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Who To Love is a 10-song modern rock opera by a new creative collective, The Time Experience Project comprising of Rock And Roll Hall Of Famer, Dave Stewart and legendary Italian band, Mokadelic. "Who To Love" is an immersive 10-song modern rock opera with
an accompanying film which premiered at the Rome Film Festival in October 2023.

Dave Stewart called to his side the great Italian television, stage, and Þlm actress, Greta Scarano and legendary Italian band Mokadelic for this adventure that inextricably joins music and images, weaved together with a strong emotional impact that investigates the
deepest folds of the human soul through music, memories and nightmares that intertwine in an alienating journey. Turquoise colored vinyl.

Lightnin’ Hopkins was one of the greatest and most popular authentic blues artists. This collection covers singles released by Lightnin’ Hopkins between 1947 and 1952. They weren’t his first recordings but they were the first released under his own name.
Although he did record with other musicians and even with full bands it’s these acoustic classics that best illustrate his art and they are some of the most endearing blues tracks ever recorded.
Includes the popular songs “Katie Mae Blues” and his biggest chart hit “Shotgun Blues”.
A true genius of the genre this Lightnin’ Hopkins release by Jasmine is a must have for blues and R&B fans.
Fully detailed liner notes.
Limited edition press on 140 gram colour red/black marbled vinyl.

“The Chicago Super Blues Revisited” is Jasmine’s homage to the two superb albums “Super Blues” and “The Super Super Blues Band” which contained these great bluesmen playing together. Here the concept is different as these three giants of Chicago blues are not performing together but what is presented are sides of their 45s released after Jasmine’s respective releases: “Muddy Waters – Natural Born Lover” (JASMCD3017/8); “Howlin’ Wolf – The Wolf is at Your Door” (JASMCD3020/1) and “Little Walter - The Singles As & Bs – 1952-1960” (JASMCD3015/6).
These artists personify Chicago Blues and this collection of marvellous recordings catches them before global fame took them to greater heights.
Features “Messin’ With The Man”, “You Need Love”, “Wang-Dang-Doodle”, “I Ain’t Superstitious” and many superb songs that influenced the UK blues boom.
Fully detailed liner notes.
Limited edition press on 140 gram colour blue/black marbled vinyl.

The founders of Cukor Bila Smert’ (Ukrainian: Цукор– Біла Смерть, English: Sugar – White Death) band were Svitlana Okhrimenko (a.k.a. Svitlana Nianio), Oleksandr Kohanovs’kyi, and Tamila Mazur, who studied at the Reinhold Glier Kyiv Academy of Music in 1984-1988. In the summer of 1988, they got acquainted with Eugene Taran, a young guitarist and artist. He joined the band and also became the ideologist of Sugar – White Death. Moreover, Eugene coined the name for the band: the irony towards the Yellow Press. The musicians gathered at Kohanovs’kyi’s house, where they spent their free time not only playing music but also listening to and discussing new records and thinking about the conception of their new project.



For two years, the band recorded a few home-made albums, such as “Rhododendrons Coral Aspides” in 1988 (which is considered lost), where Kostyantyn Dovzhenko took part as a guitarist and sound engineer. He also replaced Taran during the recording session because Eugene was passing an exam at that time. The band also recorded another album – “Lilies and Amaralises,” in 1989, which is also considered lost. Eugene remembers that the band made a lot of recordings but did not pay so much attention to them. Sugar – White Death played live occasionally but spent more time creating their own sound, which was named by Oleksii Dekhtyar (a founder of “Ivanov Down”) as a “sugar calypso sound.” At that time, the music was mostly created by Oleksandr Kohanovs’kyi, and the lyrics were written by Svitlana Okhrimenko and Eugene Taran.



In February 1990, a quartet came to the Scientists House Studio in Kyiv, where they had one studio session only, recorded by Valerii Papchenko. Musicians played live for about one take. This session was represented on the “Mannered Music” compilation by several blocks – “Venus with Long Neck,” “The New Sissies,” and “Rhododendrons Coral Aspides,” which was shortened to “Rhododendrons” on the cassette (two songs from which – “Summer Will Not Come” and “The Great Hen-Yuan’ River,” dedicated to Grigorii Khoroshylov, the sinologist from Kyiv). The compilation cover design was created by Eugene Taran. Later, this tape got to Vlodek Nakonechnyj, the founder of Koka Records, a young Polish label, who released “Mannered Music” on cassettes and made efforts to invite Sugar – White Death to play several gigs in Poland.



In November 1990, Sugar – White Death played their last gig as a quartet in Kharkiv. They were invited by Sergii Myasoyedov, who curated the art association “Nova Scena” (The New Scene). The band played selected tracks from the albums “The New Sissies” and “The Shellfishes in Gold Wrappers” (the last one is also considered lost). Due to Sergii Myasoyedov's efforts, the performance was documented: he saved a lot of photos and fragments of soundboard recordings on reel-to-reel tape.



Later, Oleksandr Kohanovs’kyi and Tamila Mazur left Sugar – White Death: Oleksandr founded his own project Pan Kifared, and Tamila became a bass player of Shake Hi-Fi (whose co-founder was Eugene Taran). Sugar became a duo of Svitlana and Eugene. They started to focus on their next work: “Antinoy Is Leaving” in late 1990.



In 1992, they were also invited by Sergii Myasoyedov for a studio session in Kharkiv, where due to the efforts of Oleksandr Vakulenko, Sugar recorded the new album called “All Secrets Of A Poem”. Some tracks from the work (“Dead Ceremony,” “Vienna Is Sleeping,” and “Untitled”) were released on their next and last album, “Selo” (“The Village”). The rest compositions were published as a part of the compilation for the first time.



In the autumn of 1992, the musicians went to Poland, where Vlodek Nakonechnyj, who wanted Sugar to come to a “real” studio, organized their last recording session. Although the journey’s beginning was unsuccessful (Eugene’s guitar was taken away by a customs officer when crossing the border), the musicians worked fast during the session at the Arek Was studio at Marki on an 8-track reel-to-reel machine. Boleslav Blazhchyk took part as a cellist, playing the parts created by Svitlana. The album was completed in three days – the musicians spent two days recording and one-day mixing, mostly done by Eugene Taran. In 1993, this work was released as “Selo” (“The Village”) album on cassette tapes by Koka Records (remastered by Tadeusz Sudnik). Later, Sugar – White Death was disbanded.



Credits:



Cukor Bila Smert’: Svitlana Okhrimenko (lyrics, keyboards, piano, vocals), Eugene Taran (lyrics, keyboards, guitar), Oleksandr Kohanovs’kyi (piano, A1-B2), Tamila Mazur (cello, A1-B2), Boleslaw Blaszczyk (cello, C5-D6)

Cover photo by Vlad Urazovs’kiy

Photo archive courtesy: Vlad Urazovs’kiy, Vlodek Nakonechnyj (Koka Records),

Oleh Yuhrinov, Sergii Myasoyedov

Audio archive courtesy: Vlodek Nakonechnyj (Koka Records), Guido Erfen,

Sergii Myasoyedov

Liner notes: Vlad Yakovlev

Compiled by Dmytro Nikolaienko, Dmytro Prutkin and Sasha Tsapenko

© ? Shukai / Cukor Bila Smert’

2024

Am 11.08.2023, passend zum Jubiläum von 50 Jahre Hip-Hop, erscheint ”Hochkultur 2”, das neue Album vom Samy Deluxe. Mit der Single ”Roter Velour” hat Samy nicht nur einen sensationellen Auftakt in die Kampagne hingelegt sondern auch einen vielversprechenden Vorgeschmack auf ”Hochkultur 2” gegeben.

Passend zum Albumrelease findet am 13.08. die Blockparty Deluxe statt, in Samys hometown Hamburg.

Die Blockparty Deluxe wird die einzige Gelegenheit sein Samy 2023 live zu sehen und hat alles von Rap, Graffti, DJing bis zu Breakdance zu bieten.

Italian hard techno DJ-producer MAIKE DEPAS announces EP "Rave the Planet" (out 29 February) ahead of MAIKE DEPAS 2.0 audio-visual makeover

"Depas strikes a fine balance between raw energy and subtle melodic hooks." (DMY)

"Throughout the pounding track Midnight Ride, the Italian beatsmith expertly blends lush synths with intricate rhythmic components and gritty bass." (EDM com)

"Depas' approach to techno is a veritable melting pot of influences, blending sounds from the 80s and 90s with contemporary symphonic and cinematic elements." (Magnetic Mag)

Upon the return from the dark and dreamy regions of his previous EP "Euphoria", Milanese hard techno DJ-producer MAIKE DEPAS (Michelangelo De Pasquale) announces new EP "Rave the Planet", out 29 February via The Innovation Studio, ahead of MAIKE DEPAS 2.0 audio-visual makeover. Sending tremors through the electronic underground scene, Depas joins Kobosil and In Verruf in carrying the torch of uncompromising Berlin techno while keeping his feet firmly planted in the melodic 1990s trance of Push, Jam & Spoon, and Cygnus X.

Introducing his new heavy-duty fusion of face-melting techno and trance carrying "Go Hard or Go Home" warning sign, Depas makes the crowd grind their teeth with a behemoth of an opener "Heartbreaker" only to fill the dancefloor with dread on the shiver-inducing "Vortex", a power move designed to set the scene for the title track"s fervent rave sermon delivered in a cyborg voice by Depas, followed by the erotic undertones of throbbing closer "Float Together" including the blistering remix by the Italian DJ Amstra.

"Rave the planet / Stay together / In techno we trust / Rave the planet" - MAIKE DEPAS, Rave the Planet

At its core, "Rave the Planet" is Depas" personal paean to the true spirit of the original rave culture as represented by Lukas Havlik"s (Ludenworks) Luis Royo-esque artwork of a pulsating cybernetic planet of complex, interconnected nerve fibres wrapped around the Depas globe logo. “As a raver, you feel this sense of unity with community and it"s similar to a religion we"ve had for thousands and thousands of years,” Depas compares. “We are the planet, we are the culture, so both are the reflection of ourselves in the wider world.” For Depas, the concept of solidarity runs deep within techno culture. Coming right from the heart, Depas is driven by the opportunity to bring people together for one thing and one thing only: “Just for the love of techno and to celebrate the music in a club.”

"As a raver, you feel this sense of unity with a community similar to a religion we"ve had for thousands and thousands of years." - MAIKE DEPAS

"Rave the Planet" is released in conjunction with MAIKE DEPAS 2.0, a tectonic audio-visual shift that entails a wide array of digital content as varied as DJ sets live streamed from Berlin"s Teufelsberg and other dystopian locations around Europe as well as enhanced PR-photos featuring cyberpunk-inspired outfits designed by Demobaza, a cyberpunk-inspired casual couture brand best known for their sustainable Dune X Demobaza collection. Over the course of upcoming metamorphosis from a flesh-and-blood individual into a mysterious CGI character, Depas is another step closer to revolutionising the dance music scene through the metaverse.

Nu Groove spotlights the artists that made the legendary NYC label a firm favourite of crate diggers then and now with this 12” release of their vital tracks revisited by leading selectors of today.

The label, born in 1988 by Frank and Karen Mendez as an outlet for the experimental works of the Burrell Brothers, quickly became a home for up-and-coming genre pioneers. In this fashion, ‘Nu Groove Edits, Vol. 4’ opens with ‘Tonight’s The Night’ by NYC favourites How & Little, AKA The Sound Vandals, re-edited by Italian duo NiCe7.

More monikers of Rheji Burrell appear in the collection too, with N.Y. House’n Authority’s seminal classic ‘APT. 2A’ reworked by UK deep tech aficionado Hugo Massien, and The Utopia Project’s ‘File #3’ remixed by Leeds underground duo Mak & Pasteman. Closing out this collection of future classics, GRAMMY award winning production duo Honey Dijon & Luke Solomon return to edit ‘Luv 2 Luv U’ by A.B.T.

Alternative pop duo, YOVA release their brand new album ‘Dreamcatchers’ on 1st March 2024. Featuring nine tracks the album was written over a nine year period stretching from the duo’s inception in 2014 through to 2022. The album was recorded and mixed 2021-23 between home studios in Dorset and London. Discussing the themes behind the record YOVA explain: “The lyrics of the songs delve deeply into our lost and unrealised dreams and ideals, whether from a personal perspective or within a more global context. The tracks relate to how our dreams are caught then nurtured, realised, abandoned or destroyed. This can apply to our personal lives, but it equally informs our helplessness and on-going quest for self-identity at a time of deep geopolitical and ecological uncertainty.” Produced by YOVA in collaboration with Rob Ellis, Alex Thomas and Martin McDougall, the record features the duo’s earlier singles “Dreamcatchers”, “Hurt Like No Hurt” and “Feel Your Fear” alongside six brand-new tracks. YOVA assembled a collective of like-minded musicians to create the sonic tapestry of Dreamcatchers including Terry Edwards (NIck Cave, Gallon Drunk, The Jesus & Mary Chain), James Sedwards (The Thurston Moore Group/ And This Is Not This Heat), Rob Ellis ( PJ Harvey, Marianne Faithfull), Daniel O’Sullivan ( Grumbling Fur, Tim Burgess), and Alex Thomas (John Cale, Anna Calvi). YOVA are Jova Radevska and Mark Vernon. With Vernon a seasoned veteran of the alternative music scene who has managed and recorded with John Cale and co-produced tracks on PJ Harvey’s debut album ‘Dry’, a chance encounter with Macedonian vocalist and songwriter Jova paved the way for their bewitching collaborative project. Their debut album ‘Nine Lives’ was released in late 2021 to praise from the likes of Louder Than War, Electronic Sound and MOJO, with the latter hailing the album as “a beguiling debut from a duo of sonic adventurers” in their four star review

Five albums, sixty tracks and still counting. Cool Million are back with a new album!

Ten years ago the euro soul duo Cool Million released their first album 'Going Out Tonight' on UK soul label Expansion Records. The album took the soul crowd by surprise, cause who were these guys that out of the blue, could recreated the soulful sound of the 80's hey day like no other?

The answer to that question is; Rob Hardt and Frank Ryle. One a super musician from Germany with skills you can only dream of. The other a Dj/musicfreak from Denmark with a masterplan – both of them with tons of dedication and passion for thier craft.

Thier passion and ambition have kept them in the came for a decade and they have worked with a long list of artists, some known some not, some forgotten some on their way up! The list include names such as: Jean Carne, Keni Burke, Shirley Jones, Eugene Wilde, Meli'sa Morgan, Rena Scott, Leroy Burgess, Peggi Blu, Yvonne Gage, Marc Evans, Alton McClain, Kenny Thomas, Lisa Stansfield, Tom Moulton, Joey Negro, Dimitri From Paris and John Morales, Glenn Jones, Marc Sadane, Tim Owens, Gavin Christopher, Michael Jeffries.

Cool Million tells that they feel privileged and humble when they look at the list of names they have worked with over the ten years. Futhermore they add; 'Who would have thought that two dudes from northern Europe would be able to create music with people that talented, we hope we could do it, when we started but that we actually done it, is amazing and wonderful'.

Reflecting on the first decade of Cool Million it's fair to say that Rob & Frank are two determined and ambitious gentlemen with extraordinary talent.

So what can Cool Million tell us abouth their new album? 'It's a classic Cool Million album where we work/collaborate with various artists, staying true to our original concept both in terms of genre and how we think a album works best. Having say that we think that our fans will be a little surprised with the fact that this is our slowest album to date. We believe we have more variety than ever and it's a fact that the music on the new album is slowed down in terms of more ballads and mid-tempo songs compared to our other albums'.

'The reason for this development is that we wanted to try something that was a little out of our comfort zone. Also we felt that we wanted to prove that we can do quality slow jams aswell. You could also argue that is's beause we both turned fifty this year.. haha'.

More Than Ten Years Since He First Emerged On Skull Disco, Appleblim Presents His Debut Album. The Label He Co-founded With Shackleton Was The First The World Heard Of His Productions, But Laurie Osborne's Innate Relationship With Electronic Music Culture Reaches Back Much Further Than Those Groundbreaking Early Days Of Dubstep. Early Days Spent Soaking Up Hardcore, Jungle, Techno And Plenty More Besides Were Fundamental Foundations From Which To Spring Into The Then-unknown Realms Of Sub-low Half-step Club Music. At That Time Fwd>> And Dmz Were The Church For This Ritualistic Sound, And Appleblim Was A Regular Fixture At Both.

As Dubstep Matured, Magnified, Mutated And Meandered, So Appleblim Moved Beyond Skull Disco To Explore Different Avenues Of Expression In The New Many- Layered Club Music Landscape. His Own Apple Pips Imprint Was A Natural Vessel On Which To Explore The Emergent Fusions Of Hardcore-derived Sounds And The Us-born House, Techno And Electro, While Labels Such As Aus Music Equally Provided A Home For His Work (often Alongside Komonazmuk). Meanwhile Long-standing Collaborations With Alec Storey (al Tourettes / Second Storey) Finally Manifested In The Hyper-modern Mind-twist Of Also, Captured As An Album On Legendary Rave Label R&s.

More Recently It's Been Possible To Hear Appleblim Delve Into Electro-acoustic And Ambient Production Alongside Bassweight Sounds On Tempa, One Of The Original Bastions Of Dubstep Culture. As The Existing Boundaries Between Genres, Cultures, Eras And Scenes Continue To Dissolve, On His Debut Album Appleblim Offers Up A Fresh Approach That Brings Some Of The Foundational Sound Ethics Of Rave Culture Into A Modern Framework.

Hardcore Breaks Are Still A Regular Sound Source In Contemporary Club Tracks, But On Life In A Laser It's Instantly Apparent That Appleblim Has Moved Beyond Choosing Popular Drum Samples To Truly Tap Into The Elusive Feeling Engendered By The Music Of The Era. It's A Tricky Feat To Manage, But In The Pie-eyed Chords Of ignite', The Subby 808 Tom Basslines On nci' Or The Mr. Fingers Synth Flex On manta Key' The Sonic Finish Sports The Same Understated Grit And Grime That Made Those Early Records So Timeless. There's Still Space For Modernism, Not Least On Snaking 2-step Killer i Think We'll Let The Gas Sort This One Out', But It's Offset By A Layer Of Dust, Not To Mention An Inherent Moodiness That Can't Be Faked.

This Fine Balance Of Rave Romanticism And Future-minded Approaches Binds Together In A Cohesive Conceptual Statement. First And Foremost It's Appleblim's Personal Reflection On The Music That Has Moved Him On Countless Dancefloors Since His First Flirtations With Soundsystem Culture. At The Same Time The Canny Influx Of Modern Ideas Into The Soundworld Of The 90s Genuinely Results In A New Proposition, Making For A Perfect Fit On The Modern-day 'ardcore Fetishists Label Of Choice, Sneaker Social Club. Many May Claim To Draw On Old-skool Influences In Their Modern Trax, But Take One Listen To flows From Within' And You'll Feel The Same Time-slipping Surge Of Future-shock As The Ravers At Lost, Dreamscape, The Dungeons, Clink Street, Blue Note And All Those Other Iconic Spots.

Stunning outernational funk for the psych breaks dancefloor featuring the mesmerizing vocals of Ukrainian jazz singer Mona. Sung in her mother language, "Moya Vode" is about the "ancient ritual to put a spell on water and remove all negativity through its power".

Mona and MC Fame, a well-known Ukrainian hiphop producer and activist, both left their hometown Kyiv last year and found a new home in the Hammerbrook district of Hamburg, Germany, where they quickly connected with the lively funk scene of the city. Together with the Mocambo crew they set off to work out some magic by combining universal funk grooves and Ukrainian folklore.

Mona's mystical soulful vocals are backed by the "Hammerbrook Sound Machine", a group featuring members of Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band and the Mighty Mocambos, with instruments like the Tsymbaly or Drymba added on top. The "folk-funk" continues more electronically on the instrumental flip side when MC Fame takes over the lead on Moog synthesizer. Dive into this spell!

Emotional Rescue takes another trip into the twisted world of post-punk dubs, electronics and oddities here at the hands of DJ, collector and radio host Gary The Tall. The original comes from German duo and new wave innovators Die Radierer whose pop-reggae jam 'Batman' is irresistibly catchy with its low-slung beats and lazy, sun-kissed melodies.

It appeared on 1983's In Hollywood and was recorded at their home studio on a Tascam 4-track cassette recorder. Gary The Tall's remix finds him teaming up with Aaron Coyles under his new alias of Exotic Gardens and the results are loopy and dubbed out to perfection.

Soft Walls is the solo recording project of Dan Reeves, who has spent his entire adult life kicking around in the dust of the UK's underground music scenes. Cutting his teeth in the South West's post-hardcore scene; centred around Exeter's The Cavern club, before moving to the South East and forming his own record label; Faux Discx, and the propulsive post-punk band: Brighton via London's Cold Pumas. Projects have come and gone over the years, but Reeves' Soft Walls has remained, an outlet for whatever musical whim takes his fancy.

'True Love' is Soft Walls' 4th album. Written and recorded at home, during breaks in work. During the aftermath of you-know-what.

For this album Dan leaned heavily in to his guitar playing, searching for those purest moments of true emotion and connection. Aiming to strike an instant blow. "Emotional guitar music. But not Emo." The result of falling in love with an instrument again and playing for the joy of it, much like he did as a teenager. Just older, wiser(?) and certainly more world-weary / teary-eyed.

Thematically, 'True Love' revels in stating its love for everything that is dear to Reeves. Odes to marriage, romance, unconditional love, parenthood and creativity pierce through the record's down-swings that tackle existential crisis and the feeling of falling in to depression. Each song attempts to encapsulate a vivid feeling, be it positive or negative. It's all part of a life worth living.

Although recorded at home, this album marks a leap in to digital mid-fidelity for Soft Walls, embracing a wider, richer sound beyond the tape hiss of earlier releases. That same spirt is still in the mix, but is presented wide-eyed and caffeinated in to clarity. Elevated by the input of a handful of collaborators contributing to the performances and helping to shape it sonically, 'True Love' ends up being the truest version of Soft Walls committed to (digital) tape thus far.

Full of collaborations with fellow artists, incl. Thor Harris, Meredith Yayanos, Matt Lebofsky, Dominique Leroni Persi, & members of Kitka Eastern European Women’s Choir. RIYL: Primus, King Crimson, Frank Zappa, Mastodon, Bauhaus. After thirteen years of hibernation, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, the most gloriously uncategorizable American band in existence, has emerged from stasis to proudly announce the imminent release of their fourth studio album, of the Last Human Being. The album marks the first release of AVANT NIGHT - a new imprint headed by Nick Ohler and facilitated by Joyful Noise Recordings. Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, comprised of multi-instrumentalists and rotating vocalists Nils Frykdahl, Carla Kihlstedt, Michael "Iago" Mellender, Matthias Bossi, and Dan Rathbun, plays an arsenal of instruments ranging from the somewhat standard (drums, electric guitars, bass, electric violin) to the rare (bass harmonica, nyckelharpa, marxophone) to the homemade (Slide-Piano Log, Electric Pancreas, Pedal-Action Wiggler). The group has consistently evaded easy categorization, garnering accolades from across the aisles of contemporary classical music, prog rock, industrial music, metal, avant-garde improv, and more. Their music, in turns bashing and bucolic, enveloping and unsettling, tends towards long-form epics interspersed with mysterious field recordings. "As this slow-rolling planetwide Anthropocene Extinction event deepens, Sleepytime's work has only grown more resonant, more prescient," offers Mer Yayanos, current symposiarch and secretary of the Museum's long standing social math club, the John Kane Society. "What better time for them to Bring Back the Apocalypse than right now, with a new full-length record that integrates the past and the future?" "SGM creates a cohesive statement of virtuoso metal musicianship with the avant garde focus of an art-rock collective." Pitchfork // “I love this style of music –it has great power, great musicianship and great bass playing by Dan Rathbun, sometimes on instruments he built himself. One thing you gotta love about music: this band may have been influenced a bit by King Crimson, but then I, a member of King Crimson, was very much influenced by them” Tony Levin (bassist, King Crimson

Full of collaborations with fellow artists, incl. Thor Harris, Meredith Yayanos, Matt Lebofsky, Dominique Leroni Persi, & members of Kitka Eastern European Women’s Choir. RIYL: Primus, King Crimson, Frank Zappa, Mastodon, Bauhaus. After thirteen years of hibernation, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, the most gloriously uncategorizable American band in existence, has emerged from stasis to proudly announce the imminent release of their fourth studio album, of the Last Human Being. The album marks the first release of AVANT NIGHT - a new imprint headed by Nick Ohler and facilitated by Joyful Noise Recordings. Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, comprised of multi-instrumentalists and rotating vocalists Nils Frykdahl, Carla Kihlstedt, Michael "Iago" Mellender, Matthias Bossi, and Dan Rathbun, plays an arsenal of instruments ranging from the somewhat standard (drums, electric guitars, bass, electric violin) to the rare (bass harmonica, nyckelharpa, marxophone) to the homemade (Slide-Piano Log, Electric Pancreas, Pedal-Action Wiggler). The group has consistently evaded easy categorization, garnering accolades from across the aisles of contemporary classical music, prog rock, industrial music, metal, avant-garde improv, and more. Their music, in turns bashing and bucolic, enveloping and unsettling, tends towards long-form epics interspersed with mysterious field recordings. "As this slow-rolling planetwide Anthropocene Extinction event deepens, Sleepytime's work has only grown more resonant, more prescient," offers Mer Yayanos, current symposiarch and secretary of the Museum's long standing social math club, the John Kane Society. "What better time for them to Bring Back the Apocalypse than right now, with a new full-length record that integrates the past and the future?" "SGM creates a cohesive statement of virtuoso metal musicianship with the avant garde focus of an art-rock collective." Pitchfork // “I love this style of music –it has great power, great musicianship and great bass playing by Dan Rathbun, sometimes on instruments he built himself. One thing you gotta love about music: this band may have been influenced a bit by King Crimson, but then I, a member of King Crimson, was very much influenced by them” Tony Levin (bassist, King Crimson

If there ever was a monicker apt for describing an artist’s behavior, that is Ghost Lemurs. Manifesting spottily in compilations and limited edition tapes, then returning to the shadows without much fanfare, the project has indeed demonstrated a ghostly behavior and a nature as puzzling as the animal it takes its name from. Wombs And Alien Spirits represents now their most public outing, one in which the duo of visual artist / producer Kareem Lofty and Daniele Guerrini (better known as Heith and as Haunter’s co-founder) are happy to showcase all the discoveries in a process of musical and spiritual research begun in 2019. Described by the artists themselves as an experiment in mediterranean psi-trance, the album makes use of an incredibly diverse number of traditions, sonic sources and techniques of musical experimentation, keeping its psychedelic intentions central to the whole creative endeavor. Moments of meditative relaxation are brought to unsettling new levels by cavernous basses and spaced out drones, while tight polyrhythms bring beautiful granular melodies to a sidereal ceremonial dance. As beautiful and captivating as it is, Wombs And Alien Spirits remains as chimeric and unrestrained as any previous effort by the two artists. It’s a type of folk music devoid of a specific homeland, but resulting from the authors’ heritages, simultaneously divided and united by the mediterranean sea, injected with all the trajectories of their personal journeys. It ends up sounding profoundly human and uncannily inhuman, tapping into the undiscovered alien element at the beginning of the experience of life. Genre: Electronic / Experimental Listen:

A pioneer of the home recording movement, Linda Smith released several collections of delicate, bewitching solo music on cassette in the 1980s and 90s. The 2021 release of Till Another Time: 1988-1996, Captured Tracks' compilation of Smith's work, has helped bestow rightful critical acclaim to the ahead-of-her-time artist. Now, Captured Tracks dives deeper into Smith's catalog with the release of two full-length companion albums, Nothing Else Matters and I So Liked Spring, available for the first time on vinyl & streaming formats. Recorded at Smith's home in Baltimore in 1995, Nothing Else Matters chronicles the tension between the mundanity of daily life and the creative impulse: Traffic noises on the charmingly boisterous "Little To Be Won" showcase this levity, as does the addition of playful hand claps and a laugh track to her striking cover of Young Marble Giants' "Salad Days." I So Liked Spring, recorded the following year, saw Smith experimenting with the unique challenge of putting another artist's words to music. She'd come across a biography of the English poet Charlotte Mew and found her wistful poetry rife for musical interpretation. The songs on I So Liked Spring are delightfully unpredictable, full of upbeat melodies and spellbinding vocal harmonies. This is perhaps best showcased on the title track, one of Smith's most popular songs to date, a lovelorn anthem that recalls the airy melodies of early dream pop. Both of these albums showcase the mesmerizing charm of Smith's songwriting, often compared to the likes of the Velvet Underground and Laurie Anderson. Home recording technology has come a long way since Smith first began recording demos on her tape machine, but her influence reverberates through the work of today's bedroom artists. The release of these two essential albums seeks to further illuminate this connection, welcoming a new generation of listeners to the work of this trailblazing artist.

A pioneer of the home recording movement, Linda Smith released several collections of delicate, bewitching solo music on cassette in the 1980s and 90s. The 2021 release of Till Another Time: 1988-1996, Captured Tracks' compilation of Smith's work, has helped bestow rightful critical acclaim to the ahead-of-her-time artist. Now, Captured Tracks dives deeper into Smith's catalog with the release of two full-length companion albums, Nothing Else Matters and I So Liked Spring, available for the first time on vinyl & streaming formats. Recorded at Smith's home in Baltimore in 1995, Nothing Else Matters chronicles the tension between the mundanity of daily life and the creative impulse: Traffic noises on the charmingly boisterous "Little To Be Won" showcase this levity, as does the addition of playful hand claps and a laugh track to her striking cover of Young Marble Giants' "Salad Days." I So Liked Spring, recorded the following year, saw Smith experimenting with the unique challenge of putting another artist's words to music. She'd come across a biography of the English poet Charlotte Mew and found her wistful poetry rife for musical interpretation. The songs on I So Liked Spring are delightfully unpredictable, full of upbeat melodies and spellbinding vocal harmonies. This is perhaps best showcased on the title track, one of Smith's most popular songs to date, a lovelorn anthem that recalls the airy melodies of early dream pop. Both of these albums showcase the mesmerizing charm of Smith's songwriting, often compared to the likes of the Velvet Underground and Laurie Anderson. Home recording technology has come a long way since Smith first began recording demos on her tape machine, but her influence reverberates through the work of today's bedroom artists. The release of these two essential albums seeks to further illuminate this connection, welcoming a new generation of listeners to the work of this trailblazing artist.

Since the early 80's Allan Crockford has been a major figure in Medway's garage rock scene, including playing for The Prisoners, Billy Childish's Thee Headcoats, the original line-up of the James Taylor Quartet, The Solarflares and many more. Since 2010 he has fronted his own band, The Galileo 7, as writer, guitarist, and lead vocalist. Their unique blend of powerful '60s garage rock'n'roll, psychedelic vocal harmonies and quality songwriting has now featured on no less than eight albums. Their ninth, You, Me and Reality, sounds like the work of a seasoned rock 'n' roll band dialling things up one and approaching its zenith. The group performances of the quartet of Allan Crockford, Viv Bonsels, Paul Moss and Mole ooze energy and dynamics - whether it's the garage ramalama of opener 'Can't Go Home', the woozy psychedelics of 'Slow Down', the chipper folk-rock of 'A Simple Man' or the '60s mod-pop stomp of the title track. As with 2019's last album proper, There Is Only Now, all four group members share lead vocal duties, with Viv's contributions adding an affecting indie-pop flavour that coyly suggests new directions. You, Me & Reality largely eschews its predecessor's predilection for ambling unplugged off the beaten path, instead sticking with up-tempo ensemble performances that showcase the players' musical chops and vocal interplay in the kind of warm, fizzy, analogue soundscape that's become a touchstone of many Medway bands.

First official vinyl reissue of this sought-after psychedelic folk-rock / Americana / SSW album from 1976.

Major Arcana was a group led by counter-culture Milwaukee icon JIM Spencer, featuring a revolving cast of musicians / collaborators. The core of the band was Jim Spencer (guitar, vocals); Randall Dubis (electric guitar); Michael Burdecki (bass, slide guitar) and Jim Kitchen (percussion, harmonica). They were helped in the studio by some friends / musicians like Sigmund Snopek III and Barry Patton among many others.

Released on Jim Spencer’s own private label (A Major Label, home also to Anonymous of “Inside The Shadow” fame), the album opens with the terrific psych-folk of “Western Wind” and closes with an acid-folk rendition of “Greensleeves”. In between, you’ll also find some blues rock, SSW ballads, jazzy bits…

File next to groups like Pearls Before Swine or Bermuda Triangle.

Mannequin Pussy"s music feels like a resilient and galvanizing shout that demands to be heard. Across four albums, the Philadelphia rock band that consists of Colins "Bear" Regisford (bass, vocals), Kaleen Reading (drums, percussion), Maxine Steen (guitar, synths), and Marisa Dabice (guitar, vocals) has made cathartic tunes about despairing times. "There"s just so much constantly going on that feels intentionally evil that trying to make something beautiful feels like a radical act ," says Dabice. "The ethos of this band has always been to bring people together." Their new album, I Got Heaven, which is out March 1 via Epitaph Records, is the band"s most fully realized recording yet. Over ten ambitious tracks which abruptly turn from searing punk to inviting alternative pop, the album is deeply concerned with desire, the power in being alone, and how to live in an unfeeling and unkind world. It"s a document of a band doubling down on their unshakable bond to make something furious, thrilling, and wholly alive. Following the 2019 release of their critically acclaimed third album Patience, Mannequin Pussy returned in 2021 for their EP Perfect. They toured that release relentlessly and added guitarist Maxine Steen to the band"s official lineup. The band changed their entire creative formula, choosing to write together in the studio in Los Angeles with producer John Congleton , over slowly crafting tracks at home. "Everyone felt empowered to speak up about their own ideas to make this thing the best it could possibly be," says Regisford.

Mannequin Pussy"s music feels like a resilient and galvanizing shout that demands to be heard. Across four albums, the Philadelphia rock band that consists of Colins "Bear" Regisford (bass, vocals), Kaleen Reading (drums, percussion), Maxine Steen (guitar, synths), and Marisa Dabice (guitar, vocals) has made cathartic tunes about despairing times. "There"s just so much constantly going on that feels intentionally evil that trying to make something beautiful feels like a radical act ," says Dabice. "The ethos of this band has always been to bring people together." Their new album, I Got Heaven, which is out March 1 via Epitaph Records, is the band"s most fully realized recording yet. Over ten ambitious tracks which abruptly turn from searing punk to inviting alternative pop, the album is deeply concerned with desire, the power in being alone, and how to live in an unfeeling and unkind world. It"s a document of a band doubling down on their unshakable bond to make something furious, thrilling, and wholly alive. Following the 2019 release of their critically acclaimed third album Patience, Mannequin Pussy returned in 2021 for their EP Perfect. They toured that release relentlessly and added guitarist Maxine Steen to the band"s official lineup. The band changed their entire creative formula, choosing to write together in the studio in Los Angeles with producer John Congleton , over slowly crafting tracks at home. "Everyone felt empowered to speak up about their own ideas to make this thing the best it could possibly be," says Regisford.

For the five members of Punchlove - multi-instrumentalists Jillian Olesen, Ethan Williams, Joey Machina, Ian Lange-McPherson, and visual artist Viz Wel - moving into a maze of a house in Brooklyn together was the transition that created the album they had been writing their whole lives. Quietly evolving from a bedroom project to a headlining live phenom, Punchlove has geared up a densely layered bed of emotionally serrated pain-pop songs that coalesce around a digitally-stimulated, emotional brand of modern neoshoegaze. Channels, out March 1st on Kanine Records, is an album of deeply prepared sounds, sharply honed instrumentals, and a band performing them that knows each other all the way through. Having met studying music technology in college, multiple members of Punchlove work mixing live bands at prominent NYC venues and in the studio. Using that expertise, the inhouse production, mixing, and recording is a palpable highlight; mastered by 2000s shoegaze stalwart Kurt Feldman (The Depreciation Guild), the record melds DIY recording and experimental sonic visions with studio quality. Punchlove is dedicated to pushing the envelope of experimental sonic practices in live performances, where they can be seen performing with real-time audio reactive analog visuals, executing real-time sampling and looping, self-mixing onstage, running radios and tape loops through effects, improvising, and playing guitar with everything from double bass bows to vibrators. In their home recording environment, experimentation is at the core of their creative process, where they integrate self-programmed digital signal processing systems, psychoacoustic phenomena, tailored feedback, elements of 3D audio, immersive field recording soundscapes, early electronic instruments, and experimental recording and mixing techniques into the greater backdrop of pop songwriting. FOR FANS OF: Radiohead, Wednesday, Hum, DIIV, my bloody valentine, The Smashing Pumpkins, bdrmm, A Place to Bury Strangers

Although 30 years after its birth this fundamental electronic gem called 'Reflections' has achieved cult status, it is worth remembering that it all started in 1993 in a small apartment in Waterloo, London, with the help of a mixer and a bunch of hardware synth and drum machines of hardware, with the mastodontic Oberheim OB-8 synthesizer as the main partner.

While in the UK the vast majority of kids showed a certain rejection of what came from North America in the form of electro, Kirk Degiorgio, under his alias As One, embraced it openly and incorporated it into his productions along with influences from other genres that he had already adored since he was young, such as jazz, soul or funk, thus becoming one of the true early adopters of Detroit techno in the UK.

If we look back, 'Reflections' is a challenge in itself, and even more so considering what the consumption pattern of electronic music was in the early 90s. This timeless album fits into the delicate border between being enough club to work on the dance floor, and still being musical and cerebral enough to be listened to at home. A milestone that, whether premeditated or not, Degiorgio more than achieved.

Three decades later Lapsus Records has been able to access the pre-masters extracted from the original DATs to build a special 30th anniversary edition within its Perennial series. For the occasion, this reissue not only offers the tracks included in the first edition, it also adds the songs 'The Priestess' –never released on vinyl before– and Forgotten Memory –until now unreleased and rediscovered in one of the DATs dating back to 1992 from the 'Reflexions' recording sessions. We are therefore facing the definitive edition of an album that, despite coexisting with the explosion of the rave movement, would pave the path for the UK-Detroit connection.

Formed in 2006 in Boston, Massachusetts and now based in Berlin, Germany; Arms and Sleepers is the electronic trip hop project of producer Mirza Ramic (formerly a duo with Max Lewis), who has subsequently released 13 full albums and 20 EPs of glitched-out grooves that take as much inspiration from leftfield hip hop experimentalism as they do from the slowburn ambience and panoramic euphoria of contemporary post-rock. His forthcoming 14th full-length album, `What Tomorrow Brings' is a breathtaking aural account that charts the life-changing journey of being forced out of your home over four distinct, musical sections. Initially inspired by watching Kenneth Branagh's award-winning coming-of-age drama Belfast as the fighting in Ukraine broke out, MIrza found himself reflecting on his own experience as a child and how it has formed the man he is today. As such, the album's four sections, titled `Innocence', `Melancholy', `Rupture' and `Reflection', serve as the reification of the life and experience that Mirza lost as well as a representation of the identity he has since shaped for himself. Whereas more recent Arms and Sleepers releases, such as 2022's full-length `former kingdoms', are peppered with the sultry saxophone refrains, syncopated 16ths and smoky ambience of a New York jazz bar; `What Tomorrow Brings' is instead acute and driving, with complex drum breaks reminiscent of powerful post-rock acts such as BATTLES, Mogwai and Caspian brought insistently and urgently to the fore. Double vinyl in single colour orange!

If you are a death metal fan, GRACELESS shouldn’t need an introduction. Three full lengths and two split EPs have granted the Dutch ensemble a respectable reputation across the globe. Closer to home, the four piece has played countless live shows since their 2016 inception. The rock solid line up -unchanged since day one- has delivered ferocious, high energy live performances at Eindhoven Metal Meeting, Into the Grave, Party San Metal Open Air, Ruhrpott Metal Meeting, Stonehenge, SDF2021 and many more festivals and clubs. Joining forces with LISTENABLE RECORDS in 2023 is the next thundering milestone for GRACELESS. Tirelessly working on their fourth full-length, the next chapter for GRACELESS will be another step deeper into the abyss that started with Shadowlands (2018), via Where Vultures Know Your Name (2020), to Chants from Purgatory (2022). For fans of DEATH, ASPHYX, GOREFEST, BOLT THROWER, AMON AMARTH, BLOODBATH

Witch Trials will release his anticipated new EP CANNIBAL CULTURE on his own label, MYRYRS. The upcoming EP spans genres and journeys between contemporary dance, electronic, house, and breakbeat - showcasing the progression and expansion of a stand out artist continuing to evolve and reinvent his craft.

The new EP from Witch Trials delivers a time-traveling thrust of rave culture, melodic riffs and atmospheric beats that would work the dancefloor as hard as a solitary listener at home– experiencing the tracks in confinement.

“CANNIBAL CULTURE… it’s the voices in your head that guide you, the demons in the night or day I overcome, the time I close curtains to obscure the light. It's the carnivorous force that kills, it’s the kindness of the crowd on the dancefloor, it’s also the power to continue to create. After the madness, anxiety, and constrictions within or outside of my mind, life goeson.” - WITCH TRIALS

London-based, American-born, and Irish-raised artist Witch Trials releases the visual for his new EP CANNIBAL CULTURE. Confusing the lines that bound or bind art and music, the visual captures the fusion of trauma, light after dark, and a chthonic realm of solitude. The photographic concept and the sound world push distinct interpretations of the mediums and work alone or in harmony.

Orphans of the Ash is the ongoing collaboration of Zal Cleminson and Billy McGonagle. Their music
has been described as Glasgow Grunge, Misanthropic Metal, Dystopian Angst, Subconscious Jazz.
The band says that their main goal is to continue to make music with a back to basic approach and
perhaps perform live…

The Glass Hours are American songwriters Brad Armstrong and Megan Barbera. Their music blurs between Sunday afternoon country-folk and the Golden Age of the 1970s. With the exception of Sue Westcott on fiddle (Chet Atkins, Tom Jones), the album was written, performed, recorded and produced by Brad and Megan in Brad's home studio in Red Hook, New York.

Like much of the work they've done in their respective solo careers, the new album dances between this and that, drinking from the same wells as Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris, Tom Waits and Lucinda Williams. The songs go where they want to go; Brad and Megan simply try to stay out of the way. Although it is nearly impossible, in this new world of niche artistry, not to pick a genre camp and pitch a tent, The Glass Hours seem intent on trying. Yet, there is a thread that ties the whole thing together: the constant tension and tapestry of their voices harmonizing. Every song on 'The Glass Hours' was written with the idea of this harmony and interaction, point and counterpoint. Two voices trying to come together as one.

DECEPTION ISLAND homes in on their minimal synth approach, with italo disco and darkwave being the main components of the album.

The subject matter of Lee’s lyrics range from upbeat to melancholic. Her work covers a range of personal and social issues, including current affairs and social commentary.

They are telling the stories of darkish shades of love, everlasting longing and solitude. They mirror the brutal part of human nature as well.

The cover art, created by Joan Pope, is a piece of art to praise in its own right. Flowers are above a skull, an easy symbol of life and death. Multiple hands caress the objects while down below is a naked woman lying down. She reaches up towards the skull while the skull if it had eyeballs, stares back at the figure. It’s simple and odd, yet eye-catching, and the static that lines the cover art makes it seem like it’s floating in space.

Tommy was born in 1945 in Homestead, Florida, and after his first foray into music in a church choir, he launched his secular recording career in Jackson, Mississippi, working mostly with Tim Whitsett and his Imperial Showband in the latter half of the 1960s. After a short stint with the Nightingales, he signed with KoKo in 1971 and had six impressive singles released, followed by records on Sundance, Juana and Urgent Records.

“I Can’t Do Enough for You Baby” is a mellow and melodic slow-to-mid-tempo song that sounds almost inspirational, while “Hold On” is a beautiful waltz-time ballad which James Carr released on Atlantic in 1971. Both of these songs were cut as demos probably in 1969 after Tommy and Carson Whitsett had signed a deal to become staff writers with Malaco Records.

Tommy was a magnificent singer and songwriter, who never got the credit he deserved mainly because of poor business choices and unfortunate incidents throughout his career. However, he was a beautiful person, gentle and humble.

For a long time, the music of Congo-born Bony Bikaye had to be sought in the purgatory of "world music", where diamonds in the rough cohabited with bland nightmares of white dudes who froze rumba like fish sticks. Worse, they did put it on the menu, when so many longed to move on. Take Bikaye, who grew up listening to modern european music, digs Krautrock, struggles with tradition, obviously looking for trouble in the genre. In Brussels, he recorded a few albums with CY1 (Loizillon/Micheli), and brilliant defectors from Aksak Maboul, produced by Hector Zazou. Now it's up to french trio TONN3RR3 to take up the torch and build this project that proudly brags: "It's a bomb". Thought up at home by Guillaume Gilles (compo/keyboards), the album was finished at One Two Pass It studio, with Olivier Viadero and Gae"lle Salomon on percussion, Yoann Dubaud (machines & bass) and Guillaume Loizillon (synth of CY1 fame, and matchmaker of this affair). It's a deeply musical record, crafted by no-attitude reference players with nothing left to prove, and you can hear it. Floats well above the fray. "Keba na butu", beware. Indeed : beyond the simple pleasures of soukouss, or the rumba guitar riff that spins like a merry-go-round that skipped technical inspection, lie lush orchestrations. Freestyle, synthetic : something old, something new, something what-the- fuck-is-that-now. There's straight, there's syncopated, there's 808 and knee-jerk inducing bass patterns_with a vision. BIKAY3 plays his voice more than ever. His crazy vibrato has improved like hard liquor over the years. In "Zela" and "Balobi" in particular, he puts it to good use with flamboyant, Screamin' Jay Hawkins-style antics. He can also resort to pure storytelling : "La fore^t et les dieux", is a French-spoken excursion into the wild, moving along in grasslands of synths and percussion with TONN3RR3. A tale of gods and spirits, plain and simple. Nicole Mitchell brings the occasional flute in "Akei" for this trip in the bush of ghosts where lingala and kikongo rub with English and French. They saved "It's a bomb" for the end, a bastardized rumba, with rimshots that slap like a cool hand on willing skin. We're living in a golden age of reissues coming out in droves and satisfying our desire to catch up on our neighbors' musical heritage, but let's not miss the boat : it's now or never to listen to the music of the living. - Halory Goerger

Best known for his work for legendary Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul (he even designed the enigmatic “bang” in 2021’s labyrinthine ‘Memoria’), Japan’s Koichi Shimizu has been honing a unique musical language since the early ‘90s, where some of his earliest material can be found on a split LP with Yoshiteru Himuro via once-iconic imprint Worm Interface (itself home to music from Autechre side-line Gescom). ‘Imprint’, was initially released quietly back in 2021 and has been remastered for this new edition, removing one track and bumping it up with four more, making it all available on vinyl for the first time.

The album offers a perfect overview of Shimizu’s broad palette, ranging from fine-wrought keys to electronic brutalism and guttural rhythmic pulses, plotted with an underlying narrative cadence that evinces his ability to heighten the impact of moving image, whilst also colouring the imagination with ephemeral sound imagery. His tekkerz are in bracing, anticipatory effect on a retooled, expanded version of his music from ‘Memoria’ within the convulsive, swarming silhouette of ‘Imprint’, and ‘The Path’ finds his aural accompaniment to ‘Uncle Boonmee...’ given room to breathe and develop into an unexpected, OOBE-like experience. In ‘Moth’ he magnifies and anthropomorphises a winged insect with finely chiselled technical nous, and his exquisite arrangement to ‘Faded Sign’ is somehow comparable to the ephemeral emotional register of cinematic collaborations between Ryuichi Sakamoto and Carsten Nicolai.

A Colourful Storm begins 2024 with a luxurious suite of daydreaming introspection courtesy of Unchained, the longstanding solo project of Nathaniel Davis who was last seen on vinyl in the final Blackest Ever Black release. Recorded at home between 2020 and 2023, Gabbeh is the latest expression of Davis's guitar-based instrumental musings and represents a stylistic evolution of his self-released noise tapes and CD-Rs into romantic, bossa nova-influenced melody-making. He wrote the tracks sporadically, with minimal instrumentation and intervention. Electric guitar, bass improvisations and rhythms from an old drum machine are layered and given new life, the space between them softly breathing with minutiae of the everyday: the buzz of cicadas, the passing of cars, the whistling of passersby. The psychogeography of Grenoble, Davis' home since 2018, played a conscious role in the weaving of Gabbeh's fabric: "I think certain songs reflect, in ways, Grenoble's natural surroundings. 'Drac' is named after the river that flows from the mountains down to the city… 'Dru' is the name of a well-known peak near Chamonix". Opener 'Largo' sets the mood, its primitive samba rhythm concealed by a cloud of saudade. The bebop sensibility follows suit, the tension between its angular picks and percussive shuffle a wondrous balancing act, while the intoxicating sway of 'Rambler' is perhaps the most poignant expression of longing and loss we've heard in recent years. Highly recommended for fans of Durutti Column, Maurice Feebank, Toninho Horta.

* This release resurrects the original mixes alongside the iconic remixes from the '90s, encapsulating a significant chapter in the Jungle movement. This landmark release not only signifies a pivotal era in Jungle music but also marks the inaugural release on Philly Blunt Records, setting a high bar for the label right from the outset.

* In the early '90s, the jungle scene was set ablaze with 'Burial', a track crafted in Dillinja's home studio under the collaborative genius of Jumpin Jack Frost, operating under the moniker Leviticus. The original mixes, Madamoselle and Lovers Rock, resonated with rare groove and reggae influences that propelled the track to become an anthem at the Notting Hill Carnival, eventually catching the ear of Pete Tong who facilitated a mainstream release on FFRR the following year.

* The remixes encapsulate the collaborative spirit of the era, with Dillinja, Roni Size, and DJ Krust teaming up for the 'Combination Mix', and Ray Keith lending his touch to the 'Tearing Terrorist Mix'. Released in the '90s post the FFRR signing, these remixes added a fresh narrative to the 'Burial' story.

* Reflecting on the creation of 'Burial', Jumpin Jack Frost recalls, "I went to Dillinja's house with the two records, and that was it. We got a beat running and sampled the Mademoiselle "oooh" part first... it just made itself. I was the producer and Dillinja was the engineer... After hearing it a hundred times while we were making it, I thought it was good but I didn't quite know if it was good enough to start playing to the boys. First of all, I made a dubplate with my name in it so I could test it playing it out; I think I played it at Roast and everyone went nuts."

* Bryan Gee, reflecting on the track's impact, mentions, "If you're talking top ten jungle tracks then 'Burial' has got to be in there. You can play it to anyone outside of the jungle scene and they know it."

* This gold vinyl repress is a journey back to the roots of Jungle, offering a tangible piece of Drum & Bass history for enthusiasts and new listeners alike. The profound impact of 'Burial' transcended the Jungle scene, finding resonance across various music genres and remains a testament to the genre's versatility and broad appeal.

* A nostalgic journey and a tangible piece of Drum & Bass history, pre-order now to secure your copy of this genre defining release

Established in 1948 by César Roldán, Discomoda is one of the earliest record labels of Venezuela and the oldest family operated label in the country. Home to one of the most complete folkloric and popular music catalogues of Venezuela, the label also invested heavily in Afro-Caribbean and tropical rhythms that became popular in the 60s and 70s.

In the 1960s and before the Salsa era truly kicked off, Venezuela had a significant dance orchestra and big band movement. Unlike local record competitors dedicated to selling foreign productions, Discomoda achieved its leading position by recording the most important national bands, including Los Megatones de Lucho, Orquesta Sonoramica and Super Combo Los Tropicales; all featured in this compilation.

Later on, surrounding the festivities for the 400th anniversary of Caracas in 1967, the word "Salsa", which had been recently coined by famed radio host Phidias Danilo Escalona, was formalized to identify an Afro-Caribbean musical style with growing popularity in Venezuela and beyond. By then, the country was among the top 20 music markets in the world, with the local label Discomoda leading the way, responsible for one out of every five records sold in the country.

With the prolonged celebrations approaching due to the 400 years of the city, Discomoda and other labels began to capitalize on this new musical style by betting on both established and new local bands, such as Nelson y sus Estrellas, Los Kenya, Principe y su Sexteto and Los Satélites. As a result, this would kick off what could be considered a golden era of Salsa in Venezuela and which lasted until the mid-70s.

As we approach the 80s and with the emergence of new musical styles and bigger multi-national record labels funded by larger pockets, a lot of the previously popular bands begin to disband or choose to leave the country. Nonetheless, a few artists, like Rodrigo Mendoza, La Renovación and Grupo Yakambu, were still pushing out quality music.

We are thrilled and honored to celebrate one of Venezuela's and, equally, Latin America's most significant record labels, and to share a slice of their enduring influence in advancing Venezuelan-made Salsa music.

Soul Jazz Records’ 200% Dynamite! set the benchmark for reggae meets funk compilations that has never been bettered. Out of print for over 15 years this new 2023 edition with new tracks and is being released in a one-off limited-edition heavyweight special-edition coloured vinyl pressing + download code exclusively for Record Store Day 2023.
Jam-packed with reggae tunes that crossed-over to become dancefloor hits such as Tenor Saw’s sound boy anthem ‘Ring the Alarm,’ K.C. White’s classic cut of the seminal ‘No, No, No’ and Augustus Pablo’s ‘Rockers Rock’, 200% Dynamite explores the links between reggae, jazz, funk and soul.
Carrying on perfectly from 100% Dynamite, this second compilation continues to trace the history of Jamaican reggae and the influence of American styles such as funk and jazz had on this music.
Featured here are serious funk and rocksteady tunes from the likes of The Skatalites and Johnny Osbourne through to Jamaican jazz from masters such as Tommy McCook and Byron Lee, as well as some serious dub from the likes of Augustus Pablo, King Tubby and Jackie Mittoo.
New bonus tracks on this new 2023 edition include seminal dancehall party cuts Sister Nancy’s ‘One Two’ and Chaka Demus and Pliers’ ‘Murder She Wrote’, alongside classic soul to reggae covers including cuts of Marlena Shaw’s ‘Women of the Ghetto’ and Odyssey’s ‘Don’t Tell Me Tell Her’.






‘Once again, Soul Jazz goes digging through the reggae vaults and produces another sterling compilation. If you’re looking for a primer on the music of the island, you could do worse than buying every one of the records in this superb compilation series.’ All Music
‘In Soul Jazz’s outstanding Dynamite! series 200% is the head-turner. The label has its finger on the pulse of the now just as surely as it does on that of the past.’ Pitchfork
‘Soul Jazz Records ‘Dynamite’ series has quickly become a
rewarding guide to reggae’s most infectious back pages. Every home
needs some Dynamite.’ Irish Times
‘Soul Jazz Records’ long-running series
of highly-regarded reggae albums.’
Rough Trade