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This album is the result of some musings on what drives us in life and how we come to terms with our place in the world. I wrote it around the time I was finishing my philosophy degree. I had also come to a point where I wanted to make music that was more personal, emotional and conceptual than before.

We are deficient creatures. Powerless and ignorant of reality as a whole, and unfortunately our characteristic existence makes us painfully aware of that. Reality is fundamentally hostile (or indifferent rather) and we are not well 'fit' to live in it. We try to deal with this through emotional means. We seek comfort for our deficiencies, a sense of purpose and belonging...

Alt. folker Will Oldham - better known as Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - is set to drop a joint record with gently psychedelic crew Trembling Bells

Just four years after their debut album Carbeth, Trembling Bells are amassing a formidable body of work at a startling velocity. Just twelve months after the release of their critically acclaimed third album The Constant Pageant, the Glasgow quartet return to share the billing with a similarly restless creative spirit. A few thousand miles separate Will Oldham and Trembling Bells' drummer and principal songwriter Alex Neilson, but their stories intersect as far back as 2005, when the young Leeds-raised Neilson found himself playing drums on Alasdair Roberts' No Earthly Man, with Oldham producing. In time, a friendship between mentor and student became one between two kindred musicians. Neilson augmented his work with free-psych-drone practitioners Directing Hand by playing with the Bonnie 'Prince' Billy band. The drummer's eagerness to experience new epiphanies yielded unforgettable memories. In Big Sur, he recalls, 'we took mushrooms at midnight, then visited a natural hot spring built into the dramatic cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The stars were as vivid as frozen fireworks.' All of which is worth dwelling on, because without that background of mutual openness and empathy, it's hard to imagine The Marble Downs existing.

Neilson recalls a conversation about a 'collaboration' in the summer of 2010, though stresses that it 'was nothing too formal at first'. By the end of that year, a limited-edition seven-inch New Year's Eve Is The Loneliest Night of the Year showed what an inspired match the vocals of Trembling Bells singer Lavinia Blackwall and Will Oldham made. The cut-glass precision of the classically-trained student of medieval music and the worldly, careworn tones of Oldham created an unlikely chemistry. It must have seemed that way to Neilson too. He set about assembling a cache of songs with the purpose of further harnessing that chemistry. The result is an album that has, once again, redrafted the boundaries of what Trembling Bells can achieve together. Indeed, genre-lines aren't terribly helpful this time around. Yes, Trembling Bells' love affair with traditional music remains a constant — most emphatically so on the unaccompanied Blackwall/Oldham two-hander, My Husband's Got No Courage In Him. Then there is Blackwall's musical setting of Dorothy Parker's poem Excursion Into Assonance — and the thorough-going new-found classicism of Neilson's increasingly assured songwriting. Albeit delivered with Trembling Bells' rain-lashed sense of abandon, Love Is A Velvet Noose sounds like a standard of sorts — a warped consequence of Neilson's increasing fascination with the songbooks of Cole Porter and Hoagy Carmichael. 'I'm not saying I stand any chance of emulating them,' he adds, 'but the appreciation is definitely there.'

The knowledge that Oldham and Blackwall would be sharing centre-stage on The Marble Downs gave Neilson extra impetus to flex his songwriting muscles. I Can Tell You're Leaving finds both vocalists on irresistible form, dissecting their dying relationship with no heed to the other's feelings. 'You treat me like a child,' sings Oldham. 'I need a man,' she responds, barely catching breath. 'Now like Merle Haggard, you'll see the fighting side of me,' he later promises. 'I guess that's one of the lighter moments on the album,' ponders Neilson, 'I was trying to get a Planet Waves-era Bob Dylan feel there, with the piano and walking bassline.'

Here and elsewhere, the band — Blackwall, Neilson, bassist Simon Shaw and guitarist Mike Hastings — has never sounded more psychically attuned to one-other. On the slow-reveal sonic establishing shot of I Made A Date (With An Open Vein), two minutes of manic modal chaos elapses before Oldham takes the narrative reins of a majestic call-and-response folk-rock epic. The electrifying free-folk portent of Riding — a revival of the Palace Brothers classic — is no less compelling, calling to mind the words of broadcaster Stuart Maconie when he praised Trembling Bells for their ability to invoke simultaneously 'the charm of folk music and the power of rock.' Ditto Ain't Nothing Wrong With A Little Longing, in which Neilson slams down a four-to-the-floor beat over a synergy of demonic krautrock keys and a dialogue between Oldham and Blackwall that scales Nancy & Lee levels of romantic intrigue.

With nine songs gone and one remaining, the album's sonic undulations find an arresting denouement in the form of an inspired cover. Adapted from Robin Gibb's 1970 solo masterpiece Robin's Reign, Lord Bless All sees Trembling Bells tease out the hymnal qualities of Gibb's original with a slow volcanic upswell which — on four minutes — explodes into heavy psychedelic technicolour. What pleases Alex Neilson when he listens back is 'a sense of a common vocabulary and identity being forged.' If, by that, he means that there isn't another band on the planet that quite sounds like Trembling Bells, it would be hard to disagree. The evidence is right here.

'I didn't know anything about Trembling Bells. I just heard them and was knocked out. I instantly became a fan.' Paul Weller

'Trembling Bells are my kind of band.' Joe Boyd

"Jesus fucking shit! These jamz claw so hard at the tatties below methinks the Lord misnamed them, having intended to say Trembling BALLS." Will Oldham

'A poetic incantation of British identity far brighter than Michael Gove's GCSE syllabus.' Stewart Lee

'This time, I'm attempting to reclaim the art of songwriting from the charity shop bargain bin.' Alex Neilson

Introducing a new label, Koko Music, founded in West London by a long time friend of ours. Their first release:

'Allegedly Coltrane's favourite singer, Andy Bey recorded as vocalist for Max Roach ('Members, Don't Git Weary'), Horace Silver ('Won't You Open Up Your Senses'), Gary Bartz ('Celestial Blues') and Stanley Clarke in the late sixties / early seventies. He released one solo album and then disappeared from view for 20 years, resurfacing in the nineties.

This 1998 album showcases his four-octave range, the intimacy of love songs and raw power of the blues on a mixture of standards ('Pretty Girl', 'Some Other Time'), Latin ('O Cantador', 'Drume Negrita'), modern (Nick Drake's 'River Man'), and a couple of original tunes. Available for the first time on vinyl, cut at 45rpm, it features Andy on vocals and on piano, with appearances from Gary Bartz and Geri Allen.'

Alex creates with Tum Tum the soundtrack of a dreamed teen movie and sings for the lonely hearts that beat behind their screens.

The hero of this film ventures into the meanders of a digital jungle, a digital psychedelism where words come into resonance with sounds, structures deform, because behind the pop evidence of Tum Tum lies a desire deconstruction of pre-established forms.

As much influenced by the break-up songs of the Everly Brothers as by Ryuichi Sakamoto's compositions, by Kitano's films, and by Ninja Kids, Tum Tum is a map of Alex Van Pelt's influences that finds its form in an intimate patchwork.

"The simplest line is always the best," he says in the song Endless Rain that closes Tum Tum. A formula worthy of Lao-Tseu, which sums up well the poetics of the guitarist of French band Coming Soon, Alex Van Pelt: it is in a refined language that responds to the kaleidoscopic profusion of his music that Alex tells these eight romances, in search of a Way to to follow. We listen to it with pleasure, and let it guide us through the labyrinth of our mediated lives.

Resilience is an album that calls on the classic rave sounds of Chrissy's Midwestern youth to explore themes of love, positivity, perserverence, acceptance, and the fight against cynicism. Get ready for big piano melodies, chopped breakbeats, heavy bass, and jacking Chicago drum programming, plus guest appearances from some of Chrissy's friends: vocalist Carrie Wilds, Portuguese DJ/producer/singer Maria Amor, and Berlin-based techno artist Dean Grenier. RAWAX will present it on three ep's!


Chrissy is a genre-bending DJ/producer with releases on Classic, Freerange, Razor N Tape, Hypercolour, and Planet Mu, and a 20-year DJ career spanning Chicago house, disco, rave, jungle, footwork, and more. He ran the influential 'My Year of Mixtapes' blog, and currently runs two record labels: The Nite Owl Diner and Cool Ranch.

'Chrissy is one of the best DJs to ever walk the earth and I am just going to keep saying it until everyone agrees with me.' — The Black Madonna.

The Blue Note Record label needs little introduction. Musically, graphically and sonically iconic, the label created and defined the golden age of modern jazz on record. Founded in 1939 by German émigré Alfred Lion, the label's roster of artists is a litany of giants - Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, Horace Silver, Lee Morgan, Art Blakey, Lee Morgan, Herbie Hancock and many more. With peerless musicians in the grooves, the legendary Rudy Van Gelder behind the boards, and graphic design genius Reid Miles creating emblematic artwork for every release, Blue Note - 'the Cadillac of the jazz lines' - was outstanding in every way.

Volume 8 of Jazzman's Spiritual Jazz series takes a close look at the deeper side of Blue Note - from the experimental avant-garde explored by younger musicians such as Bobby Hutcherson, Joe Henderson and Pete La Roca, to the exciting new developments in modal sounds put forward by stalwarts Hank Mobley, Jackie McLean and Duke Pearson. The music we have selected shows how musicians working with the label responded to a period of dramatic social and sonic change, charting the route toward the esoteric and spiritualised sounds that would dominate the deepest jazz of the 1970s.

As ever, Blue Note had lit the path, and this new Spiritual Jazz collection shows that the progressive and underground jazz sound of the 1960s was not only the preserve of obscure artists and private pressings. Blue spirits and heavy sounds on Blue Note - the finest in jazz since 1939, brought to you by Jazzman.

As a radical jazz artist, Steve Reid played with an extraordinary group of artists - Miles Davis, Sun Ra, Fela Kuti, James Brown, Ornette Coleman, Lester Bowie and many more. He began his career as a teenager in the 1960s as a drummer at Motown.
Reid was born in the South Bronx, and grew up in Queens, New York, three blocks away from John Coltrane. In 1969, Reid refused to enlist to the Vietnam war and was arrested as a conscientious objector and given a four-year prison sentence.
On his release in 1974, he formed the Legendary Master Brotherhood and the independent record label, Mustevic Sound, to release his debut LP Nova.
At the start of the 21st century, Steve Reid began a successful collaboration with Kieran Hebden (Fourtet), who Reid referred to as his 'musical soul mate', resulting in a number of joint albums.
Steve Reid died in New York in 2010. Subsequently the Steve Reid Foundation was set up in his name, to help aspiring musicians and artists.

Keysound Recordings are excited to present three very unique cuts from Scratcha DVA x Gage: 'FLYTNURSE,' 'PIFFD' and 'FLYTNURSE (DARQMIX)'. Dark, euphoric, weighty, and somewhat restless, they defy obvious categorisation. Gage has made himself a formidable reputation by releasing some of the most forward-thinking darker dance music in the last three years, predominantly on the ever-quality Crazy Legs imprint. 'Telo' was a standout dancefloor moment, equal parts impactful and experimental, quickly followed up by the "Mercury EP," "2017 STAY PARO" and his banger-collab with Kevin Jz Prodigy, "Bad Bitch." Scratcha DVA first appeared on Keysound 66 releases ago with the explosive dread grime anthem 'Bullet A'Go Fly' featuring Badness, Riko, Flowdan and Killa P. But in truth he has a lengthy production back catalogue both before and after that 12', with albums on Hyperdub, his new 'Interludes' project and a track on the recent landmark Kode9 & Burial Fabriclive 100 CD.

Rescued from a haze of drugs, alcohol and questionable women comes a potent blend of heavy Chicago Funk, Modern Soul & Psychedelia. Influential recordings from the group's sought-after Funk classics have been sampled by Beck, The Chemical Brothers, Jim Jones, Raekwon & Leaders of The New School.

Previously unreleased Rasputin's Stash from the forthcoming Stash album due out in April. 'Make Up Your Mind' is a contagious rhythm with Jimi Hendrix-style fuzzed out guitar riffs echoing sweet soul vocals and a brass section tight enough to please any Tower of Power fan. On the b-side is a slow-jam Soul-Steppers classic 'You Are My Everything'

Cut directly to vinyl from the recently found master tapes, this music presents material from the band at their artistic peak and the last recordings before Rasputin's Stash members went on to record Crystal Winds First Flight and Attitude, Belief & Determination

The sensational contribution of the Roman project Fire at work, risen over the millennium end, delivers the next 12 release of the label.
The sounds and visions of the two producers are coming directly from the most radical electronic counterculture's pot, the industrial dimension and the radical sound choice seem to be the best and right way to tell the story of a dystopian reality, a meaningful choice useful to criticise humans and their civilisation. The complex of the Fire At Work production represents an act of cultural resistance, therefore Monolith Records seems to be the right and natural follow up of a long multidisciplinary journey. This release is the meeting point of two generations sharing a similar electronic countercultural background, in the middle of the ruins of a modern world which is nothing but a ripped-off planet, a consumed scenario where the radicalisation of the exclusivity leads the beings to the recurring Post-humanistic alienation. The music journey develops through cuts deliberately violating the borders of genre and style, leaving to the dark decaying soundscapes the duty to shape coherence. The overall dimension of this work floats in a tension between the mental form of the synths and the implacability of the concrete drumming asset, that alternates straight and broken beats merged by the same obsessive character. In order to consistently remark the intention behind the production, the Remix by hypnoskull for 'Re_Sample The Future', a tool shaped by an heavy distorted timber that brings lyrics to clarify the common denominator of the EP: a totalitarian vision of reality involving the rejection of the status quo, together with the roles and the scopes of a totally dehumanised system. The 2.0 Man is unarmed and similar to a cadaver, and his desires and senses are reconciled by a perpetual stream of information, a data replacement of reality. The one way direction streaming can be interrupted by noise, as the element able to distort meaning the unexpected element occurring in the middle between the matrix of the message ed his audience. Given such conditions the style choice becomes part of the concept itself, and it is far from any kind of 'induced' choice.

RAWAX presents Metropolitan Soul Museum to the Family!
"MSM's latest Bleu EP is a collection of 4 original tracks coming from the duo's deeper and harder musical imagery The EP showcases a futuristic mix of rough drum machine grooves, relentless 303 lines and hypnotic synths. The result is the perfect fit for Rawax's vinyl series. "

Metropolitan Soul Museum (or MSM for short) is a London based live duo releasing sonically melodic electronic music on labels like Rawax, Normals Welcome, Toy Tonics, Trunkfunk, Dionysian Mysteries.

Corey Fuller Is One Half Of The Duo Illuha On 12k And Break Is His Frst Solo Recording For 12k. A Crashing Wave, The Breaking Dawn, An Impact, The Crushing Of Emotional Spirit... The Breaking Of A Storm. These Are All Relevant Ideas Behind His Choice Of A Title For This Highly Emotional Abum. Fuller Has Addressed The Universality Of Human Struggle Without Going Into Specifcs Of His Own Personal Waves. The Ideas That We As Humans All Share Many Of The Same Diffculties Is Both A Launching Point And A Message He Wishes To Share With Break — The Catharsis.
While Illuha's Music Is Known For Its Attention To Small Sounds And Light Textures, Break, While Equally As Fragile, Sees Fuller Working With Much Heavier Elements. Still Highly Melodic, The Work Pulls And Churns Between Harmony And Tension, Weight And Air, The Crash Of A Wave, The Pull Of The Undertoe. The Album Is Focused Intensely On Melody And Harmony, Progressions More Carefully Composed Than The Serendipitous Found Sound Of His Work With Illuha.
The Piano Is Often At The Center Of These Songs, An Instrument (his Own) That Has Become Much An Extension Of His Own Body. His Own Voice Plays An Important Role As Well, Sometimes Lyrically Ethereal And Sometimes Just A Breath Signifying The Ever-fragile Thread Of Life. Beautifully Recorded
In His Tokyo Studio, The Sounds Are Captured With All Of Their Inherent Physical Faws. As Fuller Himself States About The Piano Being recorded In A Way That You Can Hear The Bones, Like An Open Ribcage, Moving Contorting...' Everything On Break Is There For A Reason, Not Just The Sound And Soul Of The Piano But The Electronic Elements As Well, Rattling Bass Tones And Dramatic, Emotional Waves Of Synthesizer Rising And Dissolving.
If A Single Word Can Be Used To Describe Break It Is Physical. From The Instruments And Techniques Used To Produce The Album To The Concepts Of Vulnerability Of The Human Body. Break Is An Emotional Riptide Where Violence And Rest Struggle To Be The Last Voice.


i) Adrift
ii) Asunder
iii) Aground

Over the past few months, Bajram Bili has been a revelation at Lumière Noire. On the labels compilation From Above, the French producer drew praise from listeners, DJs and critics alike with the eight housey, cerebral minutes of his contribution, Restart.
Bajram Bili is far from being a newcomer: Adrien Gachet has been making music under the exotic moniker for several years, combining krautrock and IDM influences into a rather convoluted genre. On his previous album, 2017s Remembered Waves, he had opted for a metamorphosis, bringing a new sense of freedom to club music, and this debut Lumière Noire EP is bound to elicit further interest in the artist.
Stretching over nine minutes, the playful No Fugue is complemented by a vocal track that seems to encourage the listener to visit the euphoric spaces in between. The Dantean, techno-accented Fluttering maintains this unsettling pace and amplifies, building up anticipation by bouncing from hot to cold and culminating in an epic journey. The beatless Mother presents a complete change of scenery, with Gachet offering up a contemplative composition haunted by tinges of Vangelis and Carpenter. With its acid accents, red-hot closing track Divided Flash completes the EPs musical register, closing the ambitious four-track arc and leaving the listener hoping for more and soon..

Label boss Perc returns to Perc Trax for his first full release since his career defining "Bitter Music" LP in May 2017, an album which featured the infamous "Look What Your Love Has Done To Me", one of the most played techno tracks of the year and Perc Trax's best selling track to date.

Conceived as a response to the endless stream of rip-off's, rehashes and re-edits that track spawned "Three Tracks To Send To Your Ghost Producer" strips back the vocals and melodic elements that characterised Bitter Music to present a raw, rolling, heavily percussive sound. Kick, toms and hi-hat rhythms play off each other whilst interlocking with the solid kicks that propel each track forwards.

From the spitting acid stabs of "Toxic NRG" to the brutal drop in "Driller" the three tracks are overflowing with the kind of in-yerface attitude that marks out the best of Perc's productions. Together they form an EP which once again highlights him as one of the UK's most forward thinking techno practitioners.

In September 2016 Chouk Bwa met the Brussels-based duo The Ångstromers. A traditional Haitian Mizik Rasin — roots music — band, Chouk Bwa, formerly Chouk Bwa Libète, realizes the source of a drum and dance style using percussion and call-and-response vocals that are infused with Haitian Vodou.

'Chouk Bwa' means 'Root' in Haitian Creole. Three percussionists and two dancers are led by composer Jean Claude 'Sambaton' Dorvil on vocals and the fer, an iron bar/bell that announces different rhythms employed to call up the spirits, assisted by Gomez 'Djopipi' Henris.

Chouk Bwa display the deep African heritage of Haiti, torn from Africa and secretly re-planted in a new land. The band members speak for Haiti, a nation that has seen the hardest of times and maintains a relentless spirit and strength through its culture.

The two tracks were selected from the first meeting with the Ångstromers at Café Central, Brussels, recorded live in September 2016. Modular synths and other vintage electronic instruments bring another dimension to Chouk Bwa's music.

Welcome to the richly rhythmic and deeply esoteric world of Zaliva-D. Based in the Chinese capital of Beijing, they've been circling the country's borders for more than a decade due to the extreme difficulty of streaming music there. Zaliva-D consists of musician Li Chao and Aisin-Gioro Yuanjin, who's responsible for their stunning live visuals. We're very proud to present Forsaken, their 4th album, but first ever vinyl release. Wrapped around a core of gut wrenchingly ferocious kicks and haunting vocals, these tracks possess a mantra-like quality and drown the listener into a world of Chinese and South East Asian textures. Forsaken, mastered by Wouter Brandenburg, is their most well-written, organic and esoteric record to date, showing a more fragile, sensitive side. Soon Zaliva-D will perform on European soil, accompanied by this Knekelhuis debut.

Als in den Neunzigern Punk durch Bands wie Green Day und The Offspring sein großes melodisches Revival
erlebte, bedeutete das auch den endgültigen Durchbruch für NOFX. Das kalifornische Trio hatte sich schon
1983 gegründet, schuf 1994 mit "Punk In Drublic" einen bis heute unvergesslichen Skatepunk-Klassiker und
avancierte spätestens mit seinem siebten Studioalbum, "So Long And Thanks For All The Shoes", zum
Punkrock-Schwergewicht. Im Gegensatz zu vielen anderen Formationen weigerten sich NOFX jedoch
resolut, Kapital aus dem wieder erwachten Interesse an Punk zu schlagen. Angebote von Majorlabels wurden
daher konsequent ausgeschlagen. Bis "Pump Up The Valuum" im Jahr 2000 auf den Markt kam, standen
NOFX bei Epitaph unter Vertrag, dann wechselten die Kalifornier zu Fat Wreck Chords, dem Label von
Bassist und Sänger Fat Mike. Zum Ausstand veröffentlichte Epitaph 2004 die Kompilation "The Greatest
Songs Ever Written (By Us)". Die Zusammenstellung enthielt Evergreens wie "Linoleum", "Reeko", "All Outta
Angst", "Bob", "Leave It Alone", "180 Degrees", "Kill All The White Man" oder "The Longest Line" in neu
gemasterten Fassungen. Epitaph bringt die Sammlung nun erstmals auf Vinyl heraus.

Genre: Electronic, World (Arabic). 180gram vinyl includes 12'x24' art print poster + 320kbps DL card. RIYL: Matar Mohammad, Pauline Oliveros, Nadah El Shazly, Lucrecia Dalt, Chino Amobi, Sote, Arca, Fatima Al Qadiri, Tacita Dean, Stan Brakhage. Jerusalem In My Heart (JIMH) returns with Daqa'iq Tudaiq, the third full-length album from the Montréal-Beirut contemporary Arabic audio-visual duo, following the acclaimed 2015 release If He Dies, If If I f If If If (ye ar-end li sts at The Wire (#39), The Quietus (#24) and A C loser Listen (Top 10), among other accolades).
Featuring voice, electronics, buzuk and other instrumentation from composer-producer Radwan Ghazi Moumneh (Matana Roberts, Suuns, Big Brave) and abetted by the 16mm analog film work of Charles-André Coderre in live performance, JIMH continues to expand the horizons of its profound conceptual and aesthetic engagement with Arabic/Middle-Eastern traditions. Daqa'i q Tudaiq translates as 'minutes that bother/oppress/harass'—which presumably needs no further explanation—and features two distinct album sides of music. Side One realizes a long-held dream of Moumneh's to record a modern orchestral version of the popular Egyptian classic 'Ya Garat Al Wadi' by the legendary composer Mohammad Abdel Wahab. JIMH assembled a 15-piece orchestra in Beirut, enlisting the celebrated Montréal-Cairo composer Sam Shalabi (Land Of Kush) as arranger and musical director for the session. Anchored by the stately hypnotic pace of mallet and percussion instruments (riq, santur, derbakeh, kanun), the piece unfolds with lush, languid, reverb-drenched manoeuvrings through virtuosic Maqam shifts (Oriental scales). Moumneh's melismatic lead vocals and electronic production sensibility pay homage to the genre's documented historical recording traditions, while pushing things subtly and respectfully into new territories of sonic distortion and noised, artefact-laden transmission.
The song's original title (with lyrics penned in 1928 by the poet Ahmad Shawqi) translates as 'Oh Neighbour Of The Valley', but JIMH takes a different line from the original lyric as the new title for its orchestral-electronic re-interpretation. 'Wa Ta'atalat Loughat Al Kalam' (' The Language Of Speech Has Broke Down') is an expression of wordless love and transcendent communication between two lovers' eyes in Shawqi's poem; JIMH re-titles the song with this line, exploding the sentiment with more complexity, tragedy and socio-political meaning - also prefiguring the formal aesthetic ruptures JIMH bring to the piece itself. Love in a time of politics, politics in a world conspiring against love, and the specificity of Arab diasporic experience in our brutish 21st century. Side Two comprises four tracks of non-ensemble 'solo' material by Moumneh which push rupture and decomposition/recomposition of tradition further into avant-garde territory - voice, buzuk and electronics take the lead on a suite of emotive and evocative songs, including the percussive loopdriven instrumental 'Bein Ithnein' ('Between Two' ) and the stunningly unsettling processed vocal track 'Thahab, Mish Roujou', Thahab' ('(The Act Of) Departing, Not Returning, Departing'). Daqa'iq Tudaiq is a masterful, mesmerizing artistic statement and confirms Jerusalem In My Heart as one of the most engaged and forward-looking avant-Arabic projects at work in contemporary music today. Thanks for listening.

Andrew Wasylyk is the alias of Scottish writer, producer and multi-instrumentalist, Andrew Mitchell.

In 2018, Andrew was extended a residency invite from arts centre and historic house, Hospitalfield, Arbroath, Scotland to create new music for their restored, 19th century, Erard Grecian harp.
During Wasylyk's five-month sojourn he created melodies and progressions echoing the building's unique relationship with the looming North Sea horizon. Using not only the harp, but the house's original grand piano, Andrew explored the Angus landscape and beyond, gathering field recordings on trips to neighbouring Seaton Cliffs and Bell Rock Lighthouse (the world's oldest surviving sea-washed lighthouse).
Winter slipped into spring, and harp-led compositions gave way to an ambitious third, full-length album, exploring a range of themes utilising a broad palette of instrumentation, including flugelhorn, euphonium, oboe, string trio, vintage synthesisers, drones and upright piano.

From the wandering, Bob James-esque, Fender Rhodes and shimmering strings in the study of coastal light, "(Welter) In The Haar", to the plaintive brass and farewell transmission blowing through, "Adrift Below A Constellation", punctuated by the fragility of Wasylyk's sole lead vocal of this collection - "The Paralian" (a dweller by the sea), is a conclusion embued with blue and golden melodies that land in a territory akin to experimentalists such as Robert Wyatt and Brian Eno. Through which, Wasylyk weaves the listener along a Modern-classical, Ambient and Jazz dream of Scotland's east coast.

Athens Of The North team were stunned by the luminous beauty and creativity at play in this work. Falling between genres and time, it stands next to 60s British Jazz, effortlessly blending notes of Library and soundtracks with dashes of British Folk.

+++ Available in a non-specified number of copies, these releases are hand-cut on vinyl by the label itself.

Transparent vinyls with a center white silk screen design and hand stamped catalogue number.

External cover designed by Regno Maggiore in white silk-screen print on die-cut black paperboard.

Internal sleeve with an illustrated poetry by Regno Maggiore, tracklist and info +++

Written and recorded in 2018 during and after a nomadic travel in the open air, Astroveliero is the debut ep of Regno Maggiore and an introspective journey inside h** beliefs and experiences.

Across 6 free-flow tracks, the artist has created a world of multi- layered textured details and organic instruments, blended with a fine tune work of sound engineering.

Astroveliero joins together different musical influences as well as world cultures, with a result that could be assimilated to the fourth world tradition.

The ep spans from the quasi- krautock ambient composition in Oracolo to percussive songs like La Danza di Sabasaa and Selva Oscura, balancing haunting atmospheres and benign forces, drawing modern anxiety, spiritual raises and dreamlike visions.

With just a quick appearance on the recent compilation Paradisia V, out on Gang of Ducks as well, Regno Maggiore is creating a new bold world around h**, and we just can't wait to listen more.

Mysterious white label release 'ALFA EP' coming from new kid on the block 'Alfa Cornae'.

This EP is all Italian, recommended listening: cruising through the Tuscany countryside, riding shotgun in a vintage Alfa. If the above is not at hand, then any local nightclub with a decent sound system will do.

Ok so you climb into your Alfa, a thing of beauty, you rev the engine, it sounds like your ex... in a good way.... This is a serious roadster, we're not talking Ford Mondao, we're talking all Italian smooth V8 engine, luxury leather upholstery, the real deal!

You're on your way to the best party in town, driving down the freeway toward Milan, 120 mph, roof down, a virgin Negroni in the passenger seat, casually smoking on a fat Toscano cigar; you're on the way to the biggest discotheque this side of the river Po.

Now you're in a hot tub. You don't know who's it is but it has bubbles. You turn to your right; next to you is Roberto Baggio. You take a big drag on your cigar and smile at him, he responds with a cheeky wink. Next thing you know you're dressed as a goalkeeper and everyone's dancing. Negronis all round, even for the reserves. Everyone is dishing out high fives; there's been one too many cigars smoked. Gerd Janson is dressed as a lama and the crowd is loving it.

South Cali classmates AFK and Bludwork come from oceans apart -South Korea and Georgia, respectively - but their intertwined social /sonic chemistry are proof that true vibe unions transcend geography.

The pair initially bonded over teacher pranks and 420 habits before rendezvousing off campus to link rigs and jam live electronics, eventually culminating in the six smog-smeared low-key bangers comprising their vinyl debut, Loyalty N Service.

Alternately coastal and concrete, the songs slide between smoky sunset house ('Akina Memory,' 'That Pain') and funked up warehouse bass ('No Equal,' 'Searchin'), tag-teaming melody, MIDI, and drum machinery into compelling composites of Pacific motion and emotion.

Blud is blunt about their bond: 'AFK is one of my most cherished friends; I'd do anything for this guy.' This is music from the heart and for the heads, pensive and propulsive, loose and liquid, raw and rising. 'One of our biggest inspirations is the Rush Hour films. We're the best Black and Asian duo since those guys.'

We were always living in nonlinear times, but a significant cycle is coming to an end so we are noticing a growing number of severe changes and happenings caused by the nonlinear nature of things. For human beings it's difficult to imagine exponential growth despite it surrounding us in almost every aspects of life.

In music one can find such nonlinear increases or logarithmical declines in the core of sound creation itself, namely in envelopes controlling levels, texture and frequencies. But also in real life in the rise and fall of popularity, in viral news or in the development of music technology.
Utilising his sound pallet comprised of modular synthesis and electronic instrumentation, Florian Meindl highlights these resonances of thought and exploration with a sonic statement of his current vision around electronic music in the form of his 4th artist album.

No Concession on this one... the uncomon rare oldschool sound pushed at its extreme pleasure : that particular sound we heard a lot here in France with XMF (formerly now The Hacker), Bunker (NL) and to be more precise with Agro (UK) and Power Plant (Germany) but of course... Drop Bass Network (USA) ! Respect to the original Acid Hardcore caves ! BIG UP The Untitled !

vtgnike is danil avramov, born in Vladimir,russia. started actively
making music in 2010 after moving to moscow. after releasing couple of
eps under different monikers, got a few vtgnike d.i.y. cds(one of
those probably got into nico's ears in NY) i've got beautifull DUBNA
LP on other people(yes really still think its a great record) and few
month after its release got in jail because of drug charges dated
2009. long story here. im 100% on weed legalization and
decriminalization of other drugs in a logically gentle and mentally
stable sociaty(and the world is not equal, its diversed and i respect
all non violent cultures :-). got free in 2016(THANKS TO EVERYONE
INVOLVED AND NICO) and got another album with a gostzvuk fam.
i am a proud resident of NII club.
in producing i've been switching music genres all my life ) electronic
music that has a flow in it, dosnt need to be glued to any specific
range of bpm, etc.

Guadeloupe 1986. The football World Cup has all the Islanders' eyes riveted to their TV sets. At every half time breaks, local TV channel RFO broadcasts a music video on repeat: ''Tou't Jou Pa Min'm". Max Rambhojan, the local singer responsible for this monster tune, has arrived.

In the video, he effortlessly sings and kickstarts a joyous street party with his band, Show Man, his dancers, kids, friends, family and what seems like the whole neighbourhood. The song will gain cult status from then on, cementing the power of the 'Zouk Chiré' sound, a high tempo version of Zouk, highly influenced by Guadeloupe's Carnival mass drum bands. Max self-releases his first solo album on vinyl in 1985, enrolling some of the best musicians the scene has to offer: his band leader King Klero, Guy Jacquet of les Vikings de la Guadeloupe fame on production duties, Ramon Pyrmée on synths, Claude Vamur, Meliza... In 1992 a new solo album follows. By then the artists have familiarized themselves with computers and the sound has gone full-on digital. In that album Max records an updated version of his 'Tou't Jou Pa Min'm' anthem to great effect.

Reducing Max Rambhojan to a zouk artist would be a mistake. He's first and foremost a master of Gwo-Ka, a musical practice born during the transatlantic slave trade and performed by all ethnic and religious groups of Guadeloupe. It has never ceased to exist and has become a major part of the Island folk music culture. Max Rambhojan was schooled as a kid by Gwo-Ka pioneer Guy Conquette, and quickly joined the backing band of another legend, Ti-Sélès. That sound is the root of his particular style, especially vibrant on two tracks in his repertoire: 'Cecilia' and 'On Jou Matin', both featured on this release's b-side. A touch of Spiritual Jazz is also palpable, allowing a magical vibe to spread, giving birth to some of the deepest music from this era.

In 2019, Max still performs Gwo-Ka every week-end in Guadeloupe and also hosts a show on local radio Media Tropical, 88.1FM. Secousse and Hot Mule are proud to present those 4 lost gems on wax and digital, carefully restored and remastered.

Clutching At Straws is a brand new label established by Brian Ring. Born in Cork, Ireland. Ring has been residing in Berlin for over 4 years, during which time he has lent his dancefloor-focused, predominantly house sounds to a range of renowned labels including Freerange. Running Back and Bordello A Parigi. A producer who values a vehement quality-over-quantity approach, Clutching At Straws represents the first time Ring has helmed his own imprint. Featuring two originals as well as a remix from London producer Kiwi, the Reflections EP is most definitely deserving of the wait.

We kick off with 'Acid Sunrise', a classy house cut that envelops the listener in a warm glow from the off. Full of colourful motifs throughout, it's part acid/part Balearic-tinged sound is the perfect antidote to Europe's current climes. Characterised by a nimble, catchy-as-hell baseline, this one is pure dynamite of the sort that will sound at its most pronounced as the first signs of morning begin to enter the dancefloor.

Next up is Kiwi, a producer who's been making power moves of his own lately thanks to a host of well-received cuts for the likes of Jennifer Cardini's Correspondent, Tennis' Life & Death and Optimo's Optimo Music. His dramatic reinterpretation of Ring's 'Forest Walk' , is a highbrow gem that's full of gorgeous melodies and all-round positive vibes, with the man in charge changing the narrative quite exceptionally toward the track's final phases.

Culminating the record is the sounds of 'Emergency Tool', a real statement track that's sure to leave DJs and dancers in a frenzy over the next few months. An upfront banger of the sort that wonderfully incorporates both house and techno elements, it starts off on a fairly innocuous tip before unfurling into an uptempo beast. Full of clever bells and a vocal that demands us to 'move!' (as well as a wailing cop siren that only heightens the sense of mania), 'Emergency Tool' is a track that's destined to be used by discerning DJs when they really have to step things up a notch.

Limited to 150 copies.

DJ Overdose is back again on your favorite record label, Dalmata Daniel, this time sharing a record with an old-school legend from the land of Dalmatas and Daniels, Sematic4.

Both sides are full of great tunes of hard-hitting electro, but both are a bit different in mood and sounds.

The style and sound of DJ Overdose is so distinctive, you can spot it from miles away. The first track has a groovy title, with a car symbol and silly characters. Great music for driving your white convertible in the Detroit sunset, it's dark, repetitive, the usual genius with impressive drums. The title of Funky Mess is no lie, it's a funky song with a Japanese telecom sampler resembling the Detroit underground scene. The last track RZ-1-DMX is classic electro with some nice slow melodies, that you can nod to.

Sematic4 is operating with more classic electro elements on Dream Creator with some spacey tunes, while North Star '78 is a rather hard-hitting club music with a nice groove, interesting drums and some super melodies. One Nite In Heaven recalls the atmosphere and soundscape of the golden days of the Hague electro scene - a way of showing respect to the era.

Sematic4 is an oldschool dj and producer from Hungary, who started spinning records in the 90s, a well-made and active dj, who started buying his own gear and all kinds of gadgets, and producing music on his own. A real music geek, who lives for music with releases on Bass Agenda, Tropical Underground and legendary Dave Clarke plays his songs.

And you all know DJ Overdose.

Paul DeMarinis is a key figure in the history of electronic music since the 1970s. Collaborator with the likes of Robert Ashley, David Behrman, and David Tudor, DeMarinis is a pioneer in the development of gallery sound installation and digital music technologies. Black Truffle is thrilled to announce the release of a double-LP collection, selected in collaboration with the artist, focussing on DeMarinis's exploration of synthesized voice and the digital analysis and manipulation of speech sounds. Drawing together tracks dispersed on compilations along with a number of pieces previously unheard in any form, Songs Without Throats offers a revelatory look into DeMarinis's alternately accessible and uncompromising production between 1978 and 1995. Opening with a mesmerizing piece from 1978 pairing the voice and tamboura playing of Anne Klingensmith with strings of letters spat out by a Speak n' Spell to the accompaniment of the randomised melodic patterns of DeMarinis's homebuilt electronic instrument 'The Pygmy Gamelan', the record then dispenses with the live human voice in favour of its recorded and synthetic doubles. We follow DeMarinis's restless probing of the possibilities of new technologies, from the hacked Speak n' Spell (which gives us the austere 'Et Tu, Klaatu' 1979, another duet with Klingensmith, this time on bowed psaltery, in which the toy's synthetic voice is stretched into an alien song) through to the use of digital audio samples manipulated with home computer technology in the early 1990s (including a remarkable dream-like collage piece that weaves a rare recording of Stalin's voice and bird-like electronic twittering derived from its formant-glides into a rich tapestry of samples reflective of the dictator's musical life). In between we get a rich sampling of DeMarinis's signature work with speech melodies - usually unnoticed melodic inflections that lie within speech patterns - which he analyses and translates into synthesized musical accompaniment. These pieces draw on a wide variety of textual and vocal sources, which range from the hilarious to the menacing ('Cincinatti (1830-1850)' sets a detailed description of butchering techniques, for example) and an equally broad range of musical conceptions, combining elements as seemingly unlikely as Beethoven's Opus 31 pianos sonatas and the sounds of 80s synth pop. The results are an extraordinary combination of the alien and the familiar. As DeMarinis himself characterises his work with vocal synthesis, this is 'a kind of signal that simultaneously carried and obscured meaning and ideation, even as it created a sound world totally alien in esthetic'. Presented in a deluxe gatefold sleeve with archival images and liner notes by Paul DeMarinis. Design by Stephen O'Malley. Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, Berlin

We have some 'Food for Thought' for you. On BAS007 Tripeo experiments with a diverse spectrum of motives. Three tracks, striking different cords with the inclined listener and an addition with Georgian flavor. Title track 'Food For Thought' starts off as a classically orchestrated techno track. With 'Resist' we dive into an electro-driven sketch and a bass line, lurking behind melodic corners. But it's the B side where Tripeo's wit unfolds: 'Tuesday Blues' comes along as a reminder to embrace joy on the worst day the of the week after a weekend to remember. Our very own HVL turns the track into a rolling and tripping beauty on B2

Two sizzling South African boogie tracks from Kabasa's Tata Sibeko. A killer producer, arranger and bass wizard, Tata channels the gloomy current affairs landscape of 1985 into a glimmering Afro-synth nugget. As South African pop embraced 1980s synth sounds, Maxi Singles on 12-inch vinyl became a new canvas of expression with wider grooves for fat beats and extended mixes that suited dancefloors.
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The supergroups of the 1970s fragmented into solo recording artists with the likes of Harari's Sipho 'Hotstix' Mabuse releasing his seminal 'Burnout' single in 1984. Former Kabasa frontman Tata Sibeko dropped 'It's A Mess' in 1985, addressing the world's Cold War climate with an appeal to 'learn to love each other' and 'save ourselves from catastrophe.' The B-side 'Afro Breakdance' marked the evolution of Tata's Afro-global sensibilities from 'Afro Funkin'' that had appeared five years earlier on Kabasa's self-titled debut in 1980. Tata Sibeko (RIP) passed away in 2017 after approving the restoration and reissue of this single. This release is dedicated to his kindness, charm and creative zeal.

Albion Collective's first record release of 2019 celebrates the return of Reso to the dubstep arena, with his four track 'Focus inwards EP', featuring a version from TMSV.

Reso's title track Focus Inwards lures your senses in to a hypnotic state. A hollow, pulsing bass tears through the low end whilst sparkling drums and percussion punctuate a vivid and diverse rhythm, a soundtrack to an outer body experience. Immaculate production.

TMSV lifts the pace with his progressive tribal edit. The addition of woodwind and rolling percussion dance around the acid-step vibe in keeping in vibe with Reso's trip-out OG. Festival music.

For the first release of 2019, the ever-consistent Play It Say It turns to an established producer who is launching an anonymous new alias. The music speaks of someone with a love of raw, analogue sounding house and techno with machine made soul.

First out of the blocks is the brilliant and adventuring 'Don't Believe The Hype'. Built around expertly programmed drums that remain restless throughout, it has dynamic synths and acid twitches, moments of serenity and chord-based optimism all stitched in along the way. It's the sort of expansive, cinematic track that envelops the whole club and oozes class and production know how.

On the flip, 'One Night Forever' is a totally different but equally unique proposition: it has fizzing synth lines bringing a dystopian feel to dark bass and razor sharp hi hats. Broken drums amp up the energy levels, and the warped synths pump the party. This is a busy, urgent cut of fantastically realised future music that brings plenty of freshness to the dance floor.

Whoever this artist is, they have a genuinely unique perspective and more than enough skills to realise their bold and brave new ideas.

Soundway Records present a special summer tribute double a-side 12" with two tracks from African musicians that both passed away within a couple of months of each other at the end of 2013 / start of 2014. Both tracks are perfect smooth summer tropical DJ fodder for the dancefloor.

On the first side South African singer Shaluza Max's massive Mashkandi / house anthem from 2002 gets a first release on vinyl. This track was a huge hit in South Africa and around the world on its release. With a soaring Zulu vocal and big sound it's a fitting reminder of a very talented musician who worked as a very well respected producer, composer and arranger who died tragically young at the age of 47 in January of 2014.

On the flip we drop a fairly unknown track from the mid 1980s from one of the biggest names in African music, Tabu Ley Rochereau. With a kind of almost balearic proto-house congolese pop cut with drum machines, and trademark sweet congo horn section, Hafi Deo is a beautiful track that fell into obscurity by perhaps being too smooth for the world music crowd in the mid 80s. Tabu Ley passed away in November 2013 in his late 70s with over 250 albums and 3000 songs to his name. A true pioneer of the congolese soukous sound, he was also one of the most influential African musicians of his generation.

Enigmatic Berlin label MASK return in 2019 with a vinyl only release consisting of four eccentric cuts entitled 'Hunter'. The mysterious German label maintains its reputation of providing quality, esoteric music by anonymous artists with a focus on analogue sound design and modulated oddities. 'Hunter' is the result of the first take of a live recording coming from a duo who have been playing together for over a decade. The A1 kicks off with lo-fi drum programming, emphatic leads and stabbing bass shoots before the A2 throws down sharp 303 bleeps, angelic pads and resonating kicks creating a euphoric ambience throughout. On the flip uplifting synth work, shuffling percussion and crunchy oscillations take the focus until chugged out experimentation becomes ever present in the final track as it harmoniously balances sweeping elements, growling tones and sonic obscurities.

Liška, the Czechoslovakian word for fox. Beguiling in its beauty, cunning in it's charm. Said to be one of the most intelligent animals on the planet its global family consists of thirty-seven varieties; all of them recognised, respected and feared for their persuasive, creative, resourceful and elusive nature. The Liška we will talk about today is no exception to these hereditary rules and within the grooves of this record Finders Keepers present an 'elusive' musical artefact that best exemplifies every facet of this composer's animal namesake.

Had he not been born in the small Bohemian town of Smecno in the early 1920s the story of The Fantastic Mr. Liška might have well taken a different course. Alternatively, fettered by the hampers of communism, this lifelong resident of Czechoslovakia would never quite find his seat at the same table as the likes of John Barry, Ennio Morricone, Michael Nyman and Stanley Myers, nor drop enough phonographic breadcrumbs to track his legacy. But having waited patiently behind the borders of the wider landscapes of international cinema, Liška's musical brood, spanning multiple stylistic decades and generations, has now started to walk proudly amongst his would-be, latter-day compeers. In an era where music lovers have almost become immune to adjectives like 'lost', 'rare' and 'unreleased' in a climate where previously lesser-known off-kilter master composers such as Vannier, Kirchin and Axelrod have become widely revered, it is perhaps the perfect time for discerning listeners to advance above the feeding trough and seek out this truly pioneering and revolutionary Eastern European composer. Rivalled only by the likes of Krzysztof Komeda and Andrzej Korzynski in Poland, alongside Alexandr Gradsky in Russia, and often splitting workloads with fellow Czech composers like Luboš Fišer, Zdenek Liska's filmography of over almost 300 fully formed movie scores virtually eclipses the achievements of these socialist era luminaries. Respected unanimously in both Czech and Slovakian by studio bosses, producers, directors and actors alike Liška is widely known for his ability to take the existing energy in a reel of film and literally change the polarity to suit his own interpretation while maintaining the full support from his 'client' who would in-turn end up working under this composer's creative direction. Not only was Liška a genius of emotive orchestral and coral composition, his grasp on small group arrangements and intimate, minimal scores set him above the competition. By utilising primitive sample techniques by 'looping' a films existing ambient noise, or rearranging found sounds and dialog into subtle melodic arrangements, Liška would independently develop his own techniques which had simultaneously become known in Paris as musique concre`te. It is a direct extension of these experiments that saw Liška also draw parallels with Walter Branchi (Ennio Morricone's main electronic sidekick) in Italy as well as Daphne Oram in the UK, making Liška a relatively untravelled pioneer of early electronic composition and sound design due to his unlikely global environment. Imprisoned, preserved or reserved; time has been kind to Liška's music.

James Place returns with his new LP "Still Waves To A Whisper" (the fourth release on Umor Rex). Flitting between the dreamworld of hauntological synth music and hypnotic techno functionality, Still Waves To Whisper showcases James Place's continuing development of dramatic (and varied) sound worlds.

Musically, Still Waves To A Whisper contains both some of the most immediately danceable and straight up beautiful tracks of James Place's career. Utilising voice samples from the same source as his last album, Voices Bloom, opener 'Known Cry' is a heavenly coda of sunlight bursting through clouds, warm synths drifting across restrained pulses. 'Timing and Lighting' went through countless live iterations before the current version was tracked for this album, a tunneling exploration of rhythm with a dose of sardonic humor. 'Move In Blue (Homeward Mix)' is James Places' rework of a track from 2017's Voices Bloom, obsessively remixed and revisited, here littered with additional melodies and populated by newly sampled voices. Closing track 'Names' is perhaps the most outright beautiful James Place recording to date. A stripped back rework of a live version of Living On Superstition's 'Another Mourning In America', the tune is based on a melodic line written after the studio recorded version. Interwoven with a sampled vocal, and rinsed of all of the original song, 'Names' is left behind a stark and compelling descendant. The digital release includes a remix of 'Move In Blue' by Persuasion aka Devon Hansen.

The title, Still Waves To A Whisper, stems from a conversation between Place and another artist on methods to ease anxieties and the benefits of a focused practice. The hope's for this music to continue that conversation on a larger scale.

All songs written, produced and recorded by Phil Tortoroli between 2015 — 2018 in Brooklyn, NY. Vocals by Sam Sally and an unknown guest.

Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studio, NY. Photos & Design by Daniel Castrejón.

Taken for the widely played and adored Lenny Williams Spark of Love Album, which was released during the Disco Era of 1976 and featured disco hits like, 'You got me Running', I still Reach and 'Midnight Girl' comes 'Changes.'

Edits and Overdubs Produced and Performed by Joaquin Joe Clausell; Changes is the tune that was mostly ignored from the extensive Lenny Williams music catalogue.
Similar to his past works where he chooses songs that are mostly un popular to the outside world but classics amongst himself and his siblings at home, Joaquin Joe Claussell takes this Jam that he used to groove to at home as a young teenager, lifts it out from obscurity and turns it into something that will sure be played by most DJ's who are into the Lenny Williams Sound, soulful disco and beyond.

Listed at a time length of (5:03) Joe cleverly up lifts this soulful disco composition and extends it to a time of (9:01). He achieves this, as usual, with respecting the original composition and with never anyself-masturbation. In the end, the results are a New Disco Classic that drives with relentless energy and enough soul for anyone who's seeking more soul that hailed mostly from the urban side of American disco music.
So, listen, dance and spin.

Lenny Williams - Changes Edits & Overdubs by Joaquin Joe Claussell will be the first single to come out from the forth coming Joaquin Joe Claussell Presents Edits & Overdubs PT 2 2XCD and Special Limited 7Inch.

A mythical and misplaced masterpiece of lost soft rock and acidic folk funk by a one-hit wonderer lost in the wilderness for four decades. From the producer of Margo Guryan, writer behind Wool, Gerry Mulligan collaborator, Tarantino soundtracker and Wendy & Bonnie confidant, Paint A Lady now emerges from folkloric obscurity, to bring a wash of soft psychedelic colour to your vinyl collection and quench the repeat requests of a thirsty new found audience waiting for the rain.

Within certain record collecting circles, especially those who gather under the umbrella that covers fragile niches like 'acid folk' and 'soft rock', it's difficult to imagine a time when the legendary Susan Christie album didn't exist. When Finders Keepers Records first shared the unheard 60's songs like Paint A Lady, For The Love Of A Soldier and Echoes In Your Mind with a wide-eyed audience thirsty for organic soul and festival friendly acoustic funk, Susan's new found fan base instantly felt like they had known these songs all of their lives, and with a single needle drop we saw the birth of what could rightfully be described as an 'instant classic'. Which is why it's hard to believe that the music on this lost 60s acetate was only pressed 12 years ago. As our lucky seventh release in an international discography that now surpasses the 100 mark (and one of a small clutch of English language recordings on the label) Paint A Lady has slowly become one of our most requested re-releases, and with this 2018 edition it is technically accurate to say that this pressing is the first-ever reissue of this elusive and essential LP.

The oft over used term mythical applies to this album on many levels. Perhaps it's the woozy nostalgia found within the pop craft of Paint A Lady that has led to false rumours that original 1960's copies used to exist on the collectors market, or the bizarre claim that songs like the head-nodding title track, and the acid-drenched sound effects on Yesterday Where's My Mind were just a product of a contemporary studio band trying to create a fake folk funk red herring. As a result Susan Christie and her producer and husband of 40 years, John Hill have happily taken the repeat phrase 'unbelievable' as a compliment to their songwriting skills and foresight. In all fairness, with a decade to ponder, the original 1969 song titles alone do seem custom-built for the nostalgia market... No One Can Hear You Cry might lament the unrequited yearning for a record deal which never quite followed Susan's won one-hit wonder novelty hit I Love Onions; similarly When Love Comes might allude to the subsequent 35 year wait for the right label to eventually come along. Echoes In Your Mind and the aforementioned Yesterday... could easily allude to the haunting melodies that sat in the can on John Hill's studio shelf while his projects for Margo Guryan, Wool and Pacific Gas & Electric sat proudly in record racks before benefitting successful French cover versions or making their way on to Quentin Tarantino soundtracks. The track Paint A lady itself, complete with it's future-proofed sample-worthy rhythm section, seems like the perfect title for a mock rock pseudo psych contender - at which point you eventually step back and see the bigger picture. These guys were simply one drop too far ahead of their time; a family force of experimental pop perfection that late 60's America simply wasn't ready for. It is just over 12 years since champion record rustler Keith D'Arcy (who you'll meet on the inside sleeve) stumbled upon one of the original acetates that led to the final release of Paint A Lady, and it's almost a longer 50 years since Susan and John added their final touches to these recordings which tragically went into hibernation for over four decades.

Whether this album has been on your wish-list for what seems like a lifetime, or you are taking a plunge into this deep puddle for the first time, when the needle drops on the first track you'll find that Susan Christie, John Hill and Finders Keepers have been saving up for a very rainy day.

Fresh off their latest VA, The Press Group hand the reins over to up-and-coming Ukrainian producer Sasha Zlykh, here delivering his debut 12" effort. Clocking in with a quartet of club-oriented weapons and off-road house-y pumpers that shall bring dancefloors to a slow but steady simmer, the Kyiv-based producer blends in an avalanche of breaks-strewn rhythms, bleepy melodies and reshuffled UK bass patterns to create his own distinctive hybrids, halfway straight dance functionality and non-formulaic experimentality.

As playful in essence as it is serious in its execution, 'Lie To Your Mom' EP starts off with the title-cut, which works a wonky swagger that proves all the more infectious as bars fly by. Engineering a finely-woven mix of off-kilter drum programming, raucous analogue belches and volatile harp stabs distorted to the max, the track's shadowy intro is eventually offset by overlapping tides of luminous pads, released as one lets the light break through a vampire den. 'RnB Ritual' follows up close in the vein, meshing a brooding late-night-ish atmosphere with playful percussive mechs and sustained rhythmic accidents.

Flip sides and you'll be treated to a choice pair of remixes from in-house groove traders Rupert Marnie and Youthman. First in line, Marnie turns 'Lie To Your Mum' into a straight jacking and shuffling Chicagoan chugger. Going deeper into soulful terrains and lavishly-textured expanses, TPG's main operator exploits the whole melodic potential of Zlykh's original, bringing its anthemic power to further completion beautifully. More on the dubby end of things, Youthman adds his uniquely vibey touch to the main cut, deftly navigating betwixt a classic deep house kinda vibe, post-rave'y electronics and a Basic Channel-esque sound spectrum, which all in all should have people instinctively clapping their hands as their mind begins to sink into a weirdly introspective sense of euphoria.