Cerca:eman

Seminal early 80's HI-NRG / Synth disco emanating from the gay clubs, bath houses and discotheques of San Francisco. A truly original and groundbreaking sound and style helmed by studio genius Patrick Cowley. Heavily informed by sonically charged science fiction fantasy and the darkest corners of nightlife, 'Mind Warp' is a cornerstone of electronic music that still astonishes today. Originally released on Cowley's own Megatone imprint in 1982 the album marks a definitive change in direction of post-disco dance music, undoubtedly inspired by European artists such as Kraftwerk, Moroder, Yello and more. A huge influence on what was to come through in later years via house and techno music, 'Mind Warp' is a bonafide classic and every single self respecting music lover or DJs home should have a copy!

Celebrate 40 years of the label with this unmissable reissue package beautifully presented on wondrous coloured vinyl by your friends over at Unidisc.

Reissue of the 1961 Classic debut album by the American Jazz tenor saxophonist. BOOKER ERVIN was one of jazz’s biggest what-if’s; he died young, at 39, from kidney disease, right as he was hitting another wave of sonic experiments. He was a tenor who played the blues like they emanated from deep inside him, taking inspiration from field hollers as much as bebop. He got compared to Coltrane--who made a lot of similar playing decisions--but he had a different way of playing his blues. His debut LP, THE BOOK COOKS, shows he arrived on the solo scene essentially fully formed; he’d change towards the end of the ‘60s, but this LP was a roadmap for him for the first part of his bandleader career.

February 2021. During a stay in an isolated house in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, I returned to four compositions Renaud Bajeux had sent me a few months prior. I had listened intently and enjoyed them very much, but in this new setting, at this very moment, they took on another dimension. For several days, I went on long walks in the surrounding nature and this album, all in half-light, became an obsession. In sync with the perfection of this moment, with this place, it began to haunt me from dawn till long past dusk. At times calming and meditative, at times wild, rugged, and maybe even dangerous, the music seemed to mirror the mountain landscape encircling me. It became evident that Seeking a Vision would be released on Fragments.

Seeking a Vision follows Renaud Bajeux’s first album, Magnetic Voices from the Unseen (Nahal Recordings, 2019), an exploration of electromagnetic fields. In this second opus, Bajeux works with the sound palette of a Serge synthesizer, combining its polymorphic sounds with field recordings of nature. The album’s four parts can be seen as a continuous mental journey through multiple layers of consciousness. Carried by whispering winds and the cracklings of a campfire, they proceed toward meditative states and obscure inner landscapes.

Seeking a Vision was recorded during an INA GRM residency. Elevation was commissioned by the INA GRM.

Renaud Bajeux is a French composer and film sound designer. His work his primarily based on field recordings and modular synthesizers. It can be located at the crossroads of electroacoustic music, noise, and ambient. Renaud Bajeux’s most recent release is a duet with Antoine Gilloire titled Underwater Soil (Superpang, 2021).

All tracks performed and composed by Renaud Bajeux. Mastered by Stephan Mathieu. Artwork by Morgan Cuinet. Layout by Romain Barbot.

Fools Meeting is an album by Carol Grimes with the British blues/progressive rock band Delivery, founded in the late 1968. The band was one of the wellsprings of the progressive rock Canterbury scene.

"Delivery was formed during the British blues boom of the late '60s. However, its sound is jazzier and more progressive than most of the music that emanated from that era. Rhythm & blues serves as a springboard for forward-looking tracks like "Blind to Your Light" and "Harry Lucky." Singer Carol Grimes is frequently compared to Janis Joplin. While Grimes has a powerful voice, she does not reach the level of histrionics that were a showcase of Joplin's. It should come as no surprise that Delivery members joined Canterbury related bands upon Delivery's demise. The reissue CD of Fools Meeting features several live bonus tracks, as well as a post-breakup demo recording featuring Caravan bassist Richard Sinclair. That demo session, one of the highlights of the collection, spurred the musicians to form Hatfield and the North. Fools Meeting is an essential part of any Canterbury collection, and should also appeal to progressive jazz fans." (Jim Powers / All Music Guide)

Comes with 10'' booklet and download code. Limited 500. - "Those awaiting", the name chosen by the musicians of Sabreen, still rings true forty years after the foundation of this group in Jerusalem. Voice of the hopes as well as the anger of the Palestinian youth, this group has recorded four self-produced albums. With the weapons of poetry, they will embody the voices of resistance against the occupation but also the desire for emancipation from tradition.Emblematic of this state of mind, their second album Death Of The Prophet was released on cassette at the beginning of the first intifada. It will be the soundtrack, while providing the tuning fork of the future generations. Whether meditative beaches or collective outbursts, joyful outbursts or more serious moments, the band goes through the range of feelings, drawing its inspiration from the sources of classical Arabic music and popular folklore. The result is a unique style, irreducible to any category. All that makes that forty years later, this cult album, never released on vinyl, remains very current. Including booklet with extended liner notes by Jacques Denis and rare photos.

Legendary Brazilian group Orquestra Afro-Brasileira are reborn for first new album in over fifty years, produced by Beastie Boys collaborator Mario Caldato Jr.

Led by maverick composer Abigail Moura, Orquestra Afro-Brasileira were one of the most influential yet overlooked groups in Brazilian music history. Operating for almost thirty years until 1970, they released just two albums - the first of which, Obaluayê, has recently been reissued by Day Dreamer Records - and left behind a legacy of Afro-Brazilian consciousness that continues to resonate today.

Combining Yoruba spirituality, folk tales, Candomblé chants and West African percussion with the instrumentation of the big band jazz tradition in the United States, the Orquestra placed Afro-Brazilian heritage in a new and vital context. Weaving emancipatory narratives into complex poly-rhythms and powerful, syncopated horn lines, the group educated and enlightened all those who saw them perform.

For Abigail’s protégé and percussionist on the group’s 1968 album Carlos Negreiros, the message of the group’s music had a profound impact: “I became aware of what it is to be black,” he says, “discovering the extraordinary potential of the Afro-Brazilian culture in the making of the national ethos.” Now the last remaining member of the original Orquestra, Carlos was tracked down by producer Mario Caldato Jr. - whose credits include Beastie Boys, Marcelo D2 and Seu Jorge among others - to oversee the first new album of Orquestra Afro-Brasileira material since 1968.

“I was overwhelmed with the percussive rhythms, beautiful deep vocals and combined energy,” Caldato Jr. explains. “It felt like the most authentic Brazilian roots music I had ever heard. It was raw and dynamic, a pure organic sound and energy. It was a spiritual experience.”

Alongside arranger Caio Cezar, Carlos assembled his Orquestra to record five tracks at Berna Ceppas’ Estudio Maravilha 8 studio in Rio De Janeiro. With percussion, horns and vocals cut in single takes over three days, the session captured the intuitive, pure and natural spirit of the group in full flow.

Following the success of the initial session, five additional tracks were recorded at the iconic Estudio CIA dos Tecnicos in Copacabana to complete the album. Mixed by Caldato Jr., 80 Anos is a contemporary incarnation of Abigail Moura’s vision, bristling with the flair of the original recordings.

Following the success of the label's Cassiopeia reissue, Mysticisms presents a second EP from Nail with four previously unreleased tracks of gliding deep house, dub techno and Balearic sunrise anthems, highlighting this respected talent.

Recorded between 1993 to 1999, predominately at the DiY collective's Strictly 4 Groovers studio in Nottingham, with the ever reliable Damian "Deadbeats" Stanley engineering. While edits and overdubs were completed at home, some were mixed down to DAT and cassette to became part of Nail and friends after party soundtrack, as much for pure enjoyment as appraisal.

Still a teenager for the early years of these recordings, Nail was honing his craft. Utilizing the ever faithful S1000 sampler, Juno 106, Oberheim Matrix 1000 and Roland SH101, influences from Future Sound Of London, the emerging 'West Coast Sound' rising in the US, Maurizio's dub fusion, through to the bouncing free party sounds emanating out from the Midlands to a now nationwide party scene embed in to machines.

Unreleased until now, the Cassiopeia release ignited an interest in these old cassettes and DATs, bringing them to life and offering further proof of Nail's place as one of the UK's best House producers.

Ghost the Mystery.

‘Eighteen Movements’ is a collection of recordings captured at live performances between 2017 – 2019. The record’s rich textures combine ambient, tribal rhythms, field recordings, ritualistic vibes, and a meditative feeling that runs through the entire LP. Đ.K. is in full flight mode, illustrating the project’s aptitude for deep transcendence.

Đ.K. is a DJ, composer & producer based in Paris, France. A versatile and prolific artist, D.K. has cultivated an eclectic body of work in recent years, with acclaimed output on renowned labels including Antinote, Melody As Truth, 12th Isle, Good Morning Tapes, Music From Memory’s Second Circle imprint, and L.I.E.S. (as 45 ACP).

Luminous and mesmeric, D.K.’s work combines finetuned traces of house, synth pop, ambient, balearic, minimalism, and fourth world music, creating energies and soundscapes which aim to invoke elevated forms of consciousness.

Prismatic tones exchange space with devotional drums on ‘Clarity’ and ‘Echo Chamber’, as Đ.K. hits a hypnotic stride somewhere between Jon Hassell, HTRK & a Folkways percussion ensemble. With ‘Full Consciousness’ meditation bells ring out across a progression of gleaming new age emanations, conjuring an entrancing spell. Movements of pulse and ether.

On ‘Mirror’, sonorous, elaborate percussive phrases are interwoven with drifting ambient vapours, while ‘The Other Side’ veers into broad, rolling blasts of dub and Antipodean drone, a cavernous trance evoking the early roots of Ras Michael and Yabby You, pared back to resolute drum sequences and infused with esoteric chimes and sultry synthesis.

The finale of ‘Eighteen Movements’ represents one of Đ.K..’s most ambitious recordings. ‘Awakening’ is an epic tone poem of aqueous, outer planetary resonance that completes this mercurial cycle with a poignant, euphoric fadeout. Chronicled in the moment, alternating between rhythm and repose, momentum and aviation, 'Eighteen Movements' sees Đ.K. voyaging further, into vast, uncharted outskirts of sound. A collection of movements for heightened states and new diversions.

Mastered by Jose Guerrero at Plataforma Continental. Graphic Design by Javi Tortosa.

DEVIKORPS is the collaborative project of HUREN x SARIN... Deviant emanations spewing from the same MORBID MIND - macabre sampling, abrasive drum programming and hallucinatory soundscapes to exorcise the darkest and most depraved periods of Berlin PSYCH WARD lockdown/meltdown.

DEVIKORPS sound & imagery is deviant industrial and experimental Audio/Video perversion. DEVIKORPS gestation can be traced as far back as 2012 in live audio/video violations at the Museum of Contemporary
Canadian Art for the "Videodrome" event series by Jubal Brown.

DEVIKORPS deubt entitled "Injektion Site" is comprised of a six track 12".

The Fabulous Counts were originally a teenage instrumental group of five musicians, Mose Davis (Organ and Piano), Demetrius ‘Demo’ Gates (Alto Saxophone and vocals), Jim White (Tenor Sax), Andrew T. Gibson (Drums) and Raoul Keith Mangrum (Percussion and Flute) who were later joined by the older, more experience Leroy Emanuel (Guitar and vocals). Emmanuel was invited into the group as it’s band leader by the groups manager Fred McClure, a former Detroit boxing champion who also happened to be the manager of another popular Detroit group the singing Metro’s of the hit recording “Sweetest One” fame and their subsequent respected RCA album of the same name. The Fabulous Counts would often perform at shows as the Metro’s backing band.

The Fabulous Counts first big break came after knocking several Detroit Record labels doors. They were eventually invited in by Ollie McLaughlin’s Moira studio to record, under the tutelage of Popcorn Wylie the one take hit “Jan, Jan (Moira-103). A further two Moira 45’s followed of which “Get Down People/Lunar Funk “(Moira-108) also scored high on the R&B charts. Through a deal arranged by McLaughlin The Counts released their respected “Jan, Jan” album on the Atlantic distributed Cotillion label in 1969. Moving on to Armen Boladian’s Westbound label, during 1970 the group simply changed their name to The Counts and charted with their 1971 “What’s Up Front” Westbound album, also releasing a solitary 45 “Thinking Single/Why Not Start All Over Again”. In 1972 while still part of the Westbound set up The Counts recorded two major label 45’s under the pseudonyms of Bad Smoke “Crawl Ya’ll Part 1&2” (Chess-2124) and Lunar Funk “Mr Penguin Part 1&2” (Bell 45-172), the latter being thier biggest hit. A subsequent move to Atlanta, GA saw The Counts sign with Michael Thevis’s Aware records where they recorded a further two successful albums “Love Sign” (1973) and “Funk Pump” (1975), plus a string of 45’s. In 1976 although officially never breaking up The Counts members went their separate ways to explore different life opportunity’s.



During 1978 and while still in Atlanta Leroy Emanuel borrowed money from his family and reuniting with his fellow Counts, Mose, Demo, and Jimmy Jackson Jr, they, accompanied by a local strings section recorded a session of material that spawned two songs “What’s It All About” and “Motorcity”. Which Leroy later made a deal with Terry Mendelson to release on a 45 on his TM label. The Counts had previously known Mendelson through his brother Bernie at Westbound. The TM 45 made very little noise with many of the copies having mispressed labels. Although later reissued and mistakenly credited as two previously unissued Westbound recordings on several latter Cd compilations it came to light that quite a few avid European soul collectors actually owned copies of this high quality, very elusive and desirable 45! With demand still seemingly high it seems a good time for Soul Junction to reissue it. The A-side, “What’s It All About” features its composer Leroy Emanuel on lead vocals with the other Counts adding to the backing chorus. The flipside of this 45 from the same session is the previously unreleased Mose Davis penned “Watch The Clock” which is more in keeping with the Counts traditional funk groove, enjoy.

The Brvtalist is proud to present The Dying of The Outer-Self, the new industrial techno album by Alessandro Nero. Available as a 12″ vinyl & digital re- lease, the EP includes two cutting remixes from hyp- noskull and LɅVΣN, in which both display a biting re- visitation to create a perfectly erosive synergy.

We catapult ourselves into a narrative that tells us
about the loss of the external being – of its appearance and sexuality, of flesh and of course, blood. Zeal- ous industrial sounds from the 90’s unite functional techno with contemporary noise and harsh hitting kick-drums, arriving at the discovery of new auditory carpets and intricate experimentations between the sacred and the profane in a guided recitation of the theater of life. The inevitable misfortune of the human situation, the failure of communication in the age of communication, the distance that causes distortion and a paradoxical, almost divine, impact. If only we could all have a sincere conversation, at least through art.

But sadly, like a distant echo of voices of violence from the past – a ruthless education made of respect and fear, commonly feeding on human and animal bones, is still floating, chopping everything as if the muscles were nothing more than mush to be served for dinner. An organic meat grinder emanating a pulp made of fictitious progress, now what matters are the first 5 seconds of attention, and that’s where your child is biologically more stupid than you – spicy and salty brain balls as a sack lunch for the scholastic trip to the sensory slaughterhouse.

Previously unreleased on vinyl, Emanuelle and the White Slave Trade comes from the series of cult exploitation films based on the Emanuelle character. Similar to it peers in sound, full of disco, funk and library-esque
music. Taken from the original tapes and pressed on translucent Orange vinyl. The Orange Crush edition
will be the retail edition limited to 400 copies or less.

M_SESSIONS - THE PROCESS

"M_Sessions" is offering a contemporary version of Mania D., Malaria and Matador’s music for the 40th anniversary plus the rare originals. Bringing the past into the now and into the future.
Monika Werkstatt seemed the perfect choice for new interpretations. Founded in 2015, comprising female electronic musicians and producers from the entourage of Monika Enterprise and Moabit Musik. The loose collective played dozens of improvised concerts around Europe and released a studio album and live recordings in everchanging artist constellations.

The M_Sessions involved Pilocka Krach, Beate Bartel, Midori Hirano, Mommo G, Lucrecia Dalt, Antye Greie-Ripatti, Natalie Beridze, Annika Henderson and myself. Here the form of interpretation is focussing on keeping the freedom of their improvised work and adapting it to the collective appropriation of songs. I cannot imagine a better reinterpretation of the material with its real life ups and downs and with its enthusiasm.
The original core team of Beate Bartel, Bettina Köster, Manon P. Duursma and myself selected "Rare Originals" from the repertoire of the 3 bands where we saw special relevance and beauty - these tracks are on LP2. We rediscovered live tracks, living room recordings and demo versions from our times long gone. (G.Gut)

M_DOKUMENTE // THE BOOK - THE RECORDS - THE EXHIBITION

The project M_Dokumente focuses on the All Female bands Mania D., Malaria! and Matador in the West Berlin music and art scene of the late 1970s and 1980s. We celebrate this 40 years retrospetive with a big festival weekend from 21.-24.10.2021 at Silent Green from a explicitly female perspective.
The three bands around their members Beate Bartel, Bettina Köster and Gudrun Gut played concerts in different formations from 1979 on, released records and toured around the world. The self-determined appearance of the musicians was new, raised some eyebrows and was reflected both in the music and the lyrics, but also in their unique style and the genre-crossing approach of "more art in the music, more music in the art". To this day, the bands are considered visionary, they shaped a new image of women in pop culture and are pioneers and role models for the still important and necessary emancipatory movement in the music industry. Far beyond the borders of Berlin.

3Ms

The three, reunited: Malaria, Matador and Mania D, unter einem Dach, but gutted, replaced with electronic hearts, new beats, new beasts, the time has changed, yet the politics, the problems, the heartache remains the same. 2021 sees the anniversary of the 3 M’s and therewith the production of an album of songs, covering a selection of the bands’ finest output, this time assembled by a new set of feminist misfits; producers, fangirls, instrumentalists, under the strict guidance of original members Gudrun Gut and Beate Bartel. M-Sessions features: AGF, Lucrecia Dalt, Sonae, Midori Hirano, Islaja, Natalie Beridze, Pilocka Krach, Annika Henderson (Anika), Lupe, Gudrun Gut and Beate Bartel. Beginning in West Berlin, in 1979, with the inception of Mania D, spawning Malaria! and later Matador; in a time when music was essential to movement, to escape, to space, to the scene and to the rebellion of the people; three bands stood for trial and error, trial and terror, anti- conformity, and anti-consumerism, for girl power and sticking it to the man, and for just doing whatever the hell they wanted. The three, their existence slightly staggered, with different members, different grudges, different heartbreaks, different instrumental expressions, were joined by a string of barbed wire, piecing pigeon hearts, within the playground that was the desolate ex-capital, now again capital, Berlin; a place where artists and freaks could run free amongst the wrinklies and army dodgers; no microscopes, no rules, no property developers. (ANNIKA HENDERSON)

Through his dedication to the Los Angeles grassroots projects that gave so much stability and focus to many younger musicians, artists and the community, Horace Tapscott became a neighbourhood hero at a time when the world wanted his presence. He stayed in Los Angeles and focused instead on building a community, rarely giving interviews and instead focusing on passing on the message from his mentors. He shaped a unique sound with his arkestra and community minded musicians. It was a close-knit family that emanated a sound that was deep and unique, flowing with a creative spirit that definitely comes through on this album.

In 1961 he founded the Pan-African Peoples Arkestra, which aimed to preserve, develop and publicise African-American music through the ever-growing family that emanated within many of the deprived areas of Los Angeles. Through his subsequent collaboration with Bruce Albach, a producer and founder of Nimbus West Records, they sought to document the importance of this music alongside many artists who were energetically linked to the ethos and understanding which came from the collective dialogue.

Here the composer leads four extensive arrangements through his 16 piece orchestra, featuring many of the Nimbus West artists including Adele Sebastian, Jesse Sharps and Linda Hill. The music weaves the sound of afro-futuristic music through changing tempos and a relentless dynamic expressive sound that is complex and beguiling with a deep spiritual sound throughout all four tracks.

The ceremonial ‘Peyete Song no. III’ is a great swirling evocative piece from the large collective, with amazing solos from especially Horace Tapscott who seems to find a sound from the piano that is from another dimension. The arrangement airs an important message of a people and their rituals.

Horace Tapscott gives Cal Massey’s composition ‘Nakatini Suite’ a splendid futuristic big band interpretation. The composition had been earlier illuminated by both Lee Morgan on his ‘Lee-Way’ album and John Coltrane on his ‘Believer’ album titled ‘Nakatini Serenade’. Through the more expansive soundscape, the interpretation allows for some great interplay between saxophonist Jesse Sharps and drummer Everett Brown Jr. with the whole orchestra led by Horace Tapscott capturing the essence of Cal Massey’s message.

Vocalist Adele Sebastian opens up the free probing arrangement ‘Quagmire Manor at 5am’ composition with a similar delivery as with her ‘Day Dream’ from the classic ‘Desert Fairy Princess’ album before the music takes off onto the mothership adding a sense of what time and space within the manner was about amongst many great musicians and artists. Their journey and moments encapsulated within the music.

There are certain albums you hear something new every time you revisit the music and this is one of those albums. An important part of Afro-American history; the politics and art which surrounded the album. If you get a chance check out the film ‘Horace Tapscott, Musical Griot’, by filmmaker Barbara McCullough, or buy the book ‘Songs Of The Unsung’: The Musical & Social Journey of Horace Tapscott’. Mark Jones/UK Vibe

Repress of the funky instrumental 45 by The Soul Investigators featuring Jimi Tenor!

For those into sounds from the deep dungeons of the soul jazz underground, the 2nd quarter of 2015 looks promising. Out of its mist come The Soul Investigators in a slick red convertible, featuring a mean flautist riding shotgun, a position we Finns like to call the seat for those in fear. The velvet smooth winds emanate from none other than Jimi Tenor, a person some might even describe as a renaissance man.

The sufficiently psychedelic jazzier exercise "Vulture's Prayer" should get your mind wondering into a turn of the 70's London, featuring a hippie gone bad, smacked out in furs in a hedonistic basement bacchanal, just before discovering himself at the opening desert scene of the "Holy Mountain". Flipping the disc over to "Bad Vibrations" we find ourself in a more funkier urban setting, possibly at a Yusuf Lateef inspired bar session in Chicago's South Side. Don't know, why they call them bad, because they sound so good. Better get yourself a slice and why not even a second helping.

Gold Vinyl

Though the hallowed halls of Berlin’s nightlife excess now sit cold, the sounds that once haunted their depths beat ever onward, and colder still. Birthed in these hushed plaguelands, XTR HUMAN’s new full-length G.O.L.D evokes the frozen melancholy of a post-pandemic city, driven ever onward by the impetus of night’s primary currencies: sweat, release and change. The latest full-length from Johannes Stabel, G.O.L.D finds the German producer evolving as much as the rest of the world has had to. Taking his political and socially conscious lyrics into his native tongue brings a deeper and more powerful thrust to their weight—particularly at a time when Germany is weighing its own social consciousness after years of being seen as a leading world figure. Across G.O.L.D’s ten tracks, Stable brings our zeitgeist into a new realm, where the anger and frustration at our current existence is refined into the energy that fuels our engines, that primal desire always amplified during times of social upheaval—the desire to move your body. Many of the songs delve into Stabel’s own experiences as a German, from explorations of the Deutsch mentality of persistent fear to tackling the fake news, jingoism, racists and coronavirus deniers on hypnotic bangers ‘Dark Germany’ and ‘Dieser Klang’; issues just as prevalent in Germany as in the USA and UK. Yet each song carries just as much weight on to the dance floor, melding driving EBM bass with soaring synthlines and coldwave atmospheres that dispel the tenseness that such heavy topics imbue, in favor of intensity and beauty. Influenced by the pop hooks of Austrian New Wave legend Falco, G.O.L.D never neglects its danceability and HD club accessibility, no matter how heady the lyricism. ‘Starker Junge’, a dissection of toxic masculinity, drops down onto the listener with sparkling synths and razor-sharp guitar, while capitalist critique ‘Fleisch’ is a pogo synthpop anthem that could send any floor into a twirling frenzy. Wrapped in darkened beats and political ideals, G.O.L.D can’t hide the light that emanates from within its glistening, imminently catchy hooks and groove-laden rhythms. In a time where the dance floor sometimes seems like a distant memory, it’s the perfect philosopher’s metal to transmogrify your existence. All songs written and recorded by Johannes Stabel Mixing by Andrew Wiseman Arwork by Nicolas Zupfer Mastering at Dadub Studio

Maurice De Jong AKA Mories (Gnaw Their Tongues, Cloak of Altering, De Magia Veterum, Dodenbezweerder etc.), and Rene Aquarius (Cryptae, Dead Neanderthals, Imperial Cult, Plague Organ etc.) join forces in Coffin Lurker, a hideous experiment begotten unto a perverse delusion of ushering doom metal beyond extremes of heaviness and horror it has never before seen or fathomed. Overwhelming and abominable in its every aspect, on their hideous debut LP "Foul and Defiled" the dutch terror-doom duo set out on a mission of terrifying extremism to take doom metal to its most harrowing consequences, crossing every threshold of extreme known, to materialize a humongous slow moving nightmare of paralyzing and horrific doom metal horror that will flatten the listener and devour them inside a nauseating void. Emanating with a monstrous and oppressive aura of total death and decay, "Foul and Defiled" is a gargantuan sepulchral abomination of subterranean megaton doom rising from an underworld of ageless and unnameable death and suffering that sonically aims to re-evoke the hideous and death-obsessed immensity of other undreground extreme/experimental doom abominations like Moss and Grave Upheaval, while taking the heinous formula, if possible, even beyond its own already incomprehensible and remote confines of sanity.

After the exploration of snowy mountains of Alpestres, released on Hands in the Dark in 2018, French composer Matthias Puech ventures into new territories, sketching a cartography of the invisible where the journey, in chiaroscuro, is announced as a rite of passage. A Geography of Absence, as introspective as unpredictable, immerses the listener into a unique sensory whirlwind where organic matter becomes almost palpable. A researcher in theoretical computer science and an engineer at GRM, Matthias Puech constructs a dialog between synthetic music and field recording, capturing sounds that surround him and creating his own sonic language with the help of synthesizers he designs and develops; notably the Oscillator Ensemble and the Tapographic Delay, made by the American company 4ms.

Composed during a moment marked by ordeal and mourning, A Geography of Absence retraces an inner journey where the physicality of sound leads the listener into an initiatory tunnel filled with apparitions, ghosts, visions. With sound oscillations as a navigational map, we progress, step by step, through the meanders of an unknown world, dazzled by the prospect of a new synthetic horizon, an electronic biotope teeming with life and incarnations. Playing with time, space and matter in an approach similar to that of musique concrète, Matthias Puech combines ambient and noise, floating sounds and electroacoustic experimentations, thus shaking up our listening perspective, which finds itself walking through a parallel universe, strata after strata, sequence after sequence.

The trip begins with “Hollow”, as if on board a night train travelling at full speed through ghost towns. Or is it a spaceship? Removed from their original habitat, sounds – picked up during walks or moduled by synths – are free to be interpreted differently by everyone, according to the memories that shape us. Granular and metallic, this first piece takes us to an elsewhere in orbit. "Work Song" is built around the pulsation of the void, of space, where strange creatures and liquid emanations abound. We become fetus, cocoon coiled in the placenta, heart beating to the rhythm of the gooey choreography of the human body. "Chrysalis" awakens the racket that lies dormant in us, when the skin changes, when the transition takes place. One seems to recognize certain sounds stemming from nature but they could also be mirages, imitating reality to render the barely perceptible engulfing. “Tunnel Vision” brings out a herd of haunted bells, slowly swelling in a pastoral maelstrom, ending in a deafening buzz. Further on, the chirping of an animatronic bird mixes with the hooting of an owl: "A Faint Beacon" invokes a nocturnal vigil that mixes the crackling of a fire and icy gusts of wind blowing everything away. Like an epic, sucking the listener into the breach of a black hole in the center of the Milky Way, it's up to "Homeostasis" to conclude in the high spheres and contemplative vapors, where the balance of dawn announces a rebirth.

A Geography of Absence is a meticulous and sensitive piece that constructs a delicate symphony of extremes, between introspection and desire for the unknown. Accompanied by the ink work of the artist Léa Neuville, whose folds of prints sketch this imaginary atlas, Matthias Puech becomes a narrator of mental adventures. And succeeds once again in transcending reality to dig a path to the unspeakable.

Repress !

Where We're Calling From
The Liminal Zone: Reflections on Duval Timothy’s Sen Am
Lamin Fofana

Sen Am is an enduring and tender album, rich and beguiling and generous in a quiet way. Over the last few years, I find myself returning to it, listening and absorbing, reflecting on the voices and working through the multiple layers of feelings and themes it announces with confidence and equanimity. Notions of care and contradiction, expressions of joy and desire and the underlying feeling of unease and turmoil; there is an urgent appeal to the listener for generosity, to strengthen our capacity to hear multiple voices simultaneously, to exist in multiple places at once.

Duval Timothy’s music was dropped into our world from another realm sometime in the spring of 2017. We received the call and we answered it. The rhythm and spirit was transmitted via London’s NTS Radio on the Do!! You!!! Breakfast Show with Charlie Bones and a short while later we were listening to the first vinyl edition of Sen Am in our living room in Berlin. The record got a lot of plays (at home and at some shows, before and after performances). It was like sunlight filtering through a cracked window and remaining there for a moment, dancing. Blue music emanating from a liminal zone, an in-between space, somewhere on the outskirts of Freetown, or rural Sierra Leone, or the outer edges of South London, or Bath, UK, or some undisclosed orbit, unfixed location. The music is soaked in diasporic experiences. It refuses to settle but still invites us to enter and stay awhile in that zone, where multiple forms exist (all) together with jazz, hip-hop, various strands of expressive electronics and experimental music all breathing together and moving around. It is a portal to a place of possibilities, a space for building and repairing possible and lost connections. But life in that liminal zone is precarious; it is life under duress; under pressure – not merely the pressure to produce a presentable, categorizable, and salable body of work, but the pressure that compels us to experiment and create new concepts and things that will help us imagine a different existence, a way out of the turbulence.

Freetown is a marvellous and sometimes sad place. It is one of those unmistakable locations inscribed diasporic memory; a place that touches you, a place that holds you and demands you bear witness: witness to pain, poverty, joy and desire. You remember the voices and the eyes of people even in momentary encounters. In Sen Am, you hear not only Duval’s recollections and sounds of Freetown, you hear family and friendship, people coming together and forming bonds, creating surrogate families. Forging community wherever you go is a practice, and community is at the core of this music. It’s in all the voices, from Emmerson and 6pac to Aminata and Aruna. It opens up a space for Black voices, for Sierra Leonean voices, and those voices extend through the succeeding projects, the 2 Sim EP and the album Help, and all that radiates from Duval’s Carrying Colour imprint.

Thank you for the invitation to write about the album Sen Am, on the occasion of its re-release which also coincides with the release of the exquisite double 7” Smɔl Smɔl with cktrl — a wonderful piece which calls on the listener to play both records at the same time to hear the music or play them separately and hear different versions. Duval is strengthening us, encouraging us to feel comfortable with discomfort, with incompleteness, with the hard-to-understand. This is a beautiful thing.

The finest and rarest chapter of EMANUELLE saga by the cult maestro Nico Fidenco and his loyal orchestra director Oscar Lindok (Giacomo Dell'Orso). Majestic original soundtrack of the sex thriller movie "EMANUELLE IN AMERICA" from 1977 directed by the legendary Joe D'Amato. Sexploitation cult and acclaimed director's third instalment of Black Emanuelle film series starring Dutch actress Laura Gemser. The deepest, intense and most thrilling volume of Black Emanuelle adventures with the best music cuts of the whole series. Spellbinding, breathtaking and wordless music with dreamy orchestral movements, unbelievable downtempo Funk and timeless beats, mental Afro-beat and dancing percussion, sweet Psychedelic guitars, subtle female chorus, heavy strings and orchestra, loungy sounds, driving funky drums and so on. Essential Italian OST masterpiece!

In view of the immense Black Lives Matter mobilisation in reaction to the murder of George Floyd and the comparatively meagre societal reaction to the attack in Hanau, the question arises: How come our society does not show the same empathy and solidarity towards its own fellow citizens with Kurdish, Turkish, Bulgarian, Bosnian, Afghan migrant backgrounds or members of the Roma and Sinti?

How limited is our postcolonial discourse if we are unable to address the racist exploitation of those who repair our cars, deliver our parcels or harvest our asparagus?

It’s all a sham. Shake it off like a biometric photograph. Shake off that false consciousness. The Black Diaspora is a transatlantic lie invented by music curators and journalists. Embrace this nuanced return to structures and superstructures, to articulations and historical constellations as analytical tools.

Allow me to dampen your expectations. This is not the sound of decolonisation. This is no compilation of BLM protest songs. This is no celebration of Black emancipatory struggles. You will not be able to play this at your hip post-pandemic house party. This will not go down well with your woke friends. This is music for the square in the room. For that reluctant BAME/Person of Color repelled by your fetishisation of the African-American experience.

This is music for gated communities. This is Fehler Kuti singing of class relations, not of identities and positionalities. This is Fehler Kuti resisting.

Listen to these songs of infrastructure and appraisal of the welfare state. Join me in mourning the broken promises of prosperity for all. Send that “Ausländer“ of your mind to heaven. Colonialism fucked you up. Platform Capitalism is keeping you in chains. Are we to unionise all human and non-human workers at Amazon? Will modernity always have that "forever nigger“? What about those dispossessed field hands harvesting your asparagus?

All is lost. The system is rigged. Because all histories, gestures and identities have been absorbed into this late capitalist apparatus we call diversity. It can integrate anything and anyone. It made me. It is the price of the ticket. And it is unable to challenge its own premise of an atomised society. As if you and I had so little in common.

They will try and help you. They will build a museum for your history and a scholarship program for your future. I warn you. Don‘t let them give you a name. Resist appellation. Don’t get that German passport. Don‘t eat asparagus.

Fehler Kuti, Spring 2021

All songs by Julian Warner. Produced by Markus Acher and Tobias Siegert.

Markus Acher – drums, percussion, backing vocals Micha Acher – sousaphone, trumpet Cico Beck – synthesizer Jenny Bohn – backing vocals Pacifico Boy – vocals Katja Kobolt – spoken word Theresa Loibl – bass clarinet, backing vocals Sascha Schwegeler – steeldrum, kalimba, percussion, backing vocals Tobias Siegert – bass, synthesizers, percussion, backing vocals Julian Warner – piano, memotron, vocals

recorded and mixed by Tobias Siegert at Minga Records, july – december 2020 mastered by Moritz Illner at Duophonic

Cover art and photography by Andreas Neumeister. Layout by Sascha Schwegeler.

Fehler Kuti “Professional People” is part of the same multiverse as “The History of the Federal Republic of Germany as told by Fehler Kuti und die Polizei”. A production by Julian Warner. In cooperation with Münchner Kammerspiele. Funded by the Department of Arts and Culture of the City of Munich. Released by Alien Transistor.

Take a ride down to São Paulo, Brazil for a remarkable one-off recording session between Colombia's Romperayo and Brazilian producer / musician DJ Tudo. Featuring the latter's suitably titled house band, Sua Gente de Todo Lugar (the People From Everywhere) as well as the wild boys of Romperayo, including band leader and drummer mastermind Pedro Ojeda. The music captured at this meeting is a truly unique combinati..

Purple Vinyl

Even if you're well-acquainted with composer and multi-instrumentalist Colin Fisher's richly varied output, his gentle fifth solo album, Refections of the Invisible World may come as a surprise. Psychedelic lyricism has always been a fundamental aspect of his sonic signature, but his second collaboration with producer Jeremy Greenspan (Junior Boys, Jessy Lanza, Morgan Geist) finds the Toronto native luxuriating in expansive atmospherics for its full duration.
That's not to downplay the eclecticism he finds within this ethereal landscape. Each track tills its own discrete sonic acreage, and while every one emanates from a clear focal point, the spontaneous impulse that drives Fisher's more audibly improvisational music always remains close at hand. Some pieces unfold rippling aquatic vistas or delight in prismatic guitar arpeggiation, elsewhere his plaintive, blues- infected tenor saxophone wafts like some strange jazz apparition, or becomes a chorus of cosmic murmurs. The presence of electronics is undeniable, but equally irrefutable is the organic instrumental sources of these disparate hues. In fact he's discovered a rare balance: no matter how effects-saturated, every gesture on the record feels palpably sculpted by Fisher's hands and breath. As such, Refections of the Invisible World carries a sense of intimacy at the heart of its diffuse, dream-like sonics.
Fisher has a been a major presence in Canada's music community for more than twenty years—particularly in more experimental and improvisational circles. Nothing short of a guitar virtuoso, he also wields saxophone, drums, and various other instruments with similarly refined musicality, vivid textural imagination, and sometimes feral abandon. His one-man-band tape Garden of Unknowning for Manchester's Tombed Visions, showcase all of this as he spars with different iterations of himself. The Quietus' cassette critic Tristan Bath extolled it as "miraculous," adding that "it’s a visceral experience soaking up this record, and it’s all down to Fisher’s utterly innate sense of musicality." He subsequently cited it in his 2018 contributor's year-end chart for the Wire.
In 2014 his partnership with Nick Millevoi's trio Many Arms on Suspended Defnition (Tzadik) prompted Spin's Brad Cohan to remark "Many Arms have dug even deeper into math-metal wizardry, bolstering their already imposing lineup with gale-force blowing guest saxophonist Colin Fisher, thus blasting their outré sonic blitz into a fire-breathing free jazz otherworld." Fisher later engaged the band's bassist, Johnny DeBlase, to team up with him and Kid Millions (Oneida, Man Forever) as Monas. As an ongoing collaborator to introspective dance music auteur Caribou, Fisher frst appeared in offshoot project Caribou Vibration Ensemble, and subsequently on acclaimed albums Swim and Suddenly. He's also made two duo albums with celebrated Nova Scotian jaw harp innovator chik white for Dylan and Lisa Nyoukis' Chocolate Monk label. In addition to performing alongside the likes of Jaime Branch, Joe McPhee, William Parker, Laraaji, Gerry Hemmingway, and Fred Frith, he has contributed to recordings by the Constantines (Sub Pop), Bernice (Arts & Crafts), Rhys Chatham (Table of the Elements), Born Ruffans (Warp), Anthony Braxton and AIMToronto Orchestra (Spool), and many more.

Papiro’s approach to music is never technical, but always personal. Since the mid-Nineties, he has released a handful of noteworthy albums, each carefully put together and seemingly self- contained, yet all sharing an unmistakable musical language and a certain escapist aura.

La finestra dentata (The Toothed Window), is no exception. It includes both studio and concert recordings from 2016–2020. The sounds on this album appear infinite and full of marvels, ingenious in portraying imaginary creatures and environments.

The title track and Anelli take up most of the first side and include live outtakes. Papiro likes to describe his performances as therapeutic. These swirly symphonies are specifically intended as immersive deep-listening experiences for concert venues, and have been edited for this album to meet the physical demands of vinyl and domestic use. Imagine the younger cousins of Laurie Spiegel’s Concerto Generator performance, or Terry Riley’s Shri Camel.

However, those who know Papiro only from the stage might be unaware of a different side to his oeuvre; starry-eyed miniatures that may appear frivolous in comparison to the more heady stuff, but are nonetheless well worth discovering. Each piece adds a chapter to a phantasmagoric world populated by such characters as "Giant Duckling", "King Hard-Beard", or the "Bodulator". Tracks like the opener Odilon or Il triciclo nascosto, meanwhile, emanate a candor rarely found in the domain of serious music, and revisit Papiro’s early days of instrumental storytelling.

About Papiro:

Marco Papiro is a Swiss-Italian musician, composer and graphic designer. He teaches at the Schule für Gestaltung in Basel and is known for the posters and album covers that he's created for a number of prolific artists (Sun Araw, Sonic Boom, Panda Bear, Oren Ambarchi)

"Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything." - Plato.

Music is an innate sense that taps into our very core. It exists on a prism, and the range is infinite, for anyone to think they've heard everything would be imprudent. Inspiration strikes in a myriad of waves, acting as a cascading waterfall in which each idea is a droplet converging into one stream. Music doesn't know the rigid constraints of exclusivity. Preferences and ideologies can mould an individual; circumstance and fleeting moments require different melodies throughout the part being played by each being in the cosmos.

As each moment calls for an explicit sound, so too does Axis with it's latest release from the heterogeneous Raffaele Attanasio. The multifaceted Italian has delivered an eclectic sound over the years, from devious techno to melodious rhythmic beats. Attanasio delivers a jazz-tinged, angular, progressive and championing album by coalescing influential factors: a musician father, a multifarious palate in music, and prowess as a multi-instrumentalist.

Nuovo Futuro is creating a new future by travelling to the past. Digging into the Zeitgeist of Naples post-second world war, Attanasio extrapolates the sound to present day, combining modern flair with an enriched sound. The influence of American blues and jazz is felt in his hometown, celebrating the lore of Neapolitan musicians through the track 'Parlesia'. The history comes to life through these compositions, influenced by 70s spaghetti films and rich Italian exuberance. Ardour, lust and avidity ensnare the listener in 'Indagini Sospette'. This album is a journey through the streets where he grew up, but also, encapsulates a wandering mind, meandering into the harmonious Mediterranean under the watchful eye of Mount Vesuvius. 'Equilibrio Dinamico' is a snapshot of the working mind of Attanasio, balancing the impromptu of jazz with a gentle caress of his honed craft. Melodies are soft, smooth, progressive and fulminating the constraints of contemporary music. It emanates a renaissance for a sound that Axis is espousing in their releases.

The rich sounds of Maloya and Séga music, originating from the Réunion island (as well as Mauritius and Seychelles for Séga), have recently been brought to the ears of the Northern hemisphere's music lovers. Hailing from the French Alps, where Réunion-natives and young "metropolitan" French youngsters have been sharing parties, food and music for years, Les Pythons De La Fournaise are a flavoursome electric "Séga" band and they have already put out a couple of albums over the last decade.

This time, they are interpreting Séga and Maloya songs under the form of a - nearly – all-acoustic orchestra : "L'Orchestre Du Piton" !

This Long-Player has got a particular sound and character, starting with a powerful four-woman choir (often sung in unison, in accordance with the Maloya tradition). The "lead" is a different singer on almost every song, which brings a variety of tone and vocal texture to the album.

Instead of keys, organ or synth, Les Pythons went for accordion ; they also brought into the studio an array of percussion, ranging from classic bongos and bells to typical instruments of the Indian Ocean : theKayamb, the Pikeur, the Sati and most notably the Roulèr– the king of them all, majestic barrel-shelled bass drum.

On songs like "Anon Manz Demiel" (Let's go and eat honey), two crazy electric guitars with intertwined riffs add a fresh element to the sound – somewhat echoeing with Esquivel's exotica and Congolese rumba at the same time !

And the most unusual fact on this record : there is no bass guitar. Perhaps the band had a statement to make; in our modern music culture where bass plays a central role, they prove that one can move to other sounds – and appreciate the more organic deepness of percussion.

Whether or not you look into the meaning of the songs (mostly from the Réunion repertoire with a couple of Mauritian exceptions and one original "Pythons" composition), you will feel the mood of the Creole lyrics – a deep love story in "Maloya Tantine", an hymn to slowness and indolence in "Tou Dou", a clumsy chat-up scene in "Malbaraise"...

And overall, a joyful, fresh and sparkly energy emanates from this "Orchestre" sound, from this exceptionally talented crew. Oté !

Since her crowning in 2009 at the Blues sur Seine Festival, the young guitar prodigy Nina Attal, with a powerful soul voice, has imposed herself to the public, recording 2 EPs, 3 albums and performing more
than 600 concerts.
‘Pieces of Soul’, is Attal’s fourth album and shows her return to the blues, rhythm ‘n’ blues and rock. Written and composed in the wake of a road trip on the West Coast of the United States, ‘Pieces of Soul’ is eagerly awaited.
These 12 tracks, to which is added a cover of “You’re No Good” popularized by Linda Ronstadt, put the guitar back at the heart of her creative process, through a range of sunny sounds, discreetly and respectfully tinted by various Californian influences (Ben Harper, Lenny Kravitz, John Mayer...).
The riffs with rock distortions are next to great blues-soul ballads, folk, or rhythm ‘n’ blues. Her lyrics, very personal, translate as many doubts as to her desire for emancipation. Inspired by her incompressible love for the music she has in her skin, just like her tattoos, ‘Pieces of Soul’ undoubtedly offers Nina Attal a new dimension.

LEVARA's union merged in Los Angeles. Singer Jules Galli emigrated from France, while drummer Josh Devine chose L.A. as home versus his native United Kingdom following success behind the kit with One Direction. There they found common vision with Trev Lukather (guitar), son of Toto’s Steve Lukather.
Every tune on the band’s debut emanates from inspiration culled from their lives, and their mission is to rally the globe to connect and groove with the band. These songs display a larger than life sound. A realised vision. Anthemic tunes written and recorded visualising a mass audience becoming one with the body of work. Integrating their personal voices to the live experience. Or simply as a personal soundscape cruising the asphalt with the car stereo cranking.

Legendary NYC house label Strictly Rhythm is celebrating a mammoth 3 decades of cutting edge, roof-raising house music. Truly a benchmark.

Originally founded in 1989 by the dynamic pairing of music industry man Mark Finkelstein and A&R expert Gladys Pizarro, Strictly tapped directly into the fertile New York underground and after hours club scene, helping to launch and bolster the recording careers of dance music luminaries like Armand Van Helden, Roger Sanchez, Ultra Nate, Todd Terry, Wamdue Project, DJ Sneak, Louie Vega and many more. Strictly Rhythm is easily one of the most recognisable and respected dance music powerhouses of all time.

Across 3 limited double vinyl offerings, the Strictly catalogue has been expertly picked over to present you with a snapshot of some of the most earth shattering house music to emanate from the streets of New York City. A who's who of producers and artists, all killer and no filler. End to end classics that help to tell the story of one of dance music's most well loved labels. Classic cuts and essentials from DJ Sneak, Wamdue Project, Louie Vega (Sole Fusion), Essence and more all feature on part 2 in their unedited, 12" mix glory.

Fully legit, remastered and selected with love courtesy of Strictly Rhythm and Above Board distribution for 2020. Happy birthday Strictly Rhythm!

Wicca Phase Springs Eternal is the creative persona of Scranton, PA singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Adam McIlwee. Since 2010, he has simultaneously established himself as a singular voice, adeptly combining his natural songwriting instincts with the digital culture enveloping his world. Through an extensive catalog of collaborations, singles, EPs and 2016’s Secret Boy LP, McIlwee has become a celebrated pioneer in this vital new direction of underground music. Along the way, he assembled

what would become his 2019 Run For Cover Records debut, Suffer On, with the sonic bedrock evolving yet again as he re-embraces an initial vision.

Suffer On is an exploration of familiar forms through the lens of something new and extraordinary. It is the first Wicca Phase record fully written by McIlwee, utilizing guitars and keyboards to create each song’s core and building upwards from there. Themes of longing, entrapment and sacrifice permeate the album - the notion of wanting more and not getting it. Production and lyrics are both intentionally sparse and bleak, reinforcing such feelings and allowing room for the weighty moods to fill the sonic void.

“It’s about making a deal with the devil,” he says. “It’s saying I can pursue this artistic thing as a career, but the consequence is I’m going to put myself out there in an emotional state for everybody to consume.” But it was never really a choice which path to follow - like all great songwriters, McIlwee is driven by the innate urge to express himself through song. And in the end, Suffer On emanates its own magic stemming from its creator.

Run For Cover & Wicca Phase Springs Eternal have partnerted to celebrate the anniversary of this release with a Deluxe Collectors Edition double album of Suffer On. The completely redesigned new version features a companion disc of each song performed acoustically, a new gatefold jacket, updated poster and a photo zine with over 40 photos and Suffer on Lyrics from Adam Mcilwee.

Afrosound's mission was to emulate the guitar-heavy tropical sounds emanating from Perú and Ecuador at the time. To add to the hippie vibe, there were plenty of whacky improvised vocal asides (called 'inspiraciones'), plus custom fuzz, wah-wah, flange and echo effects boxes for the guitar and keyboards. A barrage of odd sounding synths, drum machines and other electronic flourishes were also sprinkled in to spice up the proceedings. The dozen tracks on Afrosound's debut long play make for a surprisingly diverse palette from which these Colombian musicians painted their daring portrait of Peruvian cumbia, returning the favor in bold colors that still resonate almost 50 years later. "La danza de los mirlos" kicks off with most famous Afrosound hit of all, 'Caliventura', a genius blend of funk and cumbia. Aside from the cumbia amazónica title tune, there are several other covers including three popular songs by Nelson y Sus Estrellas, plus radically reimagined versions of various Colombian costeño classics published by Fuentes. Mario "Pachanga" provides a sad but still groove-oriented Christmas son montuno / cumbia hybrid while Fruko brings us the bomba-funk ditty 'El chorrillo' and the rocking cumbia andina gem 'Cabeza de chorlito' where Sepúlveda channels Enrique Delgado. Fruko collaborator Hernán "Hercovalle" Colorado Vallejo rounds things out with the melancholic psychedelic cumbia 'Esperando por ti', proving that every tropical party has to have its down side as well. The record was also released in the US, Ecuador, Perú, Panamá, Mexico and Venezuela, and probably had an influence of its own, at least in South America. The cover of this lovingly restored reissue features the artwork for the Peruvian edition, which was licensed and issued by Lima's El Virrey label in 1974. The original Fuentes artwork, with a far more outrageous "cheesecake" image, can be seen on the back cover.

Shapes of Rhythm welcomes Emanative to the label for his first vinyl project following contributions to its Isolation Compilation and an Awkward Corners EP both earlier in 2020. Known for his love of collaboration, Emanative connected remotely with Bex Burch during the global lockdown. Disrupt #4 is the result of a meeting of two percussive minds in the midst of a pandemic, and like all good things it started with a groove. Nick initially provided Bex with a hazy, electrified afrobeat sketch. What followed was a musical dialogue which quickly gained momentum. A punk-esque vocal mantra was added, reflecting the here and now of 2020 to drive the track forward. Bex's trademark Ghanaian Gyil xylophone is the conversation with the groove throughout the track. Hector Plimmer also joins the collaboration, seasoning the mix with synthesizers and fx.

Following his stunning Dislocation Songs LP, the label drafted in Awkward Corners AKA Paradise Bangkok's Chris Menist for a remix on the flip that heads towards the club (remember clubs?). Adding 808s, his own conga recordings, synth lines, a sprinkle of acid and a warped vocal treatment, this is classic Awkward Corners: pumped with feeling and rhythm. If Andrew Weatherall was still with us today he'd be digging this take on the a-side.

"To The End" is a tremendous demonstration of power that impressively unites all elements of its predecessors and paints a frightening picture of war, death and destruction at the end of which nothing remains but ashes and the realization of a masterpiece. It is the beginning of a new era. Since early October 2020, smoke is laying over Northampton near London. The machinery is well-oiled, the plan excellent - MEMORIAM have recorded their fourth studio album! The speed the British machinery has been working at since their early days is just enormous and equally amazing. Only back in 2016 the band inaugurated the public about their existence. Since those days the machines never stood still. The British Death Lead Commando caused a big rumble shortly after the first rumors about where the journey would go. "The Hellfire Demos" hit the worldwide scene with their old school Death Metal and left speechlessly torn open mouths which are still raving about the enthusiasm of this achievement today. When "For The Fallen", the debut album, is unleashed on mankind via Nuclear Blast Records in 2017, the impression is even more powerful – Truly an historic act for metal history. But as mentioned, there is no stand still in MEMORIAM. Meanwhile emancipated from other bands, they write their very own piece of history. While the first album was still heavy, oppressive and marked by grief, the second album "The Silent Vigil" (2018) showed a more merciless and aggressive side. The same applies to the third strike "Requiem For Mankind", which stands unmistakably in the short but impressive tradition of all previous MEMORIAM works. After this concentrated Death Metal trilogy, all signs were pointing to upheaval. As if the band wanted to completely break away from their old roots, they looked for a new home and signed a worldwide record deal with the upcoming label Reaper Entertainment Europe. While drummer Andy Whale had to take a forced break due to health reasons, Spike T Smith - a close friend of the band - took over the job in the rhythm section. Nevertheless "To The End" follows the tradition of its predecessors without leaving any doubt that one of the strongest albums of 2021 lurks here. Once again the groove is monstrous, the riffs deadly merciless and the atmosphere oppressive, paralyzing, even overwhelming. Willett's aggressive vocals give the sound the proverbial icing on the cake.

Having previously released on RNT as part of duo Balako, Diogo Strausz now makes his solo debut on the label with an absolutely stunning offering of electronic Brazilian jazz. A São Paulista now living in Paris, Strausz made international waves earlier this year with his piece ‘Pausa,’ a grand and sprawling orchestral work written and recorded by musicians around the world in isolation.

The two songs on Strausz’ new Emancipação EP showcase his gift for instrumental composition that feels at once both fresh and timeless, informed heavily by the classic Bossa Nova and Samba repertoires of his native Brazil, yet translated through a modern production lens, and executed with exceptional musicianship. The end result is an undeniably unique sound that will fit equally well in the collections of jazz and MPB aficionados, as in the crates of modern DJs and listeners alike.

Originally recorded and released in 1980, "Six of One" beautifully captures the detail in Evan Parker's high frequency split tones for which he is now perhaps better known. Five years on from "Saxophone Solos" and with circular breathing and polyphonics well worn into his live performances, Parker's experimentations here produce sustained passages of brilliant flight. Set into the echoes and resonances of St Judes On The Hill church, the results are stunning. "The recital commences with a split tone line of twining sine waves that expand and contract in telepathic collusion. Pitch dynamics narrow and redefine themselves more emphatically on the second piece where sliding legato rivulets born of Parker's compartmentalized tonguing create the sonic semblance of up to three separate voices emanating from the single reed speech center. It's a feat he's accomplished innumerable times since, but every fresh hearing never fails to open an aperture into a style of improvisatory expression that is at once wholly alien and intensely mesmerizing. There's also something strangely subterranean about the flood of sounds, like the rush percolating water through an underground aquifer system enroute to unknown tributaries. The third piece trades tightly braided tones for leaner and more linear phrases, but a vaporous trail of phantom notes still clings to the central line. And so it goes, with the illusion of repetition guiding the momentum, though Parker never explicitly repeats himself." - Derek Taylor, All About Jazz Transferred from the original master tapes at Abbey Road Studios and released in an edition of 500.

Laurel Halo, Donato Dozzy and Teheran sound artist Tegh give us their "Glassforms Versions"alongside a new edit by Max Cooper. The works of Philip Glass are reflected and refracted in a myriad of ways by some of the most renowned electronic artists alive, making for a blissful, multi-dimensional listening experience.


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With "Glassforms", Max Cooper and Bruce Brubaker set out on an intimate, nuanced exploration of the works of Philip Glass. The resulting recordings, developed in a fluctuating exchange between the American pianist and the Irish scientist-artist, are an astounding testament to the innovation that artistic collaboration can achieve and what depths are yet to discover in Philip Glass' compositions. The two artists did not just rework, but fundamentally rewired the original songs using algorithmic software to process and augment the musical data it received from Brubaker's piano live on stage.

When approaching his remix, Donato Dozzy also tapped into that inspiration to create something new rather than just reworking it, which is one of the core motives that emanates from "Glassforms". The Italian producer and label owner is known for his drive to explore: he develops installations for public spaces and museums, uses obscure musical instruments and collaborates with classical singers or visual artists. "I chose "Two Pages" for it's hypnotic feel in the notes repetition", he says, "but I did not want to merely sample the piano, but instead ask someone I trust and admire to carve it from scratch and even go further." So he followed the lead of Brubaker and Cooper and teamed up with the renowned Italian percussionist and jazz musician Daniele Di Gregorio to completely rewire "Two Pages" into a gorgeous piece of endlessly modulating ambient electronica.

Laurel Halo, the second remixer on "Glassforms Versions", does not need a long introduction either: the American musician is at the forefront of electronic music in 2020, a bright star today after releasing her debut "Quarantine" on Hyperdub in 2012. Her remix of "Opening" brings to mind the string section of an orchestra tuning their violins before the performance - forever. They glide in and out of tune, sometimes individually, then together, then are accompanied by keys that are most likely a ghostly representation of Brubaker's piano, sampled and pitched down, but sound almost jazzy in the context of Halo's remix. It's a blissful listening experience, calling to mind her recent collaboration with cellist Oliver Coates on "Raw Silk Uncut Wood" and showing a deep understanding of Philip Glass' work.

Sound artist Tegh is the third on the remix bill - the electronic musician from Teheran delivers his take on "ƒTwo Pages", once again showcasing how versatile, how inherently complex the works of Philip Glass are. They can be interpreted in a myriad of ways - Tegh's version is a bounding, brooding piece filled with raw energy that feels like it is performed live, just for you, every single time you listen. His version is, at first, much more focused on the underlying moods, electronic undercurrents of the original than Dozzy's version, and yet, when the piano finally does break through, it becomes clear that we are listening to Philip Glass, reflected manifold: through the piano of Bruce Brubaker, the synths of Max Cooper, and then again through the mind of the artist Tegh.

Concluding the new "Glassforms Versions" is a previously unheard edit of "Two Pages". It's difficult to edit a piece of minimalistic beauty without losing it's essence, but Max Cooper - after many efforts and close conversations with Bruce Brubaker - managed to bring these shorter edit into a satisfying, conclusive form.