Cerca:we in music

The 2015 edition of Winnipeg’s send + receive festival, focussed on rhythm, turned out to be a generative meeting of minds. There, Mark Fell encountered the music of Will Guthrie, a meeting that was eventually to result in the frenetic acoustic drumkit and digital synthesis pairing heard on Infoldings and Diffractions (2020). At the same festival, Limpe Fuchs first heard and appreciated the music of Mark Fell, planting the seed of a collaboration that came to fruition when Fell (along with his son Rian Treanor) visited Fuchs at her home in Peterskirchen, Germany in September 2022. Black Truffle is pleased to announce the release of the results of this extensive session in the audacious form of a triple LP, housing over two hours of music across its six sides. The collaboration might appear unlikely: what common ground could exist between Fuchs, classically trained pianist, legend of improvised music, instrument builder and sound sculptor active since the 1960s, whose group Anima Sound connected the dots between free jazz, krautrock and ritual, and Fell, proponent of radical computer music, known for his bracingly austere productions that twist remnants of club music into algorithmic stutters? For all their seeming disparity in technology, approach and background, the music on Dessogia/Queetch/Fauch makes it immediately evident the pair share a great deal in their essentially percussive approach and ability to, in Fuch’s phrase, ‘establish silence’. Recording at her home studio, Fuchs had the use of her entire array of instruments, found, invented, and traditional, and treats the listener to some that don’t often make their way to concerts, including extensive passages performed (with Gundis Stalleicher) on pieces of wooden parquetry. Alongside metallic, wooden and skin percussion of all kinds, sounded and struck in every conceivable way, we also hear bamboo flute, viola, and Fuchs’ distinctive free-form vocalisations. Fell also stretched himself, with his contributions ranging from characteristically fizzing pitched percussive pops to swarms of sliding tones and abstract digital noise. Showing both remarkable restraint and improvisational freedom, much of the music consists of duets between a single percussion instrument and a distinctive mode of digital sound, often lingering in one timbral-rhythmic space for minutes at a time. Improvisational forward momentum coexists with a free-floating, wandering quality. On opener ‘Dessogia I’, the shimmering almost-gilssandi tones of Fuchs’ enormous set of microtonally tuned metal tubes ripples across Fell’s rubbery pulse, which moves up the frequency spectrum as Fuchs becomes more animated and switches to horn. At some points, as on the metallic chiming tones that open ‘Fauch I’, only the unexpected dynamic behaviour of Fell’s sounds distinguish them from Fuchs’ acoustic instruments. At others, like on ‘Queetch III’, the waves of sliding tones and noise textures are bracingly synthetic, joined by piercing squeaks and scrapes from Fuchs’ metal objects. Epic in scope, immersing the listener in an entirely distinctive world of sounds, and thrillingly bold in its melding of the most ancient musical procedures with cutting edge technologies, Dessogia/Queetch/Fauch is an unexpected major statement from two of the great mavericks of contemporary music.

Rolf Gehlhaar (1943-2019) was an instrumental and electronic music composer, and a pioneer in computer controlled interactive music. He grew up in the US where he studied philosophy and composition at Yale University. In 1967 he moved back to Germany to become Stockhausen’s personal assistant and member of his performing ensemble. In 1969 Gehlhaar co-founded, along with Johannes Fritsch (Metaphon 012) and David Johnson, the Feedback Studios in Cologne, a new-music performance center and publishing house. He later moved to England, where he became in 1979 a founding member of the Electro-Acoustic Music Association and later on senior lecturer in design and digital media. Gehlhaar's compositions include symphonies, instrumental works, experimental and electronic music, interactive computer controlled music and everything in between. The three previously unreleased tracks on this LP only show a glimpse of the versatility of his adventurous and innovative musical ideas.

The 24 songs on this double album are in some ways a completion. Together with Young Man Songs here are nearly all the songs Kerry Lee Crabbe and Daryl Runswick wrote (and Daryl sang) which are good enough to be issued. The subject matter here is wider ranging than on Young Man Songs:love songs, but also family, heroes and antiheroes, zen, celebration, nostalgia, philosophy, life and death.

Daryl Runswick writes: "I first set Kerry Lee Crabbe's words to music in 1967; for the last time in 2010. Our most prolific period was 1970-1980 during which time we had considerable success as a songwriting team, though we didn't have big hits. The pinnacle for us was when Cleo Laine recorded a whole album of our songs (One More Day: well worth looking out for on vinyl or CD). There are a number of reasons for our lack of hits: songwriting was for neither of us our main job - not 'the principal source of his revenue' as Paul Simon put it (One Trick Pony) - we did it in our spare time. Also, neither of us had any interest in being an entrepreneur, nor did we employ a manager to push the songs; also, perhaps we were snobs who disdained moneygrubbing; but perhaps the main reason was that these are art songs: art songs in the style of pop music, yes, but not aimed (other than tangentially) at the commercial market.

We'd have loved to have hits but that's not why we did it and we didn't bother overmuch flogging our wares around. Kerry and I were introduced to one another as undergraduates at Cambridge University. Kerry had written the book and lyrics for a musical (Someone is Squeaking) and I was instructed by Clive James, then President of the Footlights Club where I was Musical Director, to compose the songs. It was put on at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1967 with Julie Covington in the lead role. Kerry directed and I was musical director, playing piano in the accompanying trio. After that summer I went down to London to be a jazz bass player while Kerry had a further year at Trinity College, Cambridge. After he came down, we got together again and continued making songs."

On How It Ends (?), slinky melodies snake through nocturnal atmospherics, drawing you into a world built on poetic, painterly lyricism. Night Crickets, a long-distance groove affair that materialized during the drawn-out days of lockdown, has emerged once again to soundtrack our waking dreams.

David J (Bauhaus, Love & Rockets), Victor DeLorenzo (Violent Femmes) and multi-instrumentalist Darwin Meiners spearhead a loose collective of like-minded creative souls whom, through sheer tenacity and a burning desire to collaborate and create, transcend the restrictions of space and time. Audio files shared from Los Angeles to Milwaukee, from London to the San Francisco Bay, and the ghosts of Candlestick Park shimmer through the fog, coalescing in a glorious ‘gesamtkunstwerk’ that draws from the past, the present and the imagined future.

Declaring Bauhaus, Love And Rockets, and Violent Femmes iconic, foundational bands in the history of alternative music would receive little pushback from those in the know. San Francisco born artist Darwin Meiners is a fan of all three. A chance meeting with David J grew into a friendship, and Darwin not only became a bandmate, but his manager. After reaching out to Victor DeLorenzo through e-mail, Darwin met the Violent Femmes drummer after their set at Coachella. Soon, after the three collaborated on Darwin’s 2014 release Souvenir.

As the pandemic took hold, Darwin was looking for a new project to occupy the lock down time and approached Victor, who was keen to proceed and suggested that David join as well. The musical trust established between these three was immediate and Night Crickets were born. Within weeks a global process was initiated between them, the recordings eventually forming the album, A Free Society.

Following that release, inspired by how well – and quickly – they all worked together, the trio kept up their collaboration. “We are each free to discover musical connections that could only exist in an ideal creative setting” explains Victor. “We are very lucky to have three musicians who write, sing and play various instruments in one trio… our egos seem to melt into one when we face musical decisions, so our expeditions are always filled with pure discovery, humor and drive!”

How It Ends (?) was crafted with the same collaborative spirit as A Free Society. Each member contributed contributed unique elements to spur their collective creativity—whether a drum pattern, a lyrical concept, or a musical idea—and together, they expanded these initial sparks into the finished work. True to their approach, much of what you hear was captured in the first take, reflecting a genuine, unfiltered moment.

The music on the How It Ends (?) is a true evolution of the debut album. It is deeper and darker. Having said that, the dark tone is alleviated by a healthy measure of the buoyant, bouncy and melodic. “Much of the new material is very psychedelic and the contrast between this heavy, dark psychedelia and the more uplifting pop elements puts me in mind of The Beatles’ ‘Revolver’ album to some degree,” tells David J. “The recording process for the new album was exactly the same as the first in that we all recorded remotely, taking turns to share files and reacting spontaneously to the previous track, overdubbing then passing on once again until we all felt that the track was done.”

“While we didn’t start with a specific theme, the album emerged as a contemplative exploration of endings” says Darwin. “It touches on the loss of individuals, the shifting of ideas, and the fragility of systems. Beneath this sense of darkness and finality, however, there are threads of beauty and glimpses of hope. We invite you to immerse yourself in the album and experience the journey we’ve embarked upon.”

~~~From Mississippi and Olvido Records~~~~~~ Steel-string guitar and vocals by the great Giorgos Katsaros, a mythic figure of Greek rembetiko. Our obsession with underground Greek music continues with 10 ultra-rare recordings of heartbreak and vice from rembetiko legend Giorgos Katsaros. Katsaros, who by some accounts lived to be over 100 years old, carried the old songs of Greece to the Diaspora in the United States, bridging centuries of music in one storied lifetime. Born in 1901 on the Greek island of Amorgos, Katsaros' was enchanted with the songs he picked up as a kid in the streets of Piraeus and Athens. Encouraged by his grandfather, an amateur singer, Katsaros developed a style that mirrored his upbringing - centuries-old Asia Minor songs, island rhythms of his homeland, well-known Athenian songs of the time, and anonymous `rebetiko' songs. Katsaros' songbook was vast, but he was most drawn to the street life and music of the manges of early 20th-century Greece: outcasts who dealt with the indignities of an unstable economy and an inauspicious future with the old standbys: wine, hash, and dancing. These ten tracks are remastered from Katsaros's 64 surviving early recordings, many rarely heard since their original release. Hypnotic melodies plucked over repeating thumbed basslines back his deep, mournful voice. Katsaros brought this nostalgic late-night music to smoke-filled rooms of Greek exiles in Chicago, Philly, and New York, where he emigrated in 1917. He continued to travel the country and play until his music was supplanted by more modern styles in the 1950s. He retired to the town of Tarpon Springs, FL, famous for its Greek sponge fishers, til a late-in-life revival brought him back to Greece for a few massive concerts and national accolades in the 1990s. Like many great artists, Katsaros carefully curated his own mythic backstory over the decades. He sometimes claimed he was born in 1888, making him 109 on his passing, and conflicting accounts of his birth and travels circulate to this day. Greek researchers Stavros Kourousis and Konstantinos Kopanitsanos, who also compiled these tracks, contribute groundbreaking new historical research on Katsaros' life. Lyrics, poetically translated by Tony Klein, further fill in the picture. Clean and rare 78s were remastered by Stereophonic. Katsaros has never sounded better than on this LP, pressed on red vinyl, with extensive notes and lyrics.

Just under a year after their acclaimed self-titled debut, dreampop duo deary release a brand new six-track EP – Aurelia – via Sonic Cathedral on November 1. It includes the singles ‘The Moth’, ‘Selene’ and ‘The Drift’ and features Slowdive drummer Simon Scott playing on three songs. It will be available on three different vinyl variants, a CD with three bonus tracks and digitally. It’s a stunning record, which displays a new-found maturity in terms of production as well as musically and lyrically. The band – singer Rebecca ‘Dottie’ Cockram and guitarist/producer Ben Easton – have had to grow up in public since the release of their debut single at the start of 2023, supporting legends such as Slowdive and Cranes and TikTok sensations like Wisp along the way. An aurelian is a rare old term for a lepidopterist – someone who studies and collects moths – derived from the Latin aurelia, meaning chrysalis. The perfect title for an EP which is based around the theme of metamorphosis and change. “It leans on the natural world, the human body, the earth and sky as well as human emotion,” says Ben of how the EP represents physical and metaphysical growth. “Change can be daunting but equally exciting, which is something we’ve come to learn.” “While writing the EP, I found a letter I had written to myself when I was 22,” adds Dottie. “I was fresh out of university and had moved back in with my parents as Covid was in full force. I was uninspired and lost and reaching out to my future self for some hope. It was a physical representation of what can happen in a few years; how much can change and how you never know what’s coming next. “I found it interesting that – at the age of 26 – here I was looking back to my younger self for hope or just some comfort in the fact that things will and do move on. It was important to me to bring both of these versions of myself into the new songs.” “Personally, I had noticed a change in myself; a new level of social anxiety, a strange disassociation to things that once brought me joy as well as negative repetitions in my daily life,” reveals Ben. “I began the year sober which allowed me to finish the writing process as a letter of care to my own mental health. There are motifs throughout the EP – for example the riffs in ‘The Moth’ and ‘The Drift’ being reminiscent of each other – which are like musical reflections of these repeated cycles.” It’s musically where the change deary have undergone is most obvious. ‘The Moth’ mixes howling guitars atop a strident breakbeat making it more Curve than Cocteaus; ‘Selene’ is a slow-building wall of noise; ‘The Drift’ combines a perfect pop melody with an incredible sense of urgency. These three singles are balanced by the brief but beautiful ‘Where You Are’ which leads into the Portishead-style trip-hop of ‘Dream Of Me’. The title track has been a staple of their live sets for about a year as ‘Can’t Sleep Tonight’, but its mix of The Cure circa Disintegration and Mezzanine Massive Attack has grown and evolved so much that they renamed it ‘Aurelia’ as the embodiment of the change they have been through. “We’ve allowed deary to naturally grow over the past year, we didn’t want to force it to take a certain shape or sound,” explains Dottie of the duo’s slow and steady approach. “A lot of the last EP was written by sending ideas back and forth over WhatsApp, but this time we were able to sit in the same room and I think that really shows. We know each other a lot better now as we have experienced this journey together and that benefits the writing process as we are more open with each other and can be vulnerable.” “Aurelia definitely feels a lot more collaborative, more personal and more fully realised than the first EP,” concludes Ben. “It feels like a real document of what has been a very important time in both of our lives. Ironically, the band has changed and matured even more since the recording, so we’re both excited to document the next stage

Founded in the late 1960s by record store owner Seidou
Adissa, Albarika Store is one of the most important
independent record labels on the African continent. That
it was founded in the relatively small ex-French colony
of Benin (then still called Dahomey), is a testament to its
founder’s musical taste and vision for what the local
musical scene had to offer.
This September, Acid Jazz releases the first ever vinyl
and CD overview of the label and its music, compiled by
David Hill of The Soul Revivers and West African
musical expert Florent Mazzoleni, who also wrote the indepth notes.
The compilation provides a look into what was a
developing and then thriving post-colonial music scene.
It focuses on the label’s biggest and most prolific act
Orchestre Poly-Rhythmo and its founder Melome
Clement – who released under a variety of names often
spotlighting on the musicians’ key to their sound. It also
looks at the other established artists on the label such
as the incendiary Les Sympathics De Porto Novo and
Les Volcans. All of these artists create a unique mix of
Westernised Funk, Soul and Latin sounds crosspollinated with the traditional music of the region.

SYML—Welsh for “simple”—makes music that taps into the instincts that drive us to places of sanctuary, whether that be a place or a person. Born and raised in Seattle, Brian Fennell studied piano and became a self-taught producer, programmer, and guitarist. This May marked the fifth anniversary of his self-titled debut album, which included the platinum-selling song “Where’s My Love” and the Gold Record fan favorite, “Girl,” and one year since his sophomore album, The Day My Father Died, which was recorded and produced with fellow Seattle-native Phil Ek (Band of Horses, Father John Misty, Fleet Foxes) and features Elbow’s Guy Garvey, Lucius, Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek, and Charlotte Lawrence. In the last year, he was also featured on Lana Del Rey’s song, “Paris, TX,” from her Grammy-nominated album Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, and realized several other notable collaborations including UK-electronic artist George Fitzgerald, Latin Grammy-nominated Colombian artist Elsa Y Elmar. In February 2024, he launched his imprint, FIN. Recordings, a new venture in collaboration with his label, Nettwerk Music Group, and management team, Good Harbor Music. Says Fennell about Infinity, “Sometimes, songs are wandering souls with no home, and it’s not until enough of them are written that the home is realized. I have a proud obsession with all things apocalyptic and the doom and wonder of an ever-expanding universe. This group of songs is an ode to the absurdity of human existence and my fondness for it. My inspirations were very cinematic ranging from big blaring soundscapes to more gentle, dusty settings like Ennio Morricone was so gifted in painting. I am fascinated by what humans are capable of, especially the stories we tell ourselves to explain our world and the space around it. Importantly, I am thankful for the creative space to make art without rules or expectation.

"Anywayawanna – The Best Of is a compilation album by The Beat Masters, a British producer trio who enjoyed considerable success in the late 80's/early 90's. As well as producing Yazz' smash hit ""Stand Up For Your Love Rights"" in 1988, they also landed several Top 20 hits under the Beatmasters moniker with a series of guest vocalists: The Cookie Crew (""Rok Da House""), Betty Boo (""Hey DJ / I Can't Dance (To That Music You're Playing)""), Merlin MC (""Who's in the House"") and P.P. Arnold (""Burn It Up""). These hits are all featured on this compilation album ""Anywayawanna – The Best Of The Beatmasters"". The Beatmasters went on to write, produce and remix for many other artists including Marc Almond, Pet Shop Boys, Blur, Roachford, Betty Boo, Naomi Campbell, Moby, Aswad, Eternal, Tina Turner, David Bowie, Depeche Mode, The Shamen and Girls Aloud. Anywayawanna – The Best Of is available on vinyl for the first time as a limited edition of 750 copies on orange coloured vinyl. The package contains an insert with extensive liner notes."

Camelot, the legendary seat of King Arthur's court in Early Middle Ages Britain, was probably not a real place. A corruption of the name of a real Romano-Briton city, the word "Camelot" accumulated symbolic, mythic resonances over centuries, until achieving its present usage as a near-synonym of "utopia." In the mid-20th century alone, Camelot inspired an explosion of representations and appropriations, among them the violent, affectless Arthurian court of Robert Bresson's 1974 film Lancelot du Lac and the absurdist iteration of Monty Python's 1975 Holy Grail, both of which feature armored knights erupting into fountains of blood; the mystical Welsh world of novelist John Cowper Powys's profoundly weird 1951 novel Porius, with its Roman cults, wizards and witches, and wanton giants; and the nationalist nostalgia of President John F. Kennedy's White House. Unsurprisingly there are fewer Camelots in more recent memory. Camelot, Canadian songwriter Jennifer Castle's extraordinary, moving 2024 chronicle of the artist in early middle age, charts a realer, more rooted, and more metaphorical place than the fabled Camelot of the Early Middle Ages (or its myriad depictions), but it too is a space more psychic than physical. In Castle's Camelot, the fantastic interpenetrates the mundane, and the Grail, if there is one, distills everyday experience into art and art into faith, subliming terrestrial concerns into sublime celestial prayers to Mother Nature, and to the unfolding process of perfecting imperfection in one's own nature. Co-produced by Jennifer and longtime collaborator Jeff McMurrich, her seventh record is at once her most monumental and unguarded to date, demonstrating a mastery of rendering her verse and melodies alike with crisply poignant economy. For all their pointedly plainspoken lyrical detail and exhilarating full-band musical flourishes, these songs sound inevitable, eternal as morning devotions. "Back in Camelot," she sings on the lilting, vulnerable title track, "I really learned a lot / circles in the crops and / sky-high geometry." The album opens with a candid admission of sleeping "in the unfinished basement," an embarrassing joke that comes true. But the dreamer is redeemed by dreaming, setting sail in her airborne bed above "sirens and desert deities." If she questions her own agency_whether she is "wishing stones were standing" or just "pissing in the wind"_it does not diminish the ineffable existential jolt of such signs and wonders. This abiding tension between belief and doubt, magic and pragmatism, self and other, sacred and profane, and even, arguably, paganism and monotheism, suffuses these ten songs, which limn an interior landscape shot through with sunstriped shadows of "multi-felt dimensions" both mystical and quotidian. The epic scale and transport of "Camelot," with its swooning strings, gives way dramatically to "Some Friends," an acoustic-guitar-and-vocals meditation in miniature on Janus-faced friends and the lunar and solar temperatures of their promises_"bright and beaming verses" versus hot curses_which recalls her minimalist last album, 2020's achingly intimate Monarch Season. (In a symmetrical sequencing gesture, the penultimate track, the incantatory "Earthsong," bookends the central six with a similarly spare solo performance and coiled chord progression, this time an ambiguous appeal to _ a wounded lover? a wounded saint? our wounded planet?) Those whom "Trust" accuses of treacherous oaths spit through "gilded and golden tooth"_cynics, critics, hypocrites, gurus, scientists, doctors, lovers, government, the so-called entertainment industry_sow uncertainty that can infect the artist, as in "Louis": "What's that dance / and can it be done? What's that song / and can it be sung?" Answering affirmatively are "Lucky #8," an irrepressible ode to dancing as a bulwark against the "tidal pools of pain" and the "theory of collapse," and "Full Moon in Leo," which finds the narrator dancing around the house with a broom, wearing nothing but her underwear and "big hair." But the central question remains: who can we trust, and at what cost faith, in art or angels or otherwise? Castle's confidence in her collaborators is the cornerstone of Camelot. Carl Didur (piano and keys), Evan Cartwright (drums and percussion), and steadfast sideman Mike Smith (bass) comprise a rhythm section of exquisite delicacy and depth. This fundamental trio anchors the airiness of regular backing vocalists Victoria Cheong and Isla Craig and frames the guitars of Castle, McMurrich, and Paul Mortimer (and on "Lucky #8," special guest Cass McCombs). Reprising his decennial role on Castle's beloved 2014 Pink City, Owen Pallett arranged the strings for Estonia's FAMES Skopje Studio Orchestra. On the ravishing country-soul ballad "Blowing Kisses"_Pallett's crowning achievement here, which can be heard in its entirety in the penultimate episode of the third season of FX's The Bear_Jennifer contemplates time and presence, love and prayer_and how songwriting and poetry both manifest and limit all four dimensions: "No words to fumble with / I'm not a beggar to language any longer." Such rare moments of speechlessness_"I'm so fucking honoured," she bluntly proclaims_suggest a state "only a god could come up with." (If Camelot affirms Castle as one of the great song-poets of her generation, she is not immune to the despairing linguistic beggary that plagues all writers.) Camelot evinces a thoroughgoing faith not only in the natural world_including human bodies, which can, miraculously, dance and swim and bleed and embrace and birth_but also in our interpretations of and interventions in it: the "charts and diagrams" of "Lucky #8," a daydreamt billboard on Fairfax Ave. in LA in "Full Moon in Leo," the bloody invocations of the organ-stained "Mary Miracle," and all manner of water worship, rivers in particular. (Notably, Jennifer has worked as a farmer and a doula.) The album ends with "Fractal Canyon"'s repeated, exalted insistence that she's "not alone here." But where is here? The word "utopia" itself constitutes a pun, indicating in its ambiguous first syllable both the Greek "eutopia," or "good-place"_the facet most remembered today_and "outopia," or "no-place," a negative, impossible geography of the mind. Utopia, like its metonym Camelot, is imaginary. Or as fellow Canadian songwriter Neil Young once sang, "Everyone knows this is nowhere." "Can you see how I'd be tempted," Castle asks out of nowhere, held in the mystery, "to pretend I'm not alone and let the memory bend?"

. For Fans Of: The Weather Station, Weyes Blood, Adrianne Lenker, Phoebe Bridgers, Joan Shelley, Lana Del Rey, Cass McCombs, Angel Olsen & Neil Young. Camelot, the legendary seat of King Arthur’s court in Early Middle Ages Britain, was probably not a real place. A corruption of the name of a real Romano-Briton city, the word “Camelot” accumulated symbolic, mythic resonances over centuries, until achieving its present usage as a near-synonym of “utopia.” In the mid-20th century alone, Camelot inspired an explosion of representations and appropriations, among them the violent, affectless Arthurian court of Robert Bresson’s 1974 film Lancelot du Lac and the absurdist iteration of Monty Python’s 1975 Holy Grail, both of which feature armoured knights erupting into fountains of blood; the mystical Welsh world of novelist John Cowper Powys’s profoundly weird 1951 novel Porius, with its Roman cults, wizards and witches, and wanton giants; and the nationalist nostalgia of President John F. Kennedy’s White House. Unsurprisingly there are fewer Camelots in more recent memory. Camelot, Canadian songwriter Jennifer Castle’s extraordinary, moving 2024 chronicle of the artist in early middle age, charts a realer, more rooted, and more metaphorical place than the fabled Camelot of the Early Middle Ages (or its myriad depictions), but it too is a space more psychic than physical. In Castle’s Camelot, the fantastic interpenetrates the mundane, and the Grail, if there is one, distills everyday experience into art and art into faith, subliming terrestrial concerns into sublime celestial prayers to Mother Nature, and to the unfolding process of perfecting imperfection in one’s own nature. Co-produced by Jennifer and longtime collaborator Jeff McMurrich, her seventh record is at once her most monumental and unguarded to date, demonstrating a mastery of rendering her verse and melodies alike with crisply poignant economy. For all their pointedly plainspoken lyrical detail and exhilarating full-band musical flourishes, these songs sound inevitable, eternal as morning devotions. “Back in Camelot,” she sings on the lilting, vulnerable title track, “I really learned a lot / circles in the crops and / sky-high geometry.” The album opens with a candid admission of sleeping “in the unfinished basement,” an embarrassing joke that comes true. But the dreamer is redeemed by dreaming, setting sail in her airborne bed above “sirens and desert deities.” If she questions her own agency whether she is “wishing stones were standing” or just “pissing in the wind” it does not diminish the ineffable existential jolt of such signs and wonders. This abiding tension between belief and doubt, magic and pragmatism, self and other, sacred and profane, and even, arguably, paganism and monotheism, suffuses these ten songs, which limn an interior landscape shot through with sunstriped shadows of “multi-felt dimensions” both mystical and quotidian. The epic scale and transport of “Camelot,” with its swooning strings, gives way dramatically to “Some Friends,” an acoustic-guitar-and-vocals meditation in miniature on Janus-faced friends and the lunar and solar temperatures of their promises—“bright and beaming verses” versus hot curses which recalls her minimalist last album, 2020’s achingly intimate Monarch Season. (In a symmetrical sequencing gesture, the penultimate track, the incantatory “Earthsong,” bookends the central six with a similarly spare solo performance and coiled chord progression, this time an ambiguous appeal to … a wounded lover? a wounded saint? our wounded planet?). Those whom “Trust” accuses of treacherous oaths spit through “gilded and golden tooth” cynics, critics, hypocrites, gurus, scientists, doctors, lovers, government, the so-called entertainment industry sow uncertainty that can infect the artist, as in “Louis”: “What’s that dance / and can it be done? What’s that song / and can it be sung?” Answering affirmatively are “Lucky #8,” an irrepressible ode to dancing as a bulwark against the “tidal pools of pain” and the “theory of collapse,” and “Full Moon in Leo,” which finds the narrator dancing around the house with a broom, wearing nothing but her underwear and “big hair.” But the central question remains: who can we trust, and at what cost faith, in art or angels or otherwise? Castle’s confidence in her collaborators is the cornerstone of Camelot. Carl Didur (piano and keys), Evan Cartwright (drums and percussion), and steadfast sideman Mike Smith (bass) comprise a rhythm section of exquisite delicacy and depth. This fundamental trio anchors the airiness of regular backing vocalists Victoria Cheong and Isla Craig and frames the guitars of Castle, McMurrich, and Paul Mortimer (and on “Lucky #8,” special guest Cass McCombs). Reprising his decennial role on Castle’s beloved 2014 Pink City, Owen Pallett arranged the strings for Estonia’s FAMES Skopje Studio Orchestra. On the ravishing country-soul ballad “Blowing Kisses” Pallett’s crowning achievement here, which can be heard in its entirety in the penultimate episode of the third season of FX’s The Bear Jennifer contemplates time and presence, love and prayer and how songwriting and poetry both manifest and limit all four dimensions: “No words to fumble with / I’m not a beggar to language any longer.” Such rare moments of speechlessness “I’m so fucking honoured,” she bluntly proclaims suggest a state “only a god could come up with.” (If Camelot affirms Castle as one of the great song-poets of her generation, she is not immune to the despairing linguistic beggary that plagues all writers.) Camelot evinces a thoroughgoing faith not only in the natural world including human bodies, which can, miraculously, dance and swim and bleed and embrace and birth but also in our interpretations of and interventions in it: the “charts and diagrams” of “Lucky #8,” a daydreamt billboard on Fairfax Ave. in LA in “Full Moon in Leo,” the bloody invocations of the organ-stained “Mary Miracle,” and all manner of water worship, rivers in particular. (Notably, Jennifer has worked as a farmer and a doula.) The album ends with “Fractal Canyon”s repeated, exalted insistence that she’s “not alone here.” But where is here? The word “utopia” itself constitutes a pun, indicating in its ambiguous first syllable both the Greek “eutopia,” or “good-place” the facet most remembered today and “outopia,” or “no-place,” a negative, impossible geography of the mind. Utopia, like its metonym Camelot, is imaginary

Feiern Sie die Weihnachtszeit mit der beliebten Weihnachtssammlung von Sufjan Stevens, ,Silver & Gold: Songs for Christmas, Vols. 6-10", die jetzt zum ersten Mal seit ihrer ursprünglichen Veröffentlichung 2012 wieder auf Vinyl im Handel erhältlich ist. Dieses umfangreiche Set enthält fast drei Stunden festliche Musik, darunter 18 Eigenkompositionen und kreative Interpretationen von Weihnachtsklassikern. Die 6-LP-Kollektion (vier Einzel-LPs und eine Doppel-LP) im Schuber zeigt Stevens' einzigartige Herangehensweise an Weihnachtsmusik, die Folk, Indie-Rock und experimentelle Klänge miteinander verbindet. Von intimen Weihnachtsliedern bis hin zu ausgedehnten Orchesterarrangements zeigt ,Silver & Gold" Stevens' künstlerische Vielseitigkeit und seinen kollaborativen Geist, was es zu einer unverzichtbaren Ergänzung jeder Weihnachtsmusiksammlung macht.

Repress! Get On Down is bringing back one of the best James Brown funk compilations to vinyl. Funky People Part 1 features the top tier of artists from Brown's People Records label, including The J.B.s, Lyn Collins, Fred Wesley, and Maceo Parker. Some of the James Brown organization's all-time best material is collected here, including The J.B.'s "Pass The Peas" and "Hot Pants Road", Fred Wesley's in your face politics through funk statement "Damn Right, I Am Somebody", Lyn Collins' smash hit "Think (About It)" and many more. These songs have been sampled in countless hip-hop songs over the years. Newcomers and diehard fans alike continue to dig into the James Brown and People Records vaults, and the more they do so, the more they realize that it's a nearly never-ending source of truly next-level funk and soul music. Thanks to the exhaustive efforts of Get On Down, this aural goodness will keep flowing to the public.

Body Meπa is the New York-based quartet of Greg Fox (drums), Sasha Frere-Jones (guitar), Melvin Gibbs (bass), and Grey McMurray (guitar). As luminaries in the intersecting traditions of improvised music, rock, jazz, fusion, and contemporary classical music, the four artists have each spent decades building diverse practices that extend beyond sound into multiple disciplines. Prayer in Dub, their second release on Hausu Mountain, follows the band’s 2020 album The Work Is Slow.

The album presents a band whose collective intuition as instrumentalists and live-in-the-room songwriters has deepened with each take that they put to tape. Prayer in Dub finds Body Meπa taking up new experiments with song structure and atmosphere, fanning out into a wide menu of both longer and more concise pieces that suggest deliberate shifts in energy and emotional resonance. The album presents a thrilling contrast between storms of precise rhythmic interplay and slowly expanding fields of multi-guitar and bass texture, alternately pushing the narrative toward explosive peaks of intensity and dipping into ambient expanses. Contemplative guitar lines, both bone dry and effected into total abstraction, ripple together over dub-indebted rhythm section grooves before shifting the dial towards beatific twang. Knotty distorted solos surge out of the fray over networks of arpeggios and drum fills.

On Prayer in Dub, Body Meπa pursues a strain of euphoria charged with elegiac grandeur and the looming potential to crumble at any moment under the psychic weight of confusion. It speaks to the band’s goals and general outlook that chaos never completely consumes their sessions. The band channels the kinetic energy of a “supergroup” of veteran musicians into communal works that evolve beyond their creators’ extensive pedigrees into new forms both intimate in sentiment and majestic in scope.

Body Meπa is the New York-based quartet of Greg Fox (drums), Sasha Frere-Jones (guitar), Melvin Gibbs (bass), and Grey McMurray (guitar). As luminaries in the intersecting traditions of improvised music, rock, jazz, fusion, and contemporary classical music, the four artists have each spent decades building diverse practices that extend beyond sound into multiple disciplines. Prayer in Dub, their second release on Hausu Mountain, follows the band’s 2020 album The Work Is Slow.

The album presents a band whose collective intuition as instrumentalists and live-in-the-room songwriters has deepened with each take that they put to tape. Prayer in Dub finds Body Meπa taking up new experiments with song structure and atmosphere, fanning out into a wide menu of both longer and more concise pieces that suggest deliberate shifts in energy and emotional resonance. The album presents a thrilling contrast between storms of precise rhythmic interplay and slowly expanding fields of multi-guitar and bass texture, alternately pushing the narrative toward explosive peaks of intensity and dipping into ambient expanses. Contemplative guitar lines, both bone dry and effected into total abstraction, ripple together over dub-indebted rhythm section grooves before shifting the dial towards beatific twang. Knotty distorted solos surge out of the fray over networks of arpeggios and drum fills.

On Prayer in Dub, Body Meπa pursues a strain of euphoria charged with elegiac grandeur and the looming potential to crumble at any moment under the psychic weight of confusion. It speaks to the band’s goals and general outlook that chaos never completely consumes their sessions. The band channels the kinetic energy of a “supergroup” of veteran musicians into communal works that evolve beyond their creators’ extensive pedigrees into new forms both intimate in sentiment and majestic in scope.

2024 Reissue

The syndicate manifests its sonic potential in full glory. Giving rise to this collection of colossal heavyweights, Sentry demonstrates its spotless record of selecting certified heavyweights for the discography once again, twenty-fold. Stepping into the ring are some of the scene's most prolific artists alongside a plethora of promising, choice newcomers.

Boasting more than an hour of supercharged sound system pressure with names like Caspa, Truth, Bukez Finezt, Nomine and Youngsta himself on the controls - the subsequent inferno proves to be an authoritative display of quality bass music, that is sure to reach roaring stacks of speakers all around the globe for years to come."

"Vintage flavours transmute into fiery low-end excursions in 'Sun Ra' as Onhell reigns with fire and brimstone and makes way for what's to come. Rolling on, Taso lays waste with dimly lit half-time flows as we enter the smoke-filled mansion of Argo's meticulously crafted 'Since Then' - a prime cut of hip-hop infused breakbeats and bass.

Abstrakt Sonance & Substance set the heater into overdrive and blunts aflame as we proceed into the shelling of 207's 'Gypsy Dub' - then promptly being crunched to bits by 'Crocodile' - encapsulating Dayzero's cold-blooded dance floor armaments. Brace yourself for battle as we step to the drums of Caspa's tribal warfare, full-frontal assault engineered for the club.

Unrestrained power surges propelling us onwards in Coltcut & Ourman's decidedly high-grade collaboration as listeners march through Khiva's haunting sound system belter 'Teeth' and a zealous dosage of Dubstep as envisioned by Truth. Led through eerie alleys and pressure-ridden environments with LSN on the buttons, the onslaught proceeds with the relentlessly driving 'R U Broke' in Mr. K's signature style.

Opus merciless injects straight fury in an auditory form in the spiked 'Lime Pickle' - Bukez Finezt keeping pace with a murderous Cembalo-ridden thug anthem, lunacy! Minimal instrumentation to its fullest effect, Sukh Knight's 'Modulate' keeps it spicy - as does the claustrophobic sub-bass chiming by Leftlow. Thanom ignites what's left of the residual air in 'Tumble It' - dangerous goods.

The subsequent time bomb armed by A:Grade & Feonix, cast into the abyss that is Nomine's space-bending 'Judas' - big speaker business. The clock strikes its final hour - Youngsta & Cimm finish off the survivors with a no-holds-barred showdown, the 'Last Judgement' executing its massive verdict.

Robert Glasper’s holiday album In December was released last year as an Apple Music exclusive. We’re now able offer it widely available to physical retail and all DSPs!



Is there anything to be done with carols like “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and “Joy to the World” that hasn’t been done in the past 300 years? If there is, Grammy-winning pianist, composer, and producer Robert Glasper is the kind of artist to do it. “I like covering songs that people know well,” Glasper tells Apple Music. “That’s what I’ve done throughout my whole career.” It’s true: As a jazz pianist, he’s obviously learned his way around making classics his own, whether they were written by Mongo Santamaría or Kurt Cobain. But, he says, “The biggest challenge in making a holiday album was trying to do it in a way that feels festive but at the same time feels real and not corny.”



He succeeds on both fronts on In December, his holiday album that mixes classic carols with a set of originals, and which was recorded in Spatial Audio. Part of what keeps it credible is the fact that Glasper’s hiphop/R&B/jazz fusion is done on a compositional level instead of just a cosmetic one (no collages of sampled sax solos and drum loops here). The covers reveal a lot about his musical worldview: Sung by Tony winner Cynthia Erivo (The Color Purple), “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” is turned into dark, airy neo-soul, while “Joy to the World”—sung by Alex Isley—feels like a Stevie Wonder ballad. But the originals reveal even more. “The intention for this album was less about Christmas songs and more about songs that feel good during the holidays,” Glasper says. “I stayed away from thinking too much about Christmas and its traditional lingo, and concentrated on real things people go through during the holiday season.”

US Heavy Music Act CANE HILL melden sich endlich mit ihrer neuen, lang ersehnten LP “a piece of n ihrer nunmehr 13-jährigen Karriere haben Cane Hill immer wieder gezeigt, wie musikalisch divers sie sein können. Von Metalcore, über Nu-Metal, Industrial Metal und Alt-Rock ist alles dabei und nun beschenkt das Alt-Metal Quartett um Frontmann Elijah Witt uns mit ihrem neuen Longplayer aus 11 neuen Tracks, darunter die neuesten Singles “The Midnight Sun” und “Fade”.

“Ich habe diesen Song geschrieben, als ich wahnsinnig verliebt in jemanden war. Mittlerweile sind wir uns Fremde, aber ich glaube, hätten wir uns nie getroffen, wäre dieser Song nicht das geworden, was er nun ist. Musik kann so schön ironisch sein”. — Elijah Barnett über “Fade”

Transparent Blue Vinyl. After years of preparation, Marcus Drake emerges from the basement networks of the resistance underground to claim the first save point along his quest ahead. Welcome to Save Point 1, a universe where popular forms of the past collide at warp speed with Marcus's mutant inspirations to produce sounds and genres hitherto unknown. Save Point 1 is a visionary and singular Debut work of Avant Rock & Pop Alchemy, blown apart and reassembled under the laws of Quantum Musical Mechanics. Written, Produced & Performed by Marcus Drake, the album eludes classification, but sounds like a sci-fi fusion of musical DNA from Nine Inch Nails, Prefab Sprout, Nobuo Uematsu (the Final Fantasy video game composer), Animal Collective, Prince, Mr. Bungle, Liars, The Mars Volta, and Lil Ugly Mane. The album marks the first release under Drake's own name, and the latest since his 2017 release as Anthony Fremont's Garden Solutions_his idiosyncratic side-project with Water From Your Eyes' Nate Amos, Options' Seth Engel, and NNAMDI. He has also since scored for film and video, including the Adult Swim short Thoron the Conqueror. Save Point 1 isn't just a new beginning, but a reintroduction to Marcus Drake the artist and composer. Drake experimented with new techniques and approaches for many years while recording Save Point 1, a process that transformed his sound, voice, and artistic identity. The resulting oeuvre is giddy and dreamy, an Olympic-height diving board from which to descend through indie rock and videogame soundtracks, thrilling math-rock riffs that turn experimental, and synths that glow in rainbow hues. Just turn to the glitchpop of "Heaven's in the Rot" or the slow-motion acoustic glitter that is "Dragon It Out" to hear it in motion. And note the two-part "Haunted" suite that funnels his unpredictable experimentation into darker, weirder directions.

Finally back on vinyl, this 2011 release was the first proper full-length showcase for the Grammy Award-winning superproducer. The signature soulful style of 9th’s beats was a sensation in hip hop and R&B--for underground fans and in the mainstream--and he played a leading role in bringing North Carolina to the forefront of American music culture in the 21st century.

“Commencement/Mineral Blend” delivers a fusion of rough and ready dub-adjacent bass music compositions from the London based trio Damos Room. Also featured are eclectic remixes from artists Gonjasufi, Lewi Boome, Dome Zero, and Nudibranch residents Polyop.

The bulk of the EP came from a rare in-person collaboration at Elijah Minnelli’s loft. The Horse Militia laid belly to the ground, endlessly feeding an effects chain like a battery hen with noises from multiple contrasting sources. It was particularly hot that day and the windows were wide open, so if you listen closely you can hear the humid Selhurst skyline bleeding into the recordings. This long weekend was punctuated by visits to the local swamp and an outing to see Channel One Soundsystem.

"Commencement," the EP's inaugural offering, unfolds with a hypnotic, droning bass groove, providing the floor for a paranoid stream of consciousness.

"Mineral Blend" takes a lazier dancehall-esque approach. Littered with unloved sounds from previous sessions and repurposing the lyrics ("I want to be a vessel") from Damos Room's DR Viewings #2 release with Polyop, this track weaves in and out of consciousness without ever truly bubbling over.

Remixers Lewi Boome and Dome Zero contribute imaginative 150bpm takes on both "Commencement" and "Mineral Blend” respectively, drawing inspiration from their backgrounds in bass, techno and experimental electronic music.

Polyop's remix of "Mineral Blend" leans further into dub techno stylings, infusing a refreshing and spacious perspective that echoes their acid roots.

The LA-based artist Gonjasufi transforms "Commencement" into a foggy and mysterious rendition, using his unique production techniques to transcend the dancefloor and immerse listeners in a misty sonic landscape.

Songs of Joy and Peace is a Christmas music album by cellist Yo-Yo Ma, originally released in 2008. The album features collaborations with many other artists, including vocalists Diana Krall & Alison Krauss, James Taylor, Dave Brubeck, Chris Botti a.o. This holiday disc doesn't exclusively stick to traditional Christmas songs, but covers a wide scope of material in a very ambitious manner. Ma opens with a lovely take of the traditional favorite “Dona Nobis Pacem (Give Us Peace)”, playing both the melody and counterpoint via overdubbing. Jazz pianist/vocalist Diana Krall is superb in a swinging rendition of Jerome Kern's unjustly obscure ""You Couldn't Be Cuter"", adding bassist John Clayton. An arrangement of “Joy To The World” features pianist Dave Brubeck and cellist Matt Brubeck (his son). Chris Botti has never sounded better in the warm arrangement of “My Favorite Things”, playing both open and muted trumpet. James Taylor is featured on vocals on the Beatles cover “Here Comes The Sun”. Songs of Joy & Peace is a limited edition of 500 copies on translucent green coloured vinyl.

2024 Reissue

The music of LSN always has a certain level of grit texture and foreboding. In the background chains drag the drums always contain a certain amount of breaking snap. The sum total though is not a haunting but more of a three dimensional submersion into a rhythmic organisation of these sounds. The work in a way announcing how it’s been made by giving you beds of variant sounds mixed so well that can create your own narrative story to the soundtrack that you’re hearing. That narrative potential is something that marks this album as notable in the electronic music sphere.

An expedition in sound in 10 sequences: Enfoncement Deep Sink, Gouffre circulaire [Circular Abyss], Noyau secret [Secret Core], Apesanteur [Weightlessness], Entrailles [Entrails], Four solaire [Solar Furnace], Fissures [Cracks], Mer intérieure [Inner Sea], Éruption [Eruption], Remontée [Ascension]. "Labyrinthe !" is not only a very unique piece in Pierre Henry's masterful repertoire, but also a remarkable demonstration of his compositional skills and musical singularity. Indeed, for this piece, Pierre Henry was deprived of his own, otherwise essential, sonic material. Here, the sounds, provided by GRM collaborators at the time, carry their own distinct stories, sensitivities and qualities. Yet, despite this discrepancy, Pierre Henry's voice, the breath and dynamics of his own music, quickly appear. Through this sonic maze, a music arises, utterly focused on sounds, their development and their use, which Pierre Henry applies with extraordinary clarity and determination.

LOOSE CATTLE, the five-piece roots rock outfit declared "favorite Americana cowpunks in New Orleans" by OffBeat Magazine. work to make music that matters, aligning themselves with, and advocating for, people at the margins of our society. In the band's mind, if "Americana" is to mean anything, it should mean inclusion and a diverse music scene populated by the people the American Dream crushed. The misfits and outcasts are who they sing for, and choose to dance with. On "Someone's Monster", two-time TONY and GRAMMY Award winner Michael Cerveris turns up the volume and the urgency.

Renowned for its hi-res audio and video releases, the Hong Kong-based Evolution Music Group is celebrating its 20th Anniversary. “The Best of evosound Audiophile” features the best releases evosound has distributed through out the years from their wide range of diverse recording artists, including “Between the Sheets” by the smooth jazz super group Fourplay, “The Way We Were” by Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio, the highly acclaimed “Maputo” by Bob James and the late David Sanborn, and more. The album will be available on 180g Transparent Green Vinyl LP, Hybrid Stereo SACD and MQA-CD.

Collapsing new rhythms and industrial visions meet restless melodic vocals on Gateway, the debut album from San Francisco duo YANTRA on Swiss label Subject To Restrictions Discs. This isn’t dance music, but you will dance to it. It isn’t ritual music, but it will channel spirits.

The dreamer is still asleep. She awakens to heed the call. Curious downtempo drums, spartan and potent, animate the body. Running through the city, shadows dance on walls, and alluring voices, whispered, sung, and soaring, possess the mind. At the end of the path, gazing at the mirror’s edge, she finds the source of the voice—and realizes it’s her own.

YANTRA are artist-producer Yaniv de Ridder, also known by the alias YNV, and lyricist-vocalist-instrumentalist Janina Angel Bath. The pair have worked together for some time, beginning with YNV’s 2021 LP Golden Hour Ritual. On Western Paradox, a YNV EP released last year on Subject To Restrictions Discs, Bath contributed vocals—and so YANTRA, the project and the concept, was born. Working together, the pair craft new forms of transcendent sound, timeless and familiar all at once

JYOCHO’s music exudes pure emotion. It’s chaotic, non-linear, poetic, and gorgeous. When the opportunity to work together arose, it was an easy choice. Their peerless musicianship and body of work share many threads with the history of our label, so we’re simply thrilled to partner with them and help share their music with a wider audience.

"Cornish singer-songwriter set to release his debut album ‘Something To Say’. Produced with Will Hicks (Ed Sheeran) featuring contributions from the likes of Ash Soan on drums (Adele), Fred Abbott on guitar/keys (Noah And The Whale) and hitmaker & broadcaster David Grant on backing vocals, demonstrate the depth of The Gleeman’s musical musings and mark him out as a serious album artist.
With a plethora of press proclaiming his virtues, a rally of radio support including BBC Radio 2, BFBS, BBC Radio London, BBC Introducing, BBC Radio Cornwall, BBC Nan Gaidheal, Radio Caroline and play- listed twice on the UK’s fastest growing radio station Boom Radio, a Top Ten hit in the Music Week Commercial Pop Club Chart and with Live dates as a special guest of acclaimed artists Ian Prowse, Starsailor and Damien Dempsey, with songs that indeed have ‘Something To Say’, expect to hear, see and be inspired by more of The Gleeman."

A Day in the Life' was released in 1967 and reached #1 on the Billboard Jazz Albums chart.

From the early 1960s to the late '80s, A&M was one of the most eclectic and powerful independent record labels in the world. The roster of artists who recorded there includes The Carpenters, Captain Beefheart, The Police, Joe Cocker, Suzanne Vega, Procol Harum and Janet Jackson, among others. Founded as an independent company by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss in 1962, soon the label garnered interest and success, and was acquired by PolyGram in 1989. Throughout its operations, A&M housed well-known acts such as Sting, Sergio Mendes, Supertramp, Bryan Adams, Burt Bacharach, Liza Minnelli, Paul Williams, Quincy Jones, Cat Stevens, Peter Frampton, Carole King, Extreme, Joan Baez, the Human League, Soundgarden, Duffy, and Sheryl Crow, among others. Reissue of the debut album on A&M Records by jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery, released in 1967. It reached #1 on the Billboard Jazz album chart and #2 on the R&B chart. Considered by far the best of his three albums on A&M (in partnership with Creed Taylor’s CTI Records), A Day in the Life features a plethora of star sidemen, such as Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Ray Barretto and Grady Tate, among others, as well as superb arrangements by Don Sebesky.

Auf ihrem zwölften Album mit dem treffenden Titel 'Revolution', ihrem ersten Independent-Album überhaupt, versammeln Skillet zehn aufrührerische, ansteckende und unnachahmliche Hymnen. John Cooper Leadgesang, Bass, Korey Cooper [Gitarre, Keys], Jen Ledger [Schlagzeug, Gesang] und Seth Morrison [Leadgitarre] servieren ihren unverkennbaren, arena-erschütternden Rock, getragen von hochfliegenden Gitarrensoli, knallharten Riffs, cineastischen Streichern und einigen der eingängigsten und überzeugendsten Refrains ihrer bisherigen Karriere. Von der augenzwinkernden, mitreißenden ersten Single 'Unpopular' über die unvorhersehbare und unbestreitbare Dynamik von 'Ash In The Wind' und den mitreißenden Klargesang von 'Not Afraid' bis hin zum mitreißenden Opener 'Show Time' und der zärtlichen Ballade 'Happy Wedding Day (Alex's Song)': Skillet sind wieder da, mit neuer Energie und bereit für eine Revolution.

Bis heute wurde die Band zweimal für den GRAMMY® Award nominiert, erhielt einen Billboard Music Award und platzierte sich mit drei Alben in den Top 5 der Billboard 200. Mit weltweit über 22 Millionen verkauften Einheiten wurden 12 Singles und vier Alben mehrfach mit Platin, Platin oder Gold der RIAA ausgezeichnet. Dazu kommen monatlich 10 Millionen Hörer auf Spotify und mit dem fünffach mit Platin ausgezeichneten 'Monster' einer der meistgestreamten Rocksongs aller Zeiten.

For Patricia Kaas' her sixth album Dans Ma Chair, she went to New York to work together with the successful producer Phil Ramone (Ray Charles, Billy Joel, Paul Simon), Lyle Lovett and, for the second time, James Taylor. With Taylor, she recorded the duet ""Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight"". Two singles from the album received silver status, ""Je voudrais la connaître"" and ""Quand j'ai peur de tout"". The latter was written by Diane Warren and later succesfully translated and covered by Sugababes as ""Too Lost in You"". The album went to #1 in Belgium and reached the Top 10 in Finland, French, Germany, and Switzerland. Dans Ma Chair is available as a limited edition of 1000(?) individually numbered copies on red coloured vinyl and includes an insert.

Not much has been written written about the conceptual hardcore band inspired by and named after a 9th century antisocial loner monk-poet of China’s Tang dynasty. Han-shan the band existed from 1991 to ‘93 in California. Their lyrics covered themes of solitude, mystery, poverty, and discord, directly inspired by the verses of the titular poet. Han-shan’s music was psychopathic, with blood-curdling vocals, and messy but powerful, in the vein of Void, Siege or Septic Death. The band played to the absolute limits of their physical ability and then some, with a sound that complemented their West Coast contemporaries—bands like Heroin, Mohinder, Second Story Window, Antioch Arrow and Angel Hair. Recorded in San Diego by Matt Anderson in late 1993 and originally released posthumously in early 1994 on the tiny Soledad record label, Hans-shan’s eight song seven inch EP came packaged in a manila envelope, each one hand-printed with a woodcut block and roller, with the art and insert referencing both the poet and Tang dynasty China. LG Records has carefully reproduced this cover art and returned to the original multitrack tape. Tim Green has remixed the recording at Louder Studios for a significantly more powerful, and yes, LOUDER, 12” 45rpm release. Members of Han-shan had previously been in Suckerpunch, Brain Tourniquet, End of the Line, and John Henry West; and went on to play in Behead The Prophet NLSL, Solid Gold, Drunk Horse, Astral, Tight Bro’s from Way Back When, Sex/Vid, Very Paranoia, Low Plateau and Nudity. For fans of fast, out of control hardcore with a raw emotional edge. And saxophone.

In the age of streaming platforms and social media, stimulation is easy to come by. Real pleasure, however_the kind that feeds our soul rather than draining it_is in shockingly short supply. The second LP by THUS LOVE is full of that kind of nourishing euphoria. It swoons, shakes, and swaggers with a combination of grit and sensuality that's been hard to locate in music lately. It's called, fittingly, All Pleasure. The album came out of a period of dizzying growth and transformation for the group. When they began work on it, vocalist/guitarist Echo Mars and drummer Lu Racine were still reeling from the runaway success of their 2022 debut Memorial_a set of lush, elegant post-punk that brought praise from The FADER, the NME, and the Guardian_along with processing the departure of the founding bassist. With All Pleasure, the band re-formed with new bassist Ally Juleen and guitarist/keyboardist Shane Blank. The group convened in a barn in the woods that Mars had transformed into a recording studio, and kept one rule at the forefront: "If it's not joyful, don't do it." What emerged from that mission is a stunningly gorgeous album, full of big, arcing melodies and a range of kinky stylistic twists that will surprise listeners who know the group just for Memorial's chorus-drenched 80s-style psychedelia. "Birthday Song" gives grungy glam rock with a transcendent hook that underlines Echo's lyrical tribute to communal joy. "Get Stable" transmutes existential panic into sharp-angled punk pop. The anthemic title track is something like the album's mission statement, paying tribute to the power of joyful creation. Mixed by Matthew Hall and Rich Costey and mastered by Bob Weston, All Pleasure was recorded as live as possible, capturing the sheer infectious ecstasy that comes from sharing space together and making a divine racket. Put on All Pleasure, tap into the energy that THUS LOVE is putting out, and you just might find an escape.

F.F.O.: Black Label Society, HELLYEAH, Five Finger Death Punch, Pantera, Lynyryd Skynyrd, Pride & Glory, Molly Hatchet, Blackfoot, The Black Crowes
Eine Gruppe von fünf gottesfürchtigen Außenseitern kommt mit Gitarren und Verstärkern in die Stadt, und sofort beginnt eine Party... Mit
eingeschenkten Drinks, erhobenen Fäusten und einem breiten Grinsen wissen die TEXAS HIPPIE COALITION (THC) immer, wie man eine gute Zeit hat.
Das texanische Quintett - Big Dad Ritch (Gesang), Cord Pool (Gitarre), Nevada Romo (Gitarre), Rado Romo (Bass) und Joey Mandigo (Schlagzeug) - ist
ein Kollektiv aus bewährten Pöblern und eingefleischten Geschichtenerzählern, die arschtretenden Hardrock mit einer Prise Country und einer Menge
texanischer Härte und Lebensfreude spielen. Mit zehn Millionen Streams, Tausenden von Kilometern auf der Straße und zahllosen Fans liefern sie auf
ihrem achten Album Gunsmoke zehn Hymnen, die wie maßgeschneidert sind, um zu kochen und zu brennen. Im Jahr 2024 zogen sich Ritch und Co.
für einen Monat in ein Airbnb zurück und schrieben das, was Gunsmoke werden sollte, um es dann in Dallas und in den Bell Labs in Nord-Oklahoma
mit dem Produzenten Trent Bell aufzunehmen. Diesmal ließen sich die Musiker voll und ganz auf ihren Country- und Southern-Rock-Stil ein, aber
auch auf ihre lebenslange Leidenschaft für Western. „Ich war schon immer ein Western-Typ“, bekräftigt Ritch. „John Wayne ist einer meiner
Superhelden. Man versucht, sich an Leuten zu orientieren, von denen man glaubt, dass sie eine gute Moral und einen guten Standard haben. Wenn
ich als großer Kerl reinkomme und wie ein Mann aussehe, der alles im Griff hat, heißt es: 'Hier kommt der große Mann'“, lacht er.

"Since 2017, Thirdface has intrigued their audiences and peers alike with their raw, intense technicality. The Nashville quartet consisting of drummer Shibby Poole, guitarist David Reichley, bassist Maddy Madeira, and vocalist Kathryn Edwards bring an atypically musical approach to hardcore with release after invigorating release. Thirdface takes the most harrowing elements of punk, grindcore, and death metal and fuses them into a ferocious sound that is quite considerably their own. From their inception, Thirdface has developed consistently, culminating in their new release Ministerial Cafeteria, due through stalwart unconventional rock label Exploding in Sound Records.

Thirdface is decidedly remarkable in their dedication to Nashville DIY. Edwards runs the beloved all ages venue Drkmttr; Poole is a go-to recording engineer for local bands; and all four members have played in various other projects over the years. Within the constellation of Nashville’s DIY scene, Poole, Reichley, and Madeira were already well acquainted with each other’s playing styles through a previous band. Starting as a side project in 2017, the three shifted gears and began leaning toward a more intense sound requiring a vocal presence unburdened by an instrument. Since then, the release of 2021’s self-recorded Do It With A Smile led Thirdface to regional tours with the likes of Touché Amoré and City of Caterpillar.

On Ministerial Cafeteria, Thirdface loosens the reins only a little more than on Do It With A Smile, but the small change makes a profound difference. Thirdface’s onslaught of blasts and D-beats are no less present than ever, but now ‘grooves’ are allowed a little more life, stretching for an extra measure or for a full repetition before they’re snatched away. Simply, Ministerial Cafeteria gives more space for the dancers, but their faces will still be on the ground as they try to process what they’re hearing."

Having spent the last 10 years tinkering with his songwriting through his extensive catalog with folk/rock group Mapache, as well as his debut solo album ‘Off My Stars’, Sam works alongside co-producer Johnny Payne for his follow up sophomore solo album ‘Real Life Thing’ via Calico Discos.

Sam was born in Los Angeles in November 1994 and currently lives in Ojai, CA. Having had residence in Los Angeles, CA / Coahuila, MX / Orem, UT & New Orleans, LA - it’s safe to assume Sam will be on the move again soon and with more fresh energy to give of himself through his art. Determined to live by creation, Sam is the type of artist that is always creating something, maintaining a sort of inexhaustible hunger to make his music. Expressing himself through sound has now gone beyond joy and into being second nature and Sam’s real first language.

"Good Lovelies are proud to reissue their holiday classic EVERGREEN just in time for the upcoming holiday season. Originally released in 2019, this fifth anniversary limited edition of 500 has been pressed on beautiful peppermint green vinyl.

Caroline Brooks, Kerri Ough and Susan Passmore are a trio of songwriters, multi-instrumentalists, and gorgeous harmonizers known for their nostalgic sound during the holidays that crosses between folk-roots, old-time swing, soul and bluegrass. ""Evergreen"" includes three original songs that the band have added to the Christmas canon alongside their versions of songs like ""Little Saint Nick"", ""Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)"" and ""(Everybody’s Waiting For) The Man with the Bag"" to really get you in the mood for the season ahead.

The band’s annual Christmas tour hits the road again this December, bringing classic holiday songs, timeless winter selections, and original Good Lovelies material to the stage. A Good Lovelies holiday show is a guaranteed good time for the whole family.

“...while most festive albums are best experienced during the correct season, when it comes to the amazing talents of the Good Lovelies, the rule book can be tossed out.” - GREAT DARK WONDER -

“Some of the most gorgeous Christmas harmonies you’ll ever hear on an album jammed full of warmth and good cheer. Featuring a mix of fun favorites, lesser-heard gems and three truly fine originals, the trio strikes the perfect blend of smiles and sentiment...” - BOB MERSEREAU

Good Lovelies first came together in 2006 and have since recorded thirteen albums, including two Christmas collections. They have toured extensively across North America, Europe, the UK, and Australia, and have earned such accolades as a JUNO Award, a SOCAN #1 Single award, and four Canadian Folk Music Awards. Their latest album “We Will Never Be the Same” is in stores now."

Overgrown Eden is the debut album from Essex rock band InMe. The album was released in the UK in 2003 and produced four singles: ""Underdose"", ""Firefly"", ""Crushed like Fruit"" and ""Neptune"". The highest UK Album Chart position was No. 15. However, it reached No. 1 in the Rock Album Chart. For the first time, Overgrown Eden is expanded with an additional bonus LP featuring 10 non-album tracks.

Overgrown Eden (Expanded Edition) is available as a limited edition of 666 individually numbered copies on translucent green coloured vinyl and includes a renewed insert with lyrics.

Second release on Robert Pollard's new Splendid Research label is a vinyl & CD reissue of a 1984 demo cassette by Children's Crusade, post-punk teenage band of Guided By Voices' Doug Gillard. The Cleveland guitarist went on to record for Scat, Homestead and Restless Records with the bands Death of Samantha, Cobra Verde, My Dad Is Dead, and Gem, before joining GBV (1996-2004), then Nada Surf (2010-2016), then rejoining GBV (2016-present), as well as playing on albums by Richard Buckner, Neko Case and others. 1980s Cleveland was a hotbed for indie rock, following in the Northern Ohio footsteps of Pere Ubu, The Dead Boys, The Styrenes, Mirrors and Devo. "Children’s Crusade was a fleeting blotch on the wild, mid-80s Cleveland underground music scene, slowly seeping through like a drop of oil on the uniformly black jeans of that era – noticeable only after it settles, spreads, and you realize it won’t come out in the wash."