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SUMMER OF SEVENTEEN are MONIKA KHOT (NORDRA, ZEN MOTHER), WILLIAM FOWLER COLLINS, DANIEL MENCHE, FAITH COLOCCIA (MAMIFFER), and AARON TURNER. (SUMAC, SPLIT CRANIUM).

Wildfires plagued Washington state during the summer of 2017, their smoke drifting westward toward the Seattle area and toxifying the air. Shortly before that trauma, MONIKA KHOT, WILLIAM FOWLER COLLINS, DANIEL MENCHE, FAITH COLOCCIA, and AARON TURNER had gathered at the latter two musicians' House Of Low Culture studio on idyllic Vashon Island with revered producer RANDALL DUNN. There they cut eight songs that capture the makeshift band's feelings of what COLOCCIA calls "a kind of doomsday lurking in the background." It's as if these highly attuned players had a premonition.

"Summer Of Seventeen" -which was edited and arranged by MONIKA KHOT, who records apocalyptic music solo as NORDRA and plays in the avant-rock band ZEN MOTHER—is a nuanced admixture of these musicians' sounds and a culmination of all of their previous collaborations. COLOCCIA and TURNER have created eldritch folk and chamber rock for over a decade in MAMIFFER while engaging in various solo and group projects that explore their profound spirituality in sound. MENCHE has been a fixture on the abstract composition scene for 31 years and COLLINS is a savvy explorer of drone and ambient forms. Their ephemeral summit meeting has yielded a masterwork for the ages.

A heaven/hell and beauty/beastliness dichotomy pervades the album—as if a titanic struggle was transpiring in that small studio. The fearsome trumpet fanfare that starts "Chorus Of The Innocents" heralds a baleful fate. With a subliminal industrial rhythm bristling beneath the eerie exhalations, the song submerges us in a slow-motion maelstrom, a horror-film facsimile of MILES DAVIS' "Bitches Brew". "Perceived Slight" threads death-metal screams through a stark, suspenseful atmosphere, with austere glints of guitar and beats like fists on a casket lid intensifying the dread.

Angelic chants and celestial drones perfume the air in several of the songs on "Summer Of Seventeen", countered with muted blast beats, serrated hums, jagged glitches, simulacra of grinding gears and lightning. It's as if no good deed goes unpunished. "Spirits Of Redeemer" could be an elegy for the human race while "Cultural Orphan" sounds like a symphony for a malfunctioning factory. The album ends with "Theatre Needs An Audience," a harrowing ballad somewhere between EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN and MERZBOW; it's a savage rent in the space-time continuum.

"Thinking about this record now," COLOCCIA recalls, "it seems like we were all sort of anticipating something like this current pandemic happening, although we were thinking about it as fire in the hands of man (literal fire, and also gunfire) that would overturn the normal running of things and reveal the current false beliefs systems holding up most of America."

That grave aura infiltrates "Summer Of Seventeen", However, a hopefulness bubbles beneath the foreboding architecture of sound and noise summoned here. The bunker is the new penthouse.

-Dave Segal, April 2020

The sound of sound of T.E.W. is something out of time, with no context and far from any idea of business, all features that make their music so current. Every time someone put their records on a turntable, their music is able to open a way to suggestions, memories and reasonings that make us feeling their own language so deeply, a kind of sound that has really something to say.

On 2019 T.E.W. are back with a new Habitat release, iPHiiUNiCi 1/3, the beginning of a new musical phase from the duo that many people admitted as one of the absolutely most underestimate techno projects.

In 2020 the second episode: iPHiiUNiCi 2/3 and from the title we don't believe it will be the last of the series..

The story of how Transatlantyk came to be is, in many ways, one typical of our times. We've grown accustomed to being isolated, even stranded, in recent months, and Technology has become our means of overcoming these aspects of quarantine.

For Lübeck-based producer David Hanke, a.k.a. Keno, and Los Angeles-based musician Tristan de Liège, their intercontinental relationship began long before the days of lockdowns and social distancing. The pair 'met' on-line through mutual friends back in 2018 and quickly realised they were, in a musical sense, kindred spirits. Their shared tastes meant that what started out as a single track quickly morphed into an EP, and finally the full length album that you're enjoying right now.

Tristan's experience as a neo-classical musician was the ideal foil for Hanke's skills with a sample and production expertise. Both shared a love of the more lush and cinematic end of instrumental Hip-Hop and Downtempo music. This sound partnership is evident throughout the album, but particularly on tracks like Nkosi, and the title track, where luscious string sections dance playfully with fractured, programmed beats; or the melancholic opener, Kouyou, where more laid back drums underpin muted horns and joyous harps.

The pair's perfectly formed fusion isn't the end of the story though, as French chanteuse Elodie Rama is on hand to provide not only some impeccable vocals, but also irresistible melodies to this already mellifluous long-player. Speak The Language sees this brilliant vocalist drift seamlessly between euphonious song and spoken word whilst delivering one of the ariose moments of the whole album. Elsewhere, on Dancing In The Dark, Elodie gives a slightly more sombre performance, combining with lavish strings and driving rhythms to a tee; and on To Find A Way offers up an even more emotional and almost heart-breaking performance, aided by wistful and forlorn instrumentation.

Transatlantyk is a body of work from an amalgamation of rare talents who combine beautifully to take us through myriad emotions; from the urgent and compelling Off The Mark via the pensive Forever We Were, and finally find their Way Across thanks to a shared love of graceful and refined musicality and a good song.

To this day the three have never actually met in person, but here's a last hopeful thought that one day soon, as we emerge out of the darkness, they can finally join together in a physical, as well as a musical, embrace.

Fischgeist was recorded in a former water tank in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg in August 2019. The nineteenth-century brick building consists of five layered circles, with a spiral staircase in the middle leading up to an exit to a hilltop. Inside, it’s humid and cold, the temperature always around 8–10 C°. The building’s acoustics produce a long reverberation that lasts up to 20 seconds.

‘One day between recording sessions, a man, a passerby, wanted to look inside the building. He told me that it used to be full of fish. For a second I imagined a huge round aquarium with loads of fish swimming around in circles. Then I realized that he meant dead fish were kept there, to be sold on markets during the GDR era. But the image of fish swimming in the space stayed with me.’

In conversation with the space of the water tank, Tomoko Sauvage searches beyond the limits of her self-invented ‘natural synthesizers’: porcelain and glass bowls, filled with water and amplified with hydrophones.

While she continues to develop some of the classic techniques heard on her previous album Musique Hydromantique (Shelter Press, 2017) – hydrophonic feedback (Kinetosis Study) and ‘fortune biscuits’ (porous pieces of terracotta that emit tiny singing bubbles) (Deluge) – here new elements are combined with delicate gestures to make curious noises: stroking bowls’ surfaces to imitate the voices of sea mammals (Metamorphosis), drawing dots and circles by rubbing stones against stones underwater (Exit) … The underwater amplification of quasi-inaudible sound is even more magnified in the air by the echo of the water tank. Not only tiny bubbles, but also micro-movements of the bones and veins of the hand holding the sonorous objects in the water, are intensely amplified – sounding like a tempest on the opening Deluge. Sauvage’s longtime research into hydrophonic feedback develops with her new obsession with natural harmonics and sympathetic resonance. In Flying Vessels, the percussive notes of struck bowls resonate and turn into feedback loops before decaying, fueled by electric signal gain. Kinetosis Study is a sonic etude on fluid dynamics – the flow velocity, pressure and density of manually shaped water waves directly controlling the aquatic synthesizer’s parameters.

August, when the mid-summer Ghost Festival is held, is traditionally known as the Ghost Month throughout East Asia. The spirits of the dead visit their living families, who welcome them with feasts, dancing and music. Miniature lantern-laden boats are released in rivers, to help lost ghosts find their way home.

Animated by formless matter – water, electricity, sound – Fischgeist celebrates a phantasmagoric journey, as the souls of aquatic lifeforms find their way out of the labyrinth of the water tank.

Credits
Composed, performed and mixed by Tomoko Sauvage
Recorded and produced by bohemian drips prior to ‘Speicher’ festival in Berlin, August 2019 (binaural recording with a KU-100 dummy head microphone)
Mastered by Andreas Kauffelt in Berlin
Cover drawings by Baien Mōri (1798-1851)
© Tomoko Sauvage and bohemian drips – all rights reserved

On December 26th, 2018, Emily Cross received an excited email from a friend: Brian Eno was talking about her band on BBC radio. “At first I didn’t think it was real,” she admits. But then she heard a recording: Eno was praising ‘Black Willow’ from Loma’s self-titled debut. He said he’d had it on repeat.
At the time, a second Loma album seemed unlikely. The band began as a serendipitous collaboration between Cross, the multi-talented musician and recording engineer Dan Duszynski and Shearwater frontman Jonathan Meiburg, who wanted to play a supporting role after years at the microphone. They’d capped a gruelling tour
with a standout performance on a packed beach at Sub Pop’s SPF 30 festival, in which Cross leapt into the crowd and then into the sea, while the band carried on from the stage - an emotional peak that also felt like a natural ending. “It was the biggest audience we’d ever had,” she says. “We thought, why not stop here?” Following the tour, Cross went to rural Mexico to work on visual art and a solo record, while Meiburg began a new Shearwater effort. But after a few months apart
(and Eno’s encouraging words), the trio changed their minds and reconvened at Duszynski’s home in rural Texas, where they began to develop songs that would become ‘Don’t Shy Away’. Loma writes by consensus and, though Cross is always the singer, she, Duszynski and Meiburg often trade instruments. Meiburg compares their process to using an Ouija Board and says the songs revealed themselves slowly, over many months. “Each of us is a very strong flavor,” he says, “but in Loma, nobody wears the crown, so we have to trust each other - and we end up in places none of us would have gone on our own. I think we all wanted to experience that again.” The album that emerged is gently spectacular - a vivid work whose light touch belies
its timely themes of solitude, impermanence and finding light in deep darkness. “Stuck / beneath / a rock,” Cross begins, as if noticing her predicament for the first time. Then she adds: “I begin to see / the beauty in it.” A series of guests contributed to the absorbing soundscapes of ‘Don’t Shy Away’, including touring members Emily Lee (piano, violin) and Matt Schuessler (bass), Flock of Dimes/Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner and a surprisingly bass-heavy horn section.
And then there’s Brian Eno. Loma invited him to participate in the mantra-like ‘Homing’, which concludes the album and sent him stems to interact with in any way he liked. He never spoke directly with the band but his completed mix arrived via email late one night, without warning and they gathered to listen in the converted bedroom Duszynski uses as a control room. “I was a little worried,” says Cross.
“What if we didn’t like it?” But it was all they’d hoped for: minimal but enveloping, friendly but enigmatic, as much Loma as Eno - a perfect ending to an album about finding a new home inside an old one. “I am somewhere that you know,” Cross sings, above a chorus of her bandmates’ blended voices. “I am right behind your eyes.”
First LP pressing on dark green vinyl.

Giallo is the fourth in a series of five double vinyl releases that bring together some of Ennio Morricone’s greatest soundtrack music. Each collection centres on a different movie genre, together they allow the listener to rediscover the unmatched genius of the greatest movie composer of all time. The Maestro. This collection was announced before Ennio Morricone passed away on July 6, 2020. We’ll continue to release the series to honour this great composer.

When we think of 1960’s Italian pulp cinema, the spaghetti western is the genre that comes to mind. However, Italy was responsible for another classic cinematic exploitation movement around the same time, one that is equally as compelling, but less widely recognised. Giallo…

Giallo, meaning ‘yellow’, is the Italian term for crime fiction, it was named after the bright yellow colours of early pulp fiction paperbacks. Film audiences adopted it as the name for a peculiarly Italian sub-genre of thriller cinema that had its heyday in the 1970’s - just as the Spaghetti Western movement was waning. The Giallo can be difficult to define, but essentially it is an Italian crime film that draws from a pool of common themes: stylized murders, amateur sleuths, sleazy glamour, psychological crimes, enigmatic titles and all these themes are underpinned by creepily atmospheric Ennio Morricone music scores. Starting 70 years ago as an arranger for the piece Mamma Bianca, Ennio Morricone is the emperor of scores and soundtracks. Morricone has always been a huge influence for the likes of Hans Zimmer, Danger Mouse, Muse, Metallica and many more musicians. He was one of the most successful composers of all-time, selling over 70 million records and winning dozens of awards.

Giallo is available as a limited edition of 3000 individually numbered copies on “giallo and black marbled” (clear, yellow and black mixed) vinyl. The package includes a 4-page insert with liner notes written by Claudio Fuiano. The gatefold sleeve contains a silver foil spot varnish on the outside and images of iconic movie posters on the inside.

November 2020 sees the 50th Anniversary of the release of David Bowie’s The Man Who Sold The World in North America. The album marks the beginning of a collaboration with guitarist Mick Ronson that would last through classic works including Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane—as well as the first in a 10-year series of indispensable albums stretching through 1980’s Scary Monsters…

Originally titled Metrobolist, the album's name was changed at the last minute to The Man Who Sold The World. The 2020 re-release of the album under its Metrobolist moniker has been remixed by original producer Tony Visconti, with the exception of the track ‘After All’ which Tony considered perfect as is, and is featured in its 2015 remaster incarnation.

The Metrobolist 50th anniversary artwork has been created by Mike Weller who was behind the historically controversial “dress” cover which Mercury Records refused to release.

As with the Space Oddity 50th anniversary vinyl, as well as a 180g black vinyl edition, it will come in 2020 limited edition handwritten numbered copies on gold vinyl (# 1971 - 2020) and on white vinyl (# 1 - 1970) all randomly distributed.

First timer ever Best Of Mano Negra on vinyl ! Double black 140G vinyl edition. 24 sons – all their hits : "King Kong Five", "Mala Vida" , "Pas assez de toi" , "Out of time man", "King of Bongo", "Sidi H'Bibi", “Santa Maradona”, “Senor Matenza”… Mano Negra are the legendary French alternative rock band whose leader was Manu Chao. Singing in French, Spanish, English & even Arabic. They toured throughout the world and recorded 4 studio albums : “Patchanka”, “Puta’s fever”, “King of Bongo” & “Casa Babylon” & a live album “In the hell of Patchinko” , all reissued by Because Music and still available on CD & Vinyl. After their split, Manu Chao started a solo carreer in 1998 with the classic “Clandestino” album.

180g clear marbled vinyl + stamped sleeve + inside out printed cover

Mood of departure presents the 50th release of ORNAMENTS. "Roadmap" LP is crossing borders,
forests, mountains and deep atmospheres on a trip of finest electronics from the past and today
combined with recordings of destructions.

Some Previous here

Resident Advisor

German label Ornaments Music is putting out its 50th release, Mood Of Departure's Roadmap.

The album comprises twelve tracks of melodic ambient and trip-hop, and is due out next month. The LP will be pressed up on marbled vinyl on November 6th, while the digital album is slated for November 23rd release.

This summer, Ornaments Music put out Assemblage, a dub techno collaborative project from Paul St. Hilaire and Rhauder.

Groove MAG

„Man soll die Feste feiern wie sie fallen.” Hachja – 2020 ist wirklich vieles anders. Sogar manche Lebensweisheiten treffen in diesem Jahr nicht mehr zu, wie sie das noch letztes taten. Zum Glück dürfen wir uns aber über eines umso mehr freuen, über tonnenweise neue Musik. So feiert unter anderem Ornaments Music Release-Jubiläum. Das Berliner Label bereichert seit 2008 mit Künstlern wie Marko Fürstenberg, The Analog Roland Orchestra und Rhauder die Dubtechno-Sparte mit maßgeblichen musikalischen Beiträgen. Mit dem 50. Release Roadmap beschreitet Ornaments nun neue Wege und veröffentlicht ein emotionales Album, dass sich irgendwo zwischen Ambient und Electronica wiederfindet.

Mood Of Departure heißt die Person, die dieses Werk vollbracht hat. Wer dahinter steckt bleibt vorerst geheim. Nur soviel sei gesagt. Es ist nicht ihr erstes. Oder seines? Weil es nur spärliche Informationen über den/die Künstler*in gibt, stehen die einzelnen Stücke ohne Personenkult oder seitenlange Lobeshymnen an erster Stelle. Und wenn man mal ehrlich ist, gibt es schon genug Ablenkung in der heutigen Zeit. Durch das Intro des Albums, durch „Scan”, wird sofort deutlich, dass es sich hier nicht wie gewohnt um ein klassisches Dancefloor-Album handelt. Die Stimme der Sängerin, die auch in einigen weiteren der insgesamt zwölf Stücke vorkommt, verleiht dem Track eher Band- statt Producer-Charakter. Ein sanfter Ambient-Teppich aus luftigen Flächen und wiederhalendem Gesang wird durch simple aber präzise Hip Hop-Beats fortgetragen, und man ist nach dieser Einführung gespannt, was noch folgt.

Faze MAG

Mit dem Debütalbum „Roadmap“ von Mood Of Departure veröffentlicht das Label Ornaments sein 50. Release!

2008 startete das Label, das bekannt ist für sein marmoriertes Vinyl, mit einer EP von Marko Fürstenberg, Acts wie youANDme, Sascha Dive, The Analog Roland Orchestra, Steve Bug oder zuletzt Rhauder & Paul St. Hilaire haben hier auch ihre Spuren hinterlassen.

A stunning new production by the Rhythm And Sound ace, drawn from his recording sessions with some of Senegal’s greatest musicians — a griot clan of Sabar drummers from Kaolack in Senegal, led by Bakane Seck, with guest players and vocalists, including many mainstays of the bands of Baaba Maal, Youssou N’Dour and company.
Jeri-Jeri’s style of Mbalax is swingeingly masterful — heady and hard-grooving, with highly complex, fiercely succinct poly-rhythms — an ancient-futuristic music, mesmeric but sharp as nails, super-charged with drama. Featuring the lovelorn vocals of guest Mbene Diatta Seck, Sabar traditions are fused with furious Afro-Cubanismo, hard funk-rock, and shards of high-life.

Ernestus’ nasty, hypnotic, stripped dub — an Mbalax first — edges in the bass, profiles the talmbat and tungun drums, and scoops the semantics out of the singing.

Ocean Moon is a solo project from Jon Tye of Seahawks. A long time explorer of the sounds of spaciousness, having released the ambient classic LP iO in 1994 as MLO, Crystal Harmonics is a document of Jon’s latest discoveries. An ambient/new age/modern classical library suite for KPM, this is inter-dimensional music for mind, body and spirit.

Island Visions, the recent collection of music from Seahawks for KPM, touched on the deeper, more spatial side of music and led to Jon exploring this territory in greater depth, again for KPM, under his Ocean Moon alter ego. This time he brought along some of today’s most visionary musicians: Jon Brooks (The Advisory Circle / Ghostbox) for his intuitive melodic mastery, Seaming To (Graham Massey’s Toolshed) for her extraordinary vocal talents, Steve Moore (Zombi) for his sophisticated and inventive rhythmic sensibility and Richard Norris (The Grid) for his sensitive and deeply resonant ambience. The initial recordings were made at The Centre Of Sound in Cornwall, with the collaborators various contributions coming from London, Derbyshire and the US.

The supremely serene electronic flute and bells of “Crystal Drift” ease us into our journey and we take our next steps with “Rainbow Ripples” as it gently folds space with arpeggiated synth swells and delicate machine beats. Light vocal tones, bells and breath FX on “And Breathe” keep us going, accompanied by synth drones and billows of electric piano.

We travel through the synth-space-surf haze of “Lost Oceans”, with soft bass and warm ambience, to reach the “New Infinity” of revolving melody, spacious pads and light electronic beats. The celestial tone floats of “White Mirror” close out the first side.

Temple bells ring out to running water flowing together with deep resonant vocal tones as the second side opens with “Peace Bells”. “Revolving and Evolving” follows, a tranquil electronic meadow of lush pastoral synth tones where we rest for a while for “Mountain Dreaming”, a light rhythmic dance of zither and birdsong.

The undulating “Forest Motion” ripples with synth arpeggios, dreamy Solina strings and percussive modular electronics before allowing the crackling ambience and Cantonese whispers of “Sleep Golden” to wash over us. Finally we find ourselves on “The Long Path”, its warm temple ambience of drones and chants guiding us home.

Crystal Harmonics is inspired by four particular albums from KPM’s catalogue. There’s The Electronic Light Orchestra by Adrian Wagner from 1975 and then Temple Of The Stars, Breath Of Life and finally Keith Mansfield’s Circles, these last three coming from KPM’s mid-1980s run of modern classical/New Age gems. For Jon, “making library music can be very liberating. I really enjoyed the additional focus it brought to the music working on different facets of composition with each collaborator”.

But Crystal Harmonics is no mere exercise in vulger pastiche. As the past, present and future sound of paradise, this fresh exploration of mid-90s ambient and original New Age sounds exists outside of our linear experience of time.

The cover started as a collage Jon made a couple of years ago, a different expression of the same impulses that guided the music. As a nod to the records that provided seeds of inspiration, the collage was framed by KPM’s house style of the 1980s for the finished sleeve by Richard Robinson.

Mastered for vinyl by Be With’s sonic shaman Simon Francis, cut by the legendary Pete Norman and pressed in the Netherlands by Record Industry, Ocean Moon’s Crystal Harmonics is the tranquil balm for these turbulent times.

Favorite Recordings presents an exclusive collaboration between French producer Bruno ‘Patchworks’ Hovart (Voilaaa, Mr President, Taggy Matcher, …) and Australian NYC-based rapper and poet Nelson Dialect. The two artists met two years ago after Nelson’s gig in Lyon and, of course, they discussed and seriously planned to collaborate one day, both having an everliving love for early nineties hip hop. Then came the quarantine and Covid-19 with Patchworks locked in Lyon, Nelson Dialect in NYC: it seemed to be the right time to do it. A few months later and they finally drop Blue Benz, the result of their long distance collaboration, coming as a beautiful 7inch filled with proper Jazz & Soul Hip Hop vibes.
On A side, « Blue Benz » reminds indeed the best feelings of the nineties hip-hop with its infectious slapped bass rhythm and subtle Rhodes chords, all fiiting perfectly with Nelson Dialect’s serious flow!
On B Side, « Jazzy Blue Benz » offers an alternate take on the same groove, focusing more on the electric guitar gentle slides with a more percussive beat and horns arrangements with a proper NYC jazz
feeling.
From Adelaide, Australia, Nelson Dialect now lives in New York working with Bronx label Red Apples 45 started by AG of DITC and Ray West. Making music since he was 16, he has received critical acclaim for his work with producer Must Volkoff and their most recent album Magnetism. Before moving to New York, Nelson toured extensively in Australia supporting some of the biggest international Hip Hop acts including Mobb Deep, Lupe Fiasco, Ghostface Killah, GZA, RZA, Pharoahe Monch and DJ Premier among many more. He just released a new album Opal Mind with French producer NuTone.

Mort Garson’s road to cool cultural caché and the sublimity of Plantasia meant a decades’ long journey through an underworld of sophisticated, international, string-laced dreck (i.e., your great-grandparents’ record collection) to arrive at Music from Patch Cord Productions, this set of queasy-listening you now hold.

Music from Patch Cord Productions shows that Garson’s knack was to exist in both worlds, super-commercial and waaay out. He cut delirious minute-long blasts for commercials (as to whether or not they were actually ever aired remains unknown) and spacecraft-hovering études. Were there really account managers out there in the early ’70s that gave the greenlight to these commercial compositions which seemed to anticipate everyone from John Carpenter to Suicide? What were these campaigns actually for, Soylent Green? Regardless, Mort’s jingle work laid the groundwork for the future. As Robert Moog himself noted: “The jingles were important because they domesticated the sound.” Via Garson’s wizardry, the synthesizer transcended novelty to ubiquity and dominance.

Other curios and questions abound. How did Garson’s arrangement work for Arthur Prysock’s satiny body worship album This Is My Beloved transmogrify into the body-snatcher pulses of “This is My Beloved”? Are the two pieces even related? What is the IATA code for the airport of “Realizations of an Aeropolis”? What denomination is the “Cathedral of Pleasure”? If “Son of Blob” sounds like a hallucinatory melted ice cream truck theme, what on earth does Blob’s father sound like? Every sound wrangled out of that Moog by Garson pushes things further and further out.

Of course, these are all questions that may never get answers, as Garson wasn’t the most organized modern day composer, busy as he was conjuring strange new realms with his circuit boards and synths. He worked and wrote right up until his death in 2008, his daughter and Sacred Bones still going through all of the material left behind. He wouldn’t live to see it, but his renaissance was just around the corner, the seeds that had been scattered in record bins around the world suddenly coming to bear fruit. Take a bite!

Repress

Carthago: Rare Tunisian Disco Including Unreleased Instrumentals And Eight Page Booklet When we first decided to start Habibi Funk, a label dedicated to re-releasing "funky" Arabic music from the 1960s to 1980s, a band called Dalton was the first release we worked on. Dalton was a band from the Tunisian capital of Tunis and they played a unique mix of soul & funk with an Arabic DNA. We licensed the release from the band's composer Fawzi Chekili, and when we spoke to him on the phone in preparation of the release he mentioned another band he was part of, called Carthago. Our work with Habibi Funk is like a big treasure hunt. There are too many great bands that fully vanished into obscurity and didn't leave any traces in the digital sphere yet. We are so used to the internet providing all informations we might be looking for, but Carthago was one of those bands where the internet largely failed to provide any infos despite the fact that Carthago created some incredible music in the form of an highly infectious Tunisian take on disco music. Luckily most of the members of the 1970s musical scene of Tunis are still around to tell their story.

Carthago was founded in the late 1970s as a fusion of Dalton and a second band called Marhaba Band. Both bands frequently played at hotels and night clubs in Tunis and Sousse. They had similar musical influences and despite the fact that they were competition for the most part, they came up with the idea to join forces for a new band. Musically Carthago kept on walking on the musical path of Dalton and Marhaba but incorporated disco music, a new style that was making its way to North Africa from Europe and North America. The band had quite some success on local radio and played a number of big shows with thousands of people showing up. The band's concerts were a mixture of their own compositions as well as cover versions of the hits of the time from Stevie Wonder to Chicago. At the end of the 70s they went to Paris to record their only, self titled album. For our reissue we picked out two of our favorite tracks: "Hanen" and the outstanding disco version of the Dalton track "Alech" which has proved to work on every dance floor we played over the last two years.

When I came to Tunis for the first time after the Dalton reissue I met Fawzi in person. He still lives in Tunis and still works as a full time musician though his focus has shifted more towards Jazz over the years. Luckily he did not only keep a spotless copy of the Carthago album but he also kept the master tape of the instrumental versions of the album which to this day were unreleased. Being able to add exclusive content to a reissue is something that is rare and we feel highly privileged to be able to do so. Futher more we are so happy that we will be able to add something new to the bands legacy not only musically but also visually: One day I realized that most of the releases from Tunisia I liked, be it from Dalton, Carthago or Marhaba Band had the same photographer credit.Hassen Turki started taking photos at a young age and when he was 18 he started going to the gigs of the bands of the time that were playing in the Marhaba Hotel which was managed by his father at the time. He became friends with the bands and ended up being the person to be asked when it came to shooting the photos for the covers of the records. After some research I managed to get in touch with Hassen and met him in his hometown Sousse. Luckily he kept most of the negatives of the photos he took so we're more than happy to be able to share these unseen photos with whoever is interested.

In the late-1970s Athens, Georgia was buzzing with a raw but sophisticated music scene. Traditional Southern rock had been the Georgia musical export for years before but the turn of the decade began producing new sounds from bands like the B-52’s, REM and Alt Rock luminaires Pylon.
 Before they were a band, Pylon were art-school students at the University of Georgia: four kids invigorated by big ideas about art and creativity and society. However, Pylon were less of a band and more of an art project, which meant they had very specific goals in mind, as well as an expiration date.
 While their time together as a band was short lived (1979-1983), Pylon had a lasting influence on the history of rock and roll. Throughout their brief history, they were able to create influential work that would help foster the post-punk and art-rock scene of the early 80s. Artists like R.E.M., Gang of Four, Sonic Youth, Sleater-Kinney, Interpol, Deerhunter and many more claim inspiration from the band.
 Their 1979 single ‘Cool’ / ‘Dub’ reached legendary status, with Rolling Stone titling it one of the 100 Greatest Debut Singles Of All Time.
 In 1980 the band released their first record, ‘Gyrate’, and began touring across the country in support of the release. The band would soon develop a following across the country and specifically in the bustling music scene in New York City. One of their earliest gigs was opening for the Gang of Four in the Big Apple.
 Following the critical acclaim of their debut release, Pylon went back into the studio. They gleefully pulled their songs apart and put them back together in new shapes, revealing a band of self proclaimed nonmusicians who had transformed gradually but noticeably into real musicians. The resulting album, ‘Chomp’, was barely off the press when Pylon were booked to open a run of dates for a hot new Irish band called U2 (after previously playing two arena shows with them in the month leading to the album release). Most bands would have jumped at the opportunity but Pylon were sceptical. At a critical point in the life of Pylon, they opted to become a cult band rather than stretch their defining philosophy too far.
 “We fully intended Pylon to be an almost seasonal thing that we were gonna do for a minute and then get on with our lives,” says Curtis Crowe, drummer for the band. “But it just never went away. It still doesn’t go away. There’s a new subterranean class of kids that are coming into this kind of music, and they’re just now discovering Pylon. That blows my mind. We didn’t see that coming.”
 New West Records are proud to partner with Pylon to reissue ‘Chomp’ and ‘Gyrate’ back into the masses. Beautifully remastered from the original audio sources and pressed on vinyl (140g) for the first time in over 30 years.
 New West Records also present ‘Pylon Box’, a comprehensive look at the band that features the remastered studio LPs ‘Gyrate’ and ‘Chomp’, the 11-song collection ‘Extra’ - which includes rarities and previously unreleased studio and live recordings - and ‘Razz Tape’, Pylon’s first ever recording: a 13-song unreleased session that pre-dates the band’s seminal ‘Cool’ / ‘Dub’ debut.
 ‘Pylon Box’ also includes a hardbound 200-page full colour book featuring pieces written by the members of R.E.M., Gang of Four, Steve Albini, Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney, Sonic Youth, Interpol, B-52’s, Bradford Cox of Deerhunter, Mission of Burma, Calvin Johnson of Beat Happening and K Records, Anthony DeCurtis, Chris Stamey of the dB’s, Steve Wynn of the Dream Syndicate and many more. Features an extensive essay chronicling the band’s history, with interviews with the surviving members of the band as well as members of R.E.M., B-52’s, Gang of Four, Method Actors and more. It also features never before seen images and artifacts from both the band’s personal archives as well as items now housed at the Special Collections Library at the University of Georgia and the Georgia Museum of Art, UGA.

The specially designed game and accompanying music video pertains to the overall theme of the EP, which shows an absurd society obsessed with social media descending into a dystopian world. It is a paranoid graphic vision, set in Brussels, Strapontin’s hometown, that puts you in control of a role playing game as you march round the city collecting social points with scant regard for others.

Besides being a dancer, performer and on-and-off “Madame pipi”, French-born, Brussels-based Strapontin is also a DJ and producer who mixes up slow and rough techno with thrilling soundtracks and groove driven disco. He has released on Nein and I’m Single amongst others and marks this 10th Hard Fist release in fine style.

Opening up the EP is ‘Nervous Days’, a gallivanting techno-disco groove with rugged loops and jumbled percussion that sounds like a rampage through a cityscape, as per the video. Then comes ‘But The Nice One!’, a stomping and rough and ready ride on lumpy drums and bass that is dark but playful. The quality continues on ‘Miss Mickey the Dumbs’, with some brilliantly heavy and reverberating drums making you jerk your body while sci-fi effects float and drift about up top.

Blindetonation label regular and esteemed modern disco man Thomass Jackson remixes ‘But The Nice One!’ In his capable hands it becomes a melon twisting workout with spangled synth lines, psyched-out synths and percolating drums that are finished with a vulnerable and eerie vocal. Last of all is a Damon Jee remix of ‘Miss Mickey the Dumbs’, His music can be heard on the underground’s most sought-after labels including Roam, Hafendisko, Suara and Sincopat to name just a few. His version is a more direct affair, with searching laser synths and a hypnotic space-techno vibe that carries you off to the stars at increasingly high speeds.

This is a fittingly brilliant EP from the vital Strapontin on ever-excellent Hard Fist.

Demon Records presents the first ever vinyl pressing of The Durutti Column’s 2003 studio album “Someone Else’s Party”.

Formed in Manchester in 1978, The Durutti Column were one of the first acts signed to the iconic Factory Records by Tony Wilson. Primarily the project of guitarist and vocalist Vini Reilly, the group have a cult following with notable fans including Brian Eno and John Frusciante.

Recorded after the passing of Reilly’s mother, the melancholic “Someone Else’s Party” explores themes of loss and reflection. Highlights include the trip-hop influenced ‘Vigil’, and ‘Spanish Lament’ which weaves together Reilly’s signature shimmering guitar sounds with a sample from David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive.

Pressed on two 140g clear vinyl, housed in printed inner sleeves.

The Fall is a deconstruction of November by Dennis Johnson.

Written for solo piano in 1959, November is the first example of minimalist music composition and was the inspiration for La Monte Young's The Well-Tuned Piano (1964). The 66 minute piece is a collaboration between legendary artist Lustmord and renowned classical pianist Nicolas Horvath, in which they reduces Johnson's original November to its core element and place it in a landscape of complimentary sound. The Fall echo's November but with further resonance.

Recorded in May-June 2019 in Los Angeles, and Misy-sur-Yonne, France.

Lustmord
Active since 1980, born of the original 'industrial' scene of the period. With its own distinctive approach, blurring the line between music and sound design Lustmord's work has featured in 45 motion pictures including The Crow and Underworld and also in video games, television and commercials. Recently Lustmord scored the music for Paul Schrader's movie First Reformed. While Lustmord is often credited for creating the 'dark ambient' genre there is much more nuance to its work than what that label implies. The music is not dark, but is a light that shines into and upon the darkness. Notable collaborations amongst many include Tool, Melvins, Jarboe, John Balance of Coil, Clock DVA, Chris & Cosey, Paul Haslinger, Karin Park and Robert Rich.

Nicolas Horvath
An unusual artist with an unconventional résumé, pianist and electroacoustic composer Nicolas Horvath is known for his boundariesless musical explorations. Horvath is both an enthusiastic promoter of contemporary music - he has commissioned numerous works (including no fewer than 120 as part of his Homages to Philip Glass project in 2014) and collaborated with leading contemporary composers from around the world, including Alvin Lucier, Mamoru Fujieda, Jaan Rääts, Alvin Curran and Valentyn Silvestrov - and a rediscoverer of forgotten or neglected composers such as Moondog, Nobuo Uematsu, Germaine Tailleferre, François-Adrien Boieldieu, Hélène de Montgeroult, Jean Catoire, Karl August Hermann.

Hell Yeah call upon their merry crew of grown up groove makers to revisit key tracks from Quiroga's widely acclaimed Passages album, with Whodamanny, Jazz N Palms, A Vision of Panorama and My Friend Dario all stepping up.

The original album was noted as Piccadilly Records' Best Balearic Album of 2019 and a year on is still providing solace for us in these strange times. First to add his own spin to it is Periodica associate Whodamanny from Naples, whose magical take on 'Martinica Feelings' made it onto the excellent recent Buena Onda compilation, which is out now. It is a big hearted vocal reinterpretation filled with stomping kicks and twisted synths that bring the funk next to withering sci-fi effects and happy piano chords.

Then, up steps man of the moment Jazz N Palms, a resident at the cult Ibiza venue Pikes and regular at London's Ronnie Scotts. He has recently started his own self titled label and here offers a mad Latin jazz take on 'Africa Addio' that brims with energy and sunshines. The busy percussion will make you move your ass and the whole thing has a sexy 70s vibe.

Saint Petersbourg's very own balearic legend A Vision of Panorama is hailed as the king of the modern balearic sound thanks to EPs on labels like Omena. He takes care of 'The Zoist' with sentimental melodies and sunset grooves to die for. His arching pads speak to the soul and melt the heart.

Last of all, Hell Yeah's very own discovery My Friend Dario (who soon has an EP coming on NuNorthern Soul, recently remixed Calm and Gallo) tackles 'Chiaia Sunset'. The result is a laidback and cathartic track that slowly unfolds on tumbling drums and wooden hits as synths leave vapour trails high up in the clear blue sky above.

These are four more high class remixes that will keep the summer vibes alive long into Autumn.

Grammy nominated & Defected Records signing Michael Gray is a hugely respected and established British DJ and music producer, and is also one half of the dance music production and remixing duo ‘Full Intention’ who have been at the forefront of Dance music since the early 90s. He’s also known for his solo hits ’The Weekend’ & ‘Borderline’ and recently ‘the Sun’. #2 Soul /Funk /Disco Artist by Traxsource in 2019. Currently his latest remixes include Louie Vega produced Anane - ‘Get on the Funk Train’ (Michael Gray & Mark Knight Remix) which has recently gone to No. 1 on the overall traxsource chart, Serious Intention - 'You don’t know’, Raze - Break for Love, Sylvester - You make me feel (mighty real) Records) and his Sultra Remix of his single ’The Weekend’ (First played by Pete Tong on Radio 1) He has played for nights such as Glitterbox at The Ministry of Sound, Hi Ibiza, Fabric, Downtown Disco and recently for The Glitterbox Virtual festival.

Kelli Sae is a New York born and bred Performer, Singer, Songwriter, Actress, Composer, Comedian and Playwright. Born of Puerto Rican and African descent, her music is a masala of sounds, cultures and influences that drive her instincts.

Kelli has worked with Tina Turner, Paul Simon, Seal, Chaka Kahn, Gladys Knight, Lionel Richie and many more. Kelli is also a Principal Vocalist Monday night’s on ABC’s hit Reality Television Show Dancing With The Stars. Other Television shows she’s worked on are I Can See Your Voice, Rising Star and The Singing Bee.

The much sought after debut album from Manchester's Liam Frost & The Slowdown Family is back by popular demand.

Includes the singles "The Mourners of St Paul's" and "The City Is At Standstill“

Pressed on 180g translucent blue vinyl.

Recently featured on Tim Burgess’s Twitter Listening Party

Released originally in 2006, Liam Frost is described by Guy Garvey as "the UK’s answer to Bright Eyes".

"Young, fun and riotously talented, Liam Frost And The Slowdown Family are a free-wheeling 21st century folk carnival" -- NME

Slick jungle, low-slung broken beat and even a deep house banger, 'Interlocked' assembles 8 tracks of some of the purest old-school vibes by a veteran of the scene under a brand new alias for a frustrated and precarious (post)-lockdown summer. Tapping the drama and energy of the largely pre-generic party days of '91-94 - a halcyon time of transition in which Drumskull himself, as a life-long skater otherwise stoked on the the raw energy of 80s skate video soundtracks - to Black Flag, JFA, Minor Threat, Stupids et al, to Primus, Gang Starr and Meat Beat Manifesto, made the passage into syncopated machine funk, to sub bass, time-stretched breaks and automated beat production.

Physically drumming in a couple of skate punk bands in the early 90s, exposure to hardcore and early jungle tapes in '93 by DJ Dimension and DJ Rob (Leeds Orbit, UK), amongst countless others, inspired an archetypal move to sell his drum kit so as to land a set of Technics 1210s. Spinning techno and jungle on the local free party scene and clubs as part of a DJ collective from '94-96, crafting early tunes on Amiga ProTracker software, and shortly after running club nights in mid-90s London with Mo' Wax and Ninja Tune artists, Drumskull expresses the eclecticism of the era across 8 big tracks of previously unreleased material. Evoking all the energy and excitement of being involved in those early years of dance culture, 'Interlocked' powerfully yet playfully connects then to now, reveling in a sense of timelessness, mutation and hybridity.

Album photography by Amir Zaki from his book with legendary Skateboarder Tony Hawk and author Peter Zellner 'California Concrete: A Landscape of Skateparks (2019). Graffiti lettering by original UK stylemaster and beatmaker REQ TDK.

Craig Charles has been a soul & funk fan since his teenage years in Liverpool, going to see local heroes The Real Thing live, and wearing out his shoe leather dancing in the city's many underground clubs. Craig has been sharing that passion for the music via his 6Music and BBC Radio 2 shows and DJ nights for nearly 20 years. His brand new 'Trunk Of Funk' compilation series, blends up-tempo club classics, with fresh music from the cream of the crop from the contemporary soul and funk scene, and will be Craigs very first vinyl release - a beautiful, double vinyl gatefold LP and he's certainly excited about it, stating; "I can't wait to bring you big beats, bass lines and booga-bloomin-loo! Presenting The Craig Charles Trunk Of Funk Volume 1 as my first ever vinyl release has put a proper wiggle in my walk!" This collection of 21st century disco, soul, funk & afro grooves from includes tracks from contemporary heroes of the scene such as Monophonics, Amp Fiddler and The James Taylor Quartet, it's also peppered with some old school classics and rare grooves from legends such as Roy Ayers, PP Arnold, Miriam Makeba and Patrice Rushen. Craig has personally selected and sequenced this collection to take the listener of a musical journey, the closest thing to having Craig visit and personally DJ for you in the comfort of your own home! It also includes two 'Trunk Of Funk Edits' that are 100% exclusive to this compilation and not available anywhere else.

East London record shop World of Echo debuts on the other side of the counter with a reissue of Two Wishes, the solitary 12" by Anglo-German collective, Mutabor!. Seemingly lost to time, Mutabor! were first brought to World of Echo's attention when drummer/singer, Gary Asquith, played at the shop's first birthday celebrations while promoting one of his other bands, Rema Rema. And so the story goes...

Mutabor! emerged wraith-like from the monochromatic grit of Berlin's art punk underground late in 1981 when Asquith left London to set up temporary residence in the city following a chance meeting with Malaria's Bettina Koster backstage at a Birthday Party gig at the Lyceum earlier that year. Beguiled by the possibilities of collaboration, musical and otherwise, he was soon to make his own contributions to what was an already fecund scene. Partnering with Koster, and Gudrun Gut and Manon Duursma also of Malaria!, Mutabor! were publicly birthed via an impromptu performance at punk rock polestar the Risiko. Asquith found himself playing percussion in what would be a first, while the rest of the band ossified in front of him in typically idealistic post-punk democracy. Little documentation of the performance survives beyond that which exists in the memories of those playing - that itself shaky enough - though there was clearly sufficient encouragement for them to commit to a recording session.

Later that winter, the four booked time at Music Lab, the studio operated by Harris Johns, for what would ultimately be their only studio visit. Two songs were laid to tape, and soon after a photoshoot was to take place at Koster's flat, resulting in a handful of images that, along with the music, comprise the sum total evidence of the band's existence. 1001 Nights and Treats both found their way to Peter Kent, a co-founder of 4AD who had recently left the label with the ambition of starting his own imprint. Entitled Two Wishes, the two track 12" was to be the first and only release on Loaded. It seems that Mutabor! were to represent a series of firsts and lasts, a trend that continues now as they open the World of Echo imprint.

It's fitting to think of Mutabor! in these prescient terms given how they sounded. Berlin at that time shared a spiritual axis with New York, the conceptual & aesthetic discordance of no wave and a nascent off-beat dance culture underpinning much of the respective creative activity. There are shared signifiers, but even in that context, Two Wishes sounds oddly out of step, moving to its own unusual rhythm. 1001 Nights stutters along on a tribal beat that seems to run independent of skronking sax, spidery guitar lines and deadpan vocal incantations, the ghosts of two songs meeting in some kind of incompatible voodoo union. On the reverse, Treats slows down and dims the lights further, as Asquith sardonically recites desirous threats as an increasingly malevolent sax and guitar grinds behind him. No surprise the darkness within the music given the parent bands and the backdrop of a crepuscular early 80s Berlin, though there remains a complex compositional element to these songs that suggests a broader spectrum of emotion - desire, romance, and ultimately, infinite possibility.

Recut and mastered, Two Wishes is now presented with the original front cover artwork alongside additional imagery, including a 16 page booklet, all culled from Asquith's own archive. A brief bolt of energy at a crucial juncture in music history, Mutabor!'s story is emblematic of the mutli-verse of post-punk and the creativity its ideology necessitated.

MF001 marks the introduction of UK artist / producer Max Frith. Having made music since his early teens and now in his early twenties, this 10,000 hours honing in on self-education and exploration has resulted in a keen ability to be meticulous in his output. ‘Fade’ is an almost suppressed UKG, chord progressions running in the opposite direction of is elder cousin’s dancefloor swagger, right out the door and on the night bus home. Slipstream works to exemplify the attention to detail Max has managed to work into his productions, successfully unifying anxious percussion carried with cloud-like ambience.

Fade / Slipstream is release #1 of three incoming 12”s that will put the breadth of proficiency on display of the newcomer. Right now in 2020 the talent and ambition of Max Firth is exactly what we need, thankfully choosing not to heed the advice of the UK government and re-train to work in ‘cyber’.

Worldwide Award winners First Word Records are pleased to welcome back Souleance; a duo that have been releasing music with us for a decade now, and triumphantly returning to the fold with some brand new music for 2020.

This vinyl / digital EP, 'Les Mouches', is their first release for First Word since the acclaimed beat-tape 'French Cassette' from early last year.

Expanding on the original Normand-Parisian super-duo of Fulgeance and Soulist, the Souleance crew now includes Vincent Choquet on synths and Guillaume Rossel on drums as part of their live outfit. Whilst sonically their style remains unchanged, the formation into a full band sees the Souleance sound become bigger, more realised and more formidable than ever.

The title track 'Les Mouches' sets off the EP in a playful disco manner - a chugging bassline, assorted synthesisers, disco claps and a four-to-the-floor drum track, inspired by the likes of Larry Levan and Candido. Meaning "flies", Les Mouches was a legendary Manhattan club that existed around the era of Studio 54, and was infamously a hangout spot for Imelda Marcos. The club itself was named after a play by Jean-Paul Sartre.

Next up is the single 'Aquarelle' (meaning watercolours), which contains more layers than a Bob Ross painting. With its various elements splayed across its aural canvas, sprinkled with some subtle scratches, it's four minutes of funk presented in Souleance's inimitable way.

'The Bounce' follows and enters a more soulful side of the dance, dropping the tempo a touch and inviting in a huge bassline, squelchy keys and intermittent vocal hooks.

'Mont Maudit' takes more of a latin jazz direction with big drums and cymbals rocking throughout, whilst an infectious piano hook cruises throughout, and an ethereal gospel choir switches up the proceedings mid-way.

Things get deeper still with the epic broken beat-esque 'Maneuevers'. Crunchy rhodes dominate this slightly tweaked-out rhythm, a delectable piece of heads-down nujazz fused with Souleance's unmistakable funk once again.

'L'Opuleance' closes out this EP with some more traditional Souleance fare - the tempo a little more head-nod, this one is comprised of some deliciously wobbly bass, chopped samples and hefty breaks.

This EP is essentially a set of grooves marinated in nostalgia whilst managing to sound entirely current. Analogue synths, live bass, sleek cuts and intoxicating drums. This is another round of sure-shot dancefloor fire from our favourite French family.

Previous support has come from OkayPlayer, Bill Brewster, BBC 6 Music's Gilles Peterson, Tom Ravenscroft & Huey Morgan, and various DJs on Worldwide FM, NTS & Le Mellotron,

Soweto-born Sello Twala emerged as a key figure in South Africa’s bubblegum scene, initially cutting his teeth in the early 80s as part of groups Umoja, Harari and Image, who in 1985 released the track that would give him his nickname: ‘Chicco’. Teaming up with co-producer Attie van Wyk, later that year he released his first single as a solo artist, ‘We Can Dance’. It was followed in 1986 by ‘I Need Some Money’. Both tracks add accessible English lyrics and catchy call-and-response vocals to infectious Shangaan-rooted dance rhythms, appealing to a wide audience that defied apartheid categories and established Chicco as a charismatic solo star, as well as a talented producer, both in SA and across the continent. Based on the success of these breakthrough singles, Chicco would go on to release politically charged pop albums We Miss You Manelow (1987), Thina Sizwe Esimnyama (1989), Soldier (1989) and Papa Stop the War (1990) and Nomari (1991).

Claptrap label boss returns with a four-track release ‘Big Pharma’.
Following on from this years releases by Longhair and Dr Valentines Claptrap are back with Vanity Project’s new release ‘Big Pharma’. Vanity Project has been managing Claptrap with his partner in crime Dr Valentines since their first 12" release in 2017 and dropped his first full release, a self titled EP in 2018. Since then he’s been DJing & performing live shows around the UK and has most recently dropped the City Elastic EP on London’s Midnight People.
Big Pharma features four spaced out original house cuts ready for the dance floor. A1, 'Letters and Numbers’ opens the EP with a driving groove, tight drums and rubbery synths. A2 the title track ‘Big Pharma’ brings a hint of acid alongside a deeper thumping house groove. B1 Grow Slow, kicks off the second side with a mellow down tempo sizzler, prime for those outdoor coastal parties. The final track Index brings the EP to a close with swirling euphoric synth lines and a dance floor moving stomp.

DOWNFALL is the first album under the name SAITO created by Lena Saito, aka Galcid, and produced by accomplished analog synthesizer guru, Hisashi Saito, aka Lena’s husband. Having descended from a long line of Japanese sword-smiths, the industrial sound of smashing steel is embedded in Lena’s DNA and reflected in her music, however there are also refined, hypnotic tones showing a side with more finesse. The music itself is not scored and is predominantly improvised. Words and vocals are ad libbed as well. Sometimes the machines respond as if through telekinesis, altogether emitting a sound which can be categorized somewhere in the range between modern experimental dance music and something possibly making more sense to enlightened minds a thousand years in the future.




There is a new addition to the forge of talents of Mille Plateaux, a Japanese musician by the name of Saito whose album has been released on the label under the title of Downfall. After a whole series of releases under the signature tag clicks & cuts, there comes out a work, much more suited for a dance hall, that is different in terms of the genre from everything that has been published so far.
Like a bucket of ice-cold water poured over the head, erratic agressive hardcore rhythms pour all over the audience in the first track, interrupted only by grinding noises and minimalistic technogenic clicks.
Downfall won't fail to infect even the most experienced music connaisseur with its out-of-control energy, while offering a wide range of techniques: at times, robotic voices, one second long fragments of looped melodies and many other audio gimmicks.
Lena Saito (that is the author's name) is not afraid of conducting experiments in her chemical laboratory, freely mixing sound reagents without taking any precautions. It feels like, this new chemical substance, that she has been working on so thoroughly, contains quite a long list of ingredients, although its main component is the various rhythm breaks.
The synthesizer part of Red Hammer sounds in the best traditions of the acid style, and the rhythm section is akin to African tribal dances of the future. Downfall is absolutely unrelenting in its concept.
The melody of the composition Nucleosome is a little bit like the melancholic IDM of the 00s, finding itself secondary to the dominating, yet again convoluted rhythmical web meticulously woven by Saito.
This album can be definitely named as a big contender aspiring to start a new golden era of Mille Plateaux, and Saito as the hidden treasure of the label that can challenge even the veterans for the right to be the headliner.

East London-born music legend and all round boundary-breaking innovator, Dizzee Rascal, today announces the release of his 7th studio album, entitled ‘E3 AF’ and new single ‘L.L.L.L (Love Life Live Large)’, out via Island Records.

This new release marks the genesis of a new era for Dizzee and is the first album wholly written, recorded and produced in the UK in over a decade. ‘E3 AF’ is a 10-track layered, purposeful statement of intent, rooted in Dizzee’s inedible ties to both east London and Black British music’s legacy. He sound is sharper, stronger and more self-assured than ever, and it is obvious that he has poured the creative energy of the past few years into ‘E3 AF’ as a body of work. First single, L.L.L.L (Love Life Live Large), features Tottenham born MC Chip and kicks open the door with the force of a steel toe capped boot. Chip, adds another thwack of bravado to the rumbling, Dizzee-produced beat. ‘E3 AF’ confirms Dizzee’s status as an artist still very much in his prime, sonically it draws on the infectious pace of grime and resolutely forward-thinking UK rap. From one song to the next, you are taken on a journey through Black British musical excellence. Ice-cold UK drill drips on Smoke Boys-featuring ‘Act Like You Know’ (produced by MK the Plug) and Eastside pulses with pure grime courtesy of Chubby Dreadz and Platinum 45. Self-produced opener ‘God Knows’ (featuring P Money) and high-octane ‘You Don’t Know’ pull from dubstep, grime and drum ‘n’ bass while threatening to wreak havoc with your speakers. By the time Alicai Harley’s warm up vocals float over sunny syths on the deeply personal ‘Energies + Powers’ (produced by Steel Banglez), the album practically radiates heat. Dizzee Rascal is a unique artist that has inspired many for multiple generations. From his 2003 debut album release, the Mercury Prize-winning ‘Boy In The Corner’ to date, Dizzee has continued to push expectations and boundaries. He is British musical royalty. Every album that followed stacked up another marker of success. Between 2004 and 2017 all album releases blasted firmly into the Top 10 Official album chart, won awards, critical acclaim and amassed Dizzee a huge following of devoted fans. ‘E3 AF’ is set to confirm Dizzee Rascal’s status as the master at the top of his game.

MD Records, a small independent label started in 2018, are pleased to present the debut single from “Lost in Rio” on the new MD Gold series imprint.
Their debut single which will be out in August, ‘Little Piece of Heaven’ is a festival summer feel good slice of Latin pop featuring energetic musicianship and the vocals talents of Highland based Miss T.It is also something the guys are, rightly, very proud of.
The vinyl release of this single is presented as a double A side as both sides are phenomenal, with the remix bringing a NYC disco mix, designed purely for dancefloors with thumping bass, chic style guitars and soaring strings, think Studio 54 and the heady crossover soul of Philly meeting the early disco of New York.
Early plays by several funk and soul radio stations (Totally Wired Radio and FACE radio) has attracted interest from DJs keen to feedback with so many positive vibes and offers to collaborate on future songs.
Who Are Lost In Rio:
The band herald from the Highlands of Scotland. Inverness provides the base for a collection of musicians that have made their home here, whether they originated from Manchester, Melbourne, Malaysia or indeed the Highlands! The band has taken the funk and soul sound from their former incarnation, The Leonard Jones Potential (LJP) who were BBC6 Craig Charles Funk & Soul Show favourites with whom they undertook several live interviews on the show with Craig and also a popular live session as well as a number of joint live dates at Kendal Calling Festival, Inverness and Aberdeen. The guys were also asked to undertake some prestigious live work with world renowned DJ Carl Cox, on the bill at his personal request and alongside other acts such as Brand New Heavies, Danny Rampling, Gilles Peterson and of course, Carl himself.
The songwriting team behind all this - Anthony, Andy, Neil and Ruairi quickly set up Lost in Rio upon the demise of The LJP and began collaborating with a number of singers and a rapper (MC Butterscotch). They developed their sound into a smaller, tighter, groove based soul vibe.
From 2017 the grouped honed their sound with a number of live appearances across the Highlands including festivals and supporting acts such as Smoove and Turrell. Utilising guitars, bass, drums, Hammond and percussion, the guys set about leaning on key influences - Acid Jazz Corduroy and Brand New Heavies, dynamite disco guys Chic, Northern Soul, rare soul and a whole plethora of funky hip hop acts - The Allergies, The Herbaliser and Tribe called Quest to write a lot of new tunes. Latin influence comes to the fore in much of the groups new sound, particularly highlighting the impressive skills of Aussie percussionist Andy Pearce.
Live, the band have a good reputation and have been much sought after by promoters. Audiences have loved the tight rhythmic groove that these guys produce, meaning gigs are full of dancing and long encores. Recently the guys have been concentrating on driving up the already high standard of songwriting and production. This hard working band has plenty of material they are eager to share with those ears who are partial to quality funk, soul and pop and are looking for the right partners to work with and spread the message. Future releases will seek to exploit the wordsmith alacrity of MC Butterscotch who as well as Lost in Rio, also features as part of Scottish award winning hip hop act, Spring Break.
MD Records specialise in Unreleased soul and funk on its Yellow Series, contemporary soul and funk artists on the Gold Series, re-issue soul and funk on the Black Series and Missouri Soul and Blues via its Blue Lotus UK imprint.

Recorded live during their headline North American tour in the summer of 2019, A Royal Affair Tour was a must-see best-of-British-rock show and featured support by Asia with the return of founding member Steve Howe in a special performance, John Lodge of The Moody Blues, and Carl Palmer’s ELP Legacy with guest vocals by Arthur Brown. The Yes performing line up was Steve Howe (guitar – joined 1970), Alan White (drums since 1972), Geoff Downes (keyboards; first joined in 1980), Jon Davison (vocals since 2011) and Billy Sherwood (guitar/keyboards in the 1990s and the late Chris Squire’s choice to take over bass/vocals in 2015), with Jay Schellen on additional drums. Yes performed songs from their storied career, one of rock music’s most prized bodies of work, and their set was in honor of the memory of YES members Chris Squire and Peter Banks.
Continuing the British theme, the set featured Alan White of YES’ tribute to John Lennon; White was the drummer on Lennon’s solo material including the recording of “Imagine.” Of the tour, Steve Howe said “Yes is delighted to headline this celebration of British music which has been so warmly received in America over the past five decades.” Alan White: “I’m looking forward to joining a number of classic British talents that have delighted so many fans over the past half century.” Geoff Downes: “This is a unique celebration of the British contribution to classic rock over many decades. It will be inspirational to be a part of. And I know it is what John Wetton would have wanted.”
A Royal Affair Tour – Live was recorded live at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, Friday 26 July 2019.

The packaging features brand new artwork by legendary artist and longtime Yes collaborator, Roger Dean.

As so many great schemes do, it started with a conversation in a pub. After several sporadic releases on Diffrent Music, including his renowned 2013 debut "Tongues", label boss Dexta wanted more music from Fearful. One thing led to another, and suddenly an album was in the works.

The result is "Interference"; a body of work that is reflective not only of the personal idiosyncrasies and aspirations of its London-based producer, but of an artist who has truly been set free of expectations.

Harnessing his own inbuilt need to defy convention, and looking to influences such as classical game soundtracks, experimental mastermind Amon Tobin, and the brooding tones of Akkord and Lorn, Fearful has crafted an album that's unpredictable yet cohesive, and definitive of his aim as an artist.

From the menacing ambient opener "Rocinante", through the glitchy techno of "The Traveler", skewed drum & bass of "Pulse 0" and "Through The Mist", to the roaring drone and pounding metal-inspired drumwork of closer "Gold To Dust", it's an album that demands full attention and repeat listening.

Nowhere is this free-roaming but pull-no-punches attitude summed up better than the title track. Building through eerie, twisted atmospherics - samples of electromagnetic interference, which can be found throughout the album - it clatters into a domineering breakbeat, before collapsing into a guttural, tribalist techno roller.

Where much of dance music draws on repetition, the concept of "Interference" is simple: progression. Whether that be changing motifs within tracks, switching genres within the album, or developing upon Fearful's own artistic strengths, it's an idea never more at home than on Diffrent Music, and we are very proud to present it.

Running the anything goes travelling warehouse rave "Fusion mes Couilles"
Emma DJ and Ishaq have created a unique situation with their party series in Paris. The two have been able to do what not many have, which is create a party environment strictly on their own terms, with no outside influence, no pandering to agents or the trends of the day and no outside money rearing its head trying to influence. This endeavor is no small feat considering the oversaturated and bland nitelife climate over the last years in the city. The result of their hard work, has been a large scale dedicated fanbase that trust them, hands down.

Over these years both Emma DJ and Ishaq had been working independently on their own productions as well, with Emma DJ recently releasing a slew of tapes in a hyperactive, machine gun manner, while Ishaq makes his first appearance on wax here.
On the "Fusion" split lp we get four tracks from Emma DJ on the a-side and four tracks from Ishaq on the b-side...both artists bring their unique takes on modern dance music on each side of the record from gnarled acid, to tweaked IDM, to broken techno, or ADD chopped guitar loop beats, this is a truly unique release documenting the sound of the top crew in the Paris underground.
Artwork licensed from NYC street photographer Richard Sandler

GRITTY, ODD & GOOD is a new weird, pseudo-music compilation curated by avant-garde experimental composer and audio artist Francisco López.

As far as creation itself is concerned, big cities do not manifest anymore as the catalytic cultural centers they used to be. Their iconic status as hip locations seems more symbolic than real. The combined mighty forces of neocapitalist gentrification and telecommunication / information decentralization might have generated a substantially different landscape of geographical cultural distribution. And so unlikely places are also sources of physically-isolated, but culturally-interconnected, new creation. This is just but one more example of the larger phenomenon of techno-cultural atomisation (not to be confused with the more restricted so-called “democratisation”) that allows millions of people to create and share, pre- and post-internet. The amateur is the new potential master; and that is decided by the crowd in the circus and the stadium, not at the academy. With all of this comes the potential for new aesthetics, or at least the open-ended evolution of the previous ones, –far better than the current confusion between ethics and aesthetics- from the uninformed and the unknown. Atomization of this kind also brings for some the desire and the right to anonymity. And so it is for the unknown obscure artists of this compilation of weird experimental music –“gritty, odd & good”, with drones, glitches, cut-ups and more- who won’t reveal anything beyond their unlikely locations: San Marino, French Guiana, Philippines, Lesotho, Oman, Faroe Islands, Tuvalu, Liechtenstein, Kyrgyzstan. An innovative compilation presenting a world of unusual experimental de-constructed and recombined music casting a strong and exciting light into the unusual corners of our world. Dive in.

Compiled and Mastered by Francisco López
Vinyl mastered by Rashad Becker

a 1 Ragazza Raddrizza (Live Excerpt) - Giuseppe Moretti San Marino 3:00
b 2 SCVB - Daryana Jean French Guiana 4:39
[c] 3 One One Six Bee - James Ocampo [Philippines] 5:37
[d] 4 Coogan Radio - Thabiso Makhetha [Lesotho] 3:18
[e] 5 micro-Sister (Al'ukht Alsaghira) - Rashid Al Balushi [Oman] 3:59
[f] 6 Mond - Lív Jacobsen [Faroe Islands] 3:10
[g] 7 Sansobavo Mix - Eteroa Apinelu [Tuvalu] 8:38
[h] 8 Sans Titre (Fumée v.3) - Zzodiakk [Liechtenstein] 6:38
[Kyrgyzstan] 1:17

After his acclaimed debut EP « Cotonou » on Alma Negra’s record label, James Stewart comes back with his new EP Atlantic River Drive for Mawimbi Records, featuring two collaborations with Ghanaian kologo musician Ayuune Sule as well as two remixes from Simbad aka SMBD.

James Stewart met Ghanaian kologo musician Ayuune Sule, after booking several shows of kologo music star King Ayisoba in Lyon. Stewart was quick to witness the bluesy tone of Ayuune’s voice and his kindness as a musician, despite his impressive stature. Quite logically, Stewart invited Sule to record vocals on two of his ongoing demos at Bruno Patchworks’ recording studio (Voilaaa, Mr. President, Da Break), with the idea of making a rather unheard crossover between traditional kologo music and contemporary styles that would both appeal to Ghanaian crowds and a Western audience. Stewart then had a number of his arrangement ideas re-recorded by a talented cast of musicians, resulting in a brilliant mix of acoustic and electronic textures, sounding both vintage and modern.

Nodding to Eddie Palmieri’s landmark record “Harlem River Drive”, “Atlantic River Drive” is a stomping dancefloor track, drawing from the 6/8 feel of kologo music and the energy of contemporary club music. The track can be read as a tribute to the musical cross-pollinations between the African continent and its many diasporas, which Stewart has dedicated a long part of his life to, but also as a more intimate story about his life and family. All words were written by Stewart and then translated by Sule in his native Fra fra language from Northern Ghana.

“Where Are We Going?” is a two-part journey that reminds us that we should care about each other, about our communities while we don’t know what the future is made of. An important and much welcome message to navigate through these troubled, uncertain times. Referencing congolese N’dombolo tracks, the track has two parts and rich arrangements, with its first part going deep with syncopated clarinet hooks and playful percussion parts, and its second part moving to a four-on-the-floor pattern and an entrancing baritone saxophone solo.

The EP also features Worldwide FM and Brownswood maestro Simbad, who delivers two dancefloor-ready reworks of the track “Where Are We Going?” under his SMBD moniker, turning it into a spiritual, dubby journey, as well as an emotional house music track.

Birds are singing, a soft female voice embraces the stars, then the funk hits the fan: the second album of mysterious Japanese singer Nadja haunts immediately and marks one of the most exquisite reissues in the ever-growing catalogue of Studio Mule. Originally released in 1989 as promo only CD on the Japanese label Polystar, the album features some of the finest eighties pop funk fusion arrangements of the era. A deeply enchanting lost gem, that gets listeners instantly into heavy repeat addiction.

All ten songs are arranged by a group of grandmasters of their art. Japanese saxophonist, composer and music producer Yasuaki Shimizu, man behind the electronic ambient fusion classic “Kakashi”, was in charge for tunes like “Wac-Wack”, a neon light funk pop song, full of soft big city eroticism, ultra-slick synth lines and real funkateer explosions. It’s followed by “夢のとりこ”, the most stirring pop tune on the album, that originally was written by French composer, multi-instrumentalist, actor and singer Areski Belkacem, known for his and long-time collaborations with French avantgarde singer Brigitte Fontaine. Shimizu transformed the song into a low hanging funk jewel, with a cool rolling bassline, dub depth and synths that cry for cosmic help. Above all Nadja signs with a sexy chill, that somehow could only emerge in the 1980ees, when the cold war even made pop music real cool. The follow up is named “真珠のように”, features again music by Belkacem, this time transformed by Shimizu into electronic erotic pop - dreamy, witchy and precisely musical composed.

The B-Side opens with “Velvet Rain”, a funky urban boogie composition by Japanese keyboard player, composer and producer Akira Inoue, enlarged with glimmer camp kitsch, that immediately puts a smile on the listeners faces. It gets followed by “Paradise Catcher”, a soft pop tune with longing string and horn sections, arranged by legendary Jamaican rhythm and production duo Sly & Robbie. It somehow marks one of the strangest songs in their longstanding career, as it is largely minimal orchestral but yet super tight when it comes down to the rhythmic magnitudes. The next tune, “Private Tripper”, also stays soulful, funky and horn driven. Always pleasing the super tight, yet feathery voice of Nadja, that is dancing about boogie grooves and illuminating melodies with a seducing tragical coolness. Finally the album ends with a stylistic break in the overall musical atmosphere. It comes from Japanese musician Hiroaki Goto, it’s called “地図をずっと南へ”and features Afro-Brasilian voodoo rhythms, pan flutes, cosmic piano notes and Nadja, singing like a rain forest sorceress from outer space.

Ten arrangements by a bunch of high-grade arrangers, that all left Nadja’s voice enough space to widespread her talent as a supremely seducing singer, who wrote all lyrics, vocals and chorus by herself in order to present her touching vocal class in a vivid, bewitching timeless style. Come in and get ensnared!

Shaky Norman is a French musician who discovered the melodica through the music of Augustus Pablo.His influences range from classical to Jamaican music as well as punk, Celtic music, French traditional music and jazz. He has collaborated with Mad Professor in
1990 playing melodica on the album Psychedelic Dub.
His new eponymous album features eight original creations. It is set up as a 32 minutes musical journey taking you through different atmospheres kept together as a whole. The collaboration with prestigious Jamaican musicians like the late Ronald Nambo Robinson
on trombone, who played with Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, Burning Spear, Sly & Robbie and so many others, and Glen Da Costa, the saxophonist of Bob Marley & the Wailers and Zap Pow, add an authentic depth to this album