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Matthew Halsall unveils new band and announces 'Salute to the Sun'

his new album on Gondwana Records

Limited edition Double Clear vinyl, printed on reverse board with Gold foil artwork plus double printed reverse board inner sleeves including download code. Cover Artwork by Daniel Halsall with design and layout by Ian Anderson of The Designers Republic.

Comes packaged in a resealable, re-usable Polypropylene anti-static, acid-free, crystal clear sleeve for maximum protection.

Composer, trumpeter, producer, DJ and founder of Gondwana Records, Matthew Halsall has always worn many hats. But at the heart of everything that he does Halsall is first and foremost an artist and a musician. A trumpeter whose unflashy, soulful playing radiates a thoughtful beauty and a composer and band-leader who has created his own rich sound world. A sound that draws on the heritage of British jazz, the spiritual jazz of Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, as well as world music and electronica influences, and even modern art and architecture, to create something uniquely his own. A music that is rooted in Northern England but draws on global inspirations.

Salute to the Sun is his first album as a leader since Into Forever (2015) and marks the debut of his new band. A hand-picked ensemble featuring some of Manchester's finest young musicians: Matt Cliffe flute & saxophone, Maddie Herbert harp, Liviu Gheorghe piano, Alan Taylor drums and Jack McCarthy percussion as well as long-time Halsall collaborator, bassist, Gavin Barras who has been at the heart of Halsall's bands for over a decade. For Matthew it was important to have a band based locally and able, pre-Covid, to meet and play each week, and who also performed a sold-out monthly basement session at Yes in Manchester. The album draws energy from these sessions and inspiration from themes and ideas that have inspired Halsall through the years (on albums such as Oneness, Fletcher Moss Park and When the World Was One) ideas of ecology, the environment and harmony with nature.

"I feel Salute to the Sun is a positive earthy album. I wanted to create something playful but also quite primitive, earthy and organic that connected to the sounds in nature. I was listening to lush ambient field recordings of tropical environments such as jungles and rainforests and found myself drawn to percussive atmospheric sounds which replicated what I was hearing (bells / shakers / chimes / rain sticks) and I started to experiment with more wooden percussive instruments such as kalimba and marimba".

Salute to the Sun features lush wholly improvised tunes inspired by ambient rainforest and jungle field recordings, deeply soulful tunes built around hypnotic harp and kalimba patterns, deep Strata-East inspired spiritual jazz grooves and some of Halsall's most beautiful playing and inspiring healing melodies yet recorded.

The album was recorded at the band's weekly sessions, using Halsall's own recording set-up, giving the recordings a relaxed vibe and unforced energy that really lets the music breath. The album is also very much a family affair as Halsall's brother Daniel Halsall, artistic director of Gondwana Records, was an important presence at the sessions and co-produced the album. It is also his memorable artwork that adorns the cover of Salute to the Sun, an album beautifully designed by legendary designer Ian Anderson of The Designers Republic, who also created the covers for the recent archival releases Oneness, Sending My Love and Colour Yes and is one of Halsall's favourite designers. Together Daniel Halsall and Ian Anderson have designed all of Matthew's seven albums to date, so it felt extra-special to bring them together for, Salute to the Sun, an album that Halsall was determined to present in the very best way possible. The album was mixed with another long-time collaborator, George Atkins at 80 Hertz in Manchester, who works tirelessly with Halsall to perfect the sound and was mastered by noted engineer Peter Beckmann who brings an added depth to the sound specially around the bass notes as well as Halsall's trumpet. The magnificent double vinyl was cut as a Half Speed master by Barry Grint at Alchemy Mastering for the best possible analogue experience.

The result is arguably Halsall's most beautiful and complete recording to date, playful, charming and imbued with the warmth of the sun and the energy of life.

Soulful drum & bass connoisseur and Goldfat Records head honcho, Mitekiss is ready to make his mark with his highly anticipated second studio album 'Bolivian Hotel Bistro', on Hospital Records. Consisting of 16 delicately crafted masterpieces, expect a fusion of his signature liquid-jazz style with a versatile set of influences spanning house, garage, ambient and minimal tempos, as he brings in a range of exciting new talent including Vonné, Emiko, Duskee, Ruth Corey, B-ahwe, Milo Merah, Pixie Cola and gürl.

The Nonesuch debut of Hurray for the Riff Raff (aka Alynda Segarra), LIFE ON EARTH, is a departure for the Bronx-born, New Orleans-based singer/songwriter. Its eleven new “nature punk” tracks on the theme of survival are music for a world in flux – songs about thriving, not just surviving, while disaster is happening. Hurray for the Riff Raff tours North America this spring, beginning March 19 in Atlanta and continuing through April 20 in Nashville, with stops in Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York, among others. International tour dates will be announced shortly.

For her eighth full-length album, Segarra (they/she) drew inspiration from The Clash, Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Bad Bunny, and the author of Emergent Strategy, adrienne maree brown. Recorded during the pandemic, Life on Earth was produced by Brad Cook (Waxahatchee, Bon Iver, Kevin Morby).

Life on Earth’s first single, ‘RHODODENDRON’, is about “finding rebellion in plant life. Being called by the natural world and seeing the life that surrounds you in a way you never have. A mind expansion. A psychedelic trip. A spiritual breakthrough. Learning to adapt, and being open to the wisdom of your landscape. Being called to fix things in your own backyard, your own community,” says Segarra.

Of the ‘Rhododendron’ video, which was directed by New Orleans-based artist Lucia Honey, Segarra says: “It is really far out and fun. I got this bodysuit that just looks like the inside of the human body. It looks like you’re skinless. It’s in a scene where I’m playing to an audience of plants. Just really absurd, but I put that suit on and I was like man, this feels really good. It feels like, ‘This is who I am. Let’s just take the skin off.’

“It reminds me a little bit of Kids in the Hall,” they continue. “With this ‘Rhododendron’ shoot, something clicked in me where I was like, ‘All I have to do is be myself.’ I had been thinking that I had to be something bigger than myself. I felt like I was just never quite making the mark and then something clicked where I was like, ‘I just gotta be me. I could do that. I could show up and be me. And if people don’t like it, then I don’t know what to fucking tell them.’ It was like a brain shift of, ‘Oh, this can be fun. It doesn’t have to be suffering.’ With so many videos and photo shoots before, it really felt like suffering. I felt so uncomfortable being perceived. I didn’t know who I was.”

Honey adds: “We wanted to create something surreal, playful, and saturated that indulged heavily in the aesthetic of the early ‘90s. Alynda and I had many overlapping visual and philosophical references which sparked the initial collaboration. We wanted to make this video an homage to Gregg Araki’s Teenage Apocalypse trilogy but as a nature documentary crossover. I came across Araki’s work as a queer teenager, and he’s always been a big inspiration. Sex, blood, punk rock, camp, etc.

“We live in a moment where the future is bleaker and more unknown than ever, so there becomes a deep comfort in nostalgia and reliving the past. Through our talks, I realised Alynda’s new album touches on many of these same subjects, but perhaps in reverse; running from a past that is always haunting you. Shifting into a more refined self/identity through confronting one’s trauma and baggage. It was easy to reach collaborative synergy for this video project because we’re both interested in tackling similar issues.”

Alynda Segarra was born and raised in the Bronx, which they left at the age of seventeen, running away from everything and everyone they knew, hopping freight trains or hitchhiking across the country in the company of a band of street urchins. Segarra moved to New Orleans in 2007 and formed two bands: Dead Man’s Street Orchestra and Hurray for the Riff Raff. In 2015, Segarra decamped to Nashville, then to New York, to make her most recent album, 2016’s critically praised The Navigator, an ambitious and fully realized concept album that was her quest to reclaim her Puerto Rican identity. Segarra’s previous records as Hurray for the Riff Raff are Crossing the Rubicon (EP, 2007), It Don’t Mean I Don’t Love You (2008), Young Blood Blues (2010), Hurray for the Riff Raff (2011), Look Out Mama (2012), My Dearest Darkest Neighbor (2013), and Small Town Heroes (2014).

Even if Ancient Greek isn’t part of general knowledge anymore, the word mega is. Hence, you might admire our modesty to say that Roman Flügel’s first outing on Running Back in 2022 is perfectly headed. Greta, large, mighty and somewhat the love- or brainchild of his earlier Garden Party and the previous D.I.S.C.O., Mega pulls out all the stops: hi-nrg melodies, circus bells, cowboy funk and honey hooks at 140 beats per minute. While it is nearly impossible not to take this bait or decorate it with the Bobby-O medal of honor, Roman proves one more that you can be catchy and classy at the same time.
Rules on the other hand, puts some of these stylistic devices in reverse or down-tempo mode and feels like brushing your teeth after an extended feast or the perfect hors d’oeuvre.
Completing the picture with Film 1, Film 2 and Film 3, Flügel flexes his freethinking muscles and lands in-between art school new wave bands and soundscape science. Music that is masterly made, magical in its impact and perfectly described with a misquoted line from Get The Balance Right: it’s never predictable.

For Reflection 3 we give a warm welcome to Suddi Raval who has had releases previously as one part of Together on FFRR, Thumbs Up Magic, Gorgeous Records and his own imprint T-Wax Records. He has always been involved in the music scene over the years and although known for his love of Acid House, here we see him delve in to the world of Electro.

Suddi re-ignites his passion and serves up 2 Electro jams that are packed with heavy beats, bleeps, big basses, modulated leads and have that authentic original 1980s Hashim-like feel.

Scott works his magic on 2 Electro cuts with rich pads, reverses, modulated leads, crisp drums, panning keys, warm basses, eerie soundscapes, processed and gated vocal samples, Mantronix-esque bass sequences and rolling toms.

All 4 cuts reflect on how Electro was in the 80s and remain as pure as the stuff being made then.

Titrate is a platform for the publication of high-resolution sonic pieces, set out on a path of continual research and exploration. TITR001 comes from hems, pressed to 180g vinyl housed in reverse board print.

Spread across five tracks, the release transits a number of spaces - from the post-inertia stirrings of "Chaotic Affair", to the cutting and more austere drone layout of "One". Cosmic tech broadcast "Beautiful weekend with friends" is a fizzing metamorphosis that melts and mutates itself into "Switching Gears", a darker and more liquid environment. The final track "Stain" concludes the release with a musique concrète touch.

With an overall meditative albeit experimental tone, this package is replete with rich textural qualities luring the listener

Following the already classic Wamono A to Z trilogy, 180g presents an exceptional collection of jazz funk / rare groove tunes recorded in the mid-seventies at the Nippon Columbia studios by three giants of Japanese music: arranger Kiyoshi Yamaya, koto legend Toshiko Yonekawa and shakuhachi master Kifu Mitsuhashi.

- 180g heavy vinyl pressing, reverse board jacket

- Fully licensed Nippon Columbia masters available for the first time outside of Japan

- Mastering and lacquer cut by Jukka Sarapää at Timmion Cutting Lab, Helsinki, Finland

- Artwork by Nker

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Born in 1932 in Tokyo, Kiyoshi Yamaya started his musical career in 1953 when he played in various jazz bands in town. In 1957, Yamaya joined Nobuo Hara's famous jazz big band Sharps & Flats as a baritone saxophone player and started composing, arranging, and recording for them and other big bands. He became a key jazz figure in Japan in the sixties together with Norio Maeda and Keitaro Miho, both jazz pianists, composers and arrangers, by forming the Modern Jazz Three Association – which aimed at improving the level of Japanese jazz composition and arrangement. In the mid-seventies, his Contemporary Sound Orchestra explored jazz funk fusions with traditional Japanese melodies and instruments such as the shakuhachi, koto, biwa, and shamisen. These works were recorded for a series of panoramic Japanese albums released domestically on Denon and Nippon Columbia, from which the tracks on this compilation are taken from.

Toshiko Yonekawa, born 1913 in the city of Himeji, not so far from Osaka, is the eldest daughter of koto and shamisen master Kin'o Yonekawa. She started studying both instruments with her talented father from the age of 3, played in her first concert at 8, and was only 12 years old when she first appeared on national radio. Her unique style of koto playing is widely recognized due to the extreme accuracy of the intonation and rhythm, as well as the unequaled beauty of the instrument's sonority. After a life decorated with awards and prizes, Toshiko Yonekawa was named a Living National Treasure in 1996.

Born in Tokyo in 1950, Kifu Mitsuhashi is a great master of Koto style shakuhachi. After completing the NHK Hōgaku Training Program in 1972, Mitsuhashi became a member of Pro Musica Nipponia, a group of leading composers and top-ranking musicians devoted to performing a wide-ranging repertoire of classical and contemporary compositions from both Japan and the West – in which all music is performed by traditional Japanese musical instruments. Mitsuhashi has toured the world for hundreds of recitals, also as a soloist, and has performed his art with the greatest ensembles such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Berliner Philharmoniker. In 2020, Kifu Mitsuhashi was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun.

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All tracks selected and compiled by Greg Gouty and Maxime Brottes, with the assistance of Ryohei "Nitchiku-kun" Tanaka.

All tracks licensed by Nippon Columbia, Japan.

Mastering and lacquer cut by Jukka Sarapää at Timmion Cutting Lab, Helsinki, Finland.

Artwork by Nicolas Kerembellec (Nker.fr).

Proofreading by Brian Durr (Diskotopia).

Executive producers: Greg Gouty and Maxime Brottes.

180GWALP04 - Manufactured and distributed by 180g.

After years of being lost at sea, the ancient scrolls containing the long sought after fragments of X-Coast were discovered. It was decided that the transcripts be pressed onto plates and scattered throughout the realms, so that the age-old knowledge may never be forgotten.

On the front side of the disc, we deciphered two XTC transmissions. The first, "XTC I" dates from the original session. The second is the final attempt known to us, "XTC V".

The reverse side unfolds with an interpretation of "XTC V" by the prophet known as Foamek, who brings it to new, uncharted reaches of euphoria. The next scroll, titled "Horns" is a real collector's gem, played just once before during the inaugural X-Coast Boiler Room - transmission Belgrade.

The plate ends with what we believe is the first X-Coast session ever recorded. Simply called "Horizon”, it was evident that the inhabitants of the island stumbled upon something legendary.

This is a one-time opportunity to obtain the scrolls. Do not let them fall into the wrong hands!

A LOST RECORDING OF UNTAMED APPALACHIAN MUSIC.
160 gram black vinyl LP in gold & black color reverse-board jacket. Co-release with Jalopy Records.
In 1972, the renowned and singular folk musician Roscoe Holcomb left his home in rural Daisy, Kentucky and embarked on a west coast tour with Mike Seeger in 1972, which included a performance at The Old Church in Portland, Oregon - a beautiful Carpenter Gothic church built in 1882. Decades later, two particular reels were discovered deep within a pile of 1/4” tape in a shadowy corner of the KBOO Community Radio archives in Portland. Incredibly, those tapes contained the sole surviving evidence of a strikingly intimate and raw performance by Roscoe Holcomb, whose cascading and haunting banjo, guitar and voice echoed and saturated the room and hushed audience.
In contrast to Roscoe’s rarely documented (and at times restrained) live performances at folk festivals and television programs, Roscoe seems to have felt more familiar and spiritually moved in the old church that night. Heard here are standout versions of Appalachian folk-blues classics such as Single Girl, John Henry, East Virginia Blues, Swanno Mountain and more. Once cited as Bob Dylan’s favorite singer, Roscoe Holcomb appears at the peak of his powers here, showcasing his immense vocal talents on an extended acapella version of “The Village Churchyard”. The recording itself is warm and mysterious, sounding like the room itself is alive with the spirit, while the rumbles of trucks and hints of city sounds peek through the walls from the outside streets.

»Infuso Giallo aka Philipp Carbotta originally hails from rural Western Germany, first cut his teeth in the music scene of nearby Cologne and conducts a host of activities in Berlin for a couple of years now – co-running the label Kame House, designing graphics and producing and playing leftfield electronic music. His debut LP Ocular Soda presents an intersection of these activities – self-released, self-designed and of course self-produced. Even before the first synth chords and reverse atmospheres of the two-part opener 'Every Waking Hour' tickle the ear, it is the eye that is drawn to the bright, cut-out style cover art – itself made up of two eyes on the front and what seem to be their rough shapes or discarded counterparts on the back.
To stay within that metaphor, Infuso Giallo's music is indeed of a reflective and calm nature, taking cues from Berlin School, library and New Age musics from roughly the 1970s to the 1990s – steadily repeating and slowly evolving ostinatos, lush digital pads, quirky filtered toplines and electronic percussion that mostly eschews four-four monotony in favor of much more subtle syncopations. Balearic bomb 'The Big Rip' with its big drums and acid bass turns the energy level up a notch while retaining the somnambulistic, lingering quality that makes Ocular Soda such a coherent listening experience – music on the sheath of waking and dreaming, both worlds and their inherent logics freely bleeding into each other. There are moments of great expanse, such as in 'Mole Gaze' – I couldn't help but see myself hovering somewhere in mid-air while the music unfolds as if on a great deserted plane below me. Maybe this is what it sounds like once the mole leaves his tunnels and takes in the sound of the world overground. 'Hello World', indeed, in its multitude of information to eye and ear, in its gently overwhelming quality. The title track 'Ocular Soda' closes the proceedings with a whimsical nod to 1970s botany-centered library music, its brooding chord sequence and sweet lead lines gradually fading in the distance. A fitting ending to an impressive LP of highly evocative, at times sombre and at times blissfully naive pieces that leave me yearning for more.«

Written, recorded & produced by Infuso Giallo in 2020 & 2021 in Berlin. Mixed by Philipp Janzen & Sebastian Blume at Dumbo Studios, Cologne. Mastered by Sam Irl in Vienna. Design by Infuso Giallo.

UK label Wisdom Teeth closes out 2021 with a synchronised double drop from label heads Facta and K-LONE.

Having retreated to more low-lit, pensive territories on his debut LP, Blush, In Bloom marks Facta’s headlong return to the dancefloor. At its core, In Bloom is a house record, albeit one bearing all the usual eccentricities of a Facta release: bleeping off-kilter melodies, glitching FX, warped subs and fizzing neon synths. Up top, C Sequence follows on from 2019’s Doves in exploring a future-facing and experimental take on mutant tech-house. Centred around a writhing, modulating FM bassline, the track undulates and builds gradually to a soaring mid-section before collapsing back in on itself. On the flip, In Bloom drops the tempo to a dubby stomp, with a reversed synth hook playing out over ricocheting chords and a phasing, blown-out sub line.

The seminal follow up to 2020 debut 'In the Wake Ov Sol' sees the Massachusetts Blackened Death maestros up the ante. Creating a truly terrifying hybrid of Modern Deathcore and Symphonic Black Metal, WORM SHEPHERD's new offering also features a stellar mix and master from Cody Stewart (Machine Gun Kelly, Winds of Plague, Falling in Reverse).

The seminal follow up to 2020 debut 'In the Wake Ov Sol' sees the Massachusetts Blackened Death maestros up the ante. Creating a truly terrifying hybrid of Modern Deathcore and Symphonic Black Metal, WORM SHEPHERD's new offering also features a stellar mix and master from Cody Stewart (Machine Gun Kelly, Winds of Plague, Falling in Reverse).

This the debut is being repressed for the first time in a few years. Red Fang is the formation of long time friends and collaborators Bryan Giles (Last of the Juanitas, Party Time), Aaron Beam (Dark Forces, Lachrymator), David Sullivan (Party Time, facedowninshit, Shiny Beast) and John Sherman (Party Time, Bad Wizard, Trumans Water, All Night). Unleashed on New Year's Eve of 2006 in Portland, Oregon, Red Fang stormed out of the gates, introducing a sweaty, seething basement to a new kind of unforgettable fist-pumping, beer-chugging rock music. Since that night, the band has continued with the same intensity, energy, and intimacy to quickly become a touring juggernaut, playing shows all over the US with bands like The Melvins, Big Business, and The Sword, to name just a few. Residing somewhere between Black Flag and Black Sabbath, Red Fang recall a time when rock was more urgent and horrifying. Synthesizing a variety of heavy music influences into their own distinct musical identity, the band easily shifts from barn-burning punk to mid-tempo, hyper-distorted bass destruction all while maintaining a cohesive sound. Red Fang create gigantic rock songs that are easy to listen to (not easy listening, mind you) and qualify the simultaneous usage of both the thinking and the banging head, which are usually mutually exclusive. Their instrumentation is fluid and effortless, and the vocals are delivered melodically and forcefully, with enough rasp and effect saturation to fit nicely within the music. Paired with elemental imagery, the lyrics are immense and satisfying without any pretense.

Soul music changes just like the weather. Different styles, rhythms and dances have been emerging over the years, making the genre so exciting and assorted. For almost a decade, in the post-disco era, synths and drum machines ruled the day, but by the mid 90s a group of new artists were turning their attention to the golden age of soul music.
One of those names was Adriana Evans, whose debut album from 1996 surprised soul fans around the world. Adriana boasts a solid musical background and this can be heard on the record. Her mom was the jazz singer Mary Stallings and she was also the goddaughter of Pharoah Sanders, so she has been surrounded by music since childhood.
Both choices here are taken from that outstanding album. "Looking For Your Love" is a beautiful mid-tempo tune which could have been recorded by The Emotions or Phyllis Hyman. On the reverse, "I'll Be There" is a sublime piano and flute-led ballad in the vein of Minnie Ripperton.

Recommended if you like: Com Truise, Toro Y Moi, Tycho, Tourist. British Columbia producer Jamison Isaak didn’t anticipate an adulthood of globe-trotting songcraft, but teenage exposure to iconic French house music videos cast a spell on him that still holds: “I knew then this is what I wanted to do'’ Catalyzed by synthetic sights and sounds from oceans away, he patiently taught himself primitive software and recording programs, reverse engineering the heady, swooning horizons of the dance music that had permanently bewitched him. A decade later, having amassed an expansive discography of soft-focus synth pop and romantic electronic a crisscrossing the planet many times in the process the subtext of his project’s journey rings clear: “Teen Daze is dream fulfillment'’ Enter Interior. An ode to electric futures glimpsed in ecstatic heights, from bedrooms to big rooms, it’s an album of first loves refracted through prisms of wisdom, wounds, and wonder. Filter house and flashing lights; soft acid and vaporous neon; bumping clubs in spiral towers: “Like what the teenagers in Akira might be listening to'’ Collaborative cameos by multi-instrumentalist Joseph Shabason (on sublime fantasia opener “Last Time In This Place”) and vocalist Cecile Believe (on the glitch-glamorous anthem “2AM (Real Love)”) evocatively expand the record’s palette but otherwise Interior is Izaak’s love letter to his own artistic awakening, to the paradigm shifts inherent in youthful discovery and remote dreaming — your world exploded, your life forever changed. Years of devotion and divergence have honed his craft radically; tracks like “Nite Rune “Nowhere and“Translation”are among the most supreme bangers in the entire Teen Daze canon, a delirious fusion of textural finesse and emotional transcendence. It’s music of skylines, escape, and sensual energy, forever cresting through nights that never end.

The very first live stream on 9128.live broadcast from the studio of Rafael Anton Irisarri, as he and Thomas Meluch (Beno�t Pioulard) pieced together a completely live improvisation, christening the newly created 9128 airwaves and setting the bar for many more live takeovers. With one album between them as Gailes, and profound work individually (also together as Orcas), Rafael and Thomas are masters of the ambient craft, combining intricate field recordings, guitar, pedals, vocals and heady reverb across a 40-minute non-stop immersive listen, split into two 20-minute sides for the inaugural 9128 vinyl release. The 9128 label aims to document significant live performances by artists that previously performed on the 9128.live platform. With recordings initially created for a singular collective listening moment, and often as part of a festival or takeover weekend, label recordings will re-present this music for further listening across various formats that best suit each release. Gailes - Session Two, will be available as a digital download and 12", printed in a reverse-board die-cut sleeve, black vinyl.

Repress

Crepuscule presents It's Kinda Funny, a vinyl-only collection of classic singles by iconic Scottish post-punk guitar group Josef K issued between 1979 and 1982.
As well as the three legendary 45s on Postcard Records (Radio Drill Time, It's Kinda Funny and Chance Meeting), the album also includes both Crepuscule singles (Sorry For Laughing, Missionary) as well as the original Absolute version of Chance Meeting from 1979. B-side tracks are also included, plus a digital download coupon.
Cover art by Jean-Francois Octave. Outer sleeve printed on matt reverse board. Inner bag features liner notes and archive images by Simon Clegg.
Josef K were The Sound of Young Scotland, together with Orange Juice, whose guitars were also radiant and brittle, whose rhythms were also scrubbed and blunt, whose vocals were also proud and serious, but who sounded like another group entirely' (Paul Morley), Josef K was about the heroic Outsider suavely surfing across the fraught surface of their albino funk fracas. Haig sounds high on anxiety, finding an odd, giddy euphoria in doubt.' (Simon Reynolds)
finding an odd, giddy euphoria in doubt.' (Simon Reynolds)

Deluxe LP edition, remastered using transfers from the original
tapes lifted from the Phillips vault by mastering legend Kevin Gray.
 Pressed at Pallas on 180g heavyweight vinyl and housed in a thick
reverse-board sleeve with additional insert featuring photographs
and words by bassist on the session Bill Crow.
 This session, recorded at New York’s Nola Penthouse Studios in
1963, is a little-known masterwork from the incredible Gerry
Mulligan catalogue.
 Baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan was a true icon of jazz, being
one of the prominent figures in the West Coast scene through the
1950s until his death in 1996. Voted Number One musician in his
instrument by Downbeat Magazine for 42 years in a row, Mulligan
was one of the key players of his time and a figurehead who
helped shape the sound of jazz to come.
 From periods in the ‘Birth Of The Cool’-era Miles Davis line up, as
well as forming a piano-less quartet with Chet Baker, Gerry was
always on the frontline of what was hip and happening in
America’s one true art form.
 With its striking Oliver Hardimon designed cover, ‘Night Lights’ is
the very definition of refined cool jazz. Shimmering with a latenight beauty that perfectly evokes a sophisticated New York City in
the early 1960s, Gerry and his Sextet fuse slow burning jazz noir
alongside emerging contemporary Brazilian rhythms, with the
interplay between Mulligan and guitarist Jim Hall a particular
standout throughout.
 Title track ‘Night Lights’ is a wonderfully smooth, low light tune,
while the Latin-tinged ‘Morning Of The Carnival’ really finds the
band in their finest and most swinging form. A cover of jazz
standard ‘In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning’, followed by
Chopin’s ‘Prelude In E Minor’ continues the delightful groove
before we finish out with Mulligan originals ‘Festival Minor’ and
‘Tell Me When’.
 For this version of the release, New Land have also included the
1965 version of ‘Night Lights’, which gives an interesting
comparison, performed by his later day Quintet featuring the
Wrecking Crew’s legendary Hal Blaine on drums, amongst others.

Two *limited edition* 160-gram classic black vinyl LPs (pressed by Smashed Plastic in Chicago) inside a heavyweight reverse-board single-pocket jacket with poly-lined inner-sleeves. Vinyl Only. No digital, no represses.

Lovers of fabulously swung, nice ‘n chunky house music have a treat in store on Hudd Traxx 066 as Swiss producer Agnès makes a very welcome, vinyl only return to our label.

Much-loved for his stripped back and dubby style - with previous EP “Got That Music In My Mind” championed by Disclosure on their Mixmag mix - here we witness the Sthlmaudio Recordings founder loosening up with four shoulder-rolling rides of deep house greatness which commemorates his and Eddie Leader’s tour of South America in 2013/14.

It’s the first new material we’ve heard from the producer since his 2016 EP “Accent Grave” and the track “Embryonic Connections” off our 15th year anniversary collection released early in the year.

Effortless in construction, with the genre’s classic tropes of poking organs, sub-tickling bass, rich atmospheres and cheeky, playful vocal samples littered throughout; the EP’s real beauty comes across in Agnès’ unfathomable grasp of swing and shuffle, instantly injecting listeners with a fidgety energy and need to dance. His percussion sounds fizz, pop and crack in a manner that’d make Kerri Chandler blush while neon-hued pads glue the whole thing together with a radioactive warmth. Chuck in an almost shamanic level of dancefloor understanding & connectivity and what you have here is a breakthrough dose of unrivalled hedonism.

There’s a sophisticated simplicity and sympathy at work here; with a reduced, hard-hitting and well thought out sound palette connecting the tracks together with the same impassioned spirit. That fiery flame of a basement and a red light, encapsulated perfectly and destined to rouse the spirits of house heads across world this Autumn…

12" Vinyl with reverse board sleeve

DJ, producer and artist Call Super announces their latest release, the double EP titled ‘Cherry Drops’. This is the third and fourth release to come on can you feel the sun, the label they co-founded with London-based DJ and producer Parris.

The adventurous EP by Call Super, real name Joseph Richmond Seaton, is a collection of tracks written around the time they were working on a larger project called ‘Tell Me I Didn’t Choose This’, which reflects on a period in their life of upheaval, trauma and self-discovery. However, the music on Cherry Drops became a release from that project - a distraction from painful reflections and recollections. Reconnecting with music made solely for the dancefloor became their much needed escape, as it was in those spaces they originally found release and freedom during pivotal periods in their life.

IMPORTANT NOTE: UNFORTUNATELY THE SIDES ARE REVERSED ON THE VINYL, I.E. THE A-SIDE IS THE B-SIDE AND VICE VERSA. WITH THE PURCHASE OF THE VINYL OR THE CD YOU WILL GET THE SINGLE MP3 FILES AS WELL AS A CONTINOUS MIX VIA E-MAIL.

With the cover artwork for Pop Ambient 2022, longtime KOMPAKT graphic artist Veronika Unland has once again outdone herself. Following the almost baroque, blood-red and jet-black, extremely physical sculptures of Pop Ambient 2021, which emerged from a dark, floral sea like bodies erect for dancing, the front of 2022 is adorned with a pastel-white form, intertwined, folded many times and crisscrossed with delicate shading, which seems to float on a pale pink background; soft, gentle waves woven from Venetian colors that leave the viewer puzzled: Is it a flower, a coral, a mollusk?

Again, the current edition of the tradition-steeped compilation series curated by Wolfgang Voigt is about the persistent and ever-necessary definition of beauty, of reduction, of electronic music of heavy lightness and light heaviness, of ambient's eternal promise of a state of physical and acoustic weightlessness and Pop's of redemption. And about the question why a never arbitrary combination of soundscape, drones, samples and loops, put together in a certain way, can create this feeling of warmth, depth and space, - something three-dimensional, where the imagination feels at home as a fish in the water or a bird in the sky. A key aesthetic stimulus that sends all the senses into a slow glide and drift, after which your synapses feel like they've been bathed in essential oil. Next to Soul, Ambient is probably the most effective musical healing plant of mankind.

Behind the aural test tubes, the who's who of Pop Ambient is once again at work, led for the first time by the highly trafficked Californian duo Blank Gloss, whose debut album "Melt" this year was certified by The Guardian as nothing less than "heartaching beauty". Yui Onodera's "Chrome" as well as "Kari", a cooperation of Markus Guentner and Joachim Spieth, could also be imagined in the score of Denis Villeneuve's new film version of DUNE - however, colleague Hans Zimmer managed that quite well without the three. After such wonderful and stylish contributions by Reich & Würden, Triola and Thomas Fehlmann, the ear then lingers a bit longer on the ghostly "Weiht" by Morgen Wurde feat. Maria Estrella, a track like a temple of sound, a deep electronic immersion in a Japanese onsen. In this sea of unnameable time you could sink forever, but with the tracks of Andrew Thomas, Thore Pfeiffer and Max Würden & Pepo Galán the journey slowly comes to an end.

Mit dem Cover-Artwork für Pop Ambient 2022 hat sich die langjährige KOMPAKT-Grafikerin Veronika Unland einmal mehr selbst übertroffen. Nach den geradezu barocken, in blutrot und tiefschwarz gehaltenen, äußerst physischen Formationen von Pop Ambient 2021, die wie zum Tanz aufgerichtete Körper aus einem dunklen, floralen Meer auftauchten, ziert die Vorderseite von 2022 eine pastell-weiße Skulptur, in sich verschlungen, vielfach gefaltet und von zarten Schattierungen durchzogen, die auf einem blass-rosa Hintergrund zu schweben scheint; weiche, sanfte Wellen aus venezianischen Farben gewebt, die dem Betrachter Rätsel aufgeben: Ist es eine Blüte, eine Koralle, eine Molluske?

Natürlich geht es auch in der aktuellen Ausgabe der traditionsreichen, von Wolfgang Voigt kuratierten Compilation-Reihe um die beharrliche und immer wieder notwendige Definition von Schönheit, von Reduktion, um elektronische Musik von schwerer Leichtigkeit und leichter Schwere, vom ewigen Versprechen des Ambient auf einen Zustand körperlicher und akustischer Schwerelosigkeit und dem von Pop auf Erlösung. Und um die Frage, warum eine nie beliebige Kombination aus Klangfläche, Drones, Samples und Loops, auf eine bestimmte Art zusammengefügt, dieses Gefühl von Wärme, Tiefe und Raum entstehen lassen kann, - etwas dreidimensionales, in dem die Fantasie sich so zuhause fühlt wie ein Fisch im Wasser oder ein Vogel in der Luft. Ein ästhetischer Schlüsselreiz, der alle Sinne in ein langsames Gleiten und Driften versetzt, wonach sich deine Synapsen wieder anfühlen, als habe man sie in ätherischem Öl gebadet. Neben Soul ist Ambient die wahrscheinlich wirksamste musikalische Heilpflanze der Menschheit.

Hinter den auralen Reagenzgläsern hantiert einmal mehr das Who-is-Who der kompaktschen Pop Ambient-Riege, erstmals angeführt vom hoch gehandelten kalifornischen Duo Blank Gloss, deren diesjähriges Debüt-Album “Melt” der englische Guardian nichts weniger als “herzergreifende Schönheit” bescheinigte. Yui Onodera’s “Chrome” sowie “Kari”, eine Kooperation von Markus Guentner und Joachim Spieth, könnte man sich auch gut im Score von Denis Villeneuve’s Neuverfilmung von DUNE vorstellen, - das hat der Kollege Hans Zimmer allerdings auch ohne die drei ganz gut hinbekommen. Nach so wundervollen wie stilsicheren Beiträgen von Reich & Würden, Triola und Thomas Fehlmann verharrt das Ohr dann etwas länger beim geisterhaften “Weiht” von Morgen Wurde feat. Maria Estrella-Weiht, ein Track wie ein Tempel aus Klang, ein tiefes elektronisches Eintauchen in einen japanischen Onsen. In diesem Meer aus unnennbarer Zeit könnte man ewig versinken, doch mit den Tracks von Andrew Thomas, Thore Pfeiffer und Max Würden & Pepo Galán geht die Reise langsam zu Ende.

"Circuit" is a recorded document of improvised music and the inaugural release on Pattern Dissection — an independent record label, radio show and concert organiser from Berlin. Dag Magnus’s down-tuned drum set builds the ground for relentless legwork and hectic wrestling, shaking the floor when confronted with Farida’s high string slaps on the bass guitar, which they occasionally swap for droning vibrations and scorching fingerpicking, neither shying away from a heavy riff nor stripped back momentum. Liz’s synth is an idiosyncratic creature of its own, birthing sounds rarely graspable but utterly fascinating, swift in taking turns and always one step ahead of any expectation.

Recorded on July 28th 2020 in Berlin at their second meeting as a band, that was initiated by a live gig six months earlier. All music was improvised and performed in a room with six microphones.

Mixed by Christoph Berg & mastered by Stephan Mathieu. Lacquer cut by Mike Grinser. Pressed at Pallas on 140g vinyl, wrapped in a 350g reverse-printed cardboard sleeve with A6 photo-card inside, including a download code. Artwork by Talita Santos & design by Espacioblanco. Photography by Stefan Lingg.

Holly Humberstone is a British musician from Grantham, England. In 2021, she signed a record deal with Interscope and Polydor Records. Her first EP following the signing, The Walls Are Way Too Thin will be released on 5 November 2021. Formats: CDs: The Walls Are Way Too Thin is the second EP from Holly Humberstone. Available on 6 track CD housed in a digipack sleeve with insert. A 6 track black heavyweight vinyl housed in a reverse board sleeve with insert.

Following recent appearances on Permanent Vacation, Mute and Correspondant, Terr makes a triumphant return to Phantasy with a deeply dreamy new single, ‘Wings of Time’. Marking Terr's third appearance on the label, and her first since 2019, 'Wings of Time' is complimented by a momentous remix from Tornado
Wallace.

‘Wings Of Time’ serves to underscore Daniela Caldellas’ talents as both a producer and performer, a songwriter and a master of dancefloor atmosphere. Terr’s assured vocal performance once again takes front-and-centre, a warm beckoning light through a journey made of shimmering pads, wistful chords and
defined by a powerful sense of groove. An instrumental edition further highlights the arrangement, which resolves with rare, cosmic catharsis.

Tornado Wallace appears to stretch the time Terr sings of on his elastic, tunnelling remix, grinding out every inch of tension and detail from the blueprint, expanding minds and widening eyes in the process. While Terr’s original will likely send dancers to the heavens, Wallace reverses the energy source for an unexpectedly bass-heavy interpretation that generates a different, earthier pleasure.

Following the highly acclaimed volumes I and II, dig further into the Wamono sound - the cream of the Japanese jazz, funk, soul, rare groove and disco music developed throughout the years since the end of the sixties in Japan!

-Fully licensed Nippon Columbia and Victor Japan masters available for the first time outside of Japan, featuring rarities from Hitomi Tohyama, Jadoes, Yumi Sato, Tetsuo Sakurai and more!

- Tracks selection by Japanese super diggers and Wamono specialists DJ Yoshizawa Dynamite and Chintam

- Mastered and cut at Timmion Cutting Lab

- Artwork by Yoxxx (Tokyo)

- 180g heavy vinyl pressing, reverse board jacket

Active as a professional DJ in Japan since the late eighties, DJ Yoshizawa Dynamite is also a renowned remixer, compiler and producer. An avid record collector and an expert of the Wamono style, Yoshizawa published the Wamono A to Z records guide book in 2015 which instantly sold-out. The book unveiled a myriad of beautiful and rare records from a highly prolific, but still then unknown, Japanese groove scene.

After many years working as a record buyer for several stores, DJ Chintam opened his own Blow Up shop in 2018 in Tokyo's Shibuya district. A member of the Dayjam Crew and a specialist of soul, funk, rare groove and disco music, Chintam is also an expert of the home-brewed Wamono grooves. He supervised and wrote the Wamono A to Z records guide book together with Yoshizawa.

For this third chapter of the acclaimed Wamono series, Yoshizawa and Chintam unheart some of the best and rarest light mellow funk tunes and disco boogie bangers produced in Japan between 1978 and 1988. Put the needle on the record, turn up the volume and dig right now into the Wamono sound - the cream of the Japanese jazz, funk, soul, rare groove and disco music developed throughout the years since the end of the sixties in Japan!

Bad Waitress’ antsy art punk revels in fits of fury and ego. It spits in your face and winks, ferocious and playful. The Toronto-based four-piece play like they’re conspiring or casting a spell, each member wielding a different power, howls and erratic drum fills and fiery riffs fueling one another.
That improvisation spirit doesn’t stop at their music. Katelyn Molgard, Nicole Cain, Kali-Ann Butala, and Moon finish each other’s sentences. Their conversations flow like free jazz. When asked to describe Bad Waitress’ sound, they agree on one word: conviction. “We play with conviction. There's nothing apologetic about it,” Kateyln says. “Even with our bizarre song structures, we don't hide anything in our music. It's just very...I don't like the word raw, it’s overused, but...raw.” The band fidget between genres, instead honing a distinct energy. “It's energetic. It's electric,” Moon adds. “It's whatever word that we can think of later that's better than raw.” Nicole suggests, “Honest?” Katelyn jumps in, “Rawnest.”
Bad Waitress’ debut full-length album, No Taste, finds strength in mood swings, from upbeat “groovin down the street” songs like “Strawberry Milkshake” to “I'm gonna fucking punch everyone” songs like “Lacerate,” as Nicole puts it. “It’s good to listen to when you're walking alone at night. I get really anxious, but I feel powerful when I listen to this album, like I’m fucking untouchable. It’s basically a self-defense album.”
Traces of Sonic Youth, Fugazi, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and The Stooges can be heard throughout No Taste. The band also cite jazz as an inspiration. Moon’s background playing improv jazz, blues and swing makes it an essential force, at the core of Bad Waitress’ music and collaborative process. “Moon usually has a weird drumbeat that they’ll play spontaneously, then Nicole will jump in with her wack ass music sensibility on bass, and then Kali will play something that’s super wrong in a good way,” Katelyn says. “And then I’ll make sense of it and find where the chords are. It’s bizarre.”

Things become intangible. On his 3d album "Take Care Of Me", Murena Murena does an about-turn: his new songs are silhouette vehicles in the reverse of all traffic formulas that strive for speed and progress. You can also do it with your back on the floor, you can also go backwards! In Murena Murena's Augmented Reality Roll, language, rhythm and harmony always turn and expand in the opposite direction. The direction we / they came from. If the idea of a monoposto was to replace the front passenger with a rear-view mirror, and from then on to let the driver run the distance forwards and backwards in the driver's eye, then you can also carry out a U-turn while sitting on a chair with eyes painted on the lids. A mandrill will quickly become the Sphinx. And a hawk moth sees just as much as a fire bug. Dry sump lubrication in the box: camshafts driven by a spur gear cascade ensure additional turbulence of the helium mist in the crankcase through their rotary motion. Of course, that's hard to believe. Gone, the wet sump lubrication of ,Shame Over,! You, listener, now have to grab the ropes yourself and perform wave-like movements, pull the ropes and let them pop. If your eyes go black, you have both hands free again.

After recording debut album The Return of the Durutti Column with producer Martin Hannett in 1979, virtuoso guitarist Vini Reilly purchased a TEAC four-track recorder from Bill Nelson and began producing his own material. These evocative demos were perfected by Reilly at Graveyard Studio with co-producer Stuart Pickering, with additional drums and percussion from Bruce Mitchell. Originally released by Factory Records in November 1981, LC is a key album in a body of work described by David Stubbs of Uncut magazine as ‘unique in rock, with Reilly’s scampering, watercolour guitar style building a tentative bridge between post-punk and the chamber sketches of Debussy and Ravel.’
On this expanded Factory Benelux the original ten tracks are supplemented by no less than 9 bonus cuts, including rare Sordide Sentimental single Danny/Enigma, and the three tracks Reilly contributed to A Factory Quartet in 1980 - his last recordings with Hannett, which feature Donald Johnson of A Certain Ratio on drums.
The remastered double disc set is housed in a gatefold sleeve printed on matt reverse board, with liner notes and archive images. The package also includes an exclusive 7-inch single featuring live versions of Sketch for Summer and Requiem for a Father, recorded at Leeds Polytechnic in October 1980. These are the earliest surviving professional live recordings of Durutti Column in concert.

Gondwana Records are delighted to announce '7" Series', our first ever 7" vinyl collection series. Featuring bespoke artwork from Gondwana Records designer Daniel Halsall, cut at Calyx in Berlin, and manufactured at Optimal, each 7" is limited to strictly 300 copies and housed in a reverse board printed sleeve with classic 'dinked' centre holes.

To launch this collectable series, we are excited to share new and previously unreleased music from Mammal Hands and two catalogue favourites from Matthew Halsall. Over the next coming months, we will share series part 3 and 4 and beyond.

Mammal Hands — Chaser/Prism 7" (GOND07001)

Captivating, ethereal and majestic, Mammal Hands are driven by their unique line-up of drums, piano and saxophone. Their hypnotic music draws on a rich well of influences from Sufi trance and West African music to folk music, contemporary classical, spiritual jazz and electronica to produce something uniquely their own. Their 7" features two brand new, previously unreleased tunes.

Side A Chaser is a punchy, hypnotic tune with an enchanted melody that'll take you on a magical journey. All in less than 4 minutes

Side B Prism is a mysterious ear-worm, ethereal but catchy, it sounds like nothing else the band have ever recorded.

Unveiled Nuance is the newly founded imprint by Manchester’s Means&3rd, a platform solely for his own productions. The Eastern Bloc Records staff member inaugurates his debut vinyl release with 3
tracks covering a balance between hypnotic and driving techno, in keeping with his adopted style of recent years.

‘Thought contortion’ opens the EP with a thunderous low end, propulsive rhythms and immersive sweeps of sound design, teamed with modulated synth patterns that assist the unfolding of its persistent structure. ‘Fragility of perception’ follows with its elastic 3 step synth groove and reverb rich textures which provide the bed while the percussion provides an airy dynamic. ‘Aural Dissociative’ closes the EP with an all together headier affair, a dynamic drone providing the backdrop while flickers of rhythm supplement its evolution and heavily modulated lead lines take the focus.

Pressed on 140g Black Vinyl, reverse board full colour print sleeve with poly-lined inner sleeve

Gondwana Records are delighted to announce parts 3 and 4 of the '7" Series', our first ever 7" vinyl collection series. Featuring bespoke artwork from Gondwana Records designer Daniel Halsall, cut at Calyx in Berlin, and manufactured at Optimal, each 7" is limited to strictly 300 copies and housed in a reverse board printed sleeve with classic 'dinked' centre holes.

Taken from 2013's v2.0, the Manchester trio's Mercury Prize nominated breakthrough album, this double A-side banger represents GoGo Penguin at their unmistakable best. Both tracks are classics and still feature in the band's live sets to this day. Unmissable.

Side A Garden Dog Barbecuefeatures a stonking piano riff over a frenzied, relentless breakbeat

Side B Hopopono features the bands most blissed out groove.

Clear Vinyl

Hitting us with a double LP of sublime dance music lingering on the border of ambience, Interstate is the alter ego of DJ Swagger. Earlier this year, he graced Shall Not Fade's Time Is Now sub label in collaboration with DJ Aedidias for four feelgood UKG cuts - now returning for the second album in the Seasons Series, expect something a little different. Dominion Swing is his first LP under the Interstate moniker.

The four sides of vinyl hold their fair share of punchy kick drums and funky melodies, though across them is a blissed out ambient softness that comes to the forefront by the end. "Doublet Doureet" is a low end groover driven by skippy percs, the speedy bass melody chilled out with some lingering natural chords. "Second Mass" is futuristic and clean cut, tickling the ear with panning synth stabs and a powerful electro bassline that cuts through the track sharply, giving memories of the dancefloor while perfectly leading into "Habitat" - the sustained ambient shimmer that closes the A side.

Onto the reverse side, "This Rather Than That" and "Misty" are glitchy, playful evening music, "Misty" leaning into a fun organ ditty. The almost imperceptible bassline of "Two To Get Ready" hangs in the air giving it a dub atmosphere.

More genre exploration is to be found on the C side, from the pulsing but delicate house of "Appliance" to the tranquil guitar-lead journey of "Condone The Drama", ending with a return to blissful, oceanic ambience in "Bubblebath".

The closing side of Dominion Swing stays in this vein - blissed out haze is soaked into summer sundowner "Ascension" and its romantic melodies. "Stigma" is built on misty ambient pads but carries a persistent heartbeat rhythm, fading slowly into album closer "Yosemites" tropical field recordings and scattered drum hits.

Legendary psychedelic guitar music from the Islamic Republic of Mauritania finally available on vinyl!
Originally released as a double CD in 2010, Wallahi Le Zein! has persisted as a cult classic, a collection of a rarely heard and utterly unique underground music scene, raw and unfiltered.
For fans of the more raw side of Sublime Frequencies, Sahelsounds, the ripping tape-hiss psychedelia of Les Rallizes Denudes, and anyone remotely interested in GUITARS.
12” 160 gram black vinyl LP, with 2 spot color reverse-board jacket, and 8-page full sized booklet with extensive notes and photos, and a history of Mauritanian guitar playing.
‘’this is the first curated collection of unfiltered Mauritanian guitar music ever, and I'm glad it's been introduced with such thoroughness and care.’’ 8.0 Pitchfork
The LP version we now present is intended as an immersive entry into this music: gnarled and virtuosic electric guitars weave hypnotically throughout melismatic sung poetry and exclamations, pulsing hand drums, party chatter, buzzing rigged desert sound systems, and all manner of the ambient sounds of Nouakchott wedded to oversaturated cassette in all its swirling, breathing, psychedelic glory. Operating entirely outside of any local recording industry, these songs were collected from bootleg tape stalls, wedding souveniers, and networks of musicians, expertly curated, researched and produced by Matthew Lavoie.
Drawing from the deep well of Mauritanian classical music, the gamut of musical modes and the tidinitt lute repertoire are transposed to the electric guitar - often with frets removed or additional frets installed, “heavy metal” distortion pedals and phasers built into guitar bodies, blurring the lines between Haratine and Beydane musical cultures, the ancient and the futuristic. At times transcendent and transfixing, and conversely a furious and cascading intensity that commands jaw-dropping attention.

Gondwana Records are delighted to announce '7" Series', our first ever 7" vinyl collection series. Featuring bespoke artwork from Gondwana Records designer Daniel Halsall, cut at Calyx in Berlin, and manufactured at Optimal, each 7" is limited to strictly 300 copies and housed in a reverse board printed sleeve with classic 'dinked' centre holes.

To launch this collectable series, we are excited to share new and previously unreleased music from Mammal Hands and two catalogue favourites from Matthew Halsall. Over the next coming months, we will share series part 3 and 4 and beyond.



Matthew Halsall & The Gondwana Orchestra ft Josephine Oniyama

Badder Weather / As I Walk 7" (GOND07003)

Manchester based composer, arranger, producer, DJ and band-leader Matthew Halsall has carved out a niche for himself as one of the UK's brightest talents. His languid, soulful, beautiful music has won international acclaim and for his first ever 7" he revisits his 2015 masterpiece, Into Forever, selecting two classic cuts, featuring the great vocalist Josephine Oniyama to create an instant, timeless, classic.

Side A Badder Weather is deep and soulful built around a groove that never quits.

Side B As I Walk is a lush, soulful affair, featuring swelling strings and deep vocals.

Manchester based composer, producer, trumpeter, DJ and founder of Gondwana Records, Matthew Halsall is one of UK's most creative talents. A gifted trumpeter with a beautiful, expressive tone, his music has explored his love of the transcendental spiritual and modal jazz of Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, as well as more contemporary dance music and electronica.


a a1 Badder Weather (feat. Josephine Oniyama) clip
b b1 As I Walk (feat. Josephine Oniyama) clip

Disc 1 is pressed in blue vinyl, disc 2 in green.

Factory Benelux presents an expanded vinyl edition of Another Setting, the third studio album by cult Manchester ensemble The Durutti Column.

Another Setting was recorded in 1983 at Strawberry Studio, Stockport with production by Chris Nagle, a favourite engineer of Martin Hannett. The 11 track album contains several acknowledged Durutti classics, notably haunting instrumental Prayer (burnished with cor anglais by Maunagh Fleming) and The Beggar, probably the closest Vini Reilly has edged to rock music. Elsewhere, Smile in the Crowd would be covered by Depeche Mode mainman Martin Gore on his 1989 solo project Counterfeit.

This new vinyl remaster also includes non-album single I Get Along Without You Very Well, a bittersweet Hoagy Carmichael cover sung by Lindsay Reade, the former wife of Factory foreman Tony Wilson.

The second disc is a previously unreleased live show taped at the Pandora’s Box Festival in Rotterdam on 4 September 1983, featuring eight tracks performed by Vini Reilly and Bruce Mitchell. This second disc is pressed on clear vinyl.

The 2018 edition of Another Setting is packaged in a gatefold sleeve printed on white reverse board, restoring the original cover artwork by Mark Farrow with cover paintings by Jackie Williams.

Riding the razor’s edge between rigorous experimentation, innovation, and tradition, London based, Italian composer, cellist, and electronic performer, Sandro Mussida, joins the Die Schachtel family with Rueben, his 3rd solo LP.

Active since the early 2000s, Sandro Mussida worked extensively with Mark Fell, Curl Collective, Lorenzo Senni, Oren Ambarchi, and Alessandra Novaga, among others, as well as a founding member of the interdisciplinary artists' group TQS Collective, before releasing his solo debut, Ventuno Costellazioni Invisibili, on Metrica in 2017, followed by Eeeooosss, released by Soave in 2019. Rueben, like its predecessor, deploys a microtonal vocabulary within a three-instrument sound palette and builds upon Mussida’s long-standing investigations of active listening, augmented by a developing practice that challenges aural perceptions of historical, non-equal-tempered tuning systems.

The 3rd instalment of Die Schachtel’s Decay Music series - launched to highlight inspired contemporary experimental efforts in the ambient, ethereal, and emotively abstract music - Rueben was recorded during 2018 in the church of St.Giusto in Volterra, Italy. Deeply inspired by Italian Renaissance paintings encountered by Mussida during the work’s composition, and conceived at the intersection of acoustic and electronic aural fields, in careful response to the space itself, the sounds of electric guitar, bass clarinet and cello - treated as minuscule sound atoms, rapidly projected to form structures of evolving densities - harmoniously enter into dialogue, forming a multi-layered, contemplative sonic landscape, within the interwoven complexity of their own reflections.

Central to Mussida’s work is the role of the performer, the experience of sound in a given space, and the relation of those sounds to memory and observation. Across the length of Rueben, bound to the work’s inspiration in the visual realm, the interplay between the senses blurs, presenting the act of listening as a mirror for the experience and legacies of seeing. In Mussida’s hands, sound emerges as a trace or memory suspended in a non-linear conception of time, where imprint, movement, and event, as they relate to place and happening, are perceived by the ear, recalling the Russian theologian Pavel ​Florenskij​’s idea of ‘reverse time’, that likens temporal condition activated by experiences with art as similar to that of dreams.

Vast in scope and intricate detail, the 9 discrete compositions that form ​Rueben​ unfold in a series of interconnected, shimmering landscapes of tone and texture, each, through the interplay of their elements, configuring a radically dense rendering of minimalist, ambient music that challenge the perceived boundaries of those historical definitions. The identity of individual sound sources fades against their collective whole, sculpting an inward-looking aural image of the church of St.Giusto, that echoes the radiance of the paintings that lay at the heart of the album’s inspiration.

An inspired and radically forward-thinking realization of electro-acoustic music, Mussida pushes toward innumerable possible futures of experimental practice, imbued with ghosts and histories of the past. Rueben is issued Die Schachtel on vinyl in a one-time edition of 250 copies, pressed to 180g marble vinyl and housed in a pro-printed inner sleeve and jacket, featuring an original Sumi-e painting by Japanese artist and avant rock drummer Akihide Monna (Bo Ningen), contained in a silk-screen PVC sleeve.