Pop & Rock News

Released in 1989, Belinda’s third solo album after leaving The Go-Gos continued the global success achieved by “Heaven Is A Place On Earth” and the “Heaven On Earth” album. First single “Leave A Light On” (featuring George Harrison on guitar) was another hit all around the world, and was followed by five more hits: “La Luna”,
“Runaway Horses”, “Vision Of You”, “We Want The Same Thing” and Belinda’s own favourite “Summer Rain”,
all UK Top 40 hits. Produced again by Rick Nowels, guests on the album also include Bryan Adams and Steve
Lukather.

The beautiful lift–off lid box contains four LPs, all in individual LP sleeves with inner bags, all pressed on 180 gram white vinyl. LP 1 features the original album, while LP 2 features the 7” single versions. LP 3 and side 1 of LP 4 feature the various 12” single mixes, whilst the last side features three brand new recordings!

Recorded with Gabe Lopez (her collaborator on the “Wilder Shores” album), a beautiful rendition of Gordon Lightfoot’s classic hit “If You Could Read My Mind” is followed by Belinda’s interpretation of Elton John and Bernie Taupin’s “I Need You To Turn To”, recorded by Elton on his eponymous 1970 album. The last new recording is Belinda’s fabulous version of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now”, a song best known from Judy Collins’ hit version in 1967. The CD contains the original album, plus the three brand new recordings!

The booklet contains annotation based on interviews with Belinda, Rick Nowels, and songwriter Ellen Shipley,
along with all the lyrics, and photos from Belinda’s own collection.
Belinda will play eleven concerts in the UK on her Runaway Horses 30th Anniversary tour, September to October 2019.

Nestled deep in the forests of Mendocino County in Northern California, huddled under the protective shade of towering redwoods and within earshot of frothy waves crashing against the Pacific coastline, squats a geodesic dome that has served as crucible for the experimental genius of Carlton Melton. Nature and Man operate under different logics. But here, Carlton Melton wholly entrusts this idyllic environment with the task of inspiring and guiding their musical improvisations.

The Dome has been the ideal setting to facilitate their creativity. Without forcing a specific dynamic or theme, the band inhabits its womb-like confines to improvise, explore, dream. Their music draws on psychedelia, stoner metal, krautrock, and ambient atmospherics to convey, above all else, a mood.

A prickly guitar melody will float lazily, a wall of dissonant feedback will resolve into a hypnotic drone, or a colossal riff will exhume the soul of Jimi Hendrix. One hears Hawkwind or Spacemen 3 jamming with Pink Floyd at Pompeii.

Indeed, Carlton Melton have one foot in the ancient world and one tentacle in deep space. They are both the pack of proto-humans drumming with femurs in Kubrick’s 2001 and the film’s inscrutable monolith hinting at the universe’s mysteries. The “Stoned Ape” theory holds that early hominids ingested psychedelic mushrooms that provided an evolutionary boost to their brains, helping them blossom into Homo Sapiens. Imagine such cavemen trippin’ balls, their nightmarish visions sending them into feverish bouts of rage and then gentle moments of introspection. They very well could have heard the music of Carlton Melton rattling inside their skulls, first driving our ancestors mad then upward into a higher realm.

Andy Duvall (drums, guitar), Clint Golden (bass), and Rich Millman (guitar, synths) have yet to play Pompeii, but they have already wowed crowds at European festivals such as the Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia, Roadburn, and Desertfest Antwerp. Live, they are jaw-dropping. On record, mind-altering.

In fact, with each album, Carlton Melton adds a subtle new element, synapses firing new neural connections. In 2020, they release new full-length Where This Leads, marking ten years of the band’s working relationship with their UK label Agitated Records and five years of recording with Phil Manley in his El Studio in San Francisco. With Where This Leads, the band rewires the listener’s mind. “Smoke Drip Revisited” is a ticklish acid flashback, “Porch Dreams” a dabbling in country psych, and “Closer” a driving, freak-out of guitar heroics.

One senses that the group is conveying a message that cannot be expressed verbally but only suggested through synth sighs, walloping rhythms, and soaring solos. Would Carlton Melton therefore be a group of stoned apes dizzily grasping for meaning or telepathic futurists communicating to us through crude man-made instrumentation?

Well, lower the stylus to find out.

- Eric Bensel, Paris July 2020

Nestled deep in the forests of Mendocino County in Northern California, huddled under the protective shade of towering redwoods and within earshot of frothy waves crashing against the Pacific coastline, squats a geodesic dome that has served as crucible for the experimental genius of Carlton Melton. Nature and Man operate under different logics. But here, Carlton Melton wholly entrusts this idyllic environment with the task of inspiring and guiding their musical improvisations.

The Dome has been the ideal setting to facilitate their creativity. Without forcing a specific dynamic or theme, the band inhabits its womb-like confines to improvise, explore, dream. Their music draws on psychedelia, stoner metal, krautrock, and ambient atmospherics to convey, above all else, a mood.

A prickly guitar melody will float lazily, a wall of dissonant feedback will resolve into a hypnotic drone, or a colossal riff will exhume the soul of Jimi Hendrix. One hears Hawkwind or Spacemen 3 jamming with Pink Floyd at Pompeii.

Indeed, Carlton Melton have one foot in the ancient world and one tentacle in deep space. They are both the pack of proto-humans drumming with femurs in Kubrick’s 2001 and the film’s inscrutable monolith hinting at the universe’s mysteries. The “Stoned Ape” theory holds that early hominids ingested psychedelic mushrooms that provided an evolutionary boost to their brains, helping them blossom into Homo Sapiens. Imagine such cavemen trippin’ balls, their nightmarish visions sending them into feverish bouts of rage and then gentle moments of introspection. They very well could have heard the music of Carlton Melton rattling inside their skulls, first driving our ancestors mad then upward into a higher realm.

Andy Duvall (drums, guitar), Clint Golden (bass), and Rich Millman (guitar, synths) have yet to play Pompeii, but they have already wowed crowds at European festivals such as the Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia, Roadburn, and Desertfest Antwerp. Live, they are jaw-dropping. On record, mind-altering.

In fact, with each album, Carlton Melton adds a subtle new element, synapses firing new neural connections. In 2020, they release new full-length Where This Leads, marking ten years of the band’s working relationship with their UK label Agitated Records and five years of recording with Phil Manley in his El Studio in San Francisco. With Where This Leads, the band rewires the listener’s mind. “Smoke Drip Revisited” is a ticklish acid flashback, “Porch Dreams” a dabbling in country psych, and “Closer” a driving, freak-out of guitar heroics.

One senses that the group is conveying a message that cannot be expressed verbally but only suggested through synth sighs, walloping rhythms, and soaring solos. Would Carlton Melton therefore be a group of stoned apes dizzily grasping for meaning or telepathic futurists communicating to us through crude man-made instrumentation?

Well, lower the stylus to find out.

- Eric Bensel, Paris July 2020

7"

LP,180, 2018 REISSUE - REMASTERED FROM ORIGINAL TAPES, CAREFULLY REPRODUCED ORIGINAL ART

The 'vivid contemporary sounds for a fresh visual image' make up the now canonised Synthesis from Alan Hawkshaw and Brian Bennett. These two greats go deeper than usual on this collection, and the end result is a synth concept record of sorts. Released in 1974, it's an essential companion piece to
their Synthesizer and Percussion LP, released on Themes International Music in the same year.
Like most of our favourite library records, Synthesis has that gloriously funky, 'weird electronic music' vibe without ever being inaccessible. With the awesome ARP Odyssey at the fore, Hawkshaw and Bennett have created a blissed-out soundscape that, whilst laid back in all the right places, somehow remains heavy on the funk. It's a sort of throbbing, proto-G Funk sound and you can fnd it on many of these low-lit basement workouts.
Take the ice-cool 'Alto Glide'. It's a sunset-funk highlight with an electro-fute refrain that conjures those dreamier Dre / DJ Quick instrumentals from '91 to '92.
Stereolab, Koushik (again) and all those Ghost Box artists were clearly listening very closely in the years since. The equally relaxed 'Mermaid' glides efortlessly with soft, shimmering piano, understated percussion and kaleidoscopic synths.
It's a really beautiful piece.With these two soft-focus closing tracks allowing the LP to foat away over the horizon, the preceding ten tracks have a more insistent, neck-snapping rhythm
section to back the synth overload. Highlights include the head-nod funk of 'Getting It Together' and the synth break in 'The Executive', which informed classic video game soundtracks.
For once Be With really is stuck for words to describe just how good this record is.
Best just to listen. As with all ten re-issues, the audio for Synthesis comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. We've taken the same care with the sleeves, handing the reproduction duties over to Richard Robinson, the current custodian of KPM's brand identity.

Kraftklub sind Söhne Chemnitz' (fka Karl-Marx-Stadt), sie sind Produkte der sich dahin schleppenden Vergangenheitsbewältigung und mit aller Inbrunst orientierungslos. Aus dem Unwillen heraus, einfach noch eine weitere deutsche Band zu sein, die unerträglich scheiße ist und in die Bedeutungslosigkeit gestreamlined wurde, entschlossen sie sich, einfach eine der wenigen Bands auf deutschem Boden zu sein, die geniale Ideen hat. Ideen von der Sorte, die man selbst gern hätte. In etwa so wie der Typ, der den Minirock erfunden hat. Kraftklub haben einfach aus zwei sich selbst zu Tode langweilenden zeitgenössischen Musikgenres - das sind IndieRock und DeutschRap - ein neues, aufregendes Genre gemacht. Sie sehen in ihren Collegejacken aus wie zwangsvermehrte The Hives, die bei Public Enemy die Codes of Cool studierten. Ja, sie haben sogar schon Philip Roth gelesen und sind damit das Feuilletonfutter von morgen. Heute sind sie das, wovon die Popkultur dieses Landes immer geträumt hat. Die aktuelle Tournee durch 38 Städte ist so gut wie ausverkauft. Nach den Hits "Zu jung", "Indiediesco" und der Reisewarnung "Ich will nicht nach Berlin" erscheint nun endlich das langerwartete Album.

Anglo-French binational FLOX has been sowing his 'Nu-Reggae' seeds for years now in venues all around France, and a new genre has sprung up sprouted , somewhere between roots reggae and electro.
Deeply influenced by the Jamaican Culture, from LKJ, to The Police, to the more contemporary Fat Freddy's Dop, FLOX now delivers his 5th album:
HOMEGROWN.
Even though the 4 past albums already perfectly comprised the richness and diversity of FLOX's universe and personality, Homegrown takes us to a more intimate place, closer to his state of mind, revealing his endeavor to remain genuine regardless the cost, to follow his gut without compromise. More than a DIY production, Homegrown conveys a 'do-it-for-yourself' message, in which the final more honest fruit is to be shared all around.

Old sound, new group! Belgian style...TIP!

"After they shook hands, the walls started closing in.
Fatigue kicked in, but De Nooit Moede decided to keep up appearances.
Time for coffee, or an alcohol-free beer. Pretending without pretense.
After all, the grass is always greener on the fool's side.

De Nooit Moede is a six-headed formation conducted by Victor De Roo, with
guitarist-vocalist Jente Waerzeggers, bass player Ferre Marnef, and singers Eva Kleeven, Felix Poffé and Arthur Roels. This debut EP is the first outing of the Kontakt Group (KG001). It was mixed in collaboration with techno demigod David Morley, mastered
by Mathieu Savenay and graphically designed by Emile De Geyndt."

Limited 2019 edition of « Clandestino », remastered for the first time on triple Vinyl + CD.
2 x 180 Black Vinyl and a Blue 10’’ (+ dedicated printed inner sleeve) with 3 new songs : « Bloody Bloody Border », « Roadies Rules » & « Clandestino » featuring Calypso Rose (2019 version).
Includes the remastered CD. Gatefold packaging. Vinyl Mastering and lacquers cut by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering Studio.

Rickard Jäverlings music can deservedly be described as playful and searching but for that sake not fumbling or too loose around the edges. On Album 4, the second album release from Jäverling on Höga Nord Rekords, he dwells more in dub than on his prior album release, and Jäverlings skillful songwriting is carried smoothly by the soft and fluffy production: the rhythm section sounds as if resting upon a sun warm bed of moss and elements flows in and out of the production like a freshly rippling stream of water deep in the summer forest. Echoes shoots through the pines, the hills and the valleys and makes the album a premium dub experience which dominates large parts of the album.

Aside the obvious references to nature that comes in mind listening to Jäverlings music, this album is more than a romantic view on the Swedish wilderness. It flirts, like all quality dub from the seventies and eighties with science fiction and space with broad synthesizer sweeps and delay drenched clouds like imploding and exploding stars somewhere in the outskirts of the Milky way, spreading dust over the Swedish forest. On the final three tracks, Ganjaman_72 takes the album out of the galaxy with spaced out-remixes on some of the songs.

With his feet steadily grounded in jamaican music tradition whit a non sentimental and curious view on production, Rickard Jäverling have together with Johan Holmegård (Dungen, Goran Kajfes), Andreas Söderström (ASS, Goran Kajfes) och Ganjaman_72 created the natural follow up to Album 3.

A native of Toronto, Tess Parks moved to London, England at the age of seventeen where she briefly studied photography before deciding to focus on music. Tess made an impression on industry legend Alan McGee, founder of Creation Records, albeit the timing of their meeting could hardly have been less ideal, McGee was no longer involved in music and Tess was due to move back to Toronto. After moving back to her hometown in 2012, Tess formed a band on the advice of McGee and less than a year after their meeting, he returned to music with his new label, 359 Music.

Tess became one of his first signings and released her debut record 'Blood Hot' in November 2013 to excellent reviews. One reviewer described her as Patti Smith on Quaaludes'. Others have mentioned her gauzy psychedelic sound' and smouldering voice'. Alan McGee himself said: She's only 24 and is already an amazing songwriter... she just doesn't quite know she is yet ... her most beautiful quality is her lack of ego. Tess is an amazing lady'.

June 2015 saw the spine-tingling collaboration between Tess Parks and Anton Newcombe (Brian Jonestown Massacre) and the resultuing LP 'I Declare Nothing' released to critical acclaim on 'A' Recordings. They toured together throughout the UK and Europe over the Summer.

Pavlov’s Dog, the 70’s AOR / Prog-rock band, was an odd crew. The band combined guitar, keyboards, percussion and bass with mellotrons, flutes, and violins. Pampered Menial was their first album, originally released on ABC Dunhill and re-released on Columbia in 1974. At the time the band was signed, they received a $600,000 advance from ABC which was a record advance for any new group signed at that time. The songs “Julia” and “Theme From Subway Sue” received the most airplay. Pampered Menial is a crossover albums of 70’s hard rock and progressive rock and is strongly recommended to fans of either of those genres.

Available as a limited 45th anniversary edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on transparent & black marbled vinyl.

• 180 GRAM AUDIOPHILE VINYL
• GATEFOLD SLEEVE WITH DELUXE LINEN LAMINATE
• LEGENDARY PROG-ROCK ALBUM FEATURING “JULIA” AND “SONG DANCE”
• LIMITED 45TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION OF 1000 INDIVIDUALLY NUMBERED COPIES ON TRANSPARENT & BLACK MARBLED VINYL

After 20+ years with psych legends Yura Yura Teikoku, Shintaro Sakamoto's third solo album is a bonafide masterpiece of warped steel guitar, ambient disco and AOR soul.
.

Like a language of Sakamoto's own...made with a ship-in-the-bottle-like focus.' Pitchfork
Love If Possible is the pay-attention-moment. Not enough know. More should know.' Under The Radar
Perfectionist pop for the extraterrestrial bachelor pad.' Spin

Overflowing with musical ideas and topical lyrics that sound just as relevant today as they did when they were initially released, Prince’s iconic double album Sign O’ The Times captured the artist in a period of complete reinvention. The final 16-track album included just some of the countless songs Prince recorded in the prolific period of 1985-1987, which saw the dissolution of his band The Revolution, the construction of his innovative recording complex, Paisley Park, and the creation (and ultimate abandonment) of the albums Dream Factory, Camille, and Crystal Ball.

This September 25, The Prince Estate, in partnership with Warner Records/Rhino UK, will reissue Sign O’ The Times. This 4LP Deluxe Edition will feature the classic album remastered for the very first time by Prince’s original mastering engineer Bernie Grundman, along with single mixes and edits released in the period the album was released.

GROUNDSWELLS’ is the third chapter in Wren’s seasonal lore exploration, and their first through Gizeh Records. These six melancholy-shrouded sonic ruminations swell between intimate performances devoid of adornment, and evolving soundscapes of auditory ruin. Tracing an elemental arch, 'GROUNDSWELLS' captures Wren delving into earthen awakenings.

Launching into a monochromatic dirge, ‘Chromed’ announces the LPs stylistic intentions, forgoing the trappings of traditional harmony with deliberate pendulums of pitch and tone. Swarms of percussion drag the track to its conclusion in a collage of insidious feedback, with oscillations sculpted by the record’s producer, Scott Evans of Kowloon Walled City.

Elsewhere, swift variance is displayed in Wrens’ deft handling of genre and form, refusing to be solely one of either. The record courses between rigid post-punk, broad waves of dreaded sludge, and austere choral reverberations. Pulsating Krautrock themes present in their previous work are revisited, with a focus on embracing archetypal motorik technique, as the LP stretches compositions to their furthest tensions through profuse repetition, straining the cracks between.

Inviting physical, elemental surrounds into ‘Subterranean Messiah’, Wren allow space for the sudden cloudburst of Middle Farm Studios in the introductory passage via location recording, embracing the interplay between source and locality. Combined with the painterly fretwork and ghostly chants of Fvnerals, the collaboration seeks an emotive new path of melodic vulnerability. In contrast, the closing elegy is layered with disharmonious cycles of agonised cello from Jo Quail. As with other conclusions on the LP, the track's commitment to strained repetition is rewarded with sonic climaxes of blackened psychedelia, led by stalagmitic spirals of atonalism.

Throughout the LP, Wren draws from their long-standing apologue, with a partnership of vocalists showcasing a lyrical and vocal interplay thick with a dense lore new to their compositions. 'GROUNDSWELLS' brings Wren to an equinox in their earthly contemplations. Ruminating on the decaying inanition that engenders renewal, this record is a revelry in the cyclical, repetitious infinity of planetary permanence.

Greek artist June makes his debut on Mannequin Records with the 'Silver Demon' LP. The album explores a futuristic dystopian world where transcendence and oppression coexist, where claustrophobia and infinite openness coincide. A world of contrasts that is the product of the artist‘s active imagination and conscious effort to confront the subconscious.

The album was recorded using original techniques from the golden era of electronic music (late 70s to mid 80s) with an arsenal of vintage analog synthesizers, drum machines and effect processors (originating) from the same time period. While the aesthetics of the classic precursors emerge through the minimal, deep, dark architecture of June's music, Silver Demon prevails with the artist's characteristic originality.

Mastered by Rude 66.
Graphic design by Lee Douglas.

LTD WHITE DOUBLE VINYL

Hier ist Oscillate von PG.LOST - das neue Album der Band, welche pures Drama und Katharsis lebt. Ihr fünftes Gesamtwerk - und erstes seit dem erfolgreichen 2016er Versus - braucht mit dem ausgeprägtem Verständnis von Spannung/Entspannung einen Vergleich mit Werken von Mono, Explosions in the Sky und Godspeed You! Black Emperor nicht zu scheuen. Mit Einflüssen, die von der emotionalen Wucht von Big Thief über den erfinderischen Geist des Krautrock bis hin zur Brutalität von Neurosis und dem dunklen Experimentalismus von Coil reichen, verflechten sich diese schwereren Elemente und öffnen sich in der Weite gar bis Fennesz oder Tim Hecker. Eine neue Ausrichtung, welche eine schimmernde Schönheit und Tiefe enthüllt, wie sie in der heutigen überkomprimierten und überproduzierten Version "moderner" Musik selten zu finden ist. Das Titelstück beginnt mit einer blühend dunklen Ambientpassage, ein aufsteigender Gitarren-/Synth-Part, der die Spannung aufbaut bis die endgültige Befreiung durch einem großen Refrain, gigantische Wellen von Gitarrenklängen und Percussion-Dichte erreicht wird. Oscillate steht exemplarisch für das Album als Ganzes - massiv im Umfang und noch größer im Klang. Oscillate ist nicht nur Instrumentalmusik, es ist ein eigener Film, projeziert in einem Kino mit einem makellosen Soundtrack, der mit 120 db explodiert. Das Album wurde von der Band in ihrem eigenen Studio aufgenommen und von Magnus Lindberg von Cult of Luna gemischt und gemastert. Souverän in der Ausführung ist Oscillate acht Tracks wahrer dramatischer Bombast und ein gewaltiger Schritt vorwärts für die Band - vier Jahre warten haben sich gelohnt. Für Fans von Mono, Explosions In The Sky, Mogwai, Cult of Luna, EF, Caspian, Russian Circles Band Info: PG.LOST wurde 2004 in Norrköping, Schweden, gegründet und besteht aus Mattias Bhatt, Martin Hjertstedt (ex- Ghost), Gustav Almberg (The Great Discord) und Kristian Karlsson (Cult of Luna). Auf der Suche nach einem einzigartigen Klang und der Liebe zu Post-Rock, Ambient und Shoegaze mit einem Hang zum Post-Metal, veröffentlichte die Band 2006 und 2007 ihre selbstbetitelten sowie die Yes, I Am-EPs. Daraufhin veröffentlichten PG.LOST 2008 ihre Debut-LP It's Not Me, It's You! Es folgten In Never Out, Key, die Split-LP mit Wang Wen und zuletzt Versus. Line Up: Mattias Bhatt: Gitarre, Martin Hjertstedt: Schlagzeug. Gustav Almberg: Gitarre, Kristian Karlsson: Bass

The American rock band Clutch released their second riff-laden self-titled album in 1995. The Zeppelin/Sabbath-esque riffs can be heard throughout the album. Almost every track on the record get stuck in your head immediately, listen to songs like “Droid”, “7 Jam” and “Big News”.. If you’re into the great 90’s rock classics you can’t sleep on this one. From their early days Clutch created some impressive rocking records. Neil Fallon’s vocal together with the great guitar riffs have always been one of the signatures of the band.

Clutch is available as a limited edition of 3000 individually numbered copies on crystal clear vinyl.

Reissue of Mort Garson’s long-out-of-print soundtrack for the 1970 experimental film Didn’t You Hear?
•One of the first-ever all-electronic film scores
•Remastered from the original master tapes

Six years before the release of his landmark Mother Earth’s Plantasia LP, composer and arranger Mort Garson met experimental film director Skip Sherwood, who was interested in an electronic score for his new movie, Didn’t You Hear? While not much is known now about the exact nature of their collaboration, we have Garson’s magnificent score as a record of those heady, early days after his lifechanging discovery of the Moog synthesizer. Notable for being one of the earliest screen appearances by a young Gary Busey, Didn’t You Hear? also boasts one of the first-ever all-electronic movie scores. Though the score was first released in 1970, it sounds as adventurous and futuristic today as it must have then. Originally available only in the lobby of the theater at screenings of the movie in Seattle, the soundtrack LP went out of print shortly after the film’s release. It has been a sought-after record for collectors of Mort Garson and early electronic music ever since. Sacred Bones is honored to reissue Didn’t You Hear? as it was meant to be heard, taken from the original master tapes and given a pristine remaster by engineer Josh Bonati.

ABOUT MORT GARSON: Morton S. “Mort” Garson was a Canadian-born composer, arranger, songwriter, and pioneer of electronic music. He is best known for his albums in the 1960s and 1970s that were among the first to feature Moog synthesizers. His best known album is Mother Earth’s Plantasia, a 1976 Moog album designed to be played “for plants and the people who love them.” Sacred Bones Records has undertaken the project of giving official, licensed reissues to key releases from Mort Garson’s catalog, with the intention of bringing these bold masterpieces to a 21st century audience.

2nd outing from Jonny Nash & Suzanne Kraft in their MATstudio series. These records are intended to catalogue some of the experiments, explorations, accidents and fortuitous events that regularly take place at their Amsterdam studio. Each record features two compositions created from a collage of works.

Auf seinem dritten Album " A Quiet Ritual" kombinieren Snow Ghosts (aka Ross Tones/Throwing Snow & Hannah Cartwright/Augustus Ghost) moderne und alte keltische Vintage-Instrumente zu einem ambienten Amalgam aus Electronica, Post-Rock und Metal. Ihre Themen handeln von Spiritualität, Mystik, Rituale und alte unbändige Wahrheiten über Liebe, Tod und Natur. Mit "A Quiet Ritual" gelingt dem Duo sein wohl dringlichstes, schönstes und fesselndstes Werk.

”The Slow Rush”, das vierte Album von Kevin Parker als Tame Impala, wurde im Februar 2020 mit großemErfolg veröffentlicht. Parker erreichte seine zweite Nr. 1 in Australien und sein bisher höchstes Chart-Albumsowohl in den USA als auch in Großbritannien sowie 14 Top-10-Chartplatzierungen weltweit.

Die neue Farbversion von ”The Slow Rush” in limitierter Auflage, die zum ersten Mal seit der Erstveröffentlichung neu aufgelegt wurde, erscheint auf 180 Gramm cremeweißem Vinyl. Mit ”Lost In Yesterday”, ”Borderline”, ”It Might Be Time”, ”Breathe Deeper” und ”Is It True” taucht Parker auf ”The Slow Rush” in die Tiefen des Ozeans der Zeit und beschwört das Gefühl eines Lebens in einem Blitzmoment herauf, über wichtige Meilensteinen, die vorbeisausen, während man auf sein Handy schaut, ist es ein Loblied auf Schöpfung und Zerstörung und den unendlichen Kreislauf des Lebens.

Music history is full of miracles and wonders. OFEGE is certainly one of them. It's quite easy to imagine this band's story turning into a movie. In 1973, a bunch of teenagers with an abundance of passion for music got their hands on the official school band's instruments and jammed away. Inspired by the psychedelic rock sounds and guitar wizardry of Carlos Santana, Jeff Beck or Led Zeppelin they wrote an album worth of songs and decided to have them recorded. The goal was to press them on vinyl - one copy for each band member - as a souvenir of the fun times they had together before their school careers would rip them apart. Shortly after, they found themselves with a major record label contract in their pockets, propelled to stardom in their hometown of Lagos/Nigeria and soon across the whole country. Three studio albums followed in the years to come. The unavoidable enviousness and bickering over "who's the true band leader, who's gets the most love letters" and such led to alterations of OFEGE's line-up and subsequently to its decay in 1978. With the turn of the century, OFEGE's coming-of-age drama has fortunately found a new generation of fans across the globe and will certainly continue to do so with this dearly needed reissue. OFEGE's debut album "Try And Love" will now be available digitally for the very first time since its inception 47 years ago.

It's true what they say: Life's writing the best stories.

BIG SCENIC NOWHERE the supergroup led by Bob Balch from FuManchu is coming back with a new killer EP titled "LAVENDER BLUES" The band has a straight core of members as Gary Arce from Yawning Man and Tony Reed from Mos Generator, this time the album going to feature great names as Per Wiberg from Opeth, Spiritual Beggars at synth and piano, Daniel Mongrain from Voivod at the guitar and the mighty producer from Kyuss: Chris Goss from Masters Of Reality at the guitar. The sound once again has this mellow and psychedelic attitude, with pinches of space rock and a matrix of desert sound, but you can also hear some progressive passages, and old school hard rock riffing here and there. The album feature once again the cover art of the visionary Max Loeffler.

Gute Laune Westcoast-Pop: Beach Boys meets Zappa. Das Debütalbum der Band mit dem freundlichen Namen Hello Forever entstand im kalifornischen Topanga. Topanga war schon immer eine Art kreativer Fluchtpunkt für Künstler, die in der Abgeschiedenheit nach Inspirationen und Liebe suchten. Hier, wo"Whatever It Is" aufgenommen wurde, nahm auch schon Neil Young "After the Gold Rush" auf oder schrieb Captain Beefheart Songs für sein Album "Trout Mask Replica". Genau hier leben auch die Mitglieder von Hello Forever und fanden dort ihren Sound, der natürlich an die großen musikalischen Zeiten dieses wunderschönen Landstrichs erinnern: den Beach Boys, Neil Young und natürlich auch den Beatles (auch wenn sie nie da waren). Sänger und Songwriter der Band ist Samuel Joseph, der seine Band selbst als Art-Pop-Kollektiv beschreibt. Die farbenfrohe Instrumentierung und der mehrstimmige Harmoniegesang sind beeinflusst vom Sound der 60er. "Whatever It Is" klingt als hätten die Beach Boys Frank Zappa zu einer Jam-Session einladen, während die Beatles im Studio herumlungern, um sich in der gleißenden Sonne von ihrer "Magical Mystery Tour" zu erholen.

Yellow Vinyl

Der jüngste Teil der Magnetic Eye’s Redux Series ist einem
der Meilensteine der Grunge-Ära gewidmet: Eine Reihe von
Künstlern aus dem Doom- und Stoner-Underground
interpretieren Alice in Chains’ Dirt neu, einen vertonten
Alptraum über Drogenabhängigkeit und innere Finsternis.
Ähnlichkeiten zwischen Grunge und der Entwicklung des
Stoner Sludge Metal lassen sich besonders deutlich auf diesen
Meilenstein zurückführen, der den kulturellen Wandel vom
geistlosen Hair Metal zu roherem, dreckigerem und
authentischerem Stoff in den frühen 1990ern endgültig
machte, woraus dann der vorherrschende Stil populärer
harter Musik wurde.
Dirt Redux bietet den gesamten Albumklassiker von Anfang
bis Ende in Form von Coverversionen und Überarbeitungen
durch Szene-Schwergewichte und Aufsteiger wie Khemmis,
Thou, -(16)-, Howling Giant, Forming The Void, The Otolith
(ex-SubRosa) und weiteren.