Cerca:suff x

The lyrics of the tracks of "IV:LETVM" revolve around death, war, forces of nature and superstition as well as rituals. This consistently heavy lyrical content is matched by the instrumental brutality of the nine tracks. The quartet from Giessen in Hesse presents itself on its new album exclusively martial, destructive, and evil. Song titles like 'War Dreams Of Itself', 'Lessons Of Darkness', 'Certain Death', 'Suffering' or 'Sadness' point the way ¬– no coincidence that the band’s official logo consists of an axe and a mace. DEPRAVATION cultivate a resounding style mix of black and death metal with a crust side to it, which is served fiercely and lingers bitterly. Exactly this is what the group is after since their first release "I:PRAEDICTVM" in 2012 succeeded by "II:MALEDICTVM" one year later. Following 2020's "III:ODOR MORTIS", "IV:LETVM" marks the second album for LIFEFORCE RECORDS. After more than ten active years, in which split records with ANCST and SLOWLY WE ROT were released, DEPRAVATION enter the scene without the pretense of following current trends or living up to any particular genre. "IV:LETVM" is the expression of diverse musical influences and above all one thing: relentlessly extreme. "IV:LETVM" was recorded at Red Tape Company by Simeon Lauber in Gießen. Nikita Kamprad (Der Weg Einer Freiheit/Ghost City Recordings) is responsible for mixing and mastering.

Impatiently returning to the golden age of Ecuadorian musica national, this second round of retrievals is more of a selectors’ affair: less reverent, more free-flowing, with more twists and turns. There is no let-up in musical quality, maintaining the same judicious, heart-piercing balance between emotional desolation and dignified endurance, the same bitter-sweet play between affective excess and musical sublimity.

This time around, the woman steal the show. Laura and Mercedes Suasti were child stars, with an exclusive Radio Quito contract. Unlike nearly all the men here, they lived long and prospered: Mercedes died last year, at the age of 93. Gladys Viera and Olga Gutierrez both came to Ecuador from Argentina. To start, Gladys plugged the scandalous new Monokini swimwear; Olga performed for visiting British royalty in 1962. Olga was glamorous but tough. She would make little of the amputation of one of her legs: ‘I don’t sing with my leg.’ She is accompanied on our opener by quintessentially reeling, sultry musica national: haunted-house organ, twinkling xylophone, Guillermo Rodriguez’ heart-plucking guitar-playing, and lilting, dance-to-keep-from-crying double-bass. ‘Sometimes I think that you will leave me with no memories,’ she sings, ‘that you hold only disappointments in store for me… In the future your love will search me out, full of regret. By then it will be too late, there will be no consolation, only disappointment awaiting you.’

Other highlights include the two contributions of Orquesta Nacional: Ponchito Al Hombro, like an off-the-wall forerunner of the Love Unlimited Orchestra, beamed into the tropics from an unknowable time and space; and the tone poem Atahualpa, a mystical yumbo invoking Quito’s most ancient inhabitants, the Kichwa. Also the tremulous, gypsy-flavoured violin-playing of Raul Emiliani, who arrived in Quito from Italy, suffering PTSD from the Second World War; the inscrutable, sardonic experimentalism of organist Lucho Munoz; and the mooing and whistling of Toro Barroso — school of Lee Perry — in which a muddy bull dashes home to his darling chola, fearless, full of desire.

Lavishly presented, with a full-size, full-colour booklet, with transporting art-work and expert notes. Luminous sound, by way of Abbey Road, D&M and Pallas.

In the two years since their last full length outing, Let There Be Nothing, JUDICATOR have returned from collective and personal turmoil brought on by both the Covid-19 pandemic and foundational lineup changes. The US power metal group are now primed and proud to release their triumphant sixth studio album, The Majesty of Decay, via Prosthetic Records. Refreshed and revitalized, JUDICATOR are eager to let this beastly album out of the gate and into your stereos. Whilst the album’s story remains somewhat shrouded in mystery, JUDICATOR utilizes compelling plot devices as a means to encourage fans to piece together the album’s meta-contextual threads. What we do know, however, is that The Majesty of Decay explores the subjects of love, family, and the transformation of suffering into something meaningful. JUDICATOR invites you to step into this world and contemplate how the story might relate to you. The album is a carefully constructed puzzle of mirrors and metaphor that cries out for Judicator fans everywhere to solve it. What began as a humble homage to their favorite band quickly grew into something that hads fans begging for more, and JUDICATOR is happy to oblige. The band has produced a catalog of music that spans multiple sub-genres and breaks conceptual boundaries. With this latest offering, The Majesty of Decay, JUDICATOR have delivered yet another thought provoking album that fits nicely into their discography.

Here it is; the second release on Hell’s Recordings

It is recognized today that these tutelary pieces for four pianos are among the most powerful in contemporary music,their impact is almost unparalleled. After the historical version recorded forty years ago, this one, featuring four of the greatest European performers, is now regaining its full power. High level recordings too.

There was some for John Cage, then came Christian Wolff, and finally Morton Feldman, from this school in New York. Only Julius Eastman remained outside the game, the last figure, the most solitary and enigmatic - undoubtedly also one of the most powerful, and it is this power that is revealed through these recordings. In the 1970s and 1980s, Eastman was one of the very few African-Americans to gain recognition in the New York avant-garde music scene. He was politically committed, a figure of queer culture and a solar and solitary poet whose melancholy influenced his genius as well as his tragic destiny : suffering from various addictions, declared missing, actually homeless. During Winter of 1981-82, he got deported from his apartment by the police, who destroyed most of what he owned - including scores and recordings. He was found dead in 1990, on the streets of Buffalo, after years of vagrancy.

The Performers Nicolas Horvath, pianist and electroacoustic composer Nicolas Horvath is known for his boundariesless musical explorations - he has collaborated with leading contemporary composers from around the world, including Alvin Lucier, Alvin Curran and Valentyn Silvestrov - the recordings of his complete works for piano by Phil Glass made a lasting impression. He has collaborated recently with Lustmord on the Deconstruction of November by Dennis Johnson (Sub Rosa SR502: The Fall).

Melaine Dalibert, a French composer and pianist, fascinated by natural phenomena which are both expected and unpredictable, Dalibert has developed his own algorithmic procedures of composition which contain the notion of stretched time evoking Morton Feldman, minimal and introspective, adopting a unique concept of fractal series.

Stephane Ginsburgh, a tireless surveyor of the repertoire but also explorer of new music, collaborated with composers such as Philippe Boesmans, Jean-Luc Fafchamps, Stefan Prins, Frederic Rzewski and Matthew Shlomowitz of whom he premiered works, as well as with choreographers such as Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker (Rosas) and recorded Feldman, Duchamp and Satie for Sub Rosa and the complete set of Prokofiev piano sonatas for Cypres. Wilhem Latchoumia, he embraces both new music and the classical repertoire with success and charisma. His two last recordings for La Dolce Volta (Prokofiev and de Falla) have been highly acclaimed by critics with a FFFF in Télérama. Winner of the Hewlett-Packard Foundation and the Montsalvatge International Piano Competition, he brilliantly won the First Prize in the 2006 Orléans International Piano Competition.

‘SOMEONE TO BELIEVE IN’: A COLLECTIVE ANTHEM OF SOLIDARITY.

‘RIDING HIGH (ON YOUR LOVE)’: AN ECSTATIC EULOGY TO SUMMER DANCE FLOORS.

CRISP SUN SHIMMERS THROUGH BRITTLE BLUE SKY.

THE WORLD AWAKENS FROM ANOTHER BLEAK COLD WINTER.

YET MILLIONS STILL SUFFER WHILE OUR LEADERS LAUGH AT US.

AMF - HERE TO BRING JOY AND HOPE.

DJ Support -
Patrick Topping ‘You have nailed that vibe’
Sasha ‘Big Stuff’
Totally enormous Extinct Dinosaurs ‘Great Sample!’, Mr V Cool vibes on this pack’
Auntie Flo ‘Nice One’
Mousse T ‘Useful goodies’

Radio Support -
Danny Howard, Sarah Story

Clear Vinyl

Clear Vinyl. Limitiert auf 300 Exemplare. Classic Rock, Vintage Rock oder Retro-Rock. Wie auch immer man diese bluesige, gelegentlich psychedelische, von den großen Acts der späten Sixties und Seventies inspirierte Variante des Hardrocks nennen will: Die besten Vertreter des Sujets kommen seit jeher aus dem Norden Europas. Je weiter nördlich ihr Ursprung, desto besser sind sie - so scheint es. Und viel nördlicher als Tromso, die über 300 Kilometer jenseits des Polarkreises gelegene Heimatstadt der Norweger Pristine, geht es kaum _ Pristine sind eine der begeisterndsten und überzeugendsten Live-Bands des Genres. Die Gruppe hat bereits Hunderte von Konzerten absolviert - von intimen Club-Shows bis hin zu Slots im Rahmen der großen Festivals auf unserem Kontinent. Heidi freut sich darauf, nun mit dem neuen Pristine-Album THE LINES WE CROSS endlich wieder auf Tournee gehen zu können. "Wir hatten im letzten Jahr eine Handvoll kleinerer Shows in Norwegen gespielt, als dies für kurze Zeit wieder möglich war. Die Regierung hatte alle Restriktionen aufgehoben, bevor dann die Omikron-Welle kam und alles erneut vorbei war. Diese viel zu wenigen Abende waren wundervoll für uns, aber offenbar ebenso für die Fans. Man merkte förmlich, wie ausgehungert beide Seiten nach Live-Musik waren. Es fühlte sich fast so an wie damals, als wir die Band starteten und unsere ersten Konzerte gaben." Damals war 2006: Heidi besuchte das Musikkonservatorium in Tromso, wo sie Gesang studierte, als sie die erste Inkarnation von Pristine aus der Taufe hob. Nach einigen Jahren der Sound- und Mitglieder-Findung sowie zwei exklusiv in Norwegen veröffentlichten Alben startete die Band 2016 mit REBOOT international durch. Es folgten ausführliche Europa-Konzertreisen mit stilistisch ähnlich gesinnten Acts wie The Brew und Blues Pills. Bereits im Jahr darauf legten Pristine mit NINJA nach und 2019 konnten die Skandinavier dank ROAD BACK TO RUIN erstmals die deutschen Album-Charts knacken. Mit THE LINES WE CROSS kommt Anfang 2023 nun Album Nummer sechs auf uns zu.

Clear Vinyl. Limitiert auf 300 Exemplare. Classic Rock, Vintage Rock oder Retro-Rock. Wie auch immer man diese bluesige, gelegentlich psychedelische, von den großen Acts der späten Sixties und Seventies inspirierte Variante des Hardrocks nennen will: Die besten Vertreter des Sujets kommen seit jeher aus dem Norden Europas. Je weiter nördlich ihr Ursprung, desto besser sind sie - so scheint es. Und viel nördlicher als Tromso, die über 300 Kilometer jenseits des Polarkreises gelegene Heimatstadt der Norweger Pristine, geht es kaum _ Pristine sind eine der begeisterndsten und überzeugendsten Live-Bands des Genres. Die Gruppe hat bereits Hunderte von Konzerten absolviert - von intimen Club-Shows bis hin zu Slots im Rahmen der großen Festivals auf unserem Kontinent. Heidi freut sich darauf, nun mit dem neuen Pristine-Album THE LINES WE CROSS endlich wieder auf Tournee gehen zu können. "Wir hatten im letzten Jahr eine Handvoll kleinerer Shows in Norwegen gespielt, als dies für kurze Zeit wieder möglich war. Die Regierung hatte alle Restriktionen aufgehoben, bevor dann die Omikron-Welle kam und alles erneut vorbei war. Diese viel zu wenigen Abende waren wundervoll für uns, aber offenbar ebenso für die Fans. Man merkte förmlich, wie ausgehungert beide Seiten nach Live-Musik waren. Es fühlte sich fast so an wie damals, als wir die Band starteten und unsere ersten Konzerte gaben." Damals war 2006: Heidi besuchte das Musikkonservatorium in Tromso, wo sie Gesang studierte, als sie die erste Inkarnation von Pristine aus der Taufe hob. Nach einigen Jahren der Sound- und Mitglieder-Findung sowie zwei exklusiv in Norwegen veröffentlichten Alben startete die Band 2016 mit REBOOT international durch. Es folgten ausführliche Europa-Konzertreisen mit stilistisch ähnlich gesinnten Acts wie The Brew und Blues Pills. Bereits im Jahr darauf legten Pristine mit NINJA nach und 2019 konnten die Skandinavier dank ROAD BACK TO RUIN erstmals die deutschen Album-Charts knacken. Mit THE LINES WE CROSS kommt Anfang 2023 nun Album Nummer sechs auf uns zu.

Paxico Records is pleased to present Forgot About Her, the latest release by LA-based beat maker and producer Sleepyeyes.
“The record retains Sleepy’s trademark smoked out atmosphere but re-contextualizes it for the dance floor in a way that is wholly unique, but also brings to mind burgeoning lo-fi house contemporaries such as DJ Seinfeld, Ross From Friends, and Baltra.” –Earmilk
The results are something staunchly authentic. The recordings on Forgot About Her are honest and intimate as if sent from an old friend. Soft vignettes capture the emotional aftermath of separation. Eagerly alone, Sleepyeyes embraces his sound to hold the hazy memories one may feel from heartbreak’s closure. Its magnetic charm pulls us into a space where flaws become strengths and suffering becomes beauty. The site-specific titles and intimate home-recordings form its compelling and transformative qualities.
With Forgot About Her, Sleepyeyes shares the weight of letting go. It’s a slow-burning process pushed and pulled by tension and release, a movement for moving on.

Die deutsche Heavy Metal-Macht BRAINSTORM ist seit
mehr als drei Jahrzehnten in der Szene, und es ist
tatsächlich immer noch schwer, das Genre zu definieren,
das sie spielen. Power-Metal? Heavy Metal? Prog Metal?
All diese Kategorien wären richtig, obwohl BRAINSTORM
noch mehr bieten und man mittlerweile von ihnen sagen
kann, dass sie eine einzigartige Metalmischung
geschaffen haben.

The fifth release on Blue Matter is a debut album from a guy whose performance and writing would easily give the impression that he is a seasoned campaigner. The confidence and the musicality are of a standard rarely heard. Michael Cullen Murphy was born and raised in Nashville, and moved to the UK when he was 11. His father was friends with the great Peter Rowan and many other country and folk artists, and since childhood, understandably, Mike has been dabbling in folk and country. However, Mike is better known as a reggae specialist, and has kept his special musical talents extremely quiet. Even though we had been friends with Mike for years, we had no idea he was an accomplished singer, player and songwriter, which is why we were so amazed when he played us the almost completed album. Not only does he have a great singing voice, but his songs have an impressive depth and sense of melody. If one had to put some kind of label on the music contained within this record, it would probably contain the words 'Americana' and 'folk’, but that doesn't tell the whole story. There are touches of classic singer/songwriter and psychedelia too. Suffice to say, you need to give it a listen and decide for yourself. Blue Matter are really proud to be able to release this fabulous debut album. We think Mike Murphy certainly has all the necessary credentials to make his mark. Will it happen? Who knows? Your call, folks.

Naglfar have an high quality of their recordings, this is the fifth album by those Swedes, and are here again be able to keep up to their high recording standards of the previous albums and if their music would still reek of hatred, evil and suffering. Naglfar is one of those bands that can effortlessly mix raw energy of black metal that we know from their first albums with the elements of melodic death metal introduced in their later releases. This mix makes their songs memorable to a point that you can recognize them from the first riffs. Traditionally of course, intensity mixes with atmospheric slower parts, melodic touches intertwine with ultra fast brutality, and in all that, solos, parts of keyboards or piano are thrown into as if into a twister of sickening sound. Musically, the whole band shows us solid compositional skills, supported by technical instrumentality and respectable experience. Christopher Olivius spits out wicked lyrics, he sang with such passion and malice, that vocals added an extra level of brutality, vocals are very strong and solid. Harvest is an inspired, interesting and originally diverse piece of work. This album comes out in deluxe gatefold edition on vinyl,

Repress in soon. Recorded in a little bedroom studio out in Durham, North Carolina, Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn's debut LP as Sylvan Esso arrived in 2014 at the juncture of pop and experimental. Even now, years later, the LP remains an urgent and fitting introduction to a push-and-pull that would go on to inform the duo's sound - a thoughtful headiness that also wants you to get out on the dance floor. A blend of analog and digital, Meath and Sanborn were two unexpected puzzle pieces fitting together with singular ease, producing a ten-track LP that was both minimalist and shimmering, with dark undulations rippling beneath the synthy-surface and crystalline quality of Meath's voice. Before all of the international touring and festival headlining and critical acclaim, Sylvan Esso was just a shot-in-the dark of musical chemistry gone right. The original album bio for the self-titled presciently sets the stage for the thesis that has gone on to guide Meath and Sanborn's writing since then: "a collection of vivid addictions concerning suffering and love, darkness and deliverance" arriving as "a necessary pop balm, an album stuffed with songs that don't suffer the longstanding complications of that term." And so, even as the band continues to evolve and becomes amorphous, there's still that argument about what pop can be at its core. This is just the beginning of that conversation captured on tape

Since 2013 Jail Job Eve has become an indispensable part of the German
rockstages - Whether festival stage, live club or rustic rockmusic venue -
for more than eight years now the five musicians from Osnabrueck,
Germany, have been playing their way across the country
After their first release "Bird of Passage" in 2015, the band signed a contract with
MiG - music in 2018, the label that, among other things, distributes the legendary
"Rockpalast" recordings of the German TV- and radio-station WDR and with bands
such as Siena Root, Br selmaschine and Wucan, the label has signed in the field
of retro rock under contract.Jail Job Eve's album "The Misson" received
recommended reviews in the music press throughout Europe, and the band thus
earned the reputation: "the hope of the national blues rock scene" (eclipsed
Magazine, Germany).With their upcoming release "Wildfire", Jail Job Eve is once
again setting new standards. The album, recorded entirely live, confirms the band
as a finely balanced rock machinery. The music is much harder, more
experimental and coarser, while the lyrics deal offensively and aggressively with
the most important ideological issues of our time, such as climate change,
sexism, LGBTQ + rights or the responsibility of art and culture as a mirror of
society and an instrument of peaceful protest. For example, the first single "Lost"
is a song about female empowerment and therefore an energetic, feminist
statement to sing along to.The band's audible role models include Rival Sons,
Blues Pills, Greta Van Fleet, but also the classic rockers of Deep Purple or the
omnipresent ubiquitous instance Led Zeppelin. The clearest fist in the face of the
listeners still is Victoria Semel, who virtuously puts her heart and soul into her
singing. Benedikt Schlereth, who plays his way through the album with his
distinctive guitar sound coined by the grand repertoire of rock history, Jens
Niemann, who lets his Hammond wobble sonorously and suffer shriekingly, as
well as Tim Beckers on bass and Josef R hner on drums, who create fulminant,
cast-iron floors under their bandmates

LTD PICTURE DISC

This 2016 vinyl edition comes in Picture Disc LP with Gatefold Jacket, limited to 400 copies. Reissue on picture disc of the second studio album from the classic American thrashers Forbidden. The band released five albums and, though never sufficiently recognised worldwide as their peers, gained status among die-hard fans through the years. If you never get the chance of approaching Forbidden, tracks like "Infinite" or "Step By Step" will make it for you from the first listen.

Repressed.

Workforce presents his debut album ‘Set & Setting’ on his own imprint Must Make Music. This body of work marks a significant new chapter for Jack as he continues to re-establish himself as a solo producer, DJ and label owner after 16 years as one half of the celebrated Drum & Bass duo Spectrasoul.

As an album, ‘Set & Setting’ is an absolute focussing of the Workforce sound. It’s the coming together of his influences and human experience to form the basis of the work - frenetically varied in both sound and feel, but held together by an overarching aesthetic and sonic palette.

'Set & Setting’, a phrase I’ve co-opted from the context of psychedelics, refers to the physical, mental, social, and environmental context that an individual brings to an experience.

The making of the music was the codifying of my ‘reality’. Experiencing the music is the decoding; altered by ‘Set’ and ‘Setting’.” Workforce

Employing a vast array of advanced vocal and instrumental techniques, Broken Gargoyles is arguably Galas" most intellectually, sonically and viscerally formidable work to date. The album finds the visionary artist deftly probing the weaving, warping transformation on the nervous systems of her post-traumatic soldiers and dying diseas ed. Composed in 2020 during the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the first presentation of Broken Gargoyles featured verses by German poet Georg Heym, "Das Fieberspital" and "Die Dämonen der Stadt." The work was finalized in 2020 in collaboration with the artist and sound designer Daniel Neumann. In "Das Fieberspital" Heym describes the horrific state of people suffering from yellow fever who live in paralyzing fear of death and swirling delirium owing to their brutal treatment and isolation in medical wards in early 20th-century Germany. "Die Dämonen der Stadt" also addresses such grim portents of World War I; in this poem, the god Baal observes (like a gargoyle) a town from a rooftop of a city block at nighttime and lets a street burn down during dawn. The final incarnation of the work was played as a sound installation at the Kapellen Leprosarium (Leper"s Sanctuary) in Hanover, Germany

Dillon's fourth LP, 6abotage, captures today's zeitgeist like few others. A work of sore desperation but also reassuring devotion.

Her fourth, and perhaps boldest, album project, 6abotage, marks Dillon's first full-length since 2017's Kind. Described by Dillon herself as "a love letter, a cry for help and a consequence, all in one", 6abotage is the unapologetic manifestation of Dillon's latest artistic excursion with artist and producer Alexis Troy. Together Dillon and Troy have created a lyrically and sonically captivating and genre-bending body of work. The unmistakable soreness of Dillon's voice surrounded by and embedded within Troy's decisive and, at times, almost cinematic production defeat all genre stereotypes. Written, produced and recorded in complete isolation, 6abotage reflects today's zeitgeist. It is sore and desperate but also reassuring and devoted.
6abotage is a successful protest. A successful protest against stereotypes and preconceptions. A protest against excessive suffering. A protest for self-love. A protest for patience and vulnerability. A protest for forgiveness and growth.

To confuse parts for the whole is inevitable with Palm. Drummer Hugo Stanley, bassist Gerasimos Livitsanos and guitarists/vocalists/high school sweethearts Eve Alpert and Kasra Kurt started making music together as teenagers, and spent much of their twenties in the kind of proximity unusual for adults, outside of touring bands and the International Space Station. For a number of years the band consumed the lives of its members to a point of exhaustion: “To be honest I think we got a little burnt out. There were times where it wasn’t clear if we’d make another record,” says Alpert. It was only after multiple freak injuries followed by a pandemic, forced a pause - from touring but also from writing, rehearsing, even seeing each other- that the four were able to regroup and see a way forward again.

On their latest effort, Nicks and Grazes, Palm embrace discordance to dazzling effect. “We wanted to reconcile two potentially opposing aesthetics,” Kurt says. “To capture the spontaneous, free energy of our live shows while integrating elements from the traditionally gridded palette of electronic music.” In order to avoid what Kurt refers to as “Palm goes electro,” the musicians spent years educating themselves on the ins and outs of production by learning Ableton while also experimenting with “the percussive, textural, and gestural potential” of their instruments. To this end, the band continued the age-old tradition of instrument-preparation, augmenting guitars with drumsticks, metal rods and, at the suggestion of Charles Bullen (This Heat, Lifetones), coiling rubber-coated gardening wire around the strings. The unruliness of the prepared guitar on songs like “Mirror Mirror” and “Eager Copy” contrasts with the steadfast reproducibility of the album’s electronic elements.

While Palm cite Japanese pop music, dub, and footwork as influences on this album’s sonic palette, they found themselves returning time and again to the artists who inspired them to start the group over a decade ago. “When we were first starting out as a band, we bonded over an appreciation of heavy, aggressive, noisy music,” Alpert reflects. “We wrote parts that were just straight-up metal.” Kurt adds, “I found myself rediscovering and re–falling in love with the visceral, jagged quality of guitars in the music of Glenn Branca, The Fall, Beefheart, and Sonic Youth, all important early Palm influences.” Returning to the fundamentals gave Palm a strong foundation upon which they could experiment freely, resulting in their most ambitious and revelatory album to date.

Staging an attempt to gloss their music, Gentle Stranger
say it recalls “throwing a bouncy ball into a hall of mirrors.”
It’s telling that normal routes of describing music - your
typical band boilerplate of “such and such meets such and
such” or “we just play guitar, us, and leave the writing up to
you” - doesn’t suffice for the London collective; instead a
more arcane, more potent image is fired back, a wonky
and poetic idea that’s instantly more arresting, more
substantial.
For the newly initiated, Gentle Stranger are a selfdescribed “post-clown” outfit that oscillate between musical
forms, achieving a bewildering, almost Joycean
experimental sweep; pastiche, parody, burlesque, earnest
composition, genre interrogation and progression - they
cover it all. Their renowned live performances see the trio
cycle through an arsenal of musical instruments,
apparatus, tackle, and stuff. The set (part of the reason for
their now cult-like following) hangs together intricately, a
fractal clockwork machine that relies on movement and
spatial-awareness as much as it does timing and
musicality.
Upon witnessing the Gentle Stranger live show (‘show’
here is most certainly in the theatrical, carnivalesque,
extravaganza sense of the word), it’s tempting to question
whether they could reiterate, reshape, and condense this
uniquely visual and visceral spectacle into recorded music
- and the answer is yes. The latest update of the Gentle
Stranger sound lands in the form of ‘Upon Return’, their
barnstorming third album.
Gentle Stranger reportedly enjoy “revelling in the
disarray” of ‘Upon Return’, this ornate and finely wrought
mind palace - it’s a riveting and often joyous experience
soundtracked by strange, strange, and stranger music.
Available on black vinyl LP.

Repress of the 2010 classic “The Jazz Files” by Dexter from the legendary Hi-Hat Club series. Jazz is the subject!

Dexter is taking an new look at the long going love affair between hip-hop and jazz. From Stetsasonic to Gang Starr to Madlib, it is not an easy path to follow, but the 26 year old producer is adding a new and fresh style to it. The sound design of Dexter's "Jazz Files" is dusty but with an unmistakable 2010 twist. As much inspired by Wes Montgomery and Ramsey Lewis as by Sun Ra and Dave Pike, Dexter's tracks are never just "jazzy". They live and breathe jazz by combining the freedom and artisty of jazz with the craft of a free-thinking beatsmith.

And the "Jazz Files" are fun too. By implanting quotes an samples from interviews and tv shows such as the classic NBC program "The Subject Is Jazz", Dexter is telling his own little story of jazz. One that had it's starting point in the massive record collection of his father and grew into shape during a long hot summer blasting nothing but Ahmad Jamal and Sun Ra.

About Dexter: The 26 year old producer, DJ and MC is part of the Wortsport collective from Heilbronn. He has made beats for Morlock Dilemma, Damion Davis, Jaques Shure, Audio 88 & Yassin and Retrogott. He likes Flylo, Madlib and Oh-No as much as libary music, psych rock and Amiga Schlager. Dexter is one of the founding member of the Generation Tapedeck blog and has just started a new project with Suff Daddy.

About the Hi-Hat Club: MPM have teamed up with photographer Robert Winter to take a look behind the beat, into the bedrooms and makeshift studios of today's beat generation. Every Hi-Hat Club volume consits of an LP packaged with Rob's photos and accompanied by more pics on the Hi-Hat Club blog plus additional infos, free beats and drinks. Exhibitions in records stores and galleries are in the making too. Hi-Hat Club parties have been taken place in Cologne and Berlin so far. Watch out for more nights in 2010.

Musically the Hi-Hat Club promotes total artistic freedom. We are not bound to any sound or school. A Hi-Hat Club record can be anything from boom-bap to aqua crunk or whatever is fresh and dope.

His debut was recorded in the winter of 2003 with assistance from Texas
chamber pop collective The Earlies, followed by three albums of original material
and one all-covers album. In 2011, a near-fatal car crash paralyzed his arms for
months. He spent his recovery time listening to some demos he'd made before
the crash. The material eventually culminated in the darkest and most intensely
personal collection of songs from him thus far and garnered widespread critical
acclaim. (Micah P. Hinson & The Nothing). Since then, each record is a final
confrontation with himself, each song shakes with danger. I Lie To You, the new
Micah P. Hinson album, comes from five days and five nights of recording in
Irpinia, South Italy, with production by Alessandro Asso Stefana (PJ Harvey, Mike
Patton, Vinicio Capossela). Accompanying Micah and Asso are Raffaele Tiseo's
celestial strings, Zeno De Rossi metaphysic drumming and the double bass
gentleman Greg Cohen. On this new album he sings, with his weathered, husky,
prophet-like voice, eleven tales of love, loss and regret, which once again reveal
his heart as an artist laid bare.

Tape

Dur-Dur Band emerged in the 1980s, during a time when Somalia's contribution to the creative culture in the Horn of Africa was visible and abundant. Seeking inspiration outside the impressive array of Somali traditional music that was encouraged at the time, everyone from Michael Jackson and Phil Collins to Bob Marley and Santana were fair game. This recording, which was remastered from a cassette copy source, is a document of Dur-Dur Band after establishing itself as one of the most popular bands in Mogadishu. The challenge of locating a complete long-player from this era is evidenced bythe fidelity of this recording. However, the complex, soulful music penetrates the hiss. In a country that has been disrupted by civil war, heated clan divisions and security concerns, music and the arts has suffered from stagnation in recent years. Incidentally, more than ten years after Volume 5 (1987) was recorded at Radio Mogadishu, the state-run broadcaster was the only station in Somalia to resist the ban on music briefly enacted by Al-Shabab. Dur-Dur Band is a powerful and illustrative lens through which to appreciate the incredible sounds in Somalia before the country's stability took a turn.

In the ever-changing landscape of society and the world at large, we've
found ourselves lost in a world that has become less and less
recognizable - As our defining truths, values, and foundations have
become shaken, we find ourselves in a constant state of re-evaluation,
suffering, and duress
As the world continues to change in ways that are both terrifying and inevitable,
we seek to move forward and look towards a better world. This album represents
the mourning of the losses that we have endured these last couple of years, and a
celebration of the victories and hopes of what is to come. As we leave this world
behind, we look towards a better one.
We had the great honor and privilege of recording this album with seasoned
veteran Billy Anderson at the Hallowed Halls in Portland, Oregon in the summer of
2021.

In the ever-changing landscape of society and the world at large, we've
found ourselves lost in a world that has become less and less
recognizable - As our defining truths, values, and foundations have
become shaken, we find ourselves in a constant state of re-evaluation,
suffering, and duress
As the world continues to change in ways that are both terrifying and inevitable,
we seek to move forward and look towards a better world. This album represents
the mourning of the losses that we have endured these last couple of years, and a
celebration of the victories and hopes of what is to come. As we leave this world
behind, we look towards a better one.
We had the great honor and privilege of recording this album with seasoned
veteran Billy Anderson at the Hallowed Halls in Portland, Oregon in the summer of
2021.

Wah Wah 45s are proud to present a new set of remixes, as well as originals released on vinyl for the very first time, from Afrobeat supergroupEparapo. Having come togetherduring the unprecedented events of the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement, and despite being a project born from the privations of lockdown, their music is ultimately an expression of hope, resilience & resurgence.

The word "eparapo" means "join forces" in Yoruba, the language of Afrobeat. It's also the title of a track by the late, greatTony Allen- drummer for Afrobeat legendFela Kutiand lifelong friend and mentor of our very own "Afrobeat Ambassador",Dele Sosimi. Not only did Tony help to invent Afrobeat, he always looked for ways to push the boundaries, never content with recreating what had gone before but constantly expanding and developing the genre. This project hopes to pay homage to his legacy, and that of Fela Kuti himself. Its aim is to innovate, fuse and diversify while still retaining the essence of the music.

The force behind Eparapo is bassist, composer & producerSuman Joshi.He has been a member of Dele Sosimi's Afrobeat Orchestra for nearly a decade and has performed on stage with the likes of Tony Allen, Seun Kuti, Ginger Baker & Laura Mvula. He is also bassist with UK jazz ensemble Collocutor and fusion project Cubafrobeat.

Featured vocalist on both original tracks, and remixes, is the aforementioned Dele Sosimi - keyboard player and musical director for Fela's Egypt 80 as well as Wah Wah 45s recording artist on both his solo material and the recent collaboration with house music producer, Medlar.

The rest of the group comprises of bandleader ofAfrik Bawantuand percussionist for Ibibio Sound Machine and Keleketla,Afla Sackey; highly rated UK jazz vocalistSahra Gure; saxophonist, composer, producer and bandleader of the renowned forward thinking jazz outfit Collocutor,Tamar Obsorn; keyboard player, producer and front man for Lokkhi Terra and Cubafrobeat,Kishon Khan; one of the UK's finest and most in demand trumpeters,Graeme Flowers, who has played with Quincy Jones, Gregory Porter and many more; trombonist for Bellowhead and mainstay of Dele's Afrobeat Orchestra,Justin Thurgur; and finally drummer for Steamdown and Sons of Kemet, as well as the man behind the Nache project,Eddie Wakili Hick.

From London To Lagoswas inspired by a talk given by writerRoberto Savianoat the Hay Book Festival in 2016, just before the Brexit referendum. In it he described the UK as the "most corrupt country in the world". This was a reminder of how the leaders of so-called developed countries, conveniently suffering from colonial amnesia, still point disparagingly at the rest of the world and talk of "endemic corruption" and "Banana Republics". All the while the ill-gotten gains of organised crime syndicates, corrupt multinationals and military juntas across the globe are funnelled through financial centres such as London. Same trouble, different methods, greater scale. Of course the best way to divert the population from all this is to find distractions such as populist leaders who declare their countries "world beating" and scapegoats such as refugees, immigrants and other members of the underclasses. It has always been thus but it doesn't always have to be so.

This track was once more recorded remotely during lockdown and features an all star lineup of world class musicians from the UK Afrobeat and jazz scenes. Members of the Dele Sosimi Afrobeat Orchestra, Keleketla, Sons of Kemet and beyond have come together to create this powerhouse of a band. They encapsulate the meaning of "eparapo" and "join forces'' to fight a common enemy in the shape of corrupt and divisive ideologies.

Its remix comes fromWheelUP- the moniker of West London broken beat revivalist Danny Wheeler, who here delivers something of a smoother straight up Afro flavoured house workout that's sure to be heard across dance floors and festivals this summer. The Tru Thoughts signed artist adds gliding synths and tight drums that ride the original's hypnotic melody perfectly and make for a future club classic.

Black Lives Matterwas obviously inspired by the movement of the same name and was the first track to be released by Eparapo in late 2020. Dele's voice tell the story slave ships leaving West Africa in the fifteenth century, the brutal conditions that were experienced on board, and the continued suffering of the African diaspora today. As always, half of the artist's income for this song will be donated to the NAACP - a civil rights organisation in the United States, created for the advancement of black people by means of following judicial policies.


The remix here comes from Birmingham based producer signed to Jalapeno Records,Sam Redmore. Sam's love for breaks and beats comes into play well here, subtly chopping up the original to create a bass worrying version that still sends that very important message of justice and equality - Black Lives Matter!

a 01: From London to Lagos (WheelUP Remix) feat. Dele Sosimi

[c] 03: Black Lives Matter (Sam Redmore Remix) [feat. Dele Sosimi]

Levitation Orchestra are the next progression of London's vibrant jazz scene. A vibrant collective with a balanced, workshop-orientated approach to composition, members include Axel Kaner-Lindstrom (Cykada), Xvngo (Nihilism, SEED Ensemble), and Maria Zofia Osuchowska (Alabaster dePlume). Their alternative instrumental line-up, spiritual jazz-informed groove, hard-hitting spoken word verses and highly original compositions are taken to the next level with their forthcoming album, Illusions & Realities.

Fleeting configurations of piano, wind, strings, synthetics, and field recordings, inspired by the Greek isles.
Previous albums adored by the likes of The Quietus, Exclaim, Drowned In Sound, etc.
For fans of Angelo Badalamenti & David Lynch soundtracks, Bohren & Der Club Of Gore, and Global Communication.
While on the island of Syros in the Aegean Sea for a film festival performance, Christina Vantzou experienced what she characterized as “a moment of focus”—a specific vision for the sprawl of raw recordings she’d been amassing for her fifth album. Upon relocating to the Cycladic island of Ano Koufonisi, she situated herself outside at a patio table with a laptop and headphones, taking brief breaks to swim, and began the “reductive process” of shaving and shaping the source material into uneasy but lyrical movements, alternately austere and adorned with strange inflections: glottal groaning, cavernous water, glittering eddies of modular synth, languorous silences. Mixing the pieces herself without outsourcing to an engineer compounded the intimacy and autobiographical dimension of the music; she refers to No5 as “almost like a first album.”
Drawing on sessions staged in February 2020, Vantzou’s editing instincts emphasize process and isolation, spotlighting resonance and restraint, liquidity and long tails. Fleeting configurations of piano, wind, strings, synthetics, and field recordings, these are spaces as much as compositions, surreal grottos of shifting light, suffused with a sense of invisible divinity. Although seventeen musicians appear on the record, the proceedings feel minimalist and malleable, sculpted from interstitial moments and oblique synchronicities. The definition of a composer as “one who joins things” is here both plumbed and proven; Vantzou describes No5 as “a letting go,” a place of “soft borders,” unfixed and undefinable.

Widely-loved electronic maestro Gigi Masin returns with ‘Vahinè' – a mini album of beautiful and distinct music that is unmistakably his, sounding better than ever.

Masin always pours his heart into composing, but here it takes on a potent new level of heavy emotion – as it’s a tribute to his late wife, who sadly passed away last year.

“There is a Tahitian dance called ‘Aparima’. It consists of graceful, sinuous and fascinating movements, which tell you stories and legends about love or tradition. The ‘Vahinè' are now dancing, the Tahitian females, with smiles and gestures that could be symbolic or descriptive but are always gentle, harmonious, charming. I was watching this documentary, it was almost 4 in the morning, but I couldn't sleep; I was in front of the television for hours, my wife had passed away the day before, and I was watching hands and arms swaying.

I told myself that maybe it’s so, at the end of the road it’s possible to realize dreams, and I’m sure that she is finally able to dance like never before, and is able to move without any impediment, with no suffering, free to make all the movements that she couldn't make for so long, turning to me with a smile and a wink. So, in the clouds, you will discover and see an extraordinary 'Vahinè', because she will move and dance and smile until the end of time.”
Gigi Masin

A future-retro dreamscape where stripes of early evening sun pour through partially closed venetian blinds; kalimba, piano and steel pans meet on the incredibly evocative ‘Marilene (Somewhere in Texas)’.

The Balearic/Italo house heart of ‘Barumini’ throbs throughout a celestial epiphany, whilst ‘Shadye’ is a sun blinded ambient mirage where angelic voices and electric guitar intertwine, before more heavenly music ensues on the trance-like ‘Malvina’.

A heart-wrenchingly beautiful evocation of transitioning to the other side, ‘Valerie Crossing’ is Gigi’s compelling and inspirational take on death, with a vivid evocation of something spiritual, existential and metaphysical. His exemplary approach shows decease not as a cause for despair, but a philosophical and poetic exploration of where souls go, when they leave their earthly bodies.

Masin closes with ‘Vahinè' – a twitchy, levitational piece of sublime deep techno, which transmits high strength vibrations of powerful emotions. On both this track, and the album of the same name, there’ s no pseudo intellectual ambient posturing with cod academic angles tagged on; This is music of real substance, coming from a real place. It’s saturated with feelings, but turns mourning into affecting art, and even a beacon of hope.

"Playing The Angel | The 12" Singles" enthält in dieser als Deluxe-Box Set aufgelegten Sammler-Edition insgesamt zehn 12" Vinyl-Schallplatten, die die Single-Auskopplungen aus dem im Oktober 2005 veröffentlichten elften Depeche Mode-Studioalbum "Playing The Angel" repräsentieren, und die neben den eigentlichen Titeln "Precious", "A Pain That I'm Used To", "Suffer Well" und "John The Revelator/Lilian" auch umfangreich mit B-Seiten, Remixen, Instrumental- und Dub-Versionen sowie anderen Aufnahmen aus dem Album-Umfeld ausgestattet sind. Die zehnte und letzte Platte, speziell für diese Kollektion zusammengestellt, offeriert B-Seiten und Remixe, die seinerzeit verstreut auf CDs und Maxi-Singles erschienen waren.Jedes Box Set innerhalb dieser Reihe enthält die Singles jedes einzelnen Depeche Mode-Albums auf hochwertigem Vinyl, wobei die remasterten Tonspuren direkt von den ursprünglichen Mastertapes stammen. Die spezielle Box Set-Grafik wurde von den jeweiligen Original-Alben inspiriert, während für die 12" Singles selbst die damaligen Cover-Artworks herangezogen wurden.

Oxygeno writes a new chapter with Vertigo, moving into a more angry mood. The EP kicks off with Thirty Against One, with a heart-wrenching bassline, distorted drums and a tense atmosphere. Norbak pays tribute to the original, carefully using the stems and getting a powerful and direct remix.

Side A continues with Vertigo, a suffocating and anxious track, rising and becoming more and more tense as the track progresses. On side B we find False Mirages, a hypnotic, distorted and direct track for the dancefloor. Positive Centre, with a sound design mastery, remodelled the track into heavy industrial vibes.

Finally, we also deliver a digital bonus track, Metamorphosis, ending the EP in a more atmospheric and hypnotic mood, providing a safe place for you to come down.

Having torn up raves for well over a decade, the Detroit duo Rickers and Ted Krisko AKA Ataxia present their debut longplayer ‘Out Of Step’. Featuring guest spots from close peers DJ Minx, Andrés and Mr Joshooa, they twist house, techno, electro, breakbeat and rave into revitalized new shapes; embellished with a touch of soul, funk and hip hop. With backgrounds in hardcore and punk, Ataxia’s debut is suffused with that energy, attitude, and approach; this is raw, lean and unashamedly no-nonsense dance floor tackle that goes straight for the jugular. Heavily analogue, the album experiments with tape saturation, which harks back to the duo’s formative years in bands, recording demos to cassettes. These straight-up, in-the-red tracks give preference to overdriven drum machines, rather than generic polished sheen, but conversely, it’s all deceptively well-crafted too; ‘Out Of Step’ is a standout record that’s big in character, bringing to mind the renegade spirit of Underground Resistance, and the bombastic brilliance of The Prodigy and Chemical Brothers.

Defiantly optimistic despite the state of the world, a “life is good” vocal sample meets minor chords sliding over 808 hats on the exemplary house/techno pumper ‘Detroit Gospel’, before a lighter moment on the album, but no less impactful with its hefty low-end thump, is ‘Pine Island’ featuring Motor City hero Andrés. Together they cook up a Motown-inspired house cut awash with horn swells and backup singers, bouncing to wide swung funk bass, in classic 313 style. ‘Language’ turns the club on its head – busting out one of the most distinct basslines in recent times, and bristling with buzzy, undulating chords, whilst ‘Maxia’ features influential Detroit royalty DJ Minx. Inspired by her classic ‘A Walk In The Park’, with a fat distorted kick and stealthy bass groove, this is low-slung, stripped-back, heads-down coolness. The high-tech funk of ‘Spit In Your Percolator’, is laser-guided in its efficiency, with a strobe-like, increasingly intensifying energy, peppered with clever, tripped up vocal chops. With the next cut, conveyor belt noises and fast churning low-end gives way to a dubbed-out breakdown, on the deep breakbeat roller ‘98 Degrees’. Charged with a blistering, rave intensity, ‘Number Streets’, is a futuristic distorted techno workout that booms through the subs, whilst ‘The Formulator’ mixes filtered snippets, abstract synth noises and melodic bleeps with a bassline echoing Paperclip People’s ‘The Floor’. Closer to the UK definition of hardcore, combining 4/4 and breakbeat, ‘The Pusher’ evokes the spirit of late 80s orbital raves, adding a natty keys solo, and deadly bass used sparingly, for even deadlier effect. ‘Feels Like’ sees Rickers and Ted team up their studiomate and fellow TV Lounge resident and club booker, Mister Joshooa. Inspired by Photek but also almost UKG in style, this breakbeat session is stamped with MJ’s signature chopped vocals and intricate rhythmic interplay. The bubbling, wobbly loose swing of ‘WM’ is constructed around a classic chopped-up MTV cribs sample, with a filtered vocal creating a far out psychedelic effect – all of which is propelled apace by a huge bruising LFO. The LP concludes in fine style with ‘Dance The Bridge’, where bouncy beats and wigged-out keys meet bright, gently uplifting synth chords that bring a clear-skied mood; ending the record as it began, on an optimistic note.

‘Out Of Step’ marks another chapter in the ongoing relationship between Life and Death co-founder DJ Tennis and Ataxia. Their connection goes back to the earliest days of the label, where they played gigs together on some of Tennis’ initial visits to Detroit. It’s a friendship that’s blossomed organically over the last decade through their shared love of punk and hardcore, and led to the fruition of one of Ataxia’s most compelling projects to date. Labels to release Ataxia’s output include legendary Detroit techno imprints Planet E and KMS, plus the seminal American house label Nervous Records. Their catalogue also includes music for Visionquest, Leftroom, 20/20 Vision and Seth Troxler’s Play It Say It.

Phoxjaw return with their second studio album ‘notverynicecream’, to be released November 11th via Hassle Records.

Written mostly in various states of lockdown, the album addresses themes of depression, addiction, nihilism, nostalgia and suffering, served in a sugary cone. The most eclectic and schizophrenic Phoxjaw release to date, combining progressive and punishing sonics, with hyper glossy pop influences whilst still retaining the organic noisey elements that Phoxjaw have made a signature.

Phoxjaw return with their second studio album ‘notverynicecream’, to be released November 11th via Hassle Records.

Written mostly in various states of lockdown, the album addresses themes of depression, addiction, nihilism, nostalgia and suffering, served in a sugary cone. The most eclectic and schizophrenic Phoxjaw release to date, combining progressive and punishing sonics, with hyper glossy pop influences whilst still retaining the organic noisey elements that Phoxjaw have made a signature.

16)- return with their heaviest and most devastating record to date, Into Dust. The new album, a collection of cautionary tales of survival and redemption, is set to an amalgamation of sludge, punk, metal, hardcore, and stoner riffs, that could only be built through 30 years of commitment to their dark sonic craft, which -(16)- continues to improve upon. From the frantic opening of "Misfortune Teller" to the undeniable pounding and swagger of "Scrape the Rocks", Into Dust lives up to its name, as -(16)- beat the listener into submission through the lowest of ends and the sour, palpable malaise prevalent throughout the album's dozen tracks. "There's a story arc in the lyrics that start with an eviction notice served amid the ruins of Hurricane Irma in the Florida Keys, to running aground metaphorically and drowning in midlife, bearing witness to the modern suffering of hunger and poverty on the Mexico California border," guitarist and vocalist Bobby Ferry says. The negativity persists on tracks aptly titled "Null and Eternal Void", and the dizzying, pill-induced "The Floor Wins". Elsewhere, "Born on a Bar Stool" sends the listener off with a sobering album closer; ending on a foggy and rainy jazz-tinged San Francisco night, with an anti-drinking drinking song, proclaiming "Raise your glass all things pass".

12 of the heaviest early tracks by the master of rebetika music. Markos Vamvakaris sings from the hash dens of the Greek ports of the 1930s - mournful, poetic, bitter music of love and long nights. Rebetika is the sound of Greece and Asia Minor clashing amid civil war, mass population exchange, and the anarchy of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Poetic, mournful, and bitter, rebetika music was born in the hash dens (tekes) of Mediterranean ports, its verses whispered in Greek prisons before spilling out to the greater population in the 1930s, propelled in no small part by a series of remarkable recordings by Markos Vamvakaris. Markos, as he’s known to this day, sang heady, drugged out songs of love, pain and yearning at brothels, bars and hash dens in the port of Piraeus. He arrived as a youth in 1917, working as a skinner in a tannery. By the time he picked up the bouzouki around 1924, he was fully taken by the life of the manges, the lowest rungs of the Greek social ladder. They lived by their own code and in total opposition to the rest of the population, and rebetika was their music. On these twelve early tracks, recorded in Athens between 1932 and 1936, Markos was already a master of the bouzouki. His forceful, clean playing compliments his hoarse voice and his stunning rhythmic sensibility, the result of his years as a champion zebekiko dancer. Tracks build and spiral outward, his open-note drones and melodic lines drawing calls of ecstasy and encouragement from his fellow musicians. Translations of songs like “Hash-Smoking Mortissa” and “In The Dark Last Night” provide a glimpse into the life and language of the manges - Ottoman cafe music, the calls of displaced Greeks of Smyrna, the chaos and suffering of port life, it all comes through Markos’ songs. These recordings, incredibly rare and expertly remastered, mark the height of rebetika, the brief period between the music’s emergence on the recording scene in the early 1930s and government censorship of all lyrics starting in 1936. During the Axis occupation there was no rebetika recording, and though Markos had some hits in the years after the war, he never again attained this level. These are the dizzying, entrancing, and heaviest works of one of the great artists of the 20th century. Pressed on 160gm vinyl, includes full size 8 page booklet with historical notes, rare photos, and lyric translations.

Mondays at The Enfield Tennis Academy, x2 LPs of long-form, lyrical, groove-based free improv by acclaimed guitarist & composer Jeff Parker's ETA IVtet. Recorded live at ETA (referencing David Foster Wallace), a bar in LA’s Highland Park neighborhood with just enough space in the back for Parker, drummer Jay Bellerose, bassist Anna Butterss, & alto saxophonist Josh Johnson to convene in extraordinarily depth-full & exploratory music making. Gleaned for the stoniest side-length cuts from 10+ hours of vivid two-track recordings made between 2019 & 2021 by Bryce Gonzales, Mondays at The Enfield Tennis Academy is a darkly glowing séance of an album, brimming over with the hypnotic, the melodic, & patience & grace in its own beautiful strangeness. Room-tone, electric fields, environment, ceiling echo, live recording, Mondays, Los Angeles. Jeff Parker's first double album & first live album, Mondays at The Enfield Tennis Academy belongs in the lineage of such canonical live double albums recorded on the West Coast as Lee Morgan’s Live at the Lighthouse, Miles Davis' In Person Friday & Saturday Night at the Blackhawk, San Francisco & Black Beauty, & John Coltrane's Live in Seattle.

While the IVtet sometimes plays standards &, including on this recording, original compositions, it is as previously stated largely a free improv group —just not in the genre meaning of the term. The music is more free composition than free improvisation, more blending than discordant. It’s tensile, yet spacious & relaxed. Clearly all four musicians have spent significant time in the planetary system known as jazz, but relationships to other musics, across many scenes & eras —dub & Dilla, primary source psychedelia, ambient & drone— suffuse the proceedings. Listening to playbacks Parker remarked, humorously & not, “we sound like the Byrds” (to certain ears, the Clarence White-era Byrds, who really stretched it).

A fundamental of all great ensembles, whether basketball teams or bands, is the ability of each member to move fluidly & fluently in & out of lead & supportive roles. Building on the communicative pathways they’ve established in Parker’s -The New Breed- project, Parker & Johnson maintain a constant dialogue of lead & support. Their sampled & looped phrases move continuously thru the music, layered & alive, adding depth & texture & pattern, evoking birds in formation, sea creatures drifting below the photic zone. Or, the two musicians simulate those processes by entwining their terse, clear-lined playing in real-time. The stop/start flow of Bellerose, too, simulates the sampler, recalling drum parts in Parker’s beat-driven projects. Mostly Bellerose's animated phraseologies deliver the inimitable instantaneous feel of live creative drumming. The range of tonal colors he conjures from his extremely vintage battery of drums & shakers —as distinctive a sonic signature as we have in contemporary acoustic drumming— bring almost folkloric qualities to the aesthetic currency of the IVtet's language. A wonderful revelation in this band is the playing of Anna Butterss. The strength, judiciousness & humility with which she navigates the bass position both ground & lift upward the egalitarian group sound. As the IVtet's grooves flow & clip, loop & repeat, the ensemble elements reconfigure, a terrarium of musical cultivation growing under controlled variables, a tight experiment of harmony & intuition, deep focus & freedom.

For all its varied sonic personality, Mondays at The Enfield Tennis Academy scans immediately & unmistakably as music coming from Jeff Parker‘s unique sound world. Generous in spirit, trenchant & disciplined in execution, Parker’s music has an earned respect for itself & for its place in history that transmutes through the musical event into the listener. Many moods & shapes of heart & mind will find utility & hope in a music that combines the autonomy & the community we collectively long to see take hold in our world, in substance & in staying power.

On the personal tip, this was always my favorite gig to hit, a lifeline of the eremite records Santa Barbara years. Mondays southbound on the 101, driving away from tasks & screens & illness, an hour later ordering a double tequila neat at the bar with the band three feet away, knowing i was in good hands, knowing it would be back around on another Monday. To encounter life at scales beyond the human body is the collective dance of music & the beholding of its beauty, together. – Michael Ehlers & Zac Brenner

Life is full of thorns, full of suffering that changes us forever.

‘Rosebud Queen’ is an ode to the resiliency of the spirit. How do you keep the spirit from dying when it’s been void of beauty for too long?
This album is a collection of light, a hope for your spirit to find beauty in life's suffering, and an offer to connect my soul to yours.