Search:vocal session

TThe melodically adventurous soul of Leon Ware continues its expression in his final opus Rainbow Deux, released on double vinyl on September 13th. The album features new songs recorded and performed by Leon before his health turned, leading to his transition on February 23rd 2017. Co-produced by Taylor Graves, it has stellar musical contributions from the likes of Kamasi Washington, Thundercat, Ronald Bruner Jr, Rob Bacon and Wayne Linsey.

Taylor Graves came into Leon’s musical family in 2002 when he, his brother Cameron and the Bruner brothers Ronald Jr and Stephen (Thundercat) were playing along with their schoolmate Kamasi at an L.A. jazz club. Taylor, Cameron, Ronald and Stephen became Leon’s band for his debut shows in Japan in 2002 and Taylor continued to work with Leon as his mentor and collaborator over the next 15 years.

“Leon was ALWAYS writing something or developing his musical palette” his wife Carol Ware tells us, so it’s impossible to pinpoint any single moment of Rainbow Deux’s genesis. Six of the songs go back to 2012/2013 and were released in 2014 as part of Sigh, a Japan-only CD collection heavy with Rob Bacon’s tasteful licks and Wayne Linsey’s piano vibes. The rest of the material comes from Leon’s sessions with Taylor.

Describing Leon’s and his process, here’s Taylor: “We’d start by having some great homemade food! Then a glass of wine ‘to slow down time’. After we’d have our fill and smoked our joints we’d go into his studio room to listen and create.”

The album was finished-up around August of 2016 in a back-and-forth between Leon and his go-to mastering engineer Toni Economides in the UK.

Leon worked on Rainbow Deux with life’s greatest challenge looming over him, yet it is one of his most focused and cohesive solo offerings since the 1980s. The entire record is a vibe: mellow, deep and smooth as silk. The lyrical themes are eternal, and the music is elegant, soulful and sensual.

The album opens with the hypnotic throb of “For The Rainbow”, coming on like a percussive, slow-mo house shuffle. Gilles Peterson is a fan. The exotic “Let Love In” follows, with its gradual-build Island Funk, intricate guitar picks and sassy female vocals. It explodes when it hits its stride. “Sigh” is the stylish slow jam close-out to side A. Serene guitars and polished drums create neck snapping funk, with a swaggering finger-snap strut.

Side B opens with the easy-burning broken-beaty “The Darkest Night”, the centrepiece of the album. Kamasi Washington’s lurking sax, restrained and beautiful, unfurls into the dank, sticky atmosphere of Thundercat’s signature creeping bass laid over his brother’s in-the-pocket drums. Leon’s vocals are perfect, a masterclass in seductive sax-soul.

“Surrender Now” conjures waves of vocals to swell and wash over the glossy piano, subtly bumping hip-hop drums and bubbling synth-bass stabs. It’s got the trademark Leon layers. “Summer Is Her Name” has Kamasi’s effortless, melancholic sunshine sax give way to rising tempos and propulsive rhythms.

“Are You Ready” is a total highlight (and we’ve been playing it out for ages). It’s a nimble groove of piano and synth rolling around Theo Croker’s sensual trumpet playing. Digi-soul at its finest. With lush G-Funk sensibilities “Streets (Keep Me Runnin’)” sounds like a lost Dam-Funk produced gem. All tough kicks and snares and street sounds. Leon’s hood pass will be forever intact.

“Samba Dreams” is the first of two tracks that bring a little Rio magic to Rainbow Deux. Leon created a whole body of work in partnership with Brazilian legend Marcos Valle that includes “Rockin’ You Eternally” - a hit for Leon - and “Estrelar” – a hit for Marcos. Leon channels his obvious love of Brazilian music here through more of Croker’s sumptuous trumpet, played over loose percussion. “Let’s Go Deep” is next up. A dreamy between-the-sheets quiet storm anthem and a real showcase for Leon’s vocals.

The dripping, honeyed harp-funk of “We Should Be Laughin’” marks the star turn of the brilliant Kimbra. Leon first met her on-stage to do an impromptu duet of “Inside My Love” during an open-air celebration of Minnie Riperton in July of 2014. Kimbra was working with Taylor on her music and he brought her to Leon’s house to do some writing. This was the result.

Warm synths radiate shuffling samba soul on “Wishful Thinking” as those Brazilian rhythms return to bring Rainbow Deux to a close.

During an apartment move Leon and Carol rediscovered some watercolours Leon had done years ago. One of these paintings had been dubbed “Deux Hearts” and Leon decided it should be on the cover of Rainbow Deux, getting as far as approving a draft concept for the artwork.

Carol has overseen developing that draft into the final gatefold sleeve. It brings together quotes, photographs and tributes in what is a reflection on the music, relationships and philosophy of the sensual minister.

Gerry “the gov” Brown, Leon’s long-time sound engineer, was by his side throughout the project, recording and mixing. The album was mastered by Toni Economides and Simon Francis’ additional sensitive work makes sure this double LP sounds like it should on vinyl.

Be With’s first ever release was Leon’s eponymous LP. Re-issuing that album planted the seed of a relationship that has grown to grant us the privilege of presenting his crowning achievement. We know that Leon’s fans all over the Earth will love Rainbow Deux. But we also hope that this album, the final entry in a phenomenal body of work, will reach new fans and find fresh conduits for the spirit of this oft-unsung hero of Soul.

Leon always said “they will get it when I'm gone.”

He also said that “the spirit never dies”…

Few albums have treated human voice and drone as a whole entity like ABoneCroneDrone, the third in a trilogy for Real World Records that this record closed back in 1996. In Sheila Chandra’s own words “it was about the gateways between vocal techniques from different cultures and how it was possible to cross between them within a single word or phrase.”

Indipop Recordings founder Steve Coe, probably best known for helping to popularise the term World Music in the early eighties, produced and worked with extreme accuracy along with Chandra on all drones and set a new industry standard of what was possible in the treatment of voice. With the help of bagpipes, didgeridoos and guitars, ABoneCroneDrone puts drones under the microscope and encourages listeners to retrain their ears to hear the nuances that musicians have always heard in them. Emitting low, chantlike waves, Chandra sings deep spaced atonal words while haunting chord sounds flow and drones slowly interact with listener.

This is the first vinyl pressing. It includes a fold-out insert with a new Sheila Chandra interview, original sleeve notes edited by Chandra herself and unseen pictures taken from the 1996 sessions. Limited to 500 copies, no digital release this time.

“The artistry of ABoneCroneDrone is in the attention to detail. The album is beautifully performed, mixed and compiled with intelligence and strong sense of structure. It makes good use of a listener’s valuable time while issuing a challenge to hear in a fresh way.” John L. Walters, The Wire issue 150.

Strut presents an all-time classic of South African music, the definitive remastered edition of Miriam Makeba’s ‘Pata Pata’, her first album recorded for Reprise in 1966.
The album marked a significant international breakthrough for Makeba. Moving to the US after the anti-apartheid film ‘Come Back, Africa’ gained international attention and staying there in exile, she quickly built her career in New York during
the ‘60s, mentored by Harry Belafonte. Signing with Reprise after a period with RCA, she returned to one of her older songs: “I wrote ‘Pata Pata’ back in 1956, back in South Africa,” remembered Makeba in her autobiography. “It was a fun little song and I was thinking of a dance that we do at home (“pata” means ‘touch” in Zulu and Xhosa).” Originally a hit in South Africa with her early vocal harmony group the Skylarks, the new recording, produced by Jerry Ragovoy, brought a lighter uptempo R’nB arrangement, adding some English lyrics. “It was my first truly big seller. All of
a sudden, people who never knew I had been in America since 1959 were asking me to be on their television shows and play at their concert halls during 1967. In the discotheques, they invented a new dance called the ‘Pata Pata’ where couples dance
apart and then reach out and touch each other. I went to Argentina for a concert and, across South America, they are singing my song.” The track peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 at no. 12 and the album. Other songs In the album included a version of the traditional Xhosa classic, ‘Click Song Number One’ (‘Qongqothwane’), the atmospheric ‘West Wind’, later famously
covered by her friend Nina Simone, and a version of Tilahun Gessesse’s ‘Yetentu Tizaleny’ which Makeba learned on a trip to Addis to perform for Haile Selassie at the Organisation Of African Unity. Mastered by The Carvery from the original reel to reel tapes, ‘Pata Pata’ is released in its mono and stereo versions for the first time. Physical formats feature brand new sleeve notes alongside rare photos from the time of recording and session details.
The album is released on 6th September on 2LP, 1CD, streaming and digital

Untameable Anatolian feline fuzzy folk funk finally uncaged. A spontaneous Turkish-Norwegian-Dutch expedition, where seafaring jazz cats entangled with fugitive roadies and Tee-Set mods, makes the story of Durul Gence’s highly anticipated/ill-fated Asia Minor Mission group the stuff of lost-rock legend and remains one of Turkish music’s great “what ifs?” The black cat is finally out of the bag...

Having forged a celebrity status as one of Turkey’s premier percussionists and bandleaders, Durul Gence assembled the underground fusion group known as Asia Minor Mission (AMM) in early 1972 (with Irfan Sumer, Oguz Durukan and Ugur Dikmen) while trying to escape the constant daze of paparazzi camera flashes that followed him across Turkey. During a far-fetched post-gig brainstorm the group pondered relocating to Norway (based on fact that none of them had ever visited the country) when a local seaman who claimed to have recording studio connections in Oslo overheard them. Enlisting the roadie services of a streetwise Istanbul taxi driver friend on the run from the police AMM took the plunge, accepting the sailor’s offer of passage on his next sailing.
In these new idyllic surroundings, the same region that played host to fellow Turkish percussionist Okay Temiz, Durul found the peace he desired discovering a muse in Norway’s welcoming creative climate. Much like Barıs Manço and Mogollar in France, Cem Karaca and Gökçen Kaynatan in Germany, Gence’s relationship with Norway rekindled a passion for composition in ways he couldn’t have imagined in his homeland, opening doors thought previously unreachable. As a potential prodigal son for Anadolu pop Durul joined a wider pop-cultural diaspora alongside electronic pioneer Ilhan Mimaroglu, Tülay German (aka Tuly Sand) Kardasllar’s “Alex” Wiska (collaborator with Krautrockers Can) and Maffy Falay from the band Sevda.
Despite a blooming fan base and original repertoire the Nordic dream was not to be and after two years without a studio session, AMM called it quits during a tour of Holland after which Durukan and Dikmen went home to join Cem Karaca’s band Dervisan - Dikmen’s keyboards feature on Finders Keepers releases by Turkish singer Selda (FKR011). Retreating to the city of Delft to ponder his next move, Durul met Peter Tetteroo, former vocalist from successful Dutch psych-pop combo Tee-Set, who also found himself in a lonely boat after the demise of his long-running group. As an AMM fan, Tetteroo suggested they record two Gence penned AMM demos for Dutch Philips signed exotic songbird Sasi Naz at Peter’s home studio. A session was hastily arranged and a talented, yet unconfirmed, guitarist was enlisted. Durul maintains it was the work of Ferry Lever from Tee-Set/After Tea, something Ferry has denied, and with Tetteroo having died in 2002 the question remains. Upon entering the humble studio Durul stumbled upon a skeletal drum kit. Lacking hi-hat, toms or even a snare he cobbled together a bongo and a tambourine and set to work. Together, under the watchful eye of Tetteroo, the pair jammed stripped back versions of the AMM live staples Black Cat and Boo Song, with an added freak factor otherwise missing from their jazzier approach. Laid down in just 30 minutes, with Gence’s accomplished guide vocals and fuzzy overdubs, the rudimentary but professional recordings never made it to Philips execs and the tapes returned to Turkey under Durul’s arm as one of only two documented AMM recordings (the other being a live performance in Oslo’s Hennie-Onstad Art Centre in May 1973).
Unintended for commercial release, curiouser and curiouser, Finders Keepers proudly present these previously unheard tracks sourced directly from original tapes, which stand as a testament to the inimitable talent of Gence and the only studio document of the mythical AMM Turk jazz funk troubadours, representing a pop-psych Hollandaise holiday postcard which has taken five decades to be delivered. 45 revolutions later... The cat’s got the cream.

“Following on from Homenagem, Lugar Alto’s first critically acclaimed project, the São Paulo label's new endeavour is the reissue of another neglected masterpiece. This time, it’s “Poema da Gota Serena” turn by Zé Eduardo Nazário from 1982. This unique work gathers elements of free jazz, Brazilian Northeastern rhythms, Asian percussive instruments and electronics.

Zé Eduardo is a virtuoso drummer and percussionist with a prolific career as a musician and teacher. He was introduced to music in his youth and started playing professionally at the age of thirteen. In the late 60’s he was a regular at the famous Totem night club in São Paulo, where he performed alongside the pianist Tenório Jr. and other exceptional instrumentalists. It was there that he met Guilherme Franco, and together they formed the Grupo Experimental de Percussão. This period defined Nazário’s interest in different sonorities involving percussion, and he broke away from the more traditional genres, such as bossa nova and jazz. Over time, this distinctiveness in sound and playing allowed him to create his own path which culminated in an extensive number of remarkable works, including the colorful and psychedelic “M andala”, which examines Indian and hippie themes. He also played with Hermeto Pascoal’s group and joined him and Jaques Morelenbaum for the recording of the cult classic “Imyra, Tayra, Ypy” by Taiguara. For Egberto Gismonti’s “Nó Caipira”, Nazário performed with the khene, a mouth organ from Laos, a present from Gismonti himself.

But it is Nazário’s work with the 1976 collective Grupo Um which is his most well-known, who, during their 6-year legacy recorded, amongst movie and ballet soundtracks, 3 albums: “Marcha Sobre a Cidade”, “Reflexões Sobre a Crise do Desejo” and “Flor de Plástico Incinerada”. The combo is considered one of the most innovative formations of its time, unusually combining electro-acoustic elements, jazz and Brazilian traditional music.

Poema da Gota Serena was Zé Eduardo's first solo project and it was financed by the legendary Lira Instrumental, a collaboration between the ground-breaking venue, label and publisher for the São Paulo avant-garde, Lira Paulistana, along with the always interesting Continental Records, home to such luminaries as Tom Zé. The album was offered as a package deal simultaneously with the production of “Flor de Plástico Incinerada”, ensuring 2 studio sessions at JV studios in October 1982.

Each side of the album explores different duets which, with its suite formated tracks, give the album the feel of a cohesive whole. The first half of the A side, “Energia dos Três Mundos”, is shared with the improvised saxophone of Cacau. Nazário delves into free jazz rhythms and plays his drums with a rolling and tumbling swing, using the kit in full, demonstrating the power of Brazilian jazz fusion. The second half of the suite takes us into a more tranquil mode. “Só Prá Ouvir”, demonstrates Zé’s mastery on the glockenspiel, and Indian percussion instruments, such as the tabla and mridangam. Cacau, on his side, switches his saxophone for more delicate dancing flute driven passages, equal parts northeastern rhythms and deep Amazonian indigenous influences. The B side, with “Prá Pensar / Prá Sentir e Prá Contar”, contrasts heavily with the A side’s more organic and natural feel. In Prá Pensar Lelo Nazários’s synth clusters and electronic blasts strangely interact with the exploring, wandering percussion. This track leads into the sublime “Prá Sentir e Prá Contar” where South Indian inspired vocals, performed by Zé Eduardo, accompany the graceful synth chords and fluttering percussion. The result is a hypnotic, otherworldly feel to the music that is infectious and takes the listener on an extraordinary journey.
With Poema da Gota Serena, it is possible to hear music that extrapolates the lines of the avant-garde and popular music. It is an album the demonstrates that Brazilian jazz fusion can be both spiritual and challenging at the same time.

All the tracks were expertly remastered by Lelo Nazário, directly from the original tapes, maintaining the high quality of production that Lugar Alto are becoming renowned for. All the artwork was reinterpreted by the São Paulo design studio Sometimes Always, including an exclusive insert and unpublished images.

It seems that Lugar Alto have managed to excavate yet another gem from the seemingly bottomless Brazilian mines. Long may they continue to do what they do so well.”

Analog and digital electronic devices, vocals

All tracks written, produced & mixed by MIRCO MAGNANI and LUKASZ TRZCINSKI
Recorded & mixed in Berlin at Undogmatisch in 2018/19
Mastered by KEN KARTER at DECODE STUDIO, Berlin
Publishing by KIZMAIAZ
Original artwork VALENTINA BARDAZZI
Sleeve design LAPO BELMESTIERI/THE ANTI-B NYC

“Lumiraum” is a neologism, the suffix AUM included in the title, according to the Hindu tradition is the basis of their ethical and spiritual conception.
Its meaning involves the passage and overcoming of four levels of knowledge that are expressed by the three letters A-U-M, plus the extension of the M as maintenance of the vibration.
Operating in a similar way Lukasz and Mirco through sessions of various kinds have taken a similar empirical path through improvisation, coding, editing and re-elaboration and finally mixing.
Recalling in their imaginary the spirituality of ancient cultures, symbologies and concepts that had analogue cosmogonic conceptions of origin of the universe. An imaginary that slips into a remote and anachronistic world.
“Lumiraum” also means a space of light, a circumscribed place in which a message is received and from which a spark arises, an idea.

Georgian artist Sophia Saze releases her debut two-part album 'Self' on Francis Harris' Kingdoms imprint, with part one dropping on cassette this June. "The record embodies my story of duality within the context of identity, insomuch as the idea that every person has a deeper layer we don't show on the surface."
Born in Tbilisi, Sophia Saze is the daughter of political refugees who's spent her life living in numerous different countries before eventually finding home in Brooklyn. Finding it difficult to find her own identity due to living a nomadic lifestyle, the classically trained musician became entangled with electronic music before becoming a key player within New York's nightlife scene and launching her Dusk & Haze imprint in 2017.
A reflection of her struggles throughout life, 'Self' is very much a memoir of the many different places she's lived during her journey, including Georgia, Russia, USA, France and Canada. Contrasting to her recent productions, which are geared more towards the dancefloor, her debut longplayer is downtempo and features a medley of musical influences - mixed in two parts and released as a concept album on cassette. Maintaining a sonically raw feel throughout, 'Self' draws the analogy of analog to modern day digital culture whilst also taking a stance against perfection, whether integrating the distance crackle of her machines or intentional off-beat piano notes in minor. Part One was conceived, for the most part, during a sleepless yet inspired 48-hour studio session. Processed field recordings accompany samples from her childhood, such as soviet cartoons and intimate VHS recordings of her family. The result is a well-seasoned and personal story portrayed in fourteen tracks mixed together.
"I feel the element of patience is somewhat of a lost commodity in our generation, particularly for albums. We're consumed by track to track interpretations and constantly searching for the next instant stimulation. With this record, I wanted to reiterate the idea that if you don't have the willingness to sit through the whole thing, then you're not stepping into it with the right mindset to begin with."
Every artist who collaborated on the record is handpicked, such as vocalist Ricardo Rivera. The final production was also mixed by Francis Harris himself. All of their involvement means they share a fragment of the concept.

George & Glen Miller’s 1979 hit “Easing” - encapsulating late 70s New York in its blend of disco, soul and Caribbean soca... BIG tune! Version on the flip..

The Miller brothers’ musical journey began in Trinidad and Tobago in the early 70s. During their teenage years they formed The Groovy Millers - a five piece band made up of George, Glen and their three siblings. After a chance meeting with Lord Shorty, they went on to collaborate with one of the Soca stars of the time and firmly plant their feet in the Soca scene of the musically rich Caribbean island.

Of the five siblings it was George and Glen that pursued a career in music, and in the late 70s the two brothers made the move to North America to develop their music style. Disco dominated the airwaves at the time and a studio session with the prolific Frankie McIntosh resulted in the masterpiece that is Easing. Drawing influence from the blossoming disco and soul scene, George and Glen added Caribbean flavour to the New York sound to startling effect. Soft, subtle keys and guitars are punctuated with layered trumpet and violin riffs, complimenting George’s silken, restrained vocal. Frankie McIntosh’s arrangement shines through with what might be his finest work, placing this track on the mantle with other New York classics of the time.

As a visual artist and ambient composer, Tor Lundvall's work often recontextualizes the familiarity of everyday life through abstraction and space. Starting with the snapshot of a moment, Lundvall extracts its underlying complexity of the seemingly mundane and gives sleeping suggestion a presence and purpose. Mainly working sans vocals, Lundvall returned to voice exploration for 2018's A Dark Place, a somber, dark synth album that merged his mastery of textural ambience with traditional pop structures.

Rescued from old DAT tapes A Strangeness In Motion: Early Pop Recordings 1989-1999 are some of Lundvall's earliest completed synth pop works which have remained unreleased until now.

Though Lundvall's work throughout the collection has the recognizable ambient bones and sensibilities he has refined throughout his career, many of the tracks call back to the synth-driven pop of Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, The Human League and New Order, with the common thread being the sparse density and mood created by reservation and the lonely impulse to twist convention, not to rip it up and repurpose it. Rather than 10 disparate ideas, Lundvall's curation of A Strangeness In Motion: Early Pop Recordings 1989-1999 feels like excerpts from a broader work, allowing the listener to fill in the holes and ladder up to his larger themes and concepts, perhaps coloring his prior works in new hues and tones.

'For years I dismissed these songs as naive and youthful relics, but I've grown much fonder of them in recent years along with the memories they evoke,' he says of the decade spanning collection of tracks, many of which were sketched out in his duo with Drew Sullivan, After The Outing. 'Original One', 'Procession Day', 'The Clearing', and 'The Melting Hour' are present here as solo reworkings, originally culled from his sessions with Sullivan. The remaining songs were ideas originally considered for Passing Through Alone (1997) and its proposed follow up, provisionally and playfully titled Femalamania.

'The title was summing up my girl problems at the time and also a silly word spin on Robyn Hitchcock's Fegmania!' he says. 'Sadly, the project was abandoned—a rare decision for me and perhaps the only time I've scrapped an album entirely.'

Following the success of Vol 2 the bearded man in disguise returns with another powerful 4 tracker for the labels 3rd release. Vol 3 keeps the energy levels in the red with catchy bass stabs, sexy vocals and feel good synths. All pieces of course carry the signature Soul in diguise dressed with lashings of Frazer's signature shuffling 909 drums. A perfect record for the peak time dance session.

Compilation from British post-punk/Futurist group Ghosts of Dance formed in North Devon in 1981.

The members were Yvette Norris (vocals), Kevin Maynard (drums), Daryl Hunt (bass), Mark Butcher (keyboards), and Pete Heaton (guitar). Ghosts of Dance took their name from the song 'Ghosts' by David Sylvian which appeared on the first Japan album. After playing an early gig in Barnstaple, a gentleman in the audience named Richard Newman expressed his interest to start a record label and release their music. Richard scheduled a recording session for the band at Otter Studios in Georgeham with producer Harry Williamson, son of Henry Williamson, member of progressive rock band Gong. The debut single ‘Ghosts of Dance’ was released in 1982 on Plastic Canvas Records to mixed reviews as it was very different from anything being released at the time.

This compilation includes their debut single along with 9 bonus tracks recorded between 1981 and 1983 on vinyl for the first time. The band call themselves “Vocal Trance Music” on the 7” sleeve credits and it’s accurate. Melancholic pop with gloomy atmosphere and dream-like melodies. The final track shows the band moving in a New Romantic direction with Mark taking over the main vocals. All songs have been remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. Each copy is housed in a jacket featuring original artwork by John Hurford and includes an insert with photos, lyrics and liner notes by Pete Heaton.

Pangia was composed of Barry Gun (vocals), Jim Daniel (Drums), Tony Cimorosi (Bass), Cliff Korman (Keys), Roberto Santos (percussion) and Marlon Graves (Guitar).
Influenced by Funk, Jazz and R&B and with some world music mixed into the musical gumbo, Tony started writing songs for the band with Barry Gun writing most of the lyrics.

Rosemary Santos met Tony at a recording session he was working on with latin singer Juan Lan Franko and liked Tony’s arrangements. She approached Tony with the idea of creating a record company to feature him as an artist and producer. Rosemary then created Man-Rose Records with Manny Montero and financed Pangia’s first release. “Tell Me” and “Dancin And Singin” were recorded by Bob Blank at Blank recording studio NYC
n 1984. It was the only release on Man-Rose Records.

Dark Star Safari, a newly formed group featuring Samuel Rohrer, Jan Bang, Erik Honoré and Eivind Aarset, present its eponymous recording debut, an evocative song-driven album. These songs conjure shadows of memory, clouds of dreaming and silhouettes of foreboding through the album’s layered, many-textured fabrics and Jan Bang's silken delivery of Erik Honoré's acute lyrics. Dark Star Safari is the work of four kindred spirits, their open modus operandi, and a remarkably interconnected creative nerve system. Key to their collaboration is an organic freedom that enables the music “to fill itself in", to be self-actualizing via the musicians as medium. The music of the 10 songs resulted from a two-stage process: an initial phase of free flowing open improvi- sation, and a subsequent exploratory phase where hidden potenti- als were discovered and nurtured. The groundwork of the album’s music originates from a session initiated by Samuel Rohrer, who invited Jan Bang and Eivind Aarset to the renowned Candy Bomber studio in Berlin. The ses- sion was run under the imaginative craftsmanship of sound engi- neer Ingo Krauss, who worked in the famous Conny Plank stu- dio, and its recording and mixing employed sophisticated use of vintage analogue equipment alongside cutting edge digital pro- cesses. This meeting opened the door for something larger to emerge. The group did not settle for just the outcome of the initi- al open improvisation. They were driven to dig deeper, to atten- tively examine and manipulate the material, in order to discover what it had to offer. This caused a creational chain reaction, forcefully spreading across the group. During this second phase, Jan Bang, while meditating upon the possibilities and reach of the improvised material, felt a strong urge to give additional shape and colour to it by singing. Thus, he organically stepped into the role of vocalist, a role he had not pursued since the early days of his musical career. He sent the results to Erik Honoré, who immediately was inspired by its po- tential, quickly penning lyrics and providing the project with its name. Honoré composed two additional songs, Mordechai and Fault Line, and thus rounded the project out towards a fully reali- zed opus. The group continued this back and forth process, with Samuel Rohrer and Eivind Aarset bringing in fine-tuning and e nrichment to the song structures and textures.

(Limited edition of 300 copies on clear & black marbled vinyl with full printed sleeve and textured coloured printed insert)

This is the 1st vinyl release on a quiet RIOT, an independent electronic music label based in Scotland.

Following his Interferenza cassette for Osiris Music, Berlin-based sound artist Adam Winchester returns with a new body of work that sees him embracing ever more forthright rhythms while adhering to his established lines of sonic enquiry.

With roots in the Bristol dubstep scene and a long-standing partnership with Christopher Jarman in Dot Product, Winchester has spent the past few years investigating alternative methods of sound generation that deal in hidden electromagnetic frequencies and spectral tones found lurking in circuitry. Bringing these extremities back to a more structured focus, Muutto is a highly personal work that captures the period of transition as he moved from Bristol to Berlin.

While the finely sculpted tonality and artful distortion of his recent work is plain to hear throughout, Muutto is also grounded in arrangement and melody, weaving a tangible narrative that pivots around steely rhythmic architecture, nodding to his roots in club music without expressing anything explicitly 'dancefloor.' Even at its most physical, as on the weighted march of 'Hold,' the emphasis is on atmosphere and mood, no matter how heavy the drums fall. In the distant murmurs of pads and poignant vocal threads, the bittersweet emotional backdrop to the record comes through in abundance.

There's space afforded for the more avant-garde tendencies in Winchester's music too. 'Metaphors' is caked in guttural feedback that comes on like a particularly noisy Albini studio session strapped to a chassis of the swampiest blues rock lurch you're likely to hear all year.

In its needlepoint detail, broad scope of sound palettes and potent expression, Muutto is an accomplished offering, but more significant is the way these facets are bound together by immediacy and form that transcend the freeform experimentation many of Winchester's traits are drawn from.

'a quiet RIOT' is an electronic music label based in Livingston, Scotland orchestrated by Nomad and is the sub-label of the highly renowned 'RIOT Radio Records.'

Since 20th February 2015, Nomad has run his own very successful fortnightly internet techno radio show called the "RIOT Radio Show.' Each show has a resident warm up set then a further hour with a wicked guest, the majority of whom are among the world's top electronic artists. The show gets thousands of listeners on each transmission with every set recorded exclusively for it. You will not hear them anywhere else.

A hoard of very well-known and simply stunning acts always feature on the show along with a whole host of very talented local music makers.

This was the build up to the record label being launched in April 2016 that will show-case major acts and amazing local talent.

serenitatem, the fifteenth installment of FRKWYS, RVNG Intl.'s collaboration series pairing intergenerational artists in creative conversation, joins Visible Cloaks with Yoshio Ojima and Satsuki Shibano, two trailblazers of the Japanese avantgarde music and visual arts scenes of the 1980s and 90s.

Yoshio Ojima began his career as a composer of environmental and ambient music, with a particular interest, and optimism, in the possibilities of generative software. His compositional pursuit of human synthesis with computerized forms was realized in its fullest potential alongside Satsuki Shibano, a pianist renowned for her interpretations of Erik Satie and Claude Debussy. Together, they were among a handful of influential Japanese artists whose innovations still resonate, if not more vibrantly than ever, well beyond the tightly-knit scene's original core. In the early 90s, Ojima was among the programmers of the influential satellite radio experiment St. Giga, a constantly-evolving sonic landscape that combined field recordings and sound collage with occasional readings of Japanese poetry. Satsuki was a regular reader for the station. This musical terrarium bloomed out of sight in a small Tokyo studio, a greenhouse of sound with no set start or finish time that audiences could tune into, absorb, and immerse.

The perpetual flow state of St. Giga — recordings of which Ojima shared with Visible Cloaks — would be highly influential to serenitatem's constitution. As Visible Cloaks, the Portland, Oregon duo of Spencer Doran and Ryan Carlile have developed their own set of creative strategies that form an aesthetic fuse point between human intention, aleatoric composition, and improvisation.

These are notions most recently reflected in 2017's Reassemblage and Lex, a respective album and EP in which the duo combined generative software and virtual representations of global instruments into lacy, interlocking patterns. Long time admirers of Ojima's work on albums like 1988's Une Collection Des Chainons, Doran and Carlile discovered after an online introduction that they shared with Yoshio and Satsuki an abiding interest in pre-classical composers, the Lovely Music, Ltd. label, and the British avant-garde, as well as a mutual respect for one another's techniques and processes.

The four musicians met in Tokyo, Japan at Sounduno Studios in December 2017, at the tail end of Visible Cloaks' first Japanese tour, to commence work on serenitatem. Leading up to the studio sessions, Doran and Carlile sent Ojima processed sound sketches recorded while on a European tour, which Yoshio would add to and return. Visible Cloaks would then fold Yoshio's edits back into the original compositions, which Doran and Carlile brought to the exploratory recording session. During that week together in Tokyo, the quartet made use of a number of creative strategies — 'echoing sound together,' as Yoshio puts it. Among the strategies, MIDI randomization gave the quartet melodic lines and what Doran calls 'randomized clouds,' or 'tightly grouped notes that become smeared tonal clusters functioning more like chords in themselves.' Carlile would also feed Ojima and Satsuki's text into Wotja, a generative music software which produced a MIDI language around which the quartet expanded their compositions.

'The aim,' Doran says of serenitatem, 'was to make a work that was not specifically ambient (or environmental), but something more multi-hued, weaving these deconstructive concepts into an album that has a deeper architecture underpinning it.' Accordingly, serenitatem is a marvelously sharp record, its sutures between human and machine virtually impossible to find but suggested everywhere you turn. The collaboration among Ojima, Satsuki, and Visible Cloaks is both musically and conceptually inseparable from the technology that made it possible. Throughout the album, Shibano's playing resonates like Satie's, her rhythms cascading like drops from leaves an hour after the rain. Overtones are stretched and warped like modeling clay, then spun around and shown off from multiple angles.

A single soaring note might seem to be suddenly plunged underwater, its richness of sound made shallow and its sharp edges blunted. Pittering chimes and rapidly warping vocal samples hang in the luxuriously glossy space, water trickles from ear-toear, familiar melodies rise from nothing and dissolve before they can be traced. With the depth of its emotional charge, serenitatem burns away the easy cynicism of the day, presenting itself as the kind of delocalized work of art the internet promised us decades ago — a synthesis of artistic visions, technological sophistication, futurist ambition, and, occasionally, ancient polyphony. Listening to it can feel a bit like tuning in to a 21st Century version of St. Giga: It's a place where the future still grows.

Visible Cloaks, Yoshio Ojima, and Satsuki Shibano's serenitatem, FRKWYS Vol. 15, will be available across LP, CD, and digital formats on April 5, 2019. The quartet will perform select live shows throughout 2019.

A prodigious guitarist at an early age, Willie George Hale earned the nickname "Little Beaver" from friends in family in Arkansas, remarking on his prominent teeth. Over the years Hale would make a name for himself as a reliable session guitarist, appearing on recordings by Betty Wright, Al Kooper, and Blowfly, and gradually developing his own distinct, rhythmic style of blues guitar playing. As the mid-70s approached Hale would embark on his own solo career, cutting albums and singles with Florida's TK Records, working alongside famed musicians like Jaco Pastorius, Benny Latimore, and Timmy Thomas. His career effectively ended in the 1980s with TK's collapse, but he would find new life in 2003 after performing on several Joss Stone albums, and his works would be sampled in hip-hop tunes by the likes of Jay-Z, Slum Village, and People Under The Stairs. Not long after his solo debut in 1972, Hale released the sophomore album Black Rhapsody, which did away with the vocals so Hale could put his own blues guitar chops at the front. Black Rhapsody featured a slew of original deep funk jams from Hale, as well as his own soulful spins on songs by Al Green, The Temptations, The Jackson 5, and even George Gershwin. A rare gem of 70s funk, famously featuring the track "A Tribute To Wes", which beatsmith J Dilla would sample to great effect on the Slum Village track "Conant Gardens."

Nyami Nyami Records present a lost piece of Zimbabwean musical history: the only album from local legends the New Tutenkhamen, combining Jazz, Soul, Folk and Township rhythms. There are only 2 known copies of the original LP - this reissues make the music available again for the first time in over 40 years.

The New Tutenkhamen included many stars of Zimbabwean township music: Elisha Josamu was an alumnus of the fabulously-named Hallelujah Chicken Run Band (alongside Thomas Mapfumo), and Green Jangano's long-running Harare Mambos, and would later form Two Plus Two with bassist Christopher 'Chex' Tavengwa. Jethro Shasha played the drums, and would arguably become the New Tutenkhamen's most famous export, making continental waves working with likes of Salif Keita. Paul Sekerani played the rhythm guitar, with Amos Chatyoka on the organ, while the enigmatic Maggie Mbuli provided vocals and F. Manda played the sax.I WISH YOU WERE MINE was recorded at Teal Records and was produced by Crispen Matema, a talented jazz drummer in his own right who had played drums on the all-time classic 'Skokiaan', and had backed Louis Armstrong on his 1960 Rhodesia visit. Combining the heavyweight producing talents of Matema and the writing chops of Josamu, the New Tutenkhamen band created an album showcasing various musical styles popular at the time.

From the afro-jazz jam session aesthetics of 'Tutenkhamen Theme', 'Big Brother Malcom' and 'Forever Together', to the almost Van Morrison-sounding 'Sunday Morning'; from the upbeat rock ballad 'True Love', to the funk-infused dance song 'Togetherness'; from the bouncy jazz exhortations to work hard in 'Ane Nungo', to the brassy, raunchy foot-stomper 'Me & Dolly'. The title track 'I Wish You Were Mine' is a ska-infused ballad that wouldn't be out of place in post-war Birmingham, while the star of the show is 'Joburg Bound', itself a fast-paced rock piece with Motown undertones and funky guitar lines.

The Conspiracy Hailed From Mount Pleasant, A College Town In The Center Of Michigan. Originally Formed As The Allusions, They Became Nino & The Nomads Before Changing Their Name To The Conspiracy In 1966. For The Next Few Years The Group Stayed Busy On The Live Circuit. "we Were Booked All Over The State," Remembers Singer Aquilino Soriano. "every Weekend We'd Be Somewhere. We Were About Two And A Half Hours From Detroit, So We'd Go Down South, We'd Go Up North, We'd Go Everywhere. There Was This Network Of Teen Clubs Where Kids Didn't Have To Be 21 And Everybody Could Go. It Was Fantastic." In 1967 The Group Had What Aquilino Describes As "probably Our Apex Moment". Kustom Amplifiers Sponsored A Statewide Battle Of The Bands Tournament, And The Conspiracy Battled Through Several Rounds Of Competition To Make It All The Way To The Finals In Saginaw. "it Was A Statewide Thing That Culminated There," Remembers Aquilino. "question Mark & The Mysterians And A Couple Of Others That Were Notables Were Also In It - And We Won It! We Got Our Award From Bob Seger." The Prize Was Thousands Of Dollars Worth Of Gigs And A Tuck And Roll Kustom Pa System, Which The Band Put To Use As They Moved Forward Into 1968, Brimming With Confidence. A Roving Capitol A&r Man Caught Their Show In Cadillac, Michigan, And Encouraged Them To Write Some Original Songs And Go Into The Studio. So In 1968 That's What They Did. `dream World' And `with You' Were Recorded At A Studio In Grand Rapids And The Session Turned Out Exceptionally Well. "it Just Floored Me That We Didn't Sit Down And Write Some More Songs," Says Aquilino, "because I Thought We Did A Pretty Good Job." `dream World' Is Particularly Great With A Soulful Lead Vocal, An Insistent Fuzz Guitar Line, Waves Of Hammond Organ, A Catchy, Harmonized Chorus And An Insistent Dance Groove. Shades Of The Doors, The Young Rascals, The Blues Magoos And Src. A Mixdown Of The Tape Was Forwarded To Their Contact At Capitol Records, But Ultimately No Deal Was Signed. "we Were Just Starting To Separate From High School," Remembers Aquilino. "it Was The Start Of That Transition. I Was Class Of '67, They Were Class Of `68. There Was The War In Vietnam. You Could Go To College To Avoid The Draft. It Was A Lot Of Decisions And I Guess What Happened Is Nothing Really Happened From Us Recording. I Mean They Liked It, They Made Us An Offer, But I Think That The Parents Weren't Really Happy With That. I Think That There Was Some Dissent In The Band Too." The Conspiracy Broke Up In Early 1969 And The Tape Of The Only Original Songs They Ever Played Remained Unreleased And Unheard Until 2018, When Soriano Brought The Original 1" 8-track Session Tape Into Earthling Studios In El Cajon, California, Where It Was Mixed And Mastered By Mike Kamoo For This Release. "getting This Out On Vinyl - It's What We Dreamed Of!" Aquilino Grins. "even If It Took Fifty Years To Happen!" Mike Stax

- 180 GRAM AUDIOPHILE VINYL
- FIRST PRESSING OF 750 NUMBERED
COPIES ON ORANGE VINYL

Primarily released to showcase the sublime talents of one of Jamaica's most celebrated vocal trios, The Heptones, the aptly titled Heptones & Their Friends album features a selection of superior reggae sides by the group alongside hugely popular works from the three of reggae's biggest stars of the period: Judy Mowatt, Nicky Thomas and Peter Tosh of The Wailers.

Backed by top session crew, the Now Generation, the Joe Gibbsproduced selection is of a predictably high standard throughout, with highlights including Be The One', a pitch-perfect slice of classic roots, a gloriously cheesy pop cover of the Drfters' Save The Last Dance', the strident Freedom To The People' and one of the biggest Jamaican hits of the early 1970s, Hypocrite'.

Genre: Electronic, World (Arabic). 180gram vinyl includes 12'x24' art print poster + 320kbps DL card. RIYL: Matar Mohammad, Pauline Oliveros, Nadah El Shazly, Lucrecia Dalt, Chino Amobi, Sote, Arca, Fatima Al Qadiri, Tacita Dean, Stan Brakhage. Jerusalem In My Heart (JIMH) returns with Daqa'iq Tudaiq, the third full-length album from the Montréal-Beirut contemporary Arabic audio-visual duo, following the acclaimed 2015 release If He Dies, If If I f If If If (ye ar-end li sts at The Wire (#39), The Quietus (#24) and A C loser Listen (Top 10), among other accolades).
Featuring voice, electronics, buzuk and other instrumentation from composer-producer Radwan Ghazi Moumneh (Matana Roberts, Suuns, Big Brave) and abetted by the 16mm analog film work of Charles-André Coderre in live performance, JIMH continues to expand the horizons of its profound conceptual and aesthetic engagement with Arabic/Middle-Eastern traditions. Daqa'i q Tudaiq translates as 'minutes that bother/oppress/harass'—which presumably needs no further explanation—and features two distinct album sides of music. Side One realizes a long-held dream of Moumneh's to record a modern orchestral version of the popular Egyptian classic 'Ya Garat Al Wadi' by the legendary composer Mohammad Abdel Wahab. JIMH assembled a 15-piece orchestra in Beirut, enlisting the celebrated Montréal-Cairo composer Sam Shalabi (Land Of Kush) as arranger and musical director for the session. Anchored by the stately hypnotic pace of mallet and percussion instruments (riq, santur, derbakeh, kanun), the piece unfolds with lush, languid, reverb-drenched manoeuvrings through virtuosic Maqam shifts (Oriental scales). Moumneh's melismatic lead vocals and electronic production sensibility pay homage to the genre's documented historical recording traditions, while pushing things subtly and respectfully into new territories of sonic distortion and noised, artefact-laden transmission.
The song's original title (with lyrics penned in 1928 by the poet Ahmad Shawqi) translates as 'Oh Neighbour Of The Valley', but JIMH takes a different line from the original lyric as the new title for its orchestral-electronic re-interpretation. 'Wa Ta'atalat Loughat Al Kalam' (' The Language Of Speech Has Broke Down') is an expression of wordless love and transcendent communication between two lovers' eyes in Shawqi's poem; JIMH re-titles the song with this line, exploding the sentiment with more complexity, tragedy and socio-political meaning - also prefiguring the formal aesthetic ruptures JIMH bring to the piece itself. Love in a time of politics, politics in a world conspiring against love, and the specificity of Arab diasporic experience in our brutish 21st century. Side Two comprises four tracks of non-ensemble 'solo' material by Moumneh which push rupture and decomposition/recomposition of tradition further into avant-garde territory - voice, buzuk and electronics take the lead on a suite of emotive and evocative songs, including the percussive loopdriven instrumental 'Bein Ithnein' ('Between Two' ) and the stunningly unsettling processed vocal track 'Thahab, Mish Roujou', Thahab' ('(The Act Of) Departing, Not Returning, Departing'). Daqa'iq Tudaiq is a masterful, mesmerizing artistic statement and confirms Jerusalem In My Heart as one of the most engaged and forward-looking avant-Arabic projects at work in contemporary music today. Thanks for listening.

The Polyversal Souls are back with another collaboration with Ethopia's No. 1 soul singer Alemayehu Eshete. As they did on their first mutual release Alteleyeshegnem (PH45011), one more time the band presents a new interpretation of one of Alemayehu's classic songs.

Feqer Feqer Nèw is heavy soul at his best, completed by Alemayehu's trade mark vocal style. On Portrait of Alemayehu (Daytime), the Polyversal Souls are admiringly painting a picture of the master's gentle aura which surrounded him during the session.

A holy grail of European electronic dance music, and a classic at the Italian disco scene and Hamburg's Front club alike (you might have heard it on their recent Mastermix), is finally available again. Produced in 1984 by two mysterious friends during a hazy studio session in the small town of Aschaffenburg, Germany, it is best described by Discogs member goulashdj as 'a funny version of some Imam praying on top of an electronic Groove', .'Kairo' is all you want from an oddball record: fun and funky, weird and wonderful. Featuring original vocals by one of the two friends, it seems to be offensive to religious fanatics and devout Muslims (you better watch, where you play out the original). Therefore, a philosophical advisory or religious warning: 'No religion, god or believer was harmed during the creation of this record. We believe in the right to believe or disbelief in anything and everything that isn't inhuman.' For safety reasons, it includes a persecution-proof instrumental version by Boris Dlugosch as well as the original B-side and completely atheistic 'Kosak 2000'. And to close with Mark Twain: Man was made at the end of the week's work, when God was tired.

Jaye P Morgan's 1976 million dollar private press featuring the cream of the LA jazz and funk scene and one of David Foster's first productions is finally reissued. Wewantsounds is delighted to announce the release on deluxe LP and CD of Jaye P. Morgan's ultra rare private press originally released in 1976. This lost classic recorded in LA at the legendary Sound City Studios is also the first full-blown production by David Foster two years before he co-produced Earth Wind and Fire's album I Am and went on to become one of the hottest producers on the scene. Featuring an extraordinary line up of the best LA musicians including Harvey Mason, Ed Greene, Jay Graydon, Ray Parker Jr. Tower of Power, Ernie Watts and many more, it's probably one of the most expensive private press ever produced and a delight of sophisticated Los Angeles funk featuring Jaye's superb soulful vocals. The LP edition will come with the original 4 page insert full of session photos and credits.

With a line-up that reads like a who's who on the 70s Californian scene, this album was a bold move for the singer who had made her mark in the 50s and 60s as a popular music singer and actress. Hiring Foster was a masterstroke as he hadn't yet produced any noticeable hit but together they gathered the most impressive crew of musicians you could think of including two of Foster's closest associates, guitarist Jay Graydon and singer / arranger Bill Champlin (of Sons of Champlin's fame) and created the perfect white Soul album with a breezy California feel.

Featuring masterful renditions of such iconic songs as Stevie Wonder's songs as Seems So Long and Earth, Wind And Fire's Can't Hide Love (for the anecdote, Foster, Champlin and Graydon would soon pen After The Love Has Gone which would become a mega hit for Earth Wind AND Fire two years later), together with a handpicked selection of originals, the sound alternates between uptempo funk and soulful mid-tempo ballads, all served by Morgan's superb vocals. The missing link between Steely Dan and Earth, Wind and Fire, Jaye P. Morgan is pure, undiluted Funk music and an essential LA classic which Wewantsounds is glad to make available for the first time.

Tropical Disco plucks out a spellbinding salvo of heaters for Tropical Disco Volume. 7, dished out on suitably heavy wax.

Moodeena's 'The Horns' boldly kicks off the record, effortlessly weaving together elements of funk, soul and afro, influenced by a myriad of far-reaching regions. The earworm of a bassline subtly leads the piece, morphing, dipping and then reassembling as the brass resurfaces, creating a tender, palpable sound palette. On the flip 'What Da Funk's playful track title doesn't reflect its cultivated build, and no doubt lethal functionality on a dancefloor.

Titillating strings are the driving force for Tropical Disco newcomer Sammy Deuce's input, bringing a burning, high-energy ode to golden-era disco with 'Smack My Strings Up'. Hot on the heels of a series of well received releases on labels such as Glasgow Underground, Club Session and Big Love, Sammy deuce offers up a rare guest track on the label that pairs perfectly with a recipe Sartorial and Moodena have refined so successfully.

Sartorial closes the EP with 'Little Love', a carefully plotted symphony and formidable sign off for the release. Hustling a creamy bass and slowly swooning vocal, this audio aphrodisiac will have dancers headed straight to the bedroom...

Tropical Disco's back-catalogue of quality nu-disco obscurities is building thick and fast, and the latest package is a diamond in a gleaming gold mine.

Support across Mi Soul & House FM.

The album which was named after the studio Death in Vegas recorded most of their records is the crown on their career. It's an album full of surprises from one of the most interesting electronica groups to come out of the '90s. The production and arrangements from the duo Richard Fearless/Tim Holmes are combined with the greatness by guitarist Ian Button and bassist Mat Flint. It's a fine combination of their electronica sounds and the more rocking music. The vocal guest appearances by Iggy Pop, Jim Reid of the Jesus & Mary Chain, Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream, and Dot Allison are incredible and they're pushing this record to a higher level. This album's beauty lies in the complexity of the emotions it exhibits.

Richard Fearless is the only active member of the original Death in Vegas line-up. Their sound is influenced by rock, dub and industrial music.

Cigarettes After Sex are an ambient pop group based out of Brooklyn NY, led by vocalist/songwriter Greg Gonzalez and are inspired by the likes of Cocteau Twins, Mazzy Star and the sound of early 60s records like the Paris Sisters.

The band became a word-of-mouth phenomenon, generating over 100 million views on YouTube for their exquisitely yearning, graceful pop noir - all without the support of a label. They partnered with
Partisan Records for their debut album, which was released in June 2017.
'Crush' was written and recorded in the same sessions as the album, however was previously unreleased. The B-side is recently released 'Sesame Syrup' (also taken form the album sessions). This 7' will be the first time either of the two tracks have ever been available physically.

'Languid dream pop bleeds into one beautiful, fuzzy headed whole... the intoxicating atmosphere lingers long after the tracks have played out' - Mojo 'A 21st century Don Juan' - Pitchfork

SWINGTING017 is a bouncy JA-to-UK bashment banger that features a hefty combination of producers and vocalists from both the Equiknoxx & Swing Ting camps. The tune finds each artist at their most playful, riding the sparkly, jiggy riddim impeccably.

Jump to the Bar was built and voiced in two days at London Bridge's Red Bull Studios, late Summer 2017.

Day one involved Gavsborg , Time Cow , Platt & Samrai arriving from various residences of friends and family in the vicinity of the English Capital (shout to the Epsom crew). Alway early-birds, Gavs and Cow set to the task on various machines and available gear to construct the rough instrumental, with Platt & Samrai assisting on percussion and programming. Soon lush synths, tough kicks, flanged hats, grimy bass and snappy claps were combining neatly and the backdrop was set.

Day two featured Kingston's queen of the cool kids club Shanique Marie flying straight into the big smoke to lay down a witty hook in minutes before earning a lie down on the sofa. Original Brum-town don RTKal rolled in from the West-Midlands (driven by Farda Neeko) dropping a one-take freestyle (egged on by an excitable studio gathering including Randy Valentine, Mr Williamz & Specialist Moss) that later became his verse and the pre-chorus. With the clock ticking on the session, the flask was neatly passed to Mancunian stalwart Fox for the final flourish, giving shouts to buckfast tonic wine & organic herbal treats.

Supported by Toddla T (Coldest Record), Jubilee (BBC Radio 1 Residency), Chal Ravens (Top Flight), Max Glazer (Federation Sound Radio) as well as being added to Spotify's Dancehall Official Playlist.

Drama were the Canadian duo of Eric Simpson (Vocals, Bass Guitar, Guitar) and Don Stagg (Keyboards). Formed in in Mississauga, Ontario in 1978, the pair had previously played together in progressive psych bands Majik and VIIth Temple. Almost every Saturday, Eric and Don would record one song on a TEAC 4 track tape recorder after a couple of takes with very little over dubbing. The pair were influenced by what was playing on the radio during the recording sessions. Everyone else at that time was in a rock or pop band yet Drama were making electronic music. The pair released their debut LP 'Loneliness' on Psycho Records in 1979. There were 500 albums made and about 200 ended up in the garbage as band members shuffled from apartment to apartment. This was followed by a 4-track 7' later that year featuring live drums and additional guitar.
Seance Centre says it best, 'On Loneliness, the pair traded in their velvet and chord charts for thin ties and a cheap drum-machine. The LP still carries a whiff of patchouli, but the sound stings of solder and electricity, and inhabits a nascent zone somewhere between krautrock and new-wave. The vocal cuts are all clustered on the A-side, starting with an ode to the inefficiency of the Toronto Transit Commission - some things never change! The dystopian sci-fi themes are par for the League, and highlights are the love ballad 'Anna King' and the charming 'Feable'. The instrumentals on the B-side feel decidedly more Teutonic, and have a certain CBC charm that sounds like JP Decerf recording for Parry Music. It even opens with a slinky stoned Pink Panther.' For this first time vinyl reissue we've expanded to a double LP with a bonus album of the 4 songs from Old Hollywood 7' and 9 previously unreleased tracks and demo versions. All songs are remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The vinyl comes housed in a jacket with original photo by Don Stagg taken from his apartment rooftop overlooking Toronto of a young teenager sniffing glue and includes an insert with photos and liner notes by Drama.

The first track is "Forgotten Graves" (which is exclusive to this release) & the second track is 'Tombes Oubliées' with Rike (Friedrike) Bienert providing the vocals which is off the forthcoming self titled BJM album. With Sara Neidorf on drums , Hakon Adalsteinsson on guitar & Heike Marie Rädeker on bass supporting Anton Newcombe in these sessions that were recorded between December 2017 & January 2018 at Cobra Studios in Berlin . The band have just completed successful tours of the USA ,Canada , Australia , New Zealand & Europe . "Forgotten Graves" is released in the same month as the world commemorates the hundredth anniversary of the World War 1 ('the war to end all wars') , this war never ended any other war & more forgotten graves are being added every day.

'Sounds from the Great House! Outernational Sounds proudly presents a Nimbus West spirit jazz essential: the Creative Arts Ensemble's classic debut One Step Out. Mastered at 45rpm on double vinyl for enhanced sound, this release features all tracks at full length for the first time on wax.

One of the most sought after and highly regarded titles to have appeared on Tom Albach's celebrated Nimbus West imprint, the Creative Art Ensemble's One Step Out is a timeless work of spiritualised jazz. A true gem from the Los Angeles jazz underground, the album was pianist and composer Kaeef Ruzadun Ali's first recording as leader of the Creative Arts Ensemble, the only large ensemble group that emerged directly from Horace Tapscott's legendary Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra community jazz group.

A Los Angeles native, Kaeef was introduced to the Tapscott circle in the late 1970s. His first experience of the Arkestra's ethos was through PAPA tenorist Michael Session, who took him to the famous 'Great House' at 2412 South Western Ave., LA - a large mansion house which members of the Arkestra had taken over as a space for communal living. Life in the Great House was a continuous stream of music, dance and community events. 'When I walked in there,' recalled Kaeef, 'it was like this whole rush came over me, just from going in the front door...It was like a very, very warm feeling of love. I went and I came out with 'Flashback of Time', and that was my first arrangement.'

Kaeef quickly became a significant contributor of compositions to the Arkestra's songbook - his piece 'New Horizon' would be recorded by Horace Tapscott for the latter's Tapscott Sessions series. But 'Flashback of Time' would eventually appear on One Step Out, played by the new group he had put together from stalwart Arkestra members. Inspired by both Tapscott's example and by the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Kaeef had wanted to follow their lead by assembling a larger unit. 'I would like to form a group that would be an extension of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra,' he told Tapscott. The group was to be known as the Creative Arts Ensemble, and One Step Out, released in 1981 by Nimbus West, was their debut.

Featuring seasoned Arkestra regulars including reedsman Dadisi Komolafe, drummer Woody 'Sonship' Theus and altoist Gary Bias, with veterans Henry 'The Skipper' Franklin on bass and George Bohannon on trombone, One Step Out is a key document of the Los Angeles radical jazz underground. Featuring the sanctified vocals of Kaeef's sister, B. J. Crowley, the album is a tour de force of spiritually energised independent jazz music. Community uplift and sacred vision straight from the Great House, back on vinyl for the first time since 1981!

Africa Seven's next installment returns to Cameroon with a special edition version of Momo Joseph's in-demand LP, "War For Ground", with three extra tracks. Momo may be better known for his work as an actor, having featured in such titles as "La Haine" (1995) and "The African" (1983), but his small foray into music is definitely memorable as he lays it out in true Afro-Boogie style. Apart from two singles, "War For Ground" represents Momo's only other body of work, and only studio album which was self-released in 1983. With this "Edition Speciale" reissue we provide you all the originals from "War For Ground" remastered alongside his party-time classic "Cameroon Airline", "Love Africa Soul" and his lesser known tack "Oh Momo".

The A-side starts with "Africain", which also featured on our compilation "Africa Airways Four". Glistening synth lines work it out over the top of romantic guitars, while the continual and hypnotic vocal chant of "Africa" tells you exactly where this music is coming from and what it means. The tempo creeps up a bit with "N'Gon Le Bek" which again takes advantage of driving guitar lines, this time facing off with the horn section. The last cut on the A-Side is "Out Side No Fine", which flows great after the previous two, keeping up the same aesthetic with a bit more of a tropical feel to it.

The B-side kicks off with the title track "War For Ground". In this one Momo starts off rather melancholic before things end more triumphantly with the backing vocals and horn section again providing much of the driving force. The final two tracks on this record make up the "Edition Speciale" element of this reissue. "Love Africa Soul", taken from Momo's 1980 single of the same name, at first seems to be one of the more straight forward disco led tracks on this release until an ecstatic synth line breaks things up in a forward thinking break down before a trademark Momo groove kicks back in. The other track featured on that single was"Cameroun Airlines", a bonafied afro-disco classic. Next we delved into the vault and unearthed a recording session for "Oh Momo", this never released version of the track reflects a slightly different side of the signer, with a more afrobeat feel.

This "Edition Speciale" version of "War For Ground" offers a thorough observation of Momo Joseph's work as a musician and looks to help shine a light on Momo's career and musical genius.

LP,180g, 2018 REISSUE - REMASTERED FROM ORIGINAL TAPES, CAREFULLY REPRODUCED ORIGINAL ART

Veteran library musician Alan Parker recorded with session vocalist Madeline Bell for his Themes International Music label and the result was 1976's The Voice of Soul.
The sensational uptempo dancer 'That's What Friends Are For' is probably the most well known track on the record, and is a big hit on the rare groove scene, but it is by no means an anomaly. The Voice of Soul is essentially a perfect, sophisticated soul album with heaps of swagger and sass from beginning to end.
Its once generic-sounding title is now deservedly defnitive.
And the whole LP oozes sex. It oozes sex so much that it could have soundtracked a period porn flm. Indeed, parts of it did. 'Love Is All' and 'You've Got What It Takes' both featured on the infamously banned Pretty Peaches from the same year.
As is usual with library records, The Voice of Soul was hard to get even when it was frst released. It's next to impossible now. So here's your opportunity to own what is in our opinion one of the fnest rare soul LPs of the late 70s, and a superb example of Madeline Bell's superlative vocal talents.
But that's not the whole story. As well as pitching the record as 'a varied selection of modern female vocal features which are equally suitable for background or radio programme usage', the original release notes go on to explain that 'the corresponding backing tracks are issued on TIM 1022 The Sound of Soul. Therefore it is possible to edit from vocal to instrumental version and vica versa where commentary or scene changes occur.'
So yes, all of the backing tracks from The Voice of Soul were released as The Sound of Soul, and we couldn't re-issue one without re-issuing the other.
As with all ten re-issues, the audio for The Voice of Soul comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. We've taken the same care with the sleeves, handing the reproduction duties over to Richard Robinson, the current custodian of KPM's brand identity.

Recorded already in 1983/84, these soulful songs still show a relation to 1970s soul pop with lush
arrangements that work with real instruments and have a vibrant atmosphere. An all in all memorable songwriting
and the incredible vocals of Mavis Staples from The Staple Singers make the album stand the test of time, even 35
years after the initial recording sessions and 25 years past its first CD/MC release. Licensed by legendary BRIAN
HOLLAND and for the first time on vinyl now by EVERLAND!

Mavis Staples has come to fame and fortune as member of the family vocal group THE STAPLES
SINGERS from the late 50s onward to the mid 80s and she has released a fair amount of solo albums as well,
many of them in recent years. - Love gone bad' is a solo effort from 1993, originally titled - Mavis Staples' and only
released on CD and cassette back in the days. So EVERLAND have now done the right thing and put out the first
ever vinyl of this gem. And a real gem can be found here. Soul music in a down tempo with a slick production and
lush arrangements that still have this vivid expression making it real music by real musicians. The songs contained
on this album all date back to the early 80s, from a session not released until 1993. The melodies and the way the
compositions flow go back to a mid to late 70s soul pop style that incorporates elements of funk and dance music
but in a moderate pace. You can easily float upon the dancefloor and drift away in silky dreams. Some tunes have
a synthesized beat with a typical 80s sound, but these are compositions that stand the test of time and 25 years
after their initial release and 35 years after these recording sessions they shine on as diamonds of black soul pop
and R'n'B music (not to be confused with Rhythm & Blues). Mavis sings like a grand lady of soul with a timeless
quality that makes her stand out from the crowd of similar crooners. Even in the most gentle moments here the
tunes have an irresistible groove that moves the listener. But you can also sit and listen and explore piece by piece
digging deeper into the arrangements to unearth great bass and guitar lines. You will sing these vocal melodies
over and over again in the days to come until you throw this onto your turntable once again. I wonder why this did
not see a regular release back in the 80s as it would have led Mavis Staples to the top positions of the charts, Pop,
Black Music and Billboard. She was meant to make an impact and although she was already in her mid 40s when
she recorded this collection of soul nuggets, she brought a lightfooted youthful spirit in, which gives so much life to
her songs. A must have for all aficionados of female fronted soul pop.

With MEL013, Melodies International are extremely proud to bring you at last, a disco anthem from Detroit that was originally recorded in 1980 and dedicated to the 'King Of The Champion Fighters': Le Stim - A Tribute to Muhammad Ali (We Crown The King).

Le Stim was a band formed by lead vocalist Donald Jennings in the late 70s. Now an ordained deacon back in Detroit, Jennings was brought up in a gospel environment and was said to be born to sing. Growing up picking up songs from the likes of Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald or Sam Cooke, Jennings frequently performed for family and friends and went on to sing for audiences in New York, St. Louis and all around Detroit.

We Crown The King is a song written in the mid 70s by the late Herbert Andrei Duncan, also from Detroit. Duncan approached Jennings with the song who was initially reluctant to sing it because it took him out of his usual vocal range. However, Duncan finally (thankfully!) managed to persuade Jennings after five years to record a tune that would prove to become a party anthem decades later.

Remembering Duncan, Jennings says: 'Andrei was positive..inquisitive.... and determined. I was only 18 or 19 years old at the time and remember Andrei coming over to my house.... He had a cellphone in his car!.. I remember going to Andrei's house, and he said he wanted to do the track. Andrei did not take no for an answer! The answer had to be yes! However Andrei didn't have any money to record the song with. So we made a deal. In exchange for the use of his P.A., Loc (the drummer) provided the seventeen musicians for Le Stim to record 'We Crown The King'. The session itself was recorded at a studio in Southfield, Michigan.
According to Jennings, Muhammad Ali did hear the track back then and liked it! Le Stim were in touch with Ali's management and were about to meet him on a number of occasions which unfortunately didn't work out.

Licensing this record has proven to be Melodies' biggest research effort as of yet and has involved visiting it's author, Duncan's former house in Detroit only to discover it had burned down and that his family had moved years ago. It wouldn't have been possible without the invaluable help of Jeremy from Rain&Shine records (NZ) who then managed to track down the family back in Texas!

Officially licensed, remastered and cut to half-speed lacquers at 45rpm (instead of it's original 33rpm format) to bring the shine out of the top end - MEL013 comes forth in it's original 12' vinyl format with exclusive Melodies stickers and digitally too.

This super cult spy thriller made in 1968 and directed by Fernando Cerchio was the third in a successful film series. Previous installments had featured excellent scores by Roberto Pregadio and Romano Mussolini. The master tapes of this incredible PIERO UMILIANI soundtrack were recently discovered in the composer's archives: combining jazz with 1960s beats, a hint of bossa, spanish style guitar, trumpet, sexy vocals and performed by the elite of the jazz and session scenes at the time, this score is a classic of its kind and a potential lounge music hit!

Billy Milligan Trio, 3rd release of the label Lowlife Cartel, collects new ambient music that reflects our present moment. The musical aesthetic is described as a unified primitive/futuristic sound combining features of world ethnic styles with advanced electronic techniques. Predominant melancholic atmosphere, work on textures and hybridation with acoustic inherited by experimental jazz. Its title "Billy Milligan Trio", is a reference to sci-fi book from Daniel Keyes "The Minds of Billy Milligan".
The EP begins with "The Sky Was Pearl Grey" , by Shcaa (Archipel, Sharingtones), track, without beat, a guitar note accompagnied by a drone lament releases a trippy and introspective atmosphere. A light vocal, by Shcaa himself, comes subty at the middle of this gloomy exploration.
"Useless Man" by Mårble (Hair Del Records) is a leftfield saturated complaint, mixing jazzy and electronic elements. A distorted voice accompagnied by a piano as the key melody. "Para La Olimpiada" by Mårble is defined by fourth world music genre. The release ends with "Toll Fraud", by L:E:R (Archipel), cut from a full electronic live session, oscillating between a minimal beat and slightly evolving ambiance. In its entirety Billy Milligan Trio is a spirograph of uniquely experimental artists merging together to create something even more beguiling. A truly arresting listen.

November 5th, 2018 would have been Charles Bradley's 70th birthday. In celebration of his extraordinary life, Daptone imprint Dunham Records is proud to announce the release of his fourth and final album, Black Velvet. Black Velvet is a celebration of Charles Bradley, lovingly assembled by his friends and family at Dunham/Daptone Records. Though chronologically the material spans Charles' entire career, this is no anthology, greatest hits or other shallow rehashing of the songs that already made him famous. Rather, this album is a profound exploration through the less-travelled corners of the soulful universe that Charles and his longtime producer, co-writer and friend Tommy "TNT" Brenneck created in the studio together over their decade-long partnership.
It features new songs recorded during the sessions from each of his three albums, heard here for the very first time in all their scorching glory: "Can't Fight the Feeling," "Fly Little Girl" and the heart-wrenching single "I Feel a Change"; hard core rarities like his funk-bomb duet with LaRose Jackson, "Luv Jones," the psychedelic groover, "(I Hope You Find) The Good Life" and the ever-illusive alternate full band electric version of "Victim of Love"; sought-after covers of Nirvana's "Stay Away," Neal Young's "Heart of Gold" and Rodriguez's "Slip Away"; and the title track "Black Velvet," a stirring Menahan Street Band instrumental to which Charles was never able to cut a vocal.


Charles was truly a transcendent singer who led a remarkable life, overcoming unimaginable adversity to achieve great success and international acclaim very late in his life. What was really special about him and made him different from everybody else in the world was how he understood his pain as a cry for universal love and humanity. He felt that if he loved enough—if we all loved each other enough—we could take away the world's pain and sadness. That is why he jumped off the stage and literally tried to hug everybody he could. It's why he took such great care of a mother that had abandoned him. It's why he sang and danced like a lunatic. It's why he screamed like an eagle. And that's why we love him.


Black Velvet is a celebration of his life, and is destined to join Charles' first three albums alongside the cannon of essential soul records for the ages.

Double LP on heavyweight 180 gram audiophile black vinyl in a wide spined sleeve with new artwork layout. Re-mastered by John Rivers at Woodbine Studios especially for vinyl release. Includes a bonus track not on the CD version and new artwork design. Never has a record been so aptly titled, or so perfectly descriptive of a band's particular vision of the universe. For all that, the original appearance of Taking Drugs was in fact a bootleg on the semi-legendary/semi-notorious Father Yod imprint in 1990, later supplemented with contemporary outtakes and cuts for the Bomp reissue in 1994 and one further song for the Space Age version in 2000. The original seven tracks, dated January 1986 and the first recordings to feature Pete Bain on bass, are collectively known as the Northampton Demos, understandably named for the recording location in a studio outside said English city. Both Sonic and Pierce have been on record as long preferring these takes to the eventual versions that surfaced for the most part on Sound of Confusion. Certainly it's a fine set of performances, showing a definite step toward the more familiar sound of the group and away from the rougher takes on For All the Fucked Up Children of the World. "The Sound of Confusion," aka "Walkin' With Jesus," rips along with fierce energy, Pierce's singing and the rampaging, primitive wail and rumble of the band just wonderful. "Losing Touch With My Mind" takes things to an even higher level, a huge wallop of feedback and beat (Natty Brooker's drumming in particular delivers just what the doctor ordered), Pierce delivering the lines with a flat, cutting drawl. On the slightly lighter tip, "Come Down Easy" is more or less fully in place (aside from singing about it being 1986!), possessing a more upfront but less vocally distinct feel than the Perfect Prescription take. The tracks that surfaced on the later reissues come from a variety of different sessions, including the original take on "Feel So Good" and a good live version of "Things'll Never Be the Same," one of several cuts featuring Brooker's drumming replacement Rosco.

Before Jimi Hendrix became an international phenomenon, he struggled to earn a living as an itinerant sideman for many rhythm & blues acts. Hendrix can be heard on recordings by Little Richard, the Isley Brothers, Don Covay and many others. This single presents one of his most unusual sessions as an unheralded sideman while the other was only recently discovered and never before released.

Hendrix recorded both tracks in 1966 during separate sessions as a session musician for Ed Chalpin & PPX Enterprises, Inc. 'Suey' was originally the flip side of 'As The Clouds Drift By,' a single by the voluptuous B-movie actress Jayne Mansfield. Licensed to several European labels just weeks after Mansfield died in an automobile accident on June 29, 1967, Mansfield US recording rights were held by a different label so this recording has never before been issued in the US. Ricky Mason was a young vocalist championed by Chalpin, and 'I Need You Every Day' is a pleasant surprise. This previously unreleased, uptempo shouter also features Hendrix on guitar.