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"A Ragged Ghost" is the eighth full-length album from electronic producer Jonas Reinhardt. Following albums on Kranky, Not Not Fun, Constellation Tatsu, and more, his debut release for Trouble In Mind brings together 11 new pieces that explore themes of life & death, netherworlds, and the liminal spaces in between. Taken together as a single narrative, the album offers a stirring exploration of mortality and immortality in what Reinhardt describes as 'a dance of religious syncretism, navigating spaces between the living and the dead'. "A Ragged Ghost" finds him synthesizing influences organically from familiar teutonic strains to the intense austerity of early 21st century electronic pioneers such as Biosphere and Susumu Yokota. A whisper of the Italo-disco-esque romps of Jonas' 2012's "Foam Fangs" EP & 2013's "Mask of The Maker" LP merge with his more kosmische leanings into a sinister, slightly funky, but also studious suite that at times feels like a lost sound library record from the KPM archives. Openers "Ape & The Universal Axis" and "In Lotto Commodore" decidedly sound like a selection from a lost film score while others like the bubbling "Sly Tomb" recall the works of Roedelius or Vangelis' serene soundscapes. Meanwhile, fans of the electro-ambience of Manuel Göttsching's strobe-light, proto-house (on his seminal "E2-E4") or the pulsing insistence of John Carpenter's visceral non-horror scores (i.e. "Escape From New York" or "Assault on Precinct 13") will find a lot to love about songs like "Tumb Tumb" and "Wretched Orchestra of Armistice".

Fuchs is a band that never was. It vanished as quickly as it appeared in the picture, much like the animal that can be seen on this album and after whom it was named. In 2005, Kante singer and guitarist Peter Thiessen travelled to Weilheim to visit Markus and Micha Acher in their studio, where they were joined, among others, by Notwist-affiliated musicians like Cico Beck, Robert Klinger, Carl Oesterhelt and Stefan Schreiber. Spirits were high, but schedules were full: after a week of improvised sessions, everyone went their own way. The recordings gathered dust until Markus Acher found them again in 2021 while cleaning out his studio. After carefully re-evaluating the rough mixes, the musicians decided to finally release them. The resulting album comprises six tracks that musically draw on jazz, aesthetically lean on dub techniques and ideologically pick up on krautrock: there’s no solos to be heard on this record, just a few equally skilled and open-minded musicians listening to each other carefully, providing each other with space in which to unfold. »Fuchs« is a document of egos dissolving in a collective spirit.

Thiessen and the Acher brothers met in the 1990s and bonded not only over their shared background in hardcore music and the DIY ethos in which it was rooted, but also over their love for jazz. »If you look at those two things combined, you will eventually become convinced that you don’t have to be formally trained to make music that at least resembles jazz«, says Thiessen today. He invited Micha Acher to join his band Kante on flügelhorn in 2004 for a tour that saw the expanded group play unusual encores after the official concert was over. »Micha had taught us some dixie pieces, so night after night we would play a freestyle dixieland ska set in front of the remaining audience!« Naturally, the Acher brothers didn’t have to ask twice when they invited him for a visit in Weilheim to further explore their mutual interests in a studio setting. »I got on my way immediately and took two or three loose ideas, a tape echo and a guitar on whose headplate you could create fantastic sounds with me«, says Thiessen.

Between immersing themselves in books by the photographer Leonore Mau, cooking together and drinking the occasional fruit schnapps, the trio went into the studio. Says Thiessen, »Micha brought his flügelhorn and some wonderful ideas with him, Markus an Indian harmonium and a plan, Carl Oesterhelt came with a glockenspiel and a Chinese zither and a bunch of amazing jazz musicians joined in, too.« He considers the resulting recording sessions to be a kind of attempt at musically translating their conversations during those days. They discussed different approaches to jazz, whether sampling and musical miscitations can unlock ecstatic potentials and the possible parallels between syncretistic religions and pop music. »There’s traces of glossolalia, it's like a blurry séance«, adds Thiessen in regard to the sessions.

It is especially this spirit that managed to live on even though the recordings themselves were abandoned. »What we all liked most when listening back to the recordings is probably their marginal and fragmentary character, the empty spaces—the moments in which the virtuoso solo never comes, in which the centre remains empty.« The six pieces on »Fuchs« are chock-full of exactly these moments. When at one instant, the players seem to disperse and improvise freely, they always meet again on common ground a short time later, continuing on their way together. There are no conventions or even previous agreements that guide them, just a shared will to explore a vast range of curious sounds and unusual rhythms together as a truly unified constellation of very different musicians. Fuchs is a band that never was. Its ideas still reverberate vividly even 17 years later.

Landscape Tantrums Lost for two decades, the recent rediscovery of Landscape Tantrums the first attempt at recording the music that would become The Mars Volta’s De-Loused In The Comatorium revealed an important and hitherto missing chapter in the group’s evolution. Selfrecorded by Omar (assisted by Jon DeBaun) at Burbank’s Mad Dog Studios within a head spinning four days, Landscape Tantrums captures De-Loused in somewhat embryonic form, though much of what would make The Mars Volta’s debut album such an electrifying, sublime experience was already in place: the fearless invention, the fusion of futurist rock elements and traditions from outside of the rock orthodoxy, the sense of virtuosity working in service of emotional effect. From a distance, The Mars Volta must have seemed as if they were on a high when they walked into the studio to record what they expected to be their debut album (“I didn’t think of it as demos or a dry run,” Omar says). The group had recently played the Coachella festival to rave reviews, a vindication of the quixotic risk Omar and Cedric had taken, quitting At The Drive In to lead such an uncompromising musical proposition.






Their debut EP, Tremulant, had similarly signalled their singular vision, and been rewarded with similarly positive feedback. But the truth was that The Mars Volta entered Mad Dog in tatters, scarcely believing anything other than failure lay within their reach. They’d recently lost their bassist, Eva Gardner, and parted ways with keyboard play Ikey Owens. Tensions were brewing with drummer Jon Theodore, too himself a replacement for founding drummer Blake Fleming Omar questioning Theodore’s commitment to the group. And sound manipulator Jeremy Michael Ward’s drug problem had gotten so far out of hand that he’d been sent to rehab, and wouldn’t return until two days into the Landscape Tantrums. The pressure upon Omar was intense, and it began to manifest in the form of physical and emotional breakdowns. His art was his life, but now he began to wonder if it was actually going to kill him. Under such heavy manners, miracles occurred at Mad Dog. Surely that’s the only way to describe the music contained on Landscape Tantrums, as Omar fashioned early versions of Inertiatic ESP, Drunkship Of Lanterns and Eriatarka that rivalled the Rick Rubin produced versions that ended up on De- Loused for intensity, precision and immediacy, as Cedric delivered a powerfully intimate reading of Televators, and as a bare bones version of the group sketched out the peaks of what would become their debut masterpiece in barely half a week, on a shoestring, and believing they wouldn’t last long enough to see it hit the shelves. Listening to Landscape Tantrums now, with the benefit of hindsight and the knowledge of what these songs will become, one notices Cedric has yet to fully find the voice that will lend The Mars Volta their devastating authority, that Eriatarka will evolve even further under Rick Rubin’s watch, and that the lyrics to De-Loused’s climactic chapter, Take The Veil Cerpin Taxt, have yet to be penned. But one also notices how lithe the group sound here, how hungry, and one appreciates the raw edge that Rubin would later polish to a venomous sharpness. More than mere historical curiosity, Landscape Tantrums is an essential text for the dedicated Mars Volta aficionado, and a breathtaking album in its own right.


[a] a1. Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of) [Unfinished Original Recordings Of De-Loused In The Comatorium]

The groundbreaking 2015 PlayStation® 4 game Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture tells the story of the inhabitants of a remote English valley who are caught up in world-shattering events beyond their control or understanding. Made by The Chinese Room - the studio responsible for the hauntingly beautiful Dear Esther - this tale of how people respond in the face of grave adversity is a non-linear, open-world experience that pushes innovative interactive storytelling to the next level. This story begins with the end of the world. The game has already won GameSpot’s Best of E3 and was nominated for Best in Show and Best PS4 game by IGN.

The soundtrack features the music by Jessica Curry, who is also joint Studio Head of the developer The Chinese Room. The music was recorded at the famedAIR Studios in London and features solo vocal performances by renowned Welsh soprano Elin Manahan Thomas, ethereal choir, and a tragically beautiful orchestral accompaniment. With her compelling soundtrack, Curry took home the BAFTA Games Award for Best Music.

Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture is available as a 2LP limited edition of 500 individually numbered copies on translucent red coloured vinyl and includes a
4-page booklet.

SUMMER OF SOUL (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised) Original Motion Picture Soundtrack accompanies Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s directorial debut documentary SUMMER OF SOUL, which won the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival. Like the documentary, most of the audio recordings that were recorded during the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival have not been heard for over 50 years, keeping this incredible event in America’s history lost – until now. The SUMMER OF SOUL (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised) Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is a joyous musical celebration and the rediscovery of a nearly erased historical event that celebrated Black culture, pride and unity. For the album, Questlove carefully selected 16 live renditions of jazz, blues, R&B, Latin, and soul classics performed over the course of The Harlem Cultural Festival in 1969 as chronicled by the film. Performers include The 5th Dimension, Gladys Knight & The Pips, B.B. King, Nina Simone, The Staple Singers, David Ruffin and Sly & The Family Stone! Extensive promo & marketing activity across all media outlets. The CD format was released in Jan. Standard black vinyl 17 track double LP in gatefold sleeve. Promo/marketing activity.

"It takes time and lace, to make a French Mademoiselles" the adventure of this chic and sexy duo begins with these words!

THE FRENCH MADEMOISELLES, an artistic collectif run by two females singing :Miss K.T (for Katia, french native) & Miss L (for Lexie, American native). It is an interactive musical journey and quest that allows all women to understand how French women have created this spontaneous elegance and balance of life that allows them to maintain their professional and private lives simultaneously. Pop and Groovy 12 titles album... Bubble gum pop made in Paris ! Always with this cynical 60's vintage French movie atmosphere with a taste of Jacqueline Taïeb « 7 :AM » which cult singer brings their name… Recorded in Paris and mixed in London... This first album has been produced by renowned sound engineer of Elvis Costello, Shirley Bassey or The Pretenders. Already seduced 200.000

fans on internet with their digital singles and sexy and funny videos… Enjoy some "fresh air" from France with The French Mademoiselles.

Ted K. Kaczynski is notorious for both tragically murdering three people (and wounding an additional 23) via bombs sent in the mail and for his numerous writings on the evils of technology he composed during his primitive residency in the woods of Montana. Film director Tony Stone's choice to have the renowned electronic artist Blanck Mass score the film is somewhat ironic and creates an obvious tension perfect for the controversial and complex subject matter. 2020 saw the first Blanck Mass movie score, for the soundtrack to Nick Rowland's acclaimed cinematic debut Calm with Horses. This expansion into new areas of melodic composition and textural exploration won Blanck Mass many new fans, with the BBC's acknowledged number one film buff Mark Kermode proclaiming the work the soundtrack of the year. In 2021, Blanck Mass won the prestigious Ivor Novello Award for Best Original Film Score and has firmly established himself at the forefront of the latest wave of experimental soundscape wizards. Recording during lockdown at his studio in Edinburgh, Scotland, Blanck Mass's Ben Power was in the perfect setting for a musical piece intended to capture the isolation central to Kaczynski's story. Power was also working with a director in a time zone 10 hours behind and thus many sessions required working in the middle of the night, which added a fitting intensity to the composition process. He said of the project "I wanted it to feel like an `epic'" and drew on the legends Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone for inspiration in encapsulating the energy of the perceived good vs. evil. The gentle madness of sound achieved is exquisite and slowly builds in intensity and desperation as the score moves along. Power is able to perfectly capture the complexity, the terror and the deep emotionality of the film while presenting an often breathtakingly beautiful and always masterful album that stands on its own as a work of art. For Fans of Tim Hecker, Oneohtrix Point Never, DJ Shadow, Coil, Arca, Andy Stott, Fuck Buttons.

First Word Records is extremely delighted to present 'Torn : Tonic' — the sophomore album from singer, performer, poet and producer, Allysha Joy.

Delivered unfiltered, straight from the soul, ´Torn : Tonic' pulls us into a 10 track journey that weaves through the multiplicity of letting go, standing tall, and creating space all at once. The album's expansive and vivid exploration of healing examines the power that comes with accepting the complexity of change. Allysha walks listeners through the remedy she finds in sound and emerges empowered to share this healing with others. Deeply moving and lyrically compelling, 'Torn : Tonic' hosts a stellar line-up of artists, creating a world of collective power, growth, and hope.

Allysha Joy is an integral member of the vibrant Melbourne soul & jazz scene, well known for both her solo work and as lead vocalist for 30/70. A uniquely-talented soul, her husky voice, and formidable Fender Rhodes prowess have garnered attentive audiences around the world.

Her 2018 debut album 'Acadie : Raw' was named 'Best Soul Album' at the Music Victoria Awards, featured in Bandcamp's 'Top Soul Albums' of the year and received a nomination for 'Best Jazz Album' at the Worldwide Awards. An incredibly prolific artist, Allysha has released on labels; Rhythm Section, Gondwana, Future Classic, Total Refreshment Centre and now another drop for First Word, after her acclaimed 2020 EP, 'Light It Again'.

Allysha's production on 'Torn : Tonic' effortlessly arches across a sonic palette, comprised of shuffling broken grooves and exquisite celestial melodies. There are healthy swathes of skippy neo-soul boom bap sensibilities, entwined with stark swing-laden electronic percussion, Detroit-esque sun-saturated synths, and Antipodean bruk backbeats. And whilst this project was produced entirely by Joy herself, she is far from alone, inviting in an array of female and non-binary artists to bless assorted tracks with their own unique gifts. Ego Ella May, BINA, Rara Zulu, Belle Bangard and Dancing Water all appear, expanding upon the formulaic roles of featured artists to share the creative space as equal collaborators.

'Torn : Tonic' exudes vibes, from the opening whiplash snare of 'Peace, to the rolling jazz-bruk of lead single 'Let It!', to the sweet soulful sonics of 'Still Dreaming', to the closing triumphant shout of "All Joy!!" on 'G.N.D.', this is a 40-minute opus that will definitely require repeat listening.

Allysha's poetic introspection reveals the album's intention to demand space, purpose, and pleasure. Her words are deliberate and direct to the alarm bells and messages her artistic vision carries. Fluid, cross-genre, and spirited with generational stories embodied, 'Torn : Tonic' sits at the intersection of a feminist manifesto of Joy's momentous leap as an artist, and her exploration of what it means to be human in today's capitalist-driven world.

In Allysha's words, 'Torn : Tonic' is exactly as the name describes. "It is looking directly into the shadow of pain and overcoming it with joy. No love songs! Just social, political, emotional anthems for change! It is the first record I have produced entirely on my own and it feels like that perseverance that I have consistently had to conjure up is embedded in this music, overcoming my own conditioning in a society and industry that constantly tells me I can't, so I must!"

140g Black vinyl LP – Printed inner sleeve – Sealed plastic sleeve



In Trux We Pux is an editorial project organized by the Porto based label and collective Favela Discos. Focusing on the city’s thriving experimental and improvised music scene, it sets out to portrait in a series of four volumes some of the characteristic sounds and collaborative practices that have been in development in Porto during the last few years.

Milteto is an informal orchestra born out of the Favela Discos collective somewhere in 2014. The idea, that had been around for a while, was materialized for a concert in one of the first events hosted by Favela, in the extinct Picadilly Pub in Porto, a small strip club turned underground venue. It was one of those wet pre-covid nights where the condensation dripped down the mirrored walls, in a loud endurance contest that resulted in a fainted audience member.

For a very large number of reasons, it would be hard to define Milteto’s whole “career” in an album: the band has always inhabited the live context, trying to create massive immersive sound experiences for both the listeners and the musicians, subconsciously seeking to achieve transcendence by volume.

So, in reality this is a momentary reflection of an always mutating entity, instead of trying to define the several years of drastically different experiences in just 45 minutes, they took to the album as just another live presentation where they adapted to the idea of what a record could be as if they would adapt to a venue.

Faced with the idea of creating an album that reflected the project’s mutability, the band looked at the medium itself for inspiration, as the vinyl record has two sides, they thought that maybe it would be a good idea to reflect that on the music. So the recording sessions were split into two days, with two different groups of guests. One side set to recreate a more physical manifestation of the band, the other a more mental side, the first teeming with percussion, the other with electronic devices and synthesisers.

In Fango’s own words: Around 3 years ago I became a father and that changed my life. This record it’s my son’s world seen through my eyes: the innersleeve artwork was made by him and the eye on the label is mine. All the titles are also taken from Carlo’s own dictionary: “E Dee” is the first sound he used to make trying to communicate, it could mean many things. “Mamuke” was mum, “Babuke” was dad, “L” (reads el) was his step brother Gabriele and Cang his step sister Camilla.

By now counting more than four decades of constant activity, Pierre Bastien erected such a towering and influential body of work that any blurb attempt regarding his music could easily fall into redundancy. Not that his revolving soundworld, deeply personal and unique, has ever stalled into gimmick or self mimicry, being Bastien the tireless explorer whose vision can never be complete, only continuously redefined in a process of discovery equally playful and challenging. So, completely in touch with Discrepant's ethos. 

Returning to the label after 2017 The Mecanocentric Worlds of Pierre Bastien, the french musician, composer and instrument builder, brings an array of instruments from different cartographies and legacies with the appropriately titled Sonic Folkways. Resorting to different types of horns, prepared trumpet, an army of percussion, from gongs and tambourine to castanets and maracas, violin and too many others to mention here, Bastien weaves together a highly textured and hypnotic mosaic that projects an exotica beamed from scraps of the future. 'Aha!' in the same interstellar wavelength as Sun Ra's cosmic tones, 'Moor's Room’ almost orchestral tapestry of small percussion and insects or the non-western strings and tunings salvaged from ancient alien ceremonies on 'Pan's Nap'. 

In an era where so much ink has been shed about world building in experimental music, Bastien can actually claim that to himself. The otherworld is right here, indeed.

HEAVY TEMPLE donnern mit ihrem Debütalbum wie ein röhrendes Mastodon über die Prärie. "Lupi Amoris" hat das Zeug zum Meilenstein: So progressiv, aber unbefangener als BARONESS, und so heavy, aber draufgängerischer als FU MANCHU, setzt das Trio aus Philadelphia alle Hebel der metallischen Riff-Maschine in Bewegung. "Lupi Amoris" ist ein One-Way-Trip durch die amerikanische Weite und tiefe Wälder. HEAVY TEMPLE wurden zur Wintersonnenwende 2012 aus purem Spaß an der Heavy-Musik ins Leben gerufen, was sich in den Pseudonymen der Gründungsmitglieder widerspiegelt: High Priestess Nighthawk, Rattlesnake und Bearadactyl. Zunächst spielte die Band nur lokale Shows in Philadelphia, was dem Trio schnell einen exzellenten Ruf einbrachte und zu Einladungen auf Touren mit RUBY THE HATCHET, MOTHERSHIP, ROYAL THUNDER und CORROSION OF CONFORMITY führte. Auch namhafte Festivals klopften an die Tür, wie neben vielen anderen das Maryland Doom Fest, Psycho Las Vegas und Decibel Metal & Beer. Es spricht Bände über das Riesentalent von HEAVY TEMPLE und ihre packenden Live-Shows, dass die Angebote weiter eintrudelten, ohne dass bisher ein Album vorlag. Obwohl HEAVY TEMPLE alle Merkmale des traditionell männlich orientierten Heavy Metal anhaften (bis zu dem Punkt, dass ihr Sound einen stolzen Vollbart tragen könnte), bringt die kraftvolle Präsenz von Frontfrau und einzig verbliebenem Gründungsmitglied High Priestess Nighthawk weibliche Stärke ein. Ihre lyrischen Konzepte erreichen literarisches Niveau. "Lupi Amoris" bedeutet "Wölfe der Liebe" in Latein und handelt davon, dass sich die Band aus Philadelphia mit Rotkäppchen verbündet, das sich von den traditionellen Fesseln und der Erwartungshaltung an Frauen befreit hat. HEAVY TEMPLE demonstrieren mit "Lupi Amoris" eindrucksvoll, dass es durchaus möglich ist, titanischen Stoner-Doom mit den Realitäten des Lebens zu verbinden, statt im Eskapismus zu verharren. Bei dieser Lautstärke kann die Welt gar nicht anders als zuzuhören.

World renowned extreme Metal titans KREATOR are back. 5 Years after their incredibly successful “Gods Of Violence” album (2107, #1 in the German album charts, #4 in Austria, #7 in Czech Republic and Finland + chart entries in numerous other territories), the genre-defining band presents their most political effort to date. “Hate Über Alles” (in tradition of US punk icons DEAD KENNEDYS’ “California Über Alles”) is a bold statement against hate and the division of society in today’s world. While perfecting their signature sound of thrash metal that inspired countless other bands over the past 4 decades, KREATOR have managed to close the gap between the old and new school, still reaching new audiences, playing sold out shows to even bigger crowds as they move on. “

Hate Über Alles” features 11 tracks that once again show who’s boss in this game that many begin but only few ultimately last in. The crushing frenzy of the title track, the pounding “Strongest Of The Strong” featuring world famous vegan strongman Patrik Baboumian, the nostalgia of “Become Immortal” or the extravaganza of “Midnight Sun” make the band’s 14th album their most diverse and thrilling so far. “Hate Über Alles” will be accompanied by massive online and out-of-home campaigns, leading up to the band’s European co-headlining tour with Grammy-nominated US powerhouse LAMB OF GOD in November/December 2022. The album is available in various lavish vinyl editions featuring a beautiful, yet grim trifold artwork by famous artist Eliran Kantor (TESTAMENT, SOULFLY, HELLOWEEN, HEAVEN SHALL BURN, HATEBREED among others) as well as in a noble CD Digibook and bold box set including an extended Making-Of Book, a live album of the band’s 2021 Bloodstock Open Air appearance, an art print of the cover and a pin of the band’s iconic logo.

Prometheus is the 2012 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott, written by Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof and starring Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Logan Marshall-Green and Charlize Theron. It is set in the late 21st century and centers on the crew of the spaceship Prometheus as it follows a star map discovered among the artifacts of several ancient Earth cultures. Seeking the origins of humanity, the crew arrives on a distant world and discovers a threat that could cause the extinction of the human species.

Marc Streitenfeld is a German composer. He has frequently collaborated with director Ridley Scott. Streitenfeld has composed the music for many high-profile Hollywood features as well as critically acclaimed independent films, including American Gangster, Body of Lies, The Grey, Poltergeist and All I See Is You.

Prometheus became the fifth collaboration between the composer and the director. The score was recorded over one week with a 90-piece orchestra at Abbey Road Studios. Streitenfeld began coming up with ideas for the score after reading the script prior to the commencement of filming. To create an “unsettling” sound, he provided the orchestra with reversed music sheets to have them play segments of the score backwards, before then digitally reversing it. The track “Friend from the Past” reprises Jerry Goldsmith’s original main title from the Alien soundtrack.

Single sleeve, 12” 45rpm EP. 'Avocet Revisited' is a four track EP, commissioned by Earth recordings as a companion piece to Bert Jansch’s 1979 avian-themed masterstroke ‘Avocet’. Again drawing inspiration from the resplendence of birds native to British waters (Bert himself was a keen ornithologist), Earth invited this quartet of artists to each choose a species that particularly speaks to them, and base a track around it. The results have been universally graceful, evocative, and majestic - much like the creatures themselves. Fulmar - Drifting low and gliding high, the flight patterns of this gull-like creature are echoed in Edwyn Collins and Carwyn Ellis’s paean to the bird that spends most of its life airborne. Part waltz, part lullaby, ‘Fulmar’ is exquisite in its simplicity, with Carwyn’s elegant arrangements providing the perfect foil for Edwyn’s unmistakeable intonation. // Curlew - The opening of Modern Studies’ track - the call of the Curlew itself - is as recognisable as the looping feathered frame of its namesake. Perfectly showcasing the handsome orchestral arrangements that have become the group’s signature style, there is a lightness of touch here that evokes Virginia Astley’s ‘From Gardens Where We Feel Secure’. // Goosander - Another Scottish resident, both artist and avian. Unmistakably Alasdair Roberts, ‘Goosander’ is at once refined and somewhat feral; Alasdair’s picking supplemented by sighing organ drones and spartan electric guitar. // Golden Plover - Playing us out, Trembling Bells’ contribution has a Harvest feel - the last days of summer invoked by the warm refrain and gentle orchestration found on 'Golden Plover’. In another lifetime, this song - infused with the sounds of yesteryear - could very easily have made it onto the Wicker Man soundtrack… which should tell you all you need to know. A pagan hymn reimagined for the Scarfolk era! The band is joined by Callum Calderwood (violin), Rory Haye (vocals), Andrew Pattie (vocals) and Belle & Sebastian’s Stevie Jackson (12 string guitar). // Notes come courtesy of musician and keen twitcher, Karine Polwart, whose lyrical, prosaic turn of phrase brings the creatures here to life, as effortlessly as the songs themselves. Artwork again comes from Earth collaborator Hannah Alice (recently nominated for the Art Vinyl 2016) who has gifted each bird magnificent new plumage in her unique style.

"bit by bit" is the first full-length release from Toronto-based singer-songwriter Evan J Cartwright. This self produced album from the go-to drummer/collaborator (The Weather Station, U.S. Girls, Brodie West) presents a highly singular songwriting vision that combines existential lyrics with masterful musicianship. Steeped in jazz melodicism, Cartwright’s trumpet-like phrasing mixed with contemporary composition presents an eclectic art song performed by an artist that could perhaps be best described as a post-modern Chet Baker. Deep poetic observations on love and time paint an affecting picture of an artist reflecting on life’s universal truths. Visual in nature, "bit by bit" places its audience within a world of musical leitmotifs extracted from field recordings of bells and birdsong. Collected during years of touring, these sounds evoke extant spaces beyond that which the music inhabits. The use of this source material in its unaltered form evokes the feeling of a technicolour European film at one moment and then, as the extrapolated melodies are meticulously translated into electronic tone bank sequences, a modernist setting the next. One carillon melody is used as the basis for a wealth of the album’s musical material before its origin is finally revealed by the chiming of bells in the last seconds of the album. The result is a fragment of space between the constructed world of the musical compositions and the candid world of documentation, inviting the listener to ponder whether those two worlds are distinct or whether the songs and music are not simply “field recordings” themselves. Throughout "bit by bit" Cartwright drops staggering revelations hiding in plain prose that often involve the contemplation of time. In I Don’t Know he states “if I only trusted time / then I would wish it all away” and nearing the album’s end he opens impossibly blue with the phrase “the impossible truth of time”, playfully inserting a pregnant pause before the word time. A drummer’s fixation, to be certain, the album’s recurring theme of time is eclipsed only by Cartwright’s contemplation of human relationships. Here he elaborates on some of the album’s subjects: “Many of the lyrics circle, and try to give a name to the illegible space between human beings. “i DON’t know” celebrates the fact that we will never truly understand what love is. Its message is one of assurance. It says that we can never really touch love, and that is ok. “and you’ve got nobuddy” refers to life’s great tragedy: that we are unable to read each others’ experiences, and in reaction to this, we separate ourselves.” The entirety of "bit by bit" is a continuous work. There is seldom a clear demarcation of where one piece ends and another begins and when this does occur, it is done crudely, as if someone is flipping through a series of broadcasted channels. At times words are sliced right out of their lines and replaced by pure tones. This is both a comical interpretation of censorship and a reminder that there are things in life that will forever remain unseen and illegible. In fact, this statement lies at the centre of the LP and although hidden beauty does reveal itself through repeated listenings, "bit by bit’s" eccentric world remains just out of reach — an imaginary second story room viewed from a crowded city street.

Mieko Shimizu is a London based Japanese singer, songwriter, composer and producer. Mieko first erupted onto the UK electronic scene as Apache 61; her searing alter ego, fusing layers of cross-woven breaks and battling shards of sub-bass within stateless melodies drawn from the fringes of the avant-garde. Garnering plays by John Peel she quickly build herself a name across the underground scene. Originally trained in Jazz, she cites the multidisciplinary performance artist Meredith Monk and composer Terry Riley as early influences, but also draws inspiration from many genres.

Phenomena of the mind is a re-mastered EP of selected tracks from the album of the same title released in 2006, the year after the London Terror attacks. Something dispirited and unexplainable lay heavy in the air of this immense city that we lived and breathed. In the title song “ Phenomena of the mind” Mieko’s intense Japanese rap echoed the din of the chaotic streets we walk.‘Visualise’, she says, try to imagine a way to fight our way our way out of this ominous struggle.
In the track “Signal Found”, the theme continues to shattered Dance Hall beats that reverberate to the “Twisted Sound” of “Broken down” “London Town”. “Have you lost a plot? Are you ok?” she asks?

In the track ‘Black Salt” a dark melancholic theme floats over fragmented, glitchy beats compounded by the repetition of the word “black” which hammers the constant bombardment of racism prescient of the call for freedom that “Black Lives Matter.”

Wonderland Magazine has described Mieko’s music as “beautiful poetic verses and stunning musical arrangements and Mark Taylor describes Mieko in Record Collector as “An avant-garden artist pushing boundaries”



• Re-mastered EP of selected tracks from the album of the same title released in 2006

• Premiering the re-release at Twenty One in Southend on 21st April

• Mark Taylor describes Mieko in Record Collector as “An avant-garden artist pushing boundaries”

Tony Joe White's, The Beginning was originally released on CD in 2001,
Stripped down and recorded without any bells and whistles, this is Tony
Joe recording himself playing his classic swamp blues sound
This album is regarded as the first album where Tony Joe controlled all elements
of the studio. Until 2020, Tony Joe White's 29th album had been long out of print.
New West Records released a limited edition color vinyl pressing that was the
first and only vinyl pressing of this record. This record was remastered and resequenced for that specific pressing. Due to popular demand, New West is
bringing this title back on vinyl and CD. The CD is packaged in a jewel case with a
booklet of lyrics and photos.

This album is a reincarnation of Tony Hazzard’s first album, first released
in 1969, with one track missing but two more added
The name Tony Hazzard may not ring a bell, but the English singer/
songwriter has written hits for everyone from The Hollies, Manfred Mann
and Herman's Hermits to Gene Pitney and Andy Williams
This album is a reincarnation of Hazzard’s first album ‘Tony Hazzard Sings Tony
Hazzard’, released in 1969.
It was recorded between 1966 and 1969 at Regent Sound A in London, using
Studer J37 4- track tape recorders and a Neumann M49 valve microphone for
vocals.

Following on from their ground-breaking 1988 self-titled EP, Godflesh's
debut full-length was an absolute game-changer and still stands as one
of industrial metal's most defining documents to this day
Drawing from post- punk and industrial acts like; Swans, Big Black, Killing Joke
and Throbbing Gristle as much as the more metallic and punk influences that
informed guitarist/ vocalist Justin Broadrick's previous band Napalm Death, the
pounding, drum- machine powered sonic assault of 'Streetcleaner' sounded like
nothing else at the time, breaking down people's perceptions of what a metal
band could sound like. You can still feel the album's broad influence everywhere
from the dense atmospheres of post- metal to the abrasive beats of modern
industrial and techno outfits, but despite its many imitators, there's still nothing
else that quite captures the feelings of paranoia, anxiety and urban decay that
'Streetcleaner' so deftly articulates.

Ted K. Kaczynski is notorious for both tragically murdering three people (and wounding an additional 23) via bombs sent in the mail and for his numerous writings on the evils of technology he composed during his primitive residency in the woods of Montana. Film director Tony Stone's choice to have the renowned electronic artist Blanck Mass score the film is somewhat ironic and creates an obvious tension perfect for the controversial and complex subject matter. 2020 saw the first Blanck Mass movie score, for the soundtrack to Nick Rowland's acclaimed cinematic debut Calm with Horses. This expansion into new areas of melodic composition and textural exploration won Blanck Mass many new fans, with the BBC's acknowledged number one film buff Mark Kermode proclaiming the work the soundtrack of the year. In 2021, Blanck Mass won the prestigious Ivor Novello Award for Best Original Film Score and has firmly established himself at the forefront of the latest wave of experimental soundscape wizards. Recording during lockdown at his studio in Edinburgh, Scotland, Blanck Mass's Ben Power was in the perfect setting for a musical piece intended to capture the isolation central to Kaczynski's story. Power was also working with a director in a time zone 10 hours behind and thus many sessions required working in the middle of the night, which added a fitting intensity to the composition process. He said of the project "I wanted it to feel like an `epic'" and drew on the legends Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone for inspiration in encapsulating the energy of the perceived good vs. evil. The gentle madness of sound achieved is exquisite and slowly builds in intensity and desperation as the score moves along. Power is able to perfectly capture the complexity, the terror and the deep emotionality of the film while presenting an often breathtakingly beautiful and always masterful album that stands on its own as a work of art. For Fans of Tim Hecker, Oneohtrix Point Never, DJ Shadow, Coil, Arca, Andy Stott, Fuck Buttons.

Reissue

The Staples Jr. Singers were part of a vanguard of soul gospel artists in the 1970s that broke from tradition to testify with the groove. They found their inspiration in the secular music they heard on the radio, and wrote songs that were nothing but stone cold soul.

180g vinyl pressing.

During the late 2010s, music lovers around the world began obsessively listening to increasingly esoteric albums on Youtube. More often than not, they’d leave the browser on autoplay. This was how Facundo Arena, the composer and producer behind The Kyoto Connection, discovered the technonaturalistic pleasures of Kankyō Ongaku (environmental music), a distinctly Japanese interpretation of European, British and American minimalist composition and ambient music. “It was a kind of algorithmic magic,” he says.

Upload by upload, the utopian music of Hiroshi Yoshimura and his 80s Japanese contemporaries transported Facundo back to his childhood. When he was five, his father placed him in karate lessons and began watching martial arts movies with him. From those early experiences, Facundo became fascinated Japanese history, tradition, and culture, particularly that of Kyoto - the cultural capital of Japan. Kankyō Ongaku reminded him of hearing the sounds of Japanese folkloric instruments as a young boy, and suddenly, the way the influence of Japan had manifested in his music made sense. “I had the sensation that for many years, I’d been doing something similar to the style,” he explains.

Inspired, Facundo used an iPad and an old Akai cassette deck to record Postcards, his homage to Japanese minimalism and Kankyō Ongaku. By this stage, he was twelve years deep with The Kyoto Connection, the musical project he launched in 2005 in his hometown of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Over that late 2000s and 2010s, Facundo, later on joined by collaborators Rodrigo Trado (drums), Jesica Rubino (violin) and Marian Benitez (vocals, now his wife), released numerous D.I.Y albums. Project by project, they followed the threads between 80s synth-pop, ambient, new age, house, techno and acoustic composition.

Postcards introduced The Kyoto Connection to listeners around the world and brought Facundo into our orbit. During Argentina’s covid lockdown, Facundo received a set of soundscapes recorded in Kyoto by the Japanese musician and sound designer Masafumi Komatsu. Over several insular months, he decorated them with synthesisers, samples and subtle rhythms, creating The Kyoto Connection’s next album, The Flower, The Bird and the Mountain to be released via Isle Of Jura offshoot Temples Of Jura.

Ostensibly made up of twelve distinct tracks, listening to The Flower, The Bird and the Mountain feels more akin to spending calm, meditative time in twelve specific environments. Although the foundations they rest on are recordings made in geographic locations around Kyoto, Facundo has yet to visit Japan. As a result, the landscapes he paints sit somewhere between fiction and fact, richly pictorial sonic imagination juxtaposed with echoes of reality. Regardless, as his bubbling melodies and glistening synthesisers glide against Masafumi Komatsu's recordings, Facundo guides us into a blissful zone of tranquillity well worth spending time within.

"The dazzling symphonic album he always threatened to produce" UNCUT 5/5
"A soulful symphonic masterpiece" ROLLING STONE

Originally released in Japan only on CD in 2002, Plush's Fed lives up to the cult-like adulation it has garnered ever since. A stunning symphony of Bacharach-inspired pop, Toussaint-swing andMelody Nelson-era-Gainsbourg, it's an album bound together by Liam Hayes' maverick genius, an uncompromising Brian Wilson-esque quest for sonic perfection. Positively indulgent in every way, this sumptuous record has long deserved to be treated to a deluxe vinyl edition. Lovingly overseen by Hayes and recent collaborator Pat Sansone (Wilco/The Autumn Defense), it will finally be available on the format it should've always been, this Record Store Day 2018. Remastered and presented as a double LP - cut specially at 45rpm - it comes housed in a beautiful gatefold jacket with expanded artwork throughout.

Its expansive, singular vision infamously took years to realise, involving Earth Wind & Fire's horn arranger (the legendary Tom Tom MMLXXXIV) amongst other elite personnel. Recorded with five different engineers (including Steve Albini and John McEntire), Hayes meticulously extracted every ounce of pop from each note. A long list of renowned studio ringers (including soul drummer Morris Jennings) and Chicago regulars (McEntire, Rizzo, Parker) among many others provide playing of demonstrably professional precision. As such, Hayes' complex, meandering melodies are rendered far more coherent and satisfying than they otherwise might have appeared, bringing his epic, anguished pop to a rarely seen level of perfection and depth. This unstinting dedication to the overarching vision was rewarded handsomely - artistically, at least.

However, as might have been expected, his deluxe approach resulted in a bill too steep for any American or European label to ultimately support. It has since seemed unlikely that it would see the light of day on either side of the Atlantic. Yet we were determined not to allow Hayes' lifetime achievement to go unnoticed or let music fans across the world miss out on one of the finest albums of this century.

A wide-eyed opus of stunning intensity, Fed oozes Hayes' impeccable influences without ever becoming overwhelmed by them. Incredibly, it touches upon Blaxploitation soul, Boz Scaggs-soft-rock, hints of jazz and blues, timeless baroque and skewed pop. In one long minute, the stabbing, soulful "So Blind" moves through five different melodic segments, horns shift easily from haunting backdrop to explosive forefront, smoothly giving way to strings as Hayes' voice casts its bewitching spell. The ambitious soul of "Having It All" has been described as the diffident cousin of Marvin Gaye's "Save The Children" whilst the breezy "Greyhound Bus Station" is pure 70s AM Gold, evoking the easy warmth of Jimmy Webb's beloved Land's End period. The sublime resignation of "No Education", a beautifully slow number that begins, "Never read a book in my life/ But I feel just fine" is post-rock ballad heaven. Arriving towards the end, the title track arrives as a majestic suite, moving from a horn-and-guitar-led instrumental via shifting melodies to Hayes' compelling vocal bursts.

An album of such brilliance, Fed can comfortably sit alongside such staggering statement pieces as David Bowie's Young Americans, Randy Newman's 12 Songs or Harry Nilsson's Nilsson Schmilsson. Indeed, for all the sprawling elements that went in - lengthy guitar builds, exploding horn sections, solemn strings, female backup chorus - it is a deeply personal and original record. Employing a distinct "more is more" aesthetic, he demonstrates remarkable restraint in producing an album of such intimacy. "My creation has drowned me," he memorably sings on languid opener "Whose Blues", yet he navigates the shifting styles and ideas with enviable ease.

Man muss sich nur kurz mit dem Indie-Rock-Trio unterhalten, um die innige Wärme ihrer starken Verbundenheit zu spüren, die drei jungen Musikerinnen sind beste Freunde. Diese persönliche Nähe schimmert auch auf ihrem Debütalbum "Versions of Modern Performance" durch. Penelope Lowenstein (Gitarre, Gesang), Nora Cheng (Gitarre, Gesang) und Gigi Reece (Schlagzeug) machen alles gemeinsam, vom Songwriting über den wechselnden Gesang und den Tausch von Instrumenten bis hin zum Sound- und Visual Art-Design. "Versions of Modern Performance" wurde mit John Agnello (Kurt Vile, The Breeders, Dinosaur Jr.) im Electrical Audio-Studio aufgenommen. "Es ist unser erstes Album. Wir hatten bei Agnello sofort das Gefühl, dass er wirklich respektiert, was wir zu tun versuchten", sagt die Band. Horsegirl spielen auf dem Album gekonnt mit Texturen, Formen und Schattierungen und zeigen ihre Vorliebe für Improvisationen und Experimente. Der Opener "Anti-glory" ist schillernder Post-Punk-Song. "Dirtbag Transformation (Still Dirty)" und "World of Pots and Pans" haben einen rauen Pop-Charme. "The Fall of Horsegirl" besticht wiederum durch seine scharfen Konturen und einem kantigen Sound. Man kann in ihrer Musik Elemente der Independent-Musik der 80er und 90er Jahre hören, die Sounds die Horsegirl so sehr lieben - die schraddelige Melodik dessen, was man früher "College-Rock" nannte, den kühlen und sprudelnden Space-Age-Glanz der 90er-Jahre, das laute Dröhnen von Shoegaze, die sparsamen Hooks und Rhythmen von Post-Punk. Sogar ein bisschen No-Wave ist mit dabei. Horsegirl vermischen die Einflüsse zu einem Sound einer neuen Generation, für die die 90er-Jahre Lichtjahre entfernt zurückliegen und gleichzeitig doch so nah sind.

Man muss sich nur kurz mit dem Indie-Rock-Trio unterhalten, um die innige Wärme ihrer starken Verbundenheit zu spüren, die drei jungen Musikerinnen sind beste Freunde. Diese persönliche Nähe schimmert auch auf ihrem Debütalbum "Versions of Modern Performance" durch. Penelope Lowenstein (Gitarre, Gesang), Nora Cheng (Gitarre, Gesang) und Gigi Reece (Schlagzeug) machen alles gemeinsam, vom Songwriting über den wechselnden Gesang und den Tausch von Instrumenten bis hin zum Sound- und Visual Art-Design. "Versions of Modern Performance" wurde mit John Agnello (Kurt Vile, The Breeders, Dinosaur Jr.) im Electrical Audio-Studio aufgenommen. "Es ist unser erstes Album. Wir hatten bei Agnello sofort das Gefühl, dass er wirklich respektiert, was wir zu tun versuchten", sagt die Band. Horsegirl spielen auf dem Album gekonnt mit Texturen, Formen und Schattierungen und zeigen ihre Vorliebe für Improvisationen und Experimente. Der Opener "Anti-glory" ist schillernder Post-Punk-Song. "Dirtbag Transformation (Still Dirty)" und "World of Pots and Pans" haben einen rauen Pop-Charme. "The Fall of Horsegirl" besticht wiederum durch seine scharfen Konturen und einem kantigen Sound. Man kann in ihrer Musik Elemente der Independent-Musik der 80er und 90er Jahre hören, die Sounds die Horsegirl so sehr lieben - die schraddelige Melodik dessen, was man früher "College-Rock" nannte, den kühlen und sprudelnden Space-Age-Glanz der 90er-Jahre, das laute Dröhnen von Shoegaze, die sparsamen Hooks und Rhythmen von Post-Punk. Sogar ein bisschen No-Wave ist mit dabei. Horsegirl vermischen die Einflüsse zu einem Sound einer neuen Generation, für die die 90er-Jahre Lichtjahre entfernt zurückliegen und gleichzeitig doch so nah sind.

On textstar+ Jan Jelinek brings together the material from the CMYK series, four EPs he released between 1999 and 2002 under the pseudonym farben (the German word for both colours and paints), on a vinyl double LP for the first time. The selection of tracks has been remastered from the original tapes, joined by two additional pieces that appeared on compilations during the same period.

A Polaroid. Still life with tangled leads and consumer electronics, late twentieth century. Black and various shades of dirty white are the dominant non-colours. The image’s spatial depth remains diffuse, the links between its elements speculative. A note stuck to the wall (a legend, perhaps, or an all-explaining blueprint in text form?) is impossible to decipher. You can’t see what connects the picture’s signs. You have to hear it.

farben says: Every sound is a text. A bearer of meaning in search of a reader. Hoping the ideas inscribed in its autonomous existence will be understood as intended. While its beauty lies precisely in misunderstanding, in reading the coded message a new way every time. A thousand colours of sound, a thousand different ways to hear, to see, to understand.

On textstar+ Jan Jelinek brings together the material from the CMYK series, four EPs he released between 1999 and 2002 under the pseudonym farben (the German word for both colours and paints), on a vinyl double LP for the first time. The selection of tracks has been remastered from the original tapes, joined by two additional pieces that appeared on compilations during the same period. Another new element is the Polaroid, showing the origins of a world: Jelinek’s home studio in Berlin at the time.

farben says: Move your body! The project has its roots in Jelinek’s love of house as a reductionist vision of soul. Of four to the floor as a proposition that can be accessed anywhere. Of electronic dance music as a realm of possibility that can be continually expanded. farben was written as contemporary house music. As a text about excitement and euphoria. The arrangements were made directly while recording to DAT, on a twelve-channel mixing desk. Several track titles suggest a link to live concerts, coupled with the context of machine music and bedroom recording. Others affirm pop music’s most extravagant stock phrases about various states of love.

Jelinek produced the tracks with the aim of making music for dancefloors. An idea that failed very productively. In the locations to which it was originally addressed, the project barely figured. But people did listen, and they listened all the more closely to this music that opened up new acoustic and associative scope for house. farben is the opposite of genre: a music spawning new terms (clicks & cuts, micro-house) that never manage to fully capture it.

farben says: Signifiers. The four CMYK EPs are designed as a network of references that cannot be missed but that can also never be precisely deciphered. The vectors of sound, word and image point to Isaac Hayes and Ornette Coleman, to Detroit and the first generation of the Red Army Faction, to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. So multifarious that they are distorted to the point of recognition. Overall we hear sonic docufictions whose appealing vagueness derives precisely from this oscillation between clarity and ambiguity, which is also the source of their poetry: the lyricism of the pure circulation of signs.

The artwork is based on photographs of former Red Army Faction members, broken down into the four colours of the CMYK model. The motifs dissolve into individual dots of a single colour, so close to the faces that their expressions are only hinted at. Taken together, the individual colours compose a new whole out of fragmentary material, defying definition and thus maintaining their vibrancy. The same occurs on the level of sound. The sampler Jelinek used for these tracks had to be fed with floppy disks, imposing a memory limit of 1.44 megabytes per audio quotation from soul or jazz records. As a necessary consequence of this, the individual references, like the dots of colour, are dissolved into details and abstractions. They appear as splinters that recombine in new ways to create new meanings. The joy of collapsing metaphors.

farben says: New departures. Even two decades after its original release, textstar+ does not come across as an epitaph to the modern era. Instead, it appears as a euphoric affirmation of the utopias of the twentieth century, translated into new sound texts via the aesthetic strategies of abstraction, collage, networking and speculation. 1.44 megabytes of history, one thousand signifiers, one album. From “Live ...” to “... Love”.

Arno Raffeiner, 2021

The Howling is a collaborative project started by writer Ken Hollings and sound artist Howlround devoted exclusively to their shared love of text, audiotape and trash aesthetics. An intense collision of spoken word and analogue tape effects, the Howling's first performance took place at the Iklectik in September 2019 as part of a special programme to celebrate The Tapeworm's 10th anniversary.

Despite the pandemic, they have managed to continue working and conferring together since then, sharing sound files, texts and mixes online, which has resulted in All Hail Mega Force, their first full-length release for The Tapeworm. The two extended tracks contained on this audiocassette reflect their shared interest in Fluxus and how informal rules and permutations can be set up to work themselves out through loops and repetitions. A straight line connects Terry Riley's tape experiments in Paris from the early 60s with their experimental recordings in the Wimpy Bar on Streatham High Road, one of their favourite meeting places. 'The idea of instant, disposable one-off creations appealed to us a lot at the time,' The Howling explain, 'particularly as both pieces were conceived and developed during different phases of Covid lockdown in the UK.'

The title and source material are derived from the kid's adventure movie MegaForce, starring Barry Bostwik and Michael Beck. Designed to sell a range of Mattel hi-tech action toys, MegaForce tanked at the box office but lives on in the collective consciousness of those who share with The Howling a special love for Trash and Trash Aesthetics.

The two tracks also share similarities in approach and realization.

'All Hail Mega Force' was created by reading combinations of the words 'All Hail Mega Force' into a voice memo recorder, transferring it to tape, cutting the whole thing as a single long loop and then stretching it across three reel-to-reel machines simultaneously, using two pencils and a pint glass full of loose change to try and maintain sufficient playback tension. Over time the loop started to degrade, which accounts for the increasingly slurry and unpredictable playback, plus frequent ruptures caused by the tape becoming jammed and having to be tugged through the machine workings by hand. Twenty-four minutes later and the result was a completed new work and a slight backache.

The text for 'Are You Man Enough For Mega Force?' was recorded live in the Wimpy Bar on Streatham High Road, 28 November 2021. It was cut to tape and looped on 3 December 2021 at Warrior Studios, Loughborough Junction. Dragged by motor and then by hand across two tape machines with copious amounts of closed input feedback provided by a third rushing in to fill the gaps. One take with no effects or overdubs, but one tiny edit in the middle when something fell over.

Kavinsky is a zombie who came back from the dead after his Testarossa crashed in 1986.

His first song, "Testarossa Autodrive", was an instant success, and was followed by two singles. In 2007, he was chosen by Daft Punk to open their now legendary "Alive" tour.

In 2011, his track "Nightcall", produced with Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, became the theme song for the film "Drive", and consequently a worldwide success.

Kavinsky's first album, "Outrun", was released in 2013, followed by a collaboration with The Weeknd on the song "Odd Look".

In 2022, Kavinsky is back with "Reborn", his second album recorded at the famous Motorbass studio in Paris, due March 25th. While recording it, Kavinsky had this special project to record a sequel to his hit song "Nightcall", which after all sounded almost like a movie scene. This sequel would be called "Zenith".

Therefore, like in the original, he composed a duet between a girl and a man, but reversed:
the verse is sung by the woman, the chorus by the man.
Prudence (formerly from the successful duet The Dø) is the female vocalist, Morgan Phalen (who sung with Justice and is the vocalist of the band Diamond Nights) plays the male character along with a special guest: the saxophone.

"Zenith" showcases Kavinsky's romantic side on a muted and futuristic sound.

Justin Thurgur has been at the heart of the UK's World Music scene for over twenty years; principally in his collaborations with the former Fela and Femi Kuti keyboardist, Dele Sosimi, and with the pianist and composer Kishon Khan, most recently in his groups Lokkhi Terra and Cubafrobeat. He has also worked with the likes of Afrobeat drum legend Tony Allen, and with the Cuban giants Giraldo Piloto, Julito Padron and Changuito. Thurgur is also a member of the seminal English folk group Bellowhead.

'Many Faces' brings together this musical journey, with Afro-infused grooves and nods towards Cuban Jazz and Dub, with Thurgur's early passion for the likes of Miles Davis, Coltrane, Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, et al....

It features both Khan and Sosimi, who have contributed as co-writers as well as bringing their own inimitable sounds on piano, rhodes and hammond organ. Alongside them are some of the leading musicians on the UK's African, Cuban and Jazz scenes, plus collaborations with rising star singers Jade Pybus and Sahra Gure.

Justin Thurgur - trombone (and some additional keys)

Graeme Flowers - trumpet and flugel horn

Simeon May - tenor, baritone and alto sax

James Allsopp - bass clarinet

Jade Pybus - vocals (on 'Woman')

Sahra Gure - vocals (on 'Be A Little Wiser')

Kishon Khan - piano, rhodes and hammond organ (on tracks 1,3,4 and 5)

Dele Sosimi - piano (on tracks 2 and 6) and vocala (on track 6)

Phil Dawson - guitar

Suman Joshi - double bass (except track 5)

Jimmy Martinez - double bass (on track 5)

Tansay Omar - drums (on tracks 1,3 and 4)

Kunle Olofinjana - drums (on tracks 2 and 6)

Yoann Julliard - drums (on track 5)

Afla Sackey - congas and djembe (on tracks 1,2 and 6), shekere and cowbell, and vocals (on track 6)

Oreste 'Sambroso' Noda - congas (on tracks 3 and 5)

Evie Hilyer-Ziegler - violin and viola

Paul Sartin - violin

Track 1 written by J Thurgur and S Gure

Tracks 2 and 6 written by J Thurgur and Dele Sosimi

Track 3 written by J Thurgur

Track 4 written by J Thurgur and J Pybus

Track 5 written by J Thurgur and K Khan

Recorded at Fish Factory by Simone Gallizio and Sean Douglas, at Boneman Studios by Justin Thurgur, at Better Pass Your Own Studios by Phil Dawson, at Thank You Please Studio by Kishon Khan and at 224 Studios by Matteo Musetti.


Mixed at Hi Street Studio by Mauro Caccialanza.

Mastered at Gearbox by Caspar Sutton-Jones.

Artwork by Matthieu Dufour

Photos of by Siobhan Bradshaw, Justin Thurgur, Stephanie Sian Smith,

Chantal Azari, Alex Bonney, Heather Hoyle, Nicole Thurgur, Joanna Mendel, Tansay Omar, Richard Gearey, Faye Hilyer-Ziegler and Svetlana Onye.

A question popular among followers of Thrash Metal is undeniably this, “Which is considered the fastest Thrash Metal album of all time?”. There would be a high percentage of answers supporting “Reign In Blood”, Darkness Descends” or “Pleasure To Kill”. Now here’s a startling reality. Wehrmacht’s debut album makes those albums sound as if they were meant to be listed under progressive Metal. The sheer ferocity of these guys is enough to convince you why they were considered the fastest Heavy Metal band in the underground. So what is it that makes this record worthy of being called an underground classic? Right from production to musicianship, the concoction of several different ideas results into one colossal and inevitably unique style of their own. Many of you would probably wonder that there might just be a natural leaning towards sloppy playing especially considering my description of their astoundingly fast nature earlier. But the major surprise here is that all the musicians are extremely tight and precise with no single riff, solo or beat falling out of place. Tito Matos is one of the most versatile Thrash singers one has ever heard till date. His clarity of words and ability to keep up with the rest of the band with his lightning fast singing is simply commendable. The songs in here are all ridiculously speedy pieces of Thrash Metal with practically little or no remorse for the listener. The title track with that brilliant rendition of the famously eerie “Jaws” theme kicks off the onslaught with a tearing main riff that shreds away with speed and precision. Teutonic, Bay Area and a few east coast Thrash Metal bands have been instrumental in forging the whole genre altogether but taking the intensity a couple of notches higher was undoubtedly achieved by bands like Cryptic Slaughter, Soothsayer and finally Wehrmacht. For a year that was 1987, “Shark Attack” was way ahead of its time and has been highly regarded as the release that influenced many a band in the Grindcore and Black Metal genres. To testify this statement of mine, U.K Grindcore pioneers Napalm Death have covered Wehrmacht on one of their studio compilations, thus proving the exemplary effect this band had in the years to come. Yet the irony still stands out as to why only the most devoted of Thrash Metal/Crossover freaks know about this band. As for some of you guys, quit wasting your time listening to the senseless offshoots of Grindcore and shitty Black Metal and get a hold of this classic instead.

Das hat doch alles keinen Wert mehr! …oder doch!?
Genau diese Frage stellte sich der Berliner Sänger &
Songschreiber ALEX MORGEN im Frühjahr 2020, als er, kurz
vor Beginn der Corona Pandemie, sein Debütalbum „Vom
Siegen & Scheitern“ veröffentlichte.
Das Schallmagazin schrieb damals MORGENs „raue, kratzige
Stimme würden in Verbindung mit dem pur wirkenden
Gitarrenspiel genau die Emotionen vermitteln, die in
glattgebügelten Studioproduktionen häufig zu kurz kommen“
und betitelte sein Album deshalb als „Lebendige Musik“.
Genau diese Authentizität und dieser Charakter waren dem
Sänger & Songschreiber in seinen Songs immer sehr wichtig.
Die Frage, ob es sich in diesen schnelllebigen Zeiten, in denen
es vor allem darum geht, in welchen Playlisten man als
Künstler landet, noch lohnt ein ganzes Album aufzunehmen,
stellte sich dem Berliner nie. Für ihn zeigt sich die wahre
Klasse eines Künstlers in der Qualität seiner Alben und erst in
zweiter Linie in den einzelnen Songs.
Also schloss sich MORGEN während des ersten Lockdowns
wieder in seinem Homestudio ein und schrieb neue Songs.
Zusammen mit dem Produzenten Christian Kreutzer nahmen
die beiden schließlich im Laufe der nächsten beiden Jahre 13
Songs auf.
Stilistisch ließ man verschiedene Genres mit einfließen,
orientierte sich aber am Sound der 80er Jahre. Irgendwo
zwischen Bruce Springsteen, Herbert Grönemeyer und Eddie
Money, garniert mit einer modernen Note à la „the Weeknd“
entwickelte sich schließlich der eigene Charakter des Albums
Jeder spielt die Rolle seines Lebens“

Faze Action return with a classic original house track "Paradise" managing to seamlessly fuse Italo house with the New York sound of the late 80's early 90's. Finely mixing a cocktail of heavenly piano house riffs with dreamy vocals and dubby bass lines, topped off with some classic breakdown moments to tease the most discerning dancefloors into hysteria.
We have also included two tracks for the first time on vinyl, the classic Rudy's Midnight Machine - "Open to Your Love" and Faze Action's - "I Wanna Dancer" (Old School House Mix) plus we have the floor filling ST House Mix of "Freak for Your Love".

DJ Feedback

Jkriv:
"10/10 - Classic FA vibes! Love it, thanks guys."

Alan Dixon:
"10/10 - Quality, as always :-)"

Grant (Daddy G) Massive Attack:
"8/10 - Takes me back to the sound of Flying Records "

Andy Taylor (We are the Sunset):
"8/10 - Bouncy with plenty of piano power... thinking of Adriatic nights already. Thanks for sending."

John Le Visiteur:
"10/10 - Classic vibes all the way on this, love it and happy to support."

Phil Cooper Phil Cooper Nu Northern Soul Various Ibiza :
"8/10 - Full support. Lovely stuff. House music I understand and dig right here."

Guy Williams Flash Ibiza:
"8/10 - Nice retro bumpy - vibes will be supporting."

Adrian Quesada announces the release of ‘Boleros Psicodélicos’,
a sprawling and singular tribute to the golden era of balada music.
The brand-new album from the GRAMMY-nominated guitarist,
producer and Black Pumas co-founder serves as a celebration of
the super funky, slightly delirious and deeply soulful sounds that
transcended the cultural boundaries of Latin America throughout
the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Featuring vocals from Puerto Rican icon, GRAMMY-winner and
former Calle 13 member iLe, Colombian-American visionary
Gabriel Garzón-Montano, Mexican R&B star Girl Ultra, as well as
Angelica Garcia, Gaby Moreno, contributions from living legends
such as Marc Ribot and Beastie Boys musician Money Mark, and
many more, ‘Boleros Psicodélicos’ consists primarily of original
Adrian Quesada compositions, as well as covers of La Lupe’s
‘Puedes Decir De Mí’, Jeanette’s ‘El Muchacho De Los Ojos
Tristes’ and other balada classics.

All twelve tracks were produced, engineered, mixed and largely
performed by Adrian Quesada, honouring and extending the
influence of a personal obsession that he has cultivated over the
past 20 years.

Similar to his acclaimed 2018 album ‘Look At My Soul’, which
traced the deep roots and relationship between Latin and Texas
music, Adrian Quesada sees every song on ‘Boleros Psicodelicos’
as both a history lesson and a step towards a newly imagined,
more united future: “I always wanted to pay tribute to that sound
that I was already hearing in my head without realizing that people
had already done it. Balada changed the face of Latin music
forever. If something like that happened today, it would be normal
because everyone’s connected on Instagram. Think how powerful
this sound had to be for everyone to be connected through the
songs. As someone who grew up speaking two languages and
living on both sides of the border, I love how much music can
transcend barriers and boundaries. It really is a universal
language, especially back then.”

A brand new multi genre label. Releasing Jungle, Hardcore and Jungle Techno that pay's tribute to the orginal 90's vibe but presents it with a modern take. TufStuf focuses on the harder and faster side of rave, with rough layered breakbeats, deep sub bass, and emotive and catchy melodies.

With already some very experienced, talented and create producers signed to the label there is many exciting things to come. The second EP focuses hard and heavy amen Jungle with deep soundscapes, melodic vibes and emotive vocals with plenty of heavy basslines as well.

EP comes with a 12 x 12 inch full colour double sided artwork insert.

Two and a half years after the inception of Shall Not Fade's bass-focused sub-label, and a year since its last edition, Time Is Now is proud to present Allstars Vol.3.

For most, the artists featured on the compilation need little introduction. This will almost certainly be true for the Leicester duo who kick off proceedings with a fresh garage cut. "Pick Me Up" is Y U QT's second contribution to the Time Is Now catalogue and sees them rep the Midlands sound with their take on UKG, complete with a 4x4 speed garage switch-up, sure to energise any dancefloor.

Next up, proving that all good things come in twos, is Manchester duo Cortese who first blessed the label with the warmth of their tuneful concoctions in June last year. This time around is no different: "Regatta" is a real summertime banger, with sunny piano stabs and arpeggiating synths that drift above.

Keeping things soulful is Dublin producer PROZAK who hots things up with the buoyant 4x4 garage track "Next To You" - his third release on TIN.

Yosh sees in the compilation's B-side with "To Me" - a track that captures the London badman's ability to keep you on your toes with stuttering breaks that catch you off-guard.

Next up, and repping Copenhagen for the third time on the label, is Main Phase with the aptly-named "Pull Up Tool"- a thumping 4x4 UKG track which gives a healthy dose of ruffage before Groovy D closes proceedings with speed garage banger "Wun4Me". Set closer business.

Detroit mainstay Andres returns to MotorCity Wine Recordings with an anthemic 4 tracker entitled Sunday Kinda Love. For those that know, MotorCity Wine is the spot for Sunday parties, so we only thought it appropriate to have one of Detroit's most seminal producers highlight the vibe with this EP. On the A side is Andres's dusty house sound that we've all come to love, complete with bouncing basslines, slick vocal chops, and drums to turn out any dance floor. On the flip side Andres slows the tempo just a touch to highlight his chunky midtempo beatdown sounds, with "Rubin Samba" bringing a Latin flair and "Sunday Kinda Love" driving it all home. Essential Detroit music manufactured in Detroit and housed in a gorgeous vinyl package, TIP!

‘Black Pride’ is the seminal Lovers Rock tune from Brown Sugar pressed loud for the first ever time on this new one-off press limited-edition (just 1,000 copies worldwide) 12” on Soul Jazz Records!


Brown Sugar formed in London in 1976 made up of teenagers Pauline Catlin, Caron Wheeler and Carol Simms. After Brown Sugar Caron Wheeler became known worldwide as the vocalist in Soul II Soul and Carol Simms launched a successful solo career under the name ‘Kofi'. “Black Pride” was originally released on the Lovers Rock label, a fledgling reggae label formed by musicians Dennis Bovell and John Kpiaye and producer Dennis Harris. Brown Sugar were unique – not only were they one of the most important of the first wave of lovers rock groups, they were the only group who managed to successfully blend together a reggae roots consciousness with a lovers rock sensibility. The classic ‘Black Pride’ perfectly reflects this unique sound.

Benefits are an issues-based music collective from Teesside in the
North East of England. They write songs about the urgencies that
concern them, and they play them loud.

Forming in 2019 and consisting of Kingsley Hall on vocals, Robbie
Major and Hugh Major on synths and noise, and Jonny Snowball
on drums, they quickly evolved from a standard shouty punk rock
outfit into a minimalist, overtly political band that merges noise,
hip-hop and industrial rock, creating an effect that feels urgent,
darkly hilarious and unsettling all at once.

Thus far, Benefits have been completely DIY yet, via a succession
of digital singles and accompanying videos through 2021, they
built a following that enabled them to complete a sold-out headline
UK tour in March 2022. They also gained fans in high places,
including Sleaford Mods, Black Francis, Garbage and Elijah Wood
and Steve Albini.

James and Ryan of Yard Act were also instant admirers and that’s
where their label Zen F.C. comes in. Using their ill-gotten major
label gains Zen F.C. are pressing Benefit’s single ‘Flag’ (backed
with ‘Empire’) on vinyl.

On working with Yard Act, Kingsley comments: “I think Benefits
come at some of the same subject matter that they talk about but
from a slightly different angle (and by ‘slightly different’ I really
mean ‘more frequent swearing’, though we've never said the C
word in a song unlike...ahem). We appreciate every bit of help
we’ve had off them, we just wish we could somehow repay that
kindness (not monetarily mind, we're totally skint).”

Yard Act’s James Smith says of the release: “Lots of bands are
saying all this stuff so what makes Benefits so special? Why do I
need to be told what I already know over and over again by a
shouty man from Teesside? Well, because no one else is saying it
with such physicality they sound like their voice box is about to
leap from their throat and eat your eyeballs. With that little bit of
influence we’ve garnered and the small fortune of money we now
have kicking about, I’m so glad we can play a part in spreading the
word on Benefits, because I think they’re well on their way to a
classic debut album, and I’m going to fucking love being able to
brag about how important I was in making it all happen.”

Manchester rock band Oceansize built a career and reputation of constructing sonic soundscapes from out of nowhere into the most monolithic, dynamic behemoths heard in aeons.

The band formed in 1998 and released four albums before calling it a day in 2011. They gained favourable comparisons in the press to bands like Mogwai, Tool, Nirvana, Jane’s Addiction, My
Bloody Valentine, Can and Faith No More among
others.

Oceansize challenged themselves and thus by the same token ensured the listener didn’t become comfortable while listening. And let's face it, - comfortable is, after all, boring.

‘Everyone Into Position’ was Oceansize’s second
studio album. Beggars Arkive are reissuing the
album on splattered yellow double vinyl.