Cerca:super super

Back in 2004, Vampisoul was extremely honoured to play a role in the return to recording of the legendary Joe Bataan, which fully materialized in the lauded 2005 album "Call My Name", written and produced by Daniel Collás.After being out of print for a while, the LP has now been revamped featuring new artwork and liner notes written by Andrew Mason and Daniel Collás, plus photos from the sessions.

“This whole project grew out of a song called 'Cycles Of You', which I had written around 2000-2001 with the guitarist and bassist of my band at the time, Easy. The chord progression and vocal melody really reminded me of Bataan, and it occurred to me that it wouldn't be impossible to get him into the studio to do a guest vocal if we ever recorded it. I had met Bataan a few years before at a small, family-reunion style show at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in my neighborhood, where he not only still sounded great, but was also gracious and easy to talk to.

He was agreeable, so we decided to turn it into a Joe Bataan session and do 'Cycles Of You'. The funny thing is, 'Chick-A-Boom', a live favorite with Easy, was hastily added so we could have a B-side, but it ended up chosen to be the A-side of the single. When I got the opportunity from Vampisoul to do a full album, I was hoping Bataan and I could write some songs together, but our schedules proved tough to coordinate. I figured the best way to go about it was to do most of the work and just have him come sing on it. I thought this might be a little weird for him, since he is used to writing and producing most of his own records, but he was open to it.

The reactions to this album were gratifying. Diehard fans accepted it as a welcome addition to the canon and regularly compared it to some of my favorite records of Bataan's. At one point a New York radio station's listener poll listed two songs off of the album in the top ten of all-time best-loved Joe Bataan songs, and Ry Cooder enthusiastically mentioned "Call My Name" in a Wall Street Journal interview.” Daniel Collás, producer of "Call My Name".

Five years after the release of volume 1 of the collection “Collected Tape Experiments 1980-1984”, further sound experiments by this incredible Milanese duo re-emerge, never sufficiently valued and who in a few years managed to create hundreds of tracks, synthesizing different influences such as Throbbing Gristle, Residents, Kraftwerk and the arty extremisms of the “No New York” scene.

"Multi-platinum-selling rock band X Ambassadors have released their third studio album The Beautiful Liar. On The Beautiful Liar, X Ambassadors pay homage to the supernatural radio dramas and books-on-tape brothers Sam Nelson Harris and Casey Harris listened to as kids – sharing a selection of songs that together tell the tale of a blind teenage girl discovering her long-dormant superpowers.
X Ambassadors augmented the album’s storytelling component by weaving in a series of interludes that propel its wildly original plot forward. Featuring previously released singles ‘Adrenaline’, ‘Okay’, and ‘My Own Monster’, The Beautiful Liar is available now on a 1LP release."

 Nils Landgren was born in 1956 and grew up with the music of his
father, a jazz cornetist, and the church music of his grandfather, a
pastor. He never lost his strong affinity for his own musical heritage.
 Esbjörn Svensson, born in 1964, didn’t want to play folk music at first.
At home with the music of Chopin, Ellington, or disco-pop groups
such as The Sweet, the pianist had first found his place in the
competitive music scene in Sweden. His trio was a success and in his
homeland, he was voted Jazz Musician Of The Year in 1995 and
1996. The first sprinkling of jobs became a steady flow. Svensson
proved himself in the bands of his friend Nils Landgren. The music
was about funk and soul, occasionally pop and, in the main, classic
jazz. But not folklore.
 It was through the influence of Landgren and Svensson’s former
teacher Bengt-Arne Wallin, who recorded the landmark album ‘Old
Folklore In Swedish Modern’ back in 1962, that Svensson and
Landgren were inspired to make a duo album centred around folk
songs. In August 1997, both went into the studio and, with only
trombone and piano, recorded ‘Swedish Folk Modern’. Their
improvised treatments of the classic songs of the folk culture not only
impressed the public; it brought praise from the press. Svensson and
Landgren had created more than just a few impressions in duo.
Discarding any sort of large conceptual superstructure, they had
continued what Jan Johansson’s Jazz på Svenska and Bengt-Arne
Wallin had begun in the early Sixties and what has since become a
major force within the inner workings of European jazz.
 The time after ‘Swedish Folk Modern’ was hectic and exciting. Nils
Landgren’s Funk Unit advanced to the position of a celebrated festival
act. Svensson’s own trio, E.S.T., expanded beyond Scandinavia’s
borders, where the band’s fortunes skyrocketed. Inundated with jobs,
the musicians finally found the time to once again get together, in
December 1999 in Oslo’s Rainbow Studio. It would be a meeting full
of exceptional jazz energy. Even more than the first time, they would
rely on the force of reduction. Moods would be suggested, left open.
Melodies worked out in simple clarity. Delicate variations
supplemented and amplified both the original and traditional motifs of
the central musical im- pressions. ‘Layers Of Light’ is an affair of the
hearts of two artists who went back to their roots. That makes their
music truthful, direct and authentic in a wondrous way.

 In November, the new ABBA album, ‘Voyage’, will
be released, after 40 years. Just in time for the
music comeback of the year, and as a tribute to the
Swedish supergroup, a classic is now being
released on vinyl for the first time: ‘Funky ABBA’ by
the Nils Landgren Funk Unit from 2004.
 Fans and music magazines count the cover
numbers by Mr. Redhorn and his cult band among
the best in the world, and even today they are
played on the radio and in clubs by DJs. Landgren,
who once played trombone himself on the ABBA
hit ‘Voulez-Vous’, personally asked ABBA
mastermind Benny Andersson for his blessing for
the album: “ABBA was never funky. But if you can
do it, then do it!” replied Andersson. Andersson
was so enthusiastic about the project that he was
also present at the legendary Polar Studio during
the recording sessions and did not miss the
opportunity to record a bonus track for the album
himself as a duo with Viktoria Tolstoy.
 The result was celebrated, and ‘Funky ABBA’
became the best-selling Funk Unit album of all
time. “It's hard to believe: ABBA grooves, and
how!” claimed STEREO in their review after the
CD’s release.
 For this vinyl edition, the album has been
remastered.
 180g vinyl with digital download code.

"Multi-platinum-selling rock band X Ambassadors have released their third studio album The Beautiful Liar. On The Beautiful Liar, X Ambassadors pay homage to the supernatural radio dramas and books-on-tape brothers Sam Nelson Harris and Casey Harris listened to as kids – sharing a selection of songs that together tell the tale of a blind teenage girl discovering her long-dormant superpowers.
X Ambassadors augmented the album’s storytelling component by weaving in a series of interludes that propel its wildly original plot forward. Featuring previously released singles ‘Adrenaline’, ‘Okay’, and ‘My Own Monster’, The Beautiful Liar is available now on a 1LP release."

Two *limited edition* 160-gram classic black vinyl LPs (pressed by Smashed Plastic in Chicago) inside a heavyweight reverse-board single-pocket jacket with poly-lined inner-sleeves. Vinyl Only. No digital, no represses.

Banger of a kind bringing Acidcore, hardtehcno Acid and a pinch of that pumpin funk tribe.
Once again Vinyl Bleu makes it massive and dancefloor !

Notice here an original XTech tune style compared tpo his "speeder music".
And also a SUPERB Krismix tune. One of his best ever ???

Mainly known to DJs for the funk groover "Te Queria", Rota-Mar is the first solo album by the charismatic Zéca do Trombone. During a vertiginous career which started in the late 60s, Zéca was a permanent member of Wilson Simonal's band, toured with Luiz Eça's Sagrada Família (alongside Joyce, Naná Vasconcelos, Nelson Angelo and others), recorded the seminal Brazilian funk "Coluna do Meio" for his joint effort with Roberto Sax, and played and recorded for some of the big names of Brazilian music such as Tim Maia or Martinho da Vila. Particularly for samba artists such as Alcione, Leci Brandão or Moreira da Silva, Zéca do Trombone was the trombonist of choice.

Rota-Mar displays the work of an established musician who has nothing to prove. Impregnated with Zéca's characteristic voice, the songs draw inspiration from the sea, love and bohemian life, and let us all dream of what life in Rio the Janeiro was during that time. "Te Queria", penned by Zéca's childhood friend Elízio de Búzios (known for his highly collectable funk/boogie single "Tamanqueiro") is the obvious highlight, although we believe the real beauty of the album lies in the relaxed sea-side groove and MPB in the rest of the songs, including Zéca's superb take on Martinho da Vila's "Manteiga de Garrafa".

Tartelet has a knack for uncovering virtuosic, off-kilter electronic music. Max Graef—born, bred and still holding it down in Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg—is their latest artist in this mold. Though adventurous dance music is thick on the ground in the German capital, Graef's 2013 run of singles, cropping up on Graef's own Box aus Holz, plus Melbourne Deepcast, The Gym, Heist and Tartelet, continually surprised, infusing worn-in house with manic energy and acrobatic elasticity. Where many of his peers make languid, self-consciously laid-back tunes, Graef makes brilliantly restless ones. Dropping the needle on one of his EPs, you nearly expect it to pop right off again.


Rivers of the Red Planet, Graef's first full-length and Tartelet's latest album project, takes all that wildness and refines, expands, updates and scrambles it. It's as ambitious and deviously entertaining a record as you'll hear in 2014, the fulfillment of Graef's desire to make anything but another contemporary house music album. At any given moment, Rivers of the Red Planet feels like it could have been recorded through the smoke at a jazz club in the booth at a techno club 30 years from now or inside an MPC stocked with crusty dollar-bin samples. (We'd guess the staff at Graef's beloved OYE Records in Berlin will have a difficult time settling on which section to file it in.) If it sounds sampled, it's a testament to Graef's natural musicianship and production prowess —the record is heavy on sounds he played himself, from drums and Rhodes to fat synth melodies wrung out of an old Crumar Performer water-damaged to perfection. For vocals, Graef enlisted Nigerian singer Wayne Snow, whose rugged soulfulness makes him a natural pairing. On cuts like "Drums Of Death" and "Speed Metal Jesus," the club- readiness of his EPs lives on. But Rivers of the Red Planet may be most at home in your living room, with a good bottle of red and a roaring fire's crackles mixing with the pops and hiss of the vinyl—a playful listen that sinks in, burrowing deep and getting you all warm and gooey on the inside.

This is a high-octane tribute to jungle, footwork
and bass beats, with a BPM that rarely drops
below 150BPM and studded with names key to all
genres.
 It respects both the birth of the scene, with
inclusions like the late legend DJ Rashad and
former footwork dancer RP Boo, as well as its
current locality, pointing to a trio of uber cool US
producers in New York’s AceMo and Kush Jones,
and Miami-based duo INVT.
 Fellow Londoners Tim Reaper and Worldwide
Epidemic take in the latest of the UK scene, along
with label Time Tunnel who deliver remixes of
tracks from the glory days of rave.
 Driven, proudly black, gay and outspoken,
SHERELLE co-runs the established jungle label
Hooversound, while 2021 saw her launching new
label Beautiful, a platform for supporting black and
LGBTQI+ artists.

The eponymous Sun Cutter debut album, released via Bronzerat Records (Gemma Ray, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, The Still).

 Sun Cutter (real name Kevin Pearce) hails from Colchester in Essex, England. Three years ago, at the age of 33, Kevin suffered a heart attack (on a golf course). As well as having to redress some lifestyle
habits, his rehabilitation involved writing and recording the Sun Cutter project. It is an album of driving, harmony-drenched indie-soul folk-pop / rock that looks to the light for reflection.

 Songs of love and protest befit the man, and his politics of empathy, evident in his lyrics, are also demonstrated by his day job as a mental health worker. His tone and delivery sometimes reveal John Lennon, Tim Buckley and Bob Dylan as an influence.

 Co-produced with pal Dean Honer (Moonlandingz, Eccentronic Research Council, Pins). Dean is also one half of I Monster, and Kevin lent his voice and guitar to the acoustic version of ‘Daydream In Blue’, which soundtracked the Magnum ice cream ads in 2020.
They have also collaborated and created ‘The Sounds of Science’, a collection of science songs for kids, released in April 2022 on Castles in Space.

 Previously he has released (under his real name) the album ‘Matthew Hopkins & The Wormhole (AWAL)’, a concept record about the Witchfinder General who lived in the same village (Mistley in Essex).

 Kevin Pearce is currently on tour with Turin Brakes

The peeps behind the People Of Earth label claim that Rick Wade is on top form on their latest release. While that's undoubtedly true, the Detroiter has incredibly high standards and rarely puts out anything mediocre. The four tracks here are all deliciously deep and fluid, with the Fender Rhodes solos, meandering organ lines, warm bass and chunky beats of "Never Give Up" delivering just the right blend of instrumental goodness and dancefloor-ready weightiness. "Seen At Night" is an even deeper and hazier treat, while "Forever Alone" sees Wade wrap bongo-laden beats and eyes-closed electric piano chords around a ludicrously warm and heavy bassline. Solo-laden closing cut "Rooftop" is also superb - a proper sundown selection of the highest calibre

Favorite Recordings proudly presents Deux, second album of French Jazz-Funk quartet Aldorande. In this new chapter, the four explorers pursue their interstellar trip on the Aldorande
planet, deploying their ever deeper love for the 70's Jazz-Funk & Fusion scene. Extending their first
visions of this new world, the bigger-than-life arrangements of this second album reflect again their
high attention to dramatic narrative schemes, breezy Brazilian vibes, tempestuous funky grooves and
strong cosmic melodies from outer space. Classic and contemporary at the same time, Deux is built
for the like-minded souls still looking for the perfect beat.
Twisting time and space but never forcing the groove, the band dives more profoundly into the
Cortex influence of their compositions, with intense female back vocals fitting perfectly into their
cinematographic vision. Like a cry in space, could these esoteric incantations be heard by Aldorande's
divinities? Or will they be more impressed by the super-tight rhythm section with its bangin' basslines
or an irresistible blend of drums and percussion? In the end, they probably would have to surrender
after hearing the infinite echoes of the synthesizers and horns reflecting in the atmosphere. Deep and
thoughtful, the travel has only begun but it seems that so much has already been experienced.
Breaking the code, they opened the gates to a rebirth. One that could be only accomplished by finding
the “Pierre des Mondes”, deeply buried somewhere on Aldorande - the only key to solve the riddle of
the groove. Mission accepted.
You'll find in Aldorande some of the best French jazzmen including bandleader and founder Virgile
Raffaëlli on bass (Setenta & Joe Bataan, Camarão Orkestra), Florian Pellissier on keys (Iggy Pop,
Setenta, Cotonete & Di Melo, …), Mathieu Edouard on drums (Chassol, De La Soul) and Erwan
Loeffel on percussion (Camarão Orkestra, 10LEC6). On this album, they took the initiative to invite
two guests on some tracks: AOR singer Al Sunny and killer guitarist Laurent Guillet (Le Soldat Rose,
Setenta).eir ever deeper love for the 70's Jazz-Funk & Fusion scene. Classic and contemporary at the same time, Deux is built for the like-minded souls still looking for the perfect beat.

Available on November 19th 2021 as Tip-On Vinyl LP & CD.

Color Vinyl

'This is the story of a man, marked by an image from his
childhood.' Thus begins, with deceptive simplicity, Chris
Marker's La Jetée (1962). The film, by far Marker's bestknown
work, synthesizes many of the elusive filmmaker's
central preoccupations - time and memory, power and resistance,
the ephemerality and resilience of love - yet it also
undermines the very idea of film. Composed almost entirely
of still photographs, La Jetée quite literally pieces together
the tale of an unnamed, forsaken protagonist, drafted into a
series of time travel experiments in post-apocalyptic Paris.
While Marker creates some of the most hauntingly beautiful
imagery in cinema, what animates La Jetée's frozen
pictures is its sparse and unsettling soundscape. Whispers,
breaths and heartbeats offer an unnerving reminder of
bodily rhythms that, inside the film and out, will inevitably
cease. Fragments of symphonic music at once capture a
love affair and underscore the tragedy awaiting it. The poetic
momentum of the narrator's voice, our only guide: 'On
the tenth day, images begin to ooze, like confessions.'
Superior Viaduct is honored to present the first-time release
of the soundtrack from La Jetée. This vinyl album
features both French and English voiceover narrations,
along with organic textures and Trevor Duncan's impressionistic
score. More than half a century has passed since
La Jetée's theatrical release - now is the time to travel back
to the 'sudden roar' of this masterpiece in a completely
different light.

If The Fall truly is a cult band, then Slates both benefits from and reinforces such shrouded obsessions. In presenting these six particular songs as a 10-inch EP, the inherent and attractive difficulty of The Fall's sound is made physical, framing the urgency of their singles from this period (notably How I Wrote 'Elastic Man' and Lie Dream of a Casino Soul) alongside lengthy rumblings normally restricted to long players.

The tumbling and phased "Middle Mass" begins on an incredible high note, segueing into the snake-charm hypnotism of "An Older Lover Etc." "Slates, Slags, Etc." is built on stretched VU-inspired riffing, complete with ace feedback bleed that doubtlessly went on long after fade-out. Ultimately, it's the piercing chimes of guitar and marching drum grind of "Prole Art Threat" that elevates Slates beyond oddity. Truly one of Mark E. Smith's finest, busiest and most enigmatic performances, equally matched by a band at the peak of their powers.

Superior Viaduct's edition is the first time that Slates has been available on vinyl since its initial release in 1981. Liner notes by Brian Turner.

Deepfunk / soul super rarity flipped with one of the best deep soul sides ever recorded, the family had some great images so we opted for a picture sleeve on this one, 400 copies only. forget about finding an O.G. Researched by our man, Brian Sears

Papa Bear And His Cubs were the brainchild of Eddie Disnute Sr., aka Papa Bear. A native resident of Hampton, Arkansas. Eddie started his music career in gospel then transitioned into secular music after moving to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1963. While living in Milwaukee with his wife and children, Eddie played with a group called the Fenders but eventually decided to start a group of his own with his kids aptly named Papa Bear And His Cubs.

Eddie Sr., a naturally gifted musician, taught his children how to play music. Creativity is a part of the Disnute DNA and before long Eddie's cubs were perfecting chops of their own. Papa Bear And His Cubs started performing together around the late 1960s. Although a few memorable gigs came their way, Wisconsin proved to be too cold for the Disnutes so they made their way back to Hampton, Arkansas.

The family continued to perform in Arkansas then made another move to Houston, Texas where they hoped to break into the music scene down south. They lived there for nearly three years and even recorded at SugarHill Studios, yet nothing materialized and the recordings remain a mystery to this day. For their final move, the Disnutes returned home to Hampton after Eddie's wife Christine (aka Mother Goose) received word that her father was ill.

In 1975 the group recorded their only vinyl record at Sam Griffith's home recording studio in Camden, Arkansas. Disnute Sr. recalls it only taking "one night, and one take" for both "Sweetest Thing On This Side Of Heaven" and "You're So Fine" to be born. Both songs have an entrancing quality that is inescapable and will surely resonate with listeners for years to come.

The group continued to perform until the early 1980s, at which point the cubs were bears themselves, who decided to go their own separate ways. When thinking back to their prime days, one thing will always remain clear in Eddie Sr.'s memory, "we could play, all it took was a countdown of 1, 2 ,3, 4 and we're gone".

he 20th milestone release in the Generation Series lineup, this 5-LP abridged set features 82 tracks that play in the first half of Shenmue III, which takes place in Bailu Village. Comes in a top lid box (similar to recent Generation Series releases from Brave Wave) with liner notes, archival artwork and a digital download code for all 196 tracks.

The next killer tune in the brand-new series of alltime classic Studio One party bombs available on super loud 12” - Brentford Road All Stars’ 'Greedy
G’ is the ultimate reggae record to crossover into
hip-hop. The all-time epic sample for Boogie Down
Productions’ seminal ‘Jack of Spades’ and based
on James Brown’s funk bomb ‘Get on the Good
Foot’.
The flipside is another Brentford Road All Stars
essential cut, ‘Granny Scratch Scratch’, the
heaviest, funkiest dub monster ever.
100% essential monster tunes that rock any
dancefloor.

Debut album (2014) from Metal supergroup featuring members of Soulfly (Max Cavalera), Mastodon (Troy Sanders) and Dillinger Escape Plan (Greg Puciato).

The Berliners present an unusual live album that is a testimony of strange times: their Phanerozoic concept album performed live in its entirety at a time when no shows were happening anywhere in the world. 3 LPs / 2 CDs plus DVD and access to HD video download and streaming. Phanerozoic I was streamed live from Pier 2, a big hall in the port of Bremen, on March 25, 2021. Phanerozoic II, recorded at "Die Mühle" studio, aired on April 16, 2021 as part of the digital edition of Roadburn Festival, this year abtly named Roadburn Redux. Both shows couldn't have been more different: where the first part boasts with a pompous, mesmerizing lighting production on a big stage, the 2nd part is quite the opposite: intimate, almost cosy, focused on musicianship rather than performance. A stripped down setup in a dark barn, with moody, minimal but not any less efficient lighting. "We wanted to give people 2 totally different experiences", says band leader Robin Staps. "In Bremen, we had the chance to record a proper Ocean live show, the way people know us. We played facing towards the front of the stage, to an invisible crowd, essentially to a huge empty room_ but we knew people were watching, even if we didn't see them. There was the same rush of adrenaline right before going on stage as you get before going on at any big open air festival_ maybe with a little extra anxiety added, because knowing that so many people are watching you without being able to see them yourself was super weird." This release is yet another master class of record packaging from Norwegian artist and long term friend and collaborator, Martin Kvamme: the trifold is made from thick, rough and incredibly fibrous cardboard, adorned with a filigrane copper foil embossing of a bitmapped live fotography from the Bremen event. It contains 3 vinyl records in printed inner sleeves or 2 CDs, plus a DVD and a concert ticket with a streaming and HD video download link to both concerts.

Goldfrapp’s fifth studio album, Head First, was originally released on 19 March 2010. The album debuted at number six on the UK Albums Chart, selling 23,000 copies in its first week and went on to sell over 70k units in the UK alone, It featured three singles Rocket, Alive and Believer and received a Grammy nomination for Best Electronic/Dance Album. Following the reissue series of Black Cherry, Supernature & Seventh Tree by Mute/BM, this is the first time Head First has been reissued and will appear on 140g Transparent Magenta vinyl with an exclusive 12x12 art print in a gatefold sleeve.

Following this year’s hugely successful UK No. 1 album
‘As The Love Continues’ entering the US Billboard Chart
at No. 9, Mogwai went on to be nominated for this year’s
Mercury Music Prize. Now they reissue their 90’s EPs on
vinyl for the first time in over 20 years through Chemikal
Underground.
 Each EP was originally released in limited numbers
between 1997 and 1999 and quickly sold out. Although
packaged as the CD and download compilation album
‘EP+6’, this is the first time ‘4 Satin’, ‘No Education = No
Future (Fuck the Curfew)’ and ‘E.P.’ have been available
on vinyl since the initial pressings.
 A beautiful triple vinyl reissue of the three EPs originally
released in the 1990s, presented in their original artwork
inside a 7mm wide spine outer sleeve.
 ‘4 Satin’: Curacao vinyl, originally released in 1997.
 ‘No Education = No Future (Fuck the Curfew)’: Clear
vinyl, originally released in 1998.
 ‘E.P.’: Sun yellow vinyl, originally released in 1999.
 “I’m incredibly proud of these EPs,” says guitarist and
singer Stuart Braithwaite. “I think they’re interesting as
we were experimenting with so many things back then.
A lot of what we tried out on those records are things
that went on to define us.”
 A long time in the pipeline, Mogwai’s ‘e.p. x 3’ is both an
illuminating document for fans who came to the group in
more recent years and an essential purchase for
collectors of the group’s music on vinyl.

GENRE: Modern Classical, Experimental, Ambient Metal. RIYL: György Ligeti, Sarah Davachi, Stars Of The Lid. 180g LP pressed at Optimal, 350gsm jacket, inner & DL card. Jessica Moss Also Known For Her Tenure In Thee Silver Mt. Zion (2002-2015), Black Ox Orkestar (2002-2007), Recordings By Vic Chesnutt, Carla Bozulich, Arcade Fire, Basia Bulat, Roy Montgomery, Sarah Davachi, Big Brave & More. A phosphene is “the phenomenon of seeing light without light entering the eye.” The title of the heart-rending and resolute new album by composer/violinist Jessica Moss could not be better chosen. Moss is by now a seasoned practitioner of immersive isolation music; across three previously acclaimed solo records of minimal and maximal post-classicism, her acoustic, amplified, and electronically-shifted violin is the raw material for deeply expressive, palpably haunted, wholly committed compositions. But Phosphenes inscribes fleeting halos of refracted ghostly light out of a prevailing darkness with especially plangent determination and intensity. This is the most overtly searching, mournful and inexorable music Moss has made to date. The pieces on Phosphenes exquisitely navigate consonance and dissonance, building patiently from single notes to multiple voicings, harmonic stacks and clusters. These compositions channel themselves like slow-moving water in a dark cave, finding small eddies and catching glints of luminescence from within. Signal processing is kept to a minimum in the three-movement “Contemplation” suite on Side One, where Moss deploys amplification chiefly in the service of activating overtones and pitch-shifts, thickening and widening the sonics, carving out her unique timbral space. Based on a four-note sequence that sets whole tones against one another, “Contemplation” is a bona fide requiem that finds Moss at her most instrumentally naturalistic, measured, and modern. Side Two unfolds in a more foreboding vein: “Let Down” is marked by cavernous octave-dropped arco and pizzicato, providing a gothically-inflected substratum upon which hauntingly wordless vocal invocations and cumulative gyres of violin melody unfurl. “Distortion Harbour” grinds with noisier grit and a more harrowing complexion, highlighting Moss’s ambient-metal sensibility and her distinctive palette of industrial-inflected power electronics a reminder of why she’s also been a go-to player on albums by the likes of Big Brave, Oiseaux-Tempête and Zu in recent years. These two songs also feature upright bass from old friend and former bandmate Thierry Amar (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Thee Silver Mt. Zion, Black Ox Orkestar). Album closer “Memorizing & Forgetting” is inarguably the most tender and beautiful song in Jessica’s oeuvre: a keening lullabye of sorts, on which she plays piano, violin and guitar, joined by her partner Julius Levy in a lustrous ambient vocal duet. Everyone has been trying to find a way through and out of pandemic, lockdown, social isolation and often darkened hope and for many musicians, the absence of touring, of live performance, live sound, live audiences, and a living. For Moss, it’s also been “like when you press your fists hard against your eyes and eventually there is fireworks.” The light gets in where it can, even or maybe especially as imaginative sensory simulacra (if/when we shut down our screens and are left to our own devices). Phosphenes is a stoic, acutely sensitive, superlative musical statement from Moss

Frank Zappa’s “200 Motels” was a miraculous feat, a cinematic collision of the venerated musician and composer’s kaleidoscopic musical and visual worlds that brought together Zappa and his band, The Mothers, Ringo Starr as Zappa – as “a large dwarf” – Keith Moon as a perverted nun, Pamela Des Barres in her acting debut, noted thespian Theodore Bikel, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and an incredible assortment of characters (both on screen and off) for a “surrealistic documentary” about the bizarre life of a touring musician. In celebration of “200 Motels” golden anniversary, Zappa Records, UMC and MGM have assembled a definitive Super Deluxe six-disc box set of the beloved, yet hard to find, soundtrack for release on November 19. Fully authorized by the Zappa Trust and produced by Ahmet Zappa and Zappa Vaultmeister Joe Travers, the monstrous 200 Motels 50th Anniversary Edition brings together the original soundtrack, newly remastered by Bernie Grundman at Bernie Grundman Mastering, along with a staggering amount of unreleased and rare material unearthed from FZ’s Vault, including original demos, studio outtakes, work mixes, interviews and movie ads, along with newly discovered dialog reels, revealing an early audio edit of the film. Also included is a wealth of never-before-heard audio documentary material surrounding the project. The six-disc set will be housed in a 64-page hardcover book in a handsome 12” x 12” slipcase. The packaging replicates the original booklet updated with revealing new liner notes from Pamela Des Barres, Ruth Underwood and Joe Travers, as well as Patrick Pending’s essay from the 1997 reissue, and is chock full of motion picture artwork, stills and images, from the film and its making, many which have never been seen before. This must-have collector’s release will also include a custom “200 Motels” keychain and Do-No-Disturb motel door hanger and a full-size replica of the original movie poster. Years in the making, all the audio was meticulously identified and transferred over several years as Travers dug through the Vault to create a new high resolution 96K/24B digital patchwork stereo master from the original analog tapes. The Vault material was mastered by John Polito in 2021. The remastered 200 Motels soundtrack will also be reissued on vinyl as a 2LP pressed on 180-gram black vinyl and on a 2CD format - both will include a smaller version of the movie poster.

One of three MONSTER New Orleans Funk 45s released by Soul Jazz Records only ever exclusive available on their site on LONG out of print, these new 45s are limited edition pristine, loud dancefloor fillers housed in Soul Jazz recycled card house bag!

Surely one of the TUFFEST New Orleans Funk tunes ever made! The intensity of Marilyn Barbarin’s vocals are only matched by the super-tightness of Eddie Bo’s Soul Finders that accompany her – superb New Orleans wah-wah funk, locked in and in the pocket! A SUPERB Eddie Bo production, with original copies starting at £500!

Remix album for Oké's Deserto featuring nine interpretations of tracks from the original with a focus on the dancefloor alongside some abstract beats and rap.

Oasi (Deserto Remixed) features two groups of transatlantic contributors: Shigeto, DJ Dez, and Sterling Toles from Detroit; Populous, Godblesscomputers, DJ Rocca, and Silvano Del Gado from Italy, all close friends of the band. The remixes are rounded off by two versions from the man behind Oké, Andrea Visani, under his Katzuma and King Dumitru aliases.

The library music, cosmic jazz, and afro-house vibes of the original are retooled into a variety of dancefloor friendly productions: Shigeto and Silvano Del Gado invoke the tribal spirits of 'Ochosi Ayilodà'; Dez turns 'Il Venditore di Elastici' into a warm and comfortable chugging groove; Populous zeroes in on peak time ecstasy with his take on 'Queens of the Supercolony'; Rocca injects electro funk into 'Tarantula'; and Katzuma keeps it slow and funky with his refixes of 'Tamahaq' and 'Sons of Cabila.'

Balancing all these are two mellower contributions, with Godblesscomputers flipping 'The Secret Baile of the Maharajas' into a laidback roller and Sterling Toles transforming 'Serir' into a haunting song of remembrance.

Released on single 12" vinyl with seven of the nine remixes (two edited for length) and artwork from Andrea Casciu.

The EON label's fourth vinyl release features an original from Birmingham producer Jayson Wynters with Chicago innovator Hieroglyphic Being on the remix.

Wynters - who along with label founder Adam Shelton has been at the heart of the Birmingham scene for years - has already impressed this year with his biggest EP yet on mighty Dutch label Delsin. Here he invites us ever deeper into his nebulous deep techno world with a superb new single 'Filtered Xploits.' It's a punchy but dynamic cut with lush ambient pads smeared across a cosmic sky while chattery percussion and lithe synth power onwards. It has a futuristic soul that recalls early Detroit techno and might be his best work yet.

Both Shelton and Wynters have long shared a love for the idiosyncratic sounds of Chicagoan Jamal Moss aka Hieroglyphic Being, the hugely prolific boss of Mathematics Recordings. He was one of the first artists they bonded over five or so years ago and that love only deepened when they caught him playing a standout set at Freerotation in 2017. After hooking up there, Jayson later hung out with Moss on a visit to Chicago before tapping him up for this remix.

In his hands, 'Filtered Xploits' becomes a brilliantly raw and textured track with layer upon layer of fractured melody and gurgling acid. The prickly, jacked up drums will make an impact on any floor, and as the chords shine through the mix they bring a sense of hope and optimism.

These are two more expertly crafted tracks from artists at the top of their game.

AUF TOGO is the long-time collaboration of Sasa Crnobrnja
(from In Flagranti and Mytron & Ofofo) and Clement Cachot-Coulom
(from The Fabulous Penetrators and Big Girls).

After multiple singles and EPs on Leng Records and SaS Recordings, including two collaborative EPs with the tentacular outfit Becker & Mukai, acclaimed by fans and DJs alike, most of their time has been spent writing, recording and bringing to life the 8 amazing tracks that form their debut album “Movements”.

“Movements” follows in the steps of Auf Togo’s previous releases and won’t disappoint the early fans, but it also offers a completely new proposition. Their signature blend of slamming percussion, driving bass lines, psychedelic guitar hooks, fat analogue synths are expertly mixed with new musical ventures across the tracks: from the louche Hawaiian jazz of Along The Dotted Line to the psych-funk of Pan Con Tomate, the electronic wanderings of Mexico to the cinematic intensity of Radical Departures.

The result is a spell-binding summer album, one to listen to on a coastline somewhere under the Mediterranean sun, and one that is not afraid to wear its many influences on its sleeve, from 70s psych-rock to Balearic Beat, Space Disco and Afro Beat. The scope of “Movements” is wide and proves a captivating and gratifying listen.
Debut album from supergroup with members of In Flagranti and Mytron & Ofofo Pressed on 12” vinyl with artwork drawn and designed by Award winning animator Erica Russell UK/EU marketing campaign led by Neighborhood and specialist press/DJ by Your Army, with previous support from Mixmag, Trax, Ransom Note, NTS, Bill
Brewster, Andrew Weatherall and more.

In pairing words with art, the ESP Institute often does everything journalists hate. We drown the reader in hyperbole, abstractions as opposed to didactic or literal depictions, and paint the press release with superlatives that construct an existential struggle around the art and its conditions. To articulate our reasoning behind collaborating with the artist, or the synergy between their work and our catalogue, is sometimes so challenging that crossing that finish line is achingly delayed. Patrick Conway’s 2xLP 'Cellular Housekeeping', his fourth release with the label, is one of these works so monumentally exciting for us that we’ve strained over how to deliver with honor his art unto the masses. After the initial hurdle of visual representation (in this case handled with gusto by artist Hassan Rahim), how do we directly and intentionally talk about the art we deeply love, when in reality we’re largely guided by instinct? We explore many angles, often failing along the way, until finding a final click in the combination that unlocks the floodgates. With Patrick’s album, that elusive impetus revealed itself in a literary gem that both symbolized his aggressive, melancholic, romantic, and bleak overtones, as well as synchronized his work and our task with a metaphor so grand it justified putting these words to paper. In the deeply British poem of despair and hope, 'Comus: A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle', John Milton immortalized the classic idiom of the “silver lining”, and we find comfort in this transaction between struggle and what the poet considered divine intervention. Our bout of procrastination that brewed a cloud over the art may too tout a silver lining, the time that’s elapsed clearing a path for the album to exist in its rightful place, as opposed to fighting for a voice at an overcrowded table. In hindsight, this final hurdle might have only existed because without it, there is no glory, no resolution, but as all the pieces click and we collectively cross the finish line, Patrick Conway’s once captive 'Cellular Housekeeping' is now truly released.

This year marks 25 years since Oasis’ two iconic record breaking live concerts at Knebworth Park in Hertfordshire on the 10th and 11th August 1996. The shows were both the pinnacle of the band’s success and a landmark gathering for a generation of young people. Released alongside the cinema debut of the feature length documentary film of the event, ‘Oasis Knebworth 1996’ is the definitive live recording featuring a setlist packed with stone cold classics album taken from across both nights of the concert, from the opening salvoes of ‘Columbia’ and ‘Acquiesce’, to ‘Champagne Supernova’, ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’, ‘Live Forever’, an orchestra backed ‘I Am The Walrus’, and ‘Wonderwall’ the first song from the 1990’s to reach over one billion streams on Spotify and universally loved anthem.

The first vinyl LP release from Fluxus pioneer Alison Knowles (b. 1933). Sounds from the Book of Bean is an assemblage of noises and texts related to The Book of Bean (1982), Knowles’ 8-foot tall walk-in book constructed at Franklin Furnace in New York. This recording, the sounds of making the big book, was continually played back inside of the installation. Echoes of Yoshi Wada hammering together the circular spine of the book, other collaborators mixing ink, feeding a horse, the flowing waters of the Hudson Valley... all superimposed with texts and poems read by Knowles and her daughter Jessica Higgins.

On the second side of the album, the piece Essential Divisions features Knowles performing with red, black, and white beans. Recorded in Annea Lockwood’s underground studio, Knowles sounds the beans in glass, ceramics, wood, as well as in her mouth. Further bean histories and sound poems are recited, concluding with “Popular Bean Soup” – an ancient recipe translated by George Brecht.

Knowles’ big books are, as she describes them, transvironments: a transformationally experienced environment. The phenomenological nature of her book is distilled aurally in the case of this record. As Knowles describes the end of her book, “the reader leaves via a ladder or out the window and through a muslin panel printed with contradictory wisdom concerning beans and dreaming… one can begin again either by going on or turning back.”

Originally published as a cassette in 1982 on the New Wilderness Audiographics label, this remastered edition has been transferred from original tapes. An expansive 20-page booklet is included, holding graphics and writings from Alison Knowles, George Quasha, and Charlie Morrow.

Recorded by Alison Knowles, 1980
Produced by Alison Knowles, Sean McCann, & Charlie Morrow
Design by Alison Knowles, cover image courtesy George Quasha
Jessica Higgins adds voice to tracks 1, 3, 4, 5

When we think of the phrase Bonded By Blood, we think of two things: a brotherhood that is meant to outlast the trials of war, pain, and time... and the almighty EXODUS. With a bond forged in youth and decades-old friendship, the undisputed masters of thrash metal return with their eleventh studio album: PERSONA NON GRATA. Literally translating to “an unwelcome” or “unacceptable” person, PERSONA NON GRATA touches on themes of modern societal disgust and degradation. “The people that disgust you - cut ‘em out like cancer,” explains guitarist Gary Holt. “Who is that person? It could be anybody. That’s up to the listener. Who is ‘Persona Non Grata’ to them?”

For decades, EXODUS has impressed us with the ability to attract opposing factions to their music because of its intensity and versatility. A track like “The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves” was inspired by the riots both in theme, and sound. “Without seeming insensitive to the riots, the song is tongue in cheek about what the people beating on the rioters were expecting to happen. Did you think you would beat a smile onto their face? At 3 minutes in length, it’s probably the shortest EXODUS song we’ve ever done. It gets in, gets out, and is just crushing,” describes Holt. While most of the songs do run on the shorter side, this album also comes equipped with crushing, epic tracks.

Whether it’s the music industry gossip sites, or the big players like CNN and FOX, we’re all aware of how news outlets love to set little rat traps; “Clickbait” discusses their methods of picking things out of context to grab your attention, add to their page views, and increase their revenue all while riling up your emotions. “It’s all journalistic dishonesty,” explains Holt, “it’s a modern-day version of Al Capone’s vault, everyone tunes in, and then there’s NOTHING.“ Evenly balanced with extraordinary speed and tremendous, catchy choruses, “Clickbait” is a song that explodes with vigorous energy. “As heavy as this album is, and it’s heavy as fuck, if times were different and there was still metal radio, this song, and probably over half the album, has single capabilities.”

Sitting as the second to last song on the album, “The Fires of Division” keeps PERSONA NON GRATA strong all the way through. “This album doesn’t operate on the normal parameters,” describes Holt, “we didn’t frontload this one, it’s strong right through to the end. It’s supposed to be a musical journey as the songs segway together.”

For the third time in the band’s history, EXODUS returned to Swedish artist Par Olofsson to create the album artwork PERSONA NON GRATA. “After this album, I feel like we probably won’t work with anyone else again, Par just gets it,” states Holt. A three-faced, winged creature sits atop a bloody pile of diseased and rotting humans as they scream in pain and reach their hands up desperately towards the beast. Undead riot cops beat mercilessly, and senselessly upon this pile of the dying and the world is red with fresh, sopping blood. “Is it an angel, a demon? Is the world being created or destroyed,” asks Holt, “you don’t really know.”

EXODUS don’t fall into the usual recording slump that most bands get stuck in. Gathering at Tom Hunting’s house up in the mountains, they avoided the need to book studio time or adhere to a certain schedule. “At first it was just Tom, myself, a half stack, and a drum kit; we call it jam camp. We lived there. We built the studio, we immersed ourselves in it. Number one, because we still enjoy each other’s company enough to do it. When we’re not actively rehearsing or recording, we’re still sitting there talking about the songs, working on them, plucking on acoustics until things really work,” explains Holt, “we’re not settling.” Working from three home-built studios, the band recorded PERSONA NON GRATA themselves with the help of Andy Sneap on mixing and mastering and with Steve Lagudi at the helm of engineering.

“As a band, I’m super grateful. I’ve seen a lot of things around the world and we’re still a band that loves each other, have each other’s back, and we genuinely like to hang out with each other,” explains Holt. “Take it how you will, but I’m this band’s biggest fan. We write songs that are designed to make us feel fired up - that’s why it’s still heavy.”

When we think of the phrase Bonded By Blood, we think of two things: a brotherhood that is meant to outlast the trials of war, pain, and time... and the almighty EXODUS. With a bond forged in youth and decades-old friendship, the undisputed masters of thrash metal return with their eleventh studio album: PERSONA NON GRATA. Literally translating to “an unwelcome” or “unacceptable” person, PERSONA NON GRATA touches on themes of modern societal disgust and degradation. “The people that disgust you - cut ‘em out like cancer,” explains guitarist Gary Holt. “Who is that person? It could be anybody. That’s up to the listener. Who is ‘Persona Non Grata’ to them?”

For decades, EXODUS has impressed us with the ability to attract opposing factions to their music because of its intensity and versatility. A track like “The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves” was inspired by the riots both in theme, and sound. “Without seeming insensitive to the riots, the song is tongue in cheek about what the people beating on the rioters were expecting to happen. Did you think you would beat a smile onto their face? At 3 minutes in length, it’s probably the shortest EXODUS song we’ve ever done. It gets in, gets out, and is just crushing,” describes Holt. While most of the songs do run on the shorter side, this album also comes equipped with crushing, epic tracks.

Whether it’s the music industry gossip sites, or the big players like CNN and FOX, we’re all aware of how news outlets love to set little rat traps; “Clickbait” discusses their methods of picking things out of context to grab your attention, add to their page views, and increase their revenue all while riling up your emotions. “It’s all journalistic dishonesty,” explains Holt, “it’s a modern-day version of Al Capone’s vault, everyone tunes in, and then there’s NOTHING.“ Evenly balanced with extraordinary speed and tremendous, catchy choruses, “Clickbait” is a song that explodes with vigorous energy. “As heavy as this album is, and it’s heavy as fuck, if times were different and there was still metal radio, this song, and probably over half the album, has single capabilities.”

Sitting as the second to last song on the album, “The Fires of Division” keeps PERSONA NON GRATA strong all the way through. “This album doesn’t operate on the normal parameters,” describes Holt, “we didn’t frontload this one, it’s strong right through to the end. It’s supposed to be a musical journey as the songs segway together.”

For the third time in the band’s history, EXODUS returned to Swedish artist Par Olofsson to create the album artwork PERSONA NON GRATA. “After this album, I feel like we probably won’t work with anyone else again, Par just gets it,” states Holt. A three-faced, winged creature sits atop a bloody pile of diseased and rotting humans as they scream in pain and reach their hands up desperately towards the beast. Undead riot cops beat mercilessly, and senselessly upon this pile of the dying and the world is red with fresh, sopping blood. “Is it an angel, a demon? Is the world being created or destroyed,” asks Holt, “you don’t really know.”

EXODUS don’t fall into the usual recording slump that most bands get stuck in. Gathering at Tom Hunting’s house up in the mountains, they avoided the need to book studio time or adhere to a certain schedule. “At first it was just Tom, myself, a half stack, and a drum kit; we call it jam camp. We lived there. We built the studio, we immersed ourselves in it. Number one, because we still enjoy each other’s company enough to do it. When we’re not actively rehearsing or recording, we’re still sitting there talking about the songs, working on them, plucking on acoustics until things really work,” explains Holt, “we’re not settling.” Working from three home-built studios, the band recorded PERSONA NON GRATA themselves with the help of Andy Sneap on mixing and mastering and with Steve Lagudi at the helm of engineering.

“As a band, I’m super grateful. I’ve seen a lot of things around the world and we’re still a band that loves each other, have each other’s back, and we genuinely like to hang out with each other,” explains Holt. “Take it how you will, but I’m this band’s biggest fan. We write songs that are designed to make us feel fired up - that’s why it’s still heavy.”

There are records with empathy, records which are your friends and then there's the others... There might be little difference between them, a certain "je ne sais quoi", an "almost nothing but still something" which makes the difference between almost pointless and vital records. Despite, or rather thanks to his cynical despair, Matt Elliott's music never holds up a moralizing mirror to us - on the contrary, it creates a compassionate dialogue with listeners like the rhythm of two steps that synchronize to become as one. In 2016, Matt Elliot brought out his seventh solo album The Calm Before whose obscure title is neither exactly threatening nor comforting... the calm before what? Before the storm for sure but maybe also before the great record, the immediate classic we felt might be coming for a long time in the dual discography of the Bristol-born artist working under his own name and his electronic alias Third Eye Foundation. The elegant details and perspectives of Little Lost Soul (2000) already hinted at the upcoming masterpiece from the English singer-songwriter. The Mess We Made (2003) was Matt Elliott's first solo album and portrayed a universe in a kind of flight towards Balkan horizons made up of visceral despair. With the Songs trilogy, he put aside the electronic side of his work to continue working with a minimalist, stark and lucid style of writing. The Broken Man (2012) was full of tears and long laments sometimes carried by Katia Labèque's piano on a record which painted new shades of grey. On this record Matt began working with the producer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist David Chalmin (La Terre Invisible) who has kept on collaborating with the Bristol-born singer since then. Their partnership continued on Only Myocardial Infection Can Break Your Heart (2013) and The Calm Before (2016). Stéphane Grégoire is the head of the Ici D'Ailleurs label which has accompanied Matt Elliott since 2005 and perhaps he describes this album the best: "This new record by Matt is without a doubt his best album to date, a record that takes him into another dimension where he fully asserts himself as a songwriter and singer of the calibre of artists like Bill Callahan, Leonard Cohen or Johnny Cash." Matt Elliott's other records all seemed like empathic links between each other. Farewell To All We Know is an instant classic based on the sensitive piano and superb arrangements of David Chalmin, the sensitive cello of Gaspar Claus, the subtle bass of Jeff Hallam (who has also played with Dominique A and John Parish). There is a clear form of alchemy in all of this and still we find Matt Elliott's usual atmospheres and scenery, the same Eastern European folk music, long songs that take time to settle over time. Everything is the same but also is transfigured. By making his music stark and purifying and redefining the subject matter, Matt Elliott's work became so much more delicate. However this work is never frail nor really turned in on himself and thus becomes like a vital tune that vibrates and unfolds. The opening song Farewell To All We Know seems torn between the fear of what tomorrow may bring, inevitability and hope for the future in a permanent and progressive dramatic tension expressed by his Spanish guitar, the impressionist style piano and Matt's voice teetering on the edge of whispers. A funereal tribute to endless twilights and the dawns we all dream of seeing. There are touches of Leonard Cohen from Songs from a Room or Thanks For The Dance in The Day After That with Gaspar Claus's counterpoint cello. There is no spirit of resignation in Matt Elliott's work - life's path has to be followed against all odds. We have to follow the river's flow to reach the immense ocean and its infinite freedom. The haunted instrumental Guidance Is Internal harks back to the atmospheres of Howling Songs (2008) with its guitar parts full of scansions and muted threats. The music is transcendental but never seems afraid of the risk of falling. This is also what Bye Now tells us with its quasi-obsolete simplicity and sunburst melancholy reminiscent of the work of Luiz Bonfá, Bill Evans on Peace Piece or laidback crooners of the 50s. In Farewell To All We Know, Matt Elliott incessantly alternates between the dual desires to face up to the world or to protect himself from it. Hating The Player, Hating The Game is a lucid statement about the dullness of our daily lives sometimes, our right to get out of the game and no longer want to be part of it. Matt Elliott is tender but spares no one, particularly himself. Aboulia speaks of the tiredness of living and of looming death while Crisis Apparition says that there is always a time for reconstruction after chaos. This is like initially wearying wandering in the ruins of Aleppo with the slow dilution of the melody into a hallucinated drone. However the smell of great fires always fades and the earth always regenerates. Matt Elliott seems to suggest that the survival instinct is stronger than any cold winds could ever be. Matt Elliott never sings of certainties and prefers possibilities. Possibly the worst is over? Maybe... Maybe the storm has passed and devastated everything, now we just have to rebuild and live again. Farewell To All We Know shows us the distance that still needs to be walked and he walks next to you - right next to you, he is the friend who doesn't spare you the truth like all true friends really do.

After delaying the inevitable for over half a decade, the west coast's most versatile indie rock everyman (Rob Crow, co-creator of Touch and Go sentimental pop superstars Pinback) and the world's most left-of-everything drummer (Zach Hill, one-half of the outlandish noise duo Hella and drummer for Deftones side-project Team Sleep) have joined forces to unite the disparate worlds of noise and pop as The Ladies on the stunningly addictive and efficient They Mean Us. More adventurous than Pinback, and more accessible than Hella, The Ladies prove to be the best of both worlds. It's even better than the ideal album you've been making up in your head for the last half decade or so.

When we think of the phrase Bonded By Blood, we think of two things: a brotherhood that is meant to outlast the trials of war, pain, and time... and the almighty EXODUS. With a bond forged in youth and decades-old friendship, the undisputed masters of thrash metal return with their eleventh studio album: PERSONA NON GRATA. Literally translating to “an unwelcome” or “unacceptable” person, PERSONA NON GRATA touches on themes of modern societal disgust and degradation. “The people that disgust you - cut ‘em out like cancer,” explains guitarist Gary Holt. “Who is that person? It could be anybody. That’s up to the listener. Who is ‘Persona Non Grata’ to them?”

For decades, EXODUS has impressed us with the ability to attract opposing factions to their music because of its intensity and versatility. A track like “The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves” was inspired by the riots both in theme, and sound. “Without seeming insensitive to the riots, the song is tongue in cheek about what the people beating on the rioters were expecting to happen. Did you think you would beat a smile onto their face? At 3 minutes in length, it’s probably the shortest EXODUS song we’ve ever done. It gets in, gets out, and is just crushing,” describes Holt. While most of the songs do run on the shorter side, this album also comes equipped with crushing, epic tracks.

Whether it’s the music industry gossip sites, or the big players like CNN and FOX, we’re all aware of how news outlets love to set little rat traps; “Clickbait” discusses their methods of picking things out of context to grab your attention, add to their page views, and increase their revenue all while riling up your emotions. “It’s all journalistic dishonesty,” explains Holt, “it’s a modern-day version of Al Capone’s vault, everyone tunes in, and then there’s NOTHING.“ Evenly balanced with extraordinary speed and tremendous, catchy choruses, “Clickbait” is a song that explodes with vigorous energy. “As heavy as this album is, and it’s heavy as fuck, if times were different and there was still metal radio, this song, and probably over half the album, has single capabilities.”

Sitting as the second to last song on the album, “The Fires of Division” keeps PERSONA NON GRATA strong all the way through. “This album doesn’t operate on the normal parameters,” describes Holt, “we didn’t frontload this one, it’s strong right through to the end. It’s supposed to be a musical journey as the songs segway together.”

For the third time in the band’s history, EXODUS returned to Swedish artist Par Olofsson to create the album artwork PERSONA NON GRATA. “After this album, I feel like we probably won’t work with anyone else again, Par just gets it,” states Holt. A three-faced, winged creature sits atop a bloody pile of diseased and rotting humans as they scream in pain and reach their hands up desperately towards the beast. Undead riot cops beat mercilessly, and senselessly upon this pile of the dying and the world is red with fresh, sopping blood. “Is it an angel, a demon? Is the world being created or destroyed,” asks Holt, “you don’t really know.”

EXODUS don’t fall into the usual recording slump that most bands get stuck in. Gathering at Tom Hunting’s house up in the mountains, they avoided the need to book studio time or adhere to a certain schedule. “At first it was just Tom, myself, a half stack, and a drum kit; we call it jam camp. We lived there. We built the studio, we immersed ourselves in it. Number one, because we still enjoy each other’s company enough to do it. When we’re not actively rehearsing or recording, we’re still sitting there talking about the songs, working on them, plucking on acoustics until things really work,” explains Holt, “we’re not settling.” Working from three home-built studios, the band recorded PERSONA NON GRATA themselves with the help of Andy Sneap on mixing and mastering and with Steve Lagudi at the helm of engineering.

“As a band, I’m super grateful. I’ve seen a lot of things around the world and we’re still a band that loves each other, have each other’s back, and we genuinely like to hang out with each other,” explains Holt. “Take it how you will, but I’m this band’s biggest fan. We write songs that are designed to make us feel fired up - that’s why it’s still heavy.”

Superb little pearl of an oldschool Italian tribe !
A big project... taking it's time to come...

Little jewel.