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Swiss musician Delia Meshlir didn’t realize what her voice could do when she started out playing music. Through such groups as the drudge-rock Cheyenne and experimental Primitive Trails, Meshlir let the music lead her singing along. It wasn’t until she began writing the songs for Calling The Unknown that she started allowing her vocals to preside. Unbounded by structure, Delia Meshlir’s first full-length under her name brings layers of beauty, intensity and strength, all coming to a head with her striking vocal delivery.

Having acquired a stocking job at Irascible, a label based in Lausanne, Switzerland, dedicated to promoting local talent, Meshlir had the ideal launching point for her music. Now, in coordination with Irascible, Ba Da Bing will be releasing Calling The Unknown in North America.

Meshlir lost her grandmother while preparing the album, and many of the tracks reflect seeking a path through grief with love. On “A River”, she explores where feelings can exist when they are for someone who has passed. She sings: “I’m calling the unknown / but no one remains.” As the first song on the album, it serves as a perfect introduction, with refined drumming, reverb-wrapped guitars and tasteful saxophone lines. At command of a full band, Meshlir never abuses the opportunity, often having members hold back in restraint and add mere touches of color to her songs. However, when more urgency is required, she adapts beautifully, as on the raw and driven track “Dirty Colors”. Ultimately, the album is an invitation to peace after suffering.

Delia Meshlir is a trained visual artist who is creating her own videos and doing her own artwork for Calling The Unknown. It is a singular artistic work with stunning breadth.

Turbo Recordings presents its grandest achievement yet, a reimagining of Plastikman's 1998 magnum opus "Consumed", Transformed as a new collaborative composition between original artist Richie Hawtin and musical genius Chilly Gonzales. This is an album three decades in the making, brought into the world by Executive Producer Tiga. A masterpiece of restraint, depth, and music as architectural vision, "Consumed" was profoundly influential, defining the soon-to-emerge minimal movement. Shortly after its 20th anniversary, Chilly Gonzales was inspired to compose accompanying piano pieces (counterparts) for each of the tracks and shared them with Tiga, who became the conduit between both artists and led the project to fruition on his label. Hawtin mixed the new combined work, allowing each artist their own space within the project,more of a sonic conversation between them than a conventional collaboration. Consumed in Key will be available as a deluxe triple vinyl LP. The artwork is a reinterpretation of the original album's, flipped to black and white and with the cutout size transposed to the dimensions of a piano key, the die-cut in the white outersleeve revealing a shiny black foil stamp on the black innersleeves.

Danish singer-songwriter Soren Munk releases his debut solo album Purr Show on 15 April 2022 via Navarino Records.Soren also travels the world as a cameraman for Channel 4 News, and the album was written and recorded in between trips to cover some of the major global events of recent times, from the war in Mali to the Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan

Soren also co- wrote the much- loved theme tune to the hit animated TV series Charlie and Lola – which is currently trending on TikTok with millions of views.Despite the nature of his news work, the songwriting on Purr Show has a more private focus, dealing in intimate but ambiguous moments of love and loss.

Melodic and intense, the album has elements of Dream Pop, Slowcore and classic songwriting, while the blend of electric guitars, analogue synths and vocals draws on the work of artists that combine restraint and power, such as Neil Young, Low, Big Star and Elliot Smith. Soren worked with Andy Ramsay from Stereolab to record the album, and Jimmie Robertson (Depeche Mode, Arctic Monkeys) during the mixing Soren explains, “I wanted to create slow pop songs. Romantic and melodic but with an edge of strangeness that makes them harder to pin down. That's the music I respond to – things that are assertive but fragile at the same time. Where every element counts.”Soren drew together a strong lineup of musicians and collaborators, including guitarists Garo Nahoulakian (Emiliana Torrini, Gaz Coombes, Piney Gir) and Nick 'Growler' Fowler (Gaz Coombes, Luke Haines); a Danish rhythm section of drummer Nikolaj Bjerre (Lamb) and bassist Andreas Jensen (Dub Pistols); and
pianist Tom Dyson (co-writer of the Charlie and Lola theme). Soren's vocals are often combined on the songs with the soft alto of backing singer Emma Faulkner, creating a sense of something confidential, like snatches of pillow talk.

2023 Repress

"banging piece of sound art" - The Observer

"...a fascinating piece of Brutalist techno that pivots between crisp machine-like minimalism and granulated noise." - Clash

"A piece of immediately engaging techno it reveals more of itself with each listen." - CMU Daily

Nik Colk Void is well established with her work as one half of Factory Floor, one third of Carter Tutti Void (alongside Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti) and with the late Peter Rehberg as NPVR, but perhaps surprisingly, "Bucked up Space" is her first solo album release.

Void explains, "When Peter Rehberg initially asked me to produce a record for Editions Mego, I didn't feel quite ready and asked if we could make a record together instead. Collaboration is so ingrained into what I do, I only felt ready to make this album after working through ideas live, using the audience in place of the collaborator."

Bucked Up Space combines Void's love of improvisation with the driving force of beat-driven music absorbed from performing in galleries, residencies and clubs across the UK and Europe. She goes on to say, "You find out more about yourself when you explain your ideas to others, and that's how I felt the live performance worked for me."

The process steadily teased out a language and Void employed a variety of tactics in the recording process including a methodical approach of collecting data at her home studio in a manner not dissimilar to keeping a diary. Her microscopic focus on raw instrumental noise, layered and reformulated, resulted in a sound catalogue that Void divided into groups for their tone, density and texture.

These initial pieces were taken to a studio in Margate to put them into a more cohesive compositional context. Something that pragmatically started as cold and detached was given warmth, unity and emotion in the studio. Via improvised repetition co-existing alongside organised production, Void conjures new sonic muscle with tracks such as 'Interruption Is Good' and 'FlatTime'. Initial recordings are rendered into sequences initiating the organic rhythms, triggering awkward jerks of high hats and percussion, or used to activate the margins of post effects detectable in the tracks like 'Demna', 'Big Breather' and 'Oversized'.

Void explains: "It was important to me that the simplicity in the work disguised a lot of complexity, I want this work to be absorbed instinctively."

The sleeve image, a still from We Are City by Brazilian artist Maria de Lima, was chosen to illustrate Bucked Up Space, which Void describes as "a distorted reality, the space that lives at start of an idea, then floats in public view, before returning to inform my understanding of the idea. Once the idea is out in the world, it moves and morphs into something else entirely."

Written, performed and produced by Nik Colk Void, the album was engineered by James Greenwood, mastered by Rashad Becker and tracks 1, 4, 5, 7 and 9 were mixed by Marta Salogni.

Bucked up Space is the result of the ideas and resulting sounds of free exploration morphing into a personal structured album that fearlessly moulds patience, listening and restraint. It's a sharp focussed work embracing collective action through the lens of the self. All this, and also one of the best abstract dance records you will hear in some time!

Turbo Recordings presents its grandest achievement yet, a reimagining of Plastikman's 1998 magnum opus "Consumed", Transformed as a new collaborative composition between original artist Richie Hawtin and musical genius Chilly Gonzales. This is an album three decades in the making, brought into the world by Executive Producer Tiga. A masterpiece of restraint, depth, and music as architectural vision, "Consumed" was profoundly influential, defining the soon-to-emerge minimal movement. Shortly after its 20th anniversary, Chilly Gonzales was inspired to compose accompanying piano pieces (counterparts) for each of the tracks and shared them with Tiga, who became the conduit between both artists and led the project to fruition on his label. Hawtin mixed the new combined work, allowing each artist their own space within the project,more of a sonic conversation between them than a conventional collaboration. Consumed in Key will be available as a deluxe triple vinyl LP. The artwork is a reinterpretation of the original album's, flipped to black and white and with the cutout size transposed to the dimensions of a piano key, the die-cut in the white outersleeve revealing a shiny black foil stamp on the black innersleeves.

Ben Ritz has released EPs on Sweat Equity and Merge Layers. He's not afraid of the high bpms, but this isn't all blender no tender. This is futuristic, hard yet funky techno that is undeniably for the freaks. Find him in NYC or on his vinyl debut right here.

A1 "Up And Down" opens up with an ear-worm, repetitive melody that bangs and jacks with the hard kick and hi-hats. Freakish manipulation of the melody, tasteful breakdown and build-up, and a good dose of space throughout the track make this an undeniable sweat-dripper, trippy chugger. A2 "Do Make Me Strange" has a similarly catchy diddy that undulates around the drums. Restraint is the key here. Hard but funky, with distorted and drippy acidic takes on the main simplistic melodic line--this is a cerebral come-up, cooling your sweaty skin and leading your body to the nooks and crannies of the Hyper Groove.

The title track "Easily Disturbed" opens up the B side by ushering in the mood of the later hours. This is titillating, popping, syncopated, subtle, but still raucous techno right here. Perfect for mid-peak and when you're in your head, sending forces of rave rhythm telepathically to the rest of the dance floor. "Crystalline" closes out the EP with a boom and bang. Hypnosis overcomes. The ego-death has won out against your anxieties. This is music for the thrill-seekers of metropolitan dystopias worldwide...executed with nuance and style.

Bristol based band Cousin Kula announce their debut album Double Dinners. With co-signs from the likes of BADBADNOTGOOD and newly signed to Rhythm Section, Cousin Kula have created their own musical universe of otherworldly pop serenity with vastly distinct, but complementary elements: “the possibilities of jazz, the emphatic energy of club culture, and the sonic tapestries of psychedelia” CLASH Magazine remark.

Living and recording together, nestled in the sun-drenched hills on the outskirts of Bristol, Cousin Kula are masters of their craft, and also of restraint; widely regarded by their fans for their superior live show. Having performed live in various bands for the past 10 years since their early teens, not being able to hit the stage during lockdown took its toll on these musicians. Ever resourceful, however, Cousin Kula began a series of their own home-made live sessions, which lead in turn to a Boiler Room Session and further a request from XL signees BADBADNOTGOOD to record a live adaptation of their new single.

Now, Cousin Kula flutter into the collective consciousness with a timeless slice of psychedelic soul on debut album Double Dinners. The latest band to emerge out of the buoyant Bristol music scene,
they have stripped back all excess baggage for their most accomplished recordings to date. Existing on a similar plane to contemporaries such as Connan Mockasin, Mildlife, Toro Y Moi, Mac DeMarco and HOMESHAKE, the band caught the attention of renowned tastemaker Bradley Zero with their 'Casa Kula Cassette' EP at the end of 2020, with the Rhythm Section founder swiftly taking the 5 piece under his wing, with him commenting:

“The band balance an outsider approach with more hooks than you can shake a stick at... the result being a gently beguiling sound that effortlessly draws you in, revealing more character with each listen.”

Black Vinyl, DL Card. Following Lucy Gooch’s acclaimed ‘Rain’s Break’, her first release on Fire Records earlier this year, the artist’s acclaimed debut EP ‘Rushing’ is revisited with new artwork and a brand new track, ‘Orthione’. “Lucy’s sound marries the etheral qualities of ambient music with buoyant, effortless pop” Crack ‘Rushing’ in its original shorter five-track incarnation was heralded as a touchstone beneath the cascading torrent of modern times and an oasis for turbulent times. An intimate collection of songs built around Lucy’s emotive vocals and unique ambient dream pop, the newly added stand-out track ‘Orthione’ trips into the esoteric world of Laurie Anderson and Philip Glass; here her voice is the grounding force that travels to a space that heals and grows. “For an artist whose favourite trick is the seemingly infinite crescendo, she clearly knows the value of restraint” Pitchfork // “Expansive, upfront, spectral pop” KEXP // “The pastoral element of the music resonates more as you tune in to Lucy’s unique vocal.” Loud And Quiet

The Mighty Soulmates is a towering early 90s project from the legitimate super group of André Cymone (bass player with Prince), St. Paul Peterson (guitarist with The Family and Prince), Mic Murphy (of Sass and The System fame) and Gardner Cole (writer, producer and musician probably best known for his work with Madonna). The sound is a majestic blend of sophisticated funk, emotional R&B, New Jack Swing flava and slick deep soul.

These should-be legendary sessions have been almost a secret since they were recorded back in 1993. The first Be With knew about the project was whilst working with Mic on some Sass re-issues and he told us he had something else we might be interested in hearing.

Mic explained, “In the summer of 1993, Gardner Cole asked if I’d be interested in coming out to work with him, André, and St. Paul. So we all headed out to what can best be described as a fantasy music summer camp at Gardner’s house in Woodland Hills, California. We had all worked together in the past in some form or another so everyone was energized and enthused and excited to see what we could create together. St Paul and Andre had already begun some songwriting at Gardner’s well equipped home garage studio. The songs and ideas progressed quickly and some additional recording was completed at André Cymone’s studio in downtown LA. We ended up working on the project for about 6 months, off and on, until Gardner's house fell victim to the Northridge Earthquake in January 1994.”

There were some vague ideas at the time about turning the sessions into a finished record, but everyone went back to their day jobs and as St. Paul puts it: “for nearly 30 years it just sat there, marinating like a fine funk masterpiece. Everything has its right time and now just be the time”.

From all the tracks Mic sent over, we’ve cherry picked the absolute cream for a tight four track EP. In an alternate history all four for these would’ve been radio smashes. No doubt. But these songs never even reached a plugger. A mixture of beat ballads and uptempo non-hits, coming on like Al B Sure! or Babyface take on Shalamar or, dare we say it, The Purple One - maybe not so surprising given who’s playing!

The feel-good dancefloor dynamite of “I Wanna Be The One” is the explosive opening track. A piano-driven, groove-laden blast of yearning deep-pop, with perfectly delivered soulful vocals and an unmistakable “early 90s” sound. Indeed, fans of Eddie Chacon’s old group will dig this for days. “Back In The Day” has a timeless swing and swagger, the lyrics reminiscing about the halcyon streetlife of the Soulmates’ youth, about Curtis, Superfly and innocent days gone by, about hustling with friends. Yet more spine-tingling vocals over yet another perfectly produced musical backdrop. Stunning.

Opening side B, “Blue Tuesday” is the thrilling pinnacle of the EP, at least for us. It’s absolute soulful-pop perfection, and the one we’ve been asked about most after teasing this collection on our NTS show. A soaring beat ballad full of chiming guitars, gorgeous harmonising, falsetto “doo-doo-doo-doo do-do-do-do” backing vocals and a real steppers’ groove. Glide to this with your loved one at the next roller rink party.

Dramatic, purple-hued closer “Private Time” seems to predict the Timbaland-dominated sound of the mid-to-late 90s, all synthetic strings and squelchy, acidic-drum-machine soul. There’s even room for funky piano breaks, vocoder bridges and more cowbell than you can shake a cowbell at. You could just as easily hear Aaliyah vibing over this as much as Mic.

This EP represents the sound of four incredibly soulful, talented, and influential (soul)mates jamming together over one long hot summer and weaving pure sonic magic. André Cymone loved the “kinda pop, experimental exploration of sound and music. I think these songs make a statement. Not just because of the collection of talented musicians involved but the idea of musically branching out and experimenting; which is what I loved about the project and for people to hear and hopefully appreciate the artistic adventure this music takes, I think it’s a much needed breath of fresh air.” As Mic recalls, “it had the feeling of recovery in a circle with my dudes making music sitting around catching up on life - it felt like living a second childhood. We just wrote what we felt. I don’t remember ‘aiming’ at anything but a great song, melding all our different influences from throughout our lives. We had no restraints. For me personally, it was a time to make music and regroup. I call it the ‘Soulmate Experience’ because in many ways we are kindred souls as a band. We did have an amazing time making the record and so much fun together. Probably my best summer ever”.

The Mighty Soulmates EP has been mastered for vinyl by Simon Francis, cut by Pete Norman at Finyl Tweek and pressed at Record Industry. That early 90s gloss sounds spectacular, if we do say so ourselves.

And such a special record needed some truly almighty artwork, so thanks go to DJ Ruby Savage for directing us to London-based illustrator and designer River Cousin. This music needed something elegant and indulgent yet soulful and striking and something as simultaneously tongue-in-check and deadly-serious as the group’s name. The end result is as modern yet timeless as the music itself.

And these are just our four picks. There’s plenty more where this came from and Mic tells us he’s even picked the album title: “Earthquake Summer”.

Both noted for strikingly forward-thinking bodies of solo work dating back to the 1990s, the duo of Andrew Pekler & Giuseppe Ielasi - collaborators for the better part of a decade - reemerge with 'Palimpsests’, their first outing with Shelter Press. Built from deconstructed layers of texture, tone, and arrhythmic percussiveness, the album’s 2 sides distill 6 years of work into 9 splintered, airy reimaginings of minimalism - each surprising, creatively rigorous, and startlingly beautiful - that rest at the outer reaches of contemporary electroacoustic practice and musique concrète.

Based in Berlin and Milan respectively, Andrew Pekler and Giuseppe Ielasi have individually carved singular paths across numerous disciplines within experimental music for more than 20 years, each deploying sampling, synthesis, and acoustic sources to weave their own, distinct worlds of sonorous abstraction. Brought together by years of friendship and a shared devotion to layered texture and complex, fractured structure, the pair first joined their creative energies in 2013, a collaboration that culminated as the LP, ‘Holiday For Sampler’, issued by Planam.

'Palimpsests’, the duo’s second outing, draws its material from a series of improvisations made by the Pekler and Ielasi in Milan during 2015. Over the ensuing six years, those recordings would undergo various transformations - cut, reworked, sampled, and added to by each artist, working at geographic distance between Berlin, Kyoto and Monza - before culminating, like the album’s title suggests, as a unique manifestation of musical palimpsest; “an object reused and altered, while still bearing visible traces of its earlier form”.

With each of the album’s compositions nodding toward a city with which Pekler and Ielasi hold biographical connections, 'Palimpsests’ constructs sound as poetic metaphor; a series of ghosts - traces of memory, image, and action - cut and reassembled, in cycling permutations, before been set into action at a glacial pace with layered, transparent forms.

Defined by remarkable restraint and pointillistic precision, across the album’s two sides Pekler and Ielasi weave the fractured remnants of their sessions - reduced to glitches and warbling fragments of texture and tonality - into pulsing expanses of spatial ambiance that defy imagism, blur the boundaries between the synthetic and organic - reducing their sources to a series of unknowns - recast the boundaries of electroacoustic practice on markedly singular terms.

Shelter Press is thrilled to present 'Palimpsests’, another brilliant outing from the duo of Andrew Pekler and Giuseppe Ielasi. Issued in a limited edition of 500 copies on black vinyl, with artworks on printed inner and outer sleeves by Traianos Pakioufakis.

Weighty Ways strongly believe that every now and then the Universe aligns a series of elements that leads to the uprising of a unique talent. Enter the Room 'Alfredo Romero', alias of Alfie Aukett, Music Extraordinaire hailing from West London. Alfredo Romero is the byproduct of where a philosophical understanding of the sonic landscape meets all its capabilities. With little regard for the restraints of traditional music theory and drawing influences from improvisational genres such as Jazz (which Alfie studied to a molecular level at Leeds University) makes for a superior musical tapestry woven by a man far beyond his years.

Alfie's quest for musical enlightenment started at a very young age as a Chorister and experimented with a plethora of musical instruments. This profound musical understanding is evident in "Retrain Station", a four track EP born from the ashes of a desolate 2020. A collection of seamlessly flowing production with tones drawn from the musical nuances of Jazz, Blues and Classical through to the ever evolving face of the electronic music scene from both sides of the pond.

Strong on all flavours from Jungle to Jazz. A magnificent EP from a truly special individual.

Stand High Records presents SH008: a brand spanking new 12” with two exclusive “discomix” cuts of Stand High Patrol's last two singles “Same Justice” and “Working Man”. Both tracks have a special link, they were made around the same time period and are of similar nature. These tunes share that special groove and sweetness reminiscent of the Dubadub Musketeerz’s rocksteady productions.

On these two discomix versions, Pupajim’s vocal parts are followed by Merry's trumpets, Mac Gyver then takes things into his own hands and dubs out the riddim! Time stretches and reveals the subtlety of the mix made at Kerwax's studio. Stand High Patrol exploits the riddims without restraint by offering each member of the crew the space to express their skills and inspirations. These two stunning discomix versions are the result of a real collective effort. They were built for Djs, soundsystems and for all those willing to dive into an eight-minute sonic journey!

‘The Pulse of Iron’ an apt reflection of modern progression into the unknown industrial world. It comes from Narrm based artist, Consulate who has found a home on Pure Space Records for our 10th label release. On this EP, Consulate delivers four tracks of dance music for the dystopian with a slick DnB sheen.

On the A-side ‘Postrach’ the centres the record squarely within the realm of its influences, its intricate percussive patterns offset by industrial ambience. Here a half-time snare cuts through the abyss of ambience, while a floating topline carys you through dreary territories. Completing the A-side is ‘Spec 4’, a subtly staunch percussive track that is fueled by acute vocal sampling, weighty breaks and a hypnotic dub infused bassline.

The flip side heads back into half-time territory with ‘The Fear’. Delayed vocal samples paired with dub-style stabs pulse in a heady but immersive rhythm. Rounding out the record is ‘Warlock’, a percussive track that proves the restraint Consulate has in his craft. Moody, sliced vocals skitter through delayed percussion creating a sense of tension. When it feels as though the storm is just about to hit, you are enveloped by fast-paced jungle breaks drawing you deeper into the eye of the storm.

‘Here beyond man’s judgements all covenants were brittle.’
~
Tracks written, produced and mixed by Consulate on Wurundjeri Land. Pure Space and Consulate both acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land and pay our respects to their elders past, present and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded.

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Pure Space Recordings is the label venture from the beloved radio show hosted by Andy Garvey, and produced by Mija Healey which has broadcast weekly on Eora Nation (Sydney) radio station FBi Radio for over four years. The label focuses on Australian music both for home listening and that made for the club.

Joviale is a multidisciplinary artist from North London making otherworldly, immersive music that plays with “minimal textures, killer interjections and vocals that are equal parts restraint and rage.” (The Times) Looping these high vocals with heady, emotional chords, they weave a screen around the listener, pulling them into chaptered, strangely sweet variations of the artist, divided out across albums, and designed to generate a performative atmosphere, both on stage and through the recording.

For their forthcoming EP Hurricane Belle NEVER SEVEN, spring 2021, Joviale combines warm sensual exposure with a flash of teeth, as the fictional Hurricane Belle whirls onto the scene, an embodiment of the “sense of electric and spiralised chaos” erupting from the artist’s centre. Hurricane Belle is a Champion that was inspired by Peter Shenai’s “Hurricane Bell” experiment, in which he cast brass bells modelled on the five stages of Hurricane Katrina. Industrial, insatiable and metallic, Hurricane Belle is embedded in the album not only through sound, but also through sight; the first single of the project, Blow, will be accompanied by a self-directed video, reflecting Joviale’s increased interest in the visual arts, and in building multisensory experiences. As written in the accompanying prose for the album, “Let yourselves into my breath, my rhythm and my core. Take pleasure in the whiplash of this collection.”

2019 saw the release of the artist’s debut EP Crisis, in which Joviale wielded narrative and storytelling to build a dreamy, silk-wrapped universe across songs such as Dreamboat, and Taste of the Heavens. As with Hurricane Belle, Crisis was created in collaboration with the producer Bullion, and it has been widely supported by press, including interviews in The Face and Coeval, and features in Dazed, Line of Best Fit, Guardian, The Times, Fader, Crack and Clash, among others. The EP also merited radio support from Huw Stephens on BBC Radio 1, Jamz Supernova on BBC 1xtra, Selector FM, Matt Wilkinson on Beats 1, Tom Ravenscroft, Tom Robinson on BBC 6 Music, Dan Alani on Reprezent, and Worldwide FM, among others.
Joviale belongs to a generation of artists with a strong sense of collaborative, interdisciplinary practice. The artist leans into this skill-sharing, research-led community, valuing project-based work that allows for the development of concepts related to visual and sound culture. This is reflected in them having recently directed a video for Laura Groves, as well as running a bi-monthly radio show on NTS over a period of twelve months. They carry a deep interest in the connection between the arts, ecological sciences, and semi-fictive encounters, as well as the wider London scene. In 2019, The Face described Joviale’s sound and aesthetic as “building the London artist a loyal fan base”, an effect that encompasses their involvement in the city’s music circuit; Joviale built a reputation for their live shows before releasing any official music. They have played support shows for artists that include Celeste, Zsela, Kate Tempest, Nilufer Yanya, Babeheaven, Kindness, and Westerman, and, in 2019, Joviale sold out their first headline show at Folklore, Hackney.

Now as standard black vinyl unlimited edition! - The 10-track longplayer with eight re-recorded favourite songs from the band’s catalogue and two new tracks, one called "Passive Restraints" with guest vocals by Randy Blythe from Lamb Of God!

Beginning in the summer of 2019 Weathermaker Music started to release digital only Clutch covers and re-recorded songs from their own vast catalog as a way to keep the band in the mix and in the media. The campaign is called "The Weathermaker Vault Series" and it has been successful so far with the digital release of eight singles. An album of 10 tracks on CD format was released Nov. 27, 2020 and the limited edition "Opaque White" white LP was out on January 29, 2021 entitled "The Weathermaker Vault Series Vol. I". The album contains two unreleased tracks: "Passive Restraints" with guest vocals by Randy Blythe from Lamb of God and a Spanish language cover version of "Algo Ha Cambiado", an old punk rock track by an Argentinian legend, Norberto Napolitano. As vinyl is such a thought after item these days and since the limited edition "Opaque White" LP version sold out so very quickly Weathermaker Music decided to add another LP format, this time on black vinyl.

Los Angeles-based harpist Mary Lattimore returns with Silver Ladders, the full-length follow-up to acclaimed album Hundreds of Days. Since 2018, Lattimore has toured internationally, released collaborative albums with artists such as Meg Baird and Mac McCaughan, and shared a friends-based remix album featuring artists such as Jónsi and Julianna Barwick. At one of her festival appearances, Lattimore met Slowdive’s Neil Halstead: “A friend introduced us because she knew how big of a fan I was and Neil and I had a little chat... The next day, I just thought maybe he’d be into producing my next record.” He was. Lattimore traditionally records her albums holed up by herself, so the addition of Halstead’s touches as a producer and collaborator leave a profound trace. “I flew on a little plane to Newquay in Cornwall where he lives with his lovely partner Ingrid and their baby. I didn’t know what his studio was like, he’d never recorded a harp, but somehow it really worked

Recorded over nine days at Halstead’s studio stationed on an old airfield, Silver Ladders finds Lattimore exercising command and restraint. Her signature style is refined, the sprawling layers of harp reigned in and accented by flourishes of low end synth and Halstead’s guitar. The music can feel ominous but not by compromising vivid wonder, like oceanic overtones that shift with the tides. This material is colored by specific memories for Lattimore; “Neil has this poster of a surfer in his studio and I’d look at it each day, looking at the sunlight glinting on the dark wave. In these songs I like the contrast between the dark lows and the glittering highs. The gloom and the glimmer, the opposites, a lively surfing town in the winter turned kinda rainy and empty and quiet.”

Lattimore and Halstead reformed three existing demos and improvised the remaining four songs. Among the batch she brought with her, the title track recalls a trip she took to Stari Grad, Croatia on the island of Hvar. “I spent some days there just swimming in the bay, silver ladders right into the sea.” The image stuck with her when she found herself performing at a cliffside wedding overlooking the Pacific. “Before anyone showed up, I had time to set up and play and this song came to me, ‘Silver Ladders (to the sea)’, so I made a little recording on my phone to remember it.” This sketch expanded; a delicately glittering harp melody comes over the horizon, swelling and rolling towards the shore on ebbs of synth and refractory delay.

A chirp, a wine and a gurgle are the sounds that make the song of swallow. You won't find any of them on here though. The third installment of this sampler series features well-rounded dance and prance material instead. Four artists, four hits. Berlin duo Cyrk pay tribute to their favorite Sunday parties with Italo Blade. Barely hidden by its name, it cuts right through any heart of stone with aural infatuation and elation. Portraying the best moment in someone's life after a gig at the infamous Papaya Playa Project, Smallville records associate Snad, delivers a skippy and irresistible MPC jam that makes one want to whistle along. The baroque effect and element of Voon's music is a given. The Italian duo made that clear with Rose in Japan and is able to repeat the trick with Brando. Like Rondo Veneziano at a rave, it's larger than life and happily jumping over the inhibition gate of restraint. Finally, Lukas Lehmann takes the boiling pot off the stove. Juno Cuts A Caper is an ode to synthesizer number six of the renowned Roland series and a masterclass in simmering down. All in all: fun, fun, fun.-

Under exhausted lights of civil discontent the count has just began. What you parodied, what you scrutinised rears its pure gaze when punctured beyond performance. We cried for justice but instead found order, and now we face the chain. PC World comes through with a haunting EP on She Lost Kontrol to distort the view and warp the vision of industrial addicts and mutant punks with their second release “Order”, a discursive counterattack on four distinct forms of command. The South London duo disfigures the unconscious reduction of pleasure and fetish, the connective tissue between privatisation and violence, the seduction of societal norms, and the neurotic tendencies of self-defeat. Like the surrender to a future shock, these four interwoven tracks are produced for the recognition of restraint and the demand for wanting more. B-side remixes of the title track “Order” come from Physical Wash (former member of High-Functioning Flesh) and Aktion Mutante (featuring members of Violent Poison and Unhuman), two additional perversions of protocol from synth-punk veterans on both sides of the Atlantic. So initiate these six cries of havoc in solidarity with this wasted world, a world of precarious necessity and incessant definition. A world whose shape and conscience will forever be satisfied by order.

Australian award winning producer Plutonic Lab returns with a sophisticated, genre defying Double A Side Single ‘Blind Eyes’ and ‘Give It Up.’

Pluto brings together a strong list of talented artists: The soulful, smoky voice of Natalie Slade, New Zealand based Rwandan rapper Raiza Biza, and multi instrumentalist 8H.

The two tracks mark an intoxicating return for the producer, showcasing how he is able to bring together artists’ of diverse backgrounds and styles to display skills, restraint and synergy in a moment in time.

Plutonic Lab says, “I feel the sound of these two pieces have a great balance between electronic textures, acoustic instrumentation, jazz, tough beats and clout.”

The two songs are an example of Plutonic Lab’s collaborative, versatile nature and his ability to cross genres without limitations.



Plutonic Lab
Plutonic Lab has provided the backdrop for countless artists over a mammoth career spanning over two decades, collaborating with artists locally and internationally including Black Milk, Drapht, Hilltop Hoods, G-Love (US), Lanks, Guilty Simpson (US) and Wiley (UK).

Plutonic Lab’s 2016 LP “Deep Above The Noise” attained feature album status on Double J and Won “Best Hip-Hop Album’ at the AGE Music Victoria Awards 2016. Notably he produced Dialectrix’s 2013 album, “The Cold Light of Day” which was shortlisted for the Australian Music Prize, won the 2009 UK Mercury Prize for his work with Speech Debelle, and was nominated for ‘Best Urban Release’ at the 2008 ARIA Awards as half of the hip-hop duo Muph & Plutonic, who also placed 2 songs in the Triple J’s “Hottest 100.”

Pluto has toured across extensively across Australia, internationally and as tour drummer for Hilltop Hoods in the U.S, Canada, UK & Europe.

For Chris Tooker, the first decade of his artistic journey was immersed in bands while the second was engaged in wandering the realms of electronica in the form of creator, composer and engineer for DJ duo KMLN. Today, after many incarnations, Tooker returns to the source of himself while carrying both the treasures of his past and a vision for the future. Tooker has long been called to pursuing obsessive trails through the greater cosmos. On these journeys, he seeks particles with a hypnotic essence. Once found, he interprets this magic in his own special way, through the most universal language - music. His music tells stories of fascinating adventures through the dust, the palms, and the gritty streets of yonder. It is colorful, deep, and disco laced. It flaunts rare collected percussion (delivered live in his sets), various instruments and sometimes whispers a touch of voice. Now his solo-debut EP Nang’o drops on Acid Pauli and Nico Stojan’s label Ouie. For the lead track Nang’o, Tooker recruits the phenomenal talents of Kenya’s multi-instrumentalist Labdi. Labdi’s oruto (a western Kenyan fiddle instrument) and bewitching vocals provide the hooks for this subtle, shuffling track, presented here as both a full version and as an instrumental. Baladi features Shawna Hofmann both on co-production and vocal duties - this time a more driving, rolling groove develops with Shawna adding sultry, evocative vocals to the mix. Undone rounds off the physical release - another signature exercise in subtlety and restraint, as an infectious groove folds in bubbling synths, crisp percussion and dubby effects.

Way nding is Christopher Bissonnette’s sixth solo studio release and his rst, of hopefully many, for 12k. The album embodies an evolution of Bissonnette’s work, moving from an exclusively synth-based series of explorations to an amalgam of electronics and acoustic methods. Each track seeks to nd grandeur on a diminutive scale. Bissonnette’s focus has shifted from sweeping pastoral drones to introspective passages with delicate melody and elusive harmonies interlaced with studio and eld recordings. This minute scale is also re ected in a photographic series that studies the domestic landscape of home. The sequence of images transforms the banality and insigni cance of the familial interior into expansive vistas and bucolic panoramas. Way nding is Bissonnette’s most intimate and gauzy work to date and executed with beautiful restraint.

The collaborative debut of American minimal techno pioneer Troy Pierce and Colombian audiovisual artist Natalia Escobar aka Poison Arrow was conceived in reverse: first they created a collection of shadowy surrealist videos, then wrote music inspired by them. This inverted process proved remarkably fruitful. Shatter is a simmering, slow-burn noir odyssey inspired by the Greek myth of Echo and Narcissus, traversing subtle shades of sleepwalker dub, metallic lament, broken beats, and erotic negative space. It's an effectively unsettling evocation of the legend's core theme: “There is nothing more complex than a shattered heart, or a heart that can't love.”

Considering their shared background trafficking in darkened dance floor modes, what's most striking about Pierce with Arrow's partnership is its rhythmic restraint. The album's 10 tracks seethe and shudder between glamor and gloom, with only occasional dread-steeped metronomes mapping the malaise to a grid. They speak of pursuing a “spatial approach” with this project, which manifests in the music's immersive design and patient execution, each mangled clang and rippling pool of bass allowed to reverberate

its full flickering waveform.

The collaborative debut of American minimal techno pioneer Troy Pierce and Colombian audiovisual artist Natalia Escobar aka Poison Arrow was conceived in reverse: first they created a collection of shadowy surrealist videos, then wrote music inspired by them. This inverted process proved remarkably fruitful. Shatter is a simmering, slow-burn noir odyssey inspired by the Greek myth of Echo and Narcissus, traversing subtle shades of sleepwalker dub, metallic lament, broken beats, and erotic negative space. It's an effectively unsettling evocation of the legend's core theme: "There is nothing more complex than a shattered heart, or a heart that can't love." Considering their shared background trafficking in darkened dance floor modes, what's most striking about Pierce with Arrow's partnership is its rhythmic restraint. The album's 10 tracks seethe and shudder between glamor and gloom, with only occasional dread-steeped metronomes mapping the malaise to a grid. They speak of pursuing a "spatial approach" with this project, which manifests in the music's immersive design and patient execution, each mangled clang and rippling pool of bass allowed to reverberate its full flickering waveform. Guest appearances by austere techno producer Konrad Black ("Obsidian Glass") and drum n bass institution dBridge ("It's A Love Story, After All") flow seamlessly into the whole, subtle sculptural accents on a dimly lit descent through purgatories of longing and lust. But the shadows recede for the record's closing cut, "Narcissus," which swells elegiacally in a mass of devotional drones over a muted heartbeat, like Narcissus gazing upon his reflection in holy awe: elusive true beauty, finally beheld, by itself.

The variety of Kühn’s pianism in this collection is
quite remarkable.
The listener is first welcomed into the inviting,
comforting and regular pulse of Mal Waldron’s
‘Warm Canto’. And yet later, by complete contrast,
Kühn’s own composition ‘Sintra’ gives a
masterclass in freedom, delay and the alchemical
art of keeping the listener waiting on tenterhooks.
Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’ is achingly soulful, whereas
Kühn found the encouragement to revisit Bill
Evans’ ‘Peace Piece’ from the dignity and restraint
of classical pianist Igor Levit’s version.
LP pressed on 180g vinyl.

4-Track Guitar Music is the unassuming title of a cassette by Swedish composer Mats Erlandsson, which was originally released on Kali Maloneʼs and Maria W. Hornʼs XKatedral label in 2018. Composed using only, as the album title implies, a 4-track tape deck and an electric guitar, the music was later modified on the computer and re-amplified in the machine hall of Ställbergs Gruva, a disbanded Swedish iron mine.

The music is primarily composed using melodic motifs and canonical structures in which a set of pitches are transposed in octaves and delayed, creating an ever-evolving cyclical polyphony. Contrary to the albumʼs modest title, the music is a tour-de-force of exuberance and stoic catharsis, continuously bordering on a sense of ecstatic serenity, sincere contemplation and restraint.

Now Vaagner is proud to present the work on vinyl for the first time via a fully remastered reissue of 4-Track Guitar Music, with the Double LP including a bonus track titled "Cellar" by Mats Erlandsson which was not included on the original release.

As a composer, musician and sound artist, Mats Erlandsson is part of the vibrantly reemerging field of drone music in Stockholm, Sweden, and is associated with practices characterized by the extensive use of sustained sound.Erlandsson has undergone studies in composition in Stockholm, where he received a Masterʼs degree in Composition of Electronic Music. In addition to his own artistic practice, Erlandsson holds a position as studio assistant at the world-renowned Elektronmusikstudion (EMS) in Stockholm. He presents his work both as a solo artist and in collaborations, most notably together with Yair Elazar Glotman.Recent releases include Minnesmärke on Hallow Ground (2020), the collaboration Emmanatemade with Yair Elazar Glotman on 130701 (2020), Hypodermic Letters on Portals Editions (2018), Selective Miracles and Valentina Tereshkova on Posh Isolation (2016), and again together with Glotman, Negative Chambers on Miasmah (2017). Erlandsson has performed his work extensively, most recently at Présences Électronique hosted by the GRM in Paris, CTM 2019 and The Long Now in Berlin, Norbergfestival in Norberg, Sonica Festival in Ljubljana and in various music and arts venues around the world.

The collaborative debut of American minimal techno pioneer Troy Pierce and Colombian audiovisual artist Natalia Escobar aka Poison Arrow was conceived in reverse: first they created a collection of shadowy surrealist videos, then wrote music inspired by them. This inverted process proved remarkably fruitful. Shatter is a simmering, slow-burn noir odyssey inspired by the Greek myth of Echo and Narcissus, traversing subtle shades of sleepwalker dub, metallic lament, broken beats, and erotic negative space. It's an effectively unsettling evocation of the legend's core theme: “There is nothing more complex than a shattered heart, or a heart that can't love.”

Considering their shared background trafficking in darkened dance floor modes, what's most striking about Pierce with Arrow's partnership is its rhythmic restraint. The album's 10 tracks seethe and shudder between glamor and gloom, with only occasional dread-steeped metronomes mapping the malaise to a grid. They speak of pursuing a “spatial approach” with this project, which manifests in the music's immersive design and patient execution, each mangled clang and rippling pool of bass allowed to reverberate

its full flickering waveform.

The band that became Nightshift formed in 2019 in the ecosystem of Glasgow's current indie scene. The city's fertile & creative group of musicians have been committed to pushing the boundaries of and blurring the lines between DIY, punk, experimentalism and indie pop for decades now; a home to bands like Shopping, Vital Idles, Current Affairs, Still House Plants, and Happy Meals as well as forebears like Orange Juice, Teenage Fanclub and Yummy Fur. Nightshift slot right in with all mentioned, featuring members from current indie stalwarts Spinning Coin, 2 Ply and Robert Sotelo. Initially formed by guitarist David Campbell and bassist Andrew Doig as a "No Wave/No New York/ early Sonic Youth/This Heat-esque" group, the addition of Eothen Stern (keyboards/vocals) and Chris White (drums) instantaneously transformed their approach (guitarist/vocalist/clarinetist Georgia Harris joined as the band was writing "Zöe"). The band self-released a full-length tape on CUSP Recordings in early 2020, laying the foundation of their sound; hypnotic, melodic, understated indie post-punk with hooks that stick around long after you've heard them. "Zöe" is the band's newest effort, and first for Trouble In Mind. Unlike the band's previous album, the songs on "Zöe" weren't conceived live in the band's practice space, but rather pieced together and recorded remotely during quarantine lockdown, with each member composing or improvising their parts in homes/home studios, layering ideas over loops someone made and passing it on. The isolation actually allowed for an openness and creativity to flow and many of the songs took on radically different forms from when they were originally envisioned. Vocalist & primary lyricist Eothen Stern says "The process of writing these songs separately during lockdown was a kind of exquisite corpse - I liked this gesticulation of reaching out to one another and responding. Building up the next layer and passing it on." Stern says "poetic restraints" to writing & Eno's Oblique Strategies concepts were on their mind when composing the words to the songs on "Zöe" and lists the influence of author Rosi Bradiotti's book "The Posthuman". "Zöe" means "live drive", derived from the word conatus. Bradiotti defines conatus as "an effort or striving, endeavour, impulse, inclination, tendency, undertaking, serving is an innate inclination of a thing to continue to exist and enhance itself." and Stern views it as "...a kind of feminist re-claiming of communal public, anti- privatisation, looking to strive for social and environmental justice. Zöe kind of became a character of striving for me when writing.". "Zöe" kicks off with "Piece Together", a hypnotic song anchored by the band's chanted vocals and serpentine guitar licks. "Spraypaint the Bridge" showcases Harris' clarinet in an unexpected & delightful melodic shift during the song's anti-chorus. Elsewhere tunes like the swooning "Infinity Winner" and "Outta Space"s minimalist, slinky rhythm swirl in a late-night vibe, while "Make Kin" ruminates on "Looking to kinship as a way of engaging with entangled environmental and reproductive issues... how a band is a bond" and lurches forward with kinetic guitar strangling and staccato rhythmic percussion from White and Doig. "Power Cut" is the album's centerpiece, kicking off side two and lures the listener into its world over it's 7-minute runtime. Lulling them into involuntary movement with its waves of melodic harmonies, synth drones and metronomic pulse, until they all come crashing down in the song's dissonant midsection. The band acknowledges the whiffs of nostalgia prevalent in "Zöe"s songs (the title track in particular), and the nature of writing and recording the album is soaked in the self-work, reflection and reevaluations involved not only personally but creatively in each member's lives. Consequently, the album becomes a collection of sketches of hope, growth, awareness of the power of the world and the power of self, kith, kinship, friendship, resistance, and possibility.

The band that became Nightshift formed in 2019 in the ecosystem of Glasgow's current indie scene. The city's fertile & creative group of musicians have been committed to pushing the boundaries of and blurring the lines between DIY, punk, experimentalism and indie pop for decades now; a home to bands like Shopping, Vital Idles, Current Affairs, Still House Plants, and Happy Meals as well as forebears like Orange Juice, Teenage Fanclub and Yummy Fur. Nightshift slot right in with all mentioned, featuring members from current indie stalwarts Spinning Coin, 2 Ply and Robert Sotelo. Initially formed by guitarist David Campbell and bassist Andrew Doig as a "No Wave/No New York/ early Sonic Youth/This Heat-esque" group, the addition of Eothen Stern (keyboards/vocals) and Chris White (drums) instantaneously transformed their approach (guitarist/vocalist/clarinetist Georgia Harris joined as the band was writing "Zöe"). The band self-released a full-length tape on CUSP Recordings in early 2020, laying the foundation of their sound; hypnotic, melodic, understated indie post-punk with hooks that stick around long after you've heard them. "Zöe" is the band's newest effort, and first for Trouble In Mind. Unlike the band's previous album, the songs on "Zöe" weren't conceived live in the band's practice space, but rather pieced together and recorded remotely during quarantine lockdown, with each member composing or improvising their parts in homes/home studios, layering ideas over loops someone made and passing it on. The isolation actually allowed for an openness and creativity to flow and many of the songs took on radically different forms from when they were originally envisioned. Vocalist & primary lyricist Eothen Stern says "The process of writing these songs separately during lockdown was a kind of exquisite corpse - I liked this gesticulation of reaching out to one another and responding. Building up the next layer and passing it on." Stern says "poetic restraints" to writing & Eno's Oblique Strategies concepts were on their mind when composing the words to the songs on "Zöe" and lists the influence of author Rosi Bradiotti's book "The Posthuman". "Zöe" means "live drive", derived from the word conatus. Bradiotti defines conatus as "an effort or striving, endeavour, impulse, inclination, tendency, undertaking, serving is an innate inclination of a thing to continue to exist and enhance itself." and Stern views it as "...a kind of feminist re-claiming of communal public, anti- privatisation, looking to strive for social and environmental justice. Zöe kind of became a character of striving for me when writing.". "Zöe" kicks off with "Piece Together", a hypnotic song anchored by the band's chanted vocals and serpentine guitar licks. "Spraypaint the Bridge" showcases Harris' clarinet in an unexpected & delightful melodic shift during the song's anti-chorus. Elsewhere tunes like the swooning "Infinity Winner" and "Outta Space"s minimalist, slinky rhythm swirl in a late-night vibe, while "Make Kin" ruminates on "Looking to kinship as a way of engaging with entangled environmental and reproductive issues... how a band is a bond" and lurches forward with kinetic guitar strangling and staccato rhythmic percussion from White and Doig. "Power Cut" is the album's centerpiece, kicking off side two and lures the listener into its world over it's 7-minute runtime. Lulling them into involuntary movement with its waves of melodic harmonies, synth drones and metronomic pulse, until they all come crashing down in the song's dissonant midsection. The band acknowledges the whiffs of nostalgia prevalent in "Zöe"s songs (the title track in particular), and the nature of writing and recording the album is soaked in the self-work, reflection and reevaluations involved not only personally but creatively in each member's lives. Consequently, the album becomes a collection of sketches of hope, growth, awareness of the power of the world and the power of self, kith, kinship, friendship, resistance, and possibility.

The band that became Nightshift formed in 2019 in the ecosystem of Glasgow's current indie scene. The city's fertile & creative group of musicians have been committed to pushing the boundaries of and blurring the lines between DIY, punk, experimentalism and indie pop for decades now; a home to bands like Shopping, Vital Idles, Current Affairs, Still House Plants, and Happy Meals as well as forebears like Orange Juice, Teenage Fanclub and Yummy Fur. Nightshift slot right in with all mentioned, featuring members from current indie stalwarts Spinning Coin, 2 Ply and Robert Sotelo. Initially formed by guitarist David Campbell and bassist Andrew Doig as a "No Wave/No New York/ early Sonic Youth/This Heat-esque" group, the addition of Eothen Stern (keyboards/vocals) and Chris White (drums) instantaneously transformed their approach (guitarist/vocalist/clarinetist Georgia Harris joined as the band was writing "Zöe"). The band self-released a full-length tape on CUSP Recordings in early 2020, laying the foundation of their sound; hypnotic, melodic, understated indie post-punk with hooks that stick around long after you've heard them. "Zöe" is the band's newest effort, and first for Trouble In Mind. Unlike the band's previous album, the songs on "Zöe" weren't conceived live in the band's practice space, but rather pieced together and recorded remotely during quarantine lockdown, with each member composing or improvising their parts in homes/home studios, layering ideas over loops someone made and passing it on. The isolation actually allowed for an openness and creativity to flow and many of the songs took on radically different forms from when they were originally envisioned. Vocalist & primary lyricist Eothen Stern says "The process of writing these songs separately during lockdown was a kind of exquisite corpse - I liked this gesticulation of reaching out to one another and responding. Building up the next layer and passing it on." Stern says "poetic restraints" to writing & Eno's Oblique Strategies concepts were on their mind when composing the words to the songs on "Zöe" and lists the influence of author Rosi Bradiotti's book "The Posthuman". "Zöe" means "live drive", derived from the word conatus. Bradiotti defines conatus as "an effort or striving, endeavour, impulse, inclination, tendency, undertaking, serving is an innate inclination of a thing to continue to exist and enhance itself." and Stern views it as "...a kind of feminist re-claiming of communal public, anti- privatisation, looking to strive for social and environmental justice. Zöe kind of became a character of striving for me when writing.". "Zöe" kicks off with "Piece Together", a hypnotic song anchored by the band's chanted vocals and serpentine guitar licks. "Spraypaint the Bridge" showcases Harris' clarinet in an unexpected & delightful melodic shift during the song's anti-chorus. Elsewhere tunes like the swooning "Infinity Winner" and "Outta Space"s minimalist, slinky rhythm swirl in a late-night vibe, while "Make Kin" ruminates on "Looking to kinship as a way of engaging with entangled environmental and reproductive issues... how a band is a bond" and lurches forward with kinetic guitar strangling and staccato rhythmic percussion from White and Doig. "Power Cut" is the album's centerpiece, kicking off side two and lures the listener into its world over it's 7-minute runtime. Lulling them into involuntary movement with its waves of melodic harmonies, synth drones and metronomic pulse, until they all come crashing down in the song's dissonant midsection. The band acknowledges the whiffs of nostalgia prevalent in "Zöe"s songs (the title track in particular), and the nature of writing and recording the album is soaked in the self-work, reflection and reevaluations involved not only personally but creatively in each member's lives. Consequently, the album becomes a collection of sketches of hope, growth, awareness of the power of the world and the power of self, kith, kinship, friendship, resistance, and possibility.

Me And Ennui Are Friends, Baby is the latest full-length from New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based singer-songwriter, Sarah Mary Chadwick, whose brutally honest songwriting has cast her contrary to the gentleness of most current music. Comprised entirely of minimal solo piano arrangements, the album is despondently clear-eyed and smirkingly self-deprecating, completing a trilogy of records that started with The Queen Who Stole The Sky recorded on Melbourne Town Hall’s grand organ, and her only outing to date featuring a full band, Please Daddy. Each record has followed Chadwick’s internal processing after a traumatic event, with Chadwick’s zeal for psychoanalysis front and center. On Ennui, Chadwick presents an exacting intensity with her choice to pare back to piano and vocals. It’s in this stark setting that she focuses on the attempt she made on her life in 2019. The methods Chadwick employed here contrast those of her previous full-band record, which thrust her into a very different world of rehearsal, planning, restraint and control as a functional tool. The result, 2020’s critically acclaimed Please Daddy, was her most aching and engaging achievement to date: “a raw, often unnerving experience,” which “delivers compelling and uplifting catharsis” (Mojo). Recording Ennui shortly after those sessions, Chadwick concludes her trilogy by returning to the most immediate compositional process she can muster, doing it alone, with less between her and the microphone than ever before. Joined by long time production collaborators, Me And Ennui was mastered by David Walker at Stepford Audio and mixed and recorded by Geoff O’Connor at Vanity Lair—both expertly bringing scale, subtlety and intangible ascendence to this recording.

One of the most striking documents of Italy’s Minimalist movement, Giusto Pio’s "Motore Immobile" is a work with few equivalents. Produced by Franco Battiato in 1979, at the outset of a long and fruitful period of collaboration between the two composers, and issued by the legendary Cramps Records, its triumphs were met by silence, before falling from view.

"Motore Immobile" now sits within a reappraisal of a large neglected body of efforts made by the Italian avant-garde during the second half of the 1970’s and early 80’s. It is singular, but not alone. It resonates within a collective world of shimmering sound, one familiar to fans of Battiato, Lino Capra Vaccina, Luciano Cilio, Roberto Cacciapaglia, Francesco Messina and Raul Lovisoni.

An exercise in elegant restraint - note and resonance held to the most implicit need. Where everything between root and embellishment has been stripped away. A sublime organ drone, against interventions of deceptively simple structural complexity - executed by Piano, Violin, and Voice. A sonic sculpture reaching heights which few have touched. A thing of beauty and an album as perfect as they come.

Though synthesizers are the backbone of Shen’s music, while performing live, she plays self-made synths, invented instruments, and even acoustic objects like a bull whip.
Her live show vacillates between moments of restraint and swells of frenetic and confrontational movement. Her sound is dynamic with a sensitivity to texture and structure throughout. This sensitivity is maintained in her debut LP
Hair Birth, the result of several weekends locked in a studio creating cacophonous, wondrous synth noise with Harvard’s Buchla 100 and Serge modular systems.
She tracked hours of stems before cloistering herself in a painstaking editing process. Songs like ‘Under The Stall Door’ sound like a cybernetic rollercoaster with rumbles and shrieks that hurtle the listener through virtual space. Others, like ‘Bolete,’ are tense, dense mood pieces that move from the queasy to the tranquil to the surreal.

Big Crown Records is proud to present Ekundayo, Liam Bailey’s debut record on the label. This album is a long time in the making, and after listening, clearly worth the wait. It didn’t take a long time to record, but it did take years for all the stars to line up.

Bailey, born and raised in Nottingham, England, the son of an English mother and Jamaican father got his early influences from his mom’s record collection. Bob Marley and Dillinger, Stevie Wonder and The Supremes, The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix would eventually shape the singer/songwriter we know today.
Fast-forward to 2005, Liam is in London and doing the whatever-gig-you-can-get musician hustle with hopes of landing a record deal. And it was through this time that Liam first teamed up with Leon Michels, musician / producer luminary, and the co-founder of Brooklyn's own Big Crown Records. Liam flew out to New York and those first sessions together produced the now classic tunes “When Will They Learn” and “I’m Gonna Miss You” which still get spins at reggae spots around the globe. That trip helped kick off what was to follow next for Liam: a slew of record releases, label deals, and working with some wildly-notable mainstream producers. Even a just-famous Amy Winehouse heard one of Liam's apartment-made, lo-fi recordings through a friend and liked what she heard. Regardless of the audio quality, Liam's particular sound shone through—all guitar, warm-rough and genuine soul. She signed him to her label shortly after.

But, as the story can go with major labels, they already had an idea of the Liam they wanted to make, promote, and push. With the typical pay-day enticement, Liam did his best to fit into whatever shape they put him to. "'Maybe I can make it work,' that's what you're thinking," Liam remembers, "but, you quickly find out that you can't."

While Liam’s career went through a bunch of record industry twists and turns he and Michels stayed in touch and would regularly connect and collaborate. Finally, in 2019, the time was right to do a full-length album together. And this time, it would be free of any restricting major label presumptions and opinions. "This is the record we always wanted to make," says Michels. Set to release in November 2020, the album is called Ekundayo. And the word's meaning may be all you need to know to get to the essence of this project. It means "sorrow becomes joy" in Yoruba, a language spoken mostly in Western Africa. On the surface, Ekundayo is a weighty Reggae record, full of new and old textured riddims. But listen more in-depth, and you'll find subject matter that's more recognizable from a modern-day R&B record. An example of the former is the first single off the album. Sung to the most beautiful woman at the nightspot, "Champion" is a joyous anthem powered by a silly-thick Juno-bass throb and 808-proof drums. In short, "Champion" is dancehall-ready. But then there's a song like "Don't Blame NY." Moody and sparse with a somber drive, you might have to resist the urge to compare it to a Frank Ocean-ish type vibe. Liam's voice is in a different but fitting element here, showing stripped-back emotion and soulful restraint. Anyone who has lived and tried to thrive in New York won't have a hard time relating to the lyrics but they may join the masses who blame the city, while Liam points the finger at himself and sings praises to The Big Apple.

Credit to Leon's hand, elements of Jamaican production are everywhere, peppered throughout the record. Like the pitch-perfect organ stabs that push through the authentically positive "White Light," or the muted, percussive guitar strums that chug along in the back of "Fight." In the same vein of any fantastic singer/songwriter album, Ekundayo is a reflection of who Liam Bailey is, taking on topics and approaches he never would think of just a few years ago. Some evidence: "Ugly Truth" is about reconnecting with his biological father, a subject he once thought would be too personal to address. The journey from conforming to major labels to this latest record has been a long one for Liam, and a bit of a struggle. But struggle may be the only way we truly grow and evolve. With a new clarity of purpose, sound, and life, Liam has found joy out of those struggles. And it's called Ekundayo.

Big Crown Records is proud to present Ekundayo, Liam Bailey’s debut record on the label. This album is a long time in the making, and after listening, clearly worth the wait. It didn’t take a long time to record, but it did take years for all the stars to line up.

Bailey, born and raised in Nottingham, England, the son of an English mother and Jamaican father got his early influences from his mom’s record collection. Bob Marley and Dillinger, Stevie Wonder and The Supremes, The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix would eventually shape the singer/songwriter we know today.
Fast-forward to 2005, Liam is in London and doing the whatever-gig-you-can-get musician hustle with hopes of landing a record deal. And it was through this time that Liam first teamed up with Leon Michels, musician / producer luminary, and the co-founder of Brooklyn's own Big Crown Records. Liam flew out to New York and those first sessions together produced the now classic tunes “When Will They Learn” and “I’m Gonna Miss You” which still get spins at reggae spots around the globe. That trip helped kick off what was to follow next for Liam: a slew of record releases, label deals, and working with some wildly-notable mainstream producers. Even a just-famous Amy Winehouse heard one of Liam's apartment-made, lo-fi recordings through a friend and liked what she heard. Regardless of the audio quality, Liam's particular sound shone through—all guitar, warm-rough and genuine soul. She signed him to her label shortly after.

But, as the story can go with major labels, they already had an idea of the Liam they wanted to make, promote, and push. With the typical pay-day enticement, Liam did his best to fit into whatever shape they put him to. "'Maybe I can make it work,' that's what you're thinking," Liam remembers, "but, you quickly find out that you can't."

While Liam’s career went through a bunch of record industry twists and turns he and Michels stayed in touch and would regularly connect and collaborate. Finally, in 2019, the time was right to do a full-length album together. And this time, it would be free of any restricting major label presumptions and opinions. "This is the record we always wanted to make," says Michels. Set to release in November 2020, the album is called Ekundayo. And the word's meaning may be all you need to know to get to the essence of this project. It means "sorrow becomes joy" in Yoruba, a language spoken mostly in Western Africa. On the surface, Ekundayo is a weighty Reggae record, full of new and old textured riddims. But listen more in-depth, and you'll find subject matter that's more recognizable from a modern-day R&B record. An example of the former is the first single off the album. Sung to the most beautiful woman at the nightspot, "Champion" is a joyous anthem powered by a silly-thick Juno-bass throb and 808-proof drums. In short, "Champion" is dancehall-ready. But then there's a song like "Don't Blame NY." Moody and sparse with a somber drive, you might have to resist the urge to compare it to a Frank Ocean-ish type vibe. Liam's voice is in a different but fitting element here, showing stripped-back emotion and soulful restraint. Anyone who has lived and tried to thrive in New York won't have a hard time relating to the lyrics but they may join the masses who blame the city, while Liam points the finger at himself and sings praises to The Big Apple.

Credit to Leon's hand, elements of Jamaican production are everywhere, peppered throughout the record. Like the pitch-perfect organ stabs that push through the authentically positive "White Light," or the muted, percussive guitar strums that chug along in the back of "Fight." In the same vein of any fantastic singer/songwriter album, Ekundayo is a reflection of who Liam Bailey is, taking on topics and approaches he never would think of just a few years ago. Some evidence: "Ugly Truth" is about reconnecting with his biological father, a subject he once thought would be too personal to address. The journey from conforming to major labels to this latest record has been a long one for Liam, and a bit of a struggle. But struggle may be the only way we truly grow and evolve. With a new clarity of purpose, sound, and life, Liam has found joy out of those struggles. And it's called Ekundayo.

Following up on their debut LP Kick Drunk Love for Marcel Vogel’s Intimate Friends imprint a few years back, we are proud to present the next installment in the sporadic KAMM legacy: Cookie Policies.

Far more sonically rich and musically adventurous than its predecessor, Cookie Policies sees the band make bold strides into new territories where classically hardwired categories such as jazz, indie rock, and electronica melt into one another with immaculate, timeless ease.

The band members’ positions are more clear cut as well this round, with Marc David Barrite (aka Dave Aju, who also did one of his coveted mix engineering jobs on the LP) on prominent lead vocals in many of the pieces, Alland Byallo on trumpet, Kenneth Scott on synth bass, and Marc Smith adding guitar sections while the others shared the arranging and programming duties. This makes for a deeper continuation of the otherworldly combination of their known individual production styles, as well as a musical whole truly greater than the sum of its parts.

The set starts off with “Bird Call”, whose opening ode to Morricone ok corral-meets-samurai showdown riffs flow into a loose and drifting psychedelic boom bap blip, building until a glorious change-up of key and energy brings the track to its peak and deconstructed back down. “Rachel, the Largest Bullfrog” then takes things in a sweeter, slightly more traditionally-structured direction where dusty indie-folk ballad vibes intersect with an array of twisted cosmic tones, bits of computer keyboard percussion, and deep rolling sub bass. “Buckle Down” then moves things back away from acoustic restraints into a beautiful synth-laden musing on potential regret, with an ultra-potent horn section from Byallo vs a nasty stacked Roland SH-101 finish.

“CCBPGC” cools things off for a few minutes with an ambient field recording slice-and-dice motif, which slowly but surely evolves into a slinking jazz noir groove from another dimension. The more traditional song structures return on the lovely “La Luna”, where Barrite’s pen and soulful voice take to nautical longing themes over apropos waves of sonic textures. The ebb and flow of the verse/chorus sections eventually rise and give way to an absolutely gorgeous denouement. “Shleem” then takes us into pure unadulterated soaring sci-fi soundtrack ambient blast-off bliss, while the epic closing track “The Soft Glow of Electric Sex” gives a hearty nod to early masters of sprawling psychedelic jam sessions, from Pink Floyd and Can to In A Silent Way-era Miles and Liquid Liquid, while bringing it clearly into futurist millennia. The gradual evolution of the piece into its grand finale is the stuff we true music-lovers live and die for. We hope you enjoy the ride as much as we do.

At the heart of Christian Stadsgaard's solo project Vanity Productions is a voracious emotive charge that's forever tempered by an austere and self-disciplined approach to composition. His new album for Posh Isolation, the label and project that he authors with Loke Rahbek, is the most thoroughgoing realisation of the tendencies and processes captured in the guise of Vanity Productions to date. Entitled 'But All Spiked,' the album presents a suite of five pieces that veer surely yet subtly through a complimentary range of acousmatic environments. Of his recent works its perhaps 'Only The Stars Come Out At Night' that most resembles a preliminary route in to the arena of his new album. Sometimes overtly, though often with a cryptic veneer, he modulates a central refrain across each piece that comes to engulf the stereo field with different intentions. Citing the influence of American minimalist composers, Stadsgaard has refigured some of the compositional practices towards his particular context and oeuvre. A medley of strings and electronics waver in and out of place on the opening piece, 'White Ribbons On The Ceiling,' introducing the careful preparation and treatment of sound as a means of articulating a profound though compassionate melancholy. The album is drenched in sorrow and seeks its expression with great economy. And it's around this detail that there's perhaps some slight indication of the album's turbulent personal context and the major life changes that underpin it. Stadsgaard's restraint proposes a wealth of wistful invocations. This control, once combined with the subdued presence of his penchant for glaring noise, is what organises 'But All Spiked' into the meditative and dynamic work that it is.

2025 Repress

Comet Records presents the Tony Allen & Afrika 70 reissue series with the classic late seventies first four solo albums of Tony Allen remastered and restored: Jealousy, Progress, No Accomodation for Lagos & No Discrimination, all coming in an heavy Deluxe Tip-On Jacket. Recorded with Afrika 70 at the height of their power as Fela Kuti’s band, these are seminal recordings in the pantheon of Afrobeat history. Once again, Comet Records has the opportunity to shine a light on the sheer musicality and originality of the humble drumming giant. Tony Allen’s passing in April 2020 sent a shockwave across the world, as fans and collaborators from Lagos to Brooklyn and everywhere in between mourned the loss of a generous and powerful being, the kind of being we thought would live forever. Thankfully, we have the gift of Tony’s timeless music, starting with these four special solo albums, through which his musical voice guides our dancing feet and full hearts forever. Progress showcases Afrika 70 doing what they do best: digging deep and bringing the force, but always with
remarkable restraint and swagger, propelled by Tony’s steady hands and feet. The title track, “Progress” starts with a bang and never loses steam - a performance so fierce that it stands alongside Fela’s most
powerful anthems. The second track, “Afro Disco Beat” shows Tony Allen at one of his creative peaks. He tells: “What I was saying on Progress was that instead of fighting Fela for money, I was trying to progress and create on my own. Progress is what a hard worker is looking for I had to look it for myself” (Taken from Tony’s autobiography by Michael Veal). Tony Allen possessed magic within him, which he spent his entire life sharing with us through his drumming hands, tapping feet and generous heart. That magic is ever-present and strong on these formative solo albums - they are must-haves for Afrobeat fans across the globe.

This is the first ever vinyl release of the now defunct Parisian formation None, whom have left very few traces of their recordings apart from a furtive tape appearance; keeping true to their name by favoring the intensity of their live performances to conventional sound fixations. Although only one single recording remained following the band’s dissolution back in 2019, the oddly titled Khneï Khneï Thnacapata Thnacapata is a compelling demonstration in self-restraint as well as one of the very few relics left to cherish of the short lived group. Arranged as a forty minute long movement, the posthumous album swallows us through free improvisation, jazz and post-punk in a composed mayhem that echoes their equally intense live conduct where steadfast drums and far out cassette manipulation meet head-on with troubled saxophone blows, lonesome crippled guitar action and unintelligible vocals in which to lose one’s mind.

The different seeds that have been planted throughout the life of Croatian Amor come to bloom on 'All In The Same Breath,' affirming an equilibrium that's all its own. Spiralling through the half-light electronics are gentle bumps and breaks that are layered into moments of elevation. A coarse edge remains just an arm's length away, but there is an unmistakable element of celebration throughout the album's 10 tracks. As the syncopated terrains ring out, their perpetual rhythmic motions call a medley of human voices that speak in security. They sing to everyone just as they sing to themselves. In the years since the seminal Croatian Amor album 'Love Means Taking Action' Loke Rahbek has strode a twofold path. There are the delicate, meditative compositions that he has made with Frederik Valentin; setting acoustic instrumentation against affecting digital treatments, each of their collaborative albums are an exercise in the magnificence of subtle restraint. And with the sharpest of turns you'll find Rahbek's parallel universe of rave-shocked rhythms and kinetic helixes that eddy through genre and tempo with few constraints. Collaborations with Varg²™ have yielded the wildest of this, and remain ongoing, yet the traces were already apparent across much of the previous Croatian Amor album 'Isa' with its treated vocalizations and cascading rhythmic mechanics. 'All In The Same Breath,' arrives as a steady handed synthesis of these divergent instincts. Elaborating the distinct techniques and themes that form the wistful essence of the project, the album's quiet composure is a sign that these familiarities have been set adrift to settle into their own private ecosystem.Small vessels travel in a perfect array. Light following shadows, following light. Every movement a signal, every second is camouflage. 'All In The Same Breath' is perhaps more than anything an invitation to be open to wonder.

Linda “Babe” Majika’s insanely brilliant Don’t Treat Me So Bad is a tight six tracks of blistering electro-flavoured bubblegum and synth-drizzled solar-powered machine-funk. It has become increasingly hard to find, with copies currently moving for over £200. But this is definitely a case of eye-watering price equalling heart-thumping quality.

Once of the Hot Soul Singers, Don’t Treat Me So Bad was Linda’s debut LP as a solo artist. It was produced by Ace Mbuyisa of boogie-funk maestros Freeway and was originally released on Umkhonto Records in South Africa in 1988.

The enormous “Let’s Make A Deal” is probably the best known track here, and it’s definitely the best one if you ask us. Linda’s vocals drip with attitude over warm, breezy synths and an urgent, edgy electro beat to create a timeless club-ready bomb that sounds as fresh as ever. But the rest of the album is far from filler.

Opening track “Kunzima (Tabalaza Mjita)” instantly brings the sunshine vibes, strutting out the gate with that unmistakable South African steppers groove. It’s a deceptively simple song, with multiple instrumental elements arriving and taking leave with admirable restraint.

“It’s Our Home” is a powerful showcase for Linda’s vocals, enhanced by some life-affirming call and response backing vocals throughout. In fact they’re a joyous presence on the whole album. The insistent pipes and swirling, bubbling synths of title track “Don’t Treat Me So Bad” follow. A spacious proto-piano house banger that closes out the first side in phenomenal fashion.

Arriving as track two on the second side, “Unga B’Omthemba Umuntu” has the unenviable task of following the huge “Let’s Make A Deal”. It does the job with class, bringing the tempo down to a mid-paced tropical bounce with lilting harmonies and welcome traces of hi-life guitar. Wonderful stuff. “Playboy” is is another unbeatable head-nod groover rounds out the set wonderfully. That bassline high in the mix is to die for, and the chorus will make any dancefloor smile.

As ever, Simon Francis on mastering duties elevates this release, adding heft and elegance in all the right places with his customary deft touch. The memorable cover art, in which Linda appears straight out of the 1950s with her polka dot skirt and butter-wouldn't-melt pose, has been faithfully restored. But don’t let the innocent styling fool you - Don’t Treat Me So Bad is the work of one badass woman who can hold her own, and then some.