Pop & Rock Новости

Remixed and remastered reissue of the legendary ORQUESTA DEL DESIERTO self-titled debut album. Recorded at the Green Room Studio in Palm Springs in 2001 and released on the seminal desert rock label Meteorcity Records in 2002, the band's debut album immediately gathered critical acclaim for its ability to forge a new dynamic in a genre that was rapidly filling with groups cloning the heavier sounds of Kyuss. "There are, quite simply, no faults here - this is a beautiful, potent album that gives just as much attention to pop hooks as it does to atmosphere. As you can imagine, the results are astounding,"

Transparent Orange vinyl, limited to 350 copies. Remixed and remastered reissue of the legendary ORQUESTA DEL DESIERTO self-titled debut album. Recorded at the Green Room Studio in Palm Springs in 2001 and released on the seminal desert rock label Meteorcity Records in 2002, the band's debut album immediately gathered critical acclaim for its ability to forge a new dynamic in a genre that was rapidly filling with groups cloning the heavier sounds of Kyuss. "There are, quite simply, no faults here - this is a beautiful, potent album that gives just as much attention to pop hooks as it does to atmosphere. As you can imagine, the results are astounding,"

2024 Reissue

Limited Clear w/ Silver Splatter vinyl. 15 years after the band's debut album was release, Sargent House is set to do a special anniversary re-issue with updated artwork and limited-edition clear w/ silver splatter vinyl with Silver/Red foil jacket available. Upcoming tour dates include multiple festival appearances and a UK/EU headline tour in August. 12th Nottingham Rescue Rooms, 13th Manchester Gorilla, 14th London Underworld, 15th Bristol ArcTanGent. For Fans of Fu Manchu / Melvins. This the debut is being repressed. Red Fang is the formation of long time friends and collaborators Bryan Giles (Last of the Juanitas, Party Time), Aaron Beam (Dark Forces, Lachrymator), David Sullivan (Party Time, facedowninshit, Shiny Beast) and John Sherman (Party Time, Bad Wizard, Trumans Water, All Night). Unleashed on New Year's Eve of 2006 in Portland, Oregon, Red Fang stormed out of the gates, introducing a sweaty, seething basement to a new kind of unforgettable fist-pumping, beer-chugging rock music. Since that night, the band has continued with the same intensity, energy, and intimacy to quickly become a touring juggernaut, playing shows all over the US with bands like The Melvins, Big Business, and The Sword, to name just a few. Residing somewhere between Black Flag and Black Sabbath, Red Fang recall a time when rock was more urgent and horrifying. Synthesizing a variety of heavy music influences into their own distinct musical identity, the band easily shifts from barn-burning punk to mid-tempo, hyper-distorted bass destruction all while maintaining a cohesive sound. Red Fang create gigantic rock songs that are easy to listen to (not easy listening, mind you) and qualify the simultaneous usage of both the thinking and the banging head, which are usually mutually exclusive. Their instrumentation is fluid and effortless, and the vocals are delivered melodically and forcefully, with enough rasp and effect saturation to fit nicely within the music. Paired with elemental imagery, the lyrics are immense and satisfying without any pretense.

«First Rays Of The New Rising Sun» wurde im April 1997 veröffentlicht und war das erste Album, das unter der direkten Supervision der Familie Hendrix entstand. Mit siebzehn Songs, deren Entstehung von März 1968 bis zu Jimis letzten Sessions in den Electric Lady Studios im August 1970 reicht, markiert das Album das letzte grosse Werk des innovativen Künstlers Jimi Hendrix. Es beinhaltet "Dolly Dagger", "Angel", "Ezy Rider" und "Freedom". Diese Veröffentlichung ist eine neue, komplett analoge Ausgabe, die von Bernie Grundman aus den originalen 1/4"-Mixes gemastert und auf schwarzes 140-Gramm-Vinyl gepresst wurde.

Oasis’ debut album ‘Definitely Maybe’ celebrates its 30th anniversary this August. The fastest-ever selling debut in the UK on release, this seminal album marked the point when Oasis became a cultural phenomenon. Including the classic singles ‘Supersonic’, ‘Live Forever’ and ‘Cigarettes And Alcohol’, its songs sound as fresh and relevant as they did in 1994. Having sold over 6.9 million copies globally, it also sits as the 2nd most streamed album of the 90’s (following Oasis’ (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? at no.1). New 30th anniversary formats released to celebrate this landmark date include a Limited Edition deluxe 4LP and 2CD featuring including the previously unreleased and discarded original recording session from Monnow Valley along with outtakes from Sawmills Studios plus a demo of Sad Song featuring Liam’s vocal - all recently mixed for this release by Noel Gallagher and Callum Marinho. LP formats also include a retail exclusive coloured vinyl format – Digsy’s Dinner inspired “Strawberries and cream” pink and white marble 2LP. All versions feature brand new artwork by the original art designer Brian Cannon for Microdot and original sleeve photographer Michael Spencer Jones, plus new sleeve notes.

Oasis’ debut album ‘Definitely Maybe’ celebrates its 30th anniversary this August. The fastest-ever selling debut in the UK on release, this seminal album marked the point when Oasis became a cultural phenomenon. Including the classic singles ‘Supersonic’, ‘Live Forever’ and ‘Cigarettes And Alcohol’, its songs sound as fresh and relevant as they did in 1994. Having sold over 6.9 million copies globally, it also sits as the 2nd most streamed album of the 90’s (following Oasis’ (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? at no.1). New 30th anniversary formats released to celebrate this landmark date include a Limited Edition deluxe 4LP and 2CD featuring including the previously unreleased and discarded original recording session from Monnow Valley along with outtakes from Sawmills Studios plus a demo of Sad Song featuring Liam’s vocal - all recently mixed for this release by Noel Gallagher and Callum Marinho. LP formats also include a retail exclusive coloured vinyl format – Digsy’s Dinner inspired “Strawberries and cream” pink and white marble 2LP. All versions feature brand new artwork by the original art designer Brian Cannon for Microdot and original sleeve photographer Michael Spencer Jones, plus new sleeve notes.

Die legendäre deutsche Hard Rock Band VICTORY (mit ex ACCEPT Mitglied Herman Frank) veröffentlicht am 13. September ihr neues Studioalbum "Circle of Life" als limitierte Sunburst Vinly, schwarzes Vinyl und CD-Jewelcase! Macht euch bereit für 10 fette Tracks mit einer Mischung aus handwerklich markantem Hard Rock und Heavy Metal und genießt rollende Gitarrenriffs und messerscharfe Texte in bester VICTORY-Tradition.

Scraped out from the gunk of the Brussels cult underarm comes the sole outing of a band that perhaps never existed. Crash Toto is like a fever dream cooked up by some deranged scenester chef deep in the zone, where figures from seminal acts Carrageenan, Lemones and Christophe Clébard band together to belch out rancid riffs, chaos drumming, and electronic warfare that assault all sense of orientation. You’ll never see these guys live but their energy plays on mercilessly through the single demented trip that is The Riptoffer EP. Excess and nihilism as the cornerstones of trash rock, with these three tracks (and a bonus digital one) converging towards the communal sludge of our shared post-pandemic catharses. Limited to 200 copies.

Jim Jones All Stars ist ein brodelnder Sumpffluch mit unheiligem Rhythmus und das neueste Projekt des britischen Garage-Paten Jim Jones (Thee Hypnotics, The Jim Jones Revue). Die Band besteht aus Mitgliedern von Jim Jones Revue, The Heavy, The Swamps und einer kompletten Bläsergruppe. Ihre LP "Ain't No Peril" ist ein dickes, fettes Stück Rama-Lama-Rhythm'n'Blues mit einigen von Jones' inspiriertesten Songs samt Gastauftritten des stimmlichen Powerhouse Nikki Hill und Eugene S. Robinson (Oxbow), das mit Scott McEwen in dessen Memphis Magnetic-Studio aufgenommen, von John Gletze produziert und von Grammy-Gewinner Randy Merrill gemastert wurde.

GREY VINYL/GREY SLEEVE REPRESS.

Recut from the Silver Sonyare masters in November 2008 at Chicago Mastering Service, features a new blue cover , BLUE VINYL, and comes with a free MP3 download of the album.


racks 1-8 are from the first Minor Threat 7". Tracks 9-12 are from the "In My Eyes" 7 Inch. The Digital version of this record includes the song "Stand Up," from the Flex Your Head compilation. All songs are available on CD.

Recorded: April & August 1981
Released on 12": June 1984

Ian MacKaye vocals
Lyle Preslar guitar
Brian Baker bass
Jeff Nelson drums

Channeling the speed of youth and the heaviness of a fleshy, lived life in equal proportion, Upchuck’s second LP, Bite the Hand That Feeds, is a Trojan Horse par excellence, craftily smuggling in waves of sentimental emotion and clever pop songwriting under a veil of pulsing rhythms and scorching riffs. What binds Upchuck together is a purity of intention, an organic loyalty to a thick knot of uncalculated friendships, struggles, and desires. These are songs about the joy of continuing to live, songs that find each other in the rush of a crushing reality, propelling the listener onward towards a collective release, however brief it may last. Themes of surviving through the night, youth-blinded love, cheap champagne soaked back-alley parties, and chaotic street protests are subsumed under a single unifying thread: the needs we have for one another, our shared hunger for connection. In a world saturated with arbitrary rules and paper-thin moralism, Upchuck offer free¬dom through sensation, a type of unserious transcendence found through the swirl of bodies melting into one another in the passion of dance. With Bite the Hand That Feeds, Upchuck isn’t trying to tell anyone how to live. Rather, they are simply trying to find a way to make life more worth living for both themselves and their friends—if the music compels you to move, you might as well consider yourself their friend too. Shortly after the release of their debut album Sense Yourself, Upchuck absconded to Southern California to record Bite the Hand That Feeds, enlisting the production talents of Ty Segall and the airy reprieve of his secluded Topanga Canyon home studio. Upchuck credits Segall, who recorded the entire record live to tape over the span of five days, with helping to elevate the arrangements of their second record to bold new heights—fans of Segall’s extensive catalog will undoubtedly recognize the shadow of his creative touch in Bite the Hand That Feeds’ commanding, layered drum polyrhythms, tasteful use of oddball effects, and fuzzed out, every-guitar-pushed-into-the-red ethos. All the same, final credit for Upchuck’s evolution from Sense Yourself to Bite the Hand That Feeds must be paid to the band itself. Following the release of their debut LP, Upchuck embarked upon a break-neck string of live shows, touring alongside the likes of Segall’s Fuzz, Amyl and the Sniffers, Negative Approach, OFF!, and Sub¬humans. The razor tight focus of Bite the Hand That Feeds was forged in the fire of these live shows, speaking directly to the power of their in-person presence—these are songs meant to be heard pressed up against a barricade, blasted through dimed guitar amps placed so close to your ears that you can practically reach out and touch them. In its totality, Bite the Hand That Feeds offers a sonic portrait of what it feels like to be young and caught up in the thrill of it all, coursing between ripping dance grooves and thundering dirges, anti-self-serious crowd anthems and charming pop hooks.

Kevin McCormick's unreleased bedroom studio tape material (1982-1984). Moods similar to Durutti Column, Woo, Crosby’s spacey moments, and Boards Of Canada’s nostalgia.

Following the release of Light Patterns in 1982, Kevin recorded a series of songs onto tape that explored the sonic possibilities of a solitary guitarist. Shedding the acoustic sound of his previous effort, he adopted a swelling electric palette to apply his moods to. These recordings are a shift in direction to a sparse and ambient style, and their hazy, repetitive movements create room for evocative melodies.

Kevin fills a deficiency of guitar-forward music with his minimalistic approach that is somewhere in the space between ambient, rock, jazz, and avant-garde. On Sticklebacks, he casts away the morning elegance of Light Patterns and leans further into the introverted feelings of the small hours. It is a nascent springtime journey that shows just what Kevin is capable of with six strings.

Swiss based artist Androo, who previously released on MFM sub label Second Circle, returns with his debut LP 'Club Salon Theatre'.

Far from an album in traditional form, 'Club Salon Theatre' explores its potential as a musical collage of sound. Recorded during 2021 and the beginning of 2022, it is the result of Androo's desire to draw connections between diverse fragments of music and art.

Originally born out of the Dub sound-system scene in Geneva and with a continued love for the modal music of the likes of John and Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, Androo has long put improvisation at the center of his practice. His understanding of dub music as an integral part of the experimental music tradition, with ties to the school of Musique Concrète for instance, and with trap music as another vital ingredient, has as much to do with the form as with the method. With the studio as a laboratory for experimentation, Androo utilizes a variety of outboard instruments as well as working in-the-box, but it’s his classic “dub style” technique of mixing at the hardware console that leaves its quintessential mark throughout the whole record.

'Club Salon Theatre' is a rich patchwork of imagined scenes, emotive melodies, flying rhythms, harmonic changes, loose improvisations, with an almost romantic thread running through it. Like a collection of musical poems, gently arranged in what is sometimes sparse musical language. Far from a patchwork of scattered and disjointed inspirations, there is a real unity and singularity at work, resulting in a record which can be enjoyed as a collection of sonic poems, simultaneously nonchalant and earnest, sentimental and playful.

Selected Songs 1997-2003 compiles some of the finest moments in the recording history of Hydroplane, the Melbourne-based indie-pop three-piece that operated alongside The Cat’s Miaow through the second half of the nineties. It’s the third release in what feels, now, like a loosely planned series by World Of Echo, documenting the music made by this group of friends in Melbourne sharehouses (The Cat’s Miaow’s Songs ’94-’98, 2022), or in the case of The Shapiros (Gone By Fall, 2023), while traversing the International Pop Underground.

Hydroplane would be familiar to anyone already following these breadcrumb trails – Andrew Withycombe, Bart Cummings and Kerrie Bolton were the group’s core, all members of The Cat’s Miaow. With Cat’s Miaow drummer Cameron Smith itinerant, having moved to London, the trio used this opportunity to expand their music. It’s a subtle, but important shift. If The Cat’s Miaow was about the perfect, minimalist, two-minute pop song, Hydroplane’s music was far more open-ended, embracing the loops and drones, sampled house-y shuffle beats, the burbling of a Roland Jupiter-4 synth, all of which the trio joined, effortlessly, to their endless capacity for moving, elegant melodicism.

They may have only planned to release one seven-inch single, but the sound Hydroplane created was so bewitching, so compelling, that the project’s lifespan ran for around half a decade, and they ended up releasing three albums, including a self-titled debut recently reissued by Efficient Space, and seven singles. There are all kinds of compelling things happening in the music compiled here – the hazy repetition of the gentler side of Krautrock is in here, somewhere, which also suggests Stereolab at their most intimate and disarmed; the gently drifting guitars, gauzy and oneiric, set the songs adrift and floating, each one lost in its own imagined, distracted world. Songs like “The Love You Bring” set indistinct tonal floats across dance rhythms, in a way not quite heard since My Bloody Valentine’s “Instrumental” – but with the added gift of Bolton’s gorgeous voice.

This loose coalition with dance music, and the quiet experimentalism at the heart of Hydroplane, also gestures towards peers like Hood, Acetate Zero and Other People’s Children, and releases on renegade labels like Wurlitzer Jukebox and Enraptured. Like those groups and labels, The Cat’s Miaow were reconciling independent pop music’s past – sweet melody and melancholy, chiming and droning guitars – with the futures promised by DIY electronics and nascent digitalia, the interface of indie and IDM that led to some of the underground’s most blissful, texturally swoonsome music. All that is here, but also, the poise of the melodies is pure Cat’s Miaow, though, with Bolton’s voice sailing, pacifically, over some of the most pared-down, gorgeous music made during their decade.

It was a time, too, when such music could make waves – “We Crossed The Atlantic”, one of their early singles, was picked up by John Peel, who played it repeatedly on his legendary radio show, the song reaching #13 on his 1997 Festive 50. That the song itself was a cover of a tune by 1960s Australian beatnik-pop-poet Pip Proud felt even more perfect – a group of outsiders paying tribute to another outsider, played on the radio one of the few broadcasters brave and human enough to take a chance on this music. But it was a time where everything was up for grabs, and genres were flowing into each other: folk songs went drone; indie re-discovered noise; ambient pop floated, again, out onto the dancefloor. And while they may have been sequestered away in Melbourne, Australia, Hydroplane felt core to that scene, a quietly driving force.

Compiling material from across their brief but mercurial career, this double album perfectly captures the magic and mystery of Hydroplane’s dreamlike, perfect pop songs.

Netherworld Double Gatefold Vinyl in 'Celestial Dust' transparent gold CD / DVD - 5.1 Surround mixed by Jakko M. Jakszyk: 'Storybook' Edition 'Ladies' Double A-Side 7" Single - Ladies Of The Road / Dirty (Black Vinyl) Netherworld A6 illustrated 'Little Stories' book All housed in a Black Textured Box with Gold Hot Foil Embossing Netherworld marks a considerable step onwards from the territory that Louise Patricia Crane explored on her debut long player Deep Blue, crafting audial landscapes that go further into both inner and outer space; hallucinatory and surrealistic yet also grittier and more direct. For all that this stemmed in part from early Genesis and The Beatles, Netherworld also sits in alignment with the luxurious but oddly intimate realm of modern classics, by the likes of Tears For Fears, Tori Amos and Joni Mitchell, with passionate intensity set in a bold, cinematic vista. In realising these romantic and expansive visions, Crane not only wrote or co-wrote the entire album, but arranged, co-produced and played a wide variety of instruments on it. Yet as a supporting cast, she has surrounded herself with a formidable selection of mercurial contributors. Once again, Jakko M. Jakszyk (King Crimson) brings his fiery and mellifluous solo guitar work, as well as contributing backing vocals, keyboards and co-production. Elsewhere, the flute soliloquies of Tiny Bard are the work of Jethro Tull's Ian Andersonwhile saxophone duties are handled by Mel Collins, whose work with King Crimson marks only one chapter in an incredibly storied life in music. Providing violin and viola across the stylistic expanse of the album, Shir-Ran Yinon (New Model Army / Eluveitie) returns as a collaborator. The rhythm section for the lion's share of the record consists of the dream team of Tony Levin (King Crimson / Peter Gabriel) and Gary Husband (John McLaughlin / Billy Cobham / Allan Holdsworth) with Nick Beggs stepping in on bass for Dance With The Devil and upright bass on Long Kiss Goodnight. Crucially however, even amidst this kind of company, Louise's voice and vision is never remotely overshadowed_with the talents on offer only serving to make the backdrop to her songs still more vivid, sharp and intense.

Loathe have been making waves in the British underground heavy music scene since their inception in 2014. Two Eps and one full-length debut album have already put them on the map and the band has already been nominated for Best New Band at the Metal Hammer Golden Gods and Best UK Breakthrough Band in the Heavy Music Awards. Their intense, visceral multi-media live show extravaganza has marked them out as a band who have ambitions far beyond that of their peers and now, with the release of their second full length album, I Let It In and It Took Everything, those ambitions are beginning to be realised.
Debut full-length The Cold Sun was a heady hybrid of meaty down-tuned riffs, lacerating screams and pile-driving rhythms. I Let It In and It Took Everything retains those elements, albeit delivered with a searing potency and sharpened focus that bests its predecessor in almost every conceivable way. Rather than existing within one style or taking one approach, Loathe pepper their music with a range of influences and musical motifs that move fluidly and give the Liverpool quintet a dynamism that was merely hinted at before. Their palette has widened significantly and surprises are plentiful; shimmering guitars, layered synths, unhinged guitar effects, a stronger emphasis on ethereal clean vocals and even elements that echo the sheer sonic brutality that epitomises black metal.It all adds up to a release that is dynamic in extremis and yet remarkably cohesive as guitarist Erik Bickerstaffe attests. ‘I always want Loathe to be eclectic, a monster with many different faces but to make sure that it all sits in the same universe as well.’ A myriad of different influences are being thrown into the Loathe melting pot, some that people might expect and others that would likely seem inconceivable for a band with such an acerbic sound. Both Radiohead and The 1975 are cornerstones in the approach Loathe take with their music, partly in a sonic sense but mainly in terms of being a band who strive to do whatever they want and cultivate a fan base that will follow them down some deep, experimental rabbit holes. And then there are specific influences that stem from outside of music as well; the soundtrack to 2001’s survival horror videogame Silent Hill 2, the ominous, disturbing aura created by 2019’s most divisive film Joker or the entire works of serial brain scrambler David Lynch. The likes of Aggressive Evolution and New Faces in the Dark will be familiar to those already acquainted with the band’s dizzying hybrid of industrial bluster and hardcore energy. But the process of re-building themselves really starts to show itself on the expansive, lush instrumentation of Two-Way Mirror or A Sad Cartoon, songs that feel like a new string to add to Loathe’s burgeoning bow. Red Room is a short, sharp burst of adrenalized noise-core whilst Heavy is the Head That Falls with the Weight of a Thousand Thoughts features an abrasive incandescent performance from vocalist Kadeem France that has to be heard to be believed. It seems Loathe’s desire to never be pigeon-holed is as strong as it’s ever been. I Let It In and It Took Everything opens up Loathe’s horizons and proves that they can sound however they want to sound. ‘We're not here to add to someone else's legacy,’ says Erik. ‘We're trying to create our own.

Seit ihrer Gründung haben REZN die reinen, monochromen Tiefen des Underground-Metal erforscht und sie mit den kaleidoskopischen Freuden von Psychedelia, Prog-Rock und Shoegaze verschmolzen. Mit ihrem neuesten Album Burden loten sie die tiefsten, düstersten Gräben ihres Sounds aus, ohne dabei den Bezug zum Kosmos zu verlieren. An der Schnittstelle zwischen den düsteren Dimensionen moderner Psych-Acts wie Black Angels, der höhlenartigen Düsternis und den mit Hall durchtränkten Gitarren von Bands wie Spectral Voice und den taumelnden Low-End-Meditationen von Künstlern wie OM haben REZN ein Album von ungeheurer, den Verstärker anbetender Wucht und mitreißender Instrumentierung geschaffen. Burden wurde zeitgleich mit ihrem vorherigen Album Solace im Juli 2021 aufgenommen, aber anstatt ein Doppelalbum zu veröffentlichen, teilten REZN das Material in zwei separate Platten auf, jede mit ihrem eigenen emotionalen Timbre. Musikalisch bevorzugt Burden Riffs gegenüber Atmosphäre, Perkussion gegenüber Äther, Dissonanz gegenüber Schönheit, aber es gibt dennoch eine unbestreitbare Kohäsion zwischen ihm und seinem Vorgänger. Die Verbindung von brachialer Gewalt und erhabenen Texturen war schon immer eine Schlüsseltaktik in REZNs Ansatz - eine Dualität, die vielleicht ihre Tournee-Vergangenheit mit den Synästhesie-induzierenden Metallurgie-Kollegen Elder und Russian Circles erklärt - aber das Spektrum der quecksilbrigen Temperamente der Band fühlte sich noch nie so klar definiert und vollständig erforscht an wie auf Burden. Selbst die zurückhaltendsten Momente von Burden fühlen sich wie die Ruhe vor dem Sturm an, ein sich sammelnder Schwung vor dem strafenden Schlussstück und der Leadsingle ,Chasm", einem megalithischen, krautigen Brecher, der durch ein brennendes Gitarrensolo von Russian Circles' Mike Sullivan noch verstärkt wird. Indie-Handel exklusives farbiges Vinyl in Black, Mint and Bone A side/ B side, LPs mit Lyric-Sheet & DLC, Digipack CD mit Lyric-Sheet.

Want, both lack and desire, is the sound of two brothers trying to sing sense into a burning world.

"The Rob Ritter Tapes - Live At Starwood 1980 / 1981" is a must for fans of punk rock history and offers an intimate and raw insight into the most formative years of one of the genre's most influential bands. The live recordings will be released as lim. digisleeve double CD, lim. colored, 180g double vinyl and digital - these previously unreleased recordings take us on a musical journey back to the Hollywood of the early 80s.

"Jar of Flies" wurde ursprünglich 1994 veröffentlicht und ist die 4-fache Platin-EP mit den Hits "I Stay Away", "No Excuses" und "Nutshell"

Apocalyptica Plays Metallica Vol. 2 continues the journey that began in 1996, when four cellists from the world-famous Sibelius Academy in Helsinki created a symphonic tribute to the greatest of the Big Four - heavy metal titans Metallica. For their tenth album, the classically-oriented rockers return to their roots to bring a legendary story full circle. There are also a number of surprises, starting with a unique collaboration.

The third single from the album "One" of Metallica's 1988 milestone "And Justice For All" is a stunning reinterpretation of one of the Big Four's greatest musical moments - a true highlight in their 40-year career. The single features Metallica frontman James Hetfield himself performing the inimitable, now immortal lyrics in a stirring spoken word interpretation. This is more than a unique collaboration, this is history in the making.

Apocalyptica Plays Metallica Vol. 2 was produced by longtime collaborator and studio superstar Joe Barresi (Queens of the Stone Age, Soundgarden, Nine Inch Nails, Tool) and will be released on June 7 via new label Throwdown Entertainment.

Disperú is the first independent record label in Peru and South America that was founded and run by a woman. In the space of five years Rebeca Llave turned not only Disperú into a successful company but also transformed it into an amplifier and showcase for unique Peruvian popular music projects including the raw, wild and visceral sound of Los Saicos, 60s punk pioneers. This compilation comprises 14 amazing tracks, ranging from cumbia or boogaloo to beat and garage, to celebrate the music legacy of this unique pioneer woman. Disperú was founded at a key moment for Peruvian popular music. In 1965 young Peruvians were gaining prominence in society and the entertainment industry. The hangover of the 'new wave', with its balladeers, persisted on the radio and television, but rock bands were also emerging, inspired by what was happening musically in Liverpool and on the beaches of California. Guided by her ability to spot talent and target what she perceived as commercial prospects, Rebeca signed up an impressive lineup of artists. Several of which would move on to bigger labels, after 'the girl with the charming smile' had set them on the recording road to fame. Besides gathering young rockers (Los Saicos, Jean Paul El Troglodita_) and new wave bands (Los 4 Brillantes, Golden Boys_) under its umbrella, Disperú also ventured into coastal and Andean music from Peru and tropical music (Chano Scotty y su Combo Latino, Toño y sus Sicodélicos_).

Crack Cloud has always been something beyond a rock band: both profound and grand, vaporous and elusive. The first iteration of Crack Cloud was formed nearly a decade ago as a proxy-rehab outlet on the fringes of Calgary. Over time, two EPs and accompanying visual pieces were produced out of the residence known as Red Mile. By 2017, several members had relocated to Vancouver, working out of harm reduction centers and low-barrier shelters. Sobriety, self-reformation and the idealism of their work further formed an ethos for Crack Cloud. It was during these years that the band produced their astounding 2020 album Pain Olympics. At once, their vision became expansive, cinematic. Now, Red Mile is a bit of a homecoming. Members have returned to Calgary. But Calgary/home has become a liminal space, a place of flux. After a decade of personal and collective growth, what does home even mean? Red Mile is, for them, something like samsara: a return and a rebirth. Red Mile's sound breathes expansive energy into the circuitous, street bound sonics of Crack Cloud's prior material. Fizzling synths intertwine with chiming pianos. Songs layer like Russian nesting dolls; one may find a Ramones chorus set within a desolate Western prog soundtrack only to watch it erupt into a joyous anthem. Real-ass guitars _ alternately lilting, scuzzy and soaring _ ring out across wide sun-bleached spaces. In 2024, the cumulative effect is (in rock instrumentation terms) naturalistic. Any whiff of embalmed nostalgia is absent. Even the close of the album - a winding, almost Jerry Garcia guitar noodle that leads us out of Red Mile - is delivered without sentimentality. Principal songwriter Zach Choy's lyrics are cutting but merciful, with a sharp self-awareness that never slides into self-satisfaction. Crack Cloud as artists are critical _ and ultimately as forgiving _ of themselves as they are the melting world around them. The songs balance an easy charm and cathartic power: affirming life without denying death. Recorded predominantly between the outskirts of Joshua Tree California, and Calgary, Alberta, this record is informed by a bittersweet mélange of old and new. The sprawling, novelistic structures of their previous albums are condensed and sharpened, while maintaining their refusal to delve into superficiality. Through playful melodies and elliptical guitar soliloquy, they deliver a final product of exceptional depth and distinctly unprecious warmth. Crack Cloud have produced a mature, vital work that interrogates the platitudes of the rock-n-roll lifestyle, but ultimately exalts its sacredness. Red Mile's de facto thesis statement "The Medium" is itself a rock song meditation: an ode to the form and its practitioners. This genre that _ typical, repeatable, corporatized as it can be _ somehow still has the power to help us live through life. We see the dusty sentiment of "I love rock and roll" exhumed, taken apart, and stitched back together. It's a song guided by faith _ if the medium helps us proclaim our love today, it's worth protecting from derision tomorrow. We live in an era where music seems to love hitting its head against the wall. Crack Cloud's Red Mile is the sound _ the feeling! _ of the bricks giving way.

In the early 1980s, Britain had a vibrant cassette culture that now gets spotlighted through a limited edition 12" featuring multi-instrumentalist Kez Stone's project, Imago. He was a notable name in Cornwall and the West Country's music scenes with previous projects, Artistic Control and Aaah! which have come back via reissues many times in the last ten years. Imago was a new one-ff project that first emerged with one track on the Perfect Motion compilation curated by NTS Radio's Bruno and Flo Dill and now the full LP, originally released in 1985 on the local label A Real Kavoom, has been remastered and added to with three additional gems. Stone's teenage punk influences sit next to Imago's eclectic approach to sound that blends new wave and psychedelic elements into something irresistible.