Buscar:deep city

Dean Zepherin is truly a producer who has managed to find his lane and appeal.
Born and raised in London - a suitably eclectic city for a man of his musical persuasion - he is renowned for his consistently genre-pushing productions.
In other words, a perfect match for Local Talk, a label not afraid to go beyond the classic 4/4 sound and explore different styles within house music.

Opening track Blue Moon is an organic, warm and enveloping chunk of deep house bliss and there's no doubt that Dean loves his house served with with plenty of horns.
Next up is Flying High, a jazzy uptempo house cut smothered in expansive percussions, trading organ and trumpet solos over elastic synth lines.

Music that speaks to the senses

It's safe to say that Detroit, a city steeped in economic, cultural and musical history, will soon weave its way into your soul should you spend any sustained time there. This rings all too true for Monty Luke. He has immersed himself in Detroit's scene since moving to the Motor City in 2008. His new eight track LP, released via Dogmatik, showcases the style of a new generation of Detroit producers carrying the beacon for a deep, Detroit sound that blends analogue weight and punchy drum programming together with masterful synth work and raw emotion.
Even at first glance the polarised artwork, an aerial map of Detroit, shows the more introspective nature of this Motor City ingrained release, with Luke purposefully steering away from writing club ready material. Introductory track 'City Lights' gives a first taste of this, combining swelling synths, dreamlike arps and crisp percussive hits. There's a real weight to the bass synth that compliments Abi B's soulful vocals all too well. 'Anton's Room' & 'Crime Wave' follow suit -the former with itslayered gritty bass, expansive stabs, glitchy bleeps and undulating arps and the latter creating a sonic swell between your ears manifested by a surging, panned arp, alongside sirens and punchy, gunshot like snares. Inspirations from Moodymann to Theo Parrish are clear to be seen in tracks like 'Move', taking a range of jazzy loops and samples and chopping them into a low slung, bouncing MPC laden jam.Progressing into the 2nd half of the album there's a transition from deep, Detroit house into harder hitting, electro territory. 'Willie Maze' with its killer drum programming, reverberating Rhodes and dynamic bass and 'Roja', combining emotive late-night chords and melancholic synth melodies, really honeinon that pensive, thought-provoking aesthetic. One of the highlights, 'Wasteland', is the best example of this transition -interlacing a commanding electro drum pattern with squelching, synth melodies and Serene Arena's introspective lyrics.
Then taking it full circle, closing track 'Block Is Hot (Black Hole Mix)' -co-produced by King Britt in Philadelphia (alongside City Lights, Crime Wave & Willie Maze), returns to the 4/4 path with a thumping party track, carrying through that raw nature emanating from the dark melodies and Monty's adlibbed vocals.
'Hard Work/ Not Hype' is a record flying the flag for those underground artists working tirelessly behind closed doors to produce material that's based on feeling, emotion and skill, rather than riding off the back of an inflated, socially constructed image. Monty Luke, as someone that follows that mantra, has been able toconstruct an album showcasing this, creating a real weight and depth to this release; it's raw, powerful and thought provoking, expertly capturing the soul of Detroit -the city that's had such a profound effect on him

DETROIT SWINDLE
Ouch that's HOT! Bring it on.
KRISTIAN RAEDLE/ INNERVISIONS
Yes please. Very nice.
AYBEE
Fanatastic Work Monty!!
ASHLEY BEEDLE
Thanks for sending over the Monty Luke album to listen too. It's a great
contemporary album with of course Detroit running through it's veins! It
really pulls you in and I think the arrangements and productions are great.
Fave tracks are City Lights, Roja, Willie Maze and Block Is Hot.
LAURENT GARNIER
Oh yes..This is so elegant and sexy. Love it Would love to play it
OSUNLADE
This one is a guilty pleasure vibe..hate that I love every song equally

Chemistry between individuals is an amorphous and elusive notion. It is usually seen as something that occurs between two people who are sharing a physical space, with access to each other's body language and energy. However, modern technology has provided many other opportunities for chemistry to blossom and be explored and this record is just one example of that: Vent is proud to present Kina, a double LP of musical collaborations between MAYa and Tolga Baklacioglu.

Tolga Baklacioglu is an associate professor in aeronautical engineering. He is also a musician. For several years, he has been steadily building a body of work that explores the outer boundaries where techno and abstract textures merge and blur. In 2014, Tolga created a label, VENT, as a platform for his explorations and those of likeminded travelers within this sonic realm.

MAYa Hardinge works in film. She is also a musician. She has collaborated with numerous artists. Beginning in 2008, She released 4 EPs under her solo guise MAYa. Considering her background in film, it comes as no surprise that her work has a strong visual element. Pre- dating Beyonce´'s Lemonade by many years, her last two EPs were visual albums made in

collaboration with various directors.

It makes total sense that MAYa and Tolga should have made an album together. Their interests and backgrounds overlap and diverge meaningfully in a way that has all the hallmarks of good musical chemistry. There is however one unusual element to their collaboration: they have never met. Tolga lives in Eskisehir (Turkey) and MAYa lives in New York City.



Always on the look out for inspiration and new collaborators, Tolga stumbled across MAYa's videos online. What he saw and heard inspired him to reach out and contact her. After some correspondence they decided to experiment with the prospect of making music together. Perhaps deprived of the traditional notions of chemistry defined by proximity, they found inspiration across time and space in the name of exploration and discovery. Tolga began by sending MAYa files of beats and ambiance. Upon finding the ones that spoke to her, MAYa went to work disassembling, adding, subtracting and rearranging. MAYa's work would then go back to Tolga, a world away, for further input and then back again. In this way each track was painstakingly constructed and a true chemistry was born. One built on sensitivity, support and honest artistic communication. In a word: LISTENING.

The songs cover a broad spectrum of topics, from the deeply personal feelings and experiences, to world events, and the fundamental aspects of life and death. Kina is a document of two artists from different backgrounds and their shared visions of the interplay

between one's private microcosm and the global macrocosm of our time; a testament to the fact that, for all its vastness and diversity, this world offers inspiration and potential collaboration around every corner. The music contained within has traveled around the world many times before reaching your ears. As MAYa and Tolga have done before, it is now your turn to LISTEN.

"With its latest release, Altered Moods Recordings explores the mind of Spanish talent Jesus Gonsev, who co-owns and runs the Troubled Kids record label. Jesus, who has recorded for not only his own Troubled Kids but also for stalwarts such as Prog City Deep and deepArtSounds, has made waves in both his native Spain and the rest of Europe as a DJ and producer, playing alongside pioneers such as Ernie Albacete of Minuendo Recordings and Detroit wunderkind Delano Smith, and recording a cracking EP on his own label with deepArtSounds boss Dan Piu. AMR is the first US label he has recorded for, and he brings a special treat to these shores."

Norwegian artist Tarjei Nyga°rd first touched on the ESP Institute spectrum in 2016 with a limited red flexidisc of Bleusa that accompanied issue 21 of New York City's acclaimed Love Injection fanzine, and since then, his poetic music has been a staple in our arsenal (especially during Summer), for its ability to effectively direct moods is second to none. Across the four tracks on this debut EP, Tarjei paints quite viscerally using the most fundamental of tools—melodic and rhythmic hooks—and as obvious as this may sound on paper, its his deliberate approach to songwriting that brings these productions to life. Bleusa is literally dripping with a sense fantasy and adventure—island pads, golden bent notes, even a cameo bird-call from the infamous Acid House loon—yet Tarjei exhibits a mature level of restraint, a highly sophisticated sleaze recognizable to refined pleasure-seekers. Forus Echo furthers this notion but expands into full-blown rapids of ecstasy, rolling over soft-thumping percussion that mimics the human heart while smothering the listener in euphoric waves of pads and delays. Side B shifts us from the melodic dynamic heard thus far over to a strong rhythmic palette, not acknowledging any specific reference point but loosely hearkening back to early-era turntablism, the demented title track Lost In Lindos is a aquatic beat thats both deep and buoyant, the type of liquid tool that works at any BPM. Øylie closes the EP with a signature ESP vibe that has us lying on our backs, drawing finger pictures in the opium smoke above, feeling the warm embrace of collective consciousness while telepathically harmonizing our plans for a bright utopian future.

A regular at Cocktail d'Amore, Bell Towers is a Berlin-based Australian producer best known for his long-lasting collaboration with Munich's Public Possession. Next to that, a number of projects under different monikers - namely Rim Boys, an evolving b2b with Andras.

"I'm Moving To Berlin" is his first EP for Cocktail d'Amore Music. It's a sparkling celebration of the party; its influence on the city and on the producer's life tangents. "It's too late now / There's no turning back / I gave it all for Cocktail d'Amor..." Rohan confesses, while a hybrid EBM-synth pop sonic adventure unfolds.

What happens next is presented in "Sexual Intruder Alert" and "Approach and Identify". The first comes through as a quirky multidimensional future-disco tale, while the second plunges deep into the cosmic hole with punchy percussions and an euphoric groove pattern.

iPM is proud to announce its very first vinyl, fruit of the inspiration of iPM's label heads A-Kintero and Mateo Holguin. NYC based Dj/Producer PJay has performed Live at many of the old school New York City Clubs. He is a Teacher of analog sound and modular synthesis and he is behind iPM's very first vinyl. With two tracks, one ambient and one Techno mix, both are characterized for their immersive and profound analog sound. "Crawl" is a laid back relaxed track which takes us on a journey of atmospheric synthesizers and deep bass lines with consistent drums that are sure to delight us, perfect for openings and closings. Brendon Moeller needs no introduction and he's on remix duties with "Space Jam", taking this track on a groovy happy vibe. This is definitely one to get people moving on the dance floor. "Space Jam" complements this Ep with a funky vibe where the cosmic synths takes the roll along with a moving and bouncing bass playing in sync with the consistency of the drums.

It has been bubbling for almost four years now inside the walls of a basement in the small-town idyll of Salzburg. Word gets around about ecstatic nights in an intimate atmosphere in the Heizkeller location of the cultural association FREAKADELLE. The monthly events held by the club culture collective, which formed in 2011, have long since become known beyond city and state borders, and so, national as well as international guest artists would frequently pay visits to Mozart town in the last years. Following the club members' wish to maintain relations to the artists beyond the fleeting transience of a night in the club, this release aims at strengthening and cementing these interpersonal ties. The compilation includes tracks by Hüseyin Evirgen aka MAGNA PIA (Cassegrain), Institut fuer Zukunft resident PERM, techno pioneer PATRICK PULSINGER and Pop theorist Didi Neidhart aka LOW PROFILER.
Limited hand-stamped 12'' edition. Comes in five different versions of screen printed sleeves.

Returning for his second full-length LP of 2018, DJ Bone steps up once more to his own Subject Detroit imprint to present 'Beyond', a full-length and physical rumination on his own emotive and psychedelic contribution to contemporary techno. Loaded with the dynamics, charisma and widescreen appeal of his finest work, 'Beyond' sees Bone enter a musical state that reflects it's ambitious title, celebrating underground ideals in a style that could only be his own.

The second in a trilogy of albums to be completed in early 2019, 'Beyond' is culled from a sequence of no less than fifty tracks completed by the esteemed Detroit DJ and producer upon returning to his home city in 2017. With it being "unfathomable" to release an LP of that length, Bone has nonetheless captured this wave of creativity and a reconnection with his home city, along with the cathartic sense of soul and energy at the heart of his attitude to dance music.

Across 'Beyond' listeners can sink into an unrelenting sequence of tracks that speak from his experimental, musical and always unexpected mind. LP opener 'Dreamers 7' reaffirms his taste for offbeat electronics shot through with rigid dance floor dynamism; a theme reaffirmed quite literally on the forceful centrepiece, 'With A Vengeance'. Elsewhere, Bone delights in blurring the lines between exotic, futurist ambience on tracks such as 'Techno Aint Techno' and 'Ahhh Life', while further cementing his reputation as master of sheer, unrelenting rhythm on 'True Definition' and 'Rosedale Park'.

Cómeme delivers to you one of the freshest rhythms of 2018, recorded in Johannesburg, the new residency for the renegades of the beat. This is 'Rain' - starring Matias Aguayo and the actress, dj and singer Ayanda Seoka aka Mujaji The Rain. She's resident at the legendary Bar Kitchener's all femme 'Pussy Party', a space for feminist / queer action and dancefloor joy, right in the centre of Joburg.

Cómeme has been since some time in a serious and passionate relationship with that city. Radio Cómeme transmitted shows from there with electronica legend Felix Laband, Mpumelelo Mkatha from BLK JKS, the queer performance duo Faka, Gqom pioneers RudeBoyz and also Kwaito's legacy keeper Spleef McZaul. Matias Aguayo ventured into a beautiful collaboration with DJ Spoko, released two years ago on this label.

'Rain' is a deeply rhythmical track, inspired by the grooves that converged when Cómeme swing crossed the paths with the syncopations people in Joburg were dancing to. It has become quite clear in the recent years that elegantly shuffled triplets are marking a way to the future in dance music, especially in the southern hemisphere, no matter if you're in Durban, Rio or Santiago.

On top of this modern groove we can hear Mujaji the Rain enjoying how she gets wet under a dark and tropical sky. Laughter, joy and ecstasy is what she emanates while hypnotically involving you into this atmosphere of dense drumming and trance. (side note: Cómeme has been consequently evading the description hypnotical in press releases but this time it was unavoidable).

For further jacking fun we generously included a 'Club Mix', including more drum frenzy towards the second half of the track, and a 'Just Drums Mix' for the skilful DJ.

Side B features the jam 'Serious', which comes along with another killer beat, reminiscent of Michael Jackson or Cheri. A late-night track in which Mujaji The Rain turns into a sensual but slightly annoying creature that doesn't want to leave the dancefloor. and for sure doesn't want to go home.

We added an instrumental version to this complexly arranged tracks, which feature pianos, strings, and heavy synth bass stabs.
All tracks on this 12' are written in a 6/8 signature, which some normative DJs might shy away from, but be safe: both tracks are in 120 bpm and carry the seal of official Cómeme dancefloor approval by the label's highly respected DJs.

The journey continues... deeper into the unknown universe, stretching the seams of time and space.

The maiden voyage for this new label out of Birmingham was a success. The second release is a collaborative effort from Nicky B (Simple Elements/HOG) and fellow Brummie, Anthony Ellis - working together as Koheziv Mindz.

The tracks are the result of years of tuning in to the sounds seeping out of the speakers in choice local clubs and buying the latest imports on vinyl from Europe, Chicago and Detroit.

The day-to-day living in Birmingham has certainly etched into their creative consciousness, the hustle, bustle and alien like chorus of a vibrant environment resonates through their work, from a city that never sleeps.

Emotive, incredibly lush and shot through with the kind of romanticism displayed in the work of second generation Detroit pioneers Kenny Larkin and Carl Craig. This is a glimpse through a keyhole, a snapshot of two producers taking steps into a bigger world, a whole galaxy.

There are two remixers on board, hand picked to see how the artists would interpret the originals - Darren Nye (Firescope/polarity) and Mihail P (Verdant Recordings/Distant Worlds)- both artists add weight to their already impressive back catalogue of work and display why they are hot and tipped for the top.

Submerge your mind into the rich celestial tapestry of sound, safe in the knowledge you're among good company.

Bear Bones, Lay Low links up with Pizza Noise Mafia's Carrageenan and comes with a monster of a miniLP. BIG TIP!
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Matthieu Levet (Carrageenan / Pizza Noise Mafia) and Ernesto González (Bear Bones, Lay Low / Tav Exotic / Maitres Fous ...) are two musicians based in Brussels who have cut their teeth in the city's freeform underground for well over a decade. Having spent time at numerous shows and parties together, they solidified a friendship after a two week tour around Europe with fellow electronic explorer , Accou, in April 2017.

It was shortly after this moment that the label Random Numbers approached the two with the initial intention of releasing a split cassette with music from their respective solo projects. Several exchanges later, the plan quickly changed into realizing a full-fledged collaboration between both musicians who, while having deep respect and interest for each other's music since they first met, had never found the opportunity to create something together.

The result is the CARCASS IDENTITY EP: a combination of Levet's raw and dub-infused electronics with González's kosmische psychedelic touch. This is music meant for strange parties: the kind where dancing and laying down are equally accepted and ncouraged, where there might be more silence than talking between participants, where small gestures and events reveal their transcendental meaning...

Franck Roger is back on his imprint Home Ivasion label for a new season with some dope upcoming House stuff and a brand new record design aswell

Do what you gotta do:

Franck and Mandel team back together for this Chicagoan Dub track wich provides vocal hooks and stabs wich also reminds us some old Prescription Records or Derrick Carter stuff..

The Deep:

The Deep bring us back to the good old days of the French Deep House scene wich was run back in the days by The Deep aka Dj Deep and Julien Jabre and a little Playing 4 the City vibe aswell in a modern way of editing and sounds.. The Deep got this hypnotic groove driving thru vocals hooks, piano stab and a massive bassline...Free ur mind, free ur soul.

Manana presents a new remix EP bringing together some essential re-works of Sound Species and Ache Meyi's collaboration recordings.
Originally recorded in 2016 in Santiago de Cuba during the lead-up to the Manana Festival in the city, the original sessions were an inspired fusion of Ache Meyi's deep folkloric Afro-Cuban styles with Sound Species' subtle electronic touches. The new re-works have attracted some familiar names from clubland: broken beat don IG Culture keeps the roots of 'Ogún Meyi Meyi' intact with a bass-heavy, percussive attack; brilliant UK drummer and producer Tom Skinner strips back 'Egrem Bata Jam' on a pulsing new version; Chicago legend Ron Trent creates a more melodic dancefloor re-work of 'Alina's Calypso' while Sound Species themselves beef up the original Afro-Haitian rhythms of the same track for a dubbier treatment.

Foul & Sunk is proud to present 'Morello', a cathartic EP from upcoming producer star D.Y.A. As an university educated jazz drummer the concept of improvisation and aspiration for that one special musical moment is surely no secret to D.Y.A. So both tracks 'Morello' and 'Cosy' are melodic groovers with the extra portion of soul. Beside this there are Johannes Albert and Shan on remixing duties. Albert is taking it to a deeper level, while Shan delivers a 9 min. monster remix with his emotional melodies and deep grooves.

About D.Y.A
City: Berlin (DE)
Labels: SOLIDE / Foul & Sunk
Growing up in a family where D.Y.A was surrounded by all kinds of different music led
to the mindset of appreciating each genre as equally important and eventually got him
to draw inspiration from all kinds of music. As an university educated jazz drummer the
concept of improvisation and aspiration for that one special musical moment is surely no
secret to D.Y.A.

While being Berlin based and a founding member of - SOLIDE', a label and collective he
runs along with fellow producers Kalyma and MYNY, translating these rather complex
concepts from jazz into house music, wether we are talking about production or DJ Sets,
has been one of D.Y.A´s main goals. Looking back to a relatively young discography, this
summers forthcoming EP´s on Solide and Foul & Sunk, with remix guests like Johannes
Albert, Panthera Krause or Shan, will fall in nicely to showcase D.Y.A's influences and his
quest for a special musical moment.

The neon lights that decorate a dive bar's window cast a vivid reflection in rainwater on the pavement outside, as steam rises from deep beneath the ground. A slow pan across the scene, past alleys cast in shadow, twilit corners & glass doorways streaked with the mist of humid bodies fuming inside: the camera catches the denizens of an unnamed city, studying faces heavy with secrets too sad to bear. Cut to the motorway. Sleek cars barrel through the night. Sirens moan. Engines rev. You're behind the wheel, over the edge as the credits roll.

This film does not exist — but the soundtrack does. Symmetry is Johnny Jewel & Nat Walker, & Themes For an Imaginary Film is their two-hour cinematic opus pokus, a sprawling score for a movie that screens only in your mind. A 'conceptual tangent between Glass Candy, Chromatics, Mirage, & Desire's more abstract sides,' as Jewel himself describes the project, Symmetry is a vigorous, electric, restless exploration of ideas on the bleeding edge of instrumental sound. Analog synthesizers roll and crest, drums collide, keys cascade clear & crystalline. These themes evoke the phantasmic images that inspired them: urgent and ethereal, sinister & romantic. It's a neo-noir epic of pink fog & femme fatales hidden behind rain drenched windshields after dark.

Produced By Johnny Jewel & Nat Walker

Adam X returns to his imprint Sonic Groove with his first album in four years, a 56 minute excursion into EBM and Cyberdelic Industrial Techno titled RECON MISSION. The mission begins with beat driven hypnotic electronics that invoke paranormal illusions of Easter island mythology and Bermuda Triangle disappearances. Climbing forward the album crosses the line into harder industrial territories, conjuring visions of New York City's dystopian past and CIA shadow government experiments.

Adam's own voice adorns tracks such as "Never Ending Quest", "Modular Bodies" and the title track "Recon Mission", while manipulated dialogue samples take the stage on "Tales Of Mystery', 'Search & Retrieval' & 'Delusions Of Paranoia'. Subtle, whispered statements creep in and infect the listener's ear, guiding them deeper into mental oppression. This album is not for the faint of heart, and its meticulously detailed production stands as a testament to Adam X's enduring career in techno. Adam has survived the ups and downs of the industry while continually raising the bar for production value and sound design. RECON MISSION is a triumph, ahead of the curve of modern industrial techno. This is not a throwback, this is Future EBM.

Electro globalisation! The German label Dominance Electricity presents Phase 4 of the Global Surveyor various artist album series (launched in 1998).

Featuring heavy-weights of the international Electro genre such as Anthony Rother, Hardfloor, Silicon Scally aka Carl Finlow and Heliopause (a project of Germany's Dynamik Bass System & Detroit's Keith Tucker of AUX 88) and many more, this carefully selected collection includes a total of 24 productions out of 13 countries / 5 continents ranging between clubbish acid power, deep space cruiser, playful kraftwerkesk melodic downtempo and ambient synth magic.

This EP showcases a wider style than previous Myriadd EPs, and the tracks here are a mixture of dancefloor focused tracks and the more etherial, emotive style that listeners associate with this artist. Astral Journeys is a building dancefloor track that combines deep bass and a bubbling acid line to maximum effect. A second acid track, Excursions, combines solid 909 beats, a bubbling Washing Machine style synth line and a sailing acid line. Title track, Oceans, and City Of Quartz are more Detroit influenced, with a more icy atmosphere than the other tracks, perhaps recalling early UK bleep techno tracks. Cosmos is classic Myriadd style, combining cosmic string solos and Chicago style percussive stabs over a solid bassline.

Following on from his sort of nihilistic but also maybe kind of apocalyptic Inherit The Earth LP (April 2017), Slugabed's Pandæmonium EP appears to be the result of him tumbling deeper into his own insides and nding some pretty hellish things. It has a nice front cover, painted by Parker S Jackson. Look him up on the internet!

Pandæmonium is the Capital City of Hell, according to John Milton's Epic Poem, Paradise Lost. It is all full of beasts and demons and stuff. It's AWFUL! But it's also very well designed (by an architect from Heaven, no less!) and fairly well-run. There's a nice John Martin painting of Satan, like, presiding at, um, the infernal council. It's based on Paradise Lost. This EP is about fallen Angels and stuff. Big, grand horridness. The devil in us all, or something. There's a track called Boney Horse.

There's some jazzy bits, sure. There's some noisy bits, yeah. Overall, a slightly unsettling atmosphere, okay! But it's also quite a beautiful lil record, and I'm hoping Slugabed has worked through some stuff and feels a bit better. Pandæmonium features two remixes from Sluga's sworn enemies, Kai Whiston & IGLOOGHOST respectively.

In the sweltering North-Eastern Brazilian state of Pernambuco lies the coastal city of Recife, where Amaro Freitas is pioneering the new sound of Brazilian jazz. For the prodigious young pianist, the spirit of his hometown runs deep. From the Afro-Brazilian maracatu born on the sugar plantations of slavery, to the high intensity carnival rhythms of frevo and baião, Amaro's heavily percussive approach to jazz is as indebted to these Pernambuco traditions as it is to Coltrane, Parker and Monk.

As with many of the greats before him, Amaro began playing piano in church aged 12, under the instruction of his father, leader of the church band. As his natural talents became obvious, the young prodigy quickly outgrew his father's instruction. He won a place at the prestigious Conservatório Pernambucano de Música but had to drop out as his family could not spare the money for the bus fare. Undeterred, Amaro gigged in bands at weddings and worked in a call centre to fund his tuition. The transformative moment came at age 15 when Amaro stumbled across a DVD of Chick Corea concert, 'he completely blew my mind, I'd never seen anything like it but I knew that's what I wanted to do with a piano'.

Despite not actually owning a piano, Amaro devoted himself to studying day and night - he would practice on imaginary keys in his bedroom, until eventually striking a deal with a local restaurant to practice before opening hours. By the age of 22 Amaro was one of the most sought-after musicians in Recife and resident pianist at the legendary jazz bar Mingus. It was during this time he met and begun collaborating with bassist Jean Elton and the pair went in search of a drummer. 'We kept hearing about this crazy kid who was playing in 7/8 or 6/4, we knew we had to meet him'. Hugo Medeiros joined, and the Amaro Freitas Trio was born.

'I want to show the simplicity of music, to break the stigma that the piano is for a particular social class. Yes, it's a difficult instrument, which many people do not have access to, but with it you can express everything.'

Following his critically acclaimed debut album Sangue Negro (black blood), the title of his sophomore release Rasif is a colloquial spelling of Amaro's home town. A love letter to his native northeast, Amaro explores its traditional rhythms through the jazz idiom, employing complex mathematical patterns reminiscent of some of the most challenging works by fellow Brazilian masters Hermeto Pascoal, Egberto Gismonti and Moacir Santos.

Preferring to see the piano as a though it were a drum with 88 unique tones, Amaro's intelligence and emotion intertwine on every track, from album opener 'Dona Eni': a scorching reconstruction of the baião rhythmic structure, played in seven measures instead of two, to the serene homage to the coastal reef and its ecosystems on the title track 'Rasif'. 'Aurora' is a suite of three parts, representing the sun's journey from the light and soft of the rise, to the aggressive dissonance at its midday zenith and descending chromatic cadences as the sun sets.

Due for an Autumn release on Far Out Recordings, Rasif sees Amaro Freitas take a deserved step onto the world stage. Having already made a name for himself in Brazil, Amaro and his phenomenal band will embark on their first European tour later this year.

Amaro Freitas - Piano

Hugo Medeiros - Drums & Percussion

Jean Elton - Double Bass

Henrique Albino - Baritone Sax, Flutes & Clarinet

All compositions by Amaro Freitas

Produced by Amaro Freitas

Recorded by Bruno Giorgi @ Carranca Studio, Recife, Brazil

Mixed and mastered by Bruno Giorgi @ Quarto Studio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Executive producer and management: Laercio Costa

HIKE: Cristal clear lakes, impressive mountains, soothing forests and Berlin techno music The Hike 007 Vinyl comes from SCHMUTZ, rooted in Belfast. Belfast is Northern Ireland's capital. It was the birthplace of the RMS Titanic, which famously struck an iceberg and sunk in 1912. This time we present you the Divis Ridge Trail. The Divis Ridge Trail is an approximately four-mile walk from the Long Barn to the Black Mountain and the Mournes. The route overlooks Belfast, with a 180-degree view of the city on one side, and of the Mournes on the southern side. Spot birds of prey, like peregrine falcons, along the way.

Batida is to release his new album "Dois" via Soundway Records.
Strands of Afro-House, Kuduro, Benga, Semba, samples from old Angolan movies and Afrobeat tracks, African MCs and musicians from all over the world are all deftly mixed together by Pedro Coquenão.
Inspired by the multicultural hotbed of his home city of Lisbon and trips to Nairobi and Luanda, 'Dois' was predominately produced in his own garage-studio over a two-year period.
In 2012 Batida's explosive self-titled debut came out on Soundway Records. Mixing the syncopated rhythms of Kuduro with elements of 1970s Semba and Congolese-influenced guitar licks, Pedro Coquenão won fans for an album that "demanded movement" (The Line of Best Fit) and "gave a view of the old and new, the West and Africa." (The Guardian)
Much of the remix and sampling spirit from the first record remains but 'Dois' also features live instrumentation along with a host of different guests.
English, Portuguese, Quimbundo and Zulu languages all feature on 'Luxo' with Spoek Mathambo (South Africa) & his crew contributing the lyrics together with Angolan MC Sacerdote and a guitar riff by Duncan Lloyd (Maximo Park). On 'Céu' Coquenão pushes things in a deeper direction, dis-assembling and reforming elements of the Francois & The Atlas Mountains studio sessions of the track 'Les Plus Beaux' .
His widely acclaimed live show, featuring dancers, MC's, visuals and live electronics has seen him perform at Africa Express and on the Ten Cities project, live on the Boiler Room and all across Europe at some of the biggest festivals.

'Bound to shake your walls and rattle your windows' Max Reinhardt, BBC RADIO 3 "The first bit of evidence that Elizabeth Bernholz's next album Pastoral - due out in September - could be her best to date". THE QUIETUS "Will likely be one of the year's very best records.' CLASH 'What species is this What century' Forged in a rural idyll in Middle-England, the new album Pastoral, by Gazelle Twin, exhumes England's rotten past, and shines a torch over its ever-darkening present. Told through a troupe of multi-gender voices, in vernaculars old and new; from the shrill echo of folksong to tabloid-tinged jaunts, the artist aka Elizabeth Bernholz, presents the notion that 'there is horror in every idyll, and danger lurking beyond the 'quaint' '. The village square - once host to centuries of public torture - becomes a floral framed postcard, dolled-up for the Summer Fête. A sunny, afternoon walk over the hills unsettles a cloud of angry flies feeding from unidentifiable remains. Bigoted vitriol gently murmurs amidst tearoom chatter, as the neatly framed pastoral picture dissolves into a solemn ennui. Four years in the making, amidst life-changing events, including a move far out of the city, Pastoral will be the first major release by the artist since her widely acclaimed LP UNFLESH (2014, Anti-Ghost Moon Ray) and is seamlessly on-theme, together with Bernholz's J.G. Ballard-inspired A/V show 'Kingdom Come' (soundtrack released November 2017, Anti-Ghost Moon Ray) - a fascism-infused hellscape, this time set in deepest Old England. As its sole creator, Gazelle Twin 'The Composer, Musician and Producer' has crafted an album overflowing with a frenzy of traditional and contemporary musical tropes; from early music instrumentation - the harpsichord and the humble recorder, fed through myriad electronics - to the compelling, ritualistic application of found sample-looping. Beyond Bernholz's signature choral-infusions, here reverberating like a warped Sunday Service, there are even shades of '90s house and the once-thriving rural rave scene, albeit recalled as a watery, second-hand memory. In its consummation it is an album that feels pan-century, even pan-species. Set against a verdant backdrop of hedgerows and steeples, Gazelle Twin 'The Artist and Performer', constructs an eccentric and commanding visual embodiment of all-of-the-above - a costume fit for a court Jester of the 21st Century. The colours of Neo-Nationalism. Coke cans, and DANGER. 'It' (not 'she') hints at folkloric traditions with a footy mascot twist. The 'Ye Olde' and 'The Everyman' of the English cliché. Brandishing a sneer and a hobby horse. A riddle and a recorder. A jeer and a square dance in red, Adidas Gazelle's, and a mad, fixed GRIN - first glimpsed in the single, 'Hobby Horse' (22 June, Anti-Ghost Moon Ray). A deranged, absurd reflection of deranged and absurd times.

'Bound to shake your walls and rattle your windows' Max Reinhardt, BBC RADIO 3 "The first bit of evidence that Elizabeth Bernholz's next album Pastoral - due out in September - could be her best to date". THE QUIETUS "Will likely be one of the year's very best records.' CLASH 'What species is this What century' Forged in a rural idyll in Middle-England, the new album Pastoral, by Gazelle Twin, exhumes England's rotten past, and shines a torch over its ever-darkening present. Told through a troupe of multi-gender voices, in vernaculars old and new; from the shrill echo of folksong to tabloid-tinged jaunts, the artist aka Elizabeth Bernholz, presents the notion that 'there is horror in every idyll, and danger lurking beyond the 'quaint' '. The village square - once host to centuries of public torture - becomes a floral framed postcard, dolled-up for the Summer Fête. A sunny, afternoon walk over the hills unsettles a cloud of angry flies feeding from unidentifiable remains. Bigoted vitriol gently murmurs amidst tearoom chatter, as the neatly framed pastoral picture dissolves into a solemn ennui. Four years in the making, amidst life-changing events, including a move far out of the city, Pastoral will be the first major release by the artist since her widely acclaimed LP UNFLESH (2014, Anti-Ghost Moon Ray) and is seamlessly on-theme, together with Bernholz's J.G. Ballard-inspired A/V show 'Kingdom Come' (soundtrack released November 2017, Anti-Ghost Moon Ray) - a fascism-infused hellscape, this time set in deepest Old England. As its sole creator, Gazelle Twin 'The Composer, Musician and Producer' has crafted an album overflowing with a frenzy of traditional and contemporary musical tropes; from early music instrumentation - the harpsichord and the humble recorder, fed through myriad electronics - to the compelling, ritualistic application of found sample-looping. Beyond Bernholz's signature choral-infusions, here reverberating like a warped Sunday Service, there are even shades of '90s house and the once-thriving rural rave scene, albeit recalled as a watery, second-hand memory. In its consummation it is an album that feels pan-century, even pan-species. Set against a verdant backdrop of hedgerows and steeples, Gazelle Twin 'The Artist and Performer', constructs an eccentric and commanding visual embodiment of all-of-the-above - a costume fit for a court Jester of the 21st Century. The colours of Neo-Nationalism. Coke cans, and DANGER. 'It' (not 'she') hints at folkloric traditions with a footy mascot twist. The 'Ye Olde' and 'The Everyman' of the English cliché. Brandishing a sneer and a hobby horse. A riddle and a recorder. A jeer and a square dance in red, Adidas Gazelle's, and a mad, fixed GRIN - first glimpsed in the single, 'Hobby Horse' (22 June, Anti-Ghost Moon Ray). A deranged, absurd reflection of deranged and absurd times.

In Sudan, the political and cultural are inseparable. In 1989, a coup brought a hardline religious government to power. Music was violently condemned. Many musicians and artists were persecuted, tortured, forced to flee into exile — and even murdered, ending one of the most beloved music eras in all of Africa and largely denying Sudan's gifted instrumentalists, singers, and poets, from strutting their creative heritage on the global stage.

What came before in a special era that protected and promoted the arts was one of the richest music scenes anywhere in the world. Although Sudanese styles are endlessly diverse, this compilation celebrates the golden sound of the capital, Khartoum. Each chapter of the cosmopolitan city's tumultuous musical story is covered through 16 tracks: from the hypnotic violin and accordion-driven orchestral music of the 1970s that captured the ears and hearts of Africa and the Arabic-speaking world, to the synthesizer and drum machine music of the 1980s, and the music produced in exile in the 1990s. The deep kicks of tum tum and Nubian rhythms keep the sound infectious.

Sudan of old had music everywhere: roving sound systems and ubiquitous bands and orchestras kept Khartoum's sharply dressed youth on their feet. Live music was integral to cultural life, producing a catalog of concert recordings. In small arenas and large outdoor venues, musical royalty of the day built Khartoum's reputation as ground zero for innovation and technique that inspired a continent.

Musicians in Ethiopia and Somalia frequently point to Sudan's biggest golden era stars as idols. Mention Mohammed Wardi — a legendary Sudanese singer and activist akin to Fela Kuti in stature and impact in his music and politics — and they often look to the heavens. A popular story is of one man from Mali who walked for three months across the Sahel to Sudan because the father of the woman he wanted to marry would only allow it if he got him a signed cassette from Wardi himself. Saied Khalifa is said to be the one of the few singers to make Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie smile.

Such is the stature of Sudanese singers and the reputation of Sudanese music, particularly in the "Sudanic Belt," a cultural zone that stretches from Djibouti all the way west to Mauritania, covering much of the Sahara and the Sahel, lands where Sudanese artists are household names and Sudanese poems are regularly used as lyrics until today to produce the latest hits. Sudanese cassettes often sold more in Cameroon and Nigeria than at home.

But years of anti-music sentiment have made recordings in Sudan difficult to source. Ostinato's team traveled to Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti, and Egypt in search of the timeless cultural artifacts that hold the story of one of Africa's most mesmerizing cultures. That these cassette tape and vinyl recordings were mainly found in Sudan's neighbors is a testament to Sudanese music's widespread appeal.

With our Sudanese partner and co-compiler Tamador Sheikh Eldin Gibreel, a once famous poet and actress in '70s Khartoum, Ostinato's fifth album, following our Grammy-nominated "Sweet As Broken Dates," revives the enchanting harmonies, haunting melodies, and relentless rhythms of Sudan's brightest years, fully restored, remastered and packaged luxuriously in a triple LP gatefold and double CD bookcase to match the regal repute of Sudanese music.
A 20,000-word liner note booklet gives voice to the singers silenced by an oppressive regime.

Take a sail down the Blue and White Nile as they pass through Khartoum, carrying with them an ancient history and a never-ending stream of poems and songs. It takes two Niles to sing a melody.

Brooklyn trio Forma's latest LP continues their mission to 'broaden the idea of what an electronic music ensemble can sound like.' Semblance emerged from exploratory sessions at The Schoolhouse, the Bushwick loft where members Mark Dwinell and John Also Bennett live, then was tracked at Gary's Electric studios, where their previous album Physicalist was also recorded.
Inspired by polyrhythmic composition, the human voice, and conceptual improvisation strategies, the songs are striking in their textural detail and emotional nuance, alternately synthetic and sentient, futuristic and intuitive. Incorporating flute, piano, guitar, saxophone, acoustic drums and cymbals alongside an array of synthesizers, the record persuasively demonstrates the group's unique playing abilities and fluid chemistry - attributes they credit to 'techniques we've developed to trick our electronic machines into mimicking the spontaneous character of live instruments.'
Members George and John Also Bennett also cite as an influence their recent stint in minimalist composer Jon Gibson's ensemble, performing his 1973 proto-ambient masterwork Visitations. The long- form modal piece requires restraint and deep listening to execute, qualities especially apparent in the more muted moments of Semblance, such as 'Rebreather' and 'New City.'
The group states the intent of the new album as 'to be more direct and exacting', which it is. Over half a decade spent writing and recording together has distilled Forma's hybrid electro-acoustic interplay into an attuned and astounding language, capable of articulating impossible symmetries and reflective states.
The stunning visuals of the artwork are by frequent collaborator of the group Peter Burr.

Aussteiger is a Berlin based German DJ / Producer. He runs the Dub Disco label in Berlin and DJ's around the world. Zusammenkunft is his debut album released on Copenhagen's Music For Dreams. Once upon a time a golden boy came back from the shadows. Rumors were told that he once left the big city in a time where the music scene and clubs were dominated by cold music and average beats. He left behind civilisation, living withdrawn in the woody mountains of a covert place. From there on people talked about him as Aussteiger. Connected to the nature and deeply rooted in the harmonic essence, Aussteiger became a part of the great whole. In a full moon illuminated clear night while experimenting with various unique herbs he accidentally found a recipe to create warm and ravishing music. He firmly believes that music is his infinite source to gather strength and positive energy After years of strengthening himself and shaping vibrant sounds Aussteiger decided to share his delightful music with the world. He returned from his retreat in order to enchant the music lovers all over the world with his feel good approach and supernatural sounds. Coming back to the city, he also co-founded the awesome Dub Disco Label with his buddy Serj Nosé.

Echocord sub-label Echo Echo continues this July with Orbite's 'Interstellar' EP, a threetracker from the Berlin- based producer. Orbite is a brand new project founded in Berlin, Germany with a nod towards the raw, dubby sounds often heard across the clubs in the city, and where better to inaugurate things than the recently launched sub-label of Copenhagen's Echocord, one of the leading imprints in the realms of Dub Techno, home to pioneering acts like Rod Modell/Deepchord, Pole and Fluxion who have paved the way for Orbite's own twist on the genre. The ethereal pad textures of 'Skylar' lead on the package, deftly evolving alongside bubbling synth tones, swelling chords and shuffled percussion to create a create dynamically unfolding six and a half minute cut. 'Moment' follows, edging things further into dubbed-out territories with heavily delayed dub echoes and mesmeric spoken word poetry intertwining to create a, hypnotic beatless soundscape. 'Organi' closes the record with emotive, billowing pads, warm bell like tones and vocal murmurs running alongside swinging shakers and stripped-back micro-house percussion.

While notorious in the Chicago streets, RP Boo's music had been unfairly confined to a few white labels and self-released mixtapes until his two archival Planet Mu LPs Legacy and Fingers, Bank Pads & Shoe Prints introduced broader audiences to his sonic history, some of it fifteen years after it was first recorded. I'll Tell You What! is the next step in his mission, and the first time he's released an album of contemporary material. The title, a favorite maxim of his, welcomes listeners to sit down and let him narrate in the unforgettable abstract fashion he's known for. He explores familiar motifs such as the cosmos, movement, and opposition, using densely interwoven vocals, unpredictable percussion, and evil humming bass as his tools of choice. RP Boo's music doesn't follow the traditional rules that most compositions do. Layering decades of samples from yesteryear to the present over his commanding vocal cut-ups, he transports the listener to their own realm of the space-time continuum. The main difference between this record and his prior work is now we hear Boo tell new stories about preaching his gospel outside of Chicago, from his experiences frantically touring the globe over the last five years. The words 'things ain't been the same / since I hopped the plane' are repeated on top of engine sounds and rumbling bass on Flight 1235, a glorious paean to his new jet-setting adventures. The spirit of competition runs through RP's veins as much as blood does, something you can't unlearn when you've been making music for Chicago's footwork circuit as long as he has. The local culture has served as a shelter from the violence that has plagued the city, pitting kids against each other with their feet rather than weapons. On At War Boo reminds us 'we are at war in the streets', a double meaning to both the mayhem in this world and the sweetness of rivalry on the dance floor. Another battle-themed track Cloudy Back Yard, one of the spacier moments on this album, is an abstract on the state of footwork's home. Chicago remains the backyard of this artform even though it's left the porch and traveled to new neighborhoods worldwide. Back at home though, competition among the DJs and dancers continues, and as the man himself says, 'with all this hate, there's smoke, and it's cloudy'. I'll Tell You What! throws more than a few curveballs into the mix. Footwork has always borrowed from hip-hop, and many vocal tracks are almost condensed raps, dating back to the street chants pioneered on Dance Mania Records in the ghetto house days. On Bounty, Boo grabs the mic and brazenly lays down a full-on verse of terror over a thick atmosphere of his signature sweltering low-end and erratic Roland R-70 patterns. While he's most famous for his confrontational battle anthems, his melancholy moments are just as powerful. You get the best of both of those worlds on U-Don't No, with soulful samples finishing his own cocky sentences, one of the most elegant tracks RP has made to date. Deep Sole closes the record out, with the words 'It's always beautiful at the end' looping over waves of hypnotic synthesis, confidently looking death straight in the eyes.

BIOTIC is our first release on ALLFEELINGS MUSIC, a label focused on emotive dance music. All releases will be available exclusively on vinyl. AF01 is the first self release from London based DJ and Producer ALLFEELINGS. This is a 2 track DJ tool release very reminiscent of Detroit Techno. You can hear crisp and warm sounds alongside Jazz and Funk influenced rhythms. The A side soundtracks a big city during rush hour while the B Side pulls you in with deep synths and percussion.
This release has the support from Mark Broom.

Betty Harris' The Lost Queen of New Orleans Soul collects together the steady stream of amazing soul and funk singles issued by Betty Harris from 1964 to 1969, under the musical guidance of legendary composer, musician and producer extraordinaire Allen Toussaint, a collection which truly captures the heart and soul of the city of New Orleans during this era.
Betty Harris's powerful, fiery soulful vocals found a perfect accompaniment with the New Orleans' players that Toussaint put together to back her, which by the time of her funk classic 'There's A Break In The Road' were the legendary super-tight, super-funk New Orleans group The Meters.
With the extraordinary song-writing skills of Allen Toussaint alongside the powerful, soaring, confident and emotive singer and the groove of The Meters, you have an unbeatable combination. That Harris never in fact lived in New Orleans (she flew in from Florida for all her sessions with Toussaint's local in-house players) seems almost an irrelevance, a geographical aside to the defining New Orleans sound captured on the recordings featured here.
All of these singles featured here were released on Allen Toussaint and his business partner Marshal Sehorn's local New Orleans label Sansu, widely distributed in the southern city but in only limited quantities elsewhere. As a consequence, Betty Harris' music failed to achieve the commercial success of other New Orleans artists such as Lee Dorsey (who she recorded with) and The Meters (who backed her). And so at the end of the decade she stopped recording, retired from the music business to raise her family in Florida.
This is no reflection of the stunning musical quality of all these songs which encompass everything from southern soul, heavy funk, deep soul ballads and northern soul. Betty Harris has been a cornerstone of Soul Jazz Records' New Orleans Funk and New Orleans Soul compilations. Always soulful and always funky, Betty Harris' music contains the essence of New Orleans music. She is the Lost Soul Queen of New Orleans.
This collection is released on CD, heavyweight gatefold double LP vinyl (+ download code) and digital and comes complete with full biography, original label artwork.

Peter Croce takes the baton back from Blair French for Rocksteady Disco's 9th release entitled Agape. It's vision is similar to Standing Still Is An Illusion, with Peter's unique take on this Afro-Brazilian deep house three-tracker. The a-side holds "Agape (Love Wins)", a deep and emotive house cut, with driving drums and lush strings that tease until they climax. Kicking off the b-side is "Maracatu Detroit", an upbeat love letter to Peter's home city produced through a bouncy Brazilian-funk lens, a track that is sure to bring a smile to the dancers. "Bufe Bufe" closes the release, featuring Peter on live electric bass/guitar and afro-stomp drum execution, brought to a peak with Yoruban talking drum + vox. Mr. PC roots the growing effervescent world beat sound with an explicitly Detroit and Chicago voice.

* Arikon is a solo project of Berlin-based drummer & producer, Arik Hayut - half of doom-tech duo Gainstage with Pierce Warnecke. Loyal to the sonic concepts of Gainstage, Arikon presents The Prophet's Blood Is Boiling, a solo enterprise into deepest 'drum & drone'. Hypnotizing distorted polyrhythms puncture through shards of fragmented melodies, producing potent mixtures of desperate tin can banging, a panoramic sonic scope, and the bleakest of soundsystem nightmares. Across the album, Arikon deploys an arsenal of samples plus electronic, acoustic, and self-constructed percussion instruments, constructing eight powerful productions that manage to embody both brute force and delicate decay.

* Formerly active in Tel Aviv's leftfield experimental scene during the 90's, Hayut made Berlin his permanent home for working on his own projects while composing and performing music for off-theater and contemporary dance. In 2004, a severe health crisis initially threw Hayut into crisis, slowing down his activity to a standstill. However, the precarious process of his fortunate recovery contributed to Hayut involving himself more deeply with concepts of time, death, and decay.

* Inspired by the decadent still life paintings of the Flemish Baroque, the cover artwork for The Prophet's Blood Is Boiling comprises a bowl of decomposing fruit. Like the music, its aim is to illustrate the beauty and perfection of the decay process, whilst also referring to the West's hyper-capitalistic, technology-centric culture. In recent years a new form of 'digital life' has been born, whereby all data - regardless of its worth or importance - is mummified, reproduced, and distributed with no real disintegration or loss in quality. This new digital life is resulting in a sort of 'frozen death', ending the hitherto natural cycle of life.

* The songs on themselves are inspired by the 'beasts of holiness' - mythological monsters that appear   in the Hebrew bible and the Jewish apocrypha (non-canonical scriptures). There's the punching of bassy thuds out of an oceanic ambient swell throughout 'Tanin Gadol', named after the ancient water monster of Babylonian times. The dense net of fumbling scrapes and amp-busting hits of noise on 'Nahash Akalaton' similarly refer to a titular sea-snake monster, its tendrils lashing out of the speakers aggressively. These demons symbolize a force of evil equal in power, yet in direct opposition to the monotheistic deity of their time. They were therefore neither acknowledged nor canonized in much dominant scripture. Arikon invokes these demons across The Prophet's Blood Is Boiling, setting them loose across these gnarled noisy chambers of pummeling percussion and cracked sampled detritus.

teppas Records presents 'Osaka Steppas' Vol. 3, the third in a series of releases showcasing the Japanese underground dub movement. This edition features Osaka producers Hiroshi and Roots Masashi in collaboration with Spanish producer Ojah and well-respected UK singer Rudey Lee. The Osaka Steppas' raw and unrelenting sound developed in the subterranean clubs of Osaka, a port city famous for its counterculture night life. Inspired not only by the sounds of Jamaica, but also drawing inspiration from UK and European soundsystem culture with enough bassweight to test even the toughest of soundsystems. Presented in a beautifully designed full colour sleeve inspired by the works of the legendary ukiyo-e woodblock artist, Hokusai. This release is not to be missed.

Side A features an earth rocker riddim from Ojah & Hiroshi, with conscious lyrics sung by the legendary Rudey Lee.

Side B features a much sought after dubplate from Osaka producer Roots Masashi, a deep, dark & mystical steppa.

Following his R&S debut, Afriqua (aka Adam Longman Parker) presents Vice/Principle, his second release for the renowned Belgian label.

Recorded in the summer of 2017, Vice/Principle began as one of Afriqua's seasonal music packs, a quarterly offering of original tracks shared privately with a small cohort of friends and collaborators. R&S quickly picked up the collection, which expands on the melodicism and textural depth explored on his previous release for the label, Aleph.

The extended EP sees Parker veering into psychedelic territory, inspired by the cosmic departures of '70s krautrock and jazz. The title, Vice/Principle, more a coy bit of humor than a philosophical statement, reflects a wittiness that Parker often embeds into even the brawniest of his productions. This offbeatness is active in the music as well, which makes use of his voice, and edges past familiar four-on-the-floor patterns with interwoven polyrhythms and modality. Vice/Principle is confident in its curiosity, harnessing a wealth of artistic threads into a tightly knit, futuristic vision.

Parker currently resides in Berlin, Germany, where he works from his home studio in the city's quiet Charlottenburg neighborhood. Born and raised in Hampton, Virginia, Parker developed his craft as a producer while studying classical piano and practicing hip-hop turntablism from a young age.

After several years developing a hefty catalog of releases, Parker has embraced his R&S signing as an opportunity to dive deeper into his signature, yet versatile sound. His successful winter 2017 tour through the U.S. was a career first, and preceded international events at Comunité in Mexico, Concrete in Paris, and The Block in Tel Aviv.

2x12"

The Gates of Charon, an original soundtrack, is the long-awaited result of two years of work by a multitude of outstanding producers from the bass music and drum 'n bass scenes. This deep, dark and weighty release comes at you with 26 tracks of professional soundscape production to tell a story of the fusion of the mystic and scientific to manipulate dark energy and explore the multiverse. This unique project will take listeners on an interplanetary journey of the highest order through sound and emotion. This is a limited edition release in a double gatefold full-art cover with 2 X 12" two-color 180g vinyl (limited to first 300 copies), with download codes (including bonus instrumental versions).

Norm De Plume has been quietly making a name for himself the last eight years with remixes for Tornado Wallace and Ben La Desh and EP's for Kolour LTD and his own vinyl only imprint Plumage winning him a solid fol- lowing along the way. His passion for all things disco and deep, dubby, un- derground house inspired by his musical hero Ron Hardy feeds through into his production style as well as his recently formed Peaches & Prunes party which boasts an audiophile sound system and vinyl-only sets from the DJ's. So when the opportunity arose to do a full EP with Norm we jumped at it. Here we present you with the Castlecrag EP, a nod to the Londoner's new adoptive home of Sydney, Australia, and whilst his sound may be more akin to the recent musical movements of Melbourne, the laid-back sun-kissed melting pot of The Harbour City certainly shine through in the two originals and Folamour remix on offer here.
Title track Castlecrag leads the charge with a deep mood-setter driven by a cowbell riff and filtering pads. The spacious mix and less is more arrange- ment ensures that the drums and rolling bassline punch through making for a track that sounds both unique yet accessible and demonstrates Norm's sense of musicality as well as DJ instinct for setting the right mood on the dancefloor. Next up we have Whole In One which treads a similar path whilst dropping the BPM's a touch and building up layers of synth strings to create a subtle yet engaging track to immerse yourself in. Finally, man of the moment Folamour gets busy on the remix of Whole In One working his magic by upping the tempo and going heavy on the jazz- inspired drums. By laying down a driving groove and pushing the string stabs to the fore, the Lyonnais producer behind the wonderful Moonrise Hill Material label has delivered a fresh-sounding take that will work like magic on discerning dance floors out there.

Dynamic composer Neil Cowley is set to release 'Spacebound Tapes' a four track EP featuring remixes of his Trio's 'Spacebound Apes' album ("A miss- this-at-your-peril release" Drowned In Sound 9/10) by Rival Consoles, Throwing Snow, Christian Löffler and Vessels

'Spacebound Apes' was written by Cowley for his trio and long-time bandmates drummer Evan Jenkins and bassist Rex Horan, with contributions from Brian Eno collaborator Leo Abrahams on guitars and FX. A bold exercise in atmosphere and emotion, the album was woven together with some of the most breathtaking, impassioned music that Neil has created. Originally inspired by Arthur C Clarke's 1956 sci-fi book 'The City and the Stars' the album was recorded at Cooper Hall, a studio and cinema set deep in the Somerset countryside with Stanley Kubrick's '2001 A Space Odyssey' running on permanent rotation.

The sci-fi aesthetic is firmly grasped by the four remixers, echoing the theme in their own reinterpretations. The reimagined tracks retain the inventiveness of the originals while exploring progressive but considerate paths. In his version of 'Weightless', Erased Tapes signed Rival Consoles feeds off of the electronic songwriter's critically lauded humanised techno, while rising German musician Christian Löffler brings new dimensions of space and scale to 'Death To Amygdala'. Houndstooth's Throwing Snow delights in deconstructing 'Duty To The Last' with pulsing energy and Vessels' take on 'Echo Nebula' applies machinic facets to the delicate sounds of the original.

Soul Jazz Records' latest album 'Yoruba! Songs and Rhythms for the Yoruba Gods in Nigeria' is newly recorded in Lagos, Nigeria. The album is co-produced by Soul Jazz Records label head Stuart Baker and Laolu Akins (founding member of the legendary 1970s Nigerian Afro-Funk/Rock group Blo). Yoruba! features an array of local master drummers led by Olatunji Samson Sotimirin and singers (featuring the lead vocals of Janet Olufanmilayo Abe) performing heavyweight Afro-rhythms, with talking drums, Bata and Dundun drums and a mass of percussion in these deep spiritual and sacred songs used to honour and worship the traditional and ancient Yoruba gods in Nigeria, West Africa. 
The enormous impact of Yoruba and West African music and culture is worldwide - from the first Afro-centric explorations of African-American jazz musicians in the 1950s such as Art Blakey, Randy Weston and Dizzy Gillespie, the explosion of Nu Yorican Latin music in New York City starting in the 1960s - Mambo, Boogaloo, Latin funk and soul - through to the sacred and powerful Afro-derived music of the religions of Santería in Cuba, Candomblé in Brazil and Voodoo in Haiti, which all came into existence on account of the Atlantic slave trade which began over 400 years ago. On a wider scale West African music remains the primary root of all African-American musical forms - from New Orleans jazz to Bronx rap, gospel, soul and more.
This album features songs honouring the Nigerian gods of the Yoruba traditional religion - Yemoja, Obatala, Ogun, Sango and others - as well as a selection of instrumental cuts focussing on the Bata and Dundun drums. The album comes complete with extensive text and photography included in the 40-page outsize booklet/gatefold double vinyl + inners showing the influence of Yoruba culture throughout the world and the social and historical context for the music contained here.
Watch out for a limited edition remix of the project by Osunlade, also forthcoming on Soul Jazz Records.