Cerca:outer world

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

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

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

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

This year is set to be another vivid chapter for Rarefied, whose special brand of Dubstep has stretched the genre into outer-national and psychedelic headspaces with transmissions from Soukah, T.A.R and Sibla.

The newest artifact from Primer is par-for-the-course. Four tracks that weave field recordings from windswept bogs, worldly sample digging from molding phonographs found in dusty basements, and loose rhythmic constructions that are a mongrel blend of contemporary rap, Croydon Dubstep, and Brainfeeder.

From the ghostly oud playing that graces across the homespun percussion of 'Nowhere and Nothing', the refracted horn sections of 'Drowned' to the shimmering addendum of 'Tal pt.II, Primer chalks a fine line between headphone moments and dance floor material. Ultimately, the melodic, hypnagogic fragility of 'I Had a Faraway Dream' is an especially poignant curtain call for Rarefied's first record of 2019.

Nubya Garcia isn’t an artist you can easily classify. Is it jazz? Sure, the London-born saxophonist, composer and bandleader grew up studying the genre under the noted pianist Nikki Yeoh at Camden Music. But it isn’t until you listen to albums like 2020’s Source and 2024’s Odyssey that you hear broader creativity shining through: It’s jazz, classical, dub, R&B and whatever else Garcia wants to convey. It all comes from a place of exploration and self-study, of wanting to do all the things across all disciplines while ignoring arbitrary boxes that don’t t.

Garcia’s sophomore album Odyssey, out in September 2024 via Concord Jazz, is a majestic feat on which she blends orchestral arrangements with R&B, jazz, broken beat and dub, resulting in a grand, nuanced record that feels airy and celestial without sacricing the groove. It’s a deeply personal oering about her trek to falling back in love with musical composition over the past four years.

Source, her 2020 debut album, was released via Concord Jazz to massive critical acclaim, an NPR Tiny Desk (Home) Concert, a Pitchfork “Best New Music” review and a Rolling Stone “Album of the Month” mention. In a prole, The New York Times called Source “a sweeping set of jazz with Afro-Caribbean inuences that funnels a life’s worth of experiences into an hourlong listen.” Also upon release, the album entered the UK charts in the Top 30, and she was just one of three artists selected to perform live at Glastonbury’s 2020 Experience, which aired on the BBC to thousands of viewers. Source was also nominated for the Mercury Prize, a prestigious award given to the best albums from the UK or Ireland.

In 2022, Garcia toured the US in support of Khruangbin, performing in sold-out venues including Radio City Music Hall in New York, the Ryman in Nashville and the Met in Philadelphia. She then headlined her own tour in the UK and US, performing at various festivals including Glastonbury, Love Supreme, Pickathon and Newport Jazz.

Garcia continues to tour worldwide while also collaborating with major brands like Lululemon, Paul Smith, Labrum, Nicholas Daley and Burberry. She was one of three creatives selected for Fossil’s “Moment In Time” campaign, which was published globally in VOGUE, GQ, and GLAMOUR magazines. Elsewhere, Garcia has been featured in numerous print publications, including Mojo, Vogue and Ebony.

As a composer, Garcia’s original music has been placed with Apple TV (Ted Lasso); OWN Network (Cherish The Day); FX TV (Atlanta); EPIC GAMES (Fortnite); and on multiple podcasts (including the theme tune for Anika Noni Rose’s Clio award-winning podcast Being Seen).

Nubya Garcia isn’t an artist you can easily classify. Is it jazz? Sure, the London-born saxophonist, composer and bandleader grew up studying the genre under the noted pianist Nikki Yeoh at Camden Music. But it isn’t until you listen to albums like 2020’s Source and 2024’s Odyssey that you hear broader creativity shining through: It’s jazz, classical, dub, R&B and whatever else Garcia wants to convey. It all comes from a place of exploration and self-study, of wanting to do all the things across all disciplines while ignoring arbitrary boxes that don’t t.

Garcia’s sophomore album Odyssey, out in September 2024 via Concord Jazz, is a majestic feat on which she blends orchestral arrangements with R&B, jazz, broken beat and dub, resulting in a grand, nuanced record that feels airy and celestial without sacricing the groove. It’s a deeply personal oering about her trek to falling back in love with musical composition over the past four years.

Source, her 2020 debut album, was released via Concord Jazz to massive critical acclaim, an NPR Tiny Desk (Home) Concert, a Pitchfork “Best New Music” review and a Rolling Stone “Album of the Month” mention. In a prole, The New York Times called Source “a sweeping set of jazz with Afro-Caribbean inuences that funnels a life’s worth of experiences into an hourlong listen.” Also upon release, the album entered the UK charts in the Top 30, and she was just one of three artists selected to perform live at Glastonbury’s 2020 Experience, which aired on the BBC to thousands of viewers. Source was also nominated for the Mercury Prize, a prestigious award given to the best albums from the UK or Ireland.

In 2022, Garcia toured the US in support of Khruangbin, performing in sold-out venues including Radio City Music Hall in New York, the Ryman in Nashville and the Met in Philadelphia. She then headlined her own tour in the UK and US, performing at various festivals including Glastonbury, Love Supreme, Pickathon and Newport Jazz.

Garcia continues to tour worldwide while also collaborating with major brands like Lululemon, Paul Smith, Labrum, Nicholas Daley and Burberry. She was one of three creatives selected for Fossil’s “Moment In Time” campaign, which was published globally in VOGUE, GQ, and GLAMOUR magazines. Elsewhere, Garcia has been featured in numerous print publications, including Mojo, Vogue and Ebony.

As a composer, Garcia’s original music has been placed with Apple TV (Ted Lasso); OWN Network (Cherish The Day); FX TV (Atlanta); EPIC GAMES (Fortnite); and on multiple podcasts (including the theme tune for Anika Noni Rose’s Clio award-winning podcast Being Seen).

Futurismo proudly present a celebration of the Paisley Underground scene with TWISTED DREAM MACHINE The Paisley Underground / California’s Psychedelic Renaissance: 1982-1986, the next volume in their Altered Vision compilation series.

This collection draws from the neo psychedelic movement that took hold in California during the early to mid 80’s, one that melded the psychedelia, country, garage rock, avant-garde and pop of the 60’s with the DIY ethos of the then burgeoning punk scene, a hypnotic amalgamation of sound that came in staunch contrast to the blown out sonic excesses of the time.

Twisted Dream Machine takes you on a trip from the city to the desert, as the kaleidoscope of noise drifts from the The Dream Syndicate’s Velvet Underground inspired take on Crazy Horse and The Three O’Clock’s chiming baroque powerpop, to Rain Parade’s dreamy Beatlesesque melodies and the Bangles hook-laden Love inspired pop. Also featured are the wondrous sounds of Green On Red, The Long Ryder’s, Game Theory, True West, Thin White Rope and others highly worth your attention. If you are not familiar with some of the bands here, you will surely question how that is possible. The Paisley Underground, if anything, encapsulated a certain musical mindset, an outlook where the past and the future would collide in the moment. This thread would bond the bands, yet each honed it’s own sound in a twisted incarnation of the seeds planted two decades earlier. Whilst the ‘scene’ did remain contained, its influence did in fact spread throughout mainstream culture as the Bangles stuck a chord into the heart of MTV, whilst Prince took inspiration from the movement in his own songwriting and the naming of Paisley Park, as well as signing The Three O’Clock to his label and writing one of the Bangles biggest hits.

As you listen to the tracks on Twisted Dream Machine you will be reminded that there is still music left to discover and inspire, this compilation is aimed to hopefully delight longtime fans, as well as ignite a passion for those new to the bands. The Paisley Underground was the sound of neo psychedelic rock, it was subterranean pop...in

the classic sense, it was alternative rock before the term existed, a distillation of the fundamentals present at the dawn of rock ‘n’ roll, with a twist. The bands of the Paisley Underground may have been writing out of their own time, but as you listen to them in today’s context these songs should be heard as landmarks, rather than throwbacks. After all, nothing this good should stay underground. This 2xLP comes on limited edition coloured vinyl, it is housed in a gloss laminated outer sleeve with colour inner sleeves and contains a large fold-out poster with unseen photos and liner notes by Lisa Fancher of Frontier. Also available on CD with Gloss laminated Sleeve and Fold Out Poster.

Ever wondered what music would sound like if it was ripped from the space directly preceding sleep? The tracks within this album are your gateway to discovery. These recordings, which were laid down especially for the USA radio stations WFMU and WGXC, will melt your speakers and your mind. Released on the ever excellent Feeding Tube Records (USA) & Cardinal Fuzz (UK). BHAJAN BHOY (aka Ajay Saggar) symbolises boundless creative freedom in all the music he has produced to date. This LP is no exception to that rule….in fact, this album showcases an even wider spectrum of sounds and ideas than could ever be imagined. From heavy lysergic guitar excursions, to dub inflected guitar pedal pop, to nu-age minimalism, to electronic experimentalism….all the terms and descriptions in the world don’t do justice to the originality that lies within. When USA radio station WFMU asked Ajay to contribute tracks to a session for the show “Feelings” (co-hosted by Michele and Creamo Coyl), he turned in 5 tracks that received tremendous feedback from around the world on the station’s live chatline when broadcast. In addition, a session for WGXC further showcased the songwriting talent of Ajay. The ensuing 3 week tour of the USA cemented BHAJAN BHOY’s status as one of the most innovative musicians around. This LP marks another giant leap forward in BHAJAN BHOY’s musical development. He’s brimming with ideas and the imagination runs wild. This music is for the listeners who want to follow a path of discovery and be mesmerised and blown away by what they hear. Be sure to be one of the listening party. Presented in a high gloss outer sleeve with 2 sided insert.

It’s abundantly clear from the first bars of their 5th studio album Through Other Reflection, that this is, and could only ever be, The Soundcarriers. From the enchanting vocal duets of folk-bidden Chanteuses Leonore Wheatley and Dorian Conway; to the precise bass lines of Paul Isherwood and the limber, jazz-cool, Hal Blaine-esque drums of his his co-songwriter Adam Cann; from the fairy-like flutes, 60s-garage guitars and organ sounds pilfered from the archives of exotica - listening to the Soundcarriers resembles a rediscovery of all the most prized, esoteric corners of the 1960s, all bundled up, warped and refracted through the quartet’s astutely modern cultural lens. Channelling Tropicalia, Middle Eastern psychedelic Jazz/Funk, The French Library sounds of Nino Nardini, and a whole host of lavish obscurites beside, Through Other Reflection delivers another sonic adventure from one of the most unique and distinctive voices of British Psychedelia. After an 8 year wait for their album 4 - 2022’s Wilds - it thankfully didn’t take so long for the follow-up this time round. In many ways, this feels like a companion to Wilds; recording again at their Nottingham warehouse studio, Through Other Reflection retains that same organic glow, all the passions and imperfections of a tightly clipped unit jamming out these living, breathing pop-art nuggets as if straight onto the acetate.”We wanted to keep an air of spontaneity with this album and not get too bogged with the recording process”, explains Cann, “It was more a case of getting the songs as tightly written and arranged as possible first so we could get them down quickly in the studio. It always takes longer than you think” Less packed with strident pop hooks as its predecessor however, the music of Through… has been given extra licence to breathe, stretch out, and wander more uncharted terrains. While gleaming psych-pop of tracks like ‘The City Was’, or ‘Already Over’ confidently carry on from where they left off, from the album’s 2nd track ‘Always’, the trip becomes a little less predictable. Starting out as a smoky Procol Harum-meets-French-Psych organ ballad, the music drifts, as if of its own accord into an eerie, garage trance that lingers, cycles, and hypnotises, growing ever stranger, reaching ever-further away from its point of conception. And almost every track on Through Other Reflections holds that outer-body moment, where the band fix themselves on a limber, lysergic groove, lose all grip on time and reality, and melt themselves away into a liquid state of blind euphoria. There are sequences on this record that feel more like rituals than songs, built upon a single hypnotic rhythm which, like the centre of a vortex, pulling everything under its beatific command. Take the finale to ‘What We Found’ for instance, sounding like a ghostly march across the psychedelic moors, or ‘Feel The Way’, where a single athletic drum-loop rises and rises, growing ever more urgent and suspenseful underneath its frantic harpsichords and rasping flutes. Full of such rich stylisms as these, The Soundcarriers showcase themselves as abstract storytellers par excellence by virtue of their textures and arrangements alone. Resembling Romantic composer Maurice Ravel, but if he had just a four-piece rock band at his disposal, Through Other Reflects is rich with detail; there’s shakers, rattles, clarinets, booming drums; there’s synthesiser swarms, chiming xylophones, vintage organs and experimental Cluster & Eno-esque ambiences. Within all this nuance the music flows like some undisclosed narrative swathed in a magnetic secrecy. “It almost comes across like a story in some ways”, says Cann of the album, “the music is quite sectional with elements of exotica and cinematic type layers, it's a good balance of grooves, tunes and weirdness”. No more is this “epic cinematic feel” heard more proudly than on short instrumental ‘Sonya’s Lament” - its innate, hauntological atmospheres befitting a Peter Strickland soundtrack, or the classics of Lex Baxter, the so-called ‘Founder of Exotica’ himself. On the other hand, providing a greasier undercurrent to all these bucolic sounds is a leaning towards a more “direct” lyricism referencing more “external concerns. Laying down the first tracks for the album in the wintry gloom of pre-lockdown 2020, and drawing inspiration from time spent in Berlin, Through Other Reflections returns to some of the post-apocalyptic futurism explored in 2014’s Entropicalia - a loose concept album inspired by J.G Ballard’s The Drowned World. “The songs explore a disillusionment with the way things are going particularly after 40 years of neoliberalism”, says Cann, “They follow that folk-song tradition of wanting to escape to an imagined time, but here it’s more urban than pastoral. The first couple of ideas I came up with when doing some music in Berlin and had some time to wander aimlessly. And think the atmosphere seeped in, particularly on The City Was and Already Over. He continues, “One aspect of the title, ‘Through Other Reflections’ is about synthesis and layers of influence. How things can be filtered through other things and change the perspective. This is something you get in cities as well.” Though, as with everything The Soundcarriers make, “It can mean anything. It also just sounds kind of cool.”

It’s abundantly clear from the first bars of their 5th studio album Through Other Reflection, that this is, and could only ever be, The Soundcarriers. From the enchanting vocal duets of folk-bidden Chanteuses Leonore Wheatley and Dorian Conway; to the precise bass lines of Paul Isherwood and the limber, jazz-cool, Hal Blaine-esque drums of his his co-songwriter Adam Cann; from the fairy-like flutes, 60s-garage guitars and organ sounds pilfered from the archives of exotica - listening to the Soundcarriers resembles a rediscovery of all the most prized, esoteric corners of the 1960s, all bundled up, warped and refracted through the quartet’s astutely modern cultural lens. Channelling Tropicalia, Middle Eastern psychedelic Jazz/Funk, The French Library sounds of Nino Nardini, and a whole host of lavish obscurites beside, Through Other Reflection delivers another sonic adventure from one of the most unique and distinctive voices of British Psychedelia. After an 8 year wait for their album 4 - 2022’s Wilds - it thankfully didn’t take so long for the follow-up this time round. In many ways, this feels like a companion to Wilds; recording again at their Nottingham warehouse studio, Through Other Reflection retains that same organic glow, all the passions and imperfections of a tightly clipped unit jamming out these living, breathing pop-art nuggets as if straight onto the acetate.”We wanted to keep an air of spontaneity with this album and not get too bogged with the recording process”, explains Cann, “It was more a case of getting the songs as tightly written and arranged as possible first so we could get them down quickly in the studio. It always takes longer than you think” Less packed with strident pop hooks as its predecessor however, the music of Through… has been given extra licence to breathe, stretch out, and wander more uncharted terrains. While gleaming psych-pop of tracks like ‘The City Was’, or ‘Already Over’ confidently carry on from where they left off, from the album’s 2nd track ‘Always’, the trip becomes a little less predictable. Starting out as a smoky Procol Harum-meets-French-Psych organ ballad, the music drifts, as if of its own accord into an eerie, garage trance that lingers, cycles, and hypnotises, growing ever stranger, reaching ever-further away from its point of conception. And almost every track on Through Other Reflections holds that outer-body moment, where the band fix themselves on a limber, lysergic groove, lose all grip on time and reality, and melt themselves away into a liquid state of blind euphoria. There are sequences on this record that feel more like rituals than songs, built upon a single hypnotic rhythm which, like the centre of a vortex, pulling everything under its beatific command. Take the finale to ‘What We Found’ for instance, sounding like a ghostly march across the psychedelic moors, or ‘Feel The Way’, where a single athletic drum-loop rises and rises, growing ever more urgent and suspenseful underneath its frantic harpsichords and rasping flutes. Full of such rich stylisms as these, The Soundcarriers showcase themselves as abstract storytellers par excellence by virtue of their textures and arrangements alone. Resembling Romantic composer Maurice Ravel, but if he had just a four-piece rock band at his disposal, Through Other Reflects is rich with detail; there’s shakers, rattles, clarinets, booming drums; there’s synthesiser swarms, chiming xylophones, vintage organs and experimental Cluster & Eno-esque ambiences. Within all this nuance the music flows like some undisclosed narrative swathed in a magnetic secrecy. “It almost comes across like a story in some ways”, says Cann of the album, “the music is quite sectional with elements of exotica and cinematic type layers, it's a good balance of grooves, tunes and weirdness”. No more is this “epic cinematic feel” heard more proudly than on short instrumental ‘Sonya’s Lament” - its innate, hauntological atmospheres befitting a Peter Strickland soundtrack, or the classics of Lex Baxter, the so-called ‘Founder of Exotica’ himself. On the other hand, providing a greasier undercurrent to all these bucolic sounds is a leaning towards a more “direct” lyricism referencing more “external concerns. Laying down the first tracks for the album in the wintry gloom of pre-lockdown 2020, and drawing inspiration from time spent in Berlin, Through Other Reflections returns to some of the post-apocalyptic futurism explored in 2014’s Entropicalia - a loose concept album inspired by J.G Ballard’s The Drowned World. “The songs explore a disillusionment with the way things are going particularly after 40 years of neoliberalism”, says Cann, “They follow that folk-song tradition of wanting to escape to an imagined time, but here it’s more urban than pastoral. The first couple of ideas I came up with when doing some music in Berlin and had some time to wander aimlessly. And think the atmosphere seeped in, particularly on The City Was and Already Over. He continues, “One aspect of the title, ‘Through Other Reflections’ is about synthesis and layers of influence. How things can be filtered through other things and change the perspective. This is something you get in cities as well.” Though, as with everything The Soundcarriers make, “It can mean anything. It also just sounds kind of cool.”

Gregory T.S. Walker’s Minstrels & Minimoogs was self-published by a young, nomadic composer and virtuoso in 1988 to accompany an immersive multimedia performance at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Fiske Planetarium. Created with this outer, and other, world setting in mind, the four tracks find Walker stretching toward an ancient-to-future vision where Egyptian myths and Hieronymus Bosch-ian tableaus are rendered in a screaming three dimensional circuitry of electronic drums, synth guitars, and, of course, Minimoog. Given the musical terrains and outmoded topics traversed, and that this entirely DIY effort was originally released as a micro one-sided 12” edition, Minstrels & Minimoogs is as perplexing and euphoric a document lost-to-time as it is now found.

Born in 1961 into an intensely musical family spanning four generations, Gregory’s mother Helen Walker-Hill was a noted musicologist specializing in the rediscovery and work of historical Black female composers, while his father, George Walker, was the first African American composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for music. Both parents studied with the famed (and famously strict) Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1950s, and held to lofty aesthetic standards in their home life. Walker began studying the violin as a child, but when a burgeoning interest in the electric guitar and rock music as a teen manifested, it was largely verboten in the household. The rule was that the music played in the home was to be acoustic and classical. Although the elder Walkers eventually relented and allowed Gregory’s guitar to be plugged in for a brief interval on the weekends, the remaining days he settled for strumming it sans amplification.

Gregory, conditioned and eager for a life in music but looking to get out from under the influence and yoke of his famous composer father, ultimately chose to study computer music at the University of California at San Diego, where he earned a Master of Arts. This was followed by another MA in electronic music composition at that hotbed of West Coast experimental music, Mills College. Intermedia and multimedia in the arts was the rage in the 1980s, and Mills was one of the centers for it; audacious spectacle meeting visionary performance, such as one of the realizations for Anthony Braxton’s music for multiple orchestras a young Gregory performed in with his violin.

After a series of solo synthesizer concerts around California, Gregory followed a girlfriend on a mid-country move to Boulder, Colorado. After picking up yet another composition degree at University of Colorado Boulder, his life as a composer really started, writing a piece for extended technique for guitar, a passacaglia for vocoder and orchestra, as well as Minstrels & Minimoogs.

Envisioned as a multimedia performance such as the kind he’d experienced at Mills (which was all but unknown in Boulder at the time), Gregory roped in a number of college going or aged friends of varying skill levels and musical sympathies to accompany him with distorted sax or oblique spoken interludes. Confronted with a lack of finances, but driven to get his ideas captured in a complete musical package, the album was recorded in his brother’s apartment. If not every player assembled was on Gregory’s virtuosic level, so be it; it was more about capturing the spirit of his intentions and embracing the serendipity of mistakes.

An inspired attempt at world building, Minstrels & Minimoogs draws on the deep well of musical knowledge Gregory gathered from his parents and teachers, but all the while subverting that historical basis by incorporating mutant strains of prog and pop music. The work accumulated is not unlike the playful 1980s work of Gregorio Paniagua, where medieval estampies and rondeaus are wrenched into an anachronistic present where Hildegard Von Bingen and Kate Bush are contemporaries. Ars nova, new art, a 20th century minimalist jester and troubadour.

A one sided LP was the cheapest option Gregory found to have Minstrels & Minimoogs memorialized on vinyl, so somewhere between 50 to 100 copies were pressed. There was no distribution, outside of copies that were handed out to friends or sold at the performances at the planetarium. Gregory T.S. Walker’s cosmic-futuristic forays into oblique pop and baroque subversion could forever reside perfectly in both the domed simulacrum of our universe for which it was composed, in the formats it is being reintoduced now, and our own biblical firmament. For in the words of Gregory, straight from the original liner notes: “God Is A Minimoog”

Gregory T.S. Walker’s Minstrels & Minimoogs arrives again August 23, 2024 on vinyl and digitally as part of uncommon¢ (“uncommon sense”), an open-ended, serialized endeavor from Freedom to Spend that provides new meaning for rarefied recordings from music's outermost fringe.

Air is the central element in Antonina Nowacka's third solo album Sylphine Soporifera. The title names an imaginary species and the land they inhabit, inspired by the unreal desert landscape of Paracas and the undulating tree-less hills of the Outer Hebrides, and comes from the writings of Rudolf Steiner, who describes creatures called Sylphs as the spirits of the air, and the Latin word sopor which means deep sleep.

As with all her releases, Nowacka's other-worldly vocals coming as if from beyond the veil, at once haunting, alien and utterly entrancing. "The voice is the most beautiful and resonating instrument,” she says. “When I sing I feel I create a field in between myself and the air in front of me," she explains. "It is not just that I'm singing – something in the space in front of me is happening, and I merge with this sphere.”

She conjures and is inspired by open environments and infinite landscapes: places full of light and air, manifested here in the sound of ocarinas from Budrio in Italy, whistles from Mexico, simple bamboo flutes from Nepal, alongside tremulous zithers, synthetic Hawaiian sounds from a vintage organ and the uncanny wind instrument presets from a 90s synth.

Nowacka’s first album was informed by vocal sketches made in caves in Indonesia, later recorded at a fortress in Poland; she studied Hindustani music in India with vocalist Shashwati Mandal, fell in love with early Cumbia in Mexico and Peru, and has more recently found inspiration in the landscapes of Italy. Hers is a new New Age soundworld that finds its origins everywhere and nowhere. Sylphine Soporifera gathers these sounds, visions and experiences into an album permeated with a sense of hope and fulfilment, that feels like sitting in an enlivening white beam of afternoon sunlight, as dustmotes swirl in the stillness.

Die Ramonas sind die wahrscheinlich beste Tribut-Band der legendären The Ramones, den New Yorker Urväter des Punks. 2004 in Großbritannien gegründet, versteht es die ausschließlich aus Musikerinnen bestehende Band den ultimativen Garage-Punk-Rock-Sound von 1976 perfekt einzufangen und bei energiegeladenen Auftritten auf die Bühne zu bringen. Getreu ihres Mottos "Touring, touring is never borning" haben den Ramonas ihre ständigen Tourneen in den letzten Jahren den Ruf einer der am härtesten arbeitenden Band innerhalb der Szene eingebracht. Zu Recht: denn seit 2016 schreiben Die Ramonas auch eigene Stücke, die sie in ihren Shows unter die Ramones-Klassiker mischen. Deutlich erkennbar am Bühnenoutfit von Sängerin Lisa: während sie bei den Ramones-Covern ganz im Stil von Joey Ramone die obligatorische Sonnenbrille trägt, nimmt sie diese bei der Präsentation der eigenen Songs ab. Für die neue LP "High on life" hat die Band eine grandiose Auswahl dieser Eigenkompositionen zusammengestellt, die mühelos den 76ger-Geist ihrer Vorbilder einfangen. Fur Fans von RAMONES, MUFFS, TRAVOLTAS, Punk, Garage, Powerpop

Yellow Vinyl

Seba smashes his way into 2022 with the much anticipated release of his third studio album, "Ingaro".

Prepare yourself for ten brand new tracks of Seba. Secret Operations presents the first LP in almost ten years, from a producer who believes albums are not to be taken lightly.

"Ingaro" takes it's name from the small island outside of Stockholm, which Seba has called home for the last 20 years and is also where he spent his formative years.

The new LP takes the listener on a soaring journey through the entire Seba sound. Whether it's the dark and insistent forces of "Horse Power", which grow and fold in on themselves throughout the track, or the blooming euphoric roller "Public Beauty". A fresh collection of tracks which contain the unmistakeable Seba DNA, which has helped cement the name Seba firmly into the world of drum and bass.

Any album is not complete without some guests joining along the way and Seba has also enlisted some helpers on the journey and the LP includes collaborations with Collette Warren, Björn Berglund, Samuel Lancine and Blackeye.

For many, Seba is a name they are very familiar with. From his early releases on Good Looking right through to the present day Seba has made a name for himself for his exciting and varied production.

His music draws influence from far and wide across the musical spectrum and his work alongside the legendary Paradox and vocalist Robert Manos have gone down in Drum and Bass history.

Not just famed for his work in the studio, Seba's sets have gained a reputation for their energy and emotion. One of the scene's unique veterans. Seba's work is inspiring producers and fans more than ever. An album which sets the bar high for 2022!

Finland has long had a uniquely progressive underground, with thriving punk, avant, jazz, and rock scenes with oversized output and impact. Jussi Lehtisalo’s (Circle, Pharaoh Overlord, Mahti, etc) label Ektro has been at the center of this activity for the last three decades, with a stream of excellent and conceptually bonkers releases covering music of all types. Here Lehtisalo joins up with Jan Anderzén (of Kemialliset Ystävät among others) for an album of absolutely fun and unusual miniature duets that sound like alien Library music beamed in from the outerlands. Tracks like “Luukku Yksi” and “Puistossa” use a charmingly retro synth-y sound palate and Cluster-like melodic sensibility to make accessible some deceptively “out” music. Some cuts (like “Kylpy”) have a vague hint of early ’80s post-punk / new wave vibes, bouncing along in a friendly way with odd interjections of sample debris and electronics jumping out of the mix to keep it weird. The surging “Hymy yössä” could be music for the credits of the world’s hippest newscast. Beautiful jacket by renown Helsinki-based artist Dylan Ray Arnold, bringing the die-cut techniques of their gallery pieces like “Growth of the Night Plants” to LP form.

Transcendental outernational funk and psychedelic jazz from mystery L.A.- based collective Sun Atlas

2nd edition with alternative sleeve and label design.

Little is known about Sun Atlas. The group members are hidden behind masks and costumes to keep their identities secret and to put the focus entirely on the music and oneness. A sense of community and universal spirit as an alternative to idolization and individualism is heavily reflected in their eclectic musical style.

The sound of Sun Atlas is mystical and cosmopolitan, combining afrobeat, cinematic soul, spiritual & ethio jazz with space sounds, hiphop-breaks and a garage funk vibe.

Their cryptic first 45 single "The Mystic Parade" b/w "Grand Theft" sold out immediately after release and has often been mistaken for either "lost" hiphop samples, 70s habibi funk or another project in disguise from the inner circles of the Mocambo, Big Crown or Daptonefamilies (which it is not).

Return To The Spirit picks up where Sun Atlas' first single leftoff, with everyone wondering where the journey might lead. With the door to a colourful universe opened, the full-length format gives time & space for further exploration.

"The Red Room Crystal-Ruby Splatter Vinyl". Netherworld marks a considerable step onwards from the territory that Louise Patricia Crane explored on her debut long player Deep Blue, crafting audial landscapes that go further into both inner and outer space; hallucinatory and surrealistic yet also grittier and more direct. For all that this stemmed in part from early Genesis and The Beatles, Netherworld also sits in alignment with the luxurious but oddly intimate realm of modern classics, by the likes of Tears For Fears, Tori Amos and Joni Mitchell, with passionate intensity set in a bold, cinematic vista. In realising these romantic and expansive visions, Crane not only wrote or co-wrote the entire album, but arranged, co-produced and played a wide variety of instruments on it. Yet as a supporting cast, she has surrounded herself with a formidable selection of mercurial contributors. Once again, Jakko M. Jakszyk (King Crimson) brings his fiery and mellifluous solo guitar work, as well as contributing backing vocals, keyboards and co-production. Elsewhere, the flute soliloquies of Tiny Bard are the work of Jethro Tull's Ian Andersonwhile saxophone duties are handled by Mel Collins, whose work with King Crimson marks only one chapter in an incredibly storied life in music. Providing violin and viola across the stylistic expanse of the album, Shir-Ran Yinon (New Model Army / Eluveitie) returns as a collaborator. The rhythm section for the lion's share of the record consists of the dream team of Tony Levin (King Crimson / Peter Gabriel) and Gary Husband (John McLaughlin / Billy Cobham / Allan Holdsworth) with Nick Beggs stepping in on bass for Dance With The Devil and upright bass on Long Kiss Goodnight. Crucially however, even amidst this kind of company, Louise's voice and vision is never remotely overshadowed-with the talents on offer only serving to make the backdrop to her songs still more vivid, sharp and intense. In as much as Netherworld is a work that exists on a lineage of progressive music and the visionary artists who've expanded their boundaries of exploration to form sound-worlds as big as their imagination, it's also a work of magical realism in the tradition of Pan's Labyrinth, The Company Of Wolves or the work of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Haruki Murakami-in which the supernatural and otherworldly, lead to a shortcut to the essence of being human. In this World, Louise Patricia Crane is our Storyteller.

The Slovenian label Cogo is back for another unmissable 4-tracker vinyl compilation with the heaviest hitters in the scene who represent the most artistically driven hypnotic techno to date. Jeroen Search, Border One, ORBE, and Tonske all lend a hand to provide an understated and deep vibe to this release full of music actively attempting to remove your mind to otherworldly places hitherto unknown.

Jeroen Search kicks off the release with ''Observer'' expertly drawing you in with a very simplified but polyrhythmic staccato synth and kick combination that slowly builds with modulating and swirling pads until it reaches a climax with a tightly regulated drum track and disorienting LFO sequenced synth patch.

Border One continues the theme of the release of minimalistic aesthetics with ''Contour'' featuring polyrhythmic ideas and evolving dissociative synths. The release culminates in a very simplified and restrained drum track that opens up the doors to a massive sonic environment where you're lost completely within the music, sitting somewhat awestruck by passing elements unfolding in front of your mind's eye.

Not to be outdone, ORBE takes a different tact with ''Wolheim'' by introducing the groove elements first and bringing in his deep understanding of setting the sonic stage with his signature atmospheres and scintillating synth hits. The track also echoes the thematic choices previously laid down by Border One and invites you into this strange alien world full of sonic curiosities and audio biology.
Tonske buttons up the release with ''Droid''. A track that has an overall sense of pulling the sonic environment toward you while you travel as a listener in your mind's eye. Outward synth blips are constantly coming from the outer periphery into view as if they are passing stars while traveling forward at a deliberate and determined pace.

2024 Repress

Straight in the wake of their eponymous debut LP released on the label back in 2016, Weval return to Kompakt this year with their sophomore album, 'The Weight', breaking their pop-mellow, nostalgia-friendly facet further out in the open as they arrive "at this place again were everything felt spontaneous, new and exciting, like we had in the beginning". Orbiting around that ever luminous yet wistful melodic halo that surrounds their music, this second full-length effort sweeps an extra-wide and languidly woven palette of emotions and moods, making for a uniquely ambitious and generously coloured mosaic of sound. If the recording sessions "often started grumpy and emotionless" by Harm and Merijn's own admission, the pair was "surprised by the joy it gave us, which can be compared to the emotions we felt back in the first days of making music together"; subsequently reconnecting with that fresh, naïve feeling of "absolute creative freedom" they were after. The album is also the fruit of a whole new working process for them - more playful and unpredictable - which saw them switch from "guitars lying around to piano, onto our own synths and the most cheap quirky toys synths you can imagine", and involved "recording all of our own samples, voice and almost every instrument out of the box - which for us was a totally new way of working". "We've always wanted a narrative for the album, and finding the right order perhaps took the most effort" they explain; "we felt anxious, felt insanely positive, felt heartbroken again, felt in love again, and there was death, and even suicide around us. It was quite chaotic. As a whole, 'The Weight' breathes with that transformative richness, free of limits and rules, except perhaps to "do quick and not think too much". Amidst this collection of songs and instrumentals that live by Weval's singularly positive take on music - one that can "lift you up, and make you feel hopeful without being necessarily straight out 'happy'" as they define it, the title-track and lead single stays true to the duo's dynamic approach, putting on a fine balance of floor and dream inducing adaptability that sound engineer David Wrench (Frank Ocean, The XX, FKA Twigs, Caribou… etc.) subtly made palpable. There's heavy showers of funk drops pouring from endless bars of thunderstorm clouds and laid-back riffs beating a restrained poolside-party kind of pulse, but also sensual vocals rising from beneath the sheets and rueful polaroid-filtered ambiences to soundtrack all possible moments in life - from the most euphoric to those when music seems the only viable healing potion. More on the post-KLF, BoC-inflected electronica side of things, 'Are You Even Real' takes its listener for a round-trip across the star-studded dome and beyond, before songs like 'Someday' and 'Same Little Thing' head back down to a state of pulsating, earthly organicity, tense and mercurial as get. An arpeggiated slice of piano-strewn kosmische, 'Heaven' is another invitation to an epic-scale odyssey from the inner-spheres into the distant fringes of the outer-world. Weightless and airy, yet texturally dense and widely magnetic overall, Weval second LP is a synthesis of the duo's multi-angle take on electronics: blissed-out, heartening and infinitely free.
Nur zweieinhalb Jahre nach der Veröffentlichung ihres selbstbetitelten Debutalbums finden sich WEVAL zurück "an jenem Ort, an dem sich alles spontan, neu und aufregend anfühlt - so wie als wir anfingen zusammen Musik zu schreiben". An diesem Ort entstand "The Weight", ihr zweiter Longplayer, auf dem Weval sich ganz den Pop-verliebten, Nostalgie-freundlichen Facetten ihres Sounds öffnen. Stetig um den sehnsuchtsvollen Strahlenkranz ihrer Melodien tanzend, legt diese Platte noch vielschichtigere, mit feinster Präzision gewobene Gefühlswelten frei.

Obwohl die Aufnahmesessions nach eigenem Bekunden oftmals "miesepetrig und emotionsarm" begannen, so war das Duo überrascht darüber, wie schnell sich bei der Arbeit jene Freude einstellte, die sie aus ihren künstlerischen Anfangstagen kannten, eine Woge des frischen, naiven Gefühls der "absoluten kreativen Freiheit". Dieses Album ist die Frucht eines verspielteren und unvorhersehbareren Arbeitsprozesses innerhalb der Band, in welchem alles zum Einsatz kam, was ihnen in die Finger kam - von der ollen Gitarre, die in der Studioecke stand, über ein Piano und den bandeigenen Sythesizern und den sonderbarsten Spielzeuginstrumenten, die man sich vorstellen kann. All dies sowie zahlreiche Vocalaufnahmen dienten als alleinige Samplequelle - "was für uns eine völlig neue Arbeitsweise war". "Es war uns wichtig für das Album den perfekten Erzählbogen zu spannen. Die richtige Reihenfolge zu finden war ein extrem aufwendiger Vorgang", erklären Harm und Merjin. "Uns war bange, wir fühlten uns total selbstsicher, uns zerbrach das Herz und wir verliebten uns erneut. Wir waren sogar von Tod und Selbstmord umgeben. Alles war Chaos. Insgesamt atmet "The Weight" die Reichhaltigkeit dieser sich ständig verändernden Gefühlslagen, frei von Einschränkungen und Regeln - außer vielleicht "mach es schnell und zerdenke die Dinge nicht." Inmitten dieser Ansammlung von Songs und Instrumentals, die aus Wevals einzigartiger, von Zuversicht geprägter Herangehensweise entstanden sind - "Musik, die dich hochzieht und Hoffnung spendet, ohne dich notwendigerweise happy zu machen. Der Titeltrack "The Weight" steht exemplarisch für Wevals ambivalenten Ansatz, die feine Balance zwischen Dancefloor und Traumzuständen, perfekt in Szene gesetzt von Soundengineer David Wrench (Frank Ocean, The XX, FKA Twigs, Caribou… etc.).

Der schwer aus gewaltigen Gewitterwolken tropfende Funk, die eine verhaltene Poolparty suggerierenden Riffs, die sinnlichen, geisterhaften Vocals und ein verwaschenes Ambiente, das wie ein Album alter Polaroidaufnahmen alle erdenklichen Momente des Lebens festhält - von den euphorischsten bis hin zu jenen, in denen Musik der einzige Trank ist, der Linderung verheißt. Das post-KLF und Boards of Canada evozierende "Are You Even Real" führt den Hörer auf einen imaginären Flug ins Sternenzelt, während organisch-klingende Songs wie "Someday" oder "Same Little Thing" wie Quecksilber am Boden haften. "Heaven" ist eines jener "kosmische" Stücke mit wilden Arpeggios und Pianosprengseln, die Weval in den vergangenen zwei Jahren zu einer Live-Sensation werden liessen. Wevals Musik ist schwerelos und luftig, aber gleichermassen von dichter Struktur und von einer magnetischen Anziehungskraft. Ihr zweites Album "The Weight" ist eine Synthese aus dem multi-perspektivischem, kaleidoskopischen Verständnis von elektronischer Musik: Herzerwärmend, alles umschmeichelnd und unendlich frei.

1STEP Process 180g 45rpm Double LP Pressed on VR900-Supreme Vinyl!
Mastered from the Analogue Mix-Down Tapes of the Original Digital Recording by Bernie Grundman!
Ultra-Luxe "Monster Pack" Jacket with a Deluxe 16-Page Booklet & Striking Outer Slipcase!

New lacquers cut after each run of 500 pressings!

Strictly Limited to 5,000 Numbered Pressings!

Impex 1STEP #5 celebrates Patricia Barber's 1999 "return" to The Green Mill, Chicago's fabled jazz club. Conceived as a "companion" to her Grammy-winning studio album Modern Cool, Companion finds Barber and her touring band in inspired form, playfully and energetically performing hits and deep tracks from her celebrated oeuvre.

The dynamic interaction between the artist and her reverent audience adds a palpable sense of space and community. At the same time, the fans' hushed attention creates a studio-like sense of precision and detail. The snap and crackle of Barber, her grand piano, and her onstage partners practically leaps off the groove into your listening room!

Companion's fan-favorite reputation is enhanced immeasurably by Jim Anderson's jaw-dropping, lifelike recording. Eschewing the crystalline sterility of digital recordings of the time, Anderson's sound is always warm, natural, and lacking unforced "hype."

Like Anderson, Impex aims to present great recordings that are as natural as possible. And we couldn't wait to put our favorite Patricia Barber release, using Jim's analog mix-down master tapes, on 180 grams of VR900 Super Vinyl. The deep, inky black backgrounds and absence of surface noise will pull listeners right into those three evenings in 1999, capturing a seminal modern jazz artist at a creative and professional peak and reveling in a perfectly rendered and joyous audio time capsule.

Finally, our deluxe Impex Treatment packages the whole party with a lovely outer slipcase, a booklet containing a new note from Patricia, and a dazzling array of photographs from the evenings by frequent Barber collaborator Valerie Booth, exclusive to our 1STEP. Heavy paper stock with spot gloss coating and a faithfully recreated exterior design will satisfy original fans and aesthetes throughout the music-loving world.

Transcendental outernational funk and psychedelic jazz from mystery L.A.- based collective Sun Atlas

Little is known about Sun Atlas. The group members are hidden behind masks and costumes to keep their identities secret and to put the focus entirely on the music and oneness. A sense of community and universal spirit as an alternative to idolization and individualism is heavily reflected in their eclectic musical style.

The sound of Sun Atlas is mystical and cosmopolitan, combining afrobeat, cinematic soul, spiritual & ethio jazz with space sounds, hiphop-breaks and a garage funk vibe.

Their cryptic first 45 single "The Mystic Parade" b/w "Grand Theft" sold out immediately after release and has often been mistaken for either "lost" hiphop samples, 70s habibi funk or another project in disguise from the inner circles of the Mocambo, Big Crown or Daptonefamilies (which it is not).

Return To The Spirit picks up where Sun Atlas' first single leftoff, with everyone wondering where the journey might lead. With the door to a colourful universe opened, the full-length format gives time & space for further exploration.

The ltd.first vinyl edition comes in black vinyl in a deluxe handmade tip-on sleeve.

Göden’s second endeavor Vale of the Fallen out on 17th of May 2024 Göden is back, and on their latest album the sound is heavier than ever. Guitarist/Bassist Stephen Flam is best known for his previous work with the band Winter, whose sludgy dirge earned a cult following for years to come. Göden is the spiritual successor to Winter. One could say Celtic Frost is to Triptykon what Winter is to Göden. Their debut album, “Beyond Darkness” stood on its own in creating a distinctive world. Now, four years later, they explore new sonic territories with their second album, “Vale of the Fallen”. While "Beyond Darkness" was a concept album that propelled listeners into space, whether inner or outer, “Vale of the Fallen” brings us back to twisted reality. Their more in-your-face approach should only intensify the experience-much like a walk through a post-apocalyptic landscape in the bleakest imaginable conditions. Sound-wise, Stephen Flam's heavier-than-life riffs, Vas Kallas's sardonic delivery and Tony Pinnisi's keyboards create oppressive atmospheres atop Jason Frantz's powerful drumming, while Margaret Murphy’s violin weaves ghostly motifs. Like its predecessor, “Vale of the Fallen” features interludes which provide brief respites between some tracks, only to return to the crushing heaviness in yet another avalanche of sound. This might be your favorite album of 2024.

Göden’s second endeavor Vale of the Fallen out on 17th of May 2024 Göden is back, and on their latest album the sound is heavier than ever. Guitarist/Bassist Stephen Flam is best known for his previous work with the band Winter, whose sludgy dirge earned a cult following for years to come. Göden is the spiritual successor to Winter. One could say Celtic Frost is to Triptykon what Winter is to Göden. Their debut album, “Beyond Darkness” stood on its own in creating a distinctive world. Now, four years later, they explore new sonic territories with their second album, “Vale of the Fallen”. While "Beyond Darkness" was a concept album that propelled listeners into space, whether inner or outer, “Vale of the Fallen” brings us back to twisted reality. Their more in-your-face approach should only intensify the experience-much like a walk through a post-apocalyptic landscape in the bleakest imaginable conditions. Sound-wise, Stephen Flam's heavier-than-life riffs, Vas Kallas's sardonic delivery and Tony Pinnisi's keyboards create oppressive atmospheres atop Jason Frantz's powerful drumming, while Margaret Murphy’s violin weaves ghostly motifs. Like its predecessor, “Vale of the Fallen” features interludes which provide brief respites between some tracks, only to return to the crushing heaviness in yet another avalanche of sound. This might be your favorite album of 2024.

Church Andrews and Matt Davies weave intricate patterns from Fibonacci sequences on new mini-album, Yucca.

Producer and composer Church Andrews (aka Kirk Barley) and drummer Matt Davies return to explore the outer limits of rhythm on a six-track suite that is at once angular and fluid, natural and systematic. Drawn to the restrictions of working solely with one synth and live drums, the pair found creativity in limitation, developing a compositional dialogue between the sonic timbres of Kirk’s productions and Matt’s percussive practice.

Evoking the primitive yet complex form of the plant from which it takes its name, Yucca features tracks that are built around rhythmic ratios of the Fibonacci sequence. Mirroring spiral patterns exhibited in nature, each track evolves like a cellular structure of its own, from the livewire syntax of ‘Chirp’ and the deconstructed ebb and flow of ‘Ferns’, to the mini-album’s title track, where crisp grooves flit between modulated electronics like fireflies.

“I’ve always been inspired by music that is complex without sounding complex,” Matt explains. He maintains a sense of bounce amid the intricate phrasing and cites drummers Roy Haynes and his grandson Marcus Gilmore as inspirations, alongside sabar drummers from Senegal and Mridangam drumming of South India.

With a shared background in hip-hop and the swung beats of J Dilla and Flying Lotus, Kirk Barley and Matt Davies were also inspired by the minimalism of Terry Riley and the sparse palette of dub techno.

Written and recorded in Lewisham in the spring and summer of 2023, Yucca follows the release of Axis in 2022, with the duo having also performed at festivals such as Rewire and Waking Life, and recorded live sessions for FACT magazine and Worldwide FM.

The third release on Yorkshire-based Odda Recordings, following Kirk Barley’s Marionette and Flaer’s Preludes, Yucca confirms the label’s reputation for championing music on the unstable ground between the organic and the synthetic.

Warehouse Find! Test Pressing!

Simbad makes a welcome return to Freerange following last year’s brilliant Take My Hand EP featuring South African vocalist Brian Temba. Now based predominantly in Cape Town, the French Londoner producer and DJ is one of the most prolific artists in the scene having notched up countless EP’s, remixes and production work for labels like Apron, G.A.M.M. Faces, Hyperdub, Atjazz, BBE & Brownswood. His association with Gilles Peterson and Worldwide runs deep, hosting regular shows on WWFM as well as traversing the globe delivering his unique and eclectic sets from Africa
to Asia and beyond.

Peaceful Revolution is one of those special house tracks which transcends boundaries, encapsulating an outernational sound in a way that Simbad excels in. Featuring South African upcoming producer Zito Mowa & vocalist Lwandile Zulu who brings a raw and impassioned energy to the deep and soulful mood, this tune was recorded in support of the troubled events from the past few months (Black Lives Matter movement).

Next up we have a track entitled Let Go which could quite easily be the lead track of the EP if they weren’t all as good as each other! This is late night emotive house music at its most sublime. Drop this at the right time and watch the floor come together in collective bliss.

Flip over for SMBD’s Shaolin Dub remix of Peaceful Revolution which pushes the original to the outer limits of the audio spectrum. Sub-sonic low end rumbles sitting in contrast to the ghost like whispers, glitches and industrial noises that pierce the ethereal pads.

Closing out this special release we find the unassumingly titled Soulful Jam, a low-slung groove which sees Simbad going heavy on fizzing analogue synths with a serene synth solo takin centre stage amongst the lush chords.

Entering the world of MOOON is like entering a time machine. The young Brabant power trio, consisting of brothers Tom and Gijs de Jong and their cousin Timo van Lierop, takes the listener to the Golden Age of pop music: the heyday of psychedelia in the 60s and 70s.

Following up their recently released LP "III", here comes a brand-new 7" by MOOON. Featuring a mono-version of "Hurtin' My Heart", taken from their latest album "III" and on the B-side an unreleased song from the same session; "How I Learned (To Say Goodbye)".

"Hurtin' My Heart" is a fuzz & Farfisa driven tune, that everybody on the dancefloor will dig. "How I Learned (To Say Goodbye)" is a jangly 3 part harmony pop song but with a high energy twist!

This is a 7" that both sounds and looks 60's-stylish (with flap outer sleeve) and every DJ will need in their box!

Features remarkable, previously unheard versions of Ra classics "Calling Planet Earth", "Sunset On The Nile" and "Theme From The Stargazers".

Recorded across three sessions over the last three years, ‘Behold’ is a testament to Parsnip at their most creative, catchy and collaborative. This album showcases the multi-talents of all four members, with spirited performances adding dazzle to the thirteen tracks.
Paris Richens lets the bass playfully roam. Carolyn Hawkins tumbles feeling into the drum rumble. Stella Rennex’s guitar soars alongside her saxophone work, whilst a sprightly keyboard is tenderly attended by Rebecca Liston. Everyone sings amidst this lush canopy.
Patience, environmental cues and internal signals are integral for a garden to flourish. The same can be said of the conditions necessary for ‘Behold’ to emerge. It is an album gleeful in reassessment, changed priorities and anticipation. The roots are deeply anchored to mystery, drinking up a hidden wonderment that lies within. ‘Monument’ is a twist of melody and mania, “For what am I? But a channel of light” they attest amongst the whoops and hollers. ‘The Babble’ sounds like Ray Davies playing Wordle for enlightenment. In fact most of these songs are pointing the way towards growth and understanding. ‘Turn to Love’ is mesmeric and timeless, thoroughly serene and perfectly judged. Parsnip write songs as a form of communion with the intangible in our increasingly delusory world, but there is always a gentle reminder; don’t take anything too seriously! “My head is gonna split in two, fix it with flour and glue” they demand on ultimate bop ‘Papier-Mâché’, this juxtaposition of mature resolve with childlike astonishment packs a more powerful punch.
On ‘Behold’, Parsnip explore both the inner and outer realms of consciousness with quick wits and some seriously quality jangle and jolt. ‘The Light’ is a whip smart workout, sprouting naturally from the propulsive nature of their debut album ‘When the Tree Bears Fruit’ (2019). ‘Placeholder’ is also devastatingly honest and channels The Field Mice as it buries itself like an arrow into your heart.
Anti Fade Records and Upset The Rhythm proudly present Parsnip’s first album in five years, ‘Behold’. Available in all good record stores April 26th.

Jimpster dons his Franc Spangler cap and joins forces with up and coming London-based producer and DJ Hudson’s Choice for a four track EP entitled Myatts Field. Touching on trippy slo-mo electronic grooves, tropical moods and percussive house jams it brings a more experimental and left field sound to Delusions Of Grandeur which we’re sure you’re going to love!

Opening track AcidMan sets the tone of the EP with a bubbling 303 line taking centre stage while pitched down vocals add a hint of menace, heightening the psychedelic mood. Dubby FX and analogue synth lines drift in and out of focus and give a live jam feel to the arrangement reminding us of something that might grace the decks of A Love From Outer Space. Heavily Percussed continues offering up a crazy percussion tool loaded with wonky cross rhythms, glitchy found sounds and a hypnotic synth sequence for good measure.
Flip over for Myatts Field, another slower tempo mutant discoid house groove which takes us on a deep trip into the jungle. Echoing sax and hazy vocals transport us to another world where Weather Report experimented with rolling four on the floor grooves and spacious dub.

Closing out the EP Roots picks up the pace with another percussion-heavy slice of tropical sounds which doffs a cap to masters such as Gregory and Osunlade. Steel pan melodic lines intersperse with chiming synth sequences making for an unusual yet hooky club track which will lock the dancers into its incessant groove.

Black Truffle is pleased to announce The Mountains Pass, a major new work from Olivia Block. A key player in Chicago’s vibrant experimental music scene since the late 1990s, Block has developed an extensive body of work grounded in a personalised, at times emotive approach to the studio-based practices of the musique concrète tradition, while also encompassing improvisation, orchestral pieces, sound installations, and a sustained engagement with the piano. On The Mountains Pass, recorded by Greg Norman at Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio and meticulously edited and constructed over the course of three years, Block pushes into new terrain, introducing her singing voice and drums played by Jon Mueller into flowing assemblages that move seamlessly from ruminative organ tones and fragmented piano airs to explosions of sizzling synths and thundering percussion. Like many of Block’s past works, which include, for example, a sculptural installation using the sound of oyster beds, The Mountains Pass draws inspiration from nature and the animal world. Time spent in a particular mountain range in Northern New Mexico informs this suite of pieces, whose lyrics and titles refer particularly to animal life in the area. Beginning with bursts of white noise and delicate synthetic pops and squeaks, opener ‘Northward’ very soon reveals the special direction the album will take, as lyrical piano lines are joined by Block’s fragile voice, singing words written from the perspective of f2754, an endangered Mexican gray wolf who wandered more than five hundred miles from Arizona to New Mexico in 2022. The fragment of song quickly breaks off, leaving us with a ghostly electronic hum. ‘The Hermit’s Peak’ follows, one of two epic pieces at the album’s core. Beginning with chiming, almost harpsichord-like tones, it moves through episodes of spacious, ruminative piano, Jon Mueller’s sparkling cymbals, stuttering cut-up piano sounds, and a climax of keening organ and trumpet tones (performed by Thomas Madeja). Continuing the exploration of vintage keyboard and synth tones heard on Block’s Innocent Passage in the Territorial Sea (Room 40, 2021), the music sometimes suggests the great outer-limits works of 70s Italian prog figures like Franco Battiato or Arturo Stalteri in the languorous drift of synthesizer, organ, and piano tones and the meticulous yet organic flow of its construction. ‘Violet-Green’ opens the second side with another epic journey, its lyrical content concerning ‘a mysterious bird die-off and a forest fire’. Block’s crystalline voice and rich piano chords at times call up the restrained chamber songs of Janet Sherbourne, but fragmented and threaded through passages of woozy pitch-bent keyboards, hypnotic distant thuds, tinkling bells, and searing distorted synth tones. On ‘f2754’, the freedom of the roaming wolf surges through dense layers of rapid keyboard attacks and long organ tones over a propulsive drum performance straight out of Animal Magnetism-era Arnold Dreyblatt. This distinctive sound world is then reencountered in a darkened mirror image in the uneasy, metallic shimmer of the closing ‘Ungulates’, named in reference to a heard of elk roaming through the mountains. Like Battiato’s Clic or Gastr del Sol’s Upgrade & Afterlife, The Mountains Pass inhabits the underexplored terrain where the beauty of song coexists with a radical formal openness, illuminating the deep musicality and warmth that have been present in Block’s work all along.

Jlin’s detailed and meticulous exploration of rhythm’s inner and outer reaches has made her one of the most distinctive and recognisable voices within both the electronic and classical music worlds. Her compositions are consistently appealing and have an accessibility to them, yet often defy expectations. She exists within her own locus solus - no matter the collaborator, no matter where sounds ultimately lead her. Whatever the situation – from composing the Pulitzer Prize shortlisted ‘Perspective’ for Third Coast Percussion, to ‘Godmother’ her AI-powered collaboration with Holly Herndon, Jlin always expresses her outlook to the fullest. Her new album ‘Akoma’ sets a new benchmark in her personal road map, not only since the album features guest appearances from Björk, Philip Glass and Kronos Quartet but for her continued sonic persistence and resistance. Jlin does what Jlin does and it’s beloved across genres, across scenes and across generations. ‘Akoma’ is a new entry point into her sound and a new approach for both those who have been following diligently and those who are just now entering her world.So how did she get here? Here’s a rundown for those looking for the facts. She was both a math nerd and a steel factory worker. She got inspired by Footwork and started making tracks with mentorship assistance from RP Boo and DJ Rashad, but her music was far from typical for footwork from the get-go. In 2011, she released her first track ‘Erotic Heat’ on the Planet Mu anthology ‘Bangs & Works Vol.2.’ Fashion designer Rick Owens heard it and invited her to soundtrack his Paris Fashion Week show. Already before an EP or an album Jlin was in new cutting-edge territory. And it hasn’t stopped since. Everyday Jlin wakes up early and clocks into her home studio working hard on new music. Her discipline and craft-like approach means that those who would try to copy her sound simply can’t get to the level she is at. Since ‘Erotic Heat’ she has released two bold albums, 2015’s ‘Dark Energy’ and 2017’s ‘Black Origami.’ She has also released her soundtrack to Company Wayne McGregor’s dance piece ‘Autobiography’ (2018) and most recently (2023) the mini-album ‘Perspective.’ She’s remixed µ-Ziq, Factory Floor, Ben Frost, Max Richter, Björk, Martin Gore and others. She’s collaborated with Holly Herndon and the late SOPHIE. She’s worked with visual artists Kevin Beasley and Nick Cave. She composed a string quartet for Kronos Quartet and performed with them live in a tribute to Philip Glass. She also recently completed a tribute to Sun Ra with Kronos. ‘Perspective’, her very well received percussion work for Third Coast Percussion has further opened doors for her in classical music. She’s even thinking of one day writing an opera. She had a residency at MassMoca Museum earlier this year (2023). She’s performed live at Pitchfork Festival, Unsound Festival and too many others to mention. She’s also worked with Indian dancers, Company Wayne McGregor and renowned choreographer/MacArthur Fellow Kyle Abraham. There’s more but you get the picture - she’s working in contexts and in ways that few of her peers are able to. ‘Akoma’ is the next step - all these paths have led to this. We encourage you to tune in.

Khôra is the medium Matthew Ramolo uses to delve deeply into initiatory world-building by way of sound, image, and lyrical prose. Figuring wholly realized art-myths which distill and rouse the numinous while provoking the visceral and cathartic, Khôra intricately collages studio documents of ritualized instrumental performances, introducing overdubs by transient, heteronymic personae which dismantle stable points of reference in the music and open uncommon planes of consciousness.

"Gestures of Perception" is Khôra’s first double album with a supporting artbook and features a fascinating array of sources subjected to patterned assembly, poetic layering, and the elevations of the heart. Deft handling of modular synthesis is palpably central, while feedback, erhu, keys, flute, contact electronics, guitar, field sounds, and various percussion objects (rattle and frame drums, seed pod sticks, random metal objects, meditation bowls, kalimbas, bells) all serve to provide breathing structures and energetic contours that guide and scaffold inner and outer journeys into the far-near. Prominent across the record's span is a home-built, solenoid drum machine, responsible for the alive and askew techno-archaic flows and conceived as the album’s "rhythm seed”. The music on Gestures is teeming with organic and alien textures, soaring drones, inter-dimensional noises, and emotionally resonant melodies; balanced on the fringes of exotica and meditative trance, with capacities that untether the listener from the ballast of limited reality.

Operating hermetically in the penumbra of Toronto's cultural scene for well over a decade, Khôra has been invested in self-publishing handcrafted editions of spiritually driven recordings which led to the LP/CD reissue of inaugural album "Silent Your Body Is Endless" by Constellation. Khôra has toured extensively in North America and Europe both solo and in collaboration with Picastro, Nick Kuepfer (Hrsta,1/4 Tonne), and Brandon Valdivia (Mas Aya, Lido Pimienta), generated over a hundred hours of unreleased, bewildering drone through durational performance with experimental outfit Nidus (Marc Couroux, Jason Doell), composed for live dance and independent film, been commissioned by MaerzMusik, and seeded and co-run the now defunct music and art venue Ratio in Toronto.

Revision of new beats on the horizon
Every 20 years or so, certain musical movements come full circle. Young musicians are inspired by genres dating back two decades, channelling them through their modern sensibility. The legendary J Dilla’s Donuts album was released in 2006 and instantly marked a starting point for the work of musicians worldwide, laying the foundations especially for the beat scene in Los Angeles. A whole young generation of musicians brought up on the new, instrumental and abstract hip-hop has carried jazz into a new era. The four London-based musicians who make up Uniri have gone one step further by abandoning the idea of a jazz band and "bedroom production" in favour of collective composing, creating a new look at the new-beat aesthetics, framing it as a road novel set in an unspecified time and space.

Uniri translates as ‘one unified dream’ and is the key driving motto of the project conceived by Chiminyo (Cykada, Maisha), the band's founder and head honcho. The project materialised in his private studio, where he invited fellow jazz musicians Amane Tsuganami (Jorja Smith, Maisha), Al Macsween (Nubya Garcia, Gary Bartz, Kefaya) and Luke Wynter (Nubyan Twist, Golden Mean) to spontaneously compose together. Hence, despite this being the band's first album, it wouldn't be right to call them rookies. The result of Uniri's collaborative work is the psychedelic, rhythmic album Infinite Reflections, packed with cosmic and warm synths, which neatly balances hip-hop beat and jazz composition. It's safe to say this music is even more appealing when played live, although it's equally suited to the club dancefloor.

UK Jazz has become a permanent fixture in the London landscape, but also across Europe and the US. Today, the musicians who shape the new wave of jazz are drawing on more and more genres, reducing solo improvisation for the benefit of composition and increasingly drawing on influences from the beat scene. Among such formations are the British NOK Cultural Ensemble, the Polish Błoto, the Belgian ECHT!, and the Dutch Comité Hypnotisé. Uniri is part of this emerging yet already international trend, creating an entirely fresh aesthetic that echoes artists such as Flying Lotus, Samiyam, Dorian Concept, Ras G and Nosaj Things oriented around the Californian 'new beats generation' scene.

The title Infinite Reflections alludes to a phenomenon observable on the open sea or during intercontinental flights. Gazing at the horizon blurs the boundary between the ocean and the sky, forming an infinite palette of blue shades. This inspiration sparked an elusive musical narrative, navigating between a sea voyage and an astral journey, destination unknown.

Neither Timothy J. Fairplay, nor Norwell are strangers to the Dalmata Daniel family: both of them are trustworthy contributors to DD compilation albums of earlier years, plus Norwell has released his 'ODD' EP and 'Joint Spaceflights' EP back in 2017 and 2019 on the label. So this time, it's a return for Norwell, and a debut for Mr. Fairplay: their DDS09 split EP is here to present 4 tracks full of outer space lights, eerie vibes, mesmerizing beats and cosmic energies.

Timothy J. Fairplay's side A starts with the explicit kicks and ominous basslines of 'Caliber 9'. Slowly and steadily, the laser blasts and relentless drums all add up to define a world of space cadets on the run, where any odd-looking figure can turn out to be a malignant, speedy alien. 'TV Tower' takes us to another planet with an even higher rotation velocity. Fast percussion elements and squished lower frequencies take center stage in this intergalactic episode, but the whistle-like melodies and descending, bubbling robot signals make the journey complete.

Flip to side B, and enter the contemplating, otherworldly atmospheres of Norwell. 'Midnight Rituals' gives you the chills with its breath-like swooshes, grievous sirens and deadly asteroid belts. Yet, there is no need to worry: after an intense ride with your spaceship, eventually you end up in the same spot, where you started: in the stable and steady mid-tempo beats of an expertly-programmed drummachine. The orbital mission comes to an end with 'Natives', a dense and heroic hymn with emotive structures and well-crafted harmonics. The track starts with the bittersweet, lamenting synths of a solo voice, pouring their heart out in the spotlight, all alone on the stage. All of a sudden, a hard-hitting, rhythmic groove commences its last rush of dedicated cadences. It is full of breaks, it is full of 303s, completed with airy echoes and dreamy, light gestures. 'Natives' keeps on building its structure with elegant paces, providing a massive, yet delicate experience of Norwell's defined aesthetics. The track lets the last strokes of its gloomy synths roll out, along with the final round of looping drums, thus putting an end to DDS09.

Following the success of the "Out Of Luck" single, we're wrapping up the Ghia reworks chapter with "The Other Side" - a dynamic 12" vinyl loaded with three contemporary funk tracks and three instrumental cuts.

The release starts off with the title track on which we can hear another collaboration with vocalist Adriano Prestel. The song is built on the foundation of "Message From The Other Side," a synth-funk instrumental from last year's "Don't Stop" LP. Jim Dunloop has skillfully rebuilt the infectious grooves from scratch, and guitarist Lucy Liebe has contributed to the guitar elements. Interestingly, the 1985 original version contained vocals that were preserved on a demo tape. These original lyrics conveyed the idea that everyone should learn to listen to the other side. Adriano picked up this idea and wrote new verses and a new chorus, beautifully transforming the song into a soulful bliss. In today's world, the message remains relevant: without listening, understanding, and compromise, solutions are elusive.
Next up, DJ Friction takes "Out Of Luck" to new heights with a remix infused with electro-funk. The synth bass replaces the original, a punchier kick and a clap snare give it a classic boogie feel. Additional strings on the chorus and an extended build-up complete the transformation, making it a fantastic tune for any DJ set.

Marian Tone returns to remix "The Other Side" in the '85 rework, blending parts of the original song with replayed instruments from the studio sessions. He adds clav sounds and retains the original marimba keys by Ghia's Lutz Boberg. If you are into the 80s vibes, this rework will be your choice.
The flip side features instrumental versions that, even without vocals, are a special treat for all boogie and funk enthusiasts. Last but not least, the release includes the original mixdown of "Out Of Luck" from when the recording was finalized at Ed Longo's Soundrays studio - offering a different take from the instrumental version on the previously issued 45 single.

The 12" is presented in a full-picture sleeve designed by The Raincoatman, also known as label owner DJ Scientist.

After capturing the attention of audiences, DJs worldwide and the media with the brilliant "Flight Of Sagittarius", Brazilian Diogo Strausz, signed to Parisian label Goutte d'Or Records, presents : Samba From Outer Space This second opus takes us on a journey through time and style, from jazz-funk to dance music and Afrobeat, invoking masters such as Caetano Veloso, Giorgio Moroder or Tony Allen.

"This idea of "Samba From Outer Space" comes from dance music being a universal language beyond electronic but mainly a form of gathering people together in the same frequency." says Diogo. We could summarize everything in "Electronic dance music is nothing but samba from outer space."

The composer, percussionist and instrument builder Limpe Fuchs has spent six decades exploring the outer limits of sound and its effects on the listener. Born in Munich in 1941, Fuchs is part of a generation of German artists who sought radical new approaches to art, music and social organisation in the period following the Second World War.

Alloa, Bavarian for alone. Limpe likes to be alone, because she is never lonely. When she is not on concert tours, she cultivates the garden in front of the door or playfully handles her instruments in the house. Among these has recently been a restored concert grand piano, which she found orphaned at a performance venue in Switzerland and rescued from being scrapped in Peterskirchen. Since then it has been the center of Limpe's attention, is played daily, and can be heard on the recordings of this LP.

The music alternates between free improvisation and impromptu compositions, played also around fragmented recited poems. Beyond the boundaries of jazz, art song and classical music lies the freedom Limpe takes at the piano, laughingly commenting on her unorthodox, even carefree way of making music with a quote from Friedrich Gulda: "From seventy on, all pianists are bad."

Well, so what, Limpe is not a pianist anyway, she is much more than that. She is the most vivid proof of a long-lasting, versatile and intrepid musical career, the next chapter of which will also consist of Limpe no longer exclusively traveling through Europe heavily laden with all her self-made instruments, but every now and then light-heartedly from grand piano to grand piano, to then make music for everyone, as always but not necessarily alone.

Danielle Boutet’s P »Pièces« is a mysterious artifact of Quebecois marginalia, self-released in 1985. Moving from languid ennui to high drama, »Pièces« is a dreamy gestalt, an album that borders Chanson, spoken-word, jazz noir, and minimalism, conjured from the chasm between acoustic and electronic realms. »Pièces« allows us a window into the highly intimate songcraft and compositional skill of an artist who longed to linger not in the public eye, but in relation with others and the world around her.

Born in Quebec City, Boutet studied music at the University of Montreal, where she focused on composition and percussion, before becoming involved in Montreal’s feminist and lesbian art scene. Primarily written, performed, and recorded by Boutet, with voice, guitar work, and technical assistance by Sylvie Gagnon, Pièces was created during a paradigm shift in home recording. Originally composed for the piano, Boutet and Gagnon utilized a consumer-friendly Tascam 4-track Portastudio and versatile Yamaha DX-7, alongside guitar, bass, marimba, and the human voice, to expand and contemporize the original composition’s scope.

Inspired by prog rock and British poet and musician Anne Clark, »Pièces« translates Boutet’s influence by moving between sunny, wistful fairytale and dark, wintry dirge. Filled with longing marimba, vertiginous, startling synth pads, and folk guitar, each track on Pièces offers a wholly unique proposition. Some are modal and rife with the ethereal psychological tension of a sci-fi soundtrack, while others are more like entering a smoke-laced lounge, the entertainer embodying seduction.

With the sprechgesang of artists like Serge Gainsbourg, there is an intense intimacy to Boutet’s delivery, sometimes as if she is performing for an audience of one. As one lyric goes, translated to English from French: “Like holograms/ Images from a world/ That inhales souls/ And exudes drama.” Another song contains an excerpt from The Tao of Physics: “The eastern sages specify clearly that they do not identify an ordinary void, but rather, a void having an infinite creative potential.”

To English-language audiences, the album’s title, »Pièces«, might seem to simply refer to the eleven different pieces. The title can also, of course, refer to parts of a larger whole, but Boutet is keen to point out that there is also another meaning: In French, a pièce is a room. On the cover of the original cassette, Boutet is seen sitting on a chair, alone in an empty apartment, a cable snaking at her feet. Listening to »Pièces« is like entering eleven different rooms: whether a study encased in shadow, a greenhouse left to wither in an eternal frost, or a divine nave.

Boutet sold a few dozen copies around Montreal, a scene mostly occupied by the new wave explosion de rigueur, but the inclusion of Pièces in the 1987 issue of Ladyslipper—the North Carolina-based mail order catalog that championed women musicians of all calibers and careers—led to more exposure throughout North America. “In the catalog,” Boutet says, “they included it in the New Age section, but I was, and still am, aware that this album is relatively unclassifiable.”

Boutet would release one more album, titled Musiques Urbaines, before getting pulled in the direction of interdisciplinary art and theory. “Although I never stopped making music, I lost all interest in public diffusion or performance,” Boutet says. Despite her departure from performance and publicly releasing music, she left behind a strange and enthralling document of Montreal’s 1980s feminist fringe, an aural document of the historic moment when self-recorded music and its practical potential became a prismatic reality.

Danielle Boutet’s Pièces arrives February 16, 2024 as part of uncommon¢ (“uncommon sense”), an open-ended, serialized endeavor from Freedom to Spend that provides new meaning for rarefied recordings from music’s outermost fringe.

Bristolian producer Claude Cooper returns with hot new single ‘Stay A While’, inspired by the vinyl discoveries made from months of digging and cataloguing the bulging inventory of Bedminster’s Friendly Records record shop.

‘Stay A While’ introduces some delightful twists to Cooper’s psychedelic-funk sound. Blurring the lines between sampling and performance, lush string flourishes are sliced with 6Ts girl-group vocals and rollicking piano chords resulting in a dreamy, end of night, lights up anthem in-the-making. The track is backed with the insistent ‘Dance Tonight’, a ragged bass-boogie surf-rocker that doesn’t take no for an answer.

Cooper’s irrepressible debut album ‘Myriad Sounds' (Jan ‘22) caught the attention of the UK's press and radio alike. Mojo's four star review described it as “Bristol’s beat scene backdrops late night jams”, Uncut enjoyed the "rugged psych-funk romp" and Louder than War declared "it’s vital and vibrant and exactly what we need to kick start the year”. BBC radio DJs including Cerys Matthews, Gideon Coe, Huw Stephens, Jamie Cullum, Lauren Laverne, Stuart Maconie, Tom Ravenscroft rinsed the singles, with Huey Morgan inviting Cooper to contribute a Block Party Mix for his show.

Bonus round 'More Myriad Sounds' (Apr ‘23) added Brooklyn vocalist Brain Fog to the melange with a bounty of pyretic vocal performances. DJ Mag called it “A fierce, kaleidoscopic trip” while Bandcamp Daily said “This album of cross-genre influences is as likely to get it included in any number of best-of columns, with the theme of serious fun as their common element”.

Behind the release is Friendly Records, the best little record shop in Bristol and now a burgeoning record label. Opened by Tom Friend on North Street in 2016, it’s gone on to become a hub of the local musical community. As well as Claude Cooper, the label has reissued two of Alison Cotton’s albums, 'The Twenty-Three Views' by outernational ambient jazz project Floating World Pictures, and Christian Madden & The Enemy Chorus’s organ heavy ‘The Extra Weight’.

Claude Cooper will return with a new album on Friendly Recordings this year.

Double LP on recycled & random-coloured "Re-Vinyl" Return to the unwavering wild in Downpour, where you explore new, harsh lands and survive new predators. As time passed, the slugcat has evolved. With five variants of the species - take advantage of various skills that they possess and explore their own personal tales. Black Screen Records, Videocult and Akupara Games are excited to take you an aural journey into the strange land of "Rain World: Downpour". Two LPs pressed on recycled & random-coloured "Re-Vinyl". The soundtrack is housed in a beautiful gatefold sleeve comes with UV spot varnish. The artwork was created by Kelocitta who has also reimagined the vinyl art for "Rain World". The "Rain World: Downpour" soundtrack is a collaborative work that was made possible by James Primate, Lydia Esrig, Intikus, Ongomato, Connor "12LBS" Skidmore and Progfox. A unique piece of music and very interesting mesh of different styles that truly bring the environment of Rain World to life. It's fully enjoyable without the game itself. The songs of "Rain World: Downpour" are a treat to experience, with some themes referencing the original soundtrack, such as "Threat - Waterfront Complex" or "Reflection of the Moon", and some being whole new, entirely original tracks, such as "Breathing Hyometer", "Fragile" and "Sheer Ice Torrent". Once you've experienced the "Rain World" soundtrack and gotten a feel for the style of the artists who worked on the music, "Rain World: Downpour" is an amazing continuation to experience next.