quête:tell her

Kojaque follows his critically acclaimed cult concept record, ‘Deli Daydreams’, with an
expansive, urgent debut album. In this landmark debut, Kojaque mines both his
emotional interior as an artist, and the external forces of a love triangle barrelling
towards chaos. ‘Town’s Dead’ is a mind-bending, explosive and expansive trip,
documenting a tumultuous love triangle that unfolds across New Year’s Eve in a
place where gentrification poses as much a threat as the violence of street dealers.
Sonically, the record smashes any previous expectations, stretching an aural palate
that leaps from rage to solace, from clattering musical combustions to tender
ruminations. The tremendous scope and scale of ‘Town’s Dead’ demonstrates an
artist utterly untethered to assumptions about what a particular voice or genre should
be, and instead explores radical musical territory. Dark corners of parks, bedrooms,
clubs, streets and psyches are excavated and pouring over the rubble is an artist
who refuses to conform, unafraid of the vulnerabilities that are exposed when the
voice rings true, because there’s just no point in being anything else.
Kojaque is part of a new wave of Irish artists flooding the world with blistering and
sophisticated literature, film and music - ideas and work that emerged from a social
revolution stonewalled by late-stage capitalism. Welcome to that state of mind, where
the path less travelled is the only one worth taking.
On the announcement of his debut album Kojaque has said: “‘Town’s Dead’ comes
from the potential that I see in Dublin and in the people I’m surrounded by day in and
day out. There’s nothing but talent and ambition among young people, I’m constantly
reminded of that through the art and music that I see being made but I think so often
the city grinds you down, it takes your hope and your ambition. I know that it can
change because so many of my friends express the exact same wants, desires and
frustrations with living in Ireland. If so many of us are on the same page then I know
that things can change, there just needs to be some sort of catalyst to kick start that
change and for me that’s always been art and music. Time and time again, amazing
art continues to be made in spite of the struggles and setbacks that are presented
when living here. The title track and the album is a fight against what can sometimes
feel inevitable, it’s a rejection of what people tell you is your destiny as a young
person in the city, Town’s NOT dead it’s just Dormant.”
CD housed in digisleeve containing 12-page lyric and photo booklet.
Black double vinyl housed in 5mm wide spine single sleeve with 12-page lyric and
photo booklet.
“Hints of Odd Future and its offspring... Kojaque is not your average rapper” - i-D
“Dublin’s hip-hop community are making waves right now... an intimate introduction
to the world this bold artist inhabits” - Clash
“Social realist rhymes set to silky hip-hop” - NME
“Likeable and funny” - Trench
“The Dublin MC forcing us to face real life; both the gory and the glory” - Wonderland
“Ireland’s freshest hip-hop hope, Kojaque, serves ‘soft hip hop’ with a side order of
poetry and performance art” - Notion

Cloudwalker was entirely written and produced between March and November 2020. The album is a welcome return of Martin Haidinger's more notable style after the floating tranquility of the ambient/drone series of albums like Entre Les Chambres and Deux Nouvelles. What's contained within Cloudwalker mirrors its name. Haidinger takes Gimmik on a somewhat weightless journey above the clouds floating between the electronic music he nurtured in the Toytronic years.
These new tracks represent a production concept where Martin saw himself more like a witness of a moving organism than a planning architect. This approach gave the music the space to evolve more freely, like clouds. It broadened the emotional sound pallet of Gimmik's style without denying its heritage. The same philosophy was implemented when choosing the produc- tion tools, representing technology from 1958 to 2019, including field recording and manipulated real instruments.
The emphasis is clearly on songwriting rather than nano edits and ball bearings down stairs beats. The result is clean melodic electronica, bouncy Electro, engaging maternal downtempo, and expertly crafted modular synthesis. Every detail has the technical Haidinger approach with a strong focus on telling a story, leaving a lot of emotional space for the imagination of the listener. Cloudwalker is a confident and warm return to form from an artist that was sorely missed in his time away.

Includes Download Code and Special Insert Drawing !
Quindi Records continues to yield intriguing prospects as we reach the third edition, moving from Woo's astral ruminations via Cabaret Du Ciel's sonorous meditations on to the dusty, dusky mantras of Dead Bandit. Maintaining the ambiguous creative practices of the label's previous releases, From The Basement r eaches to the earth for the malleable grit of post-rock while making the most of the broader sonic outlooks afforded by kosmische and electronic effects processes.
Dead Bandit are Chicagoan songwriter Ellis Swan and Canadian multi-instrumentalist James Schimpl. Swan has previously released solo works including the stunning, inward-looking album I'll Be Around, a lo-fi Southern gothic dragging the husk of country ballads through battered signal chains. In Dead Bandit, Swan and Schimpl's artistic vision casts its gaze outwards on a vast expanse, where the distortion has space to stretch its legs and the drums pound out into open space. There's a common tonality at work here, the duos guitars telling a thousand hard-bitten tales where Swan's voice falls silent. It's no surprise to learn Swan and Schimpl's reference points include Neil Young's Dead Man soundtrack, SF noise rockers Chrome and the imperial work of the late, great Mark Sandman of Morphine.
You can sense Jim Jarmusch's America just lingering behind the road-weary thrum of 'These Clouds' and detect the shadow of Tom Waits lurking in the raunchy lurch of 'FF M'. The pointedly titled 'Sedated' calls to mind the slowcore movement and its rejection of rock n' roll's fixation on speed. Instead, tonality and atmosphere are key across From The Basement , although the ambient lull of 'I See Her There' is the exception rather than the rule. Dead Bandit's desert sound has vibrancy and immediacy to match its moodiness, from the sultry swagger of opening track 'Mud' to the bold and borderline bombastic 'When I Looked Around'.
Like the previous Quindi releases, this record is inherently experimental in nature, but not at the expense of its warmth and instant appeal. From the basement, an inquisitive pair with primitive tools look out and imagine a colossal plain as the canvas on which to paint their picture

Lisa Milberg and Jon Bergström started their band Miljon over a pitcher of margarita in Mexico City and have since kept busy writing gorgeous little pop-songs in makeshift studios in and around their hometown of Stockholm, Sweden – mostly in their bedrooms and various cabins in various woods surrounding the city, never staying too far from the pine trees.
Having assembled a collection of 13 pieces of proper flaskpost-disko, these demos were passed on to Studio Barnhus’ in-house mixmaster Matt Karmil, who worked his studio magic on the recordings, turning them into a seductively warm and spacious debut album. “Until then, our only expenditures for the album were wine bottles and taxis”, says the band.
This isn’t the first time Miljon has teamed up with Studio Barnhus, the ever-explorative Stockholm dance label. The band collaborated with Barnhus co-founder Axel Boman on the wistful piano-house ballad “Forgot About You” in 2018 (“a summer anthem … a marvel of simplicity” - Pitchfork) and the label’s core personnel are all regulars at Arranging Things, the design store (“Stockholm’s coolest” - Vogue) that Lisa runs with another friend.
Going further back, Miljon isn’t the first musical project of neither Lisa’s nor Jon’s – the former enjoyed her fair share of 00's indie rock success as drummer and eventually lead singer of The Concretes, while Jon has earned a reputation as the hardest working man in several Swedish music scenes, bringing energy and expertise to punk stages around the country as well as Stockholm’s electronic underground.
With Miljon, the two friends make sure to keep it short and sweet, happily celebrating imperfections. “We believe in ‘first thought, best thought’ and try to work on the songs as little as possible, instead trusting a good melody and a nice vibe, not overthinking it. We dare you to find a bridge on this album!”
With “Don’t They Know”, the duo presents not only 13 beautiful songs (perfect for shower-humming, living roomshuffling and warm summer night boombox-blasting alike) but also an album that turns into something grander than the sum of its parts.
“We made it because it’s the kind of album we’ve been wanting to hear ourselves. It’s all quite song-centric these days and it feels rare to find a whole album to step into and stay inside, you know? We hear great songs all the time, but we wanted an album that was its own little universe, with its own mayor, own happy hour, its own yard sales and extramarital affairs.”
“Don’t They Know” is released through Studio Barnhus as a vinyl LP June 18.

"Guts finest selection from his DJ sets. Some dancefloor classics and some discoveries"

Any DJ set tells you, unconsciously or not, about its author.

Through the record choices and the way they are organized, one can feel the DJ’s state of mind and find out a bit more about the musical deposit discovered that is being shared and dug through by him or her at the moment.
The appetite for diggin’, the quest for a novelty or a forgotten rarity is what makes a DJ set a true organic living matter constantly fueled although not always, unfortunately, respected.
Time stretching. Too many DJ’s made a pact with this diabolical creature. A true digital steamroller that runs over the rhythm to fix the tempo while leaving behind an agonizing drummer whose sole crime was to have been carried away by his energy and having moved forward the BPM. At the end, everything that gave charm and life to the track, its imperfections and the peculiar fact that it makes you dance faster towards its end… all these along with all the lively movements contained within the track are reduced to nothing.

My conception of music and DJ sets is the exact opposite. Since the first volume of Straight From The Decks, my DJ sets have been redesigned, refreshed and improved. However, there was no preexisting plan, they evolved naturally following my new desires.

The famous core of my indispensable musical choices started to morph little by little into something different without losing sight of its center of gravity which remains undoubtedly afro-tropical.
No matter which track, its style and its origin, the quality of the music that is brought to my ears is always my sole and primary concern.
In this selection, you’ll find 7” vinyl records available to everyone sitting proudly next to some rarities found online and acquired through nerve-raking auctions battles. There are indeed exclusive remixes along with titles that until now were only available in their digital formats. Now for the first time they are available here in vinyl format. Obviously, if you have chosen the CD format, that precision doesn’t really matter…
Sixteen titles which have become the heart of my sets throughout this past year.
A heart which in a year will beat to a certainly different drum…
Pura Vida
Gutsto attend the next one..."

From the moment she began writing her new album, Japanese
Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner knew that she wanted to call it
‘Jubilee’. After all, a jubilee is a celebration of the passage of time
- a festival to usher in the hope of a new era in brilliant technicolor.
Zauner’s first two albums garnered acclaim for the way they
grappled with anguish; ‘Psychopomp’ was written as her mother
underwent cancer treatment, while ‘Soft Sounds From Another
Planet’ took the grief she held from her mother’s death and used it
as a conduit to explore the cosmos.
Now, at the start of a new decade, Japanese Breakfast is ready to
fight for happiness, an all-too-scarce resource in our seemingly
crumbling world.
‘Jubilee’ finds Michelle Zauner embracing ambition and, with it, her
boldest ideas and songs yet. Inspired by records like Bjork’s
‘Homogenic’, Zauner delivers bigness throughout - big ideas, big
textures, colours, sounds and feelings. At a time when virtually
everything feels extreme, ‘Jubilee’ sets its sights on maximal joy,
imagination and exhilaration. It is, in Michelle Zauner’s words, “a
record about fighting to feel. I wanted to re-experience the pure,
unadulterated joy of creation… The songs are about recalling the
optimism of youth and applying it to adulthood. They’re about
making difficult choices, fighting ignominious impulses and
honoring commitments, confronting the constant struggle we have
with ourselves to be better people.”
Throughout ‘Jubilee’, Zauner pours her own life into the universe
of each song to tell real stories and allowing those universes, in
turn, to fill in the details. Joy, change, evolution - these things take
real time and real effort. And Japanese Breakfast is here for it.
Available on clear with yellow swirl coloured vinyl.

Is Joe's 2nd album on Sable Noir recordings. It's a recollection of tunes put on a side throughout the years in the idea to make an album, and englobing all the different aspects possible of some of the music the producer has been up to.

Flow LP takes its influences from triphop to dub techno, ambient music to jungle, soulful drum and bass of course, but also cinematic ambient scores to darkest and percussive 170 joints.

The point here was to be able to tell a story bringing all those different styles all together, and also to deliver an album. Not only for dj's, but also for a full listening purpose. That's why we also released this album, in vinyl, digital, but also in a good old fashioned CD version too.

We hope this cosmic journey through all those styles makes you feel something special. Wherever you listen to it.

Sable noir recordings, but also everything behind this LP is a friend and family co working team, and it is a real pleasure to finally be able to bring this to you now!

** 12” LP edition of 300 copies with cover artwork and booklet featuring illustrations by Ettore Tripodi ** In September 2019 Alessandro Bosetti was invited by fellow composer and curator Riccardo La Foresta to create a new work for a newly created ensemble as part of a residency program hosted by Centro Musica in Modena, Italy. The very first encounter took place on Skype – kind of a prediction of the forthcoming physically distanced pandemic times. The first, straight-to-the-point question Bosetti posed to each musician was to tell him the history of their life. The materials collected in the interviews subsequently underwent a process of anonymization, selection and cut-up in order to create the imaginary autobiography of Didone, a genderless character on whom Bosetti composed a combinatory poem in 84 aphorisms, six of which have been translated into music. The ensemble consists of extremely different musical profiles: the contemporary soprano Giulia Zaniboni, minimalist banjo and acoustic guitar player Glauco Salvo, and four musicians with a jazz background such as guitarist Luca Perciballi, drummers Andrea Grillini and Simone Sferruzza, and saxophonist Dan Kinzelman (also part of Hobby Horse trio and long-time collaborator of Enrico Rava). Some of the stylistic features of Bosetti’s project Trophies (along with Kenta Nagai and Tony Buck) can be detected here and there. Persistent repetitions, mesmerizing sonic masses and extended, oblique melodic lines are here led by the clear and precise voice of soprano Giulia Zaniboni.



The voice is at the heart of this work: the textual fragments of the autobiographies are filtered through Zaniboni’s contemporary vocality, while informing the instrumental writing as well. Themes and textures unveil traces of words or sentences; fragments of biographies are embedded in the intricate instrumental dialogue between the two drummers. A final layer was added by Ettore Tripodi, a unique and out-of-time visual artist who imagined Didone in a series of illustrations accompanying the poem. "Didone" is a work about the reconfiguration and recombination of identities, where every specific sense of belonging melts into an indistinct swarming of possibilities.



Alessandro Bosetti is a Marseille-based composer and sound artist with a particular interest in the musicality of language and in the voice, conceived as an autonomous object and an instrument of expression. His works enact a dialogue between language, voice and sound within complex tonal and formal constructions, often crossed by oblique irony. He builds surprising devices, often linked to the radio medium and to a tireless reflection on the relationships between music and language, questioning aesthetic categories and listening postures.



His work has been shown in reference venues such as the GRM / Présences Electronique festival in Paris, Roulette and The Stone in New York, Café OTO in London, the Liquid Architecture Festival in Melbourne and Sydney, the Serralves Museum in Porto and the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival. His music is released by labels such as Errant Bodies Press, Holidays Records, Rossbin, Sedimental, Unsounds, Monotype, Weird Ear Records.

Summertime: Willie Nelson Sings Gershwin includes pop standards penned by
America’s legendary songwriting duo George and Ira Gershwin.

As Willie tells it: “Ira and George Gershwin were just fantastic writers. They wrote some of the greatest songs ever. The Gershwin songs have been here for many, many years. When I was just a small guy, I remember hearing all these great Gershwin songs and they’ll be around forever because great music like that just does not go away.”

Among the 11 Gershwin classics recorded by Willie Nelson for the album are two duets: “Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off” with Cyndi Lauper and “Embraceable You” with Sheryl Crow.

Summertime: Willie Nelson Sings Gershwin debuted at number one on the Traditional Jazz and Top Jazz Albums Billboard charts, becoming Nelson’s third album to top the latter. Meanwhile, it reached number fourteen in Top Album Sales and reached number forty in the Billboard 200.

Now available as a limited edition of 1000 numbered copies on transparent red vinyl, including an insert + Willie Nelson on Music On Vinyl catalogue insert.

The Süddeutsche Zeitung hailed Johanna Summer’s performance
at the Young Munich Jazz Prize in 2018 as “a small sensation.”
The pianist, born in Plauen in Saxony in 1995, had encompassed
the whole gamut, from jazz freedom to classical rigour. The critic
from this respected newspaper marvelled at her “amazing gift to
make well-known melodies sound so convincingly her own, they
develop a real sense of creative urgency.” Summer’s winning of
the prize itself became almost incidental; far more significant was
the fact that this competition heralded the arrival of one of the
most interesting new pianists in European jazz.
For her debut album, Summer has chosen to make compositions
by Robert Schumann the point of departure for her journeys into
pianistic fantasy. Schumann’s cycles of piano pieces
‘Kinderszenen’ (scenes from childhood) and ‘Album für die
Jugend’ (album for the young) had been familiar to her since
childhood, not just as player and listener but also - because
Schumann was from nearby Zwickau - as works by someone from
her region of Germany. From an early age she was enchanted by
both the melodic and the pictorial aspects of these short pieces.
And yet, to make her own adaptations of seven of the pieces was
a far from a simple task: “I worked for a long time on re-casting
them, trying out all of the pieces in all keys and in a lot of different
time signatures, creating several miniature interpretations and
finally arrived at this selection, which I shaped into a cohesive
sequence with a single arc.”
The depth of her involvement with the original Schumann pieces
comes across strongly on the album. As does her impressive and
complex personality as a jazz musician with a very wide range of
expression: romantic passages and an instinct for melody but also
powerful grooves and exciting innovations. And all imbued with a
sense of how to tell stories through music, a mature and clear
vision of dramaturgy, dynamics, tension and atmosphere. A
sentence written by Schumann seems to predict exactly the kind
of new life that Johanna Summer has breathed into these pieces:
“How infinite is the realm of forms, with everything that can be
used and worked on for centuries to come.”

4LP box set including Angel Olsen’s latest two albums, ‘All
Mirrors’ and ‘Whole New Mess’, as well as an LP of bonus
audio. Also includes 40-page book including photo shoot
outtakes, pictures from the recording of these albums,
handwritten lyrics and items of meaning to Angel.
Originally conceived as a double album, ‘All Mirrors’ and
‘Whole New Mess’ were distinct parts of a larger whole, twin
stars that each expressed something bigger and bolder than
Angel Olsen had ever made. Released in 2019, ‘All Mirrors’
is massive in scope and sound, tracing Olsen’s ascent into
the unknown, to a place of true self-acceptance, no matter
how dark, or difficult, or seemingly lonely. ‘All Mirrors’ is
colossal, moving, dramatic in an Old Hollywood manner.
Recorded before ‘All Mirrors’ but released after, ‘Whole New
Mess’ is the bones and beginnings of the songs that would
rewrite Olsen’s story. This is Angel Olsen in her classic style:
stark solo performances, echoes and open spaces, her voice
both whispered and enormous. ‘All Mirrors’ and ‘Whole New
Mess’ presented the two glorious extremes of an artist who,
in these songs, became new by embracing herself entirely.
Now, with ‘Song of the Lark… And Other Far Memories’,
these twin stars become a constellation with the full extent of
the songs’ iterations: all the alternate takes, B-sides, remixes
and re-imaginings are here, together. Alongside, a 40-page
book collection tells a similar story, not just through outtakes
and unseen photos but through the smaller, evocative
details: handwritten lyrics, a favourite necklace, a beaded
chandelier. As if it could be more plainly stated (there’s
nothing more), Angel adds one cover here: a loving,
assertive rendition of Roxy Music’s ‘More Than This’.
It is a definitive collection, not just of these songs but of their
revelations and their writer, from their simplest origins to their
mightiest realizations.

black vinyl in mirrorboard gatefold jacket with die-cut! Much like the New Orleans-born artist who created it, Second Line is an unapologetic genre bender that pushes boundaries, expands possibilities, and shatters expectations. It's more than just an album: Second Line is a cohesive sensory experience that questions traditional ideas of sound, production, and visual aesthetics as they relate to music. Its interlocking parts tell an epic story about the quest for artistic expression, with Dawn describing her project as "a movement to bring pioneering Black women in electronic music to the forefront." She elaborates: "You never see women appreciated as producers and artists alike _ especially Black women in the electronic space. The time is now for us to start recognizing their talent, not only in electronic music but in all genres. I wanna be the reason why a young Black girl from the South can be whoever she wants to be musically, visually, and artistically." Second Line cuts to the chase with its opening suite of dancefloor bangers, immediately displaying Dawn's mastery of layered production and melodic hooks. Second Line treats Louisiana Creole culture, New Orleans bounce, and Southern Swag as elemental, allowing Dawn to weave in and out of house, footwork, R&B, and more. As she says, "I am the genre." The story of Second Line centers on Dawn's persona King Creole, assassin of stereotypes, a Black girl from the South at a crossroads in her artistic career. To move forward, she decides to look back, but where previous album New Breed took influence from her father, Second Line is illuminated by Dawn's mother. Her proud repeated proclamation of "I'm a Creole Girl" introduces the ecstatic dancehall pop of "Jacuzzi," and later, on the cinematic album centerpiece "Mornin | Streetlights," she answers Dawn's question of how many times she has been in love. Intimate conversations like this between the two are interlaced throughout Second Line, giving credence to how the protagonist came to be, and direction to build a lane forward. It's no surprise that King Creole's story parallels Dawn Richard's. As a founding member of Danity Kane, and later with Diddy's Dirty Money, Dawn was able to explore the ins and outs of commercial pop music. As a solo artist, she opted to selfrelease her music. Over the span of five critically acclaimed full-length albums, Dawn has made the message clear that she will not bow down or bend to industry norms. All the while, she's built her resume with enough extracurriculars to make your head spin: Cheerleader for the New Orleans Hornets? Check. Animator for Adult Swim? Check. Owner-operator of a vegan pop-up food truck? Check. Martial arts expert? Check! Second Line embodies the heritage of soul music and the roots of New Orleans, all surrounded by the influences of electronic futurism. "The definition of a Second Line in New Orleans is a celebration of someone's homecoming," says Dawn. "In death and in life, we celebrate the impact of a person's legacy through dance and music. I'm celebrating the death of old views in the industry. The death of boxes and limits. I'm celebrating the homecoming of the Future. The homecoming to the new wave of artists. The emergence of all the King Creoles to come." Dawn Richard is bold, confident, purposeful, and a King throughout Second Line. Are you ready to dance?

Punk Dancehall fusion .. A Collision between African Headcharge and CRASS.. Born from the ashes of an early 1980’s Northampton based anarcho collective of musicians & artists – with a shared love of reggae and a punk neo industrial ethos – came REDUCER – We had to do things with an edge – to cut through the shit – that post punk new wave safe pop with a renewed knife of Joy & Righteous Anger – love & hate – life & death – banged out in a massive industrial reggae punk soundscape – our gigs were audio visual shock & awe – total commitment to the moment and the creativity – video projection,, incence & pyrotechnics, covering the venue walls with backdrops – it was a fully immersive experience. We never sought music business recognition- we weren’t in the music business! We were in the experience business! We recorded about 30 odd tracks in all, in order to try & catch the passion, energy & raw power of when we played live, the tracks were recorded over a period of 7 years. Each one unique, unrehearsed, spontaneous & improvised – one take, one mix onto cassette and a vershun if wanted & were done – capturing the raw passion & life energy that was pouring through us. About 5 years ago years we decided to set up a website & release what felt at that point may have been our 1st, last & only chance to get something on vinyl, & set up a website in order to tell the remarkable story of what happened in that little town in the Midlands 40 years ago and after we decided to digitize our archive of recordings and put them on the site and other platforms just as a “We were here & We did this” statement of public record – incredibly a Reducer Renaissance was born – the website mushroomed & we got US Radio airplay, we suddenly sold out our 1st vinyl release – Product & 35 years on a new audience got to hear & see what the myths & legends are about and they want more so, here it is, 5 tracks 5 videos. 35 Years old – Sounds like it was Recorded Yesterday. Think you’ve heard everything? You haven’t heard Reducer.

Breites Lächeln, Unmengen von Charisma, Talent ohne Ende und sehr klug: Jon Batiste Der Instrumentalist,
Sänger, Tänzer und Künstler Batiste ist Bandleader in der Show von Stephen Colbert, Aktivist in der BlackLive-Matters-Bewegung, Julliard-Absolvent und nicht zuletzt Sprössling einer Musiker-Dynastie aus New Orleans. Vater, Onkel und allein 30 seiner Cousins sind Musiker. Seine Wurzeln liegen im Jazz, aber sein
jugendliches Temperament vereinigt diesen mit R&B, Soul, Rap und überhaupt allem, das in kulturellen Kontext mit seinem künstlerischen Ursprung steht. Heraus kommt ein bewegendes Album, mit er nun auch
in Europa für Aufsehen sorgen wird.

Womack updates his material for the 80s, creating grown-up sensual soul.

The passion for earthy R&B seemed to have dimmed as the 80s began.

Synthesised confections abounded and veteran Bobby Womack, the Midnight Mover, was at a crossroads. His peers were either in the wilderness (Marvin Gaye, James Brown and Isaac Hayes) or otherwise indisposed (Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, Sly Stone), so it was left to Womack to fly the flag for down-to-earth, quality soul.

Womack had been a recording artist for best part of two decades when he made The Poet. After making his name with The Valentinos in the 60s, he cut a string of heartfelt, emotional albums for Minit, United Artists and Columbia throughout the 70s. The Poet was written with great optimism; Womack was out of contract and was approached by agent Otis Smith to set up on his new label, Beverly Glen.

Working with Patrick Moten, Womack crafted eight songs that sounded breathlessly contemporary. If this material had been put in the hands of a soul crooner, it could have sounded perfunctory. The Poet works because of the juxtaposition of Womack’s feral growl with the album’s sweet, smooth, urbane soundtrack. This is grown-up, sensual music; from So Many Sides of You to its epic closer Where Do We Go From Here, this is a luscious collision of Womack’s soul mastery and slick musicianship. It rises and falls, with Womack sidestepping cliché thanks to his preaching, heartfelt delivery. For example, when he cries “I wanna dedicate this song to all the lovers tonight / And I expect that might be the whole world,” on If You Think You’re Lonely, it sounds honest, simple and sincere.

The Poet put Womack back on the map, and gave him his first US R&B chart-topper and first mainstream top 30 album. It was adored in the UK, and sent many back to investigate his grittier 70s heyday as an albums artist. The album became the best-selling record of Womack’s career

Womack cut the equally sublime follow-up The Poet II, released in 1984.

Daryl Easlea – BBC

Erster Release der Light In The Attic Re-Issue Serie zu Ehren von LEE HAZLEWOOD mit Stücken von so essentiellen Alben wie ,Cowboy In Sweden". Mit Duetts mit Suzi Jane Hokom, Ann Margret und Nina Lizell. Extensive Linernotes und bisher ungesehene Photos. Mit seinem Schnurrbart und dem klingenden Bariton war LEE HAZLEWOOD einer der Stars der späten 60er Jahre. Obwohl er wahrscheinlich am bekanntesten wegen seiner Arbeit mit NANCY SINATRA ist (er schrieb ihren Megahit ,These Boots Are Made For Walking"), leistete HAZLEWOOD auch fernab dieser besonderen Glamourkönigin beachtliche Arbeit und fand später große Fans in BECK, SONIC YOUTH und JARVIS COCKER. Für den Record Store Day 2012 präsentiert Light In The Attic den Startpunkt einer Anthologie mit ,Singles, Nudes&Backsides", die LEEs beste Solosongs und Duetts seines Lee Hazlewood Industries Sublabels (LHI) versammelt. Die Serie wird sich Material von LHI widmen (das hier zum ersten Mal von den analogen Originaltapes neu gemastert wurde), zusammen mit LEEs Output bei anderen Labels, Raritäten, unveröffentlichten Schätzen und den Filmen von Torbjörn Axelman. Man muss nur das Cover anschauen: umringt von nackten Mädchen, die alle einen unechten Schnurrbart tragen, spielt HAZLEWOOD im Anzug leicht unsouverän den Playboy. Exakt wie dieses Photo zeigen auch die Songs einen gespaltenen Mann: er ist der zärtliche Romantiker, der gebrochene Loser und der zerfurchte Cowboy zugleich.

Optimo Music presents “Janara” the new album from Italy’s José Manuel. We always have our ears open for music that is unique, powerful and that can conjure up a ritualistic atmosphere, and this meistrerwerk did all that, and then some. We knew we had to release it after the first listen.

We’ll let José tell you about it….

This album is a result of the necessity of exploring and opening my mind to new musical horizons, by testing the main traditional instrument of the Italian region Campania, whose name is “Tammorra”. It is a big drum, which must not be confused with the typical tambourine, made from a wrap of wood shaped in a circle and covered with dried skin (almost always goatskin or sheepskin). This instrument was used during playful events, especially during rituals and ceremonies, such as the frequent devotional pilgrimages in honour of the Virgin Mary. By using this instrument, the sound, the rite and the magic could take possession of the mind and the body creating a perfect union. Also, the dancers, as if they were bitten by a tarantula and possessed by a strange evil, launched themselves to an uncontrolled dance by moving every part of their body.

In addition to the Tammorra, I also inserted some texts, which have been written by some Neapolitan friends and interpreted with Neapolitans voices, in honour of the “JANARA”. The Janara represents a popular belief of the Southern Italian regions, particularly of the Benevento area. The Janara is one of the many types of witches represented by folktales belonging to the rural tradition.

The Janara was expert in medical herbs, which were also be used for her magical practices, such as the manufacturing of ointment. The ointment gave her the power to become incorporeal with the same nature as the wind. According to the tradition, in order to snatch the Janara it was necessary to grab her by the hair. It was also said that if anyone was able to capture the Janara during her incorporeal moment then Janara herself would offer protection to them and their family for seven generations, in exchange for her freedom.

With this work I hope that the listener might get carried away by the spirit of this pagan and popular legend that can be still be considered as current. As a matter of fact, the folk tales speak of a probable comeback of the Janara, who after being burned at the stake seems to be thirsting for revenge for the evil suffered.

Heavyweight (180gm), double black LP.

Gatefold sleeve with 16 page booklet and download code insert.

The Besnard Lakes have passed through death and they’r e here to tell the tale. Nearly five years after their last lightning-tinted volley, the magisterial Montreal psych-rock band have sworn off compromise, split with their long-standing label, and completed a searing, 72-minute suite about the darkness of dying and the light on the other side. The Besnard Lakes Are The Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings is the group's sixth album and the first in more than 15 years to be released away from a certain midwestern American indie record company. After 2016's A Coliseum Complex Museum - which saw Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas attempting shorter, less sprawling songs - the Besnards and their label decided it was time to go their separate ways; with that decision came a question of whether to even continue the project at all. What use is a band with an instinct for long, tectonic tunes - rock songs with chthonic heft and ethereal grace, five or 10 or 18 minutes long? How do you sell that in an age of bite-sized streaming? How do you make it relevant? "Who gives a shit!" the Besnard Lakes realized. Ignited by their love for each other, for playing music together, the sextet found themselves unspooling the most uncompromising recording of their career. Despite all its grandeur, ...The Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings honours the very essence of punk rock: the notion that a band need only be relevant to itself. At last the Besnard Lakes have crafted a continuous long-form suite: nine tracks that could be listened together as one, like Spiritualized's Lazer Guided Melodies or even Dark Side of the Moon, overflowing with melody and harmony, drone and dazzle, the group's own unique weather. Here now, the Besnard Lakes finally dispensed with the two/three-year album cycle, taking all the time they needed to conceive, compose, record and mix their opus. Some of its songs were old, resurrected from demos cast aside years ago. Others were literally woodshedded in the cabanon behind Lasek and Goreas's "Rigaud Ranch" - invented and reinvented, relishing this rougher sound.

Following the Four Tet, Batu, Damian Lazarus, remixes of electronic hero Krust’s critically acclaimed album ‘The Edge Of Everything’, the A-list versions keep flowing with Calibre, LCY and Flynn each re-working a different track from the LP on Krust - TEOE Remixes #2.

Fellow D&B don Calibre turns ‘It’s A Lot’ into a warm, glowing two-step roller with serrated analogue bass and a subtly masterful musicality befitting of his classical training.

Rising new school queen LCY is clearly a kindred spirit, rivalling Krust with her future-facing breakbeat science that’s equally as compelling and inventive as the original, but also totally unique.

Rounding off the remixes with a rugged halftime head-nodder and bringing things full circle is Krust’s brother Flynn; a fellow member of 1989 ‘Wishing On A Star’ hitmakers Fresh 4 alongside Krust – and also a jungle legend in his own right – as half of veteran duo Flynn & Flora.

With such inspiring source material, it’s unsurprising that all of the remixers have brought their best game to this impeccable collection.

Café Society opened the 69th annual Cannes Film Festival to rave reviews. Woody Allen became the first and only director to have three opening night films selected for the Cannes Film Festival.

It’s New York in the 1930s. As he has more and more trouble putting up with his bickering parents, his gangster brother and the family jewelry store, Bobby Dorfman feels like he needs a change of scenery. He decides to go and try his luck in Hollywood where his high-powered agent uncle Phil hires him as an errand boy.

In Hollywood he soon falls in love, but unfortunately the girl has a boyfriend. Bobby settles for friendship – up until the day the girl knocks at his door, telling him her boyfriend just broke up with her. All of a sudden Bobby’s life takes a new turn, and a very romantic one at that.

The soundtrack features a great collection of the music from the 1930’s. The music is featured prominently in the movie and has been chosen by Woody Allen himself and features newly recorded jazz standards by Grammy Award winners Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks and classic recordings from Ben Selvin, Benny Goodman and Count Basie.





RELEASE: 9-4-2021

Woody Allen says about the soundtrack: “The soundtrack consists of music from the
1930s since that’s when the picture takes place. Most of the material is Richard Rodgers and [Lorenz] Heart, who was very dominant in those years and Lorenz Heart has that bitter sweet romantic quality that defines the spirit of the movie itself.”

This limited edition contains of 500 individually numbered copies on solid gold coloured vinyl. It includes a 4-page booklet with pictures from the film and credits.

A year characterised by a pandemic, lockdowns, political ineptitude and oh, so much staying the fuck at home is enough to make anyone want to blow off a little steam. One overused piece of glib idiocy at the start of the Trump era was 'at least punk will be good', as though punk can only be good when it flips the bird to right-wing, authritarian shit-headery rather than amplifying anything else. Sure, there've been plenty of great records over the last four years, but sometimes (across the whole of 2020, for instance) the levels of anger, fear and frustration can be overwhelming and you need a little space to goof around. For some of us, though, goofing around is serious business - and here's a record to illustrate that perfectly. Smirk is the solo project of Public Eye's Nick Vicario, and while you'll hear similarities to his main outfit across these 12 excellent tracks (from the off, you can imagine how PE might refine garage-carved nuggets like 'S Construction'), here there's less sang-froid and more_ well, fun. The reference points you might expect are still there (Killed By Death comps and Wire, especially their 80s period, to name a couple), but with added scuzz and something even approaching joy - the whirling synths of 'Eyes Conversing' feel ominous, but they also convey a sense of delirious excitement. And dammit, it's all fucking cool too. With a name like Smirk, your first instinct might well be to wonder whether Vicario is laughing at us. The first line of the album (a defiant 'it's not funny') should tell you that this isn't the case, but the album certainly finds him in playful mood. The tasteful acoustic instrumental 'Lude 2' descends deliberately into farce as it speeds up and slows down like a turntable alternating speeds, or a record warping in real time.

Zwerm is a Belgian-Dutch electric guitar quartet (with a backyard rehearsal shed located in Antwerp) that operates along the borders between styles and traverses traditions that are typically not convergent. Zwerm rhymes Larry Polansky with Nadah El Shazly and are galvanized by the likes of guitars pioneers like The Velvet Underground and Sonic Youth, the microtonal DYI-er Harry Partch, Middle Eastern sonorities and the prog-madness of Kind Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. ‘Musical adventure’ is not just a hollow cliché for this quartet, but a genuine commitment. Zwerm calls itself a ‘guitar quartet’, but that can be interpreted broadly as well as with a pinch of salt: “If we want to do something on instruments we don’t really master, we’ll just figure out a way to make it work.”
Toon Callier, Johannes Westendorp, Kobe van Cauwenberghe and Bruno Nelissen all met in 2007 while working on a project with Glenn Branca. A new guitar quartet was born and it became clear rather quickly that staying in the strictly contemporary compositions lane was not for this quartet-with-five-to-six-members (an organizational chart is available upon request).
An appetite for new and lasting collaborations has been a constant theme throughout their artistic parcours. The group has shared stages with theatrical producers like Walpurgis and Post uit Hessdalen, dancers such as Ecce and with the musicians Fred Frith, Stephen O’Malley, Shiva Feshareki, Rudy Trouvé, Mauro Pawlowski, Larry Polansky, Eric Thielemans, Yannis Kyriakides, François Sarhan, Serge Verstockt and Stefan Prins. These projects have not always translated into records, but they have been decisive in creating a unique musical approach. In 2015, when Zwerm was asked by De Handelsbeurs to collaborate with Fred Frith, they proceeded to pen a few new musical sketches over which Firth sublimely improvised. In 2018 ‘Badminton in Tehran’ was released, their first record that was made up completely of only the group’s compositions.
“a basket full of buttons here
and if you push the wrong one: fear
and if you push the right one: love
or maybe none of the above”
The route that Zwerm has taken is often defined by the question “What if... ?” - like a dart thrown at a musical map, not quite blindly, but naive enough to lead to unexpected endings.
“What if we play Renaissance pieces written by John Dowland, but instead of playing lutes we play these tunes with a Telecaster – and then jam it through effect pedals and an amplifier?”
“What if we connect one hundred guitar pedals and just leave our guitars at home?”
“What if we record a record with ten different one-page-pieces that we found on the Internet?”
In 2020 our metaphorical dart landed on “What if we tried microtonality?”.
‘Microtonality’ sounds a bit creepy, but actually there is nothing to be afraid of: there are no out-of- tune notes, just alternate notes. On the continents where Western musical theory is less stringently applied, microtonality is the rule, and has become the subject of many deep and thoughtfully written theories. However for Zwerm, this phenomenon occurs in many, often surprisingly lighthearted forms. A dilapidated piano that has settled into a beautiful microtonal tuning of its own accord, enthusiastic choral singing, a guitar whose three strings are tuned a quarter-tone higher, a saz (Turkishquarter-tone lute), a maddening guitar pedal, ...
"the dreams they were convicted for telling only lies reality came after for claiming to be wise what you don’t see is what you get just never light a spark I’m a crow in the dark”
“And… what if we work with a drummer?” Enter Karen Willems - dummer, extraordinaire, and ardent player in groups, projects and collaborations galore. One chance meeting and the deal was done. It was obvious before the start that Willems was the versatile and creative percussionist-in-a-toy-store necessary for this project. And in the studio, to our delight, she demonstrated an easy dexterity when switching quickly from one idea to the next.
At the reins behind the scenes was producer Rudy Trouvé, who – during previous sessions for ‘Badminton in Terhran’, when the classically trained guitarists went completely off the rails, staring deeply and forlornly into their scores, looking for answers – was able to pinpoint the problem and get the wagons rolling in the right direction again. Completing the team were Mark Dedecker (recording)and Joris Calluwaerts (mixing).
The results are in and it’s called ‘ Great Expectations’ – a title that, in several ways, fits perfectly with these strange times.‘Great Expectations’ goes wide! Zwerm is at its best when it can run along the borders between style and across traditions that otherwise would not necessarily intersect. The most straightforward rockers have a proggy tinge while the dreamy psychedelic songs lean more toward Richard Youngs. And if a nice melody dared come to close to becoming a ‘Kit-Katjingle’, then barbs-a-la-Pere-Ubu were trailed, tracked, found and promptly embedded. ‘Heavy Machinery’ sits neatly somewhere between Captain Beefheart and Richard Wagner, and ‘On My Way To Aguno’, set to an Iranian folk song chord progression, grew into a hyper-personal lullaby. Zwerm used the saz (Turkish lute) and the sinter (Moroccan gnawa bass instrument) without falling into pastiche psychedelia, but you can still sense the orient.

The sensation was perfect – Helloween, who have sold more than 10 million records worldwide, being one of the most respected German metal bands since 1984, announced their PUMPKINS UNITED WORLD TOUR in 2016. The media was raving about the TOUR OF THE YEAR, playing 69 shows in 32 countries all over the world. More than one million fans on three continents were ecstatic because it was not only a reunion of the original band, it was the summit of seven ultimate HELLOWEEN heroes: Andi Deris, Michael Kiske, Michael Weikath, Kai Hansen, Markus Grosskopf, Sascha Gerstner & Dani Löble. Or to put it simple: it was a dream come true for fans around the world, the band received five times more spectators and all of them had only one wish: »Please stay together!«

Following the excitement, one of the biggest magazines in this genre ‘BURRN!’ (Japan) honored the band with four unbelievable cover stories, this was followed by the thunderstorm of the century within the social media universe, a celebrated PUMPKINS UNITED single and the quenchless hunger for more – much more! And yes, the musicians tasted blood and it was clear: there is no way back – the future of HELLOWEEN will be written in unity. It marked the beginning of a new era and the re-birth of a metal legend with exceptional artists.
Their first new album will be released in summer 2021. Flatten the runway with a loud drumbeat: in April 2021 the spectacular single SKYFALL will be released. The 12 minute epic, written by Kai Hansen has the long yearned ‘Keeper-Vibe’ but it isn’t telling the story of the whole album. SKYFALL has a musical arch which will be loved by fans of every era: from unforgettable times to glorious adventures all the way to the upcoming first album of the HELLOWEEN new age. The epic track tells about an alien landing on earth and a dramatic chase while Hansen, Kiske and Deris duel with each other in a breathtaking manner and create a broadband adventure - with a lyric sheet with colored blocks identifying the singers as well as a video that is formidable. Produced by Martin Häusler, it will be the most elaborate clip in the history of the band, the story to be shown with 3-D animation and looking cinematic – in these times almost a dinosaur in implementation.
The base of the upcoming milestone album was already erected in the studio: using the original Ingo Schwichtenberg drum kit, the recording was done with the same modulators at the Hamburg HOME studios where back then ‘Master of The Rings’, ‘Time of the Oath’ and ‘Better than Raw’ was recorded. Back to the roots and completely analog is the UNITED impact - another great work by well-known producer Charlie Bauerfeind and Co-producer Dennis Ward before the album traveled to New York and got the final mastering polish in the Valhalla Studios of Ronald Prent (Iron Maiden, Depeche Mode, Rammstein).
With all this brand new material an album has been created, an album that is set apart from the digital mainstream and showing that the essence of the band was never more solid.

The artwork of Eliran Kantor (Berlin) is clear: SKYFALL is the beginning of something big – here comes HELLOWEEN.

Fresh off of their 2020 offering Adult Themes, El Michels Affair is back with a new full-length release. Titled Yeti Season, this newest album has everything we've come to expect from EMA's patented cinematic style of instrumental soul music. Where Adult Themes inspired a soundtrack to an imaginary film, Yeti Season brings us to a different place in time_with new inspirations. Taken with Turkish-styled funk and an almost Mumbai-esque take on soul, El Michels Affair offers us a different kind of drama and imagination with Yeti Season. If you've been following along, this shouldn't be viewed as too far a departure for El Michels Affair. The first single off of Yeti Season showed their hand back in 2018. A double-sided banger, that release brought the musical textures to the fore that dominate this record. The first song, titled "Unathi," is fully realized with the beautifully haunting-yet-hopeful vocals of Piya Malik, formally of 79.5_another Big Crown artist. Singing in Hindi, Piya's ethereal voice is telling us to work and strive together toward progress. Even if you don't understand her language, you can still hear the urgency of purpose, creating a lasting vibe that sits on top of it all. Leon Michels explains that Piya had a vital influence on this record: "When Piya started singing in Hindi, she had a different voice, a different tone. I knew we had to do something together." And so Piya appears on three other songs on Yeti Season: "Zaharila," "Murkit Gem," and "Dhuaan." Each providing particular signatures to the album. "Zaharila" is a building and changing love song punctuated by blaring trumpets, driving drums, and Piya's pleading lyrics. While the more upbeat "Murkit Gem" opens with a fuzzed out, Wu-Tang-esque baseline that buoys Piya's stylings. The psychedelic guitar and Piya's changing tones and textures singing about an all-consuming love are what pushed "Dhuaan" on to the second single from Yeti Season. There is also a vocal appearance from Shannon Wise of The Shacks, yet another Big Crown artist. Her song called "Sha Na Na," lies more in the familiar EMA vein: melodic, hypnotic, soulfully visual. But between Shannon's airy singing, the jumpy baseline, moody vibes, the active drum lines, it sounds like a pensive walk home after a strangely dramatic night. So what is Yeti Season? It could be more of a feeling than an actual place or time of year. It's a heavy album_as evidenced by the signature musicianship and dramatic vocal expressions. But it's also a hopeful record, with phrasings, textures, and chord changes that hint at something better_or fuller_coming our way. You hear it in songs like "Ala Vida," with its stabby, pulsing chords laying a bedrock for EMA's bright, atmospheric horn lines. Or even in "Fazed Out," which leaves you with a feeling of determination, a striving for resolution even though the driving, march-like song structure should accompany some conquering army. This persistence has to come from the fact that Leon Michels and company finished this record during the lockdown. It was a tough and troublesome time. But look at what has come of it: Yeti Season_a record of high and heavy drama, but also one of hope and promise. It may take a year like 2020 behind us to find hope in a winter big footed creature like a Yeti, but that's where we are.

MJN RECORDS Trondheim Jazz Orchestra & The MaXx / Live ‘Live’ with
Trondheim Jazz Orchestra & The MaXx is really a story of three young
Swedes, Oscar Gr nberg, Petter Kraft and Tomas J rmyr meeting in college
before starting their formal jazz education in Trondheim.
When The MaXx won the prestigious Jazz talent award (JazZtipendiatet) at
Molde International Jazz Festival in 2017, they decided to use the opportunity
to invite some of their best friends and amazing musicians from their college
years, both guitarist Anton Toorell and trombone player Petter H ngsel met the
guys from The MaXx at Fridheim Folkh gskola in 2006. A few years later Oscar,
Petter and Tomas reunited in Trondheim, and The MaXx was born.
The MaXx developed the music on ‘Live’ through hours of jamming in their
studio in an old German bunker in Trondheim. Simultaneously with the music
slowly taking shape, a theme dealing with the youth’s fascination for dystopian
sci-fi, involuntary heroes and time travels evolved. Combined with their love
for rhythmical riffs and extreme musical shifts a new piece of music appeared.
Some people have called it an abstract rock opera. The MaXx tells us that what
this project is really about is to amplify the undisguised energy and joy that
always has been the core of band.
Advice: Live is grasping the steaming atmosphere in the theatre a hot summer
night in Molde, and should be played on a high volume!
TJO & The MaXx:
Oscar Gr nberg - keyboards; Petter Kraft - guitar, tenor saxophone and vocals;
Tomas J rmyr - drums; Mia Marlen Berg - vocals; Thomas Johansson - trumpet;
Petter H ngsel - trombone and recorder; Mette Rasmussen - alto saxophone;
Kjetil M ster - tenor saxophone; Anton Toorell - electric guitar; Anja Lauvdal -
keyboards; Mattis Kleppen - electric bass; Recorded by Tor Breivik Mixed by H
vard Soknes.

LTD. CLEAR BLUE VINYL

Fresh off of their 2020 offering Adult Themes, El Michels Affair is back with a new full-length release. Titled Yeti Season, this newest album has everything we've come to expect from EMA's patented cinematic style of instrumental soul music. Where Adult Themes inspired a soundtrack to an imaginary film, Yeti Season brings us to a different place in time_with new inspirations. Taken with Turkish-styled funk and an almost Mumbai-esque take on soul, El Michels Affair offers us a different kind of drama and imagination with Yeti Season. If you've been following along, this shouldn't be viewed as too far a departure for El Michels Affair. The first single off of Yeti Season showed their hand back in 2018. A double-sided banger, that release brought the musical textures to the fore that dominate this record. The first song, titled "Unathi," is fully realized with the beautifully haunting-yet-hopeful vocals of Piya Malik, formally of 79.5_another Big Crown artist. Singing in Hindi, Piya's ethereal voice is telling us to work and strive together toward progress. Even if you don't understand her language, you can still hear the urgency of purpose, creating a lasting vibe that sits on top of it all. Leon Michels explains that Piya had a vital influence on this record: "When Piya started singing in Hindi, she had a different voice, a different tone. I knew we had to do something together." And so Piya appears on three other songs on Yeti Season: "Zaharila," "Murkit Gem," and "Dhuaan." Each providing particular signatures to the album. "Zaharila" is a building and changing love song punctuated by blaring trumpets, driving drums, and Piya's pleading lyrics. While the more upbeat "Murkit Gem" opens with a fuzzed out, Wu-Tang-esque baseline that buoys Piya's stylings. The psychedelic guitar and Piya's changing tones and textures singing about an all-consuming love are what pushed "Dhuaan" on to the second single from Yeti Season. There is also a vocal appearance from Shannon Wise of The Shacks, yet another Big Crown artist. Her song called "Sha Na Na," lies more in the familiar EMA vein: melodic, hypnotic, soulfully visual. But between Shannon's airy singing, the jumpy baseline, moody vibes, the active drum lines, it sounds like a pensive walk home after a strangely dramatic night. So what is Yeti Season? It could be more of a feeling than an actual place or time of year. It's a heavy album_as evidenced by the signature musicianship and dramatic vocal expressions. But it's also a hopeful record, with phrasings, textures, and chord changes that hint at something better_or fuller_coming our way. You hear it in songs like "Ala Vida," with its stabby, pulsing chords laying a bedrock for EMA's bright, atmospheric horn lines. Or even in "Fazed Out," which leaves you with a feeling of determination, a striving for resolution even though the driving, march-like song structure should accompany some conquering army. This persistence has to come from the fact that Leon Michels and company finished this record during the lockdown. It was a tough and troublesome time. But look at what has come of it: Yeti Season_a record of high and heavy drama, but also one of hope and promise. It may take a year like 2020 behind us to find hope in a winter big footed creature like a Yeti, but that's where we are.

The first two EPs of rising French-Algerian singer-producer-songwriter Sabrina Bellaouel on InFiné are now available on a single 12" vinyl edition for the first time. At the crossroads of modern electronic production, alternative RnB & North African beats, Sabrina Bellaouel offers her listeners an unprecedented mix of grand emotion of the Pop stage and the cutting-edge underground flair of buzzing nightclubs

Textextext - (add your write up)

2020 saw Sabrina Bellaouel step out of her cocoon a fully formed artist. First, there was "We Don't Need To Be Enemies", a powerful and brave record - directing the limelight away from her talent as a singer and focusing on her honed, meticulous production skill and ingenuity in making demanding, forward thinking music. Bellaouel managed to tell stories of her identity and place in the world almost without a single vocal.

Then, there was "Libra" - fusing her own production with that gorgeous voice - showcasing a fully formed, trailblazing, independent artist. Sabrina jumps effortlessly between empowering trap on "Arab Liquor" to luscious RnB on "Float" and ends the record with "She Don't Care", a peak time house curveball that you can picture heating up the festival dance floors around Europe. The diverse and powerful EP united different sides of the press in its critical acclaim, receiving accolades from Resident Advisor, Mixmag, The Quietus, Metal Magazine and Pan African Music - just to name a few.

Both of these records then, represent a side of the coin - and are now available as a 12" Vinyl combining them to a singular listening experience. And when the clubs slowly open up again, you will surely see this secret weapon make it's way some well assorted DJ bags.

Lunar Tredd – Fimber Bravo’s first album on Moshi Moshi since the much acclaimed Con-Fusion – tells the tale. The highlife fusion of You Can’t Control Me resonates in the wake of the global Black Lives Matters protests. There is fire in these impactful clarion calls to resist oppression, recognise strength in resilience and fight against the corruption of power.

Bravo’s been a constant collaborative force - as his time as leader of 20th Century Steel Band, as musical director of Steel ‘n’ Skin, and appearances with everyone from Sun Ra Arkestra to Hot Chip, shows. Lunar Tredd reflects the influence of the music handed down to him by “ancestors” . Helped by an enviable cast of friends and collaborators, Fimber has shifted those touchstones to create something that sounds resolutely like the here and now.

Those friends that appear on Lunar Tredd, include Alexis Taylor of Hot Chip and The Horrors’ Tom Furse; The Invisible drummer Leo Taylor and Senegalese percussionist, Mamadou Sarr dropping in on rhythm duties, while there are also appearances from Susumu Mukai aka Zongamin, the brilliant Kora player Kadialy Kouyate, vocalist Cottie Williams, Vanishing Twin’s Catherine Lucas, and production from Lapo Frost and Ghostpoet producer Shuta Shinoda. Some, like Zongamin and Williams go way back with Fimber, other connections are newer, but all have quickly become part of the London-based musician’s musical family.

Indeed, Fimber never loses sight of where he’s come from on LUNAR TREDD - even as he looks to where he might go next. As a musician, he’s still finding new creative peaks nearly 50 years after he began.

For Chris Tooker, the first decade of his artistic journey was immersed in bands while the second was engaged in wandering the realms of electronica in the form of creator, composer and engineer for DJ duo KMLN. Today, after many incarnations, Tooker returns to the source of himself while carrying both the treasures of his past and a vision for the future. Tooker has long been called to pursuing obsessive trails through the greater cosmos. On these journeys, he seeks particles with a hypnotic essence. Once found, he interprets this magic in his own special way, through the most universal language - music. His music tells stories of fascinating adventures through the dust, the palms, and the gritty streets of yonder. It is colorful, deep, and disco laced. It flaunts rare collected percussion (delivered live in his sets), various instruments and sometimes whispers a touch of voice. Now his solo-debut EP Nang’o drops on Acid Pauli and Nico Stojan’s label Ouie. For the lead track Nang’o, Tooker recruits the phenomenal talents of Kenya’s multi-instrumentalist Labdi. Labdi’s oruto (a western Kenyan fiddle instrument) and bewitching vocals provide the hooks for this subtle, shuffling track, presented here as both a full version and as an instrumental. Baladi features Shawna Hofmann both on co-production and vocal duties - this time a more driving, rolling groove develops with Shawna adding sultry, evocative vocals to the mix. Undone rounds off the physical release - another signature exercise in subtlety and restraint, as an infectious groove folds in bubbling synths, crisp percussion and dubby effects.

It took Sibille Attar five years and a lot of soul searching to produce Paloma’s Hand, the 2018 EP that served as the long-awaited follow-up to her debut album, Sleepyhead. Both that record and her first EP, 2012’s The Flower’s Bed, seemingly left her with the world at her feet, with widespread critical acclaim, television appearances and a Swedish Grammy nomination for Best Newcomer. The years that followed, though, involved both creative and personal turmoil, and left her feeling increasingly adrift musically as the uglier side of the industry reared its head.

“For a long time in my life, I tried to sit in certain constellations to please other people,” she says. “And it didn’t work, because I could only do it for a little while before I’d get frustrated and want to do things my own way. There was a time when I felt like I couldn’t trust the business, and it was draining me of my love for the music. Eventually, I realised you can’t live your life trying to fit into somebody else’s mould all the time.”

Paloma’s Hand, a six-track pop odyssey that slalomed through genres, brought years of struggle to a long-overdue end. Just as importantly, though, it served as a much-needed palate cleanser for Attar, breaking through the barrier of writer’s block. Just two years later, she’s back with her second full-length, the aptly-titled A History of Silence, a reference to that long period of searching for her voice. “I thought about calling it A History of Violence, because in many ways, the album is like a violent attempt to tell my own story when I’ve been silenced,” she explains.

Key to the pace at which she was able to work this time around was a realisation that she functions best on her own - “I just felt like, “fuck it - I can’t be bothered dealing with other people and their opinions.” Accordingly, A History of Silence was written, recorded and mixed entirely by Attar herself, and where she needed a little bit of outside help - sweeping strings on the epic "Dream State", for instance - she penned the arrangements herself and had friends record them exactly as directed. “It seems like that’s the way I have to work to get things done, and it helped things come together really quickly - the first song was done at the start of 2019, and the last one was finished around the time the pandemic was taking hold. It was frantically fast, but I work one song at a time, so it was never too chaotic."

The album never sounds too chaotic, either; like Paloma's Hand, it takes a broad approach to pop, but one that’s anchored by the key through-lines of sharp melodies and atmospheric soundscapes. Largely recorded in Attar’s Stockholm apartment, A History of Silence finds room for everything from sparse alt-rock ("Go Hard or Go Home") to spacey, electropop (the Madonna cover "Oh Father"), via the more up-tempo likes of "Somebody’s Watching". “On some tracks, I had really specific influences in mind,” says Attar. “There’s a lot of eighties stuff going on, and I was deliberately tracking down those kinds of synthesizers to try to capture that sound.”

Attar shies away from talking in too much detail about the themes that run through A History of Silence - she wants the record to be received as universally as possible - but it’s clear that the album marks the beginning of a hugely exciting new chapter after the rebirth that Paloma’s Hand represented. “If anything, it’s like a preacher’s album,” she says. “I’m preaching to myself, teaching myself, telling myself off in the lyrics. It’s about accepting loss of power, changing expectations, and getting rid of some heavy baggage. That’s the way I made the album, and it meant I had no limits - every single idea I had, I tried. When I said I was falling out of love with music, that feels like a very long time ago now.”

In between steadily touring as a side woman for psych-soul LA staple, Chicano Batman, Nicky Egan has been stealthily plugging away with her New York based producer and Dap-Kings guitarist Joe Crispiano to complete her forthcoming LP "This Life". Driven by honest confessional songwriting and influenced by your favorite classic soul sounds, the record features a who's who of NY's most sought after players including Homer Steinweiss, Victor Axelrod, Brian Wolfe & Elizabeth Pupo-Walker, to name a few and will be released early this year on Transistor Sound Records, headed up in part by Colemine Record's soulster, Kelly Finnigan. Egan presents the debut 7" single, `Back To You', a fresh take on that classic 70's soul cruiser sound, that tells the tale of transience, growth and acceptance with B side "Run Run" a cinematic soul Bonnie and Clyde-esque portrait that kicks off with epic fuzz guitar lines followed by Egan's sultry vocals. Don't sleep on this B side that'll leave you feeling like you're in the back of that 1974 Maserati getaway car.

The Crown is a drama television series, created and written by Peter Morgan and produced by Left Bank Pictures and Sony Pictures Television for Netflix Original. The show tells the biographical story about the early reign of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. The fourth season features Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth, as the story traces her life from her wedding 1947 to the present day. The main cast is further completed by Emma Corin as Lady Diana Spencer, Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher, Helena Bonham Carter and Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip, and many more. Martin Phipps once again composed the haunting minimalistic soundtrack for this Golden Globe Award winning drama series. It is pressed on ‘royal’ purple marbled vinyl as a limited edition of 750 individually numbered copies and the package includes a 4-page booklet.

Iconic debut studio album, originally released in April 1994 on Columbia Records. A 10 song album, reissued here on limited ultra clear transparent vinyl (with download code insert) as part of the 'Clear Classics' range. Marketing.

Favorite Recordings proudly presents an exclusive eponymous LP by Brazilian singer and composer George Sauma Jr., originally produced in 1985. Imagine a never-marketed release on which you’d hear not only the beautiful and genuine George’s songs but also the work from two figures of the Brazilian Music Golden Age: Arthur Verocai and Junior Mendes! A much-needed album for all Brazilian connoisseurs.

Back in the days, George Sauma Jr. was a young artist from Rio de Janeiro, learning on his side how to play chords and compose songs since he was 10. Still at the university, he’s influenced by Brazilian artists like Cassiano or Tim Maia, deeply fascinated by the arrangements and the “levada” (the groove) of all these new Brazilian songs. Simple and romantic music that resonated to his soul and creativity.

Around 1985, the story took an unexpected turn. George tells: “Dna Deyse Lucidy, the mother of Junior Mendes was a candidate for deputy and went to my father’s company to advertise. When I saw her, I shouted, “I’m a big fan of your son!” ” Of course, she could not praise more the work of her son. On her advises, George went to his studio on Rua Siqueria Campos at Copacabana. Junior loved the project and sent him to Arthur Verocai to improve the arrangements. Without money, the decision was taken to record everything at Junior Mendes’ studio on an 8-channel mixer. It was a small set-up but the emotions were there! George surely had other plans for some of his songs but without the budget, they ended up doing everything the best they could. And they did very fine with a top-notch team of musicians: Paulo Black on Drums, Arthur Verocai on Guitar, Ricardo Do Canto on Bass and Helvius Vilela on Keyboards.

Leaving the studio with the tapes, George tried to knock doors of international labels, but none did even dare to give him an answer. With less than 1000 copies pressed back in the days and without any distributor or label behind him, he went with proud to record stores, but received nothing than a strong reality check regarding the difficulties for a young Brazilian artist to achieve something on the saturated market of the 80s. Even for free, record stores didn’t want it. In the end, he ended up giving copies to friends and families, knowing deep inside that the songs were good! George tells: “I decided to leave, calm and conscious. I’ve still made three more albums, however on tapes, as it was more affordable. This time, just for my pleasure…”.

Thirty-five years after, it’s with great emotion that this first album by George Sauma Jr. is now made available as Vinyl LP with its original offset printed innersleeve & CD

A Day To Remember return with news of their widely-anticipated new album, You’re Welcome. Set for release on March 5th 2021, You’re Welcome marks the platinum-selling US band’s first album for Fueled By Ramen/Parlophone.

A Day To Remember vocalist Jeremy McKinnon commented on the forthcoming collection noting, “It’s finally here—almost! To all our fans around the world, we want to say, ‘Thank you!’ You’ve waited patiently, and we can’t wait for you to hear this. There’s a lot of detail in everything we do from the mixes to the artwork, because it all tells a story. We’re here now and very happy to present You’re Welcome.”

Clarinetist, composer, singer & spiritual jazz soothsayer Angel Bat Dawid presents this powerful live document alongside her band, Tha Brothahood. LIVE was mostly recorded on November 1st, 2019, at Haus der Berliner Festspiele in Berlin, Germany, during the 2019 edition of JazzFest Berlin. For Angel and Tha Brothahood - which includes Deacon Otis Cooke (vocals, synth), Viktor Le Givens (vocals, auxiliary instruments), Xristian Espinoza (tenor sax, percussion), Norman W. Long (electronics, synths), Dr. Adam Zanolini (double bass, bass guitar, soprano sax, flute, percussion), Isaiah Collier (drums), and Asher Gamedze (drums) - it was the first stop of their first European tour. Angel and her band experienced a number of difficult, racially charged interactions during their two days in Berlin. But despite, or perhaps in light of the difficulties they faced, they performed a set at Berliner Festspiele that Angel considers to be one of their best ever. "The show was very deep, and really helped me to process all the rage, and uncomfortable things I was feeling... It made me think of all the artists of the past who endured way more than I ever will with this music industry. It was a very freeing and beautiful show... we played our ass off!!"

Pressed here for the first time on burgundy vinyl, this compilation album, originally released in 1996, includes era-defining hits such as “I’m Every Woman”, “I Feel For You” and “Through The Fire”.



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