Cerca:mel

A bloody Hardcore EP, bringing oldschool sound from Melbourne label of Doc Ross !
Surported by MARAve and Armguet Nad :)

Following on from his remixes of Robert James' LP Battle Of The Planets, Berlin-based Klix goes in for the kill with four examples of club-friendly grooves that are big on dancefloor dynamics but also boast a delicate sensitivity to melody that's often left behind when it comes to the minimal/tech genre. Check, for instance, the distinctly understated acid undertow to 'Just Tell Me', balanced beautifully with lush, New Order-esque pads, or the almost imperceptible trails of flute left across the landscape of 'Satisfaction'. Best of all is probably 'Squanchy Thoughts' featuring Shibafu No Baga, the vocoders and synth lines rendering it like a post-rave Kraftwerk.

Gondwana Records announces 'Goodbyes' the debut album from Estonian pianist and composer, Hanakiv, a deeply beautiful, meditative piano album featuring special guest Alabaster dePlume

"This is an album about healing. It is about saying your goodbyes to everything that doesn't serve you anymore. Each of these songs has a little goodbye in it. So, these are very beautiful and necessary goodbyes".

Hanakiv is a young composer and musician from Estonia (now based in London) who creates meditative piano-based ambient music with elements from classical and electronic music. 'Goodbyes' is her debut recording and draws on influences as diverse as Tim Hecker, Björk "Vespertine", Kara-Lis Coverdale, Arvo Pärt, Erkki-Sven Tüür and Aphex Twin as well as her own cultural heritage. Music has an important part in Estonian culture, especially choir music and its traditions, but Hanakiv also draws on her love of nature – the beautiful Estonian seaside and forests - and on her time in Iceland. However, it was moving to London that gave her the freedom to make her own music: "London gave me the freedom and courage to really be who I am (as a person and musically)" and her heritage and her new home both offer inspiration to Goodbyes, as Hanakiv moves between these two opposite places, a bustling metropolis and a small country full of nature, drawing inspiration from both as she sculpts her own voice.

Hanakiv had an unconventional music education – she started studying music at a school for handbells when she was nine and was part of a handbell ensemble for eight years. Starting on piano at the same time she went on to study composition at high school, and later at the Estonian Academy of Music. Eventually switching to electroacoustic composition, she studied in Reykjavik, and did internships in Malmö, and again Reykjavik before moving to London. She grew up in a musical family and her grandmother was a piano teacher and choir conductor.

"I would always ask her to take me to her choir rehearsals. I remember sitting under the grand piano, listening to the choir and just being mesmerised by the sounds. She also teaches in a local music school in the south of Estonia with about ten pianos, and I'd spend a lot of time there as well. I believe this was the starting point for me to get to where I am now. The last two pieces on the album (Home II and Home I) are composed in this same music school, so it feels like a full circle.

An early influence was Regina Spektor "the first artist who made me really want to play piano" alongside dream pop and Sigur Rós' as well as Estonian contemporary composers such as Erkki-Sven Tüür and Arvo Pärt. Later her studies took her to Reykjavík: "There is this amazing record shop called 12 Tónar in Reykjavik where you can drink espressos and listen to all their vinyls. I spent quite a lot of time there. There is something about Icelandic music that really excited me (the mixture of contemporary electronic sounds with melancholy, emotionality). This is when I started getting more into electronic music, and experimenting outside of classical music". Following a year long break from studying and inspired by making an electroacoustic soundtrack for a friend's abstract video, she was inspired to complete a masters in electroacoustic composition, diving fully into the worlds of sound recording and mixing and focusing on surround sound and how to position and move sounds in space, eventually doing an internship with composer Kent Olofson in Malmö, who works with multi-speaker systems for theatre productions. "I learnt a lot from him and he introduced me to some of my favourite plugins I've used a lot on this album as well."

Hanakiv moved to London just as the pandemic hit and found herself trapped, in a big new city, without any network or family and so just concentrated on making music. "I stayed in my room with my basic equipment - keyboard, Korg minilogue, SM 58 and Rode nt1-a microphones, laptop and speakers. I was reading about mixing, and trying out different things and listening to a lot of music to get the sense of the mixes and production and finishing a commission piece for 5.1 multi speaker system at that time so I set up four speakers for quadrophonic surround sound in my room!". She also found her way back to piano - my instrument – and started practicing again, playing the pieces she used to play, but also just improvising, and this was the beginning of what would become her debut album, 'Goodbyes'.

"I started appreciating everything about music again (even melody!), and everything just came together naturally, and I arrived to a point where I finally found my voice, and I had something that I wanted to say and share. I composed "Meditation I" first and started with "Goodbye", and all the other pieces are derived from that. Without "Meditation I" there wouldn't be this album. If you listen closely, "Meditation I" starts where "Goodbye" ends; "Meditation II" is born from "Meditation I".

But it was meeting Fi Roberts, a sound engineer based at the legendary Strongrom Studios in Shoreditch, London in December 2020 that really brought the album into focus. The pair bonded over an interest in prepared piano and a similar approach to production ideas (a balance of not overdoing it, and letting the songs speak for themselves, but being open to explore) and Fi became a friend but also a confidant and eventually co-producer

"Fi has a big impact on this record but I don't know how to really explain that properly. Of course, this album is sonically stunning thanks to her amazing mixes and recording skills, but she also believed in this music so much and it created something very special - that's difficult to measure with words. She just works with heart, and I really appreciate that"

This then is 'Goodbyes', the first offering from a major new voice, who offers us a meditative work full of space and tranquillity but also life and friendship and meaning. And we are very proud to welcome her to the Gondwana family.

The Deepshakerz unite with Aaron Pfeiffer for their Crosstown Rebels debit ‘Fire’, back by a remix from, Cameron Jack.

Italian duo Domy Berardino and Mirco Sonatore, aka The Deepshakerz, continue to evolve their take on house music after a decade in the game - releasing material on their Safe Music imprint alongside globally renowned labels including Saved, Cajual, Circus, Moon Harbour and Knee Deep In Sound. Linking up with Miami-based singer/songwriter Aaron Pfeiffer, the iconic voice of Jaden Thompson’s ‘Closer’, the trio of talents make their debut on Damian Lazarus’ Crosstown Rebels with the vibrant ‘Fire’, with fellow debutant and Abracadabra singee Cameron Jack on remix duties.
A blissful yet driving production guided by Pfeiffer’s alluring vocals, ‘Fire’ is a resonant house offering combining crisp drums with an infectious wavering lead melody, while Cameron Jack’s take strips things back and crafts a medley of organic percussion grooves around the original’s charming vocal interludes.

Brazilian psych soul wunderkind, producer and singer Tagua Tagua has joined the Wonderwheel Recordings family with a tender selection of cuts on his second album Tanto.

Recorded in the rural outskirts of Sao Paulo there is a sense of yearning that permeates throughout the set list of ten unapologetic love songs that fly between lush psychedelic pop to warm, beat-laden neo-soul with Brazilian flavor. The album maneuvers subtly between the different dynamics, and purposefully so, as it was 'a vibe' that Tagua Tagua AKA Felipe Puperi wanted to instill from start to finish - channeling soul heroes past and present like Bill Withers, Shuggie Otis & Sault.

The album title and first single Tanto translates to Portuguese as 'so much', and Felipe sees the track and entirety of the album as "a feeling of falling in love for the sake of falling in love". The track is a slice of horizontal soul music and possesses a sweet, almost drug induced fervor, simple on arrangements. Felipe sings in a melismatic tenor, at times tipping into falsetto, with subtle effects enriching his delivery.

Based in the city of São Paulo, Felipe previously fronted the group Wannabe Jalva and has an extensive musical resumé, having played at Lollapalooza Brazil, supported shows for Pearl Jam and Jack White, and created a name for himself as one of the most promising breakout acts in Brazil. Yet there was a break-out moment of self discovery, a re-connection with his language that led to a personal and musical revolution culminating in his debut solo album in 2020, Inteiro Metade.

Whereas his previous longplayer had changing musical personalities from tropical psychedelic to funk and soul, Tanto only flirts outside of the mellow psychedelic soul prism and whilst there are ebbs and flows, it delights in its sparse and sweet minimalism. "Pra Trás" opens proceedings, and aptly, as Tagua Tagua moves from one album to the next, it's about leaving things behind. There are strings and orchestrations, a killer guitar hook and Tagua Tagua's seductive delivery. "Colors" is full throttle future-soul, squelchy synths pulsed by a lazy, yet insistent shuffler of a beat. Further dreamlike timbres are found in "Barcelona", a journey of a song and Brisa, perhaps the body-mover of the collection, with silky synths and a chorus you're sure to repeat.

All songs were written and recorded by Felipe himself, mixed by fellow Wannabe Jalva band member Tiago Abrahão, and mastered by Brian Lucey (The Black Keys, Chet Faker). Recently, Tagua Tagua toured Europe and played several shows at SXSW and along the West coast in the US.

Rua Sound's new sub-label SPHERES is proud to introduce its first release from Rome-based producer Noroi. The Adrastea EP is a richly imaginative work of electronic music, showcasing Noroi's uniquely melancholic and futuristic sound.

Comprised of four tracks, the EP opens with "Stay," a powerful blending of emotive breakbeat and evocative vocals. "Untitled Jungle," a collaboration with VSC, is a genre-defying jungle track that builds to a genre-appropriate fist pumping crescendo. "Chrysalis" is on a more introspective tip, where delicate layers of reverb-drenched instrumentation and the transcendent vocal delivery of Tokyo Witch creates a restorative atmosphere. The EP concludes with "Transoceanic," an energetic piece that blends percussion and atmospherics for a sound that can't be defined.

The Adrastea EP shows off Noroi's flare for innovative sound design, offering a vision of the future of electronic music. Out on March 10th on the Rua Sound Bandcamp and in online and physical stores worldwide, it is a must-listen for fans of the deep, adventurous tracks that work in your headphones as well as on the emotional end of the club sets.

This is the first in a series of releases from the SPHERES label, which named after one of Jupiter's moons. Each one features original artwork by Josje Bijl aka Yorobi, inspired by the sketches of these moons by Galileo in 1610.

All music by Noroi

Full Dose kick your door in with this prime selection of cuts from a new name on the label: Tuck Chains. Who is Tuck Chains? Who knows! But with a crew known for their futuristic and dub-inflected sound, "Tapes" manages to take the label to new heights.

Serving as a masterclass in the sacred art of sample chopping, Tuck Chains offers up a platter of instrumentals that wouldn't sound out-of-place coming from LA in the late 2000s. True to its name, FD013 feels like a mixtape in its delivery, but has a depth and refinement that's difficult to find. Instrumental hip hop of this quality may well have disappeared from the underground but Tuck Chains has successfully iterated on a style guaranteed to bring blunted energy.

"Lock Down", the opening track, quickly sets the scene with metallic and saturated drums. Interspersed with surgical sample chops, the track oscillates between lively and chill after an almost musique concrète sounding intro. This contrast between straight and faded becomes a theme of the album, with moments of intensification punctuating the mellow.

Tracks like "Chrome and Glass" balance fizzy snares, rumbling low end and stabby piano hits to take you on a slow motion coastal journey, while "Ewan Hughes-Army" has an erratic and head-nodding feel that demands your attention. Warbly, downtempo tape vibes feature throughout the release, a combination ripe for repeated, couch-bound listens. With this in mind, "Spanish" feels like the perfect closer - the type of track that oozes sun and THC. Let this be the soundtrack to your hazy holiday.

Arriving directly from the plant and mastered by the label's own Lvcchesi, this could well be the beat tape you knew you were missing! "

Gated kick off 2023 with a corker of a remix package, featuring an epic electro workout from Radioactive Man and lo-fi deep house from Max Wheeler of Anushka fame.

Marcela Dias Sindaco’s breathy Portuguese vocals always lent themselves to remixes and these five cuts use them to great effect.

Keith Tenniswood’s storming version of Missao Controle kicks off the EP, with a near-8-minute bass-heavy acid monster that retains the original’s funky elements but pushes them way into the future.

German upstarts not even noticed take Extincao nice and deep for those loved-up dancefloor moments, again bringing in melodic elements from the original, but twisting them just enough to flow into a dreamy acidic breakdown.

Flip to the B and Anushka’s Max Wheeler goes it alone, with a deep and crackly analogue house version of Dois Lados. Injected with just a smidgeon of jazz, this is definitely one for the heads.

Next up, longtime Gated collaborator Dip Shim, whose debut album only just dropped, brings a straight-up electro jam version of Pro Meu Bem, with haunting pads and insistent arpeggios.

Rounding off the EP is Perseus Traxx’s deeper than deep take on Missao Controle, a tripped out reverby journey laden with his signature hardware sound.

If you're into the classic sound of the best releases from the seventies and eighties era Jazz-Funk or Fusion with a slightly modern and exciting touch, you don’t want to miss out on Fusion Affair’s first album: Venom! Proudly presented by Parisian label Chuwanaga, Venom is filled with sharp synths, electrifying basslines, serious guitar licks, amazing themes, in-the-pocket drums grooves and true excitement all over the six tracks of the album.

Starting with "Fruits Rouges" which introduces the listener to the beautiful and soulful harmonies spread throughout the album but also an overall overview of how Fusion Affair and Venom brings together strength and delicacy. Then, the impetuous and dangerous ride of "Venom" will leave you either dancing or shocked. A dangerous trip with a perfect climactic ending: watch out for the snakes! The serious but fun-filled groove of "Bounce" will take you back to Herbie Hancock’s seventies, with a jazz-funk style that you cannot resist bouncing your head to! Despite its chordal simplicity, the dreamier yet modern track "Dasha" begins with an unconventional use of berimbau. After several expositions of its beautiful main melody, the track intensifies with a perfectly executed drum and bass interlude. "Missing Cat" returns to a classic Jazz-Funk vibe with late seventies synth brass accentuating its playful theme. This one’s definitely got a vintage vibe! Finally, "Bougie Noire" ends Fusion Affair’s first album with powerful chords and orchestration while keeping it truly mysterious : to be continued...

Fusion Affair brings together the talents of French musicians from Lyon, Paris and Montréal, all gathered by the producer LeMatoux. Following many sessions at the infamous Studio Delta, record label Chuwanaga and the band are ready to spread their infectious groove all over the globe!

I:Cube has made a new album. It is a very “hands on” album, as the eight tracks on show were created almost entirely by improvising with electronic hardware – synthesizers, sequencers, drum machines and effects units – and recorded in real time, with very little after-editing. It is also his first album in a decade, should you be keeping track.

During the time he spent recording it, which was in part inspired by the processes behind his ‘Cubo Live Sessions’ series, I:Cube had fun, experimented, unleashed the raw, primitive energy of his machines, and emptied his head of thought. The resultant tracks are instinctive, immersive and otherworldly, driven by the emotion of the moment rather than the formulaic structures of dance music. They are unpolished and immediate, but also immersive and sincere.

Think of it as a soundtrack to time spent alone in the studio, daydreaming in darkness and light, translating mental and physical messages in real time. It is not calculated, overblown or over-produced like much modern electronic music, but gently odd, engaging and pleasingly rough round the edges. In some ways, it is I:Cube’s most personal and emotional album to date.
Matt Annis

France' best kept 'Boogie & Funk' secret and legendary german funk label BTS finally collaborating on this 4 Track melter 12". Spacy, trippy, positive!!

For over 28 years envy have been crafting soaring compositions with captivating melodies that owe as much to Explosions in the Sky and Mogwai as they do to Bad Brains and Cro-Mags. Their new EP continues to display a masterful control of tension and release in chords and melodies behind the steady spoken-word Japanese of singer Tetsuya. Throughout their storied career, Japanese ENVY have paved the way for iconic bands like Isis, Converge and Deafheaven with their unique sound blending elements of hardcore / punk with reverb-drenched tremolo-picked guitar lines owing to the world of post-rock. Envy sit right in between these 2 worlds, and prove that they are not as disparate as it seems at a first glance. Opening track ,Seimei` marries tear-inducing melodies with gut-wrenching grooves to create a soul journey, while ,Zanshin` (meaning ,uninterrupted heart` in Japanese) dashes forward with an upbeat groove and soaring post rock leads. On ,Tamayura', the energy is dialed back as reverb-drenched tremolo-picked guitar lines wash over you from behind alongside Japanese spoken word-parts and a throbbing heartbeat. This is ENVY at their very best. FFO Mono, Mogwai, Explosions In The Sky, Isis, Swans, Pelican, Caspian, Thursday, From Autumn To Ashes, Thursday, Birds In Row, Deafheaven Limited (400 copies ww) Single Coloured Tamayura (Dark Red Vinyl) Edition!

Live At Melkweg' wurde 2001 auf Tournee zum 'Dog In The Sand'-Album aufgenommen und fängt Frank Black And The Catholics auf dem Höhepunkt ihres Schaffens ein, während sich die Band durch eine umfangreiche Setlist spielt, die jedes Terrain von Frank Blacks riesigem Katalog streift. "Live At Melkweg" ist eine unverzichtbare Veröffentlichung für Frank Black-Fans und markiert die erste offizielle Veröffentlichung einer kompletten Catholics-Show. Diese neu erweiterte Ausgabe enthält den vollen 38-Song-Gig einschließlich 18 bisher unveröffentlichter Tracks.
Zu den Highlights gehören eine eindringliche Version von Pixies "Gouge Away", Frank Blacks Klassiker "Headache" und eine Auswahl aus dem Catholics-Repertoire, darunter "I Will Run After You" und "21 Reasons".
Neu gemastert von Thaddeus Moore bei Liquid Mastering, auf drei schwarzen 140 Gr. LPs gepresst, und in einem dreifachen Deluxe-Gatefold-Sleeve mit Spot-UV-Details untergebracht. Dazu gibt es bedruckte Inner Sleeves.

Scottish composer and multi-instrumentalist Bill Wells and virtuoso tuba player Danielle Price once more team up for Karaoke Kalk under the name The Sensory Illusions. The two further explore the affinities between their idiosyncratic musical approaches across a variety of styles and genres while also expanding their sound palette. After its predecessor saw Wells working strictly with his electric guitar, on the »Sensory Illusions II« the piano enters the mix on two of the eleven pieces. Much like his brass-heavy collaboration album »Osaka Bridge« with Japanese collective Maher Shalal Hash Baz—made available again on vinyl by the German label Karaoke Kalk in February 2023—this album injects melancholic atmospheres with a sense of playfulness. Picking up on elements from jazz, pop, blues, and classic songwriting while acknowledging their debt to techniques from the worlds of avant-garde and improv music, The Sensory Illusions weave together disparate elements into a colourful, imaginative suite of songs.

Starting with the folky chords of opener »Four Chord Dream,« the track titles spell out Wells’ characteristic use of ideas that literally come to him in his sleep (the project was even named after a record he found while browsing a store in a dream). The National Jazz Trio Of Scotland leader then fleshes them out together with Price, who again serves as a one-woman rhythm section, as she does throughout most of the album. When Wells enters 1960s spy movie territory with a swirling rendition of John Barry’s »Theme from Vendetta« and picks up on those dynamics with a rolling riff in the next song, her versatile playing provides the backdrop for that. Once Wells sits down at the piano for the tender »Flotsam Bodes,« however, their roles are being reversed and Price—a seasoned and multifaceted musician who was one of only six applicants chosen to attend Chilly Gonzales' Gonzervatory in 2019 and who is currently working with acclaimed London-based trumpet player and composer Laura Jurd—takes the lead. »I’m the Urban Spaceman« makes it even more apparent how seamlessly these two experienced players leave each other space to showcase their respective talent and expand on their individual ideas: Marked by Wells’ soloing and exploring different sonic possibilities of the guitar, it also sees Price showcasing her reduced yet agile solos before they both return to the idea at the heart of the song.

It is precisely those ideas that guide the duo’s way through the individual pieces, but their sometimes widely different approaches yield very distinct results. While working with the piano once more on »Mr. Sophie« results in a fuller and more anthemic sound, they opt for a more restrained, melancholic one the album closer »Desk Aunt«. It is precisely these kinds of variations in mood and tone that underscore how these two musicians are perfectly attuned to each other. As the second duo record in their six years of working together, »The Sensory Illusions II« proves once more how much musical ground they are able to cover with their instruments and open minds alone.

Die kreativen Zentren von Obsequiae und Inexorum vereinen sich in der neuen, überragenden Band: Majesties. Für diejenigen, die mit den einzelnen Stücken von Majesties vertraut sind, wird der Sound des Debütalbums "Vast Reaches Unclaimed" eine weitere beeindruckende Ergänzung ihres jeweiligen Oeuvres sein und an die glorreichen Tage von Wrong Again und No Fashion Records erinnern.

Majesties erinnern an eine Zeit, in der Göteborg begann, Stockholm als unantastbare Stadt für schwedischen Death Metal in den Köpfen der internationalen Metalszene abzulösen. Sie haben das Gespür für die wütende Intensität des Death Metal und die mühelos befriedigende melodische Fähigkeit, die Alben wie "The Jester Race" und seine unmittelbaren Vorgänger zu sofortigen Klassikern machte. Die Mischung aus Dur-Melodien und Twin-Gitarren-Harmonien, die sich durch jeden Track schlängeln, schmücken die kraftvollen Riff-Eruptionen und den gequälten Gesang in einem Glanz von schimmernder Brillanz, der sich als ein berauschender Triumph erweist.

Ohne einen Hauch des Verfalls, den der Stil in einer Welt nach "Slaughter of the Soul" erfahren hat, ist "Vast Reaches Unclaimed" eine glühende Erinnerung an das, was war und was wieder sein wird. Majesties reanimieren den Leichnam des wahren Melodic Death Metal-Stils, der die Death Metal-Szene Mitte der 1990er Jahre sowohl spaltete als auch belebte, bringen ihn ins Jahr 2023, als wäre er nie weg gewesen, und klingen dabei so neuartig und aufregend wie eh und je.

- Debütalbum von Göteborg beeinflussten Melodic Death Metal
- Mit den kreativen Kernen der beliebten Obsequiae und Inexorum
- Cover-Artwork von Juanjo Castellano (Gates of Ishtar, Moondark, Varathron, The Black Dahlia Murder)
- FFO: In Flames, Eucharist, Dark Tranquillity, A Canorous Quintet, Gates of Ishtar, Iron Maiden, Ceremonial Oath, Obsequiae, Inexorum

Die kreativen Zentren von Obsequiae und Inexorum vereinen sich in der neuen, überragenden Band: Majesties. Für diejenigen, die mit den einzelnen Stücken von Majesties vertraut sind, wird der Sound des Debütalbums "Vast Reaches Unclaimed" eine weitere beeindruckende Ergänzung ihres jeweiligen Oeuvres sein und an die glorreichen Tage von Wrong Again und No Fashion Records erinnern.

Majesties erinnern an eine Zeit, in der Göteborg begann, Stockholm als unantastbare Stadt für schwedischen Death Metal in den Köpfen der internationalen Metalszene abzulösen. Sie haben das Gespür für die wütende Intensität des Death Metal und die mühelos befriedigende melodische Fähigkeit, die Alben wie "The Jester Race" und seine unmittelbaren Vorgänger zu sofortigen Klassikern machte. Die Mischung aus Dur-Melodien und Twin-Gitarren-Harmonien, die sich durch jeden Track schlängeln, schmücken die kraftvollen Riff-Eruptionen und den gequälten Gesang in einem Glanz von schimmernder Brillanz, der sich als ein berauschender Triumph erweist.

Ohne einen Hauch des Verfalls, den der Stil in einer Welt nach "Slaughter of the Soul" erfahren hat, ist "Vast Reaches Unclaimed" eine glühende Erinnerung an das, was war und was wieder sein wird. Majesties reanimieren den Leichnam des wahren Melodic Death Metal-Stils, der die Death Metal-Szene Mitte der 1990er Jahre sowohl spaltete als auch belebte, bringen ihn ins Jahr 2023, als wäre er nie weg gewesen, und klingen dabei so neuartig und aufregend wie eh und je.

- Debütalbum von Göteborg beeinflussten Melodic Death Metal
- Mit den kreativen Kernen der beliebten Obsequiae und Inexorum
- Cover-Artwork von Juanjo Castellano (Gates of Ishtar, Moondark, Varathron, The Black Dahlia Murder)
- FFO: In Flames, Eucharist, Dark Tranquillity, A Canorous Quintet, Gates of Ishtar, Iron Maiden, Ceremonial Oath, Obsequiae, Inexorum

2023 Repress

Greyscale is extremely proud to bring Martin Schulte to its long growing and talented roster.
Not only is this a double-single but each track is supported with a remix from a top-tier artist in Vril and our very own grad_u! Dancing Street & Skyscraper Street is special in many ways!
On 'Dancing Street', Martin gives your equilibrium a real test with its off-axis beat structure and fantastic chord definition. As the track releases the pressure nearing the end is nothing short of genius. This is not for the faint of heart! 'Skyscraper Street' is the ideal counterpoint to 'Dancing Street'. A perfectly tempoed tech masterpiece, it soars over a city soundscape riding a confident beat. For the B side, grad_u on the remix gives us a wall-shaker! A serious
main floor sound and the only relief from the intense bass is the beautiful chord work. The word epic comes to mind from our label leader! There is a handful of names that are buy on site when you see them and VRIL is no doubt one. This remix of 'Skyscraper Street' is drenched in layer upon layer of shimmering and fractured melodies. This experimental and almost dreamlike state of consciousness is auditory sensory overload of the highest order! Martin Schulte, VRIL and grad_u on the same EP!
Mastered at the legendary Dubplates & Mastering in Berlin on white 180 gram vinyl. The depth of these should not be understated!
Analogue photography by Rima Prusakova

The great wealth of multifaceted skills is Ralph Heidel's core identity, evident in the attempt to classify his music into a genre. Drone Jazz, Organic Glitch, Neo Classic, Jazztronica, all these terms apply when we read about his music. He began his career as a saxophonist and by now has also become a highly requested composer and arranger for a wide variety of productions. The 28-year-old musician was signed by Mathias Modica (Gomma, ToyTonics) for the Kryptox label, while he was still studying at the Musikhochschule München. Heidel released his debut album"Moments of Resonance" (2019) with his eight-piece ensemble Homo Ludens, followed by his EP "Relief" (2021). This grandiose prelude received applause on an international level. BBC6 presenter Mary Anne Hobbs, decided right away to exclusively feature Ralph Heidel on her radio show.

2023 REpress
A North American road trip of coming of age garage soul mapped by Ivan Liechti, Ghost Riders is Efficient Space’s latest narrative compilation, hovering in a liminal emotional ravine between moonlight melancholy, teenage heartache and unchecked, unrealised ambition. Across seventeen open hearted ballads recorded 1965-1974, the 2LP collects and connects dots between British Invasion fanatics, child prodigies, the loners and the luckless, in a kind of trans-continental survey of those swept up in rock’n’roll mania and buoyed by local newspaper ads promising fame and gold records.

From the tangerine dreams of 8th grade all-girl combo The Mod 4 to the tri-state jukebox aspiring echoes of The Tempters, The Yardley’s poetic Farfisa vamp and lilting folk pop, and The Landlords’ weepy break up b-side blues, these are mostly one shots by dreamers whose experience was brief before being checked back to the reality of suburban normality and realistic career options. Hailing from the regional backwaters of Illnois, Arkansas, Nevada, Massachussets, Ohio, Idaho, Texas and beyond, the licensed artists were scouted by way of local fire departments, spiritualist fellowships and animal welfare centres, often barely a stones throw from where their contributions were originally laid.

A barely teenage Dennis Harte's ‘Summer’s Over’ perhaps best taps the collection’s essence. A gut-wrenching lament of the passing of the season as if it was the last on earth. Flanked by players from The Left Banke, Harte, a now-piano tuner to the stars, is from the minor segment that found longevity in showbiz. Likewise with Michigan icon Lyn Nowicki who cast her ghostly voice over Beatles cover song chameleons The Common People and Jerry McGee, The Ventures member and conduit of Dr. John’s ‘Twilight Zone’.

Ghost Riders simmers with the scent of youthful summers, the pang of schoolyard romance, and the excitement (and disenchantment) of teenage naïveté, delivered via a deceptively simple and frequently wonky garage band set up. The vision of record collector and graphic designer Ivan Liechti, these eternal psych-folk howlers are further crystallised by Colin Young’s fastidious audio restoration, the original artwork of Elise Ganebin-de Bons and an aptly penned forward from Sonic Boom.

If credibility were currency, FAKE NAMES" wealth would be off the charts. Composed of Brian Baker (Minor Threat, Bad Religion, Dag Nasty), Michael Hampton (S.O.A., Embrace), Dennis Lyxzén (Refused, INVSN, The International Noise Conspiracy), Johnny Temple (Girls Against Boys, Soulside) and the newest member Brendan Canty (Fugazi, Rites of Spring), the band is a veritable post-hardcore dream team. However instead of rehashing the past, Expendables is a reinvention that sees the band dialing back the distortion and leaning into the melodies. The result pairs their unparalleled pedigree with a pop sensibility that"s slightly unexpected and wholly satisfying. "For our last record 2019"s FAKE NAMESthe general influences were 70"s U.K. punk and power-pop; but it wound up with a little classic rock vibe as well, like the Vibrators meets Aerosmith. We never saw that coming!" , Baker explains. For Expendables the band enlisted producer Adam "Atom" Greenspan (IDLES, Yeah Yeah Yeahs). Baker explains, "The pop influences are a little more out front on this one and the production really helps it shine. It sounds more direct, more urgent." Expendables is the latest exchange in a musical conversation that spans four decades. Baker aptly refers to the lineup of FAKE NAMES as a "mutual admiration society" and says that once the five members got in the same room together, it felt as if they had already been in the band together for years.

LIMITED BLACK & WHITE COLOURED VINYL EDIT

If credibility were currency, FAKE NAMES" wealth would be off the charts. Composed of Brian Baker (Minor Threat, Bad Religion, Dag Nasty), Michael Hampton (S.O.A., Embrace), Dennis Lyxzén (Refused, INVSN, The International Noise Conspiracy), Johnny Temple (Girls Against Boys, Soulside) and the newest member Brendan Canty (Fugazi, Rites of Spring), the band is a veritable post-hardcore dream team. However instead of rehashing the past, Expendables is a reinvention that sees the band dialing back the distortion and leaning into the melodies. The result pairs their unparalleled pedigree with a pop sensibility that"s slightly unexpected and wholly satisfying. "For our last record 2019"s FAKE NAMESthe general influences were 70"s U.K. punk and power-pop; but it wound up with a little classic rock vibe as well, like the Vibrators meets Aerosmith. We never saw that coming!" , Baker explains. For Expendables the band enlisted producer Adam "Atom" Greenspan (IDLES, Yeah Yeah Yeahs). Baker explains, "The pop influences are a little more out front on this one and the production really helps it shine. It sounds more direct, more urgent." Expendables is the latest exchange in a musical conversation that spans four decades. Baker aptly refers to the lineup of FAKE NAMES as a "mutual admiration society" and says that once the five members got in the same room together, it felt as if they had already been in the band together for years.

When the pandemic hit, Hannah van Loon adopted a dog named Gizmo, who became a much-needed companion while the Bay Area musician wrote her second album as Tanukichan. Aptly Named after her new four-legged friend, GIZMO is an exercise in release, whether from situational hindrances—a forced lockdown, for one—or from self-imposed hedonistic coping mechanisms.“ A theme I always had floating around was escape,” van Loon explains of her follow-up to 2018’s Sundays. “Escaping from myself, my problems, sadness and cycles.”

To channel the more uplifting spirit she wanted for GIZMO, van Loon turned to the radio pop-rock of her childhood: “I was struck by the in-your-face positivity of the lyrics,” she adds,referencing artists like 311, The Cranberries, and Tom Petty. “I wanted to bring that positivity while writing about the sad and helpless emotions I’d been grappling with.” But GIZMO’s lightheartedness doesn’t make it shallow: “I think that I could let it go, as beautiful as snow,” she murmurs on “Don’t Give Up,” a nu metal-meets-Cocteau Twins groove about the sudden awareness that all the relationships you depend on could vanish instantaneously. Van Loon’s main collaborator on GIZMO was Toro y Moi’s Chaz Bear, and the jangly pop earworm “Take Care” showcases the heavily distorted, in-your-face guitar work reminiscent of Bear’s own psych joints What For? And Mahal. On the hypnotic, wall-of-sound-rocker “Thin Air” featuring Enumclaw, van Loon channels the triumphant grit of The Smashing Pumpkins as she ponders the impermanence of even the most impactful relationships: “I’ll always have the memories/Of how you used to make me see/Until they fell in the ocean/They’re not swimming/They’re not floating.”

Existentialism aside, GIZMO also sees van Loon break out of her sonic comfort zone. “One ofthe main changes of how I’m approaching music now is that I want to have more fun in the process,” she says, and she walks the line between melodrama and whimsy gracefully: “I can learn something because I’ve been here before,” she sings on the soaring, bittersweet “Been Here Before.” Deftones-inspired thrash drums and screeching electric guitars are gracefully contrasted with van Loon’s hypnotic, almost deadpan vocal style and a crystal clear acoustic guitar she describes as “cute.” Gizmo the dog suddenly passed away right as van Loon finished the album, but he’s immortalised with his photo on the cover—a fitting emblem of this new era of Tanukichan.

Kate NV's WOW offers listeners a prismatic shift in perspective and scale, a parallel dimension in which the mundane becomes funny, unfamiliar, and altogether sensational. Turning the contents of her 2020 album Room for the Moon upside down and spilling them across a floor checkered with intrigue and surprise, Kate places sound, object, and ritual under the microscope to magnify the delight hidden in plain sight of everyday life. WOW is Kate Shilonosova's fourth full-length release as Kate NV in six years, and third for RVNG Intl. Her prolific musical output aligns with a highly attuned aesthetic and a deep commitment to visual world building. WOW is one of many of these worlds in which music is fully saturated with color, deeply tactile and textural. Shiny, sproingy, plastic. Where Room for the Moon embraced structure (abstractly speaking) and veered pop, WOW happily abandons conventional song shapes, parsing the experience of musical time into ecstatic fragments. It's difficult to imagine a more fitting album title: pure exclamation, an organic pitch of delight leaving the mouth, with no clear etymological links. On Room for the Moon, Shilonosova's voice was layered and lyrical, with sweeping and urgent melodies. WOW finds her as a peripheral purveyor of high jinks, peeking out from the corners, commenting on her surroundings in non-verbal, and arguably non-human, utterances. Instead of employing lyricism, Shilonosova steps outside of language, and rewards us with a gum ball machine of textures: soda fizz and wind-up teeth and scraps of bubble wrap become comically huge, as if heard from an insect's perspective. Words are tasty plosives, onomatopoeias, percussive chirps and one-liners, and singing serves as another form of what Shilonosova refers to as "funny tiny sounds." WOW skews and skitters, trips over its own feet and laughs about it, plays out of tune on purpose, tilts and leans like a top-heavy flower. Shilonosova is a longtime user of Found Sound Nation's Broken Orchestra sample pack, a sound catalog of over one thousand dilapidated instruments sourced from Philadelphia public schools. These perfectly imperfect instruments are tightly spliced into WOW's patchwork of synthesizer and reworked snippets of Shilonosova's friends playing clarinet, flute, and marimba. It's central to the record's internal logic: a disregard for what is, and isn't, broken, what is, and isn't, a sentence or a song. A commingling of subject and object, with a firmly new wave sensibility. Shilonosova has long had an unusual relationship with inanimate objects (citing her bicycle as her best friend), as if the joys they evoke for her are personality traits of the objects themselves. On WOW, she evinces a kind of inverted anthropomorphism: she shrinks her voice and becomes an object among multitudes, toylike in size and perspective, cohabitating with sedentary, indifferent roommates. This pursuit of childlike perspectives is a thread that runs through much of her catalog, and places her work on a plane with that of her personal hero Nobukazu Takemura, who for decades has treated his music as a portal to childlike curiosity, both in subject matter and tone. With an invitation to pursue this curiosity, WOW further confirms Kate NV's deeply inventive, fluid and technically dizzying artistry. By refusing constraints and rules, Shilonosova embodies a profound freedom, allowing objects, sounds, and processes to unfold organically; or, as she puts it, a commitment to "accepting randomness." She succeeds terrifically at a breed of auditory defamiliarization that is all her own, and the rewards for listeners are many: through her lens, the small becomes monstrous, the abstract becomes sensorial, and the old becomes new. Kate NV's WOW will be released on February 10, 2023 on vinyl and digital formats. On behalf of Kate NV and RVNG, a portion of the proceeds from this release will benefit War Child, an organization that supports children and their families impacted by conflict, and working to build sustainable peace for generations to come.

Yellow Vinyl

Kate NV's WOW offers listeners a prismatic shift in perspective and scale, a parallel dimension in which the mundane becomes funny, unfamiliar, and altogether sensational. Turning the contents of her 2020 album Room for the Moon upside down and spilling them across a floor checkered with intrigue and surprise, Kate places sound, object, and ritual under the microscope to magnify the delight hidden in plain sight of everyday life. WOW is Kate Shilonosova's fourth full-length release as Kate NV in six years, and third for RVNG Intl. Her prolific musical output aligns with a highly attuned aesthetic and a deep commitment to visual world building. WOW is one of many of these worlds in which music is fully saturated with color, deeply tactile and textural. Shiny, sproingy, plastic. Where Room for the Moon embraced structure (abstractly speaking) and veered pop, WOW happily abandons conventional song shapes, parsing the experience of musical time into ecstatic fragments. It's difficult to imagine a more fitting album title: pure exclamation, an organic pitch of delight leaving the mouth, with no clear etymological links. On Room for the Moon, Shilonosova's voice was layered and lyrical, with sweeping and urgent melodies. WOW finds her as a peripheral purveyor of high jinks, peeking out from the corners, commenting on her surroundings in non-verbal, and arguably non-human, utterances. Instead of employing lyricism, Shilonosova steps outside of language, and rewards us with a gum ball machine of textures: soda fizz and wind-up teeth and scraps of bubble wrap become comically huge, as if heard from an insect's perspective. Words are tasty plosives, onomatopoeias, percussive chirps and one-liners, and singing serves as another form of what Shilonosova refers to as "funny tiny sounds." WOW skews and skitters, trips over its own feet and laughs about it, plays out of tune on purpose, tilts and leans like a top-heavy flower. Shilonosova is a longtime user of Found Sound Nation's Broken Orchestra sample pack, a sound catalog of over one thousand dilapidated instruments sourced from Philadelphia public schools. These perfectly imperfect instruments are tightly spliced into WOW's patchwork of synthesizer and reworked snippets of Shilonosova's friends playing clarinet, flute, and marimba. It's central to the record's internal logic: a disregard for what is, and isn't, broken, what is, and isn't, a sentence or a song. A commingling of subject and object, with a firmly new wave sensibility. Shilonosova has long had an unusual relationship with inanimate objects (citing her bicycle as her best friend), as if the joys they evoke for her are personality traits of the objects themselves. On WOW, she evinces a kind of inverted anthropomorphism: she shrinks her voice and becomes an object among multitudes, toylike in size and perspective, cohabitating with sedentary, indifferent roommates. This pursuit of childlike perspectives is a thread that runs through much of her catalog, and places her work on a plane with that of her personal hero Nobukazu Takemura, who for decades has treated his music as a portal to childlike curiosity, both in subject matter and tone. With an invitation to pursue this curiosity, WOW further confirms Kate NV's deeply inventive, fluid and technically dizzying artistry. By refusing constraints and rules, Shilonosova embodies a profound freedom, allowing objects, sounds, and processes to unfold organically; or, as she puts it, a commitment to "accepting randomness." She succeeds terrifically at a breed of auditory defamiliarization that is all her own, and the rewards for listeners are many: through her lens, the small becomes monstrous, the abstract becomes sensorial, and the old becomes new. Kate NV's WOW will be released on February 10, 2023 on vinyl and digital formats. On behalf of Kate NV and RVNG, a portion of the proceeds from this release will benefit War Child, an organization that supports children and their families impacted by conflict, and working to build sustainable peace for generations to come.

HARDT ANTOINE is a London based DJ producer of French and West Indian descent, who continuously combines his hugely colourful and eclectic taste in music. He has also made a name for himself with his Reculture label and club nights.

His KOMPAKT debut clearly shows why he’s one to watch in the years to come. “Nobody’s Watching” is a dark grooving beast with bending synth lines and a haunting vocal; counterbalanced with uplifting Eastern analog pads. It’s from this rare breed of tracks that shine in a frantic peak time set and sexy late night moments alike.

“All We See” follows a similar path. Its mandatory bassline and dark melody evolve into something uplifting, as if to say – ‘We always see light at the end of our tunnel’.

Radial takes a more cinematic approach and largely neglects the dancefloor in a classic KOMPAKT 3-track EP fashion, following a lovely tradition that began with Dettinger’s KOM 2 and later on spawned the Pop Ambient movement.

Hardt Antoine proves himself a jack of all trades… Keep an eye on him!

HARDT ANTOINE ist ein in London ansässiger DJ-Produzent französischer und westindischer Abstammung, der seinen äußerst farbenfrohen und vielseitigen Musikgeschmack kontinuierlich durcheinender wirbelt. Auch mit seinem Label Reculture und Clubnächten hat er sich über London hinaus einen Namen gemacht.

Sein KOMPAKT-Debüt zeigt deutlich, warum man ihn in den kommenden Jahren im Auge behalten sollte. „Nobody’s Watching“ ist ein düsteres, groovendes Biest mit verzerrten Synthielinien und einer eindringlichen Stimme; mit erhebenden östlichen Analog Pads ausbalanciert. Es ist diese seltene Art von Tracks, die in einem hektischen Peak-Time-Set und sexy Late-Night-Momenten gleichermaßen glänzen.

„All We See“ geht einen ähnlichen Weg. Die zwingende Bassline und die dunkle Melodie entwickeln sich zu etwas Erhebendem, als ob sie sagen wollten: „Wir sehen immer Licht am Ende unseres Tunnels“.

Radial verfolgt einen filmischeren Ansatz und vernachlässigt die Tanzfläche weitgehend – in klassischer KOMPAKT-3-Track-EP-Manier, einer schönen Tradition folgend, die mit Dettingers KOM 2 begann und später die Pop-Ambient-Bewegung hervorbrachte.

Hardt Antoine erweist sich als Alleskönner … Behaltet ihn im Auge!

Clear Vinyl

Kate Fagan took the Chicago punk scene by storm in the early 80's with her self-released single "I Don't Wanna Be Too Cool", which became the best-selling single ever by a local artist at the legendary Wax Trax! Records. Today, Captured Tracks is thrilled to present an expanded, re-mastered edition of I Don't Wanna Be Too Cool as a full-length vinyl album. Fagan wrote "I Don't Wanna Be Too Cool" after moving to Chicago from New York in the late 70's. The track is a critique of the emergent "hipster" attitude of the disco crowd and the posturing she was witnessing among her peers in New York. With its surf-inspired drum machine, irresistible melody, and defiant lyrics, "Too Cool" was immediately embraced by club DJs, radio stations, and independent record stores. Its b-side, "Waiting For The Crisis," also gained notice for its raw musical style and politically charged Reagan-era lyrics, which still resonate today. In the years that followed, Fagan continued to break new ground In 1980, she co-founded the enormously popular ska band Heavy Manners (whose dance parties are still legendary), and with them opened shows for The Clash, Grace Jones, Peter Tosh, The English Beat, and many more. The "Too Cool" single became a sought-after rarity among record collectors for decades after its initial release, until Manufactured Recordings gave it a proper reissue in 2016. Captured Tracks' expanded 2023 follow-up features four unreleased songs, which encapsulate the gutsy, new wave energy that pulses through the original single. The final track, the reggae-tinged "Say It", features production from the reggae legend Peter Tosh and Bob Marley's guitarist Donald Kinsey, who flew in from Jamaica to record with Heavy Manners after witnessing their impassioned live show. While the 2016 reissue re-established Fagan's cult-classic status for a new audience, this new expanded release solidifies her place in a tradition of trailblazing, powerhouse frontwomen.

Mit seinem packenden Stilmix aus Schlager, Pop und Rock begeistert Wolfgang Petry nun schon seit mehr als viereinhalb Dekaden ganze Generationen von Musikfans. Dabei immer an seiner Seite: Seine Ehefrau Rosie, die mit dem Kultsänger in den letzten Jahrzehnten loyal durch dick und dünn gegangen ist. Zu ihrem gemeinsamen 50. Hochzeitstag am 20.11.2022 macht Wolle seiner Rosie nun eine ganz besondere Liebeserklärung - in Form der brandneuen Single "Du gehörst zu mir und ich gehör zu dir", mit der er gleichzeitig den ersten Vorboten seines kommenden Studioalbums STARK WIE WIR vorlegt!Wolfgang Petry ist ein waschechter Ausnahmemusiker, der nicht nur den deutschen Schlager, sondern die gesamte deutschsprachige Musiklandschaft mit seiner authentischen, geerdeten und unverstellten Art geprägt hat. Knapp zwanzig Millionen verkaufte Einheiten seiner insgesamt 26 Studioalben (davon fünf Top 1-Scheiben und acht Top 5-Entrys in den deutschen Album-Charts) hat Wolle mittlerweile auf der Uhr. Mehrere goldene Schallplatten, eine Multiplatin-Auszeichnung, fünf ECHOS in der Kategorie "Schlager/Volksmusik" sowie insgesamt zehn Goldene Stimmgabeln (inklusive zwei "Platinum Life Award"-Stimmgabeln für sein Lebenswerk) sind die mehr als beeindruckende Bilanz seines bisherigen Wirkens. Doch wie sagt man so schön: Hinter jedem starken Mann steht auch immer eine starke Frau. In Wolfgang Petrys Fall seine Jugendliebe Rosie, die den Sänger und Musiker stets hinter den Kulissen begleitet, ihm in hektischen Phasen den Rücken freigehalten und ihm Trost und Kraft in schwierigen Tagen geschenkt hat. Wolles Fels in der Brandung, auf den sich der 71-Jährige bis heute blind verlassen kann. Nie hat sich Petry davor gescheut, in seinen Songs Fehler und Schwächen einzugestehen, aber andererseits auch danke zu sagen für den Support, den er in guten wie in schlechten Zeiten von seinen Fans erhalten hat. Mit dem ersten Album-Vorboten "Du gehörst zu mir und ich gehör zu dir" möchte sich Wolfgang Petry nun für fünfzig ereignisreiche Ehejahre bei seiner geliebten Frau Rosie bedanken. Als ganz besondere Überraschung ist Gattin Rosie im Clip zu dem Song zu sehen - das allererste Mal, dass die fest aufeinander eingeschworenen Eheleute gemeinsam vor der Videokamera standen! "Ich hab mir den Kopf zermartert, wie ich dieses besondere Gefühl auf den Punkt bringen kann", so Petry über die Entstehungsgeschichte des schwungvollen Ohrwurms. "Zuerst hatte ich eine lyrische Idee, die ich aber schnell wieder verworfen habe. Ich wollte meine Emotionen ganz einfach und simpel ausdrücken; beim Texten entstand dann ganz spontan die Melodie zu `Du gehörst zu mir und ich gehör zu dir`. Der Dreh war komplett anders, aber irgendwie auch vertraut. Schließlich ist sie ja die Frau, mit der ich schon so lange zusammenlebe. Ein berührender Moment in meinem Leben." Und auch für Wolles Rosie waren die gemeinsamen Dreharbeiten ein einmaliges Erlebnis: "Es war eigentlich ganz witzig, aber auch das einzige Mal. Ich fühle mich im Hintergrund wesentlich wohler." Trotzdem fühlt sich Wolfgangs Herzensdame durch diesen ihr gewidmeten Song natürlich sehr geehrt.Auf seinem neuen Album STARK WIE WIR gibt Wolfgang Petry in 12 brandneuen Songs tiefe Einblicke in sein Gefühlsleben. "Die Arbeit an dieser Platte war eine große Reise für mich und hat mir das nochmal eine oder andere vor Augen geführt", resümiert der Sänger. Neben verschiedenen musikalischen Facetten und einer absoluten Ohrwurm-Garantie erwartet den Zuhörer auch der ein oder andere Gänsehaut-Moment.Wolfgang Petrys neue Single "Du gehörst zu mir und ich gehör zu dir" erscheint am 18.11.2022. Das zugehörige Video wird passend zur Goldenen Hochzeit am 20.11.2022 veröffentlicht. Das brandneue Studioalbum STARK WIE WIR folgt am 03.03.2023 als CD, streng limitierte farbige Vinyl, Download sowie auf allen Streaming-Plattformen und ist ab sofort vorbestellbar.

Auf ihrem Sony Classical Debüt Album "Beyond the Screen" gewährt die Filmkomponistin Rachel Portman einen persönlichen und emotionalen Einblick in ihre wegweisende Karriere. Dafür hat sie einige ihrer beliebtesten Filmmusiken neu am Klavier aufgenommen, darunter ihr Oscar-prämierter Soundtrack "Emma", "Gotteswerk und Teufels Beitrag" und "Chocolat". Insgesamt 20 Piano Arrangements verbindet Rachel Portman zu einer emotionalen musikalischen Reise. Vom Arrangement bis zur Performance: Bei der Produktion von "Beyond The Screen" hat Rachel Portman künstlerisch alles selbst verantwortet: "Es musste eine sehr direkte Verbindung zwischen mir als Autorin und dem Interpretieren bestehen. Für mich hat sowieso alles seinen Ursprung am Klavier, weil ich am Klavier schreibe. Ich verbringe den ganzen Tag am Piano. Wahrscheinlich bin ich in meiner Seele Pianistin. Es fühlt sich also sehr befriedigend an, die Stücke am Klavier gespielt zu haben. In gewisser Weise hat sich damit der Kreis geschlossen." Rachel Portman hat in knapp 40 Jahren über 100 Scores für Film- und Fernseh-Produktionen komponiert und ist bekannt für ihre lyrischen Melodien und ihre reinen, transparenten Orchestrierungen. Darüber hinaus hat sie auch Musik für Opern (Le Petit Prince) und Theaterstücke und ein Oratorium komponiert. 1996 gewann sie als erste Frau einen Academy Award in der Kategorie Best Musical or Comedy Score für "Emma" und 2015 als erste Frau einen Primetime Emmy Award für "Outstanding Music Composition for a Mini Series, Movie or a Special" für "Bessie". Weitere Nominierungen erhielt sie u.a. für "Oliver Twist", "The Cider House Rules" und "Chocolat"."Jeder Film ist mit einer persönlichen Geschichte verbunden. Um diese Geschichten geht es in 'Beyond The Screen'" erklärt Rachel Portman.

Electronic music legend and head of Editions Mego, Peter Rehberg, teams up with zeitkratzer mastermind Reinhold Friedl. 3 side-long pieces melting electronic / contemporary avantgarde. Uncompromising.

When Peter "Pita" Rehberg and Reinhold Friedl first met each other, they did not like each other "at all," as Friedl emphasises with a hearty laugh. The two would however eventually bond over the years thanks to a mutual respect for each other's music. In the summer of 2021, they entered the studio together for the first time. Their joint album for Berlin's Karlrecords is a faithful document—no editing, no overdubs—of their improvisations during two recording sessions shortly before Rehberg's sudden and untimely passing on July 22nd of that year. The three pieces see Rehberg working with electronics and Friedl with his inside piano, proving that they had indeed managed to find a common ground—up to a point where it at times becomes hard to tell who plays what on this record.

Friedl ran into Rehberg in Zbigniew Karkowski's tiny Tokyo apartment in 1999 while organising the first edition of the Off-ICMC that was set to take place in the following year. "I came uninvited and slept a night at Zbigeniew's before Peter arrived and I had to move out," remembers Friedl, who ended up inviting the Mego founder to perform at the Off-ICMC even though he found it hard to relate to his music. "We had very different backgrounds: he came from industrial and I had roots in classical music and improv, a high-brow prick!" After having met several times at different concerts without ever really speaking to each other in the following years, a concert in Vienna in the late 2010s marked a turning point in their relationship (or lack thereof). Playing their sets back to back and loving every second of what the other was doing, the two finally clicked on musical level. "We met for dinner on each of the three following nights!," remembers Friedl.

The two would go on to become good friends, meeting regularly to discuss music and everything else while both were living in Vienna just a few minutes away from each other. Rehberg put out Friedl's collaboration with Eryck Abecassis, "Animal Électrique" on his Editions Mego label in 2020 and eventually they entered the studio twice for sessions that were completely improvised with no prior preparation. "Caciara," "Chiasso," and "Clamore"—named retrospectively after three Italian words for "noise"—capture the spontaneity of two artists who had always been outliers in their respective fields finding a common ground in sprawling dynamics and sonic intensity as well as enabling each other to expand their individual sound palettes. "Peter gave me cover," explains Friedl. "I had the feeling that I was able to do things I otherwise wouldn't play."

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Das Amsterdamer Duo Weval kündigt sein lang erwartetes neues Album, „Remember“, an, das am 3. März 2023 beim Ninja Tune-Sublabel Technicolour erscheint. Das Amsterdamer Duo Weval (bestehend aus Harm Coolen & Merijn Scholte Albers) veröffentlicht sein neues Album ‘Remember’. Es ist ein energiegeladener Trip voller nostalgischer Erinnerungen und euphorischer Emotionen, auf der das Elektronik-Duo in Erinnerungen an seine eigene musikalische Reise schwelgt und gleichzeitig über die wichtigsten Einflüsse und Inspirationen der letzten Jahre reflektiert. Dieses zentrale Thema wird in klanglichen Kontrasten erforscht, da Weval stark verzerrte Beats verwenden, die das Potenzial haben, Lautsprecher zu zerstören, nur um dann von melodisch hoffnungsvollen Akkorden vor dem Zusammenbruch gerettet zu werden. Ihr neuer bombastischer Sound ist das Ergebnis neuer Songwriting-Methoden, bei denen Weval scheinbar disparate Ideen, die völlig unterschiedliche Leben und Energien in sich tragen, miteinander vermischen. Elemente aus Pop, Dance und allen dazwischen liegenden Genres werden eingeworfen und zu ihrem bisher intensivsten, spontansten und gehaltvollsten Werk zusammengefügt.

Porta dei Mondi is the title of the new vinyl release of Distant Echoes on 24/H.

A solid work, the one proposed by the artist, a journey through sounds and atmospheres reminiscent of nature that with its dynamism and precision creates very special rhythms and melodies.

A return to the origins could be the key to this work, in a world that is splitting into increasingly distorted and chaotic visions, Distant Echos' research wants to bring back classic techno in its music, but with a more modern and futuristic vision

Sharing the spotlight along with the label owner Umwelt on this brand new split EP, Zeta Reticula the Slovenian born artist delivers two tracks of high intensity with distinct energy! Melodic "The Fate Of The Ship Unknown" opens A side with a pure robotic mayhem based upon synthetic strings, rushing leads and frantic arpeggiator flights over seductive vocals. Hostile and heading at the same. Progressive "Documented Contact", coming next, signs an intricate yet groovy electro sci-fi masterpiece made of rolling bassline, moody atmosphere and pounding beats. This is Zeta Reticula at its finest!

The Lord of Darkness treats the flipside with a more aggressive sound. As its title suggests, "Hyperspace" propels the listener at light speed through the depths of the universe thanks to a dystopian machinefunk atmosphere where hammering drums fuse with cold layers in Umwelt's typical trademark. Classical electro shaker "Earth To Unknown" concludes this uncompromising 12" with a luminous structure enhanced with a deeper and soulful approach.

Sharp, underground and always dancefloor oriented, this limited release comes packed in a colorful urban picture disc designed by the great CN6 aka Nexus 6!

SSoundway Records reissues a limited 1000 copy run of Nenad Jelic and Laza Ristovski"s seminal new age album Opera from 1986. Combining percussion-laden rhythms with synthesisers, vocal samples, and at times unexpected acoustic instruments, the album became a cult classic amongst fans of fourth world and avant garde music. Nenad Jelic is one of the most original artists to appear on the Serbian music scene, a percussionist obsessed with melody and silence, a multidisciplinary instrumentalist. A member of the line-up of musicians which released the cult album Balkan Impressions, he was one of the originators of the World Music movement in Serbia.

American singer-songwriter, poet, and photographer Thomas Meluch, known musically as Benoît Pioulard, returns with his most structured and vocal release to date. Titled »Eidetic,« a word denoting the ability to recall mental images with extraordinarily rich precision, the album presents unprecedented clarity and vitality for Benoît Pioulard. To access its thematic ground, Meluch looked inward with an affinity towards the people he loves during a period marked by his move from Seattle to Brooklyn in 2019. The resulting work engages with the universe's unflinching mortality and, as he says, »the ways it has modified and improved my relationships, especially with family.« Embodied by the creek, leaves, and ferns of the cover photography — taken in Michigan’s Burchfield Park, where he and his dad used to hike and »muse on existence« — the music glistens and unfurls with the flow of life he’s come to know. »Eidetic« is the culmination of Meluch's craft both as a producer and writer. An evocative sonic vocabulary meets deft lyrical introspection, articulated with the nuance, vulnerability, and confidence of a longtime artist hitting a stride.

Meluch has continually refined, redefined, and adjusted the focus of his gentle pop project over the last 20 years. Recorded primarily with guitar, tapes, and voice — and spanning labels with albums for Kranky, Morr Music, Beacon Sound, and Past Inside the Present — his catalog flows seamlessly between ambient improvisation and pop composition. Much like the analog photos that often accompany his releases, songs can feel dreamily softened and distant, and others beautifully vivid and detailed. 2021 full-length »Bloodless« found Meluch deep in droning decay, expressive yet wordless. With »Eidetic,« he swings back to sharpened forms. Lush banks of treated guitar and synth brush against hushed percussion; there is mist in the distance, but everything up close is intricately constructed and radiant. Meluch's voice is notably forward in the mix — a warm and calming tenor, a harmonic coo more than a whisper — ever-observant and actively processing.

To record much of the album, Meluch filled a cabin in rural Maine with his usual setup of simple percussion, a couple of Fender electrics, and a parlor guitar made by his friend who does bespoke luthier work. The modest utility is what he knows best, and here he pushes the output to its most pristine potential.

»Eidetic« opens in a swirl of familiar haze; »Margaret Murie« eases listeners in, as lush and verdant as the landscapes conserved by its famed namesake. With the setting established, Meluch, the narrator, enters the foreground with »Crux,« a tender piece written about finding new motivations in a new city. »We covet this rare green hue / Here at the farthest point from home,« he sings above a reassuring pattern of strums and percussion. Meluch's prose shines on the swiftly-moving »Nameless,« inspired by the neurological effects that came with the antiquated practice of manufacturing mercury mirrors; »folks would slowly go insane while looking into their own reflections every day,« he adds. The idea informs a series of surreal abstractions before everything drops out in the final minute, and we are left free-floating in eerie nothingness.

Across the album, labyrinthine lyrical ponderings scatter with dazzling imagery, artfully blurring scenes from world history with Meluch's more personal, present-day. The propulsive and earnest »Thursday Night« catches his mind overly active and too stoned, riffing on black holes and songwriting itself. »Halve« references the splitting of the atom, what he considers »the beginning of man's downfall,« and the unrealized initiative proposed by the US government that would have created 'nuclear refuges' in its national parks. Meluch's loved ones weave throughout; »Tet« holds his father's experience in Vietnam and its lasting effects. »Lillian Isola« touches on his maternal grandmother's spinal curvature, and »Pastel Dust« navigates the wake of his cat, who died on New Year's Eve 2020.

At first blush, Meluch's atmospheric and melodic sensibilities resonate purely in their own right. Upon closer meditation, his ability to render stories — many of which surround human tragedy, misfortune, and understanding — through the prism of his poetry makes »Eidetic« even more rewarding.

Dark Green Vinyl

American singer-songwriter, poet, and photographer Thomas Meluch, known musically as Benoît Pioulard, returns with his most structured and vocal release to date. Titled »Eidetic,« a word denoting the ability to recall mental images with extraordinarily rich precision, the album presents unprecedented clarity and vitality for Benoît Pioulard. To access its thematic ground, Meluch looked inward with an affinity towards the people he loves during a period marked by his move from Seattle to Brooklyn in 2019. The resulting work engages with the universe's unflinching mortality and, as he says, »the ways it has modified and improved my relationships, especially with family.« Embodied by the creek, leaves, and ferns of the cover photography — taken in Michigan’s Burchfield Park, where he and his dad used to hike and »muse on existence« — the music glistens and unfurls with the flow of life he’s come to know. »Eidetic« is the culmination of Meluch's craft both as a producer and writer. An evocative sonic vocabulary meets deft lyrical introspection, articulated with the nuance, vulnerability, and confidence of a longtime artist hitting a stride.

Meluch has continually refined, redefined, and adjusted the focus of his gentle pop project over the last 20 years. Recorded primarily with guitar, tapes, and voice — and spanning labels with albums for Kranky, Morr Music, Beacon Sound, and Past Inside the Present — his catalog flows seamlessly between ambient improvisation and pop composition. Much like the analog photos that often accompany his releases, songs can feel dreamily softened and distant, and others beautifully vivid and detailed. 2021 full-length »Bloodless« found Meluch deep in droning decay, expressive yet wordless. With »Eidetic,« he swings back to sharpened forms. Lush banks of treated guitar and synth brush against hushed percussion; there is mist in the distance, but everything up close is intricately constructed and radiant. Meluch's voice is notably forward in the mix — a warm and calming tenor, a harmonic coo more than a whisper — ever-observant and actively processing.

To record much of the album, Meluch filled a cabin in rural Maine with his usual setup of simple percussion, a couple of Fender electrics, and a parlor guitar made by his friend who does bespoke luthier work. The modest utility is what he knows best, and here he pushes the output to its most pristine potential.

»Eidetic« opens in a swirl of familiar haze; »Margaret Murie« eases listeners in, as lush and verdant as the landscapes conserved by its famed namesake. With the setting established, Meluch, the narrator, enters the foreground with »Crux,« a tender piece written about finding new motivations in a new city. »We covet this rare green hue / Here at the farthest point from home,« he sings above a reassuring pattern of strums and percussion. Meluch's prose shines on the swiftly-moving »Nameless,« inspired by the neurological effects that came with the antiquated practice of manufacturing mercury mirrors; »folks would slowly go insane while looking into their own reflections every day,« he adds. The idea informs a series of surreal abstractions before everything drops out in the final minute, and we are left free-floating in eerie nothingness.

Across the album, labyrinthine lyrical ponderings scatter with dazzling imagery, artfully blurring scenes from world history with Meluch's more personal, present-day. The propulsive and earnest »Thursday Night« catches his mind overly active and too stoned, riffing on black holes and songwriting itself. »Halve« references the splitting of the atom, what he considers »the beginning of man's downfall,« and the unrealized initiative proposed by the US government that would have created 'nuclear refuges' in its national parks. Meluch's loved ones weave throughout; »Tet« holds his father's experience in Vietnam and its lasting effects. »Lillian Isola« touches on his maternal grandmother's spinal curvature, and »Pastel Dust« navigates the wake of his cat, who died on New Year's Eve 2020.

At first blush, Meluch's atmospheric and melodic sensibilities resonate purely in their own right. Upon closer meditation, his ability to render stories — many of which surround human tragedy, misfortune, and understanding — through the prism of his poetry makes »Eidetic« even more rewarding.

First album of the self-titled band ‘Sheikhs Shikhats & B’net Chaabi’, to be released in March 2023.

‘Sheikhs Shikhats & B'net Chaabi’ is a colorful and exuberant ensemble led by Laïla Amezian. Through this project, Laïla wants to pay tribute to the shikhats and ghanayats, female singers who fought for freedom of expression in 19th century Morocco through popular songs. She surrounds herself with Laurent Blondiau for the musical direction and 16 other renowned musicians and vocalists, including jazz saxophonist Toine Thys, tubist Michel Massot, trumpeter Pauline Leblond, young trombonist Nabou Claerhout and female singer-percussionists of the Sultanats B'net Chaabi.

The release of the album is accompanied by a concert tour in Antwerp, Brussels, Leuven and Rotterdam (NL), amongst others. Want a taste of their exciting mix of jazz, urban ethno and traditional Moroccan songs? They will drop a first single online on the 23rd of November 2022. Expect alluring melodies, enchanting vocals, breathtaking brass instruments and an explosive chaabi groove!

Lawrence Hayward knew that he wanted to be a pop star as a teen, and he devised a plan to release ten albums and ten singles over ten years to make that dream come true. A particular and determined individual, he would only be known as Lawrence from that day forward. His hopes for stardom would be pinned on his newly formed band, the succinctly named Felt. Soon signed to Cherry Red Records, Lawrence’s achingly cool vocals and the group’s way with walking melodies were evident on their debut for the label, “Something Sends Me To Sleep.” This compilation collects material from Felt’s Cherry Red period of 1981 to 1985, kicking off with that confident start, assembling numerous high points, and closing with their biggest hit, “Primitive Painters.”

This phase of the band is defined by the songwriting partnership and unique interplay of Lawrence and guitarist Maurice Deebank, with Deebank’s stylish and confident playing the envy of many of their counterparts. He delivers a constant string of shimmering hooks that wrap themselves around and over top of Lawrence’s more traditional beat combo song structures, as if trying to fit four songs worth of ideas into a pre-set radio friendly cutoff time. It works wonderfully as Lawrence always counters with a solid bedrock.

In one of many brushes with the brass ring, in 1984 Felt recorded versions of “Dismantled King Is Off The Throne” and “Sunlight Bathed The Golden Glow,” for the newly formed and Warners-backed label Blanco y Negro, in hopes that the band would follow their A+R man Mike Alway to the executive suite. Despite putting forward two of their finest songs, it was not to be. While major label dreams had to remain on the shelf, fans were delighted to be able to hear these beautifully stripped down and more direct versions when this compilation was released a few years later.

By 1985 the Felt roller coaster was something Maurice Deebank was constantly getting on and off of. As Gary Ainge always kept the beat, and Lawrence never lost focus, they were joined by local teen prodigy Martin Duffy on keyboards, filling out the arrangements, and following Deebank’s racing six-string cascades in “The Day The Rain Came Down” you can even hear a tiny hint of the next phase of the band in Duffy’s organ before Maurice swoops to the finish. The newly expanded Felt would then put everything they had into making one of the defining releases of the 80s: “Primitive Painters.”

Lawrence Hayward knew that he wanted to be a pop star as a teen, and he devised a plan to release ten albums and ten singles over ten years to make that dream come true. A particular and determined individual, he would only be known as Lawrence from that day forward. His hopes for stardom would be pinned on his newly formed band, the succinctly named Felt. Soon signed to Cherry Red Records, Lawrence’s achingly cool vocals and the group’s way with walking melodies were evident on their debut for the label, “Something Sends Me To Sleep.” This compilation collects material from Felt’s Cherry Red period of 1981 to 1985, kicking off with that confident start, assembling numerous high points, and closing with their biggest hit, “Primitive Painters.”

This phase of the band is defined by the songwriting partnership and unique interplay of Lawrence and guitarist Maurice Deebank, with Deebank’s stylish and confident playing the envy of many of their counterparts. He delivers a constant string of shimmering hooks that wrap themselves around and over top of Lawrence’s more traditional beat combo song structures, as if trying to fit four songs worth of ideas into a pre-set radio friendly cutoff time. It works wonderfully as Lawrence always counters with a solid bedrock.

In one of many brushes with the brass ring, in 1984 Felt recorded versions of “Dismantled King Is Off The Throne” and “Sunlight Bathed The Golden Glow,” for the newly formed and Warners-backed label Blanco y Negro, in hopes that the band would follow their A+R man Mike Alway to the executive suite. Despite putting forward two of their finest songs, it was not to be. While major label dreams had to remain on the shelf, fans were delighted to be able to hear these beautifully stripped down and more direct versions when this compilation was released a few years later.

By 1985 the Felt roller coaster was something Maurice Deebank was constantly getting on and off of. As Gary Ainge always kept the beat, and Lawrence never lost focus, they were joined by local teen prodigy Martin Duffy on keyboards, filling out the arrangements, and following Deebank’s racing six-string cascades in “The Day The Rain Came Down” you can even hear a tiny hint of the next phase of the band in Duffy’s organ before Maurice swoops to the finish. The newly expanded Felt would then put everything they had into making one of the defining releases of the 80s: “Primitive Painters.”

Dauw welcomes back Jogging House to the label for the first release of the year 2023. His new album Face is a synthbathed meditation on decay and acceptance and shows the typical Jogging House sound in which warm soundscapes are mingled with soft and playful melodies.

Boris Potschubay is a German musician based in Frankfurt am Main. Besides his own music, Potschubay curates his own label, Seil Records which forms a home for Hainbach, KMRU among others. Jogging House debuted in 2011 and brought us more than a dozen releases in the meantime. Listening to all the records chronologically one after the other, demonstrates us how Potschubay is experimenting a wide range of sound sources and creates a variety of atmospheres but stays true to its own individuality.

Dauw welcomes back Jogging House to the label for the first release of the year 2023. His new album Face is a synthbathed meditation on decay and acceptance and shows the typical Jogging House sound in which warm soundscapes are mingled with soft and playful melodies.

Boris Potschubay is a German musician based in Frankfurt am Main. Besides his own music, Potschubay curates his own label, Seil Records which forms a home for Hainbach, KMRU among others. Jogging House debuted in 2011 and brought us more than a dozen releases in the meantime. Listening to all the records chronologically one after the other, demonstrates us how Potschubay is experimenting a wide range of sound sources and creates a variety of atmospheres but stays true to its own individuality.