Buscar:v lock

Baxter Dury releases a 20 year Best Of through
Heavenly Recordings.
 ‘Mr Maserati’ showcases two decades of Baxter
Dury’s idiosyncratically louche music, a universe of
late-night London meet-ups, shuffling basslines
and comedown disco tunes, all run through with a
wry bleakness and sweet love of humanity.
 ‘Mr Maserati’ collects tracks from across Dury’s six
albums, plus a new song, ‘D.O.A.’.
 Baxter Dury on the new track: “It’s a kind of
provincial nod to the music I got into during
lockdown because my son Kosmo was playing it -
Frank Ocean, Tyler the Creator and Kendrick
Lamar. I became obsessed. They’re embracing
everything – sexuality, politics, all of it – and I find
that inspiring.”
 In November Baxter embarks on his biggest UK
tour so far, with a headline London show at
Kentish Town Forum.
 LP in printed inner sleeve plus digital download
code

An origin story since time immemorial, this DIY garage
rock five piece came together in 2018 through the
traps of the Melbourne music scene. Bonding over a
shared love of tightly coiled riffs and a collective
musical ethos, Civic made a name for themselves
through the intensity of their live shows, which would
become local folklore.
 On ‘Future Forecast’, Civic pay homage to the
classics, but pivot on them with avant-charged edge.
It’s raw, searing guitars, pummelling rhythms, driving
bass and vocals that lock into and synergize with their
wall of sound. All of this is balanced by the raucous
and restrained weaving of melodies and textures, and
vocal variation which broadens their sound past any
one genre label.
 There’s the horn-fuelled drive of album opener
‘Radiant Eye’, the power pop-laden hook of ‘As Seen
On TV’, the emotively atmospheric and vocally
subdued ‘Sunday Best’, all culminating with closer
‘Come To Know’, before ending in a tightly wound
splay of feedback and groove.
 Coloured vinyl LP in custom inner sleeve. Includes
digital download

Recorded in a pool house surrounded by an evergreen oak tree forest just outside of Madrid; musician and composer Oliver Patrice Weder’s second artist album ‘The Pool Project’ combines textural and meditative sounds that touch on global influences from jazz, ambient and modern composition. In conjunction with the album, Spitfire Audio has released ‘The Pool Project’ sound library, inviting composers and producers to reimagine, recreate or completely pull apart Oliver’s sound world to facilitate their own vision. Capturing the unique acoustics of the pool house, the library is presented in Spitfire Audio's award-winning, easy-to-use plug-in and features a range of controls and effects. While ‘OPW’ was inspired by constant movement and travelling, ‘The Pool Project’ had quite a contrary motivation. Oliver explains “After making my debut album, it was clear for me that it was only the beginning of a long journey. I enjoy the process and idea of creating something deeply personal and connected to the situation I am in, a snapshot of time so to speak, so I had to start writing a second album sooner or later. I love change and find it very inspiring to creatively adapt to my surroundings and circumstances to see what comes out at the other end. I spent the lockdown time living in a countryside cottage just outside of Madrid, surrounded by holly oak trees. The combination of this and seeing my one year old daughter grow up, as well as expecting another baby boy, created a very unique and fruitful environment to draw inspiration from.” Confirmed press/radio: Future Music - Album review Electronic Sound - Album review Scala Radio -Ambient Track of the Week Scala Radio - Session Track/Interview Reviews: "Rich in beauty and emotion… one of the finest modern composers around" - 8/10, Future Music Mag "Sounds like a warm oasis of calm" - 8.5/10, Higher Plain Music Achievements: Recorded and toured across Europe with various bands including psychedelic rock band Time for T. Composed for the BBC. Lead composer at Spitfire Audio. In 2017, Oliver co-scored the feature film ‘The Haunted’ and made a vlog style series Inside the Score with Spitfire Audio, documenting the entire process — from meeting the director, to seeing the film shown at various international film festivals. Released OPW, a sample library and album, in 2019 with SA Recordings x Spitfire Audio. Interview with MusicTech.

This recorded autobiography of Catherine Howe, age 20, briefly appeared in 1971. Too young for memoirs, most artists have barely established any sort of musical competence by the age of legal adulthood, let alone compositions matching the maturity and
complexity of Howe’s. What A Beautiful Place, however, is a prodigious effort wrought from the melancholy ruminations of post-adolescence. The album’s twelve songs unfold like a classic bildungsroman, beginning in the smoke-stained industrial county of Yorkshire, transformed by the electrified creative landscape of mid-century London, and retiring to the warm pastoral bliss of the county of Dorset on England’s southern coast. Produced by noted jazz pianist Bobby Scott, the LP—oft-mistaken for a concept album—was available for only a month in the summer of 1971, disappearing after Reflection Records’ shuttering in 1971.

One of the Netherlands most exciting rising names, Utrecht’s Locklead is emerging into the spotlight in style. Known for serving up heavy-hitting stabs of dancefloor driven material across SlapFunk, Pleasure Zone and Dungeon Meat, he now takes things deeper and brings his surging momentum to countryman Chris Stussy’s Up The Stuss imprint for the label’s first album release.

Stepping out into fresh territories, his eight-track debut LP ‘Square One’ showcases a previously unseen side to the Dutchman, revealing a collection of lush, deep journeys coupled with crisp house and vibrant, spacey cuts along the way.

LP+Buch

Limited Edition Deluxe Version comes with 50 page children's book inspired by the album. Written by Francine Prose and illustrated by Omar "El Oms" Juarez. The colored vinyl is red. Fresh off of their 2020 offering Adult Themes, El Michels Affair is back with a new full-length release. Titled Yeti Season, this newest album has everything we've come to expect from EMA's patented cinematic style of instrumental soul music. Where Adult Themes inspired a soundtrack to an imaginary film, Yeti Season brings us to a different place in time_with new inspirations. Taken with Turkish-styled funk and an almost Mumbai-esque take on soul, El Michels Affair offers us a different kind of drama and imagination with Yeti Season. If you've been following along, this shouldn't be viewed as too far a departure for El Michels Affair. The first single off of Yeti Season showed their hand back in 2018. A double-sided banger, that release brought the musical textures to the fore that dominate this record. The first song, titled "Unathi," is fully realized with the beautifully haunting-yet-hopeful vocals of Piya Malik, formally of 79.5_another Big Crown artist. Singing in Hindi, Piya's ethereal voice is telling us to work and strive together toward progress. Even if you don't understand her language, you can still hear the urgency of purpose, creating a lasting vibe that sits on top of it all. Leon Michels explains that Piya had a vital influence on this record: "When Piya started singing in Hindi, she had a different voice, a different tone. I knew we had to do something together." And so Piya appears on three other songs on Yeti Season: "Zaharila," "Murkit Gem," and "Dhuaan." Each providing particular signatures to the album. "Zaharila" is a building and changing love song punctuated by blaring trumpets, driving drums, and Piya's pleading lyrics. While the more upbeat "Murkit Gem" opens with a fuzzed out, Wu-Tang-esque baseline that buoys Piya's stylings. The psychedelic guitar and Piya's changing tones and textures singing about an all-consuming love are what pushed "Dhuaan" on to the second single from Yeti Season. There is also a vocal appearance from Shannon Wise of The Shacks, yet another Big Crown artist. Her song called "Sha Na Na," lies more in the familiar EMA vein: melodic, hypnotic, soulfully visual. But between Shannon's airy singing, the jumpy baseline, moody vibes, the active drum lines, it sounds like a pensive walk home after a strangely dramatic night. So what is Yeti Season? It could be more of a feeling than an actual place or time of year. It's a heavy album_as evidenced by the signature musicianship and dramatic vocal expressions. But it's also a hopeful record, with phrasings, textures, and chord changes that hint at something better_or fuller_coming our way. You hear it in songs like "Ala Vida," with its stabby, pulsing chords laying a bedrock for EMA's bright, atmospheric horn lines. Or even in "Fazed Out," which leaves you with a feeling of determination, a striving for resolution even though the driving, march-like song structure should accompany some conquering army. This persistence has to come from the fact that Leon Michels and company finished this record during the lockdown. It was a tough and troublesome time. But look at what has come of it: Yeti Season_a record of high and heavy drama, but also one of hope and promise. It may take a year like 2020 behind us to find hope in a winter big footed creature like a Yeti, but that's where we are.

The debut release from a London duo weaving vibrant patchworks of dance floor debris, from line-dancehall to hopscotch breaks. Enter the world of Angel Rocket…BIG TIP!

Angel Rocket is the eclectic new project from Angel Hunt (Good Morning Tapes) & Peter Rocket (BEAM). As dual specialists in new-clear fusion, primordial blooze and glittering bass-bin pressure, Angel Rocket is a match made in heaven.

The AM003 EP is a masterclass in playful dance floor navigations, charting territory from dancehall and techno to blissful Balearic plod, and beyond. It's the perfect release for Accidental Meetings debut wax release after a string of impressive cassette tapes & forward thinking compilations.

'Pomelo Fog' is a 100bpm wormhole with warm reese-bass expansions and washes of serotonin-soaked pads incubating a new mutant techno-dancehall variant.

'Oyster Perpetual' boasts an immaculate palette of harsh, tactile mid-highs and glossy bass swoops, sitting pretty between the realms of 100bpm Dembow and 200bpm Jungle.

Next in line is 'Tunnelrunners Unltd'; a pop’n’lock maze of funkee wall banging 4x4 techno with a noizy, UK-inspired lean.

'Foamstone Hoedown' closes the record, its low-slung Balearic wobble and weirdo 5th World polyrhythms gently beaming listeners back down to earth.

On Top Records is extremely proud to welcome back Smasher with his sophomore album, ‘Vibes In Motion’. due for release the 16/07/2021

Following the release of his debut album ‘Locked In Locked On' in 2020 which featured in numerous 'Album of the Year' lists Smasher has spent the past year offering a high level of consistency among a time which has been very difficult for creatives.

With live shows stopping to a halt Smasher has taken this opportunity with both hands building a home studio to sustain creativity a very important factor for an individual who has a burning passion to create music, he has used the time productively “Vibes In Motion” is 51 minutes of future classic British UKG encompassing Hip Hop, Grime, RnB, 2 step Garage all blended together seamlessly to bring a fresh approach to a genre he has gone extremely hard for. As with previous material, the album is produced by Smasher himself collaborating with long time friend Aaron Greenwood bringing his soulful smoothed-out keys and backing vocals the pair have a great working relationship which spans over a decade which can be heard through out the record.

Smashers journey began with a love for late 90’s UK Garage collecting vinyls from record shops and dj’ing on pirate radio, which lead him to Hip Hop, RnB, Reggae, Soul and many different uk underground music styles, followed by decades of producing records for some pinnacle uk artists most recent production credit for “Ghetts” on the critically acclaimed ‘Conflict Of Interest’ album charting at number 2 in the uk albums chart, Giggs - Landlord album, Klashnekoff - Iona to name a few, Smasher is a producer who can deliver a very high level of production no matter the genre. Over the past 2 years Smasher has gained props far and wide: from Todd Edwards to DJ EZ releasing a record under his Nuvolve imprint, to guest mix for MBE clothes designer Wale Adeyemi, comedy UKG faves Kurupt fm posting his “lockdown freestyle challenge” Numerous guest shows & live streams for Rinse fm, Kiss fm, Phaze Transition & Mind Charity, limited vinyl run presses to collaborating with Capo Lee & Ayo beats for film soundtrack “Against All Odds”

Since releasing “Locked In Locked On” the feedback for the project was so greatly received i knew how i wanted to approach this next album and with plenty of time on my hands to experiment i wanted to include more collaboration, a lot of the link ups came together organically.

I feel you get a nice balance of some new school artists like Local, Solo Jane & Hotch mixed with some UKG generals like MC Neat, Mighty Moe, Preshus, Creed & Troublesome and original “Knightz of the round table” member Luckie Luciano, i always feel a duty to pay homage but i also want to evolve the sound and take it to the next level.

Since march 2020 its been a tuff time for people i feel like there are some hidden messages in the album it leans towards the underdogs of this world and at times i feel like that but there is always this burning desire inside me to want to do better hopefully that comes across for the listener.

Already with a dedicated fan base and support from tastemaking DJs such as DJ EZ, Conducta (Kiwi Records), Toddla T (Radio 1), Heartless Crew (1xtra), Majestic (Kiss), Scott Garcia (kiss), Smokey Bubblin B (Rinse fm), DJ Redhot (Rinse fm), Dj Cartier, DJ Spoony, Artful Dodger, MattJam Lamont (Rinse fm) Shosh (Kiss Fm) Rudekid (Kiss fm) Ricky Chalrie & Melvin (BBC Radio 1) amongst others from the burgeoning UK Garage scene,

The Smasher sound especially in UKG has brought a well needed fresh flava to a genre which has had very few full album offerings, with that said its time to share “Vibes In Motion” with the universe, This will solidify Smasher as an artist in every sense of the word and undoubtedly concrete him as one of the UK’s finest talents.

Grey Marbled Vinyl

"Luca Agnelli is back on Etruria Beat with "THERMIONIC EP" after his latest deep and dark "Source Drops” album, while closing 2021 with the long awaited track "FREE ON THE DANCEFLOOR”.

Produced originally in march 2020, during the first pandemic lockdown, and patiently waited for the restrictions to be over, the 4 tracker ep contains " FREE ON THE DANCEFLOOR", a spoken words anthem for clubbers who want to get back to the free world of dark and sweaty dancefloors, unites all together, and that's what this one is all about.

The entire booming EP is a 4 on 4 mix of powerful grooves, arpeggiators, atmospheres and heavy stabs.
Followed by a brilliant hard techno remix by rising star Nico Moreno! "

Enter the Island is the new Concept EP of Daniel Monaco. Is the story of a group of friends who have ventured on a mysterious Island with the only mission to enter its infamous Reptilian Club. The tracks are a mix of Disco, Tropical and Dub an obscure psychedelic trip performed and recorded live at Daniel’s studio, but the adventure is not over yet because Enter The Island is not only a long trip into a mystical place is also a Board Game for two to four players. The idea was born during the first lockdown. Due to the big crisis brought by Covid-19 there were no chances to print Vinyl for this EP therefore Daniel thought to design a game made exclusively for this concept, its rules are unique as well as its design reflecting perfectly the spirit of the music.

Alessandro Rosa is the artist who made the design. The Board Game is the same size of a Vinyl cover made on Forex printed white on black. An unprecedented concept unique in its genre, a creative reaction against hard times.

The Levellers have been a gang on the road for over thirty years and, unable to tour since early 2020 due to COVID, they were bored.

As the band started to arrive at their home for the last quarter of a century - Metway Studios - to film and record a ‘live in the studio’ set, a second nationwide lockdown was announced, making it impossible for Simon to make the trip down from Scotland…what to do?.

With everyone eager to play, there was no turning back. The band sent Simon their final takes, while he recorded his parts at home.

What you can see and hear on The Lockdown Sessions is the Levellers few people get to witness.

Old friends doing what they do best - having a riot. Of their own. The excitement of being back together is palpable.

The Lockdown Sessions is available on three limited edition coloured vinyl LPs or CD, with each format including a DVD of the full film of the Levellers, live in the studio running through songs from the last album, Peace and some of their greatest hits.

Time fortifies the bonds between us. Since emerging in 2018, Light The Torch have grown stronger in lockstep together as a band and as friends. Through this growth, the Los Angeles, CA trio—Howard Jones vocals, Francesco Artusato [guitar], and Ryan Wombacher [bass]—only enhanced every aspect of their signature sound. Upheld by head-spinning seven-string virtuosity, yet also anchored to skyscraping melodies, the group crafted twelve no-nonsense and no-holds-barred metallic anthems on their 2021 second full-length album, You Will Be The Death of Me [Nuclear Blast].
“The past few years have helped me to become much more personal in my writing,” explains Howard. “Even though I’m kind of a loner, this band became real family. My experiences with Ryan and Fran inside and outside of the band truly bonded us. I think it shows in this album, it truly represents who we are as a group.”

“Every second on this record was thought-out,” adds Fran. “Howard’s performance gives me chills, because it feels so alive. There’s so much emotion in it. I know the guy very well at this point, and our friendship is a big part of Light The Torch.”That friendship cemented over the course of the past three years. The group shot out of the gate as a contender on their full-length debut, Revival. It bowed at #4 on the Billboard US Independent Albums Chart and at #10 on the Hard Rock Albums Chart in addition to receiving acclaim from Revolver, Outburn, and many more. “Calm Before the Storm” racked up a staggering 14.5 million Spotify streams, while “The Safety of Disbelief” remains one of SiriusXM Octane’s all-time most requested songs. They also crisscrossed North America and Europe on tour with the likes of Trivium, Avatar, In Flames, Ice Nine Kills, Killswitch Engage and August Burns Red to name a few.

In late 2019, an idea for the title track “Death of Me” kickstarted the creative process. The guys returned to Sparrow Sound in Glendale, CA to once again work with the production team of Josh Gilbert and Joseph McQueen [Bullet for My Valentine, As I Lay Dying, Suicide Silence].This time around, they also welcomed Whitechapel’s Alex Rudinger on drums. “He’s incredible,” says Fran. “He was exactly what we needed.”Now, they kick down the door for You Will Be The Death of Me with the single “Wilting In The Light.” Howard’s instantly recognizable vocals soar over a sweeping riff and rolling beat before culminating on a massive luminous hook, “Over and over again we struggle. We’re wilting in the light, and we stumble in the dark.”“It has a different vibe and a very interesting riff,” observes Howard. “I love it when listeners can take what they want from a song. This was a special one for us.”

“More Than Dreaming” opens up the record with gut-punching guitar and another knockout hook. Elsewhere, airy keys wrap around chugging distortion on the title track “Death Of Me.” Regarding the latter, the frontman goes on, “Most people have some source of grief in their lives. It’s relatable, and it was appropriate for the song.”After the melodic melancholia of “Come Back To The Quicksand,” Light The Torch recharge the 1987 Terence Trent D’Arby classic “Sign Your Name” as the record’s climax. Shimmering keys bleed into an overpowering verse before it snaps into the immortal chorus beefed up with thick distortion. “Howard stayed at my house with me and my wife for the entire recording of the album,” recalls Fran. “I like to cook, and one night during the first week of pre-production I made everyone dinner. A compilation with ‘Sign Your Name’ started playing, and I thought, ‘I can do a version that would sound awesome!’ Howard knew and loved the song too. For as crazy as it sounded, it worked so well.”
In the end, the bond between Light The Torch burns brighter than ever in the music as they deliver a definitive statement with You Will Be The Death Of Me.

“We wanted to make a fully listenable and fun album that doesn’t let up,” Howard leaves off. “At the same time, we’re showing some heart, passion, and connection. It’s what we’ve always intended to do with this band.”

Truly adventurous and life enhancing music that invigorates your soul. TIP!

Press Release:

Gordan join traditional Serbian singing with abstraction, energy and minimalism. Their music is marked by radical reduction, seemingly endless ascension and a passion for experiments.

The Serbian singer Svetlana Spajić is an internationally recognized and acclaimed artist. She, like almost no other contemporary singer, is a master of all the complex local stylistic variations of singing from Balkan music. Guido Möbius plays bass and various electronic sound generators. Additionally he uses guitar amps, microphones and effects to provoke feedback which either harmonize or are juxtaposed with the song. It is a dialogue between sound and noise which is accentuated or fragmented by means of Andi Stecher’s expressive drumming. With a rich pool of ideas the percussionist drives the sound forward breathlessly and grounds it. Together the trio form a dynamic body of sound.

Gordan recorded their debut during the first wave of the Covid19 pandemic in Europe in March 2020. Due to the lockdown in Berlin at that time the city didn’t have many distractions to offer, so the trio just concentrated on work. The atmosphere of being isolated in a recording studio had a big impact on the musical results. All three band members came up with ideas for new pieces, which were immediately tested, worked out and recorded. On abstract instrumentals provided by Stecher and Möbius, Svetlana Spajic sometimes reacted with personal interpretations of serbian traditionals, and the other way around. Most of the time it was as if the music just happend to the band; playing together felt natural from the first moment on.

Some of the old serbian traditional songs that Spajic sang are extinct forms with a specific local melodic mode. The skillful improvisation of their lyrics and ornaments was of great importance and very estimated among village singers. The title song Down In The Meadow for instance originally is a love song from the village of Odevce in eastern Kosovo, Serbia. The singing manner is of a great intensity and sonority, with lots of specific local ornaments. It disappeared along with the village communities from the area. Oh, my Rose flowers is from the region of Kopaonik mountain (southwest Serbia) and the mode, scale is known as ”kopaonički glas” (Kopaonik mountain air). Svetlana adopted the style from the late singer Veličko Veličković from the village of Ostraće. It is an old mountain solo chant, rich in fast ornamentation movements and microtonal intervals. Don’t ask how I live is Svetlana’s homage to the new popular folk music movement from the 80ies known as Južni Vetar (Southern Wind) led by a musician and composer Mile Ilić, known as Mile Bas (“Mile the Bass”) which revolutionized popular music introducing tabooed oriental music and original arrangements.

All music by Spajic Stecher Möbius except ‘Don’t Ask How I Live’ by Miodrag M. Ilić, original title Što me pitaš
All lyrics are traditional, except ‘Don’t Ask How I Live’

Svetlana Spajic — vocals
Andi Stecher — drums & percussion
Guido Möbius — bass, feedback, electronics

Recorded by Alberto Lucendo at UFO sound studios Berlin in March 2020 mixed by Morphosis
Mastering by Neel at Enisslab, Rome
Artwork by Lorenzo Mason Studio

Now Here Is Nowhere is the debut studio album by American alternative rock band Secret Machines. It was originally released on May 18, 2004.

The band’s epic, drawn out melodies are reminiscent of classic rock bands such as Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, with influences from krautrock and shoegaze. Now Here is Nowhere received widespread critical acclaim, saying the band is locked-in and steady while Garza’s imperturbable drums stand strong against Brandon Curtis’ guitar explosions and Ben Curtis’ psych-rock keyboard scribbles.

The album was released online before it was released physically, which was uncommon at the time, but it did help the band gain more press coverage. The song “Nowhere Again” was used as a promotional single and appeared in the 2006 video game Driver: Parallel Lines.

London alt-rock outfit Curse of Lono share brand new single ‘Let Your Love Rain Down On Me’, a hypnotic widescreen teaser for upcoming album ‘People In Cars’, set for release 19th November via Submarine Cat Records (She Drew The Gun, Alabama 3, John Murry).

Recorded during lockdown with long-term collaborator and producer Oli Bayston (Spiritualized, Teleman, Boxed In) and engineer Iain Berryman (Wolf Alice, Arcade Fire, Kings Of Leon), ‘People In Cars’ is a stunningly cinematic record that continues the band’s musical evolution and reinforces their trajectory as one of the most compelling lyrical voices of the British musical underground.

"The Best Driving Music in the World Ever" was written and recorded during a 48 hour lock-in session, having never left the studio until completion. The artist stated, "This all came together due to a bout of loneliness and depression that swept over me one Friday evening. Being lonely sometimes can render positive results, something I am learning. I decided to go and make a guitar-based record and not leave the house until it was done. I succeeded and this is what was made." The tracks were then sent over to be mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at his incredible studio, Black Knoll in New York, US.

"The Best Driving Music in the World Ever" was written and recorded during a 48 hour lock-in session, having never left the studio until completion. The artist stated, "This all came together due to a bout of loneliness and depression that swept over me one Friday evening. Being lonely sometimes can render positive results, something I am learning. I decided to go and make a guitar-based record and not leave the house until it was done. I succeeded and this is what was made." The tracks were then sent over to be mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at his incredible studio, Black Knoll in New York, US.

LP is limited to 1000 copies, black vinyl. Swansea Sound started in the middle of lockdown. They realised that fast, loud, joyous, angry indie-pop punk was the answer to being stuck indoors. Who needs introspection? Hue Williams is reunited with Pooh Sticks partner Amelia Fletcher (ex- Talulah Gosh, Heavenly). Rob Pursey (also ex-Heavenly) and Ian Button (Wreckless Eric’s live collaborator) provide the noise. Swansea Sound are the fast, acerbic and joyous past, present and future of indie. Four of the tracks were released as singles, all of them now impossible to obtain. ‘Corporate Indie Band’ was a limited edition cassette, ‘I Sold My Soul on eBay’ was a one-off lathe cut that got auctioned on eBay (with a £400 winning bid), ‘Indies of the World’ was a 7” inch single that briefly hit the UK physical charts, but immediately sold out and plummeted back out again. And then there was ‘Swansea Sound’: a requiem for a lost radio station; an anti-corporate lament - another limited edition cassette single. First track Rock N Roll Void gives a three minute revision session, just in case you’ve forgotten about The Ramones, The Kinks, The Buzzcocks and the brief explosion of indie noise pollution of 1986. Some of the songs are reflexive – ‘Swansea Sound’ and ‘The Pooh Sticks’. (Who else was going to write a tribute to The Pooh Sticks?) Others are searching for hope in the digital desert – ‘Let It Happen’, ‘I’m OK When You’re Around’, ‘Pasadena’, ‘Angry Girl’. ‘Je Ne Sais Quoi’ is pure pop throwaway fun. The others songs are dead catchy too, they just happen to express a sickness and a contempt for the state of things. ‘Corporate Indie Band’ is about a group who have mortgaged their creativity to a major label and sold their identities to an online marketing team of public schoolboys. Freedom of Speech takes a look at three contemporary ‘alternative’ music stars and considers how they’ve responded to BLM, the pandemic and the rise of right-wing populism. ‘Like self-serving arseholes’, is the unfortunate answer. (You won’t struggle to work out who the three ‘alternative’ stars are.) Swansea Sound took their name from a well-loved local radio station when it was given a corporate makeover in 2020. They even used the radio station’s abandoned logo. Like the indiepunk pop songs, something modern acidic and angry has taken up residence in a familiar, borrowed frame. You can throw yourself around to Swansea Sound like it’s 1986, but if you catch the lyrics you’ll remember you’re in 2021. (Sorry about that.) The Rum Puncheon, a notorious pub in Swansea, closed down decades ago.

GENRE: Modern Classical, Experimental, Ambient Metal. RIYL: György Ligeti, Sarah Davachi, Stars Of The Lid. 180g LP pressed at Optimal, 350gsm jacket, inner & DL card. Jessica Moss Also Known For Her Tenure In Thee Silver Mt. Zion (2002-2015), Black Ox Orkestar (2002-2007), Recordings By Vic Chesnutt, Carla Bozulich, Arcade Fire, Basia Bulat, Roy Montgomery, Sarah Davachi, Big Brave & More. A phosphene is “the phenomenon of seeing light without light entering the eye.” The title of the heart-rending and resolute new album by composer/violinist Jessica Moss could not be better chosen. Moss is by now a seasoned practitioner of immersive isolation music; across three previously acclaimed solo records of minimal and maximal post-classicism, her acoustic, amplified, and electronically-shifted violin is the raw material for deeply expressive, palpably haunted, wholly committed compositions. But Phosphenes inscribes fleeting halos of refracted ghostly light out of a prevailing darkness with especially plangent determination and intensity. This is the most overtly searching, mournful and inexorable music Moss has made to date. The pieces on Phosphenes exquisitely navigate consonance and dissonance, building patiently from single notes to multiple voicings, harmonic stacks and clusters. These compositions channel themselves like slow-moving water in a dark cave, finding small eddies and catching glints of luminescence from within. Signal processing is kept to a minimum in the three-movement “Contemplation” suite on Side One, where Moss deploys amplification chiefly in the service of activating overtones and pitch-shifts, thickening and widening the sonics, carving out her unique timbral space. Based on a four-note sequence that sets whole tones against one another, “Contemplation” is a bona fide requiem that finds Moss at her most instrumentally naturalistic, measured, and modern. Side Two unfolds in a more foreboding vein: “Let Down” is marked by cavernous octave-dropped arco and pizzicato, providing a gothically-inflected substratum upon which hauntingly wordless vocal invocations and cumulative gyres of violin melody unfurl. “Distortion Harbour” grinds with noisier grit and a more harrowing complexion, highlighting Moss’s ambient-metal sensibility and her distinctive palette of industrial-inflected power electronics a reminder of why she’s also been a go-to player on albums by the likes of Big Brave, Oiseaux-Tempête and Zu in recent years. These two songs also feature upright bass from old friend and former bandmate Thierry Amar (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Thee Silver Mt. Zion, Black Ox Orkestar). Album closer “Memorizing & Forgetting” is inarguably the most tender and beautiful song in Jessica’s oeuvre: a keening lullabye of sorts, on which she plays piano, violin and guitar, joined by her partner Julius Levy in a lustrous ambient vocal duet. Everyone has been trying to find a way through and out of pandemic, lockdown, social isolation and often darkened hope and for many musicians, the absence of touring, of live performance, live sound, live audiences, and a living. For Moss, it’s also been “like when you press your fists hard against your eyes and eventually there is fireworks.” The light gets in where it can, even or maybe especially as imaginative sensory simulacra (if/when we shut down our screens and are left to our own devices). Phosphenes is a stoic, acutely sensitive, superlative musical statement from Moss

Change The World, the brand new EP from Ringo Starr, contains 4 new tracks recorded in lockdown. The EP features the lead single “Let’s Change The World”, written by Joseph Williams and Steve Lukather, “Just That Way”, written by Ringo and Bruce Sugar, “Coming Undone”, written by Linda Perry and featuring Trombone Shorty, and Ringo’s version of the blues-rock track “Rock Around The Clock”. Change The World is now available on 10” vinyl.

One of three MONSTER New Orleans Funk 45s released by Soul Jazz Records only ever exclusive available on their site on LONG out of print, these new 45s are limited edition pristine, loud dancefloor fillers housed in Soul Jazz recycled card house bag!

Surely one of the TUFFEST New Orleans Funk tunes ever made! The intensity of Marilyn Barbarin’s vocals are only matched by the super-tightness of Eddie Bo’s Soul Finders that accompany her – superb New Orleans wah-wah funk, locked in and in the pocket! A SUPERB Eddie Bo production, with original copies starting at £500!

Having further honed his craft, Reuben Vaun Smith returns to
Soundway Records with a sonic odyssey through lo-fi Balearic
and Afro-Caribbean influenced synth.
Heralded as one of the best summer releases of 2020 (Beat
Caffeine), ‘Warm Nights’ introduced his unique blend
of synth-based balearic grooves, mid-tempo lo-fi beats,
and sun-drenched sonic landscapes. A lush debut and an
inspiring story of resilience from the former football promise
that turned to music production serendipitously after an injury
halted his career.
Smith’s second album continues his exploration into
improvised live instruments and programming, while
venturing into new territories of music-making and genres
including soca, benga and trip hop. Also sliding into the mix
are organic sounds and riffs reminiscent of 2000s Villalobos
sunrise scorchers such as ‘Waiworinao’, keeping the Balearic
thread firmly present throughout the album.
Having learned to sail along the southern coast of Spain in
the last year, Smith spent a winter locked down in Yorkshire,
channeling summer memories into his music and drawing
influences from his own record collection which he would
play everyday in the studio. With a few local friends and his
brother to jam with, the result is dreamy and lo-fi, with more
guitar-led melodies, distant vocals and lush pads.
Smith’s debut album from 2020, ‘Warm Nights’, received an
array of rave reviews and support from DJs including Tom
Ravenscroft, Antal and Bill Brewster. One year later, with
‘Sounds From The Workshop’ Reuben Vaun Smith delivers
a matured, varied sound and a glimpse into his incredible
future potential.

Both regulars of the club, arts and queer scenes of New York, Berlin and London of the last three decades, it's surprising Wolfgang Tillmans and Honey Dijon only met five years ago. A walk between clubs in Brooklyn resulted in the two having a mutual interest to collaborate. Busy as both are, the wait was long, but well worth it. This week's release of Honey Dijon's Euphoria Mix of 'Can't Escape into Space' sets the tone for what is left of this summer: Our desire to be together, with friends and strangers, close up on dancefloors, festivals and open airs. Honey's and Wolfgang's shared unapologetic spirit comes alive as Dijon transforms Tillmans's original song into an electrifying dance floor banger. As we can already sense a reawakening of our freedom blowing in the air, even if many clubs remain closed, the two musicians' call to come together again is euphoric and inescapable.
The original version of the song was released last winter in the midst of lockdown, accompanied by a video showing an empty nightclub and its mirror balls performing for the camera, filmed in 2017 by Tillmans, in pre-pandemic Fire Island. A new video accompanies Honey Dijon's Euphoria mix with three vignettes of longing and passion.

LIMITED CLEAR VINYL

LA based composer/sound designer duoHeliochrysumannounce the release of their visceral, deep and exploratory debut albumWe Become Mist.The album has beenmixed by Ben Frost and mastered by Valgeir Sigurdsson.

Heliochrysumis the world building meeting of Michael Deragon and Daniel Lea
( L A N D, Important Records), in which a collaboration becomes a sculpted journey into new aural and imaginative cosmology.We Become Mistuses analogue and digital processes to mine the depths of industrial and science fictional, psychedelic soundscapes, often cinematic in tone and texture.


Taking their cue from a shared palette of sounds, textures and rhythms,Heliochrysumcreate a unifying score that is at once improvisatory and sonically certain.We Become Mist is nothing short of the progression from a souterrain awakening to the terraformed sound of a new world coming into existence.

These tracks overlay analog sound sources, digital hard wrought processing and visual sound design, constantly morphing and turning on their own searching torque. Mixed by Ben Frost and mastered by Valgeir Sigurdsson, the accumulation of sheer vision and depth is transportative, if not outright mind wrenching. In between this melding of the analogue and digital was mixed another element: the album istinged with psilocybin technology. As a listener you can hear as you move through a psychedelic passage, like out of a state of lockdown into one of alien otherworldliness.

The piano, industrial crescendo of ˜We Remain Beneath is evidence of this, sounds modified into careful, lush arrangements. A Future Unfolds sounds like a burnished unfurling, a resplendent distortion bringing to mind some epic revelation while tracks such as ˜Infinite Dark or ˜Pre Dawn bristle with chrome pulses that burn with alarm and dulcet drama.

Just as they did with their palette of sounds,Heliochrysumtaps into a wide range of emotions from hope to devastation, growth and contagion.

The name Heliochrysum evokes the Latin for sunflower but also a healing tincture: in the overlaid orchestration and distorted lightness, the roiling, life-giving pour of the sun can be heard. Simplicity washed with emotional intensity, the remembered dreams of far-off, science-fictive discoveries.

SIM CARD HØLDER is not a band. It is the hybrid child of Ian Bruner, Drone Operatør and Gajek. It's procreation date is hard to pin down, but it started 2020 with an Insta chat and one of Ian's piano improvisations recorded in his Colorado living room. From there the album grew in separated covid lockdown wombs at three different locations in Germany. Ian's shadowy instrumentation of light piano and heavily layered and long believed to be dead soundscapes were digested, replanted and grown-over by Drone Operatør's and Gajek's uncompromising and individual sense for song structures and sounds. When finally all body parts were assembled in early 2021 the baby was already fluent in different languages.

Sim Card Hølder grows slowly while meandering through dense and open fields. It switches from calm and dreamy moods to wild fractured outbursts without fragmenting into the arbitrary. A raw spiritual power keeps every part connected and in perfect motion. Each song is a portal into multiple universes that suck you in on thick piano carpets, sharp saxophone spikes and buzzing quadcopter wings, warming insect intestines, blasting raw drums and slow healing winds, screeching synth rhymes, dissonant orchestral tales and floating blue melodies. It's a demanding ride but thoroughly deeply relaxing. The perfect soundtrack to rewind your mind.











k 11: Alone_ (rendered altitude) [feat. Drone Operatør & Ian Bruner]

DEVIKORPS is the collaborative project of HUREN x SARIN... Deviant emanations spewing from the same MORBID MIND - macabre sampling, abrasive drum programming and hallucinatory soundscapes to exorcise the darkest and most depraved periods of Berlin PSYCH WARD lockdown/meltdown.

DEVIKORPS sound & imagery is deviant industrial and experimental Audio/Video perversion. DEVIKORPS gestation can be traced as far back as 2012 in live audio/video violations at the Museum of Contemporary
Canadian Art for the "Videodrome" event series by Jubal Brown.

DEVIKORPS deubt entitled "Injektion Site" is comprised of a six track 12".

The first vinyl LP release from Fluxus pioneer Alison Knowles (b. 1933). Sounds from the Book of Bean is an assemblage of noises and texts related to The Book of Bean (1982), Knowles’ 8-foot tall walk-in book constructed at Franklin Furnace in New York. This recording, the sounds of making the big book, was continually played back inside of the installation. Echoes of Yoshi Wada hammering together the circular spine of the book, other collaborators mixing ink, feeding a horse, the flowing waters of the Hudson Valley... all superimposed with texts and poems read by Knowles and her daughter Jessica Higgins.

On the second side of the album, the piece Essential Divisions features Knowles performing with red, black, and white beans. Recorded in Annea Lockwood’s underground studio, Knowles sounds the beans in glass, ceramics, wood, as well as in her mouth. Further bean histories and sound poems are recited, concluding with “Popular Bean Soup” – an ancient recipe translated by George Brecht.

Knowles’ big books are, as she describes them, transvironments: a transformationally experienced environment. The phenomenological nature of her book is distilled aurally in the case of this record. As Knowles describes the end of her book, “the reader leaves via a ladder or out the window and through a muslin panel printed with contradictory wisdom concerning beans and dreaming… one can begin again either by going on or turning back.”

Originally published as a cassette in 1982 on the New Wilderness Audiographics label, this remastered edition has been transferred from original tapes. An expansive 20-page booklet is included, holding graphics and writings from Alison Knowles, George Quasha, and Charlie Morrow.

Recorded by Alison Knowles, 1980
Produced by Alison Knowles, Sean McCann, & Charlie Morrow
Design by Alison Knowles, cover image courtesy George Quasha
Jessica Higgins adds voice to tracks 1, 3, 4, 5

Their roots are firmly planted in heavy rock, melodic aggression and
despair. They have conquered the stoner rock kids and breathed fiery life
into the classic rock snobs.
Now Thulsa Doom’s branches are growing with twigs of Kiss and
Crimson; strong wooden arms hold Skynyrd, Ween and Bob Dylan, and
progressive leaves of soulful, poignant, intricate gems cover the ground.
And there are nuts, lots of nuts. ...and with the release of their new album
“Ambition Freedom” the tree itself will
stretch right in through your bedroom
window and grab you. Just like the one in
Poltergeist.
The band’s sophomore “…And Then Take
You To A Place Where Jars Are Kept”
(2003) earned them two Norwegian
Grammy nominations, and is widely recognized
as one of the best rock-releases
from Norway ever.
«A Keen Eye for the Obvious» was released
in 2018 and was instantly recognized
as the greatest comeback since
Batman.
The band that once was a cherished but
well-kept secret has now become a national
treasure because of the timeless qualities
of their albums and unforgettable live
shows. Relentlessly rehearsing and playing
shows all over Norway and for dubious but
welcoming crowds in central Europe
has once again inspired Thulsa Doom to
make new music. “Ambition Freedom”
will not harm you in any way, but it might
rearrange your heart and refurbish your
belief in Rock.
“Ambition Freedom” will confuse many,
but for others it will lead the way. You will
wish it never stops, and it doesn’t have to.
It’s a record. Spin it again

Ferocious Dog have been putting lockdown to good use by writing and recording their fifth studio album 'The Hope'. Instantly recognisable as a fusion of folk, punk and ska - but with newer members Ryan and Johnny really putting their stamp on evolving their sound further - the former adding much more bite to the electric guitar, with the latter juxtaposing this aggression with softer folky sounds.

The ever-present traditional cover is here, right on-trend with a sea shanty vibe, the rest of the album flows irresistibly through tales of historical observations to biting commentary on the plights facing the world today. The songs follow a rollercoaster of pace and sentiment which will have you wanting to mosh one moment before having a moment to contemplate, coupled with a surprise collaboration and an overdue catch-up with how Mairi is getting on.

A great follow-up to Fake News and Propaganda - Ferocious Dog seem to have the knack of evolving their sound enough to pique your interest, without losing any of the sound or attitude that made you fall in love with them in the first place. Once they’re allowed out to play again they’ve given themselves a real headache in trying to pick a set list from their now burgeoning back catalogue.

Ferocious Dog have been putting lockdown to good use by writing and recording their fifth studio album 'The Hope'. Instantly recognisable as a fusion of folk, punk and ska - but with newer members Ryan and Johnny really putting their stamp on evolving their sound further - the former adding much more bite to the electric guitar, with the latter juxtaposing this aggression with softer folky sounds.

The ever-present traditional cover is here, right on-trend with a sea shanty vibe, the rest of the album flows irresistibly through tales of historical observations to biting commentary on the plights facing the world today. The songs follow a rollercoaster of pace and sentiment which will have you wanting to mosh one moment before having a moment to contemplate, coupled with a surprise collaboration and an overdue catch-up with how Mairi is getting on.

A great follow-up to Fake News and Propaganda - Ferocious Dog seem to have the knack of evolving their sound enough to pique your interest, without losing any of the sound or attitude that made you fall in love with them in the first place. Once they’re allowed out to play again they’ve given themselves a real headache in trying to pick a set list from their now burgeoning back catalogue.

Have we ever needed great storytellers so badly? Voices to snap us out of our collective grey funk, to pull us out of our narrow, hemmed-in worlds and to lighten our days and enlighten us with their perspectives, Immersing us in their worldview and history. People who can make us laugh, cry, gasp or nod sagely, to see our world anew and not feel so alone. We need stories, vignettes, new windows to look out of, and narrators to help those new visions make sense.

In short, we need Scott Lavene. Born and raised in Essex, but a man of the world who has wandered far and wide, Lavene’s a storyteller who can capture all the madness, joy and frustration of life while singing about worms writhing in the ground. Lavene’s been in bands since his teens, but only really located the voice that makes his new album Milk City Sweethearts so remarkable – that combination of wry observation, humble wisdom, unguarded vulnerability and unpredictable humour – in a music workshop for alcoholics and addicts, long after he’d bid farewell to childhood dreams of pop stardom, and the ghosts and demons that accompany those dreams.

He released an album as Big Top Heartbreak, 2016’s Deadbeat Ballads, and followed it with his first album under his own name, 2019’s droll and marvellous Broke. “I was signed to a little label in Bristol, but then they went skint,” he remembers. This time, however, the disappointment didn’t shake his confidence or his resolve. “I started writing prose, like ‘flash fiction’, and I’ve begun a novel,” he says. “And I’ve started some creative writing workshops for people who’ve come out of my situation.”

Amid all this activity, the songs that became Milk City Sweethearts began to take shape. Lavene noticed the border between his prose and his songwriting beginning to become porous, and the album feels like a clutch of excellent short stories set to music. Without a label, he recorded the album at home, and assembled it in a week in his mum’s garage during lockdown’s heavy manners. It’s a warm, witty, charismatic record with a dark heart at the centre, Lavene sounding dislocated and therefore able to write his everyday stories with a left-handed brilliance and blunt honesty that keeps them so fresh, like classic Kinks, or David Bowie if he’d never had to go to space to feel otherworldly. His songs are talking blues, set to loose and minimal and excellent art-rock with a pop sensibility, the honk of Roxy sax and the guttural weird-funk of Ian Dury’s Blockheads haunting their grooves.

Have we ever needed great storytellers so badly? Voices to snap us out of our collective grey funk, to pull us out of our narrow, hemmed-in worlds and to lighten our days and enlighten us with their perspectives, Immersing us in their worldview and history. People who can make us laugh, cry, gasp or nod sagely, to see our world anew and not feel so alone. We need stories, vignettes, new windows to look out of, and narrators to help those new visions make sense.

In short, we need Scott Lavene. Born and raised in Essex, but a man of the world who has wandered far and wide, Lavene’s a storyteller who can capture all the madness, joy and frustration of life while singing about worms writhing in the ground. Lavene’s been in bands since his teens, but only really located the voice that makes his new album Milk City Sweethearts so remarkable – that combination of wry observation, humble wisdom, unguarded vulnerability and unpredictable humour – in a music workshop for alcoholics and addicts, long after he’d bid farewell to childhood dreams of pop stardom, and the ghosts and demons that accompany those dreams.

He released an album as Big Top Heartbreak, 2016’s Deadbeat Ballads, and followed it with his first album under his own name, 2019’s droll and marvellous Broke. “I was signed to a little label in Bristol, but then they went skint,” he remembers. This time, however, the disappointment didn’t shake his confidence or his resolve. “I started writing prose, like ‘flash fiction’, and I’ve begun a novel,” he says. “And I’ve started some creative writing workshops for people who’ve come out of my situation.”

Amid all this activity, the songs that became Milk City Sweethearts began to take shape. Lavene noticed the border between his prose and his songwriting beginning to become porous, and the album feels like a clutch of excellent short stories set to music. Without a label, he recorded the album at home, and assembled it in a week in his mum’s garage during lockdown’s heavy manners. It’s a warm, witty, charismatic record with a dark heart at the centre, Lavene sounding dislocated and therefore able to write his everyday stories with a left-handed brilliance and blunt honesty that keeps them so fresh, like classic Kinks, or David Bowie if he’d never had to go to space to feel otherworldly. His songs are talking blues, set to loose and minimal and excellent art-rock with a pop sensibility, the honk of Roxy sax and the guttural weird-funk of Ian Dury’s Blockheads haunting their grooves.

‘The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows’, the new studio
album from Damon Albarn, is released by new label home Transgressive
Records.
 ‘The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows’ was originally
intended as an orchestral piece inspired by the landscapes of Iceland.
This last year has seen Albarn return to the music in lockdown and
develop the work to 11 tracks which further explore themes of fragility,
loss, emergence and rebirth. The result is a panoramic collection of
songs with Albarn as storyteller. The album title is taken from a John
Clare poem Love and Memory.
 The CD edition includes a 20-minute ‘hidden’ track of a new and original
recording that inspired some of the record’s themes.
 The deluxe version of the album takes the form of a casebound book
with additional photography, original scanned lyrics and artwork from
Damon, alongside a clear vinyl version of the album and a bonus 7”
featuring an exclusive song from the recording sessions, plus a high
quality digital download. Also available on black vinyl and cassette.
 A recent special Globe Theatre performance in London sold out
immediately and was streamed globally to 72 countries around the world
and received rave reviews across the board.

Emerging from the ashes of the band Church Of
Void, there is a new force rising up to pursue a
path in the name of doom. Fimir are set to release
their blistering debut album, ‘Tomb Of God’.
 Fimir were founded in 2019 by former Church Of
Void members G. Funeral, Magus Corvus, H.
Warlock, A.D. and Septic Apes’ drummer H.
Wizzard. From a mere spark in the dark and a
distant echo of forgotten riffs haunting in emptiness
from a collapsed doomstar of their former band,
Fimir got rid of their ghosts and started to work on
their first album right away, until the world went into
lockdown.
 The five-piece collective, hailing from the frozen
wastelands of Finland, used their time and
creativity wisely, and managed to put the final
touches on their upcoming debut, featuring six
heavy cosmic tracks unleashing an enthralling
blend of razor sharp riffage, haunting occult vibes,
ambient atmospheres and classic doom metal.
 For fans of Black Sabbath, Tiamat, Type O
Negative, Pentagram, Church Of Void, Reverend
Bizarre, Candlemass.
 LP on cyan coloured vinyl.

Blue Vinyl

After learning her craft at an after-hours club in her hometown of Santiago de Chile, a pivotal move to Milan at the end of 2015 proved to be the ticket that would propel Paula Tape into the European club circuit. Six years later Paula has made a name for herself as a purveyor of eclectic selections, stomping Italo beats, percussive balearic excursions and synth-heavy rarities, both through her international DJ sets and shows on Worldwide FM and Milan’s Radio Raheem.

With two EPs under her belt via Alzaya & SOBO, collaborations with Project Pablo, Tornado Wallace & Elias Mazian to boot, and standout singles on Permanent Vacation, Ransom Note Records and Rhythm Section International’s highly regarded 2020 ‘SHOUTS’ compilation, we welcome the announcement of a knockout four-tracker from the Chilean producer on the same Peckham-based label. In the last 12 months she’s taken the Mixmag Lab & Boiler Room by storm, and with a slew of international tour dates and forthcoming releases lined up, 2021 looks set to be Paula’s year.

“When I started working on the Astroturismo EP I didn't know the music I was writing was going to shape into an EP. Finalizing the first track "Body Nature" helped me a lot to orientate the correct use of all the music I have been producing during the lockdown months and Rhythm Section team was constantly supporting me to make me feel free to explore musically without needing to stick to club music. "Body Nature embodies strong energies, in a very personal way: I noted down those silly lyrics and kept singing the melody in my head for days, in the end, that drove me to create a groove that would work and transfer the mood I was feeling. This track is about feeling relief with dancing, whether in a private moment like I did in those days or in a public space, few easy moves to trigger positive energy and improve your emotional state.” ~ Paula

After learning her craft at an after-hours club in her hometown of Santiago de Chile, a pivotal move to Milan at the end of 2015 proved to be the ticket that would propel Paula Tape into the European club circuit. Six years later Paula has made a name for herself as a purveyor of eclectic selections, stomping Italo beats, percussive balearic excursions and synth-heavy rarities, both through her international DJ sets and shows on Worldwide FM and Milan’s Radio Raheem.

With two EPs under her belt via Alzaya & SOBO, collaborations with Project Pablo, Tornado Wallace & Elias Mazian to boot, and standout singles on Permanent Vacation, Ransom Note Records and Rhythm Section International’s highly regarded 2020 ‘SHOUTS’ compilation, we welcome the announcement of a knockout four-tracker from the Chilean producer on the same Peckham-based label. In the last 12 months she’s taken the Mixmag Lab & Boiler Room by storm, and with a slew of international tour dates and forthcoming releases lined up, 2021 looks set to be Paula’s year.

“When I started working on the Astroturismo EP I didn't know the music I was writing was going to shape into an EP. Finalizing the first track "Body Nature" helped me a lot to orientate the correct use of all the music I have been producing during the lockdown months and Rhythm Section team was constantly supporting me to make me feel free to explore musically without needing to stick to club music. "Body Nature embodies strong energies, in a very personal way: I noted down those silly lyrics and kept singing the melody in my head for days, in the end, that drove me to create a groove that would work and transfer the mood I was feeling. This track is about feeling relief with dancing, whether in a private moment like I did in those days or in a public space, few easy moves to trigger positive energy and improve your emotional state.” ~ Paula

1st solo album in 5 years, recorded, produced and written by Richard H. Kirk, founding member of Cabaret Voltaire, the album was constructed at Western Works, Sheffield, over a three-year period. Work began with recording on midi and analogue synthesisers before guitar and vocals (Kirk's first use of vocals in 10 years) were added. Kirk explains, A lot of time was spent on post-production, editing and then living with the material and I think it benefited from stepping back and then revisiting after doing other things.'
Although not an overtly political album, it's hard not to hear a reaction to recent years' world events in the overwhelming urgency of 'Nuclear Cloud' or '20 Block Lockdown' or in 'New Lucifer / The Truth Is Bad'. When questioned Kirk admits, It's not really a political album, but over recent years - during the recording - all manner of horrorshow events have cropped up and now we seem to be in a rerun of the Cold War with Russia back as the Bogeyman.' The album's title, Dasein (a German word meaning being there' or presence', often translated into English as existence'), is a fundamental concept in existentialism. Kirk explains culture succumbs to nostalgia in much the same way that an individual looks back wistfully to adolescence or childhood - the nostalgia is partly for a time when he or she wasn't nostalgic, just lived purely IN THE NOW.' In 2014, during the recording period, Kirk began work on Cabaret Voltaire live and so the two projects coexisted in tandem. Although Kirk's varied projects have always existed separate to one another, says Kirk, in the past some solo works served as a blueprint for what I did later with Cabaret Voltaire'. Billed as a performance consisting solely of machines, multi-screen projections and Richard H. Kirk, Cabaret Voltaire recently announced the first UK performance in over 20 years at the Devil's Arse Cave (aka Peak Cavern) in Castleton, Derbyshire on Saturday 29 April. Kirk will perform entirely new material for a performance relevant to the 21st Century with no nostalgia. RECENT PRAISE FOR RICHARD H. KIRK One of the UK's pioneering electronic agitators' - Electronic Sound In five decades of key-bashing and knob-twisting, Richard H. Kirk has remained at the vanguard of electronic music' - FACT ...decades of electronic innovation, forged in Sheffield' - Uncut
Kirk was toying with distorted realities from 1970s onwards' - Record Collector

Siv Disa, the Chinese-American New York singer currently residing in Iceland has announced her debut album, Dreamhouse on UK based label Trapped Animal. Dreamhouse is available on Sky Blue 180GSM vinyl with a printed inner sleeve including song lyrics. The outer sleeve is printed uncoated high-quality card. Also available on Digipak CD and via Digital streaming and DL. The artwork was conceived and built by Siv Disa. It features a dreamy hand-painted dollhouse—the front image is a photograph of a tangerine sherbet living-room-in-miniature, complete with a teacup table and a glowing salt shaker lamp. The artist herself is hanging on the wall ensconced in a gilded frame overlooking the tableau. The back cover explores the same dollhouse, from a distance: there’s a garden in the basement, a maze of threads in the gallery, and a small ocean in the bathroom. A callback to the intricate maximalism of 70’s psychedelia and Neo-art nouveau, there are layers of details embedded into each room for the viewer to discover. Dreamhouse is a wild journey through its creator's psyches. It moves from gentle break-up songs to dark nights out in the fluorescent haze of nighttime New York and Reykjavik city filled with deep hallucinogenic beats... before it finally closes on a song infused with the isolation of 2020. The first part of Dreamhouse was recorded in upstate New York with collaborator and producer Sam and the sea, they both chose to relocate when the pandemic hit the US – and regrouped at a studio cabin in the wilderness to complete Dreamhouse and take time to escape the ensuing storm we all faced. It’s important to understand, whilst a product finalised during lockdown – this album was largely conceived way before the lockdown or pandemic, this is Siv Disa’s debut album and it was always going to be luminous and otherworldly, as with its creators. Quotes : “psychedelic pop that converges the encompassing textures of Broadcasts with Joanna Newsom’s pleasantly off-kilter melodies” - Line Of Best Fit // “...a haunting feel, while her warm, soft voice invites the listener into even the darkest of stories…Fear is an embodiment of this distinct sound she’s mastered.” Audiofemme // “profound lyrics flow from an ethereal plane, it’s an utterly captivating offering” Get In Her Ears

The Acclaimed Arab-Levantine Contemporary Music & Art Project Returns With Its First New Album Since 2018. Led By Lebanese-Canadian Producer Radwan Ghazi Moumneh, Whose Many Credits Include Matana Roberts, Big | Brave, Sarah Davachi, Suuns. Featuring A Different Guest Collaboration On Each Track, Including Tim Hecker, Moor Mother, Beirut, Lucrecia Dalt, Greg Fox. Europe & Canada Tour In November 2021 With Experimental 16mm Analog Films By New Duo Member Erin Weisgerber.

One of the most renowned and uncompromising entities working in 21st century avant-garde Arab-Levantine art and music, Jerusalem In My Heart presents a new album of vital and haunting electronics and electroacoustics, framed by founder and producer Radwan Ghazi Moumneh’s spoken and sungArabic, buzuk-playing and sound design. Qalaq is the most distilled, variegated and finely wrought Jerusalem In My Heart album to date – featuring a different guest/collaborator on every track, yet as cohesive, emotionally resonant, sonically adventurous and narratively powerful as any release in JIMH’s celebrated discography. Guests across the album's 13 tracks include Moor Mother, Tim Hecker, Lucrecia Dalt, Greg Fox, Beirut, Alanis Obomsawin, Rabih Beaini and many more. “Qalaq” is an Arabic word with many shades of meaning but Moumneh particularly intends it as “deep worry” – on various obvious global levels, but also specifically with respect to Lebanon: its collapsing domestic politics, economy and infrastructure; the tragedy and aftermath of the 2020 Beirut port explosion; the intractable geography and geopolitics that continue to condemn the country to corruption, disruption, destabilization and violence. Moumneh writes: “The Side Two tracks are all named ‘Qalaq’ and then numbered, representing the degrees of layered and complex violence that Lebanon and the Levant have reached in the last couple of years, from the complete and utter failure of the Lebanese sectarian state that has driven the economy to a grinding halt, to its disastrous handling of the migrant influx from neighbouring failed states, to the endemic corruption that led to the August 2020 port explosion, to the latest chapter of Palestinian erasure and yet another brutally asymmetrical and disproportionate bombing campaign on Gaza.” Qalaq is shaped by a "dismantled orchestra" ofmusical collaborations, forged through long-distance file exchange during lockdown winter 2020-21 (and the inverted companion to JIMH's previous 2018full-length Daqa'iqTudaiq, which featured a 15-piece orchestra recorded live in Beirut). Moumneh initially through composed Qalaq in purposely stark and skeletal form, then gave each guest artist a section to decompose, edit, re-interpret and recompose as they desired, working their stems back into his own mixes for each piece/section and moulding newfound coherences in the overall work. The result is The album artwork with a front cover colour photograph by Myriam Boulous capturing a scene during the Beirut October Revolution of 2019.











k 11 Qalaq 6 (w/ VÍZ Réka Csiszér)