Search:the snake

IDLES return with their new album, ‘CRAWLER’, an album of reflection and healing
amid a worldwide pandemic that stretched the planet’s collective mental and physical
health to the breaking point.
 Frontman Joe Talbot says: “We want people who’ve gone through trauma,
heartbreak, and loss to feel like they’re not alone, and also how it is possible to
reclaim joy from those experiences.” IDLES albums have always been anchored by
these overarching themes, but the ability of the band to juxtapose beauty and rage
with humour and drama has never felt more satisfying than on ‘CRAWLER’.
 These stories are vividly brought to life through IDLES’ most soul-stirring music to
date, recorded with co-producers Kenny Beats (Vince Staples, Freddie Gibbs) and
IDLES guitarist Mark Bowen.
 Previous album ‘Ultra Mono’ was Number 1 album in the UK, with over 35k sales
week one.
 Huge 2022 January UK tour including five Brixton Academy dates, three at Glasgow
Barrowlands, two at Manchester Warehouse and more. Over 20k UK tickets sold in
the first hour of release.
 Three high budget music videos, written and directed by LOOSE (Lucy Hickling,
Stink Films).
 CD in digipak packaging.
 Deluxe LP mastered at half-speed (45rpm), pressed on deluxe heavyweight 180g
black double vinyl and housed in a gatefold jacket with printed inner sleeves.
 Eco-Mix coloured vinyl LP housed in a single-sleeve jacket and printed inner sleeve.
Eco-Mix vinyl production uses leftover wax that’s already in the factory, meaning
each record is different and the colour is completely random and unique.
 Standard black vinyl LP housed in a single-sleeve jacket and printed inner sleeve.

LP is black vinyl + LP3 insert for full album Download. Check out the first 18 or so seconds of “Can I Ride”, the title track on the first release by Polvo, the two-guitar juggernaut that represented the other side of Chapel Hill indie rock (more on that in a moment). That two-note riff, and the guitar twang that follows, recalls the opening notes on another monster song: “The Sprawl”, a key track on Sonic Youth's epochal Daydream Nation, an album released in October 1988, less than two years before Polvo formed. This compilation's nine tunes—the first seven from the Can I Ride double 7” EP (1990), the last two from the “Vibracobra” b/w “The Drill” 7” (1991) are not quite the sound of a torch being passed, but they were a sign that Sonic Youth's weird tunings, the hardcore punk and proto-indie rock on SST Records, and R.E.M.'s hazy rock (three big influences on this era of Polvo) were changing lives. Even back then, the impossibly catchy roar from Merge’s flagship act Superchunk was known to outsiders as the sound of Chapel Hill. But Polvo was something different from the same region. While the band never cottoned to the “math rock” tag (and it’s hard to disagree with them), there is no question that there was a distinct “how can we make guitar rock sound different from all the other guitar rock” vibe going on in the mid-Atlantic, from Richmond (math rock’s true home, don’t @ me) to the North Carolina Triangle over to Louisville and down almost to Atlanta. (If the Mastodon dudes aren’t down with Polvo, I’ll eat your shoe.) No, Polvo were their own brand of squall, not afraid of big hooks (“Leaf ”), odd tempos and textures (“Lull”) and rolling thunder (“Totemic”), and answers to the musical question, “What if the Feelies grew up on Dinosaur Jr.?” (“Tread on Me”). Indie rock? Not the 2022 kind. Math rock? Eh, not really. This was the sound of a new Southern rock, of a pre-internet guitar storm that looked at what came before and said, “What's next?” Track listing: Side A 1. Can I Ride 2. Leaf 3. Lull 4. Totemic 5. Tread on Me. Side B. 6. Teen Dream 7. Snake Fist Fighter 8. Vibracobra 9. The Drill

Melbourne artist Angel Wash delivers his debut release and sixth disc for the Felt Sense imprint in ‘Under Silver Cloud’, channeling the visual inspiration of Shin'ya Tsukamoto’s ‘A Snake of June’ (and other turn of the millennium Japanese Cinema) into ominous DnB soundscapes across 6 tracks.

Cavernous synth reflections & translucent textures meld intermittently with expertly chopped breaks, sharp, sinister lead synthesis & sub aquatic bass, drawing from an eerie, yet euphoric sonic palette.

ZZ Top are readying a new album titled RAW that was recorded in connection with the band’s wildly popular and critically lauded 2019 Netflix documentary That Little Ol’ Band From Texas. The first track set to be released is “Brown Sugar”, one of the earlier recordings in the band’s career. The Grammy-nominated feature from Banger Films and director Sam Dunn includes an interlude that finds the group’s classic line up -- Billy Gibbons, Frank Beard and the late Dusty Hill -- gathering for a very intimate session at Gruene Hall, “the oldest continually run dance hall in Texas” located in New Braunfels, in the heart of Texas hill country. That performance provided the basis for the RAW album release.

Inspired by revolutionary efforts against oppressive hegemonies in Detroit, and in Black locales around the world, Memoirs of Hi-Tech Jazz is a sound score evocative of that resistance. It is also a reminder that although violence and injustice looms, it is not the only story: we are much more than what oppresses us. The album celebrates Black leisure and play; the mundane joys that persist in spite of the depleting realities of the world.

Movement, and the very mobility of the car specifically is integral to Memoirs of Hi Tech Jazz. Timed perfectly to match the duration of a round trip drive from Underground Music Academy in the North End, to Detroit’s island park, Belle Isle - the album is undoubtedly best experienced while driving.

That journey signifies the transition from labor to pleasure: from the neighborhood of the Techno Museum in North End to an outdoor park that has long been a destination for Black Detroiters to cookout, park their boats, play spades, and listen to local music.

Memoirs of Hi-Tech Jazz embodies the feeling this place engenders—a reprieve from the midwestern work ethic, and a reminder to ground in the pleasures of your body and the land.

Chile-born and now Germany-based scourging black metal plague Vel'Har joins Sentient Ruin for a much awaited and long anticipated vinyl release of its 2020 light-consuming debut MLP "Letanía I". On the wretched offering cryptic mastermind H.S.V.H. unfolds two monstrous black metal blades adorned by three interludes to invoke an unholy sonic siege upon the ridicule of life and the purity of christendom. Baptized under the pentagram and spewn from the unholy jaws of oblivion, these five tracks sprawl and hiss like a horrifying morass of snakes, consuming reality and devouring everything in the wake of a monstrous tide of venom. The rawness and violence of these riffs is evident, but so is the ritualistic and esoteric majesty emanating from its death-scarred aura; an infernal force summoned as a liturgy or rite of passage toward a higher meaning and other form of existence. And that form is Satan's triumph, the zenith toward which every moving part of this wretched crucible converges. His glory as beacon and conduit of pestilent krafts conceived with the malefic design of insulting life and transporting the listener deep inside twisted and inverted dimensions of infinite dissolution and complete insanity.

Mouth Full of Glass is the debut album by Chicago singer, songwriter, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Macie Stewart (She/They). Their story is one of finding solace and strength in solitude, where lush arrangements search for the meaning of

self, both within and without partnership. Exploring loneliness, as well as the growth and beauty blooming from it, Macie’s inner meditations reassess their own relationships in a singular voice that could ring true to anyone.

“Life is a perpetual discovery of your own habits and perceptions,” Macie explains. “This record is about digging into and embracing those less favourable parts of yourself in order to shed them. The hope is always to find the most authentic self while honouring who you once were, and who you could be.”










[i] 9. Defeat

Dubbed out, bass-guitarin' blast from Martin Werner aka Répéter (fka Rer Repeter) -

"Bad Twang is an adventurous approach in bringing together the aesthetics of surf-rock soundtracks, post-world exotica and punk attitude with spring reverb’d dub. It’s your post-nuclear surf film Shadows montage, John Wayne’s hologram in a zombie Tarantino deepfake."

After the Doble-Edged Album in 2019, Sublunar owner Sciahri is back on his own imprint with a brand new EP. Following the recent releases on Semantica, Non Series and Trauma, the Italian- Iranian artist continues his exploration into the multi-faceted sound of techno with highly refined and well-sculpted textures. The record fluctuates from the Birmingham Techno sounds of “Paralyzed” to the atmospheric tension of “The void”, to be subsequently transported to the more hypnotic and acidic “Pressure”, and closing with the paranoid and futuristic voices of “Lake of Snakes”. Design By – Margherita Baldi Mastered By – Neel w & p by Sciahri

Einstürzende Neubauten producer Boris Wilsdorf, Karl O’Connor aka Regis and MY DISCO's Liam Andrews assemble as EROS, bottling no-wave/industrial lightning with a tight set of pulverized, widescreen torched-songs that rasp, grate and throb somewhere between This Heat, The Cure, Cabaret Voltaire, Alva Noto x Pan Sonic.

An industrial fantasy of flesh and steel, ‘A Southern Code’ is the stunning continuation of the trio’s work at Wilsdorf’s pivotal Anderesbaustelle studio on Regis’ watershed album, ‘Hidden In This Is The Light That You Miss’. Rejoined by another key muse, Anni Hogan, and Einstürzende Neubauten’s Jochen Arbeit, they effectively galvanised a new band, EROS, during long days and nights in the studio across 2020 and into 2021. The sound they make is fiercely lean, shaped by Wilsdorf’s manacled mixing and anchored in the frankly sexy as f#ck swerve of Regis vocals and his snake-hipped rhythm section.

The first songs issued from those sessions form a lustrous new high point of contemporary industrial and dance music, one porous to Kurdish dabke as much as archetypal goth, pulsing with a metallic bloodlust and spatialized by Wilsdorf’s genre-forming tekkerz in a way that seriously rewards with proper amplification. Judged on its immediate merits, it’s the sort of record that could have feasibly come out at any point between the ‘80s and now, but closer inspection reveals a discreet framework of sculpted subbass and sleekly rolling traction that betrays the modernity of minimalist D&B physics and up-to-the-second sound design that places ‘A Southern Code’ in a timeless echelon.

Registering the venomous drums and over-the-shoulder whispers of its title track, plus the incendiary middle eastern horns of ‘The Crawling Man’ - a real parallel dimension take on The Cure’s ‘The Top’ - to the post-apocalyptic lounge lizard styles of ‘In This Place’, and the unheimlich creep to ‘Nature Unborn (From Sun to Sun)’, the band’s first album plants a vital stake in the ground for industrial musick at the crest of a new decade.

After Mani Festo's last contribution to our techno-oriented Basement Tracks series, a sequel was a no-brainer. It's no exaggeration to say that over the last couple of years the DJ, producer and label boss has become widely recognised as one of the UK's most exciting techno artists, given his easily identifiable sound, each release just as bold and hard-hitting as the last - this one included.

Synkron EP boasts Mani Festo's ability to create raw, industrial electronics which never sacrifice movement nor swing. Each track is crafted with a precise direction, some via industrial electro instrumentals ('Barrier'); others with acidic accents and the introduction of breaks ('Grass Snake') and another with hard techno proclivities ('Synkron'). If this weren't enough, we're stoked to draft in iconic Bristol producer Addison Groove who adds sharp rim shots and spasmodic synths to 'Barrier' to give it even more movement and body.

Synkron EP drops 28th October 2022 via Basement Tracks.

purple vinyl

The Snake, Ghost, and Demon reconvene for Samurai Hannya II, a supercharged sequel to the 2019 inaugural collection of Samurai Music's current finest outer edge constructions.

Alongside the established Samurai family of producers, Hannya II ushers in some notable names to the Hannya series in Mako, Eusebeia, and introduces some future ascendants - RDG (with Gaze Ill and Ojeblik), Hoji, & Dailiv.

The cryptic Hannya concept is elevated for Vol II with an exclusive luminous illustration by David Paul Seymour as we step further into our exploration with colours.

"2017 saw Brussels-based rock sensation BLACK MIRRORS take the world by storm with the debut of their awe-inspiring Funky Queen EP. Feverishly acclaimed live appearances and a powerful festival showcase later, the band fronted by extraordinary vocalist Marcella Di Troia quickly inked a worldwide deal with leading rock and metal empire Napalm Records, soon gaining further praise with the release of their first full-length album, Look Into The Black Mirror. Garnering high marks from both fans and critics alike, the band stepped up as one of Belgium’s best kept rock secrets. Continuing to exceed expectations, the unstoppable four-piece has now crafted a new masterpiece and one of rock’s leading highlights of 2022 – their upcoming release, Tomorrow Will Be Without Us.

Sieben Jahre nach ihrem sehr erfolgreichen dritten Album HURRICANE kehren sie mit ihrem neuen Meisterwerk ROCK AND ROLL BONES
zurück!
Die Pause war das Ergebnis intensiver Tourneen, des Schreibens des neuen Albums und der Pandemie! ROCK AND ROLL BONES wurde von Gitarrist Paul Hurst und seinem Partner Anthony Brady produziert, der auch das Album gemischt hat! Es ist ein Album voller herrlicher, flüssiger
Lead-Gitarren-Licks, lebendiger, ausdrucksstarker Vocals, grooviger Basslinien und knackiger, krachender Drums sowie einer Menge eingängiger
Hooklines. Sie klingen wie eine gesunde Mischung aus CHICKENFOOT, AC/DC und THE BLACK CROWES. THE JOKERS, die aus dem Nordwesten
Englands stammen, wurden 2006 mit dem Ziel gegründet, die größte Rock'n'Roll-Band der Welt zu gründen. Ihr 2009er Debütalbum THE BIG
ROCK & ROLL SHOW wurde von Mike Fraser in Vancouver gemischt, direkt nachdem er das über 10 Millionen Mal verkaufte BLACK ICE-Album von
AC/DC gemischt hatte. Nach der Veröffentlichung verbrachte die Band zwei Jahre auf der Straße und baute eine beachtliche Fanbase auf, als man
mit Größen wie HAWKWIND, Y&T, JOE ELLIOT, ARGENT, ANVIL und FOZZY unterwegs war. Danach taten sie sich mit Produzent Andy Macpherson
(ERIC CLAPTON, THE WHO, BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST, THE BUZZCOCKS, etc.) zusammen und begannen ihr zweites Album ROCK 'N' ROLL IS ALIVE
zu schreiben, welches im September 2013 veröffentlicht wurde.
Exzessives Touren war damals schon ihr Ziel. Sie spielten jede Show, die sie bekommen konnten und machten ihre erste Headliner-Tour in Spanien
mit 17 Shows, bevor sie auf mehreren Festivals in Großbritannien spielten.
Ihr drittes Album HURRICANE erblickte 2015 das Licht der Welt. Gefolgt von Tourneen, Tourneen, Tourneen. 2018 begannen sie ROCK AND ROLL
BONES zu schreiben und aufzunehmen. Aber der Beginn der Pandemie machte alle Pläne der Veröffentlichung zunichte. Deshalb beschlossen
sie mit der Veröffentlichung zu warten bis dies vorbei war und sie nach der Veröffentlichung das tun können, was sie am besten können, nämlich
touren!

green marbled vinyl

The Snake, Ghost, and Demon reconvene for Samurai Hannya II, a supercharged sequel to the 2019 inaugural collection of Samurai Music's current finest outer edge constructions.

Alongside the established Samurai family of producers, Hannya II ushers in some notable names to the Hannya series in Mako, Eusebeia, and introduces some future ascendants - RDG (with Gaze Ill and Ojeblik), Hoji, & Dailiv.

The cryptic Hannya concept is elevated for Vol II with an exclusive luminous illustration by David Paul Seymour as we step further into our exploration with colours.

yellow marbled vinyl

The Snake, Ghost, and Demon reconvene for Samurai Hannya II, a supercharged sequel to the 2019 inaugural collection of Samurai Music's current finest outer edge constructions.

Alongside the established Samurai family of producers, Hannya II ushers in some notable names to the Hannya series in Mako, Eusebeia, and introduces some future ascendants - RDG (with Gaze Ill and Ojeblik), Hoji, & Dailiv.

The cryptic Hannya concept is elevated for Vol II with an exclusive luminous illustration by David Paul Seymour as we step further into our exploration with colours.

Samurai Hannya II comes on 3 individual marbled 12"s in Full Artwork Sleeve and Digital

Die Welt von Morgen gehört der Belgischen Grunge Rock-Sensation BLACK MIRRORS!
Mit ihrer beeindruckenden Debüt EP, Funky Queen, eroberte die Brüsseler Rock-Sensation BLACK MIRRORS 2017 im Sturm die Szene. Frenetisch gefeierte Live Auftritte sowie ein Festival-Showcase später,
unterschrieb die Band rund um Sängerin Marcella Di Troia einen weltweiten Vertrag mit dem führenden
Rock- und Metal Imperium Napalm Records. Ihr darauffolgender, erster Longplayer Look Into The Black
Mirror wurde von Fans als auch Kritikern gleichermaßen hoch gelobt und BLACK MIRRORS zählten längst
nicht mehr zu einem der bestgehütesten Rockgeheimnisse Belgiens. Der unaufhaltsame Vierer übertrifft
weiterhin alle Erwartungen und steht mit dem neuen Meisterwerk Tomorrow Will Be Without Us in den
Startlöchern, welches sich ohne Frage als eines DER Rock Highlights im Jahr 2022 beweisen wird!
Im Gegensatz zum Album Titel und seinen alarmierenden Themen über die heutige Gesellschaft in einer
Welt, die dem Untergang geweiht ist, gehört die Zukunft BLACK MIRRORS – denn es besteht kein Zweifel,
dass diese Band uns noch die nächsten Jahrzehnte mit grandiosem Heavy Rock, groovigem Power Grunge
und melodischer Bravour beehren werden, einem Sound, den die Welt von morgen unbedingt braucht!
Eines ist jedenfalls sicher, die Rockwelt von morgen wäre ohne BLACK MIRRORS ein einsamer Ort, und
mit Tomorrow Will Be Without Us hat sich die Band einen festen Platz in ihr verdient.

Treviso, Italy-based two piece Kill Your Boyfriend will release their fourth album 'Voodoo' on October 14th via Sister 9 Recordings (Europe), Little Cloud Records (North America) and Shyrec (Itay). A frantic and hypnothising bacchanalia of Psych & Industrial tinged soundwaves, the new album is a collection of reverb laden necromantic charms, summoning the souls and bones of the greats in the Rock & Roll pantheon of the 1950s. The duo delivers such glittery dark enchantment via 7 hoodoo hymns, travelling with a crumbling, ghostly and magically whizzing Rocket 88, in the company of Marie Laveau and madame Lalaurie. It's a relentless whirl of Voodoo-Psych, Industrial-Billy, Electro-GrisGris, which you can dance to. The new LP follows 'Killadelica', where Kill Your Boyfriend had refined their debut signature sound, bridging the gap between the semi-obscure but hauntingly fascinating tradition of Veneto's Post-Punk (Death In Venice, Evabraun, Pyramids, etc.) and contemporary Psych-Nouveau. With 'Voodoo', Matteo Scarpa and Antonio Angeli, explore new genres and expand the sonic borders, without losing their original intent. They replace the synth bass with a bass-guitar, adding more fluidity and weight to a renewed and punchier rhythmic section. Electronic and acoustic percussion are fuller and heavier, and the band's new stomp-machine is a hyper-convulsive version of the saturated Rock & Roll and R&B drumming, from the cheap garage studios of 1950s indie labels. Sida A is the most Rock & Roll of the two, and it is inspired by Michael Ventura's essay "Hear that Long Snake Moan", which brought forward the idea that "the Voodoo rite of possession by the god became the standard of American performance in Rock’n’Roll" where the performers "let themselves be possessed not by any god they could name but by the spirit they felt in the music”. Each song invokes one or a set of the lost souls of the Rock & Roll era, with 'The Day The Music Died' referring to the infamous 3rd of February 1959. Side B descends deeper into the magic swamps of Creole magic, with music taking on a much more liturgical function, conjuring shamanic possessions via extra layers of tribal percussion. The band says of side B: "we see it as a one long ritualistic descent into a psychedelic underworld made of echoing voices, claustrophobic spaces populated by lost souls, enchanters and witchdoctors."

TRACKLIST 1. The King 2. The Man In Black 3. Mr Mojo 4. Buster 5. The Day The Music Died 6. Papa Legba 7. Vodoo

Before 2020, Ocean Alley could have broken. The six-piece had spent two years touring relentlessly off-the-back of their breakthrough record Chiaroscuro, spending months on the road and away from their loved ones, on the brink of burnout. Then the world shut down. And although there was a universal experience of suffering and isolation during ex-tensive lockdowns, Ocean Alley found themselves gifted with a forced break - where time slowed down and they could be with their loved ones, while also finding space to recon-nect with themselves. This luxury of time allowed experimentation in new ways for the band, who since inception had always felt their way through the music with communal jam sessions. It was uncharted territory for the group who for the first time operated as a bedroom band - particularly frontman Baden Donegal who revealed that a number of tracks on their upcoming fourth album Low Altitude Living started as “shitty GarageBand demos” he recorded solo at the beginning of lockdown. When comparing the creative process of their three previous full-lengths - the ARIA-nominated Lonely Diamond (2020), their Gold-certified breakthrough Chiaroscuro (2018) and self-assured debut Lost Tropics (2016) - this in itself was the big-gest difference.y

** SISTER FUNK, SOUL-JAZZ and BLUE-EYED-SOUL - OBSCURE RARE GROOVES ALL THE WAY THRU! **

- the double vinyl LP comes with a full album download code
- deluxe double-gatefold LP with detailed liner notes & unseen photographs
- ALL songs appear on LP & digital for the very first-time
- sales notes by Joel Ricci (aka Lucky Brown)

When Tramp Records was founded, there really were very few ways in which the music lover could discover new music besides the traditional methods of digging, good luck, and inheritance. First there were torrent sites such as Napster and Limewire where generous collectors might digitize and upload portions of their accessions, and sometimes you could find entire radio show broadcasts of live vinyl curation made by real Disc Jockeys out there, a lot of the Deep Funk I heard for the first time in around 1999 I found this way via Disc Jockeys on radio shows from the UK, tunes were faded and mixed together and of course veiled with that unmistakable Mp3 'whoosh'. And unless you have been living as an off-grid hermit for the past 20 years, you know the rest of the story.

But though our world has changed, and even though everyone from our grandparents to our 5-year old nieces are curating their own internet playlists, I submit that the role of DJ has become even more vital, not less. We as a culture have always relied on our Disc Jockeys to introduce us to sounds that speak to their souls, to control the vibe and most importantly put forth the narrative that speaks to society as a whole. DJs are our tribal storytellers, and the music they bring us are the stories. And when a DJ like Tobias Kirmayer is telling us that story clearly and with conviction, it speaks to our souls as well.

"Countdown to...SOUL" is a compilation series that, much like Tramp Records' other critically-acclaimed comps such as Movements, Feeling Nice, and the Praise Poems Series' examines a unique facet of the Golden Era of Soul, Funk, Jazz and R&B. Perhaps, in this case the dawning of the Soul era, "proto-soul", "primitive soul", or even "pre-soul" if you will. When they were recorded, many of these tunes were still firmly ensconced in the Black Radical Jazz tradition, but there was a change in the air, something happening in the coming years that would revolutionize popular music forever. In fact, Soul had already taken over the world by the time many of these tunes were released on 45, but for various reasons, the artists and their music occupied the fringes of the idiom and therefore remained obscure. Countdown to...SOUL chronicles that beginning, that buildup, those heady moments before the lid blew off and American Black music would explode across the planet, while scouring the outskirts and tide pools for specimens that were emanating in their own respective neighborhoods and communities, so often overlooked by the American pop music machine.

Side A features barrier-breaking pioneer Frankie Staton and her message of "Love One Another" to the world that is as fresh and vital today as it was when it first came out in the late seventies. In that spirit, Tenison Stevens' appeal "Don't Rip Me Off" reminds us to treat each other as brothers and sisters.

Side B meets us at the altar of the formidable Hammond Organ with an Unknown and uncredited Organist found languishing on a one-of-a-kind unreleased acetate and moving on to explore the nexus of Soul, Bebop, and R&B with Don Patterson's "Paddy Wagon".

Side C satisfies our hunger for the blaring horn sections, big beat drums, wailing Hammonds, pleading vocals and gritty guitars of authentic Soul music (both brown and blue-eyed) with Marva Josie, Shirley Wahls and The Echomen, among others, but then takes a hard left turn into undoubtedly uncharted territory with the hybrid folk/country/soul story of Sherrif Black and poor Sally who, though she is tragically met with a terrible fate, thanks to the careful and conscientious mastering of our German engineers, the song itself remains alive and is a genuine addition to the canon.

For the remaining side, I'm gonna just let you discover this music on its own terms, as you won't find these tunes anywhere else, not on Napster, not even on Limewire, or anywhere else. I want to personally thank you for putting your trust in the DJ and for continuing to listen, study, appreciate, and share the work and mission of Tramp Records.

-Joel Ricci (May 2022)

Stripped back electro, tooled to make your body move in dark rooms. Rubbery synth lines duck and weave with metallic percussion, as the machines spin stories of deep space and distant aquatic worlds.

Four tracks made with the knowledge and instincts of a turntable veteran combining an 'always in the record bag' usefulness with a solid individual identity.

An additional remix by Human Rebellion mutates the already fierce sea snakes into a radioactive monster from the deep.

Polly Paulusma follows up her critically acclaimed 2021 album 'Invisible
Music' with 'The Pivot On Which The World Turns' out via One Little
Independent folk subsidiary Wild Sound.Affectionately shortened to
'Pivot', the album marks a return to her singular brand of insightful songs
that, in their subject matter, roam around the badlands of love, sex and
parenthood, death and grief, failure and success, violence and healing
Most poignantly the album focuses on the roles of women, in our lives and
across history, from a variety of perspectives.'Pivot' swings from the warm, bluesinspired Americana of 'Back Of Your Hand' and 'Dirty Circus', to the more
traditional folk of 'Brambles and Briars' and 'Robin', as well as poetic, pop
curiosities such as 'Snakeskin' and the effervescent 'Luminary', all of which
combine to make up Polly's most sonically adventurous album to date. As always,
she delights in the telling of stories, with littered spoken word aiding her as she
utilizes infectious melodies and a light delivery to explore her characters.
The product of a decade of writing, she tells us that "the album's title 'The Pivot
On Which The World Turns' is a corruption of a moment in the Russian novel Anna
Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, in which Stepan Arkadyitch knowingly confesses,
"women, my boy, they're the pivot everything turns upon". In context, Stepan and
Levin are discussing romantic relationships, but I saw wider interpretations of this
epithet".
Each track on the LP examines a different aspect of life that women play, and
"charts a development for me through all the roles I pivot on in a day, a week, a
year, a decade". 'Snakeskin' represents the daughter, 'Back Of Your Hand' is the
love interest, 'Dirty Circus' the mother and so on. "I truly believe, having travelled
the last few years, having endured grief and horror and having discovered and
pivoted on all these people that I am capable of being, that by learning how to
love, and re- learning, and learning again, so many of the wartier and knobblier
parts of me can be forgiven, and translated into something better".

Polly Paulusma follows up her critically acclaimed 2021 album 'Invisible
Music' with 'The Pivot On Which The World Turns' out via One Little
Independent folk subsidiary Wild Sound.Affectionately shortened to
'Pivot', the album marks a return to her singular brand of insightful songs
that, in their subject matter, roam around the badlands of love, sex and
parenthood, death and grief, failure and success, violence and healing
Most poignantly the album focuses on the roles of women, in our lives and
across history, from a variety of perspectives.'Pivot' swings from the warm, bluesinspired Americana of 'Back Of Your Hand' and 'Dirty Circus', to the more
traditional folk of 'Brambles and Briars' and 'Robin', as well as poetic, pop
curiosities such as 'Snakeskin' and the effervescent 'Luminary', all of which
combine to make up Polly's most sonically adventurous album to date. As always,
she delights in the telling of stories, with littered spoken word aiding her as she
utilizes infectious melodies and a light delivery to explore her characters.
The product of a decade of writing, she tells us that "the album's title 'The Pivot
On Which The World Turns' is a corruption of a moment in the Russian novel Anna
Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, in which Stepan Arkadyitch knowingly confesses,
"women, my boy, they're the pivot everything turns upon". In context, Stepan and
Levin are discussing romantic relationships, but I saw wider interpretations of this
epithet".
Each track on the LP examines a different aspect of life that women play, and
"charts a development for me through all the roles I pivot on in a day, a week, a
year, a decade". 'Snakeskin' represents the daughter, 'Back Of Your Hand' is the
love interest, 'Dirty Circus' the mother and so on. "I truly believe, having travelled
the last few years, having endured grief and horror and having discovered and
pivoted on all these people that I am capable of being, that by learning how to
love, and re- learning, and learning again, so many of the wartier and knobblier
parts of me can be forgiven, and translated into something better".

By 1974, the Alice Cooper group had risen to the upper echelon of rock stardom.. and then, parted ways. In October 2015, over 40 years later, record store owner and superfan Chris Penn convinced the original line- up to reunite for a very special performance at his record store Good Records in Dallas, Texas.

Alice Cooper (vocals), Michael Bruce (guitar), Dennis Dunaway (bass) and Neal Smith (drums) were joined on stage by Alice's current guitarist Ryan Roxie (standing in for the late Glen Buxton). A packed audience, believing they had come to Good Records for Dennis Dunaway's 'Snakes! Guillotines! Electric Chairs!' book signing, were surprised to bear witness to a full-blown happening.

The historic reunion show including all-time classics such as "No More Mr. Nice Guy", "I'm Eighteen" and "School's Out" is now becoming available for the very first time worldwide. Luckily the event was documented. "Live From The Astroturf, Alice Cooper" (edited and directed by Steven Gaddis) toured the world to the acclaim of music fans and rock journalists alike. The documentary won multiple
awards for its coverage of the historic event. Now all Alice Cooper fans and rock music lovers across the globe can enjoy this movie as it's included as a video bonus to this live album.

Limited Edition, Numbered, Curacao coloured Vinyl & DVD.

By 1974, the Alice Cooper group had risen to the upper echelon of rock
stardom..
and then, parted ways. In October 2015, over 40 years later, record store owner
and superfan Chris Penn convinced the original line- up to reunite for a very
special performance at his record store Good Records in Dallas, Texas.
Alice Cooper (vocals), Michael Bruce (guitar), Dennis Dunaway (bass) and Neal
Smith (drums) were joined on stage by Alice's current guitarist Ryan Roxie
(standing in for the late Glen Buxton). A packed audience, believing they had
come to Good Records for Dennis Dunaway's 'Snakes! Guillotines! Electric Chairs!'
book signing, were surprised to bear witness to a full-blown happening.
The historic reunion show including all-time classics such as "No More Mr. Nice
Guy", "I'm Eighteen" and "School's Out" is now becoming available for the very first
time worldwide. Luckily the event was documented. "Live From The Astroturf,
Alice Cooper" (edited and directed by Steven Gaddis) toured the world to the
acclaim of music fans and rock journalists alike. The documentary won multiple
awards for its coverage of the historic event. Now all Alice Cooper fans and rock
music lovers across the globe can enjoy this movie as it's included as a video
bonus to this live album.
Limited Edition, Numbered, Curacao coloured Vinyl & DVD.

THE MARCH VIOLETS came out of Leeds in the early 80"s, label-mates of Sisters of Mercy. Releasing six singles, they were a constant presence in the UK indie charts, hitting the top two spots with Snakedance, Deep and Walk Into The Sun. They never got around to recording an album - their only "80"s long-players, Natural History in the UK and Electric Shades in the USA, were compilations. Eventually they signed to a major label and were groomed for a USA breakthrough, performing in the 1987 Some Kind of Wonderful movie. However they were asked to make too many compromises and split up. Their early eighties career was thankfully well-documented by the BBC, who broadcast six sessions between 1982-86 - three for John Peel, and one each with Kid Jensen, Janice Long and Richard Skinner. Chronicling their development with lead singers Simon Denbigh, Rosie Garland and Cleo Murray and backed by bassist Lawrence Elliot and guitarist Tom Ashton, these sessions include nine unreleased songs and alternative versions of their indie hits. Here is the unheard history of The March Violets.

Egyptian artist Hassan Abou Alam debuts on Nehza Records. On Ice, the producer and DJ delivers a 4-track collection of unusual textures that glide through multiple soundscapes, including techno, breaks, bass and unclassifiable noise.

The opener "Shmoolaire" starts with a skittery drum pattern before descending into a squelchy bassline while squeaky vocal clips snake through the track. It's weird, wonky and the perfect dancefloor curveball. Dominated by massive drums, the title track blends a sultry vocal with bleepy percussion, conjuring a sticky atmosphere. Things get spooky on "Hollow In C#" as Hassan pairs a voice saturated in reverb with chugging drums and eerie pads. Freaky but fierce. The closing track "Lost In A Jar Of Thyme" ends on a distinct note. A warbling bassline slithers throughout the track as siren-like sound FX and hyperactive drums evoke tension. A true artist aligned with the vibe of Nehza Records.

Hassan Abou Alam has spent the last decade exploring several sound palettes and genres, from breaks to techno to bass. Today, his curiosity is unwavering. Hassan produces music with a hybrid setup of analog and digital instruments, conveying organised but compelling chaos that's won him legions of fans worldwide.

Fortuna Records return with a mysterious album by the anonymous artist known only as Moontribe. A deep-space journey between tribal percussion, hypnotizing organs and long echo ripples, all joining in for a snake-charming voodoo ritual of which Moontribe is the Shaman. Expect African drums, hints of cumbia, and distant galaxy exploration in unmeasured doses. An absolute must-have For fans of Sun Ra, Moondog and Idris Ackamoor.

Gazelle Twin, Lali Puna, This Mortal Coil, Slow Walkers, Atlas Sound, Bowery Electric, Broadcast Press Release: Snakeskin is an album of visionary electronic dream pop, shapeshifting above ambient and industrial undercurrents. It is moody, unsettling, luminous – the culmination of a decade of collaboration and friendship between Lebanese producer/musician/ engineer Fadi Tabbal and singer-songwriter Julia Sabra from Beirut-based indie trio Postcards. The duo began working on Snakeskin in the aftermath of the August 2020 Beirut port explosion, which killed at least 218 people, injured 7,000, and left over 300,000 people homeless. Indeed, Julia's home was destroyed by the explosion and her partner and bandmate Pascal badly injured. The first song that they wrote together afterwards was 'Roots', which closes out the album and was composed for the Ruptured-curated series The Drone Sessions in the fall of 2020. Snakeskin utilizes tape loops, synthesizers, vocals, and drum machines, combining Julia’s pop-inspired melodies and choral roots (an echo from her religious upbringing) with Fadi’s affinity for minimalism and musique concrète. The album seamlessly incorporates the melancholy electro-pop of 'All The Birds', the quiet menace of 'In Our Garden' (long-lost treasures, ancient lies / another buried paradise), and the beat-driven 'Signs'. The title track sums up their frame of mind, beginning as a lullaby and evolving into a glittering tapestry of distortion and feedback. As the artists write, Snakeskin is a product of "the disappearance of life as we know it, and with it the decay of nature and living creatures. There is no rebirth, no renewal. It’s about what it means to feel at home in such a place." Some tracks were also inspired by events happening in the surrounding region, such as the invasion of Armenia by Azerbaijan and the Palestinian uprising of May 2021 in Sheikh Jarrah - both events shedding light on relationships to home and land across the wider region. That such compelling art can emerge from unceasing tragedy may be the ultimate testament to human resilience and the pursuit of freedom and justice. "The moon speaks in tongues we can't discern / A plastic dove hangs from a cypress branch / Haven't you heard? / Nothing grows here anymore / The air is burnt / Nothing grows..." Highlights: – This is the second volume in the Corrosion Series, a collaborative effort by Beacon Sound and Ruptured, and the sixth collaboration between the two labels. – Fadi used samples of Julia's voice on his fifth solo album Subject to Potential Errors and Distortions (2020, Beacon Sound/Ruptured) – The Tunefork Studios team, led by Fadi, administered the Beirut Musician's Fund after the port explosion, as covered by Pitchfork, NME, and the Financial Times. – Julia's band Postcards released their third full-length album After The Fire, Before The End on Berlin label T3 Records in 2021 and are currently touring Europe. Credits: All music composed, performed and produced by Julia Sabra and Fadi Tabbal between November 2020 and December 2022. Lyrics by Julia Sabra. Drum samples by Pascal Semerdjian. Recorded by Fadi Tabbal, mixed by Sary Moussa and Fadi Tabbal at Tunefork Studios, Beirut. Cover photo by Lujain Jo. Design by Josette 'ZOoz' Khalil. Mastered by Rashad Becker. Bios: Julia Sabra is a Lebanese musician, songwriter and composer. She co-founded acclaimed Lebanese dream-pop outfit Postcards in 2013 and is the band’s multi-instrumentalist, lead singer and lyricist. Postcards have released two EPs (2013, 2015) and three albums (2018, 2020, 2021) and have been regularly touring Europe and the Middle East since 2015. She has been the manager of Tunefork Studios since 2017. Lebanese musician, producer, and sound engineer Fadi Tabbal’s work consist of minimalist pieces ranging from ambient and electronic to drone and contemporary classical. He has released six solo albums and has collaborated with various musicians, artists and filmmakers through the years. Often referred to as “the hardest-working person in Lebanon’s alternative music scene”, Tabbal established Tunefork Studios, a collective of producers, engineers and musicians, which has helped shape Beirut's contemporary music scene since 2006.

Following his triumphant performances at the 2022 Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Danny Elfman delivers Bigger.Messier., an ambitious double -album collection of remixed and reimagined tracks from his highly acclaimed Big Mess album. This sprawling, 23 track collection (available on 2 LP or 2 CD) features tracks reworked by some of the most groundbreaking and subversive artists around today. Bigger.Messier. views the Grammy and Emmy Award-winning composers songs through the lens of luminaries from diverse sides of the music business, including Trent Reznor, Iggy Pop, Squarepusher and Ghostemane. Elfman once again has achieved a kind of artistic liberation on the record that had been eluding him for decades, and connecting him to brand new audience. Born and raised in southern California, Elfman began his career as part of a surrealist, avant-garde musical theater troupe known as The Mystic Knights of Oingo Boingo. The group would eventually morph into the critically acclaimed rock band Oingo Boingo, whose high-energy performances and genre-bending sound garnered them a fanatically devoted cult following in the 1980s and '90s. Among the group's early fans was fledgling director Tim Burton and Paul Reubens (aka Pee-wee Herman), who enlisted Elfman to score their first feature film, Pee-wee's Big Adventure. The collaboration would prove to be the start of a long and fruitful partnership for Elfman and Burton, with Elfman going on to score a string of iconic Burton features like Batman, Beetlejuice, Big Fish, Edward Scissorhands, and The Nightmare Before Christmas. To date, Elfman has scored more than 100 films

L.A. Woman is the sixth studio album by the American rock band the Doors, released on April 19, 1971, on Elektra Records. L.A. Woman was recorded in November 1970 over six days at the Workshop, the band’s rehearsal space on Santa Monica Boulevard. A success both critically and commercially, the album contains some of the band’s most enduring music, including hits “Riders On The Storm,” “Love Her Madly,” and the title track.
December 2021 saw the release of L.A. Woman (50th Anniversary Deluxe), a new 3-CD/1-LP set to commemorate the album's 50-year anniversary. Featured on the album anniversary set, this 1LP, 180g black vinyl release is the newly remastered breakout of the original studio album.

Portland troublemakers Hurry Up are up to it again - They've had it up to
here - and they're here to tell you about it
Lauded + feared for their ferocious 2015 self-titled LP, they've only grown bolder
and sharper, honing their craft in a radon-soaked basement lit by one bare party
bulb. Between tours with Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes, Protomartyr and other
luminaries of post-punk firmament, Hurry Up wrote the songs that would become
Dismal Nitch. Recorded on the brink of disaster (late 2019-early 2020), the record
is a cracked crystal ball with fire in its heart. Drummer Kathy Foster (Thermals, All
Girl Summer Fun Band, Roseblood), guitarist Westin Glass (Thermals) and bassist
Maggie Vail (Bangs) share equal writing / singing duties, conjuring a vision of a
world whirling with firestorms - social, emotional, political and literal. Dismal
Nitch is one of 2022's most compelling releases, impossible to ignore

Who are the spirit fakers? What do they want? These are just two of the many questions posed by The Difference Machine on their 3rd full length album, 'Unmasking the Spirit Fakers'.

Loosely based on an essay by the master magician himself, Harry Houdini, 'Unmasking the Spirit Fakers' finds the Atlanta-based psychedelic hip hop outfit examining the motives and practices of those who attempt to provide cure-alls and treatments for spiritual ills. Are they gurus or snake oil salesmen? Though abstract in their approach, The Difference Machine attempts to pin down these answers for the listener via a vast backdrop rich with dense lyricism and mind-bending production. Songs like 'Repeater' and 'Flat Circles' place them in the role of shaman whereas songs like 'Car Key' and 'It Ain't' venture to ask if they themselves are the spirit fakers in question.

Regardless of what role the ensemble assumes, the album was crafted with the human psyche in mind. Poignant guest appearances from hip hop heavyweights such as Sa-Roc (Rhymesayers), Quelle Chris (Mello Music Group), Homeboy Sandman, Denmark Vessey, Dillon & Sum add more colors to the canvas. The only wish of The Difference Machine is that the listener is both entertained and enlightened by this auditory adventure. They hope whatever conclusion you come to will be through honesty and sincerity.

Perhaps one day we will all be unmasked.

Jóhann Jóhannsson's original score for Denis Villeneuve's film The Prisoners (the Hugh Jackman/Jake Gyllenhaal blockbuster) on double vinyl, with double sided full-color. insert.

Canadian born, Berlin based producer Aquarian debuts on Dekmantel Records’ UFO imprint with Mutations I & II, a series of two EPs following his debut album The Snake That Eats Itself and his collaborative records as AQXDM. The series marks his return to club focused solo material for the first time since 2017.

Originally written as inflection points for his typically boisterous and genre collapsing dj sets, Mutations deftly splices the foundational DNA of his earliest productions — electro, hardcore and broken beat techno – with new and vital influences.

Mutations I: Death, Taxes and Hanger finds Aquarian gleefully contorting mid-2000s dnb tearouts, wrong footed IDM and progressive trance euphoria into thrilling new shapes. Fast techno, hi-tek jazz, amphetamine-addled filter house and breakcore join the fray in Mutations II: Delicious Intent as he pushes intensity levels past breaking point. Whichever the touchstone, the results are clear: distinctly modern, highly-propulsive body music with an unapologetically emotive core.

The Lost Daughter is a critically acclaimed 2021 psychological drama film written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal in her feature directorial debut, based on the 2006 same-titled novel by Elena Ferrante.

The film stars Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Dagmara Domińczyk, Jack Farthing, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, with Peter Sarsgaard, and Ed Harris. Colman also serves as an executive producer on the film. The film follows Leda (Colman) who is on a solo-vacation at the seaside and becomes consumed with a young mother and daughter as she watches them on the beach. When a small, seemingly meaningless event occurs, Leda is overwhelmed by memories of the difficult, unconventional choices she made as a mother and their consequences for herself and her family. The seemingly serene tale of a woman’s pleasant rediscovery of herself soon becomes the story of a ferocious confrontation with an unsettled past.

The Lost Daughter premiered at the 78th Venice International Film Festival, where Gyllenhaal won the Golden Osella Award for Best Screenplay. At its opening night world premiere, the movie received a four-minute standing ovation from Venice Film Festival attendees. The film also received three nominations at the 94th Academy Awards for Best Actress (Colman), Best Supporting Actress (Buckley), and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Thescore is composed by Dickon Hinchliffe, founding and former member of Tindersticks. Dickon’s unique style of composition and arrangements developed from his classical study of the violin and song writing and recording in bands.

The Lost Daughter is available as a limited “Peal it like a snake, don’t let it break” edition of
750 individually numbered copies on orange marbled vinyl. The LP features alternative artwork designed by Yelena Yemchuk, a Ukranian professional photographer, painter and film director, best known for her work with The Smashing Pumpkins. The vinyl package includes an inset with pictures and liner notes by both Maggie Gyllenhaal and Dickon Hinchliffe.

The dawn of Symphonic Therion glooming at the horizon, yet still drenched in Dark Metal execution! Though it was their fourth full-length, and we had been given a sampling of their symphonic/gothic direction with “Symphony Masses: Ho Drakon Ho Megas”, “Lepaca Kliffoth” might remain the most memorable masterpiece of the band’s career along the follow-up “Theli”. A transitional phase between the band’s Death Metal roots and the hybrid of symphonic, gothic metal which they would carry forward for the rest of their career. This is an extremely dark album. The band retains their fascination with obscure occult magick and prophecies within the lyrics, and the music revolves around killer mid-paced Metal riffs drenched in the vocal libations of Christofer Johnsson. The album starts off strongly with “The Wings of the Hydra”, and from there on the serpent has snaked about your spine. An addictive piece with an obvious Celtic Frost influence, chanting vocals, simple synth tones and arabesque guitar melodies which evoke the mythical age of the song’s namesake. The album’s ‘hit single’, “The Beauty in Black” is glorious and gothic, it uses a pair of operatic vocalists (male and female), a sort of predecessor to the revolving door of guest musicians the band would use on their later albums. Other excellent tracks include the charging “Riders of Theli”, the crushing doom of “Black” which would have fit almost perfectly on “Into the Pandemonium”. The rest of the album is equally dark and enchanting, with other standouts being the title track and “Evocation of Vovin”. Synthesizers, flutes multiple vocalists, and the core of the band are all clear and precise throughout, yet it still carries a very raw and dark, ominous tone to it which trumps the later studio efforts. This may not be quite as symphonic as many Therion fans demand of their material in recent years, but it clearly marks the point where this band transformed from a innovative Death Metal band into the Gods of Gothic Metal. There are very few parallels to something like this, and it belongs in the collection of any fan of quality Occult Metal.

Grammy award-winning blues icon returns to his Delta blues roots for the
most captivating musical statement of his long and legendary career
Charlie's first new solo studio release in seven years is stripped-down and semiacoustic, driven by his deft guitar playing, while also featuring the masterful harp
and soul-deep vocals for which he is famed.
'Mississippi Son' is front porch country blues that is at turns raucous and languid,
haunting and impossibly soulful. The track listing includes Musselwhite originals
and songs by Charley Patton, Yank Rachell and Big Joe Williams. This warm,
intimate recording is loaded with feeling and exhilarating, timeless music.
Essential listening for any blues fan.
Blues Matters feature interview plus review confirmed
ADVERTISING: Blues Matters, Blues In Britain, Blues & Rhythm

"The past 5 years we have taken our music all over the world: Europe, Asia, Africa besides our homeland Denmark, and even though we cannot speak with many of the people we meet, our music is a universal language that transcends borders. The meetings we have had (and continue to have) all over inspire us to create new music. But of course we are the composers of the music, so this is our representation of those meetings.

Our 3rd album is called AFROTROPISM. Tropism is a biological phenomenon that indicates growth of a plant in response to the environment; so when you see a plant turning for the sunlight, this is tropism. In other words, this is not so much about the plant's roots but more about how it reacts when it touches the air, feels sunlight or rain - in other words the outside world. So AFROTROPISM refers to the fact that we are drawn towards the African traditions, but we are "growing" our own music.

On our first two albums we have recorded extensively with African musicians, and AFROTROPISM is centered around The KutiMangoes (TKM) as a band. We are developing our artistic direction by going more in depth with how we can mix our inspirations with our own musical heritage. Our musical mission is (and has always been) to mix cultures and create our own sound.

With our background in jazz music, TKM counts virtuoso instrumentalists with a heartfelt intent and sound innovators with our horns, effect pedals, synthesizers, drums and percussion from all over the world. AFROTROPISM is a further and deeper development of our trademark bold sound that experiments with synthesizers, soundscapes and a bit of electronic effects without losing it's focus on groove, melody, atmosphere and musicianship."

The KutiMangoes, July 2019


About each track:

STRETCH TOWARDS THE SUN
This track opens up with a synthesizer groove that is inspired by the polyrhythmic grooves played by the balafon (a predecessor of the piano) from West Africa. Our rolling sequence could not be played on the balafon because of the key changes, but the basic idea comes from that instrument. Quick and light, we wanted to write a song where you can feel the sun coming out and feel the energy it's rays give. The combination of the programmed groove, the horn-arrangement, the huge percussion section and the live instruments makes for a sound that we have not heard before, and it illustrates what this album is all about (and what the track's title refers to): that we stretch towards the things that give us energy – and that although our roots are in Denmark, when we encounter a musical tradition as rich as in West Africa, it changes us and our music.

A SNAKE IS JUST A STRING
The first time we saw Mali-bluesman extraordinaire Vieux Farka Touré on stage was just after we had played at a huge festival in Burkina Faso, and we almost literally caught on fire. Their groove was so strong and insistent that we were mesmerized, and it inspired us to come up with the opening guitar part of this song. Basically a bluesy tune with some unusual chord changes and a crazy synthesizer solo by Johannes Buhl Andresen reminiscent of that fuzzy guitar-sound we love so much in the Mali blues. The title is an homage to the Nigerian writer Chinua Acheba, who in his masterpiece novel "Things Fall Apart" tells that in the village during the night, to ward off the fear of darkness, people would call dangerous animals by a different name: don't be afraid, a snake is just a string.

KEEP YOU SAFE
It is a basic human necessity to have a place where you can feel safe. But there are far too many people in our world that fear for their safety, their livelihood, their children, their relatives – and this is surely not a feeling that helps us to flourish as humans. With this song we are saying that we all need to make it a priority to help our fellow humans to feel safe. And of course, if our song can offer a feeling of safety and comfort for a short time to those who listen, we are truly thankful.

MONEY IS THE CURSE
This track is directly inspired by Fela Kuti's ability to create music that is both physical and political. Dance music with a serious message about our times. For the solo part we wanted a more melancholy, pensive feel (than the full-on baritone-trombone melody) and also wanted to experiment with some choppy, stuttering effects to make the horns sound desperate. Money is the curse because it can become the objective of our life; money is the curse because it changes the relationships we have with our fellow humans. Money is the curse.

THORNS TO FRUIT
This melody is inspired by the scales and developments of a traditional Bambara folk-song. We love the way these melodies constantly evolve with small developments and changes. We felt like an accompaniment that is really dry, sparse and earthy would fit well and then made a contrasting solo part. As a group we are interested in how to develop our improvisations together and create sonic landscapes that evoke a distinctive atmosphere – so here, we have no soloist, but a collection of synthesizer parts, saxophone lines and guitar-sounds that together create a dreamy and lush ambience.

SAND TO SOIL
We started out with a short ngoni riff played by our good friend and master musician Aboubacar Konaté. We then sampled it, built soundscapes and our own both meditative and pumping groove around it. We created a melody with both melancholy and joy, with afterthought and impulse and then the brilliant Aske Drasbæk added an emotive and blistering saxophone solo. The title refers to the contrasts in our humanism. As part of our human nature, we have a dark side that drives us (and each other) towards destruction – making the fertile soil into barren sand. The title is an encouragement to emphasize the opposite movement in our nature: to create life and help it flourish. We keep ourselves human by insisting that we must never forget this side of our nature no matter how tough, tiresome or trying it might be. Let's keep our focus on the light, the warmth, the positive energy – that can turn the cold stone into fertile ground.