Suche:wild nothing

Johnossi’s seventh album ’Mad Gone Wild’ is a pulse-pounding psychodrama and intimate portrait of a man slipping into insanity. For guitarist/vocalist John Engelbert and drummer Ossi Bonde, the making of the album involved tapping into their own interior lives while pushing into the furthest reaches of their imagination; “We wanted to explore the dangers of living in your head too much, and ask questions like: ‘Is there an exact point where you go from sane to insane? What is that point? And aren’t we all insane in one way or another?’”

JOHNOSSI HISTORY

Singer/guitarist John Engelbert and drummer Ossi Bonde formed Johnossi in their native Stockholm, Sweden, in 2004. After only three shows they landed their first record deal and with the release of their self titled debut album they instantly became one of the most influential contemporary acts in Sweden, winning a Swedish Grammy Award and a huge fanbase with their explosive live shows.

Johnossi have toured extensively through out their career mainly in Scandinavia / Europe but also in the US and Japan, both headlining and as support to other acts like The Hives, Green Day, Lykke Li and The Soundtrack of Our Lives.

As the world continues to plunge into a fiery blaze of calamity, the Southern Hemisphere's air warms, its leaves glow green, and the damp earth jolts awake. Springtime is coming to Australia, and it will be ushered in by three sonic shamans who are no strangers to our ears. Gareth Liddiard (Tropical Fuck Storm / The Drones), Jim White (Dirty Three / Xylouris White) and Chris Abrahams (The Necks) are Springtime _ a new endeavor that is as much a tonal experiment as it is a meditation on modern-day absurdity. Springtime's self-titled debut combines free jazz, poignant lyricism crafted alongside renowned Irish poet Ian Duhig -- aka Gareth Liddiard's uncle - and improvisation to craft austere portraits of a world paralyzed by shellshock. It's as monstrously ravishing as it is clumsy in its elegance. Words run into each other with little regard for one another's injuries. There are sounds which come out of nothingness to wallop and brutalize their fellow sounds. The live recording of Will Oldham's "West Palm Beach" is treated with love and respect and would certainly be met with open arms by its author. Across the span of seven tracks, Liddiard incants with wild-eyed fury as White and Abrahams lay down stuttering strings, fizzling electronics, and feathery piano melodies. It is within these raving abstractions that one may find an answer to the enduring question, "What fresh hell will this new season bring?"

"Laurel Hell" ist ein Soundtrack zur Transformation. Eine Landkarte für den Ort, an dem Verletzlichkeit und Widerstandsfähigkeit, Trauer und Freude, Fehler und Transzendenz in unserer Menschlichkeit Platz finden und als würdig angesehen werden können - um letztendlich anerkannt und geliebt zu werden. "I accept it all," verspricht MITSKI. "I forgive it all." Auf "Laurel Hell" festigt MITSKI ihren Ruf als Künstlerin, die die Kraft besitzt, unsere wildesten und zwiespältigsten Erfahrungen in ein heilendes Elixier zu verwandeln. "I wrote what I needed to hear. As I've always done." Nach der Veröffentlichung von "Be The Cowboy", einem der meistgelobten Alben des Jahres 2018, das von Outlets wie Pitchfork (u.a.) zum Album des Jahres gekürt wurde, stieg MITSKI vom Kultliebling zum Indie-Star auf. Mit spürbaren Folgen: Die Schinderei des Tourlebens und die Fallstricke die mit der erhöhten Sichtbarkeit einhergingen, beeinflussten ihre Musik ebenso wie ihren Geist, die sich in der ersten Single "Working For The Knife" niederschlägt. Ein Song, wie ein Prüfstein für das Gesamtgefühl von "Laurel Hell": "I start the day lying and end with the truth / That I'm dying for the knife." "Be The Cowboy" wurde von weiblicher Stärke und Trotz angetrieben, lebte jedoch von seinem Spiel mit Masken. Wie der Berglorbeer bzw. die "laurel hell", nach dem das neue Album benannt ist, kann die öffentliche Wahrnehmung, wie das berauschende Prisma des Internets, eine verlockende Fassade bieten, hinter der sich eine tödliche Falle verbirgt. Die sich immer enger zieht, je mehr man sich anstrengt. "I got to a point, where I just knew that if I kept going this way, I would numb myself to completion." Erschöpft von diesem verzerrten Spiegel und unserer Sucht nach falschen Binaritäten, begann MITSKI, Songs zu schreiben, die die Masken abstreifen und die komplexen und oft widersprüchlichen Realitäten dahinter offenbaren. MITSKI dazu: "I needed love songs about real relationships that are not power struggles to be won or lost. I needed songs that could help me forgive both others and myself. I make mistakes all the time. I don't want to put on a front where I'm a role model, but I'm also not a bad person. I needed to create this space mostly for myself where I sat in that gray area." Die daraus entstanden Songs verkörpern genau diesen Raum. Wie die zweite Single des Albums, "The Only Heartbreaker", die gemeinsam mit Dan Wilson geschrieben wurde und der erste Song dieser Art in ihrer Diskografie ist. "The Only Heartbreaker" verbindet treibenden 80er-Pop mit einem trügerisch einfachen Text, dessen aufrichtiger Refrain ins Ironische kippt, sobald dieser "the person always messing up in the relationship, the designated Bad Guy who gets the blame," beschreibt und sich zugleich fragt, ob "the reason you're always the one making mistakes is because you're the only one trying." MITSKI schrieb viele Songs für "Laurel Hell" während und teilweise vor 2018. Das Album wurde allerdings erst im Mai 2021 final abgemischt. Es ist die längste Zeitspanne, die MITSKI jemals für ein Album gebraucht hat und für die Musikerin inmitten einer radikal veränderten Welt endete. MITSKI nahm "Laurel Hell" mit ihrem langjährigen Produzenten Patrick Hyland in der Zeit der Isolation während der Pandemie auf, als einige der Songs "slowly took on new forms and meanings, like seed to flower." Das Album als Ganzes entwickelte sich "to be more uptempo and dance-y. I needed to create something that was also a pep talk" erklärt MITSKI. Die Spannung, die zwischen ihren raffinierten, aber wehmütigen Texten und dem sprudelnden Pop-Sound der 1980er Jahre entsteht, ist eine dringend benötigte Infusion in Zeiten wie diesen und das Werk einer reifen wie unwiderstehlichen Künstlerin, die auch zu fröhlich ansteckenden Dance-Beats immer noch etwas Profundes beizutragen hat.

"Laurel Hell" ist ein Soundtrack zur Transformation. Eine Landkarte für den Ort, an dem Verletzlichkeit und Widerstandsfähigkeit, Trauer und Freude, Fehler und Transzendenz in unserer Menschlichkeit Platz finden und als würdig angesehen werden können - um letztendlich anerkannt und geliebt zu werden. "I accept it all," verspricht MITSKI. "I forgive it all." Auf "Laurel Hell" festigt MITSKI ihren Ruf als Künstlerin, die die Kraft besitzt, unsere wildesten und zwiespältigsten Erfahrungen in ein heilendes Elixier zu verwandeln. "I wrote what I needed to hear. As I've always done." Nach der Veröffentlichung von "Be The Cowboy", einem der meistgelobten Alben des Jahres 2018, das von Outlets wie Pitchfork (u.a.) zum Album des Jahres gekürt wurde, stieg MITSKI vom Kultliebling zum Indie-Star auf. Mit spürbaren Folgen: Die Schinderei des Tourlebens und die Fallstricke die mit der erhöhten Sichtbarkeit einhergingen, beeinflussten ihre Musik ebenso wie ihren Geist, die sich in der ersten Single "Working For The Knife" niederschlägt. Ein Song, wie ein Prüfstein für das Gesamtgefühl von "Laurel Hell": "I start the day lying and end with the truth / That I'm dying for the knife." "Be The Cowboy" wurde von weiblicher Stärke und Trotz angetrieben, lebte jedoch von seinem Spiel mit Masken. Wie der Berglorbeer bzw. die "laurel hell", nach dem das neue Album benannt ist, kann die öffentliche Wahrnehmung, wie das berauschende Prisma des Internets, eine verlockende Fassade bieten, hinter der sich eine tödliche Falle verbirgt. Die sich immer enger zieht, je mehr man sich anstrengt. "I got to a point, where I just knew that if I kept going this way, I would numb myself to completion." Erschöpft von diesem verzerrten Spiegel und unserer Sucht nach falschen Binaritäten, begann MITSKI, Songs zu schreiben, die die Masken abstreifen und die komplexen und oft widersprüchlichen Realitäten dahinter offenbaren. MITSKI dazu: "I needed love songs about real relationships that are not power struggles to be won or lost. I needed songs that could help me forgive both others and myself. I make mistakes all the time. I don't want to put on a front where I'm a role model, but I'm also not a bad person. I needed to create this space mostly for myself where I sat in that gray area." Die daraus entstanden Songs verkörpern genau diesen Raum. Wie die zweite Single des Albums, "The Only Heartbreaker", die gemeinsam mit Dan Wilson geschrieben wurde und der erste Song dieser Art in ihrer Diskografie ist. "The Only Heartbreaker" verbindet treibenden 80er-Pop mit einem trügerisch einfachen Text, dessen aufrichtiger Refrain ins Ironische kippt, sobald dieser "the person always messing up in the relationship, the designated Bad Guy who gets the blame," beschreibt und sich zugleich fragt, ob "the reason you're always the one making mistakes is because you're the only one trying." MITSKI schrieb viele Songs für "Laurel Hell" während und teilweise vor 2018. Das Album wurde allerdings erst im Mai 2021 final abgemischt. Es ist die längste Zeitspanne, die MITSKI jemals für ein Album gebraucht hat und für die Musikerin inmitten einer radikal veränderten Welt endete. MITSKI nahm "Laurel Hell" mit ihrem langjährigen Produzenten Patrick Hyland in der Zeit der Isolation während der Pandemie auf, als einige der Songs "slowly took on new forms and meanings, like seed to flower." Das Album als Ganzes entwickelte sich "to be more uptempo and dance-y. I needed to create something that was also a pep talk" erklärt MITSKI. Die Spannung, die zwischen ihren raffinierten, aber wehmütigen Texten und dem sprudelnden Pop-Sound der 1980er Jahre entsteht, ist eine dringend benötigte Infusion in Zeiten wie diesen und das Werk einer reifen wie unwiderstehlichen Künstlerin, die auch zu fröhlich ansteckenden Dance-Beats immer noch etwas Profundes beizutragen hat.

"Laurel Hell" ist ein Soundtrack zur Transformation. Eine Landkarte für den Ort, an dem Verletzlichkeit und Widerstandsfähigkeit, Trauer und Freude, Fehler und Transzendenz in unserer Menschlichkeit Platz finden und als würdig angesehen werden können - um letztendlich anerkannt und geliebt zu werden. "I accept it all," verspricht MITSKI. "I forgive it all." Auf "Laurel Hell" festigt MITSKI ihren Ruf als Künstlerin, die die Kraft besitzt, unsere wildesten und zwiespältigsten Erfahrungen in ein heilendes Elixier zu verwandeln. "I wrote what I needed to hear. As I've always done." Nach der Veröffentlichung von "Be The Cowboy", einem der meistgelobten Alben des Jahres 2018, das von Outlets wie Pitchfork (u.a.) zum Album des Jahres gekürt wurde, stieg MITSKI vom Kultliebling zum Indie-Star auf. Mit spürbaren Folgen: Die Schinderei des Tourlebens und die Fallstricke die mit der erhöhten Sichtbarkeit einhergingen, beeinflussten ihre Musik ebenso wie ihren Geist, die sich in der ersten Single "Working For The Knife" niederschlägt. Ein Song, wie ein Prüfstein für das Gesamtgefühl von "Laurel Hell": "I start the day lying and end with the truth / That I'm dying for the knife." "Be The Cowboy" wurde von weiblicher Stärke und Trotz angetrieben, lebte jedoch von seinem Spiel mit Masken. Wie der Berglorbeer bzw. die "laurel hell", nach dem das neue Album benannt ist, kann die öffentliche Wahrnehmung, wie das berauschende Prisma des Internets, eine verlockende Fassade bieten, hinter der sich eine tödliche Falle verbirgt. Die sich immer enger zieht, je mehr man sich anstrengt. "I got to a point, where I just knew that if I kept going this way, I would numb myself to completion." Erschöpft von diesem verzerrten Spiegel und unserer Sucht nach falschen Binaritäten, begann MITSKI, Songs zu schreiben, die die Masken abstreifen und die komplexen und oft widersprüchlichen Realitäten dahinter offenbaren. MITSKI dazu: "I needed love songs about real relationships that are not power struggles to be won or lost. I needed songs that could help me forgive both others and myself. I make mistakes all the time. I don't want to put on a front where I'm a role model, but I'm also not a bad person. I needed to create this space mostly for myself where I sat in that gray area." Die daraus entstanden Songs verkörpern genau diesen Raum. Wie die zweite Single des Albums, "The Only Heartbreaker", die gemeinsam mit Dan Wilson geschrieben wurde und der erste Song dieser Art in ihrer Diskografie ist. "The Only Heartbreaker" verbindet treibenden 80er-Pop mit einem trügerisch einfachen Text, dessen aufrichtiger Refrain ins Ironische kippt, sobald dieser "the person always messing up in the relationship, the designated Bad Guy who gets the blame," beschreibt und sich zugleich fragt, ob "the reason you're always the one making mistakes is because you're the only one trying." MITSKI schrieb viele Songs für "Laurel Hell" während und teilweise vor 2018. Das Album wurde allerdings erst im Mai 2021 final abgemischt. Es ist die längste Zeitspanne, die MITSKI jemals für ein Album gebraucht hat und für die Musikerin inmitten einer radikal veränderten Welt endete. MITSKI nahm "Laurel Hell" mit ihrem langjährigen Produzenten Patrick Hyland in der Zeit der Isolation während der Pandemie auf, als einige der Songs "slowly took on new forms and meanings, like seed to flower." Das Album als Ganzes entwickelte sich "to be more uptempo and dance-y. I needed to create something that was also a pep talk" erklärt MITSKI. Die Spannung, die zwischen ihren raffinierten, aber wehmütigen Texten und dem sprudelnden Pop-Sound der 1980er Jahre entsteht, ist eine dringend benötigte Infusion in Zeiten wie diesen und das Werk einer reifen wie unwiderstehlichen Künstlerin, die auch zu fröhlich ansteckenden Dance-Beats immer noch etwas Profundes beizutragen hat.

There is nothing quite like an evening under the rhythmic spell of the legendary David Morales. Stepping on the dancefloor while he's behind the decks requires full trust and surrender. You agree to hand the reins of your mind, body, and spirit to his intuition and ability to guide you to where you need to be at all times. It will occasionally be cathartic and intense. It will often make the hairs on your body stand on end, and make you sweat more than you ever have before. The endorphin release will be powerful. You will feel like you can touch joy and euphoria it in the air around you. As he gently brings you back down to reality, you will feel renewed and ready for anything life brings your way. This is more than a night of dancing. This is an experience at the hands of a magical maestro of music. How is this possible from a night on the dancefloor? Well, it begins with the brilliant mind of an artist at the peak of his creative power, imbued with the empathy necessary to connect with what has become a global legion of fans. "If there is any secret, it's really simple: I love what I do with all of my heart," Morales says. "I'm a DJ first. I thrive on human interaction. I am always adjusting my sets based on what the people in the room need. Each night, we form an emotional connection that inspires the music as it comes."

For Morales, "working in the studio is important, but it exists as a way of supporting the DJing experience. It's all to inform how it will work on the dancefloor."

To that end, you're reading these words as you dive into a new collection of Morales classics. Ever the collaborator, he has enlisted the input of a wide range of voices and talent. There is the diva power of fellow legend Ultra Nate, who brings her signature sass to "I Can Dream," while Michele Perera's explosive chemistry with David is all over the inspiring "Life is a Song" and "Never Give Up", as well as the impassioned "Addicted."

Morales reminds the listener of his ever-evolving musical scope in collaborations with blondewearingblack ("What Can I Do"), Lea Lorien ("Never Looking Back"), and Blakkat ("Can't Get Enough"). There's the clubland supergroup of David with Mr. V, Scotty P. and DJ Rae on "The Feels." Rounding out the set is a reunion with longtime muses Elle Cato ("I Feel Love") and British soul icon Joe Roberts ("Easy"). Just be sure to listen closely, because there's bound to be a surprise tucked between these grooves to tickle your ears and move your body.

The beauty of this sparkling new foray into electronic music is the heightened intimacy between Morales and the music. What you are hearing here is almost exclusively from the man's own fingertips. "The technology has evolved in the most extraordinary and liberating ways," he says, adding that he is now able to be far more directly hands-on during the building of each track. "Back in the '90s, I had to have more people involved, With the changes and growth in technology, I can now do it, myself. I don't even have to be in the studio anymore. It's smart, financially, but it's also way more fun and creative."

David adds, "I don't have to wait to manifest an idea anymore. I can just build my ideas as they come to me." In fact, he reveals that many of these new tracks were born in unique places, like planes, cars, his bedroom, and a host of other settings. "Music is always spinning around my mind. I no longer worry about losing an idea."

Surviving the highs and lows of an ever-changing world has also brought Morales back to the basic essentials of life and music. "The pandemic has brought things full circle for me," he says. "I love what I do and I still have the passion of a kid who is just getting started"

Yet, we know that Morales has been in the game for longer than a minute. He's a Grammy award-winning producer, remixer, and songwriter. He has lent his skill to countless of records by icons that include Mariah Carey, Madonna, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Donna Summer, Seal, and Jamiroquai. As a turntable artist originally from New York City, he earned his bones of credibility back in the '80s and '90s in clubs like the Paradise Garage, Red Zone, Tunnel, and Club USA. He initiated the concept of DJs touring beyond their hometowns with countless, wildly successful treks that have taken him the farthest-reaching corners of the world. As electronic music thrives on pop radium, David tops the list of every young artist and DJ as a primary influence.

Even with such a staggering legacy, Morales never looks over his shoulder.

"That is how you stumble and fall," he says. "If you get all caught up in the past, you're going to lose sight of what is right in front of you. You lose the excitement of discovery. That is what gets me off; taking what I know and combining it with what I don't know as I learn it. There is nothing better than experiencing how it all comes together. It's different every time."

And that is the ultimate secret to that extraordinary spell that David Morales casts over us all every single time.

After more than a year of strengthening our bodies through workout, our poetic endeavors via the discovery of our inner worlds, and also the life of plants and mushrooms, insects, arachnids, birds and wild mammals, after a year and a half that saw us in lockdown, shattered around the planet, after one a and a half year in which we deepened our production skills and also the meaningfulness of our work, Cómeme returns to a new planet with new music.

The beginning is this unique collaboration between Medellín based musician and DJ Julianna, and Matias Aguayo aka “The Don” himself.

In this deep therapeutical exploration of rhythm and sound, these artists established a magical dialogue on distance, leading up to this EP called “Que si el mundo”, roughly translated: “What if the world”.

Between soulful industrial expressions, emotional breakdowns but also discoveries free of any grids and algorithms, Julianna and Aguayo have created a beautiful piece of work, intense as the movements that we had to experience mentally and economically. “Que si el mundo” is state of the art electronic music of today, a work that is both introspective but also extremely open to the outside world and the universe. Compositions reminiscent of Coil, Angelo Badalamenti, Closer Musik, Steve Pointdexter or Mark Broom, shaped this EP that can be considered a short album in its conceptual layout and narrative. Let’s dive into it...

A1. Hiedra
One of the more danceable tunes, ideal for both a sensual warmup or the very late night to the rising sun sensitivity, is polyrhythmical melancholy and hypnotic inevitability, slow dance, deep trance.

A2. Primer Paso
A fat, slick and modern synth sequence, accompanied by heavy drumming and celestial drops that seem to fall onto the body of the listener or dancer, this post EBM stomper is a manifestation of elegant minimalism and reason. As if Liaisons Dangereuses reincarnated in a cloudy forest, to then pause towards the end of the track, with sentimental and gloomy synth chords that open the view towards the horizon.

B1. Que Si El Mundo
The title track keeps up the more melodic approach - somewhere between ambient, avant- garde and late night jazz. Morphing melodies that are both disturbing and soothing at a time encounter smooth free jazz drumming with drums that seem to have travelled from the sixties to today’s world.

B2. Bajo Tierra
This track continues the deep drumming experience that this record means, between laid back rides and intense taikoesque drumming. Distorted dark pads and subterranean choirs build up to a heavy sadness and intensity. Again, a therapeutical track to send those demons fly.

B3. Micelio
A more hopeful conclusion of the EP is “Micelio”. Open chords, soothing and melancholic, spread over profound drum grooves of champed and house. Nothing seems as it was before. A new life has begun.

With their brand new and now fourth studio album, progressive metal elemental force Wilderun have managed to deliver an equally timeless and epic masterpiece. Epigone stretches to a total of over an hour of listening experience and makes the hearts of all fans of Opeth, Haken and Devin Townsend beat faster. On their new longplayer, the hottest contenders for the prog metal throne traverse a variety of musical extremes, such as epic orchestral passages followed by hard guitar riffs, leaving nothing to be desired. The album will be released as Ltd. CD Digipak, Gatefold 2LP and on all digital platforms on 07 January 2022.

Remastered 15 year Anniversary edition of Jenny
Lewis’s first solo album from 2006. The album
comes with all-new gatefold packaging featuring
never-before-seen photos by Autumn de Wilde.
 Known and loved by many as the frontwoman of
Rilo Kiley, Jenny’s vocal and songwriting gifts have
continued to blossom at a rapid rate since that
band’s first album in 2000. This may be her solo
debut but there’s nothing virginal about it.
 The album was lovingly crafted together during
short spurts of recording activity in the San
Fernando valley, Portland, Oregon and Lincoln,
Nebraska - due to the shared production duties of
celebrated finger-picking guitar prodigy M. Ward
and Nebraska’s resident production genius Mike
Mogis.
 The magnificent backing vocals come courtesy of
gospel singers Chandra and Leigh Watson (the
Watson Twins). Talented friends were roped in
between tours and recording sessions and standout track a cover of the Travelling Wilbury’s ‘handle
with care’ - with its phenomenal sing-a-long
crescendo features vocals shared equally by
Jenny, M. Ward, Conor Oberst and Ben Gibbard.

The Wombats kick off the most exciting phase of their constantly evolving success story today with the announcement of their fifth studio album Fix Yourself, Not The World, due for release on 7th January 2022 via AWAL. Alongside this, the indie heroes have revealed plans for a five date headline UK arena tour in April 2022, playing massive nights in Leeds, Glasgow, Cardiff and Liverpool, as well as their biggest ever headline show at The O2, London on 15th April. Tickets will go on sale from 9am BST on 20th August.

The announcement comes accompanied by a brand new single ‘If You Ever Leave, I’m Coming With You’, which is BBC Radio 1’s Future Sounds Hottest Record In The World.

Recording remotely over the past year from their respective homes, the band have been working hard to produce some of the most captivating, inventive and forward-thinking music of their career to date. With frontman Matthew “Murph” Murphy in Los Angeles, bassist Tord Øverland Knudsen in Oslo and drummer Dan Haggis in London, they discussed each day’s plan via Zoom, then recorded separately, sending individual files to producers Jacknife Lee (U2, The Killers), Gabe Simon (Dua Lipa, Lana Del Rey), Paul Meaney (Twenty One Pilots, Nothing But Thieves), Mark Crew (Bastille, Rag‘n’Bone Man) and Mike Crossey (The 1975, The War on Drugs, Yungblud) to mix into the finished tracks. “It was pure madness, to be honest,” explains Murph.

“We’re so excited for people to hear this new album! We’ve explored new genres and pushed ourselves further than ever musically. It will always stand out for us in our memories from our other albums as we recorded it across three cities during lockdown, and we weren’t all in the same room at the same time!” says Dan Haggis.

The Wombats kick off the most exciting phase of their constantly evolving success story today with the announcement of their fifth studio album Fix Yourself, Not The World, due for release on 7th January 2022 via AWAL. Alongside this, the indie heroes have revealed plans for a five date headline UK arena tour in April 2022, playing massive nights in Leeds, Glasgow, Cardiff and Liverpool, as well as their biggest ever headline show at The O2, London on 15th April. Tickets will go on sale from 9am BST on 20th August.

The announcement comes accompanied by a brand new single ‘If You Ever Leave, I’m Coming With You’, which is BBC Radio 1’s Future Sounds Hottest Record In The World.

Recording remotely over the past year from their respective homes, the band have been working hard to produce some of the most captivating, inventive and forward-thinking music of their career to date. With frontman Matthew “Murph” Murphy in Los Angeles, bassist Tord Øverland Knudsen in Oslo and drummer Dan Haggis in London, they discussed each day’s plan via Zoom, then recorded separately, sending individual files to producers Jacknife Lee (U2, The Killers), Gabe Simon (Dua Lipa, Lana Del Rey), Paul Meaney (Twenty One Pilots, Nothing But Thieves), Mark Crew (Bastille, Rag‘n’Bone Man) and Mike Crossey (The 1975, The War on Drugs, Yungblud) to mix into the finished tracks. “It was pure madness, to be honest,” explains Murph.

“We’re so excited for people to hear this new album! We’ve explored new genres and pushed ourselves further than ever musically. It will always stand out for us in our memories from our other albums as we recorded it across three cities during lockdown, and we weren’t all in the same room at the same time!” says Dan Haggis.

For many years now, the comparative of epic has simply been EPICA. Since their formation in 2002 and their quick ascension to stalwarts of symphonic metal noblesse with trailblazing masterpieces “The Divine Conspiracy” (2007) or “Requiem for the Indifferent” (2012), Dutch metal titans only knew one way: Up. Especially with their last three releases “The Quantum Enigma”, “The Holographic Principle” and this years’ “Ωmega”, forming a metaphysical trilogy that’s both alpha and omega of all things symphonic metal, EPICA became rightful monarchs of a genre they themselves helped made become a global phenomenon.

Yet, as every other band, EPICA couldn’t take their latest installment of breathtaking cinematic grandeur to the seven corners of the world as they would have normally done. You know why. Thus, plans have been made and visions fulfilled to produce a once-in-a-lifetime event that couldn’t be further away from yet another streaming show. What EPICA unleashed upon the world on Saturday, June 12th, 2021, was a monument to their music, their career, and their enduring legacy as forebears of a whole genre. Now finally being released on Blu-ray and DVD and various audio formats, “Ωmega Alive” is the EPICA show of your wildest dreams, brought to life by blood, sweat, tears and a healthy dose of megalomania. Think Marvel meeting Cirque de Soleil in a Tim Burton universe.

Celebrating the release of their gargantuan new opus magnum, „Ωmega“, the streaming event saw fans from over a 100 countries flock to the screens to witness a show that has proven to be the defining moment in EPICA‘s concert history. A show that’s nothing short of the band’s most explosive performance to date, brought to life with an enormous production on an ever-evolving stage setting that’s full of visual surprises. For the first time ever, EPICA performed songs like ‘The Skeleton Key’ or the insanely monumental “Kingdom of Heaven Part 3” from “Ωmega”, alongside the band’s most popular songs, rare songs, fan favorites and huge surprises. “What started as a basic idea to do an online release show for “Ωmega” quickly spiraled out of control and became our most ambitious project to date,” creative director and keyboard wizard Coen Janssen says. “As usual, we wanted to push the boundaries, explore the limits, and think outside the box. We found ourselves back in our happy place. This concert film, our ray of light for you in the dark times that we have all been living in.”

For half a year, the band worked tirelessly on a show that’s been setting a new standard for concert films and streaming events. “What we wanted to do was the ultimate EPICA show where we could fulfill every dream we ever had, where there was room for all the ideas, effects and props that are just too big to be taken on tour.” Far from your usual streaming concert, the band developed a trademark feature called a “living backdrop.” Coen explains: “We built another stage right behind our stage where lots of things were going on the whole time. And we meant that very literally,” he laughs. “Every song got something extra, something unique that was fitting its world.”

He can say that again: Elaborate visuals, tailor-made videos and graphic effects, fire, and flames on a Nibelungen level, dancers and actors, artistic performances or fire performers all add to the aura of symbolism and cinematic splendor, setting the stage for a band that can’t be happier to finally bring their new album to life, harmonizing wonderfully and giving their A game for a show to remember. “It was so great finally playing with the band again, actually standing on stage with them. Boy, did we miss this,” Coen emphasizes and adds: “We also built a pretty cool new stage with some fire-breathing snakes and lots of rotating elements. Good thing is, we might also take it on the road when we can finally tour again.”

Until then, “Ωmega Alive” will be a more than efficient remedy against no-concerteritis – for bands, fans, and crew alike who all look back on an extra-long dry spell. Divided into five acts as there are letters in EPICA and “Ωmega”, each part gets a different theme, look, and feel, complemented with references to the history of EPICA, the symbolism of the band and the videos they did. It’s, in short, the best show they ever did, a two-hour spectacle spanning their storied career up to their latest endeavors and graced by Simone Simons’ breathtaking a-cappella rendition of ‘Rivers’ from “Ωmega” complete with choir, easily the most emotional and achingly beautiful moment in their entire career. Frankly, you don’t see this on a normal tour.

What EPICA brought to life here with the help of 75 artists and crew members is a testimony to their burning will to take their band ever higher – even now, in the darkest of times we ever had to endure. Let “Ωmega Alive” be your ray of light as it was theirs, a journey into the heart, body and soul of one of the most passionate and visionary metal bands alive today.

Recommended if you like: Chet Baker, Norah Jones, Kamasi Washington, BADBADNOTGOOD, Wild Nothing, DIIV, Kevin Krauter. "improvisational jazz, classical music, and Stereolab... his songwriting owes more to loop-based composition than garage-bound woodshedding." – Pitchfork // Inspired by a love of artists such as Bill Evans, Lester Young, Chet Baker and Vince Guaraldi, Dustin Payseur reimagines some of his greatest hits from the Beach Fossils catalog alongside a group of formally trained jazz musicians. A rich and mellow mix of piano, saxophone, upright bass and brushed drums explore the contours of familiar songs, soaring Payseur’s melancholic harmonies to new heights.

Recommended if you like: Chet Baker, Norah Jones, Kamasi Washington, BADBADNOTGOOD, Wild Nothing, DIIV, Kevin Krauter. "improvisational jazz, classical music, and Stereolab... his songwriting owes more to loop-based composition than garage-bound woodshedding." – Pitchfork // Inspired by a love of artists such as Bill Evans, Lester Young, Chet Baker and Vince Guaraldi, Dustin Payseur reimagines some of his greatest hits from the Beach Fossils catalog alongside a group of formally trained jazz musicians. A rich and mellow mix of piano, saxophone, upright bass and brushed drums explore the contours of familiar songs, soaring Payseur’s melancholic harmonies to new heights.

Recommended If You Like: Elliott Smith, Hand Habits, Chris Cohen, Sam Evian, Wilco, Bright Eyes, The Magnetic Fields. Press Quotes/Selling Points: "Stewart Bronaugh sings cool and steady about his close experiences with death, what it means to endure your losses, and the gift of being able to recognize the most real love in your life." Angel Olsen. "Spiral Groove" delivers us singer-songwriter Stewart Bronaugh at the height of his artistic powers both visually and sonically. This album is studded with stories of mortality, challenges of addiction and sobriety, and the romance of a lifetime. Recovering from a seizure, Bronaugh’s sudden awareness of the limits of his own body was a “psychedelic experience” that shifted his perspective wildly. No longer “bulletproof, ” Bronaugh splits himself wide open on Spiral Groove, encapsulating all of our existential questions into tidy love songs. You’ll find pianos, string quartets, slide guitar, buzzing synth lines, and plenty of room to breathe. Each song is like a painting you can disappear into, a somber and hopeful spell for life after the end of the world

Recommended If You Like: Elliott Smith, Hand Habits, Chris Cohen, Sam Evian, Wilco, Bright Eyes, The Magnetic Fields. Press Quotes/Selling Points: "Stewart Bronaugh sings cool and steady about his close experiences with death, what it means to endure your losses, and the gift of being able to recognize the most real love in your life." Angel Olsen. "Spiral Groove" delivers us singer-songwriter Stewart Bronaugh at the height of his artistic powers both visually and sonically. This album is studded with stories of mortality, challenges of addiction and sobriety, and the romance of a lifetime. Recovering from a seizure, Bronaugh’s sudden awareness of the limits of his own body was a “psychedelic experience” that shifted his perspective wildly. No longer “bulletproof, ” Bronaugh splits himself wide open on Spiral Groove, encapsulating all of our existential questions into tidy love songs. You’ll find pianos, string quartets, slide guitar, buzzing synth lines, and plenty of room to breathe. Each song is like a painting you can disappear into, a somber and hopeful spell for life after the end of the world

Der Titel des zweiten Soloalbums der Chastity Belt-Sängerin Julia Shapiro ist eine Zustandsbeschreibung. Wie jeder Mensch mit einem Puls auf dieser Erde fühlte sich das Jahr 2020 für Shapiro mehr als einmal völlig zorked an. Im März 2020 beschloss Shapiro die spätwinterliche Tristesse Seattles gegen den immerwährenden Sonnenschein von Los Angeles einzutauschen. Also packte sie ihre Sachen, nur um dann in der Stadt der scheinbar endlosen Möglichkeiten kurz nach ihrer Ankunft pandemiebedingt nahezu in die totale Isolation gezwungen zu werden. Da sie nirgendwo hin konnte und nichts zu tun hatte, begann sie neue Songs zu schreiben, deren Grundstimmung ihre damalige Gemütslage perfekt einfangen. Auf ihrem zweiten Album beschreibt Shapiro Los Angeles als eine in Zeitlupe dahinschmelzende Einöde. Als einen Ort, an dem sie mit Geistern und seltsamen Gestalten kommuniziert. Oder wie sie es ausdrückt: "It takes you on a wild ride. There's weird shit in it." "Zorked" wurde von Shapiros Mitbewohnerin Melina Duterte (JAY SOM) mitproduziert, die ihr Haus während des Lockdowns in ein praktikables Heimstudio verwandelte. Die durchaus noisigen Aufnahmen verliefen zum Glück unproblematisch, da ihr einziger Nachbar in Hörweite das ganze Jahr 2020 damit verbrachte, über zehn Stunden am Tag Karaoke zu singen. Auf Dutertes Drängen, entschloss sich Shapiro auch die neuen Songs weniger nach ihrem ersten Soloalbum "Perfect Version" oder nach Chastity Belt klingen zu lassen. Stattdessen sprang sie auf dem Höhepunkt ihrer Unsicherheit und ihres Unbehagens auf der Suche nach etwas Neuem ins kalte Wasser - und fand Kraft in schweren Shoegaze-Klängen.

Originally released in the US on 17th July 2021 as part of RSD, now available to all. Black Vinyl with a poster included. Recorded Live At Grimey's Record Store in East Nashville, TN, Kip Moore performs new takes on tracks from his critically-praised album Wild World. “There is nothing like that feeling of going to your local record store and hand-picking out vinyls for your collection,” shared Moore. “It’s really important that we preserve the local independent record stores in our communities and Record Store Day is a really great way to help continue to raise awareness, even more so during these times. Grimey’s is a Nashville staple and to get to perform some songs from the new record there is something I’m looking forward to sharing.”

We are pleased to share the first collaborative album by Alexander Berg (Dorisburg) and Sebastian Mullaert (Wa Wu We).

As Jorum, they invite us into a fable where murky soils awaken beneath the moonlit forest dew. Currents begin to rush softly through tentacles reaching far down into the earth. Bones, buried by the sands of time, come slowly back to life along with the slumbering bloodwood woods.

 Eight years passes like nothing for Birds of Maya. Their fourth
album kicks out the Philly jams with every bit as much fervour
as their earlier releases - in fact, as it was recorded in 2014, it
kind of is one of their earlier releases.
 A long era of dull ringing and nothing else in our ears is over.
Once again, winds of warm guitar and humid thunderheads of
bass and toms rumble all around. With ‘Valdez’, Birds of Maya
are back in flight. And like the first song title explicitly states, this
latest is a soaring blast of riffers, rife with punk rock abandon,
sludge, treble, distortion, neck-throttling rock ‘n’ roll solos,
pummelling drums and bass and half-shouted/half-gargled
vocals, all of it half on and half off the mic.
 ‘Valdez’ was recorded in 2014 at Black Dirt Studios in otherstate New York. After a Purling Hiss session there, Birds of
Maya got a bunch of tunes they liked into shape - that is,
different shapes on different days. But nice shapes. Once they
got to the studio, they loaded in and set up, curious to see how
they felt playing in a different room. Pretty good as it turned out
- running through the songs that first night, they accidentally
recorded the whole album. Then they finished up the next day,
mostly. Trading the crushed harmonics of their basement tapes
for studio-grade mics, overdubs in the mix and only slightly lessbruised harmonics, their roiling essence not only survives but
thrives, non-stop, on ‘Valdez’, stuttering, screaming and
stomping through six circuitous numbers.
 At the time this was recorded, Birds of Maya were standing on
the other side of ten years kicking around town, suddenly far
away from the primordial ooze they’d flopped forth from. The
streets where all this had happened on were changing, with new
money rolling in, but they were the same old Birds, content with
their libations and ear-splitting variations on old favourite
Stooges chords. The cover art of Valdez is a couple of images
from those days, glimpses at the old grass roots before they
were ripped up by developers to build condos. But nothing ever
really goes away. ‘Valdez’ is a totem of the wildness that refuses
be tamed

The Temple Pillars Disappear Into the Clouds is the title of the new record from Bloody Head. Recorded mostly live at Stuck on a Name Studios by St. Ian Boult. Both wilder and more restrained than previous efforts. Punk? Noise rock? Psych? Sludge? All/none of the above, but the keen eared seeker of the weird may detect snippets of Les Rallizes Denudes, Kilslug, Brainbombs, Rudimentary Peni, Mainliner, Hawkwind, Donovan amongst the sonic morass. Lyrically it deals with big concepts, tumbling down. Dualism? Taoism? A beautiful garden or a broken jaw? Human endeavours losing track of themselves and getting lost in the clouds of their own creation. Ascend to Nirvana or fall into the Abyss. As above, so below....

Hominid Sounds is thrilled to be release The Temple Pillars Disappear Into the Clouds by Nottingham's finest, Bloody Head. The record will be out in Vinyl LP and digital in May 2021.

About Bloody Head
Any interpretation of these two words, collectively, leads to a singular conclusion: Something has gone wrong. This is the essence of Bloody Head; the acceptance, reflection, celebration and battle against things (mind/body/spirit) going very wrong. It is the manifestation of things getting wonky and breaking, revelry in destruction and decay. Broken (brain/dick/mind) blues. Bleak party

bangers as a soundtrack to our collective slow motion apocalypse. What does the future hold for Bloody Head? Fuck knows! Everything. Nothing. More/less of the same, whatever that is....

In 1970 Barney Wilen assembled a team of filmmakers, technicians and musicians to travel to Africa for the purpose of recordi ng the music of the native pygmy tribes. Upon returning to Paris two years later, he created Moshi, a dark, eccentric effort fusing avantjazz sensibilities with African rhythms, ambient sound effects and melodies rootedin American blues traditions. Cut withFrench and African players including guitarist Pierre Chaze, pianist Michel Graillier and percussionist Didier Leon , this is music with few precedents or followers, spanning from extraterrestrial dissonance to earthbound, streetlegal funk. Wilen pays little heed to conventional structure, assembling tracks like "Afrika Freak Out" and "Zombizar" from spare parts of inde terminate origins. (Jason Ankeny, AMG)

Revelatory reissue of Barney Wilen’s ambitious jazz-fusion journey, Moshi (1972), presenting the legendary French jazzman and Miles Davis-sideman’s wildly ambitious effort fusing recordings of Pygmy tribes with African rhythms and stellar avantjazz leanings, sounding little like anything before or since its release. (boomkat)

Super rare and long out of print, the ground-breaking 1972 album from saxophonist Barney Wilen receives a reissue treatment of the highest order. Complete with a 20-page booklet and a never before seen DVD chronicling Wilen’s trip to Africa, this one is sure to be a delight for fans old and new. The deepest spiritual jazz grooves meet field recordings from the Upper Volta and b eyond, whilst psych rock influences collide with hypnotic and shamanistic percussion work. Truly one of the most out -there jazz records we’ve stocked for a long time! (bleep)

Originally issued by the seminal imprint Saravah in 1972, and among the most uncategorizable and sought after artefacts of the French avant-garde, Barney Wilen’s Moshi is nothing short of a masterpiece - long holding a coveted spot in the hearts of adventurous listeners and record collectors alike. A wild unkept cultural collage. A series of sonic experiments. A spiritual, psychedelic pilgrimage into the unknown - darting from one continent to the next, each of its tangents building toward a more optimist world view through ordered sound. Its scope remains as difficult to understand today as it was when it was released. Now brought back into the light by Souffle Continu, this is a moment to be celebrated far and wide. (Soundohm)

Deluxe reissue with additional artwork & remastered audio. 20-page booklet including rare pictures, sheet music & original liner notes. Bonus DVD with exclusive artwork of Caroline de Bendern’s movie « à l’intention de Mlle Issoufou à Bilma » documenting this incredible african journey.

In 1970 Barney Wilen assembled a team of filmmakers, technicians and musicians to travel to Africa for the purpose of recordi ng the music of the native pygmy tribes. Upon returning to Paris two years later, he created Moshi, a dark, eccentric effort fusing avantjazz sensibilities with African rhythms, ambient sound effects and melodies rootedin American blues traditions. Cut withFrench and African players including guitarist Pierre Chaze, pianist Michel Graillier and percussionist Didier Leon , this is music with few precedents or followers, spanning from extraterrestrial dissonance to earthbound, streetlegal funk. Wilen pays little heed to conventional structure, assembling tracks like "Afrika Freak Out" and "Zombizar" from spare parts of inde terminate origins. (Jason Ankeny, AMG)

Revelatory reissue of Barney Wilen’s ambitious jazz-fusion journey, Moshi (1972), presenting the legendary French jazzman and Miles Davis-sideman’s wildly ambitious effort fusing recordings of Pygmy tribes with African rhythms and stellar avantjazz leanings, sounding little like anything before or since its release. (boomkat)

Super rare and long out of print, the ground-breaking 1972 album from saxophonist Barney Wilen receives a reissue treatment of the highest order. Complete with a 20-page booklet and a never before seen DVD chronicling Wilen’s trip to Africa, this one is sure to be a delight for fans old and new. The deepest spiritual jazz grooves meet field recordings from the Upper Volta and b eyond, whilst psych rock influences collide with hypnotic and shamanistic percussion work. Truly one of the most out -there jazz records we’ve stocked for a long time! (bleep)

Originally issued by the seminal imprint Saravah in 1972, and among the most uncategorizable and sought after artefacts of the French avant-garde, Barney Wilen’s Moshi is nothing short of a masterpiece - long holding a coveted spot in the hearts of adventurous listeners and record collectors alike. A wild unkept cultural collage. A series of sonic experiments. A spiritual, psychedelic pilgrimage into the unknown - darting from one continent to the next, each of its tangents building toward a more optimist world view through ordered sound. Its scope remains as difficult to understand today as it was when it was released. Now brought back into the light by Souffle Continu, this is a moment to be celebrated far and wide. (Soundohm)

Deluxe reissue with additional artwork & remastered audio. 20-page booklet including rare pictures, sheet music & original liner notes. Bonus DVD with exclusive artwork of Caroline de Bendern’s movie « à l’intention de Mlle Issoufou à Bilma » documenting this incredible african journey.

Be With is delighted to present Jorge López Ruiz’s El Grito (Suite Para Orquesta De Jazz), eternal Argentinian magic released on CBS in 1967 that must be one of the most sought-after South American jazz LPs.

Living in Buenos Aires in the 60s, driven by creative impulse and rage Jorge López Ruiz used music as his platform to protest the Argentine military dictatorship: “I could never stand dictatorships, to be told how you have to think, what you have to do. Nor did I endure discrimination”.

A young López Ruiz had appeared on a television panel alongside writer, politician and philosopher Arturo Jauretche, criticising the Onganía dictatorship. Jauretche told López Ruiz “Now say it with music”. This was the deep inhale that lead to El Grito, literally “The Scream”. As López Ruiz later explained “Jauretche urged me that my protests should not remain in words and acquire the consistency of a work… but it was not so much what he told me but how he told me, what prompted me to make the work take shape, first in a live concert and then in a recording”.

As the police and military began resorting to kidnapping, torture and summary executions to quiet dissent, with depressing inevitability the artist community and their work were a particular target of the increasingly brutal regime. El Grito was banned not long after it was released and the majority of original copies were unceremoniously destroyed.

The work of a genius artist living under an opressive dictatorship, erased by the government of the time, this is buried treasure in every sense and it’s been a rare record for over 50 years. But it isn’t just being hard to find that has pushed up the prices of those few original copies that survived, this is a foundational record in the development of jazz in South America.

El Grito (Suite Para Orquesta De Jazz) is a showcase for Jorge López Ruiz’s skills as a composer and arranger as he leads a virtuoso orchestra of the likes of Mario Cosentino (alto sax), Baby López Furst (piano), Pichi Mazzei (drums), Gustavo Bergalli (trumpet), Oscar López Ruiz (guitar), Arturo Schneider (flute) and Jorge López Ruiz himself plays double bass on the fourth and fifth movements.

As the album’s sub-title explains, The album is a Jazz orchestra concept suite. Five movements, to be heard as a whole, that end where they begin.

“When I wrote it there was no history of a cyclical work in jazz. But I didn't notice that, I needed to express something and I did it. At that time they told me I was crazy, that such a thing was very difficult to do. But hey, I like challenges”.

Yet this is not challenging jazz. There are certainly avant garde, free jazz flourishes, but the hard bop characteristics make this a very accessible album: easy to listen to without being easy listening. López Ruiz’s love of film brings a definite cinematic feel.

The title movement opens the album in bombastic style. “El Grito” grabs you by the lapels and refuses to let go. Raw then controlled, it’s by turns stabbing then soothing, with rage weaved in and out of the elegant styles. “M.A.B. = Amor” is our favourite here. With a tense introduction and a patient build, a gentle sax sweeps in to lift everything up to meet the serene piano and soft drums. Elegantly paced, it moves back and forth between deep contemplation and a more urgent call and response between strings and horns. A near-eight-minute, slow motion marvel.

The second side eases in with the beautifully-titled “Hasta El Cielo, Sin Nubes, Con Todas Las Estrellas” (“Up To The Sky, No Clouds, With All The Stars”) a relatively brief mid-tempo piece featuring López Ruiz’s insistent bass notes high in the mix, and again blending the sublime with the emotive with its wild horns and tight rhythm section.

It’s followed by “Tendré El Mundo” (“I Will Have The World”) which also leads with hypnotic bass, but this time swifter, driven by crashing drums, rapid horn conversations and effortlessly cool piano flourishes. Rounding out the suite, “De Nuevo El Grito” (something like “The Next Scream” or “The Scream Renewed”) is a stylish closer. Whilst López Ruiz’s bass shifts the track along, the horns and piano are more restrained, yet no less stunning.

This Be With edition of El Grito sounds sensational, if we do say so ourselves. Working with audio from the original analogue tapes, the vinyl mastering chops of Simon Francis are on full show here in what he considers to be some of his best ever work for Be With. Pete Norman’s cutting skills have made sure nothing is lost. The tortured artwork has been restored here at Be With HQ as the finishing touch to helping this revered work find a rightful place in every protest art collection.

Pekka Laine is leading a double life. There is his daytime persona, a longstanding journalist and maker of award-winning documentary series for radio and television. Then there is the other side to him that comes out at night: the guitar player and DIY-composer. As a driving force of The Hypnomen, a band with a cult following, Laine has explored the world of instrumental music since the 1990s. In his intrepid journeys from primitive noise art to the spheres of soulful psychedelia, he has now reached one important milestone. As a result of a series of unpredictable twists and turns, Pekka Laine’s first solo album was born. The making of the album has been a highly personal journey. It is a declaration of his undying love of the enchanted instrument that is the electric guitar and the cosmic echoes that tie together the primal 1960s space sounds, psychedelia, dub music and weird film soundtracks to form one futuristic continuum. What started as an innocent and unexpected email in last March has turned into a process mentored by Esa Pulliainen, the fearless leader of the legendary band Agents. From his seat behind the mixing console, the guitar legend captured the sound waves and created the right mood. Multi-instrumentalist and producer Toni Liimatta, a serious alchemist in the world of instrumental music, added his invaluable expertise and experience. The spirit during the sessions where Laine’s compositions were transformed from dreamy ideas into reality was free and almost childlike in zeal. No holds were barred and nothing could stop the stream of influences, associations and sounds ricocheting off the studio walls. Joe Meek, electronic space sounds, Spaghetti Westerns, experimental tape music, London, California, Moscow, Jane Birkin, library music, Björn Olsson, Link Wray, early hip hop, the Wrecking Crew, folk, Roy Anderson’s films – there was no end in sight when the party started raving about all things inspiring. The music, however, is authentic. It came straight from the composer’s own head and heart.

This is Gianni and Erika third album, after two works released by Voodoo Rhythm Records and produced by Jim Diamond, musician and producer for two iconic bands from Detroit, The Dirtbombs and The White Stripes.

The record features former Screaming Trees vocalist - and acclaimed solo artist - Mark Lanegan and Chilean multi-instrumentalist Alain Johannes (Queens Of The Stone Age, Spinnerette, Ten Commandos, The Desert Sessions).

“The title track of the new album was born during our last day of re-cordings” - says Gianni Blacula and Switchblade Erika.. “Alain is an enthusiast of strings instruments, and on the last day he arrived at the studio with a Neapolitan mandola he bought in the historical centre of Naples. We were astonished about how a traditional instrument as the mandola can get a rock sound, so we followed up went to the recording room. Alain at the mandola and vocals and us on guitar and drums. There was suddenly the right atmosphere that to Alain reminded “ the Desert Sessions” , so much that the song came out at the first take. Then Alain wrote the lyrics and the last line “Beast Must Regret Nothing” affected us , we have chosen it as the title of the album because it totally reflects his mood, and it does taste of Devils!”

Gianni and Erika got in touch with Alain for the first time in September 2019, during a Spanish tour, while they were looking for inspirations for their new record.

In the same moment Alain was on a European tour which ended in Italy. The collaboration was born in a spontaneous way, for a mutual esteem between the Devils and the famous producer and musician. The album have been recorded in Naples, Italy, with a two weeks session in a historic studio equipped with a large tracking room with truly unique acoustics. Alain actively collaborated in the production of the album taking part to creative process and helping them with the arrangements.


The Devils formed in Naples in 2015 and their first two albums “Sin,You Sinners!” in 2016 and “Iron Butt” in 2017 were produced by Jim Diamond (The White Stripes, The Sonics and the Dirtbombs), pub-lished by Voodoo Rhythm Records. From 2016 the duo constantly tour, and has played everywhere doing over 400 shows between Europe and Canada. The Devils are the sound of desolation and chaos; their style is primitive, filled with sex, sin and rock’n’roll. They are wild, loud and sexy.

The name of the band was chosen has tribute to the movie “The Devils” by Ken Russell and they have been on tour with Jon Spencer, The Sonics, Boss Hog and The Monsters, and has open act around Europe for Mudhoney, Nashville Pussy, Guitar Wolf, Kid Congo and many more.

REPRESS!!

These tracks were recorded by Kevin Low and Fiona Carlin in Kevin’s bedroom in Gayfield Square, Edinburgh, in 1986. Me and my dad, Kevin, dug out a huge bunch of his tapes over the lockdown (about 80 of the them at first). Some were…better than others, however, the Gayfield Square demos were the pick of the lot. Previously Kevin and Fiona were part of the Post Punk / indie band ‘Wild Indians’, whose first release “Stolen Courage” had come out in 1983 – released on Flexi Disc via the Edinburgh fanzine Deadbeat. Throughout the mid-1980s they performed across Edinburgh’s clubs, including at the Hoochie Coochie Club (name checked on track 7), where they played alongside bands and close friends Pop Wallpaper and Visitors. The band went on to release two 12” singles, “Love of My Life” in 1984 and “Penniless” in 1986.

After the band broke up Kevin sold his guitar amp and 7inch collection, Fiona her saxophone and they went out and got themselves a Yamaha RX-5 drum machine, Yamaha QX7 sequencer and a Yamaha DX-100. These bedroom tracks are the fruits of their first venture with this hardware, combining their experimentation with synthetic sounds (mostly the DX-100’s famous pre-sets) with a post-punk vocal style.

These eight tracks are also, in part, the fruit of the “Enterprise Allowance scheme” - a policy venture of Margaret Thatcher’s UK government that gave unemployment claimants access to an extra £40 to top up the basic dole money. Following Thatcher’s election victories in 1979 and 1983, the policy sought to reduce the figures of mass unemployment which hung over Britain well into the 1980s. This policy, according to Kevin, helped to keep up the credit payments. He notes that, “when Fiona and I turned up at the DHSS office with the sure-fire money-making plan of making a business as a ‘song-writing’ duo they signed us up. However, I still think they thought we said, sign writing as they were filling out the form.”

Kevin and Fiona stopped making music together shortly after these tracks were recorded so unfortunately, they never saw the light of day…until now!

Fiona went on to work in Film and Television sound. Kevin became a photographer, working mostly in theatre. He is now an artist/painter working in Glasgow.

It’s nearly a decade since William Doyle handed a CD-R demo to the Quietus co-founder John Doran at a gig, who loved it so much he set up a label to release Doyle’s debut EP (as East India Youth). Doyle’s debut album, Total Strife Forever, followed in 2014, as did a nomination for the Mercury Music Prize. A year later, he was signed to XL, touring the world and about to release his second album – all by the age of 25.

After self-releasing four ambient and instrumental albums, Doyle’s third full-length record – and the first under his own name – Your Wilderness Revisited arrived to ecstatic reviews in 2019: Line of Best Fit described it as “a dazzlingly beautiful triumph of intention” and Metro declared it an album not only of the year, but “of the century”. Just over a year later, as he turns 30, Doyle is back with Great Spans of Muddy Time.

Born from accident but driven forward by instinct, Great Spans was built from the remnants of a catastrophic hard-drive failure. With his work saved only to cassette tape, Doyle was forced to accept the recordings as they were – a sharp departure from his process on Your Wilderness Revisited, which took four long years to craft toward perfection. “Instead of feeling a loss that I could no longer craft these pieces into flawless ‘Works of Art’, I felt intensely liberated that they had been set free from my ceaseless tinkering,” Doyle says.

“The album this turned out to be – and that I’ve wanted to make for ages – is a kind of Englishman-gone-mad, scrambling around the verdancy of the country’s pastures looking for some sense,” says Doyle. “It has its seeds in Robert Wyatt, early Eno, Robyn Hitchcock, and Syd Barrett.” Doyle credits Bowie’s ever-influential Berlin trilogy, but also highlights a much less expected muse: Monty Don, presenter of the BBC programme Gardener’s World, Doyle’s lockdown addiction.

“I became obsessed with Monty Don. I like his manner and there's something about him I relate to. He once described periods of depression in his life as consisting of ‘nothing but great spans of muddy time’. When I read that quote I knew it would be the title of this record,” Doyle says. “Something about the sludgy mulch of the album’s darker moments, and its feel of perpetual autumnal evening, seemed to fit so well with those words. I would also be lying if I said it didn’t chime with my mental health experiences as well.”

Lead single “And Everything Changed (But I Feel Alright)” is representative of the album as a whole: eclectic and unpredictable, but also playful and properly danceable. On top of the gently pulsing electronics, soothing harmonies and glowing melodies, there’s a ripping guitar solo that ricochets around the song like a pinball. “I wanted to get back into the craft of writing individual songs rather than being concerned with overarching concepts,” Doyle says. Elsewhere there’s the synth pop strut of “Nothing At All”, pulsating static on “Semi-Bionic”, incandescent synths and enveloping soundscapes in “Who Cares”, and the ambient glitch groove of “New Uncertainties”.

Great Spans of Muddy Time is a beautiful ode to the power of accident, instinct and intuition. The result, however, is far from an anomaly: this celebration of the imperfect album is one that required years of honed craft and dedicated focus to achieve, “For the first time in my career, the distance between what I hear and what the listener hears is paper-thin,” Doyle says. “Perhaps therein reveals a deeper truth that the perfectionist brain can often dissolve.”













m 13. [a sea of thoughts behind it]

Seven years and a handful of lifetimes ago, New Bums came
out of nowhere with their debut album, ‘Voices In a Rented
Room’ - a record the New York Times described as “feeling like
it’s falling apart.” New Bums took this as a compliment and,
thus emboldened, they toured relentlessly in support of the
release: criss-crossing the USA in the spring of 2014, with a
European run that summer. Then, silence descended, as the
Bums withdrew to the place from which they’d mysteriously
emerged.
Now, the Bums are back. 2021 finds them with a new album in
hand. Following a West Coast US tour in late 2019 it’s clear that
the duo of Donovan Quinn (Skygreen Leopards) and Ben
Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance, Rangda, etc) are fully
reanimated, as evidenced by the songs and sounds of ‘Last
Time I Saw Grace’.
Retaining the drunk-dog-locomotion of their debut, New Bums
sprinkle a bit of fresh fancy into their signature twin guitarsand-vocals sound, with cleaner recording techniques, further
developments in harmonies and a new appreciation for a song
with more than two parts, making ‘Last Time I Saw Grace’
nothing less than the perfect progression from the purposefully
murky mixes of their debut.
Continuing to embrace an acoustic rock ’n’ roll sound, inspired
by artists such as Jacobites, Robyn Hitchcock, Johnny
Thunders, Replacements and such, New Bums push the words
and the stories to the front of the line, crafting tales with satiric
glee on ‘Last Time I Saw Grace’. However, this world of empty
perfume bottles, bodies tied to masts and moving onward to
devastation (after the bottle on the table pulls out a gun) feels
much more Gombrowiczian dreamscape than drunken night on
the town. Yes, everything is wasted but this is an existential
wasteland rather than a substance-laden one. This combination
of arch Californian post-aristocratic melodrama with torn and
frayed acoustic guitars opens up a new genre entirely, one
those at Drag City are tempted to call Rent Control Romantic.

They Say: “Exploring the wide range of moods and sounds produced by percussion”.

We say: MPCs at the ready because this does exactly what it says on the tin, to devastating effect. Oh, and the sleeve is stunning.

Originally released in 1979, Percussion Spectrum was produced by the legendary percussionists Barry Morgan and Ray Cooper. With dope beats taking in diverse styles, from funk and soul and jazz through to Latin, Brazilian, samba and Afro-Cuban, this is an amazing sample source filled with killer drum-breaks and percussion flares. Unsurprisingly it’s one of the most sought-after records from the Themes catalogue.

This library LP is a library in itself, with its mix of short themes of single beats, short breaks and some longer, more fully-formed DJ-friendly tracks. Trust us when we say that this is a box full of percussion firework ready to be thrown onto the dancefloor at the just right moment. We don’t have anywhere near enough space to describe all 34 tracks (there isn’t even enough room on the labels to list them all!) so we’ll pick out some favourites.

Favourites like opener “Impulsion”, a percussive masterclass with drum upon drum upon drum making it feel like a neat prototype to the percussive underscores of Peter Lüdemann and Pit Troja’s eternal The Now Generation LP. And the dramatic “Fast Action” is exactly that, racing along on a rapid roll of congas, cymbal crashes and throbbing kicks. “The Chaser” is classic library cop-funk with dilapidated drum figures, and the outrageously funky “Heat On” is the perfect accompaniment to your wild action sequences.

A real highlight is “Runaway”, and not just because it sounds like nothing else on the record. Here are drums and percussion in that tight funk style that just cries out to be sampled. “Percussion Power” is an extended, near-three minute suite of funky drum solo after funky drum solo that just aches to be looped: open drums to die for people! “Shivers” is a tense, apprehensive underscore with shock stabs that builds to a climax whilst “Drums On Parade” is a showcase of head-nod drums and cymbals in march time. Did someone say “funky”?

Side B starts with a stroll down “Samba Street”. With the noise of the crowd in the background, this is riotous, authentically drawn samba that sounds like it’s been beamed straight in from Rio in full flow. Drop this at midnight and watch the cobwebs fly off any dancefloor. Prefer it without the fake crowd? “Samba Street (b)” has you covered.

The simple, innocent “Child’s Themes” (all five of them) provide a nice, sweet respite from all the funk. Nursery sounds tinged with only a touch of melancholy. The gentle marimba solo of “Tropical Peace” only adds to the sense of serenity we get from the relatively calm second side. The album closes out with a veritable toolkit of tom toms, snare drum rolls, timpani, vibraphones and chiming bells.

Percussion Spectrum is a joyous collection of sounds, as bright, beaming and downright funky as the vibrant cover. The Themes series is known for each record having its own particularly striking sleeve, which was unusual for library records at the time, and Percussion Spectrums’s multi-coloured drumsticks make for one of the most eye-catching.

As with all of our other Themes re-issues, the audio for Percussion Spectrum comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. As usual Richard Robinson has taken the same care with restoring the original sleeve from archive scans. This is another one ticked off the list of library records that should be out there for anyone who wants a copy.

Cool Ghouls - a band fledged in San Francisco on house shows, minimum wage jobs, BBQ's in Golden Gate Park and the romance of a city’s psychedelic history turns 10 this year. What better a decennial celebration than the release of their fourth album, At George's Zoo!

How did San Francisco's fab four arrive at George's Zoo? The teenage friendship of complimentary spirits Pat McDonald (Guitar/Vox) and Pat Thomas (Bass/Vox) serves as square one. The Patricks were munching on Eggo-waffle-sandwiches and downing warm vokda in suburban Benicia (San Francisco bay) years before McDonald would hear George Clinton address his fans as "Cool Ghouls". The boys played their debut gig as Cool Ghouls at San Francisco's legendary The Stud in 2011, but there's no doubt the musical moment cementing the band's trajectory was much earlier at the 18th birthday party for boy-wonder Ryan Wong (Guitar/Vox) - at the Wong household.

You might remember the Ghouls' earliest days... McDonald’s hair hung luxuriously past his waist, Thomas dreamt of no longer having to crash on friends' couches to call SF home and Wong looked forward to turning 21. Cool Ghouls' Pete Best, Cody Voorhees, thrashed wildly – but briefly - on the drums and Alex Fleshman (Drums), who still claims he's not really "a drummer", turned out to be a really good drummer. Thomas would sleep pee on tour. Those were golden days!

Flash forward to today and everything is up in flames. No shows, parties or bars. Cool people are streaming out of SF. It's been 2 years since the last time Cool Ghouls have even played. The STUD is gone, The Eagle Tavern is for sale and The Hemlock has been demolished for condos. Your boss is an app. Fascism is no-knocking down the door. There's a pandemic.

Fortunately for us, the Ghouls got an album in before it all went to shit, and they made it count. At George's Zoo includes 15 of the 27 tunes they managed to eke out while simultaneously working through major life moves. It was a 5-month, all out, final sprint down the homestretch (to Ryan's moving day) with affable engineer Robby Joseph, at his makeshift garage studio in the Outer Sunset (pictured on the cover). Instead of recording the entire album over a few consecutive days - like they'd done with Tim Cohen, Sonny Smith and Kelley Stoltz for the first three LPs - the band took it slow by working through a few songs each weekend after rehearsing them the week before. Robby would cue up the tape, McDonald would throw some steaks on the grill and they'd get to work - much to the neighbor, George's, chagrin.

These guys have a real commitment to elevating as songwriters, musicians and ensemble players. It's always been for the music with Cool Ghouls and this long-awaited self-produced outing is a track by track display of the ground they've covered and heights they can achieve. Their vocals and trademark harmonies are front and center and out-of-control-good. Ryan's guitar solos are incredible. The horns by Danny Brown (sax) and Andrew Stephens (trumpet) hit in all the right places. Maestro, Henry Baker (Pat Thomas Band / Tino Drima), plays keys throughout. There's even a mesmerizing string section ("Land Song") by sonic polyglot, Dylan Edrich.

None of this growth is to the detriment of the fun, natural, feeling that fans have come to expect from the band. This is a fully realized Cool Ghouls album. It paints a remarkable portrait of SF's homegrown heroes and the many corners they've explored over the last decade. The songwriting, harmony and playing are nothing if not solid. The lyrics are keen. Robby's recording and mixing sound great start to finish and even better after mastering by Mikey Young. It's a triumphant addition to their catalogue. Recommended for Stooges and Beach Boys fans alike. Listen and see!

Yes, many things have changed since 2011. Who knows what the 20's will have in store for life on Earth, let alone the Cool Ghouls? We at least know that 2021 has At George's Zoo for us, a beautiful keepsake from the Before Times when we used to stand in living rooms together while bands played.

In today's age we get mindful of life and love. The now rare nights of the true hedonist. A hero who's not afraid of the consequences. Who is ready to live that full life. To push the mind and senses of joy. No rules. Just reality. Wildness. Nothing can be stopped. Rule that Mystery.

Reissue of this long lost funky Afrobeat/Reggae classic from 1978
For fans of Fela Kuti, Peter Tosh, Bob Marley, Segun Bucknor

The year is 1978 and one hot thing from the musical underground is Reggae music from Jamaica, the USA or the UK, where most of the acts had musicians of Caribbean descent. Reggae had the groove, the rebel spirit, and the relaxed attitude all in one, to enchant a big part of the world’s inhabitants. And while at least Jamaica as a relatively poor and so-called "Third World“ country proved to spawn Reggae acts of the highest quality, literally nobody dared to look further and dig deeper into the underground except of a few maniacs who were not satisfied with spinning Marley over and over again. And maybe they stumbled over the 1970s Afro Beat sound from countries like Zambia or Nigeria and then got interested. What did they find in the simmering metropolises of this still mysterious continent? Somewhere in Nigeria, they would have certainly caught a glimpse of mind-blowing performances of The Sea Lions, a six-piece group mixing the then hip Reggae and Afro Beat styles to generate fresh and furious music with a hypnotizing atmosphere.



Polyrhythmic beat patterns build the foundation, the utterly fruitful soil for the heartwarming melodies wailed out by the guitars and the commanding vocals with their conjuring charm. Great organ work builds the link between the groove section and the melody instruments. You can imagine what a pleasant experience this band might have been live back in 1978 when their sole album "Free The People“ got released. And this album, of which copies in only good conditions already fetch prices of $450, while nice clean pieces might go up to $1200, lives up to the expectations one might have from watching a live show by the Sea Lions. The sound is vivid, transparent, powerful, and clean enough to make the music a real pleasure listening to, but earthy enough to present nothing but the band going wild here. The songs all have a similar pace, not too fast, but swinging and pulsating to spread their energy to and among the listeners. The melodies are simple but come from the depth of the heart. This feels typical for African 70s music and despite being kind of reduced, these melodies keep haunting you still even hours after the record been taken off the turntable and put back into its sleeve. They bring images of an ever pulsating city by night, warm climate, palm trees, people at the bar, a witches cauldron of sounds, smells, voice, and pictures. And you feel the magic floating through the air while this groove will not let you go so easily.

You can either dance your soul out to this ultimate reissue or you can sit down, listen and let the music tell you a story of the dark corners of the big city, the narrow alleys that lead you into a boiling labyrinth of mystical dreams. And in songs like "You Can Make It If You Try“ you will find the whole magic of the African world, a world so fascinating for us Europeans but still so unapproachable in some ways and dangerous for the weak. Do not try to resist, this is your pleasure. Grab a copy and the Sea Lions will carry you off to their place. I haven’t heard such a killer Afro Beat and Reggae album with songs this exciting and wild in a long time. If you equally love Peter Tosh, Bob Marley, Segun Bucknor, and Fela Kuti, look no further. Here is the spiritual essence of all these great artists merged into one giant act.

Steve Von Till has charted an extraordinary musical path over the last several decades, from his main duties as singer and guitarist of the boundary-breaking Neurosis to the psychedelic music of his Harvestman project and the gothic Americana he's released under his own name. But No Wilderness Deep Enough is truly like nothing you've ever heard from him before—an album that's devastatingly beautiful and overwhelming in its scope, reminiscent of the tragic ecstasy of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' recent work as well as the borderless ambient music pioneered by Brian Eno, late composer Jóhann Jóhannsson's glacial compositions, and the electronic mutations of Coil. 

FOR FANS OF : MARK LANEGAN/MICHAEL GIRA/NICK CAVE.

Over the course of recent time, an aching, growing void has developed where our normal way of life has resided. Uncertainty abounds, and Steve Von Till's No Wilderness Deep Enough provides a voice of existential wisdom and experience to offer comfort and perspective in an era of uncharted territory. These six pieces of music shape a hallucinatory landscape of sound that plumbs the depths of the natural world's mysteries and uncertainties—questions that have vexed humanity since the dawn of time asked anew amidst a backdrop that's as haunting as it is holistic.

Von Till’s fifth solo album is a swirling and iridescent blend of ambient, neo-classical, and gothic Americana that swan-dives into the darkness of modern life, with the resulting emergence a sonic document of rural psychedelia that transcends the physical world—towards a greater spiritual acceptance that connects naturalism, spiritualism, and the corporeal form.

With a foundation of simple melancholy piano chord progressions embellished with mellotron, cello, french horn and electronic treatments Von Till's scorched ache spreads across the terrain of No Wilderness Deep Enough like a brushfire, adding a tactile level to his sonic creation as well as an inviting level of friction to the burning beauty painted across the album's framework.

With a foundation of simple melancholy piano chord progressions that came to fruition during jetlagged nights in his wife’s childhood home in Germany, No Wilderness Deep Enough was further embellished with mellotron and electronic treatments in Von Till’s home studio in North Idaho.  Viewing the emerging result as an ambient instrumental album, he consulted friend and engineer Randall Dunn (Marissa Nadler, Earth) about adding live cello and french horn and piano in a proper studio.  After enlisting Brent Arnold on cello and Aaron Korn on french horn, he challenged Von Till to sing over the music and make it his next solo album—which is exactly what happened, with final work being completed at Tucker Martine’s (the Decemberists, Neko Case) Flora Recording and Playback in Portland.

If you are passionate about local music scenes as much as we are you might already know about the current brood of great bands going on in Cardiff, Wales.
Chain Of Flowers were the first to hail from the Welsh capital, followed by related side projects such as Night Thoughts, more recently came Private World of which the two boys we’re about to introduce are also live members of.
A new wave/synth act from the same city called Plastic Estate is emerging this year.

The duo composed by Nicholas James and Stanley Fouracres have released a few digital singles in 2019 as they’ve opened for The Murder Capital at Sŵn Festival and played alongside the likes of M!R!M, Josiah Konder and The Love Coffin. This Place is their first physical release and it’s due on 7-inch vinyl and digital on June 19.

On the two songs that compose the single, Plastic Estate clearly draw influence from the best UK new wave and pop artists such as Dave Gahan, Paddy McAloon, Roddy Frame and yet there is a sophisticated casualness and an innate freshness in their songwriting that makes them not sounding dated at all.
Amazing composition skills for such a young band and a perfect balance between electronic dance elements and acoustic instruments allow them to pay homage to the above-mentioned masters and to be a perfectly contemporary group at once.

Although it’s possible to pick out some darker lyrics, the overall feel is up-beat and breezy. It’s a contrast that runs through a lot of their music – like a dichotomy between dark, melancholia and happier, brighter feelings.
Whether it’s a happy pop synth riff mixed with sombre lyrics or vice versa, the young Welsh duo is delivering the best 80’s-inspired modern pop craft.
RIYL: Echo & The Bunnymen, Prefab Sprout, Depeche Mode, Orange Juice, Wild Nothing.

If Galaxy Lane’s first EP didn’t send the portals of time and space upside down, then the second EP will throw you down a vortex of hypnotic grooves juxtaposed with eerily erratic rhythms built in outer space.
The first of two EP’s to be trusted in the hands of Lone Romantic, ‘Night’ and ‘Later That Night’ will explore the concept of capturing moments in time.
Maybe Galaxy Lane can best summarise…

“I want people to really feel the mistakes in this music, the dirt, the rough and raw approach, the ‘sitting on the floor surrounded by wires at 3am messing with synths’ approach. That to me is the magic of this music, the interaction of man and machine, to hear the nuances, the tweaking of knobs and pushes of faders. I think we have lost that somewhat with digital technology, and have lost a lot of feeling in the process”

‘Night’ will propel the listener into ethereal textures layered over rough and raw beats, as outlined on opening track ‘Deep Space Nine’. If that sets you up for thinking this will be a dreamy ride, ‘Communication’ hits hard at the rear of the spaceship, coming at you with intergalactic bleeps, zaps and back cracking rhythms made for getting down.

Side 2 sets off on an exploration of wild eyed boundary flexing in the shape of ‘Enter The Light’. Pushing the machines to near breaking point whilst just hanging on, it’s a track that shows what can be done when the spaceship is left to drive itself, you can do nothing more than go with it and and see what happens.
‘Snow Day’ is perhaps the perfect way to round us back in. A more calmer, smoother ride, it’s unmistakable polyrhythms soothing the soul and setting us up for the next chapter…

If Galaxy Lane’s first EP didn’t send the portals of time and space upside down, then the second EP will throw you down a vortex of hypnotic grooves juxtaposed with eerily erratic rhythms built in outer space.
The first of two EP’s to be trusted in the hands of Lone Romantic, ‘Night’ and ‘Later That Night’ will explore the concept of capturing moments in time.
Maybe Galaxy Lane can best summarise…

“I want people to really feel the mistakes in this music, the dirt, the rough and raw approach, the ‘sitting on the floor surrounded by wires at 3am messing with synths’ approach. That to me is the magic of this music, the interaction of man and machine, to hear the nuances, the tweaking of knobs and pushes of faders. I think we have lost that somewhat with digital technology, and have lost a lot of feeling in the process”

‘Night’ will propel the listener into ethereal textures layered over rough and raw beats, as outlined on opening track ‘Deep Space Nine’. If that sets you up for thinking this will be a dreamy ride, ‘Communication’ hits hard at the rear of the spaceship, coming at you with intergalactic bleeps, zaps and back cracking rhythms made for getting down.

Side 2 sets off on an exploration of wild eyed boundary flexing in the shape of ‘Enter The Light’. Pushing the machines to near breaking point whilst just hanging on, it’s a track that shows what can be done when the spaceship is left to drive itself, you can do nothing more than go with it and and see what happens.
‘Snow Day’ is perhaps the perfect way to round us back in. A more calmer, smoother ride, it’s unmistakable polyrhythms soothing the soul and setting us up for the next chapter…

Who put the dance into Factory Records?”

Be With would like to refer you to FAC 59.

Working with founding member Tony Henry, we’re honoured to present the reissue of 52nd Street’s crucial debut single “Look Into My Eyes”, backed with “Express”. Originally released on Factory Records in Summer 1982, this ultra-rare 12" is a double-sider in the truest sense. Unrivalled Manchester jazz-funk-boogie-soul.

Both “Look Into My Eyes” and “Express” came out of a five day recording session in the spring of 1982 at Revolution Studios in Cheadle Hulme, just outside Manchester. Rob Gretton had just signed the band to Factory, snatching them from under the noses of RCA and WEA Records who had been sniffing around and seemingly ignoring Tony Wilson’s concerns that Factory might not be the right home for a black soul act. Rob clearly thought different.

The band of Tony Henry on guitar and vocals, bass player Derek Johnson, drummer Tony Thompson, lead vocalist Beverley McDonald and John Dennison on keyboards were put in the studio with A Certain Ratio’s drummer Donald Johnson producing the sessions. The band also found themselves with an interesting new member.

The back cover of the finished record credits synth F/X to a mysterious “Be Music”. Turns out that’s Bernard Sumner. Yes, that one. Tony Henry explains that bringing Bernard in was another part of Rob Gretton’s plan, “Barney was a real soul boy at heart and had always wanted to produce and work with black artists… with 52nd Street, he was an honorary member”. The results suggest he fit right in.

“Look Into My Eyes” squeezes so much aural pleasure into one side of a 12" single. A strutting, rich, soul-gliding funk with bass and guitar high in the mix above twisted, bubbling synths. Like Nile and Barney drenched outside the Haçienda that first summer. How can something be this liquid loose whilst sounding so, so tight? The hypnotic, naïve-cum-insouciant vocals from McDonald, backed by her fellas, only add to the track’s charm. Put simply, it sounds like nothing else.

On the flip, “Express” is sheer drama on wax. Tony’s opening lesson in good manners (“Excuse me miss, is this seat taken?”) sees us strapped in for a wild, chaotic, rhythmic ride. All bold keys, synth brass blasts, insistent bells and a galloping groove giving *that rush* atop a bassline to die for. No surprise it was a Frankie Knuckles favourite. Blistering heat.

The 12" was Paul Morley’s single of the week in the NME but his approval did little to get daytime radio play or to sell the record when it was released. It probably didn’t help that, in Tony Henry’s words, Factory were a label “notorious for not promoting their bands, not wanting any communications with the written press and not answering their office phones.” It came and went with none of the fuss that music this good deserved.

But in the near-40 years since they were released, these two tracks have gone on to become cult underground hits for those in the know. Of course that means those original 12"s have gotten rare and pricey. So here’s your chance to own this particular piece of post punk Factory Records funk.

But this record isn’t just a vital slice of Manchester soul history. Tony’s not shy about just how important he thinks the collaboration between 52nd Street and Bernard Sumner was: “this worked out quite well for us in the band but even better for New Order and Factory Records as Sumner studied grooves, rhythms and how to write and construct funk and dance music from 52nd Street and producer Donald Johnson”. You just have to listen to Blue Monday to hear what Bernard did when he started putting what he’d learnt into practice.

“Look Into My Eyes” and “Express” come from a chapter of the history of Factory Records that no-one seems to have gotten around to writing. Working with Tony to reissue the original 12" is the start of putting that right. The story of 52nd Street is more than just a footnote.

“…In The City Of Lights Where Nothing Is Grey…" In the City Of Angels by way of Prague, Pink Gloves channels classic Italo Disco on their Italians Do It Better debut. Petr Pliska weaves a tale of introspection on the neon soaked streets of Los Angeles.

Act 1 – Downtown. The title track is a hypnotic journey to the city center over a symphony of synthesis. He laments that he “Never Wanted To Come… Never Wanted To Stay… In The City Of Lights Where Nothing Is Grey”. It’s a place where nothing ever changes
& fantasy greets us in every direction. Beneath the sedated vocals, the synthesizers strike deep & dissolve quickly into a haze blanketing the strut of the heavy backbeat. The stage is set.

Act 2 – The Dancefloor. “Dancing on My Own” infuses Robyn’s four on the floor classic with it’s own cocktail of ethereal melodies & a rhythm section ala Ultravox. In the face of the Narrator’s lament, a mirror ball shimmers reflections of resilience.

Act 3 – The Highway. The downtempo “Wilderness” haunts us, bursting with silken synthesizers & spectral electronics reverberating like the ghosts of last night’s party. The tempered cinematic landscape blends with a mesmerizing sorcery as we drive into the unknown.

Act 4 – End Credits. Suddenly, the film is over. We hear the sunrise straight out of an ‘80s John Hughes film & the beautiful grit of Power, Corruption & Lies.

Produced By Johnny Jewel. Mixed By Lukáš Turza & Johnny Jewel. Mastered By Mike Bozzi At Bernie Grundman Mastering. Vinyl Cut By Bernie Grundman, Hollywood.

After presenting Detroit Swindle’s sophomore album High Life in 2018, we felt it was the right time to serve you up a tasty selection of remixes from all over the world and all over the sound palette. We’ve got some dub and boogie from Australia and the Netherlands, classic deephouse from Detroit, dark and dreamy deephouse from the UK and some high energy house from Germany. This set of remixes comes from 5 artists we hold in high regard and have made a serious impact on their part of the scene; some recently and some already a long time ago.

We invited Dutch techno -plot twist alert!- legend Steve Rachmad to come up with a re-interpretation of ‘Yes, no, maybe (feat. Tom Misch)’. His Sterac Electronics remix actually has nothing to do with techno but is an uplifting modern boogie version of the already funky original. Glimmering electronics, some added harmonics and a tight 80’s groove is what this version is all about.

The A2 is reserved for Cinthie, who took the high energy afro funk track ‘Call of the wild (feat. Jungle by Night)’ and turned it into a full on house frenzy with solo’s all around and a groove that just keeps on going and going.

The A side is completed with a remix by Jura Soundsystem, who has impressed many of us with his balaeric influenced synth-boogie, and dub on his own label ‘Isle of Jura’. Here, he chose to remix ‘High life (feat. Lorenz Rhode)’ and has done an excellent job in re-imagining the track into a tamed down, dreamy dub.

On the flip, there’s Matt Karmil’s take on one of the album’s beatless tracks ‘Ketama gold’. He goes in deep with some dusty drums and an arrangement that keeps on building and building, keeping the chord sequence from the track’s outro as a main loop and adding subtle FX, toms and acid hits and a final delivery where electronic cowbells up the energy level by a notch or two.

We finish off the compilation with a moody deephouse re-interpretation of ‘Ex machina’ by Detroit legend Gari Romalis. The twisted machine funk of the original is craftfully replaced by a dusty house loop, dreamy pads and smart usage of the original’s drum effects to build momentum.

This remix package brings a lovely new chapter into the story of ‘High Life’ and we hope you’ll enjoy these reworks as much as we do.
Yours Sincerely,

Maarten & Lars.