quête:the bizarre

A 1985 live performance from the Velvet Underground’s cult icon!

Nico’s doom-laden contralto voice, the bizarre choice of a harmonium for accompaniment, and the sheer eeriness and other-worldliness of her repertoire mark Nico as one of the most extraordinarily original performers of the rock era.

Waxwork Records is thrilled to release PHANTASM Original Motion Picture Score by Fred Myrow and Malcolm Seagrave. In celebration of the iconic Horror film's 45th Anniversary, this special triple LP features the complete score sourced from the original 1979 master tapes for the first time in any format, a full LP of never before released cues from the Phantasm score recordings sessions, and the newly re-mastered original 1979 score album.

Directed by Don Coscarelli, Phantasm has become a horror classic due to its surreal and unconventional storytelling. Filming on weekends over the span of a year, and working with a budget of only $300,000, Coscarelli and his crew created a bizarre, gorey, and entirely original horror film. Some of the most famous aspects of the film, like the floating silver orb, come directly from Coscarelli’s dreams, which give the film an even more ethereal feel. Composers Fred Myrow and Malcolm Seagrave were inspired by the horror scores of Goblin (Suspiria) and Mike Oldfield (The Exorcist) to create the haunting sounds of Phantasm. Myrow and Seagrave were working with synthesizers in the early days of the instrument. Says Coscarelli, “The synthesizers we used back then were so primitive that you couldn't repeat something; you would program the synthesizer, which means setting all of these dials to create a sound, and you went back and tried to get it again and forget it - it was impossible.

"I recently received notice that our long-term film storage vault in the basement of the historic Howard Hughes Headquarters building on the corner of Romaine and Sycamore in Hollywood was being permanently closed. During the process of moving out our negative materials, I came across the original three reels of Ampex 456 analog tape used in the Phantasm score recording sessions. Listening now to the score, including the outtake tracks, I am impressed with how inventive and adventurous Fred and Malcolm were in their approach to scoring Phantasm."

Waxwork Records is excited to release the definitive PHANTASM Original Motion Picture Score by Fred Myrow and Malcolm Seagrave as a deluxe 3xLP with features including the expanded and complete score sourced from the original 1979 master tapes, never before released score cues from the Phantasm recording sessions, and the newly re-mastered original 1979 score album. Each disc is pressed to "Silver Sphere" metallic silver colored vinyl and housed in a heavyweight triple gatefold jacket. Also included are exclusive liner notes by Phantasm writer, director, and producer Don Coscarelli, an 11""x11"" insert, and full album artwork by Graham Humphreys.

Twenty years after its original release, Kool Keith’s very own mixtape "The Personal Album" is finally making its debut on vinyl. Originally only available on CD, this one-of-a-kind mixtape is a deep dive into the eccentric mind of one of hip-hop’s most enigmatic figures. Known for his outlandish alter egos and boundary-pushing lyrics, Kool Keith delivers his trademark extravaganza of sexual and erotic innuendos, surreal storytelling, and unfiltered rawness that makes this album an essential piece of his discography.

The long-awaited vinyl release features brand-new, exclusive artwork by Dutch artist Rob Worst, capturing the essence of Kool Keith’s provocative and unpredictable style. Whether you're a longtime fan or a newcomer to Kool Keith’s world, this first-ever vinyl edition of “The Personal Album” is a must-have for collectors and lovers of unconventional hip-hop. Dive into the bizarre, unapologetic genius that only Kool Keith can deliver—now, finally, on wax.

(Limited edition to 500 copies, remastered audio, pressed and printed in Indonesia) The 13 tracks contained in this compilation “Begadang: Soneta Group Best Songs, 1975-1980” are some the most innovative music that came out of Indonesia’s music scene in the 1970s, tunes that has cemented Rhoma Irama’s status as the king of the genre.



Dangdut is the biggest musical genre in Indonesia. Dangdut, onomatopoetic name from the sound of hand drums used in this type of music, is what reggae to Jamaicans, country to Americans or skiffle to mid 20th century British people. And in this genre of dang dut, the name Rhoma Irama looms large. He is until today the undisputable king of dangdut and his role as pioneer of the music is already in the history book. In fact, there's one book documenting the outsized role of Rhoma in establishing dangdut as the father of this music. The book is aptly titled Dangdut Story, written by Pittsburgh University music professor Andrew N. Weintraub.



Among Indonesian fans of dangdut, there’s this one misconceptions that dangdut music is that it is an indigenous art form from Indonesia and that it constitutes an amalgamation of local, traditional music of this Southeast Asian nation, with Malay music being the most prominent feature in the mix.



Dangdut pioneer Rhoma Irama is among the first to reject this assertion. “Dangdut music may have originated in Deli (in North Sumatra) but then got the influences from the West and India”, he said.



Indeed, most of Rhoma’s well-known compositions may have been influenced by Indian tunes but some of his best quality works owed much to the West.



Rhoma had long found home in Western pop music. In the early 1960s, after honing his guitar playing skill, Rhoma set up his first band Gayhand to play the tunes of The Beatles, Paul Anka and Tom Jones. In 1972, Rhoma won best singer title in a Southeast Asia singing competition in Singapore playing Tom Jones “I Who Have Nothing.”



Yet, nothing changed Rhoma’s fortune in the music industry, to a point where he decided to leave pop and switched to playing Orkes Melayu (Malay Orchestra) music, first with Orkes Melayu Purnama and later with Soneta Group.



His career soon took off with Soneta, especially after he introduced what ethnomusicologist William H. Frederick considered as “theatre”, through which Rhoma borrows many elements from stage performances of British and American rock bands. These elements, kitsch and pomp, he liberally adopted and became an inseparable part of dangdut itself; tight pants, long hair, platform shoes, glitter and glamour which would not be out of place in Elton John and David Bowie stage show.



And this is actually the contradiction of Rhoma’s brand of Malay music. “One might legitimately ask how imaginative, not to say bizarre, costuming and dancing with abandon could be related to some of the objectives of Rhoma has set for himself and soneta group”, Frederick wrote on his seminal work on the singer, Rhoma Irama and the Dangdut Style: Aspects of Contemporary Indonesian Popular Culture, published in 1982.



From technical point of view, Rhoma not only replaced the acoustic elements from Melayu Music with electric instruments but also created new synthetic sounds that has never been attempted before in Indonesia’s music industry.



Detractors like to point out how much he was indebted to Deep Purple, but a closer inspection reveals how he in fact had mined his influences even deeper.



Notice how Rhoma reproduced funk, which is all the rage in early 1970s, in the song “Santai” (Relax), this album’s closer or “Credit Title (Instrumentalia)” which opens this Darah Muda (Young Blood) soundtrack. The rubbery bass lines that open both songs can easily find home in any Sly and the Family Stone’s or Isaac Hayes’ tunes from that era. Other highlights of the song is the funky guitar licks and the droning Hammond a la George Clinton that stabs deep in the record groove. In the guitar solo, you can also hear the bark of George Harrison’s licks from “Taxman”.



The 13 tracks contained in this compilation “Begadang: Soneta Group Best Songs, 1975-1980” are some the most innovative music that came out of Indonesia’s music scene in the 1970s, tunes that has cemented Rhoma Irama’s status as the king of the genre. Only 500 copies were pressed for this compilation.

In a trajectory full of about-faces, Music for Four Guitars splices the formal innovations of Bill Orcutt's software-based music into the lobe-frying, blown-out Fender hyperdrive of his most frenetic workouts with Corsano or Hoyos. And while the guitar tone here is resolutely treble-kicked—or, as Orcutt puts it, 'a bridge pickup rather than a neck pickup record'—it still wades the same melodic streams as his previous LPs (yet, as Heraclitus taught us, that stream is utterly different the second time around). Although it's a true left-field listen, Music for Four Guitars is bizarrely meditative, a Bill Orcutt Buddha Machine, a glimpse of the world of icy beauty haunting the latitudes high above the Delta (down where the climate suits your clothes)..."—Tom Carter

“Richard Davies is one of the last great songwriters on planet Earth. Every song on Composition Book is up there with his finest and so it's no small feat that after 35 years of making beautiful records, this one is his best.” – Robert Pollard / Guided By Voices Australian mad scientist Richard Davies has long flown under the popular radar with his groups The Moles and Cardinal, but his 10 albums are loved and championed by indie rock royalty. The Flaming Lips, for example, have recorded a Davies song and backed him up on a Moles tour in 1995. A scholar of the songwriting of The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Dylan et al., Davies spins off subtle, catchy indie rock melodies, sometimes reassembled in bizarre Frankenstein arrangements and deconstructed sonic derangements. On Composition Book, The Moles have evolved with emphasis on acoustic guitar and divine female voices. Davies’ lyrical non sequiturs and caustic wit sting, surprise and delight. “The Australian-bred, New England-based Richard Davies has long been a secret-handshake artist for indie diehards; his songs suggest self-contained pop hits from a crooked dimension.” – The New Yorker “The greatest differentiator between the work of the Moles and that of their contemporaries, though, is Davies himself. As a presence, there is something deeply and beguilingly inscrutable about him, a purposeful blankness that betrays an enormous amount of weight and depth behind it, and oozes both vulnerability and vitriol when it breaks and cracks.” – Pitchfork

Black Truffle is thrilled to begin 2025 with a rare solo release from Konrad Sprenger, alias of elusive Berlin composer-producer-instrument builder Jörg Hiller. A prolific collaborator, Sprenger has worked extensively with icons of American minimalism such as Ellen Fullman (with whom her recorded the gloriously eccentric song album Ort) and Arnold Dreyblatt (as a core member of the Orchestra of Excited Strings since 2009), as well as releasing their music on his impeccably curated label, Choose. As an instrument builder and installation artist, he has overseen the creation of a computer-controlled multi-channel electric guitar and, with Phillip Sollmann, a modular pipe organ system designed to be reconfigured from space to space.

In much of Hiller’s work, a scientific approach to acoustic phenomena co-exists with a pop sensibility and a sly sense of humour. Nowhere is this unique combination more in evidence than in his slim body of solo work, beginning with the startling diversity of instrumentation and compositional approaches heard on the short pieces of Miniaturen (2006) and Versprochen (2009), followed by the more single-minded exploration of the computer-controlled electric guitar on Stack Music (2017). Set brings together these various strands of Sprenger’s work into a wildly infectious, playful epic, performed by the composer and the mysterious Ensemble Risonanze Moderne. On the LP’s second side, we are also treated to a guest appearance from longtime collaborator Oren Ambarchi, on whose recent solo releases Simian Angel and Shebang Sprenger has made key production contributions. Ambarchi’s signature stuttering, swirling harmonics weave through a sparkling assemblage of electric guitars, acoustic instruments, percussion and electronics—though, given the deft use that much of Sprenger’s recent production work makes of midi-controlled sampled instrumentation, it’s anyone’s guess where the acoustic ends and the digital begins here.

As soon as the needle drops on the first side, we are inside a musical world that Set will inhabit for its 33 minutes: sparkling guitar harmonics and palm-muted notes, tuned percussion, crisp electronic drum hits, flashes of horns, and untraceable bursts of synthetic sound are arranged into a skittering polyrhythmic framework calling up the detail-rich percussive constructions of contemporary techno filtered through the pointillism of the post-serialist European avant-garde. Behind this shifting mist of particulate sound, winds and strings sound out held chords, reminiscent of Arthur Russell’s Tower of Meaning in their epic yet seemingly aimless drift. The relationship between elements is mysterious, appearing both carefully considered and almost random. Though never straying too far from where it begins, as the piece moves along, it spotlights increasingly bizarre instrument choices (shakuhachi and steel drums, anyone?) as well as momentary liftoffs into motorik propulsion. Set is a fascinating, mercurial thing: at once propulsive and fragmented, essentially static in form yet ever-changing in detail, unabashedly egghead in its construction yet sure to get the feet tapping.

Merzbild Schwet, the second album opus released in 1980, is considered one of Nurse With Wound's major releases, and is part of the famous "Silver Edition" on Rotorelief Records, with a luxurious chrome-plated cover in double Gatefold sleeves, and sumptuous 200g vinyl discs issued in 300 copies on silver and black vinyl, and 700 copies on black vinyl.

The first track, Futurismo, begins with clanking rhythms, record skip clicks, and horn riffs before veering off into a crazed quilt of women singing, laughing, and talking in French. About halfway through, wild screeches of distortion disrupt the piece, and then more bizarre sounds take over before the piece ends with a collage of over modulated electronic hum and rambling piano. The other cut, Dada X, goes further into weirdness with lots of silences, creepy creaking noises, tones that build up and collapse, and scattered spoken word in French and English from Eve Libertine from the political punk band Crass, and the piece certainly lives up to the Dada of its title.

Post-Nuclear Mind Music? Lizard Strategies? Void Spirit...? These bizarre titles are just a few of the self-coined terms that Australian electronic musician Ian MacFarlane has conjured to represent his eccentric sonic world. An artist whose unique style of electronic experimentalism has balanced dangerously close to the edge of popular convention, existing outside the mainstream and extending well beyond the fringe of any sanctioned independent scene. A futurist outsider whose extraordinary musical vision has explored the uncharted realms of consciousness and fantasy. Following a brief stint with the legendary Australian Krautrockers Cybotron, MacFarlane produced three independent solo albums throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s. His debut LP Void Spirit, an experimental album issued under the pen name 'Violet Lightning', was followed by a further two albums published under his own name, the cosmic influenced Back From Beyond and finally the privately issued electro-ambient suite Planetarium. Presented with hours of unreleased home recordings, The Roundtable has begun a dedicated search through the fascinating archives of this under exposed artist. Beginning with a vinyl release of the rare cassette-only album Planetarium; this private press sees MacFarlane armed with a bank of Roland Synthesizers, Drum Machines and field recordings, spawning a mutant amalgam of German Kosmische Musik, French Library electro and Private Issue New Age. Surrender to the stars and welcome to the first instalment of "Muzak To Moralize By".

Dark Entries has raided the bathhouse to bring us Deep Entries: Gay Electronic Excursions 1979-1985, 10 tracks of obscure queer synth bliss. One of Dark Entries' most important missions has been illuminating neglected facets of gay musical history, with crucial archival works by legends like Patrick Cowley, Sylvester, and Man Parrish. On Deep Entries, the label spans 6 years of gay electronics - from sultry to angsty to camp, these songs are overflowing with snappy 808 snares and sinewy analog synth leads. The '80s were a difficult period for many in the gay community as they grappled with the horrors of the HIV/AIDS crisis. The 10 tracks on Deep Entries, varied in genre and vibe, are united in their portraiture of 1980s gay life, and the hope for love or fleeting romance. Previously unreleased cruising soundtracks come courtesy of Patrick Cowley’s “Love Me Hot” featuring vocalist Paul Parker and Boytronic’s “Tonight (Alternate Mix)” set on Hamburg’s famous “Mile of Sin.” Brisbane-based Megamen deliver the proto-electroclash number “Designed for Living,” which prefigures Madonna’s Marlene Dietrich rap in “Vogue.” Trans vocalist Paula "Ula" Villagrá declares, “Everyone is gay!” on Muzak’s “Happy Song,” a skittering tecnopop anthem. Dereck Higgins' “This Was Something” rings like a lost Joy Division cut draped in bizarre effects, and Polar Praxis’ “(I Want) To Be Different” is a seething ode to alterity. Nightmoves’ “Nightdrive,” is best known as the brooding instrumental B-side to their epochal “Transdance.” Transistor Jet’s “Master Of The Universe (BW's f-w)”, Maxx Mann’s “Just Like a Razor” and Bachelor’s Anonymous’ “A Stranger’s Bed” are mood music for the pleasures of BDSM and one-night stands. The record comes housed in a retro bathhouse fantasy sleeve designed by Gwenaël Rattke and includes a double-sided poster with photographs and lyrics. Deep Entries arrives on December 1st in honor of World AIDS day, and proceeds will go to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of bob sinclar"s iconic label, Yellow Productions, step into the catchy world of the french touch with an exceptional and limited boxset with 3 LP vinyl records plus a poster. Discover hits, unreleased nuggets and rare tracks ranging from house to trip-hop, jazz and hip-hop. Discover some of the biggest names on the electronic music scene : Like Dimitri From Paris, Dj Gregory, Kid Loco, Martin Solveig and David Guetta!

DJ Koze, Arnim Teutoburg-Weiß aka arnim, and the Düsseldorf Düsterboys enchant with a touching homage to Holger Biege - one of the legendary architects of East German soul. DJ Koze once again proves his unparalleled sense for the extraordinary. Around the line "Du hast erzählt, gelacht / Mir gezeigt, wie schön du bist" from Holger Biege's 1978 song "Bleib doch", Koze weaves a small masterpiece, infused equally with nostalgic depth and futuristic elements.

Arnim Teutoburg-Weiß aka arnim (frontman of the iconic Beatsteaks) opens our hearts with his heavenly radiant voice. With full sincerity - pure and straightforward - he sings the love declaration of a lifetime.
Floating on a cloud, the Düsseldorf Düsterboys sprinkle lyrical stardust with their brilliant harmonies - fluffy and bizarre at the same time. It feels as if this cosmic quartet boarded a time machine and returned to the present to plant the essence of days gone by into today's matrix.

"Wie schön du bist" is not just a tribute to Holger Biege's work, but a loving bow to his entire musical legacy. It is an anthem to the timeless magic of music and the enduring power of love that connects us all.
Koze, arnim and the Düsterboys have created something truly unique here: a gem-a homage, a time travel, and a love letter all in one. Music can indeed be something magical.

AA
"Amor," a dandelion of a song, was created in collaboration with Brazilian singer César Lacerda. It is an acoustic love letter in its purest form-warm, crackling, and everlasting.

Repress! It's safe to say that hip-hop has never seen an album like Ol’ Dirty Bastard's 1995 solo debut Return to the 36 Chambers. The brief glimpses of ODB's unhinged genius provided by Wu-Tang Clan's landmark Enter the Wu-Tang album two years earlier were begging to be expanded on to a larger canvas, and, with RZA guiding production, the album promised to give Dirty the creative license to make one of the most bizarre, entertaining and original LPs in hip-hop history. With his raspy, drunken flow and dark sense of humor, Dirty fearlessly attacks from all angles, throwing himself fearlessly into punchy rhyme attacks (“Damage,” with GZA), drugged-out party jams (the monster singles “Brooklyn Zoo” and “Shimmy Shimmy Ya”) and bizarre, grimly hilarious fantasies of sex and violence (“Don't U Know” and the R&B-tinged “Sweet Sugar Pie”). Backed by RZA's appropriately gritty, dissonant beats and appearances from the Clan, Return became an instant hit, selling over 1 million copies and earning a Grammy Award nomination for Best Rap Album in 1996. The album stands as a high water mark in the Wu-Tang Clan's collective creative output and was selected as one of the Best 100 Rap Albums by The Source magazine in 1998. In honoring the legacy of one of hip-hop's most innovative releases, Get On Down is proud to present this incredible and unique special edition of Ol’ Dirty Bastard's Return to the 36 Chambers as a double LP which contains the complete original album, remastered for optimal sound quality.

The Gates of Slumber return with a new album out in November on Svart Records “I never intended to pick up with The Gates of Slumber ever again in 2014. While I did start the band and wrote most of the first album it was never intended to be a one man show.” -Karl Simon, 2024 Indiana’s True Doom Metal legends The Gates of Slumber return with their sixth album out in November via Svart Records. The self-titled album is the band’s first full length offering since The Wretch from 2011. The Gates of Slumber was formed by Karl Simon in 1998. Various people were in and out of the group between 1998 and 2001, when the Blood Encrusted Deth Axe demo was recorded with Jamie Walters aka Dr. Phibes/Athenar (Boulder, Midnight) on drums and bass. In 2003 Jason McCash took over the bass duties and was a long-time member of the band until his untimely demise in 2014, after which Simon decided it was time to call it quits. That was until 2019 when the renowned metal festival Hell Over Hammaburg wanted to bring the band back on stage to perform at the festival’s 2020 edition. Simon reformed the band with its original member Chuck Brown on drums and Steve Janiak on bass and got back to work. “We’d been asked several times to play Hell Over Hammaburg. But there was no “we” to play. The germ of the idea started. We started re-learning songs from the first LP. It wasn’t too long into the rehearsals that we started coming up with new songs.”, states Simon. After a reunion tour was finished, Covid kicked in to slow down the process. Half of the album was already written but the remaining half took its time, and the songs were left to stew in their juices. With bastard heavy songs honoring the Doom Metal greats Saint Vitus and Penance, straight forward bangers, lyrics inspired by the Black Death and John Carpenter’s The Fog, The Gates of Slumber is a truly crushing album and a must listen to any Doom Metal fanatic. Having toured with Pentagram, Reverend Bizarre, Cathedral, Slough Feg, Earthride, and Weedeater in addition to getting praised by Decibel Magazine such as “The Gates of Slumber have quietly gone about the business of becoming one of the best heavy metal bands in the world.”, it’s safe to say The Gates of Slumber play some of the heaviest metal on this planet. The Gates of Slumber is available on vinyl, CD, and digital platforms on November 29th, 2024.

The Gates of Slumber return with a new album out in November on Svart Records “I never intended to pick up with The Gates of Slumber ever again in 2014. While I did start the band and wrote most of the first album it was never intended to be a one man show.” -Karl Simon, 2024 Indiana’s True Doom Metal legends The Gates of Slumber return with their sixth album out in November via Svart Records. The self-titled album is the band’s first full length offering since The Wretch from 2011. The Gates of Slumber was formed by Karl Simon in 1998. Various people were in and out of the group between 1998 and 2001, when the Blood Encrusted Deth Axe demo was recorded with Jamie Walters aka Dr. Phibes/Athenar (Boulder, Midnight) on drums and bass. In 2003 Jason McCash took over the bass duties and was a long-time member of the band until his untimely demise in 2014, after which Simon decided it was time to call it quits. That was until 2019 when the renowned metal festival Hell Over Hammaburg wanted to bring the band back on stage to perform at the festival’s 2020 edition. Simon reformed the band with its original member Chuck Brown on drums and Steve Janiak on bass and got back to work. “We’d been asked several times to play Hell Over Hammaburg. But there was no “we” to play. The germ of the idea started. We started re-learning songs from the first LP. It wasn’t too long into the rehearsals that we started coming up with new songs.”, states Simon. After a reunion tour was finished, Covid kicked in to slow down the process. Half of the album was already written but the remaining half took its time, and the songs were left to stew in their juices. With bastard heavy songs honoring the Doom Metal greats Saint Vitus and Penance, straight forward bangers, lyrics inspired by the Black Death and John Carpenter’s The Fog, The Gates of Slumber is a truly crushing album and a must listen to any Doom Metal fanatic. Having toured with Pentagram, Reverend Bizarre, Cathedral, Slough Feg, Earthride, and Weedeater in addition to getting praised by Decibel Magazine such as “The Gates of Slumber have quietly gone about the business of becoming one of the best heavy metal bands in the world.”, it’s safe to say The Gates of Slumber play some of the heaviest metal on this planet. The Gates of Slumber is available on vinyl, CD, and digital platforms on November 29th, 2024.

cLOUDDEAD's debut album, compiling six 10" EPs that appeared between 2000-2001, is aurally dense and obscured. A sprawling mass of miniature beat-suites and Dadaist lyrics, this strange and beautiful 3xLP would influence a myriad of sub-genres (cloud rap, hauntology, lo-fi hip-hop, etc.) in the two decades since its initial release.

Only the three members of cLOUDDEAD – Why?, Doseone and Odd Nosdam – can speak to the group's origins, but in the context of underground hip-hop towards the end of the 20th century, their arrival makes perfect sense. Cincinnati had a vital scene; home to Scribble Jam, an annual confluence of MCs, DJs, B-boys and graffiti artists. While the trio soon relocated to the Bay Area where they co-founded the Anticon collective, their Midwestern roots – in ramshackle basements of off-campus hovels, as the "cerberus of Southern Ohio" – would remain the atomic heart of their early recordings.

As Chris Martins writes in the liner notes, "The only reason we know their names today is because of how loudly and curiously they aired their insularity. They rewrote the entire world as they knew it through their own fucked perspective, and when those mysterious 10-inches started popping up in record shops, it wasn't just a puzzle to investigate: there seemed to be a whole cosmology hidden in those grooves."

Each side of the album represents one of those elusive 10-inches, each embodying a universe unto itself. Opening salvo "Apt. A" and "And All You Can Do Is Laugh" are perhaps most emblematic of the cLOUDDEAD experience. Why? and Dose create a new language through boundless non-sequiturs, sing-song non-choruses and call-and-response hooks, while Nosdam's dexterous production shifts from crackling ambience of Flying Saucer Attack to tight Ohio Players drum breaks and oblique film samples.

Taken all together, cLOUDDEAD is an original interpretation of hip-hop in the surreal Y2K glow – a bizarre meeting point between William Basinski's Disintegration Loops and MF DOOM's Operation: Doomsday. All it took was a Dr. Sample SP-202, Tascam cassette eight-track and cheap RadioShack mic. There's truly nothing like it.

This edition has been faithfully restored by Nosdam. European exclusive version comes on clear vinyl, incl. fold-out poster and liner notes insert.

The Nightstalker - Mystical sounds from the shadows of the night The Zurich duo The Nightstalker, consisting of producers Dan Piu and Popshop (Gary Rich), create a cosmos of sound that plunges deep into the darkness and unfolds an almost magical attraction.

After two acclaimed albums on the Berlin label Childhood Intelligence, they now invite us on a sonic fantasy journey with their new mini-album ‘Isoutopic Fantasia’ on World Wide Web Records.



With six tracks that oscillate between danceable darkness and playful, surreal moments, ‘Isoutopic Fantasia’ embodies a seductive fusion of mystical depth and bizarre beauty. The sounds are addictive and lead us through a musical dream realm where each beat reveals a new twist and the melodies unfold into sprawling, unexpected dimensions. A sonic fantasy carried by the shadows of the night, in which light and darkness unite in a hypnotic dance.



All tracks written & produced by The Nighstalker (Dan Piu & Gary Rich)

Mastering by Johanz Westerman at Ballyhoo Studio (NL)

A surreal mosaic of eerie chant processionals, tape-rot trickery, and panicked oud madness. These are sonic forgeries of atavistic heritages, recorded by analog means using esoteric techniques."" They have been known by many names: The Givers of Illness; The Bandylegged Riders of the Ill-Promised Sun, etc_ Honed and expanded through their travels, Ak'chamel's singular sound comprising desert-scorched psychedelia, post-apocalyptic shamanism, and bizarre ritual folk is as unique as the physical theater of their otherworldly live performances.

NEW ORDER continue the series of Definitive boxsets, with the band's 1986 album Brotherhood. The boxset will include the original album remastered on CD and 180g LP, plus an Extras CD with previously unreleased demos and rarities, as well as two DVDs featuring the band's performances at Festival of the Tenth at the GMex, Manchester 1986 and Live in Brixton, 1987 in support of World AIDS Day. The DVDs will additionally include live TV performances, interviews and rare band footage. The extensive hardback book will include contemporary articles and liner notes by Irish radio DJ Dave Fanning.





CD Tracks:
1. Paradise
2. Weirdo
3. As It Is When It Was
4. Broken Promise
5. Way of Life
6. Bizarre Love Triangle
7. All Day Long
8. Angel Dust
9. Every Little Counts
10. State of the Nation

CD2
1. Shellshock (AOR Version) *
2. State Of The Nation (Japan Demo) *
3. Paradise (Robert Racic Remix)
4. As It Is When It Was (Japan Demo) *
5. Broken Promise (Instrumental) *
6. Bizarre Love Triangle (Stephen Hague 12” Remix) *
7. All Day Long (Instrumental) *
8. Evil Dust
9. Every Little Counts (Full Length) *
10. Salvation Theme
11. Skullcrusher (Full Length) *
12. Touched By The Hand Of God (Salvation Version)
13. Let's Go (Salvation Version)
14. Sputnik
15. Blue Monday 1988 (Michael Johnson 12” Remix) *
(* previously unreleased)

DVD1
Live at the Academy Brixton, 1987
1. Bizarre Love Triangle
2. The Perfect Kiss
3. Ceremony
4. Dreams Never End
5. Love Vigilantes
6. Confusion
7. Age Of Consent
8. Temptation
TV Appearances
BBC Northern Ireland – Channel One 1986.
Ceremony
Love Will Tear Us Apart
The Tube 1986.
State Of The Nation
Broken Promise
Top of the Pops 1987.
True Faith
Les Enfants du Rock, Rockline 1987.
Paradise
Bizarre Love Triangle
The Roxy, 1987.
True Faith
11pm, 1987.
Bizarre Love Triangle
Extra Material
Stephen’s Fly On The Wall Documentary 1985.
Recording 'As It Is' and ‘Shame of the Nation’ at Denon Studios, Tokyo (May 1985).
DVD2
Live at the G-Mex, Manchester, 19/07/86.
1. Elegia
2. Shellshock
3. Paradise
4. Bizarre Love Triangle
5. Way Of Life
6. State Of The Nation
7. Face Up
8. The Perfect Kiss
9. Ceremony
10. Temptation
Live Extra Material
Glastonbury, 1987.
True Faith
Sister Ray
San Giovanni, 1986.
Dreams Never End
Pier 84, New York, 1987.
All Day Long
Angel Dust
Shellshock
Weirdo
Rapido, Paris 1987.
True Faith
G-Mex, Manchester, 1988.
Touched By the Hand of God
Every Little Counts

NEW ORDER setzen die Serie der Definitive Boxsets mit dem 1986er Album Brotherhood fort. Das Boxset enthält das Originalalbum remastered auf CD und 180g Vinyl, plus eine CD mi Extras aus bisher unveröffentlichten Demos und Raritäten, sowie zwei DVDs mit den Auftritten der Band beim Festival of the Tenth im GMex, Manchester 1986 und Live in Brixton, 1987 zur Unterstützung des Welt-AIDS-Tages. Die DVDs enthalten zusätzlich Live-TV-Auftritte, Interviews und seltenes Bandmaterial. Im dazugehörigen gebundenen Buch finden sich zeitgenössische Artikel und Linernotes des irischen Radio-DJs Dave Fanning.

Das Boxset wird zusammen mit drei 12"-Singles aus dieser Zeit veröffentlicht: Bizarre Love Triangle, State of the Nation und Touched by the Hand of God - ebenfalls remastered und auf schwarzem 180g-Vinyl.

NEW ORDER setzen die Serie der Definitive Boxsets mit dem 1986er Album Brotherhood fort. Das Boxset enthält das Originalalbum remastered auf CD und 180g Vinyl, plus eine CD mi Extras aus bisher unveröffentlichten Demos und Raritäten, sowie zwei DVDs mit den Auftritten der Band beim Festival of the Tenth im GMex, Manchester 1986 und Live in Brixton, 1987 zur Unterstützung des Welt-AIDS-Tages. Die DVDs enthalten zusätzlich Live-TV-Auftritte, Interviews und seltenes Bandmaterial. Im dazugehörigen gebundenen Buch finden sich zeitgenössische Artikel und Linernotes des irischen Radio-DJs Dave Fanning.

Das Boxset wird zusammen mit drei 12"-Singles aus dieser Zeit veröffentlicht: Bizarre Love Triangle, State of the Nation und Touched by the Hand of God - ebenfalls remastered und auf schwarzem 180g-Vinyl.

One of the Most Exhilarating Live Albums Ever Released: Santana’s Lotus Documents 1973 Performances Distinguished by Passionate Soulfulness, Chemistry, and Inventiveness

Mobile Fidelity’s 180g 33RPM 3LP Set Features Reference Sound and Deluxe Trifold Packaging Faithful to That of the Original Japanese Import: Strictly Limited to 5,000 Numbered Copies, Includes Four Photo Inserts and Two Fold-Out Posters

The bizarre legacy of Lotus transcends its status as both the definitive onstage document of Santana’s career and one of the most spectacular live albums ever released. Originally issued in 1974, the triple LP contains exhilarating performances of the band recorded at two shows in early July 1973 at the 2400-seat Osaka Kosei Nenkin Kaikan concert hall. It bears witness to the eight-piece collective playing with a chemistry, inventiveness, cohesiveness, and soulfulness no other Santana lineup would ever surpass. Featuring seven previously unreleased tracks as well as remarkable renditions of material from Santana’s first four albums and the Carlos SantanaJohn McLaughlin collaboration Love Devotion Surrender, Lotus simultaneously suggests and inspires, dreams and delivers.

Transferred by original engineer Tomoo Suzuki, strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies, and housed in deluxe trifold packaging faithful to that of the original pressing, Lotus benefits from reference audiophile treatment on Mobile Fidelity’s 180g 3LP set. Featuring rich tones, smooth dynamics, excellent separation, deep soundstages, and involving presence, this reissue pays tribute to both the virtuosic lineup and the magnetic fusion of Latin- and Afro-Cuban-influenced jazz, rock, psychedelia, R&B, and blues. The complexity of the spiritual passages, demands of the crescendos, delicacy of the calm transitions, electricity of the solos: everything is rendered with superb balance and free of the harshness, compression, and fatiguing peaks that would otherwise distract from the presentations at hand. Black magic, indeed.

When the then 21-year old Mac DeMarco released his debut Rock and Roll Night Club 12" just a short while ago in the Spring of 2012, it was accompanied by a barrage of bizarrely funny promo videos, wildly unhinged live performances and a not-so-subtle disparate range of promo photos. The glam facade was purely that, an image that was manufactured for fun to confuse the stiff and compartmentalizing world of indie music journalists. But it wasn't all a jest, as that EP covered a whole range of music styles that were latent in the ex-Makeout Videotape frontman's already impressive slough of cassette-only releases. The sincere and warm Mac who sang "Only You" was the same lipstick-wearing sleazoid that crooned "Baby's Wearing Blue Jeans" and that suited him and his listeners just fine. Now, all of six months later, Mac is back with his first proper full length, Mac DeMarco 2. As opposed to RNRNC, "2" is a concerted effort to produce a cohesive work that showcases Mac's natural ability as a songwriter, singer and producer. With a new arsenal of recording gear, the fidelity has substantially improved without compromising the immediacy and organic quality of his prior releases under any monicker. The results are immediately rewarding, from the warm "Cooking Up Something Good" to the heartfelt "My Kind of Woman." It's obvious Mac is presenting himself musically in the most sincere way possible, no matter what happens in his wild videos or live shows. "Freaking out the Neighborhood," Mac's apologetic ode to his loved ones about such public behavior, shows that Mac DeMarco is still with us, coming along for the ride, getting everyone else in trouble. Even so, the maturation process of Mac DeMarco, recording artist, is in full swing. He did, after all, turn 22 this April.

Thirty years after it was released on CD and cassette, Fuemana’s cult classic New Urban Polynesian album is finally available on vinyl. Born from the blood, sweat and tears of the late great Polynesian renaissance man Phil Fuemana and his family and friends, Fuemana’s music transports the listener back to the autumn and winter days of 1994 in the antipodes, where they turned love, loss, grief and acceptance into the finest R&B/street soul album ever recorded in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Fuemana spent several late nights tracking one-take sessions at The Lab Recording Studio with engineers Simon Taylor, Chris Sinclair and Mark Tierney. From there, New Urban Polynesian came together quickly. Across the album, Phil showed off his prodigious skills as a multi-instrumentalist and producer, playing most of the smooth, sophisticated, and heartfelt music himself. In the studio, he shared the lead with Christina and Matty J, supported by a cast of backing vocalists, musicians and guest vocalists, including a young Carly Binding.

From the lush openings of their soulful Roberta Flack, Donny Hathaway, and Stevie Wonder covers ‘Closer’ and ‘Rocket Love’ to the misty new jack swing serenade of his original ‘Seasons,’ Phil’s goal was to craft material that would let the music industry know the Fuemanas had arrived while also inspiring the next generation.

In 1995, the Fuemana family’s youngest sibling, Pauly, borrowed the initials from Ōtara Millionaires Club and began performing as OMC. Not long after, he changed everything for New Zealand music by recording the feelgood guitar-laced Polynesian pop global mega-hit ‘How Bizarre’ with producer Alan Jansson.

Consumed by a desire to do more musically, Phil established Urban Pacifika Records, where he launched the careers of a new wave of Pacific hip-hop and R&B talent, including Lost Tribe, Moizna, AKA Brown, and Sani Sagala, aka Dei Hamo.

In 2005, Phil tragically passed away from a heart attack aged 41. Five years later, Pauly, equally tragically, joined him after an extended battle with a rare neurological disorder, leaving Tony and Chirstina to grieve and make sense of their family’s extraordinary story.

When New Urban Polynesian first hit record store shelves in 1994, the Fuemanas dedicated the album to their father, Takiula Fuemana. Three decades later, it has expanded in meaning to become a remembrance of their youngest brother Pauly and a celebration of the life and times of their big-hearted big brother, Mr. Fuemana, Mr. Phil Fuemana.

Words by Martyn Pepperell in conversation with Tony & Christina Fuemana.

Gazebo Records feel honoured for the opportunity to share this important album for our inaugural release, now available for the first time on vinyl with remastering by Mikey Young.

All proceeds from this record flowing to the Fuemana family.

Music On Vinyl, in collaboration with Warner Music Ben- elux, presents the new versions of the Dance Classics series. Originally released between 1988 and 1990 as a series of cd compilations which included soul, funk, and classic-disco tracks.

Dance Classics Vol. 1 includes floorfillers by Chaka Khan, Change, Sheila & B. Devotion, Sister Sledge, Zapp, Chic, Jenny Burton, Starpoint, Lace, George Ben- son, Sheila E. and more tracks. All songs have been newly selected, remastered and feature a broad selection of dance classics, including hidden gems and rare tracks.This collection includes full length 12”/album versions and unmixed dj-friendly tracks.

The sleeves have been updated with new, yet familiar, artwork and are instantly recognizable. Each edition also includes a 2-page insert with credits and cover photos.

Dance Classics Vol. 1 is available as a limited edition on 2LP’s on gold coloured vinyl and includes an insert.

What does it mean to be perfectly blue? Perhaps it means swimming contently in the waters of deep, complex emotions, or simply learning to spin low moments into casual days. For Luka Seifert, who makes music as RIP Swirl, the idea of being fine with not being happy all the time was the catalyst for his second album, Perfectly Blue. The two words captured something: learning to embrace being blue, while using music as a way of processing emotions.

***BACK IN STOCK ON ORANGE CREAM VINYL!!!

On Fire is widely recognized as the canonic pinnacle of Galaxie 500's career. The artwork conveys this, with a low-angle shot of the band, looking up towards an amber sky. This record marked the realization of their signature sound. Nowhere is it clearer than on the album opener, "Blue Thunder," the closest a song can come to waves crashing on a beach in song form. Lyrically inconsequential, with a chorus composed entirely of "la"s, the track's power lies in a systematic build and break of intensity that reaches a Spector-like climax. It is the quintessential Galaxie 500 song, encapsulating all that was great about the band. With the Boston trio once again utilizing the bizarre genius of producer Mark Kramer, On Fire sounds like anything but. The guitars are warm blankets enwrapping Dean Wareham's vocals, percolated by the open percussion of Damon Krukowski and anchored by the emotion-laden bass of Naomi Yang. Songs like "Snowstorm," "Strange," and "Decomposing Trees" have an endless quality, without beginnings or ends, but rather frozen somewhere on a spectrum of melancholy. For the first time since its original pressing, On Fire is available again on vinyl. Cut by vinyl ace Kevin Gray from a remaster by Kramer and Alan Douches, the album sounds more vibrant than ever, and Galaxie 500 exists again as one of the most enrapturing and glorious bands to emerge from the underground in the past 25 years.

"A Seamless Symphony of Harmonious Electronica" - Jazziz

Emerging from over a year of creative hibernation following their debut album, Stavroz's upcoming EP "Kick Up the Dust" jolts them back into action. The EP flows gently, yet the overall mood of the journey isn’t always easy to pinpoint. There’s a certain vagueness to Stavroz’ sound which allows for bizarre experiments to seep through without interrupting the course. “We like to keep it lightly twisted, like a wink with a frown,” says the band.



In the title track however, Stavroz boldly steers towards the heart of the dance floor: efficient, remorseless, powerful, intense and most of all... elegant. Guiding you harmoniously through the club is a delightful duet of trumpet and saxophone, timed perfectly to heal you where it hurts most.



"Her Eyes Were Red" does what it says on the cover. There's melancholy - without sadness. Power - without force. Love - without lust. Stavroz's music possesses a distinct power that feels both natural and organic, never resorting to brute force or aggression. In their own way, the Belgian quartet offers an astonishing journey of saxophone & duduk, supported by broken beats and chopped vocals.



In Dae-El, a track featuring the Brussels-based producer and sound designer Poltrock, ethereal-sounding synths and duduk are combined with ghostly high-pitch distortions. Despite a backbone of muffled beats, the tune has vaporous qualities, reverberations that wobble and tinkle into space – it’s an easy listening experience but in a trippy, spaced-out way. “We’re trying to go for the sweet spot between the couch and the club”.



Adding further depth to their EP, Stavroz collaborates with Brazilian singer and composer Castello Branco in "Valente." Here, intimate Sade-like vocals harmonize with rubbery scratches, acoustic guitar, and horn segments, crafting a lush lounge piece that seamlessly balances both relaxation and empowerment, transparency and provocation. It's a testament to Stavroz's versatility and their knack for creating music that defies easy definition, leaving listeners eagerly anticipating the next twist and turn in their captivating musical journey.

A collection of 18 rare disco tracks from Yugoslavia. Compiled by Leri Ahel & Zeljko Luketic from original master tapes. Fox & His Friends label owners Ahel & Luketic selected obscure 7'' singles, b-sides, out-of-print releases and digged deep into the vaults of Jugoton to tell the story of how disco infiltrated clubs and pop music. This compilation is vinyl counterpart to their pioneering research and work in two major exhibitions tracing roots, influences and social significance of disco in music, fashion and design held in 2015 in Klovicevi Dvori Museum and HDD Gallery in Zagreb. "Socialist Disco - Dancing Behind Yugoslavia's Velvet Curtain 1977-1987" double gatefold LP with extensive liner notes contains tunes from KIM Band, Gabi Novak, Arian, Ljupka Dimitrovska, Ana Sasso, Moni Kovacic, Milka Lenac, Rok Hotel, Ivica Surjak, Grupa ST, Nano Prsa and many more in various sub-genres including classical orchestrated disco, dance reworkings of international chart hits and synth-filled italo-disco stompers performed by Yugoslavian music stars, fashion models and even sports and football heroes. Disco, a vital Trojan horse (in local notion: a pop music you can dance to), stayed quite a long time In Yugoslavia, refusing to be silenced and refusing to jump into the bandwagon of expected. It was influenced by American and European disco sound, for example, by the Boney M, Amanda Lear or Love Machine, who all visited Yugoslavia and had live concerts. The producers and the big record companies like Jugoton, PGP RTB, Diskoton or ZKP RTVL, noted the hype in music and they constantly probed the market with limited run of seven inchers or special performances. Some artists were quite successful, but the rest were in the 7'' single empire which was free enough to experiment with all things disco had to offer - genre hybrids, use of electronics, sexual innuendo, bizarre lyrics and most importantly, great musicians and major composers having fun. The no-restrictions policy of disco was there to evade the rules and surely it did.

Nina Ryser's music has always inhabited its own world; a singular and cohesive collection of Keyboard-centric home recordings that marry her undeniable pop sensibilities with a truly bizarre dreamlike aesthetic. With a solo career spanning 7 releases as well as her work in the highly influential art-punk trio Palberta, Nina's artistic voice has been a staple in the American underground for over a decade, her distinctive and consistent sound earning a cult following. Her latest effort Water Giants signifies a departure in both sound and artistic practice - her first solo release recorded outside of her home studio, with a myriad of first time collaborators, it's Nina's most lavish and expansive offering to date, honing in on the heartfelt songwriting at the core of her work. After completing her usual process of demoing the songs for Water Giants, Nina felt that she wanted to try something new, escaping the confines of her minimal studio setup and the limitations of working alone. At the recommendation of several friends, she began working with Lucas Knapp, a Philly based producer who has contributed work to many Dear Life releases (including Florry's The Holey Bible, Hour's Ease the Work, and Joey Nebulous's Joey Spumoni Creamy Dreamy Party All the Time ). Lucas and Nina's recording sensibilities aligned quite seamlessly, breathing new energy into the songs in what she describes as an "effortless collaboration". The result is some of her most pristine experimental pop offerings to date, centering Nina as a dynamic performer and lyricist without foregoing the surreal qualities of her previous work. The album features contributions from many of her peers in the Philly music community, including Jill Ryan (Great Time), Victoria Rose and Nino Soberon (@, Brittle Brian), Eli Kleinsmith (The Knee Jerk Reaction), and her husband Gabe Adels, whom she frequently collaborates with in the synth-pop duo Data. Even the cover art is a departure for Nina, who has previously crafted it herself or with longtime friend/visual artist Izzy Kross, this time assembling a collage of photographs taken by Eve Alpert (Palm) fit for the album's newfound dimensionality. Lyrically, Water Giants stands as Nina's most personal work to date. Taking a cue from her previous release, I Miss My Dog, which was written as Nina was processing the imminent loss of her and Gabe's dog Billy, Nina approached the writing process with unbridled honesty and chose not to edit or overthink her words as she had in the past. The result is a number of candid, heartfelt reflections on love, illness, addiction, anxiety, and the beautiful absurdity of a trash pile on the street. Interspersed throughout the album are Nina's signature woozy instrumentals, which add some escapism to the grounded nature of the material. By putting faith in a newfound collaboration without straying from her natural instincts, Nina has crafted the most dynamic album in her discography, an exciting testament to her songwriting prowess and what can be accomplished by stepping out of your comfort zone as an artist.

"In a trajectory full of about-faces, Music for Four Guitars splices the formal innovations of Bill Orcutt's software-based music into the lobe-frying, blown-out Fender hyperdrive of his most frenetic workouts with Corsano or Hoyos. And while the guitar tone here is resolutely treble-kicked—or, as Orcutt puts it, 'a bridge pickup rather than a neck pickup record'—it still wades the same melodic streams as his previous LPs (yet, as Heraclitus taught us, that stream is utterly different the second time around). Although it's a true left-field listen, Music for Four Guitars is bizarrely meditative, a Bill Orcutt Buddha Machine, a glimpse of the world of icy beauty haunting the latitudes high above the Delta (down where the climate suits your clothes)..."—Tom Carter

WE ARE WINTER'S BLUE AND RADIANT CHILDREN (WAWBARC) is the new quartet of Mat Ball (BIG|BRAVE), Efrim Manuel Menuck (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Thee Silver Mt. Zion), and Jonathan Downs and Patch (both Ada). On "NO MORE APOCALYPSE FATHER" they present six modal lullabies drenched in seared distortion, slathered across striding electronic pulses. Ball and Menuck began creating music in and for the bleakest moments of Montréal winters: "We're honoring that idea of winter, when you come inside and your house is warm, a place that only exists because of how cold it is outside," says Menuck. They later recruited Downs and Patch to flesh out their initial ideas. Menuck met them in 2015 when recording Ada's final album at Montréal's Hotel2Tango _ where they reconvened to make this record. "NO MORE APOCALYPSE FATHER" is an album about witnessing bleakness from a place of safety. Carrying newfound descriptive depth, thanks to the quartet's open-ended songs freeing him from writing in meter, Menuck likens his lyrics to photorealism. On opener `Rats and Roses' he sings of an unnamed city struck by an unknown cataclysm, but the details are local: specifically, his neighbors inadvertently poisoning birds when tackling a rat infestation. It's backed by blown out synths and guitars reaching a soaring crescendo. "Seeing things from a distance and not being able to intervene happens a lot on the record," Menuck explains. "If you're a feeling and thinking person, that's just part of the human condition. We watch horror unfolding from afar, unable to do anything concrete to change it." A powerless witness, able to describe but not intervene. `Dangling Blanket From A Balcony (White Phosphorous)' references Michael Jackson holding his child over a hotel balcony in 2002_the bizarre media spectacle still lodged in Menuck's psyche. This and the album's closing track also elegize white phosphorous, a technology of war designed to light up battlefields but capable of inflicting horrific burns on those it touches. Illumination and horror in one, here underpinning scenes picturesque and terrifying. "The last song `(Goodnight) White Phosphorous' is deliberately like a lullaby," says Menuck. "Written from the viewpoint of watching white phosphorous falling outside your window." Scorched and tarnished and laden with harrowing imagery, "NO MORE APOCALYPSE FATHER" is also a record bathed in light: the bewilderment of hopeful spirits witnessing despair, watching a blizzard of distress unfold outside from a place of relative shelter and comfort. You could call that emotional ambivalence, maybe numbness. But those words are too passive for the weight of conflicted feeling resonating through the album. "I never know how I feel on an overcast day when the sun is still bright despite the grayness and the light is very flat. The colours become more saturated, and you see a single flower, say a morning glory, whose colour is so vibrant beneath the gray, I don't know if that's a lovely sensation or a terrible sensation. It's both," says Menuck.

Opium Warlords' sixth album "Strength!" out on Svart Records in September 2024! Opium Warlords, led by Sami Albert ”Witchfinder” Hynninen (Reverend Bizarre, The Puritan, The Candles Burning Blue), return with their sixth album Strength! It is a versatile but tight combination of pussy techno, sludge, industrial pop, hardcore punk, drone, shamanistic pulse, noise, heavy metal, old school gothic rock and march music. It is a take on European rhythmic patterns: stagnant factory beat – no groove, no swing, just a rhythm of industrialism that pierces through different genres and styles. Comparing to the dark and oppressive Nembutal (2020), Strength! is significantly more light-hearted, with its postmodern lyrics emitting from sources such as shampoo bottles and television UFO series to the Pan-Europa myth or morbid lore of death-hungry Transylvanian Iron Guard. However, the sting of irony and sarcasm is balanced with more serious subjects: Strength! is a hate/love letter to Europe and a self-reflection on Machiavellian and Nietzschean philosophies of strength and elitism. True to the band’s soul everything is covered with pure toxic misanthropy. Strength! 2LP/digital/2CD will be released 13th of September on Svart Records. Album’s first outtake, Erotomania, is out right now via digital services worldwide.

Opium Warlords' sixth album "Strength!" out on Svart Records in September 2024! Opium Warlords, led by Sami Albert ”Witchfinder” Hynninen (Reverend Bizarre, The Puritan, The Candles Burning Blue), return with their sixth album Strength! It is a versatile but tight combination of pussy techno, sludge, industrial pop, hardcore punk, drone, shamanistic pulse, noise, heavy metal, old school gothic rock and march music. It is a take on European rhythmic patterns: stagnant factory beat – no groove, no swing, just a rhythm of industrialism that pierces through different genres and styles. Comparing to the dark and oppressive Nembutal (2020), Strength! is significantly more light-hearted, with its postmodern lyrics emitting from sources such as shampoo bottles and television UFO series to the Pan-Europa myth or morbid lore of death-hungry Transylvanian Iron Guard. However, the sting of irony and sarcasm is balanced with more serious subjects: Strength! is a hate/love letter to Europe and a self-reflection on Machiavellian and Nietzschean philosophies of strength and elitism. True to the band’s soul everything is covered with pure toxic misanthropy. Strength! 2LP/digital/2CD will be released 13th of September on Svart Records. Album’s first outtake, Erotomania, is out right now via digital services worldwide.

Larry Mullins, langjähriger Mitarbeiter von Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Iggy Pop and The Stooges, Swans & The Residents, hat mit "Camissonia" ein einzigartiges und persönliches Soloalbum aus minimalen elektronischen Sci-Fi-Vignetten geschaffen, das lose auf den Schriften und dem Leben des deutschen Schriftstellers und Botanikers Adelbert von Chamisso basiert. Das Album ist nach der von Chamisso benannten Pflanzenart benannt, die von seinem Kollegen, dem Botaniker Johann Friedrich Eschscholtz, erstmals beschrieben wurde. Es ist größtenteils ein instrumentaler Soundtrack, der mehrere bemerkenswerte Ereignisse aus Chamissos Buch "Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte (Der Mann, der seinen Schatten verkaufte, 1814)" sowie seine tatsächliche Überseereise an Bord von Otto von Kotzebues Schiff, der "Rurik", während der Jahre 1815-1818, als Botaniker, musikalisch illustriert. Das Artwork zum Album besteht überwiegend aus drei Holzschnitten, die zwischen 1915 und 1919 von Ernst Ludwig Kirchner geschaffen wurden. Kirchner hegte Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts, also ca. 100 Jahre nach der Veröffentlichung von Chamissos Buch, eine ähnliche Faszination für das Werk wie Larry Mullins weitere 100 Jahre nach Erstellung von Kirchners expressionistischem Meisterwerkes - dem "Peter Schlemihl-Zyklus". Diesmal erweitert "Camissonia" das Chamisso-Erbe als Interpretation in Musik. Camissonia wurde 2020 während der Lockdown-Periode in Wien, Österreich, aufgenommen, die das belebte Zentrum Wiens in einen Zustand einer evakuierten Sci-Fi-Dystopie versetzte. Während Mullins als Musiker im Burgtheater arbeitete, fand er seine Sammlung von Instrumenten plötzlich für die kommenden Monate im Orchestergraben eingeschlossen. Er hatte jedoch eine kleine Auswahl an Elektronik in seiner Wohnung und hatte auch die Möglichkeit, sie aufzunehmen. Außerdem hatte er einen Stapel Bücher zum Lesen, und ganz oben lag - "Der Mann, der seinen Schatten verkaufte". "Die Bilder dieser Geschichte verließen meinen Geist weder bei Tag noch bei Nacht. Ich begann, Chamissos echtes Leben zu erforschen und fand ein wildes Abenteuer rund um die Welt auf einem Schiff! Eine parallele nächtliche Obsession mit den Sci-Fi-Filmen von Rainer Werner Fassbinder verschmolz schließlich zu einem bizarren Moment der Klarheit. Ich richtete mein karges Equipment ein, um zu sehen, welche Klänge ich erzeugen konnte, um die Bilder in meinem Kopf zu interpretieren. Ich entdeckte, dass die mir auferlegten Einschränkungen eine eigene Atmosphäre schufen, und so entstand jeden Tag ein neues Musikstück. Nach meiner Rückkehr nach Berlin wollte ich das Projekt so schnell wie möglich abschließen und keine weiteren Instrumente hinzufügen, um die seltsame Qualität zu bewahren. Ich lud zwei Sängerinnen ein, die ich in Berlin kannte, um bei zwei Stücken einen Chor zu singen, und ich fügte bei einem weiteren Stück selber einen Chor hinzu. Dann schloss ich die Tür und warf den Schlüssel weg."

Nonesuch Records releases Laurie Anderson’s Amelia, the 2024 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient's first new album since 2018’s Grammy-winning Landfall. The record comprises 22 tracks about renowned female aviator Amelia Earhart’s tragic last flight. Anderson, who Pitchfork says, ‘sees the future, but she starts by paying attention’, wrote the music and lyrics for this subjective narrative piece. On the album, she is joined by the Czech orchestra Filharmonie Brno, conducted by Dennis Russell Davies, and Anohni, Gabriel Cabezas, Rob Moose, Ryan Kelly, Martha Mooke, Marc Ribot, Tony Scherr, Nadia Sirota, and Kenny Wolleson.



Earhart was a passionate pioneer of early aviation, achieving fame as the first woman to cross the Atlantic, in 1932. Five years later, she embarked on a flight around the world. Before she could complete the voyage, her plane disappeared without a trace; it has never been found. “The words used in Amelia are inspired by her pilot diaries, the telegrams she wrote to her husband, and my idea of what a woman flying around the world might think about,” Anderson says. First premiered at Carnegie Hall in 2000, the updated piece was recently performed across Europe.



Laurie Anderson is one of America’s most renowned – and daring – creative pioneers. Her work, which encompasses music, visual art, poetry, film, and photography, has challenged and delighted audiences around the world for more than 40 years. In a recent 60 Minutes profile, Anderson Cooper said she ‘is a pioneer of the avant-garde, but ... that doesn’t begin to describe what she creates. Her work isn’t sold in galleries. It’s experienced by audiences who come to see her perform: singing, telling stories, and playing strange violins of her own invention... she blends the beautiful and the bizarre, challenging audiences with homilies and humor. She blurs boundaries across music, theater, dance, and film.’ The Washington Post has said she ‘doesn’t just tell stories; she draws out every word with a kind of physical pleasure, tasting its flavor as she probes the everyday mysteries of life,’ and the Guardian has called Anderson ‘one of the great popular artists and storytellers of our time.’



Anderson released her first album with Nonesuch Records in 2001, the critically lauded Life on a String. Her subsequent releases on the label include Live in New York (2002), Homeland (2010), the soundtrack to Anderson’s acclaimed film Heart of a Dog (2015), and her Grammy-winning collaboration with Kronos Quartet, Landfall (2018). Additionally, Anderson’s virtual-reality film La Camera Insabbiata, with Hsin-Chien Huang, won the 2017 Venice Film Festival Award for Best VR Experience, and, in 2018, Skira Rizzoli published her book All the Things I Lost in the Flood: Essays on Pictures, Language and Code, the most comprehensive collection of her artwork to date.



Recent exhibitions and installations of Anderson’s work include Habeas Corpus at New York’s Park Avenue Armory; her largest exhibition to date, The Weather, at Washington, DC’s Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum of Modern Art; and Looking into a Mirror Sideways at Stockholm’s Moderna Museet, which was her largest European exhibition to date. Anderson recently toured with Sex Mob, performing her piece Let X=X. Earlier this year, she was awarded the 2024 Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication, along with Christopher Nolan and David Attenborough, and the International Astronomical Union named a minor planet in her honour: Asteroid 270588, Laurieanderson.



Nonesuch released a re-mastered edition of Anderson’s landmark 1982 album Big Science in 2007 for its 25th anniversary, followed by a vinyl LP re-issue in 2021; its beloved single, ‘O Superman’, became a surprise viral hit on TikTok earlier this year.

Heaven Born and Ever Bright is the third studio album by British rock band Cardiacs. It was produced by Tim Smith, engineered by David Murder and mixed by both Available on CD Digifile and Single Sleeve Violet coloured vinyl (pressed from the 1991 master) Cardiacs are an English rock band formed in Kingston upon Thames by Tim Smith (guitar and lead vocals) and his brother Jim (bass, backing vocals) in 1977 under the name Cardiac Arrest. One of Britain's leading cult rock bands, Cardiacs' sound folded in genres including art rock, progressive rock, art punk, post-punk, jazz, psychedelia and heavy metal (as well as elements of circus, baroque pop, medieval music, nursery rhymes and sea shanties), all of which was topped by Smith's anarchic vocals and impressionistic lyrics. Their bizarre sound and image made them unpopular with the press, but they amassed a devoted following Tim Smith was the primary lyricist, noted for his complex and innovative compositional style. He and his brother were the only constant members in the band's regularly changing lineup. The band created their own indie label, the Alphabet Business Concern, in 1984 and found mainstream exposure with the single "Is This the Life?" from their debut album A Little Man and a House and the Whole World Window (1988). Their second album, On Land and in the Sea (1989), was followed by Heaven Born and Ever Bright (1992), which displayed a harder edged, metal-leaning sound retained in the subsequent albums Sing to God (1996) and Guns (1999). Tim Smith was hospitalised with dystonia resulting from a cardiac arrest in 2008, which brought increased and belated critical recognition to Cardiacs, with several music outlets calling Sing to God a masterpiece. His death in 2020 saw a raft of tributes on social media

Whisper it quietly, but Andrew Meecham’s ninth album as The Emperor Machine, Island Boogie, may well be the long-serving producer’s strongest set to date. Of course, all his albums ripple with vintage synth sounds, colourful lead lines, dub-flecked electronic disco grooves and lashings of cosmic intent, but this one just feels a little more special. Island Boogie is certainly special. Meecham’s “most personal” full-length to date, it was inspired by his experiences at the Rotation Garden Party – a beloved micro-festival promoted by a group of friends (including sometime Bizarre Inc and Chicken Lips partner Dean Meredith), renowned for the quality of its custom-built Klipschorn soundsystem. “The album’s title sums up the vibe that you get from Rotation,” he explains. “It may be held in a landlocked venue but it gives a wonderful sense of isolation – it is an audiophile paradise.”

Meecham road-tested rough versions of the album’s eight tracks at Rotation 2023, with the feedback and dancefloor reaction guiding the sound and arrangement of the final mixes. Fittingly, Meecham will return to the event to showcase the album at Rotation 2024 this July. Given the inspiration he’s drawn from previous editions of the festival, that will be a very special occasion. Musically, Island Boogie offers the most fully functioning and expertly constructed expression of The Emperor Machine sound yet, a style Meecham describes as “electronic cosmic disco-boogie”. It’s a sound that takes cues from early ‘80s NYC punk-funk and dub disco, vintage electro, proto-house and left-of-centre synth-boogie, but one that’s instantly recognisable to those who have followed Meecham’s career over the last three decades.

Island Boogie also sees Meecham continue his blossoming working relationship with Severine Mouletin, whose stylish and distinctive vocals previously graced his popular ‘Dance Por Amor’ and ‘Your Own Style’ singles. Here Mouletin features on four tracks: the acid-flecked retro-futurist wave-boogie of ‘La Cassette’ (featuring additional percussion by Rupert Brown); the infectious, bleep-sporting headiness of recent single ‘Devoilez-Vous’; and the squelchy analogue synth-funk of ‘Wanna Pop With You’ and ‘Vas-y-Le Chat’. Meecham also finds space for a cover of Fox’s 1976 pop-rock classic ‘S-s-s-single Bed’, one of the Stafford-based artist’s all-time favourites. His version, featuring headline-grabbing lead vocals by Michelle Bee and guitar from Dave Atherton, re-imagines the track as a subtly Chic-influenced slab of infectious electro-pop rich in kaleidoscopic synth sounds, sing-along choruses and shuffling drums.

The instrumental foundations of the classic Emperor Machine sound come to the fore on the album’s three other cuts. There’s the jazz-funk-flecked warmth of the LP-opening title track; the sparse squelches, bleeps, TB-303 style bass and brightly coloured electronics of ‘Walk The Dog’; and the exotic, slow-motion cosmic electronica of ‘Cha Murrah Etem’, a warm but poignant affair dedicated to his late father. Heady and intoxicating, with hints of Balearica and digital reggae, it offers a fittingly beautiful and tactile conclusion to Meecham’s most expressive and accessible album yet.

The label that ignited the Dutch post-punk scene! Homogeneity be damned, these early Plurex tracks are a head-turning snapshot of what was happening in the late ‘70s Netherlands underground! Includes an interview with Plurex founders and all of the singles from 1978-‘80! Some of the bands would never release another record, but for the label and many of the artists there was yet more history to be made, not least of which was Minny Pops’ ascendance to seminal status, and Plurex’s emergence at the center of the envelope-pushing Dutch music scene that came to be known as Ultra. “It’s extreme, that’s what that word stands for,” explains van Middendorp of the movement, “It stands for something that’s clearly outspoken, and that’s what we tried to do.” From the confrontational clang of their early punk releases to the electronic art attacks that arrived soon after, Plurex was about saying something new, loudly enough for all to hear. When those records were made,” says van Middendorp, “I never expected that we would have a conversation about them 40 years later if not longer. At the time nobody was even thinking for one minute that this might happen.... That so many years down the line there’s still people out there that will discover this music. And the great thing about The Plurex Story is that it’s also on a format that I’m a big fan of, because who gives a shit about the stream? It’s nice to have a physical album in your hands.”

Nearly a decade after their last album, Lilacs and Champagne picks up right where that record, Midnight Features Vol. 2: Made Flesh, left off. With bizarre excursions into pillowy, sentimental made-for-TV music - and children's choirs incanting the blackest dread-filled music the band has conjured to date - Fantasy World is both transcendent and traumatic. Despite sharing two founding members of Grails (multi-instrumentalists Emil Amos and Alex Hall) Fantasy World only peripherally resembles their core group. Lilacs & Champagne have exaggerated their early record's implications and accelerated their mercurial rearranging of music history by deftly incorporating live instrumentation and samples with equal amounts of deference and disregard. Previously existing primarily in a realm adjacent to instrumental hip-hop (J Dilla, Clams Casino, Madlib), Fantasy World exposes Lilacs & Champagne's deeper lineage as playful tape-collage culture jammers in the vein of legendary sound satirists, Negativland and Severed Heads. It embraces the effect of a child entering a dollar store: the immediate euphoria felt upon discovering the seemingly endless aisles piled impossibly high with novelty toys, utensils, party decorations, and toiletries eventually gives way to the overwhelming realization that they're actually just a tourist in a perilous mountain of colorful garbage. From those mountains, Lilacs & Champagne mold monuments to curiosity and confusion.