Cerca:free time

Faithful to the ethos of the label to put new talents on the map, the second E2-E8 release comes from newcomer Hems. A regular punter at underground festivals such as Freerotation and Labyrinth, Hems spends some of his time making great electronic music in his East London cave… And we are very happy to be the first to put his music out.

A fine connoisseur of ambient and electronica, Hems has sometimes featured on the line-ups of Astral Industries parties. This release covers a wide spectrum of his sound. The almost beatless title track Post Radiance opens things up, followed by the subtle dub techno of I Know This Road and by the raw and relentless beat of Dirty Chords. On the B side, Let It Go is a suspended 15-minutes journey clocking in at 140bpm – arguably the highlight of the EP, sounding like little else out there. Madsituation closes the EP, with a nod at lighter atmospheres and a hint at Detroit-influenced strings.

Techno heads will be pleased to hear that the record has already got praises from techno talent Refracted, who loves Let It Go, and from Jane Fitz.

Spirale were an Italian quintet from Rome, consisting of Gaetano Delfini (wind instruments, vocals, percussion), Giancarlo Maurino (saxophone, flute, percussion), Corrado Nofri (piano, marimba, mbira, siren, Jew’s harp), Giuseppe Caporello (contrabass, guitar, percussion) and Giampaolo Ascolese (drums) who released a single eponymous album in 1974. This is a release known mostly by Italian progressive rock lovers, since its sound can be easily associated
to the jazz-rock delivered by the way more popular Napoli Centrale and Perigeo - but also to the ‘fundamentals’ Dedalus, Arti & Mestieri, Uno, or even the lesser known Bauhaus for instance. But playing this
kind of music and trying to release an album in the first half of the ’70s in Italy was also incredibly hard and courageous: Spirale, in fact, was one of the many bands that lived a very short life, before splitting up and disappear forever. Spirale was originally released on the International King record label, thanks to Mario Schiano, a free-jazz
saxophonist who discovered the band, and producer Toni Cosenza, who included the album in the ‘King JazzLine’ series. Consisting of just four tracks, most of which taken by the 13-minute long “Cabral, Anno 1” and the marvellous 17-minute “Peperoncino (Cose vecchie, cose nuove)”, Spirale is an incredibly balanced and flowing record that sounds still fresh and inspired even today, and it’s a shame that it has remained hidden and overlooked for such a long time. Moreover, it is characterized by that undescribable and particular Mediterranean flavour that only Italian musicians were able to obtain. This beautiful album is of course immensely rare in its original edition, and is now finally reissued on Dialogo record label in a faithful restored version that will finally satisfy any collectors who have waited for
years for this beauty to see the light again!

• Released in 1991, and produced by Rick Nowels, Richard Feldman, Eric Pressly, and David Munday,
Belinda’s fourth solo album features four more huge hit singles: “Live Your Life Be Free”, “Do You Feel
Like I Feel?”, “Half The World” and “Little Black Book”.
• The two bonus LPs feature fourteen bonus tracks: two non-album B-sides and the many 12” mixes,
four of them unreleased at the time, and three 7” edits.
• This 30th anniversary box set contains three LPs pressed on 180g vinyl, in individual outer and inner
sleeves plus a 12 x 12 booklet, all in a lift-off lid box.














n c3. Live Your Life Be Free Single Edit
o c4. Do You Feel Like I Feel Single Edit
[p] c5. I Plead Insanity [Single Mix]
[q] c6. Live Your Life Be Free [Radio Edit]
[r] d1. Live Your Life Be Free [Club Mix]
[s] d2. Little Black Book [Little Black Mix]
[t] d3. Do You Feel Like I Feel [Dance Mix]
[u] e1. I Plead Insanity [Extended 12”]
[v] e2. Live Your Life Be Free [Extended]
[w] f1. Little Black Book [Belinda’s In The House Mix]
[x] f2. Live Your Life Be Free [House Mix]
[Remix/Dub Mix]

The core of the album is seven songs she wrote in the late 1980s and early ‘90s —“One Way Out,” “As Cool As You Try,” “I’m No Angel Myself,” “For the Last Time,” “Save Myself,” “That Would Be Me” and. “Wild Wild Wild.” Rounding out the set are two other previously unreleased songs, “You Have No Idea” and “Life Goes On,” recorded at an intimate and boisterous 2002 concert at the Roxy in West Hollywood.

These songs bristle with energy and emotion, a rock ’n’ roll edge and personal depth as sharp as anything in her canon. The first seven come from a time in which she was finding her first measures of fame with bolstered confidence and ambition. But it was also before she was ready to be fully open about herself. These songs show her finding her voice, but when it came to it she wasn’t ready yet to say it in public.

“It was an emotional space, a tender sort of place that I was reluctant to go to before I came out,” she says. “So yeah, I did hold back on that sort of thing. And now it was really fun to just step forward and fearlessly present these songs and play them. You know, really being set free.”

In 2013, while working on a proposed box set of archival recordings, Etheridge came across these songs again and found that they spoke to her anew with fresh vantage. A lot had happened in the intervening years. Etheridge had come out, become a parent, risen to status of multi-platinum album sales and top concert headliner, was diagnosed and recovered from breast cancer, won an Academy Award (for her song “I Need to Wake Up” from Al Gore’s climate change documentary An Inconvenient Truth, gotten married, taken on activist roles on various fronts and had continued to record and tour at as fierce a pace as always. With all of that, these songs needed to be given new voice, new settings.

David Wrench and Evangeline Ling - aka audiobooks - threw
absolutely everything at their 2018 debut album, ‘Now! (in a
minute)’, a hectic, head-spinning blast of freewheeling freak-pop
genius. On its follow-up, ‘Astro Tough’, via Heavenly
Recordings, they’ve somehow found a way to ramp things up
even further, concentrating their chaotic energy and inherent
weirdness into a record that’s bigger, deeper and more powerful
han even its predecessor.
“The first album was a photograph of the beginnings of the
project, recorded without any overall plan,” Wrench explains.
“‘Astro Tough’ is more scripted, but a script that still allowed for
ots of improvised scenes. There was more intention behind the
songs, and a lot more refining. We weren’t precious about
everything being spontaneous and a first take, like on the first
record, even though some of it ended up being that. We made a
ot more material for this record, but chose the tracks that best
worked together as an album.”
Multi-instrumentalist and super-producer Wrench is as
comfortable unleashing monolithic psychedelic wig-outs and
heavy dub-driven monsters as he is crafting irresistible synthpop bangers. Writer, vocalist and visual artist Ling is as
chameleonic as she is charismatic, able to jump from
detachment to rawness to aggression to tenderness to hilarity to
oe-curling awkwardness, sometimes within the same song.
Though the record is a product of increased refinement, the pair
were physically together only in bursts, cramming sessions
around their respectively hectic calendars. “We had much less
time together than on the first record, but every time I did see
David that thirst and the ability to come up with something was
there. I think this record is better than the first record, and I
think we’re dying to make more. We’re going to try and better it
again,” says Ling.
Eco-mix colour vinyl. Black vinyl format (HVNLP183) will be
made available once coloured vinyl is sold out.

Longpigs were the alternative rock band who came to prominence in the 1990s Britpop scene
with their breakout debut album ‘The Sun Is Often Out’. Fronted by Crispin Hunt, the group also
featured guitarist Richard Hawley, Simon Stafford on bass and drummer Andy Cook.
• Originally released in 1999 on U2’s Mother label, ‘Mobile Home’ was the band’s second and final
release. Highlights include the singles ‘Blue Skies’ and ‘The Frank Sonata’ and the Stephen Street
produced track ‘Gangsters’.
• The album is now issued on vinyl for the very first time, pressed on 180g heavyweight clear vinyl,
housed in a UV gloss sleeve.

Latest, and much later than planned instalment in the 'In Search Of Highs' split release series.
This time two label favourites, with two killer new songs. Perhaps and the first outing of the new AMT unit, Acid Mothers Temple & Infinity Rising Zero.

We proudly present: A journey through different dimensions, space and time: Future of Lofi is our attempt to create a new Lofi sound with our favorite artists.

Lofi sound as you have never experienced it before: 30 artists accompany you on this journey and show you their vision of how Lofi will sound in the future.

Check out the story behind this new compilation:

A sound engineer from Silicon Valley inherits a plot of land near L.A. due to the death of his in-laws. On the property, in addition to a spacious estate and pool, there is also an old barn in which he discovers a DeLorean DMC under a dusty tarp. Upon closer inspection, he notices that there is still an old cassette in the tape deck of the car radio. Curious, he uses his profession to digitize the tape and discovers completely new music that seems very futuristic to him - as if it had traveled 20 years through time. Join this beautiful journey through space and time! On this journey you will be accompanied by 30 artists including Mujo, Flughand, pettersson, Saltyyy V, Burrito Brown, Sátyr, Harry Hawaii, Thelonious Coltrane and many more.

Ben Bertrand weaves transverse waves into otherworldly compositions. He embodies the singular motion of these melodic and harmonic forms in order to draft new sonic possibilities freed from the laws of the physical plane. Pulsating at the kernel of Ben Bertrand’s musical universe are vivid dreams generating the fabric of these tapestries. Dokkaebi is deeply familiar yet refreshingly unknown, like a comforting whisper from your subconscious. It gently drifts into perception, glistening like the sun sparkling off a glacier gliding along the edge of your vision.

Deep listening to these tonal sculptures is enriching. By opening oneself to their deliberate unfolding, you will discover new principles for sound organization far afield from common modes of operation. The gradual, rhythmic progression of his compositions are ever-shifting grains, which upon thoughtful contemplation, reveal astonishing worlds. Bertrand’s music is constructed from blueprints drafted with honest intentions aspiring to bring humans closer to a sense of wonder.

Ben Bertrand welcomes each listener to discover his music anew from their own perspectives. It is infinitely in time with your time. These are the ripples in the wake of successive revolutions of universal evolution. Dokkaebi is an example of musical expressions adapting to the contours of the human psyche through gentle reflection of multiplicity. They are sounds reshaping themselves to suit the contours of each individual’s subconscious—sonic entities projected simultaneously as molecular and holistic.

Dokkaebi is an oceanic expression softly set in motion by honest aims that echo and grow. Ben Bertrand beckons you to listen up and look in. There is great reward in this generous flow.

Ben Bertrand was accompanied by Christina Vantzou, Geoffrey Burton, Indré Jurgeleviciuté, Echo Collective: Margaret Hermant & Neil Leiter, Otto Lindholm.

THE PALE FOUNTAINS - LONGSHOT FOR YOUR LOVE (Marina Records) New enhanced, remastered vinyl edition of the long-deleted, much sought-after Pale Fountains compilation "Longshot For Your Love" - originally released in 1998 - covering the band's early years from 1982 to 1984. "Longshot For Your Love" is a collection of rarities, radio sessions and previously unreleased tracks by Liverpool's second best band ever - fronted by Michael Head ("Our greatest living songwriter" - NME). Seven cuts are released here for the first time ever - incl. the superb John Peel and Old Grey Whistle Test BBC Sessions ('82/'83). The album comes with enhanced artwork - in a beautiful gatefold cover plus inner sleeve feat. lots of unseen band photos and extensive linernotes by former Pale Fountains manager Patrick Moore. On Marina Records.

Contemporary and historical Porest recordings channelled from behind the somnambulistic event horizon. The now sound... The bleak oblique. The minimal and the maximal. Filmic chamber drones, meditative radio massage and forged spiritual violence bury pop ephemera into the swirling murk of de facto instrumental nihilism and orchestral context-free drama.
Side A: A harmful journey into sickness and despair. You get sick and die.
Side B: You are healed. You stand erect and live forever.
Layered field and radio recordings back electro-acoustic experiments via electric saz, strings, balypso, reeds & synths. Big drones, small ensembles and mood-anthems recorded by Porest and friends between 1995 and 2020 in West Oakland, Germany, Sumatra, Syria, Hanoi and London.

A Wide ranging, eclectic and progressive musical outlook has always been the Lack of Afro approach. His latest material follows suit as he harnesses disparate musical styles ranging from funk, soul and hip-hop to create a contemporary yet vintage musical escapade of superb songs.


On his 4th studio album for Freestyle Records, the influences, sounds and musical textures are more eclectic than ever. Below, Adam talks us through some of the his favourite moments on 'Music For Adverts'.


First out of the box is the steaming funk killer Freedom: This time around I knew I didn't want an intro or a skit to start the album - I needed a strong, heavy opener - I had the melody for the chorus floating around in my head. It was then just a case of working with Jack Tyson - Charles on the rest of it and getting the vibe that the song required.


Long time Lack Of Afro collaborator Herbal T features on Brown Sugar: I had an idea of doing a disco track with an emcee on it, which you don't really hear often. This is actually the first time I've sung on a Lack of Afro track, adding my backing vocal warblings on the choruses! Special shout to George Cooper for the howlin' Hammond solo at the end too.


Of the gritty instrumental No Guts, No Glory Adam explains: I wanted to include 3 instrumentals as I always have a soft spot for them & it's what people know me for. The 'choir' was recorded by layering up my own voice in different octaves, nothing is auto-tuned, its all real. The studio allows me to do stuff like that but I could never sing live - I'll leave that to the proper vocalists.


'Proper vocalist' Jack Tyson - Charles again features on The Gypsy, which as Adam explains uses the classic song format to great effect: One of my favourite LOA tunes to date, Its in keeping with the album mission statement of wanting to write 'proper songs' instead of just grooves.

The Allergies are back with a new album – Rejoice! And the feel-good funk, hip-hop swagger, and dusty vintage loops, is everything you need right now.

Across the 13 tracks, producers Rackabeat and DJ Moneyshot dig deep into their souls, as well as their record collections, serving up a day-glo blast of super positive sampledelia that'll have you smiling from ear to ear.

Built from scratch during lockdown, each song offers up a world to lose yourself in, free from any and all dark clouds. It's their Promised Land, and everyone is welcome to bask in the sunshine.

Along for the ride is LA rap legend, Andy Cooper Ugly Duckling, soul sensation Marietta Smith, dance music heavyweight, Dynamite MC, and the unmistakable voice of hip-hop royalty, Lyrics Born.

Everyone got the memo, as career-best performances roll one after the other. And each singer, rapper, scratcher, and sampler, unites through the power of good good music.

Highlights on the LP include the swamp blues meets half-time hip-hop monster, 'Lean On You'. The Latin funk bomb, 'Move On Baby'. Soul rollers 'New Thing' and 'Are You Ready', and the show-stopping and stirring Moby-ish beat banger, 'Promised Land'.

Almost a concept album, the idea of fresh starts, strange new worlds, loss, solidarity, freedom, and the communities we find in clubs, festivals, and making and sharing music, began to come out, organically, through the song-writing process.

"In a weird way the album wrote itself," says DJ Moneyshot. "We'd be lost in our own little world of hypnotic loops as days passed, and samples jumped out of the shelves, and just started to make sense as they got chopped and layered into these tracks."

Early support for the singles, and response from fans across the globe, suggests that this, their fifth album, really could be something special. Come on in…

Back in 1993, Aston was the one half to the SUBURBAN BASE act 'Rap and Aston' as well as part of 'Engineers Without Fears' and earlier 'The Blapps Posse', he then went on to form the hugely successful group 'The Freestylers'. He produced for artists such as Rebel MC and created some of the Sub Base classics which include Vertigo, More Time, Jeopardy and is now back with a brand new release of old skool inspired bangers to launch a new era of Boogie Times Records.

First up Aston introduces Pirate Jams with the the stunning ‘U Know The Score’, from the very first old skool lead stab and catchy vocal you know that here is a tune from a master of their craft, with all the years of experience and success condensed into one tune to make the definitive early 90's vibe with and updated twist. This has instant classic and future anthem written all over it, fingers crossed we get out and about to hear this at raves across the summer.

Next up is '4EVR' alongside Quicklung, a bolder driving piece of old skool inspired genius, from the early days of rave almost an 89/90s Belgium import vibe to it for those that 'Know The Score' as the A side says!

Grab yourself a piece of future history now whilst rather than hunting discogs two years from now lol

“While spending time trying to conquer the audio of live-stream
at home performances, I got better acquainted with my friend
Adam McDaniel, an engineer and producer in Asheville, NC.
Adam and I had known each other for years. When the band
was a bit smaller I’d often rent his studio, Drop of Sun, for prerecording / pre tour rehearsals.
 “Summer 2020 was tough for many reasons. But Adam and his
wife Emily opened their home to me and made it a safe space
to create and let go. I had an idea to record some covers and
bring some of the band into the mix, or add other players. I
wanted to record 80’s songs that I’d overheard walking the
aisles at the grocery store, and I needed to laugh and have fun
and be a little less serious about the recording process in
general. I thought about completely changing some of the
songs and turning them inside out.
 “I’d heard ‘Gloria’ by Laura Branigan for the first time at a family
Christmas gathering and I was amazed at all the aunts who got
up to dance. I imagined them all dancing and laughing in slow
motion, and that’s when I got the idea to slow the entire song
down and try it out in this way. I felt that ‘Safety Dance’ by Men
Without Hats could be reinterpreted to be about this time of
quarantine and the fear of being around anyone or having too
much fun. It made me wonder, is it safe to laugh or dance or be
free of it all for just a moment?
 “I know it’s not really in my history to do something unintentional
or just for the hell of it but my connection to these songs is
pretty straightforward, I just wanted to have a little fun and be a
little more spontaneous, and I think I needed to remember that I
could!” - Angel Olsen

“While spending time trying to conquer the audio of live-stream
at home performances, I got better acquainted with my friend
Adam McDaniel, an engineer and producer in Asheville, NC.
Adam and I had known each other for years. When the band
was a bit smaller I’d often rent his studio, Drop of Sun, for prerecording / pre tour rehearsals.
 “Summer 2020 was tough for many reasons. But Adam and his
wife Emily opened their home to me and made it a safe space
to create and let go. I had an idea to record some covers and
bring some of the band into the mix, or add other players. I
wanted to record 80’s songs that I’d overheard walking the
aisles at the grocery store, and I needed to laugh and have fun
and be a little less serious about the recording process in
general. I thought about completely changing some of the
songs and turning them inside out.
 “I’d heard ‘Gloria’ by Laura Branigan for the first time at a family
Christmas gathering and I was amazed at all the aunts who got
up to dance. I imagined them all dancing and laughing in slow
motion, and that’s when I got the idea to slow the entire song
down and try it out in this way. I felt that ‘Safety Dance’ by Men
Without Hats could be reinterpreted to be about this time of
quarantine and the fear of being around anyone or having too
much fun. It made me wonder, is it safe to laugh or dance or be
free of it all for just a moment?
 “I know it’s not really in my history to do something unintentional
or just for the hell of it but my connection to these songs is
pretty straightforward, I just wanted to have a little fun and be a
little more spontaneous, and I think I needed to remember that I
could!” - Angel Olsen

Caleb Landry Jones is a continual creator. The Texan-born star found fame as an actor - you’ll recognise him from key roles in X-Men: First Class, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, amongst others - but music is perhaps his first love, and his source of greatest comfort. A chance encounter with famed auteur Jim Jarmusch brought him into the orbit of Sacred Bones, and the stalwart independent released Caleb’s 2020 debut album The Mother Stone. Psychedelic in a defiantly non-retro way, this indulgent, freewheeling trip won critical acclaim, but masked a secret - he’d already finished another album.

Filming alongside Tom Hanks in dystopian themed Finch, Caleb found himself writing during those long evenings after the shoot in locations across New Mexico, idling away his hours by focusing on creativity. “I need it,” he says, “I’ve tried working without it. On one acting job, I intentionally didn’t bring a guitar to try and do it without music... but that didn’t last long. I need to create

something - it could be a drawing, it could be a song - because otherwise I feel like I’m wasting time. Which is something I do plenty of on my own!”

With his creative faculties burning, Caleb knew he had to get straight back into the studio when filming stopped. Linking with the same cast who formed The Mother Stone, he resumed his partnership with producer Nic Jodoin, based out of the elegant Valentine Recording Studio in Los Angeles. A studio steeped in history - everyone from Bing Crosby to Frank Zappa worked there - he interrupted mixing sessions for his own debut album in order to focus on something different.

Gadzooks Vol. 1 is unlike anything you’ve heard before - comparisons range from Skip Spence’s fractured masterpiece Oar through to skewed troubadour Robyn Hitchcock, via John Lennon’s black moods on The White Album and Frank Zappa’s caustic surrealism. Recording to tape, Caleb would hack away at each take, re-assembling the songs like Escher diagrams. “It’s like when you’re swimming in the pool,” he smiles, “and you’re doing a bit of butterfly, and then that gets old after a while. So then you start doing breaststroke, and then that gets old after a while. I think it’s just a reaction from the place where we were before.”

Part of a flood-tide of creativity - as its title suggests, a second half to this album is already on the horizon - Gadzooks Vol. 1 is thrilling, shocking, and wonderfully entertaining. Each song starts and finishes in entirely unique places, often totally divorced from each other. “I’m trying to write something very simple,” he says, “And it gets really abstract because I don’t know any other way.”

- Follow up to the critically acclaimed debut The Mother Stone
- Actor in Finch, Get Out, Twin Peaks, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
- Positive press for The Mother Stone ran in Pitchfork, Billboard, Entertainment Weekly, FLOOD, Newsweek, The AV Club, Document Journal, The New Yorker, The FADER, NPR and others

Caleb Landry Jones is a continual creator. The Texan-born star found fame as an actor - you’ll recognise him from key roles in X-Men: First Class, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, amongst others - but music is perhaps his first love, and his source of greatest comfort. A chance encounter with famed auteur Jim Jarmusch brought him into the orbit of Sacred Bones, and the stalwart independent released Caleb’s 2020 debut album The Mother Stone. Psychedelic in a defiantly non-retro way, this indulgent, freewheeling trip won critical acclaim, but masked a secret - he’d already finished another album.

Filming alongside Tom Hanks in dystopian themed Finch, Caleb found himself writing during those long evenings after the shoot in locations across New Mexico, idling away his hours by focusing on creativity. “I need it,” he says, “I’ve tried working without it. On one acting job, I intentionally didn’t bring a guitar to try and do it without music... but that didn’t last long. I need to create

something - it could be a drawing, it could be a song - because otherwise I feel like I’m wasting time. Which is something I do plenty of on my own!”

With his creative faculties burning, Caleb knew he had to get straight back into the studio when filming stopped. Linking with the same cast who formed The Mother Stone, he resumed his partnership with producer Nic Jodoin, based out of the elegant Valentine Recording Studio in Los Angeles. A studio steeped in history - everyone from Bing Crosby to Frank Zappa worked there - he interrupted mixing sessions for his own debut album in order to focus on something different.

Gadzooks Vol. 1 is unlike anything you’ve heard before - comparisons range from Skip Spence’s fractured masterpiece Oar through to skewed troubadour Robyn Hitchcock, via John Lennon’s black moods on The White Album and Frank Zappa’s caustic surrealism. Recording to tape, Caleb would hack away at each take, re-assembling the songs like Escher diagrams. “It’s like when you’re swimming in the pool,” he smiles, “and you’re doing a bit of butterfly, and then that gets old after a while. So then you start doing breaststroke, and then that gets old after a while. I think it’s just a reaction from the place where we were before.”

Part of a flood-tide of creativity - as its title suggests, a second half to this album is already on the horizon - Gadzooks Vol. 1 is thrilling, shocking, and wonderfully entertaining. Each song starts and finishes in entirely unique places, often totally divorced from each other. “I’m trying to write something very simple,” he says, “And it gets really abstract because I don’t know any other way.”

- Follow up to the critically acclaimed debut The Mother Stone
- Actor in Finch, Get Out, Twin Peaks, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
- Positive press for The Mother Stone ran in Pitchfork, Billboard, Entertainment Weekly, FLOOD, Newsweek, The AV Club, Document Journal, The New Yorker, The FADER, NPR and others

Rakoon, a free spirit from the French electro-dub scene, known for his heavy weighted basslines in concert, comes back this year with his new album "Something Precious".

Since his first hit "Healing Dub" viewed more than 10 million times on YouTube, the producer has pursued his quest for an ever more hybrid and unique sound, combining synths and samples from travels, within pop structures with electronic features. "Something Precious" is a true synthesis of the eagerness of his first works and the power of his previous album, and confirms an even more electronic turn in the artist's career. It’s a bundle of energy carried by bewitching melodies; the travel journal of an enthusiastic musician, strewn with samples collected on the road.

“The musical guideline of this album first came one day when I got out of my studio after working on a track, feeling some kind of ecstasy that I hadn’t felt for years. Something that I used to feel almost every time I made music back when it wasn’t my job, but that had changed afterwards. It was like finding something really precious you thought you had lost forever…” says Rakoon about the genesis of this new album.

Whether it be with the intoxicating sample of "Hoi An" brought back from a trip to Vietnam or the galvanizing synths of "Chapters", a hit cut for the dancefloor, Rakoon treats his early fans to new gems true to his carefully refined recipe. But he also doesn't hesitate to venture into more electronic territories, like on the devastating "The Great Big Elephant", with its catchy sample and its synth’s nods to trance. Or even to surprise, with the use of vocoder on "Rituals" for instance.

"Something Precious" is the result of a significant sound research and an in-depth work on emotions. Its magnificent cover is signed by the English illustrator Miles Tewson, and it can be listened to like a diary that Rakoon shares with generosity and dedication with those who follow him, on and off the stage.

Session Victim and Erobique join forces once again for a beautiful cover version of Mark- Almond's "The City", starring Jamie Lloyd's enticing vocals and featuring Linnart Ebel's subtle rhythm guitar. Ever since Hauke Freer stumbled over Mark- Almond's final studio album Other People's Rooms at Montreal record store Death Of Vinyl a few years ago, the pair would regularily finish DJ nights with this 1978 recording of their hit single "The City" - and since then, the idea of recording their own rendition had been tossed around frequently. Carsten "Erobique" Meyer was not the first but really the duo's only choice to see this through and well, just listen to the impeccable Rhodes/Clavinet combination he came up with. However, it is Sydney's Jamie Lloyd who steals the show and takes the song into his realm, putting his very own stamp and character on this certified classic. Long time collaborator Linnart Ebel complete's the band with his ever subtle rhythm guitar. The two, three, four, five man house, not house band branches out for all the right reasons and this is the result.

After Dinner from Japan, embraced new wave, traditional Japanese music, free contemporary and avant-garde rock. Founded under hand of delicious female vocalist, musician and composer Haco in 1981, broaching a very interesting collective cohesion; their background, though however various, brought them together during times of recording and live performance.

1982-85 includes all their first production; the complete 1st album “Glass Tube", 2 tracks from the 1st 7” single and a bonus track track from a 1985’s compilation on Celluloid.

“A founding member of the legendary band After Dinner, Haco is one of the most versatile vocalists in the Japanese indies scene.” (John Zorn)

"Haco is capable of gallons of tenderness and melancholy." (Kurt Gottschalk)

Elite Beat is a musical collective from Portland, Oregon with a history spanning back to 2006.

'Selected Rhythms' captures the finest moments from all three of their ultra limited cassette series 'Casual Rhythms'.

Packed full of DIY dub mixing, cosmic orchestration and raw, percussion driven polyrhythms, the recordings have been remastered and put to vinyl for the first time with sections from Casual Rhythms Vol. 1 being re-shaped into previously unavailable single tracks.


Recording plays a big role in the Elite Beat creative process. The studio as an instrument. Much of the Elite Beat music is mixed in an all-hands-on-deck dub style approach - live with an analog mixer and loads of FX being thrown and dubbed in real time. The sound is genre-less rhythm music with an emphasis on live playing, free form expression and technique that borrows from soundsystem culture. Inspiration can be heard from all parts of time and place. Some Ethio Jazz, Black Ark psychedelia, Exotica, Malian blues, even Haight-Ashbury in the summer of love. Each member an accomplished musician in their own right, Elite Beat thrive on collaboration. 2018 saw the release of their astral-Saharan jams with celebrated Taureg guitarist Mdou Moctar.

The players get together every Wednesday evening, sometimes to chat, sometimes to play. The 'record' button gets pressed when they find what they are searching for. For this crew it's all about 'Casual Rhythms / Harmonious Lifestyles' - if things don't fall under that mantra, then it's got to go. 'Less is more' for Elite Beat and their cosmic sounds.

It's the dawning of a new era... after many months of being connected via proxy the time has come to get together... Tonight My Dance, Is All About You!

Pascale Project brings you three original dance music compositions in the key of having a good time. Soaked in the tradition of summer fun in the city, elements of Freestyle and Electro weave in to the House beat. These sounds evoked by our beloved corner of the world are now broadcast to the global network of party purveyors. A pulsating chill-out version of 'Welcome' by DustWORLD head Dust-e-1 sits nicely at the A2 position to be used as needed.

All cut at 45rpm for diverse playing styles!
Music by Pascal Mercier.
Mastered by Nik Kozub.
Artwork & design by Kris Guilt

Around the year, the sturdy red brick walls of an old Cable Factory stand there like a mountain, facing weathers of all kinds rising from the Gulf of Finland. It might be freezing winter winds whipping the whole shore line into submission, fog heavy as concrete, or the relentless sun of the summer months, softening the asphalt to a boiling point. Whatever the weather may be, the narrow courtyard of the old factory embraces those musicians, who are looking to get down. They gather from all directions, making their way towards a pair of doors that lead towards a flight of stairs, again through a few doors all the way to the last portal, where an open padlock and a loosely hangin crossbar signal that Cold Diamond & Mink are inside, locked in a groove.

Who could it be with them this time, perhaps the jazz prophet Jimi Tenor beaming out of his space ship, maybe it's the golden voiced knight of soul Tuomo "Pratt" Prättälä, the number one trumpet wielding dandy Jukka Eskola or the saxman Pope Puolitaival, who loses nothing in coolness compared to the former? The reel to reel is always there in the monitoring room, catching each analog layer of sound, even the silences and banter between takes. Seppo lays down the guitar and tries to catch the riff on organ instead, Jukka throws a rare tune on the turntable, hoping to guide their unit through that wobbly chorus, Sami waits there bass in hand, maybe already thinking about the next production.

After a whole lot of playing instruments, arranging and taking care of business, after the moon has travelled around the old industrial building for some rotations, Carlton Jumel Smith comes waltzing through those same doors. There's a handful of unnamed tracks waiting for him. He sits there listening and then starts writing, maybe echoes of soul classics from his own record collection in New York projecting inside his mind. Then the tape is rolling again. Starting with a short intro rap Carlton lets it out, singing on the edge of shouting "Woman you made me...". After the vocals are in the can, Carlton ascends out of the basement and heads out to entertain an audience somewhere. Some months later, after the mix is said and done, there's the question of the instrumentals. It seems they're pretty good as they are. And here they are.




d 04: Help Me (Save Me From Myself) Instrumental

UMAN is the project of French musicians and sibling duo Danielle and Didier Jean. "Chaleur Humaine" is their debut album, resurfacing for the first time on vinyl and remastered CD since its original release in 1992. UMAN experienced varying degrees of recognition with Chaleur Humaine at the time of its release, specifically around tracks plucked for various New Age / Chillout compilations, but ultimately the album defies genre in its exploration of voice and sampling / synthesizer technology and places it alongside the futurist works of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Nuno Canvarro, and even Enya. UMAN resembles human' in many Romance languages but signals a spirit from a deeper earth force that the duo channel throughout Chaleur Humaine, manifesting in a mantra found throughout the album reimagined in various languages across different tracks: "It's this force, almost animal, warm, like a kiss, fresh like the morning dew, that we call human warmth.ü" Chaleur Humaine has become a leftfield classic since its initial release, and long sought after on vinyl (the album was only available on CD until now). RIYL: Nuno Canavarro's Plux Quba, Piero Milesi and Daniel Bacalov's La Camera Astratta, Cocteau Twins and Enya

Could the missing link between Eric Dolphy and Albert Ayler be the Michel Portal of 1970? After having worked alongside François Tusques defending a free jazz “made in France”, we find him here, heading up an international quintet of which each member is on fire: John Surman, Barre Phillips, Stu Martin and Jean-Pierre Drouet. The quintet had full leeway to break out the free-form in long ambient tracks to compose this Alors!!! which leaves listeners with just one word to say: More!

Do we still need to present Michel Portal?... Clarinetist destined for the classical and contemporary world after his passage in the Paris Conservatory, he decided to try his hand at jazz, with an incendiary flamboyance! After his first experience with André Hodeir and Pierre Michelot, he would break all the codes with François Tusques (Free Jazz, in 1965) before starting the emblematic Michel Portal Unit. It is the Portal of those years that Alors!!! offers us the chance to listen to again.

“There are periods of insolence”, the musician declared and the year 1970 was one all on its own. Heading up an impetuous international troupe, a quintet consisting of John Surman (saxophones, bass clarinet), Barre Phillips (double-bass), Stu Martin (drums) and Jean-Pierre Drouet (percussion), Portal moves from alto sax to clarinet in the compositions shared with his partners.

From the off, the group sparks an explosion with the sound of “OO Bam Ba Deep” battered by the horns and percussion. Next up is the fabulous free jazz of “Yes, Oh Yes, You Wonderous Sun Kissed Maiden!” and the fantastic disjointed march of “Ça Boom?” which shakes up the musicians every which way. The quintet imagined that listeners would need to catch their breath, and thoughtfully added: “Billie the Kid” and “Undercurrent”, marvelous moments of ambient mystery.

Audacious from beginning to end, including the sleeve – the bird-man and his quintet brain designed by Avoine, –, the album is a fabulous object, to which the label Futura gave wings at the time. And as it is being reissued today there is just one word to use: the French translation of the title, So!!!

Spirits Having Fun records are ones made from and for shows and spaces—arrangements rooted in a deeply collaborative process, that come to life through intuitive and locked-in live improvisation. Following their 2019 debut Auto-Portrait, Two finds the New York and Chicago based four-piece continuing to challenge ideas of what a rock band can be, pulling apart their musical experiences and reimagining them as kinetic compositions, equally studied but palpably organic.

Two is constructed around gut feelings and strong grooves, elastic rhythms and playful pacing. Its twelve songs expand, contract, and make sharp turns between melodies under singer-guitarist Katie McShane’s meditative lyrics. “Broken Cloud,” which was also released last year on a compilation in support of Chicago Community Jail Support, offers a glimpse into her reflections on the natural world: "A city grew out of the ground / to a mountain it's only a blur."

True to its name, the internal logic of the band is also just a lot of fun, built on trust and deep-rooted musical relationships. Before there was Spirits Having Fun, McShane, bassist Jesse Heasly, guitarist-vocalist Andrew Clinkman, and drummer Phil Sudderberg had performed together in various arrangements over the years. McShane, Heasly and Clinkman met in a specific corner of the Boston underground in 2013, a time when a scene had coalesced around students from local music conservatories frequently collaborating with punk bands and noise artists, exchanging ideas and warping musical worldviews. Heasly and Clinkman played together in Cowboy Band, making mutant, free jazz-inspired takes on old country tunes. When Clinkman moved to Chicago, Heasly and McShane played in experimental groups like EKP and Listening Woman; in Chicago, Clinkman met Sudderberg playing in projects like jazz scene fixture Ken Vandermark’s high-powered band Marker.

Spirits first came together as an attempt at a long-distance collaboration among friends in 2016, driven by the simple feeling of missing each other; they’d meet up for marathon weekends here and there to practice, playing small loops through dive bars and art spaces around the Midwest—just enough for McShane and Heasly to afford plane tickets back home. Being split between Chicago and New York forced the project into a deliberate pace. “We tried to take it slow and let it be what it was,” said McShane. That sense of patience unexpectedly prepared them for March of 2020, when their planned tours and the release of Two were indefinitely delayed.

Two was mostly recorded in the summer of 2019 with the help of omnipresent Chicago engineer Dave Vettraino and DPCD’s Alec Watson, whose contributions on organ, synths, and piano are laced throughout the record. The album reflects a synthesis of solitary and communal songwriting processes—each song drawing on fragments written by individuals, which McShane threaded together and shaped through her distinct compositional lens, making the songs whole before returning to them to the band to mature collectively. When composing, McShane writes first on the keyboard before adapting parts for guitars played by herself and Clinkman. Their dueling approaches to guitar are complementary: McShane, being a newer guitarist, brings a freshness to the project (“I'm just discovering the whole time,” she says) while Clinkman has been playing since childhood.

“There's a lot more collaboration on this record,” says Clinkman, “in terms of all of us letting stuff bloom a little bit more.” The record’s first single, “Hold The Phone” is a good example of this process—it started with a playful intro riff from Clinkman, a melody and bridge added by McShane, a wobbly outro groove added by Heasly, which Sudderberg brought to life. Another single, the dynamic “See a Sky,” written primarily by Heasly, underscores the rhythm section chemistry at play across the record, the song ebbing and flowing around Heasly and Sudderberg’s eclectic percussive palettes.

“Entropy Transfer Partners” is the only song on the record with lyrics by Clinkman, and the album’s most politically direct—a call for solidarity in the face of systemic failures, an acknowledgment of the shared material devastation caused by our country’s ongoing healthcare and housing crises: “These are not things we're experiencing individually. We struggle through them collectively. And we could actually declare, all of us, that it doesn't have to be this way, and fight and organize to ameliorate some of those conditions.” (“We won't work to create the shit you monetize, to run our lives,” they sing.)

From front to back, Two is an absorbing listen simply for its impressive range. But as the members explain themselves, the complexity of the record is about more than its intricate riffs, or how often they count out an odd time signature, but how they reject the notion of boxing the songs in, letting the melodies take on lives of their own. “Making music that feels alive is important to us,” says Clinkman. “Music feels most powerful to me when it deepens our sensation of feeling alive and connected to other humans. It’s so easy to feel worn down and isolated; that your life’s value is fixed to your productivity at your job, or the things that you have or don’t have. Making music that feels joyful and fun seems like one effective antidote to that feeling.”

The edition that marks the start of the brand-new Comets Coming could not be more suitable: it is that Rodrigo Brandão, like his grandfather Herman Poole Blount, dust of stars that the world knows as Sun Ra, may have his feet on the Earth, but he has definitely a sidereal head.

Brandão arrived recently to Portugal, but already left a strong mark in the most adventurous Lisbon scene, having performed several concerts in which his language has been wrapped in the exploratory sounds of musicians such as Rodrigo Amado, João Valinho, and Hernâni Faustino. The agitator, poet and spoken word artist, brought a vast experience that over the years saw him collaborate with artists as distinct as the members of Metá Metá or Prince Paul (that one!) on BROOKZILL!.

This work, however, came in his luggage, across the ocean, on the rediscovery trip that brought him from Brazil to Lisbon. OUTROS ESPAÇO was recorded in São Paulo in late 2019 with a luxury crew: Tulipa Ruiz and Juçara Marçal added to the microphone, Thiago França played flute and alto & tenor saxophones, Guilherme Granado dealt with the synthesizers and effects, Marcos Gerez measured the overall pulse with his electric bass, Thomas Rohrer played soprano and 'rabeca' (fiddle), and Paulo Santos dealt with the percussion. In addition to the base band, OUTROS ESPAÇO also features some members of Sun Ra Arkestra's current incarnation. Respectively: Danny Thompson (RIP) on baritone and bongo, Elson Nascimento on 'surdo' (tom drum), Knoel Scott on tenor and soprano, with the giant Marshall Allen in a prominent role leading the collective towards the unknown, while playing the alto sax and synthesizer.

In OUTROS ESPAÇO, Brandão reaches for words from different origins, from contrasting times and cultures, all with magnetic resonance imaging: what is not from his furrow comes to him from Candomblé (“Quando Os Orixás Desfilam Sobre A Cracolândia”), from his readings of Sun Ra (“Eu Sou 1 Instrumento” is an adaptation of the poem I Am An Instrument), or from the school's playgrounds (“Jamais Nos Esqueceremos”). And in these words there are teeth and nails ingrained in injustice (“Quantos Coltrane...?, “Todo o Dia Tem +”) and kaleidoscopic delusions that result from the speed of light (“Sol da Meia Noite”).

The crew that travels through these OUTROS ESPAÇO (PT for "Other Spaces") has freedom as the main fuel, jazz as a measure of their reach, and all swings in the world as maps, so they can lose themselves at the end of the cosmos. There is urgency and reflection, craziness and precision, surprise and well-known ancestral raw material, that makes us vibrate inwardly with the same trembling as the comets that are coming.

The visionary and veteran Scotty Hard was responsible for making everything sound like the music of the spheres, dealing with the mixing from his INGUASONIC SOUND studio in Brooklyn, NY.

And lastly, in January, Rob Mazurek, another frequent ally of Brandão, another notorious space traveler, offered a poem that frames this project. Among other things, he writes:

Make this place sing

Make this place thunder

Make this place shake

It couldn't be in any other way.

Blue Vinyl with Bonus 7”
Charlotte Cornfield’s “The Shape of Your Name” was the inaugural release
from Next Door Records, originally launched in April 2019.
Next Door Records is proud to present a deluxe reissue of this monumental
album in time for the second anniversary of its release. The deluxe reissue
consists of the original LP, now pressed on Atlantic Blue vinyl, with bonus twotrack 7” In My Corner b/w Upstate.
From the original release sheet: ‘You free yourself when you take away the
script,’ says Toronto songwriter Charlotte Cornfield. ‘That’s where this record
came from, dismantling patterns and embracing the process.’
The album has a more honed studio sound than her scrappier 2016 release Future Snowbird, and for good reason: it was recorded in 5 different sessions over
the course of 3 years. The songs are her strongest and most striking to date -
contemplative and contemporary, funny and heart-wrenching - and they’ve got
that stuck-in-your-head-for-days quality that Charlotte is known for.
‘My initial intention wasn’t to make a record at all,’ Cornfield muses. ‘The
whole thing kind of happened by accident. I went to The Banff Centre to do
a residency and came out with these recordings that I knew I wanted to use
for something but wasn’t sure what.’ She brought the unfinished songs to her
former roommate Nigel Ward in Montreal.
‘He fell into the producer role seamlessly,’ says Cornfield. ‘We took it slow and
just tried things for a while until the vision settled in. There was no rush. It was
freeing, and it gave the songs a lot of breathing room to develop.’”

Based in the Havana Nightclub, in the central plateau town of Jos, the Sahara All Stars of Jos weren't part of the Lagos scene or the one in the east. Their leader, Dan Satch Ayo, had played with Dr Sir Warrior in the Orientals. He'd jammed with Mohammed Ahidjo and Sonny Akpan from The Funkees. Together with the All Stars he took the best of both scenes and created his own tight, hypnotic groove. First released in 1978, Sahara All Stars of Jos is a musical journey through all of those influences. 'Freedom For Africa' is a potent rallying cry sugarcoated with a sweet reggae vibe. 'World People' is an Afrobeat gem that condenses a night out at The Shrine into 10 min 43 secs. You can almost feel the steam coming out of New York manholes on 'Take Your Soul.' And the Highlife-tinged 'Alikali Adajo' brings it back, full-circle, to the Jos Hotel, just off the roundabout, where it all began. Engineered by Fela Kuti's regular knob twiddler, Emmanuel A. Odunesu, Sahara All Stars of Jos is a tight, funky sonic gem and a timely reminder that, in 70's, the groove was strong all over Nigeria.

Paint A Picture are incredibly pleased to announce news of their first release: a fully
remastered, licensed reissue of rediscovered British 7” Funny Situation recorded by Reflex - a
band put together by drummer David Humphrey (Public Image Ltd., Sparks, Mike Oldfield) and
privately released on his Star Records back in 1981. With the original record now changing hands
for in excess of £200 and just in time for a 40th anniversary release the reissue - remastered and
cut by Frank Merritt at The Carvery - will include updated original artwork whilst also containing an
insert providing further details and context on the release.
Recorded a few months after seminal Britfunk tune "Southern Freeez" at the very same Vine
Yard Studios and with the same engineer Simon Sullivan - the release unfortunately suffered from
a lack of marketing and proper distribution but almost forty years later the record is now receiving
the attention it deserves and with a price tag to match.
The A side presents a beautiful mesh of funk and soul styles with influence from other Britfunk
bands of the time but with a more overt jazz and rock feel fusing a tight rhythm section with smooth
vocals and climaxing in a guitar and saxophone duel.
The instrumental Version Two provides a fresh approach with the addition of dub FX and
Indian percussion with the use of a tabla added to the mix.

Eight years deep into their existence, Paris-based Mawimbi are proud to present their debut album Bubbling.
Through their own label and events, the collective have championed up and coming artists who look to fuse african music
with the modern dancefloor. They’ve released records from Lya, Onipa, Afriquoi and James Stewart and brought
established artists and fellow travellers to such as Auntie Flo, Africaine 808, Awesome Tapes From Africa and Esa to
Paris. Now it’s time for the collective to unveil their identity as producers and musicians in their own right.
“Bubbling” refers to the many ideas, encounters and projects that the collective have come into contact with over
the past years. Through their events and their work as label curators and remixers (for artists such as Oumou Sangaré,
Blick Bassy, Cerrone, Onipa), Mawimbi have become known as ambassadors for “afro-electro” - whatever that might
mean - and their debut album buzzes with the contagious energy of the music they love. If you ask Mawimbi, Afro-electro
is about global and local inspiration, from both sides of the Black Atlantic. It’s about paying tribute to the forefathers and
the brothers and sisters in arms across the world. Afrobeat, highlife, South African bubblegum pop, Malian music,
maloya… Bubbling seeks to connect geographically separate but spiritually similar club sounds.
Hence “El Caribe” (feat. Ghetto Kumbé) is half cumbia, half Carribean dancehall, while “Ngana” (feat. Fatim
Kouyaté) has some elements of dub music and “Kakraa” (feat. K.O.G) nods to disco‐infused Ghanaian productions from
the 70s. Despite the influences, this is a record designed for home-listening, a nod to our present circumstances, but also
a deliberate step away from dancefloor. A moment of patience and reflection as much as joy and celebration.`
Above all, Bubbling is a personal record, about unexpected cross-pollinations and the collective’s individual
explorations of these musical territories. Mawimbi's own history is one of coincidences and chance encounters, and so is
“Bubbling”. All the collaborations were born out of the connections made over the last 8 years. A WhatsApp chat with
Zambian artist Mufrika, a spontaneous studio jam with Ghetto Kumbé in a Parisian Basement: these are captured
moments of real, vital connections made.
Like Mawimbi itself, Bubbling is a collage of relationships and shared experiences, shaped by nascent friendships
and musical encounters. It’s a truly DIY document in that sense, the sound of the last eight years of the Mawimbi
adventure: free spirited, passionate, warm and generous.

Fresh one on Music With Soul - a channel for hot 7"s that always fly out here. TIP!

"Two and a half frenetic minutes that sound like Aphex Twin and The Incredible Bongo Band dancing Capoeira in the early hours of an illegal rave, somewhere in the deep amazon forest. After the success of his first solo 45, Alex Figueira comes back to the aesthetics of the early Fumaça Preta, with an utterly bonkers 45 that can only be described as an “in-your-face acid macumba techno breakbeat funk freakout”.

The flip side contains a haunting Psychedelic ballad, with the sweet vocals of Maddie Ruthless, from NY’s leading Lovers Reggae sensation, The Far East. Equally trippy and beautiful, the soothing sounds of the Wurlitzer piano and the electric sitar will be bouncing in your head for hours after first listen. The kind of song that finds collectors dropping eye-popping sums, decades after the original release. Guarantee your retirement now by getting a few copies! The song “Maracas” is the main theme of the movie “Maracas, tambourines and other hellish things” directed by fellow record nerds Matteo Fava and Dave Potsma. They managed to convince Figueira to play the main character, and later on, to do the complete music score. The movie tells the story of a struggling underground musician / part time record store clerk, whose music career is basically going nowhere until an improbable encounter gives his life a dramatic turn. They asked Figueira to give them something with “a fresh tropicalized take on Blacksploitation”. One might argue, after listening to the insanity carved on the grooves of this piece of vinyl, that he certainly did deliver.

The characteristic mix of synthesizers and heavy percussion used by Figueira in almost all his projects, gains here a somewhat freer dimension, embracing the chaos openly, without ever neglecting the groove, nor the ancestry axis. Values that are at the core of the label. Even while laying down all the instruments himself, Figueira has managed to capture the same out of control tropical psychedelic spirit of his former band, Fumaça Preta. Fans of the group’s outfit will certainly be rejoiced by this new release.

The flip carries “Grasping & Wishing”, an evocative Psych ballad that retains the same tripped-out flair of the A side, while slowing down the tempo considerably with a decidedly african 6/8 beat. Sung by New Orleans’ own “Rocksteady Queen”, Maddie Ruthless, stepping out of her classic Reggae background, to grace the track with her beautiful voice, permeating the issues of belonging, doubt and introspective reflection portrayed in the lyrics, with a thin layer of exquisite fragility that will comfort your ears.

The production includes a significant number of sound effects, ranging from different types of percussion performed with liquids to bamboo flutes of different sizes and several layers of multiprocessed electric Sitar tracks. Listen carefully and you will discover new sonic nounces every time you put the record on."

Re-mastering by: Kevin Gray

This is a reissue of a now out-of-print album from live trio date by the legendary LA-based pianist, composer and multi-bandleader, Horace Tapscott. Pianist Horace Tapscott is always at his best when he is leading a trio. Born in 1934 in Houston, Texas, Horace came from a musical family centered around his mother, Mary Malone Tapscott, who worked professionally as a singer and pianist. When Horace was nine, the family moved to Los Angeles. As a teenager in the late 1940's, Horace was surrounded by the music of Central Avenue: Art Tatum, Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, Dexter Gordon, were among the many cats on the set. Around this time, Horace also began to take music lessons from teachers Dr. Samuel R. Browne and Lloyd Reese, whose other students included Eric Dolphy and Frank Morgan. Horace's musical studies included trombone in addition to piano.

In 1952, Horace graduated from Jefferson High, got married to Cecilia Payne and went into the Air Force. Horace played in an Air Force Band while he was stationed in Wyoming for his term of duty. After mustering out, he returned to Los Angeles where he worked around on various gigs until he joined the Lionel Hampton Big Band as a trombonist.

In 1959, Horace finally went with the Hampton Big Band to New York, where his friend Eric Dolphy introduced him to John Coltrane. A tough winter, a lack of gigs, and too many nights on the floor of a friend's art gallery finally sent Horace packing for sunny Southern California, where a life with wife and family awaited his return.

The sixties saw Horace emerge as a die-hard leader of the Avant Garde. Horace began to gain public notice playing with his own group, that included alto saxophonist Arthur Blythe, bassist David Bryant, and drummer Everett Brown II. Horace also appeared on records for the first time.

Horace was always outspoken about racism, politics, stereotypes, and social ethics. His forward-minded vocal presence on and off the microphone is as much a part of his art as his piano playing. As a result, he was labeled a "dissident," categorized as an "employment risk," and black-listed from the music industry establishment in the early 1970's. None of this slowed Horace down. He began gigging sporadically at Parks and Recreation events and for churches around Watts. This "dark period," with his only regular gig at his friend Doug Weston's Troubadour on Los Angeles' "Restaurant Row", was also a time of intense creativity.

Around 1977, Horace reorganized the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra with the help of several old friends and many new faces. The Arkestra performances involve singing, dancing, and poetry in addition to the music. Soon after the new group's debut, Horace came to the attention of producer Tom Albach who contracted Horace to record a number of albums for Nimbus Records. Albach also helped introduce Horace to an international audience by arranging several European tours.

The 80's saw Horace emerge as one of jazz's premiere solo pianists. He recorded several solo piano albums for Nimbus.

The latest entry in the ongoing series of exciting collaborations sees the Turkish free form ensemble KONSTRUKT live on stage with THURSTON MOORE.

# 5 in the continuing series of KONSTRUKT collaborations on KARL is a live document of the concert by the Turkish freeform group with THURSTON MOORE. KONSTRUKT, the Istanbul based free jazz / freeform group founded and led by UMUT ÇAĞLAR and KORHAN FUTACI, are known for their openness to and interest in collaborations – and regularly meet up and perform with new partners that range from JOE McPHEE, WILLIAM PARKER, AKIRA SAKATA, MARSHALL ALLEN, EVAN PARKER, ALEXANDER HAWKINS, KEN VANDERMARK or OTOMO YOSHIHIDE. This latest release sees the quartet join forces with one of the indie rock icons: THURSTON MOORE, who besides his decade-long main band SONIC YOUTH always found time and inspiration for solo projects and collaborations of different kinds.

"Turkish Belly", recorded live at SalonIKSV in Istanbul in february last year, is as adventurous and daring as one will expect from such a pairing and a highly rewarding experience for the fans of KONSTRUKT and those of MOORE alike.

[a] 01: Yapayalnız (Gezerler Sokaklarda) [Live] [feat. Thurston Moore]
[b] 02: Sis (Live) [feat. Thurston Moore]
[c] 03: Kurtadam, Pt. I (Live) [feat. Thurston Moore]
[d] 04: Kurtadam, Pt. II (Live) [feat. Thurston Moore]
[e] 05: Zor (Live) [feat. Thurston Moore]
[f] 06: Uğultular (Live) [feat. Thurston Moore]

An ecletic musical representation of infamous Rotterdam Jazzclub BIRD with well-known and lesser-known Dutch artists from the black music spectrum, varying from Jazz, soul, hip-hop to electronic music. Compiled by BIRD musical curators Philip Powel and Guido van Dieren.

New York City 4-piece deliver a modern blues rock masterclass on their feisty debut album.

“A timeless classic rock sound that revels in lean riffs and raw emotion.” – Afropunk

In an age where artistic merit is awarded to those who shout the loudest, Dakota Jones pride themselves on an unwavering ability to leave a lasting impression. Spearheaded by Tristan Carter-Jones fierce and unashamedly uncensored songwriting, the band’s fast-growing reputation as formidable live act has stamped Dakota Jones with the hell-hath-no-fury power of Chaka Khan, the wild spontaneity of Janis Joplin, and the honey-dripping sensuality of Marvin Gaye. Their debut album’s message of proud black heritage and triumphant queerness manifests itself in Carter-Jones’ ability to challenge norms of adulthood and femininity as she takes a deep dive into some of life’s most visceral emotions.

Tristan Carter-Jones: “I’m a black, queer woman expressing myself through love and music. Some folks still find that to be a transgressive act in and of itself. I work to fight that idea. I write a lot about my
Continued over…
sexuality and the ways in which I express it. Songs about sex and love bounce back and forth between songs about heartache, hangovers and self-medication, and the pleasure and pain of truly finding yourself. I don’t think we get to hear these things from a woman’s mouth as often as we should.”

Serving as an instant tone setter, the album opens with the line "Stretch marks from growing pains" with Carter-Jones lamenting the woes of adjusting to adulthood on lead single ‘Did It To Myself’ - her husky and commanding vocal instantly asserting its place in the spotlight. The atmosphere soon turns steamy on the flirtatious title track ‘Blacklight,’ whilst fantasising over a modern-day Bonnie & Clyde love affair the funk-laden ‘We Playin Bad Games’ packs a punch with its tale of free spirits entwined in a haze of late-night revelry.

Elsewhere, stories of caustic heartache twist the knife into wounded blues guitar riffs on ‘Like That’ and ‘Black Magic (That Power)’, in which Carter-Jones’s stoical voice never once faulters as she mourns the memories of a previous flame. Personal prayer ‘Lord Please’ recites empowered words of reassurance, and solidarity in the face of injustice erupts into a rallying cry for change on the classic sounding ‘Noise’ – written as a reaction to the 2016 US election. “I woke up after the election feeling pure panic and fear in my body,” remembers Tristan. “I wanted people in a place of privilege to stand up for what I was feeling, stand up for injustice, stand up for all of the things we need to change as a country. I wanted their rage, and I wanted their noise.”

Finally, the band’s tender tropes of togetherness eventually boil into gritty, guitar-slung balladry on hidden bonus track, ‘California,’ where, knees buckling under the weight of past trials and tribulations, Carter-Jones sets out on one final journey of self-discovery, hastily pulling out from reality and leaving only a dust cloud in her wake.

Production comes courtesy of the Grammy-winning John Wooler, ex Virgin Records A+R and founder of the Blues label Pointblank who has worked with everyone from John Lee Hooker and John Hammond to Isaac Hayes and Van Morrison. The album also features a wealth of hugely talented and accomplished musicians, including backing vocalist Kudisan Kai, former backing vocalist for the likes of Elton John, Chaka Khan, Anita Baker, Natalie Cole, Beck, Sting, Mary J. Blige and Jill Scott. Also present; Grammy winning keyboardist Jon Gilutin, who has spent years working with some of the industry’s most respected and iconic artists including Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, Lady Gaga, Willie Nelson, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Jackson Browne, Celine Dion, Bonnie Rait and Carole King. You’ll also hear the talents of acclaimed guitarist Michael Toles. Most well-known for being a part of the Stax Records group The Bar Kays, and for his contributions on famous records by Issac Hayes, Al Green, BB King, Johnny Taylor, Rufus Thomas, Albert King to name just a few.

Dakota Jones are a rising funk, soul and blues rock band from Brooklyn, New York City. Comprising of Tristan Carter-Jones (vocals), Scott Kramp (bass) Steve Ross (drums), and acclaimed musician Randy Jacobs (guitar) - former member of Was(Not Was) who has recorded for Seal, Bonnie Raitt, Tears for Fears, Elton John and many others. Though Carter-Jones and Ross first met in 1999 whilst at primary school, the band formed years later following a series of home jam sessions in 2016. The band’s collective alias originates from Carter-Jones’s middle name, ‘Dakota’. Dakota Jones have since released a string of acclaimed singles and EPs as well as received international attention for their track, ‘Have Mercy’ after it featured on Netflix’s 2019 film, Always Be My Maybe starring Ali Wong and Randall Park – and now after years of hard work and determination, the band are finally set to reveal their long awaited debut album. “We’d been regularly releasing EPs, waiting for our chance to come, and wondering what that would look like,” says Carter-Jones. “We didn’t realise until we started making this record that we needed to stop waiting for some break to come along, and just do it ourselves, independently.”

“Black Light really dives into a place of funk soul and everything that comes with it. There’s joy and dancing, sleek guitar licks and funky bass slaps. There’s pain and longing, and there’s the feeling of relief when you come out of that place and find your joy and purpose again. Black Light is my story.”

We are pleased to share the first collaborative album by Alexander Berg (Dorisburg) and Sebastian Mullaert (Wa Wu We).

As Jorum, they invite us into a fable where murky soils awaken beneath the moonlit forest dew. Currents begin to rush softly through tentacles reaching far down into the earth. Bones, buried by the sands of time, come slowly back to life along with the slumbering bloodwood woods.

Who cares, who cares?!

Does anyone remember the great Barry Künzel?! Of the band Butter?! The funk-pop duo Q?! Or Fuschimuschi?! All this funk-, jazz- or hip-hop-influenced, wondrous psychedelic soul music from German lands?

A quarter of a century later, "Who Cares Who Cares" is the name of Wolfgang Pérez's solo debut album. In recent years, he was mainly busy as the keyboardist of the native German speaking pop band GOLF. Now he is preparing to leave the German pop worlds as a solo artist - supported by an opulent session band. As the son of a Spaniard, Wolfgang grew up multilingual anyway - an alien by nature, so to speak. His music, on the other hand - caught between indie pop, funk, jazz and tropicalismo - doesn't sound at all like coming from someone who doesn't know where he belongs. Quite the opposite: It sounds like the big wide interconnected world of pop out there and inside of us.

The result is some groovy music between Frank Ocean, The Whitest Boy Alive, Phoenix, Melvin Van Peebles, Marcos Valle and the record collection of a lovable jazz records collecting uncle. And Wolfgang is hailing from Essen in the Ruhr region, of all places. Yes, why not, or, to stay with the album title: Who cares, who cares?!

On the cover packshot we see the album title scrawled in countless variations. The short story: Wolfgang started the following call in his messenger portals one night:
- Write "Who cares who cares" at last 10 times now.
- Do it in your own style.
- You are free to vary a bit like using small letters or writing without spaces between the words.
- You don't have to go crazy, if you feel like it, keep it simple.