quête:the soft

During the 1990s Shizuka self-released a series of four cassettes, barely heard by anyone outside of their inner circle. Culling together live recordings and home demos, these served as companions to the scant amount of proper Shizuka releases at the time (including the recently reissued Heavenly Persona). Concentric Circles is proud to present the third and most anomalous cassette from Shizuka, simply titled III, on vinyl for the first time in an edition of 500 copies. Formed by guitarist and singer Shizuka Miura, alongside husband Maki Miura, who’d previously played with both Les Rallizes Dénudés and Fushitsusha, the group known as Shizuka started in the early 90s with Jun Kosugi (also of Fushitsusha) on drums, and a revolving cast of bass players, including J.J. Junko, whose sole recorded appearance with the band is here on III. Devoid of any of their trademark noise and bombast, III feel distinct from their studio and live albums of the era, largely due to its fragility; haunted and spare, the songs revolve around Shizuka Miura’s gentle, unforced sighs, and Maki’s flickering, flinty guitar. The first side of the album features four songs – “For You,” “Lunatic Pearl,” “The Night When The Door Opens” and “To The Sky” – which will be well-known to Shizuka fans from previous recordings, but the drastically understated renditions here are particularly moving for their quietude and intimacy. The second half of III consists of a side-long duo session, just Shizuka and Maki Miura together at home, circling around the simplest two-chord motif for twenty minutes, Shizuka singing the most heavenly melody, strung through the sky of this lengthy improvisation. It’s an astonishingly beautiful performance, one that stills time through its becalmed repetition, pointing towards the endless forever. In this respect, it feels like an ultimate extension of Opal’s early recordings, Big Star’s 3rd or even Galaxie 500’s quietest moments. III lifts the darkness away, allowing for a softer, more gentle Shizuka to shine through, bringing with it a side to the band that most never knew existed. A lovely discovery if there ever was one.

This is long overdue. I mean, looooooonnnnnng overdue. A solo album by Jim. The trap kit - so straightforward, so mysterious. What"s inside those things? Air and light - from which century? Which continent? Which planet? Depending on how and when you hit them it can be a vibration sent through a prehistoric breath, particles of Saturn"s atmosphere, the dead, wet leaves you walked through on the way to the first day of school. These are the memories of the drums on this record. Infinite and personal. Editing each other as they muscle to the front or soft shoe to the shadow. Cymbals can override/cancel everything out - wipe your memory clear or make the memory clearer. Drums are the instrument where you can feel the presence of the player the most - the full body - and sense the thoughts of the player the most. The instrument with the most choices to be made sends out the most brainwaves. A bouquet of brainwaves is on this LP. Jim oversees it all, surveys from the lost place we"re in, the void - the drumless song. We trust. We trust, Jim. His big green eyes search for the right tool (mallet, brush, etc), eyes that search you like you"re a song he wants to join, wants to see if he can add to or understand. Before humans, drums were playing - these drums. Genesis was a solo drum piece. After humans, these drums, this album. Someone - the last man - is out in a spaceship at the edge of space. He plays a single chord on a synth to set time free from its bind and then lets go. This album sets time free, lets it frolic, lets it graze, lets it remember. This is a record of thoughts, memories, surgery. A deft surgical operation you may not even realize is happening as it"s happening but you"re back on your feet when it"s over. Memories refreshed. Did you really even listen to it? -Bill Callahan, November 2023

This is long overdue. I mean, looooooonnnnnng overdue. A solo album by Jim. The trap kit - so straightforward, so mysterious. What"s inside those things? Air and light - from which century? Which continent? Which planet? Depending on how and when you hit them it can be a vibration sent through a prehistoric breath, particles of Saturn"s atmosphere, the dead, wet leaves you walked through on the way to the first day of school. These are the memories of the drums on this record. Infinite and personal. Editing each other as they muscle to the front or soft shoe to the shadow. Cymbals can override/cancel everything out - wipe your memory clear or make the memory clearer. Drums are the instrument where you can feel the presence of the player the most - the full body - and sense the thoughts of the player the most. The instrument with the most choices to be made sends out the most brainwaves. A bouquet of brainwaves is on this LP. Jim oversees it all, surveys from the lost place we"re in, the void - the drumless song. We trust. We trust, Jim. His big green eyes search for the right tool (mallet, brush, etc), eyes that search you like you"re a song he wants to join, wants to see if he can add to or understand. Before humans, drums were playing - these drums. Genesis was a solo drum piece. After humans, these drums, this album. Someone - the last man - is out in a spaceship at the edge of space. He plays a single chord on a synth to set time free from its bind and then lets go. This album sets time free, lets it frolic, lets it graze, lets it remember. This is a record of thoughts, memories, surgery. A deft surgical operation you may not even realize is happening as it"s happening but you"re back on your feet when it"s over. Memories refreshed. Did you really even listen to it? -Bill Callahan, November 2023

An expanded 3-LP edition of Sonny Rollins’ essential and legendary live trio album A Night At The Village Vanguard: The Complete Masters is added to Blue Note’s acclaimed audiophile vinyl series in Q1, mastered for the very first time from the original tapes. (The first release and subsequent reissues were made from a tape transfer.) This deluxe tri-fold edition includes a plethora of great editorial, including a new interview with Rollins in conversation with Blue Note President Don Was.

“As we began to prepare for this album, I made my customary call to Capitol tape vault archivist Jack Arenas to inquire about the analog master tapes. Naturally, I assumed there would be a set of Rudy Van Gelder assembled 15ips analog masters of all the material. Indeed, there was, but then Jack said something that caught my ear. ‘Now there are these other tapes, but they haven’t been assembled, and they are all recorded at 7.5ips.’ I sat straight up and probably looked a bit like the mind-blown emoji. With this issue of Sonny Rollins ‘A Night At The Village Vanguard: The Complete Masters’ we are finally able to hear the actual masters that were recorded that afternoon and evening.” — Joe Harley

Whitney Houston’s self-titled debut album has few parallels. Viewed solely through the lens of sales numbers, Whitney Houston is a watershed statement on par with the most commercially successful and culturally dominant LPs ever released. Having sold more than 14 million copies in the U.S. and upwards of 25 million units worldwide, the 1985 LP became the equivalent of the television show or blockbuster film that everyone collectively experiences and discusses. Nearly four decades later, it’s lost none of its appeal or magnetism — and its artistic significance and historical import have only grown.


Sourced from the original master tapes, pressed at RTI on MoFi SuperVinyl, and strictly limited to 4,000 numbered copies, Mobile Fidelity's 180g SuperVinyl LP of Whitney Houston presents the breakthrough in audiophile sound for the first time. The signature traits Houston exhibits on every song — her three-octave range, radiant warmth, personal conviction, impossibly controlled register — come across with exceptional clarity, focus, and presence. Free of artificial ceilings and constricted dynamics, this reissue plays with an openness, airiness, and balance that put the singer’s once-in-a-lifetime instrument and immortal artistry into proper perspective.

It does the same for the songs’ cascading melodies and captivating arrangements. Individually produced by one of four renowned industry veterans — Kashif, Micheal Masser, Jermaine Jackson, and Narada Michael Walden — each composition feels grander, closer, more genuine. A vocal spectacular, Whitney Houston benefits from the high-end characteristics of SuperVinyl, which include a nearly inaudible noise floor, superb groove definition, and dead-quiet surfaces. This is how an album that changed the direction of popular music — opening previously inaccessible doors for Black artists; bringing smooth-singing vocalists back into the mainstream; kickstarting a movement that soon included several “divas” who would command the charts through the early 21st century — should look and sound.

Though Houston’s seemingly effortless performances suggest otherwise, creating the record Rolling Stone ranks as the 257th Greatest Album of All Time wasn’t easy. Nearly 18 months were required to identify songs suitable for a still-unknown singer who did not fit into the conventional frameworks of the mid ‘80s. Confident, powerful, and prodigiously talented, Houston would forge her own parameters with Whitney Houston. In the process, she obliterated the stubborn lines between R&B and pop, Black and white radio. She dared to reimagine who could be a superstar and then went out and defined the role. Recorded for nearly $400,000 and released on Valentine’s Day, the LP exceeded the wildest expectations of those most closely associated with it — save for Houston and her family.

Having made her first public appearance at the age of 11 singing at a Baptist church, Houston understood pressure and knew her way around, inside, and through a song. The invaluable guidance and support she received from her mother, Cissy, an accomplished gospel vocalist who backed Aretha Franklin and Elvis Presley, are on display throughout Whitney Houston. They arrive in the types of authoritativeness, discipline, and diction rare for even most seasoned veterans — and unheard-of for a 21-year-old newcomer. Houston brings a soulful elegance, understated glamour, and in-the-moment rapture to every note. Moving up, down, or staying in the middle of the vocal ladder; channelling softness or sweetness; showing restraint or increasing the volume, she is a marvel of emotionalism, a dynamo who can seamlessly transition from one mood to another within a verse.

Though the 10-track LP largely concerns itself with the ballad tradition, Houston covers the bases, getting into an R&B groove on the fleet “Thinking About You,” turning up the heat on the duet “Take Good Care of My Heart,” and investing the contagious dance-pop confection “How Will I Know” with all the anxiety, hope, energy, and enthusiasm its lyrics demand. Featuring her mom on background vocals and Houston’s pitch-perfect tone, uncanny precision, and skyscraper highs (no AutoTune here, friends), the synth-based anthem propelled Whitney Houston into the stratosphere, the vocalist into regular MTV rotation, and the term “crossover” into popular parlance. The double-platinum single reached No. 1 on the Hot 100, Hot R&B, and Adult Contemporary charts — a trifecta that foreshadowed accomplishments that would ultimately crown Houston as the most-awarded female artist of all time.

Whitney Houston became the first album by a Black female performer to top the Billboard charts. It remained there for 14 non-consecutive weeks en route to claiming the title of the best-selling LP of 1986. It stands as the first debut and first album by a solo female artist to spawn three No. Hits, as well as the first album by a Black female artist to top the year-end charts in Australia and Canada. These are just a handful of the accolades — along with four Grammy nominations — that surround a set that also contains the unforgettable ballad “Saving All My Love,” string-accompanied “Greatest Love of All,” and sensual “You Give Good Love.”

As TIME observed in an article written two years after the album took the world by storm: “This is infectious, can't-sit-down music, and her performance dares the listener not to smile right back.” We’re still smiling.

The Loch Ness Mouse was started in 1992 by the brothers Ole Johannes and Jørn Åleskjær and has since the beginning been a band constantly moving forward with radically changing style expression from record to record. From the 60's jangly psychedelic debut "Flair for Darjeeling" via the more classic pop oriented "Key West" to the more soul, R&B and jazz inspired expression that characterized their album "11-22". "New Graffiti", is probably The Loch Ness Mouse's sharpest and softest record at the same time. It swings in moods and incorporates everything from organic band-played R&B to electric jazz, pop soul and rock. The band also has some strong guest appearances on the record, including soul singer Myrna Braza and rapper Stella Mwangi who contribute on the album's title track, which also was a single heavily rotated on Norwegian radio. The album is now beautifully remastered and available on vinyl for the first time,

Ratboys have been recording and releasing music for over a decade, but their newest album, The Window, marks the first time they’d ever traveled outside their home base of Chicago to make a record, journeying to the Hall of Justice Recording Studio in Seattle to work with producer Chris Walla.

The sessions with Walla (Death Cab for Cutie, Tegan and Sara, Foxing) struck the perfect balance between preparation and experimentation, injecting new life into the band’s style of soft-hearted Midwestern indie rock with an ever so subtle Americana twist. The solidified Ratboys lineup stretched and expanded their vision in the studio, adding unexpected elements and instruments like rototoms, talkboxes, and fiddles. The result is Ratboys’ most sonically diverse record, shifting wildly from track to track. It flexes everything from fuzzy power pop choruses on “Crossed That Line” and “It’s Alive!” to
a warm country twang on “Morning Zoo” to mournful folk on the titular track. After more than ten years and four studio albums, The Window finally captures Ratboys as they were always meant to be
heard—expansive while still intimate, audacious while still tender—the sound of four friends operating as a single, cohesive unit. This release comes with a Download Code.

Hua Li has often worked the fruitful tension between opposing forces, whether being mixed-race, bisexual, or overtly political and softly vulnerable. Now the “half-Chinese, half-militant, half-rapper of your heart” is back with "ripe fruit falls but not in your mouth", her most ambitious and personal record to date. Playing between hazy R&B, hip-hop, jazz and electronic, Hua Li’s sophomore LP takes the imaginary garden as a proxy for cultivating home. With complex vocal arrangements, lush production by Alex Thibault (aka Gloze), and big, vibrant mixing by TNGHT’s Lunice, ripe fruit is a private confessional on a loud-ass record.

Following 2019’s Dynasty and 2020’s critically acclaimed Yellow Crane EP, "ripe fruit" is characteristically libertine. Textured and sensual, the Montreal multi-hyphenate balances her rich, waveforming tone with danceable, electronic signatures. The rapper is fierce and frequently funny, erupting from gauzy runs to deliver a quick uppercut that stings. With hooky, addictive features by Ambrose Getz and Darkus Millon, ripe fruit is an intimate record of healing, with Montreal’s nightlife at its heart. An artful collaborator, Hua Li co-wrote and performed on Gayance's 2023 Polaris short-listed album, Masquerade, and is the touring DJ for Inuk electro-pop throat singer, Riit.

Her charismatic stage show has taken her around the world, including tours with Cadence Weapon and Fat Tony (serving as the former’s touring DJ), to Reykjavik’s Secret Solstice Festival, the Montreal International Jazz Festival, and Pride Toronto. Luminous and compelling, Hua Li shows it takes tenderness to let things ripen, and guts to let things die. In-between is a kind of rapture that begs to be savoured.

For Fans Of: Gayance, Tirzah, FKA Twigs, Heems, Tkay Maidza

Los Angeles-based Fabiano Do Nascimento is a multi-string guitarist and songwriter who melds the traditional idioms of his native Brazil (i.e., samba, choro) with the more contemporary and experimental strains of jazz, pop, and electronic music. Das Nuvens (“The Clouds”), out July 2023 on Leaving Records, is a crisp, frequently blissful, and deceptively groove-oriented showcase from a consummate musician — a rich and varied collection of songs, all of which seem to prioritize, and thrive in, the soft and intentional spaces between notes.

Das Nuvens constitutes the free-form, exploratory work of a musician who, having mastered a distinct musical language, seeks to apply his skill towards broader, more experimental modes of expression. Fittingly, track one — built around a contemplative, pointillistic refrain— is titled “Babel,” a reference to the legend of man’s attempt to build a tower to heaven, and how God thwarted this alleged act of hubris by shattering man’s shared language, sowing chaos and confusion. Though a stern parable on its face, it is a myth that enshrines our world’s dizzying array of languages (of modes of being), and the subsequent beauty of cultural exchange through art. In this regard, it is a fitting opening statement for an album that collapses and collages not only contemporary and classical Brazilian and pop idioms, but also the diverse range of indigenous music that Nascimento has encountered and studied in his travels as a touring musician.

Turnend Tapes first vinyl offering beyond the realms of the club emerges Peculiar Glow Vol.1. An EP of radiant atmospherics from multiple artists prescribing sonic esoterism.

Shell Company introduce the record with ‘Pearl’, an exhibition of their indelible sound, nurtured by the Manchester underground; inducing intoxication through twang of guitar and stunning spoken word whilst grimy, glitched-out soundscapes modulate and vaporise.

Sailingwing follows with ‘Splendid Isolation’. A kaleidoscopic dream sequence sounding like a distant relative to Talk Talk’s Spirit of Eden. One that is voltaic and woozy drifting with spectral timbre.

Bringing side A to a close with their track ‘I Might’ is Infant, another artist flourishing in Manchester’s fertile scene. A soft and hopeful slice of blissed out synth pop showcasing Infant’s mesmerising instrumentation, voice and lyricism.

Das Wettbüro’s ‘Abendtarif’ opens side B with an auditory bath of cool electronics intersecting the styles of different eras and geographies. Ultra kinetic and slick, the group make a visionary contribution to the rich lineage of Krautrock before it.

Zoe Couppe & sigh nova offer up a sublime composition of glistening electronics and granular field recordings that mirror the spoken musings of aquatic motion amongst other abstractions. With mythic air, ‘Memoria Fluida’ guides this collection of music to its conclusion.

Peculiar Glow’s first volume is a touchstone for endeavours to follow under this project and we are delighted to share the result of what has been a lengthy but exceptionally rewarding process.

E. LIVE returns to STAR CREATURE with yet another Boogie Blast Off, this time of the Jazz-Funk variety, marking his third full-length release with the esteemed Chicago label. The much-anticipated album is set to make seismic waves in 2024. With a nu-school approach leaning towards the jazzier realms of disco, E. LIVE masterfully maintains an unwavering dance floor allure. The album is a brilliant fusion of accessible and sophisticated sounds, creating an enchanting sonic landscape that seamlessly bridges disco and jazz elements. Genius Level production for a solo studio act. Highly recommended for fans of musical luminaries such as ROY AYERS, PATRICE RUSHEN, KHRUANGBIN, FKJ, and TORO Y MOI, etc...8 tracks & full picture sleeve.

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

Stolen Goods Records announce Pergola's cinematic techno 'Zed' EP, featuring a remix from indie-dance legend CURSES.
Exploring hypnotic, emotionally charged melodies and vast techno breakdowns, the title track opens up the EP with a strong sense of mystery. Suspenseful strings build in anticipation as the bassline filters in intensity, this deep space offenng is the perfect example of a tune fit for the club as well as headphone-listening.

'Freak' is a beautifully intense piece featuring soft synths marked by subtle scratches, a feel-good vocal and the catchy strum of a quitar. '"Zed' is then given the CURSES treatment, the Optimo Music, Bordello a Parigi and Correspondant artist amplifies its retro feel resulting in nine minutes of pure dark disco hedonism. Closing out the release is an ambient collaboration between Pergola and Luigi Sambuy, 'Tunnel' is an ode to the early days of IDM through to the '70s.
*"Zed' marks the third release on Lele Sacchi & Asian Fake's Stolen Goods Records and follows up their widely acclaimed 'Volume 0' compilation as well as the recent collaborative EP between Black Loops & Innocent Soul. Since its launch last summer, the label has seen the support of artists like Dixon, Sasha, DJ Seinfeld and DJ Sneak and has garnered plays on prestigious stations like NTS and BBC Radio 1. The imprint continues its strong start to the year with three new tracks from the hyper-talented Pergola: a newcomer to the scene whos aready listed on labels such as Multinotes, Sementa ano Adriatiques Siamese, the latter which saw/ him reach number one on Beatport's Electronica chart.

On-Ly is the solo and collaborative moniker of pianist and producer Joshua Smeltink. Spanning genres, On-Ly's house and hip-hop history is ever-present and imbued with the hard-hitting post-bop jazz-rock of the 60's / 70's, harking back to bands such as Weather Report and Miles Davis Group (70s).

Reflecting on great leaders and great bands and what makes them essential; there is not too much more that On-Ly has considered for Wonderlust. Distinct in that it inaugurates his first release with a band; Wonderlust simultaneously pulls at the coat-tails of Santana's Moonflower, The Mars Volta and the original Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters all whilst serving you some Bob James on the side. The album takes on a facilitating role in the style of great psychedelic albums as one finds themselves at the whimsy of through-composed pilgrimages to soft, heartfelt song and back to sun-soaked heights woven with engaging arrangement, a one-of-a-kind production style and an incredible pedigree of musicianship.

Reverberations of Non-Stop Traffic on Redding Road is a duet in ambience by Pan American (Mark K. Nelson) and Kramer. This experimental record is 11 brief sojourns into the dream state, produced by Kramer (of Shimmy-Disc) and co-written with Mark K. Nelson (of Labradford, Anjou).This record is a brotherly and collaborative follow-up to Kramer's 2022 ambient excursions, "Music For Films Edited By Moths".On the making of this collaborative project, Mark K. Nelson said "It was an honor to work with Kramer. That we came out of it with a great friendship and a record that's unique to each of our histories and music that we're proud to share is a privilege and a joy."As Kramer has described, the result of this record is a work that begs listeners, both animal and human, to allow these beautiful landscapes to sing and speak and weep for themselves.Simply put by Kramer, "Please. Forget about words. Just LISTEN."

This group of Ole Miss grads feature Jim Weatherly (writer of “Midnight Train to Georgia”) and is often likened to the Association for their soft, trippy sound. “Everything about this well-crafted fusion of sunshine pop and gentle psychedelia is geared towards accenting all things melodic” - Grahame Bent (Record Collector) Reissued on LP for the first time! This release comes with (a) Booklet.

This group of Ole Miss grads feature Jim Weatherly (writer of “Midnight Train to Georgia”) and is often likened to the Association for their soft, trippy sound. “Everything about this well-crafted fusion of sunshine pop and gentle psychedelia is geared towards accenting all things melodic” - Grahame Bent (Record Collector) Reissued on LP for the first time! This release comes with (a) Booklet.

Reverberations of Non-Stop Traffic on Redding Road is a duet in ambience by Pan American (Mark K. Nelson) and Kramer. This experimental record is 11 brief sojourns into the dream state, produced by Kramer (of Shimmy-Disc) and co-written with Mark K. Nelson (of Labradford, Anjou).This record is a brotherly and collaborative follow-up to Kramer's 2022 ambient excursions, "Music For Films Edited By Moths".On the making of this collaborative project, Mark K. Nelson said "It was an honor to work with Kramer. That we came out of it with a great friendship and a record that's unique to each of our histories and music that we're proud to share is a privilege and a joy."As Kramer has described, the result of this record is a work that begs listeners, both animal and human, to allow these beautiful landscapes to sing and speak and weep for themselves.Simply put by Kramer, "Please. Forget about words. Just LISTEN."

What Do We Do Now is the fifth solo studio LP recorded by J Mascis since 1996. This is obviously not a very aggressive release schedule, but when you figure in the live albums, guest spots, and records done with his various other bands (Dinosaur Jr., The Fog, Heavy Blanket, Witch, Sweet Apple, and so on), well, to paraphrase Lou Reed, "J's week beats your year." What Do We Do Now began to come together during the waning days of the Pandemic. Utilizing his own Bisquiteen Studio, J started working on writing a series of tunes on acoustic with a different dynamic than the stuff he creates for Dino. "When I'm writing for the band," he says, "I'm always trying to think of doing things Lou and Murph would fit into. For myself, I'm thinking more about what I can do with just an acoustic guitar, even for the leads. Of course, this time, I added full drums and electric leads, although the rhythm parts are still all acoustic. Usually, I try to do the solo stuff more simply so I can play it by myself, but I really wanted to add the drums. Once that started, everything else just fell into place. So it ended up sounding a lot more like a band record. I dunno why I did that exactly, but it's just what happened." Two guest musicians are playing this time out; Western Mass local Ken Mauri (of the B52s) plays piano on several tracks. Since J himself has some experience with keys, when asked why he needed a hired gun, he says, "Ken is great, and he plays all the keys. I tried playing some keyboards on the first Fog album, but I'm really only comfortable playing the white notes, so it's kind of limiting. laughs Nowadays, I could just turn the pitch on a mini Mellotron to play different sounds, but black keys just seem hard. For whatever reason, I just like banging on the white ones. Seems like it's harder to figure out how to stretch your fingers around the other ones." Mauri has no such qualms and plays all the keys very damn well. He sounds especially great on "I Can't Find You," where he is Jack Nitzsche to J's Neil Young, creating one of the album's loveliest tunes. The other guest musician, Matthew "Doc" Dunn, is also prominent on this track. Dunn's steel guitar manages to both widen and soften the musical edges of the music, giving it a full classicist profile. Dunn is an Ontario-based polymath who J met through Matt Valentine. After J played on Doc's great 2022 Sub Pop single, "Your Feel," he figured it was time for payback. Both Dunn and Mauri add beautifully to the songs here, helping to transform them from acoustic sketches into full-blown post-core power ballads. What Do We Do Now is the finest set of solo tunes J has yet penned, and the way they're presented is just about perfect. Asked if he would be touring to support the album, J says he'll be doing some weekend dates, but he probably won't be putting a band together. And I'm sure these songs will sound great solo and acoustic, but the arrangements on this album are truly great and put a cool, different spin on Mascis' instantly Recognizable approach to making music. So, what do we do now? Not sure. But apparently, what J does is to make one of his most killer records ever. Hats off to him. - Byron Coley

Aural architect Skygaze follows his 2022 ‘Astral Trip EP’ for Flumo Recordings, offering an advanced fusion of house, broken boogie, and future jazz, with five brand new reinterpretations from the extended Flumo family.

Skygaze’s diverse sound, breaking down barriers between house and techno, broken beat, jazz, ambient, hip hop, jungle, and even esoteric IDM, has been showcased across a growing catalogue of releases across Guayaba records, Riverette, Flumo and Thirty Three Circular, and remixes for Ed is Dead and Contours & Yadava; earning the producer support from the likes of Mr. Scruff, Simbad, k15, Bandcamp’s Andrew Jervis, and Gilles Peterson.

Feted singer, musician and producer Alysha Joy, rising producer Divorce From New York, ones-to-watch, Footnote and Karmasound, and Skygaze himself under his Jailed Jamie guise, joined by Lorenzo Soria, put a new spin on ‘Astral Trip’, whilst staying true to the originals’ spirit.

The multi-talented Allysha Joy, of 30/70 Collective & LCSM fame, remixes ‘’Night Heat’’, enhancing the groove with broken beats and her undeniable first-rate vocals.

Jailed Jamie & Lorenzo Soria, reshape ‘’Gimme Five’’ with rough synths and jacking bassline driven “Think” beats.

Divorce From New York boosts the tempo and infuses ‘’Wagwan’’ with Latin rhythms, perfectly balanced by high-energy synth lines.

Italian producers, Footnote and SofaTalk, delve deeper into ‘’Minor Mood’’, adding softer, retro-infused sound structures in a broken boogie mould.

Barcelona’s Karmasound explores the ruminating nature of ‘’City Cathedratics’’ and its counterbalance between broken beat and house.

The diverse but complementary set of remixes is sure to move bodies on sophisticated dance-floors this year and shed further light not only Skygaze’s production but also his talent for melody and song-writing. A feather in his and Flumo’s bow.

DJ Support:

Ashley Beedle (Back To The World Records)

Bolam (Lobster Theremin)

Crazy P (Hot Toddy / 2020 Vision)

Dan Curtin (Mobilee)

Fouk (Heist / Toy Tonics)

Joshua James (XOYO, Glorias, Rinse)

Laurent Garnier (F Communications)

Severino / Horse Meat Disco (Strut / !K7 Records)

Speaking Minds (Circoloco, Italy)

Repress!

JT Donaldson’s blissed-out release ‘Stay Inside’ is now available on wax for the first time. With soulful vocals provided by fellow Texan Liv.e, delicate instrumentals and a grooving beat, ‘Stay Inside’ swiftly became an infectious hit following its release on Classic Music Company, ascending to #1 on the Traxsource chart. This four-track package features the original alongside the club-focused remix, which maintains the blissful sound of the original mix while upping the ante with agile drums and playful piano samples. Next up, house legend Sandy Rivera lends his unique brand of soulful funk to the track, with an enhanced bassline and undulating groove hard to resist. Finally, Girls of the Internet lace in soft percussion and looping guitar riffs that retain the laid-back feel of the original.

Celebrated new wave compilation from Japan reissued for the first time on Glossy Mistakes.

A much-cherished gem from the 1980s underground Japanese music scene returns as Soft Selection 84 is reissued by Glossy Mistakes for its 40th anniversary. Originally released on DIY label Soft, the compilation sees 13 tracks from nine acts spanning minimal, ambient, zolo and more for a beguiling listen.

The result is a charming time capsule of eclectic creativity in which nothing sounds dated. Take La Sellrose Can Can, whose two party jams predate Kero Kero Bonito's hyperpop by decades. In addition, an impeccable remastering from the original master tapes adds to the "could have been recorded yesterday" feel of the collection.

Soft Selection 84 also includes the eccentric Picky Picnic. One of the few featured artists with recordings beyond the anthology, the trio is an essential act for those curious about Japanese art pop of the era. There is also new wave introspection from Name, whose "Do We All Need Love" plays out as a sensual nod to John Lennon. In a similar vein is Clä-Sick, the recording name of Goro Some, the compilation's original producer and founder of Soft.

The record's rerelease comes with Some's blessing, along with his original artwork and photography. Ultimately, the listener is left tantalised by his selection and its bold excursions into no wave, synth pop, radioplay and bizzaro house. Most of the artists on this release would fade into obscurity, but the transient nature of the potential showcased has helped cement the compilation's reputation over the years.

Soft Selection will be released on vinyl LP by Glossy Mistakes on March 2024, with a remastering from the original master tapes.

Introducing, the experimental violinist and performer Vanessa Bedoret.

The London-based French musician today announces that she’ll be joining, Scenic Route, a label renowned for selecting and nourishing rising stars for the release of her debut album, Eyes, due out on 8th of March 2024. Launching with a taste of what’s to come, today she also shares single “1/2”, a textural track that tells of the dichotomy between those who are selfless and those who are self-centred, and their need to merge as one. This duality is reflected in the industrial metallic echoes under Vanessa’s soaring vocals and the piercing strings of her chosen instrument, the violin.

Treating songwriting as an instinctive process, Bedoret transforms her deeply personal experiences into pure emotion. Not following any set narrative, Eyes takes the listener on a journey via their own experiences, prompting introspection through Bedoret’s hypnotic melodies.

Through the album, she awakens the audience's imagination, to open up their emotional response. On “Ballad”, a vague, loving lyrical letter to someone close, Bedoret’s heartbreakingly soft lament is barely audible over the dramatic atonal strings. She flips her narrative again in the titular track, “Eyes”, so the listener empathises through her isolated violin, and takes on her anguish, not needing to understand the full story.

Bedoret began her classical training at age 6 and on completion at 18 she embraced the thrill of playing guitar in punk bands, and like many at the turn of adulthood, was quickly captured by the allure of the dancefloor. Her far-reaching taste doesn’t stop there, she also counts black metal to opera and from eurodance to IDM as inspiration. Her deep understanding of musical form elevates her experimentation to a truly unique sonic experience, one that never strays too far from her original love of classical music.

With only a string of releases under her belt via independent labels like Laura Lies In and Archaic Vaults, her refined skillset has meant she’s been in high demand for both solo shows and collaborations. These accolades include playing violin with New York avant garde collective Standing On The Corner at The Serpentine, as well as a part of Kahil El’Zabar conducts MOKI at the ICA, and Linder: Another Music in a Different Arcadia at the Design Museum alongside artist Linder Sterling, Naima Cherry, Maxwell Sterling, Kenichi Iwasa & Ella Frears.

For her solo performances, she’s shared stages with Standing on the Corner, Ekaterina Bazhenova-Yamasaki, Philomème Pirecki, John T. Gast and Nexcyia to name a few. She’s also performed as a duo alongside musician Severin Black in support of their collaborative EP release, First Passage / Excommunicated.

Through the lens of a life lived to it’s fullest and one that does not shy from experiencing the rawest of emotions, it’s clear that Bedoret has a nack for translating personal observations into cinematic crescendoes. The field recordings throughout only heighten this feeling adding both a grounding and other worldy sensibility. Lyrically, she allows you to peek into her private world and for a fleeting moment letting you lock eyes with hers, asking what do you see?

This debut is a glowing experimental work that purrs with a distinctive narrative. Vanessa Bedoret is a promising new act, ready to take 2024 by storm.

Kane Pour is a songwriter and multimedia artist who lives in Gainesville, FL, and has been making loop and guitar-based electronic music since 2004. His work often leans into the subtle and murky emotions that dwell beneath the surface, calling forth themes of care, sadness, and tenderness of the human soul. With a wide sonic palette and sense of humor, he puts his love of harmony and space first, slowly dimming through soft landscapes of various textures. The Last Wave is a spiritual successor to Sun People Sleepwalker, an album Kane Pour released as Pospulenn in 2010. The album is a series of ambient guitar meditations on reconciling painful memories, growing, and reclaiming identity. The Last Wave was recorded at the onset of the Covid pandemic when Pour was home isolating. He put together the songs and walked around at night listening to them, feeling intense loneliness in the present, but finding comfort in having time to reflect on his past. The tone and aesthetic of the album evolved over time but Pour named it The Last Wave because he thought it might be his last album or the last living remnant of his soul left after the world fell apart.

Redrum Recordz and Fremdtunes present:
Maj Rachel - 'My Shadow Was a Nun'
With her debut "My Shadow Was a Nun", Maj Rachel creates anamalgam of soul, musique concrete, sound design experimentsand classical. She employs objects as percussion, fieldrecordings, piano, guitar, synths, violin and effects incompositions that are rich in color and contrast. Her music isabstract, paradoxical, full of emotion. At times, her voicesubmerges into a tumultuous sea of reverb and distortion, onlyto emerge in soft, bittersweet melodies. She sounds dark andeerie. She sounds romantic and whimsical. In short, it's apowerful debut album that engages the mind, heart, and gut.
This is what Maj herself says about "My Shadow Was a Nun":
"So sensitive yet so immune. Light beams shine through millionsof holes. The sun makes the black thick wall seem light grey.The light pulls apart to colors. Love feels painful yet beautiful.You are around even though you're not. A brain doesn't like tothink it's alone. Arranged sound into personal stories, all self-recorded. Because sound creates deep emotion."

Bass player Ron Carter’s debut album Where? features Eric Dolphy (clarinet, sax, flute) and Mal Waldron (piano). The album was originally released in 1961 having been recorded at Rudy Van Gelder Studios in New Jersey. This new edition of the album is released as part of the Original Jazz Classics Series and is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at RTI with all-analogue mastering from the original tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio and presented in a Tip-On Jacket. US import.

Hinter dem Bandnamen Potato Beach versteckt sich ein Wiener Indie-Surf Kollektiv rund um Mastermind Jannik Rieß. Bislang gab es eine EP, die als Tape erschienen ist. Der Strand ist für alle da! "Back on the road, driving slowly, sipping coke" - Mit den ersten Zeilen auf "DIP IN" legt Jannik Rieß direkt ein Geständnis ab. Der deutsche Wahlwiener und Multiinstrumentalist hinter dem Musikprojekt Potato Beach, bekennt sich mit seinem Debüt zum Softdrink bei Einhalten des Tempolimits - und damit zur eigenen Kartoffeligkeit. Sympathisch! Potato Beach's durchaus nostalgischer Garage-Rock versucht gar nicht erst, dem Bravado und Machismo alter (The Kinks) oder neuer (Foxygen) Inspirationen nachzueifern. Rieß erzählt lieber seine eigenen Geschichten in der lähmenden Sommerhitze Wiens, irgendwo zwischen zu lang jung bleiben und zu früh alt werden. Die Platte braucht keine waghalsigen Salti vom Zehner schlagen, um in die Tiefe zu gehen. Vielmehr lädt sie uns dazu ein, mit baumelnden Füßen am Beckenrand tief ins Rot-Weiß der Freibadpommes zu tauchen. Schmeckt vertraut - und ziemlich lecker. So wabern simple, aber sorgfältig arrangierte Vintage-Riffs und schrullige Orgeln wie Hitzeschlieren am Horizont, wenn Rieß "Why are we feeling guilty for not doing anything?" oder "How can anyone go to work?" die blöden Fragen stellt, über die wir alle rätseln. Potato Beach's Selbstreflexionen sind am Puls der Zeit getaktet und sprechen dabei ganz ungezwungen 0,5 bis 2,5 Kartoffelgenerationen von der Pelle. So handeln sie nicht etwa von Heroin und Manic Pixie Dream Girls, sondern von Ghosting, Fernbeziehungen oder dem Gefühl der Einsamkeit unter Vielen. Potato Beach befreit den Küstenrock der 60er vom alten Rost und verleiht ihm mit ehrlichen, nachdenklichen und bodenständigen Anekdoten einen zeitgenössischen Anstrich. Dass Potato Beach mit "DIP IN" nicht dem Mackertum seiner Blaupausen folgt, ist kein Zufall. Nachdem Rieß' musikalische Vorbilder durch ihren Sexismus unhörbar wurden, sah er sich gezwungen, seine Lieblingsmusik selbst neu zu schreiben. Dass er das komplette Instrumentarium und den Gesang der 11 Tracks im Alleingang aufgenommen hat, zeigt: Dem ist das wirklich wichtig. Hingabe, Leidenschaft und Weltschmerz hallen jedenfalls deutlich hörbar aus dem Röhrenverstärker. Nur vereinzelt tauchen Vertraute Musiker:innen der Schwesterbands Peter the Human Boy oder Gardens auf, um ein Cello hier oder ein Keyboard dort einzuspielen. Die sind auch dabei, wenn die Freibäder Wiens warm genug werden, um die Platte live zu performen. Bis dahin sorgt "DIP IN" mit seiner warmen Melancholie für süße Tagträume vom Sehnsuchtsort Strand. "DIP IN" erinnert uns: Ob Potaetoe oder Potahtoh, every Body is a Beach Body!

First compiled as a double CD in 2002, Moon's Milk (in Four Phases) is a suite of four EPs that Coil released seasonally via their in-house Eskaton imprint across 1998. The line-up for these sessions were John Balance, Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson, Drew McDowall, and William Breeze. Recorded primarily at their home studio in Chiswick, London on the eve of a permanent relocation to the small seaside town of Weston-Super-Mare, the collection has long loomed as a pivotal and pinnacle work in the group's discography, but has never been officially reissued, or repressed on vinyl. Time has only ripened its tapestry of regal strangeness. Arranged sequentially in tribute to the equinoxes and solstices, Moon's Milk captures Coil at a revelatory crossroads, leaning deeper into improvisation, spontaneity, and sound design. "Moon's Milk or Under an Unquiet Skull" initiates the proceedings on Spring Equinox, a two-part netherworld organ séance woven from vocal drones, cathedral keys, seasick strings, and opiated undertow. From there, Summer Solstice skews lighter but no less incantational, with Balance embracing his voice-as-instrument across lucid dream torch songs ("Bee Stings"), purgatorial spoken word ("Glowworms/Waveforms"), sultry chamber pieces ("Summer Substructures"), and falsetto ravings ("A Warning From The Sun (For Fritz)"). Autumn Equinox exudes more of a pensive and twilit mood, from the Rose McDowall-sung folk ballad "Rosa Decidua" ("I hear your voice sing near to me / I've put away the poisoned chalice (for now) / And lie down amongst the flowerbeds") to hall-of-lords hallucination "The Auto-Asphyxiating Hierophant" to the liminal string-plucked classic "Amethyst Deceivers," featuring excellent alien guitar by Breeze layered with Balance's oft-quoted couplet: "Pay your respects to the vultures / For they are your future." The album's final chapter, Winter Solstice, is its most swooning, remote, and ceremonial. Opener "A White Rainbow" stirs strings, layered choral vocals, and shivering rhythm into an imploding burial hymn. "North" oscillates bleakly, a ghost in the machine murmuring opaque prophecy ("This black dog has no owner / This black dog has no odour"), while "Magnetic North" is its inverse, a guided meditation of gently flickering software and surreal chakra poetics ("Red rose filling the skull / Yellow cube in the lower pelvis / Silver moon crescent below the navel"). The suite fades to grey with a traditional English carol ("Christmas Is Now Drawing Near"), rendered like an executioner's song by Rose McDowall's doomed, beautiful voice. The Dais box set includes the entirety of the rare Moon's Milk Bonus Disc CD-R / 2019 Threshold Archives Copal CD, which includes three collaborations with Thighpaulsandra. This material is as rich and intoxicating as the previous four phases, ranging from electro-acoustic singing bowl rituals ("Copal") to dissonant electronic recitations of visionary Angus MacLise poetry ("The Coppice Meat") to ominous classical melancholia ("Bankside"). Once again, Coil confirm the vastness of their confounding, infinite alchemy, explored and refined across decades of experimentation - both sonic and bodily. From postindustrial to post-everything, theirs is an art untethered, in the wilds of its own design.

Feeling like the first shot of sunshine after a long winter, Cousin Kula sound instantly recognisable yet gloriously renewed on their second album "Vitamin D".

Donny Benét is an adult Entertainer, Hit-Maker, Attentive Lover- and one of Australia’s most acclaimed- and experienced Jazz-Musicians. He has toured Europe- and the UK five times through 2017/2018, playing Festivals & Headline-Shows in 14 different Countries- and will be returning in 2020! The Don’s gigs are rammed with 20-somethings partying like a scene out of Miami Vice.

Recorded in the infamous Donnyland-Studios using the finest Japanese, American & Italian synthesizers, The Don speaks to the heart, promising love as soft as Italian leather. Donny’s immaculate Armani grooves hint at the dancefloor and the bedroom The Don is transportive. ‘Night In Rome’ opens the shutters of your hotel room onto a view of The Colosseum, ‘Reach The Top’ thrusts you on a frenzied race to success through the streets of NYC.

‘Working Out’ urges you to break a sweat wherever you may be. ‘Konichiwa,’ is a song assmooth as the silken tofu from whence the song’s spirit is inspired, and ‘Santorini,’ an ode to love worth fighting for along the crystal-waters of the Aegean Sea.

New album “Mr Experience” due for Release on 22nd May, 2020

None More Records are very proud to present 'Fictions', the third album, and debut LP for the label from Twospeak. Twospeak are band leader and saxophonist Ronan Perrett's bold and dynamic four-piece that draw inspiration equally from the world of contemporary jazz, bands like The Bad Plus and ADHD, the early 1970's Canterbury Scene of Soft Machine and Caravan, Hot Rats-era Zappa and Deerhoof-esque indie rock, putting this all together in a heady brew and sounding uniquely themselves.

Fictions is a huge step forward for the band, building on Twoism and Reflector, taking the band to new heights. Each song on their new album is based on a piece of non-musical art which include paintings, sculpture, literature and film. Each track is named after and aims to capture the character and mood of its original inspiration.

Repress!

Coming as the ninth edition of the series, ‘EP9’ stays true to committing Defected’s biggest digital releases to wax, delivering an upfront package of house heat previously unavailable on vinyl. Kicking off the A-Side with Riva Starr’s remix of Defected anthem ‘Hey Hey’ by Dennis Ferrer, a tribute to Giorgio Moroder’s pivotal sound and the Paradise Garage early house vibe and serious dancefloor weapon. Ferreck Dawn’s ‘By My Side’ follows, a refined house groover with melodic keys, a soft filtered vocal and undulating beat featuring Californian producer Anthony Valadez. The flip opens with John Summit’s ‘Deep End’, a captivating house cut from the rising star that achieved Beatport #1 weeks after its release. Closing out the EP is Defected regular OFFAIAH, a slick, dancefloor-ready cut with OFFAIAH’s signature grooving bassline and an irresistible melody.

DOODSESKADER (Dutch for “Death Squad”) is a merging of the minds of Tim De Gieter (Amenra, Much Luv Studio) and Sigfried Burroughs (Kapitan Korsakov, Paard).

Throughout their three years of existence, DOODSESKADER has been relentlessly pushing the envelope of what it means to be a “heavy” band. From the grunge-infused sludge on their EP “MMXX : Year Zero” to the punishing blend of hiphop and hardcore of their debut album “Year One” and the sonic onslaught of relentless rapping on standalone singles such as “FLF” and “Still Haven’t Killed Myself”, they’re breaking free of any form of categorization.



The duo has been compared to genre-defying trailblazers such as Ghostemane, Show Me The Body, and Ho99o9, however, they clearly bring their own sonic palette to the table.

The red thread in all of this has been their brutally honest and introspective lyrics. Far from your run-of-the mill type of band, DOODSESKADER uses their instrumentation as a sonic backdrop for the emotion and message they try to convey; their music serves as a mirror for life itself. Sometimes brutal, sometimes fragile, sometimes energizing, but always unexpected.



Now, on March 8th, with the arrival of their sophomore album “Year Two”, DOODSESKADER takes things up another couple of notches. From silky-soft “Pastel Prison” to the absolute carnage of “The Sheer Horror Of The Human Condition”, this record is a testament to both their creativity and their will to leave their mark on this world. It’s a trip in every sense of the word, tapping into even more genres such as R&B, techno, hardcore punk, and moody ballads reminiscent of the 90s, all blended seamlessly in their musical vocabulary and making for a sonic journey unlike anything you’ve heard before.

Where their last record “Year One” saw the duo struggling with their inner demons both past and present, “Year Two” is an undeniable display of progress; not only introspectively, but also musically. De Gieter and Burroughs sound outright bloodthirsty, ready to take on anyone in their way. Tracks like “Bone Pipe” or “I Ask With My Mouth, I’ll Take With My Fist” paint a vivid picture of the band’s will to plot their own their path through this world, while at the same time slowly coming to terms with their pasts on tracks like “Peine” or “People Have Poisoned My Mind To A Point Where I Can No Longer Function”. “Year Two” undeniably sees DOODSESKADER’s promise fulfilled: it’s both a complete teardown of genres and boundaries, a sonic wrecking ball wielded by two people trying to get better.

Live, DOODSESKADER proves to be an absolute must see, translating into their sold out AB-release and a sleuth shows over Europe playing with acts such as Brutus and Amenra and on the stages of festivals such as Hellfest (FR), Mystic Fest (PL), Lokerse Feesten (BE), Fluff Fest (CZ) and much more.

In the sway of a rural breeze, Ian Hatcher-Williams' vocals soothe and enchant the listener on his self-titled debut album as Lamplight, which recounts his odyssey from a child raised in a Virginia cult, to a burned out tech worker in New York, and then back to Virginia, happily married to his childhood friend. Throughout the album, Hatcher-Williams explores identity as it relates to where a person is from and evolves with where they live, and how that facet of self is further compounded by the amount of agency one has over where they call home. Hatcher-Williams wrote and recorded what would become Lamplight, attempting to process and distill some of his experiences into songs. Though the album has moments that hint at the antique lace and creaking floorboards of traditional folk, Lamplight skews modern, in part thanks to Kevin Copeland's (Lightning Bug) deft production. Hatcher-Williams met Copeland while living in Brooklyn, and as they got to know each other, he revealed that he'd spent years playing in bands before his career took over his life. Copeland's encouragement, in tandem with the concurrent changes in Hatcher-Williams' career and domestic life, gave him the confidence to revisit this part of himself that felt unfinished.

Mercurio is the debut album by Opuntia, the solo project of Mexico City producer Camila de Laborde. After three albums with her duo/band, Camila Fuchs (ATP/Felte, etc.), Camila decides to embark on a new path of musical and interpersonal exploration with Opuntia as her new alias, and with the album Mercurio as a statement of metamorphosis and creative process.

Broadly speaking, Mercurio is a direct impact of beautiful melodies, rhythms, and voices that traverse a leftfield electronic pop axis, sprinkled with elegant nods to experimental transitions. In Mercurio, you can sense the spaces, textures, and echoes, akin to a sort of retro Sci-Fi analogy. Bass hits or percussions carry a weight that bursts forth yet delicately dissolves instantly – perhaps another analogy, akin to liquid metal. From softness to fury across the ten songs, Opuntia proposes an artistic reinvention in constant movement. Speeds and spaces change, but the narrative remains consistent from beginning to end – finding a place, a resolved utopia. Mercurio is darkly joyful, with substantial doses of sophisticated pop.

Kill The Lights, die aus ehemaligen Mitgliedern von Bullet for My Valentine, Throw the Fight, Threat Signal und Still Remains bestehen, veröffentlichen über Fearless/Concord ihr neues Album Death Melody am 08.03.2024 Ihre songs sind einzigartig- Sie stürmen förmlich von der ersten Note an aus den Toren, supported von galoppierenden Riffs, wobei die Texte in einem wilden, höllischen Stil vorgetragen werden. Das markerschütternde Gebrüll geht nahtlos in einen hübschen, sauberen und melodischen Stil über, der effektiv zeigt, wie brutal und doch soft Kill The Lights sind!

Hot wiring dancefloors with their immersive orchestration of uplifting sonic waves, Soft Crash sets out to soundtrack the unified, euphoric heartbeat of the crowds they foster with their mechanical yet fantastical, Italo Body Music. Presenting their highly anticipated EP ‘NRG’, the Berlin-based collaborative project of Berghain resident and BITE label head Hayden Payne (aka Phase Fatale) and French prolific producer Pablo Bozzi works to forge Soft Crash’s unique vocabulary of post-humanist production with the harmonic grandeur of their rhythmic, machine-made anthems.

Fresh off the back of their 2022 debut album ‘Your Last Everything’, Soft Crash present their latest 4 track EP ‘NRG’, chronicling their synonymous surrealist visuals infused with the contagious punch of Italo and Synth-wave. Geared towards the dancefloor from a fresh perspective, Bozzi and Payne pull from their respective wheelhouses to curate a sound additionally influenced by Wave-Pop, Acid House and Post-Punk sensibilities.

Procuring their cerebral yet zealous indentation of dance music, the EP features sanguine vocals from Kyiv-based singer and musician Ready in LED on the first single ‘Free Yourself’. She comments about the track “I became captivated instantly with the idea of the track that Hayden and Pablo sent me. At that moment, I was a bit tired of carefree disco and wanted to reveal my dark side in music. The demo sounded very daring. This track demands attention to itself from the first seconds. My sources of inspiration were glam rock and grunge. I had a blast in the studio, and I hope the people on the dance floors will feel that energy too.”

While full throttle vitality and booming grooves on the title track ‘NRG’ showcase Soft Crash’s take on 90’s sample-filled techno. Closing the extended play with an updated cut of the bewitching ‘Your Last Everything’, featuring Canadian musician and producer Marie Davidson, Soft Crash breathe a new life into the namesake track from their preceding album, concluding with an additional remix of the track by cult favourite producer Alen Skanner. The intrinsic dance floor vigour emulated in NRG further fleshes-out the pair’s recognisable DNA of nurturing a revitalised techno sound, cementing them as pioneers of the Italo Body genre.

Written and produced by Hayden Payne & Pablo Bozzi
Mastered by Conor Dalton at Glowcast Mastering

The debut album by musician and producer GO.SOUL.MAP. is a little gem in which pop and soul intersect and the clichés between
mainstream and underground leap. A sexy and pensive nocturnal journey, immersed in thirteen songs between soft bass and space disco trips, with the voice of Londonbased Derane Obika of Living Sounds.
The selection of songs in this album were made with the hope to bring the listener to deep thought, the lyrics and melodies seamlessly
married to tracks that drive the listener's emotions.
Produced, written and performed by Derane and Salvo, they came together by chance and were inspired to make the album making
sure to balance the sound between the Lyrics, Melody and Music to insure that not only the songs are heard but the experience
remembered and both spirit and soul are touched.
The album is truly "Music From The Heart"
Behind the alias GO.SOUL.MAP. hides one of the most authentic and purest talents of the current Catania music scene. Of which,
moreover, under other guises and names, he has been an indispensable pillar for over a decade. An artist of immediate sensitivity, not only artistic. His training is fairly canonical: as a child, he studied piano. From there, as if following the movements of concentric circles, the passion for synths, drum machines, the world of samples and the recording studio. Above all, an uncommon ability to breathe in music. Accepted and found without prejudice, but always with the need to reveal a distinctive track, a signature. Touring between bars, streets, concerts and clubbing. An experience very consistent with the subject matter of this disc. Which is, in fact, the debut of a nonrookie. An ambitious record, because it possesses a sound that is as sexy as it is thoughtful and a writing style, exemplary, that lies on that borderline that, in the stereotype, defines underground and mainstream. Fields that instead it crosses naturally and between which it moves without any particular problems. After all, the music comes not from the malice of the intellect but from the nuances, tender or vehement, of naivety.
Peaceful Sound For Broken Minds is a pop record, pop soul, of modern urban pop. Yes, labels, even in the sense of tags, are definitely that. Of course, it is the way in which ideas are rendered that makes the difference. The record is about the need to find one's peace, but it is the fall that it shows and not the landing. With honesty and, above all, style. That is, mastery of means and an important file work with which to decline that therapeutic soul pain in which his songs are immersed.
We wait for hours more, the initial Fall Into The Flame and I Am Believe seem to tell us from there we move on. Hold The Line is where trip hop forgets itself, immersing itself, to the point of blurring, with the retro atmospheres of someone like Curtis Harding. Pushing has a space disco cadence that, more pronounced, we also find in the lunar expedition sound of Watergate. The exotic visions of Back In Underwater, between the stardust of Air and the innocence of Plone, become more jazzy in Cat With Camera. Just as in the urban streaks of Don't You Worry, which in upbeat mode would sound like a great reggae song, or Are U Ready, or in the disco funk of Right Of Me, the soulful accent of Derane Obika of Living Sounds emerges, a Londoner of Nigerian origin who grew up listening to gospel, Prince and Stevie Wonder, whose voice guides us through the songs of Peacefull Sound For Broken Minds. Which is a new point for that work of redefining the standards of pop today that Space Echo is doing. Throwing the clock overboard, because the time it wants to capture is nothing more than the movement of its hands.

Elite Controller’ c/w ‘Softness on the Other Side’ is the second 7” single containing two of four tracks produced by transcontinental duo ‘Gruuel’, featuring James Vinciguerra and Beau Wanzer, between 2019 and 2023. The duo appear here in an expanded form with third member and Vinciguerra ‘Act Now’ collaborator Tarquin Manek, heard as multi instrumentalist jack-of-all-trades performing guitar, bass guitar, synthesiser and bass clarinet to accompany Wanzer’s hazy drum machine patterns and Vinciguerra’s mutated vocals.

The single is the first release on Elations Recordings’ ‘Deviations’ imprint, focusing on the outer realms of experimentation and fringe expression. Two subterranean, science-non-fiction snapshots capturing the spirit of the forward looking art-experimental groups of the late 1970s and early 1980s that were lumped in with the punk movement.

The a-side ‘Elite Controller’ is the more immediate of the two tracks; a paranoid fever dream of raw, psychedelic guitars underpinned by dub bass and Vinciguerra’s deranged mutant vocals; while the b-side ‘Softness on the Other Side’ takes a more self-reflective turn. A passive, spoken word cautionary telling of the dangers while searching for personal nirvana accompanied by Manek’s tortured bass clarinet impressions. Recommended for fans of Chrome, Tuxedomoon or K. Leimer’s experimental “artificial” band ‘Savant’.