Suche:eli b

Hip-hop legend Rakim is breaking new ground with his upcoming studio album, G.O.D.'S NETWORK (REB7RTH), by flexing his skills both on the mic and behind the boards. Widely lauded as the best lyricist of all time, The God MC himself is blessing the culture with the next step in his historic career.

“I feel like the battery in my back has been reenergized,” Rakim said about his new album, which arrives nearly four decades after the release of his classic debut with Eric B., Paid In Full. Since then, he’s continued to shape the landscape and culture of hip-hop as we know it, inspiring rising artists with his hype live shows and incredible studio albums. And while he’s produced some of his previous work—notably “Don’t Sweat the Technique,” “Juice (Know The Ledge),” and “Paid In Full”—this feels like new territory for the 18th Letter, whose production and scratching talents are nothing short of remarkable.

G.O.D.'S NETWORK (REB7RTH) is proof that Rakim is truly one of the most special artists we’ve known not just in hip-hop, but all of music. You can tell he feels that level of praise when speaking about the genesis of the album. “Having the ability to showcase my talents behind the boards coupled with the elite lyricism the world already knows and gives me infinite praise for alongside some of the best talents to ever do it is truly a blessing and for that I am humbled,” he said.

Rakim is more than an official triple-threat as an artist, because he’s also showing off skills as a curator. On this album’s seven tracks, he enlists a who’s-who of top hip-hop talent, including the dearly departed Nipsey Hussle, Fred the Godson, DMX, and Prodigy (of Mobb Deep). Rakim also linked with many of his contemporaries, such as Snoop Dogg, Method Man, KXNG Crooked, B.G., and Kool G. Rap, among others.

The album’s first single, “Be Ill,” is the perfect introduction, as it pairs Rakim’s raw rhymes and head-nodding production with slick guest features from Kurupt and Masta Killa. Elsewhere, Rakim slows it down for the soulful “Love Is The Message,” which features Nipsey Hussle, Planet Asia, Louis King, Snoop Dogg, Sally Green, Kobe Honeycutt, and the LA Grand Choir. And then there’s the chest-thumping “International,” a straight-up slapper with hard-hitting rhymes from Kool G. Rap, Tristate, and Joell Ortiz.

For fans of hip-hop, and especially of Rakim’s storied discography, there is so much to love on this record. You can hear his hunger as an emcee and producer on every track, as well as his desire to collaborate with so many respected artists. Despite having decades in the game and many classics to his name, it feels like Rakim is just getting started.

While the world awaits the July 26th release date, fans can catch Rakim performing live throughout the US from now until the end of year in support of G.O.D.S Network (REB7RTH). In addition to debuting new material, he’ll be performing all the classics from his beloved catalog.

Hip-hop legend Rakim is breaking new ground with his upcoming studio album, G.O.D.'S NETWORK (REB7RTH), by flexing his skills both on the mic and behind the boards. Widely lauded as the best lyricist of all time, The God MC himself is blessing the culture with the next step in his historic career.

“I feel like the battery in my back has been reenergized,” Rakim said about his new album, which arrives nearly four decades after the release of his classic debut with Eric B., Paid In Full. Since then, he’s continued to shape the landscape and culture of hip-hop as we know it, inspiring rising artists with his hype live shows and incredible studio albums. And while he’s produced some of his previous work—notably “Don’t Sweat the Technique,” “Juice (Know The Ledge),” and “Paid In Full”—this feels like new territory for the 18th Letter, whose production and scratching talents are nothing short of remarkable.

G.O.D.'S NETWORK (REB7RTH) is proof that Rakim is truly one of the most special artists we’ve known not just in hip-hop, but all of music. You can tell he feels that level of praise when speaking about the genesis of the album. “Having the ability to showcase my talents behind the boards coupled with the elite lyricism the world already knows and gives me infinite praise for alongside some of the best talents to ever do it is truly a blessing and for that I am humbled,” he said.

Rakim is more than an official triple-threat as an artist, because he’s also showing off skills as a curator. On this album’s seven tracks, he enlists a who’s-who of top hip-hop talent, including the dearly departed Nipsey Hussle, Fred the Godson, DMX, and Prodigy (of Mobb Deep). Rakim also linked with many of his contemporaries, such as Snoop Dogg, Method Man, KXNG Crooked, B.G., and Kool G. Rap, among others.

The album’s first single, “Be Ill,” is the perfect introduction, as it pairs Rakim’s raw rhymes and head-nodding production with slick guest features from Kurupt and Masta Killa. Elsewhere, Rakim slows it down for the soulful “Love Is The Message,” which features Nipsey Hussle, Planet Asia, Louis King, Snoop Dogg, Sally Green, Kobe Honeycutt, and the LA Grand Choir. And then there’s the chest-thumping “International,” a straight-up slapper with hard-hitting rhymes from Kool G. Rap, Tristate, and Joell Ortiz.

For fans of hip-hop, and especially of Rakim’s storied discography, there is so much to love on this record. You can hear his hunger as an emcee and producer on every track, as well as his desire to collaborate with so many respected artists. Despite having decades in the game and many classics to his name, it feels like Rakim is just getting started.

While the world awaits the July 26th release date, fans can catch Rakim performing live throughout the US from now until the end of year in support of G.O.D.S Network (REB7RTH). In addition to debuting new material, he’ll be performing all the classics from his beloved catalog.

On initial release, this EP was overshadowed by the two released on either side of it – how could it not be? Both The Journey and Gotta Believe were huge anthems all over the rave scene. But time has shown that this excellent EP deserves a second chance – both tunes are wicked glimpses of a bygone era, yet both stand proud in the history of hardcore, and now they have been beautifully remastered and rereleased!

Club / DJ Support
Billy Bunter, the Fat Controller, Glowkid, Slipmatt, Dj Jedi, Dj Luna-C, Dj Brisk, Clayfighter, Jimni Cricket, Bustin, Sc@r, Doughboy, Saiyan, Dave Skywalker, Ponder and many others

Die letzten Aufnahmen der frühen Emo-Pioniere The Hated aus Annapolis. Flux kompiliert ihre akustischen und elektrischen Sessions von 1989, Demos und Live-Scherben aus ihrem umfangreichen Archiv. Das begleitende 24-Seiten umfassende Buch skizziert das letzte Jahr der Band mit Essays von den Gründern Dan Littleton und Erik Fisher, einer "Track-by-Track" Oral History, Fotos, Flyern und Songtexten dieser lebendigen Post-Hardcore-Band. ,Feindselig und magnetisch_wie Parfüm das durch einen Stacheldrahtzaun weht." - Washington Post

Die letzten Aufnahmen der frühen Emo-Pioniere The Hated aus Annapolis. Flux kompiliert ihre akustischen und elektrischen Sessions von 1989, Demos und Live-Scherben aus ihrem umfangreichen Archiv. Das begleitende 24-Seiten umfassende Buch skizziert das letzte Jahr der Band mit Essays von den Gründern Dan Littleton und Erik Fisher, einer "Track-by-Track" Oral History, Fotos, Flyern und Songtexten dieser lebendigen Post-Hardcore-Band. ,Feindselig und magnetisch_wie Parfüm das durch einen Stacheldrahtzaun weht." - Washington Post

Launched in 2020, Big Saldo’s Chunkers draws on the sensibilities of classic US house music, crafting unique dancefloor cuts that don’t compromise on quality. It is label founder Sally C’s deep passion for the golden era of hip house and the sounds of 88’ - 98’ that has really shaped her raw and chunky style and inspired her productions and eponymous label Big Saldo’s Chunkers. A homage to the era she’s so obsessed with.

What started off as a self-release series is now a home to showcase and support talented artists. Inviting artists to put their own twist on Chunkers has been a natural next step in the evolution of this growing label, as it continues to push boundaries and open doors.

BSC006 marks the sixth release on Big Saldo’s Chunkers. The 4 track EP showcases both the first time Sally has collaborated with another artist and the inaugural remix of a Sally C track by Blitz Munich resident, BASHKKA.

In the crowded field of contemporary jazz AuB stands out on first listen. Reinventing the classic twin-tenor line up for the 21st century is a tough proposition, but top-flight UK virtuosi Alex Hitchcock and Tom Barford are more than equal to the task, not so much reviving the format as turning it inside out and upside down. For their brand new collection "Folk Devils" the two horns dance and dialogue over the scintillating team of Danish bassist Jasper Hoiby and French drummer Marc Michel in a series of compositions that perfectly balance complexity with powerful melody, drama with intimacy, angular post-funk with sombre, spacey beauty.

After his collab track with Elias. on Various Artists - Part Two, Kaan Pirecioglu is back on Primordial State with a hypnotic, timeless techno EP.

Acclaimed pianist Renee Rosnes fell in love with the music of Brazil as a teenager, from the moment that she first heard the iconic Bossa Nova singer Elis Regina. With "Crossing Paths," her brilliant new album for Smoke Sessions Records, Rosnes brings to stunning reality a dream held for decades: to explore the intersection between Brazil's scintillating sounds with her own visionary approach to modern jazz. Due out on December 6, 2024, "Crossing Paths" reimagines compositions from master composers like Antonio Carlos Jobim, Milton Nascimento, Caetano Veloso, and others. The album brings together a remarkable band - saxophonist Chris Potter, trombonist Steve Davis, bassist John Patitucci, and drummer Adam Cruz - with contemporary Brazilian voices (percussionist Rogério Boccato and vocalist Maucha Adnet) and special guest appearances by legendary vocalist/composers Edu Lobo and Joyce Moreno.

Transparent Curacao Vinyl. Award-winning composer for video games and Scottish artist, Barry "Epoch" Topping (PARADISE KILLER, SENTRY, THATCHER'S TECHBASE, ENCOUNTERS) returns with "The Needs", 11 songs of lavish reflection in a modern city pop style. The album takes the listener through an emotional exploration of identity and change set against the backdrop of late summer. It fuses city pop, rock and dance music into a rich, dreamy blast of video game-tinged modern pop music. But "The Needs" is more than just an album title, like Barry explains: "It's a new ensemble built around a core of the musicians that worked with me on Paradise Killer: Fiona Lynch, Fabian Hernandez, Thomas Temple and Kyle Murray-Dickson. A new trio of horns Elin Andersson, Nicklas Dahlin and Simon Fransman round out the full lineup. Having such talented musicians involved in a much bigger way has allowed us to challenge ourselves and make the best, most over the top music we've made yet. 'The Needs' was created as a vehicle for my own reflections and is intended to help listeners reflect and find solace too. No album can be universal but if 'The Needs' can help people feel seen or understood then I'll feel like it's been a success. Getting to make the album has been an extremely rewarding experience."

The latest compilation on LíO Press features six tracks inspired around alienation and the power of transformation.

The A side is an overcast path towards the void.
The B side is the bright shore.

Music by Tassilo Vanhöfen, Andrea Dama, eoobe (Elina Tapio and Marco Segato), Flore W.o.S., Steve Pepe and Tankwart.
Mixdown on N.A.D. Cab la Dub by Trent.
Mixdown on Meine Kraft by Roland Wäspe.
Uniti by Steve Pepe is a cover of Throbbing Gristle.
Mastered at Manmade Mastering.
Design by Alicia Carrera.
Distributed by Sound Metaphors in Berlin.
LíO Press © 2024

Interplanetary Criminal finally makes his highly anticipated debut via his own label, ATW Records.

Interplanetary Criminal is a pioneering DJ, producer and co-head of ATW Records. Hailing from Bolton, Great Manchester, Interplanetary Criminal is one of the most in demand DJ/producers of the moment. Spearheading the UK garage revival, his whirlwind rise in recent years boasts a UK number one single (B.O.T.A. with Eliza Rose), sold out headline UK tours and a slew of Boiler Room appearances. Internationally, IPC has toured the US, Australia and across Europe. Over the 2024 summer season, IPC has played already the likes of Glastonbury, Parklife, Outlook and Hideout festivals, as well as the iconic Circoloco at DC-10 and Amnesia in Ibiza.

Who is Isabelle Lewis, anyway?

What kind of music does she make? Is she an opera singer? Does she write pop songs? Does she compose ethereal ambient soundscapes? Does she play chamber music on the violin? Is she producing dark, electronic beats?

Well… yes. But Isabelle Lewis is not so much a person as a project. Isabelle’s debut album, Greetings, credits a trio of composer–performers at its heart: producer Valgeir Sigurðsson, vocalist Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe, and violinist Elisabeth Klinck. The sound of the elusive Isabelle Lewis is heard most clearly in the push and pull between them, the three-way tension that gives the album its musical and emotional drive.

Each of the three brings more to the collaboration than those epithets might imply. Elisabeth’s solo performance practice incorporates composition, improvisation, live electronics, and a close command of bowing and fingering techniques that make her fiddle sing, whisper or whistle as required. Benjamin is a self-taught countertenor - keening, crooning, and swelling to a voluptuous sensuality—but also an interdisciplinary stage director and performer. Well known for his work as a producer and studio collaborator, and as a composer of scores for film and stage, Valgeir’s solo discography interweaves meticulously crafted electronics, drones, noise, and other digital elements with acoustic instruments and vocals recorded with naked, unflinching clarity.

But the extravagant theatricality Benjamin brings to the aptly titled “Drama”—also featuring a heroic violin solo from Elisabeth—grapples against the thudding bass of the implacable digital backdrop. On “Mother, Shelter Me” Valgeir’s austere and detailed production throws the hushed violin and vocals into stark relief. The result is an exquisitely uncanny juxtaposition of past and present, human and mechanical, like a Rococo treasure viewed under cold fluorescent lights, or an 18th-century automaton slowly opening its clockwork eyes.

Even the lyrics seem somehow out of time. On “O Solitude,” Benjamin goes so far as to quote an entire song by the first great English opera composer, Henry Purcell, verbatim. No stranger to Purcell’s music, which has made its way into Benjamin’s theatrical productions as well, here Isabelle Lewis removes Purcell’s melodies and harmonies and sets the text, Katherine Phillips’s 17th century translation of a poem by Antoine Girard de Saint-Amant, to new music whose heightened, archaic character nevertheless seems haunted by Baroque ghosts.

Throughout the album, the outsized emotions and timeless archetypes of Benjamin’s lyrics feel like relics from some half-forgotten past—from the neatly rhymed couplets of “Fisherman,” a seemingly straightforward (but still somewhat askew) character study, to the abstraction of “Moonshell,” whose words seem like the fragments of some ancient, lost lament. It is just another of many ways in which Isabelle Lewis carefully distorts the listener’s notions of time. On a more micro level, time can stop for a moment of weightless, drifting ambience, and then plunge forward as the cloud of harmonies suddenly lock into tempo with the drop of the bass or the change of a chord. Or else that weightless moment is allowed to be, as in the aptly named prologue and epilogue to these Greetings (“Voicemail”/“…and farewell”), or in the interstitial tracks that bind the album together, connecting its dramatic peaks with expanses of meditative stasis.

The album as a whole is elegantly shaped, swelling from an intimate, interpersonal statement into something deeper and more spacious. The first half of the album leans slightly towards self-contained pop songcraft and ticking beats, while side B jumps off from “O Solitude” into the almost symphonic grandeur of songs like “Moonshell” or the instrumental “Not the water, air, or the dirt.”

But as it progresses, the contrasts only grow more sublime: antique and postmodern, human and machinelike. The ominous weight of the droning sub-bass and trombone (guest player Helgi Hrafn Jónsson) only makes the interplay between vocals and violins (guest player Daniel Pioro joining Elisabeth) seem more delicate and vulnerable. The ethereal string tremolos of “Moonshell” seem to pull against the heavy, shuddering electronics and layers of crooning vocals.

And that, in short, is where you will find Isabelle Lewis. Like an ancient stone archway, or a delicate house of cards, the architecture of Greetings is held together by the tension between opposing forces. Not just in Elisabeth’s playing, Benjamin’s singing, or Valgeir’s arrangements and production but in the conflict and contrast that generates the synergy between them.

Oh—Isabelle says hi, by the way. She’s looking forward to meeting you.

Waxwork Records is proud to present BARBIE Score From The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack composed by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt! The score is featured in the juggernaut film Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken.

On composing the score, Ronson says, “Greta’s Barbie overflows with emotion in a way that inspires us to no end, not just with harmony and melody but also textures, sonics and rhythms. Sometimes Greta wanted us to elicit tears, sometimes she wanted it to feel like a disco. Sometimes she loved the warmth of vintage analogue synthesizers, sometimes she wanted the richness of the orchestra. Often, she wanted both.

“The late nights and crazy hours we put into Barbie were all worth it to us, because we were so in love with this film. And we truly hope listening to our score from beginning to end will give others the same emotional, whimsical experience they had watching this magical film.”

The highly anticipated film score vividly brings Gerwig’s vision to life and adds the perfect layer to the film that immerses fans into the Barbie Universe.

Tracklist:Creation of Barbie , Pink ("Barbie" Opening Theme) *Lizzo Cover , Beach Off , Ken Thinks , Stairway to Weird Barbie , Thoughts of Death , Send Me Through the Portal , Ken Makes a Discovery , Bus Stop Billie *Billie Eilish Cover , Mattel , Meeting Ruth *Billie Eilish Cover , You Failed Me! , Alan vs Kens , Deprogramming , Warmth of Your Gaze , An Ending , I Don't Have an Ending , What Was I Made For? (Epilogue) *Billie Eilish Cover

Considered by many to be one of the best live albums of all time, this classic album by The Allman Brothers Band, recorded at the pinnacle of their success, was a huge hit for the band. In 1971 The Allman Brothers Band was already one of the most popular groups in America, but by the time this album hit the streets their brand of Southern rock had become a national obsession. One of Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time," it was the band's last with guitar hero Duane Allman, who was killed in a motorcycle accident later that year. Two 180-gram LPs with two bonus tracks.

Der Soundtrack zum Netflix-Film "Rustin" über den afroamerikanischen Bürgerrechtler Bayard Rustin, dem 1963 die Organisation des Marsches auf Washington mit über 200.000 Menschen gelang, einem Höhepunkt der US-Bürgerrechtsbewegung, auf dem Martin Luther King seine legendäre "I Have A Dream" Rede hielt. Komponist ist der renommierte Saxophonist, Dirigent und Jazzkomponist Branford Marsalis aus der weltberühmten Marsalis-Dynastie von Jazzmusikern, eine hoch angesehene Persönlichkeit der Jazzwelt mit einer beeindruckenden Liste von Auszeichnungen, darunter drei Grammys.

Vor zwanzig Jahren veröffentlichte Matt Elliott (auch Third Eye Foundation) Drinking Songs, den ersten Teil einer bedeutenden Trilogie düsterer Folk-Alben mit acht Songs, die bis heute die meistgehörten auf Streaming-Plattformen sind und von den Fans des aus Bristol stammenden Musikers hoch gelobt werden. Drinking Songs ist eine tiefgründige Erkundung des menschlichen Zustands und eine Reise durch die unzugänglichsten Ecken der Seele. Zur Feier des 20-jährigen Jubiläums des ikonischen Werks präsentiert Matt Elliott nun Drinking Songs Live 20 Years On, eine Sammlung alternativer Versionen, die er als Trio live aufgenommen hat.Was Matt Elliott auszeichnet, ist seine Fähigkeit, verschiedene Stile miteinander zu verschmelzen, indem er kammermusikalischen Folk mit osteuropäischer Kabarettmusik mischt und gleichzeitig seinen Hintergrund in der elektronischen Musik, insbesondere seine Beherrschung von Sampling und Effekten, in den Dienst des Songs stellt. Nach mehreren hundert Konzerten in ganz Europa und sieben Alben präsentiert Matt Elliott nun Drinking Songs Live 20 Years On und lässt dieses bahnbrechende Album wieder aufleben. Aufgenommen im L'Autre Canal in Nancy, wo der Engländer seit einigen Jahren lebt, enthält dieses Album bisher unveröffentlichte Trio-Versionen, mit Musikern, die ihn regelmäßig auf der Bühne begleiten: Anne-Elisabeth de Cologne (Kontrabass) und Barbara Dang (Klavier). Jeder, der ihn schon einmal solo oder mit diesem Trio erlebt hat, weiß, wie gerne Matt Elliott auf die Stücke von Drinking Songs zurückgegriffen hat. Diese Zusammenarbeit geht über die Studioversion hinaus und fängt die rohen Emotionen eines Matt Elliott ein, der mit 50 Jahren auf dem Höhepunkt seiner Kunst zu sein scheint. Unabhängig davon, ob man die Studioversionen kennt oder nicht, muss man vom ersten Track an gefesselt sein, einer Verflechtung, einer Überlagerung der ersten beiden Tracks des Originalalbums: ,CF Bundy / Trying to Explain". Siebzehn Minuten, größtenteils instrumental, wunderbar zu Tränen rührend, vor Milz und Absinth triefend. Indem er seinen Drinking Songs zwanzig Jahre später neues Leben einhaucht, hat Matt Elliott uns ein kostbares Geschenk gemacht: die Möglichkeit, Drinking Songs zum ersten Mal wieder zu hören. Erhältlich als 2LP sowie CD!

4LP Vinyl-Box oder Doppel-CD-Set!

Vor zwanzig Jahren veröffentlichte Matt Elliott (auch Third Eye Foundation) Drinking Songs, den ersten Teil einer bedeutenden Trilogie düsterer Folk-Alben mit acht Songs, die bis heute die meistgehörten auf Streaming-Plattformen sind und von den Fans des aus Bristol stammenden Musikers hoch gelobt werden. Drinking Songs ist eine tiefgründige Erkundung des menschlichen Zustands und eine Reise durch die unzugänglichsten Ecken der Seele. Zur Feier des 20-jährigen Jubiläums des ikonischen Werks präsentiert Matt Elliott nun Drinking Songs Live 20 Years On, eine Sammlung alternativer Versionen, die er als Trio live aufgenommen hat.Was Matt Elliott auszeichnet, ist seine Fähigkeit, verschiedene Stile miteinander zu verschmelzen, indem er kammermusikalischen Folk mit osteuropäischer Kabarettmusik mischt und gleichzeitig seinen Hintergrund in der elektronischen Musik, insbesondere seine Beherrschung von Sampling und Effekten, in den Dienst des Songs stellt. Nach mehreren hundert Konzerten in ganz Europa und sieben Alben präsentiert Matt Elliott nun Drinking Songs Live 20 Years On und lässt dieses bahnbrechende Album wieder aufleben. Aufgenommen im L'Autre Canal in Nancy, wo der Engländer seit einigen Jahren lebt, enthält dieses Album bisher unveröffentlichte Trio-Versionen, mit Musikern, die ihn regelmäßig auf der Bühne begleiten: Anne-Elisabeth de Cologne (Kontrabass) und Barbara Dang (Klavier). Jeder, der ihn schon einmal solo oder mit diesem Trio erlebt hat, weiß, wie gerne Matt Elliott auf die Stücke von Drinking Songs zurückgegriffen hat. Diese Zusammenarbeit geht über die Studioversion hinaus und fängt die rohen Emotionen eines Matt Elliott ein, der mit 50 Jahren auf dem Höhepunkt seiner Kunst zu sein scheint. Unabhängig davon, ob man die Studioversionen kennt oder nicht, muss man vom ersten Track an gefesselt sein, einer Verflechtung, einer Überlagerung der ersten beiden Tracks des Originalalbums: ,CF Bundy / Trying to Explain". Siebzehn Minuten, größtenteils instrumental, wunderbar zu Tränen rührend, vor Milz und Absinth triefend. Indem er seinen Drinking Songs zwanzig Jahre später neues Leben einhaucht, hat Matt Elliott uns ein kostbares Geschenk gemacht: die Möglichkeit, Drinking Songs zum ersten Mal wieder zu hören.

One of the finest Brazilian jazz funk fusion albums ever recorded; thoroughly deserving of its cult status. First official reissue outside of Brazil.

Cesar Camargo Mariano is a celebrated Brazilian jazz pianist, composer and producer, born in Sao Paulo in the 1940's. He has played and worked with the likes of Elis Regina (to whom he was married at one point), Som Tres and Sambalanco Trio and still plays very regularly today.

'Sao Paulo Brasil' saw Mariano and co. step deep into jazz funk/fusion territory - and nail it. Tight, tough drum grooves, intricate arrangements, layers of synthesisers, percussion and FX transport and tell a story from the first beat.

We are excited to present you with the soundtrack from the Netflix film Rustin, composed by the renowned saxophonist, conductor, and jazz composer Branford Marsalis. Branford is a highly respected figure in the jazz world, with an impressive list of accolades including three Grammy Awards, one Tony Award, and one Emmy. He is also a member of the illustrious Marsalis family, a dynasty of jazz musicians.

LAVENDER, das Debütalbum der Alternative-R&B-Musikerin MULAY, ist ein zutiefst persönliches Projekt. In zwölf kunstvoll intimen Songs verarbeitet sie eine intensive, schmerzhafte Erfahrung mit toxischer Liebe. Aber LAVENDER ist viel mehr als ein klassisches Heartbreak-Album. Es ist ein Plädoyer dafür, an Verletzungen und Enttäuschungen zu wachsen. Ein Leuchtfeuer im Sturm dunkler Zeiten, das von Heilung, Selbstentdeckung und Empowerment erzählt. Stärke durch Verletzlichkeit – das ist das Mantra dieser Platte.

Mit LAVENDER setzt die in Berlin lebende Singer-Songwriterin, Produzentin und Künstlerin den Weg fort, den sie mit zwei EPs begonnen hat: ANTRACYTE (2021) und IVORY (2022) ergänzten sich konzeptionell zu einem interdisziplinären Gesamtkunstwerk aus Sound, Gesang, Visuals und Performance, bei dem ambivalente Gefühle, Licht und Dunkelheit, zusammengedacht werden. Entstanden sind die Songs zwischen Paris, London und Berlin – zusammen mit alten (Llucid, Novaa), aber vor allem mit neuen Kreativpartnern wie den französischen Produzenten/Multiinstrumentalisten Elie Zylberman und Jules Minck. Auf der Suche nach ihrer kompromisslosen Wahrheit bewegt MULAY sich fließend zwischen innovativem Songwriting und ambitionierten Produktionen, die weite, kaleidoskopartige Soundräume voll von souligem R&B, Hip Hop und Electronica aufmachen. MULAY verwandelt Schmerz und Wut in fiebrig aufgeladene, ansteckende Soundscapes, in denen Downtempo-Momente und schnellere, tanzbare Beats sirupartig zu einem emotionalen Rausch zusammenfließen.

ADHD sind schwer entlang traditioneller musikalischer Parameter zu beschreiben. Songs dieser vier Wikinger sind immer ein umfassendes Ritual, ein magischer Trank aus Beschwörungstanz und einem Naturphänomen. Wenn Keyboarder THÓMAS JÓNSSON, Gitarrist und Bassist ÓMAR GUÐJÓNSSON, Saxophonist ÓSKAR GUÐJÓNSSON und Schlagzeuger MAGNÚS TRYGVASON ELIASSEN ihren Sound präsentieren, bekommt der gewöhnliche Mitteleuropäer zumindest eine vage Vorstellung davon, wie die Menschen auf der Insel im hohen Norden Europas die langen und eisigen Winter über die Jahrhunderte überlebt haben - sie produzieren einfach ihre Energie aus sich selbst.

Esoteric Warfare is the fifth full-length studio album by Norwegian black metal band Mayhem. It was released by Season of Mist on 6 June 2014 in Europe and Asia, and on 10 June 2014 in North America. It is the band's first album with Teloch on guitar since Blasphemer's departure from the band in 2008. As with the previous album, the lyrics focus less on the classically Satanic themes of the band's early work, instead referring to occult and conspiracy theory concepts such as psychic powers, mind control and alien tampering with human evolution. (For instance, the song "Corpse of Care" appears to be a direct allusion to Bohemian Grove and the Cremation of Care ceremony performed there.)

Crankers of amp, torturers of fuzzbox and denizens of small-hours salvation, Thee Alcoholics dished out a rancorous and righteous debut in their decent `Feedback' - one that filtered gnarled riffage and motorik malevolence through a uniquely debauched prism in pursuit of some extremely ill-advised audial dystopia. Thee Alcoholics may have started life as the home-birthed brainchild of Rhys Llewellyn (Hey Colossus/Acidliner/Drmcnt) yet an evolution since has proven the ultimate form of this beastly creation to be the live arena. In assembling cohorts to turn these visceral jams into something to shake rafters and rattle pint-glasses, new frontiers of ornery intensity have made themselves manifest, and such is the form of the monstrous Bear Bites Horse Sessions, a live-in-the-studio document recorded with Wayne Adams at Bear Bites Horse studio in Haggerston, London, chronicling a band breathing life into a Stoogian paradigm, and doing so apparently whilst barely breaking a sweat. Taking essential elixirs of in-the-red mania, hypnotic repetition and deathless swagger, these twelve jams walk a crooked path that neighbours the nihilistic vortex of Loop, the saturnine lurch of The Fall and the deadpan derangement of The Heads but remains possessed of a maverick charisma and mischief all its own. Lovers of lysergic heaviosity and the sound of a Marshall 4x12 violently spluttering its last will find much to satisfy here, but moreover Bear Bites Horse Sessions is a testimony to sonic punishment as a gateway to new horizons, audial excess as a path to wisdom, and answers, right or wrong, being found in the bottom of a glass.

High school band Kashmere Stage Band was formed in Texas by students from Kashmere High School's elite music division under the guidance of leader Conrad O. Johnson. They recorded plenty of albums but they only got sold locally and made in small numbers so now P-VIBE is embarking on a much-needed reissue run. Zero Point came in 1972, right in the middle of the band's activities which ran from the early 60s to the late 70s. It's a funky jazz fusion workout with great echoed vocals and fuzz-tone guitar.

High school band Kashmere Stage Band was formed in Texas by students from Kashmere High School's elite music division under the guidance of leader Conrad O. Johnson. They recorded plenty of albums but they only got sold locally and made in small numbers so now P-VIBE is embarking on a much-needed reissue run. Zero Point came in 1972, right in the middle of the band's activities which ran from the early 60s to the late 70s. It's a funky jazz fusion workout with great echoed vocals and fuzz-tone guitar.

Finally the Classics on Vinyl, Must have!

Set for release at the height of the season it’s dedicated to, ‘Music For Autumn Lovers’ by Adam Scrimshire is an eight track album of lush, mostly acoustic based, minimal instrumentals eliciting a mixture of feelings for this special time of year.

Four tracks originally released on an EP in 2022 are joined by new compositions ‘Hawthorn’, ‘Hazel’, ‘Willow’ and ‘Blackthorn’. Gently finger-picked acoustic guitars cosy up alongside pianos, synthesisers, strings and horns; filtered through an autumnal hue of susurrous production and effects. In turns comforting, melancholic and evolutionary; it feels like an album that can be kept being made and remade forever, like a season in itself.

Both a relentless creator and inspiring champion of new music; South London based Scrimshire has been recording, producing and DJing since the mid 2000s. Amongst his credits, he was featured by the Guardian as one of three producers behind the new wave of UK soul, alongside Inflo (Michael Kiwanuka, Sault, Lil Simz) and Swindle (Joel Culpepper, Greentea Peng, Kojey Radical). His bold 2023 album ‘Paroxysm’ was a response to the absurdity of the breakdown in the UK government, picking up an Album of the Week award on Huey Morgan’s BBC 6 Music show, and 2021’s beautiful ‘Nothing Feels Like Everything’ received an Album of the Year nomination at the Gilles Peterson Worldwide Awards. Scrimshire also somehow finds the time to support a wealth of talent on his label Albert’s Favourites, formed with Dave Koor and Jonny Drop, where they have recently released albums by And Is Phi, Huw Marc Bennet, Inês Loubet, Irini Arabatzi, Jonny Drop & Andrew Ashong, and Qwalia.

Radio Support: Gilles Peterson (BBC Radio 6 Music), Tom Ravenscroft/Deb Grant – New Music Fix (BBC Radio 6 Music), Huey Morgan (BBC Radio 6 Music) Guy Garvey (BBC Radio 6 Music)

The seeds of composer Rafael Anton Irisarri’s latest LP were first planted during his 2016 tour in Italy, months before that Autumn’s unexpected presidential election. The linguistic glitch of an innocuous diner in Milan named “il Mito Americano” – meant as “The American Dream” but translated literally to English as “The American Myth” – sparked a series of ideas, both conceptual and musical.

Amid the chaos of 2020, while exploring the stark world of brutalist architecture and inspired by the false fronts of Potemkin villages, a vision started to take shape: FAÇADISMS. Composed over three years, it’s a late capitalist lament of simmering electric despondency.

Irisarri’s obsession with repeating motifs mirrors the cyclical nature of our tumultuous political history. The album’s eight tracks heave and storm like a tempest being drained of its rage. This is the sound of majestic dissipation, of morning afters, fashioned from a mournful haze with cavernous guitars and granular twilight. A euphony of a receding tide as one sifts through the remnants of what remains: dust, delusion, and memory.

Opening with the somber gauze of “Broken Intensification," FAÇADISMS moves fluidly between moments of absence and abandon. Ashen swaths of electronics billow above smoldering embers of melody, guitar, and scattered streaks of processed strings and voice, as on the rapturous doom of “Control Your Soul's Desire for Freedom,” featuring Julia Kent on cello and Hannah Elizabeth Cox on vocals. "The impoverished peoples of the Americas have known all along that 'freedom' is a cruel illusion crafted by the elites, akin to Potemkin's fake villages designed to impress Catherine the Great," Irisarri indicates. "FAÇADISMS illustrates a twisted inversion where the rulers deceive their subjects with illusions of safety, democracy, and free speech to create a grotesque mirage of control over their own lives.”

Elsewhere, Irisarri leans into passages of hushed oblivion (“Hollow,” “Dispersion of Belief”), while ragged drones rumble and disintegrate into wind-battered ambient wreckage. One has the sense that it’s all too late. The hour of fury has passed. The beauty has come and gone. Irisarri’s muse has become the crack in the façade of the unraveling myth.

The record closes with a climax of grand departure. Co-written with Kenyan sound artist KMRU, “Red Moon Tide” surges from flickering elegy to celestial disquiet, roiling waves of hymnal descent, and bristling noise. The effect is unsettling and unmooring: a soundtrack for the soul leaving the body, only to discover a void. It’s the sound of the center not holding, of shared illusions being dissolved in a tunnel of white light.

The cover photograph captures a profound sense of desolation. Taken in the historic shanty town of La Perla, Puerto Rico, where Irisarri spent his childhood, brutal colonial mysteries are lost to time. A skeletal concrete structure decays against an expansive blue horizon. Only the shadow of its shell ripples on the empty sea.

Has the American myth finally run its course?

The seeds of composer Rafael Anton Irisarri’s latest LP were first planted during his 2016 tour in Italy, months before that Autumn’s unexpected presidential election. The linguistic glitch of an innocuous diner in Milan named “il Mito Americano” – meant as “The American Dream” but translated literally to English as “The American Myth” – sparked a series of ideas, both conceptual and musical.

Amid the chaos of 2020, while exploring the stark world of brutalist architecture and inspired by the false fronts of Potemkin villages, a vision started to take shape: FAÇADISMS. Composed over three years, it’s a late capitalist lament of simmering electric despondency.

Irisarri’s obsession with repeating motifs mirrors the cyclical nature of our tumultuous political history. The album’s eight tracks heave and storm like a tempest being drained of its rage. This is the sound of majestic dissipation, of morning afters, fashioned from a mournful haze with cavernous guitars and granular twilight. A euphony of a receding tide as one sifts through the remnants of what remains: dust, delusion, and memory.

Opening with the somber gauze of “Broken Intensification," FAÇADISMS moves fluidly between moments of absence and abandon. Ashen swaths of electronics billow above smoldering embers of melody, guitar, and scattered streaks of processed strings and voice, as on the rapturous doom of “Control Your Soul's Desire for Freedom,” featuring Julia Kent on cello and Hannah Elizabeth Cox on vocals. "The impoverished peoples of the Americas have known all along that 'freedom' is a cruel illusion crafted by the elites, akin to Potemkin's fake villages designed to impress Catherine the Great," Irisarri indicates. "FAÇADISMS illustrates a twisted inversion where the rulers deceive their subjects with illusions of safety, democracy, and free speech to create a grotesque mirage of control over their own lives.”

Elsewhere, Irisarri leans into passages of hushed oblivion (“Hollow,” “Dispersion of Belief”), while ragged drones rumble and disintegrate into wind-battered ambient wreckage. One has the sense that it’s all too late. The hour of fury has passed. The beauty has come and gone. Irisarri’s muse has become the crack in the façade of the unraveling myth.

The record closes with a climax of grand departure. Co-written with Kenyan sound artist KMRU, “Red Moon Tide” surges from flickering elegy to celestial disquiet, roiling waves of hymnal descent, and bristling noise. The effect is unsettling and unmooring: a soundtrack for the soul leaving the body, only to discover a void. It’s the sound of the center not holding, of shared illusions being dissolved in a tunnel of white light.

The cover photograph captures a profound sense of desolation. Taken in the historic shanty town of La Perla, Puerto Rico, where Irisarri spent his childhood, brutal colonial mysteries are lost to time. A skeletal concrete structure decays against an expansive blue horizon. Only the shadow of its shell ripples on the empty sea.

Has the American myth finally run its course?

The seeds of composer Rafael Anton Irisarri’s latest LP were first planted during his 2016 tour in Italy, months before that Autumn’s unexpected presidential election. The linguistic glitch of an innocuous diner in Milan named “il Mito Americano” – meant as “The American Dream” but translated literally to English as “The American Myth” – sparked a series of ideas, both conceptual and musical.

Amid the chaos of 2020, while exploring the stark world of brutalist architecture and inspired by the false fronts of Potemkin villages, a vision started to take shape: FAÇADISMS. Composed over three years, it’s a late capitalist lament of simmering electric despondency.

Irisarri’s obsession with repeating motifs mirrors the cyclical nature of our tumultuous political history. The album’s eight tracks heave and storm like a tempest being drained of its rage. This is the sound of majestic dissipation, of morning afters, fashioned from a mournful haze with cavernous guitars and granular twilight. A euphony of a receding tide as one sifts through the remnants of what remains: dust, delusion, and memory.

Opening with the somber gauze of “Broken Intensification," FAÇADISMS moves fluidly between moments of absence and abandon. Ashen swaths of electronics billow above smoldering embers of melody, guitar, and scattered streaks of processed strings and voice, as on the rapturous doom of “Control Your Soul's Desire for Freedom,” featuring Julia Kent on cello and Hannah Elizabeth Cox on vocals. "The impoverished peoples of the Americas have known all along that 'freedom' is a cruel illusion crafted by the elites, akin to Potemkin's fake villages designed to impress Catherine the Great," Irisarri indicates. "FAÇADISMS illustrates a twisted inversion where the rulers deceive their subjects with illusions of safety, democracy, and free speech to create a grotesque mirage of control over their own lives.”

Elsewhere, Irisarri leans into passages of hushed oblivion (“Hollow,” “Dispersion of Belief”), while ragged drones rumble and disintegrate into wind-battered ambient wreckage. One has the sense that it’s all too late. The hour of fury has passed. The beauty has come and gone. Irisarri’s muse has become the crack in the façade of the unraveling myth.

The record closes with a climax of grand departure. Co-written with Kenyan sound artist KMRU, “Red Moon Tide” surges from flickering elegy to celestial disquiet, roiling waves of hymnal descent, and bristling noise. The effect is unsettling and unmooring: a soundtrack for the soul leaving the body, only to discover a void. It’s the sound of the center not holding, of shared illusions being dissolved in a tunnel of white light.

The cover photograph captures a profound sense of desolation. Taken in the historic shanty town of La Perla, Puerto Rico, where Irisarri spent his childhood, brutal colonial mysteries are lost to time. A skeletal concrete structure decays against an expansive blue horizon. Only the shadow of its shell ripples on the empty sea.

Has the American myth finally run its course?

Two of the most sensitive and sweet big room bangers to ever fill a floor, here’s Stay Here and Writer, the results of a recent machine jam between heavyweights of emotional dance music, Fort Romeau and Gold Panda.

Stay Here strikes first with slowly simmering synthesizers intertwining with slinky guitars and delicate vocal samples, while b-side Writer shows up to the party loaded with restrained euphoria, steady beats paving the path for the fragile acoustic elements of its glorious, beatless ending.

All of this spiked with just the right amount of acid to keep things constantly entrancing!

The record comes wrapped up in designer Eliot Axelsson's blurry shapes and vivid colours, arriving on vinyl and in digital form through Studio Barnhus on November 8.

DJ Support: Marco Calora, Jamie Jones, Eliza Rose, Peggy Gou, Richie Hawtin, Gorgon City

Southern Fried Record’s gargantuan 500th single ‘Role Model’ welcomed back label head Fatboy Slim to the delight of fans around the world. After bonding on a South American tour, Norman Cook asked Parisian DJ,producer, multi-instrumentalist and label owner, Chloe Caillet, to remix Role Model, and she has delivered this monster!

No one has lived a life quite like Marcos Valle. He became an overnight international sensation, fled a military dictatorship, dodged the Vietnam war draft, had his music sung by Homer Simpson, made enemies with Marlon Brando, and became an unsuspecting fitness guru for multiple generations. But to truly understand the great Brazilian composer, arranger, singer and multi instrumentalist, one must listen to his music.

Lead Single (Life Is What It Is) : Between the release of his first album in 1962 and today, Marcos Valle has released twenty-two studio albums traversing definitive bossa nova, classic samba, iconic disco pop, psychedelic rock, nineties dance and orchestral music. He has also had his songs recorded by some of the all time greats, including Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughn, Sergio Mendes, Elis Regina, and (last but not least), Emma Button of the Spice Girls. He has also had his music sampled by Jay-Z, Kanye West, Pusha T and many more.


With his twenty-third studio album Túnel Acustico, Valle set out to bring it all together.

“I believe my music is many things. It goes in different directions. I have many different ways of writing music, sometimes it’s melodies and harmony, sometimes the groove is the focus. But all the music I have made over my sixty year career is unified. It is all natural and it is all sincere. And this is what I wanted to bring to my new album.”

A prominent feature of Valle’s career has been his dual residence between Brazil and the USA. Originally moving over in the mid-sixties on the back of bossa nova’s international proliferation, Valle toured with Sergio Mendes and became hugely in demand as a composer and arranger. But the Vietnam War loomed and the threat of being drafted saw him return to Brazil. He spent the following years in Rio writing music for TV and film, as well as four cult favourite albums in collaboration with some of Brazil’s most groundbreaking musicians including Milton Nascimento, Azymuth, Som Imaginario and O Terco.

By 1975, Brazil's military dictatorship was at its most oppressive, making living and working increasingly difficult. Valle moved back to the US where he would reside in LA, writing songs for, and collaborating with the likes of Eumir Deodato, Airto Moreira, Chicago, Sarah Vaughn and Leon Ware, amongst others.

Túnel Acústico features two songs originally conceived during Valle’s time on the West Coast: “Feels So Good”, a stirring two-step soul triumph written in 1979 with soul icon Leon Ware, and the sublime AOR disco track “Life Is What It Is”, composed around the same time, with percussionist Laudir De Oliveira from the group Chicago.

Built around an unfinished demo Marcos found on a shelf in his house 44 years after it was made, the “Feels So Good” demo was restored with the help of producer Daniel Maunick, who also utilised AI stem-separation to remove the placeholder vocal ad-libs. Valle added Portuguese lyrics to sit alongside Ware’s vocal hook, as well as extra keyboards and percussion.

Also written in late seventies LA, “Life Is What Is It” was co-penned by Laudir De Oliveira from the band Chicago and first released on the bands’ Chicago 13 album with lyrics by Robert Lamb. Another nod to his good times in LA, Valle recorded his own version for Túnel Acústico, upping the tempo and deepening the groove for a blast of irresistible summer soul.

On Túnel Acústico, Valle's core band features two members of the renowned Brazilian jazz-funk group Azymuth: Alex Malheiros on bass and Renato Massa on drums. The rhythm section is completed by percussionist Ian Moreira, with additional contributions from guitarist Paulinho Guitarra and trumpeter Jesse Sadoc.

The contemporarily composed music on Túnel Acústico features an impressive lineup of guest lyricists, including renowned Brazilian artists: Joyce Moreno (Bora Meu Vem), Céu (Nao Sei), and Moreno Veloso (Palavras Tão Gentis) as well as Valle's brother Paulo Sergio Valle (Tem Que Ser Feliz).

The album closes with "Thank You Burt (For Bacharach)", a tribute to the legendary composer who passed away in 2023.

Túnel Acústico will be released on 20th September 2024 via Far Out Recordings. Valle is set to tour Europe and America in support of the album.

US Heavy Music Act CANE HILL melden sich endlich mit ihrer neuen, lang ersehnten LP “a piece of n ihrer nunmehr 13-jährigen Karriere haben Cane Hill immer wieder gezeigt, wie musikalisch divers sie sein können. Von Metalcore, über Nu-Metal, Industrial Metal und Alt-Rock ist alles dabei und nun beschenkt das Alt-Metal Quartett um Frontmann Elijah Witt uns mit ihrem neuen Longplayer aus 11 neuen Tracks, darunter die neuesten Singles “The Midnight Sun” und “Fade”.

“Ich habe diesen Song geschrieben, als ich wahnsinnig verliebt in jemanden war. Mittlerweile sind wir uns Fremde, aber ich glaube, hätten wir uns nie getroffen, wäre dieser Song nicht das geworden, was er nun ist. Musik kann so schön ironisch sein”. — Elijah Barnett über “Fade”

TAKEN (2024) MADE IN STOCKHOLM FOR (TH TAR HALLOW)

TAKEN = Elias Landberg & Nihad Tule

Yazz Ahmeds Album "Polyhymnia" (2019) feiert weiblichen Mut, Entschlossenheit und Kreativität. Im Auftrag der Tomorrow's Warriors schrieb sie 2015 ein längeres Werk für deren Nu Civilisation Orchestra, das am Internationalen Frauentag beim Women Of The World Festival in der Londoner Queen Elizabeth Hall aufgeführt wurde. In Anlehnung an Polyhymnia, die griechische Muse der Musik, Poesie und des Tanzes, schuf Yazz eine Reihe von Sätzen, die herausragenden weiblichen Vorbildern wie Rosa Parks, Haifaa Al-Mansour und Malala Yousafzai gewidmet waren. Dieses Album steht im Kontrast zu ihrem vorherigen Werk "La Saboteuse", das von ihrer inneren Zerstörerin oder Anti-Muse getrieben wurde.

“Commencement/Mineral Blend” delivers a fusion of rough and ready dub-adjacent bass music compositions from the London based trio Damos Room. Also featured are eclectic remixes from artists Gonjasufi, Lewi Boome, Dome Zero, and Nudibranch residents Polyop.

The bulk of the EP came from a rare in-person collaboration at Elijah Minnelli’s loft. The Horse Militia laid belly to the ground, endlessly feeding an effects chain like a battery hen with noises from multiple contrasting sources. It was particularly hot that day and the windows were wide open, so if you listen closely you can hear the humid Selhurst skyline bleeding into the recordings. This long weekend was punctuated by visits to the local swamp and an outing to see Channel One Soundsystem.

"Commencement," the EP's inaugural offering, unfolds with a hypnotic, droning bass groove, providing the floor for a paranoid stream of consciousness.

"Mineral Blend" takes a lazier dancehall-esque approach. Littered with unloved sounds from previous sessions and repurposing the lyrics ("I want to be a vessel") from Damos Room's DR Viewings #2 release with Polyop, this track weaves in and out of consciousness without ever truly bubbling over.

Remixers Lewi Boome and Dome Zero contribute imaginative 150bpm takes on both "Commencement" and "Mineral Blend” respectively, drawing inspiration from their backgrounds in bass, techno and experimental electronic music.

Polyop's remix of "Mineral Blend" leans further into dub techno stylings, infusing a refreshing and spacious perspective that echoes their acid roots.

The LA-based artist Gonjasufi transforms "Commencement" into a foggy and mysterious rendition, using his unique production techniques to transcend the dancefloor and immerse listeners in a misty sonic landscape.

Elias Rønnenfelt is a musician and poet best known as the lead singer and lyricist of Iceage. Heavy Glory is his debut solo album. Out October 25th via Escho. Heavy Glory was recorded in Copenhagen in chapters and moments over the course of a year. Collaborators include Iceage's Dan Kjær Nielsen, Danish punk godfather Peter Peter, and singers Joanne Robertson (Elias and Joanne have collaborated before, on a number of recent Dean Blunt releases) and Fauzia. "I've done this so many times," Rønnenfelt explains, speaking of the process of crafting a long player, "but capturing and crystallising an album remains a singular ritual, just with different circumstances. We are capturing something that is hard to hold down." Heavy Glory is a record that examines all the things that lovers do, from the most desperate to the most pure. The lover haunts the record, reappearing and provoking Rønnenfelt, pulling him in and pushing him away. Songs like "Close" describe the line between jealousy and protectiveness. "Unarmed" is a song of surrender. "River of Madeleine" harnesses toughness in the name of preservation, staying up all night to protect his lover's dreams. "Stalker" is an epic third-person story song in the tradition of the murder ballad. The record closes with two covers. The first, Spacemen 3's "Sound of Confusion," is a mission statement of the life Rønnenfelt has found and inherited in music. "Here it comes," the song famously promises, and flares out into noise. It is a joyful noise, because this life, in all its grit, is the life he chose. The second, Townes Van Zandt's "No Place to Fall," is a sweet plea, Rønnenfelt's final invitation to join him on his journey. This journey - this story, this record - will repeat and continue. It never stops. Rønnenfelt's life as an artist results in a sound that wobbles and rocks but never loses its centre, both fragile and tough, and always moving forward. It is dreamy yet bombastic, held together by the passion of certainty. Co-produced by Rønnenfelt and Nis Bysted.

"Cerulean Blue vinyl limited to 700 units! On her second full-length record as Waxahatchee, former P.S. Eliot singer Katie Crutchfield’s compelling hyper-personal poetry is continuously crushing. Cerulean Salt follows American Weekend -- a collection of minimal acoustic-guitar pop written and recorded in a week at her family’s Birmingham home. On this new record, Crutchfield’s songs continue to be marked by her sharp, hooky songwriting; her striking voice and lyrics that simultaneously seem hyper-personal yet relentlessly relatable, teetering between endearingly nostalgic and depressingly dark. But whereas before the thematic focus of her songcraft was on break ups and passive-aggressive crushing, this record reflects on her family and Alabama upbringing. Whereas American Weekend was mostly just Crutchfield and her guitar, Cerulean Salt is occasionally amped up, with a full band and higher-fi production.

At times, Cerulean Salt creeps closer to the sound of PS Eliot: moody, 90s-inspired rock backed by Keith Spencer and Swearin’ guitarist Kyle Gilbride on drums and bass. The full band means fleshed-out fuzzy lead guitars on “Coast to Coast”, its poppy hook almost masking its dark lyrics. Big distorted guitars and deep steady drums mark songs like “Misery over Dispute” and “Waiting”.

There’s plenty of American Weekend‘s introspection and minimalism to be found, though. “Blue Pt. II” is stripped down, Crutchfield and her sister Alison singing in harmony with deadpan vox. She’s still an open booking, musing on self-doubt versus self-reliance, transience versus permanence. “Peace and Quiet” ebbs and flows from moody, minimal verses to a sing-song chorus. “Swan Dive” tackles nostalgia, transience, indifference, regret — over the a minimal strum of an electric-guitar, the picking at a chirpy riff and the double-time tapping of a muted drum. The album closes with a haunting acoustic-guitar reflection on “You’re Damaged,” possibly the best Waxahatchee song to date."