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The last couple of years have seen a renaissance for West Coast singer-songwriters. LA-based youngsters such as Drugdealer and Sylvie have attracted considerable attention releasing warm and mellow records tonally reminiscent of the early 70s. Most fans of this new/old sound are unaware of Bart Davenport's early explorations in the same sonic territory. His now 20-year-old "Game Preserve"album should gain an appreciative new audience with its first ever vinyl release.

In the year 2000, Bay Area troubadour Bart Davenport and several other musicians were recruited by a major tech corporation in Seattle to work on an algorithm-based music matching/search engine. It was what looked like the beginning of a promising career. After a year, however, the project was shelved. Bart and his colleagues were laid off with a healthy severance package... on the 12th of September, 2001. Not only had the musician's life changed, so had the world. Rather than blow the money on a holiday or new car, Bart knew he had to make a record. A proper album that meant something.

Back in Oakland, he entered Wally Sound Studios with former Kinetics bandmate Jon Erickson at the controls, and a swathe of talented local musicians. "With Game Preserve," Bart explains, "Jon and I really wanted to knock it out of the park. I wanted to utilize people from my old bands like Loved Ones drummer John Kent. I also invited my newer indie-pop friends from Call & Response, and a young Nedelle Torrisi. Harmony singing by The Moore Brothers was an essential ingredient on Game Preserve as well."

Both Erickson and Davenport fondly recall growing up in households where the music of The Carpenters, Joni Mitchell and The Eagles soundtracked their young lives. By the early 00s they were ready to reconnect with what is often referred to as the "Laurel Canyon" sound. "I'd buy used tapes at garage sales and play them in the car. "Ladies Of The Canyon" by Joni and Jackson Browne's first album were both in heavy rotation. Jon Erickson was getting deeper into the Steely-Mac-Doobie yacht-rock sound in earnest. A certain amount of childhood nostalgia led a lot of us back to that part of the 70s. I'd flirted with classic soft-rock on my first album, but that record was pretty scattered esthetically. I wanted my next one to be more focused. Jon and I made some ground rules: no electric guitars (except on 'Bar-Code Trees'). No synths. Most importantly, all the songs have an air-tight, super dead, close mic'd drum sound. Putting these sorts of limitations on the sessions will give your record a specific quality. In the case of "Game Preserve"it's mostly about tight drums, acoustic instruments and analog production. We used a 24-track, two-inch tape machine for tracking, then ran the mixes through an analog board straight to a 1/4 inch master tape."

While the album's sonic palette may be firmly planted in 1970, Davenport's songwriting covers a sizable landscape of moods and reflections. From the quasi-flamenco intro of 'Sweetest Game' to the somber Wurlitzer of 'Nowhere Left To Go', to the 12-string shimmer of 'Intertwine', "Game Preserve" tells a story of young love, lost innocence and redemption, crossing borders and oceans along the way.

Released in 2003 on family-run Oakland label Antenna Farm, the ultra-analog sounding "Game Preserve" was only made available on digital formats, including CD. Copies were later pressed by labels in Germany and Spain; the latter being one country the album actually did well in, establishing Bart Davenport with a small but loyal fanbase he still enjoys today. Two European tours as support for Kings of Convenience also helped gain a foothold on the continent. Back in the US, however, Davenport and his sophomore album remained quite obscure.

Limited promotion meant it did little, but for the music lovers that heard it, the album undoubtedly remains a classic of the era, deserving far more. Twenty years on, it now finally receives its vinyl debut. "I personally think it holds up well," says Bart of the album two decades later. "The idea was to make something that could be an homage to late 60s/early 70s West Coast pop but hopefully timeless as well. Years on, I hear it as just that. It was a colorful and brief period of my life that felt at times like it could last forever. I discovered the joy of working in a proper studio with a perfect cast of characters. I'm still very close with all these people and still play music with many of them."

Highly regarded as a former resident at Salon Des Amateurs at his native Düsseldorf, Tolouse Low Trax/Detlef Weinrich has carved one of the most distinctive sounds in contemporary leftfield club music thanks to his deeply unusual grooves and hypnotic arrangements over the past 15 years as a solo artist.
Fung Day is his first album with entirely new material since Leave me alone which was released through Bureau B in 2022. Fung Day was written and recorded over the course of two years, slowly mutating and progressing from one state to another. Mixed, produced and finally mastered in Paris, his new domicile by choice.

A few words by Yvan Smagghe about Fung Day:
„He pretended he was in exile from Germany but he was a French lover like all of us; his MPC Sampler was smoking hot, an Enigma machine, an ashtray full of ghosts. I had left Paris for the same reasons he came. I could strangely relate. We’d met before he left Düsseldorf, and I knew of him through his oeuvre, his art over words (they were few) and piercing blue eyes.

He was now texting me on a night train from Warsaw going East, as in a Greene novel, asking me to go over his file. He sent me a spontaneous, fun, brave and bold record which is his new album - one that curiously smelled of mechanical grease - machinery of the soul, broken transport rhythms, samples like memories, noise at peace. Referenced yet uncoded. I don’t believe in ulterior motives and complex explanations. Not here at least. On the other hand, I do believe that works can be exposure - especially with the silent type or mistaken identities - and I knew about these too.“ - London, 2024

Highly regarded as a former resident at Salon Des Amateurs at his native Düsseldorf, Tolouse Low Trax/Detlef Weinrich has carved one of the most distinctive sounds in contemporary leftfield club music thanks to his deeply unusual grooves and hypnotic arrangements over the past 15 years as a solo artist. Fung Day is his first album with entirely new material since Leave me alone which was released through Bureau B in 2022. Fung Day was written and recorded over the course of two years, slowly mutating and progressing from one state to another. Mixed, produced and finally mastered in Paris, his new domicile by choice.

Producer, designer, publisher, filmmaker, all-round scene phenom - Lasse Marhaug returns with his first album since relocating from Oslo to the Arctic Circle, surveying his 35-year career for a set of grizzled, doom-pocked rhythms and foghorn drones pulled from the aether. Expansive and hard to categorise, it's a precision-tooled set of ice-cold tonal productions that heavily lean into Mika Vainio’s rhythm experiments, with extra levels of growling bass and curious noises to send us deep into the uncanny.

Lasse Marhaug has put his mark on literally hundreds of albums - working with artists like Jenny Hval, Merzbow, Jim O'Rourke, Kevin Drumm, Hilary Woods - so many others - yet he still regards himself as a primarily visual artist who got diverted into an occasionally different path. If his last album 'Context' was a kiss goodbye to decades of life in Oslo, 'Provoke' turns a new page, but one that draws heavily from memories of the distant past, reflecting on the way the topographies of Norway's frozen north helped shape his creative worldview. Weaving electronics into environmental recordings captured in the bleak Arctic winter, the album was mixed during the Polar night season, when, for two straight months, the sun never rose past the horizon. Somehow, even at its bleakest, Marhaug avoids the usual aesthetic signifiers for this kinda thing, finding elements of queered beauty in all the severity, juxtaposing elements that shine a bright light on all the odd spaces in-between.

A consideration of noise music's place in 2024, and whether it can still be a tool for subversion when its aesthetics have been so commodified, ‘Provoke’ also refernces an experimental '70s Japanese art magazine that attempted to define a new language for photography. Operating somewhere between these two guiding poles, Lasse feels his way through a subtly altered mode of expression, a new approach to familiar concepts. Album opener ‘Plates’, for example, gives it the full Ø treatment, like some exceptional ‘Oleva’-outtake, but , eventually, shards of interference start to exhale like horses blowing, creating uncanny sensations that hit through ambiguous feeling rather than sheer noise terror. Ritualistic, corporeal - hard to know what you’re listening to and why it makes you feel that certain way - so much more than just machine cycles optimised for their ultimately hollow brutalist aesthetic.

Marhaug paints vivid pictures from a carefully chosen palette, drawing us into a soundworld that's rich with contradictions and contrasts. Even the relatively deafening 'New Topographics' offsets its wall of distortion with a muffled, perforating kick drum, cutting into the noise like a knife through butter. And all of this preparation makes the album's lengthy centrepiece 'Monochrome Head' even more impactful; hinging on a Pan Sonic-like alloy of bass and drums, the track snowballs through tempered feedback and improv scrapes and whistles that pick up into an orchestral din. Marhaug accents the bluster with rhythmic hums that gather in momentum until they're almost oppressively heavy, as if everything's about to collapse.

A masterclass in quietly subversive world-building, 'Provoke' invites us to peer at an expansive sonic landscape and marvel at its intricacies, but this time around there's a Lovecraftian behemoth lurking somewhere beneath its icy surface.

Hitting their tenth release, Heels & Souls Recordings journey to South Africa reissuing Hot Slot Machine’s pioneering and sought after self-titled album from 1992. Cultivating a sound and vibe that took South Africa by storm in the early '90s, the six track LP took influence from the genres that drifted over the Atlantic from the US and UK. From house and R&B, through to soul, hip-hop and reggae - creating a rhythm-driven, bass-heavy blend of them all, repackaged with a township flavour.

Known to many as Joe Nina, Makhosini Henry Xaba’s early forays into production would help lay the foundation for the infectious, groove-laden genre that would go on to be labelled as kwaito. With two albums already under his belt as T. McCool and King Rap, aged just 16 Makhosini wrote and produced Hot Slot Machine with the help of Gerdes Chessman - an LP that was far beyond both its time and his youthful years.

Striving to imitate the heavy house sounds inbound from the UK and America, artists like Blackbox and Ten City became big influences. Hot Slot Machine radiates with those impressions, providing something unique in South Africa in the early ‘90s. Leaning more into house and hip hop than the disco-flavoured bubblegum rhythms, the tracks were richer in sound, heavier on the synths and powered by rattling basslines.

Undeniably infectious and unquestionably well put together, the album contains six hits and no misses. With the chunky hip house grooves of ‘Rhythm’, ‘Unchain My Heart’ and ‘Shake Ya Down’, running side by side with the low slung, magnetic bounce of ‘Lookin’ Mix’, ‘I’ll Be Ready’ and ‘Lovin’ Mix’.

Sadly the tapes were long lost, so the wizards Sean P and Justin Drake ripped and restored the album, with Justin giving it a well-deserved remaster. Licensed from Gallo with the blessing of Makhosini, this truly must-have LP now comes complete with a printed inner sleeve housing liner notes and never-before-seen photography.

Original copies changing hands for £50+ on Discogs. Remastered and reissued for the first time since 1992!

The only album to soundtrack both late-'70s Minneapolis lounges and a Travis Scott x Dior fashion show. Recorded in a host of living rooms with only a Fender Rhodes piano, a Donca Matic Mini Pops drum machine, and Senrick's wide-eyed, 20-year-old voice, the 1977 LP disappeared into the wild and joined the Wendigo in Minnesota lore. A provocative mix of marina soul, easy listening, and loner folk, Dreamin' is a sanguine sliver of the American private mind garden. Harsh winters coupled with a relative lack of interest amongst siblings allowed Chuck Senrick years of unfettered access to the family piano in their Farmington, Minnesota, home. Learning both by ear and by instruction, Senrick began gigging professionally at age 15, joining John Zimmer and the CR4 for a weekly rundown of Allman Brothers, Blind Faith, and Cream covers at the Sea Girt Inn in Lake Orchard. Tapping into James Taylor's pop-chart achievements in songwriting and enunciation, Senrick composed the bulk of the songs featured on Dreamin' before graduating from Farmington High School. At 20, Senrick migrated 30 miles north to the Twin Cities to pursue music full-time. Using borrowed equipment and borrowed living rooms, a string of informal recording sessions generated the quarter-inch tape for Dreamin'. "I didn't know how to do it," Senrick says about producing an album. "I just knew it could be done." Constructed with vocals, Fender Rhodes, and an assortment of rhythm presets on his Donca Matic Mini Pops drum machine, a mere 200 copies of the private-press masterpiece were stamped and sleeved and sold hand-to-hand at performances. Chuck's wife Lesli illustrated the album cover_a pen-to-paper portrait of her husband against the backdrop of the Minneapolis Skyline, she and their newborn son situated on a nearby knoll. Any plans for a re-press were quashed when producer Bruce W. Hansen lost the reels during a messy divorce. "I was a kid with big ideas and not much hope to do anything but play," Senrick said of the Dreamin' era. "It still amazes me that people are interested in it."

Belgian-born producer Gratts and pioneering Chicago vocalist Robert Owens first collaborated on 'Brighter Future' back in 2021 after meeting in the streets of Kreuzberg years before. The pair now join forces again for follow up 'Today', a powerful and emotive, 90s inspired deep house cut with layered backings and Owens' lilting affirmations soaring above. The extended club version takes you straight to house music's ecstatic heydays, while the twelve also includes an acapella tool for those singalong moments. On the flip, Mark Hand's slower, soulful rendition takes things into sideroom territory. Finally, 'Mount Olympus', home to the Greek deities, fuses a rattling drum machine, arpeggiated synth lines and a potent analogue bassline - with added bonus beats to bang the box and get weird!

Less than a year after Botanical Illustration takes patience and Skill EP, Giovanni Natalini aka CO-PILOT, comes back on Simona Faraone’s label, New Interplanetary Melodies, with the Green Machine album, which is its natural prosecution: inside it we also find the three tracks previously published by the same label in audio cassette format only (NIM001- MC).

Green Machine is a concept album, which takes up and develops the ecological issues already treated by the artist in his previous work, namely the increasingly tricky dichotomy between nature and machine and the harmful impact of humans on it.

The A side opens with the already published Botanical Illustration takes patience and Skill (A1), an 8 minutes suite in which the powerful Live drum breaks are perfectly combined with synths and vocal samples, transporting us to the tops of exotic mountains, to continue with the ecstatic Himawari (A2) that sounds like a “desert session” made on Mount Fuji, for a result of pure musical mysticism and finally, Mother Love Nature pt.1 (A3), a track that takes us back to more familiar territories, winking at the most experimental British trip hop of recent memory and Mother Love Nature pt.2 (A4) characterized by a background of modular synths and nature sounds effects that precede Giovanni’s powerful drums, underlining once again this perfect fusion of organic and synthesized sounds.

Side B opens with the psychedelic choruses of Dancing Like Fela (B1) supported by synthetic arpeggios and a frenetic drumline sounds like a breakbeat. Continuing along this side, we come to the unsettling use of vocal samples on the beautiful Halo (B2), the ethereal and danceable art-pop of Lost You - In Translation - (B3) to conclude with the evocative Playing the Zurna in Ulan Bator (B4), a track with a pressing rhythm and elegant arrangements that once again underlines Giovanni Natalini’s mastery in mixing sounds and suggestions that are apparently far away but that always find the right place.

Green Machine sounds like a valid attempt to finally find a “solid” balance between humans and nature, but it also demonstrates how the continuous mixing of sounds is the most effective way to escape from the homologation that is increasingly widespread in contemporary society.

Tristan Arp returns to Wisdom Teeth with his sophomore LP: ‘a pool, a portal’ - a vast, multi-dimensional record of pin-drop rhythms, hushed vocals and swirling ambience that maps out a vivid limbic space between the natural and the digital worlds. The LP began life while Tristan was still living in Mexico City, and was subsequently finished in New York. Carrying on from where his acclaimed debut ‘Sculpturegardening’ left off, the record marries hallucinatory modular synths with cello, found sound and spoken word, creating a rich sonic world in which machines mimic nature and acoustic instruments merge with their digital counterparts. Across the record’s narrative arc, listeners are invited to imagine a future world in which nature and machines collaborate to rewild and search for new modes of being. Far from apocalyptic, the artist’s vision is yearning and hopeful - a reflection on how we might evolve to overcome our very human limitations. “Hopefully we can all open a little portal into another world and integrate what we learn into our own”, Tristan offers. True to his word, Tristan shared much of the creative process with his machines, using modular generative processes to create randomised, improvisatory moments that he could collaborate on as artist and observer. Most of the tracks were captured in single takes as live performances and improvisations that were subsequently edited and cut down. Speaking of ‘Life After Humans’ - the record’s beguiling 10-minute centrepiece - Tristan recalls: “I neglected to record multi-track outs, but it was actually super empowering to be left with just a stereo track: I couldn’t mix individual elements even if I wanted to after the recording, but I’m happy I inadvertently limited myself in that way.” Alongside his own voice, the record features a stunning appearance from fast-rising Guatemalan cellist and vocalist, Mabe Fratti. The pair met in Mexico City in 2020, where she helped Tristan to learn cello - an encounter that ultimately went on to inform the recordings that made up ‘Sculpturegardening’. Her appearance on ‘a pool, a portal’ marks a full-circle moment in their creative relationship. The album’s artwork features photography by Zhang An - a photographer based in Nanjing, China. Despite their appearances, these are unmanipulated photos of real-world ice formations. As is the case throughout ‘a pool, a portal’, the lines between the natural and the artificial are playfully indistinct.

Robert Sotelo is a bedroom pop songsmith who lives in Glasgow. Sotelo has released six albums since 2017, three of which came out on Upset The Rhythm. He also performs in Order of the Toad, Dancer and Nightshift. Mary Currie is best known as half of touchstone DIY experimentalists Flaming Tunes, alongside Gareth Williams (of This Heat). Currie also performed in Officer! with Mick Hobbs amongst others.
Introduced via a mutual friend, Sotelo approached Currie last year about collaborating on four songs he was constructing with producer/electronic guru Joe Howe. This resulted in the ‘Dream Songs’ 7” EP (out October 4th on Upset The Rhythm).
Not only does the title capture the hazy, reflective nature of the music it also expounds on the origin of tracks. Sotelo experienced several lucid dreams in the first half of 2023 that left him in a state of confusion. He recalled visiting parts of London vividly, including a disused theatre of great familiarity, yet it slowly transpired that these places and circumstances were not real, much to Sotelo's disbelief.
These reveries informed the lyrical narrative of the four songs from the forthcoming EP. Currie took a similar approach with her lyrics, focusing on memory and time for her passages on the record. Currie recorded her parts in London (assisted by her good friend Alison Craig) and then sent them to Howe, alongside additional location recordings to consolidate into the mixes. These four tracks flutter with a minimalist bass, drum machine and keys dynamic, allowing Sotelo and Currie’s vocals to speak deeply into the back of your mind. ‘Expectations’ is a pensive triumph of whirled moments and momentum with Currie’s final words lending much gravity “the outcome of my days is always the same, a void that must be filled, a battle against time that drags us along; mutating, spinning, ebbing, flowing. Begin again, we work to give value to time.” ‘Telegraph Hill’ boasts a glossy fluidity, as it plays with images of motorways, ancient citadels, crows, paralysis and emanations. ‘Lady Fortune’ meanwhile is a tranquil treatise on fate, imbued with finessed electronic embellishments and clarinet flourishes. You can't quite trust where these songs will take you, they feel particularly mercurial. Dreams indeed.
‘Dream Songs’ by Robert Sotelo & Mary Currie will be released on October 4th, followed by some live performances from the band. These will include the aforementioned EP tracks, as well as recreated cuts from the Flaming Tunes era, leaning into happenstance rather aptly.

Expected late October/early November

Scott Gilmore’s Volume 01, an Analog Synth Gem, Makes Its Vinyl Debut - Pressed at 45RPM for maximum fidelity.

Recorded on a vintage Tascam 388, the LP version of Gilmore’s alluring, easy-going instrumental electronic record arrives in the physical world via In Sheep’s Clothing Hi-Fi Records.

Los Angeles, CA — When the Los Angeles electronic musician and multi-instrumentalist Scott Gilmore recalls the creation of the songs on Volume 01, he describes specific moments of spontaneous inspiration. “I remember sitting at the tape deck, watching the leaves outside the window as they flittered in the sunlight—a moment of stillness that became intertwined with the melody I was recording,” Gilmore recalls, speaking of the track “Song For Cate.”

This sense of simplicity and presence is at the heart of Volume 01, which was recorded entirely on a Tascam 388 using a carefully curated selection of instruments.

Volume 01, an intimate, instinctual album that mixes lo-fi digital rhythms, strummed guitar, and melodic synth layers, is a collection of songs that captures Gilmore’s magnetic fluidity and the spontaneity of his process. Initially released digitally and as a limited edition cassette, Volume 01 is set to be issued on vinyl for the first time by In Sheep’s Clothing Hi-Fi.

The Tascam 388 is a classic mid-1980s analog machine that combines an 8-track reel-to-reel tape recorder with a built-in mixing console. Volume 01 exudes the kind of hazy, nostalgic warmth that only such recorders can provide. For the nine-song album, Gilmore harnessed analog synths including the Arp Odyssey, Yamaha CS-01, Korg DW-8000, Hohner Pianet T, Roland TR 606, and Roland SH 101, as well as bamboo alto saxophone, clarinet, electric guitar, and electric bass.

The album is awash in brief, propellant pieces. At just over four minutes, the relatively epic “Horizon Line” is driven by a three-note snare pattern, a two-note cymbal tap, with a humble bass-line serving as the rudder; Gilmore’s improvised keyboard runs move with an intuitive, conversational glee. The pensive "Shade" sounds like it could be a Penguin Cafe Orchestra demo. Closing track “D. Hareem” runs on a wobbly time signature but with an insistent, determined rhythm that belies genre descriptives. “I prefer to not know what I’m making as I compose,” Gilmore says. “It’s when I can’t clearly define what the music is that it’s then something that I want to put out into the world.”

In hindsight, Volume 01 was a portent. After its 2016 cassette release, Gilmore connected with International Feel, the Balearic imprint run by Marc Barrot, to release the sublime Subtle Vertigo. In 2019, Gilmore’s music caught the attention of Marc Hollander, the experimental composer and founding member of Aksak Maboul, which led to a signing with the Belgian label Crammed Discs. That deal enabled the creation of Gilmore’s solo album Two Roomed Motel and Doctor Fluorescent, a retro-futuristic, Vocoder-heavy 2020 collaboration with Eddie Ruscha V, a.k.a. Secret Circuit). Across these projects, Gilmore’s work has been mentioned in the same sentences as Stereolab, Arthur Russell, Woo, Air, R. Stevie Moore, and others, all of whom have combined synths and non-synths to memorable effect.

With the upcoming vinyl release, Volume 01 will set into wax an enduring set of works, offering listeners the chance to experience analog artistry in its most authentic, tangible form. In Sheep’s Clothing Records is honored to bring Gilmore’s work to vinyl.

Kylie invites fans to return to the dancefloor with a collection celebrating all things ‘DISCO’.

DISCO’ was released in November 2020 and entered the charts at Number 1 in the UK, making it Kylie’s eighth UK Number 1 album. It is a record-breaking release for the pop icon, making Kylie the first female solo artist to claim Number 1 albums in five consecutive decades (‘80s, ‘90s, ‘00s, ‘10s, and ‘20s). ‘DISCO’ received widespread critical acclaim, deemed ‘an irresistible tonic to real life. Thank God for Kylie Minogue’ by Metro in a 5* review, ‘the ultimate rescue remedy’ by The Observer (4*) and ‘an exquisitely produced, effervescent tribute to 70s and 80s disco music and dance as escapism’ by The i (4*).

For ‘DISCO’, Kylie worked with long-time collaborator Biff Standard plus Sky Adams (with whom she worked with on Golden), Teemu Brunila (David Guetta, Jason Derulo) and Maegan Cottone (Iggy Azalea, Demi Lovato), alongside others. The album was largely recorded in lockdown with each team member recording and working from a separate location, leading to Kylie having a vocal engineering credit on all but two of the sixteen tracks on the record.

Strange Power!, the fifth record from Durham, NC-based songwriter and poet Anne Malin Ringwalt, emerges from the darkest waters of the self into a world remade. Releasing in conjunction with her second book of poetry, What Floods (Inside the Castle, Oct. 2024), Strange Power! overflows with Ringwalt's teeming and sensuous personal symbolry: glowing lilacs and gentle queens, dolphins wild and girls who grew up brave _ T.S. Eliot sung by Cat Power, backed by Mount Eerie. She sings: "I rose up from water." Ringwalt writes and performs with the authority of a lifetime spent harnessing the alchemy of storytelling; her belief in the power of words to heal and transform is palpable in each achingly- delivered lyric. Made amidst profound inner and outer change, Strange Power! also sees Ringwalt taking up the role of self-producer for the first time, mirroring and supporting the record's Orphic quest by gathering contributions from a coterie of friends wielding an electric range of American instruments. Violins, vibraphones, drum machines, electric guitars dappled with spring reverb, wind-blown shells, and a host of other numinous sounds form an unfurling and shadowy world which was then carefully honed during the mixing process (shepherded by Michael Cormier-O'Leary and Lucas Knapp) _ settling the final record in an eerie meridian between spareness and verdancy. The result is a beguiling and darkly blooming realm: the sound of a personal cosmos being remade, piece by piece. Ringwalt is at the height of her spirit as both songwriter-poet and singer, her willowy voice by turns conjuring and keening as she reckons with her deep past and the stories told since. Opening track "The Pines" sets the stage for a record of truly life-long scope: "I was a child, now I hold her / I was asleep for many years." Some songs, like the gorgeous "North Carolina" and "The Saint," were written as early as 2013 but, Ringwalt says, "insisted upon being remembered" as the record took shape; in its final form, they serve as inciting moments of self-discovery before the journey to come. "The Visionary" recalls one of Ringwalt's earliest musical breakthroughs _ her re-rendering of an Emily Brontë poem into a song at age 15 _ and, she says, "`cites' the melody of that song in the context of this new one _ a holding of the past and present and every layer in between/beyond, in utter solitude _ a solitude that reflects certain aspects of abandon as a child and an adult..." This unusually lengthy time-scale lends Strange Power! a deeply moving sense of narrative fullness. Stretches of the record _ particularly the "Judgment Day" ? "River" ? "Lilac Bloom" trifecta that form the black heart of Side 1 _ may recall familiar wanderings of personal underworlds such as Mount Eerie's Lost Wisdom Pt. 2 or Neil Young's Ditch Trilogy. Yet this hollowed landscape is in turn exorcized by the a capella "I Know," in which Ringwalt sings "I won't be gutted by you / For giving and trying to heal / I won't be gutted, I am not a fool / I deserve a love that is new" before the song concludes with a piano passage that recalls hymnal music _ suggesting a faith in life itself to offer new beginnings. Side 2 features some of Ringwalt's most powerfully introspective writing to date, as the songwriter casts off myth after myth in her search for personal transformation. By the final song, "Stories," the energy that has been gathering all throughout the record breaks loose as Ringwalt reflects: "I wrote so many stories, not knowing what the end was." But at this stage in the journey, we know there is no such thing as an ending; if the healing process is never complete, the storyteller's strange power is what finally offers liberation.

DJ Support: Grant Nelson, Dr Packer, Purple Disco Machine, Cj Mackintosh, Mark Knight, Sam Divine, Jamie Jones, Funkerman, Vanilla Ace, Roog/Hardsoul

Birdee has managed to carve out quite a path for himself, remixing luminaries such as Aeroplane and Michael Gray, collaborating with legendary singers Barbara Tucker and Angela Johnson, as well as releasing on Glitterbox, Big Love, Nervous and of course Tinted. On his latest single Birdee remakes the Jomanda classic 'Don't You Want My Love' (As sampled later by Felix) in true Birdee style, as a complete disco reinventio, crafting an all original backing of dynamic drums, funky bass and some classy synth and string arrangements that glide across this timeless ear-worm.

"New York Hip Hop revolutionaries Ced-Gee, Kool Keith, Moe Luv and T.R. Love, known as Ultramagnetic Mc’s dropped their seminal debut album Critical Beatdown in 198 Immediately grabbing the attention and pushing the boundaries of hip hop into new horizons, it was hailed as a masterpiece by the underground. Influential hip hop magazines The Source and Hip Hop Connection both listed Critical Beatdown in their Top 100 charts, naming it one of the best 100 hip hop albums ever. The 1986 single “Ego Trippin” is one of the first tracks to use the SP1200 drum machine (programmed by producer Ced-Gee), and the SP1200 would later become the golden standard for many hip hop producers. This expanded edition features not only the original album with the 15 tracks, but it also includes 6 bonus tracks: the original 12” versions of “Funky”, “Bait”, “A Chorus Line” featuring Tim Dog, “Mentally Mad” plus “Traveling at the Speed of Thought (Hip House Club Mix)” and “Ego Trippin (Bonus Beats)”. Don't miss out on the opportunity to catch them live as they are touring the globe again. Critical Beatdown (Expanded Edition) is available as a limited edition of 2000 individually numbered copies on green coloured vinyl. It also contains a 4-page booklet with interviews, rare photos and liner notes. "

Critical Beatdown by Ultramagnetic Mc's, released 23 February 2024, includes the following tracks: "Ego Trippin (Original 12” Version)", "Kool Keith Housing Things", "Feelin’ It", "Ain’t it Good to You" and more.

This version of Critical Beatdown comes as a 2xLP. This release comes with (a) Booklet & Insert(s).

The vinyl is pressed as a green disc. Another vinyl is pressed as a

San Francisco native Eric Luttrell announces his highly anticipated studio album ‘Life at Full Speed’, released on October 11 on Anjunadeep. First breaking into electronic music as part of the OWSLA-affiliated trio The M Machine, Eric embarked on his solo journey in 2016 with the acclaimed 'Need You' EP. This was followed by Anjunadeep favourites such as the 'Generate' EP and 'Intergalactic Plastic', championed by Annie Mac as the Hottest Record In The World. His musical progression continued with the launch of two studio albums, 'Intro Clouds' and 'Lucky Ones', as well as the captivating trilogy EP series 'Music For My Memories'. Luttrell's body of work has amassed over 100 million streams to date. Written over the past two years, ‘Life at Full Speed’ represents a new chapter for Eric. Becoming a father last year profoundly shifted his perspective on life and its purpose; and the album represents the ethos of embracing life to its fullest and seizing every moment. Featuring thirteen meticulously crafted tracks, "Life at Full Speed" embodies Luttrell's signature blend of indie-laced house music, characterised by uplifting melodies, intricately woven synths, and infectious grooves. A standout feature of the album is Eric’s integration of his own vocals on some of the tracks such as “When I First Met You” and “Go”. Additionally, Canadian artist Molly Moonwater joins forces with Eric on the single 'Something Right', enhancing its euphoric tone. Lead single ‘Make U Happy’ comprises a playful piano, signature Luttrell synths and a catchy top line culminating in an irresistible, feel-good summer anthem. This track sets the tone for the album, offering a glimpse into its uplifting vibe. Among the album's tracks are previously released singles ‘Sunshine’, ‘Space’, and ‘Sunrise Song’, which have collectively amassed over 3.5 million streams and received acclaim from BBC Radio 1 and SiriusXM Chill.

Ekoplekz is Nick Edwards from Bristol, UK. He made waves in the 2010s with his distinctive brand of lo-fi analogue electronica for labels such as Planet Mu, Mordant Music, Punch Drunk, WNCL and Perc Trax, while also playing live around Europe. In recent times, Nick has preferred to remain a low-key presence, but Selvamancer are excited to have coaxed him back with his first vinyl release in 5 years! Dirtbokz is an 8 track mini-album that showcases the Ekoplekz sound of now. Recorded as always on four track cassette using hardware analogue synths and drum machines with minimal post-production, the tracks retain a raw immediacy and the dirty, dub-infused sound that he was always known for. For the Dirtbokz LP, Ekoplekz reaches back to the early acid, electro and primitive rave of his youth, all mixed in a hazy reverb-soaked echo chamber inspired by his love of '70s Jamaican dub reggae. 'Frampton Kotteral' takes a gentle detour into more melodic, sentimental territory and the set closes with the forlorn acid comedown of 'Phader'.

Following on from last years's "Mondo Organico" compilation, the latest Invisible Inc compilation EP "Mondo Ritmo" sets its sights firmly on rhythm and percussion.

Featuring a global array of artists hailing from Argentina to Senegal and everywhere in between, the influences and styles featured include latin, afro, dub, dancehall, experimental, acid and more.
Proven and tested dancefloor bombs are Mytron & Balam's opening track "Cabasa Loca" which label boss GK Machine has been spinning at his Wrong Party nights and elsewhere for the last 6 months or so...and the house/dancehall hybrid floor filler "Wicked Can't Run" by LA producer Tom Chasteen (Exist Dance/Dub Club) featuring legendary Jamaican DJ and toaster U Brown, and mixed by equally legendary producer/keyboardist David Harrow who first came to our attention through his regular keyboard contributions to all things On-U Sound related in the 1980s.

The rest of the tracks may not be peak time bangers but they are sure to please the more esoteric and adventurous dancefloors out there...it's an honour to have on board Calypso Records head honcho Thomass Jackson, Thomash (Voodoohop) and GATS (Suçuarana / Curuba) who together as Changa Boys bring in Senegalese drummer Ndiaxo dal Jaam, and last but not least a certain Machine with assistance on percussion from the mysterious Congo Caveman.

15 years onwards from the original release in October 2009, "This Is …" by Gizelle Smith & The Mighty Mocambos remains a classic in its genre. Upfront, raw and melodic, this super sister funk album has not aged at all. Now, in 2024, it is time for a proper re-release with unreleased bonus tracks, rare remixes and a limited edition double vinyl album. Welcome to the deluxe version of "This Is …" by Gizelle Smith & The Mighty Mocambos.

Read here what the original release sheet said about the album:

"Strong album – packs a serious punch" Craig Charles Funk and Soul Show, BBC 6 Music

"A breath of fresh air" Keb Darge

"Really amazing stuff, full of killers" Nick / Record Kicks

"Definitely recommended" Peter Wermelinger, Funky & Groovy Music Records Lexicon

"What a fantastic album – this is proper funk" Tobias Kirmayer, Tramp Records

Ever since their first collaboration on the "Mocambo Funk Forty Fives" compilation, things have gained momentum for Gizelle Smith, the "Golden Girl of Funk", and the much respected Hamburg-based label and live band The Mighty Mocambos. Their first single "Working Woman" became an overnight smash and a prime-time club favourite of funk & soul DJs from all over the world. Initially released on the Finnish private press label Old Capital, producer legend and Grammy nominee Kenny Dope (Masters at Work, Bucketheads) picked up and remixed the song for his own label Kay Dee Records. Gizelle Smith & Mocambo now step up with a full-length album of bonafide sister funk. In the days of digital recording and Pro Tools editing, they show true exception to modern techniques and create their highly regarded, unique and raw soul sound, by making use of simple dynamic microphones and reel-to-reel tape machines. In a genre which is often littered with overused clichés of the past, the charismatic Gizelle Smith adds a lot of her own flavour rather than slavishly copying icons of bygone decades. The result is a refreshing alternative to post-millenium plastic pop without being a mere retro rip-off. From the heavy and determined "Gonna Get You" to vulnerable, gospel-tinged laments such as "Coffee High", "This Is Gizelle Smith & The Mighty Mocambos" is just as deeply rooted in the music from the golden era of soul as it is a modern masterpiece in its own right. Blazing horns, soulful guitars, driving drums and basslines combined with Gizelle's gripping and powerful voice all weave together to create a long player that is varied and coherent at the same time.

Exploring late-night, after-hours meditations on sound; ‘Everything Above The Sky (Astral Travelling with Luke Una)’ is a new compilation by the titular DJ, promoter and enigmatic cultural curator. Off the back of the E Soul Cultura phenomena, this compilation comes at a timely point in Luke’s rich career as he soars the heights of playing all over the world. Avoiding any chance of his sound being pigeonholed, Luke has put together a tracklist of songs and music that have a transcendental feel, after coming off the grid, going back to source, outside the city walls .

Music has long been believed to aid out of body experiences and many of us have searched long and hard for a combination of those elusive ingredients that might alleviate some of the monotony of everyday life, our daily routines and obligations, and those things that seem to block us from the spirit of the universe. In this collection, Luke selects music with all the right ingredients in just the right quantities, allowing the listener to engage in an esoteric journey of enlightenment through sound. Being a prolific collector of music, Luke initially delivered enough tracks to compile several compilations, making the licensing process the biggest effort to date for the label. The music moves softly and slowly, never becoming too intrusive, exemplifying the wonderful elevating properties of simple songs played from the heart.

Luke’s Everything Above The Sky manifesto reads, “Astral Travelling in the meadowlands with acid folk, spiritual jazz, around midnight hocus pocus, cosmic psychedelic soul, magical spellbound whirling swirling love songs, Brazilian ballads of light into machine soul gospel utopia dreaming, Balearic bossa, Outer Space ancient African drum, the breath of trees, escaping the big bad modern world, gathering round winter fires, walking amongst the bracken in Padley Gorge in late summer twilight, overlooking the Hope Valley, escaping ego, detaching and finally letting go amongst the stars with the slowly floating people. It’s beautiful beyond. Everything above the Sky”.

Beginning his career as an original Sheffield house young blood in the mid 1980s, Luke’s move to Manchester and partnership with Justin Crawford saw the birth of Electric Chair, a cornerstone cult night in the UK underground club scene. Then came Electric Elephant, a Croatian festival paying homage to their wild eclecticism from Balearic to Brazilian to É Soul, house, disco and techno. Luke’s much loved, long-running Homoelectric night and more recently Homobloc sell out festival for 10,000 souls has been at the forefront of Manchester’s LGBTQ+ cultural landscape. Luke’s Friday evening show on Worldwide FM captured imaginations and became a cult four-hour must-listen monthly journey for fans all over the world. Today, Luke remains, as ever, at the forefront of a changing milieu, pairing the momentous legacy of Manchester’s 80s and 90s scene with the delivery of what today’s club communities need to get down.

After the Spanish escapade 'Teatro Lucido' and the sweet journey 'Paris Hawai', the group created by Marlon Magnée and Sacha Got continues their world tour with 'Rock Machine,' their first album entirely written in English. Composed over the past few years during various tours around the world, this new LP has been strongly inspired by the succession of dates in the USA, Canada, South America, Australia, and the encounters that ensued. The band returns to its New Wave and Synthwave roots from their acclaimed first LP 'Psycho Tropical Berlin' (Machine), which they mix with an Anglo-Saxon rock sound from the 80s/90s (Rock). This album is an ode to rock'n'roll, its effectiveness, and timelessness, but also an ode to love and despair. La Femme continues to develop with Rock Machine a universe beyond trends with their own sound and aesthetics. In addition to rock and synthwave sounds (of which 'Clover Paradise' is the perfect example), there's still electro (Sweet Babe), surf music (Ciao Paris), disco with a UK punk twist (My Generation), and even elements of western. The list is long but always unique and coherent

DJ Support from: Dave Lee, Purple Disco Machine, Michael Gray, Birdee, Dr Packer, John Morales, David Harness, Lenny Fontana

Sean’s debut album, ‘Down To The Disco’, comes as a 2 part vinyl series is a tight blend of soulful, disco, '80s boogie, and house music, featuring collaborations with artists such as Brian Lucas, Alexis Victoria Hall, Toni Sea, Nell Shakespeare, Elysha West, Octavia Lambertis, and Pav plus extensive production duties from Midnight Riot’s Yam Who? & Jaegerossa.

Sean Scanlan’s A highly respected UK DJ (Hed Kandi, Fierce Angel, Discopolis, Hat Club, and Ministry of Sound), As a producer his releases have made a significant impact on Traxsource, earning DJ support from industry legends like Joey Negro, DJ Meme, John Morales, Michael Gray, Dr. Packer, and Purple Disco Machine, among others. Inspired by labels such as Salsoul & Z Records, Sean is known for his dedication to producing authentic, high-quality Disco and House music, with a passion for creating vibrant sounds through real musicians, live strings, brass, bass, and percussion, ‘Down To The Disco’ is a must-listen for fans of classic disco house music.

2024 Repress

Dark Entries is honored to finally present the first ever official vinyl reissue of Space Museum by Solid Space. Solid Space was the British duo of Dan Goldstein (keyboards, vocals) and Matthew 'Maf' Vosburgh (guitar, bass, keyboards, vocals) formed in 1980. Dan and Matthew met at the age of 11 while attending school in north London. In late 1978 at at the age of 14, they formed Exhibit 'A' with Paul Platypus' and Andrew Lunchbox' Bynghall. They recorded two EPs in 1979 and 1980, self-released on Irrelevant Wombat Records and appeared on 'The Thing From The Crypt' compilation. After the dissolution of the group, Mathew started taking his guitar over to Dan's house where he'd play his Casio MT-30 and they would record songs. Eventually a second hand drum machine and Wasp synthesizer were acquired from classified ads in Melody Maker and the Solid Space sound was born. By this time they were just turning 18 and finally found the freedom to make the music they'd had in their heads. Over the course of the next two years the band assembled eleven bedroom recordings that would become one of the most cherished DIY obscurities of its kind. Their debut album 'Space Museum' was released in 1982 on cassette by In Phaze Records. All of the songs were mixed by label boss Pat Bermingham on 8-track tape at The Shed, in Ilford, which was literally a garden shed. The band's music and lyrics were heavily indebted to science fiction, in particular the 1960s television series Doctor Who. 'Space Museum' is an unveiling of atmospheric, minimalist post punk supported by bright melodies. The music combines drum machines and synths with acoustic guitar and toy drums whilst also experimenting with samples between tracks. Lyrics deal with space travel and a general sense of dejection. Representing a bubbling spirit within the underground, they foreshadowed an entire world of independent music which would emerge across the 80's and well into the 90's. For this reissue we've included two bonus tracks from the band's archive, Platform 6' originally released on the B-side of the second single by Exhibit 'A', this song features only Dan and Matthew and is the first Solid Space track ever recorded. Tutti Lo Sanno' is a cover of In Phaze label mates Marine Girls, though the lyrics have been changed to suit the gender of the new singer.Each song has been carefully remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The record is sleeved in a replica of the cassette artwork featuring the Cybermen and Jamie from the Doctor Who episode "The Wheel in Space". Every copy includes a double sided 11x11 insert with lyrics, notes and never before seen photographs of the band taken by Maf as well as a postcard featuring an original advert for the cassette.

As we approach the threshold leading us back to the Black Lodge on our transformative 8th journey, we are escorted through and beyond the mystical portal by the vigorous and fierce forces of Sneaker. Portrait in House is a collection of 3 resonant works, which are unified into a singular vision within its uncanny language that is rooted deeply in the foundations of Jak, New Beat, EBM, and Wave. Existing inside the liminal spaces of where light meets dark, we are presented with a documentation of dissonance and harmony. We begin our voyage with Jihad, a sluggish and slogging piece that unforgivingly drags us through the grime and the dirt in a ritualistic fashion that would have the ghost of Georges Bataille dancing in circles. Voices call out and howl into the dark as the drum patterns of the 707 rhythmically grasps onto its anarchic components. In the dark, we can see the light beyond the known universe. In the words of Sneaker "The name is not our message, but a document of an evident, traditional concept in (y)our world." As we find ourselves sprawled out on the ground following the 1st sonic stanza, a menacing voice bellows and warns that this is a Sax Track. Referencing Chicago icon Lil Louis, this work juxtaposes classical elements of house music together with the bare knuckled spirit of Jak. A magical spell led by disharmonious Portasound FM keys in conversation with a teetering sub bass, where at its core, this plus this, equals something that is uniquely familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. A number fit for any uncanny ritual that will fall under the night sky. Bringing our cosmic procession to a close we pick up the pace with a commanding number titled, Dance On, a no holds barred work that will possess your soul in the name of Jak. Flangers wail unforgivingly alongside a pulsating 101, as samples of the human voice are chopped up and arranged into a conversation that hypnotically calls for our bodies to be transformed into soft machines, while powered by ceremonious motions that are generated from the liberating process of ritual movement. We command you to dance! Words by Justin Aulis Long

Modern progressive rock band DILEMMA presents its third full length album, ‘The Purpose Paradox’. This concept album, spanning over 60 minutes, is released on CD, double LP and via all streaming platforms, and distributed internationally by Butler Records, a division of V2 Records.

It features 9 brand new tracks ranging in length from 4 to nearly 16 minutes. The sound showcases a broader side of DILEMMA — louder, faster, more technical, more progressive. With new frontman Jermain van der Bogt (Wudstik), the vocals have become rawer and more varied. Almost six years after the previous record ‘Random Acts of Liberation’ the band sounds reborn.

Like its predecessor, ‘The Purpose Paradox’ was produced by drummer Collin Leijenaar, who, together with the famed music wizard Rich Mouser (The Mouse House, LA), was also responsible for the mix and mastering. Thanks to their unmatched ears, the result is an audio experience that DILEMMA has worked on with great pride over the past years.

As said, ‘The Purpose Paradox’ was written and produced like a concept album. Because let’s face it, you’re either a progressive rock band or you’re not. But seriously: the story of ‘The Purpose Paradox’ revolves around a man named Neon. Someone like us in the here and now. During his quest for connection and fulfilment, he finds support from an unconventional guide named Electra. She points out to him that sometimes the things we look for are the things that found us first. Will Neon’s heart glow again when he discovers the outer light? Or does the greed of the corporate machine known as The Hand succeed in extinguishing his inner fire? Can Neon’s secrets be deleted? And will he, in the end, arrive in the comfort zone of allies in the raw, rainy city he once left behind?

Maelstrom returns to Central Processing Unit for the fourth time, and it's the one born Joan-Mael Péneau's lengthiest drop on the Sheffield label yet. The French artist has been a mainstay in the European electro game since the 2000s, and Malestrom brings that experience to bear on new LP The FM Tapes. He goes about this album with the assurance of a seasoned pro, combining his mastery of electro production techniques with a trademark guile to craft an expertly-paced eleven-track affair.

The first section of The FM Tapes sets out the album's stall with style and aplomb - listeners are in store for a rich feast of off-kilter machine-funk which will feature no shortage of intriguing detours. On opener 'Ondes Courtes' the mix throbs with all manner of strange electronic gristle: a distorted bass hum rattles the monitors; wisps of distortion float across the mix; eerily pretty keys wax and wane before giving way to a radar pulse.

'Ondes Courtes' is an ominous slouch of a scene-setter, and it lines things up perfectly for following cut 'Alt50ser' to lock in. This track's churning, gurgling mid-tempo rattle brings to mind the wacky insistence of Modeselektor. Maelstrom repeats the slow-fast one-two again directly afterwards - 'La Vie Sociale Des', a strange nugget that sounds like an early Eski instrumental stripped for parts and blasted into the cosmos, is an ideal prelude to the twitchy space-funk of 'My Digitone'.

Maelstrom's staying power in the electro world comes, in no small part, from his ability to apply his delightfully idiosyncratic choices to some of the genre's staple production tropes. On The FM Tapes, he marks himself out once more as a pleasingly unorthodox talent by taking tracks in unexpected directions to produce surprising - and often rather moving - results.

There are multiple cuts here which channel the more cerebral end of Richard D. James' AFX/Analord output: 'My Digitone' may be a quicksilver techno-electro number, but there's still something cinematic about the synth treatment here which softens the edges; 'Suede's minor-key oscillations bring other CPU veterans like Cygnus and Bochum Welt into view; 'Res 06', one of two Fasme collaborations on the record, is full of pathos even as the beat programming bangs and whirrs throughout.

While there's a deep emotional undercurrent to The FM Tapes, though, Maelstrom's commitment to bringing the thrills surfaces time and again. If 'Res 06' had Maelstrom and Fasme getting wistful, the album's other Fasme link-up 'Trempo' is one of the hardest club joints here, a piece of old-school Detroit energy replete with some great cascading drum production. Indeed, 'Trempo' comes in the middle of a run towards the album's end where Maelstrom takes the handbrake off - there's a wild-eyed sense of fun to 'The Operator' and 'Upside Down DX7' which has one thinking of the zany cut-and-thrust of KiNK's best work.

Maelstrom's latest drop for Sheffield's Central Processing Unit label is an album of leftfield electro numbers that bring both pounding beats and poignant production.

RIYL: KiNK, Modeselektor, Cygnus, Bochum Welt, AFX

Legendary UK band Asian Dub Foundation is celebrating its 30th Anniversary this year!

Asian Dub Foundation are a genre unto themselves. Their unique combination of jungliest rhythms, dub bass lines and wild guitar overlaid by references to their South Asian roots via militant high-speed rap has established them as one of the best live bands in the world. The story began in the early 90’s when ADF formed from a music workshop in East London at the institution which is their spiritual home, Community Music. Their unique beginnings in a music workshop in east London shaped both their sound and their educational aspirations, setting up their own organisation ADF Education (ADFED), plus instigating campaigns on behalf of those suffering miscarriages of justice.

Building a solid live reputation in the mid-90’s, they gained worldwide recognition sharing the stage with Rage Against The Machine, the Beastie Boys, Radiohead and Primal Scream. On record, they've collaborated with Radiohead, Sinead O'Connor, Iggy Pop, Adrian Sherwood, and Chuck D. In addition to their blistering live reputation ADF were one of the first bands to experiment with live film re-scores (“Cineconcerts”), beginning with their rapturously-received re-interpretation of the French classic La Haine back in 2001.

In 30 years, Asian Dub Foundation have racked up 1000’s of unforgettable shows, 9 studio albums alongside a social and educational activism that both created the group and sustains them today. In celebration of the longevity of this unique project they are announcing an extensive European tour for 2024-25 of more than 60 shows and a special album showcasing their many iconic collaborations. “94-Now: Collaborations” will be released on September 27, 2024!










h B3 Free Satpal Ram ft. Primal Scream (Bendran Lynch Mix) ADF30 Remaster

j B5 Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos ft. Chuck D (Live At Somerset House) ADF30 Rework)








h B3 Free Satpal Ram ft. Primal Scream (Bendran Lynch Mix) ADF30 Remaster

j B5 Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos ft. Chuck D (Live At Somerset House) [ADF30 Rework)

Inside Automatic Popular Music there are two people sitting in a room, their backs to each other. One plays a piano with no particular attention to detail and tuning of the instrument, and another, sitting behind him, claps his hands on his own legs. They do not see each other, they never look at each other, they can only listen to each other, look around. The room is large enough, it is daytime, there are four windows through which enough light enters to illuminate the objects and furniture with objects on them. October, the temperature is great and outside the window there are many people and all these people are dancing to the music of another record.

Automatic Popular Music was recorded and mixed by Nicola Ratti between July and December 2023. The tracks consist almost entirely of sounds generated by automatisms programmed on modular synthesisers. These are combined with tape loops on which fragments of both acoustic and digital pianos are engraved, generating tracks that are structured on repetitiveness in both their rhythmic and harmonic components. The adjective 'popular' is in this case the result of the other adjective 'automatic' since the machine has been entrusted with the task of generating the melodic patterns and harmonic structures of the tracks on the disc.

Automatic Popular Music is the first release by LL, a curatorial and editorial platform based in Milano and formed by artists and curators.

Composed, recorded and mixed by Nicola Ratti between July and December 2023. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi. Cover photo by Cédrick Eymenier.

Tahiti 80, the cult French group, is back with a tenth album entitled Hello Hello.

Since their formation in Rouen in the 90s, Tahiti 80 have built a substantial discography, collaborating with artists such as Cornelius, Tore Johansson, Adam Schlesinger and Richard Swift. The indie pop quintet offers us today twelve irresistible and captivating songs on a solar tenth album. With its welcoming title, Hello Hello presents itself as a desire to merge the spontaneity of live performances with the chemistry of a band working in the studio. Xavier Boyer, lead singer and songwriter, explains: “We felt a slight frustration with our previous album, Here With You, released in 2022. The pandemic had forced us to record separately at home. When we realized our new demos were going in this live direction, we looked for the perfect place to capture that spirit."

It is at the Paraphernalia studio, located in the French countryside, that the members of Tahiti 80, including in addition to the singer, Pedro Resende, Médéric Gontier, Raphaël Léger and Hadrien Grange, perfected their musical interactions for ten days during the summer 2023. Integrated very early in the process, Stéphane Laporte, aka Domotic, brought his distinctive experimental touch to the arrangements and production. The vocals and additional synthesizers were then finalized between Paris, Rouen and Montpellier in the fall

The twelve songs that make up Hello Hello form a homogeneous suite, highlighting the creativity, diversity and maturity of a group which has just celebrated twenty-five years of career. Opening the album, “Every Little Thing” subtly mixes shoegaze guitars and synth pop. It’s also one of the rare Tahiti 80 tracks that keeps the same chords from start to finish. The singer confides: “It was an exercise in minimalism, with the constraint of finding varied vocal melodies revolving around the same chords. Singing the line ‘I Love Every Little Thing About Us’ made me realize that it could also be about us as a group.” The title song also plays the simplicity card with Boyer’s unique timbre, complemented by a drum machine passed through a tape echo and a catchy recorder theme – proof that years of practice of this instrument in French schools was not in vain!

The other distinctive trend is Brazilian: “Lose My Head”, “Soft Echo” or “Poison Flower” each display tropicalist attributes: swaying rhythms, rounded bass, soft guitars, all enhanced by a reverberated sound treatment. “From Caetano Veloso to Tim Bernardes, there is a unique way,” notes the vocalist, “of linking rhythm and melody that has always inspired us.”

However, the Tahiti 80 touch is not being put aside. “About Us”, sung by guitarist Médéric Gontier who can also be heard on “1+1” and “Anyway”, marks a return to the roots of indie pop. An impression confirmed by the hit “Vertigo” and its signature all in major sevenths supported by the elastic groove of bassist Pedro Resende. The song which sounds like a quick return trip between late 70s California and Tokyo City Pop, will find its place after “Crush!” and “Heartbeat” in the Rouennais’ songbook. Xavier Boyer concludes: “ if we manage to surprise ourselves, it will also work for the listener. but when you reach the tenth album, you must also manage to renew ourselves without denying ourselves what we did previously.”

With their innovative and unique approach to indie pop, their timeless melodies and their sophisticated productions, Tahiti 80 has never ceased to resonate with fans around the world. Their latest collection, Hello Hello, should easily consolidate their status as a singular group and esteemed personalities on the international music scene.

Limited Grey Marble Vinyl. Modern Baseball was formed in 2011 by friends and guitarists Jacob Ewald and Brendan Lukens, who were soon joined by Ian Farmer on bass and Sean Huber on drums. The band self-released their first EP The Nameless Ranger in 2011 while still in high school. Shortly after the members relocated to Philadelphia to attend college and quickly gained a strong following in the Philadelphia music community, teaming up with locals Marietta to release the Couples Therapy split in the spring of 2012. Modern Baseball released their debut full-length Sports later that year on Lame-O Records, which they self-recorded and produced. After spending the summer of 2013 touring heavily across the US, the band headed into Studio A in Philadelphia to self-record You're Going to Miss It All. Mixed by Jonathan Low at Minor Street Recordings and mastered by Will Yip, You're Going to Miss It All features 12 tracks that showcase the band's signature witty indie-pop.

Deluxe Anniversary Edition. Jade Green Swirl Vinyl. LP+7". - Deluxe Anniversary Edition of LP celebratiing 10 years since it's initial release - Enclosed in hardcover photobook with 96 pages of photos from the era with liner notes from each member of Modern Baseball - Includes exclusive 7" with. It's been ten whole years of us listening to Modern Baseballl's iconic record You're Gonna Miss It All, and to celebrate Run For Cover has teamed with the band to deliver a deluxe anniversary edition worthy of it's legacy. This version of the band's second album is a collector's delight - two discs enclosed in a heavyweight, hardcover 12" x 12" book with 96 pages of photos from longtime collaborator Jess Flynn. Each member of Modern Baseball also contributed notes to provide context to the countless photos taken while touring, recording, skateboarding, napping, swimming and a whole lot more. This deluxe edition also includes two never-before released demos of "Rock Bottom" and "Pothole" pressed on an exclusive 7". These early, intimate versions show how the ideas behind these two favorite tracks progressed into the final takes that made it onto You're Gonna Miss It All. Modern Baseball was formed in 2011 by friends and guitarists Jacob Ewald and Brendan Lukens, who were soon joined by Ian Farmer on bass and Sean Huber on drums.The band self-released their first EP The Nameless Ranger in 2011 while still in high school. Shortly after the members relocated to Philadelphia to attend college and quickly gained a strong following in the Philadelphia music community, teaming up with locals Marietta to release the Couples Therapy split in the spring of 2012. Modern Baseball released their debut full-length Sports later that year on Lame-O Records, which they self-recorded and produced. After spending the summer of 2013 touring heavily across the US, the band headed into Studio A in Philadelphia to self-record You're Going to Miss It All. Mixed by Jonathan Low at Minor Street Recordings and mastered by Will Yip, You're Going to Miss It All features 12 tracks that showcase the band's signature witty indie-pop.

The Ruins' eponymous EP (also known as the “gray record”) was originally released in the late spring of 1984 and in fact represents a significant moment in the Italian independent music scene of the early 1980s. The then contemporary burgeoning wave of entertainment music contaminated by experimental accents and conveyed essentially by electronic instruments saw the Ruins at the forefront. The band, essentially a duo, formed in Mestre (Venice) in 1978, had already carved out a window of national attention within the Italian new wave in 1981 with their first single “Short wave” and their participation in one of the very first (if not the very first) Italian new wave compilations entitled “Samples Only.”

Following this, between 1982 and 1983, there had been an important interlude in the evolution of the RUINS sound with the foundation of the quintet project (of which SPITTLE/DepenDance recently published an essential anthology titled “BRAIN FLAKES”). At the end of 1983, having concluded the group experience with the consequent and inevitable return to the original duo dimension the musical style further evolved putting even more emphasis on the unique blend of electronic sounds and almost black /soul influences of the new compositions that would later be collected in 1984 in the original version of E.P.

The duo's sound at that particular time was characterized by the innovative use of synthesizers and drum machines for unconventional song structures, which at the same time also encapsulated Ciranna and Pizzin's experimental ethos, thus allowing them to follow a parallel trajectory capable of maintaining a certain distance - while remaining somewhat related to - from the contemporary mainstream pop and the so-called ITALO disco strand.

Ultimately, this 1984 EP by the Ruins - of which Spittle DepenDance now offers a valuable reissue enriched with additional material from the period that has remained completely unreleased until now - is a testament to the band's innovative spirit and its role in shaping the Italian new wave scene, landing moreover to international acclaim and acclaim even over the following decades. With its mix of electronic experimentation and dark pop sensibility, it remains essential listening for fans of avant-garde pop music.

Modern Baseball was formed in 2011 by friends and guitarists Jacob Ewald and Brendan Lukens, who were soon joined by Ian Farmer on bass and Sean Huber on drums. The band self-released their first EP The Nameless Ranger in 2011 while still in high school. Shortly after the members relocated to Philadelphia to attend college and quickly gained a strong following in the Philadelphia music community, teaming up with locals Marietta to release the Couples Therapy split in the spring of 2012. Modern Baseball released their debut full-length Sports later that year on Lame-O Records, which they self-recorded and produced. After spending the summer of 2013 touring heavily across the US, the band headed into Studio A in Philadelphia to self-record You're Going to Miss It All. Mixed by Jonathan Low at Minor Street Recordings and mastered by Will Yip, You're Going to Miss It All features 12 tracks that showcase the band's signature witty indie-pop.

The multi-media project Kraftwerk was started in Düsseldorf, Germany 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. They set up their electronic Kling Klang Studio where they conceived and produced all Kraftwerk albums.

Kraftwerk created the soundtrack for the digital age of the 21st century. AUTOBAHN 1974, RADIO-ACTIVITY 1975, TRANS EUROPE EXPRESS 1977, THE MAN-MACHINE 1978, COMPUTER WORLD 1981, TECHNO POP 1986, THE MIX 1991, TOUR DE FRANCE 2003. Their compositions, using innovative techniques, electronic sounds and synthetic voices combined with computerised rhythms, had a major musical influence on Electro, Hip Hop, Techno and Synth-Pop. 

Hassan Abou Alam is next to step up to the unconventional Nerve Collect label with six tracks of futuristic club-ready chaos. The finely crafted EP arrives in August and comes on 12" vinyl and via all digital platforms.

Hassan Abou Alam has established himself as one of Egypt's most innovative underground musicians over the last 10+ years. His music is a meeting of disparate worlds - organic and synthetic designs, digital and analogue tools, the traditional and the futuristic, and it has come on the likes of YUKU, Rhythm Section, Banoffee Pies and Casa Voyager. His versatile sound pulls apart existing genres and reconstructs them as something entirely new.

Opener '3asabi' is a stylish sonic assault with thumping rhythms and trippy oscillations that will get any dance floor bouncing. It's fun yet functional, serious yet seductive and 'Basha' Ft. ZIAD ZAZA, Ismail Nosrat & Aly B is another kinetic fusion of hand claps and complex drum funk, Egyptian vocal gymnastics and punchy bass. 'Ghalat' has lurching drums and plunging bass driving on beneath mangled synths, odd vocalisations and percussive splatters drawn from a unique sound palette. The drilling low ends of 'Khalsana' Ft ZIAD ZAZA are offset by fluttering percussive details up top while spare but booming kicks shake every bone in your body and the bassline devastates.

There is no let up on 'Mesh Mafhoom' which is a ritualistic workout with moments of melancholic synth soul shining through the jumble of tin-pot percussion and crashing hits. Closer 'Zein' is more body-popping brilliance that channels ancient spirits into warped synths and rhythms so complex they melt the mind.
Hassan Abou Alam's blurring of the lines between the real and the imagined is second to none on this EP. It's a sub-heavy mix of the human voice, machine-made sounds and inventive rhythms that make for something new, weird and wonderful.

Shlomi Aber & Kashpitzky join forces once again to make their Blueprint Records debut with four formidable techno tracks on the "Sonic Underworld EP".



Barcelona-based Shlomi Aber brings over two decades of production and DJing experience to his music, drawing inspiration from Jazz, Funk, Acid and the old-school Detroit Techno scene. With releases on Cocoon, Ovum, R&S, Figure, CLR, Drumcode, BPitch, Renaissance and his own Be as One Imprint, along with his dynamic mixing technique, has gained him global success while headlining clubs, festivals and venues worldwide.



Growing up, Kashpitzky began his musical path playing guitar in a metal-core band, before trading amps for drum machines. After relocating to Berlin, he graduated from the SAE Institute. A DJ who's hard to pigeonhole, he has a track for every occasion. His definition of techno is best exemplified by his energetic, yet deep and groovy productions, often combining broken beats with organic textures via releases on the likes of MindTrip, Monnom Black and of course, Shlomi's Be As One.

Mit ihrem neuen Album "Feeding The Machine" wollen MORDKAUL die Band mit 10 druckvollen Death Metal Tracks auf eine neue Ebene emporheben!

Um das Beste aus den einzelnen Songs herauszuholen und sie bestmöglich zu präsentieren, wurde "Feeding The Machine" in zwei Phasen aufgenommen. Die erste Hälfte des Albums wurde im Sommer 2022 im Project Zero Studio aufgenommen, die zweite Hälfte im Sommer 2023 in den legendären Galaxy Studios, während das Mixing und Mastering von Dan Swanö durchgeführt wurde.

Während "Dress Code: Blood" stark von den kultigen schwedischen Death-Metal-Bands der 90er Jahre inspiriert war, geht "Feeding The Machine" noch einen Schritt weiter. Mit breiteren Einflüssen von kultigen 90er-Death-Metal-Bands wie Morbid Angel und Death schlägt "Feeding The Machine" noch härter zu und zielt darauf ab, die Band auf ein neues Level zu katapultieren!

Wewantsounds is delighted to announce the reissue of Steve Beresford's highly sought-after album "Dancing the Line", released in France in 1985 on the French label nato. The album, taking its inspiration from French designer Anne Marie Beretta's fashion, features his Alterations acolyte David Toop plus Alan Hacker and Kazuko Hohki (Frank Chickens) with lyrics by Andrew Brenner. The music mixes sophisticated ambient pop powered by a RX11 drum machine with elements synth funk and experimental music. "Tendance" and "Comfortable Gestures" have become underground classics over the years and this is the first time the album is reissued, in partnership with nato who will release the CD version later this year. The reissue includes audio newly remastered by Translab in Paris, original gatefold artwork and a 4-page insert with liner notes by nato's Jean Rochard....

tunnel’s first release is here! Lunchbreak in Mitte EP comes from the mind and machines of our friend Pierre Marty : a refreshing take on house music, with 4 classy tunes full of groove and emotion that will perfectly match your summer mood.

For the three of us, each of these tracks holds precious memories. From witnessing Pierre’s inspired and tumultuous creative process, to the first time we heard them loud in his live set at Le Chant des Oiseaux last summer, before we in turn play them in our own sets… They formed the soundtrack to our friendship over the last year in Berlin and rocked the birth of our label, as we met every week for a cosy lunch break in Mitte.

Shipping end of July - follow us on Instagram and subscribe to our Bandcamp page to stay up to date on the official release date.

All tracks written and produced by @pmrty in Berlin Mitte, 2023. Mix and masters by Trigun Audio. Designs by Docket Eddie. Pressed by Objects Manufacturing. Distributed by DNP.
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tunnel is a label based in Berlin and curated by Eltouss & Oscar Faivre.

Obsidian, the upcoming album from Pennsylvania's own riff-titans Crobot, and likely the band's most introspective journey yet, is set for release on the extraordinarily lucky 13th Friday. Produced by Crobot, recorded at The Machine Shop Studios in Austin, TX, and engineered, mixed, and mastered by Alberto De Icaza, the 12 tracks on Obsidian dive into the deep, murky waters of the human condition, threading ancient myths with personal demons across its tracks.

While the band's primary songwriters - Bishop and Yaegley - tend to leave their songs somewhat ambiguous, the upcoming album's new tunes touch upon very personal growth, conflicts, and reflections. "Each song descends into the darker reaches of the psyche," Bishop says, "set to a relentless rhythm of heavy, pulsing beats and gut-wrenching guitar solos, and offers a stark reflection of internal struggles." "'Obsidian' is almost a rebirth of our career," Brandon adds. "We were able to take a different approach to the writing and recording of this album, so the experience was very rewarding and different from past projects. Conflicts and reflections make you a better person, even in those darker moments, but I know I become a better person for it. I think that's what symbolizes this entire album for us. It's been a real breath of fresh air."