Beats News

The Tipping Point is the sixth studio album by hip hop band The Roots, released July 13, 2004 on Geffen Records. It is named after Malcolm Gladwell’s book of the same name (2000), and it serves as the follow-up to Phrenology (2002). The album is a musical departure from their previous work, featuring a more diverse, yet pop-oriented sound, and it contains lyrics associated with rapping-prowess, political insight, and social commentary. The Tipping Point has been noted by music writers for exhibiting and emphasizing soul, jazz, and funk influences as well.

Urban Legends/UMC are set to release The Tipping Point in 2LP 180 gram black on 12th July.The Tipping Point is the sixth studio album by hip hop band The Roots, released July 13, 2004 on Geffen Records. It is named after Malcolm Gladwell’s book of the same name (2000), and it serves as the follow-up to Phrenology (2002). The album is a musical departure from their previous work, featuring a more diverse, yet pop-oriented sound, and it contains lyrics associated with rapping-prowess, political insight, and social commentary. The Tipping Point has been noted by music writers for exhibiting and emphasizing soul, jazz, and funk influences as well.

Urban Legends/UMC are set to release The Tipping Point in 2LP 180 gram black on 12th July.

7" EP on white vinyl, limited to 300 copies only. It's A Hit! brings together four songs recorded by The Stroppies at home on their Tascam 4 track in mid 2017. Permeated by dystopian imagery of machines building machines and cats driving cars, It's a Hit! is perhaps the Stroppies most idiosyncratic release. Indeed, the title is a humorous nod to the inherent lo-fi quality of the recordings, a sound that some might not consider to be "radio friendly". Surley though, the songs contained herein are still unashamedly pop, albeit adorned in crackle and hiss. For reference think Alex Chilton's "Like Flies on Sherbert", early Swell Maps, and a touch of Loaded-era Velvet Underground shuffle. Originally released only in Australia via Hobbies Galore as a limited edition 7" in a hand stamped sleeve, the long sold-out EP is now being given an international release on the eve of the band's debut UK tour. Limited to 300 copies on white vinyl, and with a different sleeve to the first pressing.

In 1969 The Velvet Underground played a residency at The Matrix, a small club in San Francisco and performances from these shows were recorded on a tape deck by guitarist Robert Quine. The band was basically at the height of their powers when they disbanded, and these tapes are further proof of that. Pressed on vinyl for the first time. Featuring 8 x 180G LP’s and an 18 page book all contained in a hard top box. In 1969 The Velvet Underground played a residency at The Matrix, a small club in San Francisco and performances from these shows were recorded on a tape deck by guitarist Robert Quine. The band was basically at the height of their powers when they disbanded, and these tapes are further proof of that. Pressed on vinyl for the first time. Featuring 8 x 180G LP’s and an 18 page book all contained in a hard top box..

The story of The Zara´s, a musical group of five brothers and sisters (Marino, Kitty, Jesus, Toto and Anita) starts in Tafalla, Navarra, Spain, in the early fifties and ends in 1977 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. For almost three decades they resided in five countries (Spain, France, Italy, Germany and the US), where they performed continuously, releasing six LPs, an EP and a single. They performed with several of the most famous artists in history.



In 1950, Vicente Zaratiegui lost his wife. Marino, the oldest was turning nine. Vicente was an amateur musician of popular music. His mission became to train his five children as professional musicians. Here the saga began. He enrolled them in musical theory classes, guitar, piano and accordion… Soon enough they had a repertoire of jotas, folkloric songs and classical music. During this time they were the opening act in a tour of Juanito Valderrama.

In the mid-fifties, the family moved to Paris to continue the group’s career. They got their first electric guitar and slowly, they moved to rock, soul and pop. In France they toured as opening act for Charles Aznavour, Yves Montand, Johnny Hallyday, they toured the French Riviera with Petula Clark and Hallyday. They made many television appearances in France. They spent a half year in Utrera, Andalusia to learn flamenco and about a year in Milano, Italy, to improve their harmony and composition knowledge.



At the end of the 50s, offers to perform in many American bases in France and Germany kept them very busy. They also played the Bases of Torrejon and Zaragoza. In Torrejon they played for John Wayne and Robert Mitchum. They became the idols of the American soldiers in Europe, especially in Germany, where they lived from 1960 until 1969. They played with Sammy Davis Jr, Brenda Lee, Herman’s Hermit’s, Don Gibson o Wee Willie Harris. At that time, they hired prestigious British singers, like Kim Roberts (one of the fetish voices of composer Joe Meek) and Julie Grant (with over 20 edited records in Pye and Disques Vogue), as female lead singers for the band. Julie stayed till the end of the Vegas gigs.


In 1969, they came to New York with a contract to work the prestigious Americana Hotels in the Bahamas, Puerto Rico and Miami. By 1970, they signed a five year contract with the mythical Sahara Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. They earned thousands of dollars weekly, they shared marquee with Frankie Valli, Louis Prima, The Drifters, Johnny Mathis…. They met Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and many others. They lived the splendor of Las Vegas in full swing. They were always making TV appearances, and when they were not in Las Vegas, they were all over the US and Canada. At the end of the contract the Sahara signed them for another year, until 1976. At the end of this contract, the group retired from stage. Marino became the manager of Natalie Cole, daughter of Nat King Cole, and co-produced her first record. He also managed Peter, Paul and Mary, and a few Brazilian groups and he organized tours for Warner Records. Toto Zara, the musical brain of the group, opened a recording studio in Las Vegas that he has operated for over 40 years. Paquita (Kitty) whom had designed and made the stage costumes of The Zara’s, opened her own boutique in Las Vegas, she went on to dress many well-known stars. Jesus and Anita both passed away in Las Vegas. Julie Grant continued her singing career.

"When You And Your Goat Find Bread" is a thing of it’s own beauty. On her first solo outing, the German-Filipino composer, musician, actress, film and music producer, painter, performance artist and author Tintin Patrone presents seven carefully crafted and emotively played neo-classical compositions for trombone and electronics.

"A goat is a domestic animal kept to be sacrificed to giants. It is a metaphor for a state of peacefulness. When your goat is with you, you are calm and collected. In early horse racing days, goats were kept with nervous race horses to keep them calm before the race. When your goat is stolen, you become angry and upset. You feel so intoxicated that you end up blacking out for several hours, and wake up not knowing what has happened, possibly in your own puke. Then you should eat some bread."

The pioneer of toasting Ewart Beckford, better known by his stage name U-Roy, is a Jamaican vocalist. He was bursting onto the Jamaican scene in the early 1970s with his typical rapping style of singing (toasting) over the rhythms and beats he created. All of a sudden, Jamaica awoke one morning and U-Roy was everywhere. He released his debut album Version Galore in 1970, it consists of his earliest songs, all recorded for Duke Reid’s Treasure Isle label. Most listeners will especially recognize “Tide Is High,” originally by the Paragons and recorded later as a 1980 hit by Blondie. Enjoy listening to the way he’s bringing his lyrics all over the record. It’s toasting at best.

Version Galore is available as limited edition of 750 individually numbered copies on orange coloured vinyl.

It's extremely hard to think of any band that completely pivots lineups and stylistic approaches, and then turns out well—unless of course you're Fleetwood Mac. Formed in the U.K. as a hard-edged British blues combo in the late '60s, the troupe eventually gradually morphed into a polished pop/rock act over the course of a decade, and in the process, became one of the most influential American bands of the '70s. In The Many Faces of Fleetwood Mac, we will go down the rabbit hole to explore the lesser known side of the band and also to review the work of most of its 18 past and current members. To complete our journey, we will enjoy the band live during one of their most popular concerts of their half-a-century career.

Presenting a collection of rare and obscure 45s from around the world in an international showdown of teenage angst, despair and delinquency. The toxic sound of 60s garage punk never sounded so good!! Blasted through 60watt amplifiers on a diet of amphetamines and adrenalin, Diggin’ For Gold offers torment and misery with an explosive twist in mindbending mono!!

After last year saw the launch of the Stages of Grief series on Vaknar via its maiden release Convalescence, the second volume presented here will focus on the theme of consolation and is thus aptly titled Solace.

Once more a variety of artists were selected to respond to the theme. Solace begins with an uplifting chorus of synth laden resonances, bellowing throughout the duration of ‘Lonely Cloud’ by Danish native Rune Bagge, who made waves via his debut LP which was released on Northern Electronics last year.
Previous Vaknar collaborators White Stains (Belgium), Appropriate Savagery (France) and Amethyst (Germany) further divulge in a certain sonic spectrum and mood that encompasses the entire A side of the release.

The B side is inhabited by two contrasting compositions, starting with a piece by American composer J. Carter titled The Collapse of the Cheekbone is the Death of the Comité de salut public. Here the listener is presented with a solemn gust of layered keys which steadily develop in dramatic fashion before bursting into a hurl of feedback that over-tones the proclamations of a muffled voice. J. Carter’s piece presents itself as the peak of a turmoiltulous phase of grievance and thus the following and final composition on the release ends on an contrastingly tranquil note, presented by Swedish composer Isorinne, who shares a nine minute long composition of pure, virtuous serenity that commemorates the arrival of a new stage, (which will be further explored throughout the third and final instalment in the series next year).

Each cassette comes housed in a unique, hand cut J-Card, derived from a variation of B&W screen prints specifically created for the Stages of Grief Series at an Edition of 50.

You must have wondered how it all began with the Jamaican beat music called Ska. Let’s set the records straight, it was “Duke” Reid from Western Kingston who developed this beat based on the indigenous music of Jamaica. It was way back in 1952 and then “Duke” called it ‘Rhythm ’n Blues’. Exciting, hypnotic, a mixture of Jamaican folk music and rock ’n roll. Duke Reid, lover of music and the deep rolling rhythms of his Jamaican people heard the beat develop from watching his people dance. He got himself an amplified “Sound system” and while hiring it out for dances, he listened and he watched, on so many Saturday nights when the back streets and dance halls of Kingston come alive - and his dream was born - music sprung from the basic beat of Jamaica with all the U.S.A. influences and the power and beauty and joy of the earth. This respective ska album focuses on much of the work from The Skatalites and Babba Brooks.

The Birth of Ska is available as a limited edition of 750 individually numbered copies on orange coloured vinyl.

2001’s chart-topping, multi-platinum soundtrack album, Shrek (Music From The Original Motion Picture), is making its vinyl release debut. The popular soundtrack’s highlights include Smash Mouth’s megahit, “All Star,” and the band’s cover of Neil Diamond’s “I’m A Believer;” EELS’ “My Beloved Monster;” “Hallelujah” performed by Rufus Wainwright; The Proclaimers’ “I’m On My Way;” Baha Men’s performance of “Best Years Of Our Lives;” and from the film’s original score composed by Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell, “True Love’s First Kiss.” Pressed on 180gm heavyweight black vinyl. DL codes included.

The Treasure Isle Recording Studio, which is now acknowledged as the leader in producing the hits of Jamaica-and where Rock Steady all happened. Backing all the tracks on this LP is Tommy McCook and the Supersonics, the original Rock Steady Band. Tommy, on tenor sax, is one of Jamaica’s greatest musicians, and his arrangements on this and other records, as well as his superb solo work are evidence of this. Thanks to the artists, musicians, engineers, and the producer, Duke Reid—here is Rock Steady at its best.

Jamaica’s most successful producer, manager and promoter is undoubtedly Duke Reid. Many may remember him as Duke Reid—The Trojan, with his famous, and for many successive years, top award winning, Trojan Sound System ; and his almost legendary Saturday evening Radio Programme “Treasure Isle Time”. Duke Reid produced and promoted his first record in 1959, and since then has contributed to the success of a vast number of Jamaican artists: Millie Small, Derrick Morgan, Hortense Ellis, Laurel Aitken, The Techniques, Alton Ellis and the Flames, Ken Boothe, Stranger Cole and many others. And as for records-remember “Dukes Cooking”. “Rough and Tough”, “Carry Go Bring Come”, “Musical Communion”, “River Bank”-to name but a few.

Greatest Jamaican Beat is available as a limited edition of 750 individually numbered copies on orange coloured vinyl.

As you'd expect from its position and history, the eastern African nation of Somalia is rich in cultural influences. Wrapped part way around Ethiopia, it forms the sea coast of the Horn of Africa. Kenya borders it to the south, and its north coast faces the southern shore of the Arabian peninsula, only a couple of hundred miles away.

Unsurprisingly, given this last fact, Somalia was one of the first African countries converted to Islam, in the 8th and 9th centuries. During the 18th and 19th century, the Somali ports were controlled by Arabs and by the Ottoman Empire. During the European colonial period, the north was a British, and the south an Italian, colony. Independent Somalia still shows varying effects of these influences (Arabic, English and Italian are all used for teaching). Musically speaking, Somalia forms part of an eastern African Islamic continuum that includes the coast of Kenya and Tanzania as well as Sudan, and is more loosely linked with North and Muslim West Africa. (Kismayu, in the south of Somalia, is in fact the most northerly frontier of the Swahili music called 'taarab' or 'tarabu'). But like all the other idioms in this general Afro-Islamic nexus, Somalia's music retains a quite individual flavor.

The main traditional instrument of Somalia is the 'ud', imported from Egypt or Lebanon and known locally as the 'kaban'. Another common instrument is the 'taruumbo', or flute. The one heard on several of these tracks was a homemade, end-blown version cut from a piece of plastic tubing.

As is true for the whole of Africa, the standard six-string acoustic guitar has been taken over by Somali musicians and played in a wide range of styles. Small keyboard instruments have also long been a feature of East African coastal music. In the old days, portable harmoniums were popular. These were presumably imported from India, where they are very popular. In Somalia, the market has been captured by Japanese-made organs with built-in rhythm, like the one heard on four tracks here.

The music on this album was all recorded in one town, Baraawe (usually called Brava on the maps). Baraawe, which is on the Somali coast about 120 miles south of the capital, Mogadishu, has a population of around 10,000. Like all African towns of any size it is something of a melting pot. The original inhabitants, like the Swahili to their south, are of mixed Arab and Bantu African heritage, and speak a Bantu language called Chimina. Somalis from various other areas, speaking standard Somali and several dialects of it, also live in Baraawe.

The musicians heard here play regularly together in various combinations. Like almost all African musicians, they are part-timers. Some are shoemakers. Two are soldiers (Africa has long had an amazing number of fine dance bands made up of police or army personnel). All the pieces they perform on this recording are love songs.

Almost all great music is bridge - spanning geography and time, defying easy definition. It is the product of collaboration and mutual respect - individual voice, fused within a collective force. These are the roots for the trio Vértice, an unlikely formation by experimental luminaries, Maurizio Bianchi, Saverio Evangelista, and Juan Manuel Cidrón - each hailing from their own discrete musical geography in Italy and Spain. Devotion to sound and craft are the bonds which join. Milan based Die Schachtel is proud to present Besoch Trauma, this remarkable project’s first recorded outing, years in the making and now marking the launch of a new series from the imprint - Decay Music, highlighting inspired contemporary experimental efforts in the ambient, ethereal, and emotively abstract.

Each member of Vértice comes from a luminous and historic musical pedigree. Maurizio Bianchi is one of Italy’s earliest and most important figures in Industrial music, beginning to issue a wild series of visionary releases during the late 1970s. Saverio Evangelista is well known for his decades longs efforts within the seminal outfits, Esplendor Geométrico and M.S.B., while Juan Manuel Cidrón is one of the great cult figures of Spanish electronic music. Together they shed skin, reforming as one, diving into uncharted waters, while remaining unrecognizable within.

Slow, sophisticated, and a deeply meditative, minimalist wonder, Besoch Trauma progresses like a melancholic dream - the slow wilting of sounds, pondering their own rebirth. Repetitive and restrained piano lines rise among drifting synthesiser tones and textural ambiances, fall away and return, fracture, break, stagger, and distort across the entirety of the albums first side, while murky, implacable sounds breed with flirting electronics and piano, sculpting the vast expanse of abstraction which emerges across the entirety of the second - clattering and droning, filled with air, fading melodies, and rippling tones - the inorganic rising as a synthetic vision of the natural world, and a music which entirely refuses to say what it is.

Two slow burning sides, unfolding with greater depth at every turn, across Besoch Trauma Bianchi, Evangelista, and Cidrón, joined as Vértice, build rich tapestry of creatively challenging sound - a hypothetical imagining of historic minimalism and ambient music, bred with industrial and punk. Dark, inhabitable, and unquestionably beautiful.

The perfectly sounding Decay Music records have been perfectly cut and pressed using a surprising thick grey hi-quality vinyl featuring a "decay-like" marbling effect. The overall design is by the usual suspect Bruno, who created a "half alchemic-half decadent" custom typeface for the series. The covers - featuring mysterious and obscure drawings by obscure artists – are printed in silver on heavy matt black paper stock, and hosted in a transparent outer sleeve, on which the typography is silkscreened in white on clear acetate.

Edition of 250 copies and pressed to 180g grey-marbled vinyl, one-time pressing, housed in pro-printed inner sleeve and jacket, itself contained in a silkscreened pvc sleeve.

• 180 GRAM AUDIOPHILE VINYL
• 4-PAGE BOOKLET WITH PICTURES AND LYRICS
• INCLUDES THE SINGLES “SOMEONE SOMEWHERE”, “SHORTY”, “FRIENDS” AND “HIT”
• LIMITED EDITION OF 1000 INDIVIDUALLY NUMBERED COPIES ON TURQUOISE VINYL

The Wannadies fourth album Bagsy Me includes the band’s hit, also called “Hit”. The song peaked at number twenty in the UK charts. It continues where Be a Girl left off and adds an extra mount of punk pop to the music. Some retro synth sounds and big beat melodies are brought together in their different love songs. It also offers more serious characters to the music, but mainly stays as a fresh and relaxing album. The nearly nine-minute closer, “That’s All,” is the most hypnotic tune which can be found on the album. All over it’s another great Wannadies album.

Bagsy Me is available as a limited edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on turquoise vinyl. The package includes a 4-page booklet with pictures and lyrics.

Follow Blind belongs to the best albums Wipers has to offer, although it’s a slightly change in musical direction compared to their previous releases. The music is more related to the psychedelic garage rock as it sounds like the more distorted punk rock. The guitar play from Greg Sage is more prominent mixed into the sounds as a whole. It’s still one of their least famous records, but it’s worth more than just one spin.

The Wipers were a punk rock group formed in Portland, Oregon in 1977 formed by guitarist/songwriter Greg Sage. The group’s tight song structure and use of heavy distortion were hailed as very influential by many critics and musicians alike. The band is considered the first Pacific Northwest punk band.

Follow Blind is available as a limited edition of 750 numbered copies on silver coloured vinyl.

Empty Editions presents Palina’tufa, the newest work from saxophonist Seymour Wright and percussionist Paul Abbott’s long-running duo XT. Wright and Abbot’s respective practices have been marked by a simultaneous engagement (with) and desire to challenge the limitations (of) the British tradition of improvised music - represented by groups such as AMM and John Stevens’ Spontaneous Music Ensemble. This album charts a new trajectory for Wright and Abbott, as they draw on recent live collaborations with RP Boo and Container in developing a sound which hybridizes the spontaneous interplay and timbral experimentation of free improvisation with the recursive formal structures of dance music.

The album’s title is an enigmatic portmanteau of “Palina” (taken from the name of a species of butterfly sighted by the duo during recording) combined with the word “Tufa” -- a type of rock composed of ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption; the bedrock of the island of Hong Kong. Compellingly, the green sheen of the Palinurus butterfly is not produced by pigments, but emanates from the microstructure of it’s wing scales. Similarly, XT’s Palina’tufa contains a brilliant internal logic of stacked component parts all amalgamated into a singularly iridescent instrumental structure.

Recorded during a two week studio residency in Hong Kong, Palina’tufa departs from XT’s previous albums - primarily documentations of live performances - in its embrace of the recording studio as a form of instrumentation: a tool to sculpt, overdub and (re)assemble their chimeric sounds. The result is a striking cybernetic version of the classic sax-and-drums duo pioneered by legendary groupings such as John Coltrane and Rashied Ali, Evan Parker & Paul Lytton, and Jimmy Lyons & Andrew Cyrille. Palina’tufa turns the implied (and frankly, somewhat tired) tropes of this form on its head, pushing restlessly forward into the domain of a synthetic post-genre music. Wright's unconventional use of feedback and Abbott's heavily deconstructed electro-dance textures expand upon this simulated space, unfurling their instrumentation into an authentically liberated territory.

Across four dynamic fifteen minute cuts, the duo craft an esoteric response to the real (and imagined) landscape(s) of Hong Kong. Interpreting their experience of the island as a kind of extended metaphor, Palina’tufa translates chance encounters, pockets of cultural history, vernacular architecture, and local wildlife (among other phenomena) into organizing principles for the creation of speculative music. Palina’tufa is a brilliant showcase of Wright and Abbott’s composite sound: naturally synergistic, with careful attention paid to how psychogeographical experience is transposed into the deeply considered interplay of their respective instruments. A stunning listen, the album’s various movements respond to scenes in proximity to the Tin Wan (Aberdeen) area: the past/future poise of Permanent Cemetery; the human densities of Duck Tongue Island; the black garlic/gypsum of Empty Gallery itself.

Palina’tufa expands on this emerging style of electronically mediated improvised music by further compartmentalizing their playing through a series of concepts, limits, and methods to organize their materials into distinct classifications. This approach creates an album architecture, a time/space organized into “Stacks” (recalling vertical cylinders, tubes, pipes, columns), “Orbits” (recalling Chinese folk music, weather systems, paths travelling upward), and “Angles of Incidence,” (a concept inspired by Pere Portabella and Cecil Taylor) that responds to the social, physical, and temporal forces of a city. Loosely, these structures spatially reorganize the “time” in their playing, reversing, eliding, truncating, and magnifying content. This technique recalls everything from Anthony Braxton’s diagrammatic lines, colours, and figures that encode structural and vibrational elements of sound, through the pentatonic scale of Chinese folk music that was integrated into a symbolic matrix referencing the movements of the seasons, planets, and body-politic, to Alejo Carpentier’s search for a musical origin in fiction.

The release was recorded in Hong Kong over the course of two weeks with the creative expertise of David Sum and Tomas Chan and is mastered by Rashad Becker at D&M. The LP is produced in an edition of 300 on 180 gram vinyl featuring artwork by Ikebana artist Kosen Ohtsubo.

Seymour Wright’s work is about the creative, situated friction of learning, ideas, people, and the saxophone -- music, history and technique ­-- actual and potential. His solo work is documented on three widely-acclaimed collections: Seymour Wright of Derby (2008), Seymour Writes Back (2015) and Is This Right? (2017), ith a fourth “Rites” scheduled for release in 2019. Current projects include: abaria with Ute Kanngiesser; Ahmed with Antonin Gerbal, Joel Grip and Pat Thomas; @xcrswx with Crystabel Riley; an unnamed trio with Crystabel Riley and Ute Kanngiesser; GUO with Daniel Blumberg; The Experimental Library with Evie Ward; XT with Paul Abbott; a trans-atlantic duet with Anne Guthrie, and, with Jean-luc Guionnet a project addressing an imaginary lacunae in Aby Warburg's Atlas Mnemosyne. He is also a founding member of The Creaking Breeze Ensemble. His writing has been published in C//A, Sound American and The Wire.

Paul Abbott works through questions and feelings exploring music and language: using real and imaginary drums, synthetic sounds, performance, and writing. Current projects include The Creaking Breeze Ensemble, XT & lll人 with Seymour Wright and Daichi Yoshikawa, yPLO with Michael Speers, Falls with Keira Greene, ULAPAARC with Cara Tolmie and an ongoing project with Will Holder. Abbott is co-editor of Cesura//Acceso and was was one of the Sound and Music “Embedded” resident artists at Cafe Oto 2015-2016. Abbott has performed and collaborated with musicians and artists, including: RP Boo, Container, Benedict Drew, Pat Thomas, Ute Kanngiesser, Billy Steiger, Bill Orcutt, Danny Haywood, Joel Grip, Brandon La Belle, Eddie Prevost, Steve Noble, Sebastian Lexer, Evan Parker and Otomo Yoshihide.

Empty Editions is a Berlin-based publishing platform initiated by Hong Kong’s Empty Gallery, releasing vinyl records, artist books, multiples, and other ephemera with a special focus on the fertile intersection between the visual and sonic arts. We present speculative documents that posit options for synthesis between the sounds of today and the historical avant-garde.

A deconstruction of Ska, Rocksteady and Skinhead Reggae from the 50s, 60s and 70s. Rather a passionate deconstruction of a genre than compositions or remixes per se, this incantatory tribute favors abstraction using loops, distortion, compression, variations of speed and height, and effects (delay, reverb, chorus). Recorded in different states of altered consciousness, Mt Gemini is built of spontaneous and unexpected combinations. It is an attempt to generate inner spaces where the borders between reverie and reality blur. An hallucinatory shock, a journey made of distant echoes, an atmosphere imbued with joy and nostalgia.

During the last ten years, Franck has wallowed freely within diverse musical spheres. Whether cathartic or contemplative, Franck's projects serve an ever more ontological search: the creation of sonic immersions that influence our states of consciousness and contribute to its transformation. In addition to his solo works, he is the man behind projects RAUM and Outlaw Compound. He is part of the avant-techno duo Orphan Swords with Pierre De Mûelenaere and played in experimental combo Y.E.R.M.O. from 2005 to 2009.

* Remastered by Bob Ludwig

* Vinyl cutting by Bernie Grundman Mastering

* Pressed on 2 LPs at 45 rpm

* Collector's Vinyl Edition Box Set includes deluxe booklet with new liner notes, interviews, previously unseen photos, plus replica track sheets and studio ephemera

* Limited edition import Japanese press (NON RETURNABLE)





The first official studio album by Yellow Magic Orchestra. Pioneers of the synth-pop genre, YMO helped inspire the future of hip hop, techno and electro music. The album broke conventions from their sampling of video game sounds to the use of a music sequencer to create new electronic sounds. The US version features unique cover art and special mixing for the American audience.



Collector's Vinyl Edition box set includes the album pressed on 2 LPs at 45 rpm, replica track sheets and studio ephemera, and a deluxe booklet with newly written liner notes and interviews.

My Krazy Life is the debut studio album from West Coast rapper YG. It was released on March 18, 2014, by CTE World, Def Jam Recordings and Pushaz Ink. The album features guest appearances from Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, Rich Homie Quan, Ty Dolla $ign, Schoolboy Q, Meek Mill, Jay Rock, Jeezy, TeeFlii and RJ, while the production was primarily handled by frequent collaborator DJ Mustard, along with production from Ty Dolla $ign and Terrace Martin.

Urban Legends/UMe will reissue the vinyl of My Krazy Life in 2LP standard black vinyl, featuring the additional track “459.”

A year after the release of Selected Organ Works, Danish artists Paw Grabowski returns to Vaknar in the form of Forgotten Works.

Paw Grabowski is a Danish based artists who focuses on hand cut collage works and has been releasing tape based music since 2007 under his øjeRum moniker.
øjeRum’s music is characterised by a brittle texture and forlorn mood, pieces may often include Organ, piano and guitar elements, as well as usually being presented in the form of continuous intervals.

Forgotten Works was compiled after the label was endowed with a vast selection of disregarded material from øjeRums archives, handed over with consent by the artist upon the labels request.

After going through each piece, the Vaknar carefully selected a variety of compositions which are now presented and aligned on four sides of tape.
Forgotten Works thus presents itself as the premiere release to give insight into øjeRum’s extensive back catalog of previously unreleased and discarded compositions, ranging from his renown organ loops to guitar pieces, drone works and more, all recorded between 2009 and 2017.

The artwork features one of øjeRum hand cut collage, riso printed and presented on a double cassette at an Edition of 80 copies.