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The quietest voices can be the most durable.

American Football’s original triumph, on their 1999 self-titled debut, was to reunite two shy siblings: emo and post-rock. It was a pioneering album where lyrical clarity was obscured and complicated by the stealth musical textures surrounding it.

Like Slint’s Spiderland, or Codeine’s The White Birch, even Talk Talk’s Laughing Stock, American Football asked far more questions than it cared to answer. But there wasn’t a band around anymore to explain it, anyway. The three young men who made the album – Mike Kinsella, Steve Holmes, and Steve Lamos – split up pretty much on its release.

Fifteen years later, American Football reunited (now as a four-piece, with the addition of Nate Kinsella). They played far larger shows than in their original incarnation and recorded their long-anticipated second album, 2016’s American Football (LP2). The release was widely praised, but the band members still felt like their best work was yet to come.

‘I feel like the second album was us figuring it out,’ says Nate. ‘For me, it wasn’t quite done. I knew there was still more.’

Enter American Football (LP3). ‘We put a lot of time and a lot of energy into it,’ says Mike. ‘We were all thoughtful about what we wanted to put out there. Last time, it was figuring out how to use all of our different arms. This time, we were like – Ok we have these arms, let’s use them.’ The band used the same producer, Jason Cupp, and recorded the album at the same studio (Arc Studios in Omaha, Nebraska) as its predecessor – yet they approached it in a markedly different way. There was a determination to let the songs breathe, to trust in ideas finding their own pace. The final result is a definite, and deliberate, stretching of the band.

As a result, LP3 is less obviously tethered to the band’s past than the second album. An immediate contrast between LP3 and its two predecessors is its cover. The two previous albums featured the exterior and interior of a residence in the band’s original hometown of Urbana, Illinois (now attracting fans for pilgrimages and photo opportunities), by the photographer Chris Strong. But American Football knew that LP3 was an outside record. Instead of the familiar house, this time the cover photo (again by Strong) features open, rolling fields on Urbana’s borders. It is a sign of the album’s magnitude in sound, and of the band’s boldness in breaking away from home comforts.

American Football also joked that LP3’s genre was ‘post-house’, because of this very conscious visual break. But, in a strange way, there are links in LP3 with an actual post-house genre: shoegaze. The more exploratory members of the original British shoegaze scene were inspired by the dreamtime and circularity of house music (ambient house in particular), cherishing its sonic possibilities. That spirit drips into LP3, most obviously on ‘I Can’t Feel You’, a collaboration with Rachel Goswell of Slowdive.

The album also features Hayley Williams from Paramore on the album’s catchiest moment, ‘Uncomfortably Numb’, and Elizabeth Powell, of the Québécoise act Land Of Talk. Mike wrote lyrics in French especially for her.

LP3 is contemplative, rich, expressive, yet with a queasy undercurrent. It is heavy with expectancy, revealing its ideas slowly, eliciting the hidden stories people carry around with them. ‘I feel like my lyric writing has changed a lot over the years,’ says Mike. ‘The goal is to be conversational, maybe to state something giant and heavy, but in a very plain way. But, definitely in this record, I keep things a little more vague.’ As on the first album, the lyrics on LP3 may seem confessional and concentrated, but the more you scrutinize them, the further their meaning slinks away. Or, as Mike tellingly sings on ‘I Can’t Feel You”: I’m fluent in subtlety.

‘Somewhere along the way we moved from being a reunion band to just being a band,’ says Steve Holmes. American Football is now a bona fide ongoing focus, and they are making some of the best music of their lives. American Football (LP3) stands with two other rare reunion successes – Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine’s mbv – as a fine example of how a band refinding one another can augment, rather than taint, their legacy.

‘I think that there are those albums, or the music that you heard when you were younger, and they imprint on you,’ says Nate. ‘And no matter where you go, or what you do they’re always there.’ He is talking of Steve Reich – an early and ongoing influence on American Football – but he might as well be reflecting what is said of his own band, and the ardent following they inspire. American Football stands as an enduring symbol of elusive emotional landscapes, where introspection can be as dramatic as confrontation

Last summer, after living across the country from each other for several years, the four members of Anamanaguchi decided to try something new. Their label Polyvinyl had rescued the famed American Football house from potential destruction, so the band took the opportunity to move in and write together. Over the course of a month, Anamanaguchi – pioneers of hyper-melodic 8-bit rock, whose extraordinary ascent has led them to topping charts with virtual pop star Hatsune Miku and scoring Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game and Netflix’s Scott Pilgrim Takes Off – flipped their typically meticulous digital process on its head. Anyway, the result, is the most personal record of their career. And it's a rock record for the ages.

Recorded straight to tape by Grammy-winning rock producer Dave Fridmann (The Flaming Lips, MGMT, Sleater-Kinney), Anyway united the members around live instruments and lyrics sung by everybody in the band. As Anamanaguchi has always been an instrumental band, the decision to sing suddenly confronted them with the question of what the band’s voice would ultimately be. They explore this newfound power in every song, making it their most emotionally resonant work yet.

Anyway captures a band creatively and personally energized by the experience of four best friends reviving their connection in a disconnected world. On “Rage (Kitchen Sink),” the band confront loneliness and boredom, two epidemics of the digital age that seem to be humanity’s only common bond. The power-pop ballad “Darcie” finds inspiration in small gestures from a local unsung hero, who brightens their lives and allows unforeseen amounts of fun to happen. Taut and dynamic, “Buckwild” is a rock sing-along that serves as the album’s genesis story: a band making an effort to do something new, while accepting the risks that may bring.

USA, Anamanaguchi’s critically-acclaimed second album and debut for Polyvinyl, anticipated a crucial cultural shift in moving from escapist, nostalgic fantasy to a more introspective exploration of digital identity. Described by Pitchfork as the band’s “most emotionally grounded record,” USA laid the foundation for the openness and honesty that defines Anyway. Where USA made sense of life online, their third album Anywayventures into the world outside the front door.

Originally released in 1978 on Americom Records. Officially reissued for the first time with love by Celestial Echo Records.

Some records just have that magic. A vibe that pulls you in from the first note and doesn’t let go. Phylliss Bailey’s 1978 cult classic Phylliss is one of those records—a hidden gem of modern soul and disco that’s been doing the rounds for decades in underground scenes, on dancefloors, and among collectors who know. It’s been whispered about in the right circles, bootlegged and then bootlegged again—but never given a proper reissue… Until now.

Celestial Echo Records proudly presents the first official reissue of Phylliss, a record that’s as essential today as it was back then. Originally released on the independent Americom label, the LP flew under the radar in its day but has since become a secret weapon for DJs with a taste for the modern soul & disco sound.

Phylliss Bailey’s voice is pure class—gliding over lush arrangements, tight rhythm sections, and dreamy strings with ease. Whether she’s riding the groove on dancefloor bombs like 'Focus' and 'Release Me' or slowing it down on the smouldering 'Feeling Of Love,' Bailey brings emotional weight and undeniable swagger to every track.

Fully remastered and officially licensed, it brings Phylliss into the light where it belongs. With a reimagined sleeve and labels (to distinguish from some shady copies going around!). This record is looking and sounding better than ever.

Celestial Echo Records is a label devoted to the soulful and the timeless. Based in London and run by miche & Stu Clark, the imprint has been steadily carving out a reputation among collectors and DJs for high-quality, lovingly curated reissues of rare modern soul, boogie, and disco. With each release, they shine a light on overlooked gems that still resonate deeply in today’s clubs and dancefloors. Phylliss is the next jewel in their growing catalogue of essential rediscoveries.

Issued in October 2014, debuting at number two on the UK Album Chart and at number five on
the Billboard 200 in the US, where it also became his second chart topper on the Dance/Electronic
Albums chart, Motion is Harris’ 4th studio album and a platinum-seller in the UK.
Packed with EDM crowd-pleasers as well as an impressive range of guest vocalists, including Hurts,
Haim, Gwen Stefani, John Newman and Ellie Goulding, it has been available on vinyl only once
before, a Record Store Day exclusive in 2015.
As Entertainment Weekly noted, “The best tracks on Motion…focus more on high-caliber vocals
than on booty-blasting low end... he's taking his chances with the most unpredictable technology
of all: the human voice."

CANDLEMASS - a name forged in darkness; a legacy built on doom. Born from the cold shadows of Stockholm in 1985, this Swedish titan of epic doom metal has stood as a monolithic force for nearly four decades. In 2025, CANDLEMASS marks 40 years of sorrow-laden grandeur, a testament to their unwavering reign over the genre they helped shape. Their journey began with the seismic release of “Epicus Doomicus Metallicus” (1986), a requiem that redefined heavy music, followed by the monumental “Nightfall” - both now sacred texts in the annals of doom. These albums remain cornerstones of a genre that thrives in the echoes of CANDLEMASS somber majesty. Despite doom’s reputation for slow, crushing weight, CANDLEMASS themselves show no signs of slowing down. Relentless and untamed, they continue to storm stages worldwide, bringing their towering hymns to devoted Candlemaniacs from Tokyo to Los Angeles. With Grammy win in Sweden and a U.S. Grammy nomination in 2019, the band’s fire still burns with undiminished intensity. Originally released in 2009, “Death Magic Doom” is the tenth studio album from CANDLEMASS.

Kobe Dupree unveils debut album, ‘Voice from the Inside’, arriving 21st May 2025. It lands on fellow Chicagoan DJ Hyperactive’s 4Trk (4 Track Recordings), and features twelve tracks already supported by the likes of Dustin Zahn, Truncate, Korea Town Acid, Amanda Mussi & more, coming out on wax alongside the digital release.

Dupree’s cosmic ambient opener, 'Jacurutu', sinks you into deep, sub-aquatic techno hypnosis before 'Heretics' layers up alien sounds and rolling kick drums. 'Syk' brings edgy, unrelieved loops and muffled spoken words over more mind-melting rhythm. The supple sounds and otherworldly atmospheres continue on 'Forms', which is marbled with static electricity, with 'Interlude of Voice' marking a moment to reset amongst gorgeous celestial synth smears.

The second half of the album takes in the more punchy but still perfectly loopy deep techno of 'Memory Replacement' and psychedelic swirls of 'Tongue of the Unseen'. There is a mystical charm to the harmonic tones of 'Gammu', a moodier vibe pervades the suspensory 'Fogwood', then 'Semuta Music' traps you in tightly coiled drums and hi-hats while a backlit glow soothes the soul. 'One of Many Faces' closes with a heart-aching piano piece that gets deeply emotional.

Kobe Dupree is a techno artist from Chicago with a deep interest in sound design and minimalism. His musical experiments have been released on Trax Research, Double Vision Records and DJ Hyperactive’s 4 Trk, on which he released the ‘Stimulate | Iterate’ EP in 2024. He has a hybrid approach to production, which involves using a modular rig for sound design before moving to a DAW for arrangement and final touches, heard on the sophisticated and cerebral ‘Voice from the Inside’ album.

Sailing beyond the boundaries of electronic music, Purelink embrace liquidity on their second album, washing live instrumentation and exposed vocals over their patented cascade of dubbed ambience and ebbing rhythmic experimentation. Since 2020, Tommy Paslaski (aka Concave Reflection), Ben Paulson (aka kindtree) and Akeem Asani (aka Millia) have channeled their most euphoric musical whims into the Purelink project. Drifting between brittle '90s drum 'n bass and dub techno on their cult debut 12" 'Bliss / Swivel' and vaporizing Windy City jazz and post-rock motifs with muggy soundscapes on 2023's critically revered first full-length 'Signs', the trio have managed to define a painterly signature sound that's reflective but not reverent. Sure, Purelink's music can be graceful and bucolic, but it's powered by their innate devotion to the dancefloor's soundsystem.

'Faith' illustrates a period of upheaval for the three friends; relocating from Chicago to New York City, they found themselves surrounded by new scenery and fresh inspirations that permeated their compositions as they adapted to the change. On their previous records, the production process was relatively simple, just three laptops jacked into an interface in Paslaski's living room. Here, they augment the intermixed electronics with acoustic and electric timbres, opening up space for vocal contributions from Hyperdub luminary Loraine James and poet Angelina Nonaj. "Always time for rest," James ponders candidly on 'Rookie', "we settle." Her voice floats like smoke over the trio's familiar pattering rhythms and light-headed synths, now enhanced by capsized guitar motifs and subtle bass plucks.

On 'First Iota' meanwhile, Nonaj's deadpan narration grounds Purelink's dissociated echoes, sub swells and delicate improvisations. "Not everything beautiful has to be real," Nonaj repeats as organic and digital sounds sublime into a lysergic haze. And the softly propulsive 4/4 thuds that steered 'Signs' haven't disappeared entirely, either. On 'Kite Scene' a heartbeat-like pulse underpins Purelink's balmy pads and acidic synths, tactfully disrupted by hollow live percussion, and 'Yoke' muffles its chugging, broken beat sequences with swaddled trance hallucinations, gesturing cautiously towards euphoria. Each element falls into place on the album's final track, 'Circle of Dust', when Paslaski, Paulson and Asani find a fertile middle ground, ornamenting the kinetic, reverberating beats with evaporating whispers, evocative instrumental scrapes and hopeful, ecstatic harmonies.

The discovery of Doris Dennison's score represents a genuine musicological breakthrough—what once would have been "a tree falling in the woods" thirty years ago now holds the potential to render "a thunderous clap in our minds." While researching Anna Halprin's lesser-known collaborators, scholar Tom Welsh uncovered the archives of AA Leath, one of Halprin's principal dancers. Buried within these materials was Dennison's handwritten score for Earth Interval, dated May 1956. Born in Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1908, and raised near Seattle, Dennison (1908-2009) encountered John Cage while teaching Dalcroze eurythmics at the Cornish College of the Arts. She joined Cage's earliest percussion quartet—alongside Margaret Jansen, the composer and his wife Xenia—in the group widely regarded as having performed the first complete concert of percussion music in the United States. This historic December 1938 concert was followed by tours and the landmark May 1941 performance at the California Club, comprising Cage and Lou Harrison's Double Music, the premiere of Cage's Third Construction, and Harrison's 13th Simfony.

As Bradford Bailey observes in his extensive liner notes, Earth Interval demonstrates "an extraordinary balance of elements that imbues the piece with a sense of clarity, directness, and constraint that is both distinct and ahead of its time." The work's most remarkable innovation lies in its approach to extended techniques, particularly Dennison's notation for the central movement: "In 2nd movement, 1st player lowers + raises a gong into a tub of water while beating." This technique, absorbed from Cage's experimental vocabulary, generates what Bailey describes as "fields of acoustic abstraction that bend and warp time through sustained resonances, beat, and space." The temporal sophistication of these manipulations anticipated Karlheinz Stockhausen's Mikrophonie I (1964) and Annea Lockwood's water-based sound investigations by over a decade. After joining Mills College as dance accompanist, Dennison maintained crucial connections to the Bay Area's experimental scene, collaborating with figures like Merce Cunningham and programming Cage's music throughout the 1950s.

Comprising three movements—Land Form, Air Tide, and Earth Play—Earth Interval is scored for recorder, drums, gongs, maracas, muted gongs, and bowl gongs. In total, the piece is just under eight minutes: "a fleeting glimmer of moment in time, a life spent at the cutting edge, and a singular creative vision that packs a powerful punch." When viewed in historical context, placed in contrast to roughly contemporaneous avant-garde percussion works by Cage, Harrison, Louis Thomas Hardin (Moondog), and Harry Partch, or important precursors like Edgard Varèse's Ionisation (1931) and Henry Cowell's Ostinato Pianissimo (1934), it's clear that Dennison was following her own path. Earth Interval is not derivative. It is a precursor to what was yet to come, alluding to developments of avant-garde and experimental music that wouldn't begin to appear on the cultural landscape until the 1970s and '80s, with the emergence of Post-Minimalism and more idiosyncratic artists and ensembles like Midori Takada, Ros Bandt, Peter Giger, Frank Perry, Christopher Tree, Michael Ranta, Gamelan Son of Lion, and Niagara.

This recording by Chicago's Third Coast Percussion, captured in March 2022, represents the first complete documentation of this pioneering work. The ensemble's interpretation reveals the piece's remarkable contemporaneity while maintaining its historical specificity. Where Cage, Harrison, and Partch employed "self-consciously off-kilter polyrhythms," Dennison's rhythmic sensibility anticipates minimalist developments by nearly a decade, yet integrates "forceful rests, as well as sharp shifts in sonic character, tempo, and meter, that break the momentum and breathe a sense of life into the piece's structure." This positions her work closer to Post-Minimalism decades before its emergence. The architectural approach demonstrates Dennison's understanding that "the composer almost entirely disappears" in favor of phenomenological listening experience, creating what might be called an egoless music that places its realities and meaning entirely in the ear of the beholder. The present recording, realized by Chicago's distinguished Third Coast Percussion ensemble, represents a significant achievement in experimental music scholarship and performance practice. As specialists in the Cage tradition and contemporary percussion repertoire, Third Coast Percussion approached Earth Interval with the historical sensitivity and technical precision required to illuminate Dennison's subtle compositional innovations. The March 2022 recording sessions, engineered by Colin Campbell, capture both the work's intimate chamber music qualities and its bold exploration of extended techniques. The ensemble's interpretation reveals the piece's remarkable contemporaneity—its ability to speak directly to current musical concerns while maintaining its historical specificity.

This recording serves multiple scholarly functions: it provides the first complete documentation of Dennison's compositional voice, offers insight into the broader network of experimental music practitioners surrounding Cage and Harrison, and demonstrates the sophisticated level of compositional thinking that was occurring within the Bay Area's dance-music collaborations of the 1950s. The work's emphasis on phenomenological listening—what might be called an "egoless" approach to musical experience—places it within a lineage of American experimental music that prioritizes perceptual process over compositional personality. The work's original obscurity—limited to AA Leath's performances at venues like the 1957 Pacific Coast Arts Festival at Reed College—paradoxically allowed it to remain "entirely on its own terms," free from the constraints of historical categorization. Drawing on Jacques Derrida's Archive Fever, the argument emerges that "the archive can acknowledge, celebrate, and resurrect" overlooked voices, transforming our understanding of experimental music history. The present Blume edition, featuring Third Coast Percussion's authoritative interpretation, includes a lavishly illustrated 16-page booklet designed by Bruno Stucchi / dinamomilano, containing complete scholarly apparatus, historical photographs, and detailed production notes. This recording enables "cross-temporal intersectionality," allowing Dennison to "belong to a newly formed and more dynamic understanding of the present and past," demonstrating how forgotten voices can reshape entire historical narratives when given proper scholarly attention and performance advocacy.

For most members of the band it's the best album. But, tragically, the release of Operation Heavenly in 1996 was overshadowed by the sudden death of drummer Mathew Fletcher. The promotional tour was cancelled, the surviving members of the band went into emotional hibernation and no-one could bring themselves to celebrate these vibrant, upbeat songs. So, this release by Skep Wax Records, nearly thirty years on, is more like an album launch than a re-issue. Time has healed most wounds, and the songs on Operation Heavenly feel like they can finally emerge onto the stage, with Mathew's spirit very much alive: his effervescent witty drumming sounding as fresh now as it did then. These tracks are gleeful, melodic, sophisticated and knowing. The tough riot grrrl edge that Heavenly had developed a year before with seminal singles P.U.N.K. Girl and Atta Girl, has been blended with a deliberate quantity of Britpop styling. Heavenly were clearly listening to what was going on, liked the energy, but didn't necessarily feel the need to join in. Some of the tracks (eg Ben Sherman) are as jaunty as early Blur, but the lyrics, mocking a narcissistic boyfriend for his obsession with hair, clothes and his own erections, show that Heavenly didn't need or want to be part of the la - or even ladette - herd. Operation Heavenly was the band's first release on a label other than Sarah Records. Matt Haynes and Clare Wadd had brought that exceptional label to a deliberate and dramatic end. The liaison with US punk label K Records continued - as did the duets with Calvin Johnson: Pet Monkey is a moving duet between a growling Calvin Johnson and a sweet-voiced Cathy Rogers, as they dramatize another complex, maybe doomed relationship, with another self-centred boy finding himself frustrated by a girl who won't take any shit. But in the UK, Heavenly needed to find a new home - and Wiija Records were welcoming hosts, ushering the band into a brasher, less cloistered world: the production on this album is brighter than before, the artwork is colourful and upbeat. With tracks as catchy and as complete as Fat Lenny, Trophy Girlfriend and Space Manatee there was an expectation that Heavenly might finally emerge from the indiepop shadows and trouble the charts. And who knows if this might have happened. Mathew was lost before the album was released, and the band had no choice but to bring things to an end. This reissue also contains two tracks that appeared on the B side of the 7" single of Space Manatee. They are both cover versions, and along with Serge Gainsbourg's Nous Ne Sommes Pas Des Anges on the main album, these vivacious assaults on Art School by The Jam and You Tore Me Down by The Flamin' Groovies show that the band, briefly in its prime, could happily embrace any variant of pop music and make it something Heavenly.

This new "Experimental Chapter" by DJ Narciso comes as no surprise, really. Autonomous in the motorization of his music, pushing for progress within the framework of an undeniable (inescapable?) heritage. Twisting and bending sound every step of the way, Narciso definitely keeps in touch with the dancefloor, offering the always much needed transcendence through distinctive, non-linear melodies and patterns. The artist pursues a direct link with bodies in motion but seldom in the expected, institutionalized way club culture is being largely promoted.

This is challenging dance music, proud statements of difference. Narciso's previous record was named "Diferenciado". Now we get "Dificuldades", a track that simultaneously carries the weight of being somewhat odd and the difficulties of life. Check how the piano is venting, freestyle, communicating a feeling, and then lets itself get stuck in a loop, but that's exactly when the groove really starts flowing. And then another layer. It's like direct speech.

A common assertion of pride is found in the origin of the artists. The ghetto as a place where any transformation projects more power precisely because of... inherent difficulties. As others (including himself) did in more or less obvious ways, Narciso clearly states "I come from the ghetto" ( "Não Sabes" ). Twice the value. At least. Almost every segment of music in this album ends up sounding heavily emotional, reaffirming what may be - perversely - a well-known characteristic of Portuguese music: melancholy.

"Não Quero" begins side B as a march maybe more significant than a thousand words, such is the ominous tone of its texture. Next track is another lunar tarraxo, pulling down the shades. Then, "Dor de Barriga" lets things loose again, steering clearly off road, shouting this way and that until a peaceful resolution comes. In "Livra-me Desta", vocal snippets blend into synth snippets, disembodied voices abandon all traces of humanity and finally mutate into different entities that, towards the end, again sound vaguely human but now we find ourselves doubting. Closer "Bob" is a rather classic percussion track with plenty of echo, reverb and an unconscious nod to dodecaphonic music. Unlikely? No, the structural ADN of this music is made up of elements western and eastern, southern and northern. To say all-over-the-place is usually not flattering but in this case the expression translates as wonder, surprise, The Unexpected, and reveals Narciso perfectly at ease inside the nucleus of creation.

Experience the Double-Platinum 1996 Album in Audiophile Sound for the First Time
Mobile Fidelity’s Numbered-Edition 180g 45RPM 2LP Set Is Sourced from the Original Analogue Tapes
1/2” / 30 IPS analogue master to DSD 256 to analogue console to lathe

If great art, as many believe, is inherently polarizing, then the Stone Temple Pilots’ Tiny Music… Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop easily ranks as the California-based band’s finest album. Simultaneously celebrated and castigated upon release in spring 1996, the group’s third full-length finds vocalist Scott Weiland and company expanding their “grunge” palette with a smart blend of glam rock, psychedelia, jangle pop, and other related styles. Having benefited from long-view reassessments that shed the biases and meanness of initial criticisms, the double-platinum effort is now largely and rightly seen as a creative masterwork. All the more reason why it deserves reference-grade production.

Overseen by producer Brendan O’Brien, Stone Temple Pilots used bedrooms, hallways, bathrooms, and the lawn to capture a broad blend of textures, spaciousness, and ambience that helped underline the group’s obvious (and somewhat unexpected) leap from normal “alternative” status to an artist whose aspirations went beyond that of many of its contemporaries. You can hear the multitude of details and tonalities with previously unattained clarity, presence, and scope on this fantastic reissue, which also delivers the impact and punch every rock record deserves. Another tremendous asset: The depth, grain, and pitch of Weiland’s voice.

For all the contagious choruses and glossy melodies that help make Tiny Music… Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop sparkle, the vocal performances of the late singer arguably rank as the best that the much-missed Weiland committed to tape. None other than the Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan — who, like many peers and critics, felt a pressing need to reevaluate the record as both time marched on and the self-importance attached to the “alternative” scene faded — praised Weiland’s efforts by noting: “Like Bowie can and does, it was Scott's phrasing that pushed his music into a unique, and hard to pin down, aesthetic sonicsphere.”

Smooth and diverse, those traits are everywhere on Tiny Music… Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop. From the clever combination of emotional closeness and distance he brings to the catchy albeit ultimately melancholic “Lady Picture Show”; to the lounge-fly balladeering that causes “And So I Know” to lightly swing akin to a bleary-eyed house band’s final number at a 4 A.M. bar; to the effortless cool and laissez-faire casualness he articulates on the grinding “Pop’s Love Suicide”; to the dimensional raspiness, defiant energy, and let-loose wail that sail through the crunchy “Big Bang Baby.”

The latter tune, the record’s first single and per Weiland a conscious attempt by the band to deconstruct its prior approaches, clearly borrows from the Rolling Stones’ “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” Because of it, the song drew all kinds of barbs from naysayers. Their disdain extended to most material on Tiny Music… Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, which indirectly references other prized acts such as the Beatles, Cheap Trick, T. Rex, and Lush. Those cynics failed to grasp that Stone Temple Pilots were paying homage and having a blast, with even Weiland, then battling serious substance-abuse and legal issues, getting in on the action.

Stone Temple Pilots’ skeptics also turned a deaf ear to the records’ stellar pop craftsmanship, sticky hooks, and sly commentary on music-industry machinations and fame. Not to mention the band’s intent, made clear from the outset. In an interview conducted in 1994, guitarist Robert DeLeo stated: “The last thing I wanted to do with this band was make everybody believe we invented something.”

Seen through that lens and the hindsight afforded history, and appreciated independent of the self-righteous authenticity standards of the day, Tiny Music… Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop sounds borderline fearless while authoritatively checking all the right boxes for fun, flavor, and finesse. Part winking send-up, part tribute to the glitter rock age, and part middle finger towards the hip crowd that didn’t know what they were missing, this mid-90s classic repeatedly invites you to drop the needle and press play.

Mobile Fidelity's UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP Set Plays with Authoritative Tonality, Airiness, and Clarity:
Pressed on MoFi SuperVinyl and Strictly Limited to
3,000 Numbered Copies
1/4” / 15 IPS Dolby A analogue master to DSD 256 to analogue console to lathe

Joni Mitchell is the only artist who could’ve made Hejira. The legendary singer-songwriter said as much when discussing the album decades after its release. Yet that fact seemed obvious from the moment the gold-certified effort streeted in fall 1976. An adventurous travelogue, probing narrative, and offbeat homage to freedom, Hejira remains an inimitable entry in the catalog of recorded music — a spare, gorgeous, meditative series of sonic vignettes comprised of floating harmonic pop, cool jazz, soft rock, and sensitive vocal elements that beckon feelings of motion, discovery, and self-examination.

Sourced from the original analog master tapes, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing on MoFi SuperVinyl, and strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies, Mobile Fidelity's UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP set presents the record ranked the 133rd Greatest of All Time by Rolling Stone with definitive detail, richness, accuracy, and directness. Marking the first time the revered LP has received audiophile treatment, it's one of six iconic 1970s Mitchell records Mobile Fidelity is reissuing on vinyl and SACD.

Playing with a virtually nonexistent noise floor, dead-quiet surfaces, and superior groove definition, this collectible reissue reproduces in enveloping fashion the tones, textures, and craftsmanship that help Hejira function as the equivalent of a liberating trip down an open road with nothing but blue sky, natural landscape, and fresh air in the immediate vicinity. Passages bloom, carry, decay as they do amid an acoustically optimized environment. Soundstages extend far, wide, and deep, with black backgrounds and pinpoint images adding to the realism.

The reference-grade immediacy, airiness, and presence put in transparent perspective Mitchell’s dense strings of words, stream-of-conscious-like phrasing, and unhurried albeit forward momentum. Likewise, the instrumental contributions of her A-list support musicians — a cast that includes L.A. Express members John Guerin, Max Bennett and Tom Scott, plus Neil Young, Victor Feldman, and Abe Most — emerges with breathtaking clarity and dimensionality.

While Mitchell, whose intimate vocals and abstract guitar parts center everything, Mobile Fidelity's restoration of Hejira further reveals the visionary breadth of guitarist Larry Carlton and bassist Jaco Pastorius. Though heard on only four tracks, Pastorius' fretless bass epitomizes the fluid, subtle, flexible, roomy, and shape-shifting characteristics of songs that often appear to transpire out of nowhere akin to the formation of a puffy cumulus cloud overhead. In sync with Mitchell’s voice, Pastorius’ fusion hovers and floats, suspended in a fog you want to deeply inhale. The "grace notes" Mitchell desired on Hejira can now be heard in full. Ditto the luxurious tapestries of alinear lines, fills, and supplements unreeled on Carlton’s six-string.

Visually, the packaging of this UD1S set complements its identity as the copy to own. Housed in a deluxe slipcase, the LPs come in foil-stamped jackets with faithful-to-the-original graphics. This version is for listeners who desire to become immersed in everything about Hejira, including the unforgettable album cover — a pastiche of 14 different photos Mitchell used a Camera Lucida to assemble into one image that’s anchored by a portrait of her in a stoic pose — and the interior shots of Mitchell skating on a frozen Wisconsin lake wearing a pair of black skates, black shirt, and fur cape.

The notion of skating, feeling an awakening wind whipping against your face, and losing yourself to the surroundings are extremely apt for Hejira, which Mitchell wrote after a sequence of trips and relationships prompted her to reflect on the complicated conflicts between independence and marriage, success and satisfaction, duty and desire — and, more specifically, “the cost of being a woman.” The Canadian native delved into such themes before. But never as she does on Hejira, whose liberating, running-away aura doubles as another of Mitchell’s rejections of tradition as well as a suggestion of a better alternative.

At once observational and personal, expansive and insular, cheerful and poignant, Hejira spans a sea of human conditions, emotions, and circumstances. It addresses drifting, isolation, pleasure, place, time, and surroundings with strikingly poetic discourse matched with music that, save for the crooned ballad “Blue Motel Room,” forgoes conventional structures and choruses.

The jazz-based arrangements, marked by scaled-down percussion and all manner of bent, rounded, and unsettled notes, hint that Mitchell has no exact destination in mind. Excursions such as the moody “Furry Sings the Blues,” funky “Coyote” and edgy “Black Crow” throw open previously locked doors to possibility and journey. They signal it’s time for a welcome departure from norms and the past, one that leads to a heightened sense of clarity and perspective. Or, as Mitchell said upon choosing the album title, it’s time for “leaving the dream, no blame.”

Was ein fieses Brett kommt da aus dem Münsterland! Ein Biest von einer Platte, aggressiv, maximal bissig, nah am Overdrive-Exzess! Aber der Reihe nach - No Shelter waren scheinbar nur mir noch Unbekannte, so kam es mir auf jeden Fall vor, nachdem ich Professor Hagemann nach seiner Meinung zu den 5 Emsdettenern gefragt hab. Ungläubig wurde ich gefragt, ob ich die tatsächlich noch nicht mal live gesehen hätte. Es schien, als hätte der Biermetalgott sein Prüfzeichen schon vor Jahren an No Shelter vergeben. Und so steht also fest: hier kann nix schiefgehen. Und so überzeugt auch "Remission/Resolve" nach "Rest In Death" (2020) und "Erasing Life" (2022) in allen Belangen - wenn man ein Faible für Bands wie Trap Them, Nails oder Entombed hat, wird man hier sicherlich ein diebisches Grinsen ins Gesicht bekommen. Aufgenommen in der Tonmeisterei hämmern No Shelter in 12 Akten mit dem ganz großen Holzhammer auf unseren Nervenenden rum - es finden tatsächlich ziemlich viele Spielarten modernerer Extremmusik ihr Plätzchen im Oevre der Jungs - langsam, zerstörerisch kaputt, Malmend, rasend, im D-Beat-Galopp fräsen sie sich in den Gehörgang. Es ist eine tiefe Verbeugung vor den End 80er/Anfang 90er Schwedenmetal-Freunden, ein Hohenlied auf den HM2-Zerrer, der eine ganze Generation junger Deathmetaler in Schwingung gebracht hat.

As part of Ace 50 BGP has hooked up with our old friends at Concord Music to reissue one of the most important albums in our story. In 1987 as the dance jazz scene morphed into acid jazz Billy Hawks ‘Oh Baby (I Believe I’m Losing You)’ was filling the dance floors where either Gilles Peterson or Baz Fe Jazz were playing.

The Prestige Records album, “Heavy Soul!”, that featured the track, was impossible to find, and frustrated DJs were desperately trying to find a copy. BGP - the Ace label that the two DJs helmed - reissued the album and put the in-demand track onto a 12 inch single. With supply sufficient it became a club smash, crossing over to become a mod classic and one of the most important cuts from our scene.

In the ensuing years the track's status has remained undimmed and the album has never turned up in significant numbers, and yet it has never been reissued since. With an attention to detail that has always been the Ace way, we have carefully mastered the record to be as close as possible to the sound of the original Van Gelder mastering of 1967, and created and accurate representation of the album and label cover art.

Hawks never lived to be rediscovered, but through our musical detective work we tracked down his brother and found out as much of his story as feasible and we also unearthed a couple of pictures. The Virginian born organist with the amazing voice was a fixture on the North-Eastern lounge bar circuit, which was the entertainment backbone off Black American music at the time, and his full story is told on the illustrated inner sleeve that comes with this release

Vice Squad are 100% DIY and record everything in their home studio with guitarist/riffmaster Paul Rooney engineering and mixing. There is nothing sloppy here; the whole album is concise and intelligent with lightning-speed diction, passion, and intent. The glorious ‘If I Knew What I Know Now’ and ‘The World Is Wrong’ are examples of Vice Squad’s ability to write instantly catchy, witty songs, and the more gut-wrenching material from their last album, ‘Battle of Britain’, showcases some enormous riffs and a voice that is a million decibels from Beki's untried teen vocals. The album opens with the deliciously effervescent ‘If I Knew What I Know Now’, followed by the sparkling old-school tongue-twister ‘Out of Reach’. Next up is the visceral ‘Get A Life’, an angry anti-suicide note to the desperate, originally the title track from their 1998 comeback album. This is followed by a shimmering version of Vice Squad's old-school classic ‘Resurrection’. While the treatment of the old songs remains true to the original teenage renditions, the upgraded versions pack more of a punch with detuned guitars and growling bass. The tribal tom-toms of ‘Allergy’ underpin just over two minutes of punk protest about the delights of pollution and asthma. Then comes the sublime ‘Sniffing Glue’, a near-perfect punk love song that would be a huge hit if not for its subject matter. ‘Ordinary Girl’ is punk-pop perfection brimming with hook lines and harmonies, warmly mocking the life that could have been chosen instead of the grindstone at the sharp end of the music industry. ‘The World Is Wrong’ is anthemic, joyous, and wonderfully contrary, and one would expect nothing less from a band that has soldiered on and grown through the decades. It’s always great when bands lead by example. In these increasingly tough times where our survival is threatened by the gargantuan greed of a few individuals, it's important to continuously stick two fingers up to the grabbers and spoilers. 'The World Is Wrong' does just that in an impassioned, melodic, and optimistic style. 'Hold your head up, stand your ground, and don't let the bastards grind you down.' Then we roar into the final single Beki wrote with original and now sadly deceased guitarist Dave Bateman, ‘Citizen’, and continue with another teenage opus, the quite brutal ‘Scarred For Life’. ‘Voice of the People’ is a bulldozer of a song, all swagger and ballsy riffs, and the chorus, ‘Freedom of speech is against the law; now we’re all criminals,’ snarls its derision at red-handed red tape. ‘Punk Police’ sneers over a catchy-as-COVID guitar riff, and the lyrics, ‘Regulation cut, you must measure up, down on the street, PR companies, monied families, running the scene,’ call out the hierarchies that now permeate Punk. Baritone guitars add extra darkness to one of the first-ever animal rights songs, ‘Humane’, and I’m struck by how relevant the older songs are. Chocks away, and the awesome ’Spitfire’ takes flight like Motörhead on extra amphetamines. Merlin engines fade into ‘Born In A War’, the second in the triumvirate of conflict-themed songs, an absolute stonker with huge muscular riffs and lyrics that roar pure outrage. Then comes the ominous Last Rockers, with all the angst of the original plus added depth and resonance. Beki: ' "Last Rockers" is a typically depressive adolescent song about nuclear war and being too young to die but too late to live. I believed Punks were the ‘Last Rockers’, the final youth cult before the Apocalypse. I was obsessed with punk, and all I wanted to do was sing in a band and be part of the movement, so I would often romanticise the idea of punk in my lyrics.' The four bonus CD tracks kick off with ‘Coward’, another teen Bateman/Bond composition. ‘No You Don’t’ is just over two minutes of vocal acrobatics over a Dexedrine-driven Devo-esque chord sequence, and the frantically brilliant ‘I Dare To Breathe’ from ‘Battle of Britain’ continues the aural assault. Then the final sombre entreaty of ‘You Can’t Buy Back The Dead’ warns us that ‘Enough’s never enough; absolute power will corrupt; the war machine still rumbles on’ before fading into the future.

Best of' albums are invariably repackaged collections of old recordings, so Vice Squad's `Punk Rockers' is a breath of fresh air The songs have been lovingly recorded and remastered, keeping all the original fire and adding decades of experience gained from punishing tours and continuous songwriting Beki is the original architect of the songs and the Vice Squad name, and she is the sole surviving member of the original lineup to have continued as a full-time musician Vice Squad are 100% DIY and record everything in their home studio with guitarist/riffmaster Paul Rooney engineering and mixing. There is nothing sloppy here; the whole album is concise and intelligent with lightning-speed diction, passion, and intent. The glorious `If I Knew What I Know Now' and `The World Is Wrong' are examples of Vice Squad's ability to write instantly catchy, witty songs, and the more gut-wrenching material from their last album, `Battle of Britain', showcases some enormous riffs and a voice that is a million decibels from Beki's untried teen vocals. The album opens with the deliciously effervescent `If I Knew What I Know Now', followed by the sparkling old-school tongue-twister `Out of Reach'. Next up is the visceral `Get A Life', an angry anti-suicide note to the desperate, originally the title track from their 1998 comeback album. This is followed by a shimmering version of Vice Squad's old-school classic `Resurrection'. While the treatment of the old songs remains true to the original teenage renditions, the upgraded versions pack more of a punch with detuned guitars and growling bass. The tribal tom-toms of `Allergy' underpin just over two minutes of punk protest about the delights of pollution and asthma. Then comes the sublime `Sniffing Glue', a near-perfect punk love song that would be a huge hit if not for its subject matter. `Ordinary Girl' is punk-pop perfection brimming with hook lines and harmonies, warmly mocking the life that could have been chosen instead of the grindstone at the sharp end of the music industry. `The World Is Wrong' is anthemic, joyous, and wonderfully contrary, and one would expect nothing less from a band that has soldiered on and grown through the decades. It's always great when bands lead by example. In these increasingly tough times where our survival is threatened by the gargantuan greed of a few individuals, it's important to continuously stick two fingers up to the grabbers and spoilers. 'The World Is Wrong' does just that in an impassioned, melodic, and optimistic style. 'Hold your head up, stand your ground, and don't let the bastards grind you down.' Then we roar into the final single Beki wrote with original and now sadly deceased guitarist Dave Bateman, `Citizen', and continue with another teenage opus, the quite brutal `Scarred For Life'. `Voice of the People' is a bulldozer of a song, all swagger and ballsy riffs, and the chorus, `Freedom of speech is against the law; now we're all criminals,' snarls its derision at red-handed red tape. `Punk Police' sneers over a catchy-as-COVID guitar riff, and the lyrics, `Regulation cut, you must measure up, down on the street, PR companies, monied families, running the scene,' call out the hierarchies that now permeate Punk. Baritone guitars add extra darkness to one of the first-ever animal rights songs, `Humane', and I'm struck by how relevant the older songs are. Chocks away, and the awesome 'Spitfire' takes flight like Motörhead on extra amphetamines. Merlin engines fade into `Born In A War', the second in the triumvirate of conflict-themed songs, an absolute stonker with huge muscular riffs and lyrics that roar pure outrage. Then comes the ominous Last Rockers, with all the angst of the original plus added depth and resonance. Beki: ' "Last Rockers" is a typically depressive adolescent song about nuclear war and being too young to die but too late to live. I believed Punks were the `Last Rockers', the final youth cult before the Apocalypse. I was obsessed with punk, and all I wanted to do was sing in a band and be part of the movement, so I would often romanticise the idea of punk in my lyrics.'

Best of' albums are invariably repackaged collections of old recordings, so Vice Squad's `Punk Rockers' is a breath of fresh air The songs have been lovingly recorded and remastered, keeping all the original fire and adding decades of experience gained from punishing tours and continuous songwriting Beki is the original architect of the songs and the Vice Squad name, and she is the sole surviving member of the original lineup to have continued as a full-time musician Vice Squad are 100% DIY and record everything in their home studio with guitarist/riffmaster Paul Rooney engineering and mixing. There is nothing sloppy here; the whole album is concise and intelligent with lightning-speed diction, passion, and intent. The glorious `If I Knew What I Know Now' and `The World Is Wrong' are examples of Vice Squad's ability to write instantly catchy, witty songs, and the more gut-wrenching material from their last album, `Battle of Britain', showcases some enormous riffs and a voice that is a million decibels from Beki's untried teen vocals. The album opens with the deliciously effervescent `If I Knew What I Know Now', followed by the sparkling old-school tongue-twister `Out of Reach'. Next up is the visceral `Get A Life', an angry anti-suicide note to the desperate, originally the title track from their 1998 comeback album. This is followed by a shimmering version of Vice Squad's old-school classic `Resurrection'. While the treatment of the old songs remains true to the original teenage renditions, the upgraded versions pack more of a punch with detuned guitars and growling bass. The tribal tom-toms of `Allergy' underpin just over two minutes of punk protest about the delights of pollution and asthma. Then comes the sublime `Sniffing Glue', a near-perfect punk love song that would be a huge hit if not for its subject matter. `Ordinary Girl' is punk-pop perfection brimming with hook lines and harmonies, warmly mocking the life that could have been chosen instead of the grindstone at the sharp end of the music industry. `The World Is Wrong' is anthemic, joyous, and wonderfully contrary, and one would expect nothing less from a band that has soldiered on and grown through the decades. It's always great when bands lead by example. In these increasingly tough times where our survival is threatened by the gargantuan greed of a few individuals, it's important to continuously stick two fingers up to the grabbers and spoilers. 'The World Is Wrong' does just that in an impassioned, melodic, and optimistic style. 'Hold your head up, stand your ground, and don't let the bastards grind you down.' Then we roar into the final single Beki wrote with original and now sadly deceased guitarist Dave Bateman, `Citizen', and continue with another teenage opus, the quite brutal `Scarred For Life'. `Voice of the People' is a bulldozer of a song, all swagger and ballsy riffs, and the chorus, `Freedom of speech is against the law; now we're all criminals,' snarls its derision at red-handed red tape. `Punk Police' sneers over a catchy-as-COVID guitar riff, and the lyrics, `Regulation cut, you must measure up, down on the street, PR companies, monied families, running the scene,' call out the hierarchies that now permeate Punk. Baritone guitars add extra darkness to one of the first-ever animal rights songs, `Humane', and I'm struck by how relevant the older songs are. Chocks away, and the awesome 'Spitfire' takes flight like Motörhead on extra amphetamines. Merlin engines fade into `Born In A War', the second in the triumvirate of conflict-themed songs, an absolute stonker with huge muscular riffs and lyrics that roar pure outrage. Then comes the ominous Last Rockers, with all the angst of the original plus added depth and resonance. Beki: ' "Last Rockers" is a typically depressive adolescent song about nuclear war and being too young to die but too late to live. I believed Punks were the `Last Rockers', the final youth cult before the Apocalypse. I was obsessed with punk, and all I wanted to do was sing in a band and be part of the movement, so I would often romanticise the idea of punk in my lyrics.'

GRAMMY-award winning blues icon Koko Taylor was a force of nature. The legendary Queen of the Blues was one of the genre’s best-selling and most recognizable artists. With her huge, gritty voice and the backing of her powerhouse band, The Blues Machine, she delivered tough Chicago blues over a 45-year career, ending with her death in 2009. For people all over the world, her music IS the blues as much as BB King’s or Buddy Guy’s. Crown Jewels is the first new Koko Taylor vinyl to be released in 35 years, and as the title makes clear, it’s packed with over 50 minutes of the finest performances from her celebrated Alligator years. These are songs blues fans know and love by heart, from “Wang Dang Doodle” to “Hey Bartender” to “Let The Good Times Roll.” It’s gritty, unvarnished, old-school blues and proud of it, every track infused with Koko’s ageless energy and passion. Fellow Chicago blues greats Buddy Guy and Carey Ball guest.

Under his Orion Westbrook alias, the man cooks up some serious heavy-hitting house grooves with a funky twist that hits just right. Side A brings the heat with Pasadena’s own queen Moniquea, laying down her signature style — smooth, confident, somewhere between singing and rapping, and always on point. She glides effortlessly over this modern boogie gem, oozing style and swagger. The wildest part? These two only met once — but the chemistry is undeniable. Flip it to Side B and you’re treated to the sultry voice of Mae Rojas, a familiar name from the Cee-O-Funk sessions. Her sweet R’n’B flavor blends perfectly with a catchy, cosmic-tinged beat that’s equal parts seductive and futuristic. Personal but danceable — the kind of cut that lingers. Both tracks walk the line between dancefloor fire and laidback cruise, and that’s the magic here — funky, versatile, and 100% fresh.

The lengthening days and the long beautiful evenings: it must be time to treat yourself to this wonderful (and highly limited) 10” single from Julian Cope’s Dope feat. Fuck Authority. Consisting of two 20 minute tracks, main track ‘666’ is a Deutsche sing-a-long from beyond the grave, replete with martial side drums and cacophonous orchestral strings. With raised steins, our gruff-voiced male choir recounts their bolshie nursery rhyme – a beguiling tale of a mysterious tree that predicts the future. Simultaneously traditional and avant-garde, ‘666’ will remain in people’s heads long after the vinyl has been ejected. Meanwhile, awaiting listeners on the other side of this epic release is Dope’s most overtly psychedelic offering thus far. Off-kilter and raging, this non-LP B-side is entitled ‘1381’, after the year of Wat Tyler’s Peasant’s Revolt. Unbalanced? U-Betcha! As Fat Paul’s cataclysmic FX and Holy McGrail’s Space Echo obscure and overwhelm Fuck Authority’s vast stereo bass guitar, one can only praise the poor technicians who captured it all on vinyl. Yes, with its fabulous packaging and earworm chorus, this unlikely 10” release must be a candidate for Single of the Year surely?

UNIQUE CHRISTMAS It is something very special when the legends of jazz put their (Christmas) robe over well-known Christmas carols and then let them shine in new splendor. This is true for the virtuoso instrumentalists on saxophone, trumpet, piano, clarinet and vibraphone as well as for the great voices of jazz. The intelligent arrangements exude the magic of Christmas without any kitsch, but still with a lot of feeling, charm and extraordinary skill. For all those who like to do without the classical Christmas singing and are bored by the pop monotony, Jazz On Christmas is the alternative to create a very unique Christmas atmosphere.

Black Vinyl LP. The world has changed, we shouldn't try and pretend otherwise. While we were shut away in isolation our routines shifted, social patterns evolved, and our hopes and dreams were twisted into cobwebs we're still trying to wipe from our fingers. Ziúr tentatively approached this on her last album Antifate, an ambitious and complex hybrid pop fever dream that looked back to a Medieval escapist fantasy as the scent of revolution seemed to hum in the air. But when restrictions were eased, she found herself staring down a discombobulated society that had trapped itself in a spiral of microwaved nostalgia and detached, narcotic repetition. Eyeroll then is Ziúr's musical panacea, a tincture to wake us from our creative slumber and prompt external connection and reflection. It's a polyphonous hex that demands human interaction, and Ziúr's hand-picked alliance of collaborators - Elvin Brandhi, Abdullah Miniawy, Iceboy Violet, Juliana Huxtable, Ledef, and James Ginzburg - each provide distinct voices that together herald a bewildering sonic epoch. Ziúr's palette had to evolve to match the scope of the project, but it was pure necessity that informed the album's defining tone. Recording mostly at night, Ziúr was conscious of the noise she was making so developed a unique way to record organic percussion. Using a set of rototoms - low profile tunable drums - she scratched, scraped and gently tapped the skins to build up the undulating and unstable rhythmic backdrop for each track. It's the first sound we hear on the opener 'Eyeroll', rattling like lost marbles against Elvin Brandhi's primal croaks and screams. And when Brandhi's twisted articulations form words, Ziúr matches the energy with chaotic thuds and serrated blasts of saturated electronics. "I roll the shittiest cigarette," she squeals like she's about to start a mosh pit at Paris's GRM Studios. Without pause, Abdullah Miniawy takes over on 'Malikan', building on the promise of material with Simo Cell, Carl Gari and HVAD with corrosive trumpet blasts and charged, politically incendiary Arabic vocals. Inspired by pre-Islamic poetry and the Qu'ranic chanters he heard growing up in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, he spins labyrinthine stories that cross between the worlds, breaking down physical and spiritual borders simultaneously. Miniawy's scope is expanded even further on his second collaboration, 'If The City Burns I Will Not Run'. "If it rains and the city drowns," he utters over gaseous electronics, "I will not run away, but I will be anxious for the heart of one close to me." After a supple vocal turn from Manchester's Iceboy Violet on 'Move On' and a surreal interlude from poet- DJ-artist-theorist Juliana Huxtable on '99 Favor Taste', Brandhi returns with two more hyperactive collaborations: ,'Nontrivial Differential' and 'Cut Cut Quote'. On the former she slices into Ziúr's skeletal jazz eruptions, screaming and crooning interchangeably, fluxing between the rap battle and the cabaret. The latter is completely different meanwhile, with Brandhi settling into her role as front-woman and groaning dizzying improvised passages that sound like grunge crossed with psychedelic no-wave. Brandhi's spiky musical history has prepared her well for this collaboration; she's a prolific producer and has been using her voice spontaneously since debuting with father-daughter improv duo Yeah You in the mid 2020s. She's found an ideal foil in Ziúr, a producer who matches her restless energy and willingness to bend formality, and leaves an indelible mark on Eyeroll. But the album's most tender moments are from Ziúr herself, who winds the album down on 'Hasty Revisionism', growling over collapsible beats and cascading strings, and comes to an unexpected conclusion with country coda 'Lacrymaturity'. Its feverish amalgamation of country music and euphoric, experimental electronics might seem incongruous at first, but in context with the rest of the album is the only possible conclusion. With Eyeroll Ziúr is making a firm statement about togetherness, humanity, and the renewal of hope when all seems lost. By bringing together such a wide but philosophically harmonic team of collaborators, she's conducted a body of work that speaks to the creative fringe in no uncertain terms. Now's the time to throw away what you think you know, and build bridges you didn't think you need. Now's the time for action. She may have spent her entire career avoiding the solipsistic trappings of "queer art", but by assembling a communal statement that questions so many normative assumptions about music, politics, and beyond, Ziúr has chanced upon her queerest album yet. Cringe? Eyeroll.

Milton Wright's perfect deep Soul classic "Keep It Up" has always been a top shelf record, everything about it is almost flawless! Whether it's Milton's silky vocal delivery, the incessant guitar driven back beat or the total space Funk vibe of his omnipresent ARP-2600 synthesizer this record has it all. Originally released on TK Disco's more Soul and Funk orientated Alston label which was home to many legendary artists and records, this 1975 sunshine classic never fails to make people move. A classic rare groove indeed. "The Silence That You Keep" takes up side-B, a jazzy, flute driven love song that again features Milton's perfect voice and some fantastic arrangement. A real gem of a record, with the original 45 changing hands for over £100 a time in used condition.

This is the first time "Keep It Up" has been re-issued in it's original 45 rpm format with the original Alston label artwork. It's been re-mastered, re-pressed and made available again with the permission of TK Disco / Alston Records, Miami Florida, USA.

In celebration of its 10th anniversary, Aesthetical Records is honoured to reissue Peau Froide, Léger Soleil, the groundbreaking collaboration between Finnish electronic music luminary Mika Vainio and French experimental music pioneer Franck Vigroux. Originally released in 2015, this new edition revives a work of unparalleled sonic intensity and textural exploration. The album is set to release on double vinyl and CD on May 24, 2025.

This iconic album is the result of a three year recording process that began after Vainio and Vigroux’s first live performance in Paris in 2012. Their collaboration serves as an intricate balance of minimalist meditations and maximalist energy, pushing electronic music into radical new directions. Peau Froide, Léger Soleil is a journey through psychic resonance and spatial abstraction, constructed through Vainio’s intense, brutalist grooves and Vigroux’s explorations in tonal extremities. Spanning a total of nine tracks, the album unfolds like an odyssey, densely layered yet free from structural limitations, traversing vast emotional landscapes where each sound feels at once intimate and tectonic.

Beginning with the ominous, bass-heavy textures of “Deux,” Vainio and Vigroux establish a dynamic atmosphere, setting the stage for the intense soundscapes to follow. “Mémoire” introduces ghostly voices that weave through thick waves of sub-bass and distorted noise, while “Souffles” explores uncharted sonic territories with its microtonal landscapes and spectral ambiance. Vigroux’s mastery over spatial abstraction comes to life in “Le Souterrain,” adding an atmospheric weight reminiscent of Ennio Morricone’s stark loneliness or Neil Young’s Dead Man soundtrack. In contrast, tracks like “Parabole” and “Le crâne tambour” unleash fierce, maximalist grooves, making them some of the most aggressive and memorable moments in Vainio’s discography.

Peau Froide, Léger Soleil represents a landmark in its sonic identity, embodying a vision of uncompromising, avant-garde sound design. This anniversary reissue on Aesthetical honours that legacy while inviting new listeners into Vainio & Vigroux’s collaborative universe—a space where electronic music becomes both weapon and sanctuary.

The 10th-anniversary edition promises a fresh listening experience, preserving the legacy of two artists who have redefined the boundaries of sound.

Despite the outright denial in its title, death is present in every one of the songs on Never Die, the collaborative album from MIDWIFE’s Madeline Johnston and Matt Jencik (of Implodes, Don Caballero, and Slint’s live band). Jencik held the tenderest thought imaginable when he came up with that phrase—Never Die—the fact that the people he loves eventually would, a certainty that feels impossible and remote, until the day it absolutely doesn’t. Never Die represents Jencik’s desperate bid to hold onto everyone he loves, to keep them on Earth so fiercely that they might enter the grave with claw marks on their skin.

Johnston, who recognizes the grace of mortality (and who, as MIDWIFE once sang: “I don’t wanna live forever,” over and over) serves as the spiritual guide for the album, transmuting the fear of death into an incentive to live more keenly and dearly. Following a number of ambient drone instrumental albums, Jencik felt the need to set himself a new creative challenge: to write vocal-heavy songs. He worked on them alone in his basement, recording directly to a four-track cassette. He sent those demos to a different collaborator to tinker with before that partnership eventually dissolved. Then, he thought of Madeline: the way her voice tended to glower in her songs, as well as her commitment to minimalism, which fell squarely within the project’s aesthetic and spiritual impulses.

“I was immediately drawn to what she was doing,” Jencik says. In both of their work, Jencik and Johnston understand minimalism as a vehicle for enormous, desperate and universal emotions. Entire worlds come in and out of existence between each of their sparse notes; a great breadth of feeling is bedded into the simple structure of their songs. Never Die offers a calm confrontation with the dour inevitability that bookends our lives. When the fact of death looms over life, it tends to denature every experience we have and every relationship we know we’ll eventually have to forfeit back to the Earth. No one, no matter how hard we love, makes it out of this alive thing. But we feel anyway. And we love anyway. And we sing anyway. Here, Jencik and Johnston have sung ‘die’ over and over, snowglobing life in the process.

Strut present the first international release in over 30 years by legendary Afro-jazz group Oneness Of Juju with their new album Made Through Ritual on 11th July 2025.

In 1975, the late DJ / producer and jazz distributor Jimmy Gray and James “Plunky” Branch joined a musical revolution, founding Black Fire Records and releasing the label’s debut album, the classic African Rhythms by Oneness of Juju. This July, Plunky brings this important musical relationship full circle with Made Through Ritual, produced by Plunky’s son Jamiah “Fire” Branch and Jimmy’s son Jamal Gray.

The album takes a novel approach to beat culture. Working from demos created by Jamal using a selection of original jazz samples, Plunky took the tracks, replayed and re-interpreted the arrangements using live musicians. “The album explores the art of deconstruction and reconstruction in music - sampling, sequencing, and live improvisation merge with multi-track recording to craft intricate harmonies and arrangements,” explains Plunky. “The process became a ritualistic expression of creativity and transformation.”

The resulting album is a fascinating listen. Opening with the meditative soul chant ‘Share This Love’ voiced by regular Oneness vocalist Charlayne “Chyp” Green, the album opens out into a series of jazz vignettes including the title track, ‘In Due Time’ and ‘Free Spirit’. The powerful album closer, ‘Children Of The Drum’ celebrates black culture and legacy through the poetry of Roscoe Burnem.

Released on 1LP and 1CD with specially commissioned cover artwork by contemporary Ivorian artist Maxime Manga, Made Through Ritual represents an important new chapter in the Oneness story. The album will be supported by a selection of European tour dates during Autumn and Winter 2025.

ETNOBOTANIKA - remember them? Well, now it's KOSMOBOTANIKA!

But rest assured - it's still the same excellent band from Ruda ?l?ska, only this time instead of a forest full of ghosts or a land of fairy tale creatures like a Fruwajacy Przestepca the duo of producers takes us on an interstellar journey!

The artists' third album, just titled KOSMOBOTANIKA, is an over forty-minute work skillfully composed from a multitude of various samples, and genre-wise presenting the sounds of deep house, trip-hop, breakbeat, ambient and even jazz. This is electronic music with a very cinematic, visual and imaginative character, something at which ETNOBOTANIKA has undoubtedly achieved mastery confirmed by their first two very well-received albums. This cinematic style (electronic concept album?) is reminiscent of the classic albums of the genre's progenitors from the UK like The Orb (first releases) or The KLF (the iconic "Chillout" album), but also the French Motorbass.

The Silesian duo does it their own way, of course, with a local twist. Thus, in the cosmic journey our guides will be in-sampled familiar voices from Polish television, cinema, radio and dusty vinyls (yes - samples from Mr. Kleks in Space had to be on the album, of course :) ).
There is no shortage of atmosphere-building instrumental fragments here, but also quite song-like tracks with catchy melodies and vocals. Fans of the band will certainly be satisfied.

What is there to say - ETNOBOTANIKA has created another classic, which simply must be on the shelf :) Trust them and let yourself be taken on a cosmic journey - satisfaction guaranteed!

Over sixty years into a life in music, Amina Claudine Myers revisits old compositions with a quiet force on Solace Of The Mind, her first solo record since receiving an NEA Jazz Master honours. Recorded for Red Hook Records and produced by Sun Chung, it hears Myers at the piano, Hammond B3 organ and mic, reinterpreting personal standards such as 'African Blues', 'Song For Mother E', 'Cairo' and 'Steal Away' with patient, spacious phrasing and the tonal sensitivity she's honed since her days with the AACM. Chung's production renders every harmonic shimmer and pause with startling clarity; a glistening move compared to last year's duo release with Wadada Leo Smith, adding a returnal layer to an otherwise eclectic discography, spanning free jazz and blues-rooted experimentalism. In her words, "I wanted to play (the originals) differently this time."

State Change is the riveting new album from composer and performer Molly Joyce, out July 11, 2025 via FatCat Records’ 130701 imprint. Blending influences ranging from the 20th century modernist lineage to the spectral drones of Andy Stott, Missy Mazzoli, and Nico Muhly, State Change draws unflinchingly from the medical record of a childhood trauma for seven electro-acoustic tone poems — stark and oppressive in its medical aesthetic, yet ultimately cathartic and healing. Joyce crafted the album with Grammy-winning producer William Brittelle largely at Figure 8 Studios with engineer Michael Hammond.

When Joyce was seven years old, she was involved in a car accident that nearly amputated her left hand and required many intensive surgeries; to this day, her hand is still impaired. Joyce pushed through this life change, and over the past eight years, her reputation has swelled as one of her generation’s most daring, conceptually driven composers.

Joyce’s 2020 debut for New Amsterdam Records, Breaking and Entering, ruminated on this seismic shift in pieces for toy organ, voice, and electronic sampling of both sources. The New York Times noted her music’s “serene power”; The Washington Post described her as “one of the most versatile, prolific and intriguing composers working under the vast new-music dome.” Pitchfork lauded her 2022 album Perspective — a sonic portrait of disability built from interview recordings, also released on New Amsterdam — as “a powerful work of love and empathy that underscores the poison of ableism in American culture.”

Smut is the project of lyricist Tay Roebuck, guitarists Andie Min and Sam Ruschman, drummer Aidan O’Connor, and bassist John Steiner. Roebuck, Ruschman and Min started the band a decade ago in Cincinnati, Ohio. Since then, they’ve played alongside Bully, Wavves, and Nothing. After years in the Cincinnati DIY scene, they made their Bayonet Records full-length debut, How the Light Felt. The record was a revelation. Pitchfork called it “a rigorous, decade-spanning study,” and a “well-oiled spin on late-’80s guitar pop.” Under the Radar called it “pop perfection,” that “blends subtle hooks with wistful lyrics.” It was a record that explored grief through the lens of melancholic dreampop, using drum machines and layered, intricate melodies.
Tomorrow Comes Crashing, Smut's first record with O'Connor and Steiner, sees the band re-energized and trained on the limitless potential that comes with making music with people you love. Galvanized with a new lineup, Smut focused on creating a record that possessed the same towering intensity as the records that first got them into music: Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, Relationship of Command. The outcome is ten of their most intense, bombastic, and focused songs to date.
Catharsis bursts through the seams throughout Tomorrow Comes Crashing. “Syd Sweeney, ”inspired by the actress, is the record's centerpiece. It's about how profoundly strange it can be to be a woman, to be misunderstood by people who don’t even know you. The song is driven by chugging guitars and big, rolling drums. In other words: stadium rock about perception. Paramore meets Dookie. “She connects to the youth and the girls in the water/All she amounts to is someone’s daughter,” sings Roebuck in one particularly poetic moment. The song comes to a thrashing metal-inspired breakdown. It’s ecstatic.
To make the record, Smut recorded “as live as they could,” alongside Aron Kobayashi-Ritch(Momma) in a studio in Red Hook, Brooklyn, over the course of ten days. “We have so much energy right now,” says Roebuck. Right before they went off to New York, Roebuck and Min got married, with the rest of the band by their side. The recording was a true labor of love — driving from Chicago with all their equipment, returning from 12 hour studio days to sleep on friends' couches and floors, Roebuck completely blowing her voice by the end. Smut has always been DIY. Because they love it. Because they have to do it–there’s no other option. Tomorrow Comes Crashing is the culmination of that DIY spirit: making a record that completely encompasses the intensity, moodiness, and emotion of their journey so far.

Dune Castle presents - From A Darebin Cave by Cantrips, an acid folk odyssey. Recorded live with a 7-piece band over two days, "From a Darebin Cave" features members from Surprise Chef, Don Glori, Karate Boogaloo, and more.

Centered around the nylon guitar and voice of Patrick Ryan (Cantrips), this album draws inspiration from late 60s/early 70s acts like Nick Drake, Terry Callier, and Donovan. The album also incorporates string arrangements reminiscent of Frank Sinatra's "Watertown" and late 60s psychedelic pop. This unique sound was crafted by two keyboardists emulating a string quartet with synthesizers, complemented by drums, percussion, double bass, and pedal steel guitar.

The lyricism delves into themes of isolation, loneliness, regret, and joy, inspired by the natural beauty of the Darebin Parklands surrounding the Dune Castle studio, and takes influence from Romantic poets such as Mary Oliver, William Blake, and Pablo Neruda.

Formed in the town of New Mills, Derbyshire in 1980, Oi legends Blitz revitalised the UK punk scene of the era, their incendiary debut Voice Of A Generation a massive commercial success, but the 1983 follow-up Time Empire Justice had a different line-up and new wave orientation, pointing to fissures in the group; then, in 1990, guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Nidge Miller teamed up with former Attack frontman Gary Basnett for The Killing Dream, a studio swansong that revived the name with Nidge fully in control. Devotees will love the sterling guitar work on this final piece of the Blitz jigsaw.

The Reds, Pinks & Purples is a San Francisco indie band led by Glenn Donaldson (The Ivy Tree, Skygreen Leopards, Art Museums and Painted Shrine). For fans of_ Guided By Voices, The Chills, Teenage Fanclub, The Shins, The Replacements, Leonard Cohen, The Go-Betweens, Robert Wyatt. Having penned over 200 songs in the last six years, The Reds, Pinks and Purples release a collection of tracks previously unreleased on physical format that continues to romanticise the wonders and woes of the world. With song titles that read like chapter sub-heads for a post-Douglas Coupland novella, 'The Past Is A Garden I Never Fed' takes The Reds, Pinks and Purples central orator Glenn Donaldson through the turmoil of small talk and everyday water cooler moments with a fine sense of pathos and irony. Set to a soundtrack that swerves between the dark days of Television Personalities and Byrdsian twang to the Jarvis Cocker-styled rhetoric and vocal tenderness of 'Richard In the Age Of The Corporation' with hints of everything from Husker Du's fuzzed splendour to the chiming majesty of The Chameleons it's an empowering listen. The pathos and irony of the glorious track 'The World Doesn't Need Another Band' sets out the band's store, it's a measured and quietly outspoken rant at lacklustre opposition peppered with a gorgeous guitar break. Meanwhile, 'I Only Ever Wanted To See You Fail' rumbles with an Eddie And The Hot Rods pre-punk riff before dissolving into a tale of self-doubt and remorse, bemoaning others' good luck. 'Toxic Friend' is from the book of the TVP's Daniel Treacey with an upbeat chorus that smacks of all that was good in old school indie in a hail of fuzzy logic and guitars. From humble beginnings as a home recording project, The Reds, Pinks and Purples has blossomed into a sporadic live unit with tours on both sides of the Atlantic and appearances at Pitchfork Fest London and Woodsist Fest as well as support slots for indie legends such as Destroyer, Guided By Voices, and The Feelies. "Donaldson's best work hides allure within a bigger picture, like a jangle-pop egg hunt" Pitchfork.

It’s been a short time since the van-dwelling singer-songwriter Olive Klug has fully pursued the life of a touring musician. Their DIY career has resulted in a huge following with over 20 million Spotify streams and 100,000+ Instagram followers. Self-described as “someone who floats on the breeze, letting the wind take me wherever I’m meant to be,” Klug’s sophomore album and label debut, Lost Dog finds them contemplating this propensity for adventure no matter which avenue of love and loss it leads down. Although still very young, Klug artfully addresses “aging as a neurodivergent free spirit” on the road with a compelling ability to voice honest emotions through captivating storytelling. Audiotree praised, ”equal parts vulnerable and powerful, ebullient and heartbreaking, reminding us how powerful the journey of music can be.” Olive Klug is a singular voice for the future of folk: honest, fearless, often unsure, but willing to try anyway.

2023 Repress

It's the quiet ones we should watch, they always say. Which is particularly astute advice right now, when loud, constant self-declaration and saturated 'brand' visibility have become the norm. But above the babble and brightness, some voices will always speak quiet volumes ­- with calm eloquence and the kind of certitude that comes from valuing the playing out, not just the prize.

Sweden's José González is just such a voice. He first charmed his way into the UK's earshot via the murmurous and elegant, classically finger-picked folk pop of his 2005 album, Veneer, which has since sold over a staggering 430, 000 copies in UK alone. Two years later came In Our Nature, a further exploration of José's influences (Argentinian Folklore, the '60s US folk tradition and the British pastoral folk-pop style of the same era), on which he resisted the temptation to beef up his alluringly introvert aesthetic. The albums made the UK Top 10 and Top 20 respectively.

Conceived as the natural third part in an acoustic trilogy, Vestiges & Claws is a(nother) hushed and delicate solo set that forefronts the artist and guitarist's compellingly intimate vocal style and intricate playing technique, but it's often strikingly rhythmic in nature and cohere's perfectly, with hand claps and taps on the body of his instrument underlining the songs' mantric rise-and-fall pattern, while elsewhere, over-dubbed guitar parts and multi-tracked vocal harmonies entwine to sweetly immersive effect.

The title refers to both cultural practices and biological features that survive despite having lost their original function, and to currently useful tools, ie the 'claws' of modern life.

Vestiges & Claws was recorded almost entirely by José and self-produced, mostly in his Gothenburg home, using computer plug-ins to achieve a warm, analogue sound. He prefers working alone, mainly for artistic reasons. 'There were a couple of things that enabled me to complete this record: one was curiosity, to be able to play percussion and do a lot of harmonies and also to produce and mix the album; the other was aesthetics. I love to listen to Arthur Russell and Shuggie Otis, to music that has been done mostly by one person in their solitary state.'

As José sees it, the record is his personal, 'zoomed-out eye on humanity on a small, pale blue dot in a cold, sparse and unfriendly space. The amazing fact that we are all here, an attempt at encouraging us to understand ourselves and to make the best of the one life we know we have - after birth and before death.

Unreleased electronic / jazz / madness from two titans of jazz and experimentation: JOHN SURMAN and KARIN KROG.

I could now write a load of blown up puffery about how amazing this is, but everyone does that, and a lot of the time it’s all a load of bollocks. But basically this was sent to me by Karin / John when I asked if they had anything hanging about that had not been released. This came through and blew my tiny mind. Like something from prime Annette Peacock “Pony” period. Here is what John Surman said…

John Surman writes:

Back in 2012/13 there had been some talk about a big futuristic open air urban dance/theatre production for about 80/100 actors/dancers with lasers and all kinds of lighting effects on different stages. I was invited to get involved and, together with Ben and Karin, we eventually decided to get to work on some ideas. I think that the original plan was that in performance there would be a mixture of live music and electronica.

Not altogether surprisingly, bearing in mind the complexity of the project, it never moved forward and developed into anything more than an interesting idea. It was probably over ambitious & I guess the funding never came through.

The only information I that I can find relating to the production refers to two silent movies made in 1927/1928 by the filmmaker Eugene Deslaw, entitled `La Marche Des Machines´ and `Les Nuits Électriques.These were clearly intended to act as inspiration for the project.

After months turned into years it became obvious that the project was going nowhere, and so the recorded music laid around gathering dust until Johnny Trunk asked Karin if she had any interesting music that he might be interested in releasing. One thing led to another and so, finally, Electric Element found a home!

For anyone interested in the equipment used this will have to be an approximation since the memory might be playing tricks. Karin was probably using a Yamaha Rex50 f/x unit, a Roland VT-3 Voice Transformer and an Oberheim Ring Modulator. I was playing Bass Clarinet and Contrabass Clarinet through various f/x units together with a Yamaha WX5 wind synth. All the instruments and voice were also processed through Ben´s equipment. After writing this I asked Ben for his recollections and he came up with the following:

John, Karin and I created this music in 2 or 3 days in the winter of 2013 at their studio in Oslo, Norway. I followed up with another 2 or 3 days of mixing, editing and post-processing . We kept a collaborative, improvisational and free-form approach to the sessions. I grew up immersed in music such as Cloudline Blue, the 1979 duo album of Krog/Surman, and this felt like a similar approach. I have mixed sound for many of their live duo concerts and I would use effects and electronics as an

accompaniment and counterpoint to the performed music. The relation of organic and artificial sound sources in music has always fascinated. In this case, I used some contemporary digital signal processing to introduce my own aesthetic into the conversation, in particular using granular synthesis to recombine small 'clouds' of sound into alternate forms. Some of the software tools I used included Ableton Live, Max/MSP and Reaktor.

Skinned' ( released digitally in 2020) - the debut album from Danish composer, producer and singer ML Buch.
Comes with lyrics printed the inner sleeve.

After releasing her debut EP Fleshy in 2017 - Skinned that takes her expansive guitar work and catchy melodies to another territory.

With her unique experimental pop and vocals that seem to slide into your ears as fluorescent liquid, ML Buch portrays the reality of intimacy in a digital era. Working primarily with synthetic midi sounds, the general love of songwriting and guitar music is ever present.

As if in search for something real, ML Buch takes the listener on the other side of the skin. Led by tender love songs like I’m A Girl You Can Hold IRL and Can’t Get Over You With You we journey through her throat and into her intestines, discovering a fascinating realm of shiny mucus and bile in flesh and yellowish colors. Panoramic images were captured by a small pill camera travelling through the body of ML Buch and act as extensions of the architecture of the music. This literal way of internalizing modern technology is symbolic of Skinned where eclectic instrumental compositions share the space with strong hooks and ML Buch’s spherical voice.

credits

All songs composed, arranged and produced by ML Buch
All lyrics by ML Buch
‘Touching Screens’, ‘O’ and ‘I Feel Like Giving You Things’ co-written by Oliver Nehammer
Bass on Can You Hear My Heart Leave, Touching Screens and Mw by Johan Polder
Drums on Touching Screens and Mw by Kristof Gasior

Viola on Stone Bridge by Astrid Sonne

Midi drums and keys on Touching Screens by Oliver Nehammer
Mix by ML Buch, Oliver Nehammer & Jacob Brøndlund
Mastered by ET Mastering
Cover photo by David Stjernholm
Artwork by Aske Zidore and ML Buch

Any15 - Anyines 2020

Steve Queralt, bass player of pioneering shoegazers RIDE, and the writer and film-maker MIchael Smith have joined forces for a stunning four-track EP, released on Bytes in October. Over Steve’s exceptional electronic soundscapes, Michael provides spoken-word vocals in his lulling Hartlepool tones, distilling excerpts from his new book to fit with the music.

The duo were introduced by Joe Clay from Bytes during lockdown, when Steve revealed that he was looking for vocalists to work with on some music he was putting together. Joe had met Michael when he collaborated with the late, great Andrew Weatherall, who composed a soundtrack to accompany Michael reading melancholic musings from his 2013 novel, Unreal City. Joe felt that Michael could be the perfect foil for Steve and after an experiment on Vespertina, a track that had previously featured sample dialogue from Penélope Cruz, they realised they had something special and decided to work on a full release together - four tracks in the classic RIDE EP format.

“Michael’s voice has so much depth and character and I love his eye-rolling, withering view of the world,” Steve reveals. “The subject matter seemed to glue itself effortlessly to the music as if we’d been together writing in a studio working towards some grand concept.”

Over the last four years, the German-born and South Korea-based artist Sion has been steadily making a name for himself in the music industry. The Voice Germany Season 10 semifinalist is a self-taught singer, songwriter and producer who can do it all.
 Sion can play guitar, piano, synthesiser, DJ and much more, just name it.
 Early inspirations for Sion include Frank Ocean and Porter Robinson, and his music so far has been a wonderful mix of eclectic soundscapes.
 Now, Sion is back with his best project yet, his third EP ‘Sociavoidance’. The five-track extended play is full of lush vocals, vibrant production, a multitude of different layered textures.
 The genre-defying artist blends elements of indie electronica, hip-hop, alt R&B, glitch pop and more. Thematically, the body of work explores disassociation in the age of the internet, vulnerabilities, social interaction, self-reflection and relationships.
 It’s a heartfelt, genuinely beautiful, experience. Sion is inviting the listener into his colourful, exciting and often unpredictable world on ‘Sociavoidance’.

Civilistjävel! x Mayssa Jallad’s ‘Marjaa: The Battle of the Hotels (Versions)’ is a radical response to Mayssa Jallad’s 2023 original LP, a lyrical account of epochal events in Beirut at the dawn of Lebanon's civil war. ‘…(Versions)’ sees Civilistjävel! (aka Swedish producer Tomas Bodén) apply a stripped, dub methodology to Mayssa's rich stems, refracting the Arabic source through the hazy prism of Northern European electronica. Retaining ‘Marjaa…’s deep spatial framing and vaporous, shifting nature, traces are lifted and set down in a new landscape: a ghost of a ghost. Informed by Tomas' singular strand of ambient, minimalist, dub techno, ‘… (Versions)’ recalls the reductive, shimmering pulse of pioneering Berlin-based practitioners Basic Channel/Chain Reaction, but with the parameters stretched into the ether. Where versions typically focus on a rhythm, here the anchor is the tone and texture of Mayssa’s voice, around which a new world has been constructed. Disembodied and liminal, it conjures an eerie panorama that feels like a postscript to the original, further emphasizing the geopolitical events that have had such devastating effect in Mayssa’s homeland of Lebanon since that record’s release. ‘Marjaa…’ (tr. ‘reference’) combined Mayssa Jallad’s two main vocations: music and urban research/architectural history. The album was co-written with Fadi Tabbal and based on Mayssa's Historic Preservation master's thesis (‘Beirut’s Civil War Hotel District: Preserving the World’s First High-Rise Urban Battlefield’). The thesis examined a 5-month conflict that took place within Beirut's skyscraper-laden luxury hotel district of Minet El Husn near the start of the Lebanese Civil War. Addressing a post-war generation who have never been taught this difficult history, ‘Marjaa…’ was an attempt to process trauma, and “a call to protest for the renewal, rather than the recycling of the political class that once destroyed the country and holds us, to this day, hostage of its violence.” Often perceived as a mysterious, shadowy presence, Civilistjävel! has come increasingly to the fore in recent years through a consistently dazzling stream of records, released both anonymously and via Fergus Jones’ FELT imprint, often appearing with scant information and tracks for the most part untitled. Having featured tracks from ‘Marjaa…’ on mixes, and included the album in his picks of 2023, in early 2024 Tomas asked Mayssa to provide vocals for a track on his album ‘Brödföda’. Mayssa remembers, “Tomas asked me to choose one of the tracks he was working on. I was in Boston at the time, so I took a walk and chose a track. I wrote the lyrics at the public park, wondering if I was the only one around that was losing sleep over the genocide in Palestine and the war in South Lebanon. I went back to the apartment and recorded the vocals on my phone, while listening to the track on headphones. Tomas reworked it with the voice and sent it back. I liked it immediately.” Despite the geographical distance from Beirut to Uppsala, Sweden, where Tomas resides, Mayssa’s contribution sounds very much at home in Civilistjävel!’s atmospheric, contemplative sound-world. Tomas’ request was reciprocated by Mayssa soon after, resulting in the spectral, glassy ambience of ‘Etel, Kharita (Version)’. This was followed by an invitation to work on more tracks, which Tomas immediately embraced, intensively jamming out versions live to two-track tape in downtime between travelling. If not entirely dissimilar to his regular working practice, the immediacy of it was unusual. Much was improvised live with just a keyboard (not tethered to a grid), and a restricted set-up that largely forbade later edits - only the rhythm tracks are programmed. A sharp conceptual thinker and composer, Tomas takes creative liberties with Mayssa’s songs in a way that is deeply felt and sympathetically aligned, whilst unashamedly outside of the original context of the record. The voice is leaned into as an instrument, without the clear, specific details of language, and this axis provides an uncertain, amorphous footing - structure is often suggested or hinted at, before disappearing or collapsing into fog, and folding back into the message within the song. A somewhat unprecedented source for an album of versions, even those familiar with ‘Marjaa: The Battle of the Hotels’ may at points struggle to hear the songs these versions are rebuilt from, despite the vocal narratives remaining virtually intact. The light has shifted; eroded buildings are foregrounded; fragments of memories appear in chiaroscuro. Signs and signifiers have been replaced. Shorn of the original's warm guitar, ‘Baynana (Version)’ feels like an ominous visitation, the sun no longer visible. ‘Holiday Inn (March 21 to 29) (Version)’ is a molten, clattering invocation. The beat-less tracks nod towards the cold, otherworldly sound-scaping of late '90s isolationism. More propulsive and embodied, ‘Holiday Inn (January to March) (Version)’ and ‘Kharita (Dub)’ are strobing, iridescent techno - lithe, shifting and mutating with almost implausible finesse. A stunning addition to Civilistjävel!’s growing catalogue, ‘…(Versions)’ is a luminous counterpoint to ‘Marjaa…’, and a welcome reminder of how incredible that record remains.