Pop & Rock News

“J Spaceman and J Coxon play the music of The Red Krayola!

Trems, feedback, metronomes and a music box………

This recording was made during preparation for a joint performance by J Spaceman and J Coxon as part of : Art and Language: Letters to The Jackson Pollock Bar in the Style of The Red Krayola, Lisson Gallery New York, October 2019.
The idea was to attempt to do a cover version of The Red Krayola’s radical and unrepeatable performance at the Angry Arts Festival in 1967. Spaceman and Coxon listened, separately, to the recordings from the Venice Pavilion Concert and then got together to try to play a version of it without rehearsal. This is a recording of that that anti-rehearsal which they then attempted to repeat in NYC a week later at the the Art and Language Lisson Gallery show.

Recorded between Lausanne and Brussels during summer 2019, this new series of songs by Meril Wubslin dig deeper in this tribal, rustic and minimal tendency that they had in the two previous albums. It is the desire to search for sounds, to manipulate matter : sound matter, rhythmic matter, to knead it to its hottest point, that guided the work of composition. All vintage guitars were recorded without amps. Tambourines and other maracas were approached as a drum kit. But the harmonies and melodies are still present and sometimes event enhanced by the occasional participation of a choir of female voices or a minimal synth line. Always with this desire to use French, their mother tongue, while trying to avoid the trap of ‘variété française’.

“With this new album, we wanted to try something slightly different with the sound. Explore new ways to record our instruments and voices. Thus we decided to put away our amplifiers that we used for rockier moods. And we tried the acoustic option. We were surprised by the wide range of possibilities, much more direct and much more emotional actually. About the texts, we still insist with this open way of writing, a mixture between abstract and concrete which offers several understandings. With this liberty in the structure, we avoid the predominance of the message, to go towards a more sensitive and open meaning.”
Christian Garcia-Gaucher

The long-awaited re-release of Hearsay I-Land, esteemed jazz musician Roland P. Young’s mid 80’s foray into pop structures, soul, and dance music. Hearsay I-Land comprises the entirety of his scarce 1984 four song 12”, I-LAND, as well as most of his 1987 LP, Hearsay Evidence, both released on his label, Flow-Chart Records.

Perhaps best known for his classic spiritual jazz recording, Isophonic Boogie Woogie, as well as his more recent output on EM records, Hearsay I-Land presents another parallel and deeply engaging side to Young’s story, one that would fit at home in any downtempo 80s New York set.

These recordings touch upon many lyrical and worldly themes via Roland’s soulful voice, save for Ballo-Balla, which features floating vocals from his partner Risa over a spacey drum machine and hypnotic bass sequence, imploring the listener to dance.

This new edition proudly includes additional artwork and photos.

With no touring in 2020, and possibly this year, Woods
decided to take a deep dive into their archives and put
together the first volume of their much discussed archival
series, Reflections. Featuring rare and unreleased
recordings from 2009 - 2013, including a ghost town desert
jam off the side of the highway, their first live performance
in Big Sur, the first recorded version of “Bend Beyond”
and some shelved diamonds in the rough that were finished
up during quarantine. Their hope is that it plays like a “lost
record” from an extremely strange and fruitful period in
Woods history.

Color Vinyl With no touring in 2020, and possibly this year, Woods
decided to take a deep dive into their archives and put
together the first volume of their much discussed archival
series, Reflections. Featuring rare and unreleased
recordings from 2009 - 2013, including a ghost town desert
jam off the side of the highway, their first live performance
in Big Sur, the first recorded version of “Bend Beyond”
and some shelved diamonds in the rough that were finished
up during quarantine. Their hope is that it plays like a “lost
record” from an extremely strange and fruitful period in
Woods history.

As long-time fans of this sublime four-track compacto 7" by the illustrious Brazilian duo Luli Lucinha e O Bando, we have floated the idea of re-issuing this beauty for several years now. So finally, the time feels right to release this beloved gem back into the world.

Originally issued on Som Livre ‎Records in Brazil in 1972, this rarity has long been lost to only but the most hardened Brazilian record collectors and those lucky few who own an original copy. The four genre-defying compositions blend elements of psychedelic rock, MPB and folk, and are glued together by the synergy of Luli and Lucinha's vocals and the outstanding arrangements by Zé Rodrix. Whether it be the lost Brazilian-psych anthem of 'Flor Lilás’, or the tripped out folk-funk of 'Dourado Da Manhã’, the EP oozes magic and brilliance. The record also features the Brazilian percussionist, Alyrio Lima, who later became a member of the iconic Weather Report.

Luli (Heloisa Orosco Borges da Fonseca) and Lucinha's (Lucia Helena Carvalho e Silva) records have become extremely sought-after in recent years. Their inclusion on John Gómez's superb 2017 'Outro Tempo' compilation helped spread the gospel about their beautiful folky, MPB, private press albums from the late '70s and '80s. Prior to their musical partnership back in 1965, Luli released a heavenly Bossa Nova 7" nugget entailed 'Baleiro' and a self-titled solo album on Philips Records, which are now also highly-prized by collectors.

Here at Mr Bongo we feel Luli and Lucinha's names should be more widely recognised and break out of their cult artist status. They should be rated up there amongst some of the progressive, left-field greats of Brazilian music of their era. Sadly Luli passed away in 2018, but left behind an inspiring musical legacy for us all to savour.

After a false start or two, Ess O Ess have finally joined the Kinfolk stable with a thunderous release featuring Laura Lee of Khruangbin fame.

Totem is the name and four versions is the game.

Starting off, the original mix is a wailing guitar-heavy psyche rock out that sees Laura Lee's vocals carrying it across a peyote-filled landscape.

Saul's Swamp Crawl version sees the slow 'n' heavy rock elements kept in the mix but with added electronic flourishes. Head nodding is an optional extra.

The Hardway Brothers decided to tune in with the spirit of Johnny Jenkins and haul it through New Orleans via a pit stop at John Carpenter's desert holiday home.

Otologic bring up the rear with an altogether different take by donning their finest digi dub garb and take it as far away as they can from it's psyche out beginnings

Cora Emens is a sex educator and performer based in the Netherlands. This re-issued work of experimental music was compiled in the 80s by Cora's ex-partner, Willem de Ridder (one of the founders of Fluxus) in the Netherlands from the home studio recordings of Cora.

Now available in double LP form (originally released on a Radio Art Foundation cassette) with an additional bonus track 'Earplay'. This is the first time it's been re-released in any format.

The original tape was mixed by Willem de Ridder and is remastered by Cora Emens herself.

The archive cassette now resides in the sound archives of the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam.

Following his spiritual and artistic rebirth, and hot on the heels of his incredibly well received release, ‘Mona Bone Jakon’, Cat Stevens unveiled his second album of the year in November 1970 … and it was to become one of the defining musical statements of the new decade. ‘Tea For The Tillerman’ not only consolidated Cat’s success in the UK and forged him a glittering new career in the USA, it also set him on the road to global superstardom and gave the world songs like ‘Wild World’, ‘Father & Son’, ‘Where Do The Children Play?’ and many more.
To commemorate the album’s 50th anniversary comes this stunning new 180 gram gatefold vinyl 2020 remaster of ‘Tea For The Tillerman’ by Geoff Pesche at Abbey Road, overseen by original producer Paul Samwell-Smith.

Based in Bristol, LTO first made waves as part of mysterious electronic collective Old Apparatus. As a solo producer, LTO has since attracted attention with three albums.

LTO's ambition to create ever more ambiguous and far-reaching sonic environments, whilst retaining something of the familiar and physical, have led him to take inspiration from imagined landscapes of the folklore of his Welsh ancestry and of the planet Mars. Both images of enchanted forests battling enraged giants from the underworld and unimaginably hostile planetary events guide this work of great magnitude.

In 'Daear', LTO explores an expansive sound pallet of swelling synths and noise, ambiguous string instruments, thunderous percussion, unearthly voices and his signature sound the piano, mostly processed beyond recognition. The result is a mysterious and deeply textured journey that could be set in both the distant past and uncertain future, on this planet or beyond.

CLEAR VINYL

DAS LEGENDÄRE MINI-ORCHESTER AUS MONTREAL MELDET SICH NACH ÜBER 10 JAHREN MIT NEUER MUSIK ZURÜCK. House Music unfolds as one long piece, a recorded-then-sculpted improvisation that vastly expands their work, coalescing classical and electronic instrumentation in the creation of genre-defying musical worlds. With help from engineer Hans Bernhard, the band wired every corner of Sarah Neufeld's (Violin, vocals) multi-story rural Vermont house. She and the mini orchestra's other five members - Pietro Amato: French horn, keyboards, electronics; Michael Feuerstack: Pedal steel guitar, keyboards, vocals; Kaveh Nabatian: Trumpet, gongoma, keyboards, vocals; Richard Reed Parry: Bass, vocals; and Stefan Schneider: Drums - assigned themselves to different rooms. They spent two weeks together in camaraderie, creation, and focused isolation to record their improvised sessions every day, but ultimately structured a 45-minute album out of a one hour-and-a-half long improvisation.

Poole Music is thrilled to announce its inaugural commission, the Habu, the latest full-length from Belgium’s Lieven Martens. For the better part of two decades, Martens has been expanding his Aloha-bedecked musical vision, transitioning from the basement tape environments of his Dolphins into the Future project to the rich compositional tapestries of more recent post-exotica modernist works.

The Habu represents a true culmination of these identities in one of his most ambitious works to date. The album’s three pieces cast an omniverous net that explores those fragile tendriles between imagined and real, natural and fabricated, unity and chaos; concrete sounds enabling abstract inner landscapes. With the ecstatic revelry of Marco Polo returning to his queen, Lieven brings us gems from all corners of the navigable world: tales of an impossibly guilded Portugese palace, a fertility tonic conjured from a poisionous serpent, a simulacrum of Honolulu. At a moment when the world is more geographically isolated than it has been in generations, Martens’ the Habu is a welcome odyssey, a Charybdian travelogue of the psyche. About face.

Schneider TM is the multidimensional music project of Dirk Dresselhaus which has been operating since the mid 90's. His latest opus is also his first for release for Editions Mego.

With an extensive catalogue under his belt, one may wonder where this one takes us? The 8 of Space orbits the realm of "pop" more overtly than the project has done for 14 years, residing in the line of works that temporarily ended with "Skoda Mluvit" from 2006. In the age of scattered streaming listening habits The 8 Of Space champions the classic album format with connected tracks that act like chapters adding up to what could be framed as an 'audio-movie'. The 'plot' revolves around a post-dystopian landscape which posits the make up of reality in the future.

The vessel is electronic pop music but one which takes inspiration from the spirit of a multitude of musical forms absorbed into a trans human sound world where biological & technological elements complement each other (We are NOT The Robots!). The music unifies the analog world of acoustic and electric instruments with electronic & digital possibilities that range from heavily processed acoustic & electric guitars and bass, tube organ, analog modular synth units, acoustic drums and percussion, analog & digital drum machines & effect units, hardware and software processing. Experimental & extended musical techniques build a world of musical elements that is sometimes upside down and mirrored. Electric guitar becomes rhythm machine & modular system, voice becomes sound object & synthesizer, effects are used as instruments, acoustic guitars are being modulated by voices etc. Reality and illusion are getting mixed up. One can hear short moments of longer recordings in the tracks which are snapshots of bigger musical pictures that lurk behind what's actually audible. Generative music, audio spirals like clockworks create ever changing musical combinations; thrown-in sounds, polyrhythms & cascades based on the concept of chance attributed to the service of the SONG.

The lyrics are a key component. Holistic, associative poetry acts as interactive trigger points for the mechanisms of existence in times of a paradigm shift that are open to the listeners discretion. Autobiographical elements combine with science fiction and dreams, protagonists shift where the 'I' or 'me' is not necessarily the voice of the artist, nor even the same person. Alongside a more naturalised voice another protagonist appears represented by a processed voice. This character, named iBot, evolved around the start of the millennium and has appeared on some previous Schneider TM recordings. It can be seen as a post-human, or even a trans-human character, a combination of human & technology, uncertain of the future, which lends iBot it's melancholic tone.

In the opening song "Light & Grace" iBot appears in an advanced form of AI, which managed to hack & hijack a commercial space travel program (eg, Virgin Galactic) to invite those rich, who profited most from the destruction of planet earth, for a holiday trip into space to unknowingly fly them directly into the middle of the sun. In this episode it seems to have developed higher ethics than humanity itself with ambition to save the planet with as much of its cooperative life as possible."Light & Grace" serves as an intro / opener for this album to be followed by 7 other tracks featuring different windows of consciousness represented by diverse characters & protagonists.

All the elements on The 8 of Space, the music, sounds, vocals and artwork fit together as a whole, creating a dazzling electro pop future questioning it's own certainty. This is experimental electroacoustic pop music featuring glorious melodies dancing along human/machine voices, each track is a small universe that triggers the physical mind and tickles the subconsciousness.

Berlin studio nut CV Vision washes ashore, surfing on sine waves with his second offering of 2021 and the fifth Patience release, Elemente. Following on from his recently released debut LP Tropical (South Of North), CV Vision takes his library chops, psych rock skills and analogue artillery and spreads them over two quarter hour sides, to brain melting effect.

Elemente soars from cosmic to kosmiche. A dizzying homage to the natural world, the two pieces pay tribute to those animals that glide (Gleiten) and those that float (Treiben). The A side Gleiten tears off on a gnarly, loping odyssey, embarking from the sand to faraway lands, stopping in at Beppe Loda’s Typhoon, Conny Plank’s studio, Bob Chance’s garage via the Transfer Station Blue. The B side Treiben is a more sublime animal, steadily cruising at 20,000 leagues, traversing a mostly calm sea of bubbling arpeggiated synthesis before beaching somewhere on the Med in the late 70s.

Elemente was written, played and recorded by Dennis Schulze, with drums by Uno Bruniusson and Rhodes by Boyd Alves. It was mastered by Wouter Brandenburg at Brandenburg Mastering. Artwork is by Luca Schenardi.

CV Vision is Dennis Schulze, a DIY boffin originally from Bayreuth who enjoys tinkering with electronics and cold water plunges. He has several more projects on the way in 2021.

Patience is an outlet for exploring further beyond the break than usual. Inspired by the music perpetually on rotation at HQ – with E2-E4 representing the format’s high tide mark – each release will be one artist’s deep dive down one inspirational wormhole spread across two sides of vinyl, or two side-long sojourns making full use of a round 12” piece of plastic. Set and forget, zone out to tune in.

random color vinyl

Miles was right, Embryo was more than a unique experience. While talking with Charlie Mariano (the saxophone player was one of the most impressive collaborator of the german band) one day he stated: ‘Embryo - they are these crazy creative musicians playing really weird stuff.’ When you get the blessing from the prince of darkness itself, nothing can go wrong, so here’s the story. Opal was the beginning of all things to come, the record was released in 1970 and licensed by pioneering early Berlin rock/jazz/experimental music label Ohr. It was quite a shock! Forget about your kosmische debris and sought after kraut rock genetics, this was pure and mind bending (heavy) psychedelia, the kind mr. Julian Cope would have killed for. The long stretching People From Out The Space – seven minutes plus of outstanding jam – was sitting at the end of the album, right after a series of heavy hitting jazz rock numbers. This was the foundation of a whole myth. A cornerstone in European experimental and popular modern composition. (Released by LONEOS in cooperation with MATERIALI SONORI.)

*2LP ON WARP IN GATEFOLD SLEEVE WITH PRINTED INNERSLEEVES
*INCLUDES DOWNLOAD CODE

Iconic Warp mainstay Nightmares on Wax can now announce his long-anticipated return with new album Shape The Future. The marriage of soul, hip-hop, dub and timeless club sounds that N.O.W. has been mutating and perfecting for years finds perhaps its most fluid form yet on Shape The Future. Energized by globetrotting runs of studio sessions and DJ sets, this latest salvo is a masterpiece of contemporary and classic genre-blending that solidifies Nightmares On Wax's place as an inspirational electronic music figurehead.

Features guest vocals from Jordan Rakei (Ninja Tune), Mozez, Kanye West and Flume collaborator Allan Kingdom, Andrew Ashong, Kuauhtli Vasquez & Wixarika Tribe and Sadie Walker.

' Far away and yet so close: the first release of „dispari“, a freshly launched venture
by Hamburg based artist Phuong-Dan, is transitionally sublime. The vinyl record
composes inherently different, distinct elements into one bewildering story arc.
There is no A or B side; endlessly endless, both sides transmit transcendence. One
side brings An Afterthought – an almost eight minute long infinite, ambient musing
by Greek producer Anatolian Weapons. The short-termed opposition features
French composer Hector Zazou with US-American artist Laurie Anderson, diving for
a brief 53 seconds Into Your Dreams. Two disparate sides, which manifest
„dispari’s“ desire to follow the extensive path of music and not the narrow road of
style. It hopes to open doors for a variety of outlooks on the language of sound and
beyond. For „dispari“, any format appears interesting, and with the potential for
collaboration. Interdisciplinary projects in disparate media natures like text and
film, or simply unfathomable phenomena, are all possible future propositions.
Maybe the next signals will come as an auditory publication, an art space
performance, or just as a night in a bar, where dissimilar atoms dance for similar
desires. For now, length eats briefness and brevity defeats the epic in a dream of
strange disparity, walking on weightless soles, aglow in starry zones. '
Michael Leuffen

ww.dispari.de

On Further Up Island , André Ethier completes the trilogy of solo albums that began with 2017’s Under Grape Leaves and 2019’s Croak In The Weeds. While not narratively linked in the traditional sense, these records document the musician’s ongoing collaboration with producer Sandro Perri. Like Robert Altman’s run of brilliant films with Shelley Duvall in the 1970s, the duo have developed a singular creative kinship over the course of three LPs.

Since his days as the frontman of the Deadly Snakes, Ethier has cultivated an entirely different artistic practice as an acclaimed contemporary painter. At the same time, he has quietly slipped out a spellbinding body of work as a solo musician, with this album trifecta showcasing his skills as one of Canada’s most vastly underrated songwriters and storytellers. Ethier’s songs are casually played but carefully orchestrated, allowing each element to appear in sharp focus.

“These albums are a series using the same palette,” explains Ethier, whose softly coloured paintings also grace the covers of the trilogy. “The tools Sandro and I used on all three of them are similar so that the songs can almost be interchangeable. It’s a way of giving time to a creative relationship so it can blossom, like developing a shorthand with a co-worker. Nurturing that process allows it to grow.”

Anything Can’t Happen is the long-awaited debut album from Dorothea Paas, one of Canada’s most beloved singer-songwriters. For over a decade, Paas has played her unique, prismatic style of folk songcraft for audiences across North America, and lent her talents as a guitarist and vocalist to artists like Jennifer Castle, U.S. Girls and Badge Epoque Ensemble. The songs on this album have been through a near-infinite number of forms – Paas has played them solo and with a full band, electric and acoustic, at house shows and in sold-out venues. they manage to fit inside each context, like water taking the shape of its container.

All of this makes Anything Can’t Happen feel far more mature and complex than a debut album. It’s a statement of purpose, a next step in a decade-long process of artistic growth and evolution, and a bridge between the DIY style of Paas’s previous cassette releases and a more refined studio sensibility. Recorded in studios in Hamilton and Toronto, and mixed by Max Turnbull of Badge Epoque and U.S. Girls and Steve Chahley, these songs bring a diverse range of musical influences into conversation: inflected with the layered reverberations of Grouper, shot through with the piercing harmonies of the Roches, electrified with the searing energy of Sonic Youth. You can hear Neil Young in the grittiness of the title track’s guitar; Joni Mitchell’s Hejira in the album’s lyrics, Fairport Convention in Paas’s voice. The influence of Stevie Wonder - one of Paas’s greatest musical role models - is present too, in the album’s conceptual foundations.

Lamaze is Geneva Jacuzzi’s 2010 debut—a full-length pressing of analog 4- track and 8-track recordings that document the development of her musical style from her first appearance in 2004 up to 2009. It is a selective introduction gleaned from a body of over 200 recorded tracks. The recordings from this period are largely synth pop songs that are typical minimalist constructions with dance floor tempos. Use of experimental recording techniques and varying arrays of equipment produce differing electronic atmospheres—soundcrafting in the spirit of Chrome, Devo, Cabaret Voltaire, and Gina-X. There is also an exploration of format in her playful use of alternating theatrical interludes and instrumental treatments. Lamaze is essentially a collection of demos, which is an atypical debut, but it is among the first lo-fi pop recordings that became the lexicon of the emerging music frontier, today’s “hypnagogic” jukebox—chillwave, bedroom pop, witch house, vaporwave, and more. The sound of the future, but the present of Lamaze is a world that has vanished. The collection is venerated as canon among her devotees and has become a coveted relic among fans and collectors of pop artifacts and rarities.

Classic Brazilian album from 1977, featuring the incredible 'Não Adianta' and a brilliant cover of Jorge Ben's 'Que Nega É Essa'.

Luiz Carlos Fritz (Fritz Escovão), João Parahyba and Nereu Gargalo aka Trio Mocotó are most well-known as Jorge Ben Jr.'s backing band. They played on several seminal Jorge Ben LP's - his self-titled from 1969, Força Bruta in 1970 and Negro É Lindo in 1971.

Trio Mocotó were also key players in the development of the 'samba rock' sound - a fusion of samba, soul and rock influenced by music from the USA.


Official Mr Bongo reissue. Licensed from Arlequim.

Indonesia’s intense, vital experimental duo Senyawa release their newest album Alkisah via Phantom Limb. An explosive, exploratory trip through Senyawa’s unique sonics, Alkisah represents masters of unpredictable experimental music pushing their own boundaries.

Coinciding with their tenth anniversary as a band, Senyawa’s newest statement (their first for Phantom Limb) captures the energy and creativity of a wholly singular act in full stride. Alkisah is their seventh album, building from the doom-heavy density of 2018’s Sujud (on the inimitable Sublime Frequencies label) and the folkloric darkness of its predecessor Menjadi (on Rabih Beaini’s Morphine Records) to deliver a staggeringly powerful rush.

Senyawa have been described as “experimental metal”, though the tag limits the true scope of their work. While elements of the sound compare with metal - the darkness and the fury that spills over the side of tracks such as “Menuju Muara”, for example - Senyawa sit on a very different branch of the musical tree, and even then bear the fruits of many others. Instrumentalist Wukir Suryadi performs on homemade instruments, created from bamboo and other natural material, offering a rarely explored link between the ancient, traditional, mystical musics of South-East Asia and the contemporary avant-garde. Vocalist Rully Shabara (who has collaborated with Phantom Limb as a solo artist before Alkisah) mines the human voice for its strangest and most challenging sounds, chanting, yowling and throat-singing like a chorus of demons in one song and an arcane, chattering machine in the next. About them, rhythms skitter and crash around like gamelan, punctuated with trashcan drums here or bulging plumbing percussion there, while the doomier moments (such as “Istana”) crush with seething waves of distortion and Shabara’s mesmeric growls (a mix of Javanese, Bahasa, and other Indonesian languages). The record lurches from urgency to apocalypsis, twisting and twining fervorous Ramayana chant with animist mythology and hellish atmospherics.

Dope japanese reissue. Much needed.. Aragon is a group made up of Tatsuo Hayashi, Tsuyoshi Kon, Tadashi Namba, Kazuhiro Nishimatsu and Keishi Urata. (Hayashi is the drummer of Tin Pan Alley, while Tsuyoshi Kon is a well-known session guitarist.) The band's self-titled LP of experimental electronic music from 1985, originally released through Invitation, has become a sought-after title in digging circles.

Today Lana Del Rey releases her new song and visual ‘Chemtrails Over The Country Club’. The song is co-written by Lana Del Rey and Jack Antonoff, with the visual being directed by BRTHR.

Following the success of her 2019 GRAMMY®-nominated album Norman Fucking Rockwell, Lana has announced that March 19th, 2021 is the official release date for her highly anticipated seventh studio album Chemtrails Over The Country Club.

Svart Records is proud to present The Limit. Punk & Doom originators go straight to the soul of heavy rock on their new album Caveman Logic to be released via Svart Records on the 9th of April 2021. More than a super-group, The Limit goes over the edge, to deliver real-deal, soulful Rock and Roll. Consisting of members of legendary Punk instigators The Stooges, the founders of Doom Rock Pentagram, legendary NYC Punk originators Testors and infamous Portugese metal band Dawnrider, The Limit break out from the foundations of heavy rock and defy all expectations, to show a new generation what doom and punk really means. On the new album Caveman Logic, Bobby Liebling, singer and main-man of Pentagram, one of the originators of early Doom Rock and an inspiration for generations of Heavy Rock fans, on vocals, gives the performance of his career, singing like his life depended on it. Sonny Vincent, enigmatic legend of the early NYC Max's Kansas City, CBGB Punk scene with his band Testors, having been on the road and recording with members of The Velvet Underground, lays down the guitar driven songs, his writing bearing all the hallmarks of ground-breaking Rock history in it’s filthy DNA. Phenomenal bass playing from Jimmy Recca, ex- The Stooges, and Ron Asheton’s New Order, gives The Limit the intense and world-class, speaker-destroying bottom end. Joined by Hugo Conim on Guitar and João Pedro Ventura on Drums from Portuguese band Dawnrider, The Limit fuses star-dust pedigree with an organic incendiary chemistry that’s instantly raw and real. A dream come true to those that know their Doom/Punk history, The Limit brings the past right up to date on Caveman Logic, with an essential, burning passion at the heart of their songs. Seldom has a collaboration of well known stars in music sounded so vigorous and frenzied as The Limit’s caveman-like roar. The Limit is an astoundingly fresh and hot-blooded shot to the veins that Heavy Rock needs in this day and age. Conjured forth by stone-age pioneers, Caveman Logic goes to the heart of impassioned Heavy Rock and Punk, to deliver the basic and vital elements often missing in so much of today’s music. If you want primitive and straight to the soul primal rock, fresh from the grave and exhumed for a new unwitting future, look no further than Caveman Logic. This is it.

‘Creak Whoosh’ is a collection of choral ballads originating in the Finno-Ugric regions of Estonia and Ingria, electronically adapted predominantly by Olev Muska and Mihkel Tartu, based around the contemporary arrangements of Veljo Tormis. Originally established as ‘Kiri-uu’, the project was undertaken by the children of Estonian refugees, most of whom grew up over 8,000 miles away in the metropolis of Sydney, Australia. With the majority having never visited the land of their ancestors prior to the tour of 1989, the first generations reshaping of these ancient folk tales conveys Seeger’s process amidst displacement and its subsequent fringe-culture. Estonian bards are carried forth this time into the 21st century, a revised selection of the original 1988 recordings accompanied by ‘Tšimmairuudiralla’ allowing for new perspectives and, perhaps crucially, a truly global audience.

Schon seit seinen ersten Veröffentlichungen zu Beginn der 1980er Jahre - seit dem Jahr 1983, um genau zu sein -, verweigert sich Michel Banabila konsequent jeder Schublade. Er lässt sich nicht auf ein bestimmtes Genre oder einen Stil festlegen. Sein musikalisches Schaffen umfasst Jazz ebenso wie experimentelle Cut-Up Electronics, Weltmusik (stark beeinflusst durch die von Jon Hassell entwickelte Fourth World Music), New Age, vielseitige Popmelodien, Musik für Tanz- und andere Bühnenprojekte sowie Soundtracks für Fernsehproduktionen. Bei solcher Vielfalt verwundert es nicht, dass der eine oder andere Hörer im Lauf der Jahre seine Schwierigkeiten hatte, sich in Banabilas abwechslungsreichem, von großen Gegensätzen geprägtem Werk zurechtzufinden. Gleichzeitig hat ihn gerade seine Vielseitigkeit zu einem der faszinierendsten Musiker Europas werden lassen, der - völlig zurecht - von vielen Kritikern hoch geschätzt wurde und wird. Jedoch ist möglicherweise genau diese Vielseitigkeit schuld daran, dass er der großen Masse - zu Unrecht - nie wirklich aufgefallen ist. Wer tiefer in sein Werk eintaucht, der wird an vielen Stellen den charakteristischen Banabila-Sound entdecken: seine sehr persönliche Art, Samples einzusetzen, die Verwendung von Stimmfragmenten, die Tatsache, dass selbst seine abstraktesten Arbeiten immer eine emotionale Schicht transportieren, an die man als Hörer andocken kann. Banabilas Produktivität seit 1983 ist so gewaltig, dass man ihr mit einer Single-Sammlung niemals gerecht werden könnte. Mit Wah-Wah Whispers hingegen gewährt uns Bureau B auf wunderbare Weise Einblick in sein aktuelleres Werk zwischen 2013 und 2020. Das einzige ältere Stück auf der Platte - Tic-Tac - stammt aus dem Jahr 2001. Dieses Album ist eine Einladung, die abgelegeneren Winkel von Banabilas Schaffen zu erforschen und tiefer in das Werk eines der kreativsten, unabhängigen Künstler Hollands einzutauchen. - Peter van Cooten

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard return with new album K.G., their sixteenth since forming in 2010. In the wake of a global pandemic, it’s a collection of songs composed and recorded remotely after the six members of the band retreated to their own homes scattered around Melbourne, Australia. K.G. is a pure distillation of the King Gizzard sound, one that cherry picks the best aspects of previous albums and contorts them into new shapes via defiantly non-western rock scales.

Downwards look to Melbourne, Australia’s incredibly fecund experimental scene for this almighty split LP; facing off Bonnie Mercer’s colossal sub-bass drone hallucinations with scorched-earth drug dirges by the YLP duo. If yr into Sunn O))), Earth, The Birthday Party, Spacemen 3, Sun City Girls, Gallon Drunk - this one’s for you.
Both sides of ‘Old Moon, New Moon / The Image of 36’ sustain their influences from doom drone, gothic blues rock and post-punk for the already fraught 2020s. Each act renders a certain, ravishing sort of romance from end-of-earth bleakness, sketching out feedback-drenched vistas and sunburned, byzantine visions augmented by drum machines and electronics to blistering effect.
Internationally renowned guitarist Bonnie Mercer offers a rare solo suite for her part. Moving beyond her decades of work with bands including Grey Daturas and Breathing Shrine, Mercer generates a transcendent collapse of desert rock forms that will reward listeners with the sandblasted riff textures of ‘Half Moon’, the skull scraping psyche noise lushness of ‘Linda’s Goodman’s Love Signs’, and a deathly crawl to dawn in ‘The Latest Disappointment.’ If you’ve ever seen Sunn O))) play live, Mercer makes use of the same sort of
precision tooled grot that turns our insides out - all subharmonic drone and subby gnarrr that’s a properly transformative listening experience at the right volume.
On the flip, YLP’s Joshua Wells (Nerve) and Harry Schwind draw on a dirty, strung-out ethos and eros of Melbourne’s legendary and resoundingly influential sound. Laid down during marathon sessions where they “…came as close as we could be to tasting the tears of god”, the recordings mercifully came to attention of Downwards’ Karl O’Connor (Regis, BMB), who now has the honour of issuing their first release; taking in the flaming licks and nagging drum machines of ‘The Image of 36’ and the groggy desert blues of ‘Foreign Sands,
before really stretching out in two nine minute jaw-droppers channelling Spacemen 3, Suicide and Sun City Girls with infinite levels of flange and cosmically yawning vocals, but with more grunt in their gruds.

aSecond (and most successful) biggest album from Crash Test Dummies, originally released in 1993. A 12 song album pressed on black vinyl with download code insert. Contains the classic hit "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm". Download code insert. Marketing activity.

Krautrock, das fällt einem bei dem Namen Joachim Witt nicht grade als erstes ein, auch nicht hinterher, eigentlich gar nicht. Und dennoch ist Witt ein Veteran des deutschen Kunstrocks der 70er Jahre. Genre-Fans erinnern sich gern an die Band „Duesenberg“ (benannt nach der US-amerikanischen Automarke) und Witt war ein Drittel des Ender der 70er für Aufsehen sorgenden Trios.

Von US-amerikanischen Westcoast-Rock mutierte Witt In den frühen 80er Jahren zum Top Star der aufblitzenden Neuen Deutschen Welle. Sein Evergreen "Der goldene Reiter" (Nr. 2), der einen schizophrenen Menschen skizziert wird zu einem der wichtigsten Titel der NDW-Bewegung. Als gegen Ende der 80er Jahre der NDW-Sound langsam verschwand, verschwand sein Star – bis er sich 1998 zur Überraschung der breiten Öffentlichkeit wieder erhebt. Mit seinem neuen Partner Peter Heppner, der sich mit der Band Wolfsheim bereits einen Namen gemacht hat, schickt Witt sich an neues Terrain zu erobern. Das mystische, im angesagten „gotischen Sound“ vorgetragene Opus "Die Flut" begeistert zuerst die Goth Szene, dann schließlich ganz Deutschland und landet auf Platz 2 der Verkaufs-Charts. Auch das Album „Bayreuth Eins“ wird zum Bestseller und Platin Erfolg. Das Album ist noch immer ein Klassiker und gilt zusammen mit dem nachfolgenden Album „Bayreuth Zwei“ als Vorläufer der anschließend aufkommenden Strömung “Deutscher Dance Metal“, oder des auch als “Neue Deutsche Härte“ bezeichneten Trends, deren spätere Vertreter Top-Acts wie OOMPH! oder RAMMSTEIN sind.

Die Original LP „Bayreuth Eins“ ist seit langem vergriffen und „Bayreuth Zwei“ ist nie vorher als Schallplatte erschienen. Zwei Klassiker in der Wiederauferstehung, einer davon sogar als Premiere auf Vinyl.

Blondie return with 11th studio album Pollinator lighting up 2017 with an incredible new record befitting one of the world's greatest bands. Produced live in the studio by John Congleton (St. Vincent, John Grant, War On Drugs, David Byrne). The last album recorded at New York's legendary Magic Shop studios before their closure. Blondie's classic writing duo of Chris Stein and Debbie Harry are at the heart of the creation with an impressive list of song writers on the project including Johnny Marr, TV On the Radio's Dave Sitek, Dev Hynes (Blood Orange, Lightspeed Champion) Adam Johnson aka An Unkindess, Sia and Charli XCX. Studio appearances from Joan Jett, Laurie Anderson and The Gregory Brothers.