Suche:round four

To commemorate the 30th anniversary of Therapy?'s Troublegum album , this 2LP set contains the original album pressed on 180g silver vinyl plus a further 14 tracks rounding up B-sides and bonus tracks of the era pressed on 180g lavender vinyl. By the time Therapy? released Troublegum in 1994 they were already well established, but it was the first time many had encountered the group's intensely melodic blend of hard rock and indie, an arresting combination of old and new, striking in its immediacy. Formed by schoolfriends in Larne, Northern Ireland, Therapy? consistently pushed the rock trio to its limits, often saying that their use of feedback was their fourth instrument. Singer, guitarist and writer Andy Cairns, bassist Michael McKeegan and drummer Fyfe Ewing had been playing together since 1989, and were signed to indie label Wiiija the following year on the strength of their live reputation. After two albums with Wiiija, they were signed to A&M Records, and their 1992 album, Nurse, reached the UK Top 40. The group paired with Mission producer Chris Sheldon and went to Chipping Norton Studios to record a follow-up. The results were stunning. Lead single "Screamager" (on the Shortsharpshock EP) reached the UK Top 10 in March 1993; follow-up "Turn" made the Top 20. By the time Troublegum was released in February 1994, it contained both singles, plus "Nowhere" and "Trigger Inside", further hits from the album. Troublegum is warm and powerful, showing that grunge was not just the preserve of bands from the western seaboard of the US. Mixed without any discernible gaps between tracks, the album offers 45 minutes of attack. Amid the originals, the band's post punk roots are shown by their storming cover of Isolation by Joy Division. Widely acclaimed, Troublegum reached No 5 in the UK charts, went Gold and was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. It sounds as fresh today as it did in 1994.

Let Me Comfort You: The Hush Rarities collects the bonus tracks from High Moon Records’ critically lauded CD Gemini Girl: The Complete Hush Recordings. Appearing on vinyl for the first time, these 11 alternate takes, demos and previously unissued songs hail from the sessions for Laurie Styvers’ two unjustifiably obscure LPs Spilt Milk and The Colorado Kid, recorded in early 1970s London, and recently tagged by Pitchfork as “a sharp and idiosyncratic snapshot of how it feels to try growing up.” Akin to a “lost” third album, this remarkably well-rounded package is a further showcase for the honey-voiced intimacy of this youthful Texas singer-songwriter, with a program of lovelorn gems doused in splendid orchestration. RIYL Carole King, Judee Sill, Weyes Blood. Packaged with a four page lyric insert.

Warehouse Find!

Swedish DJ/Producer Christian Nielsen debuts on Maceo Plex's Ellum imprint with the ‘Love Struck’ EP this May.

The four track EP continues a strong start to 2020 with releases from Raxon and Avision and, true to the label’s form, is all about weighty, characterful cuts from Nielsen, an artist who has previously chalked up releases for the likes of Kompakt, Of Unsound Mind and Play it Down.

The titular opener of ‘Love Struck’ is a swaggering, low slung affair with a growling bassline underpinning a pitch shifted vocal refrain and piercing rave stabs - a mutant beast which fuses techno, Garage and rave aesthetics in anthemic style. The skeletal rhythms and gritty acid flair of ‘For Myself’ follow in a track that, through some nifty builds, manages to pull off a big room energy as much as it does a basement vibe. ’Switch’ is next up and, with a rock solid groove, vocal sample and subaquatic tones, displays just how well Nielsen can create a monster with few elements. The heaviest track, ‘Pulse’, rounds off ‘Love Struck’ with a huge, padding kick drum and resonant percussive lead doing the heavy lifting while counterpointed by judiciously employed warm, cossetting jazz flute licks

After The Velvet Underground cut three albums for the jazz-oriented Verve label that earned them lots of notoriety but negligible sales, the group signed with industry powerhouse Atlantic Records in 1970. Label head Ahmet Ertegun supposedly asked Lou Reed to avoid sex and drugs in his songs, and instead focus on making an album "loaded with hits." Loaded was the result. It was the group's swan song, with Reed leaving the group shortly before its release. With John Cale long gone from the band, Doug Yule highly prominent (he sings lead on four of the ten tracks), and Maureen Tucker absent on maternity leave, this is hardly a purist's Velvet Underground album. Still, AllMusic gives the album 5 Stars and Pitchfork calls it a "perfect rock 'n' roll record — 40 minutes long, five songs to a side, and not a single wasted note." Loaded is the sort of proper album that feels like a greatest hits collection, with each track thoroughly inhabiting and mastering a dominant rock archetype. Although the songs "Sweet Jane" and "Rock & Roll" distinguished the band as a "seminal proto-punk" act, "The trifecta of 'Who Loves the Sun,' 'Sweet Jane' and 'Rock & Roll' is among the best three-song openings on any rock and roll record," wrote Paste contributor Jeff Gonick Analogue Productions has given Loaded the deserving full reissue treatment: Pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Quality Record Pressings, and housed in a tip-on old style gatefold double pocket jacket by Stoughton Printing.

It’s abundantly clear from the first bars of their 5th studio album Through Other Reflection, that this is, and could only ever be, The Soundcarriers. From the enchanting vocal duets of folk-bidden Chanteuses Leonore Wheatley and Dorian Conway; to the precise bass lines of Paul Isherwood and the limber, jazz-cool, Hal Blaine-esque drums of his his co-songwriter Adam Cann; from the fairy-like flutes, 60s-garage guitars and organ sounds pilfered from the archives of exotica - listening to the Soundcarriers resembles a rediscovery of all the most prized, esoteric corners of the 1960s, all bundled up, warped and refracted through the quartet’s astutely modern cultural lens. Channelling Tropicalia, Middle Eastern psychedelic Jazz/Funk, The French Library sounds of Nino Nardini, and a whole host of lavish obscurites beside, Through Other Reflection delivers another sonic adventure from one of the most unique and distinctive voices of British Psychedelia. After an 8 year wait for their album 4 - 2022’s Wilds - it thankfully didn’t take so long for the follow-up this time round. In many ways, this feels like a companion to Wilds; recording again at their Nottingham warehouse studio, Through Other Reflection retains that same organic glow, all the passions and imperfections of a tightly clipped unit jamming out these living, breathing pop-art nuggets as if straight onto the acetate.”We wanted to keep an air of spontaneity with this album and not get too bogged with the recording process”, explains Cann, “It was more a case of getting the songs as tightly written and arranged as possible first so we could get them down quickly in the studio. It always takes longer than you think” Less packed with strident pop hooks as its predecessor however, the music of Through… has been given extra licence to breathe, stretch out, and wander more uncharted terrains. While gleaming psych-pop of tracks like ‘The City Was’, or ‘Already Over’ confidently carry on from where they left off, from the album’s 2nd track ‘Always’, the trip becomes a little less predictable. Starting out as a smoky Procol Harum-meets-French-Psych organ ballad, the music drifts, as if of its own accord into an eerie, garage trance that lingers, cycles, and hypnotises, growing ever stranger, reaching ever-further away from its point of conception. And almost every track on Through Other Reflections holds that outer-body moment, where the band fix themselves on a limber, lysergic groove, lose all grip on time and reality, and melt themselves away into a liquid state of blind euphoria. There are sequences on this record that feel more like rituals than songs, built upon a single hypnotic rhythm which, like the centre of a vortex, pulling everything under its beatific command. Take the finale to ‘What We Found’ for instance, sounding like a ghostly march across the psychedelic moors, or ‘Feel The Way’, where a single athletic drum-loop rises and rises, growing ever more urgent and suspenseful underneath its frantic harpsichords and rasping flutes. Full of such rich stylisms as these, The Soundcarriers showcase themselves as abstract storytellers par excellence by virtue of their textures and arrangements alone. Resembling Romantic composer Maurice Ravel, but if he had just a four-piece rock band at his disposal, Through Other Reflects is rich with detail; there’s shakers, rattles, clarinets, booming drums; there’s synthesiser swarms, chiming xylophones, vintage organs and experimental Cluster & Eno-esque ambiences. Within all this nuance the music flows like some undisclosed narrative swathed in a magnetic secrecy. “It almost comes across like a story in some ways”, says Cann of the album, “the music is quite sectional with elements of exotica and cinematic type layers, it's a good balance of grooves, tunes and weirdness”. No more is this “epic cinematic feel” heard more proudly than on short instrumental ‘Sonya’s Lament” - its innate, hauntological atmospheres befitting a Peter Strickland soundtrack, or the classics of Lex Baxter, the so-called ‘Founder of Exotica’ himself. On the other hand, providing a greasier undercurrent to all these bucolic sounds is a leaning towards a more “direct” lyricism referencing more “external concerns. Laying down the first tracks for the album in the wintry gloom of pre-lockdown 2020, and drawing inspiration from time spent in Berlin, Through Other Reflections returns to some of the post-apocalyptic futurism explored in 2014’s Entropicalia - a loose concept album inspired by J.G Ballard’s The Drowned World. “The songs explore a disillusionment with the way things are going particularly after 40 years of neoliberalism”, says Cann, “They follow that folk-song tradition of wanting to escape to an imagined time, but here it’s more urban than pastoral. The first couple of ideas I came up with when doing some music in Berlin and had some time to wander aimlessly. And think the atmosphere seeped in, particularly on The City Was and Already Over. He continues, “One aspect of the title, ‘Through Other Reflections’ is about synthesis and layers of influence. How things can be filtered through other things and change the perspective. This is something you get in cities as well.” Though, as with everything The Soundcarriers make, “It can mean anything. It also just sounds kind of cool.”

It’s abundantly clear from the first bars of their 5th studio album Through Other Reflection, that this is, and could only ever be, The Soundcarriers. From the enchanting vocal duets of folk-bidden Chanteuses Leonore Wheatley and Dorian Conway; to the precise bass lines of Paul Isherwood and the limber, jazz-cool, Hal Blaine-esque drums of his his co-songwriter Adam Cann; from the fairy-like flutes, 60s-garage guitars and organ sounds pilfered from the archives of exotica - listening to the Soundcarriers resembles a rediscovery of all the most prized, esoteric corners of the 1960s, all bundled up, warped and refracted through the quartet’s astutely modern cultural lens. Channelling Tropicalia, Middle Eastern psychedelic Jazz/Funk, The French Library sounds of Nino Nardini, and a whole host of lavish obscurites beside, Through Other Reflection delivers another sonic adventure from one of the most unique and distinctive voices of British Psychedelia. After an 8 year wait for their album 4 - 2022’s Wilds - it thankfully didn’t take so long for the follow-up this time round. In many ways, this feels like a companion to Wilds; recording again at their Nottingham warehouse studio, Through Other Reflection retains that same organic glow, all the passions and imperfections of a tightly clipped unit jamming out these living, breathing pop-art nuggets as if straight onto the acetate.”We wanted to keep an air of spontaneity with this album and not get too bogged with the recording process”, explains Cann, “It was more a case of getting the songs as tightly written and arranged as possible first so we could get them down quickly in the studio. It always takes longer than you think” Less packed with strident pop hooks as its predecessor however, the music of Through… has been given extra licence to breathe, stretch out, and wander more uncharted terrains. While gleaming psych-pop of tracks like ‘The City Was’, or ‘Already Over’ confidently carry on from where they left off, from the album’s 2nd track ‘Always’, the trip becomes a little less predictable. Starting out as a smoky Procol Harum-meets-French-Psych organ ballad, the music drifts, as if of its own accord into an eerie, garage trance that lingers, cycles, and hypnotises, growing ever stranger, reaching ever-further away from its point of conception. And almost every track on Through Other Reflections holds that outer-body moment, where the band fix themselves on a limber, lysergic groove, lose all grip on time and reality, and melt themselves away into a liquid state of blind euphoria. There are sequences on this record that feel more like rituals than songs, built upon a single hypnotic rhythm which, like the centre of a vortex, pulling everything under its beatific command. Take the finale to ‘What We Found’ for instance, sounding like a ghostly march across the psychedelic moors, or ‘Feel The Way’, where a single athletic drum-loop rises and rises, growing ever more urgent and suspenseful underneath its frantic harpsichords and rasping flutes. Full of such rich stylisms as these, The Soundcarriers showcase themselves as abstract storytellers par excellence by virtue of their textures and arrangements alone. Resembling Romantic composer Maurice Ravel, but if he had just a four-piece rock band at his disposal, Through Other Reflects is rich with detail; there’s shakers, rattles, clarinets, booming drums; there’s synthesiser swarms, chiming xylophones, vintage organs and experimental Cluster & Eno-esque ambiences. Within all this nuance the music flows like some undisclosed narrative swathed in a magnetic secrecy. “It almost comes across like a story in some ways”, says Cann of the album, “the music is quite sectional with elements of exotica and cinematic type layers, it's a good balance of grooves, tunes and weirdness”. No more is this “epic cinematic feel” heard more proudly than on short instrumental ‘Sonya’s Lament” - its innate, hauntological atmospheres befitting a Peter Strickland soundtrack, or the classics of Lex Baxter, the so-called ‘Founder of Exotica’ himself. On the other hand, providing a greasier undercurrent to all these bucolic sounds is a leaning towards a more “direct” lyricism referencing more “external concerns. Laying down the first tracks for the album in the wintry gloom of pre-lockdown 2020, and drawing inspiration from time spent in Berlin, Through Other Reflections returns to some of the post-apocalyptic futurism explored in 2014’s Entropicalia - a loose concept album inspired by J.G Ballard’s The Drowned World. “The songs explore a disillusionment with the way things are going particularly after 40 years of neoliberalism”, says Cann, “They follow that folk-song tradition of wanting to escape to an imagined time, but here it’s more urban than pastoral. The first couple of ideas I came up with when doing some music in Berlin and had some time to wander aimlessly. And think the atmosphere seeped in, particularly on The City Was and Already Over. He continues, “One aspect of the title, ‘Through Other Reflections’ is about synthesis and layers of influence. How things can be filtered through other things and change the perspective. This is something you get in cities as well.” Though, as with everything The Soundcarriers make, “It can mean anything. It also just sounds kind of cool.”

Live In Europe 1967 – The Bootleg Series Vol. 2 was voted ‘Historical Album Of The Year’ in the Down Beat Readers and Critics Poll. This second volume of The Bootleg Series skips two years ahead to record Davis with his ‘Third Great Quintet’, also known as ‘The Lost Band’ (1969-1970). This line-up consists of Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette at their peak, though they were never recorded in studio. Live In Europe 1967 – The Bootleg Series Vol. 2 was voted ‘Historical Album Of The Year’ in the Down Beat Readers and Critics Poll. This second volume of The Bootleg Series skips two years ahead to record Davis with his ‘Third Great Quintet’, also known as ‘The Lost Band’ (1969-1970). This line-up consists of Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette at their peak, though they were never recorded in studio. Their European tours of 1969
are some of the only existing recordings of the group; the first legitimately released audio recordings by this stellar lineup.

Live In Europe 1969 - The Bootleg Series Vol. 2 captures the short-lived quintet in three separate concert settings across four LPs, containing selections from two nights at Festival Mondial Du Jazz D’Antibes in France and one night in Stockholm, Sweden. Special recordings include a pre-studio recording version of “Bitches Brew” which would be recorded in the studio for the infamous record by the same name a few months later.

Live In Europe 1969 - The Bootleg Series Vol. 2 is available as a deluxe 4LP boxset, housed in a lift-off box. The set includes printed inner sleeves and an insert with extensive liner notes.

repressed!

Kerri Chandler delivers ‘Lost & Found Vol.1’ this March, a four-track collection of revisited, unreleased archive cuts, including Kerri’s own Grampa, Calvin Reed Sr. as a featuring artist on the opening track.

New Jersey’s Kerri Chandler has been at the forefront of house music since the beginning of his career in the early 90’s. Over the past three decades he’s released an extensive back catalogue of material including several albums on his own Madhouse and Kaoz Theory imprints as well as the likes of DJ Deep’s Deeply Rooted, Apollonia, Jerome Sydenham’s Ibadan and Watergate Records.

Here we see Kerri dig up some never before heard archived material from the 90’s and early 2000’s for this four-track EP. Up first is ‘What Will We Do ft Grampa’, featuring spoken word and vocal lines from Kerri’s Grandfather Calvin Reed St. atop gritty swinging drums, organ lines and rounded subs. ‘Tonight’ follows and tips focus over to airy chord sequences, choppy bass notes, dreamy arpeggio lines and dynamic drums.

‘Into The Night’ opens the b-side next, bringing a raw bass hook, tension building strings and vocal chants of the track’s title into the forefront while bumpy stripped-back drums keep things driving. ‘This and That’ then rounds out the release, bringing twitchy resonant synths and phaser sweeps into the mix alongside stuttering drum programming for a funk-infused, loop driven eight minute workout.

DJ Feedback:

Honey Dijon - Classic
Kerri still has his A Game intact! Great Ep!

Laurent Garnier - Kompakt, MCDE, F Communications
PURE LOOOOOOOOOVE

Jimpster - Freerange, Delusions Of Grandeur
Kerri!!!! Classic tracks with that inimitable groove and production which makes him such an icon. Big ups!!

Terry Farley - Junior Boys Own
BACK 2 DA RAW

Fouk - Heist, House of Disco, Razor N Tape
Super hard to pick a fav as each track has its own vibe! LOVE THIS <3

Enzo Siragusa - Fuse London, InFuse
Quality as always from Kerri!

Harvey Sutherland - MCDE, PPU, This Thing
always.

Roy Davis Jnr
Full support.

Jason Kendig Honey Sound System
Always fire tracks from kerri!

DJ Bone - Subject, Metroplex
Love the entire release!

Politics of Dancing (Guillaume & David)
one love for Kerry as always :)

Joyce Muniz - Exploited Ghetto, 20:20 Vision
Nice Ep!

Massimiliano Pagliara - Panorama Bar, Ostgut Ton
groovy!

Shadow Child
king.

Tobi Neumann - What Came First
Brutally good House Music. This one I wanna have on vinyl. Thanks master Chandler for the music!

Chrissy - Chiwax, The Nite Owl Diner
Very excited for this one

Halo Varga - All Inn Music, Surface, Inmotion Music
Kerri is GOD

Mutiny - Azuli, Skint
Kerri on that deep classic vibe..Love

Alinka - Permanent Vacation, Twirl!
Brilliant as always

Diz - Robsoul
90's freshness!!!

Fish Go Deep - Innervisions, Defected
The long-awaited follow up to She's Crazy! Beautifully done. The other tracks also slamming, packed with dancefloor drive and emotion. Can't wait to play loud.

Art Of Tones, Llorca
Superb EP !

Lupe
The Grampa one, instant cult hit, very endearing! Great stuff

BD1982 - Diskotopia, Tokyo
Classic material from an absolute legend

Johannes Albert - Need Want, Mirau, Berlin Bass
vibes for days!

Joseph G. Bendavid
kerri can't fail, always bomb tracks

Terry Grant
Stone. Cold. Legend.

Harri - Sub Club
Lovely

Severino - Horse Meat Disco
oh yes quality

DJ Support: Kerri Chandler, Prunk, M-High, Archie Hamilton, Mr.V, Alexi Delano, Laurent Garnier, Okain, Mystic Bill

Dutch House maestro Dennis Quin makes a welcome return to PIV this July with his ‘Treat You Right’ EP, comprising four originals, one of which features LA’s Cheshy on vocals. Over the past ten years Amsterdam’s Dennis Quin has moved from strength to strength and has become globally revered and respected for his raw and powerful productions, racking up releases on Cécille, Ibadan, Dungeon Meat, Eastenderz and of course the leading light of his hometown scene, PIV, where he returns with his latest EP.

Up first on the package is the original mix of title-cut ‘Treat You Right’ which sees Dennis team up with Los Angeles based Cheshy, delivering a composition that personifies the quintessential House sound, crisp 909 drums, fluttering stab sequences and a bumpy bass hook run in unison with Cheshy’s soulful vocal stylings, cinematic strings and shimmering synth lines. ‘Impressions’ follows next and showcases a different aesthetic with a swinging low-slung rhythm section, jazzy leads, marimba lines and bouncy subs to create a more Parisian deep house feel.

Further showcasing Quin’s dynamism as a producer ‘Touched’ then shifts up gears to a saturated skippy drum groove, vacillating synth stabs, a heavy dose of low-end drive and hypnotic vocal chants. Lastly to round out the release, Dennis offers up a ‘Classy Dub’ of the title-track, as the name would suggest stripping out a large portion of the vocals and reshaping the structure of some of the original elements and stirring some additional jazzy elements into the mix.

Der aus Wien stammende und mittlerweile in Manchester beheimatete Produzent salute (Pronomen mittlerweile „him/ they“, folglich im Deutschen wieder Singular) kündigt sein kommendes Album, „TRUE MAGIC“, an, das am 12. Juli 2024 bei Ninja Tune erscheint. Auf dem kommenden Album von salute sind außerdem Disclosure, Empress Of, Karma Kid, Sam Gellaitry, piri, Léa Sen, LEILAH und Nakamura Minami vertreten.

Mit ästhetischer und auditiver Inspiration durch alte japanische Autowerbung, die salute stundenlang in YouTube-Archiven recherchierte, entwickelte er ein Konzept für das Album, bei dem sie den legendären 1985er Toyota MR 2 W1 in einem Rennen namens „TRUE MAGIC“ fahren. Dieses sehr visuelle Konzept half dabei, den Sound des Albums voranzutreiben und dem Album ein Gefühl von treibender Dynamik zu geben. Die Albumankündigung folgt auf seine allererste Nominierung bei den MOBO Awards 2024 in der Kategorie „Best Electronic/ Dance Act“ nach der Veröffentlichung von salutes EP, „Shield“, die von The FADER als „verträumt“ und von Clash als „Surging with spring-like energy“ gelobt wurde. „Shield“ folgte auf die früheren Singles „Joy“ und „Therapy“ und wurde von Künstlern wie Four Tet, DJ Seinfeld, Floating Points, Mall Grab, Daphni, Skrillex, Fred Again und anderen bestätigt, was ihn zu einer Kultsensation machte und die Bühne für ein größeres Album bereitete. salute wurde mit 18 Jahren in die britische Clubszene eingeführt, nachdem er nach Brighton und dann nach Manchester gezogen war. Dort kam er mit der Clubkultur in Berührung, die sich zuvor nur auf Videos bei YouTube und Boiler Room beschränkt hatte. Von hier aus verfeinerte er seinen unverwechselbaren Sound, der sich aus seinem neu gewonnenen Verständnis für Genres wie Grime, Garage und Dubstep speiste.

Der aus Wien stammende und mittlerweile in Manchester beheimatete Produzent salute (Pronomen mittlerweile „him/ they“, folglich im Deutschen wieder Singular) kündigt sein kommendes Album, „TRUE MAGIC“, an, das am 12. Juli 2024 bei Ninja Tune erscheint. Auf dem kommenden Album von salute sind außerdem Disclosure, Empress Of, Karma Kid, Sam Gellaitry, piri, Léa Sen, LEILAH und Nakamura Minami vertreten.

Mit ästhetischer und auditiver Inspiration durch alte japanische Autowerbung, die salute stundenlang in YouTube-Archiven recherchierte, entwickelte er ein Konzept für das Album, bei dem sie den legendären 1985er Toyota MR 2 W1 in einem Rennen namens „TRUE MAGIC“ fahren. Dieses sehr visuelle Konzept half dabei, den Sound des Albums voranzutreiben und dem Album ein Gefühl von treibender Dynamik zu geben. Die Albumankündigung folgt auf seine allererste Nominierung bei den MOBO Awards 2024 in der Kategorie „Best Electronic/ Dance Act“ nach der Veröffentlichung von salutes EP, „Shield“, die von The FADER als „verträumt“ und von Clash als „Surging with spring-like energy“ gelobt wurde. „Shield“ folgte auf die früheren Singles „Joy“ und „Therapy“ und wurde von Künstlern wie Four Tet, DJ Seinfeld, Floating Points, Mall Grab, Daphni, Skrillex, Fred Again und anderen bestätigt, was ihn zu einer Kultsensation machte und die Bühne für ein größeres Album bereitete. salute wurde mit 18 Jahren in die britische Clubszene eingeführt, nachdem er nach Brighton und dann nach Manchester gezogen war. Dort kam er mit der Clubkultur in Berührung, die sich zuvor nur auf Videos bei YouTube und Boiler Room beschränkt hatte. Von hier aus verfeinerte er seinen unverwechselbaren Sound, der sich aus seinem neu gewonnenen Verständnis für Genres wie Grime, Garage und Dubstep speiste.

Enjoy The Ride Records and Drafthouse Films proudly present Miami Connection. Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. Composed and Produced by Angelo Janotti and performed by Dragon Sound, the soundtrack is finally making its debut outside of the cult classic film. Written and directed by 9th degree black belt philosopher/author/inspirational speaker Supreme Grandmaster Y.K. Kim, the film tells the story of the fearless synth rock band Dragon Sound as they embark on a roundhouse wreck-wave of crime-crushing justice in the streets of Orlando, in order to achieve world peace. Score music by Jon McCallum

Available for the first time on any physical format due to destruction from Hurricane Charley*, Miami Connection is pressed on four colorful vinyl variants, housed in a 400gsm gatefold jacket, featuring art by Garreth Gibson.

London-based Lewi Boome brings his class to this new release on Well Street, strictly limited to just 100 copies so you better act fast! 'Dust Devil' opens with a deft touch - the pinging synth lines and airy drum loops suspending you in a tripped-out world of futurism. That cerebral style continues through the lithe and elegant, dubbed-out rhythms of 'Etched Alive' and the more unsettling moods of jungle-techno cut 'Tumble', complete with distant bird calls and humid pads. 'Deep Sheer' rounds out with a little more low-end grit as the fourth and final cut on a superb EP.

Ten of the selections on this set are compiled from two separate performances. None of the performances on the album have previously been available. The A-side consists of tracks recorded in
1970. The B-side collects a couple from 1965 and is rounded out with four tracks from 1971. The 40- minute live collection LP will be pressed on black vinyl with rare photos and liner notes

Island Boogie arrives four years after Meecham’s previous full-length, Music Not Safari, and sees the veteran producer deliver his most ‘personal’ set yet – a collection of kaleidoscopic, cosmic-leaning, dub disco-influenced neo-boogie excursions inspired by his love of the custom-built soundsystem at Rotation Garden Party, an annual micro-festival founded by a group of friends including his former Chicken Lips production partner Dean Meredith. It's fitting, then, that the EP begins with a superb interpretation of ‘'Dévoilez-Vous’ by T-Kutt, AKA Meredith and long-term studio partner Ben Shenton. The pair’s ‘AM FM Club Mix’ sits somewhere between classic Prelude-style electrofunk, NYC proto-house and early British interpretations of American house music. Séverine Mouletin’s chopped-up improvised vocals weave in and out of sun-bright keyboard riffs, colourful synthesiser motifs, heady synth-strings, D-Train style synth-bass and delay-laden machine drums. It’s a superb re-imagination of one of the album’s most stellar moments.

The EP’s other headline-grabbing remix comes courtesy of Leng co-founder Paul Murphy AKA Mudd. He reworks title track ‘Island Boogie’, teasing out the spacey synths and languid jazz-funk grooves of Meecham’s original mix and dialling them up to the max. The resultant revision sparkles with crunchy clavinet licks, mazy synth and electric piano solos, and spacey chords rising above a mid-tempo dancefloor groove. To complete a strong package, Meecham adds two dubs in his distinctively stripped-back, tape echo-heavy style. He first takes on EP title track ‘Dévoilez-Vous’, wrapping vintage drum machine hits in oodles of space echo and dub delay while devoting more time and space to the killer bassline, Rupert Brown’s infectious hand percussion, and Mouletin’s vocalisations.

To round off the EP, he dubs out album epic ‘La Cassette’, another collaboration with Mouletin that also features additional percussion by Brown. Like the original synth-powered dancefloor dubs of the early-to-mid-80s that have long been an inspiration, Meecham’s ‘La Cassette’ dub features key musical elements – many drenched in trippy effects – popping in and out of the mix, while his sturdy drums and memorable bassline spar with Brown’s percussion below.

2024 Reissue

Alphacut Records reloads its third wave with an upfront jungle plate. Meticulously selected over the years since the last allover amen statement Fundamentals EP as of cat.nr. ACR 3001, these four new killer tunes take no prisoners as well.

Sumone (with his Planet Mu fame) and Dan Miles (formerly Skubi like on Modern Ruins) as the midwest cowboys meet the North Sea sailors Istari Lasterfahrer (running his Sozialistischer Plattenbau) and Ill_K (on Nord and re:st)to execute this smashing Darka Mentors EP!

"Wicked Man Sound" is one of the most sinister jungle sciences we came across lately. Choppage on point, layerslike spread, stabbing basses, dark percussion, oldskool pads - you name it. "Crash!" feels like a UK hardcore banger, but is refreshingly switching breakbeats instead of gabba kicks. "Echo Chamber" drops an irresistible rave stab into the dubber dungeons and "Kuro" celebrates a very samurai style of a halftime cut to round up this breaksfest menu with ease.

Alphacut operates on a non-profit level, most releases cover their costs, if even. Half of any returns will be donated to Webster's Amen Break Gesture campaign II raising funds for the original creator of The Winston's Amen Brother breakbeat: Richard Spencer. With the deepest respect for this milestone of a sample!

Malmö’s Mod Sens arrives on Programm LDN with an electric intersection of soundsystem styles and taut techno and electro. Pushing inventive, bassweight dance music through his Melt club night in the city he calls home, the wildly talented Swedish producer brings an international outlook to his subtly crafted workouts.

“These four tracks were all made at a time in Malmö when electro was completely dominating the underground scene,” says Mod Sens. “That had a strong influence on the creation of these tracks, but I was definitely more urgent to create my take on ‘UK’ Sounds.”

The sound on Misperceptions EP is introspective by design, cast in melancholic pads which balance the rugged impact of the crafty drums and upfront low-end. Mod Sens himself describes exploring the tension between wanting to run and feeling ‘stuck’, and that yearning sensation culminates in four elevated cuts that uphold Programm’s commitment to advancements in club music.

Visual director Blackwall and graphic designer Alfie Allen responded to the tangible mood of the EP, resulting in an accompanying visualiser and sleeve design which round out the emotion Mod Sens was reaching for while working on the music. As a complete package, it’s an audio-visual statement which leaves a lingering impression, as any art worth making

Words And Music" ist eine 3xLP-Box mit dem Werk der im Jahr 2021 verstorbenen Sängerin und Songwriterin MARGO GURYAN. Als Zeugin von Revolutionen in Jazz und Pop hat sich GURYAN ihren Platz im Pantheon der Songwriter verdient. Dass sie jahrzehntelang weitgehend unbekannt war, liegt nicht an zerstörten Träumen, sondern an ihren eigenen Entscheidungen und Prioritäten. Von den bescheidenen Anfängen über die Höhepunkte ihres barocken Pop-Meisterwerks "Take A Picture" von 1968 und die gesammelten Demos bis hin zur jüngsten viralen Verbreitung von "Why Do I Cry" - das Boxset "Words And Music" fängt die gesamte Karriere von GURYAN ein, einschließlich 16 bisher unveröffentlichter Aufnahmen und einem 32-seitigen Booklet, das ihre ganze Geschichte erzählt. Produziert wurde die Box von ihrem Stiefsohn Jonathan Rosner, ihrem Freund und Historiker Geoffrey Weiss und den Numero Group-Mitarbeitern Douglas Mcgowan, Rob Sevier und Ken Shipley. Alle Tracks wurden von Jessica Thompson neu gemastert. In ihrer Blütezeit veröffentlichte GURYAN nur ein einziges Album: "Take A Picture" von 1968. Da MARGO jedoch kein Interesse daran hatte, aufzutreten, zu touren und für ihr Werk zu werben, wurde das Album damals kaum beachtet. Dennoch wurde die Platte in den 1990er Jahren zu einem begehrten Kultobjekt. Eine neue Generation von Hörer*innen lernte ihre Arbeit kennen, als "Take A Picture" im Jahr 2000 neu aufgelegt wurde. Kurz darauf folgten die gesammelten Demos, eine unglaubliche Zusammenstellung von ausgegrabenen alternativen Aufnahmen und neu veröffentlichten Songs, die MARGO selbst betreut hat. GURYANs Leben war in den dazwischen liegenden Jahren weiterhin von Musik erfüllt; sie wurde Musiklehrerin, schrieb weiterhin Songs und pflegte Freundschaften mit einem wachsenden Kreis von Anhängern. Die Geschichte von MARGO GURYAN ist die einer Frau, die von klein auf in die Tiefe ging und nie Angst vor Veränderungen hatte. Ihr Gespür für Ton, Phrasierungen, Spannung, Präsenz und Texte, die treffen, machen ihren Namen heute zu einem Synonym für ausgefeiltes Songhandwerk und die unnachahmliche Coolness der 1960er Jahre. Ihr Einfallsreichtum und ihre Technik stellen sie in die Tradition von Kammer-Pop-Ikonen wie Brian Wilson und Burt Bacharach, während die bittersüße Offenheit in ihren Beschreibungen des Frauseins einen Mittelweg zwischen Carole Kings Pop-Fabrik und der Singer-Songwriter-Ära aufzeigt. Aber die unaufdringliche Strenge von MARGOs künstlerischer Stimme ist ganz ihre eigene.

Words And Music" ist eine 3xLP-Box mit dem Werk der im Jahr 2021 verstorbenen Sängerin und Songwriterin MARGO GURYAN. Als Zeugin von Revolutionen in Jazz und Pop hat sich GURYAN ihren Platz im Pantheon der Songwriter verdient. Dass sie jahrzehntelang weitgehend unbekannt war, liegt nicht an zerstörten Träumen, sondern an ihren eigenen Entscheidungen und Prioritäten. Von den bescheidenen Anfängen über die Höhepunkte ihres barocken Pop-Meisterwerks "Take A Picture" von 1968 und die gesammelten Demos bis hin zur jüngsten viralen Verbreitung von "Why Do I Cry" - das Boxset "Words And Music" fängt die gesamte Karriere von GURYAN ein, einschließlich 16 bisher unveröffentlichter Aufnahmen und einem 32-seitigen Booklet, das ihre ganze Geschichte erzählt. Produziert wurde die Box von ihrem Stiefsohn Jonathan Rosner, ihrem Freund und Historiker Geoffrey Weiss und den Numero Group-Mitarbeitern Douglas Mcgowan, Rob Sevier und Ken Shipley. Alle Tracks wurden von Jessica Thompson neu gemastert. In ihrer Blütezeit veröffentlichte GURYAN nur ein einziges Album: "Take A Picture" von 1968. Da MARGO jedoch kein Interesse daran hatte, aufzutreten, zu touren und für ihr Werk zu werben, wurde das Album damals kaum beachtet. Dennoch wurde die Platte in den 1990er Jahren zu einem begehrten Kultobjekt. Eine neue Generation von Hörer*innen lernte ihre Arbeit kennen, als "Take A Picture" im Jahr 2000 neu aufgelegt wurde. Kurz darauf folgten die gesammelten Demos, eine unglaubliche Zusammenstellung von ausgegrabenen alternativen Aufnahmen und neu veröffentlichten Songs, die MARGO selbst betreut hat. GURYANs Leben war in den dazwischen liegenden Jahren weiterhin von Musik erfüllt; sie wurde Musiklehrerin, schrieb weiterhin Songs und pflegte Freundschaften mit einem wachsenden Kreis von Anhängern. Die Geschichte von MARGO GURYAN ist die einer Frau, die von klein auf in die Tiefe ging und nie Angst vor Veränderungen hatte. Ihr Gespür für Ton, Phrasierungen, Spannung, Präsenz und Texte, die treffen, machen ihren Namen heute zu einem Synonym für ausgefeiltes Songhandwerk und die unnachahmliche Coolness der 1960er Jahre. Ihr Einfallsreichtum und ihre Technik stellen sie in die Tradition von Kammer-Pop-Ikonen wie Brian Wilson und Burt Bacharach, während die bittersüße Offenheit in ihren Beschreibungen des Frauseins einen Mittelweg zwischen Carole Kings Pop-Fabrik und der Singer-Songwriter-Ära aufzeigt. Aber die unaufdringliche Strenge von MARGOs künstlerischer Stimme ist ganz ihre eigene.

A home, a house, has countless frequencies. Each room, each corner feels different. Swings differently. And as you grow older, you realize which corner is yours. But yeah, it takes time…

It certainly marks the end of an era when the house one called home as a kid no longer exists. This home, it was the starting point of so many journeys. Of one big, ongoing journey. And so it feels good, soothing, reassuring to at least return to a spot nearby – to that (proverbial) hill from where you can see it. Feel the vibe that made you.

Andi Haberl’s debut solo album as Sun is sort of dedicated to that house. It’s a journey leading to that hill overlooking everything that made him. It’s not about nostalgia, not about actually returning to a specific place. Instead, it’s about finding a personal frequency, an overlapping of sounds and samples, an open space that mirrors and extends whatever frequencies felt right at different points in time.

“To me, the results feel like Gold Panda/Four Tet meets Steve Reich meets Krautrock meets film scores. I just really wanted to create moods that touch me – and ideally others, too.”

Talking about his first solo album, Haberl recalls many stages: early compositions that ended up on Alien Ensemble’s albums, early DIY/home studio/multi-instrumentalist inspirations (Le Millipede), new technologies that came and went, even a set of wildly convincing arrangements (done with Cico Beck’s crucial input) that ultimately became stepping stones for yet another round of DIY takes. “It was a long, recurring process, and the songs went through so many different versions,” he says, talking about phases of growth (“I added more and more equipment over time”) and pruning, “cleaning up my music a bit.” Tending towards instruments that open up space, and slowly falling in love with sampling, he certainly didn’t rush things once it was time for interior design decisions ;)

“During this whole process I got to learn so much about my own taste, how I prefer to listen to the pieces, which musical elements really matter to me… and what my own voice is. For example, that acoustic elements are most important to me: the banjo, piano, drums, my voice, glockenspiel, trumpet, melodica. Anything that opens up some space.”

Every journey begins with a search: “Missing” with its plucked chords opens like a sunrise over pastoral plains, gently leading the way towards the intricate, playful explosion that occurs once a certain amount of energy (“Sun”) hits dirt and other surfaces: things grow, clot and curdle into new shapes, like new buds; layers of sound move forward, drenched in Spring’s new light. Relying on samples to ask for precipitation (“Rain On Me”), robotic “Low” goes from barren to bass-heavy after its midway shift in pace, full of loops plucked from the shade.

Towards the album’s midpoint, things are suddenly reversed: “Cluster” has that backwards pull, you can’t tell what’s what, yet everything is perfectly locked in, as the pace increases once again. And before the title song shimmers with densified cheering (to eventually stand tall like early Lymbyc Systym), “Beside Me” swipes you off your feet with its booming bass drum. The beat returns once again (“Daydream”), full of searching voices underneath, and at “Dawnday,” we can finally catch a melancholy view of the house. Voices hum. It’s the score moment of the album. Everything makes sense now. A happy end of sorts?

“I want to take people on a journey. A personal journey, too, because when my parents split up and sold the house I grew up in, I felt a bit like the ground had fallen out from under my feet. But I have dedicated the album title and the accompanying piece to this house… so I can keep it in good memory.”

“I Can See Our House From Here” has been a long time coming. It’s been a long journey. Homeward-bound. Leading to a place that’s really Haberl’s – his sound. His frequencies.

Known as a long-time member of The Notwist and various other bands/projects (Alien Ensemble, AMEO, jersey, Ditty etc.), Berlin-based drummer/composer Andi Haberl has also worked with My Brightest Diamond, Till Brönner, Owen Pallet, and Kurt Rosenwinkel, to name a few. “I Can See Our House From Here” is his first solo offering.

Operating from the depths of London’s musical underground since the late ‘90s, Infinity Plus One has been quietly toiling away, letting his music do the talking for the past two and a half decades. Cyphon Recordings draft in the veteran producer for a rare four-track EP of Detroit-infused, future-facing house and techno laced with the compelling lyricism of JaronX.

The Rebellion EP sees Infinity Plus One in some of his finest form to date. Leading the charge, ‘Context is Broken’ opens with JaronX’s poignant and passionate lyric on the state of global media, where sensationalism sells more copies than facts. From there, you dive headfirst into a hit of heavy-duty, contorted house. Crisp hats, punchy kicks and echoing stabs are interspersed with twisted electronics and JaronX’s arresting vocals. A sub-rattling bassline hits you square in the chest taking this neural club cut to the next level.

‘Say The Truth’ follows. A glitching, syncopated roller, woven with an entrancing monologue that is modulated and layered into tripped-out harmonies that echo around your brain.

On the flip side, ‘Identity Keeps Changing’ is a morphing techno weapon, where voices and synthesisers oscillate through different forms with every new turn. Rave-infused synth lines, breakbeats and a warped bassline channel that ‘90s warehouse flavour for a kinetic dose of dancefloor bedlam.

Rounding off the EP, the surging chords of ‘Utopia’ ping between your ears. A pulse that rides the kick drum, as dizzying arps and heavenly strings are layered into the mix to form a transfixing, gravity-defying techno immersion.

Fusing lyricism with the depth and dynamism of house and techno’s roots, Infinity Plus One hardwires meaning within his music. Visceral and thought-provoking, it’s a welcome respite in a sea of conformity.

DC Salas returns to his own Higher Hopes imprint for their third edition via the collaborative project Los Niños Del Parque with Anthony Barbarich (aka Mirror Minds), a release 15 years in the making.

The Los Niños Del Parque project came about due to the duo's mutual musical background & influence: 2000's electroclash, early electro house, new wave, new beat, and more. The idea is to produce something playful and true to the duo's roots. The EP was over four years in the making due to various obstacles, the title 'Frequencias Eternas' (Eternal Frequencies) tells the story of two long-time friends, connected to each other in one way or another.

The release is rounded off with a remix by the talented Badaboum & Rinse France resident Belaria.

Twice Infinity is back with part two of its Infinity Series compilation series, this time boasting four international artists with five tracks that span a wide array of contemporary techno. Call My Bluff, a groovy banger by Ireland’s very own Aero, opens up the EP with heavy percussion, intriguing vocal stabs and some trancy pads on top. Messiahwaits from Korea, now based in Berlin, follows up with a low end-heavy monster whose cinematic vocals and noisy textures are made for nothing but the sweatiest dance floors. Opening up the B-side newcomer Echion from Vienna delivers the hypnotic tool that is Sepul after introducing it with an extensive opening part that builds up intensity easily. Next, Istanbul’s Gräfin, head of local collective DREPT, fires up the mood canons with her dreamy and cleanly produced track Amaranth. To round up the third release on Twice Infinity, Echion’s emotional breakbeat cut Nine Years, filled with a deeply personal story delivered via his own voice, closes this outstanding release that features some of the best producers modern techno has to offer right now. Release: November 3rd 2022 Mastering: Chlär Artwork: Ronja-Elina Kappl

Öjskog’s debut album Dolda Byar is a study in explorative, farreverberating industrial and techno landscapes as described by Berlin’s Hardwax record store. The remixes EP of Dolda Byar continues down the explorative and experimental path with four exceptional remixes from Notzing, Ena, BODYXVIII and Fresnal Lens. Notzing’s Dream remake of Aatos delivers intricate time signatures and layering that produces an ethereal landscape of the original, while Ena highlights his signature micro-sampling style of organic and found sounds to deliver a twisted remix of Kefhel. BODYVXIII’s remix of Gleymdu is an opaque study in sonic experimentation and Fresnel Lens rounds off the EP with a haunting and unnerving reduction of Hanna. Mastered & Cut by Tim Xavier at Manmade Mastering Berlin

Fabulous Soundtracks, the fourth studio album by reclusive Los Angeles musician Jack Name, is an homage to the IRL world and its twisted and varied romance with the worlds of our minds, in a wild collection of "soundtracks'', each a sonic re-construction dedicated to a distinct scene. Both musically and lyrically, this is Name's most adventurous and genre-defying album. Elements of acid, dance, folk, micro-tonal weirdness, horror, sensuality, impressionism, and bursts of rock fuse with Name's most direct yet ethereal lyric writing to date.

Each song with artful intention confuses dream-like experiences and common everyday situations, and vice-versa, sometimes inflicting a frightening energy into the banal, or this in reverse. Offering a "fabulous soundtrack" as the title implies, to dreamlike cinematic scenography including but not limited to; walking alone through a park at night, a woman tiptoeing through a garden, a person wrestling with time and change, lust, grieving a pet, driving alone in the rain, laying in bed with a lover, a bare tree standing in a field, looking through pieces of glass, and inviting the devil into the home (as one does).

White Viny 2024 Repressl

Following the fiery motion and ecstatic energy of their first release, Riga-based imprint 'Tooflie' are back for round two.

Paying tribute to 90s Eastbloc low-brow pop music, four anonymous producers are breaking new ground and breathing new life into the lipstick traces of the kitschy melodies of the era in their edits for 'Tooflie'. 'LKA' boasts galloping percussion, funktastic breaks, and infectious vocals in an epic but sensual dance floor trip. 'KFE' turns into a deep, slo-mo house jam with sharp melodies and soulful vibes.

On the flip side 'MAXIM VS. TDJ' is as high and steamy as it gets with the whole thing sure to boost and uplift any crowd. Building up to its explosive finale 'LIND' goes in slow, with thrilling beats, haunting overtones and a yearning female vocal that slowly but surely rises into bliss.

'Tooflie' is a label that's squarely on the spot, re-imagining unknown sounds from all over the globe into the new sonic grooves for dancefloors and diggers' collections.

Heavyweight vinyl LP version comes with full colour inner sleeve and free download card
Designed by Julian House

"The Carrier is a succinct distillation of folk-rock magnificence." SHINDIG

"The Carrier an impressive package all round, and one that could easily end up on a few Album of the Year lists." - WE ARE CULT

Large Plants started as a solo project for Jack Sharp, the singer and guitarist for Wolf People. It was spurred on by a writing frenzy during the lockdown of 2020 when Sharp played and recorded all the parts for what would become the debut single, La Isla Bonita and the first album The Carrier. In summer of 2021 the tracks were mixed by songwriter Chris Cohen (formerly of Deerhoof & Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti).

Large Plants’ songs are immediate, heavy psychedelic rock belters filtered through a haze of analogue tape flutter. Sharp’s voice has an eerily distant and delicate tone that lends a strong folk sensibility to the album; like the scent of winter mornings and fresh soil mixed with the whiff of petrol. Though the songs are generally three-minute gems, they are lyrically more like ancient ballads; peopled with tragic youths, witches, lovelorn troubadours and femmes fatales.

Sharp is now touring Large Plants as a four piece along with Ed Taylor on drums, Ollie Taylor on bass and Joe Wooley on guitar with dates booked so far at OSLO, Hackney -17th April and The Betsy Trotwood, Clerkenwell 5th May

Repress!

‘Hardcore Jollies’ was Funkadelic’s ninth studio album and their debut on Warner Bros Records. Released in October 1976 and dedicated to “the guitar players of the world”, it showed Funkadelic was the heaviest black rock band since Jimi Hendrix’s Band Of Gypsies (even featuring Buddy Miles on one track). With lead guitarists Michael Hampton and Eddie Hazel dazzling, the personification of funk Bootsy Collins on bass, Bernie Worrell’s keyboard wizardry and many more, the album was helmed by the genius of George Clinton. Reaching no.12 on the US R&B chart, the album spawned singles ‘Comin’ Round The Mountain’ (US R&B No.54) and ‘Smokey’ (US R&B No.96) and a live remake of 1973’s ‘Cosmic Slop’ from the album of the same name. Recorded during rehearsals for 1976’s P-Funk Earth Tour, this version features a vocal introduction dropped from the 1973 studio cut. Over 45 years since its original release, ‘Hardcore Jollies’ is among Funkadelic and George Clinton’s best-ever albums and remains a masterful example of their creative genius. FUNKADELIC Masterminded by the larger-than-life figure of George Clinton, Funkadelic was a key component of his influential P-Funk empire. Funkadelic’s unique combination of Rock, Psychedelia, R&B & Soul led to the band crossing over to the pop mainstream & gaining a vast international following, becoming one of the most important & influential groups in music. On 6 May 1997, Parliament / Funkadelic were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame by Prince. To commemorate six decades of thrilling & delighting fans, George Clinton returned to the stage in 2022 for a series of concerts. To celebrate, Charly have reissued Funkadelic’s classic four albums ‘Hardcore Jollies’; ‘One Nation Under A Groove’; ‘Uncle Jam Wants You’; & ‘The Electric Spanking Of War Babies’ (originally released by Warner Bros during a golden period for the band between 1976-1981). Each album will be available as deluxe gatefold Digi-Sleeve CDs in PVC wallets + obi-strip & facsimile-edition gatefold LPs on 180-gram black vinyl & limited edition 180-gram coloured vinyl + 1970s-style obi-strip in a protective PVC sleeve. “They played a HUGE role in creating the future of music.” PRINCE

Mafia Musik is the fourth studio album from mercurial Los Angeles rapper, D. Savage. Initially breaking out in the SoundCloud rap scene in 2016 with the track, “30 Round Clip,” D. Savage has blossomed from underground icon to full-fledged star, with Mafia Musik serving as his magnum opus. At 13 tracks, D. Savage relentlessly keeps his foot on the gas for the entire duration of the album, with scorching hits such as “Kome On,” “Dirty Dan,” & “JOKER, Pt. 2.” One of the leading artists in the plugg sub-genre, his delivery and style is melodic and airy, yet far from soft. It’s clear the future is bright for D. Savage, and Mafia Musik serves as a great foundation for what is to come for him.

Stuck in the depths of a dark alley, blocked by yet another breeze, hitting a stone wall, road sign ahead: Dead End.
Impasse. "Cul-de-sac".
Hip‐hop. The original, some would say, official music of the late 20th Century Bronx.
Some say it has endured it's fair share of distractions, detractors and defectors. Some say it has murdered itself, having been abandoned by its so‐called best men, those who have gone off in other directions, or who have, simply, just beat‐retired. Yet, there are plenty of Soldier Monks still out there, prepared to sweat it out in the Temple of Machinery and Mics.
Low Cut honored this cause four years ago, with his MPC crafted minimalist version of NY Minute and he's back to ring the bells and unsheathe the samples!

The starting point of Dead End's production remains the 90's boom-bap, but the will to carry it even further brings it to its destination. By decorating it with rich samples flushed out after digging through vinyls pressed several decades ago, it is guided by a compass pointing deposits to the East. With sound quality inherited from a fastidious composition and mix works, using inspiration rather than just being a copycat, Dead End celebrates it without setting it up as a museum piece.

Picturing the beatmaker stuck in the depths of a dark alley, ended with a brick wall, is easy. But far from isolated in his Parisian basement, Low Cut has rung phones in New York, Baltimore and Detroit, rounding up the faithful. He magnetized the hidden but sharp forces, and gained attendance of legends. The casting of Dead End : Ruste Juxx & Nutso, Dirt Platoon, Guilty Simpson, Torae, Rasheed Chappell and the stainless Masta Ace, among other beat crushers. Also starring DJ Duke, Nix'on, Topic and Ordoeuvre with their DMC titles crates, for a deep beatfight on bars scarified of scratches.
Heavy atmosphere, martial beats and street soul, Dead End is also the final episode of the projects initiated by Low Cut, based on the model of a producer inviting various MCs.
He will then replace his turntable needles, refresh his sample banks, and settle the BPMs of his productions on more abstract frequencies.

TIPP!

Moisk aka Pletnev & Fourmi Rouz delve into the depths of psychedelia soundscapes with their latest release “Tetris Life’’ on Terra Magica Rec. The duo skillfully balances modular sounds and shimmers through acid synthesizers with a wide range of psychedelic soundscapes from uptempo half-beat to raw, energetic techno trance, inviting you into a mesmerizing sci-fi universe.

The EP features tracks like “Tetris Life” and “A Glass of Coke with Ice”, that explore underground ambient deserts and immersive jungle improvisations. This is followed by dark and slow breakbeat cuts that transition into faster-paced, floating atmospheric IDM tunes. The 12’’ contains many choppy old-school loops and uptempo trance breakdowns, as in “Orange Button’’ and “Wrong Stability”. Featuring two weird dub/IDM/breaks remixes by Anatolian Weapons and HSDJs X Listensport to round off the wax. Don’t sleep on it!

Singles V1 is a 6 track, 12-inch beautiful marine blue coloured vinyl EP. It is also the first physical release by Low Girl. As the title suggests the EP is a collection of the band’s singles up to the end of 2023 which features Big Now, So Cool, Blessing, Bored, Uh-Oh and Pockets. If you haven’t yet heard of Low Girl, be in no doubt, you will do soon. The band are a four-piece fronted by singer songwriter Sarah Cosgrove with band mates Toby Morgan, Tom Cosgrove and Bradley Taylor and it is clear to see that their popularity has been steadily growing since the release of their first single Big Now in 2021. The band have featured on the BBC Introducing Stage at the Reading Festival and played at the Texas SXSW Festival at the invite of The British Music Embassy in 2022. They have also regularly toured and provided support for acts such as October Drift, Pale Blue Eyes, The Murder Capital, Dream Wife and most recently Dekker. Low Girl’s indie pop, lo/fi sound, attributable to its vulnerable lyrics, synth licks and guitar driven riffs, has attracted admirers and radio airplay on BBC Radio 1, Radio X and particularly at BBC Radio 6 music, who have play listed a number of the band’s singles. Indeed, their single ‘So Cool’ was one of BBC Radio 1 Introducing’s singles of the week in April 2022 and ‘Bored’, was featured on the Late in the Day program’s International Women’s Day 2023 edition alongside Arlo Parks, Bjork, Sade, Nina Simone and other premier female artists. Sarah Cosgrove has also joined the panellists on one of August’s editions of Steve Lamacq’s round table together with Felix White and Deadletter’s Zac.

"Back in the 1990s original Verve pressings of this record were hot items pushed into prominence in great part by write-ups in The Absolute Sound, particularly by my friend Frank Doris. I found a few, and even a few in pretty good condition, but none of them begin to compare to this double 45 RPM set that offers more of everything, particularly transparency and instrumental separation. ...Ella's on a microphone with a slightly rising high end but if it sounds icy, don't blame the recording or the mastering. It's your system. If it's well-balanced and your cartridge is a good tracker, the vocal transparency and clarity are spooky and the sibilant articulation is precise. These double LPs cut at Sterling Sound use the original tapes, not copies of the original tapes and the clarity and transparency coupled with QRP's drop-dead silent pressings are remarkable. The original pre-MGM buyout LP has a pleasingly nostalgic quality and the added warmth produces a bit more room sound, but in my opinion it can't compare to this reissue unless you like hearing things through rose-tinted loudspeakers. Elegantly produced, arranged and recorded and easy to recommend ..." Music = 9/11; Sound = 9/11 - Michael Fremer, February 15, 2013.

Fourteen numbers from the heyday of swing, composed sometime between 1930 and 1945 - played and sung time and time again in ballrooms, or on the radio to advertise biscuits or war bonds, were recorded by Ella in completely new and personal interpretations in 1961. No one should be put off by the rather unfortunate cover. Clap Hands... is absolutely top notch as regards musicality, perfect recording quality, superb accompaniment by a small ensemble, with room for improvisations; it offers a wonderful opportunity to discover something new in these evergreens, despite the occasionally banal lyrics. The songs of this recording conjure up bygone days, with listeners in the 21st century being offered a highly personal homage to one of the most successful periods in the 100-year history of jazz.

Venturing yourself from the A(i)den garden to the depth of the Cosmic (g)round. Passing through the portable r(h)ythm machine and looking for the sonic Han(n)d of the trance goddess, you have no choice but to trust your natural instinc(t)s or fall into the infinite dream(s) oblivion losing all chances to find the missing letters of your spiritual crossword.

The delicious Hannd & Cosmic G partnership is starting the maxi 39PACK series with four tech-to-trance mixed cuts, including an Aiden Francis sexy and thic(k)y reshape of the EP’s eponymous track

Shlomi Aber is back on his Be As One Imprint with a four tracker EP of fast, rumbling and impactful pumping groovers.
Including a new unreleased rework of his iconic "Warping" track.

Record label boss, producer / DJ, and revered collector Marc Davis returns to his Chi-Talo series with the much-anticipated second volume. A concept of a split EP, taking one ultra-rare Chicago gem and the other a scarce Italian disco record and re-interpreting them for the modern dancefloor aesthetic.

With the first volume, released on Marc’s own Black Pegasus label, now trading hands for considerable amounts of money, round two sees him impart another double dose of digging sorcery for this Mr Bongo 12”.

Marc began his illustrious career in the Windy City in the ‘80s and was one of the first out of Chicago to be recognised for his eclectic approach to DJing. Presenting a global sound palette that took in choice cuts from Brazil, Africa, jazz fusion, house, soul and disco, whilst mixing it together Chicago style. Decades of knowledge and experience that is now distilled down into the Chi-Talo series.

The Italo selection came via a tip from Marc's Swedish friend, Julian Wareing. Hearing the track led Marc down the rabbit hole to secure a copy of this Italo-Disco, album cut oddity by the New Sound Quartet from 1979. The original of 'Bass Construction', measures in at four and a half minutes and is already a feverish funk groover. But Marc saw an opportunity to extend and re-edit the track, keeping in the vein of the original but giving it space to breathe. Tweaking out every last ounce of goodness, Marc locks you into a hypnotic groove for maximum dancefloor deliverance.

The Chicago side is as rare, as the rarest of hens-teeth, only ever existing as a one-off acetate by the band The Saucer Planes. One of the members of the group was the sadly passed-away older brother of Marc’s DJ mentor, Jahmal Anderson. From the very first listen, Marc knew he’d been hooked up with an undiscovered boogie gem. A long-lost track that the world needed to hear. But the project has remained dormant until now, not least due to the fact that the original recording of this low-fi vocal boogie groove is housed on an ever-deteriorating solo acetate. Rescued, restored and given a brand-new lease of life, Marc has turned the track into a low-slung, psychedelic instrumental boogie bounce. Raw, rough and mesmerising, it’s a refreshed relic that is a testament to Chicago’s club sound and swagger.

Whichever side you draw for, this is guaranteed to move bodies as much as it wins over hearts.

Co-Accused Records kick off 2024 with some sonic grooves from French duo Human Rebellion. Their 'Kosmik Trip EP' has four spacey, electro cuts with wicked remixes from Sync 24 & Co-Accused.

Human Rebellion launch the EP with the title track 'Kosmik Trip' a mind-bending intergalactic destroyer. Sync 24s remix sees the trip take a dark turn with sinister vocals and hypnotic builds. Co-Accused take it into techno territory with a relentless, high energy take on the original. 'Censored Truth' opens the portal to the B side with free-radical synths intertwining with dark machine funk. The punchy drums in 'Hybridization' pull you towards a distress beacon, with face-hugging builds and chest bursting drops. Human Rebellion round off the release with the dystopian, driving sounds of 'Jupiterians'

Bristolian producer Claude Cooper returns with hot new single ‘Stay A While’, inspired by the vinyl discoveries made from months of digging and cataloguing the bulging inventory of Bedminster’s Friendly Records record shop.

‘Stay A While’ introduces some delightful twists to Cooper’s psychedelic-funk sound. Blurring the lines between sampling and performance, lush string flourishes are sliced with 6Ts girl-group vocals and rollicking piano chords resulting in a dreamy, end of night, lights up anthem in-the-making. The track is backed with the insistent ‘Dance Tonight’, a ragged bass-boogie surf-rocker that doesn’t take no for an answer.

Cooper’s irrepressible debut album ‘Myriad Sounds' (Jan ‘22) caught the attention of the UK's press and radio alike. Mojo's four star review described it as “Bristol’s beat scene backdrops late night jams”, Uncut enjoyed the "rugged psych-funk romp" and Louder than War declared "it’s vital and vibrant and exactly what we need to kick start the year”. BBC radio DJs including Cerys Matthews, Gideon Coe, Huw Stephens, Jamie Cullum, Lauren Laverne, Stuart Maconie, Tom Ravenscroft rinsed the singles, with Huey Morgan inviting Cooper to contribute a Block Party Mix for his show.

Bonus round 'More Myriad Sounds' (Apr ‘23) added Brooklyn vocalist Brain Fog to the melange with a bounty of pyretic vocal performances. DJ Mag called it “A fierce, kaleidoscopic trip” while Bandcamp Daily said “This album of cross-genre influences is as likely to get it included in any number of best-of columns, with the theme of serious fun as their common element”.

Behind the release is Friendly Records, the best little record shop in Bristol and now a burgeoning record label. Opened by Tom Friend on North Street in 2016, it’s gone on to become a hub of the local musical community. As well as Claude Cooper, the label has reissued two of Alison Cotton’s albums, 'The Twenty-Three Views' by outernational ambient jazz project Floating World Pictures, and Christian Madden & The Enemy Chorus’s organ heavy ‘The Extra Weight’.

Claude Cooper will return with a new album on Friendly Recordings this year.

and the novelty goes on: mule musiq welcomes another fresh producer to its vast catalogue of music from all around. this time andro gogibedashvili aka saphileaum. he is coming from tbilisi, georgia and already released an impressive body of work, considering he just publishes music since 2016. countless eps and albums, digital, on tape, documenting his feverish creative urge on labels like not not fun records, good morning tapes, diffuse reality, or vodkast. they cover a comprehensive stylistic range from ambient and downtempo to tribal, house, and techno nuances. a deeper shade of soul, precisely fashioned, growing from different playgrounds of inspiration. he was born into a musical family. as a kid he studied georgian folk. in his school rock band, he sang, and the guitar was his love. then electronic music called the tune, and techno hit his heart. in the midst of it all the 26-year-old never lost contact with his spiritual home. “i find deep inspiration in georgian myths and legends, occultism and esoteric teachings, lost civilizations, earth, unity, truth, information, and the secrets of the universe. these things, to name a few, inspire me daily and help me create the music I make.” saphileaum reveals. “exploring together”, his debut album for mule, navigates all these elements through a merry-go-round of gentle driven rhythm zones. fourth-world spheres, balearic tropes, field recording zones, tropical downbeat, tribal percussions, trancing sounds, balafon hums, mallet airs, hooky house – it’s all there, circling the eavesdropper into a dreamland of melodic undercurrents. “my loops come from tribal and cosmic inspirations. tribal, as below, and cosmic as above. the combination of these two, is very interesting to me”, he clarifies, while joking “but, to put it super simply, loops are super handy for djing”. which brings us to the final promotion of “exploring together” - it’s playability. its vast. multifunctional. spiritual. made for gatherings, were all dance time away. lost in music actions, only touched by the hand of rhythm and sound. his ten tracks are created for such flashes, wide spreading a musical narration of illuminating durability. “cosmic, relaxing, fun, tribal, and mystic.”, as saphileaum declares.

Where everything Numero begins. Three guys in a purple Saturn station wagon drove down to Columbus, Ohio, and came back to Chicago with a lost label - the rest is history. In the early '70s, Bill Moss' Capsoul imprint could barely break wind in the larger music marketplace, and yet today the label's output can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with any classic soul of its era. Isolated in central Ohio and lacking the funds to back them, groups like the Four Mints and Johnson, Hawkins, Tatum & Durr might've easily withstood ten rounds against the Temptations, Smokey, or Otis. The scrappy Capsoul writing team of Dean Francis, Jeff Smith, and Norman Whiteside would've thrown blow-for-hook-filled-blow with any Gamble & Huff or Holland/Dozier/Holland thrown at them. From Bill Moss' civil rights meditation "Sock It To 'Em Soul Brother" to Marion Black's future hit about the future "Who Knows" to Kool Blues bounding "I'm Gonna Keep on Loving You," Eccentric Soul: The Capsoul Label remains dollar-for-dollar the best soul compilation of its century and the perfect primer for anyone piqued by the Eccentric Soul series - otherwise known around here as the "budding Numero enthusiast."