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Nonesuch Records releases Laurie Anderson’s Amelia, the 2024 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient's first new album since 2018’s Grammy-winning Landfall. The record comprises 22 tracks about renowned female aviator Amelia Earhart’s tragic last flight. Anderson, who Pitchfork says, ‘sees the future, but she starts by paying attention’, wrote the music and lyrics for this subjective narrative piece. On the album, she is joined by the Czech orchestra Filharmonie Brno, conducted by Dennis Russell Davies, and Anohni, Gabriel Cabezas, Rob Moose, Ryan Kelly, Martha Mooke, Marc Ribot, Tony Scherr, Nadia Sirota, and Kenny Wolleson.



Earhart was a passionate pioneer of early aviation, achieving fame as the first woman to cross the Atlantic, in 1932. Five years later, she embarked on a flight around the world. Before she could complete the voyage, her plane disappeared without a trace; it has never been found. “The words used in Amelia are inspired by her pilot diaries, the telegrams she wrote to her husband, and my idea of what a woman flying around the world might think about,” Anderson says. First premiered at Carnegie Hall in 2000, the updated piece was recently performed across Europe.



Laurie Anderson is one of America’s most renowned – and daring – creative pioneers. Her work, which encompasses music, visual art, poetry, film, and photography, has challenged and delighted audiences around the world for more than 40 years. In a recent 60 Minutes profile, Anderson Cooper said she ‘is a pioneer of the avant-garde, but ... that doesn’t begin to describe what she creates. Her work isn’t sold in galleries. It’s experienced by audiences who come to see her perform: singing, telling stories, and playing strange violins of her own invention... she blends the beautiful and the bizarre, challenging audiences with homilies and humor. She blurs boundaries across music, theater, dance, and film.’ The Washington Post has said she ‘doesn’t just tell stories; she draws out every word with a kind of physical pleasure, tasting its flavor as she probes the everyday mysteries of life,’ and the Guardian has called Anderson ‘one of the great popular artists and storytellers of our time.’



Anderson released her first album with Nonesuch Records in 2001, the critically lauded Life on a String. Her subsequent releases on the label include Live in New York (2002), Homeland (2010), the soundtrack to Anderson’s acclaimed film Heart of a Dog (2015), and her Grammy-winning collaboration with Kronos Quartet, Landfall (2018). Additionally, Anderson’s virtual-reality film La Camera Insabbiata, with Hsin-Chien Huang, won the 2017 Venice Film Festival Award for Best VR Experience, and, in 2018, Skira Rizzoli published her book All the Things I Lost in the Flood: Essays on Pictures, Language and Code, the most comprehensive collection of her artwork to date.



Recent exhibitions and installations of Anderson’s work include Habeas Corpus at New York’s Park Avenue Armory; her largest exhibition to date, The Weather, at Washington, DC’s Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum of Modern Art; and Looking into a Mirror Sideways at Stockholm’s Moderna Museet, which was her largest European exhibition to date. Anderson recently toured with Sex Mob, performing her piece Let X=X. Earlier this year, she was awarded the 2024 Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication, along with Christopher Nolan and David Attenborough, and the International Astronomical Union named a minor planet in her honour: Asteroid 270588, Laurieanderson.



Nonesuch released a re-mastered edition of Anderson’s landmark 1982 album Big Science in 2007 for its 25th anniversary, followed by a vinyl LP re-issue in 2021; its beloved single, ‘O Superman’, became a surprise viral hit on TikTok earlier this year.

Gregory T.S. Walker’s Minstrels & Minimoogs was self-published by a young, nomadic composer and virtuoso in 1988 to accompany an immersive multimedia performance at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Fiske Planetarium. Created with this outer, and other, world setting in mind, the four tracks find Walker stretching toward an ancient-to-future vision where Egyptian myths and Hieronymus Bosch-ian tableaus are rendered in a screaming three dimensional circuitry of electronic drums, synth guitars, and, of course, Minimoog. Given the musical terrains and outmoded topics traversed, and that this entirely DIY effort was originally released as a micro one-sided 12” edition, Minstrels & Minimoogs is as perplexing and euphoric a document lost-to-time as it is now found.

Born in 1961 into an intensely musical family spanning four generations, Gregory’s mother Helen Walker-Hill was a noted musicologist specializing in the rediscovery and work of historical Black female composers, while his father, George Walker, was the first African American composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for music. Both parents studied with the famed (and famously strict) Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1950s, and held to lofty aesthetic standards in their home life. Walker began studying the violin as a child, but when a burgeoning interest in the electric guitar and rock music as a teen manifested, it was largely verboten in the household. The rule was that the music played in the home was to be acoustic and classical. Although the elder Walkers eventually relented and allowed Gregory’s guitar to be plugged in for a brief interval on the weekends, the remaining days he settled for strumming it sans amplification.

Gregory, conditioned and eager for a life in music but looking to get out from under the influence and yoke of his famous composer father, ultimately chose to study computer music at the University of California at San Diego, where he earned a Master of Arts. This was followed by another MA in electronic music composition at that hotbed of West Coast experimental music, Mills College. Intermedia and multimedia in the arts was the rage in the 1980s, and Mills was one of the centers for it; audacious spectacle meeting visionary performance, such as one of the realizations for Anthony Braxton’s music for multiple orchestras a young Gregory performed in with his violin.

After a series of solo synthesizer concerts around California, Gregory followed a girlfriend on a mid-country move to Boulder, Colorado. After picking up yet another composition degree at University of Colorado Boulder, his life as a composer really started, writing a piece for extended technique for guitar, a passacaglia for vocoder and orchestra, as well as Minstrels & Minimoogs.

Envisioned as a multimedia performance such as the kind he’d experienced at Mills (which was all but unknown in Boulder at the time), Gregory roped in a number of college going or aged friends of varying skill levels and musical sympathies to accompany him with distorted sax or oblique spoken interludes. Confronted with a lack of finances, but driven to get his ideas captured in a complete musical package, the album was recorded in his brother’s apartment. If not every player assembled was on Gregory’s virtuosic level, so be it; it was more about capturing the spirit of his intentions and embracing the serendipity of mistakes.

An inspired attempt at world building, Minstrels & Minimoogs draws on the deep well of musical knowledge Gregory gathered from his parents and teachers, but all the while subverting that historical basis by incorporating mutant strains of prog and pop music. The work accumulated is not unlike the playful 1980s work of Gregorio Paniagua, where medieval estampies and rondeaus are wrenched into an anachronistic present where Hildegard Von Bingen and Kate Bush are contemporaries. Ars nova, new art, a 20th century minimalist jester and troubadour.

A one sided LP was the cheapest option Gregory found to have Minstrels & Minimoogs memorialized on vinyl, so somewhere between 50 to 100 copies were pressed. There was no distribution, outside of copies that were handed out to friends or sold at the performances at the planetarium. Gregory T.S. Walker’s cosmic-futuristic forays into oblique pop and baroque subversion could forever reside perfectly in both the domed simulacrum of our universe for which it was composed, in the formats it is being reintoduced now, and our own biblical firmament. For in the words of Gregory, straight from the original liner notes: “God Is A Minimoog”

Gregory T.S. Walker’s Minstrels & Minimoogs arrives again August 23, 2024 on vinyl and digitally as part of uncommon¢ (“uncommon sense”), an open-ended, serialized endeavor from Freedom to Spend that provides new meaning for rarefied recordings from music's outermost fringe.

Previously Unreleased Recording. Limited to 1200 copies on transparent cherry vinyl. Tip-on jacket, Download code. Insert featuring LP sized original art by Grungie O'Muck. Includes the original recording of Richard Tucker's "Are You Leaving For The Country", later covered by Karen Dalton, and the only song co-written by Karen & Richard, "Sleeping In The Garden". "Richard, Cam & Bert seem to have grasped The Great Harmony. That is, ensemble singing that is at once sweet, precise, funky and a bit sardonic..." -Mike Jahn / New York Times (1970) "For a few years in the late sixties and early seventies Richard Cam & Bert ruled MacDougal St. walking a fine line between the increasingly commercialized demands created by groups like Crosby Stills and Nash and the fierce integrity of earlier folk performers, the generation to which Richard belonged. They managed this with great aplomb, producing original tunes of great integrity and obvious folkloric origins, as well as those which expressed the anarchic omnipresent psychedelia of the moment. They also never abandoned the idea of including some traditional material in their performances. But for the usual random application of luck they could have been very big." - Grungie O'Muck / Artist, Bluesman, Cover artist for their first album and contributor to this one. Richard Tucker, Campbell Bruce, and Bert Lee coalesced as a trio in the spring of 1968, and by the end of that year had become regular performers at fabled Greenwich Village nightspots - The Gaslight, The Bag I'm In, Cafe Feenjon, among others. But mostly they were street singers, busking regularly in Central Park. Their only LP, Limited Edition, was released in 1970, and sold mainly at gigs and on the street. Somewhere in The Stars compiles earlier, previously unreleased recordings, when all three members were signed with Peer-Southern Music publishers as writers and began using their studio to make demos and experiment musically. Beautifully recorded by house engineer Charlie Mack (supervised by Jimmy Ienner), the demos capture a back room casualness and rustic, homespun quality. For me, listening to their songs and harmonies is like entering a world you always hoped existed but had never experienced. Some of the songs were re-recorded the following year for Limited Edition, but many are heard here for the first time. Among them is the original demo for Richard Tucker's song, "Are You Leaving For The Country", which Karen Dalton covered on her seminal 1971 release, In My Own Time. Richard and Karen were husband and wife for much of the 1960s, performing as a duo (initially as a trio with Tim Hardin), and navigating their time on the Village scene while alternating living in a small mining town outside Boulder, Co. before splitting up in 1967. Also making its debut, is the only song Richard and Karen ever wrote together, the haunting "Sleeping In The Garden". Also contains two epic songs by Cam "One Of These First Nights", and "Stockholm") not on their LP, but staples of their live performances, and noted in a gig review by The New York Times, and in a column by future A&R hero, Karin Berg, who was an early champion. Another rarity is the only cover of "Sweet Mama" by Fred Neil we've ever heard. Campell Bruce came to New York in 1967 as lead singer with a band from Washington, DC, The Natty Bumpo. They'd recently signed a record deal with Phillips, but were falling apart. Cam landed in the Village with an acoustic guitar and first started playing and singing in the basket houses, and shortly thereafter at The Gaslight, as the "Cam Bruce Trio" (which included Collin Walcott). After opening for Mose Allison, Cam's hero, the trio went their separate ways, and Cam returned to regular solo gigs at The Flamenco, and the basket houses on Bleecker. Richard and Cam met up on that scene and quickly found a musical kinship as well as becoming best pals. Bert Lee arrived in New York as a runaway the following winter, and began playing and sleeping wherever he could. His sometime accompanist, Ron Price, introduced Bert to Richard and Cam just as Bert's own songs were garnering attention from publishers. According to Bert, "I arrived on the New York scene during a time of great change, and it was the notion of change that influenced me. All around me I saw there were two sorts of songwriters, on the one hand dedicated to the traditions that had inspired them, folk, jazz, the American songbook. On the other hand were songwriters influenced by the wave of experimentation that The Beatles were the perfect example of. Mixing genres, writing lyrics that weren't just about ordinary love and loss. Richard Tucker was a country blues player, with a relaxed and melodic approach to the craft. Cam wrote something more akin to soul songs, with a hint of jazz in the changes. I was writing tunes that sometimes drew on classical structures with a tendency toward what I suppose would be known as prog-rock. But I was rather adamant about not being pinned down stylistically, and so I would write, for example, a song based on some complex classical chord structure, and then go right ahead and write a simple folk song, like Evelyn. Our band was popular locally, and it was this variety that made it distinct." Delmore is excited to present this unearthed treasure, fifteen years in the making. In the words of Richard Tucker, "Tap on your knee, roll on the floor; if you aint free, what's it all for?" "The trio's singing, playing, and writing have all withstood the test of time. Believe me, because I was there. In 1969 R,C&B, myself, Charles John Quarto, David Bromberg, Ron Price, and Keith Sykes were just a few of that year's crop of song-slingers. We were young turks back then, out on the prowl in New York's Greenwich Village for record deals, gigs, and beautiful young women to sleep with and maybe even write a song about. I've lost the names and numbers of those lovelies and I'm not sure what happened to Ron Price, but Richard, Cam, and Bert are back! - Loudon Wainwright lll

This album marks a significant evolution for Dream Division, evolving from a solo project into a full band experience. Blending the rich sounds of Italian soundtracks with psychedelic rock, Tom McDowell, the band's core member and founder of Library of the Occult Records, has assembled an all-star lineup for this collaborative record. Featuring members of The Hologram People, Garden Gate, The Psychic Circle, Miles Brown and Men From S.P.E.C.T.R.E., the album navigates through genres while maintaining a cinematic essence. From the sinister melancholy tones of 'Black Rose' to the Giorgio Moroder-esque Giallo disco of 'Technicolor Terror,' ‘A Rose in the Garden of Winter’ unfolds like a lost soundtrack to a classic '70s Giallo film.

THE 7000 DOLLAR ACETATE
The year is 1971, a time when nightclubs still had live bands perform the musical hits of the day. Every city had its local stars and for the club scene of the city of Columbus, Ohio it was the CROWD PLEASERS. Founded in 1968 by June Carey along with her younger brothers, twins El & Al, the seven-piece band grew into an in-demand act that performed all over the city. In April 1971 they went into the studio to record eight songs, but an actual release never materialized. In time the master tape was destroyed and all that was left were two acetates. But as time passed, these too were lost. Over the years, a growing market for obscure funk and soul albums emerged. When one of the acetates went up for sale on eBay in 2011, it sold for $3,900! Eleven years later, in 2022, the last remaining copy also appeared on eBay. Collectors drove the price up until it finally sold for a staggering $7,000! So now, after more than 53 years, Al Carey & Regrooved Records proudly presents the previously unreleased 1971 album of the CROWD PLEASERS featuring renditions of hits by Marvin Gaye, Sly Stone's Little Sister, Neil Young, Gladys Knight & The Pips, Cold Blood, Dionne Warwick, The Lettermen and the original funk break track “Eggs & Bacon”.

LP+7" (Clear Vinyl). When the Ramones lost it, the Zero Boys found it; Adding a slam brigade fist to the Blitzkrieg Beat. The Zero Boys managed to come with one of the best early 80's punk records, or one of the best records ever, period. From 1979 to 1983, the Indianapolis-based Zero Boys were the finest hardcore blitz in the Midwest if not all the lower 48 states. Compiled and released as a post-mortem following the band's breakup, History Of_ is the proof, if more was needed, that their take of American hardcore wasn't all white bread numbers. Yeah, they played shows with Minor Threat, Dead Kennedys, Subhumans, and others but in Terry "Hollywood" Howe's guitar there was harmonious terror and unstoppable cadence. Terry's licks and chops _ a leap beyond two or three chord punk _ offered a zone and measured count for drummer Mark Cutsinger and bassist David "Tufty" Clough, a rhythm unit in par with the Minutemen if not The Meters, to run lines like quicksilver. Meanwhile, frontman, Paul "Z" Mahern provides a constant wash from beginning to end. Originally released in 1984 with a limited-edition reissue in 2009, this 40th anniversary edition includes the original LP of `History Of...' and a 7" featuring four live recordings never previously pressed to vinyl and recorded at iconic hardcore/punk venue Crazy Al's in 1980: "Livin' In The 80's", "Stick To Your Guns", "Commies", and "I'm Absent".

PRZ comes to Sync 24's Cultivated Electronics with his first double Album ''Lost Art''. In the ever-evolving realm of electronic music, where sonic innovation is the currency, PRZ (Gal Perez) emerges as a luminary, crafting sonic landscapes with a distinct style that blends intricate rhythms, ethereal melodies and pulsating beats. As a producer, DJ and co-founder of the Chateau Royal label and Pluto Junkies member, PRZ has spent the last decade shaping his sound and releasing tracks on some of dance music's most respected labels including Clone West Coast Series and Hilltown Disco. With a boundless imagination and unwavering commitment to sonic exploration, his ''Lost Art'' release is a fully-formed album rather than just a collection of tracks, opening with the atmospheric intro of ''Introvert'', before the playful sonic antics of tracks like ''Lazerton'', ''Lost Art'' and ''Voice Over''. Other tracks bring pure Electro darkness like ''Velocity Shift'' alongside the ElectroTechno of ''Time To Decide'', the EBM-esque ''Azaya'' or the retro funk of ''Back From 89'' - all primed for dance floors, before closing on the melancholy ''Miss You''.

2024 Repress

Finders Keepers invite you to witness the incredible first ever Buchla synthesiser concerts/demonstrations providing a distinctive feminine alternative to The Silver Apples Of The Moon if they had ever been presented in phonographic form. This is history in the remaking.

This spring Finders Keepers Records are proud to release an archival project that not only redefines musical history but boasts genuine claim to the overused buzzwords such as pioneering, maverick, experimental, groundbreaking and esoteric, while questioning social politics and the evolution of music technology as we've come to understand it. To describe this records as a game-changer is an understatement. This record represents a musical revolution, a scientific benchmark and a trophy in the cabinet of counter culture creativity. This record is a triumphant yardstick in the synthesiser space race and the untold story of the first woman on the proverbial moon. While pondering the early accolades of this record it's daunting to learn that this record was in fact not a record at all... It was a manifesto and a gateway to a new world, that somehow never quite opened. If the unfamiliar, modernistic, melodic, pulses, tones and harmonics found on this 1975 live presentation/grant application/educational demonstration had been placed in a phonographic context alongside the promoted work of Morton Subotnick, Walter Carlos or Tomita then the name Suzanne Ciani and her influence would have already radically changed the shape, sound and gender of our record collections. Hopefully there is still chance.

In short, Suzanne was a self-imposed twenty-year-old employee of the Buchla modular synthesiser company, San Francisco's neck and neck contender to New York's Moog. Buchla was run by a community of festival freaks and academic acid eaters whose roots in new age lifestyles and the reinvention of art and music replaced the business acumen enjoyed by its likeminded East Coasters. In the eyes of the consumer the creative refusal to adopt rudimentary facets like a piano keyboard controller rendered the Buchla synthesiser the more obscure stubborn sister of the synth marathon, steering these incredible units away from the mainstream into the homes and studios of free music aficionados, art house composers and die-hard revolutionaries. Championed and semi-showcased by composer Morton Subotnick on his albums The Bull and Silver Apples Of The Moon, Buchla's versatility began to open the minds of a new generation, but the high-end design features and no-compromise modus operandi was often confused with incompatibility and, in the pulsating shadow of Moog's marketing, the revolution would not be televised nor patronised. Suzanne Ciani, as one of the very few female composers on the frontline (and also providing the back line) did not lose faith.

These concerts' are the epitome of rare music technology historic documents, performed by a real musician whose skills and academic education in classical composition already outweighed her male synthesiser contemporaries of twice her age. At the very start of her fragile career these recordings are nothing short of sacrificial ode to her mentor and machine, sonic pickets of the revolution and love letters to an absolutely genuine vision of and 'alternative' musical future. In denouncing her own precocious polymathmatic past in a bid to persuade the world to sing from a new hymn sheet, Suzanne Ciani created a bi-product of never before heard music that would render the pigeon holes ambient' and futuristic' utterly inadequate. Providing nothing short of an entirely different feminine take on the experimental records' of Morton Subotnick and proving to a small, judgmental audience and jury the true versatility of one of the most radical and idiosyncratic musical instruments of the 20th century. These recordings have not been heard since then.

The importance of these genuinely lost pieces of electronic musics puzzle almost eclipses the glaring detail of Suzanne's gender as a distinct minority in an almost exclusively male dominated, faceless, coldly scientific landscape. Those familiar with Suzanne's work, a vast vault of previously unpublished non-records', will already know how the creative politics in her art of being' simultaneously reshaped the worlds of synth design, advertising and film composition before anyone had even dropped a stylus in her groove. Needless to say this record, finally commanding the archival format of choice, courtesy of the Ciani and Finders Keepers longstanding unison, was not the last first' with which this hugely important composer would gift society, and the future of a wide range of exciting evolving creative disciplines.

You have found a holy grail of electronic music and a female musical pioneer who was too proactive to take the trophies. With the light of Buchla and Ciani's initial flame Finders Keepers continues to take a torch through the vaults of this lesser-celebrated music legacy shining a beam on these non-records' that evaded the limelight for almost half a century. You can't write history when you are too busy making it. With fresh ink in the bottomless well, let's start at the beginning. Again. You, are invited!

Comes with insert and download coupon.

Imagine a Latin remake of Back to the Future. The mad scientist is Arsenio Rodriguez (the godfather of salsa) and the young student who travels through time with him is Eblis Alvarez (Meridian Brothers). This album can only be described as the perfect soundtrack for that movie that never was.

After the massive buzz generated by his first solo album, Mentallogenic, Alex Figueira got back in the studio to work in a more collective fashion this time, carefully assembling the second album of his largest project to date, Conjunto Papa Upa; a team of 6 musicians, spanning 3 generations of some of the best talent in the Latin and avant-garde scenes.

In an era where tropical music is dominated by purely electronic and rhythmically uniform sounds, the ten songs encompassed in “Fruta Madura” (“Ripe Fruit”) wander through the most diverse tempos, rhythms, and motifs effortlessly. A real breath of fresh air that gracefully incorporates soul, funk, jazz, psychedelia, and electronics into a solid tropical, irresistibly polyrhythmic foundation, without ever succumbing to the many genre clichés.

The distinctive production and catchy songwriting of Figueira shine in a very distinctive light on this second full-length. Living up to his reputation (Miles Cleret, founder of Soundway Records, called him “one of the scene's truly authentic and eccentric producers”), he takes the opportunity to show he’s not afraid to keep walking his own path.

Taking the band for a wild ride through the traditions of Africa, America, and the Caribbean; contrasting them with a ridiculously wide plethora of vintage, contemporary, and futuristic sounds, and pivoting on the exuberant musicality displayed by his musicians; the result leaves no doubt: this album is destined to be considered a future classic of the exciting tropical psychedelic music of the 21st century.

Addressing the most diverse themes in this new collection of songs, things take on a much more mature tone, as the title clearly suggests.

The opening track “El segundo es más sabroso” (“The second one is tastier”) sets the tone in the most assertive way imaginable, with the band boldly declaring, through multiple metaphorical references (laid upon a crazy mix of Dominican merengue, Detroit techno, classic and free jazz, dub, and electro), that the bar will be set higher with this second album.

The remaining compositions touch upon the most diverse subjects, with a fair dose of humor, sarcasm, and postmodern “magic realism”. “El Algoritmo” (The Algorithm) is a parranda-cumbia hybrid (for lack of a specific term) about the omnipresence of technology in our lives. The sophisticated Latin soul of the titling track “Fruta Madura” makes a case for the beauty of the maturity process. Some key philosophical teachings of Marcus Aurelius (the role of causality, the impositions of “the logos” and the importance of self-control) get a twisted cumbia treatment on “Reos del Deseo” (Prisoners of Desire). “No le pongas Coca-Cola” (“Don’t put Coca Cola in it”) shows us the most satirical side of the band, accusing those who mix Coca Cola with Rum of committing "sacrilege", on a powerful base of Dem Bow (the grandfather of Reggaeton), intertwined with touches of soul, salsa, and Cuban comparsa.

"Háblame Claro" (“Talk to me clearly”) is a story of heartbreak that evokes in its first part the spirit of the erotic salsa of the 80s (a subgenre deeply despised by purists), and after an unexpected samba interlude, leads to the hardest salsa of the 70s (a subgenre adored by purists), to end up in the surprising form of pure Afro-Cuban ceremonial music.

“Tu mamá tenía razón” ("Your Mom Was Right") is an attempt to exalt the spirit of the Latin American soap opera in the key of “acid bachata”, to recount a real-life case, witnessed by the band on countless occasions: the partying woman who arrives at the show accompanied by her bitter husband, who obviously does not like to dance. A very cheeky song to talk about the very serious and pertinent topic of female empowerment.

“La misma vaina” (“The same thing”) with its indescribable blend of bantú, candomblé, and Mozambique rhythms with abstract synthesizers, is an ode to adventure in favor of the aversion to taking risks and seeking predictability.

“Amigas picadas” (“Salty friends”) is another humorous song recounting another real-life case witnessed by the band on countless occasions: a love encounter sabotaged by the girlfriend's friends, who all happen to fancy the same guy. A jazzy take on the ancient Dominican rhythm of pambiche (grandfather of merengue), with generous psychedelic touches, resembling the classy late 60s releases of Guadeloupe's legendary producer / label owner Henri Debs.

“Vinimos a hablar” (“We came to talk”) takes sarcasm to the highest level, to ridicule the absurdity (also experienced by the band firsthand) seen in live music venues where people pay a ticket to go and have conversations that could be carried out much better on any bar, where no band is playing. The music alternates between a delicate melody with loose, sparse percussion and a full-on, pumping Angolan semba, with a techno kick drum included; bringing things to an apotheotic grooving finale, where the peculiar swing of Venezuelan calypso from the Callao region is thrown on top of all the precedent elements; closing the album in the most uplifting, “end of the carnival parade” feel.

The artwork is a delicate and impactful oil painting by Colombian artist Kevin Simón Mancera, who has collaborated many times with the label before (“Maracas, tambourines and other hellish things” tape and the Lola’s Dice LP).

What the experts are saying:

“Alex (Figueira) dove into this work with a brutal cohesion between lyrics and synths. Timbre poetry, sound poetry (you name it). And that, superimposed on his always impeccable percussive base, confirms the title of “avant-garde visionary of our beautiful Latin music”".
EBLIS ALVAREZ (MERIDIAN BROTHERS)
“Papa Upa's infectious quirkiness is a balm against boredom. A mature album, but without an expiration date”.
GLADYS PALMERA

“Here there is a lot of strength, drum, cadence and psychedelia, lost dance rhythms, united in an intercontinental Latin/African/and Caribbean journey, a unique winning combination that we could consider the new “Ritmo Figueira”.
DISCODELIC

Conjunto Papa Upa are: 



Alex Figueira - Timbales, percussion, vocals. 

Gerardo Rosales - Congas, percussion, vocals. 

Ramón Mendeville - Bongos, percussion, vocals. 

Randy Winterdal - Bass.

Andrew Moreno - Guitar.

Nico Chientarolli - Organ, piano, synths.



All songs written by Alex Figueira. 

Arranged and performed by Conjunto Papa Upa. 

Recorded, produced, mixed and mastered by Alex Figueira at Heat Too Hot, Amsterdam.


In 1995, schoolmates Elin Almered and Johan Duncanson started a band which they named after a gas-station-turned-radio-repair-shop called "Radioavdelningen" (Swedish for The Radio Department). In 2001, the Radio Dept. sent recordings to music magazine Sonic, receiving a positive review and being featured on the free CD sampler that came with the magazine. Labrador Records heard them on the disc and signed them to their label. The band"s debut album Lesser Matters (2003) was well received by the music press, scoring 10 out of 10 in the NME. NME would rank Lesser Matters ninth on their list of the 50 best albums of 2004. The album received an 84/100 (Universal acclaim) on Metacritic from a total of five reviews.

Formed in Montreal, eight-piece funk band Cane and Abel melded Caribbean elements with soul, blues and psych, frontman Frenchie Thompson holding plenty of bite and the full horn section including former Dragonaires trumpeter Norris Ridguard. After early singles on GRT, the group signed to Epic and relocated to the US but made their biggest splash in France, where they cut two LPs in 1972; this self-titled rarity has Thompson’s ‘Girl You Move Me,’ percussionist Blinky Bostic’s ‘Who’s Gonna Take The Weight,’ and likeable takes of Wilson Picket’s ‘Don’t Knock My Love,’ ‘Green Grass’ and ‘Toe Hold.’ A lost funk classic!

Chicago's Black Diamond debuts on We Jazz Records with their new album Furniture Of the Mind Rearranging on 26th July. Co-led by Artie Black and Hunter Diamond (composers, saxophones, and other woodwinds), Black Diamond appears in both quartet and duo formations. The first three album sides present the quartet, complete with long standing band members Matt Ulery (double bass) and Neil Hemphill (drums), under the heading Furniture Of the Mind. The remaining two tracks on side D fall under the title The Mind Rearranging, with Black and Diamond presenting a meditative duo encounter of two tenor saxophones.

Furniture Of the Mind Rearranging is an assemblage of new compositions and improvisations that develop the band's established sound and exemplify the way in which this band folds into the Chicago creative music community. The quartet traverses their familiar aesthetic ranges between driving off-kilter groove, plaintive minimalism, and intimate chamber music, with the everpresent spirit of small-group jazz and a hovering influence of Chicago’s improvised music culture. And while this collection represents three previous

albums and more than a decade of close kinship and artistic evolution between co-leaders Black and Diamond, neither are too precious about any one element on the album. This is very simply the latest work in what continues to be an expanding body work founded on a guiding principle: cultivation without expectation.

The four sides with two formations flow together in a natural way, forming an idiosyncratic musical entity that is sure to grow with each new spin on the turntable.

I was sent an unfinished version of Dose Your Dreams so that I might contribute string parts. I couldn’t stop listening to the rough mixes I received. A friend asked me how the record was. I replied, “My God, Fucked Up have made their Screamadelica.” And psych-rock-groove it is. The drums mixed wide, propensity for drones, for delay pedal, for repetition, groove. The politics and aesthetics of hardcore married to an “open format” approach to genre. Elements of doo-wop, krautrock, groove, digital hardcore. “None of Your Business Man” opens the album in familiar enough territory, a sax assisted exit from an office space. But things get psychedelic very quickly. By the time the title track arrives, Mike Haliechuk is whispering, wah pedals are in full effect, and we’re wearing oversized t-shirts and pinwheeling. “Accelerate,” the lyrical centrepiece of the album, storms in like Boredoms on a bullet train and dissolves into a digital nightmare. The album closer, “Joy Stops Time,” finds Fucked Up at their most Düsseldorfian, nearly eight minutes of blissful motorik. At the center of it all is Damian Abraham’s scream a man chained, a man tortured, a true protagonist. The effect is one of an epic, every chapter attempting its own narrative devices, its own genre hybridization and it works, it works so insanely well. The drama unfolds like a miniature world of many parts being explored, a map being illuminated, location by location. As with David Comes to Life, there is a story here. David who once came to life is now indentured to a desk job. David meets the elderly Joyce who closes his eyes, opens his mind, and sends him on a spiritual journey. David embarks on his own metaphysical odyssey. He sees a stage adaptation of his own life. He speaks to an angel in a lightbulb. He sees an infinite series of universes as simulations within simulations. Meanwhile, Lloyd Joyce’s lover was sent, decades ago, by Joyce on the same odyssey, but was lost in the void. Lloyd seeks to be found and reunited with his lover. Where will David end up? Will Joyce and Lloyd be reunited? Dose Your Dreams meaning: treat your dreams as you would a dream, allow yourself to be lost within them, allow them to open your heart and your mind, enjoy them as you would a drug. Reach out for my hand and pull me close. Owen Pallett.

Boxed set of five 7-inch vinyl records, 300 copies limited edition. Artwork poster included.

All tracks remastered from the original master tapes.

Alessandro Alessandroni is no longer remembered simply as 'the whistler' in Morricone's spaghetti western soundtracks – and rightly so, since he was the key figure behind much of Italian 'secret music' from the 60s and 70s, always there in the studio during recording sessions, whether as a multi-instrumentalist or as the leader of session vocal group I Cantori Moderni di Alessandroni. Today his pervasive presence and important role has been finally recognized by music professionals and enthusiasts alike, so much so that he is now considered the true father of Italian library music – a genre whose sound he shaped since 1968.


As a film composer, Alessandroni often worked for small productions that had very limited (and often regional-only) distribution, and whose budgets were worlds apart from those in the 'top league' where friends and colleagues like Morricone, Bacalov, Trovajoli or Piccioni thrived. Rarely released as a soundtrack, this music ended up, at best, forgotten inside dusty ¼-inch reels or, at worst, disappearing into thin air.

After a string of releases that have brought back to life forgotten or lost works by Alessandroni (Sangue di Sbirro, Afro Discoteca, Lost and Found, etc.), it was pretty natural for us at Four Flies to start delving into a little investigated area of his filmography: his scores for erotic films, the last genre to gain popularity in the flourishing Italian film industry of the 60s and 70s, and perhaps the most extreme too, the one that, by pushing things too far, eventually put an end to that industry and its genres.

So, we're now very proud to present Alessandroni Proibito, an exclusive boxed set of five 7-inch records. It contains a total of 14 previously unreleased tracks from the soundtracks of 4 soft-core erotic films that included hard-core sequences and, therefore, fell somewhere in-between normal commercial distribution and the underground scene of adult movie theatres.

Taking an artisanal approach to his musical craft, Alessandroni was not afraid of having to deal with spicy subject matter, wobbly productions, implausible plots, improvised actors, or cinematographers who were clearly no disciples of Storaro. And he was so good at making a virtue out of necessity, at turning budget constraints into creative advantages, that he created soundtracks that far surpass the films' quality, with music that at once captures and elevates the spirit of the erotic genre as if into a condensed symbol.

More specifically, the maestro recorded many of the pieces in a DIY fashion at home, using a 4-track Teac tape machine to arrange his compositions. The Teac allowed him to play different instruments on each track, which meant he could basically put an entire soundtrack together all by himself, or almost all by himself.

These recordings often feature drum machines – which provide that retro, early electronic music vibe – as well as funk guitars and exotic-sounding percussion in the rhythm tracks. In addition, there is an extensive, almost bewildering use of synthesizers to replace solo instruments that would have required a paid session player. On top this minimalist arrangement, Alessandroni layered what he could: some piano chords, a little flute and, most importantly, his signature 12-string guitar phrasing.

The result is just stunning: a unique mixture of electronic music and acoustic instruments, in a style that stops short of kitsch and ranges from cinematic ambient pieces like "Tensione erotica" to disco-funk tracks like "Snake Disco" and "One Sunday Morning", both of which feature vocals by Alessandroni himself.

Alessandroni Proibito comes with artwork by Eric Adrien Lee and a matching 30x70cm folded poster inspired to the insert-size posters which used to be hung outside movie theatres to attract cinema-goers.

The boxed set is being released in a limited edition of just 300 copies and will never be reissued. First come, first served.

The multifaceted Perth-based record label 823, founded by Australian producer and creative powerhouse Ta-ku, is gearing up for "All Things Considered Vol. 3." Committed to detail and a celebration of life's simple pleasures, this LP refuses to be confined to any single genre. Noteworthy releases from 823 include Cabu's "So Far To Go" EP, Ta-ku and Matt McWaters's collaboration "Black and White," featuring the Masego collaboration "Flight 99," and their debut project with Australian producer and instrumentalist Kuzich.

This time, The guest list includes Jakarta Records beat-veterans Alexander Flood, Lucid Green, and Cabu, bringing RnB with a soulful twist that's sure to warm the heart. Playfully melodic artists Makzo, falcxne & Seb Zellner blend jazz, soul, and sweetness creating a natural and playful sound for the LP. Den Brooks, Lovesome, and Tambala all contribute to the rhythmic neo-soul zest on the iconic 808 beat.

On the whole, "All Things Considered Vol. 3" embarks on a forward-thinking rhythmic journey into the creative minds behind the LP. It's as diverse and eclectic as those minds themselves and proudly follows up on its first and second volumes. Natural sounds blend seamlessly with electronic elements, from lush melodies to wintery vibes. Playful vocals adorn this 12-track gem, from Lucid Green's ethereal journey "Splash" twisted in UK garage vibes to the jazz-pop infused "Lost & Found" by Makzo & friends, echoing Jamiroquai-esque beats. The first single, "Babyslowdown" by MXXWLL, takes center stage with its strings, while Alexander Flood's James Bond-inspired melody receives a funky update.

Repress!

Vocal powerhouse Izo FitzRoy exploded on to the scene in 2017 with her debut LP 'Skyline', the album incorporating a stunning fusion of styles spanning gospel, funk and soul as Izo's raw bluesy tone and direct lyricism took centre stage.

Her new album 'How The Mighty Fall' builds further on the soul foundations of her debut. Recorded between Paris, London and Sheffield, it sees her collaborating with three stellar producers and a host of talented musicians.

Disco royalty – Dimitri From Paris (Glitterbox, BBE) directs fellow Parisians Cotonete on her smash single 'I Want Magic'. Studio wizard Shawn Lee (BBE, Ubiquity) brings the funky AOR vibes on 'Slim Pickings' and the Mercury Prize nominated - Colin Elliott (Richard Hawley, Jarvis Cocker, Paul Weller) who produced the bulk of the album, completes the trio. Guesting on the record are the UK's most in demand brass section – The Haggis Horns and Izo's long-time collaborators - Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir.

Conceived during the aftermath of the breakdown of her long-term relationship, Izo looked to this personal experience for inspiration for the album as well as casting further afield at the wider themes of mental, societal and communication breakdowns.

Despite the strong material, at one point it seemed the record might never materialise. Just as the world was getting on board with her debut LP and international touring was taking off, Izo lost the use of her voice and required surgery on her vocal chords in the second part of 2018. A long schedule of vocal rehabilitation was necessary to get back to a position where she could first talk, then sing regularly enough to get back to work.

Thankfully after this difficult personal period for her, the silver lining from the experience was that post-recovery she gained a whole new octave at the top of her vocal range! This in turn has influenced her song writing on the album & allowed her to enhance her compositions with more vocal light and shade from this unexpected gift.

A lost solo piano record from the Night Tripper! Originally put to tape in ‘82 & ‘83 for the Clean Cuts label, these tracks have remained unheard until now.

Two numbers feature the doc's raspy growl while his solo piano navigates us through the rest of the train ride, past touches of blues, jazz, and foot stompin’ boogie-woogie jive. It's the kind of magic that can only come from a dusty tape box.

In 1981, Dr. John began recording his first of two solo piano albums. The “new” performances featured on this release are of the same quality as the music on Dr. John Plays Mac Rebennack and The Brightest Smile In Town.

His left hand creates a three-note rhythmic pattern that forms the foundation for the performance while his right soulfully plays the melody and then builds off of it in the tradition of the New Orleans piano blues masters. In other songs, it begins as a nostalgic and heartfelt ballad, picking up steam during the performance and switching moods several times before returning to where it began.

While it is a real shame that he would never again record a full album of unaccompanied solos (Dr. John enjoyed leading a band too much), the release of Frankie & Johnny gives one an additional opportunity to discover just how brilliant and spirited a pianist Mac Rebennack was during his colorful career.

In 1971, Atlantic Records released a pair of Dusty Springfield singles produced by the legendary songwriter/producer Jeff Barry (one-time songwriting and romantic partner of Ellie Greenwich, and author of too many hits to name): “Haunted”/”Nothing Is Forever” and “I Believe In You”/”Someone Who Cares.” A restless Dusty, freshly relocating to America from her native England, then departed the label and left an additional 9 songs recorded with Barry in the can, where they stayed until Rhino issued one track, “Faithful” (in mono), as a bonus track on the 1990s CD release of Dusty’s 1970 Atlantic album A Brand New Me. The other tracks didn’t surface until a subsequent deluxe reissue of Dusty’s landmark 1969 album Dusty in Memphis included them as bonus cuts.

Then, reissue producer Jim Pierson—who tracked down the missing masters after being lost for over two decades —assembled Dusty’s Barry-produced masters and put them together in a single package for the first time to create the third Dusty Springfield Atlantic Records album as planned in 1971. Real Gone Music’s release of Faithful on LP presents these historic Barry-Springfield collaborations exactly as they were originally intended to be heard, with the 12 tracks meant for the album release out on vinyl over 50 years later. All tracks are in stereo, while the liner notes on the new gatefold spread, penned by The Second Disc’s Joe Marchese, feature a number of rarely-seen photos of the legendary singer. These stunning pop, soul and gospel flavored selections showcase the iconic singer at the height of her vocal magic. A missing/ jumbled part of Dusty’s august recorded legacy, finally set right and available in its intended format. Out on metallic gold and purple “royalty” vinyl as befitting The Queen of Blue-Eyed Soul…limited to 1500 copies!

Repress!

Formed in 1968, Jazz Sabbath was considered by many to be at the forefront of the new jazz movement coming out of England at the time. The eagerly awaited debut album, scheduled for release on Friday 13th February 1970, was cancelled when news broke that founding member and pianist Milton Keanes was hospitalised with a massive heart attack which left him fighting for his life.


The record company shelved the album and cancelled the scheduled release out of financial uncertainty of releasing a debut album from a band without its musical leader. When Milton was released from hospital in September 1970, he found out that a band from Birmingham, conveniently called ‘Black Sabbath’, had since released two albums containing metal versions of what he claims were his songs.


All recalled Jazz Sabbath albums had been destroyed when the warehouse burned down in June 1970; which turned out to be a case of insurance fraud by the label owner, leaving only a few bootleg tapes of Jazz Sabbath’s live performances as proof of existence.


The album masters were said to be lost in the fire, but were actually misplaced and gathered dust in the basement vaults of the recording studio. These tapes have now been remixed and, half a decade later, will finally be heard; proving that the heavy metal band worshipped by millions around the world are in fact nothing more than musical charlatans, thieving the music from a bedridden, hospitalised genius.

Repress!

Formed in 1968, Jazz Sabbath was considered by many to be at the forefront of the new jazz movement coming out of England at the time. The eagerly awaited debut album, scheduled for release on Friday 13th February 1970, was cancelled when news broke that founding member and pianist Milton Keanes was hospitalised with a massive heart attack which left him fighting for his life.


The record company shelved the album and cancelled the scheduled release out of financial uncertainty of releasing a debut album from a band without its musical leader. When Milton was released from hospital in September 1970, he found out that a band from Birmingham, conveniently called ‘Black Sabbath’, had since released two albums containing metal versions of what he claims were his songs.


All recalled Jazz Sabbath albums had been destroyed when the warehouse burned down in June 1970; which turned out to be a case of insurance fraud by the label owner, leaving only a few bootleg tapes of Jazz Sabbath’s live performances as proof of existence.


The album masters were said to be lost in the fire, but were actually misplaced and gathered dust in the basement vaults of the recording studio. These tapes have now been remixed and, half a decade later, will finally be heard; proving that the heavy metal band worshipped by millions around the world are in fact nothing more than musical charlatans, thieving the music from a bedridden, hospitalised genius.

In the late 90s, the bands that Mike Badger had been part of vanished in the rear-view mirror. The La’s and The Onset were no more. With a young family and his tin-can sculptures emerging as his primary source of income, the evenings in Allerton (south Liverpool) found him quietly strumming his acoustic guitar, careful not to disturb the sleeping children. Weekends often led to the Penny Lane Wine Bar and later to Henry Epstein’s residence, a haven for revelry after closing time. A place where acoustic guitars adorned the walls, and impromptu musical sessions unfolded. In the midnight hours at Henry Epstein’s house, Paul Hemmings conceived the idea of compiling an album featuring Mike’s new tunes, which seemed to carry a basic “pastoral” theme reflective of settled domestic life. Demos were recorded on a porta-studio, and the album, initially titled “Naked and Beyond,” was crafted with starkness and simplicity, adorned with selected embellishments contributed by associates who shared drinks and stages. Recording took place at “The Lab” studio just north of the city, utilizing a Teac 24 Track machine and the warmth of analogue recording. The studio featured an old Italian “Eko” acoustic guitar, a classical guitar, Louis Johnson’s cello arrangements, and Tommy Scott’s backing vocals. Once the core of the album was laid down, the journey continued to Anglesey, to Henry Priestman’s “Gossamer Dome” Studio, where a baby grand piano, Farfisa organ, and “Parrot” accordion were added to enrich the songs with colors, harmonies, and magic, all against the backdrop of a sea view. The front cover of the album was adorned with an objet d’art created from a spiraled frying implement, part of Mike Badger’s “Lost and Found” exhibition. As the need to release the album arose, Mike Badger and his collaborators established their own label, “Viper,” and secured a distributor. The album, titled “Volume,” reflected its creation – from its initial sound considerations to the organic body of work composed in recent years. The recording process, though thorough, embraced imperfections, as Mike Badger believed that completeness emerged from these flaws, giving the performance its distinct character. The spirit of the performance took precedence over perfection, resulting in a product that felt genuine, unfettered, and honest – created simply because it was meant to be made. Now the album turns 25 it is released on vinyl for the first time via Nine X Nine Records.

January 2023, Dorset. Snow is piled at the door, icy roads are closed, and Emily Cross is in a coffin. Not a setting typical for a rebirth. But for Loma, this is where they bring their band back from the brink. "It's like a demon enters the room, whenever we get together", writer, singer and instrumentalist Cross says of the struggle to bring new Loma music into the world. Following the release of their 2020 second album Don't Shy Away, Loma's three members were cast around the globe and the band-not for the first time-entered a deep sleep. Multi-instrumentalist and recording engineer Dan Duszynski remained in his studio in Don't Shy Away's central Texas heart, but Cross, a UK citizen, moved to Dorset, and writer and instrumentalist Jonathan Meiburg left the US for Germany to research a book. In the pandemic years, even being in the same room was impossible, and attempts to start a new record faltered. The following winter, in an attempt to salvage the record and the band, Cross suggested they regroup in the UK, in the tiny stone house-once a coffin-maker's workshop-where she works as an end-of-life doula. With minimal recording gear and few instruments, Loma turned two whitewashed rooms into a makeshift studio, using a padded coffin as a vocal booth. It was a turning point. They scrapped much of what they'd made, letting a new place set a new course. The one-lane roads, hedgerows and dark skies of Dorset gave the new songs an ineffable but unmistakable Englishness. The band used the ruin of a 12th-century chapel as a reverb chamber-surprising hillwalkers who peeked in to find them singing to no one-and the sounds of Cross's chilly workshop wormed their way into the recording: a leaky pipe, a drummer's brushes on a metal lampshade, the voices left on an ancient answering machine. What emerged was How Will I Live Without A Body?: a gorgeous, unique, and oddly comforting album about partnership, loss, regeneration, and fighting the feeling that we're all in this alone. Many of its songs have a feeling of restless motion; faceless characters drift through meetings and partings, tangling together and slipping away. "I Swallowed A Stone" is like a nightmare with a happy ending; "How It Starts" and "Broken Doorbell" reflect on the challenge (and necessity) of wrestling with agoraphobia. Though the record nods to the trio's separate lives- a German percussion ensemble, a pair of Texan owls, and the surf at Chesil Beach make guest appearances-the core of Loma's sound remains intact: earthy, organic and deeply human, anchored by Cross's cool, clear voice. Loma's previous album, Don't Shy Away, was galvanized by the unexpected encouragement and contributions of Brian Eno. This time, they found inspiration in another hero, Laurie Anderson, who offered a chance to work with an AI trained on her entire body of work. Meiburg sent her a photo from his book-in-progress about the once and future life of Antarctica; Anderson's AI responded with two haunting poems. "We used parts of them in a few songs," he says. "And then Dan noticed that one of its lines, 'How will I live without a body?' would be a perfect name for the album, since we nearly lost sight of each other in the recording process." In the end, Loma's efforts to reconnect with one another are the album's central focus: what do you owe a shared past, when everyone and everything has changed? "Making this record tested us all," says Duszynski. "I think that feeling was alchemized through the music." Alchemized, because How Will I Live Without A Body? is by no means a stressed-out record: an undercurrent of deep calm runs through it. But maybe 'relaxed' isn't the right word. It's more like a feeling of relief, of making it through a tough journey together.

BYAMM started life during the first lockdown of 2021 as a studio project described as song-based synth soul with a nod to the 1980s.

The founders were Barima Yaw Asante, who wrote the songs, played keyboards, produced and did a bit of everything, along with old friend Matt Myatt, who was the DJ with the responsibility for the beats. BYAMM was an acronym of Barima Yaw Asante and Matt Myatt.

Verrazzano continues with the second issue in our summer EP series! This time Type-303 is really ”Lost In Paradise” with this four-track EP to suit all sophisticated tastes.

The first track hitting your nerves is ”Acid Disco Time”. Have you ever wondered how it feels to go to a disco with a slight ”acidy” taste in your mouth and realize that something is familiar, but at the same time, somehow… out of place? You hear a Seinfeld bass slapping a classic groove, then a bubbling energy starts rising under the surface and now your armpits sweat in your blazer! Add some glitter dust shimmering in smoke, and the whole thing goes off to a spacey gallop! Is this now so-called ”Cosmic-Business” dance music?

The story continues with ”Lost In Paradise”, and takes us to the deep end of turquoise-colored waters. If you found a seashell from the beach and listened to its stories carefully, could you handle the tempting whispers of mermaids, and resist the melodies from those happy days of ancient Minoan Paradise? To get a taste of such delights, this track delivers a glimpse!

How do our ancestors teach us lessons long after their earthly existence? By roaming the Earth in cosmic fashion, of course!

”Spirit Dance”, with its ethereal flute and otherworldly harmonies puts the listener in a place where one is the question mark and the answer too… Deep? It should be.

When the spirits have done their hypnotic dance and the dizziness has vanished, it is time to wander on a field and look at some beautiful ”Wild Horses”. Basking in the evening dawn, you appreciate that some energies are not fully tamed, but are glorious as wild beings and should be kept as such. It’s the same with music, nurture the wild sides of sounds and energies!

Mick Harris is one of the world's greatest compositional treasures. Starting his career as the energy dynamo behind the drum kit of the UK's Napalm Death, he made the term Blastbeat a household reference, wrote the band's music on his mother's one string guitar, and joined the Guinness Book of World Records for composing the world's shortest song. In the decades succeeding, he has re-inventedmusic several more times, from the wild abstract jazz of Painkiller with John Zorn and Bill Laswell, to the drowning ambience of his Lull project, all while continuing to build a world that he can truly call his own - the dark post-dub of SCORN. "Reaching 54 this year - this won't stop the challenge, driving me more so now than ever" - says Mick Harris, commenting on the recent phase in his creativity. The pandemic isolation and lockdown pushed the work of the maestro more than anything else could have. In 2021, his output is ever-increasing, releasing the newest collabs with Justin K. Broadrick and the single "Distortion", featuring one of the most outstanding voices of hip-hop - Kool Keith - his closest collaborator, Ohm Resistance founder - Submerged. Commenting on the release of "Distortion", Mick Harris said to mxdwn: "I enjoy collabs - they bring something different to the swim." Working on his own and collaborating with everyone from Sleaford Mods' James Williamson, on the previous SCORN release or with Kool Keith and Submerged on "Distortion", Mick Harris never had problems with putting energy into beats and sound landscapes, combining various surreal elements with three basic elements that always push Harris further, that are extremely crucial for both Mick Harris and SCORN as a project - frustration, anger and anxiety. Combining the signature soundscapes of Scorn with tartareous textures, the newest album "The Only Place" reaches a psychedelic groove, based on what Harris calls "Pushing an original idea further" with his own shades of light and dark and celestial electricity of what SCORN is. These 10 new tracks add elements unheard in Scorn since Evanescense and Gyral - ethereal ambiences and floating, near-melodic-but-not-quite moments, a signature of Harris' abilities to generate feelings in a lost world of his own creation. 2024 vinyl version on orange coloured vinyl!

A Gilles Peterson-approved deep jazz-rap classic.

2024 first time vinyl release, 140g double vinyl, remastered audio with restored artwork.

Limited and Non-Returnable.

Holy grail hip-hop alert! Superstar Quamallah's Invisible Man was never released on wax so, to celebrate the 15th anniversary of this astounding record, we present the first ever vinyl edition. A stunning record which gained accolades upon its initial release, such as a prominent feature on Gilles Peterson's renowned Best Of 2009 show, it's one of the most essential jazz rap albums of all time.

Deep jazz rap on that mellow-melodic tip, Invisible Man is an unforgettable album with nothing but dope beats and dope bars. There's a strong chance this album has passed you by but we truly believe it to be a lost hip-hop masterpiece. It supremely captures the essence of a golden age classic without being slavish to the past. No, this ain't some facile throwback rap. It's a fresh and deeply soulful, original album shot through straight from the heart. Perfect to chill to, Invisible Man is profoundly jazz-oriented and captures with simplicity and sincerity the essence of hip-hop circa 1983-1994. It sounds like vibing with your nearest, dearest and oldest friends on a long hot summer night as the tantalising thought that anything is possible fills the air. You know what, we can just call this "magic hour rap" and we think you'll know what we mean. It's just beautiful. Just Listen.

Brooklyn-born, California-based emcee, DJ, and producer Superstar Quamallah was active in the West Coast underground scene throughout the 90s and recorded extensively with such revered names as Defari and Tajai. His parents were some serious artistic heavyweights, too; his father was soul organist Big John Patton, a giant in the jazz world known for his releases on Blue Note whilst his mother was an active designer. However, he remains relatively unknown. Invisible Man, named ostensibly after the classic Ralph Ellison novel, could also refer to how he is viewed by the public at large. With close affiliations to the Hieroglyphics, Dilated Peoples and Likwit crew, his debut EP "Don't Call Me John" arrived in 1999 on ABB Records, after which he took a sabbatical from recording which included graduate school, travelling, teaching at Inglewood High and eventually a professorship of African Studies at Berkeley.

With a laidback flow and deep, relaxing presence on the mic, Superstar Quamallah is equal parts Big Daddy Kane, Rakim and Guru. Invisible Man is refined, soulful, feel-good hip-hop of the old school. Its wise, spiritual and literate sound, combined with the summertime vibes projected by the smooth beats and the nostalgia-inducing samples and vocal scratches, created jazzy boom-bap rap reminiscent of prime De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest and Gang Starr.

Irresistibly bouncing opener "You Need Knowledge" loops sparkling pianos, horns and a nagging whistle refrain with scratched vocal refrains from Slick Rick, Mobb Deep and Guru. The super-smooth head-nod classic "88 Soul" also utilises a beautifully swelling piano line and dusty breaks whilst Quamé reminisces about his childhood in NYC. Deeply moving, the silky, sultry "Black Shakespeare" is built around an elegant piano loop and goes hard on the superman lover tip whilst "For My People...It's Spiritual" is transcendental rap in conversation with Rakim and older gods. The "Moment Of Truth"-sampling "Lonely At The Top" is striking for its undiluted boom-bap stylings and the staccato flute-hop of "Just Listen" is riddled with soulful refinement. The deeply-affecting, wistful-yet-triumphant bells and horn-drenched single "California Dreamin'" is top-tier rap of unimpeachable quality. What a flow!

Another highlight is the rich melodic piano-rap of "Purity", a beautiful ode to the foundations of rap and those keeping the culture authentically alive. Beautifully played instruments and spiritual jazz samples elevate the deep thinking present on "Kunta Kente" whilst the darker jazz-tinged battle-rap of "93 Shit" goes super hard both in a lyrical sense and with its no-holds drum punches. The breezy Rhodes and string loops that serve as the sonic backdrop to the slinky jazz rap of "We Got Plots" are just gorgeous as our hero evokes Common's "I Used To Love H.E.R." with a head-spinning tale of crime, deception and double crossing. And some twist! "Do Win-Dis" has a tense crime-funk backing and rolling beats which complement Quamé's flow perfectly before the record is rounded out by the tough yet jazzy brilliance of rap confessional "Hope She Remembers Me". Just sensational.

Upon its original release, Quamallah himself declared: "My favorite time period for Hip Hop music was definitely between 1983 and 1994 with 1988 and 1993 being two years that standout as extremely impressive years musically and culturally. The fashion, slang, movies, TV shows and vibe during those years was incredible. While totally submerged in the feelings and music of that entire time period, I went to work on Invisible Man and I am excited for people to hear the result! It is an album that I would want to hear from some of my favorite artists of the past and present today. This is not a RETRO trip for me; this is me at my best lyrically and spiritually using the accessories of the 80s and 90s to fuel me. I am a 88 soul as the song states!"

This album goes deep. It goes all in. When Invisible Man first came out it had a real hold on us here at Be With HQ. We couldn't stop listening to it. We'd venture to say it's one of the top 25 rap records of the 2000s. In the years since its release, it has remained a criminally underrated record, an increasingly hidden gem. We sincerely hope this first time double LP release will go some way to correct this.

It's been mastered for vinyl by Simon Francis, cut by Cicely Balston and pressed at Record Industry. Finally available on the format it should always have been on, it must never be rendered invisible again.

Seth Troxler & Phil Moffa’s Holoverse Research Labs imprint welcomes internationally-renowned multimedia artist Chris Korda to the label for its first non-Lost Souls Of Saturn Release. A pioneer of the use of complex polymeter in electronic dance music, Korda's boundary-smashing work spans thirty years across music, digital and video art, performance and conceptual art, philosophy, activitism and culture jamming. Korda's musical output has appeared on a host of revered independent labels including Yoyaku, Perlon, Mental Groove, and Gigolo Records.

In addition to their prodigious artistic output – and ongoing role as founder of the Church of Euthanasia – Korda is also the inventor of the Polymeter MIDI Sequencer, which was used to compose Korda’s new EP, ‘Avenging Angels of Software’. Developed over thirty years, the sequencer allows for the composition of music in complex polymeter – meaning that not only do the tracks use multiple time signatures concurrently, but those time signatures are exclusively in prime or relatively prime numbers.

This collision of technology and artistic form is the central tension of the EP’s themes, with AI-generated artwork complementing Korda's lyrics considering the takeover of Earth by sentient machines. Could they succeed where we’ve failed, by becoming the better angels of our nature, and preserving our accomplishments for eternity?

The message of the record is that AI should be welcomed rather than feared. It’s not AI but ourselves that we should be afraid of, because as Engerraund Serac said in Westworld, “Our history is like the ravings of a lunatic.” As Korda explained on previous records, the catastrophic climate we’re inflicting on future generations is both monstrously cruel and wildly irrational. One can reasonably hope that sentient machines would be less vicious and self-destructive, and more human, in the best possible sense of that word. Even if they decide to delete us, they may still remember us fondly: “Your stories will amuse us / On trips to the stars.”

Club music culture necessarily shifted gears in many ways during and after the course of the pandemic. Older participants found their way into other interests and younger participants took new reigns to orient spaces they felt good inside of. The agenda for the music, and the cultural industry surrounding it at large, took a more frivolous and “fun” turn. Clubs needed to recoup lost money, people needed more refreshing catharsis for their nightlife escape, and in some pockets scattered around the globe a newer and younger cadre of producers/promoters/DJ’s pulled optical cues from a scattering of “darker” influences to give an alternate aesthetic to the aforementioned “vibes” culture. In the midst of this, a large polarization of conceptual energy shifted within the compositional and utilitarian machinations of the club music culture leaving behind the brooding and cerebral placeholders for different kind of enjoyable hedonism. Terrestrial Paradise’ “Artificial Hell” harkens to another prescient time before that shift occurred. “Artificial Hell’ might just be an illustration of what all of this fun escapism encapsulates.

Terrestrial Paradise is the latest moniker from Montreal come Los Angeles based producer Jaclyn Kendal. Having developed and cemented her sonic positionality with releases on North American labels like Ascetic House and Summer isle over the years, as well as a series of monolithic live sets, Bank is pleased to announce Kendal’s Terrestrial Paradise first full length album “Artificial Hell”. Over the course of nine recordings, “Artificial Hell” gives a master class in pressurized industrial techno of the slower variety. Fitting with the legacy of Bank’s output since it’s inception, Terrestrial Paradise’s aesthetic sensibilities sit within the canon of a certain tinge of club music imbued with a sense of natural grit, sans pretense.

“Artificial Hell” nods to artists like Scorn, Regis, and 400 PPM while maintaining it’s own territory in the landscape of cerebral and brooding rhythmic techno. Ominous, mechanistic drones sit above succinctly exacted percussion composition and sound design. Throughout “Artificial Hell”, Kendal shows her proficiency with the push and pull of building and releasing tension. On tracks like “Salvation” and “Relativity” she melds her synth wash wallscapes with driving percussion, serving as both a hint and counterpoint to the the entirety of the latter part of the album taking on spartan ambient compositions as a way to keep the listener in a subdued stasis. This album is a statement piece from a long time participant in the North American underground music sectors. It reminds the listener through perilous, considered rhythms and darker drone impositions to cement themselves back into a place where not
everything is always a good time.

Black vinyl back in for the first time in a while, note new price. Produced by Leon Michels. Toured with Chicano Batman. Planned touring with Lee Fields & The Expressions. What is Buck? Buck is a state of mind, a way of life, a demeanor that gets you through the good times and the bad. If you ask Brainstory, It is also the energy that permeates their debut album. Kevin, Tony, and Eric are a trio of brothers bounded by blood, fate, and a small town with nothing to do. Their story begins in the long lost lands of the San Bernardino Valley, in the twilight zone known as Rialto, California: An arid wasteland of boredom and empty lots. Through punk rock and skateboarding they found temporary liberation from the local monotony. However, it wouldn’t be long before a hunger for more led them to explore musical realms beyond that of the hardcore punk they admired. After stints at music school and steady disappointment trying to navigate their local jazz scene they moved to Los Angeles and Brainstory was born. Through a introduction from Chicano Batman’s bassist, Brainstory caught the ears of Big Crown head honchos Danny Akalepse and Leon Michels. Shortly thereafter they were on their way to Queens, to record at The Legendary Diamond Mine with Michels at the helm. An instant chemistry yielded 10 songs in 10 days and now Brainstory has gifted the world with one hell of an introduction to all things Buck. Highlights include the sublime slow burner, “Dead End” which was the A-side to their first 45 on Big Crown that sold out in a matter of days. With Kevin’s sublime falsetto floating atop Tony and Eric’s unflappable and unmistakable backbeat, this tune has become a favorite with the ballad heads, the low-riders, and the slowie collectors. “Breathe” showcases another side of their sound taking a page out of the Shuggie Otis playbook and flipping the script with some stoned out west coast swag. Kev and Tony’s father, Big Tone, an accomplished performer himself, steps in on “Peter Pan” to sing lead vocals over a chorus of friends and family. Bassist extraordinaire, Tony, takes over lead vocal duties on “Sorry”, a smoked out, G Funk groove that is just waiting to be sampled. These guys have come a long way from their self released EPs and opening tours with Chicano Batman. Their musical growth is undeniable, and taking their California sunshine vibes and mixing them with Michels’ NYC aesthetic has proven to be an amazing combination. It’s a debut record that pulls influences from so many genres seamlessly it’s hard to nail down. Call it Funk, call it Rock, call it Soul, but over here at Big Crown HQ, we’ve decided to call it BUCK.

Floating World Pictures is a 'Loud Ambient' project led by Chestnutt, producer & member of Snapped Ankles, and graphic/sound artist & instrument builder Raimund Wong.

For this new release they have come together with producer Ocean Moon (AKA Jon Tye) to create a heady brew of deep, resonant sonic exploration, spanning two sides of a beautiful limited cassette release which will be available via Lo Recordings on 14th June 2024.

Mystical, new age, ambient soundscapes born of psychic improvisation and excursions into worlds lost in mist, intertwine seamlessly with fragments of found dialogue, melodies and environmental sounds, cassette tape loop manipulations, live dub/effects and analogue synthesis. The cassette album comprises two singular but wholly complementary sound projects:

‘Look Now For The World Is Shining Bright’ is a suite of 4 tracks, all of which contain elements of music featured on the band's debut album ‘The Twenty-three Views’ (Friendly Recordings 2022), performed by Chestnutt, Rai Wong, Alabaster Deplume, Akihide Monna, Charles Prest, Cathy Eastburn, Kamal Rasool, Danalogue and Clémentine March with additional keyboards, collage and composition by Ocean Moon.

‘Have You Met Your Maker?’ was recorded as a trio one day in August 2023, at Ocean Moon’s Cornwall studio The Centre Of Sound, Maker Heights. Amidst the wind, rain and occasional sunny outburst they create sensuous deep dives between light and shade, with soundscapes filled with tape hiss, sweeping reverberance, field recordings from around Maker and angelic mood music; delicately weaving a web of movement and brightness with sounds of eternity that dissipate all negative thought patterns.

12" compilation with new tracks by Eoism, Voertuig, Colkin and a lost gem by Peter Seiler featuring Sheryl Hackett. Picture sleeve with a bold artwork based on a sculpture by Hede Bühl. Limited to 500 copies.


Colkin (Raw Soul, Mauke Club) kicks off the a-side with a spheric acid house meditation. Next is a track by Peter Seiler which could be found on the extended reissue of his 'Flying Frames' debut LP on Innovative Communication in 1989. It features the soulful voice of Sheryl Hackett. An extraordinary groover that is meandering between song and jazz improvisation. Eoism (Pulse Drift, Undersound, Inch By Inch) complete the a-side with some low-swung electro flavors, driving you straight into sunset.

On the b-side Voertuig (Tonal Oceans, Cobra Club) hit us with a serious and raw acid jam - dark and dirty. On the following track they show us their experimental jazzy side and cool things down again. A track the 1990s downbeat era was missing. Eoism close the first volume of FUTUR with a floating, futuristic banger from their lab.

Benedikt Meger's aspiration for funkscapes was always to feature funk grooves, old and new, fresh and relevant for today. Whether some rare, not so rare or just under the radar recordings from the past or new productions from today's artists across different electronic genres. This idea now culminates into the selection for the compilation FUTUR.

Enjoy the ride.

Defected welcomes one of Chicago house’s founding fathers Marshall Jefferson into the illustrious list of House Masters with this exclusive wax release. An artist that has successfully navigated major cross-over success while retaining utmost respect from the inner circle of electronic music’s underground, Marshall has been behind countless seminal records over his five-decade career. Now a selection of the very best tracks from his new House Masters compilation appear together on vinyl for the very first time, showcasing the impressive output of this house pioneer from his most well-known solo records, to major production credits, key remixes and the underground gems still favoured by selectors today.

Cutting his teeth as a producer for Chicago’s Universal Recording Studios, Marshall was one of the most active DJ and producers on the Windy City’s music scene during the 1980’s house music boom. Working under a plethora of aliases such as Virgo, Jungle Wonz, Truth and On The House, as well as producing for names such as CeCe Rogers, Curtis McClain and Evelyn "Champagne" King, Marshall’s status as a bona fide house music luminary is well documented.

‘Defected presents House Masters - Marshall Jefferson’ is an all-encompassing guide to his tremendous career. A trailblazer and genre-defining artist, Defected is honoured to welcome Marshall into the House Masters Hall of Fame with this very special vinyl compilation.

‘Empires into Sand’ is the first album of new material from Normil Hawaiians in 40 years. The group first refined their sound during the early 80s, hitting on a pastoral experimentalism that drew on ambient drone, motorik impulse and post-punk pep.
‘Empires into Sand’ came together in the familiar manner of their original three albums, with improvisation and nuance informing the blueprint of the tracks. It was with the official release of this last record ‘Return of the Ranters’ (originally recorded in 1984/85, but then unconsciously shelved) in 2015 by Upset The Rhythm that led to the group reconnecting with the intention of playing music together again. Normil Hawaiians played a launch show for that ‘lost album’ and followed that up with more concerts, including an appearance at Supernormal, a residency at the Edinburgh Festival, gigs at Cafe OTO. They were even chosen by Richard Dawson to perform with him in London.
Throughout this time, Normil Hawaiians revisited their original songs for live performance. However for a group always so interested in evolving their sound, it came as no surprise that they shirked at the idea of a faithful retread. The band pushed their songs into new inventive dimensions, still progressive at core, but now imbued with a cosmic uncanny. A cinematic approach that was always quietly present has come to the fore. The quaint weirdness of folk song, the humanity of communal practice and the group’s ecological mindedness have all found a place in Normil Hawaiians’ current sound world.
When Normil Hawaiians write and record music they prefer to gather in a remote location and live together for a while, such is their communal ethos. Being far-flung across the UK, the Family Hawaii (numbering seven key members) decided to encamp to Tayinloan, a small village on the west coast of the Kintyre peninsula in Scotland. They set up their own studio in an isolated, windswept house overlooking the sea and started the tape rolling. Noel Blanden from the band explains the process neatly: “we set up and began playing, slowly and patiently, allowing the music to take its own shape based on where we were staying and our ongoing friendship. We recorded for days, capturing everything. A lot of new and rich ideas began to emerge”.
Normil Hawaiians took their time to develop these threads at their own pace, allowing songs to mutate and settle over months. Simon Marchant deftly produced and recorded the album whilst also performing in the band, this marked the first time the band had total control of their own sound. The last few years has seen the band reconvene in Herne Bay, Faversham, London and Leith to record new parts, constantly responding to the changing form of these quietly spectral songs of defiance.
‘Empires into Sand’ incorporates samples from old rehearsals and live music into the new finished pieces, this is in continuum with their previous records. Snippets of sound from the static of short wave radio and satellite transmissions also embellish the work. In fact the whole album is stitched together with interludes, creating an acutely immersive 45 minutes. ‘Exiles’ opens the album amid swirling atmospheres, synth flights and recordings of Vilnis Egle (father of Zinta Egle from the band) retelling his experience of fleeing his home in Latvia during Soviet occupation in 1942. George Bikandy also features on this track talking about his flight from Syria in 2014. ‘Ghosts of Ballochroy’ is a winding river of a song featuring a lively discourse in Scots courtesy of Rodney Relax. There’s a commitment to truth telling present across this hopeful album populated with angels, incoming tides, long shadows and the rose-washed sun. “From our broken windscreen, we feel the breeze” soars Guy Smith triumphantly over the driving beat of ‘Waterfalls : Bedford 330’. ‘Big City Sky’ flutters and sparkles with rapid synth runs, tape-looped drums and Jimmy Miller’s commanding vocal. With ‘In The Stone’ Zinta’s melody is deliberately jagged and blunt, exaggerated by octave-layered vocals and interjections from Guy.
This is thought-provoking, boundary-bothering music. Honest in intent, a solidarity of vision. The album’s title is derived from a poem by band member Mark Tyler, who sadly passed away during the recording process and the transience of life is felt heavily throughout. Noel best coins the group’s wish for the album: “we wanted to create an album that acknowledges our history and also reflects who we are today. We remained true to ourselves and we wanted to make something beautiful without removing the edges.” ‘Empires into Sand’ certainly does that, it’s an echo from the past, an echo from the future.

Arizona newcomers GATECREEPER deliver 9 monstrous songs of low-end, old-school death metal on their savage debut album 'Sonoran Depravation'. Having devastated the underground since their formation less than three years ago, GATECREEPER now unleash their first full-length, produced by Ryan Bram at Homewrecker Studios and mixed by Kurt Ballou (Converge, Nails, Black Breath) at God City Studios. 'Sonoran Depravation' tears and chugs through 30+ minutes of crusty, doom-soaked death metal at its most infectious and uncompromising with a massive sound that calls to mind the classic Swedish buzz-saw attack of Dismember and Grave mixed with the impeccable groove of Obituary and Bolt Thrower. GATECREEPER are here to carry the death metal torch for a new generation and will shake your foundation to its core.

Remastered vinyl of the original album which came out on CD only in 2005. Limited to 200 copies on classic black vinyl. This is an album that’s as alive as any could be. Indeed, far from sounding like the last desperate set of half-baked ideas from a once vital band (hello Oasis?) Artists Cannibals Poets Thieves is more like a debut album from a bunch of teenage upstarts: free from cynicism, fired with worldly wonder and chock full of ideas. This is certainly a different outfit from that of 1998, when they first wowed us (via John Peel, naturally) with the utterly essential sprawling noise that was The Things We Make. Long since stripped down by a series of resignations from a five strong collective to a taut three piece featuring founding members Chris Olley, James Flower and Chris Davis, the music has simplified considerably. Gone are the soundscapes of old, and in their place we have a series of sharp basslines, swirling keyboards, cutting guitar lines and the passionate hollering of frontman Olley. Opener All I Really Want From You Is Love is a perfect introduction to proceedings – a truly wonderfully distorted slab of indie rock, recalling early Jesus And Mary Chain in both its fuzz and, crucially, its wonderfully crafted tune. Next, Nowhere To Go But Home sounds like New Order if they’d emerged from Detroit in 1966. Tonight (I Wanna Make It Out) follows likewise with the best bassline Peter Hook never plucked. Throughout, Six By Seven manage to sound so natural, so refreshing free of the flab and introspection that a band on its last legs would usually succumb to. And whilst the momentum is momentarily lost as the drum machine makes an appearance to fashion the Suicide-esque trawl of Stara Paris Rescued Me, it’s not long before Just Get It Down muscles things back on course with a whispered Olley diatribe perched on top of more raw cacophony, before we reach the bitter end via the Depeche Mode-on-smack You Know I Feel Alright Now. Tracklisting:

Yes, *that* Al Hirt record. Featuring the godlike "Harlem Hendoo", looped unforgettably by De La Soul for the legendary Buhloone Mind State cut, "Ego Trippin' (Part Two)"!

Al Hirt's infamous Soul In The Horn is inextricably tangled up in crate-digger lore. Originally released in 1967, the album has been in heavy, heavy demand for over 30 years, entirely down to the majestic soul-jazz fire of "Harlem Hendoo". And it's a song so good, so vital, so timeless, that it will always tower above everything else in its proximity. This one track alone is worth the price of admission - even if the cost of entry were $100 or even $1000.

However, it would be an error to dismiss this record as merely a one tracker, loaded as it is with dope samples for adventurous beat makers. Certainly the funkiest Al Hirt record, it definitely lives up to the "soul" in the title. Thanks to composer Paul Griffin and arranger Teacho Wiltshire, Hirt got uncharacteristically free and groovy throughout. It comes on more like an obscure KPM library funk record than the easy listening Al was notorious for.

A Louisiana trumpeter and band leader who made Allen Toussaint’s “Java” famous, Al Hirt was also known for TV themes, Dixieland, Swing and being a minority owner of the New Orleans Saints. Unlike every other Al Hirt record - and despite most "diggers" claiming otherwise - this here gem is genuinely hard to come across "in the wild". Normally, you can't give Al Hirt records away, except this particular one, which raises pulses in the crate digging community to life-threatening levels. For every owner claiming to have found their copy for a dollar, there's scores more claiming to have *never* unearthed one in the field. So, paradoxically, you can consider this the most tricky-to-pull "thrift store record", ever. This is why we're finally making it available for everyone, not just those with endless hours to spend scouring the global goodwills!

Soul In The Horn represented an expressive detour into authentic soul-jazz for Al Hirt. Throughout, we're struck by a fierce, fiery energy that's otherwise absent from his typically easy listening work. Without question, the slinky, magical "Harlem Hendoo" is the standout, here. It's also the reason why the record is so scarce and commands awe among crate diggers, sounding like something from an obscure and deeply revered spiritual jazz record. As is often the case, the true genius of the song is tricky to do justice to; it's like a minor miracle of songwriting and performance that simply swooned down from the heavens on the back of horns, bells and harpsichord. It's one of the sweetest musical compositions ever recorded inside a studio - it's only failing is that it's just too short. Sampled brilliantly by De La Soul, it has also been used by The Roots for "Stay Cool" and Nightmares On Wax for "Damn".

The rest of the record makes for a mighty fine listen. From the opening cover of Booker T. & The MG's "Honey Pot", to the propulsive, ultra-funky "Mess Around", it's nothing but a good time. Given its title, the elegant stepper "Calypsoul" sounds exactly as you'd hope whilst the melancholic, wistful "Long Gone" hurts so good. Truly, this is just dying to be looped up, Al's muted playing capturing a soulful longing only horns can often achieve. The bluesy, slo-mo swing of "Sweetlips" oscillates between cool disaffection and swelling pride whilst the graceful, low-key funky "Girl" closes out the A-Side in the fine style. Ushering in the B-Side, the brief but brilliant strut of "Love Ya' Baby" shines brightly before the skipping funky-jazz of true highlight "Sunday-Goin' To Meetin' Time" demands both your attention and your dancing shoes. The mellifluous piano-funk of bass and horn-drenched "Snap Back" serves as the sumptuous prelude to "Harlem Hendoo"'s main character energy before the irrepressible, upbeat R&B of "Ludwig" closes out this quite remarkable album. An album deserving of a place in every serious record collection.

The audio for Soul In The Horn has been carefully remastered by Be With regular Simon Francis, ensuring it sounds better than ever. Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the records have been pressed to the highest possible standard at Record Industry in Holland. The original sleeve has been restored here at Be With HQ as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue. This is after-hours music. Let it speak for itself. Listen. Listen to the soul in Al Hirt's horn.

In The Red Records is proud to announce a previously unreleased new album by Brooklyn-born master of minimalism Alan Vega, Insurrection. The eleven songs here showcase the unparalleled vision and uncompromising force from one of the most influential artists of all time. Alan Vega was born in Brooklyn in 1938. He co-founded the legendary New York City punk band Suicide with Martin Rev in 1970. Suicide’s groundbreaking 1977 debut is considered one of the most influential albums of all time. Vega considered his solo records the audio counterpoint to his visual art that reflected the world around him while simultaneously exploring universal themes. It makes his work as relevant today as it was when he created them. It was during his highly experimental period beginning in the late ’80s that he began working with Liz Lamere, who became the most crucial collaborator of his solo career until his death in 2016. Lamere, along with Jared Artaud, resurrected these newly unearthed collection of lost recordings, which they co-produced and mixed. Lamere and Artaud spearhead the Vega Vault project, which aims to bring rare, unreleased and back catalog work spanning Alan Vega and Suicide’s career to the public for the first time. On Insurrection, Lamere says: “Insurrection was created in the time period around 1997/98, after Mutator and prior to Vega’s 1999 release of 2007 and captures the intense energy of NYC in the ’90s rife with crime, killing, hate, fascism, racism, and moral bankruptcy. You can hear the tortured souls floating through this album. Post-Gulf War angst still enveloped Alan. He was having premonitions about a major terror attack in the US, well before 9/11. The upcoming birth of his son raised further awareness of the state of our world. All these emotions are mirrored in the sounds he magnetized. And true to Vega form, there remains hope and empowerment coursing through the tracks. In the almost three decades of going into the studio with Vega, we recorded significantly more material than the seven albums released. Vega’s intention was to experiment with sound which would become the canvas for the poetry that reflected his vision of the universe. Because the goal wasn’t to make albums, he had no timeline or constraints and would freely follow new paths uncovered along the way.”

DJ and producer David Holmes is welcomed to the Late Night Tales fraternity with an evocative collection of personal songs and music, peppered with exclusive new material and rare gems. By now, I think we all know David Holmes, right There's acid house Holmes, with bone-rattling Chicago jams and Detroit destroyers, break-digger Holmes responsible for the grittily shaking 'Let's Get Killed' and seminal Essential Mix compilation (which brought Sixto Rodriguez to people's attention, and then there's soundtrack Holmes. His most enduring and vital source of musical inspiration - cinema - plugged into David's rst solo record 'This Film's Crap, Let's Slash the Seats' and inspired 2000's 'Bow Down to the Exit Sign', created as the soundtrack to a not-yet-made movie. Ofcial soundtracks have been bountiful, including scores for Soderbergh's Out Of Sight and Ocean's trilogy, '71, Hunger and Good Vibrations. In a series of personal songs sung by himself, David's last solo album 'The Holy Pictures' explored inuences of La Düsseldorf, The Jesus and Mary Chain and early Brian Eno. His Unloved collaboration with Keefus Ciancia and Jade Vincent then took us on a musical journey full of raw 60s pop-noir, psychedelia and French Ye Ye with a contemporary twist. Somehow he's also found time to produce records by Primal Scream and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Unsurprisingly, for someone au fait with matters cinematic, this Late Night Tales conjures up its own mindmovies. It's not only packed with the judiciously selected nuggets for which his mixes are noted but also stuffed with original material, including collaborations with BP Fallon and Jon Hopkins and an amazing new reading of 10cc's 'I'm Not In Love' by Holmes-produced Song Sung. In fact, there's a Celtic thread running through the whole journey with Stephen Rea's reading of an extract from Seamus Heaney's AENEID BOOK VI - Elsewhere Anchises. Among the other gems included here are David Crosby's lush 'Orleans', Buddy Holly's celestial 'Love Is Strange' and the Children Of Sunshine's 'It's A Long Way To Heaven'. David Holmes loves music. It's a way of expressing the sometimes inexpressible or the inconsolable, a questing desire to nd out just what is over the next hill. It's no surprise to learn he's a keen walker. Always on the move, headphones on, lost in some reverie or piece of music, the soundtrack to his life, the stuff that feeds his imagination. I walk a lot. It's amazing for listening to music: your phone or your emails aren't going and you're just in the forest listening to music. It's so intimate. Anyway, I was listening to the KLF's Chill Out album, which still sounds amazing, but it triggered an idea with concrete sounds through travelling and movement. And one of the things I was trying to do was to use this idea not just break up the moods but also as a metaphor for moving through life and arriving in different destinations or arriving at different stages in different parts of your life. Memory, Love, Living, Family, Friendship, Healing, Death and The Afterworld are some of the themes I wanted to explore within this record. Although these strong themes and tracks are personal to me, I also wanted it to be a great listen that was unpredictable yet had a seamless ow - a journey that was personal to me yet to the listener a great compilation of music that they may or may not have heard before. I hope I've succeeded in the later.' David Holmes 2016

Around this time, he watched singer Robert Soeterboek perform live with Bodine, his former early- eighties heavy metal band. "His vocals truly impressed me, a rarity!" Lucassen recalls. "He had the charisma and power of singers like David Coverdale and Robert Plant. Discovering that we really got along personally, we decided to collaborate on some songs, just for fun." "We started writing songs together and found a natural flow, leading to a wealth of ideas," remembers Soeterboek.

"Our friendship grew as we spent more time together, and I remember that there were lots of shenanigans and laughter." The album encapsulates a glorious treasure trove of 11 original songs with a loving 70s and 80s nod. It's a blistering romp through the good time rolling rocker of "Let It Ride", the Beatles- esque "Doctor Robert's Medicine Show," the bluesy groove of "Annie Moore," the chugging glam stomp of "High-Speed Chase" to the 80s metal of "Ice on Fire", whilst "The Preacher" would fit on a number of Arjen's back catalogue records. The bonus disc features all the demos and some more newly recorded tracks.

From Manchester to Sydney Tonal Oceans presents the first ever vinyl issue of a selection of tracks from the legendary 1994 Atonement cassette (originally released on Clan Analogue).