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Razen are back with a second album on Blue Rot, follow up to last year's release Robot Brujo on HITD.

On Blue Rot, the band introduces a softer palette and a new quartet, as the core duo of multi-instrumentalists Brecht Ameel and Kim Delcour is augmented with new band member Berlinde Deman on Serpent and guest Thomas Bloch on Glassharmonica and crystal Baschet. Drawing inspiration from late 19th-Century Symbolist art, Blue Rot summons heartbreak and the perils of isolation in languid, hypnotic modes, laying bare the beauty of stillness, the solitary gaze at drifting clouds.

Notwithstanding its hushed and melancholy tone colours, the album provides the listener with the customary disorientation, instrument clashes and tension between stasis and slow-moving development so firmly entrenched in the sound world of Razen. These five improvised pieces offer another testimony to the uniqueness of this outfit, their esoteric ancient-modern approach and to their dedication to explore new ground on each release while managing to sound only like themselves.

We proudly present: A journey through different dimensions, space and time: Future of Lofi is our attempt to create a new Lofi sound with our favorite artists.

Lofi sound as you have never experienced it before: 30 artists accompany you on this journey and show you their vision of how Lofi will sound in the future.

Check out the story behind this new compilation:

A sound engineer from Silicon Valley inherits a plot of land near L.A. due to the death of his in-laws. On the property, in addition to a spacious estate and pool, there is also an old barn in which he discovers a DeLorean DMC under a dusty tarp. Upon closer inspection, he notices that there is still an old cassette in the tape deck of the car radio. Curious, he uses his profession to digitize the tape and discovers completely new music that seems very futuristic to him - as if it had traveled 20 years through time. Join this beautiful journey through space and time! On this journey you will be accompanied by 30 artists including Mujo, Flughand, pettersson, Saltyyy V, Burrito Brown, Sátyr, Harry Hawaii, Thelonious Coltrane and many more.

Originally released in 1997, this is the first vinyl release of "Drink Beer", the classic 22 track stomper from Canadian punk rock institution, The Vapids. Ramones-flavoured 90's pop punk at its best. If Dee Dee Ramone himself literally defined them "one of the all time best punk bands ever” in his biography, there must be a reason!

FULLY remastered audio courtesy of Geoff Palmer, DOUBLE-SIDED INSERT, red vinyl, 300 copies only full-on HEY SUBURBIA treatment!

A bloody acid tribe release on this label by Savage Nihilism : full collab with more/less tribe-acid-mental new generation. Superb sound with great tunes. TO BE CHECKED : CRYING VENOM !! A future classic

Since 2005, under the moniker Sonmi451 (a character from David Mitchell's novel "Cloud Atlas"), Bernard Zwijzen is creating his own blend of minimal, soundscape-laden atmospheric electronics in Hasselt, Belgium.

He has been previously released on labels such as: Astral Industries, U-Cover, Slaapwel Records, Time Released Sounds, Eilean Rec. "Seven Signals In The Sky" is his twelfth releases.

VERY Heavy Hardtek, loud kick and massive acid dark ambiances...

A perfect bridge between doom and Acidcore.

• Second Drop Records follow up their first two sold out EPs with another slice of old school wizardry. Featuring label owners and long time Kniteforce artists Paul Bradley and The Lowercase, here you have a four track ep that shows their various talents to the fullest, with impeccable production and tracks that leap off the vinyl and wont sit still. Proper old skool hardcore for those in the know…

Club / DJ Support
Jay Cunning, Billy Bunter, the Fat Controller, Liquid, Hyper On Experience, Glowkid, Slipmatt, Dj Jedi, Dj Luna-C, Dj Brisk, Clayfighter, Jimni Cricket, Bustin, Sc@r, Doughboy, Saiyan, Dave Skywalker, Ponder and many others

Danish producer Uffe presents his innovative third LP Words and Endings, which further explores the boundaries between post-punk, dub, UK bass hybrids, and spiritual and free jazz. His first full-lengthouting on genre-breaking London imprint On the Corner, Uffe utilises the techniques that have long fueled his reputation as a purveyor of offbeat sonic fusions and delivers a diverse trip that leans into unusual territory with thrilling and unpredictable results.

The Madness, originally released in May 1988, is the only album recorded by Suggs, Chas Smash, Chrissy Boy and Lee Thompson of Madness. Calling themselves “The Madness”, the group explored a new direction without Mike Barson, Woody and Mark Bedford. The result was an album bathed in all the new technology the late 1980s had to offer, and features some of this incarnation of Madness’ most experimental work.

Lead vocals were shared between Suggs and Chas Smash, while all members of the group contributed music and lyrics. The album also features a host of other musicians including Steve Nieve (Elvis Costello & The Attractions) on keyboards and The Specials’ Jerry Dammers on piano.

Although short-lived, this version of Madness marked a significant detour from the original band’s trajectory and preceded one of the most extraordinary music comebacks ever witnessed, when the whole band reformed in 1992 for two sold-out “Madstock” shows in London’s Finsbury Park. The fans’ excitement led to a legendary mini-earthquake, and ‘Madstock’ would prove that no members of Madness ever truly leave the band.

This LP reissue is pressed on 180g black vinyl and features brand new liner notes by Chrissy Boy, Chas Smash and Lee Thompson.

THE PALE FOUNTAINS - LONGSHOT FOR YOUR LOVE (Marina Records) New enhanced, remastered vinyl edition of the long-deleted, much sought-after Pale Fountains compilation "Longshot For Your Love" - originally released in 1998 - covering the band's early years from 1982 to 1984. "Longshot For Your Love" is a collection of rarities, radio sessions and previously unreleased tracks by Liverpool's second best band ever - fronted by Michael Head ("Our greatest living songwriter" - NME). Seven cuts are released here for the first time ever - incl. the superb John Peel and Old Grey Whistle Test BBC Sessions ('82/'83). The album comes with enhanced artwork - in a beautiful gatefold cover plus inner sleeve feat. lots of unseen band photos and extensive linernotes by former Pale Fountains manager Patrick Moore. On Marina Records.

Contemporary and historical Porest recordings channelled from behind the somnambulistic event horizon. The now sound... The bleak oblique. The minimal and the maximal. Filmic chamber drones, meditative radio massage and forged spiritual violence bury pop ephemera into the swirling murk of de facto instrumental nihilism and orchestral context-free drama.
Side A: A harmful journey into sickness and despair. You get sick and die.
Side B: You are healed. You stand erect and live forever.
Layered field and radio recordings back electro-acoustic experiments via electric saz, strings, balypso, reeds & synths. Big drones, small ensembles and mood-anthems recorded by Porest and friends between 1995 and 2020 in West Oakland, Germany, Sumatra, Syria, Hanoi and London.

During the production of two singles (This being the first) unfortunately William Stuckey passed away, below are some words from my partner in the project Brian Sears regarding our work with him pm his LP.

Brian Sears - I'm not one that likes to write but I wanted to say a few things about William Stuckey. William Stuckey passed away last in August 2021 at age 73, and is an artist that I've been working with since last summer. He was a key fixture in the Little Rock music scene and most notably was one of the driving forces behind the legendary True Soul label. Lee Anthony, the owner of True Soul Records, once told me that William Stuckey was the most talented musician he had ever worked with, and if you know anything about that label or Lee Anthony, that's quite a compliment.


When I reached out to William last summer about re-releasing his material, he ignored my calls and messages. Fortunately, I was able to reach his son, Erreyon who was kind enough to listen to me. I've worked a lot of terrible sales gigs in my past and "getting to the point" is sometimes a hard thing to achieve, especially when you're trying to talk about the music business and music that's 50 years old. But the point was simple, his music matters and deserved to be preserved. This resonated with William and Erreyon and they gave Euan Fryer and myself a chance.There was a memorable handoff of the master tapes in a parking lot and from that point forward I knew William Stuckey trusted me. Trust is something he had to do a lot in his life due to the fact that he was visually impaired and I'm thankful he trusted us. As I wrote before, there was a long process of transferring the tapes, but it was successful, and the album has never sounded so good. William had incredible hearing and was able to pick out details most might not detect. He was gifted and that shined through his own playing and voice through copious recordings. Speaking with him after he finally heard the newly remastered album, the way he had intended for it to sound, is something I'll never forget. Moments like that are really the reason why I feel so compelled to work with older musicians that didn't get a fair shake the first time.

Meeting William Stuckey face to face earlier this summer was one of the highlights of my year. We laughed and hung out at his place where he had lived for the past 50 years. I told him his music was internationally known and the re-release was well received. He was humble and felt like a long lost friend that I hadn't seen in a long time. I'll never forget that. I told him I wanted to take some photos, and I'm so glad I did.We had a good time and it was a beautiful summer night and as I left his place his neighbours noticed me walking to my car and wanted to chat, so we talked briefly and it ultimately lead to one of them getting into their car and cranking "The First Time" on the stereo system in their driveway. I wasn't sure if Stuckey could hear it from his house, but part of me knew he probably could and hearing his song echo in the background as I drove off and thinking about Stuckey and the time we shared and his music being appreciated by so many, even in that moment, is a wonderful memory. I'd like to think he was smiling.His music and legacy will live on forever.
Rest in peace to a great one.

On The Corner Records are proud to reveal the second instalment of their newly forged ‘Double Drop’ series, pairing together two EP’s from two different members of the OTC family, delivering a cosmically twinned, action packed slab of wax.

Label boss Pete OtC developed this series to introduce record players around the world to new artists coming through On The Corner’s region of the solar system. With Vinyl manufacture in pandemic pandemonium and questionable environmental impacts of the efficacy of Disco 12”s it seemed like a prime time to get laying the OTC family’s sonic landscapes onto highly collectible long playing EP pairings, with no represses and no compromise on the artwork, each side sporting a 20+ minute audio journey.

On the A-Side, and hot on the heels of the ‘Dub Protection & The Sportswear Mystics’ cassette, The Diabolical Liberties present their ‘Birds Of Paradise’ EP. This EP all but sold-out and follows the dynamite success of the Duo’s debut long player “High Protection & The Sportswear Mystics” and it’s follow-up hype cassette of dubbed out versions (as well as a series of self-released and long sold-out white
labels that included collaborations with Nyasha (a moniker of Nubya Garcia) and a super limited On The Corner 10” dubplate.)

The Allergies are back with a new album – Rejoice! And the feel-good funk, hip-hop swagger, and dusty vintage loops, is everything you need right now.

Across the 13 tracks, producers Rackabeat and DJ Moneyshot dig deep into their souls, as well as their record collections, serving up a day-glo blast of super positive sampledelia that'll have you smiling from ear to ear.

Built from scratch during lockdown, each song offers up a world to lose yourself in, free from any and all dark clouds. It's their Promised Land, and everyone is welcome to bask in the sunshine.

Along for the ride is LA rap legend, Andy Cooper Ugly Duckling, soul sensation Marietta Smith, dance music heavyweight, Dynamite MC, and the unmistakable voice of hip-hop royalty, Lyrics Born.

Everyone got the memo, as career-best performances roll one after the other. And each singer, rapper, scratcher, and sampler, unites through the power of good good music.

Highlights on the LP include the swamp blues meets half-time hip-hop monster, 'Lean On You'. The Latin funk bomb, 'Move On Baby'. Soul rollers 'New Thing' and 'Are You Ready', and the show-stopping and stirring Moby-ish beat banger, 'Promised Land'.

Almost a concept album, the idea of fresh starts, strange new worlds, loss, solidarity, freedom, and the communities we find in clubs, festivals, and making and sharing music, began to come out, organically, through the song-writing process.

"In a weird way the album wrote itself," says DJ Moneyshot. "We'd be lost in our own little world of hypnotic loops as days passed, and samples jumped out of the shelves, and just started to make sense as they got chopped and layered into these tracks."

Early support for the singles, and response from fans across the globe, suggests that this, their fifth album, really could be something special. Come on in…

Back in 1993, Aston was the one half to the SUBURBAN BASE act 'Rap and Aston' as well as part of 'Engineers Without Fears' and earlier 'The Blapps Posse', he then went on to form the hugely successful group 'The Freestylers'. He produced for artists such as Rebel MC and created some of the Sub Base classics which include Vertigo, More Time, Jeopardy and is now back with a brand new release of old skool inspired bangers to launch a new era of Boogie Times Records.

First up Aston introduces Pirate Jams with the the stunning ‘U Know The Score’, from the very first old skool lead stab and catchy vocal you know that here is a tune from a master of their craft, with all the years of experience and success condensed into one tune to make the definitive early 90's vibe with and updated twist. This has instant classic and future anthem written all over it, fingers crossed we get out and about to hear this at raves across the summer.

Next up is '4EVR' alongside Quicklung, a bolder driving piece of old skool inspired genius, from the early days of rave almost an 89/90s Belgium import vibe to it for those that 'Know The Score' as the A side says!

Grab yourself a piece of future history now whilst rather than hunting discogs two years from now lol

Already renowned for a ball-tearing live show, The Sniffers
made their international debut as one of the hottest tipped
acts at The Great Escape in 2018. Soon afterwards, they
signed deals with both Rough Trade Records and ATO
Records, made a massively hyped appearance at SXSW,
and finally released their self-titled debut album in 2019,
landing them an ARIA (Australian Recording Industry
Association) Award for Best Rock Album, capping off a wild
year for the lunatic, likeable punks.
Late in 2020, Amyl and The Sniffers went into the studio with
producer Dan Luscombe to record their sophomore album,
‘Comfort To Me’. Written over a long year of lockdown, the
album was influenced by and expanded on a heavier pool of
references - old-school rock’n’roll (AC/DC, Rose Tattoo,
Motörhead and Wendy O Williams), modern hardcore
(Warthog and Power Trip) and the steady homeland heroes
(Coloured Balls and Cosmic Psychos).
Lyrically, the album was influenced by Taylor’s rap idols and
countless garage bands and, in her words, “I had all this
energy inside of me and nowhere to put it, because I couldn’t
perform, and it had a hectic effect on my brain. My brain
evolved and warped and my way of thinking about the world
completely changed.”
Seventeen songs were recorded in the ‘Comfort To Me’
sessions and the top thirteen made the cut. They were mixed
long distance by Nick Launay (Nick Cave, IDLES, Yeah Yeah
Yeahs) and mastered by Bernie Grundman (Michael
Jackson, Prince, Dr Dre).
‘Comfort To Me’ demonstrates the same irrepressible smarts,
integrity and fearless candour as their debut but, as you’d
expect of any young band five years on, their sound has
evolved - in Amy’s words, it’s “raw self-expression, defiant
energy and unapologetic vulnerability.”

Record Kicks proudly presents "Bird of Paradise", the first single taken from The Grease Traps much awaited debut album "Solid Ground" that hits the streets next November 05 on a limited edition 45 vinyl. With the heavy soul burner "More and More (and More)" on the B side, this 45 a must have for every deep funk and soul aficionados and djs. Watch out the 45 vinyl is limited to 500 copies worldwide.

Recorded between Kelly Finnigan' Transistor Sound in San Francisco and Fifty Filth Studio in Oakland and mixed by Orgone' producer Sergio Rios and Kevin O' Dea, Solid Ground is the long-awaited debut album by US very finest deep funk & soul outfit The Grease Traps. The album is set for worldwide release on November 5 on vinyl, CD and digital format. The band, based in Oakland, CA, is the latest addition to Milan-based Record Kicks roster. Active since 2002 and with a 45 released on well-respected funk/soul label, Colemine Records, now, after six years spent working on the album's recording and mixing, they are ready to present their first full-length release Solid Ground on Record Kicks, anticipated by the two killer funk singles "Bird of Paradise" and "More and More (and More)" on limited edition 45 vinyl.

Repress of the funky instrumental 45 by The Soul Investigators featuring Jimi Tenor!

For those into sounds from the deep dungeons of the soul jazz underground, the 2nd quarter of 2015 looks promising. Out of its mist come The Soul Investigators in a slick red convertible, featuring a mean flautist riding shotgun, a position we Finns like to call the seat for those in fear. The velvet smooth winds emanate from none other than Jimi Tenor, a person some might even describe as a renaissance man.

The sufficiently psychedelic jazzier exercise "Vulture's Prayer" should get your mind wondering into a turn of the 70's London, featuring a hippie gone bad, smacked out in furs in a hedonistic basement bacchanal, just before discovering himself at the opening desert scene of the "Holy Mountain". Flipping the disc over to "Bad Vibrations" we find ourself in a more funkier urban setting, possibly at a Yusuf Lateef inspired bar session in Chicago's South Side. Don't know, why they call them bad, because they sound so good. Better get yourself a slice and why not even a second helping.

Stuart Evans, aka Sordid Sound System is one of the founders of The Green Door Studio, a not for profit, analogue recording studio in Glasgow which emerged from an increasing disillusionment with the modern ways of music production. His sound holds outsider qualities, being everything but generic and predictable, mixing dub with movie soundtracks in the tradition of Carpenter and Italian likes.

On this 7” released on Höga Nord Rekords, SSS deconstructs and rebuilds music in an imaginative style, pairing tribe-ritual “back to ape”-beats with synthesized cosmic harmonies. In a way, we are enjoying straight up dub here but this record is also a display of the vivid and creative Glasgow scene centred round “The Green door studio” and record labels like “Invisible Ink” where krautrock and 80’s/90’s electronic music is part of the foundation. Boundless joy for every girl and boy!

Two standout versions from the Lewin sisters, now available back-to-back on 45 for the first time. Classic soul turned reggae grooves produced by guitarist John Kpiaye and Adrian Joseph aka DJ Smokey Joe.Recorded in the mid-80s, a decade after the first advent of UK lovers rock and tailor-made for bass-heavy sound system playback, Christine Lewin’s cover of Tyrone Davis’s ‘In The Mood’ transformed his sensual after-hours classic into a female-led hit, that became a staple on Lovers playlists both then and now. Similarly, Tricia Dean’s sought-after cover of Jean Carn’s soul favourite ‘Don’t Let It Go To Your Head’ follows the same formula from Kpiaye and Smokey, synth-led rhythms reflecting the times rooted firmly in a local London scene.

Banger of a pure Hard techno style, schrantz frontier sometime... Hgetting harder and harder. Rave openner.

"People Need People / The Higher Love" is an exclusive 7" containing the two singles promoting the most recent release by Nicola Conte and Gianluca Petrella, "People Need People". From Detroit future dance to afrobeat and spiritual jazz through a nu-disco sound, the unique vibe of these two songs drags us in search of deep music in a spiritual and mantric context. A collective experience wisely directed by Nicola and Gianluca, that delivers a message of Universal Love and hope, that proves to be even more essential and necessary today.

Freund der Familie broadens its musical scope for this one, exploring the hazier, atmospheric corners of ambient, Balearic, house and dub techno. Consisting of reimaginings from Brawther, Prins Thomas, Markus Suckut and Thomas Fehlmann, Omega's second iteration provides the artists with the space for freedom and expression, giving each of them an entire side of the double LP to explore as they wish

Cantankarous Dub : Metting craziness of a 90's early ragga Jungle and jazzy swings opening to some fat amen breaks solo. 160 BPM killer !

Roll The Mice : Up to 170 BPM here, with a newskool metting point between Jungle and Drum... From this base it develops into a breakbeat fonky swinga ... but not only : after the touch down drop, like on the A side, again a wicked Amen break solo dancefloor shot !

Melbourne's finest Katie Drover and Just Jack join forces for a split ep on We R The Aliens 003.

The newest aliens deliver 6 sweltering cuts ranging from delicate minimal tapestries to wonky breakbeat floor fillers and even a dnb jammer for good measure. Lock in and stay hip to the sweeping terrestrial frequencies of the underground from down under.

French techno pioneer/DJ/Producer Laurent Garnier – friend of Ed Banger records - and Mad Rey, new signing of Ed Banger (also co-founder of D.K.O Records & Red Lebanese labels) did exclusive remixes of 2 MYD ‘s classic songs.
Family business and definitely a Club 12’’, offering both remixes & original versions.

Donald Fagen’s acclaimed solo album performed live by The Steely Dan Band in 2019. Featuring I.G.Y.” New Frontier” & more.

MyBrothertheCow isthefourthstudioalbumbytheAmerican grunge band Mudhoney. The album includes several direct references to bands that influenced Mudhoney’s sound. For instance, “F.D.K. (Fearless Doctor Killers)” refers to the Bad Brains song “F.V.K. (Fearless Vampire Killers)”, “Orange Ball-Peen” alludes to Captain Beefheart and Led Zeppelin, and “1995” pays tribute to The Stooges.

Available as a limited edition of 1500 individually numbered
copies on turquoise coloured vinyl.

"Widerstehe dem Drang, den Raum zu füllen." Diesem Impuls folgt die New Yorker Elektronik-Experimentalistin Nicky Mao aka HIRO KONE auf ihren vierten Album "Silvercoat The Throng", das Elemente von experimentellem Techno, Spoken Word, Neo-Klassik und Industrial Noise verwebt. Kompositorisch drückt sich dies in einer schwelenden, schattenhaften Energie aus, die verschleiert, aber variabel ist und in einer Komposition aus Streichern, Synthesizern, Rhythmus und Stimme nachgezeichnet wird. Der Titel spielt auf den poetischen Begriff der "Möglichkeit, die aus der Dunkelheit gerettet wurde" an, was das formverändernde, hingebungsvolle Gefühl dieser ehrgeizigen und eleganten Klangentwürfe treffend beschreibt, die trotz der Vergänglichkeit entstanden sind, angetrieben von dem Streben, "immer artikulierter, differenzierter" zu werden. "Silvercoat The Throng" zeigt HIRO KONE auf dem Höhepunkt ihrer Kräfte, aber lauscht selbst.

o B05 Stormy Scream (Iori Yagami [Stormy Saxaphone 4])





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[o] B05 Stormy Scream (Iori Yagami [Stormy Saxaphone 4])





[u] C1 Crystal (Type 1) [Staff Roll Type 1
[v] C2 Crystal (Type 2) [Staff Roll Type 2
[w] C3 Crystal (Type 3) [Staff Roll Type 3
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[z] C6 Crystal (Type 6) [Staff Roll Type 6

 The third album from Swedish stoner and fuzz rock
band Huanastone is finally available on vinyl.
 Each of Huanastone’s albums tells a new story
and open up new opportunities for exploration. The
band create an authentic, heartfelt and ominous
sound backed up by steady riffs, big fuzz and
heavy grooves.

one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden is the name of the second album by Canadian songwriter Alexandra Levy, publicly known by the moniker Ada Lea. On one hand, it’s a collection of walking-paced, cathartic pop/folk songs, on the other it’s a

book of heart-twisting, rear-view stories of city life. Ada Lea has followed up the creative, indie-rock songcraft of her debut what we say in private with surprising arrangements and new perspectives. The album is set in Montreal and each song exists as a dot on a personal history map of the city where Levy grew up. Due on September 24th from Saddle Creek and Next Door Records in Canada, the physical record will be released alongside a map of song locations and a songbook with chords and lyrics, inspired by Levy’s love of real book standards.

Levy penned and demoed this batch of songs in an artist residency in Banff, Alberta. After sorting and editing she made her way to Los Angeles to record with producer/engineer Marshall Vore (Phoebe Bridgers) who had previously worked on 2020’s woman, here E.P. After a long walk to the studio each morning, Levy spent her session days diving into the arrangements, playfully letting everything fall in place with complete trust for her collaborators. She notes “Marshall’s expertise and experience with drumming and songwriting was the perfect blend for what the songs needed. He was able to support me in a harmonic, lyrical, and rhythmic sense.” Other contributors that left a notable fingerprint on the soundscape include drummer Tasy Hudson, guitarist Harrison Whitford (of Phoebe Bridgers band), and mixing engineer Burke Reid (Courtney Barnett). Many songs came together with a blend of studio tracks and elements from the pre-recorded demos.

The resulting sounds range from classic, soft-rock beauty to intimate finger-picked folk passages and night-drive art-pop. And the textures are frequently surprising due to the collage of lo-fi and hi-fi sounds that tastefully decorate the album without ever clouding the heart-center of the song. Tracks like “damn” and “oranges” feel timeless with their AM gold groove and 70’s studio sheen, while songs like “my love 4 u is real '', “salt spring” and “can’t stop me from dying” sound completely modern in their use of electronics, sound effects, and pitched vocals. In their subtle, sonic variety, all of the album’s songs flow together with ease into one big, romantic dream for Levy’s silken vocals to float above.

Inspired by personal experience, daydreams, and Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, the lyrics of one hand... center storytelling on a bigger scale. The experience and emotions of a year are communicated through Levy’s vignettes of city life. Her prose is centered in its setting of the St Denis area of Montreal as it draws up memories from local haunts like Fameux, La Rockette, and Quai des Brumes in rearview reverie. Levy creates a balance through the album’s year by splitting her songs evenly into four seasons. Opening track “damn”, as a song of winter, kicks off the narrative with the events of a cursed New Year’s Eve party. Immediately this timeline becomes jumbled into a Proustian haziness. The listener is then led through the heat-stricken, brain fog of Summer song, “can’t stop me from dying” and then into the autumnal romanticism of “oranges” before returning back to New Year’s on “partner,” which Levy describes as “a woozy late-night taxi blues reflection on moments when timing can be so right, yet so wrong…”. These collected stories as a whole chart the unavoidable growth that comes with experience. “All is forgiven in time. All is forgotten in time. And when the music stopped, I heard an answer” (from “my love 4 u is real”).

Whether to consider these songs fiction or memoir remains unknown. On one hand, Levy says “Why would I try to write a story that’s not my own? What good would that do?” but on the other hand, she is quick to note the ways that language fails to describe reality, and how difficult this makes it to tell an actually true story. The poetic misuse of the word “sewing” in the album’s title serves as a nod to the limitations words provide. What does it mean to sew the garden? And how can we appreciate its carefully knit blooms when the rearview mirror is so full of car exhaust?

one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden is the name of the second album by Canadian songwriter Alexandra Levy, publicly known by the moniker Ada Lea. On one hand, it’s a collection of walking-paced, cathartic pop/folk songs, on the other it’s a

book of heart-twisting, rear-view stories of city life. Ada Lea has followed up the creative, indie-rock songcraft of her debut what we say in private with surprising arrangements and new perspectives. The album is set in Montreal and each song exists as a dot on a personal history map of the city where Levy grew up. Due on September 24th from Saddle Creek and Next Door Records in Canada, the physical record will be released alongside a map of song locations and a songbook with chords and lyrics, inspired by Levy’s love of real book standards.

Levy penned and demoed this batch of songs in an artist residency in Banff, Alberta. After sorting and editing she made her way to Los Angeles to record with producer/engineer Marshall Vore (Phoebe Bridgers) who had previously worked on 2020’s woman, here E.P. After a long walk to the studio each morning, Levy spent her session days diving into the arrangements, playfully letting everything fall in place with complete trust for her collaborators. She notes “Marshall’s expertise and experience with drumming and songwriting was the perfect blend for what the songs needed. He was able to support me in a harmonic, lyrical, and rhythmic sense.” Other contributors that left a notable fingerprint on the soundscape include drummer Tasy Hudson, guitarist Harrison Whitford (of Phoebe Bridgers band), and mixing engineer Burke Reid (Courtney Barnett). Many songs came together with a blend of studio tracks and elements from the pre-recorded demos.

The resulting sounds range from classic, soft-rock beauty to intimate finger-picked folk passages and night-drive art-pop. And the textures are frequently surprising due to the collage of lo-fi and hi-fi sounds that tastefully decorate the album without ever clouding the heart-center of the song. Tracks like “damn” and “oranges” feel timeless with their AM gold groove and 70’s studio sheen, while songs like “my love 4 u is real '', “salt spring” and “can’t stop me from dying” sound completely modern in their use of electronics, sound effects, and pitched vocals. In their subtle, sonic variety, all of the album’s songs flow together with ease into one big, romantic dream for Levy’s silken vocals to float above.

Inspired by personal experience, daydreams, and Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, the lyrics of one hand... center storytelling on a bigger scale. The experience and emotions of a year are communicated through Levy’s vignettes of city life. Her prose is centered in its setting of the St Denis area of Montreal as it draws up memories from local haunts like Fameux, La Rockette, and Quai des Brumes in rearview reverie. Levy creates a balance through the album’s year by splitting her songs evenly into four seasons. Opening track “damn”, as a song of winter, kicks off the narrative with the events of a cursed New Year’s Eve party. Immediately this timeline becomes jumbled into a Proustian haziness. The listener is then led through the heat-stricken, brain fog of Summer song, “can’t stop me from dying” and then into the autumnal romanticism of “oranges” before returning back to New Year’s on “partner,” which Levy describes as “a woozy late-night taxi blues reflection on moments when timing can be so right, yet so wrong…”. These collected stories as a whole chart the unavoidable growth that comes with experience. “All is forgiven in time. All is forgotten in time. And when the music stopped, I heard an answer” (from “my love 4 u is real”).

Whether to consider these songs fiction or memoir remains unknown. On one hand, Levy says “Why would I try to write a story that’s not my own? What good would that do?” but on the other hand, she is quick to note the ways that language fails to describe reality, and how difficult this makes it to tell an actually true story. The poetic misuse of the word “sewing” in the album’s title serves as a nod to the limitations words provide. What does it mean to sew the garden? And how can we appreciate its carefully knit blooms when the rearview mirror is so full of car exhaust?

Forming off the back of contemporary jazz outfit Zeitgeist, Voronoi take the power and rhythmic complexity of heavier prog-metal and fuse it with the sophistication of classical music and jazz. A passion for science fiction thematically drives the band’s heaving and

chopping style, whereas artists such as Autechre, Car Bomb, Tigran Hamasyan and J.S. Bach help shape the rigid, experimental structure of The Last Three Seconds.

“Compositionally and stylistically we have moved into much heavier territory than our contemporary jazz foundations,” says Keyboardist Aleks Podraza. “It really shows. If you were to put this record against the first tunes we played together as Zeitgeist, it would be like introducing a much capable Thelonious Monk to a less hectic Dillinger Escape Plan.” 

As the first single off The Last Three Seconds, Gamma Signals serves as a toe in the water for the depth of things to come. The full-bodied riffwork captures the stop-start format of prog-metal heavyweights without being explicitly metal. Yet beyond this, glitchy, experimental electronics cut through the composition like a knife. The final product is something that captures the magic of the cosmos – a place where worlds orbit worlds, genres orbit genres. Each element remains different and unique, but still intrinsically tied to the other.

“Gamma Signals is about pulsars and how when Jocelyn Bell-Burnell first discovered them, the media thought they were aliens trying to contact us,” says Podraza. “Broadly, this song is about my love for and fascination with cosmology as a whole. That's a theme that runs through the veins of most of the album.” 

Those following Vorono’s career will need little convincing on the quality of The Last Three Seconds. Collectively, band members have performed and recorded with groups like The Cinematic Orchestra, KOYO, NJYO, Jenova Collective, The Often Herd, Mik Artistik’s Ego Trip, Wandering Monster and more. This in turn has garnered sizable attention at festivals such as Leeds and Reading Festival, Download Festival, Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club - not to mention Voronoi’s thrashing set at 2019’s ArcTanGent.

The cool and collected chaos of The Last Three Seconds serves as a snapshot of this live energy, as passion and fury hum at the end of every complex composition. From start to finish, the record is nothing less than executed perfectly, undoubtedly appealing to even the most seasoned of prog-lovers

The Men’s hugely influential album Leave Home came out during an exciting time in New York City. DIY lofts and shitty bars littered downtown Manhattan and North Brooklyn. The Acheron had just opened its doors. Kill Your Idols had broken up. Toxic State Records was just getting started with Crazy Spirit, Dawn of Humans, Hank Wood and Perdition EP’s. The city was alive with punk and noise and filth. And right at that time, The Men were the show to be at.

Every gig was dripping with sweat. Hallways and sidewalks were packed between sets. Chaos reigned in the pit. The Men hit like a bag of hard cement, a hardcore band with a familiar sound but with an aura of absolute chaos and intensity, like everything was on the brink of going off the rails at every moment of their set, a downhill freight train with no brakes. During these shows one’s focus could shoot back and forth between the intimidatingly angry-eyed, bald-headed Chris Hansell (who went on to front Warthog) and the long haired hippie punks Mark Perro, Nick Chiericozzi and Rich Samis, that made up the surrounding band.

Just one of the many juxtapositions the band embraced. If The Men were a chapter in Michael Azzerad’s Our Band Could Be Your Life, the early EP’s and cassettes would obviously be Minor Threat and Black Flag, while Leave Home would likely be… Sonic Youth. It was just before they made the full jump into each record being a smorgasbord of underground genres, from dream pop to folk;

before they had tracks called “Country Song,” for example. But it was a preview of what was to come. Leave Home was a pivot from pure hardcore punk (some might even call it mysterious guy hardcore), as the band got lost in the groove in a way one couldn’t on a straight up punk record. That groove was so strong on “If You Leave…,” “(),” and “Bataille,” while they spaced out on “Shitting With The Shaw,” and stayed as aggro as ever on “LADOCH.” But of course, Leave Home had a re-recording of their hardest track to date, “Think,” making it clear that they were still the moshers we all had come to know and love. If The Men raised their flag as an important New York punk band with Immaculada, they started waving it in the freakiest way with Leave Home.There is no doubt that Leave Home was one of the most influential records of the last decade.

You can hear their mark everywhere from Ty Segal and The Oh Sees to Milk Music and Hank Wood. Few bands have traversed as many genres as The Men and even fewer have done it so well. It is a testament to the band’s undying authenticity and adventurism that the record sounds as timeless and urgent now as it did when it blew the doors of New York punk off its hinges ten years ago, leaving a giant hole for bands of all kinds to come racing through.

The Altered Hours have just announced details of their second full length album ‘Convertible’. The Irish group have just signed with Pizza Pizza Records and the 8 track album is set for release in May 2021. Following on from some successful headline tours across Europe supporting their debut album & some blistering EP’s along the way, the group found themselves looking for the next step in their ever- evolving journey. Having previously recorded in Anton Newcombe’s Berlin studio for their debut singles & ending up in the infamous Funkhaus studios to lay down what would become their debut album ‘In Heat Not Sorry ’, the band decided once again to



change the approach & take their new songs back to the privacy of their own studio space on the outskirts of Cork City. The new LP ‘Convertible’ is the result of countless late night/early morning sessions that took place over the past 2 years. Choosing to self produce and engineer this record was a conscious choice as the band felt an urge to take what they had learned on the road & in various studios previously, and condense all of this energy back into the boiling pot of their own rehearsal space.

The group have been a part of some exciting movements since the beginning and their path has been an organic one. They quickly became known in their hometown for taking over an ex-government building in the heart of Cork city, turning into a studio and creating a hub for the scene that surrounded them. The years that follow shine a light on the relentless energy of this group and unwavering love for playing shows anywhere & everywhere. Having been invited to perform at Liverpool Psych Fest numerous times, supporting the Brian Jonestown Massacre, selling out venues, churches & clubs, playing rip-roaring DIY shows in friends’ basements, getting joined by members of Spacemen 3 on stage and more recently, being invited by fellow Irish rockers Fontaines D.C to join them on their 2019 European tour playing sold out shows in venues like The Bataclan, Paris & Paradiso, Amsterdam. It’s been a wild ride for The Altered Hours so far & their music keeps evolving & growing as the experiences build. This is a group with the spirit of music deeply ingrained in them and a passion for making rock music something that you can believe in.

Their second full length album ‘Convertible’ is a window into the band’s idiosyncratic tendencies, a closer look into how their writing & sound continuously moves forwards while somehow remaining rooted in their own unique world all at once. The Altered Hours seem born to be an underground affair, something that they wear with pride and this album is a wonderful culmination of their DIY upbringing, their unfiltered rock ‘n’ roll spirit along with a confident stride into personal songwriting.

Keeping the faith and facing the future, Times Are Changing puts a full stop on pandemic talk for unstoppable indie-pop four-piece Lottery Winners, as the four-piece release the fizzing anthem into a newly optimistic world. The first single from their newly


announced, upcoming, second studio album, Something To Leave The House For, the band has penned the soundtrack to hugging old friends, the rebirth of live music and those summer festivals just around the around the corner.

For front man and songwriter, Thom Rylance, working through the darkness of Covid meant surviving Covid, tying the threads of an unravelling mental state into a new body of work now emerging as bright, arms-aloft bursts of positivity. His famed ‘note to self’, the emotive An Open Letter To Creatives and the band’s sensational, viral collaboration with Nickelback with the Rock Star Sea Shanty were just two moments of levity in a time dominated by the dark clouds forming overhead. Now he and the band are moving on and moving up.

“If something so bleak and harrowing can hit us all, totally out of the blue, and change our lives, then by definition that must mean that something beautiful can too.” says bassist and vocalist, Katie Lloyd (bass and vocals) as Lottery Winners start the next leg of their adventure with Times Are Changing, reflective, ready to party and no less ambitious than before.

Their mammoth, 14-track new album, Something To Leave The House For, follows their 2020, self-titled UK Album Chart Top 30 debut with a Fri 24 September 2021 release via Modern Sky UK, promises to document the tumultuous times and the path back from despair. In true Lottery Winners style, every truth and life lesson is dressed in glass-half-full, wildly optimistic, radio-friendly pop, hip-swinging beats and bittersweet tenderness.

Midway through his long, earnest and often very, very
funny essay on the role playing game ‘Dungeons &
Dragons’ in the September 2006 issue of The Believer,
writer Paul La Farge proposes that ‘Dungeons & Dragons’
is not a game at all but rather a ritual. La Farge notes the
marked difference between game and ritual. Whereas a
game seeks to demonstrate how unequal or distinct
players / teams are from one another, rituals seek to do
the very opposite.
 And so, across the 25-year history of Jagjaguwar - an
independent record label curiously named using a
‘Dungeons & Dragons’ name generator - we find this idea
of ritual as a conjoining practice. We see it early on when
Jagjaguwar join forces with a midwestern label called
Secretly Canadian for a powerful fusion. We see it in
familial relationships and collaboration among Jagjaguwar
artists and the ways those artists’ most treasured
collaborators make their ways to the Jagjaguwar game
board.
 ‘Join The Ritual’, a piece of Jagjaguwar’s 25th Anniversary
celebrations, looks to pay homage to the labels and artists
that, whether they know it or not, invited Jagjaguwar to the
table, to this wild, dark magic ritual of music. We’re talking
about independent titans like Drag City, Too Pure, K
Records and Touch & Go. We’re talking about heroes like
R.E.M., Slint, Stereolab and Tracy Chapman. These songs
captured the imaginations of founders Darius Van Arman
and Chris Swanson - and ultimately, opened up worlds to
them.