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Forming off the back of contemporary jazz outfit Zeitgeist, Voronoi take the power and rhythmic complexity of heavier prog-metal and fuse it with the sophistication of classical music and jazz. A passion for science fiction thematically drives the band’s heaving and

chopping style, whereas artists such as Autechre, Car Bomb, Tigran Hamasyan and J.S. Bach help shape the rigid, experimental structure of The Last Three Seconds.

“Compositionally and stylistically we have moved into much heavier territory than our contemporary jazz foundations,” says Keyboardist Aleks Podraza. “It really shows. If you were to put this record against the first tunes we played together as Zeitgeist, it would be like introducing a much capable Thelonious Monk to a less hectic Dillinger Escape Plan.” 

As the first single off The Last Three Seconds, Gamma Signals serves as a toe in the water for the depth of things to come. The full-bodied riffwork captures the stop-start format of prog-metal heavyweights without being explicitly metal. Yet beyond this, glitchy, experimental electronics cut through the composition like a knife. The final product is something that captures the magic of the cosmos – a place where worlds orbit worlds, genres orbit genres. Each element remains different and unique, but still intrinsically tied to the other.

“Gamma Signals is about pulsars and how when Jocelyn Bell-Burnell first discovered them, the media thought they were aliens trying to contact us,” says Podraza. “Broadly, this song is about my love for and fascination with cosmology as a whole. That's a theme that runs through the veins of most of the album.” 

Those following Vorono’s career will need little convincing on the quality of The Last Three Seconds. Collectively, band members have performed and recorded with groups like The Cinematic Orchestra, KOYO, NJYO, Jenova Collective, The Often Herd, Mik Artistik’s Ego Trip, Wandering Monster and more. This in turn has garnered sizable attention at festivals such as Leeds and Reading Festival, Download Festival, Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club - not to mention Voronoi’s thrashing set at 2019’s ArcTanGent.

The cool and collected chaos of The Last Three Seconds serves as a snapshot of this live energy, as passion and fury hum at the end of every complex composition. From start to finish, the record is nothing less than executed perfectly, undoubtedly appealing to even the most seasoned of prog-lovers

Giampiero Scalamogna best known as "GEPY & GEPY" was an Italian singer, songwriter, producer, arranger and for his powerful voice visually combined to his robust physique he was paired to Barry White and Demis Roussos.During 70s he focused on disco music genre, composing and performing several songs such as ""Body to Body"" opening song of the famous Italian TV-show Discoring , and ""African Love Song"" that was part of the Nicky Siano's playlist at the Studio 54. Best Record Italy wants to remember this big italian producer (died in 2010 at the age of 67) with this 12"" limited edition containing for the first time the extended disco versions of "Body To Body" on the A side and "African Love Song" on the B side.

The Velvet Underground is regarded as one of the most influential bands in rock history.

Their first 4 albums were included in Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Ranked 19th greatest artist by the same magazine and the 24th greatest artist in a poll by VH1.

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.

Critic Robert Christgau considers them "the number three band of the '60s, after the Beatles and James Brown and His Famous Flames".

AllMusic wrote that "Few rock groups can claim to have broken so much new territory, and maintain such consistent brilliance on record, as the Velvet Underground during their brief lifespan ... the Velvets' innovations – which blended the energy of rock with the sonic adventurism of the avant-garde, and introduced a new degree of social realism and sexual kinkiness into rock lyrics – were too abrasive for the mainstream to handle."

Black Truffle is pleased to announce the latest offering from underground legend Richard Youngs. Hyperactive since the late 1980s, Youngs is widely celebrated for his remarkably extensive and varied body of recordings. His works range freely over a vast terrain, wandering from tender acoustic balladry to raging psychedelic noise and orchestral D-beat, always imbued with his distinctive, often mournful, melodic sensibility and irrepressible sense of joyous experimentation.

Comprised of two side-long pieces, CXXI carried on the experiments with chance operations used to generate material on many of Youngs’ recent releases. On ‘Tokyo Photograph’, a slowly changing, randomly generated sequence of 121 minor chords played by sine waves and accented with a brushed snare hit on every change provides the harmonic foundation for Youngs’ fragile yet impassioned vocal performance, shards of field recordings and electronics and Sophie Cooper’s long, tape-echoed trombone notes. While the melancholic drift of the chords calls up prime Robert Wyatt sides like Old Rottenhat or Dondestan, only the most vestigial sense of song remains here, as Youngs arranges his minimal ingredients over a spacious fifteen-minute expanse that often drops to nothing more than the rich hum of sine waves.

‘The Unlearning’ carries on directly from the first side, presenting another, more harmonically varied, sequence of randomly generated chords played by sine waves, distressed with tape echo flourishes and sparsely sprinkled with electronic touches. Like some of Youngs’ most single-minded instrumental works in recent years, such as his recordings of foot-played guitar or his shakuhachi pieces, ‘The Unlearning’ is deeply meditative but entirely remote from ambient or minimalist cliches.

Named after the number of chord changes on the opening piece and (Chicago-style) the number of records Youngs has released, CXXI arrives in a striking monochrome sleeve featuring play-along chord charts for both pieces. Both rigorously conceptual and endearingly off-the-cuff, CXXI is classic Richard Youngs.

TOTAL turns 21 this year, and Kompakt’s venerable compilation series couldn’t have asked for a more auspicious coming-of-age collection. If TOTAL 20 was consolidation against the odds, the Kompakt crew producing for a dreamt-of dancefloor in an uncertain future, then TOTAL 21 feels abuzz and alive with possibilities. Significantly, it’s the first TOTAL in some time that’s streamlined down to a single disc; this makes TOTAL 21 even punchier than usual, a joyous, reflective, and always thrilling 75-minute audio scan of the world according to Kompakt.

As with every instalment of TOTAL, there’s a deft balancing here of Kompakt regulars and new blood. Of the latter, there’s a first appearance by KOLLMORGEN, remixed by PATRICE BÄUMEL into an astral torch song; Amsterdam’s NICKY ELISABETH, offering up ROMAN FLÜGEL’s pulsating, arpeggiated remix of “Celeste”; and CAPTAIN MUSTACHE swoops down into view, PLAY PAUL in tow, with the dream-like electro lift-off that is “Everything”. JONATHAN KASPAR also drops by with a new track, “Von Draussen”, a stealthy and lethal floor-hugger with prowling bass.

Elsewhere, there’s the lead track to MICHAEL MAYER’s astonishing recent EP, “Brainwave Technology”, which not-so-gently spears the tech-futurist babble of AI, transhumanism and posthumanism, soundtracked by one of Mayer’s typically lush, glimmering soundscapes. JOHN TEJADA reaches back to the heyday of glitch and dub techno with the gorgeous “Spectral Progressions”, while the brothers VOIGT & VOIGT, on “Nicht Mein Job”, seem reinvigorated by the interwoven patterns and funky minimalism of the Profan days. Not to be outdone, JÜRGEN PAAPE kicks TOTAL 21 with “La Guittara Romantica”, a chiming and lilting lullaby for woozy late-night reflection.

Throughout, it feels as though Kompakt are taking a moment to both breathe in the dust of the past and look forward to a bright future. Perhaps that’s why, on “Fasson”, SASCHA FUNKE seems so confident, with pinprick melodies bouncing around a hall of audio mirrors, or why THE BIONAUT returns with “Blue Sky Motor Lodge”, a song so moistly melancholy, so enduringly lovely, it’ll make you weep tears of joy. ROBAG WRUHME gets a little delirious on the ticking, twisting “No”, and then GUI BORATTO mops everything up with the bubbling, bumping glam-stomp “Wake Up”.

That’s not all – spring for the digital and/or vinyl edition and you’ll get a new cut, “Happy”, from MICHAEL MAYER, and MARC ROMBOY & C.A.R.’s “I Am A Dancer”. But however you choose to play it, now TOTAL’s turned 21, it’s your duty to throw it the celebration to end all celebrations. Let the party begin, and don’t forget to bring a party favor…

Cult jazz soundtrack to supernatural Soho
strangler epic ‘Der Wurger Vom Tower’ by Swiss
electronic pioneer Bruno Spoerri that has been
locked away since 1966.
 Translated as ‘The Strangler In The Tower’, this
lesser-known thriller possibly stretched the
imaginations of cinematic crime buffs beyond the
genre’s parameters before disappearing into
obscurity.
 Liberated from Bruno Spoerri’s meticulous master
tape vault this, his first-ever feature-length
soundtrack commission, can finally take its place
alongside other recently resuscitated oblique jazz
scores by the likes of Basil Kirchin, Krzysztof
Komeda (Cul-De-Sac), Roger Webb and Jonny
Scott.
 The real sacred jewel in Bruno Spoerri’s crown as
the leader and pioneer of Switzerland’s electronic
underground (not to mention sample source
amongst rap royalty) and a mysterious monarchial
figure in European jazz and music technology

First vinyl reissue for Darien, Connecticut hardcore punk legends Vatican Commandos’ 1983 second 7", originally on the Pregnant Nun label. A 'killed by death' holy grail for the US hardcore collectors finally back in print, courtesy of the original members. Faithful reproduction of the original cover art by Rob Zombie himself. Fully remastered.

Caleb Landry Jones is a continual creator. The Texan-born star found fame as an actor - you’ll recognise him from key roles in X-Men: First Class, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, amongst others - but music is perhaps his first love, and his source of greatest comfort. A chance encounter with famed auteur Jim Jarmusch brought him into the orbit of Sacred Bones, and the stalwart independent released Caleb’s 2020 debut album The Mother Stone. Psychedelic in a defiantly non-retro way, this indulgent, freewheeling trip won critical acclaim, but masked a secret - he’d already finished another album.

Filming alongside Tom Hanks in dystopian themed Finch, Caleb found himself writing during those long evenings after the shoot in locations across New Mexico, idling away his hours by focusing on creativity. “I need it,” he says, “I’ve tried working without it. On one acting job, I intentionally didn’t bring a guitar to try and do it without music... but that didn’t last long. I need to create

something - it could be a drawing, it could be a song - because otherwise I feel like I’m wasting time. Which is something I do plenty of on my own!”

With his creative faculties burning, Caleb knew he had to get straight back into the studio when filming stopped. Linking with the same cast who formed The Mother Stone, he resumed his partnership with producer Nic Jodoin, based out of the elegant Valentine Recording Studio in Los Angeles. A studio steeped in history - everyone from Bing Crosby to Frank Zappa worked there - he interrupted mixing sessions for his own debut album in order to focus on something different.

Gadzooks Vol. 1 is unlike anything you’ve heard before - comparisons range from Skip Spence’s fractured masterpiece Oar through to skewed troubadour Robyn Hitchcock, via John Lennon’s black moods on The White Album and Frank Zappa’s caustic surrealism. Recording to tape, Caleb would hack away at each take, re-assembling the songs like Escher diagrams. “It’s like when you’re swimming in the pool,” he smiles, “and you’re doing a bit of butterfly, and then that gets old after a while. So then you start doing breaststroke, and then that gets old after a while. I think it’s just a reaction from the place where we were before.”

Part of a flood-tide of creativity - as its title suggests, a second half to this album is already on the horizon - Gadzooks Vol. 1 is thrilling, shocking, and wonderfully entertaining. Each song starts and finishes in entirely unique places, often totally divorced from each other. “I’m trying to write something very simple,” he says, “And it gets really abstract because I don’t know any other way.”

- Follow up to the critically acclaimed debut The Mother Stone
- Actor in Finch, Get Out, Twin Peaks, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
- Positive press for The Mother Stone ran in Pitchfork, Billboard, Entertainment Weekly, FLOOD, Newsweek, The AV Club, Document Journal, The New Yorker, The FADER, NPR and others

Caleb Landry Jones is a continual creator. The Texan-born star found fame as an actor - you’ll recognise him from key roles in X-Men: First Class, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, amongst others - but music is perhaps his first love, and his source of greatest comfort. A chance encounter with famed auteur Jim Jarmusch brought him into the orbit of Sacred Bones, and the stalwart independent released Caleb’s 2020 debut album The Mother Stone. Psychedelic in a defiantly non-retro way, this indulgent, freewheeling trip won critical acclaim, but masked a secret - he’d already finished another album.

Filming alongside Tom Hanks in dystopian themed Finch, Caleb found himself writing during those long evenings after the shoot in locations across New Mexico, idling away his hours by focusing on creativity. “I need it,” he says, “I’ve tried working without it. On one acting job, I intentionally didn’t bring a guitar to try and do it without music... but that didn’t last long. I need to create

something - it could be a drawing, it could be a song - because otherwise I feel like I’m wasting time. Which is something I do plenty of on my own!”

With his creative faculties burning, Caleb knew he had to get straight back into the studio when filming stopped. Linking with the same cast who formed The Mother Stone, he resumed his partnership with producer Nic Jodoin, based out of the elegant Valentine Recording Studio in Los Angeles. A studio steeped in history - everyone from Bing Crosby to Frank Zappa worked there - he interrupted mixing sessions for his own debut album in order to focus on something different.

Gadzooks Vol. 1 is unlike anything you’ve heard before - comparisons range from Skip Spence’s fractured masterpiece Oar through to skewed troubadour Robyn Hitchcock, via John Lennon’s black moods on The White Album and Frank Zappa’s caustic surrealism. Recording to tape, Caleb would hack away at each take, re-assembling the songs like Escher diagrams. “It’s like when you’re swimming in the pool,” he smiles, “and you’re doing a bit of butterfly, and then that gets old after a while. So then you start doing breaststroke, and then that gets old after a while. I think it’s just a reaction from the place where we were before.”

Part of a flood-tide of creativity - as its title suggests, a second half to this album is already on the horizon - Gadzooks Vol. 1 is thrilling, shocking, and wonderfully entertaining. Each song starts and finishes in entirely unique places, often totally divorced from each other. “I’m trying to write something very simple,” he says, “And it gets really abstract because I don’t know any other way.”

- Follow up to the critically acclaimed debut The Mother Stone
- Actor in Finch, Get Out, Twin Peaks, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
- Positive press for The Mother Stone ran in Pitchfork, Billboard, Entertainment Weekly, FLOOD, Newsweek, The AV Club, Document Journal, The New Yorker, The FADER, NPR and others

On May 9, 1995, the release of an album by a new Memphis rap group changed the future of Memphis rap and the future of rap itself. The release of "Mystic Stylez" by Three 6 Mafia marked the first commercial release of a supergroup that had formed through the merger of DJ Paul and Juicy J, two of Memphis' most popular mixtape DJs in the early 90's. The group would go on to record 9 albums and be the first rap group ever to receive an Academy Award for their song "It's Hard Out Here For A Pimp." Three 6 Mafia also helped launch the careers of Lil Wyte, La Chat, Project Pat, Gangsta Boo & more.

20th Anniversary Double LP Red Vinyl Edition

Tape

Pauline Oliveros and Guy Klucevsek's "Sounding / Way" was originally released on cassette in 1986 and has been out of print ever since. This LP was cut by John Golden and pressed at RTI in order to achieve a quiet, dynamic pressing.

The Sounding / Way concept was simple. Each artist would write a piece for two accordions and then they would perform them together. Thus, side A contains Guy Klucevsek's Tremolo No. 6 performed by Guy Klucevsek and Pauline Oliveros. Side B contains Pauline's composition The Tuning Meditation, also performed by both Pauline and Guy.

This is the second release in an on-going effort between Important Records and the Pauline Oliveros Trust to maintain and promote the music, philosophy and legacy of Pauline Oliveros.

Guy Klucevsek is one of the world’s most versatile and highly-respected accordionists. He has performed and/or recorded with Laurie Anderson, Bang On a Can, Brave Combo, Anthony Braxton, Anthony Coleman, Dave Douglas, Bill Frisell, Rahim al Haj, Robin Holcomb, Kepa Junkera, the Kronos Quartet, Natalie Merchant, Present Music, Relâche, Zeitgeist, and John Zorn.

Pauline Oliveros, composer, performer and humanitarian is an important pioneer in American Music. Acclaimed internationally, for four decades she has explored sound - forging new ground for herself and others.

Through improvisation, electronic music, ritual, teaching and meditation she has created a body of work with such breadth of vision that it profoundly effects those who experience it, and eludes many who try to write about it. Oliveros has been honored with awards, grants and concerts internationally. Whether performing at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., in an underground cavern, or in the studios of West German Radio, Oliveros' commitment to interaction with the moment is unchanged. She can make the sound of a sweeping siren into another instrument of the ensemble.

"On some level, music, sound consciousness and religion are all one, and she would seem to be very close to that level." John Rockwell

"Through Pauline Oliveros and Deep Listening, I now know what harmony is. It's about the pleasure of making music." John Cage

Dynamite cuts 45s series is proud to release two more Jazz fusion gems by the wonderful Judy Roberts. With her amazing jazz fusion keyboard skills and dreamy vocals this single is a must. Both tracks are first time on 45. First released back in 1980 on the Inner City label over 42 years ago.

Brazilian-American power trio São Paulo Underground (Rob Mazurek, Mauricio Takara & Guilherme Granado) align their chakras with Tenerife electronic pranksters Tupperwear (Mladen Kurajica & Daniel Garcia) for an anything goes EP session of tropical jazz, Chicago post rock and general head scratching psych chants.

Recorded live in 2016 in a disused kerosene tank in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands after a week long residency. Now recompiled by the Keroxen label and presented here in its ripest form, certified ready for human consumption.

Each member plays multiple roles in creating Saturno Mágico’s unique organic evolving sound. Mazurek plays cornet and modular synths; Takara’s on drums, cavaquinho and electronics, whilst Granado plays keyboards, synthesizers, and sampler. Tupperwear add to the organic flow with Kurajica on various synths and keyboards whilst Garcia excels on electronics, live sampling, guitar and voices.

Another unique document from the Keroxen Label, exponential Island music and insular collaborations spilled out onto the world – so much more to come, blink it and you’ll miss!

The scottish musician, born in 1953 in Port Glasgow, is one of the most eclectic artist of the so-called minimal wave scene. Alongside german singer Claudia Brücken (vocalist of the hit-makers Propaganda) he formed Act a short-lived synthpop group signed to ZTT Records in the late eighties. Licensed by Cherry Red in 1982, the double album ‘Contradictions’ is the third effort in Leer high and rising career. After the seminal debut on Industrial Records with Robert Rental – The Bridge (1979) – Leer ventured on a solo career with the brave synth wave of ‘Letter From America’ and his personal masterpiece ‘Contradictions’. The latter is such an enigmatic piece of work, with alien melodies as in the case of the ‘Soul Gypsy’ infectious white funk. The whole album was recorded in his living room at home onto 4-track using borrowed equipment ( Korg synth, Ult-sound drum computer & guitars ) from his friend Morgan Fisher. Featuring Leer’s haunting, uncertain vocal – recorded quietly, so as not to wake his girlfriend in their bedsit! – crooning over a minimal bass pulse and discreet whines and washes of primitive Wasp synthesiser, it retains its peculiar lo-fi magic four decades on.

Earnest Vocation is part of the new “Behind The Dykes” series where we unearth rare and sought-after albums from the Netherlands.
It’s the second and final studio album of the Dutch beat group Ro-D- Ys. The band started making music professionally in the late sixties and was well received within the Dutch psychedelic movement. Earnest Vocation was recorded with original singer Harry Rijnbergen.

The german Producer Shuko teamed up with soul legend Lee Fields and UK newcomer Nia Wyn on this limited 10inch edition „Nothings Gonna Change“. Besides that heavy soul jam he packed up the vinyl with two other soul driven Hip-Hop tracks called „Money“ feat. Swiss soul voice Ira May and Liquid Junkie´s finest Defari as well as another collab between Nia Wyn and Kinkai from the UK. To make this an outstanding collecting Item, Shuko added two istrumentals that will be only available on this release, the "Nothing's Gonna Change" instrumental version and the bonus cut "Roger Moore".

New school techno star Lee Ann Roberts continues to light up 2021 with another brand new single on her own NowNow Records. Her standout original is backed by remixes from MRD and D.A.V.E. The Drummer.

This year already belongs to South African-born, Amsterdam-based Lee Ann Roberts. Her new label has had high-profile support from tastemakers like Charlotte de Witte & Ken Ishii, and is already well known for its off-grid techno sounds. Roberts herself debuted only last year on Suara. She immediately hit the number 2 spot on the Beatport Hard Techno chart and followed up with more on Octopus Warehouse Series. She has played festivals like Caprices this year and is lined up for BPM as well as plenty more headline gigs.

The excellent 'Feel' is a nine-minute, hard-edged roller. The drums are flat-footed and unrelenting, the synths bring turbulence and dark vocals add dystopian unease. The edgy textures and caustic pads make for a visceral groove that is perfectly designed for shadowy warehouse spaces. An Acid Trip Mix sees the track erupt on wild acid lines that spray about the mix and cannot fail to blow up the dance floor.

Remixer MRD hails from Norway and has released plenty of EPs and an album in a short space of time. He has a ferocious sound that fuses new wave, hardcore and banging techno as evidenced here. His version is break-neck techno with trance pads lighting up the airwaves in euphoric fashion.

The second remixer is the legendary London techno titan and label boss D.A.V.E. The Drummer. He heads up Hydraulix Records and Apex Recordings and always brings the fire. His take on 'Feel' is a wall-rattling banger with oversized bass. Saw-tooth synths rip up the track while the stark, strobe-lit stabs and some buried vocals make the floor sweat.

Far Out Recordings presents the peerless and criminally undervalued Quartin catalogue, beginning with the reissue of Jose Mauro’s forgotten masterpiece Obnoxius. Over the course of the 60s, Roberto Quartin released more than 20 albums in Brazil on his label Forma, by artists including the likes of Eumir Deodato and Quateto Em Cy. Selling the rights of Forma to Polygram in 1969, Quartin struck out for pastures new at the dawn of the 1970s with the launch of his self-titled label. Significant works and high-water marks for Brazilian music overall followed in that decade’s first year, with Victor Assis Brasil Plays Antonio Carlos Jobim and the aforementioned Obnoxius. These singular gems in Brazilian music, difficult to categorise yet compellingly haunting, have for too long gone unheard.

Today, very little is known about Jose Mauro and as a result those searching for some kind of insight on the man behind the music must attempt to glean what they can from the music itself. One rumour claims he died in a car accident shortly before the album’s release, a fact that could have lent his brief musical career a touch of mythology were it not for how scant the details concerning any other aspects of his life are. The political turmoil from which the album emerged is significant also; recorded during an era of oppressive state censorship, the album, like all the Quartin catalogue, is the result of steadfast defiance in the face of a crushing military dictatorship. While many musicians of the era fled the country, preferring their prospects in the affluent, liberated USA, rebellious, young musicians like Mauro chose to stay and reflect their anger at the authorities through thinly veiled protest songs such as the stirring ‘Apocalipse’. Herein lies the basis for a more dramatic theory; that Mauro was in fact abducted by the military! Whatever the truth, the mystery remains unsolved, and all that remains is his bewitching music, all of which is composed by Mauro and Ana Maria Bahiana. Production on the record was cancelled after Mauro’s death and it was never sold commercially until its rerelease decades later. What appeal does Mauro’s music hold to today’s listeners, forty-something years removed from its conception? Simply put, there is very little else that sounds much like it all. Take the title track of ‘Obnoxius’. A wholly singular piece of music, blending string-drenched melancholia with orchestral pomp, sunny psychedelic strumming with propulsive percussion, topped off with Mauro’s yearning vocals. The result is indicative of Mauro’s unique blend of sounds from Latin Jazz and samba to psychedelic folk and baroque orchestration.

Today, Obnoxius retains its strange, otherworldly appeal – A firm favourite amongst a small circle of deep diggers including Madlib, Gilles Peterson, Floating Points. Jose Mauro’s mournful and melancholic vocals create a dark, brooding atmosphere that stands in contrast to the usual joyfulness and high-spirited rhythm of the more prominent Brazilian music of the era. Despite this air of foreboding, Mauro’s confident baritones, chord patterns and sumptuous arrangements have the ability to induce in the listener an almost trance-like state of ecstasy. Mauro’s long hidden masterpiece, a complex and uniquely stunning work is being offered the chance to be heard by the wider audience it has always deserved. A second Jose Mauro release, A Viagem Des Horas, compiling more incredible tracks unreleased in Mauro’s lifetime, will follow, alongside other unreleased jewels from the Quartin catalogue, from the likes of Piri and Victor Assis Brasil…

Following on from the acclaimed Tiger Balm / Amazonia Dreaming / Immersion LP (BT028), Black Truffle is thrilled to present two major new instrumental works from legendary sound artist and experimental composer Annea Lockwood. Demonstrating the ever evolving and radically open nature of Lockwood’s practice, these two recent works were developed in close collaboration with their performers. ‘Becoming Air’ (2018), developed with and performed by trumpeter Nate Wooley, uses extended technique and electronics to interfere with Wooley’s virtuosic control over his instrument, pushing him into areas of fluctuating pitch and timbral instability. Motivated by a desire for ‘the letting go of sound to be itself’, ‘Becoming Air’ unfolds as a series of texturally distinct moments separated by pauses, each fixing on a particular approach to the instrument (long tones, upper-register whistles, breathy wooshes) and maintaining it in an essentially static fashion, focussing our attention on subtle changes and variations. Dipping into near-inaudibility in the fragile high tones of its opening section, the piece dramatically increases in volume and intensity in its final third, climaxing with a passage of roaring distortion, where the interaction between feedback and trumpet pitches calls up the shuddering interference effects of Robert Ashley’s Wolfman.

‘Into the Vanishing Point’ (2019) is a collaborative work developed with New York piano and percussion quartet Yarn/Wire, who have performed work by major contemporary composers such as Olivia Block, Catherine Lamb and Klaus Lang. Carrying on the ecological and environmental concerns of some of Lockwood’s previous works, ‘Into the Vanishing Point’ was inspired by a devastating news article on the global collapse of insect populations. Discovering that the four members of Yarn/Wire had also read this text, Lockwood mapped out a loose structure for the piece that would allow the composer and four performers to explore their ‘feelings about what is happening ecologically’. Working with a huge variety of instruments, objects and techniques of sound production, the resulting work is an alluringly lush, organically unfolding tissue of unorthodox textures and haunting tones. Though not intended to sonically represent ecological issues in any direct way, its unique sound world of rubbed piano strings, gently handled objects and chiming pitches often calls up natural images: of insects and frogs, wind rushing through trees, a bird’s wings in flight. Presented in a stunning gatefold cover with liner notes by Lockwood, Wooley and Yarn/Wire, Becoming Air/Into the Vanishing Point is a testament to the generosity and experimentation that continue to characterise the work of this extraordinary artist, active for over fifty years.

It was once said that listening to ‘Antiphonals’ was, “like listening to a
progressive rock album except it’s just the keyboard parts.” As the
second full-length LP on Late Music, Davachi offers here a slow and
sedate solo affair composed with the various horns and woodwinds of
the mellotron alongside organs, pianos, harpsichord and more quiet
delights.
CD in 4 panel gatefold lancing pack.
LP in standard 3mm spine printed sleeve, poly-lined inner bag and
digital download card.
As a composer and performer of both acoustic and electronic music,
Sarah Davachi’s work is concerned with the close intricacies of
intimate aural space, utilizing extended durations and simple
harmonic structures that emphasize subtle variations in texture,
overtone complexity, psychoacoustic phenomena and temperament
and intonation.
Similarly informed by minimalist tenets of the 1960s and 1970s,
baroque leanings toward slow-moving chordal suspensions and
experimental production practices of the recording studio
environment, in her sound is manifest an experience that lessens
apprehension of consonance and dissonance in likeness of the
familiar and the distant.
Davachi has toured extensively across the globe and has shared the
stage and collaborated with artists such as Grouper, William Basinski,
Ariel Kalma, the Bozzini Quartet, the London Contemporary
Orchestra, Oren Ambarchi, Donald Buchla, Suzanne Ciani, the BBC
Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Jessica Moss, Áine O'Dwyer,
Alessandro Cortini, James McVinnie, Ian William Craig, Kara-lis
Coverdale, Aaron Dilloway, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Ellen Arkbro,
Loren Connors and filmmaker Paul Clipson.
Between 2007 and 2017, Davachi had the unique opportunity to work
for the National Music Centre in Canada as an interpreter and content
developer of their collection of acoustic and electronic keyboard
instruments. In 2020, she established her own label, Late Music.

Mondo and Madison Gate are proud to present the premiere vinyl release of Leo Birenberg and Zach Robinson's incredible score to the Netflix streaming phenomenon COBRA KAI. This 3-disc vinyl set features music from the first 3 seasons of the hit series, curated by the composers into themed collections.

This exclusive retail version comes pressed on red, white, and blue marble discs. Also featuring all new artwork from the incredible Matt Ryan Tobin and liner notes from composers Leo Birenberg, Zach Robinson, star Ralph Macchio, and showrunners Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg.

Music from the first 3 seasons of the series curated into three collections of music:
Disc 1: COBRA KAI - a curated mix of music scoring the most badass dojo in the Vallely
Disc 2: MIYAGI-DO - curated selections from the music scoring Laruso Family, and its ties to the Miyagi legacy.
Disc 3: FINAL FIGHTS - the music from all three of the explosive season finale episodes.

All of the music has been hand selected, and in many cases expanded from their original form for the most definitive Cobra Kai listening experience available.

The edition that marks the start of the brand-new Comets Coming could not be more suitable: it is that Rodrigo Brandão, like his grandfather Herman Poole Blount, dust of stars that the world knows as Sun Ra, may have his feet on the Earth, but he has definitely a sidereal head.

Brandão arrived recently to Portugal, but already left a strong mark in the most adventurous Lisbon scene, having performed several concerts in which his language has been wrapped in the exploratory sounds of musicians such as Rodrigo Amado, João Valinho, and Hernâni Faustino. The agitator, poet and spoken word artist, brought a vast experience that over the years saw him collaborate with artists as distinct as the members of Metá Metá or Prince Paul (that one!) on BROOKZILL!.

This work, however, came in his luggage, across the ocean, on the rediscovery trip that brought him from Brazil to Lisbon. OUTROS ESPAÇO was recorded in São Paulo in late 2019 with a luxury crew: Tulipa Ruiz and Juçara Marçal added to the microphone, Thiago França played flute and alto & tenor saxophones, Guilherme Granado dealt with the synthesizers and effects, Marcos Gerez measured the overall pulse with his electric bass, Thomas Rohrer played soprano and 'rabeca' (fiddle), and Paulo Santos dealt with the percussion. In addition to the base band, OUTROS ESPAÇO also features some members of Sun Ra Arkestra's current incarnation. Respectively: Danny Thompson (RIP) on baritone and bongo, Elson Nascimento on 'surdo' (tom drum), Knoel Scott on tenor and soprano, with the giant Marshall Allen in a prominent role leading the collective towards the unknown, while playing the alto sax and synthesizer.

In OUTROS ESPAÇO, Brandão reaches for words from different origins, from contrasting times and cultures, all with magnetic resonance imaging: what is not from his furrow comes to him from Candomblé (“Quando Os Orixás Desfilam Sobre A Cracolândia”), from his readings of Sun Ra (“Eu Sou 1 Instrumento” is an adaptation of the poem I Am An Instrument), or from the school's playgrounds (“Jamais Nos Esqueceremos”). And in these words there are teeth and nails ingrained in injustice (“Quantos Coltrane...?, “Todo o Dia Tem +”) and kaleidoscopic delusions that result from the speed of light (“Sol da Meia Noite”).

The crew that travels through these OUTROS ESPAÇO (PT for "Other Spaces") has freedom as the main fuel, jazz as a measure of their reach, and all swings in the world as maps, so they can lose themselves at the end of the cosmos. There is urgency and reflection, craziness and precision, surprise and well-known ancestral raw material, that makes us vibrate inwardly with the same trembling as the comets that are coming.

The visionary and veteran Scotty Hard was responsible for making everything sound like the music of the spheres, dealing with the mixing from his INGUASONIC SOUND studio in Brooklyn, NY.

And lastly, in January, Rob Mazurek, another frequent ally of Brandão, another notorious space traveler, offered a poem that frames this project. Among other things, he writes:

Make this place sing

Make this place thunder

Make this place shake

It couldn't be in any other way.

Pioneering electric bluesman Albert King not only influenced
American guitarists like Robert Cray and Stevie Ray Vaughan, with
whom he played in later years, but made an indelible mark in
Britain. Cream-era Eric Clapton, in particular, was an early devotee
before Albert ever set foot on UK soil, while Gary Moore, who
unashamedly took his cues from Clapton, later shared a stage with
King in his ‘Still Got The Blues’ period. Enjoy his earliest
recordings as all his famous fans would have discovered them –
on vinyl!

The UK’s love affair with American soul music blossomed in the
mid 1960s, with the launch of the Tamla-Motown record label in
Britain. But by the end of the decade this passion took on a
distinctly homegrown twist with a new movement that grew out
of the North of England and Midlands’ underground soul and
R&B scene. It was here at dancehalls and clubs such as
Manchester’s Twisted Wheel and the Wigan Casino that
devotees danced the night away to uptempo, joyous US soul
records that always came with a heavy beat. Pretty soon the
movement had a name: Northern Soul. This collection is the
next best thing and it is all on vinyl, exactly how the movement’s
fans originally heard them

MIEKO SHIMIZU is a London based Japanese singer, songwriter, composer
and producer. She first erupted onto the scene as Apache 61, fusing layers
of cross-woven breaks and battling shards of sub-bass within stateless
melodies drawn from the fringes of the avant-garde.
Mieko has produced scores for contemporary dance company Phoenix Dance
Theatre as well as the Ballet ‘The Red Balloon’ at the Royal Opera House’s
Linbury Theatre. She was made an ‘Emerging Artist in Residence’ at London’s
Southbank Centre where she collaborated with the London Philharmonic Orchestra on her own compositions.
ROAD OF SHELLS was originally released back in 1990 and now being released
for the very first time on vinyl. Recored at Wold Studios in London, the record
features an array of talented musicians from Claude Deppa on trumpet and
guitar from Dominique Brethes. ‘Blue Dancer’ and ‘In The Garden’ features
Mieko’s brother Yasuaki Shimizu on saxophone.
20 years on from Road Of Shells original release date the record has now has
be released for the very first time on Vinyl in Japan and available in the UK
and worldwide.
Mieko has worked with David Cunningham from The Flying Lizards, Robert
Lippok of To Rococo Rot and re-mixed the likes of Coldcut. Haruomi Hosono
of the cult electro-pop act ‘Yellow Magic Orchestra’, signed Mieko to his label
‘Daisy World’.
Mieko has performed at Sonar, alongside Kraftwerk and supported Massive
Attack at their Melt Down Festival.

Italian experimental music is notoriously resistant to definition and location. If ever there was an object to encapsulate the spirit of that movement, it is the composer and musician Roberto Musci’s debut album from 1984 - The Loa Of Music. Recorded after a decade travelling the world - drifting between African, Indian, and the Near & Far East - studying music, making field recordings, and collecting instruments, not only is it a perfect culmination of such an experience, but a lens into the rigorously democratic and international spirit of the generation of artists to which Musci belongs. Phenomenally ambitious,The Loa Of Music entirely refuses the well trod path - distilling a remarkable range of sonic reference and reality. A work of field recording, musique concrète, electronics, synthesis, and instrumentation, pulling from countless musics from across the globe, the result is nothing short of brilliant and stunningly beautiful. A near perfect work - an egoless gesture, which rather than attempting to find consensus, offers every voice equity and cohabitation - harnessing the history music, with all of its cultural diversity, as a vision for a more ideal future. Geographies and their sounds intertwine, while Musci’s interventions and instrumentation thread a path. Ambiences ripple, sounds and voices converse in a vision of unity that may only exist within sonic realms. Unquestionably seminal, and one of the most important works to emerge from Italy in the last 50 years. Never before issued on vinyl since it’s original release, and surely not to be around for long, this is one not to miss.

Robert Jon & The Wreck are back and ready to tear up the UK and Europe
all over again with their new record, Shine A Light On Me Brother.
The impressive new album, written and recorded during the COVID pandemic,
and self-produced by Robert Jon & The Wreck, is set to release 3 September,
2021. Robert Jon & The Wreck is comprised of Robert Jon Burrison (lead vocals
and guitar), Andrew Espantman (drums and background vocals), Steve Maggiora (keyboards and background vocals), Henry James (lead guitar and background vocals), and Warren Murrel(bass and background vocals). They will take
the new album on tour in September/October 2021 AND February/April/May/
June/July 2022.
Robert Jon & The Wreck has been writing songs and releasing albums since the
band’s conception in 2011. During this time, this quintet of follicular proficient
gentlemen has been busy fine-tuning their sound playing to packed houses
across Europe and the United States.
The band has been received with accolades and raving reviews for years now,
from nominations of “Best Rock” and “Best Blues” and winning the title of
“Best Live Band” at the Orange County Music Awards in 2013, to numerous top
10 chart placement on Southern Rock Brazil’s Top 20 Albums to being praised
as “Classic and fresh at the same time” by Rock The Best Music, “Raising the
bar for the Southern genre” by Blues Rock Review, and “keeping the history
of classic 60’s and 70’s rock alive for newer generations” by Blues legend Joe
Bonamassa.
“A classy re-bore of well-trodden southern rock tropes by an Orange County
quintet with impeccably realised contemporary commerciality. Born of Allmans
and Skynyrd, but box fresh for 2000.” - Classic Rock Magazine
“Full of Eagles like guitar riffs and on infectious groove.” - Blues in Britain

2021 REPRESS! Robotic, atmosferic, dark electrotechno as we have come to expect from The Exaltics. This time with harder, more acidic tracks compared to part 1.

- Dritter Teil in LITAs hochgelobter Country Funk Serie! - Mit Dolly Parton, J.J. Cale, Conway Twitty, Larry Jon Wilson und Billy Swan, unter vielen anderen - Inklusive eines bisher unveröffentlichten Tracks von Tony Joe White - Alle Tracks neu gemastert - Neues Original-Artwork des renommierten Künstlers J. William Myers (der für Robert Altmans "Nashville", Waylon Jennings und Willie Nelsons "Waylon & Willie"-Album und die LP-Cover für die Charlie Daniels Band verantwortlich zeichnet) // Im Sommer 2012 wehte ein neuer Sound aus der staubigen Wüste herein. Es war ein Sound, der schwer zu fassen war, schwer zu kodifizieren; ein Sound, der sich wie ein wildes Pferd dem Zugriff entzog. Aber dies war kein Trend, keine Eintagsfliege, keine Vermischung von Stilen. Dieser Sound reichte Jahrzehnte zurück, in die zweite Hälfte der 1960er und frühen 1970er Jahre, als abenteuerlustige Künstler begannen, Country-Harmonien mit dem Hochgefühl des Gospels, dem sexuellen Schub des Blues und einem Hauch von Großstadt-Härte zu vermischen. Dies war ein neuer Sound mit einem einfachen Namen: Country Funk. Country Funk 1969-1975, erstmals 2012 veröffentlicht, brachte eine disparate Gruppe von Künstlern zusammen, die durch das einfache Gefühl ihrer Songs verbunden waren. Country Funk ist abwechselnd verspielt und melancholisch, slow jammin' und booty-shakin'. Es ist ein Sound, der sich sowohl im Studio als auch in der Bar durchsetzt, wie die auf Volume I vertretenen Künstler beweisen: Johnny Adams, Mac Davis, Dale Hawkins, Tony Joe White, Bobbie Gentry, Larry Jon Wilson, und viele andere. Nur zwei Jahre später wurde Volume I mit einer neuen Sammlung von Songs für Country Funk 1967-1974 (LITA 116, 2014) fortgesetzt. Volume II ließ nicht locker und bot alles, was man an Loose Talking und Lap-Steel Twangin' vertragen konnte. Schwergewichte wie Willie Nelson, Townes Van Zandt, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton und J.J. Cale teilen sich die Barhocker mit den weniger bekannten Stimmen von Bill Wilson, Donnie Fritts und Thomas Jefferson Kaye. Mit Country Funk Volume III 1975-1982 wird noch mehr Funk aus dem Kofferraum geholt. Diesmal sind die Jeans enger, die Haare größer und die Discokugel dreht sich zu einem Country-Synthie-Beat. Produziert und zusammengestellt von Jason Morgan (DJ/Sammler aus der Bay Area) und Patrick McCarthy (Co-Produzent/Compiler von Volume I & II), enthält die Trackliste neben den Stammgästen Dolly Parton, J.J. Cale, Larry Jon Wilson und Tony Joe White (dessen Track hier zum ersten Mal veröffentlicht wird) auch neue Gesichter wie Steven Soles, Gary & Sandy, Conway Twitty, Travis Wammack, Billy Swan, Rob Galbraith, Brian Hyland und viele mehr. Als die 1970er Jahre abebbten und sich die 1980er Jahre näherten, erweiterte sich die Palette des Country-Funks um Disco-Beats, schwere Moog-Synthesizer-Bässe und Clavinet. Volume III zeigt Künstler, die sich weiterhin gegen traditionelle Country-Tropen und -Produktionen wehren, während sie modernen Soul, Disco und verkorksten 80er-Jahre-Synthie-Pop in sich aufnehmen. Dies ist der wahre Soundtrack des Urban Cowboys. Aufsatteln, Partner.

- Transparentes Vinyl mit roten und blauen Schlieren - Dritter Teil in LITAs hochgelobter Country Funk Serie! - Mit Dolly Parton, J.J. Cale, Conway Twitty, Larry Jon Wilson und Billy Swan, unter vielen anderen - Inklusive eines bisher unveröffentlichten Tracks von Tony Joe White - Alle Tracks neu gemastert - Neues Original-Artwork des renommierten Künstlers J. William Myers (der für Robert Altmans "Nashville", Waylon Jennings und Willie Nelsons "Waylon & Willie"-Album und die LP-Cover für die Charlie Daniels Band verantwortlich zeichnet) // Im Sommer 2012 wehte ein neuer Sound aus der staubigen Wüste herein. Es war ein Sound, der schwer zu fassen war, schwer zu kodifizieren; ein Sound, der sich wie ein wildes Pferd dem Zugriff entzog. Aber dies war kein Trend, keine Eintagsfliege, keine Vermischung von Stilen. Dieser Sound reichte Jahrzehnte zurück, in die zweite Hälfte der 1960er und frühen 1970er Jahre, als abenteuerlustige Künstler begannen, Country-Harmonien mit dem Hochgefühl des Gospels, dem sexuellen Schub des Blues und einem Hauch von Großstadt-Härte zu vermischen. Dies war ein neuer Sound mit einem einfachen Namen: Country Funk. Country Funk 1969-1975, erstmals 2012 veröffentlicht, brachte eine disparate Gruppe von Künstlern zusammen, die durch das einfache Gefühl ihrer Songs verbunden waren. Country Funk ist abwechselnd verspielt und melancholisch, slow jammin' und booty-shakin'. Es ist ein Sound, der sich sowohl im Studio als auch in der Bar durchsetzt, wie die auf Volume I vertretenen Künstler beweisen: Johnny Adams, Mac Davis, Dale Hawkins, Tony Joe White, Bobbie Gentry, Larry Jon Wilson, und viele andere. Nur zwei Jahre später wurde Volume I mit einer neuen Sammlung von Songs für Country Funk 1967-1974 (LITA 116, 2014) fortgesetzt. Volume II ließ nicht locker und bot alles, was man an Loose Talking und Lap-Steel Twangin' vertragen konnte. Schwergewichte wie Willie Nelson, Townes Van Zandt, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton und J.J. Cale teilen sich die Barhocker mit den weniger bekannten Stimmen von Bill Wilson, Donnie Fritts und Thomas Jefferson Kaye. Mit Country Funk Volume III 1975-1982 wird noch mehr Funk aus dem Kofferraum geholt. Diesmal sind die Jeans enger, die Haare größer und die Discokugel dreht sich zu einem Country-Synthie-Beat. Produziert und zusammengestellt von Jason Morgan (DJ/Sammler aus der Bay Area) und Patrick McCarthy (Co-Produzent/Compiler von Volume I & II), enthält die Trackliste neben den Stammgästen Dolly Parton, J.J. Cale, Larry Jon Wilson und Tony Joe White (dessen Track hier zum ersten Mal veröffentlicht wird) auch neue Gesichter wie Steven Soles, Gary & Sandy, Conway Twitty, Travis Wammack, Billy Swan, Rob Galbraith, Brian Hyland und viele mehr. Als die 1970er Jahre abebbten und sich die 1980er Jahre näherten, erweiterte sich die Palette des Country-Funks um Disco-Beats, schwere Moog-Synthesizer-Bässe und Clavinet. Volume III zeigt Künstler, die sich weiterhin gegen traditionelle Country-Tropen und -Produktionen wehren, während sie modernen Soul, Disco und verkorksten 80er-Jahre-Synthie-Pop in sich aufnehmen. Dies ist der wahre Soundtrack des Urban Cowboys. Aufsatteln, Partner.

In 1970, Kevin and David met whilst they were working in the Labour Exchange Office on Aytoun St, Manchester. Both played guitar and had been searching for other musicians who played atmospheric music. Kevin had been playing in small clubs in Manchester and David performed in a few local bands. One evening, they jammed together at Kevin’s family home, and quickly realized that their playing blended together to form the basis of the sound they had been looking for. In the late ‘70s, the music scene in Manchester was bursting with new bands and music.

However, Kevin and David had little in common with the local acts, being disciples of a more meditative approach. They followed a path of their own, reaching for an otherworldly sound that they heard from artists like John Martyn, David Crosby, Erik Satie, Terry Riley, Eberhard Weber, Alice Coltrane, and Ralph Towner. They experimented combining their acoustic guitars and David’s bass with various effects pedals and techniques to try and achieve a warm and expansive sound that rides the line between ambient, jazz, and psychedelic folk Music.

Towards 1981, they had written eleven songs and accompanied a few with Moog synthesizer laid down by Rob Baxter. All were recorded on cassette decks in their simple home studios. They named this collection of music “Light Patterns”, after a poem Kevin had written. With Light Patterns complete, they set out to find a label to represent their music. They started playing a few gigs in Manchester; Band On The Wall, the Gallery, and other venues, such as Rotters which local promoter Alan Wise had organized. They set up with small amps along with their effects and played as though they were back at home. As Kevin remarks, “It was unusual, to say the least, to play such venues in a low volume chilled out way. However, people listened, often in shocked curiosity, and some even asked for tapes.”

Peter Jenner, of Blackhill Enterprises, eventually picked up the album for his new label, “Sheet”. Peter had managed lots of experimental bands and solo artists, including Pink Floyd in their early Syd Barrett days. He always favored outsiders! The tapes were taken to Strawberry Recording Studios in Manchester, who were surprised when Kevin and David walked in with just a couple of home-produced cassette tapes. Fortunately, they liked them and agreed to master the album. It was then sent to Portland Recording Studios in London for final mastering to vinyl. George Peckham, aka “Porky”, did the pressing with a personal message in the deadwax; “Kaftans, Candles and be Cool Man”. The artwork for the album cover was done by the late Barney Bubbles, a truly visionary artist.

After the album’s release, the pair continued to play together regularly until David moved away from the city. Kevin still resides near Manchester in the rolling hills outside of the city. He continues to experiment with dreamy music in his loft, and we are set to share a selection of his ethereal archival and current compositions in the coming months. David lives a quiet life in a small coastal town in the South, he likes to sail and is an avid cricket fan. We’re excited to make Light Patterns accessible again for the first time in nearly 40 years, remastered from the original tapes. As the original press release said, “Put the album on, lie back and enter the land of no floors”.

New Yorker Singer-Songwriter entdeckt den Westcoast-Sound. Das 2019 erschienene Album "The Unseen In Between" etablierte den amerikanischen Musiker Steve Gunn als einen Großmeister des US-Songwritings - mit seinem neuen Album "Other You" unterstreicht er nun diesen Anspruch. Gunn, der ursprünglich aus Pennsylvania stammt und mittlerweile in Brooklyn lebt, ist für die Aufnahmen zu seinem neuen Album an die Westküste gereist. Das passt perfekt, denn seine Musik ist der ideale Soundtrack für Roadtrips von der Ostküste an die Westküste des Landes. Sein fein destillierter Sound lässt sich dabei zwischen Roots Rock, Americana, Folk und Jazz treiben. Steve Gunn ist Traditionalist und Suchender zugleich. Zumeist geht er nur mit losen Ideen ins Studio, bei denen er am Anfang nie so genau weiß, wo sie ihn am Ende hinführen werden. Ähnlich gestaltete sich das auch dieses Mal. Sein sechstes Studioalbum "Other You" nahm Steve Gunn zusammen mit Produzentenlegende Rob Schnapf (Beck, Elliott Smith, Kurt Vile) in dessen Mant Studios in Los Angeles Ende 2020 und Anfang 2021 auf. Schnapf hat großen Anteil an der Entstehung dieses Albums. Er schüttelte nicht nur das Soundbett auf, sondern mischte auch Steve Gunns Stimme in den Vordergrund, um den poetischen Lyrics des Songwriters die richtige Bühne zu bieten. Mit Hilfe von befreundeten Musikern wie Juliana Barwick, Mary Lattimore, Bridget St. John, Jeff Parker, Bill MacKay, Ben Bertrand und dem Schlagzeuger Ryan Sawyer (TV On The Radio, Thurston Moore, Gang Gang Dance) entstand mit "Other You" ein Album, mit dem Steve Gunn nicht nur die Grenzen von Genres auslotet, sondern auch seine eigenen.

- generic sleeve repress -

It has been a little over a year since the release of 747's debut album, in which the Canadian masterfully drew notes of inspiration from the 90s to create an enchanting hour-long dream. In his first EP since, 747 returns from a temporal leap, bringing with him a blend of sounds and expressions to forge a timeless trip which hinges on the sounds of the 303.

Opening the release, "you,you" unfolds with a gentle and shimmery padded ambiance of anticipation. Gentle and light-footed percussion is soon interrupted by a dramatic siren, a warning beacon. Frenetic energy ensues, a frantic rush to the floor met with a cloudy head. Encompassed in an envelope of disorienting wailing and intermittent buzzing, but finally grounded by the familiarity of a 4/4 bass drum.

"Does Anybody Remember Laughter?" steps in to relinquish the force of gravity. The animated arpeggio and gleaming singing acid line rise up, uncovering the kaleidoscopic nature of the structural surroundings.

"While My 303 Gently Weeps" divulges further, exposing an underlying grid of dark geometry - binary and robotic. The topology of surfaces becomes increasingly fractalized, until the solo overtakes with a somber sadness. The 303 notes guide the mind on a melancholic and meditative walk along the grand staff, met after the break with a sense of hope and serenity.

Mannequin Records is elated to present for the first time on vinyl the reissue of Giovanotti Mondani Meccanici’s first video soundtrack, originally released in 1984 as an audiotape in less than one hundred copies. Giovanotti Mondani Meccanici (literally Mundane Mechanical Youth) or GMM was one of the most unclassifiable audiovisual experiences to emerge from Italy in the 1980s. Maurizio Dami a.k.a. Alexander Robotnick, a pivotal member of GMM, was responsible for the group’s music output.

Founded in 1984 by Antonio Glessi and Andrea Zingoni in Florence, GMM was an art collective whose production represents the quintessential expression of postmodern transmedia hybridity. GMM pioneered the genre of computer comics, created video installations, developed “multiple identity” performances, and was involved in fashion, media, and music productions, and later on produced cyberdelic environments, artificial reality projects, and proto-memes.

Alexander Robotnick’s first contribution to GMM was this soundtrack for the group’s eponymous first video, the animated version of a computer comics they coincidentally published on legendary Frigidaire magazine. Restored by Dami and reissued here for the first time by Mannequin Records, the composition was also split into two “suites” and released as an audiotape distributed by Materiali Sonori, also responsible for other releases by both Robotnick and GMM.

Determining in this work is Dami’s adoption of the alphaSyntauri, also known as the first affordable digital synth (priced less than $2000 when it was released in 1980), which was playable through its own software, “alphaPlus,” on the Apple II computer. The same computer was used by Glessi to “draw” the 3-bit strips scripted by Zingoni recounting the joyrides of the Giovanotti Mondani Meccanici, three merciless cyborgs in black suit and sunglasses dividing their time between nightclubs, rapes and murders.

As Robotnick, Dami developed an innovative formula of Italo disco that was attractive to the dance floor yet at the same time highlighted the expressive properties of the instruments he used, notably Roland drum machines and Korg synthesizers. For the soundtrack of GMM’s videos and installations, he left aside the danceable synth rhythmics in favor of ambient sounds that produced rarefied atmospheres, psychological tensions, and enhanced states of consciousness.

Dami’s scores for GMM’s artworks could be associated with Italian avant-garde music of the 1970s and 1980s, ranging from composers who adopted electronics flirting with pop and songwriting to minimalist musicians exploring seriality and drones, including Franco Battiato, Roberto Cacciapaglia, Francesco Messina, and Riccardo Sinigaglia. Analogies could also be traced with the playful and humanizing approach to personal computers that characterizes the music output of Marcello Giombini and Doris Norton.

The futuristic escapism of minimal synth and ambient music’s psychological nature is infiltrated by drifting harmonics typical of new age, as if in search of a spiritual dimension of technology. Characteristic of the postmodern ethos of GMM Suite, in line with the humanizing approach to technology that is at the base of GMM’s computer comics, is the melancholic take at speculative dystopias in which human beings would find themselves increasingly trapped into identity crises: a true cyborg’s melodrama.

Repress

Second release on Nina Kraviz (pronounced 'trip') label is another double-EP compilation this time entitled 'De Niro Is Concerned'.

'The idea of this compiled album/concept compilation is about one of those moments when you suddenly realise that you can't continue as you did before and there is no way back. I was in a 4am facebook chat with Reynier (Deniro) and we both thought Robert De Niro might have had a moment like that. Most of the tracks in TRP002 are live recordings, which is a key part of the label's concept: to release music that is abstract and very specific in texture, yet very human, unplanned and organic, because I really believe in music that captures the emotional moment of when it was made." Nina Kraviz

Featuring a great introductory track from the Icelandic wunderkind Bjarki, a superb collaboration between Nina and the seminal Exos, the legendary Steve Stoll delivers a brilliant acid groover, two classic techno tracks from Amsterdam based Reiyner Hooft AKA Deniro, the wonderful trance induced 'L'Importance De Doute' by Parrish Smith, a slice of melancholic techno from Nikita Zabelin and a welcome re-release of the legendary, highly sought after secret weapon Barcode Population - Barcode Population (which will be on the vinyl only) . An eight-track no-holes barred barnstormer of a double-pack.. !!

Audiophile 180glp pressing includes eight 12"x12" art print reproductions of analog film stills by renowned experimental filmmaker Daïchi Saïto. The first purely solo record by Jason Sharp - where every sound is created by his saxophone, breath, heartbeat & modular synthesis rig. Sharp's customized electroacoustic biofeedback system utilizes a heart monitor to turn his pulse into signal & tempo responsively synthesized in real time during peformance & recording. Produced by Radwan Ghazi Moumneh (MATANA ROBERTS, SUUNS, BIG | BRAVE, ERIC CHENAUX, JERUSALEM IN MY HEART). For Fans of Fennesz, Christina Vantzou, Tim Hecker, Klaus Schulze, Ben Frost, Gas, Windy & Carl, Colin Stetson. Montréal saxophonist and electroacoustic composer Jason Sharp presents his third album on Constellation. The Turning Centre Of A Still World is Sharp's first purely solo record and his most lucid, poignant, integral work to date. Following two acclaimed albums composed around particular collaborators and guest players, Sharp conceived his third as an interplay strictly bounded by his own body, his acoustic instrument, and his evolving bespoke electronic system. The Turning Centre... is a singular sonic exploration of human machine calibration, interaction, expression and biofeedback. Using saxophones, foot-controlled bass pedals, and his own pulse - patched through a heart monitor routed to variegated signal paths that trigger modular synthesizers and samplers - Sharp paints with organic waves of glistening synthesis, pink noise and digitalia. Melodic strokes and harmonic shapes ripple and crest across ever-shifting seas, through an inclement cycle from dawn to dusk. The album's six main movements navigate a world where placid surfaces are always roiled and disquieted by a deeper inexorable gyre: the gravitational pull and tidal perpetuity of our bodies made of water, buffeted by terrestrial atmospheric pressures, wrung out by emotions, coursing with blood, sustained by breath, inescapably yearning for and returning to ground again and again. Sharp's heartbeat literally courses through these compositions - while only occasionally surfacing as a clearly audible pulse or rhythm, it physically feeds into a spectrum of generative synthetic processes that help constitute and conduct the music.

For over a year one of the most watched ‘YouTubers’ and internet sensations has been Toyah Willcox. Toyah’s ‘Sunday Lunch’ performances with Robert Fripp and weekend broadcasts have been seen by 38 million. Simultaneous to creating consistently unique online videos, Toyah made the album Posh Pop with her long-term songwriting partner Simon Darlow. Posh Pop is a strong collection of infectious and affirmative pop songs that are as joyous as they are
reflective, from the cosmic groove of “Space Dance”, to the sun kissed anthem of unity “Summer Of Love”. The album is crafted with evocative storytelling and musicianship from Toyah, Simon Darlow
(guitars, keyboards, cello), Bobby Willcox (guitar) and Jeremy Stacey (drums). Posh Pop opens with the energy-burst of “Levitate” and leads the listener on a journey that climaxes in the soaring, intergalactic-tinged “Take Me Home”. The album was inspired by the world we find ourselves in today and touches on the ever-present desire to be ‘famous for fifteen minutes’ a la Andy Warhol, escaping the everyday, but above all staying connected to humankind beyond computer screens and geography. Produced by Simon Darlow, Posh Pop is Toyah’s first brand new studio solo album since 2008 and twenty-fifth album since 1979.

Bram Weijters' Crazy Men is a thrilling take on Belgian jazz-rock and fusion from the 1970s.Consisting of musicians from a wide array of contemporary jazz bands including Lucid Lucia (ex BRZZVLL), Dans Dans, STUFF. and Cargo Mas, the ensemble is led by Antwerp based piano and keyboard player, Bram Weijters.