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Back in October 2009, Strut’s Inspiration Information series was in full swing. Following an acclaimed collaboration between Mulatu Astatke and The Heliocentrics, Finnish maverick Jimi Tenor hit the studio for a mouth-watering head to head with Afrobeat drumming legend, Tony Allen.

Tenor had already built a reputation as a fascinating enigma in modern day music. Consistently one of the most inspired and unpredictable live artists around, his work since his breakthrough album ‘Intervision’ (Warp, 1997) had involved open-minded projects ranging from live film soundtracks and orchestral pieces to a series of Afro-based albums with his band Kabu Kabu. Enjoying a burgeoning revival, Tony Allen had continued to attract new fans. Celebrated as the creator of the Afrobeat rhythm and a lynchpin of Fela Kuti’s Africa 70 band, his work at the time of this recording had included the first album as The Good, The Bad & The Queen with Damon Albarn and his debut recording for World Circuit Records, ‘Secret Agent’.

Recorded at Lovelite Studios in Berlin during November 2008 ith further sessions in Finland and Paris, the Tenor / Allen collaboration whipped up a raw, heavy analogue sound mixing the full range of Allen’s Afrobeat repertoire with Tenor’s off-kilter brew of dark humour, tongue-in-cheek lyrics and tight, firing musicianship. The sessions involved key members of Tenor’s Kabu Kabu band and Berlin-based guest MC Allonymous with tracks evolving naturally from jamming ideas together over five intense days of recording, fuelled by plenty of African food and whisky. Tenor’s trademark range of home-made instruments rubbed shoulders with vintage keyboards and traditional African percussion.

The resulting set became one of the best recordings that both artists produced during this period. Tracks range from Jimi’s S&M tableau, ‘Darker Side of Night’ to the apocalyptic commentary on our times, ‘Path To Wisdom’ and the hilarious lampooning of the UK immigration system, ‘Mama England’, composed on the Tenor tour bus. The album also featured fusions based around more traditional low-slung Afrobeat structures (‘Sinuhe’, ‘Got My Egusi’) and ended with the epic freestyle juggernaut, ‘Three Continents’, a life affirming, mesmeric groove built around another rough-as-nails Allenko rhythm base. 'Inspiration Information: Jimi Tenor / Tony Allen' is re-released on 22nd February 2021 and is dedicated to the memory of the great, incomparable Tony Allen.

First reissue of long out-of-print and sought after release from 2009
Unique fusion of Afrobeat drumming and psychedelic Jazz
Vinyl cut from original sessions

When it came to playing soul jazz with organ combos, jamming bebop with a quartet, caressing ballads or coming up with fresh approaches to Latin jazz and spirituals, the versatile Grant Green was at the top of his field. Among his many recordings, his most vital and adventurous remains Idle Moments. With such inspiring sidemen as Joe Henderson, Bobby Hutcherson and Duke Pearson, Green is heard at the absolute apex of his creativity throughout this stunning set.

He builds up statements like a masterful speaker, sounds both passionate and thoughtful at every tempo, and never runs out of brilliant and personal ideas to express. Every phrase leads to the next one yet all of his solos are spontaneous. While the other musicians are inspired and in top form, Idle Moments is particularly notable as the height of Grant Green’s musical genius!

Limited Edition Double Transparent 12″ Vinyl including streaming AR (Augmented Reality) application (only for iOS/iPhone) and a 16 pages booklet. Celebrating the release of ENTKUNSTUNG’s firth record, this AR app brings the vinyl’s booklet to life and showcases interactive visuals by Berlin-based artist Herwig Scherabon. The app creates a unique listening experience of the eight-track album “Fun ist ein Stahlbad” which deliberately oscillates between Ambient and Techno. Written & Produced by Felipe Duque Mastered by Cem Oral at Jammin Masters – Berlin Art Direction by Maximilian Mauracher Design by Maximilian Mauracher & David Rindlisbacher AR Animation and Images by Herwig Scherabon App Development by Refrakt Limited Edition of 300 copies | 45rpm

Jupiter, the gas giant in our Solar System, with thunderstorms a thousand times more powerful than on Earth, rainfalls of diamonds in the atmosphere, temperatures below -100°C, plenty of hydrogen, 79 moons and a South pole that looks like an abstract painting, has just the kind of environment this music seems to emanate from.

Jupiter and Beyond, the second collaborative effort of composer/performer Rafael Toral and percussionist João Pais Filipe as a duo (after Saturn in 2016), is definitely not quite a record of Earth music. On the contrary, Jupiter and Beyond, is indeed gas music, unfolding over two long movements without solid body or any tangible outline, between ambient and noise. A music of sheer volume and beauty, icy, massive, in which the elements of Toral's signature, in particular his use of jazz-inspired electronics and feedback, dissolve to become a labile, nebulous, expansive material, occasionally struck by abyssal depressions and masterful densities, magnified by the return, after 17 years of silence, of the electric guitar in Rafael Toral's instrumentarium.

Towards the end of Beyond, the second piece on the record, lurking behind the volutes of feedback, a bell and a bass drum, one can detect from the distance... a barking dog, as a surreptitious and prosaic reminder of where we are here and now, a calling back to Earth. Between sadness and joy, anger and peace, movement and stillness, Jupiter and Beyond is indeed a mirror held out to us, music reflecting our times and that emotionally speaks first of all about us.

"While João Pais Filipe was drummer in the Space Quartet, we played a live duo set. During soundcheck we were jamming for a while on bowed gongs and feedback and lost track of time, it just flowed so well. I joked "we could make a whole record with this!". But later we took the idea seriously and set to record an improvised session at his cymbalsmith workshop (he made the gong on the cover and it was used in the recording). When we listened to the first take the mass of sound was amazing. At some point it reminded me of the complex clusters of sound in Ligeti's music as it appears on Kubrick's 2001 scene "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite". In the end the title felt like an apt choice for Saturn's successor. Back at my studio I felt the need for some more layers of density in some sections. I thought of using trombones, but ended up picking up the electric guitar, which I hadn't used since 2003.” Rafael Toral

To anyone who has heard the music of Kikagaku Moyo, it should come as no surprise that the band’s origins lie in hours upon hours of late-night jamming, illuminated by nothing more than the geometric patterns playing behind the band’s eyelids, resulting in a natural, free-floating sound, as of-the-earth as it is intergalactic. It may be surprising that the band sharpened their improvisational skills by busking on the streets of their native Tokyo. It may be surprising that the band’s overall sound may owe as much or more to the Incredible String Band as it does to Acid Mother’s Temple.



But what’s perhaps most surprising about Forest of Lost Children, the band’s face-melting, recorded-ritual sophomore album, is how utterly centered and mature the band sounds, especially given their relatively short lifespan as a band. Boundless though they may be, Kikagaku Moyo here sound anything but lost, their child-like wonder manifested in a confident, courageous exploration of sound. Labels – psychedelic, folk, prog-rock, psychedelic-folk-mixed-with-prog-rock – do little to accurately reflect the spectrum of influences on display, let alone the more impactful realization of completeness in Kikagaku Moyo’s songs.



Easily one of the most shimmering crown-jewels in the rapidly expanding BBiB catalog, look for Kikagaku Moyo and Forest of Lost Children to be found taking shape in the expanded minds of listeners everywhere. - Ryan Muldoon

Ronnie Davis is another mighty Jamaican singer, whose talents have been greatly overlooked. His rootsy yet soulful voice have been in demand by many of Jamaica's producers, and have graced their catalogues over the decades, yet outside of the close reggae circles he has remained a closely guarded secret.

Born Ronnie Davis, in 1950 (Savannah La Mar, Jamaica). His singing career began in the 1960's and like many aspiring young singers, the Talent contests taking part around the Island, was his first introduction to the music scene. This led to him joining the vocal group, 'The Tenors'.  Who shortly after his arrival, released their debut 'The Whole World is a Stage'. This was the beginning of a run of Jamaican 7'' releases that did quite well in the domestic marketplace. But Ronnie had set his sights on a solo career,which came to fruition in the early 1970's, with two big hits for him in the guise of 'Won't You Come Home' and 'Stop Yu Loofing'. Running on through to the mid 1970's with such hits as 'Jah Jah Jehovah','Forget Me Now', 'On and On' and 'Babylon Falling'. Building up to the 1976 classic, 'It's Raining'.

Around this time Ronnie's path would cross with Keith Porter and with his childhood friend Roy Smith they would form one of Jamaica's foremost vocal groups 'The Itals'.  A group who would run until the 1990's and evolve into 'Ronnie Davis and Idren'. Ronnie's releases are very sort after among the reggae aficionados and any tune carrying his vocal talents rarely
disappoint. We have compiled some rare roots dubs to many of his finest cuts. Such gems as 'Chasing You', 'What You See is What You Get', his take on the timeless cut 'Tribal War', 'Tell You' and the a fore mentioned smash 'It's Raining'. A version of Gregory Issac's 'Love Overdue' is also present. Ronnie cut an album worth of material with Mr Issac's, testimony surely to Mr Davis's standing in the Reggae community.

Let’s hope that this release spreads the gospel according to Mr R. Davis, a little wider.  A wicked set by one of Jamaica's finest .....

Respect Jah Floyd.

Rotate's seventh release brings a collaborative project between in-house artist Luc Ringeisen and newcomer on the label, Suburbial.

Luc Ringeisen and Suburbial worked together in Luc’s studio in Berlin on the Rotate 007, these tracks are cuts from long jam sessions with machines and modulars.

The Uprising Tour ran in Europe from May to July 1980 with five further dates in the USA in September. It was Bob Marley’s last tour before his tragically early death in May 1981 at the age of just 36. A few days after the release of the “Uprising” album Marley played this now legendary live show from Dortmund’s Westfalenhalle on June 13th. Bob Marley is on superb form and delivers a set of hit singles and classic album tracks. His energetic, charismatic performance gives no indication that he was already ill with the cancer that would take his life less than a year later and this release is testament to his spirit and his musicianship.

This special 3LP edition is released to celebrate what would have been his 75th year.

Selva Discos keeps broadening horizons. Its next release celebrates the start of a new series called Novaterra, this time focused on showcasing the music of contemporary Brazilian artists. First up is Zopelar, known not only for his work with the anarchic-techno-punk act Teto Preto but also for the project My Girlfriend and his solo LP, both on Apron Records.

Novaterra vol. 1 by Zopelar is a mini-LP featuring 6 tracks that range from the introversion to the extraversion. In one hand you have an A-side banger like "Be Together", with its addictive looped-sample, and in the other, you get the laidback interlude of "Modo Avião", which sounds like one of those MF Doom's instrumentals – and between both, you will find a whole spectrum of music where you can experience the duel between super crispy beats (a signature in Zopelar's work) and the richness of melodies and harmonies that he's able to knit stitch close to perfection.

The opener "Livre" has a great deep house vibe that makes you think of Prescription Records and Jazzanova, featuring a catchy bossa ad-lib. "NOX" is a Hammond-led tune with a groove bassline and lead that gets you going in no time as if Cesar Camargo Mariano and Larry Young toured together in the late 70's, like, a big, fat jazz-funk tune. "Dias Tensos" is a nervous drum workout led by an automat Tony Williams as if jamming in a 16-bit version of The Tony Williams Lifetime. And to wrap things up, "Boogie da Paz" is one of those perfect comedown tunes – a true tearjerker that works its melody line like a good pill works your serotonin, making it one of those tracks that you keep under your sleeve for those special 6 AM moments on a dancefloor.

The artwork is courtesy of Colletivo Design Studio in Sao Paulo.

The Doors returned to their roots and were reborn a rock ’n’ roll band on Morrison Hotel, the group’s fifth studio album. Completed in only a few weeks and released in February 1970, the hard-charging album took its name from the Skid Row hotel in downtown Los Angeles that’s featured in the iconic cover photo taken by Henry Diltz.

Morrison Hotel: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition includes the original album newly remastered by The Doors’ longtime engineer and mixer Bruce Botnick, plus a bonus disc of unreleased studio outtakes, and the original album on 180-gram virgin vinyl. The music will also be available from digital and streaming services the same day.

For this new collection, the original album has been expanded with more than an hour of unreleased recordings taken from the sessions for Morrison Hotel. These 19 outtakes transport listeners into the studio with Jim Morrison, John Densmore, Robby Krieger, and Ray Manzarek for an unprecedented perspective on the making of the album. Botnick says: “There are many takes, different arrangements, false starts, and insightful studio conversations between the band – who were in the studio – and producer Paul Rothchild – who was in the control room. It’s like being a fly on the wall.”

Several of these unheard recordings spotlight how Queen Of The Highway and Roadhouse Blues evolved across multiple sessions. It’s especially interesting to hear how the band played with different bass players on Roadhouse Blues. Early versions include Harvey Brooks, who played on the band’s previous album, The Soft Parade. Later takes feature guitar legend Lonnie Mack on bass along with The Lovin’ Spoonful’s John Sebastian on harmonica who, due to contractual restrictions at the time, had to be credited as G. Puglese.

Among the treasure trove of unreleased outtakes are also rough versions of Morrison Hotel tracks Peace Frog and Blue Sunday, as well as The Doors rarity I Will Never Be Untrue. The collection also captures some incredible session outtakes of the band jamming on cover versions of the Motown classic Money (That’s What I Want) and B.B. King’s Rock Me.

"Vertigo KO" enthält unveröffentlichtes Material der 2017er "Light Sleep" und "Voice Hardcore" Sessions der japanischen Avantgardistin Phew, samt eines The Raincoats-Covers ("The Void"). Die 2CD (ltd. Japan-Import) enthält zudem den Sampler "Vertical Jamming" mit langen Drone-Werken von Phew, der zuvor als limitiertes Tape und digital erschien. Beiden Tonträgern liegt ferner ein 20-seitiges Fanzine mit Linernotes von Künstlerin und Label sowie Fotos von Masayuki Shioda bei. Die Kultmusikerin Phew begann ihre Karriere 1978 mit der japanischen Punkband Aunt Sally. 1981 erschien ihr legendäres Kollaboalbum "Phew" mit Holger Czukay, Jaki Liebezeit und Conny Plank. In den 1980ern arbeitete sie mit Ryuichi Sakamoto, Alexander Hacke (Einstürzende Neubauten) und Chrislo Kaas (DAF) und jüngst mit Ana Da Silva (The Raincoats), Jim O'Rourke und Yoshimi (OOIOO, Boredoms) zusammen.

A memorable name with an outstanding cover, Fuzzy Duck is a classic slice of underground London art rock and melodic psychedelia. Originally released on MAM in 1971, it’s truly a musical force of infectious riffs and fiery solos, sharp tempo changes, a tight rhythm section and heavy, Hammond-drenched grooves. With echoes of Spencer Davis Group, early Grand Funk and Vanilla Fudge, it comes on like a heavier Soft Machine or Caravan. No wonder Fuzzy Duck’s cult appeal has endured.

The album features Mick Hawksworth (Five Day Week Straw People, Andromeda) on bass, acoustic 12-string, electric cello and some of the vocal duties, and also Roy “Daze” Sharland (Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Spice) on organ and electric piano. Accompanying those two were Paul Francis on drums and percussion, and Grahame White on guitars and the rest of the vocals.

Originally released in an edition of 500, Fuzzy Duck became legendary all over the world through a holy trinity of scarcity, personnel and its sheer brilliance.

The album kicks off with a heavy, bass-fuelled, Hammond rocker titled “Time Will Be Your Doctor”. This is pure hard-edged blues rock, brilliantly played. Its drum break intro was sampled by DJ Premier for Gang Starr’s “Mostly Tha Voice” on 1994’s legendary Hard To Earn. And we can hear its personality all over Harvey and Thomas Bullock’s Map Of Africa.

Rollicking highlight “Mrs. Prout” follows. At nearly 7 minutes long, it incorporates more psych-leaning guitar and drawn-out keyboards à la Ray Manzarek with the band effortlessly switching from jazzy rhythm section to a progressive one. That magnificent instrumental jam that starts half-way and continues through to the end is a true wonder.

“Just Look Around You” is propulsive folk-rock with a soaring, proto power-pop chorus, backed by frenetic organ and heavy bass high in the rich, intoxicating mix. Back comes the heavy, strung-out psych to both close out side one with “Afternoon Out” and kick off side two with “More Than I Am”. Both tracks are improvisational winners that stylistically nod to the late sixties and “More Than I Am”’s guitar hook, catchy organ and memorable chorus would’ve surely made it a great single.

“Country Boy” quenches the thirst for rhythm and melody, only the lyrics and vibe are wonderfully creepy. The sudden cut of the groove and the drop into a more sinister tempo will make you stumble, before the band pick up speed and toss you back again into the opening jam, this time with a badass organ to ride you home. The final, fully fleshed out track is the majestic “In Our Time”, which oscillates between endless organ-driven boogie and heavenly, genuinely moving vocals. Just stunning.

Infamous instrumental cut “A Word from Big D” rounds out the album. Yes, that’s the band jamming with duck quack sound effects accompanying the music. “Ducking vocals” as the sleeve says. You know, just in case the whole “duck” theme had passed you by. It’s an appropriate closer for what sounds like an album that must have been *a lot* of fun to record. It’s definitely fun to listen to.

Mastered by Be With’s chief sound duck Simon Francis and cut with glee by the veteran Pete Norman, this reissue of Fuzzy Duck’s one-and-only LP sounds as mighty as it should. That unforgettable sleeve artwork has been carefully restored and the records pressed by the wonderful Record Industry in the Netherlands. Essential.

When your roots have a broad geographical diversity, it’s very likely this will resonate in the music you make. This is certainly the case with Alma Negra and their new release on Heist. It seems they have embraced all their cultural influences more than ever in their new ‘Dakar Disco EP’. The whole record oozes class and musicality and feels like a carefree collage of the rich musical lives they live. The three originals on this EP vary in tempo and energy, giving you something for each moment of the day or night. They are accompanied by a remix from none other than the Japanese master of cosmic funk: Kuniyuki.

The EP kicks off with the title track ‘Dakar Disco’; an island style mid-tempo burner, rich with filtered guitars, bells and bleeps. Soothing chords and synth melodies are introduced for a lovely build up, but it’s the live horn section that takes centre stage. Here, the track really comes to full fruition, with a squeaky lead accompanying the horns for an electronic twist to what is above all a lovely summer jam.

‘Contra’ ups the pace and moves more into dance floor territory with loose claps, spacey pads and faraway chants. This track really gets to you with the live percussion and extremely catchy lead running throughout the track. This is afro house just the way we like it.

We’re very proud to have Kuniyuki remixing ‘Dakar disco’. This master of his craft has done an outstanding job with his cosmic take on ‘Dakar disco’. He lays down a great riff on bass guitar, while playing around with all the live elements and adds a serious bit of reverb for a stunning effect. This track is a perfect example of Kuniyuki’s musical skills and we can almost see him jamming this out, eyes closed and directed towards a distant point in space only he can see.

The EP’s closing track ‘Back in town’, is perhaps the clubbiest track of the set. A friendly acid line squeaks over tribal drums & chants and you immediately get pulled in by a great balafon hook. You can really hear how the guys feel at ease combining these worldly elements with modern electronics and ‘Back in town’ is a great example on how to blend these sonic worlds.

So there we are. A taste of the Alma Negra summer with a healthy dose of Japanese funk. Enjoy!

Yours sincerely,

Maarten & Lars

Bob Marley & the Wailers’ LEGEND stands tall as one of the best-selling and best-loved albums in history, touching millions with a beautiful flow of Bob’s most memorable songs, from “One Love/People Get Ready” to “Get Up, Stand Up,” “Is This Love” to “Jammin’,” “Could You Be Loved” to “Three Little Birds,” and eight more classics . And now, in celebration of #BobMarley75, the album is available in a limited edition picture disc presenting the iconic cover shot backed with a previously unseen image of Bob.

Jimi Tenor & Bizz O.D. met 1989 in a Helsinki club called Berlin. They decided to move to New York City in 1992 to start the band "Public Extacy" which never saw the light of day. A few years later, Jimi had already left NYC but was visiting so the two met to record "Bizz O.D. & Jimi Tenor's Traffic E.P.". Released in 1995 on OZON Records founded by nobody else but Jammin' Unit and Biochip C. Originally a 3 track e.p.but we at Temple Traxx thought that it was the right time to remaster and reissue this acid jewel and add an unreleased bonus track called "Girls" in this limited edited edition. This 4 track e.p. shows once more that the two artists are real inovators and pioneers of a sound that is hipper than ever in 2020.

One thing‘s for sure: There aren‘t many bands with a history as long and eventful as Kreator‘s, who fascinatingly succeed in exploring new horizons while challenging and reinventing themselves time and again.That was perfectly illustrated by their latest record ‘Gods Of Violence’ in 2017. With this 14th studio album of their impressive career, the thrashers from Essen, Germany crafted a work of art of utmost vigor, drawing its unfailing power from the pounding heart of one of the greatest, most versatile metal bands of all time.

Mainman Mille Petrozza’s influences range from Hannah Arendt, Pink Floyd and Tocotronic to Slayer, even though he was born and bred in the metal scene. Nevertheless, he is and always has been open to inspiration from various sources, which is why his lyrics are by no means merely based on corny genre templates but offer trenchant observations of our time combined with a witty aside to long-standing cliches: One of the best songs on ‘Gods Of Violence’ is really called ‘Satan Is Real’.

Formed in 1982, Petrozza and ‘Ventor’ – the only two remaining founding members – have come a long way from playing in a small-scale student band. “In my history book, Kreator didn‘t really exist until 1985“, says Petrozza, laughing. “Although we had already started jamming together in `82, we only entered the stage two or three times up until `85. Back then, our set list consisted of five original tracks and five heavy metal cover songs, we went through several line-up changes and didn‘t really find ourselves until ‘Endless Pain’.Over the years, Kreator, the leaders of the German ‘Big Four’ of thrash, have sold more than two million albums worldwide and have played countless shows all around the globe. It is one of these shows that is captured on ‘London Apocalypticon’. Recorded in December 2018 at London’s legendary Roundhouse venue, headlining a bill with US hardcore pacesetters Hatebreed and Norwegian Black Metal legends Dimmu Borgir. Kreator’s explosive set was quite rightly heralded as “a demonstration of consummate musicianship and stagecraft” by Metal Hammer magazine.

It’s a family affair on the second Growing Bin 7”, as Peter & Patrick Jahn enjoy some father and son boogie with a smooth split release. A sunblushed moocher served two ways, this disc is designed for horizontal dancing…
Rooting around the cupboards in his family home outside Nuremberg, Patrick Jahn unearthed a dusty box of cassettes, saved for posterity but eventually forgotten. Somewhere between ‘True Blue’ and ‘Brothers In Arms’ was a faded C60 full of unreleased demos by his father Peter, recorded in the mid to late 80s. Back then Jahn Sr owned a pub club called Schrank (Cupboard to the Anglophones), with an upstairs office he used as a music studio. In amongst naïve synthesiser experiments and carefree noodling was a Balearic boogie bomb, all strolling synth bass, clipped funk guitar and seaside melancholy – like Brenda Ray on a Wim Wenders soundtrack.
Too impressed to keep it a secret, Patrick played the cut to Carsten “Erobique” Meyer, when he was over there jamming, and Hamburg’s premier funk freak suggested this might be of interest to his likeminded hometown freak Basso. Instantly in love, the Growing Bin boss suggested Patrick provide his own version for the flipside, and so it was, reborn with percussive sway, moonlit keys and beefy bass tones for the next generation. Here’s to the Jahn family, father and son but brothers in calms…
Patrick Ryder

Apollo are delighted to welcome Steve Legget & Mark Hand to the fold with their lush new single ‘If You Cannot Try’ featuring the dulcet vocals of Greg Blackman. Originally released as an uplifting bumping house track on Ramrock Records Blackman sent the stems of the release to longtime collaborator Steve Legget for a rework. Legget tore the original to pieces, deconstructing it into a much more ambiguous form. ”I’ve never been a fan of a chorus in a song,” Legget muses. "I like songs that are not direct that leave room for your imagination - Mark and I ended up building a new song around the texture of the original.”

Hand and Legget met in the early 90s at the Northern College of Art in Middlesbrough, and have collaborated at various times in the intervening years, through a shared love of Detroit techno, experimental electronic music, jazz and funk. Their creative process involves sending audio files back and forth - “The release was written in collaboration over the internet Greg in Colchester, Mark in Hartlepool, and me in St Albans."

Hand added spaced out textures and riffs from his collection of vintage Fender Rhodes and classic synths - taking the track into sunny space funk realms that comes on like a lost release from joe Claussell’s Spiritual Life label or Basic Channel jamming with Herbie Hancock.

Using their new version as the seed - Hand decided to try his own ’Teesside Techno’ version - "I wanted to give the track more of a 'machine funk' vibe with my rework” he explains. “I generally like to work by jamming with hardware - the bass line is generated by triggering the arp on my Juno 6..using triggers from a TR606 kick drum and hats replaced by a TR909.. the result being more of a jackin' electronic funk mutation!"

This continuing game of musical pass the parcel has indeed born some juicy fruit -

Vinyl Only, Limited to 150 copies

Mysterious Berlin label MASK return in 2020 with a vinyl only release consisting of a pair of raw cuts entitled ‘Marilyn’.
MASK preserve their esoteric philosophy of delivering well-crafted, modulated house and techno cuts produced on hardware equipment and ‘Marilyn’ certainly follows suit. MASK releases are the result of anonymous artists live jamming together in unison with the first five releases picking up support from the
likes of Laurent Garnier, Marcel Dettmann, Elena Colombi, Machine Woman and many more.
The A side is 13-minute voyage featuring fluttering, resonant drums, lo-fi synth stabs and growling oscillations that take the focus in the later stages while on the B side sweeping pads, spacey undertones and squelchy, acid soaked sci-fi elements keep the sonical experience obscure yet fascinating throughout.

The Word is one of the better kept secrets of 1980s Austrian disco music. Yet once you put the needle on this record, you notice that it sounds oddly familiar. The awe inspiring signature piece “Lobster” has the same analogue, slow moving aesthetic as Zenit’s timeless “Waiting” that was featured on Edition Hawara’s first release. The same goes for the three other wonderfully unconventional, proto electronic songs: “Easy”, “All My Life” and the eponymous “ The Word”. And there are even more commonalities with Zenit’s LP: The vocals are Linda Sharrock’s, who here teamed up with Karl “Charly” Ratzer and Peter Ponger, the twin brother of legendary Falco producer Robert Ponger. The result of this collaboration is, well, also quite legendary. How this kind of sound emerged in Vienna in 1984 is still a bit of a mystery, but clearly all the stars were aligned when Sharrock, Ratzer and Ponger were jamming in the studio. We are very proud to share this secret with you. Just as there are very few lobsters in landlocked Vienna, there are very few records like this out there.

These 3 tracks were pressed on "Island Records"

... Medjool's story starts in 2010, at "Samar", it's a Kibbutz in the Arava valley in the far south of Israel, based on a unique, hippic and cooperative community. The band's four members met and lived there after their Military service. Being surrounded by musicians they started jamming together a lot, finding a joint creative language.

... In 2011, three of the band, – Ori, Nur & Aviram, moved to Tel-Aviv, trying their luck in the big city. 'Gilad' joined them in 2013 and the four friends became Medjool. The next three years were hectic with shows all over Israel, from small clubs to big festivals, gathering loyal crowd which followed the band everywhere. Nowadays, the band's members turned their energy to other musical projects, saying "we only took a short break which we're not sure when it'll end".

'Gbells' and 'Savana' are two energetic wild Afrobeat tunes.
The fact that the rhythm section comprises of a double base and percussion, grants 'Medjool' its unique highlife, groove color.
The guitar and saxophone travel through middle eastern to ethiopian melodies, suggesting the listeners the option either dancing or riding a camel in the desert, on your way to a flush oasis.

SOS: This two tracks on the 7", ... which were recorded in 2015, were the only music of 'Medjool', they had recorded professionally !!!!!

They Say: “Documentary and industrial underlays for current themes of modern life”.

We say: Mind-blowing, percussion-heavy, Afro-tinged, cosmic-disco library bomb.

This is the one. An absolutely outstanding record from 1983 and definitely one of the hardest to find on the collectable German library label, Coloursound. The Now Generation (Percussive Underscores) is comfortably one of the very best library records full stop.

The record comes galloping out the gate with a pair of rapid synthy-eurodisco bombs - the title-track and “Panama” - before slowing down to a woozy pace on “Inorganic Matter”. “African Nightclub” sounds like it reads, and is a particular favourite of Prins Thomas. Indeed, it was used to great effect on his seminal Cosmo Galactic Prism mix for Eskimo back in 2007. It’s followed by the dark, druggy, slow motion industrial groove of “Grease Plant” before “Southerly” lifts the tempo to close out side A with its Latin funk strut of bells and melancholic keys.

For us, though, it’s all about the opener to side B: “Mechanical Heart”. Seven minutes of building, mid-tempo disco-funk joy, deceptively explosive, club-ready gear for body and soul. The back cover dryly describes the track as “Guitar and percussion, light industrial underlay”. Hmmm. How about, “after finally emerging from a particularly heavy week jamming in a sunless, lawless German warehouse, Chic warily press record on a wayward, illicit instrumental for basement gatherings”. Just wait for those drums at the 3 minute mark…

The beatless ambience and menacing stabs of the proto-electro “Chemical Threat” follows, before the open drums and incredible fills of the metronomic “Steady Going” and fantastically monotonous funk breaks of “Nepal Trek” round out this sensational set.

This is a library masterpiece in no uncertain terms, full of synth funk, afro beats, exotica, leftfield madness, dance floor dynamite and all-around greatness.

As with our KPM and Themes re-issues, the audio for The Now Generation comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. Richard Robinson has brought the original Coloursound sleeve back to life in all its metalic silver glory.

Funky soul-jazz organist Caesar Frazier crafted superior Hammond funk. 75, his second LP, is a rare gem. It’s comfortably his greatest artistic statement.

The follow-up to Hail Ceasar!, it’s a taut, grooving set that expands his sound and, put simply, it’s got better songs. The key elements of his debut album are all there – production from maestro Bob Porter, accompaniment from hip players (Bernard “Pretty” Purdie, Cornell Dupree, John Tropea) and arrangement from Horace Ott - but the overall sound is elevated. The tightly jamming, expressive jazz-funk makes for a richer, fuller, more satisfying experience.

75 is a mixture of hard-driving originals, deeply beautiful slower numbers to vary the tempo and a couple of classy covers. The crazy bombastic “Mighty Mouse” - a riot of horns, organ and in the pocket drums - became an acid jazz classic at Dingwalls and it’s easy to see (hear?) how. A blissed out, lushly instrumental take on Seals and Crofts’s “Summer Breeze” follows, perfect for those sunshine sets.

Side A closes with the heavenly “Sweet Children”. A loping, funky jazz masterpiece famously sampled by Kanye West for Common’s “Real People” from Be. It opens beautifully, with soaring sax and a funky horn section combining with weightless keyboard tones atop snapping drums. Unsurprisingly, the excellence endures right through to the end.

The B side opens with perhaps the album’s most famous track. "Funk It Down” contains the familiar “I can feel the funk” vocal refrain throughout. But it’s the gorgeous, insouciant bridge that you should all know and love, having been used as the hook for Gang Starr’s “Ex-Girl To Next Girl”. A great cover of Stevie Wonder's “Living for the City” comes next, with an unforgettable bass-line which anchors the entire heavy rhythm section workout. Dizzying organ, triumphant horns and sun-dappled guitar grooves combine to create “Walking On The Side”, rounding out a pretty smoking set.

This is one of those rare 70s funk-soul-jazz LPs on which a bad track cannot be found. It’s all essential. So of course finding original copies on vinyl at affordable prices has been tough for years.

Mastered brilliantly by Simon Francis, cut by Pete Norman and with painstakingly reproduced artwork by the Be With team, this fresh Be With reissue ensures this legendary LP now sounds, looks and feels as sensational as it should.

The elusive Berlin label MASK are back with another anonymous release featuring four
analogue driven tracks entitled ‘Cliff’.
Known for being purveyors of mysterious yet exquisite hardware induced tracks, MASK continue to
hold up their reputation following on from ‘Hunter’ that picked up support from the likes of Laurent
Garnier, Elena Colombi, Machine Woman, Anastasia Kristensen and DJ Deep. ‘Cliff’ involves four
people live jamming on analogue equipment in a Berlin based studio.
A1 begins with crunchy drums fused with revolving, modulated synths and obscure elements that are
soaked in acid flavours before the A2 focuses on an electro-tinged sequence in harmony with ominous
atmospherics and eccentric oscillations.
On the flip, sweeping pads balanced with intense kicks and washing synths take the focus on the B1
until the B2 rounds off this magical EP with wavering compositions, hard-hitting percussion and
unsettling sound design keeping the atmosphere intense yet truly absorbing.

About The Word Collected Works

The Word is one of the better-kept secrets of 1980s Austrian disco music. Yet once you put the needle on this record, you notice that it sounds oddly familiar. The awe-inspiring signature piece “Lobster” has the same analogue, slow-moving aesthetic as Zenit’s timeless “Waiting” that was featured on Edition Hawara’s first release. The same goes for the three other wonderfully unconventional, proto-electronic songs: “Easy”, “All my life” and the eponymous “the word”. And there are even more commonalities with Zenit’s LP: The vocals are Linda Sharrock’s, who here teamed up with Karl “Charly” Ratzer and Peter Ponger, the twin brother of legendary Falco producer Robert Ponger. The result of this collaboration is, well, also quite legendary. How this kind of sound emerged in Vienna in 1984 is still a bit of a mystery, but clearly all the stars were aligned when Sharrock, Ratzer and Ponger were jamming in the studio. We at Edition Hawara are very proud to share this secret with you. Just as there are very few lobsters in landlocked Vienna, there are very few records like this

out there.

The sought after LP from Zann ‘Strange Ways / Inside Jungle’ originally released as a private press in 1990 finally receives a full reissue.

Zann started life as a 7-member live band in 1982. Founder member Udo Winkler had been a part of New Wave & Post Punk band Konec touring extensively and releasing one LP on Polydor titled ‘Schrille Blitze’. Zann was an outlet for more experimental works heavily influenced by Brian Eno's collaborations with David Byrne and Jon Hassell, German bands like Embryo and Dissidenten, David Sylvian and middle & far eastern music.

In 1988 Udo and Hjalmer Karthaus built a small basement studio with a 4 track tape machine and musical experiments began in earnest. After the limitations of playing live it was an acoustic wonderland and they gave themselves no musical boundaries. The unlimited studio time meant they could pick up ideas and develop pieces gradually, friends would come to the studio to play and songs evolved from extensive jamming sessions. The resulting LP has Middle Eastern instrumentation at its core, particularly wind & string instruments such as the Tabla and Gong, and is a melting pot of influences incorporating elements of Ambient, Jazz and Folk with strong synth programming on a number of tracks. The band pressed up a handful of copies and sold them exclusively at record fairs in Germany and in the intervening years the LP has become highly sought after with copies changing hands for 150 Euros.

The LP has been fully remastered from the original DAT tapes with new full sleeve artwork from Bradley Pinkerton and is pressed on 180 Gram Vinyl.

Written & produced by Jammin Unit & Kerosene

The Portuguese say that ‘saudade’, the emotional state of nostalgia and the emotional thrills it can trigger, is an extremely powerful thing. It’s certainly hit Tom Trago hard in recent times, with the Dutch producer naming his new self- released single – his first since 2017 – after this distinctively warm and fuzzy heightened emotional state.

Trago’s nostalgia pangs were a direct response to his new life on the Netherlands’ North Sea-facing West Coast, a move that provided the musical inspiration for his 2018 album “Bergen”. While happy in his new home studio, Trago found his mind wandering back to countless happy days and nights spent jamming with friends and contemporaries in his basement studio beneath Volkshotel in Amsterdam.

“Saudade”, Trago’s latest single, was made during one of those all-night Amsterdam studio sessions alongside JP Enfant, a DJ/producer best known for his residency at De School and releases on his LET Recordings. The A- side “Main Mix” fizzes with excitement and the possibilities of the night ahead. Sentimental, emotion-stirring chords, lilting lead lines, chiming melodies and ecstatic electronics rise above a chunky, hot-stepping drum machine rhythm. It’s nostalgic but immediate: a musical marriage of two giddy producers living for the moment.

On the flip you’ll find the “Ambient Mix” set to soundtrack slow-burn sunrises the world over. All immersive synthesizer chords, yearning musical motifs and seductive melodies, it sees Trago delivering a suitably tactile and loved-up soundtrack with which to usher in the dawn of a new day.

Audioslave may be one the rare cases of remnants of 2 great bands coming together and creating an even greater band. Consisting of three quarters of Rage Against The Machine plus former Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell, Audioslave came onto the music scene with a mix of 70's Zeppelin & Sabbath warped into the year 2000 and beyond. Having Chris Cornell as their leadsinger was producer Rick Rubin's idea and the band penned no less than 21 songs in a period of 19 days, jamming and rehearsing.
Their live debut was a David Letterman gig on the rooftop of the Ed Sullivan Theatre in New York, kicking off a successful world tour. Debut single 'Cochise' was a worldwide smash and the 2nd single 'Like a Stone' even topped that (certified Gold by the RIAA)! The album was certified Gold in the USA within a month after its release. 2 Audioslave albums followed, before the members parted ways to join their former bands.

"In these times of dawless jamming JBS from Karlskrona brings you a release where the A-side is entirely made with samples on a ensoniq eps, while the B-side is entirely made on a computer. Which also means this record is the perfect gift the analogue hardware purist that despises all use of digital equipment. All tracks are somehow on the classic new york house vein with a distant homage to the nearly disturbing sample use heard in stuff from labels such as nu groove, but with the B?rft twist! Worth noting is that the first track on the B-side is a re-edit of a track made a long time ago by Pean Romael where his little sisters friend was the unlikely guest vocalist. Blasphemy Release! Get it now before its banned!" -DJ Joakim Cosmo

The mysterious Teisco LP is perhaps the most bizarre artefact to emerge from the phenomenal world of Italian Library music. Originally scored for a 1978 RAI television documentary, the album titled Tuscan Castle and Country Seat conforms to nothing you know or understand about library music. Studying composition under maestro A.R Luciani, the young Teisco composed innovative home studio recordings that parallel the outsider technique of French soundtrack composer Francois De Roubaix. With little resemblance to the standard cues usually found on library music LPs, this is stoned underground psychedelic music of the most eccentric kind. Imagine lyrical Moog oscillations drifting loosely over baroque and hallucinogenic atmospheres, or alternatively, think the DIY guitar jamming of the Velvet Underground and Dream Syndicate mixed with the electronics of some lesser-known Krautrock band. Wherever this recording sits among the dusty shelves of forgotten stock music, it is highly personal, deeply rewarding and without a doubt the most mind-blowing library record you will hear this year. This record is soon to be an outsider classic.

The Naturals' debut album is more than just an rediscovery of one of the great lost albums of the last decade, but of how things were always intended. When Eddie Ruscha (Secret Circuit) and Thomas Bullock (Rub'n'Tug/STD) appeared as The Laughing Light of Plenty, their journey offered untold troves. Now at last the pulse is set for outer orbit and all are welcome to join.

After a mind-melting debut EP sold again and again, an album expanding their unique psychebalearicfolk imaginings was prepared and even pressed before being lost somewhere between a lock up in New York and limited quantities reaching Asian shores and dealers
trading at dizzying Yen.

Lost, but never forgotten, years passed until a nagging memory that an earlier, rawer mix had always been superior. A return to the original band name seemed The Natural(s) choice and so a project idea started to be (re)born.

A sunny Spring afternoon in a grand English garden, pots of tea, talk of life's travails, deep yogani, love affairs, kids growing up, the power of now and music, always music led to two labels coming together to dust down the desk and not just resurrect, but seek and offer the original intentions.
Here at last is the double album as intended. Of two great friends jamming their deepest vibes and flowing with love to offer tales of higher consciousness. Travel inward, beyond meer chakras. Aim for the stars. The devil is in the details so see the trails and follow to some avail.

Begin your own journey.

On March 29, Eric Copeland delivers Trogg Modal Vol. 2, the counterpart to last October's Vol. 1. The former Black Dice member's 'Freakbeat 4/4' agenda gets further refined here - Vol. 2 is more laid-back than the first, but still highly danceable. Self-described as 'late Night Flight proto tekno,' the tracks pulse with thick layers of percussion, melodic fever dreams, and riffs wrung through a taffy puller. Eric's textured, off-the-cuff approach to dance music adds a refreshing element of spontaneity and 'jamming' to a climate of uncanny smoothness and polish.

Where Vol. 1 was composed of 'rippers,' Vol. 2 travels at its own pace, continuing to showcase Eric's ability to recontextualize 4/4 tracks as psychedelic contortions, from the squelchy vibrations of 'BS Dropout' to the blithe, video arcade soundtrack 'High Score Zed.' Taken together, the two volumes of Trogg Modal showcase the versatility of one of the most continuously exciting experimental artists of the past twenty years - arriving in 2019 with his mischievous sense of adventure firmly intact.

B-movie junkies, gather round and prepare yourselves for what could only be described as a cinematic speedball. Take a combined hit of two of the most potent strains of toxic cinema, dress it up in ritualistic robes and make it dance to the beat of a stoned, motoric, country commune soundtrack. Like an exploito double bill where both films merge into a single feature, this directorial debut by an ex-Roger Corman protege and future Russ Meyer art director (another heady cocktail) is the product of one writing duo's fleeting time in the driving seat as the moviedrome marathon approached its dwindling finish line.

Werewolves On Wheels emerged in 1971 in a climate where the B-movie genre of the previous two decades began to make way for the early glimpses of imported slasher films and video nasties. Entirely out of popular context in 1971, the soundtrack music of Don Gere would perhaps reveal him as the most versatile actor involved in the whole production. Until this point, Don Gere had been a pop folk songwriter and a country music devotee, but while riding with the werewolves, Don Gere became a disjointed psych rock stoner making ritualistic commune country with more coincidentally in common with Germany's emerging Krautrock scene or the more localised stoner psych of Skip Spence (whose radically ahead of its time LP OAR was recognised by Columbia Records as their lowest selling record in the company's history). Imagine guitarist Sandy Bull jamming with Munich's Amon Duul 1 or some Swedish prog outfits like Trad, Gras och Stenar or a sedated Kebnekaise. In comparison to the Curb/Allan scores, for films like Wild Angels, Devil's Angels, Thunder Alley, and Born Losers (often released on Curb's own Sidewalk or Tower records), the new music made by Don Gere, only three years down the line, sounds like it's from an entirely different generation...

"Pre-certified biker psych from the hillbilly Haxan. Amazing!" - SEAN CANTY (DEMDIKE STARE)

This EP focuses on the group's prescient dance-floor DIN-sync workouts which share sensibilities with contemporaneous early Detroit experiments by Juan Atkin's Cybotron, Ron Hardy's visionary Kikrokos tape edit, Shoc Corridor's extended 808
exercises, and 90s Techno Pop by Haruomi Hosono. Rounding off the EP is the existential electronic soul ballad Words. Remastered from the original reels, 45rpm DMM pressing.

Kansas City, 1983: a band formed, wires connected and synapses fired. Three friends, tired of guitar/bass/drums rock started jamming with newly acquired synths and Roland TR 808. They called themselves Short-Term Memory. Thanks to the vanguard technology of the time, these electronic instruments spoke to each other, and Jim Skeel, John Paul & Robert Duckworth could program their instruments, riding the DIN-sync wave. Weekly jams became more ambitious, and in 1983 they released their first album Every Head Needs Cleaning on their own Silly Poodle Music label. Over the 80s members drifted in and out of the group, and they released two cassettes, an LP and a 7' EP. By the 90s Jim Skeel was at the helm, the only original member, and joined by Tim Higgins he continued to record in MIDI mode for a few years before pulling the plug, leaving recordings and memories that resisted the great fadeout of time, and today sound vibrant and more visionary than ever.

Nicewon kicks off 2019 with the 'Live on DuPont EP' from Christian James. Christian drops three new cuts, stamped with unmistakable mid-west vibes, fresh from flyover USA and pulls in a super-phat remix, from one of London's most exciting producer's- Cody Currie. Following up on his SummerSota EP, he stays true to his roots with driving drum-grooves, heavy use of samplers and drum machines, with some great synth work and pulls it all together by jamming it out- live. Cody Currie brings that floor-stompin attitude to this remix and cracks the WHIP with those beloved filter disco vibes, for all the heads. This EP kicks some serious Minneapolis warehouse flavor, to fit all corners of the dancefloor. We hope you enjoy NCWN04!

Produced in Minneapolis. Mastered by Rob Small Mastering ( Leeds, UK ). Artwork by Jeff Swiff.

Visions Recordings is happy to welcome the Italian trio Jaxx Madicine for a single with two jazz/house influenced tracks aimed for the dancefloor with enough music and fat beats to make you wanna fly and dance .Their specific mix of vintage and modern sounds keep the bouncy feeling that deejays love to play in their sets . Round bass, Fender Rhodes , piano and warm keys are the ingredients to this delicious meal we invite you to share with us.

The name Jaxx Madicine suggests a wide range of influences - 'Jaxx' obviously being a tilt of the hat to the original rhythms and basslines born out of Chicago house while the 'XX"s suggest a keen passion for jazz.These are the two main ingredients used by the projects founders Turbojazz and Parker Madicine, who are joined by the talented and mysterious Veez_0 - a young Italian piano player that you're bound to hear more from in the near future.Turbojazz plants his roots in the rhythms and futuristic sounds of the Broken Beat golden age while Parker Madicine leans more towards the sounds and timbres of Detroit's spacey atmospheres. These two musical worlds are married by Veez_o's incredible playing and harmonic backing. To get a proper idea of what this is about you should consider George Duke in his peak cosmic period jamming in a studio with 'High Tech Jazz"-era Underground Resistance before joining Pete Rock for dinner and then heading to a Roy Ayers concert. Absolutely delicious !

Originally out in 1983, Love Power is co-produced by Fabian Cooke (from Itopia) and Lloyd Bullwackie Barnes, with assistance from Prince Douglas. Cooke plays most of the instruments himself, with his drumming centre-stage, though Ras Menelik puts in a brilliant shift on congas, and backing vocals are by Sugar Minott and the Love Joys. Cooke's own well-crafted compositions are joined by covers of Irene Cara and the Four Tops, infectiously bridging roots, lovers and synthy, soulful eighties boogie.
Betrayed is solid-gold, signature Wackies. He's My God is a tasty sip of low-slung, grooving gospel-reggae. Evoking Michael Jackson, the jamming album-closer Drums is top-notch disco-reggae, opportunely poised for revival.
Terrific stuff, full of personality, charm and in-ting hybridity.