quête:wanted

Around The Sun ist das 13. Studioalbum von R.E.M., das im Jahr 2004 veröffentlicht wurde. Das Album erreichte Platz 1 der deutschen Albumchart..

Es enthält die Singles ”Leaving New York”, ”Aftermath”,
”Electron Blue” und ”Wanderlust”. Außerdem enthält es ”The Outsiders” mit dem Gastgesang des Rappers Q-Tip. Ab dem 14.07.2023 als 2LP verfügbar.

The drums of fire scorch the age. With his young and talented Sound Limited, Takeshi Inomata heralds the arrival of the golden age of jazz rock in high spirits. Drummer Takeshi Inomata, who led the Japanese jazz scene with his precise stick work and musicality with an eye on the times, formed Sound Limited at the end of the 1960s, influenced by the brass rock music that was flourishing at the time. He said, “I wanted to fuse jazz and rock and bring together young musicians to play music with vitality. I want this group to be a group with a large scale that is not confined to the small frame of modern jazz,” he said, launching a new axis. Their first album, “The Sound of Sound Limited” (1970), became their masterpiece. It is a masterpiece that is full of energy and enthusiasm throughout the album, starting with “Theme~Mustache,” which has become one of the most beloved and iconic songs of the band.

Drums, Music Director – Takeshi Inomata

Electric Bass – Jun Suzuki

Electric Guitar – Ryo Kawasaki, Shigenori Kamiya

Flute – Toshiaki Yokota

Mixed By – Eiji Uemura

Organ – Yusuke Hoguchi

Tenor Saxophone – Takao Uematsu

Trombone – Shigemichi Domoto, Takashi Imai

Trumpet – Shunzo Ohno, Takashi Kumagai

God knows enough has been written about Workshop. Surely you haven't read it, but this group has been around since 1985, and what they did was this: musically quite limited, they made the music they wanted to hear, but in an ingenious way. Some played the instruments skillfully and others not so much. Something came out of it! One says: that's just the way I like it. The other one boasts: yes, I understood everything how you play here, sometimes you hit it, or sometimes you play so that the parents cry with joy. In fact, seven records were recorded, which, with the exception of the second LP, are still more than worth listening to today. Are they in danger of being forgotten?

Yes and no. What is worth listening to here has often been banned. One must bring it out again. Make attentive. Against the forgetting. These impetuous songs - just let them get close to you again and listen to them in a new context and forget all the smart-ass talk that was said about them. That means to put the self with all its reality entanglements in the pillory. This is of course not only pleasant. Bravo!

“More than anything, I wanted to make an album that was generous, that was useful,” says Ben Folds. “I want you to finish this record with something you didn’t have when you started.” Indeed, Folds’ masterful new collection, What Matters Most, isn’t so much a statement as it is an offering, an open hand reaching out to all those wounded and bewildered by a world that seems to make less and less sense every day. Recorded in East Nashville with co-producer Joe Pisapia, the album marks Folds’ first new studio release in eight years, and it’s a bold, timely, cinematic work, one that examines the tragic and the absurd in equal measure as it reckons with hope and despair, gratitude and loss, identity and perspective. The songs are bittersweet here, hilarious at times, but often laced with a quiet sense of longing and dread: a text message goes unanswered; an old classmate descends into the dark depths of internet conspiracies; a relationship unravels in the middle of a lake. And yet, taken as a whole, the result is an undeniably joyful record that refuses to succumb to the weight of the world around it, an ecstatic reminder of all the beauty and promise hiding in plain sight for anyone willing (and present enough) to recognize their moments as they arrive.

Get On Down is proud to announce a vinyl reissue of one of the West Coast's most revered, yet underrated, hip-hop classics and quite possibly one of the best hip-hop albums of all time: The D.O.C.'s No One Can Do It Better. Produced entirely by Dr. Dre and out of print on vinyl in the U.S. for several years, this limited edition colored LP features original album artwork and thirteen tracks of rap heaven. When his debut album hit in mid-1989, The D.O.C. was in the vortex of the biggest hip-hop happening on the planet: the rise and rule of N.W.A. The group’s breakout album Straight Outta Compton had hit one year prior and had created both controversy and worldwide critical acclaim. As rap history buffs and industry insiders know, The D.O.C. was a crucial behind-the-scenes member of the N.W.A. inner circle - his most important role in the early days of the group was writing many of Eazy-E's rhymes, including his hit 1988 single “We Want Eazy.” He would go on to write for Efli4zaggin, The Chronic and Doggystyle. But The D.O.C. wasn’t in N.W.A. and never wanted to be - he was his own man, with his own vision. And after Compton proceeded to blow up the next crew album was No One Can Do It Better. Significantly, it was the first album where Dr. Dre showed his greatness as a solo producer for one MC. Boasting four singles - “The D.O.C. & The Doctor,” “Mind Blowin’,” the smash “It's Funky Enough” and “The Formula” - the album is flawless from beginning to end. Of particular note beyond the singles is “The Grand Finale,” which was the last time that Ice Cube, M.C. Ren and Eazy-E would rhyme on a track together. The D.O.C. showed on this amazing record that he was one of hip-hops most talented MCs. He nearly died in a horrific car crash as the album was catching fire in the late summer of 1989 which damaged his vocal cords, but he survived and continues to make new music and act as a sounding board for Dr. Dre to this day. More recently a documentary covering D.O.C.'s life titled The DOC debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival with fans eagerly awaiting a wider release. This album is a must have for any Hip-Hop fan

Mustard coloured double vinyl housed in deluxe
gatefold sleeve. Includes double-sided printed art
poster and digital download card.
 Following his breakthrough electroacoustic soundtrack
for ‘Candyman’ and his score for the moody feature
‘Master’ comes a new soundtrack from the everunpredictable composer Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe.
 Filmed over the course of three seasons,
‘Grasshopper Republic’ follows a local grasshopper
trapping team in verité style, as these modern-day
prospectors who harvest and sell the insects push into
remote forests seeking their fortune by capturing this
elusive prey.
 Lowe’s electronic music soundtracks both the seen
and unseen moments that produced the film’s holistic
abstraction of the intersecting worlds of insects,
humans, and economy. “I wanted to be able to create
a world which was a justifiable language within that
space, and to be able to enhance that experience
because the film is experiential and immersive.” -
Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe

Released 29th September 2017 on Tricki-Woo Records, Peach is the third full-length proper by Atlanta-based duo Larkin Poe.

A national musical treasure" The Guardian // Steven Adams, formerly of The Broken Family Band releases new album DROPS on Fika Recordings in November 2023. Since calling time on TBFB at the height of their success, Adams has released half a dozen albums under various names (Singing Adams, Steven James Adams, Steven Adams & The French Drops), his witty, incisive lyrics and melodic sensibilities taking in DIY indie rock, folky introspection, and off-kilter pop hooks. Originally from South Wales, Adams now lives in East London. “Every record I’ve made has been in a hurry of some sort” says Adams of his new album, “and with this one I took my time”. DROPS is the first album to be credited to him as a solo artist since 2016’s Old Magick, his first new music since 2020, and his noisiest record to date. Armed with a new batch of material, he began by upping sticks to the Welsh countryside to experiment with drummer Daniel Fordham and bassist David Stewart - both formerly of psych oddballs The Drink. The trio then took the songs to Big Jelly, a converted chapel on the south coast, with co-producer Simon Trought (Comet Gain, Johnny Flynn, The Wave Pictures) to lay down the basic tracks for DROPS. Eschewing a full band set up (“I wanted to concentrate on one thing at a time”), recording sessions in East London followed with Laurie Earle (Absentee) on guitar and Michael Wood (Hayman Kupa Band, Michaelmas) on keyboards. Adams then took the recordings home and to the French countryside, to work alone. “I finally got my head around home recording in 2020, while things were a bit quiet. Once I worked out how to record things I realised I didn’t have to think about time. I could let the songs evolve and change once we had the basic tracks down. After a while I started to think of them as paintings; trying something one morning, painting over it in the afternoon and attempting something completely different… it was about enjoying the process, making some bangers, playing around... and giving Simon the producer a mess to sort out when it came to mixing the record". Whenever Tom from Fika Recordings checked in to see how the album was progressing Adams would reply, “it’s taking ages but it’ll sound like it was recorded in an afternoon”. The result is a dynamic and spirited collection of songs, with Adams's love of 90/00s US underground rock (Pavement's Bob Nastanovich is a fan) to the fore. DROPS is a sonically compelling piece of work: from bleak/exultant opener Out to Sea and the motorik Living in the Local Void to the weirdly funereal Fascists (where Adams imagines the “little skip in our steps” that we’ll have upon outliving some baddies), and Day Trip's psychedelia in miniature. There are also moments of tenderness: the avalanche of empathy on closing track Cheap Wine Sad Face, and I Tried to Keep it Light’s “worse things could happen… I don’t know how, but give me time”. Adams says: “I'm preoccupied by the passing of time and the way it affects how we feel. This record is about time and bewilderment and trying to make sense of things". “…astonishing tenderness in its simplicity … brilliant lyrics.” Q Magazine //“…the tunes are instant and uplifting, but the real wallop comes from the lyrical imagery.” The Guardian // “…barbed modern life chronicles.”

The debut album of soul singer, Maiiah is also the third full-length by Hamburg collective, Angels of Libra, following on from the success of their collaboration with Irish singer, Nathan Johnston.

Maiiah is a singer with roots in the Balkans but residing in Düsseldorf, the city of the legendary Unique Club and the label of the same name. Soul left its mark on her early on, and when she met Hamburg producer, musician and composer Dennis Rux (Hamburg Spinners/Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Studios) during the pandemic, the two realized they shared a similar musical vision. Their common love of soul music and old rhythm & blues brought them together, and they started recording music together in Hamburg with the Angels of Libra. Lo and behold, their first single together "Obey" got into rotation at tastemaker station Radioeins and confirmed them as a winning team.



Following in the footsteps of many a classic soul tune, second single, "No No No (I'm So Broke)" is a social critique and commentary. In it Maiiah literally wears her heart on her sleeve, as she sings about the back- breaking job she was working at the time and the poor earnings as a hotel service employee.



But naturally life has more to offer than just work and so a large part of the songs on this record revolve around love. Maiiah gives her own spin to the classic "I'm A Good Woman", which the spirited singer has performed live many times. The story goes that the late DJ and Unique Records label owner Henry Storch sent Maiiah the original song by Barbara Lynn to comfort her after a heavy heartbreak. The song thus holds a very important place in Maiiah's heart, and it was released as the third advance single, recorded during her tour with Nathan Johnston at Bekegg Studios in Rastede, Lower Saxony.



With Dennis Rux at her side and the powerful arrangements of the Angels of Libra, Maiiah has found the right partners for her personal debut. On "Kava" & "Plenty of Life", Hamburg's jack-of-all-trades Carsten Meyer aka Erobique is featured as a guest on the keyboards, so here the rhythm section of the Hamburg Spinners comes together again. The love for old soul, rhythm & blues and the analog sound of the sixties is also fully expressed on this album. The longings and deep feelings in Maiiah's lyrics are carefully picked up musically, whether as a classic R&B song as in "Please Come Home" or in boogaloo party mode as in the Croatian-sung "Kava", the fourth single. "Plenty of Life" is a song for self-cheering and a call to open up to the beautiful sides of life despite all adversity. In "I wanna go", on the other hand, Maiiah longs for her Croatian homeland. The crowning finale of the album is the intense "Infinity" about life's phases and the recurring ups and downs as the essence of human existence.



The ingredients of Maiiah and the Angels of Libra's recipe are authentic lyrics, to the point arrangements, tight horns, rousing background vocals and the spirit of the golden age of soul music, as it was shaped by labels like Motown and Stax. Recorded in part with original equipment from the 50s. Producer Dennis Rux says, "We wanted to create a record that people would go dance to at the Komet" (a neighborhood club on St. Pauli in Hamburg, the band's second home). The joint album combines the Hamburg soul of the Angels of Libra with the passion of Maiiah, who can fully live out her temperament on the mic.

Orange vinyl. Time is supposed to mellow us, but for Petrol Girls it has distilled their feminist politics into an ever more potent cocktail. Fitting, given that their logo from day one has been a flaming molotov. Since their formation in 2012, the band has been known for playing fast-paced, chaotic punk that takes aim at everything from sexual violence to immigration policy, but over the last few years their sound has evolved in a more nuanced direction. Their 2016 debut album Talk of Violence was a blast of pure political rage, while 2019's Cut & Stitch saw vocalist Ren Aldridge exploring familiar themes from a more personal perspective. Now their latest offering, Baby - to be released through the London-based independent label Hassle on June 24th - sees the band turn another new corner. This time, by embracing irreverence. "We wanted this album to be less epic and less preachy from day one," Aldridge says. "I hate sanctimoniousness. Like, really fucking hate it. But I also know that I have been mega preachy, and felt very pressured to be sanctimonious, because we've always played in a very political punk scene. I lost my fun side, and I really needed to come back to that." Recorded with Pete Miles at Middle Farm Studios in Devon, Baby embraces a more playful sound. A focus on groove and repetition - driven by guitarist Joe York, drummer Zock and bassist Robin Gatt - give the songs a Talking Heads feel, while retaining the band's formative post-punk energy. The lyrics, too, are a departure for Aldridge. While she continues to address heavy topics like burn out, femicide and police violence, the lyrics balance directed anger with tongue-in-cheek humour where appropriate. Angular opener "Preachers" puts the self-aggrandising nature of call-out culture on blast with lyrics like "feeling dead important in the comments", while lead single "Baby, I Had An Abortion" is intentionally puerile from title to finish. On the flip side, tracks like "Violent By Design" see the band kicking back against carceral feminism in the wake of a news cycle dominated by Black Lives Matter protests and PC Wayne Cousins' brutal murder of Sarah Everard. Similarly, "Fight For Our Lives" - a harsh, borderline industrial song - was lyrically co-written by activist and vocalist Janey Starling. Aldridge deliberately wrote the verses to sound like a manifesto, and the lyrics reference Starling's Dignity For Dead Women Campaign with Level Up, which successfully called for the UK media to change the way it reports on fatal incidents of domestic violence. Baby saw Petrol Girls working in new ways - scrapping entire songs rather than trying to force things that didn't feel right, recording to tape for the first time, and deliberately leaving in imperfections. It was a more carefree process, which Aldridge - having gone through a particularly bad period of mental ill-health at the start of 2021 - welcomed. "Our whole thing for a long time, and a big focus of the last record, was making political struggle sustainable," Aldridge says. "And I think having a good time where possible, and things being not totally serious all the time, is really essential."

Tin Fingers takes on a darker, melancholic direction on their second full album. Felix Machtelinckx' weeping vocals, preaching, searching, and trying to understand God, form the leitmotif. With rich melodies, haunting piano sounds, improvisations, first takes and no overdubs, Tin Fingers is searching for pureness and keeping things human and simple. The band is playing together intuitively, without a computer, without ego, just for the sake of music

The creation of the album was very fluent and spontaneous. Singer Felix wrote the backbones of the songs and the lyrics on acoustic guitar and piano. He wanted to have songs ready in order to be able to record and write arrangements fast. With an eye for details but without overthinking, keeping the ideas fresh. 'I wanted to stay in love with the music.' he explains. 'It needed to go fast, very fast, in just two weeks the entire album was recorded and ready to be mixed.'

In the studio, the band especially focused on picking the right mood rather than playing the right notes.

They were fed up with working on a computer for many hours, overthinking production choices, and adding instruments on top of each other as if they were Lego blocks. This time they decided to work in a more traditional way, going for first takes, jams, and essentially working with analog gear. No computers, no screens, no distractions. Only four humans in a studio trying to make a sound together by keeping things spontaneous and raw. They said goodbye to perfection and worked towards an unfinished product, a snapshot.

Tin Fingers also didn't want to sound like any other artist on this record. They decided not to listen to music during the sessions, and to never express ideas by referencing other bands. Just before the studio session, however, bass player Simen Wouters broke the rules and shared Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's, I See Darkness. Its dark and searching sound ended up inspiring the band unmistakably.

Once the recording was finished, the band decided to keep the volatile rhythm going and asked reputable NYC-based mixer and producer D. James Goodwin to finish the job. Goodwin, known for his analog folk productions with a real American punchy sound but a tender touch, proved the right man for the job. He opened up the songs and kept things poetic, minimal but impressive.

Classic Hip-hop meets minimalism and dusty vinyl on Anchovies Cali Agents alum Planet Asia is as sharp as ever with his lyrical smithing. Apollo Brown's style is evident behind the dust and grime of these smoky samples. The Detroit producer approached this album like a director would a movie. Apollo painstakingly laid out every detail of the project and knew what he wanted from the finished product. He knew that only one rapper could execute his vision. Enter Planet Asia. The West Coast legend was able to fit directly into the plan and bring his talents to the album, creating a perfect match.
Planet Asia. The West Coast legend was able to fit directly into the plan and bring
his talents to the album, creating a perfect match.

Five groups, one mythical studio - documenting the emergence of a generation!

The initial postulate was simple: five groups, one emblematic studio and 24 hours for each to imagine and record two unreleased tracks with one objective - the will to document a French jazz scene in the midst of renewal.

In these last few years, several innovative currents have shaken up the world of jazz and attracted new fans. They have bubbled up from Los Angeles, impregnated with hip-hop culture (Kamasi Washington, Terrace Martin, Thundercat), or from London, tinged with African rhythms (Nubya Garcia, Kokoroko, Ezra Collective). Meanwhile, in France, a new scene is emerging, carrying with it more of a dancefloor-oriented sound influenced by electronic music - an obvious kinship with the French Touch explosion of the late 90s.

Historically, every movement has been assimilated to a certain neighbourhood, to specific clubs where late at night, young guns stayed up to imagine the jazz of tomorrow - the Cotton Club for the jazz of the 20s, Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem for Be-Bop, the Black Hawk in San Francisco for West Coast jazz, Birdland in New York for Hard-Bop or a lot more recently, the Total Refreshment Centre which has been the playing field for the new London scene.

In Paris too, this new sound is associated with actual venues, places which have allowed these groups to form, create a repertoire and forge an aesthetic - Le Baiser Salé for Monsieur Mâlâ, La Gare/Le Gore for Photon, La Pêche in Montreuil for Ishkero, La Petite Halle for Underground Canopy and also le Duc des Lombards and le 38 Riv’ for Alex Monfort; it’s in a live context that this music will always continue to evolve.

Keeping this “live” spirit, with all its spontaneity, was actually the guiding line for the elaboration of this Studio Pigalle compilation. Each take was recorded in the most organic way possible, bringing all the musicians together in the same room to limit post-production alterations before the final cut was assembled, in just one day, by studio in-house sound engineer, Felix Rémy.

A feeling of urgency permeates a record guided by an artistic production taking care to crystalise the essence of this artistically free-range generation whose childhoods were rocked just as much by Bill Evans and Roy Hargrove as by J Dilla and Jeff Mills. One of the two tracks recorded is geared towards the dancefloor, and the other, more cosmic/ambient gives freer rein to individual interpretation.

There were therefore many possible ways of interpreting these guidelines for the five formations which number among the most distinctive on the current French musical landscape, and the occasion, for some, to rummage through their archives! With Transe (Mbappé) and Da Verdere (Vella), Monsieur

Mâlâ present us with two unreleased tracks issued from the very first rehearsals of the quintet reworked especially for this compilation. “Seen the aesthetic range of this group, it all worked out very naturally in the studio”, recounts keyboardist Nicholas Vella “Recording like they did in the sixties with all the channels live and working with small imperfections was a very interesting task, even when it came to the mix, we had to make do with the takes we had... “

“Our group is very recent, and with this session, in just two tracks, we had the opportunity to present the entirety of our musical universe,” says Photons pianist Gauthier Toux. “All too often, we assimilate this fusion between jazz and dance music to computers and post-production modifications. For “Dessine”, we kept the first take, and we must have recorded just three or four for the other track with more of a techno bent. In one day, we understood that we could play our entire repertoire live, from A to Z”.

“When the Komos label offered me this project, it immediately spoke to me”, remembers Alex Monfort “Straight away, I thought of “Since I Met You”, a track with a nine/four time signature which really is reminiscent of a new- soul groove, but with this extra cosmic vibe! I wrote the words to the chorus and Nina Tonji placed her voice on the track, adding her own verses. For “Tonight”, the up-tempo track, I wanted to head off in more of a hybrid direction inspired by Kaytranada or the Black Radio series by Robert Glasper. A cross-over between jazz and hip-hop which really does represent my world, and I also tried to place vocals centre stage (Emcee Agora)”.

“We truly resonated with the way Antoine Rajon imagined this compilation and the recording session”, confide Warren Dongué and Jérémy Tallon from Underground Canopy. “When arriving in this studio we felt as if we had gone backtothe70s! Inkeepingwiththespiritofthisera,heknewhowtoletus keep our spontaneity, without recording in too many takes, and that’s how we like to work”.

“We managed to adhere to the themes of the compilation without changing our instrumentation, we wanted to remain faithful to the sound of Ishkero on these new compositions and take them somewhere else” – says drummer TaoEhrlich -“Withoutaddinganyelectronics.Thesessionwassupervisedin a truly subtle and benevolent manner. From a human perspective, it was also a wonderful experience”.

Whether turned towards hip-hop, ethnic or electronic music, the artists featured on this Studio Pigalle compilation represent the eclecticism of a new generation in the process of writing the first chapters of its history. Open to experimentation, these artists continue to hold high an immutable love for improvisation and creation in the moment... another definition of the word Jazz!

Xavier Boyer, the lead singer of Tahiti 80 and one of the most distinctive voices in French indie pop, returns solo with a melodic and timeless new EP entitled "Soda Coda".

After "Tutu To Tango" (2007, under the name Axe Riverboy), "Some/Any/New" (2017), and not forgetting Tahiti 80's nine studio albums, Xavier Boyer has composed five songs navigating between soft rock, folk sounds and pop experimentation. "On previous albums, I'd done everything on my own, but this time I was looking for something more lively, more organic, more collective. I also wanted to exchange ideas with other musicians.

This mini-album (the vinyl version will include five alternative versions recorded on a 4-track cassette) was created with the help of three emblematic figures from the French music scene, Mehdi Zannad (Fugu, April March, A Girl Called Eddy) on keyboards, Laurent Blot (Le Superhomard) on drums and Stéphane Laporte (Domotic, Egyptology) on mix.

Recorded between tours and studio sessions with his main band, "Soda Coda" once again confirms his talent as a melodist and his appetite for sonic adventures. The power pop of "D Day" or the lyricism of "Children Of The Sun" would not be out of place on albums by Emitt Rhodes or Richard Swift (producer of Tahiti 80's "Ballroom" in 2014). "Oh Liza" is as smooth as an Elliott Smith novelty.

The singer assumes his influences: "My aim has always been to write timeless songs without pretending it's 1975, or 1998. I want my music to remain rooted in its time." "Read The Room" blends Jamaican music and avant-garde pop with its crystalline guitars and soaring synths, while "Soda Coda" brings a touch of Soul to the EP with its distorted piano and slap-back vocals.

More than a journey or a nostalgic trip, Soda Coda is a succession of luminous songs, and as Xavier Boyer sings on the eponymous track: "I'm singing something good, I can hear this tune lighting up my path".

“A piece of music never truly comes to An end. Revisiting a theme illustrates this idea that life goes on.” These are the words of Wayne Shorter, uttered in 2018 upon the release of Emanon, his final opus. On this record, the octogenarian uses dusky hues to shade in the passions of his youth - drawing and science-fiction, as well as the causes he has defended all his life - the fight against ecological upheaval and structural racism. This sentiment did not fail to resonate with Julien Lourau, who has reached a stage in life where he has begun to look back over certain pages written by the man he has always considered one of the masters of his trade. Five years later, this Parisian native has also chosen to revisit his glory days, offering reworked versions of specific tracks composed by his titular elder throughout the 80s. “When I play this music, I find myself back in my teenage bedroom. These are my standards, and they remind me of autumn in Rambouillet.” At that time, after practising his scales, Julien would also play Dungeons & dragons, and immerse himself in SF as well as heroic fantasy - epic influences which are not without a certain connection to the dreamworlds Shorter conjured up, as another fan of landscapes beyond the grasp of reality.

This album features four themes taken from Atlantis, which came out in 1985, and two from Joy Ryder, released three years later. To these, he has added a composition penned at around the same time for Sportin’ Life, the penultimate LP by Weather Report. This is rounded off by a tune taken

from Native Dancer, the record which, ten years earlier, in 1975, brought together this saxophonist who learnt his trade alongside Art Blakey, before joining Miles’ second quintet, and Brazilian Milton Nascimento.

“Between Native Dancer and Atlantis, Shorter did not release anything under his own name, but he took the time and care to really perfect his writing. Upon his return, he injected a very Brazilian form of subtlety into his compositions, especially rhythmically. And from a harmonic point of view, these themes are extremely sophisticated, and reveal truly singular colours. In fact, he decided to display the score as if it constituted the liner notes of Atlantis.”

Julien Lourau is a fan of every Wayne Shorter era, from his Blue Note days, where Mr Gone defined the bases of a truly unique repertoire, all the way to his final quartet - a reference like no other. He decided to focus on this “highly electric” period, which is not necessarily Shorter’s best known, nor his most widely appreciated - despite being a unanimous reference, Shorter has nonetheless never had a direct descendent. In Lourau’s line of sight there lies a desire to focus on typically South American tonic accents which characterise this repertoire, twinned with the ambition to switch up their actual sound “by attempting to open up onto a production highly influenced by eighties fusion". However, he admits that modifying the structures of these most unique of worlds constituted a fresh challenge. “There’s this labyrinthine harmonic system where you’ve no idea how it holds together, but where it’s actually impossible to touch the slightest element without the whole edifice wavering. It is in fact a very difficult thing to achieve!”

In order to successfully transcribe all this creativity free of obstacles, Julien Lourau once again called upon the help of Mathieu Debordes. From January 2023 onwards, Mathieu endeavoured to break down all the musical elements, on paper, before creating any actual music. The record was therefore constructed on the faith of these scores, without necessarily transiting through a creative residency - just two live gigs, to make sure the setup worked. Besides Mathieu Debordes and his synthesisers, Julien Lourau has assembled an ad hoc team by his side. On the bass, according to the track, we can hear erstwhile companion Sylvain Daniel or a new acolyte on the fretless bass, Joan Eche Puig.

Stéphane Edouard, on percussion, even dives headfirst into an unlikely proto-rap of sorts, on Pearl On The Half Shell (where, on the original version, Bobby McFerrin adjusted his interventions in a rather madcap style). Aesthete and drummer Jim Hart as well as pianist Leo Jassef also figure on this release - both were present on previous project devoted to label

CTI. “At sixteen, I wanted to sound like Michael Brecker rather than Ben Webster - that was equated with modernity in those days”, adds Julien with a smile, as for him, all this rings out a little like a logical next step, a joyful immersion into the fountain of youth. And if, for this record, he plays the soprano more than ever, the saxophone Shorter set in his sights on, he never tries to replicate an unattainable ideal note by note. What would be the point?

“Wayne Shorter is not just a saxophonist’s saxophonist. In fact, I don’t know a single person who has risen to challenge of his solos. I have not done it myself either, but on the other hand, I have retained a lot of his phraseology. His way of approaching the instrument reveals a more evanescent language, a work on colour and shape. Keeping this in mind has allowed me to gravitate towards certain elements, that in hindsight, I find echoes of in my work, even in Groove Gang.” Shorter etches out these phrases, creating a groove within which Lourau had traced subtle punctuation, managing, from a highly written base, to create fresh apertures, promises of a great escape. Emblematic of this standpoint, his regal version of Ponte de Areia, originally a wonderful dialogue between Milton Nascimento and Wayne Shorter. Here, the Frenchman takes liberties with the original melodies, without ever growing distant from the original spirit, extending one section with delicacy, offering a rubato development and then a groove “like a little suite”. Julien Lourau also renews with an accomplice from last century, Magic Malik, who lends his high-pitched vocals to the track. Though they had not recorded together for more than twenty years, the two of them got on as if they had only ceased collaborating yesterday, everything flowed naturally. The track was wrapped up in just one take, much like other themes, such as opener Who Goes There where the flautist deploys smooth, enchanted and smoky wisps.

Fundamentally, reflecting of the sleeve which features a child playing with a ball, image that could symbolise the sun just as much as the moon, Julien Lourau manages to translate the ambiguous candour which characterizes Shorter’s work - solar and crepuscular at the same time, that of a visionary and poet definitively situated outside of all chronology, but with whom Julien shares surprising and ‘timely’ coincidences. Shorter was born August 25, 1933, the same day as Julien’s father, “if we take time zones into account”, and who died on Lourau’s birthday, March 2, 2023. Should we take this as a random fact? Or could we not see here the sign of a destiny connecting the agnostic Frenchman to the man who, as a fervent Buddhist, believed in the transmission of his spiritual flow ?

Originally released in 2008, MACHINE 15, celebrates it"s 15th anniversary with a long awaited vinyl repress, remastered for vinyl by Dan Swanö. With an impressive string of releases behind them, nearly two million records sold worldwide and having shared stages with the likes of Blink 182, the Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age, the Orebro based quartet of vocalist/bassist Nikola Sarcevic, guitarists Erik Ohlsson and Mathias Farm and drummer Fredrik Larzon show that they are on top of their game. While upholding the classic Millencolin sound, they chose to diversify, evolve and progress on the new album The explosive result is pop infused punk at its all-time best with driving beats, anthemic choruses and irresistible melodies that prove the band is back to kick ass and take names. For Machine 15, Millencolin re-teamed with producer Lou Giordano (Sugar, Taking Back Sunday, Plain White T"s), who previously worked with the band on 2003"s Home From Home. "We wanted the kind of crisp sound that Lou is notorious for. Plus we have a great chemistry with him," guitarist Erik Ohlsson adds.

The Madlib Invazion Music Library Series . Entry #5: Dan Hastie and Terin Ector (Orgone) pick up where Piero Umiliani left off with Exotic Grooves and Lush Funk. This is the next up in a series of music library releases, with future volumes produced by DJ Muggs, Karriem Riggins and more. The Madlib Invazion Music Library Series was created by Madlib and Egon to give their creative friends a chance to stretch out and indulge in whatever type of music they wanted. This music was created for easy, one-stop clearance in film and television synchronization usage and for sampling. You can also enjoy these albums in the way that many do with the best of the best vintage library catalogs – listen, ponder, repeat.

Recital presents the first full-length vinyl LP by sound artist Asha Sheshadri. Whiplash combines elements of sound poetry, diary-like narrations, and delicate incidental music. Sheshadri has crafted a unique and marvelous album.

Asha Sheshadri is a visual artist and musician, who “meditates on meaning, context, and impermanence” (Joshua Kim). Moves freely between video, writing, sound, and photography. Her forms flow together to create unpredictable observations of the overlooked, while documenting personal and political networks within our collective, imperfect memory.

“This record is an alternate approach to the autobiographical ‘confessional’ – I wanted to stitch together some pivotal sketches in self-understanding and forgiveness. While their designs may seem affectively disparate, they are in fact quite interrelated. My intention (as with past recordings) is to task the listener with tracing the contours of the narrative (or lack thereof). Each track contains sound from video work, excerpts from writers I admire, ethnographic methods, recovered and recycled voice/text memos, photographs from personal and public archives, and research-driven fictions. These sources expand and collapse into each other, only to reveal the eponymous "whiplash". To me, the feeling of "whiplash" is the collision of: a refracted ambivalence towards what was once real, the endless cycle of reckoning with wherever "home" has taken place, the fraught process of anchoring one’s self in the wake of slow-release trauma, and how (if even possible) to translate all of this into artwork.” –Asha Sheshadri, 2023

“Place is security, space is freedom: we are attached to the one and long for the other. There is no place like home.” –Yi Fu Tuan, Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience.

All tracks arranged & recorded by Asha Sheshadri; in bedrooms, living rooms, libraries, bars, airplanes, backyards and parks across North America.
Mastered by Sean McCann.

In 2021 Nijs and Smolders started a series of free improvisations. Each came from a different background (see bio’s) and wanted to explore musical horizons that they were not used to. As a next step they decided to record an album of composed tracks. The experimental platform shifted from long improv sessions to composition and structure, with the work of Delaere as a source of inspiration. The material of his work, the unevenness, the detail of pigments clashing, superimposing on the canvas served as a metaphor and inspiration for sonic canvases that they constructed.

The result has become a record full of surprises. Rhythm, drone, dynamics, timbre, notes, tones, all have been thrown in the tumble dryer and during the process many times led the two musicians towards an outcome they couldn’t have possibly foreseen. But here we are. Our own experience is that the music works best when it’s played loud. Crank up the level of your amp and dive into these 35 minutes of colorful sounds.

Polish artist Satl is one of the most diverse and prolific artists to break through in the Drum & Bass realm in the last decade. After a multitude of music on Amsterdam label The North Quarter he is now set to release his most ambitious and eclectic project: Gloom.

This is a project that sees a more mature artist, one that has developed and refined his sound. In what is a clear departure from his previous material, Satl has managed to craft his own exciting take on dark electronic music taking influences from UK Bass music, Techno and beyond.

“I never wanted to be boxed in to one style/genre, but I think I just wasn’t brave enough as an artist to really push this agenda forward until now,” Satl explains. “I think this collection represents where I am at the moment, a ‘new me’, and I’m definitely planning to stay here for a little while, while always looking to the future.”

Gloom has been a mostly solitary creative undertaking for Satl, who explored the boundaries of his Waldorf Blofeld, Elektron Digitakt, FL Studio, Reason, VCV Rack and a handful of plugins over the course of about two years. The album is entirely produced by him and sees just a handful of vocal collaborators: Tru Thought’s own Rhi, New York’s Frank Carter III and L.A.-based vocalist Saigo.

A coming-of-age project, Gloom is the end product of Satl honing his craft and exploring the limits of his own creativity.

The last twelve months have been a whirlwind for Henry Counsell and Louis Curran, the men who make up Joy (Anonymous). Having established themselves during the Covid-19 era by playing impromptu meet-ups on London’s South Bank, they have graduated to bigger venues, travelled to far-flung locales and recorded their second album, Cult Classics, while maintaining the spontaneous energy and irrepressible joy that made their name. Their music revels in the euphoria of being alive and all the feelings, good or bad, that come with it. It invites us into a community, draws us close and promises the night of our lives.

Recorded over the course of a year, the blueprint for Cult Classics was laid down over a two-week span at Imogen Heap’s Round House in east London. Joy (Anonymous) invited friends old and new to visit - they’d record live instruments in jam sessions upstairs and then retreat to a second room to flip and loop and generally mess with the sounds, moulding them into sizzling dance tracks. “Loads of people were coming up to me like ‘I thought this was going to be a dance record?’” Louis says, remembering the quietly beautiful music they’d be recording. “I’d be like, don’t worry about that, just keep playing.” He’d send it back to people later and they’d be floored - “That was my bit and you’ve made it... jungle!”

It was an organic and creatively fulfilling approach, one that didn’t allow any of the music to get stale or stagnate. As they built the tracks from the sounds they’d collected, Joy (Anonymous) would weave the new songs into their famously improvised live sets, testing them, refining them, taking note of the audiences’ reactions. In a year punctuated by a lot of travel, they’d also incorporate the voices of people they met along the way - “Beazley’s Poem”, which opens the record, features the words of a man who was working security at a Fred Again show at New York’s Terminal Five. “He was basically doing the opposite of his job and being a hype man, climbing on the fence and ramping up the crowd - we ended up hanging out with him - like, who’s this legend?” Louis explains. “He just speaks really amazingly about his life, all these amazing thoughts and opinions - he started jumping on the mic when we were playing, preaching these amazing messages to the crowd, like that we all need to be nicer to each other. The first time we played the record in its entirety, he introduced us and that’s the recording we’ve used.”

Joy (Anonymous) remain dedicated to the spirit of spontaneity. They shut a street down with a surprise waterside party in New York. On a trip to Copenhagen they played an impromptu set in a cafe, which turned into a house party and a night-long good time. In Lithuania, they ended up playing in a decommissioned prison. It’s harder, perhaps, to keep that spirit alive now that they are operating more within the confines of the music industry but they will keep lugging their kit to wherever the party calls for as long as they can. “I think if we lose that, we’ve kind of lost what makes us us,” Henry says.

Bursting with multi-genre reference points and disparate influences, Cult Classics is very much a dance album. The samples we made ourselves or we took from music that is quite different to dance music, but we definitely wanted to shout out a lot of the dance influences that we love,” Henry says. They listened to a lot of Daft Punk and Basement Jaxx as well as The Prodigy (“more rage stuff”), taking songwriting tips from their dance forebears, but also recording bits that felt more like jazz and motown (see: A Place I Belong and the lovely album closer, You’re In Or You’re Out). Emir Taha’s gentle classical guitar runs like a thread throughout Cult Classics, washing into the undertones of the record, tying it all together.

The album follows the beat of a night out, from frenetic, sweaty movement to the gentler winding down as the dawn breaks. At times it is euphoric, celebratory and pure, whirling fun, at others it seeks the joy in the darker emotions that life throws our way. 404 is designed to encapsulate everything about the Joy (Anonymous) journey so far. Skittering beats and ghostly vocals give way to vibrating house chords: sirens blare as we approach a dubstep drop. It’s dramatic and wild, ratcheting up, seeming to settle then hitting you with an intense and frantic breakdown before the ghostly vocal returns to lull us back into the world. It has the feel of a hungry cat playing with a mouse, toying with it before letting it get away.

What sounds like someone playing the spoons on playful, housey How We End Up Here is actually Louis’ restless habit of clicking his rings on everything, one of a myriad of calling cards and easter eggs that day one fans will recognise. They rework Miley Cyrus and Swae Lee’s Party Up The Street into a French-electro-inspired future classic, adding a note of melancholy to a tune that you can imagine hearing blaring from every car on a summer drive. The lyrics on Cult Classic are generally reassuring, inspirational, originally drawn from Henry in stream-of-consciousness freestyles. You’re fine the way you are, they seem to say - the repeated “No need to try” of A Place I Belong, the assurance that “It’s in me all the time” on In Me All The Time. Even the summery but regretful Did You Wrong hints at the growth that is possible from less than ideal behaviour. For Joy (Anonymous), joy isn’t about just being “happy” all the time - it’s about relishing every element of your being.

The name ‘Joy (Anonymous)’ is taken from the work Henry did with Alcoholics Anonymous groups: it is a way to build a community around sharing joy. Their impromptu live sets are known as ‘meetings’; they encourage fans to share moments of joy to their website. They care deeply about the scene they’ve come up in and are determined not to leave it behind. Every show is another chance to reach out and connect with people who love to come together and revel in music as loud as it can go.

Support slots for Fred Again and The Streets, wild B2Bs with Fred and Skrillex, and a set at Four Tet’s Finsbury Park all-dayer this summer have given the duo the opportunity to live out childhood dreams and introduced their infectious live shows to new audiences at huge venues.

With an album as assured and joyful as Cult Classics on the horizon (and a killer collab with The Blessed Madonna coming up), they’re only going to reach higher heights. But the essence of Joy (Anonymous) remains on the South Bank. Between shows at Ally Pally in September, they dragged their camping chairs and gear back down to the banks of the Thames: and it just felt right.

Hermano's debut album is being reissued having been completely remixed by David Barrick (Nashville
Pussy, Kentucky Headhunters) and remastered by Ty Tabor (King's X) under the watchful eyes and
ears of the band to produce the sound they always wanted the album to have. Completely redesigned
art with new cover design and first ever gatefold, loaded with period pictures.

The Madlib Invazion Music Library Series . Entry #5: Dan Hastie and Terin Ector (Orgone) pick up where Piero Umiliani left off with Exotic Grooves and Lush Funk. This is the next up in a series of music library releases, with future volumes produced by DJ Muggs, Karriem Riggins and more. The Madlib Invazion Music Library Series was created by Madlib and Egon to give their creative friends a chance to stretch out and indulge in whatever type of music they wanted. This music was created for easy, one-stop clearance in film and television synchronization usage and for sampling. You can also enjoy these albums in the way that many do with the best of the best vintage library catalogs – listen, ponder, repeat.

Foundation Music is proud to present ‘The Flowers EP’ by Foremost Poets aka Johnny Dangerous. Back in the news after being featured on the Grammy winning Alien Superstar from Beyonce’s latest album - but for those that know - he has never gone away as he is always on someone’s dance floor.

Foremost Poets productions and his vocals are simply devastating and label head, Ross Allen, has been a fan since he first heard the Nu Groove classic ‘Reason’s to Be Dismal’ on the reworked Richard Long Edition. It was a record that blew him away then and now, recently played by Pete Tong on Radio One, with Sven Vath including it on his anniversary compilation too. Ross signed this record when he hooked up with Johnny in New York 3 years, but wanted to wait until the time was right. That time is now.

‘Flowers In the Attic’ is no normal dance record, clocking in at thirteen minutes. It’s an epic Johnny D production, falling into that place where funk and house come together in the most magical, danceable way. It’s long but enticing, taking you through different phases and surprises you as it sucks you in, twists you up, and pulls you out.

‘Escape From Dubai’ is almost trance like but with that New York lean that keeps it very much on the right side of the Foundation Music fence. Full of funk, it has a deepness that builds and swells into an epic journey that takes you to another dimension.

The broken beat of ‘Don’t Shut Your Eyes’ closes out and is another piece of New York/ New Jersey up-tempo funk, syncopated and grooving with a repetitive hook, that goes deep via its Hammond organ solo and jazzy vocal.

Cold War Kids have announced their 10th studio album, Cold War Kids, that will arrive on November 3 via AWAL. The band’s singer and songwriter Nathan Willett describes: " This is our self titled record . Everybody gets one . This felt like the right time because the sound of this record is the sound that makes Cold War kids unlike any other . I’m so proud of these songs. They took a long time to come together . The longing and struggle and joy I wanted to express are personal to me and i am so excited to share it with our fans who have come with us on the journey.”
The epic tale of Cold War Kids has long been informed by deeply personal songcraft, enthusiastic experimentation, and an avowed commitment towards forward motion. The band continues their ascent, becoming one of the biggest rock bands of their generation amassing more than half a billion streams, consistently churning out alternative radio hits, selling out tours and headlining festivals worldwide.
Over the course of nine studio albums and numerous EPs, Cold War Kids have become a major part of the modern musical landscape, with “First,” their Platinum-scanned 2015 single, named as the Most Played track at Alternative radio outlets nationwide over the last decade. As well as 600+ million career streams, 2.2 million singles sold, and over 600,000 albums sold. The band’s current lineup – Nathan Willett (vocals, piano, guitar), Matt Maust (bass guitar), David Quon (guitar, backing vocals), Matthew Schwartz (keyboards, backing vocals, guitar, percussion), and Joe Plummer (drums, percussion) – coalesced in 2016 and have since maintained a dynamic presence in both the studio and on stages around the world.

The five members of Sun June spent their early years spread out across the United States, from the boonies of the Hudson Valley to the sprawling outskirts of LA. Having spent their college years within the gloomy, cold winters of the North East, Laura Colwell and Stephen Salisbury found themselves in the vibrant melting-pot of inspiration that is Austin, Texas. Meeting each other while working on Terrence Malick's 'Song to Song', the pair were immediately taken by the city's bustling small clubs and honky-tonk scene, and the fact that there was always an instrument within reach, always someone to play alongside. Coming alive in this newly discovered landscape, Colwell and Salisbury formed Sun June alongside Michael Bain on lead guitar, Sarah Schultz on drums, and Justin Harris on bass and recorded their debut album live to tape, releasing it via the city's esteemed Keeled Scales label in 2018. The band coined the term 'regret pop' to describe the music they made on the 'Years' LP. Though somewhat tongue in cheek, it made perfect sense ~ the gentle sway of their country leaning pop songs seeped in melancholy, as if each subtle turn of phrase was always grasping for something just out of reach. Sun June returns with Somewhere, a brand new album, out February 2021. It's a record that feels distinctly more present than its predecessor. In the time since, Colwell and Salisbury have become a couple, and it's had a profound effect on their work; if Years was about how loss evolves, Somewhere is about how love evolves. "We explore a lot of the same themes across it," Colwell says, "but I think there's a lot more love here." Somewhere is Sun June at their most decadent, a richly diverse album which sees them exploring bright new corners with full hearts and wide eyes. Embracing a more pop-oriented sound the album consists of eleven beautiful new songs and is deliberately more collaborative and fully arranged: Laura played guitar for the first time; band members swapped instruments, and producer Danny Reisch helped flesh out layers of synth and percussion that provides a sweeping undercurrent to the whole thing. Throughout Somewhere you can hear Sun June blossom into a living-and-breathing five-piece, the album formed from an exploratory track building process which results in a more formidable version of the band we once knew. 'Real Thing' is most indicative of this, a fully collaborative effort which encompasses all of the nuances that come to define the album. "Are you the real thing?" Laura Colwell questions in the song's repeated refrain. "Honey I'm the real thing," she answers back. They've called this one their 'prom' record; a sincere, alive-in-the-moment snapshot of the heady rush of love. "The prom idea started as a mood for us to arrange and shape the music to, which we hadn't done before," the band explains. " Prom isn't all rosy and perfect. The songs show you the crying in the bathroom,, the fear of dancing, the joy of a kiss - all the highs and all the lows." It's in both those highs and lows where Somewhere comes alive. Laura Colwell's voice is mesmerising throughout, and while the record is a document of falling in love, there's still room for her to wilt and linger, the vibrancy of the production creating beautiful contrasts for her voice to pull us through. Opening track 'Bad With Time' sets this tone from the outset, both dark and mysterious, sad and sultry as it fascinatingly unrolls. "I didn't mean what I said," Colwell sings. "But I wanted you to think I did." Somewhere showcases a gentle but eminently pronounced maturation of Sun June's sound, a second record full of quiet revelation, eleven songs that bristle with love and longing. It finds a band at the height of their collective potency, a marked stride forward from the band that created that debut record, but also one that once again is able to transport the listener into a fascinating new landscape, one that lies somewhere between the town and the city, between the head and the heart; neither here nor there, but certainly somewhere.

Following a four-year hiatus, Jamie has returned with his 6th album and most poignant and heartfelt work to date Chronicling the earliest years of fatherhood and a newfound creative energy, Little Weaknesses is a record that embraces brightness and brims with optimism for the future. Little Weaknesses is Jamie's return to music after a four-year break that saw the birth of his son in 2020."Originally, I had intended to take six months off when he came along. And then the pandemic hit, and I had what felt like three years off," he says. The time away instilled him with a desire to re-wire his creative process, following a period of immense career highs that included performances at Wembley Stadium and Croke Park, and tours with Ed Sheeran and James Blunt. Fatherhood brought a new sense of direction and meant any music he left his young family to play, perform or promote had to fulfil him completely. "Having that time settled me into a style of music that I wanted to make that I wasn't making," he shares. "Now, I would say this record is not that far away from the others, but it does feel much more cohesive. I remember listening to some playlists, like Lost In The Woods or Fresh Folk, and just thinking:'Oh, this is where I should be sitting. This is the music I love. This is the music I get the most out of.'It's all quite simple, but it's all quite beautiful. And there's proper lyrical content, something going on that makes me think about things. Those are the songs I wanted to write." Little Weaknesses is 14 tracks of concise, emotive, painterly beauty. It's a record that sees Jamie wholeheartedly embrace collaboration, working alongside a close- knit group of artists and friends, including multi- genre violinist Isabella Baker who arranged strings for six songs and songwriters Simon Aldred (aka Cherry Ghost) and Jack McManus. The entire album was crafted in Jamie's music room in his family residence in Manchester and recorded by producercollaborator Tim Ross at his home studio in Twickenham.

Coming soon!

One of the most wanted Intangible releases in the rebound. Terrence Parker also produced for this re-issue a new remix of "I Love The Way U Hold Me".
Essential record!

"Giving the Game Away" ist das fünfte Studioalbum der britischen Hardrockband Thunder von 1999. Diese erweiterte Neuauflage enthält bisher unveröffentlichte Bonus-Live-Versionen von Hits des Albums und erscheint zum ersten Mal auf grünem und senfgelbem Doppel-Vinyl in limitierter Auflage.

Mit ihrem unverkennbaren Hardrock-Sound, kraftvollen Riffs und eingängigen Melodien wurde das Album von Fans und Kritikern gleichermaßen positiv aufgenommen.

Viele lobten die Fähigkeit der Band, ihren Wurzeln treu zu bleiben und gleichzeitig ihren Sound weiterzuentwickeln.

Mit den Schlüsseltracks "Just Another Suicide (You Wanna Know)", "All I Ever Wanted" und "Play That Funky Music" ist es ein Muss für Fans von legendärem Hard Rock und Heavy Metal.

The irresistible rush that comes from listening to Sparkling's music is intoxicating. The Cologne-formed trio's second album We Are Here To Make You Feel is a glimmering widescreen world where emotions are writ large, the group dealing in rousing choruses, twinkling synth toplines and an incessant desire to keep things propelling forward at pace. "We Are Here To Make You Feel is an album about the importance of expressing your emotions" the group say. "It's about love in every kind of way. Love for your friends, lovers and family. It's a reminder to tell your loved ones that you love them. On this record, we wanted to say that in the most honest and straightforward way possible."

In March of 2020, after learning that a dear friend’s life was coming to an end, Johansing sat down and in one sitting wrote the song “Daffodils”. An elegiac tribute to someone facing death with grace and curiosity, the lyrics confront Johansing’s own mortality by observing the brief lifespan of a Hlower. Only a week later when the world came to an abrupt standstill, she soon found herself processing this recent loss while trying to make sense of a new global reality. Across the ensuing months, Johansing found herself increasingly untethered by a world of isolation and political upheaval.

Having been a frequent touring member of bands like Hand Habits and Fruit Bats, and often being called into the studio to lend her harmonies and multi-instrumental talents to records, Johansing’s phone no longer rang. Living in Los Angeles she feared her musical community was vanishing, as friends and collaborators continually announced they were leaving the city. It was in returning to her piano nightly that she found the greatest solace, feverishly writing the songs that would be collected on her next album. Resulting from this new sense of time and focus was a deepening of her songwriting. As Johansing recalls, “I felt like a metamorphosis happened during that time. There was a lot of personal growth and healing.”

Throughout Year Away Johansing traverses uncharted emotional landscapes brought upon by the changes occurring all around her. The forced self-reflection of the moment is aptly captured by “Old Friend”, featuring an aching melody and swooning production that recalls the best of Harry Nilsson. The epic piano and saxophone-driven “Smile with My Eyes” addresses the loss of community as friends became distant and political divides between family grew. On “Smile” Johansing pushes her vocals further than ever, expanding her range and using her peerless voice as the singular instrument it is. Facing the loss of a family home due to environmental destruction, “Shifting Sands” is marked by soaring Hlutes, Hield recordings and glassy synthesizers that nod to Japanese New Age.

“Daffodils”, the stunning album centerpiece, is built from a pastiche of looping samples, swirling Mellotron and dazzling vibraphone. “Keep your heart open wide, you never know your time / Keep your heart wild, true Hlower child”, Johansing sings as she says goodbye to an elder, while the band reaches a grief-stricken crescendo of woodwinds and chiming bells. On the title track, Johansing takes listeners on an eerily meditative journey of collective experiences. “I wanted to keep the progression simple and repetitive so that musically we could add new elements little by little, while the emotional tone of the lyrics becomes increasingly more strained and expressive”. The song grows to a fever pitch as Johansing sings higher than she thought possible; the tension of the repeating chords Hinally resolving into a hopeful coda as multiple soloists weave around each other.

Amidst heavier themes, Johansing still leaves room for her love of irresistible pop melodies and lush production. The driving “Last Drop” and mid-tempo “Valley Green” are two of her catchiest songs to date. On the former Johansing sings the anthemic chorus, “As if it were the last drop, and nothing ever lasts forever / As if it were the last stop, too far out to come back ever”, longing for a love that she’ll never take for granted, while also admitting that she doesn’t always know how good she has it. “Valley Green” features shimmering layers of 12- string guitars, stacked horns and an impeccable solo by co-producer and multi- instrumentalist Tim Ramsey (Vetiver, Fruit Bats), hinting at a love for bands like NRBQ.

Having been eager to capture the initial spark of songwriting, Johansing booked time at Highland Park’s 64 Sound Studio the week that it reopened. Over the course of three days, she and her band gathered basic tracks for 10 songs, before returning home to Hinish the record with Ramsey. Setting forth to make an album that paid homage to the music that kept them company during the months spent alone together, the duo pulled inspiration from a wide net including Burt Bacharach, John Carroll Kirby & Haruomi Hosono. Ramsey’s newfound love of early digital synthesizers dovetailed effortlessly with Johansing’s fondness for classic 70’s horn and string arrangements, creating a sound that is distinctly modern yet warm and familiar.

Once again Johansing called upon some of the Hinest players of Northeast Los Angeles’ vibrant music community to lend a hand with the record. The 70s R&B-folk of “Watch It Like a Show” features an electric guitar solo from Hand Habits’ Meg Duffy, while album closer “Endless Sound” boasts backing vocals from electronic musician Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and swooping Indian-inspired violins from Amir Yaghmai (HAIM, The Voidz). The record shines brightly thanks to an ace mix from veteran producer Rob Schnapf (Beck, Elliott Smith, Cat Power), woodwinds from Logan Hone (John Carroll Kirby, Eddie Chacon), and a featured rhythm section of drummer Josh Adams (Jenny Lewis, Bedouine) and bassist Todd Dahlhoff (Feist, Devendra Banhart). Recorded across multiple studios including LA’s famed Sunset Sound, the album remains steadfastly buoyed by the adept engineering of Tyler Karmen (MGMT, Alvvays).

Though born of turbulent times, Year Away is ultimately interested in moving forward. The album ends with “Endless Sound,” where Johansing laments seismic global changes, (“The water is hotter, the mighty thaw / The current’s reversing, the last are lost”) but vows to keep going (“No storm can take me down / Endless light, endless sound”). It’s Year Away’s resilience that shines through despite the darkness. It’s a sound all her own and Johansing’s most cohesive set of songs yet.

Chapter number twenty-seven of the Mental Disorder missile catalogue arrives. This new chapter is signed by Helki Torsnum, who is none other than the living legend: Inigo Kennedy, who decided 25 years ago to compose an EP for the now-defunct British label, Sheer Records. We wanted to rescue this lost gem called "Events that occur" because it perfectly defines the minimalist and raw sound of 90s techno, which occupied the entire frequency spectrum in its purest form.
Three powerful tracks that destroyed the dance floors in the mid nineties.

100 only

AhGeeBe is the stage name of Welsh songwriter, pedal-steel player and general all-round multi- instrumentalist, Rhodri Gwyn Brooks. Through the past decade performing and recording with various artists (Melin Melyn, Gia Margaret, Novo Amor, Georgia Ruth & Ivan Moult to name a few), Rhodri has drawn on inspiration from artists such as George Harrison, Wilco and Neil Young, to produce his distinct brand of country Americana.
Through Bubblewrap, Rhodri has released lo-fi home
recordings and a couple of EP’s under his own name, as well as a Welsh Music Prize nominated album ‘Pontvane’, alongside Eugene Capper. Now, a decade in the making, AhGeeBe’s debut album ‘Chin Up, Chief‘ drops on November 3rd, through Bubblewrap Collective.
Rhodri shares some of his thoughts and processes...
Over the years I’ve come to realise that I much prefer playing for other artists, and collaborating with people, more than writing and releasing my own music with all the ffaff and headspace it takes up. But here we are.
The name of the record comes from a line in TV show Fargo, where police officer Molly tries to cheer up the police Chief. It stuck with me and seemed all too fitting a title for the songs as a whole.
Musically I wanted to make an album with all the sounds and feel I really love from artists like George Harrison, Wilco, Neil Young etc with piano and acoustic guitar, interupted by spikey electric guitars or mad fuzz solos with a solid slight funk to the rhythm section - my attempt to sound like a David Axelrod record. I got a pedal steel guitar around 3 years ago so there’s a veriety of bottleneck slide, lapsteel, and pedal steel guitar on the record. And then on the flip side, have moments of calm and sparsity, with room to woozily meander around.

"The process of grieving my mother's death, of watching my life kind of fall apart around me brought me to this weird sort of nirvana," he explains. "In those moments, I could feel these different worlds colliding around me, and I knew I wanted to find a way to capture it."

With his extraordinary new album, Thin Places, Harris has done precisely that. Written from start to finish as one continuous artistic statement, the set draws on Harris' extensive background in classical music to create a work of beauty, pain, and catharsis. Blurring the lines between country, gospel, soul, and chamber folk, the songs here are deeply personal, staring down loss, self- destruction, and recovery with unflinching honesty, and the arrangements are similarly bold and cinematic.

Curate your music collection with the year most-wanted remixes. Elevate your mind and catalogue with the definite vision of Robert Armani’s timeless bestsellers. This double vinyl boasts new levels of techno.

Discover never-before-seen versions of the Chicago Legend’s Hits of all times. We have a plethora of artists as Mark Broom with a banger, Alexander Johansson & Mattias Fridell, Ken Ishii, amazing Misstress Barbara, Van Czar with a rework of 3 in 1 tracks, Spanish crew featuring Cristian Varela, Paco Osuna, and Jesus Riaño, Belgian classic Dj Bountyhunter, Miss Mana and Waffensupermarkt. These brand-new gems have been carefully selected and the artists involved wanted to pay a deserved tribute to Armani’s career.

2023 VINYL REPRESS.
The third full-length release for Portland, Oregon-based LIZ HARRIS.

Harris might have achieved a significant fan base thanks to the whispering, near-ambient vocal crusades of her debut album Way Their Crept and its follow-up Wide, but those with a careful ear would have heard slightly more trapped beneath her fuzzy chain of effects.

Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill marks a departure of sorts for Liz, which sees her turn down the fuzz boxes which caged (and to some degree defined) her sound and allows her voice to ring out above everything else. It is an album steeped in the world of dream-pop and far from shying away from the reference, Liz has instead grabbed on with both hands, creating an album's worth of perfect, left-field pop songs. Using delicate song structures which are at once both familiar and somehow alien, her vocals cry out hauntingly over stripped-down guitar lines and looped environmental recordings.

These are the future soundtracks to love, despair and ultimately, hope.

“This remarkable album is actually what I personally always wanted 4AD records to sound like, only they never quite delivered the hazy pleasures their beautiful sleeve art promised.”—Pitchfork (8.2)

The long awaited official reissue of ‘She Wants’, one of the first UK Street Soul singles originally released in 1985 by The NM Band.

The NM Band was an alias for UK Lovers Rock band Natural Mystic, responsible for a number of hits in the late 70’s and early 80’s most notably ‘Runaway Love’ and ‘Groove Rocking’. They released a string of acclaimed reggae LPs and toured extensively throughout the UK, but by 1985 wanted to try something away from their trademark roots reggae sound. Influenced by the availability of affordable hardware the band set about fusing Reggae and Soul using an Akai Drum machine, Yamaha DX7 and Roland sound module. ‘She Wants’ is one of the forebearers of UK Street Soul, raw machine drums paired with an incredibly soulful vocal from Ashley Sommers. The band created their own imprint ‘Mixdown’ to release the single, but it slipped under the radar, despite strong radio play from Choice FM and the then pirate station Kiss. The 12” is backed with Dub Version ‘She Wants’ (More).

A 140gram pressing in 3mm spine black disco sleeve with metallic sticker designed by Bradley Pinkerton.

For Fans of Horror, Halloween, and Haunted Attractions! Shadow’s Symphony creator Grant Smoker has loved everything to do with Halloween since he was a kid and always wanted to be able to contribute or be a part of Halloween in some way. Hearing music at Haunted Attractions inspired him to start writing and recording. He writes this instrumental music with haunted attractions, films, and gaming in mind. Since 2014 Shadow's Symphony has been played in haunts around the world. Each album that he writes has a different theme, which means different instrumentation as well as style that pertain to the theme of the album. There's a bit of everything from melancholy piano to full blown dark orchestral strings and creepy ambient synth over the course of an album. For this release, The House in the Mist was written using unpolished instruments and synthesizers to match the "look and feel" of old silent films. It was his first album written in 2011 and is still a popular choice for haunted attractions. This is a fist in a multi part series from Shadow’s Symphony

The rising Tamil-Swiss artist Priya Ragu is set to release her long-awaited debut album ‘SANTHOSAM’ on October 20th.



‘SANTHOSAM’ (the Tamil word for ‘happiness’) is a standout dynamic album which takes her raguwavy sound – simmering R&B, masterful pop hooks, earthy soulful vocals, dance beats, and the warm tabla rhythms, and spiralling melodics of Tamil music – to even more adventurous heights. Defined by Priya’s contagiously positive spirit, it pulsates with gorgeously varied musical textures and urgent political themes. Once again crafted in collaboration with her brother and producer Japhna Gold, it’s an album that originates from Priya’s quest for self-discovery.



‘SANTHOSAM’ opens with ‘Ammama’s Note’, which features a voice recording in which Priya’s grandmothers is questioning why she isn’t married. Like many young South Asian women, Priya felt like she wanted to achieve much more before she settled down, regardless of other people’s preconceptions of what direction her life should take. That ability to write one’s own destiny continues the euphoric ‘School Me Like That’, set to a rumbling tambla beat and breezy synths. More universal issues are explored in the blazing anger of ‘Black Goose’, which was written in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests, and ‘Let Me Breathe (Reprise)’, a spiritual call for freedom, emancipation, and peace.



Elsewhere, the record brims with highlight-after-highlight, taking in everything from the dancefloor disco energy of ‘One Way Ticket’ to ‘Power’ which features a rousing string arrangement that was written by Indian composer Bala and recorded with an orchestra in Budapest. It closes with ‘Mani Osai’, a song which continues a yearly family tradition in which Priya, Japhna and their father write a song together. Never intended to be a Priya Ragu track, it nonetheless felt like the perfect way to close the album – especially as the concluding “santhosam” chant conveys the meaning of the word with life-affirming zest.