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Legendary Hip Hop Producer and Emcee Large Pro aka The Large Professor returns with his highly anticipated 3rd instrumental album, BEATZ VOLUME 3. Back with his traditional signature Boomp Bap sound, LP brings you more well-crafted soulful BEATZ that you can rhyme to, DJ with, skateboard, or even dance to! This album features 10 bangers that are sure to make DJs want doubles to back spin!

Large Professor states:
"Beatz Vol. 3 was made to lift the spirits. From the youthful "Let It Fly" to the ghetto love story sounds of "Rooftop Love", all of the Beatz on this project were made to make the listener feel good. After learning more about my family history, I had to dedicate the song "Ancestors" to my predecessors who are in the "Friendly Skies". Overall, I want to keep that original Boomp Bap style of hip hop alive for my generation, and the real ones to follow."

Large Professor is a founding member of the Hip Hop group Main Source. In 1991 their classic debut album "Breaking Atoms" introduced the world to NAS, who was featured on the track "Live at the Barbeque". LP's debut solo album "The LP" (PSP006) was finally released in 2009 featuring hits like "IJuswannachill", "Mad Scientist" & More.

Some of Large Pro's production and remix credits include tracks for NAS, Eric B. & Rakim, A Tribe Called Quest, Slick Rick, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, Tragedy Khadafi, Mobb Deep, Busta Rhymes, Big Daddy Kane, Lord Finesse, Akinyele, Masta Ace, Czarface, Cormega and many more. Recent production credits: RawWattage "Eyez" (2020), "Pressure" Soundtrack (2020), The Lox/Westside Gunn & Benny "Think of the Lox" (2021), Al Skratch "Be Original" (2021), Neek The Exotic ft. Large Pro "XtraExotic" (album) (2021), K.McGyver Hemisphere (2021), Papoose "Represent" (2021), Papoose "Cold Winter" (2021) and the "All The Streets are Silent" Motion Picture Soundtrack (2021).

This is the last album from Rico Puestel. After somehow three decades, Rico misses the cultural impact of Techno music as it has been and declares its spirits gone – at least personally. There's nothing more to tell. The self-consuming scene has reached its grotesque climax and left an empty shell of something once filled with so much passion, warmth, strength, heart and hope. The times just haven't changed – they lost their self-fulfilling purpose and authenticity.

Heavily influenced by prehistoric, tribal rhythms and trance-inducing dances within redundant structures, Techno music once had a natively true and unadulterated essence. A free spirit on the run. Rico found the right spot in time to gather all of his origins in Techno music for a last act of connecting to it. Being on an all-time high as a producer, he crafted the whole album on a course of twelve hours and relived all those deeply rooted moments and memories with Techno in fast motion. While the track titles are counting down from ten to zero in Esperanto, Rico clears up in peace and balance...

What once was, is now without form and void.
I left.
Everybody left.
Techno has left the building.

Farewell!

plastic death - the second album by glass beach - is a follow-up record almost five years in the making. The band's 2019 debut, aptly titled the first glass beach album , has over the years grown a cult fanbase for its unflinching depiction of queer life as mediated through social media, its oversized ambition, and its scrappy yet adventurous production. And while it took some time to arrive, plastic death sounds like the logical expansion of all the things that made their first album so special. Years and years of relentless writing, tinkering demos, cancelled tours and a few lockdowns only strengthen the chaotic core of what makes glass beach' s maximalist approach work so well. Frontperson and primary songwriter J McClendon is joined by lead guitarist Layne Smith, bassist Jonas Newhouse and drummer William White to create something adventurous on each song. Trumpet, trombone, violin, and even marimba dance and bloom alongside the band's own creative and dextrous instrumentation - a stunning, transformative creation that pulls from indie rock, jazz, prog, hardcore, metal, experimental, and beyond. Songs like lead single "the CIA," are examples of the band's ambitious writing. It's a dark, dancy, post-punk/jazz hybrid, a coordinated, breathless braid of synth and saturated guitar. Tension and confusion explode into a brutal modern metal climax to close the track, flickering with glitchy production zaps and razor-sharp stops. The artwork of plastic death is similarly rich with detail, resulting in a bioluminescent, fully-realized double album depicting sprawling scenes where moments of neon brightness shine momentarily in a dark undersea - a metaphor for the moments of optimism and catharsis glass beach provide on these songs. "This album is the Pacific garbage patch: cultural trash strewn together seemingly by accident, standing in stark juxtaposition to each other ," says McClendon. plastic death is a complete, uncompromising, playful work of art; every corner and crevice of the record's 13 tracks, each arrangement and timbre and texture, is alive with intention and possibility.

plastic death - the second album by glass beach - is a follow-up record almost five years in the making. The band's 2019 debut, aptly titled the first glass beach album , has over the years grown a cult fanbase for its unflinching depiction of queer life as mediated through social media, its oversized ambition, and its scrappy yet adventurous production. And while it took some time to arrive, plastic death sounds like the logical expansion of all the things that made their first album so special. Years and years of relentless writing, tinkering demos, cancelled tours and a few lockdowns only strengthen the chaotic core of what makes glass beach' s maximalist approach work so well. Frontperson and primary songwriter J McClendon is joined by lead guitarist Layne Smith, bassist Jonas Newhouse and drummer William White to create something adventurous on each song. Trumpet, trombone, violin, and even marimba dance and bloom alongside the band's own creative and dextrous instrumentation - a stunning, transformative creation that pulls from indie rock, jazz, prog, hardcore, metal, experimental, and beyond. Songs like lead single "the CIA," are examples of the band's ambitious writing. It's a dark, dancy, post-punk/jazz hybrid, a coordinated, breathless braid of synth and saturated guitar. Tension and confusion explode into a brutal modern metal climax to close the track, flickering with glitchy production zaps and razor-sharp stops. The artwork of plastic death is similarly rich with detail, resulting in a bioluminescent, fully-realized double album depicting sprawling scenes where moments of neon brightness shine momentarily in a dark undersea - a metaphor for the moments of optimism and catharsis glass beach provide on these songs. "This album is the Pacific garbage patch: cultural trash strewn together seemingly by accident, standing in stark juxtaposition to each other ," says McClendon. plastic death is a complete, uncompromising, playful work of art; every corner and crevice of the record's 13 tracks, each arrangement and timbre and texture, is alive with intention and possibility.

finally available again on vinyl, note the new price. The most critically revered and commercially successful Eluvium album finally released on stand-alone vinyl for the first time ever. Originally released on CD and Digital formats only, Copia was eventually available on vinyl exclusively as part of the Life Through Bombardment Vol. 1 box set. With thatset long out of print – and Copia celebrating its 10-year anniversary – we are finally giving this landmark album the vinyl reissue that it unquestionably deserves. Remastered for vinyl by Francesco Donadello at Calyx Mastering in Berlin, this deluxe 2xLP set is packaged in a full-color wide-spine jacket with dual heavyweight full-color inner sleeves. // “The grandest, most sweeping Eluvium record to date.” Pitchfork // “A magnificent set, awash in textures, atmospheres, moods, and emotion.” AllMusic // “Copia is the sound of Cooper surpassing himself, combining his patented minimalist drones with beautifully rendered piano.” – Drowned In Sound // Following a string of increasingly remarkable albums, Eluvium's Matthew Cooper set out to broaden his instrumental palette, while maintaining the uncanny emotional resonance that has become his trademark. The result is Copia, an hour-long epic that applies Eluvium's heartache-inducing ether to a symphony of strings, brass, keyboards and piano. Noticeably absent but hardly missed are the washes of guitars that color most of Eluvium's previous material. The deliberate exclusion of traditional rock instrumentation serves as sufficient proof that the instrument is not Eluvium's driving force. At best it is a catalyst, a vehicle to that netherworld in the back of your head, where your life starts to uncontrollably reevaluate itself. Also Available From Eluvium: False Readings On CD, 2LP, Life Through Bombardment Vol. 2 7LP, Nightmare Ending 2CD, The Motion Makes Me Last CDEP, Leaves Eclipse The Light CDEP, Similes CD, Talk Amongst the Trees CD / 2LP, An Accidental Memory In the Case of Death CD, Lambent Material CD

Waxwork Records is proud to release NO ONE WILL SAVE YOU Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Joseph Trapanese. From 20th Century Studios,

No One Will Save You is a captivating sci-fi psychological thriller introducing Brynn Adams (Kaitlyn Dever), a creative and talented young woman who’s been

alienated from her community. Lonely but ever hopeful, Brynn finds solace within the walls of the home where she grew up, until she’s awakened one night

by strange noises from decidedly unearthly intruders. What follows is an action-packed face-off between Brynn and a host of extraterrestrial beings

who threaten her future while forcing her to deal with her past.



Waxwork Records is proud to release NO ONE WILL SAVE YOU as a deluxe LP featuring 180 gram Blue & White swirl colored vinyl, heavyweight packaging, matte satin coating to finish.

Suburban Architecture continue their series of now highly collectible 4 track EP releases with their 6th offering, 'Inside / Outside'. This new collection of tracks once again draws heavily on influences from the jazzier, atmospheric strains of mid to late 90s Drum & Bass. Putting a contemporary spin on sounds rooted in this golden era of dance music, the latest 4 tracker is split into two parts: Inside / Outside. Each track appears in two parts, delivering similar themes at different tempos.

Opening track 'Inside Part 1' will please followers of Suburban Architecture's previous work - lush pads, deep atmospherics, Jazz fusion flute licks and smashing Amens are all present in the mix. Inside Part 2 lowers the tempo without compromising the energy: Slo-mo Amens interspersed with complimentary breaks sit on top of huge pads, Reece style bass and rousing vocals. Outside also appears in two similarly styled parts. This time Part 1 comes in at the lower tempo, a light vocal-led slow motion rolling number with classic Apache elements, while Part 2 applies the same sonic template to a tough, jazzy roller.

Epic, grooving, dazzlingly creative, perfectly attuned blends of complex mbalax drumming, field recordings, thumping kick-drum, and cosmic, bubbling, jamming synths and electronics.

The opening is suitably liminal, haunted by a diachronic sense of times past, present, and to come: ancestral ghosts, scratched playback, scraps of old recordings, voices strangulated or just out of range; puttering drums; futuristic, kosmische keys. Part II picks up the pace; III gives the drummers some, and heightens the atmosphere of enchantment. Jon Hassell’s Fourth World music courses through a kind of Dream Theory In Dakar.

Toco SOS, the second side, is a thumping, throbbing, mesmeric future-classic; perfect for fahr’n fahr’n fahr’n on the Autobahn… in a spacecraft. Expert hand percussion, call-and-response singing, bin-trembling foot-drum, spaceways keys. Sleekly funky as prime Popol Vuh.

Both sides range expansively by way of Berlin, where Lamin resided for a few years: you can hear something of T++’s brilliant, landmark HJ record on the A, and elements of Mark Ernestus’ crucial Ndagga project, on the B.

Half an hour of stunning music; in a beautiful sleeve, with mirror lettering, and an intricate spot-gloss rendition of salt crystals, laid over a photograph of the salt mines at Lac Rose, outside Dakar.

2024 Repress

For Frenzy's 5th installment, we'll take the fusion of the past and the present even further. We present you a 6-track EP by Swedish DJ and producer 'The Miller', who was amongst the Nordic wave of early 2000s techno pioneers like Cari Lekebusch, Adam Beyer, and Joel Mull. Coming from an era where rave and nightlife escapism were blooming, The Miller possesses a vast backlog of old-school productions that embody the true Frenzy sound. We invited him to compile an EP with old and new material, accompanied by remixes from the up-and-coming generation to truly intertwine generations of dancefloor exquisiteness. Allow yourself to surpass the linear alignment of time within the next collision of decades on Frenzy 005. It's time to dance.

Starting out slow but steady on the A side, 'Kartong' gradually builds up the pressure with a playful mix of reversed phrases and thoughtful alignment of pitch levels. Tension transforms into motion as 'Apex' kicks in with big airy basslines and exotic drum elements that keep the early-day spirit alive. To complete the A-side, Stuttgart-based Rove Ranger presents a dub-influenced remix of Apex, accelerating the 00s story straight into the next decade. On the flip side, we go back to the old days as 'Complied' grabs hold of hips and minds with catchy repetition and a straightforward bassline. The Miller got us spellbound as 'Gate' follows up with a stripped-down steamy groover. To end the journey in full force, a powerful remix of Gate by the Greek-based ANNE is delivered, converting stripped down into the contrary for those big-room dancefloor moments.

Repress!

Synergy in motion, London five-piece Ezra Collective are proving themselves as a harmonious tour de force. Their sound nods respectfully to a classic jazz footprint, celebrating the originators whilst simultaneously carving a path solely their own.

Ezra Collective marry the delicate technicalities of jazz musicianship with afrobeat and hip hop, tied together by a sound that's unmistakably London. Their live show is one of dynamic union; the strength of their partnership shines in performances that are commanding yet sensitive, soulful and pertinently groove-laced.

Following a joyous and stunningly cohesive show in May 2016, Boiler Room rightly labelled the group as 'pioneering the new-wave of U.K. jazz'. As the genre enjoys a new lease of life that is gaining momentum across the country, Ezra Collective are adding their own fresh and imaginative face to a style that continues to be 'as entertaining as it is educational' (Trench).

In a year that saw them sell out legendary London venue Ronnie Scott's not once but twice, 2017 also bought with it the release of their genre-bending second EP, Juan Pablo: The Philosopher.

After Ezra Collective took the EP on a successful tour across the U.K and Europe and completely sold out of the vinyl, Juan Pablo: The Philosopher went on to win the accolade of Best Jazz Album at Gilles Peterson's esteemed Worldwide Awards Jan 2018

Southern Exposure is proud to present the debut solo EP from Mike Midnight. Angel Hours was originally self-released digitally but has been lovingly pressed on heavyweight vinyl for the first time with design from Jeffrey Annert.

Angel Hours current rise felt like it was imminent from the first listen, with contributions from Noa (Voice Actor/Stroom) and 3NDLES5 (Low Life). Mike’s production across the release feels akin to 90’s artists like I:Cube, Thievery Corporation or certain Weatherall moments. The heavenly references are well deserved with multiple moments on the release feeling truly divine, whilst others take a low-lit and alluring feel. Mike Midnight feels singular in the Australian music landscape, like a mix between the best parts of Paul Mac, Single Gun Theory and Ian Eccles-Smith.

Angel Hours continues the lineage of Australian music breaking through to international recognition with the release becoming a mainstay on NTS Radio, breakfast show host Flo Dill dubbing it “music that when listened to at night makes you feel unstoppable.” Remastered by Corey Kikos (Sleep D/Butter Sessions), the balance of each track of downtempo bliss feels like you’re not only unstoppable but weightless.

Big thank you to Theodore, Mitch, Jeff, Mon, Noa, my friends, family and all the collaborators for their continued patience and support.

C Powers (Cecilia Powers) promotes the power of community organizing in many facets of her life. She’s an interstellar producer and DJ as well as an active tenants’ rights activist in Portland, Oregon. Intersectionality is at the core of Cecilia’s perspective as a trans woman and is reflected in her organizing practices and her musical activities. Whether planning actions against unethical landlords with tenants & regularly hosting solidarity benefit parties in Portland, or fostering safe dancing spaces with her queer family when she lived in Savannah GA, Cecilia has found ways to expand upon the notion of a “community in motion”. She has released on Sorry Records, Sweat Equity, CGI Records, Proper Trax, and Niche N Bump to name a few.

This EP is four cuts of C Powers’ signature touch applied to a hybrid blend of electro, breaks, and bass. There’s high-octane energy as well as a power in the spaces between. These four tracks balance “maximum” and “minimum” and will slap the fascism right out of any environment they’re dropped in.

»In Words« is the first solo album by the Danish musician, composer, and visual artist Alexander Tillegreen. The album represents a series of varied electronic music pieces while also carrying examples of ongoing work with psychoacoustic phenomena. Composed partly of material taken from his artistic practice as an installation artist and his ongoing interdisciplinary artistic research into psychoacoustic phenomena, Tillegreen investigates subjective sonic perception and the negotiation of language. Particularly, these investigations are done through the use of the phantom word illusion, originally discovered by music psychologist Diana Deutsch. Parts of the album were conceived when Tillegreen was the first artist ever in resident at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics. Triggering the brain’s tendency to interpret language-based auditory illusions as meaningful information and as words within the mind of the listener, Tillegreen’s unique sound works unfold like a kaleidoscope of phonetic mirrors which render possibilities to reflect upon the listener’s own psychological and culturally situated linguistic embeddedness. Gender-distorted voice perception, speech and language borders are all challenged and thematized throughout Tillegreen’s work. The listener’s head and bodily movement drastically affect the listening and the word interpretation. Their psychological subconsciousness, recent events, memories, and expectations as well as the listener’s motion in space all become co-creative and co- composing factors in a reactive and choreographic process of listening. The polyrhythmic seriality of spatialized syllabic structures is accompanied by elements of heavy bass drops, high-frequency tensions, undulating synth lines, and hypnotic effects. Some of the many compositional potentials of the phantom word illusions are exercised and unfolded in selected tracks throughout the album. The notion of language borders is approached from an entirely different and even more “anti-logocentric” perspective on the “eponymous” closing track »Assimilate (in Words)«, where the listener experiences the struggle and collapse of interpersonal communication through conversation. Other parts of the album represent more diverse approaches to abstract electronic music. »In Words« morphs soundscapes into glacial, spherical passages of ambient backdrops, while at other times emphasizes raw tectonic blocks of hyper-panning drones that erupt into high-velocity outlets of energetic, granular fields. Tillegreen is alternating between cyclical, minimalist, hypnotic approaches and complex, glitchy polyrhythmic melodic structures that shift and melt into evocative ambiences. The phantom words and the nature of Tillegreen’s musical visions progressively demand more of the listener’s attention and represent the artist’s ongoing artistic work and scientific research into psychoacoustics and language. While »In Words« is a highly conceptual album, the musical bandwidth is extensive.

Renowned Berlin-based music discovery platform COLORSxSTUDIOS will release their new vinyl compilation album, ‘MOVE:FEEL1’, just in time for the holidays.

The limited-edition double disc gatefold vinyl will feature 16 beloved A COLORS SHOW tracks, both recent and from the archive, including London-based rapper Kwengface’s ‘Freedom’ that was released earlier this year, critically-acclaimed Malian artist Fatoumata Diawara’s ‘Nterini’ from 2019, and Dominican-Italian star YEИDRY’s breakout 2020 hit ‘Nena’.

The album is truly international—it will feature songs sung in six different languages (including English, Swedish, German, Bambara, French, Vietnamese, and Spanish) and represent artists from 15 different countries across the world.

‘MOVE:FEEL1’ reflects and celebrates the launch of COLORS’ new ‘MOVE’ and ‘FEEL’ playlists that are now available across all DSPs. Updated monthly, these playlists will curate COLORS’ genre fluid output into cohesive listening experiences that cater for varying emotional states.

The songs on the ‘MOVE’ playlist—and hence on the ‘MOVE’ sides of the vinyl—are uptempo, bold, sexy and energetic, and aim to set the tone for daring and unapologetic enjoyment. In contrast, the tracks on the ‘FEEL’ playlist and discs are downtempo and emotive. They are for relaxation, and to help listeners contemplate their internal and external environments

Designed by COLORS’ in-house creative team, the vinyl cover is mirrored, meaning its appearance adapts depending on the light and colors it reflects. This was an important decision to ensure the cover represents all of the featured artists, who all performed their A COLORS SHOWS against different colored backdrops. The mirrored material also enables the audience to literally (and hopefully metaphorically) see themselves in the album.

Each side of the mirrored cover is adorned differently: while the “MOVE” side features embossed lines, stripes and slashes indicative of motion, the more introverted “FEEL” side is debossed with goosebump-like grooves. Even with their eyes closed, people will be able to feel which side of the album is which, adding an extra sensory layer to the listening experience.
MOVE:FEEL1’s design also prioritizes sustainability, using no single-use plastics for its packaging.

ARTIST OVERVIEW Mixing warm acoustic tones and strong vocals with heavy emo elements, the band launched several DIY tours, quickly developing a national presence. Signing with Boston indie Topshelf Records, they released their debut album, “The Earth Pushed Back" and in 2014, Have Mercy signed with vaunted indie Hopeless Records, which released their second LP, “A Place of Our Own”, later that year. Working with producers Paul Leavitt (All Time Low) and Brian McTernan (Thrice), Swindle and a rotating crew recorded the band’s Hopeless follow-up, “Make the Best of It”, which was released in early 2017. Have Mercy returned with “The Love Life” in 2019, which charted Swindle’s tumultuous personal life over the previous three years. The band came back in August 2022 with a self-tiled EP, released via Zodhiac Records, which caught the attention of Brooklyn Vegan, FLOOD Magazine, The Noise, and more. In september 2022 they shared an unreleased B-Side from their 2012 EP, My Oldest Friend, titled "Seventeen" via Rude Records. BAND MEMBERS Andrew Johnson // Guitar, Backing Vocals Brian Swindle // Lead Vocals, Guitar, Keyboard Nick Woolford // Bass, Backing Vocals TOURING HISTORY Since 2012, Have Mercy has toured both nationally and internationally with such acts as Taking Back Sunday, Motion City Soundtrack, Senses Fail, Mayday Parade, The Maine, The Wonder Years, Turnover, Real Friends and Neck Deep

A note from Lawrence English:

Occasionally ideas present themselves in ways that no one can expect. This recording from Australia’s Eugene Carchesio and the UK’s Adam Betts is one such unexpected presentation.

A couple of years ago, Eugene passed me a collection of recordings that he explained were in the orbit of his now legendary Circle Music series. The recordings, in Eugene’s particular manner, maintained an intensely rhythmic quality rooted in a deep and unwavering sense of minimalism. Eugene has a way of making a tiny cosmos from just the barest of materials. He wondered though, about mixing it up and adding something unexpected to the pieces, and asked about some drums being added.

At almost exactly the same moment, I had been reminded of the amazing work of Adam Betts, who I have been fortunate to be in the orbit of for more than a decade now. We’d first met at Bad Bonne, sharing a bill, and then crossed paths most recently in Tbilisi where he was performing with Squarepusher.

The reason Adam was on my radar though was entirely unrelated to music and it was down to the fact that he had just participated in a welsh toss competition and done quite brilliantly. Somehow, watching Adam lug those weights made me think he’d be the perfect candidate to work with Eugene on this project. To my delight, he agreed.

What results here is a melding of two incredible musical spirits, each of whom have an unerring sense of restrained energy and rhythmic ferocity. It is a parallel reading of how minimal motion can create giant affective waves of energy. It’s also a record of careful listening and generous exploration.

It’s not everyday music can emerge from such curious orbits of thought, but when it does it is a cause for celebration. With that in heart I am so pleased to share this incredible edition with you.

2023 Repress.

Music From Memory are excited to present the debut LP of Kaifeng born, Vancouver based artist Yu Su in collaboration with Chinese label bié Records. Titled 'Yellow River Blue' it is our first release of 2021 and the second collaboration between label and artist, following up on the strongly received EP 'Roll With The Punches' from 2019 on Second Circle.

Named after the world’s most heavily silted river, 'Yellow River Blue' is Yu Su's personal musical autobiography, constructed around stories of chasing something inconceivable. Written and recorded in different continents in between August 2019 and March 2020, all songs seek to musically translate years of moving and touring, temporarily settling, and the feelings of both being turned away and accepted. In her own words, “The world is my home and it isn’t, but as long as there is generosity of water and mud...” It is an homage to her home beside the Yellow River.

Yu Su's debut album consists of eight songs that are versatile in both writing and aesthetics. Versatile individually, consistent as a whole. Yu Su is in a class of her own, dodging the obvious while combining sounds and inspirations of various origins into a new destination that sounds like her home in the here and now. It's a release that is constantly in motion and moves fluently between contemporary pop, ethereal sound compositions and dance-floor experiments.

'Yellow River Blue' comes as part of a collaboration with Yu Su's co-founded new label bié Records and will be released as MFM052 in vinyl format by Music From Memory on January 25th 2021, after seeing a full digital album release via bié on January 22nd in the new Year of the Ox, according to the Chinese zodiac. Both formats come in different exclusively designed artworks.

Ltd Edition! Das Darkwave Elektronik-Duo BOY HARSHER aus Northampton, Massachusetts veröffentlichen nochmals ihre Katalog-Klassiker in verschiedenen Farben!

First time on vinyl!
Newly remastered. LP housed in a gatefold jacket.
Featuring Herbie Hancock, Martha Reeves, Alphonse Mouzon, Chuck Rainey, Patryce “Choc’let” Banks, Carlos Morales, and members of The Pointer Sisters.

In the 1970s, Betty Davis defied genre and gender by pushing her voice to extremes and embracing the erotic. She articulated a kind of pre-punk, funk-blues fusion that had yet to be normalized in mainstream music – a style that few musicians have come close to replicating. As one of the first Black women to write, arrange, and produce her own albums, Betty was a visionary who disregarded industry boundaries and constraints. Raw, unapologetic and in full control, Betty paved the way for generations of future artists who said “funk you” to the music industry and social norms.

In 1979, when Davis entered an L.A. studio to record her fifth and final album, she was reeling from a series of setbacks. Three years earlier, after recording her fourth album, Is It Love Or Desire, Davis was dropped from her label and the LP was subsequently shelved. In 1978, her beloved band Funk House went their separate ways. Looking for a fresh start, Davis relocated to Hollywood to focus on songwriting. Before long, British manager Simon Lait (Toni Basil), offered to fund her next project.

With renewed vigor, Davis reunited with former Funk House guitarist Carlos Morales and brought together industry veterans like fusion drummer Alphonse Mouzon and session bassist Chuck Rainey. Old friends Anita and Bonnie Pointer (The Pointer Sisters) and Patryce “Choc’let” Banks joined Davis on vocals, as did Motown legend Martha Reeves. The resulting album, Crashin’ From Passion, was her most musically diverse, blending elements of reggae and calypso (“I’ve Danced Before”), jazz (“Hangin’ Out in Hollywood,” “Tell Me a Few Things”), dark synth-pop (“She’s a Woman”), and even disco (“All I Do Is Think of You”). Equally exploratory are Davis’ vocals, as she trades in her signature sass and snarls for more nuanced stylings.

Among the album’s few funk tracks is “Quintessence of Hip,” in which Davis hails musicians like Bob Dylan, Billie Holiday, Stevie Wonder, and John Coltrane, while deftly integrating elements of their work. The song also offers a moment of stark vulnerability, as she sings, “Isn’t rich? Isn’t it queer? Losing my timing so late in my career.” It would prove to be a prophetic line in the months to follow.

The mixing process was mired by artistic differences and then cut short, amid the death of Davis’ beloved father. Bereft and exasperated, Davis returned home for the funeral, setting into motion her retirement from the music industry. Crashin’ From Passion, meanwhile, would be shelved for 15 years and licensed for a CD-only release, without Davis’ consent, in the ‘90s. This 2023 edition of the album, made with Davis’ full approval and cooperation, marks its first official release and first time ever on vinyl. The package was designed by GRAMMY®-winning artist, Masaki Koike, while the album cover features an incredible shot of Betty captured in London in the mid-1970s by renowned photographer Kate Simon.

Crashin’ From Passion was remastered by Dave Cooley at Elysian Masters and pressed on vinyl at Record Technology, Inc. (RTI). The accompanying booklet includes a treasure trove of rare photos from the era, plus lyrics, and new liner notes by writer, ethnomusicologist, and Betty’s close friend, Danielle Maggio, who integrates interviews that she conducted with Davis, marking her last ever interviews.

While this may be the first release on Sheffield's Central Processing Unit from Global Goon, the one known to friends and family as Johnny Hawk brings a whole heap of experience to the Nanoclusters mini-LP.

Hawk started dropping Global Goon records on the legendary Rephlex Records back in the 1990s. The project's subsequent releases have taken in imprints as esteemed as WéMè and Balkan. Factor in a whole host of other aliases which have delivered missives via the likes of Planet Mu, and you know even before you press play on this witty, wily record that you're dealing with a master at work here.

The confidence with which Global Goon approaches Nanoclusters shines through in Hawk taking much of the mini-album at midtempo. Cuts like 'Khroxic Mould', 'Metallik' and 'Syntheseers' sound like Bochum Welt heading down a dark alleyway. The former in particular is a seasick lope, the tuned synths lurching around like sailors on deck in a storm as bass ebbs and flows underneath the mix.

The influence of Kraftwerk comes through prominently at times here, particularly in the way 'Calcula' and 'Digit Six' play pensive, slightly sombre synth chords off some simple but effective forward motion in the drum programming. That is not to say that Nanoclusters is not full of invention, though. None of the productions are overly flash, but this approach allows the little details to shine through more clearly, from cleverly panned hi-hats to hissing synth counter-melodies which flit in and out of the mix. Enthralling and packed full of ear candy, they're further evidence that Nanoclusters is the work of an expert craftsman.

While the pulse of Nanoclusters remains relatively steady throughout, it's still a rather lively record. Plenty of these tracks will get the dancefloor moving if deployed correctly - though whether they're heard at home or in the dance, it's the attention to detail which makes them stand out.

'Snapterisk' is as perfect an example of machine-funk as you're likely to find - the drum programming is razor-sharp but rubbery with bongos, the bass a lithe burble, and those wobbly stabs of keys that put a bit of wiggle in the beat? Delightful stuff. Elsewhere the ever-looping arpeggio of 'Metro Esc' has hints of Frankie Knuckles' house classic 'Your Love', though an array of interesting sonic nuggets - snippets of vocal, radar-like bloops, a gently insistent low-end pulse - soften the track's clubbier elements with a pillowy sheen. And Hawk throws us a curveball right at the end of Nanoclusters, tapping back into that old Rephlex sound for the fizzy, braindancing 'Metal Glass'.

Global Goon doesn't need to show off on Nanoclusters - from brilliantly slick machine-funk to Kraftwerkian reveries, the CPU debutant lets the music do the talking here. It makes for a confident and vivacious mini-LP, one which wears its expertise lightly.

RIYL: Cardopusher, Bochum Welt, Cygnus, D'Arcangelo

Following on from recent works for 12k, The Trilogy Tapes, and Important, Far More Decentralized is a new collection of subtle, enchanting pieces from Tokyo-based sound and visual artist Akhira Sano. Working with electronic, instrumental, and concrete sounds, he crafts immersive assemblages of long overlapping tones and blurred resonance, cut through with textural crunch and hiss. The resonant bell-like tones of opener ‘Kouai’ invite the listener in, calling up the warm sound palette of ambient classics like Hiroshi Yoshimura’s Music for Nine Postcards, but leaving any sense of compositional anchor behind for a free-floating harmonic drift. Woven through this seductive tonal cloud is a wavering stream of white noise and tactile pops, its textural grit threatening to derail the calmly reflective pool of pitched sounds, but never quite doing so. Each of these seven pieces occupies a similarly ruminative harmonic space while possessing its own identity. On ‘Neow’, lush tonal swells form around fragmented samples, touching on the techniques of early 2000s glitch artists like Ekkehard Ehlers. ‘Orbv’ is particularly subtle in its combination of rippling back-masked tonal wash, almost subliminal suggestions of field recordings, and distant traces of raw electronic interference, as if a Toshimaru Nakamura recording is playing through an open window across the road. ‘Margin’ weaves together a skein of wistful slow-motion melodies while untraceable, resonant clinks and ambiguous static washes rise gradually to the surface. In comparison to his recent Phase Contrast for Recollection on 12k, recognisable instrumental sounds are a rarity here, yet a hand-played feeling is present throughout. On ‘Teens’, filtered electric guitar tones reminiscent of the melancholic miniatures of Andrew Chalk float over aqueous burbles, bringing the album to a magisterial close. In the crowded field of contemporary electronic music tending toward ambience, Sano is a distinctive voice. Like his elegant abstract paintings, here seemingly static surfaces of unhurried calm reveal rich interior worlds of subtle activity and gentle chaos. Where much contemporary ambient music aims for an almost stifling cleanliness of tone, Sano breathes life into Far More Decentralized through the acceptance of imperfection, accident, and rough edges. As the artist himself says, ‘In a world where everything can be made perfectly, I think it’s a beautiful and primal act to touch the fragile and imperfect’

Die-cut sleeve. In the fall of 2013 Bry Webb was putting the finishing touches on his second album Free Will. Released on May 20th 2014, Bry, with his newly assembled band The Providers, spent the following few years traversing North America playing clubs, festivals and storied stages such as Toronto’s Massey Hall. Nothing new for an artist who had spent the aughts in a constant state of motion with Constantines, a band who on average had performed one of every three nights on a stage somewhere in the world. In fact, running in parallel to Bry’s solo touring schedule was a reunion with his former Constantines’ bandmates to once again present their incendiary live show and celebrate the 11th anniversary reissue of the band’s Shine A Light. It is what happened as the decade wound down that seemed out of character for an artist who had spent close to 20 years immersed in the studio and on the stage: the music stopped altogether. Bry explains his feelings at that time, “I lost the musical plot about 5 years ago and stopped playing music entirely, sold instruments and recording equipment, and committed myself to the idea that I was absolutely done”. Webb dedicated himself to his ongoing work in community radio, months turned to years and musical life seemed to be all but gone from view. Now in an unexpected turnaround 10 years on from the recording of his last studio album, there is not only a return to the stage for Bry but also a new record. Primarily composed in a season of upheaval, Run With Me contains some of Bry’s rawest sentiments. Fresh and painfully present there is an immediacy one can hear as emotional walls collapse in real time. Bry explains the context of the album’s creation: “In early 2023 my personal life exploded. In the process of dealing with that, I started writing music again and started recording at home. Advised that I needed to figure out how to ask for, and accept, help from other people, I sent early recordings of songs to friends from twenty-five years of music making - many folks I hadn’t connected with in years - and asked if they’d contribute anything to the songs. People came through in ways that overwhelmed me to the point that I cried when I wrote out the list of players for the liner notes. I felt incredibly cared for. From Andy Magoffin, who recorded the first Constantines album in 1999, to members of the Cons, to my nieces Addy and Ella playing drums, and a doppler recording of my daughter’s heartbeat, the record is a document of my creative life, and the people who made it possible to make music again.” If the cover of Run With Me looks familiar, it is with full intent. The album’s technicolor marbling and die cut text serve to signal the inclusion of the album in a trilogy started with Bry’s first record Provider. Just as that album starts with the track Asa, this new one introduces itself with the instrumental Webb. The trilogy is now completed with his daughter's first, middle and last names represented as the first tracks on each of the three albums. While the LP’s package signals its place in the collection, and tracks such as Older Than The Dirt and What I Do revisit their predecessor’s familiar sonic starkness, Run With Me is the outlier of the trio. A number of new tracks forego the quietude of Provider and Free Will, clearly recalling the rallying rhythms of Constantines’ anthems. Thunder Bay (instrumental backing courtesy of The Harbourcoats circa 2009), with its insistent kick drum and wall of electrics, support one of Webb’s most indelible melodies, and the not so subtly psychedelic Modern Mind reveal an expansion of Webb’s palette. Perhaps the furthest afield is the contextual centerpiece of the album, Goodbye, where we not only hear a joyful voice that lay dormant for years, but hear it reclaim its power. Backed by Constantines’ Will Kidman, Doug MacGregor and Dallas Wehrle, Bry belts out “I’m through with all the rage, now watch the light pour out of me.” As with all of Bry’s work, Run With Me’s lyrics take their time to settle in. Songs of self-examination, reconfigured love ballads, and songs for those who work to help others. Songs of singing abound. It’s there in Older Than The Dirt’s second verse: "Logic to the last intention, logic in the way we kept holding on forever, singing as the floor- was swept”, ten thousand birds sing a warning song in Thunder Bay and again in Goodbye’s telling of a cathartic return to one’s true self with its celebration of those “Who sing - sing all joy - all joy of language, in a single word”. Joining Bry in singing Run With Me’s songs of “death, transition and hope,” are kindred spirits Jennifer Castle, Julie Doiron, Daniel Romano and Steph Yates. All of these singers elevate the album’s healing sentiments and help express the album’s central plea; a prayer of sorts wrapped in the traditional Scottish Gaelic melody of She Is Here’s second verse: “Let the sun rise in the morning and any witness bring. Let all the blooming cosmos teach us to sing”.

Mount Maxwell returns with another full-length journey into memory, melody, and geography - this time roaming beyond the BC environs of his previous records into a stranger, less knowable country. While still woozily nostalgic in the vein of Only Children and The People’s Forest, this outing feels more exploratory and wide ranging in scope, with a denser mixture of influences at play. The somnambulistic drift of Sea of Milk sets the stage with a series of wavering synth pulses that push us languidly toward land, eventually setting us down on the sands of Maze Crete, where a shadowy latticework of hand drums, flutes and synths await. From there we ascend to the aptly named Sky Eye, a rolling mixture of acoustic beats and analog string machines that gives us our first bird’s eye view of the album’s landscape. A Long Road pushes the acoustic instrumentation further, with shimmering tambourine marking time for a collection of hand drums and shakers, while Ages summons up an occult-like dream of glacial arpeggios and whispering synths. Slow Moves and Tree Motion float effortlessly along on beds of lazy congas and woodblocks before finally giving way to the title track - a heady juggernaut of distorted synths and trundling rhythms that propels us through the album’s second half like a locomotive through darkening hills. Drawing the record to a close, the gently repeating keyboard phrase of Mist blooms unexpectedly into a rainbow of human voices before evaporating into the oceanic swells of Hi Traveller. And there Littlefolk leaves us as it found us; adrift in a rolling sea.

A quietly funky collection that repays repeated play by creating a mesmeric, almost
hypnotic, cocoon to lose yourself in" Echoes
Examining our relationship with the cosmos as well as more intimate liaisons closer
to home; new transatlantic future soul duo Cosmic Link are set to release their
eponymous debut album on 24th November.
The duo consists of Florida based Jay Myztroh and Bristol based producer Ben
Dubuisson, best known for the Hundred Strong project. Citing influences of Erykah
Badu, Prince, Alice Coltrane, Stevie Wonder and Esperanza Spalding; the album
crosses cosmic soul/RnB, low-end weighted hip hop, and conscious jazz. While the
musical vibrations lay down a groove on a sensory level, the lyrics prompt deeper
subconscious thought.
Under a “Cosmic” header, side one of the album starts with ‘Let It Go’, a song about
releasing the things that no longer serve you in your life, before exploring
meditation (‘Quiet Time’), karma, and responsibility in the way you live your life
(‘Metaphysical’).
Side two of the album is grouped with the theme “Link” and as narrative, explores
the evolution of a relationship: ‘Cellphone’ expresses the desire to be close to
someone, ‘Shoot’ is the introduction to the courting stage, and ‘Show U Love’ is a
request to take a step into a committed relationship.
“All of these songs are personal,” says Jay. “They explore either my experiences or are
written to me as understandings to help me navigate this plane of existence. The
personal nature of the music is what makes it universal to all humans”.
The overall theme of the album is summed up in the lyrics of the closing title track,
“Our motion is perpetual/together we move/at the speed of life/ intertwined by our
timelines/which coincide”.
Jay explains, “There is no separating the all from the source. With all living things
being products of the Cosmos, we are forever linked to it. We all share a source, atimeline, a planet, air, a sun etc. We are linked by simply being and doing the things
beings do”.
Introduced by mutual artist friends, the catalyst for their collaboration was the 2017
album 'Black Diamonds' by Jay's previous project Stono Echo, produced by the late,
great Paten Locke. Over the course of a few years they began remotely exchanging
music and lyrics, building a catalogue of finished tracks. During this time, Myztroh
was also completing his Masters degree in choral conducting that focused on
discovering and promoting compositions from the African Diaspora. Run by Ben
Dubuisson, High Noon Music has been based in Bristol since the early 2000s,
releasing records by artists including Ben’s own Hundred Strong, plus Boca 45,
Joseph Malik, Kali Phoenix, One Cut, Mr Fantastic, and Numskullz.

Ohio independent Hip-Hop mainstays J. Rawls and Cas Metah put on a clinic with Criminal Blinded. As has become his signature, Dr. Rawls delivers 7 soulful tracks for Cas to spit carefully crafted conscious lyricism. The Buckeye state is represented to the fullest as Rawls & Metah are joined by OH legends Holmskillit on "G Rap", Donte of Mood on "Golden Arms", Blast Mega on "Seven Kings" and D1 on the title track. The talented group of guest appearances doesn't end at the border though! Other features include Stik Figa, Sheisty Khrist, Rel McCoy, Napoleon Da Legend, Sleep Sinatra, Taiyamo Denku and Scribbling Idiots.

Ennio Morricone composed and arranged scores for more than 500 film and television productions, making him one of the most influential and best-selling film composers since the late 50s. The Legend of 1900 (Italian: La leggenda del pianista sull’oceano).

The Legend of 1900 is a 1998 Italian drama film directed by Giuseppe Tornatore and starring Tim Roth, Pruitt Taylor Vince, and Mélanie Thierry. The film is inspired by Novecento, a monologue by Alessandro Baricco. The Legend Of 1900 was nominated for a variety of international award, winning several for its soundtrack, including a Golden Globe for Best Original Score - Motion Picture. This release includes the song “Lost Boys Calling” featuring Roger Waters & Eddie van Halen.

Throughout his career, Morricone received an unprecedented amount of awards, including Grammys, Golden Globes, and BAFTAs. Ennio Morricone has influenced many artists including Danger Mouse, Dire Straits, Muse, Metallica, Radiohead, Hans Zimmer, and many more.

The Legend of 1900 is available limited edition of 5000 numbered copies on smoke coloured vinyl. The package includes an insert.

"Omoiyari" means to have empathy and consideration for others, and act on it. This fall, the American indie-folk multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Kishi Bashi is set to release the companion album to his forthcoming documentary song film, titled Music from the Song Film: Omoiyari. Consisting of two LPs_"The Songs" and "The Score"_the release showcases what is essentially the soundtrack to Omoiyari, the feature-length motion picture co-directed by Kishi Bashi, aka Kaoru Ishibashi or "K," which is being released via MTV Documentary Films in November. Focusing on K's own six-year journey of discovery surrounding his research of the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans that followed the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the film is part social justice documentary and part song-film experiment. The album includes K's live improvisations, which are featured in the documentary, many recorded on the sites where the concentration camps stood. Written during and about the artist's transformational dive into his personal identity and serving as a broad survey of the Japanese American experience as well as the incarceration_Music from the Song Film: Omoiyari serves as an evocative musical accompaniment to the lessons of empathy and compassion portrayed in the film and highlights the process and power of one of modern indie's most talented musicians.

David Byrne is a modern renaissance man - and that’s not just a cliché. From the heady days as co-founder of the celebrated art new-wave group Talking Heads (1976-88) through his own constantly evolving and innovative solo music career, he has pursued his muse on many different artistic fronts. He’s been the driving force behind a body of work that has been both intellectually daring and commercially successful...and he shows no signs of slowing down decades later. This show, captured on November 28, 2001, came on the heels of his hit single, “Like Humans Do” and the release of the album Look Into The Eyeball, which was another typically eclectic musical stew reflecting a variety of styles and influences, from Philly soul to a D.C. Go-Go inspired groove and his first-ever Spanish composition, “Desconocido Soy.” Critics at the time called it his best work in years, and his performance on the Austin City Limits stage shows why. Joined by Austin’s own eclectic tango ensemble Tosca, Byrne takes us down many different musical roads in his ACL debut. Of course, besides the brilliant songwriter and performer that he is, he’s also an accomplished performance artist, photographer, web journalist, film writer / director, composer of motion picture soundtracks, and founder of his own world music label, Luaka Bop Records. He also has a collection of Grammys, Oscars and Golden Globes on his mantel. His music may be complex and poetic, but he makes no bones about his ultimate intent: “I want to move people to dance and cry at the same time. - Terry Lickona (Producer Austin City Limits)

In the corner of your vision, there’s a daydream on a mission” says Russell Edling in the beginning of “Park (Rye)”. Humming vibrations crescendo around the words floating inthe air and a listener may visualize a flower growing in fast motion, or a dog running backwards, lava flowing, children jumping rope in the evening sun. Suddenly these visions plumet and new frenetic images appear as drums, percussion, and full accompaniment burst into space. The band has arrived, a theme recurrent in Golden Apples’ new record, Bananasugarfire.

A listener might hear echoes of the Velvet Underground, Stereolab, Stone Roses, Yo La Tengo, but there is more going on than just a studied homage to indie rock’s progenitors. The themes of doubt and bewilderment found on previous albums are still present, but they are thrown into a kaleidoscope with beams of positivity, hope, and optimism.

Back in the 1990s video games were still largely seen as nerdy: fun, sure, but basically a guilty pleasure that you’d soon grow out of. The release in 1995 of wipE'out'', a lightning-fast, razor-sharp, futuristic racing game that helped to launch the PlayStation in Europe and North America, changed all that. This was a game that looked and sounded both adult and cool, the kind of game you would put on display in your living room, rather than hide away under your bed. Key to this was the fact that wipE'out'' borrowed unashamedly from the clubbing experience and electronic music, in a way that put it at the heart of progressive mid 90s culture. It soon became a phenomenon.

wipE'out'' looked sensational, with Sheffield agency The Designers Republic - known for their work with Warp - creating the visuals, packaging and manual for the game, drawing heavily on the bright colours and excitable geometric shapes of the rave and club flyers of the early 90s.

wipE'out'' also sounded like a new rave dream. The European version of the game included music from The Chemical Brothers, Leftfield and Orbital, the kind of fashionable game syncs that were almost unheard of at the time. Equally striking was the game’s original music, which came from Welsh musician Tim Wright, aka CoLD SToRAGE, by this point already a veteran in the video games world, having worked on the music for Amiga titles such as Lemmings and Shadow of the Beast 2. His music for wipE'out'' was, if anything, even more extreme than the big-name syncs, mixing the accelerated beats of drum & bass with the pure synth rush of trance to make music that sounded as breathlessly exciting as playing the game felt.

These tracks were burned into the brains of millions of gamers; the soundtrack to a generation of late-night anti-gravity racing, as the sun gingerly rose beyond the curtains. But they haven’t, perhaps, quite got the respect they deserve, something that this release will address. In 2023, video game music is finally getting its dues; here, remastered and repackaged –and also remixed by cutting edge producers such as Kode9, μ-Ziq, Brainwaltzera, Simo Cell, Wordcolour, James Shinra, Surgeons Girl and Dattassette– are some of the most important, thrilling, innovative and most fun songs ever committed to game release.

and Sebastian Kokus and the prolific Ulf Schütte, the Hamburg-based trio has tirelessly expanded upon its sound and extended its musical style. After 2022’s »S/T« documented the results of their first jam sessions as a newly-founded group, »V.A.« started even more modestly and became an even bigger undertaking. Originally conceived as a small one-off release, it grew into a full record which sees the group embracing dub music, collaborating with Peaking Lights’ Aaron Coyes and inviting other artists—No UFO’s, Seekers International, Coco Em—who reworked select tracks in true dub style. »V.A.« is marked by inconsistency, openness, and heterogeneity in the best sense of those words: ever-changing, constantly surprising and consistently in motion.

The starting point for »V.A.« was a Hamburg concert in December 2022 together with Coyes, who played a solo set as Peaking Lights. On the request of the event organiser, Cloud Management teamed up with him for a jam session after the gig, laying the foundation for a track that the group took to the studio before sending it to Coyes to record vocals for it. Another song quickly followed and even though the band initially intended to release »PST« and »0rten Pitch« as standalone 7” single, they soon decided to have others create versions of the two tunes to round them off in the form of a 12” EP. Once more though, one thing led to another and now »V.A.« collects five original pieces by Cloud Management as well as three—four on the digital version—remixes by other artists.

Collaborating with Leipzig-based Canadian producer No UFO’s, the Canadian Seekers International collective, and Kenyan multi-disciplinary artist Coco Em came about organically. As fans of their friend Konrad Jandavs’ work for labels such as Spectrum Spools, Root Strata and his own Nice Up International, Korf, Kokus and Schütte asked him for a remix and granted him full creative freedom for his take on »PST«. Jandavs also connected them with the prolific Richmond-based soundsystem worshippers, who present their take on the same track on this record as well as a version of »Electric CD.« Also this track appears three times on the record, having been re-rubbed by Emma Mbeki Nzioka, who was introduced to the the trio by its label Altin Village & Mine.

There isn’t really a common thread running through the rough digi-dub of No UFO’s take on »PST«, Seekers International’s traditionally-minded yet infinitely playful dub-psychedelia and Coco Em’s bass-heavy, percussive, pulsating take on »Electric CD.« However, as a group dedicated to staying in flux at all times, Cloud Management ended up embracing the creative differences between their own work and those of their respective collaborators. In calling it »V.A.,« they paid tribute to their somewhat loose, but conceptually consistent concept of giving various artists full creative licence over their own work. Neither a true album in the strict sense of the world nor just a compilation, »V.A.« is actually the essential Cloud Management record: ever-changing, constantly surprising, consistently in motion.

Black Truffle is thrilled to present a previously unheard performance by rudra veena master Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar, recorded in the North Indian city of Vrindavan at the Druhpad Samaroh festival in 1982. Z.M. Dagar was a nineteenth-generation descendant of the Dagar family of musicians, famed for their profoundly meditative approach to the tradition of Hindustani court music. Perhaps the most revered members of the family were the brothers Mohinuddin and Aminuddin Dagar, who played a key role in reawakening interest in dhrupad in the mid-20th century. The great exponents of the tradition from whom Z.M. Dagar descended were all singers, and dhrupad is essentially vocal music. However, as Z.M. Dagar explained, the veena family of instruments plays an important role in the education and practice of dhrupad singers, especially as an aid to mastering the fine microtonal nuances of pitch essential to the genre. Introduced as a child by his father to the rudra veena, a large and low-pitched veena amplified by two enormous gourds, Z.M. Dagar became the first modern dhrupad musician to perform with it as an instrumental soloist, giving his first recital at the age of 16. Devoted to the instrument throughout his life, he made innovations to its design and materials, as well as introducing novel techniques (such as playing without the use of the traditional wire plectrum, resulting in the remarkable warmth of his tone). In the great Dagar family tradition, his approach to the various ragas that make up the dhrupad repertoire was stately, slow, and considered, with a great emphasis on the alap, the heavily improvised exposition section. True to form, in this recording of Dagar performing the night raga Yaman Kalyan, the alap section stretches out to more than forty minutes of slow-motion bliss, a frozen tanpura drone hovering above Dagar’s gracefully bent notes and elegantly twisting phrases. In the alap’s first half, Dagar’s figures are so intently focused on the lower reaches of the rudra veena’s range that they register more as shudders and moans than melodic patterns. As the performance continues, he slowly climbs in pitch, though continuing with the same intent focus on the articulation of single notes and subtle microtonal variations. This leads to the jod section of the performance, which, though still accompanied only by the tanpura, gradually takes on a more rhythmic character. Developing almost imperceptibly over the course of nearly thirty minutes, the jod moves from the stillness of the opening alap to a rapid pulse that announces the closing section of the piece, where Dagar is joined by Shrikant Mishra on the pakhawaj (a double headed hand drum). Where many performers use the final section of the raga as an exercise in unrestrained virtuosity, Dagar and Mishra subtly weave a web of finely shifting accents and hypnotic melodic variations, bringing the recording to a fitting conclusion while remaining within the meditative space occupied by the performance as a whole. Adorned with beautiful archival photographs of Dagar taken by Swedish percussion legend Bengt Berger and accompanied by detailed notes from Bradford Bailey, Vrindavan 1982 is a stunning document of music unmatched in its patient focus and mysterious emotional depth. .

Cylene II is the new materialization of the collaboration between François J. Bonnet & Stephen O"Malley, initiated in 2018 and continued without interruption since then, taking form in a myriad of contexts ranging from common practice to recording sessions, concerts and tours. Cylene II bears witness to these different contexts, offering a multifaceted sound signature developed on different occasions (artist residencies in La Becque, Switzerland and Modena, Italy, live performance excerpts, a studio session at INA-GRM Studios in Paris). The epic opening track "Four Rays (Anti Divide)" welcomes, for the first time, other musicians - in this case a wind quintet - expanding the duo"s sonic palette without betraying the fundamental component of their music, namely the driving of sonic energy. Elsewhere, Bonnet and O"Malley propel the energy between themselves, extending the singular climate that has characterized their musical development over the past five years. Among their minimal presentation of tones and resonances, as glacial harmonic intersections slowly elevate with massive physicality to an orchestral degree, new refinements become evident: the music"s relationship to silence, and a brightening of the fine metallic edge glowing at its core. For the listener, Cylene II is a sound that reaches from the deep and scales up to the far firmament in its careful motion, drawing emotions viscerally from the chest, giving rise to the suggestibility of the soul. A séance of sorts for all who witness it, whether playing or listening.

Semisonic - eine der meist unterschätzten Alternative-Rock-Bands der Jahrtausendwende meldet sich nach über 20 Jahren mit einem bemerkenswerten neuen Album zurück.

Die Songs balancieren hier auf einem schmalen Grat zwischen roher Energie und zarter Schönheit, sie finden die Balance zwischen der Kraft des Power-Pop und der Intimität des Akustik-Sounds. Bassist John Munson und Schlagzeuger Jacob Slichter haben ihre Leistungen fein abgestimmt, um Wilsons helle, beschwingte Melodien mit einem Hauch von Melancholie und Dunkelheit zu durchdringen, die ständig am Rand lauern.

Während es für eine Band wie Semisonic leicht gewesen wäre, in Nostalgie zu schwelgen, blickt 'Little Bit Of Sun' stattdessen mit Wertschätzung in die Vergangenheit, anstatt sich nach ihr zu sehnen.

Es verbindet eine tiefe Dankbarkeit für die bisherige Reise mit einer ansteckenden Vorfreude auf alles, was noch kommen wird

blue repress !

It's been nearly 15 years since this originally hit the shelves, which literally took the immersive atmospheric sound of Echospace and brought it right to the floor. With cv313's "Sailingstars" the spirit continues as they go on to preach the gospel of deep with a rippling exercise in space and bass.

A sort of slow motion movement in tone and 38 hz sub frequency which nearly verges on the disturbing, a sonic threshold quite hard to achieve in a vinyl cut. The power of repetition and subtle atmosphere are clearly demonstrated here by bringing the listener to an almost hypnotic state within its melodic spatial grooves.

The B side offers two immense reductions, equally effective providing a low end throb, analog spirit and organic textures captured in zero gravity, it's like truly sailing among the stars. Lovingly remastered and mixed down from the original analog 1/4" reel to reel tape, strictly limited to 300 copies for the world.

Das Quartett aus Iowa bringt das Publikum mit einem Doppelschlag aus treibenden Metal-Grooves und beeindruckenden Melodien zusammen. Mit mehreren Millionen Streams und positiver Resonanz von Revolver, Guitar World, Loudwire und vielen anderen, festigt die Gruppe auf ihrem zweiten Album "This Is It… The End Of Everything" via Spinefarm eine unzerbrechliche Bindung zu ihren Hörern. Für dieses Album arbeitete die Band mit dem Produzenten Kile Odell (Motionless In White, Nita Strauss) zusammen.

Saul kamen 2017 aus dem Mittleren Westen und bahnten sich unermüdlich einen Weg an die Spitze des modernen Rock. Sie traten an der Seite von Motionless In White, Atreyu, August Burns Red, Crown The Empire, Bush, 10 Years, HELLYEAH und Nonpoint auf und zierten die Bühnen von Festivals wie Rebel Rock, Rock Fest, Rock USA, Inkcarceration und Blue Ridge Rock Fest mit Rob Zombie, Mudvayne und Slipknot. Mit Brother", einer Hommage an den verstorbenen Bruder Caleb der Mitbegründer, landete die Gruppe einen echten Hit. Es war ihr erster Nummer-1-Hit auf Sirius/XM Octane und erreichte über 9 Millionen Spotify-Streams und ebnete den Weg für ihr Debütalbum Rise As Equals, das 2020 erscheint.

Cold War Kids have announced their 10th studio album, Cold War Kids, that will arrive on November 3 via AWAL. The band’s singer and songwriter Nathan Willett describes: " This is our self titled record . Everybody gets one . This felt like the right time because the sound of this record is the sound that makes Cold War kids unlike any other . I’m so proud of these songs. They took a long time to come together . The longing and struggle and joy I wanted to express are personal to me and i am so excited to share it with our fans who have come with us on the journey.”
The epic tale of Cold War Kids has long been informed by deeply personal songcraft, enthusiastic experimentation, and an avowed commitment towards forward motion. The band continues their ascent, becoming one of the biggest rock bands of their generation amassing more than half a billion streams, consistently churning out alternative radio hits, selling out tours and headlining festivals worldwide.
Over the course of nine studio albums and numerous EPs, Cold War Kids have become a major part of the modern musical landscape, with “First,” their Platinum-scanned 2015 single, named as the Most Played track at Alternative radio outlets nationwide over the last decade. As well as 600+ million career streams, 2.2 million singles sold, and over 600,000 albums sold. The band’s current lineup – Nathan Willett (vocals, piano, guitar), Matt Maust (bass guitar), David Quon (guitar, backing vocals), Matthew Schwartz (keyboards, backing vocals, guitar, percussion), and Joe Plummer (drums, percussion) – coalesced in 2016 and have since maintained a dynamic presence in both the studio and on stages around the world.