quête:day mar

2025 Repress

Forest Drive West returns to Livity Sound with the 'Dualism' EP, a tour de force of stripped dub aesthetics and swirling psychedelic rhythms.

One of the finest breakthrough UK producers of recent years, in a short space of time Forest Drive West has created an enviable catalogue across labels such as Livity Sound, Rupture, Echocord, Whities and Mantis. This new EP marks some of his best work to date.

The final track on the EP, 'Scorpion', features Melbourne based percussionist Lucky Pereira whose frenetic but tightly locked drums add a fizzing energy to Forest Drive West's deep atmospheric rhythm track.

Livity Sound is a label set up by Peverelist in 2011 as a vehicle for a raw and exploratory strain of UK techno, rooted in the heritage of UK dance music and sound system culture. It has since become one of the UK's foremost protagonists for cutting edge underground electronic music.

Motel d'amour - A Lost Electro-Funk Gem from the NDW Era Resurfaces

When we first collaborated with Collage member Markus Kammann on the EP project "Mit den Puppen tanzen" at the end of last year, we never imagined what would follow: Kammann approached us with a completely unreleased full-length album by his former band. Upon receiving the first three preview tracks, we were floored. One of them was "Nachtcafé" - a track that kicks off with a funky bassline layered over the punchy rhythm of a Roland TR-808. Add shimmering synths and Katrin A. Kunze's sharp, distinctive vocals, and we instantly knew we were hearing something special.

For a label dedicated to rediscovering lost treasures, this was exactly what we'd been searching for. The next two tracks - "Rendezvous" and "Casanova" - were just as compelling. When Kammann sent us the full album, we realized we were holding an electro-funk grail from the late golden days of the German Neue Deutsche Welle (NDW). We were listening to "Motel d'amour".

"Motel d'amour" is a concept album, offering a sharp, vibrant perspective from a confident, intelligent, and radiant young woman eager to experience nightlife, love, and music. Kunze's lyrics paint vivid scenes of flirtation ("Nachtcafé", "Rendezvous"), encounters with men ("Casanova"), the pulse of nightlife ("Die Nacht ist noch jung"), love ("Rotes Licht für rote Liebe"), one-night stands ("Motel d'amour"), and more. Rarely has a German album from that era captured emotional nuance and social dynamics so insightfully. Without veering into the overly personal, Kunze's direct, daring lyrical style was groundbreaking at the time - and remains refreshingly bold today.

While German listeners will fully appreciate the lyrical depth, the music speaks volumes on its own. Kunze's words are masterfully complemented by the production of Markus Kammann and Jürgen Grah. As heard on the in-demand "Mit den Puppen tanzen", their creativity seemed boundless. Each track is tightly composed, catchy, and full of character. While many German bands at the time leaned into rock, Kammann drew from the deep grooves of Earth, Wind & Fire, The Isley Brothers, Brothers Johnson, The Commodores, and the electro-futurism of Afrika Bambaataa's "Planet Rock" and "Looking for the Perfect Beat". The result: tracks with unmistakable electro-funk flair, powered by the classic 808 drum sound.

Though primarily rooted in funk and electro, the album retains flashes of NDW aesthetics - "Wir haben getanzt heut' Nacht" being a prime example. The instrumentation is a dream list for vintage gear lovers: Yamaha keyboards, Roland Juno-60, vocoder, Micromoog, Hohner D6 Clavinet, Fender bass, and a Telecaster guitar all feature prominently.
Recorded in 1985 at the high-profile Delta Studio by Richard Rossbach, the album attracted interest from Polydor. However, the label proposed using the compositions for a solo project with singer Inga Humpe (of Neonbabies), who was already signed to their roster. This would have required replacing Kunze as the vocalist, an idea the group firmly rejected. As a result, "Motel d'amour" was shelved, and Kammann, Grah, and Kunze moved on to form Cold End.
The album cover features a rare archival photo of Katrin A. Kunze - rediscovered by Kammann and now finally seeing the light of day, 40 years later.

We believe Motel d'amour deserves recognition alongside cult German classics like P!OFF?, 1. Futurologischer Congress' "Wer spricht?", Ami Marie's "Verrückt nach Glück", the funkier cuts of Cosa Rosa, or Piet Klocke's groove classic "Heute ist nicht sonst". It's a record that fits into adventurous DJ sets but also rewards a full, start-to-finish listen.

A note on audio quality: Sadly, the original master tapes were lost. The tracks were restored from a vintage TDK cassette. Thanks to modern digital tools, we were able to remaster them to a high standard - but in some songs light distortions remain. We appreciate your understanding and hope you enjoy this lost and undiscovered gem.

Motel d'amour - A Lost Electro-Funk Gem from the NDW Era Resurfaces

When we first collaborated with Collage member Markus Kammann on the EP project "Mit den Puppen tanzen" at the end of last year, we never imagined what would follow: Kammann approached us with a completely unreleased full-length album by his former band. Upon receiving the first three preview tracks, we were floored. One of them was "Nachtcafé" - a track that kicks off with a funky bassline layered over the punchy rhythm of a Roland TR-808. Add shimmering synths and Katrin A. Kunze's sharp, distinctive vocals, and we instantly knew we were hearing something special.

For a label dedicated to rediscovering lost treasures, this was exactly what we'd been searching for. The next two tracks - "Rendezvous" and "Casanova" - were just as compelling. When Kammann sent us the full album, we realized we were holding an electro-funk grail from the late golden days of the German Neue Deutsche Welle (NDW). We were listening to "Motel d'amour".

"Motel d'amour" is a concept album, offering a sharp, vibrant perspective from a confident, intelligent, and radiant young woman eager to experience nightlife, love, and music. Kunze's lyrics paint vivid scenes of flirtation ("Nachtcafé", "Rendezvous"), encounters with men ("Casanova"), the pulse of nightlife ("Die Nacht ist noch jung"), love ("Rotes Licht für rote Liebe"), one-night stands ("Motel d'amour"), and more. Rarely has a German album from that era captured emotional nuance and social dynamics so insightfully. Without veering into the overly personal, Kunze's direct, daring lyrical style was groundbreaking at the time - and remains refreshingly bold today.

While German listeners will fully appreciate the lyrical depth, the music speaks volumes on its own. Kunze's words are masterfully complemented by the production of Markus Kammann and Jürgen Grah. As heard on the in-demand "Mit den Puppen tanzen", their creativity seemed boundless. Each track is tightly composed, catchy, and full of character. While many German bands at the time leaned into rock, Kammann drew from the deep grooves of Earth, Wind & Fire, The Isley Brothers, Brothers Johnson, The Commodores, and the electro-futurism of Afrika Bambaataa's "Planet Rock" and "Looking for the Perfect Beat". The result: tracks with unmistakable electro-funk flair, powered by the classic 808 drum sound.

Though primarily rooted in funk and electro, the album retains flashes of NDW aesthetics - "Wir haben getanzt heut' Nacht" being a prime example. The instrumentation is a dream list for vintage gear lovers: Yamaha keyboards, Roland Juno-60, vocoder, Micromoog, Hohner D6 Clavinet, Fender bass, and a Telecaster guitar all feature prominently.
Recorded in 1985 at the high-profile Delta Studio by Richard Rossbach, the album attracted interest from Polydor. However, the label proposed using the compositions for a solo project with singer Inga Humpe (of Neonbabies), who was already signed to their roster. This would have required replacing Kunze as the vocalist, an idea the group firmly rejected. As a result, "Motel d'amour" was shelved, and Kammann, Grah, and Kunze moved on to form Cold End.
The album cover features a rare archival photo of Katrin A. Kunze - rediscovered by Kammann and now finally seeing the light of day, 40 years later.

We believe Motel d'amour deserves recognition alongside cult German classics like P!OFF?, 1. Futurologischer Congress' "Wer spricht?", Ami Marie's "Verrückt nach Glück", the funkier cuts of Cosa Rosa, or Piet Klocke's groove classic "Heute ist nicht sonst". It's a record that fits into adventurous DJ sets but also rewards a full, start-to-finish listen.

A note on audio quality: Sadly, the original master tapes were lost. The tracks were restored from a vintage TDK cassette. Thanks to modern digital tools, we were able to remaster them to a high standard - but in some songs light distortions remain. We appreciate your understanding and hope you enjoy this lost and undiscovered gem.

In 1995, when Cobweb-day was released, Fabrice Laureau was 24, Nicolas Laureau 21, Ludovic Morillon 22, and Quentin Rollet, who had just joined them on this new album, was 21. Prohibition, founded in 1989, had already released two albums: Turtle in 1993 and Nobodinside in 1994, on the Distorsion label. Cobweb-day, literally "Spider-web Day," is poetic, satirical, and libertarian. A title conceived by Nicolas to express all the feelings and themes explored on the album, this neologism also echoes the artwork on the cover. The lyrics describe, in vitriolic poetry and with a touch of self-deprecation, a world based on the powers of commodification and order, on submission to modern Molochs. Thirty years ago, it addressed themes such as the trade in minds and bodies, Kafkaesque justice, state violence, and Western blindness. Is this a coincidence that might raise a smile? Fabrice and Nicolas were both conscientious objectors at the time the album was written. The deceptively childish drawing that adorns the cover was created by Fabrice in 1989. It evokes African art and the skyscraper where the brothers grew up. Its title? "Glances on the Horizon." Yet, in these naive eyes, locked in a rhizomic matrix, there is the disturbing sensation of being observed, scrutinized, or perhaps imprisoned. This is Cobweb-day. During this period, the band spent its entire life touring with the British post-punk trio Headcleaner and the furious Lyon-based Condense. Their correspondence, followed by a meeting in 1994 with Guy Picciotto, singer-guitarist in Fugazi, led to a series of concerts with the Washington, DC quartet, around the time of the album's release in the spring of 1995. Quentin Rollet gradually joined the band, first on stage and then on the records. The concerts of this era often ended with long improvisations featuring saxophone, sitar, bass, and drums. Prohibition had emerged from the shadows, but chose to continue evolving underground, with the Laureau brothers creating their label Prohibited Records. Cobweb-day serves as the first reference. Thirty years ago, then. The album was recorded at Ark Studios near Paris in January 1995, along with eight other previously unreleased tracks. This new mix was created at Black Box Studios by Peter Deimel and Nicolas from 24-track analog tapes in August 1998, shortly before the release of 14 Ups & Downs, Prohibition's fifth and final album, and their US tour. All tracks were remastered by Fabrice and Nicolas Laureau in March/April 2025.

Mayssa Jallad is a Beirut-based bilingual singer-songwriter, architectural researcher and teacher. Her work deals with the highly personal as well as the political, as with her first solo album "Marjaa: The Battle of the Hotels", which explores the histories of urban battles that occurred before she was born, during the Lebanese Civil War, through a collaborative musical and architectural lens. "(Marjaa) is, as one might expect, a sombre affair largely comprised of Jallad's delicate vocals backed by acoustic guitar and ethereal synthesizer. Elsewhere, co-composer and producer Fadi Tabbal adds the crackle of distant artillery and a ghostly wind between the high-rise blocks." - Daniel Spicer, Songlines, April 2023 "Historical trauma, strings, drones, metallophones and buzuks wrap around powerful stories and gossamer vocals on Lebanese singer's tender, intimate debut. With shades of Nico, Jarboe and Elizabeth Fraser, '80s' 4AD fans will rejoice." - Andy Cowan, MOJO `Marjaa_' (tr. `reference') combined Mayssa Jallad's two main vocations: music and urban research/architectural history. The album was co-written with Fadi Tabbal and based on Mayssa's Historic Preservation master's thesis (`Beirut's Civil War Hotel District: Preserving the World's First High-Rise Urban Battlefield'). The thesis examined a 5-month conflict that took place within Beirut's skyscraper-laden luxury hotel district of Minet El Husn near the start of the Lebanese Civil War. Addressing a post-war generation who have never been taught this difficult history, `Marjaa_' was an attempt to process trauma, and "a call to protest for the renewal, rather than the recycling of the political class that once destroyed the country and holds us, to this day, hostage of its violence". In 2013, Mayssa founded indie-pop band Safar with guitarist Elie Abdelnour, releasing debut album In Transit with Lebanese indie label Ruptured in 2017, and follow-up EP Studies of an Unknown Lover in 2019. Both albums were produced by Lebanese producer Fadi Tabbal at Tunefork Studios in Beirut. Mayssa's most recent multi-genre collaborations include "Madina min Baeed" (2022) with electronic musician/producer Khaled Allaf; "Bi Kheir" and "Fil Aatma" (2022) with indie supergroup Baada Ab (Dani Shukri, Ezra Tenenbaum and Omaya Malaeb), released by Thawra records and Found Sound Nation. Next is the Versions version of Marjaa, which sees Civilistjävel! (aka Swedish producer Tomas Bodén) apply a stripped, dub methodology to Mayssa's original rich stems, refracting the Arabic source through the hazy prism of Northern European electronica. 140gsm vinyl, jacket printed on 20pt board with aqueous gloss coating, with a 3.5mm spine and a black paper inner dust sleeve.

Accomplished Polish beat-maker Emapea has made memorable appearances on many Cold Busted label compilations – such as in the IWYMI and Bust Free series – and has been selected for inclusion in Mark Farina’s next Mushroom Jazz installment. All this activity has mouths watering for the debut full length album from Emapea, and the appearance of Seeds, Roots & Fruits doesn’t disappoint one bit. Featuring sixteen exceptional tracks ranging from hip hop to acid jazz to psychedelic trip hop in the style of Mo’Wax, Emapea’s long player is indeed, as a wise man once said, “a journey into sound.” Seeds, Roots & Fruits rises above the average beats album to reveal the enduring depth of this young producer

Barry Can't Swim veröffentlicht sein mit Spannung erwartetes neues Album, „Loner“ auf Ninja Tune!

In „Loner“ sehen wir Barry Can't Swim dabei zu, wie er die Welt, in der er sich befindet, erkundet. Geprägt vom überwältigenden Erfolg von Barry Can't Swims ausverkauften Liveshows auf der ganzen Welt, bleibt es seinen Wurzeln verhaftet, während er über Identität und Bodenständigkeit nachdenkt. Barry Can’t Swims hochgelobtes Debütalbum, „When Will We Land?“, das im Oktober 2023 veröffentlicht wurde und derzeit mehr als 100 Millionen Streams verzeichnet, erhielt unendlich viel Lob, darunter auch die Nominierung für den Mercury Music Prize 2024, neben Künstler:innen wie Charli xcx, Beth Gibbons, English Teacher, Ghetts und The Last Dinner Party. Barry Can’t Swim ist nun stolz darauf, neben Aphex Twin, Nia Archives, Burial, Jamie xx, Fred again.. oder Jon Hopkins als in die engere Auswahl für den prestigeträchtigen Preis gekommen zu sein - was als elektronischer Solokünstler eher seltener vorkommt. Darüber hinaus wurde er bei den BRIT Awards 2024 in der Kategorie „Dance Act“ nominiert und stand auf der Shortlist für das schottische Album des Jahres.

Barry Can't Swim veröffentlicht sein mit Spannung erwartetes neues Album, „Loner“ auf Ninja Tune!

In „Loner“ sehen wir Barry Can't Swim dabei zu, wie er die Welt, in der er sich befindet, erkundet. Geprägt vom überwältigenden Erfolg von Barry Can't Swims ausverkauften Liveshows auf der ganzen Welt, bleibt es seinen Wurzeln verhaftet, während er über Identität und Bodenständigkeit nachdenkt. Barry Can’t Swims hochgelobtes Debütalbum, „When Will We Land?“, das im Oktober 2023 veröffentlicht wurde und derzeit mehr als 100 Millionen Streams verzeichnet, erhielt unendlich viel Lob, darunter auch die Nominierung für den Mercury Music Prize 2024, neben Künstler:innen wie Charli xcx, Beth Gibbons, English Teacher, Ghetts und The Last Dinner Party. Barry Can’t Swim ist nun stolz darauf, neben Aphex Twin, Nia Archives, Burial, Jamie xx, Fred again.. oder Jon Hopkins als in die engere Auswahl für den prestigeträchtigen Preis gekommen zu sein - was als elektronischer Solokünstler eher seltener vorkommt. Darüber hinaus wurde er bei den BRIT Awards 2024 in der Kategorie „Dance Act“ nominiert und stand auf der Shortlist für das schottische Album des Jahres.

SEVEN welcomes Seoul-based Suman, whose vocal-driven signature sound marks our seventh release. This EP, exclusively showcasing the talents of Korean artists, features longtime affiliates of Seoul's club FAUST and early friends of SEVEN. The B-side is enriched with two remixes by female artists, DAMIE and Mars Parck. While the opening track drives forward with a more energetic, fast-paced vibe, the remaining tracks on the A-Side embrace dreamy, laidback house grooves accented by slightly cheesy yet classic vocals - perfect for a daytime dance.

The latest EP from Drab Majesty marks the start of a stirring new chapter in the band's majestic legacy. Written during a 2021 retreat to the remote coastal Oregon town of Yachats, Deb Demure leaned into the neo-psychedelic resonance of a uniquely bowl-shaped 12-string Ovation acoustic/electric guitar. After early morning hikes in the rain, Deb would record ambient guitar experiments the rest of the day, tapping into "flow states," letting the sound lead the way. These sessions were then refined or recreated, and later elevated further with key collaborations by Rachel Goswell (Slowdive), Justin Meldal-Johnson (Beck, M83, Air), and Ben Greenberg (Uniform, Circular Ruin Studio). An Object In Motion is true to its title, capturing the chrysalis moment of an artist evolving, reborn and untethered, silhouetted against an open horizon."Cape Perpetua" kicks off the collection's divergent palette: sparkling acoustic finger-picking refracted through delay, equal parts raga and reverie. Melodies and moods congeal and dissipate, at the threshold of rustic American primitivism, brooding neo-folk, and pastoral melancholia. "The Skin And The Glove" deploys jangle to different effect - baggy, soaring, grey-skied kaleidoscopic pop in the spirit of Stone Roses, Primal Scream, and The Glove. Rachel Goswell lends her iconic freefall voice to The Cure-esque ballad, "Vanity," infusing poetic gravity to the doomed refrain: "If the valve breaks / then the earth quakes / and history finds a way / to put you in your place.""Yield To Force", the closing track of the EP, may be the most anomalous offering of the set. A 15-minute instrumental odyssey of cyclical strings, ominous slide guitar, and simmering synthesizer, the piece sways and spirals like a long zoom into distant storm clouds. Demure finesses the guitar with a restless but regal grandeur, unfolding a panorama of peaks, shadows, and plateaus. It's music both intuitive and prophetic, tracing the slow swing of pendulums across an endless plain. Taken as a whole, An Object In Motion presents a showcase of potential futures from Drab's evolving domain, their sound poised to bloom at the precipice of transformation.

Riki is the Los Angeles based dark synth-pop outfit commandeered by the mysterious Niff Nawor, a visual artist and musician active in the deathrock / anarcho-punk scenes of the California bay area (formerly a member of Crimson Scarlet), before founding her solo endeavor as Riki in 2017. Niff's desire to explore her own sound manifested in the recording of the Hot City cassette tape in 2017, which featured Chelsey Crowley of Crimson Scarlet, Skot Brown of Phantom Limbs and Pedaof Doomed to Extinction. Released on Commodity Tapes and later reissued on vinyl by the well-regarded Symphony of Destruction label, Riki followed the release of the single with several small tours and festival dates, performing with such acts as Light Asylum, Black Marble, and Trisomie 21.For her self-titled debut album for Dais, Riki explores courage, physicality, and romance across eight timeless synth pop anthems. Produced and engineered by hardware-based synthesist Matia Simovich of INHALT, influences and ideas are worn proudly without deviating from fresh and daring electro-pop territory. Nostalgic cues can be heard ranging from Neue Deutsch Welle, early Adrian Sherwood productions, classic ZYX Italo Disco, Japanese Visual Kei and even classic new wave/pop like Pat Benatar, Kate Bush, and early Madonna.The lead single, Napoleon, contains Riki's indelible sound design, reminiscent of 80's New York dance floor electro-pop that recalls the fusion of uptown and downtown styles and culture, told through Riki's present day West Coast narrative. For contrast, the second single entitled Böse Lügen (Body Mix) was previously released in demo form and re-mixed to emphasize its commanding presence and addictive nature. Translated simply to "Wicked Lies" and sung completely in German, Böse Lügen moves away from the upbeat romanticism found throughout the album and commands serious self-reflection guised within an infectious dance floor anthem.

The album opens with "Hypnagogia," an ode to the space between sleep and wakefulness where we are open to other realms of consciousness. The song slowly builds along a steady pulse provided by bassist Pickle (Nicole Smith) and drummer Rikki Styxx. Tripped out saxophone bleats from guest player Gabe Flores swirl on top of the organ drones laid out by guest keyboardist Gregg Foreman. The band's choral objectives for Under the Spell of Joy are established right off the bat, with Bonnie Bloomgarden's melodic invocations bolstered by a choir, giving the album a rich and vibrant wall-of-sound aesthetic. The song ominously builds on its hypnotic foundation until it opens up into a raucous revelry at the four-minute mark. The portentous simmer of the opening track yields to the ecstatic rocker "Hold My Hand," where verses reminiscent of Velvet Underground's "I'm Waiting For The Man" explode into big triumphant choruses. From there the band launches into the title track, which marries the griminess of The Stooges with an innocence provided by a children's choir chanting the album's primary mantra "under the spell of joy / under the spell of love." Death Valley Girls have always vacillated between lightness and darkness, and on "Bliss Out" they demonstrate their current exuberant focus with a patina-hued pop song driven by an irrepressibly buoyant organ line laid down by keyboardist The Kid (Laura Kelsey). A similar cosmic euphoria is obtained on "The Universe," where alternating chords on the organ help elevate soaring saxophone and keyboard lines out beyond the stratosphere. If you're looking for transcendental rock music, look no further.

Despite the outright denial in its title, death is present in every one of the songs on Never Die, the collaborative album from MIDWIFE’s Madeline Johnston and Matt Jencik (of Implodes, Don Caballero, and Slint’s live band). Jencik held the tenderest thought imaginable when he came up with that phrase—Never Die—the fact that the people he loves eventually would, a certainty that feels impossible and remote, until the day it absolutely doesn’t. Never Die represents Jencik’s desperate bid to hold onto everyone he loves, to keep them on Earth so fiercely that they might enter the grave with claw marks on their skin.

Johnston, who recognizes the grace of mortality (and who, as MIDWIFE once sang: “I don’t wanna live forever,” over and over) serves as the spiritual guide for the album, transmuting the fear of death into an incentive to live more keenly and dearly. Following a number of ambient drone instrumental albums, Jencik felt the need to set himself a new creative challenge: to write vocal-heavy songs. He worked on them alone in his basement, recording directly to a four-track cassette. He sent those demos to a different collaborator to tinker with before that partnership eventually dissolved. Then, he thought of Madeline: the way her voice tended to glower in her songs, as well as her commitment to minimalism, which fell squarely within the project’s aesthetic and spiritual impulses.

“I was immediately drawn to what she was doing,” Jencik says. In both of their work, Jencik and Johnston understand minimalism as a vehicle for enormous, desperate and universal emotions. Entire worlds come in and out of existence between each of their sparse notes; a great breadth of feeling is bedded into the simple structure of their songs. Never Die offers a calm confrontation with the dour inevitability that bookends our lives. When the fact of death looms over life, it tends to denature every experience we have and every relationship we know we’ll eventually have to forfeit back to the Earth. No one, no matter how hard we love, makes it out of this alive thing. But we feel anyway. And we love anyway. And we sing anyway. Here, Jencik and Johnston have sung ‘die’ over and over, snowglobing life in the process.

With two solo CDs and another three with Cahalen Morrison behind him, today he's become the master folk troubadour he was destined to be, and we're all the richer for it. The Pacific Northwest singer- songwriter met his wife, his beloved father has passed away, and his two children now shape his world around him. With age comes wisdom and, for master musicians, clairvoyance. His third album, The Shape of a Sway, reflects just that: A master telling tales of life lived honestly, amid paradox and reason, injected with change and growth, bruises and enlightenment: Life not just worth living, but worth lifting up in song. Gifted as a writer, singer, and instrumentalist (guitar, mandolin, banjo, pedal steel), West gets support from his equally stellar regulars, fiddler Patrick M'Gonigle and bassist Forest Marowitz. All three share intertwining harmony vocals. The Shape of a Sway, he says, "is an honest inventory of my life, possibly all of our lives, presented possibly with enough abstraction that listeners will see something of themselves, of their lives."

This is a live album by the legendary soul singer Marvin Gaye, released in 1963 that captures the energy and charisma of Gaye's live performances during a period when he was establishing himself as one of Motown's premier artists

The album includes live renditions of some of his early hits and popular songs of the time and the live performances showcase Gaye's dynamic stage presence and his ability to connect with the audience. "Recorded Live On Stage" features a mix of upbeat tracks and soulful ballads, refecting the versatility of Gaye's vocal and musical style: it was released during a formative period in Marvin Gaye's career helped cement his reputation as a compelling live performer, which would be further solidifed with subsequent recordings. The album is considered an important document of Marvin Gaye's early career, capturing a time when he was evolving into a major star and his ability to bring a different dimension to his studio recordings through live renditions: "Recorded Live On Stage" remains a cherished album for Marvin Gaye art lovers and for those interested in the history of live soul music performances.

Proudly presenting Maravilhosamente Bem the powerful, female-centred third album by Brazilian singer, songwriter, actress, and creative director, Julia Mestre.
Alongside being a member of the Latin Grammy-winning Brazilian supergroup, Bala Desejo, Julia has been steadily building a solo career where her unique vision and alluring soft, sultry voice take centre stage. Drawing inspiration from ‘80s ballads, MPB, pop and disco productions, each song on this third album finds Julia creatively exploring different characters and tones.

A love-song-driven LP at its core, Maravilhosamente Bem holds a playful mirror up to blissful days gone by, artfully reimagined with Julia’s own modern twist. An album filled with love and nostalgia, it pays homage to her love of classic female disco divas such as Donna Summer, Sade, Alcione, Lady Zu, and the Brazilian rock queens Rita Lee and Marina Lima. Of that latter pairing, the late iconic Brazilian vocalist and musician Rita Lee (Os Mutantes) is referenced in the music video for the first single, ‘Sou Fera’, blessing Julia with a magical guitar. Marina Lima then provides guest vocals on the album’s closing track, ‘Marinou, Limou’, with her name transformed into a mantra by Julia.

Channelling a lo-fi ‘80s ballad aesthetic, Julia navigates a multitude of themes across the nine sublime tracks. From the sexy, whispered performances on vintage horror movie-inspired tunes ‘Vampira’ and ‘Pra Lua’ to the delicate, fragile love lullabies of ‘Sentimento Blues’ and ‘Cariñito’, and the seductive disco diva embodiment on dance tracks ‘Veneno de Serente’ and title track ‘Maravilhosamente Bem’. Another hidden highlight is the palette-cleansing mini-suite, ‘Interlúdio dos Amantes’. A luscious strings instrumental piece that lends to the beautiful Sade-esque ‘Seu Romance’.

Produced by Julia and longtime collaborators Gabriel Quirino, Gabriel Quinto, and João Moreira, Maravilhosamente Bem sees Julia embarking on a new era of her musical career. This sensational third album is a captivating showcase of the creative vision and versatility of one of Brazil’s finest stars.

Released on Mr. Bongo (ROW) and Altafonte (Brazil).

Smut is the project of lyricist Tay Roebuck, guitarists Andie Min and Sam Ruschman, drummer Aidan O’Connor, and bassist John Steiner. Roebuck, Ruschman and Min started the band a decade ago in Cincinnati, Ohio. Since then, they’ve played alongside Bully, Wavves, and Nothing. After years in the Cincinnati DIY scene, they made their Bayonet Records full-length debut, How the Light Felt. The record was a revelation. Pitchfork called it “a rigorous, decade-spanning study,” and a “well-oiled spin on late-’80s guitar pop.” Under the Radar called it “pop perfection,” that “blends subtle hooks with wistful lyrics.” It was a record that explored grief through the lens of melancholic dreampop, using drum machines and layered, intricate melodies.
Tomorrow Comes Crashing, Smut's first record with O'Connor and Steiner, sees the band re-energized and trained on the limitless potential that comes with making music with people you love. Galvanized with a new lineup, Smut focused on creating a record that possessed the same towering intensity as the records that first got them into music: Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, Relationship of Command. The outcome is ten of their most intense, bombastic, and focused songs to date.
Catharsis bursts through the seams throughout Tomorrow Comes Crashing. “Syd Sweeney, ”inspired by the actress, is the record's centerpiece. It's about how profoundly strange it can be to be a woman, to be misunderstood by people who don’t even know you. The song is driven by chugging guitars and big, rolling drums. In other words: stadium rock about perception. Paramore meets Dookie. “She connects to the youth and the girls in the water/All she amounts to is someone’s daughter,” sings Roebuck in one particularly poetic moment. The song comes to a thrashing metal-inspired breakdown. It’s ecstatic.
To make the record, Smut recorded “as live as they could,” alongside Aron Kobayashi-Ritch(Momma) in a studio in Red Hook, Brooklyn, over the course of ten days. “We have so much energy right now,” says Roebuck. Right before they went off to New York, Roebuck and Min got married, with the rest of the band by their side. The recording was a true labor of love — driving from Chicago with all their equipment, returning from 12 hour studio days to sleep on friends' couches and floors, Roebuck completely blowing her voice by the end. Smut has always been DIY. Because they love it. Because they have to do it–there’s no other option. Tomorrow Comes Crashing is the culmination of that DIY spirit: making a record that completely encompasses the intensity, moodiness, and emotion of their journey so far.

Bulbous Monocle focuses its lens further into the legacy and archives of the Thinking Fellers Union Local 282. These Things Remain Unassigned—a phrase coined by Brian Hageman, one of the band’s musical snake appendages emanating from its Medusa crown—is presented as a double LP (gatefold jacket with a twelve page libretto). It gathers together the band’s singles, compilation tracks, outtakes and never before released gems encompassing the arc of TFUL’s musical corpus. Every track has been surgically remastered by Mark Gergis (Porest / Sublime Frequencies / Mono Pause) with his signature craftsman approach. This collection is an auditory and visual feast. The extensive booklet included features band ephemera, concert flyers, photographs, and commentary about each track from Mark Davies. Beyond the rare singles and unreleased tracks from the TFUL archives, are cover versions from such disparate artists and composers as Ennio Morricone, Krzysztof Komeda, The Residents, The Shaggs, Caroliner Rainbow and Pérez Prado. “…In addition to these compilation one-offs, there were also a few studio recordings that were never quite completed or released. Throw in an alternate mix or two and the handful of singles that came out on various labels over the years, and you end up with what I feel works well as its own body of work, a bunch of adopted oddballs that somehow fit together as a family. I hope youʼll agree with me that these things are now no longer unassigned, but part of a somewhat cohesive whole, stitched together into something mysterious and glistening.” —Mark Davies (2023)

Lifelong friends Richard Lowe and Rob Bendelow formed their first band “Lammergier” during the mid 1970’s together with bassist Barry Yates. Following their first love performance in 1977 the band gigged extensively across the British midlands. The standard of these performances combined with their unique brand of symphonic rock saw “Lammergier” amass a large and loyal following. Then a new decade arrived changes were made, the music remained the same, but they called themselves “Saracen”.

After several months on the road Saracen decided it was time to record an album, and in October 1981 they released “Heroes, Saints and Fools” to critical acclaim. Saracen tracks received regular airplay on Tommy Vance’s Friday night rock show and the single “We have arrived” was recorded. In 1983 line-up changes occurred and the band eventually stopped touring in 1985.

Two decades later and the band re-appear with a vengeance and the release of “Red Sky” in March 2003 put the band firmly back on the map, and it was a rework of some of the old classics with new tracks added. The band regained its popularity, and a further three albums have emerged to critical acclaim, namely “Vox in Excelso”, “Marilyn” and “Redemption”.

With renewed interest in the vinyl format of recorded music “Vox In Excelso” has been re-released in 2025 as a numbered limited edition with new artwork and now “Red Sky” is to follow, again with new artwork. These are beautiful works of art and the recordings sound fresh and vibrant, its classic progressive rock brought into the present day and it doesn’t get better than this..

Format Details: 12” matte jacket, orange & blue side A/B effect colour vinyl, dust sleeve & marketing sticker.

Originally released in 2002, Daylight EP was the follow-up to Aesop Rock’s critically-acclaimed Labor Days album, a cult classic released only six months prior. The EP was built around its titular opening song, “Daylight,” one of the standout tracks from Labor Days, and continued expanding upon the range and depth of Aesop’s multi-talented gifts for writing and producing. In addition to the title track, Daylight EP also included its counterpoint, “Night Light,” an alternate version in concept whose paraphrased lyrics simultaneously refer back to– and stand in stark opposition to– the original's, over darker, more menacing production. The tracklist for Daylight EP boasted seven songs plus a hidden track for a total of eight, and collectively featured production by Blockhead, El-P, Blueprint and Aesop Rock himself, as well as guest appearances from Vast Aire (Cannibal Ox) and Blueprint.
At the time of its initial release, Daylight EP was only offered in CD and digital formats, while the vinyl was stripped back, available only as a three-song 12” single. Now, Rhymesayers Entertainment is pleased to present the complete EP on vinyl for the first time ever, pressed on two-color side A/B effect orange & blue vinyl to complement the original artwork. Finally, fans and vinyl collectors everywhere can own this integral piece of Aesop Rock’s legacy and enjoy the genius behind this project.

The Australian master of the dark synth arts is back and – boy – he is out for blood.
We’ve been missing Marc Dwyer solo project Buzz Kull since his latest single Last In The Club from late 2019 and since back then we knew he was up to something. At first glimpse, the minimal wave days of We Were Lovers seem far away now that Marc has gone full Club Body Music with his upcoming new album, but there is a thread that binds Buzz Kull hits from the past such as Into The Void, Avoiding The Light and New Kind Of Cross with these ten new cuts: a thread of darkness proper to the most handsome man in the game and that’s here to stay.

Echoes of 90’s era Front 242 and Front Line Assembly will resonate from tracks like Fascination and Dead Inside; elements of early body music flirting with the dark side of British synthpop will rave from the grooves of Dancing with Machines and Man on the Beat, while late 80’s Belgian new beat cellar-like vibes rise from Do You See and Burn it to the Ground.

But Buzz Kull’s third full-length is not just about music subgenres we all know and love, it’s about a feeling that comes alive only with the dark and drives you through the small hours just to leave you drained and filled at once. The creature of the night is on the loose, the sticky dancefloor its natural habitat, its lust for the upside-down world of the club can’t be cured.

Dune Castle presents - From A Darebin Cave by Cantrips, an acid folk odyssey. Recorded live with a 7-piece band over two days, "From a Darebin Cave" features members from Surprise Chef, Don Glori, Karate Boogaloo, and more.

Centered around the nylon guitar and voice of Patrick Ryan (Cantrips), this album draws inspiration from late 60s/early 70s acts like Nick Drake, Terry Callier, and Donovan. The album also incorporates string arrangements reminiscent of Frank Sinatra's "Watertown" and late 60s psychedelic pop. This unique sound was crafted by two keyboardists emulating a string quartet with synthesizers, complemented by drums, percussion, double bass, and pedal steel guitar.

The lyricism delves into themes of isolation, loneliness, regret, and joy, inspired by the natural beauty of the Darebin Parklands surrounding the Dune Castle studio, and takes influence from Romantic poets such as Mary Oliver, William Blake, and Pablo Neruda.

EB-REX, a Berlin-based Techno label founded by Estella Boersma in 2024, stands as a testament to versatility and artistic freedom. Drawing inspiration from the halcyon days of old-school rave and the relentless drive of Techno's present, each release embodies a synthesis of the past and the future. The Sophomore release, EB002, delivers a driving, high-energy techno experience - taking you on a journey through rolling grooves that culminates in a surprising ambient rework. Written and Produced by Estella Boersma. Mastered by Manmade Mastering. Pressed by Intakt!.

'Black Samson, The Bastard Swordsman' ist das erste Wu-Tang-Album seit 11 Jahren, auf dem alle 9 lebenden Mitglieder vertreten sind: Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Cappadonna, U-God, Masta Killa, Inspectah Deck, GZA und RZA.

Produziert von Mathematics.

Ursprünglich in limitierter Auflage zum Record Store Day 2025 erschienen, ist die Platte nun erstmals überall im Handel erhältlich.

Wu-Tang ist die wohl ikonischste Hip-Hop-Gruppe der Welt. Das Wu-Tang-Logo ist nicht nur das bekannteste Logo in der generationenübergreifenden Hip-Hop-Welt, sondern die große Zahl ihrer eingefleischten Fans, die aktiv Tickets, Platten und Merchandise kaufen, macht das Logo in Bezug auf die Markenbekanntheit zu einer Marke auf Augenhöhe mit den Rolling Stones.

- LP: (Schwarzes 180g Vinyl, Single Pocket Gatefold mit bedruckten Innenhüllen)

Metal Hall of Fame inductee, Blaze Bayley, releases a brand new studio album Entitled `Circle of Stone'. The album features guest vocalist Niklas Stalvind of Swedish metalheads Wolf, alongside a variety of additional vocal & instrumental contributors. Having started his career as a professional singer with Wolfsbane in 1984, Blaze went on to front Iron Maiden, touring worldwide and releasing two studio albums - `The X Factor' and `Virtual XI', both of which achieved top twenty status in many countries. During his time with Iron Maiden, Blaze co-wrote the single `Man on the Edge' (from `The X Factor' album), a top ten hit in the UK, as well as charting successfully across Europe. Following his exit from Iron Maiden he has pursued a solo career, beginning with his now legendary solo debut album `Silicon Messiah' in 2000, followed by a further eleven studio albums, including especially his sci-fi based `Infinite Entanglement' trilogy (released in consecutive years 2016-2018) and the critically-acclaimed `War Within Me' released in 2021. Starting in 2013 and exclusively since 2016, Blaze records and plays live with Manchester (UK) melodic metal band Absolva, featuring lead guitarist Christopher Appleton and his brother LukeAppleton who is formerly of American metalheads Iced Earth. This consistent line-up is completed by drummer Martin Mcnee and bassist Karl Schramm.

Repress!

In the mid-1970s, a force of nature swept across the continental United States, cutting across all strata of race and class, rooting in our minds, our homes, our culture. It wasn’t The Exorcist, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, or even bell-bottoms, but instead a book called The Secret Life of Plants. The work of occultist/former OSS agent Peter Tompkins and former CIA agent/dowsing enthusiast Christopher Bird, the books shot up the bestseller charts and spread like kudzu across the landscape, becoming a phenomenon. Seemingly overnight, the indoor plant business was in full bloom and photosynthetic eukaryotes of every genus were hanging off walls, lording over bookshelves, and basking on sunny window ledges. The science behind Secret Life was specious: plants can hear our prayers, they’re lie detectors, they’re telepathic, able to predict natural disasters and receive signals from distant galaxies. But that didn’t stop millions from buying and nurturing their new plants.



Perhaps the craziest claim of the book was that plants also dug music. And whether you purchased a snake plant, asparagus fern, peace lily, or what have you from Mother Earth on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles (or bought a Simmons mattress from Sears), you also took home Plantasia, an album recorded especially for them. Subtitled “warm earth music for plants…and the people that love them,” it was full of bucolic, charming, stoner-friendly, decidedly unscientific tunes enacted on the new-fangled device called the Moog. Plants date back from the dawn of time, but apparently they loved the Moog, never mind that the synthesizer had been on the market for just a few years. Most of all, the plants loved the ditties made by composer Mort Garson.



Few characters in early electronic music can be both fearless pioneers and cheesy trend-chasers, but Garson embraced both extremes, and has been unheralded as a result. When one writer rhetorically asked: “How was Garson’s music so ubiquitous while the man remained so under the radar?” the answer was simple. Well before Brian Eno did it, Garson was making discreet music, both the man and his music as inconspicuous as a Chlorophytumcomosum. Julliard-educated and active as a session player in the post-war era, Garson wrote lounge hits, scored plush arrangements for Doris Day, and garlanded weeping countrypolitan strings around Glen Campbell’s “By the Time I Get to Phoenix.” He could render the Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel alike into easy listening and also dreamed up his own ditties. “An idear” as Garson himself would drawl it out. “I live with it, I walk it, I sing it.”



But as his daughter Day Darmet recalls: “When my dad found the synthesizer, he realized he didn’t want to do pop music anymore.” Garson encountered Robert Moog and his new device at the Audio Engineering Society’s West Coast convention in 1967 and immediately began tinkering with the device. With the Moog, those idears could be transformed. “He constantly had a song he was humming,” Darmet says. “At the table he was constantly tapping.” Which is to say that Mort pulled his melodies out of thin air, just like any household plant would.



The Plantae kingdom grew to its height by 1976, from DC Comics’ mossy superhero Swamp Thing to Stevie Wonder’s own herbal meditation, Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants. Nefarious manifestations of human-plant interaction also abounded, be it the grotesque pods in Invasion of the Body Snatchers or the pothead paranoia of the US Government spraying Mexican marijuana fields with the herbicide paraquat (which led to the rise in homegrown pot by the 1980s). And then there’s the warm, leafy embrace of Plantasia itself.



“My mom had a lot of plants,” Darmet says. “She didn’t believe in organized religion, she believed the earth was the best thing in the whole world. Whatever created us was incredible.” And she also knew when her husband had a good song, shouting from another room when she heard him humming a good idear. Novel as it might seem, Plantasia is simply full of good tunes.



Garson may have given the album away to new plant and bed owners, but a decade later a new generation could hear his music in another surreptitious way. Millions of kids bought The Legend of Zelda for their Nintendo Entertainment System back in 1986 and one distinct 8-bit tune bears more than a passing resemblance to album highlight “Concerto for Philodendron and Pothos.” Garson was never properly credited for it, but he nevertheless subliminally slipped into a new generations’ head, helping kids and plants alike grow.



Hearing Plantasia in the 21st century, it seems less an ode to our photosynthesizing friends by Garson and more an homage to his wife, the one with the green thumb that made everything flower around him. “My dad would be totally pleased to know that people are really interested in this music that had no popularity at the time,” Darmet says of Plantasia’snew renaissance. “He would be fascinated by the fact that people are finally understanding and appreciating this part of his musical career that he got no admiration for back then.” Garson seems to be everywhere again, even if he’s not really noticed, just like a houseplant.

Enjoy The Ride Records and Enjoy The Toons Records, with WaterTower Music, present the limited edition vinyl release of A Minecraft Movie (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), featuring original songs and a score by Grammy- and Emmy-winning composer Mark Mothersbaugh. The soundtrack is led by "I Feel Alive," written and produced by Jack Black, Mark Ronson, and Andrew Wyatt, with Black on |ocals and contributions from Danielle Brooks, Dave Grohl, Troy Van Leeuwen, and Roger Manning.

Black also contributes to three additional songs throughout the film. Other featured artists include BENEE performing "Zero to Hero" (written by Bret McKenzie), Dayglow with the indie-pop track "Change Song," and rock band Dirty Honey's "When I'm Gone," which embodies Jason Momoa's character. Mark Mothersbaugh's score blends original compositions with nods to C418's iconic Minecraft game music, balancing quirky character themes with high-energy action sequences. The soundtrack is pressed on 2xLP limited edition colored vinyl across seven variants representing characters and themes from the film, with voxel-inspired center labels, housed in a gatefold jacket with a 12" x 12" double-sided full-color insert.

OVERVIEW: Daniel Johnston’s legacy is legendary. The quintessential DIY artist started his career in Austin, TX whilst hawking cassettes from his day job at McDonald’s. The rest, as they say, is history and fans of US alternative music from the 1980s onwards know about his work and the people he went on to inspire. This, however, is not a biography; it’s a simple piece of communication to let people know that from Friday 4th July the second pressing of Daniel’s radio sessions recorded for the BBC will released on translucent A project inspired by BBC Radio 6 Music’s Marc Riley, the tracks have been licensed from the BBC and approved by Daniel’s family, management and charity. The sessions were spread across an eight-year period with two sessions for Rob Da Bank and three with Marc Riley (both of whom are executive producers of this album). A few bootleg recordings of these sessions have been available across the years but now they have been lovingly mastered and cut by Frank Arkwright at Abbey Road Studios in London. Daniel was a lifelong fan of The Beatles and the overwhelming consensus from those who knew him was that he would be so proud and excited to have his music mastered above the legendary Studio 2 at Abbey Road. This project’s objective is to celebrate Daniel’s musical legacy, rather than explore further his well-documented mental health problems.

OVERVIEW: Daniel Johnston’s legacy is legendary. The quintessential DIY artist started his career in Austin, TX whilst hawking cassettes from his day job at McDonald’s. The rest, as they say, is history and fans of US alternative music from the 1980s onwards know about his work and the people he went on to inspire. This, however, is not a biography; it’s a simple piece of communication to let people know that from Friday 4th July the second pressing of Daniel’s radio sessions recorded for the BBC will released on translucent A project inspired by BBC Radio 6 Music’s Marc Riley, the tracks have been licensed from the BBC and approved by Daniel’s family, management and charity. The sessions were spread across an eight-year period with two sessions for Rob Da Bank and three with Marc Riley (both of whom are executive producers of this album). A few bootleg recordings of these sessions have been available across the years but now they have been lovingly mastered and cut by Frank Arkwright at Abbey Road Studios in London. Daniel was a lifelong fan of The Beatles and the overwhelming consensus from those who knew him was that he would be so proud and excited to have his music mastered above the legendary Studio 2 at Abbey Road. This project’s objective is to celebrate Daniel’s musical legacy, rather than explore further his well-documented mental health problems.

Kesha’s sixth studio album, . (PERIOD) – yes, it's just a period. – is an unapologetic, unfiltered declaration of artistic freedom and fearless authenticity from the 2x GRAMMY® Award-nominated pop icon. Conceived, co-produced and co-written by Kesha, the 11-song collection transcends pop norms to create a raw, daring, and intensely personal sonic journey, a defiant act of self-expression that refuses to adhere to expectations or play it safe.
More than just a new album, . (PERIOD) is Kesha at her most powerful best, turning her experiences into vibrant, audacious art with a spiked heel at the neck of pop culture.
Among its many exhilarating highlights, . (PERIOD) includes 2024’s blockbuster hits “JOYRIDE” and “DELUSIONAL,” both available everywhere now. Currently boasting over 103M streams at Spotify alone, “JOYRIDE” proved a true sensation since its Independence Day release, reaching #6 on Billboard’s “Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles” and “Hot Dance/Electronic Songs” along with the top 30 on “Pop Airplay” and chart success around the world from the UK to New Zealand. Produced by Zhone and co-written by Kesha, Zhone, and Madison Love, the track marked the triumphant first chapter of a milestone new era for Kesha, celebrating both her long overdue empowerment as an independent artist as well as a powerful sonic evolution following 2023’s critically acclaimed fifth studio album, Gag Order. Along with its popular achievement, “JOYRIDE” has been met by high-profile critical applause from the likes of Rolling Stone, Variety, and Vulture, to name only a few. Perhaps NYLON said it best: “Everything about ‘JOYRIDE’ is a trip…The original glitter-faced party animal of the 2010s is back with a fiery vengeance.”
“JOYRIDE” joined by an equally acclaimed official music video streaming now on YouTube.
Directed by Dimitri Basil (Kylie Minogue, Vance Joy), Cooper Roussel (Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Miami Horror), and Laura Gorun (Joywave, Kings of Leon), the high-octane visual received wide-ranging attention from major publications and top online outlets around the globe, including Billboard, Vulture, and Rolling Stone, the latter of which raved, ““Kesha is taking her foot off the brakes and going full-speed ahead on her new video for ‘JOYRIDE.’ The video sees Kesha racing through the desert in a hot red convertible while being chased by a helicopter, gun-toting assassins, and a shirtless dude hell-bent on catching up to the pop diva.”

Kesha’s sixth studio album, . (PERIOD) – yes, it's just a period. – is an unapologetic, unfiltered declaration of artistic freedom and fearless authenticity from the 2x GRAMMY® Award-nominated pop icon. Conceived, co-produced and co-written by Kesha, the 11-song collection transcends pop norms to create a raw, daring, and intensely personal sonic journey, a defiant act of self-expression that refuses to adhere to expectations or play it safe.
More than just a new album, . (PERIOD) is Kesha at her most powerful best, turning her experiences into vibrant, audacious art with a spiked heel at the neck of pop culture.
Among its many exhilarating highlights, . (PERIOD) includes 2024’s blockbuster hits “JOYRIDE” and “DELUSIONAL,” both available everywhere now. Currently boasting over 103M streams at Spotify alone, “JOYRIDE” proved a true sensation since its Independence Day release, reaching #6 on Billboard’s “Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles” and “Hot Dance/Electronic Songs” along with the top 30 on “Pop Airplay” and chart success around the world from the UK to New Zealand. Produced by Zhone and co-written by Kesha, Zhone, and Madison Love, the track marked the triumphant first chapter of a milestone new era for Kesha, celebrating both her long overdue empowerment as an independent artist as well as a powerful sonic evolution following 2023’s critically acclaimed fifth studio album, Gag Order. Along with its popular achievement, “JOYRIDE” has been met by high-profile critical applause from the likes of Rolling Stone, Variety, and Vulture, to name only a few. Perhaps NYLON said it best: “Everything about ‘JOYRIDE’ is a trip…The original glitter-faced party animal of the 2010s is back with a fiery vengeance.”
“JOYRIDE” joined by an equally acclaimed official music video streaming now on YouTube.
Directed by Dimitri Basil (Kylie Minogue, Vance Joy), Cooper Roussel (Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Miami Horror), and Laura Gorun (Joywave, Kings of Leon), the high-octane visual received wide-ranging attention from major publications and top online outlets around the globe, including Billboard, Vulture, and Rolling Stone, the latter of which raved, ““Kesha is taking her foot off the brakes and going full-speed ahead on her new video for ‘JOYRIDE.’ The video sees Kesha racing through the desert in a hot red convertible while being chased by a helicopter, gun-toting assassins, and a shirtless dude hell-bent on catching up to the pop diva.”

lim. 2xLP colored yellow and oxblood vinyl with Poster, Sticker & Mp3 Download!

We are back with another chapter in our ongoing series of unearthing smooth vibes from all over the world, this time we go back to the FUTURE for you with: THE SUNSET MANIFESTO Volume 2. After a five year break mainly concentrating on the late 70s/early 80s Westcoast Soul/Yacht/AOR sound, we finally dive deep into the modern world of our beloved sister-label Too Slow To Disco NEO (for the third time after 2018s TSTD NEO - En France and 2020s The Sunset Manifesto excursions). But of course it wasn't a real 5 year break since the first Sunset Manifesto compilation, as in the meantime we also released a few digital TSTD Neo singles, and - more importantly - our "Too Slow To Disco NEO - FM" playlist on spotify (handcurated by Dj Supermarkt every week and now hosting more than 1500 tracks of mellow, modern sunshine vibes) was growing steadily and becoming a new, important fixpoint in the TSTD musical universe. TSTD NEO is the outlet Dj Supermarkt is using to unearth modern laidback, smooth, sunny slow disco vibes with a soulful Westcoast/Balearic touch. For him TSTD always has been about a laidback vibe/feeling, not a certain time period in musical history. And that sunny Westcoast vibe we dug out on those traditional TSTD compilations has become a huge influence to so many modern artists. So it makes sense that we present the cream of new slo/mo NuDisco/Sunset Disco/Daytime Disco acts in the TSTD format, a luxurious compilation, with artists from all across the globe: Not only from the two homelands of that modern slow disco sound, Los Angeles/California and France, but also from Beijing, Montreal, Mexico, London, New York, Stockholm, Rotterdam… the moon, you name it! This music is more a state of mind, a feeling, then a geographical thing. We are happy and really excited to annouce the following passengers are on board with exclusive tracks: Poolside, Woolfy, Prep & Eddie Chacon, Turbotito, Young Gun Silver Fox, Lovetempo, Kimchii, Goodvibes Sound a.m.m.

After making their mark with their debut album, The Risen Dread returns with their highly anticipated second studio album. Produced, recorded, mixed, and mastered by Marco Mastrobuono at Bloom Studios in Guidonia, Rome, Italy. This new record showcases the band's evolution, delivering an even heavier, darker, and more intense sonic experience. While not a concept album, death looms large as the central theme, weaving through the lyrics with raw emotion and unsettling storytelling. From existential dread to violent ends, each track explores different facets of mortality, drawing the listener into a visceral journey through the inevitable. The music delivers heavy riffs, dynamic drumming, and a mix of intensity and melody, further refining the band's identity while pushing their sound forward.

The Reds, Pinks & Purples is a San Francisco indie band led by Glenn Donaldson (The Ivy Tree, Skygreen Leopards, Art Museums and Painted Shrine). For fans of_ Guided By Voices, The Chills, Teenage Fanclub, The Shins, The Replacements, Leonard Cohen, The Go-Betweens, Robert Wyatt. Having penned over 200 songs in the last six years, The Reds, Pinks and Purples release a collection of tracks previously unreleased on physical format that continues to romanticise the wonders and woes of the world. With song titles that read like chapter sub-heads for a post-Douglas Coupland novella, 'The Past Is A Garden I Never Fed' takes The Reds, Pinks and Purples central orator Glenn Donaldson through the turmoil of small talk and everyday water cooler moments with a fine sense of pathos and irony. Set to a soundtrack that swerves between the dark days of Television Personalities and Byrdsian twang to the Jarvis Cocker-styled rhetoric and vocal tenderness of 'Richard In the Age Of The Corporation' with hints of everything from Husker Du's fuzzed splendour to the chiming majesty of The Chameleons it's an empowering listen. The pathos and irony of the glorious track 'The World Doesn't Need Another Band' sets out the band's store, it's a measured and quietly outspoken rant at lacklustre opposition peppered with a gorgeous guitar break. Meanwhile, 'I Only Ever Wanted To See You Fail' rumbles with an Eddie And The Hot Rods pre-punk riff before dissolving into a tale of self-doubt and remorse, bemoaning others' good luck. 'Toxic Friend' is from the book of the TVP's Daniel Treacey with an upbeat chorus that smacks of all that was good in old school indie in a hail of fuzzy logic and guitars. From humble beginnings as a home recording project, The Reds, Pinks and Purples has blossomed into a sporadic live unit with tours on both sides of the Atlantic and appearances at Pitchfork Fest London and Woodsist Fest as well as support slots for indie legends such as Destroyer, Guided By Voices, and The Feelies. "Donaldson's best work hides allure within a bigger picture, like a jangle-pop egg hunt" Pitchfork.

First Word Records are proud to present the debut single from Above The Clouds (aka kidkanevil & Magic Manfred) with their instrumental take on an MF DOOM classic, 'Arrow Root'

One of the original First Word roster, UK Producer/DJ and all-round laptop music geek kidkanevil has developed a distinctive and progressive sound over the years, gleefully exploring the beats and bleeps of the electronic music universe to international recognition. Leeds born, sound system bred and raised on a (un)healthy diet of video games and anime, his solo work inhabits the curious space between bass frequencies and otaku culture. But as a devoted teenage backpack rap nerd, somewhere in the back of kid's mind was a lingering desire to reconnect with his first love, hip hop.

Not long after moving to Berlin he joined a studio space in graffiti plastered Kreuzberg, where he met multi instrumentalist wizard Magic Manfred; a disciple of all things boogie, disco, funk and soul. Born and raised in Berlin, and currently a touring musician for many an act, Manfred's musical map joins the dots from piano lessons at four, to starting a band with his teenage friends, leading him to his true calling - the bass - via the club vibrations of his hometown, which introduced him to the world of DJing and production, and a stint studying in the explosive London jazz scene to finalise his Jedi training.

Bonding over their mutual love of '90s hip hop, a friendship and musical kinship developed, coupled with a desire to honour past eras but push things forward, Above The Clouds was born; named after their joint favourite DJ Premier beat, with a touch of irony regarding their basement based studio of a windowless variety.

kidkanevil explains "We did a number of covers to sort of get warmed up and in the pocket, of which 'Arrow Root' was one. I actually interviewed DOOM once, mask and all, and I always regretted I forgot to ask him about the original sample. It's been one of my favourite DOOM beats forever and it came up in conversation one day, then manifested pretty quickly into a session. It came together with relative ease and quickness, which is usually a good sign. Manfred worked out the chords and I remade the drums in about the same time frame. Mario is an exceptional saxophone player based in Berlin, so a few text messages later she came by the studio and nailed the entire thing on her first take. And that was that, our humble tribute to the supervillain!"

This one is backed up on the flip side with 'Tram Delay Beat'; a low slung neck-snapper teasing more of what's to come.

This is the first single from the duo, with a long player now in the works…

Above the crowds, above the clouds, where the sounds are original, infinite skills create miracles…

2025 Record Store Day title - now available for general sale. Transparent Red colour vinyl 12". Limited edition of 500. For Record Store Day 2025 Reggae Archive Records return to the beginning and reissue our very first release from 2012, Tribesman's "The Tribe"/"Dub" coupled with "Finsbury Park"/"Dub". Originally released in 1979 originals were already very sought after when we chose it as our inaugural release and we were immensely happy to expose the tracks to a wider audience, thirteen years later and that first release has itself become an expensive collectors item with many people asking us to repress.
As with our original run we've kept the sides switched from the original issue and lead with the fantastic roots reggae anthem "The Tribe", 1979 may have been the pinnacle for UK roots reggae and "The Tribe" is in the leading pack, in four minutes it encapsulates 400 years of history and suffering whilst tying things into the present. The addition of Maria Folkes female vocal, a rarity in roots reggae, adds a sweetness that rather than diluting the roots message makes its delivery even stronger and more effective. The band's excellent tribute to their North London home "Finsbury Park" occupies the B side and both sides are full extended disco mixes with the vocals leading into excellent period dub mixes, a great double header, all killer and no filler on this essential reggae 12" First time on colour vinyl, new label art, hype sticker.

REPRESS

New Delhi-based Peter Cat Recording Co. will release their debut album, ‘Bismillah’ on June 14, 2019 via French independent label Panache Records. Debut UK live shows are soon also to be announced by the band.


Peter Cat Recording Co. could almost have a question mark on the end of its name. Not least as founder & frontman Suryakant Sawhney refuses to explain where that name really comes from or what it means (perhaps a reference to the Tokyo jazz club owned by Haruki Murakami), but also since the very existence of the band itself raises a raft of questions. When was the last time we fell for an indie rock band for the right reasons? Not because the band in question nostalgically imitate a perceived ‘golden age’ but because they innately embody the fundamentals of such music: fantasy, sincerity and the freedom to make music without rules or career aspi- rations. And when was the last time this kind of band sounded like Sinatra, Barry White, the sweetest doo-wop, humid fanfares and a psychedelic wedding band, all at once? And all of this coming from India?
In truth, the story of Peter Cat Recording Co. was written within the triangle of San Francisco, Delhi and Paris.
In the first of these cities, Sawhney (a native of Delhi) pitched up to study film-making. More distracted by the city’s peaking live scene of the early noughties, this is where he started to make music and to sketch out an idea for the band.“
The people I lived with supported my idea of writing music, they introduced me to great mu-
sic. There used to be a great garage scene in San Francisco, like The Oh Sees also Ty Seagall, Mikal Conin, all those bands. This is a world I had never seen in my entire life. A big inspiration from San Francisco was that you could record yourself. You don’t need to be in a studio and spend a lot of money to make an album. You can do it”.


At the end of the 2000s, Suryakant returned home to New Delhi, and started his band for real, more or less the same band that plays today. “I wasn’t so concerned about will we be performing, will we be the greatest band, will we be trendy. I just wanted to make something that was consequential and important for us, I think. Something which would last, something people could listen to and be like « this is life changing ». It was for the sake of beauty”.


For the first few years and in India alone, this is exactly what Peter Cat Recording Co. did, in total indifference to the rest of the world. This was until young Parisian label Panache stumbled across the band online via Vice’s THUMP subsidiary, stupefied by the band’s cosmic video for seven-minutes-and-counting track, ‘Love De- mons’. And so in spring of 2018, ‘Portrait Of A Time: 2010-2016’ was released on Panache - making the first international release from Peter Cat Recording Co., bizarrely enough, an anthology of re-mastered, hidden gems from the band’s ramshackle back catalogue, previously recorded in Suryakant’s own living room. With Peter Cat’s off-kilter charm hitherto unheard of beyond the fringes of India, the release provided a gateway op-
Whilst the title track found its way onto Tracks Of The Year lists at the Guardian & NME, it was tricky for new PCRC enthusiasts to get a firm grip on the startling push/pull between the immediate, uncanny music this release gathered, and the cultural backdrop of New Delhi at which it was so startlingly at odds.


Opportunity for a wider fanbase to fall in love with their cloud-like, drunken songs for the first time.
If discovering your favourite new band via a ‘Best Of’ feels a curious premise, then ‘Bismillah’ does more than hint towards the promise of Peter Cat Recording Co’s future. Blending gypsy jazz, psychedelic cabaret, space disco, bossa supernova, Bollywood and uneasy listening with kaleidoscopic ease, in many senses, the band’s knack hasn’t altered. Always different, paradoxical, unpredictable yet somehow familiar. The new album opens to the strains of bird chatter, the whisper of a city’s soundscape and the first few notes from an instrument which seem to be calling us to the departure lounge, a fore-shadow of the flight ‘Bismillah’ launches its listener
on. Suryakant sings with the detached, rueful elegance of Sinatra marooned on a desert island, whilst his band create small space-time capsules which navigate their way through genres and eras – including the future – and between nostalgia and eccentricity.


Peter Cat recently trailed ‘Bismillah’ with the release of ‘Floated By’, an appositely titled musing on failure & missed opportunities, punctuated by the fulsome brass section which weaves through so much of the album.


The languid, blue quality to the track is offset by the attendant music video, created with footage shot, implau- sibly enough, at Suryakant’s own marriage ceremony (needless to say, the wedding band hired for the day was of course, Peter Cat Recording Co.) Sawhney dryly notes; “Hopefully it’s not a many-a-times-in-a-lifetime event. You can’t fake that set, those people actually having a good time, being really emotional and intense.” ‘Bismillah’’s colour-drenched album cover also captures Suryakant’s father-in-law making his wedding toast on that same day - a nod back towards the cover of ‘Portrait Of A Time’, itself a black & white image taken at the wedding ceremony of Suryakant’s own father.


A stumbling but gracious collection of songs rooted in a kind of drunken soul music, the melancholy nature of some of the songs on ‘Bismillah’ renders them almost liquid, before they develop into more dance-like shapes. Suryakant’s rangy voice swoops from the falsetto glide of ‘I’m This’ to the beat-up baritone blown along by the warm breeze of ‘Soulless Friends’. The elliptical structure of album opener ‘Where The Money Flows’ also al-
lows for the use of brief bursts of autotune effect on his vocal without feeling incongruous, whilst the desultory lyrics of ‘Heera’ (a Hindi word for diamond) - sharing something with the Morricone school of grand storytelling - have an emotional weight that would impress even coming from a native English speaker. Perhaps the most gleefully unpredictable moment on ‘Bismillah’ comes with the illusory, vocal loops on the intro to ‘Memory Box’, errupting into 8 exhilarating minutes worth of unbridled, string-backed disco joy. A cat might have nine lives, but on ‘Bismillah’ and beyond, Peter Cat Recording Co. are hinting towards an un- knowable multitude of dimensions. Throw them all together, and it equates less to a listening experience and more to an out-of-body experience.


Peter Cat Recording Co. are: Suryakant Sawhney (vocals/guitar/organ), Dhruv Bhola (bass), Kartik S Pillai (organ/guitar/electronics), Rohit Gupta (horns), Karan Singh (drums)

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