Cerca:feed me

Sect have a lot on their minds. With the release of their brand new single, New Low and the promise of Plagues Upon Plagues, the follow up full-length to 2019’s Blood of the Beasts, Sect explore the intersection of issues which have cascaded over us for the last five years, the “plagues” of the title referring to the literal pandemic, and the metaphorical plague of the political state and the rise of fascism.

Comprised of an international cast of stellar musicians, who cut their teeth in a formative moment of political, cynical, antagonistic extremes, Sect unites Scott Crouse (Earth Crisis, Tooth & Claw) & Jimmy Chang (Undying, Catharsis) - guitars, Steve Hart (Day of Suffering, Mania For Conquest) - bass, Andy Hurley (Fall Out Boy, Racetraitor) - drums and Chris Colohan (Cursed, Unwell) - vocals. They released No Cure For Death in 2017 and Blood of the Beasts in 2019.

Plagues Upon Plagues opens with the bereft waves of “No Uncertain Terms”, a side of the band we haven’t seen before. Vocalist Chris Colohan describes this album as “a funeral rather than a trial”, the activism of previous releases fading to sorrow and grief.

Lead single New Low follows with the advent of marching drums, a funereal procession for the world we hoped to build. There’s frantic horror on the album too, with the track “Drowning in Sorrows” taking a look at the ways in which we numb ourselves as a society. “#ForeverHome” is a bitterly angry track about how people used animals for both narcissistic virtue signalling and one-way comfort in the pandemic, and abandoned them en masse just as selfishly when social life came back. Speaking to their straight-edge principles and how that continues to feed into their songwriting, Chris says, “the only kind of straight edge songs I’m interested in writing are dynamic ones that address human realities that you don’t have to be straight edge to engage with.”

On Plagues Upon Plagues, Sect pierce through the veil of complacency, forcing listeners to confront uncomfortable truths about the fragility of our world. The band wields their sonic arsenal like a prophetic warning and with raw vocals and uncompromising lyrics, they confront the harsh realities of existence in these tumultuous times. As society teeters on the brink of chaos, Sect's cold hard statement resonates with an urgency that cannot be ignored.

Once upon a time, DJ’s were like soaring eagles, they would spread their musical wings and fly high to wherever they wanted to go musically. It wasn’t uncommon to hear hip house and go go played alongside disco and funk, or techno being dropped on either side of something a lil’ mo’ soulful. Then the DJ’s wings were clipped and clubs became musical cages for the more adventurous DJ’s, clubs evolved into one-dimensional musical prisons and beats bubbles. Unconventionally, Marcus McGowan hails from South Carolina, and it would be fair to argue that South Carolina is a bit of a house music wasteland? Perhaps it’s this simple geographical blip that has nurtured McGowan into creating a sound that can’t be affiliated to any particular city, cities such as Detroit that is generally associated with techno, Washington is the undisputed town of go go, or Chicago, which is renowned for acid house, hip house, and jackin’ house, and of course, New Jersey is the spiritual home of soulful house. What McGowan has created is a fresh, new vibe that appears to be crossing many musical boundaries and the test pressing mailout appears to have united music lovers from numerous genres of house music AND techno alike, with its deep, techy, jazzy, soulful, sweet and melliferous flavoured vibe. Luke Una boasted that “it’s the record of the year so far”, MFSB’s Yogi Haughton called it a “classic in the making”, but all said and done, the test pressing feedback from the handful that were passed out to music lovers around the U.K. is unanimous, it’s jus’ a frikin’ solid double hitter that can’t be pigeon-holed. This is a record for majestic, soaring DJ’s and music lovers, not scabby, common or garden Columbidae garbage foragers. It’s a slice of intellectual music that will perch McGowan very high up in the producer pecking order!

Head X'Change is the new album by Scythe, a long-distance collaborative project of David West and R.A. Jones. First appearing on two cloak-and-dagger cassettes distributed by Low Company in 2019 and 20, Scythe's "expertly modulated space blues and isolationist architectures" betrayed a uniquely sleep-deprived, DIY take on kosmische atmospheres, where brittle, decaying synthesiser loops found solace in endless trails of feedback and reverb. X'Change was recorded with modest instrumentation but grand ambition, recounting a journey, a memory... of leaving earth, a loved one, a body. Lifting off from tense, unnerving Tennessee, an ode is made to Genevieve, for perhaps the last time. Landing in eerily familiar valleys and amongst the lunar debris of Dawngarden and Superwillow, marvelling back at Earth inflicts a feeling of tininess and innocence, captured in the stargazing blues of Embryo. The titular track then marks a sudden inward trajectory and shift in mood: cool winds and amorphous bursts of black and deep blue emanate from fissures, ominously foreshadowing tunnelling paranoia. "Mark, Ring Me" is a distant plea for human contact... but it may all be too late, for the aching psychedelia For Iris grieves alone into the abyss. For fans of Cluster, Craig Leon, Pete Namlook, space travel...

In an inspiring collaboration uniting artists from different corners of Europe and the Middle East, Palestine's Muqata'a, French-Irish Zoë McPherson, and Lebanon's Rabih Beaini have merged their creative forces to remix the Belgian/Iraqi band Use Knife's influential album 'The Shedding Of Skin'.

'Peace Carnival', released on Berlin’s Morphine Records, challenges the narrative around peace through its percussion, glitches, distortions, and Muslimgauze-esque minimalism to critique and rethink perceptions of justice and freedom.

This year, Carnival's usual satire and mockery should be directed towards the so-called and one-sided definition of 'peace'.

Upchuck are experiencing a moment. The Atlanta punk collective just came off multiple tour runs with their good friend Faye Webster. Their Ty Segall-produced second album Bite The Hand That Feeds, with all its buzzsaw guitars and high-speed rippers and headbanging sludge, arrived in October. Later this year, they’ll make appearances at multiple festivals including Coachella. In the midst of relentlessly barreling ahead, the band and their label Famous Class are taking a beat to revisit how they got here. After working with Segall on Bite the Hand That Feeds, the band floated the notion that they wished they could hear what their collaborator could do with the songs on their 2022 debut album Sense Yourself. Holed up in his studio over Christmas with COVID and nothing else to do, Ty Segall began toying with Sense Yourself, sifting through folders of unlabeled stems to find the best guitar parts, emboldening the drum sound, and bringing greater clarity to KT’s vocals, all while bolstering the urgency of the band’s overall attack. With Segall’s new mix, Upchuck’s intense and righteous debut now impossibly overflows with even more fuzz and fury. In Segall, they found a kindred spirit whose studio approach made sense for just how hard they wanted this music to hit. “When we first went to record with Ty for Bite the Hand That Feeds, Mikey and I walked into the guitar room and Ty said, ‘Don’t touch the EQs.’ We looked at the amp and everything was on 10 except the master volume,” Hoff said. Previously, the band had been encouraged to capture the unvarnished sound of the studio. They’d toured with Segall’s band Fuzz, so everybody had the same goal while recording together: Capture the electricity of their intense live set. The band’s shows have a reputation for coming unglued, and there’s no greater document of that than Sense Yourself’s iconic album artwork. With no text, it’s a candid photo of a moment from a show shot on film without editing: blood streaked across KT’s face as they shout into the mic. In the middle of their EP release show, KT was in the pit as a fan started crowd surfing inside a shopping cart. A loose piece of metal near a wheel caught the singer right near the eyebrow and blood was everywhere, an instant piece of iconography snapped by probably every camera phone in the room. When Hoff revisits the message of this first album and Upchuck’s first songs, he thinks back to the year before the band even started when he and KT were hanging out. “We were sitting around talking for eight hours like ‘fuck, that's fucked up, that's fucked up.’” Upchuck became a vehicle for these five people to process how fucked up everything it is—to digest these formative hours-long conversations and put them to bludgeoning, intense rock music. The music is also fun as hell, and that’s part of the point. “There's a lot we need to do as people and a lot of things we need to fix in society but also like come on man like have your fun, wild out, have your drink,” KT says. “But be on your shit at the same time. Check your folk.”

DJ and producer David Holmes is welcomed to the Late Night Tales fraternity with an evocative collection of personal songs and music, peppered with exclusive new material and rare gems. By now, I think we all know David Holmes, right There's acid house Holmes, with bone-rattling Chicago jams and Detroit destroyers, break-digger Holmes responsible for the grittily shaking 'Let's Get Killed' and seminal Essential Mix compilation (which brought Sixto Rodriguez to people's attention, and then there's soundtrack Holmes. His most enduring and vital source of musical inspiration - cinema - plugged into David's rst solo record 'This Film's Crap, Let's Slash the Seats' and inspired 2000's 'Bow Down to the Exit Sign', created as the soundtrack to a not-yet-made movie. Ofcial soundtracks have been bountiful, including scores for Soderbergh's Out Of Sight and Ocean's trilogy, '71, Hunger and Good Vibrations. In a series of personal songs sung by himself, David's last solo album 'The Holy Pictures' explored inuences of La Düsseldorf, The Jesus and Mary Chain and early Brian Eno. His Unloved collaboration with Keefus Ciancia and Jade Vincent then took us on a musical journey full of raw 60s pop-noir, psychedelia and French Ye Ye with a contemporary twist. Somehow he's also found time to produce records by Primal Scream and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Unsurprisingly, for someone au fait with matters cinematic, this Late Night Tales conjures up its own mindmovies. It's not only packed with the judiciously selected nuggets for which his mixes are noted but also stuffed with original material, including collaborations with BP Fallon and Jon Hopkins and an amazing new reading of 10cc's 'I'm Not In Love' by Holmes-produced Song Sung. In fact, there's a Celtic thread running through the whole journey with Stephen Rea's reading of an extract from Seamus Heaney's AENEID BOOK VI - Elsewhere Anchises. Among the other gems included here are David Crosby's lush 'Orleans', Buddy Holly's celestial 'Love Is Strange' and the Children Of Sunshine's 'It's A Long Way To Heaven'. David Holmes loves music. It's a way of expressing the sometimes inexpressible or the inconsolable, a questing desire to nd out just what is over the next hill. It's no surprise to learn he's a keen walker. Always on the move, headphones on, lost in some reverie or piece of music, the soundtrack to his life, the stuff that feeds his imagination. I walk a lot. It's amazing for listening to music: your phone or your emails aren't going and you're just in the forest listening to music. It's so intimate. Anyway, I was listening to the KLF's Chill Out album, which still sounds amazing, but it triggered an idea with concrete sounds through travelling and movement. And one of the things I was trying to do was to use this idea not just break up the moods but also as a metaphor for moving through life and arriving in different destinations or arriving at different stages in different parts of your life. Memory, Love, Living, Family, Friendship, Healing, Death and The Afterworld are some of the themes I wanted to explore within this record. Although these strong themes and tracks are personal to me, I also wanted it to be a great listen that was unpredictable yet had a seamless ow - a journey that was personal to me yet to the listener a great compilation of music that they may or may not have heard before. I hope I've succeeded in the later.' David Holmes 2016

Remedy, a dynamic and cutting-edge melodic rock metal band originating from the heart of Stockholm, Sweden, burst onto the music scene in 2022 with an unmistakable presence. Their debut album ‘Something That Your Eyes Won't See' charted in Sweden and had a massive impact, including truly incredible positive feedback from the Rock and Metal World. Now it's the time for the second album ‘Pleasure Beats the Pain', co- produced with the Swedish S-Rock Music Production, a huge sound journey between catchy melodies, powerful riffs, huge sound and mesmerising guitar solos. With these new songs, the band presents a sound even more personal, pushing boundaries even further. Drawing from the lively sounds of the 80s, but adding a modern twist, Remedy captivates listeners with their contagious energy.

Their magic is driven by energetic guitars, powerful vocals, and catchy hooks across Rock, Pop, and Metal genres, blending retro vibes with fresh innovation seamlessly. In line with the production of Remedy's debut album, ‘Pleasure Beats the Pain' is mixed and mastered by Erik Martensson (Eclipse) at Mass Destruction Production. “Fuelled by the success of our debut album, stepping back into the studio felt like the most natural progression for us. With 'Pleasure Beats the Pain,' we reached a defining moment in Remedy's journey, solidifying our sound. With a balance of light and dark, day and night, pleasure and pain, love and hate, our music mirrors life's complexities, melding melodic rock & metal into a harmonious blend. Through this, combined with a distinctive approach to instrumentality and songwriting, Remedy emerges”, Rolli concludes.

Limited to 500 LPs and 500 CDs. New album from the most danceable post-punk pop band in the UK. It's like something has exploded! CRUMBS have been incubating this, their second album, for a few years now. Who knows how they kept all the energy in check. It must have been like sitting on a volcano. The songs burst out with pure pop fire, sending splinters of guitar, sharp lyrics and snatches of the catchiest backing vocals. The rhythm section (Jamie and Gem): it's like Delta 5 meeting Le Tigre in a dark alley in Leeds, fusing blindly and completely, and then forcing its way into the back entrance of a venue, sending volts through the limbs of the unwitting punters, forcing them to dance. This is TIGHT. And as the lights come on and the indie kids throw themselves around, Ruth's vocals sweetly assault their ears with anger, joy, political intelligence - and all around, Stuart's guitar, sometimes twangly-melodic like the B52s, sometimes sweet and ringing like a memory of Scars, sometimes furious and feeding back, keeps you alert and thirsty for more. These songs do NOT outstay their welcome. Starts and ends are cut hard: no pre-echo, no wistful, drawn-out regretful fade-outs. CRUMBS have imbibed the key lessons taught by The Gang Of Four and The Au Pairs: never let the energy dissipate. But there is more than anger here. The band have smuggled a pop sweetness into the disciplined shapes of their angular songs. You're Just Jealous has sharp edges, but it's generous too. The album will be available as a vinyl LP, CD, download and on streaming services. CRUMBS - a brief history. They are based in Leeds, where they are active movers in the DIY scene that currently thrives in the North of England. They recorded a Marc Riley session in 2016, released their first album (on Everything Sucks) in 2017, toured extensively in 2018 and 2019, playing at the Brudenell Social Club with Swearin' and Jeffrey Lewis, and at plenty of fests such as LaDIYfest and Specialist Subject's birthday all dayer in Bristol, A Real Cool Fest in Bradford, Mousetival in Stockton and the Cambridge Indie pop Alldayer. They spent the pandemic creating these new, tightly-wound, irresistible pop songs. These are the people in CRUMBS and these are their influences: Stuart (GUITAR) - Bauhaus, Gang of Four, Shop Assistants // Gem (DRUMS) - Beat Happening, The Raincoats, Antelope // Jamie (BASS, BACKING VOCALS) - Delta 5, ESG, Chic // Ruth (VOCALS) - The Go-Go's, Mika Miko, Paint It Black Collectively - 80s pop music

GER Jim Jarmusch und Carter Logan (Gründungsmitglieder von SQÜRL) kehren mit einer klanglichen Erkundung des filmischen Werks des dadaistischen Pioniers Man Ray zurück, einem fesselnden Projekt, das Musik und Film miteinander verschmilzt. In den vergangenen acht Jahren haben SQÜRL das Publikum mit ihrer Live-Vertonung von Man Rays Kurzfilmen in ausverkauften Konzerten an renommierten Orten wie dem Centre Pompidou in Paris, der Queen Elizabeth Hall in London und dem Art Institute of Chicago verzaubert. Der Höhepunkt ihrer Bemühungen fand im Frühjahr 2023 statt, zum 100. Jahrestag von Man Rays erstem Ausflug ins Filmemachen, als der neu restaurierte Film "Die Rückkehr zur Vernunft" bei den Filmfestspielen von Cannes seine Premiere feierte. Der von Womanray (Marieke Tricoire) und Cinenovo (Julie Viez) produzierte Film ist eine Anthologie mit vier Stummfilm-Kurzfilmen von Man Ray - Étoile de mer (1928), Emak bakia (1926), Le Retour á la Raison (1923) und Les Mysteres du Château de Dé. (1929) - jeweils gepaart mit einer Originalpartitur von SQÜRL. Jarmusch und Logan, zwei multidisziplinäre Künstler, die für ihre Experimentierfreudigkeit bekannt sind, wollten mit diesen Partituren einen ekstatischen Zustand schaffen, einen Raum zwischen Bewusstsein und Unterbewusstsein, Realität und Surrealem. Das daraus resultierende Album "Music for Man Ray", das aus einer Live-Aufnahme im Centre Pompidou in Paris im Februar 2023 hervorging, enthält verzerrte Gitarren, hypnotische Rückkopplungen, Loops und affektierte Synthesizer Logan: "Es ist eine Reise, auf die wir das Publikum mitnehmen wollen, indem wir Themen in diesen Filmen beleuchten. Sie sind eigenständig, aber es gibt auch wiederkehrende Anklänge im gesamten Programm." Jim Jarmusch fügt hinzu: "Wir sind sehr stolz darauf, die Begleitband von Man Ray zu sein." Nun erblicken sowohl der Film als auch die daraus resultierende Musik in Form von "Music for Man Ray" das Licht der Welt - beide stehen als Zeugnis für die kreative Synergie zwischen Man Rays bahnbrechendem Kino und der innovativen musikalischen Interpretation durch SQÜRL.

[ENG] Clear Vinyl. Jim Jarmusch and Carter Logan (founding members of SQÜRL) return with a sonic exploration of the cinematic works of Dadaist pioneer Man Ray, a captivating project that melds music and film. Over the past eight years, SQÜRL have been enchanting audiences with their live scores to Man Ray's short films across sold-out shows in prestigious venues like the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, and the Art Institute of Chicago. The culmination of their endeavor took place in the spring of 2023, on the 100th anniversary of Man Ray's inaugural foray into filmmaking, when the newly restored Return to Reason premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Produced by Womanray (Marieke Tricoire) and Cinenovo (Julie Viez), Return to Reason unfolds as an anthology featuring four silent short films by Man Ray _ Étoile de mer (1928), Emak bakia (1926), Le Retour á la Raison (1923), and Les Mysteres du Château de Dé. (1929) _ each paired with an original score by SQÜRL. Jarmusch and Logan, two multi-disciplinary artists known for their experimental prowess, approached these scores as a way to create an ecstatic state, a space between consciousness and unconsciousness, reality, and the surreal. The resulting album, Music for Man Ray, born out of a live recording at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in February of 2023, features distorted guitars, hypnotic feedback, loops and affected synthesizers. In the words of Logan, "It's a journey we want to take the audience on, illuminating themes throughout these films. They are discrete, but there are also recurring echoes throughout the whole program." Jim Jarmusch adds, "We feel very proud to be Man Ray's backup band." Now both the film Return to Reason and the resulting music in the form of Music for Man Ray are seeing the light of day _ both stand as a testament to the creative synergy between Man Ray's groundbreaking cinema and the innovative musical interpretation by SQÜRL.

December 2012 I showed up totally exhausted in Vancouver BC after touring stupidly and relentlessly for however many straight months and got a job at a call centre raising money for the Red Cross. It was a scent free office but one time this woman cooked a piece of fish in the microwave for 10 minutes on low and hot boxed the whole office - we got sent home early no pay. There was the other woman I named the Call Centre Coltrane because her pitch and routine usually involved improvised flights of fancy that went off in both directions at once somehow landing back down with a credit card number and a donation. I used to sleep under the desk. I was there a few months and at the time I reconnected with John Brennan who I had played with briefly in Montreal at the Mutek Festival. In Montreal John was running an experimental music night at a burrito shop downtown called Garbage Night. While in Vancouver I began connecting with the music scene there and would go hang out with the Shearing Pinx lads who I think lived with Sydney the bass player at the time. I knew Nic and Jer from an AIDS Wolf Tour and was so stoked to get to know them both better. I really fell in love with that era of Vancouver's music scene.
Fast Forward to today. 2024
Actually it was the dying days of 2023 but you get it and John asks if I'll sit in with Earth Ball and I keep thinking about Earth Balance, the vegan butter everyone eats here. I brought my aching bones and my ipads on the beautiful ferry named the Queen of Oak Bay and out to Nanaimo BC, home of the nanaimo bar (a dessert treat - special to this region - that seems to be more popularly found under the weird glass sneeze guards in office building deli's out east in Ontario.... anyhoops ). No one in Nanaimo wants to talk to me about the famous treat. I asked a couple of people. Silence. Nanaimo is like London, Ontario but more fried and by the sea. The town is filled with blown out old sea dawgs with tin coffee pots and loose leaf tobacco, then there's the usual streetfolk you find in this part of the Canadian Pacific Northwest and a bunch of bohemians who I guess have left Vancouver behind - that fine city having become uninhabitable for those not making over 100k a year. And then up the way are all the retirees.
Yup Nanaimo is a strange one. They mined the shit out of this region and Nanaimo is surely haunted by those buried in mining shafts or maimed by the heavy machinery or blown up by accident in the explosives store house. And when Earth Ball fire up the amps in Izzy and Jer's basement you can hear the voices of the ghosts hum through electrical lines and out the speakers, Kellen's hued feedback, Izy's sturdy basslines, Jer's paperbag guitar tone and rumble pack zaps, Liam's (aka the Kid) sheets of sound and Brennen's multidirectional drums.
You wouldn't guess Earth Ball was auto-composing and from what my rat brain can tell - the lyrics are improvised too...Improvising lyrics and singing them is the hardest thing to do in all of music.. Izzy and Jer are pros. And their attitudes are pro too.
The live show is scorched and without naming names they've been known to make headliners nervous. Lucky ones will get to see them live as they tour this beast of a record entitled ‘It’s Yours’ (out May 17th on Upset The Rhythm) and I hope I'm one of them.
But now you, fan of fun but totally fucked up music, have the opportunity to Ball with them thanks to Upset The Rhythm. Enjoy
-Alex Moskos, Montreal QC, Feb 2024

"Miranda Winters, as the voice of Chicago’s much-loved noisemakers Melkbelly, has spent the past few years happily in her own shadow. While she has quietly written and occasionally released her own music for 15 years, Winters finally steps out into the bright light with the release of Lawn Girl, the debut album under her Mandy moniker.

The album, a combination of older songs and newer creations, feels positively and endearingly alive–like a freeing of pent-up energy, an intimate rebuilding of the self. While Winters recorded and produced a number of the songs herself, she worked with Taylor Hales at Electrical Audio to feed those songs back into the studio, where they were re-recorded with room mics and worked back into the original versions. “I see it like photocopying,” she says of the process. “I’ve always loved working with photocopying and related printing techniques in my visual art because of the way everything decays and falls apart. It was nice to honor that on the record.”

Performed by an all-women band–Linda Sherman (guitar), Lizz Smith (bass) and Wendy Zeldin (drums)–the songs on Lawn Girl suitably find Winters ruminating on the idea of femininity; about her mom (who graces the album cover) and being a mother herself; her female friends; and what it means and what is required to make art and music in a female space intentionally."

Warehouse Find!

As we hurtle towards our 200th Freerange release the quality output you've come to expect from Freerange shows no sign of faltering with Bas Amro bringing you an absolutely stellar EP entitled You And Me. Dutch wunderkind Bas has built himself a solid reputation through only a handful of releases on labels such as Wolfskuil, Kutchuli and most notably his 2011 EP Ten on Freerange which has gone onto become a stone-cold classic in the deep house mecca of Johannesburg. This long awaited follow up delivers on every level and if early feedback and crowd
response is anything to go by looks set to push Bas further into the spotlight where he deserves to be.
You And Me starts in a deceptively understated manner wrapping you in a shroud of warm, dubby stabs underpinned by a rolling groove that can't fail to draw you onto the dancefloor. Things stay deep with hints of Chandler and echoes of Basic Channel until the breakdown arrives, the filters roll up and the whitenoise
shines through bringing a new energy and dynamic to the track. A classic, timeless vibe which we're proud to be bringing you on Freerange. As with his previous release Ten, Bas works hard to deliver not one but two faultless originals so flip over for Across The Street featuring the vocals of Jennifer and you won't be disappointed. A simple, repeating six-measure synth hook drives the track and brings with it a lovely looseness and lack of obvious
structure. Kennifer's sparse, almost improvised sounding vocal drops heighten the sense of space and freefall effect making such a refreshing change to most of todays formulated and conventional house music. Last up is an amazing remix of You and Me from rising start Matt Karmil who brings his own unique and refreshing sound to the EP. Karmil's recent LP on PNN
won rave reviews from all corners and with just two other releases on Beats In Space and International Records Recordings he seems to have burst from out of nowhere but has certainly become hot property in the last 12 months. His forthcoming remix for John Talabot and Axel Boman under their Talaboman is immense and here he treads a similar path focusing on a raw percussion-heavy sound with very minimal tweaks and effects adding subtle colour and interest. These days it's very hard to breakthrough with an original, new approach to house
but Matt Karmil seems to have done it with ease.

Audrey Powne's stunning debut album, From The Fire, is set to be one of those must have LPs in any music lover's collection. Something of an auteur release it features nine tracks all composed by Audrey, with all string arrangements and all produced by her. Audrey's decision to produce the whole album herself came from a desire to take creative control of her music and apply techniques developed from the influences of the producers she had previously worked with. If all of the above were not enough Audrey also wrote the lyrics for those tracks on which she sings, and as a multi-instrumentalist contributes piano, Rhodes and organ. She also features as a trumpeter with dextrous and soaring solos as evidenced by the two single releases so far; Feed The Fire and the title track, From The Fire. Due to be released by BBE as both a vinyl and on digital From The Fire is an album of Soul-Jazz with a serious environmental and social messages as well as one which blends classical music, hip-hop and influences from Roy Hargrove, Bill Evans and Herbie Hancock. Indeed it is Roy Hargrove's studio techniques evident in his work with the RH Factor that Audrey credits as a major factor in her producer role here. As well as her solo work, Melbourne born Audrey Powne has also worked as a session player with acts as diverse as Maceo Parker, Midnight Oil, Jimmy Barnes, Masta Ace and the Grammy nominated band The Teskey Brothers. With testimonies and positive reviews from Gilles Peterson, Earmilk, Bandcamp Daily, tracks on the Sunny Side Up compilation and performances on Boiler Room Audrey Powne is a supreme talent whose star is on the rise. From The Fire is destined to become a future classic.

Nick Llobet (they/them) was ready to throw in the towel. Llobet, who grew up in South Florida, learned to play guitar at a very young age, dabbling in everything from classical, blues, classic rock, and flamenco. They'd spent much of their early 20s searching for their voice as an artist and as an individual, as well as for a musical community Llobet would eventually move to Brooklyn, but after three years of looking for a hopeful artistic breakthrough, they spent much of their time in seclusion, consumed by social anxiety and imposter syndrome-and they were considering abandoning songwriting completely. One day, while commuting through Penn Station en route to their partner's family home in Virginia (that would also lead to the crucial purchase of a secondhand Tascam cassette recorder), they noticed Patti Smith sitting alone, waiting for a train. The typically shy Llobet decided to approach the icon, who was, in turn, delighted to see that Llobet was carrying a guitar. At the end of their interaction, Smith offered some parting wisdom: "She wished me luck and said, 'Practice hard, Nick.'" Llobet took her advice to heart, and this chance encounter kicked off a personal and artistic rebirth. They started performing as youbet, a play on their last name, and began "changing their vision for what a song could be." youbet's debut, Compare & Despair, a delightful gem of a record that showcases Llobet's propensity for freewheeling whimsy and emotional intensity. In May 2019, inspired by a song-a-week writing group that produced Compare & Despair, Llobet started a second club in which contributors would upload that week's song to a private Bandcamp. Invigorated by this small musical collaboration, the feedback, and the accountability, Llobet wrote 18 songs throughout the duration of the club, twelve of which became Way To Be. After this songwriting marathon, Llobet spent 2020 focusing on instrumental guitar work and political engagement. By the summer of 2021, they were ready to revisit the Way To Be tracks. Over the next year-and-a-half, Llobet worked on the record relentlessly, refining the lyrics, recording, and arrangements from their apartment. Llobet self-produced Way To Be and describes the process as an enormous, labor-intensive undertaking that felt akin to "making a whole film." Along the way, Llobet was joined by collaborators, including Julian Fader (Ava Luna), Adam Brisbin (Buck Meek), and Daniel Siles. Across Way To Be's 12 delightfully off-kilter tunes, Llobet uses wordplay and tongue-in-cheek humor to obliquely explore dysfunctional relationships, regret, self-confidence or the lack thereof, queerness, and self-discovery. Fuzzy at the edges and filled with playful, kinetic arrangements, Way To Be is a bridge into the entrancing world of youbet. You won't want to leave.

Nick Llobet (they/them) was ready to throw in the towel. Llobet, who grew up in South Florida, learned to play guitar at a very young age, dabbling in everything from classical, blues, classic rock, and flamenco. They’d spent much of their early 20s searching for their voice as an artist and as an individual, as well as for a musical community. Llobet would eventually move to Brooklyn, but after three years of looking for a hopeful artistic breakthrough, they spent much of their time in seclusion, consumed by social anxiety and imposter syndrome—and they were considering abandoning songwriting completely. One day, while commuting through Penn Station en route to their partner’s family home in Virginia (that would also lead to the crucial purchase of a secondhand Tascam cassette recorder), they noticed Patti Smith sitting alone, waiting for a train. The typically shy Llobet decided to approach the icon, who was, in turn, delighted to see that Llobet was carrying a guitar. At the end of their interaction, Smith offered some parting wisdom: “She wished me luck and said, ‘Practice hard, Nick.’” Llobet took her advice to heart, and this chance encounter kicked off a personal and artistic rebirth. They started performing as youbet, a play on their last name, and began “changing their vision for what a song could be.” youbet’s debut, Compare & Despair, a delightful gem of a record that showcases Llobet’s propensity for freewheeling whimsy and emotional intensity. In May 2019, inspired by a song-a-week writing group that produced Compare & Despair, Llobet started a second club in which contributors would upload that week’s song to a private Bandcamp. Invigorated by this small musical collaboration, the feedback, and the accountability, Llobet wrote 18 songs throughout the duration of the club, twelve of which became Way To Be. After this songwriting marathon, Llobet spent 2020 focusing on instrumental guitar work and political engagement. By the summer of 2021, they were ready to revisit the Way To Be tracks. Over the next year-and-a-half, Llobet worked on the record relentlessly, refining the lyrics, recording, and arrangements from their apartment. Llobet self-produced Way To Be and describes the process as an enormous, labor-intensive undertaking that felt akin to “making a whole film.” Along the way, Llobet was joined by collaborators, including Julian Fader (Ava Luna), Adam Brisbin (Buck Meek), and Daniel Siles. Across Way To Be’s 12 delightfully off-kilter tunes, Llobet uses wordplay and tongue-in-cheek humor to obliquely explore dysfunctional relationships, regret, self-confidence or the lack thereof, queerness, and self-discovery. Fuzzy at the edges and filled with playful, kinetic arrangements, Way To Be is a bridge into the entrancing world of youbet. You won’t want to leave.

Gordan machen Musik zwischen Expressivität und Abstraktion. Ihre Stücke sind nicht durch starre formale Strukturen begrenzt. Vielmehr handelt es sich um offene Prozesse, die einen Verlust des Zeitgefühls bewirken. Reduzierte Arrangements und ausdrucksstarker Gesang verbinden sich zu einem kraftvollen musikalischen Ganzen. Diese Band schafft etwas Neues aus Minimalismus, Intensität und der reichen Gesangstradition des Balkans. Als Down in the Meadow, das erste Album von Gordan, im Oktober 2021 bei Morphine Records veröffentlicht wurde, wurde es von Kritikern und Publikum gleichermaßen gefeiert. Nun legt das Trio sein zweites, noch radikaleres Album vor. Auf dieser neuen Veröffentlichung spiegeln Gordan die Mystik von Legenden und Geschichten aus den Balkanländern mit kontrolliertem Feedback, hypnotischem Bass, ausdrucksstarkem Schlagzeugspiel und dem einzigartigen Gesang von Svetlana Spajic. Schlagzeuger Andi Stecher verzichtet auf jegliche Ausschmückung und spielt gleichzeitig abwechslungsreich und konzentriert. Souverän und mit hervorragender Technik ist er der Motor des Bandsounds. Seine stilistische Flexibilität zeugt von einer profunden Kenntnis der globalen Musikgeschichte. Guido Möbius spielt Bassgitarre und verschiedene elektronische Klangerzeuger. Außerdem provoziert er mit Gitarrenverstärker, Mikrofon und Effekten Rückkopplungen. Diese mal sphärischen, mal sehr konkreten Klänge interagieren mit der Stimme von Svetlana Spajic. Gesang und Rückkopplung umkreisen einander in flüchtiger, sich ständig verändernder Harmonie.

Hana Vus "kontemplativer Indie-Pop fängt die Desillusionierung des jungen Erwachsenseins ein", schreibt der NME. Ihre neue LP Romanticism unterstreicht dieses Gefühl als ein Coming-of-Age-Werk, das die Vergänglichkeit der Jugend betrauert und nach einem Sinn sucht. Die in LA geborene Songwriterin macht seit der High School Musik und hat bereits ein Debütalbum und mehrere EPs mit glühenden, grüblerischen Hymnen voller Abstraktion und Emotionen veröffentlicht. Bei ihren früheren Arbeiten hat Vu immer wieder Feedback erhalten, aber für die Entwicklung von Romanticism hat sie sich von der Außenwelt abgeschirmt, um ihre eigene Vision zu bewahren. Das Ergebnis ist eine einheitliche Sammlung von Songs, die vor Tiefe und Intimität nur so strotzen. Die üppigen und lauten Songs erinnern sowohl an gitarrenlastigen Indie-Rock der späten Achtzigerjahre als auch an futuristisch anmutende Synthie-Bass-Schichten. Sie pulsieren vor Bedeutung und schütteln sich vor Verspieltheit, getragen von ihrer kraftvollen, sonoren Stimme und unterstrichen durch das von der Romantik inspirierte Artwork der Platte.

Funeral For Justice is the new album by Mdou Moctar. Recorded at the close of two years spent touring the globe following the release of 2019 breakout Afrique Victime, it captures the Nigerien quartet in ferocious form. The music is louder, faster, and more wild. The guitar solos are feedback-scorched and the lyrics are passionately political. Nothing is held back or toned down. The songs on Funeral For Justice speak unflinchingly to the plight of Niger and of the Tuareg people. "This album is really different for me," explains Moctar, the band"s singer, namesake, and indisputably iconic guitarist "Now the problems of terrorist violence are more serious in Africa. When the US and Europe came here, they said they"re going to help us, but what we see is really different. They never help us to find a solution."

Funeral For Justice is the new album by Mdou Moctar. Recorded at the close of two years spent touring the globe following the release of 2019 breakout Afrique Victime, it captures the Nigerien quartet in ferocious form. The music is louder, faster, and more wild. The guitar solos are feedback-scorched and the lyrics are passionately political. Nothing is held back or toned down. The songs on Funeral For Justice speak unflinchingly to the plight of Niger and of the Tuareg people. "This album is really different for me," explains Moctar, the band"s singer, namesake, and indisputably iconic guitarist "Now the problems of terrorist violence are more serious in Africa. When the US and Europe came here, they said they"re going to help us, but what we see is really different. They never help us to find a solution."

Read any article or comment thread about the Seattle noise-rock outfit GREAT FALLS and you're likely to see descriptors like cathartic, heavy, crushing, and unhinged. Maybe even psychotic. And sure, those are all apt: For over a decade, vocalist/guitarist Demian Johnston and bassist Shane Mehling (who also played together in the early-2000s noisecore band PLAYING ENEMY and the experimental duo HEMINGWAY) have honed their sludgy, overwhelmingly intense brand of heaviness, punctuated by delectably discordant riffs, terrifyingly low, thwacking bass lines, and mesmerizingly tight percussion. In the live setting, too, they’re notorious for a stage presence that is so aggressively confrontational and menacing that Mehling once broke his own arm mid-set.

But the most striking aspect of GREAT FALLS, setting them apart from the murky sea of sludge metal and AmRep-inspired noise-rock bands, is their ability to paint a deeply, utterly human story through an all-out assault on the senses: an art the band has perfected on their fourth full-length album OBJECTS WITHOUT PAIN, out September 15 via NEUROT RECORDINGS.

The album is not only their NEUROT debut, but also the first LP featuring drummer Nickolis Parks (GAYTHEIST, BASTARD FEAST), who joined the band prior to the release of their exhilarating, cacophonous 2023 EP,FUNNY WHAT SURVIVES.

OBJECTS WITHOUT PAIN takes us on a bleak, purgative journey through a separation–a snapshot of the turmoil and indecision that occurs after the initial realization of someone's misery, and before the ultimate decision to end a decades-long partnership. From the foreboding intro riffs of “DRAGGED HOME ALIVE” to the end of the 13-minute closer “THROWN AGAINST THE WAVES,” its eight tracks explore the thoughts that come up when a person is staring down the barrel of blowing up their life: How did this happen? Is it too late for a new life? Will the kid be OK? What will make me happier: familiar torment or unknown freedom?

1000 copies worldwide. Deluxe 30th anniversary re-issue of cult Boston band's 1992 debut. Featuring the intense guitar interplay of Thalia Zedek and Chris Brokaw. Acclaimed by Dinosaur Jr's J Mascis, Husker Du's Bob Mould and Kurt Cobain. An awe-inspiring collision of noise via American blues-rock with thunderous rhythms holding together every six-string duel. A cathartic and euphoric hail of noise that's succinctly tailored for maximum effect. An album that defined Zadek and Brokaw's songwriting partnerships as one of the most original bands of the 90s, tirelessly meshing their blues-infected ballads with feedback and epic instrumental breakdowns. "A uniquely sludgy, electric, and strong fusion of sounds and styles, combining extreme angst and commanding power." AllMusic // In addition, the nine original tracks are extended with the 'Fast Piss Blues' single and its flipside, a cover of The Rolling Stones' 'I Got the Blues'. The re-issue package also includes a download link to 'Live At Vermonstress Festival' recorded on the 10th on November 1992. "Like watching someone howl into a rainstorm."" Entertainment Weekly // "A suitably visceral live recording." Record Collector

Das vierte Album Forgiveness Is Yours der Fat White Family um die Brüder Lias und Nathan Saoudi ist ein eklektisches, chaotisches und doch immer kohärentes Album, das keine Gefangenen macht.

Fat White Family sind zurück. Das lang erwartete vierte Album der Kultband aus dem Süden Londons, Forgiveness Is Yours, hat sie, wie alles, was sie bisher gemacht haben, noch mehr an die Grenzen ihres kreativen Talents, hrer Gesundheit, ihres Verstandes und ihrer eigenen Existenz gebracht. Die äußeren Feinde haben sich aufgelöst - vielleicht waren sie die ganze Zeit nur Halluzinationen. Nach der Veröffentlichung von "Serfs Up!" zementierten Fat White Family ihren Ruf als archetypische britische Post-Punk-Band des 21. Jahrhunderts - und brachten eine ganze Generation von Außenseiter-Punkrock-Gruppen hervor, von Shame und Black Country über New Road bis hin zu Black Midi und Fontaines DC, ganz zu schweigen von ihrer berüchtigten Live-Show, die es irgendwie schafft, Empörung und Chaos mit Gelassenheit und Schönheit zu verbinden. Das vierte Album Forgiveness Is Yours der Fat White Family um die Brüder Lias und Nathan Saoudi ist ein eklektisches, chaotisches und doch immer kohärentes Album, das keine Gefangenen macht.

Das vierte Album Forgiveness Is Yours der Fat White Family um die Brüder Lias und Nathan Saoudi ist ein eklektisches, chaotisches und doch immer kohärentes Album, das keine Gefangenen macht.

Fat White Family sind zurück. Das lang erwartete vierte Album der Kultband aus dem Süden Londons, Forgiveness Is Yours, hat sie, wie alles, was sie bisher gemacht haben, noch mehr an die Grenzen ihres kreativen Talents, hrer Gesundheit, ihres Verstandes und ihrer eigenen Existenz gebracht. Die äußeren Feinde haben sich aufgelöst - vielleicht waren sie die ganze Zeit nur Halluzinationen. Nach der Veröffentlichung von "Serfs Up!" zementierten Fat White Family ihren Ruf als archetypische britische Post-Punk-Band des 21. Jahrhunderts - und brachten eine ganze Generation von Außenseiter-Punkrock-Gruppen hervor, von Shame und Black Country über New Road bis hin zu Black Midi und Fontaines DC, ganz zu schweigen von ihrer berüchtigten Live-Show, die es irgendwie schafft, Empörung und Chaos mit Gelassenheit und Schönheit zu verbinden. Das vierte Album Forgiveness Is Yours der Fat White Family um die Brüder Lias und Nathan Saoudi ist ein eklektisches, chaotisches und doch immer kohärentes Album, das keine Gefangenen macht.

Cocoon Crash is the third studio album of the Belgian band K's Choice, released in 1998. Its singles were 'Believe', 'Everything for Free',
and 'If You're Not Scared'. Musically, it is comparable to their second album, Paradise In Me MOVLP1543, though more musically diverse, and with a generally lighter tone and subject matter.
Since its release, Cocoon Crash has sold more than 1.000.000 copies, and went platinum in Belgium and Netherlands.
The album was produced by Gil Norton (Pixies, Counting Crows, Feeder).
x

ACxDC—full name Antichrist Demoncore—are anything but subtle. So to make sure that their message is heard loud and clear, they take things a step further, smashing these ambiguous, sophisticated, and abstract notions into a pulp and shoving them down throats. What’s left are sharp, caustic, and unabashedly vicious bits of truth and poisonous tongue-in-cheek propelled by bursts of powerviolence, metallized hardcore, and grindcore. Over the seventeen short songs, the music closely follows these themes.

Born of Austin's underground musical melting pot; Glassing's 2017 debut album `Light and Death' erupted out of the famously genre-resistant scene. 35 minutes of harrowing blast beats, searing angular feedback and frontman/bassist Dustin Coffman's sandpaper screams that set out to redefine the idea of heavy music to better reflect increasingly heavy times. Two subsequent full-length releases, 2019's `Spotted Horse' and 2021's `Twin Dream', plus especially the band's last release, the eponymous two-track EP, `Dire and Sulk' paved way for the new longplayer. More discordant, more distorted and somehow even angrier than before `From the Other Side of the Mirror', Glassing prove that uncertain times call for decisive measures. Recorded across two years of intense fits and starts, affectionately nicknamed `Hell Weeks' by the band, `From the Other Side of the Mirror' is a metaphysical foray into the fractured, warped impressions of ourselves that exist only in the minds of others. Working again with producer Andrew Hernandez, who the band liken to a fourth member at this point, Glassing pushed themselves harder, faster and more punishing than ever before. As their first full-length release with Osment and their first release on Pelagic Records, `From the Other Side of the Mirror' became an opportunity for a new beginning, free of any pre-existing limitations or thresholds. As Coffman tells us, "This allowed us to forgo a lot of the convention and structure we've relied on in the past, the substitution was for raw expression. Kindred to the emotions that birthed it, this record is spirited, painful and unmethodical." There's an indescribable, beautiful rawness to this album that comes from Glassing throwing everything on the table in plain sight, rather than polishing ideas for the benefit of others until they're unrecognisable, perfect and fake. FFO Portrayal of Guilt, Neurosis, Converge, Botch, Pelican, Unsane, This Will Destroy You, Chat Pile, Old Man Gloom, Départe

Born of Austin's underground musical melting pot; Glassing's 2017 debut album `Light and Death' erupted out of the famously genre-resistant scene. 35 minutes of harrowing blast beats, searing angular feedback and frontman/bassist Dustin Coffman's sandpaper screams that set out to redefine the idea of heavy music to better reflect increasingly heavy times. Two subsequent full-length releases, 2019's `Spotted Horse' and 2021's `Twin Dream', plus especially the band's last release, the eponymous two-track EP, `Dire and Sulk' paved way for the new longplayer. More discordant, more distorted and somehow even angrier than before `From the Other Side of the Mirror', Glassing prove that uncertain times call for decisive measures. Recorded across two years of intense fits and starts, affectionately nicknamed `Hell Weeks' by the band, `From the Other Side of the Mirror' is a metaphysical foray into the fractured, warped impressions of ourselves that exist only in the minds of others. Working again with producer Andrew Hernandez, who the band liken to a fourth member at this point, Glassing pushed themselves harder, faster and more punishing than ever before. As their first full-length release with Osment and their first release on Pelagic Records, `From the Other Side of the Mirror' became an opportunity for a new beginning, free of any pre-existing limitations or thresholds. As Coffman tells us, "This allowed us to forgo a lot of the convention and structure we've relied on in the past, the substitution was for raw expression. Kindred to the emotions that birthed it, this record is spirited, painful and unmethodical." There's an indescribable, beautiful rawness to this album that comes from Glassing throwing everything on the table in plain sight, rather than polishing ideas for the benefit of others until they're unrecognisable, perfect and fake. FFO Portrayal of Guilt, Neurosis, Converge, Botch, Pelican, Unsane, This Will Destroy You, Chat Pile, Old Man Gloom, Départe

Manchester independent Dark Red Records brings it's 4th instalment in the form of a multi-artist EP from Ego-Free Sequences, rising new French talent Sqimer (also on mastering duties for this release) and label regular Darsk, all coming together to provide a satisfyingly varied selection of dark, meditative Drum & Bass and Jungle tracks which meld together classic breaks and editing with a distinctly modern and experimental approach, all finished in a wholly organic and listenable style. Feedback and support has been very strong across the board with two tracks played by scene legend Klute on his Kool FM show in February.

Clear Vinyl

Since her re-discovery in 2013 via cult favourite The Space Lady’s Greatest Hits, The Space Lady’s mission of galactic peace and celestial harmony has grown into a world-wide underground phenomenon. Recorded in 1990, The Space Lady’s original repertoire is a parallel universe greatest hits: songs familiar are transmogrified into shimmering bliss while new compositions amplify the message. The Space Lady’s Other Hits, released on April 20th for Record Store Day 2024, constitutes the songs recorded by Susan “The Space Lady” Dietrich Schneider as part of that repertoire that never made the original Greatest Hits, save for a limited bonus CD on the first CD pressing. Remastered by Mikey Love for vinyl, The Space Lady’s Other Hits completes the picture.

The Space Lady began her odyssey on the streets of Boston in the late 70s, then San Francisco ten years later, playing versions of contemporary pop music with an accordion and dressed flamboyantly. Following the theft and destruction of her accordion , The Space Lady invested in a then-new Casio keyboard, complete with a phase shifter, delay pedal and headset mic, birthing an otherworldly new dimension to popular song that has captured the imaginations of the underground and its leading exponents ever since.

The Space Lady’s Other Hits were recorded as they were played on the street, live, one-take, with Schneider playing, singing and simultaneously manipulating the various effects. Beginning with Elvis Presley’s iconic All Shook Up, the walking bassline underpinning the vocal, phasing in and out of this dimension, providing a fragile, extraterrestrial shadow to Presley’s original lust-driven performance. Slapback Boomerang is an original composition, written by Schneider’s then-husband Joel Dunsany a Rock ’n’ Roll pounder that could have been performed by The Cramps, its tale of relationship turmoil changed into a meditation on the nature of echo and feedback. There are moments where Schneider performs vocal caesuras, swimming in delay and phase for the pleasure of it, a pantomime drama performance that rings out. Closing Side B, Puttin’ On The Ritz is Irving Berlin’s 20s smash hit manipulated into a sombre ballad with its latent class struggle narrative brought to the fore.

A staple of The Space Lady’s performances to this day, Golden Earring’s 70s global hit Radar Love retains something of the original’s driving gallop but in The Space Lady’s telling it is shorn of the tight-trousered, taut machismo. The Space Lady coos and reaches up into the heavens away from the road, the phaser waves drenching the composition with transcendence.
Schneider’s falsetto performances in the choruses do nothing but lift the spirits ever-arching upwards. Next, The Space Lady emasculated Jim Morrison’s performance in The Doors’ 20th Century Fox. Faithfully playing Ray Manzarek’s keyboard parts on her Casio, Schneider disintegrates Morrison’s lust into waves of echo and delay, creating a Dubbed out version of the song, sounding eroded and decayed in all its ghostly glory. Pioneering Rock ’n’ Roll outfit Pete & The Pirates’ 1960 hot Shakin’ All Over, something of a response to Elvis’ All Shook Up, is blown out in warm fuzz and the celestial hug of The Space Lady’s
spirit.

The sophomore album from acclaimed US musician Vanderwolf and follow-up to 2022 debut '12 Little Killers' ("Soul, gospel, theatrical rock and more" Mojo), 'The Great Bewilderment' is a major rock record full of big emotions and adventurous songs. Whereas '12 Little Killers' was written and recorded during Vanderwolf's final years in London following the break-up of his semi-legendary band Last Man Standing, 'The Great Bewilderment' was mostly written during the pandemic, during which he relocated from New York to Los Angeles. For the recording, Vanderwolf reached out to an old friend, drummer Angie Scarpa, while a recommendation from John Cale's guitarist, Dusty Meadows, led to bassist H Chris Roy joining the band. Tim Sonnefeld contributes a variety of guitars, including beautiful crying feedback throughout album centrepiece "Gaza", which also features a guitar solo from Portishead's Adrian Utley. The album title itself is drawn from the mood of writing music during the pandemic. "I think we're still in that great bewilderment," insists Vanderwolf. "With threats to democracy, the division of opinion, plus this latest war on top of the war in Ukraine, and the climate crisis becoming acute, there's a looming sense that there's nothing we can do. 14 years of Tory corruption in an alleged democracy...that is bewildering. That a twice impeached President with 91 indictments against him can be the frontrunner in a presidential election...that is bewildering." As a music programmer and concert producer, Max Vanderwolf has worked for some of the worlds' most celebrated clubs and concert venues. These include New York's legendary Knitting Factory and London's internationally renowned Royal Festival Hall, where for 9 years he produced the Meltdown Festival working closely with artists including David Bowie, Patti Smith, Jarvis Cocker, Massive Attack and Ornette Coleman.

A Chaos Of Flowers is an album that builds on their ferocious 2023 album nature morte. BIG|BRAVE"s music has been described as massive minimalism. Their fusillades of textural distortion and feedback emphasize their music"s frayed edges as much as its all-encompassing weight. The potency of the trio"s work is their singular artistry combining elements of traditional folk techniques and a modern deconstruction of guitar music. Gain, feedback, and amplitude are essential. For A Chaos Of Flowers guitarist/vocalist Robin Wattie drew heavily on the poems of artists whom Wattie found kinship in, their words resonant with experiences of those often sidelined by cultural norms. "I discovered that most poems from folk traditions or in the public domain seem to be by men - to which I could not quite relate. In my search, I rediscovered some of my favorite works and poets," says Wattie. Guitarist Mathieu Ball and drummer Tasy Hudson help Wattie shape poetry into pieces as dense and impenetrable as they are vulnerable. BIG|BRAVE achieve their colossal sound through minimalist approaches, a deft understanding of dynamics and an inventive employment of percussion and distortion. The trio reconceptualize what it is to be heavy or minimal, challenging perceptions with their illumination of painfully overlooked perspectives. Guest guitarist Marisa Anderson lends earthen, blues-inflected atmospheres to the album, where guitarist Tashi Dorji and saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi amplify the squall. Working closely with frequent collaborator and producer/engineer Seth Manchester, the internal tumult of Wattie"s voice rings out in warbles, haunting echoes, and unearthly harmonies across bold immense walls of distortion. BIG|BRAVE have collaborated with metal monsters The Body on a previous Thrill Jockey release, Leaving None But Small Birds, and have toured internationally with bands like SUMAC, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, SUNN O))), and Lingua Ignota. As they continue to ascend in their journey as pioneers in the contemporary metal scene, it"s safe to say that BIG|BRAVE are here to stay.

5 years after his last and 3rd album, Lucas Arruda finally presents his long awaited new LP, Ominira.
Since the release of his first album on Favorite Recordings (Sambadi / 2013), Lucas Arruda has clearly established himself as one of the most talented contemporary artist and composer from Brazil. His music is filled with fusion style, mixing influences and elements from his Latin musical background, with his genuine admiration for Jazz, Soul, Pop and Funk music.
During these 10 years of collaboration with label honcho Pascal Rioux, Lucas Arruda’ music has always received great supports and feedbacks from international media and tastemakers, each album perfecting the level of composition and production. With Onda Nova (2019), Lucas dived willingly into Robson Jorge & Lincoln Olivetti influences, aiming to capture the true essence of Brazilian Funk and AOR tradition. Now a father and family man, he turned more deeply into his native influences when composing this new beautiful album. Fully composed and produced by Lucas, Ominira also features appearances from friends local musicians and artists such as Italo Vinicius (Drums), Thiago Arruda (guitars), Roger Rocha (sax), or Flavia K and Andre Motta on vocals.
"Ominira is about freedom, art and music. It's also about honoring my ancestors and my musical influences. I delved a little deeper into my African roots, in addition to Brazilian music and rhythms, and my longtime passion for Soul/Funk. After a long production process I feel like I made my best album. So, I present to you OMINIRA, a new chapter in my career. Have a nice trip!"

Khôra is the medium Matthew Ramolo uses to delve deeply into initiatory world-building by way of sound, image, and lyrical prose. Figuring wholly realized art-myths which distill and rouse the numinous while provoking the visceral and cathartic, Khôra intricately collages studio documents of ritualized instrumental performances, introducing overdubs by transient, heteronymic personae which dismantle stable points of reference in the music and open uncommon planes of consciousness.

"Gestures of Perception" is Khôra’s first double album with a supporting artbook and features a fascinating array of sources subjected to patterned assembly, poetic layering, and the elevations of the heart. Deft handling of modular synthesis is palpably central, while feedback, erhu, keys, flute, contact electronics, guitar, field sounds, and various percussion objects (rattle and frame drums, seed pod sticks, random metal objects, meditation bowls, kalimbas, bells) all serve to provide breathing structures and energetic contours that guide and scaffold inner and outer journeys into the far-near. Prominent across the record's span is a home-built, solenoid drum machine, responsible for the alive and askew techno-archaic flows and conceived as the album’s "rhythm seed”. The music on Gestures is teeming with organic and alien textures, soaring drones, inter-dimensional noises, and emotionally resonant melodies; balanced on the fringes of exotica and meditative trance, with capacities that untether the listener from the ballast of limited reality.

Operating hermetically in the penumbra of Toronto's cultural scene for well over a decade, Khôra has been invested in self-publishing handcrafted editions of spiritually driven recordings which led to the LP/CD reissue of inaugural album "Silent Your Body Is Endless" by Constellation. Khôra has toured extensively in North America and Europe both solo and in collaboration with Picastro, Nick Kuepfer (Hrsta,1/4 Tonne), and Brandon Valdivia (Mas Aya, Lido Pimienta), generated over a hundred hours of unreleased, bewildering drone through durational performance with experimental outfit Nidus (Marc Couroux, Jason Doell), composed for live dance and independent film, been commissioned by MaerzMusik, and seeded and co-run the now defunct music and art venue Ratio in Toronto.

Delphine Dora is a prolific composer, improviser and musician who has released on a plethora of labels including Recital, Morc, Sloow Tapes, Feeding Tube, Okraïna and more, and ‘Le Grand Passage’ is her Modern Love debut, a stunning set of songs for piano and voice, recorded in one take without overdubs or edits.

In an act of pure expression, Delphine Dora recorded the 8 songs of ‘The Great Passage’ in a single take, succumbing to a whirlwind of inspiration that transported her beyond the material world. Baroque paradigms bleed into fragile, introspective mantras, expressed through a made up language of existential yearning and channeled through piano and voice. It’s music that caresses the sublime, made without any premeditation.

Delphine was nearing the end of a three-day prepared piano residency when an technician stepped in to tune her grand piano for her final performance. He removed the objects from the strings and fixed the pitch, leaving Dora with a freshly tuned instrument. Mesmerised by its new sound, she proceeded to switch on her recorder and pour out her soul, channeling, in her own words, "something greater than myself".

The result is some of the most unusual but elevated material the prolific composer, improviser and multi-instrumentalist has ever recorded, rooted in a deep understanding of European musical history but willing to push at its boundaries, questioning the earthly logic of life and death, asceticism and impiety. Glistening imperfections lash 'The Great Passage' to the physical world, but Dora - seemingly possessed as she quivers in a fictional dialect - lets her fantasies intensify her spirit, lifting the music towards the heavens. It's not sacred music, per se, but it is unashamedly mystical.

On the luxurious, languid opening, Dora dissolves eerily familiar romantic piano motifs into an attentive ceremony, singing with charged emotion. Her words aren't really decipherable, but their resonance vibrates beyond language; it's striking to hear how confident she is in vulnerability. She lets the piano wrap into her voice, connecting us directly to a unique mode of emotional expression by urging us - the listener - to project our own meaning onto her abstracted words.

Dora refers to the act of improvisation itself as a way to indicate "the fragility of being”, and as her words blur in and out of focus, dipping from a hoarse croak to a choking wail, she places herself at the very edge of musical formality, questioning strictures put in place to suffocate self-expression. Her music has often been labeled "outsider", but here she sounds intimate and interconnected, more self-consciously candid than anything traditional might have allowed. She conjures affecting, plainspoken poetry, like a bedside diary written in a hypnagogic, delirious state: a stream-of-unconsciousness, channelling the beyond.

The album title connects to a book dedicated to French philosopher and activist Simone Weil, who famously pored over global religions to ascertain spiritual truths. To Weil, meditation was a passage to access mystical experience, or a bridge between humanity and divinity. In Dora's hands, this idea is a corridor between herself and the listener, a liminal place where she's able to address feelings without making anything explicit. The title, of course, also refers to life, its impermanence, finitude, and fragility, presenting the complex, multi-dimensionality of being through one of the most undiluted, unbridled set of songs imaginable.

First time on vinyl

An extension of his signature innovative sample usage. The result is an irresistible patchwork: broken beats and lush sounds of vintage swing, jazz, charleston, all filtered through hip-hop's rhythmic bounce.

Acclaimed guitar duo Loren Connors and Alan Licht celebrate their 30-year collaboration with release of their eighth album - At The Top Of The Stairs. Across the decades, their improvisations turned increasingly abstract and atonal, while still maintaining complex, ethereal arrangements. The harmonious blend of Licht's meticulously crafted feedback and harmonic patterns with Connors' ghostly blue tones remains the core sound of this partnership. At The Top Of The Stairs was recorded live in 2018. Across two side-long pieces, the duo ascends slowly, through layers of atmospheric tension punctuated by thunderous waves of Connors' effects. For fifty years, Connors's adaptation of acoustic Delta blues has transmuted into miniature gray scale compositions and howling riffs. His collaborators include Oren Ambarchi, Keiji Haino, and Kim Gordon. Rock/experimental musician Alan Licht was a member of the bands Love Child, Run On, and Lee Ranaldo & the Dust, and has released a range of acclaimed rock and experimental albums. He is an author with books published by Rizzoli, W.W. Norton, Faber & Faber and Blank Forms.

Dog Unit sind eine Post-Rock-Band, zu der man tanzen kann, und ihre Debüt-LP 'At Home' ein betörendes Amalgam aus bezauberndem Drone, taktilen Strukturen, Zeitlupen-Polyrhythmen und Skewiff-Riffs. Dog Unit sind Henry Scowcroft und Sam Walton an Gitarren, die zwischen heulendem Feedback und souveräner Melodik wechseln, Pop-Dub-Bass-Maestro James Weaver, dessen minimalistischer Stil ein Genie für Prägnanz und Motorik offenbart, und Schlagzeugerin Lucy Jamieson, die zuverlässigste Zeitnehmerin diesseits einer Atomuhr. Gemeinsam auf der Bühne oder auf Platte hat man das Gefühl, es handelt sich hier nicht um vier Musiker, sondern um ein 16-gliedriges Geschöpf, das seine Zuhörer auf eine hügelige Reise eleganter modernistischer Wunder führt, wie ein Hochgeschwindigkeitszug, der wunderschön durch die japanische Landschaft fährt.

RAWAX re-issues the former Unleash009 by Robert Drewek & Tomie Nevada - Minimize The Maximum EP from 2006.

This release became a big push after being played by Francesco Del Garda & Raresh to name a few.

The re-mastered version will be out 1st of June.
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