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Joseph Carvell returns to Karaoke Kalk with his sophomore album under the Pink Shabab moniker. »Never Stopped Loving You« was for the most part written between Spring and late Summer 2020 in his Camberwell home and like his 2019 debut »Ema by the Sea« recorded in the South of France together with Emmanuel Mario, better known as Astrobal. It’s a record informed by feelings of nostalgia, love, longing, romance and loss and, much like his previous album, displays Carvell's knack for making introversion sound extroverted. As a bassist, his approach to songwriting is both rhythmic and melodic, making the resulting music just as visceral as it is emotive. Much like the record’s title can be understood as both a lament or an expression of joyful dedication, the music on »Never Stopped Loving You« is profoundly ambiguous.

»I was lucky with the timing for this record,« says Carvell and at first that may sound counterintuitive: managing to play only one show in Zurich in early 2020, he had to cancel his planned European tour and go back to the United Kingdom, which soon went into lockdown. He made the best out of the situation, recording electric and upright bass for Nick Krgovich, Daniel O’Sullivan and Zooey’s new records while also working on tracks and demos by himself. »The world seemed to have stopped and I had more time to think about the past and find the best grooves, the suitable keyboard touches and the right words,« says Carvell. Everything came together slowly before he boarded a train to France with his keyboard: »The pace of life completely dropped and between takes Ema and I were going swimming and taking walks,« he says of the sessions.

»Never Stopped Loving You« is notably more electronic than its predecessor, but also full of the small melodic and harmonic details that made »Ema by the Sea« such an outstanding record. »I was listening to more 1990s dance and house music and 1980s pop and also a healthy amount of ambient music,« explains Carvell. These influences are clearly audible on songs like the Chicago House-esque beats of »Show Your Love« or »Why Did I Leave You that Morning«, the skittish rhythms on »Let Go« and the near-Balearic »San Junipero«. Especially the latter makes it clear that Carvell spent much time devoting himself to movies and TV shows, but also incorporated more piano sounds in his songs—he learnt the instrument by playing along to classic Beatles and Beach Boys songs.

Despite being more upbeat on a rhythmic level than before, Carvell’s use of texture and his peculiar voice add another note to the music. Even an anthemic song like »Run Away«, his first composition to follow a classic verse/chorus structure, is profoundly ambivalent, both overjoyed and deeply melancholic. By the same token however, even a torch song like »You Stepped Out of My Life« is enormously consoling. This, after all, has always been Carvell’s strength: creating music that will cheer you up when you’re down while also injecting a sense of futility into every moment of euphoria. It never shone more brightly than on »Never Stopped Loving You.«

South London genre-blending story tellers Alabama 3 are set to further add to their rich musical heritage with a new single ‘Whacked’, available April 30th via Submarine Cat Records, with an album to follow later inAugust.

‘Whacked’ is the first taste of fresh Alabama 3 material since the tragic passing of their beloved and unconventional frontman and songwriter Jake Black, aka The Very Reverend D. Wayne Love, in May of 2019. Jake had Addison’s disease and passed away several days after falling ill during a show at the HighestPoint Festival in Lancashire at only 59 years old.

Then, with the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown upon the world, the band got creative and submerged themselves in their music, teaming up with producer Cam Blackwood(George Ezra, Jack Savoretti, Tom Walker, Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes…) to focus their minds on something vital, new and fresh. This can clearly be heard in ‘Whacked’, a song which pays respect to the late co-writer of the song, Pete Dunne.

"A product of old skool Brixton, the legendary Seven Kevin’s Pete Dunne threatened us with this song prior to his untimely death,” explains founding member Larry Love. “Despite the heavy manners we are proud to declare we rose to the challenge."

“Whacked was made in the early weeks of the first UK lockdown in March 2020,” remembers producer Cam Blackwood. “I think the hedonistic spirit of the song was amplified a million times by the fact we were making the record remotely - with the musicians in the band recording their parts at home, sending them all to me to collate and arrange - then I would send the instrumental track to Larry to record vocals on. The energy was pretty insane - we were like caged animals desperate to get out.

“We managed to find time three months later (when the first lockdown ended in July 2020) to get together and put the finishing touches to the song,” continues Cam. “Being in the studio with a few beers seemed like a fitting way to finalise the tune and put the last 1% of energy into the recording. This song feels like classic Alabama 3 to me. It’s a banger!”

Indeed it is. A low-slung groove propelled by frontman Larry Love’s infamous throat rattle, with the addictive chorus refrain ‘everybody’s getting whacked on something, something that makes them feel good,’ ‘Whacked’ will loop around your brain like a recurring dream you can’t wake from. These are hedonistic conscious unconscious times.

“You can praise the Lord, you can pass the ammunition, you can be woke you can be wicked you can have the wisdom of Solomon but unless you are ready to get whacked with Alabama 3 there’s no point in dreaming,” states Larry. “Rearrange the rubble, paint your bomb shelters and make sure everybody in the neighbourhood feels good cos we feel like getting stooped and you need to get whacked.”

Alabama 3 are very much back. Time to get whacked.

One of this year’s breakout success stories from the UK’s current thriving independent music scene,
critically acclaimed seven-piece Black Country, New Road present here their highly anticipated second
album ‘Ants From Up There’ via Ninja Tune.
 Debut album ‘For the first time’ was shortlisted for the 2021 Hyundai Mercury Prize. The band
performed ‘Track X’ live on BBC 4.
 ‘Ants From Up There’ was written in lockdown in the early part of 2021 when the band were unable to
go on tour as planned to support their album release. The result is a stunning collection of songs and a
move in direction to a more crossover, alternative sound beyond the experimental and ‘post-punk’
nature of their debut.
 New album expands on their unique concoction to create a singular sonic middle ground that traverses
classical minimalism, indie-folk, pop, alt rock and a distinct tone that is already unique to the band.
 Extensive global touring in 2022, including their biggest London show to date at the Roundhouse, full
UK and European Tour in April/ May. Sold out 2021 shows include Brighton, Liverpool, Manchester,
Birmingham, Glasgow, Bristol and Dublin and more.
 2021 festival dates include End Of The Road, Latitude, Fusion, Roskilde, Dour, Bol Festival, Pohoda,
Le Guess Who, Dour. In 2022 they’ll play Primavera Sound, Dour, Way Out West, Bad Bonn Kilbi, Bol
Festival.
 For fans of IDLES, Black Midi, Squid, Phoebe Bridgers, Jockstrap, Nick Cave, The National,
Radiohead.
 Deluxe 2CD box set with bonus ‘Live from the Queen Elizabeth Hall’ disc, 4 art prints, black paper
inner sleeves, lyric booklet and sticker.
 Standard CD in gatefold sleeve, black paper inner sleeve, lyric booklet and sticker.
 Deluxe 4LP 140g vinyl box set with bonus ‘Live from the Queen Elizabeth Hall’ double LP, black paper
inner sleeves, 4 art prints, lyric booklet and sticker.
 140g double vinyl, artworked gatefold sleeve, black paper inner sleeves, lyric booklet and sticker

 The Slow Show release their fourth studio album, their first for three years, entitled ‘Still Life’,
via PIAS. The four-piece, who first formed in Manchester, will support the release with a
European tour in February and March 2022, culminating in an already sold-out hometown show
at Manchester’s Hallé St Peters on 4th March.
 Lead track ‘Blinking’ is a perfect taster to the new direction ‘Still Life’ offers. Same but different
again. “An ode to love and loyalty. The song is a defiant pledge to never giving up on the
people you love. Musically we wanted the song to have impact, a directness and powerful
punch that we’d previously shied away from.” - Robert Goodwin (vocals)
 The making of ‘Still Life’ has been quite the ride. Following their breakthrough album, ‘White
Water’, it was clear The Slow Show were not just ‘another band from Manchester’. The legacy
of The Smiths, Joy Division and all those other great predecessors is not something to be trifled
with, but The Slow Show didn't need to wear their address on their sleeve: this was something
else, fully formed, with a mesmerising sound, rich in atmosphere and melody.
 With the band’s desire to push each other outside of their respective comfort zones during the
recording process, ‘Still Life’ subsequently offers a more diverse, rich and interesting sound
than previous albums.
 “We did develop our sound,” says Rob Goodwin. “We had to try something else. We felt we
owed that to ourselves, and to the people that come and enjoy the music. We explored a lot of
stuff: different sounds, different feelings, different ideas, different processes as well. Some of
them didn’t work at all, but some did. It was difficult and challenging, but it felt good in the end.”
 This experimental side to the creative process allowed the band to introduce new elements to
their work. “Some new approaches and sounds crept in,” keyboardist Frederik ‘T Kindt admits.
“Some were far from our older work. For instance: after some initial encouragement from me,
Rob was keen to sing a bit higher on this record. Chris was encouraged to make his drums a
bit more present; some things almost sound like a breakbeat to my ears.”
 Recorded remotely over the course of the past year, with Goodwin recording vocals from
Dusseldorf in Germany and the rest of band recording in the UK, ‘Still Life’, as a concept, takes
inspiration from the experiences of lockdown: “Before the virus arrived, I had a busy life;
spending two weeks in Germany with my girlfriend, and then flying to Manchester to work with
Fred or to a gig.” Goodwin remarks: “And then all of a sudden, life came to a halt. It took a little
getting used to, but I actually had a really nice realisation during that time. I understood that the
slower life got, the more I saw. I spent a lot of time in nature, seeing things in a different
perspective. And that's what you need when you're trying to create. You have to really look,
and then you see things happening everywhere.”
 The tracks themselves are brimming with emotion and reverence towards the significant
relationships we encounter in life. Stand-out anthem ‘Blinking’ is a defiant pledge to never
giving up on the people you love. Musically the band wanted the song to have impact, a
directness and powerful punch that they’d previously shied away from. Whilst ‘Woven Blue’
deals with the aftermath of uncoupling. The idea that meaningful relationships are very often
woven and complex, making resolve difficult.
 These very personal tracks are counterbalanced with the more topical, ‘Breathe’, which
documents some of the unjust and heart-breaking scenes of 2020 with spoken word references
to John Boyega’s emotional rallying cry in support of Black Lives Matter movement in London’s
Hyde Park.
 In all, Still Life marks another evolution of a band that have never tried to fit in any particular
box but have inhabited their own unique universe.
 LP pressed on white viny

The new album by the Peruvian-born / Berlin-based experimental artist Ale Hop was conceived in a context of immobility and provides six sonic vignettes that wonder about location, circularity, rootedness and experience. In collaboration with Ana Quiroga,
Concepcion Huerta, Daniela Huerta, Elsa M'balla, Felicity Magan, Fil Uno, Ignacio Briceño, KMRU, Manongo Mujica, Moises Horta, Nicole L'huillier, Raul Jardín, Sukitoa Onamau, Tomas Tello.

Following her explorations on music's inherent fixation to geographic space and time, be it through the longing of home ("Apophenia" 2019) or scientific magnification of invisible worlds ("The Life of Insects" 2020), Berlin-based Peruvian-born experimental composer Ale Hop's fourth album, "Why Is It They Say a City Like Any City?", was conceived in a context of immobility. During the lockdown
months, she started a process of remote collaboration, by sending messages, posted from various cities along a South American trip, to thirteen musicians from around the world. She journaled her impressions upon these places to an intimate fictional character while reflecting on matters of time,
sound, space, cosmology and colonial memory. The thirteen musicians dialogued with this voice by taking upon the challenge of responding to the messages with sound collaborations.
Field recordings, mouth drumming, drone cellos, electronic loops, arrhythmic rhythms and voices came back from this experiment. Ale assembled them, by layering, twisting and turning, into sonic vignettes that wonder about location, circularity, rootedness and experience, making it the first time she's set her guitar aside. Expect no answers to the album's title question, but an innermost psychedelic rumination.
"Despite the technological resources that appear to dilute distances, the simulation of closeness mirrored on the digital space is an emptied body, a state of precarity, a flat surface; unable to withhold an experience of exchange," Ale states. "So, I began this project by asking myself, how can we escape from the reduced experience of the virtual? The idea behind this experiment was that my messages and the places they describe could drive the composition, be a catalyzer, a
score. Thus, to use geography as a tool to remember and imagine, to allow new soundscapes to emerge."
"Memory, diffuse and divergent, sometimes reaches out to the future in its search for form, taking shape from the reflections and echoes that come back … like throwing a rock in a pond and having a rock thrown back at you."

There's naturally much to enjoy on the latest volume in Africa Seven's A7 Edits series, which pairs original - and usually obscure - old Afro-disco and Afro-boogie gems with fresh 21st century edits.

This time round, the A-side is all about Kemayo & K System's piano and horn-heavy disco-funk jam 'Biram', a two-minute blast of dancefloor exuberance that Phillip Lauer cleverly re-imagines as loopy, locked-in chunk of Afro-disco/disco house fusion.

Over on the flip there's a chance to savour Afro National's heavy, low-slung stomper 'Push Forward', a cut that brilliantly adds chanted vocals and Hendrix style guitar solos to a sweaty, non-stop groove. Al Zanders does a great job in ratcheting up the tension and heaviness on his accompanying club-ready extension.

Sixteen musical vignettes of electrifying emotion at the crossroads of ambient, modern synthesizer productions and organic orchestral music experimentation, which tint French director Jacques Audiard's new feature film with the illuminated glow of a whole new generation.

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When Jacques Audiard contacted him, Rone was just a few weeks away from receiving the Cesar award for best film score for his very first soundtrack "Night Ride", the highest honor in French film for a composer.

Throughout his career, the French director has been able to surprise his audience by playing on the codes of "genre films", while remaining faithful to the aesthetics of "art film". His cinema is both profound and entertaining, sophisticated and accessible, dark and dreamlike.

"Jacques' cinema is physical, sensual, modern", Rone says about the director, "when he asked me to do the music for Paris, 13th District , I immediately accepted, without seeing any images or reading the script. He is simply one of the greatest contemporary filmmakers."

His new feature film deals with youth in general and their sexuality in particular in a way no one may have done before. The story is based on four young characters and their existential questionings, whose destinies intertwined against the backdrop of the Parisian "Olympiades" high rises in the 13th arrondissement.

But time was already running out, as the film was set to be nominated for *Cannes' Palm D'or* at the rescheduled edition of the festival in July 2021. Between the releases of "Rone & Friends" and his remixes for Agnes Obel, Go Go Penguin and Jehnny Beth (who also plays a role in the film), the producer decided to lock himself away in in his brand-new Isola Studio in Cancale, French Brittany. He also invested in a large screen on which he projected loops of the film and started manipulating his gear. "I had Miles Davis in mind and the way he composed "Ascenseur pour l'échafaud" by improvising with his band while watching excerpts from the film."

After a first conclusive test on three scenes of the film which allowed Rone to showcase the skills he had developed in composition in various musical fields, a relationship of trust developed between the musician and the director, which resulted in over 45 minutes of Rone's music used for the final cut.

"There was a lot of music to be made in a short time, but the talks with Jacques were very stimulating. He had a fairly precise idea of what he wanted, while at the same time, I think, having the desire to be surprised, or even a little shaken up."

If the black and white aesthetic recalls the great hours of the "Nouvelle Vague", Rone´s music gives a new layer to the film which fits resolutely with 2020's zeitgeist.

This second soundtrack by Rone is a sonic urban adventure in itself. As it is used in the film, colouring in the lives of Audiard's protagonists, it will have the same impact on us, the listeners, in our own everyday lives.

Today New York based singer, songwriter and producer Amber Mark announces details of her long-awaited debut album ‘Three Dimensions Deep’, out January 28th via EMI/PMR Records. The announcement of the album is accompanied by a sultry R&B instant-grat track ‘What It Is’ as well as a huge UK, EU and US spring tour announcement including London’s O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire in March

Amber’s debut album arrives almost 4 years after the release of her second EP ‘Conexão’, an extended process that has proved central to its thematic development. The 17 track album can be divided into three main acts that follow the arc of Amber’s personal and musical development; WITHOUT, WITHHELD and WITHIN. Beginning by acknowledging her insecurities and anxieties before reflecting on her time in denial and spent processing them in all the wrong ways, Amber eventually widens her focus by seeking answers to the world’s negativity and trauma on a cosmic scale. Finding peace and a form of inherent spirituality in the world of astrophysics while writing the album led to a fresh perspective on life and a renewed sense of self. Amber’s debut album is simultaneously a profound concept album and a love letter to herself, richly intertwining messages of self-worth and reflections on the universe beneath a veneer of shimmering pop. In true Amber Mark style, ‘Three Dimensions Deep’ is a kaleidoscopic melting pot of influences and genres, drawing from funk and R&B, soul and hip-hop with international accents influenced by a nomadic childhood spent travelling the world with her late mother.

“Three Dimensions Deep is a musical journey of what questions you begin to ask yourself when you start looking to the universe for answers.” says Amber; “I can only go as deep as the third dimension as that’s how we see the world, but what about when you start looking to the universe within for answers.”

“‘What It Is’ low key is the title track of the album without it actually being the title track” explains Amber; “It comes from going through negative experiences which end up being the gateway to a question I think I’ll be asking for the rest of my life. What is the meaning of life,the universe and everything?”

The three official singles already released from the album ‘Worth It’, ‘Competition’ and ‘Foreign Things’ marked Amber’s first official singles since 2020’s ‘Generous’, though 2020 was still a hugely productive year for Amber. With her hometown of NYC hit hard in the first wave of the pandemic and placed under strict lockdown, Amber turned to her simple home studio to create an acclaimed series of home-produced covers and originals titled ‘Covered-19’, each accompanied by a homemade video and artworks. The series was followed by a collaboration with longtime friend Empress Of on the protest song ‘You’ve Got To Feel’, earning Annie Mac’s Hottest Record, ‘Tune Of The Week’ and a spot on the Radio 1 playlist. Earlier this year Amber was featured on legendary DJ Paul Woolford’s new piano-house track ‘HEAT’, again snagging Annie Mac’s Hottest Record and a long run across the Radio 1 and 2 playlists. Having already amassed over 300 million streams since the release of her breakout debut EP 3:33AM in 2017, Amber has built a global fanbase eager to hear her debut full length -

After a steady rise to international recognition through 2 LPS and several EP's already since 2018, Zeitgeist Freedom Energy Exchange joins the Get Together family for their first recording session in Europe. "Prayer For Peace" - A 7 track journey through atmospheric scenes, broken to deep four on floor rhythms and colourful top lines. From the Jazz-funk inspired 'Prayer For Peace' to the infectious Boogie twilight of 'Cadillac' this is a record that is equally well suited to dance floor applications as it is to an intimate night with the turntable spinning and the sensual herbs burning.
This Recording represents the Berlin chapter of the Zeitgeist Freedom Energy Exchange. The curated jam band moniker of Ziggy Zeitgeist, the experiment having emerged from the murky depths of the Melbourne underground. Zeitgeist arrived in Berlin in summer 2019 wasting no time in assembling a talented and diverse group of assorted freaks from many corners of the world to bring their own languages, melodies, rhythms and swagger on this cross continental meeting point.
This session captures the raw energetic fusion of such diverse and innovative musicians scene co-existing in the Techno capital of the world. This city already has its own sound, its own attitude. It's no wonder artists gather from every corner of the world to discover themselves through the lens of the city. That is the sound of the 'Zeitgeist Berlin era' the group explores deeper, darker sounds of the club emerging from their signature hip slinging disco, funk fusion.
For such an occasion the recording was engineered and mixed by platinum producer / engineer Axel Reinemer in the esteemed Jazzanova studios. 3 days of steamy Berlin summer looking over the ring-bahn towards the swamps of the Tegel Forest to the north. Spiritual jazz interludes flirt delicately with bouncing Brazilian rhythms. Psychedelic dub-grooves meander before exploding into bursts of finessed energy, before locking into steady and deep-house rollers.... All live, All together in the room, all real human spirit imbued in every note, with the level of production to easily stand up on the club system This is the kind of record that is as diverse as it is essential in every serious collectors artillery.

CELESTE have been breaking the outer boundaries of heavy music for over fifteen years. When they first evolved from the Lyon hardcore punk scene, they were absolutely brutal and entirely unique, delivering extremity on their own terms that they pushed further and further with each successive album. “We just wanted to get darker and more violent,” says drummer Antoine Royer, until 2017’s Infidèle(s) saw the incorporation of a more melodic streak. Their most focussed record yet, it was tremendously received, critically adored, and backed with the band’s biggest shows to date.

Its follow-up was always going to be something radical. Even by their own inordinately high standards, however, new record Assassine(s) is one hell of a step forward. Even if this album still contains cyclonic walls of guitar, of battering rhythm, and passages of blissful, rushing release. it’s unlike anything the band have ever released; embracing a modern and forward-thinking production, they're just as complex but more direct, diverse and accessible than before. “Our leitmotif here was to open our minds,” says guitarist Sébastien Ducotté. “We made a real effort to think outside of our box.”

During lockdown CELESTE’s members were forced to each write individually. “We each went further into our personal, inner views of what the songs were,” says bassist and vocalist Johan Girardeau. When eventually they began sessions under producer Chris Edrich, it was gruelling. “We ended up exhausted, physically and mentally” says Johan. “There was no break in two weeks. We didn’t see the sun at all during that time. Every night we were so tired that we didn’t enjoy being together as much as we’re used to.” Nevertheless, in the same way the hardships of isolation led to richer and more complex songwriting, it’s that relentlessness that led to the record’s razor-sharp edges.

Above all else, CELESTE are innovators. Whether by pioneering French avant-garde metal when they formed at the turn of the millennium, by making their boldest leaps despite being seven albums deep into their career, or using two years away from live shows to tightly finetune their stagecraft, they refuse at all costs to rest on their laurels. There can be consequences to this instinct – fans of the band’s older work might be thrown off by their constant shifts of pace – but they’re throwing caution to the wind. A bit of backlash “would be a good thing, because it would mean that we’ve really changed,” says Guillaume . “It's not disrespectful, it's just that we never made music to please people, but just to enjoy what we're doing.” In the end, CELESTE are a band so forward-thinking that they can only be judged on the strength of their latest work. And when it comes to a record as bold as Assassine(s), they’ve hit a whole new peak entirely.

Black Vinyl Version Of Angel Dream (Songs From The Motion Picture ‘She’s The One’ previously only available as RSD Release.

Original album sales notes:
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the film She’s The One, 2nd July will see the release of Angel Dream (Songs From The Motion Picture ‘She’s The One’), a remixed, remastered and re-imagined version of the soundtrack. The original album included several songs that were left off the original Wildflowers album (recently included as the All The Rest disc in the Wildflowers & All The Rest re-issue), so this re-release is an appropriate ending to the campaign celebrating the Wildflowers-era.

Ryan Ulyate (Tom’s long time engineer and producer) has remixed the audio, and the song selection is designed to work as a TPHB album, rather than a soundtrack album. Four unreleased tracks have been added; the rocker “105 Degrees” (written by Petty), a cover of JJ Cale’s “13 Days”, “One of Life’s Little Mysteries” (another Petty original), and an instrumental (“French Disconnection”) in the same vein as the instrumentals on the original album. An extended version of “Supernatural Radio” is also included. The new title is a reference to one of the stand out tracks on the album. The new album will have brand new artwork.

NYC-based collective MICHELLE release their debut album,
‘AFTER DINNER WE TALK DREAMS’, via Transgressive
Records.
 MICHELLE recently announced new 2022 US tour dates with
Mitski. The band also toured with Arlo Parks and followed with a
string of dates with Gus Dapperton in November and a UK and
European headline tour in February.
 Born-and-bred New Yorkers, MICHELLE formed in 2018 and
are comprised of Sofia D’Angelo, Julian Kaufman, Charlie
Kilgore, Layla Ku, Emma Lee and Jamee Lockard. The
predominantly POC and queer collective mix and match the
writing and production groups amongst the six of them.
 The hallmarks of MICHELLE’s music - layered vocal harmonies,
analogue synthesizers, vibrant percussion, smouldering hooks -
dominate the sonic landscape of their upcoming album, with the
four female vocalists pushing the boundaries of their
considerable singing talents while Charlie and Julian fine tune
the production. Despite all the tinkering elsewhere, it is
important to note that the vocals remain largely untouched and
appear in their organic state.
 Songs hop across genres, from funky R&B to bedroom slow
jams to amped-upbeat-heavy anthems and more. The
songwriting on ‘AFTER DINNER WE TALK DREAMS’ has been
elevated, as there is a depth and prowess at work that makes
good on the promise of the band’s early songs, something they
admit was learned by reflecting and allowing room for artistic
growth.
 “crisp R&B with a bright indie flourish… musical serotonin you’ll
want to bathe in for hours” - NME
 “A formidable new collective with a genre-bending approach to
songwriting” - The Line of Best Fit
 “like an aural hit of Vitamin D” - DIY
 “we can’t get enough” - Gay Times
 LP pressed on Ocean Blue vinyl.

There’s an ancient Japanese legend in which a horde of demons, ghosts and other terrifying ghouls descend upon the sleeping villages once a year. Known as Hyakki Yagyō, or the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons, one version of the tale states that anyone who witnesses this otherworldly procession will die instantly—or be carried off by the creatures of the night. As a result, the villagers hide in their homes, lest they become victims of these supernatural invaders.

Such is the inspiration for the latest album from EARTHLESS. “My son is really into mythical creatures and old folk stories about monsters and ghosts,” bassist Mike Eginton explains. “We came across the ‘Night Parade of One Hundred Demons’ in a book of traditional Japanese ghost stories. I like the idea of people hiding and being able to hear the madness but not see it. It’s the fear of the unknown.”

Whereas 2018’s Black Heaven featured shorter songs and vocals from guitarist Isaiah Mitchell on much of the album—an unprecedented move for the San Diego power trio—their latest is a return to the epic instrumentals EARTHLESS made their unmistakable name on. Night Parade Of One Hundred Demons is comprised of two monster songs—the 41-minute, two-part title track and the 20-minute “Death To The Red Sun.”

The scenario that allowed for this kind of exploration was a stark contrast to that of Black Heaven. At that point, Mitchell was living in the Bay Area, which made it difficult for the band to get together and work on the type of long instrumental pieces they’re known for. But in March 2020, the guitarist moved back to San Diego. More specifically, he moved back the night the pandemic lockdown kicked in. Bad timing, perhaps—or maybe perfect timing.

Plus, they were all on the same page about not wanting to do another record with vocals. “In a way, I think this album was a reaction to our last record,” Eginton says. “Black Heaven was outside our comfort zone. I think it was a good record, but it was challenging to write songs in a more traditional verse-chorus-verse format. This one was more enjoyable. I’m sure we’ll do more vocal tracks in the future, but for the time being I see that album as a one-off.”

Given the record’s inspiration, it should come as no surprise that Night Parade of One Hundred Demons strikes a more sinister tone than the rest of the band’s catalogue. “It definitely has a darker, almost evil kind of vibe compared to stuff we’ve done in the past,” Rubalcaba says. “There’s more paranoia and noise, and some of Isaiah’s whammy-bar stuff kind of reminds me of these Jeff Hanneman moments in Reign In Blood, where it just seems like everything is going to hell. It’s pretty fun.”

Night Parade of One Hundred Demons was recorded in San Diego with Rubalcaba’s childhood friend Ben Moore, who’s worked with everyone from DIAMANDA GALAS and BURT BACHARACH to CEREMONY and HOT SNAKES. When Eginton wasn’t tracking his bass parts, he worked on the album’s incredible sleeve art. “He really dedicated himself to the project,” Rubalcaba says. “He’d be drawing in the studio with, like, a coal-miner’s lamp on his head while we were doing overdubs. He really knocked it out of the park.”

All told, Night Parade of One Hundred Demons isn’t just a return to the band’s traditional format—it’s a return to their very beginnings. “This album actually has the very first Earthless riff in it,” Eginton reveals. “We just recorded it 20 years after we wrote it. But we’re really happy with how this record came out. We feel it might be our finest to date.”

After more than a year of strengthening our bodies through workout, our poetic endeavors via the discovery of our inner worlds, and also the life of plants and mushrooms, insects, arachnids, birds and wild mammals, after a year and a half that saw us in lockdown, shattered around the planet, after one a and a half year in which we deepened our production skills and also the meaningfulness of our work, Cómeme returns to a new planet with new music.

The beginning is this unique collaboration between Medellín based musician and DJ Julianna, and Matias Aguayo aka “The Don” himself.

In this deep therapeutical exploration of rhythm and sound, these artists established a magical dialogue on distance, leading up to this EP called “Que si el mundo”, roughly translated: “What if the world”.

Between soulful industrial expressions, emotional breakdowns but also discoveries free of any grids and algorithms, Julianna and Aguayo have created a beautiful piece of work, intense as the movements that we had to experience mentally and economically. “Que si el mundo” is state of the art electronic music of today, a work that is both introspective but also extremely open to the outside world and the universe. Compositions reminiscent of Coil, Angelo Badalamenti, Closer Musik, Steve Pointdexter or Mark Broom, shaped this EP that can be considered a short album in its conceptual layout and narrative. Let’s dive into it...

A1. Hiedra
One of the more danceable tunes, ideal for both a sensual warmup or the very late night to the rising sun sensitivity, is polyrhythmical melancholy and hypnotic inevitability, slow dance, deep trance.

A2. Primer Paso
A fat, slick and modern synth sequence, accompanied by heavy drumming and celestial drops that seem to fall onto the body of the listener or dancer, this post EBM stomper is a manifestation of elegant minimalism and reason. As if Liaisons Dangereuses reincarnated in a cloudy forest, to then pause towards the end of the track, with sentimental and gloomy synth chords that open the view towards the horizon.

B1. Que Si El Mundo
The title track keeps up the more melodic approach - somewhere between ambient, avant- garde and late night jazz. Morphing melodies that are both disturbing and soothing at a time encounter smooth free jazz drumming with drums that seem to have travelled from the sixties to today’s world.

B2. Bajo Tierra
This track continues the deep drumming experience that this record means, between laid back rides and intense taikoesque drumming. Distorted dark pads and subterranean choirs build up to a heavy sadness and intensity. Again, a therapeutical track to send those demons fly.

B3. Micelio
A more hopeful conclusion of the EP is “Micelio”. Open chords, soothing and melancholic, spread over profound drum grooves of champed and house. Nothing seems as it was before. A new life has begun.

Combining our favourite tracks from Situationism Records latest 2 part compilation, where ‘2UP 2DOWN’ met the 'In The Bag' series, we are releasing a special 12" vinyl sampler of only previously digitally released grooves…

Javonntte 'Soul People' – released digitally earlier this year on his 'JMarsFrank EP' is an Amp Fiddler style groove of pure soulful underground Detroit badness …enough said!

Laroye’s 'Best Girlfriends' (Soulful mix) - released digitally last year - is a lovely Rhodes laden bumping kinda groove. Nice and heavy organ driven chunkiness, bringing an infectious swing around those urgent vocal samples. Some pretty tasty synth solos in there too.

BRS 'Night To Remember' - released digitally as a single last year, is a classic BRS house groover, with deep chords over an irresistible 4/4 shuffle with rhythm guitar, meandering flute and boogie bass, building and keeping you locked until that vocal bursts through to finish the job.

Mike 'Agent X' Clark’s 'Journey Thru Afroism' was an exclusive for the compilation and is as the title suggests a true journey into Mike’s world of Afroism with cleverly hypnotic sampled chants over a deep tribal style groove and soaring synths and hints of jazz.

Just a few months after releasing their acclaimed second album Still Life, Los Angeles indie-pop band Massage returns with Lane Lines a six-track EP out in early 2022 on Mt. St. Mtn. (Cindy, Flowertown, Blues Lawyer) that finds the quintet expanding on their Sarah-meets-Creation Records sound with new touches of soft psychedelia, Feelies-ish frenzy and Haçienda-era escapism. The band didn’t plan to follow Still Lines so quickly. But after the pandemic further delayed that multi-year project, Alex Naidus (guitar, vocals, former Pains of Being Pure at Heart), Andrew Romano (guitar, vocals), Gabrielle Ferrer (keyboards, percussion, vocals), David Rager (bass) and Natalie de Almeida (drums) leapt at the chance to make music together again in real life and started gathering on random summer evenings in the tiny rehearsal-space studio of producer-composer Andrew Brassell (Susanna Hoffs) with no clear goal in mind. Lane Lines is the surprise product of those informal sessions — a flash of pent-up creative energy that serves as both a companion piece to Still Life and an exploration of textures and influences that didn’t quite fit the full-length but have always been deeply embedded in the band’s DNA, with new echoes of 1980s artists that sought to refract the 1960s through their own skewed prisms: Flying Nun, the Paisley Underground, The Feelies covering The Beatles, “Second Summer of Love” New Order. “The songs on Still Life and Lane Lines seem to straddle the line between indie and pop without exactly being ‘indie pop,’” Romano says. “To me they feel more like descendents of ‘college rock’ a moment that lasted from about 1986 to 1991, right before the underground and the mainstream converged, when it seemed like any scrappy indie band might stumble across a hit.” The EP begins with the new single version of Still Life standout “In Gray & Blue,” which along with previous singles “Half a Feeling” and “Made of Moods” is part of a trio of songs written during the first days of lockdown and later added to the album. But while brief lulls in the pandemic allowed Massage to record the other lockdown tracks in the studio, the LP version of “In Gray & Blue” was entirely DIY a GarageBand demo emailed around for overdubs and ultimately “mixed” by Romano himself.

Cardinal Fuzz / Acid Test are proud to present to you the debut LP from Black Holes Are Cannibals – ‘Surfacer’.

Formed around the uber talent of Chris Jude Watson (founder of ‘Snakes Don’t Belong In Alaska’) who in BHAC found a band to take his vision to the outer most limits. BHAC are a collective with a varying line and each time they record all the music is improvised as they let their collective and innate abilities guide them, but what does bind them are the touchstones of Drone and Minimalism that runs through the music they create or just plain HEAVY. Call them Drone Metal or Psychedelic it matters not as the music created is an immersive, all consuming and thought-provoking transcendental listening experience that awaits those brave enough to take the ride with BHAC.

‘Surfacer’ was recorded at First Avenue Studios in Newcastle by the band using a TASCAM DR40 and is the embodiment of pent-up emotions gathered and endured during lockdown as they zap out every ounce of feeling and anguish into this recording.

‘Surfacer’ is not an album for the faint of heart with 2 long tracks of transcendence that will challenge and push you to lose yourself in the sonic experience of the timbre / vibrations of droning instruments and throat vocalisations as BHAC weave together mesmerizing waves of sonic texture.

‘Surfacer’ draws influence from bands like Neptunian Maximalism, Qujaku, Neurosis and the visual work of Andrei Tarkovsky, Kenneth Anger and Larisa Shepitko which influence the energy and darker sounds of the music while still taking influence from more traditional psychedelic sounds and experimental places like Taj Mahal Travellers, Suzuki Junzo, Pauline Oliveros, Vahvistusharha, and Tōru Takemitsu aurally and visual energies from occult works like Jodorowsky's 'Holy Mountain', Helena Blavatsky and Hilma Af Klint's Alterpieces 1-3.

As Terence McKenna might have said – BHAC are best experienced when listened to in complete solitude in a dark room while you are doing nothing else. To experience this album to the fullest, you must not have any distractions. Just sit down, relax, plug in, and let this album take you up into outer space.

‘Surfacer’ is pressed on Heavy Black Vinyl and presented in a 350gsm Outer Sleeve with artwork that perfectly matches the music drawn by James Watts (Inspiration coming to James from an article on beaked whales being "more surfacer than diver" before we had that jam and thats what inspired his drawing of an abstract beaked whale skull for the cover).

HIFILOFI SCIFIWIFI is the debut solo album from Gale P, best known as the co -founder, guitarist and occasional singer of acoustic-indie stalwarts Turin Brakes.

Born in Tehran, based in Brixton, Gale Paridjanian was raised in the multicultural melting pot of South London in a family home full of musical instruments. He picked up a guitar at a young age and launched himself onto his musical arc.
A lockdown break from touring provided the space to explore fresh creative directions, inspirations and collaborations. Gale brought all these into his home studio to stitch together into a compelling set of personal songs; “I’d go around London looking for inspiration, bring it back to my garden shed and create freely, attempting to turn into sound what I’d seen that day - a painting, a fight, a story overheard. But sometimes I’m just trying to make music I want to hear, like a home-made Shazam playlist.”
Everything is tied together by Gales’ authentically lo-fi production, intimate vocals and sultry acoustic guitar, floating across dreamily trashy beats and subtle offbeat electronics.

Gwendoline, is a duo-antihero of the Rennes indie scene. Sensitive loosers and jaded start-up nation greats, Micka and Pierre shape their own style, a dark shlag wave in a percussive and poetic spoken-word style, with counter discussions as their primary source of inspiration, looking at those around them. Between fatalistic lyrics, self-deprecation, sarcasm and bitterness of the world's mediocrity, their sincere cold-wave is the symbol of a disenchanted youth and the perfect soundtrack to protest.

In 2017, they recorded their first album by locking themselves up for a fortnight to compose everything in one go, feeding off their daily environment in Rennes, numerous evenings spent at the bar and the anxieties of our time. At first self-produced on Bandcamp, this album "Après c'est Gobelet!" is pressed in confidence on vinyl in June 2020 on the Spanish indie label Dead Wax Records, whose stocks run out before the end of the year and which is now unavailable in France.

At the end of 2020, Gwendoline has also seen the doors of the Trans Musicales open to her, a favourite of Jean-Louis Brossard, for a live show at the Ubu, captured by FIP & Culturebox and accompanied by Maëlan and Romain, their stage accomplices.

Written without pretension and ambition, the duo is surprised by the interest shown in the project, between their programming at the Transmusicales, and the feedback from the press including major international media (KEXP, France TV, Les Inrocks, Post Punk Magazine...).

A video clip was released in April 2021 to illustrate one of their flagship tracks, the heady and heady "Chevalier Ricard", which was also a favourite of Franck Vergeade, music editor of Les Inrockuptibles (January 2021).

Gwendoline is the project from Micka (a.k.a. Mikoune) and Pierre (a.k.a. Daniel).

Based in Rennes, musically influenced by the classic cold wave which originated in their country, precarious and aimless, they shape Gwendoline to their own image.

Pure DIY ethics, quick recordings at their home studio.

Dark lyrics, self-mockery, criticism, sarcasm derived from the world’s mediocrity.

Lockdown took its toll on Clive. Not the isolation or sense of impending doom - that was normal - but specifically the worldwide marmite shortage in April. On the verge of a 'Driving to Dundee barefoot' style meltdown, Clive found solace in his 20 year obsession with Alan 'foot on a spike' Partridge.

Taking Musique Concrete to its textbook conclusion, Clive has made music only using sounds from TV series 'I'm Alan Partridge'. Over 100, mainly foley samples were repurposed into the two title tracks of the Alan EP.

Alan A is a raw yet melodic, big plate of House. Containing everything from drawer slams to air bass, cereal destruction to Black Beauty, this orchestra of found sound makes for some unique and exciting rhythmic textures. Grab a cup of beans and enjoy.

Things take a dubby turn for Alan B. Late night broken beats and sultry bass worthy of Alan's Deep Bath. Featuring Lynn on jungle time-stretched vocals.

The EP is bought to a close by off-kilter acid-tinged synthwave nugget, Linton TT. It doesn't fol-low the Partridge sampling rules but needless to say has the last laugh.

Bonus Easter egg for the vinyl heads is a "Dan!" locked groove at the end of side A. Cook a cat!

Label info:
Income Trax is Clive from Accounts' filing cabinet of curiosities. Home for his more eccentric and exotic ideas.

Artist Bio:
Regional tiddlywinks champion, stationary cupboard loiterer and all-round beige sky thinker, Clive From Accounts likes two things; pens and music. But mainly pens. Using springs, tape and old synths with fonts he admires, Clive creates the musical equivalent of warm photocopies. If it's going to be that kind of party, Clive's going to put his Filofax in the mashed potato.

It's been an interesting couple of years for Clive. After being picked up by keen-eared funk wizards Fouk, Clive's vinyl debut hit the shelves perfectly to coincide with the largest record shop and club closure in living memory. Undeterred and with a fire in his belly no amount of pepto-bismol could squash, he pressed on.
A string of releases on highly respected labels On The Corner in London (making the Guardian's best tracks of 2020) and Dirt Crew Recordings in Berlin have led him nicely into the second half of 2021 with an EP on New York disco colossus Razor n Tape and the debut release of his own label: Income Trax.

Brooklyn based drummer/producer Jason Nazary (of Anteloper) makes his We Jazz Records debut with "Spring Collection", released on 25 June. The album sees Nazary crafting some deliciously sparkly solo cuts plus working long disctance with choice collaborators Jaimie Branch, David Leon, Ramon Landolt, Matt Mitchell, Grey McMurray and Michael Coleman. This is essentially a collection of home recordings and the whole operation has an infectious feeling of immediacy to it. The result is improv adjacent electronic music, with modern production aesthetics transposed over spontaneous compositions.

Jason writes:

"With Spring Collection, my aim was to capture the spirit of spontaneity & collaboration lost in the absence of live music. Like most everyone else last spring, I suddenly had a lot of time on my hands and with all my work cancelled, and with an indefinite lockdown in effect, it became immediately apparent that most of my time – save a walk or two a day around the neighborhood – would be spent in the tiny one bedroom apartment I share with my wife and two cats.

What kind of music does one make during lockdown? I would begin my days with a cup of coffee and all the cables of my modest little modular set up in my lap, slowly discovering new sound worlds as I connected one cable after another – these became the beginnings for the pieces in Spring Collection. With these unformed sketches, I would record an improvisation, an exploration of sonics: a small kit of bells, shakers, pans, pots; their resonance captured in fine detail with ultra sensitive microphones. These became, in effect, a conversation first with myself, but later one I knew I had to open up, make social. In the desire not to diminish my collaborative impulses, I felt compelled to involve some of my favorite musicians in the process alongside me."

"Spring Collection" is released by We Jazz Records on 25 June on vinyl (neon orange & black vinyl editions), tape and digital formats. The vinyl edition comes with a booklet including original artwork and poetry by Todd Colby.

Hector Oaks and Coco-Paloma bring forth a unique collaboration. Different backgrounds but a shared love for electronic music. With the help of CLUBQU, an innovative Label born in Berlin during the first lockdown, their paths crossed at a music studio in what once was Berlins airport.

As the daughter of an opera singer Coco-Paloma grew up internationally, amidst chaos and music. Her lyrics reflect existentialism and a bittersweet melancholy. Dramatic, yet always a hint of hope.

Defiant of any genre, Hector Oaks daring production breaks boundaries. Showcasing a variety of rhythms, tempos and intensities that converges with Coco-Paloma's poetry, into the future without forgetting lessons of the past.

If there is no tomorrow, why would you act the same?

The Wombats kick off the most exciting phase of their constantly evolving success story today with the announcement of their fifth studio album Fix Yourself, Not The World, due for release on 7th January 2022 via AWAL. Alongside this, the indie heroes have revealed plans for a five date headline UK arena tour in April 2022, playing massive nights in Leeds, Glasgow, Cardiff and Liverpool, as well as their biggest ever headline show at The O2, London on 15th April. Tickets will go on sale from 9am BST on 20th August.

The announcement comes accompanied by a brand new single ‘If You Ever Leave, I’m Coming With You’, which is BBC Radio 1’s Future Sounds Hottest Record In The World.

Recording remotely over the past year from their respective homes, the band have been working hard to produce some of the most captivating, inventive and forward-thinking music of their career to date. With frontman Matthew “Murph” Murphy in Los Angeles, bassist Tord Øverland Knudsen in Oslo and drummer Dan Haggis in London, they discussed each day’s plan via Zoom, then recorded separately, sending individual files to producers Jacknife Lee (U2, The Killers), Gabe Simon (Dua Lipa, Lana Del Rey), Paul Meaney (Twenty One Pilots, Nothing But Thieves), Mark Crew (Bastille, Rag‘n’Bone Man) and Mike Crossey (The 1975, The War on Drugs, Yungblud) to mix into the finished tracks. “It was pure madness, to be honest,” explains Murph.

“We’re so excited for people to hear this new album! We’ve explored new genres and pushed ourselves further than ever musically. It will always stand out for us in our memories from our other albums as we recorded it across three cities during lockdown, and we weren’t all in the same room at the same time!” says Dan Haggis.

The Wombats kick off the most exciting phase of their constantly evolving success story today with the announcement of their fifth studio album Fix Yourself, Not The World, due for release on 7th January 2022 via AWAL. Alongside this, the indie heroes have revealed plans for a five date headline UK arena tour in April 2022, playing massive nights in Leeds, Glasgow, Cardiff and Liverpool, as well as their biggest ever headline show at The O2, London on 15th April. Tickets will go on sale from 9am BST on 20th August.

The announcement comes accompanied by a brand new single ‘If You Ever Leave, I’m Coming With You’, which is BBC Radio 1’s Future Sounds Hottest Record In The World.

Recording remotely over the past year from their respective homes, the band have been working hard to produce some of the most captivating, inventive and forward-thinking music of their career to date. With frontman Matthew “Murph” Murphy in Los Angeles, bassist Tord Øverland Knudsen in Oslo and drummer Dan Haggis in London, they discussed each day’s plan via Zoom, then recorded separately, sending individual files to producers Jacknife Lee (U2, The Killers), Gabe Simon (Dua Lipa, Lana Del Rey), Paul Meaney (Twenty One Pilots, Nothing But Thieves), Mark Crew (Bastille, Rag‘n’Bone Man) and Mike Crossey (The 1975, The War on Drugs, Yungblud) to mix into the finished tracks. “It was pure madness, to be honest,” explains Murph.

“We’re so excited for people to hear this new album! We’ve explored new genres and pushed ourselves further than ever musically. It will always stand out for us in our memories from our other albums as we recorded it across three cities during lockdown, and we weren’t all in the same room at the same time!” says Dan Haggis.

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.

Manufactured using FSC certified cardboard.'Transparency' is Sam McTrusty
spilling his guts on everything from marriage, male friendship and the absurdity of
social media to parenthood, medication and his mum. Written in strained
circumstances and recorded remotely with Sam's mate and mentor Jacknife Lee,
the album arrived more by accident than design when the world went into
lockdown last spring.

Manufactured using FSC certified cardboard.'Transparency' is Sam McTrusty
spilling his guts on everything from marriage, male friendship and the absurdity of
social media to parenthood, medication and his mum. Written in strained
circumstances and recorded remotely with Sam's mate and mentor Jacknife Lee,
the album arrived more by accident than design when the world went into
lockdown last spring.

Triumph breeds confidence, and with confidence comes an expansion of ambition, a focus of ability, an emboldening of audacity. De-Loused In The Comatorium had risked everything Omar and Cedric possessed on the wildest of gambits, the most impossible of dreams: making sense of the riot of influences ricocheting about Omar’s head, and memorialising their departed friend Julio Venegas through Cedric’s magical realist roman-a-clef. It Clouds Hill shouldn’t have worked. But it did, and with that fiendish tightrope act successfully accomplished, the duo stretched the wire even further and higher, over a figurative fiery pit peopled with lions, crocodiles, piranha and other sharp-toothed beasts not yet known to man. Because how do you make great art without taking great risks? Frances The Mute was no De-Loused Part Two. For one thing, the band’s configuration had changed, in the most painful way. Shortly before the release of De- Loused, sound manipulator and founder member Jeremy Michael Ward passed away, a wound Omar says the group never recovered from. But even though his inspired fucking- with-the-sonic-parameters is absent from Frances The Mute, his spirit and influence can still be determined, the album’s concept derived from a diary Ward had encountered in his day-job in repossession. “Jeremy picked up lots of interesting stuff when he was a repo man,” remembers Cedric. “Weird things, including this diary, He let us read it a bunch of times. It was by a guy who’d been adopted and was searching to find his real parents. It was very surreal, it didn’t make much sense – the guy might’ve been schizophrenic – but it was very inspiring. It felt like how certain music helps you escape your boring every-day life. The names and scenes in the diary directly inspired these songs.” Some of the tracks pre-dated De-Loused, having their origins in early demos Omar recorded at the duo’s Long Beach home Anikulapo, songs such as The Widow and Miranda The Ghost Just Isn’t Holy Anymore. Cedric had heard these jams in their embryonic state and began working in his mind on what he could bring to them. “I was attracted to The Widow like you would be to a lover, right?” Cedric remembers. “I sang over it with Omar while we were touring De-Loused in Australia on the Big Day Out, like, ‘Okay, I’ve got something for this.’” A potent ballad, laden with emotional crescendos and evoking the epic drama of Ennio Morricone – an effect aided by an elegiac trumpet part performed by Flea – The Widow would become The Mars Volta’s first song to chart on the Billboard Top 100, capturing the album’s potent sorrow and widescreen sprawl in miniature. Indeed, the lush sound of the album, the depth of detail and breadth of instrumentation, belies its grungy roots. Having tasted the luxury of Rick Rubin’s mansion, Omar veered in the opposite direction when recording Frances, cutting the album in what he describes as “a shithole... Basically a warehouse with one little air conditioner on its last legs, awful wiring and a console you couldn’t rely on. We were there night and day – I would literally lock engineer Jon DeBaun in there. He slept on a mattress in the vocal booth.” A considerably more complex and ambitious album than its predecessor – four of its five tracks lasted over ten minutes in length, with its closing epic Cassandra Gemini spanning over half an hour – Frances The Mute wasn’t recorded “live” by an ensemble, but with the individual musicians coming into the “shithole” and recording the parts Omar had scripted for them separately. “They had to have absolute trust in me,” Omar remembers, “Like actors trust their director.” In addition to the core band – now fleshed out with incoming bassist Juan Alderete, and Omar’s brother Marcel on keyboards and percussion – the album featured guitar solos from John Frusciante, saxophone and flute by future member Adrian Terrazas-Gonzales, a full string section, and piano played by Omar’s hero, salsa legend Larry Harlow. “It was a childhood dream come true,” Omar says. “We recorded with him in my hometown in Puerto Rico, and my father flew in to watch the session. Larry was a perfect gentleman, and a very lively spirit.” The album’s fevered intensity infected even the staid string section, Cedric remembers. “When they performed the part on Cassandra Gemini, ’25 wives in the lake tonight’, one of the guys in the orchestra played so hard he broke his bow, this real old, antique bow. And you could see his ‘classical’ side come out – like, ‘I broke this playing a fuckin’ rock song??’ He was pissed off. But I was like, ‘Fuck yeah, man, that’s on the record! You’ve got to realise things like that are cool.’” The album also features field recordings of “the coqui of Puerto Rico” during the opening minutes of Miranda That Ghost Just Isn’t Holy Anymore. “We took a page out of the Grateful Dead’s book there,” laughs Cedric. “They recorded air. We recorded fuckin’ frogs in Puerto Rico.”

Brooklyn based drummer/producer Jason Nazary (of Anteloper) makes his We Jazz Records debut with "Spring Collection", released on 25 June. The album sees Nazary crafting some deliciously sparkly solo cuts plus working long disctance with choice collaborators Jaimie Branch, David Leon, Ramon Landolt, Matt Mitchell, Grey McMurray and Michael Coleman. This is essentially a collection of home recordings and the whole operation has an infectious feeling of immediacy to it. The result is improv adjacent electronic music, with modern production aesthetics transposed over spontaneous compositions.

Jason writes:

"With Spring Collection, my aim was to capture the spirit of spontaneity & collaboration lost in the absence of live music. Like most everyone else last spring, I suddenly had a lot of time on my hands and with all my work cancelled, and with an indefinite lockdown in effect, it became immediately apparent that most of my time – save a walk or two a day around the neighborhood – would be spent in the tiny one bedroom apartment I share with my wife and two cats.

What kind of music does one make during lockdown? I would begin my days with a cup of coffee and all the cables of my modest little modular set up in my lap, slowly discovering new sound worlds as I connected one cable after another – these became the beginnings for the pieces in Spring Collection. With these unformed sketches, I would record an improvisation, an exploration of sonics: a small kit of bells, shakers, pans, pots; their resonance captured in fine detail with ultra sensitive microphones. These became, in effect, a conversation first with myself, but later one I knew I had to open up, make social. In the desire not to diminish my collaborative impulses, I felt compelled to involve some of my favorite musicians in the process alongside me."

"Spring Collection" is released by We Jazz Records on 25 June on vinyl (neon orange & black vinyl editions), tape and digital formats. The vinyl edition comes with a booklet including original artwork and poetry by Todd Colby.

CMD aka Corina MacDonald is a Montreal-based DJ, producer and host of the program Modular Systems on CKUT 90.3 FM. She has released on JACKTONE, EXPERIMENTAL HOUSEWIFE’S PERFECT LOCATION RECORDS, FUR TRADE RECORDINGS, and BASIC_SOUNDS. For her vinyl debut, she brings us four entrancing, slightly dubby and acidic techno dance floor cuts perfect for the smooth edges of the late night.

The A-side opens up with “Social Factory Reset”, modular jacking techno with an infectious acid swell and patient pads. “Shaping Inner Space” is an apt title. The tempo is slightly faster than A1, and it sounds like an extraterrestrial night out. Euphoric synth twists bring in the break while the bass drum toys with the rhythm only to zap it back home with the force of cosmic gravity.

“Dream-Life Cycles” opens up the B-side tough, with an acid line and bass drum syncopation sure to bring out the stomp. Modular tweets fire off in stereo; pads bring in the harmony; and a nuanced and pleasantly surprising vocal line brings the euphoria on home. “Body Locked” closes the EP with an athletic, cosmic techno track that doesn’t shy away from the trance palette. Step out of your body and onto the dance floor!

Yellow Vinyl

From his early years on the music scene in Edinburgh, Theo Kottis has built a buzz as one of the UK's most exciting DJs. He is also the curator of his own unique sound, crafted on his Beautiful Strangers series, and gained clout from star DJs the world over.

The Mirror EP is fronted by a euphoric party track inspired by Kottis' lockdown yearning for "the kind of party where you don't stop dancing" - and crafted perfectly for this purpose. The raw energy of breaks and rave piano stabs is permeated by Busola's pep talk, getting the listener and the dancer geared up for the summer of release after a year of restrictions.

On the B Side, "Onda" takes its name from the Spanish word for waves. This is a blissed out relaxation after the intensity of the A-Side, an ode to an Ibiza poolside which still maintains a strong groove. Playful
pads pop out under sublime strings for an instantly nostalgic vibe.

Theo Kottis words on the release "Earlier this year during peak winter lockdown, craving the kind of party where you don't stop dancing, I took matters into my own hands, producing this new single "The Mirror", featuring Busola - who is the life of the party - to bring euphoric sounds to my living room and now to yours.

The thought of the impending "Summer of Love" got me through lockdown and I wanted to create something energetic and fun to mirror that excitement. I'd seen Little Gay Brother, the LGBTQ+ party and community perform at many festivals and knew their vibe would be an ideal source for this raw energy - I was introduced to Busola who provided the ultimate summer of self-love pep talk, something we all needed to get back out there post lockdown!

The second track is a nod to my summer escape to Ibiza where I played Pikes poolside and spent time in the sea and watching waves - "ondas" in Spanish - to reset and relax.

Brooklyn based drummer/producer Jason Nazary (of Anteloper) makes his We Jazz Records debut with "Spring Collection", released on 25 June. The album sees Nazary crafting some deliciously sparkly solo cuts plus working long disctance with choice collaborators Jaimie Branch, David Leon, Ramon Landolt, Matt Mitchell, Grey McMurray and Michael Coleman. This is essentially a collection of home recordings and the whole operation has an infectious feeling of immediacy to it. The result is improv adjacent electronic music, with modern production aesthetics transposed over spontaneous compositions.

Jason writes:

"With Spring Collection, my aim was to capture the spirit of spontaneity & collaboration lost in the absence of live music. Like most everyone else last spring, I suddenly had a lot of time on my hands and with all my work cancelled, and with an indefinite lockdown in effect, it became immediately apparent that most of my time – save a walk or two a day around the neighborhood – would be spent in the tiny one bedroom apartment I share with my wife and two cats.

What kind of music does one make during lockdown? I would begin my days with a cup of coffee and all the cables of my modest little modular set up in my lap, slowly discovering new sound worlds as I connected one cable after another – these became the beginnings for the pieces in Spring Collection. With these unformed sketches, I would record an improvisation, an exploration of sonics: a small kit of bells, shakers, pans, pots; their resonance captured in fine detail with ultra sensitive microphones. These became, in effect, a conversation first with myself, but later one I knew I had to open up, make social. In the desire not to diminish my collaborative impulses, I felt compelled to involve some of my favorite musicians in the process alongside me."

"Spring Collection" is released by We Jazz Records on 25 June on vinyl (neon orange & black vinyl editions), tape and digital formats. The vinyl edition comes with a booklet including original artwork and poetry by Todd Colby.

With their first few releases, Swansea Sound made clear they are not too fond of the big corporations that dominate social media and the internet. The message of the Christmas single they recorded for the Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club is no different. The indie pop punk of ‘Merry Christmas To Me’ holds up a mirror to all the Scrooges of this world, who see Christmas as the perfect way to make even more money than they already have, usually at the expense of others. On the B-side of the 7”, the band turn the opening track of Cheap Trick’s 2017 Christmas album ‘Christmas Christmas’ into an indie song, keep the catchiness of the original and spice it up with some extra punch in both music and message, using some of the most influential companies on the internet as an inspiration. The record comes on white vinyl and is limited to 300 copies.

Swansea Sound reunites Hue Williams (who lives in Swansea) and Amelia Fletcher of the legendary indie band Pooh Sticks. They are joined by guitarist/bassist and main songwriter Rob Pursey (who was with Amelia in Talulah Gosh, Heavenly, Marine Research, Tender Trap and currently in the Catenary Wires) and drummer Ian Button (Thrashing Doves, Death In Vegas and also part of Catenary Wires). Swansea Sound, that came into being during the 2020 lockdown, was named after a radio station (that still exists, but now uses a different name) and set out to play fast, loud and political indie pop punk. The band debuted in 2020 with the 2 track cassette single ‘Angry Girl’ b/w ‘Corporate Indie Band’ on the small Swansea based DIY cassette label Lavender Sweep and followed it up early 2021 with a 7” ‘Indies Of The World’, a call for indie labels to unite, that was released on four different indie labels working together. In between Swansea Sound released a very limited lathe cut 7”, ‘I Sold My Soul On Ebay’, of which the only copy for sale was sold in January of this year on... Ebay. In November the band will release their debut album, ‘'Live At The Rum Puncheon', again on several different labels.

Dave Lee dons his Sunburst Band trousers and calls in the vocal talents of Wayne Hernandez with this slice of Brazilian flavoured Jazz Funk ‘Listen Love’ - yes the Jon Lucien jazz dance favourite. The sizzling drums & percussion blend perfectly with the pulsating bassline that allows Wayne to scat and weave his way into the blissed out yet uptempo jazzy keys. For those thinking this would be an even better track if it had a flute solo, we’ve got you covered! with Dave Lee’s ‘Flute Reboot’ for that maximum Latin edged jazz-funk feel.

On the flip two people who need not introducing, Louie Vega & Josh Milan get frenzied on the drums and piano, as they up the ante and deliver a jazz dance fusion clocking in at 9 minutes. Their mix really works up a sweat in the second half as the groove and scatting lock together for an intense rhythmic workout. All in all a very impressive outing.

Weeks before the world went into lockdown, King
Krule had performed a handful of European shows
which featured tracks from his critically acclaimed
third album ‘Man Alive!’.
 Performed with a ferocious intensity, these
recordings offer fans a glimpse into a live tour that
never was, while also reminding them of the artist’s
unique stage presence and incredible
performances delivered across his entire
catalogue.
 Available on CD and double LP, ‘You Heat Me Up,
You Cool Me Down’ features a setlist of 17 songs
that span the acclaimed artist’s entire discography,
including fan favourites ‘Easy Easy’, ‘Baby Blue’,
‘Out Getting Ribs’ and more.

160 gram clear red vinyl, glossy sleeve, Cititrax presents rare live recordings from Birmingham techno legend Regis. The 12" EP features recently uncovered recordings of Regis playing live in New York City on January 4th, 1997 at the famed New York Film Academy. Original tapes discovered by Evan Kreeger, studio work / transfers done by James Ruskin in London and audio mastered by Veronica Vasicka in New York. The EP will be pressed on 160 gram clear red vinyl and housed in a gloss sleeve, featuring text by Evan Kreeger. An excerpt is below: Gymnastics broke techno - first time performed ! Regis has recreated this show for you - from the tapes in storage Over twenty years later - You're welcome! You are born! Now you can say you were there - rather than Skavoovee chore Damage and flame was our desire for this fight Two fans rebuffed tossed cinderblocks thru the front doors that night Locking up the Film Academy was only pageantry and a lie Nothing secure anymore - just crouch down - on your knees - crawl inside"

‘Expressions of Interest’ is the debut album from Melbourne/Naarm post-punk group screensaver.

Sonically, the 10 track album is rich and detailed, and pays homage to its era of inspiration (late 70s-mid 80s post-punk and new wave) with gripping vocals, dissonant guitar, melodic basslines, washes of synths and motorik drumming. Engineered by Julian Cue alongside band member Chris Stephenson and recorded over multiple studio sessions between 2020-2021

The album opens with the ominously titled ‘Body Parts’, an immediately arresting song that showcases the bands penchant for blending classic post-punk elements, leaning into a sound somewhere between the Banshees and Protomartyr.

Maynard doubles down on these themes in the frenetic second track, ‘No Movement’. Guttural organ tones swim under overdriven guitar, jagged and intense. Additional textures and sound effects are used percussively to embellish the dynamics, creating a feverish atmosphere with some Martin Hannett like flourishes.

The album takes a surprising turn into electronic driven krautrock on track three with 'Buy, Sell, Trade' - a rollicking piece of danceable ephemera, dominated by swirling synth sounds and punctuated with electronics reminiscent of Sparks/Moroder collaborations. Chris Stephenson's masterful guitar work begins with Greg Sage-esque determination before a crescendo into a lush Frippertronics outro.

'MEDS' transports us back to the foundation established on 'Body Parts', a gothy piece, full of tribal toms and dirge-y synths. Industrial punk rock nearly swallowed whole by the keys in the middle and slowly building back to complimentary guitar and vocal hooks.

It's from this point in the album that the band let's their other influences rise to the surface, as they explore touches of EDM on 'Static State' - a brutal, death-disco style track, Krystal Maynard's lead synth and gloomy vocal complimenting the pounding drums and dub-esque bass line culminating in a track worthy of the dancefloor.


Opening side two we have 'Skin', beginning with a solid and simple backbeat, James Beck’s post-punk percussion provides a steady and minimal framework for the rest of the band to colour in with great depth and detail. Giles Fielke’s bass guitar wobbles brilliantly leading the verse melody, whilst Chris Stephenson’s guitar drives the chorus that folds neatly in on itself.

In ‘Attention Economy’, Krystal Maynard is flexible with her lyrical style, and knows how and when to lend her voice to the greater backdrop of the composition. ‘Attention Economy’ has an almost Kraftwerkian structure - repetitious, but engaging with its constant tom driven beat, lush synth lines and minimal bass tones.

Just when you thought things had slowed down, screensaver ramp things right back up again with ‘Overnight Low’ - a no holds barred thumper. Giles Fielke underpins the hard-edged sound with his bassline, keeping things smooth and tight. It brings to mind a hybrid of PiL’s ‘Annalisa’ and Wire’s ‘Two People In a Room.’

Before you can catch your breath, we have ‘Regular Hours’ - another industrial track, and perhaps the sister song to ‘Static State’ heard earlier on side one. Seething electronic drum samples cut through an abyss of growling synths, Giles Fielke hanging up the bass temporarily to accompany Krystal Maynard on synth duties.

The album closes with the fittingly titled ‘Soft Landing’, literally bringing the listener back down...softly. The song is heavy on atmos, and resembles the aesthetics previously encountered on ‘Attention Economy’ a few tracks earlier.

‘Expressions of Interest” was recorded at various locations across Melbourne, with a handful of songs being captured before the start of the Covid pandemic in January 2020. With the recording timeline being drastically altered, the band shifted focus to work on what would become their first single ‘Strange Anxiety’, throughout the first months of the Melbourne 2020 lockdown.

Glimmering medieval weaponry forged, polished and brandished, Zhenya Lavrinov arrives to take us back in time and beyond the stars. As LVRIN, he appeared opposite Maoupa Mazzochetti on a split EP for Arma – but one pockmark in a scattering of machine-powered ruminations for respected, proudly underground labels – and now he returns to wield a new alias across five tracks of ominous, night-creeping sonics.



The tracks making up Milky Way were recorded by Bryansk-based Lavrinov between 2013 and 2020, reflecting a side of his musical demanour not betrothed to the demands of the dancefloor. Golden Axe is far from ambient though – this is still resolutely rhythmic music spoken by specifically sculpted synths and powered by purposeful sequencers.



There’s a cosmic theme at play here, but ‘Moon Influence’ speaks as much to ancient rites and man’s obsession with lunar forces as any space-age sci-fi symbolism you might associate with gurgling electronic patterns. ‘Rhythmbox From Space’ may be brimming with analogue freakery, but it’s also locked into a rhythmic mantra which tracks back to the dawn of humanity.



Cementing the philosophy of the record visually, Milky Way comes clothed in a striking artwork by Alina Vinogradova. Lavrinov’s Golden Axe seems to hail from this very space depicted on the cover, speaking through time-honoured tools and revelling in universal mysticism as it opens a new chapter in his darkly seductive, psychosomatic music.

Baxter Dury releases a 20 year Best Of through
Heavenly Recordings.
 ‘Mr Maserati’ showcases two decades of Baxter
Dury’s idiosyncratically louche music, a universe of
late-night London meet-ups, shuffling basslines
and comedown disco tunes, all run through with a
wry bleakness and sweet love of humanity.
 ‘Mr Maserati’ collects tracks from across Dury’s six
albums, plus a new song, ‘D.O.A.’.
 Baxter Dury on the new track: “It’s a kind of
provincial nod to the music I got into during
lockdown because my son Kosmo was playing it -
Frank Ocean, Tyler the Creator and Kendrick
Lamar. I became obsessed. They’re embracing
everything – sexuality, politics, all of it – and I find
that inspiring.”
 In November Baxter embarks on his biggest UK
tour so far, with a headline London show at
Kentish Town Forum.
 LP in printed inner sleeve plus digital download
code

Recorded in a pool house surrounded by an evergreen oak tree forest just outside of Madrid; musician and composer Oliver Patrice Weder’s second artist album ‘The Pool Project’ combines textural and meditative sounds that touch on global influences from jazz, ambient and modern composition. In conjunction with the album, Spitfire Audio has released ‘The Pool Project’ sound library, inviting composers and producers to reimagine, recreate or completely pull apart Oliver’s sound world to facilitate their own vision. Capturing the unique acoustics of the pool house, the library is presented in Spitfire Audio's award-winning, easy-to-use plug-in and features a range of controls and effects. While ‘OPW’ was inspired by constant movement and travelling, ‘The Pool Project’ had quite a contrary motivation. Oliver explains “After making my debut album, it was clear for me that it was only the beginning of a long journey. I enjoy the process and idea of creating something deeply personal and connected to the situation I am in, a snapshot of time so to speak, so I had to start writing a second album sooner or later. I love change and find it very inspiring to creatively adapt to my surroundings and circumstances to see what comes out at the other end. I spent the lockdown time living in a countryside cottage just outside of Madrid, surrounded by holly oak trees. The combination of this and seeing my one year old daughter grow up, as well as expecting another baby boy, created a very unique and fruitful environment to draw inspiration from.” Confirmed press/radio: Future Music - Album review Electronic Sound - Album review Scala Radio -Ambient Track of the Week Scala Radio - Session Track/Interview Reviews: "Rich in beauty and emotion… one of the finest modern composers around" - 8/10, Future Music Mag "Sounds like a warm oasis of calm" - 8.5/10, Higher Plain Music Achievements: Recorded and toured across Europe with various bands including psychedelic rock band Time for T. Composed for the BBC. Lead composer at Spitfire Audio. In 2017, Oliver co-scored the feature film ‘The Haunted’ and made a vlog style series Inside the Score with Spitfire Audio, documenting the entire process — from meeting the director, to seeing the film shown at various international film festivals. Released OPW, a sample library and album, in 2019 with SA Recordings x Spitfire Audio. Interview with MusicTech.