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C.Z. debuts on LA's Evar Records with the uncompromising Heat Index EP.

The Los Angeles-based producer, beatmaker and DJ sets a course through IDM, techno, jungle and trance to deliver five frenetic, emotionally-charged dancefloor cuts.

Over the course of an intensely productive career, Colby Zinser (aka C.Z.) has made music spanning genres like pop, rap, hardcore and jungle. As well as releasing music as C.Z., he's operated multiple aliases, including the prolific Ice Underlord. Drawing from a longstanding fascination with breaks, trance and the IDM of artists like Warp Records' Clark, he's developed his own rich and eclectic style of club music - a sound that crystalized on his 2020 debut album Hyperfocus.

C.Z. emerged from 2020 armed with a mass of new dancefloor tracks, freshly inspired to make club music a central focus, after years of smuggling techno, trance and breaks elements into the rap beats he was making for others. As he explains: 'It's great to come back to music and just make what I love, I don't want to be someone else's secret weapon, I want to be my own.' Heat Index refuses to toe a line, steering skillfully through genres and setting a tone that oscillates between club-fuelled euphoria, heartbreak and the looming threat of planetary crisis.

Opener 'Midnight' rattles along at a breathless 160 BPM, transporting you to a breakdown in the middle of a pounding hard trance set. Within a minute the rushing neon trance synths collide with huge, sub destroying kicks. The title track 'Heat Index' follows, with brooding pads bolted onto a tight breakbeat, leaving space open for the razor sharp, searching synth line.

Moving rapidly through the gears, 'Hurricane' is an aptly titled exercise in precision programmed classic jungle breaks, carried forward by bubbling earworm melodies. 'Retrograde' shifts the focus again - a pitch-black, dark, fast and seething techno track ripe for warehouses and dungeons, before 'Radial Lens', a melodic, anthemic set-closer built on a muscular, downtempo break.

C.Z.'s first appearance on Evar Records, the LA label founded in 2020 by Trickfinger and Aura T-09, follows a series of hard-hitting releases from Speed Dealer Moms, Limewax and Kilbourne, all artists who like C.Z., are able to traverse twisted electronica, club music and pure abstraction with ease. 'I want to help encourage a more open electronic music space, less pretentious, and encompassing all genres.' C.Z. says. 'It's an important goal of mine, and one the label shares.' Heat Index is a wide-ranging EP from a versatile producer, and a celebration of unfettered expression, for minds and dancefloors free from inhibition or genre restriction.

This release is a special one; a moment where the two halves of the Mr Bongo record label unite, our heritage re-issues and our contemporary artists roster.

Minoru Muraoka’s 'The Positive and the Negative’ is a firm favourite at Mr Bongo. It sees a master of the shakuhachi, a traditional bamboo Japanese flute, flex his prodigious skill resulting in a unique mix of breakbeat jazz and Japanese folkloric music. 'The Positive and the Negative’ featured on the 1970 'Bamboo’ album, which Mr Bongo reissued in 2019. Heralded by DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist, Egon, and many others. The record’s cult status had us thinking how could we pay further homage to a sublime track such as this. The opportunity came to us in an email from Melbourne’s Surprise Chef with a link to the fabulous reinterpretation of the track which they had just recorded.

"Minoru Muraoka’s ‘Bamboo’ LP has long been a fixture in our record bags, mostly for the killer shakuhachi funk cut The Positive and The Negative. The record is possibly our favourite from Mr Bongo’s extensive catalogue of reissues, and certainly the most influential to Surprise Chef; The Positive and the Negative’s cinematic atmosphere paired with the wonky drum feels and dramatic performance makes it a near-perfect amalgamation of what we try to capture on Surprise Chef records. We’ve borrowed an element or two from the tune over the last few albums (such as the percussion on ‘The Limp’), so it felt right to go head first into reinterpreting the entire track for ourselves. We recorded the tune in Karate Boogaloo’s attic studio with our man Henry Jenkins at the controls and Hudson Whitlock on percussion. We spent an entire day trying to get the take; we felt such a deep responsibility to capture the intensity of the original, we must have done 20 or 30 takes before we were finally happy. We stuck a fork in it late into the night, satisfied that we’d had our best crack at paying homage to a masterpiece by the great Minoru Muraoka.” - Surprise Chef

Forged in their signature sound, "The Chef" have made 'The Positive and the Negative' their own whilst simultaneously treating the original with utmost respect. The shakuhachi and koto have been replaced by synths and guitars, but the breakbeat psychedelic vein flows richly through both instruments

The 7" vinyl format was the right fit for this release, so the original Minoru Muraoka recording which clocks in over nine minutes has been edited into a 7” version to accompany Surprise Chef’s new take.

Punchline: Enjoy this first single "Waiting For A Star To Fall" from swedish allstar band AT THE MOVIES, doing unique cover versions of their favourite movie songs. Taken from their upcoming album "The Soundtrack of Your Life - Vol. 2" and with members from Pretty Maids, HammerFall, King Diamond, The Nightflight Orchestra, Therion and more! 1. SINGLE - 12.11.21 „Waiting for a star to fall“ 2. SINGLE - 19.11.21 „Last Christmas“ 3. SINGLE - 10.12. „(I Just) Died In Your Arms“ 07.01.22 on album release day): - „Heaven Is A Place On Earth“ FOCUS TRACK: „(I Just) Died In Your Arms“ "Everyone has their own memories and associations with the great songs of the classic films of the 80s and 90s! AT THE MOVIES put the Corona-related time in quarantine to good use and put their soft spot into action, creating unique new interpretations of these classic Soundtrack hymns. The initial spark for this project was ignited by Chris Laney (PRETTY MAIDS), who chatted about the idea with his musician colleagues Allan Sørensen (PRETTY MAIDS, ROYAL HUNT) and Morten Sandager (PRETTY MAIDS, MERCENARY) as well as Björn ""Speed"" Strid (THE NIGHT FLIGHT ORCHESTRA, SOILWORK) and AT THE MOVIES was born. Metal-Heavyweights such as Pontus Norgren (HAMERFALL), Pontus Egberg (KING DIAMOND, WOLF) and Linnéa Vikström Egg (KAMELOT, THERION) as well as illustrious guests such as Ronnie Atkins (PRETTY MAIDS), Jacob Hansen (producer of VOLBEAT, PRIMAL FEAR) and Bruce Kulick (ex-KISS) completed the project, from which the albums ""The Soundtrack Of Your Life"" with Vol.1 (eighties) and Vol.2 (nineties) emerged. Featured are evergreens such “No Easy Way Out”, “Maniac”, “St. Elmo's Fire "", ""The Power Of Love "", ""The Heat Is On"", ""The Neverending Story"", ""The One And Only "", ""(I Just) Died In Your Arms"", ""(You Drive Me) Crazy"", ""Heaven Is A Place On Earth "", ""Crush "", ""I've Been Thinking About You"" and ""Venus""- all catchy tunes that you know and love, in a new, exciting and fascinating metal outfit. "

Zeitgeber is a project that sees Lucy and Speedy J exploring roots and limits. The duo have both indulged their experimental sides from time to time. Perhaps most notably Speedy J with his mid-'90s run on Novamute, and Lucy on his 2011 full-length for Stroboscopic Artefacts. But Zeitgeber is something more, with two artists pushing each other to go further. SA018 is a single that gives only a slight hint as to what is to come in the shape of a complete LP. 'Body Out' is floor-ready techno with a twist. The textures that lie beneath feel like they're just as important (if not more), slithering and twittering away in constant dialogue with the just-slightly-off-the-grid beat. 'Body In' is the inverse of the A-side, a slow-moving chorus of indescribable ambience. As a precursor to the forthcoming album, it's a perfect taster of the uncompromising sounds yet to be heard. - Zeitgeber is a new project run by Lucy (Stroboscopic Artefacts' label head) and Speedy J (Electric Deluxe's boss). ' - 'Body Out Body In' is the Single that precedes Zeitgeber upcoming Album.

Home to Cuca Records and hundreds of Nashville-fantasizing pluckers and singers, Wisconsin’s Driftless region was a hotbed of country music in the 1960s. Influenced by old-timey ethnic songs, Bakersfield outlaws, countrypolitan rainbows, and the lonesome twang of every rural route roadhouse, these 17 Driftless Dreamers washed up at Jim Kirchstein’s Sauk City record plant with little more than $100 and a longing. Collected here are the fruits of Cuca’s documentary approach to record making, capturing the voices and stories of a culture and glacier in abatement.

Survival depends on evolution. As conditions change and tides turn, we must change with them in order to stay one step ahead of the coming challenges. It’s clear that Fit For An Autopsy have embraced that mantra as they continue to perpetually evolve with each subsequent body of work. Not just blurring, but eradicating the lines between technical metal virtuosity, death metal menace, hardcore intensity, melodic insidiousness, and abstract approaches, the New Jersey band embody an uncompromising vision of their own.

The six-piece—Joseph Badolato vocals, Patrick Sheridan guitar, Timothy Howley guitar, Will Putney [guitar], Peter Blue Spinazola [bass], and Josean Orta Martinez [drums]—perfect this approach on their sixth full-length offering, Oh What The Future Holds [Nuclear Blast Records].

Fit For An Autopsy have never stopped moving forward though. Following their caustic 2011 debut The Process of Human Extermination, the group quietly carved out a place among extreme metal’s modern vanguard with their second LP Hellbound. Revolver cited 2015’s Absolute Hope Absolute Hell among “15 Essential Deathcore Albums.” And In the wake of The Great Collapse two years later, the band had truly created their own space in the realm of what could be described as “post-deathcore”. This ascent reached another level on the 2019 opus The Sea of Tragic Beasts. Widespread praise from the fans and press alike is all but too common for their refreshing approach to modern aggressive music both on record and in concert.

When the Global Pandemic changed everyone’s tour plans, Fit For An Autopsy dove into writing in spring 2020 and made the most of their time off the road.
“We had no real timeline, so we didn’t feel much pressure,” says Putney. “Once we realized touring wasn’t opening up, we decided to have fun with the process. I got to spend more time than I usually do on records. We definitely took some of the songs into new places because of that. It’s our longest album. We composed more than we ever have and it was a rewarding feeling to put real work into all these ideas.”

In early 2021, Fit For An Autopsy congregated in-person at Putney’s Graphic Nature Audio and recorded Oh What The Future Holds. Now, they introduce the album with the single “Far From Heaven.” Swirling as a perfect storm, airy guitar cuts through a pummeling percussive groove as melodic vocals slip into a guttural groan offset by neck-snapping riffs and powerful dynamics.
“The world we exist in is clearly “far from heaven”. Institutions are exploited, and people are taken advantage of. There’s a power struggle between those in control and those who aren’t. This is a fairly literal reflection on the world today.”

In the end, Fit For An Autopsy haven’t just personally evolved on Oh What The Future Holds; they’ve brought heavy music with them.

Back In Stock!

The debut collaboration between techno alchemists Ben Klock and Lucy will probably provoke quivers of anticipation before a single note has been heard. After all, both producers have carved out names for themselves as scene innovators at what they do, and both have already proven that they can more than capably work in a duo format without sacrificing an iota of their unique aesthetics: in Lucy's case, there has already been the sublime Zeitgeber pairing with Speedy J., and Klock has joined forces with the likes of Marcel Dettmann to craft some of the more memorable output from the Ostgut Ton label. This new release makes good on each producer's talent for working with epically unfolding tracks, maintaining a strong command of both 'drone' and melodicism, and envisioning sound as a kind of inter-dimensional mass transit. As the record indicates, things can get very interesting when the two working methods superimpose perfectly, but can be just as interesting when the two fall slightly out of phase with one another.



Listeners familiar with the classic kosmische feel will be taken immediately by the opening gambit "Bliss," whose feeling of floating through the coldness of space is accompanied here by nicely warm production values. The bassline that introduces the subsequent track ("War Lullaby") is close to being a continuation of the opener's leitmotif sequence, although with a change in atmosphere that will keep curious ears from turning away too soon: an FX-shrouded voice delivers a monologue at once seductive and foreboding, followed by a confident kick thump with ephemeral trailing clatters in tow. This affective orientation pulses through the whole record well, building up to the second rhythmic track ("Santeria") which is the busiest and most engaging of the bunch. Here a variety of sonic flavorings are ritually thrown into the pot and allowed to simmer - fleeting snatches of conga, phasing zaps and rhythmic ricochets all make for a rich concoction that epitomizes the progress that has been made in techno music within this decade. The closing "A Ghost Love story," like the opener, is a non-'dance' piece, but is no less compelling for that fact: as a foam of white noise pans between the listener's ears, a slurred / pitch-bent refrain conjures the feeling of either entering or exiting from some erotically tinged hypnagogic state.



Speaking of which, the overall impression given off by this record is that of a special kind of reciprocity: that is, of dreams influencing reality and reality feeding back into dreams. The rhythmic intensity of these tracks, at once an indicator of a hard and immediate reality, is regularly complemented by oneiric flourishes that make the partitioning line between these two realms of consciousness less distinct. As the next chapter in the Stroboscopic Artefacts saga, and in the personal journeys of both Ben Klock and Lucy, it will contribute to the ongoing mission of all these parties: giving longtime fans what they want while expanding their consciousness and inquisitiveness.

Having already proven that he is capable of maintaining sonic quality and distinction over the course of a full original program, Chevel (a.k.a. Dario Tronchin) now makes his LP debut for Stroboscopic Artefacts. His other S.A. contributions (including the inaugural entry in the label's singular Monad series, the "One Month Off" EP, his participation to the label's five-year retrospective series) have already hinted that a more complete exposition of his unique inner world would surface, and here it is at last.

Over the course of his young career, Chevel has gained a mastery over several compositional elements: Polaroid-like slow melodic fades, sharp ricocheting beats, and simply making one's headphones feel like a viable means of physical transportation. All of these elements come into play shortly after the needle hits the grooves of (Track A1), a euphoric introductory track marked by a spectral panning sequence and by beats chopped with a culinary expert's sense of elegance. The drum kit sounds that feature throughout are used sparely but - either because of this or in spite of this - provide maximum impact upon the listener's nervous system. The almost 'far Eastern' use of 'block' percussion on (Tracks A2 and B1) perfectly complements the synthetic sheen produced by fuzz distortion, radio static and bandpass-filtered sound bites, taking us to a terrain where a palette of decay effects provides just as much aesthetic inspiration as the presence of technological advancement.

There is more than enough humor and playfulness at work here, too, helping to once again banish the persistent stereotype of the modern techno producer as a sterile technician: the queasy melody line, sliced-and-diced whistling and gelatinous bounce of (Track D2) evoke a child's wonderment at playtime more than they do the rarefied rigour of the laboratory. The less pulsating numbers like (Track C3) and the closing (Track D3) will engage the listener as well, being like short audio films of abiogenesis (i.e. spontaneous generation of life from 'non-living' material) taking place. These tracks are not so much 'interludes' or contemplative retreats from the action as they are enhancers of it, utilizing fluttering cycles of melody to engage in a kind of conversation with the more driving tracks. As to the 'driving' tracks themselves: the places that they drive the listener to are satisfyingly beyond customary experience.

In other words, despite Chevel's keeping the sonic toolkit and overall atmosphere consistent from track to track, there is a rich variety in the emotional affectivity on display here. The net effect is like a dream state that leaves strong impressions even though one can't pinpoint exactly why they are doing so (and which leaves one wanting to dive back into the dream pool and experience something similar again.) This is a talent that unifies the diverse constellation of Stroboscopic Artefacts producers, and one that makes Chevel in particular one to continue watching, listening to, and experiencing.
Wire (USA/Germany/UK) - ''Very intriguing, can/'t wait to dive in.''
Pitchfork (USA) - "Nice use of space, though do find the atmosphere a little one-note. Percussion really pops."
RBMA - "Thanks for reaching out. Having a listen now and the album sounds really good. Happy to give it a shout on RBMA Twitter whenever is best for you."
Paramount Artists (UK) - "20/10 top effort!"
NTS Radio (UK) - ''Nice IDM music with fine textures and bass frequencies..''
Groove (Germany) - ''Very interesting delicate structures. Suggested for review in Groove.''
Exclaim! (Canada) - "I like this. I'll float it to my team and I'll let you know if anyone's interested in covering it."
Big Up Magazine (USA) - "Absolutely epic album."
Vicious Magazine (Spain) - "Great sounds, for our september issue, thx a lot!"
Little White Earbuds (USA) - ''Fantastic album from Chevel. I have unfortunately been at work today without my usual headphones but even listening on very poor quality ones, the rich sonic mastery comes through. Can't wait to get home and listen to this properly.''
Cone Magazine (UK) - "Thanks for sending this through. Looks great, and always interested about a new Stroboscopic release. I'll let you know when something goes up."

The third entry in Lucy's trio of adventurous full-lengths is visually introduced by artwork of a pearl-bearing shell, designed by Stroboscopic Artefacts' resident visual artist (and Lucy's brother) Ignazio Mortellaro. This drops a subtle hint as to the nature of its contents: just as a pearl slowly forms within its enclosing body in response to organic challenges, Lucy's work is also a kind of crystallization of memory and experience into an artifact of great value.

Listeners to this album will be struck immediately by how different it sounds from past Lucy productions, while still retaining the feel of relentless questing that defined his previous two solo LPs Wordplay for Working Bees and Churches, Schools, and Guns (or, as Lucy himself defines the feeling, the equal valuation of precision and exploration'). Initially feeling like Lucy is guiding his listeners on a slow and slightly apprehensive down-river trip through the Amazon, or some similarly thriving but as-of-yet undiscovered terrain, the album is enriched by several layers of ambience and by the wordless, improvisational (yet still somehow narrative) vocals and flute of Jon Jacobs. Without a doubt, it's an album with an initiatory' atmosphere that listeners should commit themselves to hearing in one sitting, with as little interruption as possible. However, unlike many initiatory rites, this is no arduous ordeal at all: great care has gone into connecting each chapter of the album with the same silver thread of entrancing story-telling. On standout pieces like She-Wolf Night Mourning,' electronic arpeggiation and persistent synthetic flutters perfectly merge with the unique tone colors of resonant acoustic percussion and pensive woodwind. Elsewhere, pieces like A Selfless Act' reconcile technoid pulses with melancholic, yet intoxicating echoes of Mediterranean musical traditions.

Interestingly, many of the tracks on Self-Mythology refer to old legends and well-known fairytales (e.g. the opening track which references Baba Yaga's magical hut), or to more broadly defined states of consciousness ( Samsara,' which features an especially strong, sustained choral interplay between glassy synth sequences and earthy flute sonorities). This is where the album is truly unique and relevant in its ambition. The interplay between the graphic design, the vocal and flute performances of Jacobs, and the sound design chosen by Lucy aims to be an intimate audio autobiography of its creators while also referring back to the stories that have shaped human destiny for millennia. This work is a meditation upon the reciprocity between personal hopes and fears and collective dreams and nightmares, an exploration of the endless interplay between the universal and the deeply individual. It is the tale of that uncanny process by which our own conscious experience draws from the pool of archetypal information, while also contributing to it.

MOTOR CITY SCENE, also released as Stardust, by American saxophonist PEPPER ADAMS and trumpeter DONALD BYRD, was recorded in 1960 and released on the Bethlehem label. Donald Byrd and Pepper Adams—and their ace band, including Kenny Burrell, Tommy Flanagan & Paul Chambers—deliver what is one of the finest performances of “Stardust” you’ll ever hear on this album. And that’s just the first track; this is Donald Byrd hitting his first peak, and summoning a band behind him that was formidable, and deft.

A variety of ambient and experimental cuts to be found here. A re-release of sorts, all original tracks were done by Enitokwa (Takashi Hasegawa) as rehearsal for a live performance at Tokyo - Batofar Festival in Paris in 2001 and were released on a limited CDR "promo." in 2002. All 8 tracks were recorded and mixed live in one sitting, and have been remastered, given names and pressed on heavy vinyl with a beautiful cover design by Berlin artist Nik Patrick.

The sample sources were largely inspired by records that Takashi listened to in High School - and feature two hugely well known British hands (one of whom have just reformed and have a new album out…), some old Jazz, Bossa Nova and Hawaiian records, as well as samples from ambient legends Deep Forest and Brian Eno. The result is an earthly nostalgic feel with deep moods to match the times we are living in.

The first track ‘Pop’ bursts into life with an etherial presence. ‘Ssab’ and ‘Chinese Girl Goes to Hawaiii’ have a rather filmic quality to them, whilst ‘Resonating’ seems to float over the wreckage of human activity, a post apocalyptic vision of Planet Earth. ‘Liquid Sky’ is a minimal groove which could be a sonic report from an eerie space station, which is itself a remix of Dub Sonic aka Takehito Nakazeto’s ‘Donigma Dub’.

‘Hope on Hop’ will appeal to today’s generation with its Techno and D’n’B influences, and features voices taken from Wim Wender’s ‘Paris Texas’. Track 7, ‘Mingos’ turns Gal Costa’s voice into a soaring atmospheric haze of digital memory, and the track ‘Holy Spiral’ is a combination of this one and ‘Resonating’, an ascendent 12 minute march to the release’s final close.



Takashi Hasegawa is a respected DJ, producer and live performer who plays live electronic and DJ sets regularly today in venues and festivals across Japan. He has been producing house, techno, experimental and ambient music since the 90’s - spending some of that time in the United States, including working in the music scene in the New York, before returning to Japan working as a sound engineer, A&R and producer for the famous Tokyo-based record label Club Yellow. Now based in Osaka-Fukuoka, Takashi’s music is still resonating with fellow music lovers around the world.



Now, 20 years on from its creation, this music is rediscovered and given a wider audience. The sound on ’Re-Promo’ interestingly gives an insight into the music Enitokwa is currently working on - reflecting the cyclical nature of creative output - and represents a slight departure from the swirling delicate ambient textures that you can hear in o.n.s.a and on the intricate and more musical 2069, released in 2017 and 2016 respectively.



Each track has a video accompaniment to be released in various media outlets, the label head Tom Ransom having partnered with diverse artists in Colombia, Denmark, Japan, Poland, France, Britain and China to create a wide range of visual outputs.



The release also sees two digital only remixes, one coming from London and Wigan’s enigmatic Isherwood (Edward Regan), and the other from Mat Fink - a unique DJ and up and coming producer raised in Pittsburgh and Berlin. Watch out for these…



Machines used:



Yamaha SU700

Sequential Circuits Pro One

Roland TR909

Roland TR808,

TC Electric D-Two

MAM RS3

Pedals



Remastering and additional audio treatment by Kabamix (LMD) on Dec.4.2017.

Dedicated to Takehito Nakazato (SONIC PLATE)

Dinah Washington has been cited as “the most popular black female recording artist of the 1950s”. The jazz vocalist passed away in December 1963 at the age of 39. Just a few months after, in February 1964, Aretha Franklin released her fifth studio album Unforgettable - A Tribute to Dinah Washington. Aretha never personally met Dinah, but she was a good friend of Aretha’s father. Washington always had a major influence of the blossoming style of Aretha. Several covers are, to this day, considered as some of her greatest hits due to Franklin’s timeless voice.

The album was recorded at New York’s Columbia Studios. The recordings were made with the assistance of a small and sympathetic accompanying group for which producer Bob Mersey supplied minimal written guidance.

After their first album “Vertigo” (2018), the Paris-based musicians making up BLOW are back with the indie-pop album “Shake the Disease”. Produced by Crayon, this surprising new chapter is a collec- tion of purer, more organic sounds with a somewhat 70’s/80’s tilt. A return to basics, one that doesn’t turn its back on reality.

The changes are radical as the need was strong to surprise people including themselves, to think outside the box. They went for radical changes: a new method of song writing, a new musical genre, a new way of working, ... But the group’s fans should be reassured: even if the electronics have given way to a more rock-inspired sound, and the chords are a bit richer, and even if the bass, the driving element of each song, is stronger than ever, “Shake the Disease” is pure BLOW.

In terms of the lyrics, a common thread appears: duality. Without ever giving way to schizophrenia, this duality of “what I’d like to be” versus “what I really am” stands at the center of the chessboard. Legitimate and healthy questions give rise to life changes that almost all of us ask ourselves when en- tering into our thirties, just like the members of BLOW. Coming to terms with all this mentally without losing our instincts or our spontaneity, is the guiding idea behind this second album.
Coming back strong, BLOW started dropping uplifting single and live session «Full Delight» and more recently «One Life», both supported in France and abroad by Greenroom, Tsugi radio, The Inde-pendent, Ones to Watch, Hotmix, Brain, Vanyaland, Kulturnews, Laut.de, DetektorFM...
This third extract is «Shake The Disease», a laid back single coming along with a COLORS session including breathtaking performances from Quentin (singer of BLOW) and the only featuring of the album, praised female songwriter and singer Anna Majidson from French duo HAUTE (also featured on COLORS a few years back).

Los Retros is the young Mexican American singer
songwriter whose music has captured the hearts of
fans around the world. He broke onto the scene
with the viral single ‘Someone to Spend Time With’
in 2019, which has racked up over 40m streams.
‘Looking Back’ is his third EP.
 Los Retros was just sixteen when he first began
recording in his family’s living room on an old fourtrack. The recordings comprising ‘Looking Back’
grew out of these early sessions. Now officially
released for the first time. Includes fan favourite
‘Amtrak’ (2.5m YouTube views).
 For fans of Cuco, Beebadoobee, Toro Y Moi,
Yellow Days, Mild High Club, Boy Pablo.

"Everyone has their own memories and associations with the great songs of the classic films of the 80s and 90s! AT THE MOVIES put the Corona-related time in quarantine to good use and put their soft spot into action, creating unique new interpretations of these classic Soundtrack hymns. The initial spark for this project was ignited by Chris Laney (PRETTY MAIDS), who chatted about the idea with his musician colleagues Allan Sørensen (PRETTY MAIDS, ROYAL HUNT) and Morten Sandager (PRETTY MAIDS, MERCENARY) as well as Björn ""Speed"" Strid (THE NIGHT FLIGHT ORCHESTRA, SOILWORK) and AT THE MOVIES was born. Metal-Heavyweights such as Pontus Norgren (HAMERFALL), Pontus Egberg (KING DIAMOND, WOLF) and Linnéa Vikström Egg (KAMELOT, THERION) as well as illustrious guests such as Ronnie Atkins (PRETTY MAIDS), Jacob Hansen (producer of VOLBEAT, PRIMAL FEAR) and Bruce Kulick (ex-KISS) completed the project, from which the albums ""The Soundtrack Of Your Life"" with Vol.1 (eighties) and Vol.2 (nineties) emerged. Featured are evergreens such “No Easy Way Out”, “Maniac”, “St. Elmo's Fire "", ""The Power Of Love "", ""The Heat Is On"", ""The Neverending Story"", ""The One And Only "", ""(I Just) Died In Your Arms"", ""(You Drive Me) Crazy"", ""Heaven Is A Place On Earth "", ""Crush "", ""I've Been Thinking About You"" and ""Venus""- all catchy tunes that you know and love, in a new, exciting and fascinating metal outfit. "

Soundtrack to the 2003 Academy Award nominated film. Features songs by My Bloody Valentine, Air, and The Jesus and Mary Chain. On Rolling Stone’ s Greatest Soundtracks of All Time list.

A mandatory disc for those who loved Europe and Fair Warning, but highly recommended for those who love good music of those years.“ METAL HAMMER (IT), Andrea Lami „OUT OF THIS WORLD has it all. An album and musicians who will give you total happiness!“ METAL INTEGRAL (F), Laudrome „This album was just sheer enjoyment from start to finish“ METAL TEMPLE (ISR), Will Travers "1988 saw the release of Swedish hard rock superstars EUROPE‘s fourth album entitled “Out Of This World”, which has sold over 3 million units to date and contains hits such as “Open Your Heart”, “Superstitious” and “Let The Good Times Rock” . Ex-EUROPE guitarist Kee Marcello intends to tie in with that era’s style with his new formation that he recruited the perfect companion for: FAIR WARNING-vocalist Tommy Heart. Their self-titled debut album was mixed by Ron Nevison (KISS, OZZY OSBOURNE), who had also refined the aforementioned EUROPE classics in 1988. So they connected all of the obvious dots, with a neverending list of renowened musicians joining in on the recordings. Don Airey (DEEP PURPLE) contributed the keyboards on four songs, while the rhythm section is complemented by Darby Todd (GARY MOORE, THE DARKNESS) and Ken Sandin (ALIEN). Every track of their debut work deserves undivided attention, be it the anthemic “Twilight”, the gripping “Lightning Up My Dark”, the timeless “Warrior” or the amazing ballad “Only You Can Teach Me How To Love Again”. This epic piece makes melodic rock dreams come true and sounds modern while traditional at the same time. Kee Marcello is a genius in his field and carries that certain something in his blood, so wonderfully and emotionally implented by Tommy Heart‘s vocals. OUT OF THIS WORLD is the new star in Melodic Rock heaven, a liaison that has yet a lot left in store. "

In the afterglow of her acclaimed 2020 album Silver Ladders (a year-end favorite of NPR, Pitchfork, The New Yorker, and others), Los Angeles-based harpist Mary Lattimore returns with a culminating counterpart release, Collected Pieces: 2015-2020. The limited-edition LP features new and previously unreleased material, Bandcamp-only singles, and other obscurities alongside standouts from her 2017
tape Collected Pieces. Beyond the vinyl compendium, an expanded tracklist on the cassette/digital version brings more of Lattimore’s archives together for the first time. Lattimore has described the process of arranging these releases as akin to “opening a box filled with memories,” and here that box continues to populate, accessible for both the artist and fans. Evocative material separated by years, framed as a portrait of an instrumental storyteller who rarely pauses, recording and often sharing music as soon as it strikes

Concrete Castles is a female-fronted group, who started as a cover band accumulating over 1 Million YouTube Subscribers & 60+ videos with over 1 Million views. On this original track, the band enlisted guest vocals from their close friend Anthony Green from Circa Survive, and the result is both triumphant vocals and radiant energy. This is the opening track on the record because it’s the best introduction to the band as it unfolds with a delicate balance of sensitivity & defiance.

There’s an element of emotional abstraction and also something very intimate simultaneously on ‘Break into Blossom’. The stories find characters experiencing (and trying to make sense of) certain circumstances, but there’s at the same time a kind of distance from those experiences — a kind of cognitive reckoning that eventually gives way to understanding and actually feeling them.
Like picking up a tiny stone from the bottom of a riverbed. Turning it over in your hand. Holding it up to the sun. Inspecting it from every angle. But instead of a rock, it’s memories, dreams, relationships, losses, desires, anxieties, triumphs.
I took the title of the record from a poem called “A Blessing” by James Wright (1927-1980).
In the poem, the narrator is experiencing a moment of sublime beauty that’s also colored with a tinge of loss and of loneliness. The poem ends with, “Suddenly I realize That if I stepped out of my body I would break Into blossom.”
When you’re wading in the river, it may be gold… or it may just be a plain old rock. And that’s okay. Sometimes the loss itself creates a space for something profoundly beautiful.
So you keep going out and digging around, nonetheless. That’s the important thing.

"Beyond the Permafrost" is a tightly played, thrashy as hell, and damn tuneful album. The disc combines classic thrash with a bit of melodic death and black metal, and a NWOBHM undercurrent, all of which is given a modern (though not glossy) production. An added twist are the scruffy and snarling (kind of like a CARCASS-y "Heartwork" era crossed with black metal) vocals of Chance Garrette. The guy strikes the balance between a truly sinister aura and good 'ole evil fun. Some death growls are smartly utilized as well. Count "Beyond the Permafrost" as one of those albums that just feels right. Hell bent and upping the irons, SKELETONWITCH gets "it" right on every single one of these smoking tracks. I'll even go out on a limb by saying that from the standpoint of talent and urgency of approach, SKELETONWITCH reminds me a little of THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER when they first began their ascent. Crank this one really, really loud. - BLABBERMOUTH

The first installment in the D-Vine Spirituals Story. The Memphis gospel label that took the South by storm in the late 60's-early 70's is finally getting it's due with the reissue treatment that the Bible & Tire imprint is known for. Gritty, raw and real sacred soul from a time when the sound of gospel music was at its peak and most contagious. The collection consists of legendary artists like Elizabeth King, Elder Jack Ward & The Gospel Four and The D-Vine Spiritualetts to name just a few. This is Sacred Soul gospel from D-Vine Spirituals Records.

The second installment in the D-Vine Spirituals Story. The Memphis gospel label that took the South by storm in the late 60's-early 70's is finally getting it's due with the reissue treatment that the Bible & Tire imprint is known for. Gritty, raw and real sacred soul from a time when the sound of gospel music was at its peak and most contagious. The collection consists of legendary artists like Elizabeth King, Elder Jack Ward & The Gospel Four and The D-Vine Spiritualetts to name just a few. This is Sacred Soul gospel from D-Vine Spirituals Records.

“Mekons fght off the darkness with stout hearts and great songs on
Exquisite…Recorded remotely during the pandemic, the eternally enduring
post-punk crew’s latest is a fne addition to their enormous catalog…
We’re living through history; it’s a blessing to have Mekons along for the
ride
”– Rolling Stone
Hunkered down and unable to record together, in 2020 the MEKONS created a
glorious digital chain letter of an album. Exquisite is a sprawling manifesto of
connection and defance that deftly slides through fddle tunes, digi-dub, freside
ballads and urgent rock & roll. And that’s just side A.
The original recording plan was to have been the whole-band-in-a-room session in
Valencia, Spain. When the pandemic rendered that impossible the process took a
sharp swerve. The album credits describe it this way: "Exquisite was recorded in
lockdown on mobile phones, broken cassette recorders, clay tablets & other
ancient technologies in Aptos, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York & Devon.
"
This legendary group from Leeds, have written contemporary music history for
the last 40 years as radical innovators of both frst generation punk and insurgent
roots music, and Exquisite is another powerful vector of that legacy.

Released on Ruf Records in 2021, Pizza Man Blues is a snapshot of the
moment those certainties were snatched away
The Blues Boy of Matthews’ 2006 debut album has been around the block, and
the genre-crossing songs he now recounts on Pizza Man Blues are written from a
place of hard- won maturity. “This last year, we’ve all had to adapt to
circumstances,” refects Matthews. “I’ve been forced off the road, but I’ve tried to
keep the engine alive, keep earning, not lose my passion. I’ve done so many jobs,
like pizza and fower delivery driver, tree surgeon assistant, volunteering for the
NHS. These songs are all about the experiences I’ve had.”The opening charge of
Mayday would make Motörhead’s Lemmy nod approval, serving a feral fuzz lick
and a speaker-ratting chorus that asks the big questions. From the bruised organ
lines of Can’t Keep Us Apart to the thrilling torn-up guitar tone and Stax-worthy
brass on Anti-Social Media, these are songs that defy genre at every turn. “I just
wanted a ‘Krissy Matthews’ vibe,” he shrugs. “This album was the result.” But as
the indelible chorus of Grateful fades – ‘You’ve got to be grateful for what you’ve
got/ even if it ain’t a whole lot’ – it’s that sentiment that resonates. “Being a
professional world touring musician, in a pandemic, with a girlfriend in another
country, during Brexit, is not ideal,” Matthews considers. “But I’ve still found lots
of things to be grateful for and I’m a very lucky man. The only way to get through
hard times is to focus on the good times…”

Blue Vinyl

Making a splash on the European house scene for the past five years, Matthieu Faubourg is the perfect fit to Shall Not Fade, with his hazey pieces that carry just the right amount of groove. Since his breakout hit, "Please Stay", a ten-minute deep house voyage, Faubourg has played across Europe and last year dropped his debut album replete with subtle jazz and hiphop references.

Buckle in for an orgasmic Italo trip, courtesy of Argentinian duo Furor Exótica. The result of a sweaty and shaky journey in their Buenos Aires studio, here they deliver two stir-crazy babies, crafted for dancing lovers worldwide.

The title track ‘Macchina Bum Bum’ builds energy gradually from minimal beginnings, adding spine-tingling vocoder vocals, shimmering synth melodies and a familiar sample as it builds towards a euphoric climax. Prime sunset material.

Meanwhile ‘Fractal’ is a hot and heavy chugger, with its throbbing bassline, trippy vocals, and euphoric synth melodies swelling and swirling together. You can practically smell the sweat on leather.

On remix duties, Donald’s House kick things off with a brilliant reimagining of ‘Macchina Bum Bum’, complimenting the vocals with a squiggly, wiggly, funky and propulsive retro-futurist instrumental. Just try not to throw your hands in the air when the synth melody comes in around the halfway mark! A certified stone cold banger, ready for peak-time deployment.

Bringing things home, label founders Kayroy and GREETINGS deliver a dreamy, psychedelic rework of ‘Fractal’. The vocals are transformed into a trippy, gated refrain, taking center stage alongside mellow, warm synth lines, and underpinned by a robust 808 kick. The track ends in a final crescendo, which should please dancers in a club or lovers in a broom closet alike.

Sudi Wachspress returns to Tartelet Records with Dance Planet, a third LP of emotionally-charged house music to welcome us back to the dancefloor. The spirit of true house runs deep in the sound of Space Ghost. Oakland native Sudi Wachspress is intuitively plugged into the romantic, mystical energy of 4/4 club music as a unifying force of empowerment and liberation, carrying the torch from vital forebears like Larry Heard, Alton Miller, and Blaze.

His new album, Dance Planet, carries a greater responsibility to spread spiritual affirmations. As the global dancefloor community emerges from a mentally-taxing recess and confronts their social self like it’s the first day of school, Space Ghost’s message couldn’t be more supportive.

“Don’t be afraid to be yourself, don’t be afraid to let go,” he intones on “Be Yourself.” More than just a beat and a hook, his music is pointedly created to heal and energize. “I’m a big fan of old-school house vocals that have a positive message,” says Space Ghost, “tracks that can perhaps enhance your mood or strengthen your confidence in yourself.”

Wachspress has always represented a beacon of musical uplift, both on his previous Endless Light and Aquarium Nightclub LPs for Tartelet and on his swathes of self-released music and last year’s Free 2 B on Apron. Compared to most house-oriented artists, he places emphasis on the long-player format to create an encircling experience for the listener, smoothing out psychic wrinkles and massaging areas of tension for a fully holistic hit.

These recordings, made in 2001 in the weeks before September 11, constitute a unique historical document. They are spoken-word adaptations of scenes taken from Destroy All Monsters, the first book by acclaimed writer and 'pop culture alchemist' Ken Hollings. A multistranded postmodern epic, Destroy All Monsters offers a radical retelling of Desert Storm, America's military operation targeting Iraq, using imagery derived from MTV videos, CNN news reports, Japanese kaiju movies and anime, Hong Kong action flicks and tales of alien abduction. The book's entire narrative nervously unfolds in an unstable of world of terror monsters, wrecked cities and dangerously tall buildings: where an event like 9/11 is inevitable. The book was officially launched on September 13, but distribution in the United States was delayed when ports on the Eastern Seaboard were closed to shipping post 9/11, leaving copies of the book stranded in the Atlantic. 'Published the very week of the "attacks on America",' Toby Litt wrote at the time, 'Destroy All Monsters is genuinely, spookily prescient…as a progress report on Planet Earth, it seems to have timeslipped onto the front pages.' Lydia Lunch praised it as 'a hallucinogenic spiral into future nightmare', while The Scotsman called it 'mind bending reading.'

In the summer of 2001, Ken Hollings was approached by sound designer and electronic music composer Simon James, who wanted to create an audio adaptation of scenes from the novel to share with subscribers to a spoken word channel launched by totallyradio. The idea was to record Ken reading his own words and then embed them in a soundscape that evoked the fragmented complexity of the original text. Ken concentrated on a small handful of threads from the overall narrative, while Simon directed and engineered the final recording. This resulted in the two sequences of words, sounds and electronic tonalities contained on this audiocassette: an unsettling portrait of people about to be overtaken by events.

In October 2001, having just got married in London, Ken and Rachel Hollings went to New York for their honeymoon, just as they had originally planned. They spent an unforgettable week in a city struggling to recover from the seismic changes that had just taken place while a sudden wave of anthrax attacks on government and media offices filled the news cycles. Rachel took a photograph of Ken at Ground Zero, where crowds of onlookers continued to gather, and the air still smelled of burning.

Ken Hollings is a writer and broadcaster whose main concern is the relationship between culture and technology. He has written and presented numerous critically acclaimed features for BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 and Resonance 104.4 FM His other books include Welcome to Mars, The Bright Labyrinth, The Space Oracle and Inferno all available from Strange Attractor/MIT Press. His latest book, Purgatory, is due from Strange Attractor in Spring 2022.

Simon James is a producer, musician and sound designer based in Brighton, UK, whose work combines electronic sources with field recording techniques and sound treatments, using sound to transport the listener to fantastical audio worlds. Simon's latest release, Electro Smog, collects electromagnetic field recordings from Shenzhen's electronic markets, recorded while he was in China at the invitation of Musicity and The British Council.

The Destroy All Monsters audio adaptations marked the first occasion Ken and Simon worked together – subsequently they collaborated on the 12-part series Welcome to Mars for Resonance 104.4 FM and Connecting, an audio portrait of the original 'phone phreaks', for BBC Radio 3. In 2021 they teamed up again to make Fast Forward, a six-part documentary series for Kasperksy Lab.

For a number of years now, A Guy Called Gerald has largely made music only for himself. But this special EP is borne from Gerald’s unique and long-lasting friendship with Analog Room founders Mehdi Ansari, Siamak Amidi and Salar Ansari. They first met in 2013 when Siamak booked Gerald to play his Analog Room party in Dubai – a leading underground light in the UAE’s then emergent scene. Away from the glossy VIP hotels and expensive bottle service parties
typically associated with Dubai, Analog Room only deals with quality bookings of the caliber of Move D, Roman Flügel, Moritz Von Oswald and the likes. Gerald immediately fell in love with the party. Its strict music-first, no-nonsense policy appealed to him and he’s returned many times over the years.

By then, of course, A Guy Called Gerald’s musical legacy was already assured. The Manchester icon is best known for his 1988 hit single Voodoo Ray – the touchstone of his hometown’s dawning acid house scene. As well as being an early member of 808 State, Gerald embraced breakbeat and jungle, ran his own Juice Box Records label and worked with the likes of Columbia, Perlon, K7! and many other vital labels. His skills on everything from synths to keys, samplers to
drum machines stood him apart then – and still do today.

“This release is based on a real friendship,” Gerald explains. “I feel part of the Analog Room family. Back in the early days, that’s how it was. These days, it’s like, ‘Oh, you’re famous, let’s do something.’ I’m not interested in that. I’m not interested in being a celebrity or living that life. I’m the same as I was 30 years ago, all I care about is the music. With Mehdi, we have spent hours jamming in private in Dubai, we have partied together. We’ve vibed together for so long and he’s shown me new parts of the world I should be making and playing music in, away from the trendy scenes in other places. So this is an exclusive just for him.
I’m not looking at doing anything else with anyone, and the music is just about celebrating individuality rather than trying to fit in anywhere.”

When Iranian-born Mehdi decided to start Moozikeh Analog Room – which translates from Farsi as “the music of the Analog Room” – Gerald was one of the first artists he asked to release on the label. It might have taken some time for Britain’s Dirty Little Secret to materialize, but boy it’s been worth the wait.

Says Mehdi, “The magic comes through proper relationships and friendships.
That’s why Analog Room worked. It was a great room, an amazing sound system, with amazing artists doing their thing. Bookings were so on-point because we had agents around the world, on the dancefloors, spying up artists who were killing it,
and Gerald was one of them. He was a perfect fit from the first gig and our friendship grew from there. He’s always been very kind to me. We have this common language of music without any bullshit, and that is where this EP comes from.”

The EP is a mixture of different things. Some of it is unreleased material from the vaults revisited, some of it is brand new. It opens up with the devastating Old Skool – a writhing, physical track with naughty bass. The drums hark back to Gerald’s early days of making jungle but reimagined through a modern perspective. As the synths spray about the mix and the percussion bounces atop the jostling drums, muttered vocals draw you in deeper. Sugoi is an experimental
track that fuses ambient synth design with the spacious and eerie atmospheres of jungle. Nimble drums get you on your toes as the spangled synths twist and turn in all directions. It is a thrillingly original, impossible to define track.

Flash Fight is built on a captivating rhythm that sits in the area where house, techno and jungle intersect. It is warm and cavernous, physical yet elegant as it bounces on rubbery kicks and lithe synths roam in and out of earshot. Perfect for those sweaty, cozy back rooms, it’s another masterclass from Gerald. Closing out the EP is False Religion, a deep-rooted house track with elastic drums and
haunting, wispy pads. As a subtle acid bassline rises and falls way down below,
Gerald’s own mystic whispers leave listeners hypnotized.

Following on from Analog Room co-founder Salar Ansari’s debut release on the label, this EP is a statement of intent. More releases will follow from some of Analog Room’s most frequent international guests, but only when the time is right. Moozikeh Analog Room is a label of love, one that is focused on putting out the best possible music at all times rather than chasing hype.

A timely reminder of why A Guy Called Gerald is one of the world’s most enduring electronic artists.

Back in the 80s I became a big funk, jazz, and soul vinyl collector; which opened the incredible world of the late, great Mr. Weldon Johnathan Irvine. Back in the 90s I was lucky enough to meet him; Mr. Irvine was such a calm and gentle person; he just oozed music. This laidback, kind quality resonates in his music. On this 45, we trip through the jazzy journey of Weldon’s innovative keyboard work through to the double bass, and horns on the A. On the B we’re in a smoky bar, with yer homies,, chillin n grooving, as the melodica and guitar head-nod us along. Sublime.

It is a great honour to be able to release some of his music from his Nodlow music label on to 7” for the first time.

Welcome to the jazz funk world of the late great Mr Weldon Johnathan Irvine. This great man managed to write music that both inspired and in awed 50 years ago, as it still does today. He takes you to another world, with his gentle yet almost crazy energy. He was way ahead of his time producing these monumental, instrumental masterpieces. Mr Irvine was such a calm and kind gentleman, who just oozed music. He sadly passed away in 2002. It is a great honour to be able to release some of his music from his Nodlow music label on to 7” for the first time.

In 1974 Weldon released his “In Harmony” LP. The two tracks we chose are, “Fat Mouth” which, as expected, features the signature Weldon rift. This Clavinet-heavy groove is backed up with the mighty Joe Jones on Hammond organ; and is all held steady with the pumping drums from Napoleon Revels
“Turkish Bath” is a laid-back jazz groove, with Weldon laying down a superb lead Rhodes story and melody. Backed up with Joe Jones on the piano. Weldon’s keyboard echoes throughout his music with such simplicity.

“I’m reeling, I’m restless,” sing Deep Throat Choir from the heart of their second album. That restlessness manifests in a set of tremendously abundant, original songs from the east London female and non-binary vocal collective, founded by Landshapes member Luisa Gerstein.

 Released via Bella Union, ‘In Order to Know You’ is a multi-layered assertion of freshly expansive range, driven by two core virtues: a sense of strength in unity and an open embrace of its singers’ personal experiences, shared through collective, supportive vocal expression.

 After 2017’s largely covers-based debut album, ‘Be OK’, the choir recognised the call to evolve. “Having been singing together for five-plus years, and having released an album of mostly covers, it felt like the logical next step to make our own music together,” says Gerstein. “This album is the alchemy of all the specific voices and players that make up the choir, and a collaborative process of writing and sharing music and ideas. Sonically, I wanted to move beyond just voices and percussion, to see what richness could be brought with acoustic instruments and electronics, and to transition from a choir that
does covers to a band with loads of vocalists.”

 ‘In Order to Know You’ heads towards its climax without seeming to touch the ground, from the title track’s devotional exhalation to the stealthy, smoky shimmer of ‘Unstitching’. Its lyrics drawn from a poem by Emma Cleave, the sublime ‘Field of Not Knowing’ closes the album in a vivid tapestry of folkgothic images (moon beams and pipistrelles) and serene-to-soaring arrangements, revelling in possibility: “It’s the place where I begin,” sing the choir.

 For Deep Throat Choir, the result is both an exquisite culmination of journeys taken so far and a lustrous, exquisite springboard for further adventures. Their travels began in 2013, when the collective took shape from a desire to strip music back to the basic elements of raw female voices and drums, united in a fashion that both honours and transmogrifies personal expression.

 A small group of four or five singers steadily expanded, with Zara Toppin’s drums providing a propulsive energy. Cathartic live shows and collaborations followed, ranging from team-ups with Peggy Sue, Stealing Sheep, Horse Meat Disco and Matthew E White, to performances at Green Man, Wilderness, the Southbank Centre’s WOW festival, London’s Scala and beyond. ‘Be OK’ provided a gutsy showcase for the band’s close, collective strengths, bolstered by weekly gatherings at a church in east London to blow
the roof off. A fruitful collaboration with techno-pop duo Simian Mobile Disco on the 2018 album ‘Murmurations’ followed: a testament to the choir’s alchemical abilities.

Coming soon!

Punchline: Enjoy this first single "Waiting For A Star To Fall" from swedish allstar band AT THE MOVIES, doing unique cover versions of their favourite movie songs. Taken from their upcoming album "The Soundtrack of Your Life - Vol. 2" and with members from Pretty Maids, HammerFall, King Diamond, The Nightflight Orchestra, Therion and more! 1. SINGLE - 12.11.21 „Waiting for a star to fall“ 2. SINGLE - 19.11.21 „Last Christmas“ 3. SINGLE - 10.12. „(I Just) Died In Your Arms“ 07.01.22 on album release day): - „Heaven Is A Place On Earth“ FOCUS TRACK: „(I Just) Died In Your Arms“ "Everyone has their own memories and associations with the great songs of the classic films of the 80s and 90s! AT THE MOVIES put the Corona-related time in quarantine to good use and put their soft spot into action, creating unique new interpretations of these classic Soundtrack hymns. The initial spark for this project was ignited by Chris Laney (PRETTY MAIDS), who chatted about the idea with his musician colleagues Allan Sørensen (PRETTY MAIDS, ROYAL HUNT) and Morten Sandager (PRETTY MAIDS, MERCENARY) as well as Björn ""Speed"" Strid (THE NIGHT FLIGHT ORCHESTRA, SOILWORK) and AT THE MOVIES was born. Metal-Heavyweights such as Pontus Norgren (HAMERFALL), Pontus Egberg (KING DIAMOND, WOLF) and Linnéa Vikström Egg (KAMELOT, THERION) as well as illustrious guests such as Ronnie Atkins (PRETTY MAIDS), Jacob Hansen (producer of VOLBEAT, PRIMAL FEAR) and Bruce Kulick (ex-KISS) completed the project, from which the albums ""The Soundtrack Of Your Life"" with Vol.1 (eighties) and Vol.2 (nineties) emerged. Featured are evergreens such “No Easy Way Out”, “Maniac”, “St. Elmo's Fire "", ""The Power Of Love "", ""The Heat Is On"", ""The Neverending Story"", ""The One And Only "", ""(I Just) Died In Your Arms"", ""(You Drive Me) Crazy"", ""Heaven Is A Place On Earth "", ""Crush "", ""I've Been Thinking About You"" and ""Venus""- all catchy tunes that you know and love, in a new, exciting and fascinating metal outfit. "

Duane Pitre returns to Imprec with Omniscient Voices, an articulate, intense and emotionally resonant set of five pieces for justly tuned piano and electronics.

Omniscient Voices is a uniquely distinct work that follows Pitre's trilogy of releases which culminated with 2015’s Bayou Electric and included the critically acclaimed Feel Free (2012) and Bridges (2013) albums. Where those albums were rooted in long form pieces, Omniscient Voices is a collection of shorter pieces, offering more harmonic variety than previous works, with a unique sound and feel that is still unmistakably the work of Duane Pitre.

In 2019, after a five year period where Pitre did not focus on outward facing music, but instead on his own personal practice, a small idea in the form of a question came to him: would the combination of his latest computer- and electronic-based experiments, used in conjunction with justly tuned piano, produce interesting results; simply put, would it “work”? Concurrently, Pitre was studying a handful of Morton Feldman scores for their focus on tonal clusters, reading a book on Arvo Pärt’s life and work, and contemplating the pulse-based rhythms of Steve Reich and Phillip Glass.

In 2020, with no intention of making a new album, the composer tried to answer this question. The results would spawn five pieces that would become Omniscient Voices. On this new work, Pitre finds himself giving equal priority to both piano and electronics, utilizing his Max/MSP-based generative network to real-time convert precomposed piano motifs, into data, which is then used to communicate with two polyphonic, microtonal hardware synthesizers whose patches Pitre authored; this process generates the electronic component of the album. Pitre also utilizes controlled improvisation to interact with the piano-reactive electronics in a spontaneous and inspired manner, going back and forth between these two pianistic approaches. In all, this approach creates a “musical feedback loop” of sorts.

Despite Omniscient Voices being the culmination of 15 years of hard work and inspiration, this beautiful album somehow materialized in a natural, intuitive and effortless way (like any artist's best work.)

Artist's statement: “When making the pieces that would become Omniscient Voices, I often viewed the piano as human action, a single note becoming a single gesture that has the potential to change the electronic environment, the electronics becoming the environment surrounding that human in the natural world, who then has the power to change their actions based on their surroundings. All actions have consequences. The interconnectedness of everything. Single actions making waves of change.”

RIYL: Arvo Pärt, Morton Feldman, Steve Reich, Phillip Glass
Mastered and cut by Golden and pressed at RTI for maximum fidelity.

It’s likely that Dave East was both ready and willing to lock in for a full-length Harry Fraud produced album well before he heard Fraud’s work with Jim Jones (The Fraud Department) and Benny the Butcher (The Plugs I Met 2). But it’s just as likely that the synergy and flawless execution of those projects couldn’t have hurt East’s inclination. Fraud shows up for East on HOFFA the same way he did for Jones and Benny, finding a sturdy balance between moody synth lines, obscure rock samples, and ’90s-hip-hop drum patterns to act as an idyllic backdrop for East’s hand-to-hand street-life memories, basketball references, and straight-faced acknowledgment of the way drugs have affected his own family. Fellow barsmiths Jim Jones, G Herbo, Benny the Butcher, and Curren$y round out the features, but longtime Dave East fans might be most excited to hear a new verse from Kiing Shooter, the Queens-hailing Dave East associate who passed away in 2020 following complications from COVID-19.

The End Of The Affair is a 1999 romantic drama film written and directed by Neil Jordan. The screenplay stars Ralph Fiennes, Julianne Moore and Stephen Rea. It was based on the 1951 homonymous novel by British author Graham Green. The story is set in London during and just after World War II and is about a flourishing extramarital love affair between Maurice (Fiennes) and Sarah (Moore).

The score was composed and conducted by Michael Nyman, one of Britain’s most innovative and celebrated composers who is best known for his efforts for The Piano (1993) and Gattaca (1997). Dominated by the 24 violin players in the Michael Nyman Orchestra, his compositions perfectly reflect the full emotional range of Jordan’s film.

For the very first time, the Original Soundtrack of The End Of The Affair is available on vinyl. The record is available as a limited edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on flaming coloured vinyl and includes an insert.