Cerca:own this

There are few rock guitarists on this planet who have had such a lasting influence on so many renowned musicians as Michael Schenker. With his outstandingly fluid style, inexhaustible wealth of ideas and instinctive feel for hooks and melodies, Michael Schenker is a living legend who, despite his longstanding and distinguished history, still impresses with his unflagging energy and drive. The blond axeman from Sarstedt began his international career in the early 1970s with the Scorpions, achieved worldwide fame after joining British rock group UFO and then seamlessly continued his exceptional global success story under his own name, as well as with acts such as Michael Schenker Group (MSG for short), Temple Of Rock and Michael Schenker Fest. Schenker and his career, which has spanned more than fifty years, are absolute exceptions in the otherwise short-lived music industry.

There are few rock guitarists on this planet who have had such a lasting influence on so many renowned musicians as Michael Schenker. With his outstandingly fluid style, inexhaustible wealth of ideas and instinctive feel for hooks and melodies, Michael Schenker is a living legend who, despite his longstanding and distinguished history, still impresses with his unflagging energy and drive. The blond axeman from Sarstedt began his international career in the early 1970s with the Scorpions, achieved worldwide fame after joining British rock group UFO and then seamlessly continued his exceptional global success story under his own name, as well as with acts such as Michael Schenker Group (MSG for short), Temple Of Rock and Michael Schenker Fest. Schenker and his career, which has spanned more than fifty years, are absolute exceptions in the otherwise short-lived music industry.

Sacred Bones is an independent record label and publishing company based in Brooklyn, NY that started over 15 years ago in the basement of a record store and has gone on to become a critically respected label that is synonymous with forward-thinking music and culture and won the 2020 Libera Award for Label of the Year. With over 300 releases under our belt, we've had the distinct pleasure to work with legendary artists the likes of Mort Garson, Patti Smith, Trent Reznor, and the late Genesis P-Orridge, as well as fostered the respective music careers of film directors David Lynch, John Carpenter, and Jim Jarmusch. We've also released career-defining albums by newer artists like Zola Jesus, SPELLLING, Molchat Doma, Marissa Nadler, Amen Dunes, and Jenny Hval, all while retaining our cult underground through smaller curated releases from some of the best punk and experimental artists. Our fifteenth anniversary as a label will be honored with several events and an exciting vinyl repress collection but the crown jewel of this year's celebration is the compilation Todo Muere that features beloved artists from our roster covering their favorite songs that we have released over the years. The compilation features innovative pairings, like punk stalwarts Institute covering art pop sensation SPELLLING, and matches made in heaven like Marissa Nadler's gorgeously eerie cover of David Lynch's already eerie song "Cold Wind Blowin." Some songs are sister renditions with their own imaginative touch like Constant Smiles' cover of Jenny Hval while others, like the Zola Jesus song performed by Thou, Mizmor and Emma Ruth Rundle take on entirely different genres. And while each song on the comp stands on its own as a testament to the many song writing and song performance talents housed on the Sacred Bones roster, the compilation as a whole was sequenced as a cohesive whole deserving prime placement on any record shelf.

Gilmer’s first release came out in 2015, called ‘Brain Poacher’ on Lobster Theremin. Showcasing a production style taht lands between Ancient Methods, Sandwell district and a more rugged version of the live-orientated Karen Sound. Keeping the Rhythms and grooves undulating under booted foot. The next year after the nuclear arms test that was the ‘Brain Poacher’, Gilmer returns to the lobster family via Lucid, Murky sub-label Mörk with his second record called ‘Lost Tapes’. Taking a much more languid and contemplative approach to his follow up. ‘Lost Tapes’ finds itself washed ashore on waves of warm, translucent, salt-infused techno and house giving his next release the opportunity to make his debut in Turbo Recordings with a foour track EP called ‘Baker Shit Ton’. After releasing on Lobster Theremin and Turbo, Gilmer Galibard launches his own imprint ‘Gilmer Galibard Records’. This project is a pure expression of his personal experiences and stories through music and visual art using each release as a timeline of his life. The concept of the label is also to explore boundaries of introspective musical experiences, taking sound design as a way to connect with his body and soul. These tracks were written in a period of uncertainty and a s big change in Gilmer, seeking powerful change in his life and his music. Inspired by Austin Osman Spare and his book ‘Book of Pleasure’ Gilmer gave birth to Novaturient, to honour that important moment of his life. Novaturient (Rainforest Spiritual DUB) is the first track of GIL01 and delivers almost over 7 minutes worth of deep harmonics and metallic textures, manifesting Gilmer’s own sound design. Even though the core ideology remains correlative. B-Sides Komorebi (Getwaway To The Sun Mix) creates its own identity by venturing into a deep industrial techno with drops of light and hope accompanied by an organic percussion through the track. All tracks produced written and Mixed by Gilmer Galibard

Trees Speak are back!
Speak’s new album, “Vertigo of Flaws: Emancipation of the Dissonance and Temperaments in
Irrational Waveforms” comes as a double-vinyl edition, single CD and digital release. The limitededition first pressing only of the vinyl includes a bonus 45 enclosed in an 8-page 7”x7” booklet
insert housed within the gatefold sleeve with cover artwork created by Soviet Union propaganda
artist Lazar Markovich Lissitzky in 1911.
Trees Speak are back!
This new release is a vast leap into an ocean of space and sound, a quantum leap into cybernetics, biology, anti-gravity,
time travel, dream speech and transfiguration. A seriously next step release!
Showing no signs of slowing down their rapid creative pace – incredibly this is their fourth album in the space of just over
one year – ‘Vertigo of Flaws’ is a mighty 29 tracks, one and a half hours of music across one double album that is surely
going to be a defining point in their musical career, a giant leap into the sonic unknown, an epic exploration of intensity
and sound.
Alongside their now trademark German krautrock motoric-beat rhythms, angular New York post-punk attitude, tripped-out
60s spy soundtrack, psyche-rock, and 70s synthesizers and vocoders, here you will also hear a new cosmic spacial
awareness (both personal inner space and galactic outer space) and a truly wilful pushing of sonic boundaries - as police
sirens, static noise, alarms, radio signals, avant-garde voices, and orchestral string quartets, all collide to add beautiful
dissonance to uber-powerful, intense, addictive and propulsive rhythms - in the process creating a truly unique
soundscape that Trees Speak have made wholly their own.
If you ever wanted to hear Can, Hawkwind, Destroy All Monsters, Pere Ubu, electric eels, John Cage, Liquid Liquid,
Tangerine Dream, Suicide, Neu!, Laurie Spiegel, Art Ensemble of Chicago, John Barry, Mother Mallard’s Portable
Masterpiece Company, Sun Ra, Stockhausen, John Carpenter, Electro-Acoustic and Musique Concrete and Mars in one
band - then this is it!
Trees Speak are Daniel Martin Diaz and Damian Diaz from Tucson, Arizona and their music often draws on the cosmic nighttime magic of Arizona’s natural desert landscapes. ‘Trees Speak’ relates to the idea of future technologies storing
information and data in trees and plants - using them as hard drives - and the idea that Trees communicate collectively.
Special guests from the hyper-creative hub of the Tucson music scene on this release are Gabriel Sullivan, Ben Nisbet, Saul
Millan, Stephani Guilmette, and Davis Jones.
The album Vertigo of Flaws was recorded in Brooklyn, New York, and Tucson, Arizona during the plague of 2021.
Extract from Vertigo of Flaws sleevenotes:
‘As we travel through space and time, avoiding the discarded remains of the industrial period, the
deconstruction of social norms through the expression of art, music, and philosophy guide the human
experience towards the unknown.
All that remains are musical echoes scattered throughout the universe, like ancient vibrations that now
populate the cosmos. These waves now show signs of decay. Melody, beauty, tonality have all but fallen
away as dissonance blossoms. As John Cage wrote in 1937,
“Whereas, in the past, the point of disagreement has been between dissonance and consonance, it will be,
in the immediate future, between noise and so-called musical sounds. New methods will be discovered,
bearing a definite relation to Schoenberg’s twelve-tone system and present methods of writing percussion
music and any other methods which are
free from the concept of a fundamental tone”.
Similarly, George Van Tassel claimed the Integratron as capable of
rejuvenation, anti-gravity, and time travel. So, what remains of the
“people”? We have adopted from them our own Zeitgeber: their pulses
now guide our sun, our planets, our earths, and are the new circadian,
diurnal, and ultradian rhythms of the galaxy. Traumsprache, dream
speech, is now the internal language of trees.
Decaying metal and machines liberated the note unto nature’s table,
and we sip the delicious nectar of music once more irrational, elaborate,
violent, vast. The past is the future, musical disintegration its own rebirth.
We are nature, once more the computer of the Universe.’

Eastside Edits is back with its follow up to last year’s massive 001 release. After gaining support from all the top open format DJs and Donut slingers across the globe, we present you the label’s second record - 002. Bringing you a unique niche sound that is upbeat,
dance floor friendly and will get the crowd moving. This record features two stellar veteran artists with impressive discographies, both making significant impact in their respective scenes.

Side A is brought to you by Toronto’s very own Jackin House legend. With his signature hardhitting drums and funky soulful sound, Demuir has taken the music world by storm. Touring globally at some of the most sought-after nightclubs and festivals, as well as releasing music on the hottest labels in dance music. He has been featured as Beatport’s Hype Artist and has been awarded the #1 Jackin House Artist of the year multiple times. He takes one of the top Hip Hop
songs of 2020 and injects his personal signature. This raw, edgy edit is an absolute weapon, not to be missed!

Side B is brought to you by a Canadian native, residing in the USA. When it comes to the 45 community DJ Double A needs no introduction. He continues to drop release after release on the top 45 labels in the game. He’s the man behind Mountain 45s, with releases on Friday’s Funky 45s, Private Stock Records and Heat Rock. Double A premieres on this label with an edit that puts a modern spin on an 80s classic. This rework is guaranteed to have the crowd singing
along and humming the vocal well after the show is done. It’s truly a DJs must have

Madre Lingua is a collection of songs born via the constant interactions among the Artists that gravitated around Mother Tongue in the first two years since its opening.

On the back of this continuous exchange of musical ideas and vibes MT’s own Patrick Gibin full time coordinator and producer of many of the songs here worked on this project like painting a blank canvas inviting Tiombé Lockhart, Kaidi Tatham, K15, Mark de Clive-Lowe, Tommaso Cappellato, EDB, Gary Superfly and the mysterious 黒舌 (Infectious Madness) to bring their colourful and heartfelt contributions to this unique collection of songs.

Previously releasing tracks and EPs on several respected big room labels such as Drumcode, Kraftek and Noir, Dutch DJ/producer SAMA announces the arrival of his new darker, grittier label Maximalist_Minimalist. Showcasing his new sound, the Utrecht- based DJ/producer delivers four hard-hitting, groove-led techno tracks built with intricate sound design and a perfectionist mindset.

Leading the release is ‘Onyankopon’, a dark and dubby number with a chunky groove and gritty percussion. ‘I Reject What I Just Said’ enters harder and more driving territories, with textured sound design meeting polyrhythmic synth stabs and eerie atmospheres. The B-side starts with the trippy leads and atonal pads of ‘One Small Mistake’, before ‘And All Of A Sudden, I Was Free’ closes out the release with a driving roller.

“I’ve felt the need to reinvent myself, to really create my own identity, and not attach myself too much to other labels anymore. For this reason, I ultimately set up this imprint: to provoke myself to become the artist that I so much adore and aspire to be. That’s why this brand will serve as an extension of myself; my creative identity, if you will.” - SAMA

Ángel Rada is one of the most interesting music experimantalists of Venezuela. He started his career in the late 1960s as a member of The Gas Light, one of the big names on Venezuela's live circuit in the era, sharing the stages with other artists such as Apocalipsis, Un Dos Tres y Fuera, Vytas Brenner, Daniel Grau, Pablo Schneider, Miguel Ángel Fuster... Rada is one of the three basic artists who set an electronic music scene in Venezuela, along with Miguel Ángel Noya and Vinicio Adames.



Rada had attended the Escuela Superior de Música José Ángel Lamas and then continued his studies in Germany, where he was impressed by krautrock music, especially by its more electronic side. He met Kraftwerk when they were recording at Kling Klang Studio, and also knew Klaus Schulze–who would become an example for him to to follow. This contact with the Kraut scene would be the biggest influence on his works from the 1970s, which would end synthesizing in Rada's first record: 1983's Upadesa, originally released on his own independent label Uranium Records. Since then he has released more than 20 albums up to date, making him one of the most prolific experimental musicians not only in his country but also in the whole world.



Rada's aproach to electronic music is based in what he calls ethnosonic music. He is interested in the mixture of various styles which he filters through the use of technology, so in his electronic compositions one can hear echoes of ethnic sounds from all over the globe as well as some jazz influenced improvisation, ambient and synthesized sounds.



The Wah Wah edition is the first ever vinyl reissue of this landmark LP and has been remastered for vinyl by Roger Prades @ Prades Mastering. Includes an insert with liner notes by Salvatore Maldera.



It is a strictly limited edition of 500 copies only.

This is a very serene, almost entracing record that seems to inhabit its very own space, between "classical" ambient music (Eno, Budd), "systems music" (Reich, Glass, Riley, Hassell), japanese kankyo ongaku (Hiroshi Yoshimura, Takashi Kokubo), even hinting at what would become 90's ambient electronica (B12, Nuron, SAWII-era Aphex Twin or the Fax +49-69/40464 label). Actually, Lech would be one of the few artists to perform at the first-ever Sonar Festival (Barcelona) back in 1994 (together with Suso Saiz, Esplendor Geometrico, Mixmaster Morris or Laurent Garnier).

A key early effort from this musician and A/V artist whose career spans well over thirty years and a miriad of works, performances and instalations: Art Futura, Sonar, ISEA, Ars Electrónica (Austria), Festival Videoformes (France), Festival de Nuevas Músicas (Madrid & Sevilla), Ciclo Experimental LEM (Barcelona), Knitting Factory (New York), The Korner (Taipei), Festival Pop Komm (Cologne-Germany), Festival Experimenta (Madrid), Festival DAFT @ Taipei (Taiwan), ART BEIJING, Festival EXIS @ Seúl (South Korea), JMAF (Tokio, Japan) or Artefact:Chernobil 33 (Kiev-Ukraine).

The Wah Wah edition has been mastered from the original tapes, reproduces the original sleeve artwork and and features an insert with photos and info.

It is a strictly limited edition of 500 copies only.

It's been a while since Local Talk presented a 12" with two artists doing one side each but it's time again.

Italian powerhouse Nico Lahs glides smoothly between labels like Delusions Of Grandeur, Adeen and Rawax, working with house royalty Chez Damier and keeps delivering top quality music.
His contribution to this split 12" is the track 'Everything Is Good', one of those moments when everything (!) works just perfectly.
A straight forward track that embraces loops and repetition with hints of HNNY's golden days.

On the flip Local Talk's very own Tooli moves through a series of moods and grooves with the 'That Cowbell Track', a cut which eases you deeper and deeper into the dance, with clever rhythmic programming.
A dub that focuses on the cowbell is also added for your pleasure, because you can't have enough cowbell, can you ?

To celebrate the 3 years anniversary of Mother Tongue and remind us all the sheer quality of the Madre Lingua album project from last year, MT’s own Patrick Gibin curated this special remix double A-sider!

Patrick himself teamed up once again with Kaidi Tatham to refreak the EDB & Gary Superfly collaboration ‘Pressure’….the result is pure nasty and rude house vibes aimed at the dancefloor!

On the flipside Mark De Clive Lowe gave a spacey and beatless twist to the electronic opus ‘Apollo 3000’ another big favourite from Madre Lingua moving things into more abstract territories!
The best of both worlds on a single phat 12 inch!

It started, as it so often does, with two old friends hanging out.

John Shima and C P Smith were joking around one evening in their home city of Sheffield. At some point, Smith challenged Shima that, if the latter could produce a record using nothing more than a small modular synth setup, then Smith would release it on his Central Processing Unit label. As heads will know, while Shima has drops on imprints like FireScope and Subwax Excursions to his name, he had never previously released anything via CPU. Shima accepted, and thus we now have his CPU debut, the four-track EP CPU Modular 1.

The specific setup that Shima worked with for these tracks was Smith's Doepfer A-100P6 Suitcase, a small but mighty combination of modules and programmers. It's no surprise that Shima was able to familiarise himself with the equipment in double-quick time - after all, Shima was an early adopter of the Eurorack modular format back in the day. What emerged from the CPU Modular 1 sessions was a quartet of devastatingly effective DJ tools, mid-set rollers which will get the dance moving something crazy.

Opener '003' kicks the EP off as it means to go on. There's something at once stiff-necked and buoyant about the rhythms here, all thwacking Roland tones and snares which crack like someone whipping a length of sheet metal. While the beat barrels unyieldingly onwards, the programming in the tuned modulars is more exploratory and even trippy, full of delay-laced bleeps and flighty rhythmic motifs. It comes together for a cracking mix in the vein of artists like Jerome Hill and London Modular Alliance. Second A-side cut '010' is no different, the street-beat groove and grumbling low-ends underpinning all manner of modular wizardry.

CPU Modular 1 is really timeless stuff, a set of percussion-heavy, future-focussed beats which recalls Smith's own CPU drop 'DJ Tools Vol.1 - 808 Tracks'. '011' kicks of CPU Modular 1's second-half with a dose of Drexciyan dystopia, playing an atonal loop off of an insistent bass wiggle and neurotic hi-hats. Even when Shima tightens or slackens the modulars here, '011' remains unyielding, a dose of pure 'Wip3out' energy that you could happily groove to all day long. The EP closes out with '005', a gnarled, gurgling production which still retains the dancefloor punch of the rest of the record.

For his Central Processing Unit debut, John Shima was tasked to produce four tracks using a single small modular setup. Unsurprisingly given the pedigree of this seasoned machine-funk pro, Shima aced the assignment.

 With their duo debut, Dean Spunt and John Wiese invite you to experience
the frenzy of percussive space and discreet sound found inside ‘The Echoing
Shell’.
 This is the first official collaboration between the two veteran music-makers,
though their connection goes back to 1999. As John recalls, “Dean was in a
high school arts program at CalArts. A friend and I were recording the first
Sissy Spacek demo in the design studios there, and taking a tape to my car
over and over again to check the mix. Dean was walking through the parking
lot with a Locust shirt on, we said hello, and he immediately got into a car
with two strangers to ‘listen to a tape’.”
 The tape-listening ended well, apparently. Dean and John became friends
and fellow travellers in LA circles and beyond: in 2005, John did a remix for
Dean’s first band, Wives; in 2007, Dean played percussion with Sissy
Spacek’s 13-Tet Los Angeles; John toured with No Age several times and
collaborated live with them in 2010.
 Under the Sissy Spacek name as well as his own, John’s recordings for his
own Helicopter label and many others kicked things off for him around the
end of the century; since then, he’s been constantly engaged in solos and
collaborations on record, performances, and installations around the world.
 In addition to Dean’s ever-growing discography with No Age, he curates his
own label, Post Present Medium. In 2018, Radical Documents released
Dean’s solo debut ‘EE Head’, which explored concrète and experimental
techniques in a four-part, album length piece.
 ‘The Echoing Shell’ is born of Dean and John’s shared understanding, using
John’s process common to Sissy Spacek: elaborate sound-collage works
using source material originating from punk, hardcore and improvised music.
A series of impositions, tape manipulation and edits recompose the material,
cracking open the crust of the source, freeing its implied guts to steam forth
in gushes of extreme noise. On ‘The Echoing Shell’, this is as often noise as
it is extreme intimacy, seeming at times to be sourced from within Dean’s
drumkit, at other times appearing to emanate from the capsules of
microphones and the circuits of the signal path itself.
 One may read these collaged sounds as abstraction, but there is a unique
language conveyed in their assembly, forming something like word-shapes
and meaning. And intention: the two side-long pieces, comprised of many
short sections, form a linear whole, creating alternately ripping and
discriminating music - and meaning - in the process.
 ‘The Echoing Shell’ is a fantastic conception in contemporary musique
concrète, combining incendiary post-rock power, dry humour and astonishing
depth of field. Whether projecting the sound through headphones, ear buds,
bookshelf speakers or your own personal amp stack, crank up ‘The Echoing
Shell’.

This is the second Haress album, a five piece from Shropshire. They channel the sounds of Fairport Convention, Lungfish, Papa M, Earth, Robert Wyatt, John Fahey, and Talk Talk. Taking influence and making it their own. The first vinyl press comes with a bonus flexi disc telling the story of the week the band spent recording the album, the weirdness, the positively supernatural happenings. On this album the core duo of Elizabeth Still and David Hand are joined by David Smyth (Mind Mountain, Kling Klang) on drums, Chris Summerlin (Hey Colossus, Kogumaza) on guitar, Thomas House (Sweet Williams, Charlottefield) on vocals and Nathan Bell (Lungfish, Human Bell) on trumpet. In early 2020 the group travelled to a disused water mill in North Wales for a week to record with engineer Phil Booth (JT Soar) and his mobile studio. The stories of what occurred are told on the flexi disc that accompanies the LP but the group’s plans for a relaxing break in the country were scuppered by events that were either highly unusual, or positively supernatural (depending on your own beliefs in such things). Well-made plans were abandoned and the recording was forced to develop according to the location it was being made in. Chance and accident were welcomed as a collaborator rather than a saboteur and the group exited the sessions extremely freaked-out but with the makings of an album. Ghosts is an incredible piece of work and posits Haress on their own when it comes to developing new approaches to traditional musical forms. The music contains many moments of immediate joy - the relative pop of House’s vocals on White Over, the wild horns of I Think I Think, the rush of warmth as Time To Drink morphs into focus. But it also stretches the sound Haress have carefully developed almost to breaking point with sections of music that feel like somebody - something - else is steering the ship. The 2 final songs – Litres Into Metres and Sussurus – are joined together by a collage of site-specific sound. It was decided to add the output from a detuned long wave radio to this section on the final night of recording. Static hissed from the device but as soon as the record light illuminated, a rich male baritone voice sang loud and clear from the radio, taking a solo right where it was needed and then disappearing into space forever like the Ghosts of the title.

A new 6-track mini album from a musician with a long list of credits including South African trumpet legend Hugh Masekela, afrobeat co-creator Tony Allen and Ethiopian jazz originator Mulatu Astatke as well as many Brit-jazz and international roots artists. "It's Time" blends spiritual Afro-jazz groove with free improv, spoken poetry and other-worldly atmosphere, with lyrics and titles hinting at unorthodox takes on reality and the times we live in.

Phil Dawson is a top London guitarist who has worked and schooled himself extensively in many different African, Latin and Brazilian music traditions together with styles that more typically cross the radar of someone with a similar British background: roots reggae, punk rock, blues, soul, R'n'B, jazz and funk. As a sideman, he's played with a host of living legends of Afro-fusion music including South African jazz trumpet giant Hugh Masekela, Nigerian afrobeat co-creator Tony Allen, Ethiojazz pioneer Mulatu Astatke, the Algerian "king of rai" Khaled, and London based Ghanaian afro-rock dons Osibisa. Heavy company for sure.

Now he's releasing a new mini 6 track album of original compositions under his own name and band - Phil Dawson ٤-tet - and he's joined by a stellar cast of London's finest players who include Rowland Sutherland (flutes - Airto Moreira, David Murray, Carla Bley), Khadijatou Doyneh (spoken word - The Heliocentrics, Danny Keane), Gaspar Sena (drums - Alfa Mist, Maria Chiara Argiro), Marius Rodrigues (drums - Oriole, Hermeto Hermeto Hermeto), Lekan Babalola (percussion - Cassandra Wilson, Ali Farka Toure) and Matheus Nova (bass - Antonio Forcione, Ed Motta, Jazzinho). Phil himself features on guitars, Fender Rhodes and piano.

'This is great' - Gilles Peterson, BBC Radio 6 (on 'It's Time)

'Beautiful' - Kassin (producer Caetano Veloso, Sonzeira etc) (on 'It's

Time')

'Rapid-fire guitar work with variety and energy' – The Guardian, UK

'A great guitarist' – Tony Allen

'An absolute killer - irresistible' - Snowboy (on 'Gnostic Hilife')

'Phil Dawson and his (quintet) are really smoking at the mo. No wonder the London jazz young guns are ripping it up with bands

like this leading the way. Miss them at your peril' – Russ Jones (Future World Funk)

Jazzwise Review

The British guitarist Phil Dawson is a fixture of a plethora of Brit-jazz bands and international roots outfits; his nuanced stylings have graced the work of A-listers from Ethio-jazz guru Mulatu Astatke to such late African greats as Tony Allen and Hugh Masekela. Like any an in-demand session player worth his chops Dawson also fronts his own trio/quartet/quintet, all of which allow him to stretch out and do his own thing, which – with his quintet - he does to pleasing effect here.

Buoyed by flute, bass and percussion, It's Time is a six-track brew combining free improv and spoken word with Afro-spiritual groove and a far-out esotericism befitting these strangest of times. Opener 'It's Time (Radio Edit)' is a psychedelic romp through a beneficent cosmos where ringing chords and woodwind trills underpin Khaditjatou Doyneh's pathos-laden musings on love and the universe and one of three variations on a theme. Over three minutes longer at 9:34, 'It's Time (aka Ougama)' is a freewheeling instrumental made dazzling by Dawson's silver-fingered guitar work; Doyneh resumes her pronouncing on the more dissonant but equally mind expanding 'It's Time (Fully Spoken)'. Then there's 'Gnostic Hilife', whose three interpretations each juxtapose the structures of this West African lingua franca in ways tight, spacious and inventive

If you’re looking for a raw, sugary blast of distorted pop, look no further than
‘Weird Nightmare’. The debut album from METZ guitarist and vocalist Alex
Edkins contains all of his main band’s bite with an unexpected, yet totally
satisfying, sweetness. Imagine The Amps covering Big Star, or the gloriously
hissy miniature epics of classic-era Guided by Voices combined with the
bombast of ‘Copper Blue’- era Sugar - just tons of red-line distortion cut with the
type of tunecraft that thrills the moment it hits your ears.
 These ten songs showcase a new side of Edkins’ already-established
songwriting, but even though the bulk of ‘Weird Nightmare’ was recorded during
the COVID-19 pandemic, some of its tunes date back to 2013 in demo form.
“Hooks and melody have always been a big part of my writing, but they really
became the main focus this time” he explains. “It was about doing what felt
natural.”
 To be clear: Weird Nightmare is not a ‘pandemic album’, but an album - some of
which had been gestating for quite a while - that just so happened to be recorded
during the pandemic. “I had always planned on finishing these songs, but being
unable to tour with METZ, and forced to lock down, really gave me a push.” After
days spent homeschooling his son, Edkins would drive to the METZ rehearsal
room and tinker deep into the night on these songs’ deceptively simple structures
and rich, static-laden textures. “It was a godsend for me,” he states about the
creative process. “The hours would disappear and I would get lost in the music
and record. It was a beautiful escape.”
 ‘Weird Nightmare’ is, in its own way, a study in extremes: Edkins’ melodic
instincts and penchant for dissonance are both turned up to the max throughout,
the latter reflecting not only the barn-burning tendencies of METZ, but Alex’s own
sonic predilections. “It doesn’t sound right to my ears until it’s pushed over the
edge.” He also cites other artists who are masterful at mixing the sublime and the
punishing - Kim Deal and Scout Niblett among them - as influences on his own
songwriting. “My favorite songs are the simple ones,” he explains. “I’ve never
been attracted to virtuosity or technicality. Certain songs have the power to lift
your spirits like nothing else can. I wanted to create that type of song.”
 A few guests pitch in on Weird Nightmare: Canadian alt-pop genius Chad
VanGaalen adds his unmistakable touch to the ever-escalating ‘Oh No’, while
Alicia Bognanno of Bully lends her distinctive pipes to the thrashing ‘Wrecked’, a
collaboration that effectively saved the song. “I almost didn’t put it on the album
because I thought it was missing something,” Edkins explains. “I sent it to Alicia
and she lifted it way up.”
 And taking risks and reaching out of Edkins’ comfort zone was the name of the
game when it came to making ‘Weird Nightmare’. “I found myself doing new
things I didn’t have the guts to do before, recording everything by myself and
trusting all of my musical instincts,” he states. “I think when music manifests
quickly, a certain amount of honesty automatically comes along with it. When it is
a purely instinctual creation, there is no opportunity to obscure the truth.”
 Loser Edition LP pressed on Coke Bottle Green transparent vinyl.

If you’re looking for a raw, sugary blast of distorted pop, look no further than
‘Weird Nightmare’. The debut album from METZ guitarist and vocalist Alex
Edkins contains all of his main band’s bite with an unexpected, yet totally
satisfying, sweetness. Imagine The Amps covering Big Star, or the gloriously
hissy miniature epics of classic-era Guided by Voices combined with the
bombast of ‘Copper Blue’- era Sugar - just tons of red-line distortion cut with the
type of tunecraft that thrills the moment it hits your ears.
 These ten songs showcase a new side of Edkins’ already-established
songwriting, but even though the bulk of ‘Weird Nightmare’ was recorded during
the COVID-19 pandemic, some of its tunes date back to 2013 in demo form.
“Hooks and melody have always been a big part of my writing, but they really
became the main focus this time” he explains. “It was about doing what felt
natural.”
 To be clear: Weird Nightmare is not a ‘pandemic album’, but an album - some of
which had been gestating for quite a while - that just so happened to be recorded
during the pandemic. “I had always planned on finishing these songs, but being
unable to tour with METZ, and forced to lock down, really gave me a push.” After
days spent homeschooling his son, Edkins would drive to the METZ rehearsal
room and tinker deep into the night on these songs’ deceptively simple structures
and rich, static-laden textures. “It was a godsend for me,” he states about the
creative process. “The hours would disappear and I would get lost in the music
and record. It was a beautiful escape.”
 ‘Weird Nightmare’ is, in its own way, a study in extremes: Edkins’ melodic
instincts and penchant for dissonance are both turned up to the max throughout,
the latter reflecting not only the barn-burning tendencies of METZ, but Alex’s own
sonic predilections. “It doesn’t sound right to my ears until it’s pushed over the
edge.” He also cites other artists who are masterful at mixing the sublime and the
punishing - Kim Deal and Scout Niblett among them - as influences on his own
songwriting. “My favorite songs are the simple ones,” he explains. “I’ve never
been attracted to virtuosity or technicality. Certain songs have the power to lift
your spirits like nothing else can. I wanted to create that type of song.”
 A few guests pitch in on Weird Nightmare: Canadian alt-pop genius Chad
VanGaalen adds his unmistakable touch to the ever-escalating ‘Oh No’, while
Alicia Bognanno of Bully lends her distinctive pipes to the thrashing ‘Wrecked’, a
collaboration that effectively saved the song. “I almost didn’t put it on the album
because I thought it was missing something,” Edkins explains. “I sent it to Alicia
and she lifted it way up.”
 And taking risks and reaching out of Edkins’ comfort zone was the name of the
game when it came to making ‘Weird Nightmare’. “I found myself doing new
things I didn’t have the guts to do before, recording everything by myself and
trusting all of my musical instincts,” he states. “I think when music manifests
quickly, a certain amount of honesty automatically comes along with it. When it is
a purely instinctual creation, there is no opportunity to obscure the truth.”
 Loser Edition LP pressed on Coke Bottle Green transparent vinyl.

 Born into a musical family, as a child Charlie Hickey would obsessively
watch videos of his parents on tour in their old band Uma, learning all the
lyrics that he loved but didn’t understand. This introduction to music sowed a
seed and Hickey was soon writing songs of his own, playing on the guitars
that lay around him and singing about the little details of his school days. He
continued throughout his teen years, his songs becoming an outlet for the
growing anxieties that Hickey now understands to be Obsessive Compulsive
Disorder.
 This journey has led to ‘Nervous At Night’, Hickey’s debut album which is
released via Phoebe Bridgers’ Saddest Factory Records. Where 2021’s
‘Count The Stairs’ EP was an attempt to capture the rawness of his
performance, ‘Nervous At Night’ comes alive within its production, Hickey
and producer Marshall Vore leaning into their perfectionist tendencies to find
the best version of each track. “He’s always interested in how you can push
things further but also reigns them in when necessary,” Hickey says. “I think
that’s the true hallmark of a good producer.”
 Hickey calls it a pop record but admits that sonically it moves in many
directions, an amalgamation of his love for the folk singers of yesteryear and
more contemporary peers, from Taylor Swift and The 1975 to the Californian
songwriter and producer Blake Mills. This shifting of styles - from the album’s
quiet heavy-hearted ballads to its more gleaming, hook-led tracks - mirrors
its overarching theme: life’s graceless passage between teenage years and
adulthood.
 And so we have ‘Planet With Water’, a plaintive love song that bristles with
nostalgia, Hickey singing of phone calls after school, of hearing a neighbour’s
TV through the wall. Elsewhere, ‘Mid Air’ holds a similar weight, Hickey
singing of “spinning in mid-air, waiting for somewhere to land, or some face
to show up” as the song flourishes around his voice, delicately accompanied
by guest turns from fellow LA musicians Harrison Whitford, Christian Lee
Hutson and Mason Stoops.
 ‘Nervous At Night’ comes alive in its juxtapositions, chronicling the constant
push and pull of life, both its stagnancy and motion. Chiefly though, this is an
album about connection, how even through those struggles we rely on the
people around us to keep moving forwards. “I’d like to write songs that are
for everyone, that let people into my inner world while also hopefully making
people feel less alone on their own. I hope that these songs can be there for
somebody the way my favorite songs have been for me.”
 Collaborated with MUNA on track ‘Seeing Things’.
 2022 live shows include The Great Escape and SXSW, as well as shows in
London, NY and LA’s Troubadour. Recent US tour with Samia.
 LP available on opaque yellow vinyl.

 Born into a musical family, as a child Charlie Hickey would obsessively
watch videos of his parents on tour in their old band Uma, learning all the
lyrics that he loved but didn’t understand. This introduction to music sowed a
seed and Hickey was soon writing songs of his own, playing on the guitars
that lay around him and singing about the little details of his school days. He
continued throughout his teen years, his songs becoming an outlet for the
growing anxieties that Hickey now understands to be Obsessive Compulsive
Disorder.
 This journey has led to ‘Nervous At Night’, Hickey’s debut album which is
released via Phoebe Bridgers’ Saddest Factory Records. Where 2021’s
‘Count The Stairs’ EP was an attempt to capture the rawness of his
performance, ‘Nervous At Night’ comes alive within its production, Hickey
and producer Marshall Vore leaning into their perfectionist tendencies to find
the best version of each track. “He’s always interested in how you can push
things further but also reigns them in when necessary,” Hickey says. “I think
that’s the true hallmark of a good producer.”
 Hickey calls it a pop record but admits that sonically it moves in many
directions, an amalgamation of his love for the folk singers of yesteryear and
more contemporary peers, from Taylor Swift and The 1975 to the Californian
songwriter and producer Blake Mills. This shifting of styles - from the album’s
quiet heavy-hearted ballads to its more gleaming, hook-led tracks - mirrors
its overarching theme: life’s graceless passage between teenage years and
adulthood.
 And so we have ‘Planet With Water’, a plaintive love song that bristles with
nostalgia, Hickey singing of phone calls after school, of hearing a neighbour’s
TV through the wall. Elsewhere, ‘Mid Air’ holds a similar weight, Hickey
singing of “spinning in mid-air, waiting for somewhere to land, or some face
to show up” as the song flourishes around his voice, delicately accompanied
by guest turns from fellow LA musicians Harrison Whitford, Christian Lee
Hutson and Mason Stoops.
 ‘Nervous At Night’ comes alive in its juxtapositions, chronicling the constant
push and pull of life, both its stagnancy and motion. Chiefly though, this is an
album about connection, how even through those struggles we rely on the
people around us to keep moving forwards. “I’d like to write songs that are
for everyone, that let people into my inner world while also hopefully making
people feel less alone on their own. I hope that these songs can be there for
somebody the way my favorite songs have been for me.”
 Collaborated with MUNA on track ‘Seeing Things’.
 2022 live shows include The Great Escape and SXSW, as well as shows in
London, NY and LA’s Troubadour. Recent US tour with Samia.
 LP available on opaque yellow vinyl.

David Gedge says: “During the summer of 2006 we were invited to record a session for 'One Music With Huw Stephens' - a show on BBC Radio 1. However, this was the year after the 'return' of The Wedding Present and we'd basically been pretty much continually on tour ever since the release of the 'Take Fountain' album the previous year. Accordingly, we didn't really have any new songs of our own and so I decided that we could pursue that other favourite pastime of The Wedding Present... the recording of cover versions! Arranging covers is fascinating, actually, because you get to explore how other people write songs and I think that can often feed back into your own writing. I thought it would be interesting to pick a song from each of four different decades... the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s. No particular reason... if we'd've been asked to record five tracks I would have thrown in the 50s, too. So I chose four classic pop songs for us to look at. They weren't particularly 'favourites' - although I have always loved 'Step Inside Love' and 'Lovin’ You' - they were just songs that I thought the band could successfully 're-imagine'. I have never seen the point of recording faithful copies; I have always felt that any Wedding Present version has to bear the stamp of The Wedding Present. And I think we accomplished that particularly well on this session. I'm pretty proud of this E.P., in fact. I remember Graeme Ramsay, our drummer at the time, initially hating the idea of us doing a 'Take That' song but I think he eventually came round to it, especially after The Guardian said it was an interesting 'post-rock' take on the original, or words to that effect..." Track-listing - Step Inside Love/Lovin’ You/Our Lips Are Sealed/Back For Good/

LIMITED EDITION OF 300 YELLOW VINYL COPIES

Shawn Lee follows up his country-soul solo album "Rides Again", released in 2019, with an even more personal, intriguing set of songs. The US born and London based prolific singer, songwriter, musician, producer, arranger, filmmaker and author puts the story of "Rides Yet Again" in his own words.

"When the original pandemic lockdown of 2020 ascended upon the world, I found myself like many others a prisoner in my own home. I began thinking about making new music. What do I wanna do I pondered… 'Rides Again' was a personal once in a lifetime album or was it? After some reflection, I realised there was more to this story, this sound. As I eventually crept back to my studio ducking and diving all the way, I started writing and recording new songs for Rides YET Again. The lyrics heavily informed by life during lockdown, my new dog Carla and my recent health problems. I had suffered a stroke which left me with some brain damage and I struggled with Aphasia for well over a year with extremely impaired speech. It was hard … I found solace in song and a musical context to share my ups and downs. It was a beautiful place to retreat to. John Pickup brought his brilliant orchestral treatments. Also Nichol Thomson, Tom Walsh, Mike Davis & Andy Ross blessed me with their sublime horn stylings. Suffice to say I'm really quite fond of this little record. Much love to you wherever you may be."

Anechoic produced a concept EP inspired by the orbit, and the gravity from a smallest subatomic particle to the largest star.

This 4 tracks vinyl EP + a bonus digital track is carefully constructed to represent the repeating path that one object can take around another one. The gravity represents the harmony of the tracks that keep them playing without intersect. Each track has its own eccentricity - this is the amount an orbits path differs from a perfect circle.

So imagine all of the five tracks playing together, everyone has an eccentricity different from zero to the centre, each one has its own path, and a certain amount of time to make one complete orbit, this is the analogy with the concept EP 'Geosynchronous Orbit'.

purple marbled vinyl

VA - 08
Creating a distorted reality, Jacidorex chose to reunite various artists from different horizons with strong personalities bringing all bunches of stuff to the table, creating a dark reality helped with sonorities reaching from trance to UK dubstep.

Disk Space - Matrix
A good introduction to what trance blended with techno can do and how a repetitive beat can sharpen a track transcending trance, techno and more. This track will definitely create a matrix in you, thanks to the use of low and quick riffs creating a tension that will keep you dancing.

Charlie Sparks - Senshi
Charlie Sparks may have discovered how to break jaws with the simple use of a baseline. Starting with a Japanese sample and a mysterious vibe, this track sound like a heart warming remembrance of hooligans songs, and the 90's Gabber spirit all mixed to create a new GTO manga soundtrack, but better.

Axyom - Blackout
It all started with a dark riff and a sharp voice, then it went crescendo creating a UK dubstep Burial kind of track in a more rhythmic way. A melodic synth and a whispering female voice achieving to create a forgotten memory lost on the dance floor, served with a crunchy acid side. This track mold with concrete and sounds, will surely leave a loud deeper feeling in your mind.

Dorian Parano - Locked Down
After years of lockdowns and stay at home jobs, there's one sentence that nobody wants to hear anymore, and as you may imagine reading the name of this track, French artist Dorian Parano have is own way to cope with the pandemic. Hopefully, his cinematic piece makes things much easier using a synthetic voice and a dark futuristic aesthetic. This track will definitely be locked in your mind!

Four years in making, Voyeurs In the Dark is Toronto artist Barzin’s fifth studio album. That the album is more cinematic in its scope and conceptual in feel than his previous studio albums can be attributed to the time he spent over the past several years composing the soundtrack for the independent film, Viewfinder. Voyeurs In the Dark retains that cinematic quality, and at the same time infuses the music with elements taken from Jazz, electronica, rock and pop. Having primarily explored the quiet side pop and folk in his previous four albums, Barzin has expanded his musical palate, broadening his sound towards a more an experimental direction, while still retaining his preoccupation with exploring the internal landscape. The uniformity of sound that characterized the previous albums has been abandoned for the expression of differing aspects of the self that at times hold opposing views and desires. This is best represented in the image chosen for the cover of the album, which depicts three figures in one body. The album seems to be the expression of not one unified self, but the various aspects of the self. Voyeurs In the Dark sees the artist plot a seductive, contemplative route through city haze, shuttling between graceful glimmering interludes, with wonderfully atmospheric songs at every stop. From opener Voyeurs In the Dark’s first guitar strums and the fizz of its drum machine, the record envelopes itself in a glorious shadow, as shown in the slow waltz of I Don’t Want To Sober Up, dancing around its own swirling guitar chords. On Watching, Barzin plunges himself deeper into a wash of cyclic bass, guitar and synth riffs, as the gloom grooves into light. It’s Never Too Late To Lose Your Life has a much more affirming and urgent tone, shade turning into shapes and motion, while To Be Missed In the End builds its own smoke in a cloud of saxophone and sparse guitar notes, closing out a record full to the brim with scatterbrain beauty and eclectic dusk. Voyeurs In the Dark will be released worldwide on Monotreme Records on May 6th on CD and limited edition180 g black vinyl LP with printed inner discobag and digital download card. Press highlights so far: Video premiere and feature interview on Rumore.IT. Airplay on BBC 6Music, Amazing Radio (UK and US), Glastonbury FM, Shoreditch Radio, Indie Music Discovery, Listen to Discover, Norfolk Radio. Press coverage in V13, Skope, Whisperin and Hollerin, Fame Magazine, High Violet, Indie Midlands, Beehive Candy, Music Won’t Save you. Feature confirmed for Wonderland Magazine. PUBLICITY - UK and North America press and radio Cannonball PR. Europe Five Roses Press

Soul Jazz Records are releasing this 20th anniversary edition of their classic Studio One Rockers on unique Record Store Day EXCLUSIVE coloured vinyl + download code. This new edition is a one-off pressing exclusively for Record Store Day Owned and founded by Clement "Coxsone" Dodd, Studio One's output serves as a comprehensive guide to the history of Reggae music.

The music on Studio One Rockers covers all areas of Reggae such as Ska, Rocksteady, Roots and Dancehall, all areas in which Studio One led the field and has become the essential introduction to reggae fans throughout the world.


Included in this compilation are classic Ska tracks ("Phoenix City"), Rocksteady ("Feel Like Jumping"), Roots music ("Truth and Rights"), Dancehall (Freddy McGregor, Michigan and Smiley) and many more. Featured here are many of the classic tracks from Studio One. From Dawn Penn's legendary "No, No, No" to classics such as Horace Andy's "Skylarking" and Marcia Griffith's "Feel Like Jumping".

"Compilation of the year. 100% Essential” Time Out "Compilation of the year. A compilation of unbelievable quality. Awesome” DJ "A who's who of Jamaican music” The Times "An essential slice of musical history" Wire "The most credible compilation of reggae you can buy” - The Guardian.

Precious Metals are excited to announce "Chaos Butterfly", the debut album from the Vietnamese-Canadian electronic music producer, vocalist and filmmaker, x/o. “Chaos Butterfly” is an epic tale of catharsis and self-actualization explored through metamorphosis. It is a free-falling kaleidoscopic journey into a beautiful nightmare, both cataclysmic and tender. Expanding on the themes present in their first EP “Cocoon Egg”, the album builds a parallel world from a different perspective. “Chaos Butterfly” tells a loose narrative about an anti-hero navigating trauma through whirlwinds of grief and anger; a vengeful spirit who finds true strength in inner healing and forgiveness. An allegory for transcending societal concepts of gender, “Chaos Butterfly” is a journey of self-acceptance and reflection of x/o’s own path towards their non-binary identity. Throughout the voyage, x/o pulls apart and collides masculine and feminine tropes both theoretically and musically by utilising contrasts between soft and hard, internal and external, calmness and anger, loud and quiet. This system of symbolism and influences reveal a pattern that is the overarching theme of duality. Colliding disparate but interconnected influences, x/o references Playstation 2’s Final Fantasy X world-building, Fight Club, the half-yoma warriors in the anime Claymore, as well as the real legends of the Vietnamese Trưng Sisters. Musically, “Chaos Butterfly” resists easy categorisation, playfully fusing moments of reversed breakbeat, with elements of solemn ambience, distorted metal, and trip-hop catharsis, with inspiration from artists such as Yoko Kanno, to Bone Thugs-n-Harmony as well as Deftones, Massive Attack, Orbital, and Aaliyah. The album journey begins with opener “Chrysalis Wrath”, a prologue to the story, and emblematic of the metamorphosis of the album. A soft and unassuming exterior to the hard shell and bone that lies beneath. Delicately cascading melodies and disembodied vocals are torn asunder by a brooding, ominous synth, punctuated by blasts of percussion, like dark clouds forming on the horizon, the egg cracks; a foretelling of what is to come and a reference to what has been. This is followed by “Red Alert,” the first single from the release, which blends airy melancholic vocals with a flurry of drum breaks and synths plucks, an ambitious and cinematic exploration of intuition against recurring trauma. Melodies drifting and out of focus under the swirling vocal, like the blur of neon street lights reflecting in a rain-soaked cityscape. It’s a liminal poem about listening to your inner voice to protect you from harm. Duality is never more apparent than on “Promise : Armour” delicate piano melodies drift and settle like snowfall before crushing blows of hardstyle kicks blast through the ether, as their soulful, but anguished vocal harmony is overcome by a demonic refrain “Cross your heart, don’t cross me”. x/o is a founding member of s.M.i.L.e, a trail-blazing collective of like-minded artists in Vancouver pushing the boundaries of club experimentation, showcasing artists such as Actress, Hitmakerchinx, Mechatok, Nídia, and Shygirl. This is an album that reaches dizzying heights, and in 2022 we expect x/o to do the exact same.

Awe Kid explores ideas of trans-humanism, evolution and digital immortality on Body Logic, a fantastically lush new album for Atomnation. The immersive 10 track record plays with organic, breathing textures punctuated by moments of digital unrealness to result in an album permeated with a dream-like quality. This contrast is mirrored by the artwork from Portugal's acclaimed The Royal Studio.

Awe Kid is an alias of Sine Language Records co-founder Rick Parsons. It is the product of years spent exploring a multitude of different music. From early days in post-hardcore groups and on to a love of 90s Warp, electronic jazz and more experimental niches, the multi-instrumentalist has now settled on his own unique fusion of breaks, ambient and left-field dance music. This deft studio wizard mixes up melodic nostalgia with forward-thinking sound design using whatever he can get his hands on, from analog and modular hardware, to samplers, field recordings to digital techniques.

Says Parsons, “I love working with digital processes because you get these unexpected moments where you dial something in, that somehow takes on a tangible, organic form in the real world. Searching for these sweet spots was the motivation for the album, contrasting natural textures against synthetic elements, and finding ways to create something that feels like it exists outside of the computer.”

While the album pays homage to dance music traditions, such as the broken beat of title track 'Body Logic', and full-throttle breaks of 'Zenith', these are assimilated and repurposed to create something that defies genre categorization. The listener's journey is perfectly paced, with broody but uplifting cuts of electronica giving way to shimmering, celestial melodies, and dusty breakbeats emerging from dense layers of atmosphere, only for the mood to be reset with soothing, suspenseful synths and haunting vocal samples. Elsewhere, devastatingly emotional ambient is followed by punchy grooves and propulsive melodies to make for a real ride.

Big Crown is proud to present the first 7" offering from Surprise Chef, the newest band signed to the label. Hailing from Melbourne, Australia, these guys caught our ear with their unique sound and approach. They are something of a funky blend of Jazz, Hip Hop, and Soul with a shade of David Axelrod which all comes out their own. These two tunes on this 45 are a taste of what is to come. The A side "Velodrome" starts out with a heavy drum break and an earworm synth line guaranteed to have you humming it long after the song is over. The intro gives way to beautiful and tasteful arrangements showing their music prowess as well as their ear for restraint. The B side "Spring's Theme" is a gorgeous and moody instrumental ballad that starts out with guitar that plays cat & mouse with the percussion until they decide to give the drummer some. Again, they run through arrangements that link together like chapters in a book taking the listener through a myriad of energies that all fit together to make this a quick favorite here at HQ.

PRESSED ON MAROON-COLORED VINYL

The third instalment of “Speshal Blends” instrumental series includes
ten sought-after beats culled from Spesh’s own 6 Shots: Overkill EP,
Che Noir’s Juno album, 1000Words’ compilation, and the Army of
Trust II compilation. This collection further proves that on top of
being one of the nicest emcees on the mic, Spesh is also one of the
illest producers in the game. The cover continues the series’ trend of
tributing the cigar brands most popular for rolling blunts. This time
around Dutch Masters’ packaging gets flipped.

 “As a human being it’s really important to feel and express
emotions whether happy or sad,” says Hiro Amamiya, the
Teleman drummer whose solo guise is Hiro Ama. “I sometimes
struggle to and so these are a collection of songs that explore
different emotions. I want people to feel something through my
music so I called this EP ‘Animal Emotions’.”
 Amamiya follows up on swiftly on 2020’s field recording-heavy
EP ‘Uncertainty’ with a record made in his bedroom and during
a time of introspection to create something even more personal.
“On ‘Uncertainty’ I was using sounds from everywhere and
whatever sounded good,” he says. “But for ‘Animal Emotions’ I
stuck with fewer instruments so the EP feels much more united.
I also used more acoustic instruments as I sometimes feel
electronic music in general lacks some organic and human
elements so I tried to make this EP as organic as possible.”
 However, buried beneath the warm electronics, gently pulsing
grooves, infectious melodies and immersive soundscapes - that
veer from disco strut to IDM via jazz-laced ambient - you’ll still
find some field recordings. “You might not hear them as
obviously as on my previous EP but field recordings are there,”
he says. “I like them because it's very spontaneous and gives
some human feel. It also adds some air to a recording which I
quite like.” On the opener ‘Free Soul’ - which marries funk bass
with subtle electronics and squelchy grooves - you can hear a
voice sample of a woman from Southeast Asia singing a lullaby.
 “I wanted to make an up-tempo and danceable song so I can
dance in my room during the lockdown. I got lost in Jazz music
the last couple of years and it really changed and opened up
the way I make music.” The moods, tones and emotions on the
EP shift as seamlessly as the genres, never quite settling into
one single place and constantly exploring and expanding into
new musical terrain. A process mirrored by Amamiya’s own
varied influences and tastes that were funnelled into the record,
from film soundtracks to IDM to spiritual jazz such as
‘November Cotton Flower’ by Marion Brown and ‘Harvest’ by
Pharoah Sanders.

RIYL: Beach House, Cocteau Twins, Cigarettes After Sex, Slowdive. Isolated from any kind of music scene and enveloped by the cold Brutalism of Preston, White Flowers are a young, enigmatic band developing their own eccentricities away from the influence of big cities. New EP ‘Are You’ is a sonic and aesthetic collage drawing deeply from their environmental and social surroundings. The songs on the EP may at first seem delicate and beautiful, but closer listening reveals dark undertones and dry humour fuelled by the frustration of feeling trapped with no way out. Driven by this sense of claustrophobia, the duo have sought to create a form of escapism outside of their physical and geographical limitations. Recorded late 2021 between Preston and Bristol, ‘Are You’ weaves together a mixture of intuitive home recordings and refined studio production aided by producer Ali Chant (PJ Harvey, Portishead, Perfume Genius). The four songs on the EP are an intentional collection of contrasts and paradoxes - beauty and repulsion, calmness and mania, anxiety and stasis - all combined to form a balanced whole. Whilst influenced in part by the writings of the late Mark Fisher and his idea that we are haunted by futures that failed to happen, that what might have been may yet be the dream that saves us, White Flowers have also found inspiration in the Brutalist architecture that adorns their hometown - futuristic yet dated buildings that serve as an appropriate visual metaphor for Fisher’s theories. Bleakly imposing yet comfortingly familiar, the monochromatic starkness of these structures has fed into the imagery for the record, as well as the sounds found within. Not intending to wallow in cynicism, however, White Flowers’ art ultimately aims to provide a way out of these dystopian fever dreams and spiralling thoughts into a forward facing place.

Repressed at last. The classic 1968 Debut Record, this is the Original MONO mix. The first time this has been reissued and its on Limited Green Vinyl. 1968 Debut album from the king of the psychedelic bayou – the hypnotic, mystical and powerful sound of the swamp coming to life. As he became Dr. John (real name Mac Rebennack), it was his LA session work with musicians like Sonny & Cher, Canned Heat, and Zappa that allowed him to start conjuring up his visions of guitar psych-pop to walk alongside his authentic New Orleans upbringing. While “Gris Gris” contains moments that make it a type stamped symbol of its era, it might have well been made in outer space. Recorded in its own psychic and stylistic vacuum, the album borrows as heavily from the New Orleans’ musical culture in which he grew up as it does the looming continuous pulse of war, heavy drugs, and the end of the free love/hippie movement. The album was taken under the wing of a small percentage of the “underground” upon its release in 1968 and did not find a true following for years. // Original 1968 Mono Mix // Sourced From The Original Master Tapes.

This second release on Heads High brings an EP from label owner Mike Misiu under the moniker Day Out Of Time. Four diverse tracks forged from a year of studio jams, road tested on airwaves and discerning dancefloors and now honed and available for your delectation.

Opening 4/4 cut 'Rising Tide' builds the atmosphere and tension with synth stabs, morphing arps and a throbbing sub-bass. 'The Urge' struts in on a hybrid electro-funk tip, twisting, chopping and vocoder-ing an 80's rock vocal and sax into a dance-floor detonator.

On the flip side 'Private Ay' chugs along on a mid-tempo Moog bass groove that re-imagines and re-works some infamous guitar licks, before the E.P. climaxes with 'When Love Beckons' - a pulsing electro-discoid ode to love, powered by moody analog bass, acid lines and an impassioned poetic vocal.

All tracks produced by Mike Misiu, mastered by Curved.

Single includes download. “Virginia Wing are not from the sedate school of dream-pop escapism…a hazy subversion of the traditional monochrome evocations of post-punk, a photo negative of an established form.” - The Quietus // “South London three-piece ally buzz and drone with sweetness and light” Guardian – New Band Of The Week // "A piece of noir-pop majesty that consistently pushes its own boundaries and frequently shatters the listeners’ sense of expectation" Loud and Quiet // "They possess a rare ability to dive deep beneath the skin.. a ghostly mix that flirts hard and fast with the avant garde while retaining a sly pop lustre" Mojo 4* // Following the 2015 release of their acclaimed debut album ‘Measures Of Joy’ on Fire Records, Camberwell based outfit Virginia Wing return with a striking new single. ‘Rhonda’, released for Record Store Day on 12” vinyl with a disco cut sleeve featuring artwork from longtime collaborator Florian Brooks. Recorded at Hackney-based Holy Mountain Studios with Misha Hering, ‘Rhonda’ sees the band expand the deep and varied sonic palette displayed on their debut ‘Measures Of Joy’. Featuring guest musician Koichi Yamanoha of Grimm Grimm, the single unfolds slowly as meditative incantations give way to a sprawling piece of experimental pop for the dance floor. The ambitious A-side flirts with disco beats and draws influence from a variety of schools of contemporary dance music whilst still remaining, at heart, a pop song. This is pop music with texture, depth and nuance; a daring and progressive piece. The B-side includes two new tracks: ‘Sisterly Love’ and ‘Daughter Of The Mind’ which further hint at the deviations we can expect on their second LP. Field recordings, ambient mediations and rhythmic experimentation abound; the new material sees Virginia Wing refining and reworking the sound conjured on their debut, a masterful workout.

With the VOI 030 - "Sense", the project Z.I.P.P.O enters a new sphere within its own sound direction. This release is characterized by IDM texture work, glitchy percussion and drum patterns, that find their room within deep atmospheric spaces and carefully placed delay programming. Certainly, recognizable is Maffei's eclectic taste for more complex electronic bits, which are also known from his more demanding DJ sets. "Sense" brings together different factettes of his nicely equipped studio arrangement, as you get to hear a range of grainy saturated hardware synthesis to innovative and more complex sound design. The sound of this record combines a bit of everything while keeping its very own character. If you like to give it a name, then it might feel like Aphex Twin meets Doppler Effekt and Pan Sonic.

Last EP out, Gemil released a well-received record that found a landing spot on the legendary Vibraphone Records from his home country of Italy. Gemil has a lot to share that he has been working on. He has recently become the A&R and owner of the classic house label Deep Down & Slam. Not only that but he now has started a sublabel called Deep Down & Space. This 'Reaction EP' begins the story of this new direction which focuses more on the various sounds of 90's inspired electronic music but with modern sounds which Gemil is becoming well known for.

'Don't be Negative' begins the release in fine club fashion with an addictive bassline and well-placed melodics blurring the lines of techno and house music. 'Bad Robot' goes a bit deeper with a great juxtaposition. A low-slung bassline opposes some lovely brushes of pure late-night dreaminess. This is the definition of deep! On the 2nd side you have 'Flying' with its instant classic sound. A track that is sure to get everyone to the dancefloor for this sure-winner. 'Morph' closes it out with a trip into a more ambient house that doesn't lose the potency of being dancefloor-friendly thanks to a killer bassline.

Gemil clearly excels at making great dance music. Day or night. Club, lounge, or at home, the 'Reaction EP' is sure to get a great one from all who listen.

Sdban Records is delighted to announce the reissue of this genre-defying jazz album originally released on library label Selection Records in 1972.

Delving into the story of the American pianist and composer Phil Raphaël reveals more questions than answers. He was born in New York where he played with Charlie Parker, Jon Eardley and Howard McGhee, but a 1951 recording with Red Rodney for Prestige Records is the single remaining trace of his bebop days. Raphaël appeared under unknown circumstances in Belgium in the 1960s, playing among others at the 1966 Jazz Bilzen festival, and he eventually settled in Brussels. A multifaceted musician, he did not limit himself to jazz and also worked in pop groups, directed the music for the spectacle Hair, and even had a brief residency at Pol's Jazz Club where he played the music of Johann Sebastian Bach four nights per week.

His album 'Stop, Look, Listen', which was recorded with the rhythm section of Babs Robert's group, consists of four long genre-defying tracks colored by the dreamlike vocals of opera singer Rose Thompson. A surreal blend of genres, hard to pin down. It's highly imaginative jazz, that much is sure. Raphaël shifts from serene late night piano jazz to more free or even spiritual passages, magnificently paired with the otherworldly vocals of Rose Thompson. The LP was put out by Selection Records, a label that primarily issued library music at the time, and thus went largely unnoticed upon release. The recording makes clear that Phil Raphaël was a highly gifted artist whose talent will forever remain undervalued, since it was his only effort as a leader. Raphaël's passage through the Belgian nightlife was just as mysterious as his music, and few people seem to remember him. Drummer Bruno Castellucci describes him as remarkable, both as a musician and as a person: "He was a hippie before there were hippies. He wasn't part of the system but he had a system of his own."

Our next mixtape features a superb, tight blend of some of the very best tracks to fly out of the speakers at the Cherry Moon Club. At the helm we have DJ Ghost, spinning the grooves to take us on a journey through the ages, through the genres, from twisted acid concepts to hypnotic trance and gut busting hardcore. Ghost aka Bjorn Wendelen has been a stalwart for us at Bonzai since the very early days. He’s delivered several cuts for us over the years and has branched out with his own Ghoststyle brand with great success. The famous Cherry Moon was and remains one of the biggest names in Belgian club-life, with 30 years of embracing club culture. Since the start in 1991, they have brought the best techno, hard-trance and house to the scene. During the 90's and early 00's, Cherry Moon was the place to be for clubbers from all over Belgium, France, the Netherlands and even other European countries. Housed on classic K7 tape, this comp features a host of tracks from the likes of DJ Ghost, Insider, Body-Shock, DJ Looney Tune, Jones & Stephenson, Push, Blue Alphabet, Final Analysis, Joyrider, Dreamland and more. So, dust off your vintage cassette machine and prepare to be blown away by the sound of Cherry Moon.