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Factory Benelux presents an expanded double vinyl edition of Sex and Death, the 11th studio album by lauded Factory Records ensemble The Durutti Column. Originally released in 1994 on CD only, the album has now been re-mastered with 5 bonus tracks and appears on vinyl for the VERY FIRST TIME in a coloured vinyl edition limited to 1500 copies. The vinyl edition is housed in a gatefold sleeve . Disc 1 is pressed in blue vinyl, and disc 2 in silver. A 2xCD edition is also available (FBN 201 CD).

RECORD STORE DAY 2021 TITLE!!!
VOLUME TWO OF THE CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED THE RIVER FLOWS!
A FANTASTIC SET OF SONGS CHOSEN AND SUNG BY JOHN HURLBUT, PERFECTLY
EMBELISHED AND CONSTRUCTED WITH SATISFYING GUITAR SOLOS OF GRAMMY AWARD
WINNING ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE JORMA KAUKONEN (JEFFERSON
AIRPLANE / HOT TUNA)
ONE TIME PRESSING COLLECTOR'S EDITION - ON CLEAR SPLATTER VINYL - STRICTLY
LIMITED TO ONLY 3,000 COPIES WORLWIDE!

Bring Me The Head of Kyle Bobby Dunn is a full length triple vinyl reissue of the original 2012 double compact disc album from Canadian composer Kyle Bobby Dunn. It was recorded at Bunce Cake studios in Brooklyn and remote parts of Ontario. The compositions are mostly long, slowly evolving minimal ambient and drone based works created from electric guitar processing. Perhaps more cinematic than previous albums, some pieces have since appeared in BBC documentaries and independent films over the years since its release. The original recordings on this Diggers Factory vinyl edition, however, have been remastered and practically rebuilt from the fog of their initial masters which have often been considered the composer's most quiet and even translucent works. Iranian composers and engineers, Milad Bagheri and Maryam Sirvan have brought out a certain clarity and freshness to the music and Dunn has considered it an almost completely different listening experience from the originals.
The album was critically praised and became a favourite of most fans and even after several subsequent albums later it remains a favourite and of the composer's as well.

Factory Benelux presents an expanded double vinyl edition of Sex and Death, the 11th studio album by lauded Factory Records ensemble The Durutti Column.

Originally released in 1994 on CD only, the album has now been re-mastered with 5 bonus tracks and appears on vinyl for the VERY FIRST TIME in a coloured vinyl edition limited to 1500 copies.

The vinyl edition is housed in a gatefold sleeve . Disc 1 is pressed in blue vinyl, and disc 2 in silver. A 2xCD edition is also available (FBN 201 CD).

The writing and recording of Sex and Death closed an uncertain period for Vini Reilly and the group following the collapse of Factory Records in 1992. Factory founder Tony Wilson remained in post as manager of the band, but Sex and Death would be their last album with producer Stephen Street, famed for his work with Morrissey, The Smiths and Blur.

Writer and master guitarist Vini Reilly remained philosophical. “People say the Durutti Column is this or that. I don’t care, so long as we make good music. There’s screaming feedback on some tracks, heavy metal guitar, Spanish picking. It’s not just this ethereal trip. Don’t listen to the form, never listen to the form. Listen to the content.”

Stand-out tracks include Anthony (dedicated to Wilson), The Rest of My Life, and Believe In Me. Guest musicians include viola player John Metcalfe, vocalist Ruth-Ann Boyle (later to form hitmakers Olive with Tim Kellett), programmer Martin Jackson (Magazine, Swing Out Sister) and bassist Peter Hook, then on furlough from New Order post-Republic.

All 5 bonus tracks are previously unreleased, having been retrieved from a long-lost DAT tape located in Tony Wilson’s personal archive. All tracks on the album have been newly re-mastered in 2020 by Peter Beckmann and Technology Works.

The Black Keys release their tenth studio album, Delta Kream, via Nonesuch Records. The record celebrates the band’s roots, featuring eleven Mississippi hill country blues standards that they have loved since they were teenagers, before they were a band, including songs by R. L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough, among others. Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney recorded Delta Kream at Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville; they were joined by musicians Kenny Brown and Eric Deaton, long-time members of the bands of blues legends including R. L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough. The album takes its name from William Eggleston’s iconic Mississippi photograph that is on its cover.

Auerbach says of the album, “We made this record to honor the Mississippi hill country blues tradition that influenced us starting out. These songs are still as important to us today as they were the first day Pat and I started playing together and picked up our instruments. It was a very inspiring session with Pat and me along with Kenny Brown and Eric Deaton in a circle, playing these songs. It felt so natural.”

Carney concurs, “The session was planned only days in advance and nothing was rehearsed. We recorded the entire album in about ten hours, over two afternoons, at the end of the “Let’s Rock” tour.”

Auerbach says of Delta Kream’s first single ‘Crawling Kingsnake’: “I first heard John Lee Hooker’s version in high school. My uncle Tim would have given me that record. But our version is definitely Junior Kimbrough’s take on it. It’s almost a disco riff!” Carney adds, "We fell into this drum intro; it's kind of accidental. The ultimate goal was to highlight the interplay between the guitars. My role with Eric was to create a deeper groove."

The music from northern Mississippi, which came to life in juke joints, has long left an imprint on the band’s music, from their cover of R.L. Burnide’s ‘Busted’ and Junior Kimbrough’s ‘Do The Romp’ on their debut album, The Big Come Up; to their subsequent signing to Fat Possum Records, home to many of their musical heroes; and to their EP of Junior Kimbrough covers, Chulahoma.

Formed in Akron, Ohio in 2001, The Black Keys, who have been called ‘rock royalty’ by the Associated Press and ‘one of the best rock ‘n’ roll bands on the planet’ by Uncut, are guitarist/singer Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney. Cutting their teeth playing small clubs, the band have gone on to sell out arena tours and have released nine previous studio albums: their debut The Big Come Up (2002), followed by Thickfreakness (2003) and Rubber Factory (2004), along with their releases on Nonesuch Records, Magic Potion (2006), Attack & Release (2008), Brothers (2010), El Camino (2011), Turn Blue (2014) and, most recently, “Let’s Rock” (2019), plus and a tenth anniversary edition of Brothers (2020). The band has won six Grammy Awards and a BRIT and headlined festivals in North America, South America, Mexico, Australia, and Europe.

Clear / Orange Vinyl
Factory Benelux presents a remastered 2xLP coloured vinyl edition of Circuses and Bread, the seventh studio album by Manchester ensemble The Durutti Column. Originally released by Factory Benelux and Factory in 1986, the original 9 tracks have now been expanded with 6 bonus pieces.

The cover art retains the original design by 8vo. The remastered limited edition CLEAR+ORANGE vinyl set is housed in gatefold sleeve, with liner notes and rare band images. A CD version is also available (FBN 154 CD).

Self-produced by Vini Reilly at Strawberry and Revolution studios, the album saw Durutti playing as a quartet, with Reilly on guitar, vocals and keyboards, Bruce Mitchell in drums and percussion, John Metcalfe (viola) and Tim Kellett (trumpet).

‘The music ends up being very simple,’ Vini told NME. ‘People can dismiss it as being very simplistic, easy listening or whatever. It’s very honest, it’s very personal. People say it’s ambient, and it’s like Eno. I don’t like that, because the music’s made to be listened to, it’s not wallpaper.’

Of extended piece Blind Elevator Girl – Osaka, Vini adds: ‘The music really writes itself. For example, we’re in Osaka, in Japan, getting in this elevator. It’s very crowded with all these Japanese businessmen talking about distribution deals, and going on and on. On this lift was a beautiful Japanese girl, in an immaculate uniform. Each floor we arrived at, she’s starting talking Japanese, obviously saying what was on each floor. We went higher and higher, and finally we get to the top. And then, sort of walking out of the elevator, I suddenly realised she was blind... It got to me, this girl. It was incredible. So maybe a day later, I was thinking about that, and the whole tune came out. And every single piece of music is like that.’

Bonus tracks include Italian-only EP Greetings Three, scarce compilation track The Aftermath, and a previously unreleased working version of 1987 single Our Lady of the Angels produced by the late Stuart ‘Jammer’ James.

Can was founded in 1968 by Irmin Schmidt, Holger
Czukay, Michael Karoli and Jaki Liebezeit who
formed a group which would utilise and transcend
all boundaries of ethnic, electronic experimental
and modern classical music.
This classic album of tracks was recorded at the
beginning of Can’s life and features original
vocalist Malcolm Mooney.
‘Thief’ is now a rejuvenated Can classic having
been covered by Radiohead and since then
discovered by a new generation of fans.
Can’s powerful influence has never diminished and
their indelible mark is apparent in the bands who
freely acknowledge their importance - from
Portishead, James Murphy, New Order, Factory
Floor, Public Image Ltd, Mogwai, Kanye West and
Radiohead - as well as across other disciplines
such as visual art and literature.
“Can are impossible to classify and it’s impossible
to ignore their seismic influence on so many
diverse musical paths” - Richard Hawley
“Can are the most revolutionary band ever” -
Stephen Morris (New Order)
Now available on pink vinyl with digital download
code.

‘You Don’t Have to Live in Pain’ is the debut album by
Teeth Agency, curated by Stones Throw founder
Peanut Butter Wolf.
The album includes collaborations with Mercury Prizenominated artist ESKA and producer and musician
Bullion.
Their EP ‘Piano Man Breeds Love’, released on Stones
Throw in summer 2020, received support from 6
Music, KCRW, WWFM, NTS and more.
The Teeth Agency collaboration has already resulted in
the release of art books, exhibitions and audio/visual
based work.
The pair have had four releases with Nyege Nyege
Tapes under the alias Metal Preyers - their self-titled
LP sold out within days of its release and was included
in 2020 End Of Year lists by Crack andd The Vinyl
Factory.
Teeth Agency is the audio/visual project of London
based multi-instrumentalist and producer Jesse
Hackett and Chicago visual artist and gallerist Mariano
Chavez.
The duo are united by their interest in experimental
visuals and a varied range of unconventional musical
styles including lizard lounge jazz, stoner doom psych
and absurdist soul horrorrama. The fourteen songs on
their debut album take the listener through a diverse
range of moods and settings.
For fans of Wilma Archer, Duval Timothy, Paul White,
Bullion, Sam Gendel.

Les Disques du Crepuscule presents Subway, a collection of singles by cult NYC duo Thick Pigeon, originally released on Crepuscule, Factory and Factory Benelux between 1981 and 1991.
Comprised of vocalist Stanton Miranda and instrumentalist Carter Burwell, Thick Pigeon emerged from the downtown New York artrock scene which also spawned Glenn Branca, Bush Tetras, DNA, Arthur Russell and Sonic Youth. Like their chosen name, the duo were typically atypical: Miranda was previously a dancer with the Marthe Graham ballet company, and Carter a film animator and Harvard fine arts/architecture graduate. Very much a studio project, the ‘group’ hardly ever performed live.
Poised and subtle debut single Subway appeared on Crepuscule in January 1981, a connection forged by Miranda’s partner Michael Shamberg. Dog followed a year later, along with wry Christmas single Jingle Bell Rock, before the duo switched to Factory Records, recording debut album Too Crazy Cowboys in Manchester with Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert of New Order producing. Released simultaneously on Factory and Factory US in 1984, the album was billed as “a walk through the civilisation of you soul”.
Having now embarked on a career scoring movies (becoming the Coen brothers’ composer of choice), Carter was absent from the next TP project, 1986 dance single Wheels Over Indian Trails, although Morris and Gilbert remained on board as guest musicians. However Miranda and Carter would reunite for a second (and final) leftfield pop album, Miranda Dali, issued by Crepuscule in 1991.
As well as singles Subway, Dog, Jingle Bell Rock, Jess + Bart and Wheels Over Indian Trails, TWI 351 also includes b-sides (Sudan, Tracy + Pansy), album highlights (Crime, Riding) and a second festive track, Blue Christmas, previously issued only on cassette as part of a Factory Christmas card in 1986.
Alongside Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert, the stellar cast of guests include Fred Szymanski (of Ike Yard), Ikue Mori (DNA), remixer John Robie, and even artist and event designer Jean-Paul Goude on backing vocals.
Limited to just 500 copies, Subway (Singles) is newly remastered and pressed on transparent violet vinyl, reflecting the original 1981 sleeve artwork by legendary Crepuscule designer Benoit Hennebert. The album includes a free digital copy (MP3).

“The Obvious I would sound unutterably pretty even as an instrumental album. But once you factor in a voice whose purity has elicited comparisons to Robert Wyatt, Mark Hollis and Dean Wareham, the effect is something akin to hearing a ghost transmitting from a machine of its own making” - Pete Paphides ‘The Obvious I’ is the second album from Ed Dowie and is the second new master release from Needle Mythology. In 2017, Ed released his feted debut album ‘The Uncle Sold’, leading The Quietus to hail him as a “bold and starry-eyed visionary”, The Skinny to praise his “beautiful… stolen snapshots of glimpsed futures and lost pasts.” and BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction made the record one of their albums of the year. Now, four years on, Ed is to return with an album that will surely find him new followers alongside longtime fans such as Lauren Laverne, who described its predecessor as an “absolutely extraordinary” achievement. Adhering to Kraftwerk’s maxim about achieving the maximum emotional impact by the most minimal means 'The Obvious I' marks a pronounced evolution from Dowie’s earlier music. Co-produced by pioneering British experimental musician and sometime member of Polar Bear “Leafcutter John” Burton what ultimately emerged from these efforts – and what reveals itself with successive plays – is a beguiling process of alchemy. Each song from The Obvious I is the culmination of a beautiful process of distillation. A crystal extracted from chaos. Tumult distilled into lullaby. “My biggest battle,” says Ed Dowie, “was to ask myself how I can make something that reflects the turbulence of this period without adding to it.” By that metric, and several more, The Obvious I is no small triumph.

Band Of Brothers is the 63rd studio album by country music singer songwriter Willie Nelson. Produced by Buddy Cannon, the album was recorded by Nelson in October 2013 and March 2014. The sessions took place at Nashville’s Sound Emporium Studios with additional recordings at Pedernales Studio in Austin, Texas and The Hit Factory Criteria in Miami, Florida.

Nine of the fourteen tracks of the album consist of newly written compositions by Nelson, the most included in one of his album releases since 1996’s Spirit. The album includes covers of Vince Gill’s “Whenever You Come Around”, Gordie Sampson’s “Songwriter” and a duet with Jamey Johnson of Billy Joe Shaver’s “The Git Go”.

The video for the first single, “The Wall” premiered on May 6, 2014 by Rolling
Stone. The single “Bring It On” was later premiered on June 3 by ESPN Music.

Now available as a limited edition of 1000 numbered copies on transparent blue vinyl.

Cologne’s Feines Tier is delivering the second label compilation Zoo Vol.2. Providing the finest vibes from slow chuggers, Disco and Indie Dance to house and techno on one black and one white vinyl. Only 300 limited pieces available with silk printed and numbered vinyl covers. Don’t miss the quadrophant prints. Plus: Sticker inside!

First released by Cazzo Film in 2001, ebo hill’s Bonking Berlin Bastards has long achieved the status of an underground punk porn classic. Like the Cazzo productions of director Bruce LaBruce, hill’s vision was both ahead of its time and a playful distillation of 90s and early-2000s Berlin Zeitgeist: queer, industrial, hypersexual, exhibitionist and fueled by electronic music. The story is told in large part by the soundtrack, to be released for the first time on Ostgut Ton sublabel A-TON. The music follows a group of squatters, punks and drag queens as they fuck, party and stumble their way through an empty city at the turn of the millennium. Approaching these themes more through location than plot, the film’s narrative freedom is also a narrative of freedom; between chance encounters and sex in public, atop the maze of roofs in the city’s former East, bent over bridges and moaning in ecstasy at oncoming traffic, pants down in telephone booths, packed into sex clubs, in the shadows of abandoned factories and techno clubs lost in time. Composed by improvisational techno trio AeoX and noise / industrial producer Rouage aka CNM (respectively), the music spans a broad range of appropriately pounding industrial, weird techno, noise, ultra-stoned ambient, improvised dub and electro. It’s a sonic spectrum that connects Berlin’s queer hardcore techno and squatter party scenes from which AeoX and Rouage emerged, drawing a direct line between the likes of Berghain-forerunner OstGut (a primary meeting point for the film’s cast & crew) to the more industrial, breakcore and noise- oriented independent party collectives and locations who provided multiple settings for the film, including Grüne Hölle and Stellwerk.

*Artists:* CNM / Rouage (Kathinka): Born in 1975 and raised in East Berlin. Co-organization of subcultural events since 1998 in Berlin, Potsdam, Leipzig and Barcelona. Experimental music, collaborations, exhibitions and audiovisual shows since 2000.

AeoX: Active between 2001 and 2007. Originally a quartet, then a trio, the group eventually shrank to two permanent members: Alex.E and Hanno Hinkelbein. The latter founded Null Records, where AeoX released two album and numerous EPs. They also released on Mental.Ind.Records founded by former OstGut resident Cora S. Musically, the group experimented with combining improvisational hardware techno, breaks, traditional instruments (guitar, clarinet, piano) industrial and metal.

Ursprünglich 2001 von Cazzo Film veröffentlicht, hat Bonking Berlin Bastards von ebo hill längst den Status eines Underground-Punk-Pornoklassikers erreicht. Wie die Cazzo- Produktionen von Regisseur Bruce LaBruce, war auch hills Vision seiner Zeit voraus und ein spielerisches Destillat des 90er- und Anfang-2000er Berlin-Zeitgeists: queer, industriell, hypersexuell, exhibitionistisch, angetrieben von elektronischer Musik. Die Geschichte wird größtenteils über den Soundtrack erzählt, der auf Ostgut Tons Sublabel A-TON zum ersten Mal veröffentlicht wird. Die Musik folgt einer Gruppe von Hausbesetzern, Punks und Drags, die ficken, feiern und durch die leere Stadt um die Jahrtausendwende streifen. Bonking Berlin Bastards erzählt diese Themen mehr über die Drehorte als über die Handlung. Die erzählerische Freiheit des filmischen Narrativs ist gleichzeitig eine Erzählung von Freiheit: Von zufälligen Begegnungen bis hin zu Sex in der Öffentlichkeit, auf Dächern im früheren Osten Berlins, sich über die Brüstungen von Straßenbrücken beugen, trotz und wegen des Verkehrs stöhnen, mit heruntergelassenen Hosen in Telefonzellen, in überfüllten Sexclubs, im Schatten aufgegebener Fabriken, zeitverloren in Technoclubs. Der Soundtrack wurde sowohl vom Improvisationstechnotrio AeoX als auch von Noise-/Industrial-Producer Rouage aka CNM komponiert und spannt einen weiten Bogen von explizit pumpendem Industrial, schräg klingendem Techno, Noise, ultra-stoned Ambient, improvisiertem Dub und Electro. Das musikalische Spektrum verbindet Berlins queere Hardcore-, Techno- und Hausbesetzer-Party-Szenen, aus denen AeoX und Rouage selbst hervorgingen und zieht dabei eine direkte Linie zwischen dem Berghain- Vorgängerclub OstGut (ein wichtiger Treffpunkt für die Darsteller und Crew des Films) und den eher Industrial-, Breakcore- und Noise-orientierten Independent-Partykollektiven und -Locations wie Grüne Hölle und Stellwerk, welche mehrfach als Drehort und Kulisse des Films auftauchen.

CNM / Rouage (Kathinka): 1975 geboren nd aufgewachsen in Ost- Berlin. Co-Organisation subkultureller Events seit 1998 in Berlin, Potsdam, Leipzig und Barcelona. Experimentelle Musik, Kollaborationen, Ausstellungen und audiovisuelle Shows seit 2000.

AeoX: Aktiv zwischen 2001 und 2007. Ursprünglich ein Quartett, dann ein Trio, dann verkleinerte sich die Gruppe auf zwei permanente Mitglieder: Alex.E und Hanno Hinkelbein. Letzterer gründete Null Records, auf dem AeoX zwei Alben und zahlreiche EPs veröffentlichte. Ebenfalls Veröffentlichungen auf Mental.Ind.Records, welches von der ehemaligen OstGut resident Cora S. gegründet wurde. Musikalisch kombiniert die Gruppe improvisierten Hardware- Techno mit Breaks, traditionellen Instrumenten (Gitarre, Klarinette, Klavier), Industrial und Metal.

Johnny Cash had a birth certificate marked J. R. Cash because his parents couldn’t decide what to call him. Their environment was the recurrent poverty that reigned in Thirties America, a background of depression where J. R. went to work in flooded fields, learned music and sang along with other cotton pickers, picking up jobs here and there, and finally signing up for three years in the Army.

In 1954 he went back to civilian life, married Vivian Liberto, and went through the studio doors at Sun Records, where Sam Phillips recorded his first hits. In ’57 he joined Columbia Records and a decade later married June Carter (of The Carter Family) in 1968. The following years were complicated by drugs, alcohol and constant tours, yet the pair remained together until June passed away in 2003. Johnny Cash only survived another four months.

His original country music showed empathy for those who had been rejected, and his vision of the misery around him. But he also had an especially warm baritone, and it gave Johnny Cash an immense and faithful audience. He sold 90 million albums, confirming him as one of the greatest artists in music, all genres included.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, De Nor had no choice but to free all its prisoners - even the jazz ones - and shut its gates. But the red beacon shall shine again! Until such a time, we asked some of the artists who were booked to play there this summer to submit a piece for this new publication in lieu of their cancelled performance. This compilation lp contains tracks by Lori Goldston, Hiele, Agnes Hvizdalek, Nubots, Justine Grillet, Thurston Moore, Sami Bergold, Possessed Factory, Stacks, David Edren, Aaron Dilloway & Lucrecia Dalt, Ka Baird, Ben Bertrand, Miaux, Lorie Bevins, and C.O.P. and is housed in a deluxe dye cut linnen sleeve and comes with an insert and a mini Nor cut out made by Gerard Herman. De Nor is a sculpture-pavillion in the grounds of the Middelheim Museum conceived and designed by Dennis Tyfus and FVWW Architecten. In peace time it hosts concerts, lectures, and various presentations throughoutthe summer.

As Plankton Wat, Dewey Mahood uses his considerable
guitar prowess to deliver an album that encompasses
both the wild, seeking energy of free-improvisation and
the deliberate arrangements of more traditional
composition.
With his deft and stylistically varied playing, Plankton
Wat’s ‘Future Times’ escapes psychedelic tropes and
chemical fuelled alterations and instead celebrates an
escape into the natural world.
‘Future Times’ taps into psychedelia’s counter-cultural
heritage as music for protest, liberation and imagining
new ways of being in this world.
“Pastoral drones and swirling psychedelia” - Pitchfork
Known for his guitar prowess in modern psychedelic
music, specifically with Eternal Tapestry as well as
Edibles, Elephant Factory Galaxy Research and Gärden
Söund among others.
‘Future Times’ was recorded at Mahood’s home studio
Solar Commune, with additions from Dustin Dybvig
(Horse Feathers & Edibles) and Victor Nash (Flash Hawk
Parlor Ensemble). Features Ash Dybvig on flute.
LP comes on red or black vinyl packaged with download
code and insert.
“Mahood’s lonesome universe is definitely a psych-folk
monster on the sly… Mahood’s gone far into the burrow
of psychedelia for an album that’s caustic and tender,
bittersweet and effervescent.” - Raven Sings the Blues

As Plankton Wat, Dewey Mahood uses his considerable
guitar prowess to deliver an album that encompasses
both the wild, seeking energy of free-improvisation and
the deliberate arrangements of more traditional
composition.
With his deft and stylistically varied playing, Plankton
Wat’s ‘Future Times’ escapes psychedelic tropes and
chemical fuelled alterations and instead celebrates an
escape into the natural world.
‘Future Times’ taps into psychedelia’s counter-cultural
heritage as music for protest, liberation and imagining
new ways of being in this world.
“Pastoral drones and swirling psychedelia” - Pitchfork
Known for his guitar prowess in modern psychedelic
music, specifically with Eternal Tapestry as well as
Edibles, Elephant Factory Galaxy Research and Gärden
Söund among others.
‘Future Times’ was recorded at Mahood’s home studio
Solar Commune, with additions from Dustin Dybvig
(Horse Feathers & Edibles) and Victor Nash (Flash Hawk
Parlor Ensemble). Features Ash Dybvig on flute.
LP comes on red or black vinyl packaged with download
code and insert.
“Mahood’s lonesome universe is definitely a psych-folk
monster on the sly… Mahood’s gone far into the burrow
of psychedelia for an album that’s caustic and tender,
bittersweet and effervescent.” - Raven Sings the Blues

The music of porn movies of the 70s became the fad of diggers and Brigitte Lahaie an absolute icon of these years marked by sexual liberation. In 2020, feminist filmmaker Olympe de G. is embarking on the production of an inclusive and ethical

post-porn feature. Brigitte Lahaie, 64, activist for the right to die with dignity, plays the main role, driven by her deep desire to free the bodies and sexualities of women of her age. This film is certainly one of the most beautiful porn movies of the icon Brigitte Lahaie.

The soundtrack of the film is entrusted to Jb Hanak. A figure in the musical underground, this hyperactive has been multiplying projects for more than 20 years. With the group dDamage he formed with his brother Fred, he explored the frontiers of Hip Hop, IDM and electro. With Cobra, a punk rock group to be taken to the 14th degree, they crossed the lands of the absurd. At the end of 2020, he will release an album with actor Pierre Richard. At the same time, he exhibits his plastic works in art galleries ... hyperactive we have said.

This is the latest album by UK hip hop artist, Uncle Mic Nitro. Following releases as a member of Dark Craftsmen, Ill Psychosis, The Bomb Factory & The Pick Pockets, he released his first solo album, Mind State Krakatoa, for B-Line Recordings in 2016.

B-Line are a highly respectable UK hip hop label run by DJ Specifik and have released a number of 7” singles, 12” singles, EP’s and albums from the likes of Whirlwind D, Sir Beans OBR, Chrome & Illinspired, Def Defiance, Heavy Links, Carpetface, etc.

Hip Hop Be Bop Records started with a release by US hip hop veteran and member of Fantasy 3, Silver Fox. This was followed with singles by Sugar Bear, best known for his 89 hit “Don’t Scandalize Mine”, Unique (“Axe Maniac”), newcomers 05:21 and Bla.Ze plus a previously unreleased album by UK hip hop veterans, Outlaw Posse (“My Afro’s On Fire Vol. 2”).

B-Line and Hip Hop Be Bop have now teamed up to release “Vincent On Horseback” by Uncle Mic Nitro. The album is pressed on neon yellow vinyl and comes with a cut-out face mask. Production is by Ollie Knight, Ryan Mac, Featurecast, Djar One, Speaks, Djar One, etc and featured artists include DJ Krash Slaughta, DJ Jabbathakut, DJ Tones, Micall Parknsun, Joe Burn, Specifik, Juga-naut, Klashnekoff, Greg Blackman and Ced Gee from Ultramagnetic MC’s.

Highlights include ‘Lemonade’ (Video link below), ‘Where The Monster Is’ and ‘Write’ which samples Stevie Wonder’s ‘Do I Do’ (Shhhh!) and features the vocal talents of Greg Blackman. This is definitely one for the summer.

Linus Hillborg’s solo debut Magelungsverket lures listeners through despaired soundscapes of justly tuned electroacoustic orchestral arrangements seeped in rich harmonic synthesis.

Magelungsverket is a rendering of materials from Hillborg’s own computer game hacking project, Orphan Works, where an obsolete game engine was modified to create an interactive installation in which participants drive through the purple midnight streets of a decrepit and abandoned Stockholm. The game's generative soundtrack interacts with the player’s haphazard navigation of a ceaseless digital void of factories, housing projects, run down bars, ditches and lakes. Displaced, uncanny narratives and depictions of both real and semi-fictional locations in Stockholm that could have existed - but do not - procures distinct sequences of sound constructed with the Buchla 200 system, programmed synthesis, bowed cymbals, metal clarinet and tape machines.

The rendered pieces on Magelungsverket have been adapted from Orphan Works’ interactive and generative material into separate, fixed compositions, bound by duration, each one named after a location in this fictional, virtual Stockholm. For instance, Vårbergsobservatoriet (The Vårberg Observatory), draws its name from an artificial mountain that exists in the outskirts of Stockholm, amidst the sprawl of residential areas far beyond the sparkling city center. It was built from garbage scraps left behind after the underground metro system was constructed in the 1970s. In this fictional version, a public observatory was wishfully imagined to have been built on top of it. However fictitious Hillborg has imagined these locations, it is a bittersweet reflection and fragmented mental image of a Stockholm that never existed. Magelungsverket will be released on the 4th of December in a limited run of 200 black vinyls and across digital platforms.

Linus Hillborg (b. 1989, Stockholm) is a composer, musician and sound artist based in Stockholm, operating in numerous fields, ranging from experimental musics and audio-visual installations to post-punk and noise formations.

Dancepieces, originally released in 1987, presents music that American composer Philip Glass created for two separate dance performances. The first half of the album accompanied the Twyla Tharp Dance Foundation in a show called “In the Upper Room,” and the second piece accompanied choreographer Jerome Robbins’ “Glasspieces”. Glass writes the majority of his music for visual performances, most frequently dance and opera, and the presence of a visual twin to his music is evident throughout the selections from Dancepieces.

In discussing his technique for writing music to accompany dance, Glass has stated that melody, harmony and rhythm are key factors. Within the first seconds of each song on Dancepieces, the strength of Glass’ strong rhythmic sense can clearly be heard.

“dego & 2000Black Remixes / Fish Factory Sessions” features two remixes from renowned broken beat innovator dego and 2000Black of “Sour Face”. One rooted in Brazilian funk and boogie and the other delving into a deeper Bruk realm, the reworkings showcase the versatility of the original track. Taken from Bryony Jarman-Pinto’s critically acclaimed debut LP ‘Cage and Aviary’, “Sour Face” focusses on the wider frustrations of everyday life; “of break ups, environmental issues, the album and myself” she confesses.
Alongside a selection of beautifully recorded as-live sessions of album tracks from the songwriter and vocalist, performed with a full band at London’s legendary Fish Factory Studios. “The sessions were meant to feel live, like a performance.” Bryony explains, “All the musicians have put their ideas into the songs, transporting them to somewhere beyond the album versions and allowing them to take on a new life”. Released last summer, the much-anticipated ‘Cage and Aviary’ was written over the course of three years and created with long-time friend, collaborator and Tru Thoughts label-mate Tom Leah AKA Werkha. Tying together personal reflection to wider social issues, the album gives an intimate insight into what it means to come of age in today’s world. Sophisticated song writing layered with jazz, soul and elements of folk charmed many major tastemakers including Gilles Peterson, Jamie Cullum, Lauren Laverne, Tony Minvielle, Toshio Matsuura, Laurent Garnier, Clash, The Telegraph, Bandcamp and EARMILK.

Ike Yard remain a legendary band of early '80s New York City – at once immensely influential, yet obscured by a far-too-brief initial phase. Their debut EP, the dark and absorbing Night After Night, sounds almost like a different group, so rapidly would Ike Yard evolve towards the calmly menacing electro throb of their self-titled LP.

Originally released on Factory in 1982, the album put Ike Yard's indelible mark on the synth-driven experimental rock scene then emerging all over the planet. While historical analogues would be Cabaret Voltaire's Red Mecca or Front 242's Geography, opening track "M. Kurtz" makes starkly clear that Ike Yard is a far heavier proposition.

With a thick porridge of bass, ringing guitar and strangled/stunted layers of voice, these six pieces are densely packed and perversely danceable. "Loss" sounds like a minimal techno track that could have been made last week, while "Kino" combines Soviet-era imagery with sparse soundscapes à la African Head Charge's Environmental Studies.

Ike Yard somehow pull off the toughest trick in modern music: making repetition hypnotically compelling through subtle variation. The effect of Ike Yard's first LP can be heard in many genres – from industrial dance labels like Wax Trax to electro-punk bands and innumerable European groups (Lucrate Milk, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, etc.).

The fact that the cover artwork does not include any photos of the band, but rather features the original catalogue number (FACT A SECOND) only further illustrates the release's importance and Ike Yard's timeless mystique.

Demon Records presents the first ever vinyl pressing of The Durutti Column’s 2009 studio album “Love In The Time Of Recession”.

Formed in Manchester in 1978, The Durutti Column were one of the first acts signed to the iconic Factory Records by Tony Wilson. Primarily the project of guitarist and vocalist Vini Reilly, the group have a cult following with notable fans including Brian Eno and John Frusciante.

“Love In The Time Of Recession” finds Reilly and co continuing to explore genre-blending sounds. Highlights include the fuzzy guitar filled ‘In Memory Of Anthony’ (a tribute to the late Factory Records founder), and ‘More Rainbows’, an instrumental conversation between Vini Reilly’s soaring guitar and girlfriend Poppy Morgan’s dreamy electric piano.

Pressed on two 140g translucent amber vinyl, housed in printed inner sleeves.

The cassette (TWI 007) is a faithful reproduction of the 1980 original, complete with PVC wallet, 16 page booklet and tracklist insert.

Les Disques du Crepuscule is proud to present newly remastered vinyl and cassette editions of iconic compilation album From Brussels With Love, which was the very first release on the Crepuscule label back in November 1980 – and is now celebrating its 40th anniversary.
Originally released as a deluxe cassette/book package in a PVC wallet, From Brussels With Love featured 21 exclusive tracks from the international avant-garde and new wave, as well as contributions from the celebrated Factory Records roster. Then, as now, the featured artists include A Certain Ratio, Gavin Bryars, Harold Budd, Thomas Dolby, Dome, The Durutti Column, John Foxx, Martin Hannett, Richard Jobson, The Names, Bill Nelson, Kevin Hewick + New Order, Michael Nyman and Der Plan.
Running for 78 minutes, the cosmopolitan ‘cassette journal’ was curated by Michel Duval, Annik Honore and Wim Mertens, and also includes extended interviews with Brian Eno and legendary French film actress Jeanne Moreau. The cover art by Jean-Francois Octave, with additional graphics by Benoit Hennebert, Marc Borgers and Claude Stassart in the booklet.
From Brussels With Love quickly sold 6000 copies around Europe, earning rapturous reviews in the UK music press. “This is a reminder – without really trying, without being obvious – that pop is modern poetry. Is the sharpest, shiniest collection of experiences. Is always something new” (Paul Morley, NME). More recently, Dan Fox of art magazine Frieze described TWI 007 as “a masterpiece of distinctly northern European post-punk eclecticism.”
To mark the 40th anniversary of From Brussels With Love, Crepuscule will issue 3 remastered editions.
There is also a deluxe 2xCD ‘earbook’ edition (TWI 007 CD) presented as a 10-inch square hardback book, with two full length audio CDs and 60 page book including rare images, posters, sleeve designs and period ephemera, plus a detailed history of the Crepuscule label between 1979 and 1984.

Notes From The Forest Floor was originally premiered in a different form in July 2015 at The ICA as part of an evenings event dedicated to the work of Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi. Played in almost pitch dark the hour long piece was played prior to a concert of work by and inspired by Scelsi. Chris responded to Scelsi's microtonal works using recording of insects and other wildlife/environmental sounds from La Selva tropical rain forest reserve in Costa Rica. An edited shorter piece from this installation was on the Scelsi Ep titled Invertebrate Harmonics which gathered great reviews from the Quietus to the Vinyl Factory. Whilst working with Chris again this year having had the stereo ICA installation version sitting on his hard drive for 5 years Adrian Corker asked Chris if he would be interested in releasing it.Chris was soon after heading back to Costa Rica working with David Attenborough and offered to make new recordings and develop the original piece.

Georgia Rodgers Line Of Parts was originally premiered at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in 2019 as part of the Huddersfield Professional Development Programme for Female Composers of Electronic Music project. Originally having trained a an acoustician Rodgers work is concerned with" timbral detail". She has had work performed by ensembles such as Apartment House and The Riot Ensemble but for Line of Parts worked with the Huddersfield Immersive Sound System(HISS) using its network of 48 channels and 66 speakers.The piece and stereo mix down of this work is composed of field recordings made in the Cairngorms and North London, sine waves and voice.

(Record Store Day 2020)

Mannequin Records is proud to celebrate 40th years of Nocturnal Emissions with more reissues setup for 2020.

"Tissue of Lies" is the Nocturnal Emissions first album, released on the band's own Sterile Records label as EMISS001 in 1980. "Tissue Of Lies"
shows you Nocturnal Emissions Industrial roots, from noisy collages to classic power noise, reminding the early Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire, Faust ('Tapes' period) or Conrad Schitzler's 'Schwarz'.

The Nocturnal Emissions project, masterminded by Nigel Ayers, has been on the cutting edge of new music since the 1970s. Nigel Ayers has been described as a Guerrilla Sign Ontologist, cutting-up and pasting the contents of the human psyche. With a background in avant-garde art, his work has grown from audio visual installations through underground video works which changed the shape of British television.

In the early eighties Nocturnal Emissions hit London with a barrage of seminal funk; pioneering the use of sound samplers, multi-cultural
collage and electronic noise. They became a shape shifting chameleon lightening the darkness of post-industrial music, combining extremist performance art and video displays with apocalyptic beat music. Nocturnal Emissions have since been credited as a catalyst for a
generation or two of sound workers.

However, at the height of their success, the Emissions decided to shun the crass commercialism that had developed around them, and to develop their work as a secret alchemy. Nigel Ayers has continued to work with a strong underground of cult support, avoiding music industry fashions, and following his own creative path he concentrated on creating a strong sense of a wilderness identity through sound.

Limited edition of 600 copies, on solid white vinyl.

Factory Benelux and New Order present Of Factory New York, a unique benefit album released to assist Michael Shamberg, who ran the NYC office of Factory Records during the celebrated label's Eighties heyday.

“Don´t go out there, you might get shot” was the warning from Donna Maya relatives when she visited Detroit two years ago. That makes her even more curious to explore the city. Disturbed by, as well as fascinated from the dystopian state of Detroit she recorded many places that made (industrial) history, including the Ford factory, the world’s tallest, now abandoned central station and the once magnificent Michigan Theater, that was brutally converted into a parking garage. Donna Maya transformed the sound recordings into artificial sound sculptures combined with electronic beats. Every track is dedicated to one of those places and makes it musically alive. With her theremin Donna Maya guides the listener deeply inside. The result of Donna Mayas 6 weeksstay in Detroit is her album “Lost Spaces -> Detroit". “Lost Spaces ? Detroit” is about how to handle crises, how individuals get along with it and the relationship of society to its culture. Donna Maya understands Detroit as a perfect example for what capitalism does when people give up cultural values. With “Lost Spaces ? Detroit” Donna Maya draws a musical picture of how she experienced Detroit that shows that not only a city got lost, but a living space for everyone: Pure urban experimental electronics with theremin.

Seeing himself as a social commentator, Coops continuously draws inspiration from everything around him and is feeling more inspired than ever. Having signed to the label in 2018 he has already released 2 poignant albums and continues to create at rapid speed.

The 8-track project - which was made in just 4 studio sessions - is unlike Coops’ usual 14+ track albums both he and his fans have become used to. Coops turned the album around in record time to ensure his music was released during this unparalleled time in history. The homegrown beats come from his close friend and long term collaborator Talos who has produced almost all his beats to date.

In the opening track, ‘ Boom Biddy Bye’ Coops doesn’t waste a second in putting his fellow rappers through their paces. A block rapper with no one to please but himself, Coops professes that he barely listens to what other rappers release to ensure they don’t infiltrate and influence his own music. Highly appropriate for these times, title track ‘ Crimes Against Creation ’ is the stand out voice of this generation and his message to the world. ‘W arped perception, thwart connections, they force perfection, then claim the antidotes an injection...’ plays out and we begin to appreciate how the current situation is playing heavily on his mind. As the album progresses we get to see all sides of Coops’ personality with ‘Piss Poor’ reminding us of the raw gritty London lifestyle from which he has risen from, whilst ‘Profile’ demonstrates his softer more promiscuous side as well as touching on themes of fatherhood and online relationships.
Coops’ musical entry point begun by making music with his friends, but it wasn’t until he really looked at himself and the world around him when he decided he needed to go it alone, opening his mind and his solo stream of creativity which hasn’t stopped since. A self-proclaimed hermit he embodies the essence of a true artist and only finds comfort in doing what he loves, not what he is told.

Sublime, unique, sexy and peculiar unreleased scores by electronic and jazz pioneer Ron Geesin, made for the sublime, unique, sexy and peculiar films by maverick director Stephen Dwoskin. There. we’ve said it. And if you have not heard of one or either of these two dudes it doesn’t really matter. Geesin made great music and worked with Pink Floyd. Dwoskin made odd films, most of them are in the BFI permanent collection. They are great and a bit strange.
These superb unreleased soundtracks come from a fascinating, progressive and important period in British film history. They represent an intriguing collaboration between the lively Ron Geesin from Scotland and the American Stephen Dwoskin, who both met in London.
Musically they are minimal, charismatic and quite groundbreaking. Here is the story…
HISTORY:
Steve Dwoskin arrived in London in 1964, aged 25, with several 16mm films in his trunk, shot in the cold-water flats of Greenwich Village. He had been on the fringe of the Factory scene, and some of his films starred Beverly Grant, ‘the queen of the underground’. But they had scarcely been seen, and they didn’t have soundtracks. For almost a year they stayed in the trunk, and stayed silent. Then he met Ron Geesin, somewhere around Portobello Road.
‘Slept last night, completely dressed after working over 12 hours on sound tracks at Ron’s,’ wrote Dwoskin in his diary for 29 July 1965. ‘My films are not anywhere near being anything. I need more energy, more concise and positive ideas and less inhibition. And of course space, money and people.’ Dwoskin, who taught and practised graphic design by day, had recently decided to stay in London beyond the term of the Fulbright scholarship that had brought him there.
Ron, living with Frankie in a basement flat in Elgin Crescent – they would marry the next year, with Dwoskin as best man – was about to leave the Original Downtown Syncopators, the trad jazz band he had joined aged seventeen-and-a-half, and was trying to go solo. On stage he would make vigorous use of piano and banjo; at home Frankie had bought him a new kind of instrument – a tape recorder. ‘Soon I had one tape recorder, two tape recorders, three tape recorders.’

Ron, wrote Dwoskin in his unpublished autobiography, ‘loved to record, and to cut and splice the quarter-inch recording tape to make new sounds. This triggered in me the idea of getting back to my films and finishing them’. Soon he was living in a dank basement in Denbigh Road, a few minutes’ walk from Elgin Crescent. Ron’s soundtracks for Dwoskin’ films, recorded in the Geesins’ flat, encompassed Ron’s very eclectic range of styles – madcap piano and fretted banjo as well as tape manipulation.
Aside from Ron’s soundtracks, some of which belong to films that no longer exist (including Pot Boiler), Frankie would act in one of the films that Dwoskin either lost or never finished during these years. He was disabled, having contracted polio as a child, and Ron and Frankie were both carers and collaborators; Ron had met him when he was struggling into his car.
There was no London equivalent to the underground film scene that Dwoskin had known in New York, and his films remained unseen until such a scene began to come into being, in the autumn of 1966. Some of them made their debut at the Mercury Theatre, near Notting Hill Gate, that September. Dwoskin wrote that Alone, starring Zelda Nelson (from Ron Rice’s Chumlum), and Chinese Checkers, with Beverly Grant and Dwoskin’s friend Joan Adler, went over best.
Soon both Dwoskin and Geesin became involved in the nascent London Film-Makers’ Co-op, which put on screenings in Better Books on Charing Cross Road – ‘if you can call them screenings,’ Ron recalls; ‘I’d call it fifteen blokes in various stages of disarray, peering through the smoke’. One or more of the films had been ‘striped’ with magnetic audiotape; with others ‘we had no means of direct syncing to the picture, so he started the film and I started the tape recorder’.
In the same autumn, Dwoskin moved into a flat almost opposite the Geesins on Elgin Crescent. More collaborations followed, including Naissant, on which Gavin Bryars, whom Geesin had met during a stint on the northern club circuit with novelty act Dr Crock and His Crackpots, played double bass.
Around the end of 1967 Geesin released his first solo LP, A Raise of Eyebrows, and Dwoskin won recognition the Fourth Experimental Film Competition, aka EXPRMNTL 4, an occasional film festival staged at Knokke-le-Zoute in Belgium. By now the films had optical soundtracks.
It was only after this that Dwoskin completed his first ‘British’ films, including Me Myself and I, with Barbara Gladstone, an American dancer who had appeared in Barbara Rubin’s Christmas on Earth, and with whom Dwoskin and Geesin had at one point devised a stage show, never produced. For Moment, a single-shot film, Geesin provided his most experimental score yet. At the time of its debut in 1970, Dwoskin and the Geesins were sharing a house in Ladbroke Grove.
By then, Ron was working with Pink Floyd, and soon afterwards he and Frankie moved out to the country, to be replaced by Bryars both in the house and as Dwoskin’s principal collaborator.
Until now these scores have remained part of the Geesin Archive and have never been issued.

A new sub-label of the longstanding Canadian electro imprint Suction Records, Ice Machine — focusing on old-school wave/post-punk sounds — is thrilled to present a new, deluxe reissue of “Pow Wow”, the debut 1982 solo LP from Cabaret Voltaire’s Stephen Mallinder. Now expanded to a double-LP, and also released on CD/digital, it’s a definitive reissue which now includes Mallinder’s early solo discography in its entirety. This collection of mutant dub/funk/postpunk sounds just as fresh and contemporary in 2020 as it did in 1982 (note Autechre’s inclusion of standout cut “Del Sol” in a mix earlier this year), and highlights Mallinder’s crucial contributions to Cabaret Voltaire.

Some words from Mr.Mallinder on the scene and era from which “Pow Wow” was born: “It was an interesting, and inspiring, time. The primal caterwaul of punk was dying and lots of really significant things were emerging from the fires. Much looser vibes were in the air and there was a much more exploratory feel. Punk had championed a visceral, anti-intellectual approach but in truth the real characters brought so much more to the table, and what began to happen - from people like The Pop Group to Throbbing Gristle, and emerging scenes from No New York to Factory Records - is we began to embrace the art of it all. There was acknowledgement of the importance of books, films, graphic art, and experimentation with all those mediums. We were just as interested in turning over rocks to see what lay beneath, as throwing them. There was a sense of new magik emerging.”

“Pow Wow” was commissioned by the Fetish Records label, and recorded at the Cabs’ Western Works studio, where Mallinder would spend his days recording with Cabaret Voltaire, and continue on alone into night recording his debut solo material. “I slept very little in those days,” he adds, continuing: “It was done on 8 track and very multi-tracked, so lots of recording, then bouncing, and overdubbing, to get the integrated feel of the tracks. I became very adept at pressing record then jumping onto equipment to play it - it was actually a very 'live' record in that sense. I've always seen rhythm at the core of what I do so I loved the layering of counter rhythms. The sequence/arpeggiator parts were all drum machine triggers that were played live. It was about creating a distinct groove so arrangements came from weaving in and out of those linear grooves. It was fun to play everything from drums, guitars, keys, trumpet, percussion, tapes… and record and produce it all. Prince got it from me!”

Surprisingly, Mallinder’s first solo LP would also prove to be his last - that is, until last year’s critically-acclaimed solo return “Um Dada”, on Dais.

This new edition of “Pow Wow” contains 14 songs, and is housed in a recreation of the original, iconic Neville Brody jacket, painstakingly recreated using scans of Brody’s original artwork elements. The 2LP vinyl edition is in a reverse board, thick-spine jacket, and adds a 12”x24” folded poster/insert, featuring unused elements from Brody’s original designs, sketches, and instructions for the LP. The CD edition comes in a reverse board, 6-panel digipack.


2-11 from the Pow-Wow LP on Fetish Records, 1982.

13-14 from the Temperature Drop / Cool Down 12” on Fetish Records, 1981.

12 from the Fetish Records compilation The Last Testament, 1983.

1 edit from the Pow-Wow Plus LP on Fetish Records (Japanese pressing), 1984.

The long awaited third album from much loved vintage synth maestros Billy Bainbridge and Mike Johnston, finally finds its home on Ghost Box Records. This is unironically joyful and melodic electronica; informed by library music, music for children’s TV and a deep passion for the history of music technology.

Plone are very much part of Ghost Box’s DNA. They were a central part of the 90s retro-futuristic scene in Birmingham that included Broadcast and Pram and to which the label has always had strong ties through graphic designer and co-manager, Julian House. They are also cited by the label’s other boss, Jim Jupp, as a major influence on his work as Belbury Poly.

The band was formed as a three-piece in the mid-90s and their debut single, Press a Key, was championed by John Peel. The first album, For Beginner Piano, was released on Warp Records in 1999. Their warm, witty and unfunky music stood out from the crowd, almost in defiance of the moody and masculine post-rave electronica of their contemporaries.

A selection of bootlegged demos from the early 00s was rumoured to be the follow up album, but it never materialised. After that Billy went on to tour with Broadcast and later formed Seeland with another former band member Tim Felton (also of Ghost Box’s Hintermass). Meanwhile Mike formed the ZX Spectrum Orchestra, released solo singles as Mike in Mono and was a member of The Modified Toy Orchestra.

Twenty years on and Plone have reconvened as a duo with a third album, Puzzlewood. It’s compiled from material recorded at various points since the “lost album”, right up to the present day.

After nine years of quality assured house music, FINA Records hits release number 30 with another of its forward looking offerings, this time from red hot young Frenchman Armless Kid.

Well known on his native Paris circuit, Armless Kid is now breaking out on the wider international scene. He's released his bustling, heart felt house grooves on Rekids and the legendary Classic Music Company, is a Rinse FM regular and has an anything goes approach that has won him high profile fans like DJ Harvey and The Black Madonna.

Opener Shadows is a superbly warm deep house cut with real drive in the silky smooth drums. It's perfect for cosy dance floors, while Lost Days picks up the pace with raw and hurried kick drums and dusty piano keys bringing real beauty to the groove. Brute Factor Disco pumps any party with its urgent drum programming, explosive sense of energy and dazzling disco chords and last of all, NaturaL FL Groove slips into a funky bass riff, with organic licks and authentic old school production values that make it a timeless classic in the making.

Kristian Craig Robinson, aka Capitol K, is a multi-instrumentalist and record producer with a long history in London’s most interesting under-the-radar music places and spaces. With a musical story like his, you can expect side streams. New record ‘Birdtrapper’ is “the sound of an initiation rave in a utopian hidden village”, and his latest exploration of Mediterranean audio mythos following from ’Goatherder’ (2018). The six track mini-album was similarly formed from ritualistic improvisations performed in Malta (where Capitol K was born), using home-made flutes, reed pipe, bamboo percussion, drum machine, bass guitar, but this time features a wider use of synthesizers, with the alternative dance floor in mind. Where ‘Goatherder’ was an awakening of genetic primitivism, ‘Birdtrapper’ is an evocation of sonic bird callers, proto-rave abandon, ambient resonance and an ecstatic captive state, along with the previous work's visions of hunters, temples and scrub land music
‘Goatherder’ caused a quiet kind of quake and was beloved by The Quietus, BBCR3 and 6Music. Vinyl Factory described it as “like a series of manipulated field recordings that have an ancient, ritualistic quality … Goatherder shimmers with Balearic strangeness, rooted in an earthy outer-national dance music tradition”. For the last seven years K has been behind the consoles at the heavily influential Total Refreshment Centre, recording and mixing records with the likes of Trash Kit, The Comet Is Coming, Rozi Plain, Alabaster DePlume, Dry Cleaning, Flamingods Cykada, Ibibio Sound Machine, BAS JAN and John Johanna. It’s not just recording. He’s also become an influential if understated mentor to a new wave of producers and bands. His experience in studio environments is long and storied, including stints at Studio Plateaux on an island in the middle of the Thames and in the Royal Symphonia’s squatted rehearsal rooms. Capitol K has released seven albums and the 'Birdtapper EP' follows a legacy of influential releases on early 2000s electronica labels including Planet Mu and XL. Aside this he also runs the record label Faith & Industry. It’s a friends and family, love not money affair and he has released music by Champagne Dub, John Johanna, Super Best Friends Club, Blue House & Clémentine March.

Who put the dance into Factory Records?”

Be With would like to refer you to FAC 59.

Working with founding member Tony Henry, we’re honoured to present the reissue of 52nd Street’s crucial debut single “Look Into My Eyes”, backed with “Express”. Originally released on Factory Records in Summer 1982, this ultra-rare 12" is a double-sider in the truest sense. Unrivalled Manchester jazz-funk-boogie-soul.

Both “Look Into My Eyes” and “Express” came out of a five day recording session in the spring of 1982 at Revolution Studios in Cheadle Hulme, just outside Manchester. Rob Gretton had just signed the band to Factory, snatching them from under the noses of RCA and WEA Records who had been sniffing around and seemingly ignoring Tony Wilson’s concerns that Factory might not be the right home for a black soul act. Rob clearly thought different.

The band of Tony Henry on guitar and vocals, bass player Derek Johnson, drummer Tony Thompson, lead vocalist Beverley McDonald and John Dennison on keyboards were put in the studio with A Certain Ratio’s drummer Donald Johnson producing the sessions. The band also found themselves with an interesting new member.

The back cover of the finished record credits synth F/X to a mysterious “Be Music”. Turns out that’s Bernard Sumner. Yes, that one. Tony Henry explains that bringing Bernard in was another part of Rob Gretton’s plan, “Barney was a real soul boy at heart and had always wanted to produce and work with black artists… with 52nd Street, he was an honorary member”. The results suggest he fit right in.

“Look Into My Eyes” squeezes so much aural pleasure into one side of a 12" single. A strutting, rich, soul-gliding funk with bass and guitar high in the mix above twisted, bubbling synths. Like Nile and Barney drenched outside the Haçienda that first summer. How can something be this liquid loose whilst sounding so, so tight? The hypnotic, naïve-cum-insouciant vocals from McDonald, backed by her fellas, only add to the track’s charm. Put simply, it sounds like nothing else.

On the flip, “Express” is sheer drama on wax. Tony’s opening lesson in good manners (“Excuse me miss, is this seat taken?”) sees us strapped in for a wild, chaotic, rhythmic ride. All bold keys, synth brass blasts, insistent bells and a galloping groove giving *that rush* atop a bassline to die for. No surprise it was a Frankie Knuckles favourite. Blistering heat.

The 12" was Paul Morley’s single of the week in the NME but his approval did little to get daytime radio play or to sell the record when it was released. It probably didn’t help that, in Tony Henry’s words, Factory were a label “notorious for not promoting their bands, not wanting any communications with the written press and not answering their office phones.” It came and went with none of the fuss that music this good deserved.

But in the near-40 years since they were released, these two tracks have gone on to become cult underground hits for those in the know. Of course that means those original 12"s have gotten rare and pricey. So here’s your chance to own this particular piece of post punk Factory Records funk.

But this record isn’t just a vital slice of Manchester soul history. Tony’s not shy about just how important he thinks the collaboration between 52nd Street and Bernard Sumner was: “this worked out quite well for us in the band but even better for New Order and Factory Records as Sumner studied grooves, rhythms and how to write and construct funk and dance music from 52nd Street and producer Donald Johnson”. You just have to listen to Blue Monday to hear what Bernard did when he started putting what he’d learnt into practice.

“Look Into My Eyes” and “Express” come from a chapter of the history of Factory Records that no-one seems to have gotten around to writing. Working with Tony to reissue the original 12" is the start of putting that right. The story of 52nd Street is more than just a footnote.

Pilo returns to BNR in 2020 with the “A.R.E.A.” EP. Since his first release for the label in 2013 at a very young age, each subsequent record could be seen as a milestone of growth - the “A.R.E.A. EP” feels confident, produced with consummate skill, focusing on the LA-producers strongest themes and devices. This is not, however, the sort of “maturity” that sees things get boring, more restrained. Pilo’s drum is the beat of LA’s unhinged underground techno scene - they don’t do boring - and this drum is always banging.

A-side examples: “Acid by Mouth.” A stuttered kick and a gated, uncanny valley voice form the backbone for increasing layers of texture and percussion. It’s a rollercoaster, as viscerally satisfying on the way up as on the way down. Pilo’s production journey has been increasingly cinematic, and you can see the songs here - “Acid by Mouth” is suited for a Gaspar Noe nightclub scene, and you love to hear it as long as no one gets murdered. “Ruhig” is tribal, made for spaces with 4 story high ceilings and sparse but blinding flashes of light. You can hear steel beams buckling under pressure, a breath too close behind you. The workers of the factory in fit of madness started raving to the sounds of their own machines. They’ve been dancing, without pause, for years now.

The B-side opens with “Exit the Artificial.” Headbanging broken beat kick, aggressive Skinny Puppy snares, ghost voices in hallucinatory bursts too short to confirm to be real. The draw-distance of the stereo spread seems infinite - listen at the very edges and a whole other (ominous) world is taking place. The ghosts mock you in gated laughs by the end. “Adapt Tactics” leads you out - low tempo, hissy percussion, haunted again at the fringe. Things break down, reduced to grain - brain short-circuits, “will I feel like this forever?” It’s a warning - turn back, there’s nothing for you out there. You embrace the madness, and start Pilo’s “A.R.E.A.” EP again from the beginning.

- Ursprünglich als EP zwischen den ersten beiden Bon Iver Alben veröffentlicht, enthält Blood Bank einige der beliebtesten Songs der Band - Erstpressung auf farbigem Vinyl - mit 4 brandneuen, exklusiven Live-Aufnahmen der EP-Titel, die auf der Tournee 2018, 10 Jahre nach der Entstehung der Songs, aufgenommen wurden - Bon Iver 2020 live in Berlin, Köln und München // Die "Blood Bank" EP wurde ursprünglich Anfang 2009 veröffentlicht, kurz nach dem geliebten Album "For Emma, Forever Ago". Die EP war der Vorbote eines neuen Sounds für Bon Iver: eine Bewegung weg von der akustischen Gitarren-geführten Instrumentierung des Debüts und der Beginn einer Erkundung der experimentellen Klänge, welche die Entwicklung von Bon Iver seitdem mitdefinieren. Die Neuauflage dieser bahnbrechenden EP ist gekoppelt mit brandneuen Live-Aufnahmen aller EP-Titel. Eine Reflexion über die Blood Bank EP von Ryan Matteson: When I reflect on the songs that make up the Blood Bank EP, I am drawn to mantras, both musical and lyrical. The driving and pulsating rhythm of the title track is held steady by the repeated refrain, I know it well, before it eventually yields to a beautiful array of guitar distortion and noise. These moments are significant through all four songs. When the steel guitar makes its entrance on "Beach Baby," it's transportive. A blissful, breezy feeling sweeps into the room and that puts you within the moment. Close your eyes and you can feel it. "Babys" follows perfectly. A piano guides your mind to the new beginnings that come with the changing of seasons. The awareness of time passes and makes way for another day. Then there's "Woods." A flawless finale. Foreign and new. Not just a new direction but a new beginning entirely. A place where boundaries don't exist. It was a signal change of things to come, laying the groundwork for new collaborations. A decade later, the song says so much in just three lines. Most significant to me are the words, "I'm building a sill to slow down the time." Time doesn't slow down, it races.

It would be fair to say that Leng co-founder Paul “Mudd” Murphy is a born collaborator. Since first donning the Mudd alias at the dawn of the century, Murphy has released numerous collaborative albums and singles with regular collaborators Ben Smith (as Smith & Mudd) and Kevin Pollard (Mudd & Pollard), as well as playing a key role in “super-groups” Paqua and Bison. “Susta”, which marks his first single on Leng since 2009, sees Murphy add some new names to his growing list of collaborators. It was made in cahoots with singer/songwriter David Harks, a regular Satin Jackets collaborator who also appeared on Jack Cutter’s superb “Serpent Strut” cut on Murphy’s Claremont 56 label.

“Susta” is a bubbly, evocative and ear-pleasing chunk of mid-tempo nu-disco pop featuring lead vocals from Jaanika Leino AKA JaneLy – a former X-Factor Finland contestant whose sultry and evocative voice simply soars above Murphy and Harks’ sparkling, life-affirming instrumentation. Rich in twinkling synth solos, rich Clavinet lines, chugging arpeggio lines and eyes-closed piano, “Susta” is a strong song that will squat inside your head and stay there for days.

Our advice is to welcome it in – it’s as joyous and life-affirming a track as Leng has ever released. It’s accompanied by a predictably strong remix by British electronic music veteran Andrew Meecham (Bizarre Inc, Chicken Lips etc.), who dons the now familiar Emperor Machine alias to deliver a dub for the ages. Combining his own analogue and modular electronics with snippets of Leino’s vocal and some of the warmest instrumentation from Murphy and Harks’ original mix (think Clavinet and Rhodes for starters), Meecham offers up an epic slice of electronic dub disco that bubbles away for ten mesmerizing minutes. It’s a superb interpretation of a high quality cut.