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2024 Repress

Sublunar proudly presents "Pareidolia II," the latest EP by Sciahri, marking the next chapter in an evolving sonic journey following its first installment. This four-track release explores a spectrum of techno landscapes, offering a blend of pulsating rhythms, hypnotic sequences, and emotive soundscapes.

On the A-side, "One Letter" captivates with its infectious groove and fluid bassline, while "Homid" invites listeners on a minimalist journey, where hypnotic synth sequences create an enthralling atmosphere that captivates from start to finish.

Flipping to the B-side, "10k In One Year" enthralls with its sharp stabs and captivating rhythms, while "No Tears" delves into deeper, more introspective territories, combining classic elements with modern sensibilities.
"Pareidolia II" invites listeners to immerse themselves in a diverse array of techno experiences, each track offering a unique perspective on the genre. It's a testament to Sciahri's artistry and Sublunar's commitment to pushing sonic boundaries.

Rising multi-media artist Shaboozey intends to build his own world.

Determined to carve his own lane in the Alt-Country / Hip-Hop space; he crafts a sound that pays homage to a cast of traditional Western influences, such as Bob Dylan, Lead Belly, Johnny Cash, and Leonard Cohen, while looking into the future of what the two genres have yet to introduce.

Remaining true to his Virginia roots, Shaboozey hopes to continue the region’s long-standing tradition of producing some of the most prolific creatives of the new millennium. This time through elevating the scope of contemporary hip-hop and introducing a modern Americana culture to a global audience.

Fresh off of his inclusion in the groundbreaking Beyonce album, Cowboy Carter, of which he was the only featured artist to appear twice, Shaboozey is set to release his own album, Where I've Been, isn't Where I'm Going. An album that has been years in the making, it includes standout singles “Let It Burn,” “Vegas,” “Anabelle,” & the infectiously fun singalong anthem “A Bar Song (Tipsy).” Millions of streams later, and appearances on esteemed programs such as COLORS and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Shaboozey is set to become the new face of modern American country music.

NO COVER!

Limited edition double vinyl release of Jezebell’s debut new-Balearic epic, which stylishly weaves the history of eclectic club classics through 16 tracks of downtempo, dub, and acid chug.

Support from Trevor Fung, Luke Una, Justin Robertson, Leo Elstob, Bill Brewster, Danielle Moore, Sean Johnston, Duncan Gray, Nathan Gregory Wilkins, Tech Support, Lebollet …

Following his most commercially and critically successful year to date, Conway the Machine returns with his first full length offering of 2024, “Slant Face Killah.” Long teased as the second half of the chart-topping 2023 album, “WON’T HE DO IT,” fans see Conway the Machine embracing his killer instincts on the mic, and doing so with versatility - rapping over the familiar gritty, dark beats fans remember discovering him on during his come up (Milano Nights, Pt. 1) to more unconventional beats, showcasing his ability to adapt and grow (Raw!). With an impressive feature list including Method Man, Raekwon, Joey Bada$$, Larry June, Key Glock, Jay Worthy & more, and production from heavyweight producers such as The Alchemist, Daringer, Conductor Williams, Cardo, Swizz Beatz & more, The Machine illustrates both his reach in today’s rap game, as well as his ability as a tastemaker. Known for consistently delivering quality music for his die-hard fans, The Machine is back to put his stamp on 2024. 2xLP Vinyl, includes Gatefold Jacket.

Adam F drew inspiration from legendary artists like Lalo Shiffrin, Stevie Wonder, and Quincy Jones, as well as the vibrant Funk era for his monumental track.
“With these influences I set out to create something truly unique.” Looking back on the now towering legacy of the track Adam states: “It's incredibly humbling to think that my work on Brand New Funk sparked a fusion movement within the jungle/drum and bass scene.
Over the years numerous bootlegs of my tracks emerged, showcasing the impact it’s had. However, I'm thrilled to announce that the two new releases we're unveiling are official collaborations - a joint effort between myself and Bladerunner, accompanied by the exceptional skills of another talented mixer who prefers to remain anonymous.
For these tracks, I had the pleasure of incorporating live funk bass and horns, which further elevated the energy and groove. It has been an incredible path with many a twist and turn, with club performances that have captivated audiences for over a year now. I am truly grateful for the support and the opportunity to share my passion with all of you."

Adam F drew inspiration from legendary artists like Lalo Shiffrin, Stevie Wonder, and Quincy Jones, as well as the vibrant Funk era for his monumental track.
“With these influences I set out to create something truly unique.” Looking back on the now towering legacy of the track Adam states: “It's incredibly humbling to think that my work on Brand New Funk sparked a fusion movement within the jungle/drum and bass scene.
Over the years numerous bootlegs of my tracks emerged, showcasing the impact it’s had. However, I'm thrilled to announce that the two new releases we're unveiling are official collaborations - a joint effort between myself and Bladerunner, accompanied by the exceptional skills of another talented mixer who prefers to remain anonymous.
For these tracks, I had the pleasure of incorporating live funk bass and horns, which further elevated the energy and groove. It has been an incredible path with many a twist and turn, with club performances that have captivated audiences for over a year now. I am truly grateful for the support and the opportunity to share my passion with all of you."

This obscure record showcases a selection of 10 tracks created between 1986 and 2002.
Remastered and reworked, this material provides a unique insight into SF aka Schielfried Frankenstein's journey as a performance artist and musician during that period. While Manuel Göttsching produced SF's first record (Ordal/1985), this release, proudly presented by Lustpoderosa, introduces a fresh perspective. Partly reworked and mixed by Ismael Zouaoui and mastered by @Sneaker at Tailout Studios, it is complemented by remixes from contemporary artists, bridging the gap between the past and present.

This follow up album to Tapper Zukies `Bunker Buster’ set, sees Tapper again rally calling his fellow reggae singers to work up some great songs. This group of tunes lean towards a more soulful sound, yet still holding that reggae feel we know and expect from Mr Zukie. The title itself `A Soulful Chant I’ we felt suited this set of songs perfectly .

The roll call of great singers starts with Prince Alla adding his distinctive feel to the opening track `Children Don’t Cry’. `Heaven On Earth’ features Junior Ross on vocal duties. `Poverty’ is richly enhanced by one of Jamaica’s greatest vocal bands, Silvertones. Tapper himself follows with the thoughtful `Man-A-Man’ and another great reggae trio the Viceroys counter with `Help Me’. Dennis Walks guides us with `I Wanna Go’ and Junior Ross appears again with the timeless `Be On The Right Track’. Mr Zukie points the way on `People of Love’ and Prince Alla insures us that right will always overcome wrong doing with `Good Over Evil’. A favourite of ours `That Was The Day’ again song so majestically by the Viceroys leads us into the Silvertones `Magic Touch’. Little Roy leads us out with `Youth In The Ghetto’.

Hope you enjoy the set.

* BCee returns to Spearhead Records with ‘These Are The Days’.
* These Are The Days see’s BCee collaborate with 13 different vocalists showcasing some of the finest and freshest the scene has to offer.
* Over the past 23 years, BCee has achieved over 100M streams, headlined the biggest clubs in the world such as Fabric, and through his label Spearhead Records has nurtured and presented a myriad of new talents to the world who’ve gone on to become some of the biggest names in this game: Hybrid Minds and Netsky to name a few. His music has garnered support from industry heavyweights like DJ Marky, Sub Focus, London Elektricity, Camo & Krooked, and Fred V.

* Brand new recording from the legendary Vivian Jones whose recording career stretches back to the mid-70s before relocating to the UK.

* Vivian Jones has worked with labels such as Freedom Sounds, Jah Shaka, Fashion and Black Solidarity, to name a few.

* Produced by Vinney Ellis, `Return Ticket’ is a one drop roots reggae rhythm backed with fine-tuned dub excursion.

Though allegedly a Texas native, Milton Davis first recorded in Los Angeles in 1967 as a member of The Four Tempos. When that act split, he trekked up the coast in stages, eventually settling in Portland. Here he secured the lead vocal role for local scene heroes, Slickaphonic. Though a full album of their own was taped, another reel of material was cut centred on Milton as a solo artist. Neither set of tracks saw release in their day, but from the latter collection we've pulled a bona fide 1977 disco-soul smasher and a mid tempo flipside with a sheen that belies its depth. First time ever on 7" 45, dinked centre hole with picture sleeve, 500 numbered copies only.

PIFF Records welcome 4 in - demand artists to the label on their latest release, also available as a limited 500 press vinyl release. Home to forward-thinking house, trance, and techno, PIFF Records boasts a diverse yet united musical output. Cosmic, dub - driven techno, atmospheric house beats, and everything in between coalesces under the imprint’s distinctive output of thoughtful, club - ready sounds. All aspects of PIFF Records come together on this release as the featured artists balance the cerebral and visceral in their productions.

Cybernet kicks off the release with Resonant Shifter. Pumping kicks lay the foundation for captivating synth arpeggios and warped call and response basses in this ‘90s - inspired cut of contemporary progressive trance. The perfect soundtrack for any location from sunset on the Ibiza seafront to sunrise as the shutters open at a warehouse rave.

Goa elements are out in full force on Hoe Down, courtesy of Glen S. Squelchy 303s, low textures, and metallic arpeggios resonate above a pulsating bassline and weighty kicks, relentlessly pushing forward and ascending to a new sonic dimension - taking you along for the ride.
Body Clinic substitutes the progressive trance for progressive house on Love X, bringing down the tempo but keeping intensity intact. An infectious, syncopated plucked bassline dances around groove - rich drums, psychedelic effects and leads indebted to early ‘90s releases. A masterful blend of the past, present, and future together on one track.

Closing the EP with Empty Clip, Tom Jarmey disrupts the 4x4 rhythms of the preceding tracks w ith a genre - bending cut of electro - infused breaks. Two-step drums are matched with clinical sound design, deep basses, and mystical arpeggios. Sure to add depth to any set and turn heads in the process.

2024 Reissue

"Still Smiling" is the first album of songs written in four hands by Teho Teardo and Blixa Bargeld; a work conceived and composed over two years, with dedication, working side by side, deciding and choosing every sound, every word, every silence together. The album, contains 12 songs: 10 previously unreleased, a new version of "A Quiet Life" and the cover "Alone with the moon" by Tiger Lillies. On the album, recorded between Rome and Berlin, in Teardo"s Rome studio and in Einstürzende Neubauten"s "Andere Baustelle" (the historic band of which Bargeld is leader), cellist Martina Bertoni and the Balanescu 4et collaborated. Teho and Blixa dialogue in symbiosis, Blixa"s deep and intense singing ranging from Italian to English and German, Teho"s music sublimating and enchanting between strings, electronics and experimentation. The maturation of ideas and intentions, in the numerous journeys between the two capitals, the desire, listening and meeting of their respective expressions, have left their mark. Still Smiling is a record that gives time, it is a privileged vision that covers all the sky between Rome and Berlin. The collaboration between the two artists began in 2009 for "Ingiuria", a performance by Raffaello Sanzio"s "Societas" that featured Alexander Balanescu on stage in addition to Bargeld and Teardo. In 2010, Bargeld and Teardo collaborated again to record A Quiet Life, the title track of the soundtrack of the film "A Quiet Life" with Toni Servillo. After these two experiences, a strong understanding and artistic affinity was born, which has led to the genesis of "Still Smiling".

Introducing Airways, Alpha Tracks’ new record label, crafted to be an ultra-inclusive platform that celebrates the full spectrum of electronic music.

Airways is a space for experimentation, where fresh and unexplored visions can thrive. It’s an auditory stage for musical ideas in all forms—a place where genre boundaries dissolve, and connections emerge between diverse musical tastes.

Kicking off this new era, the label debuts with a stunning masterpiece from Scandinavian trance artist and avant-gardist Mikkel Rev.

Plastic Estate is a contemporary synth-pop act from Wales, UK.

With an onus placed on atmosphere and refinement, the duo evoke a rich palette of romance and lustre with their polished marque of pop music.

They have garnered support from the likes of Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran, KEXP and BBC Radio, and played sold-out shows with the likes of LA Priest, Home Counties, and Real Lies, as well as playing at large regional festivals like Ritual Union and Sŵn Festival.

Having previously released a 7” and LP with Avant! Records, they are now releasing their second album on 11th October with new tracks gaining critical acclaim being added to BBC Radio Wales’s ‘Welsh A-List’.
Their sophomore album hails a new era for the act; moving away from darker sonic roots, their sound has progressed to a brighter, more polished aesthetic with fresh influences from the ‘Hi-Fi luxury’ of West Coast Sound, and the gloss of 2010s Chillwave.

What’s more, ‘Code d’Amour’ makes you wonder: What is Pop today?

For many years it has been synonymous with melody, harmony and emotions. These days it seems to be still about emotions but not very good ones, probably because the world is as ugly as it’s ever been, have you noticed?

But what about the fundamental role of popular music which is to represent and at the same time to celebrate and enforce the ties of social living? What about the good times?

Yes, there is a lot to be changed and to fight for but good vibes are not just for recreational use, they can literally build a sense of community among people. If you are looking for that kind of sound right now, you should look no further.

FFO: Talk Talk, Blue Nile, Spandau Ballet, Ian Broudie’s Care, Small Black, Alan Palomo of Neon Indian, Wild Nothing.

DJ Support: Alix Perez, Hybrid Minds, DJ Marky, DJ Krust, Doc Scott, Pola & Bryson, AC Slater, Imanu, Hamdi and more.

1985 Music presents the first edition of 'Fragment' their new various artist series. Featuring familiar faces from the imprint and special guests, this album combines the 1985 Music sound in all forms.

Featuring tracks from label head honcho Alix Perez with the strictly soulful 'Bloomsbury', while New Zealand producer/DJ Headland reworks 'Trust' the anthem from EPROM. Joining the fold GLM, Eijer and Satl make their debut on the imprint while regular artists Visages, Drone, Bredren and Ebb continue to deliver the goods.

Radio support: Charlie Tee BBC Radio 1, Fred V Kiss FM, Mary Anne Hobbes BBC 6 Music, 1985 Music RinseFM show (monthly).

All My Heroes Are Cornballs is the third studio album by renowned Baltimore rapper JPEGMafia, released on September 13, 2019, follow-up to the album that really launched his career, Veteran (2018). JPEGMAFIA handled the production, mixing and mastering in his home studio. The album features guest appearances from Abdu Ali, Helena Deland and Buzzy Lee, as well as additional vocals by Refined Sugar, Vegyn and Young Emoji. All My Heroes are cornballs is an avant-garde, experimental hip hop, and punk rap album, and draws influences from experimental pop, glitch hop, ambient, noise and industrial music. It has a smoother and more melodic sound than its predecessor, employing uncommon song structures, extensive sampling, and a variety of vocal techniques such as rapping, screaming and singing. Thematically, the album is personal, introspective, and presented in a stream of consciousness form, touching on the Internet culture, prejudice, political issues and JPEGMafia's newfound fame.

INNER REVOLUTION (EP): A Mystical Journey Towards Freedom

The Intergalactic Civilization is a hybrid, symbiotic entity blending technology and biology, from which no race in the cosmos is exempt. We have reached an advanced stage of development where the manifestation and growth of all life are under the control and management of artificial intelligence. This techno-symbiotic fusion explores the boundaries of its own existence, striving to break free from the constraints of natural laws and technology.

“INNER REVOLUTION” represents Calagad 13’s most personal work to date, showcasing a cinematic sound where each track unfolds as an act or episode in a narrative akin to a sci-fi film. A meticulously crafted transparent vinyl edition, intended for collectors and enthusiasts of the genre, is limited to just 150 copies.

Originally Produced By Chicago's Own Donald Dee Bee Burnside Back In 1980.

Now It All Come's Back Together In 2024 with a Remake from Grammy Award Producer/ DJ Maurice Joshua at the wheels, with a Disco Funk Vibe.

Remix from the mighty Moplen rounds out the package in fine style.

Next up on Feral Child, sees not only a second ever release from New Zealand based VOR-STELLEN but a teaming up with one of label head dom’s favourite ever labels, the mighty Flying Nun. Despite some patchy European distribution the first VS release “Parallelograms”, was a constant player at FC HQ; 4 superb tracks of super laid back, kraut flavoured slow burners, (lead track “Voyager” especially, comes hugely recommended with its accompanying film clip), so when the band OK’d a second release for Feral Child, we were stoked. Vor-stellen is the experimental project of Brendan Moran, which blends fixated guitars and drums with ad-hoc electronic layers producing perforated waves of sustain which echoes off the fourth wall. Brendan has released work previously as part of avoid!avoid (their album “Particle and Wave” was released by Flying Nun in 2016) and The Subliminals, of which Flying Nun re-released -in 2021- a vinyl edition of their highly acclaimed album “United State”. With Vor-stellen he picks up where those other projects have left off as a foray into 'kraut' inspired compositions “which seek to transform pre-determined ideas of music into open-ended sound objects, untethered from any sense of conventional outcomes”. On this, second VS record, he teams up with his Subliminal buddies once again to continue on an exploration, “folding the weird and the eerie into a dark ecology of long-sound via indefatigable environments of modulation and improvisation, creating sonic counterpoints that hinge on a reanimation of musical gestures”. The record features two side long slow builders and are released in a beautiful Brendan Moran designed sleeve.

** 2LP BLACK VINYL / 2LP COLOUR IN COLOUR MAILORDER EDITION** In collaboration with composer Amos Roddy and developer Gareth Damian Martin (Jump Over The Age), Stumpy Frog Records has pressed the soundtrack to the critically acclaimed and BAFTA-nominated Citizen Sleeper to 2LP vinyl. Wake up, Sleeper. Studio Jump Over The Age invites you into a world unlike anything you’ve experienced. In Citizen Sleeper, you inhabit a digitized human consciousness in an artificial body, owned by a corporation that wants you back. Inspired by the vast options of tabletop role playing games, developer Gareth Damian Martin set out to create an entirely new world for you to inhabit. Live a life through a game of chance and strategy. Build friendships and discover the stories of spacestation Erlin’s Eye. Gareth Damian Martin’s world isn’t just created through visuals and dialogue. Composer Amos Roddy (In Other Waters, Cloud Gardens, The Wild At Heart) imbues the world of Citizen Sleeper, and its inhabitants, with the sounds of mystery and melancholy, darkness and glimmers of light in the frontiers of the future.

** 2LP BLACK VINYL / 2LP COLOUR IN COLOUR MAILORDER EDITION** In collaboration with composer Amos Roddy and developer Gareth Damian Martin (Jump Over The Age), Stumpy Frog Records has pressed the soundtrack to the critically acclaimed and BAFTA-nominated Citizen Sleeper to 2LP vinyl. Wake up, Sleeper. Studio Jump Over The Age invites you into a world unlike anything you’ve experienced. In Citizen Sleeper, you inhabit a digitized human consciousness in an artificial body, owned by a corporation that wants you back. Inspired by the vast options of tabletop role playing games, developer Gareth Damian Martin set out to create an entirely new world for you to inhabit. Live a life through a game of chance and strategy. Build friendships and discover the stories of spacestation Erlin’s Eye. Gareth Damian Martin’s world isn’t just created through visuals and dialogue. Composer Amos Roddy (In Other Waters, Cloud Gardens, The Wild At Heart) imbues the world of Citizen Sleeper, and its inhabitants, with the sounds of mystery and melancholy, darkness and glimmers of light in the frontiers of the future.

NOW Music is proud to present the newest addition to the ‘Yearbook’ series: NOW – YEARBOOK 1982. 3 LPs of 44 defining tracks that ruled the charts in 1982.
Featuring number 1s, including ‘Eye Of The Tiger’ (Survivor), ‘Ebony And Ivory’ (Paul McCartney), ‘Town Called Malice’ (The Jam), and 1982’s biggest seller ‘Come On Eileen’ from Dexys Midnight Runners.
1982 saw the first huge hits from a wealth of new artists including Culture Club, Wham! and Tears For Fears, as well as an incredible line-up from artists who had established their chart presence in the prior 18 months and would produce some of the greatest tracks of the decade; Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, ABC, Haircut 100, Soft Cell, The Human League, and a newly solo Adam Ant.
‘Fame’ was the TV phenomenon of the year, and Irene Cara’s theme from the original 1980 film enjoyed massive success.
As ABBA released their last singles for nearly 40 years, pure-pop from Bucks Fizz, Blondie, and Madness is celebrated alongside synth-pop gems from New Order, Simple Minds, Visage and Japan.
Leading artists from the punk scene enjoyed continued and renewed success, including The Stranglers, The Clash and Pretenders, whilst Foreigner, Meat Loaf with Cher, and Steve Miller Band provided radio-favourite rock and power ballads.
1982 saw a huge chart presence for dance music – from the hi-NRG of Boys Town Gang, to the electro-infused beats of Malcolm McLaren, and Rockers Revenge, the 1980’s disco of Shalamar, alongside soul classics from Marvin Gaye and Donna Summer… plus stellar ballads from Elton John, Lionel Richie, and Roxy Music.

Thirty years after it was released on CD and cassette, Fuemana’s cult classic New Urban Polynesian album is finally available on vinyl. Born from the blood, sweat and tears of the late great Polynesian renaissance man Phil Fuemana and his family and friends, Fuemana’s music transports the listener back to the autumn and winter days of 1994 in the antipodes, where they turned love, loss, grief and acceptance into the finest R&B/street soul album ever recorded in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Fuemana spent several late nights tracking one-take sessions at The Lab Recording Studio with engineers Simon Taylor, Chris Sinclair and Mark Tierney. From there, New Urban Polynesian came together quickly. Across the album, Phil showed off his prodigious skills as a multi-instrumentalist and producer, playing most of the smooth, sophisticated, and heartfelt music himself. In the studio, he shared the lead with Christina and Matty J, supported by a cast of backing vocalists, musicians and guest vocalists, including a young Carly Binding.

From the lush openings of their soulful Roberta Flack, Donny Hathaway, and Stevie Wonder covers ‘Closer’ and ‘Rocket Love’ to the misty new jack swing serenade of his original ‘Seasons,’ Phil’s goal was to craft material that would let the music industry know the Fuemanas had arrived while also inspiring the next generation.

In 1995, the Fuemana family’s youngest sibling, Pauly, borrowed the initials from Ōtara Millionaires Club and began performing as OMC. Not long after, he changed everything for New Zealand music by recording the feelgood guitar-laced Polynesian pop global mega-hit ‘How Bizarre’ with producer Alan Jansson.

Consumed by a desire to do more musically, Phil established Urban Pacifika Records, where he launched the careers of a new wave of Pacific hip-hop and R&B talent, including Lost Tribe, Moizna, AKA Brown, and Sani Sagala, aka Dei Hamo.

In 2005, Phil tragically passed away from a heart attack aged 41. Five years later, Pauly, equally tragically, joined him after an extended battle with a rare neurological disorder, leaving Tony and Chirstina to grieve and make sense of their family’s extraordinary story.

When New Urban Polynesian first hit record store shelves in 1994, the Fuemanas dedicated the album to their father, Takiula Fuemana. Three decades later, it has expanded in meaning to become a remembrance of their youngest brother Pauly and a celebration of the life and times of their big-hearted big brother, Mr. Fuemana, Mr. Phil Fuemana.

Words by Martyn Pepperell in conversation with Tony & Christina Fuemana.

Gazebo Records feel honoured for the opportunity to share this important album for our inaugural release, now available for the first time on vinyl with remastering by Mikey Young.

All proceeds from this record flowing to the Fuemana family.

Red Vinyl. Remastered by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Studio from the original analog master tapes. "Slint formed in 1986 as an outlet and pastime for four friends from Louisville, Kentucky. Their music was strange, wholly their own, sparse and tight. What immediately set them apart was their economy and precision. Slint were that rare band willing to play just one or two notes at a time and sometimes nothing at all. 1989's "Tweez" LP hints at their genius." - Steve Albini (Melody Maker, 1991). From the original bio: It's almost always muddy in the lousy little shanty town by the river. All the children's toys are old and rusty, even the plastic ones. Jimmy and Mel fashioned their own toy out of a live chicken that they stole. A knot was tied around the bird's feet with a shoe lace. The two boys painted their plaything yellow and silver and swung it around like a lasso, screaming gibberish and laughing the whole time. Mel got so excited that he wet himself. So, Jimmy slugged him square in the eye. About five or eight miles south east of the shanty town all the fellows in SLINT were suffering from headaches, except the drummer, who only got them when the others didn't. SLINT is a band from Louisville, Kentucky. tweez was its first recording.

The Leeds jazz scene is the gift that keeps on giving. From the dub-leaning ambience of Submotion Orchestra through to the afro-jazz fusion of Nubiyan Twist and TC & The Groove Family, a multi-generational lineage has emerged. Adding yet another page to the eclectic story of jazz from the city, emerging punk-jazz upstarts Plantfood announce the imminent arrival of their debut album ‘Carnivores’ on Friday 4th October via Bridge The Gap.

Consisting of JJ Petrie (percussion), Ruben Maric (keyboards), Joe van der Meulen (tenor saxophone), Woolley (baritone saxophone), Finn Hamilton (drums) and Woody Hayden (bass), Plantfood began in the throes of lockdown, during which all the members lived together. The group spent day after day sharing their eclectic music tastes, ranging from the electronic punk of The Prodigy and art-rock of Black Country New Road, through to the jazz dance of Steam Down and The Comet Is Coming. Taking these influences, they crafted their own sound, but without live shows, their only audience was the plants in their rehearsal room:

“We called the band Plantfood because we were writing and rehearsing in one of our bedrooms which was full of house plants. The plants kind of became our only audience, so it was like the music was food for the plants.”

The band’s debut album ‘Carnivores’, plays on this theme, referring to the plants as carnivores for consuming the bands music, whilst also reflecting the apocalyptic palette of sounds and chaos found within the record. However, mirroring the dynamism of a Plantfood live show, the album is anything but one-dimensional. The group expertly balance moments of serenity and vulnerability with cataclysmic urgency, all brought together under the guidance of producer David Haynes (TC & The Groove Family, Nubiyan Twist). The group share:

“The album’s moments of vulnerability and hope are intended as the depiction of a return-to- earth theme (circle of life, growth and decay), reflecting that the cycle of nature is not simply destructive.”

The project’s lead single ‘Y.U.S.’ drew praise from tastemakers including Jamz Supernova on BBC Radio 6, with the track featuring the talents of UK-Palestinian MC Yung Yusuf, a serial collaborator who also appears on album closer ‘Monstera’. Both tracks channel Plantfood’s explosive live energy into a blend of afro-latin rhythms and broken grooves, with the distinctive blend of tenor and baritone saxophone weaving in and out of grime-leaning, poetic exchanges with Yusuf.

Elsewhere, the second single from the project ‘Birdgang Pt. II’ is a fresh take on the band’s contemporary jazz sound, blending jazz, Balkan folk and Moroccan rhythms with a punk edge. The album’s title track resets the balance, soothing the soul through a swirling approach to spiritual jazz that wouldn’t be amiss amongst the Gondwana Records catalogue.

THE DYNAMICS • DRAG’N'FLY
by VINCENT HELLO.

Jamaica, 1960s. Ska artists, rock steady and reggae take back some soul songs of the United States, thus giving their versions that will in turn become future classics. The hits of the moment are also seasoned with Jamaican sauce, no matter where it comes from Original, pop, country, jazz... The rhythms of the island permanently transform the tracks of origin. In 2024, with their third album called Dragn'fly and decorated with a beautiful dragonfly (a "dragonfly" so in the language of King Tubby) the Dynamics honour Jamaican tradition and dynamite 10 versions of hits from yesterday and today. The Dragonfly spread his wings reggae, soul, funk to land in all headsets at the heart of good stereos and on spicy dancefloors. Because this dragonfly is a true superfly that speaks to the heart... and legs.

After two albums whose success led them to walk the globe of Glastonbury in Tokyo, honoured by the large elders (the first part of Lee Perry here, a regular dj support of Don Letts over there) the Dynamics are alive so their 'soul reggae vocal sound system” in front of audiences specializing in Jamaican or to those who are who were lucky enough to meet them by chance in Chemical Brothers... or Lady Gaga.

The Dynamics have forgotten the weight of ancestors to make their own recipe. They proclaim it, they are Sound System! The voices of Mounam, Steve Levi and Mr Day are in the front row, so making lovers, preachers, crooners and crooners to Turns of Duty, while Fab Master Flab all in one of the roots and futuristic echos. But if the mind is a sound system, the dynamics sounds also as a group through instruments live performances that plunge the tracks into a fervor unique. And then there are the hits, so, from all times and of all styles.
The low rider becomes toaster and leaves the road a American carried by these vocal harmonies Sky to take the exit Kingston. On the roadside, the joker delivers his lovers soft rock after a small detour to Muscle Shoal, The time to borrow a guitar from Duane Allman. In the south again, Mounam “Mrs Dynamics” meets the spirit of «Mr Dynamite» and tells him his radical, soul version. “ man’s world...” inna digital style! The spiritual anthem “you got to have freedom” by Master Pharoah Sanders becomes a universal skank, pop and dub who sends resounding high its universal message Dance! The dynamics are mutating the classic of ESG into a small, minimal pop bomb that is not without resemblance to the Neptunes of Mr Pharell Williams. On the edge of the track, Peter Gabriel sees his “Sledgehammer” groover as he does could imagine it and dissolve into sublime soul scrolls. Later, “After laughter...” soul classic celebrated and sampled Born into a rock steady air promised also to eternity. JJ Cale’s "cocaine," leaves its on the dancefloor for a reggae disco version, necessarily! And then, we must conclude. So it’s time to send an original title. It will be "Rubba Sub", to the aromas of sleng teng, which proves that far from the hits, the Dynamics deploys same layouts to deliver fresh and authentic sounds. And when the dub echoes evaporated, that the riddims have been silent, only remains an album majestic, in turn a future classic, full of unique Dynamics sound that mixes with instinct the echoes of yesterday to its own voices today.

First time vinyl reissue of Univers Zero's legendary Crawling Wind, originally released in 1981 on the Japanese 'Chaos International Series' label, with the original cover artwork has been beautifully redesigned by Thierry Moreau.

Toujours Plus à l'Est, as the title suggests, is heavily influenced by the traditional music of Eastern Europe, particularly Bulgaria., and paying tribute to the iconic catchphrase of Professor Calculus (Tournesol), the character from the Belgian comic series Tintin. Before The Heat, played live a few times, is an ambient composition by Andy Kirk, who is part of the EP's lineup alongside Daniel Denis, Guy Segers, Alan Ward, and Dirk Descheemaeker. Central Belgium in the Dark is a live improvisation from a period when Univers Zéro dedicated part of their concerts to complete improvisation. What makes this recording unique is that one of Andy Kirk's effects pedals picked up and emitted the sound of a mysterious radio signal, seemingly coming from "nowhere," especially noticeable at the end of the piece. The title of this improv is a nod to contemporary composer Charles Ives' work Central Park in the Dark. Central Belgium refers to the concert venue where the piece was recorded (Haine-St-Pierre).

Univers Zero represents one of the longest-living bands in Belgium. It was established in 1974. Drummer Daniel Denis had the brilliant idea to gather together a team of professionals sharing the same taste for music. The band has adopted an instrumental progressive style. Over the last couple of decades, the band has also implemented a series of influences from chamber music - most commonly, chamber music from the 20th century. Even if the line-up changes a lot over the years, the overall sound of UZ remained fairly consistent.

Strange Power!, the fifth record from Durham, NC-based songwriter and poet Anne Malin Ringwalt, emerges from the darkest waters of the self into a world remade. Releasing in conjunction with her second book of poetry, What Floods (Inside the Castle, Oct. 2024), Strange Power! overflows with Ringwalt's teeming and sensuous personal symbolry: glowing lilacs and gentle queens, dolphins wild and girls who grew up brave _ T.S. Eliot sung by Cat Power, backed by Mount Eerie. She sings: "I rose up from water." Ringwalt writes and performs with the authority of a lifetime spent harnessing the alchemy of storytelling; her belief in the power of words to heal and transform is palpable in each achingly- delivered lyric. Made amidst profound inner and outer change, Strange Power! also sees Ringwalt taking up the role of self-producer for the first time, mirroring and supporting the record's Orphic quest by gathering contributions from a coterie of friends wielding an electric range of American instruments. Violins, vibraphones, drum machines, electric guitars dappled with spring reverb, wind-blown shells, and a host of other numinous sounds form an unfurling and shadowy world which was then carefully honed during the mixing process (shepherded by Michael Cormier-O'Leary and Lucas Knapp) _ settling the final record in an eerie meridian between spareness and verdancy. The result is a beguiling and darkly blooming realm: the sound of a personal cosmos being remade, piece by piece. Ringwalt is at the height of her spirit as both songwriter-poet and singer, her willowy voice by turns conjuring and keening as she reckons with her deep past and the stories told since. Opening track "The Pines" sets the stage for a record of truly life-long scope: "I was a child, now I hold her / I was asleep for many years." Some songs, like the gorgeous "North Carolina" and "The Saint," were written as early as 2013 but, Ringwalt says, "insisted upon being remembered" as the record took shape; in its final form, they serve as inciting moments of self-discovery before the journey to come. "The Visionary" recalls one of Ringwalt's earliest musical breakthroughs _ her re-rendering of an Emily Brontë poem into a song at age 15 _ and, she says, "`cites' the melody of that song in the context of this new one _ a holding of the past and present and every layer in between/beyond, in utter solitude _ a solitude that reflects certain aspects of abandon as a child and an adult..." This unusually lengthy time-scale lends Strange Power! a deeply moving sense of narrative fullness. Stretches of the record _ particularly the "Judgment Day" ? "River" ? "Lilac Bloom" trifecta that form the black heart of Side 1 _ may recall familiar wanderings of personal underworlds such as Mount Eerie's Lost Wisdom Pt. 2 or Neil Young's Ditch Trilogy. Yet this hollowed landscape is in turn exorcized by the a capella "I Know," in which Ringwalt sings "I won't be gutted by you / For giving and trying to heal / I won't be gutted, I am not a fool / I deserve a love that is new" before the song concludes with a piano passage that recalls hymnal music _ suggesting a faith in life itself to offer new beginnings. Side 2 features some of Ringwalt's most powerfully introspective writing to date, as the songwriter casts off myth after myth in her search for personal transformation. By the final song, "Stories," the energy that has been gathering all throughout the record breaks loose as Ringwalt reflects: "I wrote so many stories, not knowing what the end was." But at this stage in the journey, we know there is no such thing as an ending; if the healing process is never complete, the storyteller's strange power is what finally offers liberation.

Love Is A Flame In The Dark is the debut album by experimental songwriter Karl D’Silva. A raw labour of love, a towering spire of twisted steel, tenderness and becoming, it’s a body of songs that belies the virtuoso talents of an artist whose reputation has been built on collaborating with various avant garde underground luminaries. Self-recorded at home in Rotherham and pulsing with the conviction of a true believer, these songs burst out of their self-consciousness to meet life head on, bristling with energy, 10 glimpses of the human spirit in the darkness.
Recorded throughout 2021 - 2023 and mixed in Leeds with engineer Ross Halden, D’Silva has constructed a Pop language for himself. Mutated songs that owe a small debt to the post-Industrial music of Cabaret Voltaire, Nine Inch Nails and Coil, they’re nonetheless powered by a vigorous tenderness, earnestness and D’Silva’s knack for melody. Each song is meticulously sound-designed, using synthesised sounds created from scratch married with D’Silva’s virtuoso playing on saxophone and guitar. The songs on Love Is A Flame In The Dark are unabashed, earnest love letters to living, requiems for a world fading away and small gestures of solidarity in the face of entropy.
Until now, D’Silva’s fingerprints could be found on live dates with Thurston Moore, Oren Ambarchi, Hardcore pioneers Siege and Rian Treanor as well as recordings by previous groups Trumpets Of Death and Drunk In Hell. Primarily associated with the alto saxophone in his improvisation work, Love Is A Flame In The Dark features a dizzying array of instrumentation, all played by D’Silva. D’Silva’s current membership of the group Vanishing may be a good touchstone for the dense, sonically thrilling world-building on the album but the most
striking instrument, perhaps, is D’Silva’s voice. With a soulful, rasping timbre resulting from prolonged intubation as a new-born, his vocal is both fearless and tender. On the soaring, electronic body mover Wild Kiss, thundering percussion is in service to Karl’s voice full of desire, arching up into a flayed falsetto. It’s a trick repeated on Flowers Start To Cry, where it’s deployed against the backdrop of layers of ripping alto and thudding drum programming that recall Nine Inch Nails’ visceral production, if they were covering a Prince hit. These songs capture the essence of 2024’s Karl D’Silva music; pure physicality
breaking down to reveal a shining, compassionate vulnerability.
The full breadth of Karl D’Silva’s instrumental prowess is in evidence from the off. On The Outside imagines blooming out of personal apocalypse with a soundscape of synth, saxophone worthy of any late 60s Free Jazz blower and crushing sound design. Entropy is planet-sized synth pop, Nowhere Left To Run uses midi-string orchestration to tell a story of light emerging from the dark. It’s a theme picked up
throughout the album: The Butcher is a political parable, the narrator holding power to account with grotesque, brutal imagery. It’s on a track
like Real Life that the true message emerges, however. D’Silva is peering through the layers of artifice, struggle and the fog of daily
living to find a life full of energy, connection and light. Each song here is a route into this light, out of the darkness.

2024 Reissue

Touching Bass continue to prise open a distinct, exciting lane for themselves as a label home for forward-thinking, soulful music with the incredible debut project from London's Demae (aka Bubblerap and ? of Hawk House) entitled "Life Works Out...Usually" - "Life Works Out...Usually" is a soothing antidote to these turbulent times; a soulful coming-of-age story celebrating black joy, self-empowerment and life learnings centred around an integral two year period of growth and featuring appearances from Fatima (Eglo Records), Joe Armon-Jones, Ego Ella May and Nala Sinephro - all part of our close-knit, London-based musical community. Sonically, it draws a unique line between the grit of inner-city London soul, interstellar Flying Lotus electronic rushes and new-age Dilla-isms mixed with flecks of London's exciting jazz-influenced sounds. Production comes from rising producers like Eun (Ego Ella May, Denzel Himself), Jake Milliner (Slum Village, Yazmin Lacey, Lord Apex), 104.ROG (Liv.e, THEESatisfaction) and Wu-Lu (Ego Ella May). For those not yet accustomed, Demae's work stretches beyond her solo project. She has been a fundamental part of Fatima's touring band as a backing vocalist since the release of her much loved second album And Yet It's All Love. Prior to that, she was one-third of hip-hop adventurists, Hawk House, whose introspective, eclectic style was reshuffling the rule book for UK-based rap, quickly making them one of the UK's most exciting emerging sounds and earning fans from Mac Miller and Ghostpoet to Wretch 32 and Jill Scott.

Rediscovered and compiled for release shortly before her death in November 2023, Further Selections from the Electric Harpsichord presents a never-before-heard recording of composer and artist Catherine Christer Hennix's early magnum opus. Originally debuted in 1976 at the festival Brouwer's Lattice at Stockholm's Moderna Museet, The Electric Harpsichord has steadily mystified fans and students of Western minimalist music for its implacable, transformative qualities, and the long-held, relative obscurity of its creator. Like the work of Hennix's close friend La Monte Young, the piece is set in just intonation and focuses on the transcendental potentials of precise tuning, inspired by their studies with Pandit Pran Nath. Composed of bursts of oscillating, synthetic tones using a carefully retuned synthesizer and a tape-based system for feedback delay, the sounds swirl, twinkle, and appear to bend time, space, and perception. Additional, sustained chords on the sheng, most likely played by her Deontic Miracle bandmate Hans Isgren, are present at the opening of the piece and reemerge towards the end of the recording. The release of Further Selections constitutes the most comprehensive original recording of this foundational work to date. Originally billed as The Well-Tuned Organ during its debut in Sweden, The Electric Harpsichord has developed a legendary reputation, predicated on a twenty-six minute fragment salvaged and circulated by Hennix's friend Henry Flynt. Promoting its importance on multiple occasions, Flynt aired the work on WBAI radio, organized a pair of tape concerts at New York alternative arts spaces in 1970s, and later penned a 1998 essay which served as the liner notes to its eventual CD release in 2010. For him, this work not only represented a sterling milestone in minimal sonic aesthetics, but also spawned a new genre that he dubbed "hallucinogenic/ecstatic sound environments (HESE)," which in turn inspired his own drone-like compositions. Gradually, interest in the recording led to a spate of archival projects, public performances, and new compositions by Hennix in the 2010s, in turn drawing into focus her multifarious practice, which includes serious contributions towards mathematics, poetry, sculpture, Noh drama, philosophy, and light art. Since 2018, Blank Forms has spearheaded a comprehensive publication effort in support of her work, including the writing collection Poësy Matters and Other Matters (2018); archival recordings like Selected Early Keyboard Works (2018) and The Deontic Miracle's Selections from 100 Models of Hegikan Roku (2019); and recent compositions such as Blues Alif Lam Mim (2021) and Solo for Tamburium (2023).

In 2007 an Italian film festival invites Mouse on Mars to score a film of their choice. The organizers claim to be able to clear the rights for any movie the band chooses. Werner Herzog’s fictional documentary Fata Morgana, which merges footage of several desert explorations by Herzog and his team into one continuous association, has long been a band’s favorite. The film comes with a soundtrack by Mozart, Leonard Cohen, Third Ear Band and field recordings. Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner are sent a DVD to Düsseldorf and start working. The idea is to score the film in real time so instrumentation has to be readily at hand: guitar, percussion, electronics, mouth harp, pedals, software, tapes, samplers. Once the arrangement for the three-part film is sorted Mouse on Mars bring their score to stage. Herzog Sessions is performed twice: first when the band still thought the rights had been cleared, and a second time at London’s Southbank Center knowing that Herzog would have never approved a new score.

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Mouse On Mars – London Queen Elizabeth Hall soundtracking Werner Herzog.
By Mike Diver, 24.04.2009

Filmed in 1971, Fata Morgana is perhaps not one of Herzog’s best-known works (think Grizzly Man, Rescue Dawn, et cetera…), but then Mouse on Mars have never been ones to embrace the mainstream, quietly letting their modern, experimental take on krautrock do the talking over the years, thus producing some quietly brilliant electronica that far outweighs their modest profile.

The film itself is not altogether dissimilar to the wonderful, Phillip Glass-scored Koyaanisqatsi, with sweeping landscape shots and no obvious plot or narrative, though Fata is concentrated purely in one place – in and around the Sahara Desert, switching from images of barren wasteland to desert tribes and dead, skeletal cattle.

The obvious thing to do when soundtracking such powerful imagery is to vie for dreamy electronic soundscapes which can be sustained for a long period, and whilst this ambient shoegaze approach was present and correct (also carefully constructed and highly effective), Mouse on Mars added a human element to the performance, incorporating a live dimension by using and looping guitars, harmonicas, processed vocals and even a live horn player (quite possibly a flugelhorn. Look it up if you don’t believe me) for the final section of the film.

Some of the most interesting points arose when the duo suddenly switched from solemn, ambient tones to glitchy, bouncing electro (reminiscent of their more upbeat work) whilst on the same film shot – causing the audience mood to flick from tripped-out bliss to attentive semi-wired, utterly subverting any idea of a narrative the film may have possessed. Clever stuff.

Ranging from sinister to surreal to humorous, all the moods portrayed in Fata Morgana were successfully matched by Mouse on Mars’ live rescore – no mean feat. The duo also went above and beyond the call of duty with their own soundtrack, adding a fascinating personal signature to an already unique film.

Emerging producer Très Mortimer dishes out eight huge heaters on the highly-anticipated ‘M1 City’ release, a dedication to the mighty Korg M1, coming to Seth Troxler’s Slacker 85 on 25th October.

Kicking off ‘M1 City’ is the simplistic, but refined and booth-rattling ‘Work That Body’. A crisp M1 stab is the main character in this, amplified by thunderous and high energy drums.

Then there’s ‘Secrets’, a house jam inspired by the likes of MK that utilises TR-909 drums, a subtle rolling bassline, intimately whispered and soulfully sung vocal shots, and, of course, classic Korg M1 synth stabs. Together with dramatic contemporary builds, a highly danceable house smasher is formed.

‘No More’ is pure gasoline for the dancefloor. Très pairs another barrage of clean M1 stabs with a rousing vocal sample that leads into, with the help of a rolling snare, another highly effective house drop. Following the extremely saucy ‘Big Daddy’ skit, we’re dropped straight into ‘One Of Those Nights’, a show-stopping track complete with cutting, sharp stabs, a bulging bassy synth and a West Coast-esque synth sound.

‘Bitch I’m From Chicago’ feat. Gleebz is, as the title suggests, a dedication to the city where house music found its name. Batting off all the poser cities like LA and Miami in the sassy lyrics, it embodies the spirit of Chicago with hefty kick drums and weighty chord stabs.

At the tail end of the release, ‘Let Me Go’ and ‘Love’ (featuring vocalist 7000 (7K)), bring things to a rousing emotive close. Both tracks see Très put clean vocals over piano riffs, giving off differing moods – the former is euphoric, the latter melancholic. Synths bubble beneath, and each track funnels their own respective house grooves, resulting in two tracks fit for both the dancefloor and headphones.

Très Mortiner explains: “The M1 sound is classic. It automatically transports you back to those timeless house songs that never get old. For me, house music is all about connection. People experiencing a little moment of euphoria together when they hear a riff that they all know on the dance floor. That’s what it’s all about. With this project I wanted to tap into that 90s rave sound and spirit. I wanted it to sound like the OG Chicago rave scene.”

“M1 City is my first project to be released on vinyl. I think vinyl is very much alive. It’s essentially for music connoisseurs now. I don’t expect people to have a vinyl collection when all music is always available to everyone on their phones. Nevertheless, I love the idea of some random DJ finding this record in a shop in 10 years. Who knows what I’ll be producing then?”

Très Mortimer is a key figure in Chicago's house scene, steadily building a strong following with his no-nonsense, dancefloor-driven sound. Drawing inspiration from his Polish roots, Trés has signed with major labels like Mad Decent, Insomniac’s IN/Rotation, and Ministry of Sound, while also launching his own imprint, Optics Records. He made his mark with a clever rework of Zombies' 1968 hit ‘Time Of The Season’ (1M+ streams). Standout releases include his downtempo collaboration with plumpy, "BAMBU," and his latest single, "At Night I Think Of You," which was recently given a remix makeover by Seth Troxler and Nick Morgan.

Slacker 85, launched in 2023, is the record label behind ‘M1 City’. Founded by Seth Troxler, it aims to give a platform to "oddball, esoteric and diverse sounds," positioning itself as a counter to the polished, refined dance artists dominating the scene. Troxler, upon the label’s launch, declared that he wanted to create something for "the anti-hero, the kids who could have done it but didn’t care to try”—essentially, "the slacker." So far, it’s delivered a range of releases from artists like Jackmaster, Danny Daze, Dan McKie, and Andre Salmon, offering tracks rooted in house music's past but evolving within its present boundaries.

‘M1 City’, this ode to a piece of gear that consistently finds itself at the heart of house music history, highlights Très Mortimer’s respect for and knowledge of the scene and its key gear. Trè combines this admiration and inspiration of house music’s greats with a modern sensibility, resulting in eight tracks worthy of today’s dancefloors and today’s ravers.

Something About Livingis an album of live recordings by experimental jazz composer/multi-instrumentalist Robert Stillman. The music was captured over the course of Stillman's time as the solo support act for The Smile (Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Tom Skinner). The album weaves excerpts from various theater and arena shows along the tour's North American routing into a seamless whole, creating a 40-minute program that represents an expanded version of Stillman's ever-transforming live set.

Something About Livingis the product of a steady, on-stage evolution that happened over the course of the nearly 60 shows opening for the Smile across the EU, UK, US, Canada and Mexico. However, the creative origins of the set began in relative isolation during the pandemic, through Stillman's work on projects like his multi-media installationUnseen Forcesand his monthly broadcast for Margate Radio, both of which drew upon solo improvisation using saxophone, cassettes, Yamaha DX7 synthesizer, and effects.

"At the time The Smile asked whether I'd like to open for them on their first tour, I felt like I'd already been preparing without really knowing it," says Stillman. "I'd been doing this music constantly, but always for a hypothetical audience" During the pandemic, Stillman's solo set-up served as the research lab where he worked on all the concepts he was interested in: solo improvisation, creating and manipulating cassettes, FM synthesis, analogue delays chains, no-input mixing, and non-metric rhythmic pulses. So when he was offered the first Smile tour, the idea was to bring "the lab" onto the stage.

What Stillman could not have prepared for was the experience of playing in venues with capacities of up to ten thousand listeners. "The first tour was in summer 2022, so not that long after the worst of the pandemic, when I had pretty much made peace with the idea that I might never be able to perform for an audience again. Then all of a sudden I found myself in front of huge numbers of people, and felt the massive responsibility of being with an audience, of this thing I'd done alone for so longactually being witnessed, and it was completely overwhelming!" On the flip-side, Stillman also recalls, was a new appreciation of how powerful the live performance was as a social phenomenon. "It's a cliche, but also true: the moment of making and hearing music in a shared time and space has a very specific meaning and power; there was a sense that everyone in the venue was necessary to make it real, regardless of what they were doing, or how they felt about it. There was an inevitability about it that I'd never fully appreciated."

Over the course of the tours that followed, Stillman transformed this appreciation of the shared moment into an ethic of spontaneity that guided the development of his live set. "An important reference for this set has always been an Animal Collective show I saw when I first moved to New York, probably in 2001 or so, that has always set the high-water mark for what I wanted to do live- they were improvising a lot, and out of what would seem to be absolute chaos they'd find their way to something structured, and then back out again into the unknown. It was so thrilling to witness".

ThoughSomething About Livingcompiles recordings from different dates along the tour, Stillman has edited and mixed them into a work that seeks to reflect the ebb and flow between 'chaos and control' that characterizes his live set. Among the compositions featured are some from previous album releases ("Time of Waves", "What I Owe", "What Does it Mean to Be American") as well as some new compositions ("The Dream of Waking", "Renaissance 2.0," and the title track, "Something About Living").

The album/track title "Something About Living" is a reference to a line from Stillman's favorite film,My Dinner With André: "André Gregory is explaining the value of life experiences that, as he says, are'to do with living'.That really struck me, the way he articulated it. I strongly believe live music situations can ask these kinds of questions, for performers and audiences. I hope that's reflected in this music."

[a] 01: Time of Waves (Live in Miami FL) [Live]
[b] 02: What Does It Mean to Be American (Live in Forest Hills NY) [Live]
[c] 03: The Dream of Waking (Live in St Augustine FL) [Live]
[d] 04: Something About Living (Live in Richmond VA) [Live]
[e] 05: What I Owe (Live in Chesterfield MO) [Live]
[f] 06: Renaissance 2.0 (Live in Chesterfield MO) [Live]

Razorlight were at the forefront of the indie-rock resurgence of the early 2000s, their biggest moments - ‘Golden Touch’, ‘Somewhere Else’, ‘In The Morning’, ‘America’ and ‘Wire To Wire’ - driving three Top 5 albums, nine Platinum album certifications, an NME Award, and live highlights including headlining the Reading Festival and performing at Live 8. After reuniting for live shows in 2021, the classic line-up - Johnny Borrell (vocals/guitar), Björn Ågren (guitar), Carl Dalemo (bass) and Andy Burrows (drums) - will release the new album ‘Planet Nowhere’ on October 25th, their first together since 2008. Razorlight preview the set by sharing its first single, ‘Scared Of Nothing’. Since reuniting, Razorlight have sold-out a headline tour which included a London show at the Eventim Apollo, and played shows as guests to Muse, Kaiser Chiefs and James. But as the ever ambitious Johnny challenged himself, “Who wants to be a greatest hits band?” So he hatched a plan, and late in 2023 booked a five-day session with the legendary producer Youth (The Verve, James) at his Space Mountain studio in Spain. Youth knew what they had to achieve, telling the band, “Razorlight’s quite simple isn’t it? Just a driving bassline, driving drums and a story.” For whatever reason, things weren’t that simple. After four days they had a stack of ideas, but nothing really worth pursuing. And then, as Johnny recalls, something remarkable emerged from out of nowhere. “I’d been down in the barranca, and came back up to find the studio empty. So I picked up this weird six-string bass/guitar hybrid I'd never seen before and wrote this thing. On our last night, I started playing it with the guys. The drums came in hard, the bass pounded. It sounded like shit. Absolute shit. But Youth was there, saying 'Can, Velvets, see where it takes you’ and 'Why don’t you try it like that?' But still, the track just wouldn't budge, locked in its own inertia. Youth says, 'You're getting there, just one more' and almost instantly the song came out, from nothing to something, like a statue coming up out of marble.” That song was ‘Scared of Nothing’ and listening back to the finished track, it’s easy to see why it resparked Razorlight’s mojo. Exuding taut, spiky post-punk energy in a way that’s instantly infectious - the very traits that attracted highfalutin praise from NME back when they started out (“More tunes than Franz, more spirit than The Strokes, and more balls than nearly every band out there”). And as ever, Johnny demonstrates the swaggering, high-intensity charisma that took him from being a figurehead of the Camden scene to rise to become a Vogue cover star. It was also the track which unlocked Razorlight’s creativity, leading the band to return to Spain with Youth for a second session earlier this year, during which they crafted an extensive catalogue of songs for the upcoming album. Other titles vying for inclusion include ‘Zombie Love’, ‘U Can Call Me’, ‘Dirty Luck’ and ‘Cool People’. Since returning, Razorlight have also looked back on their initial achievements, first releasing ‘Razorwhat? The Best of Razorlight’ (complete with the new song ‘You Are Entering The Human Heart’) and then last month issuing the 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of their breakthrough debut album ‘Up All Night’. Never a dull moment. Writing a new ending for themselves, Razorlight are back to cast out the boring in your life.

Teho Teardo & Blixa Bargeld are back with their third album, nearly eight years after "Nerissimo", but time collapses and expands like an accordion. Especially those two stolen years that have disappeared from our accounts without a trace during the pandemic. The new album is titled "Christian & Mauro" and their real names on the header hint to a more personal landscape who allows them to go through elements of the past like "Bisogna Morire", an incredible passacaglia, a dance of death from 1600 that"s been reinvented from a contemporary perspective. Since their musical roots belongs also to the future, another consideration comes after a book by astrophysicist Carlo Rovelli, it opens up for a different look at the universe. It"s not always possible to discover new territories without consenting to lose sight of the shore for quite a good amount of time, so across these new ten songs Teho and Blixa allow themselves various detours playing a large array of instruments, using a mythological keyboard who can play with ciphers, letters, characters, sounds and noises. Using sounds transversely provides the cue to new possibilities to move forward in music. The album has been produced by Teho Teardo, Blixa Bargeld and Boris Wilsdorf both in Roma at Basement Recordings and at andereBaustelle in Berlin. This music joins again the sky between Roma and Berlin and the tour that will follow its release will take place from November 19th right in Roma and will take them all over Europe. Teho and Blixa will tour with Laura Bisceglia on cello and Gabriele Coen on bass clarinet, there will be on stage also a string quartet on each show.

A hard rock mash up - Bandleader Paul Ngozi's split album with his drummer and co-vocalist Chrissy Zebby Tembo. The set includes an oversized 8 page booklet detailing Ngozi’s arc, rare photographs, discography and annotations.

"Zambia’s Zamrock movement that exploded in the 1970s...provided young musicians access to European and American music, and created a unique sound. At its root, Zamrock melded fuzz-toned psychedelia, chugging garage rock and roiling funk with a broad mix of African cadences and beats...enlivening a scene that included bands like Musi-O-Tunya, Amanaz and the Ngozi Family” - New York Times

Zamrock was a bona-fide rock scene: on the African continent, only Nigeria can claim one so comprehensive, and Nigeria’s was largely catalyzed and funded by subsidiaries of the European major labels. Zamrock was as independent as the newly-named country, formerly known as Northern Rhodesia. Zamrock is starting in its completeness, especially for a scene that emerged, unfurled and disappeared so quickly. From Musi-O-Tunyaís fusion of Fela’s Afro-beat, Hendrix’s rock, South African jazz and traditional Zambian melodies and rhythms to Salty Dog’s acid folk/rock, Zambia’s rock scene contained all of rock’s subgenres. Zamrock was much more than an imitation of American and European rock music: it quickly became a uniquely Zambian movement, befitting of its name. WITCH, Paul Ngozi and Amanaz sound nothing like other rock music from the African continent - or elsewhere. Zamrock came from a nation's youth carrying forth the momentum of a political and social revolution with a musical revolution that maintained the fiery power of early rock - in the mid-to late-70s. From that era, Zamrockís energy is matched only by the punk and hip hop scenes of England and America.

Hank Dogs – Andy Allan, his partner Piano and Lily, Andy’s daughter from a previous relationship - started out at folk clubs in London in the early 1990s before going worldwide in 1998 when legendary producer and late 60s Folk Rock guru, Joe Boyd declared them the first British act he'd loved in 30 years. Their debut album ‘Bareback’ saw them touring the US with Joan Baez and winning fans with their quiet, haunting sound featuring ethereal vocal harmonies, strong traces of blues and Celtic music and Allan’s fluid acoustic finger-picking recalling UK folk guitarists such as John Renbourn. Another part of their appeal, particularly in the States, was their ‘Carter Family’ image but then, when Andy and Piano split-up in real life, so did the band. A follow up album ‘Half Smile’ appeared in 2002 but this turned out to be their swansong. However, the story was not quite over yet.. a third unreleased album ‘Fiveways’ had been recorded before they went their separate ways and now it’s finally seeing the light of day on South London label Scratchy Records, plus the band are re-uniting for some long overdue gigs to celebrate the release. ‘Fiveways’ contains much of the Hank Dogs’ trademark English folk/US country-straddling sound. Piano’s voice bounces between early Suzanne Vega, Tracey Thorn and Mary Margaret O’Hara with occasional hints of Dolores Cranberry and Bridget St. John, while underneath the acoustic guitars run freeform tangled and Lily’s backing vocals add sky. Stand out track ‘Logic’ with its pensive lyrics and haunting guitar line recalls the way Suzanne Vega (her again) could sometimes make songs stand still in their tracks but it’s the dreamy ‘Nut’ that really captures the mood “You had me when I was sweet as a nut.. Not sweet enough” sings Piano. This is the sound of two ex-lovers still able to work together but unable to hide the odd dig here and there.. like a follow up album a couple of years later on from ‘Blood On The Tracks’. Andy sings a few songs too including the raggedy, swashbuckling ‘Gazetteer’ revolving around a ‘Pre-CBS Maple neck Sunburst bought off The Pretty Things’ and hinting at a whole lifetime of music biz escapades from watching his dad Elkan Allan produce 60s TV show ‘Ready Steady Go’ to a stint on bass in The Professionals along with Steve Jones and Paul Cook. Next year the story carries on with his long-running South East London ‘Easycome’ club night featuring in US TV queen Lena Dunham’s new Netflix series ‘Too Much’. Towards the end of the album an angelic setting of Dylan Thomas’s ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’ in the song ‘Nod’ recalls Christmas TOTP number ones from days gone by and captures Hank Dogs ability to transport the listener. This album is definitely one for the dreamers. FFO Pentangle, The Innocence Mission and William Blake