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“Orlando Furioso is a haunting, one-of-a-kind statement, from an important new voice in improvised music.” - Steve Lehman

“…imagining instruments that haven’t been invented yet: space harps, cosmic gamelan, Venusian banjo. It’s the purest distillation of Atria’s musical language, simultaneously grounded and unearthly.” - Stewart Smith for The Wire (November 2022)

“Making liberal use of microtonal harmony and hypnotic, ostinato rhythms – as well as the occasional stylistic smash-cut, reminiscent of John Zorn – Orlando Furioso announced itself on Wednesday as a punchy, creative force on the New York scene. (…) Atria’s rhythms had a welcoming, social propulsion, and the microtonality of his writing for keyboard proposed an individual – even insular – language.” - Seth Colter Walls for The New York Times.

Early European composers felt that their work reflected in its structure the divine nature of the material world. Via tuning, form, and contrapuntal alchemy, these musicians sought to illuminate and edify the complex and perfect order of existence. The music recorded here also reflects the contours of an ordered world, but it is no place any of us has ever visited. By assembling far-flung building blocks from the detritus of a 21st-century musical vocabulary, Orlando Furioso brings the listener into a bizarre new cosmos. The result is deeply expressive music that speaks not with the voice of a narrator or memoirist, but with that of a cartographer.

Like a science-fiction Dante, the listener is taken on a tour of many diverse and colorful provinces of an alien world. Though each composition references its own set of real-world musical locales (from the Andes to Indonesia to Italy to New Orleans), they are bound by stylistic consistency into a coherent, continuous geography. Permeating this world is an uncompromising commitment to microtonal harmony, rhythmic intensity, and an ability to deploy the esoteric (Nicola Vicentino's notorious 31-tone temperament) and the head-smackingly obvious (a surprise djent breakdown) with equal conviction. Though Vicente's compositions are steering the ship, serious recognition is due to all the players on the record for their ability to meet these demands.

Our omnivorous musical diets offer real abundance. They enrich our craft by providing access to limitless approaches from which to choose - more masters to study, traditions to absorb, and techniques to hone than is possible in multiple lifetimes. They can also inflict heavy and often contradictory burdens of influence. When every corner of the map has been charted, it becomes difficult to find a new direction in which to travel. One solution I hope to see more often is the one pursued on this record: breaking down distinct musical worlds into component parts and reassembling them into a language. When completed with precision and with no stone left unturned, the seams between the pieces vanish and the listener is deposited somewhere beautiful and strange, left to assign their sensations meanings of their own. - Mat Muntz

Orlando Furioso is led by Vicente and features David Acevedo, David Leon, Andrew Boudreau, Alec Goldfarb, Daniel Hass, Simón Willson, and Niña Tormenta. Orlando Furioso celebrated its release at Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn, NY, as a part of Wet Ink Ensemble's 24th Season opening concert, a performance which The New York Times heralded as "virtuosic", "punchy, creative" and "even revelatory."

Winner of the Deutscher Jazz Preis: Best International Debut Album 2023

In 1972, a foursome of design students set out to make a record. This was, in many ways, a strictly creative endeavor. The quartet — composed of Dave Pescod, Alan Lewis, Phil Rawle, and Ted Rockley — were all trained, not as musicians, but as creatives. Art school heavyweights, the four were well-versed in the methodology of intentional experimentation, in the delicate balance of pushing the limits without completely unmooring oneself from a guiding creative intention. Emboldened by a high-brow familiarity with thoughtful experimentation and all the non-conviction of non-musicians, Bowes Road Band’s stint in the world of popular music yielded a record that is as much mind-melting as it is a direct product of its time. Their sprawling LP “Back in the HCA” embodies the exigence “art for art’s sake,” but it is for art’s sake that this record, however off the deep end it seems to travel (hear: “Doctor, Doctor”), remains a unified, and stunning, body of work. The LP’s do-ityourself garage rock noisemaking meets highfalutin creative processes. “Back in the HCA” is warbling psychedelic freakout (“Two Fingers,” “Doctor, Doctor”), Donovan-esque English countryside folk stylings (“Inside My Head,” “Goodbye to Rosie”), and avant-garde jazz improvisions (“Grass is Grass,” “Tomorrow’s Truth”) in one luminous release.

Originally an 9-track LP, Jakarta, Uno Loop, and Bowes Road Band decided to mine the six most cohesive tracks for the reissue, though the extras may be released somewhere down the line. Cohesion efforts aside, “Back in the HCA” stands alone in its singular conception of a genre-bending continuum — it evades definition. That said, the LP can easily be situated in the sonic environment in which it was conceived. By the end of the 60s, England was crawling with blues-based rock outfits that were starting to venture into prog rock territory. You can hear this popular dint cast over the folkier side of the LP. But Bowes Road Band was armed with their non-musicianship: they existed completely liberated from the motivating yet ultimately paralyzing lust for stardom. Enjoying this liberation, Bowes Road Band was utterly free to make noise. This freedom meant drawn out sax interludes amidst sweetly folk stylings (“Grass is Grass”) and Shaggs-like fuzzed-out freakouts that spiral into a void (Doctor, Doctor). This freedom also meant straight-forward tuneful cuts like “Goodbye Rosie” that conspicuously introduce heavily distorted auto-organ accompaniment mid-track amidst poignant lyricism. Bowes Road Band crafts a unified sound and then cracks it open.

With a completely off-the-radar status, Bowes Road Band could only press 50 copies of the record — 10 for each of them and 10 for the school. The band’s lifespan was to end there, or so they thought. “Back in the HCA” was the accidental fruit of a Berlin flea market treasure hunt by Jannis Stürtz, DJ and co-founder of Habibi Funk and Jakarta Records. After finding and sharing the LP with a few colleagues, Stürtz managed to get in touch with the band, get ahold of the master tapes collecting dust in Ted Rockley’s attic, and start the reissuing process. The record is still adorned with its original cover art designed by Alan Pescod, both reminiscent of bygone school days and the Zoom calls of yesterday — in short, reunion. Its re-discovery was happenstance and ought to be listened to as such. That is, “Back in the HCA” was not made to be listened to on a broad scale, or, at least, was not made with this goal in mind; it is neither in its time nor of its time. Of course, the group explicitly cites the folk tunes of the English countryside, the distorted rock groups that reigned during the record’s conception, and the fringes of psychedelic music that only the uber-underground might recognize (e.g., “Dreaming of Alice”). Yet still with these obvious influences, “Back in the HCA” always existed beyond the domain of both traditional musicianship and conventional commodification. Bowes Road Band’s DIY musicality beams through in technicolor across “Back in the HCA.” The vinyl includes an 8-page booklet detailing the albums creation and interviews with the band.

Lead single “Grass is Grass,” out July 14 along with album pre-order, encapsulates the record’s range: the track unfurls into a sprawling sax-driven trip following a sundrenched, Donovan-esque intro w/ lyrics “naively about parks and gardens, not marijuana!” The keyed-down folk cut “Goodbye to Rosie” is single 2 and elevates stripped-down acoustics with golden tinges, out August 4th. Focus track “Tomorrow’s Truth” constructs the fuzzed-out underbelly of acid folk. Listen for echoes of late Beatles, Mark Fry, and Donovan (if they were armed by an unshakabele willful naiveté). Like Sgt. Pepper’s on a shoestring budget—take a trip to the underground with LP “Back in the HCA,” available everywhere physically and digitally on September 1st via Jakarta Records and Uno Loop.

Besides online promotion from label profiles, the album will be further promoted by external agencies within the UK and US.

Deena Abdelwahed's first album is shifting the epicenter of contemporary electronic music south: 'Khonnar' will be released on November 16, 2018 by InFiné. Pronounced 'Ronnar' (an essential detail so as to avoid facile misinterpretation by French-speakers) it is a term that makes the most of Tunisia's cultural and linguistic spectrum. It evokes the dark, shameful and disturbing side of things, the one we usually seek to hide, but which Deena instead sticks our noses in with her debut. It is a testament to Deena's coming into her own as a world citizen, and as an artist. A self-construction made of frustrations and constraints, borne of retrograde mindsets, which are not the prerogative of either the East or the West, and which she tirelessly strives to expose and break. Throughout the 45 minutes of 'Khonnar", Deena breaks down the codes of bass, techno and experimental music, and writes the manifesto for a generation that does not seek to please or to conform, taking back control of its identity - with all the attendant losses and chaos. A new creative world order is taking shape, a new tilting point between north and south, the response of a connected and liberated youth who takes the control of the new decolonization. About Deena Abdelwahed A Tunisian producer and DJ, Deena Abdelwahed arrived in France at the age of 26 after earning her stripes on the Tunis scene and as part of the Arabstazy collective.

Das französische Label Infiné ist dafür bekannt, elektronische Musik jenseits ausgetretener Pfade zu veröffentlichen - hier wird Techno und House neu definiert. So passt es ganz gut, dass die aufstrebende tunesische DJ und Underground-Produzentin Deena Abdelwahed bei dem Lyoner Imprint eine Veröffentlichungsplattform gefunden hat. Abdelwahed performte in den letzten Jahren zwischen Boiler Room und Berghain in allen namhaften Clubs und hinterließ bei der globalen Dance-Gemeinde mehr als staunende Münder. Nach der im Frühjahr 2017 veröffentlichten EP "Klabb" präsentiert die Tunesierin mit "Khonnar" jetzt ihr sehnlichst erwartetes Debütalbum.

Was beide Tonträger vereint: sie verbinden nordafrikanische Klangelemente mit elektronischen Sounds, haben jedoch mit Weltmusik nichts am Hut.

Don Glori, a.k.a multi-instrumentalist Gordon Li, returns with a remix EP that tears open five tunes from his groundbreaking debut, Welcome.

Taking an opportunity to sink into some of the ideas explored on the original album, the five remixes featured here sees some of Europe and Australia’s finest throw open the shutters and shine a light on Li’s inventive compositions and remarkable instrumentation.

Rosie from the Block, a.k.a Belgian multi-instrumentalist, producer and DJ Roselien, leans right into the percussion and drum kit playing that made Welcome so infectious, layering this with cheeky bubblegum-beat bass lines that lend the whole affair an incredibly smooth, street-soul styling.

Other key players include Swedish duo Mount Liberation Unlimited, lending their take on things an introspectively dark, brooding atmosphere that evolves into one of their trademark acid-house extended journeys; Australian radio DJ and producer Ennio Styles working alongside Liam de Bruin, hip-hop/soul duo Man Made Mountain, led by MC Cazeaux O.S.L.O, and an insanely infectious organic house take on hit single Dlareme by one of Melbourne’s finest, Teymori.

A perfect companion to an album that broke open the Melbourne scene and laid out new parameters for the quality of jazz, samba and funk-inspired music emerging from that city, Welcome Remixes breathes fresh life into this incredible album and reminds us just how goddamn fun making, playing and performing music can be.

PUTAS VAMPIRAS Vol.1 is the debut release of PUTAS VAMPIRAS, a DJ and producer who is an icon of Sao Paulo's queer underground scene.

As the organizer and mother of the infamous VAMPIRE HAUS raves and its community of vampires, her work is a celebration of DIY culture, resistance and an unapologetic commitment to inclusion and the freedom of the Brazilian LGBTQIA+ community.

Over the last decade VAMPIRE HAUS has become much more than a rave, its an aesthetic, a mind-set and a movement that spans across the whole of Latin- America. After almost 10 years, it is finally debuting as a record label.

In this first release, PUTAS VAMPIRAS reimagines post-punk attitudes and the frenzied energy of a rock and roll mosh pit through the lens of the queer Sao Paulo underground. The album's tracks were built to withstand the heat of the VAMPIRE HAUS raves, and to satisfy the legions of dissident ravers, drag monster queens, techno lovers, and "vampiras" from all around the world. She describes her sound as VAMPIRE TECHNO, the perfect soundtrack to a kinkier and queerer alternative reality version of Tony Scott's "The Hunger" movie.

All the tracks on this compilation are anthems at the VAMPIRE HAUS raves and part of PUTAS VAMPIRAS' live performances in recent years, with the track "Puta Vampira Bixa Loka" becoming the soundtrack of LGBTQ freedom and empowerment in Sao Paulo.

Using a hybrid setup of analog drum machines, modular synths and vinyl during her performances, PUTAS VAMPIRAS made thousands of "vampiras" dance like there was no tomorrow.

She has performed on BOILER ROOM and extensively toured across the world, playing amongst many places in the UK, USA, India, Turkey, Ukraine, Chile, and Paraguay and being the first Brazilian to perform a hardware live set on the main floor of Berghain.

PUTAS VAMPIRAS has become a household name and a symbol of LGBTQ+ empowerment, liberation, and resistance and her music will carry the VAMPIRE TECHNO spirit into more corners of the world.

Blue Lake is the musical moniker of American born, Copenhagen based multidisciplinary artist and musician Jason Dungan, who signs to the Tonal Union imprint for the release of his new longform album ‘Sun Arcs’. It follows 2022’s release ‘Stikling’, earning a nomination for ‘Album of the Year’ at the Danish Music Awards plus warm praise from The Hum blog and musicians and DJs alike including Jack Rollo (Time is Away/NTS) and Carla dal Forno. A self taught player, Dungan began freely experimenting with self-built multi-string instruments, preferring to build his own hybrid 48-string zither and working in the realms of left-field ambient music, off kilter folk and improvised acoustic minimalism.

The starting point of ‘Sun Arcs’ saw Jason travel for a week alone to Andersabo, a cabin set in the idyllic Swedish woods just outside of Unnaryd, known also as the music project, festival and residency space which has been run by Dungan since 2016, hosting artists like Sofie Birch, Johan Carøe and Ellen Arkbro. Whilst writing 1-2 pieces per day, a conscious decision was made to leave behind everyday distractions and shut out the outside world to instead focus on the natural passage of time as Dungan recalls: “My only sense of time came from these daily walks out in the woods with my dog, and an awareness of the sun’s path as it moved across the sky each day.”

The album’s immersive world unfolds with the opener ‘Dallas’, an ode to his home state and a musical synthesis of these two disparate spaces (Texas and Denmark), the touchstones of Dungan’s life. A folk-esque single acoustic builds to a flowing arrangement of clarinets, organ and cello drones coupled with percussion. ‘Green-Yellow Field’ chimes in as the first of two solo oriented zither recordings twinned with the dreamlike title track ‘Sun Arcs’, both densely rich as cascading and overlapping harmonic tones resound. ‘Bloom’ emerges with a krautrock psyche before an eruption of cello drones, slide guitar and free-ranging zither playing, ushering in the anticipation of spring. With half of the recordings conceived in Andersabo, Jason returned to Copenhagen to form the album's centre piece ‘Rain Cycle’ which features a tempered Roland drum machine alongside shifting zither improvisations. ‘Writing’ explores the shimmering harp-like qualities of sweeping playing figurations with Dungan mapping out adjusted tuning “zones” on the zither for unconventional but creatively liberating effects. ‘Fur’ captures the feeling of openness and the momentum of time, seeing Dungan perform waves of solo clarinet, often in one takes and embellished with textural drones, a zither solo, and layers of guitar. ‘Wavelength’ the album's closer is fondly inspired by the film works of Michael Snow and Don Cherry’s seminal live album ‘Blue Lake’ (1974), as it builds out from a drone-generated zither chord and features an alto recorder solo. Dungan found a deep connection to Cherry’s stripped back performance ethos, focusing on the core beauty of minimal instrumentation creating a genre-less meeting between folk and jazz. A dialogue is formed between the solo and the bandlike performances, interlinked in a geographical duality with all finding a sense of commonplace as musical sketches of visited landscapes. The bountiful instrumentation ebbs and flows as further layers emerge with Dungan constructing his material much like an artist would, recording and reviewing, adding and subtracting.

Musically it portrays a form of double life led by an American-identifying person living in Scandinavia, and a new found presence in Denmark, seeking out underdeveloped marshlands and barren stretches of beach adrift from other rhythms and distractions. Highlighting their individual and potent importance Dungan concludes: “Both places feel like “me”, I think on some level the music is always some kind of self-portrait.” ‘Sun Arcs’ depicts the intricate balance of nature’s cycles and the paths outlined by the seasons, from a winter dormancy to a warm sun drenched scene. The album scales new glorying heights and further defines Dungan’s musical narrative, inhabiting a unique space in left-field, improvised and experimental music, borning his most accomplished compositions to date. A singular and visionary expression, drawing on an array of instruments and sound worlds with a renewed sense of joy and discovery.

The album's rich tapestry was mixed by Jeff Zeigler (Laraaji, Mary Lattimore, Kurt Vile /Steve Gunn) and mastered by Stephan Mathieu (Kali Malone, KMRU, Félicia Atkinson).

After Joao Selva, Dowdelin, The Bongo Hop, Underdog Records continue their exploration of the Black Atlantic with IREKE.Ecstatic brass, 70’s keyboards, elastic guitars, round bass and world percussion: from this sonic heritage, Ireke makes a unique fusion, enhanced by the audacious contribution of his dub science, and a few electronic touches

IREKE

Ireke? Sugar cane in Yoruba. Like her, the duo loves tropical climates and intoxicating rhythms, quick to liberate the bodies gathered on a dancefloor. Afrobeat urgency, funk suppleness, dub alchemy, highlife jubilation: with Tropikadelic, Ireke summons the heritage of the masters and the audacity of machines to give life to new sonic territories. At the crossroads. For the love of groove.

From the West, with their ears to the Black Atlantic, Julien Gervaix and Damien Tes- son are both children of the collective and of improvisation, playgrounds for these complete multi-instrumentalists.

The first one puts his talents of arranger-saxophonist at the service of the Nantes collective Soulshine and of numerous formations - in turn funk or rhythm’n blues - where swinging is the rule.This is notably the case of the afrobeat group Walko, in which Julien Gervaix had the honour of sharing the stage and the studio for several years with Kiala Nzavotunga, guitarist extraordinaire for Fela Kuti and Egypt 80. Meanwhile, Damien Tesson was being trained as a dubmaster-guitarist-arranger at the reggae roots school with the digital option of the Vendée collective Shi Fu Mi Temple.This initiation led Damien Tesson to join, among others, the Nantes-based group BIBA (Bingy Band) and then to collaborate with Jideh High Elements, a key figure on the international dub scene, Roberto Sanchez and the team of his Lone Ark Studio, as well as Sana Bob, a famous reggae singer from Burkina Faso.And then, life being well done, the paths of Julien Gervaix and Damien Tesson ended up crossing within the jazz-funk combo Playtime, before meeting again in the Vendée a few years later.

With an obvious tropism for Afro-Latin grooves, tropical colours, electronic tricks and furious swaying, the two musicians create Ireke like a glass of well arranged rum. Here’s to us, here’s to you! As if guided by the spirit of the plant, Ireke toasts the immense richness of these danceable rhythms, true generators of life, connection and energy.

Like Legba, the Yoruba orisha of intersections and crossroads, Ireke thrives in the between worlds.Aware of the lineage of goldsmiths who preceded them, Ireke

knows his classics and humbly draws inspiration for Tropikadelic from the musical genius of Pat Thomas, Poly-rythmo Orchestra, King Tubby,Tony Allen, Fela Kuti, Maître Gazonga, Ernesto Djédjé or the Vikings of Guadeloupe. Ecstatic brass, 70’s keyboards, elastic guitars, round bass and world percussion: from this sonic heritage, Ireke makes a unique fusion, enhanced by the audacious contribution of his dub science, and a few electronic touches patiently flushed out in the studio - which the duo considers as an instrument in its own right.

Finally, to give voice to his compositions, on Tropikadelic, Ireke calls upon an army of serious enthusiasts, each member of which has come up with his or her own lyrics. Thus, alongside Ireke, we find the groove griot Pat Kalla (“Femme qui Danse”,“Love Is Jokin”), the Franco-Laotian reggaeman Amatah Keo (“Man Bo Diak”), the Vendée- based Agnès Hélène (“Petit à Petit”,“Oh Ma Chérie”) and Charly Sanga (“Bas Les Masques”,“Oh Ma Chérie”), the Burkinabè lion Sana Bob (“Métissage”) as well as the Nantes soulman Jy Cooly (“Kinkeliba”).

For the duo, music is above all a collective practice, an active liberation, a rhythmic approach to letting go, a source of communicative joy... In short, groove is the weap- on! And Ireke knows how to use it.

It's hard not to see the hype around BRUIT= as the next big thing in post-rock. While their 2018 EP Monolith provided a promising indication of their son- ic ambition, it was their debut LP The Machine is Burning and Now Everyone Knows It Could Happen Again which really set off the trig- ger. Receiving rave reviews around the globe and selling out the first vinyl pressing of 3.000 copies within less than a year, BRUIT= have no need to prove themselves beyond what they have already achieved so far. Consisting of three musical meditations, Apologie du Temps Perdu Eng. apology for time wasted sees BRUIT= cut down on their massive sound in favour of a more subtle contem- plation. In contrast with their recent streaming single «Parasite (The Boycott Manifesto)» with its direct message for Spotify CEO Daniel Ek and his listeners, the band have seemingly forgone their activist agenda paring back the grand thematic gestures and poignant spoken-word excerpts. Instead, BRUIT= let the music do the talking, reaching an activism which is more visceral, but all the more personal. "This ambient EP is conceived as a comma between our first album and the next one," explains bass player & violinist Cle'ment Libes about the purpose of this record. "It is an invitation to lose time, a parenthesis in the frantic race of our society." Existing somewhere between the grand genius of soundtrack composers like Hans Zim- mer and Ramin Djawadi, and the experimental prowess of fringe pop artists like Radio- head and Darkside, Apologie du Temps Perdu reveals the hidden power of film scores. We all know that moment in which we cease to be conscious of the musical accompani- ment and we become truly absorbed in the story. The music becomes part of scenery, and in this moment we lose track of time. Talking of his own work Ramin Djawadi (Game of Thrones, Westworld) notes: "If you were to turn the picture off, there is a story there and a connection to the characters and the plots." In the same way, through the sweeping strings of «La Sagesse de Nos Ai"eux», the ethereal tape loops of «Re^veur Lucide» and the undu- lating synths of «Les Temps Perdus», worlds are created to get lost in, and we experience the full power of music with our eyes and ears open. RIYL Hans Zimmer, Nils Frahm, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Balmorhea, Max Richter, Olafur Arnalds, A Silver Mount Zion, Boards Of Canada

After several years of intense performance activity, the Italian sound artist and
vocalist SARA PERSICO releases her debut EP "Boundary", to be followed by a full album.


Born and raised in Naples, Berlin-based sound artist / vocalist SARA PERSICO cut her teeth
experimenting on the fringes of Naples' fiery underground experimental/noise scene, developing a
technique that would integrate her voice with analogue electronics, field recordings, and samples.
PERSICO holds a BA from the Conservatory of Napoli and a Master's Degree from the
Conservatory of Bologna and gained several residencies and scholarships like Temp Studio,
Lisbon (2018), Amplify Berlin (2021), Sonoscopia, Porto (2022), Sardegna Teatro - V2 Unstable,
Argentiera (2022). She presented her work in festival and events like Ballroom Blitz Beirut, CTM
Festival, Ortigia Sound System Festival/Bosco Colto, Codex Club, Documenta Fifteen, Dancity
Festival, Radical DB, Life Libertas Festival, among others.


As improviser and performer, she has collaborated with a wide spectrum of artists, joining EVELYN
SAYLOR's vocal ensemble for CATERINA BARBIERI's acclaimed "light-years" show at Rewire
Festival and London's Southbank Centre, and worked on projects alongside THE EX's ANDY
MOOR, TONY ELIEH (KARKHANA), LUDWIG WANDINGER, DIRAR KALASH, ELVIN BRANDHI,
RECORDAT, and many others.

She's also a fearless DJ who's able to straddle vastly different worlds, offering just as much
attention to abstract electronic sounds as she does bass-heavy club music, noise, and vocal
experiments. She is currently a resident on Bethlehem's Radio Alhara.

All this energy and experience radiates from her solo debut "Boundary": PERSICO's expressive
vocals play a central role, but her command of precisely sculpted electronic textures and dynamic
rhythmic structures is just as crucial to the overall experience.
Deconstructed beats, experimental voice, harmonic music, distorted rhythms craft a dense
introspective work that explores intimately the boundaries of the self. Identity rupture as a survival
technique, a voice-research climax with an unconventional approach - multi-faceted ideas melt in a
heavy-aesthetical 6 track solo EP that brings together different styles like noise and clubby sounds.

KARMATÜRJI - das ist eine Kollaboration zwischen den Musikern Petra Nachtmanova und Ceyhun Kaya und der DJ-Ikone DJIpek Ipekcioglu. Entstanden ist dabei ein elektronisches, mehrsprachiges Album - eine erstaunliche und seltene Mischung, die Türkisch, Polnisch, Englisch und Deutsch miteinander verbindet. Getragen von den Beats und der klaren, beeindruckenden Stimme von Petra Nachtmanova kommt es einem immer wieder so vor, als würden sich die Sprachgrenzen völlig auflösen und wir könnten verstehen, über jede Sprachbarriere hinweg. In den Songs geht es um den Alltag des 21.Jahrhunderts, um nostalgische Sehnsucht nach erträumten Heimatländern, die dann ja letztlich in dieser Form gar nicht existieren, und natürlich geht es immer wieder um die Liebe. Karmatürji lassen dabei musikalisch ganz bewusst anatolische und osteuropäische Lieder einfließen, verwenden immer mal wieder Volksmusik-Instrumente, um daraus dann einen vollen elektronischen Pop-Sound zu kreieren. Kurz & knapp könnte man sagen KARMATÜRJI ist ein elektronisches Projekt in verschiedenen Sprachen mit Rückgriffen auf anatolische und osteuropäische Volkslieder. Was dabei rauskommt ist ein deeper, tanzbarer und internationaler Elektro-Pop-Sound.

It's album time for Sam Goku aka Robin Wang: "Things We See When We Look Closer" is the second album from the Chinese-German artist, releasing nearly two years after his debut album "East Dimensional Riddims", that combined traditional Asian instruments and field recordings with his own modern take on dance music that focuses on fluid rhythms, beautiful melodies and ambient haze.

Based in Munich, things came together naturally with Permanent Vacation as a label for the DJ and producer. Not only sharing the same hometurf, but also a certain eclectic approach on music. After two EPs on the label, that found their way into DJ Sets from the likes of Ben Ufo & Four Tet, DJ Voices, Call Super and many more, Robin is drawing ever wider circles with his new album.

On eleven tracks he is refining his unique approach in his productions, probably described best as a deeply nature-rooted and aethereal sound from twinkling ambience over bright, bouncy kickdrums to shuffling breaks. Robin is hunting for the bigger picture by taking a closer look. Finding new life in the different microcosms and gaining new perspectives on things by switching the angle and developing a meditative and psychedelic swirl.

Terra Magica Rec. is back with its fifth release “Club TERRAM”! This time it will be another V.A. compilation of never heard and unreleased original gems of electronic body music.

Think: A double 12” vinyl which is fully charged for dismantled club use as those mighty TERRAM clubbers say. Compiled and arranged by Tom Sprenger & Mirko Hecktor all tracks are dance floor oriented rhythms which will activate your maximum energy output as well as total chill out crash. Let the new bots work your life balance. Multiverse to introverse to metaverse. With its discoish genre splicing between 90s-IDM 2 Big Beat and Breakbeats 2 NuCosmic 2 Acid-Madchester 2 rolling trancey driven Goa beats the record reflects the electronic underground culture of dance clubs and discotheques of the past 50 years. These stand for emancipation, gay liberation, cicil rights, working class and democracy. Find your inner peace on the chill out floor side. Or go bonkers to the hedonistic main room floor fillers. Find your unique personal safe space in TERRAMs different floors and hidden rooms. A CLUB FOR A L L. As Richard Dyer wrote in 1979 “In Defence of Disco”: ‘Capitalism constructs the disco experience, but it does not necessarily know what it is doing, apart from making money’.

The underground is where we go moving.

Behold! Yes, Blue Butterfly, one of the absolute stunners on the revered Selected Sound, is finally available for all the beat-heads. Heavyweight library funk with a psychedelic touch, the super in-demand Blue Butterfly from *deep breath* Hardy's Jet Band, Orchestra Klaus Wuesthoff, Jan Troysen Band and Orchestra Gary Pacific - was originally released in 1971. Incredibly ahead of its time, it's been rare and sought-after for decades.

For many aficionados, this is the best Selected Sound release. Loaded with fuzzy wah-wah guitar, deep flute-lines atop soulful psych-rock breakbeats and huge organ action, its uncompromising funk will blow you away. Sampled for many hip hop beats and dropped by well known rare groove DJs around the world, one jewel in particular from this glorious German vault needs little introduction. The intro to Orchestra Gary Pacific's mesmeric "Soft Wind" rides the illest, crispest drum break you've perhaps never heard - like, the drum break to end them all - alongside a smooth, deep bass line from the heavens. It featured notoriously on the beloved Dusty Fingers comps of the 90s and was brilliantly sampled by Pacewon for his eternal "Sunroof Top". Just listen and be dazzled.

Beyond this mini-masterpiece, the other killer tracks offer brilliance in abundance. Hardy's Jet Band take control of the full A side, and it's full of dynamic psych-funk bombs. Hard, "big city" industrial groovers. In particular, the initial one-two of "Sorry, Doc!" and "Wind It Up" provide thrilling funky-blues rock instrumentals showcasing relentless guitars, flutes, sax and organ, the latter containing gorgeous, hypnotic breakdowns; these tracks just slay. The title track, "Blue Butterfly" is a real deep strut of a track with fantastic soloing from guitar and flute over crisp drums whilst the highway banger "What You Call To Be Free" certainly sounds a lot like unbridled, rhythmical liberty.

On the flip, the ghost-riding "Lady In Space" is a string-drenched acid-western foxtrot. Yep. “Pop Happening” by Jan Troysen Band is a heavy, druggy psych-fuzz organ groover whilst their slow beat-organ-flute gem "A Blue Message" is a gorgeous psych floater conjuring deeply strange frontier lands. Preceding their monster "Soft Wind", the soulful, uptempo groover “Ghetto Gap” by Orchestra Gary Pacific contains solo piano and flute whilst closing out the set is the free-and-easy samba beat of "So Far".

Founded in the late 60s by German composer and musician Klaus Netzle (who recorded under the alias Claude Larson for Sonoton) Selected Sound began as a production music company specialising in jazz, orchestral and electronic recordings. You can’t miss those early LPs in their iconic glossy metallic copper sleeves with minimal German typography. Serious, classy stuff.

The audio for Blue Butterfly has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis whilst Richard Robinson has handled reproducing the glossy metallic (iconic) original Selected Sound sleeve. Essential.

The second instalment from London Odense Ensemble digs deeper into the group's vision of what modern psychedelic jazz should sound like. Cut from the same sessions as Jaiyede Sessions vol. 1, released last summer, vol. 2 presents a more nuanced approach to the material. On this set the ensemble focuses on shorter, layered pieces - travelling from deep spiritual jazz grooves to gorgeous free-flowing minimalism to full-on acid jazz. There's echo-drenched flutes being absorbed into layers of analog synth pads and guitars, bossa beats and double bass sequences merging with electronics. It's an intoxicating mélange of sounds and styles, spanning wide temporal and geographical distances. London Odense Ensemble came together when two of the finest exponents of London's flourishing jazz scene, flautist and saxofonist Tamar Osborn and keyboard specialist Al MacSween, came over to Denmark to explore new sounds with Causa Sui's Jakob Skott and Jonas Munk, as well as local bass player Martin Rude. For two days the group laid down grooves and ideas and experimented in the studio, and later the best segments were edited and mixed by Jonas Munk, who took a somewhat liberal approach to the mixing process, often dyeing the material with external effects and synthesizers. Jaiyede Sessions are the kinds of records that defy genre-terms, yet have its own instantly recognizable fingerprint. It carries a unique shared vision between the players of what modern psychedelic jazz sounds like. bios: Tamar Osborn: Saxophonist, composer and multi-wind instrumentalist is the creative force behind modal jazz ensemble Collocutor (On The Corner Records). She is a member of the Dele Sosimi Afrobeat Orchestra, performs and collaborates regularly with Sarathy Korwar, Jessica Lauren, Emanative, Ill Considered and DJ Khalab. Al MacSween: Keyboard player & founding member of Kefaya. Collaborations include American jazz legend Gary Bartz, Syrian qanun master Maya Youseff, London Community Gospel Choir, Palestinian jazz singer Reem Kelani & kora player Kadialy Kouyate. Martin Rude: Multi-string instrumentalist & lead singer in Sun River & Edena Gardens with members of Papir & Causa Sui. Jakob Skott: Drummer in Causa Sui with a slew of side projects on El Paraiso, including Chicago Odense Ensemble, Jonas Munk: Guitarist in Causa Sui & studio wizard on most releases on El Paraiso.

EMA’s Woozy label returns with Sha Ru’s Match My Sway EP; a powerful club record that sits proudly in the canon of modern protest music. Dubstep-influenced electronics meet spoken word on the continued struggle of oppressed nations’ fight for liberation. Comes with a slamming Walton remix, with all artist profits going towards the Kyiv Angels and Repair Together charities in Ukraine.

Sha Ru are a New York-via-Berlin based duo renowned for their deft mix of spoken word and club electronics, gaining notoriety thanks to their exhilarating productions and renowned live, hybrid and DJ sets. Having spent most of their time based between two different countries, the covid pandemic unexpectedly united the band in Belarus and subsequently Ukraine for an extended period of time. They quickly found themselves immersed in each country’s respective electronic music scene, building strong relationships within each community. It quickly became apparent that both countries were actively fighting for their future freedom, and the duo felt compelled by the unity they experienced in this to respond with music. This resulted in Match My Sway, a record chronicling resistance both lyrically and sonically that found a suitable home on EMA’s impressively futurist-leaning Woozy imprint.

The EP opens with Temporary Iteration, a fierce steppers track with plummeting subs that chronicles a moment of transition into clarity by focusing on the ‘now’; staying true to your belief by moving directly towards your goal together. Not Fluctuating ups the sonic ante with hefty kicks, drill snares and potent throbbing bass, while the vocals describe the feeling of ultimate resistance in the name of seeking the truth.

Side B enters with Synced Energies, acting as the EP’s thrilling climax. Percolating synths pogo around a 2-step beat providing chest-gripping catharsis. Lyrics repeat a mantra of unity, refuting divisions. Tectonic and Ilian Tape affiliate Walton sees us out with the intense stuttering rave mechanics of his Not Fluctuating remix, a modern techno monster that deserves to be enjoyed on a 10ft tall rig; a complimentary take on a powerful original.

The increasingly vital Jorkes makes a big step up to the acclaimed Live at Robert Johnson label with her standout Sweet Dreams EP. As with all Jorkes EPs, the artwork features photography shot by Daniel Rajcsanyi.

Jorkes has been making big and bold moves recently. She is the co-founder of the unique Freeride Millenium label which is a hotbed for queer dance music. German-born but Austria based, she has an influential residency at Radio 80000 alongside ParisBöhm and is a resident at Stuttgart's Romantica where she plays a thrilling mix of disco, house, techno and everything in between. She is someone who always serves to highlight the importance of the dance floor as a place of sexual and cultural liberation and this new EP is another innovative statement that comes as she rides a wave of high profile radio, DJ and media support for recent outings on her own label.

Opener 'You Will be Mine' is a song about obsessing after an unattainable stranger on the dance floor who disappears into the night. It's a silky disco house sound with chords that sing and a floating bassline that lifts you off your feet. The melodic motifs bring charm and cosmic energy and the whole track has a lush, musical feel. The equally excellent 'Robot Lover' muses on human detachment in this technological era of internet porn, dating apps and screen obsessions and how a robotic lover might be a better fit than a real life partner. It is another elastic and disco-tinged rhythm, with elegant chords and dancing keys over a suspensory bassline. Intimate vocal whispers bring tenderness to this timeless track.

On the flip side, 'Sweet Dreams' layers up infectious claps and tinny percussion over an irresistible deep house groove. It's a widescreen, symphonic sound that brings very real but subtle joy and closer 'CDEvaLo' is the name of a crossdressing male-to-female and sex-worker friend of Jorkes. She sings the introduction lyrics in Greek and they translate as "It was a very beautiful day, while we were sitting at the park we thought of going out for a coffee and realized we have no money and are absolutely broke. So we discussed about who is gonna put the wig on to "go and make a visit“ Greek slang for sex work so we'll have money again." It is a comment on the number of young people who arrived in Athens over the years to do cross-dressing sex work after being kicked out by their Orthodox Christian homes. The track flips the script with a more playful disco sound, characterful vocoder vocals and glossy synths over a jacked house beat.

This is an expansive EP that shows off the different sides to Jorkes's unique sound.

Deca’s streak of entrancing releases continues with Smoking Gun, an album that deftly blends psychedelic, raw production with sharp insights and clever lyricism. But it’s also much more than that. Smoking Gun is a sonic representation of an artist grappling with living in America, a country with a network of broken systems that leaves Deca questioning when and if it may turn around. To say this all makes for a compelling listen would be a vast understatement, because the New York City-based rapper/producer knows the key to presenting this material. He does it in a way that’s both refreshing and new, but never isolating or simply too oddball. There’s a left-field quality to his work, but Deca knows exactly what he’s doing. To prove that point, he enlisted fellow outside-the-box thinkers like Blu and Homeboy Sandman to appear on some of the album’s standout cuts. “Shelter,” which features Blu, is a jazzy, dusty piece of thoughtful hip-hop with crazy flows and lyrics to match. It’s so good you’ll wish these two would record an entire project together, and the same goes for Boy Sand’s appearance on “Dawn Wind.” Backed by Deca’s own low-key funky production, both he and Homeboy Sandman go verse for verse, each offering their own take on how to liberate yourself from the machine that aims to surveil and control both our outer world and inner peace. Other tracks embody a similar energy, including the justifiably cynical “St. America (feat. DJ Stan Solo)” and stunning “Tuning.” The latter track may just be the most impressive piece on Smoking Gun, thanks in part to the mind-melting beat-switch. It’s a thrilling musical journey that furthers Deca’s narrative about mankind’s ethical plight, and the problems we collectively face. TRACKLIST: 1. Smoking Gun (Intro) 2. St. America (feat. DJ Stan Solo) 3. Tuning 4. Blight 5. Flight Path (feat. Ichiban, DJ AWHAT!) 6. Hive of Industry 7. Crab Apples 8. Shelter (feat. Blu) 9. Tunnel Under 10. Dawn Wind (feat. Homeboy Sandman) 11. War Heads 12. The Eagle's Descent

Dressed in a powder blue suit with the frilly shirt to match, DJ Yoda invites you to be his +1 for ‘Prom Nite’, his new album promising retro Americana full of daydreaming reverie, international megastar guests, trip hop acknowledging the likes of Morcheeba and Nightmares on Wax, and the turntable extraordinaire’s bread and butter of cuts, beats and rhymes.

Certainly no stranger to retro sounds having famously peppered his DJ and AV sets with the unexpected the world over, and his ‘How to Cut n Paste’ mix series going all the way back to the 30s, Yoda’s harp-laden puppy love vibe spreads from the sweet and mellow sound of 2019’s ‘Home Cooking’, an album described as ‘boundary-breaking’ by Mojo upon slotting nicely into the UK’s blooming jazz canon. Think deliciously harmonised doo-wop murmuring ‘Goodnight Sweetheart’ with an eye for dreamboats en route to Makeout Point – on ‘My Energy’, Eva Lazarus takes the form of an earth angel, with Yoda on jukebox cut-ups, taking it back to starry-eyed, clean cut days of wonder (or more recently, Little Mix’s ‘Love Me Like You’).

Beginning enigmatically with the assistance of Hollywood A-lister (and former next-door neighbour) Lily James, ‘Breathe’ demonstrate Yoda’s continued evolution as a musician (not to mention shrewd decision maker), with James’ vocal confidence - a little Lana del Rey to her breathiness - returning on the velvet-smooth ‘Airplane Mode’. It’s a smartly executed soundclash accentuated by LA rapper Choosey, the star of the album’s straightest hip-hop shooter ‘Harder I Rock’. Homeboy Sandman adds some kick to the prom punch with typical wordplay sent down ‘Coconut Grove’, and Liam Bailey is perfectly cast for the darkly cinematic sway of ‘Don’t Even Try It’.

On an album of many talking points, the LP’s crowning glory is opening single ‘Feel Like Home’: featuring the vocal comforts of the House Gospel Choir, it’s your go–to pick-me-up when the chips are down, targeting the hairs on the backs of necks like a softer focus version of Jamie xx’s ‘Loud Places’. Extended into an alternative, equally uplifting form by Beardyman’s ‘Don’t Mean Thing’, summer festival season already has its homecoming anthem.

With tongues wagging, the twists and turns step away from Heartbreak Ridge when O Love tucks into the mouthwatering shopping list funk of ‘Way Home’; and ‘Lesson 1956’, featuring Jamie Cullum and DJ Woody, jauntily pays homage to classic Cut Chemist alchemy, Yoda’s celebrated turntable tomfoolery back in full effect and extending the flavours found in ‘Home Cooking’.

Again maximising the experience and enjoyment gained from recording live instruments and prioritising songs over beats, Yoda continues to progress with a mixture of risk-taking, elite musicianship, nostalgia brought bang up to date, and ultimately, good clean fun capable of stirring your soul, making ‘Prom Nite’ a date to remember.

Magpie artwork supplied by London’s ENDLESS, whose signature style has tagged Liberty and Lagerfeld as but two high profile clients, Yoda again maximises the experience and enjoyment gained from recording live instruments and prioritising songs over beats. His continued progress mixes risk-taking, elite musicianship, nostalgia brought bang up to date, and ultimately, good clean fun capable of stirring your soul, making ‘Prom Nite’ a date to remember.

Featured 7” Vinyl singles:
Feel Like Home (feat. The House Gospel Choir)/ Don’t Mean A Thing (feat. Beardyman)
My Energy (feat. Eva Lazarus)/Lesson 1956 (feat. Jamie Cullum & DJ Woody)

CHIARA CIVELLO'S NEW SINGLE ADDS NEAPOLITAN VIBES TO BRAZILIAN FUNK TO CELEBRATE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

Four Flies is proud to present a new, exciting single by internationally acclaimed Italian singer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Chiara Civello. Co-produced with Neapolitan pianist, beatmaker and producer Dario Bassolino and with lyrics by Civello and Sicilian artist Kaballà, "Sono Come Sono" is the first Italian adaptation of the Brazilian song "Olhos Coloridos", a celebration of diversity, mixed roots and inclusion written by Macau and made famous by singer Sandra de Sa. To respect the spirit of the original and its soul-funk sound, Civello decided to produce the song in Naples, a city with many similarities to Rio de Janeiro, including its multicultural history. The result is an irresistible eighties-inspired boogie-funk track brimming with positivity and joy.

"Sono Come Sono" comes out on 21 October 2022 as a 12" VINYL MAXI SINGLE containing the song plus three fantastic remixes by eclectic Neapolitan DJ/producer Whodamanny that add groovy and tribal influences to the mix and further enhance its dancefloor potential.

Civello's adaptation has been praised by the writer and singer of the original, as well as by another great name in Brasilian popular music:

"Cada Qual com seu Cada Qual, e muito Respeito pra Liberar Geral…" Chiara has expressed this idea truthfully, beautifully and with dignity. I'm very excited, proud and happy! This is a fantastic version of "Olhos Coloridos". "Limitar…, é humilhar o Infinito…" Thank you, sister" – Sandra de Sá

"Chiara, I couldn't contain my emotion when I listened to your Italian version of "Olhos Coloridos". Beautiful vocals… a beautiful brass arrangement… pure black-Rio! You put colors into my eyes and light into my soul with your magical performance, I have no words. I must really thank you for the joy you gave me. "somos o que somos", Olhos Coloridos, Sarará Crioulo"" – Macau

"Another smooth and super groovy creation by Chiara Civello, this is a perfect Italian version of the classic Rio de Janeiro soul-funk song, "Olhos Coloridos", made famous by Sandra de Sá. It respects the spirit of Black pride contained in the original lyrics but adds to it new sounds and meanings. Well done, Chiara!" – Nelson Motta

It has been a long time coming as they say and now the second full length album from UK producer 2econd Class Citizen is ready for release. Having spent the past year collaborating with and remixing DJ Food, touring Europe with US artist cars&trains and remixing artists such as Loka and Dday One, 2econd Class Citizen also managed to fit in some studio time and is back with his signature sound on "The Small Minority", his follow-up to 2009's lauded "A World Without".

Luca LTJ Trevisi (LTJ Xperience) began his dj/producer career in the 80s. As resident dj in two of the most famous Italian clubs of the time, Kinky in Bologna and Cap Creus in Imola, he was one of the first Italian jocks to spin House and to re-propose those black music, jazz and latin-bossa classics from the 70s that at the end of the same decade would have given birth to the Acid Jazz and Rare Groove movements. His first single release in 1988, titled First Job, together with Kekkotronics, was also the first release ever on Bologna based Irma Records. It was featured in a lot of compilations of the time and entered several playlists, rapidly reaching cult status for many UK and US djs. During the early 90s LTJ delivered a couple of singles in a kind of pre-breakbeat style: Dont Stop The Sax, released all over Europe, and Funky Superfly. He also produced US singer Tameka Starrs single Going In Circles, always for Irma Records, still a classic in the downtempo/r&b field. In the second half of the nineties Luca began to produce acid jazz bands like Bossa Nostra, still today one of Irma Records main acts. Their first album had Vicky Anderson as special
guest and today is still considered one of the most important European acid jazz albums. In the following years he concentrated on developing his activity as collector and rare vinyl merchant, which gave him the chance to get in touch with djs from all over the World and to discover many forgotten gems from the past years. Thanks to this experience he was able to create two extremely successful rarities series on Irma Records:

Groovy and Suono Libero. In the meanwhile LTJ started to dj outside Italy too, performing in important venues like the Blue Note and Jazz Café in London, Giant Step in New York and Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. In 1999 saw the release of his first solo album under the LTJ Xperience moniker. The album was produced with the collaboration of fellow Irma artist and producer Ohm Guru and had Taka Boom and Jackson Sloan among the guests. Two of the main tracks on the album are brazil house classic Sombre Guitar and title track Moon Beat, which became a true hit of the Chill Out genre, featured in dozens of important compilations.

After making countless productions for Irma Records, including their second album When The Rain Begins To Fall (with the participation of the historic Spanish-American singer Joe Bataan), and the recents singles as ORGAN MIND / I LOVE YOU (favorite track by Larry Heard ) & ON THE FLOOR / SOUND MACHINE, LTJ is devoted almost exclusively to re-edit and reconstruct tracks from the past with the addition of sounds and rhythms in post production for labels like SUPER VALUE, SMALL WORLD DISCO, HOT GROOVY RECORDS, OH CRISTO! increasing the production of this new musical genre that is currently defined as beatdown/slo-mo, working with international labels such as Far Out Recordings, Sleazy Beats, Future Classics, E.A.R. Music For Dreams, Apersonal Music, Roam Recordings, !K7.

2022 Repress

Multi-faceted artist Calibre today shares his sixteenth studio album "Feeling Normal". The album is out now to pre-order on Vinyl, CD and on digital platforms via his own independent imprint Signature Recordings.

The record is his first bonafide 140bpm record and a staggering body of work that shows the genius levels of one of electronic music's most respected auteurs. Across the 13 tracks, he transcends through space and time, creating music that will take the listener on a weighty sonic journey. The album announcement is accompanied by two dub versions "Bad" and "Badder" deconstructed from the track "Badman" with DRS from Mark Ernestus available via his Hardwax store January 29th and Bandcamp February 12th. "Getting to work with Mark Ernestus is a real honour, I collected Basic Channel, Rhythm & Sound and his other work for many years and still do. It's hard to avoid the influence of this guy in electronic music across genres and so it is a real pleasure to have him do his thing with the Badman tune which I think sounds closely related."

All of the tracks on the record have been road-tested in Calibre's DJ sets over the last 2/3 years with many of them being sought-out by his hardcore fans. It was only a matter of time then that he put them out for all to consume. With a nod to the dancefloor, the clear idea for the album came about following the release of his most personal album to date "Planet Hearth". "It still works in the headspace but ultimately it's been written for the sweaty club experience we miss now, also after an album like Planet Hearth it felt very liberating to do," he remarks. When writing albums, he often just puts it down to the general chaos of life, not citing any one influence but generally just waits to see what comes. With one of the tracks on the album written 7 years ago on the island of Valentia, It became a project that he spent the intervening years collecting tracks for, not really knowing when he was going to put it together as an album. "The whole album is special to me, everything on there has import and meaning beyond for me, I have spent much time on all these and hope they are special for other people too."

Belfast-born, Berlin-based Calibre - AKA Dominick Martin - shows no sign of slowing down. As a producer, DJ, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and painter, he is one of the most unique and inspiring living artists. With a career spanning two decades, his ability to remain underground whilst being one of the most-respected is testament to who this enigmatic artist is. To this day, he has never been remixed and has a seriously impressive amount of unreleased music under wraps. With everything on hold and gigs on the backburner, this record is exactly what the world needs right now.

SONIKKU announces the release of their new album ‘Joyful Death’, via Bella Union. “I love songs that make you want to cry and dance at the same time,” says Tony Donson, the London-based musician who records as SONIKKU. That sense of unfettered release and liberation drives their new album, ‘Joyful Death’. A fluent, fertile and full-colour hybrid of vibrant Italo-house, liquid synth-pop, righteous disco and French philosophical asides, it’s an album that signals the emergence proper of SONIKKU - a fully formed dancefloor artist. It’s also a farewell of sorts, perhaps, but with an emphatic rebirth at its heart. “This album feels like a transformation in the sense that I’m creating the music I’ve always wanted to make. A fully realised, coherent pop record that showcases my craft as a song-writer and producer.” Total control of their craft is swiftly asserted on ‘Let The Light In’, where the
influences of lost-in-music disco and the Pet Shop Boys merge under vocals from immersive, exploratory British singer-songwriter Douglas Dare. The pace accelerates as ‘WKND’ gets into a groove pitched somewhere between Madonna, Daft Punk and Indeep, with LA future-pop singer LIZ primed for dancefloor abandon on vocals. Meanwhile, SONIKKU’s independent intent is firmly asserted on the freestyle-inspired ‘Don’t Wanna Dance with You’, where singer Aisha Zoe coolly brushes off unwanted advances in favour of dancefloor pleasures.
LIZ assumes vocal duties again for ‘Sweat’, a song fully equipped to make dancefloor devotees do as its title suggests. Dreamily melodic evidence of SONIKKU’s dynamism (and love of melancholy Swedish electro-pop queen Robyn) beckons on ‘X Hopeless Romantic’, where Little Boots contributes a sweetly loved-up vocal over a sublimely
infectious chorus. Pummelling synths signal a dramatic shift of pace on the almost electro-darkwave dash of ‘Remember To Forget Me’, where actor/singer Chester Lockhart presides over a summit meeting between Depeche Mode and New Order. Performance artist Tyler Matthew Oyer takes the vocals for the Italo-disco-inspired title-track, a vividly imagined album manifesto - of sorts - inspired to varying degrees by an 1892 poem, French thinker Gilles Deleuze’s concept of the “body without organs” and a 1997 anime called The End Of Evangelion. Finally, that grand piano takes over as Dare returns, presiding over an achingly stripped-back version of ‘Remember To Forget Me’. With help from friends and artists they admires on vocals, ‘Joyful Death’ is a hugely confident and self-contained leap forward for SONIKKU after his time as a feted DJ. Having moved from Derby to London at the age of 18, Donson worked as an intern (at MTV, Dazed & Confused, SHOWstudio and elsewhere) then turned to DJing (from
London to Tokyo, Paris and Berlin) after they were signed to London label Lobster Theremin. Though they continues to DJ regularly at Tottenham’s LGBTQ rave-up Adonis, they have extra ambitions in mind: “I love DJing but I’m more looking forward to developing a live show.” LP pressed on mint green vinyl with digital download.

Nuovo singolo per Luca Trevisi con il suo alias LTJ Xperience.
In questo nuovo EP sono stati raccolti quattro dei più riusciti remix prodotti da LTJ dal catalogo IRMA negli ultimi anni.

I brani non sono mai usciti su vinile prima di questa pubblicazione.
Gli artisti remixati sono: Papik & Sarah Jane Morris, The Soultrend Orchestra, Black MIghty Wax e Vasquez. Luca LTJ Trevisi (LTJ Xperience) began his dj/producer career in the 80s. As resident dj in two of the most famous Italian clubs of the time, Kinky in Bologna and Cap Creus in Imola, he was one of the first Italian jocks to spin House and to re-propose those black music, jazz and latin-bossa classics from the 70s that at the end of the same decade would have given birth to the Acid Jazz and Rare Groove movements. His first single
release in 1988, titled First Job, together with Kekkotronics, was also the first release ever on Bologna based Irma Records. It was featured in a lot of compilations of the time and entered several playlists, rapidly reaching cult status for many UK and US djs. During the early 90s LTJ delivered a couple of singles in a kind of pre-breakbeat style: Dont Stop The Sax, released all over Europe, and Funky Superfly. He also produced US singer Tameka Starrs single Going In Circles, always for Irma Records, still a classic in the downtempo/r&b field. In the second half of the nineties Luca began to produce acid jazz bands like Bossa Nostra, still today one of Irma Records main acts. Their first album had Vicky Anderson as special guest and today is still considered one of the most important European acid jazz albums. In the following years he concentrated on developing his activity as collector and rare vinyl merchant, which gave him the chance to get in touch with djs from all over the World and to discover many forgotten gems from the past years. Thanks to this experience he was able to create two extremely successful rarities series on Irma Records:

Groovy and Suono Libero. In the meanwhile LTJ started to dj outside Italy too, performing in important venues like the Blue Note and Jazz Café in London, Giant Step in New York and Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. In 1999 saw the release of his first solo album under the LTJ Xperience moniker. The album was produced with the collaboration of fellow Irma artist and producer Ohm Guru and had Taka Boom and Jackson Sloan among the guests. Two of the main tracks on the album are brazil house classic Sombre Guitar and title track Moon Beat, which became a true hit of the Chill Out genre, featured in dozens of important compilations.

After making countless productions for Irma Records, including their second album When The Rain Begins To Fall (with the participation of the historic Spanish-American singer Joe Bataan), and the recents singles as ORGAN MIND / I LOVE YOU (favorite track by Larry Heard ) & ON THE FLOOR / SOUND MACHINE, LTJ is devoted almost exclusively to re-edit and reconstruct tracks from the past with the addition of sounds and rhythms in post production for labels like SUPER VALUE, SMALL WORLD DISCO, HOT GROOVY RECORDS, OH CRISTO! increasing the production of this new musical genre that is currently defined as beatdown/slo-mo, working with international labels such as Far Out Recordings, Sleazy Beats, Future Classics, E.A.R. Music For Dreams, Apersonal Music, Roam Recordings, !K7.

Truly sensational modern soul double sider. Fantastic group vocals, swirling string arrangement and top notch punchy production. Impossible to find on original format (came out on private press on KickBack Records). Spun only by a handful of deejay around the world, to include George Mahood and our very own Dj Camembert. Recorded at United Artist studio, Beverly & 3rd Street Los Angeles California in 1978. Co-Produced by JJ Wilson who was also the band leader at the time and Bert (Humberto) Agudelo who was also Chief Engineer on this project and is a mastering engineer known to have worked at Liberty/United Artists Recording Studio. He also produced the famous Rocky movie album on United Artist. Executive producer Cecil Lyde Holden from the well known Lyde, Fisher & Giles band, who has cut the classic Serve Me Right to Suffer in 1977 on HAB records. Enjoy and support the venture, and if you like the Starfire too, please bundle up and spare something. One in every home!

Label favourites Balearic Ensemble return to the fore following last summer's spectacular 'Cachonda' EP, this time with a 12" treasury of wonderful, eclectic dancing music of the highest balearic order. They're joined by Das Komplex, notable for recent excursions on DJ Harvey's Mercury Rising, to round out their five-track excursion for the label: this is the Mediterráneo EP.

Opener 'Pitiusas First' sets the tone with dizzy, downbeat percussions as a bass guitar skates and glissades underfoot; soaring, starry-eyed synth work and Latin organ stabs in concerto. This homage to the islands and islets of Ibiza comes with a note of melancholy, or nostalgia: waking up to find that your best years might have evaded you - and celebrating the fact. It's a maturing of the Residentes sound in a way we haven't heard before; a gorgeous moonlight serenade, the last tango on Formentera, and a tip for orange-tinted sunsets all summer long.

Second track 'Almendros y Drones' takes us deeper into the throes of that distinctive Mediterranean sound with dizzying arpeggios and analogue bass over teetering hihats and fizzing synths; it's an eruptive, volcanic beast of a track that will take liberties with your dancefloor. Over-the-top filter action and driving piano perforations, crashing snares and resonant howls, Almendros, Drones.

The third offering is 'Mojada', taking cues from classic deep house with its deep-set bassline and modular squeaks. It's a slow burner, an aquaplane on Eivissa, cueing 303 squelches and 90s drum machine riffing before its eventual, explosive peak.

After Mojada we enter the chugging, gritty realm of Das Komplex's remixes. He refashions the heady throes of 'Mojada' into a driving, churning unit; percussions, distorted into infinity; basslines bent and buckled into submission; slabs of piano lathered with space echo delay. Wonky late-nite dancing music at its very best.

Extra treat: Das Komplex also left us his 'Pineapple Bonus Mix' of Mojada, which is a more sunset-suited affair altogether. This special mix lasers in on that exuberant piano part, then plays with percussions and dynamics to create a full-on dub version of the original track.

Los Angeles-based experimental producer Al Lover will release his new studio album ‘Cosmic Joke’ on May 27th via Fuzz Club Records.
A staple of the global psychedelic scene, Lover has spent nearly a decade fine-tuning a broken, abstracted form of electronica that pools together a tapestry of trip-hop, synthesised krautrock, dub and dark ambient. Utilising an arsenal of samples, drum machine, analogue synths and live instrumentation, Lover’s is a kaleidoscopic sound that’s J-Dilla, DJ Shadow and Lee Scratch Perry by way of Brian Eno, Kraftwerk and Kluster. Central to Lover’s music is a desire to explore the fringes of psychedelic music and the common threads that run through its far-reaching styles, drawing elements from the past and connecting them to the future. Through the years he has released a number of studio albums and beat tapes, remixed the likes of Osees and Night Beats, been resident DJ for the Levitation and Desert Daze festivals and collaborated with the likes of Goat, Anton Newcombe, Cairo Liberation Front and White Fence. Now, Lover returns with his latest studio album, ‘Cosmic Joke’ – a series of synthesised philosophical meditations on modern life, in all its tragicomic absurdity. "'Cosmic Joke' came from observing the rising, compounded absurdity in recent years and seeing structures of normalcy dissolving. It’s my attempt to view these things as part of a higher-order process, through a metaphysical lens rather than an ideological one. It’s been an exercise in holding the paradoxical relationship of comedy and tragedy, joy and pain, growth and decay, scale and decline as part of an interlocked system that, at a deep level, is essential to how we interface with the world.”

Deluxe Edition is on 180g transparent green vinyl, gatefold sleeve, printed inner-sleeve.

Los Angeles-based experimental producer Al Lover will release his new studio album ‘Cosmic Joke’ on May 27th via Fuzz Club Records.
A staple of the global psychedelic scene, Lover has spent nearly a decade fine-tuning a broken, abstracted form of electronica that pools together a tapestry of trip-hop, synthesised krautrock, dub and dark ambient. Utilising an arsenal of samples, drum machine, analogue synths and live instrumentation, Lover’s is a kaleidoscopic sound that’s J-Dilla, DJ Shadow and Lee Scratch Perry by way of Brian Eno, Kraftwerk and Kluster. Central to Lover’s music is a desire to explore the fringes of psychedelic music and the common threads that run through its far-reaching styles, drawing elements from the past and connecting them to the future. Through the years he has released a number of studio albums and beat tapes, remixed the likes of Osees and Night Beats, been resident DJ for the Levitation and Desert Daze festivals and collaborated with the likes of Goat, Anton Newcombe, Cairo Liberation Front and White Fence. Now, Lover returns with his latest studio album, ‘Cosmic Joke’ – a series of synthesised philosophical meditations on modern life, in all its tragicomic absurdity. "'Cosmic Joke' came from observing the rising, compounded absurdity in recent years and seeing structures of normalcy dissolving. It’s my attempt to view these things as part of a higher-order process, through a metaphysical lens rather than an ideological one. It’s been an exercise in holding the paradoxical relationship of comedy and tragedy, joy and pain, growth and decay, scale and decline as part of an interlocked system that, at a deep level, is essential to how we interface with the world.”

Introducing jazz harpist Amanda Whiting. From Wales, the home of the harp, Amanda has taken her classical roots and forged them in the path of jazz harpist Dorothy Ashby.

She has toured extensively with Matthew Halsall and the Gondwana Orchestra performing at Jazz festivals around the world. More recent collaborations have included recording with DJ Yoda and Chip Wickham and touring Wickham's latest album including appearances at Ronnie Scotts and Le Petit Halle, Paris.

Whiting's first album was recorded as a trio for CD in 2013, and pays tribute to Coltrane and Ashby with her own take on standards. She's joined by Deej Williams (bass) and Tony Robinson (drums). Here we've taken a selection of tracks for inclusion on vinyl, the best medium for serious music lovers.

Just 500 copies pressed and housed in a beautiful bespoke flip-back sleeve.

There is nothing quite like an evening under the rhythmic spell of the legendary David Morales. Stepping on the dancefloor while he's behind the decks requires full trust and surrender. You agree to hand the reins of your mind, body, and spirit to his intuition and ability to guide you to where you need to be at all times. It will occasionally be cathartic and intense. It will often make the hairs on your body stand on end, and make you sweat more than you ever have before. The endorphin release will be powerful. You will feel like you can touch joy and euphoria it in the air around you. As he gently brings you back down to reality, you will feel renewed and ready for anything life brings your way. This is more than a night of dancing. This is an experience at the hands of a magical maestro of music. How is this possible from a night on the dancefloor? Well, it begins with the brilliant mind of an artist at the peak of his creative power, imbued with the empathy necessary to connect with what has become a global legion of fans. "If there is any secret, it's really simple: I love what I do with all of my heart," Morales says. "I'm a DJ first. I thrive on human interaction. I am always adjusting my sets based on what the people in the room need. Each night, we form an emotional connection that inspires the music as it comes."

For Morales, "working in the studio is important, but it exists as a way of supporting the DJing experience. It's all to inform how it will work on the dancefloor."

To that end, you're reading these words as you dive into a new collection of Morales classics. Ever the collaborator, he has enlisted the input of a wide range of voices and talent. There is the diva power of fellow legend Ultra Nate, who brings her signature sass to "I Can Dream," while Michele Perera's explosive chemistry with David is all over the inspiring "Life is a Song" and "Never Give Up", as well as the impassioned "Addicted."

Morales reminds the listener of his ever-evolving musical scope in collaborations with blondewearingblack ("What Can I Do"), Lea Lorien ("Never Looking Back"), and Blakkat ("Can't Get Enough"). There's the clubland supergroup of David with Mr. V, Scotty P. and DJ Rae on "The Feels." Rounding out the set is a reunion with longtime muses Elle Cato ("I Feel Love") and British soul icon Joe Roberts ("Easy"). Just be sure to listen closely, because there's bound to be a surprise tucked between these grooves to tickle your ears and move your body.

The beauty of this sparkling new foray into electronic music is the heightened intimacy between Morales and the music. What you are hearing here is almost exclusively from the man's own fingertips. "The technology has evolved in the most extraordinary and liberating ways," he says, adding that he is now able to be far more directly hands-on during the building of each track. "Back in the '90s, I had to have more people involved, With the changes and growth in technology, I can now do it, myself. I don't even have to be in the studio anymore. It's smart, financially, but it's also way more fun and creative."

David adds, "I don't have to wait to manifest an idea anymore. I can just build my ideas as they come to me." In fact, he reveals that many of these new tracks were born in unique places, like planes, cars, his bedroom, and a host of other settings. "Music is always spinning around my mind. I no longer worry about losing an idea."

Surviving the highs and lows of an ever-changing world has also brought Morales back to the basic essentials of life and music. "The pandemic has brought things full circle for me," he says. "I love what I do and I still have the passion of a kid who is just getting started"

Yet, we know that Morales has been in the game for longer than a minute. He's a Grammy award-winning producer, remixer, and songwriter. He has lent his skill to countless of records by icons that include Mariah Carey, Madonna, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Donna Summer, Seal, and Jamiroquai. As a turntable artist originally from New York City, he earned his bones of credibility back in the '80s and '90s in clubs like the Paradise Garage, Red Zone, Tunnel, and Club USA. He initiated the concept of DJs touring beyond their hometowns with countless, wildly successful treks that have taken him the farthest-reaching corners of the world. As electronic music thrives on pop radium, David tops the list of every young artist and DJ as a primary influence.

Even with such a staggering legacy, Morales never looks over his shoulder.

"That is how you stumble and fall," he says. "If you get all caught up in the past, you're going to lose sight of what is right in front of you. You lose the excitement of discovery. That is what gets me off; taking what I know and combining it with what I don't know as I learn it. There is nothing better than experiencing how it all comes together. It's different every time."

And that is the ultimate secret to that extraordinary spell that David Morales casts over us all every single time.

H- side is etched
The American cable-television industry exploded in the 1980s, pushing broadcasts of diverse programming and emissions of low-laying cultures into homes. Community stations piggybacked on the digital developments of the time, extending their existence through telephony and broadcast a iliates. For those growing up in this time, in locations such as New York City, the localized communications beamed into their homes exposed them to an impressionable array of disparate sounds and visions.
Move into the 1990s and New York was filled to the brim of emergent cultures drawing from this ebullition of communication. From Rammellzee’s shapeshifting to the late Judy Russell and Frank and Karen Mendez’s Nu Groove imprint fusing reggae, poetry and house, nascent ideas emanated from the city walls, from within stores such as Sonic Groove store and on VHS releases such as Stakker’s The Evil Acid Baron Show, a legendary technicolor psychedelic trip along the wildest frontiers of acid house. As scenes expanded and identities developed, such individuals weather the events of the visceral now, expressing themselves right into an unpredictable future.
Function’s long career has seen him uncover a vast range of sonic identities, a mainstay through house, techno and industrial with collaborations with the likes of Regis, Damon Wild alongside his highly influential Infrastructure imprint. With influences deeply tied to pop art, rave and gay scenes, and early memories of block-parties emitting Kraftwerk and Strafe, he found himself seeking out the undercover illegal nights of the 90s on a quest of sexual unearthing, mixing the ever-yearning escapology mission of disco with the influential DJ sets of Jeff Mills.
For his new album Existenz, he marks a clear step away from the corporeal techno of his recent releases. Pivoting around themes of religion, sexuality, trauma and healing, it is a work expansive and celebratory, a clear liberation from a deeply internalized past. Formed from a collection of recordings made in a period from late 2016 to mid 2019, Existenz takes the form of a creative outburst in reaction to a number of traumas - recent, childhood and throughout Function’s life. Life partner Stefanie Parnow assisted the production process in its entirety, providing inspiration, spiritual healing and featuring vocal contributions.
Cosmic synths soar and swoop in ‘Pleasure Discipline’ through towering stacks of rhythm that stutter and creak to a halt before rebooting, a firm robotic response to human intervention. ‘Zahlensender’ reflects a spatial tetris of urban life, as digitalization set within an XYZ matrix confronts the sprawling city. Constant arpeggiated meditations echo synaptic transmissions, e ecting a dissolution of boundaries. ’The Approach’ recalls the unification of the self, a state of delirium non-subjective and smooth, as all connections and functions give way to simple intensities of feeling, crossing the threshold into spirituality. ’Golden Dawn’, featuring Stefanie Parnow, marks a further elevation of dubbed-out euphoria, as once more positive rays emerge. His ode to the effortless short-trip urban navigation 'Kurzstrecke' finds Function in motion, upfront and bold, snapshots of conversation and flickers of light. 'Ertrinken' finds metallic bass jabs swamping snipped synthetic voices, with hidden stores of emotion set as a nod to the history of vocoders as a tool for encrypted military communication. House icon Robert Owens features on 'Growth Cycle' and 'Be', entrenching a celebratory atmosphere over Function's clubwise leanings. Closing track 'Downtown 161' reflects the unmistakeable filtered and squashed interjections of television, and sampled dance vocals - a sound for the curious, dreamers and dancers.
With Existenz, Function reveals an essential body of work, spread over 4LP - thought experiments on the role of identity and spirituality after a lifetime of upheaval and trauma. Leading up until the release date, Function will undertake an album promo tour with select dates - A/V shows at Berlin Atonal and Rural festival in Japan, and three dates as part of his Bassiani residency.

Hessle audio-inspired club weapons. burial-esque floorfillers. gully electro-dubstep grime from the future. enter the mind of tom place, the UK bass prodigy taking the golden era of UK club back 2 the forefront of modern dance music."

Support: featured on BBC introducing radio 1 dance & mixmag.
Early support from: LCY, cressida, plastician, nicola cruz, aloka, mad miran, martyn bootyspoon, DJ spit, jossy mitsu, parrish smith, harrison bdp, yazzus, ciel +more

Tone B. Nimble hit us with a seemingly endless list of possible songs to license, and to that end we’re blessed to be able to offer a ‘bonus’ chapter of two in-demand University gospel choir cuts - Side One from Oral Roberts University (Tulsa, OK) and Side Two from Rutgers University (New Jersey). Original LPs are hard to come across, here Tone B. Nimble selects the best two tracks, re-mastered in DJ friendly 7" 45RPM format!

"Soul is My Salvation is a collection of dance friendly gospel songs. The mission is to simply uplift your spirit through music and word. Dancefloors around the world mirror the reactions of Churches from the 70’s and 80’s when experiencing these recordings" - Tone B. Nimble

Repress

Chris Liberator's Maximum Minimum label returns with "PANIC VIRUS RED" EP featuring 2 slamming trax from Valencia's SEON, one classic track from the U.K.'s underground innovator TASSID, and a collaboration between Belgium's rising star JACIDOREX and French DJ supremo DAVID ASKO. Futuristic Acid Techno WITHOUT the 303 action, or simply smash-and-grab dancefloor underground techno? - you decide. Either way this is going to ignite underground parties, streamed, live or otherwise - with or without this fucking virus. DO NOT PANIC!

In Post-Heretic Dracula X Chronicles II the Dracula figure functions as a part fictive and part autobiographical metaphor. Dracula mirrors certain systematic (therefore also internal) conditionings and attributes in its whole ambivalent fluctuations. This character represents the complex relationships of a loving/living person in a neo-liberal capitalist system while oscillating between melancholia & rage, facing the preservation or loss of his love and standing in an alienated position towards the ruling order. The eleven featured compositions and their respective song names (both of them are riddled with references) playfully touch on conflicts between love, life and system-critique, without being too upfront about the subject-matter.

Nicola Kazimir (*28.05.1990 in Zürich, Schweiz)

A DJ, producer, musician, artist, space-owner, record label owner and party organizer, Nicola Kazimir works freely across platforms and communities. For Kazimir, these numerous positions are not static, and they can actfluidly and reciprocally as a whole, or as separate entities. His artistic and acoustic productions are mostly based on topics that include the institutionalization of techno, copyright, dividualism and the human perception of repetitive rhythm patterns mixed with aesthetic codes of b-movie horror movies or occultism. He is one of the founders and still part of the labels Les Points/ Gentrified Underground / Infoline and the offspace Mikro Zürich. Other projects include a supporting role in the organization of Zentralwäscherei Zürich and being part of the Clubbüro-team at Rote Fabrik.

Raised in Corsica, Stephanie made a name for herself as a dj in Paris but more recently focused on producing her own sound. The roots of her musical style are deeply entrenched in Pop, House and Ambient music, all genres that to her reflect our human desire to express our feelings. Her heartfelt debut, AUTEL, released on new label Lake Of Confidence, is an invitation to be fully present in the moment and listen to ourselves with awareness. The track "Disarm" is an uplifting tonic for the soul and could not have come at a more fitting time, encouraging the letting go of fear. Stephanie's grounded voice and the tender tones of the music take us on a liberating journey and reminds us of what is important in life - to move beyond ourselves and embrace joy. The captivating "Unchain" and the Superpitcher remix of the track, are both powerful guides for deep contemplation. Each beat is a metaphor of the breath of life, space and the impressive vastness of this extraordinary mystery we live in.

Exploring machine funk, the true hedoni$t returns.
Absolution, one's senses rational is to find happiness.
Intrinsically seeking doctrine, a philosophy for pleasure.
Through liberty and triumph, vice weeps before joy.
This primitive. Our delinquent hero. Who will never cease.
Libertine. Utilitary. Wildness. Embrace the Mystery.

Dies Occidendum is a mythical voyage across fog-laden, scorched earth terrain from the original friar of dark hip hop, Dj Muggs the Black Goat. Known and revered as the sonic mastermind behind both Cypress Hill and his own Soul Assassins imprint, here Muggs sheds the MCs and presents his latest dark-soaked productions as an illuminated manuscript of sorts; a fully immersive, instrumental soundtrack to the mysterious Dies Occidendum. No one wields the Excalibur of sonic darkness quite like Muggs. Combining ingredients of psych rock, gypsy folk with modern elements of trap, forged together under layers of his signature sonic grime, Muggs has created yet another blueprint for the utmost sonic menace and macabre. The Renaissance is upon us. Long live King Muggs. ABOUT DJ MUGGS: One of the original architects of dark hip hop in the early '90s, DJ Muggs helped craft a singular sound that blended darker sensibilities of psychedelic rock and hip hop in a unique way that influenced many in its wake. As the primary producer of legendary rap group Cypress Hill, Muggs' productions and sonic sensibilities are unmistakable and deeply revered by the truest of hejkvgads. Muggs' own MC round-robin imprint, Soul Assassins has been home to countless productions, laying sonic drop cloths for everyone from Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Chuck D, GZA, Mobb Deep to MF Doom, Freddie Gibbs, Roc Marciano and Mach-Hommy.

LTD. RED VINYL

Dies Occidendum is a mythical voyage across fog-laden, scorched earth terrain from the original friar of dark hip hop, Dj Muggs the Black Goat. Known and revered as the sonic mastermind behind both Cypress Hill and his own Soul Assassins imprint, here Muggs sheds the MCs and presents his latest dark-soaked productions as an illuminated manuscript of sorts; a fully immersive, instrumental soundtrack to the mysterious Dies Occidendum. No one wields the Excalibur of sonic darkness quite like Muggs. Combining ingredients of psych rock, gypsy folk with modern elements of trap, forged together under layers of his signature sonic grime, Muggs has created yet another blueprint for the utmost sonic menace and macabre. The Renaissance is upon us. Long live King Muggs. ABOUT DJ MUGGS: One of the original architects of dark hip hop in the early '90s, DJ Muggs helped craft a singular sound that blended darker sensibilities of psychedelic rock and hip hop in a unique way that influenced many in its wake. As the primary producer of legendary rap group Cypress Hill, Muggs' productions and sonic sensibilities are unmistakable and deeply revered by the truest of hejkvgads. Muggs' own MC round-robin imprint, Soul Assassins has been home to countless productions, laying sonic drop cloths for everyone from Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Chuck D, GZA, Mobb Deep to MF Doom, Freddie Gibbs, Roc Marciano and Mach-Hommy.