quête:love trio in dub

Two jewels in the crown of the soulful electronic music scene in NYC unite for a spellbinding EP on Rhythm Section International. ”Full Circle” is a brand new body of work from Musclecars & Toribio.

To call this 12” simply epic would almost be doing it a disservice. The breadth of musicality and execution of ideas contained across 3 compositions is nothing short of miraculous. I use the word composition intentionally: these are not merely tracks - these are 3 movements making up a concerto - with a dub thrown in for good measure!

The record kicks off with a soulful house behemoth, “ That’s My Story” featuring NJ legend Roland Clark on vocals giving sweet sweet testimony. In many ways, this track feels like a coming together of the trios influences. The lyrics contextualise it, giving it this intimate, confessional feel. The latin drums shuffling amidst the 909 kick drive it forward and the organ swimming freely amongst it all takes us to church. It’s a timeless track - paying homage to the various New York traditions laid down by Louis Vega, Timmy Regisford, Joaquin Claussell , Ron Trent et al - all heroes and collaborators of the composers who - with this effort - have surely now earned their place in the pantheon of American Soul Music.
‘
Be Honest’ maintains the confessional tone with the lyrics but takes things right back down in terms of tempo. Is it a love song, an ultimatum or a cry for help? Whichever way you interpret it, this track is Toribio’s time to shine as a lead vocalist and he hits all the notes, leaving not a dry eye in the house. This is a delicate tour de force, delivered with such raw emotion and vulnerability it allows the instrumentation takes a back seat - just a gentle groove, swelling strings and some unresolved chords are all that’s required to transform us to the main character of this story. We’re left hanging, and it’s oh so relatable.

Agua De Florida serves as an uplifting, fast paced finale to the concerto and this one’s all about the trumpet - masterfully performed by Melbourne born, London based virtuoso Audrey Powne. If Herb Alpert was making house music - I imagine this is what it would sound like. Throbbing bass and noodling synths join the melee and crank the joy up to 11. If the EP is a story arc over 3 tracks, then we’re definitely not left hanging with this one. All is resolved, things are moving onwards and upwards and the circle is complete.

Soul Music legend Candi Staton returns to her down-home Alabama roots on her 32nd album, Back to My Roots. The twelve-track Americana set features an array of Staton-penned originals and some well-chosen covers.

"These songs represent my roots," Staton adds as she reflects on her many trials and triumphs. "Even the new songs on some level represent something I've experienced and that's what real soul music is about." Back to My Roots was produced by Staton with her second eldest son, Marcus Williams, a professional drummer who has toured with the likes of Peabo Bryson, Isaac Hayes, and Tyler Perry. They brought in Mark Nevers of Lambchop fame, who produced three of Staton’s prior Americana albums for Honest Jon’s and Thirty Tigers, to sweeten certain tracks. “Some of the first songs I ever heard were songs like `Peace in the Valley’ and `It’s Gonna Rain,’” says Staton. “The new songs or cover songs are tracks that remind me of that era when I was growing up as a child and evolving as a young woman. That’s why I named the album Back to My Roots because I’m going back to the roots that made me who I am.”

Staton received the Americana Music Association UK’s highest honour, the International Lifetime Achievement Award, at the UK Americana Music Awards ceremony at Hackney Church in London last year for her southern soul work that stretches from her 1969 Muscle Shoals hits to her more recent collaborations with the likes of Americana kings Jason Isbell and John Paul White.
The album opens with a mid-tempo Bonnie Raitt-styled contemporary blues “I Missed the Target Again” that finds Harry Connick Jr.’s longtime guitarist Jonathan DuBose Jr. (aka the Prophesying Guitarist) showing off his skills that set the tone for the song and the album.

Staton’s older sister, Maggie Staton Peebles (who alongside Staton was a member of the Jewel Gospel Trio in the 1950s), joins her for two duets. The first, “It’s Gonna Rain,” features just a drum, steel guitar and vocals. “My mother used to sing that song to us all the time when I was a child,” Staton recalls. “It’s a really soulful kind of song I wanted to revisit.” They then take turns leading Thomas Dorsey 1939 gem “There Will Be Peace in the Valley” that Elvis Presley popularized in the 1950s.

“Hang on in There” is a new, mid-tempo song that has an old school gospel flavour and features vocals from veteran bluesman, Larry McCray.
While in Europe in 2023 for her farewell concert tour that took her to the Glastonbury Festival and Love Supreme, Staton and her British band, PUSH, went into a London studio to record a new version of The Rolling Stones’ 1972 gem, “Shine A Light.” “I love the way that came out,” Staton says. “We put a big choir on it and put our own twist on it.”
From there, Staton revives another Thomas Dorsey classic, “The Lord Will Make a Way Somehow,” with a bluesy vibe. When Al Green started recording gospel in the early 1980s, he re-introduced this song into the culture.

“God’s Gonna Use Me Anyway” is a new mid-tempo blues with subtle Caribbean influences.

The mood takes a turn on “1963.” It’s a poignant, spoken-word reflection on September 15, 1963, when four black girls were killed in the Birmingham Church bombing. “I was in the city that day and I remember the chaos and horror after the bombing,” Staton recalls. “Just thinking of how racism and hatred caused those men to kill those girls was so emotional for me that I could only do it in one take.”

It's a perfect segue into "Reach Down and Touch Heaven," a haunting, plea for divine intervention into the affairs of mankind. "That's straight Baptist," she says. "I used to be a church pianist back in the 1960s. I've never played piano on one of my records before so that's a unique song for me because I’m finally playing on one of my records. The message of that song is about the homeless. It came to me when a homeless person on the street asked me for $5. When God touches your heart to help somebody else that’s heaven to God’s hears. So, when we reach into our purse or wallet to help someone, we’re touching heaven."

Staton offers love as an antidote to hate on the bouncy, Motown-styled, “Love Breakthrough.”

Her publicist brought Aaron Frazer & the Flying Stars of Brooklyn NY’s 2017 cut “My God Has a Telephone” to Staton’s attention. She shifts the track from a retro 1960s groove to more of a 1980s Malaco Records arrangement, a subtle but distinct variation. Staton brought in her longtime friend and STAX Records legend, William Bell (“I Forgot to Be Your Lover” and “Trying to Love Two”), to add raspy seasoning to the track.

The album closes with the wistful, “In God’s Hands We Rest Untroubled,” that was originally written and recorded by the late country star, Lari White, who died in 2017 at the age of 52. “Lari sent me that song to consider at least ten years ago and I always loved it,” Staton says. “The record label didn’t want it on the album or something, so I just held it.”
Staton says, “I grew up hearing a lot of these old songs when they were new songs. I toured with the Jewel Gospel Trio in the 1950s and we got to know people like Mahalia Jackson, Sam Cooke and others who sang these types of songs. So, I’m sort of paying tribute to them and the influence they had on me by refreshing these songs and making new songs in the old style.”’

Hate Love Trio made a low-key debut last year on this label with the slow, dreamy, dance-pop charms of 'Chan-O-Rama'. We have found out little more about the producer or producers behind it but here they or he or she returns with a full-length album of elegant and inventive downtempo and Balearic that starts off with those singles. Elsewhere, slow, mournful rhythms and melodies encourage inward reflection. 'Loosey Goosey' is a funky dancer for grown-ups, 'Billie Brownie' merges dub pacing with sunny guitar echo and 'Sunday I Don't Know' is a shimmering, jazz-flecked neo-classical warmer for intimate moments. An accomplished and adventurous album that is as good for the mind as it is body and soul.

Step Ball Chain’s unconventional prototype band trickpony is the 11th release on the ever evolving imprint. An assortment of sensual cyber jams collaged together by the trio over timezones, birthed in Perth, Australia by Mike Midnight and Roza Terenzi; old friends joined by Helsinki’s visionary songstress Maria Korkeila. A trinity of alchemy blossomed into an audio rendition of exquisite corpse, layers of each entity glistening through amongst a united cosmos; trip hop atmospherics and downtempo drippings. The five track EP reveals a metamorphosis of nostalgia, a foot in the ever present and daydreams of future. A subconscious deep dive into lustful pop, guided by spine tingling vocal fantasies; textural hallucination, harmonic odes to the golden era underground and a flirtation with drum and bass, tribal percussive freakouts and dream tinged lyrics of desire. Pillow talk is a timeless exhibit of esoteric treasures, a portal to a private world of modern enchantment that reveals itself in new ways each listen, music for lovers created by a supergroup of innovators to be digested, shared and cherished.

The Drowning In Your Love EP features longtime collaborator and magnetic vocalist Shaun J. Wright (Hercules & Love Affair / Classic / Midnight Magic), whose heartfelt delivery and lyrical poise ensure the title track sticks in your head long after the needle has left the record. The trio have created a timeless club track evoking the spirit of the tripped-out sounds of golden-era west coast house — dubby FX, a hint of breaks, soulful vocals, and that unmistakable Soul Clap swing — all put together with a flair that will move any dancefloor worth it’s salt.

When you’re running a label, a demo occasionally comes across your desk that makes you reconsider everything you thought your label was all about. For Balmat, such was the case with this stunning album from Stephen Vitiello, Brendan Canty, and Hahn Rowe. It sounds like nothing we’ve released so far—and that very otherness opened up a whole new world of possibilities for us.

Fans of ambient, experimental electronic music, and sound art will be familiar with Vitiello, a New York native, long based in Virginia, who has collaborated with a cross-generational list of greats: Taylor Deupree, Steve Roden, Lawrence English, Tetsu Inoue, Nam June Paik, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Pauline Oliveros, and many more. On labels like 12k, Room40, and Sub Rosa, he has explored a wide range of minimalism, microsound, lowercase, ambient, improv, and other styles. But this album is something different. It may begin in ambient-adjacent territory, but it quickly veers off, and it just keeps zigzagging, taking on elements of krautrock, post-punk, dub, and the groove-heavy interplay of groups like Natural Information Society and 75 Dollar Bill.

This stylistic turn is thanks in large part to Vitiello’s choice of collaborators. “We’re coming from three different schools,” Vitiello says: “sound art, art rock, and punk rock.”

Active since the early 1980s, Rowe—a violinist, guitarist, and producer/engineer—has played with, or manned the boards for, a frankly jaw-dropping list of musicians: Herbie Hancock, Gil Scott-Heron, the Last Poets, Roy Ayers, John Zorn, Glenn Branca, Swans, Live Skull, Brian Eno, David Byrne, Anohni, R.E.M., Yoko Ono, and many more. But he might be most closely associated with Hugo Largo, a one-of-a-kind New York quartet—two basses, vocals, and Rowe’s violin—that in the late 1980s helped lay the groundwork for what would eventually become known as post-rock.

Canty, of course, is the legendary drummer of Fugazi, the visionary DC post-hardcore group, as well as Rites of Spring before them, and, currently, the Messthetics, a Dischord-signed instrumental trio with guitarist Anthony Pirog and Fugazi bassist Joe Lally.

Vitiello’s trio first collaborated on First, a 17-minute piece released on the Longform Editions label in 2023. Second picks up where the freeform drift of First left off, channeling the trio’s exploratory energies into more intentionally structured tracks and—in a real first for Balmat—some almost shockingly muscular grooves. “Sometimes my projects are more conceptually driven,” Vitiello says, “but I think this was more musically geared. I just wanted to open up the references and bring in an incredible drummer, bring in some melodies, and I’m sort of the center.” But his collaborators, he stresses, are “vastly creative in making anything I might suggest better.”

Like its predecessor, Second took shape in phases, shifting between improvisation and collage. Vitiello laid down the skeleton of the music at home, sketching out initial ideas on Rhodes keyboard and acoustic and electric guitar; he then fed the parts through samplers and his modular system, recording 10- or 20-minute jams. Once he had edited them into more structured forms, he hit the studio with Canty, who added not just drums but also bass and piano; finally, Vitiello took the results of those sessions to Rowe, who played violin, viola, electric bass, and 12-string acoustic and bowed electric guitar, and assisted in some of the final structuring and mixdown.

A few more surprises along the way: Reanimator’s Don Godwin, the studio engineer where Vitiello recorded with Canty, contributed what he calls “resonant dustpan”; and none other than Animal Collective’s Geologist, who just happened to be in the studio that day, sits in on hurdy gurdy on “Mrphgtrs1,” the album’s gorgeous, stunningly atmospheric drone closer. “I love these chance encounters,” Vitiello says. “Somebody I admire, a group I admire—that was an unexpected gift.”

An unexpected gift is a great way of describing Second as a whole: three veteran musicians venturing outside their usual zones and finding a new collaborative language together. The results can’t be neatly slotted into any given genre; they belong not to any given category, but to the spirit of conversation itself.

As bassist for dance-punk outfit The Rapture, Mattie Safer cut his teeth in the music scene alongside a wave of now-legendary early 2000s NYC acts like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, LCD Soundsystem and more (a time period recently immortalized in the documentary film ‘Meet Me In The Bathroom.’) Fast-forward nearly 2 decades and Mattie has found the sweeter side of dance music as the current lead vocalist for slo-mo kings Poolside, and now he presents his 2nd solo lovetempo project on Razor-N-Tape.

Championed heavily by Gilles Peterson, lovetempo’s modern soul classic 'But I Do' gets a vinyl release with a trio of remixes. Crackazat delivers in his signature style, weav-ing the organic elements and earworm vocals of the original into a deep and jazzy mix. Lon-doner Daisybelle bumps the BPMs up a few notches and adds pulsing synths to her take, and Brazilian duo From House To Disco turn in a dubby club remix to round out the record.

'Intertwined', the first collaborative EP by Paraiso founders Maria Amor & Shcuro, is up next on the decade-old Lisbon label. This pair of syncopated, energized, immersive techno tracks comes with remixes by Tresor residents Fireground and DC's own Black Rave Culture, a trio composed of James Bangura, Amal, and Nativesun. 'Waves of Hope' opens the record in full force with a relentless beat that combines early 90s euphoric energy and jacked-up snares over a fat bassline, soulful pad progressions, technoid bleeps, dubby washes, and Maria Amor's own soothing cut-up vocals, elegantly touching several foundational club music sounds through an inspired lens. On the A2, 'Hotspring Love' brings levitating, airy textures and mixes them with subtle acid arpeggios, pure-hearted vocal melodies, and bouncy percussive accents. The rolling subwoofers of a proper techno party can practically be seen, the fast-paced kick perfectly perforating the bassline. Two remixes can be found on the B-side: first up is Berlin-based duo Fireground, who flip the original 'Waves of Hope' into a more concise take, exploring its dub influences and adding in cinematic, ravey chord progressions to a hypnotizing, ecstatic effect. The italian duo add a distinct dose of Neapolitan techno, carrying the textured intensity of that unmistakable sound. Black Rave Culture pick up 'Hotspring Love' and turn it into an ode to junglism, reappropriating the original pads in a classic DnB workframe with crisp breakbeats and an absolutely nasty bassline that no words can do justice to.

2025 Repress

Searchlight Moonbeam is the new narrative compilation from Time Is Away (Jack Rollo and Elaine Tierney) whose eponymous monthly NTS Radio shows, tinctured fusions of fugitive sounds and reverie-inducing archival speech, have won them an ardent following. It follows from the London-based duo’s Ballads, a remarkable driftwerk released on A Colourful Storm in 2022.


Searchlight Moonbeam is an autumnal dreamscape, intimate and vespertine, pensive and irresolute. An imagined community where differences drop off and resonances emerge – between Maher Shalal Hash Baz affiliates Kasumi Trio, Taiwanese score composer Chen Ming Chang whose ‘Rainwater’ (written for Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s 1986 film Dust In The Wind) is exquisitely heartbroken, and the plangent improvisations of self-taught French pianist Delphine Dora.


Revelations are frequent: the bedsit isolationism of Bo Harwood and John Cassavetes’ ‘No One Around to Hear It’ (from The Killing of a Chinese Bookie); the narked minimalism of Klang (an early 2000s band formed by ex-Elastica guitarist and featuring prize-winning experimental novelist Isabel Waidner on bass); the etude-grooves and echoic wobble of below-the-radar French avant-gardists Omertà ; the beautiful, plaintively dubby ‘Is It You?’ by Slapp Happy; a psych-tinged reimagining of PiL’s ‘Poptones’ by Simon Fisher Turner (one half of Deux Filles, and here, recording for él as The King of Luxembourg) that's as perverse as the cover of Throbbing Gristle’s 20 Jazz Funk Greats.


Searchlight Moonbeam is the musical analog of an Italo Calvino novel or a medieval fable. Associative, intuitive, borderless. Emotional and mysterious. Endowed with the tactility of Braille. A private language that is both unknowable and understood. It is a record of the seasons, for the seasons.

2023 marks the tenth anniversary of Time Is Away’s first broadcast. Featuring an evocative essay by writer Jeremy Atherton Lin and disarming cover art by Penny Davenport, Searchlight Moonbeam showcases Rollo and Tierney’s still-unrivalled talent for gloaming melodies, disques du crépuscule, ensorcelled storytelling.

From an artist in their seventies, you probably wouldn’t expect to hear an album like this. But Brazilian drumming legend Ivan ‘Mamão’ Conti has been experimenting and innovating for the last half a century. As one third of cult Rio jazz-funk trio Azymuth, Mamão was at the root of the group’s ‘samba doido’ (crazy samba) philosophy, which warped the traditional samba compass with jazz influences and space age electronics. Even with his lesser known jovem guardua group The Youngsters, Mamão was experimenting with tapes and delays to create unique, ahead-of-its-time sounds, way back in the sixties. More recently Mamão recorded an album with hip-hop royalty Madlib under the shared moniker ‘Jackson Conti’.

With his first album in over twenty years, and the first to be released on vinyl since his 1984 classic The Human Factor, Mamão shares his zany carioca character across eleven tracks of rootsy electronic samba and tripped out jazz, beats and dance music. Featuring Alex Malheiros and Kiko Continentino on a number of tracks, the Azymuth lifeblood runs deep, but venturing into the modern discotheque (as Mamão would call it), Poison Fruit also experiments with sounds more commonly associated with house and techno, with the help of London based producer Daniel Maunick (aka Dokta Venom).

Take a bite of Mamão’s psychoactive Papaya and join the maestro on a weird and wonderful stroll through the Brazilian jungle.

United by a love for the music of Mamão and Azymuth, the CD and digital edition also feature the previously released remixes and dubs from some of today’s most forward-thinking producers with a penchant for percussion, including IG Culture, the 22a crew, Max Graef and Glenn Astro.

Globetrotting Texan trio Khruangbin are set to release ‘Hasta El Cielo’, the band’s glorious dub version of their second album ‘Con Todo El Mundo’. The full album has been processed anew along with two bonus dubs by renowned Jamaican producer Scientist.

The band’s exotic, spacious, psychedelic funk aligns with the dub treatment particularly well. Indeed, keen fans won’t fnd this a surprising release. Dubs of tracks from their frst album ‘The Universe Smiles Upon You’ appeared on limited vinyl releases of ‘People Everywhere’ for Record Store Day 2016 and ‘Zionsville’ on the Boogie Futuro remix 12”. The especially eagle-eared willhave caught a dub of ‘Two Fish And An Elephant’ playing over the credits of the track’s celebrated video.

“For us, Dub has always felt like a prayer. Spacious, meditative, able to transport the listener to another realm. The frst dub albums we listened to were records mixed by Scientist featuring the music of the Rootsb Radics. Laura Lee learned to play bass by listening to Scientist Wins the World Cup. His unique mixing style, with the emphasis on space and texture, creates the feeling of frozen time; it was hugely influential to us as a band. To be able to work alongside Scientist, a legend in the history of dub, is an honor. This is our dub version of Con Todo El Mundo.”- Khruangbin.

Formed of Laura Lee on bass, Mark Speer on guitar, and Donald “DJ” Johnson on drums; Khruangbin’s sounds are rooted in the deepest waters of music from around the world, infused with classic soul, dub and psychedelia. Their 2015 debut album ‘The Universe Smiles Upon You’ was heavily influenced by 60’s and 70’s Thai cassettes the band listened to on their long car journeys to rehearsal in the Texan countryside. 2018’s follow up ‘Con Todo El Mundo’, which received hugely positive critical reactions and radio play around the world, took inspiration not just from South East Asia but similarly underdiscovered funk and soul of the Mediterranean and the Middle East, particularly Iran.

Since the album’s release, the band have continued their almost non-stop approach to touring, playing over 130 dates in 2018 alone. They return to the UK this summer for festival shows at Green Man, Latitude, Mostly Jazz, Funk & Soul Festival and Barclaycard British Summer Time.

Occasionally an album comes along that seems to capture the mood of the time. "The K&D Sessions" was one. In the late 1990s no afterparty, smoking session or languid Sunday afternoon was complete without Kruder & Dorfmeister blasting from the Bang & Olufsen. Now approaching it"s 25th anniversary the lore around this iconic release, steeped in a silvery cloud of smoke, retains a star quality which only shines brighter as time hurtles on. With the original having sold well over a million copies by this point in time, it"s hard to imagine a mix or remix compilation being able to inform a movement like "The K&D Sessions" has. To celebrate this monumental milestone, we"ve created a limited boxset in 6LP and 3CD of "The K&D Sessions", mastered and cut by LA luminary Bernie Grundman for a luxurious listening experience, with newly designed inner sleeves using unseen photos from the original photo shoot. Inserted in the box is a forty-page booklet containing multitudes more never before seen photos from the same shoot and notes which recount humorous tales surrounding the duo and the people who spent time with them in this epoch. Included on the 6th LP is their legendary 11 minute shimmering remix of Madonna"s "Nothing Really Matters". The 6th LP also contains Peter Kruder"s Powercut Mix of Roni Size"s "Heroes" and K&D"s remix of U.F.O, "L.O.V.E.". In addition there are two cerebral alternate remixes of Lewis Taylor, one being completely dubbed and the other the using the vocal line for this beautiful gem, "Lucky" and a special remix of "Speechless" by Count Basic. These have been staples in K&D"s sets and now take their rightful place collected in the canon of "The Sessions".

Memory Remains boss Kirik joins forces with Miami’s Imbue for their collaborative ‘On Distance’ EP.

This time Kirik pairs up with the Miami-based trio Imbue who add their dynamic instrumentation to the project through guitars, piano, and synthesizer improvisation.

Opening the release is the jazzy funk-infused ‘On Distance’, laid out across seven minutes with an amalgamation of guitar licks and looped hooks alongside plucked bass tones, strings and organic rhythms combined to create a psychedelia-tinged twist on House. ‘All Right’ follows next and shifts gear into a more classic house feel, employing Latin percussion and wandering keys alongside guitar melodies and soulful vocal chants.

Opening the flip-side is ‘Lovers’ with its acid bass groove, intricately intertwined synth stab sequences and crisp drums all underpinned by Imbue’s hypnotic musicality. ‘Son Us On’ then rounds out the release, diving deeper into the House courtesy of bumpy low-slung drums, airy synth chimes and plucked guitars merged with an underlying dubbed-out and subtly unfurling feel.


early support by Massimiliano Pagliara, Archie Hamilton, youANDme, DJ Heather, Moskalus, Jean Pierre, Red Pig Flower, Red Rack'Em, Just Her, Michel De Hey and many more...

Moxie’s On Loop imprint proudly presents ‘Manifold’, the highly anticipated debut solo EP from Amaliah. The rising Londoner delivers on her burgeoning ravey promise, unleashing a remarkable trio of percussive club tracks that link UK house aesthetics with global soundsystem influences, and comes with a wonderfully knotty remix from celebrated producer Call Super.

Borne Fruits founder Amaliah has rightfully ascended through the musical ranks of her native city to emerge as one of its most exciting voices. As a DJ and producer, she intersects at the exhilarating crossroads of contemporary house sounds, soundsystem culture and UK club influences to packed dancefloors weekly across the UK and EU. The Manifold EP flexes Amaliah’s parallel trajectory as a wicked tunesmith, offering her long-awaited and most substantial musical offering to date for Moxie’s much-loved On Loop imprint.

Opening track “Helix” curls a percussive membrane around its funky core, pumping along with nocturnal rave menace punctured by sirens and grotty synths. Next up, “Me So” shimmers with bubbling assuredness, diffusing Detroit-inspired melodies atop a bumpy house stepper that spurts with synthetic glee along its way. “Spooky Dub” greets us on the flip, wasting no time in igniting its punchy dembow groove while peppering its rubbery bassline amongst some dub-drenched fx. It briefly retreats for a half-step breakdown before re-launching us straight back to dancefloor salvation. Can You Feel The Sun’s Call Super sees us out with a typically psychedelic labyrinth-like remix of “Helix”, refracting a minimalised Electro groove through a magnificent fairground ride of wide-eyed sound design and intimate melodics.

Early support from Saoirse, Call Super, Parris, Moxie, Niks, Roza Terenzi, ISAbella and featured in Pangaea’s BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix.

Tiella Sound is a project born in 2019 from the mind of Italian DJ Luca Bigote that started as a radio show currently airing on French LYL Radio, and now debuting in the record label ecosystem with its first official release, pressed in a limited edition of only 200 copies.

The vision and mission of the entire project are quite clear and based on the principle of musical eclecticism. Luca Bigote, in fact, from the very beginning has never wanted to set boundaries to his creature, which, following an open-minded approach, flirts with the most disparate sounds, not exclusively club-oriented ones, focusing on the quality and research that have always distinguished his path.

For its first release, Tiella Sound has chosen Perugia-born DJ and producer Daniele Tomassini, already known for his records under the Feel Fly moniker, who presents us with the first LP from his alter ego VAISA.
This work consists of unreleased tracks composed between 2014 and 2016, during the intense creative period that saw him involved in more experimental and alternative projects such as Palenque Pacal trio and Wunder Camera duo. This material finally sees the light, a few years after the inspiring live performance during the second edition of Esperimenti (January 2017), the music festival curated by Luca himself together with his friend and colleague Matteo Lieto in Gaeta, Italy.

“VAISA is a dense, raw, evocative project. A lo-fi maelstrom of field recordings, sound collage, mysterious vocal samples from ancient cultures, obscure rhythms and layered tribal percussions, ambient clouds, dub echoes, with the martial tolling of the kick drum beating out the slow electronic ritual” (Caveargento): a deep and timeless journey, ready to drive all the lovers of the most abstract and primitive sounds into ecstasy.

Tropical Disco continue to rewrite the disco handbook as they clock up an impressive quarter century of vinyl releases with a sublime Volume 25 of their series.

Featuring four disco cuts laced with jazz, funk, touches of electro and lots of dancefloor swagger it perfectly continues to build and diversify the sound of the series. Getting in on the party are a trio of Italian disco lovers Musta, an artist whose releases regularly set the disco and house charts alight, alongside the highly rated Corrado Alunni and the mysterious Fun Kool both of whom also hail from Italy.

Opening proceedings, and in stellar form, is co-label boss Sartorial whose ‘Hootin N Tootin’ is a real jazz funk gem. Incessant piano riffs, a groove of a bassline which edges towards acidic in places, guitar licks aplenty and choppy drums all combine for a track which could be played anywhere from a jazz inspired pool party to the funkiest of clubs. ‘Hootin N Tootin’ is as musical as it is dance worthy, two very handy traits which will see it survive the ever onwards march of time.

Musta’s ‘El Matador’ meanwhile has a high energy, fun-filled approach to life. It’s a track which very much defies pigeon holing but which comes from the same effusive family of earworms as Samin’s ‘Heater’ and may well prove to be just as big a breakthrough hit if it lands in the right hands over the summer. It’s very much a track with a big mischievous smile on its sun worshiping face.

Corrado Alunni’s ‘Funk Decision (Dub Mix)’ falls very much into the early Soulfuric camp of Soulful house music, a sound which Tropical Disco has regularly flirted with recently with some fantastic results. Divine live sax, guitar loops and ass shakin’ bass all merge perfectly for a very classy six = minutes of shimmering dancefloor groove.

Fun Kool’s ‘Low Tow’ sees out the EP and takes us off on an 80’s inspired electro journey. Stabby synths, subtle cowbell and Vangelis-esque keys all combine for a track which brings Metro Area’s take on the genre immediately to mind. ‘Low Toe’ deserves all the plaudits which undoubtedly come its way, a future classic for sure.

That Tropical Disco keep conjuring up EP’s of this quality is a major cause for celebration in itself. Disco in 2022 is a progressively more and more interesting place to live given the multifarious avenues which it continues to open up and this EP is a perfect example of the depth, diversity and incredible quality of a genre overflowing with passion. We very much hope that the first 25 volumes are only the beginning.

Originally released on Studio !K7 Records in 1998, Peter Kruder and Richard Dorfmeister's groundbreaking release, 'The K&D Sessions' reset the bar for what could be achieved in a compilation. Across an array of original tracks, dubs and infamous 'K&D Session' remixes, the DJ and producer duo took the listener on a smoke-filled blunted journey that flowed flawlessly.
Often compared to DJ Shadow's 'Endtroducing' for it's similarly deft craft of rhythm and quoted by Allmusic as "the most blissfully blunted music the world has ever heard", the album has sold over 1,000,000 copies to date and was included in Spin's 'Top 20 albums of 1999'.The album has long since been deleted on Vinyl with original 4LP sets changing hands for €300+ on the collectors market and even a bootleg vinyl copy will set a buyer back over €100. Sixteen years later, this legendary album will be available as a long overdue 5LP reissue remastered by Bernie Grundman Mastering in Hollywood.

Some tracks are just too good to only feature on a compilation, even if it is a significant and celebratory set like Leng’s 15 Year anniversary album from late last year. That’s certainly the case with Payfone’s brilliantly atmospheric ‘Dime Algo’, a seductive slab of slow-motion Balearic disco featuring ‘I Feel You’ vocalist Kyd Nereida, along with Sofi Hardoy and Ludmila Rodriguez.

For this single release Black Science Orchestra, one of Britain’s most storied production collectives, deliver some truly exceptional remixes. Initially making their name with a series of sensational house jams on Junior Boy’s Own across the 1990s, BSO became renowned for the quality of their remixes as well as an ever-evolving trademark sound that put soul, organic instrumentation and references to dance music’s rich and varied past front and centre.

Comprised of Rob Mello, Ashley Beedle and Darren Morris, Black Science Orchestra work has been rare in recent years but here they deliver some magical takes on ‘Dime Algo’, blending Payfone’s original instrumentation with their own low-tempo magic. The Vocal Mix begins with sparse drums, Kraftwerkian bleeps and heavy sub-bass, building the action in waves with 303 lines, electro synths, warm chords and Nereida’s superb lead vocals combining to re-frame ‘Dime Algo’ as a deep, far-sighted slice of chugging 21st century acid-disco. The Dub Mix stretches things out with effects-laden instrumentation, acid lines and vocal snippets. Deeper and woozier, with more prominent use of the trio’s 303 trickery and Payfone’s superb original elements, it’s a heady, intoxicating and loved-up interpretation that subtly gains intensity throughout its seven-minute duration.

Since 2020, 12 Inch Lovers have been releasing new samplers every year, eagerly anticipated by collectors. These samplers have now become a staple and are easily added to vinyl collections across Europe. They offer timeless classics and rare tracks that are often hard to find elsewhere.

With Samplers 11 & 12, they surprise again with a mix of modern classics and tracks that have never been released on vinyl or are difficult to find. By adding unique and exclusive tracks, the 12 Inch Lovers samplers remain innovative and high-quality. They are a must-have for DJs, collectors, and fans of contemporary classics!

SAMPLER 11

A1) Paul Kalkbrenner - No Goodbye (2019)

Berlin techno producer Paul Kalkbrenner became world-famous with his 2008 hit Sky & Sand. Since then, he has released one record after another and performed all over the world in the biggest venues and at the most renowned festivals. No Goodbye is one of his more recent hits, released in the summer of 2019.

The track was created using an a cappella he received on a demo tape while on tour. He was immediately inspired by the vocal and built his own sound and production around it. Interestingly, Kalkbrenner rarely uses vocals, but for No Goodbye he collaborated with Australian singer Chiara Hunter, giving the track a unique and instantly recognisable character. The result is a stylish, dance-floor-friendly track with a rolling house groove that quickly became a modern classic on dance floors worldwide.

A2) Water World - Give Me Love (2000)

This trance classic by Water World appeared in 2000 on the French label Adequat Records and is the perfect tune for a sunny summer evening. Warm melodies and pulsing beats instantly create that beach feeling, as if you were dancing with your feet in the sand. The record recalls Beachball by Nalin & Kane, sharing the same dreamy, sun-drenched vibe.

Behind Water World were producers Laurent David and Frédéric De Backer-names well known to many trance fans. In the nineties De Backer was active with projects such as Global Trance Mission (Dream Mission) and Y-Traxx, the trio that released the 1997 classic Mystery Land.

Give Me Love clearly bears their combined signature: euphoric, warm and melodic, with a timeless build that perfectly balances emotion and energy. The track was released on vinyl as part of Trance E.P. Vol. 01 and remains a fixture in retro-trance sets to this day.

B1) Panoramic - Colors (1996)

Colors by Panoramic is a Belgian trance classic released in 1996 on the legendary label XTC Records, a sub-label of Bonzai Records. Panoramic was a collaboration between Belgian techno icon Marco Bailey and Mauro Mirisola. The duo, also known under playful aliases such as The Coke Man & Sniff, released an EP featuring two powerful trance tracks.

We chose Colors, a tune with pure Belgian trance DNA: driving rhythm, dreamy synths and a catchy female vocal. The combination of Bailey's production expertise and Mirisola's creative touch resulted in a timeless track that still appears in many classic playlists.

B2) Natasha Bedingfield - Pocketful Of Sunshine (StoneBridge Club Remix) (2008)

British singer-songwriter Natasha Bedingfield released the album Pocketful of Sunshine in 2008, featuring the title track as a single. The original pop version became a major hit in North America, reaching the Top 5 in the US. Swedish DJ and producer StoneBridge (Sten Hallström) reworked the song into a groovy house version, released in the summer of 2008.

StoneBridge gave the upbeat pop tune a club-ready beat and an infectious piano riff that made it shine on dance floors worldwide. It was not his first time transforming pop into house gold-he had already achieved global fame with his remix of Robin S - Show Me Love (1992), one of the greatest house anthems of all time. He also remixed Sia - The Girl You Lost to Cocaine in 2008, another club favourite.

The StoneBridge Club Remix of Pocketful of Sunshine appeared on a special remix EP in July 2008 and was played endlessly in clubs-by us too, in the venues where we performed. The result is a timeless, sun-soaked house classic thatmakes sitting still impossible.

C1) Y-Traxx - Mystery Land (Fred Baker vs Mr Sam's Magical Mystery Dub Mix) (original release 1995)

Y-Traxx was a nineties trance project by DJs Laurent David and Fred Baker. This trance classic first appeared in 1995 as a B-side but gained real attention when it featured on a Paul Oakenfold mix album. Thanks to that success it received an official re-release in 1998 on the respected French label FFRR (Full Frequency Range Recordings).

In 2003 an excellent remix by Mr. Sam & Fred Baker followed on the Nebula label. That version is highly sought after on vinyl by trance collectors, and we are proud to feature it on our new sampler.

C2) Weiss - Feel My Needs (2018)

Feel My Needs by British producer Weiss (alias Richard Dinsdale) is the tune with that unmistakable old-school piano and catchy vocal that instantly pulls you onto the dance floor. Released in May 2018on the UK label Toolroom Records, the track is pure feel-good house with a modern touch. From the very first piano riff, hands go up in the air.

Toolroom even called it a "future anthem" for the summer of 2018, and indeed Feel My Needs became a huge floor-filler. The record charted high on global dance lists and gained massive popularity at festivals and clubs that year. With its warm piano chords, tight beat and soulful vocal, this is a modern house classic that will stay in the collective club memory for a long time.

D1) The Killers - Mr. Brightside (Jacques Lu Cont's Thin White Duke Mix) (2005)

American band The Killers formed in 2001 and scored a massive hit a few years later with Mr Brightside. Taken from their debut album Hot Fuss (2004), it became their biggest and best-known track-a true rock-pop anthem.

In 2005 the song was given an electronic twist when renowned producer and remixer Jacques Lu Cont (the alias of Stuart Price) created an eight-minute dance version titled Mr Brightside (Jacques Lu Cont's Thin White Duke Mix). This remix replaced the raw rock energy with a more progressive and electronic vibe, driven by a steady beat and long build-up.

The track found a second life in club culture and quickly became a dance-floor favourite. For vinyl collectors it was an instant must-have, and to this day it stands as the perfect party closer. The Killers themselves loved it so much that they often used the remix live as an outro, followed by the original version. A remix that perfectly bridged rock and club culture-and has since become a genuine classic.

D2) Sia - Drink To Get Drunk (Different Gear Remix) (2001)

The legendary ice-cube sleeve says it all: Drink to Get Drunk was a huge club hit in the early 2000s. Released in 2001 on the UK label INCredible, a sub-label of Sony Music, it was a collaboration between British DJ duo DifferentGear (Gino Scaletti & Quinn Whalley) and singer Sia.

The producers took Sia's original song Drink to Get Drunk from her album Healing Is Difficult and gave it a complete transformation, keeping her distinctive vocal and placing it over a hypnotic progressive-house groove.

The combination of Sia's unmistakable voice and the deep, driving production hit hard: the track became hugely popular in Belgian clubs and turned into an anthem of its time. In Belgium it even reached number one in the dance chart in early 2001, and it also performed strongly in the UK and the Netherlands.

To this day it remains a nostalgic crowd-pleaser that perfectly captures the atmosphere of the early 2000s.

Emerging from a shared love of long-form storytelling and hypnotic groove, Techfui presents a stunning double album from Ada Kaleh and Wareika, a cross-continental dialogue between two singular visions of deep and micro house.
Romanian composer and sound alchemist Ada Kaleh channels his signature world of organic textures, dub-soaked spaces and slowly evolving rhythms, known from his forward-thinking work on R&S, Apollo and his own Ada Kaleh Romania imprint. His part of the productions unfolds like a ritual: subtle, detailed and endlessly spiralling, built for dancers who like to disappear inside the groove.
On the other side, trio Wareika bring their unique blend of live jazz sensibility, meditative dub and electronic body music, honed over years of improvisation and boundary-blurring club performances. Their contributions lean into fluid polyrhythms, elastic basslines and shimmering harmonies, tracks that feel alive, breathing and in constant motion.
The journey is expanded by a heavyweight remix cast: minimal house icon Thomas Melchior, Techfui founder and Bahrain mainstay Salah Sadeq, whose deep house productions are crafted to move both heart and floor, and the elusive studio force DUST. Each rework dials the hypnosis in further, stretching time and space without ever losing the warmth of the original material.
True to Techfuis ethos of bringing family, friends and fresh talent together to create honest, unconventional art, this double album is not just a collection of tracks, but a deep, carefully produced listening experience, timeless deep house and micro house for late nights, early mornings and every hazy moment in between.

Forming as teenagers in the late 70s, female vocal group Black Harmony was comprised of Diane Cape, Dup'e Odelade, and Denise Mansfield (sister of Ingrid Mansfield-Allman, lead vocalist on Freeez’s ‘Southern Freeez’).

Whilst their much-loved 1979 cover version debut ’Don’t Let It Go To Your Head’ (Jean Carn) was a hit on the UK reggae charts, gaining major label distribution, Black Harmony’s self-penned 'Let’s Be Lovers’ has arguably become the trio’s most coveted work amongst collectors.

Originally released in 1981 by Tony Owens’ Cyprian Records imprint and distributed from his shop, Seven Leaves Records in Kensal Rise, the single marks one of saxophonist and flautist Courtney Pine’s earliest appearances on record as a member of the backing band Inity Rockers.

Manchester based trio, Sonnenspot have unashamedly taken their favourite records from the Kosmische Musik landscape and fused these to inform their own spontaneous sonic constructions. Motorik drums, pulsating flutes, wah guitar and almost excessive use of space echo make this a dense and dreamy listen, with a hint of the rainy pensiveness of their home town.

Notable inspiration from Neu!, Manuel Gottsching, Sonic Youth and Yo La Tengo is all clearly audible in the various recordings on this album and minimal effort was made to shy away from this. The longest track 'Motorway' is an epic homage to the space rock art form and 'Madrugada' takes both John Martyn's 'Small Hours' and Gottsching's 'Inventions' as a starting point. Others include the tobacco lovers art-rock-ear-worm ('Liquorice Paper'), a dub laden celestial synth jam ('Slow Blinker') and the album opens with the first thing the band ever recorded, as a meaningless improvisation to tune their synths up to ('Figurescene'). Turned out it had a killer bass line and drum part.

Initial sessions were mostly just an excuse for the three long standing friends to get together musically for the first time, and after knowing each other for many full moons, it was long overdue.

They all bring some peripheral musical heritage to the table. Ian Smith was the guitarist in Alfie and the The Beep Seals and played on Badly Drawn Boy's 'The Hour of Bewilderbeast'. Pete Philipson played in Jane Weaver's band for ten years and has made his own ambient guitar albums. Dan Hope plays in the jazz folk band Mother Sky and promotes events around the city under the Rainy Heart banner.
They were joined by another long term musical friend Sam Kynaston who added heavenly flute to much of the album.

Leng Records proudly presents Everything You’re About to Hear Is True: Volume 1, a compilation carefully curated by Rotation Soundsystem. Brought together by Rotation founders Dean Meredith and Ben Shenton, alongside the Wrekin Havoc trio of Rob J, Stuart Robinson, and Rich Hall, this debut volume captures the collective’s shared vision – shaped by decades of crate-digging.

Founded in 2013, Rotation has grown from a modest gathering in Staffordshire into a thriving community of like-minded music lovers, attracting heads and partygoers from across the UK – and well beyond. What began as an intimate affair has evolved into a full-scale, three-day celebration, now held in a grand yurt and powered by a bespoke six-way sound system. The rig features four Klipschorns, two JBLs with twin 18” and 15” sub reinforcements, compression horns, and an Isonoe 420 mixer.

Meredith explains: “With the help of my brother, Martin, I’m constantly looking at ways to improve the setup. I love the way Larry Levan did that at The Paradise Garage. We have a few things that are custom-made. I want our system to be unique to us.”

According to regular attendee, DJ and writer Steve KIW: “In the right hands, the sound system at Rotation – very much Dean’s labour of love – is untouchable. The comparisons with Mancuso’s Loft come easily because they are deserved. There isn’t a bad spot in the yurt. Wherever you are, it sounds incredible.”

As the dancing continues through the weekend, the DJ line-up has grown to match the occasion. Guests and headliners have included a roll call of legendary selectors: Bill Brewster, Colleen “Cosmo” Murphy, Phil Mison, Nick The Record, Ruf Dug, Mark Seven, and The Idjut Boys — the latter playing a marathon 10-hour set in 2024. The parties have also featured live performances from Emperor Machine, Quinn Lamont Luke, Reuben Vaun Smith, and Orbs of Light.

Presented on gatefold double vinyl, this lovingly assembled collection is the result of decades spent digging through dusty crates, reflecting the selectors’ deep-rooted passion for uncovering rare gems and overlooked treasures. Decidedly European in spirit, the album brings together 14 rarities with standout selections from Belgium, Sweden, Italy, Germany, and France. The vast majority of tracks are true obscurities, and nearly every one is a mid-tempo bumper.

“This has been a long time coming – something we’ve always dreamed of doing. We’re incredibly thankful to Leng Records, who understand our vision and what we’re trying to build. This compilation pulls together some of our favourite tracks from over the years. It’s not just a playlist – it’s a journey, a window into the sound of Rotation,” says Meredith.

Mysticisms is delighted to present the music from one of the inspirations for the whole Dubplate series, the lesser known, but admired Digi Dub label. Hailing from the late 80s / early 90s South-East London squat scene, the music of label head Lee Berwick and cohorts was unlike any other at the time. Not simply a retake on digital dub emanating from Jamaica, Digi Dub mixed the heritage of reggae with the alternative-culture of Britain to forge a unique version.

Inspired by punk and the early electronics of the likes of A Certain Ratio, Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle, Berwick came to music production later, after first quitting a career as a computer programmer to travel through Asia, returning after several years just as electronic “computer music” was gaining a fundamental new lease in 1988. A regular at Jah Shaka gigs over the burgeoning rave scene of the time, he steadily built a studio centered around the Akai Sampler.

Based, at the time, in South-East London, it’s lack of underground “Tube” lines and challenging transport links, helped create its own social and music eco-system. Squatted houses, shops, clubs and parties all thrived around the triangle of Bermondsey, New Cross and Camberwell. After meeting Kenny Diezel and the Mutoid Waste Company, he started to formulate his “dubby electronic sound” by literally play live to thousands of wide-eyed Ravers at Mutoid Waste parties.

Recording as Launch DAT, the first tracks with Kenny formed, soon joined by Harry and Nick, the trio progressed from building a sound system to L.S. Diezel being created. Friends since their teens Harry and Nik progressed from playing in bands, jamming Sly and Robbie dubs to moving from the countryside of the Home Counties to urban Peckham and into the orbit of Mutoid Waste and the squat and party scene.

Progressing to include Atari S1000HD, Akai S3200XL, Alesis Sequencer and Roland 303, the sound expanded but the raw spirit remained. The early recordings with Berwick, in the beautiful “Lovers style” that is For The Love Of and its stripped-back instrumental “Stepper” dub accompaniment in Bad Boys, as well as an early take on take on the merging of digital dub and hip hop in Skunk Funk, all capture the essence of that London period.

However, the inclusion of the seminal Suicidal Dub, that appeared as the title to their debut album and was recorded on a bus a few years later after Mutoid had relocated to Rimini, Italy, offers a glimpse to the future. Heralded as a proto-dubstep classic it has long been sought after and its inclusion makes for the essential.

Mutate The Mystery.

Teal’s debut LP, Original Watercolour, is an album that feels like a canvas come to life. A sonic blend of street-soul, digi-dub, and downtempo. Original Watercolour explores the complexities of love, oneness, and intuition — themes that resonate deeply within the context of the history women have shared with what was once known as the “ladies’ medium.”

The bi-coastal family trio—Ashleigh and Melissa Ball, better known as the Ball Sisters, alongside producer N1_SOUND—bring a fresh, genre-defying sound to the table with their latest 6-track album. Running just under 30 minutes, this immersive collection weaves together skipping beats, addictive bass lines, three-dimensional flute textures & emotional vocal melodies. This musical portrait is as ethereal as it is powerful, inviting the listener to get lost in its depths while celebrating the beauty of self-expression.

The opening track, “Original Watercolour,” takes you on a psychedelic trip-hop journey. From the first reverberous snare hit, you’re whisked away to a sonic wetland — lush and euphoric. The soft yet poignant soundscapes set the tone for the album, inviting us into a world where the boundaries between earth and music, reality and imagination, automatically seem to blur.

“Locked In 2 Love” offers a boogie-fueled bassline that pushes Teal into dance-floor territory with soaring flutes and rhythmic intricacies that make it impossible not to move — it’s a track that exemplifies the magic of Teal’s ability to craft both intimate and expansive musical landscapes. And then, there’s the hypnotic flow of “One In The Same,” where stacked vocal harmonies and mantra-esque lyrics transport you to a place that could easily be mistaken for a lost Soulquarians demo. It’s gentle yet unrelenting in its depth.

The second side of the album opens with “Sleep on It,” a track that immediately grabs attention with its dancehall-driven rhythm. Ashleigh Ball's vocals set the stage for a song that’s both introspective and emotionally charged, yet unmistakably rooted in groove. The phased-out bassline creates an almost hypnotic atmosphere. Pulling the listener into a mood of contemplation—matching the restless, sleepless night that Ball describes. As the song progresses, this groove builds in intensity, culminating in an explosive ending that mirrors the emotional release of a long-held frustration.

Original Watercolour is more than just an album — it’s a meditation on the interconnectedness of life and art. “Frog Kingdom,” the longest and only instrumental track creates a contemplative space that builds upon the themes introduced earlier. It feels like a sequel to their earlier work, Frog Legacy from their debut Bluish Green 2024 12”, expanding on the familiar sound with even more complex layers.

Yet the real emotional power of the record lies in its closing track, “Can’t Shake the Feeling.” Simple in structure but profound in impact, this song captures a deep yearning and understanding — that everything, from the ecosystems we inhabit to the relationships we nurture and the art we create, is fundamentally interconnected. As the track crescendos in a falsetto peak, it becomes clear that the album is a reflection of both the world around us and the personal journey each member of the band has embarked upon to get to this point.

Just as the medium of watercolor has been traditionally linked to women artists, Teal carries this legacy into the modern musical landscape, blending the richness of history with a unique forward-thinking perspective. The album feels like both a celebration of the past and a bold declaration of a path forward — one that welcomes anyone ready to join in and shape the future of the art form.

The beauty of Teal’s work is that it feels familiar, while simultaneously offering something new and refreshing. Original Watercolour doesn’t just push musical boundaries; it redefines them, offering a lush and textured soundtrack for those willing to listen closely.

In a world that often feels over-saturated, Original Watercolour stands as a reminder of the power of simplicity, intuition, and connection. Teal’s debut album invites you to experience something both deeply personal and universally understood. The landscapes they create are vivid, yet soft, grounding yet expansive. With each track, Teal’s music reflects the interconnectedness of all things — a truly unique piece of work in the world of experimental soul and dub adjacent electronic music.

Rising and falling. We all live in the same pond. Peace to all.

Back in 2018, Argentinian producer Fernando Pulichino released ‘Search of Indigo’ on Leng, a shuffling slab of colourful, Balearic-adjacent dub disco featuring his own distinctive lead vocals and backing vocals from Luca Gasparini. Six years on, the track returns renewed and refreshed thanks to a string of new floor-friendly reworks by LTJ Xperience and Pulichino himself. Fernando kicks off the EP with his ‘AM Mix’, an inspired re-invention that re-frames the song as a hard-wired, acid-fired chugger – all restless, razor-sharp TB-303 lines, low-slung bass guitar and sparkling piano riffs. On the digital version of the EP Pulichino has also offered up his ‘PM Mix’, a deliciously Balearic disco dub rich in colourful synth sounds, elastic bass, flanged guitars and sun-bright piano licks. It's LTJ Xperience’s trio of remixes that lie at the heart of the EP though. The Italian producer, real name Luca Trevisi, initially made his name as a downtempo and nu-jazz producer before perfecting a trademark style of chugging, slow-motion hedonism that draws influence from both deep house and nu-disco. His main Remix foregrounds many of these trademark elements, in the process delivering a bongo-rich chugger laden with delayheavy bass guitar sounds, head-nodding drums, heady guitar loops and echoing vocal snippets. On the Dirty Mix, Trevisi reaches for tight, short TB-303 ‘acid’ loops, a more sparse and heavy rhythm track offering a more heads-down, dubbed-out affair that should delight those who love late night and early morning hypnotism with flashes of wide-eyed sonic bliss. Then, to round things off, Trevisi delivers a heady, atmospheric and spaced-out Dub full of jazz guitar licks, bubbling electronics, vocal snippets and effects-laden bass. It’s a winning combination.

Jabu return with ‘A Soft and Gatherable Star’, an LP that sees the Bristol-based trio evolve from a uniquely spectral take on trip hop to proffer a singular vision between cloudy, downered dream-pop, off-kilter ambient, and the warm, low-end throb of sound system culture. This development is aligned with contemporaries like HTRK, Dean Blunt, Tarquin Manek, YL Hooi and Rat Heart Ensemble, whilst also harkening back to the likes of AR Kane (with whom they are set to play shows and release a collaborative single), the languorous drift of 'Victorialand' era Cocteau Twins or The Cure circa ‘Disintegration’. Comprising Jasmine Butt (vocals, guitar), Alex Rendall (vocals, keys) and Amos Childs (production, bass guitar), the trio’s method may have shifted but the feel remains consistent - slow, spatial, sensuous and gently melancholic. With a career arc unlike almost any other current guitar outfit, Jabu sit within a strong lineage of off-centre Bristolian music, and a very British strain of home-spun DIY bands. Self-recorded between Jas and Amos’ home in South Bristol and Amos’ mum’s house in rural North Somerset, the album came together via a process of trial and error - learning to play on borrowed instruments, using the equipment “wrong”, staying up late recording and slipping into strange, semi-conscious sleep deprived/inebriated headspaces. Having captured over 50 tracks, they honed in on those they liked most, shaping them further, whilst carving out space to allow input from people they love and admire - Daniela Dyson’s voice and Will Memotone's clarinet on ‘Ashes Over Shute Shelve’, Birthmark's synth on ‘Gently Fade’ and ‘Sea Mills’, Rakhi Singh (Manchester Collective) and Sebastian Gainsborough (Vessel)’s strings and arrangements on ‘All Night’, Josh Horsley’s cello on ‘If I Asked You, You'd Tell Me’, and Lorenzo Prati’s sax, again on ‘Sea Mills’. The album was mastered by Amir Shoat (HTRK, ML Buch, Dean Blunt, Carla Dal Forno). Influence-wise, the guitar-based material recalls the bands Amos listened to when younger, and Jas’ more folk-leaning inspirations. Deep-lying dub, hip hop and soul influences are also evident in both the way the LP was mixed, and the space ingrained in their subconscious. Tinged with melancholy, the songs cohere as a set of soliloquies and ruminations on love and tenderness. The album’s title comes from a poem by Amos’ late father which hangs on his wall and seeped into the record. ‘Ashes Over Shute Shelve’ is formed of lines from another poem of his. Recited by longtime collaborator Daniela Dyson and with Will Yates (Memotone) playing his mother’s clarinet, the track was imagined as a conversation between his parents. Geography and location also play a big part in the record, with several significant places name-checked in songs. Shute Shelve itself is a hill near Amos’ mum’s house, who explains “There’s a tree at the top with a 360° view of the Mendips, where my dad’s ashes were scattered. We used to go up there when we could first buy booze from the petrol station down the road, get drunk, light a fire, listen to music from my little battery powered CD player and sleep out without tents.” Titled after a Bristol suburb near where Amos’ grandparents lived and where Jas would spend time as a teenager, ‘Sea Mills’ references her being abandoned by friends on the Downs while high on mushrooms, stranded and missing the bus back. ‘Kosiše Flower’ references the city in Slovakia where Amos and Jas holidayed shortly after getting together and a flower he gave her, which she pressed in a book after an argument. ‘Oceanside Spider House’ is a location in Nintendo 64 game The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, where someone seeks shelter from the falling moon. Genre: Electronic / Ambient / Dream-pop

Two seminal 12" mixes of a pair of enormous tracks from Surface. Housed in the super-rare and - until now - French-only picture sleeve of the eternal "Falling In Love", we've backed that classic with Be With's favourite deconstructed mix of the swirling electronic soul / synth-driven slow jam "Happy". These sought-after versions have never been paired on the same record before. This fresh Be With edition ensures these legendary tracks now sound, looks and feel as sensational as they deserve to. You know what to do...

American post-disco/R&B trio Surface were a New Jersey vocal group made up of Bernard Jackson, David Townsend and David Conley. The majesty of boogie ballad "Falling In Love" was their first single, released in 1983 on Salsoul Records. The mellow magic of this track is loved the world over; it's a feel-good smooth boogie jam that's forever coveted. The slick, crystal clear beat, the legendary minimoog bassline, the melody, Karen Copeland's superb vocal, the great flute solo (referenced on the cover) all of it is literally perfect and beautifully encapsulates that mid 80s international club vibe. This here is the original Shep Pettibone mix in its entirety - it's the only one you really need.

Flip for the legendary "Love Mix" of 1987 hit single “Happy". You all know the original. At least, you *should* all know it. But the "Love Mix" is a deconstructed, boldly produced mix which is the one the heads have turned to for so long. Yet, in our opinion, its hypnotic groove has flown under the radar for too many years. This killer remix begins with Jackson's spine-tingling isolated vocal, cleverly subverting expectations by actually delivering the first words of the original's second verse "You must be Heaven sent...Sent into my life...And I compliment you baby...Baby" before a heavy 808 drum kicks hard with echoey handclaps. It's super sparse and a dubbed out slow-mo boogie banger like no other. The synth bass, atmospheric synth pads and synthesized flute glide in and out with effortless style and the whole thing is a wonder to behold.

It's a slow jam, for sure, but crafted in the straight up funk tradition, using the digital tools of the day and this sparser than sparse version almost sounds like a precursor to UK Street Soul. A unique combination of undeniable funk, electro beats and an earnest, youthful tenor; it should be slamming out of every jeep forevermore.

Simon Francis remastered the original audio for both tracks and Cicely Balston's precise cut for Alchemy at AIR Studios ensures this 12" well and truly slaps. The immaculate Record Industry pressing will ensure this incredibly sought-after treasure finds a home in many more collections, this and every year. Simply flawless.

Limited Edition of 1000 Opaque Pink 180 Gram Vinyl LP. Kiss Each Other Clean, Iron & Wine's fourth full length record was originally released in 2011 and came three years after his biggest selling record up to that point, The Shepherd's Dog. The bands two earlier albums had been sparse, intimate solo affairs that offered no hint of the direction he would take with records three and four. Like The Shepherd's Dog, Kiss Each Other Clean is layered with textures, poly-rhythmic sounds and a more is more approach. His lyrics sprung to life in ways initially unimaginable to early fans and critics helping each song tell its story and build to climaxes thru various sounds and editing techniques. However what remained at the core of KEOC, and what fans of the band had come to love, was the song writing and singing of principle songwriter Sam Beam. Beam's ability to invite you in with his hushed singing tone and knack for a melody remained front and center even in his drive to replicate something in the vein of Waits' Swordfishtormbones Principle recording for KEOC was at home in Dripping Springs, Texas where Beam resided at the time. After laying down the bulk of the record Beam moved recording to Chicago to work with Brian Deck. A cast of musicians helped Beam find his sound and see his vision for KEOC including Joe Adamik (Califone), Jim Becker (Califone), Thomas Bartlett (Doveman), Stuart Bogie (Antibalas), Rob Burger (Tin Hat Trio), Benny Massarella (Red Red Meat/Califone), Chad Taylor (Chicago Underground Duo) and Matt Lux (Isotope 217). With KEOC Beam and company brought in soft rock smoothness, dub reggae textures, and instruments that hadn't been featured on previous records. The vintage synths on 'Monkeys Uptown', the Stevie Wonder funk on 'Big Burned Hand,', the strum and drang of 'Walking Far From Home' all give the otherwise very organic-sounding arrangements a welcome cheesy kick. The record also produced the biggest radio single of the bands career with the vintage AM friendly vibes of 'Tree by the River.' It was an adventurous period in the career in Iron & Wine and one in which Beam was defying categorization.

2024 repress

Rush Hour’s RSS series excels in unearthing buried treasure, offering a second chance for artists and releases that have long been overlooked. That’s certainly the case with ‘Witches’, the superb sole single by British 1980s wave trio Zenana.

Originally released on seven-inch by the tiny PRM label in 1986, ‘Witches’ was the product of a sister-brother songwriting team whose music was mostly recorded in the front room of a terraced house in Nanpean, a small industrial village in Cornwall, England’s most south-westerly county. While the single was infectious, impeccably produced and dancefloor-ready, it sold in limited quantities at the time.

Zenana’s story can be traced back to the early 1980s, when singer-songwriter Anita Tedder founded the all-female trio as a vehicle for her musical ambitions. To bring her songs to life, she joined voices with her brother Mike, an early adopter of electronic music who had built a studio – nicknamed MFR, short for ‘Mike’s Front Room’ – in his Cornish home.

Countless Zenana tracks were recorded at ‘MFR’ between 1984 and ’86, with the resultant demo cassette securing the band a management contract, a slew of live bookings, a video shoot and even a television appearance. Buoyed by this underground success, they headed to the remote Sawmills Studio in Cornwall – famously only accessible by boat – to re-record ‘Witches’, a song inspired by local folk tales of witches gathering near Mike’s home.

While this version of ‘Witches’ failed to make an impact at the time, it has become something of a cult classic following its’ rediscovery by crate digger Kiernan Abbott – and subsequent championing by other dusty-fingered DJs including Antal, Skyrager, Trevor Jackson and Luke Una – in early 2023. The buzz inspired Zenana to perform live again for the first time in decades, with the story of their surprise comeback being covered by British media outlets including the BBC and (more surprisingly) the Daily Mail.

Now presented in re-mastered form, ‘Witches’ is a genuinely slept-on gem. Propelled forwards by punchy drum machine beats, a killer synth bassline and fizzing keyboard sounds, the song benefits greatly from strong vocals and an extra-percussive middle eight layered with vocalisations, cosmic spoken word sections and swirling noises.

It comes backed by a brand-new extended ‘spell of love’ courtesy of Bristol duo Bedmo Disco, AKA music journalist Matt Anniss (author of Join The Future: Bleep Techno and the Birth of British Bass Music) and DJ/production partner Gareth Morgan. Anniss is a long-time friend of Mike and Anita Tedder who has fond memories of visiting Mike’s home studio with his family around the time that ‘Witches’ was recorded.

Working from Zenana’s original MFR eight-track recording (tapes of the single version were lost years ago), Anniss and Morgan have turned in the extended ‘dance mix’ the track never had first time around. More atmospheric, clandestine and dancefloor-focused, it offers authentic nods to New York proto-house, mid-80s Shep Pettibone dubs, and the pioneering synth-pop productions and dub mixes of Factory Records regular Martin Rushent.

The vibrant label "Bunte Kuh" from Basel, Switzerland, releases brand new remixes of the track "JeBoDa" which was originally released on the label a year ago by the trio Dan Bay, Chill Sander & Between Machines, as well as "More Rooms" - a new original track from the artist trio.
A total of seven artists closely associated with the label reinterpret the catchy and intoxicating original, delivering inspiring remixes for the dancefloor. These new works span various genres, rooted in Down Tempo and Organic House, as well as Melodic House, Minimal, and Indie Dance.
Iorie enriches his remix, paving a vibrantly painted path to another dimension, full of love for detail. Kon Faber significantly increases the tempo, distilling the original down to its essence and adding splendid and powerful synths.
Focusing on the organic spirit of the original, Olivan carefully dresses his remix in a stylish framework of diverse layers and emotional depth. With minimal influences and gentle dub techno elements, Mira Vána crafts an immersive remix that captivates step by step, pleasantly dissolving the mind.
Hypnotically, Niju takes us on a special and completely ecstatic journey through his cosmos, enchanting body and mind with a magically rich remix. Niki Sadeki fuses the darker parts of the original with a unique spirit, creating an extraordinary piece through heartfelt arrangement and powerful instrumentation. Bīsu writes a psychedelic-tinged and completely new story with his remix, plunging the track into deep club waters that seem to separate the mind from the body.
With "More Rooms," Dan Bay, Chill Sander & Between Machines add a captivating and charismatic new track to the release. Organic elements merge with facets of the electronic, inviting an excursion into the night full of fluorescent elements and fairy-tale breaks whose aftereffects slowly but surely transform into unforeseen climaxes.
The remixes and the original will be released splitted on two digital EPs and then all together on vinyl.

The heavyweight trio of Keiji Haino, Jim O’Rourke and Oren Ambarchi return with their 12th and most epic release to date, the triple LP With pats on the head, just one too few is evil one too many is good that's all it is. Documenting the entirety of their final performance at the dearly departed Roppongi home of Tokyo underground institution SuperDeluxe in November 2018, the music spread across these six sides splits the difference between the guitar-bass-drums power trio moves and experiments with novel instrumentation that have defined the trio’s decade of working together. Containing some of the most delicate music the three have committed to wax since the gorgeous 12-string acoustic guitar and dulcimer tones of Only wanting to melt beautifully away is it a lack of contentment that stirs affection for those things said to be as of yet unseen (BT011), this wide-ranging release also offers up some of their most blistering free rock performances yet.

The side-long opening piece finds Haino on a single snare drum in duet with O’Rourke on unamplified electric guitar, playing in the lovely post-Bailey vein heard on his classic 90s recordings with Henry Kaiser and Mats Gustafsson. Spiky dissonance and ringing harmonics interweave with flowing melodic fragments as Haino single-mindedly explores the resonance of the snare like an untutored Han Bennink. On ‘Right brain, left brain; right, left; right wing, left wing. Just how many combinations can be made from these?’, O’Rourke moves to synth and electronics, joined by Ambarchi on drums, who at first focuses on sizzle cymbals before hypnotic cycles of gentle tom rhythms combine with electronic burbles and flutters to suggest a dream collaboration between Masahiko Togashi and Jean Schwarz. Ambarchi’s percussion is then joined by Haino on wandering, overblown flute, before the man in black switches back to the snare for a bizarre, stuttering drum duet.

For the first trio performance, Haino makes another new addition to his seemingly infinite catalogue of instruments, this time a homemade contraption he refers to as ‘Strings of Dubious Reputation’. Joined by O’Rourke on increasingly spaced-out electric guitar and Ambarchi on skittering percussion, Haino’s wonky, slack strings adds a definite ‘musique brut’ edge to this side-long performance, certainly one of the most enchantingly odd in the trio’s discography. When the group reconvene for the second set, spread out across the final three sides, they seem ready to breathe fire from the first instant. O’Rourke slashes distorted chords on the six-string bass, Ambarchi breaks into his signature irregular caveman thump, and Haino squeals and squawks on heavily delayed oboe before unleashing an overpowering electrical storm when he first picks up the guitar. For over half an hour, the trio pound out one of their most relentless performances, a constantly rearranging kaleidoscope of tortured fuzz guitar, insanely busy bass riffing and propulsive, tumbling drums. A hushed atmosphere initially reigns on the final long piece, given the mournful title ‘There are always things I wish to say but I can only convey them in this language August 6 August 9’. Haino’s clean guitar strumming calls up the shimmering tones of his PSF classic Affection, gradually building to a surging wall of sound, bass and drums lumbering through a roar of jet-engine guitar. Arriving in a deluxe trifold package with photos by Lasse Marhaug alongside inner sleeves with extensive live images, this epic release is perhaps the most remarkable document yet of this unique trio’s stamina and continuing inventiveness.

‘Demos/sketches/interludes from the hinterland between records. Drum machines and single take vocal sketches tied together with downtime synth experiments and recordings of local disappearing areas.’ True as it is, Jabu’s strap-line is a somewhat understated take on what also proved to be a transformative experience for them. The follow-up record to their 2020 sophomore LP ‘Sweet Company’ (and the ensuing ‘Versions’), ‘Boiling Wells’ weaves a smudged, group -mind spell. Originally released earlier this year without fanfare as a digital-only release, it now receives the proper release attention it deserves, issued in a neatly packaged vinyl edition of 300 copies. Dreamlike, woozy, raw and in dub, the album documents a blossoming process, and encapsulates a fragment in time - holed up in the country, soaking up the atmosphere in collective isolation, creatively embracing the limitations of a small recording set-up, and finding a new way to work as a band. “My mum had gone away so we’d decided to take the mixing desk and a couple of drum machines out to her house and set it up in the front room. We did it a couple of times to get the bulk of the tunes on 'Boiling Wells' done, one in summer and one boozy one around Christmas. I think we all immediately enjoyed working that way, sat around all together, more of an immediate thing. Jas started to play a lot more guitar, her and Al would write lyrics on the fly or be programming a drum beat in or something. We were all switching around and getting ideas down really quickly, not worrying too much if they were good or not. The music was limited by the stuff we had there, I didn’t bring a big desk so we only had six channels or so, and everything was basically just recorded in as a stereo take so we were more or less stuck with it after we’d laid it down - which was nice too. I don’t think we would’ve changed them anyway; it was the sound of the room and of us doing it together in the moment that was really important.” There has always been a collaborative heart to Jabu, though its nature has shifted and morphed over time. In their earliest incarnation, in after-school jams, Alex Rendall would rap over Amos Childs’ beats, but by the time they began releasing music in 2012, Al had found his singing voice – a sweet, soulful counterpoint to Amos’ increasingly dub-wise, experimental backing. Both are founder members of Bristol’s Young Echo, a collective of friends and musicians first operating loosely together on radio shows, artistic collaborations and events, and later on, running a record label. As expansive as their original remit was, Young Echo has steadily evolved since featuring in The Wire’s 2013 cover feature on Bristol’s new school of post-dubstep bass music. Of late, Seb (aka Vessel) has been working with violinist Rakhi Singh on string arrangements for Jabu, and the upcoming residency at Bermondsey’s MOT will showcase relative newcomers Birthmark and Intel Mercenary alongside the regular crew. Jabu’s debut album proper, ‘Sleep Heavy’, arrived in 2017 courtesy of Blackest Ever Black. A sublime, focused meditation on grief and loss written largely by Amos and Al, it marked the debut of Jasmine Butt (aka Guest), adding a further layer of vocal texture to their palette. ‘Sweet Company’, their first album written as a trio (released via their own do you have peace? label), drifted into lighter, more ethereal introspection. Featuring guest appearances by Sunun and Daniela Dyson, remixes by Equiknoxx’s Time Cow and Young Echo ‘s Ossia teased out the inherent pop and dub sensibilities respectively. Recent times have also seen remixes by kindred spirits Seekers International and Jay Glass Dubs, and a collaboration with the renowned T.S. Eliot Prize-winning dub Poet and musician Roger Robinson on a pair of plaintive, aching 7” singles. Jabu’s broad raft of inspirations can be experienced first -hand on their monthly NTS Radio show ‘Music 4 Lovers’, co -hosted by long-time friend and soul afficionado Andy Payback. A celebration of the endless tapestry of interrelated musical connections, it runs parallel to Jabu’s own reinterpretation of their influences. For ‘Boiling Wells’, Amos remembers a diet of “A.R. Kane, Cocteau Twins, DJ Screw, Southern/Memphis rap mixtapes, early 90’s jungle, Karen Dalton, Sybille Baier, Vashti Bunyan, Svitlana Nianio, a lot of soul, Armand Hammer & Alchemist, Grouper, Bobby Caldwell. Jazz was a constant, Japanese, Polish, Latin, American…”. And from those diverse strands, something new and singular has formed, to line up alongside them. ‘Boiling Wells (Demos ‘19-’22)’ is released by UK newcomer Six of Swords in a limited vinyl edition of 300 copies, pressed on black vinyl housed in full colour 270 gsm matt varnish sleeve and black paper inner, with full download coupon

Revered house mainstay Junior Sanchez makes his debut on Carl Craig’s renowned Planet E Communications imprint today with the digital release of his latest EP ‘‘Art O Fact’ out now with a 12” to come this July. Hailing from New Jersey, Sanchez remains a pioneering force in house music for over three decades and a close ally of Craig’s.

‘Art O Fact’ is an exemplar of the energized rhythm and infectious groove that has become synonymous with Sanchez’s work and genre defining productions. The package seamlessly connects scenes and eras, paying homage to the soulful sonic atmosphere of Detroit, Junior Sanchez’s says:

“Art O Fact -- was created purely and simply out of creative inspiration. I walked into the studio one morning not really knowing what to do, so I let my inspiration guide me and my inspiration really was Detroit. I thought about that city, what it meant to me and what techno really meant to my heart. I have loved so many records by Carl Craig, DJ ROLANDO, Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson and Juan Atkins, so the result is something really beautiful and organic, and the fact that it's coming out on Carl Craig's planet E imprint is such an honor.”

In addition to the original mix, the ‘Art O Fact’ EP features a bouncy ‘Luv4Detroit’ Dub, energized edit, and melodic reprise.

Sanchez’s eclectic palette can be credited in part to his time spent in the sonic melting pot of New York City in the 1990s. A pillar of the underground club scene, Junior Sanchez began DJing at iconic New York City institutions such as Limelight and Club USA at the mere age of 13 and released his first track on iconic house imprint Strictly Rhythm at age 15. Sanchez went on to co-found Da Mongaloids collective, composed of the likes of Daft Punk, Armand van Helden, LaidbackLuke, and more which laid the foundation for him to form multi-generational turntablism trio S-Men alongside Roger Sanchez and DJ Sneak.

Sanchez's extensive repertoire of collaborators includes Madonna, Ariana Grande, Good Charlotte, Azealia Banks and more while his own imprints Cube Recordings and Brobot Records have seen releases from the likes of Felix Da Housecat, Sébastien Léger, and Steve Mac.

Led by legendary Detroit techno pioneer Carl Craig, Planet E Communications has been an integral force in shaping electronic music for the past thirty years. Standing testament to the timeless spirit of techno, over the past two years alone Carl has released the leftfield ‘Attenuator’ jazz fusion project from himself and Moritz Von Oswald, DJ Holographic’s multi-genre Detroit Love Vol. 5, and the first electronic music album from Mexican-American percussionist Francisco Mora-Catlett. Planet E continues to transcend the dance floor, as it perpetuates the unifying spirit and unwavering creativity of Detroit.

Fronted by former South London lovers rock vocal harmony group, Alpha (sisters Jackie & Jean Heron and Marlene Richardson), Take Three was the brain-child of writer/producer trio "S.H.E." - Steve Sinclair, Peter Hinds & Kevin Ellis.

Meeting each other at The Factory community centre in Paddington (now known as the Yaa Asantewa centre and in the last few years, The Yaa Centre) Steve & Kevin began a partnership writing and directing their own theatre productions as part of The Black Theatre Co-Op, which called the centre home at the time. When a song they had written together for one of their productions received praise and plaudits, the path toward writing and producing records began, bringing in more seasoned hand Peter Hinds - formerly a member of key brit funk groups Light of the World and Beggar & Co, and player with Incognito, Imagination & Loose Ends - to complete the circle.

Following on from Freestyle's reissue of the group's first single around this time last year, in the form of 1983's Tonight's the Night, we decided to drop another killer 12" from the Take Three vaults - this time it's their last single released as Take Three in 1985. Can't Get Enough (of Your Love) was originally licensed out to, and released by Andy Sojka's seminal Elite label. It features two super extended mixes - the A side's "Soul mix" showcases the girls's harmonies pinned down by a big & heavy synth bass groove before moving into boogie-dub territory, while the B side "Reggae mix" introduces an ofbeat skank heightening the vocal stylings' lovers-esque tendancies.

Essex-based trio Statues have made their presence felt with a string of impressive singles for a variety of labels from Sweden's Lovely and Plastic Idol in the US. Here they offer up their timely summer breezer 'Clear Skies' with crystal cleat synth lines evocative of John Carpenter or Tangerine Dream powered by a simple but effective groove. Coyote Ambient are the first of two guests invited to remix it, and theirs is more of a classic 90s chillout reworking, while Vendetta Suite combine a similar vibe with some soaring solar guitars and live drums. Another original from Statues, 'The Creek ', completes the package, with arpeggios melded with organic voices and guitars.

A Notwist concert is a Notwist concert is a Notwist concert. The band around the core trio of Cico Beck and the Acher brothers Markus and Micha usually takes its studio recordings as a mere starting point for their live performances, considering them to be possibilities that need to be explored further. This is especially true for »Vertigo Days - Live from Alien Research Center,« a live record made under unusual circumstances. The band members rearranged songs from their ambitious 2021 album »Vertigo Days« in their studio in Weilheim to record and film a special performance. The songs took on a new life, becoming more psychedelic and intense when rearranged into a spontaneous, Krautrock-esque collage.

»Vertigo Days« was meant to transcend the conventional notion of a band as well as the creative and geographic boundaries inscribed into that concept. And even though life had other plans, this is precisely what the album did when it was released to both commercial success and critical acclaim in early 2021. Contributions by Tenniscoats singer Saya, Angel Bat Dawid, Ben LaMar Gay, Juana Molina, among others, as well as new member Theresa Loibl on bass clarinet, harmonium, and keyboard, expanded the band’s sonic palette, stylistic range, and even lyrical focus through the addition of different instruments, artistic approaches, and languages.

All of that was missing when the band retreated to their studio—dubbed Alien Research Center in response to, and in spite of, a nearby church called Christian Outreach Center—to further explore the possibilities of the source material. The band members considered this a challenge rather than an insurmountable problem and not only accepted, but fully embraced it. Trying to work as little as possible with the computers and samples—Saya’s voice on »Ship« being a notable exception—the band rearranged six tracks from »Vertigo Days« and a piece from the »One of Those Days« film soundtrack in order to allow themselves to improvise more freely, especially thanks to Loibl, who takes on a key role during these 45 minutes.

The intro sets the tone for what’s to come, contrasting loose jazz drumming with curious synthesizer rhythms in an abstract rendition of the first sounds that greeted the listeners on »Vertigo Days«. While the next four tracks—»Into Love / Stars«, »Exit Strategy To Myself«, »Where You Find Me« and »Ship«—follow the chronology of the album, they use the originals as a blank slate for further experimentation. The first track morphs into a feverish long-form jam that draws on the underlying groove to shift the dynamics from and leave behind the song structure of the studio version. It’s an exemplary piece in a recording that sees each individual musician leaving their mark on the overall sound, all while being perfectly attuned to what everyone else is doing around them. This continues up until the record’s triumphant finale, a whirring rendition of »Loose Ends.«

»Vertigo Days - Live from Alien Research Center« is at once a snapshot of a certain moment in the band’s history and the quintessential Notwist live record: a unique performance that both explores the untapped potential of the »Vertigo Days« studio recordings while also serving as an inspiration for upcoming live shows.

As with the studio album, the artwork for »Vertigo Days - Live from Alien Research Center« features photographs by Japanese artist Lieko Shiga, taken in the '00s.

Louie Vega is launching a trio of Double Pack 12” releases that includes special unreleased versions of select titles from the Expansions In The NYC album project. Each package also features unique customized art by celebrated artist Andrew Thiele who also created the art for the album jacket as well. This package spotlights four of the very memorable vocalists on the album: namely Lisa Fischer (The Star Of A Story), Cindy Mizelle and Audrey Wheeler (Love Has No Time Or Place and Janine Sugah Lyrics Lyons (A Place Where We Can All Be Free).

Louie Vega is launching a trio of Double Pack 12” releases that includes special unreleased versions of select titles from the Expansions In The NYC album project. Each package also features unique customized art by celebrated artist Andrew Thiele who also created the art for the album package as well. Joy Universal and Igobolo (Feelin’ Love) spotlight the profoundly soulful and musical energy that emerges when Louie collaborates with two of the stars of the House Music community namely Josh Milan and Joe Claussell.

Emanating from a ‘prehistoric’ existence near the end of the last millennium, Andy Votel and his slightly older college mates were once best recognised in Mancunian clubs and bars as teenage vinyl nerds and bum-fluffed battle rappers under the collective name Violators Of The English Language (which in acronymic form explains Andy’s own exotic pen-name).

As steadfast supporters of the 1980s / 90s Brit-core rap scene coming out of London, the multicultural Violators’ Mancunian accents were perhaps a bridge-too-far to secure dream job contracts for humble labels like Kold Sweat and Music Of Life. An unlikely constructive meeting with Gang Starr’s DJ Premier (while Andy helped out at a radio station), plus playing warm up DJ sets for countless US rap heroes might have temporarily added inspirational fuel to the fire, but after an active period combining graffiti, rapping, scratching, obsessive record digging and beat making into their daily operations, adulthood eventually began to rear its unwelcome head.

A decade later, Andy Votel and his digging skills would begin to provide direct sample material for the likes of Madlib, Mos Def, Jay Z, Nas, Dr Dre, Ghostface Killa and Action Bronson, amongst others, and the Violators’ black book of breakbeats and catalogue numbers soon began to feed a same-butdifferent rap beast.

For a project that has taken thirty years, it would be totally inadequate to call the formation of Hypocritical Beatdown Records a lockdown-project. There’s a deep history and psychology in these records by Violators Of The English Language and their spin-off groups Magnets (Rap Group) and ProVerbs, that combines stage-fright, loss, pride, creative-schizophrenia, racial inequality, surrealism, personal politics, brotherhood, artistic-constipation, better judgment, love, anti-love, soul searching and much more.

As well as Andy Votel taking care of both production and part of the microphone duties, some might recognise fellow MC and solo recording artist Figure Of Speech as a prominent voice here. The trio of Magnets (Rap Group) sees Andy also joined by local B-Girl legend Jeni Chan aka Penny Chew, and rapper and DJ Benjamin Hatton who has previously recorded with Kid Acne, The Mongrels and Sheffield’s Invisible Spies’ long-running squadron. Widely respected visual artist Rick Myers (now living in Massachusetts) also contributed scratches for many of these recordings via file sharing and custom dub-plates to keep the Violators’ authentic line-up intact, as well as galvanising the crew’s semi-reluctant art-school roots.

Extra production credits for the label also go to Sean Canty from Demdike Stare, and the late great Dan Dwayre aka Black Lodge (Mo Wax) who sadly passed away during the completion of these recordings. The members of Violators Of The English Language who you’ve not yet heard of will quickly make themselves known as the needle drops on this long-mooted debut vinyl release.