Suche:e talking

Probably the most astonishing hard rock LP out of 1970s Spain, repressed by popular demand and this time offering a very limited transparent blue colour run.



THE STORM hailed from Sevilla and were acclaimed by both audience and press reviewers as one of the best rock bands from Spain. The combo was formed by the Ruiz Geniz brothers (Angel and Diego), on guitar and drums respectively, plus Luis Genil (organ) and José Torres (bass).



Their debut album, originally released on Basf in 1974, is one of the Crown jewells of Spanish hard rock, and changes hands for a small fortune among collectors all over the world, especially since its inclusion in Hans Pokora's 'Record Dreams' books.



This LP really rocks. It's high energy hard rock that follows the line marked by the big organ outfits of the era such as DEEP PURPLE, ATOMIC ROOSTER, BRAM STOKER, MEGATÓN...



It has also a deep classic prog sound root, which reaches the top on 'Un Señor Llamado Fernández De Córdoba'.



We are talking of one of the seminal Spanish hard rock LPs.

The story of So-Do is both familiar and completely unique. A classically trained multi-instrumentalist with a poet’s sensibility and a passion for folk music meets a worldly bar owner with a love for psychedelia, post-punk and dub in the small town neither could bring themselves to leave. Over two years, they play dozens of shows in independent live houses across Japan, cut and self-release three singles – two 7”s and a 12” – and leave behind just eight tracks, all of which are set to be reissued for the first time forty years on.

So-Do’s Studio Works ’83-’85 collects the full output of this iconoclastic post-punk phenomenon, whose sparse, syncopated arrangements were infused with a dubbed-out flair that owed more to Dennis Bovell’s productions of Orange Juice, the Jah Wobble basslines of Public Image Limited or Adrian Sherwood’s live dubs of Mark Stewart than even they knew at the time.

Because for lead songwriter Hideshi Akuta, music offered an escape from the existential malaise of small-town life, folding a melancholy nihilism into tracks like ‘Kakashi’ and ‘Hashiru’ (which translates as ‘run’), or taking aim at the inequalities and creeping apathies of the middle classes, as he does on ‘Get Away’ and ‘Nothing’.

And if Talking Heads had CBGBs, Sex Pistols had the Roxy, then So-Do had Buddha. Influenced by Buddha venue owner and amateur producer Atsuo Takeuchi, Akuta turned So-Do’s sound towards dub, crafting playful, ironic and funky compositions that crackle with live energy at the vanguard of Japan’s nascent independent music scene.“So-Do is hard to explain,” Takeuchi says. “It’s been a struggle for years to try to find the words for our music.” The answer perhaps, is just to listen.

Both familiar and completely unique, So-Do extend Time Capsule’s genre-defining exposition of Japan’s reggae-inspired music of the ‘70s and ‘80s, as collected on the label’s two critically acclaimed Tokyo Riddim compilations, and London-based live outfit Tokyo Riddim Band.

Embracing the rip-it-up-and-start-again ethos of the early ‘80s, So-Do burned bright for a short time and then burned out. Their legacy is about to be reignited. Expect it to catch alight once more.


All songs are written & composed by Hideshi Akuta

Produced by Atsuo Takeuchi

Artwork by Ben Arfur
Liner Notes by Anton Spice, Ayana Honma, Kay Suzuki

Curated by Kay Suzuki

Licensed from Atsuo Takeuchi (Oregano Cafe)

Tape Restoration and Mastered by Mike Hillier at Metropolis Studios, London, UK

Time Capsule | TIME023 | 1983-1985 → 2025

4LP set containing 29 original / extended / full-length / 12” versions of Queer club classics – 1980-1989
‘More Sin’ features Pet Shop Boys, Sylvester, Divine, New Order, Eartha Kitt, Grace Jones, Hazell Dean, Desireless and many more.
Highlights include the hard-to-find 12” version of ‘Can’t Stop The Music’ by Village People and the rarely compiled underground club anthems ‘Pistol In My Pocket’ by Lana Pellay and ‘After The Rainbow’ by Joanne Daniëls.
All tracks fully annotated and with a foreword by Ian Wade – author ‘1984: The Year Pop Went Queer’. Following the success of the first ‘Box Of Sin’ in 2023, Demon / Edsel and Disco Discharge are proud to announce the sequel – ‘More Sin: Box of Sin 2’ will be released on 31st January 2025.

Over 4 LPs, ‘More Sin’ presents 29 choice selections from the music you might have heard on Queer dancefloors between 1980 and 1989 – a decade of dance in all its devilish delights. Meticulously researched from the published gay club charts at the time, the LP set encompasses full-length versions of Diva, High Energy, Alternative, Pop, Europop and House classics. Not only were the ‘80s Queer clubs where you were most likely to hear the latest groundbreaking developments in dance music, there was a lot of diversity on offer – on a given night you might hear a legendary soul singer’s new opus right next to some post-punks from Manchester and the latest European pop chart topper.

‘More Sin’ aims to reflect this. On ‘More Sin’, the space-age soulful club sound of Jean Carne rubs up against the widescreen Europop beauty of Desireless and cutting-edge house music from London courtesy of Wee Papa Girl Rappers… and along the way come some of the most important and era-defining artists of the decade – from Sylvester to Siouxsie & The Banshees, from Pet Shop Boys to Divine, from Hazell Dean to Grace Jones. Producing and mixing these classics is like a roll-call of the era’s studio giants – Trevor Horn, Larry Levan, Clivillés & Cole, Ian Levine, John Luongo, Bobby “O”, Martin Rushent and Stock, Aitken & Waterman to name a few. It’s time to give in to sin again.

Der Einstieg in die Musik von Q Lazzarus erfolgte für fast alle über „Goodbye Horses“. Der Song tauchte erstmals 1988 in Jonathan Demmes „Married to the Mob“ auf, aber er sollte sich erst dann vollständig im Bewusstsein der Menschen verankern, als er 1991 in Demmes „The Silence of the Lambs“ wieder auftauchte. „Goodbye Horses“ fühlte sich an wie ein in sich geschlossenes Universum - traumhaft und völlig ungewöhnlich, ein sofortiger Klassiker, der die Zuhörer fesselte und neugierig auf die geheimnisvolle Stimme dahinter machte. Diese Stimme gehörte Diane Luckey, einer einzigartig talentierten Künstlerin, deren Musik ihrer Zeit voraus war und die letztlich zu Lebzeiten weitgehend unerkannt bleiben sollte. In Verbindung mit der Veröffentlichung des Dokumentarfilms „Goodbye Horses: The Many Lives of Q Lazzarus“ von Aridjis Fuentes veröffentlicht Sacred Bones eine Sammlung von Songs, die die gesamte Karriere von Q abdecken und die verschiedenen Epochen ihres Schaffens und die ganze Bandbreite ihrer Persönlichkeit zeigen. „Goodbye Horses“ ist die erste Musiksammlung, die den Segen von Qs verbliebener Familie erhalten hat, und hat die Besonderheit, ihre erste und einzige Albumveröffentlichung in voller Länge zu sein. Aufgenommen zwischen 1985 und 1995, spiegelt diese Fundgrube bisher unveröffentlichter Musik einige der interessantesten Facetten der Popmusik der letzten vier Jahrzehnte auf eine Weise wider, die sowohl versiert als auch wild eklektisch wirkt Das titelgebende „Goodbye Horses“ bleibt ein einzigartiges Stück gespenstischer New-Wave-Perfektion, und man könnte sich ein ganzes Q-Lazzarus-Album vorstellen, das sich um diese Ästhetik dreht, aber ähnlich den Gesangsikonen Alison Moyet, Annie Lennox oder Lisa Gerrard eignet sich Qs chamäleonhafte Stimme perfekt für eine Vielzahl von Stilen und Settings. Ihre Coverversion von Talking aHeads' „Heaven“ verwandelt den Song in eine aus voller Kehle gesungene Power-Ballade mit klimpernden Klavierverzierungen, während ihre Interpretation von Gershwins „Summertime“ wie eine dubbige Club-Reduktion klingt, die zu einem Grace Jones Stück der Nightclubbing-Ära hätte passen können. Tracks wie „My Mistake“ und „Hellfire“ flirten mit House-Musik und zeigen, wie frech und glockig Qs Stimme sein kann, wenn sie sich richtig austobt, während „Don't Let Go“ wie eine bombastische Radiosingle klingt, die Cher vor einigen Jahrzehnten hätte veröffentlichen können. Andere Songs wie „Bang Bang“ und „I See Your Eyes“ sind von einer gitarrenbetonten Alt-Rock-Sensibilität, die in einem Paralleluniversum auch auf MTVs 120 Minutes Show hätte laufen können. „Goodbye Horses“ verkörpert das Potenzial für so viele verschiedene Arten von Karrieren, die, aus welchen Gründen auch immer, nie vollständig verwirklicht wurden. Dass wir jetzt diese Songs in der Welt haben und ein klareres Bild von der Person dahinter, ist nichts weniger als ein Segen.

Ulrich Troyer has been producing music now solidly for over twenty years within a largely genre free framework, but whilst navigating forms such as avant-garde, techno, leftfield, field recording, electronica, glitch and ambient it is the aesthetics of dub that guide his creative direction. Not really recognisable in an orthodox form as remixed versions of roots reggae songs but in the way sonics are manipulated with space, the application and layering of delay, reverb and echo that fixes his output well within the scope of what might be called futurist dub.

The nearest comparisons to his new album TRANSIT TRIBE can only be established by a synthesis of some of the more adventurous explorations in modern music such as African Head Charge, Jon Hassell, Pole (Stefan Betke), Bill Laswell or even Miles Davis; featuring a diverse selection of artists and friends not only from Vienna and environs but also from around the world, sounds are not so much fused but allowed to float along the continuous flowing tide of warm waves of bass.

Rather than to allow the names of Ulrich Troyer's collaborators be merely listed in the album credits, what they bring to this joyful affair needs to be outlined, albeit briefly: Co-producer credits go to Osman Murat Ertel from Istanbul, who employed a variation on the old foolproof Nick Lowe method for checking out the impact quality of his own sound productions by playing tracks through his car sound system speakers!

Murat is a member of the electro-psych-folk group Baba Zula where he plays electric saz, oscillators and theremin and played a key part in the creative development of the album. Mamadou Diabate, the balafon master originally from Burkina Faso and now resident in Vienna, has developed his own unique technique of playing solos that replicate the sound of three instruments playing in unison; however the multi-talented Mamadou is engaged here on singing and playing the talking drum. From South Tyrol Reinhilde Gamper is a member of the experimental trio Greifer who are bringing the sound of the zither into the twenty-first century using new playing techniques and electronic gadgets. Susanna Gartmayer is an Austrian composer and bass clarinetist specialising in improv and multimedia sound research. Diggory Kenrick has been engaged with creating new dub fusions and also re-energising classic rocksteady and roots reggae classics, renowned for his interventions on flute. Didi Kern is an electronic dance musician and drummer from Vienna with a focus on free improvised music. Hamidou Koita, a singer and multi-instrumentalist, is from a traditional Griot family in Burkina Faso but now resident in Vienna and a regular musical partner of Mamadou Diabate playing drums and calabash. Austrian Lukas Lauermann is both a studio and live musician playing cello, also working on electronic sound design and writing string arrangements. He has recorded extensively and appeared on stage with both Mark Lanegan and Hans-Joachim Roedelius. Martin Mallaun is a Tyrol-born specialist in both the development of the zither in modern music and also as a researcher in the effects of climate change on the vegetation of Alpine ecosystems. Mystica Tribe is the musical alias of Tokyo-based dub/techno producer Taka (Takafumi) Noda. He collaborated with Vienna's own Vegetable Orchestra on 2020's "Transplants (Mystica Tribe Version)". After studying classical percussion Flip Philipp is now a jazz vibraphone player and member of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Wolfgang Pfistermüller is a member of the Vienna Trombone Quartet and the developer of the incredible bass-trombone Aurora with its uniquely warm and resonant sound. Roger Robinson is a renowned British poet, winner of many contemporary poetry prizes and member of the experimental music group King Midas Sound. Kwame Yeboah is a Ghanaian born UK based keyboard wizard who tours regularly with Yusuf / Cat Stevens, Ms. Dynamite and Pat Thomas.

So contained on the album is an astonishing mix of musicians and instruments: sounds of cowbells recorded in the South Tyrolean alps processed by modular synthesizers and heavy analogue bass synths combined with instruments such as zither, bass-zither, electro saz, flute, talking drum, trombone, cello, vibraphone, marimba, djembe, contra-alto clarinet, melodica, Farfisa - all bound together by organic live-drums and dub effects.

Liner notes by Steve Barker

Ye (Kanye West) and Ty Dolla $ign‘s 2024 album VULTURES 1 (as the supergroup, ¥$) is Ye‘s first collaborative album since his 2018 album with Kid Cudi, KIDS SEE GHOSTS, and as such, delivers celebratory, reunion-like energy. Bridging R&B, classic soul-sample rap, and the lo-fifi electro stylings of late-era Ye, VULTURES 1 manages to fuse Ye‘s go-to productions methods with Ty Dolla‘s efortlessly smooth vocals. This results in an unpredictable and dynamic listening experience.

Two decades in, one of dance music’s most celebrated DJs, producers, label owners, A&Rs, broadcasters, and tastemakers has big plans for this anniversary. In June, Anja Schneider will unveil an expansive rework and remix package on her benchmark-setting imprint, Sous Music, some of her best-loved tracks are there in less familiar forms. Expect fresh takes from Anja herself on seven of her favorite tracks plus a wealth of heavyweight remixers: Paramida & E-Talking, Radio Slave, Scuba, JakoJako, Julian Muller, Cassy, Deetron, Leafar Legov, Erobique, Jaymie Silk and Ackermann all being part of the impressive collection.
“The project includes new versions of my favourite tracks from the last 20 years and remixers who have accompanied, influenced, and currently impress me. Each artist holds a special connection for me,” says Anja in anticipation of this milestone release.

Francesco Farfa's timeless club EP "Learn To Fly" freshly remixed 3 decades after its original release in 1991 by 4 of Berlin's finest DJs and producers. A generous arsenal to choose from in terms of dance floor tools, from DJs, for DJs, equipping the record bag with something for a wide range of occasions, can't go wrong. A-side descends into big room darkness with Trent's re-interpretation, effectively complimented with Juan Ramos' bulging trancey approach playfully collaging elements from multiple tracks in the original EP. B-side goes in more ravey/progressive directions with an elevating elucidation by E-talking while Hamsa produces a more stripped down enhancement to the original theme.

Nummer Music are proud to present the first reissue of Paul Mahoux’s seminal BùLù project.

The Parisian (now Okinawa-based) producer released “Silicon-Shepherd / Senegalese-Sharpshooter” 30 years ago today on the french label Virtual.
Both cuts give a unique insight into the sound of the early Trance scene and travel beyond the boundaries of Techno & House. Whether you’re revisiting the past or experiencing them for the first time, they still stand as a testament to the free spirit of the early ‘90s.

On side A, the bouncy Silicon-Shepherd shows off BùLù’s singular sampling techniques: chopped up vocals, tripped out synths and a touch of M1 slap bass take you into unexpected peak-time territories, where euphoria meets deep mind-travelling (i.e. DMT).

On the flip, Senegalese-Sharpshooter unveils another facet of BùLù’s buoyant universe. The french producer slows down the pace and invites the listener on a magical meditative journey, the lullaby-like theme tune shacks up with ancient traditional instruments and mystical choirs, again freed from any sort of constraint of style or genre.

On remix duties, Nummer’s very own E-Talking gives Silicon-Shepherd a club lift while our beloved Caldera injects Senegalese-Sharpshooter with a heavy dose of his signature swampiness.

Roberto Musci, born in Milan in 1956, studied guitar, music and electronic instruments. From 1974 to 1985 he traveled the world studying African, Indian, Arabic and Oriental music, recording ethnic music “in the field,” studying and collecting ethnic musical instruments from all over the world. His self-produced debut album, “The Loa of Music,” is a seminal work of staggering originality and extraordinary beauty in which field recordings, musique concrète, electronics, synthesis and instrumentation are interwoven, drawing on the countless musics from around the world that he has recorded. The subsequent “Water messages on desert sand,” composed with Giovanni Venosta, was nominated for a Grammy in the UK in 1987. In the 1980s and 1990s he broadcast ethnic and electronic-experimental music from Rai and Radio Popolare radio stations. He has also composed and played music for videos, commercials, dance, poetry, theater, composed soundtracks and accompanied silent films live. From 1980 to the present, he has played with many Italian and European musicians: Giovanni Venosta, Claudio Gabbiani, Walter Prati, Giorgio Magnanensi, Massimo Cavallaro, Massimo Mariani, Moni Ovadia, Roberto Zorzi, Chris Cutler, Jon Rose David Moss, Steve Piccolo, Elliott Sharp, Keith Tippett and the Third Ear Band.

The theme of travel, ethnicities and mysticism are a pivotal point in this new album of his as well, demonstrating once again how music needs absolutely no sharp lines of demarcation. The music is one.

It goes from the search for deep meanings in a time spent in a Hindu monastery (Ashram) listening to mantras and studying Buddhist philosophy (The Principle Of Things) to space explorations and human settlements on the Moon or Mars wondering how man will live and what he will bring to the new worlds imagining that Sufism, an Islamic mystical religion, will accompany him in the discovery of new worlds (Derviches On Mars). In Goodbye Monsters, harmony and peace are sought. Memories Of A Piano Player is a tribute to Keith Tippett, a great pianist (King Crimson , Centipede, Mujician) with whom he played in several concerts and with whom I spent evenings talking about music, food and Italian wine. Quantum State focuses on how quantum mechanics is creating a revolution in the way of thinking and dividing reality into infinite Parallel Worlds. Panthalassa is the vast ocean that surrounded Pangea and blends South American marimba music and traditional Chinese music. Burn The Shadows is a tribute to the fascinating Indonesian shadow theater, from the stories told and the atmosphere created during the long plays told in the sacred Indian texts of Ramayana or Mahabharata. Shadows are also more or less pleasant memories to which one is attached, and to burn them is still to move on with one's life.

Torajan Funeral Chant: The Toraja are a people living in Sulawesi (Indonesia) who have a special worship of the dead. Funerals are festivals that last several days, the corpses are protected by Tau-Tau (small dolls that watch over cemeteries), and over the years, they exhume the corpses of their relatives and keep them in their homes with them for a time to remember them.

The experimentation goes all the way to modern Artificial Intelligence that 'interrogated' to create something new by inserting conflicting inputs joins them together but nonsensically creating interesting insights; hence A.I. In Confusion. Pangea, named after the continent that contained all the land that emerged between 540 and 200 million years ago, in the Paleozoic and Mesozoic periods, imagined as inhabited by man without divisions created by borders, wars, religions or ethnic groups, is also a tribute to Steve Reich, one of the fathers and a great musician of minimal music. Prophecies, a reading of sacred texts and religious songs from evangelical sects in the United States filtered into granular synthesis with percussion music from South India, closes.

2024 Repress

"It was the beginning of 2016, I remember going down the stairs of that foggy Kreuzkolln basement. The floor was packed, the walls were sweaty, the air was so dense that you couldn't use a lighter. The vibe, I guess it can only be described as pure Herrensauna. I looked to the DJ booth and I saw this guy playing with records, in a heavy punk attitude, some 140 bpm (at least) dark tribal techno which I thought I was never gonna listen in a club.

-Who is he- I asked a friend, who was fully trapped in that pounding rhythm - I don't know some guys from Denmark - he replied, showing me with his body language that I should stop talking and enjoy the show. And so I did.

It didn't take me long to find out that this guy at the controls was known as Sugar but his name was Nikolaj. Neither that he was one of the founders of, what was going to be, one of the most influential collectives in the techno scene just a couple of years after that. Nor that these guys do this with the heart and that's why they are authentic.

Proudly presenting Fast Forward.
From Copenhagen, with love."

KAOS is a subdivision from OAKS
Compiled and selected by Hector Oaks.

Ulrich Troyer has been producing music now solidly for over twenty years within a largely genre free framework, but whilst navigating forms such as avant-garde, techno, leftfield, field recording, electronica, glitch and ambient it is the aesthetics of dub that guide his creative direction. Not really recognisable in an orthodox form as remixed versions of roots reggae songs but in the way sonics are manipulated with space, the application and layering of delay, reverb and echo that fixes his output well within the scope of what might be called futurist dub.

The nearest comparisons to his new album TRANSIT TRIBE can only be established by a synthesis of some of the more adventurous explorations in modern music such as African Head Charge, Jon Hassell, Pole (Stefan Betke), Bill Laswell or even Miles Davis; featuring a diverse selection of artists and friends not only from Vienna and environs but also from around the world, sounds are not so much fused but allowed to float along the continuous flowing tide of warm waves of bass.

Rather than to allow the names of Ulrich Troyer's collaborators be merely listed in the album credits, what they bring to this joyful affair needs to be outlined, albeit briefly: Co-producer credits go to Osman Murat Ertel from Istanbul, who employed a variation on the old foolproof Nick Lowe method for checking out the impact quality of his own sound productions by playing tracks through his car sound system speakers!

Murat is a member of the electro-psych-folk group Baba Zula where he plays electric saz, oscillators and theremin and played a key part in the creative development of the album. Mamadou Diabate, the balafon master originally from Burkina Faso and now resident in Vienna, has developed his own unique technique of playing solos that replicate the sound of three instruments playing in unison; however the multi-talented Mamadou is engaged here on singing and playing the talking drum. From South Tyrol Reinhilde Gamper is a member of the experimental trio Greifer who are bringing the sound of the zither into the twenty-first century using new playing techniques and electronic gadgets. Susanna Gartmayer is an Austrian composer and bass clarinetist specialising in improv and multimedia sound research. Diggory Kenrick has been engaged with creating new dub fusions and also re-energising classic rocksteady and roots reggae classics, renowned for his interventions on flute. Didi Kern is an electronic dance musician and drummer from Vienna with a focus on free improvised music. Hamidou Koita, a singer and multi-instrumentalist, is from a traditional Griot family in Burkina Faso but now resident in Vienna and a regular musical partner of Mamadou Diabate playing drums and calabash. Austrian Lukas Lauermann is both a studio and live musician playing cello, also working on electronic sound design and writing string arrangements. He has recorded extensively and appeared on stage with both Mark Lanegan and Hans-Joachim Roedelius. Martin Mallaun is a Tyrol-born specialist in both the development of the zither in modern music and also as a researcher in the effects of climate change on the vegetation of Alpine ecosystems. After studying classical percussion Flip Philipp is now a jazz vibraphone player and member of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Wolfgang Pfistermüller is a member of the Vienna Trombone Quartet and the developer of the incredible bass-trombone Aurora with its uniquely warm and resonant sound. Roger Robinson is a renowned British poet, winner of many contemporary poetry prizes and member of the experimental music group King Midas Sound. Kwame Yeboah is a Ghanaian born UK based keyboard wizard who tours regularly with Yusuf / Cat Stevens, Ms. Dynamite and Pat Thomas.

So contained on the album is an astonishing mix of musicians and instruments: sounds of cowbells recorded in the South Tyrolean alps processed by modular synthesizers and heavy analogue bass synths combined with instruments such as zither, bass-zither, electro saz, flute, talking drum, trombone, cello, marimba, djembe, contra-alto clarinet, Farfisa - all bound together by organic live-drums and dub effects.

Comprised of Clams Baker Jr., Benjamin Romans Hopcraft, Adam J. Harmer, Marley Mackey, Quinn Whalley, and Bleu Ottis Wright, Too Cold To Hold is undoubtedly their best and most ambitious album to date. Taking on board the repetitive and polyrhythmic grooves of gqom (an alluring South African take on house music), adding in a dash of hip hop flavours and even jazz, and then harnessing that to their punk-funk, disco pogo, it’s a spellbinding mix. The album is produced by the band’s Ben Romans Hopcraft alongside Jamie Neville.

Talking about the first track to be taken from the album, ‘Fashion Week’, which is a joyous account of fashion’s die-hard fans rather than the more visible arrivistes or dilettantes, Clams said: “Those that will do anything to become that thing. That creation. And live it. It’s real artistry when you don’t have the means and you’re doing it. You’re hustling to get on the guest list, you get in, you’re done up by means that you can’t really afford, whatever you do… It’s a celebration of people who will do whatever to look good and feel good and step above wherever they are in their own minds.”

With a reputation as one of the most exciting and mesmerising live bands out there right now, they have also today announced both details of a very special ‘Fashion Week’ launch show at London’s Lexington on 10th July and a run of U.K. / EU dates to coincide with the album release in November – the dates include their biggest London headline show to date at The Troxy. The full list of dates, which is as follows:

"LATZFONSER KREUZ / FELTUNER HÜTTE scheduled for release on September 20th 2024 is the third single to be lifted from Ulrich Troyer's TRANSIT TRIBE due later this year.

Mamadou Diabate, originally from Burkina-Faso and now resident in Vienna, who is also a world-famous virtuoso balaphon player, collaborates on "Latzfonser Kreuz" with fellow countryman Hamidou Koita to produce a remarkable percussion track, both singing and employing talking drum and djembe to come up with a sound that can only be described as dubbed-out Nyahbinghi-style electro-beats! The track references the little church at Latzfonser Kreuz, which is the highest pilgrimage spot in South Tyrol, one of the highest in Europe; every year in June, the Black Lord, a black carved Gothic wooden cross, is brought from the village church in Latzfons to thepilgrimage church, where it remains throughout the summer.

On the flip for "Feltuner Hütte" Ulrich Troyer is joined by co-producer Osman Murat Ertel, founding member of the electro-psych-folk group Baba Zula from Istanbul, who has worked internationally for many years collaborating with the likes of Jaki Liebezeit, Fred Frith and Mad Professor. But here Murat takes us on a dub psych-out trip with his favoured electric saz, with wha wha FX, delay and echo, like Link Wray meeting King Tubby on the old streets of Istanbul."

Steve Barker (DJ, Radio Presenter - On the Wire, BBC 1984 – 2023, now Slack City Radio & reggae/dub columnist and contributor to The Wire)

Credits:

Mamadou Diabate: vocals (A) & talking drum (A)

Osman Murat Ertel: electric saz (B)

Hamidou Koita: vocals (A), djembe (A)

Didi Kern: percussion (A), drums (B)

Flip Philipp: percussion (B)

Ulrich Troyer: analog synthesizers & drum-machines, sampler, field recordings, dub effects (A+B)

A written by Mamadou Diabate, Hamidou Koita & Ulrich Troyer

B written by Osman Murat Ertel & Ulrich Troyer

Recorded by Ulrich Troyer at 4Bit Studio & 4Bit Bungalow, Vienna - except electro saz on track B recorded by Osman Murat Ertel at Saniki Studio, Istanbul

Mixed & arranged by Ulrich Troyer at 4Bit Bungalow, Vienna

Produced by Osman Murat Ertel & Ulrich Troyer

Mastering & Lacquer Cut by Kassian Troyer at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin

Cover Drawing by Ulrich Troyer

Special thanks to Steve Barker, Mamadou Diabate, Osman Murat Ertel, Diggory Kenrick, Eva Kelety, Didi Kern, Hamidou Koita and Flip Philipp

Kindly supported by the City of Vienna (MA7 - Kultur), Federal Ministry Republic of Austria (Arts, Culture, Civil Service & Sport), SKE-FONDS (AT) & Amt für Kultur, Bozen (IT

The new Alexander Melzak Album has arrived. In 'Substrates', Melzak delves further into otherworldly electronic textures, revealing breath-taking soundscapes and sonic imagery. His unique sound brilliantly frames his deft and idiosyncratic compositional style. The result is boldly escapist, often surprising and vividly imaginative.

Jaden Thompson returns to Crosstown Rebels with ‘Downtown’, with remixes from HoneyLuv and Ghoulish. Marking his first solo outing on the label following ‘Talking Walls’ alongside Seth Troxler, the fabric resident impresses once more following recent material on Classic Music Company, PIV and his own Midnight Parade imprint.

A new school talent whose sound takes cues from Chicago while pointing to the future with forward-thinking allure and energy, Jaden Thompson’s ascent is well-documented, having been tipped by an endless list of industry heavyweights and global media outlets from an early age. Releasing on labels such as Cuttin’ Headz and Classic Music Company, amongst others, plus his own Midnight Parade imprint, Thompson’s sound and dynamic sets have seen the UK talent become a favourite for many while also hosting his ongoing Rinse FM show and curating mixes for the likes of Circoloco and Keinemusik through to Nike for it’s annual Air Max Day. Having made his label debut on Crosstown Rebels in 2022 with his standout collaboration ‘Talking Walls’ with Seth Troxler, Thompson now returns to Damian Lazarus’ legendary imprint as he serves up his first solo record on the label ‘Downtown’ - backed by remixes from surging US DJ/producer HoneyLuv and emerging UK talent Ghoulish, who makes his debut on the imprint.

Merging various shades and sounds from across the electronic sphere, ‘Downtown’ brings vibrant vocals, energy-charged synths, and sharp metallic percussion, all balanced perfectly, to the fore. HoneyLuv’s remix brings jacking drums while warping the original’s vocals todeliver a peak-time interpretation before Ghoulish flips the script, utilising off-kilter drums and spiralling lasers amongst heavy low-ends.

Incredible new album from our new signing to BDQ records ZAN on the Boogie - Jazz Funk tip, due May. We’re so happy to be releasing this fabulous album.


Zan’s beautiful voice is an abiding part of the Australian music landscape. In the 80’s, she came to prominence out front of Melbourne’s iconic pop funk band
I’m Talking with Kate Ceberano, Zan’s lead vocals shine on one of the bands biggest hits ‘Holy Word’, which is still considered a trail-blazing Australian classic today. She loaned her vocal
talents to some of the most memorable Australian songs including The Models “Out Of Mind Out Of Sight” and “Barbados”. She appears in numerous videos singing backing vocals for a number
of Australian artists.

Zan appeared with I’m Talking in the classic music film Australian Made directed by Richard Lowenstein of Dogs in Space and Mystify fame. The film captured the incredible concert tour, which featured a plethora of major Australian performers such as INXS, Jimmy Barnes, The Divinyls & The Models. In her time with the I’m Taking band and as a solo performer she has made countless appearances on Australian TV including the legendary music programme Countdown.


In the 80’s she even performed for Princess Diana and Prince (now King) Charles at the
Rockin’ the Royals concert, at the Arts Centre in Melbourne, meeting the Royal couple after the show. Zan was bitten by the soul/R&B bug at an early age. Born in London of Sri Lankan heritage,
arriving to the shores of Australia as a young girl. Her love of music took her from Australia to New York and London, where she lived in the 90’s and early 2000’s regularly performing and recording with top international session musicians/artists. She’s also
had the extraordinary honour of performing live with both U2 &
B. B. King, Zan’s self-titled solo album was released through Amber Records in Germany in the mid 90’s and she also toured with UK Acid Jazz band
Mother Earth throughout Europe & Japan, eventually returning to the city she calls home, Melbourne.

Since being back in Melbourne, Zan has performed at various popular music venues such as The Night Cat, Memo and The Espy and in 2019, to the delight of 80’s music fans, Zan sang once again with the re-formed I’m Talking, playing a number of shows supporting Bryan Ferry on his acclaimed Australian tour. The re-formed band received several rave reviews for their shows. Zan’s new material is influenced by her considerable experiences, her rich musical history and the songs and artists she grew up on - soul and R’N B singers such as Chaka Khan, Renee Geyer and many others of that genre. Her new songs are steeped in 80’s dance/boogie funk/soul & pop flavours, re-capturing that feel-good factor from the era whilst bringing to it a new unique and contemporary edge.

Kicking off 2024, Modern Life Is War introduces the Tribulation Worksongs sessions as a single 12"EP/Digital album. This release consolidates all three 7"EPs along with "End Times Dub," a dub version of "Feels Like End Times," creatively reimagined by Urian Hackney (Rough Francis, Iggy Pop, The Armed, etc). The packaging for this release features a collaborative visual effort from Jeffrey Eaton, Thomas Hooper, and J. Bannon. Tribulation Worksongs was recorded by Luke Tweedy at Flat Black Studios, mixed by Kurt Ballou at God City Studios, and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege. Originally released as a series of three 7"EPs between 2018 and 2021, the lyrics and credits for each song were typed by vocalist/lyricist Jeff Eaton on his 1950s Royal "Quiet De Luxe" typewriter during the initial presentation. These typewritten elements were later hand-stamped on the front and back covers of the EP by artist J. Bannon, resulting in each cover being entirely unique. Additionally, the labels on the vinyl were hand-stamped before final assembly by the team at Deathwish, which will see physical release on March 22nd.

Glasgow based Seated Records return with more 1980s Scottish Post-Punk / New Wave material. In this 8-track mini compilation the label introduces the work of Stirling band 22 Beaches, offering a deep dive into music recorded between 1980-1984 - the majority of which has never seen the light of day!

22 Beaches formed in Stirling in the late 1970s as an evolution of the short lived group ‘Alone at Last’ - drummer Fred Parson’s and guitarist Stephen Hunter being the two who spanned the divide. Out of the six members of 22 Beaches, many were school friends, and the rest naturally fell together. The band toured extensively and played at a truly diverse set of venues across the UK: from a local swimming pool boiler room, to small nightclubs and university parties, to several fundraisers for the miners strike. Maybe most notably of all, drummer Fred Parsons described playing at what he calls “the Grangemouth International”, organised by local promoter Brian Guthrie and which featured an all-star lineup of 22 Beaches, The Exploited and the first incarnation of The Cocteau Twins. A coach was hired to ship the audience to Grangemouth from Stirling, the cost of which was included in the ticket. The gig then paused halfway through for a 'help yourself' buffet. Young promoters take heed. This is how it's done!

Over the course of the 80s the band released music on three different, and now sought after, various artists compilation cassettes. “What Day Is It?” and “Sadie When She Died” were released on a compilation of local Stirling artists 'The A.N.K.L.E File'. The track from which the current record takes its namesake - “Dust” - was initially released on a compilation-tape for the fanzine 'Another Spark'. And ‘‘Zoo” (also featured on this record) was first released on Glasgow label Pleasantly Surprised via compilation, 'An Hour Of Eloquent Sounds', where 22 Beaches rubbed shoulders with early music from Scottish names Primal Scream, Cocteau Twins, The Wake and Sunset Gun. Unfortunately, 22 Beaches never met the same level of commercial success as these others and decided to retire the project in 1984 - leaving their recordings and demos to gather dust (hehe)…until now!

This compilation, “Dust: recordings 1980-1984” follows the band's journey and the changes in their sound over the years. It moves from the raw, punk energy of early DIY recordings through to the A Certain Ratio style Balearica of their later pieces. The record's opener and title track “Dust” is perhaps the most shining example of the latter. Characterised by the plenitude of sonic space in the mix, “Dust” has an almost dub sensibility that is communicated through centrality of Parsons’ drums, McChord’s percussion, and Fildes’ Bass while the harmonising vocals of Sharkey and McGregor chant over the top to give the track its distinctive psychedelic edge. This is an atmosphere only exacerbated by the lofi quality of the recording which sits the vocals in the same aural realm as much 1960s psych-folk. On “Cartoon Boy”, the band strips things down further. A droning bass line persists through the tape fuzz and is accompanied by the sounds of a sole looping guitar chord sequence and McGregor and Sharkey’s vocals - respectively and carefully dancing around one another before harmonising in the most beautiful way. The result is a haunting and abstract Marine Girls style heartbreaker. ‘That Girl’ again delivers a dub adjacent rhythm section similar to that of “Dust”. However, on this instance crisp guitar chords, a distant, phased organ and blue-eyed soul vocal delivery, produce a track that could easily have been a lost Orange Juice recording from their sessions with Dennis Bovel. On “Somebody Got It Wrong” and “One Of Us” the band employ a more macro approach where a jangling guitar with an almost highlife-influenced tone, vocal ad-libs and syncopated percussion give the music a Talking Heads-esque swagger.

Taken together these tracks illustrate a clear trajectory in the band's sound, moving from from the high energy no-wave quality of early recordings towards a more dub influenced, and stripped-back sound - a sonic trajectory followed by so many bands of the time, not least those emerging from the diaspora of Manchester’s Factory Records.

On “Breathing’’ we hear the beginning of this transition, with the strong influence of the oddball NYC disco styles of Was (Not Was) and ZE records. All of this is meshed together with the residual punk rock energy of 1980s UK. This combination is employed to excellent effect with the addition of the distinctly Scottish (and what the band confirmed to me to be spontaneous) vocal delivery of: “Do you love me? Do you want me?” “Aye!” “Do you love me? Do you need me?” “Naw!”.

On the record’s closing tracks, “Zoo” and “Talent Show”, we hear early examples of the band’s work, playing with their rawest all-in-one-take live energy where Hunter’s spiralling guitar riffs and McGregor's distorted vocal exclamations lead the charge. The band recalls that these initial-forays did not always translate so well into multitrack recording and overdubbing: “the deconstruction took away some of the band's natural feel”. On “Talent Show” the record ends with Sharkey delivering an almost unintelligible spoken word section over the top of the track, making for one final, disorientating, almost manic slice of post-punk.

These tracks from 1980-1984 chart the progress of a unique contribution to the world of Scottish Post-Punk and New Wave, encapsulating not only the musical trajectory of 22 Beaches but also echoing the broader sonic landscape of 1980s UK, a testament to the adaptability and creativity of the UK’s underground music of the time.

Although one could imagine that by 1993 any Italo Disco nuances would have been vanquished from sophisticated Italian production setups of the time, it is hard to ignore its presence in this particular work of Italian DJ and producer Gianpiero Pacetti. Much more so than in the work of his contemporaries at the time who would have shifted into full on early progressive trance in pursuit of novelty. Resulting in a refreshingly playful exploration of melodic themes, an aesthetic only to be heard again more than 10 years later with Dutch works like Alden Tyrell. With exception of Alvorada which distinguished itself as completely detached from any of the previously mentioned influences, diving deep into percussive samba elements adjoined by alluring arpeggios and other subtle melodic ornaments characteristic of early progressive trancey movements of the time. Includes new remix of “Alvorada” by Berlin's E-Talking. Remastered with new artwork.

Demon Music are happy to present – Electribe 101 - ‘Electribal Memories’, this stunning half-speed master vinyl edition cut from the original tapes by Barry Grint at Air Studios. Formed when Hamburg-born / London-based, sometimes S’ Express member Billie Ray Martin hooked up with four musician / producers from Birmingham, Electribe 101 instantly hit upon a sound heavily influenced by the de rigueur deep house sounds of Chicago and Detroit but with a distinctive European twist. With Billie Ray up front, with a voice like ice on fire and looking as if she’d stepped forward in time from a circa-1966 Mary Quant catwalk, the band were instantly snapped up by Mercury Records, and taken under the wing of Pet Shop Boys manager Tom Watkins. The band released five singles in the UK, and all featured on their debut album ‘Electribal Memories’ – ‘Tell Me When The Fever Ended’, ‘Talking With Myself’, ‘You’re Walking’, ‘Lipstick On My Lover’ and an incredible cover of Odyssey’s deep soul classic ‘Inside Out’. When the album arrived in 1990, it was an instant hit with critics – immaculately produced, poised, luxurious and soulful, it was difficult to believe it was a debut record at all. After ‘Electribal Memories’, Electribe 101 called it a day. Since then, the album’s reputation has grown in stature and many of its’ singles’ attendant remixes have become sought-after rarities. The cultural earthquake prompted by the late-1980s arrival on these shores of house, acid and rave prompted many a legendary club night and a generation of superstar DJ / producers. While there were a myriad of great club tracks produced in that heady period between 1988-1991, classic albums from the scene were rather more of a rarity. One towering exception was the debut by Electribe 101…

French producer Panthera steps up to Melodize with a pair of Italo inspired cuts that come remixed by the legendary Lauer and Endrik Schroeder.

Panthera prefers to remain secretive about his identity, but his music has plenty of people talking. It has come out on labels such as Bordello A Parigi, Polaris and Correspondant so far and contains a distinct, synth-heavy, euphoric sound.

This is evident from the beginning with ‘Hustle’, a colourful and cosmic cut with rich melodies, occasional vocal touches and shimmering arps. They bring sugary rushes of joy to the mid-tempo nu-disco drums and will douse dance floors in subtle euphoria. Remixing this one is the underground stalwart Lauer, who always brings his retro style to his disco and house on labels such as Permanent Vacation and Running Back. His version is faster and more direct, though still packed with starry melodies and subtle synth motifs that bring it to life.

Panthera’s ‘Western Union’ then brings more raw percussion and slapping drums but again takes flight through the cosmos on sleek synth lines with hints of 80s nostalgia. It’s a track that is always on the rise and full of bright, irresistible melodic suspense. Remixer Endrik Schroeder also hails from France and is a fast-rising talent with credits on the taste-making Bordello A Parigi, Ritmo Fatale, and Roam Recordings. He flips the original into a more propulsive and urgent nu-disco weapon with crashing drums and synth loops spiralling around the track as extra melodies fall like stardust to light up the groove.

There is real quality as well as plenty of feel-good energy to these four shiny, synth-heavy tracks.

Mood Child unleashes Sirus Hood and Trangaz’s ‘Ghetto Corazon’ EP, a blazing fusion of African, Latino, and Asian influences.

Label father Sirus Hood and Mood Child favourite Trangaz join forces to craft two original bangers, ‘Ghetto Corazon’ and ‘Boothy’, while Manda Moor, Mood Child's mother, spices things up with two different versions of remixes of the second track.

‘Ghetto Corazon’ is one of those tracks that ignites the dancefloor and highlights a DJ set. It’s primal, unique, tribal, and groovy. It has a Techno vibe with its high BPM and killer kick drum that has the power to tremble any dancefloor.
We can sense the Latin roots with the Spanish vocal singing "mi corazon" and the African flair with its broken swing percussion pattern.

‘Boothy’ is a playful acid-led tune enhanced by a unique hi-hat game, with vocals from Trangaz himself talking about the DJ booth adventures. The vocal depicts situations that are bound to happen in any club.

Manda Moor delivers two different remixes of ‘Boothy’: a ‘Punchy’ and a ‘Spicy’ remix. Her ‘Punchy’ rendition is vinyl only and adds a dirty punch to the original, while her ‘Spicy’ version has all the essence of the ‘Manda Moor groove’ - an addictive drum pattern with her unique style that is recognised right away. She is known for her picante sound, adding the perfect spice to this EP.

This release showcases the best of the heat from three minds with different roots. An irresistible melting pot, with early supports from all stars like the king Carl Cox and The Martinez Brothers.

Sirus Hood & Trangaz ‘Ghetto Corazon’ EP drops via Mood Child on 22nd March 2024.

Bright Magus is an instrumental quintet born under the influence of Miles Davis' metaphysical electric period, a visceral and magical passion always shared by Giovanni Calella and Leziero Rescigno. Davis' most eclectic and psychedelic period, that of recordings for Columbia from 1969 throughout the 70s. Albums like “In a Silent Way”, “Bitches Brew”, “A tribute to Jack Johnson”, “On The Corner”, “Big Fun” made them immerse themselves in one of the most fascinating experiments that Miles has generated in his long and prolific career. We are talking about music that is difficult to fit into one genre, in these masterpieces you can feel the contemporaneity of that historical period. Electric Jazz, Funk, Psychedelia, Rock, Afrobeat, Ambient, drag you into something absolutely new, mysterious and sometimes furious. Just a year ago Giovanni and Leziero took courage and started recruiting musicians who had to have the right attitude and knowledge. Guitarist Alberto Turra was the first to be interested in the project, then came Mauro Tre, pianist and keyboard player and Gianni Sansone on trumpet. All seduced by Miles and in love with that magical period.

Before making the first album "Jungle Corner", the band did some live shows to amalgamate all the ideas that came out during the improvs recorded by Tullio Treffiletti in the trumpeter's home studio (later baptized Selim Studio). At the Isola Studio in Manuel Agnelli's space and with the help of the very talented Guido Andreani, Bright Magus then recorded in three days live all the material which in the meantime had been enriched with more structured melodic themes and less casual drafts . Mauro's contribution was very important in this. The finalization of the album was then managed by them in the small "Diabolicus Studio" taking care of editing, post production and mixing.

Guest on the album in two songs, Enrico Gabrielle of Calibro 35 on flute and clarinet.

The cover design is a work by Barba Ughi alias BAX.

Originally released in Canada in 2006, and worldwide by 2007, Patrick Watson's breakthrough album has sold over 100,000 copies. Winner of Canada's Polaris Prize in 2007, it has received critical praise across the globe and continues to sell as the band's profile increases. Features the single The Great Escape.' A six-panel digipak with accordion foldout, the album is now available via original label Secret City Records.

Deluxe gatefold 2LP edition with bonus track Interference From the Sky'. MP3 download included.

There was always something sexy about Purgatory. No one wants to hang out in Hell, but was Heaven ever really that appealing either How does that Talking Head song go Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens...' Close to Paradise is one of those rare gems of an album that can stand as a gateway to wherever you want it to take you.

Four tracks from '20 Years Of Phonica' on limited 12" vinyl!

We start off with a collaboration from Paramida & E-Talking. Paramida is the well-respected head of the Love on the Rocks label whilst E-Talking is the pseudonym of Emmanuel Corre, one half of Nummer who have given us stunning releases over the year on their own label, AD93 and Going Good. ‘Read My Lips’ strikes the perfect balance of old-school warehouse acid and early morning Berlin dance floors.

Next up, Dauwd’s bass-heavy monster ‘Slam’. The US born, Berlin residing DJ & producer Dauwd has been pushing his sound through various styles and genres since the early 2010s. From dub-steppy and tech-house beginnings to his most recent house and dub-techno Psssh imprint outputs he has been driving record collectors crazy for his 12’s for over a decade!

On the flip, Daniel Avery's ‘Bell’ finds the Phantasy and Mute artist at his most contemplative and melodic; it’s streamlined stylings reminiscent of UK Artificial Intelligence 90s techno and Kompakt’s golden era.

Finally, Mancunian producer Willow’s ‘Willbush’ shows why she has been a leading name in the underground house scene for over a decade now, including releases on the renowned Workshop label.

Tom Hooker is one of the world's leading artists of the Italo Disco
genre that marked the 1980s.

A talented singer and songwriter, he has performed on television
programs and music festivals around the world, and his many productions have topped the charts in the United States and England.

FullTime Production is honored to present the remastered 1986 debut
album "Only One" and in addition to the original tracks "Talk With Your Body", "Come Back Home", "Love Attack", "Only One", "Indian Girl" and it will also contain remixe of "Falling Into Love" by artist Jago already featured other releases on FullTime Production.
Track "Talk With Your Body" is among the most special and important
productions of 1982.

The title is the best explanation of the track.
Talking with your body, listening to the vibrations of every muscle that
can feel these slow and romantic but with a disco rhythm sounds that we can imagine in a hot summer of 1982 among those lights, colors and fashions.

The song still continues to communicate with the body to all generations today and to make us dance.

David Byrne & Fatboy Slim’s acclaimed 2010 album Here Lies Love receives its first-ever vinyl release to coincide with a new production opening on Broadway this summer. Here Lies Love is a double-disc song cycle – improbably poignant, decidedly surreal, surprisingly thought provoking – about the rise and fall of the Philippines' notorious Imelda Marcos. It was conceived by David Byrne; composed by Byrne and DJ/recording artist Fatboy Slim, AKA Norman Cook; and performed by a dream cast drawn from the worlds of indie rock, alt country, R&B and pop. Byrne's taste in collaborators is as imaginative as it is impeccable, including Cyndi Lauper (who recounts, to lighthearted disco beats, Imelda's courtship with Ferdinand Marcos), Steve Earle (as the power-hungry Ferdinand), Dap-Kings vocalist Sharon Jones (recalling Imelda's introduction into New York society) and Natalie Merchant (as spurned Imelda confidante Estrella, anticipating the onset of martial law). Along with vocals turns from such stars as Tori Amos and the B-52's Kate Pierson, Byrne works with rising indie rockers St. Vincent and My Brightest Diamond; New York chanteuses Nellie McKay and Martha Wainwright; and dance-music divas Róisín Murphy and Santigold. Byrne himself appears as the voice of imperialistic America on ‘American Troglodyte’, a send-up that wouldn't have seemed out of places in Talking Heads' True Stories.



Byrne originally envisioned this as a musical theatre piece, to be mounted in disco and nightclub settings, reflecting the globe-trotting Marcos' taste for such velvet-roped spots as Studio 54 and Regine's. In 2006, he performed work-in-progress versions to enthusiastic audiences at New York City's Carnegie Hall and the Adelaide Festival in Australia. While plans for a US theatrical production continued to evolve, he delivered this unique recording. The award-winning theatrical production eventually premiered at The Public Theater in New York in 2013, travelled to London’s National Theater for a sold-out run (2014–15), and was remounted at the Seattle Repertory Theater (2017).



Here Lies Love has an effervescent disco feel, redolent of Fatboy Slim's own dance-floor anthems, with warm undercurrents of the Latin rhythms that have percolated through Byrne's recent solo work. The sunny arrangements act in counterpoint to the reality of the Marcos' increasingly repressive regime, reflecting the imagined inner life of the glamour-obsessed Imelda. Explains Byrne, "For me, the darker side of the excesses are, for the most part, a matter of record. A lot of the audience is going to come with that knowledge already. What's more of a challenge is to get inside the head of the person who was behind all of that, and understand what made them tick." Byrne offers no judgment and avoids the obvious – there is no mention of Imelda's infamous shoe collection.



Many of Byrne's lyrics are, astonishingly enough, constructed from actual Imelda quotes, including the project's title, the words that Imelda, now returned to the Philippines from US-assisted exile in Hawaii, would like to have inscribed on her gravestone. In addition to his new liner note, Byrne illustrates the story with archival photos. In a detailed preface, he reveals what drew him to this subject and the bumpy route he took to launch the project and, ultimately, record this album. The booklet is indeed a page-turner, just as Here Lies Love is a wonderfully old-school album that rewards start-to-finish listening. Once again, Byrne – beloved as musician, thinker and bicyclist-about-town – reveals the breadth and singularity of his vision.



The new production of Here Lies Love will premiere at the Broadway Theatre in New York City. Performances begin June 17, ahead of an official opening night on July 20. Tony Award winner Alex Timbers (direction) and Olivier Award nominee Annie-B Parson (choreography) reunite with Byrne (concept, music, and lyrics) and Fatboy Slim (music) to bring Here Lies Love to Broadway, continuing a ten-plus year collaboration on the project. Tom Gandey and J Pardo contribute additional music. Here Lies Love is produced on Broadway by Hal Luftig, Patrick Catullo, Diana DiMenna for Plate Spinner Productions, Clint Ramos, and Jose Antonio Vargas. The staging at the Broadway Theatre will transform the venue’s traditional proscenium floor space into a dance club environment, where audiences will stand and move with the actors. A wide variety of standing and seating options will be available throughout the theatre’s reconstructed space. The producers of Here Lies Love said, “As a team of binational American producers – Filipinos among us – we are thrilled to bring Here Lies Love to Broadway! We welcome everyone to experience this singularly exuberant piece of theatre. The history of the Philippines is inseparable from the history of the United States, and as both evolve, we cannot think of a more appropriate time to stage this show. See you on the dance floor!”



David Byrne’s recent works include the launch of Reasons to be Cheerful, an online magazine focused on solutions-oriented stories about problems being solved all over the world (2019); Joan of Arc: Into the Fire, a theatrical exploration of the historical heroine that premiered at the Public Theater in New York (2017); The Institute Presents: NEUROSOCIETY, a series of interactive environments created in conjunction with PACE Arts + Technology that question human perception and bias (2016); Contemporary Color, an event inspired by the American folk tradition of color guard and performed at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center and Toronto’s Air Canada Centre (2015); Here Lies Love; Love This Giant, a studio album and worldwide tour created with St. Vincent (2012); and How Music Works, a book about the history, experience, and social aspects of music (2012).



Byrne curated Southbank Centre’s annual Meltdown festival in London in 2015. A co-founder of the group Talking Heads (1976–88), he has released eight studio albums as a solo artist and worked on multiple other projects, including collaborations with Brian Eno, Twyla Tharp, Robert Wilson, and Jonathan Demme, among others. He also founded the highly respected record label Luaka Bop. Recognition of Byrne’s various works include Obies, Drama Desk, Lortel, and Evening Standard awards for Here Lies Love; an Oscar, Grammy, and Golden Globe for the soundtrack to Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor; and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Talking Heads. Byrne’s work as a visual artist has been published and exhibited since his college days, including photography, filmmaking, and writing. He lives in New York City. In addition to 2019’s cast album for American Utopia on Broadway, Nonesuch has released eight other David Byrne records since 2003, including 2018’s American Utopia studio album and two versions of his musical Here Lies Love.



















q C6. Please Don't feat. Santi White Santigold

The dynamic duo of Komponente & Kurilo from the Ukrainian label Trance Pandemic are preparing for their next sold-out record. This “Defenders” EP is made from tracks, that were made before the full-scale Russian invasion in Ukraine and also it is the continuation of “For A Brave” EP.

The main track of the release, also called “Defenders” is a signature piece for their duo. Moderately slow and calm, that evolves into something bigger around the third minute. The mayhem of sounds with that hell’s bells also. And there’s a little Easter egg at 1:29. If you know the sample – you’ll smile for a bit.

The record starts with “Victory”. Bold, a bit broken at the beginning piece, that is also evolving. This time we’re talking about the structure. The straight one comes after that broken start. “Kharkiv Mnemonic” also has some bells inside, paired with a nice, bubbling acid and a heavenly melody a bit closer to the end. The calmest track on the release.

Last, but definitely not least (the choice for the pick was between these two from the B-side) is “Broken Dreams”. Still can’t get enough of that break that we know lately from Alec Falconer’s release on Art Of Dark (not that lately, to be honest) and a dozen of other tracks. Here it’s hidden a bit in the back, so we can hear another kinda trancey and melancholic melody in full.

Bobby's 2019 tour ended in New York City and he had two days off before flying home to Finland. Leon invited him to the Diamond Mine to record some music. Bobby had been talking about wanting to stretch out lyrically and write about more esoteric subject matter, Leon was game. They recorded "Reasons" in one session which put the chemistry between the two on the world stage and sparked the idea of doing a full length album together. More than halfway through the recording process, they have decided to treat us to another two-sider of the new material. On the A side, "Whatcha Know" Bobby explores death and the human experience, putting his philosophical ponderings into his music. Michels' production and overall ethos is the perfect compliment to Bobby's desire to stretch out his sound. EMA provides a gorgeous backing track that compliments Bobby's style and simultaneously broadens its scope. The B side "Losing It" is a dramatic and moving number that Bobby sings in Spanish and English. A gorgeous guitar riff is countered with eerie sound effects that crescendo when the drums come in. Bobby professes he's "Losing It" over a love too strong and El Michels Affair's production turns the whole affair into a saga that thunders through speakers.

In the words of Bill Brewster - DJ History

‘At the turn of the 1990s, there were few more successful New York house producers than Victor Simonelli. Under a dizzying array of aliases – Solution, NY’s Finest, Groove Committee, Critical Rhythm and Cloud 9 being amongst the better-known – the Brooklyn-born DJ/producer delivered a string of underground club hits during the city’s early ’90s house boom.’

BTG presents “Victor Simonelli: The Early Years Vol 1” a collectors edition double Vinyl release - 2 X 12’s in each Vol

Launching the first Behind The Groove collectors edition vinyl series is New York’s finest Victor Simonelli with ‘The Early Years Vol 1 & 2’ double Vinyl releases. Featuring seminal house tracks such as Cloud 9’s ‘Do You Want Me’, Solution’s ‘Feel So Right’, Instant Exposure’s ‘Wanna Be With You’ and rare mixes of Raiana Page and EZ-AL, this collection brings together classic and rare Victor Simonelli cuts that reflect the early raw energy and buzz of the New York House scene. With ‘Vol 2” scheduled to follow shortly after, this is the most comprehensive collection of rare Simonelli cuts that firmly establishes his esteemed role in 90s House Music as well as introducing new fans to his inimitable sound.

Victor Simonelli is one of the early kings of NYC sampling In house music. The real deal - Victor danced at the legendary David Mancuso’s Loft sessions and developed a serious appreciation for good music. He interned for Arthur Baker at his renown Shakedown Studios (where Arthur worked with the iconic Afrika Bambatta on the seminal dance floor ’Planet Rock’ track) and went on to release hugely influential releases on seminal NYC labels 4th Floor and Nu Groove. Victor’s music was championed by the hugely celebrated iconic House Music DJ pioneers, Larry Levan and Tony Humphries at Paradise Garage & Zanzibar/WBLS/Kiss FM respectively.

Revered as a New York house heavyweight and prolific producer since the turn of the 1990s, Victor Simonelli grew up in Brooklyn, NYC, nurtured by a music loving family, with an avid record collecting father who also worked as a local party DJ. He took music lessons in piano, drums, guitar and bass, before discovering his first love, tuning into NY’s Radio Mix Shows on WBLS, WKTU and WRKS,98.7 Kiss FM) where he discovered the art of mixing and in his own words, ’I just simply got lost in the music’.

Graduating from NYC’s Centre For Media Arts, Victor got an internship in the legendary producer, Arthur Baker’s Shakedown Studios. Soon graduating to editing, mixing and then producing he worked for artists David Bowie, Quincy Jones, Debbie Harry, Sinead O’Connor and Talking Heads. Teaming up with fellow NYC producer Lenny Dee to become the Brooklyn Funk Essentials, they released records ‘Critical Rhythm’ and ‘Subliminal Aurra’ on 4th Floor before Victor went solo as Groove Committee releasing the classic ‘I Want You To Know’ on the legendary Nu Groove Records. Paradise Garage legend, Larry Levan broke ‘I Want You To Know’ rocking 2 copies on his last tour of Japan whilst King of NY House Music,Tony Humphries broke Victor’s new ‘Feels So Right’ across New York on his WBLS/Kiss FM Mastermix show and at his legendary Zanzibar club sessions. It was only a matter of time before Victor’s name became synonymous with quality House music ensuring a worldwide platform for his productions.

In the early 90s alongside his own productions, Victor Simonelli worked on high profile projects, including James Brown’s album, “Love Overdue” BeBe and CeCe Winans single featuring Mavis Staples “I’ll Take You There” and Quincy Jones’ “I’ll Be Good To You” featuring Chaka Khan and the legendary Ray Charles. Never straying too far from his clubland roots, Victor worked with Danny Tenaglia on his classic “The Harmonica Track”.

DJ gigs across the world started flooding in and Victor found himself recording for a dizzying array of labels including Tribal America, Sub-Urban, Bassline, King Street Sounds and Vibe, under a wide range of aliases. He also produced, wrote and remixed for artists such Nile Rodgers (Chic), Afrika Baambata, Hall & Oates, Frankie Knuckles, Kerri Chandler, Madonna and Michael Jackson. Famed for his own productions “It’s So Good” by Creative Force, “I Know A Place” as Sound Of One - the first release on Roger Sanchez One Records -, “Dirty Games” as well as the “Street Players Vol 1 EP”, Victor went on to set up Suburban Records with Tommy Musto and Bassline Records with two other partners. Notable releases on this label include “Do You Feel Me”, Connie Harvey’s gospel inspired, “Thank You Lord”, Urban Blues Project’s “Deliver Me”, Colonel Abrams “Not Gonna Let”, and Mone’s “Better Way”. Never ceasing to produce, DJ, run his own label and host radio shows like Groove Lift, Victor has worked with virtually every NYC producer and has nurtured a next generation talents including Angel Moraes, Jazz ‘N’ Groove, Urban Blues Project, Harlem Hustlers, Jay Jay and Julius Papp. Victor’s releases have also been used on M&S’s “Salsoul Nuggett” hit and Eddie Amador’s underground smash ‘House Music’.

In the late 90’s Victor launched his new Westside Productions, notable for the “Latin Impressions 1 & 2” releases, opened up a studio in Italy as he found himself increasingly working in Europe and now divides his time between New York and Italy. Suffice to say his unique sound of uplifting and spiritual music has kept him at the forefront of House Music and he is credited as one of its leading exponents with his string of classic releases and remixes.

Behind the Groove, branches out from its digital platform to embark on a programme of releases from the iconic pioneer producers of House Music. Esteemed for their high quality features and mixes that continue to explore, celebrate and venerate the contributions of highly respected, scene-shaping Labels, Artists, DJs and Special Events, BTG seeks to bring these talents and tales to the attention of the wider community. Unlocking the stories surrounding the pivotal roles they played and continue to play today in shaping the underground music scene we have come to know and love.

BTG presents “Victor Simonelli: The Early Years Vol 1” a collectors edition double Vinyl release, released on May 12th 2023. ‘Vol 2” follows on May 26th 2023 . These releases are the most comprehensive collection of rare Victor Simonelli cuts that firmly establish his esteemed role in 90s House Music and introduces new fans to his carefree sound.

Italian DJ and producer Francis De Simone debuts on Lee Foss and Jamie Jones' label Hot Creations with London Bass. Having built a solid back catalogue in recent years, his first Hot Creations release embodies the dynamic sound of the Palermo-born artist, channelling chunky tech house and disco-flavoured melodies.

De Simone explains his creative thinking behind the EP. "These tracks fully express my devotion to music. I ranged a lot, trying to remember an 80's sound up to a more raw and synthetic groove with Latin vocals to embrace the different ethnic groups." Reflecting his thoughts to a tee, the title track rumbles with a massive bassline and chopped-up vocals that add an instant burst of energy. Things get weird on Saludos A Todos, as thumping kickdrums collide with a trippy melody and even trippier vocals, creating a wavey atmosphere. The ideal club curveball. On Off White, De Simone delivers a pacey number packed with burbling beats and clicky percussion, complemented by dreamy vocals. The hint is in the name on closing track, This Is Undergound. A big room delight, De Simone drops a stripped-back banger, where the lyrics do the talking in tandem with a driving bassline. An excellent addition to the Hot Creations discography.

Based in Palermo, Italy, Francis De Simone stems from a family of musicians. Having played the drums from age two, the versatile artist can make anything from rock, pop and jazz, but these days, De Simone pens electronic music. His father worked as a bouncer for various local discos and exposed De Simone to dance music from a young age, later inspiring him to produce house and techno with an uplifting tint. Releases on Glasgow Underground, LW Recordings and REALM Records have helped shape the profile of this flourishing artist, with plenty more to come further down the line.

CURRENT RAGE - The missing musical link between Athens and Atlanta
To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the out-of-print forgotten classic, Propeller
Sound Recordings is set to release and remastered and expanded edition of
"Seven Songs". Fully immersed in the do it yourself aesthetic of the early-R.E.M.
era, Current Rage's sole indie record is highly regarded by record collectors
seeking out early eighties DIY releases. The relative scarcity of the original EP
today suggests the item does not circulate on the marketplace very often making
it ripe for reintroduction to the current marketplace with this expanded version.
Anthony DeCurtis of Rolling Stone wrote, "an enviable and impressive explosion
of new music was emerging from the Atlanta Athens area at this time" Current
Rage drew inspiration from Talking Heads, Pylon and R.E.M.

CURRENT RAGE - The missing musical link between Athens and Atlanta To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the out-of-print forgotten classic, Propeller Sound Recordings is set to release and remastered and expanded edition of "Seven Songs". Fully immersed in the do it yourself aesthetic of the early-R.E.M.

era, Current Rage's sole indie record is highly regarded by record collectors seeking out early eighties DIY releases. The relative scarcity of the original EP today suggests the item does not circulate on the marketplace very often making it ripe for reintroduction to the current marketplace with this expanded version.

Anthony DeCurtis of Rolling Stone wrote, "an enviable and impressive explosion of new music was emerging from the Atlanta Athens area at this time" Current Rage drew inspiration from Talking Heads, Pylon and R.E.M.

MUSTA presents an elaborate six track EP project, titled 'Tamburi
Parlanti' which translates to 'Talking Drums' in English. The body of
work marks a turning point in his career to make more than electronic
music, and delves into a plethora of live music and field recordings
recorded for the EP, ranging from polyrhythmic tribal drum-patterns to
Afro-funk bass chords, congas and jazz-keyboard, played by local
musicians as well as himself.

Musta's love for music began during his 11 years spent living in the
Dominican Republic. This encounter of Latin rhythms started the musical
genre contamination that to this day distinguishes his productions. In
this EP, like the rest of his releases, the music is diverse, tribal and
hypnotic. Respectful of the past yet constantly innovative. This love of
the past and future has led him to release edits and originals on staple
labels such as Nervous Records, Samosa Records.

Music aside the EP artwork has significant meaning, the mask shown is
that of the ancient Mamuthone icon of Sardinian folklore which goes back
further than 2000 years, defined as a representation of the collective
soul of Sardinia, the ancient ritual of the Mamuthone creatures is that
of a rhythmic dance where 12 of the creatures dance together,
representing the 12 months of the year. With this theme, Musta aims to
connect the dots of this pastime tradition into the EP, reflecting it
visually as well as through the music itself.

"Tamburi Parlanti EP is a collection of songs that I've made myself
around the world, recording and collaborating with various musicians of
many different nationalities. The music reflects my musical path in
recent years which draws strong inspiration from afro-funk and latin
disco from the 70s and 80s. My intent is to create music that presents a
journey between the hottest Latin sounds, over to more African disco
rhythms.