Поиск:in essence

Rare soul/funk album out of Oakland, CA.
Featuring Marlon Hunter along with the Group The Standards Of Living.
Six songs full of jazz/funk groove and Modern Soul atmospheres.
First time released in 1980 as a private press this rare pearl represents a must have for diggers, djs and collectors

Following the release of their debut album, Overcast!, Atmosphere was already making waves in the underground Hip-Hop scene, attracting attention for their unique combination of content, styles and sounds. Although the group was suddenly smaller due to the departure of one member, Spawn, the buzz continued to grow, as did the creative output of remaining members Slug and Ant. Over the next 3 years, the duo recorded and released a flurry of unofficial Atmosphere CD's, tapes, songs and side projects, along with pressing and distributing a string of vinyl EP's, titled "Ford One", "Ford Two", and "The Lucy EP". These vinyl EP's were ultimately consolidated onto one CD as well, for the purpose of selling on tour and distributing to retail, becoming what most considered to be Atmosphere's official sophomore album, Lucy Ford: The Atmosphere EP's, more commonly referred to as simply Lucy Ford. Lucy Ford was packed with the kind of nimble wordplay found on Atmosphere's debut, but it was paired with more self-reflective and introspective rhymes than their previous album. Tracks like "The Woman With the Tattooed Hands" and "Nothing But Sunshine" showed Slug was equally as talented at poignant storytelling as he was at conveying a deeper message for the greater good of humanity, while songs like "Don't Ever Fucking Question That" and "Like Today" stripped away at the character facade, allowing listeners to know the rapper on a more intimate level. The album wasn't entirely devoid of ego though. Slug reminds listeners of his competitive roots on "Guns & Cigarettes" over a truly inspired bluesy beat by Ant, who handled the lion's share of the album's production. And while Ant knows how to bring the emotional essence out of a beat, from the idyllic to the incensed, there were a few notable contributions from outside producers as well, including the dub-inspired "Free or Dead" by Jel, and the darkly optimistic "Nothing But Sunshine" by Moodswing9, among others. Now, in celebration of its 20th anniversary, the entire Lucy Ford album is finally available on 2xLP vinyl, for the first time in history! At last, fans and collectors everywhere can finally own this integral part of Atmosphere's legacy on vinyl, complete with the original artwork and a redesigned layout.

Home Again Records push forward presenting their 4th release, this time welcoming label affiliate Sandilé. The Cologne based artist has become notable for her eclectic sound which is reflective of her background appreciation of broken beat, UKG and the musical essence of London, as well as warm funk and soul. This limitless exploration of genre is perfectly depicted on Home Again 04 which is her debut release for the Berlin label, the EP features 3 originals plus a remix from house mainstay Malin Genie.

The EP kicks off with the fast paced four-to-the-floor ‘Bossbias’, featuring classic house vocals and skippy high hats, interestingly the track originated as a collaboration between Sandile and UKG hero Zed Bias, hence the title reference. Found on the flip side is ‘Sista From Da Block’, a dreamscape of liquid jungle fused with soulful jazz vocals, whilst on the B-side ‘Trayvon’ offers a deeper head-down club track that unfolds inspirational male vocals, bouncy undertones and an
uplifting whistle throughout the body of the track. Malin Genie re-jigs ‘Trayvon’ layering up with some retro feels on the B2 completing the package.

‘Everyone’s now getting back on the dancefloor...house music without dancing and people coming together sure had a different taste. I guess it’s the perfect timing for my first Home Again release, because it sure does feel like I’m finally coming home again!’ – says Sandilé

After more than two decades flexing his muscles on the local underground scene and gaining a legendary cult status on his Tenerife home turf, the island’s most famous postman, as he’s affectionately known by his consorts, Tomás de la Rosa aka Postman breaks radio silence to bulldoze his way through the canyons surrounding his hometown of Santa Cruz into an unknown and unsuspecting world. We present thus, Postman’s first ever album of original bangers, micro chopped two steppers and rage induced breakbeat anthems.

Constructed over the course of global confinement, Seeds of Light marks a return to creative activity from the man who regularly delivers your post (its not just a random artist name). Postman aka Tomás de la Rosa has taken his time, compiling sketches and unfinished songs, rummaging through the deep ends of his hardrive, stitching early production sketches with recent compositions, revising, reediting and rebuilding with a more mature and concise attitude, eventually completing, almost unintentionally, the perfect self referential retrospective album. Far from being just a compilation album, Tomás managed to create an explosive document, suspended in time, in which styles are intertwined regardless of fashions and fads – letting go of the ‘modern’ or ‘up to date’ burden - so common these days in electronic music.

It is not an easy album, like many of his previous work it demands extra attention to experience the full crystallization of his complex sound structures. We find ourselves in front of a truly surgically precise work of art whose result comes as a waterproof war machine, refined and incisive, resonating deep with soul and groove.

Postman develops his sound palette throughout the album from very basic sound snippets into a concrete dance world of synthetic sounds eventually creating a parallel reality where J. Dilla could be living in Chemnitz instead of Detroit and releasing records for a label called Raster-Throw. Glitch sampladelics!

Incursions into Grime are also abundant with nods to the ineffable East Man, reunions with his beloved Funkstörung or many other stimulating revisions of lifelong genres and breaks populate this multidimensional sound space, see soul, dancehall, breakbeat, two step and the UK hardcore continuum.

Special mention to the magnificent fluid artwork by the very talented Catalan visual artist Alba de Corral. A still photo from one of her kinetic AI systems programmed directly in code, which matches perfectly the essence of Postman's brutalist alien sound.

Vinyl limited to 200 copies

Black vinyl with download. Bio Ritmo is recognized around the world as one of the most intriguing and influential indie “salsa dura” orchestras of the last three decades. Their music is rooted in Afro-Caribbean rhythms mixed with retro big-band jazz, a little funk, and all things 1970s. The 10-piece powerhouse began in 1991 as an experimental percussion ensemble that grew out of the diverse local music scene of Richmond, VA, which also gave birth to GWAR, Honor Role, Sparklehorse, and Lamb of God, among many others. Bio Ritmo has received global acclaim, with critics heralding them as “Latin music visionaries” and “one of the most innovative salsa bands of the 21st century.” To commemorate the group’s 30-year anniversary, Merge and Electric Cowbell Records are reissuing Bio Ritmo’s 7-inch single “Piragüero” b/w “Asia Minor,” originally released on Merge in 1996. A-side “Piragüero” is an original track that features the soaring, soulful vocals of Rei Alvarez. The flipside is a mambo classic from the ’50s popularized by the great Cuban bandleader Machito, whom Bio Ritmo regarded as a major influence in its conception. This record is a snapshot of the raw essence of Bio Ritmo in its early years that laid the foundation for the band’s evolution and endurance.

Spun Out Agency is honoured to present ‘More of that Frightful Oompty Boompty Music’, a compilation dedicated to the Guv’nor himself Mr Andrew Weatherall who should need no introduction on these pages. Released on vinyl in two beautiful parts, the first drops on April 15th with the second following two weeks after.

‘More of that Frightful Oompty Boompty Music’ (yes we are going to write that out every time we talk about it in this communique) showcases a selection of the shining greatness from the agency’s roster. Paranoid London, Fantastic Twins, Mehmet Aslan, Autarkic, Ruf Dug, Sean Johnston, and Manfredas gift exclusive tracks which highlight the sublime acid, techno and house sound that Weatherall would have described as “oopmty-boompty” music.

Spun Out is a London-based artist booking agency which has been run by Caroline Hayes for over 20 splendid years, that looked after the life and times of Andrew Weatherall alongside his partnership with Sean Johnston under their A Love From Outer Space moniker, and the likes of Optimo (Espacio), Ivan Smagghe, Josh Caffe, Man Power, Body Hammer, Kiara Scuro and many more artists, doing it differently.

Kicking off the A-side of the first record is Hardway Bros’ (aka Sean Johnston) previously unreleased remix of We Are The Axis by The Asphodells, the duo consisting of the Andrew Weatherall and former Battant member and Spun Out talent Timothy J. Fairplay. An energetic techno stomper with percussive rhythms, this exclusive remix offers the ideal tantalising dose to tease any dancefloor. The vocals and synth layers give it a punk rock approach, referencing the multi-genre essence of Weatherall’s taste in music.

Tel-Aviv-based Autarkic’s Sleepover closes the A-side with a chuggy lullaby, one that is certainly unsuitable for putting a baby to bed, given its intricate acid lines of total hypnosis. Following on the B-side is Manctalo Banger, a house bop by the Manchester-via-Ibiza computer game nerd and vinyl digger Ruf Dug, and Shizowaves, Turkish-born Basel-based Mehmet Aslan’s soulful touch to the compilation, bringing Middle-Eastern percussive melodies and catchy basslines.

The second record is introduced by Paranoid London, with a Spun Out dedicated acid techno banger appropriately titled Spinning Out and Fantastic Twins’ EBM track Kali’s Tongue Was A Weapon. On the B-side is Lithuanian chug legend Manfredas’ Hfuhruhurr, and Naum Gabo, who closes the compilation with the chaotic analogue-synth frenzy, Cold Sold. The name Naum Gabo may evoke the pioneer of Russian constructivism, who rose to fame thanks to his crazy kinetic sculptures. However, here it manifests as one half of Spun Out’s Optimo duo Jonnie Wilkes (JG Wikes) and James Savage. The duo’s impeccable manipulation of electronic hardware couldn’t give a better homage to him.

Some highlights for Spun Out artists this summer include 9 acts from the roster playing at Houghton Festival, Paranoid London’s show at Sonar Festival, Love International Festival and Ransom Note’s festival with Optimo Watching Trees.

Spun Out Agency is honoured to present ‘More of that Frightful Oompty Boompty Music’, a compilation dedicated to the Guv’nor himself Mr Andrew Weatherall who should need no introduction on these pages. Released on vinyl in two beautiful parts, the first drops on April 15th with the second following two weeks after.

‘More of that Frightful Oompty Boompty Music’ (yes we are going to write that out every time we talk about it in this communique) showcases a selection of the shining greatness from the agency’s roster. Paranoid London, Fantastic Twins, Mehmet Aslan, Autarkic, Ruf Dug, Sean Johnston, and Manfredas gift exclusive tracks which highlight the sublime acid, techno and house sound that Weatherall would have described as “oopmty-boompty” music.

Spun Out is a London-based artist booking agency which has been run by Caroline Hayes for over 20 splendid years, that looked after the life and times of Andrew Weatherall alongside his partnership with Sean Johnston under their A Love From Outer Space moniker, and the likes of Optimo (Espacio), Ivan Smagghe, Josh Caffe, Man Power, Body Hammer, Kiara Scuro and many more artists, doing it differently.

Kicking off the A-side of the first record is Hardway Bros’ (aka Sean Johnston) previously unreleased remix of We Are The Axis by The Asphodells, the duo consisting of the Andrew Weatherall and former Battant member and Spun Out talent Timothy J. Fairplay. An energetic techno stomper with percussive rhythms, this exclusive remix offers the ideal tantalising dose to tease any dancefloor. The vocals and synth layers give it a punk rock approach, referencing the multi-genre essence of Weatherall’s taste in music.

Tel-Aviv-based Autarkic’s Sleepover closes the A-side with a chuggy lullaby, one that is certainly unsuitable for putting a baby to bed, given its intricate acid lines of total hypnosis. Following on the B-side is Manctalo Banger, a house bop by the Manchester-via-Ibiza computer game nerd and vinyl digger Ruf Dug, and Shizowaves, Turkish-born Basel-based Mehmet Aslan’s soulful touch to the compilation, bringing Middle-Eastern percussive melodies and catchy basslines.

The second record is introduced by Paranoid London, with a Spun Out dedicated acid techno banger appropriately titled Spinning Out and Fantastic Twins’ EBM track Kali’s Tongue Was A Weapon. On the B-side is Lithuanian chug legend Manfredas’ Hfuhruhurr, and Naum Gabo, who closes the compilation with the chaotic analogue-synth frenzy, Cold Sold. The name Naum Gabo may evoke the pioneer of Russian constructivism, who rose to fame thanks to his crazy kinetic sculptures. However, here it manifests as one half of Spun Out’s Optimo duo Jonnie Wilkes (JG Wikes) and James Savage. The duo’s impeccable manipulation of electronic hardware couldn’t give a better homage to him.

Some highlights for Spun Out artists this summer include 9 acts from the roster playing at Houghton Festival, Paranoid London’s show at Sonar Festival, Love International Festival and Ransom Note’s festival with Optimo Watching Trees.

The Line Is A Curve is about letting go. The core of the record is that the pressures we face do not always have to be heavy burdens, but can be reframed; the more pressure a person is under, the greater the possibility for release.

The album plays like a chronicle of pressures - the mind-numbing pursuit of a comfortable life, the eternal striving for more, the pressures of the city, the country, the times. The pressures of maintaining relationships, of battling illness, addiction, poor mental health, the vacuous life of our online selves. As we move through these chronicles though, the mood brightens. The musicality becomes more expansive as the lyrical horizon broadens and we glimpse coastlines, high streets, scrap yards, train stations in the rain; the entire album begins to let go. We encounter the contributions of artists who I love and admire, guest vocalists and instrumentalists, and so we defeat the sense of isolation felt in the opening track with a sense of deeply connected community. More Pressure, the penultimate song, is the essence of the whole album and the epiphany that leads to Grace, which is a prayer, a surrendering; ‘Please move me, please move through me, please unscrew me, please loosen me up.’ But once we get to the end of Grace, and the album, we loop back to the start – to ‘Kiss off the day with a mute mouth. Pass the commute like I can die faster than you.’ Because no matter how much a person grapples with, realises, deeply understands, about life and their place in it, we still wake up in the morning back to square one. Life isn’t solved the minute you figure something out about it. It’s a daily operation to increase your resilience, cultivate a deeper acceptance, let go of what’s chasing you and lean in to the pressures. It’s cyclical, as I believe all things are. And instead of trying to fight the cycles, this album asks us to surrender to them. To let go.

These general themes, of acceptance, resilience, surrender are also about where I’m at in my personal life, in my journey towards a greater acceptance of myself as an artist and as a human being. Being more honest with the world and my community about who I am and letting go of some heavy heavy shame, which is a glorious thing.

This album has a beautiful heart, there is so much love running through it and I can’t wait for people to experience it.

Volume 20 of Attack the Dancefloor kicks off with what we think will be a future classic – ‘Atlantia’ by Level 42’s Mike Lindup. A stunning mid-tempo boogie cut with great spacey production, excellent lyrics and an extended mix by Dave Lee.

Next up is Lazywax’s synth heavy, 80s soul style rework of the forthcoming Raw Essence ‘Do it Again’, the original being featured on Produced With Love 2.

Flip it over for Dave’s much played take of Jungle’s crossover hit ‘Keep Moving’, which gives the song an authentic bassline driven disco mix. Last up Chicago’s Emmaculate delivers a live instrumentation filled afro disco version of Doug Willis feat Zeke Manyika ‘Dougswana’.

Dear is Pauwel's big step forward. His debut album on Unday (due April 2020) is a mature collection of songs about loss in all its different facets. Pauwel openly confronts his demons, without ever losing sight of the essence: rock-solid and captivating folk songs between hope and despair, comforting and disquieting at the same time. Dear turns out a record to cherish and completely disappear into.

Shortly after Pauwel finished his previous EP, his mother passed away. A few weeks later, Europe went into lockdown for a second time. Pauwel wanted to cope with this turbulent episode on his debut on Unday Records, but the isolation during the pandemic only cast more doubts. During the darkest winter months, the 31-year-old songwriter realized that loss comes in many guises: lovers come to leave, suddenly leave or turn out to have become strangers. "Dear" is the account of this dark period in Pauwel's life. A reckoning with all the bad that happened to him and his peers. It is also a bridge to whatever comes next, a hopeful glance at the future.

On 'Dear', Pauwel expands his musical universe considerably, without losing his characteristic melancholy and distinctive voice. With the help of musicians Sander Smeets, Koen De Gendt and David Broeders - his new backing band - the rough folk diamonds were polished into mature songs. The stunning voice of Catherine Smet (aka Bluai) serves as a comforting echo on a handful of songs.
"Dear" was recorded at three different locations by producer Bert Vliegen (Whispering Sons, Sophia). The opening track "Murderer" and the haunting "Bones" were created in a hut in Walcourt. The bulk of the record was recorded during an intense week at the GAM Studio in Waimes. While the TV news showed apocalyptic images of the floods in the province of Liège around the clock, Pauwel and his band finished the songs. Rich, spacy arrangements ("Lazy"), rambling country-rockers ("Deer" & "Sister") or a tearful one-taker on Fender Rhodes ("Mother"): during this session "Dear" finally came together.

Limited to 100 copies!

For the second release on Subject To Restrictions Discs’ White Series, Los Pashminas from Fribourg deliver a four-track sound experience for dance floors.

The complexity of the human experience has led to many theories, which tried to explain the emotional activity of our everyday experiences. In the ’60s Paul MacLean formulated the ‘Triune Brain’ model. This theory proposes a very simplistic organisation of our brain, which would be too easy to accept since the very notion of ‘change’ is difficult to give credence to. The wiring between our primary and emotional behaviour is much more complex and subject to plasticity and transformations. What if the very essence of music could follow the same path? Maybe music could take conscience of its own environment and develop its own wave, independently from the human will.

This EP is an essay in which symbolic samples are organising themselves into the genesis of a new form of conscience, a result of a survival-mode experience that pushes the music itself to create its new form. This sound journey was created during the 2020 Pandemic.

The Deacon had been in exile from
the following crimes committed
faith and sonic soul saving
using the Holy Ghost as the
weapon of choice.

Last known whereabouts Mt Fuji Japan.
but since then a virus has infected the world
it also has affected the soul in music
and prevented people from gathering,
dancing and living normal everyday lives.

So the deacon returns from exile
to fight and do battle with the faithless,
un soulful sounds created by the fear
of the global pandemic by using
faith,hope and the "Holy Ghost" to
restore the faith and soul in the hearts
and minds of people through music
and bring order back to the global
dance community...

At its essence BAIT is a band that has become a long distance relationship. For 18 months it’s lived in the cloud, with a rope around its neck. We’ve all had enough restrictions but restrictions force you to work with what you’ve got. Restrictions are precisely what BAIT needed to breathe out, sink to the bottom and propel itself back into the light of day clutching a new record.

‘Sea Change’ is the debut full-length album from BAIT. It’s a digital post-punk lockdown docu-record which watches the clock, gets the jitters, and lashes out just like the rest of us. It’s an internal monologue that accounts the anxiety, the struggles, the pressures experienced living by the sea during a global pandemic.

“This record is true to the environment it was created in, everything was developed remotely and we were forced to collaborate through isolation. I had to sing lower to avoid fucking off the neighbours…At one point I drove out to the middle of nowhere to demo some screaming parts in the driver’s seat of my car, I’m lucky I wasn’t arrested.” - Michael Webster

Chris Imler likes to play drums standing up. He‘s the dandy with the killer offbeat, or, as one major German newspaper once put it, the "Grand Seigneur of the Berlin Underground". He has been making his mark on countless Berlin musical affairs since long before the fall of the Wall, with The Golden Showers, Peaches, Oum Shatt, Driver &Driver, Die Türen, Jens Friebe, to name but a few. He has also been perfoming across Europe as a solo artist for the past decade.

In "Operation Schönheit" (German for "Operation Beauty"), he has recorded his most, well, beautiful album to date. But Benedikt Frey's warm production subverts its own beauty with a multitude of clanking and ingling synth sounds, making the work very much about the cosmetic surgery it performs on itself. It's all in the tradition of the more experimental and electronic side of post-punk in which Imler and his unique groove are rooted. It doesn't take insider knowledge of Berlin's post-punk underground to realise that that Imler groove consists of rhythm that sings, vocals that dance and a look that fits, as illustrated by "Disappoint Me", his latest video: https://youtu.be/YeVJ75ljjB8

Elsewhere - such as in "Movies" - the rhythm sings, less electronically reduced, into the acoustics of an old, high-ceilinged Berlin apartment; metal clatters, a zither trembles and Imler plays with the metronome. Sometimes he moves ahead of time, sometimes trails behind it. He always manages to be in his very own groove, which carries everything along. And this is precisely the essence of the Imler rhythm, which lends itself to being applied to the very rhythm of life: Stretch and compress your time and loop it according to your own groove! Optimise nothing but feel everything! And dance to it! Even when contemplating everyday information overload, as Imler's high-speed mumbling suggests in the hectic yet smooth opening track "Temperature".

But being the ultimate night owl he is, Imler manages to make even the odd bout of paranoia seem like a good thing: like some kind of krauty, groovy B-horror-soundtrack-inflected high-pressure environment, "Whip Me" is a cross between Conrad Schnitzler and Bauhaus. In the title track, whose lyrics were written together with Jens Friebe, he intones: "You want to be something greater / You break your leg / When it heals again / You break it again" and sounds like the most gleeful fatalist you can imagine. Because in his city, one can still lose oneself better than anywhere else - a night easily becomes a whole universe that can be traversed, marvelled at and played with, and one might find one's old self again only when hearing "church bells" and "small birds singing". At least that's how Imler illustrates it in "Emptiness full of stars", and it seems likely that those "stars" are the human companions of the Berlin night in question.

And so once again Imler becomes Berlin's most important cultural ambassador: that scene of the eternally, and somehow successfully, failing creatures of the night, once the envy of the international postmodern bohème, has, despite many claims to the contrary, not been completely "optimised away", and its attitude to life is perfectly summed up in Imler's groove. And, of course, his look. "Schau Hin" (German for "Look!"), he sings in the track of the same name, masterfully dubbed out with the help of Melbourne's Leo James.

Quite right! Look - and listen.

Yours, Johannes von Weizsäcker (The Chap)

7" Black Vinyl limited to 1000 copies.

Teenagehood, brotherhood and a genuine love for alternative music has united THE GOA EXPRESS from the off. Hailing from the industrial town of Burnley and adopted by the Manchester culture carriers, their teenage years can be viewed as something of a hedonistic pilgrimage into the underbelly of suburban rock and roll- their first gig having been 3 songs blasted out their mates garage, the next on top of a local vintage shop where the floor nearly caved in: “when there’s fuck all, you make do with what you got”. The intensity of this friendship has resulted in the occasional bust up along the way, yet it only adds to the burning chemistry that the band offer on record and on stage. Together, brothers James Douglas Clarke (Guitar + Vocals) and Joe Clarke (Keys), along with Joey Stein (Lead Guitar), Naham Muzaffar (Bass) and Sam Launder (Drums) all contribute to a fuzzy wall of diverse sound, becoming harder to pin down with their constantly evolving, psych-umbrella’d, rock and roll. What sets THE GOA EXPRESS apart from other musicians who sit comfortably within scenes is that their identity as a band has been growing organically long before the 5 of them decided to pick up instruments and teach themselves art of killing time. Their genuine joy in the everyday; their attitude and antics seem to hark back to the glory days of the NME- if they talk about a night out, you want to be there because these lads ooze charm and wreak havoc. This purist, old school approach to creating music through unified experiences and stimulated good times is married with the plain fact that they are very much young people of this generation, and while they see its flaws its hyperreality, its sheep-like tendencies, they still understand the importance in the immediacy of pop music: of a banging riff, or a glorious chorus and how effective this can truly be, and they want everyone along for the ride. With influences ranging from Spacemen 3 and The Brian Jonestown Massacre to French existentialism, from Beat Literature to long hours working at the Bookies to the journey into the sunrise on the night bus home, it is their ability to be all these things at once which makes THE GOA EXPRESS a guitar band for the 21st Century. Nothing is ever a compromise because they are so unapologetically themselves in everything they do- proud Northerners with a DIY foundation that aren’t afraid to look into the often dim future and see themselves shining brightly in it, unforgiving and unpretentious. So far, the band have released 3 singles with great success. The first: ‘Be My Friend’, produced by Ross Orton right next Sheffield’s famous ‘City Sauna’ brothel, presents itself to us as a cheeky, snarling pop song, holding undertones of raw cynicism laden with psychedelic sunshine. Ross Orton’s studio was also right next door to where the band recorded their last single ‘The Day’ with Nathan Saoudi of Fat White Family at ‘Champ Zone.’ Both these producers have been able to give these instant pop classics a grittier feel, capturing the essence of the unfettered lifestyle the band were living at the time that they were able to capture themselves in the music video for ‘Be My Friend’. After signing with Ra-Ra Rok, (WU-LU/Bingo Fury) the band released anthemic summer hit ‘Second Time’, that went straight to the 6 music B-List before quickly heading up to the A-List 2 for 2 weeks. This was followed by the release of its B-Side ‘Overpass’ that almost immediately caught the eyes and ears of BBC Radio 1’s Jack Saunders, who had the band on his ‘Next Wave’ Segment. Closing the year that saw them play to 1000 strong crowds at festivals like Latitude & End of the Road, the band headlined their biggest headline show to date at Manchester’s Gorilla. Its fair to say that this really is only the beginning.

Embrace is the sixth studio album by Dutch trance DJ and producer Armin van Buuren. The album features hits like “Another You (ft. Mr. Probz)”, “Off The Hook (ft. Hardwell)”, “Looking For Your Name (ft. Gavin DeGraw)” & “Heading Up High (ft. Kensington)”. Other notable collaborators include Angel Taylor, Cosmic Gate, Eric Vloeimans and many others. The album was originally released in 2015 through Van Buuren’s own label Armada Music. Critics noted how the record has a poppy, commercial appeal, but still allows the emotional essence of trance music to shine through.

Embrace is released as a limited edition of 2500 individually numbered copies on black & white marbled vinyl. It comes with a
4-page insert with pictures, lyrics and credits, and the run-out groove contains secret inscriptions.

LeSale is back with the Synchronized EP, which marks his fifth solo EP on Luv Shack Records.

The title track is LeSale´s first foray into boogie-funk, featuring lyrics and vocals by Kathy Diamond, one of the great voices of the early nu-disco era and former singer of the duo KDMS, as well as tape mixing by vienna based studio wizard Sam Irl. "Synchronized" comes in 4 versions; the classic vocal mix featuring the full vocals by Kathy Diamond, the instrumental mix which is stripped of the vocals entirely, the extended dub mix, featuring arrangement and additional overdubs by Sam Irl, concentrating on the bare,funky essence of the track and finally a special remix by Ooft!.

The Ooft! remix lays a club foundation for "Synchronized", taking it to proto house territory with a sparse use of original vocals and additional drums, synth leads and pads.

As a bonus original track, we get "Superfluid", an upbeat elektro-funk journey with the right amount of

Tape

Lucia H. Chung is a Taiwanese experimental artist based in London. She performs and releases music under the alias 'en creux'.

Under this alias, Lucia is interested in the underlying structures of what we call noise and is examining the effects of human interventions into its complex web of tones. Repetition and chance operations are fundamental to Lucia‘s music. It is not built on the dionysian maximalism and symbolic harshness of lots of noise artists; catharsis is not reached via an explosion of sound, but via concentration on sound phenomena and small changes, which, not unlike some minimal disco night your usual mind-altering drone ritual, sucks you in more with every tiny alteration. This music is as intense as it is sensitive.

„The Liberated Mind“, in Lucia‘s own words, „is a sort of split release between two no-input configurations“. For „Wyldside“, she tuned two different feedback mixers with identical routings as close possible, as much as tuning is possible at all on these highly volatile instruments. „The two channels naturally phased in and out from each other. I guess the process was actually akin to Steve Reich's tape techniques on Come Out and It's Gonna Rain. The whole release extrapolated from that point onwards...“ Finding and replicating similar routings/settings on no input mixing desks is the nightmare of every control freak and a task doomed to failure, but in letting go and embracing these failures, patterns emerge. And thanks to Lucia‘s careful work, these patterns become hypnotic as she carves out the essence of each feedback loop, or, as she puts it: „Actually, I did remember the setting for the final track „Earthrise“, but for whatever reasons, I just cannot reproduce the sounds and it's forever lost (at least for this point in time, maybe when the conditions are primed again for the machine, the same sounds will emerge again...). I guess that's really the essences of improvised NIMB setup. Every single sound was the effect of the previous iteration and the cause of the next iteration... (Wait... isn't it just like a Blockchain? Ha!)“

A collection of no-input studio sessions improvised with Mackie 1202-VLZ Pro, TAPCO MIX260FX, MXR Phase 90 and Electro-Harmonix Bad Stone Phase Shifter. All tracks recorded live, no overdubs. Recorded in London in February 2020. Mastered by causeandcondition

Lucia also works as independent curator, producer and broadcaster at Happened. Check out Lucia‘s other albums on Hard Return, Falt and SM-LL.

Repress in soon!!

Morning Trip & Yoga Records are proud to finally reveal one of the ultimate lost masterworks of new age music: Alice Damon’s Windsong. Gently propelled by Damon's haunting breath-of-life vocal winds reminiscent of Joan La Barbara underscored by field recordings and Damon's fretless bass sound calling to mind mid-70 Joni Mitchell, Windsong is traveling music, for the roads or for the skies. Instantly moving, it conjures vistas both romantically familiar and cosmically mysterious — waterfalls and wind, the voice of the earth, as heard through heavenly prisms.

Damon attended college in Massachusetts, where she formed and fronted the all-female garage band called The Moppets in the late 60s. The band began to garner national attention, but Damon moved instead to the wilds of northern Vermont to homestead and raise a family. In 1981 or thereabouts she was able to gain use of an early Sony digital home recorder, and created her masterwork, Windsong.

But Damon waited until 1990 to release a packaged version of this album, now titled "Windsong II", and sent samples to regional distributors like Vermont’s fabled Silo-Alcazar, where a copy of the album was first discovered, but little evidence exists of a proper commercial release. Alice Damon passed on in 2011 and remained essentially unknown until the landmark I Am The Center: Private Issue New Age In America 1950-1990 first revealed her genius to a wider audience two years later. Now, just in time for the recording's 40th anniversary, Alice Damon's Windsong may at last be heard as one of the most singular, moving and profound examples of new age music's psychedelic essence. Morning Trip & Yoga
Records proudly present Windsong.

Last October, when Bernard Allison returned to his old haunt of Bessie Blue Studios, Tennessee, to be greeted by fabled producer and career- long collaborator Jim Gaines, it felt like coming home. And when Allison fired up the amps, counted in the band and embarked upon his latest studio album, Highs And Lows, everything felt right with the world. “Just to be able to create music again after the pandemic,” he says of that long-awaited rebirth, “was incredible.”
For 56 years, music has been Bernard Allison’s essence. As the youngest son of the much- missed Chicago bandleader Luther Allison, he was a bluesman from birth. One week after graduating high school, Bernard cut his teeth on the road with Koko Taylor’s Blues Machine lineup – and ended up staying for most of the ’80s. By the close of the decade, however, he assumed a twin identity, leading and
writing for his father’s band, while forging a solo career that exploded in Europe off the back of early albums like The Next Generation (1990), No Mercy (1994) and Funkifino (1995).Now, released in February 2022 on Ruf Records, Highs And Lows sees Bernard acknowledge his lineage through two classic songs by his
father – Gave It All and Now You Got It – while offering nine originals. Try the irresistible groove of Hustler: a funk gem written by Bernard with Andrew Thomas, whose horn-and-harp groove evokes the strut of the title character. Or the masterful Last Night, which shifts tempo from an upbeat chop to a weeping slow- blues, capturing the changing moods of a man chasing his runaround woman. As for the title track, Bernard says it speaks for anyone left bemused by life’s rollercoaster: “It’s a part of life, the ups and downs that everyone deals with.”Right now, with a new album of stellar material to take out on his New Year tour, Bernard Allison is back in the ascendency – and the man can’t wait to return to his natural habitat. “The song So Excited is basically about the excitement of being able to be back on the road again,” he says. “I think everyone can relate to that.”

Following the revival of the iconic 1990s dance album series, Club Culture in 2020, Stress presents Club Culture Vol. 2. Much like in volume 1, the label continue to pay homage to the UK’s rich and diverse club culture with a collection of the scene’s freshest tracks.

To celebrate the return of the series, a limited edition vinyl sampler will be available which features five of the album’s most cutting edge selections, including exclusives from Richie Blacker, and Danny Howard. Label favourites, Tommy Farrow, Ben Hemsley, and Because of Art are also included on the sampler. Each handpicked track captures the sonic essence of Stress and clubland today.

Stress brought the world many seminal house tracks in the 1990s including Bedrock’s ‘For You Dream Of’, Last Rhythm’s ‘Last Rhythm’, and Greed’s ‘Pump Up The Volume’. During the 1990’s, Stress was considered one of the world’s greatest independent record labels, where it became known for its growing influence on the progressive house scene. It gave birth to the early careers of iconic producers Sasha and John Digweed. Today it is carving out a whole new scene taking inspiration from the past but creating a whole new sound for the stable.

This is the sound of clubland and club culture.

Pressed on recycled vinyl.

Oonops's first encounter with Japanese producer Shin-Ski dates back six years when he asked him for an exclusive guest mix for his show on Brooklyn Radio. He became aware of him years ago through his group ShinSight Trio with Insight and DJ Ryow a.k.a. Smooth Current. After one more mix and two collaborations on his Resense-series plus "Oonops Drops - Vol.1" compilation via Agogo Records they started working together on a whole album of instrumentals.

For this 45 Oonops had the chance to dig through an amount of unreleased tracks and selected some of the essential essences with different influences from Jazz, Soul, Funk and much more.

White Vinyl

This 3 track EP produced by Noise Factory and showcases sum serious anthems that can stand the test of time.
Upholding the essence of hardcore musik scene n the merging into what was to be jungle musik ... Can You Feel The Rush - This track was produced in 1992 by Noise Factory and sums up the vibes at that time and stands out due to the piano stabs merging with the drum patterns while upholding the hardcore elements with the strong leading vocals from homeboy Danny from Tottenham.

AA. The Buzz - This track produced by Noise Factory back in 1991 was a major game changer with the piano stabs and sub bass crossing over with the hardcore elements helps this track to stand the testimony of time. This track was named by Mad P from Top Buzz.
AAA. Feel The Music - This track produced in 1991 by Noise Factory represents hardcore jungle at its best with the samples and speeded up vocals alongside sum heavy sub bass.

Rapper and producer duo ​Verbz & ​Mr Slipz announce their latest album ‘Radio Waves’ ​due out ​13th November 2020​. Released on the acclaimed Hip-Hop label ​High Focus Records​, the 22-track project sits perfectly between present-day greatness and unrivalled nostalgia welcoming us into their unique rap landscape. The cover, designed by ​Matt Littler​, captures the essence of the album perfectly.

Born and raised in Croydon, rapper ​Verbz has proven himself time after time with his innovative rhyming style and distinct flow. The creative partnership wouldn’t be complete without Brighton based producer Mr Slipz who marries ​Verbz’ form with his laid back jazzy sound as well as unmistakable attention to detail. The pair started making music together in 2017 when they released their debut collaboration ‘Lessons Of Adolescence’. This was followed by extensive tours and studio sessions where their musical alliance was cemented and their bond has been untouchable ever since.

Kicking off the album with humour and personality, '​2202 FM​’ is a full-bodied track which sees ​Verbz spit tales of admiration for his city whilst at the same time striving to escape. With London on the brain,

‘Summer In The Bits’ ​is an introspective analysis of a summer's day in the capital full of tense trials and tribulations. Moving throughout the album, ​‘Kno The Status’ welcomes three potent guest verses from Alex Holy​, ​Datkid & ​Upfront ​paired with an unrivaled ​arrangement and instrumentation magnifying Mr Slipz’ craft. Once again his incomparable production delivers on ​‘Weekend Blues’ ​which see’s ​Verbz regretfully address craving more from his weekend to then be greeted by numbness on a Monday morning. ​High Focus linchpin Fliptrix delivers some captivating combinations on ​‘My Wonders’ ​honing n on the current state of the world from his point of view. Up next is one of the lead singles

‘The Feeling’, which is a refreshing and rare representation of the classic Boom Bap sound. Before signing out, ​Verbz’ ​impressive storytelling shines through on ​‘In My Mind’ offering insight into his artistry as he allows access to his inner thoughts via vivid storytelling lyrics. Sandwiched amongst the project are evocative radio skits placed to perfection, offering angles of comedy including a mini-interview acting as the final pieces to the puzzle.

This record is the culmination of two years of hard work packed with skill and finesse, as we have all come to expect. With their unrivalled chemistry, the dynamic duo have proven themselves to be some the most exciting artists on the scene, and '​Radio Waves' is going to cement their position at the top of the ranks.

Today sees Belgian-Caribbean provocateur Charlotte Adigéry and her long-term musical partner, Bolis Pupul announce their debut album Topical Dancer, due for release on March 4 2022 via Soulwax’s iconic label DEEWEE.
Cultural appropriation. Misogyny and racism. Social media vanity. Post-colonialism and political correctness. These are not talking points that you’d ordinarily hear on the dancefloor but Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul are ripping up the rulebook with their debut album Topical Dancer. The Ghent-based duo, who broke out with their 2019 Zandoli EP, are rare storytellers in electronic music: they take the temperature of the time and funnel them into their playful synth concoctions – never didactic and always with a knowing wink.

Their debut studio record – which cements them as a duo under both their names for the first time and is co-written and co-produced by Soulwax – is both a triumph of kaleidoscopic electro-pop and “a snapshot of how we think about pop culture in the 2020s.” It captures Charlotte and Bolis’s essence as musical collaborators and the conversations they’ve had over the past two years on tour, as well as their perspectives as Belgians with an immigrant background, Charlotte with Guadeloupean and French-Martinique ancestry and Bolis being of Chinese descent.

Beyond the album’s thematic heft, Topical Dancer reflects Charlotte and Bolis’s idiosyncratic sound: it’s thoughtful but it bangs. Their take on familiar genres is always off-kilter; songs sound undone or a little wonky; but these are nocturnal heaters to make the club throb. “We like to fuck things up a bit,” laughs Bolis. “We cringe when we feel like we're making something that already exists, so we're always looking for things to combine to make it sound not like a pop song, not like an R&B song, not a techno song. We’re always putting different worlds together. Charlotte and I get bored when things get too predictable.”

Topical Dancer is fizzing with ideas – there’s certainly no filler among its 13 tracks. But above all, perhaps, it has a restlessness, a desire not to be boxed in and to escape others’ narrow perceptions of who they are. It’s summarised by the refrain of their new single, ‘Blenda’: “Don’t sound like what I look like / Don’t look like what I sound like.” “One thing that always comes up,” says Bolis, “is that people perceive me as the producer, and Charlotte as just a singer. Or that being a Black artist means you should be making ‘urban’ music. Those kinds of boxes don’t feel good to us.”

‘Blenda’ in particular references how “I am a product of colonialism,” says Charlotte, “and I feel guilty for taking up space in a white country.” The song was inspired in part by Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book Why I’m Not Longer Talking To White People About Race. “It talks about the colonial past and post-colonial present in the UK,” Charlotte continues, “but that isn’t merely a British or American problem, Belgium is part of that as well.” She says that her home country is likewise “oblivious to a big part of its history” which “results in general ignorance and a lack of understanding and empathy towards Belgian inhabitants of immigrant descent.”

On Topical Dancer, it’s less about finger pointing or being dogmatic about all the things they speak about. It’s about emancipation through humour. “I don’t want to feel this heaviness on me,” says Charlotte. “These aren’t my crosses to bear. Topical Dancer is my way of freeing myself of these issues. And of having fun.”

Ltd Black & White LP

Today sees Belgian-Caribbean provocateur Charlotte Adigéry and her long-term musical partner, Bolis Pupul announce their debut album Topical Dancer, due for release on March 4 2022 via Soulwax’s iconic label DEEWEE.
Cultural appropriation. Misogyny and racism. Social media vanity. Post-colonialism and political correctness. These are not talking points that you’d ordinarily hear on the dancefloor but Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul are ripping up the rulebook with their debut album Topical Dancer. The Ghent-based duo, who broke out with their 2019 Zandoli EP, are rare storytellers in electronic music: they take the temperature of the time and funnel them into their playful synth concoctions – never didactic and always with a knowing wink.

Their debut studio record – which cements them as a duo under both their names for the first time and is co-written and co-produced by Soulwax – is both a triumph of kaleidoscopic electro-pop and “a snapshot of how we think about pop culture in the 2020s.” It captures Charlotte and Bolis’s essence as musical collaborators and the conversations they’ve had over the past two years on tour, as well as their perspectives as Belgians with an immigrant background, Charlotte with Guadeloupean and French-Martinique ancestry and Bolis being of Chinese descent.

Beyond the album’s thematic heft, Topical Dancer reflects Charlotte and Bolis’s idiosyncratic sound: it’s thoughtful but it bangs. Their take on familiar genres is always off-kilter; songs sound undone or a little wonky; but these are nocturnal heaters to make the club throb. “We like to fuck things up a bit,” laughs Bolis. “We cringe when we feel like we're making something that already exists, so we're always looking for things to combine to make it sound not like a pop song, not like an R&B song, not a techno song. We’re always putting different worlds together. Charlotte and I get bored when things get too predictable.”

Topical Dancer is fizzing with ideas – there’s certainly no filler among its 13 tracks. But above all, perhaps, it has a restlessness, a desire not to be boxed in and to escape others’ narrow perceptions of who they are. It’s summarised by the refrain of their new single, ‘Blenda’: “Don’t sound like what I look like / Don’t look like what I sound like.” “One thing that always comes up,” says Bolis, “is that people perceive me as the producer, and Charlotte as just a singer. Or that being a Black artist means you should be making ‘urban’ music. Those kinds of boxes don’t feel good to us.”

‘Blenda’ in particular references how “I am a product of colonialism,” says Charlotte, “and I feel guilty for taking up space in a white country.” The song was inspired in part by Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book Why I’m Not Longer Talking To White People About Race. “It talks about the colonial past and post-colonial present in the UK,” Charlotte continues, “but that isn’t merely a British or American problem, Belgium is part of that as well.” She says that her home country is likewise “oblivious to a big part of its history” which “results in general ignorance and a lack of understanding and empathy towards Belgian inhabitants of immigrant descent.”

On Topical Dancer, it’s less about finger pointing or being dogmatic about all the things they speak about. It’s about emancipation through humour. “I don’t want to feel this heaviness on me,” says Charlotte. “These aren’t my crosses to bear. Topical Dancer is my way of freeing myself of these issues. And of having fun.”

“I like it when music builds itself up in an organic fashion,” says Duncan Marquiss. “When it just seems to emerge and almost writes itself.”
This natural, intuitive and free flowing approach is evident all across the debut solo album from the multi-disciplinary artist. From tender yet sweeping acoustic moments to experimental electronic guitar manipulations, the album feels like a ceaselessly sprawling exploration of texture and tone. Despite veering into what sounds like electronic ambient soundscapes, the entire album is rooted in the guitars. “I enjoy trying to stretch the guitar as an instrument,” says Marquiss. “That reflects my playing style, always trying to make the guitar sound different, or create non-guitar like sounds.”
Marrying earthy, textural acoustic instrumentals that feel rooted in open landscapes, with those that capture the pulse and hum of a populated metropolis (Marquiss resides in Glasgow). The album was recorded in Aberdeenshire in Marquiss’ parents' garage. “Apart from the wind and the swallows nesting in the eaves there’s not many distractions around,” he says. This is a solo record that goes right to the very essence of Marquiss as an artist. The expansive yet intimate sounds he’s created here stem from the same peaceful isolation of where it all began.
There’s a cosmic touch tracing back to 1970s Germany (Michael Rother solo, Cluster, Harmonia, Popul Vuh soundtracks) that infiltrates much of the album, alongside some of its more pastoral textures, with Marquiss citing a wide range of listening habits. These include Bruce Langhorne's The Hired Hand, Jim O Rouke's Bad Timing, Arthur Russell and Laurie Spiegel.
Despite containing no lyrics, the album feels rooted in narrative and development. As the album unfolds the acoustic guitar becomes more prominent over the electric, almost as if nature is slowly taking back and growing over abandoned human-made structures. A record that, despite being experimental in tone and essence, retains a very human and natural touch throughout.

Andrew Tasselmyer is a musician from Baltimore, MD currently living in Philadelphia, PA. He utilizes samplers, field recordings, and lo-fi recording techniques to make textured and tactile sounds.

In addition to his solo catalog on labels such as Seil Records, Eilean Recs, Constellation Tatsu, Home Normal, and more, he is a member of Hotel Neon, Gray Acres, and Mordançage

Berserk Finnish raw black metal disease Hexerei bring us their venom-soaked debut full-length abomination "Ancient Evil Spirits", a deranged aural gateway to unseen depths of madness and total hell that will reshape the listener's idea of terror and toss them into the outermost circles of insanity. Comprising of four primordial stabs of blown out and feral homicidal rawness, "Ancient Evil Spirits" overboils from the witches cauldron with the quintessence of evil like an acid-drenched spell, invoking ancient evil forces, uncontrolled hysteria, and malevolent plague-ridden rituals to torment the listener with merciless violence and abandon. Reminiscent in its malevolence and primeval cruelty to ancient black metal cults like Darkthrone, Mayhem, Cultes Des Ghoules, and Katharsis, Hexerei however push these limits further and redefine the very concept of total aural filth by working the formula into a wider canvas, with lengthier compositions, an even more perverse emphasis on primitivism, and a more unpredictable and ambitious songwriting that has unearthed truly unsettling and terrifying new manifestations of the craft.

Legendary rockers Scorpions return with their new album “Rock Believer'', which was created in the studio during the lockdown in their home base Hannover. “The album was written and recorded in the style of the classic Scorpions DNA with core Schenker/Meine compositions. We really went back to the essence of what defined us in the first place”, says front-man Klaus Meine The new album Rock Believer on CD in a 4-panel digipack with a 16-page booklet including 11 tracks. The CD Deluxe is a 6-panel digipack with a 20-page booklet including 16 tracks. The vinyl release is available as a limited black 2 LP (180g) in a gatefold including 16 tracks., and a black 1 LP (180g) including 11 tracks

Legendary rockers Scorpions return with their new album “Rock Believer'', which was created in the studio during the lockdown in their home base Hannover. “The album was written and recorded in the style of the classic Scorpions DNA with core Schenker/Meine compositions. We really went back to the essence of what defined us in the first place”, says front-man Klaus Meine The new album Rock Believer on CD in a 4-panel digipack with a 16-page booklet including 11 tracks. The CD Deluxe is a 6-panel digipack with a 20-page booklet including 16 tracks. The vinyl release is available as a limited black 2 LP (180g) in a gatefold including 16 tracks., and a black 1 LP (180g) including 11 tracks

Life moves in cycles. As things change and morph over time, it circles back to key points and offers second chances. Volumes find themselves at such a point in 2020. After four years apart, the group—Myke Terry vocals, Raad Soudani [bass], and Nick Usich [drums]—reconvenes with original vocalist Michael Barr. In doing so, they perfect a boundary-breaking balance of guttural grooves, magnetic melodies, proficient metal, and unbridled hardcore. In essence, the guys pick right up with they left off in 2015…In 2010, Volumes burst out of the gate with The Concept of Dreaming EP. The hypnotic and hard-hitting Via [2011] and No Sleep [2014] inspired the enthusiasm of a diehard fan base. After parting ways with Barr during 2015, the band maintained its prolific output on Different Animals [2017] and the Coming Clean EP [2019]. Their total stream tally exceeded 40 million as they incited applause from Alternative Press, New Noise Magazine, Rock Sound, Metal Injection, and more.

This collection brings together six pioneering figures whose legacies
encapsulate the very essence of the Delta blues - the cornerstone of
American popular music and the bedrock of rock 'n' roll
Like arrows through time, these seminal tracks belie the age in which they were
recorded. Seminal recordings by six Mississippi Delta blues legends - Skip James,
Tommy Johnson, Bukka White, Charley Patton, Willie Brown and Son House.
Following on from the success of other blues titles in the Rough Guide range this
is a must-have album for blues and guitar enthusiasts. All the tracks have been
lovingly remastered using pioneering restoration techniques

Highly recommended. About the album Blind Emperor Through wetland, winters, rubble and fallout come horizons new; civilisation shattered under a vengeful cataclysm, eventually led to dawn from the light of a blighted leader. Every action has a reaction, and those who wish to prosper must first be willing to offer something of intrinsic value. As one empire crumbles, another takes its place. The struggle for a fleeting utopia comes at a cost, and those who strive towards golden gates must trek along a solemn valley. The Allegorist Berlin-based artist, The Allegorist, has been meandering through stories with her purposeful and introspective take on electronic music. Each release explores themes that require joint participation from the listener as they look to flood your mind with images of fabled characters and places through her artistic soundscapes. Her carefully build worlds that straddle sci-fi and fantasy, feeding off of the light and dark dualism are the perfect blend of reflective contemplation and storytelling. As a holistic artist, Anna Jordan (The Allegorist) encapsulates a myriad of her talents within her work. Her previous albums, Hybrid Dimensions I. and Hybrid Dimensions II., established her aesthetic and detailed fictitious stories, along with the language ‘Mondoneoh’, a language to unite all nations. Her latest endeavour, and 4th album, The Blind Emperor, portrays the essence of a mythical land that tells of struggle that will lead to prosperity. The protagonist, Blind Emperor, leads the charge into a brighter tomorrow. Like chapters from a novel, each track allows the listener to be carried by the story. It is an epic, cinematic, choral, ambient techno album. The album combines her depictive, written and musical storytelling with a concept portrayed visually, orally and audibly to deliver another saga in her ever-evolving figments of fantasy. It comes as an entire artistic project, as The Allegorist created the album art, wrote the included story and composed a poem that all combine to tell the tale of Blind Emperor.

Hangman's Chair, formed in 2005 in Paris, are one of the most unique sounding doom rock bands currently active. Through the years, they have found and fine-tuned their own sonic brand, somewhere at the crossroads between Type O Negative, Alice In Chains and Sisters of Mercy, to name a few, mixed with a certain street credibility connected to the group’s roots in hardcore, and even tinges of shoegaze. ‘Cold Doom’ as the band likes to call it.

Each album takes its strength and essence from the band members’s life experiences, which they portrait with unflinching honesty. Whether it is the loss of band members, drug overdoses or the hardships of living in suburban Paris, all those human emotions resonate within each of their songs as they embrace the darkness and transform it into something beautiful, heavy and melancholic.

After five studio albums and a handful of splits / EPs, Hangman's Chair is releasing their sixth studio album, "A Loner", their first record on Germany based, worldwide leading metal label Nuclear Blast. Telling tales about loneliness in all its forms, this record has all the trademarks that makes Hangman's Chair’s music so visceral, and will keep you in its tight grip from the very first listen.

Pink Marbled Vinyl

Lunatica Borghesia sees emerging Italian producer KOKO come into his powers in a 6-track EP which, at times seems suited to accompany a blissful reverie, and at others a rave in a rainforest. Either way, Lunatica Borghesia is about escaping.

The first two tracks capture deep house in its truest essence: at once meditative, melancholic and serene.The blissed-out piano chords and cymbal strokes "You can't buy luxury" lend the opening track a nocturnal jazz feel which is carried through to "Ego Borghese" where it is heightened by the melodic cries of a saxophone. Instrumentation maintains its primacy in "Listening to Some Impala in Coventry" as staccato flutes guide the subtle bongo-sounding percussion which gives the track its swing.

The next two tracks - "9,99EU" and "Pegasus" - are for the dance floor. Whilst the synth-driven melody and acid undertones of "9,99EU" sees the EP at its most retro, the final track "Tradizione Tradimento" is a brilliantly modern take on garage house which lets the listener settle back into the groove after being rowsed by "Pegasus" driving pulse.

“BLEU” is a deep, witty, and contemplative scroll through frustration and love. As journalist Jasmyne Keimig explains in her liner notes, the album is an optimistic look at “the money woes, the creeping loneliness, and the isolation of modern living.” This ten-song vinyl debut from choir kid-turned-rapper Dave B is introspective, intimate, and intensely personal, framed against lush production from a collaborative team of producers, including Papi, Sango, Wax Roof, Vitamin D, Daoud, Esta, and U. Moore. The single “CPU LUV” arrived with a music video that parodies a classic Microsoft commercial, and explores our smartphone obsessions, describing a romantic liaison where the couple choses scrolling on their phones over intimacy. Described as “one of Seattle’s brightest hip-hop talents” by local and national media, Dave B has received praise from Pigeons & Planes, Complex, HotNewHipHop, Okayplayer, Pitchfork, XXL, Essence, and NPR. He’s appeared on The Tonight Show and performed in arenas across America, Europe, and Australia.

Soul Jazz Records new ‘Life Between Islands’ collection coincides with the launch of Tate Britain’s exhibition of the same name. This landmark exhibition explores the links between Caribbean and British art and culture from the 1950s to now.

Soul Jazz Records album, sub-titled “Soundsystem Culture – Black Musical Expression 1973-2006,” focuses on the most important Black British musical styles to emerge out of the distinctly Caribbean world of sound systems. The album features an all-star line-up including Dennis Bovell, Shut Up and Dance, Cymande, Digital Mystikz, Brown Sugar, Funk Masters, Janet Kay, Ragga Twins and more.

The album is a lightning-rod journey across Roots Reggae, Jungle/Drum & Bass, Jazz-Funk, Lovers Rock, Jazz, Dubstep and more. Much of Soul Jazz Records’ catalogue comes out of these genres and this album is partly an overview of some of Soul Jazz’s earlier releases (including Digital Mystikz’ long-deleted groundbreaking and now highly-collectible single, ‘Misty Winter’) alongside some choice rare and classic tunes that span over 30 years of sound system culture.

Many of the tracks represent how Black British artists defined their own identity with songs such as Brown Sugar’s righteous ‘Black Pride’, ‘I’m In Love with A Dreadlocks’ and Tabby Cat Kelly’s powerful ‘Don’t Call Us Immigrants’. Aside from being musically rooted in the distinctly Jamaican-born phenomenon of the sound system, much of this identity is also shaped by the triangular relationship of being British-born, of Caribbean heritage, and with an equal love of African-American Jazz, Funk and Soul, as evidenced with many Lovers Rock tunes reggae covers of American soul tunes (such as those of Jean Carn, William de Vaughan and Rose Royce featured here). This stateside influence can also be heard in groups such as the Funk Masters, a group formed by reggae radio DJ Tony Williams, whose jazz-funk music successfully crossed over into New York’s clubland, as well as the great Cymande, whose unique street-funk became staple material for numerous US hip-hop artists in the years that followed.

In the early 1990s, jungle and drum and bass artists took the essence of reggae’s soundsystem culture – MCs, dubplates, crews – and applied them to their own music, applying heavy reggae bass lines to intense double-speed drum breakbeats. At the forefront of this new movement were the duo Shut Up and Dance, working closely with The Ragga Twins, aka Deman Rocker and Flinty Badman, both MCs for North London’s infamous Unity reggae soundsytem. In the early 2000s, dubstep, spearheaded by Digital Mystikz, became the latest instalment in this ever-evolving soundsystem culture.

A musical journey with Emile Parisien is an adventure, something way out of the
ordinary. The soprano saxophonist’s sound is instantly recognisable - as is the way
with the greats - and you know that you are in the best possible company to set off
for a destination shrouded in uncertainty.
 For the past twenty years, the one-time child prodigy of Marciac has found ways to
astonish, to shake up and to enchant listeners with colourful and productive
experiments. His driving force is a passion which seems physically to take hold of
him as he plays.
 Anyone who has seen his development as a performer knows what he’s about; there
is an element of the dance but also the tension of a coiled spring. And among the
musicians who seek him out are not only the very best of his own generation but also
the jazz masters, such is his reputation both as a leader and as an inspirational
partner.
 As a musician he is one of a kind, with a power to be evocative and to bring
convincing shape to the unpredictable. His musical language can express sudden
frenzy, keeping the listener completely on tenterhooks, but there are also outbursts of
tenderness and a palpable emotional honesty.
 ‘Louise’ takes its title from Louise Bourgeois and more specifically her sculpture of a
spider, ‘Maman’. Her monumental work has motherhood as its theme, also conveyed
through the metaphor of weaving, an underlying thread that runs through Emile
Parisien’s creation.
 He has assembled a group of musicians who bridge the two sides of the Atlantic. The
saxophonist has set out to combine the essence of jazz with his own purposes; so,
what shines through here are both his kaleidoscopic imagination and his appetite for
breaking down barriers. Three American musicians are in the group, all of them
friends whom he has got to know over time.
 Their eagerness to engage in fruitful conversations with a trio consisting of Parisien
himself and two of his closest colleagues from France is miraculous. All kinds of
nuances and a confluence of influences are to be heard here. We find variations of
pace from skittering syncopations to the softly majestic.
 Textures are meticulously calibrated, with a broad palette of instrumental colours
both in the original compositions and in a burning cover of Joe Zawinul’s
‘Madagascar’. This collective endeavour leaves plenty of room for individual
inventiveness, yet there is a happy balance between the different personalities as
well. Emile Parisien, always hyperalert, knows when to step back and to leave the
initiative to his partners, but will then re-enter authoritatively and be the catalyst who
completely re-energise them.
 ‘Louise’ is just magnificent in its twists and turns, and in the way it celebrates the
sheer joy of the groove. ACT have taken a path towards intoxicating freedom with a
team of artists in complete balance both individually and collectively. Through its
subtle amalgamation of diffidence and affirmation, this pellucid music tells us the
truth about life.