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"Matasuna Records" has found another musical treat from the African continent for its latest release - a song by the Ghanaian musician "Mawuli Decker". It was released in 1983 on the rare and sought-after album "Ayo Special" and is available for the first time as a 7inch vinyl single, which is supplemented by an edit from "Renegades Of Jazz". The esteemed London label "Kalita Records" was able to provide the audio material for new masters and is also acting as music publisher with the new "Kalita Music Publishing".

Mawuli Decker was born in 1949 in Ghana, where he also grew up. His musicality has been given to him from an early age, so that he not only attracts attention as a singer, but also plays drums, percussion and bongo. He played in various dance bands, which were very popular in Ghana especially from the middle of the last century onwards and made the Ghanaian highlife known beyond the borders. He has played in various dance bands such as New Planets, Sawaaba Sounds, The Tops, Caprice 73, The Volta Pioneers and others, which have performed in Ghana and other West African countries.
His first release was in 1975 with the band "Dzobi Soundz" on the Polydor label. Further releases of projects with his participation followed, until 1983 when he recorded his album "Ayo Special" at "Otodi Studio" in Lome (Togo) with an illustrious group of musicians.
He is still deeply rooted in music and performs in West Africa and is still very active in recording.

On the A-side is the original version of the song "Lololi-Lomko", sung in the "EWE" language, which is spoken in the south of Ghana as well as the southern parts of Togo. "Lololi" means "There's Still More Love" and "Lomko" stands for "Please love me" - classical themes that have appeared in countless songs in music history. Although a certain catchiness of the track cannot be denied, it doesn't seem cheesy at any point. Mawuli, who also contributes the vocals, creates perfectly formed harmonies through his compositions and arrangements, which are especially apparent in the bassline, guitars & brass and of course the vocals.

This was certainly also the idea behind the edit of "Renegades of Jazz" on the B-side, which did not want to break up and alienate the organic composition. Listening closely reveals the approach: a steady tempo, a more powerful bassline and additional drums and percussions bring the song back directly to where it belongs: to the dancefloors of this world!

'Oblique is one of only two quartet sessions the great vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson recorded for Blue Note (the classic Happenings being the other).
Both albums featured the seminal pianist Herbie Hancock and drum master Joe Chambers, with the only variable in the line-up here being bassist Albert Stinson. Hutcherson’s breezy opener “‘Til Then,” Hancock’s tremendous “Theme From Blow Up,” and Chambers’ adventurous “Oblique” are standouts of a session that, taken as a whole, is an incredible journey from hard bop grooves to exploratory sonic tone poems. Recorded in 1967, the album wasn’t first released until 1979.

CoOp Presents an all-new double-album compilation entitled 'Plug One'. It features a plethora of global talent from in & around the world of bruk and beyond - some already well-established in the field, some very much on the come-up and some brand new artists - this compilation is an acknowledgment of a continually evolving sound from the label formed by IG Culture & Alex Phountzi a few years ago. 'Plug One' affirms this electric movement, with a deeply fluid current running throughout, with tracks ranging from the cosmic psych jazz of LCSM, to the classic UKG tweaks of Groove Chronicles, to the thought-provoking vibes of Reginald Omas Mamaode IV, to a veritable who's who of 2020 bruk talent including Xtra Brux, Sivey, EVM128, Cengiz, Wonky Logic & many more.

From its beginnings as a classic club night and label in the early 2000's, CoOp always carried an undefinable and potent creative energy. A sense of freedom and uninhibited exploration was positioned at the core of CoOp's sprawling community and consciousness, communicated via movement and sound. From this seed and throughout the years that followed, this same energy permeated the worldwide underground music ecosystem. As CoOp's legacy continued to influence new generations of music makers far and wide. The syncopated rhythms, soulful keys and infectious grooves synonymous with the broken beat sound, now known simply as Bruk, became entwined with new concepts and progressions, leading to new movements carrying on the essence of the bruk energy.

IG Culture and Alex Phountzi took the helm of their CoOp Presents label in 2018, with the vision of championing these new waves of emerging artists, continuing the all-important exchange of energy at the heart of the original CoOp movement, but also giving room for the music to be pushed into new and uncharted territories. With burgeoning producers from around the globe being drawn to the explorative and expressive nature of the project, an incubator was created, providing a space and platform for these ideals to take on new shapes and sounds. Just as every generation must rewrite its own history books, CoOp Presents was born from a combination of influences, ideas and personalities, and in turn is now encouraging the next generation to do some re-writing of its own.

'Plug One' will be released on vinyl & digital on CoOp Presents in November 2020.

Six years before the release of his landmark Mother Earth’s Plantasia LP, composer and arranger Mort Garson met experimental film director Skip Sherwood, who was interested in an electronic score for his new movie, Didn’t You Hear?

While not much is known now about the exact nature of their collaboration, Here's Garson’s magnificent score as a record of those heady, early days after his life-changing discovery of the Moog synthesizer. Notable for being one of the earliest screen appearances by a young Gary Busey, Didn’t You Hear? also boasts one of the first-ever all-electronic movie scores. Though the score was first released in 1970, it sounds as adventurous and futuristic today as it must have then.

Daniel Maunick returns with a new EP, Musica Encantada via Far Out Recordings. Continuing the theme of his debut album Macumba Quebrada – which saw support from the likes of Moodymann, Ron Trent, Gilles Peterson, and Benji B – Maunick draws on the deep-rooted Brazilian influences from the many years he has spent in the country, producing records with Azymuth, Marcos Valle, Sabrina Malheiros and Ivan 'Mamão' Conti.

The bossa-jazz house smash ‘Black Magic’ stays exclusive to the vinyl, while the percussive deep-house roller ‘A Chance To See Again’, the tight and groovy ‘Hurt Feelings’, and the slow-mo Brazilian Balearic ‘Africana’ will all see a limited vinyl and digital release on the 23rd October 2020.

Recorded between 1985 and 1987, this album brings together the two founders and leading performers of candombe-beat, Ruben Rada and Eduardo Mateo. They hadn´t collaborated in a project since 1969. Both artists had reached their creative prime, with Mateo having released “Cuerpo y Alma” and Rada, “La yapla mata” (which included the classic song ‘Tengo un candombe para Gardel’). 140 gram vinyl with OBI & Insert



This initiative sprang from the artists themselves. But when it was time to create, they rarely got together in the studio, preferring to work on their own. Once finished, the album failed to make an impact, since neither of them promoted it.

This revival brings that semi-hidden treasure to light. It includes two tracks of the artists strictly performing a duet, the only recordings of Mateo and Rada working alongside each other and no one else. It also contains two additional tracks where you can relish Rada accompanied by Mateo’s guitar and Mateo backed by Rada’s percussion. It includes a track where Mateo commands the instruments (as in Mateo solo bien se lame) and another with Rada’s solo on vocals and percussion. There are instances when Rada’s band of that moment and “super-group” (with Osvaldo Nolé on keyboards, Ricardo Lew on electric guitar, Urbano on the bass and Osvaldo Fattoruso on drums), makes an appearance. Sometimes, Urbano comes forth as lead singer, completing the triad of singers of “El Kinto”. All excellent songs.

This album is exceptional and one-of-a-kind, an overflow of talent, musicality, swing, imagination, rhythm, spark, and transcendence.

Guilherme de Alencar Pinto

180g clear marbled vinyl + stamped sleeve + inside out printed cover

Mood of departure presents the 50th release of ORNAMENTS. "Roadmap" LP is crossing borders,
forests, mountains and deep atmospheres on a trip of finest electronics from the past and today
combined with recordings of destructions.

Some Previous here

Resident Advisor

German label Ornaments Music is putting out its 50th release, Mood Of Departure's Roadmap.

The album comprises twelve tracks of melodic ambient and trip-hop, and is due out next month. The LP will be pressed up on marbled vinyl on November 6th, while the digital album is slated for November 23rd release.

This summer, Ornaments Music put out Assemblage, a dub techno collaborative project from Paul St. Hilaire and Rhauder.

Groove MAG

„Man soll die Feste feiern wie sie fallen.” Hachja – 2020 ist wirklich vieles anders. Sogar manche Lebensweisheiten treffen in diesem Jahr nicht mehr zu, wie sie das noch letztes taten. Zum Glück dürfen wir uns aber über eines umso mehr freuen, über tonnenweise neue Musik. So feiert unter anderem Ornaments Music Release-Jubiläum. Das Berliner Label bereichert seit 2008 mit Künstlern wie Marko Fürstenberg, The Analog Roland Orchestra und Rhauder die Dubtechno-Sparte mit maßgeblichen musikalischen Beiträgen. Mit dem 50. Release Roadmap beschreitet Ornaments nun neue Wege und veröffentlicht ein emotionales Album, dass sich irgendwo zwischen Ambient und Electronica wiederfindet.

Mood Of Departure heißt die Person, die dieses Werk vollbracht hat. Wer dahinter steckt bleibt vorerst geheim. Nur soviel sei gesagt. Es ist nicht ihr erstes. Oder seines? Weil es nur spärliche Informationen über den/die Künstler*in gibt, stehen die einzelnen Stücke ohne Personenkult oder seitenlange Lobeshymnen an erster Stelle. Und wenn man mal ehrlich ist, gibt es schon genug Ablenkung in der heutigen Zeit. Durch das Intro des Albums, durch „Scan”, wird sofort deutlich, dass es sich hier nicht wie gewohnt um ein klassisches Dancefloor-Album handelt. Die Stimme der Sängerin, die auch in einigen weiteren der insgesamt zwölf Stücke vorkommt, verleiht dem Track eher Band- statt Producer-Charakter. Ein sanfter Ambient-Teppich aus luftigen Flächen und wiederhalendem Gesang wird durch simple aber präzise Hip Hop-Beats fortgetragen, und man ist nach dieser Einführung gespannt, was noch folgt.

Faze MAG

Mit dem Debütalbum „Roadmap“ von Mood Of Departure veröffentlicht das Label Ornaments sein 50. Release!

2008 startete das Label, das bekannt ist für sein marmoriertes Vinyl, mit einer EP von Marko Fürstenberg, Acts wie youANDme, Sascha Dive, The Analog Roland Orchestra, Steve Bug oder zuletzt Rhauder & Paul St. Hilaire haben hier auch ihre Spuren hinterlassen.

After his first appearance on the „Plankton“ Compilation (BK014 July 2020) frankfurt based Dan Bay signed his first solo EP on Bunte Kuh. The „Fieser Niesel“ EP will be released on Vinyl and as a digital edition including 2 bonus tracks. Dan is also performing as a DJ or liveact with E-drum - he already released on Laut & Luise, Wayu Records, Leveldva, Finebeatz and Heimlich Musik. The EP also introduces the iconic female DJane Krystyna - the former Robert Johnson resident is giving her debut as a producer.
The first track „Reise ins Universum“ is a dreamy journey thru his universe of minimalistic music - endless, relaxing and trippy. The title track „Fieser Niesel“ is way more rolling with dark basslines and short bleeps - an overall great dancefloor workout. Next is AVEM´s Remix of „Reise ins Universum“ - Boris (who already released on Underyourskin, LOKD and Heimlich) added his unique signature - a fabolous 9 minute adventure full of melodies & deep grooves.
Benjamin Fehr - a berlin based active producer since 15+ years - treated „Fieser Niesel“ and maybe this track is the surprise of the EP - a glitchy & bleepy adventure that follows the roots of good old Robag Wruhme Tracks. „Jimi Nagel“ is the first out of 2 digital only tunes - something for the early after hours while „123“ is more suitable for the real club hours.

East London record shop World of Echo debuts on the other side of the counter with a reissue of Two Wishes, the solitary 12" by Anglo-German collective, Mutabor!. Seemingly lost to time, Mutabor! were first brought to World of Echo's attention when drummer/singer, Gary Asquith, played at the shop's first birthday celebrations while promoting one of his other bands, Rema Rema. And so the story goes...

Mutabor! emerged wraith-like from the monochromatic grit of Berlin's art punk underground late in 1981 when Asquith left London to set up temporary residence in the city following a chance meeting with Malaria's Bettina Koster backstage at a Birthday Party gig at the Lyceum earlier that year. Beguiled by the possibilities of collaboration, musical and otherwise, he was soon to make his own contributions to what was an already fecund scene. Partnering with Koster, and Gudrun Gut and Manon Duursma also of Malaria!, Mutabor! were publicly birthed via an impromptu performance at punk rock polestar the Risiko. Asquith found himself playing percussion in what would be a first, while the rest of the band ossified in front of him in typically idealistic post-punk democracy. Little documentation of the performance survives beyond that which exists in the memories of those playing - that itself shaky enough - though there was clearly sufficient encouragement for them to commit to a recording session.

Later that winter, the four booked time at Music Lab, the studio operated by Harris Johns, for what would ultimately be their only studio visit. Two songs were laid to tape, and soon after a photoshoot was to take place at Koster's flat, resulting in a handful of images that, along with the music, comprise the sum total evidence of the band's existence. 1001 Nights and Treats both found their way to Peter Kent, a co-founder of 4AD who had recently left the label with the ambition of starting his own imprint. Entitled Two Wishes, the two track 12" was to be the first and only release on Loaded. It seems that Mutabor! were to represent a series of firsts and lasts, a trend that continues now as they open the World of Echo imprint.

It's fitting to think of Mutabor! in these prescient terms given how they sounded. Berlin at that time shared a spiritual axis with New York, the conceptual & aesthetic discordance of no wave and a nascent off-beat dance culture underpinning much of the respective creative activity. There are shared signifiers, but even in that context, Two Wishes sounds oddly out of step, moving to its own unusual rhythm. 1001 Nights stutters along on a tribal beat that seems to run independent of skronking sax, spidery guitar lines and deadpan vocal incantations, the ghosts of two songs meeting in some kind of incompatible voodoo union. On the reverse, Treats slows down and dims the lights further, as Asquith sardonically recites desirous threats as an increasingly malevolent sax and guitar grinds behind him. No surprise the darkness within the music given the parent bands and the backdrop of a crepuscular early 80s Berlin, though there remains a complex compositional element to these songs that suggests a broader spectrum of emotion - desire, romance, and ultimately, infinite possibility.

Recut and mastered, Two Wishes is now presented with the original front cover artwork alongside additional imagery, including a 16 page booklet, all culled from Asquith's own archive. A brief bolt of energy at a crucial juncture in music history, Mutabor!'s story is emblematic of the mutli-verse of post-punk and the creativity its ideology necessitated.

5LP Boxset featuring classic tracks from across the catalogue of reggae’s greatest superstar.

Nous'klaer Audio is proud to present the new concept album by Koraal: La Casa del Volcan. A voyage of nine tracks echoing the spectacular landscape of Lanzarote, from damp, fathomless caves to deserted planes of volcanic rock, from a solitary palm tree to a fertile oasis. Intense, spacial atmospheres and reverberating drums combined with dark textures and dubby rhythms. All written and produced in chronological order in November 2019 by Oriol Riverola, in a three-night session on the island. The album cover comes in eight different versions with pictures taken by Oriol during his stay there. Heavy weight sleeve and vinyl.

It's been four years since Sweatbox Dynasty, the fourth solo LP from Pennsylvanian experimentalist TOBACCO. In that time, Tom Fec's project has toured with Nine Inch Nails, provided the theme song to HBO series Silicon Valley, and teamed with Aesop Rock for a collaborative album as Malibu Ken. He now returns to Ghostly International for Hot Wet & Sassy, a full-length album oozing with his most playful and approachable songs to date, which, conversely, express notions of antilove, self-hate, and disappointment in others. Pop impulses have always surged beneath the surface of his sound - blown-out bass, analog synths, drum machines, and Fec's unmistakable analog gurgle and hiss - here they've bubbled to the top. "I feel like it's the most I've been able to refine what I'm doing," says Fec. "For the past decade I've had this motherfxcker on my shoulder that makes me pick away at structure and melody. Purposely covering up moments because I can. That really came to a peak on Sweatbox. So I wanted the opposite this time. Write the songs without ripping them in half. I went from 'what would the Butthole Surfers do?' to 'what would Cyndi Lauper do?'" And what would Trent Reznor do? Fec found his answer straight from the source. Their collaborative track, "Babysitter," fuses their voices into one deranged presence: "I'm the new babysitter," they alert, before pivoting into a menacingly saccharine bridge. The track tumbles on a tom fill, then a punishing synth line rips into a cacophony of drums and feedback like a lawnmower gnawing through the living room carpet. "This was new for me, but I wanted to write a song that was everything I am and have been, and then like one notch further. Trent was the notch further," adds Fec. The collaboration is a work of alchemy seamlessly blending TOBACCO's trademarks with Reznor's industrial rust and sonic gore. Downcast, sincere, woozy, "Jinmenken" might be the closest Fec has come to a ballad. "Maybe you can find me down the line," his vocoded delivery bounces along the beat. "It's me trying to write a Jets song," says Fec. Album opener "Centaur Skin" presents the stylistic concoction that has been the TOBACCO MO from the beginning, crossing dreamy melodic shimmer with the sinister tones and slime. This has become easier to digest, but also far more potent. A motorik beat steadies the track's galloping arpeggio, acting as a springboard for Fec's dark ruminations as well as an uncharacteristically crystalline synth solo. "It's my feel good self hate anthem. Don't worry, I'm good. It was fun to write." TOBACCO hasn't been reinvented, but it has been refined and distilled. Brighter, sharper, and far more dangerous because of it. Hot Wet & Sassy is practically staring at the sun without shades and feeling those corneas roast. Everything looks good as your vision fades. The pop-forward structures exert their undeniable hooks with baneful precision, pulling listeners into their clutches; once there, sugary melody rewards submission.

Somewhere over western Europe, an un-identified falling object crashed landed causing a massive bang, and a ginormous Banana shaped smoke cloud. Frederic, a local artistic young chap was so inspired by this hilariously funny giant cloud that covered the whole sky as far as he could see; he ran indoors to take cover, and wrote a little summer step d&b beat, called 'Laughing at Clouds' - which seemed to draw a lot of attention. Out of the studio window, Frederic could see what seemed to be a pink giraffe giving it some serious head-nodding action. By the second drop Leonard (The pink giraffe) was dancing so heavily that he caused a small tremor somewhere over in the states, where young up & coming producer Melo seemed to pick up the transmission. While in his sonic laboratory he managed to transfer his latest project (Affirmation) through the current, where Frederic decided to make his first remix project, which pretty much made Leonard pass out after all the summer stepping....

Between Christmas 2000 and New Year 2001 producers Ekkehard Ehlers and Stephan Mathieu recorded an album of warm, soft, delicately crackling electronic music in the space of that week. It was christened with the ambivalent title "Heroin" and was released on CD via the label Brombron in 2001 and later in 2003 re-issued on Kit Clayton's Orthlorng Musork on double-LP with remixes the pair had commissioned as expansions.

17 years later Heroin sees its first vinyl release to include all 13 tracks from the original CD track-list on this LP + 12“ set. The centerpiece "Herz" finally receives its long deserved vinyl treatment (side C, at 45rpm) and on the flip side Thomas Brinkmann contributes a mirror in a magnificent remix of that very piece on side D.

Ehlers and Mathieu were both highly prolific solo artists during the period 2000-2004, and in just two years after the initial release of "Heroin" each had produced over half a dozen new solo recordings: among them the serial masterpiece Ehlers' "Plays" (Cornelius Cardew, Hurbert Fichte, John Cassavetes, Albert Ayler, Robert Johnson) released as 5 stunning LPs in a series on Staubgold, while Mathieu's 'Full Swing Edits' spread over five 10" records plus his album 'FrequencyLib' on Mille Plateaux, 'Die Entdeckung des Wetters' on Lucky Kitchen and ‘The Sad Mac’ on Atsushi Sasaki’s Headz label were greeted to critical acclaim.

Both artists were expanding their conceptual sonic approaches in the glow of developing laptop technologies which would to these times in 2020 seem quite primitive, but these two in that period used the state-of-the-art to aid and abet their conceptual visions, while at times the duo used unorthodox experimentation - yet always had a distinctively melodic and musical form at its heart and soul.

Ehlers can be seen as a conceptualist, as a meta-musician who interrogates the mediums and methods of sound production - reflecting on the conditions and possibilities of improvisation (e.g. "Plays Albert Ayler") and exploits ideas of mutation and distortion of popular aesthetics played out within a ghostly form of divine pop beauty in his project März.

Mathieu, originally a drummer and co-founder of what has come to be known as the Berlin 'Echtzeitmusik' scene. His approach could be similarly described as working a critical analyst and researcher: Subtly and precisely working in the realm of processing as a method of intervening in melodious/harmonic analog sound sources.

Ehlers and Mathieu may not think too much about their singular productions and publications outcomes, but instead concentrate on the process and musical personality that characterizes their gesture- style itself stays in the background - and they usher a music from small minimal sound sources coaching a patient music of slow intervention - much like a refraction of light than a concrete painting or a blurred photograph - beatus accident.

And indeed, "Heroin" is an album that embraces the happy accident being made up of reduced, often very catchy and very direct micro hooks which seem laser-guided into a space accepting obvious melodic beauty in what feels like an observation of musics unfolding and revealing it's DNA, embed with for a kind of yearning for innocence and naiveté - as if Satie were on the jukebox in "The Crying of Lot 49". Not to say the music is "reduced", but rather: 'restricted' and born from acceptance of limitations, and the artists allowing the sounds to just "be.." with some incremental degrees of coercion.

The album not only sounds like that of 2 producers who are both dreamers and scientists, but that Ehlers and Mathieu chose to work with these means in a dialogue together to reduce pop music to its musical/tonal core, it is not Pop music anymore, rather a ghostly pointilistic itteration of song. "Heroin" is located at this transition, around that point at which tracks, that were or could have become pop compositions, irrevocably slip into a static harmonic nirvana. We are invited to follow the arch of Heroin in a slow-motion morphine musical haze.

Heroin sounded timeless when originally released and proof is that it remains so, one wishes that Ehlers and Mathieu would convene again for a week, a month or an entire year to continue this process of slow rumination, picking affectionately over the sounds they both love - and then maybe when everything is condensed, evaporated they would write more songs with those sonic refractive elements that remain.

What does a contemporary album mean to us? Marc Pinol and Hugo Capablanca asked themselves this question when faced with the challenge of recording their first C.P.I. LP. To find the answer they went back to some of the most important records in their lives and listened to them from start to finish. At a time when the whole concept of an album might be at its lowest ebb for decades, they wanted to return to the old way of telling stories, recreating the notion of a narrative "journey" but doing so in their own original manner. 'Alianza' displays a wide range of emotions through only a few elements. There are no structures, barely any drums. It's a puzzling journey that moves through darkness and light, happiness and despair, hope and menace, as it unveils its own mysterious universe. Every track is a world in its own, yet all of them are linked by an invisible energy that reflects a coherent constellation. To achieve this, Hugo and Marc used a broad array of vocal timbres, including their own drone-treated voices, digitized vocals from an old vector synth, and those of several contributors. Most of the sounds on the album come from digital devices, as they wanted to "prove themselves" in the studio "by doing something as warm as we could while trying to avoid analogue if possible? The major part of 'Alianza' was recorded during the spring of 2018 in Barcelona, with further takes and additions recorded in Berlin, New York, Los Angeles and Switzerland. It features contributions from Spacemen 3's Will Carruthers, Tanja Siren, Veronica Vasicka, Anna Homler, Demetrio Martini and Pablo Sanchez. The album was mastered by Gordon Pohl in Dusseldorf. The artwork is by Dominic Brucia and features a picture by Tanja Siren. The album was created with the support of The Richard Thomas Foundation.

At the heart of Christian Stadsgaard's solo project Vanity Productions is a voracious emotive charge that's forever tempered by an austere and self-disciplined approach to composition. His new album for Posh Isolation, the label and project that he authors with Loke Rahbek, is the most thoroughgoing realisation of the tendencies and processes captured in the guise of Vanity Productions to date. Entitled 'But All Spiked,' the album presents a suite of five pieces that veer surely yet subtly through a complimentary range of acousmatic environments. Of his recent works its perhaps 'Only The Stars Come Out At Night' that most resembles a preliminary route in to the arena of his new album. Sometimes overtly, though often with a cryptic veneer, he modulates a central refrain across each piece that comes to engulf the stereo field with different intentions. Citing the influence of American minimalist composers, Stadsgaard has refigured some of the compositional practices towards his particular context and oeuvre. A medley of strings and electronics waver in and out of place on the opening piece, 'White Ribbons On The Ceiling,' introducing the careful preparation and treatment of sound as a means of articulating a profound though compassionate melancholy. The album is drenched in sorrow and seeks its expression with great economy. And it's around this detail that there's perhaps some slight indication of the album's turbulent personal context and the major life changes that underpin it. Stadsgaard's restraint proposes a wealth of wistful invocations. This control, once combined with the subdued presence of his penchant for glaring noise, is what organises 'But All Spiked' into the meditative and dynamic work that it is.

Two years in the making, Future Ruins, TOM And His Computer’s debut album, will be released on Trentemøller’s In My Room label in October 20th. As a 20 year veteran of the Copenhagen music scene, Thomas Bertelsen has been releasing music under the sobriquet of TOM And His Computer for five years, merging the newest technologies with the old, while squeezing fresh sounds out of equipment that’s not only obsolete, sometimes it’s barely functioning at all. “I switch back and forth between the digital and the analog worlds. I’ll utilize old guitar pedals as well as the newest software,” says Thomas Bertelsen, producer behind TOM And His Computer. “It’s never about the gear, though, but rather finding that one little sound that can trigger an idea for an entire track.” Future Ruins was also co-produced and mixed by Trentemøller. While previous offerings have taken listeners to the outer boundaries of what can be considered “electronic music,” including nods to dark wave, dream pop, krautrock and modern psych rock, Future Ruins presents those influences in a new way and represents a great leap forward for the Copenhagen based producer.
The result is a genre-less collection of songs showcasing TOM’s obsession with propelling sounds of the past into the present, and future, combining noise and edginess with his “commitment to fresh ideas with a clear sense of melodies,” according to Clash Magazine. “My tastes are eclectic and I like to flirt with many different sub genres,” says TOM. “The aim was to combine various styles while trying to maintain a common denominator,” which committing to a full-length offered as an opportunity.

To close the 3 EP reissue series of Neville King and Lee Laing's King & City label, the all female group Charisma are presented with their summer infused Lovers cut, Everything Is Fine.

Three Lewisham friends, Angela Richardson on lead vocals, with Geselle and Janie backing, were active from 1982 to 1990, but are really remembered for the early recordings made with Neville King. Their debut, Everything Is Fine rides the Lovers sound at its peak. Written with One Blood's Lloyd Robinson, with the rest of band of Robinson brothers providing the rhythm section, this is pure South London sound system music.

Recorded again at TMC (Tooting Music Centre) Recording Studios - working alongside the likes of Dillinger, Tradition and New Musik - Everything Is Fine rides a beautiful soul reggae rhythm as Trevor (Drums) and Lloyd (Bass) Robinson set the foundations, while One Blood provide the Dub mix.

A true love's lament, a song of hope, serenity and pure vibes. Label head Chuggy slides behind the mixing desk for an extended Discomix that stretches, loops and dubs the vocal and dub back forth, to close a glimpse at this uniquely British phenomenon, taking reggae closer to it's heart and soul.

RICO PUESTEL debuts on his TIME IN THE SPECIAL PRACTICE OF RELATIVITY label with a mind-boggling journey of 41 minutes — split in two parts to fit on vinyl! HEPTAKAIDEKA is what it won't be and will be what it never was: Something from in-between worlds, a place beyond far beyond, where time dissolves into relativity...

Every modern electronic music presenter should be able to find joyful, elevated, convulsing or simply useful moments within the extent of this track that is designed to have its inherent connecting factors and starting points in place for every DJ set — letting it be just a few minutes, well-placed groove looping or bigger amounts of its entirety for diving into a long night, bringing it to an end or making it standing out in-between.

Starting off with a hazy half-grasp hint of what's to come, a mysteriously pervasive bionic loop emerges, slowly coalescing with a bone-dry groove on the rise. Taking up a first quadrant of the track, already gnawing into the long-term memory, it manages to gradually establish itself along the pathway while the "rhythmatics" endure some subtle layer-shifting with occult-like strings come sliding in from somewhere unknown like an admonitory subtext.

Being halfway through (and all the way in), everything smoothly crumbles down to its basic framework, still shaking off its own reminiscences while foregone vestiges almost perilously try to reassemble themselves. All of that leading to a clearly unforeseen yet fortunate drift into a 1980's-like synth peak time section after about 27 minutes being in that track, finally cherishing an evolving emotional felicity and the climax of its own being that tends to feel like an overarching salvation.

As everything being eventually finite, the track starts to bring to mind where it came from by assuredly falling back into a story told before with the well-established bionic loop that once used to run free, sounding somehow different and more tamed now. Ending with dignity, the consistently resurfaced admonitory strings lead the way to its conclusion and possibly new beginnings, solely leaving behind the heartbeat-like booming that carried it all, now fading away...

Coming into existence during a series of multiple productions of exuberant proportions with Rico making the studio his citadel-like stronghold, this is an extensive story of desires, instincts, pride, fall, mirth, solicitude, tension, détente and basically life itself while subtly yet versatilely entertaining on a dodgy yet accessible level throughout the wingspread of Techno, House, Minimal, Dub, Electronica and Ambient influences.

The CD version not only brings you the title track in the guise of its non-split completeness but eminently churns out the extra drumming dub treat DEKAEPTA for a pleasurable groove-delight as well as the trippy bonus beauty VOSEM' that transits as a precious component of infinity.

Fragile X is an exciting new collaboration between vocalist Inga Schunn and producer Dylan Chase.

The group began in 2019 when Schunn posted an iPhone voice recording on Facebook in which she sang an acapella in her native German. Her friend Chase, who was recording and releasing at that time as Caffeine Worldwide, heard the 30-second clip and immediately asked Schunn, at that time only an acquaintance, if she might like to record something. Neither of them realised at the time that the first sessions would lead to a debut 4-track EP that capably references as many styles as most full-length albums from established artists, while also setting a blueprint for a project that could go anywhere from here.

The opening track alone, 'Lifetime', opens with a woozy blend of UKG rhythms and Royksopp synths, before giving way to Schunn's sedate rendition of Daniel Johnston's 'Some Things Last A Long Time'...basically the years 1990-2002 distilled into 5 furious minutes of 5am energy.

Across the whole release, Chase's productions show the same cinematic flair that made his previous releases on French Press Lounge, Third Try and Human Concrete Block must-haves for your late-night record bag.
A2 'Prix' with the kind of R&S attitude that would make forebears like LFO or Lone proud, could be the soundtrack for an illegal outback rave or a sunset drive over a Big Sur overpass.
The album closer, 'Fragile X Theme,” sounds something like if late 90's Bjork was commissioned to soundtrack the movie Hackers with Akai samplers on loan from the Hartnoll brothers.

The whole release may be overshadowed by the B1, 'Karaoke Girl', a track Schunn and Chase wrote in Mexico City in 2019 after a rough night at a Zona Rosa karaoke bar.
Opening with dripping synths as soft and inviting as the last drink before sunrise, Schunn tells a story of a woman who overstays her invite at an intimate birthday party between friends, taking the mic from the birthday girl and singing "Seal, Rush and Kate Bush" with a "death grip on the mic."
It's a bizarre, vivid song for such new artists to have come up with, and the lyrics are underpinned by Chase's equally adventurous combination of Nordic disco elements with heavily treated bursts of Japanese koto.
The Lifetime EP's title is a reference to the laborious process that it took to make the record, with multiple recording sessions across two countries followed by endless edits and a Covid 19 related vinyl slowdown bringing its release to a crawl.
The record itself is a fast-paced, dopamine rush debut that we are proud to share with you as both the culmination of a long process, and the beginning of a strange new story.

Three years after their last collaboration “Lost in the Moment”, part of Darius’ debut album Utopia, the French producer and Nigerian born future soul artist Wayne Snow unveil their stellar single “Equilibrium”.

The message of unity has never felt more relevant than the times we are living through right now. This project composed one year ago, serves as a stark reminder that we can all transcend above our differences and connect through the experience of music together, regardless of colour and race.

The undeniable synergy of both artists create a harmony magnified by the richness of their diverse cultures and musical background.

The beat instantly catches us in a warm and arresting atmosphere. The main melody reveals an uptempo rhythm gently interwoven in Wayne Snow’ emotive voice, born in Nigeria, living in Berlin in preparation for his next album. His lyrics infuse a carefree candor, which only suggests love and euphoria, fruit of an universal balance and a collective caring energy.

After multiple collaborations among “Helios” or the “Nightbirds” improvised live project (feat. FKJ and Crayon), the two artists reunite once again on “Equilibrium”. Heady and joyful, only few seconds are enough to form a timeless memory and make this track an instant classic. Darius holds Wayne’s powerful vocals, which travel through the composition as gospel pipe dreams. His Funk and Disco influences, embodied by his heart-warming and dynamic groove reminds us of his iconic project Romance (2014). Driven by a festive and upbeat energy, Darius finally renews himself with a return to his musical roots, whilst Wayne Snow steps up towards an audacious expression and a peek into his forthcoming artist album.

Lovers of pastel and retro aesthetics, we find the artist’s aesthetic language elevated through an impressive video treatment by the esteemed French director Alice Kong set for release on July 23rd. The audio release will precede a week earlier on July 16th, part of his forthcoming project.

Reissue of this long lost funky Afrobeat/Reggae classic from 1978
For fans of Fela Kuti, Peter Tosh, Bob Marley, Segun Bucknor

The year is 1978 and one hot thing from the musical underground is Reggae music from Jamaica, the USA or the UK, where most of the acts had musicians of Caribbean descent. Reggae had the groove, the rebel spirit, and the relaxed attitude all in one, to enchant a big part of the world’s inhabitants. And while at least Jamaica as a relatively poor and so-called "Third World“ country proved to spawn Reggae acts of the highest quality, literally nobody dared to look further and dig deeper into the underground except of a few maniacs who were not satisfied with spinning Marley over and over again. And maybe they stumbled over the 1970s Afro Beat sound from countries like Zambia or Nigeria and then got interested. What did they find in the simmering metropolises of this still mysterious continent? Somewhere in Nigeria, they would have certainly caught a glimpse of mind-blowing performances of The Sea Lions, a six-piece group mixing the then hip Reggae and Afro Beat styles to generate fresh and furious music with a hypnotizing atmosphere.



Polyrhythmic beat patterns build the foundation, the utterly fruitful soil for the heartwarming melodies wailed out by the guitars and the commanding vocals with their conjuring charm. Great organ work builds the link between the groove section and the melody instruments. You can imagine what a pleasant experience this band might have been live back in 1978 when their sole album "Free The People“ got released. And this album, of which copies in only good conditions already fetch prices of $450, while nice clean pieces might go up to $1200, lives up to the expectations one might have from watching a live show by the Sea Lions. The sound is vivid, transparent, powerful, and clean enough to make the music a real pleasure listening to, but earthy enough to present nothing but the band going wild here. The songs all have a similar pace, not too fast, but swinging and pulsating to spread their energy to and among the listeners. The melodies are simple but come from the depth of the heart. This feels typical for African 70s music and despite being kind of reduced, these melodies keep haunting you still even hours after the record been taken off the turntable and put back into its sleeve. They bring images of an ever pulsating city by night, warm climate, palm trees, people at the bar, a witches cauldron of sounds, smells, voice, and pictures. And you feel the magic floating through the air while this groove will not let you go so easily.

You can either dance your soul out to this ultimate reissue or you can sit down, listen and let the music tell you a story of the dark corners of the big city, the narrow alleys that lead you into a boiling labyrinth of mystical dreams. And in songs like "You Can Make It If You Try“ you will find the whole magic of the African world, a world so fascinating for us Europeans but still so unapproachable in some ways and dangerous for the weak. Do not try to resist, this is your pleasure. Grab a copy and the Sea Lions will carry you off to their place. I haven’t heard such a killer Afro Beat and Reggae album with songs this exciting and wild in a long time. If you equally love Peter Tosh, Bob Marley, Segun Bucknor, and Fela Kuti, look no further. Here is the spiritual essence of all these great artists merged into one giant act.

An Gleann Dubh continue to disregard trends to focus on their own thing on Full Dose, presenting an enriching 3 track EP where the listener is submerged in futuristic contrasts, with respect given to the drum in a way that it has been done for thousands of years. '

Motus is more (to me) than just music made with analogue synthesizers, it is about attitude, a way of relating to sound and the (e)motion it affects. A lifestyle, where movement, being moved and moving become one. My practice is vibrational, about the skin, touch and surfaces and the gaseous medium in between. I dream of a dance floor where Motus would be enjoyed. What kind of world, or rather, what kind of society would allow that? And when? Is this futuristic? A situation-to-come, where the understanding of music expands greatly, when blissful moments are independent of simple melodies, where harmony appears beyond I-V-vi-IV chord progressions, when the techniques of social alienation, which determine the use of all the drugs that accompany recreational music, are reversed into creative tools of exploration. ‘Motus’ is part of this exploration: to find dance, free of clock, and groove, free of rhythm. There is pulsation, and the downbeat connects to the downward beings as in stones and minerals, the upbeat connects to the upward beings as in grasses, flowers, trees and stars. Binding both together, connecting sky and earth, is the dancer. The moves / the movement is pure. It is the kiss of spirit and matter.” (Thomas Köner)

„Gianmarco Liguori has created his own fascinating niche in music which exists at a place where jazz, soundtracks and improvised art music intersect … mesmerising, sometimes eerily ambient … grounded in electronica soundtracks, experimental Miles Davis of the Seventies, slightly funky Eighties jazz-rock with a nod to minimalism and impressionism … Albums by Liguori offer the indefinable and stand at some distance from just about everything else going on in New Zealand music.”
Graham Reid, NZ Herald

Duga-3, composed and produced by New Zealand-based multi-instrumentalist Gianmarco Liguori, was originally released in 2011 in an edition of 200 copies. The album quickly sold out, with original copies sought after by collectors and fans of Murray McNabb and Kim
Paterson (who appear on the LP), both pioneers of jazz rock in New
Zealand in the early 1970s.

Co-producer Murray McNabb (1947-2013), keyboardist with legendary NZ jazz rock group, Dr Tree in the
1970s, recorded his album Song For The Dreamweaver with ECM artists
Ron McLure and Adam Nussbaum in New York (1990), and had performed with the
likes of Don Cherry, Ed Blackwell, Charlie Haden, Joe Henderson and Sam Rivers. He
was also a top-tier composer/arranger for film, television and radio.

The Games new album - Born 2 Rap - gets a limited 3LP unoffical Record Store Day release!
• ***PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS A NON-DISCOUNTED TITLE***
• The Game, two-time GRAMMY® Award nominated multiplatinum Compton rapper, songwriter, producer,
actor, and entrepreneur. He locked down a place in the pantheon alongside greats of both coasts by a
combination of bar-for-bar bravado, provocative observation, hard-hitting hooks, and sharp introspection.
And now the prolific rapper returns with his 9th album fittingly titled, Born 2 Rap. Collaborated on the
album with artists such as Ed Sheeran, Miguel, Anderson .Paak, Nipsey Hussle, 21 Savage, Bryson Tiller,
Chris Brown, Trey Songz, and many more.
• The Game’s prior album 1992 debuted #1 on Billboard’s “Top Rap Albums Chart” and tied Drake for most
#1 album debuts since the chart began in 2004. Also, the album gave The Game his eighth #1 on
Billboard’s “Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Chart” tying him for third with 2Pac and Lil Wayne. He started this
impressive legacy with double platinum 2005 full-length debut, The Documentary. It not only bowed at #1
on the Billboard Top 200 and garnered GRAMMY® nods in the categories of “Best Rap Song” and “Best
Rap Performance By a Duo or Group,” but it also emerged as a classic avowed by Pitchfork among the
“Top 50 Albums of 2005”. The 2006 followup Doctor’s Advocate retained his spot at #1 on the Billboard
Top 200 and went platinum. Maintaining positions in the Top 10, he ignited a prolific string of blockbuster
releases—L.A.X. 2008, The R.E.D. Album 2011, Jesus Piece 2012, Blood Moon: Year of the Wolf
2014, The Documentary 2 2015, The Documentary 2.5. [2015], and 1992 [2016].
• “Born 2 Rap” has over 75 million streams worldwide and peaked at #2 on Billboard charts

Side One is heart-pounding Techno, Hardcore and Electro. Side Two is 90s inspired UK Jungle with an excellent rework from Tim Reaper.

Of everykune tre
The hawethorn blowet suotes
My lemmon sse ssal be
The fairest of erthkine
Wel was hire dring
The cheld water of the well-spring
Wel was her bowr
The rede rose and the lilye flour

Die in Los Angeles lebende Harfenistin Mary Lattimore kehrt mit ihrem neuen Album ,Silver Ladders" zurück. Seit ihrem letzten Longplayer ,Hundreds Of Days" aus dem Jahr 2018 ist Lattimore international getourt und hat gemeinsame Alben mit KünstlerInnen wie Meg Baird und Mac Mccaughan veröffentlicht. Außerdem erschien 2019 ein Remix-Album von ,Hundreds Of Days" an dem sich unter anderem Jónsi und Julianna Barwick beteiligten. Bei einem ihrer Festival-Auftritte traf Lattimore Neil Halstead von Slowdive: ,A friend introduced us because she knew how big of a fan I was and Neil and I had a little chat... The next day, I just thought maybe he'd be into producing my next record." Das tat er schlussendlich auch. Lattimore nimmt ihre Alben traditionell allein auf, daher hinterlässt Halstead als Produzent und Mitarbeiter eine ganz eigene Note. Der Aufnahmeprozess in Halsteads Studio, das auf einem alten Flugplatz stationiert ist, dauerte über neun Tage. Lattimores unverkennbarer Stil ist auch auf ,Silver Ladders" elegant - im Vordergrund stehen sich ausbreitende Harfen-Schichten, welche mit aufblühenden Low-End-Synthesizern und Halsteads Gitarre angereichert werden. Die Musik kann sich teils bedrohlich anfühlen wie der Klang des Ozeans, der sich mit den Gezeiten verändert. Inspiriert von den Erzählungen aus Cornwall, die Halstead mit Lattimore teilte, sowie von diversen Gesprächen, Ideen und ihren eigenen Reisen, haben die Songs deutlich etwas märchenhaftes - und doch ist ,Silver Ladders" offen für eigene Interpretationen. LATTIMOREs Erinnerungen - ,the Cornish landscape, the hotel from the movie The Witches, the cream tea, winning the pub quiz, the Sunday Roast, the ghosts of all of the surfers who had died in the wild waves, the night walks to the top of the hill to see the moon shining on the water." - scheinen durch diese Werke hindurch, ohne sie zu definieren. In gewisser Weise gehören sie, ähnlich wie das Meer oder der Himmel, allen. Das ist die Schönheit ihres Handwerks!

More glorious heat from the vaults of NYC's Disco powerhouse - P&P Records!

One of many labels operating under the equally legendary tutelage of Patrick Adams and Peter Brown, two truly colossal figures in NYC's music scene, the P&P records catalogue is still fascinating underground dance music lovers to this day. Covering a wide range of styles including Gospel, early Rap and Disco the label's output continually finds its way into the playlists of respected DJ's and selectors across the globe. This latest repress from the vaults is a real biggie - a true NYC underground disco CLASSIC!

Cloud One was one of Adams' numerous studio outfits, featuring a ridiculously healthy dose of the man's virtuoso keyboard and synth playing. This was a progressive Disco sound, the pairing of extremely danceable funk and R&B with some spaced out over-dubbed analogue synthesizers and keys made for a heady concoction indeed, especially in 1976 when this cut was released. This was one of many Cloud One trademarks and one of the things that make these records still sound so way out today! 'Atmosphere Strut' could not be a better title for this immense slice of true NYC space Disco - it's got it all - the driving rhythms of the Cloud One band, the killer vibes, celestial vocals and Adams' totally wigged out synthesizer workouts. On top of all this goodness, the main man Kon, Boston's editor supreme and self confessed DIsco fiend and digger, has dropped a stellar and respectful edit of Atmosphere Strut' for all your disc jockeys out there, featured here across the length of the B-side thus making this an essential repress of this legendary 12". If you don't know this jam, and you're a Disco head - you're in for a treat! You're gonna fly......!

This is a 100% legit reissue, made in conjunction with Above Board distribution and the Phase One Music group, lovingly remastered with love by Optimum Mastering, Bristol UK.

Legowelt has been a key figure in the Dutch electronic music scene since the early nineties, steadily relea­sing timeless music that merges the pioneering sounds of Detroit and Chicago with idiosyncratic sci-fi fascinations. "Unconditional Contours" captures Legowelt's stint at the Swiss Museum for Electronic Music Instruments (SMEM), after he was invited to be the first artist in residence at the institution's "Playroom" project.

Legowelt visited SMEM in Fribourg, Switzerland, in early 2019 to explore the collection and record music. Possessing an extensive collection of synthesizers himself, he used hand-picked synthesizers from the museum's archive: the rare Farfisa Synthorchestra, the EVS-1 Evolution, the "shittiest rompler ever made", amongst many others. The 10-track album "Unconditional Contours" is both a probe into the vast collection of SMEM, and a display of Legowelt's well established composi­tional qualities. Leaving ample space for new sounds to unfold, Legowelt invokes gentle trips, brooding excursions, bleep heavy soundscapes, and reimagined elements of dance music classicism.

SMEM and -OUS are launching the "smem+ous" series to document the "Playroom" residencies. A limited edition of this album was already sent out to early supporters of the "Playroom". Founded in 2016 and based on a collection of more than 5000 synthesizers, organs, drum machines and effects that had been collected over a 35 year period by Klemens Niklaus Trenkle, SMEM offers residencies, studio sessions, talks and workshops.

Our new slice of wax comes this time from outer space made somewhere between unknown galaxies and black holes. The spaceship’s pilot is 30drop, a mysterious alias that has been running its platform 30D for a long while now and is not often seen outside its realm. So it’s an honor for us to have 30drop onboard.

For this special occasion 30drop provides six cuts of futuristic techno but with a ravey approach in a time backspin that brings us back to the 90’s via Sci-Fi, reminding in some way of the early UR records, when Mad Mike and Jeff Mills worked together on the soundtrack of the future.

This is our first mini LP with 3 cuts per side. The first cut is Brain reset, the short drone intro soon leads to a relentless groove made of repetitive sequences over a fast groove. Intense and obsessive.

Mental Understanding brings more minimalistic ingredients, absence of hi hats, just kick drum and synth lines.

Brain effervescence showcases the infamous 90’s hoover sound bringing the rave element and 303 acid lines all merged in a lawless and dense mixture.

B side opens with Self awareness, starting with ethereal atmospheres, spiced with resonant bleeps and micro drones in a beat-less exercise.

Klapaucjusz brings back the 90’s feeling again with analogue arpeggios and melodies, again over a clean groove in a Detroit oriented number.

Closing the release, Knowledge, a space odyssey of strings, abstract synth lines and flotation.

A work that showcases the skills of this well-seasoned producer that stands apart from any trends, futuristic, atemporal and scientifically crafted.

W&P by 30drop

The King & City label is the subject of three 12" reissues, starting with One Blood's classic Lovers Rock take of William DeVaughn's soul anthem, Be Thankful.

Taking the influence of reggae from the Caribbean diaspora within the cultural melting pot of 70s London, the birth of Lovers Rock, often-dubbed 'romantic reggae', is a uniquely black British sound, developed against a backdrop of riots, racial tension and sound systems.

A style suited to the London scene, it represents an apolitical counterpoint to the then dominant conscious Rastafarian sound and continued the soulful and commonly love-themed rocksteady style.

Active during the scene's peak, King & City was launched by Neville King and Lee Laing to champion the sound and alongside other producers like Dennis Bovell, created genre-defining hits.

Formed in 1979 One Blood was made up of the 5 Robinson brothers - Errol, Jerry, Lloyd, Trevor and Paul - and recording at the legendary TMC studios, went on to release two albums and countless singles.

Be Thankful pays homage to DeVaughn's original, with smooth vocals gliding atop tight drum and bass, vocal jumping up dub pom acapella to summer perfection. The tapes here passed to cohort Lexx, crafting a wonderful discodub that is all groove, expertly cutting back and forth...diamonds in the back, sunroof top.

Red Vinyl

With this three-cut EP, Andy Vaz pays tribute to Choutsugai, a Deep House DJ-and-promoter crew who booked him for many years of Tokyo gigs. Inspired by the unit’s love for “No Fairytale Luv feat. Detroit’s Eva Soul on Vocals.” Vaz decided to put it out as red transparent vinyl for VAZ-UP-001The two originals Tracks were created at Deutztroit Studios in Cologne, with vocals by Detroit’s Eva Soul on all three and “No Fairytale Luv” receiving a charged remix treatment from fellow Detroiter Niko Marks. The EP’s sound is classic Vaz, his own productions especially. The original “No Fairytale Luv"struts mightily, its pumping groove bolting from the gate with an acidy bass pulse, congas, and sparkling synths. With Soul draping her, yes, soulful musings over the energized groove, the gurgling floor-filler indelibly brands itself as Vaz’s craftsmanship. “U Got It Unlocked” is less urgent by comparison, this one more focused on a relaxed, funk-inflected swing given a subtle Latin feel with the addition of percussive accents. Soul again muses dreamily, though this time in a production that’s as much electronic reverie as club track. Of the three cuts, the EP’s primary house banger is undoubtedly Marks’s “No Fairytale Luv” makeover, which stomps even more forcefully. This one is a floorfiller

Demon Records presents Distortion: 1989-1995, the first in a series of four expansive vinyl box sets chronicling the solo career of legendary American musician Bob Mould. Bob Mould’s career began in 1979 with the iconic underground punk group Hüsker Dü before forming the beloved alternative rock band Sugar and releasing numerous critically acclaimed solo albums. Volume one in this new series covers 1989 to 1995, beginning with Mould’s first post Hüsker Dü album Workbook and continuing through to Sugar’s final studio album File Under: Easy Listening.

Each album is presented with brand new artwork designed by illustrator Simon Marchner and pressed on 140g clear vinyl with unique splatter effects.

Includes a 28-page companion booklet featuring: liner notes by journalist Keith Cameron; a foreword by writer and actor Fred Armisen; a tribute from Richard Thompson; lyrics and memorabilia.

Mastered by Jeff Lipton and Maria Rice at Peerless Mastering in Boston.

Featuring an array of bonus tracks including Sugar’s 1995 collection of Bsides and non-album tracks Besides, along with Distortion Plus: 1989-1995 a new and exclusive collection of rarities and collaborations (pressed on clear vinyl).

Trouble, the aptly named new album on Goner Records, is a confident and joy-filled statement delivering the good-news gospel message unapologetically through music influenced by Ray Charles, Junior Kimbrough, Bill Withers and of course, his father.

Recorded at legendary Royal Studios in Memphis by Lawrence “Boo” Mitchell (Al Green, Solomon Burke, John Mayer, Buddy Guy, Mark Ronson & Bruno Mars, North Mississippi Allstars), Trouble is the culmination of everything in Rev. Wilkins’s remarkable life, his regional history, his family music history. And in a world once again riven with discord and division, like the Memphis of Wilkins’ youth in the 1960’s, Trouble delivers passionate and confident musical performances with a message of hope that meets our present moment equal to the best music from that earlier era.

To call the Reverend John Wilkins a national treasure would not be an overstatement.  He is the son of pre-war blues/folk-revival legend Reverend Robert Wilkins and he leads one of the most exciting and uplifting musical acts on the blues and gospel circuit today. His multiracial, multi-generational band blends soul, southern gospel and hill country rhythm, into a sound that has the infectious drive of hill country blues with the emotional heights of a summer tent revival.

Following in the footsteps of his famous father Rev. Robert Wilkins, a blues-singer turned preacher who went from the juke joint to the pulpit, the life of Rev. John Wilkins took a similar path, echoing the story of the elder Wilkins’ most famous song, “Prodigal Son.”

But in 2020 John Wilkins’ life has been closer to a different iconic bible character, Lazarus, as he has miraculously risen after surviving a month-long stay in intensive care battling Covid19 in a Memphis hospital. As Rev. Wilkins sings on the closing track of his forthcoming album, “I’ve come through the storm and rain, I’ve come through the storm and rain, and I made it!”

And there is much to celebrate with this resurrection.

LIMITED REMASTERED VINYL REPRESS WITH NEW COVER ART AND SLEEVE NOTES.

The mythology that has grown around The La’s has made them one of the most enigmatic bands of the last few decades. The story began in a hard hit Liverpool in 1984, when Mike Badger teamed up with local lad Lee Mavers to write and sing their way out of the rut the city was in.

Over the next two years they co-wrote material inspired by their love of 'roots' music such as: Bo Diddley, raw 1950s Rockabilly, Captain Beefheart and the punk bands they had both seen in local club Eric's a few years before. Early reviews called them ‘Surreal Rock ‘n’ Roll’ (Melody Maker) or 'Tom Waits could have dreamt up The La's 'Sweet 35' (NME)

These earliest La's recordings that now appear here on limited edition vinyl are raw & spirited, defining a unique, creative time in the band’s history and firmly point the way to future success.

'Had The La's been able to accommodate Badger and Mavers could world domination have been far away?'MOJO

Alexis Cabrera debuts on FUSE sister imprint Infuse as he releases his four-track ‘Acidity’ EP.

Argentinian born, Berlin-based producer and live act Alexis Cabrera has emerged as one of South America’s finest electronic music exports with a string of stand-out releases via the likes of Raum…Musik, Moscow, Yaji and Salty Nuts over the past few years alone. A co-founder of Fun Records alongside fellow Argentian Barem, Cabrera’s sophisticated, groove-heavy sound combined with his impressive live performances have seen him take to world renowned venues such as Watergate, Tresor and Hoppetosse in his adopted hometown, and September now welcomes another ‘feather in his cap’ as he makes his debut on FUSE sister imprint Infuse to deliver his four-track ‘Acidity’ EP.

Taking cues from its title, lead cut ‘Acidity’ unveils a bubbling acid-driven production guided by sweeping synths and slick drum licks, whilst ‘Bulevardò’ journeys through warping electronics, shuffling percussion and off-kilter vocal murmurs to offer up a twisting, hypnotic ride. Next up, ‘Tocado’ introduces an infectious medley of organic drums, resonant bass melodies and icy hats, before closing proceedings via the jazzy chords and funk-heavy bass licks of the infectious ‘Esa Vaina’.

Following a stellar run of recent releases including best-of-year EPs from the likes of DJ Plead and DJ JM, Nervous Horizon are back with their first record of 2020 — a unique new collaborative EP by object blue and label co-head, TSVI. Out on September 25th, ‘Hyperaesthesia’ details four sweltering new club tracks — described by the pair as “body music” — that mesh together object blue’s widescreen, experimental club tones and TSVI’s borderless percussive styles. “I was curious to see how TSVI and I could merge our sounds, whether we could supplement each other without eclipsing one another, and I'm so happy with the result”, explains object blue. “I never thought I could write with somebody else but this happened so easily. It's been a liberating process, just a pure pursuit of fun, yelling in our chairs when we dropped the beat.” Inspired by ‘ever-present conversations about machines and sentience’, the EP’s mechanical crux plays out in the narrative of the tracks too; from a sense of machines ‘waking up’ on near 8-minute opener ‘Thought Experiment’ to the frantic, processing energy of ‘Turing Machine’. The record also comes complete with a special remix by Loraine James and vinyl-only bonus track, ‘Syntax’. ‘Hyperaesthesia’ follows a fruitful 12 months for both object blue and TSVI: Following the release of her breakthrough debut EP, ‘Do You Plan To End A Siege?’, for Tobago Tracks back in 2018, object blue has since become one of dance music’s most crucial new artists. As well as releasing her third, critically acclaimed EP last summer (‘FIGURE BESIDE ME’), she’s turned in remixes for everyone from Murlo to Seb Wildblood, been invited to record a BBC R1 guest mix for Benji B and performed live at Paris Fashion Week, after composing the music for Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood SS20. object blue was also announced a SHAPE artist for 2020 earlier this year, alongside artists like Afrodeutsche, Rian Treanor, Jay Glass Dubs, Oli XL and more. TSVI’s upward trajectory shows no sign of slowing down either. From the release of his enchanting debut album ‘Inner Worlds’ in 2018, he’s since gone on to put out a series of game-changing records under his Anunaku moniker for both Nic Tasker’s AD93 label and Martyn’s 3024 imprint, including July’s ‘032’ — a joint EP written with DJ Plead. Alongside fellow co-heads Wallwork and Federico Ciampolini, he’s also overseen the rise of Nervous Horizon since the label’s inception in 2015, moulding it into of the UK’s trailblazing new-school dance labels.

It's been three years since the last vinyl by Ntogn was unveiled and now we're glad to share with you the result of his venture through the recent winter.

'Smedjan' is inspired by the dwarven craftsmanship of Norse mythology. It is made completely with organic sounds gathered from, and recorded in, the forests of Bålsta which is rich with northern heritage. Everything you hear is either processed textures of birch wood blocks, layers of a custom made Ukrainian artisan mouth harp or the artist's own voice.

There is no synthesis in this record. The kick drums are made by hitting these pieces of wood against each other with contact microphones. Bass layers are extracted from bark scraping against bark. Hi hats are crafted by recorded fire of the same wood logs burning and ambiance is built from the forests where the trees grew and from the woodshed where the artist chopped the wood during winter to keep his cabin warm. The rhythms and sounds in this shed is what inspired the making of this record.

By shaping these sounds of wood and metal Ntogn strives to create a sonic experience that connects the listener to the old Norse stories of the dwarven craftsmanship of Svartalfheim. It is they who made the famous trinkets and weapons that empower the gods of Asgård through stories of trickery and despair which has later inspired tales and literature for over a thousand years.

The record has been distilled from material that was meant to become a two-hour live set specifically made for Mo:dem festival which was unfortunately cancelled due to the corona pandemic. It was also the foundation of the artist's thesis at the university of sound design where he made a study of the effects of organic sound on an electronic expression such as techno music.

It will be released digitally and as a 200 copy limited edition black vinyl adorned with an artwork drawn by the artist's partner Gabriella Holmström using the ashes of the same birch wood blocks that was used to make the sonic content.

The record has received early support from Francois X, Takaaki Itoh, Abstract Division, BLNDR and Rambadu to name a few.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

Ntogn en'togg-n is a conceptual electro-acoustic project developed by Hypnus Records' founder and sound design graduate Michel Iseneld (b. 1988, Sweden). It aims to breath life into a fascination for magic with the use of contemporary and classic sound design techniques. This has resulted in what Resident Advisor's William Lynch describes as 'fierce, artistic techno that sounds like little else out there' and a discography ranging from earth-shattering techno to dark, throbbing ambient excursions.

After spending nearly three years in isolation, deeply lost in literature on history, philosophy, occultism and epic fairy-tales; Michel developed an inner world which eventually found an outlet through the means of music in 2013. By the use of field recordings and various samplings of his voice and surroundings, something peculiar sprouted as his inner images started to manifest and mature into an organic sound inspired by the emerging hypnotic deep techno scene.

Today, all music is released on his own imprint Tome in order to preserve the projects' artistic freedom and originality. After two years of sound design studies at the university and a new-found passion for modular synthesis; there's plenty of music in store aimed to satiate the curious minds.

Repress!

For its second release, Radiant Love sticks to family values. Paying homage to the party and label’s co-director and resident Byron Yeates, Byron’s Theme comes from the likes of Vani-T (one half of Berlin’s forceful, femme party Climax) and D. Tiffany (who threw down a ruthless remix on the label’s first release by Fio Fa). Together, they take the name of Pillow Queen – a semi-pejorative term for the kind of sub who expects to receive pleasure like a well catches rainwater. No reciprocation, just a reign of sexual passivity.


Their tracks, however, give plenty. “Byron’s Theme” presents a rich palette in its 2-minute buildup: a dry trance hook, high-end synths buzzing and wavering, pitch-shifted voice samples and a pan-flute ran through with tremolo. Throbbing, the 303 bassline picks up after a breakdown at the 4-minute mark, and only then does one realise the song’s still building. There’s still room in the last 40 seconds for some percussion modeled on a breakbeat loop – which is to say, the track is incredibly cheeky and hard-hitting – all that I would hope for in any lover.

While the EP’s first track feels wide, rangy, “Estrel Nights” opens the EP’s B-side in a much closer, tighter space. The build is percussive: bongo taps, claps, cowbell; then a hi-hat snaps things into shape, and in lopes the kick drum. And rhythm remains the central player here. It’s not until 3 minutes in that the percussion finds a melodic backdrop – a dreamy, detuned pad, choral, like a moan.

Ex-Terrestrial’s remix of “Byron’s Theme” repositions some of the elements and ratchets up the tempo of the original, but maintains its respiration: the energy and erotics flow into a different structure, closer to traditional trance, with sharp hi-hats and loopy arpeggios that phase in and out of syncopation, measure to measure. Diagonal, we incline to a climax that dizzily plateaus at 6 minutes, de-escalates and breaks down over the next 2, glows until it’s just a kick drum, slower, slower still; we’re catching our breath.