Buscar:in da place

Pilo returns to BNR in 2020 with the “A.R.E.A.” EP. Since his first release for the label in 2013 at a very young age, each subsequent record could be seen as a milestone of growth - the “A.R.E.A. EP” feels confident, produced with consummate skill, focusing on the LA-producers strongest themes and devices. This is not, however, the sort of “maturity” that sees things get boring, more restrained. Pilo’s drum is the beat of LA’s unhinged underground techno scene - they don’t do boring - and this drum is always banging.

A-side examples: “Acid by Mouth.” A stuttered kick and a gated, uncanny valley voice form the backbone for increasing layers of texture and percussion. It’s a rollercoaster, as viscerally satisfying on the way up as on the way down. Pilo’s production journey has been increasingly cinematic, and you can see the songs here - “Acid by Mouth” is suited for a Gaspar Noe nightclub scene, and you love to hear it as long as no one gets murdered. “Ruhig” is tribal, made for spaces with 4 story high ceilings and sparse but blinding flashes of light. You can hear steel beams buckling under pressure, a breath too close behind you. The workers of the factory in fit of madness started raving to the sounds of their own machines. They’ve been dancing, without pause, for years now.

The B-side opens with “Exit the Artificial.” Headbanging broken beat kick, aggressive Skinny Puppy snares, ghost voices in hallucinatory bursts too short to confirm to be real. The draw-distance of the stereo spread seems infinite - listen at the very edges and a whole other (ominous) world is taking place. The ghosts mock you in gated laughs by the end. “Adapt Tactics” leads you out - low tempo, hissy percussion, haunted again at the fringe. Things break down, reduced to grain - brain short-circuits, “will I feel like this forever?” It’s a warning - turn back, there’s nothing for you out there. You embrace the madness, and start Pilo’s “A.R.E.A.” EP again from the beginning.

Music With Soul returns with another genre-defying instant classic, expanding the limits of the Tropical Dance music universe.

Staying true to the label's essence, founder Alex Figueira places a high bet with this new release, introducing a brand new breed of traditional “Hindoestan” (Indian diaspora in Surinam) music and Cumbia. Taking the music of underground Surinam musician and empresario A. Bechan for an explorative excursion into the depths of the Colombian caribbean coast, this explosive combination raises the bar unquestionably. Equally weird, groovy and trippy, this 45 will turn any party upside down, regardless of any factors. The only problem you will encounter is what to play after. The solution is right on the other side. Just flip the record and give them the Instrumental version, featuring electric guitar, an alternative percussion set up and the beloved classic Juno-60 synthesizer in the leading role for another 4 minutes of dancefloor catharsis.

Jon Tye and Pete Fowler have been making music as Seahawks for a decade now. Given the sounds they’ve been exploring over those ten years it was a cosmic inevitability that they would be asked to contribute to the catalogue of the legendary library label KPM.

They replied with Island Visions, an exploration of sound for vision where they construct “audio micro-worlds to explore and inhabit”. A way to transport the listener away from the everyday without the bother of getting on an aeroplane. Mind travel is space travel after all, and much better for the environment.

Mostly recorded at The Centre Of Sound in Cornwall, with additional recording at Studio 34 in London, Jon and Pete’s travelling companions on this particular trip were boogie wunderkind Sven Atterton on fretless bass and keys, Nick Mackrory on percussion and the Seahawks live team of Dan Hillman and Alik Peters-Deacon.

From the grooves of Brian Bennett to the moog vibrations of Mike Vickers, the lush textures of Les Baxter to the experimental sounds of Delia Deryshire and David Vorhaus, this new music channels sounds and moods from across the KPM universe.

The spacious “Hot Sand Shuffle” opens the record with some of Seahawks’ familiar “deck-shoegaze”. The slinky digi-dub of “Sky Blue Sky” follows, gently encouraging us to lay back and relax. “Mystic Beach” is a refreshing ocean spray of a synthetic groove that clears the head, priming a pathway to receive “Crystal Forest”, a new age house groove of birds and flutes.

Dense, deep and dreamlike, “Distant Shore” is ambient rainforest house with a 90s vibe, its dense foliage clearing to let us bask in the shimmer and shine of “River Run”. Hang drum, electric gamelan, flute and loon close side A.

Side B bounces into being with “Catch A Wave”, an upbeat beach groover of synthetic guitar, effervescent synth and snappy drums. Equatorial bubbler “Paradise Bird Bath” soon glides in with marimba, crisp beats and fat synth bass. Fender rhodes, space echo and fretless bass make “Smooth Runnings” a laid-back poolside groove.

“Spirits Have Flown” conjures a hazy vibe with marimba, sax, synth funk bass and chilled beats before “Rolling Deep” serves up a light cocktail of sultry rhythms, refreshing textures, cooling sax and fretless bass. Almost-title track “Island Blues” brings the horizontal poolside feels with melodic chimes, oboe and more fretless bass for maximum vibrations. The marina drone of modular electronics, celestial trumpet and jungle ambience pay the album’s final respects to the cosmos on “Sun Salute”.

Like many KPM suites, this is a record of two distinct sides. The sunrise of side A brings a deep meditation, a journey within to renew the jaded self. Side B refreshes with cocktails by the pool and a chance to groove away the evening at some sunset beach party before dancing under the stars in the house of dreams.

Pete’s front cover for the LP is part map, part postcard: “the record has five different sections and I wanted to reference those in the worlds they created, musically and physically. From beach campfire, to poolside hanging and nighttime dancing. A kind of portal to those places and the pictures they inspired in my mind. All places we’d like to be in this turbulent year”. The track descriptions on the back help guide the way.

2020 marks 10 years since Ocean Trippin’, the first Seahawks release, and Island Visions is the perfect distillation of the sounds, sights, textures and moods that Jon and Pete have been exploring over the last decade. Sunrise to sunset condensed to two sides of an LP. The normal rules of space and time don’t apply here.

This is the first time Be With has worked with Seahawks, but individually Jon and Pete have been members of the extended Be With family since forever (Pete did those posters for our Ned Doheny tour and we worked with Jon on the vinyl version of Hatchback’s Colors Of The Sun). Of course we were going to put this out on vinyl.

Mastered by balearic engineer of choice (and Be With’s regular audio co-pilot) Simon Francis, cut by the legendary Pete Norman and pressed in the Netherlands by Record Industry, the sonic frequencies of these Island Visions have been precision tuned and encoded for optimum travelling conditions. Take the trip.

Pitto is not one to flood the scene with new music considering he’s only released two ep’s in the last three years. He takes the time to let ideas evolve and it’s clearly noticeable on last year’s EP on ‘Something Happening Somewhere’ sublabel ‘Ooshaa’, where his feel for an almost poppy hook is perfectly combined with his love for darker electronics. On the ‘Baila baila EP’ –his return to Heist after his last ep in 2018- he explores this path further. The EP is filled with live percussion, a dark and rolling acid line, chopped beats and catchy piano riffs. The three originals are accompanied by a remix courtesy of Pete Herbert that has ‘summer’ written all over it.

Opening track ‘Sammie’ has a beautiful sense of melancholy to it, where an emotional piano riff is combined with some 80’s tinged vocals and loads of live percussive elements for a smile inducing experience.

‘Discko’ takes a darker approach with a deep and ‘dubby’ low end and a guitar riff that wouldn’t be out of place on a Caribou track. The horn section and synth lead give it a real crossover appeal and it’s the kind of track you imagine working just as well on a summer festival as in a dark basement.

On the flip, there’s the title track ‘Baila’, a proto inspired acid stomper with a nice wink to early 90’s dance music vocals. An acid line gives the track its backbone, but it’s the combination of Pitto’s chords and instrumentation that give this track it’s unique edge.

The EP finishes off with Pete Herbert’s remix of ‘Sammie’. Pete’s version has that full-on summer appeal with his recognizable style of modern day island disco. He adds a bit of drama to the track with some big breakdowns, changeovers in the piano riff and turns the Balearic vibe up a notch with an added dreamy solo.

We’re happy to have Pitto back on Heist and this unique and diverse EP is one we hope will create a lot of smiles on the dance floor in the coming months.

Yours Sincerely,
Lars & Maarten

F.S.Blumm enters Andi Otto's studio with a whole palette of strings and a mission to create quirky, peaceful soundscapes. The artists intertwine acoustic and electric guitars, harps, electric bass, psaltery and cello in eleven electronica compositions ranging from neo-classical gravity ("Entangleland") to spaced-out dub jams ("Active Fault Map"). "Yukiyama" evolves in multilayered patterns braided over warm tape-noise. "Kilani" reminds of Rabih Abou Khalil's ECM recordings, with its oriental scale and a beat that counts to seven. The tunes shine most when silence takes over, when the sounds find space to unfold and decay. Far from being trivial ambient lullabies, these compositions burst with detail: Bells rattle, a kalimba resonates, and vintage synths induce their voltage into the acoustic framework. Andi Otto and F.S.Blumm have been musical collaborators in the studio as well as on stages between Berlin and Tokyo for more than a decade now, the heyday being their previous duo album "The Bird And White Noise" in 2014. On "Entangleland", Andi Otto contributes the cello, harp and synth recordings and takes care of the mixing. Compared to his recent releases on Multi Culti or Shika Shika, these tracks are less dancefloor oriented. The calm of this album is a flourishing environment for Otto to pluck the acoustic cello which we usually hear in a more processed way in his solo works. F.S.Blumm contributes guitar and bass recordings as well as saturated percussion echoes from his self-made spiral box. Blumm is famous for his acoustic solo productions since his early outings on Morr Music or Tomlab. He has also appeared on Pingipung a few times, for example with his album "Up Up And Astray" or as a Lee 'Scratch' Perry collaborator with the "Quasi Dub Development" project. He recorded three duo albums together with Nils Frahm and is a member of the mighty "Jeff Özdemir & Friends" collective in Berlin. "Entangleland" sees the two artists weave together a mass of acoustic motifs, synthetic melodies, riddims and improv jams where the magic emerges from the sum of the parts. "It's not about accompanying a cello theme with the guitar or vice versa," Andi Otto says. "Entangling sound means letting go of hierarchies, that no one is first. Our studio is not a control room, it's a place of imagination where we take things apart and make things whole."

3 years after the release of his debut EP « Seize The Day », DJ, producer and founder of Roche Musique Cezaire is back with another evocatively named project : "Attraction".

Faithful to himself, he creates a sensual ambience made of warm and swaying tones, the sweet fruit of the melodic groove which always drives him. Once the eyes closed - the imagination becomes fertile and takes us back in a 90’s daydream accompanied by hypnotic synths. Regardless of the place, it’s all about lightness and smooth vibes.

Between G-Funk influences and francophone contemporary soul, the 5 titles EP unveils the producer’s taste for retro and voluptuous sounds, echoing to the universal theme of desire.

“This second EP is to me a logical follow-up which falls within my path. Of course, its central theme is attraction, but by that, I refer to one thing : making your dreams come true. ”

Originally recorded in 1977, following a limited release in 1979, Ghédalia Tazartès debut album, Diasporas, introduced listeners to the surreal, mysterious and truly unclassifiable statement of Tazartès and his out-of-time place in the French avant-garde canon. Born in Paris in 1947 to Judaeo-Spanish parents of Greek descent, Tazartès spent his early career as an autodidact utilizing his knowledge of repetition and collage, coupled with his Ladino linguistic heritage, to create some of the most unique recordings of the late 20th century. Interest in the works of Tazartès truly sparked when artist Steve Stapleton included his follow up album, Tazartès' Transports, in his famed "Nurse With Wound List," thus adding endless curiosity to the folklore behind Tazartès and his mystical entrée.

From the onset of Diasporas, looping incantations seemingly pile up at the behest of Tazartès. In almost a prayer-like decree, Tazartès chants to the gods in an undefined whail that is both haunting and spiritually divine. Tazartès unique use of tape loops to capture the disappearing traditions of his family's past creates an atmospheric texture that unexpectedly complements his cut-up, manipulated vocal experiments. While contemporaries within the French avant-garde maneuvered academic theory and rigid tradition, Diasporas strays away from these boundaries, working in Tazartès' invented practice of 'impromuz', a method in which he endlessly records for hours and edits only the moments that display any sense of spontaneous enlightenment. Further emboldening the obtuse nature of Diasporas are the seemingly random recitation of poet Stéphane Mallarmé and the traditional 'Parisian-style' piano accompaniment of experimental composer Michel Chion.

Since its initial release over 40 years ago, both Dais Records and Alga Marghen have released reissues of Diasporas in various formats, all of which quickly fell out of print. Dais Records presents an official reissue, newly remastered by Josh Bonati, utilizing the original artwork of Diasporas in its sole album form, for the first time in over four decades.

“We first performed this at the All Points East festival in Victoria Park in May 2019. The crowd reaction was so positive that I was inspired to do my first-ever bit of crowd-surfing (which I enjoyed so much that I have repeated it a couple of times since). We played the song throughout the summer & eventually recorded it after our final
performance of the year at the End of the Road festival on September 4th. “It’s a straightforward love song about someone stuck alone in the house whilst the object of their affections is out dancing to House music at a rave. “‘Everybody in the Place’ is the title of a Jeremy
Deller 2019 documentary on Rave Culture.”

Legendary album of Jacaszek from 2009, first time on vinyl, 180g, gatefold, with downloadcode

PENTRAL (lat: inside, spirit, temple).

Michal Jacaszek's new project is an attempt to describe a gothic church interior by means of sounds. A temple owes its special atmosphere not only to visual elements but also to characteristic acoustics – reverb, enhancing and prolonging a slightest whisper into infinity. Jacaszek spent several days in three Gdansk historic churches (Oliwa Cathedral, St. Nicolas' church, St. Mary's Basilica) recording chanting, organs, and also a broad spectrum of accidental noises. Source sounds were were used only as a stimulus which releases the sound of the whole inside, and as such, they were consequently retouched in the post production process. Studio work and also the atmosphere of melody and arrangements were subordinate to the idea of portraying the church as a place filled with distant mysteries, a huge music instrument.

Charlotte Dos Santos exists in a lane all her own. As a fiercely independent producer, singer, composer and arranger, she takes full ownership over her art, imbuing it with feather-light vocals one moment and a rumbling piano line the next. Her warm, emotive and jazz-inflected song writing weaves seamlessly between themes of identity, womanhood and human connection.

On Harvest Time, the follow up to Cleo (2017 EP), Charlotte shows no signs of letting up. These are songs written with an honesty that can’t be neatly placed into a box. Rather, they beautifully tell a story of rebirth, growth, self-belief and empathy.

Ohm Resistance founder Submerged returns to pure drum & bass, bringing the most cutting edge producers in the game to the forefront on his new EP. “The Eradication of Untruth" charges at the dance floor and covers it from all angles - epic, hardcore, modern, and the punk as f*@# style that Ohm Resistance has trademarked since 1999. 'Transformation' is an epic duet with Estonia’s Ajamari, a melodic journey, with the classic Submerged reese making your eyes roll into the back of your head. 'Cell' is a serious bruiser, with hardcore 4/4 action courtesy of Hungary’s Savage. The B side places you into Surrealistic Dystopian Nightmares, with the distinctive strings of Masamune paired against the crushing weight of Submerged amens. Finally, you reach the Abyss - a punk tribute to Prodigy created with Latvia’s Molecular at the time of Keith Flint’s passing - shouted vocals over a searing halftime ending keep this record memorable to the last drop.

Vinyl LP - 2 LP set in a gatefold package with foil stamped cover

Repress

The Godfather of Hardcore, Marc Acardipane, needs no introduction. His outstanding releases over the past 30 years speak for themselves. He has been instrumental in helping to create electronic music history, with countless well-known productions which have been unsurpassed by any other artist of this calibre. His timeless masterpieces have been and always will be heard at hardcore raves spanning the circumference of the Planet. With "9 Is A Classic", "Slaves To The Rave", "Pitch-Hiker", "Stereo Murder" and "We Have Arrived", just to name a few, he clearly proves who's the boss. "The Most Famous Unknown" is a well compiled collection of Marc's music, which showcases a mere portion of what he has composed and produced since the early nineties! The vinyl and digital selection of "The Most Famous Unknown" features remixes by Body Sushi a.k.a. VTSS & Randomer, Dasha Rush, Gabber Eleganza feat. Delirio, Jasss, Kilbourne, Minimum Syndicat, Nina Kraviz, Perc, Solid Blake, Stranger, Umwelt and VTSS, which all deliver excellent interpretations of tracks they have chosen to revamp. All original tracks have been re-mastered to the highest possible standard of quality.

The third in the releases where label favourites are represented for today and backed with a remix / version by a contemporary producer of repute, presents 80s leftfield pop-rock band In Embrace. Appearing here are two versions of The Living Daylights, the original long version and a re-recorded live take, plus additional versions by Timothy J Fairplay.

Coming out of the midlands Post Punk / fanzine scene Gary Knight and friends formed the original incarnation of In Embrace in 1981. Picked up by Glass Records, the early, edgy live recording were re-proposed as Knight developed his 'non-musicianship' with an interest in the possibilities of the studio.

The original "Uncut" version takes it's anti-war themed vocal and lays it over a Jah Wobble inspired bassline and tense electronic rhythm. As it builds, the pressure mounts a visceral sense of oblivion of 9+ minutes of deep dubbing and repeating refrain.

Next to this the "Live In Studio" version sees the later 3 piece band replay it out in an energetic raw form that makes a worth addition. Handing the versions, plus backing tracks to Timothy J Fairplay offered a radical departure. His brooding Redub and Bonus mixes take the track to a darker place, drawing out the induced, relentless madness Knight always intended.

To coincide with the announcement, the pair have shared a video for the album’s title track directed by Sam Davis and Tom Andrew, who has previously received two UK Music Video Awards nominations for his work with Avery. Speaking about the video, Andrew explains, “We were keen to capture a visual representation of the tempo and atmospheric emotion of the track and make a video exploring the notion of collaboration. A super-motion approach allowed us to explore details of motion shared between two people, in tactile actions of aiding and supporting.” Cortini adds, “The video embodies the volatility and hidden nature of the music’s subject and meaning. A meaning that is ultimately personal and unique the listener/spectator.” Watch the clip .



Beginning as a collaborative experiment before the pair had even met, Avery and Cortini then worked remotely and free of concept or deadline over several years. The result, finally completed when both artists were touring with Nine Inch Nails in 2018, is a quietly powerful album rooted in trust, process and experimentation. The first fruits of their labour were unveiled last year when ‘Water’ and ‘Sun’ appeared online, subsequently released as a very limited 7” run that was sold at FYF Festival and Mount Analog in Los Angeles, and Phonica Records in London. Both tracks are included on the album.



“It was very much a shared process”, notes Avery. “I would like to credit Alessandro with his belief that music has a life of its own, as well as the importance he places on the first take... That even something that may be considered out-of-step by some should be respected. Some of the tracks were borne simply out of a tiny synth part, or a bit of tape hiss that we had recorded. And that approach taught me a lot. It’s a record that’s been worked on hard, but not laboured over.”



“I was a big fan of Daniel’s, and his work always spoke to me in a certain way,’’ explains Cortini. “Then, when we started working together, it just clicked. It’s very hard to explain, but I can always hear the love in his work, and that is true on this record. After our first collaboration, we just kept sending each other music and maintaining that dialogue. Next thing you know, we’re sitting in a hotel room in New York and had finished the record in three hours.”



The collaborative album follows Avery’s second record Song For Alpha, released in early 2018, and last year’s expanded edition B-sides & Remixes. Mixmag called the sophomore LP “A beautiful maturation of Avery’s work as a producer,” while The Guardian hailed its “Majestic, cavernous techno” and Loud & Quiet praised Avery as “A producer fast approaching the peak of his powers,” “This album cements Daniel Avery as one of the best,” wrote DIY. The London-based producer will perform at BBC Radio 3’s Unclassified Live on April 3rd, a new series of concerts in the Southbank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall presented by Unclassified host and presenter Elizabeth Alker and conducted by André de Ridder – tickets are available here. Avery has also just been announced in the first wave of acts for London festivals Re-Textured and the inaugural Wide Awake, taking place in April and June respectively.



Cortini released his most recent solo album Volume Massimo on Mute in July 2019, following Fine, the Italian artist’s final album under his SONOIO alias, which came out the previous year. The Quietus called the former “an album that showcases just how much Cortini‘s aesthetic has developed since his early days,” while Exclaim! hailed it “a melodic exploration of textures and layers … an instrumental masterpiece that adds to an already incredible body of work by the gifted and skilled composer.”

Tucked away in their cover, but never for long, Guts' musical eyebrow wands have once again panicked, this time aggressively marking Africa.

Letting his instrument guide him towards the one he felt was the next signature of his label Pura Vida Sounds, the beatmaker-producer found himself face to face with an old acquaintance: Pat Kalla aka the voice of the Voilaaa Sound System, aka the one with which he crossed the funk on his album Philantropiques and the title "Daddy Sweet".

Convinced to follow him in studio, Pat, accompanied by his Super Mojo celebrates this collaboration by decapsulating La "Canette". Long groove in the mouth, acidic notes of synths and attacks of precise guitars, despite the bitterness of his words, a drink that suits every hour of the day and that strengthens the legs most numb. Heckled by her journey to the bottom of Pat’s musical bag, shaken by the syncopes of the beat, she spreads her funk foam from the very beginning into the A-side furrow.

Bartering the beige trench coat of Commissioner Joss against a colorful toghu, Kalla and his Mojo revisit on the B side the "Requiem Pour Un Con" de Gainsbourg. The martial groove, dark and hypnotic leaves its place to a polyrhythmic afrodisco production, surrounded by a low velocity.
More than a recovery, they are making a real diversion.
A hijacking driven by Pat Kalla and his Super Mojo, with Serge Gainsbourg and Jean Gabin sitting in the back seat like two "Pachas".

WRWTFWW Records is too happy to announce the much anticipated official reissue of Japanese duo Inoyamaland’s quintessential ambient/environmental/electronic album Danzindan-Pojidon, produced by Haruomi Hosono and originally released in 1983 on his Yen Records label. Available outside of Japan for the first time, the new age classic comes as a limited LP with liner notes by band member Makoto Inoue.

With Danzindan-Pojidon, Yasushi Yamashita and Makoto Inoue created what they describe as "a special place where the kingdom of summer vacation never ended". Playful and magical, it’s a sonic landscape defined by tinkling synths, floating minimalist melodies, pastoral excursions, and mythical overtones. The 10-track adventure takes the listener on a joyful audio exploration of unknown but friendly territories, like childhood memories of an imaginary island where everything is vibrantly alive and peaceful.

The original recording sessions for the album took place in an apartment filled with Inoyamaland’s "favorite things and friends" and the wonders that came out of them were handed to master Harry Hosono who added his undeniable genius touch. And thus Danzindan-Pojidon was born, an absolute must-have, sitting in the pantheon of all-time 80s Japanese ambient greats alongside Midori Takada’s Through The Looking Glass, Hiroshi Yoshimura’s Green, and Satoshi Ashikawa’s Still Way - and holding that mysterious power of "music that makes life a little easier and happier".

The Prisoners are one of the most influential bands of the 1980s, an astounding live act whose records were the opposite of what pop radio demanded in that era. Raw where they were smooth and full of character where those records needed to be blandly conformist. They hardly sold a record and yet they can count the likes of Noel Gallagher and political journalist John Harris as their fans. Steve Lamacq devoted a whole chapter of his book to his love of them whilst Tim Burgess of The Charlatans once said that at that time he only checked for The Prisoners and New Order. At least two UK hits used their arrangement on Joe South’s ‘Hush’ as their basis.  ‘In From The Cold’ was the final shot at success by The Prisoners the only problem was they didn’t want it. Signed by Eddie Piller to his Stiff-backed subsidiary Countdown they were put in the studio with Troy Tate (Teardrop Explodes / The Smiths) and made this astounding album which they then disowned.  By 1986 they were an incredible live band and had released three albums of their distinctive 60s influenced garage rock. A four-piece featuring Johnny Symons on drums, future Acid Jazz hitmaker James Taylor on organ, Allan Crockford on bass and backing vocals and the compellingly soulful Graham Day on vocals. Graham also wrote fantastic songs. Ten years later and they would have been lauded as heroes in Brit Pop land but the mid-80s had no place in the mainstream for a band with their influences.  ‘In From The Cold’ is full of amazing songs from the hard edges of ‘All You Gotta Do Is Say’, ‘Ain’t No Telling’ and ‘The More That I Teach You’, to the mournful ‘Wish The Rain’ and ‘Be On Your Way’. It is no surprise that Mojo journalist Lois Wilson described this as her favourite album by the band.  This reissue on coloured vinyl is the first time the album has been issued in its original form since 1986 when, due to Stiff’s imminent demise, it was deleted very quickly.

- Ursprünglich als EP zwischen den ersten beiden Bon Iver Alben veröffentlicht, enthält Blood Bank einige der beliebtesten Songs der Band - Erstpressung auf farbigem Vinyl - mit 4 brandneuen, exklusiven Live-Aufnahmen der EP-Titel, die auf der Tournee 2018, 10 Jahre nach der Entstehung der Songs, aufgenommen wurden - Bon Iver 2020 live in Berlin, Köln und München // Die "Blood Bank" EP wurde ursprünglich Anfang 2009 veröffentlicht, kurz nach dem geliebten Album "For Emma, Forever Ago". Die EP war der Vorbote eines neuen Sounds für Bon Iver: eine Bewegung weg von der akustischen Gitarren-geführten Instrumentierung des Debüts und der Beginn einer Erkundung der experimentellen Klänge, welche die Entwicklung von Bon Iver seitdem mitdefinieren. Die Neuauflage dieser bahnbrechenden EP ist gekoppelt mit brandneuen Live-Aufnahmen aller EP-Titel. Eine Reflexion über die Blood Bank EP von Ryan Matteson: When I reflect on the songs that make up the Blood Bank EP, I am drawn to mantras, both musical and lyrical. The driving and pulsating rhythm of the title track is held steady by the repeated refrain, I know it well, before it eventually yields to a beautiful array of guitar distortion and noise. These moments are significant through all four songs. When the steel guitar makes its entrance on "Beach Baby," it's transportive. A blissful, breezy feeling sweeps into the room and that puts you within the moment. Close your eyes and you can feel it. "Babys" follows perfectly. A piano guides your mind to the new beginnings that come with the changing of seasons. The awareness of time passes and makes way for another day. Then there's "Woods." A flawless finale. Foreign and new. Not just a new direction but a new beginning entirely. A place where boundaries don't exist. It was a signal change of things to come, laying the groundwork for new collaborations. A decade later, the song says so much in just three lines. Most significant to me are the words, "I'm building a sill to slow down the time." Time doesn't slow down, it races.

buffering juju, the title of dumama + kechou's debut album, relates to the process of "excavating spiritually charged content from within". The duo's textural sound, driven by cyclical song structures and chant making, not only captures the angst of the modern world but mines this state of affairs for regenerative potential.
dumama (vocalist and uhadi player) + kechou (multiinstrumentalist with a focus on indigenous African instruments and handmade instruments) met in Cape Town in 2017. There was an instinctive pulse to the initial clutch of shows they played together, blowing open vast sonic and conceptual possibilities. "I guess we were in similar places with our music processes in trying to push healing music to the edges and be more experimental with it," says dumama. The narrative of the album unravels as a piece of magical realism informed by South African folklore and reality, detailing a woman's liberation story where the characters shift shape and traverse multiple realms, deploying various iterations of their power or lack thereof. "It has an organic, natural, cyber and modern kind of energy - all rooted in African aesthetics of sound and storytelling," says kechou. All of this sits on a bed of the duo's unique musical language, one that, although applied electronically in the form of looping and soundscaping, is founded on approaches to string, vocal and percussion tones that reflect a merger between Northern and Southern African heritage.
Recorded primarily in Cape Town and Johannesburg over the first quarter of 2019, buffering juju is a conduit to a past we were not necessarily present for, and a future where threatened indigenous technologies thrive in an increasingly digitised world.

“…In The City Of Lights Where Nothing Is Grey…" In the City Of Angels by way of Prague, Pink Gloves channels classic Italo Disco on their Italians Do It Better debut. Petr Pliska weaves a tale of introspection on the neon soaked streets of Los Angeles.

Act 1 – Downtown. The title track is a hypnotic journey to the city center over a symphony of synthesis. He laments that he “Never Wanted To Come… Never Wanted To Stay… In The City Of Lights Where Nothing Is Grey”. It’s a place where nothing ever changes
& fantasy greets us in every direction. Beneath the sedated vocals, the synthesizers strike deep & dissolve quickly into a haze blanketing the strut of the heavy backbeat. The stage is set.

Act 2 – The Dancefloor. “Dancing on My Own” infuses Robyn’s four on the floor classic with it’s own cocktail of ethereal melodies & a rhythm section ala Ultravox. In the face of the Narrator’s lament, a mirror ball shimmers reflections of resilience.

Act 3 – The Highway. The downtempo “Wilderness” haunts us, bursting with silken synthesizers & spectral electronics reverberating like the ghosts of last night’s party. The tempered cinematic landscape blends with a mesmerizing sorcery as we drive into the unknown.

Act 4 – End Credits. Suddenly, the film is over. We hear the sunrise straight out of an ‘80s John Hughes film & the beautiful grit of Power, Corruption & Lies.

Produced By Johnny Jewel. Mixed By Lukáš Turza & Johnny Jewel. Mastered By Mike Bozzi At Bernie Grundman Mastering. Vinyl Cut By Bernie Grundman, Hollywood.

ERUPTION is an outburst of creaking energies, unconventional ideas, arhythmic thoughts, cacophonous images and musical phantasms. ERUPTION is also the name of the second album by Kluster, a band project of the musician and video artist Conrad Schnitzler, who died in 2011, together with his colleagues Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius. ERUPTION was also the name of a two-day festival that took place in July 2018 at the Golden Pudel Club in Hamburg. For two days, artists and musicians from different generations and working in various fields met here, who were in one way or the other inspired by the comprehensive oeuvre Conrad Schnitzlers’, as well as by his free-spirited thoughts and actions. The result was a multi-faceted programme of concerts, performances, sound and video installations, which resulted in the release of these two special records on Pudel Produkte, the house-own label of the Golden Pudel Club. The single features a previously unreleased piece by Conrad Schnitzler & Ken Montgomery as well as a story told by Asmus Tietchens about his father and Schnitzler, who unwittingly crossed the Atlantic together on the steamboat Bornhofen in the late 1950s, one as an engineer, the other as a heater. The LP brings together the festival's invited artists, Schnitzler‘s contemporaries

such as Ken Montgomery, Wolfgang Seidel and Asmus Tietchens, as well as young artists who developed works especially for ERUPTION. Among them are Lena Willikens & Sarah Szczesny with fragments from their performance Phantom Con Ballet, the DJ Phuong-Dan who composed a musical collage from the poem About Rhythmus and rhythm studies by Schnitzler, a piece from the performance of Felix Kubin, who uses a light scanner and his modular synthesizer to convert graphic notation into sound, a theatrical sound piece by Carl & Sohn (also known as Les Trucs), the producer and DJ RVDS, who interacted with the piece Tanz im Regen by Conrad Schnitzler and many more. Initiated and curated by Nika Son, a musician and artist based in Hamburg

It is with great pleasure that Public Possession and Cascine present to you the debut album of Bell Towers. Elev-en singles deep into his catalogue, his first LP is finally ready, an „Ode to escaping into (and out of) the emo-tional pits of dance floors – about finding a place in one night’s fantasy¹”. Musically it’s all we’ve ever wanted from a Bell Towers production: ear worm melodies, sharp baselines, wild cross-references in between genres and at last sees him explore his abilities as a singer/songwriter to full extent. Junior Mix is the sort of pop music that one is always looking for, but rarely finds - bright, charming and a little bit mad.

We sincerely hope you enjoy.
PP, Nov. 2019

¹Hayley Morgan, Oyster Magazine 117

At the turn of the 80's, a new generation of musicians appeared who saw synthesisers not as dehumanizing machines but as musical instruments that could be coaxed into creating modern, beautiful and decidedly emotional music. It was almost as if the musicians were intentionally creating this music to prove the doubters wrong. 

Compiled by Saint Etienne’s Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs, “The Tears Of Technology” celebrates this brief period when scruffy synth duos from the provinces broke through and took over British pop. Like mellotrons before them, synths could project a strange and deep emotion; listen to OMD’s ‘Sealand’, or the Human League’s ‘WXJL Tonight’, and it was clear that something in the wiring had an inherent melancholy.

In the 60's and 70's, the synthesiser had mostly been regarded as either a novelty or a threat. Tomorrow’s World warned us that the cold, heartless synth would soon make orchestras redundant. But by 1980, Korgs, Moogs and Rolands were becoming affordable for all, and post-punk had created a safe place for new groups to experiment with these new toys.

The influence of Kraftwerk – who had made a landmark appearance on Tomorrow’s World in 1975 – is all over this collection. Big names rub shoulders with obscurities by Turquoise Days, Electronic Circus and Illustration, all highly prized recordings among ‘cold wave’ and ‘minimal synth’ afficionados. There are pioneers like John Foxx and Thomas Leer, alongside unexpected synth sadness from Simple Minds and the Teardrop Explodes.

“The Tears Of Technology” celebrates an era of electronic melancholia, synthesized intimacies and insights – even Tomorrow’s World didn’t see that coming.

We are proud to welcome Fear-E for his Dark Entries debut ‘Grey Skies In A Dear Green Place’ out February 28th. Fear-E is the moniker of Scott McKay a Glasgow based DJ and producer. Scott has already made a name for himself as one of Glasgow’s most technically-gifted and diverse selectors over the past decade. Then a slew of releases on the home-grown Dixon Avenue Basement Jams and Super Rhythm Trax introduced Fear-E, equally skilled studio operator, to the world.

‘Grey Skies In A Dear Green Place’ contains six club-ready tracks to “smash sound systems and illuminate sweaty warehouses.” The title is a reference to a nickname that Glasgow has, coming from Cumbric, means 'green hollow' or (dear) 'green place'. Layering cut-up vocals with warm thumping beats, Scott creates a stripped-back yet deeply jackin’ vibe. Call these tracks what you will, “acid attacks”, “club destroyers”, “pickle ticklers?!” All songs have been mastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. For the cover, Scott commissioned legendary Detroit illustrator Alan Oldham, who’s artwork has graced established an identity for Transmat and DJAX-UP-BEATS, to create a futuristic portrait of Glasgow in black & white and with green kryptonite flourishes by Eloise Leigh.d

Delroy Edwards keeps the old school fire burning, returning to L.I.E.S. with a new 8 track lp titled "Slap Happy". Once again this is back to basics, no punches pulled Chicago House worship, hitting all ends of the dance specturm. Sparse beat tracks, 80s synth stabs, 727 latin percussion...the elements are all there and put together in perfect form...many try but few can execute the vintage sound like this. What may even be Edward's most mature release, it comes in a time when the roots of dance music have been forgotten to the grotesque trends of the day. This is a reminder of why we were drawn to this music in the first place and what it can sound like.

Any botanist will extol the virtues of cross-pollination, and musical hybrids are a Growing Bin speciality. For the latest release Parisian outfit Maât splice jazz with Balearic, dub, house and Afro to create a free thinking LP dedicated to world fusion fore-runners Codona.

If Singu found calm amongst the chaos of Tokyo for ’Siku’ (GBR017), then Maât map out a Sunday stroll through the sun dappled streets of the Parisian banlieue on ’Solar Mantra’. Humming reeds converge into a pre-dawn chorus before dewy sequences and drifting syncopation signal sunrise over La Vilette, a perfect place to start ‘The Walk’. Skirting the Périphérique, the Parisian ensemble pick out a street percussionist by Boulevard d’Algérie then detour to Pré-Satint-Gervais to draw a bassline out of the Metro Area, adding an Environ cool to the uptempo ‘Jaki & Bryn’. With icy bells, brooding guitars and melancholic vocals, ‘Feuglace’ transports Miko’s garten to the 20th arrondissement while the polyrhythmic patter and micro-tuned guitars of ‘Solar Mantra’ see out the A-side with a fourth world hymn.

Chakras cleansed and ready for a B-side rebirth, Maât take us dancing through Père Lachaise via organic house bomb ‘Quetzal Pacino’, an emotive exploration of rhythmic mallets, dreamy pads and propulsive bass, which moves like the Innerzone Orchestra re-arranged by Jon Hassell. Rest comes with the soothing pianos and swelling sine waves of the pastoral ‘Clarière’, a hazy homage to the noon sun on a clearing. Circular motifs, limber grooves and dubby bass mean we’re on the move again, slipping into Montreuil with the echo-drenched scat and firm back beats of ‘Mount Beuvray’, before ‘Llomé Dub’ takes us home in time for a cool beer and much needed smoke on the balcony. Acoustic guitar, lilting piano and a gorgeous female vocal ride the punchy bass and clattering drums to perfection, keeping us company until the day fades into a contented haze.

Patrick Ryder

”Are you ready to take your turn now?” asks a mischievous voice at the beginning of DJ Marcelle’s new album. But by this point you don’t have a choice: you better buckle up for a joyride through the wild, unpredictable imagination of a true electronic music auteur. ‘Saturate The Market, Now!’ is stuffed with the kind of raw, rhythmic workouts and playful humour we’ve come to know and love from the long-serving Dutch artist. Let’s start with the music: Marcelle pinballs between pumping outsider house, brilliantly weird acid and musique concrète experiments where anything could happen at any given time. Then there are her famous track titles, which take another aim at nightclub patriarchy (‘Technicians And Their Light Effects’, the successor to last year's 'Technicians And Their Smoke Machines') at the same time as displaying a keen sense of satire (‘I Fell In My Own Cesspit!’) and revealing a difficult relationship with the sour, massive rock that for her is ‘German Bread’. With artwork featuring a collage of puppets found in her Amsterdam house and Marcelle’s own on-the-road photography, this is yet another album that sets her a mile apart from the paint-by-numbers dance music producers - or “accountants” as she’s witheringly described them.

Marcelle arrived via punk, post-punk, avant garde and dub and lives by the independent, forward-thinking spirit inherent in those scenes. A sense of freedom is imbued in her work, unsurprising given that this album was written in two weeks and was made entirely on her own collection of machines (save a few choice vocal samples). It’s Marcelle’s eighth vinyl-only release for Jahmoni Music from Munich and follows on from last year’s ‘One Place For The First Time’ which swiftly sold-out and is now onto a repress. The vinyl is released alongside a 10” featuring extended and dub versions of triumphant album-cut ‘Everything Not Yet’.

So are you sitting comfortably? Well Marcelle would prefer if you weren’t. Because this is music for misfits to move to. The very opposite of business techno. A missive from a cult DJ with an enviable record collection and a fearless artist who couldn’t give a flying fuck about dance music norms. Saturate the market with pure energy – let’s do this!Seb Wheeler, Mixmag

Marcelle arrived via punk, post-punk, avant garde and dub and lives by the independent, forward-thinking spirit inherent in those scenes. "Everything Not Yet" is Marcelle’s ninth vinyl-only release for Jahmoni Music from Munich and follows on from last year’s ‘One Place For The First Time’ which swiftly sold-out and is now onto a repress. The 10" vinyl is released alongside her latest album "Saturate The Market, Now!" featuring a shorter album-cut of ‘Everything Not Yet’ among nine other tracks. So are you sitting comfortably? Well Marcelle would prefer if you weren’t. Because this is music for misfits to move to. The very opposite of business techno. A missive from a cult DJ with an enviable record collection and a fearless artist who couldn’t give a flying fuck about dance music norms. Saturate the market with pure energy – let’s do this!
Seb Wheeler, Mixmag

Calum Gunn has spent the past few years becoming a key figure in the European electronic avant-garde. As well as releasing his own music through labels like Entr'acte, FLUF and Tsuku Boshi, the Berlin-based Gunn also helms Conditional Records, one of the most forward-thinking computer-music imprints to emerge in recent times.

Gunn's Addenda EP, his debut drop for Central Processing Unit, contains some of his most dynamic work to date. While his commitment to experimentalism remains, these four tracks represent a clear shift in focus for Gunn - namely that, for perhaps the first time in his career, he is making music that is club-friendly. A whole host of dancefloor innovators are recalled when listening to Addenda - particularly Autechre, Analord-era AFX and several of Mark Pritchard's projects as well as Gunn's contemporaries Rian Treanor and Renick Bell.

These tracks never sit still, their rhythms constantly evolving and turning themselves over. Addenda's first two cuts use metronomic hi-hats to keep these ever-changing grooves in check. With its thwacking kicks and snares, opener 'Esephony' enters the fray with the heft of an early Wiley riddim. Atop these drums we find squeaky half-melodies interlocking and breaking apart, meaning that the overall effect is not dissimilar to the tweaking beats that Pritchard came up with as part of Africa Hitech. 'Esephony' is followed by 'Moebu', another track that harks to grime through its fluttering lead synth. The way that this single-note line snakes above a slow, steady drum pulse pitches 'Moebu' halfway between Last Japan and rRoxymore.

Gunn increases the tempo in Addenda's second half. 'Ternenmarz' introduces itself with more blarts of bass, but whereas these were steady on 'Esephony' they now jump around unexpectedly. Gunn holds the erratic kicks in place with twittering hats and snares - indeed, when you factor in its gnarly synth lines, 'Ternenmarz' steers closer than any other cut here to the high-grade electro drops that CPU has made its name with. Closer 'Pins' supercharges the snap of 'Esephony' to 145 bpm before Gunn softens up the track with reverb-drenched synths that nod to the sombre post-grime of Mr. Mitch's Gobstopper Records.

With the Addenda EP, Calum Gunn has achieved something that proves elusive to so many producers - making club tracks that are at once innovative and immediate, their experimental tendencies serving to elevate their dancefloor impact.

RIYL: Rian Treanor, Africa Hitech, Autechre, Renick Bell, Brainwaltzera

Still deeper forays into the musical landscape of the Windrush generation. A dazzling range of calypso, mento, joropo, steelband, palm-wine and r’n'b. Expert revivals of stringband music, from way back, alongside proto-Afro-funk. An uproarious selection of songs about the H-Bomb and modern phones, prostitution and Haile Selassie, mid-life crisis and the London Underground, racism and solidarity, the Highway Code and a 100% West Indian Royal Wedding.
For example some frantic British-Guianan joropo music-hall about Eatwell Brown from Clapham, who starts out biting off a piece of his mother-in-law’s face at a party, then devours everything in his path… a chunk of Brixton Prison, a Union Jack, a policeman’s uniform. Or Marie Bryant — collaborator of Lester Young and Duke Ellington — taking time off from skewering the South African PM Daniel Malan at her West End revue, to contribute some arch, swinging filth about uber-genitalia. Superior sound, courtesy of Abbey Road, D&M and Pallas; lovely gatefold sleeve; full-size booklet, with full notes, and fabulous previously-unseen photographs, including a set from the family archive of Russ Henderson (who led the first, impromptu Notting Hill Carnival march, in 1966).

Available on vinyl for the first time since its original release in 1984, Outernational Sounds proudly presents Build An Ark pianist Nate Morgan’s second outing for the celebrated Nimbus West label – the conscious and spiritualised sounds of Retribution, Reparation.

Pianist Nate Morgan (1964-2013) was a central figure on the Los Angeles jazz undergound. A core member of the circle around the legendary bandleader, pianist and community organiser Horace Tapscott, Morgan had been part of Tapscott’s U.G.M.A.A. (Union Of God’s Musicians and Artists Ascension) since he was just a teenager, and was a key member of the Pan Afrikan People’s Arkestra, known as ‘The Ark’. Through the 1980s and 1990s he kept the PAPA flame alive, organising the Ark’s sprawling songbook, running legendary jam sessions, and keeping LA’s deep jazz roots well watered. By the early 2000s he was bringing hard won knowledge to a new generation as part of the Build The Ark collective. He was a musician’s musician, at the beating heart of the radical, community-minded Los Angeles jazz network that Tapscott and his associates had first put together in the early 1960s.

Retribution, Reparation was the second of the two LPs Morgan recorded for Tom Albach’s storied Nimbus West imprint. His first, Journey Into Nigritia (Outernational Sounds OTR- 008), had been a declaration of arrival laced with energies drawn from Cecil Taylor and Coltrane. One year later, with nods to Herbie Hancock (‘One Finger Snap’) and Ellington (‘Come Sunday’), Retribution, Reparation was a confident statement of purpose. Politically charged with pan-Africanist and Black nationalist sentiments inspired by Marcus Garvey, and titled with uncompromising directness, the album focusses the soundworld of the Ark into a surging, restless masterpiece of spiritualised modal jazz. With Danny Cortez on trumpet and Ark stalwart Jesse Sharps on saxophones the frontline is explosive (this set is also one of the few places the extraordinary Sharps can be heard in a small group setting), while Fritz Wise and Ark regular Joel Ector hold down the rhythm section. Morgan’s forceful, Tyner-like chords and virtuosic solos and bind the music together. From the poised drama of the opening dedication to Tapscott’s U.G.M.A.A. (‘U.G.M.A.A.GER’) to the propulsive militancy of the title track, Retribution, Reparation spreads the word: ‘Advance to Victory, Let Nigritia Be Free!’

Riding high on the success of his recent Soul Flip project, Del Gazeebo busts loose here with a pair of Rootsy, rigorously road-tested, certified party starters on his own brand new Art Surgery imprint.

First for a 2020 freshen-up is Barbara & The Browns' sassy, soulful rendition of the Rhythm & Blues and Reggae classic, "You Don't Love Me" - taking the already energetic 1971 recording, stretching it out, and giving it a little something extra in all the right places. Already touted as "one to watch in 2020" on the BBC's Craig Charles Funk & Soul Show & getting support from The Allergies, Smoove & Jalapeno Sound System.

On the flip, Pluto Shervington's 1976 uplifting Reggae smash "Dat" gets a subtle yet crucial lift to make it even more infectious. This sunny, irresistible ear-worm has long been a staple of Del's DJ sets, yet somehow as yet unreleased. Until now; re-refreshed for 2020.

ISAN’s Robin Saville reveals an ambient album, which merges the Electronica aesthetics of his main project with field recordings, drones and acoustic instrumentation.

A lot of things have been written about what happens to the mind when the body starts moving. Instead of reciting poems of the inevitable self-help books, let’s get straight to the point: For many, taking walks on a regular basis is both liberating and empowering. It is not necessarily so much about the exercise, but rather finding one’s own rhythm in life. Robin Saville – of ISAN fame – is such an ambler His walks inspired him to base his third solo album – his first one for Morr Music – on the out of the way places he came to see and experience while being out and about.

Clocking in at just under 40 minutes in total, "Build A Diorama" is both a subtle culmination and a poignant antipode to what Saville has achieved together with Antony Ryan as ISAN. While the aesthetics might seem similar in places, Saville opts for a decisively different pace when it comes to writing and producing. Progress is steady, and change, however, is slow – like looking at a diorama for a long period of time in the ever so slightly changing light or as a flaneur focussing on one particular spot, a found object so-to-speak, waiting for the mind to orchestrate it appropriately, giving it sense and meaning.

Built around quiet field recordings, Saville’s six compositions transform this highly personal and, therefore, difficult-to-convey experience into a comprehensible exploration of beauty. Where ISAN almost exclusively uses electronics, Saville deliberately expands this well-established palette with acoustic instruments like bass guitar, chimes and glockenspiel, aiming for an even more suitable musical manifestation of what the walker sees and feels once he fully engages in his passion. Ranging from blissfully pulsing pads allowing for complete associative freedom ("The Deepdale Halophyte Economy") to the playful minimalism of an orchestra dominated by busy bells ("Bosky"), Saville’s "Build A Diorama" is not just a valuable addition to his musical output, but an essential audio guide for those striving to explore, learn and understand.

Tommy McCook was not only a founding member of the legendary Jamaican Ska group The Skatalites, but also a brilliant musical arranger. His informed understanding of Jazz, R&B and in fact most music styles would always add another layer to any song put his way. This made him the go to guy for most of the Jamaican producers, who would use his arrangement skills to pepper up their latest tunes.

Tommy McCook, (b1927, Havana, Cuba) came to Jamaica with his mother from Cuba aged 11 and entered renowned Alpha Boys School for underprivileged children, a school that placed great emphasis on musical tuition. At the tender of 14, such was his talent he has left to join Eric Deans Orchestra and took on stints with other bands led by Don Hinchman and Roy Coburn. All the bands played in the Swing and Jazz style of the times. He relocated to the Bahamas in 1954 where he further developed his Jazz technique and upon his return to Jamaica in 1962 began working Coxsone Dodd’s Studio One and became involved in the development of Ska. His knowledge of Jazz, R& B and Jamaican musical forms helped set the tone for the group of musicians he was working with and would name the Skatalites. The group, consisting of Don Drummond (Trombone), Roland Alphonso (Tenor Saxophone), Jackie Mitoo (Piano), Lloyd Brevett (Bass), Lloyd Knibbs (Drums), alongside Tommy himself on Tenor Saxophone. The group would back all the major Ska vocalists pf the day and would also go on to cut a catalogue of instrumental music. The Skatalites split up in 1965 and Tommy McCook moved over to work with Duke Reid’s Treasure Isle Studios where he formed The Supersonics. A set of musicians under his guidance that consisted of Lynn Tait and Ernest Ranglin (Guitar), Neville Hinds and Winston Wright (Organ), Gladstone “Gladdy” Anderson (Piano), Hugh Malcolm and Arkland “Drumbago” Parks (Drums), Clifton “Jackie” Jackson (Bass), and Tommy and Hernon Marquis (Saxophone). The more laid back sounds from 1966-1968 would be given the name Rocksteady of which again McCook was at the forefront. The top producers like Bunny Lee would use the musicianship of Tommy McCook and his arrangement skills to enhance this new sound.

We have compiled a great selection of rhythms that featured McCook blowing over tracks stripped of their vocals and replaced with some fantastic lead lines played by Tommy and some of his fellow horns men.
We hope you agree like we do that they do this in fine style.

2x12" 180 grams / white vinyl

"The universe,
purity, simplicity and deceits,
profundity, solitude and hardness.
A brilliant yet dark setting.

A place of fleeting ephemeral encounters, real and intense nonetheless, where the forces sustaining it all are neither dark matter nor dark energy, but rather the outcome of the explosion of infinite ancestral love between the creation and its creator, in an era where one was still everything.

Gravity Darkening is an astronomic phenomenon, in which the light emanating from a star is distorted to the eyes of the beholder. A bridge of playful mirrors between reality and its perception in a binary code world, where man can dream unconditionally when reflecting himself in the absence of light.

This album is an expression of the allegorical essence of my lived experience and its resulting analysis, projected into another timeline, parallel to ours".
- Specialivery

Succeeding last year’s collaborative single ‘Feel My Butterfly’ which saw Chicago house DJ/producer Parris Mitchell and Siberian producer-singer-songwriter Nina Kraviz go head to head via Riva Starr’s Snatch! Raw and Dance Mania, February 21st sees the two labels combine once more for a special, two-sided remix package of the stellar ghetto house track featuring reworks from the likes of Jamie Jones, Dance System, DJ Deeon, Radio Slave and DJ Slugo.

‘Feel My Butterfly’ stemmed from Nina Kraviz’s trip to Chicago where she met with Dance Mania’s label crew including their influential selector, Parris Mitchell. The track was birthed from a bout of rare collaborative studio sessions and is their first official release together - their only previous encounter being in 2014 when Kraviz remixed Mitchell’s ‘The Track Stars’, on Berlin-based label Deep Moves.

Assembling a handful of some of the most prominent names in modern dance music, Snatch! Raw teams up with Dance Mania once again to now present a comprehensive remix package of the duo’s acid-laden, dancefloor-ready masterpiece. Providing a touching tribute to the late influential American house artist and Wallshaker Music founder, Aaron Carl, the illustrious Welsh house DJ/producer Jamie Jones kicks things off by inflaming the track’s heavy bass and percussion by adding his own laser-style synths and atmospherics.

Reinforcing ‘Feel My Butterfly’ with helpings of meatier, old school house rhythm, the second remix sees London’s Dance System team up with Chicago house pioneer DJ Deeon to provide the track with some well-placed elevated pace and precision. On side B, the British-born Berlin-based DJ, Radio Slave takes more a of stripped back approach by opting to just few vocal snippets from the original and setting them to a tougher techno-infused aesthetic, whilst on the final rework, Chicago’s ghetto house spinner DJ Slugo redefines Kraviz’s hypnotic vocal lead.

Canyons are places of mystery and beauty. The interesting thing is, while they are one of the great wonders in the history of planet earth and attract scientists of all kinds of disciplines, they have also been a popular retreat for artists and musicians. You will have heard of Topanga Canyon, Rickie Lee Jones and Chicago recorded here. Laurel Canyon is even more well known, a mythical place where Crosby, Stills & Nash developed their unique vocal sound while hanging around Mama Cass' place. Or was it in Joni Mitchell's house on Lookout Mountain? Ok, you get the picture. There is something unexplainable, almost magical going on in canyons.

Maybe that's why Andy Platts and Shawn Lee were thinking of "Canyons" when they wrote and recorded their third album as Young Gun Silver Fox. With "West End Coast" and "AM Waves" these two very talented musicians, singers, songwriters, arrangers and producers already explored all things Westcoast, AOR, Softrock and Boogie. But - especially if you are a into the golden age of this sound running from circa 1976 to 1984 - you will be aware that there is no return once you started digging these unconditional musical delights with their timeless compositions, untouchable musicianship and refined arrangements. The great albums from that era appeared when punk broke and the musical establishment was shaken to the ground. Today they sound more up to date than ever. Who would have thought back then?

On "Canyons" Young Gun Silver Fox turned it up to eleven. They are nothing but "Kids" cruising in the fast lane, totally over the top searching for the "Dream Woman", touching down in Tokyo caught in a "Long Distance Love Affair", imagining the theme for a lost 70s TV series starring "Danny Jamaica", being on the winning side in a "Private Paradise", getting deep and soulful in "Things We Left Unsaid" and wondering how to spread "All This Love". Their bass lines, sound layers, brass arrangements and harmony vocals are immaculate. Everything fits perfectly. Just like this. "Who Needs Words" when everything is crystal clear? Exactly!

"Canyons", after all, are magical places of rare beauty. (Mr. Mellow - Porcaroc Club/Mr. Mellow's Sunday Scene/Soho Radio).

Yes, we know the soul and funk world of the glory days, big labels, radio shows and bands amid a social context of segregation. A context that starts becoming less important when this music genre enters the mainstream in the late 70’s to eventually fade away at a fast pace in the 80’s until its complete disappearance in the 90’s and beyond. This time though, we dive a bit deeper into the hoods, because the social context of today ain’t no greatly different and it has its very own music, deeply rooted in the sounds of the early days, although more immediate and dense of beats and urban feel.

We are in Chicago, a place where every 2 hours someone is shot, and every 14 hours someone is murdered. It ain’t no Iraq or Afghanistan but one of the biggest and most sophisticated cities in the world. In the city’s west and south sides, which are considered the heart of Black America, gang rivalry is tearing its people apart. It has become so brutal that both police and perpetrators agree that this urban warfare is out of control. I started this release process after Yann sent me an heads up on this song and it took me most part of last year to build some mutual trust with Lay Lemons aka Biggz from North Lawndale, main area in the west side of the city and one of the most dangerous places in the world. When I first contacted him, Lay was having a hard time (and still does) as his daughter Raven was caught innocent in a gang shooting crossfire.

After the following investigation, the FBI (yes, big gangs are federal business) arrested and charged some members of The Four Corners Hustlers, yet Raven’s murder has no responsible and Lay suddenly lost his daughter overnight in the summer of 2017. He simply couldn’t concentrate on music, and the silly requests from a mad Italian with his crooked english were probably sounding to him like aliens speaking from outer space. I’m pretty sure this wouldn’t have been possible without the help of Lay’s cousin, sound engineer and recording studio owner living today in Detroit, so accept my gratitude Mr. Tony Amos.

Lay Lemons has never been involved with gangs nor was Raven, nowhere near that business. They are people of music, family and religion trying to survive in one of worlds toughest places. This song, its vibe, the beats, the voice... Are coming straight out of their hood, written around a fire bin on the side of the street and put together with 3 instruments. It has no chorus, it’s verses all the way through, it is a kind of prayer to the unknown in the hope of salvation through everyday strength.

Lay Lemons I salute you.

This album was recorded during Thollem's 2017 residency at Brooklyn-based multi-discipline mecca Pioneer Works. It's the second by Radical Empathy, which combines three uncategorizable improvisors. Michael Wimberly has been astonishing folks since his days in Charles Gayle bands and Steve Coleman & Five Elements in the early '90s, and has gone on become a composer and educator of note. Nels Cline has spent decades changing people's ideas about the role of the electric guitar in multiple contexts, ranging from Wilco to Anthony Braxton (think about that!) as well as many projects as a leader; this is his fourth album in trio with Thollem, and a fifth will follow next year, also on ESP. Some people have given ESP-Disk' flak (and "flak" was not the first word choice here) about putting out Thollem McDonas albums. "He's not in the jazz tradition," they say, and even though their idea of the jazz tradition includes Albert Ayler, we like to think that this album will make their little, closed minds explode.