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Still just shy of legal US drinking age, GRAMMY®-winning Atlanta hard rock juggernaut Mastodon turns 20 this year! Celebrating two decades together, the group will unleash a rarities collection, Medium Rarities, which includes among the many rare highlights an unreleased track “Fallen Torches,” recorded in 2019.

The band explains, “‘Fallen Torches’ is an unreleased track from Mastodon that will appear for the first time on Medium Rarities. This classic Mastodon track was recorded in Atlanta in 2019, originally planned to be released in support of a European tour, the track was delayed so the band could focus on the release of Stairway to Nick John, a tribute to their late, long time manager Nick John, with proceeds going to the Hirshberg Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research in his honour. ‘Fallen Torches’ is written by Mastodon and features guest vocals by longtime friend and collaborator Scott Kelly from the band Neurosis.”

Medium Rarities presents a bevy of classic covers, soundtrack contributions, instrumentals, B-sides, and live recordings on one complete package for the very first time. Among an eclectic array of covers, the musicians tackle “A Commotion” by Feist, “A Spoonful Weighs A Ton” by The Flaming Lips, and “Orion” by Metallica. It also features soundtrack cuts such as “White Walker” Game of Thrones and “Cut You Up With A Linoleum Knife” [Aqua Teen Hunger Force]. Meanwhile, they get under the hood with instrumental versions of “Asleep in the Deep,” “Toe To Toes,” “Jaguar God,” and “Halloween.”

Another new Mastodon track “Rufus Lives” will be included in the forthcoming Orion Pictures film Bill & Ted Face The Music, expected to be released in September 2020. Written, performed and produced by the band and recorded in their hometown of Atlanta, the track will also appear exclusively on the film’s official soundtrack album. Further details to be revealed shortly.

The anniversary celebration only continues. At the moment, Mastodon are hard at work on their anxiously awaited ninth full-length and first record since the GRAMMY® Award-winning Emperor of Sand in 2017.

Toronto’s infamous psychedelic multimedia collective, Intersystems, make a surprise return with a new full-length LP, #IV. Coming via Waveshaper Media, #IV is Intersystems’ first new material since 1968! Intersystems’ pioneering avant/electronic music sounded positively alien in the 1960s, and more than 50 years later, this latest body of work sounds just as otherworldly.

When they arrived on the scene in the late 1960s, Intersystems stood out from their peers. Comprised of architect Dik Zander, light sculptor Michael Hayden, poet Blake Parker, and musician John Mills-Cockell (of Syrinx, Kensington Market and more), the group mounted groundbreaking pan-sensory events and released a trilogy of defiantly disorienting records.

Where more conventional purveyors of sonic psychedelia were content with fuzztone guitar and orientalist tropes, Intersystems managed to approximate the full psychedelic experience in all its euphoric wonder and terror. Initially wrangling homespun gadgetry, feverishly spliced-together tapes, and mutant beat poetry, Intersystems were also among the very first to deploy a Moog Synthesizer; their Moog modular system was the first to be imported into Canada. Intersystems’ three vinyl LP recordings, meanwhile, justifiably became coveted collector's items given their scarce quantity and singular unsettling vision.

The reissue of Intersystems’ full discography in 2015 prompted acclaim from a number of major outlets. Among them, PopMatters hailed the set as "one of those great lost recordings (three of 'em actually) that comes from the lysergic era..." Mills-Cockell’s work in Syrinx has also been reissued to great acclaim in recent years.

Fifty-plus years after their 1968 album Free Psychedelic Poster Inside, Hayden and Mills-Cockell decided to revive the long-dormant project with a series of sessions at Hamilton's storied Grant Avenue Studio. The resultant music remains remarkably congruent with the project's original vision while clearly emerging from the present moment. With original poet/lyricist Blake Parker now deceased, Hayden and Mills-Cockell made the counterintuitive (yet strangely apt) decision to render Parker's words electronically. As the computer-synthesized voice alternates between an eerily life-like delivery and slurred cybernetic faltering, it brings a new dystopian tint to the group's anxious surrealism. Taking cues from its predecessor, Free Psychedelic Poster Inside, a modular Moog Synthesizer system is the primary instrument, yet here it offers a dynamic blend of different sonorities: barbed wire basslines, Subotnickesque chirping, gestural plumes of colour and percussive filigree.

While the group cut their teeth in the 1960s, make no mistake these new Intersystems recordings aren't a “comeback" or an attempt to rehash the "good old days". What one hears instead is the sound of Mills-Cockell and Hayden re-energizing the project, bringing with them the myriad experience they’ve accumulated in the intervening 50 years. These aural concoctions—no less perplexing than their 1960s predecessors—build upon the Intersystems foundation but very decidedly reside in the present moment, reminding listeners of just how forward-looking this group was in the first place.

Pixey grew up in the sleepy but picturesque village Parbold, Lancashire before moving to Liverpool for school and remaining there to this day. Now signed to Chess Club - a label famed for breaking new talent, where recent exciting signings include AlfieTempleman and Phoebe Green, and past successes include Jungle, Wolf Alice and Easy Life - Pixey is making more waves than ever before. ‘Just Move’ drew attention from BBC Radio 1 DJs Jack Saunders (who made Pixey one of his Next Wave artists) and Huw Stephens amongst many other admirers like Radio X’s John Kennedy who added the band to the X-Posure playlist at the station in October. Pixey has also featured as the cover artist of Spotify’s Indie Brandneu (GER) and Peach editorial playlists, and wasamongst the artists named in major annual tips lists, the Dork HYPE List and the NME 100.



New single ‘Electric Dream’ - with its accompanying video by Thomas Davies - combines cavernous drum machines and dreamy pop melodies with a signature dance stomp. Speaking about new single, Pixey explains: “‘Electric Dream’ was originally written as a piano ballad but after finishing the lyrics I felt the song worked as a dance track. I wrote it to make sense ofbeing locked in with nothing to rely on but technology. The verses are all of my anxieties that come with that - like trying to simulate humanity digitally and what kind of a future that would be - but the choruses are about the imperfections of real life that technology and AI can’t give us.”



Debut EP Free To Live In Colour was written, recorded and produced in Pixey’s bedroom in Liverpool - with additional production added by frequent Gorillaz and Jamie T collaborator James Dring - and draws inspiration from genres like hardcore breakbeat and





dream pop. Pixey says: “I wanted a collection of tracks which gave a quick snapshot into me and my brain - where I’m from, where I want to be and what I’m thinking about. I hope people can take something meaningful from it or simply have a dance.”



Pixey first discovered music as a toddler - she remembers not even being able to walk yet but desperate to sing and dance to Queen - before discovering the likes of Kate Bush, Björk, and George Harrison, whose classic songwriting struck a chord with her in her youth. The catalyst for Pixey’s musical coming of age however, was a near fatal viral illness suffered in early 2016 which hospitalised her, she says: “When I thought I was going to die I thought of all the things I wish I’d done and music was the first thing I thought of. As soon as I started recovering I started learning to record and produce.” She taught herself Ableton production software before mastering guitar and eventually drums and bass after her previous (and current) boyfriend(s) left their instruments lying around to prove she could learn it quicker and play it better.



Once able to carve out her own sound, Pixey turned to The Verve, The Prodigy and De La Soul for sonic inspiration, adding: “I particularly like the idea of using samples/making my own riffs sound like samples which was heavily inspired by the De La Soul album 3 Feet High and Rising. Starting out initially though Grimes was a huge catalyst when I realized she wrote, recorded &produced herself.” Her prolific and unusual songwriting style stems from an original riff or beat, with further layers added as she records and produces, and lyrics being added last - the process taking only a day or two.



With Free To Live In Colour and a whole arsenal of further material being readied on her new label home, Chess Club, Pixey is primed for big things in 2021 and beyond.

Just in time for the holidays comes a brand new Christmas classic from Academy Award-winning composer Michael Giacchino (Up, Ratatouille & Lost) and if the world ever needed a shot of positivity right now then this is it!

The idea of writing a Christmas single happened whilst hosting a Christmas party with Richard Kind at the Royal Albert Hall in 2019. During that party, they heard a radio announcement regarding a Christmas song competition, and they immediately began trying to

write a song and find someone to sing it! Throughout the party, guests turned up, but no one wanted to sing the song, that is until Himesh Patel and UK band Itchy Teeth knocked on the door and took up the challenge. Himesh was fresh from starring in Danny Boyle’s film Yesterday, and Itchy Teeth were the band that performed with him throughout the movie.

Recalling classic Christmas earworms such as Wings ‘Wonderful Christmastime,” the single is written by Michael Giacchino, Elyssa Samsel and Kate Anderson and performed by Itchy Teeth. The B-side is a beautiful smokey lounge version of Christmas Number One performed by the John Robert Wood Yule Sextet.

The LTD 7’ comes complete with a digital download card and is presented in gatefold Christmas card cover, ready and waiting to be given as a gift and inscribed with your very own holiday greeting.

Let us see 2020 out in a flurry of positivity, optimism and fun, so get ready to be singing this song around the christmas tree this year with all your family (even if that mean doing so on Zoom)

Happy Holidays!!!

Sometimes a work of art comes unintentionally from a place from deep within the soul. It meanders and flops onto a table and sits and waits for its birth.
The album begins with "Wait Till The Stars Burn", a planetary ode to the Sun. The second track "Tribute to the Pharoahs Den", is a requiem for Danny Ray Thompson (R.I.P.) of the Sun Ra Arkestra, his music and legacy now floating above us in the infinity of space. Both tracks and featuring Marshall Allen and Knoel Scott (of the Sun Ra Arkestra).
The album ends with a requiem for Hal Willner (R.I.P.) whose devotion to celebrating the weird and insane was like an insatiable thirst leading to deep introspection and joy in harmony and sonic dissidence.
These compositions have all come from this place inside my bipolar, seroquil ridden mind. It is as much a tribute to the great composers who have inspired me; Alice Coltrane, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Philip Kelan Cohran, Bernard Herrmann, Ennio Morricone, Miles Davis, Sun Ra, John Carpenter, Quincy Jones, Old Bollywood, Film Noir, to name just a few. In my 23 years of being a composer of music I have had the great opportunity to score several films all of which never got any commercial fame. These films were made from the blood and sweat of film directors and their crews who tirelessly made incredible documents that were ultimately ignored by humanity. But that never stopped them nor will it stop me. These tracks are from the infinite celluloid that runs deep in my mind, body and soul. In my lifetime i never thought i would see the deaths of "Celluloid" or "analog recording". I refuse to accept the coroner reports on said fatalities, so here is my offering to the canon of cinematic overtures and analog self-preservation, for the films in our heads yet to be made.

Isasa’s fourth LP is a guitar excursion from a skillful, humble guide. Minimal, contemplative songs, rich in atmosphere and warm in spirit.

Some musicians give their name to their first album, signifying introduction. Some hold it in reserve — it took Wire 39 years to get around to calling an LP Wire. But whenever they do so, they are making a statement. For Conrado Isasa, an acoustic guitarist from Madrid, Spain, the decision to call his fourth album Isasa reflects the fact that his music’s relationship to his own identity has evolved. Isasa presents an artist whose work reflects that he knows and accepts where he comes from.
Between 1993 and 2003, he played electric guitar in the hardcore metal band Down For The Count and the post rock combo, A Room With A View. These were collective statements, communications between small groups and a select underground community. After the latter group’s demise, Isasa stepped back from recording, and for a while from guitar playing as well. He spent some time learning to play the trumpet, but was inspired to return to the guitar in 2007 after he heard Geoff Farina play a Mississippi John Hurt song for the encore of a Glorytellers gig. Then came another period of learning, during which he studied the playing of Hurt, John Fahey, Jack Rose, and Glenn Jones.
Performing as Isasa, he made three records, each of which can be heard as confrontation with an artistic challenge. Las Cosas (2015) is between the man and his acoustic guitar; what could he do with his fingers, a slide, six steel strings, and a box of wood? Los Días (2016) faces the broader issue of how to deal with the requirements of the American Primitive guitar style. Like Fahey, Rose, and Jones, Isasa sought to make an album that used a cohesive sequence of guitar and banjo instrumentals to express personal experiences. With its references to the sights, sounds, and tastes one might encounter in Madrid, it is like a poetic diary written with the distance that comes from having mastered a second language. After making that record, Isasa toured parts of the United States, and played at The Thousand Incarnations Of The Rose, a festival that gathered representatives of American Primitive guitar’s past, present, and future in Takoma Park, the town where the style’s original synthesist, John Fahey, was born. Insilio (2019) began to look beyond that style, dealing with Hindustani raga forms and adding other instrumental textures.
And now comes Isasa. The name suggests something very personal, and it’s true that it draws upon Isasa’s closest relationships. Two compositions are either named for or feature the voices of his children, but their presence helps this music to transcend the purely personal. For what could be more universally shared than the joy and love one feels for children? Others invoke concepts — absence, liberty, love, reunion. They may mean one thing to Isasa, and another thing to you, but by sharing his reactions to them, he invites you to recognize yours. Isasa isn’t just using his experiences to tell you about his life; he is using what he knows about life to help us know a little more about ours.

Built on a foundation of authenticity, passion and innovation, Archie Lee Hooker & The Coast to Coast Blues Band is a spearheading group that has established itself in the world of music. Formedby Archie Lee Hooker, the nephew of John Lee Hooker, Archie and his leading handpicked team arehighly recognised for creating compelling, soul-enriching productions that leave their audienceswanting more.
Archie was born on Christmas Day of 1949 in Lambert, Mississippi, just 20 miles from thecrossroads where Robert Johnson supposedly sold his soul to the devil. He was the son of a sharecropper, and up until age thirteen, that was the life he was accustomed to. That all changed when he headed up north and found himself standing in the big city of Memphis,Tennessee.
The paved roads and city lights felt like a new world to Archie, one that was filled with opportunities. Inspired by the Memphis music scene, it didn’t take long for Archie to begin singing with his first gospel group called The Marvellous Five. However, December of 1989 was when hispassion for Blues started to surface. During this time, Archie lived with his uncle, John Lee (the Boogieman himself) until his death in 2001. Being surrounded by him and other committed, talented, and influencing musicians is what became the catalyst for Archie to crave sharing his own life experiences through music and leave his lasting impression.
Though Archie left for France in 2011 to join Carl Wyatt & The Delta Voodoo Kings to tour Europe, he eventually chose to seek the right musicians to have on his side. He wanted a team that resembled family, chemistry, and a bond unlike any other. Once he found them, Archie founded the Archie Lee Hooker & The Coast to Coast Blues Band, which was specially named after the late John Lee’s Coast to Coast Blues Band. Since then, the crew has done nothing but thrive and impress.
They released their first album called ‘Chilling’ under the French label Dixiefrog in 2018, which received a 5-star review in Rolling Stone Magazine. Fast forward to today, they have recorded a new 12 song CD called ‘Living in a Memory’, and this all-original playlist of storytelling art is set to be released through Dixiefrog worldwide on April 16th, 2021. In the end, every song and performance that Archie Lee Hooker & The Coast to Coast Blues Band creates paints an incredible picture that inevitably provokes uplifting emotional influences and invested attraction.
They are entirely passionate about delivering remarkable music, and continuously provide fully authentic productions that have shaped them to become what they are today. With their immense drive and determination, it is exciting to see what they will launch next.

17 Track compilation of all of their studio recordings, remastered and pressed on Electric Blue Vinyl. Presented in gatefold sleeve with never seen before photographs ,a printed lyric inner sleeve and poster.
The VIP’s were formed in 1978 while at Warwick University. Within weeks they were gigging at clubs in the Midlands, often on the same bill as THE SPECIALS in Coventry. Soon they found a manager, Clive Solomon, who with Timmy Mallet (now a TV and Radio presenter) and both students at the university, financed the group’s first single the EP ‘Music For Funsters. In the summer of 1978 they built up a loyal following in London. The single was picked up by John Peel, who played it constantly on his BBC radio show through the year. The 3 track EP, featuring ‘I’m Perfect’, ‘I Believe’ and ‘Boys of the City’ was released on Clive Solomon’s own ‘Bust’ label.
In 1979 the VIP’s could be found playing all over the country, frequently on the same bill as Squire, stablemates on Clive Solomon’s label.
In early 1980 they went into Olympic Studios in Chiswick to record some tracks with ex-THE ANIMALS bass player and SLADE/Jimi Hendrix manager Chas Chandler. The track ‘I Thought You Were My Friend’ was recorded at these sessions A few weeks later a major record deal was agreed with Gem Records/RCA and ‘Causing Complications’ came out in March. To coincide with the release the VIP’s went on tour supporting SECRET AFFAIR.
After the tour the single ‘The Quarter Moon’ was released, another track produced by Mike Leander. It received extensive airplay around the UK and beyond, and was also picked as BBC Radio 1’s Record of The Week by DJ Mike Reid on his Morning Show, as well as being Radio Luxembourg’s ‘Power Play’ for two weeks. The constant touring, recording and radio play had earned them a spot on Top of The Pops but they were suddenly told -on the afternoon that they were due to appear - that an industrial dispute at the BBC had resulted in the show being cancelled. Disappointed, they continued to record and tour, this time with MADNESS, THE BEAT and DEXYS MIDNIGHT RUNNERS amongst others. This time Bob Seargent (of The BEAT and HAIRCUT 100 fame) was recruited to give ‘Need Somebody To Love’ that sparkle and edge to capture The VIP’s live sound on vinyl. Although perhaps the most representative of the band’s sound, Top of The Pops again eluded them.
By the end of 1980 the VIP’s were selling in Spain, Germany, Italy and France through the RCA label but they seemed to be losing heart with the business. Illness -Jed had been touring with a collapsed lung - and tensions saw the band play their last concert at Leicester University. A fourth and final GEM single, ‘Things Aren’t What They Used To Be’ (a song taken from their earlier Mike Leander recording sessions) proved to be their last. With several songs still to be recorded, it was a frustrating time for all.
Paul Shurey and Guy Morley has already made alternative plans for THE NEW VIP’s and recruited Simon Smith from THE MERTON PARKAS to play drums while Paul returned to his native keyboards. With Tony Conway on guitar and Andy Godfrey on bass they became MOOD SIX.
Paul Shurey played a central part in the birth and proliferation of the Rave movement in the 80’s, 90’s and 2,000’s, initiating a great a great many DANCE RAVES all around the world. Very sadly he died in 2017. He was also a gifted artist/cartoonist, and it’s his picture which graces the album’s sleeve. He is a brother very greatly missed.
Guy Morley works in film editing and Andrew Price is involved in developing community projects in and around his native Bristol.
“We became lifelong friends and shared a great and very exciting rock and roll dream.”

Songwriter and fingerstyle guitarist, Jason McNiff releases his 7th full length album, Dust Of Yesterday, on April 16th. Produced and engineered by Roger Askew (Joe Strummer, Wilko Johnson, Christy Moore) the album was recorded throughout the summer and autumn of 2020 in Roger's home studio in Eastbourne, UK. It features McNiff's signature acoustic guitar work throughout with significant contributions from Beth Porter (of Eliza Carthy's band) on cello and Basia Bartz (most London based folk bands) on violin. 
 
His first album since leaving London - McNiff is now based in Hastings - Dust of Yesterday is an elegy on moving away from a beloved place and a lament for lost youth. We are treated to a musical tour of McNiff's life to date, from his 8-year residency as a Flamenco guitarist in a Spanish bar in Waterloo (Damaged Woman) to hopping the northbound train from King's Cross, hiding in the lavatory up to Nottingham (A Load Along). All the songs on Dust of Yesterday, in one way or another, speak of the past. But it is not bleary-eyed nostalgia. 

"I read somewhere that it is possible to literally change the past and I became very interested in this idea. It so happened around the same time that I discovered the Greek/Egyptian poet, Cavafy. In his poems he would talk about the past, but the memory is not a thing of the past, but something that is still part of him in the present. I could relate to that. "

Musically, Jason is influenced by the British acoustic guitarists (Jansch, Graham, Wizz Jones) and the great folk/rock troubadours of the 60s and 70s. He loves Mark Knopfler in the early days; the English teacher turned reluctant rock star, singing about Leeds and Newcastle and sounding like JJ Cale. For McNiff, the lyrics are central, and he has been especially captivated by those considered poets and writers as well as musicians. He loves literature and cites Hemingway, Chekhov and the aforementioned Cavafy, as major influences in his work. ( He has 'translated' Hemingway's 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' into a song on a previous album, 'Nobody's Son')
 
 
Jason McNiff was born in Bradford, Yorkshire in 1974 to an Irish father and Polish mother. Academically gifted, he did well at school and went to the University of Nottingham to study French and Russian. He fell in with the Folk & Blues scene in that city before moving to London in the mid-nineties to do another degree in English Lit. He was just in time to catch the Bert Jansch residency at the 12 Bar club. For 6 months, every Wednesday night, McNiff would be in the front row of Soho's tiny club learning fingerstyle from the master. He would later sign his first record deal with Snowstorm Records, a label run by Bert's brother-in-law and found himself opening for Bert on numerous occasions. 
There followed a string of albums on various labels, including 2003's Nobody's Son (Americana UK album of the year) and 2011's April Cruel (nominated for best alt-country album at the Independent Music Awards in the US.)

Conceived at the heel of Italy's boot-shaped peninsula in Apulia, Patrick Belaga's Blutt makes music for the unruly imagination. The title is an old German word for 'naked', 'bare', but it can also mean 'blood' when spelt blut. Take away another letter and it makes 'butt'. None of these definitions and adaptations were what prompted the classically-trained composer and cellist to name his second album with a word simulating the sound of a punctured artery. That came later. Blutt's nine woozy compositions are inspired by a contemplative road trip with a friend, and the mysterious muffled music heard from an unidentified source. It was a combination of jazz and classical music that haunted Belaga's wanderings through the Byzantine town Gallipoli, and soon infected his dreams of long-gone civilizations. This record is its outcome, where organic instrumentals and electronic production merge into a sound that's both contemporary and ancient. Samples of mewing incantations and tape hiss sway atop the waltzing thud of piano chords on "Sigh". Composite layers of Belaga's cello play in downcast harmony on "Rust". There's a wistful sense for the romantic, in the eerie rhythm of a piece like "Momentum". The quarter tones of an Eastern European and Middle Eastern folk scale probe a profound melancholy via Kai Knight's violin. Its notes are haunted by a field recording of running water on "Unsoft", echoes of panpipes and a Jew's harp on opener "Lilt". As a consummate composer and performer known for his work with artists Wu Tsang, boychild, Josh Johnson and Asma Maroof, Belaga's Blutt is itself marked by flawless collaborations. Vocalist and instrumentalist Jazmin Romero sings and composes the surreal melodies of "Grey Eye". Multidisciplinary dance artist and producer Riley Watts contributes to the muted, motorik movement of "The Tunnel is a Tower". Together, the record plays as a stunning soundtrack to the strangeness of sleeping, and the heartbreaking transience of time. Like an intense dream half-remembered, the emotions persist after waking but for the sharp machinations just outside of the mind's reach. The album is mastered by Rashad Becker, featuring artwork by Giovanni Furlino & design by N MRE 08.

Antonio L. Newton AKA Tony Newton (born 1948) is a multi-instrumentalist from Detroit, MI who began his professional career at the age of thirteen, playing bass guitar with blues legends like John Lee Hooker and T-Bone Walker. Discovered by Motown executive Hank Cosby while playing the Detroit blues circuit at the age of 18, he became the touring bassist with Smokey Robinson and the Miracles on the famed 1965 European ‘Motown Review’ tour. Within two years, Newton became the Miracles’ musical director.

Tony Newton also toured and recorded with other Motown artists such as The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Jackson 5…and countless others. Earning the nickname “the Baby Funk Brother” he left his trademark of solid, hard-driving and deftly clever grooves on such timeless hits as “Where Did Our Love Go,” “Baby Love,” “Stop In The Name Of Love,” “Nowhere to Run,” “ABC,” “Never Can Say Goodbye,” “Don’t Leave Me This Way,” and many others. Next to his impressive body of work for Motown, Newton can be heard on several hit singles from labels like Invictus-Hotwax and Stax. Later, Newton gained recognition as a member of both the acclaimed jazz-rock fusion group: The New Tony Williams Lifetime (headed by Miles Davis’ drummer Tony Williams) and the British hard rock group: G-Force (with veteran guitarist Gary Moore).

Tony Newton also recorded several solo albums during his impressive career, including the two total classics: ‘Mysticism & Romance’ (1978) and ‘Novaphonia’ (1987).

On the album, we are presenting you today (Novaphonia from 1987) the listener is treated to something UNIQUE (and this is not an overstatement). Newton really puts the ‘multi’ into multi-instrumentalist, playing the synthesizers, the electric bass and the drum machine. Experimental is the keyword here, sounds vary from psych/trance (almost like a soundtrack from a space movie), to funk, fusion, rock, R&B, soul and jazz. Novaphonia has both elements of Tony Newton’s impressive musical past and his vision for the future.

Spacious synths, unusual instruments and an all-around cosmic approach make this an ‘out of this world’ and VERY intriguing album. Resonant, sonically rich, sonorous, colorful, mind-expanding sounds are what one should expect from the 20th century Novaphonic sound developed to its greatest extent. These harmonies are innately pleasing to the human ear, mind and nervous system.

Explore new musical frontiers intended to catapult the listener towards new dimensions…this is an album that just begs for a special place in your record collection!

Tidal Waves Music now proudly presents the first-ever vinyl reissue of ‘Novaphonia’ since its release in 1987. This rare & private-pressed album (original copies tend to go for large amounts on the secondary market) is now finally back available as a limited 180g vinyl edition (500 copies) complete with the original artwork.

Well known for his tight, aggressively grooving brand of rhythm playing, whether in the service of the Grammy Award-winning band Snarky Puppy, the Fearless Flyers or on his six solo albums, guitarist Mark Lettieri has found the perfect algorithm for the funk.
Merging the influences of ‘70s and ‘80s rhythm and rock guitar icons like Prince and Eddie Van Halen, along with inspiration from George Clinton and P-Funk, Chuckii Booker, Periphery, Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan, and others. This Fort Worth, Texas resident has been insinuating his razor-sharp licks into the consciousness of funkateers since joining Snarky Puppy in 2008. Created during the pandemic, ‘Deep: The Baritone Sessions Vol. 2’ is a triumph of ingenuity built upon Lettieri’s life-long love of funk and rock and showcases the breadth and depth of Lettieri’s nasty, low-end brand of funk.
The guitarist’s Fearless Flyers bandmate, drummer Nate Smith, is also onboard for this cavalcade of groove, along with Bobby Sparks, Justin Stanton and such guests as vocal sensation Jacob Collier, former Prince drummer TaRon Lockett, Rascal Flatts pedal steel guitarist Travis Toy, French harmonica ace Frédéric Yonnet, Lettuce and former John Scofield drummer Adam Deitch, Ghost-Note drummer Robert “Sput” Searight, Snarky Puppy keyboardist Shaun Martin, tenor saxophonist Keith Anderson, and special guest guitar soloist Steve Lukather.

Compilation pressed onto a collector’s LP picture disc, featuring some of the finest artists from the earlier days of jazz.

“This is the time. And this is the record of the time.”

Laurie Anderson’s 1982 debut album, Big Science, will return to vinyl for the first time in 30 years with a new red vinyl edition on Nonesuch Records. The release includes the re-mastered original album first released on CD for the 25thanniversary in 2007.

In the early 1980s, Laurie Anderson was already respected as a conceptual artist and composer, adept at employing gear both high-tech and homemade in her often violin-based pieces, and she was a familiar figure in the cross-pollinating, Lower Manhattan music-visual art-performance circles from which Philip Glass and David Byrne also emerged. While working on her now-legendary seven-hour performance art/theater piece United States, Part I–IV, she cut the spare ‘O Superman (For Massenet)’, an electronic-age update of 19th century French operatic composer Jules Massenet’s aria ‘O Souverain’, for the tiny New York City indie label 110 Records. In the UK, DJ John Peel picked up a copy of this very limited-edition 33⅓ RPM 7” and spun the eight-minute-plus track on BBC Radio 1. The exposure resulted in an unlikely #2 hit, lots of attention in the press, and a worldwide deal with Warner Bros. Records.

’Cause when love is gone, there's always justice.
And when justice is gone, there's always force.
And when force is gone, there's always Mom. Hi Mom!

At the time of its original release, the NME wrote of Big Science, ‘There’s a dream-like, subconscious quality about her songs which helps them work at deeper, secret levels of the psyche.’ With instrumentation ranging from tape loops to found sounds to bag pipes, Big Science anticipated the tech-savvy beats, anything-goes instrumentation and sample-based nature of much contemporary electronic and dance music. On the album’s 25th anniversary, Uncut noted, ‘The broader themes of alienation and disconnection still resonate, while Anderson’s use of loops and traditional/synthesized instrumentation is prescient.’

“In the ’70s I travelled a lot,” Anderson recounts. “I worked on a tobacco farm in Kentucky, hitchhiked to the North Pole, lived in a yurt in Chiapas, and worked on a media commune. I had my own romantic vision of the road. My plan was to make a portrait of the country. Big Science, the first part of the puzzle, eventually became part two of United States I–IV (Transportation, Politics, Money, Love). My goal was to be not just the narrator but also the outsider, the stranger. Although I wasfascinated by the United States, this portrait was also about how the country looked from a distance. I was performing a lot in Europe, where American culture was simultaneously booed and cheered. But the portrait was also a picture of a culture inventing a digital world and learning to live in it. Big Science was about technology, size, industrialization,shifting attitudes toward authority, and individuality. It was sometimes alarmist, picturing the country as a burning building, a plane crash. Alongside the techno was the apocalyptic. The absurd. The everyday. It was also a series of short stories about odd characters – hatcheck clerks and pilots, preachers, drifters and strangers. There was something about Massenet’s aria ‘O Souverain’ – which inspired ‘O Superman’ – that almost stopped my heart. The pauses, the melody. “O souverain, ô juge, ô père” (O Lord, o judge, o father). A prayer about empire, ambition, and loss.”

Laurie Anderson is one of America's most renowned – and daring – creative pioneers. Her work, which encompasses music, visual art, poetry, film, and photography, has challenged and delighted audiences around the world for over 40 years. Anderson released her first album with Nonesuch Records in 2001, the critically lauded Life on a String. Her subsequent releases on the label include Live in New York (2002), Homeland (2010), the soundtrack to Anderson’s acclaimed film Heart of a Dog (2015), and her Grammy-winning collaboration with Kronos Quartet, Landfall (2018). Additionally, Anderson’s virtual-reality film La Camera Insabbiata, with Hsin-Chien Huang, won the 2017 Venice Film Festival Award for Best VR Experience, and, in 2018, Skira Rizzoli published her book All the Things I Lost in the Flood: Essays on Pictures, Language and Code, the most comprehensive collection of her artwork to date.

Split in two volumes, here is the sum of James Brown's early five year period 1956 - 1960, when JB (and his Famous Flames) was obsessively searching for his own sound. Selected from a bunch of 19 two-sided singles, and including super hits such as "Please, Please, Please", "Try Me" and "I'll go crazy", this collection represents James Brown's fundamental groundwork for the coming Soul Music revolution.

The fifth album from Oklahoma-bred singer/songwriter Parker Millsap, Be Here Instead emerged from a wild alchemy of instinct, ingenuity, and joyfully determined rule-breaking. In a departure from the guitar-and-notebook-based approach to songwriting that shaped his earlier work, the Nashville-based artist followed his curiosity to countless other modes of expression, experimenting with everything from piano to effects pedals to old-school drum machines (a fascination partly inspired by the early-’70s innovations of Sly Stone and J.J. Cale). As those explorations deepened and broadened his musical vision, Millsap soon arrived at a body of work touched with both unbridled imagination and lucid insight into the search for presence in a chaotic world. Produced by John Agnello (Kurt Vile, Sonic Youth, Waxahatchee) and mainly recorded live with Millsap’s full band, Be Here Instead marks a stylistic shift from the gritty and high-energy folk of his previous output, including 2018’s acclaimed Other Arrangements and 2016’s The Very Last Day (an Americana Music Association Awards nominee for Album of the Year). With its adventurous yet immaculately detailed sonic palette, the album warps genres to glorious effect, at one point offering up what Millsap aptly refers to as a “disco-Americana showtune.” In another creative breakthrough, Be Here Instead forgoes the character-driven storytelling of his past in favor of a more introspective and endlessly revelatory form of lyricism, an element he traces back to the charmed nature of his songwriting process. “Because the lyrics were appearing seemingly out of nowhere and with no prior intent, some of them started to feel like transmissions from my subconscious, rather than the preconceived linear stories or waking thoughts of my earlier songs,” says Millsap. “They feel like words I needed to hear from myself, and not just things I wanted to say to someone else.”

Café Society opened the 69th annual Cannes Film Festival to rave reviews. Woody Allen became the first and only director to have three opening night films selected for the Cannes Film Festival.

It’s New York in the 1930s. As he has more and more trouble putting up with his bickering parents, his gangster brother and the family jewelry store, Bobby Dorfman feels like he needs a change of scenery. He decides to go and try his luck in Hollywood where his high-powered agent uncle Phil hires him as an errand boy.

In Hollywood he soon falls in love, but unfortunately the girl has a boyfriend. Bobby settles for friendship – up until the day the girl knocks at his door, telling him her boyfriend just broke up with her. All of a sudden Bobby’s life takes a new turn, and a very romantic one at that.

The soundtrack features a great collection of the music from the 1930’s. The music is featured prominently in the movie and has been chosen by Woody Allen himself and features newly recorded jazz standards by Grammy Award winners Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks and classic recordings from Ben Selvin, Benny Goodman and Count Basie.





RELEASE: 9-4-2021

Woody Allen says about the soundtrack: “The soundtrack consists of music from the
1930s since that’s when the picture takes place. Most of the material is Richard Rodgers and [Lorenz] Heart, who was very dominant in those years and Lorenz Heart has that bitter sweet romantic quality that defines the spirit of the movie itself.”

This limited edition contains of 500 individually numbered copies on solid gold coloured vinyl. It includes a 4-page booklet with pictures from the film and credits.

Superb unreleased soundtrack from British 1972 sex comedy starring Gabrielle Drake (Nick Drake’s sister) and Rchard O’Sullivan (Gilbert O’Sullivan’s brother!). Brilliant music on many levels, 17 sexy tracks of swinging jet-set jazz, groovy scatty vocals, hell it must be good because it’s on Trunk Records.

Take yourself back to the fleapit cinemas of the early 1970s. My home town of Aldershot had two - the ABC/123 (with three screens) and The Palace (just one screen, and anything but palatial). Au Pair Girls, released in 1972, was exactly the kind of soft porn “comedy” flick with a vague plot that would, without doubt, have been playing as part of a double bill to the regular “dirty mac brigade”. Such films and such establishments guaranteed the small crowd regular titillating wide screen visions of nude women in preposterous situations and fulfilling preposterous fantasies.
The title of Au Pair Girls suggests it all of course; yes, four young women fly into London from Europe and Asia, are sent to their new employers and find themselves in unexpected and unusual situations pretty fast. There is of course full nudity, crudity and a large slab of cheese on the menu.There is also no real comedy, a sprinkling of infamous character actors (Richard O’Sullivan, John Le Mesurier), and “UFO” actress Gabrielle Drake (sister of Nick Drake) wearing nothing at all. If anything, the film has maintained a vague middle aged male following because of Gabrielle.
But there’s little to save this film from contemporary criticism - its outdated view of life, rights, sex and taste sit uncomfortably today. But the jet set soundtrack by Roger Webb was worth saving.
By 1972 Roger Webb’s career in film and TV music was taking off. He was an established songwriter and live pianist with a jazz trio. He’d already penned a few British scores and was just starting on a formidable future with library companies including Chappell, de Wolfe and Capitol. His route to Au Pair Girls was accidentally through Norman Newell, one of the giants of the post war music industry.Actress and performer Dee / Deanne Shenderry had asked Newell to recommend an artist to arrange her up and coming album. New;ee recommended Roger Webb.The two worked together and some music was produced, but to my knowledge only got to acetate stage (possibly for Apple Records). Dee husband was Kenneth Shipman, a co-owner ofTwickenham film studios.And so when Kenneth Shipman started pre
production of Au Pair Girls, Roger Webb was an easy go-to for film music composition.
Many years ago there was an original reel / master for Au Pair Girls. It was transferred to CD, DAT and cassette circa 1990 and the rapidly degrading tape was subsequently misplaced, lost or just binned. So all we had to work with was a rather shaky transfer from nearly 30 years ago, one which included numerous wobbles as well as speeding up and slowing down moments.The job of rescuing all this was left to Jon Brooks, my hero for all such musical problems. The end result is what you hear on this album. It is by no means sonically perfect but it is all we will ever have.
It’s certainly not Roger Webb’s best ever score (I have more of his ace work coming) but it has a certain charm and relentlessness.The lyrics were written by Norman Newell, and I can imagine the pair having a huge amount of fun putting the score together and recording it, with - as you’d expect - a pretty tight band and lively vocal group.The main theme does, as one reviewer state, “go on a bit”, but there’s enough musically here for me to get excited about and really want to “stick it out”. So I have.

Les Disques du Crepuscule presents Subway, a collection of singles by cult NYC duo Thick Pigeon, originally released on Crepuscule, Factory and Factory Benelux between 1981 and 1991.
Comprised of vocalist Stanton Miranda and instrumentalist Carter Burwell, Thick Pigeon emerged from the downtown New York artrock scene which also spawned Glenn Branca, Bush Tetras, DNA, Arthur Russell and Sonic Youth. Like their chosen name, the duo were typically atypical: Miranda was previously a dancer with the Marthe Graham ballet company, and Carter a film animator and Harvard fine arts/architecture graduate. Very much a studio project, the ‘group’ hardly ever performed live.
Poised and subtle debut single Subway appeared on Crepuscule in January 1981, a connection forged by Miranda’s partner Michael Shamberg. Dog followed a year later, along with wry Christmas single Jingle Bell Rock, before the duo switched to Factory Records, recording debut album Too Crazy Cowboys in Manchester with Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert of New Order producing. Released simultaneously on Factory and Factory US in 1984, the album was billed as “a walk through the civilisation of you soul”.
Having now embarked on a career scoring movies (becoming the Coen brothers’ composer of choice), Carter was absent from the next TP project, 1986 dance single Wheels Over Indian Trails, although Morris and Gilbert remained on board as guest musicians. However Miranda and Carter would reunite for a second (and final) leftfield pop album, Miranda Dali, issued by Crepuscule in 1991.
As well as singles Subway, Dog, Jingle Bell Rock, Jess + Bart and Wheels Over Indian Trails, TWI 351 also includes b-sides (Sudan, Tracy + Pansy), album highlights (Crime, Riding) and a second festive track, Blue Christmas, previously issued only on cassette as part of a Factory Christmas card in 1986.
Alongside Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert, the stellar cast of guests include Fred Szymanski (of Ike Yard), Ikue Mori (DNA), remixer John Robie, and even artist and event designer Jean-Paul Goude on backing vocals.
Limited to just 500 copies, Subway (Singles) is newly remastered and pressed on transparent violet vinyl, reflecting the original 1981 sleeve artwork by legendary Crepuscule designer Benoit Hennebert. The album includes a free digital copy (MP3).

Zwerm is a Belgian-Dutch electric guitar quartet (with a backyard rehearsal shed located in Antwerp) that operates along the borders between styles and traverses traditions that are typically not convergent. Zwerm rhymes Larry Polansky with Nadah El Shazly and are galvanized by the likes of guitars pioneers like The Velvet Underground and Sonic Youth, the microtonal DYI-er Harry Partch, Middle Eastern sonorities and the prog-madness of Kind Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. ‘Musical adventure’ is not just a hollow cliché for this quartet, but a genuine commitment. Zwerm calls itself a ‘guitar quartet’, but that can be interpreted broadly as well as with a pinch of salt: “If we want to do something on instruments we don’t really master, we’ll just figure out a way to make it work.”
Toon Callier, Johannes Westendorp, Kobe van Cauwenberghe and Bruno Nelissen all met in 2007 while working on a project with Glenn Branca. A new guitar quartet was born and it became clear rather quickly that staying in the strictly contemporary compositions lane was not for this quartet-with-five-to-six-members (an organizational chart is available upon request).
An appetite for new and lasting collaborations has been a constant theme throughout their artistic parcours. The group has shared stages with theatrical producers like Walpurgis and Post uit Hessdalen, dancers such as Ecce and with the musicians Fred Frith, Stephen O’Malley, Shiva Feshareki, Rudy Trouvé, Mauro Pawlowski, Larry Polansky, Eric Thielemans, Yannis Kyriakides, François Sarhan, Serge Verstockt and Stefan Prins. These projects have not always translated into records, but they have been decisive in creating a unique musical approach. In 2015, when Zwerm was asked by De Handelsbeurs to collaborate with Fred Frith, they proceeded to pen a few new musical sketches over which Firth sublimely improvised. In 2018 ‘Badminton in Tehran’ was released, their first record that was made up completely of only the group’s compositions.
“a basket full of buttons here
and if you push the wrong one: fear
and if you push the right one: love
or maybe none of the above”
The route that Zwerm has taken is often defined by the question “What if... ?” - like a dart thrown at a musical map, not quite blindly, but naive enough to lead to unexpected endings.
“What if we play Renaissance pieces written by John Dowland, but instead of playing lutes we play these tunes with a Telecaster – and then jam it through effect pedals and an amplifier?”
“What if we connect one hundred guitar pedals and just leave our guitars at home?”
“What if we record a record with ten different one-page-pieces that we found on the Internet?”
In 2020 our metaphorical dart landed on “What if we tried microtonality?”.
‘Microtonality’ sounds a bit creepy, but actually there is nothing to be afraid of: there are no out-of- tune notes, just alternate notes. On the continents where Western musical theory is less stringently applied, microtonality is the rule, and has become the subject of many deep and thoughtfully written theories. However for Zwerm, this phenomenon occurs in many, often surprisingly lighthearted forms. A dilapidated piano that has settled into a beautiful microtonal tuning of its own accord, enthusiastic choral singing, a guitar whose three strings are tuned a quarter-tone higher, a saz (Turkishquarter-tone lute), a maddening guitar pedal, ...
"the dreams they were convicted for telling only lies reality came after for claiming to be wise what you don’t see is what you get just never light a spark I’m a crow in the dark”
“And… what if we work with a drummer?” Enter Karen Willems - dummer, extraordinaire, and ardent player in groups, projects and collaborations galore. One chance meeting and the deal was done. It was obvious before the start that Willems was the versatile and creative percussionist-in-a-toy-store necessary for this project. And in the studio, to our delight, she demonstrated an easy dexterity when switching quickly from one idea to the next.
At the reins behind the scenes was producer Rudy Trouvé, who – during previous sessions for ‘Badminton in Terhran’, when the classically trained guitarists went completely off the rails, staring deeply and forlornly into their scores, looking for answers – was able to pinpoint the problem and get the wagons rolling in the right direction again. Completing the team were Mark Dedecker (recording)and Joris Calluwaerts (mixing).
The results are in and it’s called ‘ Great Expectations’ – a title that, in several ways, fits perfectly with these strange times.‘Great Expectations’ goes wide! Zwerm is at its best when it can run along the borders between style and across traditions that otherwise would not necessarily intersect. The most straightforward rockers have a proggy tinge while the dreamy psychedelic songs lean more toward Richard Youngs. And if a nice melody dared come to close to becoming a ‘Kit-Katjingle’, then barbs-a-la-Pere-Ubu were trailed, tracked, found and promptly embedded. ‘Heavy Machinery’ sits neatly somewhere between Captain Beefheart and Richard Wagner, and ‘On My Way To Aguno’, set to an Iranian folk song chord progression, grew into a hyper-personal lullaby. Zwerm used the saz (Turkish lute) and the sinter (Moroccan gnawa bass instrument) without falling into pastiche psychedelia, but you can still sense the orient.

Armellodie Records is proud to present 'whence, the', the new album from Thirty Pounds of Bone aka, Johny Lamb. 'whence, the' is the sixth full-length album by Thirty Pounds of Bone and the third in a series of records that play deliberately with the affordances and problems of studio recording. 2015's 'The Taxidermist' was awash with huge, constructed ensemble pieces, 2019's critically-acclaimed, 'Still Every Year They Went' was recorded live, at sea, on a commercial fishing boat, and this last takes Johny Lamb's fascination with analogue synths further than before using Eurorack modular synths as the bedrock for each song. The result of working in this way is of course, that many of the parts on the record are all but impossible to recreate; the nature of the patches being built in the moment, captured, and undocumented. This time around Johny has focused on the tiny details of sadness, largely inspired by the events of 'A Story of Long' where the central moment of the song is observing a close friend pouring his husband a glass of water in a hospice, just some few hours before his death. This was an intimacy and time that Johny did not expect to be a part of (the album is dedicated to the couple in question). But this stirred a way of thinking about how huge events are often typified or defined by very small gestures or happenings, and each of the tracks here comes from that place. Be it the existential crisis brought on by stripping wallpaper in 'Woodchip', how a single day might signify the end of a long relationship ('A Note to Myself'), or the miniature resignations to compromise we make in professional life which eventually overwhelm our very identity ('The Cynical Start to a Jaded Career #1'). Johny's lyricism and composition remain oblique but touching, and these songs of little moments of sadness, regret and grief are built to remain small. They are paradoxically content in their sorrow and should perhaps be kept as companions to similar feelings. "Organic and immediate. Music you can touch with your fingertips" The Irish Times // "Talent to appeal far more than only folk fans alone" Record Collector // "Exquisite index of gin-soaked desolation.... Lamb sings like a man unable to see beyond keeping a stiff upper lip to the end of the song. Even if he manages it, you might not." Mojo

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the theatrical release of Universal Pictures’ Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. The film adaptation by director Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Baby Driver) of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novel series stars Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Kieran Culkin and has since become a cult classic due in no small part to the use of music in its storytelling. The soundtrack album and score were originally released in 2010 by ABKCO Records.

Each side of each LP is graced with an image of one of the “Seven Evil Exes” characters from the film, with an image of Scott Pilgrim with Ramona Flowers on the eighth side. This marks the first time ever that Godrich’s score will get a vinyl release, which will also be available separately on a blue vinyl 2-LP set, also on March 26. On the same day, the original single LP version of the soundtrack will be reissued as the Ramona Flowers Edition on blue, green and magenta vinyl, representing the colors of the character’s hair throughout the film.

Now ABKCO, with Edgar Wright and Nigel Godrich’s oversight, has curated an expanded, four LP picture disc Seven Evil Exes Edition offering of the soundtrack/score, including more performances by Sex Bob-Omb and demos from Beck, as well as fan favourite “Black Sheep” by Metric and sung by actress Brie Larson.

Since its release, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) has received many accolades. UK’s The Independent ranked it at number 4 out of “the 40 greatest film soundtracks of all time,” declaring that Wright “found a way to seamlessly integrate his soundtrack into Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’s narrative.” It was also included on Alternative Press’ list of “16 Fantastic Movie Soundtracks You Need To Hear.” “We Are Sex Bob-Omb” won the 2010 Houston Film Critics Society Award for Best Original Song.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (Seven Evil Exes Limited Edition)
• 4x LP picture discs
• Limited Edition Set
• Exclusive bonus tracks not included on original soundtrack by Sex Bob-omb, Beck, plus highly sought- after Brie Larson w/ Metric
• Social support from Edgar Wright + Beck
Bonus ephemera: 
 • Full colour film poster
 • Exclusive Colouring Page by Bryan O’Malley
• Printed note from Edgar Wright, Director

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the theatrical release of Universal Pictures’ Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. The film adaptation by director Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Baby Driver) of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novel series stars Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Kieran Culkin and has since become a cult classic due in no small part to the use of music in its storytelling. The soundtrack album and score were originally released in 2010 by ABKCO Records.

Each side of each LP is graced with an image of one of the “Seven Evil Exes” characters from the film, with an image of Scott Pilgrim with Ramona Flowers on the eighth side. This marks the first time ever that Godrich’s score will get a vinyl release, which will also be available separately on a blue vinyl 2-LP set, also on March 26. On the same day, the original single LP version of the soundtrack will be reissued as the Ramona Flowers Edition on blue, green and magenta vinyl, representing the colors of the character’s hair throughout the film.

Now ABKCO, with Edgar Wright and Nigel Godrich’s oversight, has curated an expanded, four LP picture disc Seven Evil Exes Edition offering of the soundtrack/score, including more performances by Sex Bob-Omb and demos from Beck, as well as fan favourite “Black Sheep” by Metric and sung by actress Brie Larson.

Since its release, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) has received many accolades. UK’s The Independent ranked it at number 4 out of “the 40 greatest film soundtracks of all time,” declaring that Wright “found a way to seamlessly integrate his soundtrack into Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’s narrative.” It was also included on Alternative Press’ list of “16 Fantastic Movie Soundtracks You Need To Hear.” “We Are Sex Bob-Omb” won the 2010 Houston Film Critics Society Award for Best Original Song.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (Original Score Composed By Nigel Godrich)
• 2xLP
• First time released on vinyl
• Blue colour vinyl
• Social Support from Edgar Wright (Director) & Beck

Adult Books is the brainchild of Los Angeles-based writer and multi-instrumentalist Nick Winfrey. With the help of childhood friends Sina Salessi (drums) and Alex Galindo (guitar/synth), Winfrey crafts lyric-driven dark pop gems that recall the hook-heavy guitar work of Johnny Marr, the just-below-the-collar angst of Mission of Burma, and the doomsday bellow of early Echo and the Bunnymen.
After a well-received string of bedroom demos and cassettes, Adult Books released their first full-length album, Running from the Blows , in 2016, trading in their previous home-recorded sounds for a cleaned-up act that allowed Winfrey’s pop savvy and understated lyrical wit to shine through. Two years of heavy touring followed, after which Winfrey found himself both burned out and uninspired by the business of music.
Following a much-needed hiatus, Adult Books is finally ready to share their sophomore LP, Grecian Urn . Recorded with Jonny Bell (Crystal Antlers) and mastered by Dave Cooley (Animal Collective, J Dilla) , Grecian Urn was crafted over the course of nearly two years; however, the seeds of the album were sown more than a decade earlier. When sitting down to write Grecian Urn , Winfrey revisited old demos, forgotten voice memos and unfinished fragments of songs to create something wholly new.
The end result is a self-assured and intensely personal album that places Winfrey’s evocative images and economic storytelling approach front and center. A loose concept album of sorts, Grecian Urn draws on classical Mediterranean imagery and mythos as a means of exploring Winfrey’s past traumas and struggles with chronic anxiety.

With a history 50+ years in the making, Tower of Power has been a funk
institution since 1968, knocking out hits like “What is Hip,” “So Very Hard
to Go,” “This Time It’s Real” and “You’re Still a Young Man” while lending
their soulful sound to collaborations with Santana, the Grateful Dead, Elton
John, Huey Lewis, Justin Timberlake and everyone in-between.
50 Years of Funk & Soul - Live at the Fox Theater captures their storied career
with no-holds-barred victory lap concerts in Oakland, CA, performing their full
spectrum of life-affirming funk and soul hits to sold out audiences in 2018.
Available as a 3-LP set, 2-CD/1-DVD package, standalone DVD and digital audio configuration, these historic performances include alumni special guests
Chester Thompson, Lenny Pickett, Francis ‘Rocco’ Prestia, Bruce Conte and Ray
Greene. PBS will celebrate the 50th anniversary with a 60 minute airing of the
performance beginning February 27.

On August 20, 2020 the world lost an amazing
light with the passing of Justin Townes Earle.
Justin was a vibrant songwriter who could play the
blues, country and rock ‘n’ roll all in the same
song. In his short career, Justin released eight
albums and one EP that all manage to sound
classic and yet inventive.
Justin’s father, Steve Earle, pays tribute to his son
by recording ‘J.T.’, an album of songs written by
Justin. The album consists of ten Justin Townes
Earle songs as well as one song written by Mr.
Earle shortly after Justin’s passing.
‘J.T.’ features fan favourites such as ‘Harlem River
Blues’, ‘Far Away In Another Town’ and
‘Champagne Corolla’, along with lyrically heavy
songs like ‘The Saint of Lost Causes’ and ‘Turn Out
My Lights’.
‘J.T.’ is a loving tribute to a loved son and beautiful
songsmith who left this Earth too early. But in his
wake, Justin left a wealth of beauty.

“Walk the dog. Exercise. Make art.’The mind is happy when the body
is.’ Things I can potentially fill my days with if I am stuck at home
for months on end…Then, one day, I hear a frenetic, free drummer
playing in his garage a few blocks from me. And I think ‘interesting’.
I stand outside his garage staring at the wall, like a fool, for a minute,
then decide to leave a note on the car parked there. This is how I ended
up meeting and working with Ted Byrnes. He wasn’t creeped out, and
he ended up sending me a pile of truly spontaneous drums recordings
from the carport to work with. I decided to have every musician
come in one at at time and just take a wild pass at their track over the
drums. None of these people had ever met or played together. I was
the connecting thread. I scratched the surface initially with electric
bass, saxophone, guitars, cuica, synthesizers, flute and effects, but
soon realized I would need heavy hitters to make this place habitable.
“Greg Coates, upright bass expressionist extraordinaire, hacked
through the dense weeds, vines and frayed cabling. He lays the map
out and makes breathing room. Space to swing a cat. Tom Dolas
(keys), my often foil, came in and began tip-toeing through the rubble
and refuse. Dotting the layout with flecks of light, flights of fancy and
potential tangential trajectories. Then the finisher, Brad Caulkins on
horns. As always, Brad came in like grace itself, scanned the floor
for food, and huffed and puffed and blew the house down. He takes a
bruiser situation and lends it some warmth and hospitality, old school.
“After I spent a bit of time mixing and editing this down to a
palatable offering I couldn’t help but think about human consumption.
...Endless Garbage seemed a fitting title. A cacophonous and glorious
sketch of ourselves. For fans of Albert Ayler, ECM records, Gong,
improvisation, sustainability and consumption” —John Dwyer

It’s nearly a decade since William Doyle handed a CD-R demo to the Quietus co-founder John Doran at a gig, who loved it so much he set up a label to release Doyle’s debut EP (as East India Youth). Doyle’s debut album, Total Strife Forever, followed in 2014, as did a nomination for the Mercury Music Prize. A year later, he was signed to XL, touring the world and about to release his second album – all by the age of 25.

After self-releasing four ambient and instrumental albums, Doyle’s third full-length record – and the first under his own name – Your Wilderness Revisited arrived to ecstatic reviews in 2019: Line of Best Fit described it as “a dazzlingly beautiful triumph of intention” and Metro declared it an album not only of the year, but “of the century”. Just over a year later, as he turns 30, Doyle is back with Great Spans of Muddy Time.

Born from accident but driven forward by instinct, Great Spans was built from the remnants of a catastrophic hard-drive failure. With his work saved only to cassette tape, Doyle was forced to accept the recordings as they were – a sharp departure from his process on Your Wilderness Revisited, which took four long years to craft toward perfection. “Instead of feeling a loss that I could no longer craft these pieces into flawless ‘Works of Art’, I felt intensely liberated that they had been set free from my ceaseless tinkering,” Doyle says.

“The album this turned out to be – and that I’ve wanted to make for ages – is a kind of Englishman-gone-mad, scrambling around the verdancy of the country’s pastures looking for some sense,” says Doyle. “It has its seeds in Robert Wyatt, early Eno, Robyn Hitchcock, and Syd Barrett.” Doyle credits Bowie’s ever-influential Berlin trilogy, but also highlights a much less expected muse: Monty Don, presenter of the BBC programme Gardener’s World, Doyle’s lockdown addiction.

“I became obsessed with Monty Don. I like his manner and there's something about him I relate to. He once described periods of depression in his life as consisting of ‘nothing but great spans of muddy time’. When I read that quote I knew it would be the title of this record,” Doyle says. “Something about the sludgy mulch of the album’s darker moments, and its feel of perpetual autumnal evening, seemed to fit so well with those words. I would also be lying if I said it didn’t chime with my mental health experiences as well.”

Lead single “And Everything Changed (But I Feel Alright)” is representative of the album as a whole: eclectic and unpredictable, but also playful and properly danceable. On top of the gently pulsing electronics, soothing harmonies and glowing melodies, there’s a ripping guitar solo that ricochets around the song like a pinball. “I wanted to get back into the craft of writing individual songs rather than being concerned with overarching concepts,” Doyle says. Elsewhere there’s the synth pop strut of “Nothing At All”, pulsating static on “Semi-Bionic”, incandescent synths and enveloping soundscapes in “Who Cares”, and the ambient glitch groove of “New Uncertainties”.

Great Spans of Muddy Time is a beautiful ode to the power of accident, instinct and intuition. The result, however, is far from an anomaly: this celebration of the imperfect album is one that required years of honed craft and dedicated focus to achieve, “For the first time in my career, the distance between what I hear and what the listener hears is paper-thin,” Doyle says. “Perhaps therein reveals a deeper truth that the perfectionist brain can often dissolve.”













m 13. [a sea of thoughts behind it]

PHILLIP BALLOU Pittsburgh-born Phillip Ballou’s earliest years were spent in the gospel field; after he moved to New York City in the ‘70s, he teamed up with Bennie Diggs and Arthur Freeman, founding members of The New York Community Choir and singer Arnold McCuller to form the group Revelation. The quartet recorded for RSO Records, scoring some R&B success in the US with tracks like “Get Ready For This” and “You To Me Are Everything,” touring the Bee Gees among others. Phillip also sang on albums by NYCC recorded for RCA Records and continued with Revelation until 1982. Frequently hired for sessions in and around New York, Phillip teamed up with UK soul music journalist David Nathan (who he’d met in 1974 during Nathan’s first US visit) and John Simmons, formerly a member of The Reflections, another New York vocal group to write a series of songs for his own proposed solo record deal. Although a contract did not materialize, one of the songs – “Ain’t Nothing Like The Love” – got some interest from famed Philadelphia producer Thom Bell who presented it to The O’Jays. Ultimately, the tune was turned down by Kenny Gamble and John Simmons, by then musical director for Stephanie Mills, recorded his own version for a small independent label in 1981. Phillip continued his own musical journey, touring and recording with James Taylor and Todd Rundgren. In addition, Phillip’s name graced recordings by George Benson, Billy Ocean, Kashif, Nona Hendryx, Jonathan Butler, Teddy Pendergrass and Melba Moore; in 1981, he began recording with Luther Vandross and became a part of Luther’s touring band for many years, as well as singing on productions by Luther on Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick and others, continuing his association with him until Luther’s 2003 stroke. Phillip returned to his gospel roots in 2004 as Minister of Music at a Brooklyn church and passed away in March 2005, aged 55 .We are proud to bring you Phillips second single on Super Disco Edits, and perhaps his best! "We'll be together" is an uplifting song with an almost gospel tinged melody. But the songs lyrics portray a love thats just about to blossom.

Obviously is the new album from beloved band Lake Street Dive. It includes the new single ‘Nobody’s Stopping You Now’, a letter of encouragement from lead vocalist Rachael Price to her teenaged self, co-written with bassist Bridget Kearney. Lake Street Dive has figured out how to write tunes that reflect this particularly turbulent chapter in our shared history. The album track ‘Making Do’, which was released at the end of last year, speaks to the world that future generations are inheriting while exploring the lasting impacts of climate change and our responsibility to address it (featuring a cameo from Senator Ed Markey who co-sponsored the Green New Deal).

As Price puts it, “You’re trying to express your anxieties, your feelings, your sadness, your happiness, all of these things – your authentic state of being in a song. But you’re also trying to create something people will listen to over and over again. That’s the unique fun thing about music, putting these messages into three and a half minute snippets, dropping whatever truth we can and hoping it’s the type of thing that people want to ruminate on.”

Obviously was produced by Grammy Award-winning producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Mike Elizondo who is best known as a songwriting collaborator for Dr. Dre, Eminem, and 50 Cent and has also served as a record producer for Fiona Apple, Mary J. Blige, Carrie Underwood, and 21 Pilots, among many others. Utilizing Elizondo’s hip-hop record-making expertise coupled with the permanent addition of keyboardist Akie Bermiss, Lake Street Dive’s wide-ranging taste in pop, rock, R&B, and jazz have blended together to make an impressively cohesive sound, combining retro influences with a contemporary attitude. “We’ve been a band for so long that we didn’t want to just become a feedback loop of our own ideas,” recounts Kearney. “It felt like a really good time to bring another person like Mike Elizondo, and he really opened us up. He encouraged us to make bolder arrangement choices, take those chances and try those things. The record really is a success in what we set out to do: continue to challenge ourselves, continue to grow, and do things we’ve never done before.”

The members of Lake Street Dive founded the group in 2004 while attending the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. The band features Rachael Price (lead vocals), Mike “McDuck” Olson (trumpet, guitar), Bridget Kearney (bass) and Mike Calabrese (drums) as well as their newest member Akie Bermiss (keyboards), who has been a touring member of the group since 2017. Since the band’s inception, they have released six studio albums. Their 2018 self-produced record, Free Yourself Up, debuted at #4 on the US’s Top Album Chart and charted #8 on the Billboard 200. In addition, the album’s hit single ‘Good Kisser’ peaked at #5 at Americana radio and appeared in the Top 20 at AAA radio, both career peaks for the band. The group has toured worldwide performing at major music festivals including Bonnaroo, New Orleans Jazz Festival and Newport Folk Festival while preforming alongside artists such as T Bone Burnett, The Avett Brothers, Robert Finley, Jack Johnson and Trombone Shorty.

Young Knives will announce their fifth album, Barbarians, to be released on 4th September 2020. The announcement will be accompanied by a single, ‘Sheep Tick’, and its extraordinary video.

Barbarians was written, recorded and mixed by Young Knives (brothers Henry Dartnall and The House of Lords) in their studio near Oxford, UK. John Gray’s book Straw Dogs inspired the brothers to dial into the ultra-violent, brutal nature of human beings. Our progresses in science and knowledge have not made us any less barbaric: our entertainment is obsessed with it, our world is full of it. What if cruelty to others is just part of who we are? How do we live with that?

Building on a base of loved hits from their early work last decade (Voices of Animals and Men, Superabundance, Ornaments from the Silver Arcade) and the metamorphosis of 2013’s Sick Octave, Barbarians is a leap into sonic experimentation by a band who love to confuse and entertain in equal measure.

An unlikely meeting of two like-minded spirits, »First Man in the Moon« sees the former Swans guitarist and Hallow Ground regular Norman Westberg and the prolific double bass player Jacek Mazurkiewicz collaborate for five evocative tracks. The pair finds common ground beyond the boundaries of atmospheric drone, abstract jazz and experimental music and blurs the lines between the acoustic and the electronic.The two first met when the composer Mazurkiewicz supported Swans with his solo project 3FoNIA on their 2014 European tour. »I really enjoyed his approach,« says Westberg about the Polish musician’s blending of the acoustic qualities of his instrument with electronically generated sounds. A decision to collaborate was made and when the US-American musician returned to Eastern Europe to support Michael Gira on his solo tour in late 2019, Mazurkiewicz reached out to him with the idea of booking some studio time before Gira’s two concerts in Warsaw. »Recording was very fun and easy,« remembers Westberg. »It was just two people enjoying hearing and reacting to what the other is doing.« »First Man in the Moon« is not however a plain document of these improvised sessions, but also shaped by Mazurkiewicz’s approach as a composer. Once the recordings were finished, he selected and edited the recorded material, refining the peculiar dialogue between the guitarist’s meditative drones and bright chords and his own rhythmic yet subtle approach to playing the double bass, sometimes plucking the strings and occasionally using his bow to underscore
Westberg’s fleeting melodies, but also using the instrument in unconventional ways to generate sound. A feeling of weightlessness prevails throughout the aptly-titled »First Man in the Moon.« Even at their most abstract however, these five improvisations-turned-compositions remain tangible, lively, and joyfully explorative. It is a record that you wouldn’t expect from either of these musicians, but
the logical result of two idiosyncratic minds sharing not only space and time, but also their respective visions with each other. Credits:
Recorded at Studio Diamentowy Pies/ Damian Pielka, engineering/Piotr Mazurek, engineering assistance/Jacek Mazurkiewicz, mix/
Lawrence English, mastering/John Fell, photographs.

Anohni has shared an emotive cover of Gloria Gaynor's 1978 classic 'I WIll Survive'. The track was a staple of her early live shows and opens with a graceful string arrangement by Maxim Moston, paired with piano performed by Anohni. Prior to the track being widely available on streaming platforms, Anohni shared a video incorporating live footage alongside messages dedicated to groups and causes that Anohni has long been an activist and advocate for. During the clip, Anohni dedicates the song to "the sacred gay people"; "all endangered Black trans lives"; "those in the US who die from medical neglect"; "the coral reefs of the world, now rotting"; "all those awaiting execution in US death chambers"; "Black lives tortured and stolen by American cops" and more. The messages reflect Anohni's longer values and work as an artist, trans activist, environmentalist and advocate for social justice. Alongside the release is a statement from Anohni, on the track being the subject of a licensing offer she turned down due to the platform in question hosting misleading pro-Trump ads. Further on the track, Anohni explains: "It was the first song I ever sang in nightclubs in NYC when I was 20 years old. I sang it hundreds of times. In those days I sang it thinking of Marsha P. Johnson and the underground queer community struggling to survive in the face of AIDS. Now it seems to me like an anthem for the future of life on earth." 'I Will Survive' follows a brace of releases from Anohni this year: most recently 'R.N.C 2020', a track inspired by the Republican National Convention which took place in August and the dread Anohni felt while watching it. Prior to that, Anohni released a 7" consisting of two covers, one of Bob Dylan's 'It's All Over Now, Baby Blue' with a b-side of Nina Simone's 'Be My Husband'.

The Pet Parade,” the title track to Fruit Bats’ newest album, might be a surprising opening track for longtime fans of Eric D. Johnson’s beloved indie folk-rock project. The six-and-a-half-minute tone poem smolders and drones over just two chords, inspired by the strange and silly community events that he saw growing up outside of Chicago, in La Grange, Illinois, in which people dressed up and showed off their pets. Decades later, The Pet Parade emerges in troubled times, living within what Johnson refers to as the beauty and absurdity of existence. While many of the songs on The Pet Parade were actually written before the pandemic, it’s impossible to disassociate the record from the times. As an example, producer Josh Kaufman (Bob Weir, The National, and Bonny Light Horseman, in which he plays with Johnson and Anaïs Mitchell) was brought in for his deep emotional touch and bandleading abilities. However, Johnson, Kaufman, and the other musicians on The Pet Parade drummers Joe Russo and Matt Barrick (The Walkmen, Fleet Foxes), singer-songwriter Johanna Samuels, pianist Thomas Bartlett (Nico Muhly, Sufjan Stevens), and fiddler Jim Becker (Califone, Iron & Wine) were forced to self-record their parts in bedrooms and home studios across America. Still, says Johnson, “The songs have enough intimacy that it doesn’t sound like it was made a million miles away.” Such tension and turmoil also impacted the lyrics of The Pet Parade. While “Cub Pilot” and “Here For Now, For You” began as more traditional love songs from a personal “I” to a specific “you” Johnson quickly realized that these songs needed to comfort broader audiences, changing the words to a more inclusive “we” and “us.” So too in “The Balcony,” a song ostensibly about a particular space in his grandmother’s apartment, but one that evolved into a metaphor on patience. At times upbeat and reassuring (“Eagles Below Us”) and at times quietly contemplative (“On the Avalon Stairs”), The Pet Parade marks a milestone for Johnson, who celebrates 20 years of Fruit Bats in 2021. In some ways still a cult band, in other ways a time-tested act, Fruit Bats has consistently earned enough small victories to carve out a career in a notoriously fickle scene. And Johnson himself who has played in The Shins, composed film scores, gone solo and returned back to the moniker that started it all, and most recently, earned two GRAMMY® nominations with Bonny Light Horseman doesn’t take this long route of life’s pet parade for granted. “I’m still really excited to make records,” he says. “Lucky and happy and maybe happier that things went slower for me. I’m savoring it a lot more.

*** UNRELEASED AOR / YACHT ROCK FROM 1979 AS FEATURED ON PRAISE POEMS 7***

It is a rare occurrence, especially when you consider that we are writing this in the year 2020, that an unreleased AOR/Yacht Rock album surfaces after 40 years. The Tramp crew first heard about it while discussing Penn Central's inclusion of their song "Sometimes" on "Praise Poems Vol.7".

The band Penn Central was formed about 1978 by Gary Phelps and his younger brother Shawn Phelps. They had been playing together in a few different groups in the Erie, Pennsylvania area since Gary returned there from Penn State in 1974. In 1978 Shawn was going to college at Edinboro State University, just south of Erie, where he met Curt Salvador, a student from the Pittsburgh area. They began playing together in a local Edinboro group when Shawn introduced Curt to Gary. Gary, Shawn, and Curt began to collaborate and soon Gary brought in friend and former high school bandmate Allen Bennett who was an accomplished musician on trumpet and percussion. Shawn then found Dave Lindgren who was playing drums in various bands locally and Penn Central was formed.

The group began rehearsing and playing small venues together. Soon, they began to work on original songs that Gary and the band were writing. They decided in 1979 to record some of the original music at a small independent studio in Erie that was owned and operated in by Keith Veshecco and John Mazza. Soon after recording 7 songs there, a large FM radio station, WDVE, in Pittsburgh sponsored a contest for local bands for a compilation album of local groups. Because of Curt's roots in Pittsburgh, he entered the Penn Central song "Sometimes" in the contest and it earned a spot on the 10 track album that was released in 1980. The band subsequently played in the area for the next few years before drifting apart as the members left college, began new careers, and started raising families. Gary, his brother Shawn, and Curt continued playing together and with other group configurations and as solo artists off and on since that time. They remain friends and share musical ideas to this day.

Key selling points:

- previously unreleased album from 1979
- all songs taken from the original reel-to-reel master tapes
- including full album download code

William The Conqueror have paid their damn dues.
Like the sportsman cutting chipped teeth in the
lower leagues before shooting to the very top, this
band have lugged all the amps, placated the inhouse sound guy for an easier life, their nails dirty,
their hair unkempt. Enough.
Except it’s never enough, because despite their
slinky, swampy, razor-sharp, blues-drenched, guitar
thrashed alt. rock songs that form new album
‘Maverick Thinker’ and suggest that the door is
opening for bigger rooms and broader audiences,
it’s those sticky basement bar stages where the
songs have always shed a skin and come alive.
The record put the three piece behind the glass at
Sound City Studios in LA, treading the same carpet
as the likes of Nirvana, Johnny Cash, Neil Young,
and Fleetwood Mac and they might well have
inhaled the spirit of them all.
William The Conqueror’s protagonist is Ruarri
Joseph who knows his way around a melody and a
verse. Joseph’s wryness suggests life just ain’t
plain sailin’ and he fizzes that sigh and lament into
something that breathes heavy with heart and with
soul.
Vinyl format comes in a gatefold sleeve with
printed inner sleeve and digital download card.

Nearly three years on from that release (for Bernice a rapid turnaround by comparison to the seven-year gap between their 2011 debut and Puff), the band return with their third full-length, Eau de Bonjourno, out March 5th from Telephone Explosion and figureeight records. It marks their first collaboration with producer Shahzad Ismaily, the acclaimed multi-instrumentalist who has worked with artists as varied as Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, Elvis Costello, Iggy Pop, John Zorn, and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy. While their genre reconstruction remains distinctly Bernice, Dann’s lyrics bring a newfound focus to storytelling in the present moment, compassionately meeting ourselves where we are, and finding joy in spaces that are familiar but ever changing.

Eau de Bonjourno, according to Dann, “openly plays with the shape of a pop song,” drawing on the band members’ backgrounds in jazz, subverting rhythmic formulas, and resting in grooves that sit just outside of predictable. Instead of letting instruments take

extended solos, the tone is set on opener “Groove Elation” with brief blurts of synthesized sax, patient passages of space, or clusters of beats, tenderly held together by Dann and Williams’ intimate vocals. The album’s sound is experimental in its truest definition, chopped up like musique concrète and then delicately placed back together with the loving touch of a scrapbook collagist.

This project is funded in part by FACTOR, the Government of Canada and Canada’s private radio broadcasters.

This album was created with the generous support of the Ontario Creates.

Though it’s hard to pick a winner among the estimable Black Jazz catalog, this 1972 release from bassist Henry “The Skipper” Franklin would have to be near the top of the list. Franklin got his start woodshedding with Latin maverick Willie Bobo in the mid-‘60s and went on to play with The Three Sounds, but probably his most notable gig prior to this debut album was his stint in Hugh Masekela’s band (that’s Franklin playing bass with Masekela at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival). For The Skipper, Franklin assembled a crack outfit that included a horn section of trumpeter/flugelhornist Oscar Brashear (Bobby Hutcherson, Ry Cooder, Donny Hathaway) and tenor & soprano sax man Charles Owens (Buddy Rich, Horace Tapscott, John Mayall) along with a Masekela bandmate in electric pianist Bill Henderson and ace drummer Michael Carvin (Pharoah Sanders, Lonnie Liston Smith, Freddie Hubbard). This is such a unique, organic recording that it’s hard to make comparisons; definitely a little fusion, a little ‘60s Blue Note feel, and the usual Black Jazz journey to the more lyrical, pop-inspired (“Little Miss Laurie”) and funk-infused (“Plastic Creek Stomp”) sides of jazz, but perhaps the best comparison is late-‘60s Miles before he went electric. In any case, The Skipper is just a joy to listen to from start to finish, beautifully recorded by Black Jazz producer Gene Russell and blessed with some really fine writing, most of it by Franklin himself. First-time LP reissue and a must-have!

The Last Emperor is a lavish historical epic directed by the great Italian filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci and starring John Lone, Joan Chen, and Peter O’Toole. The film tells the life story of Pu Yi, the last monarch of the Chinese Qing dynasty prior to the republican revolution in 1911. The score for The Last Emperor was created by an unlikely trio: Ryuichi Sakamoto, David Byrne, and Cong Su. The soundtrack is a theme-filled exploration of the sounds and musical traditions of Imperial China, filtered through some very contemporary sensibilities. Sakamoto’s contribution comprises nine cues and is focused around his main theme: a beautiful, lyrical melody for the full orchestra. It’s soft, wistful, and introspective, but becomes increasingly dramatic. Byrne contributes five cues, and the first one is the most recognisable, as it’s the main title theme playing over the film’s stylish opening credits sequence. It emerges from a set of evocative Chinese percussion items, with the melody being carried by a gorgeous, lilting erhu. It’s traditional and wholly steeped in Chinese classical music, but it has a real emotional weight that will connect with westerners. Cong Su’s contribution to the soundtrack album comprises just one cue – “Lunch” – but there is much more of his music in the film; Su was basically responsible for writing all the period-specific Chinese source music one hears in and around the imperial palace during Pu Yi’s childhood. All in all, Sakamoto, Byrne and Cong Su deliver an excellent score.