2012 single ‘Pretty Face’ went on to generate an enormous amount of buzz, and quickly became a viral sensation. Now, with three solo LPs under her belt, Sóley is preparing to debut a completely new sound via the release of her new concept album, Mother Melancholia, on October 22nd.

Described by the artist as "Nosferatu meets Thelma and Louise in a vampire church under the watchful eye of David Lynch", Mother Melancholia is the soundtrack to the end of the world as we know it. As a self-confessed news addict, Sóley became obsessed with the idea that the world is ending. Having surrounded herself with real-life stories of global warming and patriarchal politics she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was going to die. This feeling was so all encompassing that it sparked the idea for a new project. Could there be a soundtrack for the last days of humans on earth? How would that sound?

“I read books about possible dystopian worlds and started writing poems about irrational and in love characters who live in gray and cold imaginary loneliness. In each other’s burning arms. Walking in circles with no way out” she explains. “After all, the album reflects our life here and now. Our life and reality is a kind of dystopian world.”

Whilst writing the album, which serves as a tongue-in-cheek eulogy to our planet, Sóley began reading about ecofeminism, a branch of feminism which uses the concept of gender to analyse the relationship between humans and the natural world. Ecofeminism emphasizes that both women and nature must be respected but also separated. Since the beginning of time, the natural world has been synonymous with female identity, phrases like Mother Nature are commonplace. “The patriarchy views women as volatile and hysterical. Earth and women are either our saviours or our destroyers,” explains Sóley. “It’s so easy to abuse the earth, like the patriarchy has abused women since the dawn of time, then ask for forgiveness afterwards and promise they´ll never do it again”.

The new album sees Sóley move away from the indie-pop of her previous releases. She began by experimenting with writing songs on the accordion, allowing her a new sense of freedom in her writing. The process allowed her to broaden her horizons even further and experiment with a whole range of new and exciting sounds. “I bought myself a theremin as I was really excited about the unpitched sound and there is no perfect pitch during the end of days,” she laughs. “I also bought a mellotron, my first moog and a cello and taught myself how to play each of them. All of these new instruments are particularly suitable for the kinds of aesthetic inconveniences which I have learned to embrace.”

Album opener ‘Sunrise Skulls’, one of the most cinematic moments on the album, was inspired by the Me Too and SlutWalk movements and tells the story of a group of women who rise up and fight the patriarchy. ‘Blows Up’, a track that would be at home on any horror soundtrack, is a sarcastic love letter from the Earth to humans. Standout track ‘Desert’ is an incredibly moving song dedicated to the next generation. “It’s about the guilt you feel, as a mother, for having children and leaving them on the frontline. My daughter, for example, will take over this inevitable war” explains Sóley.

In true soundtrack style, the album flows through the end of the world in chronological order, closing with the Earth’s final moments. ‘Sundown’ is a dark piano ballad detailing human kind’s final day on Earth. “And everyday, I dig my own grave, and as I dive in you´ll hold my hand” she sings, over twinkling piano and swirling synths. We then hear the world end on ‘XXX’, a dark and swirling soundscape that swells before fading to silence. On ‘Elegía’ the silence then turns to the sound of the ocean, as we hear the Earth, like a woman finally free from a violent relationship, healing on her own.

Mother Melancholia is the mark of an artist confidently striding into more experimental territory. With a lengthy and successful career behind her, Sóley felt compelled to try something new and express the real her. The music might be shrouded in darkness but it’s a move that fills her with joy and freedom. “I hope that people not only enjoy the new sound, but also that Mother Melancholia might raise some questions in people, particularly women,” she says. “I’m under no illusions that this album will change the world but I hope that people can connect with the idea”.

There are records with empathy, records which are your friends and then there's the others... There might be little difference between them, a certain "je ne sais quoi", an "almost nothing but still something" which makes the difference between almost pointless and vital records. Despite, or rather thanks to his cynical despair, Matt Elliott's music never holds up a moralizing mirror to us - on the contrary, it creates a compassionate dialogue with listeners like the rhythm of two steps that synchronize to become as one. In 2016, Matt Elliot brought out his seventh solo album The Calm Before whose obscure title is neither exactly threatening nor comforting... the calm before what? Before the storm for sure but maybe also before the great record, the immediate classic we felt might be coming for a long time in the dual discography of the Bristol-born artist working under his own name and his electronic alias Third Eye Foundation. The elegant details and perspectives of Little Lost Soul (2000) already hinted at the upcoming masterpiece from the English singer-songwriter. The Mess We Made (2003) was Matt Elliott's first solo album and portrayed a universe in a kind of flight towards Balkan horizons made up of visceral despair. With the Songs trilogy, he put aside the electronic side of his work to continue working with a minimalist, stark and lucid style of writing. The Broken Man (2012) was full of tears and long laments sometimes carried by Katia Labèque's piano on a record which painted new shades of grey. On this record Matt began working with the producer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist David Chalmin (La Terre Invisible) who has kept on collaborating with the Bristol-born singer since then. Their partnership continued on Only Myocardial Infection Can Break Your Heart (2013) and The Calm Before (2016). Stéphane Grégoire is the head of the Ici D'Ailleurs label which has accompanied Matt Elliott since 2005 and perhaps he describes this album the best: "This new record by Matt is without a doubt his best album to date, a record that takes him into another dimension where he fully asserts himself as a songwriter and singer of the calibre of artists like Bill Callahan, Leonard Cohen or Johnny Cash." Matt Elliott's other records all seemed like empathic links between each other. Farewell To All We Know is an instant classic based on the sensitive piano and superb arrangements of David Chalmin, the sensitive cello of Gaspar Claus, the subtle bass of Jeff Hallam (who has also played with Dominique A and John Parish). There is a clear form of alchemy in all of this and still we find Matt Elliott's usual atmospheres and scenery, the same Eastern European folk music, long songs that take time to settle over time. Everything is the same but also is transfigured. By making his music stark and purifying and redefining the subject matter, Matt Elliott's work became so much more delicate. However this work is never frail nor really turned in on himself and thus becomes like a vital tune that vibrates and unfolds. The opening song Farewell To All We Know seems torn between the fear of what tomorrow may bring, inevitability and hope for the future in a permanent and progressive dramatic tension expressed by his Spanish guitar, the impressionist style piano and Matt's voice teetering on the edge of whispers. A funereal tribute to endless twilights and the dawns we all dream of seeing. There are touches of Leonard Cohen from Songs from a Room or Thanks For The Dance in The Day After That with Gaspar Claus's counterpoint cello. There is no spirit of resignation in Matt Elliott's work - life's path has to be followed against all odds. We have to follow the river's flow to reach the immense ocean and its infinite freedom. The haunted instrumental Guidance Is Internal harks back to the atmospheres of Howling Songs (2008) with its guitar parts full of scansions and muted threats. The music is transcendental but never seems afraid of the risk of falling. This is also what Bye Now tells us with its quasi-obsolete simplicity and sunburst melancholy reminiscent of the work of Luiz Bonfá, Bill Evans on Peace Piece or laidback crooners of the 50s. In Farewell To All We Know, Matt Elliott incessantly alternates between the dual desires to face up to the world or to protect himself from it. Hating The Player, Hating The Game is a lucid statement about the dullness of our daily lives sometimes, our right to get out of the game and no longer want to be part of it. Matt Elliott is tender but spares no one, particularly himself. Aboulia speaks of the tiredness of living and of looming death while Crisis Apparition says that there is always a time for reconstruction after chaos. This is like initially wearying wandering in the ruins of Aleppo with the slow dilution of the melody into a hallucinated drone. However the smell of great fires always fades and the earth always regenerates. Matt Elliott seems to suggest that the survival instinct is stronger than any cold winds could ever be. Matt Elliott never sings of certainties and prefers possibilities. Possibly the worst is over? Maybe... Maybe the storm has passed and devastated everything, now we just have to rebuild and live again. Farewell To All We Know shows us the distance that still needs to be walked and he walks next to you - right next to you, he is the friend who doesn't spare you the truth like all true friends really do.

In March 2020 Elton was forced to pause his record breaking Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour due to the unfolding COVID pandemic. As the world began to shut down, different projects presented themselves with artists Elton had enjoyed getting to know through his Apple Music show Rocket Hour. This was the beginning of one of Elton's boldest and most interesting records to date that he has billed ‘The Lockdown Sessions’. This album saw Elton coming full circle and returning to his roots as a session musician. While it was no easy feat recording during a pandemic, a completely new way of working for Elton, he leaned into the challenge with some magnificent results.

Kicking off with current single ‘Cold Heart (PNAU Remix)’with Dua Lipa, the album takes the listener on a heady journey through many different genres, all held together with expert finesse and understanding by one of the greatest champions of music of our time. Much more than a mere collaboration album, ‘The Lockdown Sessions’ is a dazzlingly diverse collection of 16 tracks with 10 brand new unreleased tracks that celebrates togetherness and sees Elton collaborating with an unparalleled range of artists only he could draw together. The enduring influence of his musical milestone with one of the most ambitious projects ever conceived. An unprecedented 20+ artists feature spanning an unbelievably vast range of genres, generations, cultures, continents and more, each contributing a unique style to the album that is sure to hold its place amongst one of pop and rock’s greatest songbooks. ‘The Lockdown Sessions’ sees Elton collaborate with GRAMMY Award winning producer Andrew Watt on five of the tracks.

In Elton’s words: “The last thing I expected to do during lockdown was make an album. But, as the pandemic went on, one‐off projects kept cropping up. Some of the recording sessions had to be done remotely, via Zoom, which I’d obviously never done before. Some of the sessions were recorded under very stringent safety regulations: working with another artist, but separated by glass screens. But all the tracks I worked on were really interesting and diverse, stuff that was completely different to anything I’m known for, stuff that took me out of my comfort zone into completely new territory. And I realised there was something weirdly familiar about working like this. At the start of my career, in the late 60s, I worked as a session musician. Working with different artists during lockdown reminded me of that. I’d come full circle: I was a session musician again. And it was still a blast.”

An unparalleled career that has forever changed the cultural landscape, Elton John’s collaborations with Bernie Taupin and others continue to shape the cultural landscape, break records, top charts and win new fans across the generations. We’ve had the book, the film, the farewell tour, the fashion collections and the greatest hits. And now with ‘The Lockdown Sessions’ available on digital formats, fans can enter Elton’s new world which is no doubt another fitting addition to his oeuvre.

Limited Edition 2 x LP vinyl with 13 remixes and more than 78 minutes of music, comes in gatefold double colour sleeve with exclusive photographs from the film, extensive liner notes and japanese style OBI strip. The score for a film by Oscar winning director Dusan Vukotic 'Visitors From The Galaxy' from 1981 (FOX001LP) was remixed by 11 artists from 9 countries. All original tracks from Visitors From The Galaxy (alternative titles: Gosti Iz Galaksije; Monstrum Z Galaxie Arkana; Gaeste Aus Der Galaxis; I Visitatori Della Galassia Arcana; Goscie Z Galaktyki Arkana; Los Visitantes De La Galaxia) are arranged, composed, conducted and produced by Tomislav Simovic. This compilation includes additional screen sounds from the unpublished tapes of composer Tomislav Simovic also featured in Dusan Vukotic film. With courtesy of Tomislav Simovic estate artists were given complete creative freedom to remix, reinvent and re-imagine the futuristic soundscape of first science-fiction film in Yugoslavia that was scored in analog, abstract, electronic and synthesised music. Alen & Nenad Sinkauz, Ali Renault, Anatolian Weapons, Credit 00, Drvg Cvltvre, Goran Vejvoda, Heinrich Dressel, Repeated Viewing, Security DJ, Tapan and Timothy Fife got the sounds from Tomislav Simovic score and embarked on a musical journey that had no rule or predetermined direction or genre; it was only their creativity inspired by Visitors From The Galaxy sound that led them to a new pieces, more or less experimental, abstract or dance floor friendly. The diversity of music goes wide and deep, it is modern and made by the stars of today paying homage to a composer who always retreated in being a star. As the remix projects of this kind are still very rare and include famous names like Ennio Morricone, Steve Reich or Peter Thomas Orchestra, Tomislav Simovic is now finally, one might say, at home.

HONNE have announced the release of their much-anticipated new album, ‘Let’s Just Say The World Ended A Week From Now, What Would You Do?’ – a record that toasts the start of a new era of music from one of the UK’s most inventive and original outfits.

Releasing on October 22, ‘Let’s Just Say The World Ended A Week From Now, What Would You Do?’ forms HONNE’s third studio album following critically acclaimed LPs, ‘Warm On A Cold Night’ (2016) and ‘Love Me / Love Me Not’ (2018), as well as ‘no song without you’ – a surprise 14-track mixtape released last summer.

Written throughout the course of 2020, ‘Let’s Just Say The World Ended A Week From Now, What Would You Do?’ captures HONNE in limitless full bloom – as songwriters, producers and collaborators. “In the past, we’ve limited ourselves”, HONNE explain. “We might get to a section of a song and things are getting really exciting, but we then pull ourselves back and say, ‘Can we really do that?’. Now, we’ve sidestepped the rules and done whatever we wanted to do.”

This sense of freedom permeates the tracklist, which is defined as much by its eye-catching collaborations – Khalid (‘Three Strikes’), Griff (‘Back On Top’), 88 Rising’s NIKI (‘Coming Home’) – as it is by its musicianship, shimmering pop feel and intelligent song-writing; Sam Smith (‘Back On Top’) and MNEK (‘Easy On Me’) also co-wrote songs on the album.

Bold and ambitious , ‘Let’s Just Say The World Ended A Week From Now, What Would You Do?’ brings together everything HONNE have worked towards in their career so far, while simultaneously pushing them into broad and exciting new spaces.

HONNE have announced the release of their much-anticipated new album, ‘Let’s Just Say The World Ended A Week From Now, What Would You Do?’ – a record that toasts the start of a new era of music from one of the UK’s most inventive and original outfits.

Releasing on October 22, ‘Let’s Just Say The World Ended A Week From Now, What Would You Do?’ forms HONNE’s third studio album following critically acclaimed LPs, ‘Warm On A Cold Night’ (2016) and ‘Love Me / Love Me Not’ (2018), as well as ‘no song without you’ – a surprise 14-track mixtape released last summer.

Written throughout the course of 2020, ‘Let’s Just Say The World Ended A Week From Now, What Would You Do?’ captures HONNE in limitless full bloom – as songwriters, producers and collaborators. “In the past, we’ve limited ourselves”, HONNE explain. “We might get to a section of a song and things are getting really exciting, but we then pull ourselves back and say, ‘Can we really do that?’. Now, we’ve sidestepped the rules and done whatever we wanted to do.”

This sense of freedom permeates the tracklist, which is defined as much by its eye-catching collaborations – Khalid (‘Three Strikes’), Griff (‘Back On Top’), 88 Rising’s NIKI (‘Coming Home’) – as it is by its musicianship, shimmering pop feel and intelligent song-writing; Sam Smith (‘Back On Top’) and MNEK (‘Easy On Me’) also co-wrote songs on the album.

Bold and ambitious , ‘Let’s Just Say The World Ended A Week From Now, What Would You Do?’ brings together everything HONNE have worked towards in their career so far, while simultaneously pushing them into broad and exciting new spaces.

HONNE have announced the release of their much-anticipated new album, ‘Let’s Just Say The World Ended A Week From Now, What Would You Do?’ – a record that toasts the start of a new era of music from one of the UK’s most inventive and original outfits.

Releasing on October 22, ‘Let’s Just Say The World Ended A Week From Now, What Would You Do?’ forms HONNE’s third studio album following critically acclaimed LPs, ‘Warm On A Cold Night’ (2016) and ‘Love Me / Love Me Not’ (2018), as well as ‘no song without you’ – a surprise 14-track mixtape released last summer.

Written throughout the course of 2020, ‘Let’s Just Say The World Ended A Week From Now, What Would You Do?’ captures HONNE in limitless full bloom – as songwriters, producers and collaborators. “In the past, we’ve limited ourselves”, HONNE explain. “We might get to a section of a song and things are getting really exciting, but we then pull ourselves back and say, ‘Can we really do that?’. Now, we’ve sidestepped the rules and done whatever we wanted to do.”

This sense of freedom permeates the tracklist, which is defined as much by its eye-catching collaborations – Khalid (‘Three Strikes’), Griff (‘Back On Top’), 88 Rising’s NIKI (‘Coming Home’) – as it is by its musicianship, shimmering pop feel and intelligent song-writing; Sam Smith (‘Back On Top’) and MNEK (‘Easy On Me’) also co-wrote songs on the album.

Bold and ambitious , ‘Let’s Just Say The World Ended A Week From Now, What Would You Do?’ brings together everything HONNE have worked towards in their career so far, while simultaneously pushing them into broad and exciting new spaces.

HONNE have announced the release of their much-anticipated new album, ‘Let’s Just Say The World Ended A Week From Now, What Would You Do?’ – a record that toasts the start of a new era of music from one of the UK’s most inventive and original outfits.

Releasing on October 22, ‘Let’s Just Say The World Ended A Week From Now, What Would You Do?’ forms HONNE’s third studio album following critically acclaimed LPs, ‘Warm On A Cold Night’ (2016) and ‘Love Me / Love Me Not’ (2018), as well as ‘no song without you’ – a surprise 14-track mixtape released last summer.

Written throughout the course of 2020, ‘Let’s Just Say The World Ended A Week From Now, What Would You Do?’ captures HONNE in limitless full bloom – as songwriters, producers and collaborators. “In the past, we’ve limited ourselves”, HONNE explain. “We might get to a section of a song and things are getting really exciting, but we then pull ourselves back and say, ‘Can we really do that?’. Now, we’ve sidestepped the rules and done whatever we wanted to do.”

This sense of freedom permeates the tracklist, which is defined as much by its eye-catching collaborations – Khalid (‘Three Strikes’), Griff (‘Back On Top’), 88 Rising’s NIKI (‘Coming Home’) – as it is by its musicianship, shimmering pop feel and intelligent song-writing; Sam Smith (‘Back On Top’) and MNEK (‘Easy On Me’) also co-wrote songs on the album.

Bold and ambitious , ‘Let’s Just Say The World Ended A Week From Now, What Would You Do?’ brings together everything HONNE have worked towards in their career so far, while simultaneously pushing them into broad and exciting new spaces.

Keeping his carbon footprint at a minimum, Santilli sails from Sydney to Hamburg via ten textured vignettes delicately drawn with guitar, bass and organic percussion. Relaxing, reflective and endlessly
beautiful, ‘Tidal’ explores elemental inspiration through a humanistic gaze.
Whether you know Max Santilli through Ken Oath duo Angophora, previous releases ‘Surface’ and ‘In Circles’, or this is your first time making his acquaintance, you’ll agree he’s right at home on the
Growing Bin. The multi-instrumentalist crafts exquisite acoustic music in tune with the finer moments of Windham Hill and ECM; a perfect fusion of talent, balance and the emotion shared by each release on the Hamburg label.

As befits its inspiration ‘Tidal’ is an organic affair, related through bright acoustic guitar, hazy chimes and hand played percussion. Where the Australian draws you in with hypnotic repetition, the subtlety, warmth and tonal variation serve as a welcome reminder we’re living off grid. Though expert fretwork
often takes centre stage, especially on the delicate B1 ‘Warm You Give’, it’s the blend of kalimba, woodblock, hand drums and shaker which truly transport the listener through open waters; a rhythmic
breeze carrying us through the maritime drones and bowed squall. At times the salt air is spiced with cardamom and cloves (‘Sea’) or lemongrass and galangal (‘Valleys’), as we skirt the Indian Ocean or
the Java Sea. ‘Lapse’ provides subtle hints of fourth world jazz as mallets take the lead, leaving the guitar to provide its own shimmering texture.

Clear your mind, clear your schedule and make some time for ‘Tidal’, an opportunity to breathe in time with the planet

Composed by the Capcom Sound Team, Masami Ueda, Makoto Tomozawa and Akira Kaida, Resident Evil’s brooding score became a benchmark for horror games, giving the original genre-defining masterpiece a persistent and unnerving sense of claustrophobia.

Each soundtrack has been remastered specifically for this release and will be pressed onto audiophile heavyweight, deluxe double-vinyl 180g LPs on black vinyl.

“I’m back; straight back to my squared room too small since forever: premature truth This is not love at all, I can’t breathe
This captivity: it was before, it is now; it never ends!
It yells at me: what are you now? what! hurts me, accuses me; I don’t care, I’m ready, sharp! a vitreous, yellow eye consciousness becomes dream and nightmare, it’s a snap I despair, I inhale a revolution, eternal cycle, orbit, serpent the abdomen, ice; the common sense, deserted
I sweat out of these walls – you will never get me!
I vibrate, tremble, deseo the barricade unfold rough, cold, dirty
rectangles, vertigo in quarters I lose myself with them, I lose myself with you that’s heavy, firm, advancing holding us together
the acid points at the throat, bumping I hold it back; it holds me back
pains, purities, fantasies eyelids tighten, suicidal lovers: the fall…
and this culminating thrill owns our own selves”

‘Orgasma’ is out.

Charlie Parr’s album, ‘Last of the Better Days Ahead’, is a collection of
powerful new songs about how one looks back on a life lived, as well as
forward on what’s still to come.
Its spare production foregrounds Parr’s poetic lyricism, his expressive, gritty
voice ringing clear over deft acoustic guitar playing that references folk and
blues motifs in Parr’s own exploratory, idiosyncratic style.
When it comes to what it all means, Parr says it best: “Last of the Better Days
Ahead is a way for me to refer to the times I’m living in. I’m getting on in years,
experiencing a shift in perspective that was once described by my mom as ‘a
time when we turn from gazing into the future to gazing back at the past, as
if we’re adrift in the current, slowly turning around.’ Some songs came from
meditations on the fact that the portion of our brain devoted to memory is also
the portion responsible for imagination, and what that entails for the collected
experiences that we refer to as our lives.
Other songs are cultivated primarily from the imagination, but also contain
memories of what may be a real landscape, or at least one inspired by vivid dreaming. The album represents one full rotation of the boat in which we
are adrift looking ahead for a last look at the better days to come, then being
turned around to see the leading edge of the past as it fades into the foggy
dreamscape of our real and imagined histories.”
“Like John Hartford jamming with St Francis of Assisi, Parr strikes a fine balance between immense generosity toward humanity and barely contained
outrage towards humanity’s tendency towards coldness and conformity.” 8/10
Uncut
“Hypnotic stories of low-key endurance and universal questions, like Raymond
Carver’s fiction set to a louch, crystal-clear soundtrack” **** Mojo

The Cold Stares will release their new album "Heavy Shoes" on August 13, 2021 via Mascot Records.
"Heavy Shoes" will be available on CD Digipack w/ 12 page booklet and 180 Grams Shiny Gold Vinyl w/ printed insert.
The great state of Kentucky is world renowned for many things. Bluegrass music? Of course. The smoothest, best-tasting Bourbon created by the hands of man? It doesn’t get any better. One thing that folks don’t always associate with Kentucky however is visceral, in-your-face rock and roll. The Cold Stares are determined to change that perception.
Chris Tapp and Brian Mullins have known one another for a long, long time. They grew up in Western Kentucky, just a stone’s throw from the border or Indiana, and attended different High School mere minutes down the road from one another. They originally started playing together in their early twenties before going their separate ways only to reunite in another outfit a decade down the line. “We were playing together in 2009 in another band that was doing really well,” Tapp said. “It didn’t work out, so we both kind of exited that band and contemplated retirement.” It didn’t take long before they were thankfully disabused of that notion.
That band is an intense amalgam of Led Zeppelin meets Free, Soundgarden meets Black Crowes; rock and roll wizardry where the riffs are hard, the vocals are searing, and the low end is capital “H,” heavy. Most of the album was recorded in a single day at Sam Phillips fabled recording studio in Memphis. “That’s our second record there, so there was a lot of familiarity going back in,” Mullins said. “The thing about that studio is that it’s old, and vibey. Sometimes you gotta bang on the gear a little bit to make it work. It’s kinda like the Millennium Falcon. It’s badass, but you just gotta get it running right.”

‘Heavy Shoes’ is Cold Stares’ best record yet, and they know it. It took a lot of blood, sweat, tears and doubt before Chris Tapp and Brian Mullins reached this moment, but it’s all the sweeter knowing they did it their way. “We’ve been through some tough times, and I’d say our band is a pretty good representation for blue collar people in general. People that work hard. We’re just a blue-collar American rock and roll band.”

This killer limited editon vinyl EP is a collaborative effort between Montreals SENZ Beats & Roughneck Jihad (From Third Sight). SENZ made all the beats and handled the scratch duties. Jihad held down the MC duties on all the tracks and there are no features. All vocals were recorded by Roughneck Jihad at Imhotep's Garden Studios. The cover art is by @misfitsleep and the project was mixed and mastered by Sqreeb.

Thomas Köner is one of the most influential modernist minimal composers. Alongside Wolfgang Voigt's "Gas" project, Köner has been centrally responsible for electronic music's fascination with depth and reduction. His signature sound is vast, seemingly endless, which at first seems homogenous and infinite, but once exposed to it, when our senses calibrate to the fine nuances of changes, we discover and immerse into abundance of textures, richness of modulations and almost infinite range of sonic titilations. Köner's work was inspired by his frequent travels in the Arctic, and listeners feel his music as a journey to mysterious worlds of the Arctic region. The experience of being exposed to the extreme cold, the hightening of our senses and ability to notice even the slightest changes in color, sound, light or density that creates this dangerously reductive environment, is like an immersion in the sonic world of this German artist, where masterfully crafted layers of sound open into colossal spaces, teeming with aural life, waiting to be discovered by those who venture into it. The titles of Köner's highly regarded albums from the 90's ever so often play with this affinity - Nunatak, Permafrost, Teimo - all reference to the world of the Artic region, just as his album Nuuk that points us to the capital of Greenland. Subdued and minimal at first glance, this album is brimming with low-end frequences, shadowy resonances and boreal ambience, but at the same time, constant fluctuation and vulnerability of sonic events, makes it very organic, human and almost comforting, like the tiny harbour existing in the sea of ice, it is named after.

Das Wiener Duo TENTS präsentiert mit ihrem neuen Album exquisiten Art-Pop. Bisher für ihre Post-Punk-Anklänge bekannt, schlägt die Band mit 'Limbo' einen neuen Weg ein und liefert ein eindrucksvolles Pop-Statement. Die Songs ihres facettenreich produzierten Albums umgibt der Hauch einer "sophisticated coolness". Während am Beginn noch markante Gitarren und treibende Drums das Bild einer klassischen Band zeichnen, bewegt sich 'Limbo' nach und nach in stimmungsvollere Sphären aus Synthflächen und Drummachines, wie z.B. in 'Cold Bliss' oder dem pathosgeladenen Endstück ,Jitter'. Anstatt wie geplant für neue Aufnahmen ins Studio zu gehen - ein im Lockdown-Jahr schwieriges Unterfangen - richteten sich die beiden Musiker Clemens Posch und Paul Stöttinger in den eigenen vier Wänden ein und machten sich daran, das Album selbst zu produzieren. Die Auflösung vertrauter Formen wurde in dem ungewohnten Setting zur kreativen Triebfederr - der Albumtitel 'Limbo' spielt auf diesen Schwebezustand an. Tents überraschen mit perfekt arrangierten Stilelementen, die an die Hochblüte des Pop-Genres in den späten 1970er und frühen 1980er Jahren mit Namen wie Talk Talk, Brian Eno oder David Bowie erinnern und überführen diese selbstbewusst in ein zeitgenössisches Hörerlebnis. Nur 150 Stück weißes Vinyl weltweit!

Dark Nights: Death Metal war eine siebenteilige DC-Comicserie mit einer Erstauslieferung von 250k Einheiten, die an über 1,2 Tausend Graphic Novel- und Fachgeschäfte verteilt wurde. Um die hemmungslose
Ehrfurcht vor der Comic-Serie zu untermalen, präsentieren Tyler Bates und Loma Vista Recordings den ”Dark Nights: Death Metal-Soundtrack” mit Beiträgen von u.a. Rise Against, HEALTH, Denzel Curry, Soccer Mommy oder Manchester Orchestra.

Tyler Bates ist nicht nur ein Meister im Entwerfen von Musik für Film, Fernsehen und Videospiele, sondern auch ein gefragter Multiinstrumentalist, Autor und Produzent. Zu seinen Filmen zählen Dawn of
the Dead (2004), 300 (2007), Watchmen (2009), mehrere Kollaborationen mit Rob Zombie, darunter The
Devil’s Rejects (2005), Halloween (2007) und Halloween II (2009), die Guardians of the Galaxy-Saga (2014,
2017), die John Wick-Serie (2014, 2017, 2019), Atomic Blonde (2017), Deadpool 2 (2018), Fast & Furious
Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019 ), und viele mehr.

Dark Nights: Death Metal war eine siebenteilige DC-Comicserie mit einer Erstauslieferung von 250k Einheiten, die an über 1,2 Tausend Graphic Novel- und Fachgeschäfte verteilt wurde. Um die hemmungslose
Ehrfurcht vor der Comic-Serie zu untermalen, präsentieren Tyler Bates und Loma Vista Recordings den ”Dark Nights: Death Metal-Soundtrack” mit Beiträgen von u.a. Rise Against, HEALTH, Denzel Curry, Soccer Mommy oder Manchester Orchestra.

Tyler Bates ist nicht nur ein Meister im Entwerfen von Musik für Film, Fernsehen und Videospiele, sondern auch ein gefragter Multiinstrumentalist, Autor und Produzent. Zu seinen Filmen zählen Dawn of
the Dead (2004), 300 (2007), Watchmen (2009), mehrere Kollaborationen mit Rob Zombie, darunter The
Devil’s Rejects (2005), Halloween (2007) und Halloween II (2009), die Guardians of the Galaxy-Saga (2014,
2017), die John Wick-Serie (2014, 2017, 2019), Atomic Blonde (2017), Deadpool 2 (2018), Fast & Furious
Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019 ), und viele mehr.

Dark Nights: Death Metal war eine siebenteilige DC-Comicserie mit einer Erstauslieferung von 250k Einheiten, die an über 1,2 Tausend Graphic Novel- und Fachgeschäfte verteilt wurde. Um die hemmungslose
Ehrfurcht vor der Comic-Serie zu untermalen, präsentieren Tyler Bates und Loma Vista Recordings den ”Dark Nights: Death Metal-Soundtrack” mit Beiträgen von u.a. Rise Against, HEALTH, Denzel Curry, Soccer Mommy oder Manchester Orchestra.

Tyler Bates ist nicht nur ein Meister im Entwerfen von Musik für Film, Fernsehen und Videospiele, sondern auch ein gefragter Multiinstrumentalist, Autor und Produzent. Zu seinen Filmen zählen Dawn of
the Dead (2004), 300 (2007), Watchmen (2009), mehrere Kollaborationen mit Rob Zombie, darunter The
Devil’s Rejects (2005), Halloween (2007) und Halloween II (2009), die Guardians of the Galaxy-Saga (2014,
2017), die John Wick-Serie (2014, 2017, 2019), Atomic Blonde (2017), Deadpool 2 (2018), Fast & Furious
Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019 ), und viele mehr.

Before there was Rimarimba, Suffolk-born, Felixstowe-based musician and home recording enthusiast Robert Cox assembled a cast of friends, some musicians and some not so much, for an experiment in group exploration and ecstatic expression under the name The Same. Sonically and gravitationally defined by Cox's collaboration with guitarist Andy Thomas (a partnership which formed in 1976 to record as General Motors), Sync or Swim, The Same's one and only album, also featured keyboards by Florence Atkinson and Paul Ridout, and vocals by Robert's sister Rebecca. Originally released in small cassette and vinyl quantities on Unlikely Records, Cox's imprint and a meeting point for many other musicians found at the fringe, the back cover of the original album jacket is as much a map of the personnel, place, and process fundamental to Sync or Swim as it is a table of contents for DIY music-making at the beginning of the 80s: "Recorded in peaceful Wiltshire between September 18th and October 6th 1981 (using a miscellany of home made devices) onto a Teac A-3300SX via a Teac A-3440. No noise reduction systems were used." Cox's own definition of British psychedelia is "folk music meeting technology and going bonkers." It's by this definition that Sync or Swim takes unexpected forms, from tape-speed tomfoolery, concrète sound collage and analog delayed marimbas, to the colorful spectrum of interwoven guitar play between Cox and Thomas reminiscent of Ghanaian Highlife but more accurately indebted to Jerry Garcia. On the album's culminating final track, "E Scapes," all of these elements are brought together in twenty-minute journey through layers of chiming guitar loops and spritely solos, keyed percussion, and tape experiments, all played as though the sun were rising over the standing stones of Salisbury Plain. Cox would later go to similarly greath lengths with certain solo sound endeavors, but the confluence of musicians on "E Scapes" pushes the piece to exceptional, unforgettable heights. Transferred and remastered from the original tapes, The Same's Sync or Swim arrives on LP July 16th, 2021 on Freedom To Spend, just in time for the album's 40th anniversary.