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Jon Porras verfügt über eine seltene Fähigkeit, den Puls einer Klanglandschaft zu lokalisieren und ihren emotionalen Kern herauszuarbeiten. Seine Arbeit speist sich seit langem aus der Reibung zwischen organischen Formen und elektronischer Verarbeitung, doch mit Achlys bewegt er sich weiter in Richtung Textur, Erosion und Gewicht. Diese Musik ist von Zusammenbruch durchdrungen - nicht als Spektakel, sondern als langsamer Prozess. Diese Stücke entfalten sich nicht, sie sammeln sich. Gitarre, Subbass, modulare Synthese und verarbeitete Geräusche sammeln sich wie Sedimente an und schichten sich zu Kompositionen, die sich eher wie Wettersysteme als wie traditionelle Songs bewegen. Das Album navigiert durch eine Abfolge von fragmentierten Klangvignetten: zerfallende Umgebungen, monumentale Stille und reale wie auch innere Landschaften. Die Struktur wird durchlässig. Jedes Stück deutet sowohl auf Präsenz als auch auf Verschwinden hin. Häufig wurden mehrere Stücke isoliert geschrieben und ohne Synchronisation übereinandergelegt, sodass absichtliche Dissonanzen die resultierenden Texturen bestimmten. Dieser Ansatz begünstigt Drift und Reibung, wobei Melodien durch verschwommene Intervalle geistern und eine Spannung zwischen Erinnerung und Verzerrung erzeugen. Das Album beginnt mit ,Fields", wo schwache Gitarrenphrasen in hohlen, resonanten Tönen versinken, die eher erinnert als gespielt wirken. An den Rändern flackert Wärme, gefiltert und entfernt, wie Licht, das sich durch Ruß drängt. In ,Holodiscus" treiben elegische Linien über einer sanften Unterströmung von Dissonanzen und widerstehen leise dem Sog in Richtung Zusammenbruch. Der Titeltrack gleitet zwischen Klarheit und Verzerrung und verwandelt harmonische Fragmente in ein schimmerndes Gitter aus Verfall. Während des gesamten Albums dehnen anhaltende Töne die Zeit zu einer Unschärfe, während bearbeitete Gitarrenklänge wie Echos aus benachbarten Räumen auftauchen und wieder verschwinden. Jedes Stück trägt eine emotionale Prägung, ohne eine Richtung vorzugeben, und hinterlässt Texturen, die sich sowohl taktil als auch unruhig anfühlen. Diese Dualität der Größenordnung - immens und winzig - fließt in die Klangpalette des Albums ein. In ,Sea Storm" brodelt und zieht der tiefe Klang nach unten und verstreut dabei Gitarrenfragmente. ,Before the Rite" schwillt mit abrasiver Dichte und verzerrten Obertönen an - ein Moment der fast überwältigenden Intensität, der sich gerade noch im Gleichgewicht hält. Die Klänge bleiben in der Schwebe und weigern sich, sich aufzulösen.Achlys bewegt sich durch ein Gebiet wechselnder Schwellen - wo Licht und Schatten, Struktur und Erosion nebeneinander existieren, ohne sich in Gegensätze aufzulösen. Anstatt auf eine klare Schlussfolgerung abzuzielen, bietet das Album eine zyklische Form von Entstehung und Erosion. Es ist klanglich dicht und doch weitläufig, emotional resonant, aber losgelöst von jeder Erzählung. Nichts hier ist feststehend. Alles trägt die Spur davon, einmal etwas anderes gewesen zu sein. Während einige Fragmente verblassen und andere nachklingen, prägen sie alle die Atmosphäre.

Mardi Gras Marble Coloured Vinyl Sao Paulo, Brazil's Blind Pigs are excited to give an essential record in their renowned discography - 2006's Heróis ou Rebeldes (Heroes or Rebels) - the re-issue it deserves. Considered by many in the band's home country as their finest release, many fans around the world have yet to hear it. It was originally released only on CD in Brazil, with the lyrics written entirely in Portuguese. Consequently, the band released it under their Portuguese name: Porcos Cegos. However, when it was released, many fans did not realize it was the same band! On top of that, it has never had a release outside of Brazil_until now! Nevertheless, within Brazil, the album was an instant sensation that bridged the gap between punk, streetpunk, and Oi! - exposing the country to sounds influenced by contemporary US streetpunk bands such as Reducers SF, Dropkick Murphys, and the bands on TKO Records. In particular, the title track, for which the band made a music video, became a shout along anthem for the band's fans, AKA "The Legion of the Unconformed." After a 10" vinyl pressing quickly sold out in 2013, the album has been tragically out of print. The new edition on 12" Mardi Gras Marble Vinyl from Pirates Press Records has been remastered by Dan Randall (Subhumans, The Slackers, Fucked Up), bringing new life to a master that the band was never quite satisfied with. With the addition of a song cut from the original tracklisting - "Tiros No Escuro" ("Shots in the Dark") - this is truly the record the band have always wanted fans to hear. And with it finally bearing the name "Blind Pigs" on the cover, there will be no more confusion_and as the band's frontman Henrike Baliu proudly puts it, "the world can finally witness a record that was so important to the Brazilian punk rock scene."

Unlike anything we have heard from her before, Okkyung Lee returns to Shelter Press with "Just Like Any Other Day: Background Music For Your Mundane Activities", a deeply intimate body of recordings at the juncture of ambient music, minimalism, and the baroque, that stands as radical intervention with what experimental music can be, and the place that organisations of sound occupy in our lives. For more than two decades, Okkyung Lee has stood at the forefront of the most radical trajectories of experimental music: a virtuosic cellist and improviser, renowned for her creative rigour and emotive depth. Particularly noteworthy for her range, dexterity, and adaptability, over the last five years Lee's output has revealed unexpected shifts and developments that move far afield from the realms of free improvisation for which she is most well known. 2020's "Yeo - Neun", a heart-wrenching, ambient chamber work - drawing inspiration from the Korean popular music of her youth - was issued by Shelter Press to great critical response, followed closely by "Teum (The Silvery Slit)" - one of a series engrossing electroacoustic works created at Groupe de Recherches Musicales in Paris - on Portraits GRM, and then "Na-Reul" in 2021, regarded by Lee as a closing statement of more than two decades living in New York, which set the precedent of her allowing her emotions to fully occupy the forefront of the music for the first time. Marking her return to Shelter press, "Just Like Any Other Day": Background Music For Your Mundane Activities", encounters Lee upturning the apple cart once again, weaving a profoundly intimate artistic statement on completely unexpected terms. Like its three aforementioned predecessors, "Just Like Any Other Day" belongs to broadening shift in Lee's approach to composing that roughly aligns with her return to her native South Korea, having lived in the United States since her late teens. Infused with a deep reengagement with her own culture and relationship to memory, it is equally a response to those critical challenges and questions provoked by significant life change. Worked on in isolation, and continuously returned to, over the course of four years, the album's nine pieces began with a simple recognition that experimental music is not always what we imagine it to be. It is a practice and a pursuit - a music for which, at its inception, the outcome is unknown - rather than an idiom defined by certain syntaxes, approaches, and qualities of structure and sound. From this departure point, Lee began to inquire after the utility of music itself: what is it for, what does it do, and what place does it (or can it) occupy in our lives? This solitary and durational journey, each composition gradually moving through different phases and evolutions over years, led Lee toward uncharted ground: a music that is not only playful, introspective, and seductive, but also intended to provoke a relationship to experimental music beyond its normative expectations. Rather active or deep listening, it pursues passive listening. Rather than a grand statement, it is discreet. Rather than virtuosity, it embraces the elegant and direct. Even more strikingly, for the first time, the music of "Just Like Any Other Day" encounters Lee leaving the cello entirely behind. Created at home on keyboard, computer, and an inexpensive cassette recorder, "Just Like Any Other Day" presents a remarkable form of ambient music - organisations of sound that become their own environment, to be occupied - intended, as the album's subheading infers, as Background Music For Your Mundane Activities. An expansion of the creative pathways opened by the Korean pop imbued compositions of Yeo - Neun, aspects of electronic process explored by "Teum (The Silvery Slit)", and the emotive foregrounding of "Na-Reul", each of the pieces presented across the two sides of "Just Like Any Other Day" implies something far greater than the limits of its own temporarily: a mood, provocations of memory and place, mirrors for the solitude within which it was made, and palpable emotion lingering just out of grasp. For Lee, each of the album's compositions could be continued or looped for an indeterminate duration: straddling a ground between the minimal and the baroque, enveloping the listener in endless cycles of appreciating, repetitive and rhythmical notes, flirting with the melodic and implying a disembodied imagism that borders on the profound. Remarkably beautiful and direct, Okkyung Lee's "Just Like Any Other Day: Background Music For Your Mundane Activities" - issued by Shelter Press on vinyl - represents a radical reconfiguration of experiential music, stripped to its bare essence in defiance of the widely presumed aesthetic signifiers. Unlike anything we've heard from her before, this immersive body of intimate recordings not only reveals new dimensions of Lee's striking range as an artist, but also of how we might regard and occupy music itself: an ambience to lived and felt like a second skin.

Pop-punk veterans Teenage Bottlerocket are primed to release their new LP Ready to Roll, the band's first full length for Pirates Press Records. "This time around, there was no big concept, no pressure. We just wrote songs that felt good to play," explains bassist Miguel Chen. "That freedom brought something fresh. It reminded us why we started doing this in the first place. The vibe is all about reconnecting with the joy of making music together. "The band returned to The Blasting Room in Fort Collins, CO, with Andrew Berlin behind the board & Jason Livermore overseeing the final master. "The Blasting Room is like home for us," says Miguel. "Working with Andrew and Jason is always a smooth ride-they know how to pull the best out of us." Fans got their first taste of what's to come via the lead single "She's the Shit." Ray Carlisle wrote the song for his wife Rachel, who he says "loves to give me a hard time-she rolls her eyes when I rock out in front of the mirror, makes fun of the music I love, and calls me an old man when I bring up movies she's never seen. And I totally love her for it." As for the song, Ray says, "It kicks the door open. It sets the tone for the whole record-fast, catchy, and not taking itself too seriously. Just the way we like it." This back to basics approach carries through the album, making it equally satisfying for longtime fans & newcomers alike. "Whether it's your first TBR album or your tenth," says Miguel. "There's something here for you." It's packed with everything you'd expect from TBR with a few surprises the band think you'll love - including a couple of songs where Miguel steps up to the mic for his first-ever lead vocals! "We're lucky to still be here, making music with our best friends, and connecting with people who get it," sums up Miguel. "Ready to Roll is exactly what it sounds like-we're stoked, and, in a way, we're just getting started."

Pop-punk veterans Teenage Bottlerocket are primed to release their new LP Ready to Roll, the band's first full length for Pirates Press Records. "This time around, there was no big concept, no pressure. We just wrote songs that felt good to play," explains bassist Miguel Chen. "That freedom brought something fresh. It reminded us why we started doing this in the first place. The vibe is all about reconnecting with the joy of making music together. "The band returned to The Blasting Room in Fort Collins, CO, with Andrew Berlin behind the board & Jason Livermore overseeing the final master. "The Blasting Room is like home for us," says Miguel. "Working with Andrew and Jason is always a smooth ride-they know how to pull the best out of us." Fans got their first taste of what's to come via the lead single "She's the Shit." Ray Carlisle wrote the song for his wife Rachel, who he says "loves to give me a hard time-she rolls her eyes when I rock out in front of the mirror, makes fun of the music I love, and calls me an old man when I bring up movies she's never seen. And I totally love her for it." As for the song, Ray says, "It kicks the door open. It sets the tone for the whole record-fast, catchy, and not taking itself too seriously. Just the way we like it." This back to basics approach carries through the album, making it equally satisfying for longtime fans & newcomers alike. "Whether it's your first TBR album or your tenth," says Miguel. "There's something here for you." It's packed with everything you'd expect from TBR with a few surprises the band think you'll love - including a couple of songs where Miguel steps up to the mic for his first-ever lead vocals! "We're lucky to still be here, making music with our best friends, and connecting with people who get it," sums up Miguel. "Ready to Roll is exactly what it sounds like-we're stoked, and, in a way, we're just getting started."

Der schwüle Ton von Eliana Glass ist nicht zu überhören - sie wechselt zwischen einer unkonventionellen, suchenden Qualität und ihrer ergreifenden, ehrfurchtgebietenden Bandbreite. Auch ihr Klavierspiel besitzt dieses mitreißende Hin und Her zwischen dem Jenseitigen und dem schmerzlich Menschlichen - jede Melodie ist ihr eigenes, einzigartiges, schmerzhaftes Reich. Glass' spärliche, meditative Musik fängt oft, wie sie sagt, die ,Verdichtung des Alltags" ein, ein Bild, das zu der bittersüßen, flüchtigen und abstrakten Natur ihrer Arbeit passt. Glass' Debütalbum E erscheint bei Shelter Press und ist nicht nur ein zärtliches Porträt ihrer lebenslangen Beziehung zum Klavier, sondern auch eine Destillation ganzer Lebenszeiten. Vier Jahre lang arbeitete Glass mit dem Mitbegründer und Produzenten von Public Records, Francis Harris (Frank & Tony, Adultnapper), und dem Tontechniker Bill Skibbe (Shellac, Jack White) zusammen, um das Album E in verschiedenen Studios in Nashville, Brooklyn, Memphis und Benton Harbor, Michigan, aufzunehmen. Glass' experimentelle, improvisatorische Werke erinnern an den sinnlichen Minimalismus von Annette Peacock, die freudige Rätselhaftigkeit von Carla Bley und die wehmütige Intimität von Sibylle Baier. Ihre Verehrung für die Größen des Leftfield Jazz und der freien Improvisation ist unüberhörbar, aber immer gefiltert durch ihren unverwechselbaren, naturalistischen Sound. ,Dreams" ist eine majestätische Interpretation von Peacocks gleichnamigem Stück aus dem Jahr 1971, ,Sing Me Softly the Blues` ist eine minimale, fesselnde Neuinterpretation von Baiers Jazzstandard mit einem von der norwegischen Sängerin Karin Krog adaptierten Text, und ,Emahoy` ist eine schmachtende Hommage an die äthiopische Pianistin, Komponistin und Nonne Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou und ihre 2006 erschienene Kompilation Éthiopiques. Glass' Musik basiert auf einem taktilen, sprunghaften Klang und ihrer stimmlichen Kraft und Vielseitigkeit. E's glatte Stöße von Kontrabass und Schlagzeug kitzeln den Gehörgang und betonen die Schlagfertigkeit ihrer unverwechselbaren tiefen Stimme, die sonore, androgyne Gelassenheit mit flatterhafter Zartheit verbindet. E hat auch eine rätselhafte elektronische Note, die die verschwommenen Emotionen von Glass' Songwriting noch verstärkt. Von Hintergrundrauschen und windigem Gesang bis hin zu kaleidoskopischen Synthesizern stammen diese subtilen, geschmackvollen Verzierungen oft von speziellem analogem Equipment: einer unterirdischen Echokammer aus den 1960er Jahren, einem Cooper Time Cube (im Grunde das Hardware-Äquivalent der Audioverarbeitung durch einen Gartenschlauch) und einem AEA-Bandmikrofon aus den 1940er Jahren. Aber das bedeutet nicht, dass E veraltet klingt - Glass' Songs sind von einem zukunftsweisenden Geist durchdrungen und fungieren letztlich als Vehikel für ihre berauschenden Emotionen und fragmentierten Erinnerungen und Träume. Glass' eigentümliche stimmliche Alchemie und ihre lebhaften Klavierausflüge sind meisterhaft und ganz und gar ihre Sache, und ihr Debütalbum ist ein Geschenk von klangvoller Schönheit und lohnender Mehrdeutigkeit. Als Musikerin und Improvisatorin ist Glass von der Suche nach Bedeutung, nach Klängen, nach Neuem, nach Verbindung begeistert und beherrscht diese. Und wie Krog 1975 in ,Sing Me Softly the Blues" sang: ,Life's so thrilling / if you search."

Seattle punk rock 'n rollers The Drowns are proud to present their brand new live album Live At Rebellion, on Pirates Press Records. This is the band's first foray into recording a live performance, but it has been an idea on the table from very early on. While the band are rightfully acclaimed for their studio albums, the first thing anyone in the know talks about is their electrifying live shows. "Within the first year of starting the band, we saw the reactions we were getting from people live, and we had the idea to record a live album," says guitarist and singer Rev. "Almost a decade later now, we felt like the time was right." While a live album recorded during the first year may have captured the raw power of a hungry band kicking off their momentum, Live at Rebellion is the sound of a seasoned band playing in front of a veritable army of international fans on their largest festival stage at Rebellion Festival in Blackpool, UK - fans that they have earned one by one, sweating it out with relentless transcontinental touring. "Rebellion has always been a highlight of our year, and we love the performances there because the energy from the crowd is raw and visceral," explains Rev. "That's why we made the choice to do it there in Blackpool." While far from a "Greatest Hits Live" preserved in amber, the setlist features selections from every era of the band's career and was determined by the band's knowledge of what songs get their audiences fired up - all killer, no filler, as the saying goes! The gritty attack of "Them Rats" exemplifies the band's streetpunk influences and lyrical calls to unite against abusive authoritarian power. Meanwhile, the vital ass-shaking boogie of "Live Like Yer Dyin'" was a direct result of the band fully embracing their collective appreciation of the energetic joys of both 70s glam and original 50s rock 'n roll! Their choice of cover song - "Ballroom Blitz," - truly hits the Sweet spot, if you'll pardon the pun, as one of the foremost glam-proto-punk-bovver rock masterpieces. It is executed here in masterful hands by The Drowns. The band acknowledges Daz Russell & Daryl Smith, the organizers at Rebellion, for backing the making of the record. David Casey (Success, One Step Beyond) helmed the boards to capture the recording, mixing and engineering was done by Evan Douglas Foster (The Sonics, Boss Martians), and the final master was produced by Seattle legend Jack Endino (Nirvana, Mudhoney, Soundgarden), who also recently oversaw the re-master of The Drowns' debut album View From the Bottom. "This album was a cumulative effort between people who still believe in rock 'n' roll," sums up Rev. "We couldn't be more proud."

c b1. Comin' Home [Private Press Remix]
[d] b2. Comin' Home [Eduardo de la Calle Remix]

Over the course of The Slackers' nearly 35-year career, the NYC legends have paid respect to numerous interconnected genres of Jamaican music, including ska, reggae, and rocksteady. Dub mixing - a process of creating new "versions" of songs that emphasize the rhythm section and heavy utilization of atmospheric effects such as delay and reverb - looms so large as a driving force in that world, it is no wonder that the band would approach it with the same mix of reverence and creativity. "Dub is the other side of The Slackers," says the band's guitarist, Agent Jay. "A contrast to the uptempo danceable wit of our ska." The Dub Classics LP - originally released (and sold out) in 2021 and now available from Pirates Press Records - represents a collection of some of the greatest fruits of that labour. More than just a "re-mix" album, it is an essential part of the band's catalog that reinvents their sound and reveals all new perspectives on their many talents.

In a world where physical experiences are becoming rarer, artists are looking to connect their process to something more tangible, and with A/V rinsed, scent is an obvious next sense to plunder. Florian TM Zeisig - who last appeared on Somewhere Press as Angel R, goes the extra mile, teaming up with perfumer Angel Paradise to develop a suite of music that plays like a bouquet of memory-triggering aromas, coupled with a fragrance that captures the oily essence of their bucolic alpine setting. The project came about when both artists were living in Hinang, a small farming village in the rural Bavarian alps. Paradise was studying alpine plant behaviour and using her research to inform her approach to scent creation, developing natural perfumes based on the landscape. Zeisig, meantime, composed his own response to the mountains and forests that surrounded them. He wrote ‘Spool’ as a poignant farewell (or spiritual rebirth) as they prepared to leave, considering teenage nostalgia as well as the idyllic locale, and the pastoral suite of lulled loops, field recordings and dissociated instrumental vamps plays like a contemporary Heimatfilme soundtrack, locking into the genre’s idyllic, fantastical simplicity and romance. Drunken horn loops and mushy piano chords concertina around a wobbly axis on ‘Oneandhalf’, met by dreamy guitars and whispered, lysergic vocals. The sweet-smelling notes form an enigmatic compound, prompting us to think of Codeine or Galaxie 500 without solidifying completely. It’s music that works with outlines and traces, catching us off guard with flickers of samples and veiled base notes: the Cocteau Twins-like phased piano on ‘Threeandhalf’ that’s drowned out by gunked tape fog, or the smudges of ‘Spirit of Eden’ ambience on ‘Alright’ that creep between tweezed piano phrases. There’s depth too; Zeisig doesn’t restrict himself to Romance-cum-Basinski loopmuzak, he intersperses his GASeous orchestral waves with serene, relatively demure reflections that capture the pristine beauty of a dewy alpine morning. ‘Four’ is an ASMR-rich blend of crunching leaves and mossy, decelerated pads, and ‘Plus’ burns its drones down to crackling embers, letting the faint harmonies flicker through the coal dust. Importantly, it’s emotional music, but not overly melodramatic, finding peace in nostalgia and the calm of nature.

info: Inspired by a trip to Brazil and having collected a fair amount of samples while digging around Rio, Scream & P. Rock have been locked down in the studio creating their third collaborative album - Fresh Press III. Synthesis of Brazilian groove, bass synths, live percussion and funky drums, guitar solos and funk riffs, live bass guitar, vintage breaks and raw experiments. Here is a special approach to sampling and creating cinematic arrangements.

The signature sound of a well-coordinated tandem of a break DJ and music producer is familiar to the audience from the first two «Fresh Press» albums. The third release, which was worked on for over a year, takes a special place and is presented on 12” wax in a limited edition of 300 copies

"My Last Star" began as a dream that Greg Lee of Hepcat had the week before his death in March of 2024. Greg dreamed of a Slackers song. The Slackers have completed this song, and now the world can hear this truly one of a kind collaboration. In Greg's dream, an old neighbor picked him up in a classic car, turned on the stereo, and played a Slackers song that - at the time - did not exist on our plane of reality. It sounds like the stuff of myth, but the song was so crystal clear in the dream that when he awoke around 2 or 3 in the morning, he immediately wrote down the lyrics he had heard, still humming the tune. "I hadn't seen Greg so excited about a new song in a very long time," says Lee's longtime partner, Mandie Becker. "I found the lyrics when I was organizing his things. I knew he had a voice recording on his phone, too. I decided the best situation was to offer it to The Slackers so we could all hear the song on the stereo from Greg's dream." "I was floored when I received Greg's vocal demo with the lyrics and I vowed to finish the song and make the dream a reality," says Slackers saxophonist Dave Hillyard. "I took the vocal demo to The Slackers, Vic Ruggiero harmonized it, and we wrote music around the words. With this song we came full circle. Greg had given us a gift and we needed to give it back to his family, friends, and musical community. We are the medium for his message." The longer history behind this collaboration is a story of decades of friendship, collaboration, artistry, and mutual respect between LA's Hepcat and NYC's The Slackers, who although from opposite coasts, have both been leading lights and creative forces in the underground ska scene since the early 1990s. Both Hepcat and The Slackers concerned themselves with timeless songwriting that paid homage to the longstanding roots of the music. It is an extraordinary final work envisioned by a beloved and thoughtful musician of the highest caliber and completed by longtime friends and collaborators he knew from the moment of inspiration were the ones that would play it. It is literally a dream come true. "My Last Star" is available as a 12" UV Printed Vinyl Single from Pirates Press Records, with art by The Slackers' in-house artist Catt Gould. The 12" also includes instrumental and dub versions of the song. As a matter of fact, snippets of Greg's original vocal demo from his phone are subtly mixed in toward the end of the instrumental version, underscoring his posthumous presence on the record. Greg's songwriting royalties, as well as a portion of the proceeds from the sales of "My Last Star," will be passed on to his four daughters.

Full throttle from Vancouver, BC to wherever the open road takes them The Vicious Cycles are BACK with their new LP Get Wrecked on Pirates Press Records! Before you even get the shrink wrap off the gatefold jacket, you can guess what kind of party you're in for. "Our pal Shakey Deal is the cover model," says Cycles head honcho Billy Bones. "A tuff looking scrub on a minibike says a lot about who we are." And who is that exactly? "We play garage/punk rock and roll songs about motorcycles. We like to have a good time." The promise of debauchery carries over into song titles like "Naked On a Beach," and "On Fire in the Hot Tub." As rip-roaring, danceable party music goes, it's second to none, and rest assured there's plenty of bike enthusiast inside baseball, but the lyrics often go deeper than a superficial glance might indicate. For example, the lead single, "Hold On Tight," is about, as Billy puts it, "the physical feeling of riding with your favorite person on the back of your motorcycle - easily one of the best feelings a human can have." So, a classic biker anthem? "But also," he's quick to add, "a metaphor for life and relationships. We're gonna make it." Waxing philosophical with motorcycles as allegory over chrome-plated punk rock 'n roll? That's The Vicious Cycles' songwriting in a nutshell. Another album highlight, "Daddy Was a Gambler" references Billy's father - an ex-preacher who regularly hauled his kids to Circus Circus in his '57 Chevy - and his mother, a nurse and, as Billy puts it, "as close to an actual saint as anyone in the world. The song is an appreciation for the two of them, and how their differences made me who I am." "Naked On A Beach" sounds like a party, but Billy explains it's "a critique of capitalism and the tiny lives we're expected - and sometimes content - to live." Even the title track, "Get Wrecked," is more than just a statement of defiance; it's a message to Billy's son about dealing with the conformist naysayers of the world. Longtime fans & newcomers alike will be stoked for the straightaways, but stick around for the twists and turns, just like any good ride. The band brings in pals on strings & saxophone for a 60s Wall of Sound-inspired production on "Black Boots, Black Leather Jacket," and try their hands at their first murder ballad on "Pretty Hands." There's an instrumental tune ("Blowing Smoke") and hell, there's even a deep cut cover of "Trouble Again" - originally performed by Stewart Copeland of The Police - which only the biggest nerds of a certain age will recall as the theme song to the 80s Star Wars animated series Droids! In the end, no matter the detours, the band - along with Jesse Gander (Territories, Comeback Kid), & Mariessa McLeod at Rain City Recorders - kept their eyes on the prize: sing-along choruses, handclaps, and short songs that get the job done and don't overstay their welcome. "I didn't want us to write a record that you could dance to." quips Billy. "I wanted us to write a record that you couldn't not dance to."

Transparent Caracao Vinyl. To All The Ones That I Love wurde im bandeigenen Studio im Westen Melbournes aufgenommen, wobei Gitarrist Greg Rietwyk für Produktion und Mix zuständig war, bevor das Album von Kris Crummett (Closure in Moscow, Dune Rats, Currents) gemastert wurde. Dies ist das vierte Album von Press Club, und die Reife der Band spiegelt sich in den zehn Tracks wider. Dem Hörer wird ein Ritt durch verschiedene Genres geboten, während das Album Themen wie Introspektion, Entwicklung, Veränderung und das Lernen aus vergangenen Fehlern durchläuft. Die Band beschreibt die Entstehung des Albums als eine unglaublich spannende, kreative und befreiende Erfahrung: Die Songs wurden alle gemeinsam in ihrem Studio über mehrere Monate hinweg geschrieben. Diese Art des Schreibens gab der Band die Freiheit, mit verschiedenen Genres zu experimentieren und die Tiefen all ihrer Einflüsse auszuloten.

To All The Ones That I Love wurde im bandeigenen Studio im Westen Melbournes aufgenommen, wobei Gitarrist Greg Rietwyk für Produktion und Mix zuständig war, bevor das Album von Kris Crummett (Closure in Moscow, Dune Rats, Currents) gemastert wurde. Dies ist das vierte Album von Press Club, und die Reife der Band spiegelt sich in den zehn Tracks wider. Dem Hörer wird ein Ritt durch verschiedene Genres geboten, während das Album Themen wie Introspektion, Entwicklung, Veränderung und das Lernen aus vergangenen Fehlern durchläuft. Die Band beschreibt die Entstehung des Albums als eine unglaublich spannende, kreative und befreiende Erfahrung: Die Songs wurden alle gemeinsam in ihrem Studio über mehrere Monate hinweg geschrieben. Diese Art des Schreibens gab der Band die Freiheit, mit verschiedenen Genres zu experimentieren und die Tiefen all ihrer Einflüsse auszuloten.

Entering its 26th year of activity, the morphing, Los Angeles based experimental outfit, Sissy Spacek, joins Shelter Press with Entrance, among the project's most captivating outings to date. Encountering the duo of John Wiese and Charlie Mumma joined in various configurations by an incredible cast of collaborators - Tim Barnes, Marco Fusinato, Aaron Hemphill, Brad Laner, Katsura Mouri, Ralf Wehowsky, and C Spencer Yeh - collectively transformed into a series a deeply intimate and delicate gestures of musique concrète, Entrance radically repositions the possibilities presented by group improvisation outside of time and place. Founded at the end of the last millennium, the Los Angeles based project, Sissy Spacek, initially emerged from the knotted, fiery context 1990s American noise and grindcore, producing sheets of visceral sonority that quickly set the scene on its head. Going through numerous evolutions, before eventually settling as a duo of John Wiese and Charlie Mumma - joined by a rotating and often recurring cast collaborators - over the last 25 years the band has continuously entered states of evolution that have defied the expectations of its own context, seeding the sonic extremes noise with subtle and sophisticated approaches to free improvisation and musique concrète. Fiercely positioning its efforts within the outer reaches of contemporary experimental music, while resisting the constraints of a singular sound or proximity, Wiese regards Sissy Spacek as being primarily centred around the practice of musique concrète and the pursuit of extremes. From its earliest releases - collage treatments of material gathered from the band's full throttle practice sessions - the project's conceptual framework has continuously evolved within a deeply engaged process of experimentation, not only reworking tactical approaches, but also definitions and perception regarding the location and action of their work. In recent years, this has led to an increasingly varied and diverse output. Percolating within, is a thread marked by a striking sense of delicacy and intimacy, driving forward while doubling as an unexpected challenge, in real time, to perceptions connected to the band's past. Entrance is the most recent of these. Embarking upon the four compositions that comprise the finalized four sides of Entrance, Wiese and Mumma enlisted longstanding collaborators, Tim Barnes, Marco Fusinato, Aaron Hemphill, Brad Laner, Katsura Mouri, and C Spencer Yeh, as well as new initiate, Ralf Wehowsky (of the seminal German electronic noise collective P16.D4), requesting a contribution of sounds from each, determined by a general set guidelines that dictated certain qualities the given sonorities, while allowing for the expression of each player's distinct creative voice. The sets of resulting recordings were then chopped, harvested, manipulated, and reassembled as the four tape compositions that make up the album - Web Of Unfolding Appearance, Figure Of Reflected Light, Trancher And The Inheritors, True Dimension (From The Opaque - Spike) - each blurring the lines of authorship and clear creative proximity in remarkable ways. Where historical gestures of musique concrète tend to draw upon non-instrumental sound sources - regarding its sonorous material as raw elements, unburdened by inherent meaning or association, to be transformed and imbued with musicality - Sissy Spacek turns this position on its head. Entrance comprises works of musique concrète that not only draw upon instrumental sound sources, with all their possible meanings or associations, but also individual characters and personalities of their players, crediting each resulting piece to its respective configuration of contributors. As such, Entrance is an effort of sound collage defined by a rare sense of intimacy and humanity: four pieces that often take on the resemblance of group improvisation, but have, in fact, been assembled outside of time and place. Bent under the ever-present hand of Wiese's tape treatments and manipulation, each of the album's four compositions unfurl startling states of sonic abstraction and percolating texture, marked by a striking sense of hard-shifting structure, that culminate as tense, driven manifestations of ambient music: scrapes, squeals, rattles feedback, rolling drums, bouncing tones, whispers, bent electronics, electric artefacts, and seemingly everything else under the sun, configured into immersive, sublime mediations in sound from the most improbable events.

Based in Ottawa, Ontario, the capital city of Canada, The Riptides have been cranking out high-energy blasts of melodic, poppy punk rock for over 25 years. With their new LP Burn After Listening, the band makes the move to Pirates Press Records, and are ready to bring their sound to an all new worldwide audience! Originally formed in 1998, the band wasted no time assembling their own studio and label, putting out their own records as well as their fellow Ottawa bands. Word spread quickly, and the band's notoriety grew, particularly in the US, and soon the band found that they enjoyed rising to the challenge of leaving home and recording at noted US studios, with Burn After Listening being no exception. This album was recorded at the legendary Blasting Room in Fort Collins, CO, with Andrew Berlin at the helm for tracking and Jason Livermore in charge of the final master. These studio sessions included a cavalcade of friends & guest musicians, including members of Teenage Bottlerocket, All American Rejects, Screeching Weasel, and The Queers. A number of songs on the record also bear co-writing credits from fellow Pirates Press Records artist Matt DeeCRACK. Blending attitude-driven downstroke riffs with irresistible hooks and harmonies, combined with an aesthetic informed by everything from nerdy pop culture and surfing, they've already amassed quite the following across the decades, but this record stands poised to introduce them to many new fans.

Aunes is a rare solo album from peripatetic Australian cellist-composer-performer Judith Hamann, presenting six pieces recorded across several years and countries. Developing the collage techniques and expanded sound palettes heard on their previous releases, Aunes makes use of synthesizers, organ, voice and location recordings alongside the dazzlingly pure, enveloping tones of Hamann's cello. The record takes its name from an old French unit of measurement for fabric, varying around the country and from material to material. Unlike the platinum metre bar deposited in the National Archives after the Revolution as an immovable standard, an aune of silk differed from an aune of linen: the measure could not be separated from the material. In much the same way, in these six pieces_which Hamann thinks of as `songs'_formal aspects such as tuning, pacing, melodic shape and timbre are not abstractions applied universally to musical material but are inextricable from the instruments and sounds used, even from the places and communities in which the music was made. Audible location sound embeds the music in its place of making, as in the delicate duet for church organ and wordless singing `schloss, night', where shuffles and cluttering in the reverberant church space form a phantom accompaniment, gradually displaced by a uneasy shimmer of wavering tones from half-opened organ stops. `Casa Di Riposo, Gesu' Redentore' documents a walk up a hill to an outdoor mass in Chiusure, layering voices near and far with footsteps, insects and other incidental sounds. Like in the work of Moniek Darge or Luc Ferrari, location recordings are folded on themselves in space and time, their documentary function dislocated to dreamlike effect. On other pieces, it is the emphatic presence of the performing body that grounds the music, whether in the intimate fragility of Hamann's softly sung and hummed vocal tones or the clothing that rustles across a microphone on the opening `by the line'. The idea of a music inextricable from its material conditions is perhaps most strikingly communicated on the album's briefest piece `bruststärke (lung song)', composed from layered whistling recorded while Hamann suffered through an asthma flare up, the results halfway between field recordings of an imaginary aviary and the audiopoems of Henri Chopin. More than any of Hamann's previous solo works, a strong melodic sensibility runs through Aunes, even when, like on `seventeen fabrics of measure', the music hangs together by the merest thread. At other points, Hamann's love of pop music is more obvious: the rich synth harmonies of `by the line' could almost be a melting fragment of a backing track from Hounds of Love. The expansive closing piece `neither from nor toward' exemplifies the highly personal musical language that Hamann has developed in recent years through constant solo performance (and a rigorous discipline of instrumental practice), pairing two overdubbed voices with the boundless depth and harmonic richness of just-intoned cello notes, calling up Ockegham or Linda Caitlin Smith in its elegiac slow motion arcs. Hamann's most personal work yet, Aunes arrives in a striking sleeve reproducing a section of a painting made from sewn pieces of dyed wool by Wilder Alison, a friend and fellow resident at Akademie Schloss Solitude, one of the temporary homes where much of this music was recorded.

Synthesizer Evolution: From Analogue to Digital (and Back) author Oli Freke returns with a new volume in his Synthesizer Evolution A6 zine series. The first two volumes (Vintage Synths and Drum Machines & Samplers) focused on vintage electronic instruments from the 1970s and 1980s. Volume three moves into the 21st century, showcasing a selection of the most interesting, impactful, and—arguably—best synthesizers of the past two decades.

The synths in this book celebrate the vast range of sonic possibilities now available to musicians and producers. From analogue wonders to extraordinary digital creations, from tightly designed monosynths to open-ended polyphonic beasts, each one is more marvellous than the last!

Founded in 1994, LA's Aberdeen were an underground twee-pop group who’s tight discography of beautifully melodic, melancholic and dreamy songs envelope the cliche topics of summer sunshine, young love, and the lack thereof. Since 2006 the band has been helmed solely by lead writer & producer John Girgus.

Their music primarily resided on the Bristolian cult label Sarah Records, where they would release of some of their most beloved tracks such as 'Byron' and 'Fireworks' in the mid 90s. They are a band who's stripped back sound had a blissful focus on the love of melody whose influence has subconsciously woven itself throughout the current generation of underground pop and indie music.

We are super excited to announce the re-pressing the bands first 3 EPs in their entirety, with additional bonus tracks, on vinyl for the first time in 30 years. These are very special songs by a band whose permeance on vinyl was integral to the flexi disc adoring generation of the Sarah movement..

A longtime banner carrier for fiercely independent DIY punk in the UK, Wonk Unit are teaming with Pirates Press Records to release their ninth studio LP, Good Good Glad To Hear It. Based in the South London town of Croydon, the band has its origins in lead singer, songwriter, & guitarist Alex Wonk's experience in rehab 25 years ago, where he found journaling & sharing his experience with others liberating. After completing his time in hospital, Alex set about crafting songs from his "addiction journals," and from this sharing of unvarnished honesty, Wonk Unit was born. The 12 songs on Good Good Glad To Hear It are the diverse fruits of a long term process of songwriting and collaboration that takes the listener on an emotional journey. "These songs need to be written. They all had, for whatever reason, a burning desire to be released from my head," says Alex, who estimates that more than half of the vocals, guitars, and keys on the finished product were recorded as voice notes using nothing more than his cell phone mic. Aside from "EQ magic" courtesy of long term engineer & co-producer Andy Brook, there is no studio trickery to hide behind, and what appears on the record are the raw takes as played by Alex and his bandmates Vez, Max, Pwosion, Ryan, and AJ, as well as a group of studio collaborators adding instrumentation such as keys, horns, and banjo.The confessional spirit & emotional honesty of the songwriting shines through in every song on the record, such as the opening track & lead single, a "sad, depressing song about addiction" titled "Rapidly Declining Dignity," which recalls Alex's journals, or the song "Overwhelmed," in which the songwriter turns his focus to his relationship with his daughter in the aftermath of his marriage falling apart. "Those were the saddest, most precious, painful, terrifying times of my life," he shares, before adding, "Things are good now." Ultimately, these songs could only be written by someone who survived to tell the story. Just as journaling and sharing with others in rehab helped Alex to get sober and see a way through to the next stage of life, sharing songs that speak the truth of his experiences with the band's audience continues to carry him through life's ongoing struggles. Consequently, the band has attracted a large and diverse group of devoted fans who immediately recognize that these are true stories of resilience that can serve as a touchstone in their own lives. The true stories on Good Good Glad To Hear It are certain to find their way to even more.

For the first release of AKIHI DRIVE on Bright Sounds, wepresent an immersive journey through complex soundscapesthat seamlessly blend intricate rhythms and abstract melodies.This debut is a bold exploration of experimental electronictextures, evoking deep atmospheres that challenge conventionallistening.

Expect a fresh yet familiar sound with roots in the most iconicmovements of IDM, where organic beats meet synthetic beauty,inviting listeners into a space of introspective discovery andsonic experimentation. Perfect for those seeking music thattranscends traditional genres, AKIHI DRIVE's release is set toresonate with both seasoned electronic enthusiasts and curiousnewcomers alike.

The latest compilation on LíO Press features six tracks inspired around alienation and the power of transformation.

The A side is an overcast path towards the void.
The B side is the bright shore.

Music by Tassilo Vanhöfen, Andrea Dama, eoobe (Elina Tapio and Marco Segato), Flore W.o.S., Steve Pepe and Tankwart.
Mixdown on N.A.D. Cab la Dub by Trent.
Mixdown on Meine Kraft by Roland Wäspe.
Uniti by Steve Pepe is a cover of Throbbing Gristle.
Mastered at Manmade Mastering.
Design by Alicia Carrera.
Distributed by Sound Metaphors in Berlin.
LíO Press © 2024

‘Only Fans’ ft. Digital Liquid, taken from Joseph Malik’s acclaimed ‘Proxima Ebony’ album of last year, gets the first-class remix treatment from London’s legendary production duo, X-Press 2. Joseph delivers an impactful vocal, waxing lyrical on his memories of being brought up around sex workers, underpinned by Digital Liquid’s acid worm lead, as X-Press 2 unleash a sublime dance floor slayer loaded with catchy hooks, jackin’ beat wizardry and dynamic production. Propelling the song into another stratosphere, the duo have created the chugging Lo-Fi 'Back Room' behemoth, armed with slo-mo breakbeats and a badass dubby bass groove, culminating in hypnotic groover that would make the late and great Mr Weatherall very proud.

Scotland’s Joseph Malik has crafted a fantastic catalogue of music over the decades and is highly respected for his distinctively soulful voice and on point song writing skills. Together with co-producer, David Donnelly, he released his first album, ‘Diverse Part 1’ (Compost) in 2002. This was followed by ‘Aquarius Songs’ album (2004), and ‘Diverse Part 2’ album (2018) on Ramrock Records which was ‘Album of the Month’ on Gilles Peterson’s BBC 6Music show. Joseph’s ‘Diverse Part 3’ album (2018) was Craig Charles’ BBC 6Music ‘Album of the Year’. Joseph then released ‘Diverse Part 3 Variant Issue’, the remix album (2022) and most recently his outstanding ‘Proxima Ebony’ album (2023) on Ramrock Records to great acclaim.

London’s X-Press 2 have been at the vanguard of British electronic music for three decades. In that time this acclaimed DJ and production duo, alongside Ashley Beedle, have turned out many hits. Both Rocky and Diesel have a truly pioneering spirit that fueled early nineties underground anthems such as the percussive ‘Muzik Express’, ’Kill 100’, the 2003 Ivor Novello Award winning single ‘Lazy’ and ‘Give It,’ with vocalists Talking Heads’ David Byrne and Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner. They’ve continued to turn out powerful club cuts such as ‘Tonehead Chemistry’ and ‘Siren Track’, and recently delivered big remixes for Gabriels, David Holmes, JIM and David Kitt. To date, X-Press 2 have released 4 albums, including their recently released, ‘Thee’, album on Acid Jazz. Rocky and Diesel are still fanatical about the music they play and produce, they still very much have their finger on the pulse and continue to lead from the front.

RDG presses the trigger on a heavyweight four track EP for Sentry Records, previously releasing on the likes of Gourmet Beats, Boka Records, Tribe 12 Music and more.