Suche:nu pulse

With Scream If You Don’t Exist, Richie Culver metamorphoses from outsider musician to underground fixture, feeling his way from the fringes towards a growing community of musicians that have gravitated towards his singular sound world. Building upon the stark catharsis of his previous dispatches, on his sophomore album the artist draws from grimdark drone, industrial noise, experimental hip-hop and UK rave to map out a space for himself, caught between genre and discipline. While on his debut, I Was Born By The Sea, Culver took a last glimpse back at his grey, salt-flecked past while struggling towards somewhere brighter, here, he documents the process of finding fresh waters, parsing through the complexity of inhabiting a more open and optimistic place while contending with the weight of his resolve, staring hard won self-acceptance in the face. The album’s title speaks to this creative and emotional work, serving both as the foundational paradox from which the artist’s new discordant sound emerges and as a call to action, a defiant cry in the face of existential angst.

Part of this process involves visiting familiar territory with renewed focus. Macabre opener ‘Hottest Day Of The Year’ signals an unpleasant memory with crow caw, queasy, gas leak ambience and dental drill whir as Culver recalls a life lived in nihilism: “Everything is just something that happened / Reductionism, muscles spasms, a mother’s first contraction.” Yet, on Scream If You Don’t Exist, Culver’s irresistible formula for ragged machine poetry is shot through with palpable urgency. No longer listless and despairing, he finds new intricacies for these compositions, tracing a stark interplay between crushing bass excavations and penetrating vocal clarity, a contrast picked out in the delicate threads of rhythmic pulse suggesting themselves in the blunt pressure and skittering creep of ‘Weakness’, on which Culver offers up vulnerability as a tentative solution to self-described emotional constipation: “Please do / Do take my kindness for weakness / For I am weak / And that is ok.” The amniotic soundscape of ‘YOLO (then u die)’ gives way to depth charge drone and unnerving machinic improvisations, like a noise show heard from deep in the Mariana trench, while on ‘Underground Flower’ the low-end fog lifts to reveal a brighter, colder scene. “Love me for who I could be / Not who I am,” he pleads, tending gently to his own tenacious bud.

Scream If You Don’t Exist gives us a glimpse of this flower in bloom. On the album’s cursed self-help tape title track stuttering loops of off-kilter keys and childlike repetition make light of the very real risk of disappearing all-together, a nervous breakdown rendered as a malfunctioning nursery rhyme. Paranoiac anthem ‘Say 4 Sure’ introduces bit-crushed boom-bap stomp, as though hammered out on a water-logged Game Boy, swarms of loose-wire noise sparking up against guttural grunts and ragged exhalations, while ‘On The Top’ enacts a seance for the hardcore spirit, with loops of rave piano and hiccuping vocal chops pirouetting through knackered samples, air raid sirens and the ghostly crash of breakbeat cymbals. As though in response to the solitary nature of much of his musical exploration, this time, the artist invites other voices into the world of Scream If You Don’t Exist. On ‘Swollen’, the unflinching, brimstone prophecy of Billy Woods sounds clear through an expanse of spirallic bass, preaching the same frayed gospel as Culver when he issues the quietly devastating contemporary diagnosis: “Computer broke but it still works for now / That’s the best you can say for most of us anyhow,” while another fearless correspondent from the fringes, Moor Mother, brings earthbound heft to the ambient drift and obliterating barrage of ‘Restaurants,’ teasing out meaning with elongated intonation and pitch-shifted intensity.

It’s during the album’s most meditative moments that we might recognise this space Culver has found for himself for what it really is. ‘OMG They’re Gone’ follows a chopped and slowed monologue from Culver’s wife, who works as a death doula, reflecting on her own experiences with grief and the reality of living within a culture both terrified and ignorant of the process. Floating over glistening ebb, etherised croons and luminous chimes, her words stand as a prescient reminder of the power of ephemerality. Just as Culver flourishes in imperfection, here we can find enormous strength in transcience. But it’s with ‘Just Jump In,’ which unfurls like a buoyant counterpart to the sparkling oil rigs of ‘I was born by the sea’, that Culver illuminates the hopeful waters we realise we’ve been making our steady way towards. “I know now / That you loved me,” he admits, a revelation a lifetime in the making. Through the rawest reflection Culver has found a way forward, driven by an optimism drawn from a resolve to be better, to love and be loved, an admission to weakness and the discovery of a new kind of strength. “Don’t test the water,” he reassures us and himself, “just jump in.”

Scream If You Don’t Exist will be released in November 2023 by Participant, on limited edition vinyl, and digital download . The release will be accompanied by a series of films directed by Mau Morgo, Josiane M.H Pozi, William Markarian-Martin, Simon Bus, and Bruxism.

In a recent interview, the California artist Jim Haynes was asked to name his top five noise albums. In quick fashion, he listed off Kill The King, Send, Desnos, Persona, and Carcinosi. Since then, he's equivocated on which albums to choose, but the artists behind such works remain as the adjacent signposts and landmarks to his own constructions of industrial noise. How those records connect to the output from Haynes is found in their unique combination of smoldering dynamism and psychological inquest. For over twenty five years, Haynes has been an autodidactic clinician into the processes of corrosion, decay, and rust, turning his attention away from visual practices and more to the metaphoric crucible of noise and sound. By now, it seems like a cliche that the pandemic changed everything; but since that viral encroachment, there is a noticeable shift in Haynes' work post 2020. It's more aggressive and yet more controlled: a rarification and telescoping of the research into decay for more potent noise and more potent metaphor.

The tools for Haynes' work remain limited: motors, electronics, shortwave radio, found objects, all applied with considerable pressure. Compositionally, Inauspicious is a very rough moire pattern from overlapping elliptical structures that can negate and obfuscate just as easily as they can compound and aggregate. The album surges and collapses upon the two twenty minute chunks of controlled noise that follow an internal logic that snakes from brooding power drones, spectral radio transmission, and an aktionist demolition cast upon metal, glass, and unfortunate wooden objects. Rupture and release. Purge and pulse.

CUT THE ENGINES is the third album by All Structures Align, following the critically acclaimed Details And Drawings and Distance And Departure (both released on Wrong Speed Records in 2022). All Structures Align began as a studio project reuniting brothers Tim and Adam Ineson of 90s underground rock heroes Nub. Their debut album Details And Drawings took everyone by surprise.

Rather than sounding like a tentative bedroom project, it arrived fully formed and with its own identity. It was an album of unhurried patience, of mounting tension (and eventual release) and it possessed a depth that rewarded repeated listens as irresistible hooks revealed themselves almost casually to the listener.

It also felt slightly out of time: no rush to the chorus, no gimmicks, no desire to pack out every second of space with sound. Lots of people agreed and the limited vinyl pressing sold out almost instantly. The follow-up came within the same year with the brothers recruiting drummer extraordinaire Neil Turpin (Objections, Bilge Pump, Polaris) to bring swing and pulse to their songs.

Distance And Departure was the result and widened their audience and acclaim further. So much so that the brothers decided to venture out and play live. To do so they brought in Oli Heffernan (Ivan The Tolerable, King Champion Sounds) on bass and Andrew Pollard (Polaris) on guitar and additional vocals.

If you’ve been lucky enough to see All Structures Align live over the last year, you’ll know this expanded band bring the songs to life beyond simple recitation. Those dynamic shifts in the music are now larger than life and fully multi-dimensional. Cut The Engines is the first All Structures Align release to capture the five-piece live band in the studio. Eight songs as spacious and measured as their previous work but with an increased directness and drama that seems to come from the interplay between people in a room.

Whilst never getting down to Ramones levels of brevity, the songs are compact and sharper than before, as though the addition of extra personnel has allowed their musical language to become more concise and effective. The songs still feel like rich novels condensed into short stories, but the band format has brought a confidence and ease to the telling that increases their impact. The resulting record is their most accessible yet, a slow-core indie-rock masterpiece that will intrigue and delight existing fans and newcomers alike for decades to come.

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

"Galt MacDermot (1928-2018) was an award-winning Canadian-American composer, pianist, writer of classical music and theatrical pieces. MacDermot also composed music for several film soundtracks (like the 1970 blaxploitation film `Cotton Comes To Harlem') and released several exceptional jazz and funk albums on his own label Kilmarnock Records. He is best known for his work on the Grammy winning 1967 musical Hair (which also produced several number-one singles like "Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In") and Two Gentlemen of Verona (1971) for which he won a Tony Award. In 2009 Galt MacDermot was inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame and in 2010 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1979, MacDermot formed the New Pulse Jazz Band, which performed and recorded his original music. Galt MacDermot's music is extremely popular with collectors of jazz and funk. Working with jazz and soul musicians such as Bernard Purdie and Idris Muhammad, MacDermot created pieces that used African rhythms (he made the study of African music his speciality). In recent decades, his work has become popular with hip-hop musicians including Busta Rhymes, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Gang Starr, Action Bronson, Public Enemy, MF Doom, Madlib, J Dilla, Obie Trice, Naughty By Nature, Run DMC and Digable Planets_the list is endless. The album "Ghetto Suite" was written in 1970 and released in 1972 and is considered one of the most ground-breaking records ever issued on Galt MacDermot's Killmarnock label and consists out of a selection of songs and poems by Harlem/Bronx school children, set to Galt's music, and sung by vocalist Angela Ortega. Given That Galt's handling the music, you can bet that there's plenty of nicely executed funky touches - supported by rolling bass-work, snapping drums, and organ virtuosity. But the real charm of these groovy tunes comes from the lyrics, which have a simple and to the point way of dealing with issues of racism, poverty and other issues of the time. The story telling is surprisingly gripping even after all these years. The whole album creates an extremely personal direct sensitivity to the environment of Ghetto kids_telling us with defiantly honest intensity what it was like to be young and black, the drugs and the deaths, the topic of incarceration_or simply the fact of being battered by the frustration of Ghetto existence. Ghetto Suite is way more than an entertainment record, it has been used by teachers and counsellors to inspire and motivate the muted voices of the black inner cities_ documenting both their anguish and their triumphs. Tidal Waves Music now proudly presents the FIRST EVER vinyl reissue of this exceptional conceptual album (originally released in 1972 and a highly sought-after pricey collectable ever since) This unique record now comes as a deluxe 180g vinyl edition (strictly limited to 1000 copies) with obi strip and features the original artwork and extensive sleeve notes.

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. .

The music of Justin Walter veers between nebulous and numinous, coaxed from the translucent tonalities of his signature instrument, the EVI (Electronic Valve Instrument).
Destroyer, his latest, and third for Kranky, marks his most multifaceted work yet. Inspired by minimalistic urges (evading grandiosity, condensing scope, embracing spatial restraint) tempered with the drama of triptychs (becoming, destruction, aftermath), the album’s 11 tracks thread a keening suite of aching, opaque beauty, traced in absence and breath.
First begun in the no man’s land summer of 2020, Walter gradually amassed nearly two hours of demos, drafts, and ideas, then steadily whittled them to their essence. Destroyer enlists the sounds of a recently restored pump organ, adding pulses and quaking texture, but otherwise the album is a shimmering showcase of the EVI: miasmic, melodic, intuitive, infinite. It’s music of fraught devotion and uneasy peace, questing yet languorous, forever rapt and untethered.

To celebrate Spider-Man’s sensational 60th anniversary, Marvel Entertainment partnered with Semmel Exhibitions to launch Spider- Man: Beyond Amazing - The Exhibition, which chronicles the epic history of the ‘wall crawler’. The exhibition runs from May 26, 2023 through October 1, 2023 in Kansas City, and premiered at the Comic- Con Museum in San Diego where it ran from July 1, 2022 through January 1, 2023.

For this historical display, a soundscape was needed to reflect Spidey’s emotional ups and downs: his moments of isolation and loneliness, but also his courage, determination, and the sheer joy of web-slinging. This is where Sebastian M. Purfürst of LEM-Studios came in. To create a soundtrack that would engage visitors in every single moment of the exhibition, Sebastian employs parallel techniques in his musical compositions and productions - not only writing the notes and melodies but creating a fully realized world of sound.

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Beyond Amazing - The Exhibition is available as a strictly limited edition of 2500 individually numbered copies on crystal clear vinyl with a full-colour Spider-Man print on its side B. The package also includes a 4-page booklet and large exhibition poster.

Nach dem Erfolg der ersten beiden TechnoBase.FM-LP‘s schickt ZYX Music nun die dritte Ausgabe ins Rennen, um die Herzen der Musikliebhaber des HandsUp-Genres zu erobern. Auch dieses Mal begeistert die Doppel-Vinyl mit vielen Hits und Ohrwürmern. Diesmal animieren Songs wie zum Beispiel „Drop The Bass“ von Rocco., „My Life Is A Party“ von ItaloBrothers, sowie „Come With Me“ von Special D. (u.v.m), zur idealen HandsUp-Party. Mit insgesamt 14 HandsUp-Songs eine starke Vinyl-Edition des Webradiosenders TechnoBase. FM!

After the success of Death Walks Behind You, an appearance on Top of the Pops, and a successful tour, it was time for emerging stars Atomic Rooster to record their third studio album, In Hearing Of. The album is a perfect example of a band evolving and in constant transition, such as they show with this little-known gem of the '70s British rock.

Much less bombastic than the band's earlier releases, In Hearing Of is almost funky at times. The lyrics are doom-laden in the spirit of much of this genre of British hard rock at the time, and pseudo-classical references crop up from time to time, but Vincent Crane's keyboards are generally tasty, and the melodies are often downright memorable.

In Hearing Of is available as a limited edition of 750 individually numbered copies on translucent magenta coloured vinyl.

Black Truffle is pleased to announce The Leisure Principle, a new solo LP from London-based bassist and sound artist Otto Willberg. A key player in the London underground, Willberg is often heard on acoustic and electric bass in free improv settings and bands with Laurie Tompkins (Yes Indeed) and Charles Hayward (Abstract Concrete), as well as the fractured No Wave unit Historically Fucked. His previous solo releases have ranged from extended technique double bass to explorations of the acoustics of a 19th century artillery fort. But nothing Willberg has committed to wax so far prepares a listener for The Leisure Principle, six unashamedly melodic improvisational workouts created almost entirely with heavily filtered bass harmonica and electric bass. On the opening ‘Reap What Thou Sow’, a single-note bass harmonica loop pulses along underneath a roaming bass solo, the side-chained envelope filtering (where the dynamic behaviour of the bass determines the filter for both bass and harmonica) fusing the two instruments into a single stream of burbling shifts in resonance. After several minutes of patient exploration of this low-end landscape, the music suddenly opens up in widescreen with the entrance of Sam Andreae’s graceful melodica chords, spreading out across the stereo field. From this epic opener, each of the remaining pieces goes on to explore a slightly different aspect of the terrain. On ‘Shadow Came into the Eyes as Earth Turned on its Axis’, a similarly buoyant harmonica bass line provides the foundation, but this time playing a soulful descending riff, its almost R&B feel abstracted and half-obscured by the filtering. On ‘Mollusk’, echoed bass arpeggios skitter between elegiac chords somewhat reminiscent of the opening of John Abercrombie’s ‘Timeless’, before settling into a hypnotic groove. On the record’s second half, Willberg pushes further into the possibilities of his idiosyncratic instrumentation. On ‘Wetter’, bass and harmonica come together into a monstrous, growling jaw harp; on ‘Had we but world enough and more time’, the subtly shifting pulsating patterns start to feel almost like a kind of evaporated, drum-less dub techno until an eruption of wheezing bass harmonica gives the piece a comically folkish turn. Willberg’s melodically inventive and virtuosic bass performance calls to mind any number of fusion touchstones, from Jaco Pastorius to Mark Egan’s singing tone in the early Pat Metheny Group—even Anthony Jackson’s work with Steve Kahn. But with its radically reduced instrumentation, The Leisure Principle is also an exercise in minimalism, and the absence of percussion gives even its funkiest moments a strangely abstracted quality. At times, its uncanny blend of the abstruse and the immediate suggests the fried pop experiments of David Rosenboom or the skewed but deeply musical DIY of 80s underground groups like De Fabriek. Both easy on the ear and profoundly strange, The Leisure Principle proudly takes its place among the most eccentric offerings on the Black Truffle menu.

Paul Hillery's third compilation in this series of rare and hard to find grooves is as much a geographical journey as it is a musical one. With acts, artists and tracks linked to London, Florida, Atlanta, the Netherlands, Switzerland, California, India and Germany and more this compilation is very much proof of the global language that is music. With many of the recordings only previously existing on sold out and obscure private pressings and small runs on indie labels this collection of tracks really is a must have. Complementing the previous two albums curated by Paul Hillery we really do get to see and hear the history of studio recordings from a plethora of touring and travelling troubadours, jobbing composers and song-writers, session musicians, producers and engineers. Again, as with the previous two volumes in the 'Children of the Sun' series, this is an eclectic gathering of styles and genres that have been curated into an accessible fusion of Jazz, Rock, AOR and Folk tinged grooves that all have soul. With many tracks getting a first time digital release this 3 LP album sits nicely alongside the previous albums in the series and rates as an essential compilation for any serious lover and collector of music. In Paul Hillery's words: "Let us gather one more time on another journey through the rhythmic sands of time, traversing continents and genres one track at a time. Taking in joyful places and wide-open spaces while dropping out to the musical pulse that unites us all An album to remind us that we are all made of stardust with more to connect than drive us apart, for . . . We Are The Children of the Setting Sun"

Carl Finlow keeps on keepin' on. Not only is Finlow one of the most respected names in electro, a producer who boasts a sprawling catalogue that takes in a wide variety of aliases, but he's also spent recent years establishing himself as a mainstay for Sheffield's Central Processing Unit label. Soft Robotics, the new EP from Finlow's Silicon Scally project, is the fifth Silicon Scally release in five years to boast one of CPU's instantly-recognisable black-and-white covers.

The reason that Silicon Scally and CPU keep linking up is simple; they're a perfect fit for one another. Central Processing Unit has established itself as a haven for post-Drexciya producers since launching in 2012, and there are few artists better than Finlow at building on the Detroit group's sound. The union bears fruit once more on Soft Robotics, an EP of lithe machine-funk jams that will both do damage in the dance and also reward more concentrated home listening.

Things begin at a steadier speed than one might expect. Rather than barrelling off with the kind of sinewy roller one associates with the CPU name, Soft Robotics' title-track takes things at mid-pace. The groove reveals itself without hurry, Silicon Scally adding or subtracting elements - twitchy modular loops, pensive pads, the occasional blurt of low-end - atop the chugging bass/drums groove. It's a track which wins you over with guile rather than force.

As the name of subsequent cut 'Jitters' intimates, this one picks things up a little after 'Soft Robotics'. The tempo is higher here, the central beat more nervy. At their cores, though, 'Jitters' and 'Soft Robotics' are kindred spirits. Here, another slyly insistent bit of drum programming comes swirled up with all sorts of extraterrestrial tones, from little nuggets of melody supplied by the keys to electrifying synth stabs and percussive squelches.

Things limber up further still on first B-side 'Spin Ratio'. The track's 808 kicks are punchier than those of the A-side jams, and there's a dizziness to the bass tone which gives 'Spin Ratio' an intriguingly off-kilter feel. Atop the booming beat we find ourselves hypnotised by cells of melody and harmony interlocking or moving apart - particularly the staccato module at the track's heart. Sure enough, 'Spin Ratio' is the Soft Robotics joint which cleaves closest to Drexciya, invoking other Detroit disciples like Jensen Interceptor in the process.

After Soft Robotics picks up speed in the middle, closer 'Super Fluid Tones' brings us back to where we started. This track returns to the more measured delivery of the record's opener - there's a steady pulse to the drums, and once again Silicon Scally packs the mix with so many intriguing whizzes, bangs, blips and blurts that it's impossible not be won over by this tune's construction. 'Soft Robotics' and 'Super Fluid Tones' bookend Soft Robotics very nicely, and Silicon Scally's smart pacing gives the EP a lovely ebb and flow.

The ever-excellent Carl Finlow drops a Silicon Scally release via Central Processing Unit for the fifth year running. Like its predecessors, Soft Robotics is an excellent and deftly-crafted collection of modern machine-funk.

RIYL: Drexciya, Jensen Interceptor, Fleck E.S.C., The Advent

A central figure in Seattle’s fading disco scene, radio DJ, producer, engineer, writer and multi-instrumentalist…Tony Benton was the driving force behind the Seattle soul-funk sound during the late 70s & 80s. Starting off his career at the age of ten he learned how to play the piano and then finally got to take a music class in the 7th grade. Having access to an electric piano made him fall in love with the thought that he could make his own music. At the age of 16 Tony and his friends already formed their first band called ‘Crystal Clear’ and were making up songs in his basement.
Things would really start off when Tony Benton teamed up with his group to form the avant-boogie group Teleclere who went on to release their first single in 1982 (Fantasy Love / Ultra Groove). That’s when Tony started playing all of the other instruments and thus earning him the title ‘multi-instrumentalist’. Teleclere was all about creating and performing original music, there was no music scene in Seattle at that time for a black artist or group who played original compositions. Rap-music was also emerging and clubs slowly started to switch from live performances to deejays.
Through the success of their independent EP release, Teleclere followed up a year later with their Affection/Defection album which created a serious hype. This gave them the chance to regularly open at concerts for national artists in halls and clubs. They played at nightclubs, bars, festivals, private parties and did mini tours in the Washington State cities & Canada…including opening for Grammy-award winning soul-star Peabo Bryson (performing for a crowd of 3,000 in their hometown Seattle)
Sadly, radio would not play their music so folks never really had the chance to hear it unless they saw them perform live (they always won the crowd over). To add insult to injury, venues and the likes started to mainly book cover bands playing top 40 music. Disappointed by this Tony Benton became a radio personality but would continue to record and perform under the name ‘Teleclere’ with various players and vocalists for many years to come. Only a handful of his tracks recorded were released in the end.
Thankfully we are left with the unique audio-document that is the Affection/Defection LP. The album took the scene by storm in 1983 and sounds like a sci-fi space odyssey unfolding on an intergalactic dance floor…a chopped and slapped slice of 80ies electro-funk, sensual soulful serenades, pulses of Innervisions-worthy bass, top of the line vocals and a plethora of vocoder magic. Also included is the hit ‘Steal Your Love’ that was featured on the acclaimed 2014 Light In The Attic compilation ‘Wheedle’s Groove Volume II: Seattle Funk, Modern Soul And Boogie 1972-1987’.
Tidal Waves Music (in collaboration with the Numero Group) now proudly presents the first ever vinyl reissue of this fantastic private pressed Seattle electronic soul/funk album (originally released in 1983 on Telemusic Productions). This rare record (original copies tend to go for large amounts on the secondary market) is now finally back available as a limited 180g vinyl edition (500 copies) complete with the original artwork and obi strip.

Cable Ties are a fierce, tense rock’n’roll trio. They take the three-minute punk burner and stretch it past breaking point to deliver smouldering feminist anthems. Post-punk and garage rock hammered together by a relentless rhythmic pulse. Jenny McKechnie channels her struggles into songs that resonate deeply, giving voice to feelings often buried in modern life. Shauna Boyle and Nick Brown are a rhythm section anchored in Stooges primitivism, relentlessly hammering out a bedrock for McKechnie’s guitar pyrotechnics and vocal wallop. Three friends summoning a rhythmic tide to deliver anthems that turn latent anxieties into a rallying cry.

The band has been committed to an inclusive feminist and political outlook since its inception in 2015, exploring issues of gendered violence, colonialism, and sexual assault. The band members have been involved in benefit shows, organized DIY festivals, and volunteer with Girls Rock!, a not-for-profit organization that aims to empower female, trans, and gender non-binary youth in music.
Cable Ties are dedicated to their local community and independent networks, and to playing diverse and inclusive shows. They have toured Australia a number of times and have developed into a lean and efficient touring band who deliver powerful and meaningful shows. Their debut self-titled album, released in 2017 on Poison City Records, was a Triple J feature album and album of the week on 3RRR, with strong support nationally from community radio. They have also self released three 7” singles which have all sold out. The debut album is on its third vinyl pressing.

The band toured UK/Europe in 2017 supporting Jen Cloher, and played Punk’d Festival in Berlin. They returned to the UK in May 2019 to play The Great Escape and shows with Tropical Fuck Storm and Amyl & the Sniffers. In Australia they played Bigsound 2018 and festivals such as the national Laneway Festival tour in 2018, Boogie Festival 2018, The Plot 2017, and Meredith Music Festival in 2016. Cable Ties have supported artists such as Joan Jett, The Kills, Camp Cope, and Cash Savage. They won Best Hard Rock Act at the 2017 National Live Music Awards and were nominated in five categories. They won the Corner Music Award in 2017, have been nominated for eight Age Music Victoria awards, and were longlisted for The Australian Music Prize 2017.

Lost soul phenomenon Lewis Taylor's Numb finally arrives on double vinyl! One of UK soul’s most fascinating artists, most enigmatic figures and most under-appreciated talents, Andrew Lewis Taylor is a prodigious multi-instrumentalist and eclectic polymath. He enjoys a fiercely loyal following which, over the years, has included celebrity champions like Bowie, Elton and D'Angelo. Numb is Taylor's sixth album, initially released on his own label Slow Reality (an anagram of his name) and licensed to Be With for this long-awaited physical edition. It captures Taylor's wholly unique, intoxicating take on lush, late-night psychedelic soul music.

Lewis wrote and recorded these 10 brand new tracks after a 17 year break from making music, although the album came together over a two-year period. The years away have done nothing to dull Taylor's unique musical vision. He still astounds. The lyrical themes, however, have shifted. Understandably, more than a decade and a half of soul searching and unflinching self-examination cannot fail to influence this most honest of songwriters, and boy does it show. Numb marks a return to the darker, more mysterious side of his output: "Brian Wilson-channels-Smokey Robinson atmospheres", as Mojo put it recently.

After playing a rapturously received gig at the Bowery Ballroom in NYC in 2006, Lewis unceremoniously walked away from music and disappeared completely. An interview in 2016 shed light on some of the reasons for Taylor’s withdrawal from the business, but there was no hint of a return anytime soon. Then in June 2021, news emerged out of the blue that he was readying new music alongside Sabina Smyth with whom he had worked first time around.

On Numb, Lewis deftly balances stark, soul-bearing lyrics with moody mid-tempo pop-soul sheen. He deals candidly with depression, mental turmoil, even thoughts of suicide - clearly more personal than Taylor's earlier songs. The music is rich, warm and layered, with infectious melodies and hooks that stick with you. A true grower of an LP, it really does reward repeated listens. As Jim Irvin in Mojo reflected, "despite the depths these plumb, it's a curiously uplifting experience, unfurling like a concept album about life's challenges with an optimistic beauty at its heart."

Triumphant dubwise horns ring out yet, almost instantly, “Final Hour” takes on a dark, downbeat vibe. With lyrics that confront (and, seemingly, confound) death head-on, Lewis ensures the groove is still there, the beats still swing and your head still nods, strings glissade. Woven around delicate yet insistent piano and subtle strings over a killer bassline, the title track “Numb” is a good example of the lyrical themes throughout the album. As Taylor reflects, "So removed I feel no pain / And for all I know I could be having the time of my life" with a coda that feels very much in conversation with Brian Wilson's finest harmonies. "Feels So Good" is sophisticated 90s-sounding soul of the highest order. The music and vocals feel simultaneously optimistic and despondent. Downlifting. A neat trick, and one Lewis has been so adept at over the years. "Apathy" is a mini-epic, a symphonic-soul gem which builds and glides and, eventually, soars. “Worried Mind" is another slow-builder, creeping out the gate in a sketchy, discordant fashion before climbing to half-crescendo but never quite breaking free of its disorientating restraint.

The brighter "Please" presents a more hopeful mood, with the refrain "I still believe" ringing out as Lewis harmonises with himself. "Brave Heart" quietly struts from step one, as Lewis's falsetto swaggers over a downtempo backdrop with ace echoey drums, beautiful strings and serene electric guitar. Closing out Side C, "Is It Cool" answers its own (non-) question with a spellbinding five and a half minutes of swoonsome deep soul that oscillates between a restrained, barely-there backdrop and a lushly full musical accompaniment of acoustic and electric guitar and organ over bass and slick drums. The penultimate track "Nearer" is a magical, soul-stirring ballad in which Lewis sings of reaching a sweet salvation and achieving a peace of mind. If the hairs on the back of your neck aren't standing up by the midway point, you might need to check your pulse. Album closer and true tear-jerker "Being Broken" places Lewis's gorgeous voice high in the mix and the wordless falsetto and melodies invite you to ponder what Pet Sounds might sound like if it were refashioned as a dubby 21st Century electronic soul album. Astonishing.

Simon Francis’s vinyl mastering spreads out the ten tracks over a double LP so, as ever, nothing is compromised. And as usual, the records have been cut by Cicely Balston at Air Studios and pressed at Record Industry. Turn it up and let the Lewis Taylor sound envelop you.

Brazilian soul, psych, bossa and jazz, reimagined from Berlin, via the Dead Sea, on Moriah Plaza’s dreamy first album for Batov Records.

Moriah Plaza co-founders Tamir Chen and Moosh Lahav first encountered and fell in love with the beautiful and hypnotic sounds of Brazilian bossa nova and samba as children in Tel Aviv in the nineties, via the many local bands and tribute groups that had sprung up since the first wave of bossa had hit swept across the world. Likewise
they developed a fascination with elevator muzak, film soundtracks, and even the hotel pianist performing day-by-day in the lobby of the Sheraton Moriah where Tamir’s mother worked, overlooking the Dead Sea.

Relocating years later to the vastly different environment of Berlin, capital of a country that enjoyed its own Brazilian moment, Tamir and Moosh’s shared passion for Brazilian music would encourage them to create their own songs inspired by the warm pulse of Brazil, albeit a world apart, through a vastly different lens.
Whilst the initial inspiration for Moriah Plaza can be traced back to Tel Aviv and the Dead Sea, the band itself was conceived by Tamir and Moosh in Solarium Studio, Berlin, from the broken fragments of their former shoegaze band, Soda Fabric, who had the honour of backing outsider legend Daniel Johnston. They would go on to write and record their debut album in close collaboration with two Brazilians and fellow Berlin residents,, poet and singer Cecília Erisman, and singer, songwriter, synth operator and Tropical Disco Club founder Flavia Annechini.

The album opens with “Desendereçada”. Dirty drum machine beats thud away under flutes and extraneous noises and a spoken word commentary. The oddness and allure of the intro is a perfect introduction to the world of Moriah Plaza.

The pace picks up on “Mais Amor”. A beautiful Brazilian soul jazz number with a sublime vocal from Flavia Annechini that will surely appeal to the global dancefloor jazz scene. “Te Peço” daws us in deeper with sweetest jazz vocal over an irresistible bassline and bossa drums that transforms halfway through into a modern soul rhythm crowned by flute and horns. A flute solo from Moosh Lahav leads us into the final uplifting refrain.

The Pharoah Sanders meets Ravi Shankar in Rio grooves of “Estelar”
have that fresh feeling that will certainly appeal to fans of modern favourites Rebecca Vasment and Ruby Rushton. Next up, the mysterious “Lagoon de Merim” is practically two songs in one, the first half an atmospheric string-topped number somewhere between Arthur Verocai and Cinematic Orchestra, before snappy drums beats and playful organ chords introduce a slow brassy samba that fills the whole sonic room.

“Teu Porto” is a must for all DJs, mixing calypso, highlife and house, lilting guitars and smooth vocals by Cecilia Erismann.. The deep samba house grooves of “Samba Moosh” close us out. The rich blend of sweet vocals, soaring flute and gritty synths carry us off into the sunset.
Moriah Plaza’s self-titled debut album is a major addition to the global soul and jazz scene. providing the perfect summer soundtrack for music lovers around the world.

Unforgettable moments of beauty and peace. Eternal Reality is an electronic listening experience to the inner self while it was created in a state of deep consciousness. "Be Free" has got the pulse of endless time and describes the feeling of wellbeing and balance in a temporary world. It can be seen as a listening meditation and a call to take a break.

"Behind The Scenes" describes moments of escaping from daily routines and small moments of silence between tasks and before next rush hour.

„Shape“ is a global thought about the beginning of life and existence. All material things on earth have got a shape made by man or nature.

„Kotodama“ describes the beauty of words and languages. Information interchange for progress.

This product was created using vintage synthesizers for maximum fun!

Like a winding system of trails and paths cutting through a digital forest-scape, M. Sage's Paradise Crick is shaped by time. Full of wonder and charm, designed patiently and from a rich, curious mulch of synthesized and acoustic sound, the versatile American artist and magic realist's new suite of music is an imaginary destination and a pastoral fantasy that envisions the natural and fabricated worlds as one. Matthew Sage is a musician, intermedia artist, recording engineer and producer, publisher, teacher, partner, and parent. Assembling a sprawling and idiosyncratic catalog of experimental studio music between Colorado and Chicago since the early 2010s, recent highlights include The Wind of Things (Geographic North, 2021), an ensemble-recorded expression of bow-splashed nostalgia, and the four seasonal albums of Fuubutsushi, the improvisatory ambient jazz quartet he formed with friends from afar in 2020. Sage renders projects with nuanced velocity and a completist sensibility _ when it's finished, it's done _ which is what makes Paradise Crick, his debut for RVNG Intl., a compelling outlier. Sage first staked his tent in Crick's conceptual campground five years ago from his home studio in Chicago (he's since returned to Colorado, home to the mountains and prairies often personified in his work). He had just read Richard Brautigan's Trout Fishing in America, a kaleidoscopic reflection of pastoral America's shifting identity by way of magical fishing sojourns. Inspired by that feeling, of getting lost but finding oneself in through the outdoors, he amassed over seventy demos documenting a fictional soundtrack for camping. Pull up to this park, and the sign might read, "Welcome to Paradise Crick. Fire Danger Is Low." The sequence, pruned down to thirteen tracks, courses the dewy mornings, afternoon hikes, and firelit nights of a weekend expedition. While Sage is not a filmmaker, he views the method of making this album as a similar form of world-building via structure, narrative, formal elements, and editorial refinement. Contrasted with his collaborative craft, here he is a sole auteur reclined in total autonomy, able to improvise scenes and implement special effects at will. A parallel precedent for such unchecked imagination in the M. Sage canon is A Singular Continent, his 2014 album that tilted its compass to a faraway land. Where Continent built its world layering samples as composition, Paradise Crick deploys a balance of accessible song structures with experimental instrumentation and sound design. Speckled with harmonica, autoharp, chimes, penny whistle, voice, hand percussion, and other mysteries, Crick's texture is treated as a sensorial adventure; the swamps gurgle, the lakes glisten, and the valleys breathe in robust HD. The rhythms are loose and buoyant, bursting with a few `kick and snare' moments shaped by Sage's lifelong love for drumming and headphone prone electronic music. Crick bumps more than most anything he's done before; crackling static pulses and lush vibrations reveal an intrinsic groove, a hidden beat map. In the landscapes of Paradise Crick, science and magic co-exist, 5k boulders and midi frogs share the frame with real-life memories of Midwest camping trips and the desire to feel extra human in a digitized space. Sage strived for "nature in the holodeck" but couldn't help leaving fingerprints in the simulation, and it's these traces of spirit and character that give Paradise Crick its strange allure. The album's bubbling sense of play, melody, and timbre takes cues from left-field electronic lineage; synth pioneers like Tomita and Raymond Scott up through the more expressive pop tendencies of Woo, Stereolab and the Cocteau Twins, and into contemporary composers like Sam Prekop. The album's vocabulary is uncomplicated; the gestures are sweet and inviting, intended to lull the listener. As much as Sage continues to be an experimentalist by nature in his work, with Paradise Crick, he spins a narrative. Not necessarily a concept album, but rather an invitation to take off for a weekend. That's the modus operandi down here in the Crick, we stretch out. M. Sage's Paradise Crick will be released May 26, 2023 in LP, CD, and digital editions. A portion of the proceeds from this release will benefit Earthjustice, the premier nonprofit public interest environmental law organization.

Neon is eviscerated across the wet light of pavement dreams, splashed back and absorbed by the darker shapes coalescing in the shadows. Through the broken concatenation of the night, neuron inputs are fed relentlessly by hardwire bodies. Mainlined subtle as a fetishist’s whisper, they in turn feed a punishing progression of rhythms dragged like a dream through your body. Against this digital dystopia, Sequence 87’s I Am Sequence propels the ear through a high-intensity array of blackened beats at once familiar and fresh. The grimey pulse of underground techno bridges the DNA of early industrialized electronics, a chimeric construct which heaves with the chrome breath of EBM’s heavy assembly. Shawn Rudiman, the Pittsburgh pioneer behind alias, has been crafting techgnosis solo and as part of the experimental dance duo T.H.D., and these veteran bona fides show in how deftly he parses the language of that era’s heavy synthesis into a work that easily translates into the modern languages of club movement. I Am Sequence retains that chunky ‘80s analog bounce, while injecting a wriggling sheen of HD intensity through its veins. Vocals emerge from the glistening shards, bursting against a wash of sine waves before remerging in a fusion of funked-out bass. Headlights crashing as horns blare, an autobahn nightmare funneling you down some future highway where machines crash ceaselessly across a horizon of endless red night. Lifting the psyche upon high, corroded harmonies herald the last chants to dance before the inevitable systemic collapse. An album for a foreseen Apocalypse, experienced through the language of dance floor speakers. All songs written and recorded by Shawn Rudiman Artwork by Shawn Rudiman Mastering at Dadub Studio Distributed by ReadyMade Distribution Braid Records 2023

Neon is eviscerated across the wet light of pavement dreams, splashed back and absorbed by the darker shapes coalescing in the shadows. Through the broken concatenation of the night, neuron inputs are fed relentlessly by hardwire bodies. Mainlined subtle as a fetishist’s whisper, they in turn feed a punishing progression of rhythms dragged like a dream through your body. Against this digital dystopia, Sequence 87’s I Am Sequence propels the ear through a high-intensity array of blackened beats at once familiar and fresh. The grimey pulse of underground techno bridges the DNA of early industrialized electronics, a chimeric construct which heaves with the chrome breath of EBM’s heavy assembly. Shawn Rudiman, the Pittsburgh pioneer behind alias, has been crafting techgnosis solo and as part of the experimental dance duo T.H.D., and these veteran bona fides show in how deftly he parses the language of that era’s heavy synthesis into a work that easily translates into the modern languages of club movement. I Am Sequence retains that chunky ‘80s analog bounce, while injecting a wriggling sheen of HD intensity through its veins. Vocals emerge from the glistening shards, bursting against a wash of sine waves before remerging in a fusion of funked-out bass. Headlights crashing as horns blare, an autobahn nightmare funneling you down some future highway where machines crash ceaselessly across a horizon of endless red night. Lifting the psyche upon high, corroded harmonies herald the last chants to dance before the inevitable systemic collapse. An album for a foreseen Apocalypse, experienced through the language of dance floor speakers. All songs written and recorded by Shawn Rudiman Artwork by Shawn Rudiman Mastering at Dadub Studio Distributed by ReadyMade Distribution Braid Records 2023

Reggae Collected is compiled from the broad world of Jamaican artists, groups and its diaspora. This brand new compilation contains early reggae by Jimmy Cliff, classics from Third World, Peter Tosh, Toots & The Maytals, Steel Pulse, Black Uhuru, lovers-rock from Dennis Brown, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Gregory Isaacs, Yellowman and the #1 hit from Althea & Donna “Uptown Top Ranking” which was championed by BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel.

The album Reggae Collected is part of the Collected compilation series, which is a collaboration between Universal Music and Music On Vinyl. The compilations bring together the biggest and best names of its genre, combined with forgotten hits and less discovered gems, giving the listener an experience of both nostalgia, and uncovering new musical grounds at the same time.

The 2LP Reggae Collected is available as a limited edition of 2000 individually numbered copies on yellow (LP1) and light green (LP2) coloured vinyl and includes an insert.

New York painter and musician exploratory industrialist Tor Lundvall initially envisioned his 14th album, Beautiful Illusions, as an entirely instrumental affair, "inspired by memories of sitting in a church or cathedral watching the shifting sunlight through stained glass." Although he ultimately chose to wreath the majority of the tracks with hushed, poetic vocals, his original muse still resonates. These are certainly songs of shadowplay and vaulted skies, the quiet grandeur of dusk deepening on the horizon. Lundvall characterizes the lyrical subject matter, too, in ways both specific and surreal, exploring "the doubts, the anxieties and even the bleak fantasies the mind spirals into during moments of isolation, separation and distance." Tricks of the eye, mind, and ear, magnified by silence and the looming long winter. Shivering pulses and muted bass lines tread the twilight while icicle synths and wiry guitar map the melody until the voice enters, narrating oblique moods of essence and absence, tenderness and truth. Glimpses of dark humor flicker in the wordplay but the greater sonic landscape is one of falling leaves and failing light, small gestures rendered as revelation, cloaked in reverb and spatial fog. Lundvall's mastery of nuance and negative space continues to heighten, whispered brushstrokes of the invisible and the unsaid, what lies beneath and what lies beyond: "Behind the shields and false fronts is usually a sadness. The heartbreaking reflections of what might have been."

The popularity of Brazilian music from the 60s, 70s and 80s has experienced quite the renaissance; artists such as Gal Costa, Gilberto Gil, Arthur Verocai, Joyce et al, have become household names to an international audience passionate about global sounds. However, even for die-hard fans and collectors of Brazilian music of the past, discovering contemporary Brazilian artists is not always easy, nor accessible. But, if you know where to look, you will see that there is a resurgence well underway that can be epitomised by an exciting new wave of Brazilian artists beginning to break through and gather momentum overseas. It’s with thanks to Sound and Colours, a website devoted to promoting Latin American music and culture, that we can help shine a light on one particular collective, bursting with creativity and camaraderie.

‘Hidden Waters: Strange and Sublime Sounds of Rio de Janeiro’ is compiled by Joe Osborne (founder of specialist Brazilian music platform Brazilian Wax) and Russ Slater (editor at large of Sounds and Colours). Focusing solely on the 'Rio Scene', rather than taking on the mammoth task of tackling Brazil as a whole, this collection presents 20-plus ground-breaking artists selected from Rio’s resurgent music scene. By presenting a snapshot into the pulse of the city and the vibrant musicians that live in it, ‘Hidden Waters’ collates tracks from a wide spectrum of musical genres from the avant-garde edge to bossa nova, samba, Candomblé, lo-fi rock, jazz and funk.

‘Hidden Waters’ showcases musicians such as iconic Rio mainstays Negro Leo & Ava Rocha, Brazilian jazz upstart Antônio Neves, critically lauded Avant-pop trailblazer Thiago Nassif, breakthrough artists Ana Frango Elétrico and Letrux, lo-fi psych rocker Lê Almeida, plus the Latin Grammy-winning Bala Desejo who are set to explode onto the world stage. The music featured on ‘Hidden Waters’ is unequivocally Brazilian, swelling with samba, bossa nova, funk, and jazz. But it’s within the album's blend; from sunny psychedelia to dusky synth-pop via experimental electronics, that marks the compilation as the sound of modern, multicultural Rio.

This comprehensive compilation comes with album artwork designed by Rio music’s leading album artwork designer, Caio Paiva. It features essays by professor and music critic Bernardo Oliveira and music journalist Leonardo Lichote, plus extensive notes on each track by the artists themselves.

Italian producer duo 'Crossroads' are back 10 years after their first release.
Inspired by classic R&B, Disco and Neo-Soul they have had the knack of finding talented unsigned vocalists from all over the globe to feature on their tracks. This time around, the Italian singer Raffaella Zago covers a super soulful track originally composed in the 70's by the disco-soul duo Grey & Hanks.
'If You're In Need' is the perfect link between original 70's disco to contemporary soulful nu-disco, mixing live instruments with modern rhythms and synths. The b-side starts with a more uptempo remix by French DJ and producer Young Pulse, who is set to establish himself as one of the best remixers in the contemporary disco scene. Last but not least 'Call Me Dub' pays more attention to the instrumental parts of the track taking you on a deeper journey into the whole song.

“Shambly Television Personalities/Swell Maps style earworm indie rock.” Brooklyn Vegan

“RIPPER! Melbourne’s TERRY return to complete a hat trick of three albums in three years (TERRYilogy?) that leaves the piss streak that is the rest of indie pop in 2018 dribbling down its own leg in the dust.” 8/10 CLASH

Call me Terry! It’s been a hot minute since we last heard from Terry, what’s he been up to? Five years on from their last album, ‘I’m Terry’, the Australian post-punk quartet proudly present their new record, ‘Call Me Terry’, for release on April 14th 2023.
Terry is made up of pairs Amy Hill & Al Montfort, and Xanthe Waite & Zephyr Pavey who started playing together for the fun of it in 2016. Seven years, four albums and three EP’s later, Terry is ready to pick up the phone again. Over the past few years Terry have kept themselves busy - but not only with Terry things. On top of numerous releases with alternating side projects (Constant Mongrel, The UV Race, Primo!, Sleeper & Snake, Chateau, Rocky, the list goes on… ) members of Terry have moved interstate, undertaken studies, had children and started new fields of work.
Terry began sharing the demos for ‘Call Me Terry’ online with each other in 2020 - as we all did - before getting together in 2021 at their trusty rehearsal space to record the beds. Overdubs were completed at Terry’s homes over the following year. Lyrically, in true Terry fashion, the record wastes no time in scrutinising Australia’s corrupt, colonial history. They sing it loud and sprawl it across the jacket of this record, highlighting the greed, privilege and entitlement of white, wealthy “Australia” which they won’t stand a second for.
Musically, ‘Call Me Terry’ still has the classic Terry sound; the four vocals singing as one gang, sharp guitars and quirky, burbling synths, the rolling bass and drums, all amidst their clever, dancey pop songs. Since day dot it’s been hard to reference a band that really sounds like Terry, which is always amazing. Truly a sound of their own!
But the sugar on top here may just be some of their finest horn, string and piano performances to date - all of which never feel crowded, cluttered or over-involved. More just excellent, necessary melodies. Rest assured Al still gives his famed Fuzz Factory a workout - and throws his tremolo into the pedal chain. It goes off. Tremolo is the order of the day for Amy and Xanthe too who also embrace the wobble, whilst Zephyr keeps the pulse of their politico-pop anchored.
Terry isn’t afraid to call the shots and Terry isn’t afraid to point the finger. Listen to what Terry has to say.

Red Vinyl

“Shambly Television Personalities/Swell Maps style earworm indie rock.” Brooklyn Vegan

“RIPPER! Melbourne’s TERRY return to complete a hat trick of three albums in three years (TERRYilogy?) that leaves the piss streak that is the rest of indie pop in 2018 dribbling down its own leg in the dust.” 8/10 CLASH

Call me Terry! It’s been a hot minute since we last heard from Terry, what’s he been up to? Five years on from their last album, ‘I’m Terry’, the Australian post-punk quartet proudly present their new record, ‘Call Me Terry’, for release on April 14th 2023.
Terry is made up of pairs Amy Hill & Al Montfort, and Xanthe Waite & Zephyr Pavey who started playing together for the fun of it in 2016. Seven years, four albums and three EP’s later, Terry is ready to pick up the phone again. Over the past few years Terry have kept themselves busy - but not only with Terry things. On top of numerous releases with alternating side projects (Constant Mongrel, The UV Race, Primo!, Sleeper & Snake, Chateau, Rocky, the list goes on… ) members of Terry have moved interstate, undertaken studies, had children and started new fields of work.
Terry began sharing the demos for ‘Call Me Terry’ online with each other in 2020 - as we all did - before getting together in 2021 at their trusty rehearsal space to record the beds. Overdubs were completed at Terry’s homes over the following year. Lyrically, in true Terry fashion, the record wastes no time in scrutinising Australia’s corrupt, colonial history. They sing it loud and sprawl it across the jacket of this record, highlighting the greed, privilege and entitlement of white, wealthy “Australia” which they won’t stand a second for.
Musically, ‘Call Me Terry’ still has the classic Terry sound; the four vocals singing as one gang, sharp guitars and quirky, burbling synths, the rolling bass and drums, all amidst their clever, dancey pop songs. Since day dot it’s been hard to reference a band that really sounds like Terry, which is always amazing. Truly a sound of their own!
But the sugar on top here may just be some of their finest horn, string and piano performances to date - all of which never feel crowded, cluttered or over-involved. More just excellent, necessary melodies. Rest assured Al still gives his famed Fuzz Factory a workout - and throws his tremolo into the pedal chain. It goes off. Tremolo is the order of the day for Amy and Xanthe too who also embrace the wobble, whilst Zephyr keeps the pulse of their politico-pop anchored.
Terry isn’t afraid to call the shots and Terry isn’t afraid to point the finger. Listen to what Terry has to say.

Angel numbers: a series of recurring numerical patterns or sequences which those who believe in such things invest with cosmic significance.

Also, the name of the forthcoming album by Hamish Hawk – an apt title for an artist who bounces between scepticism and wonder, who alchemises the quotidian, who is engaged in a constant quest to outwit and outflank the ordinary. With the release of Heavy Elevator in September 2021, Edinburgh-based Hawk established himself as a writer of heartfelt, headstrong, unashamedly literate songs to stimulate both pulse and psyche. Heavy Elevator offered words to savour and tunes to relish. The songs were filmic and romantic, blending wit, wisdom, resignation and beauty with a kind of sceptical joie de vivre, delivered in a rich baritone that has drawn comparisons to everyone from Jarvis Cocker to Scott Walker. A singer of style and guile peddling accessible intelligence: what’s

not to love? Heavy Elevator established a powerful artistic imprimatur which nonetheless felt neither defining nor confining. While the album has been justly lauded, Hawk’s next steps have moved the story considerably further forward. Angel Numbers meets growing expectations head on, with panache and aplomb.

Gold Vinyl

Inspired by three movies of avantgarde cinematographer Maya Deren (At Land, Ritual in Transfigured Time and A study in Choreography for Camera), Francesca Bono (vocalist, performer, founder of Ofeliadorme and member of the Donnacirco collective) and Vittoria Burattini (percussionist, multi-faceted drummer and member of influential Italian avant-rock band Massimo Volume) created a dense hypnotic transfixing collection of songs based upon the sole use of the Juno 60 synthesizer and the organic linear pulsating sound of a drum kit.

These apparent limitations set the scene for an incredibly rich and rewarding voyage that immediately establishes a strong identity that oscillates between circular dream soundscapes and psychedelic rhythmic architectures. Bono / Burattini excels in threading magical images where objects transform without warning (Your House Is A Ghost) and collapse into kosmische grooves (La Trama Del Desiderio) or when humming electronics mold into temporal dimensions (Sogno Nel Vigneto). Burattini’s astonishing use of the drum kit and her mallet driven timbre produce space and tension (Dinner Illusion) perfectly complementing Bono’s synthesized realm made of nuance and reflection (Dancing Demons). One of the album’s key elements is the sparse use of Bono’s singing, an intricate mix of measured phrasing, breathing, spiral structures and extrasensorial-like choirs that seem to reference the rich Italian tradition of cosmic jazz, library music and the unmatched work of the RAI engineers in the 70s working with Gruppo Di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, Morricone, Daniela Casa. The driving Can-like pulse of Le Ossa shows force and flow while Stella’s haunting piano recreates a futuristic horror-movie OST.

Suono In Un Tempo Trasfigurato is beautifully recorded and mixed by Italian composer Stefano Pilia, a perfect match for Bono / Burattini’s sonic explorations and for a record that intersects experimental wave, alien grooves, contemporary electronics and futuristic sci-fi. Their blend of analog electronics and organic pulses place them in a time out of joint where dancing remains the one constant ritual.

'Unconscious Collective' is the first album by PS5 - the new ensemble led by Pietro Santangelo (Nu Guinea, Slivovitz, Fitness Forever) - and it will be out for Hyperjazz Records on 21th May 2021.

It's a musical experiment where layered memories and hidden feelings resonate as if they arise directly from the most recondite part of the unconscious and produce a suspension of the stream of consciousness. With the aim to create a state of trance and override the human reason, this is an imaginary round trip across the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, ideally connecting Naples with North Africa and Latin America.

The arrangements wrote by Santangelo are based on great freedom of improvisation: while the melodic textures of the two saxophones didn't give any clear references, the other musicians followed the rhythmic pulse and its unpredictable ways. The music moves naturally along an imaginary line highlighting the ancestral connection between Jamaica and Ethiopia or between Nigeria and Cuba. In the background, Naples is a synthesis of all the sonic ingredients, mixed and cooked in its own mystical and spicy belly.

Besides Santangelo himself on the tenor and soprano saxophones, the collective is made up of: Paolo Bianconcini, a brilliant Neapolitan percussionist with a very deep Afro-Cuban background; Giuseppe Giroffi, young and talented alto and baritone saxophonist; the bassist Vincenzo Lamagna and the drummer Salvatore Rainone, both loyal members of the former Santangelo's trio.

Recorded live at the Auditorium Novecento in Naples, the legendary studio of Phonotype Records, 'Unconscious Collective' is mixed in analog format by Fabrizio Piccolo, and mastered by Davide Barbarulo at his 20Hz20KHz Studio.

Pietro Santangelo

Pietro was born, lives and plays in Naples. As a saxophonist and composer, he has released five albums with Slivovitz and one with his PS3 trio (Clinamen, Emme records 2017). Graduated in Digital Sound Processing at the Faculty of Physics of Federico II University, he is involved and engaged in the Italian scene of radical improvisation (Franco Ferguson, Elio Martusciello and Officina Arti Soniche, Collettivo NISE).

Multi-instrumentalist since forever, he has collaborated with Nu Guinea, Enzo Avitabile, Fitness Forever, Marzouk Mejri, Dennis Bovell and many others.

He's also author of soundtracks and electronic musician. He appreciates analog photography, loves walking outdoors. He hates biographical notes.

Die Alben ".neon", "Agape" und "Melting Sun" der Post Black Metaller LANTLÔs nun auf farbigem Vinyl!

“This music is staggeringly original and innovative, and while it’s possible to locate it in a chain of circumstance that links it to ‘Industrial’ music, P16.D4 indulged in none of the empty cliches associated with the genre, worked incredibly hard, and seem to have been aiming at a form of sound art that was much more profound, varied, subversive, and potentially dangerous. Kuhe In 1/2 Trauer’s accompanying credits indicate their radical approach to making music: lots of improvisation, lots of live electronics, extensive use of tape-loops, some conventional instrumentation, and much that isn’t – like the milk churn on ‘Paris, Morgue’ or the use of baking tray and washing machine elsewhere. Even when guitars, drums or keyboards are used, they’re played very weirdly. It’s not even made clear who was doing what; the main credit is ‘Concept,’ which I assume means that one of the three devised the framework in which the noise would operate itself, and while RLW gets the lion’s share of these credits, a lot of the cuts are evenly divided among the team and I have no doubt that the group operated in a very democratic or libertarian manner. None of this prepares you for the insane and troubling sounds that reach your ears, composed with scant regard for conventional logic and following an exciting, absurdist path, especially in the matter of tape edits and juxtapositions of recordings.” - Ed Pinsent, The Sound Projector.

“Though this German group started out as a the new wave band P.D., by the time of Kuhe in 1/2 Trauer, their first LP under the P16.D4 name from 1984, they had developed far beyond into extremely experimental music similar to other post-industrial artists working with abstract avant-garde soundscapes. There’s a bleak industrial feel to the gritty, lo-fi electronics and tape loops, while the group throws in enough curve balls to keep it interesting. On some pieces, strange, looped choirs bubble out of throbbing pulses and drones of feedback, while others have clanging and clattering, and elements of musique concrète and improvisation blur the boundaries even further. The opening track, “Default Value,” is one of those disorienting pieces with noises flying everywhere, while “Paris Morgue” takes excerpts from one of their old P.D. tracks and messes it up with additional instruments, while the ungainly titled fourth track throws in a heavy texture of percussive noises to create an edgy ambience about to teeter off the edge, and the even darker and more ambient title track takes the tension even further. Arrhythmic and amorphous and capable at moments of becoming quite noisy and abrasive, while at others far more somber and quiet, Kuhe in 1/2 Trauer is quite a fascinating release.” - Rolf Semprebon / AMG

P16.D4 was a German electronic noise music collective, active primarily from 1980 to 1988. P16.D4 embraced tape cut-ups, musique concrète, endless recycling and transformation of previously published material, and many long-distance collaborations with like-minded artists such as DDAA, Vortex Campaign, Nurse With Wound, and Merzbow. Their active participation in the international industrial tape scene yielded collaborative output such as their release Distruct, where bands such as Nurse with Wound, Nocturnal Emissions, Die Tödliche Doris, and The Haters provided the source material. The longest-term collaboration was with the installation and conceptual artist Achim Wollscheid, who used P16.D4 sounds as the basis for LPs he recorded under the name SBOTHI. Ralf Wehowsky, the only constant member of the group, later released solo material under the alias RLW.

Members of P16.D4 were also involved with Selektion, a collective of people involved with sound as well as the visual arts. Selektion published LPs, CDs, books, visual art and design.

The collective worked in a strongly improvised, spontaneous and anti-professional way, using acoustic and electronic instruments, using existing sound fragments, duplicating and alienating them, using repetition, distortion, changes in speed and playing direction. For this they used not only sounds of other artists but also their own material from earlier productions. Late works of the collective are associated with musique concrete.

After opening the dimension door via a hypnagogic contribution to recent Ruf Kutz comp 'Expansion Pack 2: Textures' and offering a sonic submersion into his 'Deep Waters Mixtape', Inner Glow takes the controls for RK18, treating the DJs and dancers to a high grade house triptych.

For the uninitiated, the man behind the music is a lifelong friend from Ruf Dug's Sydney sojourn, when the two would host mushroom squat parties with the rest of the "Bodega Clan", and who helped mastermind the seminal Paradise Lost warehouse parties. Virtuously patient, the Australian spent the years since perfecting his craft, maxing out the XP and emerging as his evolved form, Inner Glow.

On the A-side, Inner Glow comes through with the two clubbiest cuts from the 'Deep Waters' cassette, unmixed, mastered loud and exclusive to vinyl. Already a firm favourite with Bradley Zero 'Party People' pulses on the A1, its one note bassline and taut pads keeping tension at a maximum. At the top of the frequency band sparse stabs and nuanced percussion dance in tandem, while the deft use of E-Smoove and First Choice acapellas provide an underground intertext Sprinkles would be proud of.

'Call Me' coaxes us into the shadow realm with the lure of Lynchian dialogue, slowly taking shape as a dub techno phantom. It's a heads down affair as urgent subs push against the mist of static, until a rising, wriggling keyboard riff unwinds waists with a hint of UKG exuberance.
Inner Glow brings the beatific on the B-side's 'Love Has No Age', combining rippling keys and MK vocal chops over waves of hiss and haze.
The percussion combines classic house swing with the tinny hats of electro, keeping perfect time as the soulful vocals swell into the sublime.

Over the last twelve months Ruffy's rocked the spot from Pikes to Houghton with these heaters, and now he's sharing them with you.

repressed !

Firmly entrenched in techno's haziest alcoves, every new record from Denise Rabe is as punishingly hypnotic an experience as it aims to penetrate the deepest laid of your cerebral zones. Having plied her trade on Arts' sub-division Arts Collective before moving on to establish her own dedicated label, Rabe, in 2017, the Berlin-based DJ and producer steps up with her much anticipated debut platter for Stroboscopic Artefacts, as she takes the helm for the fifth sortie of the Totem series. True to her love for all things droney and psychoactive, this time Rabe has us descending into rugged, hostile sonic terrains with just a headlamp and the thick mantle of darkness for closest companions. Ahead’s a demented safari across nightmare-prone visions and thunderstruck vistas.

Hosing off the loud, churning 909 kicks and passive-aggressive machine talk straightaway, 'Manifesto' sets the tone for the warehouse-sized hammering to come. Evil-minded swashes of hyper-delayed percs and criss-crossing chimes lash out in successive waves, further subjugating the dancers as bars fly by. A more spacious and atmospheric number, B-side opener 'Clouds' heads for quieter high-altitude spheres as the dubbed-out drums beat an off-kilter, leftfield friendly pulse and ominous synth stabs and pads envelop the listener in entrancing textural folds and interplays. Back to floor-ready dynamics, the adrenaline booster 'Don't Leave' caps it off on a truly mind-bending tip. Primed for unrelenting peak time action with its angry buzzard-like drones, pacey 4/4 swing and refined palette of eerie circuit noises and click-y minimalism, this one's a high-impact steamroller, sure to get maximum response when things start getting muscular.

Angel numbers: a series of recurring numerical patterns or sequences which those who believe in such things invest with cosmic significance.

Also, the name of the forthcoming album by Hamish Hawk – an apt title for an artist who bounces between scepticism and wonder, who alchemises the quotidian, who is engaged in a constant quest to outwit and outflank the ordinary. With the release of Heavy Elevator in September 2021, Edinburgh-based Hawk established himself as a writer of heartfelt, headstrong, unashamedly literate songs to stimulate both pulse and psyche. Heavy Elevator offered words to savour and tunes to relish. The songs were filmic and romantic, blending wit, wisdom, resignation and beauty with a kind of sceptical joie de vivre, delivered in a rich baritone that has drawn comparisons to everyone from Jarvis Cocker to Scott Walker. A singer of style and guile peddling accessible intelligence: what’s

not to love? Heavy Elevator established a powerful artistic imprimatur which nonetheless felt neither defining nor confining. While the album has been justly lauded, Hawk’s next steps have moved the story considerably further forward. Angel Numbers meets growing expectations head on, with panache and aplomb.

Angel numbers: a series of recurring numerical patterns or sequences which those who believe in such things invest with cosmic significance.

Also, the name of the forthcoming album by Hamish Hawk – an apt title for an artist who bounces between scepticism and wonder, who alchemises the quotidian, who is engaged in a constant quest to outwit and outflank the ordinary. With the release of Heavy Elevator in September 2021, Edinburgh-based Hawk established himself as a writer of heartfelt, headstrong, unashamedly literate songs to stimulate both pulse and psyche. Heavy Elevator offered words to savour and tunes to relish. The songs were filmic and romantic, blending wit, wisdom, resignation and beauty with a kind of sceptical joie de vivre, delivered in a rich baritone that has drawn comparisons to everyone from Jarvis Cocker to Scott Walker. A singer of style and guile peddling accessible intelligence: what’s

not to love? Heavy Elevator established a powerful artistic imprimatur which nonetheless felt neither defining nor confining. While the album has been justly lauded, Hawk’s next steps have moved the story considerably further forward. Angel Numbers meets growing expectations head on, with panache and aplomb.

The sum to infinity of a sequence is the sum of an infinite number of terms in the sequence. It is only possible to compute this sum if the terms of a sequence converge to zero. "sum to infinity" is also the second release from gamut inc, the retro-futuristic ensemble around composers and curators Marion Wörle and Maciej Sledziecki.

This second album by gamut inc combines custom-build autonomous music-machines with haunting classical synthesizer sounds to a dense musical kaleidoscope.
The core of the album is formed by Risset rhythms - cyclic accelerations and decelerations, in which rhythmic layers are repeatedly faded in and out, setting in motion a seemingly endless process of rhythmic movement. The motifs are taken from geometric and arithmetic series that create an urgency and restlessness. The rigor of the construction is obscured by an orchestrion whose timbres are reminiscent of a retro-futuristic indigenous ensemble. gamut inc translate strategies of electronic music like pulse-width modulation to music machines such as automated accordion, automated percussion or glockenspiels and create an intense atmosphere that is idiosyncratic, original and modern at the same time.

Gamut inc. build their own music machines, play electronic music festivals internationally, curate the AGGREGATE festival for automated pipe organs, and compose for film, radio drama, and theater. Their first opera, ROSSUMS UNIVERSAL ROBOTS, premiered in 2022. Since 2011, at the intersection of electronic club culture and experimental music, they have been producing live music, music theater, film and theater scores (including for the Junge Staatstheater Berlin) with their specially developed musical robots. They composed for ensembles like the RIAS chamber choir or the robot orchestra Logos Foundation and received invitations and commissions from international festivals and venues such as Sónar, CTM, Berghain, Sonic Acts, Technosphärenklänge or Numusic (NO).
Their first release EX MACHINA was produced exclusively with music robots, and released in 2014 in cooperation with Bôłt Records.
"Percussion tracks bring to mind the music of Einstürzende Neubauten in their industrial mechanics, until finally the music warms to an expression reminiscent of Johnny Cash's late work."
Süddeutsche Zeitung

The trashed hotel room and communal living depicted on the cover of the J. Geils Band's sophomore album tell you all you need know about the music, spirit, and energy spilling from within The Morning After. Shot through with raw, lean rock n' roll sparked by juke-joint blues and loose rhythms, the 1971 set comes on like the most fun, party-still-raging hangover any group in the 70s enjoyed. And now it rolls with an abandon that takes you inside the sweaty, smoky roadhouses and wall-to-wall-packed clubs the group dominated in its heyday.

Mastered from the original master tapes, pressed at RTI, and limited to 3,000 numbered copies, Mobile Fidelity's 180g vinyl LP achieves a sonic acumen that brings you face-to-face with the sextet's white-hot instrumental prowess and magnetic personalities. It's always been difficult to single out just one member of the band given the cohesive bluster the ensemble achieves as a whole, but this collectible audiophile edition allows you to do just that if you so choose, by way of superb imaging and separation. As for the band's trademark dynamics? Here, they feel like they're on the verge of exploding.

So go ahead. Twist the volume knob to the right as much as you want. You'll lose none of the focus, detail, placement, or presence no matter how high the decibels climb. The Morning After spills forth with previously unheard tonalities, ranging from the distinctive swells of Seth Justman's slow-burn organ to the live-wire spark of Geils' own downed-power-line-jumpy guitar work to the mooring hi-hat/cymbal/snare combinations of arrangement-steadying drummer Steven Bladd. Friends, this is raw rhythm n' blues, this is how it should feel, and, man, this is how it should sound.

Not for nothing did the Massachusetts-based collective name the album The Morning After. The music within doesn't abide by rules, ignores speed limits, flips the bird at curfews, and digs deep down into America's blues roots to yield organic material at once fresh, exciting, traditional, and original. The back-porch punch provided by the combination of "Magic Dick" Salwitz's searing, melodic, snake-like harmonica and vocalist Peter Wolf's animated, barely controlled deliveries is alone enough to make anyone with a faint pulse to stomp their feet, climb atop a kitchen table, and kick their boot heels until the neighbors call the cops.

Just witness the deceptive smoothness of the snake-like "So Sharp" or Maxwell Street zest of the aptly titled Magic Dick showcase "Whammer Jammer," which will leave you gasping for breath before it even ends. J. Geils Band also knew its way around deep-cut soul. The ensemble's Top 40, howling, adrenaline-to-the-heart rendition of the Valentinos' "Looking for a Love" and swirling, romantic take on Don Covay's "The Usual Place" seamlessly balance drive and emotion. Coupled with rafter-shaking originals such as "Floyd's Hotel" and the riff-propelled "I Don't Need You No More," sent up with typical Wolf vocal flair, and the record parks the band's all-night festivities and go-for-broke attitudes right on your front lawn.

One last word of warning to the uninitiated: The Morning After is not the slick-pop J. Geils Band of "Centerfold." And that is a very good thing.