Pop & Rock News

Jonas Palm released the excellent "Ze Wörmnest" album in 1986, following up with "Decompositions" (recorded following year) released by Börft Records in 2011. On "Remote Jazz" Palm collaborates with saxophone player P-O Lundquist in what seems to be a very rare and absolutely magnificent combination of electronics and saxophone. Perfectly atmospheric, triggering and genuine.

Almost a year to the day since the release of their acclaimed third album Shadow Work, Mammal Hands share a new EP entitled Becoming.

Recorded from the same extensive studio sessions,Becoming is a seen as a brooding companion to third album Shadow Work, offering three new pieces self-produced by the trio. It opens with the bold title track Becoming, a hugely dynamic and diverse composition that begins with a rhythmical piano and saxophone line, building gradually with textural layers and flourishes before reaching a climatic end reminiscent of math-rock. It highlights the groups continued skill and playful ability to improvise and experiment with structure and mood.

"Becoming has a lot of different influences in it. The opening section has a hip-hop inspired feel, the middle section breaks into a more minimalist/electronic theme before cutting to a heavier/gutturalfeel for the last sections"reveal the trio.

Second track "Refuge" opens and closes with a calm and gentle melodic pattern led by the drums, evolving with subtle rhythmic saxophone lines before erupting into more explosive group playing, then returning to the melody and a place of calm. On tour it has often been the trio's favoured live opening piece.

"This is a track we wrote together where we wanted to approach things in a slower, more harmony-driven way. We were trying to create an atmosphere where the listener is drawn in and then carried along with the movement of the piece. We felt that it provided a calm and gentle opening that we hoped would draw people into our world in a gentle way with something a bit mysterious and dark instead of a louder, more obvious opening statement"

Closing the EP is track 'Shimmer', a dark and moody piece where the piano and drums explore dark cinematic scenes and textures. With around an hour left whilst recording at 80 Hertz in Manchester, the trio decided to put down some final takes and making a deliberate decision to play and record their instruments at low volume. The result is a concluding piece that features a hypnotic extended section of piano soloing with repeated rhythmic patterns and minimalist style passages.

One of very few indie label releases on Spin Magazine's list of 100 top counter-cultural musicians ('the noisemakers, funkateers, folkies, proto-punks, and freaks who made the truly radical music of the social revolution"), ahead of legends like Mulatu Astatke, Brigitte Fontaine, Pärson Sound, Ornette Coleman, Sun Ra and His Solar Arkestra, Harry Partch, and Os Mutantes. Zowie!

"In 1965, eight guys from London, Ontario, decided to start a free-improv group — 'free' to the point of building their own instruments, which they decided couldn't be set up to produce specific pitches... Their vocalist, schoolteacher Bill Exley, banged on a cooking pot and bellowed hilariously about stupidity and destruction and Canada. They didn't treat what they were doing as an advanced, visionary form of experimental music, but as a big, stupid, fun, ecstatic noise. By the '90s, noise artists finally recognized NSB as their ancestors — and, almost 50 years after they started, the surviving members of the Nihilist Spasm Band still play every Monday night while their children haunt loft spaces the world over.' —SPIN magazine

"The record you're holding is one of the masterworks of that big gray area of noise/weirdo/freak-out music. It' still hard to believe that No Record was released in 1968. This was a time when popular music was still growing up, and these outsider guys from Canada came out of nowhere and made this mindfuck of record that was years ahead of itself. And as with albums like Trout Mask Replica, and The Faust Tapes, it still sounds fresh today. No Record is mandatory listening. —Lasse Marhaug

"During the 1960s, the counterculture simply became culture: the sexual revolution, psychedelic drugs, hating the Vietnam War, Dennis Hopper. And it's impossible to bodypaint this decade's popular music as anything less than a combustible force of nature, especially with Jimi Hendrix torching guitars and Pete Townshend smashing guitars and James Brown fining his masterfully precise guitar player for flubbing a note... In these 100 albums are the origin stories of punk, grunge, hip-hop, noise, EDM, and more. Feral garage bands, splattery free-jazzers, vanguard composers, haunting folkies, psychedelic funkateers, and whatever Moondog was. We didn't start the fire.' —SPIN magazine

- This LP pressing limited to 300 copies—only 250x copies for sale outside of Canada

- One of very few indie label releases on Spin Magazine's list of 100 top counter-cultural music

- Huge insert with the band's story and an abundance of rare photos.

- From the master tapes.

After two visionary LPs for his own tiny Nodlew label, Weldon Irvine signed to RCA for Cosmic Vortex (Justice Divine), exploring the deeply spiritual and political terrain of his previous efforts on the kind of grand musical scale that major-label funding accommodates.

This is a big, bold record by any measure, with a startlingly pronounced focus on lyrics and vocals. At the same time, however, the melodies spread out like tentacles, informed by the improvisational sensibilities of jazz and the deep-groove spirit of funk. Jason Ankeny/AMG

"The Tribe is an extension of the tribes in the villages of Africa, our mother country. In Africa everyone had a talent to display. There were no superstars; just people and collectively all the people of the village played a vital role in shaping that culture. We see all the black communities within this country as villages and the tribes are the people residing within them. The Tribe is composed of creative artists from the Metropolitan Detroit area who have travelled extensively with many well known musicians and have returned with the intention of sharing these experiences with our people in order to broaden the cultural base in this city. They are some of the most original and creative artists in the area. We hope to bring out points, situations, and events that are happening in our communities by way of music, poetry, and dance and rapping to the people. You see pure music must reflect the environment that we live in if it is to be educational and beneficial to our culture. It must portray our way of life. At this point in our history, harmony for the most part, is not reflected in our communities. There's a lot of rebellious tension and discord, even though we have some groovy or harmonious moments along the way. There are many people within this society, black and white, who don't understand what is happening in regards to the direction the black musicians are moving toward. Our music is reflecting more so than ever before the stress, tension, and discord that is taking place within our communities along with the positive and harmonious things happening. This is evident when one listens to the music of composers like the late the late John Coltrane, Archie Shepp, Ornette Coleman, and the late Albert Ayler. These guys understand the relationship between art and culture and they took the total vibrations, positive and negative of the whole culture and served as amplifiers or speaker systems through the arts. You cannot divorce art from its root culture and expect it to be relevant for both the artist and his culture.

The compositions we play are reflective of the music of our times whereby we play Jazz, Rock, and African music with its poly or many rhythms. I wrote all the tunes on this particular L.P. and it is written as a suite in 5 movements which means that the music can be performed along with poetry and dancers. On our last L.P. called 'Message From The Tribe' we featured the compositions of our very talented composer, arranger, and trombonist Phil Ranelin. On one side he wrote all the compositions and on the flip side I wrote all the tunes. This album was produced by us on the Tribe record label. As far as the music on 'Evening With The Devil' is concerned it really speaks for itself. In addition to the music it features some relevant poetry by two very talented young poets named Oba and Vajava who are also members of a very excellent theatre group in Detroit called The Black Messengers.'

Extract from the sleeve notes of this album by Wendell Harrison.

Wendell Harrison, Tenor Sax & miscellaneous instruments / Marcus Belgrave,

Flugel Horn & miscellaneous instruments / Charles Moore, Trumpet & miscellaneous instruments / Will Austin, bass / Charles Eubanks, Electric Piano & miscellaneous instruments / Ike Daney, drums & miscellaneous instruments /

Phil Ranelin, trombone & miscellaneous instruments / Poetry by the Black Messengers, Oba and Vajava

Repress in blackVinyl!

Original pressing fetches £150 on certain online auction sites Alfa Mist is considered a frontrunner in the new London jazz movement

The 2-LP set features Chicago's live performance from Aug. 28, 1970 at the Isle of Wight, where they co-headlined with Jimi Hendrix and the Doors. It features extended free-form versions of their early landmark tracks, 'I'm A Man,' '25 or 6 to 4,' 'Introduction,' South California Purples' and the 'Ballet For A Girl In Buchannon.'
 Available on vinyl for the first time, this concert was featured in the Six Decades Live box set released earlier this year. It includes 2 LPs in a gatefold jacket.  

Les Paul's resume is hard to top. Paul was a self-taught guitarist, specializing in jazz, country, and blues. He was also a prominent songwriter, luthier, and inventor. He's credited for pioneering the solid-body electric guitar, along with many recording innovations that are used widely today. After You've Gone features an impressive twenty eight songs recorded by Les Paul & His Trio between 1944-1945. The release was remastered for vinyl at Infrasonic Mastering, and pressed on vinyl for the first time ever at Pallas Group in Germany.

Pressed to vinyl for the very first time, 'Please Rewind' is the acclaimed second album from new-school soul/jazz pioneers, Moonchild. **Soul Act Of The Year 2018 (Jazz FM)**

Its release caps off a whirlwind 18 months for the band, epitomized with their crowning as Jazz FM's Soul Act Of The Year. The album sees the LA based group explore new soul / jazz / electronic ground, with a penchant for exquisite

arrangement they create textured and catchy riffs which has excited everyone from post-bop jazz lovers to contemporary neo-soul crowds. The band's early offerings gained approval from the likes of Stevie Wonder, Jill Scott, Robert

Glasper, Laura Mvula, Jazzy Jeff, Tyler, The Creator and Gilles Peterson. This long player ties together ten chilled out grooves which ooze soul-jazz rhythms, horns and sweltering, heart-filled vocals. Using soulful horn solos and

vibrant key riffs and breaks, 'Please Rewind' sounds like an arthouse film score to an unfolding LA love story, which seeps into your subconscious and out of your headphones.

The name 'Moonchild' came about before the project had even started. 'The three of us bonded one evening while star-gazing, so when it came to think of a name for the band, we knew that it was right.' Fast-forward three years of

jamming together on the University of Southern California's Jazz programme, and Moonchild have played some of the biggest Jazz festivals in America (Montreal, Capital, Arizona, Sandiego etc.), and toured with prolific names

from Stevie Wonder to Jill Scott and James Posner. The band have had multi-million streams across Spotify, Apple Music and other major digital services with 'The List' video has achieved 3m+ views:

Artwork by Roland Lefox.

Moravagine's lone album was originally released in 1976. Recorded at Jef Gilson's legendary Studio Palm this incredible French band display a unique blend of prog rock, free jazz, avant-garde and experimental pop. Another essential reissue from the fine folks at Replica.

Never before been pressed to vinyl, Shirley Horn's Softly is reflective of the album's late night recording sessions at Peirre Sprey's home recording studio in rural Maryland, aptly named Mapleshade Studio. The 1988 release is commonly referred to as one of Horn's most introspective and emotionally intensive records to date. With her sidemen Charles Ables (bass) and Steve Williams (percussion) gathered into a quaint, pastoral living room full of recording equipment, the trio plowed through the tunes, tracking almost until dawn. The album was remastered for vinyl at Infrasonic Mastering and pressed on audiophile-grade vinyl at Pallas Group in Germany.

In the follow up to her staggering psychedelic jazz debut, 'Things That Grow', we are delighted to see Cara Stacey's return to Kit Records. Here she teams up with Peruvian flautist Camilo Ángeles, pushing further into the liminal space between classical, jazz and traditional South African music.

Recorded live over a day in Cape Town, 'Ceder' presents a narrative in turns soothing, shrill, euphoric, dissonant, serene - unfurling like a labyrinthine soundtrack to some foreign planet; a landscape sparse and desolate, yet somehow teeming with life.

Recommended if you like the hauntingly isolated Western soundtracks of Bruce Langhorne, Keith Jarrett's serpentine piano playing or the fantastical terrains of Rashad Becker.

Beloved singer-songwriter-painter-poet Joni Mitchell will turn 75 this year on November 7th . Rhino will start the birthday celebration a few days early by releasing Mitchell's critically-acclaimed 2014 collection 'Love Has Many Faces: A Quartet, A Ballet, Waiting To Be Danced' on vinyl for the first time as a limited-edition, eight-LP box set.

'Love Has Many Faces: A Quartet, A Ballet, Waiting To Be Danced' was first conceived as the music to a ballet about love. But after spending 18 months trying to distil everything she'd written about love - and the lack of it - down to a single disc, Mitchell abandoned the ballet. 'I wanted the music to feel like a total work - a new work. No matter what I did, though, at that length, it remained merely a collection of songs,' she wrote in the liner notes to the set.

Undaunted, Mitchell did not give up. Instead, she continued to sequence her songs, determined to prove to herself that what she was after was possible. After two years, she had created a four-act ballet based on the 53 songs that make up this inspiring collection. 'I am a painter who writes songs. My songs are very visual. The words create scenes... What I have done here is to gather some of these scenes (like a documentary filmmaker) and by juxtaposition, edit them into a whole new work,' she explains.

Mitchell organized the music into different thematic acts, which allowed her songs to interact with one another in a whole new way. The process, she says, was a lot like making a film. 'I had forty years of footage to review. Then, suddenly, scenes began to hook up. Then series began to form. Instead of it being an emotional roller coaster ride as it was before - crammed into one disc - themes began to develop. Moods sustained. I was getting there... When this long editorial process (two years) finally came to rest, I had four ballets or a four-act ballet—a quartet. I also had a box set.'

Long-term listeners should find the music familiar but fresh. Newcomers have an adventure before them - a journey into highly-original, harmonically innovative, unusually rhythmic music. Some of the greatest musicians in the world are gathered here - supporting this emotionally charged exploration of love's many faces.

Limited to 5000 individually numbered copies, the set is presented in a hard-bound deluxe folio package. It includes 53 songs on eight 180-gram LPs. Etchings of Mitchell's artwork are featured on four individual album sides, each one signifying the end of an act in the ballet.

It truly is an artist-curated collection. Mitchell selected the material from 40 years of recording. She designed the package, which includes a book containing 53 lyrical poems, six paintings, and an autobiographical text illuminating her recording process. It is funny, mystical, and informative.







































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[ZZA] L4. 'My Best To You'

On 26th October multi-instrumentalist/DJ Pete Cunningham and cohorts AKA Ishmael Ensemble, present 'Severn Songs 2' - the second in a 7' vinyl trilogy inspired by Bristol, its surrounding regions and, as the title suggests, the River Severn. 'Severn Songs 2' follows media praise, radio airplay and DJ support for 'Severn Songs 1' from the likes of Dan Snaith (Caribou), Gilles Peterson, Tom Ravenscroft, The Vinyl Factory and XLR8R. Prior to that, 2017 saw Ishmael Ensemble's first EP 'Songs for Knotty' released on Banoffee Pies, followed by a remix of Carl Craig's 'The Melody'

The 'Severn Songs' series marks the most full-bodied and ambitious project yet from Pete Cunningham, who prior to evolving into this varying collective of musicians recorded and released solo, as simply Ishmael. Promising beginnings under that initial guise saw releases on Wolf Music, West Friends and Church, alongside contemporaries Seb Wildblood, Medlar and Frits Wentink. 'Severn Songs 2' sees Cunningham slip into a nostalgic haze, throwing back to his formative years in Bristol's late noughties scene, but cast through a prism of jazzwise electronica; surely the furthest apple of influence to fall from the Hessle-Hotflush tree. 'Tunnels' begins with a flurry of drums before being enveloped by sub-bass pressure, like stepping directly into a basement club in full flow. As the track climaxes, saxophones sweep the air like green-spoked lasers overhead, creating a contrast of pinpoint clarity against the background atmosphere. Though sonically well outside Bristol's dubstep legacy, it accurately portrays the smudged perception of a peak time rave. On the flip, we find the more introverted 'First Light', wherein the group downshift from the buzz of a bustling room to the hum of one's head as dawn breaks. It's a moment of spacious solitude shared only, as Cunningham pictures it, with 'swans fighting over polystyrene chip boxes' in the canal below. Never one to miss a beat in either sense of the phrase, Cunningham has once again littered canny references to compliment the reverential music. The sleeve art captures birds through an obscured lens, nodding to the river Avon and overall milieu that inspired 'First Light'; and for native Bristolians especially, the A-side will evoke a fertile period, full of vital music, communal escapism, and the maze of basements and tunnels where it blossomed.

Overall, Pete's ability to thread this thematic needle gives a descriptive tenor to the group's wordless sound, elevating the music at once to something more personal and more resonant-and leaving soon-to-be-answered questions about where 'Severn Songs' will flow to next.

This super cult spy thriller made in 1968 and directed by Fernando Cerchio was the third in a successful film series. Previous installments had featured excellent scores by Roberto Pregadio and Romano Mussolini. The master tapes of this incredible PIERO UMILIANI soundtrack were recently discovered in the composer's archives: combining jazz with 1960s beats, a hint of bossa, spanish style guitar, trumpet, sexy vocals and performed by the elite of the jazz and session scenes at the time, this score is a classic of its kind and a potential lounge music hit!

Musikalisch Besonderer Fund Mit Feinstem Sinfonischem Jazz Aus Dem Berlin Der Nachkriegszeit. Unbekannte Aufnahmen Des Orchesters Unter Der Leitung Von Werner Müller, Produziert April 1960 Und September 1961. Exzellenter Crossover Von Westcoast, Hard Bop, Moderner Klassik Und Blues, Mit Exklusiven Auftragswerken: blues In Studio 7' (helmut Brandt), ouverture In Jazz' (klaus Wüsthoff) Und feuilleton In Jazz' (peter Sandloff), Dazu Jazz Versionen Von pavane' Und sakura, Sakura', Gesungen Von Caterina Valente. Neues Aufregendes Kapitel Des Progressiven Jazz In Deutschland. Exklusive 10inch Vinyl-lp & Digital Mit Müllers Avanciertesten Produktionen.

The first and the only album by Droids, Star Peace is a fascinating music exploration of the outer space conceived by the brilliant mind of one of the protagonists of the French disco scene, Yves Hayat. Star Peace came out - years ahead of its time - in 1979, and it's a magisterial blend of groovy, funky, and electrojazz sounds mixed with an old-school analogue touch. The album features among the gems, the space synth classic (Do You Have) The Force, and the album's killer piece, Tchoung Fou.

Soul Has No Tempo and 4101 Records are proud to present CLOAK - the debut album from Jordan Rakei.

Delving deeper into his creative well, Jordan has delivered a record that continues to push personal and societal boundaries, a visionary journey through groove based soul, jazz and hip-hop with hints of psychedelia and afro percussive rhythms. Written and recorded in his new adopted home of London, Cloak is a scintillating and timeless debut drawing influence and inspiration from the discovery of meditation, the separation from ego and a personal conversation with self.

With guest appearances from fellow Australian's Remi. and Ngaiire - and a feature cameo by the sublime Richard Spaven on Toko - Cloak will take you down the rabbit hole as Rakei expertly navigates explosive new boundaries, where colour and sound collide.

A raw and rare talent, Jordan Rakei today releases his debut album 'Cloak' via Soul Has No Tempo and 4101 Records . Recently completing UK tours with Hiatus Kaiyote and Jamie Woon - including a sold-out show at London's O2 Arena with the latter - the Brisbane native, London-based musician, producer, singer and songwriter, with a Disclosure credit to his name is making waves at home and abroad, his refreshing, modern take on jazz and hip-hop influenced soul resonating globally.

After a successful run of shows across Australia and New Zealand in February, Rakei has set his sights on the release of his debut album. 'Cloak' is a thirteen-track LP, featuring special guests, REMI, Ngaiireand Richard Spaven. Previous album previews, Talk To Me' and "Blame It On The Youth" are blissful journeys into the rhythmic elements of Afro-Beat and Jazz, exploring new boundaries that will delight new and old fans.

On the making and meaning of 'Cloak', Rakei says:

"It was close to midnight. I found myself silently standing on a beach in Piha, staring at the stars. I'd never seen the stars like that before. There was a stillness and oneness that resonated with me. I finally came to terms with the insignificance of "us" and set myself on a quest of self-discovery through music and meditation. It was a war against my pre-conditioned mind, but one I was willing to fight.

I, like many others, was enslaved by reactionary thought and emotional cause. I lived life through the projection of my ego. My ego would feed off negative emotions, public perception, expectation and a need to be somewhere I wasn't. It was through a conversation I had with myself, where I realised I had an ability to control it. This opened my mind to the concept of duality and my second self.

There is a deep space within us, usually cloaked by our emotions. A stillness. The more we delve, the faster we can re-wire our mind and un-learn all that we have been force fed. Shed your Cloak."

After the release of his critically acclaimed 2014 sophomore EP, Groove Curse, Rakei left Brisbane for the UK. He soon caught the attention of perennial UK electronic chart-toppers, Disclosure and Sam Smith, further growing his fan base and reputation as a talent on the rise. His co-written track Masterpiece' went on to close Disclosure's Grammy-Nominated sophomore album, Caracal, alongside featured artists NAO, Gregory Porter, Miguel, The Weeknd and Lorde.

Rakei's since performed solo across Russia, Italy, Belgium, Germany and Dubai - as well as selling out four London shows and receiving a personal invite to play Gilles Peterson's Worldwide stage at 2015'sOnBlackheath Festival. With UK supports for Caracal-comrade NAO, fellow soul-man Jamie Woon and Fat Freddy's Drop under his belt - not to mention headlining Annie Mac Presents live series - 2016 is set to be a huge year for Rakei.

Mopo presents a 7" with their scorching tune "Riisto" taken from the LP "Mopocalypse" on side A and a brand new cosmos-searching version of "Panama" on the flipside. "Acid Panama", as it's now called, features the Finnish scene legend Jimi Tenor on sax and various other instruments.

Studio One Freedom Sounds Is The New Collection From Soul Jazz/studio One Focussing On The Intense Period In The Second Half Of The 1960s When Studio One's Vast And Unbeatable Output Of Ska, Soul, Rock Steady And Reggae Made It Literally One Of The Hottest Musical Empires In The World.
During This Highly Successful Period, Clement 'sir Coxsone' Dodd Released Hundreds And Hundreds Of Superlative Singles Seemingly On An Almost Daily Basis, In The Process Making Huge Stars Out Of Jamaican Singers Such As Alton Ellis, Delroy Wilson, The Wailers, Slim Smith, Jackie Opel And Many More.
Powered By The Finest In-house Musicians Working In Jamaica, Whether It Was The Skatalites, Jackie Mittoo's Soul Brothers, The Sounds Dimension Or The Soul Vendors, Studio One Functioned As Hit Factory On The Scale Of Motown In The Usa, Shaping And Defining Reggae Music For Decades To Come.
Singlehandedly Studio One's Founder Clement Dodd Was Able To Create The Most Successful Vertically-integrated Record Company That Jamaica Had Ever Known With Pressing Plant, Printers, Studio, Shops, And Sound Systems All Running At Once, With Over 50 Employees And Hundreds Of Artists Working With Studio One During This Time.
Studio One Freedom Sounds Tells The Story Of Studio One In The 1960s With A Stunning Set Of Ska, Soul, Rock Steady And Reggae Killer Tunes As Well As Informative Sleevenotes And Track-by-track Info By Noel Hawks. The Album Is Released As Heavyweight Double Vinyl (+ Free Download Code), Deluxe Cd And Digital Album.

Following up their successful 2016 release The Nashville Session, British funk and soul jazz veterans The New Mastersounds returned to the same analogue studio to record another set of tunes in front of an invited local audience. The album perfectly captures the energy and chemistry between these four musicians at the top of their game after nearly two decades together. No edits, no overdubs: an essential buy for existing NMS devotees, this record will also appeal to fans of Greyboy, Quantic, Smoove & Turrell, Lack of Afro, The Meters, Breakestra etc... The tunes are all NMS originals apart from a cover of the John Cameron /KPM cult classic " Afro Metropolis". The band's releases always receive strong airplay support from the Craig Charles Funk & Soul Show on BBC Radio 6Music.

Typische Weihnachtslieder wie "Stille Nacht" haben die Meisten wahrscheinlich schon so oft gehört, dass sie
zu beiden Ohren raushängen. Deswegen muss man in der Adventszeit trotzdem nicht auf die bewährten
Weihnachtsklassiker verzichten. Denn mit "Noël Gospel" bringt das französische Label Wagram eine
Kompilation heraus, die 15 ergreifende Gospelversionen bekannter, und auch einiger weniger bekannter
Weihnachtstitel versammelt, zum Beispiel "Oh Happy Day", "Silent Night" oder "White Christmas". So ist für
besinnliche Stimmung und ein aufregend neues Hörerlebnis gesorgt. Mit auf der LP vertreten sind die
Superstars des Gospels wie Aretha Franklin, Mahalia Jackson, The Edwin Hawkins Singers, Elvis Presley,
The Staple Singers, Johnny Cash und The Golden Gate Quartet. Hinzu kommen mit Louis Armstrong, Nat
"King" Cole und Little Richard stimmgewaltige Sänger, die man auch unterm Tannenbaum immer wieder
gerne hören mag.

Running The Voodoo Down - Psychrockfunksouljazz 1965-77 is set to be released on TAD this November 9th. Carefully assembled by Dean Rudland and Tony Harlow the set looks at a decade when African-American music was exploring myriad new directions against a backdrop of incredible and explosive social change and features the likes of JOHN COLTRANE, MC5, SHUGGIE OTIS, SONNIE SHARROCK, DR. JOHN, ISAAC HAYES, JOE ZAWINUL and MELVIN VAN PEEBLES. Whilst not all of this music was commercially successful at the time, its importance and its influence on subsequent generations of artists - both black and white - has continued to grow over the years.
A compilation for the heads, not a playlist.

As the blissed out 60s turned dark and political, music led the way and it became important to have a message to deliver whatever the medium.

Coltrane's fierce energy revitalised jazz which was languishing in the doldrums of hard bop and organ trios, and inspired a new generation of politically active and motivated creators, but it also inspired a new generation of rock musicians who used his modal experiments as a launching pad for a spacier more underground music. The Byrds stuck within the 'pop single' format but meldedthe energy of Coltrane's 'perfect' modal exploration My Favourite Things with their attempts to capture the mood of the Ravi Shankar pieces that had influenced Coltrane.' Eight Miles High combined the contemporary excitement of space travel with clear hidden references to the growing drug culture and captured lift off perfectly.

Since So Many European Labels Have Been Reissuing Lost And Obscure 1980s Japanese Ambient Albums Of Late, It Was Probably Inevitable That At Least One Label Would Put Together A Compilation Paying Tribute To The Sound. It Turns Out That Jazzy Couscous Has Won The Race With Kumo No Moko, A Superb Double Album That Does A Terrific Job In Putting Japan's '80s Ambient Scene In Context. As You'd Expect, The Majority Of The Tracks Feature Either Dreamy Electronic Sounds Or A Mixture Of Acoustic And Electronic Instrumentation, With Nods To Jazz Coming Thick And Fast. There Are Naturally A Couple Of Fairly Well-known Names On Show, But For The Most Part The Compilers Have Done A Terrific Job In Highlight Lesser-known Tracks From Unsung Heroes.

Quest, transit, chaos, mutation, transfiguration, ascension and illumination. These are some of the steps followed in the journey of life that are embodied on each track of the album Adonai. The solo debut of the multi-instrumentalist composer Marco Paul condenses a career of more than ten years, in which, the search for the truth of oneself and authentic sound has traveled and nurtured from different genres and cultures. Adonai is an odyssey that combines sounds and images of the earthly and oneiric worlds: an audiovisual work that opens several windows to the different perceptions of the facts that make up the life of the human being.

After 9 years of constant international touring, 6 albums and more than 400 live performances with the bands Sour Soul, Ratbot and Funk My Jesus, as well as the conception and musicalization of the award-winning short films "Undermine" and "24K All You Need Is Gold", Marco Paul decided to retire to an island in the Caribbean, where he found and refined his sound. Thus, between 2014 and 2016 he created the music for Adonai, a work produced by Aitor Etxebarria under the label of Forbidden Colours.

The recording includes guest musicians from different countries such as Aitor Etxebarria (synthesizer, electronic magic) and Hibai Etxebarria (double bass) from the Basque Country; Michael Alan Hams (drums and percussion) and Joe D'Etienne (trumpet) from the United States; and Fatima Gozlan from Hungary (Ney and Derbake).

The consummation of the work is a mid length film created in 2018. It consists of 5 chapters directed by 5 different directors.

The audiovisual journey begins with the conception of the philosophical "Filius", an alchemical symbol that represents the inner child, which transforms the experiences of life into the soul's gold. Later, in "Sylvian" (title that refers to the brain fissure that contains the auditory cortex), by listening to the subtle message that surrounds us, our consciousness and perception expand. Then, in "Tiamat", the pristine chaos that gave birth to the gods, embodies chaos, the confusion generated by the multiple voices: on one hand the moral and imposed precepts, on the other hand, the inner voice that seeks the liberation of the infinite possibilities. In "Hawa", through the recognition of the power of solitude and introspection self-reflective awareness is reached. Finally "Adonai" is the ascension to enlightenment: the further connection with the absolute. As an encore (only available in vinyl) "Teurári" is a gift: a tiny flower where all the points of the universe merge.

righteous expensive: motohiko hamase's 1986 album "reminiscence" scores a decent prize at online vinyl selling platforms and it is worth each coin!

it's a perfect "refuge from nasty reality", as the glorious british 20jazzfunkgreats blog once said. and it comes from a man that knows his trade: bass play - an artisan on which he also already wrote many theoretical books in his more than four decades long career.

in the 1970's hamase was no stranger to tokyo's vibrant jazz scene. together with jazz pianist tsuyoshi yamamoto and jazz-rock guitar-ist kazumi watanabe he played in the isao suzuki sextet and was part of their classic landmark jazz-funk album "ako's dream" from 1976.

in the following years he also participated on records like mikio masuda's latin-funk-jazz gem "moon stone" or japanese female jazz singer, actress, and essayist minami yasuda's last album "moritato". in the early 1980ees his work shifted from pure jazz to electronic and ambient spheres and he started to compose his own music around his deeply emotional bass play.

from 1985 to 1993, hamase released five solo albums. just recently studio mule dropped his first one, "intaglio", in a new recording that sounds as stunning as the original release from 1986.

now the previously mentioned "reminiscence", his second work for the celebrated defunct japanese new age record label shi zen, follows in a fresh shape on studio mule.

as the original, it features deeply touching moments of sheer pristine perfection and distributes hamase's inner emotional landscape with a bewitching bass performance. a soothingly beauty of an album, that reflects hamase's search for spaces of melancholy.

a rhizome of soundscapes that capture, settle and sound elusive while simultaneously being awe-inspiring. as for "intaglio", the 66-years old artist gathered again some befriended musicians, rented a studio, staged his gear and recorded most of the original "reminis-cence" material new, while keeping the moving musical story arc of the original album alive in a fresh wrapping.

the result is a dazzling, blue mood seething, strongly hypnotic longplayer, full of personality and hybrid ambient electronic jazz spheres that open doors to unheard sound universes and that perfectly work for all those stress-relieved souls that love the disclosure of the mind and seek for a "refuge from nasty reality".

Neneh Cherry returns with Four Tet-produced LP Broken Politics

Following the release of her first earth-quaking single in 4 years at the beginning of August, counter-culture pop icon Neneh Cherry announces her fifth solo album Broken Politics, produced in its entirety by Four Tet.

Continuing her blurring and conflation of the personal and the political, the second single Shot Gun Shack tackles the link between violence and deprivation using poetic logic. The track deals with the ever-present and always-global issue of gun violence in society. The track's name was the result of inspiration that sprung from a half-remembered conversation Cherry had at the funeral of late jazz great Ornette Coleman.

Broken Politics pointedly asks the question; how do we conduct ourselves in extraordinary times In an era where the signal-to-noise ratio is more uneven than ever, what are the measures we must take to retain and remember our own personhood It searches for answers, patiently and with great care, and with a fearlessness to acknowledge that sometimes the answers don't even exist. It's a record that's equal parts angry, thoughtful, melancholy, and emboldening, as Cherry and her collaborators continue to expand her ever-widening sonic palette to craft truly singular and potent music.

1965 funky Instro-Soul album from Chicago that originally came out on Mercury. It deals with new interpretations of James Bond themes and own Bond inspired compositions. Feat. Studiomusic Clarence Perry (tenor), Richard McCrea (organ) and Ed Townsend (Piano).

Coasting into the nebula from parts unknown, Admiral takes the helm with a debut LP release coming on Panoram's Wandering Eye Imprint. Ommitting rhodes licks, cosmic lunar drones and warbled space-funk, it exists in an ameobic state between the past, future and present, distilling down ideas of genres and musical innovation once played in clubs across the 9th planet. Alien terms such as "jazz", "brazillian music", "boogie and "left-field pop" could be said to grace it's bows - past ideas and innovations that would be eventually lost to glacial shifts, pacific waste dumps and rise of industrialised states.

Coming 14th October, it's the last ride out, with the final destination The tumescent aural seascape of the inner mind

Five-piece alt-jazz pioneers Butcher Brown have
found time to cut a direct-to-disc album at Gearbox Studios; this on top of members like keys player/producer DJ Harrison releasing an album on Stones Throw and drummer Corey Fonville touring with Christian Scott. Recorded at Mark Ronson's Zelig Studios and cut live to disc using Gearbox's legendary all-analogue signal chain. Modern, hip-hop inflected funk with rich echoes of Weather Report, Earth Wind and Fire and a bit of
Zappa. Supporting Kamasi Washington's 'Heaven and
Earth' US Tour this autumn. 'Fusing funky backdrops against interweaving textures and daring harmonic dissonance, the
Virginia group fuse the dancefloor with the art
gallery' - Clash. 'The band settles into nuanced grooves with an
innate respect for the past, a reverence for the Headhunters, Stevie Wonder, the Meters and the voodoo of the tape machine' - Huffington Post. 'Masters of full-on, soul-kissed, garage punk-funk and jazz grooves... progressive rappers should be
queuing out the door for their blessing' - Mojo.

guerrer@ represents the revolution that must occur (and keep occurring) within oneself, so that it may also occur outside oneself. of looking backwards and forwards, simultaneously and always. of accounting for present and potential material makeup. of accounting for the contemporary abhorrent and luminous actions of the flesh. a pledge towards infinitely malleating--and, thus, the necessary deliberate reconfiguration of--identity. the necessary deliberateness of movement and becoming. the possibility of convalescence. insomanywords: faith, hope, affliction and anger, daggered at oppression, wherever it may be found.

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

The two sides of 1973's Big Business / Wind of Change are mainly the work of thegreat Keith Mansfeld but there's a killer cameo each from Alan Hawkshaw and David Snell to help deliver a thematic suite, diverse in mood, applicable to dramatic and environmental situations'. A Be With favourite and truly one for the heads.
The Big Business of side A is all the work of Keith Mansfeld. It's heavy on the suspense and features the vital Hot Property', an insistent groove so good that Madlib sampled it to lace the ace Long Awaited' by Lootpack with Dilated Peoples.
Sleeping Giant 1' is a more feshed out version of the equally-dazzling Fatal Error', evoking the orchestral magic of David Axelrod. Indeed, it conjures images of Diamond D falling over himself in the early-to-mid 90s to loop its intoxicatingly
eerie soundscape. Complete with guitar flls that recall Paris, Texas-era Ry Cooder, you need this record for this piece alone.
The horn-and-fute-led "Tycoon" is a head-nodder and "Power Complex" has some fantastic percussion. Other highlights include the breezy glide of Whistle Stop Tour' and its sister groove Clean Air.'
Over on Side B is the more expansive Wind Of Change, which includes the David Snell and the Alan Hawkshaw contributions. But these ain't no fller. Snell's shufing International Flight' sounds like a smooth Dorothy Ashby track tossed from the heavens. Hawkshaw's Road And Rail' is about as luxurious and strung-
out as the great man gets and it might just be the highlight of this whole set.
Not to be outdone, if Mansfeld's Balance Of Power' doesn't make you feel like king of the world then you must be playing it wrong. Oh, and did we mention World In Action'!
As with all ten re-issues, the audio for Big Business / Wind of Change comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regularSimon 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.

Afro-Cuban Jazz of the highest orderl! And even better, these two songs have remained UNRELEASED for the past 51 years! Vibraphonist, flutist, and band leader Ulysses Crockett was a big name on the Bay Area latin-jazz scene of the 1960s. He started out with his own group Afro Blue Persuasion which included a very young Paul Jackson on bass who later became famous as a member of Herbie Hankock's fusion-jazz masters The Headhunters.

"Philadelphia Mambo" and "Girl From Ipanema" were both recorded live in 1967 but remained unreleased until now. Both songs are taken from the soon to be released 33rpm record titled "Live at Haight Levels" which includes more unreleased material as well as the full length version of both of these two edited tunes.

Chicago power-jazz trio Tiger Hatchery proudly comes out of the ESP-Disk' free jazz tradition, as Forbes's playing makes clear, but there's an added noise-rock edge, especially in Billington's aggressive drumming, that keeps the sound modern. Young does much more than lay down the bottom, emerging as an equal member of their glorious cacophony. Their 2013 ESP release, Sun Worship, earned huzzahs from press and free-jazz aficionados;

As part of the widely respected BBE J Jazz
Masterclass Series, Koichi Matsukaze's incredibly
rare and much sought after album Earth Mother
sees a deluxe repress on BBE Music. This is the third
highly anticipated release in the series.
Regarded as one of the most sought-after yet
elusive albums from a pivotal era in Japanese jazz,
Earth Mother was originally issued in 1978 on ALM,
a private label home to some of the most innovative
jazz, contemporary classical and free
improvisational music released in Japan during the
late 70s and early 80s. It was here that Earth
Mother found a natural home among the
experimental and transgressive, destined to remain
in obscurity for decades until the album's muscular,
bass-driven title track was included as the opening
cut on BBE's acclaimed compilation J Jazz: Deep
Modern Jazz From Japan 1969-1984. It was a ftting
way to start such a landmark collection and the
track quickly became a favourite among DJs and
jazz fans.

REPRESS !
Opening the EP, 'A Matter Of Time' sets the things up with a phlegmatic tempo centered around a feverish acid line. A soft mist of organic snares, dub percussions and jazz hi-hats slip over a spacious spread of synthesizers.'Abduction' steps into a more intense dimension, bringing distorted, shamanic, high-energy drumming intended to put the listener into a trance state. The momentum is reached as a deep organ covers the whole structure and releases twirls of acid onto its mediative canvas.Closing the side, 'Harmony Of Spheres' brings the pace down again, condensing all the acid material into a drowned mechanical piece that finally breathes when pads comes in at half-course.The B-side opens with 'Alternative Currents' a gasping piece of electronic jazz centred around a play of tribal percussions and dissonant pads. 'Parsec City' continues the story with its amazing free jazz rhythm investigation, showing once again the expertise of Marini in complex patterns. Closing the EP, the shorter 'Seven Transmutation' plays with sharp acid stripes and immersed organs chords on a frame of abstract drum sequences.