Buscar:technical j

"Return Of The Super Ape" was the final revelation from Lee Perry’s Black Ark Studio, a psychedelicized dub journey into uncharted sonic territories. The longplayer is now state-of-the-art remastered by Pete Norman (Finyl Tweek) and restored with original press artwork complete with inner disco sleeve!

The album from 1978 is the final chapter in the trilogy of albums in the period from 1976 - 1978 following "Scratch The Super Ape" (aka "Super Ape") and "Roast Fish & Cornbread". Produced, mixed and arranged by Lee Perry at the Black Ark Studio featuring on all tracks the skills of The Upsetters and additional vocals by The Full Experience on "Dyon-Anasaw" and "Tell Me Something Good". The frontsleeve artwork image was created by Lloyd Robinson (also known as the singer of the Studio One classic "Cuss Cuss").

Reggae expert Jeremy Collingwood says: "The Return Of The Super Ape that surfaced later in the year 1978 saw Perry way off the mainstream with a set that owed much to jazz with its loose structure and horn breaks. The title track took an early production from Perry, U-Roy's " OK Corral", and reshaped it into another futuristic outing - just like the original that had been a decade earlier. At the time few knew what to make of it and over the years its lack of proper re issue had meant it's remained a hidden Perry gem. It also marked the end of a hugely creative period at the Black Ark."

Tracklisting / side-split
Side One
A1 Dyon-Anasaw
A2 Return Of The Super Ape
A3 Tell Me Something Good
A4 Bird In Hand
A5 Crab Yars
Side Two
B1 Jah Jah Ah Natty Dread
B2 Psyche & Trim
B3 The Lion
B4 Huzza A Hana
B5 High Rankin Sammy

• Follow-up to the highly acclaimed dub album Super Ape, the album like its predecessor, was produced by Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry. This was the last album recorded by The Upsetters before Perry closed down his Black Ark Studio.
• The remastered album showcases the production skills of undisputed dub master with insanely layered textures and technical wizardry. With musical backing The Upsetters – Boris Gardiner, Mikey Richards, Sly Dunbar, Benbow Creary, Earl ‘Chinna’ Smith, Winston Wright, and Keith Sterling.
• Remastered by Pete Norman at Finyl Tweek
• Coloured Inner Bag

Contemporary classical composer Sophia Jani and violinist Teresa Allgaier announce their new collaborative work Six Pieces for Solo Violin on Squama Recordings. Characterized by its calmness and poise, each movement focuses on a particular technical aspect, bending the boundaries of the instrument while maintaining the illusion of simplicity.

Sometimes the most complicated thing anyone can do is to try to create something that feels uncomplicated. Arvo Pärt, ballet, a delicious meal we didn’t cook ourselves, Ella Fitzgerald, a safe place to lay our heads at night, a quiet pine forest – … In all these things, it takes a lot of effort to make us feel as if something is effortless.
– David Lang (from the liner notes)

Technical death metal troupe Cognitive are back with Abhorrence, their fifth full length album and a tremendously worthy successor to 2021’s Malevolent Thoughts of a Hastened Extinction. This is the New Jersey powerhouse quintet at its brutal best – unrelenting riffs leave the listener stunned, while a wave of thoughtful, devastating lyrics washes over. The album is a turbulent, draining but ultimately fulfilling experience. Cognitive started work on Abhorrence while touring Malevolent Thoughts of a Hastened Extinction, sending tracks back and forth to each other while trekking from one intense gig to another. This promises to be a big year for Cognitive, as they take Abhorrence on the road and bring more people into their vile new world. 13 years after the release of their debut EP, the band’s fifth full-lengther sees them continue to make giant strides forward while retaining the elements of their past efforts that got them this far. Abhorrence may provide therapeutic commentary about how messed up the world currently is, but also, ironically, provides a breath of fresh air. We’re all in this together, so catch Cognitive on the road this year.

Technical death metal troupe Cognitive are back with Abhorrence, their fifth full length album and a tremendously worthy successor to 2021’s Malevolent Thoughts of a Hastened Extinction. This is the New Jersey powerhouse quintet at its brutal best – unrelenting riffs leave the listener stunned, while a wave of thoughtful, devastating lyrics washes over. The album is a turbulent, draining but ultimately fulfilling experience. Cognitive started work on Abhorrence while touring Malevolent Thoughts of a Hastened Extinction, sending tracks back and forth to each other while trekking from one intense gig to another. This promises to be a big year for Cognitive, as they take Abhorrence on the road and bring more people into their vile new world. 13 years after the release of their debut EP, the band’s fifth full-lengther sees them continue to make giant strides forward while retaining the elements of their past efforts that got them this far. Abhorrence may provide therapeutic commentary about how messed up the world currently is, but also, ironically, provides a breath of fresh air. We’re all in this together, so catch Cognitive on the road this year.

"In a small room, tilt’s sound rings out like one big voice. Composed of vocalist Isabel Crespo Pardo, vocalist/bassist Carmen Quill, and trombonist/vocalist Kalia Vandever, the Brooklyn-based group writes intricate, viscerally affecting art-pop compositions that blend carefully interwoven motifs with improvisation. Their melodies are chiseled at extremes, vacillating between the angular and the achingly lyrical. All three members are accomplished artists and composers in their own right, coming from strong backgrounds in the jazz world, and featured alongside artists such as Harry Styles, Mary Halvorson, Dave Douglas, Matthew Barney and more. Their stunning debut LP "Something We Once Knew" is in its own class—a record that teaches us how to listen to it as it progresses. Recorded live in the studio without overdubs, its songs chart troubled and surreal journeys toward understanding or acceptance, passing through mystical corners of its members’ singular musical vocabularies. In these pieces, Quill and Vandever move fluidly between handling melodies with their voices and their instruments, harmonizing closely with Pardo’s melismatic lines. Though the band often works in carefully coordinated group gestures, some of the sharpest moments of catharsis on the record come during virtuosic passages highlighting individual members. Often, Crespo steps into the foreground of pieces, their unfettered vocal phrasing and unorthodox technical approaches investing the lyrics with additional layers of meaning. The music on "Something We Once Knew" might be most readily categorized as jazz, but it is hard to focus on anything but its sui generis aspects and its emotional charge."

"Beethoven On Speed is the second studio album by heavy metal guitarist and violinist The Great Kat. As a Juilliard School alumnus, it’s no surprise that she’s best known for her thrash metal interpretations of well-known pieces of classical music. Her classical background, technical skills and self-promotion are sometimes compared to Yngwie Malmsteen. The 1990 album Beethoven on Speed includes the track “Beethoven Mosh (5th symphony)”, which remains one of her most popular tracks to date. For the first time since its original release, Beethoven on Speed is being reissued. A limited edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on translucent red coloured vinyl is available, which includes an insert.

"Beethoven On Speed is the second studio album by heavy metal guitarist and violinist The Great Kat. As a Juilliard School alumnus, it’s no surprise that she’s best known for her thrash metal interpretations of well-known pieces of classical music. Her classical background, technical skills and self-promotion are sometimes compared to Yngwie Malmsteen. The 1990 album Beethoven on Speed includes the track “Beethoven Mosh (5th symphony)”, which remains one of her most popular tracks to date. For the first time since its original release, Beethoven on Speed is being reissued. A limited edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on translucent red coloured vinyl is available, which includes an insert.

"Due to the big success of The Original Source Series, on 3rd May 2024 Deutsche Grammophon will launch Batch #5, presenting four more legendary recordings. Same high standard as with the previous releases of The Original Source series: All are 4-track recordings from the 1970s, remastered by Emil Berliner Studios, using their own cutting-edge and 100% pure analogue techniques (AAA) to create versions of the highest possible audio quality.
The new batch presents much praised interpretations of the symphonic repertoire, including Karl Böhm’s iconic version of Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony and Claudio Abbado’s wonderful rendition of Brahms’s 1st Symphony, both with the Wiener Philharmoniker. Daniel Barenboim and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra are heard with their exciting recording of Bruckner’s 4th Symphony, and Rafael Kubelík’s legendary collaboration with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra. Produced on 180g virgin vinyl by Optimal, these limited and numbered releases will be issued in deluxe gatefold editions featuring the original artwork and liner notes, with additional photos and facsimiles of the recording documentation on the inner sleeve. Furthermore, each release includes a note by Rainer Maillard/EBS detailing the technical background and procedure of the Original Source Series, and an additional insert with a photo of the original tape box. Each LP comes in a protective cellophane jacket with a sticker highlighting the USPs of the series:
Pure analogue mixed & cut from the original four-track ½-inch master tapes (instead of the ¼-inch stereo copies)
Mixed by Rainer Maillard & cut by Sidney C. Meyer directly from original analogue source at Emil Berliner Studios
Manufactured at optimal media on 180-gram virgin vinyl
Original Source Series = no copy used, no extra devices in the signal pass, no digital sound processing at all; more clarity, more detail, and far less noise; Pure analogue"

Lauded experimental death metal band Dååth has emerged from its 13-year hiatus with a new album, The Deceivers, at once a devastating reminder and giant leap forward that showcases the technical wizardry and brutal intensity that the Atlanta, Georgia-bred band is capable of. After 12 years on hiatus, Dååth found their ideal new home at Metal Blade, signing to the label and wasting no time creating new music, cover songs (Death’s “The Philosopher” and Morbid Angel’s “Where the Slime Live”) and reissuing previous albums. The first new song from the revitalized Dååth, “No Rest No End” (released ahead of the album in February, 2023), features guest solos by Spiro Dussias and now-Daath member Trujillo, who impressed Levi so much while guesting on the track that he was invited to join the band. Metal Injection called the song “massive,” with Sean Z. saying, “The first time I heard 'No Rest No End' in demo form, I was blown away! I immediately knew exactly what I wanted to do vocally. The words practically flew off the page. During every step of the creation process, the song was an obvious masterpiece.” The band began their journey in 1999 and stayed busy for just over a decade before its 2011 hiatus. In that time, Dååth released four studio albums—2004’s Futility, The Hinderers in 2007, The Concealers in 2009, and their self-titled LP in 2010. Tours with Cattle Decapitation, Dark Funeral, Cynic, Nile, Slayer, Dragonforce, Goatwhore, Chimaira, Dying Fetus, and Devildriver followed. Dååth also landed a coveted spot on Ozzfest playing before tens of thousands of fans in outdoor amphitheaters across the US, in addition to the infamous and long-running metal tour Summer Slaughter. Levi believes this is the most focused and deadly version of Dååth to date, and is excited about what’s in store. “The chemistry is great, because we can talk about stuff that would normally be uncomfortable for a lot of musicians to do without causing problems,” he says. He’s lived a lot of life since the band went away over a decade ago and admits that his mindset is very different now than it was during the original run. “We're taking this to its full potential, letting nothing and nobody stand in our way,” Levi concludes. “If you're not going all out, what's the point?"

Full of Hell Coagulated Bliss bio Full of Hell burst forth with incredible force from the small, dagger-shaped city of Ocean City, Maryland, 15 years ago. Over five full-lengths, five collaborative full-lengths, and countless splits, EPs, singles, and noise compilations, they’ve evolved at extraordinary speed, their music becoming more complicated and technical without ever slowing down or losing its soul. Everything on a Full of Hell album feels like a blur: smears of guitar, harsh noise shaken like gravel in a bag, singer Dylan Walker’s snarl and bite carrying him into outer space or into the core of the earth. They’re coiled, interlocking, impossible to penetrate, and they move with alarming speed. They have now reached terminal velocity. Having created their own context, they’re now able to walk around within it, to survey its terrain, to visit far corners and see who’s nearby. Coagulated Bliss sounds like Full of Hell, but it’s nothing like any Full of Hell record that’s come before it. These songs are trimmer, less freighted with anxiety, more interested in opening up than speeding away. Its bile is sometimes funneled into traditional song structures. It never shies away from the extreme harsh noise, unrelenting spirit, and pitch-black sadness of previous Full of Hell records; if anything, the leanness of these songs makes them feel even heavier. Nevertheless, there are tracks here you might find yourself whistling hours after listening. It’s an extraordinary and unexpected evolution in sound for a band who made their name on rapid metamorphosis, and it’s the logical endpoint of everything Full of Hell has covered so far..

Necrot continue their ascent to the forefront of American aural extremity, pushing the boundaries of style and continuing to recast metal in their image. Founded by bassist, vocalist and principal songwriter Luca Indrio and drummer Chad Gailey in 2011 – guitarist Sonny Reinhardt joined the next year – the Oakland, California, trio offer Lifeless Birth (in continued collaboration with Tankcrimes) as a culmination of their to-date efforts to encapsulate and push forward the deathly stylings of 2020’s Mortal and their 2017 debut, Blood Offerings. It’s not about giving up a ferocity that’s helped make them a household name among the converted. Instead, Necrot use that same, by-now-characteristic intensity as the backdrop for an expanded songwriting palette. They’ve always been a band who stood out. The maturity they show on Lifeless Birth confirms that’s been the plan all along. It is a vision of what metal can be and do in 2024, tearing down old barriers and keeping those traditional elements that make it stronger. Recorded with Grammy-winning producer Greg Wilkinson (who has helmed all three Necrot albums) and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege, Lifeless Birth pivots fluidly between technical intricacy, progressive poise and all-out brutality. Scouring lead work will have thrash heads nodding knowingly, and an overarching groove reaches out across the metal microgenres with a righteous call to worship. Its songs are memorable and varied, unpretentious but able to rear up with statelier violence. At the same time, “Drill the Skull,” “Cut the Cord,” “The Curse” and others prove that just because a song is beating you into the ground doesn’t mean it can’t also be forward-thinking. Or catchy. After having their Mortal tour plans scuttled owing to the covid pandemic, family health issues that led Luca, who became a US citizen in 2016 and currently lives in Mexico, to return to Italy for a time canceled what would have been their first tour post-plague. Still, despite this and Chad suffering a broken back, requiring multiple surgeries and intense physical therapy to be able to drum again, period, Luca being struck with Bell’s Palsy the night before he was originally due to fly to the studio to record, and Sonny requiring multiple surgeries on his hands in the months since they finished, Necrot charge forward with material distinguished in its real-world point of view and willingness to look beyond extreme metal tropes in lyrics, the melodies of its guitar solos, and unbridled audience engagement. For a collection of songs that feel so much written for the stage, it should be no surprise tours early in 2024 and summer festivals are to be announced. Mortal (2020, Tankcrimes) was #2 on Billboard's Top New Artist chart, #30 on the Top Current Albums chart, #4 on the Current Hard Music, and #10 on the Heatseeker Albums chart for week of release. Necrot have toured in North America, Europe, Australia and Japan, and shared the stage with Cannibal Corpse, Immolation, The Black Dahlia Murder, Suffocation, Morbid Angel, and hundreds of others. Expect no letup as Lifeless Birth brings Necrot all the more to their own place among metal’s superlatively aggressive proliferators. – JJ Koczan

US progressive metal band EXIST make their return this Spring with their fourth album, Hijacking the Zeitgeist, set for release via Prosthetic Records on April 12. EXIST’s latest full-length sees the group expand upon their established dichotomy of extreme metal technicality and sanguine atmospherics with an intentionally more concise approach to songwriting, resulting in the most direct and emphatic album of their 14 year career. Similarly to 2020’s Egoiista, EXIST took on a keen co-production role as recording sessions commenced in early 2022, with the band emphasising a collaborative approach to the songs arrangements. Drum co-production was handled by John Douglass (Mr. Bungle, Entheos and The Contortionist) before vocals were handled by Mike Semesky in the winter. Hijacking the Zeitgeist’s sonic heft isn’t without its diaphanous counterpoints too, as Phelps and new addition Charles Eron (guitar and synths) craft deceptively complex interplay on album high points in Thief of Joy (featuring Sanjay Kumar of Inferi and Wormhole), Blue Light Infinite and soaring closer Window to the All. EXIST’s sonorous sonic landscape is bolstered by immersive rhythmic lock-ins between Alex Weber (bass and vocals) and Brody Smith (drums), that shine in Anup Sastry’s mix and Kris Crummett’s mastering work. At the core of Hijacking the Zeitgeist lies a multifaceted exploration of algorithmic rabbit holes, conspiratorial paranoia, and the universal traits that lie within humanity - these cautionary tales are tied together in striking detail with album art by Sebastian Jerke. EXIST treats both the allure and perils of both digital mazes and the real world, with equal parts wide eyed awe and horror.

'Mei Semones' sweetly evocative blend of jazz, bossa nova and math-y indie rock is notonly a way for her to find solace in her favorite genres, but is an intuitive means ofcatharsis. "Blending everything that I like together and trying to make something new -that's what feels most natural to me," says the 23-year-old Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter and guitarist. "It's what feels most true to who I am as an artist." Plinking guitar tones and asymmetrical time signatures exemplify her forays intoangular indie rock more now than ever before, especially on her debut Bayonet Recordssingle "Wakare no Kotoba"_its wide-interval arpeggios in odd meters being some ofthe most technically difficult guitar work Mei has ever implemented in her songwriting.Translated to "parting words'' in English, the self-described "anti-love song" serves as afarewell to a toxic friendship, complete with orchestral swells and crashing guitars. Originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan, Semones began playing music at a young age,starting out on piano at age four before moving to electric guitar at age eleven. Afterplaying jazz guitar in high school, she went on to study guitar performance with a jazzfocus at Berklee College of Music. College is where she met her current bandmates,including string players Noah Leong and Claudius Agrippa, whose respective viola andviolin add softness and multidimensionality to Mei's intricate guitar work. After releasinga slew of singles and an EP in 2022, coinciding with her move to New York City, Mei andher band have since gone on to collaborate with post-bossa balladeer John Roseboroand embark on their first-ever tour with the melodic rock outfit Raavi. Semones chronicles infatuation, devotion, and vulnerability in her songs, complete withsweeping strings, virtuosic guitar-playing and heartfelt lyrics sung in both English andJapanese, that have all become part of her sonic trademark: ornately catchy, genre-fusing compositions serving as the backdrop to tender lyrics touching on theuniversalities of human emotion.

Technically, Yeah. Detroit artists Eddie Logix and Jo Rad Silver alchemize sonic matter on Real, No. The EP emerges from years of creative collaboration and blends each of the artists’ strengths into a deep-house, hi tech jazz, dubby leftfield assemblage straight from the pulse of today’s Detroit.

Since 2017, the pair has been producing tracks and co-curating Technically, Yeah., an influential monthly happening that encourages (Live) electronic musical expression. The duo’s curation is grounded in community, widely genre-diverse and steadfast in commitment to technological experimentation. The Real, No. EP distills this ethos and puts it on wax.

While Jo Rad is known for techno leanings and Eddie for organic jams (recently on Rocksteady Disco,) the two transform beats into substance with a diverse and thoughtfully constructed release. Glued together with attuned mixing from Salar Ansari and cut loud at Archer Pressing in Detroit, the EP’s range puts deep grooves in the bag for every discerning DJ.

AKKA’s Side: “King David” sticks the synthy deep house groove right in gear with a driving, bubbling bassline and floating effervescent vocal chops from and for a special someone. “Mango Strut” offers a slight island twang and dives into a breaky depth of a bracing cathartic arpeggiated, hand drum ecstasy. A vitamin filled chugger.

BEEP’s Side: The duo recorded “June Buggy” the first time they jammed together on a borrowed Juno. This propulsive Italo-ish conga groover is a mechanical piece of action. The record ends by summoning the ancestry of “Callin’ Dybbs,” a textured hi-tech jazz heater. Kasan Belgrave, young-gun horn of known pedigree, lays down the sax. The sultry brass tones lock in with buxom stabs. For those who know and those who don’t yet. This one holds depths!

“Fierce jazz buggin futurism in outerspace” - Luke Una

“Driving and psychedelic and gorgeous hi-tech.” - Peter Croce

“Perfectly crunchy soul squeezed jams begging to be rinsed” - 2Lanes

“Funky, jackin’, atmospheric, groovy, ravey and ethereal”- Father Dukes

“I’m calling dibs on callin’ dybbs!” - DJ Etta

Williams was one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time, but she was also a victim of geography. Her technical brilliance, complete control of the piano, creative imagination, wit, and constant desire to stretch herself put her at the top of her field although relatively few (beyond her fellow pianists) seemed to realize it during her lifetime. Born and raised in Baltimore, she recorded her first three albums in her hometown. But other than a few lesser-known sets in Europe, a handful of albums for Jazz Focus in Canada and her Red & Blue label in Detroit, and just two projects in New York for the Max Jazz label, all of her recordings were made on the West Coast where she lived starting in 1976. Jessica was reluctant to travel much, particularly in her later years, and her visits to New York were rare so she was largely overlooked by East Coast critics. Listeners who are only familiar with Jessica Williams’ later work where she is generally heard with a trio or as a soloist stretching out mostly on standards (although focusing more on originals on her own small label’s releases) will be surprised by Orgonomic Music. The pianist heads a septet, the largest group on any of her many recordings. While Jessica plays some stunning lines on the piano, the emphasis is as much on her writing as on her playing, and each of the other musicians get opportunities to have their say. Orgonomic Music, which was released by the small Clean Cuts label in 1981, has been out of print for decades. The original eight selections (six of the pianist’s originals, one piece by Stone, and John Coltrane’s “Dear Lord”) are joined by two previously unreleased performances.

For Fans of Robyn, Tirzah, Charli XCX, Mica Levi, Jessy Lanza, Maurice Fulton. "Don't come closer, because I might hurt you boy / You don't deserve it, I treat you like a toy." So sings 28-year-old South East London musician Tatyana on "It's Over", the sad and squelchy electro-leaning title track to her second album. Primarily written and produced over the summer of `23, It's Over follows the loose trajectory of a not-quite-relationship from the year before. But, more than that, it's an album about modern dating, alienation and the confines of existing online. If you've heard Tatyana's name before, it's probably because she released a debut album back in 2022, Treat Me Right, co-produced with Metronomy's Joe Mount, a record she describes as more of a collaboration. For It's Over, Tatyana took control of every aspect of the album's creation, from the production (she co-produced it alongside Mikko Gordon) to the artwork and the technology she used throughout. "This record made me technically proficient because I really pushed myself," says Tatyana. "I figured out a lot of things that I didn't know before. In the past, I allowed others to lead the charge and I'm not doing that any more." Born in London, before moving to Russia, Holland and Singapore in her teens, before eventually studying music at Berklee College in the USA - which she attained on full scholarship - and then back to London, Tatyana imbues her music with both haywire technical proficiency and encyclopaedic, far-flung tastes. Mostly, though, her sound originates from a pure love of the dancefloor: Robyn, Tirzah, Mica Levi, Jessy Lanza, The Knife. You can hear these dance-pop influences everywhere, from the colourful synth shapes of "Control (ft. Dave Okumu)" to the crackling analogue hiss of "Nothing is True, Everything is Possible". Lean in a little closer, too, and you might catch the shimmer of a harp on every song (she's played harp since she was a little girl, and toured extensively as a professional session harpist). "I write about love, I write about romance, these are the things that interest me," says Tatyana. "That's what this record is. It's about this relationship that broke my brain and I had to write about it."

"As Bill Orcutt’s most mature and exhilarating LP to date, Music for Four Guitars was a slab of undeniable Apollonian beauty. Its approachability and obvious novelty landed it not only on the year- end lists of every key-pushing codger in the underground in 2022, but also on NPR in the form of the Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet, an ensemble assembled to perform this music and featuring Wendy Eisenberg, Ava Mendoza, and Shane Parish in addition to Orcutt. But while their Tiny Desk Concert gave a whiff of the quartet’s easy intimacy, the sterile confines of the virtual recital medium still left a puzzle unsolved: how might these brutally mannered bricks of minimalist counterpoint sound on a stage in front of actual breathing bodies?" "This was the question foremost in my mind when I first saw the quartet in San Francisco a few months before this double live LP was recorded. I was already familiar with the prowess of Eisenberg and Mendoza, two of the most technically intimidating shredders to blast out of the noise/improv underground, and knew Parish as the mastermind behind the epic translation of Orcutt's quartet recordings into a fully notated score. I was ready to be 'blown away'—and I most assuredly was. The quartet navigated Orcutt's jaggedly spiraling right angles into the shining core of the compositions with joyous ease, faithful to the originals in nearly every way (though their tempos were slightly ramped up, Blakey style, to communicate their breathless rush). The renditions were flawless, stellar and inspiring. I had expected nothing less." "Which leads us to this album, Four Guitars Live, recorded in November of 2023 at Le Guess Who? festival during the quartet’s first European tour. The true essence of this set is not simply in its faithfulness to the source compositions, but in the group's easy familiarity (no doubt the result of weeks on the road) and the generosity of their improvisations, both collective and solo. Orcutt, clearly cognizant of both the caliber of his collaborators and the singularity of their voices, has given everyone room to stretch out, and all have delivered some of their most moving passages to date." "One of this record's great thrills for me is imagining a listener, perhaps unfamiliar with the outer limits of contemporary guitar improvisation (or the Tzadik catalog), slammed into catatonia by Mendoza's liquefying lines on Out of the corner of the eye, then revived and healed by the languid, breathy lines of Parish's unaccompanied, spaced-out breakdown of the track's main theme, finally only to be crushed by Eisenberg’s staggering extended solo on Only at dusk (somehow channeling both Eugene Chadbourne and Buck Dharma)." "There's another peak, which begins at the end of side B, in Orcutt's own languid solo, encapsulating the flowing focus of his recent solo LPs, and serving as an introduction to the next side's ensemble tour de force, the psychic heart of the album, On the horizon: its melodic core passing first to Orcutt, launching into a sublime solo turn by Eisenberg, a duo of Parish and Mendoza, before parachuting back into the ensemble for a smashup rendition of Barely visible and Glimpsed while driving (renamed Barely driving) knitted together with an softly bubbling ensemble improvisation. The transfer is orchestrated yet seamless, its tonal form undeniable even in the presence of obvious dissonance." "The breadth of Four Guitars Live gives lie to the false notion that agile, polytonal improv is necessarily without soul, is necessarily inaccessible. Rather, Four Guitars posits a human avant-garde music that the most conservative will recognize as virtuosic and revel in its classic intervals, boiling counterpoint, and precisely- layered facets. Even the rockers in your life might dig it, so why not pass it on?"—Tom Carter

"Worship Me or Die! is the 1987 debut studio album by heavy metal guitarist and violinist The Great Kat. As a Juilliard School alumnus, it’s no surprise that she’s best known for her thrash metal interpretations of well-known pieces of classical music. Her classical background, technical skills and self-promotion are sometimes compared to Yngwie Malmsteen. The album Worship Me or Die! includes the track “Metal Messiah”, which remains one of her most popular tracks to date. For the first time since its original release, Worship Me or Die! is being reissued. A limited edition of 1000 individually numbered copies is available on silver coloured vinyl, which includes an insert."

Worship Me Or Die! by The Great Kat, released 15 March 2024, includes the following tracks: "Death to You ", "Worship Me or Die! ", "Speed Death ", "Ashes to Dust " and more.

This version of Worship Me Or Die! comes as a 1xLP. This release comes with (a) Insert(s).

The vinyl is pressed as a silver disc.

Merengue Típico: Nueva Generación! delves into the heart of Dominican merengue, a genre whose significance often eludes the spotlight. Bongo Joe's venture into unexplored terrain takes us to the Caribbean, specifically the Dominican Republic, shedding light on its musical tapestry. Curated by Xavier Daive, aka Funky Bompa, the compilation unveils rare '60s and '70s gems, providing a glimpse into a transformative period following the fall of the Trujillo regime.

With over 20 years in the Dominican Republic, Xavier Daive meticulously sources original 45s, offering a snapshot of merengue's evolution during a creatively charged era post-Trujillo. The genre's roots, dating back to the 19th-century Dominican Republic, predate salsa, establishing its unique identity with the introduction of accordions via German trade ships. The genre's classic típico configuration emerged in the mid-'60s, leaving a lasting impact on its evolution.

Focused on the explosive '60s and '70s merengue típico scene, influenced by genre pioneers like “Tatico” Henríquez and Trio Reynoso, the compilation showcases technical finesse and high-speed rhythms. Tracks like Rafaelito Román’s "Que Mala Suerte" embody the genre's infectious energy. Aristides Ramírez’s "Los Lanbones" adds a touch of humor, cautioning against pub freeloaders. Merengue Típico: Nueva Generación transcends the realms of a typical reissue; it's an immersive journey into mthe roots of Dominican merengue, expanding its narrative beyond borders to enrich the global musical landscape.

This compilation goes beyond individual tracks, providing a historical and cultural context, enriching our understanding of the genre's evolution in the Dominican Republic during a crucial period. Designed for both connoisseurs and wild dancefloors, this compilation is not only a historical and cultural exploration but also a treasure trove for DJs seeking to infuse their sets with the vibrant rhythms of merengue típico.

Brooklyn-based artist Jonah Parzen-Johnson returns with the new album You're Never Really Alone, out on We Jazz Records, March 8. If you look at the label on the LP containing eight intimate compositions for baritone sax & flute, you will find the words, “we made this together”. At first thought, this simple phrase may seem out of place on a solo record, but just like the compositions on this album, it was carefully crafted to cut to the core of what this music is all about.
In Jonah’s words: “It’s pretty hard to end up at a solo saxophone concert by accident. Odds are pretty good, if you are there, it is because you light up when you experience something new, something experimental. That shared desire connects us, and suddenly, for a night, we are a community. For me, being connected to those spontaneous communities is the best part of being an experimental artist. Everything I make is in service to the cultivation of that community, our community. Without it my music doesn’t exist and because of that I can joyfully say to each person, at every concert, that we made this together.
”You’re Never Really Alone arrives in stark contrast to Parzen-Johnson’s 2020 We Jazz Records solo debut, Imagine Giving Up. Where Imagine Giving Up was celebrated for Parzen-Johnson’s ability to assemble deeply evocative electr acoustic sound worlds, “filling the landscape in one element at a time until a picture emerges that could almost be a full band,” (Wire Magazine, March 2020) You’re Never Really Alone shows us that Jonah can look you in the eye and say “my voice alone is enough”.
Across eight tracks, Parzen-Johnson, a Chicago native, explores the technical limits of his baritone saxophone and flute without ever making the listener feel like he has something to prove. You will find circular breathing, multiphonics, and explosive levels of sound, but more importantly, you will enjoy every moment of musical storytelling and compositional skill. This album is made for repeat listening.
The opening track, “When I Feel Like Myself” is a meditative invocation of self realization. Parzen-Johnson summons three and four note harmonies from his saxophone with deep control, as he gently explores how tension can become its own release. An unadorned melodic thread gently weaves each musical expression to the last, guiding us deeper into an album that simultaneously celebrates the power of one, and the yearning for exploration that unites us all.

Back in print on vinyl! Deerhoof debuts their new guitarist John Dieterich and achieves widespread critical acclaim for the first time. 2002's Reveille is a defiant expression of artistic rebirth, spilling over with madcap exuberance, apocalyptic imagery, newfound technical confidence belying their no-budget DIY recording methods, and jarring stylistic about-faces in which no two songs sound alike. The contrast of Satomi's ever-catchy, ever-charming melodiousness with John and Greg's noisy, cinematic bombast still has the power to thrill and tickle and upset, more than 20 years after its initial release. Includes reimagined cover art with the faint morning glow the band had always envisioned, pressed on clear sun-colored vinyl. Complete lyrics included for the first time, written by Satomi on the center labels.

"Something happened on No. The early EPs from Baltimore’s Tomato Flower were pretty, dreamy psychedelia. Warm to the touch, like looking up at the trees on a cloudless day. On No, the four-piece’s debut album, those trees, that cloudless sky, have become haunted, thorny, stormy. It takes Tomato Flower from buttoned-up, almost technically formalist psych pop to something more urgent, raw, emotionally immediate. No is messier, more expansive, and through all of its chaos, the band’s most rigorous artistic statement to date.

No is the band’s first effort made entirely in person, the first thing tracked in a studio instead of in a bedroom. It is a highly collaborative record written and recorded by everyone, partially made live. It is very much the byproduct of a band that has done some serious touring, following a coast-to-coast tour with Animal Collective in the summer of 2022.

Lead single “Destroyer,” has Jamison Murphy practically screaming over angular guitars, oscillating in a sonic space somewhere between the prettiness of Broadcast and the sludge of Jesus Lizard. It also presents an early entry point to one of No’s major conceptual underpinnings: that of the breakup between Murphy and fellow co-lead vocalist and guitarist Austyn Wohlers, which occurred during the composition of the album.

It wouldn’t be fair to just call No a break up album. It’s far more complicated with that. No is a record about negation: I will not do this, you cannot tell me what to do, we are not living in a utopia, don’t be delusional. No embraces a kind of brutal realism, a confrontation of life that only happens when you wizen up a little bit. All of it is a brutal delight, a departure from the past, a nod to a startling present."

Original Son del Barrio, from Monterrey; presenting their first album Tropical Gueto. A trip through different neighbourhoods, with a collection of sounds ranging from Digital Cumbia and Hip-hop to Reggae and Tropical bass. Created as a collaboration between Mexico and Germany (featuring founding member and singer Angel Perez, and Dj and producer Andres Digital), this tropical experiment begins with a series of concerts in Rome, Amsterdam and Paris. Plans are laid for the co-production of Tropical Gueto in said tour; and the resulting efforts saw the participation of Indepe Roots, Bianca Ciocca, Moska Hernandez, Joyce Musicolor and Feo Feo Records; as well as Gran Om, on art duties. Tropical Gueto sets the bar high for Digital Cumbia, setting a clear benchmark for the genre. Angel Perez (aka Son del Barrio) lends his voice to the streets and the “barrio” culture of Monterrey, in the expressive language of his own lyrics and compositions; through the sensitivity and technical ingenuity of producer and Dj Andres Digital (aka Jaky Tuff).

Recommended If You Like: OOIOO, Blonde Redhead, Guerilla Toss, Rolling Stones, Liars, Marnie Stern, Yoko Ono, Battles. Clear Sun Vinyl. Reissue of Deerhoof’s 2002 album Reveille. First Deerhoof album with guitarist John Dieterich. Back in print on vinyl! Deerhoof debuts their new guitarist John Dieterich and achieves widespread critical acclaim for the first time. 2002’s Reveille is a defiant expression of artistic rebirth, spilling over with madcap exuberance, apocalyptic imagery, newfound technical confidence belying their no-budget DIY recording methods, and jarring stylistic about-faces in which no two songs sound alike. The contrast of Satomi’s ever-catchy, ever-charming melodiousness with John and Greg’s noisy, cinematic bombast still has the power to thrill and tickle and upset, more than 20 years after its initial release. Includes reimagined cover art with the faint morning glow the band had always envisioned, pressed on clear sun-colored vinyl. Complete lyrics included for the first time, written by Satomi on the center labels.

For a long time, the music of Congo-born Bony Bikaye had to be sought in the purgatory of "world music", where diamonds in the rough cohabited with bland nightmares of white dudes who froze rumba like fish sticks. Worse, they did put it on the menu, when so many longed to move on. Take Bikaye, who grew up listening to modern european music, digs Krautrock, struggles with tradition, obviously looking for trouble in the genre. In Brussels, he recorded a few albums with CY1 (Loizillon/Micheli), and brilliant defectors from Aksak Maboul, produced by Hector Zazou. Now it's up to french trio TONN3RR3 to take up the torch and build this project that proudly brags: "It's a bomb". Thought up at home by Guillaume Gilles (compo/keyboards), the album was finished at One Two Pass It studio, with Olivier Viadero and Gae"lle Salomon on percussion, Yoann Dubaud (machines & bass) and Guillaume Loizillon (synth of CY1 fame, and matchmaker of this affair). It's a deeply musical record, crafted by no-attitude reference players with nothing left to prove, and you can hear it. Floats well above the fray. "Keba na butu", beware. Indeed : beyond the simple pleasures of soukouss, or the rumba guitar riff that spins like a merry-go-round that skipped technical inspection, lie lush orchestrations. Freestyle, synthetic : something old, something new, something what-the- fuck-is-that-now. There's straight, there's syncopated, there's 808 and knee-jerk inducing bass patterns_with a vision. BIKAY3 plays his voice more than ever. His crazy vibrato has improved like hard liquor over the years. In "Zela" and "Balobi" in particular, he puts it to good use with flamboyant, Screamin' Jay Hawkins-style antics. He can also resort to pure storytelling : "La fore^t et les dieux", is a French-spoken excursion into the wild, moving along in grasslands of synths and percussion with TONN3RR3. A tale of gods and spirits, plain and simple. Nicole Mitchell brings the occasional flute in "Akei" for this trip in the bush of ghosts where lingala and kikongo rub with English and French. They saved "It's a bomb" for the end, a bastardized rumba, with rimshots that slap like a cool hand on willing skin. We're living in a golden age of reissues coming out in droves and satisfying our desire to catch up on our neighbors' musical heritage, but let's not miss the boat : it's now or never to listen to the music of the living. - Halory Goerger

Best known for his work for legendary Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul (he even designed the enigmatic “bang” in 2021’s labyrinthine ‘Memoria’), Japan’s Koichi Shimizu has been honing a unique musical language since the early ‘90s, where some of his earliest material can be found on a split LP with Yoshiteru Himuro via once-iconic imprint Worm Interface (itself home to music from Autechre side-line Gescom). ‘Imprint’, was initially released quietly back in 2021 and has been remastered for this new edition, removing one track and bumping it up with four more, making it all available on vinyl for the first time.

The album offers a perfect overview of Shimizu’s broad palette, ranging from fine-wrought keys to electronic brutalism and guttural rhythmic pulses, plotted with an underlying narrative cadence that evinces his ability to heighten the impact of moving image, whilst also colouring the imagination with ephemeral sound imagery. His tekkerz are in bracing, anticipatory effect on a retooled, expanded version of his music from ‘Memoria’ within the convulsive, swarming silhouette of ‘Imprint’, and ‘The Path’ finds his aural accompaniment to ‘Uncle Boonmee...’ given room to breathe and develop into an unexpected, OOBE-like experience. In ‘Moth’ he magnifies and anthropomorphises a winged insect with finely chiselled technical nous, and his exquisite arrangement to ‘Faded Sign’ is somehow comparable to the ephemeral emotional register of cinematic collaborations between Ryuichi Sakamoto and Carsten Nicolai.

2023 Repress

Frank Maston’s Tulips is a sample-ready film score to the best 70s movie never made. Originally a super-limited self-release on his Phonoscope label in late 2017, Tulips has already become incredibly sought-after. Be With were introduced to Maston by mutual friends Aquarium Drunkard and it didn’t take long before we decided this modern classic deserved a reissue.

Inspired by the deep-grooving soundtracks of Italian cinema - think Morricone, Umiliani and Alessandroni - Maston conceived the entire Tulips project as a continuation of these revered works. Frank designed the artwork and made two 16mm films to accompany the music: “It wasn’t just the LP… it was kind of a whole vibe I was trying to create. Not really trying to emulate the things that influenced me but more trying to make something that could sit alongside those records on a shelf. I’m still very proud of the project.”

There’s a distinct library music feel too, with wiry organ, spacey keyboards and loping 60s guitar hinting at KPM and DeWolfe. Like the best library music, Tulips creates a cinematic universe through sound alone, evoking moving images in the listener’s technicolour imagination. It turns out that was accidentally on purpose: “I was discovering a lot of library music for the first time… listening to a composer’s entire catalog or finding all this obscure stuff. I wasn’t entirely conscious of the influence until I started making this music and realized I was channeling the vibe. That’s when I began focusing more on weaving melodic themes throughout the record to make it function more like a soundtrack”.

Tulips was recorded between 2015 and 2017 in a small studio in a village called Zwaag in Holland, during downtime from Frank’s touring duties with Jacco Gardner’s band. “Tulips” comes from the title of the very first demo he made in Holland, it was the first thing that came to mind. Makes sense.

Recording in Europe with some very European influences in mind, Frank wanted to eschew any American influences. But we can still feel the studio wizardry of the likes of Brian Wilson and Harry Nilsson in there somewhere. A psychedelic bedroom-pop song-cycle, full of hypnotic hooks and dusty drums, Tulips manages to sound charmingly homemade yet wholly widescreen.

Dreamy opener “Swans” is an exquisite soul instrumental and recalls the soft-psych of Koushik, which Be With loves of course. Tropicalia influences abound in the cool and breezy “New Danger” and the KPM-references are loud and proud on the lush organ pop of “Old Habits”. Fast-paced “Chase Theme No. 1” manages to be both tense and laid back, decorated by acid-drenched spaghetti Western guitars. The glorious Gainsbourg-esque melancholia of “Infinite Bliss” is all gauzy flutes and happy-sad vocalizing and the title is almost perfect: it’s bliss, no question; *if only* it went on forever. Side A closes with “Evening”, a subtle bossa nova beat thing. Gorgeous.

Side B opens with the heat-shimmer guitars of “Rain Dance”, evoking an unreleased Byrds or Buffalo Springfield backing track. Yes, it’s that good. “Sure Thing” is music to accompany an elevator ride you never want to end, but in a good way! The ornate “Garçon Manqué” is as beautiful as the instrumentals on Pet Sounds (think “Let’s Go Away For A While”) and the wistful “Turning In” starts like a stroll in the park before Maston introduces a scorched-Earth guitar solo that would startle if it wasn’t so pitch-perfect. “Chase Theme No. 2” is a briefer, more keening counterpart to what we hear on side A. The head-nod bass-drums-keys funk of “Hues” rounds out this staggeringly assured set; still opening each phrase with a plaintive strum, but using vibrato and heavy reverb to accent the electric organ melody. Sublime.

All these top drawer musical references might sound like just more of the usual release notes hyperbole, but there’s a reason that this still-young LP already changes hands for big money. It really is that good. Of course that first pressing didn’t hang around for long and Frank’s regularly been asked about a re-press pretty much ever since.

Re-issuing Tulips on Be With made sense to Frank “because the record would fit in so well with the catalogue”. Having already delved into the archives of KPM and Themes, and beginning to do the same with Coloursound and Selected Sounds, the collaboration “just makes sense and seems inevitable”. We agree.

Frank wasn’t sure a record of instrumentals with obscure soundtrack references would be an easy sell when it was originally released, and was surprised when Tulips turned out to be exactly what some people wanted to hear. We reckon its timeless beauty ensures that it’ll *always* have an audience.

The record was originally cut to be played at 45rpm, a technical quirk that grants the home listener the opportunity to go deeper, for longer. Played at 33rpm, the more languid unfurling of the tracks proves just as wonderful a trip. As a psilocybin-soaked case study from Aquarium Drunkard back in January of 2019 describes, some of the songs sound as if they were intended to be heard that way. The slower speed allowing the listener to step inside and perhaps even “crack the code” of the music’s meaning.

Mastered for this vinyl reissue by Simon Francis and featuring alternative burnt orange artwork from Maston himself, this Be With pressing is limited to just 500 copies. Hypnagogic it may be, but please don’t sleep.

Danielle Boutet’s P »Pièces« is a mysterious artifact of Quebecois marginalia, self-released in 1985. Moving from languid ennui to high drama, »Pièces« is a dreamy gestalt, an album that borders Chanson, spoken-word, jazz noir, and minimalism, conjured from the chasm between acoustic and electronic realms. »Pièces« allows us a window into the highly intimate songcraft and compositional skill of an artist who longed to linger not in the public eye, but in relation with others and the world around her.

Born in Quebec City, Boutet studied music at the University of Montreal, where she focused on composition and percussion, before becoming involved in Montreal’s feminist and lesbian art scene. Primarily written, performed, and recorded by Boutet, with voice, guitar work, and technical assistance by Sylvie Gagnon, Pièces was created during a paradigm shift in home recording. Originally composed for the piano, Boutet and Gagnon utilized a consumer-friendly Tascam 4-track Portastudio and versatile Yamaha DX-7, alongside guitar, bass, marimba, and the human voice, to expand and contemporize the original composition’s scope.

Inspired by prog rock and British poet and musician Anne Clark, »Pièces« translates Boutet’s influence by moving between sunny, wistful fairytale and dark, wintry dirge. Filled with longing marimba, vertiginous, startling synth pads, and folk guitar, each track on Pièces offers a wholly unique proposition. Some are modal and rife with the ethereal psychological tension of a sci-fi soundtrack, while others are more like entering a smoke-laced lounge, the entertainer embodying seduction.

With the sprechgesang of artists like Serge Gainsbourg, there is an intense intimacy to Boutet’s delivery, sometimes as if she is performing for an audience of one. As one lyric goes, translated to English from French: “Like holograms/ Images from a world/ That inhales souls/ And exudes drama.” Another song contains an excerpt from The Tao of Physics: “The eastern sages specify clearly that they do not identify an ordinary void, but rather, a void having an infinite creative potential.”

To English-language audiences, the album’s title, »Pièces«, might seem to simply refer to the eleven different pieces. The title can also, of course, refer to parts of a larger whole, but Boutet is keen to point out that there is also another meaning: In French, a pièce is a room. On the cover of the original cassette, Boutet is seen sitting on a chair, alone in an empty apartment, a cable snaking at her feet. Listening to »Pièces« is like entering eleven different rooms: whether a study encased in shadow, a greenhouse left to wither in an eternal frost, or a divine nave.

Boutet sold a few dozen copies around Montreal, a scene mostly occupied by the new wave explosion de rigueur, but the inclusion of Pièces in the 1987 issue of Ladyslipper—the North Carolina-based mail order catalog that championed women musicians of all calibers and careers—led to more exposure throughout North America. “In the catalog,” Boutet says, “they included it in the New Age section, but I was, and still am, aware that this album is relatively unclassifiable.”

Boutet would release one more album, titled Musiques Urbaines, before getting pulled in the direction of interdisciplinary art and theory. “Although I never stopped making music, I lost all interest in public diffusion or performance,” Boutet says. Despite her departure from performance and publicly releasing music, she left behind a strange and enthralling document of Montreal’s 1980s feminist fringe, an aural document of the historic moment when self-recorded music and its practical potential became a prismatic reality.

Danielle Boutet’s Pièces arrives February 16, 2024 as part of uncommon¢ (“uncommon sense”), an open-ended, serialized endeavor from Freedom to Spend that provides new meaning for rarefied recordings from music’s outermost fringe.

Legendary US Metal masterpiece finally available again on deluxe180 grams vinyl after more than 35 years! With their sound and style completely defined on their previous and nearly perfect album, “Soldiers of the Night”, Vicious Rumors continue on with yet another outstanding sequel that could go hand in hand with their debut. This is pretty much US Power Metal with actual riffs, and some technical and mindblowing riffs at that with Geoff Thorpe’s tremendous skill and incredible songwriting. The standout here is hands down vocalist Carl Albert (Rest in peace). Nothing but energy sparks from his every lyric spoken. His aggressive and energetic mid-range performance can easily be matched to Bruce Dickinson. Vicious Rumors were truly out of this world when Carl was with them, this being the flawless beginning of that legacy. Its nearly impossible to pinpoint Vicious Rumors exact sound and style and just throw them in one genre, because you really can not. There are a few Speed Metal songs here, a few more Power Metal orientated ones, few hints of progessive structures, and even some Thrashy parts from time to time. Standout tracks would be the self title track, “Minute to Kill”, “R.L.H (Run Like Hell)”, and “Towns of Fire”. Then again, this whole album is just great with no real low points at all. In the end, this is an essential Vicious Rumors album, and often hailed as their finest release!

"Due to the huge success of the Original Source Series and due to frequent wishes by both fans and critics alike, DG have decided to launch a reprint of all four titles of Batch 1 – marked as “SECOND EDITION”. Same Quality, just without numbering. THE ORIGINAL SOURCE is a new series of celebrated albums reissued on vinyl. These new releases include Claudio Abbado’s fascinating interpretation of works by Debussy and Ravel with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (1 LP), the legendary recording of Brahms’s Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 with Emil Gilels, the Berliner Philharmoniker and Eugen Jochum (2 LPs), and Verdi’s Messa da Requiem in the iconic version of Herbert von Karajan and Berliner Philharmoniker (2 LPs). The renowned Berlin-based Emil Berliner Studios are remastering 4-track recordings from the 1970s, using their own cutting-edge and 100% pure analogue techniques (AAA) to create versions of the highest possible audio quality. Compared to the original releases, the advantages in sound are outstanding: More clarity, more details and a better frequency response, less noise, less distortion, less compression – the highest possible audiophile quality which gives listeners the chance to enjoy this repertoire like never before.
Produced on 180g virgin vinyl by Optimal, these limited and numbered releases will be issued in deluxe gatefold editions featuring the original artwork and liner notes, with additional photos and facsimiles of the recording documentation on the inner sleeve. Furthermore, each release includes a note by Rainer Maillard/EBS detailing the technical background and procedure of the Original Source Series, and an additional insert with a photo of the original tape box. Each LP comes in a protective cellophane jacket with a sticker highlighting the

"Due to the huge success of the Original Source Series and due to frequent wishes by both fans and critics alike, DG have decided to launch a reprint of all four titles of Batch 1 – marked as “SECOND EDITION”. Same Quality, just without numbering. THE ORIGINAL SOURCE is a new series of celebrated albums reissued on vinyl. These new releases include Claudio Abbado’s fascinating interpretation of works by Debussy and Ravel with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (1 LP), the legendary recording of Brahms’s Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 with Emil Gilels, the Berliner Philharmoniker and Eugen Jochum (2 LPs), and Verdi’s Messa da Requiem in the iconic version of Herbert von Karajan and Berliner Philharmoniker (2 LPs). The renowned Berlin-based Emil Berliner Studios are remastering 4-track recordings from the 1970s, using their own cutting-edge and 100% pure analogue techniques (AAA) to create versions of the highest possible audio quality. Compared to the original releases, the advantages in sound are outstanding: More clarity, more details and a better frequency response, less noise, less distortion, less compression – the highest possible audiophile quality which gives listeners the chance to enjoy this repertoire like never before.
Produced on 180g virgin vinyl by Optimal, these limited and numbered releases will be issued in deluxe gatefold editions featuring the original artwork and liner notes, with additional photos and facsimiles of the recording documentation on the inner sleeve. Furthermore, each release includes a note by Rainer Maillard/EBS detailing the technical background and procedure of the Original Source Series, and an additional insert with a photo of the original tape box. Each LP comes in a protective cellophane jacket with a sticker highlighting the
"

"Due to the huge success of the Original Source Series and due to frequent wishes by both fans and critics alike, DG have decided to launch a reprint of all four titles of Batch 1 – marked as “SECOND EDITION”. Same Quality, just without numbering. THE ORIGINAL SOURCE is a new series of celebrated albums reissued on vinyl. These new releases include Claudio Abbado’s fascinating interpretation of works by Debussy and Ravel with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (1 LP), the legendary recording of Brahms’s Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 with Emil Gilels, the Berliner Philharmoniker and Eugen Jochum (2 LPs), and Verdi’s Messa da Requiem in the iconic version of Herbert von Karajan and Berliner Philharmoniker (2 LPs). The renowned Berlin-based Emil Berliner Studios are remastering 4-track recordings from the 1970s, using their own cutting-edge and 100% pure analogue techniques (AAA) to create versions of the highest possible audio quality. Compared to the original releases, the advantages in sound are outstanding: More clarity, more details and a better frequency response, less noise, less distortion, less compression – the highest possible audiophile quality which gives listeners the chance to enjoy this repertoire like never before.
Produced on 180g virgin vinyl by Optimal, these limited and numbered releases will be issued in deluxe gatefold editions featuring the original artwork and liner notes, with additional photos and facsimiles of the recording documentation on the inner sleeve. Furthermore, each release includes a note by Rainer Maillard/EBS detailing the technical background and procedure of the Original Source Series, and an additional insert with a photo of the original tape box. Each LP comes in a protective cellophane jacket with a sticker highlighting the
"

The Marshall Mathers LP 2 is the eighth studio album by Grammy Award winning rapper Eminem. It was released on November 5, 2013, by Shady Records, and Interscope Records. The album serves as a sequel to his third album The Marshall Mathers LP (2000). Featuring executive production by Dr. Dre and Rick Rubin this record became an instant classic. The album also features guest appearances from Skylar Grey, Rihanna, Nate Ruess, and rapper Kendrick Lamar, among others.

The Marshall Mathers LP 2 was regarded as one of the most anticipated albums of the year. The album was revealed during the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards in August, alongside a preview of its lead single “Berzerk”. The next two singles were “Survival” and “Rap God”. “The Monster” (featuring Rihanna) was released as the album’s fourth single and reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The album’s fifth single “Headlights” (featuring Ruess) was released in 2014.

The Marshall Mathers LP 2 debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, selling more than 792,000 copies in its first week. In March 2017, it was certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It was met with positive reviews by critics, with praise directed at Eminem’s technical rapping abilities and production choices. The album was also named on multiple best album year-end lists. It won Eminem a record sixth Grammy Award for Best Rap Album at the 2015 Grammy Awards.

In celebration of this prolific album, we will be releasing a Digital Deluxe edition along with a 2CD and a limited edition 4-LP featuring 16 original tracks plus 5 bonus tracks, and 6 instrumentals.

***After birthing Street Riffs, their hi-definition, hi-energy, statement from 2020, CCR Headcleaner turned inward. The retreat from the pro-studio to the home studio was partially by design and partially decided by global events. Cleaner is very much a pandemic album, more of a homespun head trip than its predecessors. At the same time guitarist, songwriter and spiritual center of the group, Lacey Emmanuel, left the Bay for the shores of Lake Michigan. By most accounts an apocalyptic live-band became by and large a home recording animal. This is most apparent when Headcleaner turns up the balladry. “Don’t Feel the End” is a proto-metal campfire anthem, and “Everyday” hovers somewhere between keyboard misfit John Bender and the White Album. Make no mistake, the record will still be filed under “Punk” at your local record shop. It kicks off with “the brining pt. 2” the hottest slice of Funhouse free-rock that the band has committed to record. “Too Much” gives us its jail abolition rap over a two chord hardcore stomp. In a town (San Francisco) that is experiencing something of a DIY pop renaissance, Headcleaner has always fought to establish the fact that they have actual songs. This is no 70s throwback, but instead an attempt to up the ante. Without all the rock histrionics, technical arrogance and misogyny can the rock riff deliver on its ultimate promise: heavy music for total liberation. All tracks were mixed and lovingly fucked with by none other than Eric Bauer at his Bauer Mansion (RIP) Chinatown SF.

Celebrated techno producer, sound artist and one half of ORKA, Jens L. Thomsen announces groundbreaking EP ÆÐR, landing 15th December via Kervið. ÆÐR (meaning ‘vein’ in English) is a uniquely atmospheric two-track EP, exploring modernity and post-war freedom through a Faroese lens. Commissioned for Eysturoyartunnil, a 12km subsea tunnel - the largest of its kind - in Jens’ native Faroe Islands, a structural marvel with striking art that has both a voice and aesthetic identity of its own. The EP currently lives as a live audio installation, broadcast around the clock on FM radio for anyone travelling through the tunnel. This is the first time a soundscape has been permanently installed and broadcast via this kind of technical solution allowing the sound to become part of the experience of the space itself. As one half of revered techno duo, ORKA, twice nominated for the Nordic Council Music Prize, who recently released their sixth album, All At Once, and an integral part of Yann Tiersen’s live band, Thomsen has already made a significant impact in electronic music. ÆÐR is an expansion of his work as a composer, which includes several site-specific soundscapes, including NORD which was commissioned by the Southbank Centre and installed across the entire fifth floor of the Royal Festival Hall in London.
On ÆÐR, Thomsen brings his talent for one-of-a-kind environmental sonic experiences to a wider audience. A paean to human endeavour and the developmental history of humanity, the tunnel is at once progressive and ancient: a liminal setting where late-modern and pre-modern longings somehow seem to rub off on each other. These intersecting ideas are translated into a striking soundscape of dark drones, creeping frequencies, bleeping ambience, groaning masses of sound, and pulsating echoes from the hidden world beneath us. The underworld that we somehow are able to move through temporarily in our car under the sea, giving the tunnel and the islands a voice of their own, while exploring the parallels between the tunnel and Faroese society today.
This uniquely immersive and compelling work, previously existing only as a transitory experience for users of the Eysturoyartunnil, is now available on vinyl for the first time to be considered and enjoyed in all its fascinating detail. A thought-provoking and groundbreaking piece from one of Europe’s most exceptional composers and sound artists today

tapetopia 004 The Leipzig band Neu Rot represented a singular phenomenon within the alternative music reservoir of the GDR. As with so many bands that cultivated a more sophisticated sound in the late 80s, Neu Rot’s beginnings had been in punk rock. But, with a remarkable rigour against itself, the band steadily worked its way towards post-rock. This thorough process came to fruition in 1988 with the production of the tape “Halt An”. It had been preceded by the band’s struggle for its very own means and their technical feasibility. Neu Rot’s pilgrimage to its own centre was not unimpeded. The band’s name was perceived by the GDR’s cultural watchdogs as an erratic chain of associations between the suspicious word “Neu” and the ideological signal colour red. The band was legal, but its lyrics were deemed illegal. The edition of “Halt An” was somewhere between over fifty and under one hundred copies. Jörg Stein (voc, g, casio sk-1, yamaha ps-2) Karsten Maaß (bg, voc) Anke Mehlhorn (vl, casio sk-1) Henrik Eiler (dr, voc, casio sk-1) Produced by Mike Stolle & Jörg Stein Lyrics by Jörg Stein, except „Sometimes“ and for „Die Schlange“ by Christoph Wielepp Tape artwork by Daniel Schörnig Tape cover photos by Daniel Schörnig Published by Henryk Gericke Liner notes by Henryk Gericke Remastered by Black Flag Mastering/ Friedemann Kootz © Music by Neu Rot except „Sometimes“ (traditional) recorded Oktober 1988, Leipzig Thanks to: Mike Stolle, Adrian Neumann, Nikolaus Michael, Horst Pfaff, Andreas Berger, Christoph Wielepp, Daniel Schörnig and to the unknown roommate Lachmund Christian Andersen, Michael Barthel, Sarah Baumann, Ralph Gabriel, Ronald Galenza, Jakob Geisler, Ulrike Geisler, Gerd Gericke, Elke Grabinski, Gabriele Herzog, Egmont Hesse, Sabine Jansen, Siegfried Männer, Bettina Matten-Gericke, Christian Morin, Frank Siewert, Philipp Strobel, Christoph Tannert, Stefan Widdess, Margarete Wohlan In memory of Michael Pfaff.

Repress!

Food Music welcomes A1 Bassline to the label to release his first LP - Technicality.

The album's title draws from the club night 'Technicality', a monthly Drum & Bass night at Herbal in East London, which is run by Chris Inperspective and continued the sound of early Reinforced and Metalheadz records as well as pushing new forward thinking music. The album is centred around growing up as a teenager discovering this jungle/drumfunk sound through his college friend Rahim (Lab Creation), where the likes on Fold, Ben UFO, Breakage would attend the club.

In addition to well received records on DirtyBird, Pets Recordings and his collaborative work with Leon Vynehall as Laszlo Dancehall, the album is a stamp on A1's sound and his influences from his teenage years to growing up and discovering House and Techno.

"This is an album to treasure - it'll surprise you at every turn" Joel McIver (Record
Collector) One of the most influential bands to emerge from the UK's festival
scene, the Ozrics layer ambient & ethereal landscapes with freeform dub trips,
incredible rave grooves & psychedelic progressive rock. It's an open exploration
of music & the soul. For over 30 years, the Ozrics have experienced the
vicissitudes of the rock & roll life. The band has flourished through a number of
line- up changes, spawned several side projects, created their own record label,
scored a hit record & sold over a million albums world-wide. And yet, the basic
motivation behind the band's existence has never wavered.Their signature blend
of hippy aesthetics & raver electronics with spiraling guitars, textured waves of
keyboard & midi samplers & super- groovy bass & drum rhythms continue to
delight fans across the world to this day.Originally released in September 1999,
'Waterfall Cities' was a giant leap forward for the band, taking a more obvious
step into electronica, whilst still managing to retain their unique sound. An
explosion of keyboards, acid squelches & blistering guitar passages, the musical
& technical brilliance of the Ozrics comes to the fore in strange & unexpected
ways on this album.'Waterfall Cities' - Remastered by Ed Wynne & available on
Double LP via Kscope.

Producer / composer / multi-instrumentalist Angel Marcloid records music under the moniker Fire-Toolz. Though Marcloid’s output emerges in a litany of aliases and projects — from the jazz fusion / new age of Nonlocal Forecast to the vaporous nostalgia of MindSpring Memories — the Fire-Toolz catalog remains the central focus of the prolific artist’s musical universe and a home for Marcloid’s most ambitious work.

"I am upset because I see something that is not there.", the fifth Fire-Toolz album to join the Hausu Mountain catalog since 2017, follows 2021’s sprawling double-album Eternal Home and 2022’s self-released EP I will not use the body’s eyes today. I am upset… offers listeners a prismatic cross-section of juxtaposed genres and compositional contortions to explore, maintaining Fire-Toolz’s signature density and complexity while tightening the scope of Marcloid’s experimentation into the project’s most focused song cycle to date.

Perhaps more than any previous Fire-Toolz album, I am upset... presents some form of pop music, carried in Marcloid’s passages of clean vocals, in the bright synth tones that animate its tracks, in the yearning saxophone lines that pour into view and whisk the narrative onto a new path. The format of a one-person “band” carries a different weight in a landscape of solo artists crafting modernist productions that don’t allude in the slightest to various twentieth-century rock-related traditions. Fire-Toolz exists on both sides of this divide. The music of Fire-Toolz draws energy on a moment-to-moment basis from the constant fluctuation between seemingly disparate styles, yet Marcloid repeatedly pulls off the impossible feat of making chaotic deviations and improbable jump-cuts between ideas sound holistic, as if such compositional gambits were already logical to begin with. Bursts of harsh textural noise cut into drifts of new age synth bliss, while screamo verses bookend passages of hyper-technical jazz fusion.