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Introducing Hussain Bokhari and his debut album “Possessions” on Mood Hut Records. Hussain has been a close friend of the label for years and we’ve been quietly obsessing over his bedroom transmissions forever. With “Possessions”, we get a glimpse into the endless archives of a Vancouver underground legend.

Born in Bangkok but calling Vancouver home, Bokhari creates intuitively and freely, and you can hear it in the way "Pull Me Up" rolls out its plush carpet bedroom boogie, or how "Bangkok Boy"'s Thai vocals carry childhood memories across oceans and decades, while "Whatever Counts" sounds like Durutti Column moved from Whitworth Street to Cordova.

This is music for the spaces between - between cities, between eras, between yourself and the person you were, all held together by a minimalist studio setup and maximum heart approach that makes "Possessions" feel like an invitation into Bokhari'sparticular way of seeing.

Seattle punk rock 'n rollers The Drowns are proud to present their brand new live album Live At Rebellion, on Pirates Press Records. This is the band's first foray into recording a live performance, but it has been an idea on the table from very early on. While the band are rightfully acclaimed for their studio albums, the first thing anyone in the know talks about is their electrifying live shows. "Within the first year of starting the band, we saw the reactions we were getting from people live, and we had the idea to record a live album," says guitarist and singer Rev. "Almost a decade later now, we felt like the time was right." While a live album recorded during the first year may have captured the raw power of a hungry band kicking off their momentum, Live at Rebellion is the sound of a seasoned band playing in front of a veritable army of international fans on their largest festival stage at Rebellion Festival in Blackpool, UK - fans that they have earned one by one, sweating it out with relentless transcontinental touring. "Rebellion has always been a highlight of our year, and we love the performances there because the energy from the crowd is raw and visceral," explains Rev. "That's why we made the choice to do it there in Blackpool." While far from a "Greatest Hits Live" preserved in amber, the setlist features selections from every era of the band's career and was determined by the band's knowledge of what songs get their audiences fired up - all killer, no filler, as the saying goes! The gritty attack of "Them Rats" exemplifies the band's streetpunk influences and lyrical calls to unite against abusive authoritarian power. Meanwhile, the vital ass-shaking boogie of "Live Like Yer Dyin'" was a direct result of the band fully embracing their collective appreciation of the energetic joys of both 70s glam and original 50s rock 'n roll! Their choice of cover song - "Ballroom Blitz," - truly hits the Sweet spot, if you'll pardon the pun, as one of the foremost glam-proto-punk-bovver rock masterpieces. It is executed here in masterful hands by The Drowns. The band acknowledges Daz Russell & Daryl Smith, the organizers at Rebellion, for backing the making of the record. David Casey (Success, One Step Beyond) helmed the boards to capture the recording, mixing and engineering was done by Evan Douglas Foster (The Sonics, Boss Martians), and the final master was produced by Seattle legend Jack Endino (Nirvana, Mudhoney, Soundgarden), who also recently oversaw the re-master of The Drowns' debut album View From the Bottom. "This album was a cumulative effort between people who still believe in rock 'n' roll," sums up Rev. "We couldn't be more proud."

2025 Repress

Tobias Bernstrup is a contemporary musician and video artist born 1970 in Gothenburg, Sweden. He received an MFA from Royal College University of Fine Arts Stockholm in 1998. Using the visual language of pop culture, video games, sci-fi, classicism and gothic noir, he has created a stage persona with notorious live performances. Dressed in elaborate costumes of skin-tight rubber suits and fetish gear, Tobias' external appearance is androgynous. He raises questions about representation of identity, the body and physical space in both virtual and non-virtual realities. Between 1997 and 1998 he self-released two limited CD-R EPs. In 2002 his debut album 'Re-Animate Me' was released by Tonight Records followed by two limited 12' singles for the song 27' and the Italian version Ventisette'.
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27' is a 5-song EP collecting 4 different mixes of the title track plus one unreleased song from the 'Re-Animate Me' recording sessions. The material on this EP is closely connected with the world of computer games which Bernstrup also inhabits. Bernstrup's music is influenced by 1980s Italo disco and synth pop, reminiscent of Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode and Ken Lazlo. On the A-side is the original mix at 115 bpm followed by the Lazer Mix set to an faster beat and additional arpeggiations and heavier bass drum beats. Lyrically the song tells the story of a good looking 27-year old boy from a small town searching for love with any man who can spoil him. On the B-side are both the vocal and instrumental of Ventisette', the Italian translation of the song 27.' Both versions of Ventisette' are stripped back compared to the A-side but keep the melodies in tact. Also released for the first time ever is the demo Dirty Money' a Pet Shop Boys influenced song about male prostitutes ready for a night out working the streets.

All songs have been remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. For the jacket Eloise Leigh transformed the original portrait of Tobias into a Warhol-like painted polaroid with a striking likeness to Liza Minelli with blue eye shadow and red lipstick. Each copy includes a photo postcard with lyrics and notes. I would rather create alternative routes to experiencing and understanding the world, understanding what it means to be human today,' says Bernstrup. We are more artificial than we want to admit.'

Violent Delights is an anthology of stories that meanders through themes of grief, rage, desire and identity. There are stories of the toxicity of addiction, and growing up around religion; stories of overwhelming obsession, isolating abandonment, and empowering anthems of identity, and stark laments about sexual violence. They are each lived experiences, laid bare, reclaimed with every syllable whether dripping in spite or swagger, anger or anxiety. "Loss is a central theme of the album," explains vocalist Kate Price. "For us, we have our own specific version of what that is in these songs, but for anyone listening, it could be the loss of something else - a loved one, a relationship. But we're never mourning loss. We're celebrating it. Loss is almost universally looked at as a negative, but we're finding the positives in those moments. We had to go through hell to get to heaven. Violent Delights is about looking back with gratitude, and even fondness, the closing of one chapter and beginning of another." Jools - comprised of Kate Price, Mitch Gordon, Chris Johnston and Callum Connachie, Joe Dodd, and Chelsea Wrones - has been a name on the lips of clued-up fans and tastemakers since its collective of musicians found each other in the earliest days of 2023. Quickly gaining a reputation for their cathartic, unpredictable and specular live performances, the band have been consistently championed by BBC Radio One, including two `Tune of the Week' placements on Daniel P Carter's esteemed Rock Show. Violent Delights was recorded across two week-long stints at Southampton's The Ranch studio in August and December of 2024, with Lewis Johns helming production and mixing duties. When pressed, Jools may identify as a punk band - in its truest sense that punk is a mentality, rather than a sound - but Violent Delights equally lends from the worlds of metal, rap, post-hardcore and hip-hop as much as it does the post-punk of its surface layer. Gordon and Price are as likely to point to Turnstile, Mannequin Pussy and Amyl & The Sniffers as influences on the record as they are to Little Simz and The Streets' Mike Skinner. "We don't necessarily look at music in sounds or structures," nods Gordon. "Instead we look for attitudes."

Fit for Consequences: Original Recordings, 1984–1987 is the first ever archival release from Repetition Repetition, the “two-man electric minimalist band” consisting of Ruben Garcia and Steve Caton hailing from Los Angeles in the mid 1980’s. Repetition Repetition’s unique blend of cosmic art-rock minimalism / maximalism was self-released across a series of cassettes produced in micro editions, and while garnering the attention and participation of luminaries such as Harold Budd, remained under the radar during the band’s existence. Fit for Consequences: Original Recordings, 1984–1987 collects select material from across the duo’s catalog.

It was over a plate of Mexican breakfast food when Ruben Garcia and Steve Caton first told Harold Budd of Repetition Repetition and the worlds they intended to explore by respective way of synthesizers and guitars --- a rendezvous instigated by the former’s fan mail to the legendary composer. If the upstarts entered this restaurant from a one-way street of admiration, they would leave with not only Budd’s interest but, sometime later, a blessing in the wake of many hours shared by the three in Garcia’s Los Angeles home recording studio: “This is going to be difficult, but God help them, I think they’re great,” noted Budd in a USC lecture in 1985. Now several degrees removed from prior rock music aspirations, the real game was afoot.

Between 1984 and 1988, Repetition Repetition operated within something akin to the underground of the experimental underground, although even that designation perhaps overstates the case. The duo’s sparse output consisted of three cassettes self-released on Garcia’s Third Stone Music label: Repetition Repetition (1985), Lakeland (1987), and The Machinist (1987). Their songs would also be included during this period on Trance Port Tapes’ vital scene-scanning compilations assembled by A Produce. Live performances occurred with similar infrequency, but Garcia and Caton counted converts in quality over quantity, numbering among them the aforementioned Budd, a Chambers Brother, and, judging by a memorably drop-jawed reaction following a rare Repetition Repetition gig, Jackson Browne.

Likewise, critical support materialized in the form of KCRW deejays Brent Wilcox and Dean Suzuki, whose steady airplay positioned Repetition Repetition’s music amidst fearless company like Jon Hassell, Hiroshi Yoshimura, and Richard Horowitz. Yet, to hear fellow Trance Port featured players like Tom Recchion and Bruce Licher of Savage Republic tell it, Garcia and Caton moved as ghosts --- a notion more vexingly endorsed by the silence of record companies that failed to come knocking --- and therein lies an overarching truth to the work itself.

Journey to the heart of Repetition Repetition and one discovers a collective ear impossibly attuned to the hypnotic possibilities of stylistic convergence, the resulting music possessed of seamless multimodalities which beckon to a glimmering plane of the disembodied. Where Caton sought his artistic fixes at an intersection of popular genres, Garcia zoned in on the sonically spare, drawing from the same wellspring as the Enos and Rileys of his personal avant-garde pantheon, and in their coming together the two tapped into a deeper cosmic source. Synthetic walls of keyboard sound in forever states of reprise met waves of shimmering --- and at times even punishing --- guitar in reply, their soundscapes hovering convincingly between, as suggested in fittingly dualistic fashion in a press kit assembled by Garcia, such disparate sensations as bird flight in one song and oil drilling in the next.

But don’t call it a push-pull dynamic, as this was a creative partnership founded upon fluidity and organicism by way of, naturally, repetition. In contrast to, say, the Bressonian ideal of repetitive motion as a great stripping away, the concept in the hands of Garcia and Caton equated to ascendancy via continuous unfolding, a maximal route to minimalism. To be sure, their recording philosophy morphed over the course of the act’s short history, and what started as a process defined by consistent in-person interplay developed into a more isolated method formulated by Garcia, who eventually took to his own one-man bedroom-studio sessions in order to fully chart any and all potential ostinato-loaded paths which he could travel down, the Tascam-captured resonances subsequently provided to Caton as blueprints from which to take flight himself, adding layer upon layer of steel to the proceedings.

If the practice and execution changed, however, the evidence certainly didn’t rest in the results: The seamlessness remained, and, despite the brevity of their time together, so has Repetition Repetition. With this finely calibrated collection of songs in Fit for Consequences: Original Recordings, 1984–1987, Freedom To Spend sees to it that the private worlds of Garcia and Caton can now be visited by all rather than just the count-‘em-on-both-hands lucky few whose musical endeavors or collector vocations carried them into this once-distant dimension.

Repetition Repetition’s Fit for Consequences: Original Recordings, 1984–1987 will be released on Freedom To Spend in vinyl and digital editions on May 30, 2025. The collection includes extensive liner notes from Bill Perrine, and wil be offered alongside Over & Over, a supplemental collection of music available exclusively as a mail order cassette from Freedom To Spend and RVNG Intl.

Three LPs packed in a trifold jacket. Pressed on Deep Ocean Pearl, Gold & Dark Green Vinyl. Take up your sword, channel your magic or board your Mech. Chained Echoes is a 16-bit style RPG set in a fantasy world where dragons are as common as piloted mechanical suits. The game is set on the continent of Valandis during the time of a multi-generational war between three kingdoms, Taryn, Gravos and Escanya. After a great catastrophe caused by Grand Grimoire shakes the continent, the kingdoms agree to sign a peace treaty. One year later, an unknown force strives to begin a new war. A group of unlikely heroes joins forces and eventually becomes the clan of Crimson Wings in order to stop it. The outstanding soundtrack for Chained Echoes was passionately composed, arranged and recorded over four years by Eddie Marianukroh as well as many other musicians who worked under his direction. It includes 50 tracks at two hours in length. Even the game has been out for a while, Marianukroh's admiration and enthusiasm for the game and his addition to it remain undiminished: "It has been over two years now since the release of Chained Echoes, which is rather difficult for me to believe. Time really flies, and it's honestly a bit frightening when I think about it. But, despite that, when I listen to the music I've written for this game, I still very much remain proud of what I composed. I really did give my all for this soundtrack. I will forever be grateful to Matthias for trusting me with the music for his game. I can vividly remember how I felt when I first came across his project, and how I nervously reached out to him about the composer position. I truly, truly cannot thank him enough for giving me this memorable experience that I will always hold dear. Thank you, my friend."

Die Liverpooler RATS sind knallhart der Wahrheit und den Beats verpflichtet. Furchtlos, gelegentlich wild und häufig zärtlich kommt dieser mitreissende Pöbel auf der Debüt-LP "Rule The World" zusammen, nachdem die Single "Patsy Decline" (2021) ein neugieriges Publikum zu ihren lebhaften Liveshows lockte. Der direkte und optimistische Mix der Band aus unerschrockener lyrischer Ehrlichkeit und Crossover-Rock, R&B und Ska ist der Soundtrack des modernen innerstädtischen Grossbritanniens. Frontmann/Texter Joe Maddocks wird mit Mike Skinner (Jamie T, The Streets) verglichen, und die Band ergatterte einen frühen Supportslot für Liam Gallagher bei seinem Auftritt in der Royal Albert Hall 2022. Der gewundene Weg zu einem vollständigen Album wurde geduldig beschritten, RATS brauchten über zwei Jahre, um den Spass und die Wut ihrer prickelnden Liveshows auf Band zu bannen. "Es ist eine Mischung aus unseren individuellen Charakteren, die zusammenkommen", sagt Drummer Alan Phillips. "Da sind Lowells Dub und Ska, Joes scharfe, fast schon Hip-Hop-artige Texte, und dann sind da noch Mikey und Chris mit ihren mitreissenden Indie-Gitarrenriffs. Es ist eine Mischung aus den unterschiedlichsten Melodien in uns."

Im Mai 2021 veröffentlichten Adam Duritz und Counting Crows „Butter Miracle: Suite One“ und erhielten begeisterte Kritiken. Nach der Veröffentlichung von Counting Crows’ Butter Miracle, Suite One folgt nun das vollständige Album Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets!. Das Album besteht aus den 4 Titeln von Suite One sowie 5 neuen Titeln.

Im Mai 2021 veröffentlichten Adam Duritz und Counting Crows „Butter Miracle: Suite One“ und erhielten begeisterte Kritiken. Nach der Veröffentlichung von Counting Crows’ Butter Miracle, Suite One folgt nun das vollständige Album Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets!. Das Album besteht aus den 4 Titeln von Suite One sowie 5 neuen Titeln.

Im Mai 2021 veröffentlichten Adam Duritz und Counting Crows „Butter Miracle: Suite One“ und erhielten begeisterte Kritiken. Nach der Veröffentlichung von Counting Crows’ Butter Miracle, Suite One folgt nun das vollständige Album Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets!. Das Album besteht aus den 4 Titeln von Suite One sowie 5 neuen Titeln.

Contemporary Belgian techno powerhouses Charlotte de Witte and Amelie Lens come together on a groundbreaking new “One Mind” EP.

Between them, this pair have very much refined the sound of techno over the last few years. Both hail from Belgium, and both came up through the clubbing scene with their own unique interpretations of techno and its many different nuances.

Charlotte de Witte, a global techno icon and founder of the KNTXT label, has released numerous EPs with a focus on acid and techno, blending in trance and ambient into compelling club cuts. With millions of fans, she also has a history making presence in underground clubs, at electronic music festival main stages like Tomorrowland and Ultra, and crossover festivals with her recently completed production tour "Overdrive". She’s also been crowned DJ Magazine’s World’s Number 1 Techno DJ five years in a row. Through KNTXT, she innovates with ventures like the archival Époque label, immersive pop-ups and spontaneous street parties. Poised for a groundbreaking 2025, she remains at the forefront of revolutionizing the electronic music landscape.

Amelie Lens, the leading figure in modern techno, is known for her exceptional productions and performances. Beyond music, she is a proud mother, record label owner, and activist. She founded Exhale and LENSKE, two globally recognized labels and event platforms celebrated for their inclusivity and unique on-site experiences. Exhale focuses on nurturing fresh talent, signing its youngest artist at just 16 years old. Amelie made history as the first woman with a residency in Ibiza and is now collaborating with Vogue Collective, becoming the first techno artist to do so. Her strong relationships with top designers like Chanel further highlight her creative vision beyond music. From festival appearances at the biggest festivals in the world to performances at iconic venues like The Sphere in Las Vegas, Amelie consistently pushes boundaries, shaping the future of electronic music.

To enhance the unified concept of the EP, both Amelie and Charlotte’s voices are subtly layered into the tracks, together, as one.

The brilliant 'One Mind' kicks off with rock solid, earth rattling kicks and intimate vocal whispers that draw you in close. Flashy, strobe lit synths soon electrify the groove and ensure hands will go skywards as acid lines bring extra drama. 'Where Do We Go' is another fantastic, turbocharged and acid-laced trance-techno gem with high-speed drums and synths racing along under icy spoken words that bring spine tingling sensuality.

This is a super coming together of two of modern techno's most potent creative forces.

Thug Life: Volume 1 is the only studio album by hip hop group Thug Life, started by rapper Tupac Shakur, it was released on September 26, 1994 by Interscope Records. The group featured Big Syke, Macadoshis, Mopreme, The Rated R and Tupac Shakur. Among the notable tracks on the album are “Bury Me a G”, “Cradle to the Grave”, “Pour Out a Little Liquor” (which also appears on the soundtrack to the 1994 film Above the Rim), “How Long Will They Mourn Me?” and “Str8 Ballin'”. The album was originally released by Shakur’s label Out Da Gutta Records. Due to heavy criticism on gangsta rap at the time, the original version of the album was scrapped and re-recorded with many of the original songs being cut. The album only contains ten tracks because Interscope Records felt many of the other recorded songs were too controversial to release. It has been said that 2Pac created two other versions of this album, with many of the songs still remaining unreleased. Urban Legends/UMC will reissue Thug Life: Volume 1 in 1LP 180 Gram black vinyl on 22nd November, 2019.

KEY POINTS

• Collector Crystal Clear LP deluxe packaged – the very First reissue of the cult 11 track EP – Street Album from year 2000 by DJ Mehdi collecting his Espionnage adventures

• “DJ MEHDI : Made in France” : an Arte 6 episode exclusive serie about DJ Mehdi from September 12th ! DJ Mehdi was the one building bridges between french hip hop and electro, and becoming a key composer,producer and DJ. He was a game changer in himself, helping both french rap & electro scenes to rise in the late 90’s & early 200’s . 13 years after DJ Mehdi’s sudden death, his long-time friend and Director Thibaut de Longeville imagined & directed the serie, with archives materials & exclusive interviews and words from big names from Rap & Electro about their collaborations & relationships with DJ Mehdi.

SHORT BIOG

“Rather than a compilation, this record is a summary of what Espionnage has done in the past two years, from the rap 12”s, the instrumental 12”s to the remixes I was given the opportunity to do. The members of The Espionnage Sound System, Yvan from Double Pact included (even if he only appears here on the interlude betweeen “Camille Groult Starr (rmx)” and “Si Tu Savais (rmx)”), have been essential to the label’s development as a whole. The Chronowax Distribution staff has been equally vital to a structure primarily dedicated to independent vinyl production. By the way, I have to thank Ulysse Genet who, on top of lending his name to a track title, suggested the name “Espionnage” instead of “Le Cirque Disques” (which was my initial idea) and drew the first logo. Many thanks to my team : Olivier Rosset, Charlotte Dutoit, Thibaut de Longeville, Alexander Wise, the 360 Creative & Marketing teams, as well as X2N, Tom Kan, DJ Gilb’R, Roulé, Crydamoure, Benoît Blue Boy and his daughters Ludella and Amadine ; who have all contributed on one level or another to what this record is. Of course I can’t forget my family: the Essadis, Faveris, Gassamas, Majira (and their many relations) as well as my other family, the 113 Clan and the whole African Mafia and most particularly my group, Idéal J, for the respect and freedom with which they’ve let me express the somewhat unusual ideas I had about all of this”.
Peace, DJ Mehdi, NYC, March 29th 2000.

180G vinyl pressing

After releasing their well-received 7” and 12” singles ‘Night Time’ and ‘Feel It / So Hot’, Isle of Jura is pleased to present Exotic Illusions, the debut album from D.D. Mirage, the Sydney-based duo of Josh Dives and Disky Dee.

Having first played music together during the mid-2010s in the indie-psyche and punky-shoegaze bands King Colour and SCK CHX, the two Australian musicians/DJs came up in the warehouse party scene that fermented in the wake of the Sydney lockout laws. While organising mixed media events under the Yeah Nah Yeah brand, they discovered the joys of disco, dance-punk and the Balearic beat through Pender St Steppers’ DJ mixes and reissue releases and found themselves changing direction in response.

Written and recorded with a range of vintage keyboards and preamps, instruments and digital studio software, Exotic Illusions is a cosmopolitan love letter to the immaculate blend of Italo disco, Neopolitan funk, Nigerian boogie, cosmic house, synth-pop, UK street soul and lovers rock sounds that have inspired D.D. Mirage since they began this iteration of their ever-evolving musical relationship.

“The name Exotic Illusions refers to our fascination with all of this music made in other parts of the world,” they explain. “During lockdown and thereafter, we indulged in these exotic sounds as an antidote to our lack of travel. This fascination continued as the world opened up again, and we started working on tunes together. It’s also a way of acknowledging that we feel like tourists partaking in these styles and established sounds. They aren’t ours and weren’t born out of the place we’re from, but we hope we’ve been able to add something unique to them.”

In recognition of this, rather than just reinterpreting genre motifs through an antipodean lens, D.D. Mirage opened up lines of communication with some of their favourite musicians from the Neapolitan scene, bassist Daniel Monaco (Rush Hour, Periodica Records) and drummer Andrea De Fazio (Parbleu/ Nu Genea), who recorded the rhythm section for ‘So Hot’. They also wrote to the Manchester-based singer/producer Private Joy, who graced ‘Night Time’ with a smoother-than-silk street soul vocal that helped the single secure crucial plays on NTS and BBC Radio 6.

Opening with the tropical melodies, post-disco machine beats and jilted art-punk singalong chants of the title track, Exotic Illusions unfolds as a series of sturdy, internationally-minded dancefloor excursions. ‘Piranesi’ is boogie with a South American shuffle. ‘So Hot’ is Neapolitan funk with a Leichhardt strut, and ‘Antenna’ (featuring Jofi) is D.D. Mirage’s love letter to ‘80s drum machine bossa nova from Brussels.

On ‘Feel It’, the duo hit a sparking groove that reaches into an eternal sunset of the mind before throwing out a bubbly disco-not disco spoken word bounce on ‘Cat’s Cradle’, featuring psychedelic-pop singer Jermango Dreaming. From there, D.D. Mirage bring it home with a cheeky Aussie drawl on ‘Living Upside Down’ and the nocturnal excellence of ‘Night Time’, making a case for themselves as a significant new force from Australian music to the world.
full sleeve artwork from Bradley Pinkerton.

Ireland-via-UK artist Dorbachov releases the Ellesmere Street EP on his Scrap & Delete label 28th February 2025. It kicks off with the title track Ellesmere Street, a groove-laden roller with tripped-out plucks and dubby synths, expertly remixed by 90s techno artist Invexis, who ups the energy and turns it into an up-front, peak-time cut.

On the flip, Dorbachovs Just Bump is a proper old-school Techno track, complete with classic hardcore-influenced rave stabs and pumping club rhythms that will keep the dancefloor moving. Bog Rat then consists of moody sequences that ooze over hard-hitting drums, closing out this late-night underground offering.

Ellesmere Street is a nod to the past, but with a firm eye on the future. Its about capturing that raw energy and spirit of the rave scene, where the music did the talking. Its a reminder of why we fell in love with techno in the first place.

- Dorbachov

Get nostalgic with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighter Vinyl Soundtrack, the ninth and final release in a series of shellacious Turtles tunes.

The Most Severe Punishment You'll Ever Receive! Trash the surfboard and heave the 'za. It's a whole new breed of Turtles who are butting heads with the greatest street fighters on the planet. War, Armaggon, Chrome Dome, Rat King, Karai, Wingnut, and Aska are the toughest mutant warriors to ever bury their fists into someone's face. and they'll make an impact on your life you won't ever forget.

Loyle Carner will release his highly anticipated sophomore record, 'Not Waving, But Drowning' on 19 April via AMF Records.

'Not Waving, But Drowning' follows Loyle's BRIT (Best Male, Best Newcomer) and Mercury Prize nominated, top 20 debut 'Yesterday's Gone'. The bedrock of honest and raw sentimentality that you heard on 'Yesterday's Gone' left an inextinguishable mark on music in general and UK Hip Hop in particular, standing out as an ageless, bulletproof debut.

'Not Waving, But Drowning', Loyle's new album, gives yet more evidence - as if it were needed - of his razor-sharp flow and his unique storytelling ability. Yes, he can rap, but he allies that with the sensitivity of a poet, the observational skills of a novelist, and warmth of your best friend. The album opens with 'Dear Jean', a letter to his mother in which he's telling her that he has found the love of his life, 'a woman from the skies', and he's moving out.

It goes without saying that Loyle's music is hard to categorise, but what is even more impressive is that for someone who grew up listening to Mos Def, Biggie Smalls, Roots Manuva, and Wu Tang Clan, he doesn't sound like any of them. Although he might from time to time give lyrical nods to them, he's no imitator.

Loyle loves cooking. There are two tracks on this album named after chefs. The British-Israeli chef Yotam Ottolenghi, and the now deceased Italian chef Antonio Carluccio. 'Ottolenghi' the first single from the album was featured on the BBC Radio 1 B-list, BBC 6 Music A-list and has already been streamed over 5 million times.

Loyle refers to real life for everything, the title of 'Yesterday's Gone' came from a song of his step father, the title of his new album 'Not Waving, But Drowning' comes from a poem by his grandfather, which in turn came from a Stevie Smith poem. What you hear on the track 'Krispy' is real. He is pouring his heart out to his best friend Rebel Kleff after their relationship went downhill, he invites him on the track to say his piece but he doesn't turn up, so we get a flugel solo instead.

Loyle also has his own personal black consciousness movement. When he refers to his 'fathers' in the track 'Looking Back' he really is referring to two fathers. His biological father, a black man who he knows, but knows very little of, and his step father, a poet and musician who happens to be a white man but died a sudden unexpected death from epilepsy (SUDEP). With no real emotional ties to his biological father, but a deep connection with a deceased step-father, where does a young child turn He succinctly captures many of the great, unspoken, cultural and historical paradoxes of multicultural Britain on 'Looking Back'.

An album like this is hard to find. It is for those who like their Hip Hop to have soul, and their soul to have spirit. This is because it works on so many levels, but it is reflecting the personality of its creator. There are a host of collaborators here, Jorja Smith, Rebel Kleff, Kiko Bun, Kwes, Jordan Rakei, Sampha, Tom Misch and more, but none are overpowering. They blend righteously into place.
Loyle is not bitter with people who have let him down, or a society that lets so many down, but the combination of anger and love he has gives his voice the perfect blend of strength and vulnerability. This might be a coming of age album, but it's also a coming of ageless album. Loyle's 2019 Spring tour - which includes London's Roundhouse - sold out within 20 minutes of being on sale.

Not Waving, But Drowning



A rapper that raps about family is hard to find. The boys in the 'hood' tend not to be that interested in how much a 'brother' loves his mother, or how much he misses his dad, or even how much he misses his best friend. The boys in the 'hood' tend to be obsessed with the size of their cars, girls, bank accounts, and other personal 'possessions'. Loyle Carner's Mercury and BRIT Prize nominated debut 'Yesterday's Gone' (Released 2017), made it clear that he wasn't that kind of rapper. In fact, every time I talk to him about his work we talk about the world, and we tended to confuse ourselves by calling his work rap, poems, or songs, sometimes in the same sentence. They are in truth all of these things.



Here's some poetry.



Honestly I need them.

I hate them but I grieve them

I think I've finally found the reason

Trust

Like the fire needs the air.

I won't burn unless you're there.





'Not Waving, But Drowning', Loyle's forthcoming new album, gives us yet more evidence, (if it were needed), that he still has what rappers call, flow, but he hasn't lost any of his story telling qualities. Yes, the boy can rap, but a rapper with the sensitivity of a true poet, the observational skills of a novelist, and warmth of your best friend. The album opens with 'Dear Jean', a letter to his mother in which he's telling her that he has found the love of his life, (a woman from the skies), and he's moving out. He really loves the woman from the skies, but he still loves his mum, and so he reassures her that there is no competition, and tells her that 'She's not behind me or behind you, but beside we and beside two', his words. Or to put it another way, moving out without moving out. My words.



It goes without saying that Loyle's music is hard to categorise, but what is even more impressive is that for someone who grew up listening to Mos Def, Biggie Smalls, Roots Manuva, and Wu Tang Clan, he doesn't sound like any of them. Although he might from time to time give lyrical nods to them, he's no imitator. He says finding his own voice was something he always found easy. Although young, (in terms of a musical career), he has confidence in his own words and his own voice, and has never been tempted to sound like he's been hanging out in the USA, or rolling in 'Grime' on the mean streets of East London. And so when it comes to the creative process he doesn't simply find a beat to jump on and ride. Beats are important, but they are tenderly layered with samples, keyboards, or live drums, all imaginatively assembled for the laying on of words. Some tracks start with the idea, some with poetry, and some with a verse from a singer or some other melodic inspiration, but there is no formula.



Here's some poetry.



Don't hold any memories of us

Rather hold you everyday until the memories are dust

Yo we only caught the train

Cos you know I hate the bus





A prolific reader, who has dyslexia is hard to find. Add ADHD (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) to that and life should become even more difficult. To deal with your difficulties you devise coping strategies, which can differ from person to person. Loyle loves cooking. There are two tracks on this album named after chefs. The British-Israeli chef Ottolenghi, and the now deceased Italian chef Antonio Carluccio. Loyle describes himself as 'weird' because he is happy to read a cookbook as if he was reading a novel or a book of poetry. He has opened a cookery school for young adults not just because he loves food and wants to make more of it, but because it is one of the few things that can focus the ADHD mind. And when it comes to his other love, football, his approach is the same. Focus. He wanted to be a striker he says, up front scoring goals, but found his best position was in midfield because he was able to focus, check options, and see passes ahead of time, providing passes for other players just when they needed them. He says, 'You don't grow out of ADHD, you grow into it.' Loyle is also working with Levi's® on their music project where he is mentoring young musicians over a six month period, culminating at Liverpool Sound City festival.



More poetry.



When the going is tough

I wait till it falls on deaf ears

Hearsay

Without the boundaries of love



He also said, 'Ask most people and they will say that they love their mothers, but most are not going to rap about her'. On his first album Loyle's mum Jean wrote about the 'scribble of a boy' that growing up would take things apart to see how they worked. On this album she speaks with pride about a man who has found his place in the world.



Yes, poetry.



I'm still looking for the answers

Trying to find the right questions

Still waiting for my fathers

But can't break them in to sections



This poetry is serious. Loyle has his own personal black consciousness movement. He told me that he always felt safe at home, and being the darkest one in the family never meant a thing, but then when he had to face the outside world he felt hostility. It shook him up. Now he had to start asking questions, but what were the questions. This is serious. When he refers to his 'fathers' in the verse above taken from the track 'Looking Back' he really is referring to two fathers. His biological father, a black man who he knows, but knows very little of, and his step father, a poet and musician who happens to be a white man but died a sudden unexpected death from epilepsy (SUDEP). So to whom would a young black (or mixed race) kid turn He succinctly captures many of the great, unspoken, cultural and historical paradoxes of multicultural Britain when he says, 'My great grandfather could of owned my other one.' We are a people descended from enslaved people on one hand, and enslavers on the other, something we are still struggling to come to terms with, and this can be apparent in one family. A big book could have told you that, but here we get it in one line on the track, Looking Back.





Loyle refers to real life for everything. The album is peppered with captured moments that he records on his phone. These moments can range from conversations with taxi drivers, to capturing the moment when England scores a goal in the world cup. The title of 'Yesterday's Gone' came from a song of his step father, the title of his new album 'Not Waving but Drowning' comes from a poem by his grandfather, which in turn came from a Stevie Smith poem. What you hear on the track 'Krispy' is real. He is pouring his heart out to his best friend after their relationship went downhill, he invites him on the track to say his piece but he doesn't turn up, so we get a flugel solo instead. Yes people, this is real.



An album like this is hard to find. It is for those who like their Hip Hop to have soul, and their soul to have spirit, this is an album for those who have, (I'm sorry, I'm going to say it), emotional intelligence. This is because it works on so many levels, but it is reflecting the personality of its creator. There are a host of collaborators here, Jorja Smith, Rebel Kleff, Kiko Bun, Jordan Rakei, Sampha, Tom Misch and more, but none are overpowering. They blend righteously into place. Loyle is not bitter with people who have let him down, or the society that has let him down, but the combination of anger and love he has gives his voice the perfect blend of strength and vulnerability. This might be a coming of age album, but it's also a coming of ageless album. His first album worked, and this second album is a continuation of that work. Not creating a form, but being formless, as someone like Bruce Lee once said.

And here's some poetry from mum.



We talked long in to the darkest hours

Until we saw the burnished sky

And our eyes stung

As our words blurred and became thoughts

As we were silenced by the dawn

We clung to each other like sailors in a storm

Lions Law kommen zurück mit "Evermore", ihrem bisher vielleicht wirklich stärksten Album. Die Franzosen sind eine der führenden Oi! und Street Punk Bands Europas, und im Februar 2025 lassen sie ihr brandneues Album aus dem Käfig. Nachdem die Band im letzten Jahr eine Compilation mit all ihren Französisch gesungenen Songs veröffentlicht hat, ist dies der mit Spannung erwartete Nachfolger zu 2020s P, B & S, welcher das Vermächtnis der Band fortführt, ungebremmste explosive Energie und rohe Intensität zu liefern, die Fans auf der ganzen Welt so an ihnen schätzen. Mit 15 komplett neuen Tracks untermauern Lion's Law ihren Status als eine Schlüsselband der globalen Punkszene, bleiben ihren Wurzeln treu und heben ihren Sound doch auf ein neues Level. Seid bereit für die unaufhaltsame Kraft von "Evermore" und bleibt dran an Lion's Law! Inklusive der Highlights "Brother", "Sewer Rats", Titeltrack "Evermore" sowie A Flock Of Seagulls-Cover "I Ran". CD und LP, Vinyl klassisch schwarz und farbig am Start. Oi!

Lions Law kommen zurück mit "Evermore", ihrem bisher vielleicht wirklich stärksten Album. Die Franzosen sind eine der führenden Oi! und Street Punk Bands Europas, und im Februar 2025 lassen sie ihr brandneues Album aus dem Käfig. Nachdem die Band im letzten Jahr eine Compilation mit all ihren Französisch gesungenen Songs veröffentlicht hat, ist dies der mit Spannung erwartete Nachfolger zu 2020s P, B & S, welcher das Vermächtnis der Band fortführt, ungebremmste explosive Energie und rohe Intensität zu liefern, die Fans auf der ganzen Welt so an ihnen schätzen. Mit 15 komplett neuen Tracks untermauern Lion's Law ihren Status als eine Schlüsselband der globalen Punkszene, bleiben ihren Wurzeln treu und heben ihren Sound doch auf ein neues Level. Seid bereit für die unaufhaltsame Kraft von "Evermore" und bleibt dran an Lion's Law! Inklusive der Highlights "Brother", "Sewer Rats", Titeltrack "Evermore" sowie A Flock Of Seagulls-Cover "I Ran". CD und LP, Vinyl klassisch schwarz und farbig am Start. Oi!

Lions Law kommen zurück mit "Evermore", ihrem bisher vielleicht wirklich stärksten Album. Die Franzosen sind eine der führenden Oi! und Street Punk Bands Europas, und im Februar 2025 lassen sie ihr brandneues Album aus dem Käfig. Nachdem die Band im letzten Jahr eine Compilation mit all ihren Französisch gesungenen Songs veröffentlicht hat, ist dies der mit Spannung erwartete Nachfolger zu 2020s P, B & S, welcher das Vermächtnis der Band fortführt, ungebremmste explosive Energie und rohe Intensität zu liefern, die Fans auf der ganzen Welt so an ihnen schätzen. Mit 15 komplett neuen Tracks untermauern Lion's Law ihren Status als eine Schlüsselband der globalen Punkszene, bleiben ihren Wurzeln treu und heben ihren Sound doch auf ein neues Level. Seid bereit für die unaufhaltsame Kraft von "Evermore" und bleibt dran an Lion's Law! Inklusive der Highlights "Brother", "Sewer Rats", Titeltrack "Evermore" sowie A Flock Of Seagulls-Cover "I Ran". CD und LP, Vinyl klassisch schwarz und farbig am Start. Oi!

Grateful Dead archivist Dick Latvala considered this show to be the finest outing on the entire Spring 1977 tour, and, as any Dead Head knows, that is high praise indeed! At the time this was released on CD, the Dead weren’t sure a market existed (ha!) for three and four-CD packages, so this four-LP set leaves off eight songs from the show, but consider what songs are here: a phenomenal “Help on the Way”/”Slipknot!”/”Franklin’s Tower” comes after one of the definitive renditions of “Sugaree” and a terrific “The Music Never Stopped,” with Phil Lesh’s slithering bass leading the way in recording engineer’s Betty Cantor-Jackson’s mix.

But sides E, F & G offer one of those sublime (and, in this case, never to be repeated) sequences of songs that only the Dead could pull off in concert; after the rarely-performed “Sunrise,” a medley of “Estimated Prophet”/”Eyes of the World”/”Wharf Rat”/”Terrapin Station” (a truncated version two months before its official release)/”Morning Dew” brings the show home, as Jerry Garcia’s soloing on “Morning Dew” reaches heights seldom attained even by him. This was a knockout release on its first very limited vinyl run (check out those resale prices), and we’ve improved on it with a fresh mastering job by Jeffrey Norman (in his own words, “the sound is better than the original heard on the Brookvale release”), and lacquer cutting by Clint Holley and Dave Polster at Well Made Music.

Pressed on 180-gram black vinyl at the plant we’ve been using to great acclaim for all of our Grateful Dead releases, Gotta Groove Records, and limited to 2000 hand-numbered copies!

Mastered by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab from a new 30 ips quarter-inch stereo master tape transferred from the original 3-track session tapes. Plated and pressed at Quality Record Pressings for flawless production and superior fidelity! Stoughton Printing Old Style tip-on gatefold heavyweight jacket with scuff-resistant matte finish.

Miles Davis's Kind of Blue was the number-one jazz album in history. It totaled five songs. There are four more songs from that same historic group, recorded in the same time period and at the same studio. And here they are. These songs deserve to stand on their own with artwork to highlight the quality of the music and that matches the time period of the recording. This is a rare opportunity to have a smash follow-up to what many consider the greatest jazz record ever!

Through the years, these four remarkable performances — all from a single recording session in 1958 and all exemplary of the sound of Miles Davis' legend-loaded sextet of that year — have not been served well. They have been largely treated as add-ons for other compilations. Now, for the first time, Analogue Productions, the audiophile in-house reissue label of Acoustic Sounds, Inc., together with Quality Record Prssings, has deservedly given these tracks a stellar stand-alone release for jazz fans to savor!

The once-in-a-generation lineup that recorded these tunes is the very same that would be immortalized for the enduring classic they would record almost a year later, Kind of Blue. Davis played trumpet sublime with his ensemble sextet featuring pianist Bill Evans, drummer Jimmy Cobb, bassist Paul Chambers, and saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian "Cannonball" Adderley.

Undervalued since their recording, the tunes on this album reflect historial and musical significance. They offer early glimpses into the modal jazz that Kind of Blue would bring to the forefront. Using modes common in modern classical music, rather than the chords of popular songs, Miles had begun to experiment with the new approach on the Milestones recording sessions previously.

Analogue Productions is proud to present Birth of the Blue in an exclusive first-of-its-kind stand-alone release that reflects our reputation for meticulous production, capturing authentic sound with clarity, depth and fidelity that exceeds the audiophile standard.

For this release, we started with the original 3-track recording session tapes that were mixed down to a brand-new 30 ips quarter-inch stereo master tape by senior mastering engineer Vic Anesini at Battery Studios. From that stereo master tape, Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab cut the lacquers at 33 1/3 RPM utilizing the legendary Doug Sax's custom all-tube system and cutting lathe. The lacquers were plated and pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Quality Record Pressings. Lastly, the Stoughton Printing tip-on gatefold jacket with a deluxe scuff-resistant matte finish is the highest quality available. The artwork has an incredible spot-on look to a 1959 Columbia records release!

Features:


• Pioneering Ensemble: Captured the same rare and short-lived alignment of jazz legends including Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers, and Jimmy Cobb, as heard on the historic Kind of Blue.


• Innovative Sound: The session represented a crucial transition in jazz, blending elements of hard bop with early modal jazz influences, showcasing the ensemble's experimentation and forward-thinking approach.


• Undervalued Legacy: Despite its historical and musical significance, the session's recordings have been historically overlooked, often relegated to being add-ons in compilations rather than recognized as standalone masterpieces.


• Modal Jazz Precursor: Offered early glimpses into the modal jazz that would later be fully realized in Davis's groundbreaking album "Kind of Blue," laying the groundwork for future jazz innovation.


• Impact on Artists: Served as a critical point of development and confidence for the musicians involved, particularly Bill Evans, who noted the significant impact of this experience on his own identity and style.


• Historical Context: Occurred at a peak moment in Miles Davis's career, following his signing with Columbia Records and his critical and commercial successes with albums such as ‘Round About Midnight and Miles Ahead.


• Revealed backstory: Extensive liner notes by the Grammy Award-winning author Ashley Kahn, who also penned the estential book, Kind Of Blue — The Making Of The Miles Davis Masterpiece

Black vinyl 180g made only in 100 numbered copies.

This record is different. It is different from what might be expected of Jan Emil Mlynarski by those who know him, from sold-out shows and platinum albums of his bands – Jazz Band Młynarski – Masecki and Warsaw Dance Combo, as an old-timer, curator and reenactor of pre-World War II Warsaw's plush dancehalls and backyards folklore. Quite likely they may not recognize him until the last song, when he removes his shaman mask and bows down: Yeah, that's really me, folks, your good ol' Jan Emil, the entertainer. They might not have even known that he ever played drums because in his flagship bands, clad in a white tux in the former or in a Peaky Blinder hat in the latter, he sings and plays mandolin banjo. In fact, Młynarski has been a drummer for a lot longer than a singer. He stands clear of the jazz mainstream but is active on the progressive scene. A record he contributed to, trumpeter Tomasz Dąbrowski's 2022 release The Individual Beings, was recognized by Downbeat magazine as "excellent" and awarded the highest rating of five stars.

However, this is the first instrumental record to bear his name. As an album by a drummer, it stands out from other records, especially as it features drums as the principal content rather than the performance by a band with a drummer as the leader. It's all about drums, there is neither an articulate melody – because the melodies that are there are only micro-linesencased in ostinato modules – nor is harmony as an intentional chord progression – because whatever harmony-wise there is, is rather a product of the counterpoint of overlapping voices. All sounds other than the drums make only a riverbed through which runs a raging stream of rhythms. And indeed, this record took off just with this stream. At first all the drums were recorded live onto an analog tape, all at once, without overdubs or editing. After that, synthesizer riffs were added, and the record was ultimately assembled on tape without the use of computers or complex postproduction, which sets it apart from most releases today.

Młynarski the drummer acknowledges that he follows the trail beaten by Art Blakey, Max Roach, Roy Haynes, and Billy Higgins, but he walks it in his own strides. He treats the jazz drumming with specific reversed engineering by decompiling the jazz drum kit originally compiled by the pioneer jazz drummers from an array of instruments that had made their way from a jungle to New Orleans, first to Congo Square and then to street brass bands.

This takes him back to the jungle, his drums don't sound like jazz drums, the snare is rare, and the hi-hat and ride aren't there at all. Instead, there are drums and bells from Nigeria, Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Côte d'Ivoire. He doesn't sound like a jazz drummer either, but like a gang of drummers, each playing their own rhythm, and it's hard to believe that all this is the work of one man.

Not only his drumware comes from the jungle, but also the software – his approach to rhythm and time. Its essence is polyrhythm and ostinato. The polyrhythmic matters were unveiled to Młynarski and Piotr Zabrodzki, his creative partner in many projects and co-composer/producer of this album, by the legendary eccentric veteran-drummer Władysław Jagiełło, who introduced them, aged thirteen, to his concept and practice of "17 Latino rhythms at once". Ostinato, an obstinate repetition of a phrase or rhythm, "arrests" time, turning its linear course into cyclical in-place rotations. This is specific not only to African music but also to cultural music of other regions and differs from Western artistic music in that it does not "run" to fulfil an aesthetic intention but "stays" to provide the framework for recurrent routines of communal proceedings.

So, this record is different. And, if you are different too, this is the record for you.

Das 2004 erschienene Album 'Riot On An Empty Street' zeigt die Kings of Convenience von ihrer besten Seite!

Hier mischen sie ungemein eingängig Folk-, Pop- und Indie-Einflüsse mit ihren wunderschönen Harmonien. Mit beliebten Titeln wie 'Homesick', 'Misread' und dem Duett 'Know-How' mit Feist, liefert diese Wiederveröffentlichung auf schwarzem Vinyl den warmen, intimen Klang, der das Album zu einem Fan-Liebling machte. Ein Muss haben für alle, die subtiles, melodisches Songwriting schätzen.

Belgian-born producer Gratts and pioneering Chicago vocalist Robert Owens first collaborated on 'Brighter Future' back in 2021 after meeting in the streets of Kreuzberg years before. The pair now join forces again for follow up 'Today', a powerful and emotive, 90s inspired deep house cut with layered backings and Owens' lilting affirmations soaring above. The extended club version takes you straight to house music's ecstatic heydays, while the twelve also includes an acapella tool for those singalong moments. On the flip, Mark Hand's slower, soulful rendition takes things into sideroom territory. Finally, 'Mount Olympus', home to the Greek deities, fuses a rattling drum machine, arpeggiated synth lines and a potent analogue bassline - with added bonus beats to bang the box and get weird!

Cass McCombs ist zurück bei Domino. Sammlung bislang unveröffentlichter Songs erscheint am 08.11.2024.

Cass McCombs veröffentlicht mit "Seed Cake On Leap Year" eine Sammlung früher, bisher unveröffentlichter Musik, die in Jason Quevers Wohnung in der 924 Fulton Street in San Francisco aufgenommen wurde, während McCombs zwischen 1999 und 2000 in Berkeley lebte. Alles, was Cass McCombs‘ Fans lieben gelernt haben, ist auf "Seed Cake On Leap Year" zu hören. Bereits zu dieser Zeit beherrschte er die anmutigen, schwebenden Melodien, die wirken, als stammten sie aus zeitlosen Liedern von Jukeboxes und Transistorradios in ganz Amerika; ebenso seine tiefgründige, verschlungene Art mit alltäglicher Sprache umzugehen, die aufrichtige Wahrheiten in Rätsel verwandeln kann. „Songs are sung every day/So what can I say to find my own way?“, verkündet er in der ersten Zeile von „I’ve Played This Song Before“. Und mit diesen Worten schlägt er seinen eigenen Weg ein, immer verwurzelt in Tradition, aber dem Unbekannten zugewandt. Das Bemerkenswerte an "Seed Cake On Leap Year" ist, wie lebendig und roh diese Songs geblieben sind, voller Einsicht und Wunder, im Dialog mit allem, was noch kommen wird. Es gibt eine ungeschönte Ehrlichkeit in dieser Jugend, und obwohl dies vielleicht die ungeschönteste Ehrlichkeit ist, die sich Cass McCombs je auf einem Album zugestand, verstärken und vertiefen diese Songs nur das Mysterium.

48 tracks on a 3-LP collection – including: Queen, The Police, Blondie, Abba, Elton John, Donna Summer, Chic, The Boomtown Rats, The Clash, Meat Loaf, Pretenders, Billy Joel,

Electric Light Orchestra, The Specials, The Selecter, Gary Numan, The Buggles…

"Five years since her debut album Delivery, Mikaela Davis has moved away from her hometown of Rochester, shared the stage with the likes of Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Christian McBride, Bon Iver, Lake Street Dive and Circles Around the Sun and entered a new decade. But it’s the ever-evolving relationships between her closest friends and bandmates that has propelled the Hudson Valley-based artist onto her latest album And Southern Star––a truly collaborative effort that ruminates on the choices we make, and the people we always come back to.

The band, made up of Davis (harp/vocals), Alex Coté (drums), Cian McCarthy (guitars/vocals), Shane McCarthy (bass/vocals) and Kurt Johnson (steel guitar), have been playing together for over a decade and it’s the first time they’ve appeared on a full length record together. Weaving 60s pop-soaked melodies, psychedelia and driving folk rock, And Southern Star picks apart the reflection we used to recognise, while trying to build a new one. It navigates the periphery of past selves, the coexistence of isolation and excitement in a new environment and the tension of growing away from what we thought we wanted, tackling it with a luscious, kaleidoscopic grace. “I finally feel like this album is more me than anything else that’s been released,” Davis says, adding that producing the album along with her four bandmates allowed them to carve out their own ideas, rather than someone else’s. It’s the band’s collective step into adulthood that has informed much of And Southern Star’s thematic landscape."

It's been nearly a decade since Montreal's PYPY (pronounced like 'π π'...with a long 'i' rather than long 'e', thank you very much) landed with their debut Pagan Day (Slovenly), but the same lunatics behind CPC Gangbangs, Red Mass and Duchess Says are back with Sacred Times on Goner Records. One might recall the thunderous pop of their banger "She's Gone" carving out a place for itself in the high-end fashion world, becoming the soundtrack to Yves Saint Laurent's 2016 show. If that album bounced, punched and clawed like Delta 5 covered in dirt and trying to get somewhere in a booted vehicle while dodging lightning rod guitar licks the whole way, Sacred Times takes things to somewhere far beyond the proverbial "next level."

Co-vocalist/founder/multi-instrumentalist Annie-Claude Deschênes' (Duchess Says) signature howl and vocal acrobatics are present but so is a tendency towards beautiful melodies. Bassist Philippe Clement's (Duchess Says) brings a nastier bottom end that locks onto Simon Besré's drumming with a death grip for the entire affair. And guitarist/co-vocalist Roy Vucino (Red Mass, CPC Gangbangs, Black Leather Rose, Les Sexareenos, a gazillion others) goes bonkers with wildass blown-out guitar that's like hornets caught in yr hair.

"Lonely Striped Sock" grooves along like "Earthbeat"-era Slits/ESG until the chorus transforms PYPY into something else entirely. Something huge. Something with monster riffs and wah wah that pins you to the back wall. So there is clearly a brilliance with dynamics here, and it proves to be a not-so-secret-weapon that repays the "ear-vestment" in dividends throughout. "Ear-vestment"? Yikes. Then it's time for "She's Back," a sort of part 2/continuation (maybe a trilogy is in the works?) of Pagan Day's best-known gem (the aforementioned "She's Gone"). This one packs a hook that'll make your brain take out a restraining order. Looking for lost keys? Jury duty? Underwater welding? Negotiating a hostage situation? It doesn't matter...nothing will stop it from invading your thoughts. They say the only way to get a song unstuck from the noodle is to listen to it from start to finish, but you'll be doing that anyway. A lot. "Erase" is a (synth) noise-punk nugget; revealing a need for Brainiac-meets-Blondie we didn't know we had...deceptively kicking off with a no-fi drum machine that is immediately lost in the massive pop din that seemingly includes everything within reach. "Poodle Escape" is two minutes of perfect (and perfectly distorted) synth-punk and "I Am A Simulation" – with lead vox from Vucino – is yet another hit that deviates from the noise a bit and pays homage to both Devo and classic late-70's (big) power-pop (ex: the first Cars LP), but with a manic nature that is 150% circa right now. "15 Sec" (actually 3:38 in duration, thankfully) serves up a stanky-brown bass line, Deschênes' gorgeous vocals, wonderfully combative white hot, pin-the-meters Oh Sees/early Comets on Fire guitar rips, and a stunning coda that seems to utilize everything great about this band over its final minute. The album's title track is a love letter to Hawkwind in the musical language already established here. "Vanishing Blinds" is like being chased through the rain-soaked streets in an unknown dystopian nightmare from 40+ years ago. The album closes with the brooding if not playful menace of "Poodle Escape,” which, like its predecessors, is completely unlike every track before it.

Prima, who died in 1978, was the eternal game-changer. In his early years, he led various jazz outfits including the highly rated New Orleans Gang. A star of not only music, but also films – Prima appeared in several shorts and full-blown Hollywood productions during the ’30s. In 1967 he provided the voice for King Louie, the orang-utan in Disney’s The Jungle Book, for which many people remember Prima today. But as this essential double-album confirms, long before that he made great, humour-instilled, often exciting sounds that left audiences feeling happy. Featured here are all his very best and most loved songs

Alongside co-founder Nils Hess, Sushitech's main man Yossi Amoyal ventures into new territory with Endell Street, a fresh imprint named after a bustling London thoroughfare that was home to the Eukatech record store.

The label's focus? Reissuing gems from the Eukahouse archive. With Amoyal's expertise and dedication to curating quality releases, Endell Street is poised to make waves in the realm of deep house and beyond and it does that with this EP.

Featuring a trio of no-frills, original tech house sounds that are primed and ready for the club, The Missing Member, Nathan Coles and Flunky all feature.

RAT BOY have recorded in Los Angeles with T im Armstrong of Rancid, played festivals as far afield as Japan and China, and toured North America with The Interrupters. Yet for all those globe-trotting adventures, there"s no place you know quite as well as home. That"s the central topic that R AT BOY explore on their upcoming third album "SUBURBIA CALLING", which will be released on October 4th via Hellcat. "SUBURBIA CALLING" sees RAT BOY exploring stories from their roots in Essex. It"s the land of wheeler -dealers and dodgy geezers, and home to nosey neighbours, rowdy clubs and Joey Essex. For readers outside of the UK, it"s the land of Blur, Depeche Mode and The Prodigy: a place not so far outside of east London, but in other ways it"s a world away. And it"s not only an immense font of inspiration for RAT BOY, but the place where ever ything happens for them.. Just outside of Chelmsford sits a converted barn where the band can jump in and be creative whenever the mood takes them - a HQ that is a recording studio, a rehearsal space, an art studio, a storage space and a hangout spot all-in-one. Frontman Jordan Cardy says, "I wanted to sing about Essex. Essex is where we live and when you"ve grown up somewhere you notice things about it. There"s so much to draw on. Essex is really close to London but it"s different in a lot of ways. We"ve got a lot of freedom here, we built a place where we can record and rehearse and hang out, somewhere you wouldn"t be able to have in London." RAT BOY - completed by Liam Haygarth (bass), Harr y Todd (guitar) and Noah Booth (dr ums) - approached the making of the al - bum in unorthodox fashion. They recorded a home demo and a live performance of each song, which were then sent to producer Stephen Street (The Smiths, Blur) to edit together like a tapestry puzzle.

RAT BOY have recorded in Los Angeles with T im Armstrong of Rancid, played festivals as far afield as Japan and China, and toured North America with The Interrupters. Yet for all those globe-trotting adventures, there"s no place you know quite as well as home. That"s the central topic that R AT BOY explore on their upcoming third album "SUBURBIA CALLING", which will be released on October 4th via Hellcat. "SUBURBIA CALLING" sees RAT BOY exploring stories from their roots in Essex. It"s the land of wheeler -dealers and dodgy geezers, and home to nosey neighbours, rowdy clubs and Joey Essex. For readers outside of the UK, it"s the land of Blur, Depeche Mode and The Prodigy: a place not so far outside of east London, but in other ways it"s a world away. And it"s not only an immense font of inspiration for RAT BOY, but the place where ever ything happens for them.. Just outside of Chelmsford sits a converted barn where the band can jump in and be creative whenever the mood takes them - a HQ that is a recording studio, a rehearsal space, an art studio, a storage space and a hangout spot all-in-one. Frontman Jordan Cardy says, "I wanted to sing about Essex. Essex is where we live and when you"ve grown up somewhere you notice things about it. There"s so much to draw on. Essex is really close to London but it"s different in a lot of ways. We"ve got a lot of freedom here, we built a place where we can record and rehearse and hang out, somewhere you wouldn"t be able to have in London." RAT BOY - completed by Liam Haygarth (bass), Harr y Todd (guitar) and Noah Booth (dr ums) - approached the making of the al - bum in unorthodox fashion. They recorded a home demo and a live performance of each song, which were then sent to producer Stephen Street (The Smiths, Blur) to edit together like a tapestry puzzle.

Features Unreleased Studio Sessions, Alternate Versions, Live Recordings, Rarities, And 36-Page Book With New Photos & An Extensive Conversation Between Joni & Cameron Crowe

Sourced From Original Stereo Reels, Nagra Film Recordings, Multi-track Tapes, Radio Airchecks & Cassette Tapes

Throughout the latter half of the seventies, Joni continued to creatively break ground with her fearless and fluid exploration of jazz. Rather than tread the same path, she challenged and reinvented her style with a folk fusion like no other. Ascending to an unrivaled sonic peak, this innovative sound took shape across the gold-certified HEJIRA 1976, the gold-certified double-LP DON JUAN’S RECKLESS DAUGHTER [1977], her collaboration with Charles Mingus entitled MINGUS [1979], and live album SHADOWS AND LIGHT [1980]. Channeling the thrill and excitement of these records, she delves even further into this season on JONI MITCHELL ARCHIVES, VOL. 4: THE ASYLUM YEARS (1976-1980), due October 4th.

Available as a 6CD, 4LP (featuring Joni's personal favorites from the 6CD set), and digitally, this comprehensive and essential set spans one of the most prolific periods of her storied career. It boasts powerful live tracks from her time in Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue during 1975 and 1976 Tour of the United States. It pulls back the curtain on the music by showcasing early recordings and alternate takes from the respective sessions for HEJIRA, DON JUAN’S RECKLESS DAUGHTER, and MINGUS. It covers the Bread & Roses Festival as well as the Anti-Nuclear Rally. Finally, VOL. 4 chronicles her 1979 tour, even showcasing two tracks from that year’s Tour Rehearsals. Not to mention, it showcases her versatility and adaptability, housing collaborations with everyone from Herbie Hancock and Jaco Pastorious to Wayne Shorter and Pat Metheny.

Vol. 4 culls the previously-unissued material from original stereo reels, cassette tapes, CD-Rs, and even a radio broadcast. Newly mixed tracks came from multi-track tapes, while a handful of hi-res digital tracks have been sourced from the Bob Dylan Archives.

Each version includes a book with never-before-seen photos and liner notes comprising a deep dive discussion between Mitchell and longtime friend Cameron Crowe. As part of their candid conversation, she shares intimate anecdotes, memories, and stories from that five-year creative run.

Previously Unreleased Recording. Limited to 1200 copies on transparent cherry vinyl. Tip-on jacket, Download code. Insert featuring LP sized original art by Grungie O'Muck. Includes the original recording of Richard Tucker's "Are You Leaving For The Country", later covered by Karen Dalton, and the only song co-written by Karen & Richard, "Sleeping In The Garden". "Richard, Cam & Bert seem to have grasped The Great Harmony. That is, ensemble singing that is at once sweet, precise, funky and a bit sardonic..." -Mike Jahn / New York Times (1970) "For a few years in the late sixties and early seventies Richard Cam & Bert ruled MacDougal St. walking a fine line between the increasingly commercialized demands created by groups like Crosby Stills and Nash and the fierce integrity of earlier folk performers, the generation to which Richard belonged. They managed this with great aplomb, producing original tunes of great integrity and obvious folkloric origins, as well as those which expressed the anarchic omnipresent psychedelia of the moment. They also never abandoned the idea of including some traditional material in their performances. But for the usual random application of luck they could have been very big." - Grungie O'Muck / Artist, Bluesman, Cover artist for their first album and contributor to this one. Richard Tucker, Campbell Bruce, and Bert Lee coalesced as a trio in the spring of 1968, and by the end of that year had become regular performers at fabled Greenwich Village nightspots - The Gaslight, The Bag I'm In, Cafe Feenjon, among others. But mostly they were street singers, busking regularly in Central Park. Their only LP, Limited Edition, was released in 1970, and sold mainly at gigs and on the street. Somewhere in The Stars compiles earlier, previously unreleased recordings, when all three members were signed with Peer-Southern Music publishers as writers and began using their studio to make demos and experiment musically. Beautifully recorded by house engineer Charlie Mack (supervised by Jimmy Ienner), the demos capture a back room casualness and rustic, homespun quality. For me, listening to their songs and harmonies is like entering a world you always hoped existed but had never experienced. Some of the songs were re-recorded the following year for Limited Edition, but many are heard here for the first time. Among them is the original demo for Richard Tucker's song, "Are You Leaving For The Country", which Karen Dalton covered on her seminal 1971 release, In My Own Time. Richard and Karen were husband and wife for much of the 1960s, performing as a duo (initially as a trio with Tim Hardin), and navigating their time on the Village scene while alternating living in a small mining town outside Boulder, Co. before splitting up in 1967. Also making its debut, is the only song Richard and Karen ever wrote together, the haunting "Sleeping In The Garden". Also contains two epic songs by Cam "One Of These First Nights", and "Stockholm") not on their LP, but staples of their live performances, and noted in a gig review by The New York Times, and in a column by future A&R hero, Karin Berg, who was an early champion. Another rarity is the only cover of "Sweet Mama" by Fred Neil we've ever heard. Campell Bruce came to New York in 1967 as lead singer with a band from Washington, DC, The Natty Bumpo. They'd recently signed a record deal with Phillips, but were falling apart. Cam landed in the Village with an acoustic guitar and first started playing and singing in the basket houses, and shortly thereafter at The Gaslight, as the "Cam Bruce Trio" (which included Collin Walcott). After opening for Mose Allison, Cam's hero, the trio went their separate ways, and Cam returned to regular solo gigs at The Flamenco, and the basket houses on Bleecker. Richard and Cam met up on that scene and quickly found a musical kinship as well as becoming best pals. Bert Lee arrived in New York as a runaway the following winter, and began playing and sleeping wherever he could. His sometime accompanist, Ron Price, introduced Bert to Richard and Cam just as Bert's own songs were garnering attention from publishers. According to Bert, "I arrived on the New York scene during a time of great change, and it was the notion of change that influenced me. All around me I saw there were two sorts of songwriters, on the one hand dedicated to the traditions that had inspired them, folk, jazz, the American songbook. On the other hand were songwriters influenced by the wave of experimentation that The Beatles were the perfect example of. Mixing genres, writing lyrics that weren't just about ordinary love and loss. Richard Tucker was a country blues player, with a relaxed and melodic approach to the craft. Cam wrote something more akin to soul songs, with a hint of jazz in the changes. I was writing tunes that sometimes drew on classical structures with a tendency toward what I suppose would be known as prog-rock. But I was rather adamant about not being pinned down stylistically, and so I would write, for example, a song based on some complex classical chord structure, and then go right ahead and write a simple folk song, like Evelyn. Our band was popular locally, and it was this variety that made it distinct." Delmore is excited to present this unearthed treasure, fifteen years in the making. In the words of Richard Tucker, "Tap on your knee, roll on the floor; if you aint free, what's it all for?" "The trio's singing, playing, and writing have all withstood the test of time. Believe me, because I was there. In 1969 R,C&B, myself, Charles John Quarto, David Bromberg, Ron Price, and Keith Sykes were just a few of that year's crop of song-slingers. We were young turks back then, out on the prowl in New York's Greenwich Village for record deals, gigs, and beautiful young women to sleep with and maybe even write a song about. I've lost the names and numbers of those lovelies and I'm not sure what happened to Ron Price, but Richard, Cam, and Bert are back! - Loudon Wainwright lll

Ten bad boy digi riddims from the myspace era by Copenhagen’s Maffi crew, dubbed out into 3D space by disrupt in 2024. Raw, minimalist CyberDancehall at its best, nostalgic and oddly futuristic at the same time, this album is quickly becoming RoboCop’s favorite playlist when going to work.
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Maffi Promotions a.k.a. Maffi Boys come straight outta 1773 Kbh V, Copenhagen, Denmark. Originally founded in 1990 by the two homeboys, lazy body Moog and Junior the Rat, Maffi Promotions have been a steady producer of simple digital riddims for years. Hanging out in the streets of Hummel City Junior & Moog used to entertain their friends with the primitve riddims of the Maffi sound. Not knowing that they would do the exact same thing fifteen years later, they continued to believe that one day they would move up the ladder, break out of the underground and reach for the stars.

Now, after finally adopting a little sense of realism, the two homeboys have realised that stardom is nothing compared to spamming people on myspace. So the two stoners decided to get a couple of friends together and turn up the bass online. Together with their sound crew FIREHOUSE, Maffi deal nuff weed and gyals!

Maffi Boys are very dedicated to the art of playing Sensible World of Soccer, rolling weed joints with Manitou tobacco and keeping it real in a Vesterbro-style. So watch out! And don’t test! We’ll be putting up new riddims on a weekly basis. We have nuff things brewing – including a delicious chicken!
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Growing up in the streets of Hummel City, Vesterbro, MOOG learned the pleasures of sleeping late, playing Sensible World Of Soccer and picking up hot gyals at an early age. He has spent most of his life trying to master these crucial skills. Taking a break from the dog race, Moog is currently focused on reaching a higher understanding of reggae-science and weedology.

JUNIOR experienced the necessity of rolling well-made spliffs at an early age. Incorporating the aestethic heritage of Scandinavian design, he has spent most of his life perfectionizing this old and traditional art form. Junior is currently taking his ph.d. in digital reggae by buying crates of 80’s 7″ and selecting for his sound system Firehouse.

2024 Repress

Physically and mentally draining in the best way possible, Wet Will Always Dry is maybe the most complete statement from Blawan to date, and as such should be ignored at your peril. This becomes evident from the album-opening 'Klade,' a dizzying, tumbling flight of pure energy over overlapping fields of electrified menace. This sets the stage for 'Careless,' which retains the hazardous, crackling atmosphere but dials back the intensity just enough to make room for a new feature, Blawan's eerie and disembodied vocals.

'Tasser' ratchets up the tempo and the frenetic energy yet more, slinging chunks of audio shrapnel and grinding factory noise over the kick-heavy beat, only letting up the tension every now and then for a convulsive breakdown. By the arrival of 'Vented,' a more steady, cycling groove has set in along with the accompaniment of suspenseful melodic swells, but the element of surprise is far from gone: there still seem to be spectral entities lurking around every corner, and there's no shortage of intriguing tumbril weirdness blowing around the imaginary streets that this track conjures up.

The slamming 'North' keeps alive the record's persistent, darkly humorous feeling that things are about to go off the rails at any moment, using wildly contorted sequences and granular debris to shift between total abandon and regimented strictness. A moment of relative calmness, along with the return of the atmospheric vocals, comes about with 'Stell,' a faintly dubby track that leaves an impression like watching streams of traffic progress underneath rolling, deep grey clouds.

'Kalosi' brings back the percussive motif of 'Tasser' and 'North,' this time partnering it with loops that bring to mind radioactive bass strings. 'Nims' then shuts things down with infectious harp-like sequences, fuzz-shrouded percussion and an 'everything but the kitchen sink' mentality towards filtering and processes which will get the attention of all but the most jaded soundhead.

2024 Repress


Straight out of the depths of East London, Hoxton Square to be precise. A location before gentrification, the area around Old Street in 1995 was full of young artists, musicians and record labels. Law & Auder were one of those bands, with a studio in the next road to the legendary Blue Note club. This is where these two tracks were created, two cuts that encapsulate the raw sound of the London jungle scene at this time.

This particular 12” is a bit of a cult release, with prices on Discogs for an original copy at a VG+ rating going for a £150 a copy, that’s if you can ever find one.
This is the second release from the group that we have repressed ON Vinyl Fanatiks, with Martin from the group also being a part of Utomica, another group that we repressed a few years ago.

Straight from the East London vaults.

The new album from Lebanese-American musician Solpara, Melancholy Sabotage, marks his full length debut and return to Nicolas Jaar's Other People label. While it was recorded over Covid lockdowns, Jaar had been talking about wanting to back a Solpara full-length since he put out Swing. The album came to life while Solpara was living alone in a Brooklyn loft, collecting unemployment checks and viewing ample free time as the artist residency he'd dreamed of; he'd previously been forced to make music in odd windows between numerous jobs and the unmerciful pace of city life. Free from obligations, he would wake up early to take Arabic lessons online, read Tracey Thorn's autobiography, and skateboard the deserted streets, then come home and design sounds until he had a track that felt like it needed to be released. While this easy going lifestyle was peaceful in many ways, Solpara found more complex inspiration in the emotion that stemmed from participation in Black Lives Matter protests and the 2020 Beirut Port explosion, which rocked all of his extended family members in Lebanon.

Melancholy Sabotage explores the theme of sabotaging melancholy. Echoing sounds from the post-punk, trip-hop, and ambient genres, it is about sabotaging the cycle of melancholy and looking at this process without ignoring the sources that put it into motion. It may be compared to a rattling breaking free from retention, reaching states of dreamy euphoria while simultaneously acknowledging the sources of retention, viewed from above. The sources can be personal, political, or socio-economic. They are to be apprehended post-melancholy, after the sabotaging of the initial cycle of melancholy. In other words, it is about transcending melancholy and understanding where it came from with some distance. It may be beautiful and healthy to feel for a while, but how may one sabotage this cycle when it becomes paralyzing? Ultimately, this album is about feeling melancholy but also resisting it and naming the sources that initiated it.

"Time To Hold Better" points to neglect on both personal and group levels. "This Time Last Year" is a personal time capsule. "We Keep Us Safe" is about solidarity, autonomy, and care witnessed within protest groups. "Melancholy Sabotage" is a sonic exploration of the album concept illustrating anger and sadness, but finally, resistance and liberation from these feelings. "Measures" is a more fluid exploration of the latter after the initial storm has passed. "We Don't Owe" points to bigger bodies inflicting harm on populations that we owe nothing to. "Breaking Points" harkens the times that we may lose focus while pushing to transcend melancholy. "Eviction" is about being pushed out of a space unwillingly while simultaneously being forced to move forward.

Melancholy Sabotage pulls from a range of genres, uniting electronic sounds under the same post-punky glow. It pulls from complex, heavy themes including damage and injustice, presenting Solpara's most moving body of work to date. It highlights the poignance that has always been at the heart of his fluid sound, which caters to dancefloors and avant-garde spaces in equal measure. Working with a mix of dissonant guitars, distorted drum machines, and distant, reverb-washed vocals, Melancholy Sabotage is Solpara's uneasiest outing to date. The record pinpoints the duality at the heart of Solpara's sound, which is as plaintive as it is searing.