Search:two em

Growing Bin say sayonara to summer with these bittersweet Balearic gems from Japan’s Nuback. Emotional pop and daydream dub to make you feel younger than yesterday. While the Discogs hipsters hastily hunt down the last, lost street soul OGs, Growing Bin choose instead to indulge in a little Nuback swing. Enlisting the talents of Tokyo’s Dai Nakamura, Hamburg’s home for sensitive sounds provide a much needed vinyl release for the misty-eyed ‘When The Party Is Over’ and ‘Heartbeat Summer’. Largely operating through his own Too Young Records, Nuback trades in textured soul, sympathetic synthesis and forlorn funk - a master at making you move while breaking your heart. Back in 2013, he waved ‘Goodbye To Summer, Again’, giving a digital release to these two tracks, which lurked a little low for the radar until Dai and Basso met somewhere beyond the algorithm, soon bringing this release to bloom. Opening with a fanfare of featherlight pads and full bodied bass, ‘When The Party Is Over’ is pure sonic seduction, holding both Balearic boogie and City Pop in a tender embrace. Delicate guitar and sparkling sequences tug the heartstrings with nostalgic beauty, and Dai’s smooth vocals are made to make you swoon. Emotional pop at its finest folks. On the B-side, ‘Heartbeat Summer’ drops the tempo and soaks up the sun, losing its cares in a haze of loved up dub. As soulful keys sink into spring reverb and steam kettle synths ride a rolling bassline, this downbeat delight lays back in the long grass, making shapes from the clouds and sipping a cool koshu. For summer lovers everywhere; A facemask ruins a first kiss, so start your romance right with Nuback.

DUBFIRE ANNOUNCES HIS DEBUT SOLO ALBUM ON HIS SCI+TEC IMPRINT
With a career spanning over 3 decades, Dubfire has achieved global success as an artist with relentless drive, talent, and intuition. Pioneering commercial notoriety came initially as one half of the Grammy award (2001) winning duo Deep Dish, before embarking on a truly groundbreaking solo career in 2007. A career filled with timeless tracks include his early works ‘Ribcage’ (2007), ‘Emissions (2007), ‘Roadkill’ (2007) and the highly acclaimed ‘Exit’ (2014) a debut collaboration with Kiss Kitten. Collaborative work highlights include Luke Slater, Moscoman, Oliver Huntemann, Chris Liebing, Tiga and co-producing two tracks on the legendary Underworld’s ‘Barking’ album. A true artist, he has always been heavily invested in exploring boundaries or audio and visual technologies, which he displayed more than ever with his HYBRID show. A two-year world tour with a goal to reinvent the concert experience in 2015, also became his muse for his retrospective album ‘A Decade Of Dubfire’. A collection of all his biggest tracks and remixes from the last decade, released in 2017. It may come as a surprise to many, with so many landmark releases, that Ali ‘Dubfire’ Shirazinia hasn't yet released a totally solo album, until now.
EVOLV is an 11-track visionary into the mind of Dubfire to be released on his long-standing label SCI+TEC. It’s concept? The journey of the ‘hybrid’ being and its evolution, which kicks off with ‘Dark Matter’ and ‘Dust & Gas’ set a brooding atmosphere. The rougher percussion, and eerie lead in ‘Dark Matter’ is accompanied by a stripped back sound and glitchy vocals sitting in a spaced-out atmosphere in ‘Dust & Gas’. Its deep and minimal drum work is exceptional. ‘Escape’, a deep, dark and pulsating track that sets the tone for the body of work on the album. Coupled with ‘Elevation’ and it’s understated arpNew Release Information and crisp percussion for the second single. ‘Bottom Dweller’ give you two different versions, the original is straight forward, yet effective for a late-night head down cut, where the ‘Meltdown Mix’ takes a minimal path, and faster pace. ‘Swerve’ sees Dubfire return to that stripped back sound with heavy swinging
percussion, a landmark and much-loved element in his music. Sonically, the journey so far has been like a dystopian landscape, but ‘Decent’ brings a kaleidoscope of colour and sound before dropping into the ‘CHALLNGR’ duo. ‘CHALLNGR 1.1’ is perhaps the most contemporary track on the album. Dubfire picks up the rhythm for a full-on dancefloor focused track. It’s no-nonsense techno at its best, with heaps of pure energy. Two versions appear on the album, ‘CHALLNGR 1.2’ retains the BPM but reigns in the percussion with a snappier approach and a more euphoric warped effect. Closing out, is a special digital only track ‘The Bells Tolls’. This one drives the energy back to ground level, into a more unsettling and mysterious end to a killer 11 track debut album. The music will also be accompanied by a new audio-visual show from the revered DubLab team based in Portugal. Test shows at DGTL (Amsterdam),
Caprices (Crans-Montana) and in Sofia between 2018 and 2019 had created lots of buzz just before the COVID-19 pandemic shut the world down for two years. But now the stage is firmly set for the new album
and live shows. As music evolves, so does Dubfire. EVOLV is a special project from this pioneering producer showing his interpretation of techno in his own unique vision.

Following on from last year’s acclaimed Sylva Sylvarum, the epic double LP from Ora Clementi (her collaborative project with James Rushford), crys cole returns to Black Truffle with Other Meetings. Originally commissioned and released on cassette by Boomkat Editions in 2021, Other Meetings is a major addition to the body of carefully hewn solo work cole has released over the last decade, offering up two side-long suites of her radically intimate approach to sound. After many years dominated by touring and travel, cole found herself in lockdown in her Berlin apartment, working in a limited space with minimal equipment. Digging through archives of recordings taken overseas and exploring the sonic potential hidden in the objects surrounding her (including a coffee pot and a vase of dying flowers), she crafted what in her liner notes she calls ‘an internal dérive, a journey that drifted through many places without a defining compass’. Totalling over 50 minutes, the two pieces unfold at an unhurried pace, each containing four individually titled subsections. Beginning with a sequence of the highly amplified small sounds characteristic of much of cole’s work, the opening moments of ‘The time between two durations of sleep’ are underpinned by a gentle rocking motion, weaving together contact mic crunch, metallic resonance, glimpses of bird song, and isolated drum machine hits, the sonic space expanding and contracting as focus moves between elements. Briefly side-lined by a tactile but unplaceable sizzling, this complex weave of voices then returns in a kind of dubbed-out ‘version’, the percussive accents echoing around the stereo space. In one of the record’s most beautiful and unexpected moments, these sounds are joined by a sparse melodic line performed on a broken 1980s digital synth, the vaguely New Age timbres being taken on a long, tonally ambiguous wander. Cole’s immersion in memories of travel comes to the fore in the final section of the first side, titled ‘Wat Paknam’ after a royal temple in Bangkok, where snatches of voices, ringing bells and distant waves of chanting blur together with synth tones into an increasingly abstracted wave of sound. The second side, ‘Slices of cake’, opens in a similarly hallucinatory outdoor space of echoing bird song and liquified traffic before abruptly zooming in on a microscopic world of subtly processed and highly amplified objects, explored with a starkness and quiet insistence that calls to mind the fringe not-quite-concrète of outsiders like Paul A.R. Timmermans or Knud Viktor, whose obsessive interrogation of dripping water might also serve as a point of reference for the following sub-section, the aptly titled ‘magischer Abfluss’ (magic drain).

While Other Meetings develops many aspects of cole’s previous work – the hyper-magnification of small gestures, the unsettling edits and fades partly inspired by hypnagogic states, the location recordings smeared into oneiric haze – it is almost as if these pieces are somehow songs, the remnants of an evaporated music of which nothing remains except isolated hits from a synthetic drum, a handful of notes, or simply a duration of emptied atmosphere. Radically reductive yet deeply musical, Other Meetings is a major work from an artist driven by an uncompromising and idiosyncratic vision.

Presented with an inner sleeve with photos and liner notes from the composer and remastered audio.

The Southern state’s musical giants have always had their own distinct recipe for
American roots: spiced with jazz, steeped in swamp-blues and cooked up a little
differently by every artist who performs it. As a second- generation child of the
Bayou State, Kenny Neal has taken his own inimitable guitar, gale-force harp and
roadworn voice all over the globe. But in 2022, the Grammy- nominated blues
master’s latest album, Straight From The Heart, finds him drawn by the siren call
of his hometown and musical ground zero, Baton Rouge.“This is the first album
I’ve ever recorded on my own turf, and it truly came straight from the heart,” says
Neal, who both led and produced a crack team of local musicians at his own
Brookstown Recording Studios. “All the tributaries of the blues converge here,
flowing into one rich tradition.”You’ll hear all of Neal’s travels in Straight From The
Heart, but this latest album brings it all back home in every sense. Lining up in the
studio alongside his Baton Rouge compadrés, the respect that Neal commands
on the scene also drew some special guests, including hot- tip blues sensation
Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram (who co-writes and plays stinger guitar on Mount Up
On The Wings Of The King), pop royalty Tito Jackson (on Two Timing) and two
songs with Rockin’ Dopsie Junior & The Zydeco Twisters. You’ll even hear Neal’s
supremely talented daughter Syreeta drive the vocal outro of Two Timing.“It was
like a family reunion,” says Neal of the good-natured sessions. “It was excellent
because I had all the musicians that grew up under me here in Baton Rouge. And
just being in my own studio, not worrying about the clock.”Straight From The
Heart is a fitting title for a record that salutes the many loves of Neal’s life.
There’s the brass-driven opener Blues Keep Chasing Me, which tips a hat to his
recently departed friend, Lucky Peterson. There’s the touching piano-led Someone
Somewhere, which salutes his beloved father, harp master Raful Neal, who put
him on this path. Elsewhere, Neal’s deep love for every side of his home state is
underlined by the zydeco chop of Bon Temps Rouler and New Orleans, whose
lyrics reference everything from “sippin’ on Hurricane” to “sittin’ on the Bayou
catching catfish”. Faced with such an open-hearted record, it’s impossible not to
reciprocate. And as the world opens up and Kenny Neal embraces his natural
habitat of the road, this Louisiana icon will bring a little bit of that Baton Rouge
spirit onto every stage he treads. “It don't cost nothing to share a little love and a
little respect,” he says. “And we can all rise above…”

The early ’80s were a fertile time for electronic music, as the explosion of relatively affordable synthesizers and drum machines gave creative musicians a new way to express themselves. For Danny Krivit, DJing at the Roxy and soaking in the sonics of the Paradise Garage, it meant an exciting collision of the worlds of dance music and hip hop. For our latest release, Mr. K has pulled out two of his sureshots from that era and given them a tune-up for today’s sound systems.

“Pleasure Boys” by Visage was released in 1982 and epitomized the new wave crossover sound that would be co-opted and expanded on under the Freestyle banner. While the track was conceived with the vocal taking the lead, that vocal was never heard at the Roxy, Krivit’s focus being the thunderous synth bass break that he’d extend to epic proportions using twin copies of the single. It’s this routine that he’s recreated on our featured edit, a bare bones riff that still sounds enormous on a club system.

For the flip, Krivit goes a little deeper with his edit of “Emotional Disguise” by Peter Godwin. Another cut originally released in 1982, Krivit again ditches the overwrought new wave vocal in favor of the atmospheric synth stylings of the instrumental, which he accurately describes as a standout, “played at the Garage and at the Roxy for the hip hop crowd.”

Energetic, atmospheric, and with huge sonic impact, these edits are appearing on 7-inch for the first time.

Walter Smith III and Matthew Stevens are two musicians at the forefront
of developments in jazz and improvised music, listing the likes of
Terence Blanchard, Ambrose Akinmusire, Esperanza Spalding and
Christian Scott as collaborators
The pair started working together in 2017, and four years later, they're back for
the third iteration of their highly commended In Common project. Previous guests
include Nate Smith, Linda May Han Oh and Marcus Gilmore; on 'In Common 3',
Kris Davis takes the piano chair vacated by Micah Thomas, and completing the
lineup are two legends of the game - Dave Holland and Terri Lyne
Carrington.What's new, third time around? "It's longer, freer, and yet more
spontaneous," says Smith. The successful In Common formula - inventive 'onepage songs' written with specific musicians in mind - disguises the through-line
that uniquely shapes this record: "The spotlight is on the community of musicians
as a whole," Smith comments. "The general vibe is sculpted by the musicians'
interpretations of what we bring in." Davis' influential presence means the project
leans into the aesthetics of free improvisation for the first time; the resulting
soundworld lends itself to electronic manipulation, another first for the series.
The span of fifteen tracks showcases the duo's knack for reinvention, slipping
into unfamiliar contexts without losing sight of the album's focused essence.
Smith is keen to emphasise the standalone nature of the divergent In Common
recordings. Some aspects carry through though, like their commitment to
remembering lost influences - opener 'Shine' serves as both a thank you and an
acknowledgement to McCoy Tyner, Wallace Roney, Chick Corea, Jimmy Health
and Ellis Marsalis. That introduces the remaining fourteen tracks, that divide
nearly exactly into spontaneously constructed ideas that introduce fully
composed tracks.

To confuse parts for the whole is inevitable with Palm. Drummer Hugo Stanley, bassist Gerasimos Livitsanos and guitarists/vocalists/high school sweethearts Eve Alpert and Kasra Kurt started making music together as teenagers, and spent much of their twenties in the kind of proximity unusual for adults, outside of touring bands and the International Space Station. For a number of years the band consumed the lives of its members to a point of exhaustion: “To be honest I think we got a little burnt out. There were times where it wasn’t clear if we’d make another record,” says Alpert. It was only after multiple freak injuries followed by a pandemic, forced a pause - from touring but also from writing, rehearsing, even seeing each other- that the four were able to regroup and see a way forward again.



On their latest effort, Nicks and Grazes, Palm embrace discordance to dazzling effect. “We wanted to reconcile two potentially opposing aesthetics,” Kurt says. “To capture the spontaneous, free energy of our live shows while integrating elements from the traditionally gridded palette of electronic music.” In order to avoid what Kurt refers to as “Palm goes electro,” the musicians spent years educating themselves on the ins and outs of production by learning Ableton while also experimenting with “the percussive, textural, and gestural potential” of their instruments. To this end, the band continued the age-old tradition of instrument-preparation, augmenting guitars with drumsticks, metal rods and, at the suggestion of Charles Bullen (This Heat, Lifetones), coiling rubber-coated gardening wire around the strings. The unruliness of the prepared guitar on songs like “Mirror Mirror” and “Eager Copy” contrasts with the steadfast reproducibility of the album’s electronic elements.



While Palm cite Japanese pop music, dub, and footwork as influences on this album’s sonic palette, they found themselves returning time and again to the artists who inspired them to start the group over a decade ago. “When we were first starting out as a band, we bonded over an appreciation of heavy, aggressive, noisy music,” Alpert reflects. “We wrote parts that were just straight-up metal.” Kurt adds, “I found myself rediscovering and re–falling in love with the visceral, jagged quality of guitars in the music of Glenn Branca, The Fall, Beefheart, and Sonic Youth, all important early Palm influences.” Returning to the fundamentals gave Palm a strong foundation upon which they could experiment freely, resulting in their most ambitious and revelatory album to date.

Over the past two decades, Dez Mona never ceased to surprise audiences. Less than a year after “Lucy”, a 'worldly oratorio' in collaboration with the Antwerp Baroque Orchestration X, singer Gregory Frateur and his companions now knock on the door with the cosmopolitan “Loose Ends”.

On the group's ninth studio album, rugged funk often alternates with bouncing disco pop. 'After the dark ballads from our previous projects, we consciously chose to make a cheerful, straightforward record', says Frateur. 'This time I didn't want to exhaust myself too much in metaphors: the lyrics had to be simple and 'in your face'.

On a compositional level, Gregory Frateur gave the steering wheel this time to guitarist Sjoerd Bruil and accordionist Roel Van Camp. This contributed to Dez Mona stepping out of their comfort zone on Loose Ends and experimenting with a new sound. On the new album, for example, Van Camp plays the piano more often than the accordion. Leaning towards a more electronic sound, some songs gravitate and take you on a fantastical, abstract journey. ’Indeed, sometimes Sjoerd adds strange angles in his compositions', the singer concludes. 'During performances, they force me to put myself aside as a singer and get completely absorbed in the instrumental trip'.

The emphasis is more than ever on the rhythm and groove. Drummer Karel De Backer, the newcomer in the band, gives the music extra punch, while the absence of a bassist is ingeniously compensated by Bruil and Van Camp. 'On Loose Ends we go 'back to basics', admits Gregory Frateur. “But without losing our recognisability.”

Multi-instrumentalist Tijs Delbeke, who was part of Dez Mona for many years, but has moved to Balthazar, was responsible for the production. Frateur prefers to surround himself with people with whom he feels at ease and who carry the DNA of Dez Mona.

"Since 2004, ALTER BRIDGE has been one of the most consistent bands to successfully represent the rock and metal communities with their driving melodies, blazing guitar riffs and topical lyrics that resonate with fans around the globe. Their seventh album, Pawns & Kings, continues that trend with 10 unforgettable new additions to their catalog. Coming off the launch of what was shaping up to be one of the band’s pinnacle moments with Walk The Sky (#1 US Billboard Top Albums, #1 US Current Rock and Hard Music, #4 UK Official Charts, #1 UK Independent and Rock/Metal, #5 Official German Album Charts), everything came to a halt as the world would forever be changed due to the events of a global pandemic. The time the members of ALTER BRIDGE spent apart sparked a new fire and heaviness when the quartet comprised of Myles Kennedy on vocals/guitars, Mark Tremonti on guitars/vocals, Brian Marshall on bass and Scott Phillips on drums would reconvene for what would eventually become Pawns & Kings. Teaming with longtime producer and collaborator Michael “Elvis” Baskette, the album shines with massive, menacing arena-ready production while emerging as another sonic testament to the seasoned Kennedy/Tremonti songwriting dream-team. The band deliver three epic anthems, including two that clock in at over six minutes – the reflective and absolutely epic title track “Pawns & Kings”, grim-riffed, progressive influenced “Sin After Sin”, and the emotive eight-and-a-half minute journey “Fable Of The Silent Son.” “Silver Tongue” is backed by a punishing intro riff that gives way to one of the band’s most infectious choruses as Myles Kennedy sings, “Truth of a crime. You can’t outrun. Under the spell of my silver tongue,” while tracks like “Holiday” and “Season Of Promise” ebb and flow within the trademark multi-faceted metallic rock attack that has enchanted ALTER BRIDGE fans for a generation. Songs like “This Is War,” “Dead Among The Living” and “Last Man Standing” showcase the heavier side of a band firing on all cylinders, with soaring leads, hair-raising vocals and introspective lyricism abound. Mark Tremonti helms lead vocal duties on the uplifting track “Stay” – an interchanging of skills that first debuted on the band’s fourth album, Fortress, and continues to this day. Nearly 20 years into their celebrated career, one thing is for sure – Pawns & Kings offers a musical snapshot of a band that shows no signs of slowing down and continues to push itself creatively for the whole world to see. before peaking with a frenetic, metallic bridge-breakdown and piercing solo worthy of rock legend.

TOWNES VAN ZANDT STUDIO SESSIONS FROM 1974 AVAILABLE ON VINYL FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER In 1974, Townes Van Zandt recorded what would have been his seventh album, ‘Seven Come Eleven’. Business issues prevented its release until the recordings surfaced two decades later as ‘The Nashville Sessions’. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the beginning of Van Zandt’s turbulent musical career and launch of a major catalogue reissue programme, Charly has restored and re-mastered ‘The Nashville Sessions’ to present a stunning document of the folk-blues master at his absolute peak. “These are songs that tap into the timeless myth of the American troubadour, a place where wandering souls tramp the byways of their homeland...” Restored and mastered to vinyl from the original tapes provided by producer and manager Kevin Eggers. Full colour LP sleeve with original Milton Glaser portrait cover. Fully illustrated inner with detailed sleeve notes by Uncut magazine journalist Rob Hughes. Part of Charly’s 50th anniversary programme celebrating the start of Van Zandt’s career. All original Poppy and Tomato albums which Townes Van Zandt recorded at the peak of his career will be newly re- mastered, restored and lavishly repackaged and available on CD & limited edition 180g heavyweight vinyl. The death of Townes Van Zandt in 1997 at age 52 robbed the world of a troubled genius as well as one of America’s finest songwriters. His reputation and popularity has grown greater by the year inspiring books, a documentary and renewed interest from the media, passionately loyal fans and contemporaries such as Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and Emmylou Harris who have covered his songs to the upper-reaches of the American charts. “From Neil Young and Willie Nelson, Bono and Bob Dylan (who reportedly once said that Townes was “in some ways the better writer”) to Tindersticks and Mudhoney, songwriters and musicians speak of Townes with reverence.” MOJO MAGAZINE “He was the best songwriter and most riveting solo performer I’ve ever seen.” STEVE EARLE “An effortless masterclass in emotionally effecting Americana”.

Surprise Chef’s music is based on evoking mood; their vivid arrangements utilize time and space to build soundscapes that invite the listener into their world. The quintet’s distinct sound pulls from 70s film scores, the funkier side of jazz, and the samples that form the foundation of hip hop. They push the boundaries of instrumental soul and funk with their own approach honed by countless hours in the studio, studying the masters, and perhaps most importantly, the “tyranny of distance” that dictates a unique perspective to their music. Hailing from just outside of Melbourne, Australia their first two albums, All News Is Good News and Daylight Savings amassed a die-hard fanbase and brought their sound from their home studio to every corner of the globe. The band is now signed to Big Crown Records, joining a lineage of contemporary and classic sounds that have influenced Surprise Chef’s music since their formation in 2017. Surprise Chef is Lachlan Stuckey on guitar, Jethro Curtin on keys, Carl Lindeberg on bass, Andrew Congues on drums, and Hudson Whitlock—the latest member who does it all from percussion to composing to producing. Their self proclaimed "moody shades of instrumental jazz-funk" have a bit of everything: punchy drums, infectious keys, rhythm guitar you might hear on a Studio One record, and flute lines that could be from a Blue Note session. But when you step back and take in the entirety of their sound and approach, you'll hear and see a group greater than the sum of its parts. In many ways Surprise Chef embodies the idiom "the benefits of limits." They were limited in that there weren't many people making or talking about instrumental jazz/soul/funk in Southeast Australia, let alone putting out records. This left them to develop their sound and approach in a kind of creative isolation where a small circle of friends and like-minded musicians fed off each other. "Being in Australia, being so far away, we only get glimpses and glances of this music’s origins," Stuckey says. "But hearing a label like Big Crown was one of the first times we realized you could make fresh, new soul music that wasn't super retro or just nostalgic." This approach is on full display throughout their new album Education & Recreation. Tracks like “Velodrome” pair chunky drums with an earworm synth line that has all the making of something you would find on an Ultimate Breaks & Beats compilation while numbers like “Iconoclasts” show their knack for tasteful use of space. From the crushing intro of “Suburban Breeze” to the floaty mellow bop of “Spring’s Theme” Surprise Chef has weaved together an album that takes you through peaks and valleys of emotion and provides a vivid soundtrack that will pull you deeper into your imagination. There is a beauty in the vast space for interpretation of instrumental music and they are adding a modern classic to the canon with this new album. Turn on the record and enjoy the ride, wherever it may take you.

THE NEW STUDIO ALBUM FROM THE JAPANESE LEGENDS - AN OPUS
OF DARK & ECLECTIC BLACKENED HEAVY METAL, SHROUDED IN
TRADITIONAL EASTERN INFLUENCES..
Cult Japanese black metal legends Sigh formed in 1989/90, featuring
mainman Mirai Kawashima, Satoshi Fujinami & Kazuki Ozeki
Following initial demos, Shinichi Ishikawa was brought in & Sigh set about
recording the masterpiece debut 'Scorn Defeat' for Euronymous' Deathlike Silence
Productions, going on to become one of the country's greatest & most revered
metal exports. With a journey through the strange & the psychedelic,
incorporating a whole eclectic mix of genre styles & experimentation throughout
their career, Sigh has remained a vital creative force in the avantgarde field whilst
maintaining their old school roots.
'Shiki' marks the latest chapter in the Sigh legacy & includes some of the band's
heaviest & darkest material for some years; a fine hybrid of at times primitive
black metal akin to early influences such as Celtic Frost amid more epic melodic
heavy metal riffing & solos. The album also utilises a whole host of instruments
to give further texture & dynamics to the compositions & eerie atmosphere,
incorporating traditional oriental instruments such as the Shakuhachi & Sinobue
flutes.
The word "Shiki" itself has various meanings in Japanese such as four seasons,
time to die, conducting an orchestra, ceremony, motivation, colour. The two
primary themes for the album are "four seasons" & "time to die".
The concept & artwork is based around a traditional Japanese poem & on 'Shiki'
Mirai explores how at this stage of life he himself is going through Autumn, with
Winter coming soon & so empathises with the contrasting sentimental feelings
from watching cherry blossoms (a symbol of spring) in full bloom.
Joining Mirai & Dr Mikannibal for this release are Frédéric Leclercq of Kreator,
plus US drummer extraordinaire, Mike Heller of Fear Factory, along with an
appearance by long-time member Satoshi Fujinami on bass. 'Shiki' was recorded
across multiple studios & mixed & mastered by Lasse Lammert at LSD studios in
Germany.

The Deer have built a devoted audience for their uninhibited, cosmic indie folk the old-fashioned way: playing their hearts out, night after night. In addition to extensive headlining, they’ve shared stages with the likes of Big Thief and The Head and The Heart. Their label debut Do No Harm, released in 2019, marked a set of career breakthroughs, topping the KUTX chart and earning a nomination for the Austin Music Awards’ Album of the Year. When live music took global pause, The Deer had momentum to sort. The five musicians took the energy reserved for tour and brought it into the studio, a pressure cooker not only for creativity but newly, for existential reflection. The result is two full albums, the first of which, The Beautiful Undead, will be released September 9, 2022, on tastemaking indie Keeled Scales. It’s an uninhibited collection of cosmic indie-folk reflecting upon what it means to lose your sense of purpose. The Deer, amidst turbulent assessment, transformed a paralyzing void into an empowering surrender of ego a rollicking submission to the immense unpredictability of existing. It's a free-spirited album fueled by hard-earned revelation. The rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, the planet is getting warmer, and human extinction looms likely. The Deer handle their devastated call for change with an artful subtlety, an infectious sense of play, and a projection of internal learning onto the external world. Their genius is in creating palpable, emotional urgency not with boisterousness, but fact. Throughout The Beautiful Undead, The Deer radiate an intensity fit for the times, but not at the cost of dancing. Also Available From The Deer: Do No Harm LP / CD. Track listing: SIDE A: 1. Bellwether 2. I Wouldn’t Recognize Me 3. Baby Green 4. Columns 5. Lilacs SIDE B: 6. The Lion Or The Bear 7. Six-Pointed Star 8. Golden Broken Record 9. Up I Presume 10. Bowl

Red Hot Chili Peppers announce their brand new studio album, Return of the Dream Canteen which will be released October 14th on Warner Records. The surprise announcement was dropped at Denver’s Empower Field to rapturous response as the North American leg of their critically and commercially acclaimed global stadium tour kicked off.

The news of Return of the Dream Canteen's imminent release marks the band’s second album of 2022, hot on the heels of the platinum-selling chart topper Unlimited Love which was released in April debuting at #1 in the UK. It will also be the band's second Rick Rubin produced album of 2022, and reinforces their reputation as a band at their absolute peak, riding the crest of an undeniable creative wave.

Continuing to win over audiences across the generations, the band performed a run of sold-out UK/EU dates earlier this year, including two nights at London Stadium. "A scorching European touch-down from the California legends" – CLASH

We went in search of ourselves as the band that we have somehow always been. Just for the fun of it we jammed and learned some old songs. Before long we started the mysterious process of building new songs. A beautiful bit of chemistry meddling that had befriended us hundreds of times along the way. Once we found that slip stream of sound and vision, we just kept mining. With time turned into an elastic waist band of oversized underwear, we had no reason to stop writing and rocking. It felt like a dream. When all was said and done, our moody love for each other and the magic of music had gifted us with more songs than we knew what to do with. Well we figured it out. 2 double albums released back to back. The second of which is easily as meaningful as the first or should that be reversed. 'Return of the Dream Canteen' is everything we are and ever dreamed of being. It’s packed. Made with the blood of our hearts, yours truly, the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Die Musik von Surprise Chef basiert auf dem Hervorrufen von Stimmungen; ihre lebendigen Arrangements nutzen Zeit und Raum, um Klanglandschaften zu schaffen, die den Zuhörer in ihre Welt einladen. Der unverwechselbare Sound des Quintetts speist sich aus der Filmmusik der 70er Jahre, der funkigeren Seite des Jazz und den Samples, die die Grundlage des Hip-Hop bilden. Sie verschieben die Grenzen des instrumentalen Soul und Funk mit ihrem eigenen Ansatz, der durch unzählige Stunden im Studio, das Studium der Meister und - vielleicht am wichtigsten - durch die "Tyrannei der Distanz", die ihrer Musik eine einzigartige Perspektive diktiert, verfeinert wurde. Mit ihren ersten beiden Alben All News Is Good News und Daylight Savings haben sich die aus der Nähe von Melbourne, Australien, stammenden Musiker eine eingefleischte Fangemeinde erspielt und ihren Sound von ihrem Heimstudio aus in alle Ecken der Welt gebracht. Die Band ist nun bei Big Crown Records unter Vertrag und reiht sich damit in eine Reihe zeitgenössischer und klassischer Sounds ein, die die Musik von Surprise Chef seit ihrer Gründung im Jahr 2017 beeinflusst haben. Surprise Chef besteht aus Lachlan Stuckey (Gitarre), Jethro Curtin (Keyboards), Carl Lindeberg (Bass), Andrew Congues (Schlagzeug) und Hudson Whitlock - das jüngste Mitglied, das von der Percussion über das Komponieren bis zum Produzieren alles macht. Die selbsternannten "moody shades of instrumental jazz-funk" haben von allem etwas: druckvolle Drums, mitreißende Keys, eine Rhythmusgitarre, die man auf einer Studio One-Platte hören könnte, und Flötenlinien, die von einer Blue Note-Session stammen könnten. Aber wenn man einen Schritt zurücktritt und sich die Gesamtheit ihres Sounds und ihrer Herangehensweise anschaut, dann hört und sieht man eine Gruppe, die mehr ist als die Summe ihrer Teile. In vielerlei Hinsicht verkörpert Surprise Chef die Redewendung "the benefits of limits". Ihre Möglichkeiten waren insofern begrenzt, als es in Südost-Australien nicht viele Leute gab, die instrumentalen Jazz/Soul/Funk machten oder darüber sprachen, geschweige denn Platten herausbrachten. So mussten sie ihren Sound und ihre Herangehensweise in einer Art kreativer Isolation entwickeln, in der sich ein kleiner Kreis von Freunden und gleichgesinnten Musikern gegenseitig befruchtete. "Da wir in Australien so weit weg sind, bekommen wir nur flüchtige Einblicke in die Ursprünge dieser Musik", sagt Stuckey. "Aber als wir ein Label wie Big Crown hörten, wurde uns zum ersten Mal bewusst, dass man frische, neue Soulmusik machen kann, die nicht super retro oder einfach nur nostalgisch ist." Dieser Ansatz ist auf ihrem neuen Album Education & Recreation deutlich zu hören. Tracks wie "Velodrome" verbinden klobige Drums mit einer ohrwurmverdächtigen Synthie-Linie, die so klingt, als würde sie auf einer Ultimate Breaks & Beats-Compilation zu finden sein, während Nummern wie "Iconoclasts" zeigen, dass sie ein Händchen für die geschmackvolle Nutzung von Raum haben. Vom erdrückenden Intro von "Suburban Breeze" bis zum schwebenden, sanften Bop von "Spring's Theme" haben Surprise Chef ein Album zusammengestellt, das dich durch Höhen und Tiefen der Emotionen führt. Ein lebendiger, die Fantasie beflügelnder Sound! Dem weiten Spektrum dieser Instrumentalmusiksparte wird mit diesem neuen Album ein modernen Klassiker hinzugefügt.

Completely unknown album by Salah Ragab's Cairo Jazz Band vocalist Maha, recorded in Cairo in 1979. Features productions by Hany Shenoda of Al Massrieen. Maha’s “Orkos,” originally released on cassette, is one of these standout musical diamonds that combines Jazz and Egyptian vocal traditions with Funk, Latin and Soul. Out via Habibi Funk October 10th.

Maha’s “Orkos” immediately catches your ear as a unique album. A strong and energetic voice, equally grounded in jazz as well as Egyptian vocal traditions, Maha sings over instrumentals that offer a wide palette of influences, sonically emblematic of the cultural changes that were occurring in the country. The album features rich compositions and productions by renown Egyptian musician Hany Shenoda, who’s group, Al Massrieen, Habibi Funk worked with in 2017 (the release led to sync placements in Hulu’s “Ramy” TV Series).

At the time of its release, however, the “Orkos” cassette quickly faded away among the growing number of releases populating the Egyptian musical soundscape. For more than 40 years, it sat in near obscurity before being given new life in the form of a properly licensed vinyl release. Habibi Funk and Disco Arabesquo are honored to play a part in sharing Maha’s story. Below is a bit more context around the release as well as the campaign schedule.

The arrival of the cassette brought a seismic shift in how music was produced and consumed around the world. Smaller bands and labels were able to release music without the logistical and financial barrier present in vinyl manufacturing. At the same time, in Egypt, a new crop of musicians and composers made their way into the scene, seeking to bring something fresh to what was perceived as the widely monophonic musical traditions of Egypt. Hany Shenoda, Mohamed Mounir, Magdy El Hossainy, Omar Korshid, Salah Ragab and Hamid El Shaeri are some names that come to mind. Many built their sounds combining their own musical upbringing with influences coming from the outside. The success of these projects varied widely, but for each there were numerous lesser-known bands and singers. Many of these often-short-lived projects would release their music on cassettes on tiny labels only to fade into the musical ether.

Maha’s “Orkos” album fits this category. Put out in a small run of cassettes, it’s fair to say that the singer’s sole recording outing was not a financial success when it was originally released by Egyptian label Sout El Hob in 1979. While it may not have found an engaged and open-eared audience upon its release, the first few bars of the album indicate this is a special, timeless album that transcends the musical boundaries that many artists were seeking to break through at the time.

From the funk sounds of “Law Laffeina El Ard” (Single 1, out September 1 with Pre-Order announcement); the moody, mellow sounds of “Kabl Ma Nessallem We Nemshy” (Single 2, out September 23) or “We Mesheet;” to excursions into Latin sounds in the title track “Orkos,” and disco with “Ana Gaya” (Album Focus Track, out October 10) the album is an amalgamation of genres that stands out from the immense creativity present in Egypt at the time.

We connected Maha in late 2021 and she was clearly surprised to have someone call about music she recorded more than 40 years ago. She also seemed interested in the idea in bringing her music back to people’s attention. A few weeks later we were speaking with our friend Moataz, who runs the Disco Arabesquo project and showed him this great new album we found and to our surprise he knew the album, having found a copy of it a year or two before, in Cairo. It was then obvious to team up for a collaboration for this project. You can find Moataz’s story about Maha and her music, as well as extensive interviews with Maha herself, in the booklet accompanying the release.

As always, both vinyl and CD come with an extensive booklet featuring interviews with Maha as well as unseen photos.

Contemporary DIY Street Soul, New Jack, Electro Funk studio project from Parisian DJ Raphaël Top-Secret & Antoine Kogut (Syracuse).

For lovers of Loose Ends, Larry Heard, Mad Professor, Strafe or Sade. This EP includes two smash-hit A-side remixes by LA and Vancouver underground celebrities Benedek and Pender Street Steppers (PPU / Mood Hut) that sound like 1986 or 1992 !

Original versions are found on the B-side with “Give It Up”, a smooth and romantic 112 bpm G-Funk jam that is the perfect track for your drive to the coast, while “The Way They Do …”, a 98 bpm dreamy electronic AOR indie-pop dubby, will take you to an island.

Using original vintage gear as the TR-808, Emulator II, DX-7 and Rhodes, electric guitar, studio bass arrangements, the release shows sophisticated skills in the production stages, while being a very refreshing pop and dance release.

A stunning debut for the Cachette label !

On his fourth solo album, much as in Oh! (2020), the French composer, pianist and vocalist follows his ongoing exploration of the crossroads between poetry and songs, piano and synth, old-time verses and contemporary sounds. Inspired by the rhythms, effects and speech patterns of urban music, he also delivers, with a warm and moving voice, the texts of three poetesses from the past.
Since 2013, Ezéchiel Pailhès has been crafting a unique French synth pop. On his first three albums, he switched between songs inspired by poetry, instrumental ballads and electronica with hummed
choruses. This latest record is a collection of eleven new songs, two of which he wrote: "Opaline" and "Ni toi, ni moi" (neither you nor me). The others are adaptations of poems written in the 16th, 18th and
19th centuries by French poetesses Louise Labé (1524-1566), Marceline Desbordes-Valmore (1786- 1859) and Renée Vivien (1877-1909).
Poetesses from the past...
From classical music to songs, poetry adaptation is an old French tradition. "My universe has always embraced the musicality of this literary genre," the artist recalls. He actually started this project in 2017 with poems and sonnets by William Shakespeare, Pablo Neruda, Victor Hugo and above all Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, who can be heard again on songs such as "Dors-tu?" (Are you sleeping?),
"Élégie" or "L'attente" (The wait). A figure of romanticism, the author left her mark on the early 19th century through the quality of her texts and her formal inventions, particularly praised by Balzac, and
apparently a decisive influence on Verlaine and Baudelaire. "Marceline's poetry is very musical," says Ezéchiel admiringly. "Her use of rhythm and repetition sounds great and takes on a new perspective when set to music. In fact, she wrote some of her texts with singing in mind.”
“Ces longs secrets dont l'amour nous accuse, Viens-tu les rompre en songe à mes genoux ? Dors-tu, ma vie ! ou rêves-tu de moi ?”
“These long secrets for which love accuses us, Do you come to my knees to break them in a dream?
Are you sleeping, my life! or do you dream of me” (“Dors-tu ?”, after “Les pleurs” (the tears), 1833)
Besides her, we find the more famous, and rebellious, Renée Vivien, whose texts inspired three songs, "Regard en arrière" (Looking backwards), "Mélopée" (Melopoeia) and "La fille de la nuit" (The
night girl). Sometimes nicknamed "Sapho 1900", this figure of lesbian culture and, more broadly, of female genius, combined in her work the themes of desire, dreams, melancholy and the relationship with nature.
“Ta forme est un éclair
Ton sourire est l’instant Tu fuis, lorsque l’appel
T’implore, ô mon Désir !”
"Your shape is a spark of lightning
Your smile, the very moment
You flee, when the calling
Begs you, O my Desire!"
(After “Parle-moi, de ta voix pareille à l’eau courante” (Speak to me, with a voice like flowing waters) and “Ta forme est un éclair” (Your shape is a spark of lightning), Renée Vivien, 1901)
Lastly, with "Tant que mes yeux" (As long as my eyes), Ezéchiel was inspired by a 1555 poem by Renaissance poet Louise Labé, whose main topic explored female love, physical and spiritual desire,
and the torments and pains they generate.
" At the start of the project ", Ezéchiel continues, " I was interested in many poets, men and women, past and present, before my selection was narrowed down to these three female authors. Their works,
often written in difficult or secret conditions, express a raging romanticism, a passionate soul, fuelled by desperate and tormented love. I found it interesting, as a man coming from another world and time, to face this otherness, to trade viewpoints. Obviously, I could loudly claim that the album was the result of a concept, that it reflects today's world, and that it allows me to explore the notion of gender,
giving visibility to the work of a few women, while at the same time pairing these ancient texts with a more modern and rhythmic music, and obviously, there is some truth in that. But more than anything, I
wanted to serve the text itself, to express the emotion and connection I felt with these works.”
Today's rhythms and prosody...
Ezéchiel Pailhès combines texts from French literature with electronic music, its effects and rhythms, as well as a form of scansion that echoes rap, R&B or the current fusion between hip hop and pop,
which is part of our musical background and that of younger generations. "I wanted to cross-reference texts from the beginning of the century with this type of music. I wanted to use today’s techniques to tell the tale of different daily lives and experiences.
The album is thus marked by contemporary electronic orchestrations, in which he drops his favourite instrument, the piano, and his digital collage technique to use more extensive synth melodies, enhanced by drum machines, bringing a gentle and bright vibe to the romantic texts. Lastly, we can hear slight digital tones of Auto-Tune, which Ezéchiel uses sparingly and inventively.

Beyond its sophistication, the term "melopoeia" means a "sung declamation", a "recitative song", sometimes interpreted in a monotonous way. On this album, it could also refer to a sense of phrasing, which does not come from rap, but rather from jazz, Ezéchiel's first love. " In the past, I tried to hide my jazz culture, but it naturally came back on this new album, as can be heard, for instance, in Regard en arrière.” With its verses anchored in our literary memory, the following track "Mélopée", perfectly illustrates the album's vision. It manages to transcend eras, mixing past romanticism with a modern
prosody, fuelled by the nonchalance of hip hop and the warm chords of jazz.
“Qu’un hasard guide enfin mon désespoir tranquille
Vers l’eau d’une oasis ou les berges d’une île,
Où je puisse dormir, mon voyage accompli,
Dans la sécurité profonde de l’oubli”
"May chance guide my quiet sorrow, at last
To the water of an oasis, the shores of an island,
Where I may sleep, having traveled my way,
In the safe depths of oblivion".
(After “Sillages” (Trails), René Vivien, 1908)

Martyn joins the Ninja Tune family to present his third long player. Universally respected for his ever-evolving, but inimitable sound, the Dutch-born, Washington DC-based producer brings an entirely new sonic direction with The Air Between Words. This is an exploration of the essence of all of Martyn's music: a rugged four-to-the-floor groove, intelligently sculpted and artfully composed

If someone would have told me years ago, when I started the label, that one day I would be releasing music by Ernesto Djédjé, the king of Ziglibithy himself, I would have personally driven them to the closest psychiatric institute such is the magnitude of the artist and his iconic tune “Zighlibitiens”.

The star of Ernesto Djédjé started rising in the late 60s, when he became the guitar player and leader of Ivoiro Star, founded by Amédée Pierre, star of Dopé, the leading musical style at the time. Annoyed by the “congolisation” of the Ivorian music that was taking place within the band, Ernesto left the group and emigrated to Paris in 1968 to record his first few singles arranged by Manu Dibango and influenced by Soul, Rhythm & Blues and Jerk. Those recordings reflect the musical mood at that time which was dictated by two musical trends within the Ivoirian scene: Traditional music, embodied amongst others by Amédée Pierre on one hand and imported music from the States, Cameroon and Zaïre on the other. And while the first trend was generally neglected, the youth fully embraced the second and as a result bands such as „Les Black Devils“, „Djinn-Music“, „Bozambo”, “Jimmy Hyacinthe”, shot to stardom overnight by recording mainly funk and disco music. It is within this context that Ernesto would draw the inspiration for a future formula.

Returning to Côte d‘Ivoire in 1974 Ernesto began looking for like minded musicians to form the mighty “Ziglibithiens”. Diabo Steck (drums), Bamba Yang (keyboards & Guitar), Léon Sina (Guitar) and Assalé Best (chef d´orchestre and Saxophon) would become the core of the group and together with Ernesto they began thinking of ways of combining the rhythms and chants of the Bété people and fuse them with Makossa, Funk and Disco and create a musical style that was both Ivorian and International. He called his experiment Ziglibithy and his first two albums, immortalised at the EMI studios in 1977 in Lagos and released on the Badmos label, took West Africa by storm turning Ernesto Djédjé into an icon overnight and one of the legends of African music.
Ernesto Djédjé died in mysterious circumstances on June 9th, 1983 - at the age of 35 - shocking the whole Ivorian nation. And although the end came abruptly, it didn’t come soon enough, and Ernesto had time - within 5 albums - to cement his legacy as one of the most innovative artists the Ivory Coast ever produced.

The song Zighlibitiens, brought to Colombia by an aeronautical mechanic in the early 1980, would become a huge hit on the Caribbean Coast. Renamed “El Tigre” by locals soundsystem operators - certainly due to the Badmos logo - that particular song would reach legendary status in Barranquilla and Cartagena. Setting fire to uncountable local parties, it has become one of the most sought-after Album in that part of the world. And so, while Ziglibithy has mostly disappeared from the airwaves of its country of birth, on the other side of the Atlantic, its fire continues to shine bright.

“If you can imagine a late 1960s folk-rock approach allied to a doomy atmosphere with added touches of lo-fi psychedelia, then you’re getting close to the timbre of Finland’s Hexvessel. There are clearly nods towards King Crimson, Black Sabbath, the Beatles, HP Lovecraft and The Doors, but what the band have managed to do is create something that belongs specifically to them.” – Malcolm Dome, Prog Magazine Hexvessel’s fan-favorite album from 2012, No Holier Temple, gets a luxury 10-year anniversary reissue via Svart Records! No Holier Temple was Psychedelic Forest Folk band Hexvessel’s second full-length album, released to critical acclaim, cult status and some of their biggest sales figures to date. The Finnish “mushroom-devouring pixies” follow up to 2011’s critically acclaimed debut album, Dawnbearer, was described by Roadburn Festival as “a passionate, urgent and gorgeously strange musical spell.” Hexvessel’s break-through album No Holier Temple reached new heights for the band with two Emma Gala (Finnish Grammy Awards) nominations. No Holier Tample also won two Femma awards, which is the Alternative Finnish Grammy Awards. Hexvessel played the prestigious Roadburn Festival in The Netherlands for the first time that year in the church venue of Het Patronaat. The festival sold out in 7 minutes. No Holier Temple also landed in the Main Finnish Charts at #20 and in Alternative charts at #7. No Holier Temple fuses the acoustic 70s folk vibe of its predecessor into a more psychedelic, electric, doom-folk sound with Manzarek-like keys, screeching rhythmic Velvet Underground violins, Miles Davis trumpets and hypnotic freakouts. Weaving the uncanny songs together are the narrative vocals of Mat McNerney, who on this album has matured into the bastard child of Burke Shelley, young Jon Anderson and Paul Simon. Inspired by the progressive, spaced-out haze of bands like Amon Düül II, Van Der Graaf Generator and Ultimate Spinach, whose song “Your Head Is Reeling” they cover with religious abandon. Their sound now expands outward from their eerie, signature, ritual-esque intros into a genre-twisting cauldron of otherworldly rock and the late-night, dreamy spoken-word of artists such as Jim Morrison (An American Prayer) and Ken Nordine.

“I think it’s a mistake to equate ‘perfection’ with flawlessness. To be human is to be perfectly flawed,” Johanna Warren observes while describing the joys of analog recording. Her new LP Lessons for Mutants was tracked live with a band to two inch tape—a revelatory new way of working for Warren. “Tape forces you to commit to a performance, eccentricities and all. The little glitches and anomalies that we’re tempted to ‘correct’ are often what make a thing magical.”

Lessons for Mutants is the prolific songwriter’s sixth solo LP and her second for Wax Nine/Carpark Records. The album’s running theme of metamorphosis (the title of the closing track, “Involvulus,” is Latin for “caterpillar”) reflects major changes in Warren’s personal life: after a decade of relentless touring, as the world was closing its borders, the American multi-instrumentalist unexpectedly found herself quarantining in rural Wales, where she’s now permanently homesteading.

Though tracking for the new album began in New York in 2018 in tandem with the sessions for 2020’s Chaotic Good, the majority of Lessons for Mutants was recorded in the UK surrounded by sheep, cows and a forager’s paradise of wild edible plants—a far cry from the urban jungle of LA that Warren had most recently called home. The body of work that emerged from this dramatic about-face is Warren’s most dynamic to date, shapeshifting seamlessly from searing punk screams to sparkly psych-folk soundscapes, from the bootleg ambivalence of Dylan’s Basement Tapes to cosmic stoner grooves reminiscent of Black Sabbath’s acoustic moments.

“Sometimes I can relate to myself/ I disassociate more than I’d like to, but what can you do?” Warren croons in “Tooth for a Tooth,” a wistful piano ballad that conjures the grainy romance of some smoke-filled 1940s jazz club. This kind of to-the-bone lyrical honesty has always been one of Warren’s strong suits, but these latest reflections are especially unflinching. Being forced to stop touring brought no shortage of self-examination for Warren, who quickly came to view her history on the road as an addiction from which she’s been detoxing. This sentiment dances through opening track “I’d Be Orange,” a drum-driven indie rock number replete with Beatles-esque male backing vocals: “Thirst for power, hunger for fame/ Always was a junkie for pain,” Warren confesses. This exploration of masochistic ambition and artistic martyrdom overflows into grunge anthem “Piscean Lover”: “It’s alright, we’re not ok/ We burn out not to fade away.”

“There’s this unspoken rule in modern music—modern life, really—that everything needs to be Auto-Tuned and ‘on the grid,’” Warren concludes. “This record is an act of resistance against that. There’s beauty and power in our aberrations, if we can embrace them.”

UK producer Dennis Huddleston goes by the artist name of 36. He is a much-loved producer with a fine back catalogue which is investigated here with The Box, a new collection of his earliest and perhaps most admired works. They were all written between 2005 and 2012 and are drawn from albums such as 2009's Hypersona, 2010's Hollow and 2012's Lithea. The bumper six vinyl collection also features a bonus album, Orphans, of all new and previously unreleased tracks. There is a real depth of range and emotion to these tracks so it is no wonder the artist says they are some of the most personally cherished works he has written.

Just over a decade ago, Japanese indie-pop duo Tenniscoats recorded »Papa's Ear« (2012) and »Tan-Tan Therapy« (2007), two albums made with musical and production help from Swedish post-rock/folk trio Tape. Originally released on Häpna, they are beautiful documents of the exploratory music made by a close-knit collective of musicians, fully at ease with each other, playing songs written by Tenniscoats and arranging them in gentle and generous ways. Released during a prolific phase of collaboration for Tenniscoats – during the late ‘00s and early ‘10s, they would also collaborate with Jad Fair, The Pastels, Secai and Pastacas – they have, however, never been available on vinyl. In collaboration with Alien Transistor, Morr Music is now reissuing these albums with bonus material.

Filled with graceful pop songs, autumnal folk tunes, and gentle yet risk-taking improvisations, »Tan-Tan Therapy« was the first Tenniscoats album to be released in Europe, after a run of albums on Japanese labels, and the excellent »Live Wanderus« (2005) on Australian imprint Chapter Music. It was also the first recorded evidence of their collaboration with the three members of Tape and that group’s extended musical family. It opens with one of Tenniscoats’ signature songs, the pop fantasia of »Baibaba Bimba«, with Tenniscoats singer Saya repeating a light-headed incantation over joyous brass. The essence of Tenniscoats is contained in »Baibaba Bimba«: uplifting melody and playful musicianship, tinged with distant echoes of winsome melancholy.

From there, »Tan-Tan Therapy« explores many hues of lustrous blue. »Oetu to kanki no Namoriuta (Given Song of Sob and Joy)« is an aquatic arbour, the musicians’ gentle performances growing together like vines and seaweed as Saya’s voice swims through the waterway. »Umbarepa!« is full of play and pleasure, sparkling with glockenspiel as snare drum tattoos push the song ever-forward. »Abi and Travel« floats past, a lovely instrumental built from shifting layers of synthesizer and pianet; »Good B.«, an extra track originally only available on the Japanese edition of »Tan-Tan Therapy«, is added to this reissue, and follows a similar thread, its humming pump and Hammond organs swirling under beautiful vocals from Saya and guest performer Kazumi Nikaido.

Throughout, you can sense the deep empathy the members of Tenniscoats and Tape have for one another. It’s a conversational, tender and, at times, fragile music that can only be created out of mutual trust and kindness, with each of the players contributing to the community of sound they’re building. There’s an element here, too, of feeling out the possibilities of what this creative meeting can achieve, something reflected in the loose-limbs sprawl of »Marui Hifo (Everyone)«, which echoes the seaside drift of Bristol post-rock group Crescent, and the following »One Swan Swim«, a dreamsong redolent of the sleepy sensorium of Robert Wyatt’s »Rock Bottom«.

The freedom and liberty at the heart of Tenniscoats is something Tape and their friends have picked up on, beautifully so, and run with during the entirety of »Tan-Tan Therapy«. This is music with its wings outstretched, wanting to take to the air, ready to fly.

"After embarking on her solo journey with the release of her enchanting first solo album, Tales From Six Feet Under (2021), former Delain frontwoman and songwriter CHARLOTTE WESSELS is now about to unveil her second full length album in two years, Tales From Six Feet Under Vol II, to be released on October 7, 2022 via Napalm Records. As on its predecessor, instruments and vocals were performed or programmed and produced by Wessels herself in her very own Six Feet Under Studio, fueled by her tight-knit Patreon community. On that platform, she releases a new song every month, and Tales Vol. II is a collection of the second year of this endeavor. On the new album, Wessels’ styles range from melancholic alt pop to synth-infused rock and connects atmospheric elements with harder sounds, crossing genre boundaries with ease. The album sets off with the captivating synth-flavored track “Venus Rising”, luring into CHARLOTTE WESSELS’ world of sound, immediately showcasing the multifaceted nature of her music as it’s followed by “Human To Ruin”. The song starts with a sweet melody that breaks into a propelling metal track, where calmer parts alter with powerful break outs. Wessels releases her power on other commanding tracks like “The Phantom Touch” and “Good Dog”, while on “The Final Roadtrip”, she presents the full range of her vocal prowess atop carefully balanced electronic beats and indie soundscapes. Her softer, poetic side is shown on the intimate “Against All Odds” – a gentle ballad featuring calm vocals and an acoustic guitar strummed delicately by Timo Somers. “Toxic” comes with an obscure, captivating whispering sound that turns into a strong sonic wall, as the album then fades out with the honest atmospheric gems “I Forget” with cello performance by Elianne Anemaat and “Utopia”. This eclectic wealth of songs proves Wessels’ exceptional ability to express the most sincere feelings and emotions within her art and her distinct intuition for the combination of seemingly different genres. Tales From Six Feet Under Vol II is an enchanting portent of CHARLOTTE WESSELS’ further multifaceted endeavors."

Bezbog is a duo formed in 2013 by David Machado and Dora Vieira. Since their first release in 2014, the self-titled Bezbog EP, they have been exploring both acoustic and electronic instruments to create music that lives somewhere in between genres, styles, doctrines and musical cultures. Alongside many underground venues throughout Portugal and Spain, they have shown their work in festivals such as No Noise, Milhões de Festa, Out.Fest, and TESLA at the Castile and León Museum of Contemporary Art, and other places such as the Serralves Museum in Porto and MK Gallery in the UK.

Their latest long play takes its name from the solar deity of the slavic pantheon, Dazhbog - the god that gives, and its idea flows into the concept of this record, through the themes of life, light and darkness, birth and rebirth, and the idea of the omnipresent cycle. We can find cycles in nature, music and life itself can be thought of as a cycle, from the micro to the macro scale.

As they seek to embed their music with these ideas, in a way, their music becomes new sacred music, the music of modern pagan rituals. While Bezbog’s music seeks to replicate the meaning of what that music was, an escape from the profane and a connection to the sacred plane, in form it reconstructs it in light of the duo’s influences, from the obvious portuguese and pagan folklore, chamber and sacred music, to the darkness of doom and heavy metal, the structured improvisations of north-american jazz and psycho-acoustic hallucinations and the hash transients of electronic music.

Dazhbog, while a passenger of the same train of thought as their previous studio work, comes in a different direction from it. Chernobog consists of two short and heavy tracks, painstakingly crafted during several months, while their latest studio effort is a long suite of 8 tracks, composed and recorded live throughout 2020, that form a light and bright record where the duo embedded most of their influences. The album will come out on vinyl in late March, in time for the pagan celebration of Spring and Fertility.

Nathan Fake's fourth album, Providence, crafted in the wake of a crippling two year spell of writer's block. Is his most personal and profoundly emotional work to date.
.
Providence sees the British producer collaborate with vocalists for the first time, joining forces with Prurient (aka Vatican Shadow / founder of Hospital Productions) and Raphaelle Standell-Preston from Braids. Both arose from chance meetings in Geneva and Osaka as their tour schedules crossed. Prurient contributed the heavily distorted vocal to 'DEGREELESSNESS' - I was a huge fan of Dominic's (Prurient) music before we met and I love the way he situates his vocals in his productions. I really like how you can't make out what he's saying at all...' - whilst Raphaelle, who lends her voice to 'RVK', was introduced to Nathan by their mutual friend Jon Hopkins. I deliberately kept the first half of the track instrumental and I love the way her vocal lands,' he says. It's quite unexpected when she starts singing.'

It's the quickest album I've written and because of that it's got a close thread running throughout,' says Nathan of his creative process. It also has a distinct sonic signature as a result of the producer refreshing his set-up. I was feeling nostalgic and bought a cheap Korg Prophecy on a whim and it ended up being the backbone of the album,' he explains. I remember reading an article in Sound On Sound back in 1995-96 and I didn't really know much about music production then, but I remember thinking that it must be AMAZING. As it turns out, it's actually quite crap really... It's very hard to program, looks unimpressive, doesn't sound great (laughs), but I recorded it through loads of different pre-amps and tape and mixers and roughed it up. I'm always intrigued by low-end gear, I like the challenge and the limitations it poses.'

Norfolk born and bred, Nathan's first encounters with electronic music came via the radio (hearing the likes of Aphex Twin and Orbital) and reading about the equipment that they used in magazines. This was the stimulus for him to buy some gear and begin his own sonic experiments and, linking with James Holden in 2003, Nathan's early output came via his fledgling Border Community label. His debut album Drowning In A Sea Of Love' (2006) was a triumphant record, drawing a rapturous reception from the likes of Pitchfork, The Guardian and Mixmag (who hailed it among the best of the year). Recording two further albums for Border Community, Hard Islands' (2009) and Steam Days' (2012), Nathan found himself in frantic touring mode for two years and, in this nomadic state, found it impossible to write any new music. On his return, events in his personal life intertwined with, and exacerbated, this creative block. I didn't write any music at all for about two years,' Nathan explains. Overall there was roughly a three year break from writing.'

Emerging from this extended period of inactivity with renewed vigour and lust for life, Providence was recorded during the first six months of 2016 in Nathan's home studio / living room. The meaning behind the title is two-pronged: on the one hand it's a nod to the aforementioned Korg Prophecy synth that features so heavily on the record. But on a deeper level it means guidance or divine guidance' - not necessarily in a religious sense but more to be guided by a higher power - or more specifically to Nathan, music as therapy and a path out of a dark period in his life.

Super limited edition pressed on heavyweight 180g vinyl housed in a picture sleeve and clear plastic outer sleeve – never to be repressed. Only 175 units.

Tokyo-based DJ, producer and sound artist Yuu Udagawa inaugurates the freshly launched Cyphon Recordings with her debut EP, ‘Forever’.

Growing up on a cocktail of everything from rock, hip-hop and Latin jazz to techno and house, Yuu’s immersive musical output draws inspiration from this diverse pool of influences to create ‘uplifting and healing’ music for the mind and body. There’s an elegance and sophistication to her productions, which stems from her desire to make music guided by the Golden Mean philosophy of finding a middle ground between two extremes: excess and deficiency.

Active as a DJ since the millennium, which saw her playing at clubs, festivals and fashion shows across the country, she soon turned her attention to music production and has since self-released a handful of singles and contributed audio commissions for Sony Playstation3, museums, theatres and apparel brands. Yuu’s meditative pallet of sounds instantly grabbed Cyphon’s third ear which led to the tracks that make up ‘Forever’: a collection of analog slo-mo electronica and leftfield minimal house that strike a perfect balance between warmth and depth.

The release opens with the titular track: a deep, emotive electro cut punctuated by a twinkling synthline and blissful vocals. ‘Mojito’ continues the EP’s voyage into the deep, matching softly spoken word with jazz-tinged chords and meandering melodies, before ’Hug Close’ strips things back, guided by a crunchy minimal groove, warm, resolute keys and reflective synths.

The B-Side steers things on a soulful course. The dark, enveloping atmosphere of ‘Illuminated Night' is lifted by bright synth stabs and harmonic R&B-flavoured vocals. These influences continue on closer ‘Stay With Us’. Slowing down the pace, the track is a wash of shimmering funk-inspired chords and shuffling rhythms, laced once again with effortless, soaring vocal tones.

DJ Feedback:

Joyce Muniz - Nice one!

Andrew Wowk - "Mojito" is awesome - such a nice groove (followed up)

Geordie Elliot-kerr - Some really interesting stuff in here. Digging the whole thing.

Simon Caldwell - Cool and different.

Paul Beller - super star release.

Fred Peterkin - Dope...

Alex Barck - Sounds fresh to me

Ruben Mandolini – Nice

Gabriel Izarraraz - great music will play for sure

Kristijan Molnar - Very nice!

Chris Loxton - superb

Danton Eeprom - Really love the production and original vibe of this record. bring it on!

Raymundo Rodriguez - cool release

In response to the current political and ecological turmoil, the famous Malian quintet BKO appeals to the magical spirit of the djinn with Djine Bora (the appearance of the genie). An explosive and mystical third album, embodied by a music of resistance, the fruit of their unique experimentation with Mandingo music and their extraordinary history

The three letters B.K.O. are the code for Bamako airport. It is in the Malian capital that the group has been rehearsing since 2012. In the same year that Mali declared a state of emergency, no one could have imagined that these musicians would be responsible for three albums and over 450 concerts in 25 different countries. BKO fights, does not fail, unifies and looks like no one else.

In this album, the band delivers an abrasive music where tradition is tinged with rock, polyphonies, distortions and shrill breaks. They invoke ancestral spiritualities by marrying for the first time in Mali
two diametrically opposed traditions.

In the course of the ten tracks of Djine Bora, BKO propels the traditions within a powerful and hybrid universe, just like Bamako. In this bewitching atmosphere, crackling concrete and ritual ceremonies
meet. The group has released one of its most accomplished albums, tinged with trance, enigmatic melodies (Ntiaro's Peulh prayer) and unifying messages (Maya, Bamako, Toumaro).

With Panorama, Frank Maston pays homage to the classic era of library records and Italian soundtracks of the 70s. A blissed-out, grooving collection of filmic cues, it continues the unique brilliance of Tulips and Darkland. Elegant and easy, subtle and stylish, breezy and beautiful; this is his Maston-piece. Commissioned by legendary label KPM, Panorama cements Maston as a master of modern classics and the most mesmeric of contemporary composers.

In early 2020, Be With suggested to Frank that he should make a KPM record. He wasn't aware that they were still putting out new library records - but he was super keen: "It was completely surreal and it still hasn't fully sank in that I have a record in that catalog, sitting alongside those incredible albums that were so influential to me."

Frank was visiting family in his hometown of LA in March 2020 when the world ground to a halt so the KPM project arrived at a fortuitous moment. Having fantasised about committing to a record with no distractions, with a proper budget, access to his gear and space to work in - to really dig in and try to write and arrange the best work he could possibly make - it was a real "be careful what you wish for" moment. But, as Frank explained, "it completely saved my year and sanity to have something to focus on and get excited about. It was my lifeline." He spent seven months on it, working almost every day.

Maston had already been making library-influenced music so when KPM outlined the criteria for the tracks it was exactly what he had been doing all along. He thought the best approach would be to make a follow-up to Tulips that had a parallel life as a KPM record. Enjoying complete creative freedom, “gave me the drive to power through and dig in deep. I'm not sure if I could have kept myself on such a rigorous recording schedule under my own steam, and I think the momentum I had writing and recording it is part of the strength of this record."

Maston’s sleek retro-groove instrumentals emulate the classic KPM “Greensleeve” reel-to-reel recordings that provided mood-setting music for mid-century cinema, television, and radio programs. Apparently in close conversation with the John Cameron-Keith Mansfield KPM pastoral masterclass Voices In Harmony, Maston's Panorama could be heard as that record's funky follow-up. Yes, it's *that good*. Another reference point from the hallowed library would be Francis Coppieter's wonderful Piano Viberations.

Opener "First Class" is a blissed-out groove, featuring the soothing vocals of Molly Lewis and a glistening harp over drums, a two-note bass motif (from Eli Ghersinu of L'Eclair) and an assemblage of guitars, synths, French horn and glowing vibraphone. Acid Lounge, anyone? The irresistibly funky "Easy Money" is a gorgeous cut led by more of Molly's vocals, pastoral flute and Rhodes, underpinned by drums and percussion, grooving bass, chilled guitars and synth strings. Kicking the tempo up, the percussive "Storm" is a vibin' filmic-fusion jam where psychedelic guitars (courtesy of Pedrum of Allah Las/Paint) organ, jazzy flute, Rhodes and vibes all compete for a place in the sun, over drums and walking bassline.

The heavenly "You Shouldn't Have" is a delicate, melancholic wonder; a dreamy instrumental where the melody is shared by a whistle, harpsichord and celeste, over a cyclical piano chord sequence and bass, synths, guitars, organ and distant French horn. The tempo rises again with the passionate, sticky "Fling", a summery, nostalgic groove with skipping drums and percussion, warm bass and electric guitar, yearning flute and synth strings. The brilliantly titled "Fool Moon" has that Voices In Harmony sound down pat. A romantic slow-mo dreamscape of Rhodes and harpsichord, piano, light drums and softly strummed acoustic guitar.

Side B opens with "Medusa", a hopeful, mellowed-out track with shuffling drums, feel-good flute, muted horns, glowing Rhodes and synth strings. The soft and gentle "Morning Paper" is an elegant way to start the day; a beatless blend of flute, guitar, percussion, ambient synths and vibes. The upbeat head-nod jam "Scenic" has that widescreen car-chase feel, uptempo drums and percussion, grooving bass, piano, synths and ambient electric guitar. "Adieu" is a smooth summer vibe, relaxing with brushed drums, Rhodes, flutes and horns. Molly Lewis's gorgeous vocals steal the show, alongside vibes, jamming organ and synth strings.

"Hydra" is another laid-back 70s-sounding retro cinema cue with light drums and percussion, walking bass, spacey synths, clavinet, glowing vibraphone, vintage organ and electric guitar. Closer "Jet Lag" is a laconic bow out; bass-driven drum machine soul, featuring hand percussion, Rhodes, vibes, synths and organ.

Multi-instrumentalist Frank played a bit of everything across Panorama. Yet, humble as ever, he believes the time, energy, and enthusiasm of all of the musicians invited to the sessions helped him realise his vision: "There were two Italian flautists who really understood what I was going for. Two french horn players, cor anglais, a vibraphonist and a flügel horn player. I've never involved this many people in my projects before, and yet the result is the most "me" record I've ever made."

Musically, a strong Italian theme runs through the record. Frank is fascinated by ancient Rome and both his parents are Italian (Maston was originally Mastrantonio before anglicisation). So, it felt natural to fully embrace these strands and tie everything together with the striking artwork. The Romans were influenced by Greek culture, emulating their art and architecture, which, in turn, influenced Renaissance era artists. Frank acknowledged this tradition when reflecting on his place in the lineage of library and soundtrack composers. He then asked his friend Mattea Perrotta, a painter and sculptor, for some sketches. What he received was exactly what he had in mind: "Especially the theater mask, which really captures the range of moods on the album". Frank arranged them as per the cover and it soon felt right: "I wanted to make a cover that was reminiscent of the classic KPM albums without making it too pastiche - so it has its own identity and looks at home alongside other library records, while still fitting in nicely in the KPM catalogue." The last step was for us to introduce Frank to Be With-KPM’s Rich Robinson, who helped put together the back and centre labels and align it all within the KPM standard.

Panorama is a perfect title for the album. With no opportunity to travel for tours or recording projects, Frank arranged postcards from his collection on his desk with beautiful views of the mediterranean coast, the Roman Colosseum and Cinque Terre. These also served as visual prompts: "That was part of the sonic concept - imagining myself driving down the mediterranean coast with this music on, with the top down." Additionally, the range of moods and vibes - "I tried to make each song very different from the previous one in terms of tempo and arrangement and feeling" - speaks to the idea of a Panorama of music and sounds and emotions. The last track was originally called Panorama, but KPM already had that title in their catalogue so it was changed to "Jet Lag", which, as Frank notes, "is perhaps even more fitting, since the trip is over".

restock

Hearttheartrecords presents Dangirl and Demo DC who with their combined talents form Ghost N the Wai bring a fresh take on the electronic music scene. Dangirl's musical mastery of keyboard melodies and composition and Demo's unconventional wizardry of electronic sounds and drumming creates an alchemy of aural delight. The Wai (Aka Dangirl) begins this magical experience with her Debut track Between worlds, a celebraton of life, a sparkling tribute to all that exists. With a combination of orchestral magic, arpeggiated droplets and deep groovy basslines, we are taken on an immensely beautiful journey through the cosmos dancing with the intricate layers of the emotional spectrum and rejoicing at what it is to be a living being in the multiverse. Finding beauty and sacredness in even the most testing moments as we are cushioned by an unrelenting and loving consciousness. Some mind made limitations were overcome in the writing of this and as a result caused a significant shift in Dangirl as an artist, hence the effect of this track may be deeply healing. By exploring the pure deliciousness of arpeggiation and marimba sounds The Wai discovered her own unique style of electronica. When the World Sleeps, is an ambient fairy tale of a little girl who ventures out under the starry night sky and is filled with a sense of peace and wonder as the rest of the world wind down to sleep. Big sister to Between Worlds, The Wai's first electronic baby was the original inspiration for Ghost 'N' the Wai starting a whole new venture for Demo Dc and Dangirl. This piece is the tale of a girl who travels to places of unimaginable beauty, exploring the vast cosmos with her star friends. The healing energy of pure childish joy permeates the universe and balances all in existance. As dawn approaches she returns to bed and earth's inhabitants start their routines like a production line. Reminiscent of the Indonesian gamelan (one of Dangirl's lifetime musical inspirations) we are taken on a meditative journey, with haunting bells and dreamy frequencies revealing unfamiliar worlds but maintaining a sense of peaceful slumber. Resting in the womb. Our home. Nap is Over mix is a collaboration of the Wai aka Dangirl and Ghost Foreigner aka DemoDc which when the two unite, form Ghost N the Wai. This track manifested when the Wai asked for Ghost’s feedback on her ambient piece When the world sleeps. After a day of Ghost having it in his grasp, Nap is Over was born effortlessly, giving insight into the power that simmers beneath the surface of these two aspiring artists. The Wai, with her deep, still, meditative grace brings contemplative composition along with Ghost bringing organic yet organised chaotic experimental beats. Nap is over questions reality as it stands, giving the listener the opportunity to ponder their own existence .... the world no longer sleeps ... the Nap is Over.

‘Complex and dangerously catchy, lyrically sophisticated and provocative, noisy and somehow serene… Yankee Hotel Foxtrot… is simply a masterpiece.’ – Pitchfork, 10/10, April 2002

‘The looped chaos and plangent melodies... effectively heralded the birth of a new band, as Jeff Tweedy overhauled his compositional modus operandi. So tender was the emotional core of songs like ‘Jesus, Etc.’ that the record became wrapped up in America’s post-9/11 cultural discourse... Yankee Hotel Foxtrot embedded Wilco’s great American songwriter status.’
– Mojo

‘It's as if the Flying Burrito Brothers suddenly decided to cover Pavement songs. There is a gentle, rootsy beauty here that Wilco has buried in a box of vulnerability and covered with a handful of dirt.’ – New York Times

‘Born out of turmoil, Wilco’s fourth album was a stone-cold classic.’ – Uncut

Nonesuch releases seven special editions of Wilco’s landmark 2002 album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. The now-classic record has been remastered and will be available as part of each set. The Super Deluxe version comprises eleven vinyl LPs and one CD – including demos, drafts, and instrumentals, charting the making of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot – plus a live 2002 concert recording and a September 2001 radio performance and interview. That box set includes eighty-two previously unreleased music tracks as well as a new book featuring an interview with singer/songwriter/guitarist Jeff Tweedy, drummer Glenn Kotche, and Jim O’Rourke, who mixed the acclaimed 2002 album; an in-depth essay by journalist/author Bob Mehr; and previously unseen photos of the band making the album in their Chicago studio, The Loft. For the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot recording, Wilco was Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt, Leroy Bach, Glenn Kotche, and Jay Bennett with Craig Christiansen, Ken Coomer, Jessy Greene, Fred Lonberg-Holm, and Jim O’Rourke.

A live version of ‘Reservations’ from a legendary concert contained on Snoozin’ at The Pageant – Live 7/23/02 at The Pageant, St. Louis, MO – a recording that is part of the Super Deluxe LP and CD sets as well as the Deluxe LP and digital sets – is now available. A limited-edition vinyl 7” with versions of ‘I’m the Man Who Loves You’ and ‘War on War’, from the Super Deluxe box set, is available now from wilcostore.

Wilco marked the anniversary of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot – which was released commercially on April 23, 2002, after a circuitous and storied gestation, including a period of streaming for free on the band’s website – with a performance of the album’s ‘Poor Places’ on April 18’s Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which may be seen here. The band is currently performing Yankee Hotel Foxtrot in its entirety (plus a mix of concert favourites and rarities) in two limited runs at New York City’s United Palace and Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre. The Chicago show on April 23 will be available as a live stream here.

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was widely acclaimed as one of 2002’s best albums, appearing in year-end lists of Mojo, NME, Q, Rolling Stone, and Uncut, among many others. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot also was featured in multiple decade-end lists, with Rolling Stone naming it #3 Album of the 2000s, as well as many Greatest Albums of All Time lists, including in the NME.

Among Yankee’s inspirations was a recording Tweedy bought at Tower Records in the late 1990s, The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations. As Bob Mehr points out in his new album note, the record got “deep under Tweedy’s skin.” Tweedy said in his 2017 memoir, Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back), “It was as fascinating to me as anything being made by actual musicians using actual instruments… I wanted to know why it was so hypnotic to me. Why could I listen to hours of this stuff, even though I had no clue what any of them were saying. That question became the foundation for Yankee Hotel Foxtrot… the way people communicated or ultimately failed to communicate.” The album takes its title from a haunting recording of a woman repeating those words that is included in The Conet Project; that recording is sampled in the penultimate song on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, ‘Poor Places’.

“Conceptually, Tweedy had decided to focus on a big idea for the next album: the state of America. His lyrics – often distilled from scribbled pages of free verse or poetry – became a form of inquiry,” Mehr continues. Tweedy said, in 2004, “I wanted to write about the stuff right in front of my eyes, microscopically looking at America and asking questions about each little thing… How can there be all these good things and things that I love about America, alongside all of these things that I’m ashamed of? And that was an internal question, too; I think I felt that way about myself.”

Mehr says, “Exploring those questions, while weaving in strands of Eastern philosophy and bits of autobiography – Yankee lyrics would be loaded with the pained imagery of someone suffering from migraines and mental health issues – Tweedy would conjure a deep examination of both country and self.”

Describing the uncanny, strangely prescient feeling of the album, which Wilco began offering as a free stream on its website in 2001, Mehr notes: “In the wake of 9/11, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot would be burdened with unintended meaning. The disc had originally been scheduled for a September 11 release. Its cover – a Sam Jones-shot image of Chicago’s twin Marina Towers angled in looming fashion – bore an eerie resemblance to the felled World Trade Center towers. And the songs – with titles like ‘Ashes of American Flags’ and ‘War on War,’ and lyrics about how ‘tall buildings shake, sad voices escape’ – took on a terrible new resonance.”

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was the first Wilco release on Nonesuch Records following the band’s infamous split with Reprise (both labels are part of Warner Music Group). It was also the first release featuring the line-up of drummer Glenn Kotche and multi-instrumentalist Leroy Bach joining founding members Jeff Tweedy and John Stirratt. The 2002 Sam Jones film I Am Trying to Break Your Heart documented the fraught recording and mixing process, personnel changes, and label issues.

The relationship with Nonesuch would last nearly a decade and include three more studio albums – the Grammy Award-winning A ghost is born, Sky Blue Sky, and Wilco (the album) – along with a live album and a live DVD, plus reissues of earlier records, before Wilco began its own label, dBpm. The band’s current lineup of Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt, Glenn Kotche, Mikael Jorgensen, Patrick Sansone, and Nels Cline has been together for nearly twenty years.

‘Complex and dangerously catchy, lyrically sophisticated and provocative, noisy and somehow serene… Yankee Hotel Foxtrot… is simply a masterpiece.’ – Pitchfork, 10/10, April 2002

‘The looped chaos and plangent melodies... effectively heralded the birth of a new band, as Jeff Tweedy overhauled his compositional modus operandi. So tender was the emotional core of songs like ‘Jesus, Etc.’ that the record became wrapped up in America’s post-9/11 cultural discourse... Yankee Hotel Foxtrot embedded Wilco’s great American songwriter status.’
– Mojo

‘It's as if the Flying Burrito Brothers suddenly decided to cover Pavement songs. There is a gentle, rootsy beauty here that Wilco has buried in a box of vulnerability and covered with a handful of dirt.’ – New York Times

‘Born out of turmoil, Wilco’s fourth album was a stone-cold classic.’ – Uncut

Nonesuch releases seven special editions of Wilco’s landmark 2002 album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. The now-classic record has been remastered and will be available as part of each set. The Super Deluxe version comprises eleven vinyl LPs and one CD – including demos, drafts, and instrumentals, charting the making of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot – plus a live 2002 concert recording and a September 2001 radio performance and interview. That box set includes eighty-two previously unreleased music tracks as well as a new book featuring an interview with singer/songwriter/guitarist Jeff Tweedy, drummer Glenn Kotche, and Jim O’Rourke, who mixed the acclaimed 2002 album; an in-depth essay by journalist/author Bob Mehr; and previously unseen photos of the band making the album in their Chicago studio, The Loft. For the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot recording, Wilco was Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt, Leroy Bach, Glenn Kotche, and Jay Bennett with Craig Christiansen, Ken Coomer, Jessy Greene, Fred Lonberg-Holm, and Jim O’Rourke.

A live version of ‘Reservations’ from a legendary concert contained on Snoozin’ at The Pageant – Live 7/23/02 at The Pageant, St. Louis, MO – a recording that is part of the Super Deluxe LP and CD sets as well as the Deluxe LP and digital sets – is now available. A limited-edition vinyl 7” with versions of ‘I’m the Man Who Loves You’ and ‘War on War’, from the Super Deluxe box set, is available now from wilcostore.

Wilco marked the anniversary of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot – which was released commercially on April 23, 2002, after a circuitous and storied gestation, including a period of streaming for free on the band’s website – with a performance of the album’s ‘Poor Places’ on April 18’s Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which may be seen here. The band is currently performing Yankee Hotel Foxtrot in its entirety (plus a mix of concert favourites and rarities) in two limited runs at New York City’s United Palace and Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre. The Chicago show on April 23 will be available as a live stream here.

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was widely acclaimed as one of 2002’s best albums, appearing in year-end lists of Mojo, NME, Q, Rolling Stone, and Uncut, among many others. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot also was featured in multiple decade-end lists, with Rolling Stone naming it #3 Album of the 2000s, as well as many Greatest Albums of All Time lists, including in the NME.

Among Yankee’s inspirations was a recording Tweedy bought at Tower Records in the late 1990s, The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations. As Bob Mehr points out in his new album note, the record got “deep under Tweedy’s skin.” Tweedy said in his 2017 memoir, Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back), “It was as fascinating to me as anything being made by actual musicians using actual instruments… I wanted to know why it was so hypnotic to me. Why could I listen to hours of this stuff, even though I had no clue what any of them were saying. That question became the foundation for Yankee Hotel Foxtrot… the way people communicated or ultimately failed to communicate.” The album takes its title from a haunting recording of a woman repeating those words that is included in The Conet Project; that recording is sampled in the penultimate song on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, ‘Poor Places’.

“Conceptually, Tweedy had decided to focus on a big idea for the next album: the state of America. His lyrics – often distilled from scribbled pages of free verse or poetry – became a form of inquiry,” Mehr continues. Tweedy said, in 2004, “I wanted to write about the stuff right in front of my eyes, microscopically looking at America and asking questions about each little thing… How can there be all these good things and things that I love about America, alongside all of these things that I’m ashamed of? And that was an internal question, too; I think I felt that way about myself.”

Mehr says, “Exploring those questions, while weaving in strands of Eastern philosophy and bits of autobiography – Yankee lyrics would be loaded with the pained imagery of someone suffering from migraines and mental health issues – Tweedy would conjure a deep examination of both country and self.”

Describing the uncanny, strangely prescient feeling of the album, which Wilco began offering as a free stream on its website in 2001, Mehr notes: “In the wake of 9/11, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot would be burdened with unintended meaning. The disc had originally been scheduled for a September 11 release. Its cover – a Sam Jones-shot image of Chicago’s twin Marina Towers angled in looming fashion – bore an eerie resemblance to the felled World Trade Center towers. And the songs – with titles like ‘Ashes of American Flags’ and ‘War on War,’ and lyrics about how ‘tall buildings shake, sad voices escape’ – took on a terrible new resonance.”

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was the first Wilco release on Nonesuch Records following the band’s infamous split with Reprise (both labels are part of Warner Music Group). It was also the first release featuring the line-up of drummer Glenn Kotche and multi-instrumentalist Leroy Bach joining founding members Jeff Tweedy and John Stirratt. The 2002 Sam Jones film I Am Trying to Break Your Heart documented the fraught recording and mixing process, personnel changes, and label issues.

The relationship with Nonesuch would last nearly a decade and include three more studio albums – the Grammy Award-winning A ghost is born, Sky Blue Sky, and Wilco (the album) – along with a live album and a live DVD, plus reissues of earlier records, before Wilco began its own label, dBpm. The band’s current lineup of Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt, Glenn Kotche, Mikael Jorgensen, Patrick Sansone, and Nels Cline has been together for nearly twenty years.


DISC 5: HERE COMES EVERYBODY – BUILDING YANKEE HOTEL FOXTROT (PART 2)
Side I: (TRAIN)
1. Radio Cure (Here Comes Everybody Version) *
2. War on War (Here Comes Everybody Version) *
3. Venus Stopped the Train (Here Comes Everybody Version) * #
4. I'm the Man Who Loves You (Here Comes Everybody Version) *
5. The Good Part (Here Comes Everybody Version) * #
Side J: (KETTLE)
1. Pot Kettle Black (Here Comes Everybody Version) *
2. Ashes of American Flags (Here Comes Everybody Version) *
3. Poor Places (Here Comes Everybody Version) *
4. Shakin' Sugar (Here Comes Everybody Version) *
5. Reservations (Here Comes Everybody Version) *

DISC 6: HERE COMES EVERYBODY – BUILDING YANKEE HOTEL FOXTROT (PART 2) / THE UNIFIED THEORY OF EVERYTHING – BUILDING YANKEE HOTEL FOXTROT (PART 3)
Side K: (ESCAPE)
1. Cars Can't Escape (Here Comes Everybody Version) * #
2. A Magazine Called Sunset (The Unified Theory of Everything Version) ** #
3. Remember to Remember (Hummingbird) The Unified Theory of Everything Version ** #
4. I Am Trying to Break Your Heart (The Unified Theory of Everything Version) ** #
Side L: (WAR)
1. Kamera (The Unified Theory of Everything Version) ** #
2. Radio Cure (The Unified Theory of Everything Version) ** #
3. War on War (The Unified Theory of Everything Version) ** #
4. Jesus, Etc. (The Unified Theory of Everything Version) ** #

DISC 7: THE UNIFIED THEORY OF EVERYTHING – BUILDING YANKEE HOTEL FOXTROT (PART 3) / LONELY IN THE DEEP END – DEMOS, DRAFTS, ETC.
Side M: (DRUMMER)
1. Ashes of American Flags (Stravinsky Mix) ** #
2. Heavy Metal Drummer (The Unified Theory of Everything Version) ** #
3. I'm The Man Who Loves You (The Unified Theory of Everything Version) **
4. Pot Kettle Black (The Unified Theory of Everything Version) ** #
5. Poor Places (The Unified Theory of Everything Version) ** #
Side N: (RESERVATIONS)
1. Reservations (The Unified Theory of Everything Version) ** #
2. Love Will (Let You Down) Lonely in the Deep End Version *
3. Lost Poem Demo (Lonely in the Deep End Version) *
4. I’m The Only One Who Lets Her Down (Lonely in the Deep End Version) *
5. Has Anybody Seen My Pencil? (Lonely in the Deep End Version) *














[l] E1. Anniversary (Nothing Up My Sleeve) [American Aquarium Version] *









[v] G2. Not for the Season (Laminated Cat) [American Aquarium Version] *


[y] H2. Not for the Season (Laminated Cat) [Here Comes Everybody Version] * #





[xe] K3. Remember to Remember (Hummingbird) [The Unified Theory of Everything Version] ** #











[xq] N2. Love Will (Let You Down) [Lonely in the Deep End Version] *

Genteel, springlike sounds emanate once more from Paris. Those who live there or have visited will know a joy in this that non-residents or travelers can only imagine, but one senses that there’s a texture to it all that bakes into the human experience when winter finally lifts and trees blossom, warm breezes blow. After being stuck at home for two years, once the weather picks up and the world hopes to shift back in gear without millions of deaths, one’s imagination begins to run. Parisian duo Zusammen Clark have codified this sound of openness and warmth using known goalposts of sound – the subtle drag of these sturdy, easygoing songs, a direct path from Jean-Charles Delarue’s previous outing in Bruit Direct outfit City Band; the descent of chord structures, a deep voice going high and staying louche. Maybe a bit of Felt’s cherry red pastoral, shades of that time in speculative fiction where Pavement signed to Postcard (remember? it was the same year that Dandelion and Les Temps Heureux got out of bed and toured coffeehouses together), the Go-Betweens just before the wheels fell off, or NYC underdogs Plates of Cake. Horns swoop in at the right moments and don’t linger. Hooks lock in and down, lead guitar casually doubles itself. Hair gets done, stubble let fashionably go. Along with bandmate and cousin Jerome Lemee, Delarue constructs a frame, pencils in the outline and begins decorating these songs with all the right touches and a confidence that knows where to place them, not just the value of the objects. This is a world of sound where everything has a story and a place, every room can provide a closet mix. It’s a world that opens into a larger world, a human world, maybe a world these two knew from childhood, maybe one they’ve built for themselves. Earlier is too well-assembled to not have a foundation in profoundly comfortable moments in life, and the knowledge of how to get there, even if one knows they can never stay. It’s a catalogue of delight, impossible to oversell. – Doug Mosurock TRACKLIST: A1 - Magyar A2 - Animals & Evidence A3 - Rest Position A4 - Swim In A Blue B1 - Parallel Lines B2 - Ho Chi Minh B3 - The Postcard B4 - Own Company

repress

The music veers from post industrial heavy electronics with doomsday guitar punctuated with free jazz like woodwinds to ambient drone surf guitar found sound collage and back again.
One night Reuben Maher and Tony Maimone were sitting in a Brooklyn bar called Troost watching Marcus Cummins play solo soprano sax accompanied by one of those wind up toys that is a monkey playing cymbals. Several weeks later the trio met at Studio G Brooklyn and recorded several hours of improvised music. There were no overdubs. Mixes were done quickly and without much edititg. Tony (Pere Ubu) plays an old EML synthesizer which goes from pastoral clouds to industrial wreckage.Occasionally slide bass slinks through these mixes as well as a 70’s RMI electric piano playing ambient chords that cycle around and around.

Reuben Maher (FCAC) plays acid drenched psychedelic Fender Jazzmaster through pedals and loopers and two Fender Princetons, add to that Moog and Roland synthesizers all live. Throughout this weaves Marcus playing soprano, and alto saxophones sometimes individually sometime together ala Rahsaan Roland Kirk.

Tresor Records are proud to reveal the outcome of a new collaboration between two of techno music's most remarkable artists, Maedon and Adam X. The Lion & The Ram is a unique and exciting hybrid of industrial, rave, and hypnotic techno sounds. This LP marks the full debut for both artists on Tresor Records, with Adam X having appeared for a remix of Neil Landstrumm in 1997. Both Berlin-based, Maedon and Adam X have worked tirelessly over the forced Lockdowns, finding a kindred spirit in locating and sculpting the most badass kick. This album is undoubtedly an impressive representation of the range of kick drum synthesis, from thunderous impacts to carefully tuned pulses.
The duo's competitiveness over kick drums has led to a masterpiece of mesmerising techno. Across the thumping drums and sparse, mechanical soundscapes,
every track on the album follows a journey into the dark and unknown.
Tracks grow with increasing power sourced from dystopian samples, such as Human Replacements, "people are being duplicated, there is something missing". It reflects the stifled time we all spent, haunted by uncertainty, cooped up and seeking expression. Corrupt Pigs emphasises this with the refrain, "welcome to the land of fuck". Crunching bass and rusty percussions gather as a herd, like a rallying call to signify that, at last, we may let loose. With its unrepentant rhythms and ruthlessly brutal sound design, The Lion & The Ram discharges Maedon and Adam X into daring new terrain.

From an offshoot of Salifornian funk/soul collective Banda Maje, here comes a new 7" single penned by the rapper, producer and band's co-founder Tonico 70. "Vic'l / Fantasie" is a tasty prelude to Tonico 70's forthcoming album "Antonico", due out this November on Four Flies Records.

Like the rest of the album, the two tracks on the single have been co-written and co-produced by Peppe Maiellano, Banda Maje's other founder, and offer a more intimate portrait of the artist. Tonico has put his 'tough-music-smuggler' persona aside to let his soulful side shine through.

"Vic'l", on side A, is a very autobiographical song. The flow of words you hear, almost a stream of consciousness, took place late one night in the privacy of home and was recorded on the spot. Tonico 70 evaluates his personal history, speaking about the people who are or were there for him. The sound is smooth and sweet, rife with contrapuntal notes and harmonies (those played on the Fender Rhodes and the flute especially stand out) and clearly reminiscent of 70s soul.

In the funky, uptempo "Fantasie", on the flip side, Tonico 70 lets his Salifornian flow roam free totalk about the strong bonds that bring us together and make us feel good.

Both tracks evoke images and stories while enveloping you in a warm embrace. Not unlike Banda Maje's music, they have a strong cinematic quality that Tonico 70's rap adds to nicely. We can't wait to listen to what's coming next!

Obscure congregation SPECTRUM MORTIS was formed in somber MMXV and under the sign of Baal. The gates of hell were opened to emerge their malevolent entrails to the black spell of death and destruction. Among the shadows arise Aataa and Aath to celebrate a black mass and closed with the arrival of Sheram and Ta’ao. These four reptiles complete to the perfect black circle for the enhancement to the necrosophia and the arts of the occult sciences.?The band released two mini albums : "Blasphemare Nomen Eius" in 2016 and "??????" in 2018 and a split album with Mexico's Hacavitz. SPECTRUM MORTIS played many live ceremonies as an authentic celebration of the fall of light and the cult of black fire under the sign of Baal. After signing with Listenable records, SPECTRUM MORTIS focused on the writing of their debut full-length album, immersed in ancient worlds between infinite passages buried in the sands of time, going back to the Sumerian saga of Apkallus and Ziggurats. Under that primordial influence, the band entered The Empty Hall studios in Madrid in 2021 and recorded “BitMeseri - The Incantation” scheduled for a September 2022 release. The band elaborates about 'Bit Meseri -The Incantation‘ : "We wanted to recover the essence of both mini albums and translate them into an authentic black celebration to continue enhancing the obscure arts and dimensions that we have managed to create with these works. This congregation will continue to write cold riffs of death under the path of ancestral rites and traditions, always low extreme care and obscure dedication. " SPECTRUM MORTIS transcends the listener with its inspired ceremonial occult death metal and their ‘Bit Meseri - The Incantation’ deeply masters that genre with great atmosphere and conviction. For fan of early MORBID ANGEL, IMMOLATION, NECROS CHRISTOS, DEAD CONGREGATION

Jeff Beck and Johnny Depp tapped into the frustration of living through the pandemic in 2020 with their well-timed cover of John Lennon’s “Isolation.” The Grammy winning guitarist and Hollywood Vampires co-founder are back with their first album together, appropriately titled, JEFF BECK AND JOHNNY DEPP. On the new record, Beck’s first studio effort in six years, the artists coax unexpected performances from one another on 11 covers and two originals that touch on everything from Celtic and Motown to John Lennon, the Beach Boys and The Velvet Underground.

The result is a wild roller coaster ride through different genres where hairpin juxtapositions deliver some of the album’s biggest thrills. A remarkable example comes early on when the industrial stomp of Killing Joke’s “Death And Resurrection Show” gives way to the intense heartache of Dennis Wilson’s “Time.” Each performance stands on its own, but the sharp contrast created by sequencing them together heightens the emotional impact of both songs.

The duo recorded most of the album in Beck’s studio over three years while Depp lived on and off in the guitarist’s English cottage. Robert Adam Stevenson co-produced several tracks on the album and engineered many of the sessions remotely from Depp’s studio in Los Angeles. When the basic tracks were finished, they were fleshed out by musicians who’ve played with Beck through the years, including drummer Vinnie Colaiuta and bassist Rhonda Smith.

The album title will be “18.” The cover illustration (attached) was done by Jeff’s wife, Sandra and pictures them when they were both 18. Here’s Jeff’s comment on the title from the PR: Beck explains the album title: “When Johnny and I started playing together, it really ignited our youthful spirit and creativity. We would joke about how we felt 18 again, so that just became the album title too.”